to your Worships of every Opinion and Sentiment Episc Presb. Independ c. It being no extraordinary Matter with whom you run whose Cry you follow and whose Shibboleth you have taken to pronounce For without the true Scope and Substance of Religion all external Formalities are equal Fooleries And their most punctual Observance is no wiser than Domitian's business in catching of Flies Like the antient Pharisees you may glister with your Phylacteries and Tephilims And reverence your selves as highly as any Spanish Alumbrados or domestick Dreamers but Serpents be Serpents thô their Skins be ever so richly painted And could Men perswade themselves that they were really Gods their Conceit would make them but so much the worse Men. Wherefore know ye Sirs that You have two Classes one of gross and another of close Hypocrites The Gross who are less blind but more mad Who do use Art and Fiction to make their Mock Religion Knowing how far they are from the Holy State and the Walk which they counterfeit As he who upon the Stage acts the Part of a King knows himself to be none The close Hypocrites are you sick of the Jaundies to whom all things do seem golden and rich And who do therefore think as you speak when you call your selves Christians thô you neglect and hate God's Christ Neglect his Grace and hate his Government and are no more his pardoned Favourites or consenting Subjects than Turks and Tartars But are much blacker Sinners than either because you have Means and you if you would might know both your Saviour and your selves The things which both of you pretend is to be Children of God and Heirs of Heaven For the least of true Christians are no less The Cloaks you do put on are more and less fine It contents not some Papists to be common ones but they must enter some particular Order And it will not serve all of you to be common Protestants some of you must be of this or that Sect. And Opinion Party and way of Worship are your most cheap but least serviceable Cloak Wherefore some of you do go to the cost of a demure Countenance and a reformed Life and very many Works of Piety Justice and Charity Abundance of Snow is laid on to make your Dunghils look like Gardens Very many white Feathers are used to hide your black Skins More than a few Flowers are procured to strew your Corps And to what end is this To be Cesar's Friends when Cesar is God's Friend But mostly for fear of a Power superior to any Cesar To escape the flaming Sword of Conscience that is not to be averted without some Image of Holiness And sometimes to gratify the Concupiscence of Vogue and Praise Carnal ends of your false Dealings all of them And such as are demonstrative of a Mind to persist in a carnal sinful State For it 's sure he loves a Dunghil that adorns it a Blackamore that puts him in a fine Dress and a Corps that strews Flowers on it It is most certain when you go to charge in whitewashing and painting an old rotten House you do not mean to pull it down While you keep a stir to make you seem what you are not you have no intention to make your selves what you ought to be And what you must become or it had been better you had never been born For the Name of Religion which you get without any Merit you hold without any Profit But by what Witchcraft are you held from all manner of Thought Or notwithstanding this do you sometimes think hereof Sc. How you should take it if your Servants did set upon your Tables no more than the Hair of your Oxen the Feathers of your Fowls the Shells of your Fish Giving the best of all three to your sworn Enemies No better do you serve and no less do you mock your great Master Putting him off with no more than false shews of Honour Love and Worship Bestowing the Estimation of your Minds the Affection of your Hearts and the Obedience of your Lives upon your Idols This is your dealing with I AM THAT I AM. The Heathen World was not so blind but it saw this God being a Spirit is to be worship'd in Spirit The Ceremonious Jewish one was taught that the true Circumcision was that of the Heart And shall any of the Christian World doubt it Thus speaks the Gospel Covenant I will write my Law in their Heart Deceive not your selves with Conceits that all is well and you have the inward parts as well as the outward ones of Christianity You know that a dead Man hath inward Parts But what then He hath them dead and so hath no inward Man You have likewise many rare Parts in you but the Misery is they are dead In short it is a dead Body wherein the Soul lives not And a dead Soul it is wherein the Holy Ghost lives not That Holy worker of Grace with all the Graces which are his Holy Works Dead you are if you dwell not in God and God in you Until you love God and nothing else but for God's sake it is but in degree that you differ from the worst of Men. So as Toads do differ from Asps But it is in Nature and Kind that Men truly Good do excel you So as Wheat excels Chaff and Children excel Dogs And plainly it must be said The Lord hath not yet given you an Heart to perceive and Eyes to see and Ears to hear To hear his Word and do it The Son of Perdition was first a close Dissembler and afterwards a bold Traitor Not afraid to go straitway from the Holy Sacrament to the Execution of the most accursed Project There is a just Fear of many of your selves Will it please you therefore to observe particularly There is a specious Repentance in which you may perish Judas perished in his He had a deadly Sorrow for Sin but no godly one And so may you You do grieve for your Sin And so does every Felon when he comes to Tyburn You do turn and cast away your Transgressions And so do Seamen cast their beloved Goods to the Sea's bottom in a Storm Yet they venture their Lives to get them up again in a Calm Know it Sirs as there is a trembling of Heart which is a true saving Grace there is also a trembling of Heart which Divines as well as Physicians do call a dangerous Disease Pejus poenituit quam peccavit â—â—das saith St. Austin You repent not unto Life if you count not that to dishonour God is worse than Death And if you break not off your Sins as a Prisoner doth his Irons with a desire they may never come on any more There is a Sense in which you may believe and be damned Devils do believe and tremble And what are your Thoughts of Simon Magus You may believe the Gospel as a History so you do the Gazette And who questions but the History of it is believed
Is Religion open-handed and liberal Yes and its Liberality is a laying up Treasure in the safest Bank A lending it out upon the best Interest Making Friends in the Court of Heaven with it and making the continual Feast of a good Conscience with it Which doth as little tend to Poverty as scattering of rich Seed in the most fertile Soil Doth Vice appear a plain way to Opulence It doth so Sordid Living Fraud and Oppression are the beaten Road and do seem to be the Direct one But they are the quite contrary For commonly they do make Poor and lastingly they do never make Rich. Penury starves a Thousand for every one that it does fatten Fraud is a Partridg that sits upon Subventaneous Eggs and hatcheth not Or if otherwise the infamous Brood is but short liv'd The Gain of the Oppressor hastens to the Collectors for the Poor Oftime's Mens Malice or Justice but always Divine Vengeance crusheth all three And let the Mines of one India and the Spices of the other be gained by a loose Man he shall still be a poor One But It will be asked And are not the Communion of Saints the Poor of this World also The answer is easy Comparatively they are Poor of lower Condition than you whose abundance is generally your Destruction But absolutely they are Rich. For their little is Good and better than your great Riches Their Appetites are Healthful yours are Canine and Dropical Their Enough is a Feast and your Feasts are not Enough They are as Having nothing yet Possessing all Things And besides the Poverty of Good Men is not always owing to their Goodness Defect of Diligence and of Providence and of various Duties brings them into their Straits Nor would they be so needy if they were more holy Drowsiness bringeth some to their Rags And prevailing Pride giveth others a Fall Rarely it is that Saints do want Necessaries and that they lay the Blame on any thing so much as on their Sin when they do want them 5. Health the Life of Life must needs be a Pearl and precious with you And will you nor believe your Eyes Or can you chuse but see Religion gives Health to the Navel and Marrow to the Bones In its Hand is the length of Days with the Sweetness of them Youth it beautifies and sweetens and it makes the most and the best of Old Age Puts a rare Balsam into all Blood Mortifies the VICE that by natural Efficacy works Disease Prevents wild Passions of Mind and all intemperance of Body which give the Humours a Ferment that sometimes createth present Sickness and always disposeth for future A Chearful Mind it imparts which doeth good like a Medicine And if any such be is a Catholicon both for Cure and Prevention All Experience doth verify this Theory The best Learned King of Israel makes his Appeal Who hath Wo Who hath Sorrow Who hath redness of Eyes They that tarry long at the Wine In the Old Testament he was the Meekest Man whose Eye when Old was not Dim and his Natural Force was not abated In the New Testament he was the Disciple whose Thoughts and Writings ran all upon Divine Love who enjoyed a more vigorous Old Age than his Brethren All Ages are witnesses how generally vitious Lives are short Ones How Surfeits and Debaucheries inflame Blood spend Spirits and cut Lives in halves You do know that much will not