is very wickedness their throat is an open Sepulchre they flatter with their tongue There is their Sin Then the Psalmists Imprecation on them is v. 10. Destroy them O Lord let them fall by their own Counsels cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions for they have rebelled against Thee Indeed God being a God of Truth and designing the heart of man for the Temple and Palace of his Residence looks upon deceit and falsness crept in thither as an Usurper upon him and inconsistent with him and thereupon loads it with his reproach that it might be un-requested and ashamed Prov. 7. 21. Hence the Histrionicism of flattery is ascribed to the Harlot Prov. 2. 16. and the poyson of Aspes is said to be under these lips Rom. 3. 13. For Lips and looks of pretended love and intended evil are the unavoidable rocks of kindness and credulity nor can men of sincere aims and candid natures avoid their abuse if not ruine which is the reason why wise and holy men have desired Gods Protection from seduction by seeming friendship and feigned sanctimony For as the heart of man seduced does ever act an ill part against its interest of rectitude so does Satan and the World by the industry and invisibleness of their motion endeavour mans subversion and outwitting Thus was it in Moses his time All that the Lord saith we will do Exod. 8. 9. Deut. 5. 27. Thus in Ioshuah's time Iosh. 1. 16. Thus in Davids time Psal. 12. 2. They speak vanity with his Neighbour every one with flattering lipps Thus in our Lords time the Scribes and Pharisees are said to tempt him and ask him a sign Matth. 16. 1. So Matth. 19. 3. Mark 10. 3. Mark 8. 11. Iohn 8. 6. in all which places their appearance of learning from him for betterance of their knowledge being onely an aim to cavil at and inform against him and by perversion of his words to subvert his doctrine and person is called a Diabolical Fallacy tempting of him Thus further has flattery and fallacy been carryed on in all Ages of the World as that Pionery and subterraneous mischief which is at its mark before discored and is possessed when but just admited in And indeed as this fucacity and assimilation to something good has wrought it self into great favours commands and trusts so has it by progresses sutable to its Rise seduced Men Nations and Ages into a coparcenry with it in its joynt stock of seduction and effrontery the leaven and suppuration of which has sowred and deturpated the nature and manners of mankind and made it monstrous faithless and brutish This has brought in Superstition upon Piety Tyranny upon Subjection Lust upon Love Injury upon Trust yea an universal inundation of Confusion in all kinds in all Persons in all Degrees Intuâ— Nero Foris Cato totus ambiguus S. Hieronymus Quaenam istae sunt pelles ovium nisi nominis Christiani extrinseâ—us superâ—icies Qui lupi rapaces nisi sensus et spiritus subdoli ad infestandam gregem Christi iâ—trinsecus deliâ—e scentes Tertull c. 4. de Praescrip adv Haereses yea he that can best act this part and most creditably formalize it is thought The most agible and preferrable though he be within Nero without Cato and in both ambiguous This Piracy and Pestilence of depravation as it is praevious to spiritual Seduction by a vigour of Insinuation that randezvouzes in the will of man subdued and the other faculties at least made neutral whereby Gods party in the soul is less assisted and more drawn upon duty such Tertullian expounds the prediction of Christ to beware of them that come in Sheeps cloathing but inwardly they are ravening Wolves so does it also antecede the general deboysture of moral virtues and civil social honesty and veracity between man and man Quid ergo Athenis Hieroâ—olymis Quid Haereticis Christianis nostra Institutio de Porâ—iâ—u Solomonis est qui ipse tradiderat Dominum in simplicitate cordis esse quaerendum Id. eod libro so that if not St. Paul or St. Iohn or Athanasius or Cyprian those sincere Christians and Nathaniels in whom there was no guile but even a Plutarch a Seneca a Cato a Socrates should arise and peragrate the World and come into thesâ— Northern Parts of it most remote from Asian Crafts and Profusenesses He would cry out O Tempora O Mores and rather chuse to goe to his Grave and be still there then live and move and speak and do contradiction to Reason and Religion Indeed if there were no other Argument to arraign this Age the request and respect done to flattery and the advantages that come by it is enough to pronounce it guilty condemn it We are all of us in a vain shadow and we love to have our follies called wisdom and our flatteries Civility our luxury Liberality and our profane scoffing Wit our idle time Good-fellowship our pride Fashionableness our cold zeal Moderation our idlenesses unavoidable Diversion our pleasures Health our prodigalities noble Entertainment so that it is hard to find this Serpent hissing without some note of more sweet Incantation and all this while we smile in our sleeves and cry What evil have we done and applaud our own secret Atheism which no eye of man discovers when God whose Holiness Power Purity Presence Patience this provokes and despises laughs this to scorn and has the policy and clancularity of it in dâ—rision yea and will make it appear when he has