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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	hear_v	speak_v	word_n	7,138	5	4.4441	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85388	The tyranny of Satan, discovered by the teares of a converted sinner, in a sermon preached in Paules Church, on the 28 of August, 1642. By Thomas Gage, formerly a Romish Priest, for the space of 38 yeares, and now truly reconciled to the Church of England.	Gage, Thomas, 1603?-1656.	1642 (1642)	Wing G116; Thomason E119_20; ESTC R3263	28,403	44

knoweth very well that if a sinner did but see the miserable and wretched estate his soule is in he would make hast to returne unto his Lord therefore he blindeth him that he may run head-long down to Hell He dealeth with a sinner as cruelly as Nabuchadnezzar King of Babell dealt with Zedekiah as ye may read in the 2 of Kings 25 Chapter and 7 verse And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes and put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him in chaines and carried him to Babell Even so doth the Devill with a sinner he beateth out his eyes bindeth him in chaines and so carrieth him to Babell to a Chaos of confusion This a sinner will not beleeve but runs forward with more and more delight in his iniquities he thinkes because he enjoyeth his corporall sight that his soule is not blinded Tell me then if a man should be in so desperate a case as running a long a street and all crying out unto him and saying O man art thou mad doest thou not see such an one thine enemy standing before thee with his sword drawn to kill thee If neverthelesse and for all these cries this man should run towards the sword would not we say that he is mad or rather blind and not able to see the sword before him O Dearely Beloved this is no sporting matter when we offend the Lord we are surely blind If we were not how would we dare to runne upon the sword which the Iustice of God hath drawn against us If we will not believe this let us but turne to the 7 Psalme of David and read there the 12 13 and 14 verses where we shall find these words God is a righteous Judge strong and patient and God is provoked every day If a man will not turne he will whet his sword he hath bent his bow and made it ready he hath prepared for him the instruments of death Behold a sword a whetting for us to run us thorow a bow bent to shoot at us other instruments prepared only for our death and destruction And yet we will not see them we run upon them Why Because wee are blind the Devill hath deprived us of our spirituall sight We are like that wicked and disobedient Prophet Balaam of whom we read in the 22 Chapter of Numbers and 23 Verse that he was so blind that he could not see the Angell of the Lord standing in his way with a Sword drawn in his hand the words are these And when the Asse saw the Angel of the Lord stand in the way and his sword drawne in his hand the Asse turned out of the way and went into the field but Balaam smote the Asse to turne her into the way Lo here how a simple and silly Asse by Gods permission espyeth the sword of the Lord drawn against a sinner and wicked Priest to teach us how those that are simple and humble in their own conceipts see the dangers that a sinner runs into by sin But the proud and stubborne Delinquent against Gods Laws will not see these dangers Because alas he is blind the Devill hath pulled out the eyes of his Soule the windows whereby the light and beames of Gods mercy were wont to shine into his heart are ●ow rammed up with lime and stone that no light may come in for a sinner to see those horrid Aspids Basilisks and Adders which lye lurking and taking their repose in the close and secret chamber of his Conscience O Pity O Compassion If any be to be had when a sinner is come to this misery O Dearely Beloved make good use of this Doctrine and fly from sin all your lives s●are to be thus blinded Pray to the Lord that though through mans frailty ye do commit a sin O yet your sight may be left ye One eye at least may remaine to lift up to God to look up to him Remember how that poore and lame cripple of whom we read in the 3 Chapter of the Acts and 4 Verse received bodily health and strength having no limbe to help himselfe but was daily carried and laid at the gate of the Temple And Peter fastning his eyes upon him with John said looke on us Nothing was demanded of him but only the use of his eyes for looking only up upon Peter hee was cured O Deare Soule Moralize this healing of this Cripple and the manner of it and take out of it a lesson how to obtaine more easily the health of thy diseased soule If with no limbe thou beest able to helpe thy selfe Looke up at least to God lift up the eyes of thy heart to thy Lord pray dayly to him that thy sight may not faile in thy inward man Pray that the Devill may not blind thee howsoever but that thou mayest see the enormity and hideousnesse of thy sin the instruments of death which God hath prepared against thee the Sword of his Iustice drawn the Bow of his wrath and anger bent that thus having eyes left thee to see those dangers thou mayest like this Cripple as he looked up to Peter and John and received bodily health so thou also by casting an eye up to the Lord by opening the the window of thy heart