call to my remembrance his blood shed for to acquire for me life eternal By the receiving the bread and the wine I enter by faith into a community into the society of the body and blood of the Son of God I draw life I draw absolution and am clothed again with his innocence and with his Justice By the vissible receiving which I performe of the bread and of the wine I am assured that I am spiritually united to Christ and made a Citizen of the Kingdome of heaven that he hath bequeath'd me and possessor of eternal life which he hath given me and in eating and drinking the bread and the wine at thy holy Table I am assured my God that I Participate of the body and of the blood of thy Son which I truely receive by faith and by which I participate of the Treasures and Heritage which he hath acquired by his death and which he hath bestowed on his faithful servants When I receive the bread and the wine I receive not only the Elements which are the figures and sacred signs of his body and of his blood but I receive by faith and in spirit the things themselves which are signified and represented Not that the bread and the wine of the Eucharist communicate to me his body and blood but thy goodnesse my God Thy truth Thy majesty Thy vertue and the efficacy of thy holy Spirit communicate and reach forth this body and blood to my understanding and my soul to be spiritually eaten and drank by faith The bread and wine serving to this purpose being sacred signes of his Body and of his blood which should be eaten by the operation of his holy Spirit without understanding any thing therein of sensual any thing corporeal ☜ any thing carnal and without searching here below and in our corporal mouths His true body with it's proper essentials with it's inseparable accidents with it's quantity and dimentions which is ascended to the heavens and set at the right hand of God where 't is requisite that the heavens contain him even until the restauration of all things Thus Lord I seek the body of Christ in heaven Acts 3.21 by faith I celebrate in the holy Supper the memory of his Death and of his Passion I declare it I esteem it and magnifie it even untill he come and I receive it not with a carnal mouth and corporal throat but after a Divine manner Sacramentally under a signifficant mystery with the mouth of my heart and spiritually by faith By faith which is the substance of things hoped for By faith whereby I really embrace his Body and blood and which bring to passe that in the holy Eucharist I am made partaker of it By faith which is the vessel and the hand whereby I receive thy Graces And as Lord 't is by faith that the Lamb was slaine from the beginning of the world 't is by faith that Abraham saw the day of the Lord 't is by faith that the Galatians have had Christ crucified before their eyes 'T is by faith that the Gospel gives me at this present eternal life Also Lord 't is by faith that in the celebration of thy holy Supper His body and his blood are present and subsistent in my heart in my spirit and in my soul 'T is by faith that I embrace his body and suck his blood which distilleth from his wounds And by means of this Sacramental eating and feeding on the body of the Saviour of the world and this spiritual drinking of his blood I am made bone of his bone flesh of his flesh I am incorporated in him I draw by faith eternal life from his flesh broken for me and from his blood shed for me I live of Christ and in Christ I live of his Justice instead that I should dye of my sinne I am justified by him sanctified in him to be eniivened and glorified in him By this holy Sacrament I am also admonished of my duty toward my Neighbour in regard as we are ransomed with the same blood made members of the same body and Dependants of one and the same Head and consequently one among our selves and by the Commandment of God and natural duty We all draw life from one and the same death nourishment from one and the same food and the self same cup. Up then my soul 't is here where thou oughts to Anchor and fix thy cogitations stay thy course and cast thy eyes upon the love of thy God 'T is here that thou oughtest to supplicate that Divine heavenly heart who onely bestowes motion upon men That only pulse and life of thy being 'T is the only base whereon thou foundest thy hope to inspire in thee the ardent flames of his Spirit and turn into thy heart the generous boylings of zeale heate and ardour toward him to the intent that thou mayest be a worthy partaker of that holy Sacrament which is the most singular consolation the most effectual remedy and greatest guift which he hath communicated to his upon the earth It 's the entyre Summe and Soveraign abridgment of his benefits it 's the certaine token of his infinite love the true treasure of his bounty Lord Eph. 1.7 thou hast ransomed me by the blood of thy Sonne according to the rickes of thy grace which thou causest plentifully to abound over me Instructing me in the secret of thy pleasure Thou hast informed me that 't is the bread of life by the which my soul is sustained That 't is the true Vine whereof I am a branch The gate of Honour and the rich assent which conducts me to the mount of Glory Thou hast called me to the communication of his body Hast applyed his merits to me made me his Co-heritor partaker of his Riches enjoying his celestial heritage In time-past I was not of thy people but now am I of the chosen generation of the Royal Priest-hood of the holy Nation of thy purchased people To th' intent I should set forth and magnifie thy grace and vertue my God who hast called me out of darknesse into thy merveilous light Thy Sonne is my only sacrifice my only oblation my onely Holocost by the vertue and merit whereof the heavens and all the treasures of heaven are open to me 'T is the onely remedy of my sin the onely spunge capable to efface my crimes 'T is the Sanctuary the Assillum of my salvation my heritage the joy and the Divine chaine sufficient to rayse me from these miserable places 'T is the tongue of succour who undertaketh my defence 'T is the sacred Anchor which stayeth my vessel and secureth it from ship-wrack and the prosperous Gale which freeth and delivereth me from the depths and Gulfes of the world If the food Lord which will sustaine me but one day obligeth me to praise thy Fatherly goodnesse how much more ought to be excited and enflamed my Devoyre to render thee thanks for the bread of life and for
surprise us hell attends to torment us within it's horrours and the dreadful gulph is prepar'd to open his jawes eternally to consume us in his flames Meditations upon Repentance MY Soul Jerusalem the heritage of the Lord the beloved City hath transgressed she was not cleansed from the pollution of her feet neither hath she been mindful of her end wherefore she hath been rendred desart solitary and a prey to the Gentiles My soul Corah Dathan and Abiram for not having obeyed the Lord Num. 16 were punish't by the earth who opened her jawes and swallowed them in her gulph Mat. 24.25 The servant supriz'd in debauchery is punish't separated and ranck't with hypocrites Mat. 25.1 And the Virgins for being but a little separate from the Bridge-groom have found the door for ever clos'd against them These are the Judgments pronounc't by the Word of God who is High Penetrating and Effectual These are the Judgments pronounc't against them who stop their eares at the voice of the Saviour of the World Mat. 4.17 Who cryeth on the Earth amend you for the Kingdome of God is at hand Act. 3.19 Mat. 3.7 Amend you and be ye converted that your sins may be effaced Fly from the wrath to come bring forth fruit meet for repentance My soul be apprehensive then of the judgments of God Consider of thine own salvation apprehend so many new plagues which from the incensed heaven thou beholdest tumbling upon thee Consider so many woes that environ thee and such numberlesse fore-runners of future miseries Prevent the vengeance of God by humility and penance that so thou mayest not be prevented by his wrath Imitate the humble Dove who creeps into the bottome of the shrubs beholding afar off the ravenous Eagle cutting and dividing the aire with his wings and hasting to surprize her Fill the aire with thy sighths and regreates for thy vices even to the very bitternesse of thysoul cast forth cryes of displeasure and repentance demean thy self as altogether dejected altogether wasted perfectly penitent even at the foor-stool of the Lord spread forth thy hands toward his mercy addresse thy voes and most ardent supplications unto him to divert from thee the flames of his wrath and to appease his indignation Importune thy Saviour with so many plaints with so many sacrifices of praise thereby to shake the Sword out of his Hand Force the Kingdom of heaven and ravish it with violence Mat. 11.12 whil'st a means of reconciliation is open and be careful not to procrastinate till the day when the door shall be most securely bar'd Go to then my Soul defer not longer make hast to cover thy head with ashes and lamentations cause to distill tears of acknowledgment of thy sinnes and raise up thy meditations on high to avoid thy Destruction Retire thy self from the presse of the World and dispose thy self as the Pelican who seeketh the least frequented the most solitary places Come out of Babylon and follow the way of the heavenly Jerusalem propose for a pattern Jacob Abraham Moses Elias who retired from Mesepotamia from Caldea from Egypt and from the Court of Samaria Imitate the great Legislator of the Hebrewes Moses who separated himself from the multitude and went to the Mountain of Sinai the more freely to converse with God My soul be not like the inhabitants of Corazin and Bethsaida who shall be more rudely handled in the day of Judgement Mat. 11.21 than those of Tyre Sydon and of Sodome for that they were not reformed at the Word of the Lord. Contrarily immitate those of Hierusalem Mat. 3.5 of Judea and of the Country about Jordan which ran unto St. John who prepared the path of the Saviour of the world Oppose to the Justice of God his proper succours oppose the bloodshed by his Son oppose thy prayers thy vowes thy fasting and thy repentance He had decreed the sacking and ruine of Ninivâ— yet notwithstanding as soone as thy had bewaild their faults he suspended his decree sanctifie then a fast my sonne rend thy heart with teares and lamentations in the presence of thy God Returne unto him He is mercifull he is pityfull slow to anger and abundant in kindnesse In ancient times by a perpetual Ordinance 't was expresly commanded to his people to celebrate a fast on the tenth day of the seventh month which was the solemne feast of Propitiations He had ordained them to afflict their souls and to refrain from labour For as much as the Priest made a propitiation for them to the end they might be clensed from their sinnes in his presence This day my soul is the feast of propitiations to thee wherein 't is thy duty to be converted to the Lord. Imitate then the people afflict thy self masserate thy flesh with watchings and fastings to the intent thou may'st be the more strong and cry with the Priests who wept betwixt the Portck and the Altar Joel 2.16 Pardon me my God and expose not thy Heritage to Reproach Lord I lament before thee I seek by amendment of life to take a resolution to follow thee I humble my self I abase my self to attaine even unto the heavens But Lord for to approach to thee it 's requisite I retyre altogether out of my self and that I can no way effect without the succours of thy hand Lord the very Angels tremble in adoring thee and I wretched and abominable sinner manifest no token of astonishment I quake not I have not an humbled heart nor eyes drowned in teares I much desire it my God I heartily wish it but it 's impossible without thy grace For if thou Prevents not the wicked by thy compassion he can never amend A man revolted and slip't into disobedience returns not unto thee without the conduct of thy spirit Enlighten them Lord my soul by the operation of thy holy Spirit prevent its cold and slothfulnesse Pierce it with a thousand stings and thousands remorces of conscience to the end he may discover his malady unto thee and that to thee he may make his heat and anguish appear to obtain remedy Lord thou art the wise Pilot of my squiffe tottering at the mercy of the waves thou art not ignorant of the stormes and the floods that batter this fraile vessel thou art the bright and shining lanthorne which must be the Bear-star in all extremityes to guide to direct this poore Barke on this raging Sea Guard me then from ship-wrack rebuke the winds who mutiny against me and confederate together are set against my sayles Strike from the highest heaven one considerable stroke to engrave in my heart the lively impressions of the love of thee and to dispose my spirit to thy service Open my eyes as thou did'st the servant of Elisha encline my eares to thy Word arme my conscience against my flesh and make to arise out of this stone a childe of Abraham Mine iniquities are now against thy pleasure but then shall my
forbear to aggravate my torments regard my afflictions and my travel and forgive me all my offences Lord I suffer in my groanings I mingle my Couch with my tears I am pierc't with afflictions on the bed of languishing The earth is not capable to deliver me out of this extremity The heavens alone have the glory of the medicines that are requisite for me Make hast then to come to my deliverance my God who doth dayly comfort me in my distresse and shelter me in all my stormes Lord I am afflicted that I cannot depart more than that I cannot live But good God who hast freed from death the great Shepheard of the flock by the blood of the perpetual Covenant turn thy compallionate countenance towards my torment and cause it to shine upon me in joy and in salvation Lord thou hast instructed me to understand my end and what is the wretchednesse of my dayes But good God since thou hast ordain'd that I must die cause me to depart in thee that Imay live again I have sinned my God I have displeased thee I have a thousand and a thousand times every day provoked thy fury but thou art the God of my deliverance I am washt I am sanctifi'd I am justified by thy grace in the name of Jesus Christ who hath taken my sorrowes upon him and charged my offences upon himself I am a fellow-Citizen of the Saints of thy Houshold I am built upon the foundation of the Prophets and the Apostles Pardon then my sinnes Lord in the name of thy well-beloved Son correct me not in thy displeasure neither chasten me in thy fury have mercy on me that am destitute of strength I beseech thee my God in the bitternesse of my Soul in the words of the Propher David Lord heare my request and make my supplication come unto thee Hide not thy face from me in the time that I am in calamity encline thine ear unto me in the day that I cry unto thee hast thee to answer me for my bones are dryed as an hearth and they cleave to my flesh by reason of my groaning and my time vanisheth away like smoke and as a shadow which passeth away and as for me I am become withered as the grasse Lord I said once again with David Eternal reprove me not in thine indignation thine arrowes have pierc't me and thy hand hath overwhelm'd me there is no entire part in my flesh there is no rest in my bones by reason of my sinne for mine iniquities are gone over my head and are too weighty as â—n heavy burthen above my strength I am bowed down and swerve beyond measure I am weakned and bruised more and more Lord all my desires are before thee and my afflictions are not hid from thee Forsake me not my God be not far from me hast thee and help me All my hope is in thy mercy Lord thou hast spoken by the mouth of thy Prophet Esay I have heard thee in an acceptable season and succoured thee in the day of salvation My God now behold the agreeable time see now the day of salvation Be thou now Lord my Rock and my Fortresse be thou my Deliverer and sure Retrait The snares of death hath surpriz'd me destruction hath environ'd me but I lift up my self to thee my God hearken to my supplication from thy holy place and let my cry enter into thine ears Give me by thy free mercy the wages and entire reward notwithstanding that I entred not into thy Vineyard till at the close of the day shew me thy sight give me life eternal after this fleeting languishing and cransitory life and assure me of heaven to the intent that the grave swallow me not up for ever Grant me my God that when the Saviour of the World shall appear I may appear with him in glory Grant me that I may accompany that infinite number of thine which shall be