reversed those unjust judgments in the Tribunals of our transports and degenerations by a Writ of Errour before the Peerage of rectified Reason Religion which as it requires so gives the Guerdon to being what we appear and doing what is honest and of good report I like the actions of men inscribed with the Motto of that Nobleman's Gate at Verona Patet Ianua Cormagis which tho Aristides truely made good yet when Themistocles came to rule he was banished and so poor that hardly out of his estate could the bearing of him to his Grave be paid now though it be counter to the interest and advantages of great wise learned men who love to be soothed up and have creatures soft and plyable whom they sutably reward and endear yet is it upon God and â—ntegrities account practicable tho if any man would be counted intelligent eivil moodish acceptable he can know and practise no better methods to the rewards of these in the sense that Greatness understands them then to observe their humours bear their burthens admire their actions attend their commands without weariness dispute or curtilation and then he is likely to be accounted of so indulgent are the Aristoxernus's of our Age to those flowers in the garden of their love that they well water them with wine honey and other delicates that they may not onely grow great but be more and more by their flatteries acceptable to them else though a
very obvious yea so great are the Incomes of it that it brings to Riches and Honour which sloth doth not for the Preacher terms it brother to wasting Prov. 18. 9. Letting the belly starâ—â— rather then feed the mouth with it Ch. 19. 24. Killing ones self with desire Ch. 21. v. 25. Creating discouragements for well-doing Prov. 16. 13. Casting men into deep pits Ch. 19. v. 15. A decaying of the building and a dropping down of the house Eccles. 10. 18. Thus this sin branching it self into haughtiness is opposed by God who sets his eye against it 2 Sam. 22. 28. and who brings them to their fall by it Prov. 16. 18. Indeed as there are great promises to Industry and Humility so there are answerable threats to Pride and sloth The haughty he humbles Isa. 10. 13. and makes them to moulder away and languish Ch. 24. They are taken away by judgment Ezek. 16. 50. Yea God is not only said to blow down the haughty Isa. 2. 11 17. but to lay low the arrogancy of the proud and terrible ones Isa. 13. 11. By all which men ought to be disswaded from haughty thoughts and spurr'd on to comply with Gods designs in their night-dress and ungaudy Manifestations of themselves For surely that is the best discovery of a great mind which propagates vertue by just and comely means conducing to its attainment which since careful inspection over mens worldly affairs doth and by keeping them in a state of support wealth independency adds to the liberality of their minds which receive abatements dislustres by the incumbency of need on them which tempts them to and nourishes them in a servility of compliance w th those whose benefactions they are relieved by I say since men cannot be accommodated with wherewith to do great Actions and to stand single sighted in their Judgment without convenient frugality and prudent looking to their fortunes however placed it is contrary to reason and gratitude not to intend and honour that course of life by which men subsist and without which if they would not be miserable I am sure they could not be happy and not to think that service Slavery which brings in Penny-savoury For as it is no ungentile thing to blow the Nose or vent the Belly when the excrements in them are burthensome nor to dress wounds when they are foul and tormenting nor does any man how great soever in a Storm or Siege refuse to tugg at the Oar or digg in the Trench or pump or carry scaling Ladders or Buckets when Houses are on â—ire but every ones State is then reduced to common Notions when the danger is common and desperate so is no man how well born bred or fortuned soever when â—n the high-noon of them disparaged in applying himself to and complying with Maxima quaeque bona solicita sunt nec ulli fortunâ— minus bâ—ne quam optimae creditur Senec de Bâ—evit vitae c. 17. the lowest works of that Calling or Imployment which is his Sanctuary and Supply for this life being a Scene of Interâ—â—udes and intermixt Varieties there can be 〈◊〉 better harbour against the Storms and Entertaiment of the uneven Pulses and Motions of it then this Resolution To bear whatever comes and to be whatever we â—â—ust and ought to be ubi enim quaeratur modestus animus si foedent violenta Patricios Theodoric Rex Ep. 27. apud Cassiod Var. lib. 1. with silent and thoâ—ow-paced Fortitude and humble Geneâ—ousness and to venerate that Calling and â—â—ate of life which God affords to officiate â—o their Despairs and to dispell their â—louds of want and Contempt nor does â—e deserve such a mercy who thinks a manly thrift below him when without it â—e must unavoidably become poor if not â—ant and be undone It is rather becomâ—â—g the greatest Spirit and gratefullest Virâ—ue to follow the Patriarch Iacob and To â—mfess to God devoutly as did he I am not â—orthy of the least of all the mercies and of â—ll the truth that thou hast shewed unto thy â—â—rvant for with my Staff I passed over â—is Iordan but now I am become two â—ands Exod. 32. 