whets on the affection with a greater longing having truly tasted how good it is we can with David say Oh how sweet are thy words unto our taste yea sweeter then honey unto our mouth our soule can then handsomly reilish all holy duties and religious exercises and wee doe delight in the performance thereof as in particular the frequenting the Church the hearing of Sermons the holy Law and Testimonies of the Lord doe not now seeme a burden but as a pleasure unto us O Lord me thinkes thy words to us doe shine A sweet direction in the paths divine In receiving the word we can suck out a secret sweetnesse and comfortable benefit there from it becomes nourishable unto us the Rod of Gods justice and the staffe of his mercies bound up together in his booke doe pleasantly lead forth our soules besides the waters of Comfort but specially is our Melancholy soule most in imately affected with such Scripture which presseth home the due understanding of our momentany and mortall Condition and with funerall exercises which more lively set forth the same Salomon saith It is better to goe into the house of mourning c. and he gives the cause for that is the end of all men and the living will lay it to his heart wee shall I say bee thus alwayes apt on such occasions to fix the sad consideration of death most neerly to us and sure mee thinkes there can be no thoughts that doe concerne us more then those of our end of our last day neither can wee bestow any of the time of our life better or to more purpose then in the digging of our Graves I meane the providing for our end for though perhaps wee may live a great deale longer yet verely wee are no men of this world thy grace O Lord hath so removed our affections from these transitory things that with Saint Paul Wee are daily dying in our thoughts and desiring rather to be dissolved and to be with Christ then to live here not waiting expecting and looking for a long continuance upon earth but farre more for a happy departure Life 's not our joy at death 's our chiefest ayme By life wee lose by death wee hope to gaine Also in this prosperity of Religion doe wee alwayes apprehend a more gratious satisfaction in our prayers supplications the spirit of devotion so filleth and fatteth our soule with goodnesse that wee are wont abundantly to rejoyce therein above all other things striving to lift up our soules often in private devotion in so much that if leisure serve wee shall be ready to offer up the incense of our zeale unto God in admiring his mercy setting forth our unworthinesse desiring farther his grace and heavenly benediction to grow stronger and stronger in his feare and love and the like requests and Petitions often times even often times peradventure in a day not only in short ejaculations but even in pretty laâ—ge formes of expression for no sooner doe wee feele the sacred fire of Devotion flaming upwards and aspiring unto heaven but presently wee seriously betake our thoughts to prayer and thanksgiving by the way it may be here considerable whether for our constant devotion in private as morning and evening and the like many short ejaculations are more fit to carry up our affections unto God or otherwise some one long and large continued forme the former way through its often cuttings off being in dangsr to make us degenerate into alazie and forgetfull seldomnesse of praying the latter thorough its tedious continuance into an unadvised dulnesse in praying and therefore not much approving of either betweene both of these two or three moderate formes with an acute and strong winged brevity are me thinkes more convenient to present our cause before the Almighty in an unvariable constancy and in a piously devout apprehension but to keepe on our way Now againe in like manner are we most divinely studious and diligent to make the full benefit and advantage of that time which is properly set apart for Gods service labouring to build up others and to be built up strong in our selves as by hearing exhorting and discoursing with truly pious and religious men rejoycing in this comfortable Communion of Saints I meane the communicating acquaintance and assisting fellowship of our inner man one with another or else againe perhaps more privately managing our soules by reading as in the Bible Practise of Piety Gerrards Meditations or the like by Meditating Consulting and walking with the Almighty in spirituall thoughts ending the Sabbath dayes usually in such high and serious actions occupying our selves in that only which may tend either to improve Knowledge try Faith exercise Charity examine Conscience and the like communing thus as David hath it secretly in our owne hearts in our Chambers and being still quiet from outward perturbations thereby effectually to entertaine these heavenly Guests And therefore duly apprehending this Celestiall happinesse of the mind shal we use to long for the Sabbath before it come preferring it in esteeme above all the other dayes of the week and calling it as in the 58. of Isaiah the thirteenth verse A delight unto us the Holy of the Lord c. accounting the holy rest of this Sabbath here to be a lively Emblem and as it were a taste of that glorious rest in the eternall Sabath hereafter The due frequenting and solemne use of four a clock prayers on Saturdayes afternoone is me thinkes a worthy sweet and seasonable exercise as being an excellent preparation against the Sunday to lay aside the thoughts the cares and busines of our Calling and truly were it generally more observed and taken notice of no doubt Religion might fare far the better for it but sure The Root of evill is the love of Gold And that is it Religion is so cold Because we cannot spare the time from gaine For Heaven therefore we take but little paine To goe on as this irradiating beam of divine grace doth cloath our minds with a light and delight in spirituall things whereby not only our thoughts ate set a worke on purer objects but also our outward behaviour and conversation is ready to do its part too in Religion our tongues not vaine or offensive but ayming their words for the most part to pious and good discourses aptly applying ordinary things in our talke to some godly use or religious observation our feet not swift to go after folly nor our hand dealing with deceit I say as this illuminative beame of divine Grace doth enlighten our thoughts making us full of high and heavenly wisedome in all our wayes so in like manner it warmeth our affection towards others melting the bowels of our compassion into a more then superficiall charitableness and loving mindednesse unto all men whereby with tendernesse we alwayes construe their lives and actions in the better sense and doe sincerely wish pray for and desire even the salvation of every one but specially zealous
turn us unto a due serious repenting or sufficiently to rouze us up out of the unhappie Lethargie of sin and therefore sure God is now whetting his sword and bending his bowe against us As Lazrâ—â— in his grave so we have been in our trespasses and sins so long dead even stark dead unto all goodnesse that we had need be call'd unto elatâ voce as it is in the Eleventh of Saint John with a loud voice if God mean that we shall effectually hear him Dangerous diseases deserve desperate cures If nothing else can thorowly awake us the Judgement of a troubled minde and tormented Conscience must do it But when once it comes to passe that the Almighty sheweth forth his wonders in the deep his mighty strength after this manner in the deep thoughts of mans heart O what a sharp fit and tedious bout must we undergo for saith Solomon The spirit of maâ— may sustain his infirmity but a wounded spirit who can bear Not Job 's afflictions nor yet all those ten Egyptian plagues can parallel agen The misery that that poor soul is in Whom heav'n doth strike with terrour for his sin Any outward crosse or trouble is tolerable and may be sustained but the inner trouble of a distracted minde and wounded Conscience who can bear You may note that though the minde and Conscience be toucht with many secret terrours and perplexed difficulties in the course and passage of this life according to