Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	evil_a	speak_v	treasure_n	3,744	5	10.2424	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57597	Shlohavot, or, The burning of London in the year 1666 commemorated and improved in a CX discourses, meditations, and contemplations, divided into four parts treating of I. The sins, or spiritual causes procuring that judgment, II. The natural causes of fire, morally applied, III. The most remarkable passages and circumstances of that dreadful fire, IV. Councels and comfort unto such as are sufferers by the said judgment / by Samuel Rolle ...	Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678.; Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678. Preliminary discourses.; Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678. Physical contemplations.; Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678. Sixty one meditations.; Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678. Twenty seven meditations.	1667 (1667)	Wing R1877; Wing R1882_PARTIAL; Wing R1884_PARTIAL; ESTC R21820	301,379	534

the thoughts of any such thing Let my only care be to live in my Fathers house and to carry my self alwayes as in his sight and I shall never want a belliful of huskes nor yet have meer husks for thou feedest not thy children like swine wherewith to fill my belly Every thing that is good is not good for me neither is the best of earthly things alwayes best for me no more than the best liquors are for him that is in a feaver Give me to walk in integrity before thee and then I know thou wilt give me every thing that is good for me for thy promise is to give grace and glory and that no good thing wilt thou with-hold from them that walk uprightly Can I expect to eat bread in the Kingdome of God as the phrase is Luke 14.15 and think that God will not give me bread to eat in this World can I believe I shall be one day cloathed upon with an house which it from heaven as it is called 2 Cor. 5.2 and yet think that God will deny me such cloathing as my body stands in need of he hath given life it not that more than meat a body is not that more than raiment Mat. 6.25 he that hath given the greater will he not give that which is less Our Heavenly Father knows we have need of food and raiment whilst we are in this World and cannot live without it vers 32. Lord give me but to trust in thee and to do good and as thou hast said so I believe verily I shall be fed DISCOURSE VI. Of a good conscience being a continual feast HOwever it comes to pass the vulgar and seemingly mistaken quotation of the close of that verse Prov. 15.15 viz. in these words A good conscience is a continual feast sounds much more spiritually and like a saying of the Holy Ghost than doth that translation which is usually given us viz. in these expressions He that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast which they that know no mirth but that which Salomon calls madness will be apt to wrest to a very bad sense The word translated merry is in the Hebrew Tob which signifieth good which is a better word in common acceptation than is the word merry for that is but too liable to an ill construction may I take liberty to alter but that one word and render the Hebrew Text verbatim word for word A good heart a continual feast when we have compared it with the context it wil easily enough appear that the true sense and meaning is that which is generally understood by such a saying as this in that a good conscience is a continual feast For if I mistake not that Proverb is seldom used but by a good conscience is intended a conscience not accusing but excusing not testifying against us but with us and for us a conscience speaking peace and such as is a comfort and a rejoycing to us That Salomon by a good heart doth intend such a conscience as that the opposition in the foregoing words seemeth to imply All the daies of the afflicted are evil but a good heart c. intimating thereby as if good were here opposed to grieved wounded afflicted which interpretation is also countenanced by what followeth ver 16. Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith probably meaning trouble of mind and conscience for the ill geting of it for other kind of trouble there may be where there is but a little and that both gotten and enjoyed in the fear of God And now we know what it is that Solomon here stileth a continual feast we may be able to speak to those who having with Dives fared deliciously every day which now they are not able to do as formerly think it cold comfort to be told of meer food and raiment and would be fain feasting again if they had wherewithall Feast we may and that not only now and then but every day in the year and every hour of the day and upon greater delicacies than any feast commonly so called consists of if we can but get that good conscience Solomon speaks of to feast withall Indeed there is no contentment but a good conscience our bodies admit not of a continual feast but our souls do A full stomack loathes the honey comb But there is no satiety in those dainties which conscience feeds upon much lesse can we surfeit with them As those that have but almost dined feel no troublesome sense of hunger and yet could eat more so a good conscience though it have that already which may suffice yet is alwaies left with a wholsome appetite What can be desired or what is ever enjoyed in a feast but good chear good company good discourse mirth musick now and then as an help to mirth and above all hearty welcome I am deceived if a good conscience do not afford all and every of these Good meats and good drinks are that we count good chear and if our meats and drinks be both for health and delight then do we account them good A good conscience affords both meats and drinks as they may properly enough be called as wholesome and as delightfull as can be wished Meats and drinks such as our bodies feed upon there are none in Heaven Yet something so called there is else why is there mention of eating bread in the kingdome of God Luke 14.15 or why doth Christ speak of drinking of the fruit of the Vine new in the kingdome of his father Mat. 26.29 The bread of comfort the Wine of joy is that which Saints and Angels feast upon in Heaven and the same for kind though not for degree is that of a good conscience It spreads a Table with first second and third course It s presenting us with a well-grounded perswasion of our being delivered from the wrath to come as the Apostle saith we are not appointed to wrath that is as it were the first course it 's witnessing that we are not only not children of wrath which alone would be a great comfort to be assured of but also that we are the children of God as the spirit of God is said to witness with the spirits of Gods children that is the second and then its telling us that it is our fathers pleasure to give us even us a kingdome and causing us to rejoyce in hope of the glory of God that is the third Nor is a good conscience better chear than it is good company As a bad conscience is the worst companion in the World so a good conscience is the very best unless it be God himself He that hath it is many times never less solitary than when he is most alone that is the best company that is both profitable and pleasant and so is a good conscience it hath that property of a good companion amongst others it will finde good and pleasant discourse What Solomon speaks

