transgression upon transgression thou multipliest the acts of clemency Be not then My God inexorable to my fault pursue me not unto extremity The Nurse forbears not to give the breast to her child because it disturbs her repose and sleep Thou art to me more than a Fosterer be not then deaf to my plaints and deny not the milk and the sweetnesse of thy grace to thy infant whom thou hast imbellish't for an high designe and whom thou hast redeem'd with the life of thy onely Son I have forfeited thy grace my God but thou never losest thy goodnesse behold me in thy clemency not in thy justice my hopes survives in thee alone swallow my transgressions in thy compassions and the fruit shall remain to thy glory Lord my braines dissolve into teares my haires are full of ashes my visage heavy my eyes are hollow sunk and dull But Lord if my teares can render thee more gentle if they can move thee to extinguish the flames of my crimes set open the Fountaines of my weeping and cause me to bathe in the waters of my penitence untill that by the merits of the Saviour of the world thou hast overturned my transgression and impure desires under the power of thy compassion Lord I am nothing but Rottennesse and Corruption But the very ashes of a rich substance want not their value I am ransom'd by the stripes of thy Sonne I am cleansed by his blood I speak to thee by hismouth be mindful then of that sweet smelling sacrifice which Jesus Christ offered on the Crosse and do me the honour I may participate in the Triumph of his perfect and compleat Ministry Thou promisedst to Abraham not to destroy Sodom if so be that there thou couldst finde ten just persons and I Lord Gen. 15.36 I am holy I am enclosed I am a member of the just one without spot of one just justifying who hath swallowed my transgressions in the Ocean of his merits of one Just who is the light from whence I borrow the rayes of splendor Of one Just who hath cherish't me in his bosome and who makes me to draw the breath of his mouth Accept then the offerings my God of my humble acknowledgment which I bring to thy Altars with all the zeal and devotion whereof I am capable Psal 51. I beseech thee with the Psalmist David O God have pity upon me according to thy loving kindnesse according to the multitude of thy compassions efface my offences wash me from mine iniquity and purge me from my sinne I acknowledge my transgressions and my faults are ever before thee I have sinned against thee purge me with bysop and I shall be clean wash me and I shall be whiter than snow Turn thy face away from mine iniquities O God create in me a clean heart and a stedfast spirit east me not away from thy presence neither take from me the Spirit of thy holinesse Restore me to the gladnesse of thy salvation open may lips and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise Lord cause thy graces to abide with me conduct and lead me in thy wholsom paths by a divine inspiration touch to the quick my spirit and my sense and fill me with an ardure to thy service Open my lips which my transgressions have closed make to spring in me piety integrity the love of my neighbours modesty and that my vices after having so long time abused thy creature may in conclusion quit and surrender the place to a blessed to a reformed estate Effect it that my very countenance may answer for me that one may read in my eyes and voice the integrity of my intentions Enable me that I may fructifie as Trees planted by the streames of waters Enable me to walk worthily as it is requisite before thee increasing in all sweet savour and declaring that I am a member of thy Church instructed in thy Gospel and that thy Word dwelleth in me Lord thou hast unto this day conserved me thou hast born me upon thy wings Enable me then to be obedient to thy Voice that I may keep thy Covenant and that I may be of the Kingdome of thy Priests and of thy holy Nation Engrave thy holy Ordinances in my spirit cause my eares to resound the sweet and gratious ayres of thy Word Bring to passe that my tongue may sing a perperual song and be an eccho to thy heavenly voice and for the time to come I may ever addresse most ardent supplications not idle drowsy words unto thee then when as carried away with a Designe or Slumber and that I speak and understand not my self Establish my heart in thy fear retain my inclinations in obedience to thine fill my soul with charity which is the Complement of the Law the establishment of grace the preparative to glory which as the influence of the Sunne enables me with a vertue to fructifie and increase Lord receive me into thy favours wholly blot out my sinne temper and aslwage the scaldings of my wounds Encamp thy Angels round about me dispel and scatter all evil farre from me Be thou my Guide through the perisous straights of the World and the turbulent stormes of the violence of my passions suffer me not to daâ—h against the rocks of this Sea of the world and under the conduct of thy Holy Spirit cause me to arive at the Port of thy salvarion and cast anchor in the midst of thine Love me my God to the intent I may love thee that I may seek thee serve thee pray to thee that I may give thee glory and honour for ever A Meditation upon the Holy Supper UP then my Soul continue not longer buried in the delights and vanities of the World Arise awake thee rouze thy self and lend an attentive ear to the sacred voice of the well-beloved Sonne of God who invites thee to take place at his feast to sit down to the Banquet of eternal life Arise recollect all thy strength and lift thy self up toward this Fountain of light who by his Sunne illustrates all the Starres of heaven and illuminates all the parts and corners of the earth He is the only Physician on whom depends all thy deliverance He is the onely Authour of grace who can conserve thee against darknesse against hell he onely is Omnipotent who can carry thee for ever into heaven Up then my Soul prostrate thy self before him fortifie thy zeal follow thy God who calleth thee to participate of that great divine mystery which he hath instituted and ordained in his Church which is the Sacrament of his body of which one must take part to obtain eternal life The Sacrament of his body by the which he is united unto thee to convey thee into his glory whereby he removeth he abolisheth he effaceth all that is in thee of sin of cursing and of death and there replanteth his grace his life and his felicity All whatever he has brought from heaven all the grace which is
of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil and with his rebellious throat hath swallowed at once the Apple and Death He hath swallowed the leprosie which hath corrupted the masse of all his blood and the poyson which hath penetrated through all the members issues of his body This Lord this fountaine which hath continued corrupt in all it's streames this is the gloomy and black cloud whence distills not one drop not infected 'T is Lord this cursed rebellion which hath constrained the heavens ever bright and serene before to conspire and confederate against man and to poure forth upon him deluges of blood and universal scourges to extirpate and exterminate the Posterity of this Ancestor 'T is this rebellion which hath caused man to totter from his first estate rendred him a slave of sinne and a prey of that roaring Lyon who graspeth his throat with his foot So soon as the prohibition was made sinne followed and by sinne we have all received a Decree of condemnation But great God thou hast rais'd up and restored thine through thy mercy Thou hast destroyed that cursed spirit who would glut himself with the blood of our entrals and hast born us upon thy wings as an Eagle his Ayry Thou hast brought back and renddred in a flourishing condition our soules who were languishing and abased unto death The deluge of our vices hath drawn a deluge of plagues upon us but the deluge of thy Compassions hath swallowed the deluge of these Maledictions Thou hast cleansed these streames of iniquity in a sorce perpetually flowing into life Thou hast healed these leprosies with a vermillion blood and corrected and abated the force of these poysons by a heavenly Antidote By the offence of one alone death reigned over men and by the merit of onely one men shall reigne unto life The transgression of Adam is fallen upon all to condemnation and the justice of Christ justifying is come also upon all to justification Many by the disobedience of one alone Rom. 5.17 were rendred sinners and by the obedience of one alone many are rendred just To the intent that as sinne reigned unto death grace should also reign unto eternal life 'T is Lord that which Thou hast so often foretold to our Fathers by the mouths of thy Prophets who have declared on the earth that thy Sonne should bear our sorrowes that he should charge on himself our afflictions that he should be pierced for our offences and bruised for our iniquities Thou hast caused all our out-rages to fall upon him and the wounds are come on him for the Transgressions of thy people As a Lamb is led to the slaughter neither hath he opened his lips Dan. 9.26 he is set as an oblation for the transgressions of them who have known him is cut off not for himself but for us Oh admirable Architect of the World who hast stretched out the heavens sustained the massive foundations of the earth and commanded the waters of the Ocean to distill gently through the veines of the Rocks for the nourishment of men Oh holy streame of our felicity the strength of our Might that the graces of thy divine goodnesse are singular the effect of thy providence marveilous in the conservation of men in having prepared for us by thy mercy this conciliation before the foundation of the World and from the beginning having prefigured this sacrifice by the Tree of life in the Terrestrial Paradise afterwards by the Paschal Lamb by the Manna by the loaves of propitiation by the bread which the Angel brought to the Prophet Eliah in the strength whereof it is said that he went even unto the Mountain to have instructed us that so much blood of Bulls and Goats which was spilt before thee and the ashes of an Heifer wherewith they besprinkled the unclean were prefigurations of that juslifying blood which was requisite to be poured on the earth to blot out our transgressions And lastly Lord after having often spoken to our Ancestors by thy Prophets Heb. 17. Thou wouldst speak to our fathers face to face by thy Son who is the brightnesse of thy glory who as the snow tumbling from heaven scattering it self to whiten our plaines so is he descended from on high to publish peace from the rising to the setting of the Sunne and to save those who were fallen among the precipices for for the punishment due to their offences The woman the first seduc'd sees her self a thousand times happier she did see her self a Virgin-Mother containing in her womb the Saviour of the World Oh happy day that thou art Remarkable among us for having first beheld and having first caused us to see the well-beloved Son of God the Father and the Redeemer of the faithful And you bright Services that you are precious having given growth to the body who hath suffered for our sinnes and who since is risen with so much glory And thou earth thou art happy to have nourish't within thy bosome and seen to march upon thy face the Saviour of the World The Sages conducted by the Star hasted to prostrate themselves at thy feet thy Angel in giving advice to the Shepherds and the multitude of the heavenly Host leaping for joy lifted up their voyces to thy honour saying Glory be to God on High in Earth peace good will toward men Acts 5.3 Then Lord he whom thou hast raised up by thy right hand for a Prince and Saviour to give repentance unto Israel and remission of sinnes appeared in the flesh that so the flesh might live and by his humanity thy Clemency might approach us which before was with-drawn Thou hast sent him as a Bright Sun to enlighten all the compasse of the Earth He appeared cloathed with humane flesh but all repleat and all shining with Divinity The Power of His Vertue was manifest to the eyes of all the people The most impetuous stormes and billowes of the Ocean gave way unto the sole power of His word The tempestuous whiâ—le-whinds which troubled the serenity of the aire gave truce to their whistlings roarings at the only waging of his hand and acknowledg'd that they ought him respect and silence and that all things should be prepared to receive His Commands Men captiv'd under the power of the Devil were enlarged with the onely glance of His eye The most inveterate maladies departed at the only touch of His garment and the bodies mouldering under the obscurity of the Coffin rose again at his voyce in the Tombe His life was nothing but an open Book of Doctrine with a multitude of miracles and favours toward men The limits of his Course were so pleasant they were so bright with the beames of his compassion so glittering with his triumphs over the enemy of men The History is therein so rich that the excesse takes away and obstructs the description And that the world as saith his Beloved Apostle is not sufficient to contain that which might