before the Throne cloathed in long white Robes holding Palms in their hands and that I sing with a loud voyce with them salvation is of our God who is set upon the Throne and of the Lamb. Wash my garment and cleanse it in his innocent blood to the end that I may eternally serve thee in his holy Temple wherein I shall never suffer hunger nor thirst that I be no more molested nor distemper'd with the Sun nor with the Winter nor with miseries my tears and my pains wip't away with thy hand O Lord I am at the last gasp of my life in the agony and shadow of death to thee I direct my latest vowes my last words All my actions have not been better than vanity in respect hereof Good God arme not thy self with vengeance against me I render to thee my penitent Soul deploring languishing which savours of nought but earth and dust to which this carcasse shall be incontinently reduc't I oppose my cryes my tears my requests my plaints and my groans against my condemnation and my fall Let the confession of my mouth the contrition of my heart cause thy Sword to tumble out of thy hands let my gasping move thy goodnesse magnifie not thy power and might against a languishing attenuated immoveable carcasse against withered grasse laid on the earth expecting nought but to be driven away by the smallest blast I am at my end I neither have more power nor heart to offend thee but I may still serve thee to publish thy elemency the foundation of my hope and thy bounty the spring of my life I am thine from the Cradle thou hast sanctified me I have been redeem'd and ransom'd by the blood of thy Son who died innocent to give life to the guilty by the blood of thy Son who must open to me the door of felicity I have my recourse to him I beseech thee in his Name It is not reasonable that my sinnes should violate me in so holy a Sanctuary Rouse thee good God a rise speedily the extremity of my affliction will not admit any delay to the end that these sinnes be not too powerful for me hearken to my prayers give me strength to prevail against these billowes that drive me off from the heavenly shoar hast thee to absolve me preserve in thy hands my Soul lest it remain a prey drive these sins our of thy presence which are the work of thine enemy and Lord pardon me that am the work of thine hands Lord I render praise for that thou hast made me capable to participate of the heritage of Saints in thy light for that thou hast delivered me from the power of darknesse and hast transported me to the Kingdome of thy well-beloved Son in whom I have deliverance and remission from my sins Lord I perceive the establishment of thine assistance I feel my self replenish't with thy Holy Spirit who effaces my transgressions and ravisheth my Soul even unto heaven to shew him the inheritance which the mercy of thy Son hath bestowed on me in thy presence O good God! how blessed shall I be to hear from thy Holy Spirit that the last of my dayes shall be the first of my repose that I am not farther from my satisfaction than the length of the last groan of my life I am approaching Lord to thy Throne of grace with assurance to obtain mercy by the vertue of my High Priest who hath compassion on my infirmities I am coming to behold thee face to face whereas now I discern thee but darkly as in a mirrour I am quitting these miseries for a fulness of delight from these dolors into the Mountain of Syon from this Militant to the Triumphant Jerusalem from this World to the City of the living God I voluntarily cease to live on the Earth to survive in heaven I contentedly part with this wretched life for that which is most happy I chearfully quit my self to follow thee I abandon this carcasse and render my Soul into thy hands FINIS
in some degree it may supply the other Defects Disabilities and want of Industry which his Relation oblidges him to for your information and instruction in the perusal you cannot altogether regrete your pains nor remain unsatisfied with those reflections of your own Pure spirit whose motions are none other than restlesse actions tending to Holinesse and Righteousnesse the honour of God the comfort of Men that parallel 'twixt his sayings and your performances And if the generality of men overpasse this with neglect with contempt yet Providence when it shall be instal'd in your Oratory that Sanctum Sanctorum of unsullied Devotions your Closet may be pleased to move some curious eye who may collect some word some syllable that may faciliate his voyage to the City of my God this ensuing Treatise not onely weaning men from the World but gradually conducting them in the five subsequent discourses to life eternal through the gastly gate of death not dreadful though to worthy Christians but a rest from their labours at worst I may not altogether dispair but hereby to fix a more than ordinary impression on the spirits of the tender productions of our entire affection our selves multiplied who may as persons more nearly concerned in their parents acquisitions extract what may advance their eternal well-fare which if it fall out as my Prophetick soule whispers and suggests and my most frequent and fervent addresses to the Throne of Grace importune I am abundantly recompenc'd for my cordial intentions in thus exposing my self to the censure of this choice pallated generation But my best blest soul I may not longer detain thee from what 's more worthy thy consideration since it 's an effect of his singular regard whose terrestrial glory solely consists in what renders him the object of others envy that perfect and indissolvable amity he contracted with thee from that happy moment he had the peculiar priviledge and felicity to subscribe what he entirely is MADAM My Dearest Passionately Enamor'd onely with the title of Your most Affectionate More oblig'd Husband Peter Temple TO THE Reader I Hold it not impertinent to Advertise thee That notwithstanding the infinite number of excellent Treatises of this nature our Nation so abounding with persons famous in their generation that it may seem as Idle an Irregularity to addresse to this Forreiner as to imitate the extravagancies of his Nation yet the not too frequent perusal in the Original possibly out of curiossity remarking that in a stranger which I might have over-past in a Denizon so entertain'd otherwise but tedious and unpleasant houres with such an agreeable Conversation as encourag'd nay more obliged me thus to expose my self to an universal censure in this Publication so I might thereby Reluminate this glimmering yet glittering sparke of Divinity who in his native language as well as choyce subject is so proper so admirably excellent and insinuating that I never observ'd a more sad sober languishing yet becoming yea enticing countenance Portrayed by a more Judicious Pensil and in more flourishing not garish colours which hitherto notwithstanding never so much as warm'd our more Frigid climate and more than probable having served his generation through the Authours modesty In omitting his name or oversight of men is near extinct in his Native Country The subject is the most necessary Faith and Repentance Instructing to do to suffer The Active The Passive Posture of a Christian But I shall not longer detain you with a tedious Appollogy to so short a Collation yet dare I avow your entertainment both wholsome and not unsavory your only Infelicity is in being thus slenderly served and at second hand I wish I had no greater Frailties than my deffect in not perfectly comprehending the language of the Original Attribute then to him whose abilities reach't not his cleer intentions all over-sights and imperfections but what it may contract in the Presse and them alone besides some necessary variations that of 't sounding harsh in a forrain stile which is most exactly ellegant in it's Native Dialect It being the common fate of Translations to abate of their Primitive purity as the most-knowing can easily determine The rest I gratefully return to the memory of the Pious Authour whose worst fate 't is Thus to deliver his excellent conceptions by so insufficient an Interpreter his name questionlesse is regestred in heaven though obscur'd here I heartily desire you no lesse satisfaction I would say advantage then I reap't The same providence whose wayes are past finding out that directed it to my hand in the chiefest confluence of the most ellaborate pieces in the Courts of his desolate Sanctuary St. Pauls Church-yard moving your heart and if I be any way Instrumental herein to contribute to the consolation or information of any deprest dejected or gasping soul this being a most Rich Cordial for a fainting spirit he who only heareth all prayers and to whom only they ought to be directed and addrest hath after his accustomed mâ—â—â—full manner abundantly answered 〈◊〉 Fervent Potion of Your Companion in armes under the invincible banner of the ✚ P. T. A POST-SCRIPT IT may possibly prove no unseasonable Argument to the Reader that Lot urg'd for the rescuing of Zoar out of that doleful and general conflagration It 's but a little one spare it and my soul shall live For the same if no other reason peruse this let me thus excite such as happily imploy not their time alwayes more thriftily 'T is not tedious but doubtlesse of admirable use and comfort specially for such Reverst overwhelmed spirits who thereby may be establish't to attend to submit to the divine pleasure and not rashly give way to their extremities Inhummanly to precipitate them to the eternal destruction of their precious souls being a too frequent too deplorable remedy or rather such an immortal Barbarisme against themselves that their most malicious most cruel adversaries want gall to wish and abillity to effect ERRATA Page 7. line 14. read he is for we are p. 14. l. 22. add men before may p. 25. l. 1. after retrograde ad to heaven p. 34. l. 7. say that that p. 41. l. 17. r. their for her p. 43. l. 9. for layeth r. loveth p. 45. l. 4. r. of the add paths p. 46. l. 19. make a at selves p. 60. l. 24. omit he p. 75. l. 1. for feigned r. sayning p. 76. l. 15. make a at serve and omit that at manner p. 78. l. 29. for parke r. sparke p. 88. l. 3. r. victory for ministry p. 114. l. 6. r. in the extremity of my numberlesse afflictions p. 133. l. 10. make a at grave p. 158. l. 1. r. to take a greater in his Globe p. 168. l. 6. for so he r. as one p. 203. l. 14. leave out the first and. p. 206. betwixt the 12. and 18. l. you must 7. times r. her and she for him and he c. p. 215. for highly r. slyly A DISCOURSE UPON THE
vanity of our Cogitations are but two apparent and their end cannot be hid The covetous wretch hath but a little gold and land this Mallady is not folly 't is Rage all to him is too little and a little to him is nothing The Ambitious knoweth no Serene dayes the ferver of his desire causes him every moment passe his life in renewing deaths And in conclusion he enjoyes nothing but winde The voluptuous man has but little pleasure which glides vanishes away and forsakes him sooner than thought or instant leaving him nought but a Boysing ☞ but a sad Repentance and all three are so inchain'd so fastned to the world and yet have secret Vultures which without intermission gnaw and tyre on their Hearts Let us not then like them Establish our hopes on Humane things which are leaves moved with every blast Let us not pursue these vaine Grandures neither plunge our selves in these Delights followed with so sad so miserable a conclusion Let us steere our vessels out of Perill and not linger till the Tempest by force cause us make Port after ship-wrack Let us not longer be slack to our good considering that all is vanity which the heavens encompasse defacing and razing one of our hearts all the Tracks of the world establishing our assurance on the force and right hand of him whose firme support shall no way be able to frustrate our expectation Our Ornament shall be quite different to theirs and the fruit of our labour shall far surpasse them They heap up these earthly vapors and exhalations which as suddenly vanish They fill the ayre with their clamours and wishes they sow to the winde and reap nought but vanity and emptinesse They Build on the sand and their edifices fall to ruine They paint on the floods and the Traits of their Pensill disappears They are carefull of nothing but their fraile Bodyes and permit their souls the immortal seed of heaven to lye neglected They wallow in Mud and Dirt and come forth desil'd ☞ They search for Paradise in Honours in Riches in the world and find nought but Passions but paine and sorrows Instead of meditating of and assuring the life after these ashes they close up against themselves the passage of heaven In the course of their vanity they are cleere seeing Owles and of that which is above blind Molds They suffocate their Reason in their Delights and live as creatures that have not other care but for their bellyes Instead of transforming themselves to Angels they degenerate into Beasts They abase instead of exalting themselves in lieu of elevating continually their hearts on high they pronounce not the Name of God but with Blasphemies In stead of dreading the powerful effects of his puissant arme they have nought but their desires for Law And if they sometimes talk of God 't is not but like Paretts with their lips without understanding what themselves say and are deafe to their own proper voyces Let us not then follow this path by the which men march retrograde but contrarily not give rest to our eyes till we have discovered the true path walking by the way that tends to our Original Neither let us aspire to any thing but our felicity being still mindfull of our salvation Let us build on the Rock and on the Free-boord to the end that we may remaine firme as the Mount of Syon Let 's oppose our spirits to our flesh by a solemn Protestation consecrating our hearts our voyce and our hands to the Glory of the Chief Universal and the Principal cause of all beings Let our desires terminate in him that his fear may be a Curb to our follyes That in his love these springing passions may be extinguisht To the intent that we may hold in chief of Heaven and not so much as relish of earth Joyning our voyces to the sweet and melodious accents of those Divine spirits and beautifull soules which glitter in the midst of our Darknesse as stars in the night And ever be mindfull that our other chiefest agitations proceed from artificial and ridiculous causes but that our prime and universal obligation is that of God in which consideration we ought freely to engage all the estate and our lives Casting behind us the Idolatry of perishing beauties being obliged to trample under foot that lustre we so blindly adored It 's expedient to be effected that the delights of the world should be despleasant to us it behoveth us not like mad men to weave the web of our proper destruction and building our felicity on a basse of so short a duration and which resembles a flash of fire which is extinguish't as soon as kindled The riches of men are fleeting and subiect to be lost James 1.10 there is no assurance in their favours the rich with their enterprizes will fade as the flower of the grasse having great designs yet know not what shall fall out to morrow their life is nothing but vapour and smoke He lives in pleasure upon earth James 5.2 he abounds and satisfies his heart but his Riches shall corrupt his garments shall be moth-eaten his money shall rust and it's rust shall be a testimony against him and shall gnaw his flesh like fire His fields shall yield a plentifull encrease he shall gather goods for many yeares but in the following night God shall require his soul Let 's not then more labour after the food that perisheth Luke 12.20 but after that which endureth to life eternal John 6.27 Let 's follow the steps of Jesus Christ and push from us with detestation the enchanting voyce of the world leaving our nets in the Sea after the example of Saint Peter and Saint Andrew quitting the ship and Zebede in imitation of St. James and St. John following the Saviour of the world who summons us The graces of the Omnipotent are the greatest happinesse we can attain to Tim 6.7 He forewarnes us that we set not our hearts on the uncertainty of riches but on him who bestoweth all things plentifully He hath advertis'd us Tim. 6.7 that covetousnesse is the root of all evil makes men wander from the faith and envolves them in many sorrowes Go to them ☞ let 's call to mind that there 's no felicity but in him and that none but his love is Permanent He hath caus'd the earth to yield fruits to nourish our Fathers he by its dayly productions releeves us after them and will effect it by his goodnesse that it shall still bring forth to sustain our Posterity He who hath satisfied five thousand mē with five loavs two little fishes Mat. 14.19 will ever supply us with means sufficient to pass the rest of our time which he will have us to live upon the earth The men of the world have their Heritage in this life their bellies are satisfi'd with food their children are glutted and leave the over-plus to their little ones They imagin themselves rich