that of David concerning himself Even from my youth up thy terrours have I suffered with a troubled minde I say There be in the soul of man many tormenting thoughts as also sins of ours and sayings of Scripture often too hard for us well to digest but this ensuing Passage of a distracted minde and troubled Conscience is seldom parallel'd For lo I shall herein shew you a Mystery even welnigh the very height and utmost pitch of Terrour and sad Distraction that the melancholy minde can undergo without falling quite into Fury and Madnesse which doth fitly follow this more then ordinary ill course of life here presupposed and so long a sleep in presumption For this is the right Method in the state of the soul before such great trouble of minde there usually precedes a deep sleep in Presumption because the minde and Conscience can never be very much inwardly troubled it may suffer some small distresse I say never be much troubled as long as fear the watchman of the soul keeps his due centry And therefore this is the true wisedom of a careful Christian diligently to keep this watch about him lest he be overtaken besotted and engaged in sin and so then the day of the Lord come upon him like a thief in the night I say the day of the Lord the day of his Judgement a day of gloominesse and thick darknesse a day of trouble and distraction of minde even such a day as is exprest in the next Part wherein the Lord thundreth from heaven with his mighty power against the soul of man Of the Soul troubled in Conscience WEll the troubles and terrours before spoken of in the precedent part in reference to these that follow and are now at hand are but as S. Matthew saies of those troubles that shall go before the day of Judgement the beginning of sorrowes I say the beginning of sorrow they are like the scattering drops which fall before a shower and O now the shower it self begins to fall apace a terrible shower and most violent storm such a one as David speaks of in Psal 11. vers 6. where he saith Vpon the wicked be shall raine snares fire and brimstone and an horrible tempest this shall be their portion to drinke For now our minds and bodies being perhaps more properly made fit for that purpose I say the rather fitted thereunto as either by occasion of the leisure and vacancy of the mind or also by the like concurring occasion of strong melancholly vapours in the body or other diseased disturbance Though fin only be the procuring cause yet these or some of these are usually the present occasions which mainly help it forward we quickly fall into an exceeding dumpishnesse of mind and even in a short space our fancy is followed with swarmes of tormenting thoughts in so extraordinary a manner that we cannot tell what to doe they come so thick one upon another and are impious in so high a degree that the dismall and hellish terrour thereof doth quite dull and take off our sences There is for the most part no one houre all day long but that we are haunted with them as with so many hideous ghosts insomuch that usually do what we can nothing will put them from our mind or give us the least ease and respit from this misery Intentions still our mind gets no reliefe At all from this tormâ—nting inward griefe Those thoughts they are such black thoughts most of them so infinitely fearfull so unspeakable heynous that they do make us extreamly to shake with feare and put us many times in such a trembling that we are as it were fainting with the deep agony and anguish thereof they do so subtilly shoot into our imagination that for our lives we cannot with all our strength and endeavour shut them out or so much as mitigate the violence of them they are even as the piercing lightning which cannot be withstood For least your understanding should be mistaken it is to be noted that those thoughts not as yet spoken of are more of a darting then a reflecting nature To go on they are as so many terrifying Haggards and hellish ghosts unto us that do even make us shrinke for feare as often as we do but think upon them or so much as take the least glimpse thereof into our apprehension and then as soon as we are thus never so little afraid they will sure come upon us and that the more fiercely too fear giving any adversary advantage to have the greater power over us The manner of being affrighted herewith many times is as when some extraordinary thunderclap on the sudden strikes a man with so violent a terrour that his heart is even as they say out of his mouth therewith the passion whereof is able to be in such an excesse that it doth even stun our sences for the time making us as quite sick with the amazement of it What shall I say No mortall tongue can â—hew Those fearfull terrors which our mind doth know It is said indeed in the sixth Chap. of Genesis that every imagination of the thoughts of mans heart are onely evill continually But O these and the like thoughts as I may say even sent from Hell into the soul of man are so beyond measure unreasonably evill that we shall many times think to our selves think it I say to be a thing almost impossible that man as a meer man and being only in the mortall condition of humanity should be capable of entertaining such
the night be gone and we are full of tossings to and fro untill the dawning of the day and with David in the 38. Psalm we may most truly say that there is no soundnesse in our flesh by reason of thy wrath neither is there any rest unto our bones by reason of our sin for our iniquities are gone over our beads and are a sore burthen too beavy for us to bear a heavy burthen too heavy as well for our enfeebled bodies as distempered souls The Soul and Body like two Turtle Doves Doe both in one affeâ—tion syrapathize What moves the one the other quickly moves Each in the others love both lives and dyes As the Soule so I say the body sustaineth an heavy portion of this spirituall misery for we doe here with in time usually grow so weak even truly as they say so weak as water being what with griefe and abstinence from ordinary food wasted and pined away to nothing but skin and bone neither have our bones also any rest in them for they are ready to ake as we but lye in our Beds and are exceedingly dryed up like a Potsheard such is the feeble wearinesse and laxation of our limbs that kneeling any whit long at Prayer when we rise we shall be ready to fâ—ll backwards so that as David in the 22. Psalme just so we are even powred out like water and all our bones are out of joyne if we sit a while more then ordinary such a benummed stiffenesse and deadnesse doth seize upon us that we shall hardly perhaps be able without help to stand upright Againe thus are we grown old I say old with griefe and are become as it is said Like a dead man that is forgotten The continuall sighing and anguish of minde seemes to presse and oppresse our flomackes as if some heavy weight did lye hard upon it thy hand O Lord presseth us so sore that it is uneasie for us to fetch our breath and lo it may be we are wholly for many daies together as in a constant feavour of distemper I have known the water of such a distressed soul only through this intollerable trouble of mind and Conscience to look so ill that a wise and well experienced Pyhsitian hath given his opinion of it that he never saw so bad and disturbed an estate in all his life before O the sad case O the sorry and miserable condition of man that is thus wounded with the sting of conscience for his sin Behold how David complaines and laments in his 39. Psalm O take away thy plague from me for I am even cansumed by meanes of thy heavy band When thou with rebuke dost chasten man for sinne thou makest his beauty to consume away like as it were a moath fretting a garment every man therefore is but vanity O man unhappy man who can sufficiently bemoane thee What heart is there can chuse but smart to see this thy misery and here to shew the griese that I now conceive Ob that my tongue could speake forth teares of blood And eyes run down with waters like a floud But to go on for we may not stay here I say to go on with the Story of our darting and affrighting thoughts when any grievous and terrour-striking flash doth