those that are darkened with Ignorance and benighted in Superstition with the glorious Beames of saving knowledge Let it guide all those that wander in the by paths of Errour and Wickednesse into the safe way of Verity and Holinesse And let it quicken such as are dead in Trespasses and Sins that those dry bones those stinking Lazarusses may rise live and praise thee Let it O Lord convince convert humble purifie and regenerate those that are secure profane carnall and unclean that so being sanctified by the Spirit of Christ they may be comfortably assured they are justified by the Merits of Christ Let good God thy Holy Spirit excite perswade inable Christians to try discern and judge which is the true Spirit the Spirit of Truth that so they may not be deluded but infallibly directed by it to choose and to walk under the Câ—nduct thereof in the way of Holinesse that leads to happinesse And do thou O Lord who art the Father of Spirits give us all thy Holy Spirit whereby we may be inabled to cry Abba Father for thy Sons and our alone Saviours sake Jesus Christ Amen Sine Spiritu Sancto nec lux pax puritas Sanctitas nec gloria IV. Of Sinne and Sinners T is the true and fruitfull mother of miseries A Pandoras Box full of all reall deadly plagues and curses T is the poyson of the soul rack of Conscience the Bellows fewell oyle that blow kindle and continue the fiery wrath of God burning against all obstinate perpetrators thereof a Ho 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 632. Like Homers Thersites it's ugly without as well as within having like the subtile cruell Panther a deformed head as well as a destructive deadly paw Like Judas it kisses and betrayes us Like Ioab it embraces stabâ— and kills at once b Quint Curtius lib. 8. p. 154. Sin is like to the River Nilus whose streams do cause and produce a fruitfulnesse even to wonder but yet it abounds with crocodiles wickednesse is sometimes prosperous but it s always dangerous and without Repentance deadly It 's like the Caspian Sea which affords the sweetest waters but breeds the greatest Serpents The Preface of sin may be pleasure its Exordium delight but the Finis thereof will be punishment At sins table the first course may be contentment but the second will be death It may appear to our dim eyes a Dove but if we once lodge it in our bosomes or imbrace it we shall finde it a serpent that will both sting and kill us T is a Siren which allures us to our ruine a Thiefe that robs us of our chiefest treasures our choycest mercies Gods favour a saving interest in Christ pardon of sin peace of Conscience grace glory It 's the souls both Leprosie and murderer Like the stone by the river Maeander called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sober stone which put into a mans bosome would make him mad it distracts us Like that deaf-stone which I have read is in Scotland that one standing at one end of it can not hear what another saith standing at the other end thereof it stops the ears of the Lord that our Prayers cannot find audience or acceptance with him * Esay 59. 1. 2. Behold the Lords hand is not shortned that it cannot save neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear But your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear c Plutarch in ejus vitâ— What Phociâ—n the Athenian once said to the people of Athens viz. All that ever you say and do dislikes me God * Prov. 15 8 9. 26. saith and declareth to all wicked persons whose both prayers wayes and thoughts are abominable to him yea and their civill actions too †for the ploughing of the wicked is sin * Prov. 21. 4. Sin it blots out all the characters of beauty comelinesse and amabilitie which God at first engraved upon the soul it covers also the face of the soul which was most fair and lovely till sin did spoil blast and soil it with a black vail of deformity and renders it loathsome and ugly in the pure eye of God It defaces yea ruins the rarest piece of the whole Creation the Epitome of the Universe the wonder of Nature the miracle of the world Man It not only poysons the lower springs of earthly injoyments turns blessings into curses but like Pharaohs lean kine it devours consumes those sat ones riches health greatness peace plenty and all * Read Deut. 28. chapt worldly prosperity It also which is a mischief infinitely greater then the other dams up the current of those upper springs grace mercy speciall love salvation so that the soul like the mountains of Gilbea hath no celestiall showres of holinesse or reall happinesse rained upon it It turned Paradise into a wildernesse and makes the world a Pest-house when that too pregnant womb the heart hath conceived Sin by the Devill who is the true Father thereof it nourishes seeds and keeps it till it falls in travail of those cursed dreadful monstrous Twins Guilt and Misery and then it 's carried and laid down by death and judgment in a bed of fire and attended only with Devils and Reprobates without all possibility or hope of ever being delivered It grieves Heaven but makes Hell triumph It 's a tree that bears no other fruit but shame sorrow wrath and death Doe but wipe your eyes and behold the ugly face of sin in the Crystall glass of Gods word and also in those red mirrors the fearfull judgements the dreadful vengeance of the Lord upon those pillars of salt those miserable standing monuments of Gods hatred and detestation erected both in his word and in the world Impenitent transgressors And lastly in the bloudy sufferings of Jesus Christ and then if your hearts be not harder then an Adamant or like the * Job 41. 24. Leviathans as firm as a stone yea as hard as a piece of the nether milstone they will relent and you will mourn confesse forsake yea loath all sin †Numb 32. 23. It 's the souls bloud-hound which will hunt pursue overtake and as Acteon was killed by his own dogs as Haman was hanged upon his own Gibbet as Holofernes was beheaded with his own sword destroy it T is that Jonas in the ship of the soul which raises a terrible tempest of divine wrath against it whereby it will be not only restlesly tossed upon the briny bitter Billows of fear anguish dejection and perplexity but also before the stone cease unlesse it be thrown over board cast out of the heart and life by godly sorrow and unfained repentance it will most certainly and miserably be wrackt and perisht without hope or help in a boyling Sea of fire and brimstome which hath neither banks nor bottome For as d Leigh choyce observat in the Life of Claudius p. 102.
inauguration in Constantinople had severall sorts of stone presented to them by a Mason out of which they was to choose one to make them a Tomb to be buryed in o Joseph of Arimathea had his Tomb in a Garden and so had their great men also Mat. 27 60. 2 Kings 21. 18. The Jewes had their Sepulchers in their Gardens that so in the the midst of their delights they might remember their mortality And others have had a Deaths head served up to their Tables that they might in that perspicuous mortifying glasse behold their own frailty in the midst of their mirth pleasures jollity And certainly serious frequent and pious meditation of death will beget in us a vigilant continual expectation of death expectation of it will p Vivere in in tota vita discendum est Quod magis mirum est in tota vita dissendam est mori Seneca de brevitate vita ad Paulinam perswade and spurre us on to preparation for it so that we shall be able not only to look it in the face with comfort but triumphingly to say O Death where is thy sting c. It being nothing to such as have the Lamps of their Souls filled with saving Grace and their Garments washed white in the bloud of the Lamb but the Death and period of all their sins sorrows fears dangers troubles enemies yea and of death it self Mors vita duello conflixere mirando Rex mortuus regnat vivuâ— In hoc duello mors et vita in arenam descenderunt sed tandem vicit vita et gloriose exiit e sepulcro de morte triumphans Irrideamus ergo mortem cum Apostolo dicamâ—s Vbi mors victoria For q Quid ipsa mors quam timemus g Lips Epist p. 75. Requies gaudium et vera vita aut siquid in ea mali malis tantum What is that death which we so much fear and at the very name whereof we tremble 'T is rest joy and life or if there be any evill in it 't is only so to those that are evill And indeed 't is very sad yea wofull to all ungracious persons who have this punishment In dying they forget themselves because in their life time they forgat God But besides this grievous punishment and heavy judgment most justly inflicted by the Lord upon them because when he came to them in their health prosperity life and offered them mercy they refused with equall madnesse and cruelty to their own souls to hear and imbrace the tenders of love and salvation when their Life is lost and ended all hope comfort help all means of Grace and seasons of mercy all possibility of pardon together with the society of the Glorious Angels and glorified Saints the beatificall vision and blessed fruition of the thrice blessed Trinity and those ineffable pleasures which are prepared for all that love God will then be lost for ever Deus amissus est mors animae anima amissa est mors corporis The Death of the body is but the body of death therefore disce non metuendum existimare quae metuenda finit But the death of the Soul the losse of God and his favour is the Soul of Death Fear therefore by sin to provoke that God who can and for sin unrepented of and continued in will inflict eternal death both upon the body and soul and make all impenitent transgressors ever living objects of his never-dying wrath I shall conclude all with presenting and commending the Lord Gabriel Simeons Glasse to your view and perusall Beauty is deceitful money flyeth away Rule-bearing is odious victory doubtfull peace fraudulent old age miserable the fame of wisdome everlasting Life short death to the Godly * Mark the perfect man behold the upright for the end of that man is peace happy Psalm 37. 37 The Prayer O LORD Man hath but one Door to let him into the World by Life but there are a thousand Posterns Wickets and Passages to let him out of it by Death We are born both Mortall and Miserable O give us blessed God so to live that at the end of our daies we may be immortally happy we came into the World Sinners O grant that we may go out of it Saints We were unclean at our birth O let us be pure and holy at our dissolution The hand of every moment winds off some of the little clue of Life The string and plummet of our daies creep and descend every minute nearer and nearer to the ground our Graves The Sunne of this naturall Life never stands still but moves or rather flies from the East and morning of our birth and infancy to the South and noon of Youth and Manhood and then hastens to the West the evening of old Age. Grant therefore holy God that when this Sunne shall set in the night of Death our Soules may rise and shine with the Sunne of Righteousnesse in Glory That as we grow older we may grow holyer every day then other That we may passe the time of sojourning in these Tents of flesh in thy way and Fear that so the Conscience Evidence and Comfort of a wel-spent Life may both Antidote and Arme us against the Sting and Power of Death before it comes and free us from the Horreus and Misery of it when it doth come O let it be no Stranger to our thoughts and then it will be no terrour to our Hearts O let us get death into our mindes and that will put life into all our Actions O grant good God that our Lives may be pious and then our Death will be peaceable joyfull welcome unto us and precious in the sight of the Lord. And give us I beseech thee most mercifull Father some clusters of Grapes of the good Land of Canaan here even the Graces of thy holy Spirit and some fore-tasts of thy speciall Love in Christ while we continue in the Wildernesse of this World that when we die our Souls may enter into and for ever possesse the spirituall Canaan of Heaven Grant this O Lord for Jesus Christ his sake Amen Amen Diu vixit qui pie moritur Fructus est laboris finis operis placere melioribus FINIS Soli Deo Gloria THE CHARACTERS OF A True Beleever IN PARADOXES AND Seeming Contradictions AN ESSAY By THO. GODDARD Gent. Vetera legendo et metitando nova invenimus Quintil. Placere cupio prodesse precor laboro LONDON Printed by E. C. For Thomas Williams at the Bible in Litle-Brittain and William Thompson at Harborough in Leicestershire 1661. THE CHARACTERS OF A True Beleever In PARADOXES AND Seeming Contradictions 1. HE beleeveth that which he cannot comprehend because it is above reason That there are three distinct Persons in the Godhead yet but one God that God is the Father of Christ that the Holy Ghost proceedeth from them both and yet that they are all three Coeternall and but one in substance 2. He beleeveth that Christ who was
intreat them to joine science and conscience together to live up to their knowledge and duty by burning inwardly with a well-grounded well-guided zeal for God and by shining outwardly towards men with sobriety innocency sanctity Since great gifts parts and abilities without honesty and grace are great snares temptations mischiefs and plagues both to themselves and others And since without a holy diligent careful improvement of them both to Gods glory and the good of others all those whom God hath honoured and enriched with them will by him be greatly and grievously punished for abusing or not using and imploying of them And as for those who are yet in the petty school and lower forms that have not overgrown nor travailed beyond their A. B. C. in understanding and religion nor as yet rightly learned to know themselves sin the world or their Christs crosse that great work duty and comfort of true Christians there are lessens offered and set by me very necessary for them to be acquainted with instructed in imminded of and seasoned withall 5. Lastly because I know that although many instead of accepting my poor indeavours and receiving the truth in the love of it will not only reject and disregard it but also censure yea bite and revile the Author with their invenomed teeth and frothy filthy tongues yet my labour will not shall not be in vain because it 's in the Lord and for the Lord. In his name and fear this plain not mosaick or carved work was undertaken to his glory it was and is intended directed and by his assistance it is finished I do not I dare not say perfected His blessing his powerful gracious fruitful influence I do therefore most humbly beg upon it And do only desire these few very reasonable things and favours of my Readers First that they would instead of carping snarling or barking at my book which I confesse hath too much Alloy and drosse but no poison in it communicate their own more pure and better refined labours to the world It will be I assure them my joy and contentment not envy or sorrow to see and their own not only honour but comfort to build marble and magnificent fabricks where such low mudwalâ—'d Cottages as mine is are erected 2. Secondly that they would prize welcome and imbrace truth though it curb crosse or kill their carnall Joies profane waies and worldly interests 3. Thirdly That they would seriously consider that Jewels are both as precious and resplendent in a woodden box or in an earthen pot as in a cabinet of Pearl That there may be usefull wholesome and savoury herbs in that Garden which wants the bravery beauty glories and the gaudey embroidery of curious flowers And that sweet meats may do well for sauce or to taste of but are not fit or safe to be made our daily bread 4 Fourthly that they would not be their own murderers and Executioners by loving vice and hating vertue by adoring earth and trampling Heaven under their feet by forsaking Christ to follow the world by poisoning their souls to please their senses by deferring their repentance and an holy Life till death or by leaving the safe and pleasant ways of truth and righteousnesse to walk in the dangerous destructive paths of error heresies and wickednesse 5. Lastly I do earnestly intreat them to read what I have written without partiality passion prejudice and prepossession that Maxim being most true here Intus existens prohibet altenum For vessels top full of earth cannot receive without being emptied either gold or gemms And the most precious cordial the most soveraign Julep must needs be lost and spilt if it be put into a dish that is brim-ful of dung or muck-hill-pit water Read them then once more I do importunately pray and request you with hearts willing desirous and resolved to be informed imminded convinced reformed confirmed and if you receive any good by my weak labours remember to give God the glory of his own work and mercy and instead of your praises Crown me with your prayers But if you do not profit by them consider That bad disaffected and distempered stomacks do turn the best meats into ill humours and into dangerous if not mortall diseases That none are more either sure to languish or likely to die then those that refuse loath and cast away the Physick that should cure them That those who hate the light shall one day when 't is too late clearly see their folly sin and misery in outerdarknesse That glorified Saints would be Gaolers Angels tormentors and heaven it self an hell to those that are unholy unheavenly unregenerated on earth That they who have forgotten forsaken left and lost God and Jesus Christ shall never without humbling their souls mourning for their sins and returning to the Lord find or feel any true comfort peace or happinesse either in life or death That they who do not with the spiritual eye of a justifying faith stedfastly behold the sun of righteousnesse Jesus Christ as 't is said the eagle can with her natural eyes the sun of heaven will and do like the kite with the eyes of sense corrupt reason look earnestly yea longingly at stâ—op eagerly unto and feed greedily upon the carrion and garbage of creature-comforts which do only fit and fat the wicked as the richest soil doth beasts for the day of slaughter vengeance and damnation That they who do not impâ— the wings of their knowledge and reason with the golden feathers of vertue and piety will never be able to soar above the World or to mount up to Heaven a Solus vir bonus est revera prudens Arist Ethic. 6. Contrae inquit alius stolidi et imprudentes sunt mali Keck syst Ethic. lib. 1. c. 3. p. 148. That they only are really wise and good who are sincerely religious because discoursing learnedly is but the bark the shell of knowledge and because professing zealously is but the husk the leaf of sanctity for only honesty and piety are the kernell fruit head heart bloud spirits light heat soul and body of true wisdome and saving grace That therefore Christians ought to conform their practise to their principles their works to their words and their Lives to their light That they whose actions are eccentrick to Gods honour word and will will never without repentance and reformation be found weight in the ballance of the sanctuary That it 's infinitely more both honour and happiness to be a truly holy Christian than it is to be a victorious Caesar a famous Scipio a renowned Castriot or an invincible Alexander That it 's transcendently unspeakably yea unconceiveably more both glory comfort and felicity to and for Christians to morâ—ifie their sins lusts and passions then to overcome own or command the whole world Praeclarum quidem est inquit b Xevoph in Orat. de Agâ—filio Agesilaus inexpugnabiles hostium muros superare multo verum praeclarius animum parare suum
