folly Action without Resolution is a foolish rashnesse first know what 's good to be done then doe that good being knowne If fore-cast be not better than labour yet labour is not good without fore-cast our actions should not be done without nor against knowledge NAture hath sent us abroad into the world and wee are every day travelling homeward if wee meet with store of miseries in our way discretion should teach us a religious haste in our journey and meeting with pleasures they should pleasure us onely by putting us in minde of our celestiall pleasures at home which should teach us to scorne these as worse than trifles A pleasant journey is deare bought with the losse of home and a troublesome life is oftner a blessing than a Curse wee may as well die of surfet as of hunger EAch Night is but the past dayes Funerall and the Morning his Resurrection Why then should our Funerall sleepe be other than our sleepe at night Why should we not as well wake to our Resurrection as in the Morning Death rather borrowes our life of us than robbes us of it and the glory of the Sunne findes a Resurrection why not the Sonnes of Glory Since a dead man may live againe we should not so much looke for an end of our lives as wait for the comming of our change COntention is very dangerous especially with great Ones as we may be too strong for the weaker so we must be too weake for the stronger we cannot so easily vanquish our Inferiors but our Superiors may as easily conquer us We should do much to be at peace with all men but suffer much ere we contend with a Mighty man THere is no heart of flesh that at some time or other relents not neither flint nor marble but in some weather will stand on drops Good motions barely better not the man the praise and benefit of those gusts are not in the receit but in the retention A good heart is easily staied from sinning and is glad when it finds occasion to be crost in ill purposes those secret checkes that are raised within it self do readily conspire with all outward retentives it never yeelded to a wicked motion without much reluctation when it is overcome it is but with a halfe consent Whereas obdurate sinners by reason of their full delight in evill and having already in conceit swallowed the pleasures of sinne abide no resistance but keep a headlong course in spight of opposition not weighing how neere their jollitie is to perdition Doubtlesse it is but just with God that they who live without grace should die without comfort IT is no measuring of men by the depth of purse by outward prosperitie for even the best deservings may want temporal rewards Servants are oftentimes set on horsebacke while Princes go on foot Shall we contemne his necessity who perhaps is so much more rich in grace as he is poor in estate Neither doth violence or casualtie more impoverish a man than his poverty somtimes enricheth him He whose wilfull folly hath made him miserable is justly rewarded with neglect but hee that suffers for good deserves so much the more honor from others as his distresse is more MAny speake fair that mean ill but when the mouth speakes foule it argues a corrupt heart Though with Saint Iames his verball Benefactors we say Depart in peace fill your bellies we shall answer for hypocriticall uncharitablenesse but if we revile and curse those needy soules we ought to relieve we shall give a more fearfull account of savage cruelty in trampling on those whom God hath humbled If not healing with good works be justly punishable what torment is there for those that wound with evill IT is ill hurting the children of God for though he suffers them not to sinne in revenging yet hee suffers not their adversaries to sin unrevenged He that saith Vengeance is mine I will repay repayes oftentimes when wee have forgiven when we have forgotten and calls to reckoning after our discharges Wherfore it is dangerous offending the meanest servant of Him whose displeasure and revenge is everlasting THat God whose the earth is makes roome for His every where and oftentimes provides for them a forreine Home more kindely than the Native It is no matter for the change of our Soile so wee change not our God if wee can every where acknowledge him He will no where be wanting to us THose who cannot fear for love may chance to tremble for feare And how much better is awe than terror prevention than confusion Destruction is never neerer than when security hath cast away feare There is nothing more lamentable than to see a man laugh when hee should feare God shall laugh when such a ones feare commeth for as in mercy he forgets not to interchange our sorrowes with joy so neither doth he the joyes of the wicked with sorrow 'T is an unreasonable inequalitie to hope to finde God at our command when we refuse to bee at his or to looke that he should regard our voice in trouble when we would not regard his in peace CVstome makes Sin so familiar that the horror of it by some is turned into pleasure To make a right use of Gods judgements upon others is to beare them in our selves and finding our sins at the least equall to tremble at the expectation of the same deserved punishments God intends not onely revenge but reformation in his execution as good Princes who regard not so much the smart of the evil