Selected quad for the lemma: state_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
state_n	account_n	grand_a	great_a	46	3	2.0781	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57597	Shlohavot, or, The burning of London in the year 1666 commemorated and improved in a CX discourses, meditations, and contemplations, divided into four parts treating of I. The sins, or spiritual causes procuring that judgment, II. The natural causes of fire, morally applied, III. The most remarkable passages and circumstances of that dreadful fire, IV. Councels and comfort unto such as are sufferers by the said judgment / by Samuel Rolle ...	Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678.; Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678. Preliminary discourses.; Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678. Physical contemplations.; Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678. Sixty one meditations.; Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678. Twenty seven meditations.	1667 (1667)	Wing R1877; Wing R1882_PARTIAL; Wing R1884_PARTIAL; ESTC R21820	301,379	534

of his hands Methinks the punishment threatned in that case seems to speak that there is contempt of God in the sin said I only threatned yea executed For there is not only a woe to such v. 11. but in the 13. verse is added Therefore my people are gone into captivity And v. 14. Therefore hell hath inlarged her self and their glory and their multitude shall descend into it Doubtless it is a great sin in Gods account that procures so great a punishment Who can perform the grand duties of an afflicted state without considering who must not of necessity consider and as the Poet calls it in sese descendere go down into himself if he will search and try his wales and turn to the Lord as that afflicted Church is exhorted to do Lam. 3.40 But surely that proof is ex abundanti which is more than the express command in the first cited text and in others parallel with it Deut. 8.5 Thou shalt consider that as a man chasteneth his son so the Lord chasteneth thee where both the matter and manner of their chastisement seemeth to be proposed to their consideration viz. that God had punished them and how But I have produced these proofs rather as motives to excite our wills and affections to so hard a work than as arguments to prove so easie and manifest a truth If the question be put what are the things we should consider of in an evil day it must here receive but a general answer for to answer it particularly and with reference to that amazing judgment by fire which lately befell the great City will be the drift and substance of all our ensuing Meditations and Discourses Yet I shall venture so far forth to prevent my self and anticipate what is behind as to say that it is our duty in an evil day to consider first what may make for our own humiliation and principally these two things viz. the greatness of our own sins Lam. 3.8 Jerusalem hath grievously sinned therefore she is removed Also the greatness of the judgments of God that are upon us For as sins so judgments ought not to be extenuated Lam. 4.6 The punishment of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom that was overthrown in a moment Secondly what may make for the vindication of God as just and righteous in all that he hath done against us To that purpose are the ensuing expressions of Scripture Job 34.23 God will not lay upon man more than is right that he should enter into judgment with him Pharaoh himself could say The Lord is righteous but I and my people are wicked And this was when God rained down baile and fire upon him Exod. 9.27 and so said Rehoboam when Shishak came against him 2 Chron. 12.2 Shall such as they justifie God and shall not we saying with the Prophet Jeremy Lam. 1.18 The Lord is righteous for I have rebelled c. And as he elsewhere Man for the punishment of his sin And then the causes of our Afflictions those we should also consider of remembring that trouble springs not out of the dust We should look at God as the efficient cause of all out miseries Lam. 2.17 The Lord hath done that which he hath devised he hath thrown down and hath not pitied and in that Chapter we finde the hand of God owned in every verse for ten verses together Neither is it less needful to consider what are the meritorious and procuring causes of all our miseries So Lam. 3.42 We have transgressed and rebelled thou hast not pardoned And Lam. 1.6 Jerusalem remembred not her last end therefore she came down wonderfully Nor may we forget the final cause or Gods primary end in sending them which is of all the rest most comfortable to consider So saith Moses to the Israelites Deut 8.2 Thou shalt remember the way which the Lord thy God led thee this forty years in the Wilderness to humble thee and to prove thee c. Also Heb. 12.10 But he chasteneth us for our profit that we might be made partakers of his holiness Again we ought to consider what are the duties that are incumbent on us in a time of Adversity what is the Law and the Decorum of that condition and how we ought to behave our selves under the rod of the Almighty viz. Humbly Patiently Circumspectly c. of which we shall have occasion to discourse more fully hereafter The next thing to be considered at such a time is how and wherewithall we may be able to support and bear up our own hearts and the hearts of others in an evil day David saith Psal 119.50 This is my comfort in my affliction for thy word hath quickned me Which may be thus construed