be given you for a Lease of a Lewd Man's Life Temperance is the best Physick saith Bishop Sanderson And the Precepts of Christ well observed would prevent as many Diseases as his Miracles cured saith grave Mr. Lukin 6. Courage to look dangers in the Face is a covetable Excellence This World is a rough Sea The vicissitudes of Calm and Storm are as constant as those of Night and Day And it is an ill thing to be without this Anchor when Billows do roar But except a Religious one there is no Spirit of Boldness and of a sound Mind It is true a Wild Man may have the Metal of a Blind Horse Yet the most of them do fear the Deity in a Tempest which they deny in a still Weather And it 's only the Righteous Man who is bold as a Lion i. e. with a Strength and Sagacity sufficient to his safety Vice raiseth Tumults in your Minds and cannot lay them It is a thing too exorbitant to be other than impotent Religion as it is a Heavenly Wisdom and Strength to prevent Causes of distracting Fear so it carries in it a Power to overrule the blind Passions which otherwise will distract us without any Cause Vice doth darken deform and debilitate your Spirit Religion enlarges your Mind exalts your Wills eradicates your base Passions Maketh your Souls to bear the change of Affairs as a sound Body doth the change of Weathers without much Prejudice and Impatience For what an ill Man can never be a Good Man is satisfied from himself His Heart not condemning him he hath Confidence toward God! A Confidence excelled by nothing but the beatifical Vision And such as gives the sublimest Comforts in the lowest Conditions Whereas in all such wicked Mens Fears do use to be proportionable unto their Guilts It is certain that a Galaxy was never found in their Globe Furies in the Pagan-dialect do haunt and scourge them Terrors are upon them as the Sacred Scripture speaks Darkness is hid in their secret Places a Fire not blown shall consume them Indeed Wit and Courage are the things whereof vicious Men do singularly make their Boasts As thô their Minds were the Clearest and their Hearts the Stoutest of any But alas no Geese are so filly no Hares of such Pusillanimity Where is their great Wit who know nothing of their true Interest And do pursue no higher Delights than the inglorious ones of Swine and Goats Proud of their fat Quails and not ashamed of their famished Souls Where is their Valour who fear and fly from Vertue 's warfare Tho they must suffer a present Hell and a Future for their running from it Who dare not say Nay to a Lust or to a loose Companion no tho they bid them to run upon the Pikes of their Conscience and the Mouth of Heaven's Cannon and upon more Deaths than one Their Wit and Courage if they must be said to have either are just like an Ulcer the bigger the worse Being no other than Diseases and Reproaches 7. Finally is Happiness in the next World desired you have no Lucid interval in this World but without doubt it is so For tho while you are dozed you may dream and when best awaked you may wish there were no Future State you are not able to dispossess your selves of the Belief that there is one Noctu Sibi saith Seneca In the Night and when you are Alone when you and your Selves do and must come together you cannot think Atheists to be Orthodox and Religious Men to be Fanaticks No more than
also by Beelzebub Your Faith is vain and you are dead in your Sin if you do not rely on it as it is a Promise of Grace and do not conform to it as it is a Rule of Life The Faith is damning which like Rachel thô it be beautiful is barren There is a Worship of which you may give God much and not honour him at all Ephraim and Judah gave him that which he named Lies and Deceit You do verbally confess Sins But is it not without lamenting them You ask for Grace But it is possible you may not be in much Pain till you have it You speak God's Praise But so you may do and give him none for what the Heart does not it is all undone Hecatombs without Hearts are the Sacrifice of Fools There are rare Gifts which you ' may have and use to the Profit of others and yet perish your selves The Son of Perdition had others Gifts beside the Bag. And for Idleness he was never taxed that we read Spiders the Naturalists say have eight Eyes Have you Eyes that are clear So hath many a venomous Creature Do you excite others to do good So do Drums and Trumpets which abide senseless themselves Swenkfield had no small gift of Prayer and was a great Alms-giver yet he was a Monster There are very religious Affections which you may have and yet be dead in Sins John Baptist 's Disciples for a Season rejoiced in his Light Do your Lamps burn So did the foolish Virgins for a time Do you sometimes shed Tears at a Sermon So have some that lived the while in Fornication It is no new thing for Mens Hearts to thaw in the Sun