he knows the worse he shall be beaten 41. ADscribe neither too much nor too little to thy Minister Neither despise him nor deify him as the manner of some is Esteem him not as a principall author but as a subordinate actor Not as a Lord which the Apostles every where disclaim but as a steward Not as a Master but a Minister And yet account him not as a common and ordinary servant but a man of God [x] 2 Kings 4.27 a servant of the most high God that sheweth unto thee the way of Salvation [y] Acts 16.17 And yet account him as he is indeed not only a seer but an overseer [z] Acts 20.28 a steward of Gods high secrets [a] 1 Cor. 4.1 a messenger of the Lord of hosts [b] Malac. 2.7 who is appointed to be the opener and declarer of the will of God amongst the people by whose ambassage there is peace concluded and reconciliation ministerially made between God and man [c] 2 Cor. 5.18 19 20. the mouth of God unto the people by preaching and by praying the mouth of the people unto God one that in speciall place standeth before God and ministreth unto him upon earth as the Angells minister unto him in heaven [d] Rev. 1.20.2.1.3.1 42. WHatsoever publick mislike or privat unkindness fall out yet fall not out of charity with him whom God hath thought fittest to make thy Pastour That speciall proviso that strict charge is not yet out of date but in full force all thy life long Take heed to thy self that thou forsake not the Levite as long as thou livest upon the earth [e] Deut. 12.19 Did God as men commonly do make slight account of the Levite he would not set so strong a guard about him for his credit and preservation The Jewes have a saying that whosoever dieth in the displeasure of his Rabbi that is of him that hath charge of his soul he shall not be forgiven in this world or the world to come I dare not affirm so much But this I dare affirm and can confirm that dying or living to despise thy overseer if it be not unpardonable yet it is unprofitable and that for thy self obey them that have the rule over you and submit your serves to their good exhortations for they watch for your souls as they that must give an account that they may do it with joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for you saith the Apostle [f] Heb. 13.17 For if you grieve your overseers you will make them faint and quaile away and so you shall want guides to go in and out before you and then you shall be ready and a fit prey for that roaring Lyon that goeth about seeking whom he may devour Nay I dare boldly say more to despise thy Priest though never so low is a sin of so high nature that it is no lower than to despise the high Priest Christ Jesus He that despiseth you in thought word or deed despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me saith Christ himself [g] Luke 10.16 43. FAithless wretches and no better let them ever be in thy esteem Never think them trust-worthy whom thou seest malitiously bent against the persons of their faithfull Pastours Revile not abuse not offend not any of those that are called of God to be the Ministers of his Word to be the stewards of his mysteries [h] 1 Cor. 4.1 and to be his Ambassadours [i] 2 Cor. 5.20 whom he hath set to be neer unto him and to be in speciall grace and favour with him Dare any contend with him that is the Kings friend or favourite Do not all desire and seek his favour How then dare any disgrace and dishonour those and seek their utter ruine whom God hath pleased to make as it were of his privy Counsell not to give him Counsell but to take counsell from him and to reveale his counsell to the sons of men [k] Amos 3.7 Acts 20.27 44. IN all thy secret and unknown sins which thou tookest not to be sins which thou in weakness and ignorance hast committed A generall acknowledgment and generall if serious mourning for them may procure thy pardon but thy known sins thou must confess in speciall the severall kind of them at least though thou canst not remember the individuals and pray with earnestnes of spirit as for life and death for the remission of them thou must uncase and uncover them with all their circumstances if thou wouldst have God to cover them with the precious garment of JESUS CHRIST Blessed is the man whose sins are covered David saith [l] Psal 32.1 but whose sins are covered by Christ not by himself himself must open them David's heart smote him after he had numbred the people out of his meer pride and vanity to know how many thousand strong he was and when he saw multitudes of the people swept away with the pestilence for his sin with extreme sorrow of heart he cryed unto the Lord and said Lo I have sinned and I have done wickedly but these sheep what have they done Let thy hand I pray thee be against me and against my Fathers house [m] 2 Sam. 24.17 45. ALwayes remember that there are privative sins as well as positive negative as well as affirmative Not to do good is to do evill As well the forsaking or neglecting of necessary duties as the practising and pursuing opposite evills may make a man stand guilty of sin in Gods sight He is called a wicked and slothfull servant who put not his Lords money to the exchangers thought he had hid it in the earth and kept it safely and the same is cast into utter darkness not for wasting his talent or abusing it unto oppression but for letting it rust for not indeavouring to use it to his masters the Donors advantage according to his appointment [n] Matth. 25.26 27 30. Even Christ himself yeeldeth this much against himself that if he had not done that good deed to the man with the withered hand he had done evill and if he had not given life to that dead member of his he had so far killed him [o] Luke 6.9 It was not acting enmity but omitting amity not the taking away of others goods but not giving of his own that threw that delicious cormorant Dives into Hell [p] Non quod abstulerit aliena sed quod non donârit sua Greg. homil 40. in Evang. He took nothing from Lazarus He robbed him not of a rag He got not from him a crum of bread or a drop of water and yet he is accounted cruell and unmercifull and is cast into torments [q] Luke 16.23 46. BEware of superficialnes and intertain seriousness whensoever thou art about any divine office either for others or for thy self Let not thy mind wander remember what thou hast in hand consider what thou art doing
