Faithful to have God to be his Friend and to be called the Friend of God I pray God we may have the like felicity that following Abraham's example we may rest in his bosome which God of his infinite mercy grant for Christ Jesus his sake Amen VIII THere was a great contest between Apelles a famous Painter and another which should appear the better Artist and as a trial of skill Apelles drew Grapes which were so naturally done that the Birds pecked at them supposing them to be real Grapes The other drew onely the lively picture of a Curtain and bringing it to Apelles for his approbation he was desired to draw away the Curtain that his Picture might be judged of He then concluded himself the better-Artist For says he Apelles deceived the Birds but I deceived Apelles Thus with Art and cunning we may deceive birds beasts and men nay our selves but we cannot deceive God Let us therefore so behave our selves in our words gestures thoughts actions as considering we are alwaies in God's presence to whom we must be accountable at our Death and at the day of Judgment and therefore let us not dare to commit sin unlesse we can conceal our actions from his all-seeing Eye IX I Have heard of a Jury of twelve men who being asked by the Judg whether the Prisoner at the Barre were Guilty or Not guilty before the Fore-man could conveniently make answer another person who stood by said Not guilty to whom the Fore-man looking with indignation repeated his words Not guilty adding I say my Lord he is Guilty but before he expressed the latter his two first words were recorded according to Law and by this mistake the Offender escaped But at the day of Judgment the Guilty have no advantage by any possibility of a mistake or accident for the Judge is infallible and righteous and the Conscience which is both Jury and Witnesse Conscientia mille Testes will certainly deliver true evidence not being deceived in the least tittle At this Barre voluble Oratorie prevails not neither can subtile Law-distinctions any waies avail but Judgment shall be given to every one in Righteousnesse and in Truth by him who is Truth it self and cannot lie whose mercy we had need implore in our lives and at our Deaths that he may not be severe to mark what is done amisse but forgive and pardon us for Christ his sake X. THe Dog in the Fable having meat in his mouth by the water side and perceiving the shadow of it reflect which he erroneously mistook for real flesh opened his mouth greedily in hopes to get it and by this means lost the true substance Thus it fares with many worldly men to whom God hath given meat in their Mouths his blessings in a liberal proportion Eccles. 6. 2. Riches wealth and honour so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof but they not satisfied therewith seek to increase their wealth per fas nefas ravenously coveting the shadow which is vexation and vanity and neglecting to improve their Talents to God's glory and their own good and by this means lose the true substance their hopes of eternal welfare XI A Scholar of Socrates observing that many of his fellow-Pupills had presented their Master with great and rich presents which he was uncapable of doing by reason of his poverty came to Socrates and told him he freely gave him what was in his power Himself devoted to his service The most acceptable Gift to the God of Heaven is our selves our hearts and affections My son give me thy heart says Solomon Without this Present all others are vain Oblations Sacrifices which are an abomination to the Lord He will despise us and our Offerings if they are not tendred with an intire humble dutiful and obedient heart which I beseech God to give us that we may retribute the same to him again Amen XII A Story is told of the same Socrates that one day being in his School a Physiognomist came to visit him and taking great remark of his face plainly averred that Socrates was guilty of such and such notorious Vices which Accusation his Disciples heard with much impatience and could hardly forbear striking him declaring that he was a silly fellow and that he had done their Master injurie for what he had said was very false upon their knowledge Socrates interposes and assures them that what this Artist had delivered concerning him was well grounded and therefore they had no such reason to blame him for says he I have a great natural propensity and inclination to those Crimes which certainly would have had a great predominancy over me had not my Reason and my Philosophie prevailed over them which was no small difficulty Thanks be given to Almighty God for his restraining Grace that we have not been actually guilty of those sins to which our particular natures do so much incline us that every single offence hath not been the unhappy parent of many more and this is wholly to be imputed to God's goodnesse to us for our resolutions may fail us of doing good and avoiding evil our Reason may be blinded and deceived Philosophie both as to the Theorie and as to the Practick part may be vain and unprofitable but if we are indued with God's Grace this cannot fail us He giveth us to will and to doe of his good pleasure but the more we rely upon him and pray for his blessed assistance the surer we are to find the happy influence and benefit of his good Spirit which will teach us to walk holily penitently soberly not as fools but as wise redeeming the time because the daies are evill XIII IT was said of a good man that he should confesse he had been undone unlesse he had been undone meaning that if God had not awakened