evill spirits provide before for the safetie of their persons so if by course of argument thou art forc't to contradict the evill spirit of any man bee sure of thine owne safety too for many are no better then evill spiritts and kinds of Divells It is a care every man ought heedfully to looke unto what company hee keepes for evill base and ignorant company are like copper which if thou mixe thy selfe with it wil alaye thy reputation as gold and silver is alayed therewith by the gold-smiths In thy Election and choice let not thy affection shame thy judgment but so choose that thy Iudgment may bee commended in thy election The rayling mouth of an envious villaine against the good is the divell 's baggpipes Answere arguments with reason if reason will not bee heard or approved then answere them with silence Remember alwaies that practize or action takes more deepe impression with men then precept or discourse which Diogenes well knew when hee tombled his tubb Our desires begetts our cares and our courses our fortunes or the accidents befalls us meeting with others in the same passages which wee wrongfully attribute to destiny for all things with us comes from our selves or by our selues I meane mundanely therefore when thou hearest a man complaine of fortune consider his courses with himselfe and others The Philosophers stone is like the northwest passage lockt up in strechio D'avies but not so cold in seeking Things profferd and easie to come by diminish themselves in reputation price for how full of pangs and dotage is a wayling lover for it may bee some browne bessie But let a beautie fall a weeping overpressed with the sicke passion she favours in our thoughts something Turnbull A man poore yet rich in knowledge undertaking to worke some excellerie in this helpelesse age is like a Merchant that intends some rich Sea voyage without a Barke Victuals or Men The wiser fort of humane judgements doe not accept forme for matter but matter for forme otherwise our Sophisters would bee taken for wise men who are yet but Prentises therein A constant and wise considering Spirit giveth onely place to mens humours not to variation in truth A bold talking braggart is like the torrent running from a Mill troubles the eare and eye fruitlessly with what he hath done and seene but angle him of his knowledge and you may perhaps catch a Gudgeon The true correction of an ill tongued man or woman is to bid them speake as they have found and knowne and not more or lesse and forfit for untruths He that converseth amongst ill tongued people is like him that walkes amongst thorns and to contend with them is to tread on Snakes and Adders Conversation with earthly Company and terrestriall things is but groueling upon this surface of our great Mole-hill the earth but when wee in our ayerie discourses lift our selves higher let us take heed wee put not our mouths too peremptorily into heaven Natur 's Instruments wherewith she so wisely and wonderfully workes in the Vniverse as we see are the Sunne Moone and Starres Influencies motions upon in and with the Elements and seeds But God omnipotent works his will by his unspeakable power and word by Angels Nature and all things to whom bee all praise It is no more iniustice in almightie God to kill and destroy evill men then in one makes glasses and disliking his workmanship therein breakes them into the fornace againe When extreames oppresse thee consider wisely thy courses and search well into thy selfe and actions if thou beest not the cause of them thy selfe and through the perversnesse of thine owne will before thou blamest Fortune or that wee call Destinie the one a word or figment the other a course of occasion or chaunce Cast the eye of thy imagination as a stranger upon thy outward actions course and behaviour amongst people and thou maiest find that thy selfelove hath covered many things they secretly blame in thee and which thou oughtest tacitly to amend and discerne in thy selfe Seest thou thy store small and meanes weake bee content then with small things thanke God for that thou hast despaire not of enough and doe thy endeavour honestly and say Deus providebit When thou art tempted by that sensuall or substill Spirit thy will to eate of the forbidden fruit that is to cōmit any evill act eyther fleshly or mentally pray to God seeing thy weaknesse or nakednesse and cast thee downe at the foote of his mercy seate laying hold upon the merits of his Sonne our Saviour and mediatour Iesus Christ and say with the Psalmist If thou O great God shouldest looke on all that is done amisse who can endure thy Iustice O consider that we are but dust and seeing there is mercy and compassion with thee pardon my frayleties and keepe mee from presumptuous sinning and suffer me not to be led into