in Christ Jesus shal suffex persecution What of Saint Peters prediction of fiery Tryals and Encouragements to prepare for them Nay what of our Saviours Benediction on those that suffer for Righteousness sake Are these Tales and Figments Are these Legends and Foysts Are these Lillies of his field not to be compared to the Solomons of their fancy in all his Royalty I trow there is no man so fond but sees self more set up then Christ in this Pageant for take away sufferings and where is Faith where Charity where Martyrdome nay where is or to what purpose that animative reference of the Holy Ghost displaying Christ glorious in witnessing a good confession before Pontius Pilate his Judg who could wash his hand and protest Christs innocency and yet durst not deliver him from the rage of the multitude No wonder they cry down Scripture and Fathers and Church Stories who cry up such wild excentrick worldly subtilties for Religion and own Christ with their mouthes as the Jewes did him on the Cross only the more to reproach him Well let these stray from the fold as wildly as they will it is thy part O holy soul to keep close to thy colours Voti tunc Christianis erat pro Christi nomine gladio percuti S. Hieron in vita Pauli Eremitae de Temp. Decii Christ looketh thou shouldst not only he ready to own but of need be to dye for him thou must expect sorrows perhaps not such as with Spira will make thee despair turn thy back on Gon as Ephraim did in the day of Battel but such as may exercise thy Grace correct thine out-goings mind thee of thine end admonish thee of thy duty rouze thee to get thine Evidence ready to make thy Calling and Election sure and by a holy end prepare thee for a blessed Exchange The Promise is to be secure not exempt not that yee shall not to be assaulted but not be overcome not that ye shall not be chastned but that ye shall not be condemned not that evils shall not come neer you but that they shall not domineer over you not that ye shall not be buffetted by Satan but that Divine Grace shal be sufficient for you The Peace of God gained by Acquaintance with him is no plea of prescription against trouble and evil but this it doth it modifies evil so that it comes not noxiously neer a godly man as it is evil so it s kept at distance as it is a Mark of Divine love as it is a voice to reclaim as it is commanded to be Gods Monitor to us so we must welcome it as did David It is good for me that I was afflicted and pray for it as preventive Physick that keeps us from Plethorick Distempers Many men may thank God for their crosses without which they had never come to Heaven there is a most notable Story in the Legend of a blind woman who besought Saint Bridget to give her sight the Saint so called at her intreaty Quo presentor sum mundo eo absentior sum Christo did and when she had seen four dages she desired Saint Bridget that she would take away her sight again adding this for reason The more I see of the world the less am I conversant with Christ 4. Lastly The peace in Acquaintance with God will keep thee from thr Evil of Evils Death eternal God suffers not his to fall into that pit out of which there is no redemption His as they have no part in the sin of the Damned so shall they not partake in the torment of the Damned 'T is not Go ye Blessed but Go ye Cursed into everlasting sire prepared for the Divel and his Angels And indeed this is the Mercy of Mercies this is one part of the Recompence of Vertue and Godly life that it shall not only have comfort in seeing God gloriously waving the Banner of love over it but becoming its Guard to Heaven and nullifying Satans attempts on it this is that in which the mercy of God shines as at noon tide and comfortably exalts its self above Justice as that which crowns God and renders him Beloved and admired of all that know him But perhaps O man thou art curious to know what this Death Eternal is This is a vanity and if thou beware not may be the vexation of thy spirit but if thou wouldest ken the scantling of it our blessed Lord hath defined it to be utter darkness 〈◊〉 8.12 where is weeping and watling and gnashing of teeth it is exile from God and judgment to the society of damned spirits for ever Death Eternal what is it not that is absolute tristicity it is a living death and a dying life it is the wages of sin the sentence of Justice the utmost period of Plagues a most exquisite misery a most Merciless Torment an Eternal Passion Eternal Death it is misery to the eye for it shall not see God it is a worm gnawing on the heart for it shall consider the evil it hath