that it was a comfort to him in his afflictions to think that the Word of God had been a quickning and inlivening word to him which to many others is but as a dead letter One end of Gods vouchsafing us his Word is said to be that we through patience and comfort in the Scripture might have hope Rom 15.4 and that we should endeavour to comfort others is evident from 2 Cor. 1.4 where God is said to comfort his people in all their tribulations that they may be able to comfort others that are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith themselves are comforted of God One thing more I think of that should be considered by us in a time of adversity but shall not presume to say that and the rest I have mentioned are all and that is how and by what means we may in Gods way and without sin in Gods due time obtain deliverance as Paul in another case cries out who shall deliver we read in 1 Cor. 10.13 that God will together with the temptation also make a way to escape How to finde out a way of escaping is the care of all men or of the most but how to finde out that way which God hath made for our escape which is alwaies a lawful and a regular way that should fall under our consideration as also how to avoid and shun all other waies of escaping though ever so easie to us Now have we so many things to consider of in an evil day then O my soul here is work for thee as much as ever thou canst turn thy self to Gird up thy loines and set about it Now if ever is a time for serious consideration for who knows not that it is a time of great adversity and rebuke and needs it must when the most famous City in these three Kingdoms that was lately such is become a very ruinous heap Now London the glory of three renowned Kingdoms is made almost like unto Sodom and to Gomorrah Surely that man hath lost his thinking faculty that cannot think of this and he that is not sensible of it is past all feeling and seared as with a hot Iron O my soul I scarce know what to think of thee that

dream Gen 28.13 see v. 16. and 17. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep and said surely the Lord is in this place And he was afraid and said How dreadful is this place This is none other than the house of God and this is the gate of Heaven The gate of Heaven and yet dreadful as God was in that place God at that time spake nothing but promises and encouragments yet did Jacob tremble at his presence Our God is fearful even in praises If Jacob did but dream of God he was filled with awe and that not only whilst the dream lasted but when he aw●ke and knew he had but dreampt If God be so terrible when he is pleased what is he when he is angry Psal 76.7 Who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry God was friends with Moses when he told him Gon. 33.20 Thou canst not see my face for no man can see me and live And v. 22. whilst my glory passeth by I will put thee in a clift of the rock and will cover thee with my hand whilst I pass by v. 23. And thou shalt see my back parts but my face shall not be seen Much of the terribleness of God is insinuated in that strange passage Exod. 33.3 I will send an Angel before thee for I will not go up in the midst of thee lest I consume thee Here we read of God wishing the Israelites to let him go from amongst them because his terrour was such but elsewhere concerning the men of Bethshemesh sending God from amongst them like those Gadarens that besought Christ to depart their coast 1 Sam. 6.20 Who is able say they to stand before this holy Lord God and to whom shall he go up from us v. 21. And they sent to the inhabitants of Kirjath-jearim saying Come ye and fetch the Ark of the Lord up to you Namely because God had slain fifty thousand three score and ten of the Bethshemites for looking into the Ark. Much like to this were the words of Peter to Christ Luke 5.8 Depart from me for I am a sinful man O Lord. Let the Prophet Isaiah tell you how awful the presence of God is whom you finde thus crying out Wo is me for I am undone for I am a man of unclean lips for mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hosts How full is the 18. Psalm of expressions setting forth the awful Majesty of Gods presence from v. 7. Then the earth shook and trembled the foundations of the hills moved and were shaken because he was wroth But to quote all that might be quoted to that purpose were to transcribe a great part of the Bible Of the Anger of God represented by Fire Therefore O my soul pass on and think of something else in which the parallel holds betwixt such Fire as that whereby our famous City was lately burnt to ashes and God himself who is stiled a consuming Fire Once again As the power and awfull presence of God are livelily represented to us by this material Fire so also is his anger and that both as to the essence and nature of it as also to several attributes if I may so call them of that attribute of God viz. his wrath As namely the impartialness of it like fire that spareth neither one thing nor another as also the fierceness of it and its consuming destroying nature to which might be added the intollerableness of it c. First we know it is the nature and property of Fire to act as if it were in a great passion and yet it never is in any nor is it capable of any Thus saith God of himself Isa 27.4 Fury is not in me that is I am in no passion neither can he be yet adds who will set the briars and thorns against me in battle I would go thorough them I would burn them together Such things as are the usual effects