possession of us when the Sunnes last shadow flyes from us and enraged death sharpens his Dart to strike thorow our breast But thou O Lord dost witnesse thy power even in death it selfe not onely by crying out at the last gaspe but also by shaking the earth by cleaving the rocks opening the graves rending the vaile of the Temple The Centurion himselfe being a man conversing with the members of the Church but beleeving out of the Church confessed from hence and said This man was indeed the Sonne of God But the last word thou utteredst in thy mortality is diligently to be noted and seriously to be weighed Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit This was thy last word Ah would to God it might bee also mine and I trust Lord it shall be so and God I hope will heare it for thou hast obtained this for me because thou hast both prayed for me upon the Crosse and hast as my chiefe high Priest suffered all things nor didst thou commend thine own Spirit alone unto thy Father but mine also and of all the faithfull who are members of thy body thou hast bound my soule together with thine owne in the bundle of life and hast delivered it into the hands of the Almighty O how doe the words pierce my soule and spirit which thou utteredst before thou didst passe that deadly way and in which thou didst most devoutly speake unto thy Father I pray for them I pray not for the world but for those whom thou hast given me for they are thine Holy Father keepe them in thy name whom thou hast given me that they may bee one as we are one preserve them from the world sanctifie them in thy truth I pray not only for these but for those also who shall beleeve in me through their word that they may all be one as thou O Father art in mee and I in thee that they also may be one in us that the world may beleeve that thou hast sent mee and I have given them the glory which thou gavest mee that they may be one as wee are one I in them and thou in me that they may be perfect in one and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me Father I will that those whom thou hast given me be where I am that they may see my glory which thou hast given me because thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world What father can more earnestly recommend a son what mother a daughter or what brother his brother to anothers care than thou O Son of the living God hast recommended us to thy Father Thy Father doth heare us his degenerate adopted sonnes how much rather will he heare thee his Sonne obedient even to the death and his issue begotten of his owne substance from all eternity yea he hath already heard him Can saith he even he thy Father a woman forget her owne childe that she should not have compassion upon the sonne of her owne wombe Though she should be so forgetfull yet will not I forget thee behold I have graven thee upon my hands Thou also O Christ my Saviour sayest My sheepe heare my voice and I know them and they follow mee and I give unto them eternall life and they shall not perish for ever and no man shall snatch them out of my hands My Father who gave me them is greater than all and none can take them out of my Fathers hands Resting upon these thine attracting sentences I may be startled at the remembrance of death but I shall not be dismayed because I shall also bee mindfull of thy promises merits and intercessions When at length by thy permission a sharpe sicknesse shall weaken my sinewes and shall gnaw and feed upon my bloodlesse and halfe rotten skinne when my face shall bee bedewed with a cold sweat and I shall be moistned with the drops of death when my wan lips shal be widowed of their rednesse and a sad murmure shall be heard from the horrid noise of the gnashing teeth when my Sunne shall be darkened by my funerall clouds and death shall involve my head in everlasting darknesse yet thou Son of righteousnesse shalt shine cleare unto me thou shalt furnish my soule wrastling and triumphing by the vertue of thy Spirit with thine owne word Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit CONTEMP c. 23. Of the opening of Christs side COme hither come hither O my soule behold him hanging on the Crosse ascend ascend O my soule and pluck out the nailes from his hands and feet wherewith hee is fastened to the Crosse Thou needst no ladder it is devotion it is faith which elevates and lifts thee up thither O miserable spectacle O lamentable carcasse how ill-favourdly in what an ugly manner art thou butchered They could not glut their malice upon him while he lived they insult also upon him being dead and goare him with a speare whence blood and water did flow most holy Symbols of thy two Sacraments Who is he O Lord that hath overcome the world but he that beleeveth that Jesus is the Sonne of God This is that Jesus Christ that came by water and blood not by water alone but by water and blood Thou camest unto us in water in Baptisme thou camest to us in blood in the holy Supper this is that double testimony that we are reconciled to the Father by thee and that wee are washed and purged from our sinnes thou wast very much besotted and soiled yet wast thou lovely to thy Father because thou becamest obedient to death even to the death of the Crosse thou art also most lovely to mee whilst I dive into thy side and into thy wounds not with the eyes of my body with Thomas but with the eyes of faith which are the instruments of life the perspective glasse of the world to come when I see I am freed from death by the death of my Lord and my God When I locke on the immense and love without bounds love without end the love that wee want understanding to conceive and our reason waxeth darke to apprehend For I have sinned and thou hast suffered yea I who have sinned have suffered in thee our flesh was so joyned to the Deitie so as that which was to die everlastingly for sinne became dead in another for us and we neither felt grief nor death yet were we in like manner restored to life for as Christ put upon him our flesh in the wombe so he dyed our death upon the Crosse For whatsoever the God made man did suffer he suffered for man from whom hee can now no more be severed than from his other Nature with which he united this to the end he might save it O great clemencie O unspeakable clemencie O bounty that cannot be expressed with words of mans eloquence God who is for ever blessed is first made man and at length is made a curse
short breadth narrownesse heigth lownesse and depth shallownesse there light is found that shines not the Word an Infant thirsting for water hūgring after bread O Nativity honorable to the world in its unpolluted holinesse lovely to men by the greatnesse of the benefit bestowed inscrutable also to the Angels by the depth of the sacred Mystery and admirable in all these things by the speciall excellency of the newnesse thereof even so that there hath not bin seene the like before it nor can there be seen any such to follow it Ah what was the cause of Christs comming and Birth what but to save sinners Take away sicknesse take away wounds and there will bee no use for medicines Therefore the great Physitian came from heaven because men lay sicke in all places all the stocke of mankind was lost by the sinne of one in whom all were and therefore came one without sinne that might save all that were in their sinnes for not our merits but our sinnes drew him from heaven It is a thing becomming our faithfull soules Christian breasts beleeving minds that we celebrate the comming of our Lord with all devoutnesse and that we meditate of his Birth being delighted wirh so great a consolation and amased with so excellent a Dignity and enflamed with so great a love It is a worthy thing my brethren that we sing forth glory to the Trinity in unity and to God the Divine and begotten off-spring and also to the Spirit proceeding from them both O Jesu thou that wouldest be borne an Infant make mee become little in mine owne sight and that I may not too much desire high things Thou which diddest proceed from the wombe of a most chaste Virgin be thou also borne in my chaste heart which is purified by thee Thou who wert born in the town of Bethlehem that is the house of bread and wast sought and found by the Shepherds joyne mee often with thy Shepherds and furnish mee with the heavenly bread and so thy Nativity shall for ever satisfie me The heaven was opened when thou wast borne open heaven also unto me when the dayes of this my earthly birth and pilgrimage are ended that I may see and glorifie thee Angels accompanied the Shepherds that went to thee joyne them also to my company that I be not cast headlong into a by-way or desire any thing besides thee the brightnesse of the Lord did shine upon those that did desire to be neere thee I would that I might bee alwayes present with thee and be illuminated by thy Light that I rush not into darksome fens or be involved in filth and pernitious darknesse They granted thee no roome in the Inne O make choyce of a place in my heart let my heart be thy manger and thy swadling bands wherewith thou wert swathed that I may for ever remaine inclosed within thy wounds and within thy mercy and my soule shall magnifie thee O Lord and my spirit shall rejoyce in God my Saviour I will call out with those lowd crying and fiery inhabitants of heaven Glory bee to God on high on earth peace good will towards men now is wrought salvation and power and the Kingdome of our God and the power of his Christ Thou art worthy O Lord our God to receive Glory and Honour and Power Ah Lord when shall this come to passe when wilt thou bestow this upon mee CONTEMP c. 15. Of the name Jesus WHat sound is this that flies to mine eares it is a name that parents gave not neither did the circucising Priest bestow it but an Angell brought it from heaven and God that it should be brought and declared unto us commanded saying His name is Jesus how pleasant delightfull and forcible a name O how this name doth comfort my soule Jesus is a God of giving men salvation which is expounded a Saviour or saving for this reason of the name was given when before he was to be borne by the Virgin it was said Thou shalt call his name Jesus because hee shall save his people from their sinnes God hath now manifested his salvation all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God hee hath opened himselfe in the earth and salvation and righteousnesse have been fruitfull My God thou makest us safe in the Lord our God thou hast given us a light of the Gentiles which is our salvation even to the ends of the earth Let us therefore rejoyce in God our Saviour say to the Daughter of Sion behold salvation approacheth The other names of the Messiah are taken from the effects of his salvation and doe onely signifie either the beginning or middle or onely the end of salvation but this name Jesus the whole proceeding thereof for it doth sufficiently containe and expresse the beginning middle and end thereof and doth include all other things also within it The Angels adore and the devils doe tremble at this name and men receive it for their salvations This name is glorious in the preaching of it being thought upon doth nourish us called upon doth mollifie and anoint us not in the letters of it but by its spirit and life Whence could there have beene in all the world so great and so sodaine a light of faith but by the preaching of the name of Jesus Hath not God called us in the light of this name into his admirable light to such as are so enlightned and doe see light by his light Paul speaketh deservedly You were sometimes darknesse but now are you light in the Lord. And the name of Jesus is not onely a light but it is also food art not thou as often refreshed as thou dost think upon it What doth so much fatten the soule as the thought of that name What doth so much repaire the decayed senses It strengthens our vertues it quickens good and honest manners it cherisheth chaste affections all meat is dry that is not moistned with this oyle is unsavoury not seasoned with this salt If thou writest to mee I relish it not if thou leave out Jesus Jesus is honey in the mouth harmony in the eare gladnesse and physicke for the heart Is any of us sad let Jesus come into the heart and thence let him flow into our mouths and behold at the rising of the light of that name every cloud is expelled and the cleare light returnes Doth any slip into sinne doth he haste even to the halter of death by his despaire doth he not by invocation of this name of life forthwith respire to life Surely there have beene many others who have had the name of Jesus for the name of Ioshuah that led the Israelites through Jordan into the land of Canaan is the same name with Jesus The son of Syrach is called Iesus and Iesus is mentioned in Zachary but these men beare the name without the thing or if they wrought any safety they performed it by the power and helpe of this my Jesus There