Eremicus theologus OR A Sequestred Divine HIS APHORISMS OR BREVIATS of Speculations IN TWO CENTURIES By Theophilus Wodenote B. D. sometimes fellow of Kings College in Cambridge Cantic chap. 4. ver 16. Awake O Northwinde and come thou South blow upon my garden that the spices thereof may flow out LONDON Printed by T. W. for Andrew Crook at the Green Dragon in S. Paul's Churchyard 1654. TO THE HIGHLY BORN HONORABLY MINDED AND WORTHY OF HONORABLE AND HIGH RESPECT MATTHEW HALSE of Efford in the County of Devon Esquire THEOPHILUS WODENOTE one of his obliged Oratours dedicates these his Aphorisms or Breviats of Speculations And daily beseecheth God for him that both he and all his issue so specious already by affinitie with so many Noble Progenies and still growing more and more eminent by their own sincere and abundant piety and charity may by divine mercy be preserved thorough faith unto salvation APHORISMS OR BREVIATS of Speculations The first Centurie 1. BEfore and after and in all businesses and at all times remember Prayer how canst thou hope to speed in any thing thou do'st if thou do'st it not in Gods fear and with his favour which is the very soule of thy soule and life of thy life so profitable so necessary that by it thy souls salvation and life it self liveth Let not thy unworthiness deterr thee though thou art subject to many passions and canst not pray as thou oughtest Elias was subject to the like and yet prayed and was heard (a) James 5.17 18. Upon a crie made the thief seeks to flie and neighbours come to help upon a prayer made the Devill shifts away and God comes to succour 2. IN petitioning Almighty God Ask and it shall be given you seek yee shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you (b) Matth. 7.17 Not alone ask and it shall be given you ther 's not a full point but seek and knock as well as ask our Saviour useth a threefold phrase and urgeth the duty from one degree to another with interposition of proportionable promises to signifie that we must pray often be earnest and zealous for cold suters proove cold speeders Cold and superficial requests can never pierce the clouds nor find any manner of access to the Throne of Grace The prayer of the righteous availeth much but with this condition if it be fervent (c) James 5.16 but put not ferventness in copiousness of syllables but of sense not in lip-labour but in heart-labour God esteemeth not the loudness or the length but the strength of prayer nor weighes he the ready words but the radicall devotion of him that praeth Thou mayest pray and cry and outcrie others even without crying out Moses prayer could not be heard on earth (d) Exod. 14.15 and yet the cry of it came up to heaven when the tongue cannot speak to God if with heart we can sigh to him he understandeth that language and we shall be sure of help A sigh sometimes will serve if truly from the soul 3. TRust not with the Papists to scale the high fort of Heaven by the broken and rotten ladder of the merits of Saints or thy own works or worthyness but place all thy hopes and moove all thy sutes in the Name of Jesus Christ without whom neither thou nor any of the Saints have any thing to do with God but pray God for thy right in Jesus Christ not to enter into judgment with thee but claime all thy right to blessedness by thy right in Jesus Christ without whom no man hath right in any thing saving in Gods indignation and his own destruction 4. PRay that thy faith may be scientious and unfeigned that thy lise may be conscientious and unspotted Mans life and religion are for the most part like A sound faith a sweet behaviour A false faith a debauched demeanour The fountaine being fowle and noysome can the water be faire and wholesome Can a bad tree bring forth good fruit Do men gather grapes of thornes or figs of thistles [e] Matth. 7.16 Neither can their outward conversation be pure whose inward perswasion is not perfect 5. WHat books soever other men admire and make their Jewels Let the Scriptures be dearer unto thee than all other books together Let them be a lampe to thy feet and a light unto thy paths [f] Psal 119.105 Set and settle thy continuall considerations upon them Wherein nothing is superfluous nor any thing wanting wherein whatsoever is taught is truth whatsoever is commanded is goodness whatsoever is promised is perfect happiness yea which not onely for pure and perfect matter but for high and heavenly expressions so farr excell that they are not to be mentioned with any other writings by way of comparison 6. HOw ragged are mens expressions How poor the pithiness of their discourses In sight of the sacred Scriptures their most accomplished Treatises are not so much as the light of a candle to the glorious brightness of the Sun in his chiefest splendour In Gods book every particle hath his poize every tittle is usefull every syllable is sententious every word is wonderfull He that once truly knows it cannot chuse but love it He that truly loves it cannot chuse but with all the veines of his heart commend it to others 7. TAke not upon thee to justify whatsoever any the most learned men without speciall inspiration hath published but whatsoever any pen-man of Scripture to whom the Holy Ghost did dictate hath set down defend to thy death and with thy death Men may erre not knowing the Scriptures [g] Matth. 