done for which is inflicted that evil it suffereth it is a vexation to the senses which to augment the tortures of their condition shal be renewed and made more sensible it is an excess which shall never have end but be eternally what it is and impossible to be what it is not Death Eternal it is the region of Blasphemy the Caldron of Nimrods Nero's Judasses those chambers of ruine into which they descend who desert God by sin and are deserted by God in just Judgment Death Eternal it is a gulfe without bottom a doom beyond ransome a fire that burnes and is never extinguished and a restless craver never satisfied What shall I say other then that of the Psalmist Remember this yee that frrget God Psal 50.22 lest he tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver These are the Evils from which peace in Acquaintance with God priviledgeth the soul But how cries the holy soul cometh this to be my priviledge How O soul Surely not by thy merit but 1. By the Mercy of God which hath bestowed that good as an Enticement to be his God invites sinners to his Mercy Isai 30.18 He waites to be gracious he would have them come to the waters of Life and drink freely Matth. 11.28 he calls to you to come Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden he rewards them when they come Those that come unto me I will in no sort cast away he complains of them when they do not come John 5.40 They will not come unto me that they might have life God in goodness begins with man and gives him co-operating Grace and it is his own obduration that makes Mercy retreat while we are willing he assists us but when we draw back he will have no pleasure in us Mercy makes the Marriage betwixt God and the Soul and Peace is the Dowry that God gives his Beloved those that are one with
make a man turn Runagado and exulate himself never to see Christian or man more Had Moses his demeanor been uncomely he little deserved his Wife though a Zipporah but since it was wise and husbandly he lesse deserved the taunt especially since he was as beautious a man in his married relation as a childe in his Ark of reeds and yet then Pharaohs Daughter was in love with him when as now Zipporah an Aethiopian for marrying of whom Aaron and Miriam were offended with him turns upon him in a pettish reproach Numb 12.1 Thou art a bloudy Husband This was evill enough for a good man to live under and too much for a good woman to traduce her husband by but Moses replies not He was wise to leave the issue to God and her T was more fit he should prepare for the peoples roughnesse then reproach his own choice In Numb 11.12 the people Rebels as he calls them murmur against him not as he was Moses but as he was their Magistrate that makes the contumacy against God whose delegates Magistrates are Well what would the people have If they intreat Moses to pray for them or to instruct them in their duty to God and one to another hee 's ready to do by them as they desire but the people like hel and the grave cry Give give infiniteness only can satisfie the cravings of multitudes What then is it they would have Food Alas poor souls they are pardonable that are tempted to impatience by hunger and nakednesse Can a Magistrate condemn necessitous importunities Or think he does his duty if he provide not supply for his people Moses was mindful of Israel but Moses was but a man Israel must come to their Prince with reverence and to their Priest with duty especialy when they want what they have not bread and water and are in a wildernesse where barren soil yeelds no corn nor hard rocks water Lord what a pass was Moses brought to when the people whom hee as Gods Captain Lieutenant had led out of Egypt from hard Masters and a harsh Prince should now in the wilderness tempt God and reproach him by expressing desires of returning to Egypt yet so it was Moses heard all this and much more yea to compleat his sorrows might not enter the Land of Canaan which was the reward of his long March in the wildernesse but must up to the Mount and die a remote and unknown death without any ones knowledg of of the place of his burial or any pompous Ceremony a sad exit to Israels glorious General But Moses was content to be punished for his distrust at Meribah Sin at the waters of strife is punished by death on Abarim Numb 27.12 14 the Mount of Passage A Patriarch a General full of sorrows matched by a King full of sorrows and let no man wonder Crows often build in Steeples and Polecats infest Dove-coats David the King the man after Gods own heart had a bedroule of sorrows as long as his life His brethren