Loyall and impenitent truly sorrowfull for all our transgressions 3. It quickens and breatheth Life into us that were by nature dead and buried in trespasses and sins 4. It both inspires and stirreth up good motions in our soules 5. It helps our infirmities makes c Rom. 8. 26. intercession for us indites our prayers inables us to pray fervently faithfully prevailingly to God for Grace pardon and salvation 6. It comforts quiets and supports mourning doubting drooping hearts 7. It leads and keepeth Christians into and in the way of holinesse till they come to heaven and enjoy eternall happinesse 8. It sanctifieth and maketh Gods ordinances effectuall for the conviction and conversion of sinners Lastly to name no more it dwelleth and abideth in all those that truly repent believe love obey fear and serve God The Holy Ghost is compared and resembled in Scripture to divers things First it 's compared to d Jere. 23 29. Acts 2. 3. fire and that in these respects Fire first heats 2. shines 3. ascends 4. softens and 5. refines drossy and hard things so the Holy Ghost 1. inflames our frozen hearts with love to God and zeale for God 2 It makes Christians shine in works of piety justice charity mercy and in holinesse of life 3. It raiseth their naturally low-flying or rather crawling affections from earthly things and maketh them to mount and fix them upon God Christ and heavenly things 4. It turneth a heart of Adamant into a soft and tender heart of flesh 5. It purgeth away a Christians drosse it purifies him from his corruptions and filth Secondly the Holy Ghost is compared to e Ezech. 36. 25. water for as water 1. refreshes 2. quenches 3 cleanses 4. fructifies So the Spirit of God comforts cheares and reviveth troubled weary languishing hearts 2. It quencheth Gods fiery wrath kindled and flaming out against transgressors in their terrors spiritual desertion trouble anguish of soul and conscience for their sins 3 It cleanseth them from all filthiness both of flesh spirit 4. It makes them fruitful in every good work Thirdly the Holy Ghost is compared to a * John 3. 32. Dove As Doves are 1. meek for they have no gall 2. innocent and harmlesse creatures 3. Lovers of and delighted with white houses to sit and roost in Amant alba tecta Columbae So those Christians that have the spirit of God are 1. free from malice hatred sinfull anger envy or however they mourn and are exceedingly displeased with themselves for being otherwise 2. The Holy Ghost makes them not only carefull to do no hurt or wrong to any but also willing and desirous to do good unto others especially spiritually that is to their soules 3. It makes their hearts pure and white by sprinkling the bloud of Christ upon them and working godly sorrow in them without which it will neither delight nor dwell in them because sin unrepented of makes the soul black ugly and filthy Fourthly the holy Ghost is compared to * Acts 2. 3. cloven fiery tonguâ—s to teach us that our tongues must be cloven with Charity and fervency in our prayers for 1. we must not only beg earnestly for mercy but we must also praise the Lord most heartily for his mercies petition and thanksgiving must cleave them 2. We must pray for both spirituall and temporall mercies these must again divide our tongues 3. We must pray and â—ry mightily not only for pardon of sin for the removal or sanctification of afflictions for grace and prosperity to and for our selves but for all others also 4. We must pray not only that God would give us and others glory hereafter but also that we and they may honour and glorifie God here And certainly all those that have this glorious Spirit have also not only their tongues but their hearts too thus cloven with zeal I mean for God and love to their own and others souls Fifthly the Holy Ghost is compared to a * Ephes 1. 13. Seal because as Deeds and Conveyances are unable and ineffectual to settle and assure those things conteined in them being null and voyd in Law till they be fealed So we can have no sound good or clear Evidences that our sins are forgiven us that God is reconciled to us that the Lord Jesus is our Jesus and that our souls shall be saved till we be sealed by the Spirit of God Sixthly the Holy Ghost is compared to * 2 Cor. 1 22 and ch 4. v. 5. Earnest for as Earnest is an argument and proof of an agreement betwixt man and man for something to be delivered and given by one to another and also an assurance that some other and greater thing shall be made good and received when that is given and taken So by having the Earnest of the Spirit Christians are assured that now the Lord and they are agreed and reconciled that they shall undoubtedly have his favour blessing grace here and that they shall hereafter injoy eternall joy and blisse with him for ever Seventhly the Holy Ghost is compared to †John 16. 