past as the prevention of the future which is never attained but when we make application of Gods hand and draw common causes out of his particular proceedings THe best intent cannot excuse much lesse warrant us in unlawfull actions What we doe in faith it pleaseth our God to winke at and pitty our weaknesses but if we dare present him with the well-meant services of our owne making we runne to his indignation for Gods busines must be done after his owne formes which if our best intentions alter we presume There is nothing more dangerous than to be our owne carvers in matters of Religion It is better be too fearfull than too forward in those things which doe immediately concerne God As it is not good to refraine from holy businesses so 't is worse to doe them ill Awfulnesse is a safe interpreter of his secret actions and a wise guide of ours THe first piece of our amends to God for sinning is the acknowledgement of our sinnes he can doe little that in a just offence cannot accuse himselfe If we cannot be so good as wee would it is reason we should do God so much right as to say how evil we are It is strange to see how easily sinne gets into the heart and how hardly out of the mouth Is it because Sinne like to Sathan where it hath got possession is desirous to hold it and knowes it is fully ejected by a free confession or because thorow a
guiltinesse of deformity it hides it selfe in the brest where it is once entertained and hates the light or because the tongue is so fee'd with self-love that it is loth to be drawn to any verdict against the heart or hands Or is it out of an idle misprision of shame which whilest it should be placed in offending is mis-placed in disclosing our offence How ever sure it is that God hath need even of racks to draw out Confessions for scarse in death it selfe are we wrought to a discovery of our errors O Lord since wee have sinned why should we be niggardly of that action wherein we may at once give glory unto Thee reliefe to our soules Whatsoever the sore be never any Soule truely applied this remedy and died never any Soule escaped death that applied it not TO know evill by others and not speake it is somtimes discretion to speak evill of others and not know it is alwayes dishonesty he may bee evill himselfe that speaks good of others upon knowledge but he can never be good himselfe that speakes evill of others upon suspition To speake all we know shewes too much folly to speake more than wee know shewes too little honestie He that spends all that is his owne is an unthriftie Prodigall but he that spends more than his owne is a dishonest Vnthrift Wee may sometimes know what wee will not utter but should never utter what wee doe not know HEaven being our Home and Christ our Way wee should learne to know our Way ere wee haste to travell to our Home He that runnes hastily in a Way he knowes not may come speedily to a Home he loves not Seeing Christ is our Way and Heaven our Home wee should rather chearefully endure a painefull Walke than sadly want a perfect Rest AS it is not against reason to be passionate so wee should not be passionate against reason as wee should both grieve and joy if we have reason for it so we should not joy nor grieve above reason but so joy at our good as not to take evill by our joy so grieve at any evill as not encrease the evill by our griefe THe Widowes Mite was of more worth than the Riches of superfluitie Hee gives not best that gives most but he gives most that gives best If we cannot give bountifully yet we should give freely and what wee want in our hand supply by our heart He gives well that gives willingly HE that contemnes a small fault commits a great one Many drops make a shower and what difference is it to be wet either in the Raine or in the River if both be to the skin There is small benefit in the choice whether wee goe downe to Hell by degrees or at once THe Devill is not more black-mouth'd than a slanderer nor a slanderer lesse malicious than the Devill for to have themselves thought as good as any other they will not have any thought good that dwells neere them He is to be suspected as scarce honest that would with a slander make us to suspect another as dishonest the worst of tame beasts is the flatterer and the worst of wilde beasts is the slanderer I Admire with reverence the justice and wisdome of the Lawes but deplore with compassion the abused practice of them and resolve rather to beare with patience a haile-shower of injuries than to seek shelter at such a thicket where the brambles shall pluck off my fleece and doe me more hurt by scratching than the storme would have done by hailing That Physick is not to be chosen which makes the remedie worse than the disease TO be good is now thought too neere a way to contempt Hee that lives vertuously and piously the world commonly hates and his reputation shall be traduced by the ignominious aspersion of malevolent tongues None can scape the Lash of Censure He that is never so profuse and vicious shall be loved of some though not of the best A supposed honest man found lewd is hated as a growne Monster Privat sinnes are often punisht with publike shame for sinne is a concealed fire that even in darknesse will so worke as to bewray it selfe 'T is impossible