from him an act of patience the mind quietly contenting it selfe till God doth come and of submission if he should not come 198 Wee would so beleeve in God as if we used no meanes and yet as diligently use the meanes even as if our confidence were to be in them 199 Thistles are il weeds but the ground is fat where they grow so doubting in a child of God is a thing that resists faith it is bad but it is a signe that the heart is good where it is 201 Faith should bee in the soule as the soule is in the body which is not there in vaine but is still stirring and shewing it selfe by motion and action 202 As wine which is turned to vineger ceaseth to be wine So ineffectuall faith hath the shaddow and name of faith only but it is not faith and therefore not accepted of by God 203 As exercise begets health and by health wee are made fit for exercise So assurance grounded upon the promise enableth enlargeth and encreaseth sanctification and sanctification encreaseth assurance 204 The Saints that ascend high in obedience are like men gone up high upon Ladder the higher they are gone up the faster they hold and they are not without some passages of feare to slip downe 205 There is no darkenesse so desolate no crosse so cutting but the splendor of a sound faith and cleare conscience is able to enlighten and mollifie 206 In prayer it is faith that must make us successefull in the word its faith must make us profitable In obedience its faith must make us cheerfull In afflictions its faith must make us patient In trials its faith must make us resolute In desertions its faith must make us comfortable In life its faith which must make us fruitfull and in death its faith which must make us victorious 207 What we cannot beleeve by understanding we should labour to understand by beleeving 208 Downewards a mans eye hath something immediatly to fix on all the beauty and fruit of the earth being set on the outside of it to shew how short and narrow our affections should be toward it but outward the eye scarse finds any thing to bound it all being transparent and Diaphanous to note how vaste our affections should be towards God how endlesse our thoughts and desires of his Kingdome and how present to our faith heavenly things should be even at the greatest distance 209 As Husbandmen cast some of their corne back into a fruitfull soyle wherby in due time they receive it back again with encrease so should wee doe with worldly blessings sow them in the bowels and backs of the poore members of Christ and in the day of harvest we shall find a great increase 210 Charities eys must be open as well as her hands though she giveth away the branches yet not to part with the root 211 Almes in Greeke comes from a word that signifies to piety because they should proceed from a mercifull and pâ—tifull heart and in the Hebrew and Syriack it s called righteousnesse as being by right due to the poore 212 In workes of charity our scattering is increasing no spending but a lending no laying out but a laying up Prov. 11.24 Pro 19.17 213 Nothing can more effectually deliver a man from need then to be liberall to them that be in need 214 Duties must be discharged whatsoever difficulties wee meet withall 215 Christs obedience was meritorious for the redemption of his Church ours only ministeriall for the edificatioÌ„ of his church 216 Luther said that God loves curristas not quaristas wee must not reason but run 217 Wee bewray our love more by griefe in parting with any good then by our joy in partaking of it 218 Reward hath an attractive and punishment an impulsive but Love hath a compulsive faculty Reward drawes Punishment drives but love hales a man forward to the discharge of his duty 219 Love unto Christ is an holy affection of the soule carrying of us with full desire to the enjoying of him and making us to preferre our communion with him before all things in the world that may challenge our dearest respect 220 If God write a law of love in our hearts and shed abroad his owne love to joyne therewith it will worke so strongly that one graine of it will have more force to purge out sinne and to constraine and strengthen to obedience then a whole pound of terrors 221 How can God but love them that love him seeing he loved them when they loved him not 222 There is no affection freer then love as there is nothing more forcible so nothing that can bee lesse forced 223 As Rackets at tennis make the ball live in a perpetuall motion so doe repulses in love and reflect it stronger into one anothers bosome the best temper of it is that the communication of it bee neither too forward to coole desire nor too froward least it cause despaire 224 God delights more in his countrey cottage of a godly heart then in his courtly pallace of heaven 225 The triangular heart of man was intended for a mansion for the blessed Trinity and if wee could but looke into our owne heart we should find