ditch to her lovers For although they doe preferre Dalilahs lap before Abrahams bosome yet they will one day most certainly find that all those fleshly vain and sinfull pleasures whereon they have doted and wherein they have lived will be Serpents and stones instead of fish and bread and but Thornes Thistles Briers instead of Grapes Figgs and Flowers Pleasure t is like an g Heylyn Geog ex Ovidio p. 726. Aethiopian Lake at which whosoever drinks it makes him they say either mad or drowsie T is like small beere or water in a fever which doth not quench but increase the thirst and though at first it may be pleasant yet afterwards it is alwaies dangerous and often deadly T is that Green fruit which breeds the worm of an evill Conscience in their souls that feed too greedily too long and too much upon it The Prayer O LORD thou knowest that the Devill that equally cunning cruell and implacable enemy of Mankind doth both long and labor to take possess and command that Royall Fort the heart In Order whereunto he uses both Fraud and Force Arms and art that so if he cannot conquer it by Battery he may yet gain it by Treachery or flattery and if he cannot by affrighting that then he may by alluring have it yielded up unto him Now to the effecting of this bloudy design upon too many he knows that an inordinate excessive Love of sensual pleasure is very useful and contributory prevalent and successful voluptuous persons being never vigilant and very seldome valiant resolved and constant opposers of his Assaults suggestions and sugred insinuations Self-denyal Mortification Precisenesse and Holinesse being too rough too sharp too hard too uneven and too troublesome a way for their delicate their tender Feet to tread upon and to walk in Be pleased therefore most blessed God who art the only overflowing ever-flowing Ocean of all true Joy really-sweet pleasures and refined delights to grant that all the streams of Christians affections may runne down right pure and holy Channels into thee That they may relish that incomparable pleasantnesse which is to be found in thee thy Word Worship waies and love that so all carnall pleasures may be sowr bitter and unsavory unto them Let not O Lord Satan poyson them with candled delights or sugred sensuality Let him not convey their death in Honey nor drown them in Rose-water But antidote them I beseech thee and preserve them against his mortal potions and his murdering Stratagems by convincing of them that Satan though he may seem a Friend will be sound a Fiend and that although pleasure may by his jugling and through the bemisted eyes and deluded sight appear a seemingly innocent Dove unto them yet if it be immoderately prized and pursued by them that it will certainly be found a fiery deadly Serpent which will sting them with immortal incurable intolerable sorrow terrors torments Amen Voluptas obcaecat titillat pascit placet perdit X. Of Health 'T Is a Jewell not valued because common 'T is the solace of life without which all other outward mercies are both unsavory and dead this being the soul that both animates them and the ingredient that gives a delightful relish to them 'T is a Venice Glasse easily quickly irreparably and very often unexpectedly crack't and broken a Pliny Nat. Hist 'T is a Bird or flower but of one day's life and continuance a guest or friend that doth but call or visit not stay with us It naturally kills fear breeds security feeds to wantonnesse excites to pleasure spurs on to vice inables to sin and without Grace it 's both the souls sicknesse and death The want of it makes men impatient discontented unserviceable the fruition profane If God deny this mercy to a man although there be a confluence of all other creature-comforts yet he is but like one clothed with Gold Silk or Tissue adorned with Jewels crowned with Honours feasted with dainties cheered with the rarest musick comforted with Cordials surrounded with a faithfull wife and with dutiful hopeful Children attended with reall friends skilfull Physitians obedient servants and laid upon a bed of Ivory in a chamber richly furnished with all his bones out of Joynt and broken 'T is usual for the sun of health to arise cleer to shine bright in the morning and to set in a cloud of sicknesse at night How easily quickly will a fiery fever devour and consume it An Aery colick rack yea ruine it A watery dropsie float and drown it or an aguish earthquake shake and swallow it up The elements are all up in arms and at civill warrs within the body naturall as heretofore the Saxons in the time of the Heptarchy was in the body politick of this Nation each of them contending for victory and aspiring to a Monarchy over that Microcosme Man non enim datur temperamentum ad pondus and when any of them prevails and triumpheth over the other Competitors Health is then both wounded vanquished captivated and commmitted either a close Prisoner to a dark room and a weary languishing restlesse bed by sicknesse or else it 's condemned and executed by death A thousand enemies combine assault beleaguer it and either by the furious storme of a suddain violent unexpected distemper they force and surprize it or els by a lingring lasting siege of pain and weaknesse as by consumptions c. they famish and conquer it Health 't is a Bibulus triumphing in a Chariot 'i th morning and lying in the afternoon in a Coffin A Caâ—sar now very well on the top of the hill of honour and power and anon expiring with wounds in the Senate A Quintus Scapula while supping and feasting himself turned into and served up for a Banquet to the worms An Aufejus while dining dying A Valla who as he was drinking Honey-wine had the gall of death put into his cup by the hand of providence and so departed out of the vale of the dying into the vale of the dead T is both a Conqueror and a Captive in a day hour moment 'T is a Cyrus strong secure prosperous in the morning and before night slain by Tomiris Death The Prayer O Most Mercifull and most Bountiful Lord God thou hast not not only given unto man a being but a well being also upon Earth Nor hast thou only built him a stately Palace this World to dwell in and furnished every Room every part thereof with necessaries for his entertainment to make his abode therein desirable but thou hast also deck't and adorn'd it with infinitely various and admirably curious delightfull things to make his life pleasant And as the top-stone the choycest of all outward Favours hast given him health without which he could not comfortably survey use or enjoy them O let good God thy Munificence and Mercy be so sanctified unto us that the sense of thy goodnesse and bounty may humble us that professe our selves to be Christians for our undervaluing and abusing
thâ—u resolvest wickedly to keep what thou hast sinfully gotten thy sins wil most certainly find thee out the wrath of God will pursue thee his judgments will overtake thee and his dreadful vengeance will both fall and rest upon thy soul estate name and posterity Prov. 11 7. 18. 10. 7. Prov. 3. 33 16. 8. 28. 8. Ezek. 33. 15. no restitution no remissiâ—n by consequence no salvation now by the way if this rule of St. Augustine which hath been judged esteemed Orthodox canonicall so many ages should be precisely observed and exactly conformed unto then certainly what one said of the Romane Senators viz. That if they should restore to others what they had unjustly gotten taken from them they must go to their ploughs and cottages again might truly be affirmed of and would be the condition of many thousands yea millions of great and rich men in the world And lastly a reall grieving for our sins more then for our sufferings and that we have provoked dishonoured God more then that we are punished by God are the marks the Principia constitutiva of true repentance Repentance 't is a setting of the soul again it being double dyed and twice dead in Originall and in actuall sin and pluckt up by the roots through delight and continuance therein in the rich soil of Grace and a watering of it with tears of contrition and the bloud of Jesus Christ as Hortensius did his Plane trees with wine if I may so speak without a Solecisme applyed by a justifying faith to Revivification and fruitfulnesse 'T is the condition of that Obligation without the performance whereof the Soul cannot be discharged from the debt of sin but remains lyable every moment to be arrested without all possibility of either flying hiding or defending it self by that irresistable inexorable Serjeant Death to be tryed and cast upon that Bond in the high Court of Gods Justice and after a verdict given up by Gods Law and its own Conscience against it to have judgment and execution served upon it and then to be thrown into the Prison of Hell there to lye without baile or Mainprize for ever 'T is a well of everlasting life Springing up in the heart without which there is no possibility of being holy no promise of being happy 'T is a soul in travaile of those spirituall Twinns Pardon Peace pain'd and tortured with many grievous heart-rending pangs for Gods Children have alwaies their hardest labours of their choycest sweetest greatest mercies but at length by an Almighty wonderâ—working hand and power safely seasonably joyfully delivered 'T is the plank on which the soul gets when dasht or wrackt upon the rocks of sin by the tempests of temptations and corruptions and so escapes perishing in the sea of despair distraction damnation 'T is that Aqua fortis which both eats through the very heart of sin and wherewith the characters of honesty vertue piety are engraven upon the inward man 'T is the water which both quenches the burning wrath of God cleanseth a polluted conscience and moistens the soul till it become an Eden 'T is the day-break of saving mercy with a cloudy wet morning but a bright fair pleasant afternoon and a glorious Sun-set follows it 'T is one of a Christians main deeds and best evidences for his right and title to an heavenly inheritance The Motto of a true penitent may well be like that French Ladies a watering pot dropping with this inscription Nil mihi praeterea praeterea mihi nihil He 's happier weeping then the wicked are when rejoycing for there is more true delight and joy of heart in the sorrow of Saints then in the mirth and laughter of the world Verus poenitens de peccatis dolet de dolore gaudet A true penitent grieves for his sins and rejoyceth in that grief it being his exceeding great delight and pleasure to consider that God hath given him a heart to mourn and sorrow for them The Athenians never went to conclude a peace but in mourning habits we can never make our peace with God unless we go to him with mourning hearts True repentance doth work wonders It will turn a Wolf into a Lamb an Eagle into a Dove a Thorn into an Olive a Rock into a fountain a Serpent into a Sheep a Tyrant into a Martyr a stone into a Son of Abraham a Saul into a Paul a persecutor into a worshipper of and a sufferer for Christ a cruell Jaylor into a sorrowful Confessor and a dry stick like Aarons rod into a fruitful tree Alexander the great being asked Quomodo potitus esset Graecia respondebat Nihil procrastinans Speedy hearty repentance is a sure infallible means for us to obtain more then Greece even grace pardon Heaven Optima poenitentia est nova vita saith Luther He that hath new and holy principles the new wine of Grace wrought and put into the Bottle of his renewed heart by the spirit of God will neither walk in his old wayes continue in a profane course nor hanker after nor long for the flesh-pots of Egypt again Ista est vera poenitentia quando quis sic poenitet ut non repetat A righteous Lot will run to Zoar but he will not return any more to Sodom Noah was drunk but once David was but once an Adulterer When a grievouâ— grosse sinner becomes a gracious Saint he gives this Motto Ego non sum ego and he carefully prints it in his life and actions well knowing that they only are sincere Christians do truly repent â—hat carefully resolutely constantly forsake loath and abhorre all their sins It is then our wisdome and wil be our happinesse to write with a pen of iron and with the point of a Diamond upon the stonie tables of our obdurate hearts that Golden saying viz. It is every mans duty to repent one day before he dies for we are not sure to live to morrow no nor til to morrow but we are sure if wedie before we repent to be damned And if we neglect deferre or think it too soon to repent to day it may be too late to morrow for God hath * Micah 3. 4. Jerem. 14 12. and Psalm 32. 6. threatned that he will turn a deaf ear to such desperate carelesse transgressors although they cry shed many tears and make many praiers for audience mercy and acceptance Besides how justly do they deserve to perish that will neither seek nor labour to obtain a pardon when they are reprieved that do not value it till they be going to the Gallowes to their graves And although poenitentia vera est nunquam sera tamen poenitentia sera est earo vera Though true repentance be never late yet late repentance is seldome true 'T is very rare to see a Felon though he professe and seem to be very sorry for his fact pardoned and unpinioned upon the Ladder more strange to see a condemned Traitor fetcht away from the scaffold
signum esset quam principii lenitas Suctonius like the heavy bloudy and condemning sentence of that cruell Emperour Domitian it do begin with a preface of Clemency with pleasure and outward prosperity yet it like his mercilesse Judgement will be sure to have a wofull horrible and most miserable Conclusion The Prayer O LORD thou hast acquainted us with the vanity frailty and uncertainty of this naturall Life in those lively reall teaching resemblances and comparisons of it in thy Word of Truth to a Post a Race a Shuttle a Vapour Span Bubble Flower Grasse And thou hast also informed us that as short brittle mutable as it is we must either whilest our Souls so journ in these houses of Clay our bodies whose foundations are in the dust both make our peace with God and get our Pardons sealed or else we shall lye under thy dreadful intolerable yet unavoidable vengeance for ever O Grant therefore most gracious God that we may not ravel out those Golden Skeans of precious opportunities offers of Grace and means of Salvation which thy mercy bounty patience have both given and continued unto us to make our callings and elections sure Suffer us not holy God to play loyter sinne or sleep away our precious Time seasons of Grace our Talents Gifts Hopes Comforts Promises lest while we live those daies come upon us wherein like Pashur thou in wrath and justice make us a burden to our selves Lest thou make our lives so bitter and grievous that we shall digge for death as Riches and seek it as for hid treasures even couâ—t crave court it and yet not be able to find it or prevaile to be taken out of our Misery by it And lest after all these terrors sufferings sorrows agonies and languishings our sinful Souls be for ever separated divorced banished from the God of love light life and cast into utter darknesse and eternal death amongst cursed Reprobates and damned Devills when we go hence and shall be seen no more Amen Vita vere religiosa optimum est medicamentum contra Timorem Terrorem Mortis Stimulum Bonus semper Vivit Abit enim non obit Asbconditnr non abscinditur Dormit non perit Mutatur non moritur XXIV Of Death T Is the Souls convoy to Heaven or Hell 'T is the Porter that lets a true sanctified mortified Christian into Paradise through the narrow Gate of Life The Pilot that steers him over the rough raging troublesome Sea of this World and lands him safe at the Haven of Happinesse Heaven 'T is the first statute in Magna Charta A Law made Primo mundi which can never be repealed * Hebr. 9. 27. For it 's appointed It 's inacted ordained in the High Court of Parliament in Heaven for all men once to dye 'T is to a Child of God the Soules Coronation day gaudy-day its glad day as a Mr. Fox B. of Martyr vol. 3 p. 431. Wolsey its wedding day as b Idem vol. 3. p. 502. Bishop Ridly the night before he was to be burned being at Supper he was very cheerful and did bid Ms. Irish his keepers Wise and the rest of the company at Boord with him to his Wedding For saith he to morrow I must be married blessed Bishop Ridley called it and its year of Jubilee But it 's a sluce pulled up to drown the wicked It 's an impenitent sinners ship-wrack 'T is the death buriall and period of his prosperity delights pleasures The funerall of all his comforts and the nativity of his eternall torments 'T is the Bâ—kers going out of Prison to execution a Josephs inlargement and promotion a Queene Elizabeths Exaltation to a Throne 'T is a good Mans Spring a Reprobates Autumne a Nuâ—c dimittis to a pious Simeon a Take him Gaoler bind him hand and foot and cast him into utter darkness to an impious Soul A quietus est a writ of ease to the godly a warrant signed and delivered for the destruction of the Wicked 'T is an Ahimaaz bringing good tidings to the righteous but the last and worst of all Jobs messengers to him that is unholy relating his sad his irrecoverable irreparable losse of all soul body goods riches pleasures friends children house lands honors mirth hopes offices power earth and Heaven unto him It lets that Dove the Soul out of the Cage the Ark of the body It knocks off those bolts mortality and frailty and sets it at liberty It 's the taking up of Jeremiah the Soul out of the dark filthy noysome irksome Dungeon of the flesh and the safe delivery of that Daniel from those hungry cruell terrible Lyons sin Satan Hell Christ hath disarmed death and now to the Godly Mors nomen est tantum c Owen Epiâ— Introitus non interitus So that what Camerarius appointed by his last will should be written on his monument may also most truly be ingraved upon the Tomb of every one that dies in the Lord Vita mihi mors est mors mihi nova vita est Life to me is death and death to me is a new a true a blessed a glorious Life Death t is both unavoidable and certainly uncertain d Apollonius Thyaneus who had travailed over the greatest part of Europe Asia and Affrica being asked at his return n Dial of Princes what wonderful things he had seen in those Countries through which he had travailed answered That he wondred most at two things 1. That in all the parts of the World where he had been he had seen quiet men troubled by seditious persons the humble subject to the proud the just obedient to the Tyrant the cruell commanding the merciful the ignoâ—ant teaching the wise and above all That he had seen great Thieves hang the innocent on the Gallows 2ly That the other thing at which he marvailed was that in aâ—l the Countries and places where he had been he knew not neither could he find any man who was immortal but that at length both high and low had an end And as Death is inevitable so it is also in it self terrible For groans sighs tears convulsions cries palenesse blacks and Funeralls are the Harbingers Heralds and the train thereof And yet to the Godly t is but like a Kings visit to his beloved Subjects in his progresse acceptable honorable welcome and comfortable Nam pompa mortis magis terret quam mors ipsa e Augustus Caesar died in a complement Vespasian in a Jest Galba with a Sentence Septimius Severus in dispatch c. Bacon Essâ—ys 2. p. 8. The very Heathens entertained it without fear embraced it without sorrow The * Hâ—rodotus lib. 5. Thracians or rather Thrausians wept at the birth of their Children and †In the primitive times Câ—ristians were wont at Funerals to sing Psalms of Thanksgiving Kinet Cathol Orthod Quest rejoyced at the death of their Friends Solon could say to rich Croesus Ante obitum nemo beatus No man is happy till