dart into our minds we are presently apt thereupon to ponder and examine with our selves whether it be worse and of greater impiety then those that we have formerly had and for the most part ever the last doth seem to be the worst somtimes it may be we may thus think with our selves why what be they but bare thoughts they be not wishes desires or reall actions of the mind And then perchance the next time these thoughts do come unto us in manner of wishes which for the present through the sudden passion of feare doth confound us with such an amazement that we cannot at all tell what to think or do we are so quite out of heart with those and our other dismayments for any hope of salvation that me thinks it is but a folly to perswade our selves of comfort Well when the thoadâ— of this overwhelming tempest is somwhat allayed and past over we shall perhaps begin to consider again being loath to be drowned that grant they be wishes or be they what they will be never so bad yet we cannot help it it is not in our power to dispose of our own thoughts though they do come thus unhappily unto us we desire them not we had rather be rid of them and then vvhen vve have so far pretty vvell resolved our selves for the time rather then our melancholly fancy shall be at any rest or intermission from tormenting doubts and terrors our half bewitcht imagination our imagination I may vvell say as half bewitcht vvill also send for them and bring them into mind and then there is not the least shevv of hope any more to be caught hold by then vve are quite strucken down into Hell vvith an utter confusion of despaire vve have hitherto strived against might and all in vain too but deceive our selves with hope without question such is our perswasion and conceit we must needs be damned if ever any were damned we are now shut under Hatches past hope of recovery utterly forsaken and cast off from Grace and sure we now count it an advantage and â—he onely height of our hope if we might but be in a lesser degree of Condemnation we doe take it as a benefit to us not to be placed in the extreamest condition of Hell this this is but a poore hope a cold comfort God knows and yet even this so poore a hope can we hardly grant our selves O now shall we think how happy is that soule that is but in probability of salvation Oh it is not preferment credit rich apparell or outward pleasures the common joyes and felicities of this world that stand high in our esteem we can now value these earthly things truly as they are even as nothing we envy not the happinesse of those that have them nor are we discontent to be without them give us O Lord give us this one thing The comfort of thy grace again The hope of salvation and we looke for no more hither hither are our desires our cares our thoughts only bent here is the only treasure we aime at There 's no content without it to be had There 's nothing with it that can make us sad Two things are here well to be observed by the way First that the meerly reasoning and reflecting thoughts of Conscience doe never cause such sharp fits of dispaire in the soule of man as those which are also partly darting and affrighting the second is That dispaire in the understanding is nothing so great an impiety against God as is dispaire in the Will with an impatient resolution a dispairing motion or opinion as a desperate sin To return again to the disconsolate amazement of our souls labouring in dispaire this poore hope as
take heed of the least sins directing our conversation in a more elevated and steady course then usual as conceiving our selves to lie open to the awful view of an Omnipotent and most glorious Deity as also we can more duely humble our selves and pray before him with a fervent with a lively earnestnesse and confidence of obtaining For first the abundant experience of Gods great love towards us together with that loving affection which we feel in our hearts towards him again breeds a kinde of union and friendship betwixt God and our souls and this union begets a trust and confidence in him and then this confidence doth fully perswade us that we shall prevail with him in any thing so that it be best for us to obtain it I say Best for us that is for our good though not always to our liking our Prayers verily 't is sit they should be confident but they may not be obstinate and self-will'd Nature doth use to take it harsh not to have her desire granted but David's resolution in Psal 39 will at length pretty well satisfie her I became dumb and opened not my mouth for it was thy doing For it was thy doing that 's the reason to stop our mouthes and hold us contented And 't is our Saviours reason and resolution in Matth. 36. 39 Neverthelesse not as I will but as thou wilt Gods will we are sure is far better then ours and therefore good reason it is that ours should in all patience and humility be ruled by his better it is in his care for he hath a greater care over us then we can have of our selves and better in his wisedom and foreknowledge for he knoweth far better what is good for us then we know for our selves Our sinful wills do seldom aim aright Lord give us what is fitting in thy sight What thy good will and pleasure is and we are contented Again as we have such a submissive trust and confidence of obâ—â—â—ning in Prayer so are we always more affectionately apprehensive of what we do pray then in the time of sin our thoughts can go along and keep turn with the words of our Prayers at the confession of sins shall we feel our selves pressed with the burden of our wretchednesse at the Petitions of grace our soul will be athirst after the living God Oh when shall we be satisfied with the fulnesse of his mercies at Thanksgiving for his Blessings our heart doth as it were run over with the abundance of his loving-kindnesse Even so hath thy Mercies embraced us on every side that who can set forth thy praise O Lord or declare the goodnesse that thou hast done for our souls Thus I say we can now keep our thoughts neerer to the sense in prayer then at other times and yet we shall finde it at the best time of our Devotion very difficult to keep our intention close to it any long while specially in Publike praying for do what we can ever and anon our mindes will be sliding away from the matter in hand and dreaming upon other imaginations at least some other thoughts on the sudden do come athwart us and put us from the sense so that seldom do we hold our intention steady upon it thorowout a whole Prayer unlesse it be very short For we may here pertinently take notice that sin is so naturally rooted in us and all Mankinde that 't is a very hard task if with due inward silence we observe it in our selves to keep our secret thoughts within compasse even whilst the eye of Conscience is most watchful I say Even whilst the Star of Jacob shines most bright In us to purge away the dark of night So that it was no marvel David said that the righteous man falleth seven times a day whenas there is seldom an hour in the day even in the purest condition of our life specially if we have any concernment to be conversant in outward affairs I say scarce an hour wherein extravagant and unlawful imaginations or desires do not most thrust themselves into the minde which though perhaps indeed the awaking care of Conscience by Gods help doth quickly check out again with shame in these or the like motions of dislike as Fie t is not right God forbid yet the Corruption of nature hereby sheweth it self to be always active in us though it doth not now prevail as it would O Lord God our best Condition in this world thou knowest is but as a night in which thougb there be some light shining within us yet is there much more darknesse and therefore our experience methinks doth most fitly and naturally Moralize that expression of thine concerning our Saviour Numb 24 where thou hast called him by thy holy Spirit The Star of Jacob even as it were the day star of heaven arising in our hearts a star and that befitting the night and yet a star which shineth to our Souls and Consciences with a blessed light of joy and comfort and so as Saint John with his Baptizing tears of Repentance prepared the