waste not their labours on the furrowes of the World but to cause them to fructifie to his glory God alone is praise-worthy God alone merits to be engraven on Brasse for a perpetual remembrance all other things are unconstant subject to change and perishable He alone is fixt in his essence only he who giveth Law to the disorders of the World Let us supplicate him to root out our crimes and plant thornes in our hearts which may pierce us in a thousand places to enforce teares to flow out that are agreeable in his sight Let 's trust only in his goodnesse and not longer rest on the vain pillars of our delights which may render us lost for ever under their ruines Let 's not love the World nor the things of the World Ephes 1.5 Joh. 2.15 If any man love the World the love of God is not in him The World vanisheth with the covetousnesse thereof ☞ but who doth the will of God shall abide for ever The Judgment of God against the Wicked with an Exhortation to retire from vice and sinne THe Heaven and the Earth shall passe away but the Word of God which is living and more sharp than a Sword shall continue for ever He hath uttered with his mouth that he will cause the grave to swallow the ungodly quick and will stretch forth their carcasses on the bloody dust and scatter them under the power of his thunder-clap That His calamity shall come suddenly upon them that they shall speedily be bruised and that without hope of remedy And certainly in time past the horrour of the sinnes of our fathers caused the floods to overwhelme them so that none were reserved but one family and lately our crimes have drawn a deluge of blood upon the universs so that the plague devoures what hath escaped the Sword and the Famine the remainder of both And neverthelesse in lieu of raising up trophyes of glory to the honour of God which causeth the earth to move according to the pleasure of his powerful hands we continually more enkindle the coals and flames prepared for the perpetual punishment of our crimes Every day renders us culpable of infinite abominations every houre we designe some cursed work our feet hast to evil our soules entombe themselves in sinne we even crack under the burthen and weight of our transgressions which otherwhile we are acted in the shadow and at present have abandoned the night and being altogether impudent discover themselves in the light In a word we bend our browes against heaven we provoke the tempest of God as if we had armes of proof against his artillaries and plunge our selves into these iniquities like mad beasts stupid and uncapable of judgement which cannot cover our faults with any excuse For we know that God is in every place remarking and noting our offences that this eternal light spreads it selfe and in the twinkling of an eye penetrates all the laborinths of the World and observeth both that which is open and secret our bodies and spirits our vices their causes and their progresse We understand that our course is too slack to avoid the stroakes of the Swords of his Angels who glide too and fro through the aire where his Word directs them and that our walls are not strong enough to sustain the violence of the flood who at his voyce will bound from Rock to Rock and bear away in a moment our Bridges and our Shoares he hath heretofore consumed by fire entire Nations for their abominations he hath manifested the severity of his judgements on his people his well-beloved the first-born of his Family In our dayes a Nation Anciently the most Noble of the World not onely in Armes and Arts Greece but also in the Christian faith is made a slave to an infidel who ravisheth their children from betwixt the armes of their Christian parents This then said of France may well be applied to us ☞ and causeth them to be circumcised in his Mosque's And for our own particular we behold that to punish our extravagancies he hath arm'd our malice against our selves We see our Land drunk with the blood which flowes on our Plaines Our fields cover'd with cockle Our Cities are infected with a pestilent aire We observe the hand of God weary to stay his thunder in the racks of the sky to preserve us that we be not reduc'd to dust and yet notwithstanding we are as a sea of vices agitated without intermission and which can obtain no repose We abandon our selves to the pursuit of crimes which we adorne with the glorious titles of vertue as if they were not sufficient of their proper and natural impetuosity to allure us with a breath moist and infected and from an execrable mouth we belch forth curses and blasphemies which corrupt the aire and earth sad to be cover'd with such derestable Monsters We belie those promises which we have imprinted on our browes each one breaths forth mischief delights in it glories in it and impudently boasts of it And as the young Eaglets issuing from under the wing of her Dam incontinently wageth war with the Serpents and as the Lyons whelps the first time they quit their cavernes attach the Bulls which they encounter after the same manner from the very spring of our age we precipitate our selves with displai'd ensignes into the most furious crimes One le ts loose his eyes to adulteries and pursues it like an Oxe to the slaughter or as a bird who hasteth to the snares This man ever burnes with vengeance neither is he nourished but with flesh nor quenches his thirst without blood and hath not other pleasure but to paddle and imbrew his hands in the hearts of them he esteems as enemies and oft-times as an ungrateful Viper rendeth the flanks of his expiring mother in like sort seeks he the destruction of him to whom he is signally obliged receiving his condemnation from the example of the sparrow-hawke who having held a sparrow under his wing to foment and heat his breast he restores it to it's liberty and hasts as far from it as he can at one different flight to the intent he may never imbrew his beake with that flesh from whom he hath received a benefit In a word our fathers have enkindled the wrath of God upon themselves and us and we have forc't it down on our persons and our posterity We sleep as entomb'd in our vices although that vigilance were more requisite for us Charity the glittering mark of Christians is extinct in our dayes ☜ and not so much as one alone takes thought for the poor who are the creatures of God as well as we who are under the same vault of heaven and upon the same Globe of Earth One layeth a false ballance and hateth equal weights ☜ and nothing can touch the heart of this man neither fear of God nor reverence to his Lawes can restrain his ravening hands In brief such are our offences
that we are obliged to banish the discourse of our abominations as dreading to publish such things as the eares and thoughts of men ought not to receive as likewise men may judge what may be our hidden crimes when those which appear are so enormous It then remaines to call to remembrance the excesse of our vices and how far this feavour hath transported us It rests to observe the heat of our passions to conceive a just hatted to take leave of them to discharge them for ever and to detest the very thought of them if it be not to demand pardon for them It 's a shame to make such slender profit of the wonders by the which heaven calls us to repentance and notwithstanding so many advertisements to behold our selves groveling in vices and so corrupt in our behaviour When stormes and tempests arise the Pesants tremble they assemble themselves they make vowes every one for the conservation of his cottage and his little Field When a clamour of fire is in the City every one runnes to quench it the weak contribute their cries the children their sighths And when the wrath of God is ready to tumble down on our heads when the plague is already begunne we stand immovable one arme is already rotten before the other stirs the body is in the agony of death before the spirit is awaked Go to then let 's consider of our wretchednesse let our cogitations tend to our advantage let 's be active in the reformation of our vices let 's draw our feet out of the of iniquity let us with strength expectorate these crimes these plagues these poisons and not hence forward suffer that the heart recoile let us have them in horrour let 's convert our rage upon them let 's tear them with wrath let 's vow an irreconcileable enmity against them and constraine our hands to wage war upon them Let us for the future love God with all the faculties of our soules let 's contain our selves within the limits of our duties within the bounds of our subjection let 's not again precipitate our selves into the abismes of rebellion Let every one that bears the image of God be pure from such imaginations It 's the fairest ambition to the which we can direct our vowes 't is the best Inheritance and the most Eminenst Nobility we can enjoy The pure soules detesteth vice their whitenesse flies such ordure their beauty feares the touch of their hands If any lost man shakes not off the yoke of Satan who forgeth a thousand wiles to ravish him from heaven if others proceed as the reed which shooteth forth a long and strait blade at his first springing but afterwards makes frequent knots as pauses which declares him languishing and out of breath for that let not us lose courage let us not quit our strength let 's not easily abandon our felicity These are Worldlings fil'd with vapours which at first display their puissance and advancing tire themselves at every step abating some part of their strength and then one may also receive instruction by contraries as by examples by flight as by pursuit In hearing an unskilful player touch an harp one may learn to nautiate discords and false measures Let 's abandon these worldlings to the dreadful judgment of God Who shall exactly collect their vices and rigorously chastise their offences ☜ Whil'st in the interim the fear of punishment which ought to humble them remain continually imprinted in their guilty memories The Image of gloominesse never retiring from their eyes They shall ever have a Judge to attend them a million of afflictions which shall stuffe them with despaires and hells which shall tyre on their hearts which shall pursue them in their flight which shall watch over their slumbers and shall constantly accompany their wretched lives Punishment derives its original from sinne ☜ this World hath nothing secure but innocence which we ought to cherish which we are obliged to embrace as our infallible Rudder as our assured Anchor But if our vices still survive in us if they spring in our hearts if we grow obstinate in our offences if the experience of impunity multiplies our evil inclinations or if the scourge hardens us God will take vengeance of so many out-rages he will declare himself to us in his fury he will compel us to acknowledge his omnipotency he will convert judgment into severity he will scatter the bonds of our impiety he will render us confused in our temerity He will thrust his sharp sickle in the Field so over-grown with brambles with stinking and loathsome weeds and will over-turn in the mire by Pestilence by the Sword by Famine so many bastard-seeds and unpleasant in his sight In his fury he is the generous Lyon prick't forward by his force which redoubleth his fierce roarings over his enemies He is the untamed Bull who casts forth his affrightful bellowings and under the horrour of his stern look overthrowing for ever into obscurity those who are obstinate in their offences He is the Omnipotent who hath terrours by his side death in his hand and who darteth on the wicked the fire of his just vengeance He defeates in the twinckling of an eye the Batallions of men and causeth to graw the earth the most Ancient of all the Monarchs and most August Kings and who merit a principal place in the Register of the glorious Caesars with the like facility as the smallest and most infirme and inconsiderable of the world We have felt we have proved the weight of his arme But what we have beheld is but the first act our eyes have shed Rivers of teares Our Theaters have distill'd all with blood the bowels of the earth have been torne up on every side to receive our carcasses the Divine Justice engages it selfe against us on all sides to our destruction and yet these are but the prologus to the rigour of the horrible Judgement of the living God if we prevent not his severity by amendment of life He is all goodness all mercy all clemency He sufficiently demonstrats with what regreat he layes hand on the sword or fire He never proves the last remedyes he proceeds not to the rigour of chastisements till after he hath tryed all other expedients but his backwardnesse is seconded with extreame afflictions and punishments That which men enterprize against heaven he causeth to recoyle upon them Whosoever striketh against God he will there finde such solidity that the repercussion will tumble him down shattred like an earthen Pitcher Whosoever precipitates himself into that encounter there sinks and ordinarily perishes before that he hath enterpriz'd it Let 's not then flatter our selves not then be drunken then let 's not slumber whil'st that God spares us Let 's not expect till for conclution his arme fall heavy upon us till he trouble and consume us as slaves of iniquity and of Satan The Master that is not obey'd by his servants but outraged out of spight
am the prodigal child famish't covered with raggs I have sinned against thee embrace me my Father Extinguish with thy hand these burning Torches which consume me these fire-brands of desolation these so abominable crimes To the intent that these chaines of my captivity being broken I may recover my liberty in thy grace to my salvation to the glory of thy Name and the confusion of Satan Lord my end is certaine if thou stanch'st not the blood which streams from my wounds Banish me not from my presence turne no thy countenance from me with-draw not thy clemency which sheweth it selfe after thy displeasure and which should not be of use if men lived innocently Drive far from me that cursed spirit who from the beginning separated thy creature from thee Chase away that old enemy whose ambushes are so prom't and whose assaults so rude Adorne and Decke my heart with the spoyles of my sinnes dispose me to walke with thee from the dawning facilitate my teares and fill me with a desire of my salvation Cause me to forsake all mundane contagion and plunge me in the pleasant streames of a holy and a peaceable life give me an esteeme of this chast and ravishing penetence which opens me a passage into thy holy habitation which may bury my transgressions and swallow my vanities under an eternal oblivion Lord I lament bitterly before thee I poure forth my teares of complaint which without drying drench my soul in bitternesse and dissolves it in displeasures I present my self to thee with an humbled and frozen spirit a soul afflicted and touch't with true repentance Receive then my God this penetent sinner be thou apt to pardon destroy not thine own worke Approach unto me my God cause to wither in me this multitude of plants of perdition who produce these fruits of iniquity and helpe my Mallady without indignation Manasses prostrated himself before Idols he profaned thy Altars yet never the lesse he being converted unto thee and repenting his impieties he appeased thee Thou delivered'st him from the hands of the Assyrians and from the fetters wherein thou had'st caused him to fall and returnd'st him a glorious King commander of Palestine And I Lord I present thee my homage with a contrite spirit stifle and choke not then my heavynesse and my life Exercise not thy power on me to my destruction who am thine cause not to descend on me thy punishments from heaven stigmatise me not with an eternal infamy but open Lord unto me the gate of thy mercy Dan. 10.12 and give eare to my supplycation as thou did'st unto Daniel from the first day he afflicted himself before thee Thy coming was to call sinners to repentance Luke 5.32 Thou commandest thy Apostles to go unto the lost sheep Mat. 10.6 I am of that number cause me then in the midst of this displeasure to experience thy comiseration Luk. 8.24 the Tempest is descended on the lake my bark leakes I am in hazzard