Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	work_v	world_n	year_n	20	3	3.6970	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43607	Syntagma theologicum, or, A treatise wherein is concisely comprehended, the body of divinity, and the fundamentals of religion orderly discussed whereunto are added certain divine discourses, wherein are handled these following heads, viz. 1. The express character of Christ our redeemer, 2. Gloria in altissimis, or the angelical anthem, 3. The necessity of Christ's passion and resurrection, 4. The blessed ambassador, or, The best sent into the basest, 5. S. Paul's apology, 6. Holy fear, the fence of the soul, 7. Ordini quisque suo, or, The excellent order, 8. The royal remembrancer, or, Promises put in suit, 9. The watchman's watch-word, 10. Scala Jacobi, or, S. James his ladder, 11. Decus sanctorum, or, The saints dignity, 12. Warrantable separation, without breach of union / by Henry Hibbert ...	Hibbert, Henry, 1601 or 2-1678.; Hibbert, Henry, 1601 or 2-1678. Exercitationes theologiae.	1662 (1662)	Wing H1793; ESTC R2845	709,920	522

out of their bellies For which cause also the Hebrews called them Oboth or bottles because the bellies of those women that were thus made use of by the Devil were swelled as big as bottles In the year of Grace 1536. a certain Damsel at Frankfort in Germany being possessed with a Devil and stark mad swallowed down pieces of money with much gnashing of her teeth which monies were presently wrung out of her hands and kept by divers Bucholc Chr. Luther's advice being requested it was this To pray hard for her Vrbanus Regius in a Sermon of his at Wittenberg made mention of a certain Maid possessed by the Devil and when she should have been prayed for in the Congregation the Devil made as if he had been departed out of her But before the next publike meeting Satan returned and drove the Maid into a deep water where she presently perished Melanchton tells a story of an Aunt of his that had her hand burnt to a coal by the Devil appearing to her in the likeness of her deceased husband And Pareus relates an example of a Bakers daughter in their countrey possest and pent up in a Cave she had digg'd as in a grave to her dying day Much like unto that poor creature mentioned Mat. 8.28 It is to be feared the Devil that was cast out of the Demoniacks bodies is got into many mens hearts oft casting them into the fire of Lust and water of Drunkenuess Athanasius had a conceit that the Devil may be driven out of a body by repeating the 68. Psalm Possessed with Devils Mat. 4.24 and lunatick Sorrow Secundum Deum 2 Cor. 7.10 Mundum 2 Cor. 7.10 For the first Sin bred sorrow and sorrow being right destroyeth sin as the worm that breeds in the wood eats into it and devours it So that of this sorrow according to God we may say as the Romans did of Pompey the Great Plut. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That it is the fair and happy daughter of an ugly and odious mother But the sorrow of the world is that which carnal men conceive Act. Mon. fol. 1901. either for the want or loss of good or for the sense or fear of evil Thus Queen Mary who died as some supposed by her much sighing before her death of thought and sorrow either for the departure of King Philip or the loss of Calice or both Thus Nabal sorrowed To these may be added a third An hellish sorrow a desperate grief for sin Virtus nolentium nulla est as was that of Judas Fained or forced grief is nothing worth He grieved and yet miscarried It was squeezed out of him as verjuice out of crabs But Peter went forth to weep bitterly Gods people are commanded to afflict themselves with voluntary sorrow Some shadow of it we have in Epaminondas the Theban General who the next day after the Victory and Triumph went drooping and hanging down his head And being asked why he did so He answered Blur. Yesterday I found my self too much tickled with vainglory therefore I correst my self for it to day But we have a better example in holy David whose heart smote him and made him smart inwardly saith the text 2 Sam. 24.10 after he had numbred the people The soundness and sincerity of sorrow is shewed by the secrecy of it Ille dolet ver● qui sine teste dolet He grieves with a witness that grieves without a witness Zech. 12.12 Sorrow is a breaker It breaks no bones but it breaks the heart Worldly sorrow breaks the heart to death Godly sorrow breaks the heart to life Sorrow shortneth the spirit of man that is Sorrow over-acted weakens the whole man and leaves him unable to put himself forth in action Joy is the dilatation or widening of the heart much joy makes the spirit free to act So sorrow is a straitner of it it makes a man narrow-hearted and narrow-handed it stops him in his actings or stays him from acting We commonly say Sorrow is dry 'T is so because it is a drier A broken spirit drieth the bones Pro. 17.22 Aristotle in his book of Long and short Life assignes Grief for a chief cause of death All immoderations saith Hippocrates are great enemies to health We have heard of some whose hearts being filled with vexing cares Quia spiritus tristis exiceat ●ssa have filled their heads with gray hairs in a very short time As some have an art to ripen fruits before nature ripens them so the Lord hath a power to hasten old age before nature makes us old Many troubles in one year may make a man as old as many years Grief is like Lead to the soul heavy and cold It sinks downward and carries the soul with it Mans Mind is like the stone Tyrrhenus which so long as it is whole swimmeth but being once broke sinketh David was decrepit with much grief at seventy years of age Jacob attained not to the days of the years of the life of his fathers as being a man of many sorrows And this some think was the reason our Saviour Christ at little past thirty was reckoned to be towards fifty Lam. 3.1 Joh. 8.57 He was the man that had seen affliction Mention is made of a German Captain at the Siege of Buda Anno 1541. Turk Hist. who seeing the dead body of his unfortunate but valiant Son presented to him a sudden and inward grief did so surprise him and strike to his heart that after he had stood a while speechless with his eyes set in his head he suddenly fell down dead The Casuists and Schoolmen affirm sorrow for sin to be the greatest of all sorrows In 1. Conatu 2. Extensione 3. Appreciatione 4. Intensione Though other Mourning coming down hill having Nature to work with it and nothing to hinder it make more noise Mine eye is consumed because of grief Psal 6.7 Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop Prov. 12.25 When I remember these things I pour out my soul in me c. Have mercy upon me O Lord for I am in trouble Mine eye is consumed with grief Psal 42.4 yea my soul and my belly For my life is spent with grief and my years with sighing My strength faileth because of mine iniquity and my bones are consumed Psal 31.9 10. Desire It is a passion which we have to attain to a good thing which we enjoy not Est voluntarius affectus ut res quae bona existimatur de●st vel existat vel possideatur that we may imagine is fitting for us There is a threefold desire 1. Natural 2. Reasonable 3. Spiritual And every one of these by their order are subordinate to another and there is no repugnancie amongst them In Fevers we desire to drink and yet we will not And so in Apoplexies to sleep and yet we will not A mans hand is gangren'd a Chyrurgeon comes to cut it off The