shall Sun or heat fall on us because thou dost governe us and leadest us to the fountaines of waters and shalt wipe away all teares from our eyes thou shalt make us drunk with the plenteousnesse of thy house and refresh us with the streames of thy pleasure O Lord as the hart desireth the fountaines of water so longeth my soule after thee O Lord my soule hath thirsted after God the living fountaine when shall I come and appeare before the face of God O Lord when shall I worthily call to mind thy mercyes thy praises which are farre above all things which thou hast given me and exceeding the multitude of the goods of my house which thou hast bestowed upon mee according to the multitude of thy mercyes CONTEMP 21. c. Of Christs sixt word uttered upon the Crosse THou hast performed all and every of those things which thou knewest necessary to recover our salvation most willingly and with all thy heart And therefore thy sixt word was not it shall be finished as thou diddest say in thy journey to Jerusalem behold we goe up to Jerusalem and all things shall be fulfilled which are written by the Prophets concerning the Son of man for hee shall be delivered up to the Gentiles shall bee mocked shall be scourged and spitt upon and after they have scourged him they shall put him to death But hee saies it is finished whatsoever the wicked nation could invent to exasperate thy torments is finished thou truly diddest foretell the houre and power of darkenesse and the time of thy crucifying I have finished sayest thou the work which thou gavest me to doe but that was another work namely the work of Preaching the Gospell as thou thy selfe doest intimate unto mee when thou addest I have manifested thy name unto men this work which thou sayest is finished is the work of suffering for mankind the work of drinking off the cup of the passion which thy father hath given thee thou hast now drunk it all off so that there remaines nothing but that thou give up the ghost the power which was given the apostate Angels and the filthy rabble of wicked men is finished thy pilgrimage wherein thou wentest out from thy father and diddest come into the world is finished wherein thou wast upon the earth like a husbandman and a travailer the mortality of thy humanity is at an end every prophecy which the prophets had foretold concerning thy life or death is finished the greatest sacrifice of all sacrifices is finished that upon which all the sacrifices of the old covenant as types and shaddows did reflect for by one oblation thou hast for ever made perfect those that are sanctified and art become the end of the Law to every one that beleeveth Now the variety of carnall sacrifices ceasing thou fulfillest all those distinctions of beasts by once offering up of thy body and blood thou hast O Lord drawne all things unto thy selfe for by rending the vaile of the temple the Sanctum Sanctorum departed from the unworthy high Preists that the figure might bee turned into a truth the prophecy into a manifestation and the Law into a Gospell O cleane O unspotted sacrifice whose Altar was the Crosse which the viler it was before Christ overcame it so much the more famous and noble did it afterwards become the fire thereof that consumes the burnt offering and perfecteth the sacrifice is this immeasurable charity which like a furnace exceedingly heated did burne in thy heart O Jesus which the many waters of thy sufferings could not extinguish O Jesus my redeemer my mercy my Saviour I praise thee I give thanks unto thee though farre unproportionable to thy benefits though very voyd of devotion though leane in comparison of that fatnesse which thy most sweet affection towards us doth require in them yet my soule doth pay unto thee what thanks shee is able not such as shee knowes are due unto thee from mee Thou hope of my heart thou vertue of my soule let thy most powerfull worth perfect that which my most chill weaknesse doth endeavour my life thou end of my intention though I have not loved thee so much as I ought to love thee yet doe I at least desire to love thee as much as I ought O Jesus let this word alwayes stick in my memory It is finished When sinne and damnation shall band themselves against mee wrastling with the pangs of death and shall present unto mee my ugly life made deformed by my sinnes let me be able then to say the sacrifice for my sinnes is finished For thou art the Lambe of God that takest away the sinnes of the world Thou hast not redeemed me with corruptible silver and gold but with thy most precious blood as it were of an unspotted undefiled lamb When the law shall accuse me and shall exact punishment let me say each tittle of it is accomplished For when the fulnes of time was come God sent his Son made under the Law that he might redeem those which were under the Law and that we also might receive the adoption of children When death shall infest and terrifie me let me say thy power is determined thou art conquered by my Lord who hath spoiled thee of thy power hath taken out thy sting and purged out thy poyson that death may be to me a sweet repose great gaine a dismission in peace a recalling from evils a momentary hiding me till wrath is past and till heaven gates be opned for me When kindred friends and acquaintance shall at the time of my departure bewaile my going hence and compasse my bed with groanes and teares let me say my course is finished the appointed time is past the period is fixed which we cannot passe the glasse is runne the houre of freedome drawes neare here my misery makes a stand and the haven I make to is neare where all teares shall be wiped away behold I leave unto you a Fulfiller of all good and an asswager and ender of all evill hee shall comfort you if you flie unto him hee shall keepe and defend you to whom I recommend my soule and to whom I recommend you the beloved of my soule for evermore Amen CONTEMP c. 22. Of the seventh and last word of Christ uttered upon the Crosse ALthough Lord Jesus Christ great is thy humility great thy abasement and great is thy affliction that thou seemest scarce a man but a worm yet in thy seventh and last word before thou gavest up the ghost tho-shewedst thy selfe not a man only but even set above the reach of mans power for when thou wast about to breathe out thy most holy Spirit thou criedst out Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit Ah what a mournfull lamentable sad and miserable silence is there when mournfull lamentable sad and miserable man is commanded to breathe forth his soule how silent faint and how dead as it were are all things before death our death-bed takes
what Saint Paul said We brought nothing into this world and we know that we can carry nothing away from thence and therefore let us be content with our food and cloathing but those that will bee rich fall into temptations and snares and many foolish lusts which afflict and drowne the sons of men in ruine and destruction Pray with Agur the son of Jakeh I have desired two things of thee O God deny them not unto me as long as I live remove farre from me vanity and lyes give me neither poverty nor riches let me be nourished with the meat of mine owne table lest being over full I lye against thee and say who is the Lord or being poore I should steale and so abuse the Name of my God Bee grieved more for Gods dishonour than thine owne if thou sufferest wrong beare it patiently and thou shalt overcome it yet thou mayest say my reputation is stained shall I endure it Why not suffer and thy reputation will be soone repaired he that shall at length even in the last day restore unto thee thy putrified body shall restore to thee thy credit if thou be angry and enraged and teare thy selfe what shall all these turmoiles profit thee Nothing is more pleasing to thy enemie than to see thee by thy rage to be in such a confusion Rather pray for thine enemies that they be fellow-heires with thee of eternall life and fellow-chaunters of thy Fathers praises in his heavenly Kingdome The more others extoll thee the more doe thou humble thy selfe in thine owne eyes nor please thy selfe with such vanities They that esteeme lightly of earthly things are magnified and extolled by the Angels of heaven proceed sincerely rightly and innocently in every of thy actions nor too earnestly take care for the things thou hast not Think no sin little for there is none so light if any may bee said light but it may bring upon thee great plagues everlasting death therefore deplore thy least sinnes and pray without ceasing for the bettering of thy life Think how short thy life is if any seriously consider what ever belongeth to us he shall see they vanish from us like birds in the aire and wee also by our perpetuall motion are carried beyond those transitory things but that which is worst no remedy can be found against this for these things fall out thus by the law of Nature for the things of this life are a dreame a smoake and impostures this is our life O men that lead a fleeting life such is the Scene upon the earth that wee must be borne ere we could have a being and as soone as we are borne wee are againe dissolved to nothing Wee are a dreame that lasts not an apparition that cannot be laid hold on a flight of a bird that is gone the passage of a ship in the sea that leaves behind no impression dust a vapour morning dew a flowre that hath his time to blow and time to wither the dayes of man are as grasse and shall flourish but like the flowre of the field Think therefore alwayes what manner of life thou hast not how long it may last make haste to live well and think every day is another life let us extend our life whose office and argument is action let us not place the goodnesse of our life in the length of it but in the use of it For it may come to passe yea it often happens so that he who hath lived long hath lived little his life is most long in the whole extent whereof he hath been at leasure for himselfe and yet no part thereof hath lyen waste or idle Life is like a Play it skils not how long it is but how well it was acted not he that hath sung much to the Harpe nor he that hath made many prayers or hath steered many ships is to be commended but he that hath performed these things for Beauty is to be placed in Vertue and a seasonable moderation not in length of dayes In every thing we see the Priority to bee yeelded to maturity and perfection not to their old-age For amongst the Plants those are accompted the best which beare most fruit in the shortest time and amongst the living creatures those from whom we receive most commodities for our lives in the shortest time We conclude therefore that a short time well and innocently spent is farre to be preferred before a sinfull long life CONTEMP c. 35. Of necessary rules to lead a holy life concerning our words HEare and obey these things O man which I shall utter touching thy words weigh well continually with thy selfe that saying of our Saviour I say unto you that of every idle word that the sonnes of men shall speake they shall give an account for in the day of judgement and that also which the most wise Salomon also affirmes in the multitude of words there will not cease to be sin Fly therefore idle and slothfull words which have repentance treading upon their heeles and ill successe at their elbowes Examine what thou art to propose and what to answer As long as thy word is within the fence of thy teeth it is thine own but as soon as it is escaped it is his that receives it How foule and uncomely a thing is it if thy unbrideled tongue breaking the bounds of modesty shall cause thee to blush for shame Let therefore thy words be few and weighty and seasoned with salt and mark in the delivery what is worthy and what in them is unworthy of thee Chiefly vaunt of nothing for truth which thou knowest not to be true nor give thy selfe over to receive vaine reports Such a tongue is a monster more changeable than any Proteus that fils the world with fables doth often in sports cause tragedies to be acted amongst men it encreaseth in its progresse and for the most part relates things to be greater than they are and cannot abstain from telling of lies in relating a truth and although it doth onely utter trifles and toyes yet sometimes is it in the place of a thousand witnesses As the hand of a foole doth leave a token of his folly deciphered upon every wall it passeth by so such a tongue filleth all mens eares with rumours and stories but whether they be true or false it careth not A mouse scarce peeps out of any cranny but it is presently at hand and like a midwife receives this issue and makes it presently grow bigge and that it may shew the fairer cloaths it in most large vestments so he forces rumours upon every one he meets as being fresh and new yea as a true story though for the most part it hath scarce any truth in it So is falshood in very short time divulged thorow the world Whosoever heares a report coynes and addes something to that he hath heard what either credulity or ornament shal perswade him too Behold the stories which doe at length put off