13. a Guide because as Guides do 1. Comfort 2. direct 3 defend 4. keep those they travail with from wandring 5. accompany them and bring them to their Journeys end So the spirit of God doth 1. wonderfully solace and rejoyce the hearts of tru Christians in their pilgrimage on earth 2. It directs and sheweth them which is the sure good and best way for them to go in 3. It secures and delivers them from those enemies and dangers that lye in Ambush to surprize them and are ready to seize upon them 4. It keeps them from erring and straying in the broad dangerous yea deadly ways of sin and leads them forward in the narrow but safe and happy path of life And lastly the Holy Ghost never leaves them finally but conducts them with safety joy and comfort to their earnestly longed for and desired home Heaven These and such like are the bright beautiful and refreshing Beams that ray from his glorious Sun and dart consolation exultation peace and felicity into the hearts of Gods people These are the pure reviving and pleasant streams that flow from this Fountain or rather Ocean into the fouls of true Christians These are the radiant rich yea precious and inestimable Jewels that embellish and adorn the Holy Spirits Mansion a truely Gracious heart Let us then sincerely desire fervently beg highly prize this Holy Spirit and when ever it knocks at the door of our hearts by any holy motions say as †Genes 24. 31. Laban did to Abrahams Servant Come in thou blessed of the Lord wherefore standest thou without for I have prepared a room for thee The Prayer O Eternall infinite and incomprehensible Lord God who art Three in One and One in Three most glorious Persons distinguished but not divided grant I humbly beseech thee that the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Light Truth and Life may illuminate all
will certainly for he is the God of truth attend to the cries and grant the requests of his own people when they begge such things as tend to his glory and the good of their own souls But yet no heat no hearing because cold prayers are but carcasses and carnall sinful services which the Lord detests and will never accept 3. * Psalm 118. 1. We must love God 1. Amoreamicitiae because he is most excellent and lovely 2. Amore desiderii because he is the Ocean of our Joy comforts and happinesse 3. Amore complacentiae with a love of Joy delight 4. Amore benevolentiae with a sincere endeavour to honour serve and praise him Love Favours are both the seeds fewell and Bonds of Friendship Compassion is the Spring of affection Mercy is the Mother of Amity Magnes amoris amor Love is loves loadstone A saving sense and a right apprehension of Gods infinite immutable undeserved love to us will inkindle the fire of love in us And if we once truly love God we shall then be alwaies careful to please fearfull to offend and grieved if we do displease him †Minus te amat domine qui tecum aliquid a mat Aug. in soliloq we shall delight and rejoyce in him above all things We shall desire to be more intimately acquainted with him we shall esteem his favour and prize his presence more then the honours treasures and smiles of all the world we shall never willingly do any thing that may cloud his face or cause a distance between us And then but never before may or can we impart our sorrows or discover our wants straights wounds and miseries by prayer to our reconciled God with boldnesse assurance and a well grounded hope to be comforted inlarged supplyed cured delivered For God will not hear those that hate but * Prov 8. 17. those that love him 4. Constancy constancie in duty is the top-stone of duty If we would be heard we must persevere and continue * Rom. 12. 12. Eph s 6. 18. instant in prayer no constancie no crown T is so necessary and so profitable for us to call upon God that we are commanded to * 1 Thes 5. 17. pray without ceasing we daily commit iniquities receive mercies escape punishments and therefore we ought daily yea hourly not only to beseech the Lord to pardon us but also to praise and magnifie him for blessing and protecting of us Prayer 't is both a duty and a priviledge a work and a reward a service and a comfort T is an approved experimented infallible means to procure and obtain a blessing upon our blessings a glorious victory over the world the flesh and the Devill assurance of Gods speciall love deliverance in support under and protection from so far as it 's good for Gods children troubles afflictions desertions peace of conscience pardon of sin sanctification of the crosse Joy in the Holy Ghost a supply of our wants a holy contentation of mind in every condition and whatsoever is good either for soul or body here or hereafter Oratio est oranti subsidium Deo sacrificium Diaholo flagellum The Trophees Successe Triumphs of Prayer are eminent glorious infinite both in all ages and places T is Murus animae munimentum inconcussum armatur a inexpugnabilis T is a cordiall to the heart an acceptable sacrifice to God a scourge to Satan a brasse wall to the soul I shall therefore conclude with the same exhortation to all Christians that some of the blessed b Laurence Saunders George Marsh John Careless Fox B. of Martyrs vol. 3. p. 138. Col. 1. vol. 3 p. 235. col 2. Idem p. 721. col 1. Martyrs did their pious confirming consolatory Letters to their friends and Relations Pray Pray Pray for the fervent effectual prayers of the righteous like * 2 Sam. 1. 