temptation but deliver me from all evills Wee passe our time here with great care of our present being and the conversation thereof but God bee mercifull for the most part of men little looke to the future which is perdurable O let us note and remember what the wise man sayeth viz. As the tree falles so it lyes Goe not to a covetous man with any request too soone in the morning for his covetousnesse is up before himselfe and hee before thee but stay till the afternoone then hee 'le bee drunke upon some borrowers purse Musicke breathd by a gentleman is a juell or earing in others hearing in a begger or fidler it is a wallet in the eyes of others thoughts Wee neede not goe any further then the consideration of our selves who are by Moses in Genesis said to be Gods Image to prove or as it were see the Trinitie in Vnitie and Vnitie in Trinity for is not Deus pater anima Mundi is not Filius mens aut velle Dei patris and is not spiritus Sanctus operatio gratia Dei deus ipse in potentia actu Compare then our bodies to the great world our bodies and flesh shall turne to dust or earth so shall the world to his pristine Chaos our soules shall endure for ever God is eternall our minds affects this or that God the Son came downe was incarnate showed and taught his Fathers will miraculously suffered descended rose againe and ascended into his first place The mind of man circuits but still it returnes the mind conclusively as the Soule and mind setts the spirit to organize in the body to act so the Holy spirit proceedes from the Father and Sonne in the motion of the universe to effect and act his minde and will Wherefore with Anaxagoras all things are in all things Anima Mens spiritus One in that all who is three in parts or persons who moves this all making all things obay and serve this one God as his instruments or organons wherefore Plato sayed well Caput eius est Coelum oculus eius
best countenance of truth is to be what we seeme To seeme what wee are not is player-like It is a passible vertue to speake well a praisable to do well the one resembles the shadow the other the body but wisely to hold ones peace makes a due Zenith The censure of others troubles not a well planted minde To contend with fooles is to be in the same parallell The blessing of God keepes company with vertuons actions but that Gods blessing many Rich-men bragge of is but eight in the hundred or worse Hee who lives poorely in rich havings is like him that 's a cold in a furr'd gowne the cause onely inward An understanding soule in a grosse body is like a good leg in a winter boote but a foolish spirit in a well featured body is like a mishapen spindle shanke in a bombasted stocking It is a rancke courteosie when a man is forc't to thanke for his owne againe He that thinkes too well of many for the most part betrayes himselfe to the borrower He that loves all alike loves none well and he that hates and suspects all loves himselfe too much What thou judiciously holdest lawdable in others seeke to make reall in thy selfe Those who prayse others thereby to bee commended themselves resemble horses when they knibble one another A palpable flatterer is like a horstealer that strokes the horse with sweete-gloves Whose ende is to get vp and ryde him out of his pasture Craft reqvires more witt than plaine honestie doth which makes knaves so nimble and officious A lyar without memory is like one has lost his purse to a reckonning A young vnthriftie heyre that is greene inward black outward is like a morning dreame wakes and finds all gone Hee that oversets his confidence upon false projects is like him that handes a loose haulser falls over-bord He that delights in doing brave evill as they call Swaggering c. is like him that sweares vildly in some learned language The first and last thing we should doe upon sleepe is to pray to and prayse God If the wine be good bee thou the more wary for if thou drinkest drunke thou defacest the Image of God in thee that is thy reason Hee that drinkes drunke Cudgels his owne braine To Swagger in drinke is to put a horrid Visour upon an il-favored face There is no cause why any man should bee proud bee they Lords Knights Gentlemen c. For if they consider themselves truely they are but Millers Cookes and Dungmen Millers in grinding their Meale Cookes in decocting it Dungmen by carying and expulsing excrements Hee may well clayme a boat-sons place in Barkleyes Shippe of fooles that befooles himselfe and he then blowes the whistle when hee proclaymes his vayne confidence The difference betwixt Fortitude desperate dareing it is betweene the Sunne and common Fyer the one produceth much good the other consumes and destroyes what is put into it and at last goes out it selfe A Gamester that depends his meanes on the hazard