bones do quake for fear yea my sins have taken such hold upon me that I cannot look q Psal 40. up If Mary Magdalen was possessed with seven Devills Lord thou knowest that many Devils do continually walk about not onely to seek to possess but to devour my p 1 Pet. 5.11 soul And though Mary and Martha had cause of grief for the death of their brother whom thou didst restore yet my grief is more John 11. being dead in sin my self desiring to be revived by the spirit of thy Grace Lord as thou didst commit thy Mother the blessed Virgin to the tuition of q Joh. 19. John So dear Father command thy holy a Psal 34.7 Angells to guide and guard me from all evill Grant also sweet Jesus that with the three Maries I may seek thee early in the morning and seeking thee finde thee and finding thee believe in thee and lodge thee in my heart for ever Amen Sect. XXIX To performe Promise needfull IT is an old saying An honest promise is due debt That an honest Promise is due debt I have often promised to serve thee my good God and yet never perform'd the same as I ought and therefore the more I promise except thy grace help me to performe the more I am indebted unto thee Sparke 29. O Lord grant that I may promise unto thee that which thou hast commanded me and after b Deut. 23.21 performe that which I have c Psal 66. promis'd that I may obtain thy promise through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen Sect. XXX Of Christ's vertues in healing and Satan's policie in hurting IT is no wonder that the Devill did so much prevail against the Jewes to have Christ tormented in every member A box of precious ointments as his Head with Thornes his Hands and Feet with Nailes his Sides with the Spear his Eyes with Spittings his Face with buffettings and his Taste and Mouth with Gall for the Devill well perceived that there issued out great vertue from every member of Christ For he healed the Leper by touching him with his hand he healed Peter by looking back upon him with his eye he healed Matthew with his mouth by saying come and follow me he healed the deaf and dumb with his fingers by putting them into his ears he healed Mary Magdalen with the vertue that went from his feet when she washed them wiâ—h her tears he healed the woman diseased with the twelve years issue with the hem of his garment he healed raised up Lazarus out of his grave with his voice sayinâ— Lazarus come forth he heâ—lâ—d all the souls of his children with the blood and water that ran out of his blessed side Spark 30. Heal us O Lord for our bones are b Psal 6. vexed send out thy curing Word and heal our wounded soules that refuse all manner of comforts c Psal 107.19 20. say unto my soul I am thy salvation d Psal 35. O thou pittifull Saviour and sweet Samaritan e Luke 10. leave me not thus wounded and half dead in the high-way of perdition but bind up my wounds and poure therein the oyle of thy everlasting grace through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen Sect. XXXI Of Avarice and Oppression The Worldliings Woe ALbeit every sin calls for eternall vengeance yet we read in Scripture but of four crying sins The First is Murther and Bloodshed f Gen. 4.10 The Second is Gluttony and Idleness or the sin of Sodom g Gen. 18.21 The Third is the sin of Wrong and Oppression h Exod. 3.9 The Fourth is the detaining of the Labourers hire i Jam. 5.4 Now three of these cry with open mouth against the Covetous wretch as against an open Oppressor a secret Defrauder both an open and secret Murtherer Therefore the clamours of many poore Debters in the Dungeon of many poor Labourers in the Field and of many poore Neighbours crying and dying in the street enters into the ears of the Lord of hosts Nay the cry of his owne soul and body will come against him for though he keepeth his pelf with many locks from others yet from none doth he keep them so fast as from himself For though he possesseth them yet hath he no power to use them as holy Records doe shew Eccles 6.1 where the Spirit of God sayeth That there is an evill under the Sun which is much used among men A man to whom God hath given Riches and Treasure and Honour wanteth nothing for his soul of all that it desireth but God giveth him not power to eat thereof but a strange man shall eat it up This is an evill sickness Consider this then thou Worldling that sayest in thy heart I shall never have enough Spark 31. O blessed Trinity that fillest every living thing with thy l Psal 104. blessing Lord blesse us and thy blessings that in using them we abuse not thee O Sacred All sufficient Trinity fill thou our hearts so full that we may desire r Ezech. 36. nothing but thee thy glory our hearts good Lord are made Triangle-wise a fit seat for the blessed Trinity They are made narrow below and shut close to keep out worldly desires and wide and open above to receive all heavenly blessings O Lord as they are thy vessels so let them be of thy filling yea fitted with nothing but with thy self and thy love Psal 10.17 through Jesus Christ our Saviour Amen Sect. XXXII Nothing can satisfie God for our sins but his Son VVHat is that which man can off r unto his Maker The Acceptable Sacrifice to pacifie his wrath ' gainst sins If he cold give the whole world unto God what doth he offer but what he hath received of God and lost by his disobedience If man could offer himself what offereth he but unâ—hankfulness dust and ashes blasphemy and wickednes which provokes Gods wrath more more If the Angells would offer themselves and their service to satisfie the wrath of the everlasting God what were that but a thing finite in goodness to seek to cover an infiâ—it evill Therefore God himself was fain to step between his Justice and Mercy to reconcile us again unto him by his own merits Spark 32. O Lord from whence then cometh our help Surely our help cometh of thee f Psal 121. which hast made heaven and earth There was no other water to waâ—h away Naaman's leprosie but Jordan's p 2 Kings 5 No ladder that reached up to Heaven but Jacob's q Gen. 28.12 No serpent that healed the Israelites but the brasen k Numb 21 9. So there is no other Name under heaven whereby we may be saved f Acts 4. but only by thy name and merits sweet Jesus O Lord it was not our own arm that helped us b Psal 44.3 4. but thy right hand and thy arm and the light of thy countenance because thou
24. as one without hope but rathâ—r to watch for the day of my redemption and the glorious comming of my saviour to deliver me from thi body of sinne Rm. 9.7 that my vile body may be made like his glâ—rious body and that in the mean time whether I slâ—ep or wake I may continually hear the sound of thy Trumpe in mine ear saying Arise ye dead and come unto judgement Phil. 3.21 and at last be ravished with the sweet sentence of my Saviour Venite Benedicti c. Sect. XCI The fruitfull Valley I See alwayes the highest hills to be most barren and the low valleys fruitfull therefore the higher I exalt my self like a mountain the more barren I shall be before God And the lower I humble my self the more fruitfull I am to others by good and wholesome examples Sparke 91. O Lord teach me to learn meekness of thee that art meek and to humble my self that I may be exalted Amen Sect XCII The Scorner's Chayre IT is noted for no small disdain in Pharaoh to say Who is the Lord that I should obey him Such as those Okes of Basan and those tall Cedars of Lebanon in the height of their pride as being too wise to be moved with ordinary judgements If we have thâ— honour to be Gods among men or the power to work mighty things in the world Hab. 1.16 We sacrifice to our owne nets and burne incense to our yarn and say if not in our mouth yet in our heart There is no God Psal 14.1 If our evill counsels have good success and when we rebelliously transgress we prosper in our wickedness we spare not to say Tush Ezek. 9.9 the Lord seeth not If when we multiply sin upon sin and by the cords of vanity draw on the cart-ropes of iniquity and adde thirst unto drunkenness we be not plagued like other men we presume to say Tush Zeph. 1.12 the Lord careth not he will do neither good nor evill If God forbear us we think his hand shortned and if we do not feel his rod we make a question of his power yea the irreligiousnesse of this prophane age is such and growne to that impudency as to dispute of principles and grounds of faith to call not onely God and his holy Word the Scripture but Heaven Hell Angells Devills the Resurrection of the body and the Immortality of the soul into question so that if he will finde any faith among such he had need come with new miracles and more than miracles least our searching wits should finde the reason of them or otherwise conclude them to be but our ignorance of the cause For whatsoever exception either vain Philosophy Exod. 3.2 or prophane Gentility took against the wonderfull works of God in elder times as that the burning and not consuming Bush was but a Meteor 14.12 that the passage of Israel through the Red-Sea upon dry ground 16.15 was but the advantage of an Ebbe-tide that the Manna which God rained in the Wilderness was but the Mildew of the Countrey Josh 6.20 that the fall of the walls of Jerico at the sound of the Trumpets was but an Earth-quake that our Saviour himself did no Miracles but by the help of Belzebub Yea that and worse than that do the scorners and licentious wits of our times object against the power of God to make God and his power either nothing at all or tie him unto second causes