Satan There was none but he alone proper for so great an enterprize He alone who hath drawn us out of the path and slaughter of death to fill us with Triumphs He alone who is the Phaire and the Lanthorne who directs us to arive in a safe harbour and who hath ever his eyes open for our happinesse and watcheth over our affictions He alone who is the channel of perpetual sweetnesse which uncessantly distills on them who cast themselves into the Port of thy Clemency Great God The compasse of the Universs adores thy Grandure but as the glory of thy chiefest benefits are perpetually graved in the hearts of thy faithfull ones in whom by this holy sacrifice thou hast planted thy victorious lawrels Also it is requisite that I be the Temple in which for ever there may be chanting and sounding forth the Hymnes of thy Triumphs and that thou may'st be the sole object of my heart as thou art the cause of my repose and the end of my vowes as thou art the Redeemer and Conserver of my being what more beautyfull object my God can I enjoy then for ever to contemplate that Christ is the inexpugnable wall and Rampart of my life and that his charity heated with his watchfulnesse over me causeth without intermission to spring in thy compassions new sprouts of compassion This is the true Father of men who transported with the love of his children is offered for them in sacrifice and hath embraced their sorrowes and his death Up then my soul let thy thoughts be ravish't in the contemplation of this holy light of the world who shineth over the heaven and the earth and enlightneth with his flame the gloominesse of our most obscure night Up admire his compassion adore this Lamb without spot that holy Burnt-offering that eternal high Priest who hath given himself for thee Rejoyce thou oh my soul since thy clensing is so perfect and so pure since the merit of that death shall carry thee into the heavens Thou hast not my soul Heb. 7. one of those Sacrificers which are subject unto death made after the law of a carnal commandment who have need to offer continual sacrifices first for their own sinnes then for those of the people Thou hast one Sovereign high Priest made according to the power of an uncorruptible life and who hath one perpetual oblation one holy Priest Innocent separate from sinnes exalted far above all heavens who is consecrated for ever offering himself once to obtaine an eternal redemption The light of the world my soul chaseth the night and obscurity farre from thee but the knowledge of this sacrifice dissipateth all darknesse from thy eyes and renders thee capable happily to finish thy course on earth and attain with joy an aboad in Paradice Divine Trinity the only foundation of salvation Holy unity of three persons in whom consisteth all perfection and felicity whereof my soul can be render'd capable Grant me that I may worthily comprehend the majesty of this sacrifice and that all the dayes of my life I may meditate on its greatnesse Lord the Lamb is slain from the beginning of the world and both our fathers and we our selves have washed in one same blood and are redeemed by the same sacrifice 'T is what the Apostle saith our fathers were all under the cloud 1 Cor. 10.1 and have all passed throw the Sea and were all baptized in Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea and have all eaten of one and the same spiritual food and have all dranke of one and the same spiritual cup. For they drank of that spiritual Rock which followed them and that Rock was Christ So Lord the Patriarchs and Israelites have eaten and drank the same spiritual substance with us and have participated as we of the Communion of the body of the Saviour of the world The word Prophetick and Apostolick have the same efficacy Christ in the one and the other throw all equal to himself Their Sacraments giving them Jesus Christ to come to assume humane flesh and suffer for their sins and ours give to us the Saviour of the world come having taken flesh of the Virgin endured the Crosse and risen for our Justification The Manna and the water signified to them their future redemption and the bread and wine signifie to us the satisfaction of our Randsome acquitted by Christ come dead and risen after such a sort that we have but one like and same faith under divers signes Christ the only salvation of the Church in all its periods without the law under the law and under Grace He is prefigured in all the sacrifices exhibited in all Sacraments as well Old as New which are in all times unprofitable without Christ which is himself alone both the foundation and the sustance Abraham saw the day of the Lord and rejoyc't This great secret was revealed unto the Prophets who Publish't it through the world they were the signes of salvation to come Or Host and of the holy Bread which should be offered up for their sins and for our sakes the great Saviour of the world would rayse to the heavens at thy right hand the body which he had taken of the Virgin instituting the Sacrament of his body and of his blood to the intent that That which was once offered for the satisfaction of our sinnes should continually be honoured by a mystery Baptisme admitteth us into an allyance with God instead of ciricumcision The holy Supper instead of the Passeover nourisheth and entertaineth us Baptisme is called Regeneration that is to say a new birth The holy Supper The Communion of the body and blood of our Lord to nourish us to life eternal Of Baptisme water is the sign The blood of Christ the thing signified The water which washeth the staines of the body The blood which clenseth the sins of the soul In the holy Supper the bread and the wine are the signes The Body and the blood of Christ the things signified and signified most conveniently and properly by these signes of bread and wine for as much as the nourishment of our souls which is in Christ could not be better express'd than by that of our Body which converteth into their sustance that which they eate and drink So in the Sacrament of the Eucharist the bread which is blest and which is broken and given to eate and the cup which is blessed and given mee to drink represents to me The body and blood of Jesus Christ given and shed for me on the Crosse to me are the sacred Symboles and assured earnests that I am received into the communication of his body and of his blood which I spiritually enjoy by Faith in the Participation of the supper When I see the bread broken in the celebration of the supper I meditate with my self of his body which hath suffered death on the Crosse for the remission of my sinnes When I behold the wine poured into the cup I
this spiritual wine which giveth me an eternal Paradice which returneth me from death to life which giveth me so perfect a recovery that there remaines no scar in my ulcers which conducts me unto an estate wherein I shall not more suffer the temptations and approaches of sinne where I shall be no more subject to change where I shall be a Citizen of the Kingdome of heaven I prostrate my self then before thee my God who art my Judge my Creatour and Redeemer all in one give me I beseech thee both heart and lips and that I may adore thee with all the affections and all the faculties of my soul Drive away my disobedient humours fill me with true zeal and with sincere intentions to thy service and scatter far from me these desires of the world who entangle themselves in my cogitations and thwart my holy resolution I am happy my God Isa 22.7 to enjoy that which so many Kings Nahum 1.15 and so many Prophets desir'd to behold I am happy to possesse that holy Heritage which they having but obscurely seen and saluted by faith they have cryed out with vehement desire Rom. 10. â— 15.5 Oh how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the Ghospel I am not Lord in the extremity of the poor Paraletick who attended so many yeares to have the first place in the Bath troubled by thy Angel I receive immediately my recovery of the blood of my Saviour and there is no need that one more sound than my self take me in his armes to embrace and carry me into the water For the Faith which thou hast given me lifts me up even unto heaven She thither conducts my soul which washeth her self in this pretious blood and comes forth clean and white I sinne continually and have cause of humiliation and to dread and apprehend Death and Hell and I am ever cheered with hope by the memory of that Eternal Sacrifice But my God make me so perfect that I receive not thy Manna unworthily that I take it not in contempt of thy Word and thy glory to be punish't in thy wrath as he who was devoured of a Lyon having contrary to thy command eaten bread in the house of the false Prophet to be punish't as he who was bound and cast into darknesse inasmuch as he came to the marriage without being cloathed with a Wedding garment Lord I know that 't is recorded in the Gospel that who so eateth of this bread and drinketh of this cup unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of Jesus Christ thy Son But my God Thou art Wonderful in thy mercies Thou rejectest no man Thou abhorrest not the Thief who confest thee nor the sinner who wept nor the Canaanite who accused her self Mary Magdalen nor the Disciple who denied Jesus nor even they themselves who persecuted thee insomuch as they repented And I Lord I confesse my sinnes I condemne them I accuse my self I beg thy pardon I entreat thee to behold thy goodnesse not my demerit Lord Thou hast vanquish't death thou hast raised my soul from the grave thou hast drawn me out of the pit thou hast opened to me the gates of eternal life Supply then my defaults with thy blessings and grant me that in thy Temple in the Assembly of thy faithful ones I may worthily receive with faith this heavenly food and this spiritual drink and that I take with zeal and reverence the bread and wine which are presented to me by him who hath the honour to preach thy Word and whose mouth is the breast of thy Church A Thanksgiving after the receiving of the Sacrament My Soul blesse the Lord who dayly filleth and loadeth thee with his treasures Blesse God who causeth the sweet dew of his Clemency to distill on thee My Soul blesse the Saviour of the World who hath loved us who hath washed our sinnes in his blood who hath made us Kings and Priests to God his Father Blessed be the Lamb who sitteth upon the Throne Apoc. 5 13 to whom shall resound prayses for ever under the Vaults of heaven and his Sacred Name shall be Celebrated and Magnified from age to age Oh my glorious God how much satisfaction do I receive in casting and overthrowing my self at thy feet how happy am I to approach thy holy Table 'T is thou oh my God who hast tamed the Hidra of my miseries who hast preserved me from the devouring knives of the Devil who hast succoured me in my bloody agony who hast recented my afflictions seeing me exposed to the Savageness of the infernal Tygers who had reduc't me to the cruel darts of death I was buried in despair and in the grave swallowed and overwhelmed in the jawes of a miserable servitude overtaken with the storme of so many mis-fortunes But my God by thy singular compassion though I bedewed not my face with tears nor filled the ayre with my complaints Thou hast restored me to my first condition thou hast imbellish't me with-the splendour of the graces of thy countenance and pollish't me with the first lustre of my natural beauty I was overwhelm'd under my proper ruine I was entomb'd in the gulfe di gged with my own hands I had cast my self within the horrible Den of Satan but thou hast restored me thou hast lifted me up and delivered me from my extremities I was captive and now the gate of liberty is open to me my vessel was on every side batter'd with the Tempest It was ready to split it self against the bancks and now saileth gloriously on the water and cuts and divides the waves driven by a prosperous gale I was the prey of Satan and now triumph through thy mercies above all his temptations above all his ambushes and all his powers I cry out now Lord with Simeon let thy servant depart in peace according to thy Word for mine eyes have seen thy salvation which thou hast prepared before all men to be the enlightning of all Nations and glory of thy people Israel Lord I render thee such thanks as I am able not such as I ought I am oblidg'd to magnifie thy Name for ever with a thousand sacrifices of praise to humble my self all contrite at thy feet to enflame my heart with repentance and sacrifice the ashes to thee Thou hast cleansed me wash't me from my offences made me approach thy holy Table and partaker of thy merits there remaines nothing after this Sacrament but to be united to thy glory Grant me Lord that I may submit to thy pleasure the remainder of my dayes Grant me repentance of my offences not for a day but which may last even unto my Sepulchre that I may continually addresse my vowes to thee that I may exalt thee without ceasing and that for ever I may be at thy feet to do thee homage as my God my Soveraign and my Redeemer Grant me Lord that I may be attentive to the reading of thy holy Scriptures to the
of the world the executioners of my life I have been immoderate and excessive in every thing which is contrary to thy pleasure without having other bound than an imbicility to advance farther My memory Lord is not sufficient to comprehend and enumerate such a multitude of crimes and I now have more bashfulnesse to nominate them than I had shame to act them Also Lord what need the trouble to recount them seeing they present themselves they oppose themselves against me accusing and confounding me seeing that the least but lately committed is sufficient for my damnation without the trouble to search after the past which serve not but for astonishment how the nature of man could invent and commit so many mischiefs Behold them Lord they fail not to passe into my remembrance and as an heavy burthen presse me so sore that I am ready to yield to give my self up to dispayre and to lose my self Lord I cannot so much as deny them I have committed them they were acted in thy sight in thy presence with a feeble fearful and astonish't voyce I acknowledge them and am vanquish't the fear that I have beholding their great number hath frozen my heart and appaled my countenance And on the contrary considering the rigour and strictnesse of thy judgments my sense fails me and I attend nothing but the hour of punishment I will willingly lye down instantly half quick in my grave and in expiring draw the earth over me to the intent I may remove my self from before thy Justice so much do I dread that thy hand will wax heavy against me to destroy me I am like the poor Publican who durst not lift up his eyes towards thee I dare not so much as entertain any imagination of remission for a criminal so culpable I dispayre to avoid them even as undergoing the exemplar-punishment of my abominable practises The depravity of my manners renders the severity of thy censures sharp against me and I know that no man hath place in thy eternal felicity but those that are clensed from sin who are not fullyed with the spots of iniquity who have submitted and dedicated to thy service their hearts and their toungs as for me I have done quite otherwise Neverthelesse Lord thou wilt not bruise in thine indignation those whom thou hast created after thine own Image Thou wilt not precipitate into the gulf and forsake abandoned to the roring Lyon those who are graffed and regenerated in that great Mediatour in the grand Saviour of the world On the contrary Good God! Thou hast commanded us to pray to thee in his name Thou hast promised to hear us in his name Thou hast assured us that when our sins are as red as vermillion nevertheless thou wilt make them as white as wool seeing we have recourse to that Treasure of our Justification to that only Redeemer to that only Authour of our salvation Now O Saviour of the world O Precious Stone O Spirit of my Spirits I embrace thee I discharge the burthen of my sins upon thee I ease my self upon thee Thou art purposly descended here below thou art clothed with out flesh thou hast made thy self man to the intent that I might be able to speak to thee Thou hast stretc'h forth thy limbs on the Crosse thou hast shed thy blood thou haft seen it distil from thy wounds all vermillion to heal my mortal sores to dround my sinnes to cloath me again with innocence Thou hast suffered death to give me the life Thou hast made thy self the oblation and most immaculate offering to take upon thy self the pains