Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	day_n	lord_n	word_n	7,457	5	4.1658	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29931	The wicked mans plot defeated, or, The wicked man laughed out of countenance as it was represented in a sermon preached in St. Mary Wool-Church, London, May 11, 1656, by Thomas Baker.	Baker, Thomas, Rector of St. Mary the More.; Baker, Thomas, Rector of St. Mary the More. Gods provenance asserted in another sermon preached at St. Buttolphs, Aldergate, London.; Baker, Thomas, Rector of St. Mary the More. Christs comming to judgement deciphered in a third sermon.	1656 (1656)	Wing B524; ESTC R28339	42,799	212

of violence to draw near and as it is in the verse immediately following the Text We draw out our Swords and bend our Bows to slay such as are of an upright Cōversa●ion Yea we scoff at the tidings of any other days approach as those in the Apostle 2 Pe● 3 4. at the News of the comming of the Day of Judgment where is the Promise or rather Menace of its coming Or if much ado we will be drawn to heare of any such thing we yet say as those in the Prophet Esay 56. 12. To morrow shall be as this Day and much more abundant Cras Cras procrastinat And still every Day that shineth out upon us shall in our presumptions still be sped of a New and Fresh Morrow to attend it The Spirit of God in the mean time whose peculiar office it is to bring all things to the Remembrahce of these he inspireth Joh. 14. 26. becommeth every where throughout the Sacred Volu●es an uncessant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of another Day the wicked Man is to expect Those that come after him saith Holy Iob of him shall be astonished at the comming of his Day as they that went before him were affrighted Job 18. 20. Remember the children of Edom O Lord in the Day of Hierusalem you know is our Prophets Address unto him in her behalf Psal. 137. 7. how they cried Down with it Down with it even to the Ground I saw is the Lords own word wherin he no less justly then sharply taxeth his people of Israel that in the Day wherein strangers carried away the Forces of your Brother Jacob and Forreigners entred into the Gates and cast Lots upon Hierusalem that you Rejoyced ●ver the childred of Judah in the Day of their Destruction and spake proudly in the Day of their Distress Obad. 11. 12. And it is that other Prophets just Exe●cration upon the Wicked after that hee hath capitulated with the Almighty about their prosperity Prepare them O Lord for their Day even the Day of slaughter Jer. 12. 3. Yea this Day of the wickeds prosperity it pleaseth the same Lord oftentimes to contract and so to speed their Day or rather Nights of Vengeance that their Sun goeth down at Noon and the Earth is Darkened with them in the clear Day as it is Amos 8. 9 Yea when God distributeth sorrowes unto them in his Anger and the Night of their Destruction commeth upon them their Candle that they might now at last hope should afford them some poore weake Light of Comfort is not seldome put out as it is Iob 21. 17. And so as it is 5. 14. of the same Book they meete with Darknesse in the Day-time And then strange may it not seeme to hear that the Knees of this Profligate wretch as Baltasars shall appeare to tremble when he shall now finde this Day or rather this Day made Night as it is Amos 5. 8. unawares to overtake him which he had put farre away from him Especially when hee shall heare the Almighty vying an high Roare of Laughter with his loud-yelling Accent of Anguish of Spirit upon his clear Fore-sight of this Days neare Approach Which is the more Principal cause of the Defeasance of th● the wicked Mans Plot and in the next Place calleth for your consideration The Lord shall laugh him to scorn for he hath seene that his Day is comming The word Is comming you see is of an Indefinite Expression and so far from pointing out the present Minute of this Days Appearance At which whilest debauched Miscreants and to every good worke Reprobate will not unlikely be ready to catch Advantage and shall therefore with the five Foolish Virgins Mat. 25. betake them to slumbrings and sleepings and with that Evil servant in the 24 of the same Gospel to Eating and Drinking and smiting his Fellow servants whom therefore his Master comming in a Day that he looketh not for him and in an Houre that hee is not aware of shall cut in sunder and appoint him his Portion with Hypocrites He that shall but duely poize things in the Ballance of the Sanctuary ●n the Scales of a Religious consideration whose Feare is as his Faith the Evidence of things not seen will look upon this Day of whose Indefinite and Indeterminate Advent hee is here thus cautioned as if he saw and felt it already come At least as Damocles did upon the Pendant Sword which may every Minute drop downe about his