Selected quad for the lemma: enemy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
enemy_n	david_n	hand_n	saul_n	2,591	5	9.7819	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61120	Kaina kai palaia Things new and old, or, A store-house of similies, sentences, allegories, apophthegms, adagies, apologues, divine, morall, politicall, &c. : with their severall applications / collected and observed from the writings and sayings of the learned in all ages to this present by John Spencer ...	Spencer, John, d. 1680.; Fuller, Thomas, (1608-1661)	1658 (1658)	Wing S4960; ESTC R16985	1,028,106	735

they serve them to little other purpose then as Salt to keep their bodies from stinking Honour and Greatnesse the Vanity of them IT was foretold to Agrippina Neroe's Mother that her Son should be Emperour and that he should afterward kill his own Mother to which Agrippina replyed Occdat modò imperet Let my Son be so and then let him kill me and spare not So thirsty was she of Honour Alas what are swelling Titles but as so many rattles to still Mens ambitions And what is Honour and Greatnesse in the World Honour is like the Meteor which lives in the Ayre so doth this in the breath of other Men It 's like a gale of Wind which carries the Ship sometimes this Wind is down a Man hath lost his Honour and lives to see himself intombed sometimes this Wind is too high How many have been blown to Hell while they have been sailing with the Wind of popular applause So that Honour is but magnum nihil a glorious fancy Acts 25. 23. It doth not make a Man really the better but often the worse For a Man swel'd with Honour wanting Grace is like a Man in a dropsy whose bignesse is his disease Present Time to be well husbanded AS it is observed of the Philosopher that fore-seeing a plentifull year of Olives he rented many Olive-yards and by that demonstrated that a learned Man If he would aim at worldly gain could easily be a rich Man too It is noted as an excellent part of Wisedome to know and manage time to husband time and opportunity For as the Rabbi said Nemo est cui non sit hora sua Every Man hath his hour and he who overslips that season may never meet with the like again The Scripture insists much upon a day of Grace 2 Cor. 6. 2. Heb. 13. 15. The Lord reckons the times which passe over us and puts them upon our account Luk. 13. 7. Rev. 2. 21 22. Let us therefore improve them and with the impotent persons at the pool of Bethesda to step in when the Angel stirs the water Now the Church is afflicted it is a season of prayer and learning Mic. 6. 9. Esay 26. 8 9. Now the Church is inlarged it is a season of praise Psalm 118. 24. I am now at a Sermon I will hear what God will say now in the company of a learned and wise Man I will draw some knowledg and counsell from him I am under a Temptation now is a fit time to lean on the name of the Lord Esay 50. 10. I am in place of dignity and power Let me consider what it is that God requireth of me in such a time as this is Esth. 4. 14. And thus as the Tree of life bringeth fruit every Moneth Rev. 22. 2. so a wise Christian as a wife husbandman hath his distinct employments for every Month bringeth forth his fruit in its season Psalm 1. 3. Frequent Meditation of Death the great benefit thereof IT is said of Telephus that he had his Impostume opened by the dart of an Enemy which intended his hurt Roses they say are sweetest which grow near unto Garlick so the nearnesse of an Enemy makes a good Man the better And therefore the wise Roman when Carthage the Emulous City of Rome was destroyed said Now our affairs are in more danger and hazard then ever before When Saul Davids Enemy eyed and persecuted him this made him walk more circumspectly pray more trust in God more He kept his mouth with a bridle while the wicked were before him Psalm 39. 1. An hard knot in the Wood drives a Man to the use of his Wedges A malitious Enemy that watcheth for our halting will make us look the better to our wayes And so it is that Death by the nearnesse thereof and by the frequent meditation thereupon makes us more carefull of our great accompt more sollicitous to make our peace with God to wean our hearts from Worldly and perishing comforts to lay up a good Foundation for the time to come that we may obtain eternal life to get a City which hath Foundations whose builder and maker is God The great difference betwixt life naturall and life Spirituall THe ordinary Manna which Israel gathered for their daily use did presently corrupt and breed worms but that which was laid up before the Lord the hidden Manna in the Tabernacle did keep without putrefaction So our life which we have here in the Wilderness of this World doth presently vanish and corrupt but our life which is kept in the Tabernacle our life which is hid with Christ in God that never runs into Death Naturall life is like the River Iordan empties it self into the dead Sea but spirituall life is like the waters of the Sanctuary which being shallow at the first grow deeper and deeper into a River which cannot be passed thorow Water continually springing and running forward into eternall life So that the life which we leave is mortall and perishing and that which we go unto is durable and abounding Joh. 10. 