of anger are frequently done by God but such an affection as wrath in Man is can no wayes consist with those perfections which are in God no more than with the nature of fire upon other accounts I must not forget that I was even now speaking of the impartiality of Fire as one property of that Element by which it resembleth God Fire is no respecter of persons or things so their nature be but combustible it spares neither one nor the other May I not allude to those words 1 Cor. 3.12 If any Man build upon this foundation Gold Silver precious Stones Wood Hay Stubble Here are variety of superstructures mentioned but the Fire buries all in one common heape layes the gold and precious stones amongst the rubbish as well as the wood hay and stubble It mingles Flint stones and Diamonds Pibbles and Jewels in one and the same Grave As is said of Death Eque pulsat pauperam Tabernas Regu●●que turres the like may be said of fire It as soon takes hold on the Pallaces of Princes as on the Cottages of Peasants And is there not the like impartiality in the great God His anger knowes no difference betwixt small and great high and low Psal 76.12 He cutteth off the Spirits of Princes he is terrible to the Kings of the Earth Did he not sink rebellious Pharaoh as low in the red Sea as any of his common Souldiers 〈◊〉 did he not give his carkass in common with theirs to be meat to the fishes of that Sea See Isa 9.14 15. The Lord will cut off from Israel head and taile The ancient and honourable he is the head c. Isa 10.12 I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the King of Assyria and the glory of his high looks vers 26. And the Lord of Hosts shall stir up a scourge for him according to the slaughter of Midian at the Rock of Oreb Judg. 7.25 and the Psalmist speaking of Sisera and Jabin the latter of which was the King of Ca●●●● and had 9000 Chariots of Iron Judg. 4.3 〈◊〉 Sisera was his General saith of them that they perished at Endor and that they became as 〈◊〉 for the Earth Psal 83.10 See what God did to Nebuchadnezzar Dan. 5.21 He was driven from Men and his heart was made like the beasts and his dwelling was with the wilde Asses they fed him with Grass like Oxen and his body was wet with the dew of Heaven till he knew that the most high God ruleth in the Kingdome of Men and that he appointeth over it whomsoever he will Must Jehojakim needs be buried in state because he was the Son of Josiah King of Judah and did succeed him in the Throne No saith God Jer. 22.19 He shall be buried with the burial of an Ass drawn and cast forth beyond the Gates of Jerusalem Thus the anger of the great God like fire puts no difference betwixt them that sit on Thrones and those that go from door to door Hence that in Psal 2.10 Be wise oh ye Princes c. Serve the Lord

Church and State And now O Lord thou who art only wise cause Rulers every where to know what liberty may and what may not be given what liberty would truly make for them and what against them what would tend to kindle greater Fires than yet have been in the midst of us and what might help to extinguish those fire of contention which are amongst us already and to prevent others for the future Such things as quietly would breathe themselves and do themselves good and the world no hurt by their insensible exhalations suffer them to evaporate let them not be so pent in and shut up as thereby to become needlesly exasperated unavoidably united both in miserings discontents and will they ●●l they to fall on fire like a move of ●●lay laid too moistly and close together which otherwise had never fired in and of its self but now is forced to flame though its self must be both the fire and fuel all for want of vent And now O Lord thou who hast made me the father of many children grant I beseech thee to me and other parents that wise behaviour to wards them that we may neither like old Eli spoil and undo them with too much lenity nor like Saul enraged against his son Jonathan endanger them by overmuch severity but may so carry towards them and have so much comfort in them that we may be able to say concerning our children as good old Jacob that father of the Patriarks did concerning his These are the children which God hath graciously given us and to think of them as the Psalmist represents them Psal 127.3 Lo children are an heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward CONTEMPLATION VIII Of Fire kindled by pouring on Water as in Lime IT is famously known that Fire is sometimes kindled otherwhiles encreased even by the pouring on of water By that means Lime is made to burn which though it flame not our yet both by its hissing and smoaking as also by its ability to burn other things doth appear it self to be set on fire And we may daily observe that Smiths do sprinkle water upon their forges thereby causing the Fire therein to burn so much the more eagerly The reason of the former viz. of Lime its burning when it meets with Water seems to be this Some particles of Fire do remain in Lime after it hath been burnt in the Furnace though cooled again but closely united with certain particles of Salt and by them moderated and kept quiet But when water is poured upon it then is the association that was betwixt the particles of Fire and of Salt dissolved and the earthy parts separated which before lay betwixt the fiery particles keeping them from joyning each with other which being done they all flock together and rendezvouz by themselves and so violently sally out together and forcibly take their flight in a