lavished them upon their pride exhausted them by their luxury spent them upon their uncleanness which as so many Cormorants devoured that which might and ought to have been given to the poor I see then there are moral causes of evil as well as natural and these are some of them He is bruitish that thinks otherwise Do not the ends and interests of men sway the World next to God himself and what are they but moral causes and if such be to be taken notice of why not sin which is more considerable than all the rest Then O yee late Inhabitants of that famous City which is now in ashes as ever you desire it should flourish again repent of your pride fulness of bread abundance of idleness neglect of the poor and abominable uncleanness so many of you as were guilty of all or any of these for all were not and let others mourne over them that have sinned and have not repented that God may repent of the evil which he hath brought upon you and may build up your waste places in his good time Continue not in the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah lest their punishment be either not removed from you or if so again revived upon you MEDITATION II. Of destroying Fire procured by offering strange fire WE read concerning Nadab and Abihu that there went out fire from the Lord and devoured them and they died before the Lord Lev. 10.2 Why that heavy judgment befell those two Sons of Aaron the Saints of the Lord the preceding verse will tell us viz. because they took their censers put incense therein and offered strange fire before the Lord which he commanded them not Their fault was this God had sent down fire from heaven upon his Altar Levit. 9.24 It should seem it was the pleasure of God and doubtless they knew it that his sacrifice which one calls his meat as the Altar his Table should be kindled and prepared with that fire only which by continual adding of suel as need required was to be kept from ever going out as is supposed Levit. 16.10 There 't is said Aaron shall take a censer full of Coales of fire from off the Altar and his hands full of incense and bring it within the vaile Now they presumed to offer incense to God with common fire which came not from the Altar before the Lord and for this they were burnt to death Upon this passage Bishop Hall worthily called our English Seneca reflects thus It is a dangerous thing saith he in the service of God to decline from his own institutions we have to do with a power which is wise to prescribe his own worship just to require what he hath prescribed powerful to revenge that which he hath not required MEDITATION III. Of fire enkindled by murmuring IN Numb 11. the first and third verses I read these words When the people complained it displeased the Lord and the Lord heard it and his anger was kindled and the fire of the Lord burnt amongst them and consumed them that were in the utmost parts of the Camp And he called the name of the place Taberah because the fire of the Lord burnt among them It doth not much concern our present purpose to enquire what the cause of this their murr●uring was which yet is thought to have been want of meat in the Wilderness and thence the place where they were punished to have been called the graves of lust as our Margents do English kiberoth hattaavah neither need we be infallibly resolved what kind of fire it was that God sent amongst them for their murmuring it is all we need observe at the present that they were punished by fire and that murmuring was the sin they were punished for Our punishment I am sure hath been by fire as well as theirs ought we not then to examine whether cur provocation was not much-what by murmuring even as theirs was were we contented when the City was standing yea did we not grumble and repine at one thing or other every day and yet we think we should be more than contented that is to say very thankfull and joyfull if we had but London again if that great City Phenix-like might but rise out of the ashes and our places know us once more It should seem then we had enough then to be contented with and thankfull for but we knew it not as it is said of husbandmen Faelices nimium sua si bona norant If some were in worse condition than formerly would that justify their murmuring were not the Israelites in the Wilderness when they were punished for murmuring and had they not enjoyed a better condition than that in former times Do we murmurers think that men are to blame and was not Shimei to blame when he cursed Daivd and yet David looking higher viz. unto God submissively replied it may be the Lord hath bid him curse me The Robbers and spoilers of Israel were in fault Yet seeing it was God that gave Jacob to the spoile and Israel to the robbers that was reason enough why they should be dumb as a sheep before the Shearer and not open their mouths in any way of murmuring If we so remember our miseries as to forget our mercies if we aggravate our evil things and extenuate our good if we be so vexed and displeased with men as if they were sole authors of all our troubles and as if God who owes and payes us such chastisements had no hand in them If in our hearts we quarrel with God as if he were a hard master and had done us wrong if when we had food and raiment we were not content if when we had something and that considerable and how could our loss have been considerable if our enjoyment had not been so we were as unsatisfied as if we had just nothing If so do not these things plainly prove that we were murmurets many of us and whose experience doth not tell him that these things were so how many things have we repined at that men could not help as namely the pestilence now in such cases it is evident that we have not murmured against men but against the Lord Exod. 16.8 Nay if men be punished far less than their sin● deserve and yet will not accept of that their punishment but fret at him that inflicted it what must we call that but murmuring And was not that our case I had almost said that England even before this fire was so full of discontent whatsoever the cause were as if all the plagues of Egypt had been upon it and how after this i● can swell more without bursting is hard to conceive So little had we learn'd good Eli's note It is the Lord let him do what seemeth good to him Now if the Law of retaliation be burning for ●urning as we read it was Exod. 21.25 How just was it with the great God to send a Fire upon us for our grievous discontents and murmurings Murmurers are full of

persons I have described are past all question useless and meer cumber-grounds like dead trees fit for nothing but to burn I shall not take the boldness to say that England doth and London did abound with such persons as these or that such walking carkasses carried about by that evil spirit that possessed them and did as it were assume them were to be seen every day but whether it were so or no they better know that know London know all England better than I pretend to do And if it were so indeed it is not so much wonder that the houses of such men were burnt as that their persons did escape or that God did not rather consume their persons and spare their houses like Lightning that spares the Scabbard and melts the Sword Sin had made a great part of the inhabitants as much dry wood in one sense as want of rain had made their houses such I marvel not then that so great a Fire approaching such prepared fewel both within and without did so much execution but rather that it did no more May the issue of that dismal Fire which was lately amongst us be the same that husbandmen effect or design in burning their Lands viz. that we as they which before were barren and unprofitable may become useful and fruitful which Lord grant for Christ his sake MEDITATION XI Of the universal Corruption and Debauchery of a people punished by God with Fire I Need not go far from that Text on which I grafted the next preceding meditation To finde another that will plainly prove the universal corruption and degeneration of