from all Christianity so especially from its Cross From all kinds and degrees of Suffering for it Your Salvation it 's true is wholly bought by your Redeemer's Sufferings but it is not to be received without your own And you perfidiously desert his Cause if at his call you do not promptly take up his Cross You are no more than Flatterers if in resolution you be not his Martyrs Neither can you reign if you will not suffer with him But faring deliciously every Day weds you to Pleasure and Delicacy makes you too tender to be blown on by any adverse Wind. Like a Palsy it slackens the Nerves and loosens the Joints of your Souls makes them Frightful And like a startling Beast causes you in your Fright to leap down a Precipice to avoid a Shadow To turn aside and take the bite of a Viper to avoid the prick of a Pin. To throw your selves into eternal Flames to scape the Sufferings that be comparatively lighter than Feathers It seduceth you into Conceits that the Hill of your Prosperity is the Mount of Transfiguration and there 's no good Life on any lower Ground That Death is a very Hell and a poor Life is a very Death That plain Food makes but a durable Famine that ordinary Clothes be but Grave-Clothes And not to be worshipped by the World is to be buried by it So Timorous are you made by your Riches and thereby Treacherous Fearful Vnbelieving and Abominable 7. Your Riches are Nets and Bands Those wherein Satan takes and holds you He and his Angels cannot hurt you by immediate Impressions It is by Objects without that they work on your Affections within They are notable Movers in your Sins but not without Gold and Silver Engines By these they do so move your Wills as to take you Captive at their own And hold you as fast as their Malice can wish The Devil is stiled the God of this World as reigning in the deluded Men of it But delude you he cannot nor obtain or establish his Throne in you but by using worldly things to effect it With these he did set upon the first yea and the second Adam Imagining as it seems that Holiness it self might be made to sin for this World's Glory This made the Primitive Christians to suspect Riches insomuch that Trypho the Jew derided them as Fools and Men afraid of Temporal good Things Richly your Estates furnish Satan with materials for your Ruin With the abundance of this World to lay amort your Care of the next With the Comforts of this Life to make Snares for your Eternal one Agrippina gave Claudius his fatal Poison in his most beloved Meat And with these things that do most please you Satan doth most effectually poison you Yea he makes you to take his very Office out of his Hands and turn Tempters to your selves Thus are Riches kept to you owners thereof to your Hurt Thô the Cock must crow loud that awakens you to see it Yet the very Turks themselves have a saying That the World is but a Carcass and they who feed on it are Dogs Lastly 8. Your Riches are Toils and Chains Such wherewith you your selves do take and hold Multitudes to their Sorrow As they do make you easy Trophies of the Tempter so next unto him they make you the greatest of Tempters For whatever their Wills be Poor-folk and Yeomen are Babies at seducing You of the Gentry and Nobility are Plenipotentiaries Your great Dunghils for no other are your great Estates are heaps of Worms and Flies to angle for any simple Fishes Your Cellars and Pantries do draw in whole Shoals of them Making your Words the very worst of them a Law of Iniquity to City and Country No Examples do move so as yours Tully's Observation is most true The Manners of a Countrey do lie at your Mercy Your Examples can set up Vices or Vertues Corrumpere mores Civitatis vel corrigere possunt Cic. de Legib. Your Practices do disguise Vices and gild them with a very Creditableness If a Churchman be busy his Reproof is quash'd with your Authority Or if an Head be broke by any Reprover your Smile is a considerable Plaister No small Matter will make a Tenant afraid of being as wicked as his Landlord This you know O ye Jeroboam's who do sin and make all Israel to sin But be it sadly acknowledged Lords and Gentlemen Prosperity hath been all which it has been said to be unto the very Clergy also Constantine's Gift was a Dose of Poison tho given with a good meaning Shepherds as well as Sheep are baned with too high Feed Like Horses we grow unruly when pampered Except but here and there a rare Exemplar of Mortification the Sons of Levi do become as the Sons of Eli they turn very Hophni's and Phineasses when they have Benjamin's Messes When they do very much more than live by the Altar their scandalous Lives make Men to abhor their religious Offerings The Heads are extraordinary whom high Places do not make Giddy The best of Men are most afraid of them We cannot name many a Sampson but the Dalilah of Opulence hath been too hard for him and shaved his Locks Queen Elizabeth dared to say that she