awake thy self my God rebuke the wind appease the waves and make it calm By the example of Daniel with fasting sackcloth and ashes I addresse my face toward thee Thou strong Thou great Thou terrible God I have sinned I have committed iniquity I am estranged from thy Law Lord to thee belongs Justice to me confusion but mercies and compassions are likewise from thee Turne away then thy displeasure and indignation hearken to my supplycations and cause thy holy Spirit to shine on thy desolate servant I belong to thine election I am an inheritor of the merit of thy Son and have my lot and portion in heaven Regard me then Lord in him for in his countenance in his wounds thou canst not deny me pardon The father defers till the last to cut off his members He weeps he grones in severing them Thou art my Father good God suspend thy stroaks restrain them have compassion on my ashes who am lesse then ashes and of the lees and scum of the world Purifie them after such a manner that they be not annihilated let them not be forsaken of thee who have deserted thee If they be reduc't to nought thou canst not extract glory from them for in nothing nought is found but nothing it self I say not my God that thou hast created these eyes to make them endure so much and to dissolve themselves into streames For Lord their eye-lids have exalted themselves against thee They are the reason that thou assistest me not farther with thy favours after such a manner that they ought to distill into teares untill they have encountered the port of thy clemency which now files them and with-drawes it selfe away from their sight Lord wilt thou be stedfast in thy wrath wilt thou wage war with an earth-worme wilt thou regard the weight of my offences and not that of thy goodnesse I am guilty of errours and crimes but I am cover'd with ashes and teares I am a sinner but created with the sweet and fragrant breath of thy mouth I am cover'd with offences but thou art the Father of grace the Father of salvation the Father of compassion and in saving me thou conservest the work of thy hands in blessing me thou repleatest thy selfe with joy and delight Receive then Lord my prayer that it be not lost and vanish into ayre Hearken to my mouth and my throat which consumes with crying and give eare to their groans Give remedy to that distemper whose birth I ought to avoyd stretch forth and abase thy hand here below to succour me drive back by the powerfull motions of thy browes the plagues which threaten me Speak unto me as unto the Paralitick and save me by thy grace I resemble blind Bartimeus Mat. 10.47 who lifted up his voyce to thee and redoubled his intercessions equal to their reproofs and rebuks to the intent he should hold his peace My offences by the brute of their obscure gloominess will drowne the cleernesse of my voyce but being fortified by thy holy Spirit I take courage I reinforce my self and attaine the victory Mat. 5.1 Lord thou hast expelled Legions of unclean spirits out of their bodyes who presented themselves before thee Chase then from the those offences which I cannot tame drive away these miseries which by a divine vengeance vissibly torment me Lord glory not in thy Puissance against me to make thy self Renowned Display not thy force against me since with one glance of an eye thou may'st discomfit me neither can I sustaine thy presence Rifle me dart thy flames from heaven I acknowledge I have deserved more The World But Lord this great City would become desolate if nothing should remain is' t but what thou would'st absolve in the severity of thy justice and thou art the pitiful Father who givest more terrour than stripes and delightest rather to restore than to destroy Thou hastest to receive the cryes of one penitent sinner if he repents himself thou pardonest him and as he addes
infused into him all the treasure of those merits which he acquir'd on the Crosse is conferred on thee by the communion of this holy Sacrament of his Supper which is the Fountain of spiritual sweetnesse by the which God nourisheth sustaineth and conserveth the life he hath confer'd on us in Baptisme and hath united us unto himself making â—s as saith Saint Paul flesh of his flesh bones of his bones and members of his proper body But my God all times are ever present with thee thou mindest not the past nor attendest the future Thou watchest over my cogitations thou art the Judge of my intentions nothing is hid from thee all things to thee are naked and entirely manifest my heart is fast closed in my breast but my bosome is not other than glasse in thy sight and thou beholdest Lord that the fervour of my faith is as it were quite extinct that my brow hath neither sincerity nor candor that I take not repose but under the branches cracking with fruits of iniquity and that my soul is more defil'd than the mire of which my body is form'd I cannot then great God approach thy holy Table till I have in thy presence with a true resentment and entire affection without hypocrisie and with an open and free heart confessed my shame acknowledging thy glory Lord I am oppressed with fear and astonishment I humble my self at thy feet I poure forth in thy sight all my offences which appeal my countenance I accuse I blame and condemne my ingratitude and my failings I acknowledge I am the most infirme the most abject of all thy creatures the very scorn of the earth and the most vile and detestable of all that the heaven covers I have suffered my self to be carried away with the deceitful delusions and enticements of the world I am quite over-spread with foul and filthy scales which â—â—â—ke me stumble into precipices and inâ—â—ead that thou hast opened my mouth to the end I should exalt thee and hast given me the knowledge of thy truth to declare it on the earth I am ever backward to that which concerne thy glory and my salvation Lord thou mayest dart thy lightning from heaven thou canst consume and over-whelme me with thy storms but I am nothing and in punishing me thou losest thy labour and thy thunder thou art the Omnipotent God from all eternity and I a fraile man yet the work of thy hands as thou art powerful in thy wrath so art thou Omnipotent in thy clemency Rend not him then who is humbled I am thine now thou canst have no delight in my Funerals I am a great sinner but thou art yet greater in thy mercies thou holdest the lives of men in thy hands 't is thy mouth which pronounces their absolution have pity then on me my God by the infinite number of thy compassions blot out my innumerable iniquities and save by thy grace him whom thou mayst damne in thy justice deliver him who is ransom'd by the precious blood of thy Sonne of thy Sonne who all glittering and resplendent with glory hath so far humbled himself as to be cloathed with our flesh to raise up the mud and refuse of the earth toward the Throne of thy Grandure Cause Lord that my Repentance and Confession may be to thee sweet sacrifices agreeable and of pleasant odour I knock at the gate let it not be closed seeing thou art merciful with thee the word and effect are the same grant me pardon from deserved punishment and mollifie the hardnesse of my heart which is in thy power Lord in times past thou drewest out and deliverest thy people from the fetters of Egypt thou hast divided the Red Sea and formed a Rampart of waters against the waters continue then thy goodnesse towards thine own Deliver me Lord Deliver me immediately by the merits of thy Sonne from the servitude of mine iniquities under the bondage whereof with anguish I emplore thy succours Bow down thy greatnesse over me display upon my soul the rayes of thy holy Spirit and enlighten me with the lustre of thy divinity to the end that I may meditate and fully comprehend how the body of Jesus Christ my Saviour is given and broken for thine elect and his blood spil't on the Crosse is made mine by the communion of thy holy Sacrament I am unable of my self to raise me up from this miserable earth to a subject so High and Excellent But Lord Thou hast cleft the obscurity thence to draw out light Thy divine eye enlightens the darknesse touch my spirit with thy brightnesse as thou didst that of Saint Paul render me uncapable and untractable to the vanities of the World and clear-sighted in the inestimable treasures of thy Gospel Assure my faith establish my faith Lord stay it upon thy promises fortifie me mightly according to the riches of thy divinity so that Christ may abide in me and that I may comprehend with the Saints his love and greatresse Ephes 3.16 which passeth all understanding That we who when enemies having been reconciled by the death of the Saviour of the World may now much rather being justiâ—ed by his blond Rom. 5.10 Shall I be preserved from thine ire Regulate Lord the disordred affections and appetites of my heart mundifie the impure cogitations of my spirit cleanse all the pollutions of my lips and wrench my sins in the blood of thy Son to the intent I may present my self pure at thy Table Grant that my understanding may comprehend Thee that my heart may affect Thee my soul adore Thee and that all my powers and faculties may render and yield thee the obedience which is thy due Father of glory grant me the spirit of wisdome enlighten my eyes Eph. 1.18 to the end I may apprehend what is the excellency of thy Son whom thou hast caused to sit at thy right hand in the heâ—venly places and whom thou hast prefer'd to all principalities and powers and above every name which is invoked not onely in this world but likewise in that which is to come Give eare to me Thou onely object of the Angels through thy Sonne Jesus Christ our Lord who liveth and reigneth in unity with Thee and thy holy Spirit for ever and ever Lord after having formed the light after having stretched out the heavens with thy hands separated the earth from the flood and finishest the creation of such a multitude of starres of so many creeping things of such a variety of Fowles who have a being to thy Glory Thou tookest dust thou embellished it and formed man subjecting the earth under his feet giving him dominion over the fishes of the Sea and over the Fowles of the Ayre And this man good God instead of lifting up without ceasing his vowes to thy honour and praise and to possesse with joy eternally the delights of Eden hath open'd his mouth against thee and contrary to thy expresse command and menaces hath tasted the fruit
of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil and with his rebellious throat hath swallowed at once the Apple and Death He hath swallowed the leprosie which hath corrupted the masse of all his blood and the poyson which hath penetrated through all the members issues of his body This Lord this fountaine which hath continued corrupt in all it's streames this is the gloomy and black cloud whence distills not one drop not infected 'T is Lord this cursed rebellion which hath constrained the heavens ever bright and serene before to conspire and confederate against man and to poure forth upon him deluges of blood and universal scourges to extirpate and exterminate the Posterity of this Ancestor 'T is this rebellion which hath caused man to totter from his first estate rendred him a slave of sinne and a prey of that roaring Lyon who graspeth his throat with his foot So soon as the prohibition was made sinne followed and by sinne we have all received a Decree of condemnation But great God thou hast rais'd up and restored thine through thy mercy Thou hast destroyed that cursed spirit who would glut himself with the blood of our entrals and hast born us upon thy wings as an Eagle his Ayry Thou hast brought back and renddred in a flourishing condition our soules who were languishing and abased unto death The deluge of our vices hath drawn a deluge of plagues upon us but the deluge of thy Compassions hath swallowed the deluge of these Maledictions Thou hast cleansed these streames of iniquity in a sorce perpetually flowing into life Thou hast healed these leprosies with a vermillion blood and corrected and abated the force of these poysons by a heavenly Antidote By the offence of one alone death reigned over men and by the merit of onely one men shall reigne unto life The transgression of Adam is fallen upon all to condemnation and the justice of Christ justifying is come also upon all to justification Many by the disobedience of one alone Rom. 5.17 were rendred sinners and by the obedience of one alone many are rendred just To the intent that as sinne reigned unto death grace should also reign unto eternal life 'T is Lord that which Thou hast so often foretold to our Fathers by the mouths of thy Prophets who have declared on the earth that thy Sonne should bear our sorrowes that he should charge on himself our afflictions that he should be pierced for our offences and bruised for our iniquities Thou hast caused all our out-rages to fall upon him and the wounds are come on him for the Transgressions of thy people As a Lamb is led to the slaughter neither hath he opened his lips Dan. 9.26 he is set as an oblation for the transgressions of them who have known him is cut off not for himself but for us Oh admirable Architect of the World who hast stretched out the heavens sustained the massive foundations of the earth and commanded the waters of the Ocean to distill gently through the veines of the Rocks for the nourishment of men Oh holy streame of our felicity the strength of our Might that the graces of thy divine goodnesse are singular the effect of thy providence marveilous in the conservation of men in having prepared for us by thy mercy this conciliation before the foundation of the World and from the beginning having prefigured this sacrifice by the Tree of life in the Terrestrial Paradise afterwards by the Paschal Lamb by the Manna by the loaves of propitiation by the bread which the Angel brought to the Prophet Eliah in the strength whereof it is said that he went even unto the Mountain to have instructed us that so much blood of Bulls and Goats which was spilt before thee and the ashes of an Heifer wherewith they besprinkled the unclean were prefigurations of that juslifying blood which was requisite to be poured on the earth to blot out our transgressions And lastly Lord after having often spoken to our Ancestors by thy Prophets Heb. 17. Thou wouldst speak to our fathers face to face by thy Son who is the brightnesse of thy glory who as the snow tumbling from heaven scattering it self to whiten our plaines so is he descended from on high to publish peace from the rising to the setting of the Sunne and to save those who were fallen among the precipices for for the punishment due to their offences The woman the first seduc'd sees her self a thousand times happier she did see her self a Virgin-Mother containing in her womb the Saviour of the World Oh happy day that thou art Remarkable among us for having first beheld and having first caused us to see the well-beloved Son of God the Father and the Redeemer of the faithful And you bright Services that you are precious having given growth to the body who hath suffered for our sinnes and who since is risen with so much glory And thou earth thou art happy to have nourish't within thy bosome and seen to march upon thy face the Saviour of the World The Sages conducted by the Star hasted to prostrate themselves at thy feet thy Angel in giving advice to the Shepherds and the multitude of the heavenly Host leaping for joy lifted up their voyces to thy honour saying Glory be to God on High in Earth peace good will toward men Acts 5.3 Then Lord he whom thou hast raised up by thy right hand for a Prince and Saviour to give repentance unto Israel and remission of sinnes appeared in the flesh that so the flesh might live and by his humanity thy Clemency might approach us which before was with-drawn Thou hast sent him as a Bright Sun to enlighten all the compasse of the Earth He appeared cloathed with humane flesh but all repleat and all shining with Divinity The Power of His Vertue was manifest to the eyes of all the people The most impetuous stormes and billowes of the Ocean gave way unto the sole power of His word The tempestuous whiâ—le-whinds which troubled the serenity of the aire gave truce to their whistlings roarings at the only waging of his hand and acknowledg'd that they ought him respect and silence and that all things should be prepared to receive His Commands Men captiv'd under the power of the Devil were enlarged with the onely glance of His eye The most inveterate maladies departed at the only touch of His garment and the bodies mouldering under the obscurity of the Coffin rose again at his voyce in the Tombe His life was nothing but an open Book of Doctrine with a multitude of miracles and favours toward men The limits of his Course were so pleasant they were so bright with the beames of his compassion so glittering with his triumphs over the enemy of men The History is therein so rich that the excesse takes away and obstructs the description And that the world as saith his Beloved Apostle is not sufficient to contain that which might