mayest let in the light of Gods mercy to shine within thee and mayest receive the spirituall health of thy leprous and diseased soule And so much for this The last and deadliest blow which the Devill with his heavy stayle striketh at a Soule is in the Eares wherewith hee fells him quite down and layes him flat to the ground taking his hearing quite from him and making him deafe that hee may not heare the word of the Lord nor hearken to any comfortable tydings of his Salvation Of the wretched sinners deafenes against the Word of God Paul spoke in the second Epistle to Timothy in the 4 Chapter and 4 verse saying And they shall turne away their eares from the truth and shall be turned unto fables Of this sort of sinners an Ancient Father Clenent Alexandranus in his exhortation to the Greckes and Gentiles speaketh thus Coelum fecistis Scenam Deus factus est vobis Actus Ye have made a sport and play of Heaven and God himself is become at Act or Comedy unto ye But you will say Dearely Beloved what meaneth this ancient Author by these words An example will declare his mind better Have not you marked in these Playes here about the City How sometimes one commeth out upon the Stage with a Crowne and Kingly Diadem upon his head and with a Scepter in his hand granting Princely favours and highly rewarding those that have been dutiful and loyall Subjects unto him Another you shall see come out upon the same Stage with a sword drawn all bloudy with streams of bloud trickling down from his head to his feet as if he had been wounded in some fierce and desperate combate Then you shal see sometimes over the Stage the Heavens open great

spoken by the mouth of all his holy Prophets since the World began What fruitfull Faith could be in me who so often have kneeled to Images worshipped them burnt Franckincense before them and praid unto them so contrary to the Commandements of God Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven Image or any likenesse of any thing that is in Heaven above Thou shalt not bow downe unto them So contrary I say to holy Scripture which teacheth that no Saints are to be called upon no Saints are to be Mediators between us and God but only Iesus Christ as ye shall find in the 1 Epistle of Paul to Tim. in the 2 Chap. and 5 verse For there is one God and one Mediator between God and man the Man Christ Jesus What fruitfull Faith hath been in mee who have beleeved and taught a Purgatory a place of satisfaction for sins derogating by this most damnable doctrin from the infinity of Christs satisfaction who had not aboundantly nor infinitly satisfied for us if we our selves ought in fire and torments to adde satisfaction to the satisfaction made by his most pretious bloud O good God how do I now perceive my self to have been sequestred from thy just and righteous beleevers to have beene sequestred from thy true Apostolike and Primitive Church to have be●n sifted like branne from the flower like chaffe from the corne O most mercifull Father if in these 40 yeares I had met with thee at the passage of Jordan at the passage of my Soule from my body not being able to say Shibboleth what could I have expected but to feele the smart of thy sword to receive the wound of everlasting death to heare that dreadful curse of thine Depart from me you cursed into everlasting fire But think not Dearely Beloved that Satans cruelty is satisfied with thus separating a sinner like chaffe from the corne by making him ready for Hell fire O yet his cruelty goeth forward yet he sifteth further a Soule Though properly to sift in our English tongue be to sift the flower from the branne Yet this word sifting in Greek is more Emphaticall for the true word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in Greek according to M. Cameron's explication signifieth Cribrare which as he saith containeth two things to wit illa concussio agitatio that thrashing and beating of the wheat and also illa divisio separatio that division and separation of the chaffe f●om the corne So by Satan's sifting a Soule as wheat we must know that he is not contented to separate a Soule from the Church and the fruitfull granes and members of it yet his cruelty goeth forward for he knoweth Gods mercies are great and touch the soule of a sinner daily to bring him to repentance therefore he desireth our perseverance in sin our obstinacy and hardnesse that we may no way return unto our Lord He useth yet more tyranny over us by sifting us he beateth us yet with blows even as the corn is beaten with the flaile with one blow hee beateth out our eyes that we may not see the hideous estate we are in With another blow he striketh at our tongues and breaketh the mouths of our hearts that we may not call upon God for helpe and succour with another blow he shuts up our eares that we may not heare nor give eare to the truth when it is preached Even as a Captaine when he besiegeth a Castle taketh up al the high ways wherby any maintenance or provision may come to these within the Castle So doth this cruell enemy of ma●kind when he hath separated a soule from the good and righteous he shuts up all the high wayes which are the mouth of the heart the hearing of it the eyes of the understanding that so no maintenance nor spirituall food may enter into it This was figured in Mark 9. 