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
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
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
when hee received them as vapours that arise out of the earth the heavens returne them againe in pure water much better then they received them 237 Hee that gives his heart to God hath as much liberty and as much power of his owne heart as hee that followes lusts 238 Let a thousand lines come to one point every one hath the whole yet there is but one that answereth all so it is with the Lord though there be many thousands that the Lord loves yet every one hath God wholly Now as hee is to them alone so he expects that they should give themselves to him wholly 239 Gods performance and remembrance goe together as the light and the sunne so that in giving helpe to man it s enough that God remembers him whose memory and mercy are as it were but one act 240 Gods booke is not like a Merchants booke wherein is written both what is owing and what he oweth himselfe for God in mercy wipes out what we owe him and writes onely that which hee owes us by promise 241 God shewes more mercy in saving some when hee might have condemned all then justice in judging many when he might have saved none 242 Where God multiplies his mercies and men multiply their sins there God will multiply their miseries 243 The Hebrewes observe that all the letters in the name of God are litterae quiescentes letters of rest because God is the only center where there the soule may find rest 244 Ther is no true godlines where there is not contentment of mind no true contentment of mind where there is not godlines 245 The holier that men are the happier they are and the more godly they are the more true and sound contentment they are sure of 246 There can bee no cōtentment wher any want is nor freedome from want where sufficiency is not as there is not in the creature 247 God alone is the chiefest good and the chiefest good is each ones utmost ayme and therfore our desires cannot be staid till wee come home unto him beyond whom wee cannot possibly goe 248 As a stomack that hath beene enlarged to full diet lookes for it and rises more hungry from a slender meale so communion with God enlargeth the faculties and makes them more capable of greater joyes and therefore the creature is lesse able to fill the hearts of such then of others which never had this communion with him 249 Gods name is I am because hee is all things to all men that they want 250 As Noah when the deluge of waters had defaced the great booke of nature had a coppy of every kind of creature in that famous Library of the Arke out of which all were reprinted to the world so he that hath God hath the original coppy of all blessings out of which if all were perished all might easily bee restored 251 The heart is a Pyramis inverted large towards heaven but contracted to a point towards the earth let God raine a large influence of grace upon us and we should be at a point for earthly things 252 As ayre lights not without the sun nor wood heats without fire so neither doth any condition cōfort a man without God 253 Let our desires bee what they will if that which wee have suite with them its comfortable 254 When a woman marrieth a trades-man or excellent Artist she thinkes it a good portion and as good as if hee had much money so they that have the Lord for their portion have enough if they have nothing else 255 As Hagar when the bottle was spent fell a crying she was undone she and her child should perish there was a fountaine neer but she saw it not till God opened her eyes so when our bottle is dryed up in such meanes as we depend upon wee presently say there is no hope though the Lord the Fountaine is neere unto us if wee had but our eys open to see him 256 As a dropsie man after he is brought into health is content with lesse drinke then hee was before so godlinesse brings the soule into a good temper removing lustful humours giving him that content that before he wanted 257 As the Bee if it found honey enough in one flowre would not fly to another so the nature of man if it found sweetnesse and contentment and comfort enough in God it would not turne from him to the creature 258 If the sunne bee wanting it will bee night for all the stars so if the light of Gods countenance be wanting a man may sit in the shaddow of death for all the glyster of worldly contentments 259 As women when they have good meat to eat doe sometimes long after ashes and coals and such things so when God compasseth a man about with mercies if hee suffer an inordinate appetite to take hold of him his soule may have blessings present and yet receive no comfort from them 260 Gods enemies may have abundance but they are but land-flouds of comfort they make a great shew and have some reality of comfort in them for the present but like ponds or land-flouds are quickly dryed up but the springs of comfort only belong to