22. the Sword of Saul do never return empty and like Jonathans Bow they neither turn back nor return without successe and victory The Prayer O LORD thou hast commanded all men to call upon thee promised that they that ask shall receive and yet that we may strive and resolve to be humble fervent upright pure and holy hast assured us that if we regard iniquity in our hearts thou wilt not hear us though we beg weep houl and cry unto thee O inable us to pray unto thee most holy God with Hearts stedfastly resolved not to provoke thee by sinâ—ing wilfully and delightfully against thee Because it 's not only a vain and a very dangerous attempt but also an intolerable dishonour to thee and a most horrible a most abominable crime committed against thee with our Tongues to professe piety and to beg for mercy when our hearts are deeply and resolvedly in Love with hatefull iniquity That therefore we may pray acceptably prevailingly give us Grace and hearts to hate all sin perfectly implacably and let thine own Spirit of prayer O Lord inable us powerfully and assist us effectually to call upon thee that so thou mayest both hear and grant the prayers of thine own Spirit Grant this O thou that didst never say to the house of Jacob seek ye my face in vain for his sake who sits at thy right hand to make intercession for us Amen Preces prosunt obtinent praeliant vincunt triumphant XIV Of Sincerity and Hypocrisie Together with some Characters of both sincere and hypocriticall Christians and Professors SIncerity 't is the salt that both seasons and purifies that muddy stinking spring the heart 'T is the Gardener that keeps though it cannot utterly extirpate nor kill the noysome rank poysonfull weeds of sin from over-growing and smothering the herbs of Grace in the garden of the Soul 'T is the touch-stone of vertue the marrow heart spirits life of piety 'T is a Simeon with Christ in its Armes Like the Emperesse Mammea's Guard appointed by her to watch at the door and commanded to keep out all vitious infamous persons from going in to her Son Alexander lest they should corrupt debauch him It stands Centinell at the gate of the heart that so no sin may enter into it to pollute or poyson it An upright man is like a Pliny Nat. Hist that Assyria malus quae venenis medetur et omnibus Anni temporibus edit fructus pomis aliis maturescentibus allis subnascentibus He is homo quadratus like a dye which cast high or low by the hand of providence still falls upon a square and stands firm as well when an Ace or when a Cize or Cinque He both really desires and carefully indeavours for he dares not divide or put asunder what God hath joyned together I mean the means and the end love and labour prayer and pardon hearing doing professing and practising holinesse happinesse Grace and Glory and therefore he hath Oculus ad Coelum manus ad clavem well knowing that bene cogitare est bene somniare good wishing is but good dreaming if
Lord it 's my own as well as others Joy and wonder that your Lordships dawning is a serene Meridian That you came out of the Mine refined gold and a polished Jewel from the Rock That your equally amiable graces and eminent accomplishments do honour your honour and ennoble your Nobility That your green years and blooming youth have those gray hairs snowed upon them which are at once the Ornament Comfort Crown and Glory of venerable age I mean Learning Wisdome and Vertue That these equally beautifull and fragrant flowers should be full blown in your Lordships January when they scarce peep out but are very rarely â—udded in the May of others and that you are not only fair and flourishing but also both sweet and ripe in the very Blossome when the most are either foul or blasted deformed or withered or both with ignorance and vices in their youth This I say being really true and without an Hyperbole Flattery or fram'd Idea of what might or should be in a Christian or a Person nobly descended 't is both an happy Prodigie and a most auspicious Omen that your Lordship will grow up prosper rise shine and live to be the Glory of your Noble Family the honour of your Nation the darling happinesse and triumph of your Countrey and like the Sun a great choyse blessing to all those that do or shall live under your cherishing comforting reviving influence by being so happy as to have any relation unto or dependance upon your Honour My Lord that is the right the true Nobility indeed that is inlaid with vertue and piety for he is the Noblest peer in the World that is sincere religious There is no creature on this side Heaven either so glorious or excellent as a Godly great man The purest Gold is but shining clay the