10. Men not to hasten their own Deaths but submit to the Will of God And why so IT is observeable that when of late years Men grew weary of the long and tedious compasse in their Voyages to the East-Indies and would needs try a more compendious way by the North-West passage it ever proved unsuccessefull Thus it is that we must not use any compendious way we may not neglect our body nor shipwrack our health nor any thing to hasten Death because we shall gain by it He that maketh hast even this way to be rich shall not be innocent Prov. 28. 20. For our times are in Gods hands and therefore to his holy providence we must leave them We have a great deal of work to do and must not therefore be so greedy of our Sabbath day our rest as not to be contented with our working day our labour Hence is it that a composed frame of Heart like that of the Apostles Phil. 1. 21. wherein either to stay and work or to go and rest is the best temper of all Assurance of Gods Love the onely Comfort IT is commonly known that those who live on London Bridge sleep as soundly as they who live at White-Hall or Cheapside well knowing that the Waves which roar under them cannot hurt them This was Davids case when he sang so merrily in the Cave of Adullam My heart is fixed my heart is fixed I will sing and give praise Psalm 57. 7. And what was it that made him so merry in so sad a place He will tell you vers 1. where you have him nestling himself under the shadow of Gods loving wings of Protection and now well may he sing care and fear away Thus it is that a Man perswaded and assured of Gods love unto him sings as merrily as the Nightingale with

we sing Laudate Dominum omnes gentes Praise the Lord all ye Nations Then the Name of Christ was an oyntment kept close in a box but now it is an oyntment poured out And lastly then the Church was a Garden enclosed a Fountain sealed up but now it is a springing Well that overflowes the World to renew it as Noah's floud did to destroy it The Company of Wicked Men to be avoided IT was once the Prayer of a good Gentlewoman when she was to die being in much trouble of Conscience O Lord let me not go to Hell where the Wicked are For Lord thou knowest I never loved their Company here the same in effect though not in the same words was that of holy David Lord gather not my Soul with Sinners Thus if Men would not have their Souls gathered with Wicked Men hereafter they must take heed of joyning with them here Can God take it well at any Mans hands to go and shake hands with his Enemies God himself will not so much as reach out his hand to the Wicked Why then should any of us do so Can we be in any place where we see God dishonoured and sit still as though not concerned therein Certainly the sight of Sin wheresoever or by whomsoever it is committed should cause horror in the Soul it should make us forbear coming into such wretched Company Time mis-spent to be carefully redeemed IT is observable that when Men have mis-spent their youth in Riotous living neglected all means of thriving and prodigally wasted their Estates but coming to riper years and being beaten with the rod of their own experience in the sight of their folly do not onely desist from their former lewd courses but are sorry and ashamed of them and set themselves with so much the more care and diligence to recover and repair their decay'd estates and with the greater earnestnesse use all good means of thriving And he that being to travell about important businesse nearly concerning his life and estate if he have over-slept himself in the Morning or trifled out his time about things of no worth when he sees his error and folly he makes the more haste all the day following that he may not be benighted and so coming short of his journey be frustrate of his hopes And thus must every good Christian do labouring with so much the more earnestnesse after the spiritual riches of Grace and assurance of his Heavenly hope by how much the longer he hath neglected the spiritual thri●t And tra●elling so much the more speedily in the wayes of God by how much the longer he hath deferred his journey and loytered by the way fearing as the Apostle speaketh lest a promise being left of entring into Gods rest he come short of it Heb. 4. 