for givenesse because he sins willingly even at that very time when he seems earnestly to beg of the Lord the pardon of his sins and so doth not please or serve but mock God For the God of love and life doth infinitely hate and will not hear those that love hatred and live in it But he will avenge himself severely upon all those that desire and delight to revenge themselves implacably upon others 64. 'T is midnight with an impenitent transgressor when he hath the brightest noontide of prosperity And 't is a serene a shining Noontide with a Saint when he is in the cloudiest midnight of adversity 65. A Saint is a great gainer though he lose all that he hath in the world But a wicked man is a great loser though he gain all that the world hath in it 66. He is mercifully cruell to his own Soul that spares the lives of those Amalekites his Sinnes But he is both cruelly merciful and merciful without any cruelty to his soul that kils them all without mercy 67. He that would live when he dies must kill by mortification all his deadly sins in his life And he that would never die * Mortibus viâ—imus Senec. must die daily 68. The sins of others will increase his sorrow that doth not sorrow for others sins 69. He that would be married to Jesus Christ must get his heart divorced from an inordinate love of worldly things because Christ Jesus will give him a Bill of Divorce that loves the things of the world inordinately For he that makes earth his Heaven or Paradise by suffering a sinful love thereof to enter into his Soul his Soul shal never enter into the Paradise of Heaven 70. He that hath a saving interest in Christ shall be full and rich even when he is empty wantful and deprived of all creature-comforts But he that wants a saving interest in Christ will be poor and empty in the midst of his fullest injoyments and greatest plenty 71. His Soul is sick to death that neither is nor ever yet was heart-sick with grief for the sins of his Life which will be without true repentance the death of his Soul nor love sick for the great and good physitian of the soul Jesus Christ who is both lovely and loving to those only that are sick of love for him 72. His sins are most both odious and hainous that after he hath repented of them returns again with delight to the commission of his hainous sinnes Because he hath laid God in one and put the Devill into the other Scale of the ballance and suffered the Devill to weigh down the Lord. He hath also heard God and the Devill argue and plead and after a full hearing he doth deliberately by wilful relapsing decree for Satan against his Saviour And so he doth both undervalue dishonour and provoke God and also repent that he did repent God will therefore most certainly judge him for his sins without mercy that gives so sinful a judgment against the God of mercy 73. It 's reported that when Caesar saw M. Brutus come running upon him amongst those that murdered him he said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And thou my son The sins of Gods Children do grieve and offend Christ more then the iniquities of his Enemies Because a contempt or an injury from a friend doth both dishonour him more highly and wound him more deeply then an affront or an abuse from a professed Adversary 74. He is a bad Magistrate that is not good for nothing And as pious Governors do clothe a Nation with the Robâ—â— of Joy and gladnesse So wicked Rulers do put it into Sackcloth and mourning 75. He that undermines the Church of God doth at once labour sweat and weary himself to dig a hole down to hel for his Soul to fall irrecoverably into the bottomlesse pit And he that persecutes the people of God by shedding their innocent crying bloud puls up a sluce to let in a crimson deluge to drown him 76. Never did any wicked men attempt to pull down God from his Throne by setting up themselves their lusts interests and idols above him or his glory but the God of glory pulled or rather tumbled them down headlong for that wicked attempt Either by humbling their proud presumptuous hearts or else by destroying their persons or blasting their cursed designes or which is yet more dreadful by damning their rebellious Souls 'T is then a fearful thing not to fear falling into the omnipotent Arms and the angry hands of that terrible God who both can and will with one irresistable blow kil and confound the offender and with one frown or stroke send him at once both to his Grave and Hâ—ll 77. A pious Christian though he hates no mans person is yet the worst most inexorable and invincible enemy of all mortall creatures to the ungodly whose works and waies his Soul doth loath and detest For by his faithful prayers he can prevail with God to infatuate their Counses dispirit their stout hearts blast their designs wither their flourishing hopes to break the Arme of their power and to rescue himself and those that fear God out of the Jawes of Enemies dangers and death 'T is therefore a stupendious astonishing madnesse in wicked men to hate those whom God loves to destroy those for whose sakes themselves are preserved to hope to build themselves houses upon earth by pulling the pillars thereof to condemn them that shall one day be their Judges and to plot and presume to plant themselves or their Posterities in the World by supplanting and rooting out the upright * Prov. 2. 1. who shall dwell in the Land whereas the * Prov. 3. 33. wicked * in whose house the curse of the Lord is shall be cut off from the earth †Prov. 2. 22. For if Cedars vinâ—â— olive and orenge trees be cut down then brambles briers and barren Fig-trees will certainly suddainly miserably be cursed burned and consumed 78. He is the worst malignant and Incendiary in a State that is a wicked man For he not only hates goodnesse and good Christians but he also both kindles the fire of Gods wrath against it and keeps it burning and flaming by casting continually the oyle of sinne upon it 79. Those Governours and great ones who are so bewitched with the fading dying and killing glories of this World as for the Love of them to slight Heaven neglect the great Salvation offered them and to reject Jesus Christ their pomp will end in pain their honour in Infamy and their Glory in eternal misery 80. He that slights opposes robs and wrongs the Ambassadours of Jesus Christ Gods faithful Ministers doth dishonour displease and bid defiance to their Master the Lord of Hosts He must therefore without repentance restitution and submission expect to receive neither peace pardon nor quarter but death without mercy that steals from or fights against the God of bounty Justice and Mercy and
ut â c We have stricken one good blow there resteth another yet better and greater then that which is that we overcome our selves forbearing to risâ—e and kill said Frederick the Emperour to his German Soldiers after he had defeated the Hungarians Camerarius Hist Meditat. pecunia voluptatibus metuquè sit inexpugnabilis That none shall lie so low in Hell as those that have been nearest Heaven in the enjoyment of the powerfull means of grace and that have had the gracious tenders of Gods choicest and most precious mercies in Christ frequently and earnestly offered unto them if they live and die barren hard dry or profane under them and wilfull undervaluers neglecters or despisers of them And lastly consider that a frequent serious and pious meditation of Gods mercy the love of Christ Mans duty the misery of sin excellency of grace necessity of Christ vanity of the creature emptinesse and deceitfulnesse of the world felicity of heaven torments of hell the frailty of life certainty of death and of the dreadful day of judgment is and will be found by all those that will carefully and conscientiously use and practise it a most soveraign excellent fruitful means both to awaken humble melt and inflame a secure proud hard frozen heart Meditatio est soror lectionis nutrix orationis directrix operis omniumque pariter perfectio et consumatrix Lege crede ora time dilige disce Age. Vale. To his Worthy Friend Mr. THO. GODDARD Learned Sir HAving perused your Miscellanea and Character both which you diminish in your title page by naming them an Essaie I fell upon the consideration of Country Gentlemen semblable to the three Regions of the Air. In the middle Clouds and Vapours and Meteors apt to condense into plagues or drie and fiery Exhalations which unrestrain'd by providence divine fall down in oppressions and violences Among these we may rank divers of our dull Grands who lapping warm their Dura Maters in a fat velume of some old colledge or Cathedrall leases or later easier purchases like Mushrooms or Fuzzes of noisome earth grow able to dimme both learned Witts and nobler Originalls In a lower Region we discern some that having contented themselves for a dozen months to wear a gaudy gown in the Vniversity and only to play with a few books finely strung and guilded return with that Library whence streams of learning flow up to their lips and clusters of choise sentences hang dangling ore their beds and shelves while they like Tantalus so set cannot sip nor reach what is indeed above their heads Who oft in their estates of Land become the prey of Sycophants or crafty Servants and their Souls hardly escaping the book and thraldome either of our professors or the popish confessors are frighted out of their old witts by new Illuminists or by that Bull of Ecclesia Catholica Romana so charm'd that they dare not leap that pale out of which they are made to believe that God hath no Dear nor they any hope of Salvation But Sir As in the supreme Region is Limpid Air and calm and pure Serenity preservd So have we some beaux esprits rare and elevated Souls who having tasted profoundly the fountains both of morall aud divine knowledges cannot rest till from their own full thoughts they impart as the Sun his raies a fostering and blessed contagion to the Souls of their darker brethren Here I would willingly exemplifie in words at length and tell the happinesse of Chesh in their pious noble and learned Sr. G. B Of Lincoln the like in Sr I. M. And of Northam in Sr. I. I. my most honoured Maecenas and I am hardly withheld from mentioning our famous and learned countryman Dr. T. N. Physitian on whom might worthily be bestowed the Panegyrick or Pindarickâ—odes even of that incomparable Poet of Leicest Mr. I. Cl. But as the well-known modesty of these so yours also imbars encâ—mions other wise I might justly boast a Bee of generous race and extraction From Bee Bee in this County who by industrious draughts from various Flowers in divers languag'd books hath fram'd a composure of Nectarian sweets and imparts them thus not only to that voisinage whereof he is a double ornament in learning and in conversation but with enlarged Beneficence the crown of good mens actions exposes his laborious collections to the use of all that are able to understand him Wherein I professe for fear of sacriledge I dare not use my Deleatur nor what you call for an Index expurgatory Believe me Sir when I say as Trebatius to his Horace Equidem nihil hinc diffindere possim and adde nec ausim and yet will boldly affix this short charm to your most observant Readers This page right set should be the last behind In this are all th' Errata they can find Leicest Janu. 19th 58. Your Servant S ir Tho. Pestel To my worthily honoured AND Very good Friend Mr. THOMAS GODDARD Dear SIR I Have at length so far befriended my self as to read over your serious and savoury Meditations wherein me-thinks elegance and piety like friendly rivals strive for mastery and that with such equall skill and strength that either both which is not lawfull or neither which is pity since both deserve it must have the Crown Sir the honour of the work if you le be so benign to the churlish ungrateful world to make it publâ—que will be your own the profit and pleasure the Readers For exâ—ruditione fructus ex elegantia voluptas et ex authoritate summus honos conciliatur You have done many Heathen Authors the honour to make them speak like Christians and you le make those whom you vouchsafe to favour with the Reading of your papers to live as such if they be read with the same spirit they were written if they find not the reader good they le make him good as was said of Plato philosophia Platonem non accepit nobilem sed fecit Sir I received them when I was in a hurrey of businesse and could but cast an eye upon them but at a little more leisure reviewing them I see if I could but take in a little more and digest what as yet I have but tasted I should be forc't to say more without danger of being taxed by malice it self of flattery rashnesse or ignorance for nec irrisio in istos moresnec adâ—latio câ—dat then your modesty will bear Who minde what he reads will see your mind in what you have written to be well composed and gathered up within it self and I wish both mine and yours too could keep under the command of those apprehensions you had when you so well imployed your self Were they to be publique I would desire Cyprian to spare that Ornament for you to be put into the Epistle to your Book which Erasmus bestowed on him viz. Pectus ardet evangelica pietate pectori respondet oratio loquitur diserta sed magis fortia quà m diserta And