hate him Saul disgusts and pursues him so that he cryes out I shall one day fall by the hand of Saul his Wife Michol scoffs at him the Amalekites surprize his Wives 1 Sam. 30. and the people of Ziklag murmure against him O Lord what a pack of troubles was he in who had Shimei's Curse Absolom's Treason and Amnon's lust to labour with and the discontent of them to overcome Is it not a sad story that he tels of his going mourning all the day long of his being chased as a Partridg in the wildernesse of the sorrows of his heart the slippings of his feet his fainting fits for love of God and fear of his departing from him when trouble is neer and there is none to help Can we consider the bloud that he shed the sins that blasphemed God and imbased his Honour even those against Vrijah and not conclude they brought sorrows of heart upon him 'T is too palpable that hee was loaden with troubles who had such innate corruptions to contest with such unnaturall obstructions to remove I shall not mention Joseph's Job's Noah's Daniel's Jeremie's Jonah's with the other servants of God famous for afflictions on them but cast anchor in the sufferings of the blessed Virgin our blessed Lord and his blessed Apostles and Saints these mentioned will dulcifie afflictions to us The married Virgin Mother of Christ a miracle in her station a Mother yet a Virgin and miraculous in her Production God Man born of her and born to us CHRIST JESUS yet is there mention of a Sword that shall pierce to the heart of this holy Saint Luke 2. Like Mother like Son for suffering not in the quantity but the truth Saint Mary suffered according to her proportion sorrows as did Christ but hers were drops to the Ocean of his And the Apostles and holy men of after-times have been afflicted and tormented Heb. 11.38 though of them the world was unworthy If wee peruse the Gospels and Martyrologies wee shall finde Peter tempted by presumption to follow Christ and by fear betrayed to deny him in the High Priests Hall Thomas his incredulity that reduced faith to sense and all the Apostles pusillanimity who fly from their Master and dare not own him when apprehended Do we not think that Pauls thorn in the flesh did macerate him and twitch the Herod in him when in the royall apparel and on the throne of Self-admiration with a Mement◠that if Grace be not sufficient Nature will be too strong to be kept under Was it not think we a bitter pill of after pennance to the Disciples that they cryed not One and all and went not with their Lord to Golgotha as readily as to the miraculous Meal where five loaves and a few fishes fed five thousand with advantage Or to the Marriage at Cana where he turned water into wine Or to the Mount where hee transfigured himself before them and they saw to their infinite ravishment and delight a model of heaven and of his divine clarification there Yea Are not the sufferings of the Saints in all ages left on record as a basis for our Faith and a target for our security that we may not despond or be like them who have lost Mast Sails Rudder yea and Compasse in the storm of this world but take heart and quit our selves like men though we have sorrows on every side and adversaries as the Church bad the chief who prosper for the Lord hath afflicted her Lament 1. ver 5. Since those that belong to God finde 'T is good for them that they are afflicted and know that in very faithfulness hee afflicts them yea that there is fruitfulnesse in this land of affliction as Joseph said Gen. 41. vers 52. For as once Vibius Crispus a Companion of that Glutton Vitellius who killed all his Friends that kept company with him said Had I not been sick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dion lib. 65. p. 734.
reasonably thought a prophanation of and violence done to his Excellency He who was consecrated in the womb had sorrows in his soul before on the cross wounds from spears in his side that he might appear to be A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief whose soul had the propassion before his body the Passion Yet further verse 10. It pleased the Lord to bruise him he hath put him to grief What means this is there any degree of misery beyond that of a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief Is not every twitch of anguish an Orator to God and mans pity What can be a depression more irrecoverable then to be condemned to the Cross for the Son of God to bear the sins of men yet this puts a further emphasis on Christs Suffering God permitted him to be bruised in the mortar of mens malice that the fragrancy of his charity