chalked upon the doore For God as the Kings Harbingers doe for the lodgings of the Courtiers 226 Nothing is difficult with God for his word is his will and his will is his worke 227 We can see no more then the back parts of God and live wee need see no more that we may live 228 Where God is absolute in threatning he will be resolute in punishing 229 God is the most glorious and most alluring object our minds can fasten on and therefore the thoughts of him should swallow up all other as not worthy to be seene the same day with him 230 Gods power is as much seene in pardoning sinne and over comming his wrath as in making a world Num. 14.17.18 231 A poore soule is not contented with ease pardon knocking of his bolts till hee enjoyes communion with God and sees his face in his ordinances 232 As the sunne is the fountaine of all light so that whatsoever the ayre hath it s derived from the sunne so whatsoever comfort is in the creature it s derived from God 233 As the fire that makes any thing hot must needs be hotter it selfe so the Lord since all that is in the creature is taken from him himselfe must needs have an al-sufficiency he must be full of al things 234 An host may entertaine strangers with better food then he gives his children yet hee keeps the best portion for his children so God may do much for those that are strangers to him yet he keeps the best portioÌ„ for his children which they shal have in the end though they fare hard here 235 We must principally love God for his excelleÌ„cies not for our own advaÌ„tages 236 When wee guidâ— our hearts to God hee gives them backe to us againe much better then
come out of that state of sinne then sin begins to hang heavy and hee feeles the great weight of it 67 As a living member is no burthen nor cumbersome to us but a dead one is so as long as Sinne lives in the soule ' it s nothing cumbersome but when it s once mortified it becomes a great burthen to us 68 As the out-rage of Pirats will not cause two States at peace together to enter into warre unlesse the one state consent to and maintaine them in their rapine so ' it s not the rising of lust in our hears that breaks the peace betweene God and us unlesse they be consented to approved of and nourished with some presumption 69 As in a corne field unlesse wee manure and plow and weed it it will waxe fallow and be overcome with weeds so ' it s with our hearts except we plow them and weed them and watch over them they will soone bee over growne with lusts 70 Puntoes formalities and cuts and fashions and distances and complements which are now the darling sins of the upper end of the world shall in the end prove nothing but well acted vanities 71 The adulterating of wares the counterfeiting of lights the double weights and false measures and the courteous equivocations of men greedy of gaine which are almost woven into the very art of trading shall in the end prove the mysteries of iniquity and selfe-deceivings 72 Such as study play-bookes Pasquils Romanses c. Which are the curious needle-worke of idle braines doe but load their heads with Apes and Peacocks feathers in stead of pearles and precious stones 73 The conflict of the godly is with the unholinesse of sinne but the conflict of the wicked is only with the guilt and other sensuall commodities of sinne the first hates sin because it hath filth in it to pollute the other feares sin because it hath fire in it to burne the soule 74 As a noble mans child stolne away and brought up by some lewd begger cannot conceive or suspect the honour of his blood so unable is corrupted nature that hath beene borne in a wombe of ignorance bred in a hel of uncleannesse and enthralled from the beginning to the Prince of darkenesse to conceive or convince a man of that most holy and pure condition wherein he was first created 75 The best wit without heavenly wisedome makes us either the devils instruments to trudge upon his errands to drudge in his service or his implements to weare his coat to make him pastime 76 The workes of naturall men doe neither begin in God nor looke towards God nor tend to God God is neither the principall nor the object nor the end of them 77 The Spirit opens sinne in the soule as a Chrirurgion doth a wound in a close roome with fire friends and remedies about him but the Devill first drawes a man from Christ from the word from the promises and then strips the soule and opens the wound thereof in the cold ayre only to kill and torment not to cure and releeve 78 It is as great a work of the Spirit to forme Christ in the heart of a Sinner as it was to fashion him in the wombe of a Virgin 79 Outward temptation prevented inward corruption in our first parents but inward corruption prevents outward temptation in us 80 Most carry themselves as men to men recompensing love with love againe but as Devils towards God recompensing his love with hatred 81 We make God stay our leisure in