with wonder love and thankfulnes◠meditate of and acknowledg the unparallel'd unspeakable * Solus pro nobis suscipit sine malis meritis paenam ut nos per illum sine bonis meritis consequeremur gratiam Aug. affection and compassion of Jesus Christ in dying not only to redeeme Captives but which is much more to purchase pardon for those who were implacable enemies to him and bloudy Rebells in armes against him And lastly they will abhorre and loath all sin and express their detestation thereof by never committing delighting or living in those impieties transgressions and abominations which Jesus Christ hates which cost him so much anguish griefe trouble and which brought him to so horrible so painfull and so ignominious a death They being those Jewes that crucified him that Crown of Thorns which wounded his head who is the head of his Church and members those hands and whips that scourged him those nails that fastned him to the Crosse and that speare which pierced his very heart and kill'd the Lord of life Nor yet is this all the duty we are to performe all the tribute we are to pay or all the gratitude or praise which wee must express and return to Jesus Christ for we are most justly and strongly obliged not only to avoid carefully to oppose resolutely to strangle impartially and to hate implacably all sin though never so dear sweet or profitable to us but we must also carefully conscionably sincerely constantly strive and resolve to tread in the steps of Christ to make him our rule and to measure our conversation by the straight line of his most holy †life it being the summe of all religion to imitate him whom we worship * Matth. 11. 29 Et frustra appellamur Christiani si imitatores non simus Christi qui ideo se viam dixit esse ut conversatio magistri esset forma discipuli et illam humilitatem eligeret servus quam sectatus est Dominus If he be not our Exemplar he will not be our Saviour If we will not learne of him here we shall not live with him hereafter Besides the great the unavoydable danger which we incurre and the insupportable miseries which we are sure to bring upon our selves by refusing to walk in those paths of piety and Righteousnesse which Christ hath chalked out for us we have many and great incouragements to follow him in those blessed waies which he hath troden before us For we can never ingage with such a Captaine nor choose such a Husband nor follow such a Guide nor serve such a Master nor imitate such a pattern as Jesus Christ Because he is a Captain invincible a Husband most rich wise faithfull great honourable a guide infallible a most munificent loving bountiful master and a pattern unmatchable Verbi verba sunt nobis documenta Verbi facta sunt nobis exempla The words of this word who is * John 1. 1. God the Word are our instructions and the actions of this Word are our examples This glorious this gracious Jesus is the good the great Shepherd of our soules he speaks to his flock his people as * Judges 7. 17. Gideon did to his little Army looke on me and do likewise and his sheepe will not only hearken to his voyce but obey him also This King of Saints saith to his Subjects as i Edward the 3d. g Speed Cronic p. 704. King of England did to his souldiers when he entred into a Foord in the River Some notwithstanding a thousand horse and ten thousand foot were sent thither by the French to impeach his passage over it he that loves me let him follow me they will cheerfully couragiously march after him for they are such Cordelyons that the greatest dangers cannot affright them nor Enemies though Anakims Gyants both in power might malice and cruelty discourage or dispirit them nor sufferings and torments though never so sharp bitter or painful disswade or deter them Nay death it self though presenting it selfe in its grimmest hue and most ghastly shape cannot dismay or appale them for their Captain is their Bridegroome and rather then they will not injoy him they will meete and celebrate their Nuptials to him in a flame They will embrace him with hands and armes burning for him as well as with hearts fired with Love unto him Yea they will welcome both miseries and death when they are the messengers to invite them unto and the means to hasten effect and solemnize their longed for marriage to Jesus Christ h Fox book of Martyrs vol. 3 p. 140. As Mr. Sanders did who being brought to the stake to be burned kissed it saying Welcome the Crosse of Christ welcome everlasting life i idem vol. 2. p. 554. and as Anthony Person did too who being brought to the place of Execution with a cheerfull countenance he embraced the post to which he was to be bound in his armes and kissed it saying Now welcome mine own sweet wife for this day shalt thou and I be married together in the love and peace of God And rather then they will either desert or dishonour their Captain or his Cause they will freely constantly undauntedly sacrifice their lives in it and prefer death for Christ before life yea and all the world too without him as another faithful Souldier of his k Fox book of Martyrs vol. 3. p. 200. Stephen Knight did who being come to the place where he was to be burned he kneeled down and said Thou seest O Lord that where I might live in worldly wealth to worship a false God and honour thine enemies I choose rather the torment of the body and losse of this life and have counted all things but vile dust and dung that I might win thee which death is dearer to me then thousands of gold and silver And which is yet more they not only have and will meekly willingly invincibly carry the crosse of Christ but like the blessed * Mercatura est quadam amittere ut majora lucreris Tertul. Apostles they have heretofore * Acts. 5. 41. do at present and wil◠hereafter rejoyce also that they were and are counted worthy to suffer for the name of Christ But that which is more then all that which I have yet said or these have done or suffered for their husband and Generall is this some of them have exalted yea sung in the midst of such tortures torments and miseries as have caused palenesse to sit upon the faces trembling to seize upon the joynts and sighs terrors griefe amazement and horrour to fill and wound the hearts of their Spectators persecutors Executioners even whilst they were joyfully suffering of them l Fox B. of Martyrs vol. 3. p. 390. Master Denley sung a Pslame in the midst of the fire when it was kindled and he was burning in it and having a Faggot thrown at him by one of the tormentors at the command of cruel Doctor Storie
which so hurt his face that he bled again he left his singing and clapt both his hands on his face but afterwards he put his hands abroad and sung again m Idem vol. 3. p. 537. And when George Roper came to the stake where he was to be burned he leaped at it for joy Some have blessed God for setting the Crowne of Martyrdome upon their heads n Idem vol. 3. p. 850. When Alice Driver who was burned at â—pswich had the Iron chain put about her Neck O said she here is a goodly Neckerchief blessed be God for it Id. vol. 3. p. 888. Blessed be the time that ever I was born to come to this said John Noye when he came to the stake to be burned Others have both fervently desired to glorifie God in those fires and grieved that God would not suffer them to be made a burnt sacrifice as that precious Jewel our Bishop Jewel did Thus we see the pious gracious faithful Servants Subjects and Souldiers of Jesus Christ are not only desirous to raign with him but they are also ready to suffer for him And for such Lambs and such only as do copy out the holy Life of Jesus Christ and write it in their owne in those golden characters of sanctity constancy humility meeknesse patience charity prayer obedience c. did this Lambe of God Jesus Christ die Redemptor noster pro bonis misericorditer incarnatus est Nihil igitur haec Margarita ad porcos canes The Prayer MOST deare and yet most dreadful Jesus who art a God of might and Majesty as well as mercy of justice as we as pity a Lyon as well as a Lamb a Saviour and a Soveraign and at once the Creator Husband Brother and Redeemer of thine Elect Be pleased blessed Jesus to grant that those who own thine own name wear thy Livery and have Covenanted with thee to be thy Servants may be careful watchful zealous conscientious and willing to honour their Master thy sacred and most excellent Majesty to obey thy commands to imitate thy holy Life and to accept thee on thine own terms joyfully thankfully heartily even as a Lord King Prophet to govern command teach them as well as a Priest and Saviour to sacrifice and die for them Let them consider what it will cost them to buy this precious field this inestimable jewel what they must do to be real Christians and to get a saving Interest in Jesus Christ That they must sell all that they have part readily and resolvedly with the World with their sins their Isaacs Idols yea their Lands Liberties and Lives also if he who is the Lord and giver of them require us to surrender them to and for his own use and glory That they must take Christ as in a matrimonial Covenant and be not only chast obedient pleasing faithful constant to him but also that they must honour and esteem him above all other things admit no corrival into their affection with him rejoyce in his presence mourn for his absence grieve when he 's offended by them and angry with them forsake all for him cleave stedfastly to him and neither for either love of life or fear of death leave dishonour or deny him That they must be mortify'd Self-denying sincere Christians That they must not expect to be carryed on Beds of Down or to have their way green smooth easy soft or strawed with flowers to Heaven That they must run without fainting loytering or tyring to the end of the Race if they would obtain the prize That they must cheerfully couragiously bear Christs crosse or else they shall never triumphantly wear a Crown That they must not only sweep sweeten cleanse and open the dusty dirty-filthy sin-lockt houses of their hearts with the beesome of repentance and the hands of Faith and Love to entertaine him but they must also welcome him set him at the upper end of the Table in the highest seat esteem affect him above and beyond all other persons or things whilest they live on earth or else when they die he will never open the narrow Gate of Life to let them into Heaven That if they be not good and holy in the Kingdome of Grace they shall never be great or happy in the Kingdome of Glory That if their sins and lusts which Lord it over them revel in them captivate them and are dear and sweet unto them be not hated crucified and forsaken by them the Lord Jesus Christ though he was crucified for sinners and died to purchase Life for transgressors who were spiritually dead will never save them That therefore we may resolve and labour to get into that Arke Jesus Christ where safety and salvation only are to be found make us I beseech thee speedingly really savingly sensible of the want the worth the excellency All-sufficiency and the necessity of a Jesus that so we may court seek and value thee in and from whom alone is all fulnesse sweetnesse happinesse above all things And let O most gracious God all our sins be laid upon the Head set upon the Account of that Scape-goat Jesus Christ that so they may be carried into the Wildernesse of forgetfulnesse Take away O Lord our filthy Garments from us and clothe us with change of Raiment impute the Righteousnesse of Jesus Christ to us that so being found in the Garments of our elder Brother we may receive from our heavenly Father the Blessing of Grace here and that wherewith thou crownest thy own freely given and yet by Christ dearly purchased Grace eternal Glory hereafter Grant this O Lord for his sake who died to satisfie thy dreadfull Justice who shed his heart-bloud to quench the fire of thy flaming consuming wrath to pay our debts to purchase our pardon to redeem us from eternall slavery and misery and to save our undone Souls Amen In Christo per Christum solum modo Vita Libertas Foelicitas et beata Aeternitas III. Of the Holy Ghost THE Holy Ghost is the third Person in the glorious blessed a Deus est indivise â—â—us in Triniâ—e et inconfuse trinus in unitate undivided b Sacramentum hoc venerandum non scrutandum quemodo pluralitas sit in unitate unitas it plura litate Scâ—utaâ—i hoc temeritas est credere pietas nosse verò vìta aeterna Incomprehensible Trinity proceeding from both the Father and the Son and yet Coessentiall Coeternall and Coequal with them The opera officia the works and Offices of the Holy Ghost are these 1. It illuminates our blind understandings and teacheth us to know what we are by nature together with the necessity and felicity of being born again It teacheth us also to know the danger deformity and misery of sin the infinite and undeserved love of God and Christ to undone man and the means both to escape eternal death and to obtain immortal glory 2. It regenerates us making us that were profane holy barren fruitfull rebellious
be merciful to sin is to be cruel to our selves since he that loves and spares it doth not only lash and wound but * O Israel thou hast distroyed thy self Hâ—sea 13. 9. murder himself Because as holiness is both a work an incomparable felicity and a reward So sin is both a Crime a punishment and an Executioner to all unconverted offenders Pharoah's sins as well as the Sea drowned him * Numb 16. 32. And Corah's swallowing down sin without repentance was the cause that the earth swallowed up him without example for never did so many of her ungracious children as he his wicked companions were who was therefore most justly by God made wofully miserable in that dreadful destruction because they was all wilfully guilty of that damnable Rebellion fall down into her gaping inlarged new made mouth slide or rather tumble head-long into her empty greedy stomack entrails or lye down alive in her cold and mercilesse bosome before O the misery and madnesse of a gracelesse Sinner How can he expect or hope to escape the dreadful vengeance of God that by his unkindnesse unthankfulnesse and undutifulnesse to his heavenly Father hath most justly provoked the God of mercy to become his everlasting enemy What the people of Rome said when they lamented the death of Octavius Augustus he will most certainly when 't is too late have cause in another sense to say Vtinam aut non l Aurel. Vict. nasceretur aut non mor eretur would he had never been born or never dyed The Prayer O LORD thou art a God infinite in all Divine perfections Thou hast all things and art all things eternally from within and unto thy most glorious self Thou dost therefore want neither the praises nor the Services of either the most gracious Christians or the most glorious Cherubims The holinesse praiers and duties of Saints or Angels can add nothing to thy most transcendently divine Excellencies Nor can the vices vilenesse crimes and Sinnes of men lessen stain or eclipse thy Glory Yet such O Lord is thy miraculous condescensiâ—n thy wonderful thy undeserved Compassion to the Bankrupted posterity of Adam that thou art pleased not only to acquaint but also to assure all those who walk humbly conscientiously holily before thee and sincerely endeavour to praise thy great and glorious name that though they be but dust ashes and worms yet they do honour and glorifie thy ever blessed Majesty And although sin be so contrary to thy holy nature opposite to thy righteous Laws and Will and loathsome in thy pure eye that even the least sin is a great yea an infinite offence injury and contempt done unto thee and doth at once vex load and grieve thee Yet such O Lord is thy never enough to be admired acknowledged or magnified mercy and patience to rebellious self-polluting poysoning self-ruining Man that thou dâ—st not only forbear to punish plague and damne him but thou art also pleased though he daily offend thee and persist in his provocations of thee and reject thy gracious tenders of peace pardon and salvation to seek unto him to intreat yea by thy Ministers to importune and beseech him that he would be reconciled to thee love accept imbrace thee and thy offered mercy that so tbou mayest forgive own delight in him deliver and save him both from Wrath and Death O Lord let the riches of thy unparallel'd goodnesse long-sufferance and forbearance lâ—â—d us unto speedy unfeigned hearty Repentance Let the serious consideration of the cursed defiling deforming damnable nature of sin the guilt whereof could not be expiated nor the filth thereof purged away with any Sacrifice but the bloud and death of the only Sonne of God Jesus Christ both God and Man make us not only fear but tremble to commit the least evill O let it pierce and break our hearts with Grief and Remorse to consider how we have pierced our Saviours very heart and broken his most just and holy Commandements by our wilfully transgressing against him Let O Lord our spirits melt mourn and bleed within us for our shedding and trampling under our profane feet without pity or sorrow that precious bloud of our dearest Saviour which alone can cleanse and cure our defiled wounded Souls Whensoever we are tempted to commit any sinne let us O Lord not only meditate and remember what it cost Christ to make our peace with a displeased God to pay our debts and to ransome our inthralled Souls but let us also set before our eyes and look upon Jesus Christ who never committed any sin sweating suffering grâ—aning wounded bleeding and lying for our Sins that so we may in his unexampled and unexpressible miseries with the eyes of detestation and lamentation behold the danger and desert of our own Iniquities Let not sin most holy God be sweet dear or delightfull to us which was Gall and Vinegar bitter painful and deadly to Jesus Christ O let the knowledge of thy power and purity awe and deterre us from evill but chiefly let our frequent serious admiring and thankfull reflexions upon the bounty mercy and long-suffering of our gracious God and the free the infinite Love of Jesus Christ prevail with us and make us both watchful and carefull to detest decline loath leave confesse forsake and crucifie all our lusts and transgressions and to love honour please praise and glorifie our God And let us not imbrace entertain or welcome sinne into our hearts and crucifie our blessed Saviour any more lest our bloudy cruelty both to him and our own souls deprive us for ever of Christ Comfort Grace and Glory Amen Peccatum lethale est Venenum Quod delectat necat V. Of the World and the brightest Jewell in its Crowne Soveraignty 'T is a fools Idol a wise mans Inne 't is a storehouse of vanities a shop full of gaudy but empty pots a fair house haunted with evil Spirits it 's a maze a desert a disguised mockery an Ocean of troubles a pitfal to the rich a burden to the poor a traducer of the good a deceiver of all that love and trust it 'T is a Garden enamelled with beautiful flowers under which lurk deadly Serpents a green soft pleasant walk covered and bespread with nets and snares a Speed Chron p. 118. a path like that of a Heliogabalus strawed with the powder and dust of Gold and silver but leading to a Gibbet A sweet spring set round with lime-twigs a stately wealthy Citie infected with the plague 'T is the body's Paradise but a Purgatory to the soul 'T is a painted treacherous Harlot which allures invites but destroys her Lovers a tender Nurse to vice dandling it upon her knees of Pleasure and Profit but a step-mother which hates and strangles vertue 'T is a dâ—ie pit a broken Cistern in a drought an empty cloud a Feast in a dream and without Christ as one said of her dead husband a cold armful And as for Soveraignty though