way for our Saviour to be entertained in the souls of men so I say the watery clouds of sorrow for sin passing away from our reâ—enting souls do unvayl our Saviour unto us that Star and Light of divine grace that he may shine out again as the joyful Light of our Salvation And O most merciful Saviour thou that art here a Star unto us a Day-star appearing before the Sunrising be thou hereafter in heaven the Sun it self the Sun of Righteousnesse shining in most perfect glory unto all Eternity But to go on Lo the sweet Olive branches that this Noab's Dove Repentant reconciliation bringeth in unto the soul It is said Prov. â—8 1. That the righteoâ—â— are as bold as a Lion Lord who is there that can say he is righteous before thee when as the very Angel are unclean in thy sight much more are we the very best piece of whose life is as a menstruous cloth defiled with grosse imperfections yet see the neerer we draw on thereunto the lesse fearful we are the terriblenesse of thunder which according to the Poet Is apt with fear to shake the mindes of men Jussit humanas motura-tonitrua mentes or the hideous examples of Gods Judgements and the â—ike nay even terrible death it self which according to the Ancients is naturally 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most terrible of all terrible things all these with which we are wont to be affrighted do not now strike us with so deep a passion of fear nor go thorow our loyns with such a terrour and that not at all because of any deadnesse of Conscience but out of the livelinesse of faith I say Because the Lord as it is in Psal 27 being our light and our salvation whom then methinks should we fear the Lord being the strength of our life that is the trust and confidence of our souls of whom or of what should we be afraid Again the
a bag of dung a sinke of filth and corruption me thinks the very meanest creatures are more happy then we for loe O Lord they continue perfect in that state thou hast created them they live not in sinne against their Maker they die in innocencie but man alas unhappy man liveth in sinne dieth in trouble O finne thou art the worst of all evils thou art worst then death worse then Hell sure better were it to have no being at all then that our being should be offensive to that God which hath bestowed it on us In the time of plague and infectious sicknesse in likâ— manner doe our Meditations more consideratively enlarge themselves how are our thoughts then not a little swollen up with sadnesse and griefe at the tender apprehension of the solitary and forsaken estate of those poore soules who are imprisoned and shut up in the infected houses thinking thus with our selves O Lord how happy are wee on whom the Sun shines thus merrily the Sunne of Gods favour wee have health wee have Liberty wee have Plenty of all things at our hearts desire but they poore wretches are inclosed within the shadow of death their feet like good Iosepâ—s are in the stocks and the Iron thereof entreth into their soules the hardnesse of misery maketh their very hearts to bleed for as Iob saith Tbe arrowes of the Almighty are within them and the poyson thereof drinketh up their spirits O how can wee forget to have compassion on such misery as this The seâ—ious deepnesse of our mind doth also thus frequently close up in our Meditations the departing day and Lord thou hast added one day more unto this our life which thou mightst long ere this have shortned and cut off Lord prepare us for our end and make us willinger to die then yet wee are that when as wee shall have brought all our dayes to a period as we have now this day wee may be ready and well content to depart out of this world to thine eternall mercy and that wee be patiently resolved that this face these hands and this whole body of ours after a while it may put on corruption be clothed with blacknesse and deformity and so with the fatall necessity of all Mankind naturally to be composed into Mortality and be gathered to our Fathers to rest with them in the dust untill thine appointed time Vntill that shrill awaking Trumpet sound At the last day to raise us from the ground The Melancholly Man is a man full of thoughts his phansie is as it were alwayes in a constant Motion no sooner doe wee discharge our braines of these diviner thoughts and meditations specially our mind being at leisure from worldly things but forth with it is in action either with some idle or ill employment either wee are building of Castles in the ayre or framing of Vtopiaes and the Idea's of one thing and of another of Monarchies of Paradises and such like pleasing dreams of phansie or else wee are on the otherside snarling our thoughts with the toyls of sinne Each sense of ours to the heart Proves Traytor to let in Temptation with his fatall dart The Harbinger of sinne How often thus doe the allurmeents of pleasure involve our minds in a restlesse unquietnesse untill wee give satisfaction thereunto how often doth the provocations of lust follow our thoughts till wee commit Adultery with the Baby of our owne fancie how often again doth impatiency haunt us till wee are engaged in wrath and distemper how often doth the love of Riches torment us into the consent of injustice This is the difference wee may find in our soules betwixt good and evill when wee are affected with good things wee are ready as I say to poure out our braines into an abundance of Consideration thereupon but when as wee goe to make use thereof in the practise of our lives such difficulties and impossibilities doe stand in the way that it is even against our stomack then to tâ—inke upon it when contrariwise wee are affected with evill things it may be wee are not ready to spend so many thoughts upon them but wee may easily observe our pronenesse to imprint them in our actions For good wee are as the fruitlesse Fig-tree all whose sap is but enough to bear leaves none for fruit so that in manner all our goodnesse goes out into thoughts meditations and desires little or none at all into practise and performance but for evill wee are more fruit then leaves the practick part of our soules doth here out-goe the speculative Facilis descensus av Aâ—rni Nature hath made it easie for us to goe downwards in the paths of death and destruction and yet notwithstanding by Gods mercy sin doth not over-come us to fulfill it in the lusts and full swing thereof we are not at ease and rest with it it doth discontent and trouble us there is no perfect quietnesse in our soules whilst it prevailes within us although sometimes for want of carefull diligence it taketh such advantage of us that t is long and difficult ere wee can wind our selves out of the snare therof I say long and difficult ere we can throughly untie those knots of perversenesse and impiety which Sathan when hee gets time and liberty doth cunningly contrive within us Here we may note the wisely-confirm'd maturity of years and better acquaintance wiâ—h the nature of things as it doth helpe forward our continuance in grace in that it becomes longer being made cleane by repentance ere we shall now fall backe into sinne I meane into more grosse and frequent sinnes so likewise it advantageth our continuance in sinne in that it becomes the longer also being in the state of wrath ere wee can be duly reconciled againe by true repentance and the reason hereof without question is chiefly to bee conceived for that ripenesse of age makes nature more solid stiffe and unmoveably set in its course being the right subject of constant seriousnesse and Melancholy as on the other-side youth is vainely wavering and according to the Poet Cereuâ— in vitium slecti c. Like wax that 's quickly wrought to any shape And pliable to any alteration Againe touching the settlednesse of our courses in this spiâ—ituall condition of the soule it is alwayes to be observed that the more unhappily finne doth prevaile over us and the longer it doth continue with us the more we are disheartned and loth to repent by reason that difficulty and bad successe doth daunt the courage and deter from that which easinesse and happy proceeding doe make to delight in thus likewise in other things it is usually seene that hee who thrives delights to be a good Husband prosperity backs on the endeavour and sweetnes a mans labour In like manner also when we have good successe in Religion it makes us the more religious the be ter wee thrive in it the more wee are in love with it that which wee have already quickens the appetite and