is like the weather about Michaelmasse now fayre then foule but in the adversitie of losse hee 's winters fowle way to a lender It is impossible thrivers by play should still prosper for their best is losse waste of time their thrift vndoing of others Ordinary play is an ungodly exercize for it is the whetsstone of anger the father of Blasphemous oathes the murtherer of many mens estates and the box an Iron-fac't bold pickpocket An honest playn-meaning man amongst Cheators is like one that sleeps on an Ant-hill A noted coward is like a Dogge running through a Towne with a bottle at his tayle Esteeme of thy selfe but justly as thou art and no more for the world will doubt thee in that and strive to make thee lesse It is a running plague to a horse when a hastie asse rides him You lame the nimble diligence of a Taverne when you come on the score Hee who offers any thing to sale diminisheth the estimation thereof If you 'l put a false friend on the Test offer to borrow mony of him and hee 'l like lead and copper fly away but his Silver shall still remaine his owne on the coppell of excuses A borrower is the veriest subject in a Kingdome if without a pawne a meere slave to censure He that goeth into a bawdihouse putteth one foote amongst theeves the other amongst murtherers A craftie fellow is somewayes proffitable to a wise man viz. makes him wary Drunkenesse looseth a mans reputation as a bad gamester doth his mony both commonly eyther laughing or quarrelling He that is drunke finds alwayes something in his way because his fantasie is full of figures He that is a true judge of himselfe acquits him from the censure of others Chymicall philosophers say Facilius est construere quà m destruere But fooles have experience to the contrary There is a sport in recounting witty jeasts which who so over-stretcheth becomes Buffone to the Auditory Hee that showes store of money amongst needie persons whets a borrower to cut his courteosies purse or a theefe to steale it Fayned excuses in a friend are like false dice with a gamester He that still talkes for his owne endes should bee worne by his Auditors as woemen weare fringe or lace about the tayle peece Drinking frindship is but drunken kindnesse That is an idle tale that neyther profits the teller nor hearer but a pernitious one that benefits the teller and hurts the hearer Hee that over-feeds his sences doth like him that feasts his enemies Hee that hath good businesse to doe and wants meanes to effect it is like a shippe ryding vpon her Anchor in the wast of victualls It is vanity to put more confidence vpon this life than on a winde at Sea but it is wisedome to have tackling ready for all changes Fooles are like the Sea waves flying from the breath of good counsell We are apt to conceipt of our selves farre beyond the worlds esteeme and to finde repentance too late with his servant had I wist That poverty is justly contemptible which is purchassed by following vice but that not shāefully gotten by acquiring vertuous sence Who give themselves to be the companions of vice in the end become the slaves of it When thou findest thy selfe apt to frailty make the passion of our Lord Iesus Christ thy Looking glasse It is wisedome to be stayed by the advice of many wise man rather than to run with thy fantasie in the field of opinion Things out of the common course of trade neede have an extraordinarie investigator He that gives himselfe to ebriety becomes the servant of letcherie and at last is attended on with povertie Meditation of holinesse is as glowing Cinders but hearty prayer a flame reaching heaven or Elias his fierie Chariot If every one would mend but one wee should have the golden age againe Auxilliarie Souldiers may bee compared to gamesters the Cheefetaines the Setters the common Souldiers the Monies which for honour
the Gallowes if imprisonment Inne him not by the way Humane understanding followes high science slowly but fooles and women quest with Quando He cannot justly be deemed dishonest that putteth supposition to the proofe though with charge but he that knowes a thing to bee false and for wicked gaine leades others to repentance therein is a knave A bold foole hath great advantage in quiet ouer a sober wiseman for the foole accounts an earthquake but the earth's Morice-dance Thunder the Cloudes Colique the warrs a may-game fighting at sharpe a sport till hee bee beaten to better respects Take him for one of the unworthies that cannot endure the prayse of another In abstruse things arguments are endlesse obedience is better than Sacrifice Base sloathfull minds never thinke themselues satisfied for small panes The word good fellow as it is now senced by the vulgan imports a drunkard in a man a light huswife in a woman In our youth the senses bore the