1. Sacriledg the heavy Iudgments of God depending thereon POmpey the Great who is noted by Titus Livius and Cicero to be one of the most fortunate Souldiers in the World yet after he had abused and robbed the Temple of Ierusalem he never prospered but velut unda s●pervenit undam as one wave followeth another so ill successes succeeded to him one on the neck of another till at last he made an end of an unhappy life by a miserable death Many more Examples of the like nature are recorded to posterity To what purpose To forewarn them of the heavy Iudgments that depend upon all Sacrilegers that as the A●k of God could find no resting place amongst the Philistines but was removed from Asdod to Gath from Gath to Ekron and so from place to place till it came to it 's own proper place so shall it be with the goods of Gods Church of what nature soever being wrung out of the Churche's hands by violence Quae malignè contraxit Pater pejori fluxu refundet haeres That which the Father hath so wickedly scraped together the Sonne shall more wickedly scatter abroad and so it shall passe and repasse from one to another untill it be far enough from him and his for whom it was collected so t●at the out-side of all his goodly purchase will be the Iudgment of God against himself and the curse of God to remain upon his Posterity Nothing but Eternity will satisfie the gratious Soul WHen there were severall attempts made upon Luther to draw him back again to the Romish side one proposed a summe of Money to be offered unto him No that will not do sayes another Illa bestia Germanica non curat argentum c. That German beast cares not for money nor any temporal thing whatsoever and so they ceased any further tampering that way Such was the Christian resolution of those Four●y Martyrs under the persecution of Lici●ius the Emperor Anno 300. that when Agricolaus his chief Governour and one of the Devil 's prime Agents set upon them by severall wayes to renounce Christ and at last tempted them with money and preferments they all cryed out with one consent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. O Eternity Eternity Give money that may last ●or 〈◊〉 and glory that may never fade away Nothing but Iesus Christ and him crucified will serve S. Paul's turn And thus it is that nothing but Eternity will satisfie the gratious Soul Let all the World the things of Heaven and Earth present themselves to the Soul by way of satisfaction it will say What are ye Temporal or Eternal If temporal away with them but if they bring Eternity along with them if the Inscription of Eternity be set on them then it closes with them and is satisfied in the sweet enjoyment of them The Ranters Religion IT is reported of the Lindians a People in the Isle of Rhodes who using to offer their Sacrifices with curses and execrable Maledictions thought their unholy holy-Rites were prophaned if that in all the time of the solemnity vel imprudenti alicui exciderit verbum bonum any one of them at unawares should have cast out or let fall one good word Such is the irreligious Religion and desperate carriage of a wretched crew called Ranters whose mouthes are fill'd with cursing and blasphemous speeches and that in such an ●orrid and confused manner as if Pythagoras his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were to be credited a Man would think Rabshekah's Soul had been transported into their bodies their Dialect being alike Divellish their language semblable Flatterers to be avoided WHen Xerxes with his multitudinous Army marched towards Greece and asked of his Friends What they feared most and one said That when the Greeks heard of his coming they would fly away before he could come near them another said He feared the ayr had not room enough for the arrowes of his Army another feared All Greece was not sufficient to quarter his Souldiers in And then Damascerus the Philosopher said He feared that all those Parasites would deceive him And no

place Who that is not Royall should seek in honour to precede them How Enemies are to behated IF a Generall of an Army laying siege to some great Fort or Castle and being upon the storming of it the guns from off the walls playing fiercely upon him should do abundance of execution were it not madnesse in him upon goining of the place to cast away those guns It were so VVhat doth he then He le ts flie at the gunner that fired them but preserves the guns as serviceable for himself Thus must we deal with our enemies They abuse us they evilly entreat us they spitefully use us they seek to destroy us and utterly to ruine us What shall we hate them abuse them again No we must love them and do good unto them preserve the guns but destroy the gunner love their persons they may be afterwards instrumentall to Gods glory but hate their vices that will be the undoing of our souls This is that perfect hatred wherewith David hated his enemies Psal. 139. 