may affect his and make them admire him for this savour of his oyntment Cant. 1.3 And 't is well coupled To bruise him with It pleased the Lord God commended his love to man by giving his San to die an act of pure choice and perfect charity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Simul affectum acceptationem includit Pagn in verbo Nothing could have moved Christ to come from heaven to suffer on earth but free and unmerited benignity Christ had a body given him to be broken for us that our Ransome might be effected by his lifes dissolution our debts solution Thus it pleased the Lord what to doe To bruise him not to humble him as a Virgin robbed of her Ornament that could not be Christ is what hee was and ever will be a Lamb without blemish this Hellen of heaven hath no mole or black spot on the face of his glory though Hee was apprehended by Club-men yet was Hee Lord of Millions of Angels The humiliation of Christ consisted in this that Hee should lie in the dust as man Home rarus home singularis home extra omnium hominum numcrum solus talis in hoc mundo Corn. Mussus in concione de Pass habâ—u Romae in Palatio who could not see corruption in the grave because God that he must die an unusuall way who was an unusuall Sacrifice He must be bruised Our Lord Jesus not like Jonah for disobedience but like him in the tumultuous sea of sorrow had a grave prepared to lodg him in till his time of detension was over and that of Ascension was come then hee opened Deaths prison doors and took a speedy cours â—o heaven where he is now sitting at the right hand of God the Father O Lord how great sorrows pressed upon Christ What unparallell'd grief had he who was the Son of God and could not sin the Son of God and deserved not to suffer 't is we O Lord that provoked thee what did that Lamb do Nay rather Lord what did hee not do that deserves our admiration and eternal gratitude yet behold his sorrowes Sorrow that 's an unworthy singular of detraction such a prelation of passion calls for a plurality of expressive Gratitude Come then O holy soul to this sacred Audit and behold sorrowes numberless Love without merit O opus absquâ— exemplo O gratia sine merito O amor sine mensura Cornel Mussus Epis Bitont in Ser. de Passione Luke 2. Charity beyond Measure Had he not sorrow who was the Son of God yet became the son of Man and that of no King no Grandee but the reputed son of a Carpenter born in an Inn in the Stable of that Inn laid in the Manger of that Stable Had he not sorrow who wanted a hole to hide his head in bread to feed upon unless by Miracle whose Followers were poor whose Tribute was paid by a fish and Triumph solemniz'd by an Ass Colt and by boughs and garments spread in the way Had he not sorrow who spake and did as never man his enemies being Judges yet was traduced envied followed with Reproach betrayed by his own servant and put to death by his Country men after a shameful manner and by a lingring and protracted Engine of dispatch the Cross on which he was exposed to shame naked unpitied reviled given Vinegar and Gall to yea as it were forsaken of God What call yee this if not forrowes Was is shall be any sorrowes like these sorrows of Christ When his soul was made an offering for sin his body subjected to violence yea body and soul for a time parted to joyn God and man together whom sin had severed whom only his death could reconcile Mat 2.7.45 Wel might the Sun refuse to give light to such a deed of darkness as was the Jews cruelty in crying to death their King John 19.15 which the wisdom of Pilate hinted to them by way of Reproach in these words Shall I crucifie your King Well might the vail of the Temple be rent when the Temple of his body more glorious then Solomons Temple not made with hands as was that but compaginated by the miraculous art of Omnipotency was torn apieces by cruelty Matth. 27.51 52 53. Well might the graves open and the dead yeeld themselves no longer prisoners when Jesus Lord of the grave was on his march to the grave Well might the dead appear to many in the holy City since the City appeared but a grave of dead men who knew not what they did nor whom they acted cruelty upon O holy soul since it is thine ambition to have Christ thy reward resolve to follow him bearing his reproach Fear not the infultings of men nor the oppositions of flesh and bloud If to accompany Christ to Golgotha be to be vile be yet more vile The Cross of Christ hath treasure under it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Marcus Anton ad Silenum much glory results from contempts for his sake There