a people to have as it were inforced God though he be slow to anger and rich in mercy to contend with them by Fire yea and consume them The same Prophet furnisheth me with a large instance in that kind too large to transcribe and therefore I shall rehearse but part of it and refer to the rest For it reacheth from Ezek. 22.19 to the end of the 31 verse Thus saith the Lord because ye are all become dross therefore I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem v. 20. as silver into the midst of a furnace and I will leave you there and melt you v. 22. And ye shall know that I the Lord have poured out my fury upon you That they were all become Dross signifies no more but this that they were universally depraved and debauched as appeareth plainly by that Indictment which is given in against their Priests and Prophets and Princes and common people that is against persons of all ranks and conditions in the sequel of the Chapter The like charge there is to be found Isa 9.27 For every one is an hypocrite and an evil doer and every mouth speaketh folly v. 14. Therefore the Lord will cut off from Israel head and tail branch and rush in one day v. 18. For wickedness burneth as the fire it shall devour the briars and the thorns That is the wicked amongst them the best of which was as a briar or as a thorny hedg It is sad to consider that there have been certain times in which no sort of men have kept themselves pure and unspotted but all have defiled their garments in which the fire of sin hath spread as much more than in other ages as the late Fire upon London spread it self beyond all the Fires that City had known formerly Some time before the destruction of the old world by water it is said that All flesh had corrupted his way Gen. 6.11 and when God was about to rain Fire and Brimstone upon Sodom not ten righteous persons could be found to stand in the gap And a strange challenge it is which God makes Jerem. 5.1 Run through the streets of Jerusalem and see now and know if ye can finde a man if there be any that executeth judgment and seeketh the truth and I will pardon it Is it so with us at this day or is it not Are we universally corrupt and degenerate and debauched or are we not Have all sorts of men corrupted their waies and done abominably or have they not Possibly in this our Sardis there are some few names that have not defiled their garments but alas how few are they and what are so few names to the generality and body of a Nation Are those words of Isaiah applicable to us or not There is no soundness but wounds and bruises and putrifying sores from the sole of the foot even to the head Isa 1.7 and then followeth your Country is desolate your Cities are burnt with Fire Might I take leave to be particular I would say that City and Countrey and Court and Inns of Court and Universities all have exceedingly corrupted their waies what a corruption in judgment hath over-spread us some turning to Socinianism others to Popery others to Atheism yea great and Leviathan-like Atheism How great a corruption is there at this day in the habits gates and gestures of men and women which I would not trouble my self to speak of but that as little a thing as it may seem it is a symptome of great evil within for many times the habits of the mind are signified by those of the body A proud habit and a proud heart a wanton habit and a wanton heart do often if not alwaies meet For what modest woman would put on the attire of an harlot or who cares to make shew of more evil than is really in them and not rather to conceale that which is A modest habit is not so sure a sign of a chaste heart for that may be worn for a cloak of dis-honesty as an immodest habit is of one that is unchaste For what wo●an that is conscious to her own chastity would render her self suspected for a whore It may seem a small matter for sick people to play with feathers and to make babies with their sheets but it is an usual fore-runner and consequently a sign of death So the habits of men and women when they carry with them a great appearance of Pride Levity Wantonness Inconsistency of mind Prodigality Fantastickness Inconstancy do give great jealousie to wise men who can discern much light sometimes through small crevices that the Age or rather persons of this Age do abound with such kind of vices and that there is some kind of Fatallity belonging to it because people use such antick postures and gestures as dying persons are wont to use I wish the fore-mentioned vices had get no neerer men than their skins that they were but skin-deep but as the Itch and such like diseases are first within and then strike out first insect the mass of blood and not till af●erwards the habit and surface of the body ye● and often strike in again and corrupt the blood a second time so it is to be feared that men and women are generally proud and wanton in heart before they are so in habit and become so in habit because they were

else how was Christ heard and delivered as to the cup which he beg'd might pass from him Luke 22.42 Which nevertheless he was made to drink unless his being strengthened to undergoe it as the next verse tells us that then there appeared an Angel from heaven strengthening him as also his being inabled to triumph over principallities upon the Cross as is said Cor. 2.15 might be interpreted an eminent Deliverance vouchsafed him in and upon the Cross I am mistaken if the Apostle Paul in Rom. 7.25 doth not give thanks to God thorough Jesus Christ for delivering him as to the body of Death which yet he carryed about with him and therefore was not delivered from but under it as the foregoing words do shew O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of Death And in 1 Cor. 10.13 the Apostle saith God is faithful who will with the temptation also make a way to escape or to be delivered that ye may be able to beat it seeming thereby to insinuate that Deliverance and Temptation may stand together and do so when a man is not tempted above what he is able but together with the temptation hath assistance to bear it Were not the Israelites delivered in the red Sea Jonas in the great deep and Whales belly Daniel in the Lions den the three children in the fiery furnace I say were they not first truly delivered in each of these as afterwards from and out of them To be kept under water from drowning and in the midst of fire from being burnt is Deliverance with a witness Had the bush that did burn and was not consumed been presently quencht or snatcht out of the fire it had not been so eminently delivered as it was Deliverances under great troubles though least observed by many are of all others most oblervable and Emphaticall what more admirable promise than that Isa 43.2 When thou passest thorough the rivers they shall not overflow thee when thou walkest thorough the fire thou halt not be burnt neither shall the flame kindle upon thee No place can be more pertinent than that is to prove there is such a thing as Deliverance under trouble the notion is worth our pursuing because it is full of Comfort it opens as it were a new spring of consolation to those that are under trouble which many did overlook before as Hagar did those wells of water which were nearest to her Many people have no more joy and comfort than they have hopes of having their losses repaired in kind and their temporal troubles removed and God knows whether that may ever be when they themselves despair of it their hearts faile within them he that thinks himself utterly undone and that it will not be worth while for him to live if London be not suddenly rebuilt trading speedily restored when these things appear unlikely will be at his wits ends but he that knows and believes