Lawful Soveraign but also to think * Eccles 10. 10 or †wish any evill to him d Cap. 25. â— 3. And the Law of England hath made it high Treason for any one or all his Subjects but to imagine his Death Much more certainly then are we forbidden to do any evill to our King to tâ—ke up Arms against him and to seize apprehend imprison Arraign Condemn Murder him Our Law saith the King can do no wrong it must needs be then against all right reason justice equity Conscience that he should suffer any wrong by or from his Subjects who cannot attempt his destruction without being guilty of Treason nor act it unlesse they repent without Damnation God sayes †2 Pet. 2. 13. 17. we must submit to him how then can we justifie our selves in rising up against him Let us therefore not only esteem Gods command our Duty but let us make it our delight care and resolution inviolably to observe it Let us remember and consider that Loyalty is pleasing to God an honour to Religion a Bulwark against forraign invasions an Antidote against the stinging killing power of the Law but that Rebellion * 1 Sam. 15. 23. is as the sinne of Witch-craft which is death without mercy by the Lawes both of †Levit. 20. 17. God and Man 'T is a crimson sluce pull'd up to let in Confusion together with all other imaginable yea unexpressible miseries upon a people 'T is a bloudy Flux that often destroyes but alwaies extreamly weakens that Body politick that unwise unhappy Kingdome which is diseased and afflicted with it 'T is that furious Wild-fire which quickly turns the strongest the best built and the most flourishing Nation into Ashes T is a Cart-rope of Iniquity that draws down Gods heaviest Judgments upon a People T is a dagger that stabs Religion to the very heart and le ts out the Life-bloud thereof T is a sword that cuts the Sinews and ligaments of Love Unity Honesty Justice Mercy and Piety asunder 'T is the Devils grand Engine wherewith he batters down the Throne and Temple of Christ in a State the means he uses to erect his own Kingdome upon their Ruins 'T is the broad way to Poverty Infamy Death and Damnation The Triumphs of Traitors are nothing but glorious Chariots wherein Satan drives them securely furiously suddainly to destruction Their most eminent Conquests are only barbarous successful Murders publick Robberies and short-lived prosperons Impieties For Rebells like blind Samson do alwaies pull down Ruine either upon their own or upon their Posterities heads or both Their Victories do but multiply at once their Iniquities and Calamities God abhors them good men detest them Vengeance pursues them their scarlet Crimes cry aloud for Plagues to be inflicted on them and their deserved Execution is often as strange sodain and unexpected as their wicked horrid cursed practises are loathsome in the eye of God and odious to all gratious honest men And that you may see what signal marks of Infamy Misery Indignation and Detestation the King of Kings God Almighty hath visibly set upon Traitors I shal present you with a few instances of his severe yet most righteous dealings with them and the uufortunate Children of some of them Was not Absalom justly and strangely punished That head which contrived the sin cut off the sinner for his Hair became his Halter he hanged by it upon an unexpected Gallow-tree and so perished †2 Kings 12. 20. The Servants of Joash conspired against him and slew him * 2 Kings 14. 5. But Amaziah so soon as he was confirmed in the Kingdome slew those wicked Servants that murdered his Father Julius Caesars Butchers came all of them to untimely Deaths and some of them were cut off by their own hand with those very Weapons wherewith they killed him But since I need not travaile out of England to fetch examples of this kind I shall offer a few of our own to your view and serious perusall King Henry the 6th was deprived of his Kingdome and together with his young Son Edward imprisoned and put to death by King Edward the 4th King Edward the 4th died not without suspicion of poyson After his death his two Sons were imprisoned and murdered in the Tower by their bloudy Uncle the cruell Duke of Glocester who being a Tyrannical Usurper was encountred and justly slain in Bosworth Fields by Henry the 7th King Henry the 〈◊〉 an Usurper had only one Son and one Daughter his Son William was drowned in his passage from Normandy his Daughter Maud was disinherited by Stephen of her Birthright and Eâ—stace the only Son of King Stephen died mad in his Fathers life-time But that English Judas Machiavil Ravillack Cromwell though he deserve to lead the Van of all Heathenish Atheisticall Peâ—jur'd Jesuitical Traitors shall bring up the Rear of these Odious Execrable Exampler He murdered his Gracious Soveraign Exiled his pious Son enslaved his Fellow-Subjects shed abundance of innocent Bloud Tyrannized over Three Kingdoms Nursed Heresies protected and promoted Traytors justified Rebellion designed laboured and endeavoured to extirpate Monarchy together with all the Royall Progeny of our late blessed King of ever glorious Memory This is that Cromwel of whom as of most Tyrants that may be truly affirmed which Florus saith of Beasts sc Maxime mortiferi esse solent morsus morientium bestiarum for usually the Older the Crueller the nearer their end and destruction the bloudier and more barbarous they are His name stinks worse then his rotten carcasse his memory is loathsome to all honest hearts and his Children who had built their nests amongst the Stars are tumbled down by the angry Arme of a just God and do now lie level with the surface of the earth not so much as a branch sprout or stump of that hollow rotten tree remaining either in power or honour So true is that of Curtius Nulla quaesita scelere potentia est diuturna Thus we see that Rebellion kindles such a Fire as will not be quenched till either the Traytors themselves or their miserable posterity be consumed The joy of Hypocrites is but for a moment and the triumphing of the wicked is short saith Zophar Since I began to write God hath effected two more famous Monuments of his hatred against Rebellion in England I shall therefore though I intended to add no more briefly mention them The one is his mercifull blasting the hopes of those persons commonly called the fly-blown stinking Rump The other is his seasonable breaking the horns of those Phanaticks in the North. This is the Lords doing and it is marvailous in our eyes And thus we see again that though God may for a time forbear to punish Rebellion yet he will not forget it Though the just Laws of men may sleep or rather seem to slumber a while yet they will both surely and quickly awaken And though they may be gagged or bound by the cruell
but Christ None but Christ He alone being able to quench her thirst to satisfie her hunger to grant her desires to supply her wants to cure her maladies to support her under pressures to ease her of her burdens to vanquish her enemies to resolve all her doubts to revive her in her swounings to strengthen her in her languishings to give her cordials in her faintings to secure her from her fears to comfort her in her sorrows to calm her in to sanctyfie unto her and to free her from all her troubles by confirming her faith increasing her graces multiplying her Joyes and establishing her peace in the firm assurance and cleer Evidence by his holy Spirit of his free infinite eternall unchangeable love unto her the full satisfaction given by him to the Justice of God for her and his free miraculous redemption of her from her spirituall thraldome from the curse and rigour of the Law from the raigning condemning power of sin and from Satan wrath eternal Death and Hell Thirdly Consider that these divine Treasures will afford you reall comforts in the dark cloudy showry daies of adversity yea in the saddest condition whereas all those sublâ—nary injoyments comforts and contentments which the worldly minded in their prosperity do so much admire delight and so eagerly pursue if you seek to them when you are afflicted tempted or dejected for relief deliverance or consolation will answer you as the * 2 Kings 26. 27. King of Israel did that distressed woman in the Famine of Samaria when she cryed to him as he passed by Help my Lord O King If the Lord do not help thee said he whence shall I help thee Riches will answer it is not in me to succour solace or save you Honour power pleasure c. will answer too nor in us For all we cannot make or give you an healing plaister for your hurt We cannot cure the wound which the fiery Serpent of sin hath made in your Consciences nor take out its painfull deadly sting We can neither make your peace with the Lord shield you from his mortall arrows interest you in his tender mercies procure the yearning bowels nor purchase the precious bloud of Jesus Christ to sanctifie or save to cure or comfort you Thus and no otherwise will they answer own befriend and bestead all those in the day of their visitation that have made earth their Heaven Honour their Idoll Opulency their Deity the World their God and Greatness their Happiness Fourthly Consider that you may have a Confluence of all temporall blessings and yet be both hated and Cursed of God You may have all the good things of this Life and yet be bad men You may enjoy the world and yet want Christ and so be truely eternally wretched undone ruined for all that Quid enim prodest si omnia habes eum tamen qui omnia dedit non habere 'T is not lucre but losse 't is not wealth but wants yea beggerie to have all the world from God if that God who made the World and gives us all things be not our God But if you have these spirituall treasures then you will enjoy Christ and with him all things * Rom. 8. 32. Will he who hath freely given us gold denie us clay Will he who hath bestowed pearls upon us refuse to grant pebbles to us Will he who hath cloathed us with Robes denie us Raggs will he who hath given us Diamonds denie us dust or dirt No * 1 Cor. 21. 22. 33. no do but read that great Charter of all true Christians which like the Laws of the Medes and Persians will never be altered nor repealed and there in Golden Letters you may run and read the portion priviledges and inheritance of every true beleever All is yours saith that great Apostle whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas or the World or Life or Death or things present or things to come all are yours and you are Christs and Christ is Gods So that every heavenly minded Christian as well as a holy Corinthian having a deed of Gift made to him by God written with Christs bloud sealed by his holy Spirit and witnessed by his faithful Servant pious and blessed St. Paul of such precious inestimable Riches may truly contemningly say to the World when she Courts him to imbrace covet love Idolize her and saies as the Divell did to Christ when he tempted him to worship him All these things will I give thee sugred pleasures gaudie riches glittering pomp swelling studied titles downâ—e ease rosie delights dazling Majestâ—e c. as * Dan. 5. 17. Daniel did to Belshazzer when he promised him Riches honour and promotion to interpret his Dreams Let thy gifts be to thy self and give thy Rewards to another And as †Genes 33. 9. Esau did to his Brother Jacob when he tendred his present to him I have enough keep that thou hast thy self For how can they want any thing whose Husband is not only kind loving and faithful but also both the Lord and Heir of all things and whose Father the God of truth hath promised to give to his Sons Wife every sincere Christian for a Dower or Jointure both * Psalm 84. 11 Grace Glorie and every good thing Lastly Consider that an holy greecinesse and covetousnesse after these ever enduring treasures these best gifts an indefatigable diligence to attain them a restlesse care for them and the setting of your hearts the fixing of your affections intirely upon them is both the best and surest way to provide not only for your selves but for your posteritie also For if God be your Father he will be your Childrens Guardian he will take the charge of them and care for them so that they shall neither * Psalm 37 25 want nor be wronged since the Lord is not only able but willing to protect and supply them And it 's a truth equally bright and comfortable that the Children of religious Parents who have had no other inheritance portions or legacies but their faithful prayers holy Counsells and pious Examples to settle upon them or be queath unto them to live upon and to set up withall in the World have yet prospered come to honour and been blest with both plentie and felicitie whereas the off-spring of the wicked who have been left heirs to very vast summs of money and great estates have come to a morsell of Bread by reason of Gods either secret or visible but alwaies most just curse upon what they enjoy for either their own or the sins of their fore-fathers in wickedly getting unlawfully keeping or sinfully abusing and mispending of them Male parta male et cito dilabuntur Besides Injusta lucra breves habent voluptates longos autem dolores The momentanie pleasures of unjust Gaine will be imbittered and punished with eternall pains and sorrows The Prayer O LORD so desirous art thou to save and so unwilling to destroy the miserable undone because
precious a thing peace is that hath felt the extream calamities of War Famine teacheth us the worth of plenty Imprisonment indears liberty darknesse makes the light both more desirable and welcome so the burden of affliction felt and the bitternesse thereof being sweetned by being sanctified unto us will make us both highly to prize Gods great mercy in delivering us from troubles and heartily to praise him for his compassion and goodnesse in giving us songs in the night solace in the midst of our Sorrows and support under our sharpest sufferings since none will either so much value the favour and felicity of a pleasant calm or rejoyce in the security of an earnestly desired Haven as those who have experienced the amazing distracting terrours of a Cholerick furioâ—â— storm and have been exposed to the dreadful dangers 〈◊〉 an inraged Ocean whose angry cruell and remoâ—slesse Billows did seem to quarrell and contend which of them should be their Executioners and first overwhelm ingulf and bury them in the liquid bosome of their merciless Mother Christ is never so amiable dear or precious to any as he is to them who have been sensible of the weight height and smart of sin their own nothingnesse vilenesse and wretchednesse by reason thereof and his infinite undeserved Love in both freely seasonably safely bringing them by the gates of Hell to Heaven And therefore God who is not only wisdome it self but †1 John 4. 6. Love and the father of mercies who doth not willingly afflict the children of men who is grieved as well as fretted at their transgressions would not cut and lanch his people if their festered sores could be cured or the life of their souls preserved by mild unpainfull and mercifull applications He is also * John 1. 15. that husbandman who is Lord of the Vine-yard and he both takes care of it and delights in it He will not therefore cut down with the Axe of vengeance those trees that bear good though but little fruit * Revel 3. 19 but only prune them with the sharp knife of Affliction Deus paternum habet adversus bonos viros animum et illos fortius amat to operibus doloribus ac damnis exagitat ut verum colligant robur Senec. de Divin provident that so they may be more fruitfull He is not like Tyrants pleased with their sufferings for even then when his hand is whipping of them his tender Bowels like an indulgent pityful Mothers yearn toward them while he strikes he loves them yea therefore he strikes because he loves them you have his own word for it as many as I love †These are the Lots which all Kings from the first that ever was to the last that ever shall be shall most certainly draw in their courses Regnabo regno regnavi sum stâ—â—e Regno I rebuke and chasten His blows are Balm his wounds cure his anger is favour his displeasure mercy to them It 's then both the unspeakable felicity of and a prerogative Royal not only peculiar and annexed unto but also inseparable from all the Heaven-born heirs of Christs Kingdome That no condition how sad grievous or calamitous soever it be in this world either shal or can render them miserable * John 10 28. Psalm 103. 17. Because it 's beyond the power both of sin Satan sufferings and death either to extinguish the fire of Gods free love towards them or totally and finally to take away the inward soul-ravishing and reviving comforts of the Holy Spirit from them or to extirpate the root of grace out of them here or to keep them from or to deprive them of that crown of glory which the Lord hath both promised them in this life and prepared for them in the next when Angels shall carry their souls into Abrahams bosome whereas the undoubted immediate Heirs of earthly Princes are often either excluded disinherited deposed or Assasinated and so do not only lose their rights hopes honours lives and glories but become far more miserable by their being formerly so happy either in expectation or fruition We need travail no further then * Our age doth afford us the most bloudy barbarous and impious example of this kind that ever the Sun beheld viz. the horrid murther of King Charles the 1st England to fetch woful instances or examples to confirm this truth * Robert the eldest son of William the Conqueror King Henry the sixth and to name no more Edward and Richard the only Sons of King Edward 4. were disinherited deposed and murdered The first by his younger brethren William Rufus and Henry The second by Edward the 4. The other by their uncle then Duke of Glocester Thus we see that a Christians crosse is a Crown whereas an earthly Crown is but a crosse The statue of Neptune at Messina holds Scilla and Charybdis in chains with this inscription Pergite securae per freta nostra rates The Lord orders all his dispensations both of love and anger to his own glory and his peoples good so that neither prosperity nor adversity shall hurt them k Luther Quicquid enim passus est Christus idem nobis sanctificavit paupertatem ditavit ignominiam glorificavit mortem vivificavit Whatever Christ suffered that he hath sanctified He hath made poverty riches Ignominy honour and brought life out of the womb of death to and for his people l 〈…〉 â—aeom ex Arist lib. 2. Ethic. c. 5. It 's an Axiome in Philosophy Med cinae fiunt per contraria and it 's true in Divinity for the great Physitian of our souls makes miseries medicines sickness health and tribulations * Psalm 119. 71 mercies to his Children yea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nocuments are Documents corrections * Psalm 119. 67. instructions calamities cordials and crosses comforts unto them Beleeve me there is no such joy in the World as the people of Christ have under the crosse I speak by experience said pious Mr. Philpot. m Fox B. of Martyrs vol. 3. Guy de Brez being committed prisoner into the Castle of Tournay he was visited by many persons of quality and amongst the rest by the Countesse of Ren who coming into the Prison and beholding the iron chain to which he was fastned Mr. Guy said she I wonder you can either eat drink or sleep in quiet for were I in your case the very terrour thereof would go nigh to kill me Madam said he the good cause for which I suffer and that inward peace of conscience wherewith God hath endued me makes me eate and drink with greater comfort then my enemies can which seek my life yea my chains and bonds are so farre from terrifying me or breaking my sleep that I glory and delight therein esteeming them at a higher rate then chains and rings of gold or any other precious Jewels whatsoever for they yeild me much more profit Yea when I hear the ratling of my chains me