the Saints to whom they are renewed from day to day 261 As fire under water the hotter it burnes the sooner it is extinguished by the over-running of the water so earthly things raise up such tumultuary and disquiet thoughts in the minds of men as at last extinguish all the heat and comfort which was expected from them 262 All those phantasticall felicities which men build upon the creature prove in the end to bee but the banquet of a dreaming man nothing but lies and vanities in the conclusion 263 Though a man have riches and thinke himselfe so sure of them that they cannot be taken away yet they are like a flock of birds in a mans ground which he cannot promise to himselfe any certainty of because they have wings and may fly away Pro. 23.5 264 The glory of this world is like a rotten post that shines indeed but its only in the darke 265 If we lay our selves loaden with the utmost of all earthly excellencies and felicities in the one scale of the ballance and vanity in the other vanity wil weigh us downe 266 They which eagerly pursue the worlds vanities are like children following butter-flies which after all their paines they may misse and if they catch it s but a fly that besmeares their hands 267 When the world cannot bring truth of happinesse for her Champion to overthrow us and draw us from God shee will bee sure to deale with her old Chapman the falsehood of the flesh and so if wee take not heed will over-reach us in our bargaine 268 King Henry the fourth of France asked the Duke D' Alva if hee had not observed the Eclipses No said he I have so much to doe upon earth that I have no leisure to looke up to heaven so its true with many
Christians which are drawing lines in the dust with Archimedes till destruction seaze upon them 269 As the Lapwing hath a Crowne upon the head and yet feeds upon dung so to be crowned with honour from God and yet to feed upon the dung of the world as basely as other men doe is unseemly for a Christian 270 Earthly things must neither be sought with the height of designe nor height of desires which like a precious box of oyntment must not bee powred out upon those things nor with height of devoir spinning out our soules as the Spider to catch a fly nor spending the first borne of our thoughts upon them 271 There is a prodigious property in worldly things to obliterate all notions of God out of the heart of man and to harden him to any abominations 272 Christians should beware of plunging themselves into a confluence of many boisterous and conflicting businesses as Pauls ship where two seas met lest the Lord give over their soules to suffer ship-wrack in them or stripping of them of all their lading and tackling breake their estate al to peices and make them get to heaven upon a broken planck 273 Too much eager love and attendance upon the world robs many Christians of golden opportunities of encreasing the graces of their soules with more noble and heavenly contemplations on Gods truth and promises on his name and attributes on his word and worship of rouzing up their soules from the sleepe of sinne of inflaming their spiritual gifts of enjoying communion with God of mourning for their sinnes of besiegeing and besetting heaven with their more ardent and retyred prayers of bewayling the calamities the stones of Syon of deprecating and repelling approaching judgements and of glorifying God in all their wayes 274 A man comes to the world as to a Lottery with an head full of hopes and projects to get a prize and returnes with an heart full of blanks utterly deluded in his expectation 275 The world useth a man as the Ivie doth an Oake the closer it gets to the heart the more it clings and twists about the affections and though it seeme to promise flatter much yet it indeed doth but eate out his reall substance and choake him in the embraces 276 He who lookes stedfastly upon the light of the sunne will be able to see nothing below when hee lookes downe againe and the more a man is affected with heaven the lesse will hee desire or delight in the world 277 As a cloud exhaled by the sun hides the light of the sun which drew it up so the great estates and temporall blessings of God to eviâ—l men serve but to intercept the thoughts and to blot out the notions and remembrance of him that gave them 278 If there were no earth there would bee no darkenesse for its the body of the earth that hides the sunne from our view and the light of Gods word and graces would not bee eclipsed if earthly affections did not interpose themselves 279 As boyes that steale into an Orchard stuffe their sleeves and pockets with fruit hoping to get out with it but when they come to the doore meet with one that searcheth them and sends them away empty so many hoard up riches and thinke long to enjoy them but ere long goe hence and meet with death which strips them and suffers nothing to passe with them but a sorry shirt which yet they have no sense of nor are better for