to have every ones good word because howsoever wee carry our selves some Cynicks will barke at our courses I had rather live hated for goodnesse than be loved for vice he does better that pleaseth one good man than he that contents a thousand bad ones I care not for his friendship that affects not vertue since it must needs be partly fained for diversities breed nothing but disunion and sweet congruitie onely is the Mother of true Love VIce is an infallible forerunner of wretchednesse All our dishonest actions are but Earnests layd downe for griefe anguish or confusion Sinne on the best condition brings repentance but for sinne unrepented is provided Hell He is in the highest degree of madnesse that desires to buy his vexation We should force our selves to want that willingly which wee cannot enjoy without future distaste The Bee chuseth rather to goe to the flower of the field for Honey where shee may lade her thighes securely and with leisure than to the Apothecaries shop where shee gets more but makes her life hazardable WOrks without faith are like a fish without water in which though there may seeme to be some quick actions of life and symptomes of agilitie yet they are indeed but the fore-runners of their end and the very presages of death Faith againe without works is like a Bird without wings who though shee may hop with her companions here on Earth yet living till the worlds end shee 'l never flye to Heaven When both are joyned together then doth the soule mount up to the Hill of eternall Rest Faith is the foundation good works the structure the foundation without the walls is of slender value the building without a Basis cannot stand We should first labour for a sure foundation saving faith but equally seeke for strong walls good workes for as the house is judged by the edifice more than by the foundation so not according to his faith but according to his works shall God judge man HE lives truly after death whose pious actions are his pillars of remembrance though his flesh moulders to drosse in the grave yet is his happinesse in a perpetuall growth no day but addes some graines to his heape of glory Good works are seeds that after sowing returne us a continuall harvest A vertuous man shining in the purity of a righteous life is as a light house set by the Sea side whereby the Mariners both saile aright and avoid danger But hee that lives in noted sinnes is as a false Lanthorne which shipwrackes those that trust it or like one dying of the Plague who leaves an infection to the whole Citie Doubtlesse he runnes a wofull course that lives lewdly and dies without repentance SEcrecie is a necessarie part of policie divulged intentions seldome proceed well Things
troubles When therefore thy Conscience like a sterne Sergeant shall catch thee by the throat and arrest thee upon Gods debt let thy only plea bee that thou hast alreadie paid it Bring forth that bloudy acquittance sealed unto thee from Heaven by Faith in Christ and streight way thou shalt see the fierce and terrible looke of thy Conscience changed into friendly smiles and that rough and violent hand that was ready to drag thee to prison shall now lovingly embrace thee and fight for thee against all the wrongfull attempts of any Spirituall Adversarie But the time wil come when the carelesse sinner shall bee plunged in woes and shall therefore desperately sorrow because he sorrowed not sooner for sin He may feast away his Cares for a while and bury them with himself in wine and sleep but after all these frivolous evasions they will returne again nor will they be repelled but increased hereby Sin owes him a spight and perhaps will pay him when hee is in worse case to sustaine it Namely up his Death-bed which shall prove very grievous unto him for his many wilfull adjournings of Repentance HE said wel who when some skilfull Astrologer upon calculation of his Nativitie had foretold him some specialties concerning his future estate answered Such perhaps I was borne but since that time I have been born again and my second Nativitie hath crossed my first The Power of Nature is a good Plea for those that acknowledge nothing above Nature but for a Christian to excuse his intemperatenesse by his naturall inclination and to say I am borne cholericke sullen Amorous c. is an Apologie worse than the fault For wherefore serves Religion but to subdue or governe Nature We are so much Christians as wee can rule our selves the rest is but forme and speculation THere is no difference but continuance betwixt Anger and Madnesse for raging Anger is a short Madnesse else what argues the shaking of the hands and lips the palenesse rednesse or swelling of the face glaring of the eies stammering of the Tongue stamping with the Feet unsteadie motions of the whole Body wilde distracted Speeches and rash Actions which we remember not to have done Doubtlesse a milde Madnes is more tolerable than frequent and furious Anger OVr Cowardlinesse and unpreparednesse is Deaths chiefest advantage wheras true boldnesse in confronting him dismayes and weakens his forces Happy is the Soule that can send out the Scouts of his thoughts before-hand to discover the power of Death a far off then can resolutely incounter him at unawares upon advantage such a one lives