dominion but in our age the understanding should It is a poore back-biting stinking shift to caluminate authentique Authorities and Authors but plaine Roguerie to decurte or mispoint their writings Aproud man of all others should not be penurious for it engenders his hatred and due contempt Study reade practise and doe what can be to obtaine knowledge yet you shall finde an Ignorant will contemne all rather then lose the opinion of himselfe I am many times forc't by the lawes of hospitalitie to endure the hearing of goodmen calumniated but I beare it the easier because the servants of vice doe it In argument strive not too violently with an Obstinate for as staires mounts us to a chamber so must you graduate him An unlearned disputant is troublesome company but if angred very evill society ' and a sponge for defamatory intelligence Bookes are the best companions can bee for they keepe their passions inward and you neede not be troubled with them longer then you list or will A good booke should be read three times first to set his method secondly his matter thirdly to gather his instruction Anothers oppinion of thee concerns thee not so much as thine of thy selfe in which thou shouldest not bee partiall I never tooke a quicke answerer to have a great understanding for small things are sooner contracted then great We haue three things to doe in this world though some say but two viz. to avoide evill to doe good and things necessarie or indifferent Seest thou thy poverty and improsperitie makes enemies of thy former thought friends Faint not therefore for they were but outward friends not in ward and are like dogges that follow the meate not the men A prejudicate conceâ— workes like Yeast in a weake judgment Never trouble your selfe with anothers immagination or what hee speakes oâ— thee in secret for it is noâ— worth thy understanding unlesse hee durst speake it openly Hee that backbites other let him take care hee weare cleane linnen himselfe and keepe no company with women and doggs Point not at an others spots with foule fingers When I behold a man bravely accoutred a Lacedaemonian euen to the shoulders I thinke of Adams nakednesse and smile to see how For-like the world esteemes us more for the case then the carkase Passions are of diverse natures and choler the most unruly and untunable to all gentle societie which if you can command you are master of the captaine Disprayse by a foole Queane or Knave may stick like burs for the time but they pearce no further then the outside of the stookings and garments and are rather an honest mans comendation There 's secret poyson to the soule lurking in the bottome of great bowles of wine Men for the most part shake hands with sobrietie in the third cup of wine women in the second children in the first Bacchus and Venus are neere friends yet will Bacchus breake Venus her glasse when hee is much drunke A coniurer without learning showes his divell is but an asse or the spirit hee workes by an ignorant slave Drunkenesse is the gate to all vice or a paire of spectacles to see the Divell and his workes by Life cannot dye that which wee vulgarly call death is but dissolution of partes God his fire is life which may bee removed but cannot be extinguished That pleasure which is modest moderate and permanent is most to bee desired and highest to bee found A robust breeding makes a rough spirit and condition and is apter to anger then reformation There 's no telling a bred Seaman his errors aboordship or a drunkard hee is so when hee is so A voluptuous man will be master of his word that is hee will rather command it then it shall force him but a just man is a servant to his promise They are the proud indeed who overpasse the bounds of their calling and parts to challendge respect of others Our Appetites are Danaus daughters and our bodies their Tubbs Good objects stay and helpe the wandering of our mindes hence the Historicall use of pictures and holy Images are not unprofitable though Devotion sometimes overshoots the marke The cleanest of our clay houses have many durty corners which like Sluts wee loue not to looke upon till wee are chidden by affliction Men in Ancient time fought to preferre vertue vertuous men now silkewormes doung hath gotten the upper place A Flye with a candle does as a Foole with a fray and mony A Poet hath advantage of a true Historian for hee can fashion men as they should bee with invention onely the other ought to report them truely as hee finds them in many records Vaine boasting of knowledge showes emptinesse therein or vaine glory thereof He that steepes his Iest in his owne laughter is like him that swallowes his spettle but uncomely Ancient Heralds did denote the qualitie of deserts pretily and properly when they gave the field Sables to