which I have meritted Thou hast yielded thy self captive to set me at liberty of immortal thou hast made thy self mortal to the intent that of mortal to render me immortal Thy vertue ever flourisheth that never waxeth old display it over me approach touch my sins and they shall dissolve away as wax before the beames of thy Sun they cannot remain near thee thy sight shall be their flight thy presence their dissipation Thou shalt efface their steps and their straglings Thy hand can bruise the gate of hell thy hand can lift me up into the heavens and make me to ascend by the ladder that appeared to Jacob Lord I cannot sufficiently comprehend thy infinite goodnesse towards persons so vile and unworthy If I contemplate the excellence of thy Divinity in thy descent unto the earth or whether I consider them to whom thou art come I admire the Grandure of thy charity and farther Ruminating thereon I call to mind the happinesse of thy humane condition The Creatour of heaven and of earth The Omnipotent who is not displeas'd but with man is descended for man and made himself man is come to save him from the torture of the fire and the horrors of hell and hath taken his forme the Physitian is hasted to the succour of the diseased the Master to ransome the slaves the streight path presents it self to the straglers Life offers it self to the carcasses enclosed under the Tombs the Shepheard is descended from the top of the mountain to seek the straying sheep He hath again lifted them up on high and enclos'd them in his Fold The Hen hath gathered her chickings under her breast hath made a shield with her wings to protect them from the Ravenous Kite Now good God drive far from me those doubts which Satan goes about to frame in me assure me comfort my spirit fortifie my faith redouble it's strength make her to vanquish all fears all the dispayres which he would suggest unto her Enable her to repel all allutements and assaults of all his temptations She must not longer be affraid she may not longer tremble hell can have nothing against me seeing thine only Sonne hath taken my sinnes upon him because he hath wash't me with his pure blood after it hath pleas'd thee to allow on mine account the value of his satisfaction If thou art pleas'd Lord to proceed with me according to my deserts I should be far distant from any such happinesse my salvation would be desperate There was never any contention with so much disproportion the weapons are too unequal my fault is extreame so is thy Justice But Lord thy mercy is infinite thy goodness surpasseth my mallice Thou coverest my faults with the body of thy Son by his merit thou hast satisfied thy Justice Thou hast given me life there thou concervest me I hold of thy clemency Lord Thou hast spoken by the mouth of thy Prophets that thou art nigh to such as are of a broken heart and that thou deliverest such which have contrite spirits Lord thou contemnest not the afflicted thou hidest not thy face from them forget not then my oppression forget not my afflictions which are violent and permanent forget not the sorrowes of my heart which are augmented Lord my Soul is consumed even to the dust my belly cleaves to the earth Hear then my God myclamour and my supplication and
possessing him with the real enjoyments of those celestial delights which he onely knowes by sight and from that eminency would shew him the follies of men and those winds which tosse and threaten their vessels in this turbulent Sea discovering to him the perils of others without running their fortune Truly his estate would be marveilously changed his condition would be extreamly blessed But can we not follow this Trace is this place unaccessible to us Let 's try let us divert our selves a little from the World let us search out the ready way to conduct us unto so pleasant so delightful a habitation If our passions heat us let us runne to these waters let 's extinguish this conflagration Some flowers naturally turn toward the Sunne let us enforce our selves to their imitation remounting toward our Original To the effecting whereof let us consider how the actions of this World have a false look and that under a pleasant appearance they embrace men but to strangle them resembling the Ivy which corrupts and ruinates the Wall which it cherisheth and enfoldeth He makes much of that man whom thou beholdest he accosts him The Covetous man described he bears him company Observe in what condition it hath rendred him Behold him who having runne most eagerly having alwayes some designe afarre off his covetousnesse is never so that he will finish it in that which hath succeeded to him He alwayes desires he ever feares his desires are a fire that consumes him his fears an ice that chills him And among the infinite multitude of Worldlings that are there assembled there is not one alone that is content with his fortune with his condition nor which maketh the lesse quest for the satisfaction of his proper inclinations All take one remedy for another for to cure their griefs they endeavour to lose the sense of them they administer to themselves poyson for antidotes and death for life Instead of receiving medicines proper to close up and consolidate their wounds they apply corruption and the worme they adde one project to another they do nought but without ceasing turn seek and enquire and in conclusion thrust out more desires and yet imagine new they enfold and pester themselves in their businesse as the silk-wormes and stifle themselves Their care awaken them before the dawning and yet overcharg'd with slumber draggs them to their labour There these poor children of pain and misery apply their thoughts all the day to their businesse they bow their backs to their work and employ their hands in the labour of this wretched World They search for rest in that toyle which consumes them like to the Torch which diminisheth by degrees feeding it self of it's Losse and living on it's Ruine They are gray in the flower of their youth The whole life of the most happy among them is nothing but a punishment but a continual passion but pain but vexation which ever attends them till it hath over-turned them into their Sepulchres He there imagines he discovers afarre off at the end of the course some appearance of repose ☜ Note he conceives that after having heap't up much wealth he shall with his armes crost sit at ease and enjoy the fruit of his travel But as the eye which athwart a cloud or the water apprehends objects untruly after the same manner his spirit which judges through the cloudy and false ices of the World which obscures them conclude otherwise of things than they are For whilst he is in the carreire so many difficulties crosse the way so many waves flow on each other and beat on his bark with desire for to split it so many hindrances are on the road that divert and amate him that usually willing to passe forward his strength failes him he loseth his breath and destroyes himself and if happily he is preserv'd and acquires the riches which is the end he so much desires 't is after so many years with a body so wasted and feeble that his labour remains unprofitable to him not being able more to enjoy what he hath purchast with so much sweat and is incontinently constrained to quit the possession of that the hopes of enjoyment whereof tormented him all his life And if at any time he would stretch out his armes to comfort himself of his labour it not seldome happens to him that he findes a shadow instead of a body a Chest in lieu of a Treasure he oft imagining to hold a Bird with both his hands and sees nothing betwixt his fingers but a feather He beholds before his face a fire which devoures his structures trophys of his vanity erected for ages and as if he should live for ever He views the haile that batters down his harvests and the heat that consumes them he observes that he renders himself an imitator of the spider who frames a web with much labour which the least broom can tear off He perceives that his goods are carried away like leaves with the wind and overturn'd as woods with the axe and understands what manner of things those are after the which he hath so much tormented himself O Men behold the riches for the which you lose so much repose and sleep Observe O ye blind the price for which you take so much pleasure to hasten your deaths ☜ Fraile and caitifie generation Note consider the state of the place for which you despise Paradise Miserable wretches follow your vocations to which you by the providence of God are called avoid idlenesse the nourisher of all evils eat your bread with the sweat of your browes it is the commandment of God Enjoy those good things he hath given you with a liberal hand but bound your desires to his will ☞ and remember that it may possibly fall out that before to morrow you may leave the World Enjoy then this wealth as not possessing it and having ever the glory of God and the salvation of your soules as your principal aime What folly what madnesse to destroy your selves in the pursuit of things by means of which travel men tend to misery and ruine and do not so much as one hour meditate on those things by the which with joy contentment may obtain eternal felicity Neverthelesse mark this unsatiable spirit which can fix no period to it's covetousnesse he obliges himself ever to the time to come he does nothing but crave and never enjoyes he surfets of abounds in wealth he hath his full measure he cannot grasp any more and for all that hath not lost the relish of increasing He uncessantly pursues that mettle the father of so many evils Gold He ever sets his heart on things that are to be obtain'd and his desire is like to fire which furnisheth a thousand fires without abating it's own ardure like the greedy flames which are so much the more enflam'd by how much they are supply'd with fewel and that nourishment encreaseth in their mouths His thirst can be
no more quench't than that of the Dropsie When he possesseth the wealth and treasures of the earth the care of it doth not faile to accompany his wretched steps His desire hath no limits he findes nothing that stayes it it still encreaseth with the augmentation of his wealth His avarice interrupts his sleeps accusing him of sloth spurs up his diligence the hath alwayes some designe upon his neighbours estate his eye is ever pensive ever sad ever evil and ever watching the riches of his neighbours as adulterers the wives of other men He renders himself a slave to his wealth he commits himself into it's power and possession and still stares and gazes upon it When he considers that they are fleeting and unstable that none can ever hold them sure that there is ever danger that they be not taken away then he trembles then he changes colour then he growes pale Beholding them ravish't in his presence he suddenly tares dismembers and butchers himself with rage He cannot behold without despair the losse of the riches which altogether possesses his will Poor and blind man thou observest not how thou plungest thy self into the water after those superfluous and perishing things that the defect is not in thy wealth but in thy spirit that by how much the more thou augmentest thy treasures by so much art thou laid open to the stroakes of adversity Go ☞ go fill not the aire with so many vain complaints weep not more for that thou hast lost thy wealth but because thy riches have lost thee Shed rivers of teares for that thou hast hitherto disturb'd thy spirit and not for that they are slipt out of thy hands If gold would prolong thy dayes if death would accept a randsome for thy life thou hadst then some excuse to have so afflicted thy heart to be separated from them But thy stately structures the spatious extent of thy fields thy large and oriental pearles the lustre of thy diamonds and thy ornaments of pride have not sufficient vertue as to remove sorrow from thy heart and anger from thy countenance Thy feavour will not forsake thee to behold thy treasures display'd nor by unfolding thy great wealth the cold fit will as much shake thee in a bed of state as of straw Thou wast too eager sharp and greedy after the provision of this life thou shalt have more than is necessary for the way that is behind Observest thou not how speedily our age passeth that life then leaves us whil'st we make preparation to live how death pursues us how he casts his darts after us and at one blow parts us from our riches To what end serves all this wealth seeing life is so fraile and failes So lightly so easily ☞ seek then things necessary for thee Note and not more Search them without Passion enjoy them without care and lose them without regreat For the Future Elect Treasures which can secure themselves from oppression and that are not subject to Moth or Rust and hide them in such a place that by none they may be betrayed unlesse thy self Behold another who is driven with different gusts The Ambitious man describ'd whose industry is not lesse marke what paines he undergoes to atchief glorious Titles to satisfie his ambition he hath not other end of his strugling than a vain grandure he is puft up and swells his soul to the heighth of his Station he prides himself to observe the excellency of the structure of his Palace To see the threshold of his gate throng'd by multitudes of Sutors And despises and contemns all beneath him but the miserable wretch Idolizeth the lustre of some dignity more eminent than his own and being arived to that he yet aspires higher and so he dayly pants gapes and reaches after those things which are above him untill that death at one stroke deprive him of his life and cause him at one horrible leap to tumble as low as he designed to have flowen high What fury is so puissent and prevaent that can transport his spirit so long enraged with a blind errour to seek his content in the throng of such a multitude of unpleasant and troublesome affaires what folly is it rather to seek his glory in a half worm-eaten Title Ancient Marble in a Rusty Helmet than in his vertue ☜ his Knowledge his Prudence what madnesse to glow with a desire to eternise ones memory by erecting of Palaces which time will demolish rather than engraving his glory in an eternal Brasse and to seek a perdurable habitation within the Holy dwelling of Paradise where lyes the Grandure and Immortallity of name and not in the vanities and smothers of the world This Rock is more firme This Holy Pillar more sollid and more assur'd than the earth which hath not received from God other foundations than the slippery prop of the most subtill Element Ayre 'T is there then that he ought to establish his felicity and not in-humane delights which suddenly passe and escape our eyes in an instant The Voluptuous man describ'd This other worldling which thou beholdest is baited with the vain sweets and delights of the flesh he sucks his vapors with long draughts he stupisies all his senses in the pleasures and extacises of an adulterous bed he plunges and precipitates himself headlong in these transports and that she who possesseth his soul which even ravisheth him with delight with one onely glanse of her eye being incited with the same cupidity and ever the more for to entice him mixes a thousand beauties with her native lustre she addeth art to the workmanship of nature wherewith she so very properly embellisht all the glances of her countenance She adornes her head with false hayre and borroweth her complexion from a most exquisite paint and tincture But all these delights shall perish in an instant like dreames who lose their pleasure in awaking These Delicates are to them venomous potions These Perfumes penetrating poysons which murther in an instant They swallow Pills outwardly guilded and sugred whereof they shall incontinently relish the bitternesse They eat of the apples of our first Parents pleasant to the sight but hard of digestion These ayres which flow so sweetly from the mouth and with such an agreeable Tone are Syrens Songs which through the eares charme their souls and slacks them to ruine them Their mouth for one kisse breaths out a thousand sighths their hearts for a dram of delight sends forth a thousand groanes The time of their pleasure is not to be compared to the length of their Repentance And often by a sudden mutation men see one day the sun shining upon their delights and on the morrow Hell covering their miseries Behold some of those Dreams we ran after The Passions within the which we bury our selves without power to disengage us There are an infinite number of others whereof the recitall would be troublesome and superfluous seeing that in these alone the