end that the sharp Sword of thy Word may sever and reverse the deepest and profoundest roots of my infidelity and that the divine light of thy Gospel which hath enlightned thy Church from the Apostles even to this day may dissipate the thick darknesse which overwhelmes me Grant me that I may serve thee in holinesse and righteousnesse that I may furnish my memory with the beauty of thy divine power enlighten the gloominesse and obscurity which environes me prepare my feet to the path of peace and my mouth to pronounce thy praise and permit not that I be surpriz'd with any evil slumbers and that I sleep not unto death Raise up my Soul Lord by the fervour of devotion to a constant meditation on heavenly things conserve me as he whose name is written in thy book of life as he who is ransom'd with the blood of the Saviour of the World is destined to be a vessel of honour in thine house Unite my spirit by continual meditations to them of thine elect to the intent that being endowed with thy graces I may serve thee for a pleasant habitation as a fair Jerusalem In Conclusion Lord to thee I recommend my Soul and my Body my Councels and Cogitations my Words and Actions the conduct of all my Wayes the Course and End of my life A Discourse of Afflictions and Martyrdome THe Children of God are marked with a different Character from the rest of the Citizens of the Earth God hath assigned them for portion here below Poverty Ignominy the losse of kindred maladies and the most insufferable kinds of deaths but happy are these afflictions tending to salvation blessed these chastisements which are to correct not to destroy Praised be God who by these stroakes prevents the celerity of our gangrenes who hath recourse to absitions to preserve our lives and applies the lance to the inflammations of our ulcers untill the venome ceases to prevail Those whom he corrects not are such whom he disdaines to amend those are the children of the World who have their Paradise on earth not in heaven Their wealth often exceeds their wishes their honour surmounts their desires but the season of their delight fades in an instant and that of their calamity is eternal The Fatherly hand afflicteth not them daily they are only buffetted by the enemy of men which cometh too late and in recompence he tormenteth them for ever Let us then call to mind that it 's fore-told in the Gospel that we are destined to suffer griefs to support out-rages and be cut off from the world and that we are commanded to comfort our selves in these tribulations and to skip for joy in the midst of our torments for asmuch as our reward is great in heaven If we suffer our selves to be transported by heavinesse beyond measure 't is to be suspected that afflictions will overcome us give us over to despair as unworthy the consolations which are presented to us by the hand of God and of the certain promises which he hath left us by writing in his Word Let us raise up our soules then above all the things of this World Direct our cogitations to remember the state of our lives and on the remedies which God hath bestowed on us to solace our sorrowes and calamities of a truth our prosperity the sweetnesse of content ordinarily passeth in a little space and giveth place to afflictions who march on with a hideous and frightful visage Our life is nothing but a motion if one day be pleasant another renders it self unsupportable and that we enjoy of content never continues constant But since this is the condition in which it pleaseth God we should live we must not adde our bloody hands to tear our wounds and become unjust in respect of what remaines for the regreat of what we have lost It 's folly to take on ones self the punishment of his infelicity to stay upon the part offended and to look upon the worst side of our lives Let 's not then more imbitter our evils by our impatience neither hereafter render our greene wounds and emotions mortal stroakes and incurable ulcers Let 's cast behind us that pusilanimity which ever puts us to flight causing us to cast forth cries equal to the measure that the Ocean is irritated and raised up against us and hinders us from sustaining the storm without being appall'd Let 's fortifie our hearts let 's fill them with assurance to the intent that contemplating with a confident brow the miseries of the world not to apprehend their approach to sustain them with a couragious aspect and encounter them with valour Let 's approach afflictions to understand them and by the way resolve our selves to constancy The Souldier is unworthy of that name who trembles so soon as he beholds an enemy and perswades himself that already their Sword is at his throat and he is marveilous feeble who is afraid at the only appearance of afflictions Their view cannot offend us and their endeavours if we please may be rendered successelesse Why then make we any difficulty to enter into the lists against them since their wounds ought to harden us constantly to suffer their assaults Those who are nourisht in the shade dread the ardure of the Sun and not those that are accustomed to it Children are apprehensive and fear to behold their blood and not old Souldiers who have of 't seen it as it were continually to distill and flow from their wounds Few new afflictions can present themselves we already have beheld and sustained the most of them if they be great and confiderable the more danger and peril the more glory What delight to rend off the scales which would forme themselves against the brightnesse of our eyes what satisfaction to prevent those discords which would trouble our harmony Up then let us learn to accustome our selves to all diversity and inequality of life and to receive every thing of the saving hand of God And as the Superiour part of the aire which is nearest to the heavens is never darkned with clouds nor agitated with thunders so our soules ever elevated above these passions should never be shamefully overturned under griefs and sadnesse but so much as is necessary to bring her to repentance Let us not precipitate our selves desperately as mad men after our affections enduring with all our heart the adversity of the world ever calling to mind that as the divine benedictions which we shall one day enjoy are setled in a continued and happy rank so also these mortal things are tossed by an infinite number of blustres and totter and incline sometimes to one side sometimes to another It is familiar in the croud and throng of a battel to take ones fortune upon the Ocean to be beaten with stormes upon the earth with diverse afflictions The Pilate for having been preserved from so many tempests cannot longer dread Ship-wrack The Souldier for the frequency and assiduity of peril contemns
danger The infinite number of afflictions should instruct us not to esteem them as considerable Our life is no other than a continual war-fare if sometimes we are free from heavinesse it 's nothing but a short truce with the world or rather a suspension of armes and no absolute no entire peace If the Sunne shines bright a sudden storm in an instant chaseth away the serenity of the ayre and filleth all with darknesse if we behold a glimpse of light we are again plunged presently into a more close prison War interrupts peace sicknesse health death the sweetnesse of conversation Pleasure and sorrow are of near assinity and ever entertain each other Such is the condition of men against which plaints are unprofitable Such it was to those in ages past and so shall it be to them in time to come The remedy is that we serve our selves of these changes as Musitians of Tones flat sharp and diverse It 's necessary that we learn to conduct our vessel not onely in calme still waters but also in the high going and rough billowes Contrary winds do not hinder that we aid our selves by following the North if so be we hoyse and trimme our sailes as we ought The bitternesse of griefs are sweetned by remedies the nettles do not sting when we presse them very hard nor afflictions when we tread on their throat If they made choice of persons if in passing by some they spar'd them altogether their inequality would be more insupportable but the bullet is blind it pierces as soon the Captain as the Souldier The feavour is deaf it retires not sooner for the plaints of the greatest than the meanest The heat of the Sunne scorches without distinction all those who are in the Plain The cold as easily penetrates the Velvets as the Shagges and death overturnes every one without excepting any to the intent that the equality of each ones necessary destiny should serve for a general consolation But if it appeares to us that we behold some who are ever at their ease who live and flourish in great plenty of all things without encountering any affliction assuredly we abuse our selves it 's the lustre of their habits which dasles us their Port and Fashion which deceives us we see not with what a multitude of agitations their soules are tormented what perturbations and what desires vex their spirits putting them into inquietude and interrupting their repose we see not their Catarrs their issues and the cryes they send forth in the dolour of their stone and gout the condition of their spirit and disposition of their Bodies is unknown to us They go not forth of their houses but in health they shew not themselves in publick but with a cheareful countenance whereas often their hearts are heavy and that is it which deceives us and then what know we what afflictions they have had heretofore what distempers then when we were in health what heavinesse at such time when we were in delight what understand we what mischiefs hang over their heads ready to overcome and destroy them An Ague is ready a pestilent ayre a weaknesse a fall the treachery of an enemy And if we be not satisfied with so many Considerations let 's cast down our sight and beholding so many poor people afflicted of all sorts seeing the beggar often in despaire for default of finding a morsel of brown bread Behold them tormented with a feavour impaired languishing laid overturned on the pavement observe the greatest consolation which they receive from our charity they are dragged to a hideous place fil'd with wretches there they understand nothing but cries but plaints but groanes but gaspings after death oft-times the dead remaining long among them before they be enterred and thus in these continued miseries they finish their lives Behold on the other side a poor father sick stretch't out upon the straw to whom bread is wanting when his labour failes him having five or six small children lying about him crying for hunger Behold one Bed-ridden of the Palsie these foure yeares continually pierc't through with heavinesse constantly gasping after death if we be so mischievous to receive any consolation from the harmes of another agreeable to our sorrowes 'T is most facile for us by this communion of miseries to asswage our own and to mitigate our affliction by the multitude of other afflicted ones which are so innumerable But let 's return to our selves what advantage have we by so many plaints do our afflictions retire for our cryes ☞ no they never swerve out of their way Give them passage then and crosse their humour to the intent they should not abide in our Company If by lamentations we think to chase away our evils If by teares we hope to lift up the Tombs and renew and enlighten again the extinguisht lives of our friends I should be of opinion to enforce our selves to distill out all we have of oysture But if our lamentations bring them no advantage if that our regreates are not so much as understood by them if the marble that presseth them heareth not our groanes to what end are so many unprofitable sighths so many rages so many faintings to no effect If it be in regard of them 't is folly if for our own do we love our ease so much then as to cruciate our selves for the losse of one contentment of one support or a little wealth If we lament for that 't is an affliction consider our misery observe how one stroak seconds another and how that if for every occasion we will afflict our selves ☞ teares will faile us sooner than a ground for lamentation 'T is a miserable remedy to go about to drive away one heavinesse with another it 's the way to passe away our life in continual teares and sadnesse and not to manifest the grandure of our courage and generosity of our soules Who is more praise-worthy or he who being surpriz'd and overtaken by an affliction doth by his impatience aggrevate and imbitter his misfortune and gives himself to despair or rather he who yieldeth not to it's assaults and thereby abates and frustrates the force of adversity by an invincible heart and couragiously bears away the victory The good disposition of our spirits should not change as that of our bodies according to Climates and Moons This World which beholds our persons may afflict them but not our soules which should continually reside in the hand of God what though our bodies are sometimes languishing wasting and consuming we are neverthelesse sound in our better parts to wit our soules seeing we fill them with assurance And why bemoan we our selves for so many diseases understand we not that our bodies are no other than receptacles of corruption and that many of them are hereditary and left us as a sad patrimony If we consider of how many diverse parts our bodies are compos'd and fram'd to how many several accidents each is subject and that the
after cauterising and searing he applyeth Beninge and gentle Fomentations and touches them with a most delicate and tender hand And usually then ☞ when all humane help failes and forsakes us 't is then that he is nearest to his own Let 's remit and cast our selves then on his holy Providence rejoycing before him leaping for joy elevating our eyes to heaven He who hath fixed the Sun and stars in heaven He who hath preserved his holy Arke from the surges and from the Tempest He who hath caus'd it to snow a savoury Manna upon his people and hath caused fountaines to flow-forth of Rocks To him who needs no Base for a foundation who buildeth on the vacuum as on the fulnesse on nought as on matter ☜ He who electeth when it pleaseth him the most contemptible raysing them out of obscurity and placing them upon the most Eminent dignities is he not more than sufficient to cause the Lillies to flourish under the Scepter of his Anoynted Flower Deluce and under the ayre of a pleasant and gentle peace without ever being faded by a storme Can he not effect it that our fields should answer our desires That our good fortune should surmount and exceed our expectations that our dayes should flourish in health and honour and that we should dye heavy and satiated with old age Proceeds it not from him who causeth that the earth is not yet tyred with so many Births and Productions and that of his own liberality she dayly furnisheth us with necessary nourishment who causeth that the floods descend drop by drop that the Sun bringeth back the spring and giveth carnation to the Roses the Purple to the Gilly-flowers Perfumes sents and odours to so many several various Plants what though the enemies of the Gospel confederate against us if they assemble together if they levy warre against the Church have we cause of terrour being cover'd under the Banner of the great God loaded with victory who enjoyeth the principal point and soveraign period of the glory of the great God who produceth so much splendour from the Armies of his children who causeth the Cities to open their gates at the only approach of their Host that the mountaines yield and bowe under the burthen of their forces who overturnes the most powerful armies by the keen edge of their sword who paveth the earth with the bodies of their enemies cementing their Plaines with their blood and furnisheth them with such a multitude of Tropheys upon Tropheys and so many divers and sundry subjects to enrich everlasting Histories Have we not so much spirit to consider on these benefits Are we not capable to behold so many benedictions The continuance the grandure the number taketh that the admiration from us He 's as Puissant now as ever to warrant us and to settle and assure the victory on our standards and the honour and glory