turning from sinne therefore hee may well make us stay his leisure in pardoning of it 82 Want of sorrow for sinne is a greater argument of want of love to God then the sin it selfe 83 A Glutton may fill his belly but he cannot fill his lust a covetous man may have his house full of money but hee can never have his heart full of money And an ambitious man may have titles enough to over-charge his memory but never to fill his pride 84 Water mingled with wine doth not take away the substance of wine but weakens it so our smaller sins doe not take away the nature of good deeds but weaken them and make them lesse perfect 85 Blacke besprinkled upon white takes not away the whole colour of white but only darkens it so our good workes are not rooted up by our infirmities but onely defaced and obscured 86 An unadvised practise comming from ignorance is farre more tolerable then wilfull disobedience convicted and condemned by knowledge 87 In Adam and Christ no thoughts were misplaced but though they were as many as the stars yet they kept their rankes and marched in their courses but ours as Meteors daunce up downe in us 88 As in printing let the letters be never so faire yet if not placed in their order and rightly composed they marre the sense so are our best thoughts if mistuned or misplaced 89 Our thoughts at best are like wanton Spaniels who though they go with and accompany ther Master and come to their journies end with him yet do run after every bird and wildly pursue every flock of sheepe they see 90 If wee would but looke over the coppies of our thoughts which we write continually wee should find as much non-sense in them as we find in mad mens speeches 91 Whereas men should draw crosse lines over their sinnes and blot them out through faith in Christs blood they rather coppy and write them over againe in their thoughts with the same contentment as they first acted them 92 Thoughts are the first begotten and eldest sons of originall sin yea and the Parents and begetters of all other sins their brethren the first Contrivers and Achitophels of all the treasons and rebellions of our hearts and lives the bellowes and incendiaries of all inordinate affections the panders to all our lusts and the disturbers in all good duties 93 If we have not mine of precious truths hid in our hearts no wonder if our thoughts coine nothing but drosse frothy thoughts for better materials which should feed the mint are wanting 94 As to prevent wind which ariseth from emptinesse men use to take a good draught in the morning so to prevent those vaine windy thoughts which the heart naturally engenders and which arise from emptinesse bee sure every morning first to fill thy heart with thoughts of God 95 Heauen hath a Pillory whereon Pia fraus her selfe shall be punished 96 He that surpriseth truth with an ambush of equivocation is as bad an enemy as he that fights against her with a flat lye in open field 97 A lye once set on foot besides the first Founder meets with many Benefactors who contribute their charity thereunto 98 Slender and leane slanders quickly consume themselves but he that is branded with a great crime though false when the wound is cured yet his credit will bee killed with the scarre 99 Slanderers slay no lesse then three at once with one blast
improper and unprofitable for all other uses Ezek. 15.3 297 Some come unto Christ as to a Iesus for roome and shelter to keepe them from the fire not as to a Christ for grace and government in his service 298 Many deale with Christ now in glory as Ioab did with Abner they kisse and flatter him in the outward profession of his name and worship when they stab and persecute him in his members 299 As in flaying of a beast the skin comes away with ease till you come to the head so many are well enough content to conform to good courses til it come to the master corruption and head-sin and then ther they stick 300 The Pharisee in the Gospell exults arrogantly in himselfe insulting insolently over others and deceiveth himselfe alone whom alone hee excepteth whiles he contemneth and condemneth all besides himselfe 301 As inequality in the pulse argues much distemper in the body so unevenesse in Christian walking argueth little soundnesse in the soule 302 Wicked men in affliction are like iron which whiles in the fire it melts but after it hath beene a while out it groweth stiffe againe 303 He was never good indeed that desireth not to be better yea hee is starke nought that desireth not to be as good as the best 304 Peace and prosperity hide many a false heart as the snow drift covers many a heape of dung 305 None are so desperatly evill as they that may be good and will not or have beene good and are not 305 As our ordinary fire heats but the outward man but it heats us not within so common righteousnesse contents it selfe with bodily exercise and a performance of duties publike and private but fire from