of the world in loathsomnesse and rottennesse 585 The Grammarian that can decline all Nounes in every case cannot decline death in any case 586 When Adam and Eve became subject to death because of their sinne God clothed them with the skins of dead beasts to mind them of their mortality 587 Its hard for a man to thinke upon long life and to thinke well 588 As a Bird guideth her flight by her taile so the life of man is best directed by a continuall recourse unto the end 589 The remembrance of death is like a strainour all the thoughts words and actions which come through it are cleansed and purified 590 An holy life empties it selfe into an honourable death 591 Christians who live dying and dye living loose nothing by death but what may well be spared Sinne and Sorrow 592 Life is deaths seeds-time death lifes Harvest as here we sow so there we reape as here wee set so there wee gather of a blessed life a death as blissefull 593 It s no death but life to be joyned to Christ as it s no life but death to bee severed from him 594 Sicknesse puts men in mind of their sins Conscience speaking lowdest when men grow speechlesse 595 It s no true life that yeeldeth to death that tendeth to death that endeth in death It s true life that is eternall 596 Life is a precious prey where God spares it especially in publike calamities 597 With the Papists the ostentation of the prosperity of their estate is the best demonstration of the sincerity of their Religion 598 To inferre that Romes faith is best for her latitude and extent is falsely to conclude the finenesse of the cloath from the largenesse of the measure 599 A great part of the Popish Religion consisting of errors and false-hoods its sutable that accordingly it should bee kept up and maintained with forgeries and deceits 600 There is such an Antipathy betweene a Protestant and a Papist as is betweene the two birds in Plutarch the Siskin and the Muskin which will fight eagerly alive and being dead if you mixe their blood it will runne apart and discociate or like the two Poles of heaven which stand for ever directly and diametrically opposite 601 Many popish miracles are starke lies without a rag of probability to hide their shame where the beleever is as foolish as the inventer impudent 602 Pictures have beene accounted lay mens books but now they are found to be full of errataes and never set forth by authority from the King of heaven to bee meanes or workers of faith 603 The Popes converting faculty workes strongest at the greatest distance for the Indians he turnes to his religion and the Iewes in Italy he converts to his profit 604 The Pope perswades men they are cleansed of their sins when they are wiped of their money by his Indulgences he hath the conscience to buy earth cheape and sell heaven deare 605 One being accused and cited to appeare at Rome found the Popes doores shut against him but he opened them with a golden key and found their hands very soft towards him whom formerly hee had greased in the fist 606 The Pope is like that Shepherd that knowes no other way to bring home a wandring sheepe then by worrying him to death 607 It hath alwayes bin the Popes custome to make the secular power little better then an Hangman to execute those whom hee condemnes 608 The Pope will not dispence that Princes should hold plurality of temporall dominions in Italy especially hee is so ticklish hee cannot endure that the same Prince should embrace him on both sides 609 Men cannot bee canonized by the Pope without great sums of money whereby it seemes that Angels make Saints at Rome 610 As Purgatory fire heats the Popes Kitchin so the Holy-water fils his pot if not paies for all his second course 611 The Papists by their Holywater pretend to wash men from their profanenesse whiles they profane them by their washing 612 Covents got their best living by the dying which made them contrary to all others most to worship the Sun setting 613 Henry the eight breaking the necks of al Abbies in England scattered abroad their very bones past possibility of all recovering them 614 Superstition not only taints the rind but rots the very core of many actions 615 As its sacriledge to father Gods immediate workes on naturall causes so its superstition to entitle naturall events to bee miraculous 616 Its just with God that those who will not have Truth their King and willingly obey it should have false-hood their Tyrant to whom their judgements should be captivated and enslaved 617 No opinion is so monstrous but if it have a Mother it will get a Nurse 618 Obstinacy is that dead flesh which makes the greene wound of an errour fester by degrees into the old sore of an heresie 619 In the Westerne parts formerly heresies like an angle caught single persons which in Asia like a Drag-net caught whole Provinces as alwayes errors grow the fastest in hot braines 621 The Grecians had the Statue of Peace with Pluto the the God of riches in her armes and the Romans with a Cornu copia 622 Hercules Club was made of Olive the Embleme of Peace 623 A cheape olive Branch of Peace is better then dear Bayes of victory 624 The Latines did but flourish when they called war bellum as the Grecians flouted when they called the