his Conscience with temporal losses and afflictions and caused him to look into himself Prosperity and inconsideration had swallowed him up God many times grants our requests in denying of them when to his Majestie these appear inconsistent with his Glory and our Good for he onely knows what is best for us In a prosperous condition we seldome take up the complaint of that good Heathen who sadly said O Amici diem perdidi O my friends I have lost a day because he could not call to mind any good he had done that day but lose day after day for many years together untill at last we have not a day left to repent in though many a misspent day to repent of and then we must know though true Repentance is never too late yet late Repentance is seldome true XIV ALL Societies and Compaines of men as well Merchants as others who are sober industirous wise and well-governed conduce much to the advantage and benefit of that Kingdome or Common-wealth in which they live Rich Merchants make a Rich Kingdome But let the great Traders have a
may repent of from the highest to the lowest that so God may repent him of the evil of Punishments which our sins have deserved Amen XXXIV If God be for us who shall be against us WHo Hence learn If a Question be asked in Scripture and let fall without an Answer it amounts to a Negative First let us ingage in God's Cause then having the lawfull Authority of his Vice-gerent who shall be against us no man can It is not in the power of humane policy to oppose or countermine Divine Determinations They who trust in the arme of Flesh and in the son of Man whose breath is in his nostrils are sure to be deceived they trust to a broken Reed to a Bul-rush We ought to look upon men but as God's instruments if we doe otherwise we may justly be made the objects of God's wrath and severer punishments So long as we doe lawfull things we may hope God is on our side and expect his protection out of our Calling we are out of God's keeping Qu. But how shall we know God is on our side Ans. By examining our selves whether we look upon God as our ultimate End in all our actions and designs if we make all things subordinate to his Glory if we look upon him as the Well-spring and Fountain of Life Health and Salvation with a chearfull Christian indifference submitting to his Will whether he please to blast our actions or blesse and prosper our purposes if we have no sinfull impatient desire after temporal blessings but upon all occasions endeavour to doe our Duties and leave the successe to God if we shall chuse to die rather then deliberately to offend God These I say are signs we are the true Servants of God and if we be so then God will be on our side and then we need not fear what men or Devils can doe against us we are well guarded no Bullet in Warrs by Sea or Land can hurt us without God's commission There is an over-ruling Providence governs all Sublunary things XXXV IT is a most deplorable thing to consider that there should be such great Dissensions and Animosities amongst Christians who professe to believe in the same Saviour and many times about Circumstantials not Essentials or Fundamentals in Religion even to a Scandal There are many pious learned well-disposed persons who expresse great zeal and fervency of spirit to reconcile the Differences in Christian Religion but commonly meet with a severe fate in stead of their deserved Reward to be abominated or at least disliked by all Parties But we must remember good men are but men and transported many times with ungovernable passions and humours Naturally men have a great affection to those of their own Interest and Party sometimes either not discerning or conniving at their faults and too much prejudice to those who differ from them in opinion though if we consider calmly and rationally no man differs more in opinion from me then I do from him and if I desire he should think charitably of me I am obliged in conscience to doe so of him unlesse I know by his actions he pretends Piety to cloak his Rebellious and Factious spirit with a design to disturb the Kingdom 's peace and by violence or Arms to resist the Civil Magistrate God's Vice-gerent or is guilty of some notorious Crime such a man I am bound to detect and no waies to countenance or protect It were an happinesse much to be prayed for that men of several Judgments whether Episcopal Presbyterians Roman Catholicks Independents and under that notion may be comprehended Anabaptists Quakers and many other new fanatick and infatuated Sects would more put in practice those Principles of Piety Charity and Morality wherein all or most of them agree this would conduce much to Union for then they would think better one of another and bear with the frailties of their brethren being there is no Perfection in this life and by a gentle mild and unpassionate way of arguing would sooner convince one another of their Errours Some can suffer better then dispute who by calm disputation might soon be convinced and reduced to sobriety of judgment This would I believe prevail more then Punishments and Persecutions which so often beget Proselytes and create in others tender Commiserations of such mens sufferings especially if they be of honest deportment and dealing and of good lives as many of them are though such Sufferers may be faulty in neglecting those Condescensions and just Compliances which if they rightly consider they may with a good Conscience expresse towards both Civil and Ecclesiasticall Governours But these Dissenters are ready to plead for themselves What I suffer