that God who is onely wise can make him and his happy though London should still lye in ashes and trade not revive in many years to come that God can work a Deliverance for him in and under all publick calamities and in despight of all and every of them he I say will in patience possesse his soul St. Pauls words 1 Cor. 1.4 are much to be heeded where he saith Blessed be God who comforteth us in all our Tribulations he doth not say who delivereth us out of all but who comforteth us in all our Tribulations and what is that but a Deliverance under trouble when God doth comfort us in it If there be such a thing as Deliverance under trouble many may and will rejoyce in the hopes of that who are past all hope though I think that should not be neither of ever seeing an end of their present troubles They look upon Deliverance out of the present calamities to be at so great a distance that they think the steed will starve whilst the grass grows and their carkasses will fall in the wilderness ere the time come for entring into Canaan But now by virtue of the notion I am speaking of though I should grant men of misgiving minds there are as great unlikelyhoods as they can suppose that they should ever re-enjoy such houses trades estates conveniencies as formerly or any thing comparable thereunto yet may they live in a dayly expectation of a comfortable Deliverance with and under those calamities which are like to continue upon them that God together with their temptations will make a way for their escape men so perswaded will be able to say with Habakkuk though the fig-tree blossome not and the labour of the Olive faile yet will or may they rejoyce in the Lord and joy in the God of their Salvation When Paul praved that the Messenger of Sathan which buffetted him might depart God gave him no assurance of that at least-wise for the present but yet told him that which satisfied him though that evil messenger were likely to continue namely that his Grace should be sufficient for him The Israelites knew that their captivity in Babylon would certainly last seventy years Therefore it was not thehopes of a speedy Deliverance from thence that did bear up the hearts of believers amongst them but the hopes they had that God would be good to them in and under their captivity and show them mercy in a strange land If the Israelites knew as it is like they did that they must wander no lesse than sorry years in the wilderness ere they came to Canaan it was the Mercy and Deliverance which they did expect in the wilderness not out of it during all that time that did support them as hoping that in that howling desert God would be no wilderness or Land of Darkness to them If God spread a table for his people in the wilderness if he give them water out of the Rock and Manna from heaven are not those things to be reckoned Deliverances namely from the evils that in such a place they might expect though Quailes should be with-held Though the famine were not removed yet seeing Elijah was sed the mean time though but by Ravens it must be acknowledged that he was delivered in and under famine If to the righteous there arise light in darkness as is promise there shall is not that Deliverance Though Paul and Silas were in prison and their feet in the stocks yet if they were so chearful there as to sing praises to God at midnight Acts 16.25 was not that a grea● Deliverance Surely Paul and others of whom he speakes were greatly delivered even under chastisement sorrow poverty and a kind of Death yea Deaths often or else he could ever say as he doth 2 Cor. 6.9.10 As dying and behold we live as sorrowfull yet alwaies rejoycing as poor yet making many rich as having nothing yet possessing all things as if he had but the shadowes of evill but the reallity and substance of good things He is delivered from

glutton shall come to poverty It is a fault in those that gain by it to let their customers have as much wine as they will call for when they have had enough already A greater fault in Parents to let them have money at will knowing they will spend it upon their lusts It is not then to be expected that God who hates to see men make provision for the flesh should bind himself to give them wherewithall to do it As therefore we would be sure of food and raiment let us wisely consider what must be spent and what may be spared Frustra fit per plura He that requires superfluities is like to want necessaries but he may build upon a supply of necessaries who hath learnt to pare off all superfluities They are desires of Gods own creating and in such a measure which do call but for necessaries as food and raiment and therefore he that made these desires we may expect will satisfie them But when we crave supersluities it is sin that opens its mouth wide yea which inlargeth it like hell and what reason is there that God should fill it And as we must be frugal in case we would be sure of food and raiment so one good way is to be mercifull and ready to distribute to the necessities of others so long as we have wherewith Frugality and charity may well stand together It is no ill husbandry to lend what we can spare upon infallible securitie and for great advantage He that gives to the poor lends to the Lord. And if the principal be but a cup of cold water he shall have consideration for it Matth 10.43 He shall in no wise lose his reward See Pro. 11.24 There is that scattereth and yet encreaseth Can a man reap unless he first sow or reap liberallie if he sow but sparinglie Who so shall read Psal 41.1 2 3. will finde that one of the best waies never to want our selves is not to let others want if we can help it He that considereth the poor God will consider him though he have neither strength nor certaintie of friends or money to help him or hardly one that he can promise himself will make his bed for him Where the three last mentioned qualifications do meet in Diligence Frugalitie and merciful disposition it is seldom if ever seen that God doth suffer such persons to want necessaries though saving grace and the true fear of God be not found in them But if any desire yet further securitie as for matter of food and rayment let them consider what is spoken Psal 104.27 These wait all upon thee that thou mayst give them their meat in due season Thou openest thy hand they are filled with good viz. Those innumerable creeping things both great and small which are in the Sea spoken of v. 25. also The young Lions which roar after their prey and seek their meat from God spoken of v. 21. also Psal 145.15 The eyes of all wait on thee thou givest them their meat in due season Thou openest thy hand and satisfiest the desire of every living thing Here we shall do well to remember what the Apostle saith Doth God take care for Oxen that is doth he not take more care for Mankind than for Oxen If then he feed them and creatures of less use than they may we not conclude he will much more feed us may not these words of David Psal 23.1 afford us some reliefe The Lord is my shepheard I shall not want Is not God a shepheard to other of his people as well as he was to David Yea are we not in some sense his sheep as we are meerlie his creatures Psal 100.3 It is he that made us and not we our selves we are his people and the sheep of his pasture Should not the extraordinarie waies which God hath taken to supplie men with food and rayment when ordinarie means have failed be some stay to us When the Israelites wanted bread in the Wilderness did not God rain down Manna from heaven and when they wanted water did he not give it them out of the rock and whereas there was no cloathing to be had there did he not keep their garments from waxing old and make them serve them forty years Did not God say to Elijah 1 King 17.4 I have commanded the Ravens to feed thee and accordingly they brought him bread and flesh in the morning and likewise in the evening v. 6. The widdow of Zarephath had but a handful of meal in a barrel and a little oile in a cruse for her self and her son when there was yet three years famine to come so that she reckoned but upon one good meal and so she and her son to lie down and die and out of that the Prophet did demand a cake for himselfe v. 13. 