Eares and make an immediate Dispatch of him And therefore it is well worthy our best observation that when the Prophet Ezekiel 7th of his Prophesie giveth the Inhabitants of Hierusalem a shrill Allarum of their inevitable Destruction at Hand the Future and Present Tenses he so intortleth and interweaveth as that he seemeth to make both of equal certainty I will shortly pour out my Fury and accomplish mine Anger upon thee vers 8. That you see for the Future And yet vers 6. we hear of nothing else but the found of Present Destruction An End is come the End is come it watcheth for thee Beho●a it is come Nay the Final Desolation of this very Hierusalem though it be not Actually Accomplished until Two 〈◊〉 Forty years after our Saviours 〈◊〉 Yet are the People of that Present Generation Forewarned thereof by him as if it were already put in Execution Behold your Howse is left unto you dese●le Mat. 23. 38. So that then see I Uncleanness Excess Sacriledge Barbarisme Cruelty Blasphemy Hypocrisie all manner of Iniquity to abound in an Age and yet not to scape with Impunity onely but to be sped of all manner of successfull Prosperity shall I now conclude that they shall finally escape for this their wickedness as it is Psal. 56. 7. No I look upon their Destruction as undoubtedly to come upon them as if I saw it Actually overtaking them Nay Ye say It will be Fowle weather to Day you know is our Saviours words to the Pharisees for the Skie is Red and Lowring Mat. 17. 3. See I Men to look with Red and Lowring Countenances portending nothing but Bloudy and Destructive Practices I justly conclude that there is a present Storme of Fowle weather that boadeth not others onely from them but even themselves Nay as the Floud commeth upon the old world and sweepeth them all away whilest they are Ea●ing and Drinking Building and Planting Marrying and giving in Marriage Matth. 24. 38. See 1 Men securely promising themselves an happy continuance and prosperous successe in their never-so Irregular Courses upon this Security of theirs I look as upon an undoubted Harbinger of the Day of their Destruction hard at the Doores But be it that it shall please the Lord for a time to suspend the Execution of his Vengeance upon these High-grain'd and Deep dy'd Sinners So that the Day thereof he yet seeth every Day nearer Aproaching may for some short space be forborne the Observation may in no wise escape us that the Hebrew word

if Men will not Beleeve Signes what can they be concluded for other then meer Infidels And with these Signes having laboured as your Remembrancer to Awake you as as St. Iude in the 17. of his Epistle to save you with Fear and to pluck you out of the Fire before the Flames of Gods Anger grow so intense that there be none to quench them however some amongst you may look with a Prejudicate Eye upon and turn the Deaf Ear unto such Plain dealing Tell-Troths Ora Dei jussu non unqu●m credita and so by Gods just judgement shall have your Eares heavy and your Eye ●hut up lest seeing with your Eyes and Hearing with your Eares you should bee converted and H●aled as it is Esa. 6. 10. just reason in ●he mean time I take up a confidence that what St. Paul some●times to his Ephefian Elders Acts 20. I am Pure from the Bloud of all Men for that I have not s●unned to declare unto you the whole counself of God And then as our Prophet Ps. 55 O! that I have wings like a D●ve for then would I make haste to escape because of the stormy Winde and Tempests What great reason that our soules look out for Doves wings Radit iter liquidum wherewith we be farre from Hovering over out old sensual lusts but flying away with all possible speed that as the Apostle 1 Thes. 5. 4. that Dreadfull Day overtake us not as a Thie● Certainly high time can we not but conclude it for us to run as the same Apostle adviseth Heb. 12. 1. with Patience and yet with cheerfulnes too the Race that is set before us At least as is the word of him that is the Light of the world Joh. 12. 35. to walke while we have Light lest darkness come upon us for that it is but a very little while that wee are to expect this Light with us Yea for that as it is Jer. 6. 4. wee cannot but clearly discover how far the Day even the Day of Grace is spent and how the shadows of the Evening of the Evening of Ignorance yea and Vengeance too are still every Minute stretching them out more signally over us And indeed there are but two Dayes as already you have had intimated or rather a Day and a Night that dichotomize the whole life of Man the Day of Grace and the Day or rather Night of Vengeance And now shall wee so farre turne Gods Grace into wantonnes as to spend the Day assigned unto this Grace in worldly Lusts in sensual Pleasures in the Pressures of our poor Brethren whose cries though they cannot open our Eares yet will they be sure sooner or later to enter into the Eares of the Lord of Sabbath great reason that in Anguish of Spirit we still conceive we hear a voice speaking unto us not unlike that in the Prophet Ezech. 