that we know that none can sojourne in the Tabernacle of of the Lord Psal 15. none can inhabit the place of his holinesse who regulates not his steps according to his divine Ordinances In the Country of the Gadarens the man who had an unclean spirit which inhabited not but in Desarts â—nâ— Sepulâ—hres which broke all the cords all the chaines which restrain'd him who roared without intermission and gash't himself with stones when afarre off he beheld the Saviour of the World he ranne and prostrated himselfe at his feet and we who are not cram'd and stuf't with Devils who have not our abiding in Cavernes and who do not dismember our selves with rage and fury we I say who apprehend the verity of the Gospel who have the knowledge of God shall we fly before him when he approacheth us shall we stop our eares at his voice to lance and destroy our selves in vice Let 's awake our selves from our drowsinesse and render our selves capable of our proper good The men of Nineve reformed themselves at the preaching of Jonah The Queen of the South travelled from the extremities of the earth to heare the Wisdome of Solomon There is in the Gospel greater than Jonas greater than Solomon there is the Spirit of God who talketh to us who excites us to retire from our sinnes who hastens who threatens us Let us submit our selves then to God let 's approach him let 's remark our offences let 's lament weep and purifie our hearts let 's humble our selves under his powerful hand to the intent that he may secure us from the Devil who encompasseth us to devoure us Let 's abandon our transgressions and submit our neeks under the just government of the Omnipotent acknowledging him the stedfast Wall against which who knocketh breaketh himself Let 's lift up our tyred hands Heb. 12.12 and our dislocated knees and adore him who hath formed both the heaven and earth the Seas and all Fountaines of waters and not longer abase our selves as the impious as unregardful of his glory which we should elevate more high than the heavens if there remaines in us any recentment of his graces whil'st his favourable hand continues on us for our good whereof he has been more Prodigal than Liberal Let 's offer instantly our bodies a living sacrifice let 's spread out our hands before his wrath by prayers and amendment of life dreading his vengeance or ever it irrevocably destroy and overwhelme us which if we omit we hasten our deaths we ate the hang-men of our own soules if we longer attend Luk. 13.25 the gate of Gods mercy shall be for ever closed against us and in the day wherein we shall behold Abraham Isaac and Jacob with all the Prophets in the Kingdom of God wherein we shall see set at the Table of God his children who shall come from the East and from the West from the North and from the South we shall be miserably cast into darknesse 'T is long since God having endured our manners expecting our repentance he hath not hitherto corrected us but with the chastisements of a Father but if still we are insensible of these stripes and of our offences we shall constraine him to punish us with the Sword of extermination and give us up unto the power of the Executioners of his Justice Long patience contemn'd Heb. 2.1 draweth rigour without pity If what was pronounc't by Angels was firme and every transgression and disobedience hath received a just reward how shall we escape if we neglect the judgment of God so often declared against the children of iniquity would we be of the cockle and straw which shall be cast into the fire would we be of those cursed ones Mat. 13.49 who by the Angels shall be separated from the just to be cast into the Furnace Of those evil servants who shall be punish't with many stripes of those Reprobates who shall be overtaken with sudden destruction of those plants of offence who shall be devoured with consuming flames Would we be of those of whom Jeremiah complaines in these terms They know the way of the Lord Jerem. 5. but themselves have broken the yoke and the bonds Therefore are they slain by the Lyon of the Forrest the Wolfe of the Evening hath wasted them and the Leopard watcheth against their Cities whosoever cometh out shall be torn in pieces for their offences are multiply'd and their rebelloins are increased How shall I pardon thee for this saith the Lord thy children have forsaken me I have fed them to the full and they have committed adultery and are gone in Troops into Harlots houses shall I not visit for these things saith the Lord shall not my soul be avenged on such a Nation God is not idle in Heaven He contemplates on what is done here below He is there seated as a Judge to punish iniquity and when he reaches his hand highest 't is but to give the heavier stroak Why tarry we Rom. 2.5 if by the hardnesse of our hearts without repentance we heap up wrath against the day of the just judgment of God who rendreth honour immortality life eternal to them who with patience and well-doing seek his glory and who giveth tribulation and anguish to every soul of man who rebelleth against him and followeth iniquity If God spared not the Angels who had sinned 2 Pet. 2.4 and at once drowned the whole World except eight persons If he have given so many testimonies of his rigour on them who live in impiety what waite we for since 't is recorded in so many passages of the Gospel that we shall be more severely handled than Sodom and Gomorrah which were burn'd and reduc'd into a heap of sinders Seeing then that it is said 2 Thes 1.8 that God shall exercise vengeance with flames of fire against those who serve him not and are disobedient to his will Would we swallow the cup of the wrath of God even to the dregges would we dry up and exhaust to the very bottome the treasures of his patience Go to then since our malady is yet capable of Remedy Let us tear out those motes that are in our eyes let us reconcile our selves to God who stretcheth out his armes to us remembring that his children are not born of blood nor of the will of the flesh John 1.13 nor of the unsatiable desires of man but are born of God are born of prudence of charity wisdom and vertue Let 's not tarry longer fearing that he should rain fire and brimstone upon us and that he chase us not as cursed gates into eternal fire prepar'd for the Devil and his Angels Mat. 25.41 Instantly detesting our crimes abjuring our vices our sinnes and offences let us cast and prostrate our selves at the feet of God let 's raise our voices suing for our pardon redoubling our petitions submitting our selves entirely to his pleasure otherwise the tempest will
be written John 21.25 Also Lord He came to stifle by the impetuosity of his power and by the grandure of his merit our cursed enemy and to cut off the streame of the course of his puissance flying through the world He came as a great Royal Eagle from the heighth of heaven to descend on the earth and in favour of his own to scatter with the onely ayre of his vigerous clapping of his wings all the strength of Satan unworthy of his encounter He came as the Evening and close of our miseries and dawning of our felicity as the bright Sunne of men to comfort and strengthen them by his wholsome and pleasant influence He came as the morning which chaseth away the night and advanceth declaring the returne of the light as the holy Columbe of the world the solid pillar of the heavens the lively image of his charity and the divine foot-steps which giveth life And finally my God thy Christ our Saviour being upon the point to die would that the last act of his life should be the institution of the Holy Sacrament of his body which he celebrated in the company of his Apostles declaring unto them that all they who firmly believe in him shall have remission of their sinnes in the effusion of this blood and shall for ever possesse the Kingdome of heaven and to conferre on us an infallible assurance he elected for a seal and witnesse of his last will bread and wine to the intent that the faithful by these signes should be ascertained of the treasures which are acquired for them by his bounty But my Great God 'T is now that we must commemorate the excellent Sermon made to the Disciples for to instruct them and to render them capable of the participation of this Holy Sacrament 'T is here expedient to call to mind the words of him which thou pronounc't with thy voyce in the Mountain in the hearing of Saint Peter Saint James and Saint John this is my well-beloved Sonne hear him Jon. 6.53 He then said Verily verily â—â—â—y unto you that if you eat not the flesh of the Son of man and drink not this blood you shall have no life in your selves he who eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath life eternal and I will raise him up at the last day For my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed he who eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him As the Father who is living hath sent me and I live by the Father So he who eateth me Shall live also by me That is the bread which descended from heaven not as your fathers have eaten Manna and are dead who eateth this bread shall live for ever He spake these things in the Synagogue teaching in Capernaum But knowing that many of his Disciples found this saying hard he added doth this offend you what will you do then if you shall behold the Sonne of man astend there where he was at the beginning 'T is the Spirit that quickens the flesh is unprofitable the words which I speak to you are spirit and life And after he had finish't these instructions he made them partakers of his Holy Supper even as he hath declared by the hand of his blessed Apostle In the night wherein he was betray'd He took bread and having given thanks he broke it and said take eat this is my body which is broken for you do this in remembrance of me Likewise also after Supper he took the Cup saying this Cup is the New Testament of my blood do this in remembrance of me For how often and whensoever you shall eat of this bread and drink of this Cup you shall shew forth my death even untill I come And in the end Lord his incomprehensible Charity and which exceeds all admiration having conducted him to the hour wherein by his death he would redeem our lives he became the saving hand which broke and opposed the blow and received the smart of the other members And be who was able as a Thunder-clap of heaven to overturne under his Tempest the highest Mountaines who could as a whirle-poole swallow all in an instant that opposed this power and as a whirle-wind sweep away all that was on the earth He said I who by the force of his Arme with one small motion can destroy all humane soules and with one onely glance of his Eye arme a million of Angels and overthrow under his feet the heaven and the earth submitted himself to the rage and brutishnesse of his people adopted above all people the first-born among men and whom thou defendest as the Apple of thine eye He permitted them to extend his members on the Crosse to wash our sins in his blood and in that flood which the Iron made to issue from his body And thus great God Thine only Son gave his life a ransome for us and delivered us from the curse of the law which had so long time held us slaves to sin He offer'd his body in sacrifice and by that holy oblation acquir'd for us the gifts and the fulnesse of his graces wherein the blessed shall eternally rejoyce 'T is this Christ who is worthy to take the Book of life Apoc. 5.9 and to open the seals thereof 'T is he who is the Lambe Apoc. 5.12 who meriteth to receive power strength Honour and Praise His death was the sacrifice of sacrifices the accomplishment and consummation of all ceremonyes which have been from the beginning of the world This is the sacrifice without renewing whereby the wrath of God is forever appeas'd his justice satisfied and the transgressions of men effac't 'T is that bright shining sacrifice in comparison whereof the foregoing were but obscure shadowes This is the only sacrifice full of Majesty which is alone the object of all sacrifices offered in time-past by all people adoring the true God All that which the oblations of Aaron and of our fathers have had of Propitiation and of sweet Odour were anticipated on the fulnesse of grace and on the infinite merit of this sacrifice so often made in all foregoing ages This is the eternal sacrifice fill'd with lively splendour which darts his Rayes and confers his Balme upon his to render them a sweet Odour before thee my God This is the sacrifice which hath placed them on the sacred seat of the Church and hath carryed them into the glorious Temple of the legitimate Spouse of Christ all Glittering with Divinity 'T is my God this sacrifice which hath conferred thy love on me which without intermission I observe to shine in the flames of my own wretchednesse and hath acquired for me the infinite Grandure of thy compassion which I have ever beheld firme in the glances of my extreame afflictions Also my God there was nothing but the puissant and victorious hand of thy Sonne which could sever the cords and the entangling which held us bound in the snares of