on our browes He 's the same who appeared to Moses in a burning flame Exod. 3. and declared that he had heard the affliction of his people that he had heard their cryes and understood their sorrows that he would deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians and conduct them into a land flowing with milke and honey 'T is the very same who effected so many Myracles by the hand of Moses in the presence of hard-hearted Pharoah Exod. 13.21 'T is the same eternal who march't by day before his poople in a Pillar of a cloud to conduct them in the way Exod. 14. and by night in a Pillar of fire to give them light 'T is the same who by an East winde clave the red-sea piling up the waters to make way for Israel and who soon aftar overwhelm'd in the Billowes Pharaoh and his Armey 'T is he who caused that the enterprises of Gideon were numberlesse Joshua 12. who made Joshua to Triumph over thirtie one Kings who stayed in favour of his Battailes the Sun in the midst of his course and made him continue immovable for a long space of time whil'st that he overturned his enemies by millions on the dust 'T is he who confirmed Israel flying before the Philistine before that great Thunderbolt of war causing that the fury of a stone parting from the hand of a Shepheard should plant it self in the midst of his forehead 'T is the same who fill'd Hester with courage against Haman who caused that Baruch that Sampson that Jephta that David that Samuel and so many Prophets have combated Kingdomes have closed the throats of Lyons have repell'd the force of fire have escap't the devouring sword have shewed themselves mighty in Battle and turned their enemies to flight But these are favours which flow from his hand when it pleaseth him and then only when he knows it expedient for his glory In the interim we are obliged to rest satisfi'd with our condition in the which it pleaseth him we should live ☜ and receive those corrections which he giveth us to the intent to amend us who opposes himself against God to repine bemoan himself shall incurre the danger instead of temporary adversity to suffer eternal torments The afflictions which overtake us are ordained by solemn Decrees whereto we ought to acquiesse and submit by Ordinances against which it 's not permitted we open our mouthes The Murmur against Decrees so holy is punish't as the entyre voyce the Will as the Effect Moreover these are afflictions tending to our health Ruines to cause us turne to our wealth Poverty to make us regard our riches The clattering of his Thunder falls to awaken us his corrections to put us upon repentance These chastisements to force from our hearts sigths and repentance These are the effects of the love of the Creatour testimonies that he ever has an eye over his work-manship and that he will make them understand their errors The Soveraigne Law of a King is the safety of his People of God the safety of his own to make them ever tend to that poynt he applyeth all manner of remedyes observing them too intent on the world he addeth to the losse of their substance the losse of their kindred and by these torments he awakneth their zeale which slumber'd in a peaceable time He disturbeth their ease to preserve their ardure from rusting He imployeth the Fanne to clense his Graine Vineger to efface the aines He is the Physitian who laboureth for health not for pleasure who would heal the distemper not sooth and flatter it who ordaineth rather Ruburb than Suger who useth scalding and sharpe medicines but very healthful we must not expect from him Flowers Straw-berries and Cream but bitter rootes nautious Pills and Potions black and troubled He extracts out of our sufferings our prosperity and that which seemes to us to tend to our destruction he converts to what makes for our safety He conserves us by strict dyets and extreame thirst and severs our Rotten members which cannot be continued
Blest is he who is capable happy he who is treated as the Master Happy he who is of those grapes The Children of this World who are not couch't in a divine estate make themselves merry they are weak-sighted altogether imperfect to contemplate on heavenly mysteries they are strayed too far to recover the right way they imagine not that the reward is at the end of the race but they shall one day find that our miseries shall terminate in delights which endure for ever and their pleasures end in horrible and eternal torments 'T is then in this Combat against afflictions and death that we must contest that we must vanquish and that we must search for the Crown of Christianity and Kingdome of God Our hearts will be crush't our eyes blemisht but our souls shall be filled with gladnesse we shall be beaten we shall be torn but our zeal shall augment and in its augmentation our contentment shall encrease Thou Barbarian thou mayst ravish our goods but the Eternal will not forsake us thou can'st exile us but all the Earth is the Lords Thou can'st threaten our lives but 't is those of our bodies 't is that of the World our soules are immortal Thou mayest send us to death but we conduct our selves thither we there shall receive it we will there suffer it patiently Our spirits are heads and masters of our bodies they are so elevated by the assistance of the Omnipotent Spirit that they are able to surmount all sorts of torments and death it self Infidels with what do you affright us so much with punishment with what do you menace us so highly to take away our lives with what do you make us so much afraid of death O pitiful Adversaries we contemn we despise the world we make no account of afflictions we trample over the fear of death Ha wherefore should we fear so much to give for so admirable and excellent a Subject so Glorious so Honourable That which such a multitude of persons lavish dayly to obtain a little pay That which so many Generals give so freely to merit to have their browes encircled with a branch of Olive or of Palme How many mighty men hazard themselves dayly to the peril of a thousand shot presse into dangers and into the croud of a battel on the hopes of an earthly victory rather than to behold their proper valour surmounted what a multitude presse and advance to the forefront bearing their bodies against wounds exposing themselves to the edge of the Sword stretching out their persons on the earth to sustaine the Banners of a stranger of whom they receive not above foure Crowns of pay With how much more reason than they should we render ourselves obstinate in the Combat resolute of the victory We contend not for a point of honour and glory we endure not for a stranger we suffer not for an inconsiderable reward we have a better and different hope than a punctillio of honour or of gain than of pay We contest for the immortal honour of true Christians we endure for the great God for the Creatour of heaven of earth of men we suffer for our Saviour our Christ our Salvation for a glittering recompence resplendent and enduring for ever God hath not given us a spirit of fear but of courage we can performe all things through Christ which strengthneth us 2 Tim. 1.7 Phil. 4.13 we can demonstrate that nothing can reverse the Banners of the Church and that every thing that opposeth it self against it's course is not but for the augmentation of its glory What if Murtherers leavy war against the Gospel they do nothing but dash against a mighty and puissant Rock which fixes and strengthens it self within it's own wait Let them satisfie their rage and fury they shall not for that overthrow the Kingdome of God Their fathers imagined they had massacred all the Prophets and neverthelesse the Lord reserved to himself seaven thousand men who had not bowed their knees to Baal 'T is requisite mauger all the Wolves that the Gospel passe from one Pole to the other That it cause his voyce to eccho over all that which the Sunne illustrates with his beames that it glide like a Thunderbolt of fire as a flash of lightning even to the most barbarous and savage regions and fill their mouths with the memorable and mighty acts of the Lord. God when it shall be seasonable for his glory will multiply his own by meriads when it shall be seasonable he will cause his Church to out-shine all the Idols of men To the intent that as he caused miraculously the Rod of Aaron to flourish among the twelve Num. 17. laid on the Tabernacle by the Tribes of Israel he ratified and confirmed his High Priest against the murmure of the people after the same sort having caus'd his Church to flourish above all false doctrines of men he shall by so much the more confirme his own When it shall be seasonable he will smite our enemies with dimnesse as he did the Inhabitants of Sodom who would have forc't the house of Lot wherein he had withdrawn two of his Angels When it shall be convenient he will silence these Vultures and these Ravens who foretell epidemical calamities these fire-brands and incendiaries who come to light again the flames and to foment the sparks of our adversities he will stifle and silence these Trumpets of sedition these bloody voyces these stomachs of Iron and of Brasse who howle without intermission to procure the destruction of Christians When it shall be seasonable he will cause to rebound on their account Luk. 11.51 the righteous blood spilt from that of Abel even unto that of Zechary who was slain betwixt the Altar and the Temple and from that of of Zecharie even untill this day But these dayes shall come in that rank which he hath ordained for them by his providence who now calls us to suffer affliction with constancy We know that the Nations ought to exalt themselves against us Mat. 24.6 that we must be led before Governours and Kings for Christs Name sake Our nearest relations must deliver us to death we must be afflicted we must be hated ☞ we must behold the abomination fore-told by Daniel the Prophet we must be torn as sheep by the Wolves we must suffer hunger and thirst we must be Vagabonds in Desarts and to endure persecution in every place but our reward is great in heaven and the same hath been practic'd against the Prophets We are blessed to suffer persecution for righteousnesse and to manifest that we are the Children of God in patience in anguish and in labours we are happy to be guided through these dusky nights to the desired haven of our repose Our bodies are blessed to suffer these stripes which heal their wounds and more blessed our souls to receive them to their salvation We shall relish somewhat of sweetnesse in our sufferings of repose in our inquietudes
we shall blesse our lives and magnifie our miseries Fear not then the wolves who have power but over the wooll but fear God who hath puissance over our â—ouls Let 's fear God who saith that he â—ho taketh not his Crosse and cometh â—ot after him is not worthy of him who foretold Mat. 13.13 Mat. 10.33 that we shall be hated for â—is Names sake but he who shall ensure to the end he shall be saved who saith that he who shall deny me before â—â—en him shall I deny before my heavenly Father If after having received the cognizance of the truth we abandon Christ there remaines no other sacrifice for our sinnes but a horrible expectation of the judgment of God and a servent and violent fire that must devoure his adversaries if any man had contemn'd the Law of Moses he died without mercy upon the testimony of two or three Deut. 19.15 how much more rigorously shall he be punisht who hath abandon'd the Sonne of God and the Blood of his Covenant to him belongeth vengeance It is a terrible thing to fall into the hand of the living God Go to then let 's take felicity as St. Paul in our infirmities rendering our bonds celebrous and manifest let 's rejoyce for that our names are written in the heavens let 's watch let 's be firm in the Faith fortifying our selves 2 Cor. 12.10 that our light may shine before men Phil. 1. and 13. to the intent that they may glorifie the mighty God of Jacob 1 Cor. 16.13 who is our strength and our retreat Declaring that oppression that persecution Mat. 5.16 that the perill and the sword cannot separate us from the love of Christ Rom. 8.54 shewing that neither death nor life nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come can separate us from the love of the Saviour of the world who hath given his life for all 2 Cor. 5.15 to the intent that they who live may not longer live to themselves but to him who is dead and who is risen again for them Let 's be without reproach and harmlesse children of God Irreprehensible in the midst of a crooked and perverse Generation among whom we shine as lights who hold forth before them the word of life Phil. 2.15 we are the children of God Heires of God Co-heires with Christ let 's endure then with him let 's dye for him to the intent we may be glorified with him And esteem with St. Paul that the sufferings of this present life are not comparable to the glory to come Mat. 7.25 After that we have built on the Rock if the Rain descend the torrents encrease and the winds bluster we shall not fail to abide firm and stedfast as the mountaine of Syon let 's persist in one same spirit let 's strive together all with the same courage for the faith of the Gospel Phil. 1.27 without being at all dismayed by our adversaties and not being never so little removed from the love of Christ whom God hath Soveraignly raised up to whom he hath given a name Phil. 2.9 which is above every name to the end that at the name of Jesus every knee might bow of them who are in heaven and in the earth and under the earth and that every tongue shall confesse that Jesus Christ is the Lord to the glory of God the Father The Kingdome of heaven is that Precious Pearle to acquire which the Merchant sold all his substance it 's his rich stone for the which we ought â—o cast our selves hood-winck't into the Jawes of death for the which we must alwayes direct our countenance right toward heaven and contemn and neglect the sultery heatâ— and the stormes the sword and thâ— fire and for the which men must trample underfoot the Pride of alâ— the thunderings of men Not regarding then things visible which are for a time but the invisible 2 Cor. 4.17 which are eternal Our light affliction which doth passe away produceâ— in us an eternal weight of excellent glory 2 Cor. 5.1 If our earthly habitations are destroyed we have a heavenly dwelling which is not of humane structure How many of the faithful oâ— whom the earth is not worthy have wandred in Desarts and Cavernes 〈◊〉 cloathed with skins of sheep or of Goats afflicted tormented Heb. 11.37 and in conclusion are stoned sawed scorch't and burnt at a gentle fire not regarding to be extended with torments to thâ— intent to obtain a better life The request made to God by Elias 〈◊〉 is it not enough Rom. 11.3 Lord they have slain thy Prophets Demolisht thinâ— Altars I onely remain and they hunt to take away my life Saint Paul foretold what should befall him saith he not I am ready not onely to be bound but also to dye in Jerusalem for the Name of the Lord Jesus Act. 21.13 It 's then most certain that all they who will live according to piety in Jesus Christ shall suffer persecution 2 Tim. 3.12 It is certain that the faithful shall have afflictions in great number Psal 34. but the Lord shall deliver them We are in the Furnace 1 Pet. 4.12 2 Cor. 1.5 but the Spirit of God shall rest upon us The sufferings of Christ shall abound in us and so also shall his consolation Men augment our torments and he will multiplie his graces and at the end of the race our afflictions shall determine and our souls shall dance with perpetual consolations These are the promises of God this is his Word The Holy and the Just the Omnipotent and Eternal appearing to Saint John having his aspect like the Sun when he shineth in his full strength Rev. 1.16 holding the seaven stars in his hand and his voice was like the noise of mighty waters hath pronounced it with his mouth you shall have sufferings the Devil shall cast you into prison to the intent you may be terrified but be thou faithful even unto death and I will give thee a Crown of life He who overcometh shall not be hurt by the second death Rev. 2.10 To him who overcometh I will give him to eat of the Tree of life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God To him who overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden Manna and to him will I give a white stone Rev. 2.7 and on the stone a new name written which name none shall know Rev. 2.17 Rev. 2.26 but him who receives it To him who overcometh and shall keep my sayings even to the end to him will I give puissance over the Nations and will give him the morning star Who overcometh shall be cloathed with white vestments and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life Rev. 3.5 but will confesse it before my Father and before his Angels Rev 3.10 Who overcometh him will I ordain a Columb in the