considerable body or party and thence comes that Fire which is kindled in Lime which is true Fire though it flame not by reason of those watery parts which are commixed therewith which cause smoak instead of flame Now when I think of Fire kindled by water its known opposite in Lime as aforesaid me thinks the corrupt nature of man is just like Lime for when it meets with the holy Law of God which is as contrary to it as water to Fire I mean to the lusts and corruptions that are in it how is it inkindled and enflamed thereby Hence that complaint of Paul Rom. 7.8 Sin taking occasion by the commandement wrought in me all manner of concupiscence For without the Law sin was dead and v. 13. But sin that it might appear sin working death in me by that which was good that sin by the Commandement might become exceeding sinful Moreover whereas those particles of Fire which are in Lime are as it were so many forraigners or forraign guests that get into it when the Lime-stones were burning within the Furnace for in Lime it self there is little Sulphur as appeareth by the difficulty of burning all or most of it away and these forraign particles are they that do expose it unto being set onfire whenwater is put to it I cannot but thence think of the danger of Kingdoms and Countries which are over-stocked with forraigners especially if of a forraign Religion as well as Nation especially if men of fiery principles and spirits for though such persons may lie still and make no noise for a time so long as there are other parties to ballance and tie their hands as the particles of Salt doth that of Fire and whilst they are not suffered to imbody and flock together yet let an enemy come like water upon lime presently they hiss and smoak and reak and heard together and are ready to burn up all that comes neer them May the Popish party never verifie what I have now hinted from the nature of Lime Neither is it unapt to be significantly applyed that Smiths do intend the heat of their fires by ever and anon sprinkling on them small quantities of water Did they throw on much water it would extinguish it but that little they use now and then makes it to burn more fiercely What better resemblance can there be of the over-mild rebukes of parents towards obstinate and dissolute children As good or better not chide or not correct them at all as do it over-gently and Eli like who only said It is not a good report I heare of you my sons c. 1 Sam. 2.24 Were such deeds as theirs to be corrected only with words especially with such soft words as those v. 25. Why do you such things Nay my sons for it is no good report that I hear Did they lie with the women that assembled at the door of the Tabernacle and is this all he hath to say to them He had even as good have held his peace This was but water sprinkled upon the forge this was but like an over-gentle purge that stirs and troubles humors but brings them not away Thus to whip as it were with a fan of Feathers is but to make an offenders remedy which is correction contemptible and himself thereby more incorrigible When the water of rebuke or correction must be used take enough to quench the Fire though not to drown or sink the offender Lastly Lime that kindles at the approach of water which one would think should rather quench it if kindled before is methinks a good embleme of Christian zeale and a good pattern for us in that behalf Should not our zeal be heightned by opposition like flouds that swell when they come at banks that hinder them So did the zeal of David when Michal derided him for dancing before the Ark. 2 Sam. 3.22 I will yet be more vile than thus said he viz. if that were to be vile to rejoyce before the Ark of God So Paul when some perswaded him not to goe to Jerusalem

which is said to be quick and powerful as fire its self The fires which God kindleth for the good of the world whereof his word is one of the chief woe be to any that shall go about to quench Quenching of prophecying is next unto quenching of the Spirit yea and is one way of doing it as Divines observe I see cause to blesse the God of heaven who hath created some fires as profitable as others are mischievous namely his word for one a fire that never doth hurt otherwise than by accident neither indeed would other fires kept within their due bounds but so much good as no tongue can express O Lord that through thine insinite goodness I might experiment in my self and others all those excellent properties of fire meeting in thy word of which I have now been speaking that my heart and theirs might burn within us at the hearing of it as did the hearts of thy Disciples that it may be mighty through thee to pull down all the strong-holds of Sin and Sathan that are within us that it might trye us as gold is tryed in the fire and at the same time resined and purisied that it might pierce unto the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow that the sin which is as it were bred in our bones may be gotten out of the very flesh May the fire of thy word have such influence as this upon us we shall then be sure to escape the fire of thy wrath and to arrive to that happiness which is called The inheritance of the Saints in Light Col. 1.12 MEDITATION XL. Upon the spoiling of Conduits and other Aqueducts by this Fire ME-thinks the several Conduits that were in London stood like so many little but strong Forts to confront and give check to that great enemy Fire if any occasion should be There me-thinks the water was as it were intrenched and ingarrisoned