end that the sharp Sword of thy Word may sever and reverse the deepest and profoundest roots of my infidelity and that the divine light of thy Gospel which hath enlightned thy Church from the Apostles even to this day may dissipate the thick darknesse which overwhelmes me Grant me that I may serve thee in holinesse and righteousnesse that I may furnish my memory with the beauty of thy divine power enlighten the gloominesse and obscurity which environes me prepare my feet to the path of peace and my mouth to pronounce thy praise and permit not that I be surpriz'd with any evil slumbers and that I sleep not unto death Raise up my Soul Lord by the fervour of devotion to a constant meditation on heavenly things conserve me as he whose name is written in thy book of life as he who is ransom'd with the blood of the Saviour of the World is destined to be a vessel of honour in thine house Unite my spirit by continual meditations to them of thine elect to the intent that being endowed with thy graces I may serve thee for a pleasant habitation as a fair Jerusalem In Conclusion Lord to thee I recommend my Soul and my Body my Councels and Cogitations my Words and Actions the conduct of all my Wayes the Course and End of my life A Discourse of Afflictions and Martyrdome THe Children of God are marked with a different Character from the rest of the Citizens of the Earth God hath assigned them for portion here below Poverty Ignominy the losse of kindred maladies and the most insufferable kinds of deaths but happy are these afflictions tending to salvation blessed these chastisements which are to correct not to destroy Praised be God who by these stroakes prevents the celerity of our gangrenes who hath recourse to absitions to preserve our lives and applies the lance to the inflammations of our ulcers untill the venome ceases to prevail Those whom he corrects not are such whom he disdaines to amend those are the children of the World who have their Paradise on earth not in heaven Their wealth often exceeds their wishes their honour surmounts their desires but the season of their delight fades in an instant and that of their calamity is eternal The Fatherly hand afflicteth not them daily they are only buffetted by the enemy of men which cometh too late and in recompence he tormenteth them for ever Let us then call to mind that it 's fore-told in the Gospel that we are destined to suffer griefs to support out-rages and be cut off from the world and that we are commanded to comfort our selves in these tribulations and to skip for joy in the midst of our torments for asmuch as our reward is great in heaven If we suffer our selves to be transported by heavinesse beyond measure 't is to be suspected that afflictions will overcome us give us over to despair as unworthy the consolations which are presented to us by the hand of God and of the certain promises which he hath left us by writing in his Word Let us raise up our soules then above all the things of this World Direct our cogitations to remember the state of our lives and on the remedies which God hath bestowed on us to solace our sorrowes and calamities of a truth our prosperity the sweetnesse of content ordinarily passeth in a little space and giveth place to afflictions who march on with a hideous and frightful visage Our life is nothing but a motion if one day be pleasant another renders it self unsupportable and that we enjoy of content never continues constant But since this is the condition in which it pleaseth God we should live we must not adde our bloody hands to tear our wounds and become unjust in respect of what remaines for the regreat of what we have lost It 's folly to take on ones self the punishment of his infelicity to stay upon the part offended and to look upon the worst side of our lives Let 's not then more imbitter our evils by our impatience neither hereafter render our greene wounds and emotions mortal stroakes and incurable ulcers Let 's cast behind us that pusilanimity which ever puts us to flight causing us to cast forth cries equal to the measure that the Ocean is irritated and raised up against us and hinders us from sustaining the storm without being appall'd Let 's fortifie our hearts let 's fill them with assurance to the intent that contemplating with a confident brow the miseries of the world not to apprehend their approach to sustain them with a couragious aspect and encounter them with valour Let 's approach afflictions to understand them and by the way resolve our selves to constancy The Souldier is unworthy of that name who trembles so soon as he beholds an enemy and perswades himself that already their Sword is at his throat and he is marveilous feeble who is afraid at the only appearance of afflictions Their view cannot offend us and their endeavours if we please may be rendered successelesse Why then make we any difficulty to enter into the lists against them since their wounds ought to harden us constantly to suffer their assaults Those who are nourisht in the shade dread the ardure of the Sun and not those that are accustomed to it Children are apprehensive and fear to behold their blood and not old Souldiers who have of 't seen it as it were continually to distill and flow from their wounds Few new afflictions can present themselves we already have beheld and sustained the most of them if they be great and confiderable the more danger and peril the more glory What delight to rend off the scales which would forme themselves against the brightnesse of our eyes what satisfaction to prevent those discords which would trouble our harmony Up then let us learn to accustome our selves to all diversity and inequality of life and to receive every thing of the saving hand of God And as the Superiour part of the aire which is nearest to the heavens is never darkned with clouds nor agitated with thunders so our soules ever elevated above these passions should never be shamefully overturned under griefs and sadnesse but so much as is necessary to bring her to repentance Let us not precipitate our selves desperately as mad men after our affections enduring with all our heart the adversity of the world ever calling to mind that as the divine benedictions which we shall one day enjoy are setled in a continued and happy rank so also these mortal things are tossed by an infinite number of blustres and totter and incline sometimes to one side sometimes to another It is familiar in the croud and throng of a battel to take ones fortune upon the Ocean to be beaten with stormes upon the earth with diverse afflictions The Pilate for having been preserved from so many tempests cannot longer dread Ship-wrack The Souldier for the frequency and assiduity of peril contemns
danger The infinite number of afflictions should instruct us not to esteem them as considerable Our life is no other than a continual war-fare if sometimes we are free from heavinesse it 's nothing but a short truce with the world or rather a suspension of armes and no absolute no entire peace If the Sunne shines bright a sudden storm in an instant chaseth away the serenity of the ayre and filleth all with darknesse if we behold a glimpse of light we are again plunged presently into a more close prison War interrupts peace sicknesse health death the sweetnesse of conversation Pleasure and sorrow are of near assinity and ever entertain each other Such is the condition of men against which plaints are unprofitable Such it was to those in ages past and so shall it be to them in time to come The remedy is that we serve our selves of these changes as Musitians of Tones flat sharp and diverse It 's necessary that we learn to conduct our vessel not onely in calme still waters but also in the high going and rough billowes Contrary winds do not hinder that we aid our selves by following the North if so be we hoyse and trimme our sailes as we ought The bitternesse of griefs are sweetned by remedies the nettles do not sting when we presse them very hard nor afflictions when we tread on their throat If they made choice of persons if in passing by some they spar'd them altogether their inequality would be more insupportable but the bullet is blind it pierces as soon the Captain as the Souldier The feavour is deaf it retires not sooner for the plaints of the greatest than the meanest The heat of the Sunne scorches without distinction all those who are in the Plain The cold as easily penetrates the Velvets as the Shagges and death overturnes every one without excepting any to the intent that the equality of each ones necessary destiny should serve for a general consolation But if it appeares to us that we behold some who are ever at their ease who live and flourish in great plenty of all things without encountering any affliction assuredly we abuse our selves it 's the lustre of their habits which dasles us their Port and Fashion which deceives us we see not with what a multitude of agitations their soules are tormented what perturbations and what desires vex their spirits putting them into inquietude and interrupting their repose we see not their Catarrs their issues and the cryes they send forth in the dolour of their stone and gout the condition of their spirit and disposition of their Bodies is unknown to us They go not forth of their houses but in health they shew not themselves in publick but with a cheareful countenance whereas often their hearts are heavy and that is it which deceives us and then what know we what afflictions they have had heretofore what distempers then when we were in health what heavinesse at such time when we were in delight what understand we what mischiefs hang over their heads ready to overcome and destroy them An Ague is ready a pestilent ayre a weaknesse a fall the treachery of an enemy And if we be not satisfied with so many Considerations let 's cast down our sight and beholding so many poor people afflicted of all sorts seeing the beggar often in despaire for default of finding a morsel of brown bread Behold them tormented with a feavour impaired languishing laid overturned on the pavement observe the greatest consolation which they receive from our charity they are dragged to a hideous place fil'd with wretches there they understand nothing but cries but plaints but groanes but gaspings after death oft-times the dead remaining long among them before they be enterred and thus in these continued miseries they finish their lives Behold on the other side a poor father sick stretch't out upon the straw to whom bread is wanting when his labour failes him having five or six small children lying about him crying for hunger Behold one Bed-ridden of the Palsie these foure yeares continually pierc't through with heavinesse constantly gasping after death if we be so mischievous to receive any consolation from the harmes of another agreeable to our sorrowes 'T is most facile for us by this communion of miseries to asswage our own and to mitigate our affliction by the multitude of other afflicted ones which are so innumerable But let 's return to our selves what advantage have we by so many plaints do our afflictions retire for our cryes ☞ no they never swerve out of their way Give them passage then and crosse their humour to the intent they should not abide in our Company If by lamentations we think to chase away our evils If by teares we hope to lift up the Tombs and renew and enlighten again the extinguisht lives of our friends I should be of opinion to enforce our selves to distill out all we have of oysture But if our lamentations bring them no advantage if that our regreates are not so much as understood by them if the marble that presseth them heareth not our groanes to what end are so many unprofitable sighths so many rages so many faintings to no effect If it be in regard of them 't is folly if for our own do we love our ease so much then as to cruciate our selves for the losse of one contentment of one support or a little wealth If we lament for that 't is an affliction consider our misery observe how one stroak seconds another and how that if for every occasion we will afflict our selves ☞ teares will faile us sooner than a ground for lamentation 'T is a miserable remedy to go about to drive away one heavinesse with another it 's the way to passe away our life in continual teares and sadnesse and not to manifest the grandure of our courage and generosity of our soules Who is more praise-worthy or he who being surpriz'd and overtaken by an affliction doth by his impatience aggrevate and imbitter his misfortune and gives himself to despair or rather he who yieldeth not to it's assaults and thereby abates and frustrates the force of adversity by an invincible heart and couragiously bears away the victory The good disposition of our spirits should not change as that of our bodies according to Climates and Moons This World which beholds our persons may afflict them but not our soules which should continually reside in the hand of God what though our bodies are sometimes languishing wasting and consuming we are neverthelesse sound in our better parts to wit our soules seeing we fill them with assurance And why bemoan we our selves for so many diseases understand we not that our bodies are no other than receptacles of corruption and that many of them are hereditary and left us as a sad patrimony If we consider of how many diverse parts our bodies are compos'd and fram'd to how many several accidents each is subject and that the