as if thâ— world did run upon the constant wheeles of everlasting motions which is not in his power so much as in the power of a Clock-keeper either to break or to alter Sparke 92. O thou wonderfull and powerfull Essence whose strength is seen in our weakness we beseech thee to give us grace to humble our selves under thy Almighty hands Psal 1.1 that we neither walke in the Counsell of the ungodly stand in the way of sinners 10. nor sit in the seat of the Scornfull 20.9 Arise O Lord God and lift up thy hand forget not the poor put thâ—m in fear O Lord that the Heathen may know themselves to be but men for the ungodly walk on every side 12.9 when they are exalted the children of men are put to rebuke O Lord thou canst do whatsoever thou wilt both in heaven and earth For heaven is thy seat and the earth is but thy footstool Yea the earth is thine and all that therein is the compass of the world and they that dwell therein O Lord Psal 24.1 by thy Word were the heavens made and all the hosts of them by the breath of thy mouth c Be thou exalted Lord in thine owne strength so shal we sing praise thy power for ever and ever Amen Sect. XCIII The Gospell's Law VVEll might our Saviour say that he came not to destroy but to fulfill the Law For the Gospell of Grace is so far from taking away the obedience of the Law as that it addeth to our obedience and is severe against the affections as the Law against the actions of evill making it theft to covet our Nâ—ighbours goods and murther to be angry with our Brother adultery to look upon a Woman to lust after her Mat. 5.22 Ecl. 12.20 and Treason to curse the King though but in thought 1 Thes 5.22 Esay 2.18 Math. 12. restraining not only from evill but from all appearance of evill condemning not onely the Cart-ropes of sin but the cords of vanity taking a strict account not onely of every wicked but idle word nay our wandring thoughts also Sparke 93. O dear Father thy law is a perfect law converting the soul It is no eye-service that can please thee but thou requirest truth in the inward parts Good Lord as thy Gospel is a new law adding perfection unto perfection So create in me a new heart and put a right spirit within me that my thoughts being undefil'd may please thee my words being seasoned with grace may praise thee and my actions being sanctified by thy spirit and proceeding from the holy motions thereof may glorifie thee To whom be all honour praise and glory for ever Amen Sect. XCIV Vertue is in action GOd infused not the soul of man into a lump or block or such a body as was unfit for motion but into such a body as had legs arms hands feet eys and ears to shew that we must not be idle but work with our hands labour with our feet instruct with our tongues and mark with our eyes Spark 94. Lord let me not be given to idleness but be diligent in my place and painfull in my calling getting my living either by the sweat of my browes or my braines that thou mayest not finde me idle all the day long but working either in thy field or thy vineyard and doing alwayes that which is just and acceptable in thy sight through Jesus Christ Amen Sect. XCV Passe
Sparke 99. O dear Father that art one God true and constant in all thy wayes and unchangeable yea a jealous God and a consuming fire grant that I may be true and constant in all my wayes not having a shew of godliness and denying the power thereof let me not become half a christian like Agrippa but grant unto me the love of thy servant John the heart and constancy of David the zeal of Phineas the boldnesse of Peter the resolution of Paul the patience of Job the perseverance of Joseph the courage of Joshua the earnestness of Moses and the constancy and integrity of my Saviour That so I may run the way of thy commandments and count it my meat and drink to do thy will Good Lord make me every day more fervent of thy glory more faithfull in thy service more fearfull of thy judgements and more sorrowful for my sins through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen Sect. C. The death of his Saints is dear in the Lords sight IT is not without great reason that murther is so hatefull unto God that the bloud of the slain crieth in his ears for revenge For if we respect the majesty of Goh himself what can be more odious to him than to see his own image defaced in his own presence or what can be more contemptuous than to kill one in his view which he loved so dear that he gave his onely son to dy for him Nay what more wicked than willfully to deprive him of life of whose life and safety God was so carefull that he numbred the haires of his head least one of them should perish Sparke 100. O Lord keep mee from bloud thirsty men give me grace to love thy image for thy sake and not to destroy that which thy hands have made and for whom thy son died Sect. CI. The beastly Man IT was not for nothing that the Poets did faine men to be transformed into the shape of some beasts for indeed we are worse in some things than beasts The drunkard is more filthy than the swine the murtherer more cruell than the tiger the wordling more subtile than the Serpent the cholerick more angry than the Wasp the covetous more greedy than the Wolf the adulterer more leacherous than the Goat Yea many beasts have exceeded us in vertue but we exceed all in vice Sparke 101. O Lord renew thy image in us and repaire our defects let us not any more with the Swine wallow in the mire of our filthiness Instruct thou us Lord and let us not be like horse and mule that have no understanding but keep us in thy wayes that we walk in thy wisedom through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen Sect. CII The Foolish Worldling and the wise Christian BOth will yield honour to man but diversely the one honoureth him that hath the richest garment and other externall ornaments glorious to the eye the other honours him most who is richly adorned within with wisedom and good qualities For as the world respects the outward man so do the chil of the world And as God respects the inward man so do the children of God For if a man be vain outwardly he is like unto the world and therefore the worldlings will honour him but if he be good inwardly he is like God and therefore the godly will reverence him Spark 102. O Lord grant I may give tribute to whom tribute honour to whom honour worship to whom worship and fear to whom fear is due through Jesus Christ Amen Sect. CIII Faith's feeding Some Creatures by the providence of God are said to live in the air as the Chamaeleon some in the water as Fishes c. some in the earth as Wants and Wormes c. some in the fire as Salamanders c but hope is such a creature that is not tied to any one Element but hath free liberty to comfort and refresh her self upon all these As first upon the aire and light of heaven For how can we see the sun and the rest of those glorious Planets to set and rise every day and not be confirmed in our hope of our own resurrection Secondly upon the fire which we see covered and buried at night in the ashes like our bodies in the dust and in the morning to be kindled with a little dry straw which may assure us that â—hough now the dust doth cover our bodies as it were for a night yet the joyfull morning of our resurrection will come when our bodies shall be quickened and lightened again with the candle of our soul through the power of our Saviour and the fiery force of the holy spirit that we may shine as bright lamps in his house for ever Thirdly is not our hope much sustained by the water which now we see to decrease and ebbe within few hours after to flow and fill again all those empty chinkes and channels which of late were dried up and so to revive them with a new floud and fresh current and shall not those empty veynes of our bodies and those holy arteries of our flesh at the spring-tide of the resurrection by the powerfull blowing of the Southern wind of Gods spirit be filled again with bloud and the spirit of life Fourthly shall we observe the earth to bring forth all things committed unto her and not hope without doubt that she will one day likewise deliver up our bodies committed to their trust and that much more glorious than she doth any corne or seeds which she keep but for lesse than a year Let us not think it therefore unlikely for our vile bodies to be made glorious seeing that fine paper is made of foul rags and pure glasse of the ashes of ferne yea of a heap of dry bones faire and stronge bodies and life given unto them with a blast of winde Ezek. 37 For could God create all things of nothing and can he not work his own will in his own creatures could he fetch light out of darkness as it were out of a grave can he in the womb of a woman of a little bloud frame a body distinguished with so many and sundry instruments as that it may go for a little world and within the space of some few dayes add lifâ— unto it And can he not restore the body that hath been so to what it was Can he quicken us in the womb of our mother and can he not receive us in the womb of the earth Can we fetch fire out of the flint and cannot he fetch us out of the earth 1 King 17.23 2 King 4 32 Acts 9.40 23.10 Could Eliah and Elisha raise the widow of Zareptha the Shunamites children Could Peter raise Tabitha and Paul Eutychus and cannot God their Lord and ours raise both them and us Sparke 103. O dear Father 1 Pet. 1. which by thy great mercy hast regenerated us to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Chrst from the dead 1 Tim. 3. Rom.