10. SECT XXXV Shews That immoderate coming to and long staying in London and the Suburbs from Greatmens Country Residence is a ready way to decay Men and Families LAstly Immoderate flocking to and residing in London and Westminster and the Precincts thereof from the several Quarters of the Country and Nation where the Nobility and Gentry reside and their Seats are is in my Opinion but if 〈◊〉 erre I crave pardon a great danger to destroy persons of Worth in their Virtue and Fortune by drawing them from their retirements where they may live thriftilâ— and usefully to the King Country and themselves into the publick where they are taken off their local Service and assaulted by Delicacies and vices of Cosâ— Effeminacy and Inconsistence with all abode of Virtue And this judgment the Glorious Martyr King and his Council had in An. when the great flocking to Town first appeared in Request as I have been informed and I hope truely for there issued out a Proclamation That no Person of Country Residence should live out of his own Country where his Estate was above certain Months in the year which Proclamation when it found not that obedience command with some Gentlemen that it ought but that notwithstanding they stayed in Town his Majesty was pleased I had here inserted the Proceedings of the Star Chamber but I could not meet with the Records soon enough with advice of his Council of which his Grave Learned and Honourable Chancellour the Lord Coventry was Chief to command Informations against some of them to be exhibited in the Star-Chamber where they were sentenced and fined I confess there are great Magnetisms in the Court and City to work upon men womens desires to come near them Quicquid humani generis floris est habere curiam decet sicut arâ— decus est urbium ita illa ornamentum est ordinum caeterorum Theodoric Rex Senatni Romano Ep. 13. Var. lib. 1. Cassiod the influence and cogency of which seems to apologize for the casual offence of them For there is the Kings Court where the Person Order State Officers of the King are pleasurably and with great satisfaction beheld there are the Flower of the Nation Lilia mixta rosis both for beauty bravery â—arriage and attendance and who that â—ath senses to gratifie and fortune to present him a meet Spectator or what 's better Servant thereto has not enough to do to keep his passions from the pleasures of those Objects of Attraction and Fascination If the eye be never satisfied with seeing nor the eares glutted with sounds nor the other Senses stupified with things of Delight but are by a longing after them unweary of them no wonder that men consisting of those impulses and ridden toâ— often by them are easily drawn to and kept with
proper a companion of and obliger to Loyalty and subjection to Government that it is impossible to find it separate from it or to expect truth of fidelity upon Noble grounds any where but in such well tempered and well instructed souls And therefore to rebuke those Hot-spurs who think S'blood S'wounds Rammee Damme words not for a Heathens mouth Those that think to Drink Drab Raunt Prophane the only and best Cryterions of loyalty and trustableness Vbi enim regnat ebrietas ratio exulat intellectus obtunditur consilia devianâ— consilia subvertuntur Petrus â—les Ep. 7. do I profess my prealledged sense That the King is best and most effectually served by Pious Quorum exitio intelligi possit eorum imperiis Rempublicam amplisicatam qui Religionibus paruisâ—ent Cicero lib. 2. de Nat. deorum Moderate Sober Learned Well-directed Gentlemen whose resolution is to observe the Laws themselves and thereby to invite others so to do Note this or to shame and punish them that obstinately oppose themselves to it Quod me corripi putes affectio est ideoque mihi acceptiora sunt vestra verbera quam eorum ubera qui me lactant Idem Ep. 6. For as he is not a good man that desires to live without Law so he is not a good Subject that having a good and just Law dares wilfully and propensedly violate it Nor does he deserve any better Title then singular and proud Adeo non erit Christianus qui eam negabit quam confitentur Christiani his argumeâ—tis negabit quibus utitur non Christianus Tertullianus lib de Resurrect Carnis c. 3. who vehemently reasons against National constitutions though they conclude his private liberty and judgment for there must be in the Nation some Civill ultimate Judge which surely is in England the great Judgment of the Nation the King in his Parliament by them particular Subjects must be bounded in their judgment of Civil duty to the Laws of their Establishment And I pray God I may live no longer then to see the Law in power and credit against all opposition of private and seduced spirits SECT XLIII Commends the Meditation of God Death and Iudgment to Great men in their Conversations Actions and Counsels EIghthly and lastly I do humbly commend to the Nobles and Gentry of England That in all their Lives Counsels and Actions they would think of God Death and Judgment Of God the Soveraign being whom to know is life eternal whom to love is to be holy whom to live with Iohn 17. 