gownmen a field Gules to deserving Soldiers Argent and Or to men favoured in Courts of great Princes c. But now they sell monsters and cruell beasts to one another Few men weare in their coate Armours Lambes Doves and such harmlesse creatures but ravenous devouring and horrible beasts and birds which denotes that Pride is cruell and this invention is a child be got by warre A Serjant at law will endure the discharge of a great peece as stoutly as the proudest souldier of us all Sleepe of the body is the Image of its death and dreaming showes the soule is neither at home or needs sleepe A translator of bookes is but as one that deales anothers bread to all about him A translator an Anagrammatist are both in a narrow roome or entry cannot bestirre their witts if they deale truely Vulgar and meane witted people that meddle with the affaires of mighty Potentates resemble clownes and russettings in a Stage-play when they presume to sit in the play kings seat A students wife precizely fine and faire denotes her husband hath oft
trouble in his studies The Mother knowes best whether the child be like the father or no Lustfull people resemble those sharp-stomack't gluttons that take delight to often whet their knives and so weare them for the Bellies sake to the back A foole that tels some dull saltlesse jeast to hold company with wit crackers is like Aesops asse that imitated the fauning dogge It is musicke of the sphears to heare a wise and learned man discourse but a trouble to the eare and a burthen to the mind to heare an ignorant foole prattle Hee that hath valiantly approved himselfe in his youth is excused for answering swearing brabling darers in his age and hee that hath written well is excused for speaking much In our childhood we were fooles in our manhood we are servants of care in our age Porters to diseases Reprehend not thy friend too plainly unlesse thou knowest him wise else thou shalt find it unseasonable at all times An opticke multiplying Glasse is like a travelling young gallants thoughts or a vulgar Alchimists hopes both great through perspective Hee that strives to agrandize himselfe above his place shall finde envye lye lurking a th' wart his way and in Court it lies smiling too Souldiers and Saylors should bee the Godliest men of all other professions because so often exposed to danger and the saylor is reasonable at sea and cannot abide whistling but at Land they are both Vpzeefreeze Why should any bee immoderately covetous or unfittingly penurious who hath neither Childe nor a lease of his life You may more offend a Pedagogues disposition by breaking Priscians head then by wounding Reasons side with non-sence Lawiers because they are in the shipps poope neere the stirrage of the State thinke their places before the Martialists but soldiers know their precedence for they are in the force-castle the difference is the lawiers have often apparitions of good Angells when the soldiers many times are payed with crackt crownes Suppose our Thunder and lightning to bee one of the fairest dayes in Hell but the burning of Sodome and Gomorath their ordinary weather He that strives to live beyond his meanes and place puts a burthen upon his lives backe An usurer that lives upon eight in the hundred is like a pike that feeds and lives by devouring the smaller fish but the difference is when Death brings him to the dresser hee butters himselfe There is no presumption from the Center of the begger to the circular of the promoted rich if graduated by vertue and worthy deserts for vertue was the first promoter There are 3. sorts of honest men viz. your exchangeman for the bearing up of his credit your cautionarie for feare of lawes but your true honest man is hee that is so for it selfe Nature workes by her ordained quallitie on quantitie your Vniversitie Physition on forme by prescript but an empirike layes about him like a Fencer Libelling is but an itching of the wit but if hee be taken scratching hee smarts more for it then his reader profitts thereby A libeller of great Princes errors is like on throwes the snuffe of a candle amongst a heape of people which a wise and moderate man treades out When thou findest vanity beare too much dominion in thy humors thinke on thy Death judgment Heaven and Hell The ouer lavish talke of a thick-witted foole is like the roasting of a fatt goose much folly droppes into the dripping-pan of others eares It is no wisdome to refuse the fruits of August for the flowers of May that is to give Benefits for fayre words Vituperate no man to couer thine owne defects A striving affected quicknesse denores a giddie and unstable condition It is not materiall what men say but what Reason speakes in men Esteeme not so much what the societie bee you keepe as what the company is