22.29 not attaining to the perfect sense of them Apollo's a learned Doctour fervent in the Spirit and mighty in the Scriptures yet was he ignorant in divers things and received instruction from Aquila and Priscilla [h] Acts 18.26 We know in part and we prophesy in part said S. Paul [i] 1 Cor. 13.9 after long study and many wonderfull revelations after God had exalted him to the third heaven and there shewed him more than a man might conceive In sundry things as men we are many times much mistaken but not a word in all the sacred volumes that can be either false or faulty the Scriptures of God cannot erre 8. TAke not advantages but advertisements by Scripture read it not to feed a faction but to find a truth look both forward and backward and diligently ponder the circumstances that thou mayest the more clearely perceive the substance catch not at the words or phrases but consider what the will of the Lord is Think not when Christ saith that all that ever came before him were thieves robbers [k] John 10.8 that therefore Moses Elias Elisha Isaiah Jeremiah and the rest of the Prophets were no better than thieves and robbers because they went before Christ in time but that such only were thieves as professed themselves to be the door of the sheep or received or
to do but a great number of them for our admonition that we may know what to shun 17. WHom thou now truly believest to be invisible and immortall and incomprehensible Think not at any time that God is in earnest like one of us or that God hath a body because the Scriptures sometimes give him our parts because we read of the heart of God eyes ears arms hands feet and such like for the holy pen-men by now and then the things of God by the phrases of men for mens better apprehension and readyer understanding because we cannot understanding because we cannot understand how one should see without eyes or heare without eares or shew strength without armes I speak after the manner of men saith Saint Paul because of the infirmity of your flesh [y] Rom. 6.19 I speak as men commonly use in regard of your weak capacities and carnall imaginations taking the best way to be understood to instruct your souls and affect your hearts Come not to the hearing or reading of such speeches as the Corinthians came together not for the better but for the worse [z] 1 Cor. 11.17 gather not the more errour from them but the more knowledge Hear them or read them to that end for which they were written even for thy clearer conception and easier perswasion 18. IN all places and amongst all persons let thy maine care alwaye be to set forward Gods cause to defend his truth to maintaine his Name and estimation whensoever it is any way questioned or evill spoken of Have a greater care of Gods glory than of any others or of thine own and let it go neerer unto thee to hear Gods Name dishonoured than to have thine own destroyed yea rather than thou O Lord shouldst lose any part of thy glory which is most proper and precious unto thee glory be for ever taken away from us and our honour with all contempt and disgrace layd in the dust loss of credit and reputation be to all our doings and sayings losse to our goods and good name and whatsoever in this world is most dear unto us 19. BE slow to wrath in the greatest in juries inferred upon thy selfe but in the least affront offered to God put on all the indignation and rigour thou hast Be mild and forbearing suffering and soft in causer of thy own but in the quarrell of God be magnanimous and fervent sharp and severe according to thy power and place Moses in his own quarrell in matter concerning himself was a man most meek and had not an equall unto him in his time for peaceable and gentle behaviour [a] Numb 12.2 3. he quietly bare wonderfull wrongs and was easily perswaded to depart from his right But when he was to deal for God he took upon him an holy obstinanacy He would not consent unto Pharao that so much as an hoofe should remain behind them [b] Exod. 10.26 but when he spyed a Calf in the campe when he perceived idolatry committed and Gods glory comming into question He proclamed a bloody massacre and pronounced the execution to be a consecration yea he with his partakers speedily sacrifised to God the blood of three thousand malefactours [c] Exod. 32.27 28 29. S. Paul was not mooved with thought of his own troubles or danger of death but when he saw the City of Athens wholy given to idolatry his spirit was stirred in him and though he did not as Moses because he had not the like authority yet he disputed in the Synagogue with the Jewes and with the devout persons and in the Market daily with them that met with him [d] Acts 17.16 17. 20. MAke O make no long yea no little tarrying to turne unto the Lord put not off from day to day from youth to old age when Summer is turned into Winter when the raine descendeth and the flouds come and the winds blow [e] Matth. 