〈◊〉 yet did he assure her that the barrel of meal should not waste nor the cruse of oyle faile till the Lord sent rain upon the earth and accordingly it came to pass v 16. Who knows not the storie of Christ his seeding five thousand with five loaves and two fishes Mat. 14.19 and yet there was enough and to spare I have somewhere read of a good man who in the time of the siege and famine at Rochel was kept alive by a Hen that came every day and laid one egge one or more in the place where he ledged Nor do I doubt but there are many true stories of as remarkable supplies vouchsafed to such as were destitute of ordinarie means Is not God the great housholder of the world from whom the whole familie in heaven and earth is named and do you think he will starve those that are of his familie howbeit he hath told us that he who provides not for his own houshold is worse than an Infidel Is not the earth the Lords and the fulness thereof Are not all the beasts of the forrest his and the cattel upon a thousand hills Psal 50.10 And will he starve us think you either by the want of food or raiment whilst he hath such an overplus of all needful things wherewith to supply us What father would see his childe want whilst he had more than enough to give him If we then that are evil will not let our children want whilst we abound shall we think so hardly of God what if God hath put the world into other mens hands and not into ours hath he not the hearts of those men in his own hands and can he not inlarge them towards us when and as far as he pleaseth He can make enemies not only to 〈◊〉 peace with us but to be kind to us Psal ●● 46 He made them also to be pittied of all them that carried them captives The barbarous people shewed us no little kindness saith Paul Acts 28 2. How easily can God perswade even Egyptians to part with their Jewels Earings to his people how much more Israelites to one another He that can make enemies to

we have pierced by sin and truly mourned when we have confessed our sins and forsaken them both actually for the present and in sincere resolution for ever after and when we have lifted up all eye of faith to Christ as to the antitype of that brazen serpent which was lifted up in the wilderness as he that is able to take out the sting of sin out of the fiery serpent and by faith laid hold upon his grace as upon the horns of an altar I say when this is done then is that conscience which was bad become purely good and when we can reflect upon what we have done then do they become not only pure but peaceable and consequently good upon all accounts Now I see not what notion can be more comfortable to those that have brought a bad conscience into a bad condition than this that a conscience extreamly bad may be made good that which is impure may become very pure and that which is unquiet may become calm and peaceable yea full of joy and triumph This premised I think it no hard matter to tell many a man how he may be much more happie in a mean and impoverished condition than he had wont to be in midst of all his plenty and prosperity Get but a good conscience instead of a bad one Get but peace within viz. that peace which passeth all understanding get but the pardon of thy sins and the well-grounded perswasion of that pardon get but a vision of thy sins as drowned in the red sea of Christ his blood get but to look upon God as thy friend and father and upon death as none of thine enemie and where it is no enemy it is and will be a great friend get but the Spirit of God to witness with thy spirit that thou art the childe of God get but this for thy rejoycing which Paul had viz. the testimony of thy conscience c. and let me be miserable for thee if thou who hast wanted these things in times past when thou hadst the world at will when once possest hereof dost not become more happie in the enjoyment of meer food and raiment than ever thou wert formerly when waters of a full cup were wrung out unto thee Some have said Bread and the Gospel are good cheere It is as true that brown bread and a good conscience are so He that hath those two will finde no cause he hath to complain And as the Prophet speaks Isa 33.24 The inhabitant shall not say I am sick the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity so neither will men repine that they are poor and despicable and otherwise afflicted if they come but once to know for certain that they are pardoned The true reason why many men do want so many outward good things as namely so much wine so much company so much recreation c. is because they want better consciences had they more of a good conscience to cheare and to refresh them they would need less of other things If Saul had not been possessed with an evil spirit be had not wanted David to have plaied to him upon the Harp 1 Sam. 16.16 One saith that the life of a wicked man is a continual Dversion If men were not wicked they would not need the one half of those diversions which they betake themselves to as reliefs against the sting of an evil conscience Notable is that counsel of the Apostle Eph. 5.18 Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess but be ye filled with the spirit v. 19. making melody in your hearts to the Lord. When men want the comforts of Gods Spirit and melody in their own hearts they would supply that defect if they knew how with more than ordinary refreshments from those good comforts of God which do gratifie and entertain their senses and thence probably it is that St. Jude joines those two together Jude 19. Sensuel having not the Spirit They that frequently use Cordials are supposed to be apt to faintings for others had rather let them alone Wine is observed to be a narcorick or stupifying thing witness the proneness of men to fall asleep when they have drunk freely of it and it is to be feated that many do use it but as opium to conscience Now as Physitians say the body is much endangered by the over-frequent use of opiates natural opiates so is the soul much more by those things which cast it for the present into a dead sleep for they do but keep that worm from gnawing at the present which will afterwards gnaw so much the more and never die stupifying things remove not a disease but fix it so much the more I see then O Lord what men must do if they would not only think themselves happy but be so indeed if they would not be like hungry men that dream they eat but finde themselves empty when they awake or thirsty men that dream of drink but awake and finde themselves deceived Isa 29.8 If they would feast in good earnest it must be by means of a good and quiet conscience That men may want though they have houses full of Gold and Silver that men may have though Gold and Silver they have none Riches cannot give it poverty cannot hinder it I am or would be at a point whether my body feast at all more or less but for my soul I desire not only a good meale now and then but that continual feast of a conscience both pure and peaceable I prefer that to all the far fetcht and dear bought varieties of fish flesh and fowle which are at Princes tables I see then men need not bid adieu to feasting or reckon upon a bare commons after all the spoile this fire hath made They need only change their diet for that which is much better than they had wont to live upon and they may feast hereafter ten times for once they did heretofore and be said in a nobler sense than ever Dives was to fare sumptuouslie every day Peace of conscience is a feast of fat things full of marrow and of wines on the lees well refined as I may allude to Isa 25.16 DISCOURSE VII Of getting and living upon a stock of spiritual comforts AS it fareth with children whose nurses have milk enough in both breasts but one is much hardet to be drawn than the other they would willinglie lie altogether or mostlie at that breast which may be drawn with most ease so with many Christians who have an interest both in Spiritual and temporal things wherewith to solace themselves they are too too prone to live upon the breast of their worldlie comforts which may be suckt as it were by sense rather than upon that of their Spiritual priviledges and advantages which breast though much the sweetest and fullest can no otherwise be drawn than by the exercise of faith Now sad experience convinceth us that it is much more hard to exercise our faith than to use our