intollerable things within him As also sometimes we shall think thus that if other men did but know what vile imaginations what monstrous indignities there are in our heads they would sure be ready to kill us out of zeale to piety and revenge to Gods glory as not fit to live on earth who are in truth full of nothing but Hell Many times perhaps are our thoughts of such high and immediate impiety that we verily look for one fearfull judgement or other presently to confound us and do even quake and crouch down as though some fierce thunderbolt of vengeance were already falling from Heaven upon us These thoughts they are not all of them evill in the same degree some it may be being far worse then some as also they are not all of the same nature for the diverfity of every ones constitution and the diversity or severall kinds of sins to which we are most addicted do perchance much varie the nature of them yet most of them in the same particular party specially at the first do ever point to one kind of end and effect in a while the much prevailing strength of these thoughts hath such a terrifying power in us that even but one of them is sufficient to strike an heart-breaking passion of so great a trembling and distemper into us that we shall not be wholly out of it again for a whole day after being usually in the mean space revolving in our minds the heynousnesse thereof or buâ—ying our fancy with orher trifling conceipts of the like nature so that our mind is never no never free from some one cogitation or other which concerns this our trouble At our first entrâ— into this sad case before we are fully possest with the course and quality thereof we shall be apt thus to consider and revolve within our selves O Lord how shall we do to recogitate and examine over againe in repentance these unhappy thoughts when as the very remotest glimpse of them in our fancy is so too much terrible unto us for we do feel our selves seldome lively and perfectly to repent us of our sins but that in very act of repentance those things which do most go against our conscience do re-appear unto us afresh and that we do as it were really see the enormity of them I say we shall thus perhaps ho and be solicitous how to repent for though we may and do now repent in the habit and intention of repentance I mean in the reality and sense of it yet peradventure we cannot in a right and duly performed act thereof habitually by turning fâ—om our evill course but not actually by putting in practice that lively action of the mind which is ordinarily requisite and belonging thereunto I say for all that our hearts be as it were broken in pieces with these heavy troubles yet we cannot enjoy so feeling a remorse in our souls or so kindly dissolve our selves into a serious and right humiliation as we desire and as wee ought to do though as it seemeth to our poor unhappy souls The Lord hath charg'd us with so great a Curse That mortall flesb cannot sustaine a worse Though I saâ— we are so Divell-like and hellishly untoward in our selves and though we truly know and do well consider this our wofull condition yet can we not perchance thorough this great distemper of fancy can we not as I say performe that action of mind which fitly belongs thereunto being held in such a strong incongruity unto the naturall use of all inward duties that there yet appeareth in us me thinks no due readinesse of heart to a bleeding and truly conscientious sorrow Now therefore in this most evill case least that we should go down quick into Hell and be swallowed up with this sudden destruction we do mightily labour to set out all the power and strength that we have in striving to deject and bring down our outward souls to a duer and more applyable sorrow for our sins For you must understand that the strongnesse and violence hereof a pretty while upon its first comming doth amaze and so much take up our thoughts with disturbed terrour and admiration that we cannot presently apply our selves with good and exactly go over each particular of repentance to the full Now then as much as it is possible I say to the utmost do we set our selves this way to turn a new leafe to change the whole frame and course of our inner man For lo O Lord there is no rest unto our souls by reason of this thy wrath neither is there yet any ease at all to our consciences by reason of our sins First then to begin The former policy delight and habit of our mind which we did heretofore seriously embrace applaud and approve is now become hatefull and odious unto us we cannot abide so much as the very thought thereof and lo the whole aime of our intention and purpose is only set to a particular and punctuall re-counting of all our sins past although the heynousâ—esse and multitude of them for want of due repentance so long is perchance grown to that passe that it is most irksom to us our hearts even faint thereat and are very loath even as loath to meddle thoroughly with this scrutiny and to search it to the purpose as the grleved party is loath to open the playster from his tender soare the clinging whereof he knows will tear away the very skin from the flesh So hard a thing it is for to divorse Sin that is roâ—ted with a constant course So difficult is the due ordering purging and examining of a conscience that is much overgrown with sin we do now as I say set our selves to a particular re-capitulation of all our sins that so we may fully trie out and remove the cause of this our misâ—ry and therefore as it were stopping our ears and apprehension as much as possible from the noise and disturbance of all other things we do altogether dive our thoughts into a most deep and distinct consideration and remembrance of all our former iniquities wherupon there may and doubtlesse will at one time or other occurre unto our memory all even all I say and almost every one of the greatest sins of our whole life with their particular circumstances and manner of committing Thus here Deep Melancholly without noise presents Of each our sins the sad and true contents And then she sits with that accusing scroll To passe her judgement on the guilty soul Judging deeming and concluding somtimes one to be the greatest of the sins somtimes another sometimes this to be the chiefest cause of our misery sometimes that somtimes neither this nor that in particular but in generall the sinfull courses of our whole time but all this while ever now and then shall we be thinking with our selves sure our case is so dangerous that never any souls were in the like sad condition sure our case is so incurably bad we cannot conceive
how it is possible for us to come into Gods favour any more Our wound of Conscience is se deep 't is sure So deep me thinks that it is past all cure Thus we hang in suspense betwixt hope and feare least that it be not possible for us to be saved and then snall we be very earnest and diligent to search out after such books if we can read which handle matter of conscience and to peruse them as perchance Master Greenbam Master Perkins Master Bolton and the like to see whether we can find any likelihood that ever any have been in the like wretched state before us or affected with such trouble and distraction in the same nature and when perchance we do finde but little or nothing whereby to conjecture that others formerly have been in such a case then verily me thinks there is no hopes for us no body was ever in such a desperate danger and therfore we must needs be damned But if peradventure we read or hear of any that have been somwhat neer alike affected as we are whose inward trouble doth resemble the manner and fashion of ours it doth revive us with a little comfort and satisfaction That only doth give us most ease of any thing That and nothing but that doth afford some refreshing to our weary and distressed souls Well having as I say before