Judgments AS those that have the Iaundise see all things yellow by reason of the humour of that diâ—ease corrupting the sight by the overflowing of the gall over the whole body So men of corrupt Iudgments misapply matters and persons and are not able to give a right Iudgment according to truth but run on according as their Fancy leads them just like a blind Man that can see no more light at noon-day then at mid-night and must needs there mis-judg day for night and night for day Wanton Hearers of the Word reproved SUch as have weak and sickly stomachs are alwaies finding fault with the Cater Cook or Carver and think they could feed a great deal better if there were better provision And thus there are some queasy wanton Hearers of Gods Word such as find fault with their Pastor and think they could edify much better by such or such an other Wherein they say they know not what For it is neither Paul nor Apollos that can edify that is give encrease make the Word effectual God hath reserved that work to himself that so his Ordinance not the gifts his blessing not the commendations of the Preacher might be regarded that the Treasure might not be esteemed for the Vessel but the Vessel for the Treasure and so neither Paul magnified nor Apollos despised nor either or both relyed upon and God himself neglected Nor Hearing severed from Prayer for that makes Prayer abominable nor Prayer from Hearing for that makes Hearing unprofitable but that both being joyned together our obedience in Hearing may make our Prayers accepted and our fervency in praying may procure our hearing to be blessed The vast difference betwixt the Power of God and Man IN matters of Arithmeticall accompts set one against ten ten against an hundred an hundred against a thousand a thousand against ten thousand although there be great oddes yet there is some comparison but if a Man could set down an infinite number then there could be no comparison at all because the one is finite the other infinite So it is betwixt the Power of God and Man set all the Princes and Powers of the Earth in opposition to God they shall never be able to withstand him It was once the saying of Pompey That with one stamp of his foot he could raise all Italy up in arms And the mighty Men of the World may have Nations Kingdoms and Common-wealths at their command but yet God is more powerfull then them all If he do but arise they shall all of them flye before him If he once fall to fettering of Princes it shall be done so sure that no flesh shall be able to knock off their bolts again If he but once make fast the barrs of our City gates we may trust to it they shall be so fast that no Invader shall be able to break them open so infinite is his power that in Davids thoughts it was not to be matched Psal. 89. The great danger of Apostasie IN the affairs of this life it is a shame for a Man to begin an enterprise and not to go through to begin a piece of Work and leave it off in the middle it will give just occasion for every Man to point at him with his finger deride and jeer him saying This Man began to build and was not able to finish that he hath taken a great deal of pains to no other purpose but to leave a Monument of Folâ—y and Vanity for the World to laugh at And thus he that hath received the common graces of God and many good gifts of his Spirit which have enabled him to do much good and faithful service and then takes the grace of God and turns it into wantonnesse and smothers and quenches the Spirit Or having been in a fair way to Heaven having some time walked on Religiously and faithfully till he come within some sense of his Reward and within view of the Crown prepared for him then to turn out of the way and Apostatize in the broad way What is it else but to tread in a path that without Repentance will lead to utter destruction Heb. 6. Wicked Thoughts to be carefully washed off from the Heart IT is the part of a skilful Surgeon or Physitian not onely to take away any appearing Ulcer or to cool the heat of a burning Feaver with outward applications but to look into the inward causes and malignity of the disease and so to order the matter that the cause being taken away the effect may necessarily follow Now it is well known that the seed of all sins and the Well-spring of all Wickednesse ariseth from the Heart of Man the Heart is therefore to be washed as from all wickednesse so from all wicked thoughts they being the Sources and originals of all unrighteousnesse not that they are all so For they may be sometime accompanied with horror and detestation of Sin or cast into our Hearts by Sathan yet not consented unto but Men think too little of such thoughts the thoughts therefore that are to be thought on and cleansed from the Heart are such as proceed from our own corrupt Nature or suggested into our minds by the malice of Sathan whereunto we give consent and liking or else they be the allurements of the World which we cherish and delight in The high price of Mans Redemption AMongst the Romans thâ—â—e their proper goods and estates which Men had gotten in the Wars with hazard of their lives were called Peculium castrense or a Field-purchase Well then may the Church and every true Member therein be called Chrisâ—s Peculium castrense his purchase gotten not onely by the jeopardy of his life but with the losse of his life and bloud 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. And if it were possible he would rather lose his life a second time ere he would lose the least limb for which his life was so laid down Gods great tenders of Mercy to repentant Sinners IF a Iudge of an Assize should say to a Felon or some Malefactor in the Goal Confesse but your faults and become an honest Man I will pardon you and not onely so but you shall be made a Iustice of Peace or some great Man whereby you shall have power to judge and examine others Surely he would upon this promise be moved quickly to confesse the Felony and forgo his theft Thus it is that the Iudge of all the World makes great tenders of Mercy that if a Sinner will truly and from his heart confesse his sins and resolve to leave them he shall have pardoâ— and not onely so but he shall be made a King and Priest unto God the Father an heir of God and joynt-heir with Christ Jesus Rom. 8. 17. The fulnesse of Reward reserved till after this life PLutarch though an Heathen yet of Honourable esteem even to this day amongst us hath a
you which he applying to himself besought St. Augustine to strengthen him in the Truth as Christ commanded Peter Tu conversus confirma fratres which task he so well performed that with a little travell in a short space two twins were brought forth to the Church at one time Thus the VVord of God whether heard or read Non ut sonus non ut litera not as it is ink and paper not as it is a sound or collision of the Air but as it is an Instrument of God and the power of God unto salvation Rom. 1. 16. maketh the man of God perfect 2 Tit. 3. 17. It frameth and mouldeth the heart it printeth it like a stamp melteth it like wax bruiseth it like a hammer pricketh it like a nail and cutteth it asunder like a sword A good mans life preserved for the good of others RIvers of themselves would run the straightest and directest way to the Sea as being greedy to pay tribute unto their great Master the Ocean but God in his wise disposal of all things hath set here a Mountain there a hill in the way that so by turning and winding now this way now that way and going further about they might enrich the earth as they pass along with fertility and abundance Thus a good man and a good Christian man having but once tasted of Gods love O how he desires to be dissolved and to be with Christ he prayes but still with reference to Gods will that his hope may be turned into fruition his faith into vision and his love into perfect comprehension but God in his providence hath resolved upon the negative that his dayes shall be prolonged to do good unto others that he may be serviceable in his place to him and his Country The great difference of both good and bad in life and death THe Hawk flies high and is as highly prized being set upon a pearch vervel'd with the gingling bells of encouragement and carryed on his Master's fist but being once dead and picked over the pearch is cast upon the dunghill as good for nothing The Hen scrapes in the dust not any thing rewarded when she is alive but being dead is brought as a choice dish to her Master's Table Thus wicked men are commonly set in high places and prosper in this life and good men lye groveling with their mouths in the dust as the very underlings of the world but being once dead the one is cast into the dungeon of Hell the other advanced to the Kingdom of Heaven the one is into Abrahams bosom whilst the other is tormented with the Devil and his Angels Opportunities of sin to be avoided ST Augustine in his Confessions maketh mention of his friend Alipius that having resolved with himself never to look upon the Fencers prizes was up on a time through the importunity of his friends drawn along to the Theater where these bloody sports were performed protesting that he would keep his eyes shut all the while and not so much as once open them yet it so fell out that upon a sudden great shout of the people be looked about to see what the matter was whereupon he became another man and altered his former course so that his hatred to the sport was turned into love and liking of it It is opportunity we say that makes Thieves Look what a clear fountain is to the thirsty what a shade to the scorâ—hed Traveller such is occasion to a man that is accustomed to do evil He that walketh in the Sun is suâ—e to be tan'd he that toucheth Pitch shall be defilâ—â— Physitians may converse with sick men and cure them but if their diseases be dangerous contagious they will not easily adventure on them lest that in curing others they should kill themselves Vices are of the same nature and vitiouâ— persons and places are alike dangerous and therefore to be shunned How the good and the bad look upon death in a different manner A Child at School when he seeth one riding Post through the streets as if he would run over him or tread upon him cryeth out But when he perceives that it is his Father's man sent to bring him home from School all the feaâ— is past then he laugheth and rejoyceth So whilst men are in the state of nature they look upon Death as an Enemy as a spoyler as one that would bereave them of all their worldly delights but being once the sons and daughters of God by adoption then they apprehend Death as their Heavenly Father's man riding on the pale horse sent to bring them home from a prison on Earth to a place of perfect liberty in Heaven The confidence of much knowledge an argument of no knowledge THales sent the golden Tripos which the Fisher-men took up in their Net and the Oracle commanded to be given to the wisest to Bias Bias to Solon and then they had but seven wise men and if you will but believe the times there are now hardly so many fools to be found If such a thing were now to be had we should all fight for it as the three Goddesses did for the golden apple we are so wise We have now women Polititians women Preachers Preaching Souldiers Teaching Tradesmen Children Metaphysitians every silly fellow can square a Circle make perpetual motions find out the Philosopher's stone interpret the Revelation of St. John make new Theoricks new Logick dispute de omni scibili Town and Country are now so full of deified spirits divine souls that you may sooner find a God than a man amongst us we think so well of our selves and that is an ample Testimony a sufficient demonstration that there is a great deal of folly much ignorance much indiscretion to be found amongst us Afflictions follow the godly man close in this world HE that goeth towards the Sun shall have his shadow follow him but he that runneth from it shall have it flie before him So he that marcheth with his face towards the Sun of Righteousness that setteth himself to do the things that may be without offence to God and Man shall be sure to have afflictions close at his heels as for him that hath his back upon Christ that maketh a Trade of sin his sorrows and vexations of spirit like the shadow are still before him in this world but they will be sure to meet him in another How to read the Scriptures and books Apocryphal WHen Moses saw an Egyptian and an Israelite striving together he killed the Egyptian and saved the Israelite Exod. 2. 12. But when he saw two Israelites striving together he laboured to reconcile them saying Ye are brethren why do ye strive So when we read or see the Apocryphal books or Heathen story or Popish traditions contradicting the Scriptures As for instance Jacob cursed Simeon and Levi for murthering the Sichemites Gen. 49. 7. And Iudeth blessed God for killing
story How that upon a time a Complaint was sent from the Islands of the Blessed to the Judges of the superiour Courts about certain Persons sent thither who formerly had lived impiously humbly intreating that this abuse thus offered unto them might speedily be redressed Whereupon these impartiall Iudges taking the businesse into their considerations found not onely the complaint to be true but withall the reason and cause thereof which was that Iudgment and sentence was passed upon them here below in this life Whereupon it oft fell out that many Persons cloathed with Honourable titles Riches Nobility and other like dignities and preferments brought many Witnesses with them who solemnly swore in their behalf that they deserved to be sent to the Islands of the Blessed when the truth was they deserved the contrary To avoid which inconveniency it was decreed by an eternal doom that for the time to come no Iudgment should be passed till after death and that by Spirits onely who alone do see and plainly perceive the spirits and naked Souls of such upon whom their sentence and Iâ—dgment was to passe that so of what estate and condition soever they were they might receive according to their works Here now was a great deal of light in a dark vault the divine eye of a meer naturall Man discovering an Heavenly truth which is That definitive sentence is not to be passed upon any here below not that any whosoever shall receive his full Reward of what he hath done whether it be good or bad till after this life be ended Good meanings of bad Men destructive THe Poets prate much of Plato's Ferry-boat that never rested to carry Men through the infernall River to the infernall place So that what was then feigned is now verified For if there be any Ferry-boat to Hell it is the thing that Men call a good Meaning This is that which carries Men and Women down to Hell by multitudes by Millions There cannot be found so many Passengers in all the boats upon any River as there are in this one Wherry wafted down to the pit of perdition Many in all Ages have had their good meanings and to this day the Iews Turks Pagans Papists the worst of them all do not want for good meanings It is the good meanings of bad Men that brings them to an evill end they think they do God good service by abusing his People but they are sure to find and feel one day what disservice they have done to God and their own Souls for ever and that their good meanings before Man shall never excuse their bad actings before God Gods readinesse to maintain the cause of his Church AS in publique Theaters when any notable shew passeth over the stage you shall have all the spectators rise up off their seats and stand upright with delight and eagernesse that so they might take the better notice of the same Thus it is that though by an article of our Faith we are bound to believe that Christ sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty as a Iudge to pronounce sentence Yet he is said in the Scripture to stand upright at the sufferings of his People as at the stoning of S. Stephen either as an Advocate to pâ—ead the Church's cause or as one in a posture of readinesse to take revenge upon all her Enemies Men not to be proud of Honours and Preferments IT is Pliny's observation of the Pidgeons that taking a pride in the excellency of their feathers and the height of their flying they towr it in the ayr so long that at last they become a prey to the Hawk whereas otherwise if they would but fly outright they are swifter of wing then any other bird Thus Men that take a pride in the height of that honour whereunto they are advanced are many times made a prey to the Devil and a laughing stock to Men whereas did they but moderate their flight and make a right use of their preferments they might become serviceable to God and their Country Moderation the fore-runner of Peace IT is the observation of S. Hilary that Salt containeth in it's self the element both of Fire and Water and is indeed saith he a third thing compacted out of both It is water lest we should too much be incensed unto heat and passion It is Fire lest we should grow too remisse and chill with neglect and carelesnesse Hence is that advice of our Saviour to his Disciples Have salt in your selves and peace one with another that is as S. Paul interprets Let your speech be alwayes with grace seasoned with salt let it not be rancid or unsavoury larded with bitter and unchristian Invectives but tempered alwayes with sobriety meeknesse and temperance And then when the salt is first set upon the Table Peace as the best and choycest dish will follow after The Saints Infirmities AS all Men dwelling in houses of clay and carrying about them the earthly Tabernacles of their bodies between whiles will they nill they sleep by reason of bodily infirmity and by a kind of unwelcome heavinesse nod towards the Earth as it were pointing at their natural Element whereunto they must in a short processe of time be reduced So even the best of Gods children compassed with Flesh and bloud cannot but at times bewray their folly and unsteadfastnesse The best Artist hath not alwayes his wits about him quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus and the most watchful circumspect Christian doth not alwayes stand so fast upon his guard of Faith and a good Conscience but he may at one time or other be taken napping God onely to be trusted unto in time of distresse AS when little Children do first learn to go alone and feeling the weaknesse of their feet Nature â—eacheth them to thrust out the hand to the Wall and trust it onely for a stay unto them And thus it is that especially in times of distresse Nature and Religion teach us to trust to a stronger then our selves that we shall have help at Gods hands and that without him there is no reall true help at all none in the smooth tongue of Man nor in his fair looks not in the strength of Man nor in his Riches nor in the wit of Man that may be turned into Foolishnesse but in God alone who is able and willing to relieve his People in the time of their distresse The great heat of Ambition IT is reported of Iulius Caesar that as he passed over the Alpes in his journey to Spain he took up his quarters one night in a little poor inconsiderable Village where one of his Company came unto him asked him merrily If he thought there would be any contention in that place for the Soveraignty Whereunto he made this stout answer I had rather be the first Man here then the second at Rome Now
a serious communication clear intelligence and acquaintance with their own hearts saying Heart how doest thou How is it with thee for thy spiritual estate Heart how wilt thou do or what doest thou think will become of thee when thou and I must part and never have the happinesse to talk with one another again Faithfull Soul and an Unbeliever their difference in relying upon God LOok how it is with two Watermen the one hales his Boat about the shore and cannot gâ—t off but tugs and pulls hard yet never puts her forth to the â—ide the other having more skill puts off presently 〈◊〉 up his Sail and then sits still committing himself to wind and tide which eaâ—â—ly carry him whither he is to go Just thus it is with a Faithfull Soul and an Unbeliever all the care of the one is to puchimself upon the stream of Gods providence to set up the Sail of Hope to take the gale of Gods Mercy and so he goes on cheerfully And why but because he is not moved by any externall Principle it is Faith in Christ Iesus that puts him on it is by Faith that he hath got a skill and a kind of slight to put over all cares to another and though he take up the Crosse yet he hurls all the care upon Christ and then it is an easy matter to lye under the burthen when another bears the weight But the unfaithfull unbelieving Soul thinking by his own wit and power to bring things about tugs and puls hard yet finds neither ease nor successe but sinks under the pressure of every carnal Worldly â—â—â—â—rrent that betides him Self-deniall the excellency thereof THere is mention made of a certain godly Man that was in his time sore tempted by Sathan the Man was much in duty to whom Sathan said Why takest thou this pains thou dost watch and fast and pray and abstainest from the sins of the times But O Man What dost thou more then I do Art thou no Drunkard no Adulterer No more am I Dost thou watch and fast Why let me tell thee I never slept I never ate nor drank What dost thou more then I do I will tell thee said the good Man I pray I serve the Lord nay more then all this which is indeed the sum of all I deny my self Nay then saies Sathan thou goest beyond me For I am proud I exalt my self and so vanished O the excellency of self-deniall when Christ may be said to rule within a man when in every way a Man subjects himself to Christ in his understanding to know Christ in his will to choose and embrace Christ in his thoughts to meditate upon Christ in his fear to serve and honour Christ in his Faith to trust and depend upon Christ in his love to aâ—â—ect Christ in his joy to delight in Christ in his desires to long after Christ in his endeavours to exalt Christ in all his duties graces gifts and abilities to make them serviceable to Christ so that he may be said to live yet not he but Christ that liveth in him Gal 2. 20. Graces divine not parts humane hold out in the end AS it is with two Children playing together in the day when night comes one Child goes to his Father and the other to his Father It may be all the day they are so like that you cannot say whose Child is this or that but when night comes the Father then cometh to his Child and saith Come my Child come in at dores And if the other do but offer to come in No child you must go home to your Father So while we are living Grace and gifts are mingled together some men have gifts and some Men have graces and they look very like Ah but when night comes when Death comes then saith God to those that have Grace Come my Children enter in but if those that have gifts onely come he sends them another way so that if a Man have never such parts and gifts yet if he have not Grace withall he may go to Hell and perish to all Eternity How it is that Graces of the Spirit may at present seem to be lost AS in a Fire the fewel may be quite burnt out the flame abated and quite extinguished but yet there still remains an heap of Coals on the hearth and in them a good Fire though all may seem to be quenched And it is obvious to every eye that the Sun doth not alwaies shine out in its lustre a cloud may interpose and so intercept its beams yet for all that the body of it is in the Heavens as the Fountain of all other light whatever So it is that the Graces of the Spirit such as Faith Hope Love cannot be finally and totally extinguished in the Soul when they are once wrought there by the Spirit yet their lustre their radiancy their shine and flame may be clouded for some time And so it comes to passe that though a Man cannot lose his hope yet he may at present lose the comfort and confidence of his hope though he cannot lose his Love yet he may cool the heat and fervour of his Love The flame of the Spirit the feeling and sense of it may in the secondary causes thereof for a time be quenched but yet the Spirit it self and the Cardinal graces thereof remain still in their full glory and splendor Sin to be removed as the cause of all Sorrow IF a Man have a thorn in his foot it puts him to a great deal of pain it swells and is full of anguish Now let him anoint his foot let him lap it up and keep it warm let him sit still and not walk upon it yet all the while the thorn is still in his foot he hath no ease but it akes and throbs and goes to the very Heart of him The way then for ease in such a case is to remove the cause of the sorrow by all means to get the thorn pluck'd out to get that drawn forth So when a Mans Conscience is in trouble and disquiet he may use plaisters of ease may seek to quiet his Spirit with merry Company good fellowship following his Pleasures minding his businesse he may be padling with these plaisters and Poultesses that Men of the World seek ease by but yet so long as the thorn is in the Heart guilt in the Conscience and Sin in the Soul all these slabberments will do not good the â—horn must be pluck'd out Sin must be removed as the cause of all sorrows whatsoever Means in the attainment of Grace and the use thereof enjoyned by God IT was as easy for Boaz and might have been done with as little charges to have given Ruth as much corn at once as would have yielded her an Ephah of Barly and so have sent her home without any more ado but he would have her
prayers the blessed Spirit draweth them up and Iesus Christ the Son of God presenteth them to his Father Without all doubt great is the comfort of that poor soul that can by prayer have two or three walks a day upon this Mount Tabor and with holy Moses converse with God in three Persons on the Horeb of fervent Prayer for then with Iacob he sees the sweet vision of Angelis ascending and descending climbing up and down that sacred Ladder which stands betwixt Heaven and Earth at the top of it is the Father the whole length of it is in the Son and the Spirit doth firmly fasten it thereunto Christ's government is a peaceable government DIvus Nerva saith Tacitus duas res olim insatiabiles conâ—unxit Imperium Libertalem He spake with the most that ascribed so much to Nerva as that he should joyne two such inconvertible things as Government and Liberty the one calling for subjection the other intending nothing but disorder But it may be truly said of Christ that his Kingdom is a Kingdom of peace his service perfect freedom that where he reigns there is peace and free liberty for every subject so sweetly so freely so comfortably are all things carried where the Scepter of Christ is set up in the hearts of men Almes given to the Poor are the Giver's gain THeir ordinary form of begging in Italy is not after the manner of our English I pray you bestow something on a poor man c. but Fate ben per voi Do good for your own sakes So those that are courteous and tender-hearted towards others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they gratifie themselves saith the mouth of Truth The Lord that fed five thousand could alwaies have fed Himself and his Disciples but he would be relieved by the hands of Women that so their charity towards him might be an occasion of benefit to themselves And so it is with us we pleasure not the poor so much by our giving as we do profit our selves by their receiving Officers to be honest in their places ISocrates an Athenian Orator in his counsell to Demonicus a young Gentleman like to be called to a great place saith unto him thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That he should depart from a Place or Office conferred upon him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not more rich but more honourable then when first he undertook it The instruction given by this Heathen may shame many Christians some Officers in these daies regard not with what dishonour or dishonesty they keep or leave their Places so they may be rich never fear though they tread their wine out of other men's grapes reap their corn out of other mens fields so they may store their own houses with provision so they may make their children great and turn them into Gallants they take no care make no scruple though they turn their own souls into hell Prosperity of wicked men destructive IT is said of the Locusts that came out of the bottomlesse pit that they were like unto Horses and on their heads were as it were Crowns of gold and their faces were as it were faces of men and their hairs as the hair of a Woman and their teeth were as it were the teeth of Lions c. Here are quasi Horses quasi Crowns of gold quasi faces of Men c. Just such are all the comforts and prosperity of wicked men their gold and their silver but as it were gold and silver their prosperity and plenty but as it were prosperity and plenty their victories and successe but as it were victories and successe But when the blessed Evangelist comes to set down a description of the Locusts tailes he doth not say There were as it were stings in their tails but in plain downright positive terms There were stings in their tails râ—all true not imaginary stings And such is the evill that attends upon the thriving and prosperous estate of wicked men there is a sting in the tail of it such as is not quasi but realiter what it seems to be No peace to the wicked THere is no peace unto the wicked saith my God Esa. 57. He compares them to the Sea still raging and foaming casting out their own shame And Solomon unto vanity adds vexation of spirit It may be seen in the particular case of all wicked men that surely they have no rest no rest ab intra they never can light on that which doth sistere appetitum which makes them range in their desires in their endeavours never finding where to settle and ab extra too they are unquiet for the whirlwind of God drives them like chaff and like a floud it drives them down the stream And indeed how should they be quiet that are compared to the Sea which when there is no storm cannot stand still but hath his flux and reflux and no wonder for it is the subject of the Moon than which nothing is more changeable A fit emblem of the World upon which whosoever dependeth cannot be stable when the world it self is so unstedfast And such is a wicked man too unstable uncertain disquieted distracted in all his waies Rulers actions exemplary IF the mountains overflow with waters the vallies are the better and if the head be full of ill humours the whole body fares the worse The Actions of Rulers are most commonly rules for the People's actions and their Example passeth as currant as their Coin If a Peasant meet luxury in a scarlet robe he dares be such having so fair a cloak for it The common People are like tempered wax easily receiving impressions from the seales of great mens vices they care not to sin by prescription and damn themselves with Authority And it is the unhappy priviledge of Greatnesse to warrant by example as well other's as its own sins whilst the unadvised Vulgar take up crimes on trust and perish by credit Peace of the Church pretious SAint Ambrose writeth that Theodosius the Emperour when he dyed had a greater care of the Church than of his sicknesse his life was not dear unto him so the Church might flourish after his death so peace might be within her walls and prosperity within her palaces Such ought to be the care of every good Christian to pray for the peace to act for the peace to contend for the peace of the Church But so it is that if men may enjoy health and obtain plenty for the back and belly wax rich and great and live like Emperours no matter which way Religion turneth no matter how the Church fareth either for the future or the present how it goeth with the Church they respect little so themselves and their Families may go on nay which is yet a worse symptom and bewrayeth the great power of Sathan over them what scruple at all do they make to pill and
doing of it now and now and to morrow and to morrow Now these litâ—le distances deceive us and delude us we think to do it iâ— a short â—imâ— and by reason of the neernesse and vicinity of the time we think we shall do it easily that we can take hold of that time But it is not so we are served just as Grashoppers and Butterflies deceive children when they think to lay their â—and upon them they hop a little further and a little further that at last they take them not at all And thus do we cozen our selves we lose our life we lose our opâ—ortuâ—ity of grace thinking that we may take it when we please Sathan's endeavour to hinder the hearing of God's Word MArk the Iaylors they often suffer their Prisoners to have their hands and feet free neither are they in any fear that they will make an escape so long as the prison-doors are sure lock'd and fast bar'd Thus dealeth Sathan with those men that he holdeth in his captivity he letteth them sometimes have their hands at liberty to reach out an almes to the poor and sometimes their feet at liberty to go to Church to hear the Word preached but he will be sure to keep their ears which are the gates and doors of their soul so fast made up that they shall hear nothing to their comfort and if they do it shall be to little purpose The Minister's Authority should be as much looked on as his sufficiency TWo things are considerable in a Minister his sufficiency and his authority the people listen much to his sufficiency but take little heed to his authority and therefore come they to Church rather to judge than to be judged forgetting that many may be as skilfull but none can be so powerfull in binding and loosing as is the Minister A Judge or a Justice of Peace may have lesse Law in him than a private man but he hath much more power and they that appear before him regard his acts according to hâ—s power So should it be in the Church But men fear the Magistrates that are under earthly Kings because the pains which they inflict are corporall our hands our feet â—eel their manacles and fetters And did but our souls as truly feel as indeed they should the Pastor's binding and loosing of them we would make more account of those offices than we do And it were good we did so for they so bind as that they can loose again but if we neglect them when our Lord and Master commeth he will command all contemners so to be bound hand and foot that they shall never be loosed again Self-praises condemned CAto the elder had that commendations given him by consent which none in his time was thought fit to deserve except it were one to be Optimus Orator optimus Senator optimus Imperator A most singular Orator a most singular Statesman and a most singular Generall And yet this so singular a man was so much given to boast himself that his veriest friends were ashamed of him And there was Tully too a man so excellently qualified that none but a Tully that is one admirably eloquent was sufficient to speak his worth and yet that is not unremembred by them who were willing to conceal a blemish in him that his speech which flowed from him as sweet as the hony he made to taste as bitter as wormwood many times by the interlacing of his own praises But these were such as saw God onely by the dim light of Nature therefore the more excusable What then shall become of them that know their Masters will such as by the Sun-shine of the Gospell cannot but discern that He who is the greatest ought to account himself as the least that It is not for the wiseman to glory in his wisdome nor the strong man to glory in his strength nor the rich man to glory in his riches but for him that gloryeth to glory in this that he understandeth and knoweth God who is the giver of all things yet do expiscari famam are never in the right kue till Mountebank-like they are exposing themselves in their own worth upon every stage Surely such a wise man will prove a â—ool such a strong man will turn his back such a rich man will scratch a beggar by the head when God shall call for an account of their stewardship and to reckon with them for what they have received Complaint of the want of Faith is an argument of true Faith THere is mention made of a melancholly person who was so strongly possessed that he complained he had no head nor could be otherwise perswaded than by that course which Philotimus a learned Physitian took with him when he caused to be made a cap of lead very weighty and heavy and the same to be put upon his head that feeling the weight thereof upon his head he might be perswaded he had a head Thus it is with weak Christians their complaint of the want of Faith is an argument of the being of their faith wherein like this Melancholicâ— they think they want that which indeed they have And the same cure would do well with them that was fitted for him lay upon them no other burthen but the weight of their own burthen the burthen of holy sorrow and griefe and doubtfull despair for their wanting of faith as themselves do deem which is so weighty as they are like to sink under it yet that being laid upon the head of their faith they may be asked whether they feel any such weight and are pressed under the heavy burden of the same which if they be let them never doubt more but that they have faith and their faith hath both head and heart too that hath life in it which moveth the sense and causeth that feeling and worketh that holy griefe and sorrow so to complain the whole soul being quickned thereby throughout and all the graces of God's Spirit that are therein Conversion of Heathens to be endeavoured THere lies a great guilt upon Christian states and this amongst the rest that they have not been carefull to bring them that sit in darknesse and in the shadow of death to the knowledge of Iesus Christ. Much travailing there is to the Indias East and West but wherefore Some go to possesse themselves of the lands of the Infidells but most for commerce and by commerce to grow richer by their goods But where is the Prince or State that pittieth their souls and without any worldly respect endeavours the gaining of them unto God Some shew there is that way but a very poor one it is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an accessory to our worldly desire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is not it is not our primary intention whereas Christ's method is primùm quaerite c. If the Apostles and Apostolick men had affected our salvation no more we might