he is as man in heaven so he is as man higher than the heavens O praeclarum diem cum ad illud animorum concilium caetumquae proficiscar et cum ex bâc turbd et colluvione discedam Cicer. de sencetute Hebr. 12.24 higher than the heavens which are visible to the eye of man yet in part of the heavens where the God of glory is pleased to make the most ample and immediate manifestation of his glory 't is called the habitation of the highest a new world the new heaven Paradise the heavenly Jereusalem the City of the living God where there are an innumerable company of Angels the general assembly and Church of the first-borne and God the Judge of all and the spirits of just men made perfect There is I say Jesus the Mediatour of the new Covenant and the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than the blood of Abel There our high-Priest presents to the Father the propitiatory sacrifice of himself and sprinkles upon us his purifying blood that is by his powerful mediation he applies unto us who are faithful the saving merits of his never to be forgotten passion by which our mortal sins are freely remitted and we destin'd to a Crown incorruptible that never fades away in the highest heavens Thus are we through him had in perpetual remembrance and accepted of God in the beloved as righteous as if we had never offended When a man indeed looks on things directly through the aire they appear in their proper forms and colours as they are but if they be look't upon through a green glasse they all appear green So when God beholds us as we are in our selves we appear vile and squallid but when as presented before his throne in heaven in the person of our Mediatour our high-Priest after the order of Melchisedeck approved of for his merits then we appear before him as Christ himself holy harmlesse undefiled seperate from sinners and in some respect and measure made higher than the heavens for those that overcome by faith and a good conscience being Kings and Priests by him shall be so honourably esteem'd of Revel 3 21. as to be made sit down as coheirs with him in his throne as he sitteth down with his father in his throne As he vouchsafes us to partake of his merits so of his glory Cap. 5.10 making us unto our God Kings and Priests In lieu whereof let us in all humility with the four and twenty Elders fall down before him thut sitteth on the throne Cap. 4.10 and worship him that liveth for ever and ever And with those ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands celestiall spirits Cap. 5.11.12 13. let us say for of him 't is said worthy is the Lambe that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing Vnto thee therefore O our loving Saviour Christ Jesus our high-Priest who art holy harmless undefiled seperate from sinners and made higher than the heavens be ascribed by us as by every creature which is in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea blessing honour glory and power for ever and ever Amen GLORIA IN ALTISSIMIS OR THE ANGELICAL ANTHEM LUKE 2.14 Glory to God in the Highest and on earth peace good will towards men THis is the sacred Anthem which by the heavenly quire of Angelical spirits was most melodiously sung as a pregnant expression of exceeding joy conceived in them at and for the so much desired nativity of our blessed Saviour These ministring spirits I propose as the fittest and compleatest pattern for our pious imitation to whom seeing we are made but little inferiour in regard of the lively image of God imprinted in our soules so be we also but little inferiour to them in expressing the joyes conceived in our hearts I may safely averr without the least smack or touch of Popery that the Angels of God in heaven rejoyce at the good of Gods Church whereof they themselves are apart for such is the spiritual sympathy of their holy affections with ours whose conversation is in heaven though our selves on earth that they bear a part with us in solacing themselves for our happiness The heavens could not hold these Angels from coming to the earth in hast upon the wing to bring the glad tidings of peace and great joy that shall be to all people the sun was anticipated in his course for the Angels proclaim a Saviour ere the sun the worlds eye did discover him That we therefore may not come short of affection if it be possible of them let us in a joyful sense of felicity Psal 103. Incipit à superieribus sinlt in infinis coming unto us by our Saviours coming unto us sing Hallelujah unto God and with David call upon all creatures from the highest to the lowest to publish the praises of the highest Blesse the Lord ye his Angels that excell in strength that do his Commandments hearkning to the voice of his word Blesse ye the Lord all ye his hosts ye Ministers of his that do his pleasure Blesse the Lord all his works in all places of his Dominion Blesse the Lord Kimchi O my soul and all that is within me blesse his holy name Elevate your hearts and voices good Christians in harmonical strains with these blessed spirits setting forth in some measure the exceeding greatness and glory of the love of God extended unto us without all measure Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace good will towards men This Song doth consist of three parts viz. 1. Glory 2. Peace 3. Mercy The 1. is Glory be to God on high there is the honor the reverend obedience the admiration and the divine worship which we ought to give to God The 2. is And on earth peace this is the effect of the former working in the hearts of men whereby the world appears in its most glorious splendor and transporting beauty being an entire chain of intermutual amity The 3. is Good will towards men this is Gods mercy reconciling man to himself after his perfidious apostacie and ungrateful dissertion from his Creatour Glory peace and mercy then must be the welcome subject of my discourse Glory to God Peace to the Kingdomes of the earth and mercy unto sinful men Gods mercy appears in our Saviours appearing to the world which brought peace on earth for which men and Angels glorify the Lord of glory Glory be to God on high The first part comprehends what ought to be the first and principal aim both of our Christian intention and pious execution wherein if we behave our selves well we shall have a part and portion in that inheritance which Christ with his blood purchased for us Glory be to God on high Gods glory is either divine or humane Gods divine gloty is that which is proper to the divinity incommunicable to any creature Which