Faries Eumenides 625 Peace is better then warre as for other causes so because that in times of peace usually children bury their parents but in time of warre Parents are wont to bury their children 626 One comming to a Generall for justice What dost thou talke to me of justice saith he I cannot heare the noyse of Law and Iustice for the sound of drums and Guns Arma silent leges 627 War is a Tragedy which alwayes destroyes the stage wheron it s acted 628 In suddaine alterations it cannot be expected that all things should bee done by square and compasse 629 The Devill in his oracles used to earth himselfe in an Homonymy as a Foxe in the ground if hee be stopped at one hole hee will get out at the other 630 Custome and long continuance in slavery doth so harden and brawn mens shoulders that the yoake thereof doth not paine them 631 Vertue will quickly wither where it is not watered with reward 632 Modesty being the case of Chastity it is to be feared that where the case is broken the Iewell is lost 633 Vnto a double apprehension of justice in God there must answer a double act of Righteousness in man or in his surety for him to Gods punishing justice a Righteousnesse Passive whereby a man is rectus in curia againe and to Gods commanding justice a Righteousnesse Active whereby hee is reconciled and made acceptable to God againe 634 They which are most alone should bee most in the company of good thoughts 635 Hee that
scourge and a salue a curse and a Saviour is the best way to humble and convert a sinner 37 As a body in the grave is not pained nor dis-affected with the weight and darknesse of the earth the gnawing of wormes the stinke of rottennesse nor any violence of dissolution because the principle of sense is departed So though wicked men lie in rotten and noisome lusts and have the guilt of many millions of sins lying on their soules yet they feele nothing because they have no spirit of life in them 38 If Gods grace prevent sinners before repentance that they may returne shal it not much more preserve repenting sinners that they may not perish 39 As the sweetest wine in an aguish palate tasts of that bitter humour which it finds there So lusts and curses interweaving themselves in a wicked mans hands take away the sence of their simple goodnesse turne their table into a snare and the things which should have bin for their good into an occasion of falling 40 As in vntilled ground there are ill weeds of all sorts yet commonly some one that growes rifer and ranker then all the rest So in the soule of man there are spirituall weeds of all sorts yet usually some one pestilent humour more predominant then all the rest which if once mastered in us the other petty ones will bee the easilier subdued 41 Every one say some hath his owne Balsome in him but it s most sure that every one hath his owne bane in him 42 As the earth though but a Center or point to the heaven yet is a huge body of it selfe So there is no sin though but a mote in comparison of some other yet is a beame in it selfe 43 Though sinne in the Godly bee plucked up by the root yet it s not wholly pulled out though dejected in regard of its regency yet not ejected in regard of its inherence 44 As when wine is poured out of a cup the sides are yet moist but when it s rinsed and wiped there remaines neither tast nor tincture so that glimmering of divine light left in a naturall man is so put out by obstinacy in an evill course that not the least sparkle thereof appeareth 45 As the spider sucks poison out of the most fragrant flowers or as a foule stomacke turns good food into ill nourishment so wicked men make ill conclusions of good promises and perverse application of wholsome precepts 46 All the dirt in the world cannot defile the sun all the clouds that muffle it it dispells them all yet sin hath defiled the soule that as farre passeth the sun in purenesse as the sun doth a clod of earth yea the least sinne defiles it in an instant totally eternally 47 The deluge of waters which overflowed all the world washed away many sinners but not one sin and the world shall be on fire yet all that fire and those flames in hell that follow shall not purge one sin 48 Though the old wals and ruinous palace of the world stand to this day yet the beauty the glosse and glory is soiled and marred with many imperfections cast upon every creature by mans sin 49 All the evills in the world serve but to answer and give names to sin It s called poison and sinners serpents it 's called a vomit and sinners dogs the stench of Graves and they rotten sepulchers sin mire and sinners sows sin darknesse blindnes shame nakednesse folly madnesse death whatsoever is filthy defective infective or painfull 50 By how much the soule exceeds all other creatures in excellency by so much sin which is the corruption poison sicknes and death of it exceedeth all other evils 51 When Eudoxia the Empress threatned Chrysostom goe tell her saith he nil nisi peccatum timeo I feare nothing but sinne 52 As bring one candle into a roome the light spreads all over and then another and the light is all over more increased So every sin in us by a miraculous multiplication inclineth our nature more to sin then it was before 