his pleasure Thus God raiseth up a good Ruler a good Magistrate a good Minister such as are eminent for wisdom exemplary in life these he sets up in a Kingdom in a County in a Parish or Neighbourhood as lights to walk by How then should we improve such opportunities and walk by the light while we have it for the Sun of such examples will set and it is then night in such a Kingdom such a County such a Township such a Family when a good Governour a good Magistrate a good Minister a good Friend Parent or Master is by death removed Discord ill beseemes the Disciples of Christ. ALexander Severus seeing two Christians contending one with another commanded them that they should not take the name of Christians any longer upon them For saies he you dishonour your Master Christ whose Disciples you professe to be Most sure it is that divisions whether of Church or State forraign or domestick are very dishonourable to Christ. And were it that they darkened our names onely it were not so much but that which darkens up the glory of Christ should go something near us The Soule 's comfortable union with Christ. ARtemisia Queen of Caria shewed an act of wonderfull passionate love toward her husband Mausolus for death having taken him away she not knowing how to pull the thorns of sorrow out of her soul caused his body to be reduced to ashes and mingled them in her drink meaning to make her body a living Tomb wherein the reliques of her husband might rest from whom she could not endure to live separated Thus the true child of God when there is any thing that may seem to preserve the memory of God in his soul how doth he embrace the very invention of it he becomes a true Mausolean tomb indeed he hath a comfortable and true conjunction with Christ eating his flesh and drinking his blood and these two can never be separated again False Doctrine is Treason against God AS he is a Traitour to his Prince who taketh upon him to coyn monyes out of a base mettall yea although in the stamp he putteth for a shew the image of the Prince So he that shall broacâ— any Doctrine that commeth not from God whatsoever he say for it or what gâ—osse soever he set on it he is a Traitor unto God yea in truth a cursed Traitor though he were an Angel from Heaven Gal. 1. 8. How the Soul lives in Christ onely IT is commonly known that the branches have all their sap from the root of the Tree it is that which makes them flourish and grow but if you cut them off from the root they wither presently So it is with the Spirit with the soul of man if God do but a little withdraw himselfe let sin but make a separation betwixt God and the soul it is like a withered branch it hath nothing of its selfe to revive its selfe because it is divided from the root which is Christ At the least it is with the Soul as it is with a Tree in the dead of winter though the sap remain in the root so though it remain in union with the root yet the moysture is gotten into the root iâ— self and doth not now infuse it selfe into the branches Yet withall it is confessed that the servant of God which is once united to Christ shall never be separated the union is now and alwaies shall be but neverthelesse the sap and comfort of the Spirit it may remain in the Head our life may be hid in Christ and may not appear in us at all and we are then in that estate as if we were branches cut off so that whatsoever life and comfort and strength of spirit we had it was from Christ and by the influence and working of his gracious Spirit Division amongst Christians is the disgrace of Christians ONe Bidulph in the relation of his travells to Ierusalem reporteth That the Turks were wont to wonder much at our Englishmen for pinking and cutting their cloaths counting them little better then mad-men for making holes in whole cloath which time of it selfe would tear too soon But how foolish and how mad in the eyes of all good Christians do the cuts and the rents and the slashes that are in men's spirits the divisions that are amongst us at this day how uncomely do they render us and the Religion that we take upon us to professe God's Eternity MErchants and Shop-keepers to procure a better sale and greater credit to their severall Stuffs call them Sempiternum Perpetuana Durance c. but how soon doth the moth fret them and they are gon nothing left but the bare name But God he is the true eternall Beeing All Creatures have a lasting Angels have an outlasting but god hath an everlasting Beeing He onely is Alpha and Omega before the beginning and beyond all ending from everlasting to everlasting the King eternall immortall c. Ill company to be avoided WHen Cerinthus came into the Bath Iohn the Evangelist got him out and called to his fellowes that they should come away with haste from the company of that companion lest the house should fall upon them he thought that place was guilty which received a man that was guilty and that the house was in danger which harboured a man obnoxious Here let them then look about them who not onely without all care do sort themselves with all commeâ—s not fearing the faults of others but are glad they can meet with such companions Vices and vitious persons are alike dangerous He that walketh in the Sun shall be tan'd and he that toucheth pitch shall be defiled and he that associateth himself with the ungodly will soon be tainted with their company That it is lawfull to praise the Dead IT is said of the Aethiopians that they make Sepulchers of glasse for after they have dryed the corps they artificially paint it and set it in a glased coffin that all that passe by may see the whole frame and lineaments of the body and this is commended in them But surely they deserve better of the dead and more benefit of the living who draw the lineaments of their minde and represent their vertues and graces in a Mirrour of Art and Learning And they are as much to blame on the other side that out of the purity of their precise zeal ita praecidunt so neer pare the nails of Romish superstition that they make the fingers bleed who out of fear of praying forsooth for the dead or invocating them are shie in speaking any word for them or sending after them their deserved commendations It is pâ—ety to honour God in his Saints it is justice suum cuique tribuere to give every one his own it is charity to propose eminent examples of heavenly graces and vertues shining in the dead for the imitation of the living and then you cannot praise
of Greece Viso Solone vidistiomnia In seeing Solon thou seest all even Athens it self and the wholy glory of the Greeks Tell me Christian Hast thou faith and assured trust in the Lord then thou hast more then all the wonders of Greece upon the point all the wonderful gifts of grace for faith is a mother vertue from which all others spring and without faith all the best of our actions are no better then sin Hypocrites in their saying well but doing ill reproved â—Ulius Caesar in his Commentaries writeth of the French Souldiers that in the beginning of the battel at the first onset they were more then Men but at the second or before the end less then Women They would talk bravely and come on couragiously but at length give off cowardly Such are the hypocritical Hotspurs of our times who have Gods word swiming in their heads but not shining in their lives such as set up the Temple with one hand and pull it down with the other like scribling School-boyes that what they write with the fore-finger they blur with the hinde-finger who if words may be received their pay is gallant but if deeds be required their money is not currant who in professing and protesting are more then Protestants but in practising and performing and persevering less then Papists Zeal in God's service made the worlds derision DOgs seldom bark at a Man that ambles a softly fair pace but if he once set spurs to his horse and fall a galloping though his errand be of importance and to the Court perhaps then they bark and flie at him and thus they do at the Moon not so much because she shines for that they alwayes see but because by reason of the clouds hurried under by the windes she seems to run faster then ordinary And thus if any Man do but pluck up his spirits in Gods service and run the wayes of his commandments it is Iehu's furious March presently and he shall meet with many a scoffe by the way that runneth with more speed then ordinary The great danger of Sacriledge IT is no Christian but a right Heathenish trick to demolish holy places or through sloth and covetousnes to suffer them to fall Nay the very Heathens would never do that to the Temples of their false Gods that we Christians do to the house of the true God for they hated and fled from all sacrilegious persons Were the Church leprous we could do no more then pluck out the stones as they did in the old Law in a leprous house nay they would not even in such a house pluck out all the stones as they do in Churches but onely such as were leprous Well let such know that next to the injury done against the Temple of mans body there can be no greater injury then that which is done against the body of the Temple and one day all such sacrilegious irreligious prophane persons may chance to feel that whip upon their conscience which sometime Celsus felt who after the robbing and prophaning of many Churches hearing one day that place of Esay read Woe unto them that join house to house that lay field to field till there be no place that they may be placed alone in the midst of the Earth cryed out immediately Vae mihi filiis meâ—s Wo then be to me and my children for ever The Hypocrites inconstancy IT is reported of the Shee-wolfe that she hath an yearly defect in procreation for at the first she beareth five young ones the second time but four the third time but three the fourth time but two the fifth time but one and then afterwards remaineth barren Thus Hypocrites forgetting the solemn vow they made to God in Baptism as also those principles of Religion wherein they seemed expert to their Catechizers as they grow upward in age they grow downward in Grace with Demes embracing this present World and with Hymeneus and Alexander making shipwrack of a good conscience verifying the by-word young Saints old Devils The laughtâ—r of the wicked is but from the teeth outwards IT is said of Paulus Emilius that having put away his wife Papinia without any cause as it seemed to others stretched forth his foot and said You see a new and neat shooe but where this shooe wringeth me not you but I alone know meaning that there were many secret jars happening between the marryed which others could not possibly perceive And certainly the most wicked men the greatest enemies to God and his Gospel the most traiterous and rebellious of a People or Nation may be so jocund and merry and shew such magnanimity in their faces that none can imagine by any outward circumstance but that they are truly cheerful and couragious in their hearts and yet in the midst of all their mirth and greatest delights even in the very ruffe of all their bravery they have secret heart-burnings and grievous vexations what God and themselves only know The Lord hath spoken it tâ—ice and therefore it must needs be plain and peremptory That there is no Peace to the wicked Their looks may be sometimes lively but their hearts are alwayes heavy Gods omnipotency AMongst all the gods of the Heathens Iupiter was in the greatest esteem as the Father and King of gods and was called lupiter quasi juvans Pater a helping Father yet as the Poets feign he wept when he could not set Sarpedon at liberty such was the imbecillity and impotency of this Master-god of the Heathen But the hand of our God is never shortned that it cannot help he is ever able to relieve us alwayes ready to deliver us Amongst all the gods there is none like unto him none can do like unto his works he is God omnipotent Prayers and tears are the Weapons of the Church THe Romans in a great distress were put so hard to it that they were fain to take the weapons out of the Temples of their gods to fight with them and so they overcame And this ought to be the course of every good Christian intimes of publique distress to flie to the weapons of the Church Prayers and Tears The Spartans walls were their spears the Christians walls are his prayers his help standeth in the name of the Lord who hath made both Heaven and Earth The gradation of Faith THe heart of every believer is like a vessel with a narrow neck which being cast into the Sea is not filled at the firstâ—asily â—asily but by reason of the strait passage receiveth water drop by drop Thus God giveth unto us even a Sea of mercy but the same on our part is apprehended and received by little and little we go from strength to strength from grace to grace and from one degree of vertue to another praying alwayes as the blessed Apostles O Lord encrease our faith that from weakness of faith and
colours so amaze them that they have no power to pass away till she have stung them So doth the counterfeit beauty and bravery of the world inveigle and bewitch those who behold it with over-partial eyes that they stand astonished till it have stung them with carnal concupiscence and doting love so as they have neither Will nor power to set one foot towards their heavenly Country The Excellency of the Scripture in its fulness MEn talk much of the Philosophers-stone that it turns copper into gold of Cornucopia that it had all things necessary for food in it of Panaces the hearb that it was good for all diseases of Catholicon the drugge that it is instead of all purges of Vulcans armour that it was full proof against all thrusts and blows c. â—Well that which they did attribute vainly to these things for boâ—ily good we may with full measure attribute justly to the Scripture in a spiritual manner It is not an hearb but a Tree or rather a compleat Paradise of Trees of life which bring forth fruit every moneth and the fruit thereof is for meat and the leaves for Medicine In a word it is a Panacy of wholesome food against fenowed Traditions A Phisitians shop of Preservatives against poysoned heresies a Pandect of profitable laws against Rebellious spirits a Treasury of most costly Iewels against beggarly rudiments The fulness of God LAnd-flouds make a great noise swell high but are suddenly in again whereas the Spring or vvell-head continueth full without augmentation or diminution such are the things of the world such are all Creature-helps how do they flourish for a while but are soon gone But God he is the Well-head puteus inexhaustibilis never to be drawn dry the eternal Spring that feeds all other streams in him and in him onely are the Rivers of pleasures for evermore The blessing of God is to be eyed more then our own endeavours IT is Seneca's observation that the Husbandmen in Egypt never look up to Heaven for rain in the time of drought but look after the over-flowing of the banks of Nilus to be the onely cause of their plenty And such are they that sacrifice to their own nets and yarn that look upon their own endeavours attribute all success to their own projects and in the mean time never so much as cast up an eye unto God the Author of all in whom they live by whom they move and from whom they have their being Sacriledge condemned by the example of Cyrus Cyrus having relieved the Jews from their captivity in Babylon doth not dismiss them with an empty grace but with a Royal bounty What a mountain of Plate was then removed from Babylon to Jerusalem No fewer then five thousand and four hundred vessels of gold and silver Certainly this great Monarch wanted not wit to think It is a rich booty that I find in the Temples of Babylon having vanquished their Gods I may well challenge their spoil How seasonably doth it now fall into my hands to reward my Souldiers How pat doth it come to settle my new Empire What if this treasure came from Jerusalem the property is altered the very place according to the conceit of the Jews hath prophaned it The true God I have heard is curious neither will abide those vessels which have been polluted with idolatrous uses It shall be enough if I loose the bonds of this miserable people if I give liberty let the next give wealth they will think themselves happy with bare walls in their native Country To what purpose should I pamper their penury with a suddain store But the princely heart of Cyrus though an heathen would admit of no such base sacrilegious thoughts those vessells that he found stamp'd with God's mark he will return to the owner neither his own occasions nor their abuse shall be any colour of their detention O Cyrus Cyrus how many close-handed griple-minded Christians shall once be choked in judgment with the example of thy just munificence Thou restoredst that which is now ordinarily purloâ—ned the lands the treasures the utensills of the Chruch are now rifled and devoured but there is a woe to those houses that are stored with the spoiles of Gods Temple and a woe to those fingers that are tainted with holy treasures The Minister's Blessing after Sermon to be attended IT is reported of Dr. Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells that whether it were so that himself preached or not after the Sermon done and the Psalm sung as the manner is standing up in his Episcopall seat he gave the Benediction to the People after the example of the High Priest Numb 6. 23. which thing as he Performed like himselfe i. e. in a most grave and father-like manner so any man that had but seen with what attentive and devout gestures all the People received it what apparent comfort they took in it and how carefull every particular man was not to depart the Church without it could not but conclude that there was quaedam vis efficacia a secret vertue in the prayers and blessings as of the naturall so of spirituall parents which as they are never he worse for giving so those that have relation to them are much the better for receiving And it is not for naught that the Apostle saith The lesser useth to be blessed of the greater Much then are they to be blamed that rush out of the Church leaving such a blessing behind them they think all is done when the Sermon is done nor is the Sermon done till they have practised what they have heard and the onely way so to do is to attend the blessing of the Minister as a good preparative thereunto which no doubt will procure God's blessing thereupon and then all is compleated Again if Grace after meat be required surely Grace after the Word heard is much more necessary And if Much good do it you be good manners after a dinner surely much good do it us Much good do it my soul is more than a complement after a Sermon A rich Fool described A Great man lying on his death-bed sent first for his Physitian to advise with him about the recovery of his health no means was left untryed but all in vain the Physician gave him up for a dead man Then he sends for his Lawyer much time was spent with him in making his Will there he settles his Estate on friends and kindred strives to make the Inheritance of his Land sure to his Heir and in the interim neglects his own in heaven Yet however if it be but for formalities-sake he will not seem to be utterly carelâ—sse in that point and therefore in the last place he sends for the Physitianâ— of his soul to consult about his spirituall estate even then when he was hardly capable of any advice at all His Fool standing by and having observed all
that passed desired his Master to give him the staff that he used to walk withal He gives it to him but on condition that he should give it back again to the next he met with that was a verier fool than himself Nay then said the Fool Here Master take the staffe again for a verier fool than thou art I shall never meet again that didst first send for a physician to strengthen thy body then for a Lawyer to make thy Will and in the last place for the Priest to comfort thy poor soul which should have been the first work of all And such fooles are they that ravell out their pretious time tormented with the cares of the world that lade themselves with thick clay such as sing Requiems to their souls that put the evill day far from them with a Nondum venit tempus till it come to the last pinch that the last sand is dropping in the glasse and their soules except God be more mercifull into the pit of hell for ever Not to continue angry TWo Grecian Bishops being fallen out about some difference in point of judgment parted assunder in great anger but the elder of them for so the wiser is to be accounted sent unto his Collegue a message onely in these two words sol ad occasum The Sun is about to go down The other no sooner heard it but he reflected on that of the Apostle Let not the Sun go down upon your wrath and so they were both friends again How doth this amity of theirs condemn the enmity that is amongst many of us at this time As that deadly feud of the Scots who entailed their Lands on posterity conditionally that they should fight against the party that had offended and never entertain any the least pacification And such wrangling Law-suits as that of the two noble Families Barclay and Lisle which began in the reigne of Edward the fourth and continued to the first year of King Iames full seven score years It cannot be denyed but that a man may with good qualifications go to Law for his own but the length of time in the Suit when the Grandchild shall hardly end that which the Grandfather began may draw on a great suspition in the want of charitable affection The onely comfort of a Christian is his propriety in God THe conceit of propriety hardens a man against many inconveniences and addeth much to his pleasure The Mother abides many painfull throwes many unquiet thoughts many unpleasant savours of her child upon this thought It is my own The indulgent Father magnifies that in his own son which he would scarce like in a stranger and why but because he is his own The want of this to God-ward makes us so subject to discontentment and cooles our delight in God because we think of him aloofe off as one in whom we are not interessed Could we but think It is my God that cheareth me with his presence and blessings whilst I prosper my God that afflicteth me in love when I am dejected It is my Saviour that sits at the right hand of my God in Heaven my Angels stand in His presence it could not be but that God's savour would be sweeter his chastisments more easie his benefits more effectuall unto us Ministers and Physicians of all men not to be covetous LUd Vives that worthy learned man doth wonder at some Physicians that they could possibly be covetous and greedy upon the world in as much as both in their speculative study and their practicall ministrations they behold every day how tickle a thing life is how soon the breath is gon how the strongest die in a moment and the youngest fall on the suddain and so by consequence that the use of riches is uncertain and that all worldly things are transitory And it were to be wished that many Physicians of the Soul were not sick of the same disease they know that all flesh is grasse and the grace of it but a flower that our breath is but a vapour and our life but as a bubble They speak much of mortality and preach other mens funerall Sermons yet in the midst of their studies of contemning the world they are in love with the world and look too much after Mammon The losse of Grace made good again in Christ onely EPiphanius maketh mention of those that travail by the deserts of Syria where are nothing but miserable marishes and sands destitute of all commodities nothing to be had for love or mony if it so happen that their fire go out by the way then they light it again at the heat of the Sun by the means of a burning glasse or some other device that they have And thus in the wildernesse of this world if any man have suffered the sparks of divine grace to die in him the fire of zeal to go out in his heart there is no means under the Sun to enliven those dead sparks to kindle that extinguished fire again but at the Sun of Righteousnesse that fountain of Light Christ Iesus To love our enemies and do them good IT was wont to be said of Arch-Bishop Cranmer If you would be sure to have Cranmer do you a good turn you must do him some ill one for though he loved to do good to all yet especially he would watch for opportunity to do good to such as had wronged him O that there were but a few such leading men of such sweet spirits amongst us how great a blessing of peace might we enjoy Did we but rejoyce in any opportunity in doing any office of love to those who differ from us yea to those who have wronged us things would be in a better posture than they are Plain preaching is profitable IN the building of Solomon's Temple there was no noise heard either of axes or hammers all the stones were prepared squared and fitted in the Quarry 1 King 6. 7. And thus the Minister in the building up of the mysticall body of Christ should make all the noise in his study there he must turn his books and beat his brains but when it comes to Church-work to the Pulpit then it must be in plainnesse not with intricacy and tying of knots but with all easinesse that may be It is confessed that painted glasse in Churches is more glorious but plain glasse is more perspicuous Oratory may tickle the brain but plain doctrine will sooner inform the judgment that Sermon hath most learning in it that hath most plainnesse Hence it is that a great Schollar was wont to say Lord give me learning enough that I may preach plain enough For people are very apt to admire that they understand not but to preach plainly is that which is required The very approaches of afflictions torment the wicked PLutarch telleth that it is the quality of Tygres that if Drums or Tabours sound about them they
the Farms the pleasures the profits and preferments that men are so fast glued unto that they have hardly leisure to entertain a thought of any goodness Goodness and Greatness seldom meet together IN our natural bodies the more fat there is the lesser blood in the veins and consequently the fewer spirits and so in our fields aboundance of wet breeds aboundance of tares and consequently great scarcity of Corn And is it not so with our souls The more of God's blessing and wealth the more weeds of carnality and vanity and the more rich to the world the less righteous to God commonly What meant Apuleius to say that Ubi uber ibi tuber but to signifie that pride and arrogance are companions to plenty And what made Solomon to pray against fulness Prov. 30. but to shew that as they must have good brains that will carry much drink so they must have extraordinary souls that will not be overcome with the world Goodness and greatness do seldom meet together as Asdrubal Haedeus said in Livy Rarò simul hominibus bona fortuna bonaque mens datur Who is the man except it be one of a thousand Cui praesens faelicitas si arrisit non irrisit but if the world ran in upon him he would soon out-run it Perseverance is the Crown of all good actions WHatsoever is before the end it is a step whereby we climb to the top of salvation but it is not the uppermost griece whereby the highest part of the top may be taken hold of A man may be tumbled down from the ladder as well when he is within a round or two of the top as when he is in the midst or below the miâ—st And a man may make Shipwrack when he is within ken of land as when he is a thousand miles off What had it profited Peter to have escaped the first and second Watch if he had stuck at the iron gate and had not passed through that also VVho maketh account of land-oats that shead before the Harvest or of fruit that falls from the tree before it be ripe It is not to begin in the spirit and end in the slesh not a putting of the hand to the Plow and looking back but a constant perseverance to the end that shall be crowned Prayers of the godly the unanimity of them WE read of Ptolomeus Philadelphus King of Egypt that he caused the Bible to be translated by seventy Interpreters which seventy were severally disposed of in seventy several cells unknown each to other and yet they did so well agree in their several translations that there was no considerable difference betwixt them in rendring the Text an argument that they were acted by one and the same spirit Surely then it must needs be a great comfort to all good Christians when they shall call to mind what seventy nay seventy times seventy yea seventy hundreth yea seventy thousand which are peaceable in Israel which on the bended knees of their souls pray daily unto God for peace And though they know not the faces no not the names of one another have neither seen nor shall see one another till they meet together in Heaven yet they unite their votes and center their suffrages in the same thing that God would restore peace and order both in Church and State and to every particular member therein that we may yet live to have comfort one of another who no doubt shall have a comfortable return of their prayers in Gods due time The powerful effects of Rhetorical Elocution THe breath of a man hath more force in a Trunk and the wind a louder and sweeter sound in the Organ-pipe then in the open air So the matter of our speech and theam of our discourse which is conveyed through figures and forms of Art both sound sweeter to the ear and pierce deeper into the heart there is in them plus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more evidence and more efficacy they make a fuller expression and deeper impression then any plain rough-hewen long-cart-rope speeches or language whatsoever can do A Caveat for unworthy Communicants MR. Greenham in one of his Sermons speaking of Non-residents wisheth that this Inscription or Motto might be written on their study-doors without and walls within on all their books they look in beds they lie on tables they sit at c. The price of blood The price of blood The like were to be wished for to all that have been bad Communicants that in great letters it were written on their shop doors without walls within on all their doors on their day-books and debt-books and whatsoever objects are before their eyes The guilt of blood the guilt of blood even the guilt of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ who dyed for them Every good Minister to speak a word in season opportunely EVery Husbandman as he hath so he observeth the seasons to sow his seed and his ground to cast his corn into some he soweth in the Autumn fall of the leaf some in the Spring and renewing of the year some in a dry season some in a wet some in a moist clay some in a sandy dry ground as the Holy Ghost speaketh He soweth the Fitches and the Cummin and casteth in Wheat by measure Esay 28. 25. Thus the spiritual Husbandman dealeth with the husbandry of his God he hath his seed for all seasons and for all grounds and all hearts some for the time of judgement some for the time of mercy some for the season of mirth and mourning as wet and dry seasons some for the birth and burial as for the Spring and Fall some for them who sorrow in Sion and some for them that rejoyce in Jerusalem Esay 6. 2. Pardon of sins the onely comfort A Traitor that is condemned to death may have the liberty of the Tower to walk in and provisions of meat and drink appointed at the States charges yet he takes little comfort in either because his Treason is not pardoned and he expects daily to be drawn to execution Thus a man that hath the advantage of all these outward things if he want assurance of the pardon of his sins and of Gods love in Christ Jesus to his soul they will be but as miserable comforters to him and he cannot take any true delight in them The difference betwixt Sermons preached and Sermons printed SErmons preached are for the most part as showres of rain that water for the instant such as may tickle the ear and warm the affections and put the soul into a posture of obedience hence it is that men are oft-times Sermon-sick as some are Sea-sick very ill much troubled for the present but by and by all is well again as they were But printed sermons or other discourses are as snow that lies longer on the Earth
or silly fellow to undertake But the Minister as St. Bernard hath well observed hath the charge of those souls in his Congregation whom Christ loved more then his blood for he was no unwise Merchant who gave that to redeem them and therefore he who should have to do with these should be no Baby for knowledge and understanding The Consideration of death will cure all distempers THe hand of a dead man as they say stroaking the part cures the Tympany And certainly the consideration of death is a present means to cure the swelling of Pride in the most high-minded it will levell the aspiring thoughts of the most ambitious In this life many things make a distance between men and women as the greatness of birth the freeness of education the abundance of wealth alliance honours and preferments But death makes all even Respice sepulchra c. saith St. Augustine Survey mens graves and tell me then who is beautiful and who deformed all there have hollow eyes flat noses and gastly looks tell me who is rich and who is poor all there wear the same weeds their winding-sheets Tell me who is noble who is rich and who is base the worms claim kindred of all Tell me who is well housed and who ill all there are bestowed in dark and dankish rooms under ground And if this will not satisfie take a sieve and sift their dust and tell me which is which It is granted that there is some difference in dust there is powder of Diamonds Princely dust gold dust the remains of Noblemen Pin dust thâ— reliques of the Tradesman Saw dust the remains of the labouring man common dust the remains of the vulgar which have no quality or profession to distinguish them yet all is but dust one and the same dust The consideration of this will allay the heat of all distempered spirits How to use the things of this World AS a Traveller with his staffe in his journey as long as it doth further him so long he will carry it with him but when it hinders him then he casts it away So must we do with the things of this world as long as they are helps to further and fit us for the Kingdom of Heaven but if they be any hinderance to the regiment of Christ we must renounce them and cast them away be they never so pretious unto us Slandering of our Brother the danger thereof A Mans good name is like a piece of white paper which if once blotted will very hardly be got out again so as to leave no print of it behind It is like a Merchants estate long a getting but lost in a moment and when it is lost in the bottom of the Sea how shall it ever be recovered again What care how circumspect then ought men to be in what they say of their brother not to steal and murder his good name which is as precious as life it selfe And so to do is a sin that God will not pardon unless the Party that is guilty make restitution which is a work not easie to be done yet God will accept of endeavours if faithful and industrious An unregenerate Man a careless Man THe Infant while it lyeth in the dark prison of the Mothers wombe never quatcheth nor weepeâ—h but as soon as ever it cometh out of the wombe into the light it knits the brows and wrings the eyes and cryes and takes on Even so the child of God whilst it is yet kept in the dark of ignorance in his unregenerate estate never cryeth to his Father nor weepeth for his sin but as soon as the light of Grace shineth upon him he bewaileth his grievous misery and never thinketh that he hath filled his cup with tears full enough Curiosity in the hearing of Gods word condemned IF a man should come to a Table furnished with variety of Dishes and he should passe over the most wholesome nourishing meat and fall a pidling and picking here and there upon Kickshawes and puff-past that had little or no substance in them should not we judge such a man to be sick and queazy stomacked So when God by the mouthes of his Ministers presents us with wholesome doctrine with meat fit for men and we should passe it over and not rest satisfied but with new coyn'd phrases and quaint expressions would not this savour of great distemper There were the Israelites nothing would down with them but Quailes no wholesome dyet they must have picking meat birds to feed upon but they were paid for it they had their bellies full in the end Surely then a heavy judgement hangs over this Nation of ours in this very thing we must have quailes too new lights nâ—w waies new doctrines God affords wholesome meat fit for our appetites but we must have it fit for our lusts we do not receive the truth in the love of the truth we come to Church to please our humours and tickle our ears and it is just with God that we should be delivered up to all loose opinions An humble heart a contented heart THe Sheep can live upon the bare commons where the fat Oxe would be starved A dinner of green herbs relisheth well on the poor mans palate whereas a stalled Ox is but a coorse dish for the rich mans stomack Thus an humble heart is content with a mean condition takes up with hard commons which a proud spirit would murmur at and scorn to be owned by Jobs true Heraldry EZekiel in one of his Visions sets out unto us twenty five young men so besotted and ravished in beholding the Sun that with their backs towards the Temple of the Lord and their faces towards the East they must needs worship the Sun which by way of exposition signifieth the adoring of the glory of their birth Such are many among us which are much taken with the nobleness of their lineage and out of a desire they have to make good their descent and beginning they multiply Coats hang up Escocheons blazen forth their Armes tell the large History of their Pedigrees and Geneolagies and many times most of them meer lies and fables but Iob was a better Herald then any of these that thus gloried in the gold that onely glisters he makes Corruption his Father and the wormes his Mother and Sister Chap. 17. v. 14. Busie-bodies condemned AS in an Orchard there is variety of fruit Apple-trees Pear-trees Plum-trees c. and every tree endeavours to suck juice answerable to his kind that it may bear such a fruit and an Apple-tree doth not turn a Plum-tree nor a Plum-tree a Cherry-tree c. but every Tree contents its selfe to be of its own kind So in the Church and Common-wealth there are varieties of callings Pastors People Magistrates Subjects some higher some lower And here now every man is to walk as he is called of God and learn what belongs thereunto
who had found a Boat there but having no helps to further him to sail first he got Oars then a Mast Sails and Ropes and then he set to Sea Thus from a little beginning if a man be industrious he may attain unto great things to the enlargement of a great temporal estate to a great measure of spiritual Grace to a great height of knowledge especially in a knowing age wherein the gleanings of Ephraim are better then the Vintage of Abiezar having such helps as Antiquity never knew of and sitting under the droppings of such spiritual means as no age can parallel Vnworthy Communicants reproved THe Hahassines a Christian people in Prester Iohn's Country after the receiving of the Sacrament think it not lawfull for them to spit that day till the setting of the Sun It is no better then Superstition in them but yet their Superstition will rise up against the monstrous profaneness of many amongst us They hold it unlawfull to spit that day And shall some out of drunkenness spue that day drown him in the Tavern whom they received in the Temple They will not spit that day And shall some endure the Devils drivell to fall from their mouths that day in ungodly oaths and unsavory rotten Communication They will not spit that day And shall some in that day spit in Gods face as common prophane swearers do c Self-conceitedness condemned as dangerous IT is a natural disease of all the Sons of Adâ—m that if they have but motes oâ— goodness they think they are Mountains and presume that their actions go hand in hand with their speculations Little children when they begin first to find their feet think they can go as well and as far as those that are of riper age and this conceit makes them catch many a fall The case is ours most of us are but Babes in Christ and our Iudgement erreth in nothing more then in taking an estimate of our own ability wherein we come so short of performing what we promise to our selves that we may very well blush and make this conclusion Man even the best of men is altogether vanity The Romanists error in the point of the Antiquity of Ceremonies A Nobleman who had heard of the extream age of one dwelling not far off made a journey to visit him and finding an aged person sitting in the chimney corner addressed himself unto him with admiration of his age till his mistake was rectified For Oh Sir said the young old man I am not he whom you seek for but his son My Father is further off in the field The same error is daily committed by the Romane Church adoring the reverend brow and gray hairs of some antient Ceremonies perchance but of some seven or eight hundreth years standing in the Church and mistake these for their Fathers of far greater age in the Primttive times The Terrors of a guilty Conscience THe blind man in the Gospel newly recovering his sight imagined trees to be men and the Burgundians as Comines reports expecting a battel supposed long Thistles to be Lances Thus the wicked man fears where no fear is sonus excitat omnis Suspensum the guilty conscience conceits every thistle to be a Tree every Tree a Man every Man a Devil afraid of every man that it sees nay many times of those that it sees not Not much unlike to one that was very deep in debt and had many Creditors who as he walked London streets in the evening a Tenter-hook catched his Cloak At whose suit said he conceiving some Sergeant had arrested him Thus the ill conscienced man counts every Creature he meets with a Bayliffe sent from God to punish him Atheism advanced by the distractions of the Church LActantius reports of Arcesilas that having throughly considered the contradictions and oppositions of Philosophers one against another in fine contemned them all Et novam Philosophandi philosophiam constituit and set up a new way of Philosophy Thus worldlings and Atheistically spirited men expending their differences of Christians in matters of Religion have resolved to be of no Religion and understanding the violent contentions about forms of prayer and interpretation of Scripture use no Prayer nor Bible but make Lucian their Old Testament and Machiavel their New How to benefit by the Sacrament THe Disciples of Christ as they passed through the Corn-fields plucked the ears of the Corn and did eat rubbing them in their hands They did not pluck off the ears and eat them whole that would have been dangerous but they first rubbed the ears with their hands to fetch out the Corn and then did eat Thus at the Sacrament we must not devour those holy things all at once hand over head that will be dangerous but we must set faith on work to rub the ears and fetch out the Corn that is in them for food and then there will be comfortable refreshing for the soul. To submit to Gods will in all things IT is for profit that Men rise up early and go to bed late and eat the bread of carefulness The Husbandman takes much pains plows his ground endures many sharp storms and piercing Winters Currit Mercator ad Indos The Merchant runs divers hazards abroad difficulties at home and all for profit So should we be willing patiently and quietly to submit our selves to God's dealing with us in all conditions humbly to apply our selves to his wise and fatherly administrations and take heed of murmuring for he intendeth nothing but our good even the salvation of our souls which is the chiefest good of all The powerful effâ—ct of the Word of God preached PHiletus a Disciple of Hermogenes that Conjurer coming to dispute and maintain an Argument with St. Iames the elder reliâ—d much upon his Sophistry but the Apostle preached Christ unto him with that powerfulness that Philetus returning back to his Master told him Magus abieram Christianus redeo I went forth a Conjurer but am returned a Christian O the power of divine Truth If Peter do but preach the Iews will cry out Men and Breâ—hren what shall we do to be saved Where the word goes along with the operation of the blessed spirit crooked things will be made straight Mountains will be levell with the Valleys sinners will become Saints and there will be a daily addition to the Church of such as shall be saved Great engagements to love one another EUclide shewed in himself the true symptoms of brotherly affection who when his Brother in his rage made a rash vow saying Let me not live if I be not reâ—enged on my Brother Euclide turns the speech contrary way Nay let me not live if I be not reconciled to my Brother Let me not live if we be not as good friends as ever we were before Shall an Heathen thus outstrip us Christians Nature be stronger then Grace the bonds of Flesh tye faster and