most precious and resplendent Gemms are but common and dushkish Stones all the sparkling stars are but dim candles set in dark Lanthorns and the refulgent eye of Heaven is but a glimmering Gloworm or Taper compared with his worth and brightnesse He 's a Phaenix whom the other Birds of Honour cannot but applaud esteem and admire though they will not imitate him A Titus Vespasian the love and delight of mankind the Loadstone joy and jewel of all honest gracious hearts He 's one of Gods most honourable Privy Counsellours A Prince of the most truly Royall bloud the richest Heir and the greatest the happiest Monarch in the World for Heaven is his Inheritance and Kingdome These these my Lord are the prerogatives priviledges and portion of those that are great and good My Lord it s a custome in some places when a Tenant dyes for the next that injoies the lease of the deceased to pay his Land-lord an Harriot viz. The best of all his quick goods and Cattle My Fore-fathers who for an hundred years were Tenants to your Lordships noble Progenitors lye all of them in their beds of dust I succeed them in that Relation they had to your Honorable Family I humbly hope therefore that it will not be interpreted a breach of Covenants though I pay that service in lieu of a Harriot to your Lordship which I confesse I doe most justly owe and therefore in Duty and Gratitude ought also to pay unto that mirrour and honour of her Sex Family and Name your Lordships truly noble Mother But yet I dare not tender this Homage to your Honour without this most humble Supplication That your Lordship will be pleased to pardon my very high criminal presumption in thus daring to setan orient Jewel in a leaden Ring to stamp your Lordships beautiful image upon a copper medal and in offering to pay or rather to acknowledge a little of my great debt in leather instead of silver But truly my Lord besides a faithful heart and fervent prayers for your felicity this is the best of all my goods and the chiefest of all my treasures that I have to lay at your Lordships feet And this is also the liveliest the truest portraiture that I am able to draw Either of your Honours merits which to expresse fully or to speak elegantly silence is both the best Orator and the most eloquent Panegyrick Or of your Honourable Family's favours Nobleness and Goodness to their Tenants who did both know and consider that the faint and sickly sweats the naked backs empty bellies crying wants complaining sufferings and the inevitable beggery of Tenants and their Families impoverished famished and undone by being unmercifully racked in their rents were both bloudy gain sinful providence cruel thrift and also a sure way to canker and lessen yea to consume their estates And therefore your Lordships Noble Progenitors so far as I do either know or could ever hear have carefully wisely constantly shunned scorned and abhorred those fatal shelvs of oppression and exaction upon which so many great avaritious worldly greedy Land-lords have wrack't and ruin'd their estates honour consciences and posterities Lastly this is the exactest draught that I can make of my own thankfulnesse and obligations Be pleased therefore my most Noble Lord once more I earnestly beseech you to pardon both my uncivil prolixity and my unmannerly injurious boldnesse in presuming to beg of your Lordship not only that you would condescend so much below your self as to alight and stay in so mean a Fabrick but also that you would deign to lodg in such Sheets as are both very course and black This honour and favour if your Lordship will vouchsafe to confer upon me then these rough-hewn stones which I have set up as columns of my faithfulnesse duty gratitude will become and continue in spite of the iron teeth and the insatiable appetite of devouring time that eats and consumes without fulnesse surfeiting or satisfaction even flinty pillars as well as feeble persons a double monument of your Lordships noblenesse and goodnesse to succeeding ages These these my Lord are the Forces and weapons wherewith you have do and will easily certainly gloriously not only conquer but indear all reall vertuous hearts These are the fetters too wherewith they will be not only chained most strongly and kept most securely but also wherein they will be both willing joyful and ambitious to follow the Triumphal Chariot of your transcendent worth And amongst all those happy Captives who thus adorn your Lordships victories none will or can more cordially honour you then he who with his most ardent prayers for the temporal Spiritual and eternal prosperity Felicity and glory both of your Honour and your Noble relations on earth and in Heaven takes the boldnesse to subscribe himself My LORD Your Honours most Humble and most faithful Servant Tho. Goddard TO THE Christian Reader BOOKS are a Feast or Banquet to which the invited guests all that can read understand do come with various appetites and palats Some do hunger after and like best that meat which is most unwholesom and dangerous corrupt principles Others do desire and delight