it is for my Conscience it is not out of Faction or a spirit of Contradiction and therefore in these cases I must obey God and not Man which is highly true when that is the case and farther say they It appears to us an hard case that we must be under a temptation either to go against our Consciences or suffer for them But God's will be done if we suffer for his sake we are contented XXXVI MEn of several Opinions in the World fondly believe that onely those of their Judgments shall be saved excluding others out of Heaven who haply may be admitted when their Censurers may be refused for their Uncharitablenesse The way to Heaven certainly is not so streight in matters of Opinion as Practice for what will it advantage to be orthodox in Opinion and dissolute in Life God will pardon many Errors where the persons who maintain them intend well and live well if they do not obstinately and pertinaciously persist in them but are both willing to retract them and heartily pray to God to convert them from all their Errors and Failings and to teach and confirm them in all saving Truths We must all ingenuously confesse that in our tenderest years those Principles we first receive in our Education take a great impression in us and are not easily removed we have an affection for them study Arguments in their defence and have many times too great an aversion to the very Persons who differ from us as well as to their Opinions yet certainly difference in Judgment ought not to cause strangenesse and difference in Affection Possibly God may accept of this Plea from many particular persons hereafter I have endeavoured to serve thee O Lord sincerely in the way I was brought up in which appears to me to be true otherwise I should with as much zeal have embraced any other Opinion which I should have been convinced was the truest We have no warrant in the Word of God to condemn so much as the very Heathens who were men of good Lives and many of them of pious devout Conversations who never heard of Christ no more then we have to condemn little infant Children who are not capable of committing actual sin XXXVII IT appears strange to me that wicked worldly men should be accounted wise
whenas in the matters of greatest importance they are so carelesse and remisse even in the Salvation of their Souls For all wise men in difficult cases will doe that which is safest Now to live as believing there is a God and truly to fear and serve him is certainly most secure for though there be many Arguments besides the conviction of every mans Conscience to prove there is a God yet no man can demonstrate the contrary that 's impossible and if there were none no person would repent after death that he in his life-time believed there was one but disbelieving the Deity in his life he may by that God whose Essence he durst so impudently deny be punished in Hell eternally XXXVIII IT is safest and best for us to believe as God in his Word has revealed to us and not to be guilty of carnal arguings as not to think it reasonable that Man should be punished infinitely for finite sinning or to seem to incline to Origen's Opinion which most would be willing to embrace if there were any Religious ground for it That all men at the last day shall be saved even the very Devils themselves But thus consider In this World the wisest men know but in part and see but in part in the next World the mist will be taken from our eyes and we shall see clearly the most ignorant persons here shall know more in the other world then the greatest Clerk upon Earth But here it is our duty to acquiesce in what we suppose is God's will we should believe or practise his Will is the highest Reason and ought to be esteemed so by us XXXIX WE account an ungrateful man the worst of men Ingratum si dixeris omnia dixeris and yet we little consider how ungratefull we have been to the God of Heaven who has given us our Being and Well-being who hath done such great things for us by whom we live and move and have our being What great Dangers do we daily esâ—ape by his mercy A Preserving Providence is no lesse then a Creating one What cause have we to be ashamed and repent of our Ingratitude and perfidious Promises If we once break a solemn promise and engagement to men we cannot expect to be trusted any more and yet how many Promises of more strict and circumspect walking have we broke with the great God of Heaven and earth either upon our Sick-beds or upon our receiving the blessed Sacrament and many such like serious occasions How many times have we said O Lord spare me yet but this once and I will live and amend and when we have recovered our Vows have fallen off like cords of vanity How dangerous is such breach of Vows and how justly may we upbraid ourselves for it abhorring our selves by reason of our Iniquities and repenting in dust and ashes as holy Job did XL. SUnday is the Lord's day which ought more particularly to be devoted to God's Service For though it is our duty in our several Callings every day to serve God and endeavour to advance his Glory yet on that day the Weekly Holy-day we should not think our own Thoughts nor do our own Actions but what necessity requires and therefore 't is most fit then to refrain from playing at Cards or such Recreations which may administer Scandal to many good people If it be a measuring cast whether any particular thing be lawful or unlawful 't is safest and best to resolve on the Negative for this is an infallible Maxime They that in all things will do the utmost that is lawfull will be tempted in many cases to