I see better Contemplations Sighs Groanes of A Christian I follow worse London printed for William Lee and are to be sold at the Turks head in fleete streete 1640. CONTEMPLATIONS SIGHES and GROANES of a Christian Written in Latine By IOHN MICHAEL DILHERRUS And Englished by WILLIAM STYLE of the Inner Temple Esquire LONDON Printed by Richard Bishop for WILLIAM LEE and are to be sold at the Great Turks Head next to the Mitre Taverne in Fleet-street 1640. The Authors Dedication TO THEE O IESVS CHRIST Son of the living God and borne of the Virgin Mary Lord of the living and of the dead Doe I with Teares and Groanes Give Dedicate and Consecrate These my CONTEMPLATIONS and SIGHES And doe begge and beseech thee that thou wilt make them unto mee A helpe in my life A comfort at my death My protection in Iudgement Thy adorer redeemed by thy blood J.M.D. The Translator to the Reader BOokes if they bee good need no protection if bad in this our age and state they can have none bee not the Surveyors of the Presse a thing not to be presumed either corrupt or negligent Now therefore to see a booke in print with an Imprimatur in the front is a sufficient warrant for all to buy and a sure rule for thee to reade without either offence to thy selfe or displeasure of any other Besides this is no new Booke though a new Translation and therefore I hope as it hath been publikely vendible for many yeares without restraint and good applause in the Latine tongue so it may now find as free a passage and as faire an acceptance in the English and shall not need a Protector to keepe it off from a publique censure or warrant it from the fire And this is all I now wish either for my Author or my selfe Yet I have a Patron too even He that commands not only the hands but even the tongues and hearts of men If he be pleased with these my weak endevours for whose honour I chiefly undertooke them I have my Guerdon even all I expect or desire if not I am sure I shall vainly implore any other patronage how potent soever as no way sufficient to protect either me or my Translation from his All-seeing eye and All-doing hand of him therefore doe I beg pardon of my errors committed and to his service doe I in all humilitie dedicate my selfe and this Manuall and doe loveingly commend the use thereof to thee my courteous Reader From my chamber in the Inner Temple August 20. 1639. THE AVTHOVR to the Reader THE time is already come which our Saviour foretold should be before the Fabrick of this world should be dissolved take heed saith he you bee not deceived for many shall come in my name and shall say I am Christ and that time draweth nigh but go not after them And when you shall heare of wars and tumults be not affraid for these things must first be but the end is not yet for Nation shall rise against Nation and Kingdome against Kingdome and there shall be great earthquaks in divers places and famines and deaths and there shall be terrors and oppositions and great signes shal be seen from heaven and there shall be great tempests but before all these things come to passe they shall violently lay hands upon you they shall persecute you and deliver you up to their Synagogues into prisons and shal set you before Kings and Governors for my Name sake your own parents brethren kindred and friends shall betray you and they shall put some of you to death and you shall bee hated of everybody He that makes a doubt of the fulfilling of this Prophesie let him cast his eyes upon the actions of the former age and behold the tragedy which is even acted in the sight of all men which dyes in purple both the body and estates of all men and yet its Catastrophe doth not yet a peare to us How many imaginary Christs forged in hell hath the old Serpent put upon us he hath suffered almost no age to passe wherein he hath not hammered out new Authors and Princes of Salvation and hath prepared new ways for impious devotion so that we are even reserved to that time than which none was ever more fierce for Religion nor more barren in Piety If any more sincere and more unspotted than the rest be given us from heaven that may shew us the path to those heavenly mansions and that faith which is the only ladder to life eternall and commands to bee clothed with works bids those other personating sectaries of Christianitie to carry more devotion in their hearts than in their countenances and to be fiercer in doing than saying he shall scarce get from them without hissing and a clownish jeere I dare say that these very things doe happen even within the Orchyard of the Church How many witnesses of the Gospels truth are delivered by our adversaries to make themselves pastime to be destroyed by the cruell sword to be consumed by the devouring flames and to be pined within a dark prison In our age have wee seene Nation to rise up against Nation and their great burden pressing the earth more than ever wee reade of in our bookes we find by daily experience that fathers grow mad and cruell against their own sonnes mothers against their daughters and children against their parents and that either for Christs or Mammons sake Though we see not innumerable Cities overwhelmed by earthquaks yet we know it to bee true in other parts of the World We see armies of fires in the Firmament representing unto us and besmeared with the humane blood which is after to be shed netther is the breaking in of seas and floods any new thing and more I need not say for as Gregory the Great out of whom wee have taken something of that we have formerly declared doth write when the swelling waves hang over us and doe threaten death which they bring with them wee call to mind no carnall pleasures yea we cast over boord those very things for which we have made a long voyage and all things compared with our life are set at nought So we also when we perceive the waves of Gods wrath to swell high we laye aside the burthen of our wordly possessions we remove our vaine desires and cast from us the weight of all our worldly cares being earnestly and only sollicitous for our hoped for eternal life So shall it bee that thus lightned the ship of our devotion may floate which laden must sink for the cares which depresse us in this life do draw our soules into the deep which is borne so much the higher amidst the billows of temptation as wee are carefull to rid it from the thoughts of this world but there is another thing which wee should duly consider in these our tempestuous times when a storme doth first arise the waves are then but small but presently after they swell to
power is great and there is no summing up of thy greatnesse and goodnesse beneficence and clemency Though but a man I will confesse thee though I am but one piece of thy Creation and but a man that carries his mortality about him and that beares within him a testimony of his sinnes though such a man such a portion of thy Creation yet will I praise thee If I were without thee I should not be whatsoever I am I should become nothing Thou wast in mee to make me have a being and to be with thee but I departed from thee although I am thus in thee and with thee But how could I depart or be absent from thee how could I fly from thy face if I ascended into Heaven thou wast there for thence didst thou cast downe headlong the spirit of pride and authour of disobedience if I should make my bed in hell thou wouldest be there also for thou hast the keyes thereof and setst open the gates thereof for them that trust not in thee if I should plunge my selfe in the depth of the Sea thou wouldest there find mee for thou didst cast disobedient peevish Jonah into the maw of the whale thou madest him there a prisoner 3 nights and 3 dayes and then didest draw him thence neither torne hurt or wounded if also I should take the wings of the morning and make my habitation beyond the farthest Seas even there would thy hand lead mee and thy right hand take hold upon mee if I should say yet shall the darknesse hide me why even night shall be turned into day unto me darknesse it selfe cannot hide from thee the night to thee shines like the day darknesse is light and light as darknesse not houses nor vailes nor walls nor enclosures no caves that are under ground or dens that are full of darknesse can shut out thy presence thou art more nearely present with us than we are to our selves Thou searchest through our life our actions and all our thoughts Can any lurking place hide any from thy presence Doest not thou fill heaven and earth and art a God at hand and also afarr off Thou art all eye for thou seest all things all eare because thou hearest all things all hand for thou framest all things all foot for thou art every where present thou art neare me thou art with me thou art in mee thou sittest within mee thou art an observer of all my good and evill and art my protector yet my God I went from thee I departed and forsook thee I blush when I speak this yet I speak it willingly because forthwith thy mercy offers it selfe vnto me Souldiers that keep not their stations are punished with death and hee that in the battell first begins to runne loses his life yea for a man but to lose his target is counted a crime and to cast away his weapons is counted a most reproachfull thing Ah! how foulely have I left my station without thy command O heavenly eternall commander there was yet no ordered or marshalled battell with Satan I was but only assailed by a light skirmish and at the very first onset I threw away the buckler of my integrity and faith I suffered my weapons to bee shaken out of my hands and I fled from my allegeance from before thy face With what a slight resistance and by how childish a valour might I have overcome Satan it was my sloath and not his force that made him strong As a man greedy of gaine seeing an orphant have riches entices him often to his house makes him a banquet bestowes something on him and beguiles him with faire words till hee hath gotten his meanes so the devill seeing that I had a pretious treasure heavenly wisdome layd up in an earthen chest presently offered mee wealth pleasures and honours that baited with these hee might spoyle mee of my heavenly riches he hath stripped mee and spoyled mee of all my treasure which I ought to have kept holily and might without difficulty have done it But what gave he me in requitall what riches what pleasures what honours What can he repay whose inheritance and riches is that infernall torment that gulfe that vomits forth pitch and flames whose torments are without end and his confusion everlasting But thou my God for my backsliding hast rendered a reacceptance of me for my falling from thee thou hast requited mee with thy favour For thy grace and mercy is precedent and greater than my whole offence and all