53 All things in the world if they bee great then are but few if many then are but small the world is a big one indeed but yet there is but one the sands are innumerable but yet small but our sins exceed both in number and nature infinite and great 54 Wicked men live upon the creame of sin and having such plenty then picke out none but the sweetest bits to nourish their hearts withall Iames 5.5 55 As the killing of a King is amongst men a crime so hainous that no tortures can exceed the desert of it all torments are too little any death too good for such a crime so sin which is Dei cidium a destroying of God so much as in us lies is so hainous that none but God himselfe can give it a full punishment 56 As a cloth is the same when its white and when died with a scarlet colour yet then it hath a tincture given it that is more worth then the cloth it selfe So when a man sins not knowing the law the sinne is the same for substance it would be if he had knowne it but that knowledge makes it of a scarlet colour and so far greater and deeper in demerit then the sinne it selfe 57 A sinne against knowledge is when knowledge comes and examines a sin in or before the committing of it brings it to the law contests against it cōdemnes it and yet a man approveth and consenteth to it 58 As nature elevated by grace riseth higher then it so being poisoned with sin it is cast below it selfe 59 To sinne against mercy of all other increaseth wrath for such must pay treasures for treasures spent as lavishly they spend riches of mercy so God will recover riches of glory out of them 60 Gods servants are noble and free though fettered in chaines of Iron as the slaves of sinne are base prisoners though frollicking it in chaines of gold 61 Sinne is the spawne of the old Serpent the birth of hell and the vomit of the Devill 62 Sinne is more hatefull to God then the Devill for hee hates the Devill for sinnes sake not sin for the Devils sake 63 Sinne is like a Serpent in our bosoms which cannot live but by sucking out our life blood 64 Hee that is under the dominion of his lusts never yet resolved to part with them 65 One little hole in a ship will sinke it into the botome of the sea and the soule will be strangled by one little coard of vanity as well as with all the cart roaps of iniquity 66 When a man dives under water hee feeleth not the weight of it though there bee many tuns of water over his head whereas halfe a tub of it taken out of its place and set upon his head would bee burthensom so whilst a man is over head and eares in sinne he is not sensible of nor troubled with the weight of it but when hee begins to
which be above requitall 546 Ruptures betwixt great ones are alwayes dangerous whose affections perchance by the mediation of friends may bee brought againe to meet but never to unite and incorporate 547 Princes the manner of whose death is private and obscure fame commonly conjures againe out of their graves and they walke abroad in the tongues and braines of many who affirme and beleeve them to be still alive 548 Royall goodnesse is much more prone to smile then frowne yet yeelding to both in fittest seasons 549 Alexander Severus a worthy and learned Emperour was wont to say That hee would not feed his servants with the bowels of the Common-wealth 550 Generally active nations are strongest abroad and weakest at home 551 It is not the firmenesse of the stone nor the fastnesse of the mortar that maketh strong wals but the integrity of the inhabitants 552 The Genius of old Kingdomes in time groweth weaker and doteth at the last 553 As it was a signe that Sampson meant to pull downe the house upon the heads of the Philistims when he pulled downe the Pillars that bare up the roofe so its a shrewd signe that God is about to ruine a State when he takes away those that are the Pillars and props of it 554 As hee is a strong man whose joynts are well set and knit together not whom nature hath spunne out all in length and never thickned him so it is the united and well compacted Kingdome entire in it selfe which is strong not that which reacheth and strideth the farthest 555 It s better to bee Scripticall then Definitive in the causes of Gods judgements 556 Many men by surfeiting digge their owne graves with their teeth 557 Many wicked men are like Hawks of great esteeme whilst living but afterwards nothing worth the godly are like to tamer foules which are husht forth and little heeded whilst living but after death are brought into the Parlour 558 The wise man being asked returned this as the most profitable observation as he could make upon the sight of Rome flourishing that even there also men died 559 There stands in one end of the Library in Dublin a globe of the world and a Sceleton of a man at the other which shews that though a man were Lord of all the world yet hee must dye 560 As it is not a losse but a preferment and honour for a married woman to forsake her own kindred and house to goe to an husband so it s not a losse but preferment for the soule for a time to relinquish the body that it may goe to Christ who hath married it to himselfe forever 561 Good done at our end is like a Lanthorne borne after us which directs them that come