17. 18. where it is said that one of the multitude brought unto our Saviour his son which had a dumb spirit And he said Whersoever he taketh him he teareth him and he fometh gnasheth with his teeth and pineth away By this dumb Devill spiritually is to be understood the effect which the Devill worketh in a soule which he hath once possessed making it dumb and speechlesse that it may not cry out to the Lord nor acknowledge its sins with one peccavi And many of the Fathers upon the explication of this dumbe Spirit say that it was also deaf and blind to signifie the two other effects which the Devill worketh in a soule which he hath once got into his power This same destruction of a Soule according to the Fathers exposition was signified by that deaf and dumbe man whom our Saviour cured as ye may read Mark 7. 33 34 35. And he took him aside from the multitude and put his fingers into his eares and he spit and touched his tongue And looking up to Heaven he sighed and saith unto him ephphatha that is be opened And strait way his eares were opened the string of his tongue was loosed and he speake plaine In the 7 of Dan 5 ver. you shall find a like figure of this cruell tyrant where Daniel declaring a dreame and vision which he had faith And behold another beast a second like to a Beare and it raised up it selfe on one side and it had three ribs in the mouth between the teeth of it And they said thus unto it arise devore much flesh Although S. Hierom by this ugly beast doth understand the Kingdom of the Persians and by those 3 ribs and 3 set of teeth between rib and rib expoundeth the 3 Empires of the Babylonians Persians and Medes Yet Richardus de Sancto Victore and many Fathers in a spirituall sense declare this ugly Beare to be a true portraicture of the malicious spite of the Devill who with 3 set and orders of teeth devoureth and destroyeth the three noble powers wherewith the Soule doth spiritually speake see and heare And truly in my mind no Beast is a more proper Embleme of the Devill than the Beare if we consider well what Aristotle in his 7 Book De Histor. Animal and 17 Chap. writeth of this beast which is that he eateth of all things of the fruits of trees of herbes of Bees and Honey of little Amits and their egs yea of your shell fishes and also of flesh A strange quality proper only to this Beast For if the Lyon eat flesh he eateth not hay grasse nor hearbs and the Oxe that eateth hay and grasse eateth not flesh Only the Beare eateth of all sorts and with this quality resembleth the Devill more than any other Beast For the Devill devoureth and eateth of all If a man be given to the flesh there is the Devill sporting also himselfe with those fleshy thoughts If like an Eremite one feed of hearbes only there also wil Satan be endeavouring in the wildernes to overthrow those that hide themselves there flying from the

glory of Angels appearing and one descending in a cloud Somtimes you shall see from under the Stage ascend a smoak of Fire and Brimstone and a Devill leap up in such a shape as may suffice to terrifie you At all this you laugh you hold it but a fable The King you see come out you respect not because you know he is none The other that is wounded and all bloudy you pity not because you know that bloud is not true but painted bloud The glory you see and the Angels in it do no way entice you to it because you know it is but fained The Fire and Brimstone and ugly sight of Devils that come upon the Stage do nothing terrifie you Why Because you know all is salfe that there is no Hell nor any true Devill but only a representation of it So that you sport and laugh at all Now then let us apply these words and this similitude of Clement Alexandrinus to those deafe sinners who as Paul saith Turn away their eares from the truth and are turned unto Fables These when they come to heare the word of the Lord will not heare it with their hearts but make a play sport of it When they heare the Preacher set forth the might and power of that King of Kings and Creator of all things who will glorifie his elect servants with everlasting blisse and happinesse Like Atheists they laugh at it and iudge of this eternall King as of a King in a play When they heare the Preacher teach how Iesus Christ was whipped reviled stroken smitten and crowned with thornes nayled with nailes pierced with a speare for their sins their hearts will not heare it they make sport of it they are not moved to love so loving a Saviour and Mediator who with the price of his own bloud made an aboundant and copious satisfaction for our sins When they heare the Preacher teach the glory of Heaven the Quires of Angels there that everlasting rest without any sob or teares without any cold hunger or thirst they will not heare it to beleeve they judge of it as of the glory in a play upon a Stage and like Epicureans eate drink and riot saying Post mortem nulla voluptas They think that their soules after death like Beasts shall be dissolved into the aire to nothing When they heare a Preacher bring out upon the Stage in the Pulpit and set before a great assembly the deepe pits of Hell the Legions of fierce and cruell Divels there the always burning fire and Brimstone the everlasting broiling there the horrid gnashing of teeth the paines and