The several Pipes and Vehicles of water that were within those Conduits all of them charged with water till by the turning of the Cocks they were discharged again were as so many Souldiers within those Forts with their Musquets charged and ready to be discharged upon the drawing of their several Cocks to keep and defend those places And look how Enemies are wont to deal with those Castles which they take to be impregnable and dispair of ever getting by storm viz. to attempt the starving of them by a close Siege intercepting all provision of Victuals from coming at them so went the fire to work with those little Castles of stone which were not easie for it to burn down witness their standing to this day spoiled them or almost spoiled them it hath for present by cutting off those supplies of water which had wont to slow to them melting those leaden Channels in which the water had wont to be conveyed to them and thereby as it were starving those Garrisons which they could not take by storm What the Scripture speaks of the Land of Jordan that it was well watered every where before the Lord destroyed Sodom even as the Garden of the Lord like the Land of Egypt made fruitful by the River Nilus the same might have been said of London before this fire It was watered like Paradise its self yea whereas Paradise had but one River though it parted into four heads Gen. 2.10 London had two at least deviding its self or rather devided into many branches and dispersing its self several wayes For besides the noble River of Thames gliding not only by the sides but thorow the bowels of London there was another called the New-River brought from Hartfordshire thither by the industry and ingenuity of that worthy and never to be forgotten Knight Sir Hugh Middleton the spring of whose deserved fame is such as the late Fire its self though the dreadfullest of all that we have known hath not nor will not be able to dry up but continue it will a Fountain of praise and honour bubling up to all posterity As nature by Veins and Arteries some great some small placed up and down all parts of the Body ministreth blood and nourishment to every member thereof and part of each member so was that wholsome Water which was as necessary for the good of London as blood is for the life and health of the body conveyed by Pipes wooden or metalline as by so many veins into all parts of that famous City If water were as we may call it the blood of London then were its several Conduits as it were the Liver and Spleen of that City which are reckoned as the Fountains of blood in humane bodies for that the great Trunks of veins conveying blood about the body are seated there as great Roots fixed in the Earth shooting out their branches divers and sundry wayes But alas how were those Livers inflamed and how unfit have they been since to do their wonted Office What pity it is to see those breasts of London for so I may also call them almost dryed up and the poor Citizens mean time so loth as they are to be weaned from their former place They were lovely streams indeed which did refresh that noble City one of which was alwayes at work pouring out its self when the rest lay still As if the Fire had been angry with the poor old Tankard-bearers both Men and Women for propagating that Element which was contrary to it and carrying it upon their shoulders as it were in State and Triumph it hath even destroyed their Trade and threatned to make them perish by fire who had wont to live by water Seeing there are few or none to suck those Breasts at this day the matter is not so great if they be almost empty and dry at present may they but sill again and their Milk be renewed so soon as the honest Citizens shall come again to their former scituations O Lord that it might be thy good pleasure to let London be first restor'd and ever after preserved from Fire and when once restored let it be as plentifully and commodiously supplied with water as ever it was formerly Make it once again as the Paradise of God but never suffer any destroying Serpent any more to come there MEDITATION XLI Upon the Retorts and Reproaches of Papists occasioned by this fire ME-thinks I hear some Reman-Catholicks as they are pleased to call themselves saying Some of your Protestants did confidently foretel That within this present year 1666 Rome should down Babylon should fall Antichrist should be destroyed But now your own City is destroyed in the self-same-year which according to you doth show that London was the true Babylon and that the true Antichrist is amongst your selves Yet upon due examination it will be found that there is as little strength in the Argument which they have brought as there is sense in the name whereby they are called viz. Roman-Catholicks which is as much as to say Members of the particular