5. to the end that being justified by his grace we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternall life which hope maketh us not ashamed I humbly beseech thy Fatherly goodness to illuminate the eyes of my soul that I may clerely see what the hope of those is Whom thou hast called to the incorruptible inheritance of thy glory And as thou hast in many of thy workes printed the true character of our resurrection so fix fasten the same for ever in the heart and soul of thy servant that I be not as a man without hope either of my own glorification or of theirs that sleep in thee 1 Cor. 15. that in the end this body of mine being renewed and to my soul in farre more glorious manner reunited I may in the society of Angells being co-heir with the glorified Spirits shine as the Sun in glory and be fully united unto Christ the true Son of righteousness and the first fruits of the resurrection And let this holy meditation and the hope to enjoy that full and perfect contentation so possesse my soule and senses that it may be my thought my pleasure delight labour and care to attain to that perfection through Jesus Christ Amen Sect. CIV God's wayes are not our wayes THere is a Speech of Socrates greatly commended by St. Augustine De consens Evang. l. 1. c. 18. Vnumquemque sic câ—li oportere quomodo ipsum colendum praeceperat that is Every god was to be honoured as he himself had given in Commandement which sheweth by the judgement of a Heathen that no man must serve his God after his own lust but after Gods Law not after our owne reason but after God's direction Least otherwise the Lord cry out upon us saying Who hath required this service at your hands For is it reason that we should serve an earthly Master after his own will and not serve God after his owne Law Therefore certain it is that our good meanings in Gods service makes not alwayes our doings good neither is our Zeal a rule whereby we may measure out either our faith or good workes but only the known will and pleasure of God There wanted not a good intent or meaning either in the Isralites when they made a golden Calfe Exod. 3.24 or in Nadab or Abihu whâ—n they offered strange fire or in Saul when he spared King Agag or in Vzza when he put his hand to hold the Arke or in Jehu Levit. 10. when he would needs joyn the worshipping of Jeroboam's goldens calves with the worship of the true God of Israel Sparke 104. O gracious Father as in our godly endeavours we intend thy service and not our own so grant good Lord that in the doing thereof we may alwayes have thy will for our warrant thy law for our levell and thy commandments for our direction Give us grace dear Father to shun and avoid all those things be they never so good in mans sight which thou either hatest or hast no pleasure in And that we be not blinde servers of thee running after our own inventions grant us true understanding and knowledge of thy word which is the glass of thy will that seeing therein both thy will and our own weakness we desire thy grace to perform that which thou hast commanded us through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen Sect. CV A Caveat for the Demas's of our dayes THat Caveat of our Saviour to his Disciples should be his Saints care namely to endure to the end that we may be saved Mat. 10.22 and so to run that we may obtain and not to look back with Lots Wife or to faint in our journey or be weary of well doing For to what purpose is it that the Marriner sayls prosperously and obtaines a rich prize if he sink or suffer Shipwrack before he arrives at the haven of his own home That a Christian be laden with many Craces and obtain the rich pearle of the Gospel and be fairly imbarked for heaven if afterwards he suffer Shipwrack of his faith What availeth it a Captain to march hotly with Jehu to fight manfully with Jonathan if he turn his back with Ephraim before the end of the battaile For us to encounter Satan if we suffer him to sâ—yle and conquer us If the Souldier shall fly forth of the field revolt from his Captain forsake his colours run from his company and turn to the enemy he disgraceth his profession disableth himself for the Trophies of honour and meriteth condigne punishment O Lord we are thy souldiers the Church is our field Christ Jesus our Captain thy word and Sacraments are our colours the communion of Saints our company he that shâ—ll fly forth of this field revolt from this Captain forsake these colours run from this company and be found fighting under Satan's conduct dishonoureth his christian profession depriveth himself of the Crowne of glory and incurreth the danger of God's heavy Judgement For if we have given our names to Christ served in his camp 2 Tim. 4 9. 2.17 taken pay in his wars and yet play the carnall Apostates with Demas the Hereticall with Hymeneus and Philetus the scornfull with Julian the Emperour the spightfull with Alexander the Copper-smith their remaines small hope of receiving any comfort by the bloud of the Lambe and Christ's eternall Sacrificâ— but rather extream terrour in the expectation of his fearfull sentence small probability of being cleansed in his precious bloud but rather a sore possibility of being devoured by a violent fire For he onely that fights the good fight finishes his course 2 Tim. 4.7 and keeps the faith can expect the Crown of righteousness Sparke 105. O most mighty and mercifull God which art able to give more than we can deserve or desire for thy tender mercies sake keep me poor weakling and unconstant waverer from the shame of backsliding and defend me from the dreadfull sinne of Apostasie Keep me by thy power that I fall not restore me by thy mercy when I am fallen preserve me by thy grace that I never finally fall away take not thy holy spirit from mee but establish me with thy free spirit that I may be settled and confirmed in thy truth that being effectually sanctified in thy Kingdome of Grace I may be eternally blessed in the Kingdome of Glory Through the merits and mercy of thy sweet Son and my sole Saviour Jesus Christ our Lord Amen Sect. CVI. The Christian Weather-Cock Psal 65.7 THe wavering Professor is not unfitly compared unto the waves of the sea Esay 17.12 It is the Lord that stilleth the raging of the sea and the madness of the people So delighted with novel ies so full of alterations is the fickle faith and the temporizing profession of the palsie shaking members of the Church that there be no waves so restless no winde so mutable Acts 28. no creature so changable while the Viper hung upon Paul's hand he
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 OR SPARKES OF THE SPIRIT BEING Motives to Sacred Theorems and Divine Meditations By a Reverend Father of the Church of England This book of the Law shall not depart out of thy mouth but thou shall meditate therein day and night that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is writâ—en therein c. Josh 1.8 London Printed for Edw. Thomas at the Adam and Eve in litâ—le Brittain without Aldersgate 1658. TO ALL True Protestants especially to the Religious Knights Esquires Gentlemen and all others his loving Country-men in the County of Glamorgan and to all their vertuous Ladies and Wives A. D. wisheth health and happines both here and hereafter Honoured Sr. THe Prince of the air is assisted with no smal armies of spiritual warriours who are for their number Legions for their power Lions for their feircenes Dragons and for their subtilty Serpents who have made such a Pestilent advantage in these kingdomes by our late great distractions factions and fractions I mean not onely those Heresies of old which the Ebionites Chiliasts Gnosticks Donatists Eunonians Marcionites Nestorians Valentinians Montanists Novatians Sabellians Maniches Arrians Eutychians Patripassians Jacobites Arminians Monothelites c. held but by these late upstart Tat-poles of our times who go under the notion of Seekers Shakers Quakers Ranters and the like who are of yesterday-standing as I may say and know nothing that God be mercifull unto us and our times I fear me there were not more bodies when Christ came possessed with ill spirits than souls are now with odd ones and yet not one but pretends he hath the spirit but I am sure it is rather that spirit that tempted our Saviour in the Wilderness than led him thither Aecebolius his ghost haunts them they have been in religion wrong and right and right and wrong again it fares now with Religion in England as with her in Plutarch who having many Suiters when every one could not have her to himself they pull'd her in pieces that so none might have her using her no better than the body of that Harlot which was chopt in pieces flesh and bones and cast into all the quarters of Israel these men I say dare and do call their private conceits the Spirit This is the speciall errour with which St. Augustine long ago charged this kind of men Tantò sunt ad seditionem faciliores quantò sibi videntur spiritu excellere by so much the more prone are they saith he to kindle schism and contention in the Church by how much they seem to themselves to be indued with a more eminent measure of spirit than their Brethren Therefore let every good soul beware of these devillish deceivers for they are the greatest and the most pernicious quacksalving Juglers that ever the earth did bear or hell hatcht These false Prophets have Linsey-wolsey garments intus linum subtilitatis extra lanam simplicitatis demonstrant the subtile thred of deceit is with inside but the plain web of simplicity with outside their inside is of Fox furre their outside of Lambs wool Quaenam sunt istae pelles ovium