intreat them to joine science and conscience together to live up to their knowledge and duty by burning inwardly with a well-grounded well-guided zeal for God and by shining outwardly towards men with sobriety innocency sanctity Since great gifts parts and abilities without honesty and grace are great snares temptations mischiefs and plagues both to themselves and others And since without a holy diligent careful improvement of them both to Gods glory and the good of others all those whom God hath honoured and enriched with them will by him be greatly and grievously punished for abusing or not using and imploying of them And as for those who are yet in the petty school and lower forms that have not overgrown nor travailed beyond their A. B. C. in understanding and religion nor as yet rightly learned to know themselves sin the world or their Christs crosse that great work duty and comfort of true Christians there are lessens offered and set by me very necessary for them to be acquainted with instructed in imminded of and seasoned withall 5. Lastly because I know that although many instead of accepting my poor indeavours and receiving the truth in the love of it will not only reject and disregard it but also censure yea bite and revile the Author with their invenomed teeth and frothy filthy tongues yet my labour will not shall not be in vain because it 's in the Lord and for the Lord. In his name and fear this plain not mosaick or carved work was undertaken to his glory it was and is intended directed and by his assistance it is finished I do not I dare not say perfected His blessing his powerful gracious fruitful influence I do therefore most humbly beg upon it And do only desire these few very reasonable things and favours of my Readers First that they would instead of carping snarling or barking at my book which I confesse hath too much Alloy and drosse but no poison in it communicate their own more pure and better refined labours to the world It will be I assure them my joy and contentment not envy or sorrow to see and their own not only honour but comfort to build marble and magnificent fabricks where such low mudwalâ—'d Cottages as mine is are erected 2. Secondly that they would prize welcome and imbrace truth though it curb crosse or kill their carnall Joies profane waies and worldly interests 3. Thirdly That they would seriously consider that Jewels are both as precious and resplendent in a woodden box or in an earthen pot as in a cabinet of Pearl That there may be usefull wholesome and savoury herbs in that Garden which wants the bravery beauty glories and the gaudey embroidery of curious flowers And that sweet meats may do well for sauce or to taste of but are not fit or safe to be made our daily bread 4 Fourthly that they would not be their own murderers and Executioners by loving vice and hating vertue by adoring earth and trampling Heaven under their feet by forsaking Christ to follow the world by poisoning their souls to please their senses by deferring their repentance and an holy Life till death or by leaving the safe and pleasant ways of truth and righteousnesse to walk in the dangerous destructive paths of error heresies and wickednesse 5. Lastly I do earnestly intreat them to read what I have written without partiality passion prejudice and prepossession that Maxim being most true here Intus existens prohibet altenum For vessels top full of earth cannot receive without being emptied either gold or gemms And the most precious cordial the most soveraign Julep must needs be lost and spilt if it be put into a dish that is brim-ful of dung or muck-hill-pit water Read them then once more I do importunately pray and request you with hearts willing desirous and resolved to be informed imminded convinced reformed confirmed and if you receive any good by my weak labours remember to give God the glory of his own work and mercy and instead of your praises Crown me with your prayers But if you do not profit by them consider That bad disaffected and distempered stomacks do turn the best meats into ill humours and into dangerous if not mortall diseases That none are more either sure to languish or likely to die then those that refuse loath and cast away the Physick that should cure them That those who hate the light shall one day when 't is too late clearly see their folly sin and misery in outerdarknesse That glorified Saints would be Gaolers Angels tormentors and heaven it self an hell to those that are unholy unheavenly unregenerated on earth That they who have forgotten forsaken left and lost God and Jesus Christ shall never without humbling their souls mourning for their sins and returning to the Lord find or feel any true comfort peace or happinesse either in life or death That they who do not with the spiritual eye of a justifying faith stedfastly behold the sun of righteousnesse Jesus Christ as 't is said the eagle can with her natural eyes the sun of heaven will and do like the kite with the eyes of sense corrupt reason look earnestly yea longingly at stâ—op eagerly unto and feed greedily upon the carrion and garbage of creature-comforts which do only fit and fat the wicked as the richest soil doth beasts for the day of slaughter vengeance and damnation That they who do not impâ— the wings of their knowledge and reason with the golden feathers of vertue and piety will never be able to soar above the World or to mount up to Heaven a Solus vir bonus est revera prudens Arist Ethic. 