spoiled a Preacher when she bestowed a Mitre All the World sees it too much Oil as well as too little spoileth the Lamps of the Temple Strabo calls a rich City of Egypt Neeropolis a Town of dead Men. Because so very many Dead were therein kept Embalmed And every Rustick hath it in his Mouth that where the Benefice is Fat the Ministry is Lean if not Amort But Sirs to do you Justice very few of you do this way spoil us Rarely it is that you Patrons do kill Incumbents with kindness Many are starved for every one that is surfeited They may be as studious as the great Calvin and leave their Inventory as slender as his which amounted but to sixty Pounds with his very Library thrown in Thô many a hopeful Son of the Church be Overlaid they are very many who take their Deaths in Patmos not in Arabia Foelix And whose Service would be valuable if their Stipends were not contemptible You very well know that thô by Office they are Angels by Nature they are Men. And their Bodies be not as Cameleons Nor are their Books to be bought for so little or to be sold for much more than Songs Albeit a Minister without those Vtensils is but a Workman without his Tools In a word till their Families are decently maintained and their Libraries competently furnished you may not look to see your Priests clothed with Righteousness and hear your People shouting for Joy But to return to your selves None of your Souls are taken from you by Force All which are taken by Satan are by your own Hands sold to him And for what Poverty and Sorrow are no good Sterling nor do you ever part with your selves for them Wealth and Mirth be the
Guide while you travel in Turky This World is Turky a wild and strange Countrey And he who has opened you a way through it unto Heaven he has appointed you Ministerial Guides to lead you therein Guides guided themselves by that Heavenly infallible One whose Conduct you may expect in your due use of them Guides of whom your Saviour hath said He that heareth them heareth him and he that despiseth them despiseth him To be very often upon bended Knees To pray is to desire as Malefactors desire their Pardon and as Lepers desire their Cure A short-liv'd Vapor cannot be such a Prayer But what is sincere and without ceasing it is never failing It hath the promise of the King and therefore is sure to take the Kingdom of Heaven Ask and ye shall receive To take the Oath of Allegiance i. e. Your Baptismal Covenant and Oath Whereto your thorow Consent and sutable Walk are all real Religion The Lord have Mercy on the mad Multitudes of which some do place their Religion in no better than the very Spots and Blemishes of Religion And others in no more than the meer Fashion and Dress of it Vain is their Religion by whom this Oath is not taken tho their Sect be ever so strict Be their Christianity of this or that Form Christ shall profit them nothing Their Hearts be not cleansed by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost but deluded by some Angel of Light or of Darkness Baptism doth now save us not the putting away of the filth of the Flesh but the answer of a good Conscience towards God by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ Finally it shall not be lost Labour To keep your Hearts at your right Hands To join Contemplation and Action in all things of Religion Not to consider what you do is most Inhumane and not to perform the Duty you have considered is most Profane It is an Unclean Creature that either chews not the Cud or if it does divideth not the Hoof. To act without Counsel is to go upon four Feet To consult and not to act is to send your Brains a Woolgathering Whatever your Hand finds to do do it with all your Might Your Holy things you must do with Holy Thoughts and Pains Strain the Nerves of your Mind and of your whole Man And of all things look you well to your Aims Never go ye into the Church as Boys go into the Thames not to wash and cleanse but to divert themselves Hear Sacred things striving to understand make Religious Vows resolving to perform them desiring no longer to live than you do so Look on Flatterers as so many Murderers turn you from them and from your very selves when you turn Flatterers to your selves Be not the Apes of such a Monster as Vitellius who upon the Approach of his Ruin raised no other Fortification but that of a drunken Mirth which kept out the Noise and Report but hastned the Stroke of it Remember that wilful Sin if any must be your Death Being that neither God's Decrees or Satan's Devices do commit any rapes on your Souls If you do not all that is here named as many as are themselves any wiser must pronounce you Wilful and tremble at your hastning Wo Every Prisoner in Hell cries out of his Will Not complaining that his Judg was an hard Master but his Heart was an hard Milstone Not able to say that he perished thrô meer Deceivableness or otherwise than thrô his willingness to be deceived