7.27 when men are beset with troubles and sickness with paine and grief and torment when their wits and senses are taken up to devise remedyes against their diseases to prevent or to sustain the pangs of death but remember thy Creatour and remember a convenient time for thy Creatour remember thy Creatour in the dayes of thy youth in thy young years in thy flourishing dayes in thy time of prosperity whilst thy sences are sharpe thy memory quick thy wit ripe thy capacity ready thy understanding deep Remember his might that thou mayest believe his mercy that thou mayest hope his justice that thou mayest be fearfull his goodnes that thou mayest be thankfull [g] Augustinus 21. LOve all Gods children for his sake and obey all superiours whom he hath appointed The debt of love is generall we all owe it and we owe it unto all but trust in God and depend upon him onely joyne not any creature with him He is contented and hath commanded that we should perform all other duties to all others to whom they belong Render therefore to all their dues tribute to whom tribute is due custom to whom custom fear to whom fear honour to whom honour appertaineth [h] Rom. 13.7 provided alwayes that we yeeld them all to him chiefly to him ever and to none so much as him But the worship of confidence he hath reserved wholy to himselfe neither may we communicate it to any other upon any conditions without extreme disloyalty to him what is it less than idolatry for the meanest upon earth to tender it and as much as it as sacrilege for the mightiest upâ—arth to take it 22. OPen thy mouth and thy mind for thy brethren when they are molested and maligned and laden with scandals and reproaches but much more then for his cause and for his glory that made thy mouth and thy mind Be not ashamed of his righteousnes or of his Gospell lest he be ashamed of thee confess his Name before the sons of men and thou shalt be sure to be confessed before the sons of God Acknowledge Christs truth and he will acknowledge thee before the Angels and before his Father 23. IT hath been the custome alwayes of the best sort to offer in the best manner the best they had unto the best that is to the Lord himself Offer thou likewise the best to God whensoever thou hast cause to offer if ever thou desire to be in the number of the best otherwise the worst sort shall rise up in judgment and condemn thee the very idolaters that worshipped the works of their own hands and turned the truth of God into a lie shall go before thee into the Kingdom of heaven They in their oblations thought not the worst they had or what came first to hand as good enough but brought the best they had would have brought better if they could and thought nothing too much for their newly devised God they were content to spoil themselves that they might adorn their idols (i) Exod. 32.2 3. 24. STand upon
learning and grow in grace set thine ears to harken to the Word if thou wouldst not have thy prayers despised despise not the Word to heare the Word come thou never careless lest thou depart fruitless come thou never with any contempt least thou reape condemnation whosoever busieth himself in other things as gazing here and there observing clothes and countenances remooving talking beckning nodding and such like gestures whil'st he is hearing heareth but with half an ear if with half an ear whereas both are too little for so high a work whereas all the powers both of soul and body should for that time wait upon the voice of the Preacher 33. WHensoever thou art resolved to hear be an humble suter to God for a blessing both upon thy self and the preacher upon the preacher to prepare his speech upon thy self to perswade thy soul For though hearing of necessity go before faith yet faith doth not of necessity follow after hearing The fowler catcheth not every bird he calleth neither doth the preacher win every soule he wooeth whom the Holy Ghost teacheth not inwardly they return unlearned [p] Quos Spiritus Sanctus non intus docet indocti redeunt August in epist Johan tract 3. It is not mans words that maketh man understand Gods Words It is God that maketh him to understand [q] Non ver bi hominis fit ut intelligatur verbum Dei facit Deus ut intelligatis Aug. He hath his chaire in heaven that mooveth hearts on earth [r] Cathedram in coele habet qui corda movet Aug. 34. COme not to the house of God onely to heare others taught but to learn thy self too come not to refresh thy self but to reform thy life Affect not such teaching as appeareth to be most plausible but such as is most profitable not that which may please the ear but that which may pierce the heart Attend not so much what well digested order what eloquence what learning the preacher sheweth as what mis-opinions he detecteth what schismes or heresies he convinceth what sins he reprooveth that so thou mayest the sooner come to repentance There is danger in not hearing and no less daunger in hearing and not profiting It is not more wicked not to come to hear than to come and hear and mind to be wicked Better not come to hearing than not come by hearing to be better 35. HEar not the Word by parts and parcels by clauses or cantels onely so farr as it agreeth with thy humor and keepeth fair and far off from medling with thy offences but attend and hear as well the judgments of God thundered out against thee in the Law as the sweet promises pronounced and offered in the Gospell as well the laying open of thy own sins as the publishing of the sins of other men we are ready to hear all things that are commanded thee of God saith Cornelius [Å¿] Acts 10.33 when Peter came to preach at his house not to hear only such things as we like but to hear all things that are commanded thee of God though thou be charged to press most earnestly upon us to turn from our most pleasing ways O who commeth to hear now adayes with the like mind And yet as he must be reformed whosoever will be saved so he must with a calme and subdued heart intertain all just reproofs whosoever desireth to be reformed 36. SUbmit thy self unto thy Minister with reverence and patience not onely when thou hearest pleasing things precious promises and gracious comforts but when thou hearest him according to Gods Word