Temple of my God Rev. 3.12 and he shall never go forth more and I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the City of my God which is the new Jerusalem Who overcometh Rev. 3.21 I will cause to sit with me upon my Throne even as I also have overcome and am set with my Father in his Throne What hinders us now what doth obstruct us then to bear afflictions and miseries with constancy who hinders to surmount and overcome these things Is it this World are they our riches Alas why change we not chearfully and willingly our lands our habitations and our lives for repose for felicity for eternal beatitude Our life is short wherefore for so short a time do we renounce a perpetuity of blessednesse of the ages of Paradise Our life passeth in an instant why for to preserve a few dayes do we precipitate our soules in the Abisme Our life is precious to God he holds it he keeps it in his hands i◠he dispose it 't is for his honour 't is for our preservation ☞ why deny we him this glory and to our selves this profit Do we dread torments there is more of grief and anguish to finish ones life by a long and continued distemper than by a violent stroak death is more languishing and tormenting in a bed than in the sight of heaven in an assembly The Feavers Convulsions Catarrhs are more insupportable and fatal than torments Christ is present he exhorts us he offers himself to us he invites us he spreads his armes to receive us he will open the heavens for our consolation as to Saint Steven than when the enemies of the Gospel stoned him He will assist us with his strength and augment our courage as he hath done to so many Martyrs who have endured for his name Let us not then loyter any longer committing our selves into his hands The Lawrels and the Palmes never cast their leaves the true Children of God never quail The love of heaven doth so ravish them they are after such a manner fil'd with that divine fury so that when nothing remaines to them but their heart wherewith they are accustomed to contemne the most dreadful things that continues sound even to the end of their lives their souls are invincible untameable free and generous Let 's suffer then with patience lifting up our hearts to heaven Let those savage Beasts which are not satisfi'd but with blood and wounds who are not asswaged but with murthers who are not delighted but with the sounds of racks having nothing agreeable but to dismember Christians Let us suffer if it be the pleasure of God to deliver us into the hands of these Butchers if they cause our bodies to stoop under the weight of Martyrdome Let us suffer if they redouble their rage if they do not forbear any kind of cruelty and as Lyons Whelps fil'd with flesh they feed their eyes on our dead bodies and dabble their hands in our bloody effusions God will assist us with his power and will raise us by his Omnipotent Spirit when 't is for the honour of his Name above the racks and flames The most cruel torments shall not be considerable to us the greatest most ponderous punishments shall be pleasant unto us these cruelties cannot astonish us death it self shall be life Our faith shall sustain our bodies seeing them torn it shall the more encourage us to suffer Our holy zeal shall delude the most sowre afflictions will cause us to advance into flames without amazement we shalconsume our selves with satisfaction embracing Martyrdome We shall imitate those Martyrs who for such a subject have endured a thousand afflictions have a thousand times spilt their blood have sustained a thousand flames These Martyrs whose Names and Renowns have found the earth too narrow to comprehend them These Martyrs who have magnifi'd Christianity by their blood who have accepted Martyrdome for their Crown These Martyrs who by a few torments are gone for ever into Supreme felicity Up then Barbarians what havock and slaughter soever you make of our bodies we remain firme and resolv'd to die Our bodies are vanquish't our spirits remain Conquerors You shall behold us languish full of delight in a divine Martyrdome You shall see our blood boyling with devotion to distill and trickle into the flames That our death shall be lovely and beautiful to be for ever famous to Christianity That our bodies shall be blessed to be consumed for the glory of the Saviour of the World That our blood shall be precious to witnesse and trace out the way to heaven That those flames shall be exquisite which set a lustre on the truth in the eyes of a throng and croud of poor Ignorants That our ashes shall be pretious to celebrate publish and to spread the Gospel among men If the earth be glutted with our blood the example of our Martyrdome will make us re-created by Miriads if they consume us as the Phenix we shall be renewed within our ashes Meditations for one that is sick FRail Creature in the midst of thy imaginations thou wastest and consumest thy self thou straglest thou wanderest and losest thy self amongst the vanities of the World Thou runnest out of knowledge in these slippery paths without understanding thy feeblenesse without considering that at the first step upon the first advance thou mayst stumble that a sprain may turn thee quite short and that thou hast no sooner weighed anchor than thou art in danger of Ship-wrack thy health hath puft thee up thy courage hath raised thee up precipitating thee into pleasures and delights and suddenly a chilnesse surpriseth thee some heat a pain in the head thou art dejected thou tremblest thou doubtest whether it be some light distemper or rather a disease tending unto death O Lord the World to this moment hath possessed me her delusions have intoxicated me at this instant my sinnes stare in my face as if I were awaked from a prosound slumber I begin to recover my spirits my eyes retort their looks upon my self to behold my weaknesse and my body tyred and consum'd with the feavour which is mixt with my blood and with the pain which torments it is constrain'd to acknowledge her misery to reject her Presumption Lord these fogs which obscure heaven to me begin to fall off my Soul so long blinded recovers some glimmering I have lived to this very instant swimming and floating at the pleasure of the Tide give me grace that I may arrive at the Port I have passed my time in darknesse give me light in the rest of my dayes Poor Carcasse thy Original is in infection thy habitation in a station fil'd with tempests with diseases with torments with bloody wars in a place common to the savage beasts upon an ingrateful earth out of which thou can'st extract nothing but with the Plow-share and edge of the Iron For thy end thy flesh is the prey and triumph of wormes thy
designs and thy grandures are buried with thee in the same shroud Thy sorrests are reduc'd to a biere thy buildings to a stone and yet thou art so blind so bewitch't with the love of the earth which dispoyles thee of the knowledg of thy condition that thou dayly augmentest the number of thy vowes of thy wishes of thy desires which presse thee hourly forward until God with the celerity of his ayd prevents thy fall stretches his hand over thee for to interrupt thee to make thee behold the vanity of thy imaginations and cogitations to make thee feel the earth to totter already under thy feet that she is ready to redemand what thou hast borrowed of her and to shew thee the fatal precipices the horrible depths and frightful gulfes within which all thy passions would destroy thee Bestir thee then vapour of earth shadow of life since the great God descends from his Throne to abase himself even to thee and to admonish thee Come then order and command all thy unworthy servile and foolish imaginations to retire from thee dispoyle thy self of man submit thy spirit unto God and to thy spirit all the affaires of the World smother up in thy breast thy stinking breaths and permit truth only to proceed out of thy mouth O Lord I am dust compos'd of the earth my members fram'd of this imperfection are apt to dissolve I am like the flower which hath its birth and funeral in the same day who in twelve houres sees it's spring and winter birth and death I am like the Rose who in his blooming regardeth his decline as the Lillies who shoots up suddenly to perish as all the flowers of one morn which the same instant blooms and fades which the least wind dryeth and causeth to fall This body increaseth in it's spring time then cometh its Summer the winter seases and nips it and it appears no more the least cold chills it dispoyles it as the Trees of leaves and of its natural vigour and oft times in its first season it falls benum'd by some glance of thy displeasure thou mowest it in thy fury as the grasse one stroak a feavour stops his course and his life and so many sundry mischiefs which conspire its destruction in the end prevaile against it it vanisheth and choaks its memory Lord I am born of the dregs of the World I acknowledge it most reasonable that I have a sense of it out of rottennesse proceeds nought but clay of corruption but wormes The earth hath produc't me hath nourisht me to receive its accidents to participate its wretchednesse I am unlike the Fishes who live in the Sea without relishing of the Salt and without being distur'bd by the winds and tempests I am more inclin'd to the humours of the earth I am subject to all its evils wherewith it abounds and cannot decline their attaints every day threatens my life and every houre raiseth me up some affliction but in the midst of these evils I must not imitate the Children of the world which think not but of the edge that wounds them ☞ but of the Catarr that suffocates them of the heat that burns them like to beasts who convert their rage to ceaze the stones wherewith they be wounded and to wreak their spleen with their teeth It 's requisite Lord that I raise up my Soul toward thy hand from whence the stroak proceeded toward thy arme who darts the stone toward thee who reservest in thy power the poyson and the antidote rest and labour death and life 'T is necessary that my afflictions admonish me to retire my self from these innumerable billowes to arive again at thy favourable harbour I ought to fix my eyes on thee who must serve me as a Star of light and a Phare during so perilous a voyage toward thee who already seems to comply to commiserate my grief and to offer thy omnipotence for my refuge Thou shalt find Lord my Soul shattered by the contagion of my body and of its senses neverthelesse thou remarkest some traces of thy hand some reliques of thy lineaments Thou beholdest them there sullied not defast it 's flame and lustre covered but not extinct and regarding it in its distressed condition thou wilt have compassion on thine own image of the work of thy hands Thou wilt inspire it with thy holy Spirit making it glitter again sparkle and lighten my obscurity for the time I have to live Give him then Lord so much zeal so much fervour to seek thee that as hitherto she hath appear'd cold and lazy she hath resembled the earth who depriv'd of the light of the Sun remains disconsolate and sterill cover'd over with a profound troubled silence But good God if thou wilt be pleased to disperss some rayes of thy Spirit to enlighten it incontinently all her transgressions in the midst whereof she is buried will disappeare as clouds chased by the wind This Ice frozen about his heart shall dissolve it self and shall slide and trickle on the ground and so he perceiving himself discharg'd of all his miseries which opprest him untangled from so many Passions that bedim'd him and animated by the power of thy Spirit she shall present her self before thee contemplating with delight on that great day the last of this life full of contentment and satisfaction for the Elect full of terror of dolors and horrible sighings for the wicked But Lord can I rationally implore thy favour and thy assistance seeing that all my actions merit death can I well require of thee an absolution from my offences which already seem fitted and prepared for an Eternal destruction And this careasse altogether stuft with vices cover'd over with ulcers and sores dares it yet boldly humble it self before thy holy Majesty whom it hath so many waies provoked to demand pardon to supplicate thee not to permit that the burning furnace and the horrible Gulf swallow it up Yes good God yes and with assurance For what though my sins retyre me far from heaven never the lesse the blood of thy Son shed for my clensing will give me entrance there his wounds heal mine rendering thee prompt to pardon me hindering thee to destroy thine own work-manship His descent from heaven was made in my favour He hath quitted his glory to hast to my rescue by the merit of his death He hat retyred me from hell and given me the victory over my transgressions O Lord since that I am redeemed with so precious a ransome with so high a prize since his innocent blood poured on the earth recoyles upon me and flowes on every side of my body to clense it I will take the boldnesse to present my self before to thee and with assurance to expect that blessed day wherein it will please thee to retyre my spirit and reduce this body to dust I will contemplate it with satisfaction and delight that this world doth not properly belong to us that thou hast given us but the use
our carcasses under the weight of his yeares how highly our dayes glide away That the present makes way to the future that importunes it that presseth it that treads on it's heels that our yeares are consum'd by months the months passe away by dayes the dayes glide by houres and the houres by moments and that encreasing to be we advance our selves to decrease and be no more Perceive I not Lord that in this world all things incline to their destruction posting to their period marching and running into death and notwithstanding that there are some works of thy hand very durable yet neverthelesse there is nothing that is permanent Witnesse those great and proud Cities who find themselves sudenly devoured and suddenly swallowed by earth-quakes Those nations grown insolent by their long rule authority who behold themselves in an instant mowed down by millions by the Pestilence I shall therefore prepare my self good God cheerfully to obey thy Ordinances I shall contemplate on my infirmity which by degrees cuts off the use of this life I observe that my fall is already far advanc't that death mixes and confounds it's self through out my life I shall joyfully and cheerfully receive and with an unastonish't countenance that which it pleaseth thee to ordain for this poor creature and shall not be of their number who submit to thee by constraint because the winde carryes them because the celestial decrees who ever conserve their puissance draw them from above and because they understand that in vain they should resist thy invincible power which tames and surmounts all things wherefore then esteeme I not my self blessed to have an entyre and absolute deliverance from my sufferings and to go and triumph with the ever blessed Citizens in heavenly joyes and delights who feel not any griefs nor distempers wherefore after having so long turn'd tost having so long time floated at the pleasure of the waves and floods do not I please my self to have attain'd the shore and to appear in the Port why should not the haven be agreeable from whence I see a far off the Sea swelling stir'd up and enraged by the tempest to lift it self up to the clouds and the Billowes foaming to sink the ships or cast them against the Shelves and the Rocks to break them and my self in the mean time freed from ship-wrack Up arise my soul thou art here far off from perfection fix not thy eyes longer on the earth with-draw thy sight from the miseries of the world efface them out of thy fantacy Imitate the Pilgrim who seekes the fresh and the cool shadows to ease him of his travel Up up my soul remember thy self that God gives not admission into his pleasant Syon but by the sacred gate of a blessed issue out of this world abandon the night to enjoy that Sun quit these desolate fields and desarts to enter into these quarters of flowers come out of these endlesse Gulfs of mischiefs to live in these fulnesse of blessings Up rouze thy courage fortifie thy zeal embrace this Divine present Embrace this passage to ascend to heaven Follow chearfully thy God who will catry thee for ever into his holy Temple all resplendent and glittering with glory and felicity where thy eyes shall perfectly