with the thought of his dwelling in our hearts whereby whatsoever Satan or our own corruption hath erected there is pulled down and whereby all cursed temptations and suggestions are powerfully vanquish'd When I consider how of impure he makes us pure how of the sons of wrath heirs of an incorruptible crown and how that he takes delight in our imperfectly holy actions wherein if he do but mark what is done amiss they can never endure the trial Our lame and limping Holiness goes for the currant with God in Christ Jesus who in his good will to us accepts the good will for the deed the sincere desire for the pure act Wherefore it was a devout Soliloquy of a retired man Aug. Soliloq cap. 15. turning himself to his gracious God in this meditation Quod cecidi fuit ex me quod surrexi ex te My falling from thee O God proceeded from my self but my rising again to newness of life from thee My unlucky sins make me partaker of great misery but thy mercy and good will of unvaluable felicity The children of Adam after the fall deserve no more to be called the children of God than that famous weather-beaten Bark of Athens to be called Theseus his Ship which at first was built by him but in process of years was so often repaired that it had never a plank the same remaining which it had at first So when God did create us upright we were his whilst we so continued but when our iniquity did compass us about and changed our good disposition into an execrable studiousness to work wickedness when the importunate instigations of the Tempter did set our hearts on fire with the impetuous fury of following sinful resolutions then ceased we to be Gods children But seeing the same hand doth repair us that first made us and the same power make us new creatures that made us creatures we again receive the title of Gods children whose inheritance of his good will is Heaven whose attendants here and companions there blessed Angels whose glory God the glory of his Israel Oh then that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and his mercy towards the sons of men I have something to say yet touching some particular acts whereby God doth express his good will towards men His good will is expressed in matters Temporal Spiritual In Spiritual by a twofold act 1. By preventing us We never minde the Author of our good until himself work us to it As we are gone out of the way so do we run on until the Lord convert us To seek Christ or in his name to call on the Father of mercy and God of all consolation never came into our thought until the Son of God came to seek and to save those which were lost neither now doth come until he by the gracious call of his blessed Spirit invite us by the strong vertue of his magnetical love draw us Aug. Soli●●q eap 33. Idem in Psal 59.10 It was the confession of a religious man to God in private Non te quarebam tu me quasivisti non te invocabam tu me vocasti I sought not thee O Lord thou didst seek me I called not upon thee but thou on me My merciful God will prevent me faith David that is saith Austin of unwilling he will make me willing to do his will Sic semper Domine sic semper gratia tua pravenit me liberant me ab omnibus malis salvans à prateritis suscitans à praesentibus muniens à futuris Thus alwayes saith one O Lord thus alwayes doth thy grace anticipate me freeing me from all mischiefes saving me from dangers past upholding me against dangers present protecting me from all future Again 2. By following us After that God hath altered the perversness of our wills and restrained the corruptions of our inordinate nature his Spirit leaves us not there but prosecutes what he hath begun in us not only inclining us to what may win his favour but directing us and as it were leading us by the hand to Christ Psal 23.6 and in him to do righteous things Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the dayes of my life saith David it followes us close being willing lest we should will in vaine saith Austin on that Psalme It is by the activity of the holy Ghost that new hearts are created in us whereby we will good and new strength confer'd upon us whereby to walk in righteousness This following or subsequent good will of God is spiritually discerned by 1. Preparing of us 2. Working in us 3. Coworking with us By preparing of us Disobedience is so engraffed in our very nature that none but a metaphysical and transcendent power can moderate our head-strong humors To temper us to Gods hand whereby to obey the holy Ghost there is requisite and necessary a superior agency that must keep us in from breaking out without fear or wit into exorbitant abominations In our natural generation there are many proevial and antecedent dispositions and alterations so there are many in our regeneration to be born of God there is a restriction of our unbridled appetites from pursuing things unlawful and prohibited an illumination of our dark minds in things mystical a flexibility of our obstinate hearts to the love and practice of piety and an inclination of our rebellious wills and affections to embrace all that 's good as the Spirit shall direct all which proceeding from the good will of God following us for ever are in them in whom they are discernable and discernable to proceed alone from Gods good will above the course of nature By working in us Of all Agents as God is the most orderly in proceeding so is he the most perfect in working He brings us not into a possibility to be his children by adoption to be holy to be new creatures and so abruptly breaks off but makes us in time actually to be so He doth dwell in us and there works a reformation What in his good will he doth begin in his good will he finisheth He gives us both to will and to do of his good pleasure Our freedom then from the dominion of sin the renewing of our minds wills affections and actions and our assiduous and indefatigable endeavours in Gods services are the peculiar works of the chiefest good without whom we can do nothing and are special expressions whereby to discern Gods following good will towards men By coworking with us Philosophers do ascribe the motions of inferiour bodies to the heavens motion Alsted Physick Inferiora moventur ad motum superiorum saith Alsted these bodies which are below are moved according to the motion of those above Insomuch that if they should cease to move so would these Even such if not greater is our reference to God God sets us a moving in the way to heaven Acti agimus yet such is the debility of our weak and mortal frame insufficient for matters

in a family there is not so much notice taken but if whole families be infected with the plague then all possible care is used Why knows thou not that that flame may begin to appear in one house that will serve to burn down the whole City A wicked man is a very miserable man His triumphing is short but his declining is for ever All his good things will soon be at an end but his evils shall never end His light is quickly put out but when once it is dark with him he shall see the light no more As saith the Proverb of the ancients Wickednesse proceedeth from the wicked 1 Sam. 2 4 ●●… The Lord shall reward the doer of evil according to his wickednesse 1 Sam 3. ●● They that plow iniquity and sow wickednesse reap the same Job 4.8 Diligence It is the spirit of action Erasmus saith of Jerom Minima pars vitae dabatur somno minor cibo nulla ●ti● Bernard in his studious call whither he had retired himself would oft say to himself Bernard Bernard remember for what end thou camest hither The Author of that useful History The travels of the old Patriarchs Kings and Prophets when he comes to write the motions of Antiochus Epiphan●s who was a great King but of a most malitious spirit against the people of God he observes that this Antiochus in pursuance of his bloody designes had run more hazzards and taken more tedious journeys to satisfy his malice and reach his ambitious ends than any of the Saints had done upon any command or service of God upon which consideration he makes this excellent conclusion That wicked men take more paines to go to Hell and eternal destruction than godly men do in the way to eternal life and salvation Grimst Exercitium of ex arce● because it ●erives out diseases Rust