securely and dies with Comfort Death argues not Gods displeasure Abel whom God loved best dies first when the Murtherer Cain is punished with living COntentation is a rare Blessing because it either arises from a fruition of all comforts or a not desiring of some wee have not We are never so bare as not to have some benefits never so ful as not to want somthing yea as not to bee full of wants God hath much adoe with us either we lacke health or quietnesse or Children or wealth or company or our selves in all these Nature is moderate in her desires but Conceit is insatiable Who cannot pray for his daily bread when hee hath it in his Cup-bourd but when our owne provision failes then not to distrust God is a noble triall of Faith All grudging is odious but most when our hands are full To whine in the midst of abundance is a shamefull unthankfulnesse it is a base cowardise so soon as ever we are called from the garrison to the field to think of running away then is Fortune worthy of Prayse when wee can endure to be miserable O God I have made an ill use of thy mercies if I have not learned to be content with thy corrections NO benefit can stop the mouth of impatience if our turne be not served for the present former favours are either forgotten or contemned No marvell wee deale so with men when God receives this measure from us One Moone of ill weather makes us over-looke all the blessings of God and more to mutine at our sence of evill than to praise him for our variety of good It is an unfound praise that is given a man for one good action Many distrust God in their necessity that are ready to follow his guidance in their welfare if wee follow God and murmure it is all one as if wee staid behinde We can think him absent in our wants yet cannot see him absent in our sinnes It is wickednesse not affliction that argues him gone for he is most present when he most chastises And the sorrow of repentance comes never out of season all times are alike unto that Eternity where to we make our spirituall moanes that which is past and that which is future are both present with him It is neither weake nor uncomely for an old man to weep for the sins of his youth Such teares can never bee shed either too soon or too late THere is scarse a vicious man who name is not rotten before his Carcasse Contrarily a good mans name is often heire to his life either borne after the death of the Parent Envy not suffering it to come forth before or perhaps so well growne up in his life time that the hope thereof is the staffe of his age and the joy of his death The name of the wicked may be feared a while but is soone forgotten or cursed The good mans either sleepes with his body in peace or wakes as his soule in glory Vertue is not propagated Children naturally possesse only as bodily diseases so the vices of their Parents The grain is sowne pure yet comes up with chaffe and huske Hast thou a good son he is Gods not thine Is he evill nothing but his sinne is thine Help by thy prayers and endeavours to take away that which thou hast given him and to obtaine of God that which perhaps thou hast and canst not give else maist thou name him a possession but finde him a losse SPirituall gifts are so chained together that who excels in one hath alwaies some eminency in more Faith is attended with a Bevy of Graces he that beleeves cannot but have hope if hope patience he that beleeves and hopes must needs have joy in God if joy love of God hee that loves God cannot but love his brother his love to God breeds piety and care to please sorrow for offending feare to offend Vertues goe ever in troopes and that so thicke that sometimes some are hid in the crowd which yet are but appeare not IT is a rare evill that hath not something to sweeten it either in sence or in hope otherwise men would grow desperate mutinous envious of others weary of themselves The better the thing is wherein we place our comfort the happier we live and the more we love good things the better they are to us The worldling laughs more but the
delight his soule in his labour for this is the hand of God I Never yet found Pride in a noble Nature nor humility in an unworthy minde Arrogance is a Weed that ever growes in a dunghill it is from the ranknesse of that soile she hath her height and spreadings To be humble to our Superiours is duty to our equals curtesie to our Inferiours noblenesse If ever Pride be lawfull it is when it meets with audacious Pride and conquers for then many times the affronting man by his own folly may learne the way to his duty and wit Vlee is a myery deepnesse If thou strivest to helpe one out and doest not thy stirring him sinkes him in the farther Fury is the madder for his Chaine When thou chidest thy wandring friend do it secretly in season in love Certainly he is drunke himselfe that prophanes reason so as to urge it to a drunken man To admonish a man in the height of his passion is to call a Souldier to councell in the heat of a Battell Let the Combate slack and then thou maist expect a hearing Who blowes out Candles with too strong a breath doth 〈…〉 a stinke and blow them 〈◊〉 againe And many times the tartnesse of speech makes a reprehension worse than the fault TO finde friends when wee have no need of them and to want