6. Contrae inquit alius stolidi et imprudentes sunt mali Keck syst Ethic. lib. 1. c. 3. p. 148. That they only are really wise and good who are sincerely religious because discoursing learnedly is but the bark the shell of knowledge and because professing zealously is but the husk the leaf of sanctity for only honesty and piety are the kernell fruit head heart bloud spirits light heat soul and body of true wisdome and saving grace That therefore Christians ought to conform their practise to their principles their works to their words and their Lives to their light That they whose actions are eccentrick to Gods honour word and will will never without repentance and reformation be found weight in the ballance of the sanctuary That it 's infinitely more both honour and happiness to be a truly holy Christian than it is to be a victorious Caesar a famous Scipio a renowned Castriot or an invincible Alexander That it 's transcendently unspeakably yea unconceiveably more both glory comfort and felicity to and for Christians to morâ—ifie their sins lusts and passions then to overcome own or command the whole world Praeclarum quidem est inquit b Xevoph in Orat. de Agâ—filio Agesilaus inexpugnabiles hostium muros superare multo verum praeclarius animum parare suum
his people yet he hath declared * Esay 55. 7. promised * Ezechiel 33. 11. yea sworn that if by true repentance sound humiliation and a through reformation of their hearts and lives they will mourn for and turn from their sins enter into a Covenant to walk holily closely uprightly before him keep it and by servent prayer beg for mercy and forgivenesse heartily * Prov. 28. 13. acknowledge their crimes that then he will pardon them be reconciled unto them and not destroy them d Don Anthony de Guavara Diall of Princes Fol. 200. Darius to mock Alexander the great sent to him to know where his treasures were for such great Armies Alexander answered Tell Darius he keeps his treasures in his coffers and that I have no other treasures but the hearts of my friends He that hath God for his friend shall be sure to be rich he shall want no good thing the Lord will give him both grace and glory he will make him both holy and happy And he that makes God his Treasure esteeming loving seeking his favour a sweet holy Communion with him and a stock a hoard of vertue and all heavenly graces above all earthly enjoyments shall be sure to find all precious substance here and to be crowned with eternal felicity hereafter e Rainold Oâ—as p 484. When Caesar had commanded Pompeys Statua's to be erected M. Cicero said thus to him Statuas Pompeii statuisti stabilisti tuas He that sincerely indeavours to honour God shall certainly by it but not for it because all yea more then we can either do or pay is both debt and duty to him * honour himselfe Non reputes magnum quod Deo servis sed maximum reputa quod ipse dignetur te in servum assumere sibi f 1 Sam. 2. 30. Julian commanded by an Edict all the Christians in his Army to sacrifice to his Gods g Spee Chroâ—â—â— p. 171. 173. or else they should lose their places and Honours whereupon Flavius Valentinianus chose rather to forsake the Camp then Christ his Conscience and his Religion but God did eminently abundantly reward him for afterwards he became Emperour of Rome Amongst the Ancestors of the Rhodians it was a Law that if a Father had many Children the most virtuous should inherit and if he had but one virtuous child that then he should be the sole heir of his goods and Estate Only they who art obedient pious gracious men and women shall be Heirs of glory and enjoy the inheâ—itance of the Saints in light It is therefore our wisdome duty interest and will be our comfort peace happinesse to get cleare evidences that this God is our God for unlesse we have a propriety in him and can truly beleevingly experimentally say with Thomas My Lord and my God although he be aboundlesse bottomlesse Ocean of mercy not so much as one drop thereof will ever flow out from him to refresh our souls It s no advantage or comfort to an Esau that the Lord loves a Jacob. Quid mihi profuerit Deus alienus Vae illi qui non habet Deum de proprio The Ark preserved none but only those who were in it from perishing Let us therefore do to God as i Senec. de Benef. lib. 1. Cap. p. 385. Aeschines did to Socrates his Master resigne and give up our souls