heaven heats our hearts also 306 A woman may think that she is with child but if she finds no stirring nor motion it s a signe that shee was deceived so hee that thinkes hee hath faith in his heart but finds no workes proceeding from it it s an argument that hee was mistaken for faith is operative 307 A Man that commits adultery with any thing in the world hee would willingly bee freed from the service of God were it not for the losse of heaven and going to hell but he that serves him out of love would not goe free if hee might 308 As a crasie body cannot indure the tryall of the weather nor a weake eye the light so an unsound heart cannot endure searching and examination 309 A Merchant may cast out his goods when in a storme he is in danger and yet not hate his goods so a man may cast away sinne when it puts him in danger of sinking into hell and yet not hate his sinne 310 As we deceive children taking away gold or silver and giving them countets to quiet them so Satan quiets the consciences of many with bare formes of piety who are not able to distinguish betweene precious duties and the right performance of them and formall and empty performances 311 Hypocrites may counterfeit all outward duties and abstaine from sins but they cannot counterfeit to love the Lord 312 Silla surnamed Faelix accounted it not the least part of his happinesse that Metellus sirnamed Pius was his friend godlinesse is alwayes the best friend to happinesse 314 As the Cardinal made his Embleme a beech tree with this inscription Take off the top and its the ruine of all the trees So its true of the purity of religion tamper with and take away that and all other blessings will be gone 314 So materiall is the union of religion with justice that wee may boldly deeme that there is neither where both are not 315 It s better to leave religion to her native plainenesse then to hang her eares with the counterfeit pearles of false miracles 316 Religion dyed in fear never long keepes colour but this dayes converts wil be to morrow's apostates 317 As tame foxes if they breake loose and turn wild will doe ten times more mischiefe then those which were wild from the beginning so Renegado Christians rage more furiously against Religion then any Pagans 318 Some turne conscience into questions and controversies so that whiles they are resolving what to doe they doe just nothing 319 It s a blessed institution of younger yeares when reason and religion are together moulded and fashioned in tender minds 320 As the very act fits a man for the exercise of any bodily labour so the best preparation unto prayer is the very duty it selfe 321 The duty of prayer is spirituall and our hearts are carnall and therefore it s no easie thing to bring spirituall duties and carnall hearts together 322 A man in a ship plucketh a Rocke it seemes as if hee plucked the rocke nearer the ship whereas the ship is plucked nearer the rocke so when wee draw nearer to the Lord in prayer there is a spirituall disposition wrought in our hearts hereby whereby we draw nearer to him but his purposes alter not 323 Naturall affections may adde wind to the saile of praier and make it more importunate though holinesse may guide the rudder and keepe the course and make the sterage 324 As an Angler when he hath throwne in his bait if it stay long and catch nothing hee takes it up and amends it and then throwes it in againe and waits patiently so if wee pray and pray long and obtaine not the thing we pray for wee must looke to our prayers see they be right amend what is amisse and so continue them till God heares 325 As the Fisher draws away the bait that the fish may follow it the more eagerly so God with-holds blessings that we might desire them more pray more eagerly for them and prize them more when wee obtaine them 326 The husbandman looks not only to the grain that he hath in his Garner but to that also which he hath sowne yea it may be as to the better of the two so prayers sowne it may be many yeares agoe are such as will bring in a sure increase 327 As members that are benummed by using them they get life and heat and become in the end nimble so when the heart is benummed and thereby unfit for prayer the very use of it will make it fit for the duty 328 As a Physician puts many ingredients into a thing but its owne principall ingredient that hee makes most account of to cure the disease so we must use both prayer and other lawfull means yet we must know that prayer is the principall effecter of the thing and therefore wee must put most confidence therein 329 The blood of sheep and swine are both alike yet the blood of swine was not to be offered because it was the blood of swine so the prayer of an unregenerate man may bee as well fram'd both for the petitions and every thing that is required immediatly to a prayer and yet not bee accepted because of the heart and person from whom it comes 330 Though prayer