For company is the cloathes of your habit Prejudicate that most common lawes esteeme all quallities excepting his owne and ready mony as hee speakes French To deeme a Man by his actions and deeds is the certaine and unfailable way of judging Hee is not out of the estate of grace who chides himselfe for errors but hee who is caried by vice like a straw on a streame inconsiderately The rust of usury many times frets in the Childrens fortunes There is nothing proclaymes a mans wisdome more then the gouernment of his passions for fooles through the spectacles of fury see repentance in the red letters of their shame It is the Naturall of most ignoble spirits to iudge and censure others in the worse part but noble Sr P. S. sayd evill speaking of others comes of the evill wee have in our selves Euill men delight to make others so but a good man is apten to amend his owne defects then to accuse others Seeke to remoue thy crosses by fervent prayer to God and withall doe honestly what thou maiest for the Armes of heaven sayeth one are our endevours make the husbandman thy example A man growne shamelesse in his talke is like a bagg full of Eeeles and snakes if opened who knowes what comes out first A Musitian or a Poet over-curious to give his fantasies compositions is as a gardener that denies leaves and smelling flowers for matters of delight and recreation are but so in comparison of the fruites and seeds of necessary arts and sciences Mariadge in the budd of making is like the moneth of Aprill but May and the heat of Sommer over and familiaritie worne to September things appeare naked and as they are and sometimes have cold greefes When I heare people in comaparison of disgrace with one another as I am as good or better then hee or shee c. I deeme such wordes proceeds from the want of true judgment wisdome and goodnesse and that they both may mend Where private opinion is sole judge of ambiguous texts there unitie is no houshold guest either in Philosophy Alchimie naturall Physicks c. Little young birds and women are very different in sufferance for much handling kills the one and makes the other wanton Actions are others bookes where wee reade by their thoughts and accordingly iudge It is the periphrasis of a foole when hee hath spoken as hee thinkes well to aske the hearers if be not so Sleight loves are sullied with smalle distastes but a well grounded affection is like a strong how hardly broken unlesse extreamely ouer-drawne Musicke in young men hath fingers but in aged men only eares Many are better guarded then regarded but a criminal shall have faultie spy-faults enough going to prison Novelties with a wife man are but as dust brusht or blowne off by examination but stick in a fooles mind as the durt of Paris in an Englishmans cloathes A low'd raenting Speaker that engrosseth all the talke may well be called the Drum of the Company and a woman of the same quality the Fife It is a laudable quality to keepe touch as they call holding promisse but when it is against
Sol lula stellae venter mare pedes terra c. Thicke fire was the medium betweene God and Moses in the bush So the unspotted flesh though elementall of the Sacred virgin the interpose betwixt the Deietie of Christ and us For Ethnicks Atheists Turkes Iewes c. making question why an Eternall should have a Sonne answere is God's power and word tooke flesh of the Sacred virgin to satisfie his justice by the order of his mercie and since it was for man hee served it in the same livery which no Angell or creature could doe no more then the hatchet can worke alone Hee gave Moses lawes in Tables of stone which Moses brake in anger of the Israelites Idolatrie but hee gave us precepts in our owne similitude which was darkned likewise by our Sauiour his death on the Crosse but renewed by his resurrection as the other by Moses remounting If there were 100000000 millions of people on the earth's surface more then there is every one having a burning glasse yet all might use it to effect by one Sunne In which there are excellent cogitations to bee meditated The glory of the Almighty shines in all good things as his relucent creature the Sunne spreades his beames in the universe but when it pleased him to contract himselfe to his word then as a burning glasse gathers the rayes of the worlds Sunne so hee kindled a fire on Syon hill and a bright flame in the wombe of the blessed Virgin which the proud malice of the Iewes striuing to extinguish made this Gods Son our soules lumination shine the brighter Whensoever thou seest the Moone goe into a Clowde thinke of the glorious ascension of our Saviour and how hee is in the Sacrament or Communion God is one in himselfe but as hee appeares to the world and us is three viz. God the Creator and our Father God the Sonne