eats up the steel that 's not used Prov. 10.4 It 's storied of the French Pesant he is very laborious so as he will toil three days in a rock that he may plant one stock of a vine and this labour is the cause of his wealth and no lesse also of his health The hand of the diligent maketh rich Idleness The sloathful man weares the time out in contemplation B. H. Idlenesse is viv● hominis ●cpultura he takes no lesse care how to spend time than the wife how to gain by expence Summer is out of his favour for nothing but long dayes that make no haste to their even he loves to have the Sun witnesse of his rising he lyes longer far more for loathnesse to dresse him than will to sleep and after some yawning calls for dinner undrest and having digested it will a little sleep he goes to the market-place to meet some of his companions and stayes with him some idle question as how are the dayes lengthened how kindly the weather is how forward the spring and ends with what shall we do When all the people are gone from Church he is best sleeping in his seat alone he enters bonds and forfeits them by forgetting the day necessity drives him to every action and what he cannot avoid he will yet defer when he is warned of Jury he had rather pay the mulct than appear he had rather freeze than fetch wood and chuseth rather to steal than work he eats and prayes himself asleep and dreames of no other torment but work This man is a standing pool and cannot choose but gather corruption he is a man in nothing but speech and shape A man is said to be idle 1. When he doth nothing is unimployed Mr. Greenbill Oriosus est 〈◊〉 opus Deì 〈…〉 peratur Opus Dei is opus Dici Man is to labor both ad ruborem and ad sudorem Res perfect● occupata alterius rei non est capax Senec. But va●iam semper dant o●ia mentem 2. When he doth not what he should do 3. When he puts not forth himselfe to do what he ought to do in conscience and according to right reason That is to do as much as he is able to do The evil of idlenesse is great for 1. It 's against the end of mans creation 2. It s a sin against the light of nature which puts every thing upon motion 3. It puts the world which is Gods family out of order 4. It sets a man among the dead an idle man is both unsavoury and unactive 5. It layes a man open to Satan and variety of temptations 6. Idlenesse is the mother and nurse of all lusts Nihil agendo homines discunt male agere 7. It 's against common equity Idle persons in the Commonwealth are like Drones in the hive that eat up the honey from the laborious Bees 8. Poverty and beggery are the issues of it 9. It 's a wasting of precious time and hiding of our Talent Among the Athenians Idleness was actionable at law it was called actio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and their enquiry after each man and woman was Quá arte alerent what trade they had to live upon In Marcus Aurclius dayes he having occasion to send a letter two or three days journey from the Town he could not find one idle body in Rome City to carry it they followed their callings so earnestly Calvin said nothing was more troublesome to him than an idle life And when his colleagues earnestly intreated him in his sickness to abstain from writing or dictating he answered What Would ye have me idle when my Lord comes Thou wicked and sloathful servant saith Scripture Aliquid age ut te diabolus inveniat occupttum Nemo casu fit saplens Senec. God puts no difference betwixt an idle and an evil servant Therefore let us not be idle Drones but busie Bees in the Lords work Very sucklings get not their food without much tugging and tiring themselves at the dug Neither grace nor glory will be had with wishing The desire of the sloathful killeth him Prov. 21.25 Why stand ye here all the day idle Mat. 20.6 Mercy Quasi miserum cor Senec. est aegritudo animi ob alienarum miseriarum speciem When the man that fell among thieves lay wounded and half dead The Priest passed by Luke 19. viz. Aaron with his Ceremonies and sacrifices could not help us And the Levite onely looked on him and passed by viz. Moses with the law and moral obedience could not help us But Christ the good Samaritane had compassion on us and helped us How 1. Pouring in wine to wash our wounds justifying us 2. Pouring in oyl to supple and heal sanctifying us Let this mind be in us which was also in Christ Jesus Craesus taken prisoner by Cyrus Parcè utere potestate tuà ut din utares Senec de ira and after severe punishment and restraint upon the execution-day being set upon the top of a fagot to suffer death Cryed forth O Solon Solon vera sunt quae dixisti Neminem ante

true things themselves Neither do they fill and satisfie the minde of man Pleasure is like lightning simul oritur moritur sweet and short And dolor est etiam voluptas Men first itch then scratch then smart Learning the more we know the more we would know Honour contents not the poor labourer would be written Yeoman the Yeoman a Gentleman the Gentleman a Knight the Knight a Baron the Baron a Lord the Lord an Earl the Earle a Marquesse the Marquesse a Duke the Duke a Prince the Prince a King the King a Caesar Aut Caesar aut nullus Caesar an Alexander and Alexander would be a God Vnus Pellaeo juveni non sufficit orbis Aestuat infoelix augusto limine mundi All the worlds army consists of two wings 1. Prosperity on the right hand 2. Adversity on the left hand And prosperity assaults more dangerously than adversity for as Anstin Homo victus in Paradiso victorim stercore Job Gregor Mundum oomparat nuci cassae quae si cultro veritatis aperiatur nihil intus invenire quam vanitatem inanitatem Et D. Johannes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in quo non aliter atquae in Medeae sinu versamur Orbis hic nihil aliud est quàm scelerum officina Publica in quâ vel Lycurgum ad nequitiam commoveri posse vide●tur The world is so full of evils as that to write them all would require another world as great as it self Nam quid longa dies nisi longa dolorum colluvies Initio vitae cecitas oblivio possidet Progressu labor dolor exitu error omnibus It may be said of an old man as one of a marriner Nec inter vivos nec inter mortuos Epictetus spake more like a Divine than a Philosopher Homo calamitatis fabula infelicitatis tabula Though a King should conquer all the world yet he gets but a needle-point a mote a mite a nit a nothing The world promiseth many things but performes nothing All that is in the world is the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life That is pleasure profit preferment the worldlings Trinity To the same purpose the Christian Poet Ambitiosus honos opes foeda voluptas Haec tria pro trino numine mundus habet Every sin we commit in this world will be as a fury to torment us in the next It was a clear heart that gave so bold a forehead to that holy Bishop who durst on his death-bed professe I have so lived as I neither fear to die nor shame to live Love not the world neither the things that are in the world 1 John 2.15 Kingdoms Remotâ justitiá quid sunt Regna nisi magna latrocinia quia ipsa latrocinia quid sunt nisi parva regna It was the Pirates answer to the great Macedonian Alexander who had taken him the King asking him how he durst molest the seas so he replied with a free spirit how durst you molest the whole world But because I do it with a little skip onely I am called a thief thou doing it with a great Navy art called