my failings I read it spoken by thy Kingly servant that thy mercy is great great hee said it was but how great hee could not tell wee have knowne that it is great but how great we have not knowne nor can perceive We know not the quantity of it's greatnesse which cannot be expressed in words Wee see the fruit of mercy is great for were it not extended beyond measure we had not after our Fall been received of thee Ah what is sinne to the mercy of God A spiders web that a blast of wind makes invisible Consider a spark of fire if it should fall into the Sea could it continue living or visible as a spark to the Sea so is mans malice to Gods Pitty and Clemency yea not so only but farre lesse for the Ocean though it be vast yet is not unmeasurable but of Gods mercies there is no measure CONTEMP c. 4. Of the Councell of the Trinity touching the Creation of Man and of the end why Man was created WHat is man that thou wast mindfull of him what the son of man that thou didst visit him Thou thoughtest of me before I had a being I was in thy minde before I was in the world thou appointedst a consult O my God when thou wast to make me after thou hadst brought forth all things and hadst built this vast stage of the world hadst replenished and adorned it thou didst say Let us make man after our Image Thou God and Father who art the beginning and originall of the Trinity with whom consultedst thou was it with the Angels and those holy Inhabitants of heaven why surely they joyned not with thee in the Creation of man nor was man made according to their similitude Did hee consult with the Earth or with the Sun because the Sun and man are said to generate man who may be suffered to trifle thus Let us make man saidst thou we our selves will be busie about him and not an Angell not the Earth not the Sunne not the Water nor any other thing But who is with thee doest thou speak in the Potentates language Nor was this sutable thou speakest to thy Coeternall and Coessentiall Son and holy Spirit thou speakest God with God one God as the Father workes so works the Son and holy Ghost they work but one Thou createdst man the worke of the whole Trinity to live in this world better than the whole world the most exquisite Creature of all creatures the most
absolute Creature or little world the Compendium and Epitome of the great world yet not properly a world but a man framed by thy hands by the Communion of the Son and the holy Ghost an image enlivened by the breath of thy mouth and a representation of thy selfe Heaven thy habitation is resplendant with shining and sparkling lights the earth thy footstoole doth swell with a thousand sort of fruits and yet none of them is said to be made as man was O God I am thy Image I am thy likenesse therefore I will be thy pleasure thy delight thy content thou wilt take care of me and never forsake me for who will neglect an image and a worke made after his owne likenesse To what end O my God hast thou done all this why didst thou forme and fashion me in so excellent a manner Thou madest man first of al that he might be the stock of us all from which so many branches so many leafes and so many fruits should spring Thou wouldest that all should have one originall and a like beginning that no man should preferre himselfe before another as if he were the seed of a more noble father that none should despise another that one should not hurt another but that we should every one mutually assist each other in his labour that we should be all of one mind will the same thing covet and desire the same thing and that there might not be heard any brawles contentions enviousnesse or deceits amongst us For concord is that most fragrant Balsum that breathes thee that excellent odour Thousand thousands in heaven do serve thee and there is found no discord thousand thousands should also serve thee on earth and there should be found no discord Thou didst make us all that we should be the cleere mirrour of thy Majesty of thy Glory of thy Dignity of thy Power and of thy Wisdome The work commends the workman and the effect shewes the cause O unspeakeable Artist O unvaluable causer of all things Let us take heed that we neither break nor spot that we nor fully nor make dusky this glasse let us beware that we cause not Satans vizard to be seene in this glasse but let wisdome piety goodnesse curtesie chastity and whatsoever is most excellent in thee in part reflect in us Thou madest us all that wee should bee the worlds perfection beauty and ornament The world was a Cage cunningly and wonderfully wrought but it wanted a singing bird by whose warbling notes al things might be expressed let us wordlings beware that we be not to the world like a Crow or dunghill bird or a Jay but a Lark that doth night and day in the evening and at morne celebrate and proclaime his Creatours praise let us not be a disgrace an unprofitable and reproachfull burden that the world may labour to expell with groans and be glad not sorry to be rid of it rather than wish for its returne Thou hast made us all that we should admire and set forth thee and thy works Thou hast endued me with an understanding enlightned with heavenly fire that by thy selfe I might distinguish thee from my selfe and the world Thou hast given me a will that knowing thee I might love thee above all things because thou excellest all things and dost comprehend all good things within thee Thou gavest me a tongue that knowing and loving thee I should lively expresse and redouble thy praises Be present my understanding be present my will be present my tongue know him love him praise him praise the Lord O my soule I will praise the Lord all my life long I will sing unto my God while I have any being Praise ye the Lord for it is good to sing unto our God it is a pleasant and comely thing to be thankfull unto him Thou hast made us all that wee should live with thee and that wee should be made partakers of thy glory and gladnesse The better any thing is the more it communicates its goodnesse to others but thou my God art the best of bests therefore thy goodnesse doth most plentifully flow to all so that they will lay hold and embrace it Vouchsafe safe O Lord that whilst I walke in the way I may dwell and remaine with thee in life Thou ordainest me to life O suffer me not to fall by death death is not of thee but from my selfe life is not from me but from thee take that from me which proceeds from me and give me that which comes from thee and I will praise thee in thine own holinesse I will praise thee in the firmament of thine owne power I will praise thee in thy virtues I will praise thee according to the magnitude of thy greatnesse I will praise thee in the sound of the Trumpet I will praise thee upon the Psaltery and Harpe I will praise thee in the Cymball and Quire I will praise thee upon the stringed instruments and Organs I will praise thee in the well sounding Cymballs I will prayse thee on the loud Cymballs every thing that hath breath shall praise thee Hallelujah My spirit shall leap for joy in God my Saviour for evermore O most blessed God give me a blessed age CONTEMP c. V. Of Paradise and of casting forth of Man from thence OMnipotent Creatour thou didest bestow a threefold grace upon man the grace of the soule originall righteousnesse and the grace of the body immortality and the grace of a most pleasant place to inhabit but what is that place my God wherein thou didest place my first parent and mee in him I read the words of thy penman but what meane those words what is Paradise what is Eden teach me O my God for no man although hee think he hath gotten much knowledg can instruct me sufficiently I collect that thou plantedst a garden and that it looked toward the East I heare of foure rivers Ganges Nile Tigris and Euphrates but yet I am not satisfied for the doubts of Disputants and their wrangling makes the matter very intricate unto me But why doe I seeke for that which is not and neglect that which is give me the heavenly Paradise and the earthly Paradise shall never trouble me I understand it was a most fruitfull Garden and stuffed with joy pleasure and delight in which the eyes did want nothing nor the ears or any other part of that body which it did not enjoy Within thou hadst furnished man with wisdome and understanding without thou sufferedst him not to want any thing All the creatures came about that new king enthroned by the King of kings did tender him homage and did reverence him with humble subjection The tall fertile odoriferous pruned comely and pregnant trees how much did they refresh him the Alder tree Almond tree Cherry tree Fig tree Cidonian Punick aurea and what ever else doe beautifie the fields But above the rest notable are those two which thy booke describes unto me which did most of
all ennoble the Garden that Tree of life and the Tree of the knowledge of good and evill When thy faithfull servant calls it the Tree of life doth he doe it because it had received this power from thee that he which should eat of its fruit should have his body confirmed in a setled state of health and a perpetuall strength that it should not decline to worse or to death by sicknesse or infirmity of age Thy very Word doth intimate thus much unto me Our first Parents were nourished with the fruits of the other trees that their living bodies should not suffer hunger or thirst but therefore they were to taste of the tree of life that death might not creepe upon them from any side nor that they should in continuance of time perish by reason of old age the other trees were for nourishment that for a Sacrament How great was thy care my God how great thy providence thou gavest me not a momentany pleasure nor a yearely but an everlasting Now I am weakned by diseases I am tormented with cares I am tortured with griefe but this is besides thy will though not contrary unto it for what could happen to me against thy Will could one haire have fallen from my head if thou hadst not willed it should be so what was now my first habitation the narrow and dark part of the womb where I was environed with the ill sented sides of the belly I come crying into this life I depart out of it with sweat and I passe through it with labour nor is there any one that can boast himselfe free from this condition being borne and brought into this light I cannot move my selfe from one place to another in my first infancy I am void of all pleasure I am a burden both to my selfe and unto others and exposed to innumerable dangers even till I attaine to these yeares wherein reason and judgement begin to florish in me happier in that one thing than in the other part of my life that I understand not my unhappy condition What shall I say O my God my yeares are multiplyed and my cares increase but I was not even worthy of these things Thou canst not doe otherwise than lead me and support me with thy hand although I did not deserve life but hell and destruction when I had opened my impious mouth and devoured the forbidden fruit thou didst ordeine the tree of the knowledge of good and evill for my Altar and Temple that I should yeeld thee due obedience in abstaining from the fruit thereof I would be made wiser and did become most unwise before the Fall I had the knowledge and experience of a present good I had only the knowledge but not the experience of an absent evil but after the Fall there was in me a certaine knowledge of a lost good but no experience of it and I had a knowledge an experience of an adherent evill Woe is mee when shall I returne thither whence I am expelled I desire not a garden but a house not a figure but the thing figured I desire not to rule but to become a servant I aske not to sit but to stand and observe thy Commandements Looke on mee O my Father looke on me and approve me and be pleased in thy mercy that I may finde favour in thy sight that the dores of thy palace may bee opened unto mee when I knock I beseech thee by my Lord thy Sonne the man of thy right hand the Sonne of man whom thou hast established for a Mediatour betweene thy selfe and me by whom thou soughtest me when I sought thee not that I might seeke thy Word by which thou hast made all things and mee amongst the rest thy onely Sonne by whom thou hast called thy beleeving