upon them never lie down and die whilst you have wherewithall to live yea and to live nobly A stock of well-grounded spiritual comforts or a well-bottomed hope of glory will maintain a man at a great rate though he have little else yea like a Prince if it be well improved Have you not known men live chearfully and joyfully upon the expectance of great things in reversion though they have had but little in possession One would think the assurance or what is next to it of a Crown and Kingdome after a short time of suffering should raise and revive us more than the present fruition of a great Lordship being all that ever we look for He that upon Scripture-grounds believes himself to be an heir of heaven let him but reflect upon what he believes and that alone will be a heaven to him upon earth But do I not hear some say they want a stock of spiritual comforts or grounds of comfort they have no upper Springs to fetch water from none of those Rivers which make glad the City of God and therefore it is that their hearts fail● them in an evil day Yea doubtless therefore it is that their hearts do faile them because they either have not an interest in God or if they have they know it not Now as that holy man said to his friend touching assurance verily assurance is to be had and what have we been doing all this while so say I to you verily an interest in God is to be had and see that you labour for it It was a great fault and oversight not to look after it whilst we had a confluence of other good things but now other things are taken away it were utter madness to neglect it From this time forward make it thy business to get an interest in eternal mercies the sure mercies of David and to know that thine interest and then live upon the comfort of it and then thou that never hadst it before though God have cast thee as it were from the throne to the dunghil even upon that dunghill shalt thou live better than ever thou didst in all thy life before Doubtless a man may live more happily upon a great deale of assurance having but a small pittance of other things than upon great abundance of worldly enjoyments having little or no assurance O Lord my heart deceives me if the consolations of God be small with me or in my accompt if I could not live more contentedly upon bread and water with calling and election made sure than they who have their portion in this life do when their Corn and Wine increase Oh why do I press no harder after that which I take my self to have so great a value for That is the only thing that makes me fear least my heart should in this case deceive me For it is not that God hath been wanting to incourage the endeavours of men in pursuite of spiritual and eternal mercies so that we should have cause to fear our labour would be in vain for hath he not declared he is a rewarder of all them that seek him diligently and that to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek glory he will give eternal life Rom. ● And what more could have been said I see then there are three sorts of men Some have matter and ground-work for spiritual joy but will not take pains to improve it they have as it were the breast in their mouths but will not draw it because the milk is hard to come by that is they have good evidences for heaven but will not trouble themselves to clear them up and to be ever and anon reviewing and reading them over Lord if I be one of them give me to see how much I stand and have stood in my own light how much I have lessened my comforts by grudging my paines how I might have doubled and trebled my joyes if the fault had not been my own others there are that content themselves with a portion in this life seeing and knowing themselves as yet to have no interest in better things Lord how desperately do they adventure how great a hazard do they run If death should come and finde them provided only for this present World what would become of them And yet there is a sort of men more desperate than these if more can be and they are those who are destitute of this World 's good things and yet neither have an interest in spiritual comforts nor yet regard to have any God hath taken the World from them and possibly will never give it them again do what they can and yet they look not after that better portion that can never be taken away from them To such I may say not only what will they do in their latter end but what will they do at present what shift can they make so much as for the present can men live of nothing without either heaven or earth God or the creature comforts for either soul or body where are they but in hell who are neither in heaven nor yet upon the earth in the World I mean Surely such men care not what becomes of them I cannot better compare them to any thing than to a ship turned adrift in a mighty storm whose Pilot steeres her no longer but exposeth her to the mercy of winds and waves and rocks and sands and it is a thousand to one if ever she get safe to harbour Lord of all sorts of men let me be none of this last Let me secure one World at least and if but one let it be the World to come The more thou abridgest me of earthly comforts the more insatiable let me be in my desires of those that are heavenly The more hungry thou keepest me as to a supply of earthly things the more thirsty let me be after those rivers of pleasure which are at thy right hand for ever more O Lord if I want a ground-work for spiritual joy a root of peace within my self let me want it no longer if I have a foundation for joy within me but know it not oh thou who hast given me to have it give me also to know it and when I once know it give me often to review and recollect it to ruminate and chew the cud upon it that I may enjoy the sweetness of that whereof I am really possest that I may eat the fruit of the Vineyard which thou hast planted within me Lord trust me with a stock of spiritual comforts with plenty of good hope thorough grace kiss me with the kisses of thy mouth and let thy barner over me be love and give me to sit under the shaddow of thy favour with delight and if ever I envy those pittiful worldlings that have more of this than heart can wish but no more of any World but this if ever I be willing to change conditions with them all things considered though they be wealthy honourable