are very rare Companions The event of War uncertain A Murath the first Emperor of the Turks after he had got the field against the Christians at Cassova came to view the dead bodies which lay on heaps like Mountains on a sudden one of the Christian Souldiers that lay sore wounded amongst the dead seeing Amurath raised himself as well as he could and in a staggering manner made towards him falling for want of strength divers times in the way which when the Captains saw they would have put him back but Amurath commanded him to approach thinking that he would have done him honour and have kissed his feet but the Souldier being drawn nigh him suddenly stab'd him in the belly with a short dagger that he had under his coat and thus the Conqueror was conquered and died presently Did not the poor wounded Chaldeans such as were thrust through and through with the sword gasping for life rally again to the ruine of their enemies And thus when God seeth his time even a few poor despised men wounded and half dead even sinking in despair of better times at such uncertainty runs that alea Martis that die of War may recover the battel that was lost and cry Victoria having spoiled the spoylers strucken down the chiefest and the strongest and the choisest men that before prevailed and had the upper hand No true comfort but in God WHen a man walketh in the Sun if his face be towards it he hath nothing before him but bright shining light and comfortable heat but let him once turn his back to the Sun what hath he before him then but a shadow And what is a shadow but the privation of light and heat of the Sun yea it is but to behold his own shadow defrauding himself of the other Thus there is no true wisdom no true happiness no real comfort but in beholding the countenance of God look from that and we lose these blessings and what shall we gain a shadow an empty Image instead of a substantial to gain an empty Image of our selves and lose the solid Image of God yet this is the common folly of the world men prefer this shadow before that substance whereas there is not the least appearance of any true comfort but in God onely Heart and tongue to go together IT is well worth the observation what is written of the Peach namely that the Egyptians of all fruits did make choice of that principally to consecrate to their Goddesse and for no other cause but that the fruit thereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is like to ones heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the leaf like to ones tongue What they did like Heathens let us do like Christians for indeed when the heart and the tongue go together then is the Harmony at the sweetest and the service best pleasing both to God and Man All Creatures subject to Gods pleasure GOd is in Heaven he doth whatsoever he will There is not any in the Heaven or Earth or Sea be it body or spirit which is not at his deâ—otion and waiteth not at his beck the greatest do him homage the smallest do him service what is greater then the Heaven yet if Ioshua pray unto him that ever-wheeling body shall cease his diurnal motion The Sun shall stand still in Gibeon and the Moon in Ajalon That which cometh forth as a Giant and rejoyceth to run his course to satisfie Hezekiah and to confirm his faith shall flie back as a Coward ten degrees at once as then it appeared by the Dyal of Ahaz What is ruder or more unfit to be dealt withal then the Earth yet at his pleasure he shaketh both Earth and Sea What is more pure a more excellent and subtile essence then the Angels yet he hath bound up four of them in the River of Euphrates and although they be prepar'd at an hour and at a day and at a moment and at a year to slay the third part of men yet these Angels cannot stir until that they be loosed by his special commandement Unconceivable is his Majesty unestimable is his power the highest things and the lowest the greatest and the weâ—kest do obey him The inconsiderate Multitude WE see by experience that dogs do alwayes bark at those they know not and that it is their Nature to accompany one another in those clamours And so it is with the inconâ—iderate multitude who wanting that vertue which we call honesty in all men and that especial gift of God which we call Charity in Christian men condemn without hearing and wound without offence given led thereunto by uncertain report onely which K. James truly acknowledgeth for the father of all lies The great goodness of God in sending his Son Iesus Christ to save sâ—â—ners WIcked Haeman procured letters from Ahasâ—uerosh for the destruction of the Iews men women and children all that were in his dominions this done Hester the Queen makes request to the King that her people might be saved and the letters of Haman reversed she obtains her request freedom was given and letters of joyful deliverance were dispatched with speed to all those provinces where the Iews inhabited whereupon arose a wonderful joy and gladness amongst that people and it is said that thereupon many of the people of the land became Iews But now behold a greater matter amongst us then this There is that Chirographum that hand-writing of Condemnation the Law and therein the sentence of death of a double death of body and soul and Sathan as wicked Haman accuseth us and seeks by all means to make good his charge against us But yet behold not any earthly Hester but Christ Iesus the Son of God is come down from his Father in heaven hath taken away this hand-writing of condemnation cancelled it on the Cross and is now ascended into Heaven and there sits at the right hand of his Father and makes requests for us and in him is his Father well pleased and yieldeth to his request on our behalf let us then as the Persians the people of that Country became Iews in life and conversation become Christians turn to Christ embrace his doctrine and practise the same unfeigâ—edly Wantonness in Apparel reproved SUrely if it be a shame for a man to wear a paper on his hat at VVestminster-Hall to shew what he hath done it is then as reprâ—achful to wear vain garments on ones back As for a man to be like a fantastical Antick and a woman like a Bartholomew baby what is this but to pull all mens eyes after them to read in Capital letters what they are vain foolish ridiculous It were to be wished that such back-papers Apparel in excess might be as odious in the eyes and hearts of men and women as those hâ—t-papers be at VVestminster and elsewhere for certainly the one tellas foul tales as the others do and could
out into tears said Even so it is betwixt the flesh and the spirit the Spirit is willing to mount upwards in he a venly thoughts and contemplation but the Flesh keepeth it down and if possible would not admit of the least thought of Heaven The conversion of great ones to be endeavoured for examples sake AS it is in the exquisite mystery of Printing the great difficulty lies in the composing and working of the first sheet for by that one many thousands are easily printed So the great work of the Ministery is to convert Great men if they were once converted hundreths would follow their Example In uno Coesare multi insunt Marii In one great Man are many Inferiours contained when the great wheele of the Clock is set a moving all the inferiour wheels will move of their own accord How zealous was S. Paul about the conversion of Sergius Paulus the Deputy of the Country He knew well enough that to take such a great fish was more then to catch many little ones though the least of all is not to be despised The differences betwixt Papist and Protestants not easily reconciled IN Merionith-shire in Wales there are high Mountains whose hanging tops come close together that Shepherds on the tops of severall hills may audibly talk together yet will it be a dayes journey for their bodies to meet so vast is the hollowness of the Valleys betwixt them Thus upon sound search we shall find notwithstanding some Pontifician Bridgemakers over the great gulph betwixt Papists and Protestants that there is a grand distance betwixt them which at the first view may seem near and tending to an accommodation The souls breathing after Christ in time of trouble A Bull which is baited at the Ring assoon as he gets any breathing be it never so little turns him streight wayes towards that place by which he was brought in imagning that by how much the more he is nearer to the stall by so much the more he shall be further from the stake In like manner a faithful heart being baited and towsed in this world with many Dogs that come about it Psalm 22. 16. alwaies hath an eye to that place from which it came it pants breathes and never is at quiet till it return to him from whence it was fet at first Gods moderate answer to the Prayers of his people THere are three sorts of Answers saith Plutarch that men usually make to a Demand The first if you ask Whether Socrates be within telleth you faintly and unwillingly He is not within perhaps he answereth by a Laconismâ—â— Not The second with more courtesie and to the sufficient measure of the demand willing to instruct the ignorant He is not within but at the Exchange c. The third running over with loquacity knoweth no end of speaking He is not within but at the Exchange waiting for strangers out of Ionia in whose behalf Alcibiades hath written from Miletum c. Now the Answers of God to the prayers of his People are neither so sparing or restrict as the first leaving the Soul in a manner as doubtful and perplexed as he found it by granting too little nor so idle and superfluous as the last to bring a loathing to men by surcharge of his benefits but they are in the midle sort tempered with good moderation full of humanity kindness and grace giving enough and happily more then asked and sending the heart away joyful for that which it hath obtained Baptismall water the power and virtue thereof SOlinus reporteth of a River in Boetia That it turneth the colour of the sheep that are washed in it in such sort that if they were before black or dunne they became presently as white as milk That may be a Fable but this is Gospel That such is the virtue of the consecrated water in Baptism wherein Christ's Lambs are usually washed through divine Benediction upon that holy Ordinance that though they were never so black or â—oul before yet after they come out of that laver they are most clean and white and so continue till they plunge themselves into the mire of worldly desires and fleshly lusts The folly of Youth discovered and reproved THe Antients painted a Young man stark naked his eyes vailed his right hand bound behind him and his left hand left at liberty and Time following him close at the heeles and ever and anon pulling a thread out of the vail He was so drawn in a naked posture to shew with what little secrecy he had used his delights and pleasures with his right hand bound behind him to expresse that he did not do any thing right his left hand free and at liberty signifying that he doth all things awkardly and untowardly he was pourtrayed blind because he doth not see his own follies but Time behind him opening his eyes by little and little so bringing him to the knowledge of his errours and that if he go on in such a course of life he is no other then as a broken ship which leaks and drawes in water at a thousand places and will not be long ere it sink as a house whereinto the rain doth fall and drop in so fast and at so many places that it must speedily fall without recovery To shun ill Company IT is better safer I am sure it is to ride alone than to have a thief's company And such is a wicked man who will rob thee of pretious time if he do thee no more mischief Tâ—e Nazarities who might drink no wine were also forbidden to eat grapes whereof wine is made So we must not onely avoid sin it self but also the causes and occasions thereof amongst which bad company the lime-twigs of the devill is the chiefest especially to catch those natures which like the good-fellow-Planet Mercury are most swayed by others Hearing the Word and not meditating thereon dangerous IF a man have the Lienteria a disease so called so that his meat passeth from him as he took it in or he vomit it up as fast as he eats it what strength and vigour of body and senses is this man like to have Indeed he may well eat more than a sounder man and the small abode that it makes in the stomack may refresh it at the present and may help to draw out a lingring languishing uncomfortable life Thus many hearers there are that are sick of this disease what they hear is many times in at one ear out at the other perhaps they hear more than otherwise they needed and the clear discovery and lively delivering of the truth of God may warm and refresh them a little whilst they are hearing and perhaps an hour or two after and it may be may linger out their grace in a languishing uncomfortable life But if they did hear one hour and meditate seven if they did as constantly ruminate and disgest their Sermons as
LOok but upon a gallant Ship well rigged trimmed and tackled man'd and munition'd with her top and top gallant and her spread fails proudly swelling with a full gale in fair weather putting out of the Haven into the smooth Main and drawing the Spectators eyes with a welwishing admiration but soon after to hear of the same Ship splitted against some dangerous Rock or racked by some dysasterous Tempest or sunk by some leak sprung in her by some accident this were a suddain change And just such is the Court Favourit's condition to day like Sâ—â—anus he dazleth all mens eyes with the splendor of his glory and with the proud and potent beak of his powerfull Prosperity cutteth the waves and plougheth through the prease of the vulgar scorning to fear any Remora at his keel below or any cross winds from above and yet to morrow in some storms of unexpected dis-favour springs a leak in his honour and sinks on the Syrtes of disgrace or dashed against the Rocks of displeasure is splitted and wracked in the Charibdis of infamy and so concludes his voyage in misery and mis-fortune Every Man haunted with one evill spirit or other THere is a story of a Country-man of ours one Kettle of Farnham in the time of K. Henry the second who had the faculty to discern spirits by the same token that one time he saw the Devil spitting over the Drunkards shoulders into their Pots at another time laughing at a rapacious Usurers elbow whilst he was piling up Gold in his Coffers the same faculty is reported of Anthony the Hermite And Sulpitius reports the same of S. Martin These were the wonders of those dark times but there 's no such matter of admiration in these ill-spirited times of ours to see and clearly discern both Deâ—ils and divellish minded men Hell may now seem to be broken loose What natural Man is free One hath the spirit of errour another the spirit of sornication Hos. 2. another the spirit of fear 2 Tim. 1. another the spirit of slumber another the spirit of giddiness all spiritum Mundi the spirit of the World every man is haunted with one ill spirit or other Want of Maintenance the waste of Religion ONe asked sometimes how it was that in Athens so good and great a City there were no Physitians to whom this Answer was made because there are no Rewards proposed to them that practise Physick The same Answer may be made for our times the cause why the Church of God is so forsaken why Religion and the profession thereof is so much undervalued is because of the want of zeal in them that should either for their courtesie or for their ablility be fosterers of Learning and encrease the Livings where occasion is and give hope and comfort to learned Men What said I encrease Nay the Livings and Provisions which heretofore were given are now quite taken away so that he which â—eedeth the flock hath least part of the Milk and he that goeth a warfare hath not halfe his wages and he that laboureth and sweateth in the Vineyard of the Lord of Hosts hath his hire abridged and abated hence it is that scandalous livings make scandalous Ministers and scandalous necessitated Ministers make the Ordinances of God vilipendious Spoilers of Church and State condemned WHen Augustus had beautified Rome with setting up many fair buildings he said Inâ—eâ—â— lateritiam marmoream reliqui I found it made of brick but I leave it made of Marble Such was the Inscription set upon the Cathedrall at Carlisle as relating to Dr. Robinson then Bishop of that See Invenit destructum reliquit extructum he found it ruined but left it repaired Here was a good exchange Marble for Brick Reparations for Ruine But O the sad inversion of late times as concerning both Church and State the ruines of the one and dilapidations nay the extirpations of the other where Religion was become Rebellion Faith faction Reformation deformation where Temples were turn'd into Stables Princes Palaces into guards of unruly Souldiers Monarchy into Anarchy and the well compacted body of Government both in Church and State into a licentious looseness of life and conversation God regardeth and rewardeth his People WHen Ahasuerus read in the Book of the Records of the Chronicles and there found how Mordecai had discovered a plot of Treason against his Person he did not lay the Book aside and slightly passed by such a piece of service but enquires What Honour and what Dignity had been done to Mordecai It seems if the King had thought on or read him sooner he had rewarded him sooner But God hath ever in his eye all the Records and Chronicles of his Peoples actions he reads their journalls every day and where he meets with any that have done or spoken any thing aright for him the enquireth what honour what dignity hath been done for this Man If none hath been done he will do it himself if any thing hath been done he will do yet more Not a sigh not a tear not a thought for the glory of Christ shall fall unregarded unrewarded Gods wisdom to be attended with Patience IT is a great burrhen to wait upon a â—ool but we can easily stay for the Resolutions of the wise who we are sure have the compass of a businesse in their heads and are skilled in timing and ordering every circumstance thereof How blessed then are they who while they work for things below can attend upon the great God both of Heaven and Earth whose Moderation and Judgement and Wisdom are such as will not suffer them either to do any thing before the set appointed fit time come nor to stay the doing of it one minute after never any man repented his waiting patiently upon Gods disposal of him A worldly minded Man no publique spirited Man IT is recorded of the K. of Navarre then a Protestant being pressed by Beza to appear more in the cause of God and to own Religion to the purpose He makes answer to this effect That he was their friend but he resolved to put no further to Sea then he might get to shore if a storm should arise he resolved not to hazard his hopes of the Crown of France and it is well known what became of him So when men will make Religion as Twelve and the World as Thirteen it is no marvail if with Demas they forsake the cause of God and embrace the world and with those Potters in 1 Chron. had rather work with the King for good wages than build up the house of the Lord. Time present to be well husbanded UPon the Dyall-peece of the Clock in the Colledge Church of Glocester are pourtrayed four Angels each of them seeming to say something to those that look up to see what a Clock it is the whole inscription being made up of two old Latine Verses after the riming
works but when their minds are raised up to higher things and their thoughts set upon Heaven then their notes are changed they are put into such a tune as is both sweet and pleasant to God himself The great power of fervent Prayer IT is Martin Luther's saying That Prayer is bombarda christianorum the christians gun-shot As then a bullet out of a gun so prayers out of the mouth can go no further then the Spirit carrieth them if they be timidae put out faintly they cannot fly far if they be tumidae hollow-hearted then they will not pâ—erce much onely the fervent humble active devotion hits the mark and pierceth the walls of Heaven though like those of Gazâ— made of brasse and iron c. Esa. 45. 2. University-Learning to be countenanced by men in Authority THe University of Cambridge hath for her Arms A Book clasped between four Lions and Oxford a Book open between three Crowns hereby signifying That English-men may not onely study the liberall Arts closely and quietly but also professe them publickly and openly being guarded with the Lion and the Crown protected thereby and encouraged thereunto by royall Charters and princely priviledges And thus the University of Heidelbergh hath for her Arms a Lion holding a Book in his paw intimating that persons in authority ought to be favourers of all good literature Hence it comes to passe that Universities are the Nurseries of all sorts of learning like the Persian tree which at the same time buds and blossoms and bears fruit some there are ripe for the Church others drawing on to maturity some in the flower others in the bud of hope all advancing themselves for the service of God and their Country The life of Man miserable THe life of man may very well be resembled to a River which as it comes from the Sea so it returns thither again And thus the beginning and ending of our daies may be said to be full of salt-water full of crosses full of misery our first voice a cry our last a groan There may be happily some fair fresh clear water in the way some lucida inter valla some seeming delights and pleasures in the middle age of our life but it passeth away so swiftly that it is no sooner seen but gone Iob 4. 14. Ministers of all men to be painfull in their Calling ARt thou put to be a preacher of the Gospell thou art a labourer Elders that rule well are worthy of double honour Many saies Bishop Latimer can away with praesunt but not with benè if that benè wâ—re out of the Text all were well If a man might eat the sweet and never sweat it were an easie matter to be a preacher if there were not opus but bonum all were well too But every Clergy-man is or ought to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that as St. Augustine saies is nomen operis to be a steward and overseer in Gods house is an office of great employment Well art thou a student in any profession then as Cato said of Scipio thou must be least idle when thou art most idle thou must read diligently confer often observe daily Reading makes a full man conference a ready man and writing an exact man Joy how to be regulated AS an able workman being to build an house would not have too many windows left thereby he should weaken the house too much nor too few left it should darken it too much So should no man be overjoyed upon the accesse of some prosperous fortune nor over-much transported upon the income of some happy tidings left his too much outward joy should weaken his inward rejoycing Neither must he not rejoyce at all left his spirit become dull and stupid But as the windowes of the Temple were broad without yet narrow within so in the matter of joy he must be full within but somewhat contracted without The study of Divinity most necessary HE that hath a Garden-plot doth as well sow the pot-hearbs as the marjorom as well the leeks as the lilly as well the whol some hysope as the sweet carnation gilliflowre the which he doth to this intent that he may have wholsome hearbs as well to nourish his inward parts as sweet flowers to please his outward senses as well fruitfull plants to refresh his body as fair shews to please his mind Even so he that hath a capacious brain a pregnant wit a fancy that is luxuriant let such a head-piece apply it self as well to the sacred knowledge of Divinity as to Philosophy to a Creator-knowledge as well as a creature-knowledge that so he may reap not onely pleasure but profit not onely contentation in mind but quietnesse and peace of conscience Severall varieties to be found in Scripture AS in Noah's Ark were to be numbered all sorts of creatures or as in eodem prato in the same meadow the ox may lick up grasse the hound may find a hare the bird may pick up seeds the virgins gather flowers and a man find a pearl So in one and the same Scripture are varieties to be found for all sorts of conditions In them the Lamb may wade and the Elephant swim children may be fed with milk and meat may be had for stronger men there 's comfort for the afflicted ease for those that are weary and heavy laden c. Ministers how to preach profitably AS in building of a house first there must be a respect had to the scituation next to the foundation then to the superstructures the contriving of lights and severall rooms lastly the covering to keep all dry So every Minister is to consider the scituation of his Text what 's the coherence what 's the context and then omitting the working of curious cobwebs in the top of the house he must lay the foundation of sound doctrin raise it upon strong pillars of reason glaze it with naturall demonstration and lastly to cover all with usefull application The Scriptures but a dead letter without operation of the Spirit IT is reported of a great person that being desirous to see the sword wherewith Scanderbeg had done so great exploits when he saw it replyed He saw no such great matter in that sword more then any other sword It is truth quoth one standing by you see the sword but not the arm that wielded it So when we look upon the Scriptures the bare word whether printed in our Bibles or audible in the Pulpit we shall finde no such businesse in it more then in other writings but when we consider the arm of Gods power that joynes with it when we look upon the operation of his holy Spirit working therein then we shall change our thoughts and say Nec vox hominem sonat O Deus certe as Iacob did of Bethel Surely of a certain God is in this Word The falls of good Men presage the Nation 's ruine WHen
things more commendable then his Victoryes for having vanquished the French King by force of battle he put off from himselfe the whole glory and gave it devoutly to God causing to be sung Non nobis Domine non nobis Domine Not unto us Lord not unto us Lord but unto thy name be the glory given c. Psalm 115. 1. And thus must every one do be his atchievements never so great whether private or publique let God have the glory of all for it is no less then blasphemy in Man to attribute either the strength or the glory of success unto himselfe St. Pauls omnia possum had been over presumptuous had he not added by him that strengthneth me Phil. 4. How it is that one Man censureth another THat divine Spaniard in his pleasant but useful fictions of the life of Gusman makes his Rogue wittily discourse of the unconscionableâ—â—ss of the Genowayes and their prying into and censuring of other mens lives That when they are young and go first to School they play away and lose their Consciences which their Master finding he layes them up carefully in a Christ but because he hath the keeping of so many and they mixed one with another he gives to his Schollers when they go away such Consciences as come first to hand which they take to be their own but are indeed somebodie 's else Whence it comes to pass that no man bearing his own Conscience in his own bosome every Man looks and pryes into that of another Mans The truth of this story may be questioned but the Morall is true without all question and we have need sometimes of such pleasant passages to tell us the truth that we may understand our selves the better There 's hardly the Man to be found that is not curious in other Mens faults blind in his own partial to himself never without matter against others still complayning of the badnesse of the times the decay of Trade the ripenesse of sin but will not be perswaded that he is any way the occasion of the same To be thankfull to God as well in Adversity as Prosperity THemistocles was wont to tell his ingratefull Country-men the Athenians that they used him like a shady Tree under which when a storm happened they would run and take shelter but when the storm was over they would be ready to cut it down and burn it When there were any Tumults or uproares in the Common-wealth who but Themistocles all the People would flock to Themistocles for succour but when there was a calm in the State and all things at peace through his good advice and industry then who more base Who more contemptible then poor Themistocles And is not this the case of many at this day they will pray unto God in time of Adversity but they will not praise God in time of Prosperity While the corn is growing the hedge is well fenced but when it is in'd the fields are thrown open when they stand in need of any blessings then they are all upon the spur somewhat carefull to please God but when they have caught what they fished for then they let the reyns slack are not so forward in the ways of obedience so that it is a great blessing of God that we are kept in want of one blessing or other were it otherwise he were likely to have but a little of our company The doctrine of Seducers dangerous VVE may read of a Woolfe taken in a snare which when a Man went about to kill with his hunting speare the Woolfe breathed in his face and poysoned him in such a manner that he presently began to swell all over his body and was very hardly recovered again Such is the contagion which the soul of the Hearer receives by the poysoned breath of Seducers doctrine if so be that coming near such kind of Vermine a Man do not wind them that is not draw up into his Soul the sweet breathings of the Spirit it is great odds but that he is totally infected thereby to the irreparable loss both of soul and body togeâ—her God seeketh his People more especially in his own House the Church VVHen we receive summons from any supream Authority the Messenger or Offiâ—â—â— of the Court seeks us not in idling places he pursues us not into the fields neither doth he come to our sports to warn us but to our houses and there reads his message as if we were there because we should be there and then without any further enquiry departs fastning the script or writ upon the door In like manner the Ministers of the Gospel are Gods Ambassador and Gods Messengers God supposeth every Man to be at home and so do they because at hours and times set apart for his worship they are presumed to have no houses but his house whom they shall meet no where nor more certainly find than there there it is that more especially when two or three are met together in his name he will be in the midst of them there he will teach them his wayes and there he will give them grace too to walk in his waies nor can a Sermon have any influence upon such as are not there so true is that of venerable Bede That he that comes not willingly to Church shall one day go unwillingly to Hell The sincere Preachers comfort IN a great Festivall when the expectation was not less then the concourse both very great St. Bernard having preached a very eloquent Sermon as that heavenly tongue was able beyond expectation while the People admire and applaud the Abbot walks sadly with a mind not ordinarily dejected The next day he preaches a lively Sermon full of profitable truth plain without any Rhetorical dress whereupon his meaner capacited Auditors went away very well contented but curious itching ears were unsatisfied but he walks cheerfully with a mind more then usually pleasant The people wonder why he should be sad when applauded and when not merry but he returns this answer Heri Bernardum hodiè Iesum Christum yesterday I preached Bernard but to day Iesus Christ It is the same with all Preachers of Gods word There can be no feast within when a Man is conscious to himself of dallying with God Integrity is that which furnisheth out the sweet banquet and heavenly repast of joy That Preacher shall have mâ—st comfort that preacheth most of Christ and so shall he too that lives most to Chrâ—st when a rotten-hearted Wolsey whose Conscience tells him he served the King his Master better then God his Maker shall languish away in discontent and vexation of spirit God afflicts his Children for their good IT is the observation of an excellent Preacher yet living who passing by on a dark night in the streets of London and meeting a youth who had a lighted Link in his hand who being offended thereat because it burnt so dark
Velvet and perhaps richly embroydered but stuff'd within with Hay Or like some mockbegger halls or houses in the Country that are built with lofty Turrets that are presently in the Travailers eye and if they draw nearer to view they find them built with stately Porches neat Galleries fine Stair-cases curious Gate-houses but not one convenient lodging Chamber nor any Hospitality at all They have much to entertain the Passenger and the Viewer they will entertain you with fine notions choice discourses but if ye dwell with them ye shall find very ill accommodation ye shall hear of them as ye ride through the Country they have the name amongst Professors they carry it away from others but you shall experience it that they are not such as are spoken they are not furnished indeed to be Hospitable to the weary Christian they cannot close with any godly spirit because they move by a clean contrary Principle The policy of Tyrants in doing many good things for the publique RIchard the third that great Master of mischief as Sir Walt. Raleigh stiles him having made his way to the Crown through an Ocean of innocent bloud by the advice of his Parliament enacted many good Laws as yet unrepealed for the benefit of the People as the setling of Trade damning the grievous tax of Benevolence rectifying the credit of Iurors c Thus have done all Tyrants from time to time they knowing that their actions stink in the nostrils of God and the World do so perfume them with favours and spice them with acts of grace that the People can hardly scent them and by this means ingratiate themselves in such manner they that work their own safety To make good use of Opportunity IN times of dearth the poor Man picks up every grain of Corne that falls besides O saith he it is dear none must be lost but he that should in the time of Famine give his corn to the Hogs were worthy to be hanged at his own barn-door So are they worthy to lose the reward of weldoing that lose the opportunity thereof Let no Man omit to do seasonable courtesies because the least crum of time wherein a man may have occasion to do good is not to be lost the salve must not be deferred till the sâ—re doth putrifie nor the potion kept back till the patient be endangered A penny given now may do more good then an hundreth pounds hereafter serò dâ—t qui roganti dat those benefits are slow of foot that come not till they are called for Not to talke of our good Deeds A Friend of Caesars had preserved a certain Man from the Tyranny of that Triumvirate proscription but he did so talke of it that the poor Man was enforced to exclaim Redde me Caesari Prethee restore me up to Caesar again I had rather undergo a thousand deaths than to be thus continually upbrayded by thee with my life And to say truth the frequent commemoration of a benefit doth wrack the mind of him that doth receive it We must not therefore make our selves the trumpet of our benevolence nor enter our liberalities upon Record or in a Calender register the dayes of our good deeds the but let them be like Iohn Baptist the speaking son of a dumb parent speak to the necessity of our brother but dumb in the relation of it to others It is for triobolary Empiricks to stage themselvâ—s in the Market and recount their cures and for all good Christians to be silent in their chaâ—itable transactions God a mercifull God THere happens sometimes in England such Assizes as are called the Maiden-Assizes that is when the offences brought to the bar do not reach to the taking away of life so that there is not any Execution Whereupon the high Sheriffe of the County presents the Iudges at their departure with white Gloves to wear in commemoration of the mercies then shewed to offenders which perhaps by the strict rule of Iustice might have been cut off Such an Assizes as this God now keeps we sin daily we offend hourly and therefore guilty of death eternall but God woes and entreats us to come in promiseth life eternall nay binds it with an Oath As I live saith he I will not the death of a sinner Let us then return unto him white hanâ—s candid thoughts clean hearts and then rest assured that he will look upon us neither black with revenge nor red with anger but with a smooth brow and smiling countenance receive us into mercy Change of Government not to be affected A Certain Rustick having blamed Antigonus while he lived grew after some trial had of his successor to recant his error or to recount his crime and digging one day in the field was questioned What he did there O said he Antigonum refodio I seek Antigonus again And is there not many a Man at this time that would be glad to delve and dig for Peace if he might have it would be joyfull to see order and decency both in Church and State restored but Saturnus periit perierunt sua jura Sub Iove nunc mundus jussa sequare Iovis Thus Englished Saturn is dead his Lawes are all decay'd Iove rules the World and Iove must be obey'd What then is best to be done seeing the day grows cloudy and over-cast let every Man betimes withdraw himselfe to shelter and there remain till the storm be past not complaining of the violence of the tempest because it may be followed with a worse not to repine at the present Government but take it as it is and since he cannot reform it by no means be induced to provoke it leaving all to Gods good will and pleasure Like to like AUgustus Caesar being present at a publique prize with his two Daughters â—â—via and Iulia observed diligently what company came to court them and perceived that grave Senators talked with Livia but riotous and wanton youths with Iulia whereby he discerned their severall humours and inclinations according to the Italian proverb Dimmi con chi tu vai Et sapro quel che fai. Tell me with whom thou goest I 'le tell thee what thou doest And most true it is that Custome and Company are Cousin-Germans and that manners and meetings for the most part sympathize together he that walks in the Sun is sure to be tan'd and he that touchetâ— piâ—ch shall be defiled or at least he shall be thought so for all flesh will resort to their like and every Man will keep company with such as he is himself saith the Wiseman ch 10. v. 15. A Man full of talk full of Vanity A Prating Barber asked King Archelaus how he would be trimmed the King replyed Silently Surely in much talk there cannot chuse but be much vanity Loquacity is the Fistula of the mind ever running and almost incurable Let every Man therefore be a