behind but affordeth us very little light whereas the good done in our life time is like a Lanthorne borne before us that benefits both them and us equally imparting light to either 562 Death is the greatest losse that can bee to the worldly man it is the greatest gaine that can be to the godly man 563 Gods children as by death they are rid of corruption so after death they have no need of correction 564 Death is the best Physician to the godly it cures them not of one disease but of all and of all at once not for once only but for ever yea it cures them of death it selfe 565 A man may have a three-fold being A being of nature A well Being of Grace and the best Being of Glory our Birth gives us the first our New-birth the second our death the third 566 It s no life but death that severs a man from Christ whilst he liveth and it s no death but life that bringeth a man home to Christ when he dieth 567 Man is nothing but soule and soile or Breath and Body a puffe of wind the one and a pile of dust the other 568 Doe not that to day that thou mayest repent of to morrow yea doe not that to day that it may bee too late to repent of to morrow 569 Considering the frailty of our lives it s no marvell that death meets with us at length it s rather marvell that it misseth us so long 5â—0 Wee are sure to dye not because we are sick but because wee live for a man may be sick and not dye but what man lives and shall not see death 571 Sinne and Death are as needle and thread the one entring before is a meanes to draw on the other nor would one follow if the other went not before 572 None come into life but by the perill of death and some are carried from the wombe to the Tombe from Birth to Buriall Ioâ— 10.19 573 As for our Lands so for our lives wee are but Gods Tenants at will 574 Mans life is as a day dayes are not all of one length neither is there lesse variety in the length and size of mens lives 575 When wee have children at nurse or school when trouble or danger is in those places where they make their aboad wee send for them home that they may be in safety so God cals some of his children out of this world thereby taking them away from eevill to come Isa. 7.1 576 When our houses are in danger of firing wee remove our treasure and Iewels in the first place into places of more security so where Gods wrath like fire is breaking in upon a place he removes his children to heaven a place of greater safety 578 Death will doe that all at once which Grace doth now by degrees 578 Ambrose at the point of death said to his people I have not so lived among you that I should be ashamed longer to live with you nor am I affraid to die because wee have a good Master 579 Death is the Lady and Empresse of all the world her treasure is without surrender and from her sentence there is no appeale 580 Because God defers punishing men deferre repenting and spend the most precious of their time and strength in sinning and then thinke to give God the dregs the bottome the last sands their dotage which themselves and friends are weary of 581 Gods children are never better delivered out of their troubles then when they seeme not to be delivered at all when they are delivered out of them by death 582 A good mans death is like musicke though it consist of sharpes yet it ends in a Diapason and with a sweet close 583 When an ordinary man breakes ranke and dies there fals a vapour but when a good man dies ther fals a starre when Israel departed from Egypt they robbed the Egyptians and when a good man shakes off the world hee robs the world 584 As all the fresh Rivers run into the salt Sea so all the honour of the world ends in basenesse all the pleasures of the world in bitternesse all the treasures of the world in emptinesse all the garments of the world in nakednesse and all the dainties and delicates
darknesse to cause if it were possible blacknesse of darkenesse even utter despaire in them 406 When men goe about to extinguish and darken the light of direction which God hath put into their hearts to guide their paths by hee putteth out the light of comfort and leaves them to darkenesse 407 Other afflictions are but the taking some stars of comfort out of the Firmament when others are left still to shine there but when Gods countenance is hid from the soule the Sun it selfe the Fountaine of light is darkened to such and so a generall darkenesse befals them 408 God in afflicting of his children proportioneth the burthen to the back and the stroke to the streÌ„gth of him that bears it 409 One Sonne God had without sinne but not without sorrow for though Christ his naturall son was sine corruptione without corruption yet not sine correctione without correction though hee was sine flà gitio without crime yet not sine flagello without a scourge 410 As two peices of Iron cannot bee foundly souldred together but by beating and heating them both together in the fire so neither can Christ and his brethren bee so nearly united and fast affected but by fellowship in his sufferings 411 God by affliction separateth the sinne that hee hates from the sonne that hee loves and keepes him by these thornes that hee breake not over into Satans pleasant pastures which would fat him