7. The morning is come upon thee the Day of trouble is near at least as that in that other Prophet Esay 21. The Morning commeth and also the Night Let it then be our care to walk in a true sincere and unfeigned Reformation of Life whilst the Light of this Day of Grace lasteth whilest the Sunne of Righteousness therein with the Gladsome though but now Gl●●mering Beames of his countenance shineth out upon us And then whilest Darkness overshadowing the Drowsie and secure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Diogines sometime to his Physitian upon his Death-bed when after a short sleep hee demanded of him how he did one sleep and so Darkness shall prove unto them nothing else but the Fore●runner of another a Spiritual of an Eternal sleep and Darkness the Day of Grace shall we circumspectly walke in the Light thereof we shall finde to be but the Prologue of another unto us and that more Bright and Lightsome Day even the Day of Glory a Day which shall need neither Sunne nor Moon for the Enlightning it but the Glory of God and the Lamb shal● be its Light to the happy contemplation and Fruition whereof in thy good time O LORD bring every one of us and to this purpose grant that the words which we have this day heard with our outward Eares c. FINIS GODS PROVIDENCE As●erted In another SERMON Preached at St. Butt●lphs Aldersgate London near about the same time as the former and by the same Authour 1 PET. 5. 7. Cast all your Care upon him for he careth for you AUG Qui curam tui habuit antequam esses quomodo curam tui non habebit cum sis quod voluit ut esse● Printed for the Author 1656. To the Reader READER SHall I finde thee this in captious Age but un-biassed or unprejudicate I shall look upon thee as upon some Rare Philippian in the midst of a crooked and Perverse Generation If Capricious and Censorious I meet with no worse Measure then I look for in these Dayes wherein Ignorance and its inseparable companion Impu●dence are every Day Riding in their Triumphant Chariots of Countenance and Encouragement whilest Pure Orthodoxe Knowledge is still Quarelled and Censured and therefore is fain as a poor Pedee to stand upon its weak Guard of Vindication And this is the sole Ground of the Publication of these Ensuing Treati●es for that some Black Mouths which have none the l●ast appearance of Ca●dour in them have Eo Nomine Traduced them for that they have too closely Troden upon the Heels of Truth However the observance of the wind of any Mans Breath though never so strong and Poisonous shall in no wise discourage me from sowing me Righteousness however an Harvest of Mercy yea but of Justice may not yet perhaps bee expected by mee Mean while as I know that the Sermons Preached sufficiently justifie God the Father in his Providence and God the Sonne in his Just Proceedings So am I confident that Printed they will vindicate the Author in the Eyes of all Sober-Minded Men against all calumnious Aspersions So that he that by the Malevolo's of the Time whilest he is overshadowed with the Dark cloud of their Black Censure may appear a Monstrous Bug bear shall not unlikely yet in these poore Peices when they shall come to be exposed to the Light of Publike View not be conceived to be of so Dread●ul a shape Who what ever he may appear is far from professing himself Thine longer then thou art Truths T. B. Psal. 147. 9. The latter part of the Verse Aud feedeth the young Ravens that call upon him THis Psalm by the consent of all Interpreters is concluded to have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hallelujah for its Title And will wee hear Apollinarius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 jointly and entirely chanted out by the Prophets Zachary and Haggee at the Re-edification of the City and Instauration of the Temple at least at their clear prevision and prediction of this so Glorious a work as either Each Verse is as a fresh Incentive to the iteration of this Hallelujah and so to the perpetuation