universally received the truth of the Gospell so to the last it may continue constant for the truth that every man would stand up for the truth fight and die for the truth and happinesse it will be found in the end thus to suffer for so good a friend as truth is to continue truth's friend who ever he be that shall become an enemy therefore Kingdom of Christ a peaceable Kingdom A Captain sent from Caesar unto the Senators of Rome to sue for the prolonging of his Government abroad understanding as he stood at the Councill-chamber-door that they would not condiscend to his desire clapping his hand upon the pummel of his sword well said he seeing you will not grant it me this shall give it me So when the Citizens of Messana despising Pompeys jurisdiction alleadged ancient orders in old time granted to their Town Pompey did answer them in choller what do you prattle to us of your Law that have swords by your sides And thus it is that Mahomet dissolveth all Arguments by the sword and thus all Tyrants and Potentates of the World end all their quarrels and make their Enemies their foot-stool by the sword But the Scepter of Christs Kingdom is not a sword of steel but a sword of the Spirit He ruleth in the midst of his Enemies and subdueth a People unto himself not by the sword but by the word for the Gospel of peace is the power of his arm to Salvation Recreation the necessity thereof IT is reported of a good old Primitive Christian that as he was playing with a Bird two or three youths as they were passing by observ'd it and one of them sayes to the other See how this old man playes like a child with the bird which the good Man over-hearing calls him to him asks him what he had in his hand A bow saies he What do you with it and how do you use it said the other whereupon the young Man bent his bow and nock'd his Arrow as if he had been ready to shoot then after some short time unbent his bow again Why do you so said the holy Man Alas sayes the young Man If I should alwaies keep my bow ready bent it would prove a slug and be utterly disabled for any further service Is it so said the good old Man Then my son take notice that as thy bow such is the condition of all human Nature should our thoughts and intentions be alwaies taken up and the whole bent of our minds set upon the study of divine things the wings of devotion would soon flagge and the arrows of Contemplation fly but slowly towards heaven And most true it is that there is Otium as wel as Negotium a time of taking pleasure as well as a time of taking paine neque semper arcum tendit Apollo the bow that stands alwaies bent will become unserviceable And let but the frame of this body of ours want its naturall rest the roof will be soon on fire Recreation is a second Creation when weakness hath almost annihilated the spirits it is the breathing of the Soul which otherwise would be stifled Lawfull Recreation such as that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Philosophers strengthens labour and sweetens rest and the blessing of God may be expected therein as well as in doing the work of our Calling The great benefit of Devotion at bed time OVens that have been baked in over-night are easily heated the next morning The Cask that was well seasoned in the Evening will smell well the next day The Fire that was well raked up when we went to bed will be the sooner kindled when we rise Thus if in the Evening we spend our selves in the examination of our hearts how we have spent the time past and commit our selves unto the good guidance of God for the time to come we shall soon find the spirituall warmth thereof making us able and active for all good duties in the morning and by adding some new fuel to this holy fire we shall with much facility and comfort cause it to burn and blaze in all Christian and religious duties To accept the event of things with Patience THe Censurers of the World by way of Apologue being met together consulted about the redress of divers enormities One with the countenance of Heraclitus was ever weeping for the disorders another with the face of Democritus was ever laughing at the absurdities a third of a more pragmatical spirit was busie where he had no thanks They all studied and plotted how to reform the ataxie of things and to bring the World into some peace and order Princes were implored Philosophers consulted Physitians Souldiers the eminent in all Professions were convented many stratagems were devised still the more they projected to stil the worlds troubles the more troublesome they made it One would have it this way another that the next differs from both a fourth opposeth them three a fifth contradicteth them all So that there was nothing else but crossing one another Physitians with their Recipes Commanders with their Precipes Iesuites with their Decipes all the rest with their Percipes could do no good at all At last a Grand-father in a religious habite presented them an hear◠of such soveraign vertue that when every one had tasted of it they were all calm and quiet presently The herbs name he called Bulapathum the herb Patience And let but this be our dyet continually and we shall find a strange alteration in our selves No troubles abroad nor discontents at home shall break our peace if we be but armed with patience The Church and People of God are thrown upon sad times Blessings are not denyed though they be not presently granted Some while God is not fit to give the time for his greater glory is not yet come Another while we are not fit to receive the time of our preparedness and capacity is not yet come The Lord looks to be waited on Psalm 27. 14. To be carefull in the prevention of Danger THe Boare in the Fable being questioned Why he stood whetting his teeth so when no body was near to hurt him wisely answered That it would then be too late to whet them when he was to use them and therefore whetted them so before danger that he might have them ready in danger Thus as Demosthenes advised the Athenians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they would not expect till evill came but prevent it and to deal with dangers as Men do with Serpents and vipers of which though happily they never have been stung or bitten yet seeing any of them they tarry not till it sting or bite but before harm done forthwith seek to kill it to crush the Scorpion at the first appearance not waiting and gaping after event the School-master of fools as Fabius calls it but ante bellum auxilium and ante tubam tremor to be affected with
fallow and give them a summer-tilth of seasonable recreaâ—ion they will soon become barren and fruitlesse A man not well principled in his Religion unstable in all his waies THe intemperate man now sucks the grape of Orleance anon that hotter fruit of the Canaries then he is taken with the pleasant moisture of the Rhenish plants sometimes the juice of the pressed apples and pears delights him which he warmeth with the Irish Usquebath and then quencheth all with the liquor made of English barley Thus a man not well principled in his Religion is unstable in all his waies he reeles like a drunkard from place to place he hath put so much intoxicating scrupulosity into his head that he cannot stand on his legs A drunkard indeed not so much for excesse as change of liquors for his soul doth affect variety of Doctrines more than the intemperate body doth variety of drinks He takes in a draught of Religion from every Country so much of Anabaptism as may make him a rebell so much of that loving Family as may make him an adulterer so much of Rome as may make him a traitor so much of Arrianism as may make him a blaspheamer Onely he will stand to nothing as the drunkard can stand at nothing He knowes what he hath been he knowes not what he will be nay he knowes not what he is The want of Zeal in the cause of God reproved IN the sacking of Troy Aeneas is said first to have exported 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to have carried out his gods even before his dearest father Look upon the Turks eagernesse in defending and propagating that their Law Non disputando sed pugnando as Mahomet their Prophet hath taught them Or if Christian instances may be more operative look upon the Romanists their Iesuites own expression shall evidence their earnestnesse Campian in his Epistle to the Councill of Queen Elizabeth Quandiu unus quispiam â— nobis supererit qui Tiburno vestro fruatur c. saith he That so long as there was any one Iesuite of them remaining to enjoy Tiburn any one of them left for the gallowes torment and imprisonment they had vowed never to desist endeavouring to set up that Religion in the Nation Shall Turks then and Heathens and Papists solicite their bad cause so earnestly and we our good cause our Goâ—'s cause so faintly O let it not be said Acriâ—s ad pernitiem quà m nos ad salutem that they should drive like Iehu fiercely and we like Egyptians with their wheeles off heavily they clamour out for their woodden and breaden god and we by our sluggishnesse prejudice and betray the cause of our great and glorious God How Faith alone may be said to justifie JUdith cut off Holofernes's head alone the commandeth all her attendants as well great as little to stand without her Tent and to go forth of her presence but when once the deed is done when the Serpent's head is broken and trodd under foot her whole troop runs to her and stands about her Thus albeit Faith apprehending Gods sure mercy for the full and free pardon of sins is in our justification sola yet in our conversation it is not solitaria but ever accompanied with cleannesse of hands which is ready to do that which is right and with a graciousnesse of tongue which is ready to speak that which is true neither deceiving our neighbour nor blaspheming God by lifting up his soul unto vanity i. e. taking his Name in vain as some Divines expound it The Commandements of God the reasonablenesse of them THere is mention made of one who willingly fetched water neer two miles every day for a whole year together to poure upon a dry dead stick upon the bare command of a Superior when no reason could be given for so doing How ready then should every one be to do God service to be at the command of Iesus Christ whose service is perfect freedom whose commands are back'd with reason and whose precepts are attended with encouragements Never did any man serve him in vain never was any mans labour in or for the Lord forgotten Nay as he doth not let Obedience go unrequited so doth he not require it with a little or measure out his rewards by inches or scantlings but such as shall be pressed down shaken together and running over To be servent in Prayer AN Arrow if it be drawn up but a little way it goes not far but if it be pull'd up to the head it flies strongly and pierceth deeply Thus Prayer if it be but dribled forth of carelesse lips it falls down at our feet It is the strength of ejaculation that sends it up into Heaven and fetches down a blessing thence The child hath escaped many a stripe by his loud cry and the very unjust Iudge cannot endure the widow's clamour Heartlesse motions do but be speak a denyall whereas fervent suits offer a sacred violence both to Earth and Heaven It is not the Arithmetick of our prayers how many they are nor the Rhetorick of our prayers how eloquent they be nor the Geometry of our prayers how long they be nor the Musick of our prayers the sweetnesse of our voice nor the Logick of our prayers and the method of them but the Divinity of our prayers which God so much affecteth He looketh not for any Iames with horny knees through assiduity of prayer nor for any Bartholomew with a century of prayers for the Morning and as many for the Evening but St. Pauls frequency of praying with fâ—rvency of spirit that 's it which availeth much Iam. 5. 16. Parents not to be over carefull to make their Children rich THere is a true story of a rich oppressour who had stored up a great masse of wealth for his onely son This man falling into sicknesse and thereby into some remorse called his son to him and told him how abundantly he had provided for him withall asking him whether he did truly and really love him The son answered That nature besides his paternall indulgence bound him to that The father being now in his sick bed further puts him to it How he would expresse his love to him The son answered and said In any thing that he should command him Hereupon his father chargeth him to hold his finger in the burning canâ—le but so long as he could say one Pater noster without removing it The son attempted it but could not endure it Yet saies his father to get thee wealth and a large estate upon Earth I have hazarded my soul to Hell for the vvelfare of thy body I have ventured my soul Thou canst not suffer the burning of a finger for me I must burn body and soul for thy sake thy pain is but for a minute mine must be unquenchable fire even torments for ever By this consideration being melted into repentance
been without them Gen. 6. Thus when Men send out lusts to seek them wives and unclean spirits to woo for them When Men send out Ambition to make their houses great and Covetousness to joyn house to house and land to land When Men send out flattery lying and deceiptfull speeches and do not send out Prayers and loud cryes unto Almighty God to direct them in their choyce they may thank themselves if they meet with wives but not such meet helps as God otherwiâ—e intended for them The heighth of Patience QUeen Ann Bullen the Mother of the blessed Q. Elizabeth when she was to be beheaded in the Tower thus remembred her thanks to the King From a private Gentlewoman he made me a Marquiss from a Marquiss a Queen and now he hath left no higher degree of earthly honour for me he hath made me a Martyr Here was Patience in the highest degree such a Patience as had its perfect work and came up to its full growth when punishment becomes preferment when for Christs sake and his Gospels persecution shall be held an honour and misery a dignity ipsamque crucem coronam and the very Cross a Crown This is the Patience of the Saints The prevalency of a good Example JUstin Martyr confesseth that he left Philosophy and became a Christian Scholler through the admiration that he had to behold the innocent and godly lives of the Primitive Christians hearing them pray unto God for the good and welfare of those who to the utmost of their power endeavoured and wrought their ruine Thus forcible thus effectuall thus prevalent is the Example an holy life When Men and Women live so chastly walk so circumspectly and order themselves so holily so meekly so blamelesly that Men that are even strangers to a godly life are strongly wrought upon and very much affected with and won to Christ by their religious and gracious conversation Faults in manners and Errours in Doctrine to be distinguished in the matter of Reproof IT is observable that Almighty God hath in old time dispensed with some precepts of the second Table concerning our duty to Men as in bidding Abraham to kill his Son Isaac contrary to the sixt Commandement and in suffering the Fathers to have many Concubines contrary to the seventh Commandement and in advising the Children of Israel to rob the wicked Egyptians of their Jewels contrary to the eighth Commandement But he who cannot deny himselfe as the Apostle speaks 1 Tim. 2. 13. never dispensed with any Precept of the first Table concerning his own true honour worship and holinesse Thus it is that there must be a difference put betwixt Faults in manners and Errours in doctrine for principles of faith are like a Mathematicall point which admits of neither ademption nor addition to be patient in suffering a private wrong onely concerning our own Persons is commendable yea Noble But when once the quarrell is made Gods and the Churches injurias Dei dissimulare nimis est impium it is too great impiety for any man to bear In such a case the Prophet Eliah called for fire from Heaven upon his Enemies In such a case St. Paul in the sight of the whole Church of Antiochia withstood Peter to his face In such a case God assisting me saith Luther I am and ever shall be stout and stern herein I take upon me this title Cedo nulli I give place to none And in such a case renowned Iewel sweetly to the same purpose I deny my learning I deny my Bishopwrick I deny my selfe onely the faith of Christ and truth of God I cannot deny with this faith and for this faith I trust I shall end my dayes Judgement-day the terrors of it to the wicked IT is reported of Zisca that valiant Captain of the Bohemians that he commanded that after his decease his skin should be flead from his body to make a drum of it which they should be sure to use when they went out to battail affirming that as soon as the Hongarians or any other of their enemies should come within the sound of that Drum they would never be able to abide it Now if Zisca's Drum and the beating thereof was so terrible to the poor Hongarians how fearfull shall the sounding of the last Trumpet be to the wicked when the Lord Iesus shall shew himselfe from Heaven with his mighty Angels to judge the quick and the dead Saul was astonished when he heard Iesus of Nazareth but calling unto him Herod was affrighted when he thought that Iohn Baptist was risen again The Carthagenians were troubled when they saw Scipio's sepulchre The Saxons were terrified when they saw Cadwallon's image The Philistims were affraid when they saw Davids sword The Israelites were appalled when they saw Aarons rod The Romans were dashed when they saw Caesars bloudy robe Iuda was ashamed when he saw Thamars signet and staffe Baltazar was amazed when he saw the hand-writing on the wall And all the Enemies of God and goodnesse look they never so high wax they never so bigge in this World shall be then confounded when they shall see Christ appearing in judgement Christ seen more clearly under the Gospel than under the Law AS a King in his progress coming to some great City divers of his train ride before him and many more come after him yet all come to the same place but those that are before do not see what entertainment is made in the way so wel as they that come behind Thus it is that Christ is seen more clearly under the Gospell than under the Law The Patriarks and the Israel of God saw somewhat of Christ as they were before him but not one half which we see that are behind Moses was then under a cloud but his face is now unveyled It was a good observation of an acute Preacher now with God then lying on his death-bed O how happy said he are the Peopl of this age that see more of Christ than ever their Predecessors did more than the Patriarks and People of old They had onely Moses Psalms and the Prophets but we the Books of the new Testament setting out Christ before us Not to give occasion that Religion be ill-spoken of WHen a Pagan beheld Christians receiving the blessed Sacrament and observed with what reverence and devotion they demeaned themselves in that holy businesse he was inquisitive what that action meant It was answered by one of them That God having first emptied their hearts of all their Sins as pride envy covetousnesse contention luxury and the rest did now enter into them himself with a purpose to dwell there He was silent for the present but followed and watched them whom he saw to be Communicants in that action for two dayes together And perceiving some of them to fall into quarrells uncleanness
that at the noyse of Thunder they are oft-times even terrified unto death insomuch that they which keep them use to beat a drum amongst them that they being accustomed to the softer noyse of the drum may not be daunted with louder claps of Thunder Thus it is with incorrigible sinners of all sorts they are so affected with the whisperings of wordly pleasures so taken up with the jingling noyse of Riches so delighted with the empty sound of popular applause and secular preferments so sottish and besotted are they that they are not sensible of Gods anger against them the very custome of sinne hath taken away the sense of sin that they do not so much as hear that which all the world besides heareth with trembling and amazement the dreadful voyce of Gods wrathful and everlasting displeasure Regeneration the onely work of Gods spirit IT is said of the Bear that of all Creatures she bringeth the most ugly mishapen whelps but by licking of them she brings them to a better form yet it is a Bear still Thus all of us are ugly and deformed in our inward man 'T is true good breeding learning living in good Neighbourhood may lick us fair and put us into a better shape but shall never change our nature without the operation of the blessed Spirit A Man may be able to discourse of the great mysteries of Salvation yet not be changed may repeat Sermons yet not renewed pertake of the Ordinances yet not regenerated not any of these nor any of all these put together will stand in stead till it hath pleased God to square them and fit them and sanctifie them unto us by the blessed assistance of his holy Spirit Scripture-comforts the onely true comforts IT is storyed of an ancient and Reverend Rabbi who that he might by some demonstration win the People to look after Scripture-knowledge put himselfe into the habit of a Mountebank or travelling Aqua-vitae man and in the Market-place made Proclamation of a soveraign Cordial or Water of life that he had to sell Divers call him in and desire him to shew it whereupon â—he opens the Bible and directs them to several places of comfort in it And to say truth there is the greatest comfort to be had being the word of the everliving God The waters of life which are to be thirsted after whereby we may learn to live holy and dye happy The deaths of friends and others not be sleighted THe Frogs in the Fable desire a King Iupiter casteth a stock amongst them which at the first fall made such a plunge in the water that with the dashing thereof they were all affrighted and ran into their holes but seeing no further harme to ensue they came forth took courage leapt on it and made themselves sport with that which was first their fear till at length Iupiter sent a Stork among them and he devoured them all Thus it is that we make the death of others but as a Stock that somewhat at firstâ— affecteth us but we soon â—orget it until the Stâ—rk come and we our selves become a miserable prey Do they who close the eyes and cover the faces of their deceased friends consider that their eyes must be so closed their faces thus covered Or they who shrowd the Coarse remember that they themselves must be so shrowded Or they who ring the knell consider that shortly the bells must go to the same tune for them Or they that make the grave even while they are in it remember that shortly they must inhabite such a narrow house as they are now a building Peradventure they do a little but it takes no deep impression in them Prayers to be made unto God in Christs name JOseph gives strict command unto his brethren that if ever they looked for him to do them any good or to see his face with comfort they should be sure to bring the lad Benjamin their brother along with them Thus if ever we expect any comfortable return of our Prayers we must be sure to bring our elder Brother Christ Iesus in our hearts by faith and to put up all our requests in his Name They of old called upon God using the names of Abraham Isaac and Iacob three of Gods friends Afterwards they entreated God for his servant Davids sake Others drew up Arguments to move God drawn from the Creation of the World and from his loving kindnesse These were very good wayes then and very good to engage the great God of Heaven to us But unto us is shewed a more excellent way by how much the appellation of an onely begotten Son exceeds that of friend and servant and the benefit of Redemption excells that of creation and favour Dulce nomen Christi O the sweet name Iesus Christ no man ever asked any thing of God truly in that Name but he had his asking To be mindfull of Death at all times THere was once a discourse betwixt a Citizen and a Marriner My Ancestors sayes the Marriner were all Seamen and all of them dyed at Sea my Father my Grand-father and my Great-grand-father were all buried in the Sea Then sayes the Citizen what great cause have you then when you set out to Sea to remember your death and to commit your soul to the hands of God yea but sayes the Marriner to the Citizen Where I pray did your Father and your Grand-father dye Why sayes he they dyed all of them in their beds Truly then sayes the Marriner What a care had you need to have every night when you go to bed to think of your bed as the grave and the clothes that cover you as the Earth that must one day be thrown upon you for the very Heathens themselves that implored as many Deities as they conceived Chimaera's in their fancies yet were never known to erect an Altar to Death because that was ever held uncertain and implacable Thus whether it be at Sea or Land that Man is alwaies in a good posture of defence that is mindfull of death that so lives in this World as though he must shortly leave it that concludes within himselfe I must dye this day may be my last day this place the last that I shall come in this Sermon the last Sermon that I shall hear this Sabbath the last Sabbath that I shall enjoy the next Arrow that is shot may hit me and the time will come how soon God knows that I must lay aside this cloathing of Mortality and lie down in the dust Scripture-knowledge to be put in practice MUsicall Instruments without handling will warp and become nothing worth a sprightly horse will lose his Mettall by standing unbreathed in a Stable Rust will take the sword that hangs by the walls The Cynick rather then want work would be still removing his Tub Thus it is not Gods meaning that any Grace should lie
serve God for nought chap. â— 9. Doth any so much as shut the door or kindle a fire upon his Altar unrewarded They do not God is a liberall pay-master and all his reâ—â—ibâ—â—ions are more then bountifull even for the least of service that can be done unto him God accepts the meanest of Graces ABel offers unto God the firstlings of his flock and God had respect unto Abel and his offering though the earth was but newly curfed for the sin of man yet God accepts the first fruits thereof well knowing they were no such things as were in the offerers power to perform but that which he had commanded the earth to yield So shall those mean graces that are in us be accepted of God though too too much they savour of the â—aughtinesse of our nature And why so but because they proceed from his speciall blessing and are the work of his Spirit A great comfort for such as feel in themselves reluctancies and spirituall assaults by reason of the corruptions and imperfections that â—leave unto the best things they do The Name of God to be had in reverence JEHOVAH is a Name of great power and efficacy a Name that hath in it five vowells without which no language can be exprest A Name that hath in it also three syllables to signifie the Trinity of Persons the Eternity of God One in Three and three in One A Name of such dread and reverence amongst the Iews that they tremble to 〈◊〉 it and therefoâ—e they used the name Adonâ—i Lord in all their devotions And thus ought every one to stand in â—we and sin not by taking the Name of God in vain but to sing praises and honour to remember to declare to exalt to praise and blesse It for holy and reverend onely worthy and excellent is his Name Slanderers discovered IT is Aelians observation how that men being in danger to be stung by Scorpions use to place their beds in water yet the politick Serpents have a device to reach them they get up to the top of the house where one takes hold the next hangs at the end of him a third upon the second a fourth upon the third and so making a kind of Serpentine rope they at the last wound the man And thus it is that amongst scandalizers and slanderers one begins to whisper another makes it a report a third enlargeth it to a dangerous calumny a fourth divulgeth it for a truth So the innocent mans good name which like a Merchants wealth got in many years and lost in an houre is maimed and so secretly traduced that it is somewhat hard to find out the villain that did it God onely to be eyed in the midst of Afflictions JAcob when he saw the Angells ascending and descending enquired who stood at the top of the ladder and sent them David though he knew the second cause of the famin that fell out in his daies to be the drought yet he enquired of the Lord what should be the cause of that judgment And Iob could discern Gods arrowes in Sathans hand and Gods hand on the arms of the Sabaean robbers chap. 1. So should we do in like case see God in all our afflictions In the visible means see by faith the invisible Author and not look so much upon the malice of men or rage of devills as if either of them were unlimited not upon chance as if that idoll were any thing in the world or that things casuall unto us were not fore-appointed by God even to the least circumstance of the greatest or least affliction to the falling of a hair off from our heads Matth. 5. 37. Great sins attended by great judgments WHen Calice was taken from England by the French in the time of Charles the fifth one asked the English by way of scorn and derision When they would win Calice again A wise Captain hearing it made this answer Cum vestra peccata erunt nostris majora When your sins shall be greater than ours then there will be large hopes of gaining Calice again And what then can we expect in this sinfull Land of ours Were but our fore-fathers alive they would blâ—sh to see such a degenerate posterity their sins were ignorance ours presumption their 's omission ours commission they were righteous in respect of us their hospitality is now converted into riot and luxury their frugality into pride and prodigality their simplicity into subtlety their sincerity into hypocrisie their charity into cruelty their chastity into chambering their modesty into wantonnesse their sobriety into drunkennesse their Church-building into Church-robbing their plain-dealing into dissembling their works of compassion into works of oppression It is almost if not altogether out of fashion to be an honest man Such and so great so transcendent so superlative so ripe are the sins of this Nation that it is high time for the Angel to put in his sickle and reap for God to pour down the heaviest of his judgments upâ—n us The mystery of the blessed Trinity unconceivable IT is though somewhat fabulously recorded that when St. Augustine was writing of the blessed Trinity walking by the Sea-side he saw a little child digging a hole in the ground and taking water with a spoon out of the Sea powred it into the hole S. Augustine demanded of the Childe why he did so and he answered that he would lade the whole Sea into it The Sea said he is too great and the hole the spoon and the 〈◊〉 too little To whom the Childe replyed thus Iust so art thou to write of the holy Trinity and so vanished Thus Whosoever thou art Canst thou empty the Ocean of this great mystery into thy Oyster-shell Canst thou define how the Begetter should not be before the Begotten Canst thou dream how Generation and Proceeding differ How there should be a Trinity in unity and unity in Trinity Three in One and One in Three This is a mystery of mysteries not farre to be dived into It is impossible to sound the bottomlesse depth of such divine mysteries with the plummeâ— of our short lived and short lyâ—'d Reason or think to pierce the Marble hardnesse of Gods secrets with the leaden point of our dull apprehension yet so farre as the Scriptures have revealed necessarily to be understood we may look into it And to be sure He that hath two or three walks a day upon Mount Taboâ— and with holy Moses converseth with God in three Persons on the Horeb of both â—estaments shall find the peace of God the Father the love of God the Sonne and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost to his eternall comfort A Man to be wise for himselfe as well as for others VVHen an Orator with great store of Wisdom had bitterly declaimed against folly and somewhat abused his Auditors it was afterwards replyed upon him by one of them Sir your discourse of folly may
such as make low accompt of Mens lives that destroy where they might build hopes of amendment and down with root and branch where they need but pare the leafe such in discharge of their place are govern'd more by Custome then Conscience who take dark circumstance and lame surmise for evidence rashly giving sentence and as precipitately proceeding to Execution Graces of Gods spirit not given in vain THe Husbandman the more he improves his ground the greater crop he looks for the completer the Souldier is armed the better service is required of him The Scholler that is well instructed must shew great fruits of his proficiency Thus the Earthly part of Man soaks in the sweet showers of Grace that fall upon it The bleffed Spirit of God puts upon us that Panoplia that whole Armour of God And the same Spirit teacheth us all things leads us into all Truth and brings all things to our Remembrance which Christ hath spoken for our good Shall we then being thus manured thus armed thus instructed not bring forth fruits in some measure answerable to so great Indulgence Shall such blessings of God be received in vain It must not be we may read these and the like expressions in Scripture Occupy till I come Give an accompt of thy sâ—ewardship To whom much is given much is required What 's the meaning Cum crescunt dona rationes etiam crescunt donorum We must give an accompt as well of Graces received from God Whether they be those summer Graces of Prosperiâ—y Joy and Thansgiving or those winter Graces of Adversity Patience and Perseverance or the Grace of Humility which is alwayes in season as of Sins of what kind soever committed against him Sacriledge justly rewarded to take heed of committing it IT was a suddain and sad end that befell Cardinall Wolsey whilst he sought more to please his Soveraign then his Saviour And the revenging hand of God pursued his five chiefe Agents that were most instrumentall for him in his sacrilegious enterprise One of them killed his fellow in a Duell and was hang'd sor it a third drowned himselfe in a well a fourth fell from a great Estate to extream beggery Doctor Allen the last and chiefest of them being Arch-bishop of Dublin was cruelly slain by his Enemies Utinam his similibus exemplis c. saith the Author of this story I would men would take heed by these and the like examples how they meddle with things consecrated to God for if divine Justice so severely punished those that converted Church-goods though not so well administred to better uses doubtlesse And why but because they did it out of selfish and sinfull self-interested Principles and â—nds What shall become of such as take all occasions to rob God that they might enrich themselves Spoliantur Ecclesiae Scholae c. was Luthers complaint of old Parishes and Churches are polled and robbed of their maintenance as if they meant to starve us all The comfortable Resurrection of Gods poore despised People WHen we see one in the streets from every dunghill gather old pieces of rags and durty clouts little would we think that of those old rotten ragges beaten together in the Mill there should be made such pure fine white Paper as afterwards we see there is Thus the poor despised Children of God may be cast out into the world as dung and dross may be smeared and smooted all over with lying amongst the pots they may be in tears perhaps in bloud both broken-hearted and broken-boned yet for all this they are not to dispair for God will make them one day shine in joy like the bright stars of Heaven and make of them Royall Imperiall Paper wherein he will write his own name for ever Conversion of a sinner matter of great rejoycing IT is observable that Abraham made a feast at the weaning of his Son Isaac not on the day of his Nativity not on the day of his Circumcision but on that day when he was taken from his Mothers breast from sucking of Milk to taste of stronger meat This made a festival in Abrahams family and may very well make a feast in ever true Repentant sinners heart Nascimuâ— carâ—ales allactamur spirituales We are all of us conceived and born in sinne and with our Mothers milk have sucked in the bitter juyce of corrupt Nature but when it comes so to passe that by the speciall illumination of Gods holy Spirit shining into our hearts that we are weaned from the things of this World and raised up to those things which are at Gods right hand that we are new Creatures new Men c. This hath alwayes been matter of great rejoycing to the Angels of Heaven and must needs be the like to every sinner that is so converted Childrens Christian instruction the great benefit thereof IT is reported of the Harts of Scythia that they teach their young ones to leap from bank to bank from Rock to Rock from one turfe to another by leaping before them which otherwise tâ—ey would never practise of themselves by which meanes when they are hunted no Man or beast can ever overtake them So if Parents would but exercise their Children unto Godlinesse principle them in the wayes of God whilst they are young and season their tender years with goodnesse dropping good things by degrees into their narrow-moutn'd vessels and whetting the same upon their Memories by often repeating Sathan that mighty Hunter should never have them for his prey nor lead them captive at his Will they would not be young Saints and old Devils as the prophane Proverb hath it but young Saints and old Angels of heaven The joyes of Heaven not to be expressed St. Augustine tells us that one day while he was about to write something upon the eighth verse of the Thirty sixth Psalm Thou shalt make them drink of the Rivers of thy Pleasures And being almost swallowed up with the Contemplation of Heavenly joyes one called unto him very loud by his name and enquiring who it was he answered I am Hierom with whom in my life time thou hadst so much conference concerning doubts in Scripture and am now best experienced to resolve thee of any doubts concerning the joyes of Heaven but onely let me first aske thee this question Art thou able to put the whole Earth and all the waters of the Sea into a little 〈◊〉 Canst thou measure the waters in thy fist and mete out Heaven with thy span or weigh the Mountains in scales and the hills in a ballance If not no more is it pâ—ssible that thy understanding should comprehend the least of those joyes And certainly The joyes of Heaven are inexpressible so sayes St. Paul 1 Cor. 2. 9. The eye may see farre it may reach the Stars but not the joyes of Heaven the ear may extend it selfe a great