an Emperor It is reported that it was a custom among the learned Nations Clem. Alex. l. 7. that he who should be King must also be a Priest so much they adjudged Religion to import the felicity of Kingdomes Hence the Persians counted them most happy that were most godly 8 Pa● as testifieth Xenophon We may well say with Cicero why should we be inamoured with our selves since we have neither overcome the Spaniards with numbers the French with strength the Carthaginians with craft nor the Greeks with art but onely with Piety and Religion The Poets all acknowledge that the gods all forsook to succour Troy Dii multa neglecti d●de●e Hisperiae mala lactuosae Plutarch lib. ●e Exilio for the adultery of Paris The neglect of God brings many sorrowful evils to mankinde The Lacedemonian Ambassador commended his countrey to Ptolomy because that with them there was no envy for all were equal nor covetousnesse for all were common nor idlenesse for all did labour Which three will or may be in time the wrack and ruinous down-fall of any land Kingdoms after the manner other things have but their time to flourish in and so again decay For no Kingdom or Empire upon earth were it never so flourishing or great was ever yet so assured but that in the revolution of time after the manner of other worldly things it hath as a sick body been subject to many strange innovations and changes and at length come to nothing Yea and all the States in the world have their critical days and Clymacterical years beginnings and dissolutions at Gods appointment Ruines of Kingdoms may be known before-hand Junius Quast Pol. 5. not by Apodictical and demonstrative necessity but by Topical probability A skilful Physician by the cause of the disease doth fore-judge of the death of a sick Patient what sort it shall be and why then should not a wise Governour of the republick foresee the Sun-setting of a Kingdom yea in every City there are certain pulses from whose faint and languishing motions Su●●onius we may divine fearful fates to hang over them Sith Seneca himself saith that the luxury of banquets and garments are the tokens of a sick City It is reported that before the death and destruction of Domitian a crow cried in the Capitol 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All things are evil So also that vultures renting in pieces the young unfeathered Eagles portended death to Tarquinius superbus It is good for Kingdomes to have their eyes opened that they may see the day-break before the Sun-shine and dark night before the cock-crow The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord Rev. 11.15 and of his Christ and he shall reign for ever and ever Not for a thousand years onely as the Millenaries Jews Upon their Nation is that fully verified Ingentia beneficia flagitia supplicia They were a people signally prosperous incorrigibly flagitious and God hath made them in publique judgements most notorious Abused mercy turns into fury Their dispersion for this sixteen thousand years and upwards is such as that one of their own Rabbines concludeth from thence that their Messias must needs be come and they must needs suffer so much for killing him O the severity of God! and O the obstinacy and misery of this hard-hearted people Such is their stubbornness that they curse us Christians in their daily prayers Maledic Domine Nazaraeis They stick not to say that rather than we should have any benefit by their Messiah they would crucifie him an hundred times over Yea they have been ever such bitter enemies to Christians and so they continue that among the Turks every Visier and Basha of State useth to keep a Jew of his private counsel Blunts Voyage p. 114. whose malice wit and experience

number the mercies of God to me in particular saith he were to number the drops of water which are in the Ocean the sands on the shore the stars in the sky Mirrour of Martyrs This one act of his good will his Sons mission exceeds the capacity of a whole world of men to give it a due value He would not destroy us being his enemies when he might in justice destroy us but to save us inglorious miscreants sent his Son from glory and did as Abraham would have done with Isaac his onely and beloved darling offer him up to death to redeem us from it As King Solomon said to Abiathar the Priest Thou art worthy of death but I will not at this time put thee to death So said the Soveraign of Soveraigns to us His Son is destined to what we deserved to make us partakers of his deserts Salvator noster natus est nobis crucifixus mortuus est pro nobis ut morte suâ mortem nostram destrueret Aug. Man cap. 27. saith an uncertain Author Our Saviour is born to us crucified and dead for us that by his death lie might destroy our death for ever Wherefore the Lord Jesus upon the Cross giving the foil to our malicious enemies Sin Satan and Death Sin Satan and Death have lost the day to our endless comfort and the glorious manifestation of Gods good-will towards men I may not smother in thankless silence the blessed consequences of my Saviours life and death tendred for our restauration how happily they took effect with the Father in our behalf and accorded in every point of his decree with the good pleasure of his will For first there followed the imputation of Christs righteousness for the remission of our sins And then the Sanctification of us by his Spirit sent into our hearts for the suppressing of the dominion of sin in us Both which shew as speaks the Apostle the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness to us Ephes 2.7 through Christ Jesus First it pleased the Father that the fulness of the Spirit should dwell in him and that of his fulness we should all receive His righteousness then is made over unto us by the goodness of a righteous God whose purity as it admits no mixture of imperfection so neither without Christs perfection any justification of a sinner For none are justified but such to whom God imputes no sin and such are they only to whom God imputeth righteousness without works Which righteousness Rom. 4.6 7. being without our works and imputed must proceed not from our selves full of the soul stains of ugly sins but from another even from him alone in whom dwell all perfections Jesus Christ the righteous Thus and thus alone is God in his Son the Author and finisher of our salvation not imputing our sins unto us but reconciling us unto himself by the imputed righteousness of his Son by whom we have access unto the Father and are no more counted strangers forreiners and exiles but are reimpatriated and made fellow-citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God Whereupon it is that by the grace of God to use the Apostles speech we are what we are And if by the grace and good will of God then surely not of debt not of merit for grace excludeth both To him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace Rom. 4.4 Cap. 11.6 but of debt And here I could wish with all my soul that this and other infallible Oracles of highest Truth could heat our adversaries from Humane Merits and bring them to the Divine Mercies from Free-will and Possibilities of Nature to the Grace and Good-will of God To merit Heaven by all we can do is a fetch beyond all power of Nature and to aver it a strain as of excessive pride so beyond all true Divinity Merits in us are no such props to our faith as Mercies in God The first grounded upon self-conceit and