needs bee taking upon us a faculty of Divining of things to come and hereupon cheer and courage up our selves in the most Mischievous practices as did Zedekiah Ahab 1 King 22. 12. Go on and prosper who seeth not what just reason the whole world shall have to cry out of us as those in that other Prophet Zach. 10. 2. The Diviners amongst us have seen a ●ye and told false Dreames It is otherwise with this All-seeing God In the Infallible Glass of himself he contemplateth all things whether Past or Future or Present Yea and when he pleaseth seeth not onely but calleth for t●ings that are not as if they were Rom. 14. 17. And therefore pregnant is that the Prophets words of him Esay 7. 18. Hee shall hiss for the Flye that is in the uttermost parts of Egypt and the Bee in the Land of Assyria and they shall come and rest in the Desolate Valleys The very Poet can say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God hath an Eye armed with Revenge Yea Oculos Emissities saith the Comick Eyes that dart out Dead-doing Rayes Nay Eyes as Thunderbolts and those Right-aiming saith the Wiseman which discharged from the Clouds as from a well-drawn Bow readily flye to the Mark Wisd. 5. 21. Nay as his Hand draweth up these Thunderbolts of his judgments to the H●ad and dischargeth th●m upon the wicked so do●h his Eye looking as at the Right End of a Prospective draw them near home and so speedeth the Executi●● of them I will ba●●en my word is his own word to p●rform it Jer. 1. 12. And this time of his Acceleration of vengeance upon a ●e●ple far is hee from being so reserved but that still hee preacquainteth his Prophets therewith Shall I hide from Abraham is the same Lords solemn debate with himself about the destruction of Sodom that thing which I intend to do Gen. 18. 17. No! the Prophet maketh a present and positive Answer to this the Lords Quere Amos 3. 7. Surely the Lord will do nothing but that he Revealeth his Secret to his Servants the Prophets And this you may see to be the Ground of our Saviours own Addresse to his Father after that he hath denounced Vengeance against Bethsaid● Chorazin and Capernaum I thank thee Father Lord of Heaven and Earth that thou hast Hid these things from the Wise and Prudent and hast Revealed them unto B●bes M●t. 11. 25. O! the marc●lesse Priviledge of a right Prophet of the Lord yea but of a Child of God! of a very Babe in Grace That when Franticke Enthusiasts shall vainly and groundlesly boaste them of their Brain-sicke Revelations and Worldly Wise-men of their full Magazines of Understanding and Knowledge shall onely indeed have the Honour vouchsafed them of being Privy Counsellours to the great King of Heaven It is one special Article of Precedence I finde given to the Study of History in General beyonde all other Studies Lectores suos vates reddit That it rendereth its Reader● Prophets The observation of the successe Designes have b●en sped of in Times past may well enable the observers to Presage how the like shall succeed for the Time to come But then the Reading of Holy Histories of Divine Records must needes much more be of signal vertue to inspire the Reader● with a Prophetique Spirit And then just reason may St. Paul seeme to have for the magnifying of his Timothy that from a childe he● hath studied the Holy Sciptures which are able to make him wise unto Salvation 1 Tim. 3. 15. So that then if the Jews by the Fig trees putting forth her Leaves could Divine of the Summers neare Approach Matth. 24. 32. perhaps out of these sacred Records some Prognosticks not improbable may bee collected of the neare approach of a Wicked Mans Day And upon these our parts it shall be to looke as upon Red Crosses set on the Doors of Infected Houses seasonable Items that wee come not near And as upon Boighs cast out neare the Anchors of Ships fair Monitours that wee dash not upon them Of many being loath too far to exercise your Patience I shall onely name a few The first as already you have had an intimation Security You hear in the Gospel how suddenly the Rich Co●morants pleasing Lullaby hee singeth to his Soul Soul th●n hast much Goods laid up for many years is by the Almighty himselfe intterrupted with a Dolefull Dirge Thou Fool this Night shall thy Soule be required of thee Luke 12. 20. And the Apostle taketh it for an irrefragable conclusion that when Men cry Peace and Safety then sudden Destruction commeth upon them like as Travel upon a woman with child and they shall not escap● 1 Thes. 5. 3 And if when God calleth to VVeeping and Mourning to Baldnesse and Sack●loth there shall bee flaying of Oxen and killing of Sheep eating Flesh and drinking Wine this Iniquity is the Lords owne expresse word to his people shall not be purged until yee Die and Perish Isa. 22. 14. A Mans secure enjoyment of himself especially in wanton and Lawless Practises is as certaine and immediate a Fore●●unner of D●struction as is the Day 〈◊〉 of the Suns Appearance The second Pride An Haughty Spirit goeth before a Fall is a Maxime the Wise man taketh fo● indisputable Prov. 16. 18. So that then wher Pride shall o●ce be seene as a Captaine to March in the Van little question is there to be made but that Destruction as the Lievtenant will still be sure to Bring up the Rear And then if Men shall once begin to say to themselves as Babylon Isa. 14. 