people unto thy adoption and amongst them me also I beseech thee by him that sits at thy right hand and doth intercede unto thee for me in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisedome and knowledge open quickly unto me and grant me passage O my God that I may enter into the joy which cannot enter into mee because it is farre greater than I am CONTEMP c. 6. Of the Serpent the Deceiver THe devill is wicked foule and terrible hee doth therefore as much as he is able hide his own face and puts on a strange countenance yet all his thoughts all his endevours and all his actions are to deceive when hee perswades to good hee deceives for a greater mischiefe that is to arise from that good in perswading unto evill under the shew of goodnesse in diswading from good as if it were evill in diswading from evill that he may bring in a worse evill The deceiver invades the Serpent that wee might not discover the hidden fraud that hee might with more ease and profit bring to passe that which hee had wickedly and most cunningly projected The Serpent was a beautifull and subtile creature therefore not unfit to entice to move to perswade and to seduce O thou deceiver O thou turne-coate O thou ensnarer and deceiver most lying spirit thou transformest thy selfe into an Angel of light that thy subtilty and slights of darknes should not be discerned thou dissemblest the night of thy malice that wee might promise to our selves goodnesse from that which is most vile and wicked thou mouldest and paintest deckest and fashionst thy instruments that they may finde some time for acceptance with us if thou shouldest rransforme thy selfe into an enraged lyon or wert so bold to change thy selfe into a cruell Beare who would not tremble take heed and flie from thee thou goest amongst us therefore most comely and most courteously that thou mayest without being perceived finde admittance of those that are heedlesse yea and oftentimes also of those that are most wary What are those vile teachers whose consciences are feared that glitter in so many ceremonies so many formes of worship and so many commentaries or expositions of things but serpents but broods of vipers that cunningly bite us they put on sheeps cloathing that they may cover their wolvish clawes Thou old Serpent thou usest the subtill wits of men which are the fittest of all for thy desires the simple humble and abject doe seldome broach Heresies He that hath profited much in knowledge for the most part attributes much to himselfe he avoides the beaten way wherein the credulous common sort of Christians doe walke and is wise apart and departs to fall headlong into the gulph of errors Give me my God moderate wisedome but that I may profit exceedingly in a holy life and in saving faith thou wilt not aske mee hereafter what I have scene but what I have beleeved not what I have read but what I have done Grant that I may receive with an humble heart what thou offerest mee and settest forth in thy Word not regarding what either superstitious reason or the mischievously obtuse pitch of wit and foolish subtilties of Doctors doe argue
Thou art the mouth of truth grant that I may beleeve what thou speakest the Divell is the mouth of vanity grant that what he lyingly utters may be suspected and avoided by mee Grant I may valiantly resist and oppose him in fighting with him Hee is a serpent if he but once gaine but a little intermission hee crowdes him selfe in and wee can hardly expell him but though wee overcome him as it were hee doth recollect himselfe and assayes to get new strength even as the serpents taile cut off doth by licking grow againe and if his head get in any where all his body will quickly follow O thou Conquerour of the Serpent who art not said to bruise his tayle but breake his head helpe me that I yeeld not if I be stricken if I doe fight with him grant me also power O my God to trample under my feet serpents and scorpions and all the power of the adversary that nothing may doe me hurt Vouchsafe holy Trinity but one God that I may alwaies be mindfull of thee that I may alwayes have thee with me and all the power of Satan shall vanish away The serpent is afraid of the three leaved grasse and never lyes upon it Satan abhorres thy name and memory and to call upon thee nor dares approach the adorers of the Trinity nor those that inhabit neere the Deity Bee present with me O God forsake me not my Redeemer The serpent flyes the Hart he is driven away by the fume of the fat and of the Harts-horne thou art the morning Hart thou art that fume that odour whereby that infernall spirit is weakned and repelled Remove farre from me gluttony and intemperancy The serpent cannot endure a fasting man's spittle but dyes being sprinkled with it make mee poure out my prayers with fasting unto thee and that I may send forth my sighes and call forth my groanes and I shall be preserved in safety I often think of that O my God which afterwards I dislike of yet I confesse those things unto thee because thou seest them though I confesse them not unto thee and except I doe confesse them thou dost punish them I often deale thus with my selfe Oh that I had bin so made that I could not have fallen and been deceived I thinke of good in an ill manner I therefore thinke of those things that thou mightest never have been wroth with mee nor that I might have given thee cause to be angry this had been good but I think it in an ill way for why hast thou not made me so because thou wouldst not why wouldst thou not because thou wouldst not I must not bee more wise than is sitting for me But I suppose that reasonable creature is not of a little goodnesse who avoides ill by comparing of evills Thou didst not O God violently hinder mans Fall because thou knewest how to draw some good from it yet followes it not from thence that thou didst will his Fall but didst rather will that good which thou knewest how to derive from his Fall but the Fall it selfe thou didst hate and extremely detest What shall I thinke my God pardon him that hath been deceived thereby mee thinks thy servants are not to be accounted faithfull and thrifty if they must be fettered and shackled to force them to doe thy pleasure but when they freely and of their owne accords do manly act that which belongs unto them That is not acceptable unto thee which is forced and drawne from us by violence but that which proceeds from true virtue for virtue proceeds from a free deliberation not from necessity but free deliberation and election require a freedome of will But why doe I dispute O my God let it suffice me that thou didst not produce a nature not subject to sinne because it pleased thee not to doe it Pardon me pardon me O my God and deny not to forgive my curiosity We should not exercise our selves in an idle and vaine curiosity concerning the creatures but we should direct our steps to things immortall and which indure for ever Those things which thou wouldst conceale are not to be searched into Those things which thou hast revealed are not to be neglected that we be not found unlawfully curious in the one and damnably ingratefull in the other I will seek truth in truth not in vanity I will finde it when I have sought it for truths sake not for vanity nor will I traffique for the gaine of death in the words of life CONTEMP c. 7. Of Gods Providence and Preservation AS there is not O my soule O my sense O my thought any moment wherein my God I doe not use to enjoy thy goodnesse and mercy so ought there not to be any moment wherein I may neglect to have thee present to my memory I should account that I have lost all that time wherein I have not thought upon thee O my God I should account O God all that time lost wherein I doe no meditate upon thee I therefore come again unto thee O thou never failing light O thou untyred and never extinguisht life O thou ever springing fountaine O thou seed-plot of life O thou chiefe beginning of wisdome O thou first originall of goodnesse thou wilt not reject me O my God for I speak not to jeering man but to the Lord that splenitickly laughs not at mee nor flowts mee with his countenance I behold my God this large extended Fabrick and I am struck dumb it was made by thee and thou hadst an end of thy work yet didst thou not leave thy work thou didst not like an Architect depart from the piece of work thou hadst made hee goes away and after regards it not but thou art still present and remainest the same Most powerfull and wise God whatsoever thou didst once make that thou doest alwayes preserve by thy Omnipotency and dost order it by thy wisdome I consider the nature of thy visible creatures their place order condition motion agreements harmony comelinesse beauty greatnesse use delight variety alteration and indurance that is in these corruptible things I find thy providence manifested in each part of thy creation I see it in heaven and in the lights of heaven the Sun the Moon the Starrs in the ayre and in the Clouds in the Earth in the Sea in the plants in the herbs in the seeds in living creatures as well reasonable as unreasonable foure-footed beasts flying fouls in swimming and creeping creatures Think with thy self my most sweet soule who it is that orders heavens axeltree that in so many thousand yeers it 's not growne old nor hath received any alteration and although it be made of a passible and corruptible substance yet by the word of it's creation it remaines still upheld in the same state O Lord our God there is none like unto thee There is none so rude nor of so brutish a behaviour but if he lift up his eyes towards heaven although he may be
danger and so is the esteeme of the medicine as is the heaping up of my griefe and feare O the sweetnesse and greatnesse of thy love although O Lord my God the world was placed in the middest of mischiefe and is full of misery yet sentest thou thy blessed Sonne into the world for us and for this diddest thou send him into the world that he being sold might ransome us being put to death might restore us to life might honour us by suffering disgrace and might adopt us for his sonnes If I would reckon up what he suffered for most miserable man what voice would suffice me for it what eares would not be weary to heare it for he was no sooner borne but his blood was spilt in the circumcision he was scarcely circumcised but forthwith was he designed to the slaughter he no sooner professed his doctrine openly but he was called the impious blasphemous and raging stirrer up of the people even by them whose God he had alwayes beene after a peculiar manner I doe every where behold misery calamity disgraces reproaches griefes poverty wearinesse sadnesse hunger thirst that he seemes but onely to have finished in his passion what he had continually suffered in the whole course of his life After that the Son coeternall and consubstantiall with his Father the Omnipotent Patron of the Church ordained for a judge of the quicke and the dead had fervently powred forth those prayers which he had conceived for mans salvation wherin he at the point of death more especially recommēded to his Father that deare pledge his Church for whose sake he suffered not onely valiantly but most willingly and freely not a drop but streames of blood to flow from his five wounds Walking with his disciples beyond the brook that tooke it's name from the shady vale the traitour meets him with an armed troope of servants and officers his neighbours flie from him his Disciples retire a friend and companion saluting the innocent betrayes him for a malefactour but it was the same whom before O cruell mischiefe hee had sold for a little money and for a base price his hands are tyed his armes are bound thus tyed and bound is he led away and the most deare young man that a little before leaned upon his most holy bosome followes after and Peter also but a farre off and with great feare none of the rest are present those whom he had loved whom he had full fed whom he had taken care of whom he had healed doe not so much as looke backe upon him they all forsake him that never forsooke any man he is made an unhappy spectacle in the house called Pratorium his shamefast body is made naked that off-spring of the most pure Virgin and was scourged even to death by