and he hinder me not So that according to the old Verse Si nisi non â—sset perfectum quidlibet esset If it were not for condition and exception every thing would be perfect but that cannot be therefore every man hath his reserve of Gods good will and pleasure to back him in all his promises and undertakings in a good way So that he which speaketh with concition as relating to Gods mind may change his mind without suspition of levity All men to be highly affected with the Name of Jesus IT is said of Iohannes Mollius whensoever he spake of the Name of Iesus his eyes dropt And another reverend Divine being in a deep muse after some discourse that passed of Iesus and tears trickling down abundantly from his cheeks before he was aware being urged for the cause thereof confessed ingenuously it was because he could not draw his dull heart to prise Christ aright Mr. Fox never denyed beggar that asked in the Name of Iesus Christ. And religious Bucer never disregarded any though different in opinion from him in whom he could discern aliquid Christi any thing of Iesus Christ. None but Christ saies John Lambert at the stake And My Master saies Mr. Herbert that divine Poet as oft as he heard the Name of Iesus mentioned How then should our hearts rejoyce and our tongues be glad and how should we be vext at the deadnesse and dulnesse of our naughty natures that are no more affected with the sweetnesse of the Name Iesus a Name above all names 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Such a word saith the Heathen Orator and so emphaticall that other tongues can hardly find a word to expresse it To attend upon God in his Ordinances IT is usuall for ships to ride a long time in a road-steed when they might be in the Haven and wherefore do they so wherefore but that they may be in the winds way to take the first opportunity that shall be offered for their intended voyage Even thus should all good Christians do anchor as it were in the house of God even then when they seem to be becalmed that they cannot stir and move themselves about holy duties as they were wont to do yet even then ride it out hearken what God will say to their souls wait upon him in the use of Means not in an Anabaptisticall phrenzy refusing to attend upon duty till the spirit move them but look up unto God for life and seek it from him in their attendance upon his holy Ordinances To see a necessitated Minister matter of great grief ANtigonus seeing Cleanthes a learned Philosopher and a painfull student at his book as he was helping a Baker to grind corn at the Mill said unto him Molis tu Cleanthe What Cleanthes dost thou grind corn I sayes he I do so or else I must starve for want of bread If I do not labour I must not eat Antigonus by this answer noted a great indignity that those hands should be galled at the Mill wherewith he wrote such excellent things of the Sun Moon and Stars And it must needs be then matter of greater griefe to any good Christian to see able Ministers in necessity to see what shifts they are driven to almost like the Popish Priests of old that said dirges for their dinners who are otherwise able to labour in the Word and do the work of right good Evangelists Idque vitae sustentandae causa not to grow rich thereby but to put meat in their mouths and in the bellies of their distressed families Baptism renounced by the leudnesse of life and conversation THe Spanish Converts in Mexico remember not any thing of the promise and profession they made in Baptism save onely their name which many times also they forget And in the Kingdom of Congo in Affrica the Portugalls at their first arrivall finding the People to be Heathens and without God in the world did induce them to a profession of Christ and to be baptized in great abundance allowing of the principles of Christian Religion till such time as the Priests prest them lead their lives according to their profession which the most part of them in no case enduring returned again to their Gentilism Such Renegadoes are to be found in the midst of us at this day such as give themselves up to Christ quoad Sacramenti perceptionem by externall profession but when it comes once advitae sanctificationem to holinesse of life there they leave him in the open field forsaking their colours renouncing their baptism and running away to the enemy so that Baptism is not unto them the mark of Gods child but the brand of a sool that makes a vow and then breaks it And better had it been that Font-water had never been sprinkled on such a face that should afterward be hatch'd with such impudent impiety Ier. 3. 4 5. Sinfull Prayers not heard by God A King of the Saracens by his Ambassadour demanded of Godfrey of Boloign then in the holy War how he had his hands â—am doctas ad praeliandum so able to fight who returned him this answer Quia manus semper habui puras c. Because I never defiled my hands with any notorious sin Thus is it that men prosper not outwardly because they look not to themselves inwardly they pray and speed not they lift up their voyce but not holy hands They pray but they do not with the Ninivites turn every one from the evill of his way and from the wickednesse that is in his heart So that regarding iniquity in their hearts God will not hear their prayers The Loadsâ—one loseth its vertue besmeared with garlick and our prayers with sin that 's the onely Remora that stops our prayers under full sail to the throne of grace The blessed guidance of Gods holy Spirit to be implored MEmorable is that passage betwixt Elisha the Prophet and Ioash the King of Israel he directed the hand of the King of Israel to shoot and the arrow of Gods deliverance followed thereupon and then so often as he smote the ground by the appointment also of the Prophet so often and no longer he had likelyhood of good successe Even so the Spirit that is it that must direct our tongues and hearts in all that proceedeth from them for where that ceaseth to be as a guide there will that of the Prophet certainly be verified Every man is a beast by his own knowledge Hence was it that the good old Christians sang Come holy Ghost eternall God comforter of us all c. and so must we if ever we look for Gods assistance to go along with our endeavours Angells ministring unto Gods people for their good IN the stories Ecclesiasticall there is mention made of one Theodorus a Martyr put to extream torments by Iulian the Apostaâ—e and dismissed again by him
force he never suspected to be surprised by the treachery of his own family Every peaceable frame of Spirit and confident perswasion of Gods love is not a sure testimony that such a one is in the state of Grace IT is St. Pauls saying of himselfe That he was alive without the Law i. he had great quietnesse and ease of mind all things went well with him he was Cock a hoope sound and safe he thought himselfe in a sure and sâ—fe way but alass this was his ignorance his blindnesse just like a Man in a Dungeon that thinks himselfe safe when there are Serpents and poysonous Creatures round about him onely he doth not see them Or as a Man in a Lethargy feels no pain though he be at the selfe same time near unto the gates of Death And such is the condition of many persons They thank God they have no trouble their Soul is at much ease and quietnesse they doubt not of Gods favour and love unto them hence in the midst of their afflictions when they are but as it were peeping into the furnace of tryall they will say I thank my good God this is his doing I will submit thereunto c. When alass here 's nothing but words no assurance and it may be said of such as Christ of the Iews You say he is your Father but you have not known him so they know nothing powerfully and practically concerning the Mercies of God in Christ Iesus True comfort in the Word of God onely SEneca going about to comfort his friend Polybius perswades him to bear his afflictions patiently And why but because he was the Emperours favourite and tells him That it was not lawful for him to complain while Caesar was his friend cold comfort was this a poor Cordiall God wot to raise up a drooping spirit Good reason too For Caesar himselfe a little while after was so miserable so destitute of all outward comforts that he had not a friend to relieve him in the midst of his greatest extremity much lesse was he able to help his friend O but the sure word of God affords a better Cordiall that which is true comfort indeed It bids every true Child of God not to be over-much dejected under the greatest of afflictions because he is Gods favourite Gods Iewell Gods child Gods Inheritance It tells him that it is not lawfull for him to complain while God is his friend his refuge his Rock of defence his safeguard his What-not in the way of reliefe and succour and the Promises of God are his rich portion and inheritance so that like Iob though he lose all that he hath yet he loseth nothing because he loseth not his God in having of whom he hath all things God afflicting his Children for the improvement of their Graces IT is reported of the Lionesse that she leaves her young whelps till they have almost kill'd themselves with roaring and yelling and then at last gasp when they have almost spent themselves she relieves them and by this means they become more couragious And thus it is that God brings his children into sadnesse sorrow nay even into the very deeps of distress he suffers Ionah to be three dayes and three nights in the belly of a Whale David to cry out till his throat be dry his Disciples to be all the night in a great storme till the fourth watch and then it is that he rebuketh the winds and relieveth his children by which means he mightily encreaseth their Patience and dependance upon him improveth their Graces and enlargeth their faith and hope in Christ Iesus The readinesse of God to pardon poor Repentant Sinners IT was a custome amongst the ancient Romans that when the Judges absolved any accused person at the Barre they did write the letter A upon a little Table provided for that purpose i. Absolvimus We absolve him If they judged him guilty they writ C. i. Condemâ—amus We condemn him And if they found the cause difficult and doubtfull they writ N. L i. Non Liquet We cannot tell what to make of it not much unlike unto the term Ignoramus in our Common Law which the grand inquest writes upon a bill of Inditement when they mislike their Evidence as defective or too weak to make good the presentment But it is otherwise with the all-knowing God with whom we have to do he cannot be said to be ignorant of the many sins wherewith we provoke him dayly Abraham may be ignorant of us and Israel acknowledge us not but he knoweth us and all things else he knoweth us to be wretched and miserable so that he may well write Condemnamus and doom us to perpetuall torments with the Devill and his Angels yet such is his mercy to poor Repentant sinners that he invites and woes them to come in that they may be saved and so ready to pass by offences that instead of Condemnamus he takes up the Pen and writes Absolvimus My Son be of good chear thy sins be forgiven thee How it is that Ministers find so little success of their labours in Preaching the Gospel AS the Husbandman though he should be never so laborious in ploughing sowing and fitting the ground though he be never so careful to provide precious and good seed yet it the nature of the ground be barren as it will bear no seed or cause it to degenerate into Cockle all the labour is in vain Or as the Gardiner though he water and dress never so carefully yet if the Tree be dead at the root it is all to no purpose So though the Ministers of God are very earnest in praying preaching informing rebuking yet when the ground is barren the Tree dead at the root if the People be of a froward and indisposed temper if the God of this World hath blinded their eyes that they do not see nor understand nor feel the power of God working upon their souls What hope is or can there be of such a People Christ the eternall Son of God properly and significantly called The Word Iob. 1. 1. FIrst because his eternall generation is like the production of a Word For as a word is first conceived in the mind and proceeds thence without any carnall operation So the Son of God had his conception in the understanding of the Father and proceeded thence without any corporeall emanation 2. As a word is immateriall and invisible for no Man can see verbum mentis the Word of our thought So Christ is immateriall and invisible in regard of his divine Nature for no Man hath seen that at any time 3. As a Word if you take it for verbum mentis cannot be separated from the understanding but as soon as there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Understanding there must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word So Iesus Christ the second person
and stand still Oh Whaâ— a puddle of sin will the Heart be How rusty and uselesse will our Graces grow How unserviceable for Gods Worship how unfit for Mans by reason of the many spirituall diseases that will invade the Soul Just like Schollers that are for the most part given to a sedentary life whose bodies are more exposed to ill humours then any others whereas they whose livelihoods lye in a handicraft Trade are alwayes in motion and stirring so that the motion expells the ill humours that they cannot seize upon the body So in the Soul the lesse any Man acts in thâ— matter of its concernment the more spirituall diseases and infirmiâ—ies will grow in it whereas the more active and industrious Men are the lesse power will ill distempers have upon them The true Repentant sinners encouragement notwithstanding all his former wickedness IT is very observable in the Genealogy of Christ that there are but four women mentioned it being not usuall to mention any and the blessed Spirit of God sets a mark of infamy upon them all The first is Thamar Mat. 1. 3. She was an incestuous Woman for she lay with her Father in law Gen. 38. 38. The second is Rahab vers 5. she was an Harlot Heb. 11. 31. The third is Ruth vers 5. she came of Moab the Son of Levi by incest begotten of his own Daughter Gen. 19. 37. The fourth is Baâ—hsheba vers 6. she was guilty of Adultery And why was this so done but for the comfort of the most infamous Sinners to come in to Christ and to take notice for their better encouragement that though they have been above measure sinfull yet by their conversion to God and aversion from Sin by a serious and hearty Repentance all infamy of their â—ormer wayes is quite taken away and their names entered in the book of life and eternall Salvation Not to be troubled at the Prosperity of the Wicked And why so VVOuld it not be accounted folly in a Man that is Heir to many thouâ—ands per annum that he should envy a Stage-player cloathed in the habite of a King and yet not heir to one foot of Land Who though he have the form respect and apparel of a King or Nobleman yet he is at the same time a very begger and worth nothing Thus wicked Men though they are arrayed gorgeously and fare deliciously wanting nothing and having more then heart can wish yet they are but onely possessors the godly Christian is the Heir What good doth all their Prosperity do them It doth but hasten their ruine not their reward The Oxe that is the labouring Ox is longer lived then the Ox that is put into the pasture the very putting of him there doth but hasten his slaughter And when God puts wicked Men into fat pastures into places of Honour and power it is but to hasten their ruine Let no Man therefore fret him because of evil doers nor be envious at the Prosperity of the wicked For the Candle of the wicked shall be put out into everlasting darknesse they shall soon be cut off and wither as a green herb Psalm 37. 1 2. Godly and wicked Men their difference in the hatred of Sinne. AS it is with two Children the one forbears to touch a coal because it will black and smut his hand the other will not by any means be brought to handle it because he perceives it to be a fire-cole and will burn his fingers Thus all wicked and ungodly Men they will not touch sin because it will burn They may be and often are troubled for sin but their disquietnesse for sin ariseth more from the evill of punishment the effect of sin then from the evill that is in the Nature of sinne They are troubled for sinne but it is because sinne doth destroy the soul and not because sinne doth defile the soul because God pursueth sinne not because he hates sinne more because it is against Gods justice that is provoked then because it is against the Holinesse of God which is dishonoured because God threatens sinne not because God doth forbid sinne because of the Hell for sin not because of the Hell in sin But now on the other side all good and godly Men they hate and loath sinne because it is of a smutting and defiling nature because it is against the nature of God because God loathes and hates it more because it is a-against Gods command then because God doth punish it not because of the damning power of sin but because of the defiling power of â—in c. Custome in Sin causeth hardnesse in Sin LOok but upon a Youth when he comes first to be an Apprentice to some Artificer or Handy-craft Trade his hand is tencer and no sooner is he set to work but it blisâ—ers so that he is much pained thereby but when he hath continued some time at work then his hand hardens and he goes on without any grievance at all It is just thus with a Sinner before he be accustomed to an evill way Conscience is tender and full of Remorse like a queazy stomack ready to keck at the least thing that is offensive O but a continued Custome and making a Trâ—de of sin that 's it that makes the Conscience to be hard and brawny able to feel nothing As it is in a Smiths forge a Dogge that comes newly in cannot endure the fiery sparks to fly about his ears but being once us'd to it he sleeps securely So let wicked men be long used to the Devils Work-house to be slaves and Vassails to sinne the sparks of Hell-fire may fly about them and the fire of Hell flash upon their souls yet never trouble them never disturbe them at all and all this ariseth from a continued custome in a course of evill The more a Man is now troubled for sinne the lesse shall he be troubled hereafter And why so IT is well known that if a Land lord take a great Fine at the first coming into the house he doth take the lesse Rent for the future Thus as Land-lords deal with their Tenants so God with his people He puts them to a great Fine at the first he makes Sin cost them many a â—ear many a nights trouble many a dayes disquiet many a â—igh many a groan in the Spirit but here 's the comfort The greater the Fine the lesser the yearly Rent the more a Man is troubled for sinne at the present the lesse fear and perplexity shall be his portion hereafter for he shall have the joy and comfort of believing he shall have the more perfect peace at his death so that when he comes to dye he shall have little else to do but to lye down and dye committing his Soul into the hands of a faithfull Creator and Redeemer How it is that the singling out of one beloved Sin makes way to a full sight of all sin
had a man in his Kingdome that durst deal so plainly and faithfully with him Thus did but all Men especially Ministers Preachers of the Word such as are immediately employed by God seriously take notice of his Omnipresence and continually remember how his eye is alwaies upon them O how diligent how confident how abundant would it make them in the work of the Lord how faithfull how couragious how unbyassed how above the frownes and smiles of the greatest of the Sons of Men c. The consideration of Gods omnipresence to be a disswasive from Sin IT is well known what Ahashuerus that great Monarch said concerning Haman when coming in he found him cast upon the Queens bed on which she sate What saith he will he force the Queen before me in the house There was the killing emphasis in the words before me will he force the Queen before me What will he dare to commit such a villany and I stand and look on Thus it is that to do wickedly in the sight of God is a thing that he looks upon as the greatest affront and indignity that can possibly be done unto him What saith he wilt thou be drunk before me swear blaspheme before me be unclean before me break my Laws before me this then is the killing aggravation of all sin that it is done before the face of God in the presence of God whereas the very consideration of Gods Omnipresence that he stands and looks on should be as a bar a Remora to stop the proceeding of all wicked intendments a disswasive rather from Sin then the least encouragement thereunto Courts of Iudicature to be free from all manner of Injustice IT is said of that famous Athenian Judicature where once Dionysius sate as a Judg and thereupon called The Areopogite that they did excell so much in authority that Kings laid down their Crowns when they came to sit with them that they were of such integrity that they kept their Court and gave judgment in the night and in the dark that they might not behold the persons whâ— did speak least they should be moved thereby they onely did hear what was said Here it was that the Pleader must not use any proeme nor make any Rhetoricall expression to move the affections so that the People did bear as much reverence to the sentences and decrees promulged there as they did to their sacred Oracles Such was the strictness such the Iustice of that though then Heathen Councill that it may very well serve as a miroir to look in as a pattern for the imitation and as a coppy for the most Christian Courts of Iudicature to write by For were but Causes evenly weighed in the ballance of Justice there would not be so much complaining of the often titing on the one side or the other as now there is Were men but Christian Lawyers they would not be so often looked on as Heathen Orators Were Laws but justly put in execution the sword would not so often be born in vain neither would great ones bear down those that are lesse nor mighty ones confound the mean but all would be subservient to the Supream serviceable and respectfull one to the other Ministers advised in the method of Profitable Preaching AS the Physitian himself gives not health but onely gives some helps to bring the body into a fit temperament and disposition so far as to help and strengthen Nature So the Preacher cannot be said to give knowledg but the helps and motives by which natural light being excited and helped may get knowledg And as he is the best Physitian that doth not oppresse nature with a multitude of medicines but pleasantly with a few doth help it for the recovery of health So he is the best Preacher not that knoweth how to heap up many mediums and Arguments to force the understanding rather then to entice it by the sweetnesse of light but he that by the easy and gratefull Mediums which are within reach or fitted to our light doth lead Men as by the hand unto the Truth in the beholding or sight of which Truth onely knowledg doth consist and not in use of Arguments hence is it that Arguments are called Reasons by a name of relation to Truth And why so but because they are a means for finding out of Truth and discovery of Errour Fear of Hell to be a restraint from the least Sin THe passage in Scripture is well known how Nebuchadnezzar erected a Golden Image with this terrible commination That whosoever would not fall down and worship it should be cast into the fiery Furnace This now was so terrible to every one that heard it that unlesse it were three or four there were none that did resist the very fear of a Fiery Furnace made them do any thing And shall not then the fear of those eternall flames the fear of that great day wherein God shall reveal all wrath without any mercy to the Wicked man shall not this turn him out of the wayes of Sin shall not this make him with bitternesse bewail his former lusts and to hate those bitter-sweets of pleasure which er'st he so much delighted in saying with Ionathan I have tasted a little honey and I must dye I have had a little pleasure of Sin and I must be damn'd for evermore Daily amendment of life enjoyned to the making up of the new Creature IT is said of Argo the then Royal Soveraign of the Asiatique Seas that being upon constant service she was constantly repaired and as one plank or board failed she was ever and anon supplied with another that was more serviceable insomuch that at last she became all new which caused a great dispute amongst the Philosophers of those times whether she were the same ship as before or not Thus it is that for our parts we have daily and hourly served under the commands of Sin and Sathan made provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof drawn iniquity with cords of Vanity and sin as it were with a Cartrope and daily like Ephraim increased in wickednesse insomuch that there are not onely some bruises and brushes but as it were a shipwrack of Faith and all goodnesse in the frame of our pretious Souls What then remains but that we should dye daily unto Sin and live unto Righteousnesse put in a new plank this day and another to morrow now subdue one lust and another to morrow this day conquer one Temptation and the next another be still on the mending hand and then the question needs not be put Whether we be the same or not For old things being put away all things will become new we shall be new Men new Creatures we shall have new hearts new spirits and new songs in our mouthes be made partakers of the new Covenant and at last Inheritors of the new Ierusalem Gods great patience
a straight way yet try it put into it however do but disgest the diâ—â—iculty of the entrance and then thy feet shall not be straitâ—ed thou shalt find more and more enlargement every day more comfort then other Lewdnesse of the Preachers life no warrant to sleight the Ordinance of Preaching IT was an unhappy meaning that Sir Thomas Moor had though he spake it pleasantly when he said of a vitious Priest That he would not by any means have him say the Creed lest it should make him call the Articles of his Faith into question Thus too too many are apt to call the Truths of Gods Word into question because of the lewdnesse of the Preachers life One will not have his children baptized by such a one it goes against anothers stomach to receive the Sacrament from the foul hands of such a one others care not for their doctrine because they say and do not c. A preposterous Zeal God wot Eliah received comfortable food from a Raven as well as from an Angel If God speak to thee as he did to Balaam by the mouth of an Asse thou must have so much Patience saith Luther as to hear him If God will have thee to be saved by one who peradventure shall be damned hear what he saith and look not what he doth if thy Pastor live lewdly that is his own hurt if he preach well that is thy good take thine own and go thy way Good water which passeth into a Garden through a channel of stone doth the Garden good though it do the channell none and so may the Word and water of life conveyed by a bad instrument of a stony heart do good to the Church of God though it work not upon himself And good seed though it be cast into the ground with foul hands will â—ructifie One may be a bad Man yet a good Seeds-man both in the Field and the Church yet woe be to him by whom the offence cometh by whose means the offerings of Eli's sons smoked for this And to many which have prophesied in his Name Christ will say in his just displeasure Away from me ye workers of iniquity Wicked Men made by God instrumentall for the good of his People LEwes of Granada that devout Spaniard maketh mention of a very poor diseased Man dwelling in Italy that was brought so low that he could stir neither hand nor foot and seeking for a skilful Physitian to heal him he found a potent Enemy to torment him who to adde unto his misery cast him into prison and there kept him with a very small allowance of bread and water so much onely as should keep life and soul together But it so happened that there being a new face of Government in that Province he was released from his imprisonment and his disease together For the want of Food intended to take away his life proved the onely remedy to preserve it And thus it is that God makes use of Wicked Men for his Peoples good The Wicked cast them into the Furnace thinking to destroy them but they rise out thence more glorious then before They plow deep Furrowes on the backs of Gods people but that makes them more fruitfull in good works put them to death that proves their advantage vex grieve trouble and torment them yet do what they can do they are still gainers not losers so true is that of the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. All things work together for the best to them that love God How it is that one Man may be said to be punished for another Mans sin A Man that hath fâ—d high for a long time comes to have a plethory of crude and indigested humors in his stomach It so falls ouâ— that this Party riding afterwards in the wet and taking cold begins to shiver and shake and after falls into a durable lasting Feaver If the Physitian be a wise Man one that hath parts and skill ask him What was the cause of this sicknesse and he will tell you The ill humours of the body and the abounding of them yet it is like enough it had not turned to a Feaver so soon if he had not took cold of his feet or been some way troubled in his journey So when God brings punnishment upon People the proper cause is in every Mans self There are personall sins in every Man to make him obnoxious to the curse of God yet may the sins of the Father or Parent or Neighbour be the occasion that God will punnish Sin so that it may be said that the personal Sins of Men are the primary internal antecedent dispositive cause of Gods Iudgments but the Sins of other Men as they are Members of the whole may be the external irritating excitating cause of Gods Iudgments upon a People or Nation The Souls comfortable enjoyment of Christ. IT were a great grace and such as would minister much comfort to a Courtier lying sick at home of the gowt to have the Prince not onely to send to him but in person also to visite him but much more comfort and joy would it be to him to be able being recovered to repair to the Court and there enjoy his Prince's presence with such pleasures and favours as the place may afford How much more then in this case is it a grace and a comfort that God vouchsafeth to visit us here by his Spirit sometimes more familiarly and feelingly but alwaies so effectually as thereby to support us even in the greatest of extremity but how much more exceedingly shall our joy and comfort be encreased when being freed from all infirmities we shall be taken home to him that we may enjoy him for evermore As that Courtier having assurance given him of recovery by such a time would exceedingly rejoyce to think of the joy of that day and count every day a week if not a year to it wherein he should being recovered return to the Court and be welcom'd thither in solemn manner by all his Friends there and by the Prince in a more especiall manner So well may the faithful Soul not a little joy to fore-think with it self what a joyfull hour that shall be unto it wherein by Death parted from the body it shall solemnly be prâ—sented before the face of Iâ—sus Christ and entring into the Heavenly place shall be welcom'd thither by the whole Court of Heaven the blessed Saints and Angels Unhappy Prosperity happy Adversity IT is a Philosophical observation of Turtle Doves and some other birds that use to take their flights into other parts beyond the Seas that if the South-wind blow they will be sure of a good guide to direct them but if the wind be Northward then they venture of themselues without any conduct at all This may note unto us the unhappy Prosperity of the Wicked and the happy Adversity of the Godlâ— He that spreads his sailes before
and liberty to edâ—fie our selves in the most holy Faith This was the Churche's care Act. 9. 31. and this must be ours while our Ship is in the Haven to mend it there when it is out at Sea in a storm it will be too late then there is yet some hope but how long there will be God knowes let us provide for worser times that we be not surprised on a suddain when they come upon us Mercies of God in Christ Jesus to be sought while they may be found HEE that intends to speak with any one in a well fortified Castle must come by day whilest the draw bridge is down otherwise being once up there will be no entrance at all Thus many a Man loseth Mercy as Saul did his Kingdom by not discerning the time Esau came too late and the foolish Virgins did not lay hold upon the first opportunity He therefore that resolves for Heaven must in the time of this life make good his passage strive to enter whilest the bridge of Mercy is let down For if it be once drawn up there 's no by-ward no loop-hole to creep in at And that Soul must needs then be exposed to the Iustice of God where Mercy hath shut up her tender bowels of compassion A great fault in Women not to nurse their own Children IT is reported of Gracchus a Noble-man of Rome that when the Nurse brought home his Child he gave her a pearl of very great price and another of far lesser valew to the Mother And being demanded Why he respected the Nurse so much and the Mother so little answered That the Mother bare the Child but nine moneths in her womb and the Nurse bare him above thirty moneths in her arms It was otherwise with Anthusa the Mother of that Golden-mouth'd Father she was able to draw Arguments to disswade her sonne from leading a Monastick life by his drawing of her breasts when he was an Infant But now it is much to be feared that very few Women can make out any such Reason to perswade or disswade their Children which is the cause many times that as Parents have shewed little love and affection in the nursing of their Children so their Children in like sort do perform little regard and obedience to the honouring of their Parents The implacable malice of Wicked Men against Professors of the Gospel FElix Earl of Wartenburgh one of the Captains of Charles the fifth swore in the presence of divers at Supper That before he dyed he would ride up to the spurs in the blood of Lutherans but God soon cool'd his courage For that very night he was choked and strangled in his own blood After Iohn Hus was burnt his Adversaries got his heart which was left untouched by the fire and beat it with their staves And the bones of Martin Bucer and Paulus Fagius were taken up and burnt after they had a long time been buried in silence O the desperate madnesse and malice of all Persecutors such as burn in anger against the Godly It was S. Paul's prayer that he might be delivered from unreasonable and wicked Men the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 absurd Men such as put themselves upon wayes of opposition against all Reason and common sense nay such is their rage and bitternesse of spirit that it makes them break all bonds of humanity and go against Lawes or any thing so as they may but torment the dear servants of God The Multitude not to be guided by them IT is reported of a certain Duke of the Saracens and he none of the wisest that being almost perswaded to be a Christian would needs be baptized but being brought to the water side and having one foot in before he would wet the other he demanded of the Baptizer Where his Father Mother Kindred and Friends were that dyed without Baptisme It was answered That they were all in Hell with a Multitude of Unbelievers besides But whither shall I go sayes he when I am baptized To Heaven sayes the Priest if you live a good life Nay then sayes he pulling his foot out of the water Take your Baptism to your self let me go to that place where the many not where the few where my Friends and acquaintance and a great number of others of all sorts are I love see my Friends about me And this is just the fashion of this present wicked World Men are much taken with the Many they choose rather to follow the Multitude to do evill then to close with the remnant that shall be saved to do any good A sad choyce God wot to be so far taken with the common rabble that know not God and run headlong to Hell rather then to joyn with the little flock of Christ that shall be assuredly saved Every Man to think the best of his own Wife XEnophon being demanded if his Neighbour had a better house then himself and that he might have his choyce of them which would he have his or his own he answered His so being demanded the like question of his horse of his Field and the like he still answered His But being asked if his Neighbour had a fairer or a better Wife then himself Which of them he had rather have Hic Xenophon ipse tacuit he either said His own or said nothing silently concluding That she was the best Thus it is that every Man must think his own Wife to be the fairest and the faithfullest that he could find esteeming of her as of the best treasure he hath loving her above all others not like the Egyptian Frogs croaking in other Mens chambers but as the Adamant turns onely to one point so keeping to his own Wife so long as they both shall live To be ready to suffer persecution by Christs Example THere is mention made of a Roman servant who knowing that his Master was sought for by Officers to be put to death he put himself into his Masters cloaths that he might be taken for him and so he was and put to death for him Whereupon in memory of his thankfulnesse to him the Master erected a brazen Statue with this Inscription Servo fideli To the trustly servant Thus Christ who was not a Servant but our Lord and Master yet when he saw we were like to die he took upon him the form of a Servant he came in our likenessâ— that he might die for us and he did so Now he requires not of us to â—rect any brazen Monument in memory of him or in honour to him but that we should be ready and willing to suffer for him when he calls us thereunto Certainly his Example in humbling himself so much to suffer for us should be mightily prevalent with us that if he empâ—ied himself so much to become the Son of Man how much more should we having so fair a Copy to write by be much more