13. I will ascend up above the Heighth of the Cloudes and will be like the Most High and so shall arrogate unto themselves a Power of being Lords Paramounts of the whole World and give it Lawes though as those of D●aco written in Bloud and shall therefore make no Bones of provoking their most Potent Neighbours to take up Armes for their Defence the next Newes to be expected is a like Fatall Doom upon the● with that upon Babylon Thou shalt be brought down to Hell and to the sides of the pit The third Hardness of Heart When neither Mercies nor Judgements can reclaim Men from their Enormous courses but that they shall still resolve to go on as if they would dare the Almighty to execute ve●●eance upon them it is too app●rent a symbole that they are given up to a Reprobate sense and are all this while treasuring up themselues wrath against the Day of wrath and the Revelation of Gods Righteous judgements Rom. 2. 5. If all the plagues wherwith God visiteth Pharaoh and all the Qualifications of Long-sufferance hee sweetly tempereth with them can at last make no impression upon him then justly doth t●e same Lord take up a Resolution that in his Destruction he will get him Honour Exod. 14 The ●ourth Fain●ness of Spirit which hath commonly Destitution of Counsel for its inseparable Companion It is one special Presage of Aegypts

Destruction at hand that her Spirit shall faile in the middest of her and that her Counsel shall be destroyed Isa. 19. 3. When Men shall bee surprized with such a Panick Terrour or rather so pursued with Guilt of Conscience that what Zebul sometimes to Gaal 〈◊〉 9. 36. Thou seest the sh●●●●es of the Mountains as if they were Men they shall bee so affrighted with Shadowes as if they saw an Army of Resolved Men marching in Battel-array against them and shall so by way of a strange kinde of Antiperistasis encourage the spoyled to come against the Fortresse as it is Amos 5. 9. but finde none the least Cordial of Counsel in the mean time for the chearing up their Drooping spirits in the Depth of their Distresse it cannot now appear a matter of great difficulty without any great help of Art to Divine that the Ruine of such is closely treading upon their Heels If an Hideons Noise of Trembling come once to be heard in the Campe of the Philistines they presently melte away beating one another 1 Sam. 14 15. 16. The fifth Hy● pocrisie Ye Hypocrites saith our Saviour to the Pharisees boasting of their Religious Corban Mat 15. 7. When the the Word of God must give place I say not to Mens received Traditions so much as to their not to be paralel●'d Self● ends nay when it shall bee made a stalking-Horse for the compassing of these Self-ends of theirs such Clay yea perhaps I may not amisse ● say Claw Feet cannot long keep the Head though it may appeare all of pure Gold long upon the Shoulders Every Mans work shall bee made manifest saith the Apostle for there will be a Day that shall declare it 1 Cor. 3. 13. The sixth Oppression When Men shal be practi●-sing to appeare such Mighty Nimrods as to Hunt every man his brother with a Net then is the Day of their Visitation and Perplexity at Hand Mic. 7. Yea in the same Net which they have privily ●aid for others not seldome is their own Foot ta●ken Psa. 9. And then as St. Gregory Cum sentio poenum recogito Culpam When the sense of Punishent may possibly have produced what the guilt of Fault hath hitherto beene farre from being able to effect a startling you out of your secure slumbers the Confession of what perhaps by deare-bought Experience you shall then be instructed in and though not unlikely ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not without some kinde of Reluctance extorted from you as from Adonibezek sometime Jud. 1. 7. as I have done to others so hath God requited mee you shall finde to tend no less to the comfort of your owne soules then God● Glory When I heard these things saith the Prophet my Belly trembled my Lips quivered yea Rottenness entred into my very Bones that I might find rest in the day of Trouble Hab. 3. 16. O well is us and happy shall we be if our continual expectance of this Dayes Advent shall affect our soules with a careful Anxiety that thereby as the Windes violence by a fair tuft of Trees before an House the Fury of its Breach being broken before it break in upon us at this Days appearance we may finde Rest in our souls The seventh not to trouble you with an Enumeration of further Particulars the Contempt of Gods faithful Messengers and Ministers When Men will be above Ordinances and by a Spirit neither I nor they know what shall assume unto themselves a Gift of Prophesying before they are sent and therefore for the bringing the Priests Function into contempt whose Lips ought so to preserve Knowledge as that the People are as at an Oracle to seek the Law at his Mouth onely for that he is the only true Messenger of the Lord of Hosts as it is Mal. 2. 7. shall practise the exposing them to the Beggerly Rudiments or Elements as the Apostle in another case Gal. 4. 