And may it not now be hoped that your Minds are inlightned too much to be incensed against this Advice That your Enmity against your God is abated and your Fear of him encreased Justly or otherwise it is hoped so And for the just and true Conquest of both your Fear and Enmity you are presented with these Considerations The God to whom you are called is as merciful as can be desired For he is Infinitely so Indeed our Misery and not our Sin is the Object of his Mercy Sin is most contrary to his Government yea to hâ—â— Godhead and cannot but be the Obâ—ect of his vindictive Hatred Peccaâ—um est Deicidium Sch. Our Misery is the Object of his Mercy Of the blessed Compassion of which he provideth a new and living Way of Salvation and being provided he is most ready to save the very chief of Sinners turning into that way Insomuch that let us suppose any single one to have committed all the Sins of Adam and of his whole Progeny The vast Ocean would not so easily and presently quench one spark of Fire as the Divine Mercy would forgive all those Sins upon the Sinner's believing on Christ Jesus The Blood of our Saviour is as Satisfactory and Meritory as can be desired For it is as the Holy Oracles name it the Blood of God i. e. of him who is God equal with the Father as well as Man like unto his Brethren And this hath given more honour to God than hath been taken from him by the Sins of Devils and Men. So that without the least loss to his Glory God may save the worst Soul that Repents and Believeth on him that shed this Blood And in giving the Crown of Heavenly Glory God giveth no more than his Son hath bought and paid for The Power of the Holy Ghost to convert and to comfort is as great as can be desired For he is God equal with the Father and Son and cannot but be Omnipotent If we are Hells of Sin and of Sorrow he can make us Heavens of Purity and of Joy Of Satan's Dunghils he can make us God's Temples There be no Hearts but what he can cleanse by his Inspirations The Precedents and Examples of the most bloody Sinners saved are as great as can be desired Sirs as bad as your selves have been saved by the Mercy of the Father by the Merits of the Son and by the Power of the Holy Spirit For Manasses a Monster of Impiety and Villany is now a Star in Glory And not a few of them who murdered our Redeemer on Earth are now with him in Heaven What a Catalogue have we 1 Cor. 6.9 10 11. Fornicators Idolaters Adulterers Effeminate Abusers of themselves with Mankind Thieves Drunkards Revilers Extortioners The Promises made to save other Rebels are as great as can be desired For there is not any one sort of them to be named but upon their Repentance and Faith have Salvation promised to them Yea as great Salvation as any other And lest any should imagine themselves to be excluded most if not all sorts are expresly mentioned Mentioned in the great and precious Offers and Promises of Salvation upon their Conversion The very Name of God is as sweet and encouraging as can be desired The Name expressing his good Affection towards the most hainous Sinners when relenting and returning For it was this that was given his Servant Moses for the heartning of such Merciful and Gracious Longsuffering and abundant in Goodness and
neither shall the Sun go down on it lest he cry to the Lord and it be Sin against thee The Civilians Maxim is at your Tongues ends against tardy-paying Tenants Minùs solvit qui minus tempore solvit Sum-total is no good Payment if it be not brought in good Time And this holds as to all Debts Insomuch that the Cries of Tradesmen are horrible Reproaches to Gentlemen And you your selves do raise the worst Scandala Magnatum when you suffer Mercers and Taylors to come and pull you by their own Coats Coats that be theirs and not yours till they are paid for When you let Butchers Poulterers and Fishmongers have it to say That your Tables are their Snares Making hundreds to complain that by arraying your selves you reduce them unto Nakedness and by your Feasting you do bring them to Famine That they had not failed if you had not broken them When likewise your Domestick Servants are made to serve half an Apprenticeship before they receive a Year's Wages Sirs the greatest Men in Jerusalem were threatned to be made Bondmen for unkindness to their Servants Jer. 34th And Jehojakim himself is meant in that word of the Prophet Wo to him that useth his Neighbour without Wages Delaying of Payment most times maketh diminution and many times utter denial of it Be it asked also by the way what your Worships think of this whereof you do hear less Less from your Chaplains and less from your Consciences Is it no Sin or but a Peccadillo to let a Servant go away from you empty Shiftless and destitute of means to live from you What Is the Law repeal'd which saith expresly concerning a departing Servant Thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy Flock and out