I have spoken to the great ends of life and the attainableness of them as well by persons of low as of high degree But alas how few in comparison of the lump of mankind or of Men called Christians have yet attained those end for which they live viz. have laid up a good foundation for eternity c. and they are yet fewer who are able to say they have done it For some may have attained thereunto and yet not know it How unsafely do they die who die before they have attained the ends for which they did live and how uncomfortably must they also die who die before they know they have attained them Therefore I say it is a great mercy to the greatest part of Men and Women to be reprieved from Death and from the Grave David as good a Man as he was beg'd hard for this Psal 39.13 O spare me that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more yet was his condition at that time very afflicted for he saith vers 10. Remove thy stroke from me I am consumed by the blow of thine hand vers 11. when thou dost correct man for iniquity thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth Which he seems to speak of as his own case at that time when he cried out O spare me before I go hence Is it not with most people in the World as with idle Boyes in a School at a time when their Master is absent when it is almost time to give over they have scarce lookt into their books or done any thing they came for but played all the while How necessary is it for such Men to live a little longer How sad would it be with them if God should say to them as to that secure fool This night shall thy soul be required of thee were they sensible of their own concernment would not such men prize a little time in the World as those poor Levellers did that were shot at Burford about ten years since Oh that they might live but one day or but one hour longer to enjoy those Ordinances of God which they had formerly despised or as she that in horrour cried out upon her death-bed Call time again call time again If life be necessary for thee as if thou hast not yet attained the ends of life I am sure it is more necessary for thee than any worldly thing by how much it is more necessary that thou shouldst be saved than that thou shouldst be rich or honourable I say if life be more necessary for thee than riches and honour and any thing of this World as it is because upon that moment eternity depends then hast thou cause to look upon it as a great mercy and to be very thankfull for it May it not be said of some men that are dead gone that if they had died but one year or one moneth sooner they had been damned The last year or the last moneth was more to them than all their life before for that they were born I mean born again not long before they died He that can cause the earth to bring forth in one day and a Nation to be born at once Isa 66.8 How great a change can he make in the souls of men in a very short time Yea I remember an excellent Divine of our own hath a passage to this purpose viz. That one day spent in serious meditation of God and Christ the joyes of Heaven the torments of Hell the evil of sin the excellency of grace the vanity of the creature the necessity of regeveration and such like things might contribute more to the conversion and salvation of a sinner than all that hath been done by him in all the time past of his life though possibly he hath lived many years in the world We shall never know what the worth of life and of time is till we come to improve it to those high ends and purposes for which God hath chiefly given it as namely unto making our calling and election sure c. but when we have done finding how great a pleasure a little time hath done us of what unspeakable use and advantage it hath been to us we shall reckon our selves more bound to God for it than for any other temporal enjoyment we shall think a little time to speak in the language of our Proverb to have been worth a Kings ransome Consider life as an estate of hope as Salomon saith Eccles 9.4 To all the living there is hope and death to the wicked as a hopeless state Job 27.8 For what is the hope of the hypocrite though he have gained when God taketh away his soul and then tell me if it be not a great mercy but to live But on the base heart of man that will not suffer him to know how great a mercy life is because it will not serve him to improve it A life so spent as multitudes of people do spend theirs will prove a curse rather than a blessing as having done little in it but treasured up wrath against the day of wrath Nor is it ever to be expected that they will bless God for life who have cause to curse the time that they have lived though all thorough their own default He that would comfort himself in the thoughts of his being yet alive and take it for a great mercy that his life though little else is left him for a prey let him sit down and confider what earnings he may make of that time which is left him in the world be it little or much If from henceforth he shall set his face towards Zion set out in the waies of godliness give up his name to Christ engage in the work he came into the world about enter upon the fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom set himself to seek the Lord with all his heart or at leastwise repaire to the pool of Bethesdah and wait there for cure follow on to know the Lord that he may know him strive to enter in at the straight gate dig for wisdom as for silver and for knowledge as for hidden treasure make it his business that his soul may be saved in the day of the Lord I say whosoever shall do so and persevere in so doing will finde so happy a product of that work whereunto he hath consecrated and devoted the remainder of his life as will make him prize and value one day so spent more than many daies and moneths ●n which all the comfort of his life as he accounted it came in by eating and drinking and company-keeping by hunting hawking di●ing carding and such like divertisements He will look upon that time as spent in damning his soul as much as in him lay but the other in saving it and therefore he must needs value this more than that One was a time of running into debt the other of getting old scores paid off or blotted out and therefore must

believe that thy blessing only so maketh rich as to add no sorrow therewith and let us never forget or misdoubt what thou saidst to thy servant Abraham I am God all-sufficiernt walk thou before me and be upright Doubtless a little which a righteous man hath is better than great treasures of the wicked Let me ever be perswaded as I hope I now am that innocent poverty is much more elegible than ill gotten prosperity DISCOURSE XXVII Of preparing for our own dissolution now we have seen the destruction of London O London art thou gone before us who thought to have seen thee in ashes first who thought that the stakes of his Tabernacle would not be removed and the cords thereof loosned whilst thou wert left standing like a strong tower not easie to be demolished and as like as any thing to endure till time its self shall be no more How much less difficult had it been for a burning seaver to have consumed me and thousands more such as I am than for such a fire as did that work to have consum'd London For is my strength the strength of stones or is my flesh of brass as Job speaks chap. 6.12 Such was the strength of that City and yet see where it lieth As for London its self it was a glorious City beautiful for scituation and I had almost called it the joy of the whole earth alluding to what was said of Mount Sion Psal 48.2 to be sure the joy of the three Kingdoms but the inhabitants of London as to their bodies what were they but dwellers in houses of clay whose foundation is in the dust which might be crusht before the moth Job 4.19 Who look not upon strong-built houses as things more durable than their inhabitants who did not hope if they were their own to transmit them to their children and childrens children to many generations And