22. The great good which commeth by Enemies IT was the saying of Socrates that every man in this life had need of a faithfull friend and a bitter enemy the one to advise him the other to make him look about him In dealing with a friend a man is often deceived but if he have to do with an enemy then he is wary of his proceedings and placeth his words discreetly Hence is it that much good comme●h by enemies and a good use may be made of them They are the workmen that fit us and square us for God's building they are the rods that beat off the dust and the skullions that scoure off the rust from our souls Were it not for enemies how could we exercise those excellent graces of love and charity of patience and brotherly kindnesse Had it not been for enemies where had been the crown of Martyrdom Yet further Enemies are the fire that purgeth the water that cleanseth the drosse and filthinesse of our hearts Much every way is the good that commeth by enemies if we make a right use of them Prayers for the Dead unavailable LOok but upon one that plaies a game at bowles how no sooner than he hath delivered his bowle what a screwing of his body this way and that way what calling doth he make after it that it may be neither short nor over nor wide on either side but all in vain the bowl keepeth on his course and reacheth to the place not where the mind but the strength of the bowler sent it Thus it is with those that pray for the dead they pray and call unto God and sing Requiems and Diriges for the soules of men departed that they may be sent into Purgatory not Hell a course altogether unwarrantable unavailable For as the body is laid down in the dust so the soul is gone to God that gave it there to receive according to the deeds done here in the flesh whether it be to life or death eternall Knowledge without Practice reproved IT is by some observed that the Toad though otherwise an ugly venemous creature yet carries a pretious stone in his head which for the excellent vertues thereof is worn in gold-rings and otherwise Such Toads such ugly creatures are most of men they have the excellent jewell of Knowledge in their heads they can speak well O but they act ill they live not according to that knowledge their life and conversation is rotten and infectious to the whole neighbourhood about them Blamelessnesse of life enjoyned A Certain Roman the windowes of whose house being so very low that every one which passed by might easily see what was done within being profered by a workman at such a rate to make his windowes higher and so more private replyed I had rather give thee as much again to let them alone for I do nothing in my house but what I care not who knowes it And such an one ought every good Christian to be so to carry himself as that he need not blush to tell his very thoughts if he were asked of them and so to demean himself as if he had pectus fenestratum a glasse-window in his bosom that every one might read his mind there The tedious length of Law-suits AS Ioshua said of the building of Iericho He shall lay the foundation thereof in his first-born and in his youngest son shall he set up the gates there of So there may be a Suit at Law commenced in the birth of our first-born and yet our youngest son shall not see the gates thereof that is the end of it The true Christians safety in danger VVHen the Grecians had won Troy before they fell to plunder it they gave every man leave to bear his burthen out of what he would and first of all AEneas marched out carrying his houshold gods which when they saw and that he did them no great dammage thereby they bad him take another burden which he did and returned with his old father A●chises on his back and his young son Ascanius in his hand which the Grecians seeing passed by his house as Ioshua did by the house of Rahab saying That no man should hurt him that was so religious And thus that man that hath his mind set on his God shall receive no hurt by his enemy When his waies please the Lord his very enemies shall become his friends Nay he shall be in league with the stones of the field and the beasts of the wood shall be at peace with him And which is yet more God will break the bow and the sword and snap the spear assunder He will make all those terrible instruments of war so unserviceable that they shal lie down quietly by him not offering the least hurt that may be Godlinesse the best friend SUppose a man be cast in prison for some notorious crime and is thereupon sentenced to death he sends for one of his friends intreating him to sue to the King for a pardon He answers He cannot do it This he will do for him he will give him a winding-sheet and a coffin Then he sends to another he tells him All that he can do for him is to see him buried But a third goes to the King and gets a pardon for him Even so riches they can do nothing for us but give us a winding-sheet and a coffin and our friends they can onely see us buried But Godlinesse is the true fast-friend at a dead lift that gets us a pardon for our sins having the promise both of this life and that which is to come When the Hypocrite is discovered AS long as the Hedge-hog lies on the dry ground she showes nothing but her prickles but put her into the water then she showes her deformity Thus an hypocrite so long as he is on the dry ground of prosperity