and selves freely sincerely intirely to him saying with him Nihil dignum te inveni quod dare tibi pâ—ssim hoc modo pauperem me esse sentio Itaque dono tibi quod unum habeo Me ipsum Such is O Lord my poverty that I have nothing worthy of thy acceptance or answerable to my desires to present unto thee and therefore I doe cordially give thee my selfe and then the Lord will answer us as Socrates did him Accipio sed ea lege ut te tibi meliorem reddam quam recepi I do not only accept thee but I will also make and return thee to thy self better richer holier happier then I received thee For if we will be his people then the Lord will be our God and in and with him we shall enjoy all good things but without him nothing Because Quicquid praeter te est Domine non reficit non sufficit si ad Corpus sufficit non tamen perpetuo satiat quum adhuc amplius quaeratur qui autem te habet satiatus est finem suum habet non habet ultra quod quaeratur quia tu es supra omne visible audibile adorabile gustabile tangibile sensibile In a word what King Henry the 5th promised to his Souldiers when he said to them h Speed Chroâ— p. 796. Whosoever desires Riches Honor and Rewards here he shal find them Ni mirum haec medio posuit Deus omnia campo the Lord of hosts makes good to his people who are sure to find life in his favour to receive grace with every good thing here and eternal glory hereafter This is the portion pay and promotion of all that faithfully serve that truly love God The Prayer MOST High most holy most gracious and most glorious God since thou art both the Lord of Hosts and the King of Saints the Father of Mercy and the fountain or rather the inexhaustible never-failing every fully sweetly and freely satisfying Ocean of all true felicity heavenly Joyes heart-reviving supporting Graces and thirsty soules Let all those I beseech thee that know and professe thy name fear love trust obey thee and delight in thee Let them know thee savingly fear thee filially love thee cordially obey thee sincerely and delight in thee chiefly yea infinitely more then in Corn Wine Oyle pleasure profit honour and all sublunary enjoyments Let oh Lord nothing please quiet or content them till they have gotten comfortable evidences of thy special Love and untill they enjoy an humble holy sweet communion with thee Let them not account the choysest rarest most endearing things in the whole world worth either desiring seeking or possessing without thee since they all are if they do not flow from thy Love in Christ as well as come or streame from thy common thy general providence but shels without kernels Bones without marrow Combes without honey and Huskes without fruit to those that receive them that so being sensible and perswaded of their Creators All-sufficiency the Creatures emptinesse deceitfulnesse insufficiency their own nothingnesse unworthinesse wretchednesse loathsomnesse and spiritual misery by reason of their Originall pollution actual Rebellions and crying abominations committed against thee they may beg earnestly heartily constantly to thee who alone canst and wilt hear help heal them for spiritual Mercy for hearts to abhor sin humiliation for sin pardon of it strength against it and victory over all sinne for mindes to know thee holinesse to be like thee sincerity to please grace to glorifie thee and for thy Favour which is at once like a Cabinet of Pearl full of most precious unvaluable
and carryed to the Court to be honoured advanced so highly by the King as not only to become his Favourite but his Son and Heir also But it 's the greatest wonder of all and the highest phrensy for men to wound and poyson themselves because they may be cured to break their bones because they may chance to get them well set again to run into the fire because it 's possible their Father will pull them out and not suffer them to be burned and to love act live and persevere both in theft murder and rebellion in hope of being not only pardoned but promoted when they come to be executed And certainly it 's no lesse then the greatest folly yea madnesse and cruelty to our own Souls that we are capable either to invent act or expresse to presume and expect to obtain mercy favor and pardon from God at our death when we have knowingly wilfully and impenitently continued both robbers of God and traytors to God by sinning against him all our life For it 's most just and equall that the Lord should abhorre reject and burn the bone when the Devill hath had all the marrow The Prayer O LORD under the Law those sacrifices that were acceptable to thy Majesty were offered up with Fire but under the Gospell those Oblations those duties and services are most pleasing to thee which are presented and tendered with Water with penitentiall tears flowing from the bitter-sweet springs of a saving sight of sin and godly Sorrow for sin Grant O Lord that we may both love thee and grieve that by our Iniquities we have offended thee Let us serve thee with gladnesse