Jesus Christ a Don Anthony de Guevare Diall of Princ. Fol. 9. When the Romans created any Knights they caused them to swear 1. That they should spend all the days of their lives in Wars 2. That they should never through fear poverty for riches or any other thing take Wages but of Rome only Lastly that they would rather choose to dye in liberty then to live in Captivity In our Baptismal Covenant which is an honor and happinesse infinitely beyond that of being a Romane Knight for thereby we are made members of Christs body and as I may say Peers and Nobles of his Kingdom we do solemnly and faithfully promise and engage 1. To fight the Lords battails under the great Captain of our Salvation Jesus Christ against sin temptations the World the flesh and the Devill untill Death 2. That we will not be hired corrupted allured nor prevailed withall either by pleasure power credit profit or any thing to serve the Devill or our own Lusts against Christ And Lastly that we will neither willingly suffer our selves to be pinioned or manacled by our spiritual enemies nor live in cursed slavery or captivity under them but that we will as Hannibal solemnly swore to Amilcar that he would be an irreconcileable enemy to Rome both live and dye in a Christian couragious constant implacable hatred against them and opposition of them Baptisme it 's the brand whereby we are known being thereby brought within the pale of Christs visible Church and also whereby we are distinguished from Heathens and Pagans Certainly then those parents are very unwise unnaturall yea cruell to their Children who will not suffer the covenant of Grace nor that Deed of an heavenly inheritance which God hath drawn and is ready made to be sealed by this Sacrament to which they have an unquestionable right by vertue of Gods promise which is made unto and entailed upon them as well as their Parents unto them But instead thereof do without all both pity and affection not only keep those Lambs out of Christs fold In Baptismo Cyprianus seatit omnia peccata deponi diabolum opprimi spiritum sanctum accipi Idem Cent. 3. p. 247. but also expose them to Wolves and wild beasts Hereticks and Seducers to be devoured And rather choose to have them continue foul and filthy then to have them * Not per illud sacramentum ablutis delictis nostrae cacitatis in vitam aeternam liberari inquit Tertul. de Baptismo lib. de Baptist Hist eccles Magdeburgens cent 3. p. 239. washed in the laver of Regeneration Besides they do grievously sin against their own souls in slighting opposing and despising so sacred an institution For although the want and in some cases the neglect of Gods ordinances be not yet the contempt of them is damnable Woe to them Et Origen docuit peccati fordes per Baptismum deponiâ— omne genus delictorum auserri Idem Hist Ecclesiast Magdeburg Cent. 3. p. 253. saith a learned man that in the Administration of this Sacrament of Baptisme deny their duty to dying infants under pretence of I know not what discipline And wo 't is sadly to be feared will pursue and overtake those who will not suffer Ministers to perform their duty to Infants neither living nor dying through their dangerous delusions and under both vain and ungrounded pretences For the administration of this Sacrament of Baptisme hath both the best foundation and text the * Mark 1. 4. Acts â—38 39. Genes 17. compared with Coloss â— 11. 12. word of God to warrant it and the best clearest and safest comment to wit the practise of the Apostles and also both the judgement and practise of all Christian Churches in the world for some hundred of years to confirm it c The Baptisme of Infants was not derived from the authority of man neither of councess but from the tradition or doctrine of the Apostles saith S. Augustine contra Donatist lib. 4. cap. 23. 24. Baptisme hath its beginning from Gods word and from the use of the primitive Church saith Mr. Philpot. d And the Ecclesiasticall History and others acquaint us that Auxentius who was an Arrian with his adherents was one of the first that denyed infant Baptisme and next after him that Heretick Pelagius And then the Anabaptists These are the spoysoned springs and muddy channels from which and down which this dirty unwholesome dangerous stream of Antipedo baptism did flow run into this vertiginous truthsick and truth-despising if not loathing age into which the former times have conveyed and emptyed their dregs froth and filth and wherein gray-headed errors and Heresies are not only grown young again but vamped furbished and new gilt on purpose to vent them unto such Mr. Simpsons History of the Church Mr. Philpot c. either ignorant inconsiderate or profane chapmen as without care or conscience will sell their souls to purchase their Lusts For now it 's become a gainfull trade to retaile those damnable and dangerous Heresies and principles that are sent by wholesale out of Italy by the Popes Factors and which is more all that will may set up and be free of any Company they like best 'T is no wonder then that Gods Temple and Table have but a few guests when the Devill is permitted to revell and keep open-house for all comers or that truth should be opposed when the Father of lyes hath liberty to speak against it Infant-baptisme being heretofore questioned after so many years quiet enjoyment of its undoubtted Right as inabled it to plead prescription for it It was Defendent in the cause and produced such cleer strong and good evidences that it got both a verdict and judgment upon it which still hangs upon record in the Court of antiquity against the adversaries thereof But of late time it hath been forced through the unjust disturbance of some turbulent spirits to be Plaintiffe also And through the good providence and the divine assistance of him who hath given e That pious and learned Divine Mr. Baxter cum multis aâ—iis and amongst them that emnently learned Dr. Hammond pract catech some of his Servants such a mouth and wisdome as none of its enemies are able to resist It hath again cast the most cunning active and irreconcileable enemies thereof to the glory of God the vindication of truth the comfort of his people and the everlasting both shame and silence of those whose either passion or interests have blinded their Reasons or corrupted their affections so as that they either know not or love not the truth For f Cypr. Epist 59 ad Fidam A baptismo post Christum prohiberi non debet infans recens natus saith Cyprian †and with him agree so many both pious and learned men * Vide Dr. Hammond pract catech p. 212. to 219. that but to name them their arguments and sayings would swell this Subject into a Volume
all transgressions pardoned and exiled persons were recalled Whoever cometh to this holy Sacrament clothed with the new and rich apparell of Christs righteousnesse and can with the hand of a justifying faith touch Jesus Christ shall be sure to find and receive comfort favor acceptance a discharge from the debt of sin liberty and inlargement from the slavery of his own Lusts and from the captivity of Satan communion with Christ here and admission into the Kingdome of Heaven out of which man was justly excluded exiled for sin and Rebellion hereafter For when by death a true Christian doth put off the Rags of his mortality God will invest him with the Robes of Glory to all Eternity The Prayer EVer blessed God such are thy tender mercies unspeakeable Love and matchlesse Bounty to thy Children upon earth that as thou hast prepared and provided for them both Mansions and a feast a Supper of Glory with the Lamb in the Kingdome of Heaven so hast thou also provided a spirituall Banquet and furnished thy Table with most exquisite curious precious and delicious dainties to refresh nourish comfort strengthen and unite them in their journey and whilest they are upon their way thither this Blessed Sacrament O Lord let not I beseech thee this Soul-feeding heart-chearing Grace-strengthening and increasing communion and Supper be neglected undervalued contemned or denyed through the corruptions contentions differences carelesnesse or ungrounded scrupulousnesse of Men. â—ut let Ministers O Lord carefully obey thy command and conscientiously discharge their own Duty in rightly and frequently administring of it to their people that thy bitter thy bloudy Death O Blessed Saviour may be constantly and thankfully remembred thy wonderful unparalleled undeserved love pity goodnesse acknowledged and thy great Name praised and glorified And let Christians O Lord come to this Holy Sacrament so qualified and prepared that their Graces may be strengthened their Souls as with marrow and fatnesse satisfied their interest in Christ cleared and confirmed their joyes and comforts multiplied their Affections inseparably united and their mutuall love to one another mightily increased Grant this O Lord for his sake who is both the maker of the Feast and the Feast himself Jesus Christ Amen Coena Domini cibus est Animae alimentum Gratiae Nutrix pietatis solaminis canalis pignus amoris condonationis sigillum et corroborationis Sacramentum XIX Of Preaching THE sacred word of God purely rightly and powerfully preached is that Bethesday wherein Mephibosheths souls lamed in their feet their affections by the fall which they had out of the arms of Adam and Eve are cured and thereby inabled to run the ways of Gods commandements 'T is the * Cantic 4. 16. and 7. 5. Garden the Gallery where Christ meeteth speaks to and walks with his people 'T is the mount of blessings conduit of faith Golden Scepter of mercy and the spirituall seed of Grace and Life 'T is the Chariot in which Christ rideth triumphantly into the Soul 'T is the hammer that breaks open the iron door of the heart the key that unlocks it T is the fire that consumeth all Satans strong holds in the spirit 'T is spirituall eye-salve that gives a blind Bartimeus his sight And 't is the voice that awakens the most drouzy deaf secure sinner a Rainold Orat. 1. p. 41. What the Orator saith de Oratione is true de praedicatione Morbis inquit animi medicinam facere debet praedicatio facit comprimendo quae tument roborando quae languent quae inflammant leniendo coercendo quae diffluunt expurgando quae redundant 'T is an Ark alwaies bringing blessings with it Nathan which wil rouse convince and humble Davids relapsing Saints T is a Peter pricking the hearts of great and grosse sinners to their conversion sanctification Salvation 'T is a messenger sent from God and bringing with it those three wonderfull glorious instimable Jewels and blessings to the soul sense of sin assurance of pardon and a through reformation both of the Heart and life It s the means which God hath promised commanded owned blessed and sanctyfied by the inward powerfull and effectual operation of his holy Spirit speaking home to the conscience stirring those healing waters of the sanctuary and accompanying the outward administration of the word most ordinarily and efficaciously to instruct the ignorant confirm the weak to warm the cold mollifie the hard melt the frozen comfort them that mourn to awaken those that are drowsie resolve those who doubt incourage and quiet such as fear guide them that erre bind up the broken hearted and to quicken those that are dead in trespasses and sins T is a Cornâ—copia of all those excellent spirituall mercies and comforts 'T is the granary of celestial food and Manna the silver trumpet of peace and the white flag of mercy to a people It 's a Nilus that softens refresheth and fructifieth barren hard and languishing hearts T is a Mary with Christ in the womb of it an Angell instructing a Philip a light in the thickest saddest darknesse and a comfortable seasonable rain in a drought 'T is both meat to the hungry water to the thirsty physick to the diseased milk to the weak a Lamp to them that wander and wine to the sorrowfull In Asia it was a custome that the Child which was not nursed by his mother should not have the goods of his Mother Those who are not nursed by that Mother the true Church of Christ with the breasts of Gods word and ordinances faithfully and duly administred are never like to have God for their Father nor to be heires of the Churches estate I mean the love promises protection grace and blessing of the Lord nor to enjoy the glorious inheritance of her Children eternall felicity hereafter The Prayer O LORD thou art so farre from desiring or delighting in the eternall Damnation of the vilest greatest grossest sinners that thou hast commanded the Gospell of Salvation to be preached to every creature both to Jews and Gentiles Yet since even this word of Life is both a dead and a killing Letter without the quickening sanctifying influence and efficacy of thy holy Spirit Grant blessed God that the Holy Ghost may both teach and speak effectually convincingly convertingly savingly to the ears and hearts of unregenerated Sinners that so the dead may both hear and feel the voice and power of the Son of God and live And be thou pleased most merciful God so to own blesse and prosper thine own Labourers in thy vine-yard that the Consciences of those who are enemies to thine own ordinances and Ministers may be convinced their spirits grieved and humbled their mouths stopped their sin and errours discovered to them hated by them and forsaken of them And that the understandings of those who hear and enjoy them may be savingly enlightened their hearts graciously changed their Lives throughly reformed and their souls everlastingly saved Let him who is the Word Jesus Christ be ushered
against her or any part of her be cast over-boord by her vigilant and valiant Pilots pious orthodoxe and zealous Magistrates * O quâ—m beati erunt in illo die judcii Magistratus illi qui subditos non modo honestis legibus judiciis disciplinâ— rexerunt sed etiam omnium maxime in hoc studium incubucrunt ut incorrupta Religio apud suos exculta sit doctrina coelestis per fidos eruditos et constantes Ministros sit tradita ingens hominum multitudo per spiritum et verbum renata in conspectum Christi prodeat quae tali Magistratui aeternas gra ias agat E contra quam infelices qui c. Religionem per varâ—as corruptelas passi sunt adulterare sayes one And an Heathen could say In nauâ—ragio Rector laudandus quem obruit more clavum tenentem Senec. ad Petil. c. 6. and Ministers that Pirates strangers and enemies the profest cruel subtle and secret adversaries opposers and underminers of thy Glory Gospel ordinances and Ministers may neither be inriched by her woful wrack nor pleased with the birth and sight of those grievous miseries and overwhelming calamities which too often proceed from her contentious and disagreeing Children but let the desires and designs O Lord of Sions enemies be blasted and frustrated And let blessed God all those spiritual Merchants those heavenly Mariners thy Saints thy faithful Souldiers and Servants that are resolved or shal resolve to venture all their treasures their souls lives and worldly interests in that Arke thy Church and to imbarque themselves in her for a voyage to the Holy Land to that new and glorious Jerusalem which is above Let them dear God I once more humbly beseech thee be crowned with a calm with quietnesse serenity and safety in their passage over the brackish boysterous dangerous Ocean of life and when they shall put into and cast Anchor in the port of Death then let them find that they are safely arrived at the Isles of Paradise the Kingdome of Heaven Glory and Felicity Amen Qui pugnat sine mandato poenam accipit non mercedem Qui praedicat sine vocatione peccat non prodest XXII Of a good and a bad Conscience A Good Conscence 't is the suburbs of Heaven 'T is the Sanctuary of the Soul when it 's pursued by sin Satan fear or temptation 'T is Heaven in hell riches in poverty honour in disgrace health in sicknesse in bonds liberty and light in darknesse 'T is Balm that healeth all woundâ— A medicine infinitely more precious then all the Benedicta Medicamenta of Physitians for it cures all spirituall maladies and antidotes the mind against all temporall miseries T is the best Mithridate to expell all troubles from the heart T is Gods temple Christs Bed-chamber and the Spirits Mansion for the highest Heavens and the humblest purest holiest heart are the two places of Gods most glorious * Esay 57. 15. Residence 'T is the souls soft Bed whereon it resteth quietly and sweetly with a pillow of Gospel promises and the left hand of Christ under its head his right hand also imbracing it when it 's either troubled dejected or distressed T is an admirable Soveraign Balsome against the stinging perplexing fears and all the dreadfull dismaying apprehensions of sin Gods wrath Satan Death judgment and Hell 'T is an Ark that keepeth the Soul safe and preserves it from sinking under the heaviest burden of sin or sorrow in the greatest deluge of inward or outward troubles 'T is a ship with Christ in it Heaven in a little volume 'T is divine love and speciall mercy printed usually upon the soul by the Spirit of God in the presse either of Gods ordinances or afflictions in great and golden characters with notes of choicest favour tenderest mercies and free grace upon it T is a Kingdome of fortified rich safe and happy 't is the daughter of faith and repentance and the Mother of all reall ineffable endlesse Joy comforts pleasures 'T is a serene skie with the Sun and Moon of Faith and repentance fixed and shining in the â—irmament of the Soul together with the brightest sparkling stars of all other saving graces which beautifie bespangle it and make a glorious constellation therein 'T is a feast in a famine an haven in a storm life in death 'T is an invincible fort in a Leaguer when the outworks City and Castle of health riches liberty are taken 'T is a Paradise with a tree of Life in it 'T is the Vialactea in a Laetitia bonae conscientiae paradisus est â—nimarum gaudium angelorum hortus deliciarum ager benedictionis templam Sclomonis aula Dei habâ—tac ulum spiritus heavenly heart The vena porta of * 2 Corinth 1. 12. gladnesse joy and a consolation to the spirit here and the beginning of that matchlesse felicity which will out-live time and run parallel with the longest line of eternity 'T is a Dove that brings an Olive branch of peace to a Noah a righteous person in the greatest inundation of perplexity and sorrow of heart 'T is the way to a life without fear or trouble 'T is a John lying in the bosome of Jesus 'T is a transcript a true copy of eternall felicity 'T is a consolatory epistle written with the bloud of Jesus Christ by the finger of the Holy Ghost sent by love and read by faith to a languishing mourning drooping bleeding Soul 'T is ipsum coelum saith Augustine a continuall feast saith Solomon Yea it is a Goshen in Aegypt an Angell in a Dungeon an harbour in a Tempest an Heaven upon earth and the day-star of Glory 'T is an immarcescible Crown A treasure which once got can never be lost for what that b Cicere parâ—dâ—x ad sinem Prince of Orators saith of vertue is most true of a good conscience Nec eripi nec surripi potest â—nquam Neque naufragio neque incendio amittitur nâ—â— tempestatum nec temporum permutatione mutatur But a bad conscience it 's the souls inquisition and strappado It 's the epitome or abridgment of eternall torments 'T is the gloomâ—e evening to the black day of Damnation 'T is the terrible Harbinger of that dreadfull furious cruell train and troop of dismall intolerable unconceiveable woes and plagues which are marching â—ay at the door to take up their everlasting Quarters and abode in the miserable Soul 'T is secretum ftagellum an hell in the soul before the Soul be in Hell 'T is the lightening of those horrors which the thunder of that confounding â—â—ntence Goye cursed into Hel-fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels c. will suddainly inflict upon the for ever undone impenitent sinners Perillus his brasen Bull when hottest was a Down-bed warmed to the scorching anguish of an evill Conscience Nam urit caedit lancinat et eo gravius quia sine morte The stinging of the most venemous Serpent is pleasure and delight to the agonies