them when wee have are both alike easie and common And certainly it is not the least part of mans misery that hee can neither bee truly happy without a friend nor yet know him to be a true friend without his being unhappy Our fortunes and our selves are so closely linked that we know not to which of them our friends love alâ—es till one of these two shall part I confesse he is happy that findes a true friend in extremity but hee is happier that findes not extremity wherein to try his friend INfidelity is the cause of all our woes the ground of all our sins not trusting God we discontent our selves with feares and solicitations and to cure these we run into prohibited pathes Vnworthy earthen Worme to thinke that he that grasps the unemptied provisions of the world in his hand can be a niggard to his Sons unlesse he sees it be for their good and benefit O my God let me finde my heart dutifull and my faith upon triall stedfast that I may but serve thee and depend upon thee and then I need beg no farther supply for these will bee ground enough for sufficient happinesse while I live here NEither example nor precept unlesse in matters wholly religious can be the absolute guides of a discreete man It is only a knowing and a practicall judgement of his owne that can direct him in the Maze of this life in the bustle of the world in the twitches and twirles of Fate for mans life is like a State still casuall in the future and he that lives alwaies by booke Rules shall shew himselfe affected and a foole I will doe that which I see is comely so it be not dishonest rather than take grave advice to the contrary VIce ruleth as a god in this present evill world and it is impossible to live and not encounter her Wherefore it is good to be acquainted with Vertue also that the true beauty of the one may draw our affections from the ugly deformity of the other And happy is hee that makes other mens vices steps for him to climbe to heaven by THe good man is he to whom life and death is indifferent for he knowes while he is here God will protect him and that when hee goes hence God will receive him Certainly we are never quiet in any thing long till we have conquered the feare of death every spectacle of mortality terrifies and every casuall danger affrights us Feare of death kils us often when death it selfe can doe it but once But he that would not die when he must and he that would die when he must not are Cowards alike And why should we feare to doe that at any time which we know wee must doe once But what wee cannot do till our time comes let us not seeke to doe before He that hath lived well will seldome be unwilling to die for death hath nothing in it terrible but what our life hath made so Good men never die but as the Phoenix from whose preserved ashes one or other still doth spring up like them for surely nothing awakes our sleeping vertues like the noble acts of our predecessors COntemplation seconded by action makes men happy without the first the later is defective without the last the first is but abortive Contemplation like Rachel is fairest but Action like Leah is most fruitfull I will neither alwaies bee busie and doing nor ever will I be shut up in nothing but thoughts yet that which some would call idlenesse I will count the sweetest part of my life and that is my thinking VErtue were but a kinde of misery if fame only were all the Garland that did crown her but in heaven is laid up a more glorious and essentiall recompence For a mean man to thirst for a mighty fame is a kinde of fond ambition Great fames are for Princes and such as are the Glories of humanity good ones may crowne the private the same fire may be in the waxen Taper which is in the staved Torch but it is not equall either in quantity or advancement A Prince that leaveth law and ruleth himselfe and others by his owne appetite and affections is of all creatures the worst and of all beasts the most furious and dangerous for that nothing is so outragious as injustice armed and no armour is so strong as Wit and Authority whereof the first he hath as he is a Man and the other as he is a Prince LEt this be my advice and thy instruction Shun verbosity speake seldome and then to the purpose have a pure conscience and pray often study much and be familiar with few shun superfluous discourse follow the steps of godly and devout men regard not from whom thou hearest what is good and having heard it forget it not what thou readest or hearest cease not till thou dost understand be resolved of doubts and search not too far into things which are not lawfull to know THose sins are greater which are committed through lust than those which are committed through anger for he that is angry seemes with a kinde of griefe and close contraction of himselfe to turne away from reason but he that sins through lust being overcome by pleasure doth in his very sin bewray a more impotent and unmanlike disposition For the angry man sinneth by anothers injury that provokes him whereas the other doth of himselfe meerly resolve upon any evill action IT should be every mans duty to confine all his thoughts and cares to the attendance of that spirit which is within himselfe namely to keepe himselfe pure from all violent passion and evill affection from all