of heart and yet be in bitternesse of Soul for our dishonouring of thee O give us Holy God to worship serve and pray unto thee not only with the fire of Love and zeal burning upon the altars of our inflamed hearts but also with the waters of contrition and remorse streaming out of broken Spirits Let us not seek thee and sin wilfully against thee Let us not professe repentance and practise rebellion Let us not O Lord forsake Egypt and long to enjoy it again But grant that we may never any more attempt or presume to repeat or act our former old or any new crimes And since most Holy God every known sin even the very least is a great a grievous a deep and a desperate wound to the Soul so soon as it is acted that festers in it by continuance gangrenes by delight and kills the Soul by impenitency O let all transgressing Christians speedily search their Souls and sores with the Probe of serious consideration let them behold them with the eyes of grief and humiliation let them bath and wash them with Tears of sorrow and contrition inable them by a justifying Faith to receive and apply unto them that Soveraign all-healing plaister made of that most precious Balm the bloud of Jesus Christ let them bind up their wounded spirits with the hands of compunction and self-abhorrency and grant that they may keep on their plaister both by a through reformation and a constant conscientious care willingly deliberately knowingly to sinne no more that so they may recover be healed and live Grant this great mercy O thou God of mercy unto us for the merits of Jesus Christ Amen Poenitere est vere sapere valere vivere XIII Of Prayer 'T Is that safe carefull nimble spirituall messenger and post that carries and brings letters of intelligence and love-tokens to and from Christ 'T is the language of Canaan A Christians Shiboleth 'T is the souls both Orator and Sollicitor in that great Court of Requests Heaven 'T is a Jacob wrastling with God and prevailing A Jonah though buried alive in a swimming Sepulchre though shipt in a living Vessel and carried down under Deck to the confines of Hell crying for and obtaining a safe landing on the shoar of Life 'T is a Moses begging and receiving cure of the souls Physitian of Almighty God for Miriam a leprous sinful person 'T is a Christians Forces wherewith he besieges Heaven and takes it by storm by violence 'T is the souls industrious faithfull factor in Heaven from whence it brings the precious everlasting riches and Jewell of grace forgivenesse comfort to the heart T is the key that opens and shuts Heaven Oratio justi clavis est coeli ascendit precatio et descendit Dei miseratio licet alta sit terra altum coelum audit tamen Deus hominis linguam si mundam habet conscientiam Prayer like a Hackw Apolog p. 295. histor of Flanders .. Dousa's Doves when Leyden was besieged it brings certain intelligence of relief supplies assistance coming from the Lord of Hosts to strengthen succour and deliver the soul when it 's beleaguered indangered or assaulted by sin Satan or the world What was said of Luther is true of prayer It may have almost what it will of Christ There is a kind of omnipotency in it whereby it holds hinders and with an humble holy reverence be it spoken binds the arm of Almighty God that he cannot strike Let me alone saith the Lord to Moses and get thee out of Sodome said the * Genes 19. 22. Angell to Lot for thy supplication is her preservation thy prayers and presence are her protection thy company is her security thy residence her reprieve I cannot do any thing I cannot rain down Hell out of Heaven in a fiery showre to consume her till thou beest out of her and got to Zoar. As Faith is the Emperesse of Graces so prayer is the Queene of duties The Elements of effectuall Prayer are First Faith Vt oremus credamus ut ipsa non deficiat fides qua oramus * James 5 16. Hebr. 11. 5. Oremus Fides fundit orationem fusa oratio fi dei impetrat firmitatem Faith and prayer are like the fire and fewel fire makes the fewell burn and flame and fewell feeds the fire and keeps it burning and flaming Faithlesse prayers are fruitlesse prayers or rather such supplications are provocations for God is so far from smelling a sweet savour in the sacrifices of unbelievers that he loaths them they stink in his nostrils and therefore he will cast their duties like dung into their faces 2. * James 5. 16. Fervency Qui frigide rogat negare docet prevalency is the child of importunity An * Luke 18 4 5. Atheisticall unjust judge that neither fears God nor cares for man will grant the earnest suit of a poor Widow though a stranger to him How much more then will the great judg of Heaven and earth who is not only a just but also a most gracious compassionate God and Father both hear and grant the ardent humble and hearty petitions of his own Children He that did never say to the house of Iacob seek ye my face in vain He that commands us to aske and seek and hath promised that we shall receive and find