I have spoken to the great ends of life and the attainableness of them as well by persons of low as of high degree But alas how few in comparison of the lump of mankind or of Men called Christians have yet attained those end for which they live viz. have laid up a good foundation for eternity c. and they are yet fewer who are able to say they have done it For some may have attained thereunto and yet not know it How unsafely do they die who die before they have attained the ends for which they did live and how uncomfortably must they also die who die before they know they have attained them Therefore I say it is a great mercy to the greatest part of Men and Women to be reprieved from Death and from the Grave David as good a Man as he was beg'd hard for this Psal 39.13 O spare me that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more yet was his condition at that time very afflicted for he saith vers 10. Remove thy stroke from me I am consumed by the blow of thine hand vers 11. when thou dost correct man for iniquity thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth Which he seems to speak of as his own case at that time when he cried out O spare me before I go hence Is it not with most people in the World as with idle Boyes in a School at a time when their Master is absent when it is almost time to give over they have scarce lookt into their books or done any thing they came for but played all the while How necessary is it for such Men to live a little longer How sad would it be with them if God should say to them as to that secure fool This night shall thy soul be required of thee were they sensible of their own concernment would not such men prize a little time in the World as those poor Levellers did that were shot at Burford about ten years since Oh that they might live but one day or but one hour longer to enjoy those Ordinances of God which they had formerly despised or as she that in horrour cried out upon her death-bed Call time again call time again If life be necessary for thee as if thou hast not yet attained the ends of life I am sure it is more necessary for thee than any worldly thing by how much it is more necessary that thou shouldst be saved than that thou shouldst be rich or honourable I say if life be more necessary for thee than riches and honour and any thing of this World as it is because upon that moment eternity depends then hast thou cause to look upon it as a great mercy and to be very thankfull for it May it not be said of some men that are dead gone that if they had died but one year or one moneth sooner they had been damned The last year or the last moneth was more to them than all their life before for that they were born I mean born again not long before they died He that can cause the earth to bring forth in one day and a Nation to be born at once Isa 66.8 How great a change can he make in the souls of men in a very short time Yea I remember an excellent Divine of our own hath a passage to this purpose viz. That one day spent in serious meditation of God and Christ the joyes of Heaven the torments of Hell the evil of sin the excellency of grace the vanity of the creature the necessity of regeveration and such like things might contribute more to the conversion and salvation of a sinner than all that hath been done by him in all the time past of his life though possibly he hath lived many years in the world We shall never know what the worth of life and of time is till we come to improve it to those high ends and purposes for which God hath chiefly given it as namely unto making our calling and election sure c. but when we have done finding how great a pleasure a little time hath done us of what unspeakable use and advantage it hath been to us we shall reckon our selves more bound to God for it than for any other temporal enjoyment we shall think a little time to speak in the language of our Proverb to have been worth a Kings ransome Consider life as an estate of hope as Salomon saith Eccles 9.4 To all the living there is hope and death to the wicked as a hopeless state Job 27.8 For what is the hope of the hypocrite though he have gained when God taketh away his soul and then tell me if it be not a great mercy but to live But on the base heart of man that will not suffer him to know how great a mercy life is because it will not serve him to improve it A life so spent as multitudes of people do spend theirs will prove a curse rather than a blessing as having done little in it but treasured up wrath against the day of wrath Nor is it ever to be expected that they will bless God for life who have cause to curse the time that they have lived though all thorough their own default He that would comfort himself in the thoughts of his being yet alive and take it for a great mercy that his life though little else is left him for a prey let him sit down and confider what earnings he may make of that time which is left him in the world be it little or much If from henceforth he shall set his face towards Zion set out in the waies of godliness give up his name to Christ engage in the work he came into the world about enter upon the fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom set himself to seek the Lord with all his heart or at leastwise repaire to the pool of Bethesdah and wait there for cure follow on to know the Lord that he may know him strive to enter in at the straight gate dig for wisdom as for silver and for knowledge as for hidden treasure make it his business that his soul may be saved in the day of the Lord I say whosoever shall do so and persevere in so doing will finde so happy a product of that work whereunto he hath consecrated and devoted the remainder of his life as will make him prize and value one day so spent more than many daies and moneths ●n which all the comfort of his life as he accounted it came in by eating and drinking and company-keeping by hunting hawking di●ing carding and such like divertisements He will look upon that time as spent in damning his soul as much as in him lay but the other in saving it and therefore he must needs value this more than that One was a time of running into debt the other of getting old scores paid off or blotted out and therefore must