nisi nominis Christiani extrinsecus superficies All these Sheep cloathing are nothing else but precise titles of holiness and outsides of Christianity And as Sathan the Prince of darkness oftentimes transformeth himself unto an Angel of light so these his children quote Scripture for their practise using fair vizards to cover their foul faces but yet dealing with Scriptures as Chymicks do with naturall bodies torturing them to extract that out of them which God and nature never put in them Scripture is a rule which will not fit it self to the obliquity of our conceits but our perverse and crooked discourse must fit it self to the straightness of that rule but as it was in the Lacedaemonian army all were Captains so it is with these all are Doctors and as he that bought Orpheus's Harp thought it would of it self make admirable melody how unskilfull soever he toucht it so these men suppose that Scripture will sound wonderfully musical if they do but strike it with how great infelicity or incongruity soever it be it booteth not let every good soul beware of their pernicious wayes For as St. Chrysostome saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 new ways are no ways Old wine and the old way was ever held the best Gentlemen I am neither worthy of note nor noted the consideration not only of your greatness but goodness hath emboldned me to dedicate this learned Piece to your gracious Patronage and Protection not doubting of your favourable acceptance being your honoured Ladies have already vouchsafed to his eldest Brother The Protestant's Practise so gracious a Patronage it were the highest ingratitude a most heynous and horrid kinde of unthankfulness to bury in oblivion their unmerited favours and to judge your honours so uncharitable to a poore Orphan and a younger brother so worthily descended having so excellent a spirit indu'd with a Benjamin's portion as to deny your Favour Patronage and Protection unto him but being more than confident of your goodness herein I heartily commend you all to the Protection of the Protector of us all and humbly take my leave and rest Your servant in all Christian commands ATHANASIUS DAVIES To the courteous READER READER THose that honour God God will honour and so will all good men do but such as forget him shall go into the land of forgetfulness and shall have their portion in that infernall lake which burneth with fire and brimstone Look therefore in time before he on the pale horse comes who is the childe of sin the father of confusion and the Pursivanâ— of Hell Consider well how oft thou hast provoked thy Maker stirred up his anger deserved his displeasure and a thousand wayes done evill in his siâ—ht and that not ignorantly but presumptuously not weakly but wilâ—ully and not fearfully but impudently who when thou erredst did reduce thee when thou wert ignorant he did instruct thee when thou wert negligent he did correct thee when thou stumbledst he did stay thee when thou wert fallen he did raise thee when thou stoodst he did strengthen thee in all thy affaires he did direct theâ— in thy trouble he did help â—hâ—e in thy dangers he did deliver thee waking he did enlighten thee sleeping he did watch thee sinning he did suffer thee and praying he did hear thee how canst thou then forget him who remembreth at all times in all places by all means ever every where and every way in thy journeies by his conduct at home by his safeguard in thy Prayers by his assistance in thy afflictions by his comfort in thy board by his bounty in thy bed by his protection and in all thy wayes by his support who doth by outward means and by secret inspirations invite thee unto him beating continually at the doore of thy ears by his words and at the doore of thy heart by his spirit suggesting
my soul and with all my strength and because sweet Father I cannot love thee e 1 John 4.20 whom I have not seen except I love my brother whom I see dayly I beseech thee that I f Levit. 19. may love my neighbour as my self and that I may love thee above my self that neither tribulation g Rom. 8. nor anguish nor famine nor nakâ—dnesse nor life nor death may be able to separate me from the love that I have unto thee in Christ Jesus That I may forsake b Mat. 10.81 Father and Mother Wife and Children and leave all and follow thee Sect. X. Of Christ's Passion O Sweet Saviour The Patient's Pattern we finde that most true which the Prophet Jeremy spake in thy person when he said My grief is above all grief For all thy five sences had no small taste of grief As the feeling vexed with the sharp nails wherewith thou wast pricked Thy hearing with the opprobrious termes wherewith thou wast blasphemed Thy tast with the vineger and gall wherewith thou wast fed Thy smelling with the filthy spittle wherewith thou wast besmeared and thy fight with that wicked crew by whom thou wast abused nay there was not one part in thee left untormented that might be afflicted For thy head was grieved with thornes thy hands and feet with the nailes thy back with the whip thy heart and side with a spear thy whole body with grief and nakedness and thy soul with heaviness Thus wast thou tormented in every part for me that have offended thee in every member giving mine eyes to behold vanity mine ears to listen to folly my tongue to speak blasphâ—my my throat an open sepulcher my hands the instruments of wrong my feet swift to mischief my heart to all wickedness and my whole body to uncleanness Spark 10. O most m rcifull Father behold thy Sâ—nne who did endure this for my sake q Isa 53. behold him that hath suffered and of thy goodnesse remember him for whom he hath suffered Behold his humble hands and forgive the sins which my harmefull hands have committed Behold his gracious eyes thâ—t never affected p 1 John 2.1 vanity and so give the wickedness that my greedy eyes have delighted in Behold his chast ears that never were attentive but to goodness and forgive my sins in hearkening to lewdness Behold his deep wounds in his mercifull hands and forgive the sins of my idle hands Behold his feet which never stood q Psal 1.1 in the way of sinners and make my pathes perfect in thy tract Behold how his side became bloody his bowels dry his sight dim his countenance pale his armes stiffe how his feet hung and his blood ranne in streams to the ground O Lord spare me for whom he hath spilt his blood O good Lord my sins were the thornes the nailes and the spear that wrought such a passion in him and shall such a passion work no compassion in me Shall not so powerfull a passion that wrought remorse in the Sun in the Moone in the Earth in the vail of the Temple in the dead bodies and in the very stones d Mat. 27.51 52 move me to pitty thy pains for whom thou hast suffered for thou diedst not for the Sun nor the Moon nor the Temple nor the Earth nor the Stones but for me Man and for my salvation thou camest down from heaven and wast made man crucified and buried therefore I will praise thy name for ever with the best member that I have Sect. XI Of our Filiation The Affinity of the godly BY Grace we may not onely call God our Father because by Christ we are his adopted sonnes but because we are also his creatures and the works of his hands For we call them rightly fathers which give their being to their children I mean which immediatâ—ly are the cause that their children hâ—ve substantial bodies and they are called sonnes to those men of whom they receive body and blood being and beginning Now as we have the substance and originall of our corruptible bodies from our earthly Fathers so have we our soules immediately from God who is our heavenly Father so that God by creation is the Father of us all and we his sonnes and as all those are termed brethren which receive their bodies and beginning from one man so may all those be well called brethren that receive their spirit life and soul from one God So that God both by Creation and Redemption is the Father of us all and all of us are brethren and look how much the soule doth excell the body so much the more farre doth our heavenly Father excell our earthly Father and so much doth our fraternity in God excell our brotherhood in man For without comparison God is more properly to be termed a Father in respect of the soul than a carnall Father is in respect of the body because the body in comparison of the soul is as nothing For a man is a man in respect of his soul and the body hath his being onely for the soul in respect therefore that the soul is the chief thing in man it is evident that God from whom it cometh is the chief Father So that every man is more the son of God than he is the son of his carnall Father because he receiveth this principall part immediately from God Nay which is more man receiveth from his carnal Father but some part of his body for he receiveth part from his mother yea both his Father and Mother are but the instrumentall cause in generation for God is the principal in the generation of the body and the onely and sole cause of the soul for man receiveth his soul onely from God not in part as his body from his carnal Father but wholely and entirely Now therefore seeing we are called sons more in respect of our soules than in respect of our bodies it followeth that we are brethren in respect of the soul more than in respect of the body for in respect of the body alone bruit beasts have a fraternity as well as we but not in respect of the soul because they have none properly So that it followeth that we are all rather to be tearmed brethren bâ—cause we receive our immortal souls immediately from one God created after his image than those who but in part and imperfectly receive their bodies from one and the same carnal Father therefore look how much more dear our soules are than our bodies unto us so much more dear ought God to be unto us than our carnal Fathers and our love to men as they are our brethren in God more than as they are our brethren in the flesh And if we be induced to love honour fear reverence and obey our carnal Fathers of whom as instruments we received but our bodies and those but in part then how much rather ought we to fear reverence love honour and obey our spiritual