is nothing so becoming thy holy Prosession as to imitate Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. Nissen de relig Christian Profes Christianity is nothing else but to live holily and die patiently as did Christ and so much neerer him shall we be in glory as we are here like him in our Conversation Christ made it his meat and drink to do his Fathers will Thou O holy Soul must not think his good pleasure thy pennance his providence thy disappointment his service thy slavery He uttered no discontent thou must not rave and rage He suffered contradiction of sinners thou must not expect approbation from them Hee forgave his Enemies thou must not remember injuries to revenge them Percussorem Episcopum ille condemnat qui dorsum suum posuis ad flagella maledicius non remaledicit S. Hieron Epist 83. ad Oceanum Hee came unto his own and they received him not thou must not wonder if thou suffer from those whom thou hast obliged He wanted a hole to put his head in use thy plenty well that thy Lord
how fearfully and how wonderfully am I made for who can confess less then this The Heavens declare the glory of God and the Firmament shewes his handy work But O man wander not too wildly in this wilderness wherein are beasts of Prey uncouth paths dismal upshots thine errand and end is to admire the works of God that thou maist do it is thy duty and Gods exact of thee so to do and thou thy selfe art a fair Text to such pious Meditations God created thee something of nothing a Man not a Toad a Christian not a Heathen of clear intellect not brutish of right shape not deformed and consider this calls for Gratitude God hath beautified thee with a bright Sun refreshed thee by a sweet gale of wind in thy sayls thou art at the wished Port supported by a miraculous hand of Providence he hath discovered to thee thy dangers conducted thee in thy way ministred to thy wants when others not less his nor less themselves then thou go mourning all the day long are on their duty John 5.4 waiting with the Cripple when the good Angel will come to their comfort but all in vain No Butter sticks on their bread their cake is dough as the Proverb is All is fruitless Remember the more thou receivest the more thou must return Cui plus datur ab illo plus exigitur in fine rather labour to improve wel that thou hast then to covet more to misuse it and abuse thy soul for God expects from all men as he sowes so to reap and thou art an Unthrift on his Bounty if thou returnest him not obedience and love who hath crowned thee with Honour and Plenty above thy fellowes But O man above all things Deut. 32.15 be not like Jesurun spurn not with the heel when thou art fat forget not the hand that feeds thee and the paps of Providence that suckle thee nor let thine hornes be exalted to worry and plague thy fellow servants of a lower Form then thou art This is not to be like God good gentle and nigh unto all those that call upon him but liker the servant in the Gospel Matth. 32.32 who took his fellow servant by the throat when he himself was forgiven by his Lord the greater Debt yea this is not to admire God but to reproach him as misgiving Power and Greatness and trusting it in the hands of those who by it prey upon not protect the Sheep This is not to admire the Works of God but to admire thy self and to sacrifice to thine own Ambition and inordinacy and so to dishonour God who commands Phil. 4.5 Our Moderation should be known to all men yea this is to be unworthy of Acquaintance with God who is Shepherd of his Sheep and delights in Lillyes things harmless and benigne and those that are not such shall do well to consider that of the Prophet Jer. 30.16 I will spoil the Spoiler and steer another course for the future even to emendation of life which brings up the rear of what God requires from those that wil be acquainted with him and calls for my next Meditation 5. Lastly Renovation of Life is a chief adjunct to Acquaintance with God Light and darkness Christ and Belial Dagon and the Ark do not agree new cloth and old garments sute not nor will generous Wine endure crazy bottles nor a Kingly mind brook the thatched cottage There is nothing more averse to the pure Nature of God then the impure life of a sinner his eye loathes his hand corrects his heart relucts his Word reproves his Spirit labours against it he cannot but call with a loud voice Jer. 44.4 Rom. 1.18 O do not that abominable thing which I hate and correct by revealing his wrath from Heaven against the ungodliness of men Till thou O man return to him by Repentance there is no peace with God to