neither or some kind of Monster betwixt both new devices for gain new wayes of cheating new wayes of breaking So that without all doubt God is devising some new manner of Iudgment as was said of Korah and his complices Numb 16. 29. To blesse God for all THere is a kind of Dialogue betwixt one Doctor Thaulerus and a poor Man that lay begging by the high-way side Good morrow poor Man 〈◊〉 the Doctor I never had any bad morrow said the beggar No sayes the Doctor Thou art a miserable poor Man thou art as good as naked without any cloaths on thy back no Friends nor any one to relieve thee How can it then be true that thou sayest thou never hadst any bad morrow I 'le tell you sayes the beggar Whether I am sick or in health whether it be warm or cold weather whether I be cloathed or naked rich or poor I blesse God for all O but Friend said the Doctor What if Christ should cast thee into Hell If he should sayes he I would be contented but I have two arms the one of Faith the other of Love wherewith I would lay such fast hold on him that I would have him along with me and then I am sure that Hell would be Heaven if he were there And thus it is that we should blesse God at all times in all places upon all occasions and in all conditions as well for years of Dearth as years of Plenty times of Warre as well as times of Peace for Adversity as well as Pâ—osperity in sicknesse and in health in weal and in woe in liberty and restraint whether it be that the Lord giveth or whether he taketh away still to blesse the Name of the Lord. Godlinesse a great mystery and why so THe World hath her mysteries in all Arts and Trades yea Mechanical appertaining to this life which are imparted to none but filiis scientiae Apprentices to them These have their mysteries have them nay are nothing but mysteries So they delight to stile themselves by such and such a Mystery such and such a Craft c. Now if Godlinesse be great gain and profitable unto all things a Trade of good return and in request with all good Men then to be allow'd her Mysteries At least such as all other trades have And the rather for that that there is Mysterium iniquitatis a Mystery of iniquity so that it would be somewhat hard if there were not Mysterium pietatis a Myâ—â—ery of Godlinesse to encounter it That Babylon should be allowed the name of a Mystery and Sion not that there should be profunda Satanae deep things of Satans and there should not be deep and profound things of God and Godlinesse for the Spirit to search out and dive into Apoc. 2. 24. How a Man should demean himself being fallen into bad Company IT is said of Antigonus that being invited to a great Feast where a notable Harlot was to be present he asked Counsel of Menedemus a disâ—reet Man What he should do and how he should behave himself in such Company Who bade him onely to remember this that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Son of a King So good Men may be invited where none of the best may â—eet Many an honest Man may fall into a Knaves company the best counsel is Keep ever in mind that they are Kings Sons Gods Children and therefore it were a base thing for them to be allured by the Wicked to do things unseemly and that they should much degenerate if they should make any sinfull compliance with such as are notoriously wicked The desperate Sinner's madnesse ST Ambrose reports of one Theotymus that being troubled with a sore disease upon his body when the Physitian told him that exâ—ept he did abstain from intemperance as drunkennesse and excesle he was like to lose his eyes his heart was so desperately set upon his sin that he said Vale lumen amicum Farewell sweet light then I must have my pleasure in that Sin I must drink though I drink out my eyes thea farewell eyes and farewell light and all O desperate madnesse for Men to venture upon Sin to the losse not onely of the light of the eye but the light of Gods loving Countenance for evermore It is to be supposed that no Man will be so far owned by his words as to say Farewell God and Christ and eternal life and all I must have my Sin yet though directly they say not so they do in effect say it They know that the Scripture saith that no Drunkard Whoremonger nor Covetous nor unclean person shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven then whosoever that knowing this goeth for all that in such a way doth as it were say Farewell God and Heaven and farewell all that God hath purchased by his bloud rather then I will lose my Sin I will lose all Christ-masse day to be held in remembrance AS Kings keep the day of their Inauguration As Cities have their Palilia when the trench is first cast up And Churche's their Encaenia's when they are first dedicate As Men their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when they first came into the World So all good Christians celebrate the day of Christ's Nativity a day of Joy both in Heaven and on Earth In Heaven for a day of glory unto God on high On Earth for a day of Peace here below and good-will towards Men A day of joy to all People past present and to come such a day as wherein after long expectation the best return was made that ever came to the poor Sons of Men such a day as the Lord himself made let us therefore rejoyce therein How to Feast comfortably JOseph had his Tomb in his Garden to season his delight with Meditations of his death The Egyptians had a Skeleton or carcasse brought into their Feasts for the same purpose At Prester-Iohn's Table a Deaths-head is the first thing set on And Philip had not onely a Boy every Morning but a Dead-Man's skull on his Table every meal to put him in mind of his Mortality And thus ought we all to do mingle our Feasting with the meditation of our Farewell out of this wretched life when we sit at dinner to think of our dissolution and ever â—o set our own carcasse before the eyes of our mind saying within our selves Alas this feeding and Feasting is but a little repairing and propping up of a poor ruinous house that ere long will fall down to the ground and come to nothing Heaven not to be found upon Earth IT is storied of a King of Persia that he must have an imaginary Heaven and thereupon he is at the charge of a stately brave Pallace where in the top he caused the Heavens to be artificially moulded and the Sun Moon and Stars to be painted and under them the clowds that by art moved up and down distilled
whereof hath been a great inlet to Idlenesse negligence and ignorance in the study of Divinity Blessednesse of the Poor in spirit in the matter of Hearing Gods Word IT is fabled that when Iuno on a day had proclaimed a great Reward to him that brought her the best present there came in a Physitian a Poet a Merchant a Philosopher and a Beggar The Physitian presented a hidden secret of Nature a prescript able to make an old Man young again The Poet an Encomiastick Ode of her bird the Peacock The Merchant a rare hallow Iewell to hang at her ear The Philosopher a book of strange Mysteries The poor quaking Beggar onely a bended knee saying I have nothing that is worth acceptance Accipe meipsum Take my self Thus it is that many come unto God in the hearing of his Word with prescripts of their own they have receipts enow already they care for no more Others like the Poet come to admire Peacocks the gawdy Popinjayes and Fashionists of the time all to be dawb'd with gold and silver Feathers Others like the Merchant present Jewels but they are hallow they come with criticall or hypocritical humours like Carps to bite the net and wound the Fisher not to be taken Some like the Philosopher bring a book with them which they read without minding the Preacher saying They can find more Learning there then he can teach them But blessed are the poor in spirit that like the Beggar give themselves to God Iuno gave the reward to him and God gives the blessing to these It is a poor Reverently devoted heart that carries away the comfort Godlinesse in the humble dust of adoration that shall be lifted up by the hand of Mercy Christ to be our Example and Pattern of Imitation in life and death ST Hierome having read the life and death of Hilarion one that lived most Christianly and dyed most comfortably folded up the book saying Well Hilarion shall be the Champion that I will follow his good life shall be my Example and his godly death my President How much more then should each of us first read with diligence the life and death of Iesus Christ and then propound him to our selves as the most absolute pattern for our Imitation resolving by the Grace of God that Christ shall be the copy after which we will write the pattern which we will follow in all things that he hath left within the sphear of our Activity so also in that necessary duty of Preparation for death He did so Iob. 14. and we must do so For as in shooting there is a deliberate draught of the bow a good aym taken before the loose be given so if ever we look for comfort in death we must look at death through the preparation for it The greatest of things wrought by God without means AS when Gedeon was to fight with the Midianites pretending that his Army was but a few How many hast thou saith the Lord So many thousand They are too many The Lord will not have them all but commands them to be reduced to one half and yet there were too many the Lord would not work by them they were too strong At last he comes to make choyce of them by lapping in the water then they came to three hundred Men to fight against three hundred thousand For it is said they covered the Earth like Grashoppers And now the Lord begins to work by these Men. And how doth he work by Weapons No but with a few broken pitchers in their hands and they had the day of it the Midianites be delivered up into their hands as a prey This was a wonderful act of the great God who not tyed to means wrought out Victory by his own arm It is true that means and second causes he hath much honoured in the World and commands them to be used but when he comes to effect great things such as was the Redemption of Mankind by Christ such as shall be the Resurrection of the dead at the last day then such means and causes as seek to set him forward he rejects them and works not by them but the clean contrary The greater stench the bodies have sustained in the grave shall work it unto greater sweetnesse and the greater weaknesse it had the greater strength shall accrew unto it and wondrous puissance shall God work unto that part that lacked honour according to his blessed dispensation in all things Not to be Angry with our Brother A Railing Fellow fell very foul upon Pericles a Man of a Civil and Socraticaâ— spirit and he left him not all the day long but continued till he had brought him to his own doors in the Evening somewhat late at Night He all this while not returning one unbeseeming word commanded one of his Servants with a Torch to light the brawler home to his house Thus did he by the dim light of Nature And therefore if a brother offend us upon ignorance let us neglect it if upon infirmity forget it if upon malice forbear it upon what terms soever forgive it as we would have God to forgive us It is a saying That every Man is either a Fool or a Physitian so every Christian is either a Mad-man or a Divine A Mad-man if he give his passions the rein a Divine if he qualifie them The Natural Mans blindnesse in Spirituall things WHen Xeuxes drew his Master-piece and Nicostratus fell into admiration of the rarenesse thereof highly commending the exquisitenesse of the work there stood by a rich Ignorant who would needs know what he had discovered worthy of so great applause To whom Nicostratus made this answer My Friend couldst thou but see with my eyes thou wouldst soon see cause enough to wonder as well as I do Thus it is that the dear Children of God have inexhaustible treasure even in the midst of their poverty transcendent dignity in the midst of their disgraces heighth of tranquillity in the very depth of tribulation their pulse and Locusts relish better then all the Gluttons delicious fare their Sheep-skins Goat-skins and Camels hair wear finer then all the Purple and soft rayment the Worlds hate makes them happier then all the applauses of the Capitol Now the sensual carnal Naturalist sees none of all this he perceives not the things of the spirit neither indeed can he for they are spiritually discerned no Man knowes them but he that hath them but had he spirituall sight were but the scales fallen off from his eyes as they did from S. Paul's at the time of his Conversion then he would clearly see and say as the same S. Paul did That though we suffer tribulation in all things yet we are not distressed we are brought into perplexities yet we are not forsaken Negligent Hearing of Gods Word condemned A Servant coming from Church praiseth the Sermon to his Master He asks him What was the
shelter in times of affliction AVicen writeth that in the Country of Chaldea there are many Rivers and that the Hart being almost hunted down makes to the River side and being not able to passe â—oeth to the first Man he seeth brayes and weeps to him for relief and so is â—aken Which let every Christian man learn to follow this example that seeing himself beet with innumerable Enemies wearied with the burthen of Sin and as it were overwhelmed with a deluge of sorrow and distresse turn to the Man Iesus who is able and willing to deliver him from all dangers imminent and incumbent who is the onely shelter in time of trouble and affliction A Rich Man pleading Poverty condemned ALexander the fifth Pope of Rome said of himself That when he was a Bishop he was Rich when a Cardinal poor and when a Pope a very beggar And plainly so it is in these strait-laced times of ours with too many wretched Rich men who the Richer they are the more wretched they are as their store is enlarged their Charity is contracted such as having a Mâ—le in their Flock sacrifice to the Lord a corrupt thing such as ride on Horses with golden chains lye on beds of Ivory eat of the fattest and cloath with the softest yet when they come to the matter of Charity to the relief of the Poor pauperrimis redduntur pauperiores they plead Poverty and make themselves more Poor then the poorest Magistrates to be active Examples of good unto others IT is said in the praise of Moses that he was a mighty Man both in word and deed not mighty in word onely as many Governors are to command strongly but mighty also in deed to do it accordingly As Tully reports of Iulius Caesar that he was never heard saying to his Souldiers Ite illuc Go ye thither as if they should go into service and he to stay behind in the Tent but venite huc Come ye hither Let us give the onset and adventure our lives together A great encouragement for the Souldier to follow when he sees his Captain march before Thus it is that if the Magistrate will perswade the People to any thing he must shew the experience of it first in himself Or if he will command the People any thing he must do it first upon and by himself otherwise if he exact one thing and do another it will be said that he is like a Water-man that rowes one way and looks another Sin the destruction of any People or Nation whatsoever SEragastio a servant in one of Plautus Comedies asking another Ut munitum tibi visum est oppidum How doth the Town seem to be sortified The answer given was this Si Incolae bene sint morati pulchâ—è munitum arbitror If the Inhabitants be well governed and good I think it to be well fortified And then reckoning up many Vices he concludeth haec nisi inde aberunt c. unlesse these be absent an hundred walls are but little enough for the preservation of it And to say truth such is the destructive Nature of Sin that it will levell the walls of the best and most polite Governments whatsoever so that it is no more the walls and Bullwarks the secret Counsels the subtile contrivements the valour of the Souldiery or the greatnesse of Commanders will be guard sufficient to a Nation or People unlesse Sin that is reigning beloved Sin be first removed Magistrates not to be guilty of that which they do forbid in others ALexander the great Conquerour took one Dyonides a Pyrate upon the Sea and asked him Quid sibi videretur ut Mare infestum faceret What he meant in that manner to trouble the Sea The Pyrate answered him boldly and truly Yea What do you rather mean to trouble the World but because I rob and steal in a small Cock-boat which you do in a great and Royaâ—â— Navy I go for a Pyrate aâ—d you for an Emperour And when it is thus with the Magistrates in a Nation or Common-weal when they punish that Sin in others whereof themselves are notoriously guilty though no Man dare speak yet every Man will matter And Socrates will laugh because he sees Magnos latrones ducentes parvos ad suspendium the great Thieves leading the little ones to the Gallows Not to be disquieted at the Prosperity of the Wicked IT is Augustine's instance of One that considering himself to be cast into Prison and there to be carefull to do the works of Righteousnesse whilest he that laid him there lay wallowing in the abundance of outward Pleasures and delights though he lived in all kind of excesse in Sin the consideration whereof caused him to vent such or the like expressions Deus quare tibi servio c. O God why do I serve thee Why do I obey thy voice I think the Wicked please thee and that thou lovest those that work Iniquity Such a Spirit as this hath from time to time possessed the best of the Sons of Men but David came off well when he said O Lord how great are thy works and thy thoughts are very deep Deep indeed so deep that no humane plummet can fathom such a bottom as that the Wicked should flourish and the Godly suffer tribulation yet by way of direction let us not suffer our selves to be seduced with the Felicity of the Wicked not to be taken with the flower of the grasse nor gaze so much upon them who are happy for a time and it may be eternally miserable The greatnesse of Motherly affection to an onely Sonne SAmuel was not in his Mothers keeping but in the custody of the high Priest much better sure then in his Mothers yet see how Motherly affection works For though he wanted neither meat nor cloaths yet lest too much wind should blow upon him she makes and brings him every year a little coat and she goes up every year to Shiloh to offer Sacrifice yea and withall to sacrifice a little to her eyes that is to see Samuel too For if the Sonne be but a little missing as out of sight Sisera's Mother looks and looks out at a Window and Why â—arry the wheels of his Chariot and why is his Chariot so long a coming If he be sick then the Shunamite sets him upon her knee But if the Son be dead and gone then a voyce is heard in Ramah Rachel weeping for her Children and will not be comforted So dear and tender is an onely Son in the sight of his Mother Men are said to abound in Reason but Women in Affection such as flaming out like Fire cannot be concealed out it must like Solomon's Mothers What my Son and what the Son of my Womb and what O Son of my desires As if she had said O thou my Son whom once I bare in my womb and whom I ever bear in my heart born of my
they might not be inferiour to the Iews They boasted themselves to be of the Progeny of Ioseph and worshippers of God also with them but when they perceived that the Iews were câ—nelly afflicted by Antiochus Epiphanes for the worshipping of God then fearing lest they should be also handled in like manner they changed their coat and their note too affirming that they were not Israelites but Sidonians and had built their Temple not unto God but Iupiter Thus it is that times of Trouble and danger easily distinguish the counterfeit and true Professour Trouble is a kind of Christian Touch-stone a Lapis Lydius that will try what Mettal men are made of whether they be gold or drosse whether they be reall or â—arnall Professours sincere Christians or rotten-hearted Hypocrites The hardnesse of a Rich mans Conversion IT is observed amongst Anglers that Pickerils are not easily nor often taken a Man may take an hundreth Pinks or Minums before he catch a Pikeril For he preyethâ—o â—o sore at his pleasure upon the lesser frye that he seldome or never hath any stomach to 〈◊〉 at the bait And so fareth it with the Rich Men of this World their stomachs are so cloyed and surfetted with the things of this life that when the doctrine of Salvation is preached they have no appetite unto it tell them of selling all that they have and giving it to the Poor then with the young Man in the Gospell they cry out durus est hic sermo this is a very hard saying Who can bear it and it is as hard for such to enter into the Kingdome of Heaven whilst the Poor run away with the Gospell A small plat of ground sufficient for the greatest landed Man at the time of Death SOcrates carried Alcibiades as he was bragging of his lands and great possessions to a Map of the whole World and bad him demonstrate where his land lay he could not by any means espy it for Athens it self was but a small thing to the World where his lands at that time were Thus many there are that bear themselves very high upon their lands and livings so much in one place so much in another such a Lordship in this shire and such a Mannour in that but Saint Basil tells them truly where their land lyes and what 〈◊〉 be said to be really theirs Nonne telluris tres tanâ—â— cubiti te expectant So much measure of ground to the length and breadth of their bodies as may serve to bury them in or so many handfulls of dust as their bodies go into after their consumption that is terra sua terra mea and terra vestra their land and my land and thy land and more then this no man can absolutely claim Riches very dangerous in the getting of them SUppose a Tree whose leaves and boughs were clog'd and hung with honey unto which an hungry Man coming falls a licking one bough and leaf after another untill he is carried so high from one to another through the greedinesse of his hunger that he slips and slides and cannot stay himself but down he comes and breaks a leg or an arm and it is well if he escape with his life So dangerous is it to climb up the Tree of Riches For most commonly Men lay hold so upon one hundreth after another one thousand after another per fas et nefas no matter how or which way they do it though they endanger themselves sore even to the loss of their pretious and immortal Souls to all Eternity A great blessing of God to be gently used in the matter of Conversion IN some Corporations the sons of Freemen bred under their Fathers in the same Profession may set up and exercise their Fathers Trade without ever being bound Apprentices thereunto And whereas others endure seven years hardship at the least before they can be free they run over that time easily and are encorporated by their Father's Copy Thus it is that they who never were notoriously prophane such whose Parents have been Citizens of the new Ierusalem and have been bred in the mystery of Godlinesse are oftentimes entred into Religion and become Children of Grace without any Spirit of bondage seizing upon them and though otherwhiles they taste of legal frights and fears yet God so preventeth them with his blessings of goodnesse that they smart not so deeply as other Men A great benefit and rare blessing to that Soul where God in his goodnesse is pleased to bestow it Perfection of Grace to be endeavoured AS the Waters spoken of in Ezekiel grew up by degrees first to the ancles then to the loynes and lastly to the head Or as that gradual Wheat our Saviour spoke of First there was the blade then came the stalk after that the full Corn but lastly came the Harvest Even so like that Water we must grow higher and higher till we come to our head Christ Iesus and like that Corn riper and riper untill the end of the World when God shall come to winnow us We must resolve endeavour contend and strive for Perfection as for a prize though there may be many hindrances as Worldly allurements the Devils temptations and our own sinful provocations ever adding one grace unto another till we are in some sort secundum hujus vitae modum according to the capacity of our humane Nature perfect Men in Christ Iesus Matth. 5. 48. The pain of a Wounded Conscience greatned by the Folly of the Patient SHeep are observed to flye without cause scared as some say with the sound of their own feet Their feet knack because they flye and they poor silly Creatures fly because their feet knack An Emblem of Gods children under the pains of a Wounded Conscience self-Fearing self-srighted For as it is that the pain of a wounded Conscience amongst other reasons thereof assigned as from the heavinesse of the hand that makes the Wound an Angry God from the sharpnesse of the sword wherewith the Wound is made the Word of God from the tendernesse of the part it self which is wounded the Conscience becomes intolerable so from the Folly of the Patients themselves who being stung have not the Wisdome to look up to the brazen Serpent but torment themselves with their own Activity Hear they but their own Voyce they think it to be that which hath so often sworn lyed talked vainly wantonly wickedly their own voyce being a terror to themselves See they their own eyes in a glasse they presently apprehend These are they which shot forth so many envious covetous amorous glances their own eyes being a terror to themselves and as it was threatned to Paâ—hur themselves become a terrour to themselves Ier. 20. 4. No true Content to be found in the things of this World THere is an old Apologue of a Bird-catcher who having taken a Nightingale the poor Bird
at the gate of his Pallace the Image of Bounty or Hospitality The needy Travailer with joy spying such a sight makes his approach thither in hopefull expectation of succour but still silence or an empty Eccho answers all his cries and knocks For Hospitality 〈◊〉 stand at the gate but to be sure there 's none in the house Then comes another who having his hungry trust often abused resolves to pluck down the Image with these words If there be neither meat nor drink in the house What needs there a sign Thus great portalls in the Country and colour'd posts in the City like so many Mock-beggars promise relief but they are often found but Images dumb and lame signs For Hospitality is not at home you shall have Divinity at their gates but no humanity wholesome counsel but no wholesome food much exhortation little compassion charging the weary Travellers ear but in no wise overcharging his belly they have Scripture against begging but no bread against famishing The bread of the Sanctuary is common with them but not the bread of the buttery If the poor can be nourished with the Philosophical supper of morall Sentences they shall be prodigally feasted but if the bread of life will not content them they may be packing Multiplicity of Law-Suits condemned IT is related to the honour of Sir Thomas Moor then Lord Chancellor of England and the charitable constitution of those Times wherein he lived as a thing never seen either since or before that he having ended a Cause then before him did call for the next to be brought but answer was returned him That there was never another Cause behind and so with thanks unto God the Court was dismist at that time whereupon in perpetuam rei memoriam it was ordered That the proceedings of that day should be registred in the Roles of the Chancery as may be seen at this instant What a charitable disposition What a peaceable frame of spirit was upon the hearts of Men in those darker times And what a raging Torrent of dissention is broke in upon us in dayes that are far more clear Every Man almost lives like a Salamander in the fire of Contention Witnesse the multiplicity of Law-Suits the swarms of Lawyers the sholes of Clerks and Registers that are to be found in the midst of us witnesse the crowds of Clyents dancing attendance upon the Courts of Iustice in the severall Judicaâ—ures at Westminster and elsewhere so that what the Apostle said to the Corinths Is there not a wise man amongst you why do ye go to Law may very well be inverted upon us We are all mad or else the Lawyers would have lesse employment The Sin of Sacriledg condemned AN Italian Seignior came with his Servant to one of our Ladies Images no matter which for they do not scant her of number he threw in an Angle of gold the humble picture in gratitude made a courtesie to him The Servant observing and wondring at her Ladiships plausible carriage purposed with himself to give somewhat too that he might have somewhat of her courtesie as well as his Master So he put into the basin six pence and withall takes out his Masters Angel the Image makes him loving courtesie and seems to thank him kindly Thus it is too too common now adayes to take away the Clergies Angel and lay down six pence in the stead thereof to take away their just maintenance and put â—hem upon the Peoples benevolence like those that steal a goose and stick down a feather or those that have undone many then build an Hospital for some few so they having made a sad purchase of Church-lands having taken away a Talent of Church-maintenance return a mite of popular Contribution Truth commended Falshood condemned PYrrbus and Ulysses being sent to Lemnos to take from Philoctetes Hercules arrowes the two Legates advised by what means they might best â—rest them out of his hands Ulysses affirmed that it was best to do it by lying and deceipt No said Pyrrhus I like not of that course because I never used it but alwayes loved the Truth at my Father and my Ancestors have ever done Whereunto Ulysses replyed That when he was a young Man he was of his mind too but now being old he had learnt by long experience dearly bought that the surest way and safest art in Mans life is Fallere et mentiri to lie and cheat Surely many of this Age are of Ulysses's mind they speak one thing intend another they are all courtesie in promise no honesty at all in performance but true Israelites are of Pyrrhus's spirit Magna est Veritas et praevalebit Great is the Truth and will prevail is the sweet Poesie of their profession both in themselves and those that relate unto them and they resolve upon the doctrine of Christ Iesus their Master that the Truth shall make them free Piety and Policy not inconsistent FAbles are not without their usefull Moralls A Boy was molested with a Dog the Fryer taught him to say a Gospel by heart and warranted this to allay the dogs Fury The Mastiff alias Maze-Thief in the original Saxon spying the boy flyes at him he begins as it were to conjure him with his Gospel The Dog not capable of such Gospel-doctrine approacheth more violently A Neighbour passing by bids the boy take up a stone he did so and throwing at the dog escaped The Fryer demands of the Lad how he sped with his charm Sir quoth he your Gospel was good but a stone with the Gospel did the deed And most true it is that prayers and tears are good weapons but not the onely weapons of the Church It is not enough to bend the knee without stirring the hand Shall Warr march against us with thunder and shall we assemble our selves in the Temple lye prostrate on the pavements lift up our hands and eyes to Heaven and not our weapons against our Enemies shall we beat the ayr with our voyces and not their bosoms with our swords onely knock our own breasts and not their pates Sure a Religious Conscience never taught a Man to neglect his life his liberty his estate his peace Piety and Policy are not opposites He that taught us to be harmlesse as Doves bad us also be wise as Serpents Progresse in Piety enjoyned THe Prophet Elias after he had travelled a dayes journey in the Wildernesse sate down and slept under a Juniper Tree and there God calls upon him Up and eat and when he found him a second time Up thou hast a journey to go and when he had travelled fourty dayes and was lodged in a cave What doest thou here Elias Go and return unto the Wildernesse by Damascus and do thus and thus So whether we be entred in our way or have proceeded in it whether we be babes in Christ or stronger men whether carnal or spiritual we must up and
the Church of Rome attribute the glory of Conversion and enlightning and restoring of limbs would if they were living rather say These Men had no eyes of Grace at all no lineaments of Piety then that any light was given them any health restored out of their dead dusts or painted resemblances The great danger of the least Sin A Dram of poyson diffuseth it self to all parts till it strangle the vital spirits and turn out the Soul from the body How great a matter a little fire kindleth Iam. 3. 5. It is all one whether a man be killed with the prick of a little thorn or with the hewing of a broad sword so he be killed We have seen a whole arm impostumated with the prick of a little finger A little Postern opened may betray the greatest City Thus a little Sin infects a great deal of Righteousnesse If Sathan can but wound our heel as the Poets feign of Achilles he will make shift to kill us there even from the heel to send Death to the heart If the Serpent can but wriggle in his tayl by an ill thought he will soon get iâ— his head by a worse action hence is it that Christ calls hatred murther a wanton eye adultery because that besides the possibility of the Act they are the same in the intention of heart let no tang of corruption come to the least part iâ— thou desirest to preserve the whole The Heart of Man the very seed-plot of all Sinne. THat which we call Gun-powder is made of the salt and fatter Earâ—h in the ground are the materialls which when Art hath concocted chym'd prepared charged and discharged it overturns Towns and Towers Forts and Cities So the Heart of Man is the Seminary of all mischief the seeds of all Sins are naturally in us not so much as Treason Murther Perjury but are in us quoad potentiam yea quoad naturam et propensionem there is in our Nature a proclivity to them Nay the Heart is so apt ground to produce and mature these innata mala inbred seeds to Actualls that without the preventing grace of God unlesse the reason of a Man and Religion of a Christian keep them under from eruption there 's no avoiding of them The vanity of Man in seeking after great things condemned VVHen Pyrrhus King of Epirus was solicited by the Tarentines and other People of Italy to be the head of their League against the Romans whilest he sate musing on these affairs Cineas his great Favourite came in upon him and desiring to be acquainted with his thoughts to which he was never made a stranger Pyrrhus gives him notice of the Embassee of the Tarentines and asketh his advice yet his purpose was to joyn with them against the Romans and doubted not but to prevail The Orator demands If he should have the battel What would he do then He answered That then Sicilia and Sardinia would be at his command The other consented but still asked What then should be done He then replyes that Africa could not hold out but might be easily conquered But Cineas still pursued him with his old question What he would do then He again answered That when all these Countries were subdued Graecia would soon come in But being again demanded What he proposed to do then He apprehending the Orators intention and smiling replyed Then Cineas we will rest and be merry The Orator answered That he might do so presently witâ—out any trouble to himself or others if he would but sit down and be contented with his own This Heathen by the light of Nature and Reason easily saw and excellently taught the miserable Folly of wicked Men who projecting beyâ—nd the Moon seeking great tâ—iâ—gs and vexing themselves and thousands of others by their wicked engagements at length with much fishing catch a Frog and attain no more then what they might have long enjoyed with lesse labour and trouble to themselves and others All Sin must be hated and why so THere is mention made by a good old Christian of a certain Dog whose Master being slain by one of his Enemies he lay by him all the night with great lamentation howling and barking In the morning many came to see the dead Corps amongst the rest he also came that slew his Master The Dog no sooner saw the Homicide but made at him and held him fast whereby the wickednesse of so close a Murther was discovered See here the Love the Faithfulnesse of a poor brutish Creature for a piece of bread that was so incensed against the Murtherer of his Master And shall poor sinfull Man make much of those Enemies those Sins that kill'd his Lord and Master Christ Iesus cherish those Sins that apprehended him that bound him that scourged him that violently drew him to the Crosse and there murthered him It was neither Pilate nor the Ieâ—s nor the Souldiers that could have done him the least hurt had not our Sins like so many butcheâ—s and hangmen come in to their assistance Let therefore our Fury be whetted against all Sin let that be the Object of our hatred be sure to be the death of that that hath been the death of so good a Master and will if not prevented be the death of thy poor Soul to all Eternity The sad condition of borrowing upon Usury LOok but a silly Sheep how it makes for succour and shelter under a thorny bush in the midst of stormy and tempestuous weather but still as she goeth away she leaveth part of her Fleece behind and the oftner she goeth the barer and nakeder she is so that at last she is able to abide neither bush nor storm Such a bush of thorns is every griping Usurer to the poor borrower he will leave him at length no Fleece on his back no house over his head no money in his purse no bed to rest upon no Flesh on his bones no credit with the World Christians to walk worthy the Name of Christ. IT is said of Alexander the Great that spying in his Army a lusty proper fellow yet when he came to tryall he proved a very Coward he asked him What was his name He answered Alexander Nay then said Alexander either deny thy name or by some valorous exploit or other redeem thy credit I will not have a Coward of my name Thus it may be said of many Christians such as by outward profession are so accompted If ye be Christians Why are ye drunk Why are ye covetous Why are ye proud envious malicious uncharitable Aut occultetur nomen aut mutentur mores either wave your names or change your manners in life and conversation Afflictions Gods Love-tokens A Gentleman hath a Hawk which he prizeth highly he feeds her with his own hand is very carefull in the pluming of her feathers sets her upon his Fist and taketh great delight in the sight of her but for all this he puts
he carries his eye over all the shafts in his quiver he pulls out and puts in one after another untill he have made choice of his Arrow then he proves it with his finger and judges by his ear whether it be fit to fly to the mark then he considers how the Wind siâ—s whether to help him or to hinder him When he hath put his Arrow into the bow and begun to draw if there come a gust of contradiction in his way he hath the discretion to bear with it till it have spent it self When the blast is over he sets his foot to the ground draws his Arrow up to the head and sticks it up to the Feathers Thus it is that Preaching is a kind of Artillery exercise that requireth strength and knowledg Ministers a kind of Aâ—chers and the Souls of Men are the fairest marks that can be shot at but it so cometh to passe that many for want of growth to draw the Bow of the Prophets and Apostles or want of skill to shoot or care to shoot when they have taken their aim many times miss the mark being either short or wide and so become despised Christ to be made our Example in bearing the Crosse. VVHen Alexander the great marched through Persia his way was stopped with Ice and Sâ—ow insomuch that his Souldiers being tyred out with hard marches were discouraged and would have gone no further Which he perceiving dismounted his horse and went on foot through the midst of them all making himself a way with a pickâ—xe VVhereat they all being ashamed First his Friends then the Captains of his Army and last of all the Common-Souldiers followed him So should all men follow Christ their Saviour by that rough and unpleasant way of the Cross that he hath gon before them He having drunk unto them in the cup of his Passion they are to pledg him when occasion is offered He having left them an Example of his suffering they are to follow him in the sâ—lf-â—ame steps of sorrow 1 Pet. 2. 21. The slavery of Sin IT is the observation of a learned facetious Italian That they which lead a servile life as bodily servants in Princes Courts and meniall in other houses who being occupied in other Mens businesse are ruled by the Will of another Mans beck and learn in another Mans countenance what they must do All that they have is another Mans another Mans threshold another Mans House another Mans sleep another Mans meat and which is worst of all another Mans mind They neither weep nor laugh at their own pleasure but they cast off their own and put on another Mans affections besides they do another Mans business think another Mans thoughts and live another Mans life Such and worse is the slavery of Sin and Sathan Never was there any Vassall endured greater villany and drudgery though never so hard and cruâ—ll then every impenitent Sinner doth under Sin and the Devill who hath them at such command that if he bid them but go they are ready to run he leads them as a Dog in a chain he ruleth over them like a Prince and worketh in their hearts as in a shop causing them to fulfill the will of the flesh Ephes. 2. 23. The great danger of not keeping close to Gods Word IT is a thing very well-known in the great and populous City of London that when Children or some of bigger growth newly come out of the Country and so not well-acquainted with the streets are either lost or found straying from their home there is a sort of leud wicked People commonly called Spirits that presently fasten upon them and by falshood and fair language draw them further out of their way then sell them to forreign plantations to the great grief of their Parents and Friends who in all likelihood never afterwards hear what is become of them Thus it is that when Men and Women are found stragling from God their Father the Church their Mother and refuse to be led by the good guidance of the blessed Spirit when they keep not to the Law and to the Testimony nor stick close to the Word of God which is in it self a lantern to their feet and a light unto their paths then no marvell if they meet with wicked Spirits seducers and false teachers that lead them captive at their will and that not receiving the Truth in the love of the Truth God give them over to strong delusions to believe alye 2 Thes. 2. 11. How it is that Men fail so much in the true service of God THe Sun-beams collected in a burning-glasse kindle a fire upon certain conditions viz. that the Object be combustible and apt to take fire that the glass be held still and steddy and that it be in a just distance neither too far off nor yet too neer but so as the beams may best unite their force Such a burning glass is Christ. Through him Gods Fatherly love shineth upon us he standeth as Mediatour betwixt God and us receiving the beams of his Father as his natural Son and transfusing them altogether upon us his adopted brethren Being then in so clear a Sun-shine and having so perfect a burning glass How comes it to passe that so many of us continue so cold so key-cold so much failing in the true service of God Surely there is some defect in the conditions some hold the glasse too far off and think of the Mercies of God in Christ but slightly and confusedly some hold it too near and being all upon Mercy Mercy make remission of sins a plaister for presumption in sinning Some hold it not still by steddy and fixed Meditations but superficially glance upon it by spurts and flashes And some others are not of such combustible matter not so fit to be fixed with the fear of his Mercies as to be feared with the fire of his Iudgments Dissention the Forerunner of Confusion IT is observed that when Sheep fall a butting one against another a storm follows not long after And they say of Bees that when they stir and strive amongst themselves it is a sign that their King is about to remove and leave the hive Surely then prodigious must needs be all intestine Enmity when the sheep of Christ are so malignant one against another it is a fearfull presage of an ensuing ruine when there are such stirs and schisms in the Church such tumults and hurliburlies in the State it may be justly feared that God is about to remove from us Hypocrisy discovering it self in the end COunterfeit Diamonds may sparkle and glister and make a great shew for some time but their lustre will not last long And experience shews that an Apple if it be rotten at the coar though it have a fair and shining out side yet rottennesse will not stay long but will taint the outside also It is the nature of things unsound that