sounding an alarm in thine ears uttering reproofs delivering threatnings and denouncing judgments against the prevailing sins of the time and therefore perhaps thine amongst the rest as lying slandering murmuring and treason pride and oppression malice and cruelty The which howsoever it seem as bitter potions and very distastfull to flesh and bloud yet is it very wholesom for the soul and spirit may help to purge away the gross humours of sin and preserve from eternall death No wickeder man than he who being hardened in sin hateth to be reprooved who cannot without raging indure to hear him by whom he is meekly and wisely rebuked for his sins 37. THat thou mayest not perish but profit by the threatnings of God know that the denunciations of Gods Judgments are for the most part conditionall not absolute towards his people and to be undestood with this exception except they repent [t] Luke 13.3.5 Apoc. 2.5 If we be hereupon stirred up to repentance and new obedience even in the greatest and most fearfull threatnings of Gods heavy Judgments there is comfort remaining and hope of grace mercy to be found there is health in sickness and life in death 38. NEither read nor hear as travailers by the Law might ear grapes [u] Deut. 23.25 that is eat some for the present time but carry none away with them but whatsoever good thou readest or hearest learn to remember it and remember to follow it remember it love it practise it remember it that thou mayest earnestly love it love it that thou mayest continually practise it and persevere in it to read it or hear it and not to remember it is ridiculous to remember it and not to love it is vain to love it and not to practise it is absurd but to remember it love it practise it and persevere in it is the way to everlasting blessedness 39. UNderstand this and mark it that outward service separated from inward obedience is not respected but rejected of God If thou keep from him the one he careth not for the other naked hearing is but a needless halting in Gods sight which God cannot abide bare receiving of the holy Sacrament without faith without love without conscience is but a base deceiving of thy own soul 40. KNowledge and practice of Gods will are as two wings whereby we must flie up to heaven there is no flying with the one alone It is not enough to know what to do unless we labour to do what wee know knowledge without obedience and imployment is not a vertue for good but a venom for hurt and in such an unthrifty steward the more increase of science the more increase of sorrow For what can he look for in the end but an equall number of stripes according to the measure of his unfruitfull understanding Even ignorance thorough want of the means shall exempt no person from offence or condemnation He that knowes not his masters will shall not altogether escape unpunished though his case be more tolerable though his censure shall be the less though he be beaten with fewer strips but on him to whom the Lord hath vouchsafed the means of knowledge will he be sure to powr down the greater vengeance but that servant that knew his Masters will and prepared not himself neither did according to his [w] Luke 12.47 48. will shall be beaten with many stripes the better
of his Saviour to his soule as the medicine to the malady 53. IF the departing of others from their faith whom thou conceivedst more likely to have departed from their lives Sathans alleging and aggravating thine infirmities affronting affrighting thee with Gods Justice troubles and persecutions one after another like Job's messengers shake and stagger thee make thee question thy own faith yet if with thy faith in God thou feelest in thy self a hatred of sin and a desire of righteousness which refraineth thee from much wickedness and stirreth thee up to some works of vertue although there remain in thee the relicts of sin yea a motion unto sin contrary to the Spirit of God which also breaketh out sometimes into actuall sins yet if thy conscience shall not upbraid thee with sin wilfull and presumptuous if thy hearts delight hath always been in Gods Statutes thy study to thy strength to abandon all iniquity soundly without guile and humbly without pride It is a hand and seal unto thy soule to make it sure thou shalt be saved 54. DOst thou doubt and fear that thou truly lovest not grace and salvation and yet lovest all the ordinances of God for mans salvation and yet hungrest and thirstest after the word and Sacraments and all other Christian exercises Be not deceived be not discouraged These are sure effects of sincerity These things make it apparent that thy doubts are of no weight and thy fears frivolous Thou couldst not with so great care and circumspection seek if thou wert not willing to find Thou couldst not with so great speed and resolution travell if thou hadst not hearty mind to thy journeys end even the salvation of thy soul [d] 1 Pet. 1.9 55. DOst thou feel sometimes a dolefull change in thy mind Is thy soul cast down and disquieted within thee Doth thy faith sometimes fearfully stagger Art thou ready to give over thy hold of God Yet out of his gracious goodness will he never give over the hold that he hath of thee His anchor is so firmly setled and fixed upon the ground of thy heart that no stormes or tempests can shake or loose it Art thou prone sometimes to leave God yet is he resolved not to leave thee or to lose thee The Lord hath bought thee at too high a price to part upon such low termes from thee 56. SEest thou the wicked so forward to put evill motions in practice that they no sooner apprehend them but approve them no sooner approove them than execute them yea proceed and continue in them cheerfully and constantly Tell not them of Beares or Lyons in the way They are busy in pursuing their game and they will get it whatsoever it cost them for they have so decreed and set it down Oh be thou as ready to intertaine the good motions of Gods holy Spirit Esteem of them highly and imbrace them heartily practise them freely and faithfully and return the strength to the giver so shal God plentifully powr down his grace upon thee so shall thou never want favour after favour God will never fail to add good to him who imployes that good which he hath received Imploy all those gifts thou hast and look for more Imploy them not and look to lose what thou hast whosoever hath to him shall be given and he shall have more abundance [e] Matth. 