to be as tickle as Eli's stool from which he may easily break his neck that he must drink wormwood in a cup of gold and lie in a bed of Ivory upon a pillow of thorns so that he may well say of his glory as one said of his roab O nobilem magis quam felicem pannum or as Pope Urban said of his Rochet That he wondered it should be so heavy being made of such light stuff Prayer turning Earth into Heaven IT is said of Archimedes that famous Mathematician of Syracuse who having by his Art framed a curious Instrument that if he could but have told how to fix it it would have raised the very foundations of the whole Earth Such an Instrument is Prayer which if it be set upon God and fixed in Heaven it will fetch Earth up to Heaven change earthly thoughts into heavenly conceptions turn flesh into spirit metamorphose nature into grace and earth into heaven To passe by the offences of our Brethren DAvid was deaf to the railings of his enemies and as a dumb man in whose mouth were no reproofs Socrates when he was abused in a Comedy laughed at it when Polyargus not able to bear such an indignity went and hanged himself Augustus sleighted the Satyrs and bitter invectives which the Pasquills of that time invented against him and when the Senate would have further informed him of them he would not hear them Thus the manlier any man is the milder and readier he is to passe by an offence as not knowing of it or not troubled at it an argument that there is much of God in him if he do it from a right principle who bears with our infirmities and forgives our trespasses beseeching us to be reconciled When any provoke us we use to say We will be eeven with him but there is a way whereby we may not onely be even but above him and that is forgive him We must see and not see wink at small faults especially Qui nescit dissimulare nescit vivere may with some grains of allowance passe current He that cannot dissemble is not fit to live Kingdomes and Common-wealths their successions from God THe Romans closing in with that permanent errour of Mankind to mistake the Instruments and secundary Agents in Gods purposes for the main Efficient were wont variously to distinguish the derivation of their Empire as by force so Iulius Caesar was invested by the Senates election so Tiberius by the Souldiers so Severus and by Inheritance so Octavius Augustus But most true it is that to what means soever they imputed their Emperours were it Birth or Election Conquest or Usurpation 't is God who gives the Title to Kingdoms and Commonweales by the first and it is he also that directs and permits it by the last The whole Heart to be given to God SOme great King or Potentate having a mind to visit his Imperiall City the Harbinger is ordered to go before and mark out a house suitable to his Retinue and finding one the Master of that house desireth to have but some small chamber wherein to lodge his wife and children It is denyed Then he intreats the benefit of some by-place to set up a Trunk or two full of richer goods then ordinary No saies the Harbinger it cannot be for if your house were as big again as it is it would be little enough to entertain the King and all his royall train Now so it is that every mans body is a Temple of God and his heart the sanctum sanctorum of that Temple His Ministers are sent out into the world to inform us that Christ is comming to lodge there and that we must clear the rooms that this great King of glory may enter in O saies the Old man carnall yet but in part renewed give me leave to love my wife and children No it cannot be having wife and children he must be as having none Then he desires to enjoy the pleasures of the world That 's denyed too he must use this world as if he used it not not that the use of these things is prohibited not that the comfortable enjoyment of our dearest relations is any way to be infringed but the extraordinary affection to them when they come into competition with the love that we owe unto God For he will have the whole heart the whole minde the whole soul and all little enough to entertain him and the graces of his holy Spirit which are attendant on him Nec mihi nec tibi sed dividatur was the voice of a strange woman and such is that of this present world But God will take nothing to halfs he will have the whole heart or nothing The good Christians comfort in time of the Churches trouble MArtin Luther perceiving the cause of the Church to go backward puts pen to paper and writes to the Elector of Saxony where amongst other expressions