brought up our sins out of the abisse of long oblivion and as Enders Witch did Samuels person or personated Ghost So having raised up the true representation of these ugly ghosts to our sad remembrance we labour by grieving and sighing for perhaps we can hardly weep at first though we doe much force our selves to it I say by sighing by fasting and prayer to bring our mis-happen and untowardly distempered souls to apply and conforme to some lively penance and sensible remorse for our wretchednesse we do now suffer no difficulty to withdraw us from this necessary work of dejection but do keep our selves at Schoole to it by force for though we do grieve and sorrow not a little for our sins yet still being in this case as we are it seemeth to us not enough it pierceth not to the depth of our offences we must yet do penance in further humiliation this then compulsive and violent urging our selves to sorrow for sin together with the troubled thoughts of our mind and conscience in a while breeds in us perchance a constant custome and habit of sighing so that we shall often ever and anon interrupt our breath with sighs when we are altogether so untoward and out of all order in our minds that we can do nothing else nor pray nor read nor consider nor meditate as we should then shall we force our selves to sigh this we can do and this perchance is all that we can do and this with the continued use thereof doth at length so spend our spirits and dry up the naturall moysture of our bodies that it maketh our countenances for the most part look with a very pale and sorrowfull dejection according to what Salomon saith a merry heart maketh a theerfull countenance so our sorry heart maketh us a sad countenance our beauty is quite gone for very trouble and worne away because of all our iniquities and though for all we are thus unreasonably tortured with these close fretting troubles and such continuall anguish of mind yet a good while upon the first beginning of our trouble it is the nature of us all to strive howsoever to keep it as much as may be very secret and private unto our selves for that we are ashamed and loath that any should be acquainted with what an unhappy case we are in but we shall usually with the grief thereof go about so solicitarily so moopish and look so ill and perchance starvinglâ— too as if we were drunken or distracted that our friends cannot but observe the unwonted state and behaviour of us Each one may read the story of our case In the sad tokens of a silent face Such earnest trouble and intention of Hannab's mind made old Ely take notice of her as if she had been drunken who answereth No my Lord I am a woman of a sorrowfull spirit And though perchance for a while we shall be loath to give such an answer and tell the truth to our friends or others who are ready to demand what the matter is with us why we look or sigh so what doth aâ—le us and the like yet in time this grief is so intolerable that it must needs have its vent for strangulat inclusus dolor any grief by its keeping close doth rage the worse Gods heavy hand is so strong upon us there is no concealing of it long the weary and restlesse condition we are in makes us in the end not to care who knows it or to whom it be told so that we might but find any help or ease thereof for perhaps we are so exceedingly tired out with this trouble that there is not so much as the least rest or intermission at all unto our minds neither day nor night whilst we awake we think out whilst we sleep we dream out and we are interrupted with tumblings and tossings even all the night long the mind never ceaseth from its trouble when we are in company let there be what businesse or discourse soever in hand we are amoâ—ost them as those that are quite stunned and amazed in our sences no otherwise affected then if we did neither see nor hear them our mind being alwaies working and musing upon its inward grief and when we are private by our selves either what through the agony of evill and tormenting thoughts and what with plodding on the heynousnesse of our sins and generall course of our life or by being terrified and dismayed with certain difficult Texts and passages of Scripture our mind and conscience is in a constant agitation at no rest Lo there 's a fin that to the heart doth wound And here 's a thought that strikes us to the ground With sâ—â—ouning fear And then a Text again Buries that soul which those before bad sluin I say when we are in private and so forth for our desolate and sorsaken soul delighteth as David did in the 102. Psalm to sit alone by her self like an Owl that is in the desert or like a Sparrow upon the house top thus being alone toyled in misery and snarld in perplexity that we cannot tell what to do we shall kneel down in our chamber or elswhere and by urging our selves to tears in a while gush out a bundantly in our prayers for though it be difficult for a full grown and middle age to dissolve their grief into tears yet in such cases as this it is usuall and then most of us when once we do thus bring our selves into an use and custome of weeping we do seldome pray at any time without tears desiring to weep often and often in private when we cannot pray as we would for
and conversation here whilest they were upon earth accounting highly of them as holy and blessed Saints with a most reverend respect of their deeds and sayings and making much reckoning and esteem of whatsoever was theirs and belonged unto them Our serious thoughts do Canonize their fame With the remembrance of a sacred name And as Ioseph in the last of Genesis fell upon his dead fathers face wept upon him and kissed him so do we fall upon the blessed remembrance of our forefathers not with a little affection of respect weeping upon them and kissing them with an holy love and reverence of mind After this manner the Antients in Scripture seem to expresse their speciall reguard to the pions antiquity of their friends departed in using to say The God of Abraham of Isaac and of Iacob as if they would intimate their piety and devout affection to be the more unto him because he was their fathers God But O the strange effects of Melancholly in this diseased state of the soul our affections are now over-weeningly moved with every thing often times by reason of the usuall passion of the heart we are so weakened in the ordinary power and ability of nature that we shall even as weakly and childishly shrinke in our selves and be affraid of any thing as is the sucking child that lies in its mothers arms Againe somtimes our conceipt doth so much deifie the respect of holy things persons and places and we stand so far off from them in reverence of mind that we dare not draw neer as it were to touch so much as the very hemme or outside thereof In like manner many times the common splendor of the Sky and Element thorough the habituall terrour and consternation of our mind seemeth too bright for us nay our spirits are usually so much taken off therewith that we cannot abide to lift up our eyes to behold the lustre of it the seeing and hearing of divers ordinary things now and then puts us into such strange turmoyles and distempered fits of mind that it is most wonderfull to imagine it In many of us the evill thoughts and disturbances of our fancy do at length multiply into a greater and greater variety and we become full of all sorts of vaine and tormenting imaginations whatsoever almost savours of either rebellion against God or the despairing state of soul or body it is a chance but one time or other it comes into ourheads besides at length perchance many fooleries of mind and frivolous whimsies which verily at this time do not a little trouble and disturbe us amongst the rest when this trouble of mind and Conscience continues with us long it is so altogether tedious and irksome that we shall many a time turne thus our thoughts within our selves Lord how shall we hold out in this case Will this trouble continue with us as long as we live Shall we alwaies abide this Hell upon earth We have sometimes emboldened our selves to hope and hope againe to attaine some quieter temper of mind and more contentfull condition all