13.12 and whosoever hath not from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have [f] Luke 8.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 57. BE not a sluggard in any good calling and much less in thy calling to Christianity notwithstanding all discouragements temptations and oppositions to the contrary that may stand up in the way to hinder thee The calling of a Christian can least of all others stand with idleness If the idle mans belly shall be pinched and starved for want of food [g] Prov. 6.11 and his back cloathed with raggs [h] Prov. 23.21 If by doing nothing he shall bring himself to nothing and having no calling poverty have a calling to arrest him How shall the idle Christians soule speed what regard what intertainment shall that have wish not only for grace and salvation but work out thy salvation with fear and trembling [i] Philip. 2.12 If every languishing and lazy flash of every wisher and woulder were enough there would be swarmes of reprobates in heaven flocks and flights of people would never fall into destruction if words and desires without religious and righteous deeds would preserve them from it Balaam that wretched covetous hypocrit wished that he might dy the death of the righteous [k] Numb 23.10 but he took no care to live the life of the righteous which might have assured him of dying well The foolish Virgins would have gladly gone in with the Bridegroom they hoped after oil of the wiser Virgins and begged hard to be let in if that might have prevailed But they bewailed their want and went to buy oil for their Lamps when it was too late but they would not be at the paines and charges to provide themselves of oil in due time but they had it not in readiness when the Lord came suddenly in the night and therefore they reaped the soure fruit of their sweet security they had the gates of the Bridegroom and the door of eternall life shut up against them and were excluded into perpetuall darknes where is weeping and gnashing of teeth [l] Matth. 25.2 3 c. 58. IN all the actions and transactions of thy life Let thy projects be pious and righteous and thy practices proportionable and allowable to aime at the best ends by by-wayes is schismaticall to walk in the most worthy wayes to wry intents is hypocriticall to desire neither lawfull works nor lawfull wayes is Atheisticall but to labour at least for the right prize by the right path is alwayes both comfortable and commendable is both the office and wisdom of a Christian 59. LEt there be in thy purpose sincerity in thy practice integrity in thy disposition diligence in thy proceeding perseverance Let thy dutyes both to God and man be without dissembling without diminishing without repining without revolting 60. BE alwayes rich in the work of the Lord [m] 1 Cor. 15.58 ready to distribute willing to communicate [n] 1 Tim. 6.18 Be ready to every work [o] Titus 3.1 which either the common duty of Christianity or thy own private calling requireth of thee or with such sacrifices God is well pleased [p] Heb. 13.16 and faith very probably prooved The historicall faith or faith of miracles may appear without good works as in the Devils who have one of them and in Judas that damned reprobate who had both of them but the true justifying faith that ingraffs thee into Christ that reconciles thee to God that quits thy sin and saves thy soul can never be known to others nor to thy self but by good works There may happily
serve him to believe his truth and walk in his Commandments Him will God love most who shall winne most to the love of God (f) Is in amore Dei major erit qui plurimos ad ejus amorem trahit Greg. in hom wherefore hath God given thee light but that thou shouldst give light to others How canst thou be sure of thy own calling if thou hast no delight to call others Thou art not turned to God thy self if thou bear not that heart that thou wouldst even think thy self happy mightest thou be a means to turn another unto God The Prophet Isaiah that Evangelical Prophet and Prophetical Evangelist prophecying of the Kingdom of Christ bringeth in the people so full of zeal that they stir up one another saying Come ye and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us of his ways and we will walk in in his paths (g) Isaiah 2.3 And Zachariah saith They that dwell in one City shall go to another saying Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord and to seek the Lord of Hosts (h) Zachar. 