9. of a Necessitous and calamitous condition that thereby they may be enforced either to Prophesie Deceits or be tamely content to have their Tongues finally shut up in silence this Iniquity shall be unto them as a Breach ready to fall whose Breaking commeth suddenly in an instant Esa. 30. 13. And therefore the Authour of the Bookes of Sacred Chronicles telleth us of the People that they Mocked the Messengers of God and mis-used his Prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose and there was no Remedy 2 Chron. 36. 16. And if Hierusalem shall but so stone the Prophets as I say not to make Bread of stones for them a conclusion yet the Devil would sometimes fain have perswaded our Saviour in his extremity of Hunger to have tried Math. the 4. and the 3. but like unnatural Parents rather Matth. 7. 9. shall give them stones for Bread yea lest even of these they may chance to make an hard shift to make work for their Teeth shall finally shut up their Mouths such Barbarous cruelty is immediately followed with a sentence of Remediless Desolation Behold your House is left unto you Desolate Luk. 13. 34. So that then see I Men with Ionah to sleep securely in their Rebellious courses when they have too just reason to fear that the Tempest of Gods too justly incensed Displeasure may speedily swallow them up See I them to stretch their Plumes beyond the compass of their Nests and forgetting the Rock from whence they are Hewen and the Pit out of which they are Digged to insult over those God hath placed in an Eminent Sphear above them See I them turning the Grace of God into wantonness and to look upon his judgements as no other then Scar-crowes Bug-bears meerly made up for the affrighting of children See I them Machinating to make Machiavel speak the Language of Canaan Yea to make that Heavenly Language a Gentleman-usher to lead in the most Hellish practises Nay all Religion upon the Result to be concluded to be nothing but the Spawn of a Poetick Brain purposely excog●tated to keep Men in awe and to Broke for Politick ends See I them eating up the people of God daily as if they would eat Bread whilest they scarce leave them crums of Bread to eat but give them up most mercilesly to depend upon their Prayers for Daily Bread To say no more see I Men practising to leave the Israel of God without a Right-Teaching Prophet or at best to propose them to themselves for Trumpets of their own Designes or else these Trumpets must give I say not as the Apostle an uncertain but no sound at all So that the People shall be rather in an imminent ●eril of a Famine of the Word then the Accomplishment of their whatever self-ends be crossed or obstructed Here as it is 2 Chron. 15. 7. no longer may a People look for continuance of Peace but for all manner of vexations round about them Except you see Signes you know is out Saviours word to the Nobleman of Capernaum you will not Beleeve Joh. 4. 48. But then

unto us but unto thy Name give the Praise The same He is the God from whom commeth salvation Psal. 68. 20. The same He that buildeth his stories in the Heavens that hath founded his Troops in the Earth and calleth for the waters of the Sea and powreth them out upon the Face of the Earth Amos 9. 6. that here Feedeth the young Ravens that call upon him Which fi●ly bringeth mee from the contemplation of the Person of the great Master He unto the Care of his Family which wee have in the word Feeding He feedeth That which Philosophy determineth to be the Place of Vertue that Divinity would would have to be the Center forou● Desires to rest in the Middle and Mean betwixt two Extremes Tutius v●ves is the Lyriques sage Note and Caution to his Licinius Best live we when we launch not into th' Deep Nor to the Shore too closely d● we keep Neque Nimis neque nihil He that is neither lift up with Abundance nor pressed down with Want without all question liveth in the best Estate Abundance is the Mother of Presumption Want of Despair Abundance of Envy want of Contempt Abundance of prodigal Licentiousness want of excessive Carfulness Abundance of Apostacy from God want of taking Gods Name in vain as the Prophet Agur elegantly Prov. 30. 