is we see utterly in vaine we shall sure never enjoy comfort any more Alas this is a miserable thing O shall we never see an end of this O never never this doth cut the heart This never ah so strange a word it is It kills us with a never dying smart Verily me thinks it is altogether in vaine for us to expect any end hereof we shall never be otherwise for as he that is cast upon the Sea and when he listetn up his head to swim out is presently knockt down againe that he must needs be drowned so even so it seems to be with us we are cast upon this sea of trouble and despaire and when we do but even begin to lift up our heads with the least hope of amendment then presently do these despairing doubts and amazing thoughts strike us down againe that it is no remedy but we must needs be drowned drowned for ever and go down to Hell and the Grave in this misery Our day is gone our joyes departed qnite Our Sun is set in everlasting night This Similitude of being drowned after that we have been long in this case doth so well fit us that it will or perchance some such like often come into our minds and therefore being as we suppofe in this remedilesse condition out of all hope of being setled in mind againe and being shut out as it were from the joy of the living and never like to re-attaine the common hope of all men the possibility of salvation therefore as I say being thus forsaken wretches monsters of men and marked out for Hell we neglect all care of our selves our desolate and quite comfortlesse souls hardly giving us leave to take any use of the Creatures not so much as regarding our necessary Cloaths the dressing our selves our Victuals or any thing we are unworthy O unworthy to tread on the ground our hearts are so much smitten down and even withered like Grasse thâ—t we forget to eat our bread our tears are now become our meat and drink in this day of trouble and peradventure almost every night we water our beds with the abundance of them Thou hast broken O Lord thou hast broken our hearts with grief O remember that we poor wretches are but Grasse and wilt thou pursue the dry stubble Sometimes it may be we shall be so farre dejected with a Dove-like solitarinesse of mind that we are even upon a resolution to exclude our selves wholly out of the society of men to be private and alone still continually to keep our Chamber or the like and never to go abroad in company any more thinking what shall we do abroad to meddle or make with any thing who are thus as it were dead men and out of the common condition of men we will set up our expectation therefore only now to wait and look for out end we will do nothing else that shall be our whole businesse as it was lobs in his 14. Chapter when he said All the dayes of mine appointed time will I wait and do nothing else but wait till my change come thus I say we are shut up from the joy of life and like David in the 88. Psalm Free even altogether free among the dead like unto them that be wounded and lye in the Grave which be out of remembrance and are cut away from thy hand thou hast laid us verily as in the lowest pâ—t in a place of darknesse and in the deep thine indignation lyeth hard upon us and thou hast vexed us with all thy stormes Many times is our apprehension so dangerously out of joynt and contrary to all good duties especially most of all when we are at Church when we are going to the publike Service of God receiving the Sacrament or the like that we shall ruminate thus in our minds amongst all the rest of our unhappinesses how much do we dishonour God to come to this
holy place and these holy duties with such prophane impieties within us sure we shall halfe think it better not to come to the holy exercises at all then by going thereto to provoke Gods greater Judgement against us Thus doth Devill alwaies ' ploy his wit If that he can to doe more mischiefe yet But certain in the end we ever find it our best way how crosse and averse soever our mind be to keep our constant course and to hold on as stedfast as may be in our outward endeavours though it seeme to be nevet so much against our inward feeling for we may observe that when we have no feeling in us in reading praying or the like duties of Religion and when we find nothing in our selves but contrarinesse to that which is in hand yet neverthelesse by the then keeping our intention to it as neer as we can and by lifâ—ing up our thoughts toward the sence to conceive and beleeve that which being for the present as we are we cannot conceive and beleeve we shall doubtlesse afterwards the more easily bring our thoughts into a due course and order againe for if we let flag our apprehension wholly to follow our own feeling and suffer our disturbed soul to be its own guide herein we may perchance fal into a strange dis-respect and unregardfull prophanation of the most sacred things that we shall hardly put it freely off again for the future To proceed every thing during the time of our trouble is so altogether out of order within us and our spirits are so daily spent and wearied out with this continuall labour and toyl of mind that we are as David in his 6. Psalm so weary so quite weary of our groanings and tormenting troubles that many times we doe wish to God that our apprehensions and understandings were rather taken cleane from us then thus to be left alone to the mercilesse torture of those distractions and truly were it not for Hell we should gladly rejoyce and count it our chiefest happinesse to dye wishing and often wishing with Iob in his 3 Chapter the 11. and 12. verses that we had never been borne into the world for now as it followes in the next verse we should have â—aine still and been quiet we should have slept then had we been at rest with Kings and Counsellors of the earth And againe as it is in the 20. verse Why is light given to him that is in misery and life unto the bâ—tter in soul Was it a pleasure for thee O Lord to give us being that we might be miserable Are we like the Whales Iob 7. that thou seâ—test a watch over us that thou wilt not spare noâ— passe by our iniquities Wilt thou hunt us as he he speaks againe in his 10. Chapter like a fierce Lion without mercy hast thou provided us as wild beasts are provided to be baited with destruction O no certainly thou delightest not in the death of sinners nor in the sad condition of the wicked it is doubtlesse thy mercy that we are chastned and thou hast compassion on our distresses we shall thinke sometimes in our extreme troubles that it is not possible for us that we can continue in this state above three or foure daies or a weeke more but either we shall die with the very anguish of soul and body which it seems to us that we cannot sustaine or indure any longer or else that we shall be quite sencelesse and distracted out of our minds O how many poore souls are there in the world who being not able to beare their owne misery any longer either destroy and desperately cast away themselves or peradventure grow utterly distracted therein It is thy mercy even thy great mercy O Lord that we are not thus confounded O let us ever pray and pray continually upon our bare and bended knees against this unhappinesse Hoc erit animae me ae vetum usque ad mortem this shall ever be my prayer untill I die both for my self and others Let our lives last no longer Then that we may serve God here Let affliction grow no stronger Then we may with patience beare When we do use to complaine to others of these terrible thoughts and troubles of mind many will reply unto us that they are the Devills not ours and that he meerly suggests and whispers them into our braines But verily me thinks we cannot beleeve but that they are our own truly flowing from our sin-corrupted souls at least wise that they are partly our own for did they come meerly from without from the Divel it could not doubtles so neerly touch us as they do Our Saviour Christ himself was moved from without even to the highest impiety to fall down and worship the Devill But sure our thoughts are neerer to us even from within and truly not without reason may be called ours it may be the Devil hath his hand in them it is no question but God hath