this was one Sciat Celsitudo tua mhil dubitet c. Let your Highnesse be sure that the Church's businesse is far otherwise ordered in Heaven than it is by the Emperour and States at Norimberg And Gaudeo quod Christus Dominus est c. I am glad that Christ is King for otherwise I had been utterly out of heart and hope saith holy Myconius in a letter to Calvin upon the view of the Church's enemies Thus it staggers many a good Christian at this day to see Sion in the dust the Church under foot the hedge of government and discipline broken down all the wild beasts of Heresie and Schism crept in such as labour to root out true Religion to dethrone Christ and to set up the idle fancies and enthusiasticall conceits of their own phanatick brains some crying out against the Church with those Edomites Down with it down with it even to the very ground others casting dirt upon her harml●sse ceremonies But let the Churches friends rest assured that God sees and smiles and looks and laughs at them all that the great counsell of the Lord shall stand when all 's done that Christ shall reigne in the midst of his enemies and that the stone cut out of the mountains without hands shall bring down the golden Image with a vengeance and make it like the chaff of the summer floor Dan. 2. 35. The sad condition of People under Tyrannicall Government IT was a just complaint of Draco's Lawes in Lacedemonia that their execution was as sanguin as their character for they were written in bloody letters And the Romans lamented the cruelty of those Tribunalls where the cheap proscription of lives made the Iudgement-seat little differ from a Shambles A Man made Offender for a word Poor Men sold for shooes Or as the Turks at this day sell heads so many for an Asper Such is the condition of People under Tyrannicall government under

man from the cold starving Climate of Poverty into the hot Southern Climate of Prosperity and he begins to lose his appetite to good things he grows weak and a thousand to one if all his Religion do not dye but bring a Christian from the South to the North from a rich flourishing estate into a jejune low Condition let him come into a more cola and hungry ayre and then his stomach mends he hath a better appetite after Heavenly things he hungers more after Christ he thirsts more after Grace he eats more of the bread of life at one meal then he did at six before and such a Man is like to live and hold out in the way of Gods Commandements to the end A foul polluted Soul the object of Gods hatred THe rheumatick and spawling Cynick when he was entreated by the dainty Mistresse of the house where he was entertained that he would spit in the foulest part of the house did thereupon very unmannerly spit in the Mistresses own face because that in his opinion it was the foulest Thus as it is the honour of the Holy Omnis decor ab in●ùs to be all glorious within what outward wants soever seem to disgrace them so it is the disgrace of the Worldly Omnis faetor ab intus they are filthy within what outward abundance soever doth seem to honour them God requires truth in the inward parts but alasse we may say truly of these their inward parts are very wickednesse so that when he sees their houses kept neat and clean the floores swept the walls hung the vessels scowred their Apparel brushed their bodies adorned all curiously highted onely their hearts filthy and polluted he will certainly spit his contempt upon that Heart Therefore wash thy heart from iniquity O Ierusalem that thou mayest be saved 2 Kings 9. 12. The high price of the Soul PLato that divine Philosopher travelling to see the wonders of Sicily was upon some discourse had betwixt him and Dionysius the Tyrant apprehended and clapt up in Prison his fact was made capital but by the favour of some near the Tyrant he was adjudged to be sold one Annecerts buyes him layes down twenty pounds and sends him home to Athens Seneca quarrels the price censures Anneceris for undervaluing so worthy a Man ballancing one of such high parts with such a low sum of Money But this censure cannot light upon our Saviour who gave not for the Soul of Man the Earth the Sea the World but that which was of infinite Value even his own dearest bloud Propter Animam Deus secit mundum c. It was for the Souls sake that God made the World And it was for the Souls sake that the Son of God came into the World made himself of no Reputation was like unto man in all things sin onely excepted scorned scourged derided c. and at last submitted himself to Death even the Death of the Crosse Phil. 2. 