Blest is he who is capable happy he who is treated as the Master Happy he who is of those grapes The Children of this World who are not couch't in a divine estate make themselves merry they are weak-sighted altogether imperfect to contemplate on heavenly mysteries they are strayed too far to recover the right way they imagine not that the reward is at the end of the race but they shall one day find that our miseries shall terminate in delights which endure for ever and their pleasures end in horrible and eternal torments 'T is then in this Combat against afflictions and death that we must contest that we must vanquish and that we must search for the Crown of Christianity and Kingdome of God Our hearts will be crush't our eyes blemisht but our souls shall be filled with gladnesse we shall be beaten we shall be torn but our zeal shall augment and in its augmentation our contentment shall encrease Thou Barbarian thou mayst ravish our goods but the Eternal will not forsake us thou can'st exile us but all the Earth is the Lords Thou can'st threaten our lives but 't is those of our bodies 't is that of the World our soules are immortal Thou mayest send us to death but we conduct our selves thither we there shall receive it we will there suffer it patiently Our spirits are heads and masters of our bodies they are so elevated by the assistance of the Omnipotent Spirit that they are able to surmount all sorts of torments and death it self Infidels with what do you affright us so much with punishment with what do you menace us so highly to take away our lives with what do you make us so much afraid of death O pitiful Adversaries we contemn we despise the world we make no account of afflictions we trample over the fear of death Ha wherefore should we fear so much to give for so admirable and excellent a Subject so Glorious so Honourable That which such a multitude of persons lavish dayly to obtain a little pay That which so many Generals give so freely to merit to have their browes encircled with a branch of Olive or of Palme How many mighty men hazard themselves dayly to the peril of a thousand shot presse into dangers and into the croud of a battel on the hopes of an earthly victory rather than to behold their proper valour surmounted what a multitude presse and advance to the forefront bearing their bodies against wounds exposing themselves to the edge of the Sword stretching out their persons on the earth to sustaine the Banners of a stranger of whom they receive not above foure Crowns of pay With how much more reason than they should we render ourselves obstinate in the Combat resolute of the victory We contend not for a point of honour and glory we endure not for a stranger we suffer not for an inconsiderable reward we have a better and different hope than a punctillio of honour or of gain than of pay We contest for the immortal honour of true Christians we endure for the great God for the Creatour of heaven of earth of men we suffer for our Saviour our Christ our Salvation for a glittering recompence resplendent and enduring for ever God hath not given us a spirit of fear but of courage we can performe all things through Christ which strengthneth us 2 Tim. 1.7 Phil. 4.13 we can demonstrate that nothing can reverse the Banners of the Church and that every thing that opposeth it self against it's course is not but for the augmentation of its glory What if Murtherers leavy war against the Gospel they do nothing but dash against a mighty and puissant Rock which fixes and strengthens it self within it's own wait Let them satisfie their rage and fury they shall not for that overthrow the Kingdome of God Their fathers imagined they had massacred all the Prophets and neverthelesse the Lord reserved to himself seaven thousand men who had not bowed their knees to Baal 'T is requisite mauger all the Wolves that the Gospel passe from one Pole to the other That it cause his voyce to eccho over all that which the Sunne illustrates with his beames that it glide like a Thunderbolt of fire as a flash of lightning even to the most barbarous and savage regions and fill their mouths with the memorable and mighty acts of the Lord. God when it shall be seasonable for his glory will multiply his own by meriads when it shall be seasonable he will cause his Church to out-shine all the Idols of men To the intent that as he caused miraculously the Rod of Aaron to flourish among the twelve Num. 17. laid on the Tabernacle by the Tribes of Israel he ratified and confirmed his High Priest against the murmure of the people after the same sort having caus'd his Church to flourish above all false doctrines of men he shall by so much the more confirme his own When it shall be seasonable he will smite our enemies with dimnesse as he did the Inhabitants of Sodom who would have forc't the house of Lot wherein he had withdrawn two of his Angels When it shall be convenient he will silence these Vultures and these Ravens who foretell epidemical calamities these fire-brands and incendiaries who come to light again the flames and to foment the sparks of our adversities he will stifle and silence these Trumpets of sedition these bloody voyces these stomachs of Iron and of Brasse who howle without intermission to procure the destruction of Christians When it shall be seasonable he will cause to rebound on their account Luk. 11.51 the righteous blood spilt from that of Abel even unto that of Zechary who was slain betwixt the Altar and the Temple and from that of of Zecharie even untill this day But these dayes shall come in that rank which he hath ordained for them by his providence who now calls us to suffer affliction with constancy We know that the Nations ought to exalt themselves against us Mat. 24.6 that we must be led before Governours and Kings for Christs Name sake Our nearest relations must deliver us to death we must be afflicted we must be hated ☞ we must behold the abomination fore-told by Daniel the Prophet we must be torn as sheep by the Wolves we must suffer hunger and thirst we must be Vagabonds in Desarts and to endure persecution in every place but our reward is great in heaven and the same hath been practic'd against the Prophets We are blessed to suffer persecution for righteousnesse and to manifest that we are the Children of God in patience in anguish and in labours we are happy to be guided through these dusky nights to the desired haven of our repose Our bodies are blessed to suffer these stripes which heal their wounds and more blessed our souls to receive them to their salvation We shall relish somewhat of sweetnesse in our sufferings of repose in our inquietudes
we shall blesse our lives and magnifie our miseries Fear not then the wolves who have power but over the wooll but fear God who hath puissance over our â—ouls Let 's fear God who saith that he â—ho taketh not his Crosse and cometh â—ot after him is not worthy of him who foretold Mat. 13.13 Mat. 10.33 that we shall be hated for â—is Names sake but he who shall ensure to the end he shall be saved who saith that he who shall deny me before â—â—en him shall I deny before my heavenly Father If after having received the cognizance of the truth we abandon Christ there remaines no other sacrifice for our sinnes but a horrible expectation of the judgment of God and a servent and violent fire that must devoure his adversaries if any man had contemn'd the Law of Moses he died without mercy upon the testimony of two or three Deut. 19.15 how much more rigorously shall he be punisht who hath abandon'd the Sonne of God and the Blood of his Covenant to him belongeth vengeance It is a terrible thing to fall into the hand of the living God Go to then let 's take felicity as St. Paul in our infirmities rendering our bonds celebrous and manifest let 's rejoyce for that our names are written in the heavens let 's watch let 's be firm in the Faith fortifying our selves 2 Cor. 12.10 that our light may shine before men Phil. 1. and 13. to the intent that they may glorifie the mighty God of Jacob 1 Cor. 16.13 who is our strength and our retreat Declaring that oppression that persecution Mat. 5.16 that the perill and the sword cannot separate us from the love of Christ Rom. 8.54 shewing that neither death nor life nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come can separate us from the love of the Saviour of the world who hath given his life for all 2 Cor. 5.15 to the intent that they who live may not longer live to themselves but to him who is dead and who is risen again for them Let 's be without reproach and harmlesse children of God Irreprehensible in the midst of a crooked and perverse Generation among whom we shine as lights who hold forth before them the word of life Phil. 2.15 we are the children of God Heires of God Co-heires with Christ let 's endure then with him let 's dye for him to the intent we may be glorified with him And esteem with St. Paul that the sufferings of this present life are not comparable to the glory to come Mat. 7.25 After that we have built on the Rock if the Rain descend the torrents encrease and the winds bluster we shall not fail to abide firm and stedfast as the mountaine of Syon let 's persist in one same spirit let 's strive together all with the same courage for the faith of the Gospel Phil. 1.27 without being at all dismayed by our adversaties and not being never so little removed from the love of Christ whom God hath Soveraignly raised up to whom he hath given a name Phil. 2.9 which is above every name to the end that at the name of Jesus every knee might bow of them who are in heaven and in the earth and under the earth and that every tongue shall confesse that Jesus Christ is the Lord to the glory of God the Father The Kingdome of heaven is that Precious Pearle to acquire which the Merchant sold all his substance it 's his rich stone for the which we ought â—o cast our selves hood-winck't into the Jawes of death for the which we must alwayes direct our countenance right toward heaven and contemn and neglect the sultery heatâ— and the stormes the sword and thâ— fire and for the which men must trample underfoot the Pride of alâ— the thunderings of men Not regarding then things visible which are for a time but the invisible 2 Cor. 4.17 which are eternal Our light affliction which doth passe away produceâ— in us an eternal weight of excellent glory 2 Cor. 5.1 If our earthly habitations are destroyed we have a heavenly dwelling which is not of humane structure How many of the faithful oâ— whom the earth is not worthy have wandred in Desarts and Cavernes 〈◊〉 cloathed with skins of sheep or of Goats afflicted tormented Heb. 11.37 and in conclusion are stoned sawed scorch't and burnt at a gentle fire not regarding to be extended with torments to thâ— intent to obtain a better life The request made to God by Elias 〈◊〉 is it not enough Rom. 11.3 Lord they have slain thy Prophets Demolisht thinâ— Altars I onely remain and they hunt to take away my life Saint Paul foretold what should befall him saith he not I am ready not onely to be bound but also to dye in Jerusalem for the Name of the Lord Jesus Act. 21.13 It 's then most certain that all they who will live according to piety in Jesus Christ shall suffer persecution 2 Tim. 3.12 It is certain that the faithful shall have afflictions in great number Psal 34. but the Lord shall deliver them We are in the Furnace 1 Pet. 4.12 2 Cor. 1.5 but the Spirit of God shall rest upon us The sufferings of Christ shall abound in us and so also shall his consolation Men augment our torments and he will multiplie his graces and at the end of the race our afflictions shall determine and our souls shall dance with perpetual consolations These are the promises of God this is his Word The Holy and the Just the Omnipotent and Eternal appearing to Saint John having his aspect like the Sun when he shineth in his full strength Rev. 1.16 holding the seaven stars in his hand and his voice was like the noise of mighty waters hath pronounced it with his mouth you shall have sufferings the Devil shall cast you into prison to the intent you may be terrified but be thou faithful even unto death and I will give thee a Crown of life He who overcometh shall not be hurt by the second death Rev. 2.10 To him who overcometh I will give him to eat of the Tree of life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God To him who overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden Manna and to him will I give a white stone Rev. 2.7 and on the stone a new name written which name none shall know Rev. 2.17 Rev. 2.26 but him who receives it To him who overcometh and shall keep my sayings even to the end to him will I give puissance over the Nations and will give him the morning star Who overcometh shall be cloathed with white vestments and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life Rev. 3.5 but will confesse it before my Father and before his Angels Rev 3.10 Who overcometh him will I ordain a Columb in the
Temple of my God Rev. 3.12 and he shall never go forth more and I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the City of my God which is the new Jerusalem Who overcometh Rev. 3.21 I will cause to sit with me upon my Throne even as I also have overcome and am set with my Father in his Throne What hinders us now what doth obstruct us then to bear afflictions and miseries with constancy who hinders to surmount and overcome these things Is it this World are they our riches Alas why change we not chearfully and willingly our lands our habitations and our lives for repose for felicity for eternal beatitude Our life is short wherefore for so short a time do we renounce a perpetuity of blessednesse of the ages of Paradise Our life passeth in an instant why for to preserve a few dayes do we precipitate our soules in the Abisme Our life is precious to God he holds it he keeps it in his hands i◠he dispose it 't is for his honour 't is for our preservation ☞ why deny we him this glory and to our selves this profit Do we dread torments there is more of grief and anguish to finish ones life by a long and continued distemper than by a violent stroak death is more languishing and tormenting in a bed than in the sight of heaven in an assembly The Feavers Convulsions Catarrhs are more insupportable and fatal than torments Christ is present he exhorts us he offers himself to us he invites us he spreads his armes to receive us he will open the heavens for our consolation as to Saint Steven than when the enemies of the Gospel stoned him He will assist us with his strength and augment our courage as he hath done to so many Martyrs who have endured for his name Let us not then loyter any longer committing our selves into his hands The Lawrels and the Palmes never cast their leaves the true Children of God never quail The love of heaven doth so ravish them they are after such a manner fil'd with that divine fury so that when nothing remaines to them but their heart wherewith they are accustomed to contemne the most dreadful things that continues sound even to the end of their lives their souls are invincible untameable free and generous Let 's suffer then with patience lifting up our hearts to heaven Let those savage Beasts which are not satisfi'd but with blood and wounds who are not asswaged but with murthers who are not delighted but with the sounds of racks having nothing agreeable but to dismember Christians Let us suffer if it be the pleasure of God to deliver us into the hands of these Butchers if they cause our bodies to stoop under the weight of Martyrdome Let us suffer if they redouble their rage if they do not forbear any kind of cruelty and as Lyons Whelps fil'd with flesh they feed their eyes on our dead bodies and dabble their hands in our bloody effusions God will assist us with his power and will raise us by his Omnipotent Spirit when 't is for the honour of his Name above the racks and flames The most cruel torments shall not be considerable to us the greatest most ponderous punishments shall be pleasant unto us these cruelties cannot astonish us death it self shall be life Our faith shall sustain our bodies seeing them torn it shall the more encourage us to suffer Our holy zeal shall delude the most sowre afflictions will cause us to advance into flames