those beastly Serjeants ordained to scourge malefactors they are instant both with words and stripes and drunk no lesse with blood than wine they binde him to a pillar they load him with stripes they multiply strokes upon strokes the place did ring with their smart blowes streames of bloud issue from his torne body and now there is scarce the resemblance of a body to be seene throughout him Behold the man saith Pilate And here lift up thy eyes O my soule and looke stedfastly upon the face of the Lord thy God leave awhile all thy vanities to which thou hast all thy life addicted thy selfe and if thou canst collect for one moment all thy thoughts and bestow them this day upon thy Saviour Behold the man behold a man of sorrow behold him that is beautifull above the sonnes of men ruddy chosen out of thousands whose haire is as the palme branches blacke as the ravens whose eyes are like the doves eyes by the fountaines of waters which are washed with milke whose lips distill the choisest myrrh like the lillies behold then it now raines nothing but blood his haire cleaves together with blood his head pierced with thornes doth dart forth blood his nostrils bruised with the strokes of the fist have besmeared his face with swart blood and which is most miserable of all being tyed bound he hath not wherewith to wipe of his blood he hath not I say wherewith to wipe away his blood forcing as it were from all parts of his body Behold the man This is that face which the heavens cannot behold and hell dares not behold this is he that now keeps silence whose voice is heard in the clouds whose thunder daunteth the courages of men with his fearful claps Behold the man behold the Lord of all things stands in want amidst all those things which he doth possesse he standeth bound who frees all he stands wounded that heales all Behold the man for thy cause O man stands he before the judge before us all doth he stand for us all he stands without a garment he stands robbed that no wound of his body might be hid from the beholders Learn O man out of these things which he suffered for thee what account Christ made of thee to the end by how much the viler thou art for whom he suffered by so much the dearer thy Christ may be unto thee Learne O man to avoid those things which may offend thy God Behold with how much sweat with what labour with what griefe he stood that he the Son of God might reconcile thee to his Father I have said many things yet if thou considerest the rest they are very few for the officers adde reproach to his punishments while they cloath his body with a purple garment made more purple with his most innocent bloud They fasten a prickly crown made of stiffe thornes upon his reverend head they salute him for a King and strike their King over the face and they blow upon the glasse of Angels with the worst sort of mixed stincks even the stench of their breaths corrupted by surfeting and mingled with spittle and by and by when they come to Calvary the prophane wretches doe prepare themselves for the butchery and lay upon his fainting body that most accursed punishment of the Crosse his most innocent hands are fastened with nailes which never did wrong to any but had wrought salvation for all men his most holy feet are fastened with an iron band wretch that I am they must be joyned together that had been exercised in so frequent travell for mine and for the salvation of all men His eyes swim in blood those two that were wont to be the lights of the good but lightning to the wicked his pure mouth is silent from which had rained honey combes his tongue is tyed which with its very silence convinces the cruelty of the parricides heaven was afraid of this spectacle and in it its mourning weed bewailes its Creatour the Lord of the Starres it withdrew it selfe within a sudden darknesse as ashamed of so great a wickednesse the Angels groane the Citizens of heaven breake forth into teares O face of man harder than
for man O blessed day wherein the head of the Dragon is trampled under the feet of thy crucified and dead body Leviathan is bruised Behemoh that vast and powerfull creature is overthrowne and death is cast out O most milde Tribunall before which I am absolved without punishment freed without death but yet that even by death where I am dismissed from my bloody deeds by the blood of the supreme King by thy blood now shed I see most clearely that thou hast transferred my nature upon thy selfe that I might receive that innocencie from thee which I had altogether corrupted in my selfe but thou keptest thy divine Nature that I might receive glory and dignitie thou joynedst both together that the Deitie being joyned to the humanitie and the humanitie joyned to the Deity he that was sensible of my misery putting on my affections might unite him unto me as a brother whom I did feare as a Judge What shall I say or how shall I speak for I am not my selfe when I think of thee when I lift up my eyes unto thee when I behold thy side launced with the speare and behold thorow that wound thy most loving heart Thou that art immense infinite not circumscribed void of passion and immortall hast put on for love of us even this our flesh straight finite circumscribed and finally liable to passion and death it selfe which by hunger by thirst by miseries by injuries by scourgings by spittings on by blood by death was handled beaten extended and tortured by pieces in the presence of the Devill yet being joyned also with thy Divinitie thou hast placed it above all the Angels above all creatures which are in heaven and earth even at the right hand of thy Father that we who before were even pressed downe to hell may now by thee be taken into the fellowship of the Godhead I would I might alwayes rest in this thy so great passion that I may dwell in thy wounds for whosoever flies to thy wounds and precious scars shall in tribulation finde great comfort and enjoy that comfort the soule doth onely desire CONTEMP c. 24. Of Christs buriall THere is at length an end set to labour and the worke of redemption being wrought and finished and that all-sufficient ransome paid the grave receives and covers this ill-handled body for God is faithfull O Christ my God who set a convenient end to thy labours temptations sorrowes necessities and persecutions for my sinnes thou wast put to death after death thou art buried but it was that thou mightest rise againe out of the grave for my just fication Before the day of preparation for the Passeover was wholly past thou art taken from the Crosse thy Father hastens also our departure from this preparation day by a preparation to the heavenly journey that we may the sooner be brought to thee celebrate Sabbath upon Sabbath unto thee Therewas no reproach that thou hadst not bin loaden with in that Crosse nor any ignominy that thy body had not beene disgraced with in it yet these things could not affright Nicodemus whom thou hadst instructed by thy nightly conference and gained for a secret Disciple and Ioseph of Arimathea a rich good and pious Senatour two of the principall men amongst the Jewish Nation Thou didst hang upon the Crosse betweene theeves thy chosen companions fled from thee the whole rabble of thy persecutors cryed Crucifie crucifie him take him away take him away Pilate delivered thee over to death and judged thee worthy to be tormented yet these men searing nothing breake through the midst of the host of these perverse troops they goe to Pilate and beseech him that the infamously handled carkas yet heavens relique might be given unto them accounting of it as of a most great gift What courage of mind shal I beleeve you had who quickned your spirits O Nicodemus and Ioseph what beliefe could the small reliques of that golden tree raise up in you did you not think that yee might bee accounted partners with Christ whom they had proclaimed for a deceiver and a disturber of the publike peace and that yee might be reckoned for troublers of the Senate and be blamed of Pilate and stoned of the people But the fire of faith was kindled in you which not being to be confined within in your hearts breaks forth on all sides O strange power of God in his faithfull servants O how unsearchable are his works The Disciples had above three yeares beene publicke auditors of Christ now crucified they had beene plentifully and carefully fed and instructed by him but when so great dangers grew thicke they forsake their Master Nicodemus and Ioseph came in private to Jesus fearing to bring the peoples hatred upon themselves now when they see all things seeme desperate they doe not forsake him whom they had worshipped whom they had heard whom they had reverenced but doe now still even now love and honour not unwillingly How great is thy power in those that are weake how great thy perfection in those that are imperfect would to God that nothing also may be able to separate me from the love of Christ neither affliction nor anguish nor persecution nor hunger nor nakednesse nor danger nor the sword but let me be perswaded that nor death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor heighth nor depth nor any other creature whatsoever shall be able to separate me from the love of God which is Christ Jesus my Lord. Those diligent worshippers of thee doe wrap thee in cleane linnen do embalme thee with Myrrh and Aloes O that I may humble my selfe by bitter repentance and purged from my sinnes may receive thee with a pure heart They embalme thee and lay thee in a new tombe in which no other had ever beene laid O that none but thy selfe might enter into my heart renewed by thy blessed Spirit They spend many things willingly for thy sake nor dare spare any cost let me also spend my life and blood for thee and for thine and what else besides my blood thou hast given me in this life When thou shalt call my soule from this wombe of durt let me thinke of nothing but of thy death but of thy blood but of thy wounds but of thy crowne when I I shall be affrighted with the grave let me thinke I shall be buried in no other sepulchre than in that which thou hast touched with thine one body which thou hast sanctified by thy scars that being to be raised at thy command I may live with thee everlastingly Amen CONTEMP c. 25. Of Christs resurrection SEt forth the prayses of the Lord and call upon his name declare his works among the nations sing unto him sing praises unto him declare all his wonderfull works call to mind his wonders which he hath done his strange works the judgements of his mouth Who can sufficiently speak of the power of the Lord