Royalty THough the Lord shares so liberally with man that of all his Creatures he reserved but the least part to himselfe yet in most things he will have us to acknowledge him for our cheif Lord and of every thing to pay him something as his chief rent and royalty As of our time the seventh day of the trees of Paradise the tree of knowledge of good and evill of all our increase the tenth of our generation the first born of our Corn the first fruits of his people Israel the tribe of Levi of all Cities Jerusalem of all mountaines Mount Sion of all the sons of Ishai little David of all women the blessed Virgin and of all the members of our bodies the heart Spark 52. O King of Glory how liberall doest thou deale with us and how niggard are we in repaying thee For how many a thousand thoughts have we conceived and not one of them in remembrance of thy goodness How many thousand words have we spoke and not one of them to the praise of thy name How many thousand deeds have we done and not one of them for the setting-forth of thy glory Good Lord as thou hast given me all things saving thy glory so for thy glory give me of thy grace that I may acknowledge thee Let my heart be alwayes inditing of a good matter that my tongue may be the pen of a ready writer Psal 45 and my hand diligent in well doing and open unto the needy through Jesus Christ Prov. 12.30 Amen Sect. LIII The earthly Planet AS the Bridegroom the bright Son of happiness and Lord of life is often compared to the Sun of heaven so his Spouse the Church doth often resemble the Moon For as the Moon hath all her light from the Sun so the Church from Christ And as the shadow of the earth doth somtimes hinder and Eclipse the Moon that she cannot shew the light of the Sun the which she received so our sins like earthly shadows do hinder and debar us oftentimes from giving thanks and glory to God for what we received and to shew the same to others giving him the glory from whom they proceed But as that good Planet the sun faileth not to give light continually unto the body of the Moon and to all inferiour bodies though sometimes it seems to be eclipsed in regard of us so the glorious Sun of Righteousness doth never fail to give light unto his Church and his Elect here on earth though by reason of the black cloud of our sins he seems sometimes for a while to be absent from us And as the Moon will not utterly fail by any Eclipse that can happen though to our sight is be almost quite darkened so the Church of God can never faile nor fall clean away but shall ever be a Church world without end being grounded upon a sure Rock Jesus Christ being the chief corner Stone Spark 53. O most glorious Sun of Righteousnes and the bright day-Star of grace and glory vouchsafe we beseech thee to lighten our darknesse by thy holy Spirit and to shew us the pure light of thy countenance by shining in our hearts and souls Let thy holy word be a lanthorn to our feet and a light unto our paths disperse all the black clouds of ignorance and errours that may Eclipse the light of thy holy Spirit from us be thou alwayes with us unto the end of the world and pray unto the Father for us that our Faith may not faile Marry us unto thy self for ever that though we seem sometimes to have a faile yet we may never fall finally from thee which art the way the life and light for ever Sect. LIV. The Sympathy of Christ's Passion O Sweet Saviour work in me that pitty of thy paint that the Creatures had at thy Passion For then the Sun was darkned the earth quaked the temple rented the stones cleaved and the graves opened And yet thou didst not suffer for the sun nor the earth for the graves the temple nor the stones but for us men and our salvation Shall these be amazed at the pungs and we not moved at thy pains Sparke 54 O Lord let the wounds of thy hands cause a wound in my heart The nayles of thy feet prick my conscience Thy Vineger and Gall draw tears from mine eyes Thy bloudy side cause me a bleeding Soul And thy paines cause in me sorrow and passions Sect. LV. The eyes Imperfection SOme can see a mote in their brothers eye and not so much as a beam in their own such was the Pharisee that prayed with the Publican Some again can see a mote in their brother's eye a beam in their own such was Peter when he denied Christ and wept And Paul who counted himself not worthy to be called an Apostle There be also some that espie beames both in their own eyes and in every bodies else such are they that know themselves in conscience to be bad and therefore think every body else to be so Such was Pharaoh that thought God's people to be idle because he was idle himself Some again see no mote neither in their own eyes nor in others such are blinde Atheists and loose Liberties that think that every man may do what he will Some again can see two beames in their own eyes and a beam in others such was Judas and Cain and such as see their own sin so great that they despaire of Gods mercy For though they judge others to be great sinners yet they think their own unpardonable Sparke 55. O Lord blesse me from such a sight For Lord if I offend thy Justice by transgression yet let me not offend thy mercy by disperation And yet give me grace alwayes to see the beam in mine own eye and to take it away that then I may the better see the mote in my brothers eye Sect. LVI Our Credite once Crack't c. VVE have need to have Gods Grace to guide us every minute in all our actions For we may commit in an houre such a fault as will be a blemish to us in a whole age Noab was but once drunk yet is ever spoken off David but once in Adulterer yet his fact never forgotten Adam but once tasting of an apple yet his posterity smart for it to the worlds end Lot once committing incest with his Daughters yet his fin is notorious for ever Lots wife turning but once back to Sodome yet an example for ever Peter but once fallen yet his weakness perpetually noted Sparke 56. O Lord let thy Angels guard me thy grace guide me thy word direct me and thy spirit preserve me that I neither stirre nor nor start waver nor wander out of thy path Lord keepe me as the apple of thine eye and as the fignet on thy right hand that all my thoughts may be of thy goodnesse all my words to thy praise and all my works to thy glory to whom be all glory and goodnesse
will of an Almighty power Therefore good Lord we are compell'd to believe and confesse that the holy Bible is thy Book and not the work of any creature First Because those things which are written in many places of the holy Bible are written in such a lofty stile with such an extraordinary phrase and with such supernatural matters as are above the capacity and nature of men wholly yea beyond all humane knowledge understanding or imagination So that it is impossible for men to conceive or imagine such words much lesse to know or to write them of themselves without the direction of an all-wise God For such words as are written in the Bible could never be understood thought upon or so much as once imagined by the wit of man much lesse laid down in writing For what man was able to write conceive or imagine of that inscrutable mystery in the Sacred Trinity namely that there be three Persons in one God-head really distinguished into Father Son and Holy Ghost and yet these three to be coequal in dignity consubstantiall in nature coeternall in being yea all three Persons to be one and the same simple and indivisible God without body parts or passion Secondly Who could imagine that power to be three distinct persons which is the same in substance in essence in number in power and Deity surely flesh and blood could never reveal these things to Moses to Daniel to Peter to Paul nor to any other man A man might conceive perhaps as some Philosophers have done That God is One Simple and Indivisible but that this one God should be three distinct persons equal in all things is above mans reach Therefore he that caused this to be revealed and written was no lesse than a God that knoweth all things Thirdly What man of himself durst once say or affirm yea or imagine that God was made man That the Word was made Flesh That the Deity assumed the humanity And the humanity unto the Deity in one person united So that both Deity and humanity are and remain in one and the same person without confusion of natures so that one Christ is both God and man And this mystery done in the Second person in Trinity and not in the First or the Third Could this be the invention of any man's braine Could any deep sighted Philosopher either produce the like example in Nature or invent the same in reason can any carping Atheist of the subtilest sharpest conceive or imagine of himself how this should be therefore the Bible is the wisedom writing of God and not of men For if we should admit that men might know that it was needfull that God should be united unto our man-hood though none of themselves could be so wise yet who was able to say that it shold be so when it should be how in what place and by what means surely no creature neither good nor bad could imagine of