doe that which is unlawfull XLI VVHen we are tempted to any sin let us say with Joseph Shall I doe this wickednesse and sin against God God forbid Shall we sin that Grace may abound God forbid XLII IN this world as good Christians we are engaged in a Spiritual Warfare the Flesh warring against the Spirit sometimes one prevails sometimes the other But let us comfort our selves We fight under Christ's Banner he is the Captain of our Salvation and therefore in such a War we may joyfully hope to obtain Victory over the Lusts of the Flesh by the assistance of God's gracious Spirit if we valiantly contend to the end of our lives being not weary of well doing for which we shall reap if we faint not the Crown of life Let us consider then how blame-worthy those are who are so far from contending that they willingly yield and are so far from Fighting in a good Cause that they basely deliver themselves up Prisoners without striking one stroak so far from Resisting that they tempt Temptations to tempt them in this supplying the place of the Great Tempter the Devil untill they are justly given over to a reprobate sense sinning with delight and greedinesse drinking Iniquity like water and living and dying with obdurate Hearts and seared Consciences From which sad Judgment Good Lord deliver us Amen XLIII FRiendship is a noble thing Worthy Doctour Hammond used to say he pitied him that was destitute of a Friend as a very unhappy person By conversing with a Friend and communicating our secret affairs to him our Joyes are by Sympathy increased and our Griefs lessened Two dear Friends seem to have one Soul in two Bodies they are like Twins when one dies the other pines away there is but one Propriety between them both all their Goods are in common Friends are to Friends like little Gods whilst they Honour and Friendship to each other pay Mr Herbert worthily says in his Poems All worldly Ioys goe lesse To that of doing kindnesses This being so Good God let Hatred cease And Friends and Neighbours love and live in peace Some very curious scrupulous persons have made Inquiries whether Friendship between those of different Sexes may be innocent To this I answer affirmatively without the least scruple or dispute but he that truly values the honour and reputation of his Female Friend will be very cautious lest by any act of his indiscreet affection he should lessen her good opinion in the world and as that Learned and Pious Doctour Taylor says in his Tract of Friendship which is worthy the perusing A man ought to lose much of his Satisfaction rather then she any thing of her Honour XLIV NEither the Ambitious nor Covetous man can ever be satisfied for their thirsty desires after Honour and Wealth increase by their obtaining what at present they so greedily covet like one in a Burning Fever the giving him Drink does but increase in him a desire still to have more and his Thirst is but little quenched He that will not religiously frame his mind to content himself in what-ever station God has placed him will scarcely be satisfied and easy in any Condition for if we cannot proportion our Fortunes to our Minds we should our Minds to our Fortunes rendring thanks to God Almighty who has done such great things for us and then we are happy as to this World To make our Felicity here the more conspicuous we ought to compare our temporal state to those beneath us our Inferiors and not to our Superiors If Riches increase set not your heart upon them but look upwards and say Vanity of vanities all is vanity and vexation of spirit There is no end of writing many Books and much study is a wearinesse to the flesh But observe Solomon's conclusion who was best experienced in the Trial of humane Delights and affairs After he had said There is a season for all things and that Time and Chance happens alike to all to the wise as well as foolish and advised all persons to make use of God's Blessings with a contented thankful mind for we know not who shall be after us then he adds Fear God and obey his Commands for this is the whole Duty of Man A Prayer for the KING and the Royal Family O Lord our God let the choicest of thy Blessings fall down upon thy Vice-gerent our Sovereign Lord the KING on the QUEEN Queen-Mother the Illustrious Duke of YORK and all the Royal Family O Thou who art the King of Kings who hast in thine hands the Hearts of Kings and canst turn them as Rivers of water be pleased to send down the Light of thy Countenance so to shine upon His MAIESTY that He may be as holy valiant and prosperous as King David wise and rich like Solomon zealous in thy service as Josiah that He may alwayes govern the People committed to his charge in thy fear And as thou hast indued Him with a mild gracious and merciful disposition suffer not O Lord any of his Subjects to abuse his Clemency and deprive themselves of the continuance of it by a necessary Severity upon them but be pleased so to dispose the hearts of Prince and People that in their several Stations and Callings they may esteem it their greatest honour and satisfaction to do thee Service And after a long and happy Reign let Him attain the end of his hopes at the period of his days even the Salvation of his Soul for Christ his sake Amen The END * The most ingenious and Religious Mr Boyl worthy Sr Robert Murray the famous and eminently learned Dean Wilkins cum multis aliis * This was alwaies the constant worthy Principle of those Ministers of the Profession of our Church of England * The Female * If goods increase they are increased that eat them c. Eccl. 5. 11.