of such a wounded Spirit That poor wretch who was flayed alive and then laid upon a bed of Salt till he expired by the barbarous command of Solyman â—elt no pain and rested upon a soft couch-chair compared with him or her that hangeth upon the gibbet of an evill conscience Yea the greatest sharpest deadliest pangs and throws of that woman who hath the hardest labour in child-bearing are not only ease and refreshments but cordialls in respect of the horrible unavoidable insupportable tortures lashings bitings and gnawings of the whip and worm of a bad conscience An evill conscience is the outward court of Hell 'T is the earnest and foretast of those torments which are easelesse endlesse remedilesse 'T is like that * Ezck 2. 9 10. Book in Ezekiel wherein was written both within and without lamentation and mourning and wo. Weigh them seriously and hearken attentively to the God of Wisdome and truth who assureth us †Prov. 18. 14. The spirit of a man willsustain his inâ—irmities but a wounded spirit who can bear That a Spirit wounded with the sense of its guilt and misery is insupportable for by putting the question he puts it out of all question that it is so And also to that doleful eccho of the damned souls in Hell c See the life of Spira Francis Spira that compleat map of misery that so you may both judge impartially what it is fear it and carefully timely resolutely oppose hate decline and fly that which will bring you unto and hang your souls upon the same rack on which all his bones were broken viz. Sin against convictions covenants promises profession love light knowledg and conscience committed relapsed into and unrepented of I now feel saith he Gods heavy wrath that burns like the torments of hell-fire within me and afflicteth my soul with pangs unutterable And again the gnawing worms of an unquenchable horror confusion and which is worst of all Desperation continually torture me My pangs faith he are such that the damned wights in Hell endure not the like misery O let us then hear and fear yea let us be instructed warned and perswaded by his and * Cain Judas c. others sufferings to pray and labour to get good consciences and to keep them voyd of offence both towards God and towards men that so we may never feel and endure the exquisite the insufferable torments of a double Hell Desperation and Damnation And since unicuique liber est propria conscientia ad hunc librum discutiendum emendandum omnes alii inventi Since every mans conscience is his book and that all books are written for the reading correcting and expunging the errata's thereof It is therefore the great duty and concernment of every one vigilantly conscientiously constantly to take heed that it be neither interlined with sin nor blotted and blurred with crimes vices nor defaced with foul and filthy lusts Because if it be not kept pure fair and undefiled God will one day command it to be burned by the common hangman the Devill in the fire of Hell But if it be preserved unstained God will then love and delight in it For facies animi est câ—nscientia sicut in conspectu hominum gratiosa est facies pulcra sic in conspectu Dei speciosa est conscientia munda The face of the mind is the conscience And an unspotted conscience is as beautiful in the sight of God as the most renowned and celebrated Beauty either is or ever was amiable in the eyes of men If then thou wouldest be free from the anguish agonies and miseries of an evill Conscience do thou in this case what one advised Domitian to do in another who being asked by Domitian how he might so rule as not to be hated like many of his predecessors answered him Tu fac contra do thou contrary to that they have done Do thou confesse repent hate and forsake every known sin and take heed of relapsing into wickednesse for sin is both the root and fewell of outward troubles inward terrors temporall punishments spirituall Judgments and eternall torments The Prayer O LORD thou hast not only forbidden us upon pain of High Treason Death and Damnation to commit the least sinne and acquainted yea assured us that all things are naked and opened to the eyes of that God with whom we have to do But thou hast also placed a comptrouler a Register a Notary conscience in every Child of Adam to observe record and remember all our thoughts words and actions whether good or evil And thy great design in all this is to make us afraid of acting any either open wickednesse or secret filthinesse since even all our closest iniquities impurities villanies and our midnight abominations are perpetrated upon a stage at noonday and in the sight of the Sun not only in respect of thine all-seeing eye to whom the darknesse and light are both alike but also in respect of that impartiall witnesse that all-observing Sentinel which thou hast placed within us that will most certainly reveal all those hidden hideous horrible and loathsome crimes we are guilty of which the eye or ear of Man never saw nor heard accuse us to God of them and both evidently and undenyably to the Lord and our own selves proves us conscious of them Give us therefore O Lord I beseech thee Grace care and resolutions to live walk and behave our selves to think speak and act as under thine eye and in thy presence at all times in all places in all company in all conditions in all our callings duties services recreations and imployments that so our consciences may acquit and not condemn us Let us prize seek and keep the happinesse peace and comfort of a good conscience more then pleasure plenty prosperity liberty yea then Life And let us fear the plague and torment of a bad Conscience more then Death And since O Lord thou wilt most certainly bring every work unto Judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or evill O give us Grace to fear thee and to keep thy Commandements that so we may both injoy the peace of God here and the God of peace hereafter This grant for his sake who is the Prince of peace and dyed to make our peace with thee thine only Son and our alone Saviour Amen Conscientia est index judex vindex Bona coeli est Porta primitiae Mala damnationis Prodromus Et Gehennae miseriarum principum XXIII Of Life IT is the seed-time both of Grace and Glory 'T is a short craggy thorny narrow way to a sad or joyfull to a blessed or cursed eternity 'T is a tree from which some blooms doe fall in their infancy on which some buds are blasted when but just set in their child-hood from which some green fruits are snatched off in their youth upon which some hang till Manhood and then are violently stricken down or pulled off by the hand of death
matchlesse merits we shall duely pay With zeal and joy until our dying day We have felt the difference 'twixt Law and Lust 'Twixt cruel perjur'd Tyrants and a Just Mild gracious Prince whose love and piety Were his chief crimes Our Faith and Loyalty To CHARLES his Son our hatred shall expresse Of their ingratitude and wickednesse Who murder'd him only for this one thing That they themselves might get above the King This is our cost and sorrow we soon saw For neither Oaths Religion nor Law Could bound or stop their furious ambition Pride Avarice Rebellion or Sedition They rack't us rob'd us hatch't plots to destroy Our Naboth's their good vineyards to enjoy Thus bolted beaten burden'd we had spent Our dayes in slav'ry misery banishment Had we not been free'd and restor'd by thee From Tyrants Traytors to our Liberty When therefore Famous MONK thy body shall Receive a writ of ease to rest from all Those pining cares black dangers palsey fears Which canker and consume our flying years Mirror of men thine Epitaph shall be Sighs tears and groans not varnisht poetrie Not stones but hearts shall make thy monument Which will indure till time it self be spent And thus those seeds which thou this year didst sow Will root live sprout and till the last day grow Two harvests thou shalt reap honour in this And in the next World endlesse joy peace blisse On thy rare Tomb this shall be writ Here lies th' Elixir of all wit The summe the map the Quintessence Of Prudence Loyalty Sapience Englands Saviour and Renown Who gave his Soveraign his Crown And would not snatch it as his own Although he might have climb'd the Throne A world of wonders was this man A Caesar Souldier Christian A Son of Mars and yet a †He is an exception to that too general rule Nulla â—ides pietas que viris qui castra sequuutur Saint Who lov'd colours but loath'd paint Rich and Righteous good and great The pillar of our Church and State A scourge to Rebels friends to those That were not the Kings traitrous Foes Most valiant yet durst not draw His sword against King Oaths or Law Known unto none yet known by all To free three Kiâ—gdomes from their Thrall Though others scrambled for Empire He only did t' obey aspire Phanatiques he id dissipate Because both truth and peace they hate Lambert and 's Locusts he o'rethrew Yet did not fight that bloudy crew By stratagems he made them yield With words not swords he won the field The maul of errors Heresies Which do bemist and dim the eyes Of those that follow false new lights Until they lose their Fame Faith Sights He was like subtile Fabius By wise delaies he saved us Religious pure and lovely Face Which Bloud and Treason did disgrace Spot and deform he did make fair And beautiful For the right heir Of our late King the best of Men He restored to 's Diadem He woo'd agreed and Marryed Great Britain to her Sacred Head Whom fraud and Force had severed From his true Spouse and Royal Bed This is a little All the rest Of him by silence will be best Expressed who did far excel Whatever Wit or words can tell But hark Me thinks I hear some call and say Down with these common stones throw them away MONK cannot die He therefore needs no verse T'embalm his Name or to adorn his Hearse Nor yet to give a Tomb a tongue to tell Whose dust in that dark silent house doth dwell His true Allegiance and Piety Will make him live to all eternity 'T is true I 've done But will not cease to pray May England have a MONK until doomâ—-day Amen T. â— Upon the Happy Safe and miraculous return of our Sacred Soveraign CHARLES II. to his Scepter Citie and Subjects on the XXIX day of May 1660 A short Loyal and Cordial Congratulatory POEM WElcome great King of Hearts We 've had all night E're since we wanted thy refulgent light Who art our only Sun plagues curses warrs Oppression Rapine Ruine Faction Jarrs Bonds bloud confusion woe's calamities Gaols gibbets axes plunder Heresies Have been the sad but just effects of those Black crimes and bloudy paths too many chose Lov'd and resolv'd to tread We now do see At once the want and worth of Mornarchiâ— Our Law peace safety properties and all Our comforts were eclipsed by the fall Of glorious CHARLES yea kill'd nad buried With him for them and us who lost his head But thy miraculous Return doth give A resurrection to them for they live Again by thy reviving influence Whose presence quickens them The sight and sense Of this choice mercy unto us shall be Both cords and chains of faithfulnesse to thee And love praise thanks to our good gracious God Who hath destroy'd our Serpents burn't his Rod. Thy safe arrival makes a joyful spring The Heavens weep for joy to see our King Since thou didst rise and guild our Hemisphere With thy bright beams no ominous cloud appear Those beasts of prey that hunted to have fed O' th sheep and Shepherd too are all now fled Our day is unto them a dismal night Their dark deeds make them fear hate shun the light Peace plenty gladnesse triumphs do expresse And prove our Loyalty our happinesse Men earth air water fire do all agree To guard obey feast honour welcome thee Our pangs are gone The twenty ninth of May Wee 'l therefore call Englands happy Birth-day Thy people had hard labour swoonings cries Cares faintings fears watred with weeping eyes Did burden rack afflict them till they saw Their Child and Father the true spring of Law Justice and power to their longing arms Brought and deliver'd without bloud or harms But now they have forgot their Throws and sing Being safely brought to bed of a brave King Whose vertues are too big for art prose verse To limn to hold or fully to rehearse Whose life 's a miracle whose patience Is truly wonderful whose innocence Suffrings sobriety desire of peace His enemies and comforts did increase A King yet without Subjects rich yet poor Born to a Throne yet cast upon the floor By Rebels hands who threw their Soveraign down To raise themselves and to usurp his Crown Forc't into 'th Field of war ' mongst enemies Abroad at home he was who to surprize And kill him did pray plot fight pay combine Though by all Laws both humane and divine They were forbidden those hellish horrid crimes Which Christians durst ne'r act in former times The weapons which they us'd for their defence Being only pray'rs tears flight obedience Depriv'd he was of Friends rest means by those That profest Loyalty but were deadly Foes His guard was dangers his associates Want fear distresse dishonour his estate Was seized and divided for this end T' increase rebellious numbers to defend Their theft and sacriledge with Gun and Sword Against their Oaths our Laws his right Gods word And which is more they voted to repeal Null and prohibit what God doth reveal To be his will Law and command to all We might nor pay nor pray but for his Fall 'T was death and treason made by them to do What Reason Conscience Scripture binds us to Thus we may see how wickednesse proceeds From evil thoughts to words from words to deeds Black as the place where all such shall remain Without repentance in horrors and pain Fire-brands and Rebels being condemn'd to dwell By a just God in endlesse flames in hell But all these blows did hew polish and square Thee for Gods Temple Great afflictions are The road to Heaven physick wholesome food Which God prescribes and gives his for their good Prosperity us surfeits crosses cure The potion's bitter the effect both sweet and sure Love power mercy have refined thee And brought thee out o' th furnace for to be A praise to God a blessing to this Land Which was consumed by his angry hand His dispensations are just gracious rare No age or story can with those compare Which he hath showred on thy Royal Head Since miracles did cease and go to bed On that same day where thou didst first see Light He did restore thee to thy Throne and Right Armies excluded Armies brought thee in A Rump was guilty of that odious Sin Thy sad exile a Loyal Parliament Did call thee home from thy long banishment The City fed those flames that did consume Our peace the City also did perfume Their streets with loyall Fires and put out The stinking â—aggots of the new-light Rout. Petitions mov'd that murder might be done On our â—ust King Addresses begg'd his Sonne Might be restored to this benighted Ile Which hath been a dark Egypt all this while Our crimes depriv'd us of our Soveraign The sins of Rebels and their frantick Train Together with the cries of pious men Prevail'd with God to give 's a King agen That King by whom all other Kings do raign Did pilot thee over the dangerous Main Those envious gusts which two daies hindered Thy passage to 's in traiterous Lungs were bred The Ships the Sea the wind that fill'd the sailes With which in which ore which with prosprous gales Thou didst then sail they were the Prayers Tears And hearts of pious Subjects whose great â—ears Sorrows and dangers are now vanished And by thy happy presence banished But terrors anguish hotly do pursue And sting that bloudyâ— painted faithlesse crew Whose consciences and matchlesse Villanies Tell them their guilt and future miseries What 's got by sin doth seldome long endure Justice is sometimes slow but always sure We 've seen the spring the summer and the fall The birth growth rise ruine and death of all Their wicked plots Let 's therefore strive to be Such Subjects and such Christians that we May joyn Allegiance unto Piety As Debt and Duty to his Majesty Since fearing God and honouring the King Will peace and happinesse to England bring And let none have so much as one good day That will not heartily boch say and pray God save the KING Amen T. G.