indeed but to the slaughter 412 A Torch burnes after a while the better for beating a young tree grows the faster for shaking Gods vines beare the better for bleeding his spices smell the sweeter for pounding his gold lookes the brighter for scouring God knowes that wee are best when wee are worst and live holiest when wee dye fastest and therefore frames his dealing to our disposition seeking rather to profit then to please us 413 As winds and thunders cleare the ayre so doe afflictions the soule of a Christian 414 Good men are like glow-wormes that shine most in the darke like Iuniper that smels sweetest in the fire like spice which savoureth best when it is beateâ— like the Pomander which becomes most fragrant by chafing like the Palme tree which proves the better for pressing like Cammomile which the more you tread it the more you spread it and like the Grape which comes not to the proofe till it come to the â—resse 415 Affliction like Lots Angels will soone away when they have done their errand like Plaisters when the sore is once whole they will fall off 416 Hard knots must have hard wedges strong affections must have strong afflictions and great corruptions great crosses to cure them 417 Gods corrections are our instructions his lashes our lessons his scourges our Schoole-masters and his chastisements our advisements Isa. 26.9 418 The Christians under the ten Persecutions lasting about one hundred and 8. yeares had scarce a leape yeare of peace in which some as too ambitious of Martyrdome rather woed then waited for their deaths 419 There is in Christ erected an office of salvation an heavenly Chancery of equity and mercy not onely to moderate the rigour but to reverse and revoke the very acts of the law 420 Though we be still bound to all the law as much as ever under the perill of sin yet not under the paine of death which is the rigour of the law 421 Gods children are as fully bound to the obedience of the law as Adam was though not under danger of incurring death yet under danger of contracting sinne 422 The Law is spirituall therefore it s not a conformity to the letter barely but to the spiritualnesse of the law which makes our actions to be right before God 423 The Law of it selfe is the cord of a Iudge which bindeth hand and foot shackleth unto condemnation but by Christ it s made the cord of a man and the bond of love by which he teacheth us to go even as a Nurse her Infant 424 The Law for the sanction is disjunctive either do this or dye for the injunction its copulative doe both this and that too 425 Gods children are not under the Law for Iustification of their persons as Adam was noâ— for satisfaction of divine Iustice as those that perish are but they are under it as a document of obedience and a rule of living 426 When the Law was once promulgated to Adam and put into his heart as the common Arke of mankind though the Tables be lost yet our Ignorance doth not make the Law of none effect 427 They who seeke to put out the truth of Gods word by snuffing of it make it burne the brighter 428 All like well to have Gods word their comforter but few take care to make it their counsellor 429 When wee reade the Scriptures if wee cannot sound the bottome we should admire the depth kisse the booke and lay it downe weepe over our ignorance and send one hearty wish to heaven oh when shall I come to know as I am knowne 430 To alledge Scripture in favour of sin is to entitle God to that which he hates worse then the devill and to make him a Patron and Patterne of wickednesse and his Word a sword for Satan his sworn Enemy 431 Plain places of Scripture are for our nourishment Hard places for our exercise these are to bee masticated as meat for men those to be drunke as Milke for Babes by the former our hunger is staid by the latter our loathings 432 As the Lapidary brightens his hard Diamond with the dust shaved from it selfe so must wee cleare hard places of Scripture by parallell texts which like glasses set one against another cast a mutual light 433 When men are sick though they cast up al they eate yet we advise them to take something for something will remaine behind in the stomack to preserve life So we should heare the Word though wee forget almost all wee heare for some secret strength is gotten by it 434 When the body is sick we use to forbeare our appointed food but when the soule is sick there is more need of spirituall food then ever for its both meat and Medicine Food Physick Cordials and all 435 It s better to loose the Sun of the Firmament then the Sunne of the Gospel 436 The glorious Gospel of Iesus Christ the Sonne of Righteousnesse shining upon one that is dead in sinnes causeth him to stinke the more hatefully both before the face of God and man 437 Ministers that have good parts should labour to adorne the same by holinesse of life without which the other are but as pearles in the head of a filthy Toad a Pearle in the head and the body all poyson 438 Some deale with their Ministers as Carriers doe with their horses lay heavy burthens upon them and exact worke enough but afford them but easie commons and then to recompense this they shall have bels hung about their necks they shall bee commended for able