fond opinion the last upon the demonstration of the Spirit The first all of the Romish faction receive for Orthodoxal truth which we reject for false the last they reject for false which we embrace for truth That Italian-Priest who Achan-like troubles all Israel the festered Head of an infected Body hath so distempered the world with this plausible assertion as that all his Abettors from the most learned Dogmatist to the meanest Papist stand rather to their own strength for their Justification than fly to Gods mercy as having more confidence in their own abilities and pretended merits than in the alsufficiency of Christs Mediation and Redemption or at least as much Who whilst they stand thus affected what do they but detracting both from the Lord and from his Anointed ascribe the honour of the day and glory of our salvation as well to the Free-will of Man Saunders his Petition as Good-will of God But O my soul come not thou within their secrets neither be partaker of their defections Chuse rather than combine with them ever to pray with that zealous Martyr in this wise O my heavenly Father look upon me in the face of Christ or else I shall not be able to abide thy countenance such is my filthiness The best of us may confess with the leprous person We are unclean we are unclean and therefore without him no blessedness to be obtained by the best of us Joh. 14.6 No man cometh to the Father but by me saith Christ And no man cometh unto me saith Christ again except the Father draw him Thus betwixt the Father and the Son we are well provided for without whom who thinks to be saved Plaut Merca. doth take his mark amiss Vbicunque putant vivere runnt maximè as the Comedian speaks Where they think to live most happily they die most wretchedly Wherefore for us to repose any confidence in our own imperfect works or to seek a shelter under the Merits of Saints recorded in the Pope's Kalendar or wheresoever else is utterly to renounce the Merits of Christ and the good-will of God Neque enim qui habet virtutem amplius opus habet neque qui valet viribus Clem. Alex. eget instauratione saith Clement of Alexandria For he that is perfect needs not to be beholding to another neither needeth he any reparation his proper strength is already compleat They that are whole need not the Physician but they that are sick saith the Physician of souls Let then the swolne Pharisees of the Roman Court in humility of spirit learn here to check their insolent boasting of their natural goodness and meritorious actions referring all to the goodness of the Chiefest Good Let them march under Christs colours as the Captain of their salvation Let them set up their rest in him as the securest Sanctuary for distressed souls O worthy Elizeus how affectionate were thine Obsequies You may remember that he could neither be perswaded nor beguiled nor forced from Elijah when he

short of an invention how to scape his sury and obtain his favour how to satisfy his justice and redeem our lives from hell and death Behold before the foundation of the world was laid he resolved to send his own only Son begotten by an eternal generation who should quell the power of our afflicting enemies stop the mouth of the roaring lyon overcome the world sin death the grave and hell and lay open a plain passage into the Kingdom of heaven Which eternal resolution was in the fulness of time perfectly effected for God then sent forth his Son into the world to assume our nature that we might assume his grace to suffer for our sins what we should of merit suffer to be obedient to the cursed death of the crosse that we might escape the curse of God and not be subject to the second death And albeit hereby he made himself of no reputation who thought it no robbery to be equall with God yet by this meanes he did make way to be highly exalted to get a name which is above every name and to be glorified with the glory which he had with the Father Ne Jesum quidem a●ias gloriosum nisi videris crucisixum Luther to Melanchton before the world was This he himself in a conference with some of his Disciples after his resurrection wherein doubtless he did recapitulate his several sufferings certified to the world Ought not Christ to have suffered those things and to enter into his glory Luk. 24.26 This Scripture points at Christ considered in part of his twofold state 1. His state of humiliation quoad mortem as touching his death Christ's suffering or passion 2. His state of exaltation quoad resurrectionem as touching his resurrection In his humiliation we find him ignominiously crucified and made a curse for us In his exaltation gloriously raised that he might be supereminently glorified and our selves blest in him for ever In this he shall judge as in the former he was judged My pen is now conversant about the first part Wherefore assistance O my souls Saviour and Soveraign I intreat thee that in all humility of soul I may declare what for our salvation thy Majesty didst suffer in all humility And first of my Saviours humiliation in general Of all the works of God done for and to the children of men Some are Opera potentiae works of power Some opera pietatis works of mercy Some opera justitiae works of justice all righteous works Yet if we seriously fix our thoughts upon the humiliation of our alsufficient-Redeemer we shall find it to be a work of 1. Power 2. Mercy 3. Justice All these that otherwise are disperst in his several works are compacted and meet together in this one First then it is a work of power 1. In it self 2. Towards us In it self 't is a work of power God was made man but not sinful man which none could bring to passe but God that first made man without sin The Creator of all made himself a creature which none could do but the Creator of all Whereupon it was that at the conception of the Son of God in the Virgins womb Luk. 1.35 the holy Ghost came upon her and the power of the most high did overshadow her Hence saith one after God had made man he left nothing but to make himself man A dignity to which the Angels are not call'd wherewith our nature above all is blest Tom. 10. Pag. 595. It is Austins speech In creatione mundi homo factus est ad imaginem Dei in nativitate Christi ipse factus est ad imvginem hominis when the world was created man was made in the image of God when Christ was born God was made in the image of man Both which are to be refer'd to divine Omnipotencie For that God and man might be one in Covenant Lib. 2. Institut Ood used his power to make himself and man both one in person Non communicatione gratiae fed naturae veritate non consusione substantiae sed unitate personae saith Trelcatius not by communication of grace Epiphanius but by reality of nature not by an undistinct confusion of substance but by a personal unity So that as Epiphanius speaks Christ was homo in veritate natus Isa 7.14 Deus in veritate existens true God and true man in one and the same person which is implied by the Prophet calling him Immanuel that is God with us or God in our nature Luk. 1.35 Exprest by the Angel calling him the Son of God that should be born of the Virgin Mary And manifested by the Apostle averring him to come of the Fathers as concerning the flesh Rom. 9.5 and yet to be over all God blessed for ever This might seem exceeding strange yet it proves not more strange then true God and man who stood at an infinite distance are now everlastingly linkt