them if he stay a Fortnight or a Moneth he may pull up another but it will be somewhat harder If he stay a year or two till it have taken deep root then he may pull and pull his heart out his labour is all in vain he shall never be able to move it And thus it is that one Sin one offence if we labour to pull it up in time it may be forgiven it may be taken away And if we let that one go on to two or three yet with unfeigned Repentance with bleeding tears with uncessant out-cryes to a gracious God they may be raced out and wiped away but with greater difficulty but if a Man give up himself unto Sin accustome himself to do evill so that it take deep root in the heart and be settled in the Soul he shall never be able to pull it up nor arise from the death of Sin which hath so fast seized on him Sectarian subtilty Diabolical delusion AS common Drunkards when they get in a temperate Man upon their Ale-house-bench entice him tempt him tole him on first to taste then to pledg them then when he is well whitled and come on cup after cup this health and that health till he be fully fudled and his brains intoxicated Thus the subtile Sectarians are modest at the first and very Maiden-like they will not force upon their Proselytes a full carouse of their Circean cups but by degrees by little and little they wind into their hearts and privily bring in damnable heresies They do not violently rush but slily creep into houses and there they begin at the apronstrings with illiterate Mechanicks silly women such as are led more by aâ—â—ection then Iudgment then they let fall an apple to see if Atalanta will take it up some general received Truth but withall secretly foyst in some â—rronious opinion or poysonous principle scatter some sparks of their mild-sire to see whether they will heat or enflame And having their methods and wayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rules to go by they grammer and ground their deluded Followers 〈…〉 admission in general and Fundamental principles of their black art but let them not see at what they drive acquaint them not at the first dash the mystery of Iniquity the depths of Sathan Rev. 2. 24. Men not to be proud of their Lands and Livings WHen Socrates saw Alcibiades proud of his spatious Fields and wide Inheritance he calls for a Map of the World looks for Greece and finding it asks Alcibiades Whereabout his Lands lay When he answered They were not set forth in the Map Why saith Socrates are thou proud of that which is no part of the Earth And to speak truth Why should any Man bear himself high upon the greatnesse of his Revenue the largenesse of his demesnes For if the dominion of a King be but a poor spot of Earth What a nothing must the possession of a Subject be some small parcell of a Shire not worthy the name of a Chorographer And had he with Lycinius as much as a Kite could fly over yea if all the whole Globe were his six or seven foot would be enough to serve his turn in the Conclusion Repentance to be Universall IF a Ship spring three leaks and onely two be stopped the third will sink the Ship And if a Man have two grievous wounds in his body and take order to cure onely one that which is neglected will kill him Even so if we having divers lusts which fight against our Souls do mortifie but some of them 't is to no purpose If the guilt of many Sins lye upon us as in many things we sin all and we repent but of some of them it will not avail us any thing Hence is that Counsel of Solomon Let all thy wayes be ordered He that will make a true search must search all his wayes and try all his thoughts words and deeds repent of all Sin For he that favours himself in any one Sin be it never so small that Man hates no Sin perfectly what shew soever he makes to the contrary Wicked Men see the miseries but not the Joyes of Gods People AS a Man standing upon the Sea-shore sees a great heap of waters one wave riding on the back of another and hears too especially if it be in stormy weather the lowd roarings thereof but all this while though he see the waters he doth not see the wealth the gold and silver the infinite Riches that lye buried in the bottom thereof So it is that Wicked Men see the want but not the wealth of Gods People their conflicts but not their comforts they easily take notice of the miseries and troubles that usually attends upon the bodies of the Children of God but they cannot possibly discover the joyes and rejoycings of the Spirit that are in their Souls neither indeed can they For they are spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2. 14. Magistrates and great Men not to raise themselves by the ruine of the Church IT is reported of Sabbacus a King of Ethiopia who being by dreams admonished that he could not possesse himself of the Kingdom of Egypt otherwayes then by Sacriledge and the slaying of the Priests He chose rather to lay aside his claym and advantages of Warr which he had gotten and to refer the Government of that Kingdom to twelve wife Men who erected to that Prince's piety one of the stateliest Pyramides of Egypt which yet remains How much more will it become Christians in any way of power and Magistracy not to make their way upon the spoyles nor lay the Foundations or to carry on the Fabrick of their greatnesse and dominion upon the carcasses and ruines of any much lesse of the Church and Church-men such as are able true and faithful Ministers of the true God and the Lord Iesus Christ. How it is that the sweet fruits of Grace come to grow on the bitter root of Nature IT is a question put by Plutarch How it comes to passe that the Fig-Tree being of that extream bitternesse the root the branches the leaves the stock and stem being all of them so bitter the fruit should be so sweet and pleasant to the taste The like may be proposed How it is that the sweet fruits of the Spirit should ever grow upon the bitter stock of Nature how Man by Nature being in the very gall of bitternesse should ever become a sweet smelling favour in the nostrils of his God Surely no otherwise but that by Faith an Repentance being ingrafted into the stock Christ Iesus he sucks in juicy sweetnesse from thence and so is made a Tree of Righteousnesse in Gods Garden How it is that Afflictions lye oft-times so heavy IT is said of Hagar That when her bottle of Water was spent she sate down and fell a weeping as if she had been utterly undone her provision and
can the Timber that lyes in the Carpenters Yard hew and frame it self into a Ship If the living Tree cannot grow except the root communicates its sap much lesse can a dead rotten stake in the hedg which hath no root live of its own accord And thus if the Christian's strength be in the Lord as most certainly it is and not in himself then the Christlesse person must needs be a poor impotent Creature void of all strength and ability of doing any thing of it self towards its own salvation If a Christian that hath a spiritual life of Grace cannot exercise that life without strength from above then surely one void of that new life dead in Sins and trespasses can never be able to beget it in himself or any way concur to the production of it so helplesse is the state of unregeneracy so impotent the condition of every Man by Nature The state of Nature for all its specious out-side a state of Friendship with Hell AS it is with the fighting of two Fencers on the Stage you would think at first they were in earnest but observing how wary they are where they hit one another you may soon know they do not intend to kill one another And that which puts all out of doubt when the prize is done you shall see them merry together sharing what they have got from their deluded Spectators which was all they fought for Thus you shall have a carnal heart a Man in the state of unregeneracy make a great bussle against Sin by complaining of it or praying against it so that there seems to be a great scuffle betwixt Sathan and such a Soul but if you follow him off the Stage of duty where he hath gain'd the reputation of a Saint the prize he fought for you shall see the Devil and him sit as Friendly in a corner as ever The Sinner's desperate madnesse TErtullian stood as it were amazed at the folly of the Romans ambition who would endure all manner of hardship in Field and fight and run through any difficulty whatsoever and for no other thing but to obtain at last the honour to be Consull which he aptly calls Unius anni gaudium volaticum a joy that flits away at the years end Desperate then must needs be the madnesse of all wretched sinfull Men who will not endure a little hardship here but entayl on themselves the eternal wrath of God hereafter for the short Feast and running-banquet their lusts entertain them here withall which often is not gaudium unius horae a joy that lasts an hour nay so transient that it hardly feems to be at all The difference betwixt Sermons preached and Sermons printed THere is as much difference between a Sermon in a Pulpit and printed in a book as between milk in the warm breast and in a sucking bottle yet what it loseth in the lively taste is recompenced by the convenience of it The book may be had at hand when the Preacher cannot And that 's the chief end of Printing that as the bottle and spoon is used when the Mother is sick or out of the way so the book to quiet the Christian and stay his stomach in the absence of the Ordinance yet he that readeth Sermons and good books at home to save his pains of going to hear is a Thief to his Soul in a Religious habit he consults for his ease but not for his profit he eats cold meat when he may have hot He hazards the losing the benefit of both by contemning of one offering sacriledg for Sacrifice in robbing God of one duty to pay him in another The bare enjoyment of Church-priviledges doth not make up a true Christian. VVHen a Statute was made in Q. Elizabeths reign that all should come to Church upon penalty of being looked upon as in a way of Recusancy and so punishable by Law The Papists sent to Rome to know the Popes pleasure He returned them this answer Bid the Catholiques in England give me their Hearis and let the Queen take the rest And withall a dispensation was granted so that very many came to Church but it was more for fear then love more for the saving of their purses then any thought at all of saving their poor deluded Souls And thus it is that as Christ had his Saints in Nero's Court so the Devill his servants in the outward Court of his visible Church so that a Man must have something more to entitle him to Heaven then living within the pale of the Church and giving an outward conformity to the Ordinances of Christ There must be an inward conformity of the mind to the laws of God a subjection to the Scepter of Iesus Christ and a readinesse to be led by the guidance of the blessed Spirit otherwise he may be of the Church but not in the Church a Partaker of Church priviledges but no true Proprietor of the Graces and benefits thereby accrewing Acknowledgment of Mercies received the ready way to have them further enlarged IT is and usually hath been the manner of great Men such as from basenesse and beggery have ascended to Kingdomes and Empires and from sitting with the hirelings and dogs of the flock have been seated on Thrones of State and Tribunals of Justice to be delighted to speak often of their poor and mean beginnings to go and see the low roof'd Cottages where they were first entertained and had their birth and breeding yea there was one of late years that being got by desert into the Divinity chair did without superstition hang up in his Closet some part of that mean apparell wherein he first saluted his Oxford Mother A good way no doubt and being done with a good mind the ready way to have Mercies and blessings enlarged It would not be unusefull therefore for the Christian to look in at the grate to see the smoaky hole where once he lay to view the chains wherewith he was laden and to behold the snares of Sin and Sathan wherein he was once entangled but then to open his mouth with thanks unto God who will be sure to fill it with his tender and loving kindnesses The excellency of Christ Jesus IT is observeable that when some great King or Potentate draweth near unto his Royall City the Dukes Marquesses Earls Lords and others of the Nobility and Gentry ride before him Now if a stranger standing by should ask Who is this Man and who is that What power hath that Man at Court What place hath this What means hath a third It would be answered This is my Lord Duke that such an Earl the other such a great Lord such a one is the Lord Treasurer that the Lord Admirall and that other the Lord Chancellour c. but when the King comes he saith no more but onely That 's the King And why so And why no more but so because in
fair impression once so visibly seen may not at present appear yet all this marrs not the evidence nor ought to weaken the assurance of Heaven for there it shall go currant and hold out in the matter of right as a greater fairer and fuller because it was once as good as any and once loved ever loved to the end Christ a sure pay-master IT is reported of a certain godly Man that living near to a Philosopher did often perswade him to become a Christian Oh but said the Philosopher If I turn Christian I must or may lose all for Christ To whom and to which the good Man replyed If you lose any thing for Christ he will be sure to repay it an hundred fold I but said the Philosopher Will you be bound for Christ that if he do not pay me you will Yes that I will said the other So the Philosopher became a Christian and the good Man entred into bond for performance of Covenants Some time after it so fell out that the Philosopher fell sick on his death-bed and holding the bond in his hand sent for the party engaged to whom he gave up the bond and said Christ hath paid all there 's nothing for you to pay take your bond and cancel it Thus it is that Christ is a sure willing able Pay-master whatsoever any Man ever did for him hath been fully recompensed and put the case so far that a Man should be a loser for Christ yet he shall be no loser by Christ he will make amends for all in the conclusion The Soulâ—s neglect condemned THere is a story of a Woman who when her house was on fire so minded the saving of her goods that she forgot her onely child and left it burning in the fire at last being minded of it she cryes out Oh my child Oh my poor child So it is that the most of Men here in this World scrabble for a little pelf and in the mean time let their Souls be consumed with cares and then at the time of their death cry out Oh my Soul Oh my poor Soul so mad are they so bewitched with the things of this life that while they pamper their bodies they starve their Souls great care is taken to neatiâ—ie the one when the other goes bare enough not having one rag of Righteousnesse to cover it so that many times under a silken and Sattin Suit there 's a very coorse Soul in a clean house a sluttish Soul under a beautifull face a deformed Soul but all such will one day find that he that winneth the world with the losse of his Soul hath but a hard bargain of it in the conclusion How our love to the Creature is to be regulated RIvers that come out of the Sea as they passe along do lightly touch the Earth but they stay not there but go on forward till at last they return again into that Sea from whence they first came Thus it is that our love must first come from God to the Creature yet being so come it must not rest and settle there however like a River it may in passage touch it no it must return back again into that infinite Sea even God himself whence it first came All Creatures therefore are to be loved in God and for God onely so that the love of the Creature must be so far from taking any thing from the love of God that rather it must confirm and encrease the same And then is the love of the Creature truly regulated when it is referred to the Creator when it may be said We love not so much the Creature as the Creator in the Creature How to demean our selves after we are sealed by the Spirit LOok but upon a poor Countryman how solicitous he is if it be but a bond of no great value to keep the Seal fair and whole But if it be of an higher nature as a Patent under the broad Seal or the like then to have his box his leaves and wooll and all care is used that it take not the least hurt And shall we then make slight reckoning of the Holy Ghost's seal vouchsasing it not that care do not so much for it as he for his bond of five Nobles the matter being of such high concernment Let us then being well and orderly sealed by the Spirit be careful to keep the signature from defacing or bruising not to suffer the evill Spirit to set his mark put his print with his image and superscription upon it then not to carry the seal so loosely as if we cared not what became of it And whereas we are signati to be close and fast not to suffer every trifling occasion to break us up not to have our Souls to lye so open as all manner of thoughts may passe and repasse through them without the least reluctation Rulers Magistrates c. to stand up for the cause of the Poor and needy IT is an Honourable memorial that Iames the fifth K. of Scots hath left behind him that he was called The poor Man's King And it is said of Radolphus Habspursius that seeing some of his Guard repulsing divers poor persons that made towards him for relief was very much displeased and charged them to suffer the Poorest to have accesse unto him saying That he was called to the Empire not to be shut up in a chest as reserved for some few but to be where all might have freedom of resort unto him And thus as great Persons are in Scripture expressed by the Sun which affordeth his influence so well to the lowest shrub as to the tallest Cedar shines as comfortably upon the meanest Cottage as the stateliest Pallace that amongst other good things done by them they may be renowned to Posterity for being the Poor man's Advocate eyes to the blind feet to the lame alwayes ready to right and relieve those that have no other means to right and relieve themselves but by flying to them for shelter The Vanity of all Worldly greatnesse AS it is in a Lottery the Place with the great basin and ewer make a glistering shew and are exposed to the publique view of all and if a Man by chance light on a prize it is usually no great matter onely it is drummed out and trumpetted abroad to tell the World and this is the glory of it Even so if some of those many that venture hard for Honours and struggle for greatnesse do speed it is no such great matter onely the businesse is trumpetted out told abroad and the World hath some apprehension of it but the wisest of Mortals found this also amongst other things to be vanity a supposed excellence which hath no true being accompanied with cares and cumber the object as well of Envy as esteem the happinesse of all such greatnesse consisting in this that it is thought happy rather then that it is so indeed The
that while upon the Tree Whereupon they both agreed to unite their strength and joyn their forces together the whole-blind Man took the well-sighted-lame Man upon his shoulder and so they reached the Apples and conveyed their Masters fruit away but being impeached for their fault and examined by their Master each one framed his own excuse The blind Man said he could not so much as see the Tree whereon they grew and therefore it was plain he could have none of them And the lame Man said He could not be suspected because he had no limbs to climb or to stand to reach them but the wise Master perceiving the subtle craft of the two false servants put them as they were one upon the others shoulders and so punished them both together Thus it is that Sin is neither of the body without the Soul nor of the Soul without the Body but it is a common act both of Body and soul they are like Simeon and Levi brothers and partners in every mischief like Hippocrates twins they have idem velle et idem nolle they do commonly will and nill the same thing and therefore God in his just Judgment will punish both body and Soul together if they be not repaired and redeemed by Christ. How Christ by his death overcame death IT is said of the Leopard that he useth a kind of policy in killing such Apes as do molest him First he lyeth down as dead and suffereth the Apes to mock him trample upon him and insult over him as much as they will but when he perceiveth them to be weary with leaping and skipping upon him he revives himself on a suddain and with his claws and teeth tears them all in pieces Even so our Saviour Christ suffered the Devill and death and all the wicked Iews like so many Apes to mock him to tread upon him and trample him under foot to crucifie him to bury him to seal up his grave and set a guard of Souldiers to watch him that he should not rise any more and did indeed what they list with him but when he saw they had done their worst and that they could do no more Then he awaked as a Giant out of sleep and smoâ—e all his Enemies on the cheek-bone spoyl'd Principalities and powers led Captivity captive and brought them unto shame and confusion of face for ever Confession of Sins irk some to the Devill THere is a story how that on a time a Sinner being at Confession the Devill intruded himself and appeared unto him And being demanded by the Priest Wherefore he came in made answer That he came to make Restitution being asked What he would restore He said Shame For it is shame that I have stollen from this Sinner to make him shamelesse in sining and now I am come to restore it to him to make him ashamed to confesse his sins And thus it is that he deals with the most of Men he makes them shamelesse to commit sin even with Absolon in the sight of all Israel and in the sight of the Sun but he makes them ashamed to confesse any sin he perswades them to commit sin and he also perswades them to conceal sin he cannot endure by any means that they should confesse their sins And why but because God is merciful and just to forgive them To depend upon Gods All-sufficiency in time of trouble ABraham considering that God ws El Shaddai a God of All-sufficiency did assure himself that although Sarah's womb was dead yet God was not dead but was as able to raise him a living son out of her dead womb as he is to raise out dead bodies out of the senselesse Earth So Moses when he had six hundred thousand People and upward to provide for in a sandy desart which yielded them neither bread nor water considering the power of God did believe that he could bring drink out of the Rock as out of a River and meat out of the clouds as out of a Cubbard So Ionathan when he went against the Philistins that were thousands had this resolution for his encouragement That God could deliver with few as well as with many And so Asa went as far as he when he had a huge Army of Ethiopians consisting of thousand thousands besides three hundred Chariots the greatest Army that ever was read of come against him he cryed unto the Lord his God and said Lord it is nothing with thee to help whether with many or with them that have no power c. And so it is that every Man should depend upon his God who can help with few Friends or no Friends with small means or no means as well as if he had all the means or all the Friends in the World And therefore let no Man be dismay'd in the time of Affliction nor faint in the hour of temptation but if his troubles be great let him remember that God is greater If his Enemies be mighty let him know that God is mightier then they his hand is of Iron and his feet of burning brasse not onely to tread upon but trample under foot the Enemies of his Church and People Simplicity of Men to be more affected with the losse of things temporal then spiritual IT is said of Honorium a Roman Emperour that when one told him Rome was lost he was exceedingly grieved and cryed out Alas Alas for he supposed it was his Hen so called which he exceedingly loved but when it was told him it was his Imperial City of Rome that was besieged by Alaricus and was taken and all the Citizens rifled and made a prey to the rude enraged Souldier then his Spirits were revived that his losâ—e was not so great as he imagined Now can it be otherwise thought but that this disposition of Honorius was most simple and childish yet the most of Men are under the same condemnation as being too too much affected with the losse of a poor silly Hen with the deprivation of things temporall nothing at all minding the want of those which are spiritual If they lose a little wealth the least punctilio of Honour a little pleasure a little vanity things of themselves good for nothing because of themselves they can make nothing good and then as the Proverb goeth That is too dear of a farthing that is good for nothing yet for these things they will vex and fret weep and wail and their mourning shall be like that of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddo but when they lose their pretious Souls in the desarts of Sin and God for Sin when they are rifled and strip'd naked of Grace not having the least rag of Christ's Righteousnesse to cover them then with the Israelites they sit down to eat and drink and rise up to play so foolish are they and ignorant even as the beast which perisheth Psalm 49. 20. The sufferings of Christ as so
torment the Wicked 73. Afflictions if any thing will make us seek God 455. A good Man is bettered by his Afflictions 74. 174. 445. A true Christain the more he is Afflicted the better he thriveth 79. Afflictions and crosses not to be sleighted 84. Afflictions crosses c. a surer way to Heaven then pleasures 85. How it is that afflictions lye oft-times so heavy 632. Afflictions to be looked on as coming from God onely 93. Afflictions lead to Heaven 97. 452. Afflictions add unto the beauty of a Christian 105. God by afflictions drives us to Heaven 114. The thoughts of Gods omnipresence a great comfort in affliction 118. Afflictions follow the godly Man close in this World 159. Gods tryall of his children by afflictions 202. 215. God afflicts his Children for their good 227. Afflictions happen both to good and bad but to severall ends 241. God onely to be eyed in the midst of afflictions 286. Not to be daunted at afflictions 296. Not to rejoyce at the afflictions of others 308. God afflicting his Children for the improvement of their graces 325. Not to be troubled at afflictions because God intends good by them 356. God afflicting his Children to try their sincerity 403. Gods children afflicted to make them perfect 406. Men to be prepared for Afflictions crosses c. 408. When lighter Afflictions will not serve God will send heavier 410. Afflictions the comfortable use that is to be made of them 441. Christ the best shelter in time of Affliction 530. Afflictions Gods Love-tokens 599. Not to wait Gods good time in Afflicting us dangerous 609. Not to be altogether taken up with the sense of Afflictions 633. Afflictiâ—ns though grievous yet profitable 660. Not to murmur under Afflictions and why so 662. Comfort nearest when Afflictions are at highest 669. How it is that Age becomes truly honorable 331. The dissolution of all ages past to be a Memento for Posterity 100. Get but God and get all 47. All things come from God who is therefore to be praised 181. All sin to be repented of and why so 315. Almsâ— giâ—en to the poor are the givers gaâ— 31. Alms-giving how to be regulated 402. Ambition proves its own ruine 41. The poysonous nature of Ambition 82. The great heat of Ambition 622. Anabaptistical spirits their madnesse 416. Angels ministring unto Gods people for their good 322. God is not to be provoked to Anger 16. Not â—o answâ—r one angry word with another 305. Not to be angry with our brother 485. Not to take notice of every angry word that is spoken 547. Not to contiâ—ue angry 72. 165. 196. How God is said to be angry with his children 86. Antinomians compared to Thieves 46. Their madnesse 576. The great danger of Apostacy 619. Wantonnesse in Apparrel â—eproved 167. Excesse of Apparrel condemned 192. 642. Christian Apparrelling 280. Men and Women not to wear each others Apparrel 292. The vanity of gay Apparrel 446. The great â—olly of costly Apparrel 594. Apparrel whether richer or plainer the necessity thereof 646. No Appeal from Gods tribunal 141. The poor distressed Man's comfort by his appeal unto God 198. Gods comfortable appearance to his people at the time of their death 554. The whole Armour of God to be put on 115. The best Christian is the best Artist 137. Not the Assurance but the joy of Salvation gives content 81. Assured Christians must be patient Christians 351. God so ordering it that few or none of his people live and dye without assurance of their salvation 352. Assurance of Gods love the onely comfort 370. Atheism advanced by the distractions of the Church 152. Atheism condemned 243. Atheism punished 242. Aâ—heism will unman any Man 303. Atheisticall wicked men at the hour of death forced to confesse Gods Judgments 476. The great danger of relying upon forraign ayd and assistance 580. B. BAptismal water the power and virtue thereof 186. Bapâ—ism renounced by the lewdnesse of life and conversation 321. Children of persons excommunicate to be baptized 470. How it is that Godfathers and Godmothers undertake for children in Baptism 495. Infant-baptism asserted 557. To be careful of our Vow made in Baptism 605 Better live amongst beasts then beastly-minded Men 161. God to be consulted at all times but more especially in the beginning of all publique concernments 1. The paucity of true Believers 398. Bitter spirits are no gracious spirits 21. Blamelesnesse of life enjoyned 113. The sins of Blasphemy and swearing the commonnesse of them 122. Blasphemous language condemned 230. A good Neighbour is a great blessing c. 6. Governors as they are qualified are a curse or a Blessing to a People 9. A little with Gods blessing goes far 11. Blessings turned into curses 63. The blessing of God more to be eyed then our own endeavours 70. The Ministers blessing after Sermon to be attended 71. Gods blessing upon the means doth all 92. 581. Outward blessings do not alwayes make a blessed Man 107. A blessed thing to have God for our Lord 136. God hath a peculiar blessing for his children 169. Gods spiritual blessing upon a Mans employment in his calling 200. To rely upon the blessing of God notwithstanding all opposition 611. The blessing of God attending on people listning to their own Minister 638. To blesse God for all 453. The Devils aym to strike every Man with spiritual blindnesse 12. The Sinners wilfull blindnesse condemned 281. Spiritual and corporal blindnesse their difference 414. The naturall Man's blindnesse in spirituall things 485. The guilt of innocent Bloud crying to Heaven for vengeance 19. Bloudy-minded Men condemned 130. A Caveat for bloudy-minded Men 611. The greatest boasters the smallest doers 434. More care for the Body then the Soul condemned 11. 552. The Sinner's care is more for the Body then the Soul 171. Deformity of body not to be contemned 193. Young Schollers to mind their books 40. Scandalous and seditious books and pamphlets fit for the fire 295. Books of Piety and Religion testimonial at the great day of Judgment 476. The several books of God sleighted and neglected by the most of Men 656. The bountiful goodnesse of God to his children 606. The exceeding bounty of God 119. The borrowers duty and comfort 612. The sin of Bribery condemned 332. 373. The word Brother how far extended 172. Not to be over-carefull for the place of our buriall 592. Busie-bodies condemned 136. 147. A busie-body described 285. C. THe great danger of taking up a false perswasion of our effectual Calling 353. The certainty not the time of our spirituall Calling to be so much looked into 260. 612. The necessity of Catechising 119. Weak ones how to be catechised and instructed 133. Catechising an excellent way to instruct Youth 422. Distrustâ—ull cares reproved 125. Censurers condemned 20. Not to censure others but look to our selves 46. Censures not to be regarded 69. The Worlds hard censure of the godly Man 128. How it is that one Man censureth another 225. To
223. Change of Government not to be affected 234. The sad condition of people under Tyrannicall Government 310. A good wish to good Government 431. The great weight of Government 452. The heavy weight of Government ill attained 652. Governours as they are qualified are a curse or a blessing to the People 9. Rulers and Governours support the Common-wealth 29. Princes Governours c. to be prudentially qualified 110. Every peaceable frame of spirit and confident perswasion of Gods love is not a sure testimony that such an one is in the state of grace 324. Grace in the heart is certain though the feeling thereof be uncertain And how so 352. It is Grace not place that keeps a Man from sinning 324. Grace in the heart cannot be smothered 20. A totall deprivation of Grace in the heart deplorable 23. The doctrine of free Grace abused by licentious Libertines 37. Grace not greatnesse maketh Magistrates glorious 43. Grace of God above all Riches 54. The losse of Grace made up again in Christ onely 72. Saving Grace and seeming Grace much resemble one another 30. True Grace is diffusive 30. True Grace is accompanied with humility 88. Graces lost in the Soul to be made up onely in Christ 112. Different measures of Grace in different persons 139. Grace sometimes seemingly lost to a Child of God 145. 245. Weak beginnings of Grace not to be despised 149. A sense of the want of Grace a true sign of grace 156. 177. Grace in the heart may be a long time concealed 179. Grace of God the onely armour of proof 184. Graces to be stocked up against a day of trouble 254. God accepts the meanest of Graces 285. Graces of Gods Spirit not given in vain 311. Minding of good things a notable way to encrease Grace 511. Why it is that they which have the strongest graces are subject to the strongest corruptions 374. Grace and goodnesse to be highly esteemed even in Men of the lowest condition 374. God exercising the Graces of his Children 404. Small buddings of Grace in the Soul an argument of greater growth 538. Grace to be communicated 557. Perfection of Grace to be endeavoured 563. Graces of the Spirit to be made the Souls furniture 574. Though seemingly lost yet found at last 607. Man by refusing the tenders of Grace becomes the cause of his own destruction 628. How it is that the sweet fruits of Grace come to grow on the bitter root of Nature 632. Graces divine not parts humane hold out in the end 635. How it is that Graces of the Spirit may at present seem to be lost 635. 665. Means in the attainment of Grace and the use thereof enjoyned by God 636. The Grace of God is all in all 647. The way to greatnesse is full of danger 10. Condiscension is the great Mans glory 90. Conversion of great ones to be endeavoured 185. Greatnesse and goodnesse well met together 191. The vanity of Man in seeking after great things 598. Great Men and others not to raise themselves by the ruines of the Church 632. Growth of sin to be prevented 10. The not growing in grace reproved 347. The Christian's spirituall growth when seemingly dead aed declining 397. The Hypocrite and true Christian their difference in growth of Grace 505. The Christian's growth in Grace enjoyned 581. H. HAppinesse and blessednesse the onely things desireable 304. No way to Happinesse but by Holinesse 395. Happiness of him that hath the Lord to be his God 422. Others Mens harms to be our arms 39. 67. 338. Miseries attendant on the haters of Gods people 361. Not to be carelesse Hearers of Gods Word 21. 572. Sathan's endeavour to hinder the hearing of Gods Word 34. Curiosity in the hearing of Gods Word condemned 41. 135. Unprofitable Hearers of the Word described 74. Ministers to distinguish their Hearers 103. Hearers and not doers of the Word condemned 165. Hearing or listning after Vanity reproved 173. Hearing the Word and not meditating thereon dangerous 187. Partial Hearers of Gods Word reproveable 241. How to behave our selves in the hearing of Gods Word 249. Negligent hearing of Gods Word condemned 272. 585. Needfull requisites to make a profitable hearer of Gods Word 299. Men to hear the Word of God though they come with prejudicate thoughts 413. Partiality of affection in hearing Sermons condemned 420. Attention in hearing of Gods Word commanded and commended 469. Blessednesse of the poor in spirit in the matter of hearing Gods Word 484. To be diligent hearers of the Word of God and remember what we hear 487. Good and bad hearers of the Word their difference 506. Wanton hearers of the Word reproved 619. The great benefit of hearing and practising Gods Word 636. How to know Whether a Man belong to Heaven 4. A great folly not to provide for Heaven 8. The things of this World a great stop in the way to Heaven 11. A poor child of God comforted with the hopes of Heaven 13. The true Christian's hopes of Heaven 28. The Saints knowledg of one another in Heaven 68. Heaven the best Inheritance 80. How to know Gods dwelling place Heaven 100. A child of God is restlesse till he come to Heaven 101. At the time of death to be mindfull of Heaven 103. Hopes of Heaven the good Mans encouragement 104. A good Christian to be Heavenly-minded 136. The reward of Heaven will make amends for all 136. Heaven worth contending for 155. The Kingdom of Heaven an everlasting Kingdome 175. The great state of Heaven 196. How to get into Heaven 196. The Heavenly coâ—queror the happy conquerour 197. Not to admit of impediments in our way to Heaven 222. But one sure way to Heaven 222. Consultation with Flesh and bloud in the wayes of Heaven is very dangerous 237. Heaven the inheritance of Gods children 242. The World to be contemned in regard of Heaven 296. Men desirous to be in Heaven but will not take the pains to come rhither 300. The way to Heaven through tribulation 302. The joyes of Heaven not to be expressed 312. A true child of God half in Heaven whilest he is on Earth 317. Heaven the poor Saints comfortable Inheritance 347. Whilest we are here in this World to provide for Heaven 347. Heavenly happinesse not to be expressed 396. Heaven not to be found upon Earth 455. To be waited for with patience 460. Men upon hearing of the joyes of Heaven to be much taken there with 465 466. Every Man to make himself sure of Heaven c. 575. Heaven to be alwayes in our thoughts 585. Heaven a place of holinesse 610. The signs of Heaven as Sun Moon with their Eclipses c. as we are not to be dismaid at them so not to be contemners of them 655. No pains to be thought too much for the getting of Heaven 668. Why it is that God affords some glimpse of Heaven in this life 669. An Heavenly-minded Man looks through all Afflictions 458. Heavenly-mindednesse of a child of God 459.