be hoped for no amity to be attained The means to gain God is to own thy self and to return to thy fathers love Luke 15.18 to weep over thy wandrings and to drown thy sins in penitent tears as did Mary Magdalen and Peter Then then only are we worthy to be friends of God when we are not profane as Esau but holy as Abraham not rude as Nimrod but meek as Moses not rebellious as Absolom but devout as David not treacherous as Judas but penitent as Peter not vexatious as Saul but couragious as Paul not embracing the world as did Demas but contemning it and our selves as ought the Disciple of Christ who must deny himselfe and take up the Cross This this is to be born again Mark 8.34 John 3.3 Ephes 4.23 Isai 1.16 Rom. 13.14 Ephes 5.11 Nichodemus his lesson this is to be renewed in the spirit of our minds this is to cease to do evil and learn to do well this is to put on the Lord Jesus and to take no thought for the flesh this is to have no fellowship with unfruitful works of darkness but rather to reprove them this is to put off the old man and to put on the new man Ephes 4.22 24 which after God is created in Righteousnesse and true Holinesse this is to lay the burthen of our sins upon Christ and to take the beauty of Holiness from him this is to gain heavens amnesty to remove our sins far from us as the East is from the West and to cause them to come no more in remembrance before God yea this is to be throughly acquainted with God and to have him the souls Sun and Shield who will give Grace and Glory Psal 34.11 and withhold no good thing from it These are the bona notabilia which God keeps as the reward of Piety as his secrets so his comforts are with those that fear him Clusters of Canaan grow not upon Crabstocks of Sodom Divine familiarity is not with mortal foedity They which will have God their Lord must have his Rule for their Guide Penitence must supply the want of Innocence or else God will deny acceptance It is not for me to say I will return after and be received first God will have his Doles of Mercy distributed to Pennancers and the Oyle of Gladness returned to those faces whose heads were covered with ashes A weeping eye is no small Favourite with a merciful God who not only greets with an Euge Luke 15 7. returning sins but commands an Exultate in Heaven amongst the Angels for it and those that sow their wild oats in tears shall reap their wages in due time namely Mercy and Joy in Come ye Blessed of my Father receive the Mansion prepared for you by Acquaintance with God namely Peace which is the third hinge of my Meditation and followes in the Scripture Acquaint now thy self with God and be at peace The third Quere is Quest 3 What Peace it is those have who are acquainted with God And here silet lingua stispet animus deficit
suaviloquius charmes and compleasant influences his Pharisees that swallow downe Widowes houses in the hollow of long Prayers that are all to all men that they might reduce all men to be nothing to any but themselves his Saduces that deny Resurrection Angels Spirit but what is theirs those they cry up as Ocular execrating all that are not of their party and cry not Grace Grace to this Apollyon of their designing Lord what a Gallamaufry of Frauds hath this great Engineere on foot How is he furnished to deceive who hath not only the tongues and pens of many men Learned but lying Wonders and miraculous Artifices at his service But we know his methods and may see this Apicius gaping to devour all contented with nothing but ruine and disorder though he cry out with Jehu Behold my Zeal And it were well if men would try the spirits that now are abroad for Satan is often a Lying spirit in the mouth of Prophets and a Prophecying spirit in the mouth of Lyers and if he durst mingle himself with the Sons of God when they came before him of old may he not now be well mistrusted Job 1.6 though he quote Scripture with the zeal of a Seraphim and in the meetings of Christians pray and speak with notable evidence he who durst appear before Christ with Scripture abused to his own purpose Matth. 