8. Prosperity for the most part draws Envy to it SHeep that have most Wool are soonest fleeced The fattest Oxe comes soonest ●o the slaughter The barren Tree grows peaceably no Man meddles with the Ash or Willow but the Appletree and the Damosin shall have many rude suiters David a Shepheard was quiet but David a Courtier was pursued by his Enemies Thus it is that Prosperity is an Eye-sore to many and a prosperous condition for the most part draws Envy to it whereas he that carries a lesser sail that hath lesse Revenues hath lesse Envy such as bear up with the greatest Front and make the greatest shew in the World are the White for Envy and Malice to shoot at Liberty the cause of Licentiousnesse IT was a grave and smart answer of Secretary Walsingham a great Statesman of that time when he was consulted by the Queen about the lawfullnesse of Monopoly-Licences Licentiâ omnes deteriores sumus We are all the worse for Licence And most true it is let but the golden raynes of Law and Religion lye any thing loose upon the People shoulders they will soon be licentious enough If the well-compacted hedge of Discipline and Government be broken down neither Church or State shall long want those that will intrude upon their Priviledges and trample all Authority under their feet The Folly of Men in parting with their Souls for trifles WE laugh at little Children to see them part with rich Jewels for silly trifles And who doth not wonder at the Folly of our first Parents that would lose Paradise for an Apple and of Esau that sold his birth-right for a messe of Pottage yet alasse daily experience doth proclaim it that many are so childish to part with such rich and pretious Jewels as their immortal Souls for base unworthy trifles and so Foolish as to lose the coelestial Paradise the kingdome of Heaven for Earthly vanities of whom it may be truely said as Augustus Caesar in another case They are like a Man that fishes with a golden hook the gain can never recompence the losse that may be sustained The spiritual benefit of divine Contentment ZEno of whom Seneca speaks who had once been very rich hearing of a Shipwrack and that all his goods were drowned at Sea Fortune saith he speaking in an Heathen Dialect Iubet me Fortuna expeditiùs Philosophari hath dealt well with me and would have me now to study Philosophy He was content to change his course of life to leave off being a Merchant and turn Philosopher And if an Heathen said thus shall not a Christian much more say When the World is drained from him Iubet Deus mundum derelinquere et Christum expeditiùs sequi God would have me leave off following the World and study Christ more and how to get Heaven to be willing to have lesse gold and more goodnesse to be contented to have lesse of the World so I may have more of Christ to sit down with a little so much as shall recruit Nature and if that fail so that the slender barrel of Provision fall shorter and shorter not to murmure and say with Micah Have ye taken away my gods and do ye ask me What I aile Judg. 18. 24. Hope to be kept up in the midst of all Perplexities PAndora a beautiful Woman as the Poets ●eign was framed by Vulcan to whose making up every god and goddesse gave a contribution They put into the hand of this fair Inchan●resse a goodly box fraught and stuffed with all the Woes and Miseries that might be onely in the bottom of it they placed Hope It was presented to Prometheus but Providence refused it then to Epimetheus and After-wit accepted it Which he no sooner rashly opened but there came out a swarm of Calamities fluttering about his ears This he perceiving clap'd on the cover with all possible speed and so with much ado saved Hope sitting in the bottom Such

as maintain him though he were a Papist in the matter of his Religion yet this unthankfull Fellow went about to betray him to death but the Merchant having escaped his hands meerly out of love to his Soul used all means to be Friends with him again and invited him to his house All this would not do his heart was so embittered that he would shun the way of him and not so much as look at him It fell out so at length that he met him in such a narrow lane that he could not balk him but must needs talk with him The good Merchant takes him to him tells him he was glad he had met with him and wondred that he was grown so strange What said he do you think me your Enemy If I were Could I not crush you with a word speaking Alas I am not offended with you if you be not with me and for all your treachery against me will forgive and forget it These kind words were no sooner spoken but the Cobler melted into tears and falling down upon his knees confessed his villany and repenting of it told him This love of yours shall bind me to you for ever to serve you in all that I may or possibly can This Popish Cobler is the heart of every child of Adam this Royall Merchant is the great God of Heaven this narrow lane is the streight of Conscience beset with sins and curles this kind behaviour is the tender of Grace Let us not then be worse to our poor Souls then the Cobler was to his but break our hearts by Repentance and sorrow