it 280 When the body hath a wen or a wolfe in it al the nourishment is drawn to that and the body growes leane and poor so when a mans heart is taken up with the world it eats up and devoures all the good thoughts and intentions of the mind and the hidden man of the heart is starved and pin'd in the meane time 281 Gold can no more fill the heart of man then grace his purse 282 When we see a servant follow two Gentlemen wee know not whose man he is but their parting will discover to whom hee belongs so when death shall sever the owner from the world then will riches revenues c. and all outward bravery cleave to the world and leave him as poore a wretch as when he first came into the world 283 Worldlings houses are alwayes better ordered then their soules and their temporall husbandry is alwayes better then their spirituall 284 The deeplier that the drowsie heart of a covetous man doth drink of the golden stream the more furiously its inflamed with spirituall thirst 285 They do extreamly befoole themselves which thinke to have two heavens one in this world and another in the world to come or to weare two crownes of Ioyes whereas Christ himselfe had the first of thorns 286 God puts money into earthen boxes covetous misers that have only one chinke to let in but none to let out with purpose to breake them when they are full 287 On the banks of the dead sea grow those hypocriticall apples and well complectioned dust the true emblems of the false pleasures of the world which touched fall to ashes 288 Most men use their knowledge in Divinity as some doe artificiall teeth more for shew then service or as the Athenians did their coine to count and gingle with onely striving rather to be able to talke of it then to walke by it 289 In some Christians the spring is too forward to hold and the speedy withering of their religion argueth that it wanted root 290 Hypocrites are like the Egyptian Temples painted without and spotted within varnisht without and vermine within 291 None are so mad as to keepe their Iewels in a Sellar and their coales in a closet and yet such is the profanenesse of wicked men to keepe God in their lips only and Mammon in their hearts to make the earth their treasure and heaven but an appendix or accessary to it 292 As a peice of gold may be shaped into a vessell of dishonour for sordid uses so a worke may be compounded of choise ingredients the materials of it commanded by God and yet serve for base purposes and directed to our owne ends it may stinke in the nostrils of God and be jected 293 Men that take upon them the name of Christ and a shew of religion and yet deny the power therof are not only Lyers in professing a false love but theeves too in usurping an interest into Christ which indeed they have not 294 Though nothing but the Evangelicall vertue of the word begets true and spirituall obedience yet outward conformity may be fashioned by the terrour of the law as in Ahab 295 Many who will not doe good obedientially with faith in the power with submission to the will with aime at the glory of him that commands it will yet doe it rationally out of the conviction and evidence of their owne principles 296 An unfruitfull Christian is the most unprofitable creature that is as a Vine is either for fruit or for fuell and
the glory is departed 468 As in a structure the stones cannot subsist in the building by any qualities or inherent vertues of their owne but only by the direct and perpendicular dependence subsistance which they have upon the foundation so in the Church no graces nor inherent excellencies do hold men up but onely the full and sole reliance and subsistance of the soule upon Christ 469 As God furnished Cyrus with treasure for the building of the Temple so hee furnished many of the Heathen with much light of knowledge and literature for the benefit of his Church and children 470 The common-wealth is a ring the Church a Diamond both well set together receive and return lustre each to other 471 Some cut off the flesh of the churches maintenance under a pretence to cure her of a tympany of superfluities 472 Whosoever hath not a pearle of prejudice in the eye of his judgement must needs confesse it to be sacriledge to take away the dowry of the church without assuring her any jointure in lieu of it 473 We should beseech God so to sanctifie his creatures to us as that they may not be either theeves against him to steale away his honour or snares to us to entangle our soules 474 A man can never be brought to God till hee forsake the creature nor can hee be brought to forsake the creature till he see vanity in it 475 When any creature looseth any of its native and created vigour it s a manifest signe that there is some secret sentence of death gnawing upon it 476 As pricks and quavers rests in musick commend the cunning of the Artist and delight the hearers as well as more perfect notes so the meanest of the creatures had so much goodnesse in them as