8.21 74. BE not wise to thy self Be not a niggard of thy knowledge but communicate thy knowledge to others Cover not thy candle with a vessel neither put it under a bed but set it on a candlestick that they which enter in may see the light (i) Luke 8.16 So shalt thou perform the intent of thy stewardship so shalt thou be of the number of those who profiting teach and by teaching profit knowledge may fitly be resembled to the Widows oyl which the more it was powred out the more it increased knowledge may be well likened to the five loaves which the more they were distributed the more they multiplyed As contrariwise if knowledge be not imparted it will be impaired If we keep it private we shall be deprived of it 75. ARt thou learned and able to teach others yet disdain not that any should teach thee what mortal meer man ever attained to that depth of judgment as not to be yet ignorant in many profitable concernments Even in the same profession that may be hidden from one which is known to another to attend is no hinderance but that a man may speak to speak is no hinderance but that a man may hear therefore Job matcheth them together saying Let a man of understanding tell me there is he prepared to learn let a wise man harken to me (k) Job 34.34 there is he provided to speak speaking and hearing amongst all that are wise-hearted cannot be prejudicial one to another 76. ATtend as often and as carefully as thou mayest to all wholesome and convenient directions Be more desirous to harken to others than to hear thy self but especially when thou meetest with such as excell in knowledge as are filled with the knowledge of Gods will in all wisedom and spiritual understanding by whom in many things thou mayest exactly cure thy ignorance by learning in silence who are as profitable Well-springs plentifull and perpetual such as fail not nor can be drawn dry at any time whose hearts feed their mouths and thereout excellent observations in one usefull respect or other readily flow as a free stream from a full fountain 77. COntemn not neither lightly pass over such things as thou seest but seriously search and seek not only what temporal but especially what spiritual use thou canst draw from them that may enrich thy soul and help to build thee up in Christ Jesus learn wich the Bee to gather celestial honey as well from the weed as from the flower learn by the Dust thy baseness by the Grass thy frailty by the Ant diligence by the Sheep patience by the Oxe thankfulness by the Clouds bountifulnes learn by the Darknes the time of thy ignorance by the Light the time of the Gospel by every thing something that may wean thee from earth and win thee to Heaven 78. COmmune often with thy own heart and let thy spirit make diligent search wherein thou hast offended in thought word deed by sins of omission or commission against God thy neighbour and thy self stand not in thine own light be not partial but examin thy self earnestly thoroughly uprightly Neither only examin but upon examination condemn thy self fall at Gods feet and humbly cry for mercy Thus if thou judge thy self before thy self in this thy day thou shalt not be condemned in the last day before the Judgment Seat of Christ in the presence and audience of all the world 79. DIscover to thy Surgeon thy sores to thy Physician thy disease to Almighty God thy sins It is a good disgrace that procureth grace He preventeth his cure that doth not publish his cause (l) Ipse sibi denegat curam qui suam medico non publicat causam Aug. epist 188. The Lord indeed knoweth all things but yet requireth thy confession is acquainted with all thy wishes and all the volutations of thy mind but nevertheless expecteth thy words (m) Novit Deus omnia vocem tatamen tuam expectat Ambros de poenit l. 1. cap. 23. 80. THink not thy self immediately made clean from all thy iniquity transgression and sin if thou shed a few tears and bewail them but be sorrowful for them and sorrowful that thou canst be no more sorrowful considering that if a river were turned into tears flowing from thine eyes thou couldst never sufficiently be grieved for thy offences if God should in his Justice only require it and yet dispair not but take a true and comfortable and fast hold upon God by a lively faith who is gracious and abundant in mercy whose mercy hath neither bottom nor measure who will not the death of a sinner but rather that he should repent and live disliking himself for his manifold misdemeanors and cleaving to God for his manifold mercyes 81. BE not so cast down in the sight of thy own unworthyness as to think because thou deservest not Gods mercy therefore thou shalt never be partaker of it For how plentiful are his gracious promises every where of favour and compassion the which though there be no cause in thee why he should confirm yet is there cause enough in himself why he should perform who whatsoever he will he can and whatsoever he hath promised he will who alwayes useth to be as good as his word who is infinite in his mercy and infallible in his truth 82. IF thou wouldst repent truly and thoroughly pray earnestly to the Lord that it would please him of his infinite compassion to look upon thee with the eyes of his grace The most merciful God is the only giver of repentance unto life n (m) Act. 11.18 It is not in mans power to repent when he will but when God will It is not thy own or any others indeavour that can do any thing in this way till God put to his help untill Christ did