his hand in them also laying them as a mercifull judgement upon us And now O Lord it is high time yea the time is come that thou have mercy upon our souls for why I know it grieveth thy very heart O Lord it pittieth thee full sore to see them lie in the dust thus prostrate in their own misery And thus have we broke the heart of our troubles and past over the chief passages of this tragicall story of the Soul troubled in Conscience These troubles may perhaps continue with us two or three years before they begin to weare away and then when by Gods mercy they begin to slacken the mind and conscience by little and little takes some rest and satisfaction and though fits of disturbance do now and then come upon us yet it is more seldom then before After the strength of this storme is past we usually feel our inner man begin to be born againe into a new condition the former hard and stony flesh of our hearts like Nâ—amons flesh being tender and â—enewed even as the flesh of a young child 〈◊〉 lo we can kindly weep now with the humility of children think none evill with the simplicity and single heartednesse of children love dearly and tenderly with the affection of children cry Abba Father with the comfort and confidence of children And here me thinks we cannot but remember even with joy and admiration the truth of that divine wisdome which our Saviour hath spoken in Iohn Except a man be born againe be cannot see the Kingdom of God Except we be borne againe and become like little children we cannot enter into the Kingdom of God for of such as he said in Mark 10. is or doth consist the Kingdom of God Doubtlesse when the soul is thus wonderfully born againe from the depth of sin and misery into comfort and grace although the comfort be but little even very little perchance in some of us yet it is Magna animae regeneratio I say no doubt a great regeneration and
dust What man liveth and shall not see death or shall deliver his soul from the hand of Hell Omnes eadem sorte premimur Mine thine his and every ones Lot is cast the houre and the minute of our lives is limited farre off it cannot be for it commeth or is comming how soon we cannot tell Watch therefore even watch continually since yee know not the houre Vitae summa brevis spem nos veâ— at incboare longam The whole summe of our life is but short how then can we expect death to be farre off David calls our life a shadow Job a smoake Salomon a Ship In a Ship saith a Father whether we sit or stand we are alwaies carried towards the Haven so our life is ever moving towards death no houre but the Sun goes Westward no moment but our age hastens to its end to its long end it will quickly come the longest day hath his night Methusalem hath his moâ—tuus est and he dyed I say the longest day hath its night and here it puts me in minde of that our Proverbiall saying All the life-long day the day fitly expressing our life and our life a day a day only a summers day towards the evening the Sun shines out most bright and glorious and loe presently it is downe such is the shortnesse and sudden departure of our life that David in like manner hath most aptly expressed it by a tale We bring our yeares saith he to an end even as it were a tale that is told for when it goes pleasantly on and we expect to heare more of it before we are aware on 't it is ended thus as it were In the midst of life we are in death and are cut away like the flower which fadeth in a moment verily therefore all flesh is Grasse and the glory thereof but as the flower of the field and yet such is most times our folly so to build up our thoughts here upon Earth as if we had an Eternity to live for ever whereas do but we duely consider it every day that goes over our heads bids us be in readinesse for death gives a sufficent Item of Mortality Immortalia nesperes monetannus almain c. So many daies so many moneths so many yeares past and gone so many passing Bells so many Funerals celebrated before our eyes must needs forbid us to expect a long time Saint Chrysostome saith That nothing hath deceived men so much as the vaine hope of a long life who knoweth the Sun may set at the morning of our life or at noone if at neither of these yet be sure the Evening commeth and then it will set The Lord bids Moses in the 19. Chapter of Exodus To prepare the people against the third day although we passe over the first day our youth and the second day our middle age yet at furthest we must be ready against the third day our old age the first or the second day may be our last the third day must needs be our last and therefore saith Seneca Omnis dies sicut ultima est ordinanda Every day ought so to be ordered as if we should not live a day longer Me thinkes Saint Austines experience should be a sufficient warning to us for saith he Experti sumus multos ' expirasse expectantes reconciliari We have seene many to have been cut off whilst they have but begun to make their reconciliation with God too too many alas there be whose Sun hath set ere they thought it to be their Mid-day Let us take heed that death steale not on us as a thiefe in the night Lucius Caesar dyed in the morning putting on his Cloathes Alphonsus a young man dyed as he was riding on his Horse We need not seeke after forraigne Examples there be too many of the same nature at home with us How many have we seene before our eyes some to be snacht from their pleasures some from their sinnes some from their worldly employments whereas they have made their accounts of many years to come so true is that of the Poet Nemo tam divos habuit faventes Crastinum ut possit polliceri diem The Gods no man did ere such favour give That he was sure another day to live There is no certainty of this life not for a dâ—y not for an houre no not so much as for a moment God hath many means to take us away even in an instant as we go up and downe as we sleep as we do but draw our breath any how good is it therefore that we have a Memento mori alwaies at all times hanging over our heads like that Sword in the Story which hung by a Horse haire over the head of him that sate at Feast putting us in a due feare and warning of the continuall danger that we are in I say alwaies hanging over our heads and so imprinted in our thoughts that we may seriously remember how short our time is how soone our night commeth It is Platoes Opinion That a wise mans life is nothing but a continuall thinging or meditating upon death Philip King of Macedonia had his Page three times every morning to tell him Philip remember that thou art a man that thou art mortall that thâ—u must dye O excellent Memento and most worthy to be imitated the Emperour of Constantinople was wont sitting in his Royall Throne to have a Mason come to him with his Tooles in his hand asking What kind of stone he would have his Tombe made of intimating that he should not forget how soone all that his Royall pompe might be buried in the Grave And here me thinks I cannot but repeat The famous Act of Saladine the great Who amidst his noble Victories and conquering Triumphs had so much minde of his death and the true end of all earthly glory that he appointed his winding sheeâ— to be carried upon a Speare before him at his Funerall thorough out the City proclaiming thus his intention of minde All these my Riches glorious Pompe and Traine When Dâ—â—th is come they are to me in vaine This Winding sheet is all that I shall have Along with me to carry to the Grave The good Father was so mindfull of Mortality that he had alwaies ringing in his eares Surgite mortui venite ad judicium Rise yee dead and come to Judgement to the end he might husband his time so worke in this day of his life here that he might not be found an unprofitable Servant when his night came Iohannes Godfridus had these words engraven in Gold Every day I stand at the doore of Eternity And in divers parts of his House he had set up the bones and Sculls of dead men that so his eyes if it were possible might have no other Object to behold then of mortality Sure there are no thoughts doe more concerne us Mortalls then those of Death O then Teach us so Lord to number our daies that wa may apply our hearts unto wisedom