3. Ch. 14. v. 15. is to be happy Of Death the common and inevitable state of mankind into which the greatest pride and gallantest pomp must be resolved and with which be veyled and vanquished Of Judgment the Just Assise wherein distribution shall be of rewards unutterable of Torments intolerable These three well and throughly debated and then applied as incitations to Vertuous and Godly demeanours and dehortating terrours to the contrary will be notable both Defensatives and Cordials Concerning God though the thoughts of him are precious yet there are some that have a specifique tendency to the whole latitude of godly life and godly action being not only Therapeutique and Medicinal to heal the flaws and gashes that the violence of depravation has made in the soul but Energical and Incentive to exercise of spiritual faculties to spiritual purposes And these I suppose may be reduced to five heads in which the whole of a Christians meditation of God in order to sins anticipation in its prevalence over man is most effectually visible The purity of Gods nature the power of his Hand the preception of his Eye the obligation of his Mercy the severity of his Sentence These well considered and applied by that serious digestive faculty that sincere piety discharges its thoughts into and from whence it draws forth its Spiritual Artillery upon occasion of Spiritual conflict Satans temptation make the first degree of my commendation of this Head to Great mens meditation 1. The purity of Gods Nature is the â—ourse and Womb of all purity for the created Purity being but a Ray of that Purity increate as to the quantum it is short to the quale it is incomparable to it God is pure Fontally as Purity is his Essence and as Purity is in the verity though inutterability of its being Thus pure he centrally himself only is who is light and no darkness Now in as much as to this Divine purity there is no possibility of attainment 1 Iohn 1â— 5. In Deo est magnitudo virtutis perfectionis non autem magnitudo molis Sâ—us Thomas part 1. q. 42 art 11. because it is incommunicable assumption of Manhood into the Godhead being onely in the Hypostatique union of Christ and without possibility of after condescension or assimilation that which of Purity â—s attainable by man being but a following of his president and an obedience to his precepts is yet as close an access to God and as full a price for glory as Mortality can attain to or offer for it And therfore since God is perfect unalterable purity as his command is to be pure so his acceptation is according to the truth of purity in men things For so far and no farther does the purity of God admit mortality as it is defecated by purity of intention and sincerity God that made the heart loves purity in the Cabinet of his Residence and Treatment and therefore â—eb 11. 6. as he that will come to God must believe his being that he is so he that will converse with God must be pure as he is For God heareth not sinners Iohn 9. 31. nor doth purity correspond with defilement and thereupon thou art 1 Pet. 1. 15 16. O man by Gods purity called upon to be pure as he is if thou wilt be happy as he is Matth. 5. 8. because blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God And as thy heart so thy deeds must be pure nay if the heart be upright the Emanations from the heart transports and temptations only excepted will not be halting or down-right lame Christianity is a votal regularity a holy Order of reclucism Note this a temporal exinanition 't is an abstraction of the soul from the body of sin and an oblation of all that is worthy to him who is worthy all because Wise Pure Merciful Powerful above all And thereupon the consideration of Gods Nature has an avulsive operation it makes the Christian sit loose from and be indifferent to this world 1 Iohn 2. 15 16. which is so hostile to and quarrelsome with Purity It considers it self under the vow of God to be as he is as far as imitation of him can have being in it The true Puritan now the serious and practical Puritan commands his thoughts to be holy Psalm 139. 17 23. his words to be edifying his works to
hidden from all men â—at they may alwayes be solicitous about â— preparing for it expecting of it joyâ—ll at it does it come as a thief in the â—ght in the cloud and umbrage of a â—ontemned accident with a potent and not to be refused errand in the moment of thy Jollity in the heigth of thy youth in the glory of thy preferment when all eyes are upon thee all tongues applaud thee and all knees bow to thee and perhaps all backs bear burthens for thee in defiance of thy power in Confront of thy Learning in ruine of thy designs without pitty of thy relations without fear of thy fury without diversion of thy policy Will not thy bags buy off its execution nor thine eloquence soften its stroak nor thy bravery transport it to kindnesse nor thy charms bind its hands but with its rapacious claw it must seise and by its mall burst asunder the fabrique of soul and body Must these things be without baile or Mainprize or saving of the Contenement Then O then what manner of men ought yee O Nobles and Gentlemen to be in all Holy Conversations How ought ye to be tuned Heaven-ward 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazianz in Encomio Athanasii p 22 and as it is said of Athanasius to have your lives words and works unisonous full of