4.6 dare do the like to Christians whose weakness is more opportune to his Conquest He is that Evil one who in his whites is a Divel of Deceit in his blacks a Divel of Malice in his Crimsons a Divel of blood a Divel in all shapes actions senses and happy is it for us that we know his Methods And Agents not men of triffling talents who need vulgar helps to make them eminent but men of great parts noble wits yea often noted lives speaking to wonder writing to amazement living to envy and example the Leaders of Israel sometimes caused them to err Isai 9.16 The Priests divined a falsehood the Divel of Sauls heart in Samuel flesh as it were is potent enough to misguide millions O Lord what a Progress hath the mystery of iniquity made when the Serpent stings the Dove to death Religion becomes politized What an Egypt will Gunaan be when Mannah is exchanged for Garlick and Onions when the Screech Owl extrudes the Turtle and that be upon us which the Jewes feared John 11.48 The Romane come and take away our Religion and I pray God not our place and Nation Is not this evil of the Divels designing Is not the hand of hells Joab Satan in it but the sword of the Lord and of his Gideon Christ Jesus shall prevent this though none stand in the gap no Moses intercedes no Phineas executes Judgment yet this Plague shall cease God for his own namesake will turn those Locusts the Jesuits back to their quarters and make their Design as a red sea to bury themselves in The Thumbs of these Adonibezeks shall be cut off the Pride and Policy of these Absoloms become their ruines So let all thine enemies perish O Lord. Well we have a sight of Satan in his power and agents now see him in his Policy and end which is to cut off Samsons locks to destroy the Males of Israel to ruine all the Smithes and Forges by which our Spiritual weapons should be edged to oppose him and defend our selves against his assaults thus did the Philistims of old to Israel 1 Sam. 13.9 But I hope God will turne this Wisdom into Folly and this Babel of Hope into a Babel of Defeat yea I will bespeak these Gates of Hell to give way to the Rock of Ages and to Christ the Corner stone who is with his Church to the end of the world and I will pray that the iniquity of their hearts may be forgiven them who hate the Church of England without a cause and endeavour to subvert the Religion of it against Scripture that asserts it And now is not custody from this evil an unspeakable Blessing Is it not as rain to the parched grass and ought we not to receive this Mercy with the joy of Harvest Is it not a serious collect which deprecates Satans success while he with Herod acts a Tragedy on Innocents and labours to steal away the Babe Christ out of his mothers lap the Church his mother the Church not to rob the blessed Virgin of her Crown All Generations call her Blessed because she bare his body in her womb but to right the Church against her Rival the Synagogue of Satan which disowns her and seeks Christ out of her who spiritually is only formed in her from which evil and the infatuation of it good Lord deliver us This is the first Evil Satan from which the Peace of God shields us the next is from Sin like father like child a chip of the old block a branch of that Lye which was from the beginning From sin the evil of inquination that which defiles the man defaces Gods image passes an eternal exile twixt the soul and him for he hath no fellowship with unfruitful works of Darkness His eye is on them that are upright Prov. 2. ult but he cutteth off the wicked from the earth and rooteth out the Transgressors From sin the Evil of Angels for because of folly beheld in them they were cast from Heaven 1 Pet. 2.4 Isai 30.33 the evil of Kings and great men for whom Tophet is prepared of old Sin the evil of men of low degree sin the evil of all 1 John 5.19 for the whole world groaneth under it and lies in it From sin the eyes grief Gen. 3.6.66 because by that it prevailed against Eve by that against the sons of God of the old world Sin the hearts ake thus in Saint Paul crying out Rom 7.24 Psal 39. â— O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Sin the feets snare against which David cautions I said I wil take heed to my ways Sin the tongues temptation to speak unadvisedly Sin the Catholick Cross to all that are crucified with Christ and mystical members of him Sin the breach of Gods Law the grief of his Spirit the price of his Son the torment of his Combatant and the triumph of his Crowned ones Sin the Monster of Paradise for there it was plotted the first born of life for therein it is acted the plague of this world on whose Stage it is attyred and thence maturated Sin something of nothing a tumourous bubble of pestilent pride scorching Lust and empty vanity evaporating in nothing but the Lust of the flesh Lust of the eye and the Pride of life Sin an evil inward in the thought outward in the act upward against God whom it contemnes and downward against earth whom it burthens and all to gratifie him who is Prince of the Air and rules in the hearts of the Children of disobedience Sin against