without amazement we shalconsume our selves with satisfaction embracing Martyrdome We shall imitate those Martyrs who for such a subject have endured a thousand afflictions have a thousand times spilt their blood have sustained a thousand flames These Martyrs whose Names and Renowns have found the earth too narrow to comprehend them These Martyrs who have magnifi'd Christianity by their blood who have accepted Martyrdome for their Crown These Martyrs who by a few torments are gone for ever into Supreme felicity Up then Barbarians what havock and slaughter soever you make of our bodies we remain firme and resolv'd to die Our bodies are vanquish't our spirits remain Conquerors You shall behold us languish full of delight in a divine Martyrdome You shall see our blood boyling with devotion to distill and trickle into the flames That our death shall be lovely and beautiful to be for ever famous to Christianity That our bodies shall be blessed to be consumed for the glory of the Saviour of the World That our blood shall be precious to witnesse and trace out the way to heaven That those flames shall be exquisite which set a lustre on the truth in the eyes of a throng and croud of poor Ignorants That our ashes shall be pretious to celebrate publish and to spread the Gospel among men If the earth be glutted with our blood the example of our Martyrdome will make us re-created by Miriads if they consume us as the Phenix we shall be renewed within our ashes Meditations for one that is sick FRail Creature in the midst of thy imaginations thou wastest and consumest thy self thou straglest thou wanderest and losest thy self amongst the vanities of the World Thou runnest out of knowledge in these slippery paths without understanding thy feeblenesse without considering that at the first step upon the first advance thou mayst stumble that a sprain may turn thee quite short and that thou hast no sooner weighed anchor than thou art in danger of Ship-wrack thy health hath puft thee up thy courage hath raised thee up precipitating thee into pleasures and delights and suddenly a chilnesse surpriseth thee some heat a pain in the head thou art dejected thou tremblest thou doubtest whether it be some light distemper or rather a disease tending unto death O Lord the World to this moment hath possessed me her delusions have intoxicated me at this instant my sinnes stare in my face as if I were awaked from a prosound slumber I begin to recover my spirits my eyes retort their looks upon my self to behold my weaknesse and my body tyred and consum'd with the feavour which is mixt with my blood and with the pain which torments it is constrain'd to acknowledge her misery to reject her Presumption Lord these fogs which obscure heaven to me begin to fall off my Soul so long blinded recovers some glimmering I have lived to this very instant swimming and floating at the pleasure of the Tide give me grace that I may arrive at the Port I have passed my time in darknesse give me light in the rest of my dayes Poor Carcasse thy Original is in infection thy habitation in a station fil'd with tempests with diseases with torments with bloody wars in a place common to the savage beasts upon an ingrateful earth out of which thou can'st extract nothing but with the Plow-share and edge of the Iron For thy end thy flesh is the prey and triumph of wormes thy
designs and thy grandures are buried with thee in the same shroud Thy sorrests are reduc'd to a biere thy buildings to a stone and yet thou art so blind so bewitch't with the love of the earth which dispoyles thee of the knowledg of thy condition that thou dayly augmentest the number of thy vowes of thy wishes of thy desires which presse thee hourly forward until God with the celerity of his ayd prevents thy fall stretches his hand over thee for to interrupt thee to make thee behold the vanity of thy imaginations and cogitations to make thee feel the earth to totter already under thy feet that she is ready to redemand what thou hast borrowed of her and to shew thee the fatal precipices the horrible depths and frightful gulfes within which all thy passions would destroy thee Bestir thee then vapour of earth shadow of life since the great God descends from his Throne to abase himself even to thee and to admonish thee Come then order and command all thy unworthy servile and foolish imaginations to retire from thee dispoyle thy self of man submit thy spirit unto God and to thy spirit all the affaires of the World smother up in thy breast thy stinking breaths and permit truth only to proceed out of thy mouth O Lord I am dust compos'd of the earth my members fram'd of this imperfection are apt to dissolve I am like the flower which hath its birth and funeral in the same day who in twelve houres sees it's spring and winter birth and death I am like the Rose who in his blooming regardeth his decline as the Lillies who shoots up suddenly to perish as all the flowers of one morn which the same instant blooms and fades which the least wind dryeth and causeth to fall This body increaseth in it's spring time then cometh its Summer the winter seases and nips it and it appears no more the least cold chills it dispoyles it as the Trees of leaves and of its natural vigour and oft times in its first season it falls benum'd by some glance of thy displeasure thou mowest it in thy fury as the grasse one stroak a feavour stops his course and his life and so many sundry mischiefs which conspire its destruction in the end prevaile against it it vanisheth and choaks its memory Lord I am born of the dregs of the World I acknowledge it most reasonable that I have a sense of it out of rottennesse proceeds nought but clay of corruption but wormes The earth hath produc't me hath nourisht me to receive its accidents to participate its wretchednesse I am unlike the Fishes who live in the Sea without relishing of the Salt and without being distur'bd by the winds and tempests I am more inclin'd to the humours of the earth I am subject to all its evils wherewith it abounds and cannot decline their attaints every day threatens my life and every houre raiseth me up some affliction but in the midst of these evils I must not imitate the Children of the world which think not but of the edge that wounds them ☞ but of the Catarr that suffocates them of the heat that burns them like to beasts who convert their rage to ceaze the stones wherewith they be wounded and to wreak their spleen with their teeth It 's requisite Lord that I raise up my Soul toward thy hand from whence the stroak proceeded toward thy arme who darts the stone toward thee who reservest in thy power the poyson and the antidote rest and labour death and life 'T is necessary that my afflictions admonish me to retire my self from these innumerable billowes to arive again at thy favourable harbour I ought to fix my eyes on thee who must serve me as a Star of light and a Phare during so perilous a voyage toward thee who already seems to comply to commiserate my grief and to offer thy omnipotence for my refuge Thou shalt find Lord my Soul shattered by the contagion of my body and of its senses neverthelesse thou remarkest some traces of thy hand some reliques of thy lineaments Thou beholdest them there sullied not defast it 's flame and lustre covered but not extinct and regarding it in its distressed condition thou wilt have compassion on thine own image of the work of thy hands Thou wilt inspire it with thy holy Spirit making it glitter again sparkle and lighten my obscurity for the time I have to live Give him then Lord so much zeal so much fervour to seek thee that as hitherto she hath appear'd cold and lazy she hath resembled the earth who depriv'd of the light of the Sun remains disconsolate and sterill cover'd over with a profound troubled silence But good God if thou wilt be pleased to disperss some rayes of thy Spirit to enlighten it incontinently all her transgressions in the midst whereof she is buried will disappeare as clouds chased by the wind This Ice frozen about his heart shall dissolve it self and shall slide and trickle on the ground and so he perceiving himself discharg'd of all his miseries which opprest him untangled from so many Passions that bedim'd him and animated by the power of thy Spirit she shall present her self before thee contemplating with delight on that great day the last of this life full of contentment and satisfaction for the Elect full of terror of dolors and horrible sighings for the wicked But Lord can I rationally implore thy favour and thy assistance seeing that all my actions merit death can I well require of thee an absolution from my offences which already seem fitted and prepared for an Eternal destruction And this careasse altogether stuft with vices cover'd over with ulcers and sores dares it yet boldly humble it self before thy holy Majesty whom it hath so many waies provoked to demand pardon to supplicate thee not to permit that the burning furnace and the horrible Gulf swallow it up Yes good God yes and with assurance For what though my sins retyre me far from heaven never the lesse the blood of thy Son shed for my clensing will give me entrance there his wounds heal mine rendering thee prompt to pardon me hindering thee to destroy thine own work-manship His descent from heaven was made in my favour He hath quitted his glory to hast to my rescue by the merit of his death He hat retyred me from hell and given me the victory over my transgressions O Lord since that I am redeemed with so precious a ransome with so high a prize since his innocent blood poured on the earth recoyles upon me and flowes on every side of my body to clense it I will take the boldnesse to present my self before to thee and with assurance to expect that blessed day wherein it will please thee to retyre my spirit and reduce this body to dust I will contemplate it with satisfaction and delight that this world doth not properly belong to us that thou hast given us but the use
of it for a time for a time which thou cuttest which thou shortnest at all times every moment according to thy pleasure And not being lesse prudent than the savage creatures who know their dens and love them and the foules who desire their nests and they please themselves there I will lift up my soul and direct my eyes toward my true and natural Country wherein I ought to trust toward that heaven wherein pleasures are heap't upon delights wherein at all seasons the beauty of the amiable spring flourisheth in such delightful cogitations I shall find ease to my mallady the refreshment proper to extinguish and sweeten my scortching In these pleasant fountaines I shall draw out waters and liquors to allay and temper my feavour and my heat and plunging my self into these holy streames I shall despise all other remedyes as being but an aggravation and fomentation of my paine and although that where-ever I stay my self my body pains me Neverthelesse I shall receive more of ease in the contemplation of my misery and of thy Grandure of the quantity of my offences and the multitude of thy graces which they have not which give not themselves but to be inquisitive after divers remedyes which they esteem healthful and find a way and a means to provoke them to sleep by the harmony of resounding voyces I seek not my recovery in the substance of rootes and herbs but in the might of thy hand who hath made the plant to spring and hath given it it's encrease I shall not seek my rest in diverting my self from the remembrance of my mallady but in reducing to my memory the wretchednesse of my condition in representing to my self that fancying a thousand conceptions in my brain I was neare swallowed in the Billowes and over-flowings of my defires that I have a long time borne the wound in my heart without sense or without complaint that I well nigh imitate the fish who swallow at the same time the bait and death That this world never affords me a cheerful look dains not to smile on me that afflictions have ever clouded my countenance that my pleasures are fill'd with torments my hopes with dispayres that the course of my afflictions have been equal to those of my dayes Briefly that I have been a subject to all accidents that hang over the head of man that I am the Butte and white against which all the crosses and mis-fortunes of the world let fly and discharge their shot and their arrowes And so Lord I constrain and force not my self to expect my recovery in the vertue of herbs I sooth and flatter not my mallady and deceive not my pain in stupifying and benuming my spirit or otherwise diverting it I seek not my recovery in flight but contrarily I feel the inequality of my pulce and the difficulty of my respiration I will consider how my mallady is fixt that it is rooted that it holdeth off my body and that I beare in my stomack the spring and receptacle of heat and cold which consumeth me and that all the parts of this body cease their operations and sunctions through the grief that afflicts them and not longer able to support it fail and yield to death Behold me then gracious God as the Bird in crossing the otian and not finding where to pirch her self after she hath long laboured with her wings in the end drops down weary and not able to struggle longer into the sea and death I have walked among the paths of this world the Thornes have pricked me the Brambles have offended me the stones have made me to stumble the strokes have bruised me they have batter'd me the feavours have weakned me I have search't for medicines and emplasters I have applyed splinters to sustain my bones I have swallowed bitter juces to drive away my distempers I have sustained and propped this poore cottage on all sides but in conclusion 't is necessary that it ravel that it crack that it sink under it's proper weight I perceave Lord that it slacks that it dissolves that it growes loose I behold on the other side that my soul the which she depresseth distasts and cleers himself of him by degrees as not longer able to contain it But alas It is very requisite this poore carcasse cannot ever draw his yeares under so heavy a bondage it cannot last ever 't is necessary that in the end she render her self to this deafe and inexorable death who yields not to any prayres who comes to surprize him without noyse and demands his debt without agreeing to delay In conclusion I must after having so long course over the sea slaves to stormes and tempests enter the haven which I have toucht already that I am already entering into It 's expedient that I retyre out of the croud and throng of the world to a more pleasant conversation and that I sustaine this assault and attempt without palenesse without amazement and without a dejected spirit How I' st not more expedient I fall once for all than alwayes to remaine tottering wherefore decline I the terminating of this life which to me is a passage to a thousand better lives why should not death be agreeable since she comes to unloosen the bonds which fetter me so closse to anguish and misery why make I difficulty to embrace death to obtain heaven and everlasting delights and pleasures and to arive at the haven where the feare of death shall neare approach Shall I doubt Lord that ' tisnot seasonable to dye since 't is but to live better till the wayes to live fail shall I preserve my life to my torment no good God no I will march confidently unto death I will commit my self to thee who hold'st in thy hands the number of my yeares the bounds and markes of my life I will cast my self into thy embraces to the intent thou shalt dispose of thy Image and thy clay according to thy good pleasure I will constantly suffer the law of my condition and the decree pronounc't by thy mouth Moreover good Lord what can I farther expect of my so frail life so feeble so subject to lose it self what can I hope farther of the continuance of this body which hath endured so many miseries that hath suffered so many evils that hath been so of 't menac't and that so many light occasions hath so varyed it's condition can it be but this smoak must sometime vanish and that this dust should be carryed a way with the wind observe I not that the strongest the most sturdy and most healthful are but light shadowes who must suddenly encrease the number of the dead That these great thunder-bolts of war find themselves not armed against death That these beautiful tresses these white breasts the lineaments of these graces are not exempt and that fame it self who triumphs over time and death in the end tumbles into it's obscure abode perceive I not how easily old age surprizes us and crumbles