behold him whom thy spirit adores where thine age shall remain firm where thou shalt be rendred more sparkling and bright than the Stars where thou shalt behold the earth under thee and the day to issue and break from under thy feet O wretched vessel which the waves which the winds and the Pilot direct and steer to such contrary courses that thou shalt be happy to have power speedily to traverse these dangerous Shelves and Rocks of this life to behold thy self in all safety and shelter in a freedome in a place of rest in a place where tranquility and peace inhabit forever O my soul that thou shalt be content freed from the vexations of the world to understand those holy notes and that sweet that pleasant and Divine harmony of heaven which so many millions of Angels render unseasantly unto the Lord Quit then thy shackles and thy prison ☞ render thy self into his hands who hath formed thee and will carry thee into this holy habitation wherein repose is infinite the satisfaction eternal and riches without measure where thy cogitations shall have no other aime than thy God thy eyes no other object than his glory where thou shalt flourish in an eternal spring ☞ and shalt breath nothing but most perfect and absolute felicity Praise praise this Divine Herald which comes intimating the day of thy departing that thou must cease to live and disrobe thee of thy desires imitate the swans who in dying render their voyces most harmonious being the last day of their songs Good God I am without colour without vigour and without motion unlesse that which perturbations of minde causes a thousand cares gnaw my spirit and a thousand snares of solitude entangle in my cogitations and hold me straightly fixt to their sorrowes the same distemper the same grief equally labours my body and my soul I miserably languish in this poor carcasse which surfeits on sorrows and savours of nothing but the Coffin My soul is stuffed with ignorance and gloominesse with ice and coldnesse 't is stupid and heavy but by thy grace in one instant she will mount her self into heaven she will be fil'd with splendour and light she shall be ravish't in the contemplation of the beauty of thy Divinity she will be partaker of joyes not to be exprest and with contentments the only contemplation whereof begets an ardent desire in my will she shall adorn her brow with a wreath the folyage whereof shall ever flourish and never wither she shall bathe her self in thy Divine spring there to draw water and drink to the intent never to thirst more to the end that that draught should be made a fountain of living water in her flowing into life eternal O holy stream Current of joy and entyre delight Eternal Source which never dryes up that my soul might ever repose under thy shadow that it might draw the sweetnesse of thine ayre let her live in the admiration of thy perfections This Lord is the ardent desire that inflames me 't is the only vow which possesseth my heart the health of this body concernes me not her greatest age is not so much as one poynt to the price of the eternity of my soul and then 't is necessary to return to earth to be fashioned anew that she may dye in Adam to be born again in Christ that she may descend into the grave to come forth immortal that she must hide her self under the earth even to the day that thou comest to awaken on a sudden raising it up to glorifie it until that great day which shall surprize all humane designs Thou shalt make this All to shiver at the sound of the Trumpets of thine Angels
which shall Harp before the Saviour of the world who shall gloriously descend from the vaults of heaven all those whom the Sea hath overwhelm'd or the earth received to the intent that being clothed with their bodyes before the great Judge they may receive their definitive sentence of life or death O Lord that I may be of their number who shall arise to their glory and not of them who shall arise to their infamy that I may be of them who shall rejoyce with perpetual Triumph and not of those who shall for ever remain slaves of that horrible Monster That I may be of that number that may be borne into the brightnesse of heaven and not of those that shall be tumbled down into gloomy places and to eternal night That I may be a Citizen of thy heavenly habitation that I may inherit thy Paradice that my seat may be near my Saviour that my place may be there designed that I may not be of those victims prepar'd for Hell that I may not be of that number that shall be precipated into the abism of death which shall have their abode in darknesse and their habitation in the grave O good God suffer not my Barke to fall into so cruel so sad and dismal a storme It should be more expedient for me never to have been born than be ranck't in the number of them who were created to their destruction Bring to passe then at that great day that my rotten cossin may be listed up enlighten this extinguish't carcase cause it to live and shine with my soul make them to flourish together for ever and ever I am nothing Lord but a lump of mud yet never the lesse thy hands have compast me I am nothing but corruption but I bear on my brow thine Image drawn to the life I am all vice all sinne all abomination in thy sight Thy love makes no impression farther than my lips Thy Divine flame pierces not within my soul But Lord I have been washed with the water of holy Baptism I have participated of thy Sacraments I have received a seal a token a sacred testimony of my pardon I have sucked that powerful antidote that immortal Ambrosia that heavenly nourishment which shall concerve me against the poyson and venome of my sinnes and against the power of Satan Lord A lively Description of the last Judgment it seems to me that I already behold thee descending from on high set on thy Throne of Glory filling all with astonishment environed with a Million of Angels holding the sword of vengeance in thy hand It appears to me that I now behold an infinite company of scatter'd men delving the earth to hide themselves not daring ot sustain the bring flames of thy countenance that I behold the flock of thy chosen postrate at thy feet crying out that the squadrons of thy holy Angels dare not appears in reverence of thy just severity crying out that their souls were purchase by the precious blood of thy body That their sinnes are surmounted by thy grace that the honour of thy goodnesse is manifest in their salvation that thou wilt not cut and prune off thy members and reject those whose names are written in thy book of life It seems that I behold thy countenance turn'd toward them standing at thy right hand and thy mouth pronouncing their absolution and saying to them Come ye blessed of my Father possesse for heritage the Kingdome which was prepared for you from the foundation of the World Methinks I behold them rejoycing and filling themselves with splendour while thou art speaking beholding them transported by a sweet and delightful ravishment by an ardure full of zeal for thee and for thy glory to remain there for ever O good God 't is thither that we must direct all our vowes and confine all the desires of our soules 'T is the lustre of that glorious and holy day that should dazle our eyes and not the riches of this world 'T is the remembrance of these extream bright and perfect beauties which should ever entertain our thoughts and not the dark shadowes of our cares Bestir thee then let 's not longer stay on these earthly cares which are so many spiritual Divorces and Adulteries My Soul entertain not other discourse my heart have no other wishes my mouth pronounce no other name than that of our Saviour and thy salvation Let 's up and anchor here our bark in these fair desires let 's perfect this man finish this body let 's forbear to corrupt and ulcerate our wounds to encrease our woes to open again our miseries that our dolors that our convulsions that our fleames if it seem good to them hail us quick and drag us alive to the Tomb that our carcasses be consum'd with wormes that our bones may be reduc't to dust it matters not seeing that the Saviour of the world renders as possessors of the fruit of so signaland happy a victory that he bestowes on us our share and lot in his land that he covers us with Lawrels and with Palmes O God this Crown is very high 't is above this aspiring rock whose way is narrow and uneven incumber'd with thornes and bryars I lye tumbling on my Bed I cannot pull up my feet not raise my head above my bolster my carcasse is nothing but dung and my Soul then corruption I am laden with a counter-wait which ever presseth me down my offences are bolts and shackles on my feet which makes me ever stumble The Devil places them near the avenues to close up the passage to render the way dreadful and to drive me to despair of my salvation But what shall I say good God! I must not require the endeavours of my attenuated legs and my carcasse half benum'd to climb this Mountain to pierce the thicknesse of the clouds and raise my self even to the heighth 'T is onely requisite that I dive into the contrition of my heart the confession of my month I need but lift up my eyes and taise up my cogitations toward the great Saviour of the World who openeth his armes to transport me O my Rock thou art not then any longer hard for me to prevail with Christ the object of my faith Christ the only medicine who can close and consolidate my wounds Christ in whom I establish all my present and future felicity Christ my guide and my Bare star who must conduct me to the light of his ensign he shall open to me the way shall make my faith to surmount all despaires he shall deliver me from these hindrances he shall raise me up free and conduct me even into heaven making me mount by his divine degrees and shall guide by the might of his holy Spirit my blessed and happy soul into his high place where the seasons passe eternally I will leave to him this Triumph I will leave to him the accomplishment of this great work the honour shall be to his blood to his blood
of the world the executioners of my life I have been immoderate and excessive in every thing which is contrary to thy pleasure without having other bound than an imbicility to advance farther My memory Lord is not sufficient to comprehend and enumerate such a multitude of crimes and I now have more bashfulnesse to nominate them than I had shame to act them Also Lord what need the trouble to recount them seeing they present themselves they oppose themselves against me accusing and confounding me seeing that the least but lately committed is sufficient for my damnation without the trouble to search after the past which serve not but for astonishment how the nature of man could invent and commit so many mischiefs Behold them Lord they fail not to passe into my remembrance and as an heavy burthen presse me so sore that I am ready to yield to give my self up to dispayre and to lose my self Lord I cannot so much as deny them I have committed them they were acted in thy sight in thy presence with a feeble fearful and astonish't voyce I acknowledge them and am vanquish't the fear that I have beholding their great number hath frozen my heart and appaled my countenance And on the contrary considering the rigour and strictnesse of thy judgments my sense fails me and I attend nothing but the hour of punishment I will willingly lye down instantly half quick in my grave and in expiring draw the earth over me to the intent I may remove my self from before thy Justice so much do I dread that thy hand will wax heavy against me to destroy me I am like the poor Publican who durst not lift up his eyes towards thee I dare not so much as entertain any imagination of remission for a criminal so culpable I dispayre to avoid them even as undergoing the exemplar-punishment of my abominable practises The depravity of my manners renders the severity of thy censures sharp against me and I know that no man hath place in thy eternal felicity but those that are clensed from sin who are not fullyed with the spots of iniquity who have submitted and dedicated to thy service their hearts and their toungs as for me I have done quite otherwise Neverthelesse Lord thou wilt not bruise in thine indignation those whom thou hast created after thine own Image Thou wilt not precipitate into the gulf and forsake abandoned to the roring Lyon those who are graffed and regenerated in that great Mediatour in the grand Saviour of the world On the contrary Good God! Thou hast commanded us to pray to thee in his name Thou hast promised to hear us in his name Thou hast assured us that when our sins are as red as vermillion nevertheless thou wilt make them as white as wool seeing we have recourse to that Treasure of our Justification to that only Redeemer to that only Authour of our salvation Now O Saviour of the world O Precious Stone O Spirit of my Spirits I embrace thee I discharge the burthen of my sins upon thee I ease my self upon thee Thou art purposly descended here below thou art clothed with out flesh thou hast made thy self man to the intent that I might be able to speak to thee Thou hast stretc'h forth thy limbs on the Crosse thou hast shed thy blood thou haft seen it distil from thy wounds all vermillion to heal my mortal sores to dround my sinnes to cloath me again with innocence Thou hast suffered death to give me the life Thou hast made thy self the oblation and most immaculate offering to take upon thy self the pains which I have meritted Thou hast yielded thy self captive to set me at liberty of immortal thou hast made thy self mortal to the intent that of mortal to render me immortal Thy vertue ever flourisheth that never waxeth old display it over me approach touch my sins and they shall dissolve away as wax before the beames of thy Sun they cannot remain near thee thy sight shall be their flight thy presence their dissipation Thou shalt efface their steps and their straglings Thy hand can bruise the gate of hell thy hand can lift me up into the heavens and make me to ascend by the ladder that appeared to Jacob Lord I cannot sufficiently comprehend thy infinite goodnesse towards persons so vile and unworthy If I contemplate the excellence of thy Divinity in thy descent unto the earth or whether I consider them to whom thou art come I admire the Grandure of thy charity and farther Ruminating thereon I call to mind the happinesse of thy humane condition The Creatour of heaven and of earth The Omnipotent who is not displeas'd but with man is descended for man and made himself man is come to save him from the torture of the fire and the horrors of hell and hath taken his forme the Physitian is hasted to the succour of the diseased the Master to ransome the slaves the streight path presents it self to the straglers Life offers it self to the carcasses enclosed under the Tombs the Shepheard is descended from the top of the mountain to seek the straying sheep He hath again lifted them up on high and enclos'd them in his Fold The Hen hath gathered her chickings under her breast hath made a shield with her wings to protect them from the Ravenous Kite Now good God drive far from me those doubts which Satan goes about to frame in me assure me comfort my spirit fortifie my faith redouble it's strength make her to vanquish all fears all the dispayres which he would suggest unto her Enable her to repel all allutements and assaults of all his temptations She must not longer be affraid she may not longer tremble hell can have nothing against me seeing thine only Sonne hath taken my sinnes upon him because he hath wash't me with his pure blood after it hath pleas'd thee to allow on mine account the value of his satisfaction If thou art pleas'd Lord to proceed with me according to my deserts I should be far distant from any such happinesse my salvation would be desperate There was never any contention with so much disproportion the weapons are too unequal my fault is extreame so is thy Justice But Lord thy mercy is infinite thy goodness surpasseth my mallice Thou coverest my faults with the body of thy Son by his merit thou hast satisfied thy Justice Thou hast given me life there thou concervest me I hold of thy clemency Lord Thou hast spoken by the mouth of thy Prophets that thou art nigh to such as are of a broken heart and that thou deliverest such which have contrite spirits Lord thou contemnest not the afflicted thou hidest not thy face from them forget not then my oppression forget not my afflictions which are violent and permanent forget not the sorrowes of my heart which are augmented Lord my Soul is consumed even to the dust my belly cleaves to the earth Hear then my God myclamour and my supplication and