of thy Floor and out of thy Winepress Of that wherewith the Lord thy God hath blessed thee thou shalt give unto him Away with paltry excuses Israelites are not themselves when they turn off an old Servant with less Provision made for him than what is made for an old Horse or Hound Wherein you have done Iniquity good Sirs do no more But repent restore reform and let your Zeal provoke many That Men of Estates and Beasts of Prey may no longer be Synonymous Terms and the same Things That it may no more be said you are fell as Lions fierce as Leopards savage as Bears ravenous as Wolves and that under a Form of Godliness No but that you are together Gentle and Noblemen Nursing Fathers to your poor Neighbours useful Elms to bear up all the weak and needy Vines which are near you sweet Springs to them that have not Water enough to keep their Mills going It will one day be more honour to have enabled a poor Man to keep his Cart on the Wheels than to have kept seven of your own Coaches and Chariots on them And alas what Pillows do you sleep on in the mean time you who cannot challenge the Town and Countrey as Samuel did Whom have I defrauded whom have I oppressed Who cannot appeal as the Prince and the Saint of the Land of VZ Have I despised the Cause of my Man-servant or Maid-servant when they contended with me Have I withheld the Poor their desire or caused the Eyes of the Widow to fail Have I eaten my Morsel alone and the Fatherless not eaten thereof Have I seen any to perish for want of Clothing or any Poor without Covering Have I lifted up my Hand against the Fatherless when I saw my help in the Gate What think you of your selves you who cannot say as Moses I have not hurt any one And as St. Paul I have coveted no Man's Silver Gold or Apparel Yea and as our Saviour our grand Exemplar I have done many good Works among you The Clerks of your Closets are not true unto God or your Souls if they put you not in remembrance of these things And preach not Justice and Mercy They can tell you if they please of the Sultan Selymus who being pressed by his Pyrrhus to lay out upon Hospitals what he had wrongfully taken from the Persians abhorred it And required that it should be restored all of it to the right Owners And with your good leave they are able to add that Except the Righteousness of a Christian Gentleman exceed the Righteousness of a Turkish Sultan he is not very likely to enter the Kingdom of Heaven 18. Do you study the Book of Ecclesiastes You more than others are in danger of being poisoned And should you not more than others acquaint your selves with the Antidote Riches tho an adored Idol are a strong Poison Whom of you do they do not make to swell more or less And throughout the Royal Dispensatory you find not such another Antidote as in this praised Book Should you not therefore give it good Reading One of your Rank made his thirteen Children learn the Proverbs of Solomon by heart I would that more of you would both learn and teach the Book of Ecclesiastes There you are told your Cains are but Abels i. e. Your Possessions be but Vanities Your Riches do fill but your Mouths not your Appetites You have as many unsatisfied Desires as the People that rake Cinders Your Titles may overcharge your Memories but can never fill your Pride Your sensual Pleasures may waste your Spirits and stupify your Senses but can never satisfy and make them say it is enough You are told of all the three that as many other Drugs they are deadly without due Correctives That as all Flowers they do fade quickly and the longer you possess them the less they do delight you However that they neither prevent or retard Death But do frequently hasten Diseases and Death That they are as disproportionate to the Wants of your Souls as shadows are to the Wants of your Bodies That as you have it said of your Children they are certain Cares and uncertain Comforts And that by all your Chymistry you shall never extract Satisfaction out of them No but be far from any true Peace in the use of them without these Anodynes viz. Religious Content with your Quota Neither vexing that you have no more nor envying to see others have Measure pressed down and running over It was most truly that Seneca told his Lucilius it is Lust that is sick for House fulls Nature is as well with a few Spoonfuls Chearful and Thankful use of your Substance according to the Quality of your Degree the Decency of your Condition and the Rules of Religion Without luxurious Exceeding or sordid Living Humble acquiescence under every Providence Being dumb whatever God doth because he doth it He whose Will is your Law And whose Gifts are more common than Day-light but his Strokes more rare than Thundershots Spirit and Truth in God's Holy Worship Service paid to his Majesty with all your Heart and by the Rule of his Word For bodily Service profits not And what is not prescribed by the Divine Canon is no better than