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
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
is no Councell but a Conventicle where Truth is not aimed at so it s no society but a conspiracy wherein right is not regarded 675 As the property of an ingenuous disposition in an inferiour to acknowledge a fault sometimes even where there is none not by lying dissembling but by a patient bearing and forbearing being as ready to alter what is done as if it had beene done otherwise then it ought 676 A few gray haires may be more worth then many young locks and a few gray beards doe more then many greene heads 677 As for our lands so for our lives we are but Gods tenents at will 678 The most that any know is the least of that they know not 679 It s a double misery to be miserable and yet not commiserated to be in a pittifull plight and yet not to be pittied 700 Mans extremity is Gods opportunity 681 Deliverance is oft nearest when destruction seemeth surest 682 Professed hatred taketh away opportunity of revenge 683 It is our best and surest security for us never to secure 684 In the naturall body paine in one member causeth paine in all the rest but in the spirituall body politicke not the pain only but the want of paine in one member is a meanes of paine to the fellow members 685 Some men neither hope in God nor fear him these neither regard his wrath nor his mercy Some feare but hope not these regard his wrath but not his mercy Some hope but feare not â—hese regard his mercy but not his wrath Some hope and feare and these regard both his mercy and his wrath the feare of Gods judgements now is the only way to prevent the feeling of them hereafter 686 They that 〈◊〉 Schollers to their own reason are sure to have a foole to their Master 687 Councell is an act of the understanding deliberating about meanes to an end and directing to choose a particular means that tends to the end 688 Kings may pardon Traytors but they cannot change their hearts but Christ pardons none but hee makes them new creatures 689 Socrates knowing that there was but one God said in his Apology for his life that if they would give him his life upon condition to keepe that truth to himselfe and not to teach it to others hee would not accept life upon such a condition 690 As the light of the Sunne because its ordinary is not regarded so â— continuall Sun-shine of Gods favour enjoyed occasioneth but a common esteeme of it 691 Gods Attributes and Christs Righteousnesse doe sufficiently fully and adequately answer al wants and doubts all objections and distresses wee can have and can be in 692 A man may leave that estate to his children which hee hath gotten by wisedome but hee cannot leave them wisedome to guide that estate when they have it 694 He that keepes the right way he goes the shortest way to happinesse 695 As a man may shew an object and bring it to the light but he cannot make a blind eye see it so a man may propound arguments but cannot make an unfitted heart capable of comfort from them 696 He that is most fearfull in sinne is most bold in all things else 697 As Weather-cocks and Mils when the wind ceaseth or the waters faile stand still so men usually are carried to doe us good or evill with by respects so that when those respects fayle they give over to doe either 698 As In warre the chiefe strength of the souldiers lieth in their Captain so in spirituall conflicts all a Christians strength is in and from Christ 699 No man can so see the riches of Christ as to be affected with them without the helpe of the spirit 700 Even as a good eye is the glory of the face so a good intention aiming at Gods glory is the glory of the action 701 The crookednesse of our nature is such that it feares not crosses till it feels them nor sees mercies till they are out of sight it being with the soule as with the eye that sees nothing that is not somewhat distant from it 702 Heaven is such a place wher there is nothing more then what should bee desired nothing more that can be desired 703 They that are least fearefull before danger are most basely fearfull in danger 704 No instrument was ever so perfectly in tune in which the next hand that touched it did not mend something nor is there any judgement so strong and perspicacious from which another will not in some things find ground of variance 705 Spirituall joy is like fire upon the Altar it hath ever fuell to feed upon though we doe not alwayes feare it 706 Every of our senses in heaven shal be filled with its severall singularity and excellency of all possible pleasure and perfection 709 Sathans insatiable malice is such that he would have every sinfull thought to be a sin of Sodomy every idle word a desperate blasphemy every angry look a bloody murther every frailty a crying sin and every default a damnable rebellion 710 Adams fall hath made mans capacity very small 711 The Iewes who had bought Christ for thirty pence were themselves sold thirty a penny at the last destruction of Ierusalem 712 The Iewes bought leave on the tenth of August the day on which their City was taken yearely to goe into it to bewayle it so that they which bought Christs blood were after glad to buy their own tears 713 Active men like Mil-stones in motion if they have no other grift to grind will set fire on one another 714 Though an argument fetched from successe is but a cypher in it selfe yet it encreaseth a number when joyned with others 715 Commonly they who vow not to goe the high way of Gods ordinances doe haunt base and unwarrantable by-paths 716 Voluptuous persons make play their worke and have their constant diet on the sawce of recreations 717 The saddle oft times is not set on the right horse because his back is too high to be reached commonly the Instruments are made skreens to save the face of the principall from scorching 718 Favourites are usually the Bridge by which all offices must passe and there pay toâ—e 719 Men breed in soft imployments are presently foundred with hard labour 720 Many mens gifts prevaile more to raise them then their endowments 721 Industry in action is as importunity in speech by continuall inculcation it forceth a yeelding beyond the strength of reason 722 Though devotion be the naturall heat yet discretion is the radicall moisture of an action keeping it healthfull prosperous and long lived 723 Some men are given over to damnable villanies out of the road of humane corruption and as far from mans nature as Gods law 725 Vsually suspiciousnesse is as great an enemy to wisedome as too much credulity it doing oft times hurtfull wrong to friends as the other doth receive wrongful hurt from dissemblers 726 The leprosie was most rife in our Saviours time God so ordering of it that Iudea was sickest while her Phisician was nearest 727 The Turkes which reape no benefit by Christs death receive much profit by his buriall farming the Sepulcher for a great rent to the Friars 728 In some mens discourses one cannot see matter for words as in some others scarce words for matter 729 A female was allowed in peace-offerings to shew that a ready heart sets an high price with God upon a low present 730 The preservation of wicked men is but a reservation as Sodome and her sisters who were rescued from the foure Kings that God might raine down hell from heaven upon them 731 Wicked men swim merrily downe the streame of prosperity as the silly fishes doe downe the River Iordan till they perish in the dead sea their merry dance ending in a miserable downfall 732 As the high heavens may be seene through a low lattice so may a large heart sometimes in a little gift 733 It s a great slavery to make the mind a servant unto the tongue and so to tye her up in fetters that shee may not walke but by number and measure 734 Vsually they know not what they say who so speak as that others know not what they meane 735 Misty and cloudy Eloquence serves onely to shadow an ignorant mind or an ill meaning 736 Some men had rather doe ill and get a pardon for it by an apology then to be faultlesse and stand in need of neither Maluit excusare culpam quam non committere 737 Nothing can worke as God would have it unlesse it be such as God made it 741 Gods children are sometimes too desirous to pitty themselves and need no Peter to stirre them up to it the flesh of it selfe being prone enough to draw back and make excuses to hinder the power of grace from its due operation in them FINIS