9. Looke wee but into the exteriour Cloister of Nature for Natural subsistences and there shal we finde Plants if too Little or too Much watered to Die if Indifferently to Thrive and Pr●sper Listen wee to the great Ethique Master for Morals and hee will tell us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Excess is incident to Transgression Defect to Prevarication Medioc●ity the onely Conduit-pipe of true Comfort and Contentation To silence many things to this purpose might be heaped up send we but our Eys and Ears to the Experience whether of our selves or others and how true shall we prove of all for the general what Germanicus in Tacitus sometimes spake of the Chatti Pavidi adversis inter secundas non Divini n●n Humani juris Memores That in Adversity they are Fearful in Prosperity unmindeful of the Laws both of God and Man Nay let me but appeal to the consciences of you that have too Little as you are too prone uncessantly to cōplain whether the immoderate Care of compassing of the things of this Life drive you not sometimes to take at least to think of sinister and indirect projects and practices of you that have more then enough your selves a proportion yet few will be drawn to acknowledge scarce one of a thousand can speak this language of Canaan whether the care of Disposing of what you have gotten Distract you not as much as the other care of Getting whether an Extremity of either side withdraw you not equally from the ser● vice of God And yet how true appeareth it of more then a good many of us that which the Satyrist sometimes spake of the Romans Prima fere vota The Prayers that most frequently resound Within our Temples are that wealth abound We enlarge our Desires like Hell like the Grave we are never satisfied nothing within the Orbicular compass of the World can fill up the Dimensions of our Triangular hearts Some are covetous Spend-thrifts some are covetous Hold fasts Some desire Abundance of this Worlds Goods meerly to Hoord it up dealing with their Mammon as the two Giants sometime with Mars first they lock it fast and then they worship it Others hearts earn after Superfluity either to Riot it in Excess and Surquedry to Rusfle it in Bravery to Lavish it out profusely upon their Minions and Servants the most Politique for the purchase of what ever Accursed things And so as David used Murther for a Pander to his Adultery these make their Covetise a Broker for their Prodigality yea all manner of Villany O Prodiga rer um Luxuries nunquam Parvo contenta O that of our Dayes Prodigal Luxury Which Natures Little cannot satisfie Quomodo concedet quae Rogas quae si habeas jubet ut contemnas is a seasonable Contemplation of St. Chrysostome by the way How thinkest tho● saith he that God shall hear thee when thou prayest for Superfluity which when thou shalt have it in thy possession hee wisheth thee to contemn How shall it stand with his Honour to gratifie thee with those things in the use whereof he knoweth that thou wilt Dishonour him The Egyptians that like Tongue-less men the sad Fate of many a true Israelite yea voice of the Lord in these Dayes of ours delivered all by signes whi●h they termed Hieroglyphiques were wont to clap a Bushel upon the head of the Sunne to intimate the measure that even in the best things is to be observed Our Saviour in that his Absolute Form of Prayer dictated to his Disciples prescribeth the utmost Bounds our Desires are in no wise to exceed Give us this Day our daily bread Luk. 11. 3. Certainly that of the Apostle 1 Tim. 6. 8. just reason we entertain for a Liberal gloss upon that our Saviours Text Having Food and Raiment let us therewith bee content Certainly a soul seasoned with the least moderation cannot but highly approve of that Dimensum cut out by the Poet as a very fair one Si Ventri bene si Latere Pedibus que tuis nil Divitiae poterunt Regales addere majus If Belly Sides and Feet be well at ●ase A Princes Treasure cannot better please Apuleius his advise to this purpose is no less Elegant then Apposite Fortunam velut Tunicam proba magis Concinnam quam Longam Conceive of thy Fortune as of thy Coat which is then best made up when it is rather Decent for the fitting of thy Body then over-long for the fettering of thine Heels And that wel-tempered Affection of that other Heathen in this case may well serve to prescribe to the best Christians imitation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Enamour'd I am not of spacious Fie●ds Nothing too much to me much comfort yeilds The whole scope of that our Saviours Parable of the Rich Cormorant in the Gospel whose preproperous jewelling of the Fruits of his field and so reckoning without his Host as wee say is met with by a sharp counterblast from the Almighty is but Emblematically to demonstrate as you may see that Mans Lise consisteth not in the Abundance of those things he possesseth Luke 12. 15. Alas my Beloved shall wee measure our Happiness meerly by those things that are before us how much wiser shall we approve our selvs then country people at a Puppet-play which stand gazing with Admiration upon the strange Motion of the Puppets but never think of the man that moveth them from within the Engine And so as our Prophet of the Proud Psal 10. 4. God upon the Result is not all this while in our Thoughts who yet onely is that Spirit that giveth Energy and Efficacy unto whatever Blessings we enjoy That word of the Philosopher in this