himselfe An evill creature especially could neither say nor imagine it of himself because it was a matter tending unto the chiefest good and to the highest exaltation and greatest dignity of mans nature For now our nature in the person of Christ is exalted above all the Angells in heaven and therefore an evill creature could never imagine or think of so good and so great a benefit Neither could any good creature of himself or his own wisedome speak of these things Joh. 1. because no creature was able to know these things of himself Luke 1. If therefore neither a good nor a bad creature could write these of themselves then it must be that the Creator of all wrote them or if at least wise some good men wrote them yet they first received them of God Fourthly To adde more proof to this How could any man be ever able to write or to imagine that a young Virgin should conceive without a man and bring forth a man and yet remain a pure Virgin both before and after What man durst either say or affirm such a thing for a truth it being the contrary to nature and common experience Therefore good Lord as it was thy holy arm that wrought it so was it thy wisedom that revealed it and caused it to be written Fifthly To seal up all What man was able of himself to write of the begining of the world when it was made in how many dayes what were done in every severall day That man was made last For if he was made last of all creatures how could he have written either when himselfe was made or what things were made when he had no being except thou Lord hadst taught and instructed him how what to write Was Adam able of himselfe to know that that was the sixt day wherein he was created except thou Lord hadst taught him Who could affirm that the floods did overflow all the tops of all the Mountains in the world Gen. 7 20. and how many Cubits the waters did prevail above all Mountains seeing Noah and his family were in the Arke Could he measure it wh t height it was by Cubits if thou Lord hadst not instructed him Or who could be so bold so fond so foolish and so voyd of sense and reason as to write That so huge so firm and so faire a building as this world is shall be consumed with fire in a moment and that so suddenly the Elements should be dissolved and melt with heat and that the very same bodies of men that are now consumed to dust and ashes should rise again in the twinckling of an eye could any man know or imagine these things much less write of them but onely the Spirit and power that hath made and created them Seing therefore my Lord and maker the holy Scriptures have such Authority such threatnings such eternall promises such lofty style such extraordinary phrases such supernaturall matters so farre out of all creatures knowledge so strange unto all mens conceits and so far above their imagination Lastly seeing all other Books of the same subject are found to be erroneous the authors thereof disagreeing among themselves so many wayes And seeing the holy Scriptures could never be branded with errours or justly charged with enlargement in any line or leaf thereof though penned and translated with so many sundry instruments so farre asunder who then so blind or so blear-eyed that cannot see or acknowledge the Holy Bible to be thy Word or work alone Sparke 1. O gratious God and most wise Father seeing it is so manifest that the holy Bible is thy Book and of thy onely making a 2 Pet. 1.21 inspire into our hearts good motions that our delight may be in thy Lawes and that we may exercise our selves therein day and night b Psal 1.2 grant we may ever without doubt c Act. 28. â—4 or wavering believe it with all our heart and soul thâ—t it may be sweeter unto our mouthes than the honey or the honey-comb
and substance to our members it putteth us in minde that we received our flesh from man when we think of our heart which giveth vitall and naturall heat to our members it puts us in mind that we received our Soul from the living God Lastly when we think of our head that giveth sense and motion to our bodies it maketh us remember how that we receive in our last generation all sense and motion of grace from our head Christ And calling this to minde we must remember that every Christian is a threefold brother unto us First by man as having all of us our flesh from one and the same man Adam Secondly by God as having all our souls infused into our bodies by one and the self same God And thirdly by our Redeemer as having all of us that be Christians received all grace and good motions from one and the same Christ God and man Therfore we ought to love all as brethren in the flesh but love them the more as brethren in Soul but love them best of all that are brethren in grace unto us for whosoever is our brother in grace must needs be our brother in soul and body likewise And therefore a Christian is no half brother or base broâ—hâ—r Sparke 13. O Lord That we may be perfect grant that we may be born b Joh. 3.5 again of water and of the spirit And because our first generation in the flesh is foul and filthy lustfull and lawless grant we may d Rom. 8.13 mortifie the deeds of the flesh by the spirit and subdue the rebellion thereof O Lord beget us again in thy Son e 1 Joh. 5.1 Joh. 3.3 Christ after thine own f Ephes 4 23 24. Image in righteousnes and true holiness of life O Lord grant that as the first Adam by his flesh g 1 Cor. 15.22 corrupted all thy children so the second Adam by his flesh may save all thy children Good Father seeing we are made h Gen. 1.27 by thee and i Joh. 3.3 born again of thee let us have no strife between us for our Fathers sake because we are brethren grant us to love our brother whom we see daily to love thee whom we have not seen least otherwise we be judged of thee to remain in death and counted as k 1 Joh. 3.14 15. Murtherers and man-slayers Therefore give us grace to love our Christian brother more for his father's sake for his own sake for Christ's sake and for thy Image sake than our brother cosen or kinsman in the flesh For by this love towards our brother we shall be known to be thy l 1 Joh. 2.3 disciples Grant us therefore sweet Jesus that we may follow thee as thy Disciples m Ephes 4.11.2 and as dear children walking in love as thou hast loved us and given thy life for us Grant this O Father for thy son and our Saviours sake Jesus Christ Amen Sect. XIV Christ our chiefest felicity VVE count him most happy The feliciâ—â— of the faithfull that hath all things at will wants nothing then most happy are we that are in Christ for he is all in all unto his servants For if we have wounds and would have them cured he is the best Phisician If we be wronged our Master is most just If we be poor our Master is Lord of Heaven and Earth and will not see us want If we fear death he is life If we would go to heaven he is the way If we be in darknesse he is the light If we desire to be nourished he is our meat If learning he is wisdome If strength he is power No marvell then though David had rather be a door-keeper in the house of such a Master than to dwell in the Palaces of Princes Sparke 14. O n Mat. 8.20 sweet Jesus thou wast poor q 1 Cor. 1.5 Luke 1 to make me me rich Thou wast stript stark naked to clothe my nakedness Thou hast spilt thy precious r Mar 15.46 Math. 26.28 blood to make a plaister for my putrified wounds Thou becamest a t Phil. 2. â— servant in earth among sinners that I might be made a King in heaven among Saints Sweet Saviour I honour thee and humbly embrace and kisse the wounds of thy hands and feet I esteem more of thy Crown of thornes thine hysop thy reed thy spunge thy spear thy vineger than of any princely Diadem I am more proud of thy thornes and nailes than of all Pearls and Jewells And I account thy Cross more splendent and glorious than any Princely Crown Teach us O Lord to know thee as we ought for thou art the way the truth and the life without a way men walke not without a truth men know not without a life men live not Be thou therefore still the way for us to walk in the truth for us to stick unto the life for us to hope in For indeed thou art the way inviolable the truth infallible the right way the chiefest truth and the truest life grant we never wander from thee never hope but in thee nor never learn but to know thee our onely Saviour Amen Sect. XV. Of Christ's Passion O Good Lord A Soveraigne Salve why doth not my heart bleed for my sins to think how often my Saviour bled for them First being but young and tender eight dayes old when he was circumcised Secondly when he was condemned and scourged Thirdly when he was nailed and crucified on the Cross And Fourthly after his death his side was pierced and his very body wept water blood for my sins And Fifthly in his bloody sweat when every member wept and melted for me Sparke 15. O dear Saviour make me sorry that I am no more sorrowfull for my sinnes For if my teares were in quantity like the Sea If my sighes were like the smoake of a furnace If my sobs could pierce the hardest Diamonds and my wailings like thunder yet have I still cause to weep sigh sob bewail my manifold sins Good Lord make my mouth to be filled with thy praise my eyes with tears for my offences and my heart to bleed with sorrow for my sins O Lord by thy blood b Mat. 9 3â— heal the bloody issue of my sins and through thy precious blood wash and cleanse me from all my sins c 1 Joh. 1.7 that through the blood d Rev. 7.14 of that tender Lamb the garments of our filthy spotted flesh may be made white through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen Sect. XVI Of the holy Ghost's operation O Blessed comforter it was thy divine will to shew thy self to thy children in four sundry forms for our comfort and instruction First like fire to manifest thy love and power Secondly like a cloud to manifest thy pitty and compassion Thirdly like a Dove to declare thy patience and peaceableness Fourthly like tongues to shew thy wisdome and eloquence For as the