harmony and concent not jarring and combatting one with another How ought your vessels to be pure your lights to shine your Lamps to be trim'd your loynes to be Girded How ought ye to anticipate deaths terrour by dying dayly in terrour to your lusts How ought ye to take Heaven by force as it were while you live for whom if penitent the possession is purchased when you dye what is the graves visage to one that is dead unto sin and alive unto God Quid caput strophiolo aut Dracontario damnas diademati destinatum nam Reges deo patri suo fecit Iesus Christus Quid tibi cum flore morituro habes Florem ex virga Iesse super quem tota divini spiritus gratia requievit Tertulliâ—nus lib. de Corona Militis cap. 15. What is the dissolution of Soul and body to him at any time whose resolution is to make Christ his at all times and to live no longer nor other then to please God alwaies and to be pleased with Gods pleasure concerning him How can the expiration of a Mortall life be troublesome to him who lives as one born to exercised in assured of a most glorious and durable life consequent to it And this no man being possible to attain but by Meditating and living in a dayly exercise of Christian severity and fiducial Mortification How important is it to presse upon the Memories and Consciences of Great-men not to be infected with Pride not to be buryed in secular affairs Parvi defectique animâ— est de subditis non profectum quaerere subditoruâ— sed quaestum proprium Stus Bernard de consider lib. 3. not to be glewed to and glutted with varietyes of pleasures Happy that Prince that can say I received my Life and Crown from God and as I managed them for him so I am willing to resign them to him happy that Peer and Gentleman who can appear before God in the Coat armour of humility and dare to appeal to God for his Justification That he has walked before him with an upright heart and desired to do the thing that was right in his sight Isai. 38. 3 Happy that Prelate who has deserved Athanasius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In vita Athanasii Fortes fuere in bello non molles in sericis c. Si â—tlius es Apostolorum prophetarum tu fac similiter vendicae tibi nobilâ— genus similibus moribus quod non aliunde nobilâ— quam morum ingenuitate fidei Fortitudine fuit Stus Bernard lib. 2. consider his character to be a living and immovable Pillar of Virtue whose life has bin a continual sermon of Moderation self denyal charity diligence who has followed the Apostles Martyrs and Confessors in their prayers and private agonies in their care and tendernesse to teach and keep together the flock of God commited to them and whose Consciences on their death beds can solace them that they have preach'd and lived and ruled not for their own fame and pomp but for their Masters honour and their fellow labourers encouragement and their flocks edification to life eternall this will be the sweetest and takingst cordial to the departing soul to consider that their labour in the Vineyard shall have the penny of eternity and their denying themselves for Christ shall be recompenced with Christs imparting his glory to them and their taking up Christs Crosse in self contempt self abasement shall return them a partaking in Christs crown and glory with him Happy he and he only that can so live and so dye that living and dying he may be Gods Which the Meditation of death is a great furtherance to because it both keeps from folly of action and keeps in eye eternity of joy or misery for in that lifes determination gives entry to death and that to particular Judgement it is a high part of Christian Prudence to ruminate on death in the summer and brightest day of life and by a quotidian view of it to lessen the terrour and usher in the treatment of it by such diseases and other loosenings of life from its basis as God uses to make the access of death understood by us and this whoever does will not only possesse his Soul in patience and prevent the exorbitances of his passions whose evolations are not easily leured home or whose tumours are not presently asswaged but also settle in the mind ready to leave the world the sedatenesse of a prelibating Saint whose earnest of heaven appears in a sensible senselessenesse of what is tumorous troublesome avulsive and incongruous with his departing sublimity God that has called his heart to heaven in the Divinity of its Love having left the faculties of the soul yet resident in the body to expressions of themselves suitable to their origen Office and other circumstances by which they subsist and serve the conjunction of soul and body Peregrinus nimirum potest facile occasione viatici plus quam oporteat detineri quaerendo praegravari portando mortuns si desit ipsa sepultura non sentit sic vituperantes ut laudantes sic adulantes audit ut detrahentes imo vero nec audit quod mortuus est Stuâ— Bern Serm. 7. in Quadrages by reason of which they being dead to sin and alive to God in their option of dissolution as well as in their ligament of faith and in their assurance of acceptance rather are detained by then living in or to the world For the world being nothing to them but their prison Death which brings their Habeas Corpus must needs be their joy and Gods Writ of Ease their gratulation for Men