yet we see that they are in the dust before us And is not that a fair warning to us as it might be to an aged infirm person to follow a young lustie person to the grave If this were done to the green tree what may not the dry expect If the best houses in London were half a year since not really worth three years purchase how ever men did value them how small a purchase may our lives be worth for ought we know Many might reckon to lay their ruins their carcasses I mean in the bowels of London but who ever thought to have had his carcass interred in the ruins of London as some have had already A little time hath produced a greater change than our great change would be why then should we put the evil day of death far off why should we promise our selves length of daies as if the present year might not put a period to us as well as to a strong and stately City that was likely to have out-lasted a thousand of us How reasonable is it then for us whose lives are but a vapor to expect but a short continuance in this world at leastwise not to expect any long duration here to say with the Apostle The time is short Yea how needful is it we should take the counsel which Christ gives Luke 12.35 Let your loins be girded about and your lights burning And your selves like men that wait for the Lord that when he knocketh they may open to him immediately As there is no preparing for death without thinking of it so who can think of death and not desire to prepare for it if the destruction of London admonish us to number out dayes it doth no less to apply our hearts to wisdome Who would be willing to die unpreparedly that thinks at all of dying That you may know what I mean by preparedness for death take this account Then is a man fit to die when he is in a condition to die both safely and comfortably when he is translated from spiritual death to life and knowes himself so to be He that is not so translated hath no fitness at all to die he that is and knows it not is fit in one sense and unfit in another is partly fit but not so compleatly but he that both is so and knows himself to be so hath all the essentials of fitness for death though if a man be in the actual exercise of grace and discharge of his duty it must be confessed that doth give him somewhat more of an actual and accomplished fitness than the meer habits of grace and of assurance can do He that hath made his calling and election sure he that is sealed up to the day of redemption by the spirit of promise he that can say with Paul he knows in whom he hath trusted and as St. John we know that we are of God I say is fit to die He that hath not that fitness for death but yet desires to have it let him make it part of every daies work to get it let him be daily learning how to die Hath God afforded no meanes whereby to bring us to a fitness for death what is prayer reading the Scriptures hearing the word converse with Christians examining our selves serious meditation of spiritual and eternal things avoiding the occasions of evil keeping our hearts with all diligence Is it likely that a man should conscionably use all these meanes and not attain the end of them why then is faith said to come by hearing the word preached why is the word called the ministration of the spirit why saith Paul to the Galathians Received ye not the spirit by the hearing of faith Gal. 3.2 why did Christ counsel men to search the Scriptures seeming to approve their thinking that in them we have eternal life why doth Christ speak of our heavenly father giving his spirit to them that ask him why doth he say Ask and it shall be given you seek and ye shall finde knock and it shall be opened to you Mat. 7.7 For every one that asketh receiveth and he that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be opened vers 8. why must all that come to God believe that God is a rewarder of all them that seek him diligently Heb. 11.6 It seems to consist but ill with such texts as these for us to look upon the means which God hath appointed as insignificant and ineffectual And seeing they are not so let us diligently use them in order to our preparation for death now at leastwise that God hath spared us so long as to see London laid in the dust before us Now God hath fired your nests over your heads dear friends and much lamented Citizens will not each of you say as David Psal 55.6 O that I had wings like a Dove which is the embleme of innocency for then would I flie away and be at rest I see no great reason we now have to be fond of life if we were but fit to die May we not say with Solomon we have seen an end of all perfection Seeing we have brought forth an Icabod so far as concernes our selves only and in reference to this World what great matter had it been if with Eli's daughter in Law we had died in Childbed Now who would not long to be dissolved as Paul did if he could but say with him We know if our Earthly House were dissolved we have a building of God an House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 O see then as concerning Death there are three lessons to be learnt from this sad providence viz. to expect it to prepare for it and to be willing to it To expect it is the way to prepare for it and when once prepared for it we have no great reason after such a desolation to be unwilling to it O Lord I dare not say as Elijah did 1 Kings 19.4 It is enough take away my life He might better say so than I. Possibly he foresaw by a spirit of prophesie that fiery Chariot which was intended to carry him to heaven 2 Kings 2.12 Yet neither he nor I may say so by way of discontent O Lord I have many things to desire as in reference to death let me not die till I am willing make me willing when I am fit let me know I am fit when I am really so that I may be willing make me early fit that I may be timely willing yea desirous to be dissolved and whensoever 〈◊〉 am desirous to dye let me also be contented to live if thou have any work to do for me Let me only desire that thou maist be glorified in me whether by life or death Lord what work do I and some others make of dying as if it were more for us to die than for London to be burnt to ashes Did Aaron make any such stir about it Up he went to Mount Hor. Moses stript him of his Garments and put them upon Eleazar his Son Numb 20.26 And me thinks he made no more of it than if he had put off his cloaths to go to Bed or than if with Enoch he had been about to have been translated rather than to have seen death or with Christ after his resurrection rather about to ascend than to die O Lord have not some of thy servants known the time of their approaching Death and knowing it called their friends about them prayed together suing Psalmes together chearfully confer'd about that better world they were going to took their solemn leave of all their relations and friends as if they had only been about to travel into some far Country from whence they were never like to return again and then composed themselves to die as if they had only laid themselves to sleep and commended their souls into thy hands with no less chearfulness and confidence than Men do their bags and bonds into the hands of faithful friends May I not with submission desire to die upon the same termes yet if it may stand with thy blessed will let me live to see London rebuilt in some competent measure thy people re-united England resetled Protestant Nations reconciled each to other thy Gospel every where spread this Land a Mountain of holiness and a valley of vision or if not all yea if none of these at leastwise clearly to see and read my own name written in the book of life then shall I say with good old Simeon Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy salvation FINIS