fire doth heat and warme all things and ascend upward so doth thy love warme our cold zeal and cause our hearts to ascend up to seek those things that he above And as the clouds do drop down waters to wash the filthiness of the earth so the grace of thy holy spirit doth cause often a cloud of sorrow for sins to arise in our hearts and so to dissolve into tears at our eyes Thirdly as the Dove is a mild bird void of gall so that Dove-like spirit the holy ghost would have his nest in our hearts that we might be meek as thou art meeek Lord patient and peaceable like the milde Dove void of anger and malice Lastly As the tongue doth exhort and perswade by the eloquence thereof so the blessed spirit of thee our God by appearing in the forme of tongues would have us to be exhorted and perswaded by the wisdome and eloquence thereof and not to build upon vain philosophy and humane wisdome Sparke 16. Gracious Father let thy good spiriâ— a Psal 143. lâ—â—d us into the lâ—nd of righteousnesse let it go still before us to give us as b Exod. 13.21 a pillar of cloud by day and as the pillâ—r of fire by night Yea let him still be the starre of Grace to direct us unto that blessed Saviour of the world â— Mat. 2.11 thy onely son Jesus Christ our Lord Amen Sect. XVII Our soules are not begotten by men THat principle which denieth the soule to be begotten from the parents The Soul's Pedegree needs no other proof than experience For if the soul came from the substance of the parents as the body doth the soul then of one man should be some kinne to the body and soul of another man his begetter and so one man would love the soul of his friend better than his body But we see by Experience that men are more carefull for the body of their children than for their soul for the most part and men will venter much to fetch the bodies of their friends out of prison or to save them from death but for the soul which is as it were Gods kinsman infused by him into us men are lesse carefull And therefore our Saviour Christ careing most for the soul which was most dear to him taught us â—wo petitions for the good of the soul and but one for the necessities of the body which is the petition for our dayly bread Sparke 17. Good Lord grant we may love both in our selves that which thou best lovest and hate which thou hatest r Mat. 6.10 O good father from thâ—e we have received this soul and living breath Å¿ Gen. 1. by which we breathe we commâ—nd it Lord into thy carefull t Psal 31. hands deliver it good Lord from the ungodly and comfort the souls of thy servants And let our u Luk. 1.46 souls magnifie thee Lord and our spirit ever rejoyce in thee our God and Saviour The very God of peace sanctifie us throughout w 1 Thes 5. and I pray God that our whole spirit and soul and body may be kept blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ Amen Sect. XVIII Love admits no excuse IN man's reason we may finde some excuse for omitting any duty but love for there is no excuse for our defect in love For there is no charges no weariness no labour no pain nor no grief in loving yea it maketh all paines and labour to seeme sweet and delightfull For the hunter for love of his game will travell all day without weariness And herein appeareth the sweetness of God's mercy and the greatnesse of his liberality towards us which would not tye man to that which was heavy laborious and wearisome buâ— to that which was most pleaâ—ant and â—asie Sparke 18 O sweet Lord true it is that thy q Mat. 11 30. yoke is easie and thy burden light Lord make us to love thee and thy truth more than all thy creatures yea more than our goods more than our friends d Mat. 10 37. more than our flesh more than our selves our soules and our bodies And seeing thou hast given b Gen. 1.28 29. us all things for thy service Lord give us a heart to love thee above c Psal 119. all with all our hearts with all our strength with all our mind and with all our soul through Jesus Christ Deut. 6. Amen Sect. XIX The love of God and the love of Mammon The Soul's Solace THere 's no proportion between the love of worldly things and the love of God For from the one must needs follow sorrow from the other continuall joy For all things in this world are mutable coâ—ruptible Therefore as often as the object or the thing we set our love upon doâ—h either perish change or vanish so often must it needs be a grief unto us to lose it that we loved â—o well But if God â—e the object of our love and the thing we best affect then must we needs have continual joy and never sorrow For we never sorrow much but for the loss of the thing we love most Therefore if God be the object of our love and marke of our affection our joy can never decay for God can neither die nor perish nor be changed nor be wanting but is alwayes present to our wills alwayes sufficient to our desires alwayes omnipotent to our wants alwayes loving alwayes mercifull alwayes most good most pleasant most just most wise and most glorious Therefore the object of our love never failing our joy shall never fail No marvaile then if with God there is everlasting joy and never dying happinesse himself being the object of our love and cause of our joy For seing all our love ariseth from God and all our joy from our love therefore both our joy and our love will endure so long as God endureth Sparke 19. O Lord God the onely Lover and Saviour of our soules let us not love the world nor the things that are therein q 1 John 2. Good Father thou that best knowest the deceitfull baits of this alluring world let us live in the world and not love the world If riches r Psal 6 10. encrease let us not set our hearts thereon If honours be heaped upon us let us not be delighted therewith If pleasures do tempt us let us not be enamoured therewith x Mark 10. But let us love thee Lord with all our heart with all our soul and with all our strength Let us never love father mother brother sister nor friends more than thee lest we be not worthy of thee y Psal 5.12 For they that onely love thy name shall be joyfull in thee b and they shall prosper that love thee Therefore Lord let me love thee above all and love all in thee and for thy love Grant this O Lord for Jesus Christ our sweet and onely Saviour Amen Sect. XX.
The mean is best Vertue 's Chayre O Lord thou hast often by thine own example encouraged us to follow the meane and to avoid vices and extreams For first in the blessed Trinity thy place is in the middle room In our Redemption thy place is a middle room for thou art the mean between us and thy Father In thy Fathers congregation thou hast the middle room for for thou art that middle Arch in Gods Church that doest couple together Jew and Gentile The place of thy birth was a middle roome the heart of the world The time of thy birth about midnight Thy passion not farre from mid-day The place where thou suffâ—redst a middle roome between two Theeves one upon the right hand and the other upon the left Thy peaceable abode after thy rising from death in the middest of thy Disciples Therefore Lord there is no fitter place for thee to dwel in me than in my middle which is my heart made to be thy seat and thy holy Temple Sparke 20. O Lord I beseech thee to dwell in my q Eph. 3.17 heart by thy holy Spirit Let every vertue be a middle room in my heart for thy gracious self to lodge in and grant that I never decline from thy Commandments either to the right hand or to the left x Prov. 4. Let my faith Lord be a meanes to apprehend thee and thy merits and be thou still a mean to reconcile me unto thy Father y 2 Cor. 5. Rom. 5. Eph. 2. that being justified through thee we may have peace wi h God the Father To whom with thee and the holy Spirit in unity of Godhead be all praise and glory for ever and ever Amen Sect. XXI Crosses Christians coats IT is partly suspition The Christians Coat that they that at no time have crosses have at all time no Christ For indeed we find but few of God's children void of all trouble For either they are troubled in their reputation as Susannah was or crossed in their children as Ely was or persecuted by their enemy as David was or wronged by their friends as Joseph was or tormented in their bodies as Job was or restrained in their liberty as John was For indeed the good man is but as it were the but of the wicked whereat they shoot their sharpest headed Arrowes Sparke 21. O dear Father lay upon us any misery so it be in thy mercy any punishment in thy pitty r Jer. 10.24 Psal 6.1 correct us O Lord yet in thy Judgement not in thy fury least we should be consumed and brought to nothing t Job 2.8 O Lord if it be thy will to let us ly sick in the ashes with Job or imprisoned in iron with Joseph Å¿ Gen. 29.20 or persecuted with Enemies with David l 1 Sam. 22.1 or pinched with hunger like o Luk. 15. the prâ—digall son yet Lord be not angry with us for ever If heavinesse endure for a night let joy appear in the morning Grant good Father that we may with patience expect and see the blessed Jubilee of thy free mercy through Jesus Christ our dear Saviour Amen Sect. XXII A Christian the best Artist AN upright Christian is a Musitian A Salve for every sore a Physitian a Lawyer and a Divine to himself For What is sweeter musick than the witnesse of a good conscience What is better Physick than abstinence and