for our sins that ever we should offend so good a God so gratious and loving a Master and with Saul to David say Where shall a Man find such love as to spare his Enemy when he had him in his hand and to be content to cut off onely a lap of his garment to correct him here in this World with some temporary Iudgment when he might have cut his throat and cast him into Hell-torments for evermore God raysing up Instruments for the deliverance of his People MEmorable is that Vision of Zachary I lift up mine eyes said the Prophet and saw and behold four horns Chap. 1. vers 18. And the Lord shewed me four Carpenters vers 20. Now what were these four horns What but the Enemies of the Church vers 19. Horns so called for their power and said to be four in reference to the four parts of the World East West North and South from all which they came And what are the Carpenters Why Instruments raised up by God to break and batter those horns to oppose to overthrow that adverse power vers 21. and they are said to be four to import an equality of strength and power Thus when God hath a work to do be it to beat down Babylon or build up Ierusalem he can raise up Carpenters Instruments that shall be sufficient for the work though never so mean yet they shall effect great work Trumpets of Rams horns if they do but blow down go the walls of Jericho with a Vengeance Nay though Instruments fail yet the promise shall not fail though the Carpenters should not strike one stroke yet God hath waies to take off the horns of his enemies though his People should be destitute of all humane protection yet he will find out a way to deliver and secure them no Temptation no crosse no trouble shall so far seize upon them but he will find a way to esape that they may be able to bear it All endeavours to be sanctified by Prayer THere was a certain Husbandman that alway sowed good seed but never could have any good corn at last a Neighbour came unto him and reasoned What should be the cause he sowed so good seed and r●aped so bad corn Why truly said he I give the Land her due good tillage good seed and all things that be fit Why then replyed the other It may be you do not steep your seed No truly said he nor ever did I hear that seed should be steeped Yes surely said the other and I will tell you how It must be steeped in Prayer When the Party heard this he thanked him for his good counsel put it home to his Conscience reformed his fault and had as good corn as any other Man whatsoever Thus it is that if ever we look to have a good improvement of our labours and to have a blessing upon what we undertake we must have recourse unto God by Prayer Otherwise we may trade and trasfick fight and warre and get nothing Nay let us get ever so much it is all in vain because we ask not aright Iam. 4. 2. Universal Obedience unto God injoyned AN Instrument if one onely string be out of tune although the rest be well set yet that one keeps such a jarring and harsh sound that the lesson plaid thereon will relish as unmusically in a skilful ear as if all the strings were out of tune And thus if a Man should abstain from swearing and drunkennesse yet if he were given to lust or if from those three and yet addicted to Covetousnesse it comes all to one reckoning Let every Man therefore look into his bosome sin observe diligently that one jarring string and never leave screwing and winding of it up till it be brought into right tune and if that cannot be effected break it pluck it out For God will have a compleat harmonious consent a resolution for Universal obedience otherwise no acceptance To be more careful for the Body then the Soul reproveable THe Iews have a Story of a Woman that took two Children to nurse the one a very mean deformed crooked blind and not likely to live long the other as goodly a child as may be beautifull well-favoured and likely to be long-liv'd Now this foolish Woman bestowing all her care and diligence pains and attendance upon the worst child never so much as minding the best must needs be ignorant and very foolish in so bad a choyce and of so great neglect Thus it is that the most of Men are herein to be reproved who having taken two Children to nurse their bodies and their Souls and well knowing that the Soul is infinitely far better then the body more beautiful and of longer continuance yet like the foolish Nurse they bestow all their care labour and pains for the worst they make provision for the Flesh pamper up the body which must ere long lye down in the dust and starve the Soul which doth and must live for ever The great danger of Repentance put off till old age HE cannot be otherwise looked on then as a very Unwise Man that having made a burthen of sticks and finding it too heavy for his shoulders should lay it aside and go and cut down more and adde unto it And him little better then a Mad-man that