but feare God and examine exactly what may be truly profitable for thee Doe good to the poore with all thy power that thou mayest gather for thy selfe a treasure in heaven Doe all that God bids thee for thou art bound to doe good with thy will and spirit but he that knowes to doe well and doth it not he is guilty of sinne but he that doth good doth it not from himselfe but for that cause that it is bestowed on him of God and that he belongeth unto God Love not O man the world or the things of the world as the lusts of the flesh the desires of the eyes and the pride of life but feare God and meditate with thy selfe of heavenly things strive to fulfill Gods will in all vertuousnesse shun worldly minds set upon the earth that thou be not defiled with other mens sins seeke Gods kingdome and so use the mirth is permitted to thee that thou mayest alwayes tremble stand in awe and shew thy selfe thankfull that thou fall into no secret sin or be delighted with the tree of good and evill and with the sight of a momentany pleasure thou remove like Eve the law of God out of thine eyes and heart which should be neverthelesse the summe and highest pitch of all thy delights It should be thy delight night and day that it may be to thee the right way the truth and the life if thou wilt lead a a living life conducting to life eternall not to everlasting death Next O man keepe these three things faith charity and stedfastnesse of hope What ever thou dost see thou doe it in faith in simplicity of heart in confidence of the fatherly will of God and give God thanks to whom they are due and his blessings shall be alwayes thy handmaid let charity spring from the ground of thy heart nor be carefull to give thy selfe content but labour with feare and humility to please God Be pleasing unto men in truth mercy and justice without flattery for that is perfect charity Charity bids us look to the things that concerne God our neighbour not only those things which concern my selfe Let thy hope be without feare and doubting let him that desires divine heavenly and eternall things rest upon the wil of God and not upon slippery fraile and brittle things No man shall make thee lose thy hold of that hope which thou hast placed upon God thou mayest hope upon him even in the pangs of death for he is omnipotent Never let humility slip out of thy mind for he preserveth thy life by simplicitie strengthens it by patience and feeds it by truth Commit all thy waies unto God and hee shall bring it to passe he knowes what is for thy profit and what not Thinkest thou that he knowes not thy condition behold God sees and knowes all things and nothing is hid from his eyes He regards also the poore and contrite spirit and him that trembleth at his Word Search not therefore after high things when thou art commended feare because thou art an unprofitable servant and canst doe nothing except thou be assisted by the power favour and Spirit of God Thinke not better of thy selfe than of thy neighbour for thou art a man of nought remember God is only to be honoured and thou shalt be the greater if thou cast down thy selfe Be alwayes ruminating of these things first let no vain idle scurrilous words break from thy lips but godly pleasing profitable which tend to life and lead not to death therefore bridle thy tongue and restraine it for it can kill and give life Secondly to keepe thy soule and conscience free from wickednesse exclude thou malice and impious thoughts and never shun the light O thrice happie and more is hee whose heart condemnes him not Thou belongest to God O man walke upright with God remove from thee darknesse lyes and injustice for he is a Judge and a revenger of such things Trie and prove thy selfe in all things that thou mayst know what vice sticks to thee what vertue thou wantest that thou mayst shake off that and purchase this for thou canst never bee so perfect that something will not still be wanting Whatsoever thou dost thou dost it by Gods indulgence and helpe if it be acceptable to him for of thy selfe thou art very nothing and by the assistance of Gods holy Spirit canst thou onely proceed in goodnesse stay not therefore or hinder the operations thereof work out thy salvation with feare and trembling in continuall repentance humility and simplicitie of heart and think that thou art neither worthy of the blessings of this life or of that which is to come Lastly pray without ceasing in all thy labours pray reverently devoutly and humbly with faith in all thy wayes with a most fervent desire of thy neighbours salvation Thou must pray in thy chamber in solitarinesse in most humble devotion in fastings in teares in anguish in weeping in contrition upon thy knees night and day with a full hope and not doubting according to the will of God for all the true professors of the Christian faith study in all things to please God and not men whosoever honours God God will also honour him whosoever contemnes God God shall also contemne him Grant me thy grace most mercifull God that it may bee with me that it may labour with me and may continue with me even unto the end Grant I may alwayes will and desire that which is most acceptable unto thee and most dearly pleaseth thee let thy will be my will and let my will alwayes follow thine and agree best with it let me will and will the same thing that thou dost and grant I may not have power otherwise to will or not to will them as thou dost O my God thou unspeakable sweetnesse turne all carnal comforts into bitternesse unto me which doe draw me from the love of things eternall and evilly allure mee under colour of some present delectable good Let not flesh and blood O my God overcome me let not the world and its short glory deceive me let not the devill and his subtilty supplant mee Give mee strength to resist patience to endure constancie to performe give mee in stead of all the comforts of the world the most sweet unction of thy Spirit and infuse into mee the love of thy Name in stead of carnall love Confirme me my God by the grace of thy holy Spirit give mee power to bee strengthned in the inward man and to emptie my heart of all unprofitable care and vexation nor to be distracted with the various desires of any thing whether it be vile or precious but that I looke upon all things as if they passed but by me and that I did also passe away as they doe because nothing under the Sun is of any continuance but all things are vanity and vexation of spirit O how wise is he that thus considers with himselfe Give me my God heavenly wisdome
which the Prophet said A new name shall be given thee which the mouth of the Lord shall bestow on thee We have changed our accursed name because God hath given us a new name Take heed to your selves take heed who ever you be that you despise none of the faithfull that you disesteeme or reproach them not though he seeme most miserable most abject and most afflicted for let his misery or affliction be as great as may be yet is he the Almighty Gods Anointed the Prophet of the most holy the Priest of the most High yea he is himselfe a king of most great Majesty Yee are Prophets O Christians therefore let the Word of God dwell plentifully in you with all wisdome teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymnes and spirituall songs singing unto the Lord with grace in your hearts Ye are Priests ye Christians therefore I beseech you my brethren by the mercies of God that you give up your bodies a living and a holy sacrifice and acceptable to God by your reasonable service of him and be not fashioned like this world but be yee changed through the renewing of your mindes that ye may discerne what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God Ye are Kings O Christians be not therefore servants of sin or be subject to the boyling affections of the flesh but mortifie your sinnes tame your lusts nor prostitute your dignity to a most base and impure servitude Extoll your Christ because all your eminencie all your worth all your grace and all your glory proceedeth from him As the rivers do flow from the sea and flow back againe into the same so let your eminency dignity grace and glory be directed disposed of and referred to the authour and giver thereof Call upon Christ O ye Christians because though you be anointed yet may that ointment be overwhelmed defiled and wiped off by the filth of your sinnes and the durt of your corruptions ye carry heavenly gifts in brittle vessels pray that they be not broken and your graces spilt pray that no wind may extinguish your flame that your oyle faile you not and yee be left in darknesse with the foolish virgins Love your Christ yee Christians because he is anointed that you might be anointed because he is a King that hath all the inhabitants of the earth for his subjects because he is a Priest that hath expiated all the sinnes of the whole world because he is a Prophet that doth instruct all the ignorant doth enforme them and teacheth them the right way to life Love Christ you Christians because the most apparant manifestation of a thankfull mind consisteth not in words but works not in promises but in obedience But to the end you may more fully consider your dignity the birth of a Christian is to be weighed God is his Father in heaven the Church is his mother upon the earth The Word of God to be heard and seene is the seed that is the Word preached this is the administration of the Sacraments Yee are borne againe not of corruptible seed but incorruptible by the Word of God that lives and abideth for evermore The Father of lights hath begotten you by the Word of his truth The Churches are the wombe where the seed of the heavenly Word is scattered and in which the eternall Father and our mother the Church doe meet together The heart of man is the matter of this generation the privation is the mortification of the old Adam the forme is the vivification it selfe whence doth arise the assent of the understanding and confidence of the will that the sonne of wrath may become the sonne of grace the blinde may see the deafe may heare the dumbe may speake the lame walke the leaper be cleansed and life may be restored to the dead The time of this formation is when a Christian doth more and more profit in knowledge of the understanding and holinesse in the heart the carrying in the wombe is when in our whole life by meanes of the vessels of the wombe and navell that is by the ministers of the Word he attracteth to himselfe the milke of saving knowledge from the two breasts of the Church the Law and the Gospell and as an Embrion lives in the wombe so he lives in the Word Hee is a brute creature and more silly than a beast that doth not admire that a childe in the wombe should be preserved alive in so darke a prison in so uncleane streights among so many filths corruptions excrements wrapped in filmes and crowded by the bowels but it is farre more to be wondred at that any Christian should be supported amidst so many griefes paines torments snares and calamities For about the wombe wherein we are carried the World cries I will slay him the Flesh cries I will infect him the Devill cries I will deceive him Wee must there lie hid where there is much malice where is little wisdome where all things are viscous and slimie all things hid in darknesse and beset with snares where the soules are in danger the bodies are afflicted where all things are vanity and vexation of Spirit and yet for all this we live and are preserved we live and are not killed we are nourished and not in want we are carried in the wombe and are not abortive we are sustained and are in want of nothing The Embrion in the mothers wombe lives a hidden life he lives indeed in the world but is not seene with the eyes of any he sends forth his breath but scarce draws any in we also Embrions of regeneration lead a hidden life For though we live in the kingdome of heaven yet our glory and desireable life doth not as yet make any great shew we yet behold not the light of eternall blessednesse we yet draw not the aire of the region of Paradise we yet eat not the Angelicall Manna we yet drinke not of the heavenly liquour but have as it were but a light taste of al these things and we have scarce any sensible breathing of these things But the houre is at hand and the time will come that it shall be made manifest what we shall be wherein we shall beginne and never end this glorious light this life not of hope but of the things hoped for even the life of vision We shal begin this life when we die for then begin we to be borne to the true light when we first put off our mortality For the true birth day of Christians is their day of death In death they do begin to live through death they enter into life as the infant lies sighing at the port of the wombe expecting his passage and though he be even at deaths threshold yet is he conveyed into the haven of life O living death of Christians O Christian sonne of God brother of Christ companion of the Angels Lord of the world partaker of the divine nature O Christian exalted above sin and the law