might set forth the glory of God and minister content to the mind of man 477 As some promises are in our hand performed already as rewards for our service past so others are still before our eyes to call and allure us as the price unto which we presse 478 Gods promises are full of consolation as a dugge is of milke therefore when wee faint wee should milke out consolation out of them which will relieve and stay our hearts 479 Plausible and witty evasions to avoid perjury are but the tying of a most artificiall knot in the halter therewith to strangle ones owne conscience 480 An oath being the highest appeale perjury must needs bee an hainous sinne 481 An oath is the strongest bond of conscience the end of particular strife the souldier of publike peace the sole assurance of amity betwixt divers nations made here below but enrolled in his high court whose glorious name doth signe it 482 A resolution is a free custody but a vow is a kind of prison which restrayned nature hath the more desire to breake 483 As Sampson was bound in vaine with any cords so long as his haire grew into its full length so in vaine doth any man bind himselfe with vowes so long as he nourisheth his lusts within him 484 Truth sometimes seekes corners as fearing her Iudge though never as suspecting her cause 485 Truth hath alwayes a good face though often but bad cloaths 486 Truth is like our first Parents most beautifull when naked it was sin that covered them and its ignorance that hides this or if shee doth appeare in rayment of needle worke it s but for a more majesticke comelinesse not gaudy gainesse 487 As those parts of the naile next to the flesh which at first are softer then the rest doe of themselves grow into that hardnesse which is in the rest so the consciences of all men have the seeds of that insensibility in them which makes them at last deafe to every charme and secure against all the thunder which is threatned against them 488 Some have sluces in their consciences and can keepe them open or shut them up at their pleasure 489 That is the best glasse that shewes the smallest spots the brightest light that shewes the least motes the finest flesh that is sensible of the least pricking so that conscience that is sensible of the least sinne or fayling is the perfection of Christianity whereunto wee all should strive to attaine 490 Lay an heavy burthen upon a whole shoulder and it goes away with it well enough so if the soule and spirit be sound God enable a man to beare it diseases imprisonment disgraces c. are easily born 491 The frame of the spirit in the voluptuous ambitious and riotous person is like the lower part of the Elementary Region ful of unquietnesse because the seat of winds tempests and earth-quakes whilst the beleevers soule is like that part towards heaven which is always peaceable and still enjoying true rest and joy 492 As the operation of the Sunne is strongest there where it is not at all seene in the bowels of the earth so the Iudgements of God doe often lye heaviest there where they are least perceiued viz. in a hard heart 493 If a little stone falling from an high place doth more hurt then a farre greater that is but gently laid on how wofull must their case be who shal have mill-stones and mountaines throwne with Gods owne arme from heaven upon them 494 As Gods wrath is heavy and so exceeds the strength of nature to overcome it so its infinite also and so excludes the hope of nature to escape it 495 Warnings of Gods Iudgements are least feared by those whom they most concerne and most feared by those whom they least concerne 496 Men marked out by God for destruction will runne their owne heads into the halter 497 As Generals when a generall fault is committed by their souldiers cast lots and pick out two or three put them to death that the Army may bee saved so the Lord takes here and there one and followes them with open and great judgements and lets the generality alone because hee would spare man-kind 498 Man by meanes of propagation attaineth to a kind of Immortality and eternity and in his posterity surviveth himselfe 499 Children of beleeving parents are by vertue of their parents coppy and Gods gracious entail within the compasse of his Covenant Gen. 17.7.10.11 Act. 2.39 Rom. 11.16 i Cor. 7.14 500 Many make an Idoll of their posterity and sacrifice themselves unto it 501 Hee that chooseth rather to dye then to deny Christ is once for all a Martyr but he that chooseth to live a wretched life little better if not worse then death rather then to doe evill is every day a Martyr 1 Cor. 15.31 502 Were it the punishment not the cause that makes martyrdome wee should bee best stored with confessors from Iayles and martyrs from the gallows 503 Lawyers which oppose and wrangle against a good cause or undertake the defence of a bad are both equally most unworthy the very morall vertue of an honest Heathen 504 He that brings himselfe into needlesse danger dies the