together in one person according to the mighty working of his power Thus Christ's humiliation in being incarnate is a work of power in it self It is likewise a work of power towards us Since Adams rebellion we were all captives unto sin and Satan untill God incarnate did vindicate our liberty We were extremely weakened our spirits fail'd us until the Lords anointed the mighty God of Jacob did infuse into our hearts the strength of his Spirit His Incarnation made way for our salvation and his taking unto him our humanity makes us by faith to partake of his Divinity Anselme moves three questions Anselm Meditat c. 8. to which he gives one solid resolution the questions are these 1. What offence could man commit which the Son of God made man could not exprate 2. Who could be so much swell'd up with that uncharitable vice of pride which so great humility could not pull down 3 What dominion could death have over us which the death of the Son of God could not destroy for us The answer 's this Certainly if the iniquity of sinful man and the grace of my unspotted Lord were wigh'd in an even ballance the East is not so much distant from the West nor the lowest hell from the highest heaven as my Redeemers goodnesse in his humility doth exceed the wickednesse of a sinner To this I adde he hath shewn greater power in this act for our redemption than the malice of all the Devils in hell could put in practice for our confusion Thus Christ's humiliation is a work of power towards us And so much the rather he being after this sort humbled was once offered to bear the sins of many Again it is a work of mercy Deus propter hominem sactus est homo ut esset redemptor qui est Creator ut de suo ridimeretur homo saith Austin Aug. Manual c. 26. God for mans sake was made man that he might be our Redeemer who is our Creator and so we have of our own wherewith to be redeemed

gather stones together a time to embrace and a time to refraine from embracing a time to get and a time to lose a time to keep and a time to cast away a time to rent and a time to sow a time to keep silence and a time to speak a time to love and a time to hate a time of warre and a time of peace here time is not lost but all these times well used in their time the Devil hath no time to tempt us sin hath no time to over-power us Now then we must make account of our time By 1. Numbring our days 2. Redeeming the time For the first Lord saith David teach me so to number my dayes that I may apply mine heart unto wisdom God gives a number of dayes but few number them or make account of them but I fear it is because few know how to number them this therefore I shew briefly To number our dayes is to consider the misery which we purchased to our selves by the evil of sin the evil of guilt the evil of punishment It is to make a recapitulation or take a just account or summe of all the ungodly acts we have committed as neere as we can in thought word and deed It is to look narrowly into the crooked passages of our lives to see what we have omitted in Gods service and what we have committed against him that we may mend what is amisse We must come to our tryal every day which is called Examen Pythagoricum thus we become more wise every day than other Hence we must take a note of all our impious acts and summom them up in the Court in our hearts to appear before conscience as Judge which if it play the honest Judge condemnes us racks us This done we are pincht with a sense of our misery causing us to run with all speed to God for his mercy Hard and stony are their consciences that make no conscience no reckoning of numbring their years or days they cast up one grosse sin on another in grosse they adde they multiply never subduct never divide But he that learns Davids Arithmetick which is Ars bene numerandi the Art of numbring well all his ill is a good Artist divides subducts and casts away all sin reserves nothing in his mind but adds vertue to vertue multiplies one good deed on the head of another he remembers Gods Ordinance Crescite multiplicamini increase and multiply as well in grace as in other businesses Make we but a due computation of our daily actions we shall find a tincture of sin that cannot be separated Prie we into our thoughts the imaginations and purposes of mans heart are only evil continually Gen. 6. Examine we our words we shall find that our tongues ost over-run our wits our wits wisdom Observe we our habitual sins whereby we get a kind of dexterity in Rhetorical repetition of the same sins we shall smell out in our hearts a den of theeves Habits are acquired by continual actions so that sinful actions make rank sinners Those that continue this custome of sinning without numbring their dayes that they may apply their hearts unto wisdom are like to make a fair reckoning at the years end the end of their dayes but he that would prevent all mischief must make a profession of making a daily inquisition and casting up all those fractions of the Law of God that God may make him whole upon confession This should be our daily work thus to number our dayes neither is it to any end except it be continued to the end of our dayes Secondly We must redeem the time for the dayes are evil saith the Apostle A forcible reason Eph. 5. I promise you We are to make the best we can of our time because the dayes are evil In evil dayes we must do good d●y-deeds and out of evil draw good as God out of darkness drew light If we redeem not the time we cast away our selves like Cast-aways without redemption Now would we know what it is to redeem the time It is only to take time while time serves to serve our turn Austin was a Manichee nine years he took his time to turn bias another way for the good of Gods Church Luther was a Monk a long time but he shortned the time by redeeming it he found after that he had done nothing when he thought he had done something worth the doing Paul was a blasphemous Persecutor of the Christian Church but he in time redeemed the time and proved a faithful Minister of the Gospel of grace Titus the Vespasian never thought the day well spent wherein he had not done some work of charity Theodosius the Younger conferr'd daily with the learned Bishops of his time whereof his Court was full Sigismund the Emperor did delight always to do good works of piety and religion Idle creatures think the time tedious but those that are taken up in serious affairs especially of Salvation think the time to pass away too soon No time too soon to do good for to do good is always high time Therefore to pretermit no occasion which once past there is no looking for it after no time of performing what God requires and avoiding what God disallows is to redeem the time and to make evil days good days for us our best days Those then may justly be reproved who neither number their days nor redeem the time They run on the score till the day of payment come then they impoverished through sin and found unable to satisfie or pay God God pays them home with a witness And these are such as betake themselves to no lawful Calling but calling for alms they live rambling up and down like catholick or universal men upon every mans devotion or at every mans elbow who scarce ever call upon God but for Gods sake on man These are Common Beggars But I pass by these without any more adoe Again They are worthy to be reproved who neglect the affairs of their general or particular Calling or both to follow their Pleasures altogether God gave Adam a Garden as well for action as for contemplation as well to busie himself about the dressing of it as to recreate himself in it Praestat otiosum esse quàm nihil agere 't is true it is better indeed to do something though it be nothing to the purpose than to do nothing at all What needs either Nero will cage himself up in a Closet to catch Flies rather than do nothing but hoc aliquid nihil est this doing is as good as do nothing for haply they are acting that which the Devil would tempt them unto had they been with Solomons sluggard altogether wrapt up in idleness This cannot excuse them The fellow that we read of in the Gospel that married newly he was busie at home with his wife he could not come to do what he should have done I am married I cannot come but that excused him not