Claudius was murdered by Agrippina his wife with that meat mixed by her with poison which he most and best loved So those sins wherein the wicked do most delight and please themselves will certainly if they do not get their pardon in this life both poyson and kill their souls T is a truth equally sad apparent and prodigious that there is no Creature in the world so mercilesse or mischievous to its self as a wicked man is For it is an e Bed Axiom ex Arist lib. 2. phys Axiome in Philosophy Idem non agit corruptionem sui ipsius nisi per accidens Every thing naturally either desireth or tends to its own preservation perfection and felicity But an impious profane Man yea every impenitent sinner doth deliberately contrive cunningly plot diligently seek industriously pursue and most laboriously yea indefatigably indeavour to ruine both his body and soul for ever He is a Wolf a Devill to himself for he is his own adversary his own tempter as well as to others Since he spends much time useth many means spares for no cost and takes very great pains to go to Hell So that f Camerar Hist medit lib. 1. p. 29. what the Common Souldier said unto Marius who was in his youth a Cutler but afterwards an Emperour when he slew him This is with the sword which thy self hast made God men Conscience and Satan may yea will one day say to every impenitent sinner This sin of thine thy pride hypocrisie drunkenness thy profaneness uncleaness worldlyness c. which thou hast in thy youth and life committed is the sharp glittering sword with which the Lord of Hosts doth now pierce thy hardened heart through with sorrow and kill thy sinfull soul T is the sole object of Gods eternall hatred Deo nihil est invisum odiosum execrabile nisi malum It 's a spiritual Gangraena which if it be not cured by hearty repentance will provoke the Lord to cut the soul off with the sharp Revenging axe of Justice and the two-edged sword of wrath from the body of Jesus Christ What the Jews said of the golden Calf g Godw. Jew Antiq. lib. 4. p. 175. No punishment befalleth thee Israel in which there is not an Ounce of this Calf is most true of sin it being certain that both temporall punishments spiritual judgments and eternall torments are procured by it and that they have been are and will be inflicted by the Lord upon those that are wicked as the just reward and deserved wages of iniquitie because sin like Goliah comes alwaies with an Army of Philistines with woes miseries curses and troubles in the rear of it And if men will suffer or rather combine with and help Satan to pinion themselves with the Cords of iniquitie God will also in his owne time bind them with the fetters of afflictions and hang them up as Spectacles of his just fury in the Chains of Damnation The counsell therefore of Otho 2. ought to be our practise Pacem inquit cum omnibus habe bellum cum vitiis because we cannot make our peace with God nor injoy that peace of God which passeth all understanding unlesse we wage war and maintain a couragious constant fight till death against sin Satan and our selves If we would have the Lord our friend and love us we must be enemies to and hate implacably every wicked way and every evill thing * Matth. 5 7. If we mourn for sin here we shall rejoyce hereafter but if we rejoyce in sin here * Job 20. 5. we shall †grieve hereafter because the short empty deceitful pleasures of sin which are but like the colours in the Rainbow pleasures in appearance only not in truth or reality in the end will sting and fill the heart with unspeakable yea unconceivable horror and sorrow for sin is neither h Socrates Epist 7. a gainful nor an honorable nor a pleasant thing but the greatest calamitie in the world Although then the distempered palat's of wicked men may at their first drinking a sugared draught of sinful delights tast some * Sin is like the River Atheneus whose upper waters were sweet grateful both towards the bottome brackish pleasantnesse and honey therein yet they will be sure to relish and find bitternesse yea gall and wormwood at the bottome of the Cup. Besides they cannot satisfie but they will satiate them and as at the first they will be sick of Love so ere long they will be sick of loathing like * 2 Sam. 13. 15. 27. Amnon even those dearest fairest Tamars on which but even now they so passionately doted For like the bloudy Sword of cruel war it will be bitrernesse in the end The Devill like a cunning cruell Master at first useth his Servants with seeming kindnesse and bids them welcome he will not crosse displease or deny them any thing nor in any thing but when he hath once got them into his workhouse and ingaged them in his service then the condition of an Isralite in Aegypt or a Galley slave in Turkey or of a Christian in the Inquisition is infinitely more desirable and comfortable then theirs When Satan first tempts men and women to drudge for him to sin he perswades them that the evill which he would have them act is so little veniall inconsiderable that it hath no danger in it and that they shall not fail to find and receive either delight advantage or advancement or all for he hides his deadly hook with such baits as he by his long experience finds are the likelyest to be swallowed by those he desires to catch and resolves to kill by the committing of it and by this pulley he drawes them with this screw he turns and winds them up to presume In this hood put over the eies of their mind he leads them blindfold quietly easily and securely to the very brink of the bottomlesse pit for they go with him as that more then foolish young wanton did with his unchast minion †Prov 7. 22. Even as a Beast goeth to the slaughter or as a foole to the correction of the stocks But when this bloudy Gaoler hath hung and lockt so many Irons upon his jocund fearlesse muffled miserable Captives that he is confident they cannot break Prison nor make an escape then he awakens them with thunder and represents their wofull condition in the most grisly terrible dreadfull form which he with all his skil and spite is able unto them suggesting and telling them That their sins are got above Gods mercy being too great to be pardoned that since they have chosen him for their master damnation must be their wages that since they have given him the flowr of their youth God will never accept the bran of their age that the day of Grace is ended and the door of mercy shut therefore it is in vain either to work or knock that their sins have made them like
stubble fully dry therefore God wil be a consuming fire to them that they have walked so far and so long in the broad way of death that it 's now too late to turn into the narrow way of life that their iniquities have made them too filthy for Gods pure eyes to pity them that they have turned a deaf care to their Makers commands and therefore he will not now hear their cries that they have both lockt and bolted the iron doors of their hearts against Christ and therefore God will not open the gate of mercy to them that they have sinned against infinite love admirable patience glorious light c. and therefore the Lord will now in fury both pour out the fullest vials of his dreadfull wrath upon them and cast their souls into utter darknesse that they have troden the precious bloud of Jesus Christ under their profane feet and therefore God will never set a Crown of glory on their heads that they have chosen to have their portion in this world and therefore God will not give them an inheritance in Heaven With these and such like Milstones of temptation which he strives to hang about the necks of their guilty awakened amazed perplexed consciences he both endeavours and hopes to sink and drown their souls in the Dead sea of despair For our groans are the Devils musick our sins his Banquet our sufferings his solace our torments his pleasure our sorrow his Joy our evills his doth desire and satisfaction our wickednesse his very wisâ— our destruction his delight and our eternal ruine his Triumph And our sins are those murdering peeces wherewith this politick cunning active cruell enemy of mankind both wounds and kils so many immortal souls They are the wheels of that Chariot wherein this Prince of the Aire rideth triumphing up and down the World over vanquished captivated murdered men and women They are the Rocks and quick-sands which split and swallow up so many millions of precious souls It is then a dear bargain when men purchase a few empty transient delights with infinite endless pain grief torments when they sell heaven and their souls to buy Hâ—ll yet thus do all wicked profane persons Breve est quod delectat aeternum quod cruciat for impenitent sinners shal be alwaies burning in streams and drowning in flames without all hope or possibility of ever being either drowned or consumed Those that are truly wise will therefore fear Sinne. But a fool for so the wisest of men * Prov. 1. 7. 32. Solomon calls every one that is wicked makes a mock at it sports with it and like one that I have read of Joco venenum bibit serio mortem obiit He drinks the poysoned waters of sin in jest but murders his own soul in earnest And as i Julius Caesar was killed with daggers Fabius was cheaked with an hair some have been killed with a plumbstone and others have been choakâ—d with a bit of Châ—ese And the lâ—ast sin without Râ—pentance will be deadly to the soul because it 's an essence and contempt done and committed against an infinite puâ—e holy just God Cleopatra killed her self with a little serpent called Apis So wicked men do destroy themselves not only with great Scarlet and gross sins but with little ones also because the soul may be strangled with cords of vanity as well as with the Cart-ropes of iniquitie And the greatest wisest man in the world if wicked will or however hath just cause when he dies to say as Nero did Heu qualis Artifeâ— pereo since if he be not rich in grace and wise to salvation in this life at his death he will find himself to have been the veriest Idiot and the poorest Lazar that ever had a being upon Earth What was said of Domiâ—ian namely That all those evils which were scattered in others met and were united in him is most true of sin it being that Ocean from which all those streams of miserie and mischief flow which over whelm and destroy the ungodly If sin reign the man is dead since Grace and sin like Mezentius his couples cannot live together Like light and darknesse Heaven and Hell they are irreconcileable so that what was at first said of those two Princes Conradine of Sicily and Charles of Anjou and afterwards k Camden Annal. of Q. Elizabeth lib. 2. p. 142. applied to Elizabeth Queen of England and Mary Queen of Scots The death of Mary is the Life of Elizabeth and the Life of Mary the death of Elizabeth is most true of them for the life of piety is the death of iniquity and the life of impiety is the death of Sanctity and the Soul Besides all this both danger and misery to which a wicked person renders himself obnoxious by his sins enough one would think to rouse affright and humble the most Atheistical wretch in the world every impenitent transgressor doth yet add more fewell to the fire of Gods wrath and more weight to the already insupportable burden of his sins by his ingratefull injurious dishonourable undervaluing of Christ for he prefers Barabbas before Jesus his lusts before his Lord and which is a crime both most horrible and abominable Satan that roaring lyon who seeks daily to devour him before his Saviour the Lyon of the tribe of Judah who laid down his life to deliver him For Christ commands and he rebels Christ woo's and he will not love Christ knocks and he will not open the door to him but now let the Devill call and he will run let the Devill perswade and he will obey let the Devill knock by a temptation and he will let him in either at the gate or window and rather then he shall be kept out his ears eyes mouth heart and all shall be unlockt for him His condition is most sad and woful for bloudy cut-throats are got into his house his heart yet he fears no danger he is mortally sick yet he feels no pain death stands at the door and destruction is ready to come over his Threshold and yet he sayes Soul take thine ease Nihil enim est miserius misero se non miserante Let then all unholy ungratious men and women consider that if they do live and dye on earth fast asleep in a sinful * Quisquis desolationem non novit nec Consolationem agnoscere potest et quisquis ignorat consolationem esse necessariam super est ut non habeat gratiam Dei Inde est quod homines seculi negotiis flagitiis implicati dum miseriam non sentiunt â—o attendum misericordiam Bern. security their souls will most certainly awaken in Hell in unavoydable never dying misery for if impiety and impenitency be the praemises eternal damnation both of body and soul will be the conclusion Peâ—â—atum puniendum est aut ate aut a deo si punitur ate tunc punitur sine te si vero non punitura te tecum punietur To