377. Riches the grâ—at danger of them if not well used 401. The great danger that attends them 497. Very dangerous in getting of them 583. Riches honours c. the different use that is made of them 570. The uncerâ—ain comfort of Riches 601. Riches their uselesnesse in point of calamity 646. The dangerous use of Riches 651. Riches of Christ inexhaustible 652. A Rich Man had rather part with God then his gold 39. A Rich Fâ—ol described 71. A vain Rich Man 125. A Rich Man is Gods Steward 129. Rich poor Men 165. The unprofitable Rich Man 242. Rich Men to consider their beginnings and be thankfull 334. The wicked Rich Man's sad condition at the time of death 376. Rich Men to be mindful of what they have received 456. How to be made truly rich and truly Honorable 463. An uncharitable Rich man no Heavenly-minded 482. Better to be honestly then hastily rich 496. A Rich Man pleading poverty condemned 531. Riot and excesse condemned 291. Rulers and Governors are the supporters of a Common-wealth 29. Rulers actions exemplary 32. Rulers sins hasten the ruine of a State 38. A good Prince or Ruler no advantage to a bad People 106. Rulers and Men in Authority subject to many failings in Government 405. Rulers Magistraâ—es c. to be men of publique spirits 651. S. SEven Sacraments of the Papists not of divine Institution 27. A special Sacrament-duty to blesse God for Christs death 76. Sacramental Bread and Wine how better then ordinary 104. How to receive benefit from the Word and Sacraments 149. How to benâ—â—â—t by the Sacraments 152. Worldly thoughts to be set aside before the Sacrament 171. Sacramental Bread and Wine how differenced from others 267. The great danger of Sacriledge 51. 438. Sacriledge never thrives 60. Sacriledge cursed with a curse 61. Sacriledge condemned by the example of Cyrus 70. 588. Sacriledg justly rewarded to take heed of it 311. Sacrilegious persons condemned 671. The safety of Gods people 480. A singular Saint is a pretious Saint 14. Saints in glory what they hear and see 189. Invocation of Saints and Angels condemned 554. Salvation is the Lords 172. No salvation but by the mercies of God in Christ Jesus 423. Sanctification not perfected all at once 94. Sanctification not wrought all at once And why so 144. Sanctification wrought by degrees 181. The Schismaticks abuse of Scripture 59. The excellency of the Scripture in its fulnesse 70. Scripture-knowledge the onely necessary knowledg 89. Speciall places of Scripture marked with Gods speciall authority 103. Harmony of the Scriptures 116. The excellent connexion of the Scriptures 138. The holy Scriptures not to be jested withall 145. The power of Gods Word the Scriptures 158. How to read the Scriptures and Books Apocryphall 160. The Scriptures Rhetorick 160. Manna the Heavenly food of Gods Word how to relish it 114. Severall varieties to be found in Scripture 220. The Scriptures are but a dead letter without the operation of the Spirit 220. The Papists abuse of Scripture by Traditions c. 223. Scripture-comforts the onely true comforts 264. Scripture-knowledge to be put in practice 266. 283. Excellency of the Scripture-phrase 280. The great usefulnesse of Scripture-phrase 282. Scriptures not to be plaid withall 302. True comfort onely in the Scriptures 325. The holy Scriptures to be made the rule of all our actions 373. To be valued above all other writings 436. How it is that so many deceive themselves in their not rightly searching the Scriptures 384. The Scriptures discovering sin and Satan in their colours 392. The Scriptures onely to be rested on 510. The Books of Scripture to be preserved above all other books 535. To blesse God for the revelation of himself in Scripture 537. To keep close to the Word of God especially in troublous times 549. And in seeking after Christ 643. Men and Women to be knowing in the Scriptures 605. The great danger of not keeping close to the Scriptures 625. The praise-worthiness of reading and enquiring into Scripture 653. Scholers not to be unthankful to the University that bred them 78. Scholers to mind their books 40. No personal Security to be had in the time of publique danger 9. 170. Security in time of danger condemned 101. The great danger of security in times of danger 116. God chastiseth his Childrens security 142. Carnal security reproved 249. Security the cause of all calamity 570. The Secrets of Gods Counsâ—ls not to be pry'd into 27. Dangerous to pry into Gods secrets and Counsels 162. Not to consult with Gods secrets but his râ—â—vealed Word 335. Curious inquisitors into Gods secrets deservedly punished 554. The Sectarian schismatical seducers to be avoided 629. Sectarian subtiâ—ty Diabolicall delusion 630. The doctrine of seducers dangerous 227. Selfishnesse condemned 33. Self-praises condemned 35. Self-examination required 53. Self-tryal smooths the way to all other tryals 112. Self-conceited Men blame-worthy Men 129. Self-conceitednesse condemned as dangerous 151. The giving up our selves an acceptable sacrifice unto God 154. The folly and danger of self-conceitednesse 180. The benefit of Self-examination 207. The danger of self-confidence 275. Self-seeking Men reproved 277. 375. Men of self-ends condemned 278. How it is that the self-conceited vain-glorious Man deceives himself 336. Self-conceitednesse in matters of Religion condemned 340. How far Self-safety may be consulted 543. Self-denyall the excellency thereof 635. No Man a loser by giving himself up to God 645. Men to be careful in the choyce of servants 483. God hardly accepting of late service done him And why so 678. Men created for the service of God 652. Backwardnesse in the service of God reproved 398. No worldly thing must hinder the service of God 575. How it is that Men fail so much in the service of God 626. Service performed unto God must be personal 589. Service to God must be like Himself 58. Rash inconsiderate service of God condemned 340. Service of God is persect freedome 378. The Ministers repetition in Sermons warrantable 82. The difference betwixt Sermons preached and Sermons printed 110. 639. A Sermon preached many years before may be the means of Salvation many years afâ—er 115. A good Sermon not to be so much questioned as practised 183. A Sermon not done till it be practised 253. How to recover spirituall sight 82. Sicknesse immediately inflicted by God 506. Commendable Silence 332. 668. The Silent Christian is the sound Christian 23. Silence in the cause of Gods honour condemned 478. The Simonist discovered 627. Slandering of our brother the danger thereof 134. Slanders of Wicked Men not to be regarded 238. Slanderers discovered 286. Not to be â—econciled to God before we sleep is very dangerous 83. The great danger of sleeping out Sermons 552. The sloathfull Christian described 217. Sloathfulâ—esse and luke-warmnesse in Religion fore-runners of evill to come 334. Spiritual sloath in the wayes of God reproved 398. Man to be a sociable communicative Creature 316. The different conditions of Men in
the matter of Society laid open 337. The sincere upright man described 604. The scarciâ—y of such 612. How to deal with sin being once committed 603. Wherein the poysonfull nature of Sin consisteth 608. Sins lethargy 629. Sin to be removed as the cause of all sorrow 636. Sinne the godly Man's hatred thereof 642. The woful gradation of Sin 659. The best of Men not free from sin in this life 470. 548. Sin of the meanest Man in a Nation may be the destruction of it 509. The extream folly of Sin 510. Sin may be excused here in this World but not hereafter 514. Insensibility of Sin the sadnesse thereof 521. Sin in its original easie to be found 582. How sins may be said to ouâ—-live the Sinner 585. Sin the strange nature thereof 596. All Sinne mâ—st be hated and why so 598. God not the author of Sin 599. How it is that the singling out of one beloved Sin makes way to a full sight of all sin 351. Sin committed with deliberation premeditation c. greatly provoketh the Holy Spirit of God 353. To take heed of smaller sins as bringing on greater 354. 649. Men covering their Sins with specious pretences reproved 361. To beware of masked specious sins 368. Beloved Sins hardly parted withall 376. When it is that a Man is said throughly to forsake his Sin 391. Men deluded by Satan in not taking the right notion of Sin 395. Every Man to confesse that his own Sin is the cause though not always the occasion of punishment 421. New inventions of Sin condemned 453. The great danger of living in any one known sin 456. Sin unrepented of heavy upon the Soul at the time of death 456. Consideration of our secret sins a motive to compassionate others 457. No Man able to free himself from Sin 240. The great danger of sleighting the least Sin 256. 597. Sin not consented unto excusable before God 271. Sins of infirmity how to be known from other sins 273. Great Sins attended by great Judgments 286. Sin of a destructive Nature 288. 531. 607. To be affected with the falling of others into Sin 296. The great danger of Sin unrepented of 298. How it is that every Man hath one darling sin or other 327. The distemper of Sin not easily cured 332. Godly and wicked Men their difference in the haâ—red of Sin 350. The more a Man is now troubled for Sin the lesse shall he be troubled hereafter and why so 350. The sad condition of adding Sinne to sinne 237. The least of Sinnes to be prevented 46. 593. Sin to be renounced as the cause of Christ's death 59. 649. Sin onely is the godly Mans terrour 132. Sins of Infirmity in the best of Gods Children 143. Sin overthrowes all 1â—7 The retaining of one Sin spoyleth a greaâ— deal of good in the Soul 149. One Sin never goes alone 172. Strange Sinnes strange punishments 183. Not to be in love with sin 199. One foul sin spoyleth a great deal of Grace 203. When sins are at the height they come to destruction 205. The great danger of little sinnes 218. 367. 659. The sense of sinne is from God onely 221. Sinne of a dangerous spreading nature 415. How it is that one Man may be said to be punished for another Maâ—â— sin 419. Sin to be looked on as the cause of all sorrow 464. The slavery of Sinne to be avoided 499. 625. Sin to be looked on as it is fierce and cruell 535. Sin and the Sinner very hardly parted 536. Some one sinfull quality or other predominant 548. The great danger and guilt of lying under the guilt of any one eminent sinne 600. The sinsulnesse of sin 601. As to beware of all sins so of beloved sins 602. The growth of Sin to be prevented 10. How Sin is made the prevention of Sinne 39. Sin trampleth on Christ 50. Little Sins if not prevented bring on greatâ—r to the ruine of the Soul 56. Sense of Sin is an entrance to the sâ—ate of Grace 56. Impossible for a Man to know all his sins 57. The difference of Sins as they are Men regenerate and unregenerate 60. The weight of Sin to be seriously peysed 77. Remembrance of sins past the onely way to prevent sins to come 83. Relapses into sin dangerous 89. Every impenitent Sinner is his own tormentor 50. A sinful Man is a senselesse Man 80. The Sinners estate miserable 89. A gracelesse Sinner will continue to be a sinner still 92. The wrath oâ— God best appeased when the Sinner appearâ—th with Christ in his arms 99. The Devils charge and the Sinners disâ—harge 131. The Sinner's Memeâ—to 204. Desperate madnesse 639. The Sinner's security 216. God's acceptance of Sinners through Christ 217. The incorrigible Sinner's stupidity 264. His desperate condition 590. The secure carelâ—sse Sinner 509. Sinners crucifying the Lord of life daily 537. The Devil 's hard dealing with the ensnared Sinner 594. How the wounded Sinner is to be cured 595. An ungrations Son not worthy to be his Fathers heir 40. The excellency of Sonday or Lords Day above other dayes 539. To be more strict in the holy observation of Sonday or Sabbath then heretofâ—re And why so 540. Sorrowes of this life not comparable to the joyes of another 162. The best improvement of Worldly sorrow 185. Sorrow that is true is for the most part silent 293. The excellency of godly sorrow for Sinne 362. For a Man to be sorry that he cannot be sorry for sin is a part of godly Sorrow for sin 519. The least proportion of godly sorrow for sin accepted by God 520. Sorrow for sinne must be in particulars 559. Must be proportionable 560. Other mens sins are the good mans sorrow 581. A meer Souldier an enemy to peace 107. The truly noble Souldier 336. The Soulâ—ier's Calling honourable 415. Whereiâ— the true valour of a Captain or Souldier in War consisteth 544. The devout Soul will admit of none but Christ 10. More care for the body then the Soul condemned 11. No quietnesse in the Soul till it come to Christ 19. If the Soul be safe all 's safe 42. The Souls comfortable Union with Christ 44. How the Soul lives in Christ onely 44. The Souls sleighting of Christ offering mercies condemned 37. The winning of a Soul unto God very acceptable unto God 153. The health of the Soul is the true health of the body 162. To be careful for the Souls good 182. To take especial care for the Souls safety 348. 458. Men living as though they had not Souls to save reproved 368. How it is that Soul and body come to be both punished together 377. 675. The captivated Soul restless till it be in Christ Jesus 415 420. The Souls comfortable enjoyment of Christ 419. The Soul of Man pretious in the sight of God 462. Excellency of the Soul of Man 502. A foul polluted Soul the object of Gods hatred 503. The high price of the Soul 503. The folly of Men in parting with their
spiritual Crosses and been prepared for the worst of times that could be Mans Extremity Gods Opportunity PHilo the Iew being employed as an Ambassador or Messenger to Caius Caligula then Emperor of the Romans his entertainment was but sleight for he had no sooner spoke on the behalf of his Country but was commanded to depart the Court Whereupon he told his People That he was verily perswaded that God would now do something for them because the Emperor was so earnestly bent against them And certainly Gods help is then nearest when Man 's is furthest off the one's extremity made the otâ—er's opportunity Ubi desinâ—t Pâ—ilosophus incipit Medicus c. Where the Philosopher ends there the Physitian begins and where the Physitian endeth there the Minister beginneth and where Mans ayd endeth there Gods beginneth Deliverance is oft nearest when destruction seemeth surest Parents not to be too much dejected for the death of an onely Sonne or Child ABraham was ready to have sacrificed his onely son Isaac And God gave his onely Sonne Christ Iesus to death for our salvation It is most true that the death of an onely Sonne must neeâ—s be grievous and the cause of great heavinesse and lamentation But let all disconsolate Parents take notice what Elkanah said to Anna Am not I better to you then ten Sons So doth God say What though I have taken away your onely Sonne the child of your delight there is no just cause of complaint I have taken but my own I will be better then ten hundred sons to you and you shall one day find that he is but gone before as your Feoâ—â—ee in trust to take possession and keep a place for you in Heaven How it is that Men may be said to learn of little Children dumb shews c. SExtus Tarquinius the sonne of Lucius being suborned by his Father pretending to be banished fled fraudulently to the Gabii where having screwed himself so much into their bosomes as he thought was sufficient for his design sent secretly to know his Fathers pleasure who leading the Messenger into the Garden walked a while and not speaking one word with his staffe strake off the heads of the Dazies which grew there the Messenger reports this to his Son who thereupon put the chief Noble-men of the Gaâ—ii to death and so by force and Injustice usurped a power over that Common-weal Such was the tacite Counsell that Periander the Corinthian gave unto Thrasibulus the Tyrant of Athens when pulling the upper ears he made all the standing corn equall intimating thereby what a Tyrant must do that would live safe and quiet Thus it was but in a better way and a far better sense that when the Disciples were building Castles in the ayr quaerentes non quaerenda seeking who should be highest in Heaven when they should rather have been enquiring how to get thither Christ sets a little Child before them who neither thinks great things of himself nor seeks great things for himself conâ—uting hereby their preposterous ambition and affectation of Primacy And thus it is that dumb shews may be said to speak out much to the purpose and speechlesse Children read many a significant Lecture to the Sons of Men as of simplicity humility innocency ignoscency c. not of childishnesse peevishnesse open-heartednesse c. Non praecipitur ut habeant aetatem sed innocentiam parvulorum not of their age but innocency Whereupon some mis-understanding the Text in a Nichodemicall way as one Goldsmith an Anabaptist and Masseus a Franciscan Fryer to abundance of more then childish folly Gods Judgments the causes of them to be considered LAy a book open before a Child or one that cannot read he may stare and gaze upon it but he can make no use of it at all because he understandeth nothing in it yet bring it to one that can read and understandeth the language that is written in it hee 'l read you many stories and instructions out of it It is dumb and silent to the one but speaketh to and talketh with the other In like manner it is with Gods Iudgments as S. Augustine well applyes it All sorts of Men see them but few are able aright to read them or to understand them what they say Every Iudgment of God is a reall Sermon of Reformation and Repentance every Iudgment hath a voice but every one understands not this voice as Paul's companions when Christ spake to him they heard a voyce and no more But it is the duty of every good Christian to listen to the Rod and him that sent it to spell out the meaning of Gods aâ—ger to enquire and find out the cause of the Crosse and the ground of Gods hiding his face Why it is that he dealeth so harshly with them and carrieth himself so austerely towards theâ— The Love of God the onely true Love EVery beam of Light proceeding from the body of the Sun is either direct broken or reflex direct when it shineth out upon the Center in a lineary motion without any obliquity broken when it meets with some grosser body so that it cannot shine out-right but is enforced to incline to one part or other and therefore called a collaterall or broken light reflex when lighting upon some more grosse body it is beaten back and so reflects upon its first principle Thus let the Sons of Men pretend never so much to the Love of God their Love is either a broken or reflecting Love seldome direct broken when it is fixed upon the things of this World reflex when it ayms at self-Interest Whereas the Love of God is the onely true Love a direct Love without obliquity a sincere Love without reflexion such a Love as breaks through all impediments and hath nothing in Heaven but God and desireth nothing on Earth in comparison of him such a Love as looketh upon the World by way of subordination but upon God by way of eminency The Active Christian object of the Devil and Wicked Mens malice LUther was offered to be made a Cardinal if he would be quiet He answered No not if I might be Pope and defends himself thus against those that thought him haply a proud Fool for his pains Inveniar sane superbus c. Let me be counted Fool or any thing said he so I be not found guilty of cowardly silence The Papists when they could not rule him rayl'd at him and called him an Apostate He confesseth the action and saith I am indeed an Apostate but a blessed and holy Apostate one that hath fallen off from the Devil Then they called him Devil But what said he Prorsus Sathan est Lutherus c. Luther is a Devill be it so but Christ liveth and reigneth that 's enough for Luther So be it Nay such was the activity of Luther's spirit that when Erasmus was asked by the Elector of Saxony Why
the Pope and his Clergy could so little abide Luther â—e answered For two great offences Medling with the Pope's triple Crown and the Monks fat paunches and hence was all the hatred If he would have been quiet and silent they would have never medled with him Thus it is that a Woolf flies not upon a painted Sheep and Men can look upon a painted Toad with delight It is not the softly pace but the furious march of the Souldier that sets Men a gazing and doggs a barking let but a Man glide along with the stream of the World do as others do he may sit down and take his ease But if he once strive against the stream stand up in the Cause of God and act for Christ then he shall be sure to meet with as much despite and malice as Men and Devills can possibly throw upon him When lighter Afflictions will not serve the turn God will send heavier THe Physitian when he findeth that the potion which he hath given his Patient will not work he seconds it with one more violent but if he perceive the disease to be settled then he puts him into a course of Physick so that Medicè miserè he shall have at present but small comfort of his life And thus doth the Surgeon too if a gentle plaister will not serve then he applyes that which is more corroding and to prevent a Gangrene he makes use of his cauterizing knife and takes off the joynt or member that is so ill-affected Even so God when Men profit not by such crosses as he hath formerly exercised them with when they are not bettered by ligher Afflictions then he sends heavier and proceeds from milder to sharper courses if the drosse of their Sin will not come off hee 'l throw them into the melting-pot again and again crush them harder in the presse and lay on such Irons as shall enter more deep into their Souls If he strikes and they grieve not if they be so foolish that they will not know the Judgment of their God hee 'l bring seven times more plagues upon them crosse upon crosse losse upon losse trouble upon trouble one sorrow on the neck of another till they are in a manner wasted and consumed Zeal of Heathens to their false Gods condemning that of Christians to their true God THere is mention made of Five Men of the Tribe of Dan that rushed into the house of Micah and took away his carved and his golden Images He followes them with a loud cry The Danites ask him What he ayles wherefore he made such a noyse O sayes he ye have taken away my gods which I made and what have I more And What is that you say unto me What ayleth thee Poor man How sadly doth he bemoan the losse of his false Gods And what have I more sayes he concluding that in taking away of them they had taken away all that he had But which of us are so zealous for the true God as he was for the losse of his false one We daily lose the sight of his comfortable presence Sin deprives us of him Who layes it to heart In losing of him we lose all and yet we are no more moved then if we lost nothing at all One said of the Papists I pray God that their charitable blindnesse do not one day rise up against our uncharitable knowledge so it may very well be said of too too many God grant that the ignorant zeal of Pagans and Infidels to their false Gods be not matter of condemnation to those that are better instructed in the knowledge of the true and onely God Ministers to be carefull in the practice of that which they preach unto others IN a certain battle against the Turks there was a Bishop that thus encouraged the Army Play the Men Fellow Souldiers to day and I dare promise you that if you die fighting you shall sup to night with God in Heaven Now after the battell was begun the Bishop withdrew himself And when some of the Souldiers enquired among themselves what was become of the Bishop and why he would not take a Supper with them that night in Heaven Others answered Hodiè sibi jejunium indixit c. This is Fasting-day with him therefore he will eat no Supper to night though it were in Heaven Thus it is a sad thing when Ministers like those Pharisees of whom Christ himself spake shall say and do not have tongues to speak by the talent and hands that scarce act by the ounce have Heaven like that ridiculous Actor of Smyrna at their tongues end but Earth at their fingers end Whereas Christ was full of Grace as well as Truth Iohn Baptist a burning and a shining light It was Origen's Iussit et gessit his teaching and his living were both one And that 's the best Sermon surely that 's digg'd out of a Man 's own breast when he practiseth what he preacheth the want whereof occasioned Campian our Jesuited Countryman to write Ministris eorum nihil vilius their Ministers are most base No comfortable return of Prayer till Sin be removed A Man that is wounded may cry and call upon the Surgeon to have some ease of his pain but if he will not endure to have the splinter or the Arrow head pull'd out that sticketh fast in the flesh and causeth the grief he may cry long enough but all in vain And if People should pray to God to stay the rage and fury of the burning when a house or Town is on fire and themselves in the mean time pour on oyl or throw on fuell there will be but small hope of quenching the same So there can be no comfortable return of our Prayers unto God till Sin be removed It is but folly to seek unto God by Prayer till the partition-wall of Sin that is betwixt us and him be broken down It is Sin that crosseth and hindreth the effect and fruit of Prayer like those Heathens of whom the Cynick made this observation That they prayed indeed to their Gods for health but at the very same time when they prayed they used such excesse as could not but greatly impair their health and so wilfully deprived themselves of that they prayed for Knowledge and Learning to be owned wheresoever they be found IT is observed that the Egyptians had Idols and very heavy burthens these the Israelites detested but they had withall vessels of gold and silver and these according to Gods command they made a Religious use of One seeing Virgil very studious in a dull piece of Ennius Poetry asked him what he did with that book He answered Lego aurum in stercore I am gathering gold out of a dunghill Thus it is that Knowledge is to be owned wheresoever or in whomsoever it is found fas est et ab hoste doceri A man may learn of his Enemy nay