Decalogus explicatus a living Decalogue his life is a comment on the commandments He walks up to his principles and priviledges answering his Gospel-light with a Gospel life Ille plus didicit quiplus facit A grain of grace is better than many pounds of gifts Obedience is better than sacrifice These lead to the top of all which is blessednesse This man shall be blessed in his deed Mark this against the Papists the Apostle doth not say for but in his deed 'T is an evidence of our blessednesse though not the ground of it the way though not the cause There is a blessednesse annexed to obedience not for the works sake but out of the mercy of God see then that we so carry as that we may come within the compasse of the blessing His disciples were more blessed in hearing Christ than his mother in bearing him Luke 11.28 DECVS SANCTORVM OR THE Saints Dignity PSAL. 149.9 This honour have all his Saints HOnor Christianorum Crux Christi The Cross of Christ is the Christians glory God forbid that any of Christs flock should glory in any thing save in the Cross of Christ There is pain indeed but there is pleasure too the pain is outward but the pleasure inward the pain is for a moment lasting but the pleasure time out of mind everlasting There is trouble in the Cross but hold out unto the end and the consequence of it will be rest world without end All afflictions are but light in comparison of that exceeding and eternal weight of glory that crowns them Besides the joy of the Holy Ghost is wrought in the hearts of the afflicted members of Jesus Christ weighs down the burden of that sorrow that is laid upon them Hence it is that they faint not for though the outward man perish yet is the inward man renewed day by day 2 Cor. 4.16 It is an infallible Maxim dictated by Gods Spirit That they that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution 1 Cor. 4.12 13. But observe the magnanimity of the Martyrs Though they be reviled yet they bless though they be persecuted yet they suffer it though they be defamed yet they bless though their blood run down about their ears yet they rejoice forasmuch as they are partakers of Christs sufferings that when his glory shall be revealed they may be glad also with exceeding joy For whosoever suffereth reproach or any kind of persecution for the name of Christ keeping a good conscience happy are they for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon them and God on their part is glorified The Church of God which is the Congregation of Saints is compared to a City which is besieged ab hostibus oppugnatur non expugnatur which is assaulted but not vanquisht by any adverse power the gates of hell cannot prevail against it 1 Pet. 4.13 14. The Bush that Moses in a vision saw burning but not consuming did signifie the Church of God then in Egypt burning in the fiery furnace of tribulation yet free from consumption You may easily conceive the reason God was there Here am I said he to Moses Where the Lord is there is safety No power can destroy that which is supported by the highest power Vritur non comburitur the bush the Church doth burn but consumes not away it is preserved for greater glory and greater glory reserved for it For no doubt but the Saints the holy ones of the Holy One of Israel shall at length have the upper hand of their enemies Principalities powers and dominions do set themselves against them but what of that Principalities powers and dominions must submit unto them Wherefore Let the Saints be joyful in glory let them sing aloud upon their beds let the high praises of God be in their mouth and a two-edged sword in their hand to execute vengeance upon the heathen and punishments upon the people to bind their Kings with chains and their Nobles with fetters of iron to execute upon them the judgment written This honor have all his Saints Observe in these words these three parts 1. A Subject and that is Gods Saints 2. An Attribute which is a special honour proper and peculiar to the Saints exprest in the precedent words and here implied This honour 3. The latitude and extent of this attribute of honour all Gods Saints are partakers of it This honour have all his Saints The Subject must be the first subject of my discourse There are two sorts of Saints 1. Seeming Saints and 2. Real Saints Seeming Saints are whose Religion is terminated in outward appearances None can have a fairer outside none a fouler inside Whereupon our Saviour compares them by the name of Hypocrites to painted sepulchres and others give them the plausible appellation of white Devils Painted sepulchres are glorious without but within nothing visible but rottenness White Devils appear like Angels of light but do but search them and you shall find them Angels of darkness Devils though white as the Devil would have it and as the Negro's paint him as a colour contrary to their own Multa videntur quae non sunt Many good things appear by them but not one good thing can be found in them Our Saviour deciphered them by the name of Wolves in Sheeps clothing harmless in profession but in truth of a wolvish disposition like those in the Revelasion that said they were Jews and were not but the Synagogue of Satan These are Saints in the Devils name and of his making whose damnation is just and from whom good Lord deliver us Let us leave them as nothing to do with this Text nor this Text with them which hath only to do with Gods Saints And take this note with you Si vita sanct●rum nobis acerit appellatio sanctorum nihi proderit saith reverend Davenant The name of Saints will nover do us good if we lead not the good life of Saints There are real Saints Saints of God and they are Saints two ways 1. By Imputation 2. By Renovation By Imputation for to them the sanctity and righteousness of Jesus Christ is imputed in which respect the Saints gone were the Saints living are perfect in this lise John 17.19 Ephes 5.27 Tales nos amat Deus quales futu●i sumus ipsius dono non quales sumus nostro merito Saith an Ancient Councel For the holiness of our dear Saviour in a bottomless mercy and goodness imputed to them is in it self most perfect Of this our Saviour speaks when he saith For their sakes sanctifie I my self that they also may be sanctified through the truth And the Apostle delivers this doctrine thus That Christ loved his Church and he gave himself for it that he might sanctifie it and present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinckle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish Were it not that they are not imputed and that Christs righteousness is