and freeze in the Shade One day to sigh and groan in the Congregation and the next to rant and roar in the Tavern There is a Love of the Saints which you may have and be none your selves The Heathens which shewed St. Paul no small kindness were not Saints You love them because they love you But do not even the Publicans so You love them for some or other Gift of theirs which charmeth you But do not you so love your Hounds and Hawks You are of the World which hates the Saints if you love them not because they love God and are beloved of God And if you command not your selves even then to love them when you contradict your doubtful Opinions and tell you of your unquestionable Sins There be Legions of strange Spirits that love not the King and yet lavish away Money on his Servants That say of God's Service what a weariness is it Yet will say to a Servant of his as Herod to the Damsel Whatsoever thou shalt ask I will give thee There is a lovely Sincerity which you may have and yet be damned for Hypocrisy Saul had a natural and laudable one before his Conversion and while the Wrath of God abode upon him You have true and honest Hearts as to many moral Acts And had not Abimelech as honest an one as you Julian the Apostate was of a Conversation very strict and it appears not but that of a long time be thought as bad as he spake All Sincerity is not godly There is a wild Olive of it as well as a true There is an unbroken Quietness which you may have without any true Peace Dives had just such his Prologue speaks Quietness Soul take thine Ease But God's Epilogue speaks a distance from Peace Thou Fool this Night thy Soul shall be taken against thy Will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est poscere à Notente Casaub You have no Sin that troubles you It may be so You name your Sleep in Sin a sweet Rest No doubt but it seems so And you do think it a good Blessing of God's sending Most Dreamers do dream so But verily Sirs if God sends such a Rest and Quietness he sends it as he sends Sword and Pestilence He sends it in Wrath and for Vengeance For never is he so angry with a Man as when he saith Let him alone And when he asks Wherefore should he be stricken any more Wherefore Is there not a Cause think ye for this Advice That either you turn Christians or throw away your Christian Names Naomi being sunk into a Condition that was contrary threw off hers Call me no more Naomi but Marah Why should Goats be called Sheep thô found in their Skins Skins which very Wolves may put on and often do so for a Season Do not wilfully continue dead if you obstinately desire a Name to live Come then quite out of Egypt if you must needs think your selves in Canaan The Devil speaks as kindly as Pharaoh I will let you go only you shall not go far Exod. 8.28 Flesh World and Devil do brook all but thorow Religion Go therefore go Pray that you may receive your Sight You know nothing yet but the Words and the Gestures of Religion the Nature the Truth and the Goodness of it your Eyes behold not Nicodemus knows nothing of Regeneration Learn what is the Sinful and what is the Holy State There is no third every Man is in one of the two Every Man is a Saint and hath the Holy Spirit or he is a Samaritan and hath a Devil The Sinful State is that wherein a Man hates and is hated of God The Holy State is that wherein God and Man are reconciled A Man loves God and is loved of him In the first God and Man are opposed as Fire and Water In the second God and Man are endeared as Father and Son Make your Judgment then and your Choice In order whereto Believe the Fountain of Truth against the Father of Lies Conclude the Scriptures to be true every word And be assured of all they say as of the things which you see with your Eyes Value them read follow and prefer them above the Light of the Sun Act the parts of Men in your endeavours to be Saints Use your Reason in your pursuits of Religion God enlivens Men by awakening their Reason Satan murders them by holding it in Sleep What is your Sin indeed but Vnreasonableness Want of Consideration is most or all Mens Damnation It can never be well with you till Reason corrects the errors of Sense and Faith corrects the errors of Reason For Reason is but a Rule by the Word and Spirit ruled Yet as soon will God give you to see with your Eyes shut as to judg with your Reason unexercised Indeed crack'd Heads be Sockets for new Lights but it 's because all such be false ones Resolve that the Concerns of Eternity shall have the best of your Time That no Mills of secular Business or Circles of sensual Pleasure shall have your best Hours or your deepest Thoughts No but the Morning that is the Graces Friend as well as the Muses shall always be taken up in Sacred Business And of other Seasons All the Fat shall be the Lord's He hath but one Day in seven let