our carcasses under the weight of his yeares how highly our dayes glide away That the present makes way to the future that importunes it that presseth it that treads on it's heels that our yeares are consum'd by months the months passe away by dayes the dayes glide by houres and the houres by moments and that encreasing to be we advance our selves to decrease and be no more Perceive I not Lord that in this world all things incline to their destruction posting to their period marching and running into death and notwithstanding that there are some works of thy hand very durable yet neverthelesse there is nothing that is permanent Witnesse those great and proud Cities who find themselves sudenly devoured and suddenly swallowed by earth-quakes Those nations grown insolent by their long rule authority who behold themselves in an instant mowed down by millions by the Pestilence I shall therefore prepare my self good God cheerfully to obey thy Ordinances I shall contemplate on my infirmity which by degrees cuts off the use of this life I observe that my fall is already far advanc't that death mixes and confounds it's self through out my life I shall joyfully and cheerfully receive and with an unastonish't countenance that which it pleaseth thee to ordain for this poor creature and shall not be of their number who submit to thee by constraint because the winde carryes them because the celestial decrees who ever conserve their puissance draw them from above and because they understand that in vain they should resist thy invincible power which tames and surmounts all things wherefore then esteeme I not my self blessed to have an entyre and absolute deliverance from my sufferings and to go and triumph with the ever blessed Citizens in heavenly joyes and delights who feel not any griefs nor distempers wherefore after having so long turn'd tost having so long time floated at the pleasure of the waves and floods do not I please my self to have attain'd the shore and to appear in the Port why should not the haven be agreeable from whence I see a far off the Sea swelling stir'd up and enraged by the tempest to lift it self up to the clouds and the Billowes foaming to sink the ships or cast them against the Shelves and the Rocks to break them and my self in the mean time freed from ship-wrack Up arise my soul thou art here far off from perfection fix not thy eyes longer on the earth with-draw thy sight from the miseries of the world efface them out of thy fantacy Imitate the Pilgrim who seekes the fresh and the cool shadows to ease him of his travel Up up my soul remember thy self that God gives not admission into his pleasant Syon but by the sacred gate of a blessed issue out of this world abandon the night to enjoy that Sun quit these desolate fields and desarts to enter into these quarters of flowers come out of these endlesse Gulfs of mischiefs to live in these fulnesse of blessings Up rouze thy courage fortifie thy zeal embrace this Divine present Embrace this passage to ascend to heaven Follow chearfully thy God who will catry thee for ever into his holy Temple all resplendent and glittering with glory and felicity where thy eyes shall perfectly behold him whom thy spirit adores where thine age shall remain firm where thou shalt be rendred more sparkling and bright than the Stars where thou shalt behold the earth under thee and the day to issue and break from under thy feet O wretched vessel which the waves which the winds and the Pilot direct and steer to such contrary courses that thou shalt be happy to have power speedily to traverse these dangerous Shelves and Rocks of this life to behold thy self in all safety and shelter in a freedome in a place of rest in a place where tranquility and peace inhabit forever O my soul that thou shalt be content freed from the vexations of the world to understand those holy notes and that sweet that pleasant and Divine harmony of heaven which so many millions of Angels render unseasantly unto the Lord Quit then thy shackles and thy prison ☞ render thy self into his hands who hath formed thee and will carry thee into this holy habitation wherein repose is infinite the satisfaction eternal and riches without measure where thy cogitations shall have no other aime than thy God thy eyes no other object than his glory where thou shalt flourish in an eternal spring ☞ and shalt breath nothing but most perfect and absolute felicity Praise praise this Divine Herald which comes intimating the day of thy departing that thou must cease to live and disrobe thee of thy desires imitate the swans who in dying render their voyces most harmonious being the last day of their songs Good God I am without colour without vigour and without motion unlesse that which perturbations of minde causes a thousand cares gnaw my spirit and a thousand snares of solitude entangle in my cogitations and hold me straightly fixt to their sorrowes the same distemper the same grief equally labours my body and my soul I miserably languish in this poor carcasse which surfeits on sorrows and savours of nothing but the Coffin My soul is stuffed with ignorance and gloominesse with ice and coldnesse 't is stupid and heavy but by thy grace in one instant she will mount her self into heaven she will be fil'd with splendour and light she shall be ravish't in the contemplation of the beauty of thy Divinity she will be partaker of joyes not to be exprest and with contentments the only contemplation whereof begets an ardent desire in my will she shall adorn her brow with a wreath the folyage whereof shall ever flourish and never wither she shall bathe her self in thy Divine spring there to draw water and drink to the intent never to thirst more to the end that that draught should be made a fountain of living water in her flowing into life eternal O holy stream Current of joy and entyre delight Eternal Source which never dryes up that my soul might ever repose under thy shadow that it might draw the sweetnesse of thine ayre let her live in the admiration of thy perfections This Lord is the ardent desire that inflames me 't is the only vow which possesseth my heart the health of this body concernes me not her greatest age is not so much as one poynt to the price of the eternity of my soul and then 't is necessary to return to earth to be fashioned anew that she may dye in Adam to be born again in Christ that she may descend into the grave to come forth immortal that she must hide her self under the earth even to the day that thou comest to awaken on a sudden raising it up to glorifie it until that great day which shall surprize all humane designs Thou shalt make this All to shiver at the sound of the Trumpets of thine Angels
call to my remembrance his blood shed for to acquire for me life eternal By the receiving the bread and the wine I enter by faith into a community into the society of the body and blood of the Son of God I draw life I draw absolution and am clothed again with his innocence and with his Justice By the vissible receiving which I performe of the bread and of the wine I am assured that I am spiritually united to Christ and made a Citizen of the Kingdome of heaven that he hath bequeath'd me and possessor of eternal life which he hath given me and in eating and drinking the bread and the wine at thy holy Table I am assured my God that I Participate of the body and of the blood of thy Son which I truely receive by faith and by which I participate of the Treasures and Heritage which he hath acquired by his death and which he hath bestowed on his faithful servants When I receive the bread and the wine I receive not only the Elements which are the figures and sacred signs of his body and of his blood but I receive by faith and in spirit the things themselves which are signified and represented Not that the bread and the wine of the Eucharist communicate to me his body and blood but thy goodnesse my God Thy truth Thy majesty Thy vertue and the efficacy of thy holy Spirit communicate and reach forth this body and blood to my understanding and my soul to be spiritually eaten and drank by faith The bread and wine serving to this purpose being sacred signes of his Body and of his blood which should be eaten by the operation of his holy Spirit without understanding any thing therein of sensual any thing corporeal ☜ any thing carnal and without searching here below and in our corporal mouths His true body with it's proper essentials with it's inseparable accidents with it's quantity and dimentions which is ascended to the heavens and set at the right hand of God where 't is requisite that the heavens contain him even until the restauration of all things Thus Lord I seek the body of Christ in heaven Acts 3.21 by faith I celebrate in the holy Supper the memory of his Death and of his Passion I declare it I esteem it and magnifie it even untill he come and I receive it not with a carnal mouth and corporal throat but after a Divine manner Sacramentally under a signifficant mystery with the mouth of my heart and spiritually by faith By faith which is the substance of things hoped for By faith whereby I really embrace his Body and blood and which bring to passe that in the holy Eucharist I am made partaker of it By faith which is the vessel and the hand whereby I receive thy Graces And as Lord 't is by faith that the Lamb was slaine from the beginning of the world 't is by faith that Abraham saw the day of the Lord 't is by faith that the Galatians have had Christ crucified before their eyes 'T is by faith that the Gospel gives me at this present eternal life Also Lord 't is by faith that in the celebration of thy holy Supper His body and his blood are present and subsistent in my heart in my spirit and in my soul 'T is by faith that I embrace his body and suck his blood which distilleth from his wounds And by means of this Sacramental eating and feeding on the body of the Saviour of the world and this spiritual drinking of his blood I am made bone of his bone flesh of his flesh I am incorporated in him I draw by faith eternal life from his flesh broken for me and from his blood shed for me I live of Christ and in Christ I live of his Justice instead that I should dye of my sinne I am justified by him sanctified in him to be eniivened and glorified in him By this holy Sacrament I am also admonished of my duty toward my Neighbour in regard as we are ransomed with the same blood made members of the same body and Dependants of one and the same Head and consequently one among our selves and by the Commandment of God and natural duty We all draw life from one and the same death nourishment from one and the same food and the self same cup. Up then my soul 't is here where thou oughts to Anchor and fix thy cogitations stay thy course and cast thy eyes upon the love of thy God 'T is here that thou oughtest to supplicate that Divine heavenly heart who onely bestowes motion upon men That only pulse and life of thy being 'T is the only base whereon thou foundest thy hope to inspire in thee the ardent flames of his Spirit and turn into thy heart the generous boylings of zeale heate and ardour toward him to the intent that thou mayest be a worthy partaker of that holy Sacrament which is the most singular consolation the most effectual remedy and greatest guift which he hath communicated to his upon the earth It 's the entyre Summe and Soveraign abridgment of his benefits it 's the certaine token of his infinite love the true treasure of his bounty Lord Eph. 1.7 thou hast ransomed me by the blood of thy Sonne according to the rickes of thy grace which thou causest plentifully to abound over me Instructing me in the secret of thy pleasure Thou hast informed me that 't is the bread of life by the which my soul is sustained That 't is the true Vine whereof I am a branch The gate of Honour and the rich assent which conducts me to the mount of Glory Thou hast called me to the communication of his body Hast applyed his merits to me made me his Co-heritor partaker of his Riches enjoying his celestial heritage In time-past I was not of thy people but now am I of the chosen generation of the Royal Priest-hood of the holy Nation of thy purchased people To th' intent I should set forth and magnifie thy grace and vertue my God who hast called me out of darknesse into thy merveilous light Thy Sonne is my only sacrifice my only oblation my onely Holocost by the vertue and merit whereof the heavens and all the treasures of heaven are open to me 'T is the onely remedy of my sin the onely spunge capable to efface my crimes 'T is the Sanctuary the Assillum of my salvation my heritage the joy and the Divine chaine sufficient to rayse me from these miserable places 'T is the tongue of succour who undertaketh my defence 'T is the sacred Anchor which stayeth my vessel and secureth it from ship-wrack and the prosperous Gale which freeth and delivereth me from the depths and Gulfes of the world If the food Lord which will sustaine me but one day obligeth me to praise thy Fatherly goodnesse how much more ought to be excited and enflamed my Devoyre to render thee thanks for the bread of life and for