as he wore our humanitie suffered and redeemed us God the holy Ghost as hee instructeth gouerneth and Consolateth us Yet all is one God to whom bee all prayse The exceeding difference betwixt us and our Saviour Iesus Christ is very apparent in our disposition for we are bent to the Humanitie and he bent it to him When we contemplate in the feruour of Prayer to find an Idea of the all-Creator the utmost wee arive vnto is a light which our limited thoughts cannot so expound as belongs to his ubiquitie and so wee are set up as with a period Therefore O wonderfull bounty and goodnesse of God that hath sent downe his Sonne and cloathed him in the shape of our humanitie whereby he is our speculum and through whom we see Gods mercie power love c. The word Godly or God-like and it's Econtra hath great signification denoting some vertuous action or contemplation or the contrarie to the contrary The whole universe is but as a bowle in the hand of the Almightie but no magnitude can containe him that made space and place As the luminous carboncle of the Firmament whose presence makes the Day joy and the Night mourne his absence is the guide vnto our bodies in this world So the incomprehensible glorious Sunne of Heaven is the presence of our day in God and our guide to his presence All the workes of God are essentiall concreate not as man looking on his face in a glasse a vanishing shaddow for God from all eternitie could not but know himselfe and looking upon himselfe doubled the beames of his glorious essence begat his similitude or quatenus nobis his Son the divine love of which resemblance produced the holy Ghost or Spirit three individuall persons in one Godhead to whom bee prayse honour and glory in one thankes Let God his studie bee the cheefest place in thy Soules house The highest orbe for our station is the earth the lowest orbe to God's vision is the earth what hee hath done above is for us to looke upon and admire not to examine but what hee hath by his Commandements and his Sonnes precepts directed us to doe and beleeve wee ought carefully to looke unto that is by our Saviour his words thus in breefe Loue God above all things and thy Neighbour as thy selfe God is a spheare whose Center is every where whose circumference is no where A light which through too much claritie becomes invisible a greatnesse containing all magnitude a power gouerning all potencie and a goodnesse inexplicable To beleeve things fall only under our sences comprehension requires no reward for reason payes it but things beyond our reach and verified by two double Testimonies engrosseth our blisse of faith in heavenly Characters The miracles of our Saviour being so supernaturall showed the stony Jewes had beene Gorgonized before his comming All sacred words and divine figures denote unto us what wee ought to know and knowne to hold inviolably and strongly The Humillitie of our Saviour is th' exaltation of our hope to salvation the foote of which Ladder was his humanitie the top his deitie the Angels going up and downe figures of his Passion Death resurrection and ascention Iacob's sleeping our lethargie in sinne God who containes all glorious formes within him cannot be comprehended in any figure by man therefore hee sent his Sonne in man's owne figure to bee the readilier cogitated by man The Ancient Ethnique world were ever too apt and busie in Deifying men if they were but a litle taller in their deserts then the ordinarie pitch of others as in Saturne Iupiter Hercules c. And this was but a tricke of that evill and malignant intelligent spirit that aped in them before hand what he knew would really follow in our Saviour Christ Iesus thereby thinking to stopp his reputation with such communitie By our pronenesse to evill and penetrative sorrow after the fact it declares that our Nature is depraved from the first purity we were plac't in for goodnesse cannot produce euill Doubtlesse the conuersation of some intelligent evill and depraved spirit through envy instigated enticed and contaminated man's Soule which was the fruite forbidden or that Tree of knowledge in good and evill even as coyture with an uncleane woman contaminates the body of a man It hath beene questionable in my thoughts why that displaced dejected spirit should so greedely seeke after mans ruyne I can cogitate no further then that his nature being depraved his burthen of torments great his despaire of release desperate and greevous his enuy therefore is strong upon those are in way to obtaine his place whom he seekes to hinder ensnare in the nets of their owne sensuallities which hee knowes and see's by their proceedings and life Paradise was created and the man in it of pure and incorruptible Elements and the corruptible World for all other things but by mans breach of Gods Commandements the puritie being taken away man became Companion with the other Creatures and by feeding on those Corruptible things by little and little was so thrust out of