patience What deeper counsell in Law than in having nothing to possesse all things And what sounder Divinity than to know God whom he hath sent Jesus Christ Sparke 22. O blessed Jesus let my musick be peace o Rom. 14.19 of conscience and joy d 14.17 in the holy Ghost My Physick the blessed potions and restoratives of thy precious blood My Policy to keep thy statutes And my Divinity to know Christ and him crucified and in the end with joy to behold him glorified for the merits of his bitter death and passion Amen Sect. XXIII Of spirituall blindness IT is most certain good Lord that spirtuall blindnesse is farre worse than corporall The borne-blinde For to want the eyes of angels is worse than to want the eyes of beasts for whereas the bodily blind is led by his Servant his Wife or his Dogg the spiratually blind is misled by the World the Flesh and the Devill Yea the bodily blinde will be sure to get a seeing guid but the spiritually blind followeth his own lust which is a blinde guid so falleth into the ditch The bodily blinde feeleth and acknowledgeth his want of sight and imperfection but the spiritually blind thinks no blame nor blemish in his sight The bodily blind supplieth his want of sight oft by feeling as Iasac a Gen. 27.11 did but the spiritually blinde though he feels the flashing yet never avoids the flame of hell fire To conclude the bodily blind accounts them happy which see but the spiritually blind despiseth the seers Sparke 23. O Lord open our blind eyes that we may see our wickedness and by our wickedness our weaknesse and by them both our accursedness For good Lord thou knowest that of our selves we are stark blinde For The naturall b 1 Cor. 2.14 man perceiveth not the things that be of God and knowes them not because they are spiritually discerned Lighten our eyes O Lord that we sleep not in Death Awake thou us b Ephes 5.14 from sleep raise us up froÌ„ the dead then give thou us light grant Lord that we may c John 12 35 36. walk while we have the light least the darkness come upon us Therefore Lord open thou the eyes of our understanding that we may believe in the light O good Lord seeing that we trust in thee that art the tru light d Eph. 4.17 18. let us not walk as other Gentiles blâ—nded in vanity of minde having their cogitation darkened and being strangers from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them But we being once darkness and now are made light in thee x Lord Psal 5.8 let us henceforth walk as the children of light that we may see perfectly and attain that eternall light in the Kingdome of glory through Jesus Christ Amen Sect. XXIIII The Drunkard the greatest Self-Enemy The danger of Drunkennesse OF all men the Drunkard is the greatest Enemy to himself A malicious man is a murtherer of himself The Prodigall man a Thief to himself The Voluptuous man a Witch to himself The Covetous man is a Devill to himself But a Drunkard is all these to himself Namely a Murtherer to his body a Thief to his purse a Witch to his witt and a Devill to his Soul Sparke 24 O Lord give me the spirit of Sobriety and grant that I be not drunken with wine wherein is a Eph. 5.18 excess Lord let me never make a god of my belly b Phil. 3.19 but ever be moderate
in my diet c Prov. 23.1 2. vigilant in my calling d 1 Pet. 4.7 and evermore wary that by surfetting and drunkenness I lose not my time e Eph. 5.16 spend my wealth f Eccl. 13. impair my health bring infamy to my name and calling and offend thy heavenly Majesty Oh spare me and save me from this Enormity through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen Sect. XXV A true Motion A Violent motion is quick in the beginning but slow in the end For a stone cast upward is then most weak when it is most high But a naturall motion is slow in the beginning and quick in the end Therefore when a man in his first conversion is exceeding quick but afterward waxeth every day slower slower in the waye of the Lord his motion is not nâ—turall and kinde but forged and forced Otherwise the longer he liveth and the neerer he runneth to the mark the more swiftly would he run to gain the Crown of Glory Sparke 25 O dear Father most gracious and wise God which hast ordained all thy creatures to avoid idleness Gen. 1. and to be alwaies in continuall motion giving and infusing into me such a soule as is alwayes in motion Grant I g may ever endeavour towards that which is before and forget that which is behinde and follow hard towards the marke for the high calling of our Lord Jesus Christ And seeing thou hast promised h 2 Tim. 4.8 us a crown of life if we continue to the end grant that we faint not i Gal. 6.9 nor be weary of well-doing but that we may so run that we may obtain k 1 Cor. 9.24 through Jesus Christ our dear and onely Saviour Amen Sect. XXVI Of Covetousness THere be foure kinds of Creatures that live each one upon that element in which he had his breeding First The miser's hunger The Want on the Earth Secondly The Herring on the water Thirdly The Chamelion on the Aire And Fourthly The Salamander on the fire But man being but dust of the earth is not contented to live on the earth the water the aire and the fire For his desire and unsatiableness is such that all these elements cannot give him content nor all the creatures that live thereon but if it were possible he would either go above the fire or under the earth to see if he could finde another element more than God made And therefore the Lord did wisely consider of our greediness when he hid so many treasures in the bottome of the sea and the heart of the earth least had they been within our view and easy reach we should make our goods our God fixing our hearts unto our treasures Sparke 26. O deare God and mercifull Father seeing only with thee is all plenty and no want q Jam. 1.17 all fullness and no scarcity all wealth and no poverty all solace and no sorrow all pleasure and no discontent I beseech thee Lord to establish my heart with thy r Psal 51.12 free Spirit to accomplish my desire with thy t Psal 145.16 bountifull hand and to replenish my soul with goodness of thy grace that I count u 1 Tim. 6 7 godliness to be the onely gaine and so to be content with what thou hast given me through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen Sect. XXVII Of Gods especiall Grace The growth of Grace AS the children of the bodily barren have been excellent pillars in Gods Church as Isaac of Sarah Joseph of Rachel Samuel of Anna John Baptist of Elizabeth So also they which have been begotten from spiritual barrennesse that is converted from a sinfull life have proved most famous instruments of grace as Zacheus from the world St. Mathew from the receipt of custome St. Paul from a persecutor to become an Apostle and many heathen Infidells to become glorious Martyrs for the crosse of Christ Sparke 27. O heavenly Father I confess unfainedly that I have been hitherto barren bearing but green leaves of outward profession onely and no efectuall fruits of a true faith Therefore Lord I beseech thee to dig and dung about me with thy grace and to water me with the dew of thy blessing that I may be like a tree planted by the water side which in due season shall bring forth fruits of land and praise to thy name Amen Sect. XXVIII Comforts for Women Women's wellfare LOrd what though I be a weak vessell and subject to many Infirmities yet have no cause to distrust thy help or despair of thy mercy and especially considering how compassionate and pitifull thou hast been to the weak sex of silly women John 8.11 as first to the unclean woman that wâ—s taken in adultery Math. 15. Secondly to the poore afflicted Cananite granting her request and commending her faith Thirdly Math. 9. to the sick diseased with an issue of bloud for the space of twelve years healing her with the hem of thy garment Fourthly Luk. 4.39 to Peters wife's mother whom thou didst presently heal of a languishing feaver Fifthly to Mary Magdalen whom thou hast freed from seven devills And to the two sisters Marye and Martha at whose pitteous moane John 11 thou hast raised up their brother Lazarus that had been four days in the grave Sixthly to thine own distressed mother by committing her being succourlesse to the guard and tuition of John thy beloved disciple Seventhly John 19. to all the women that wept when thou wentest to be crucified saying John 19. weep not for me Eighthly to the sorrowfull women that came to anoint thy body to the grave saying be not afraid you seek Jesus of Nazareth he is risen he is not here Lastly to a poor widow weeping for the death of her onely son to whom thou didst speake comfortably saying weep not and withall did'st restore her son to life Spark 28. O dear Saviour I am by nature in a more miserable case than all these were being but the unclean seed of my old seduced Grandmother Eve o Eph. 2.3 My condition is worse than hers having not onely d Psal 106. the seed of all sin staining the womb of my soul but also dayly polluting my whole body with all uncleanness and p 2 Chro. 6. actuall transgression Had the Adulteress Lord need of thy mercy so have I. For who f Prov. 20. can say my heart is clean Was the Cananite but as a Dogg before thee Alas good Lord without thy mercy I shall be more vile than a Toad in thine eyes Was her disease which the hem of thy garment did cure an unclean issue of twelve years continuance Alas sweet Saviour the issue of my sin did run upon me since I came from my Mothers k Psal 51. womb Ah! good Lord thou didst pitty the state of Peter's mother in Law having but a feaver and behold I consume away for fear of thy displeasure e Psal 6. my very