look back upon Peter with his Spirit as well as with his ey thereby to work upon his conscience He was not moved He was not touched with compunction He had no heart at all to go out nor will to mourn and weep bitterly for his sins 83. SEest thou thy neighbour drawn into a dangerous sin draw not out thy stilletto of final condemnation upon him look not upon him without hope deprave not his former graciousness as though it had never been real nor conclude his future reprobation as though he could never be righteous what knowest thou but that he that is fallen may rise again as a member that is out of joint may be set in again And what knowest thou but that the same which is to day his sin may be to morrow thy wickedness reprove him and admonish him thou mayest and must according to thy office and opportunity So thou begin and proceed with a charitable construction and Christian compassion but to aggravate and amplify slips or falls as worldlings use to do and to sentence offendours to the pit of hell that is a power for the potter not for the clay (o) Non est judicium luti sed figuli Aug. de correp grat cap. 5. Thou hast no part nor fellowship in that authority 84. BEholdest thou any slain together in the field or drowned together in the Sea or any way els come to the same destruction together yet conclude them not equally vertuous or vicious or their rewards after death alike happy or miserable For their lives may be contrary though their deaths be the same or though they agree a long time in their race yet may they differ before their races end The two malefactours that suffered with our Saviour on the Cross had the like external punishment but not the like eternal condemnation in their death they were not divided they both dyed a violent death but in their souls they were plainly parted the one went to heaven the other to hell 85. JUdge not any man by his distemperature in his sickness but by his disposition in his health or by the strangenes of his death but by the strictness of his life whereof the constant course is the best rule whereby to conjecture his future estate unless thou wilt be judged thy self to be full of malice and empty of charity They are usual mischiefs and not extravagant misdemeanours No not raving and blaspheming in case of violent disease disturbing the head and brain that can make any probable argument or likely signe of a son of perdition 86. ABhor that pe remptory censure that this man is a Saint and that man is a sinner he the servant of God and he the child of the Devill For who is able without special revelation to say determinately and assuredly touching another that he is the child of the Devill or that he is the Child of God cannot grace easily cut off the oldest and strongest entail of wickedness Are there not many Wolves within the very Church whose hypocrisy the Lord will in time discover and are there not many sheep without the sheepfold of Christ which God in his time will call (p) August hom 45. upon John What man is there of so weak a faith or so wicked a life but that one day Christ out of his infinite goodness may call him and heal him How far was Paul out of the way and in what wrong and violent course in his former years He breathed out threatnings and slaughter against the Disciples of the Lord (q) Acts 9.1 he was a blasphemour and an oppressour (r) 1 Tim. 1.13 But was he so alwayes Did not God reduce him and reform him in his later years whilst he was striking was he not stricken into his conversion and of a ravenous and most cruell wolfe was he not made first a mild sheep and then a most diligent and excellent shepheard And where is he that dare take upon him so to judge of another mans future estate as to say certainly that he is damned or he is saved Is it not more than he hath any warrant for Who art thou that so judgest anothers servant Is it not to his own master only who perfectly knows him to whom he stands or falls and not to thee who art not able to know his heart Is not his own master only that one Law-giver who is able to save and to destroy (s) James 4.12 Who art thou that takest such authority and severity upon thee that dealest so unmercifully with thy brother He is a sinner and so art thou a sinner so either thou art or hast been or mayest be Judge thy self try and examin thy own works search and sift them Judge thy self and judge not him lest thou be condemned of the Lord for not judging and judging 87. BEfore thou receive the holy Sacrament whose price is unvaluable and the vertue no less than the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ (t) 1 Cor. 10.16 To the partaking whereof no man should rashly and rudely thrust himself or come without religious fear and trembling lest instead of a seal of Gods mercy he receive a pledge of his wrath if thou be not fit for such a favour of so high and holy a nature endeavour to make thy self fit and the way to make thy self fit is examination of thy self in what case thou standest Examin thy repentance whether it be sincere thy purpose whether it be stedfast thy faith whether it be lively thy thankfulness whether it be real and thy charity whether it be generall 88. BE frequent and forward in coming to the holy Sacrament a visible pledge of Gods grace and holy covenant with thee a Seal to assure thee of the performance of the gracious promises made to thee in the Word a part of the most delicate and delightful souls food that ever was tasted or that can be in the world Deprive not thy self of so excellent a help both to provoke obedience and to strengthen faith and to increase the comfort of the inward man Make preparation but make not excuse Thou wouldst think thy self wrong'd if having furnished thy table and provided liberally for thy guests any one of them frowardly should reject thy kindness what a wrong is it then to refuse the table and feast of Almighty God It is no less danger to abstaine from the Lords Supper wilfully than it is to receive it unworthily 89. WHat though Gods gifts be sure without sealing as he himself is sure without changing what though the Sacraments of themselves cannot confer grace ex opere operato by the work wrought that is by force and vertue of the work and Word done and said in the Sacrament as the Papists affirm (u) Conc. Trident. Sess 6. cap. 8. Rhem. Acts 22. Sec. 1. Ro. 6. Sect. 5. blasphemously giving that power to the creature which belongeth only to the Creatour yet are they instruments of Gods merc es