for our sinnes to bee valiant in his defence to bee meeke humble to mortifie our carnall affections to endure afflictions patiently He that will duly waigh consider the great and intollerable sufferings of our Saviour par le menu as the French Phrase is viz. his blowes whippings scourgings the contumelies of the deryding and reioycing of his tormenters his griefe for the lamenting of his friends his burthen of the crosse his stretching nayling drinking vineger and galle his raylling spectators c. And withall consider his patience therein and lamblike endurance not opening his mouth to a murmur but in prayer that even for them were his grievous afflicters and then poyze thy ability to these endurances and thou must by force confesse him not onely God but thy wonderfull good God thy exceeding pittifull redeemer and stand confounded in thy weakenes saying Glory and immortall thankes bee to the Lambe that so tooke away the heavie burthen of our sinnes God his iustice is much to be feared for as he is the fountaine of all wisdome and our loving creator and father yet to show his detestation to willfull finners like a wise schoolemaster hee did not much afflict Adam and his seed so long as they stood but poore and weake man but when his justice mercie word and promisse tooke flesh and cloath'd it selfe in our durty garments then God to punish man and Adams fault showed forth the length of the Arme of his Iustice in our meeke and suffering inocent Saviour then did his anger burne nay flame against disobedience and that so extreamly thaâ— had hee not beene God also that beare the burthen thereof flesh nor humane spirit could have endured the thousand part of the torments hee suffered which patiently borne and suffered his iustice was satisfied and man restored directed by a new law which we are all bound to keepe heedfully and to take heed of rebellion heer eafter When I observe a cruell Carter yerke and slash but a poore over-toyld Iade or a hasty foole spurre him to the guts I cogitate then if our godlesse dainty gallants were but so pythagorized how they would wish they had lived better Hast thou a great estate and a great sparke of Promethian fire a larger capacity a quicker wit a more solid judgement a more penetrating understanding than many others art thou not deceived by thy selfe love c. then remember our Lords parrable of the Tallents to whom much is given of him much is required It is not the bare letter of sacred Scriptures men vary so much in as the sence therefore to sayle safely in such an immense and profound Sea of mysteries where the gusts of selfe conceit will bee puffing it is wise warynesse to waigh up the Anchor of faith and set sayle of Christian passage by the direction of the wisest and best experienced Masters Pilots who have made happy voyage before us and such are the Ancient Fathers As the Iewes used our Saviour so do Sectaries the Scriptures first they see and wonder then question traduce then turne them up down at last torture crucify them Reporters of disputations in these latter times resemble such Painters that make all the figures and houses according to their Country forme and fashion but a true relater should give every sillable his due by report however hee affect There is no Creature but loves themselves most and others to themselves else looke for no love in this lower world As addition and too apt Credulitie are motives to superstition so diminution and incredulitie is the way to Atheisme keepe therefore right in the apostolique path of faith Hee may according to holy Athanasius Creed be well held a Christian and Catholike that hold's and beleeves the Trinitie in vnitie and the Vnitie in Trinitie that is our mayne all other Circumstances should not in may opinion make Christians shed the others blood if the Divell were not too busie in the envious hearts of placeholders for wee ought not to doe evill that good may come thereof In all thou doest intend make God still thy chiefe materiall and end This life is worne away as a winter day which to the happy worldlings seemes faire and pleasant but is short and variable to the good and godly if afflicted it is foule and windie but the night of death brings them rest and a home in heaven when the wicked then lye without dores God is the Father of eternitie men and Angells Sonnes of Aevum all other Creatures subiects of Time FINIS Errata Page 34. line 4. for his read to a. p. 99. l. 13. for but r. both p. 102. l. 1. for russettings r. rustings p. 136. l. 15. for honest r. honestest p. 147 l. 1. leave out but p. 153. l. 1. for excellery r excellency