to weepe and soften my hard and stony heart Teach me O Lord to doe thy will because thou art my God Give me O Lord a heart that may stand in awe of thee a minde to love thee an understanding to know thee eares to hearken to thee eyes to see thee Take pity upon me O God take pity upon me and looke downe upon me from the holy throne of thy Majesty Lord Jesus give concord to thy Ministers peace and quietnesse to Princes that judge righteously repentance unto those that live unjustly I beseech thee O Lord for the holy universall Church for the Clergy and Layety for all Christian Governours and all that beleeve in thy Name that labour in thy holy Word that they may obtaine perseverance in good works Grant O Lord eternall King unto young men chastity to those of riper yeares holinesse and unto all innocency pardon to the repentant succour to the Orphans and Widowes to the poore protection to the travellers a happy returne comfort to them that mourne eternall rest to the faithfull a safe haven to those that rove upon the sea to the better sort of Christians that they may persevere in goodnesse to the weaker sort that they may grow better to them that commit wickednesse and still offend thee that they speedily correct their wayes with me a miserable sinner O most sweet and most mercifull Lord Jesus Christ thou Son of the living God thou Redeemer of the world that art amongst us all and in all things be mercifull to me a sinner Amen CONTEMP c. 43. Of ending the day religiously AS nights and dayes have their returnes so let the thought and celebration of Gods mercy have their returnes in thy heart For therefore are the vicissitudes of light and darknesse granted us that there might be an interchangeable restoring of labour and rest and that each of them might have its fit and appointed time If God would have made the Sunne to stand still there must have beene a perpetuall day Also if the starres had had no motion who can doubt but their must have beene an everlasting night but he gave them motion that there might be changes of nights and dayes and such various motions that there might be mutuall vicissitudes of light and darknesse in which alternate spaces of labour and of rest might appeare unto us Blesse the Lord O my soule that hath appointed the Moone for its determinate seasons and the Sunne to know her going downe that it may be night wherein all beasts of the forrest steale abroad the young Lions roaring after their prey doe seeke their food and when the Sunne ariseth they retire themselves and lay themselves downe in their dens but man goeth forth to his worke and his tillage untill the evening How ample O God are thy works how wisely hast thou made them all how full is the earth of thy possessions Consider well O man what thy work and labour hath beene this day If thy endevours have beene honest ascribe them to God if thou hast learned any good impute it to God but if thou hast done any evill and hast offended either God or thy neighbour humbly crave pardon for it nor sleepe the sleepe of oblivion or security with thy sinnes upon thee That is an accursed and darksome night in which thou goest to bed without reconciling thy selfe unto God Cast up thy reckoning and wipe out thy scores being to account with thy God and if thou finde thy account faire which alas seldome or never fals out give praises to the Lord but if it appeare soule cast thy selfe groveling at the feet of thy Lord and implore his unspeakable mercy that if thou wert even this night to be called to his judgement seat thou mightest by it be excused If thou have moved any man to anger and indignation desire his pardon nor let the Sunne set under this troubled cloud If he forgive thee beware afterwards but if he refuse thee pardon faile not earnestly to begge of God forgivenesse of thy offence And thou doe that willingly to another that thou wouldest have another doe to thee Revenge not thine owne quarrell for God hath reserved vengeance to himselfe Surely he must needs be accounted very bold that dares wrest Gods sword out of his hand The Heathens were wont to doe this when the day was ended and they retired themselves to their rest they asked their soule what wound of it was that day healed what vice it had resisted in what part it was growne better Let anger cease and it will be more temperate let thy soule know that she must daily come before her Judge What shouldest thou that art a Christian thinke of is not thy soule also a secret searcher and censurer of thee she knowes thy manner she retires into the closet of her thoughts and sees what she hath secretly wished for O heavenly Lord to whose bottomlesse goodnesse and infinite kindnesse we owe all things that hast given the most cleare light of the day as well to the bad as to the good to undertake the works of their calling and hast lovingly afforded us the friendly silence of the night to refresh the strength of our bodies and to wipe out the cares of the minde I beseech thee that those things which I have this day committed either through humane negligence or inbred malice may for thy unspeakable mercies sake be forgiven me and vouchsafe unto me also that this night by thy blessing may be happy unto me and thou being my pure keeper and protector I may be free in it from the nightly illusions of the devill that my sleepe make both my body and soule more cheerfull the next day to serve thee And because in this life there is not an houre wherein we can assure our selves from the cōming of that evening when thou shalt come and the dead be raised at the sounding of thy holy Angels trumpet I beseech thee that thou wilt enlighten the eyes of my soule that my faith may not bee extinguished and I sleepe in everlasting death but that I may rest in thee in whom even the dead do live who livest and raignest for ever more Amen CONTEMP c. 44. Of Death the last Judgement Hell and Happinesse IN all thy words remember thy last things and thou shalt never sin no artificiall medicine nor any doctrine doth so overcome pride so conquer malice so quench lust or so trample upon the vanities of this world as the remembrance of our last things What are those our last things let others here dispute what they be but let the godly weigh the matter diligently with themselves thy Death the last Judgement the glory of Heaven the paines of Hell these are the things thou must meditate of What comes more suddenly and when we lesse think of it than Death We die daily for part of our life is daily diminished and even while we encrease doth our life grow lesse the time that passeth away
is lost we even divide this very day we now enjoy betweene death and our selves Wretched man why disposest thou not of thy selfe every houre Think thou mayest now die because thou knowest thou must die call to mind that the time is comming upon the wings wherein thy eyes must sinke into thy head the veines of thy body shall be crackt in pieces and thy heart shall be cleft with sorrow remember thine owne frailtie remember the miserable estate of thy pilgrimage call to mind in the bitternesse of thy soule thy yeares past and the dangers of mans life Amidst the most uncertaine things of man yet is death most certaine yet what is found more uncertaine than the houre of death it takes no pitie upon want it reverenceth not riches and to conclude it spareth neither wisdome manners nor age this only is the difference that death standeth at the old mans doore and for the young man he lyes in ambush every one therefore ought well to feare this last day because every one in the day of Judgement shall be judged for such as he shall be found at his day of death Upon this only moment of our life depends eternity that hath no end What is more terrible than judgement and what can bee imagined more intolerable than hell What will a man feare if hee feare not these things if horrour seize not on him and if dread doe not cause him to tremble O man if thou have lost the shame which belongs to so noble a creature if thou bee not sensible of the sorrows of affliction which is also a property that belongs to mortall creatures yet lose not at least thy feare Feare therefore O man because in death thou must be parted from all the good things of this thy body and the sweet marriage knot of thy united soule and body must be cut in sunder by this most bitter divorce Feare because in that terrible Judgement thou must stand before him into whose hands it is a most fearfull thing to fall even before such an Examiner from whom nothing can be hid if iniquitie be found in thee thou must be banished the society of blisse and glory and bee severed from the number of the blessed Feare because in hell thou must be exposed to insufferable and everlasting torments and receive thy portion with the devill and his angels even in the everlasting fire prepared for them Dost thou not yet feare the face of the Judge which is even terrible to the angelicall Powers Dost not thou tremble at the wrath of that powerfull One at his angry countenance and his sharp words Art thou not affraid of the teeth of the infernall beast of the belly of hell of those yellings fore-runners of our devourings Are we not yet affraid of the gnawing worme scorching flames smoak and vapour brimstone and stormie tempests O! who shall give water to my head and a fountaine of teares unto mine eyes that by my weeping I may prevent that weeping and gnashing of teeth and those hard bands of hands and feet and that weight of oppressing fettering burning and yet not consuming chaines and that I may come to thee my Lord and my God Yet if any be so cursedly obdurate so fierce and steely that hee cannot be troubled with the feare of ill yet who can be so madde and senselesse that he will not be touched with the desire of good things There are laid up endlesse good things for them that make a godly end even things which the eye hath not seene nor the eare heard nor ever entred into the heart of man to conceive which God hath prepared for those that love him those things the preparer and worker whereof is God What things must they be thinkest thou The eye hath not seene them because they are not colour the eare hath not heard them for they are not a sound nor hath it entred into mans heart to conceive them because the heart of man must ascend unto them Why labour I then to make my tongue to utter that which my heart cannot conceive which is to be beleeved and not to be beheld nay it is not onely invisible but also unspeakable O Lord Jesus Christ when that most perilous moment approacheth wherein I shall enter into the way of immortality then give mee a quiet and pleasing repose that in the true acknowledgement and confession of thy grace I may yeeld up my spirit and my poore soule with peace and gladnesse and may deliver it into thy hands Neither let mee bee long tormented as I have a thousand times deserved and that I may enjoy peace on the earth in my body and may watch and be made coheire of the resurrection to life of all the beleevers that I may praise and glorifie thee with gladnesse and may give thee thanks for evermore for all the innumerable blessings which thou hast bestowed upon mee through the whole space of my pilgrimage Call me not to an account for my old scores and remember not the sins of my youth but be mercifull unto me according to thy great mercies and sustaine me in a firme faith and comfort even to my last gaspe that neither sinne death or the divell doe me any hurt nor that my own flesh make me impatient but that I may enter in unto thee that I may dwell with thee and may remaine with thee for evermore Amen CONTEMP c. 45. Of Eternity IS it this that divideth the entrailes parteth the bowels woundeth the heart tyes the tongue shutteth the lips distracteth the senses and overwhelmes all our members with feare Rivers slow from our eyes our cheekes are watered with teares and all this torrent hath its originall from this one word a terrible word by the force and threates whereof feare and anguish are bred in us a word that no day no voice shall determine no starre-light shall shadow no constellation shall darken a word that melts the marrow and softens breakes and even minces the heart and bones though harder than the Adamant or Marble This word is Eternity a word of longer continuance than the Heavens more terrible than thunder and lightning or any tempest whatsoever It is Eternity that hath neither pause measure nor end and drives on the minds of men as it were with goades and spurs and pricks so that they search not after mutable or transitory things This word hath moved many to pluck of their glittering crownes from their ayery heads and to despise the lofty bayes and made them let fall their towring plumes and putting on a courser habit to contemplate higher and more divine things This word doth wholely possesse me nor suffers me to enjoy any encrease of content it infuses into my most disquieted soule care feare and griefe O end most remote from any end ô time without time O yeare and no yeare O number not to bee summed up of any Descend descend my soule to hell not to mix thy selfe with flames but to avoid