torments due to their sins if they turne not to God Alas they will not heare it with their heart they thinke it is but a Hell of a Play they are turned unto Fables they make a sport of all they make an Act or Play of God they think all fained they heare it with their corporall eares but with the cares of their soule they will not hearken unto it they make themselves the Actors of the fooles part in this sport and play which they make of God and Heaven Why Because the Devill hath made them deafe This is his chiefe way he knoweth though it be damb or blind yet by hearing the Word of the Lord with a well dis●●sed heart it may receive some seed of a fruitfull Faith as S. Paul taught the Romanes in the 10 Chap. and 17 Vers saying So then Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God This is the Devils feare and therefore he shutteth up their eares that no maintenance that way no succour no reliefe may come unto the soule With this he maketh them groan under his yoke with this he maketh them slaves unto him In Deut. 15. 12. you shall find that God gave a Command of release saying And if thy Brother an Hebrew man or an Hebrew woman be sold unto thee and serve thee six years then in the seventh yeare thou shalt let him go free from thee And lower 16 17. v. God commanded thus And it shall be if he say unto thee I will not go away from thee because he loveth thee and thine house because he is well with thee Then shalt thou take an Aule and thrust it thorough his eare unto the doore and he shall be thy servant for ever In a morall and spirituall sense Learn here Deare Brethren how as God commanded a release for debts and for servants so doubtlesse he expecteth that thy Soule shall not be always under any other master but himself If therfore the Devill have been thy Master for some time thinke for a release think of releasing thy self from him do not say deare soule unto the Devill I will not go away from thee because I love thee because I am well with thee which if thou doest then will Satan make use of this Law of God for himselfe and for his own en●s then will he marke thee in the eares for a perpetuall slave with an Aule he will boare thine eares thorow and fasten them to a wall to that wall which thy iniquities have put between thee and God he will keep thee for his slave if ever he marke thee in thy eares he will take thy hearing from thee that thou mayest not heare any goodnesse nor make good use of any O what misery is a sinner in when he commeth to lose his hearing Abhorre from sin dearely beloved least ye fall thus into slavery under the tyranny of Satan if ye have not found your selves so far gone nor so far ensnared by the Devill as he doth ensnare others renounce him at his first assaults least he encroach upon the mouth of your heart and soule upon the eyes and eares of it making yee dumb deaf and blind O take example by me who have had experience of these 3 blows who have been flailed beaten and thrashed by this cruell enemy with one blow I have been left speechlesse and dumb almost 40 years I have not had a tongue till this day to confesse before God my iniquities my idolatries my superstitions my disloyalties to my King the Lords Annoynted O I have been blind wilfully blind and would not see my errors the errors of the Whore of Babylon True it is many years ago by reading Authors and the grounds of our true Protestant Religion I did see the light of it the truth of it the sincere pure and candid doctrine of it but yet with the eyes of my Soule I would not see it I was like a foule and ugly Monky who when he chanceth to see his foule shape his deformed feet in a pure and Cristall Looking-glasse rageth and flingeth at the glasse and teareth it in pieces because it representes unto him his own deformity Even so have I done dearely Beloved these many yeares When I read the pure and Christall doctrine of our Church which teacheth even what Christ taught Peter and his Disciples to acknowledge a Supremacy next

I will allure ●●r and bring her into the wildernesse and speak comfortably unto her She shall not thinke that her wickednesse can be greater than my mercies When she most flies from me then will I most allure her Behold here dearely Beloved the good nature of our good God who like unto a su●er and wooer when his mistris most disdaineth him wooeth her more allureth her with faire and courteous promises Even so doth God with a Soule when we follow most the vices of our heart the vanities of the world seeking to please our senses and bellies more than the Lord disdaining and contemning our God and Maker then doth he wooe our Soules then doth he allure them then doth he bring them into the wildernesse from all occasions of pride of selfe-love of vanities and pstimes There when he hath got them from the worldly pleasures doth he speak comfortably unto them O Soule saith he why dost thou follow any lovers but me there is none loveth thee better than my selfe I have bestowed more upon thee than any adulterous lover of thine The beauty of thy face which thou so much esteemest is my guift The dainties of fowle and fish which so voluptuously thou bestowest upon thy belly I first bestowed them upon thee The riches of pearles rubies rings and diamonds wherewith thou shewest thy selfe so faire an object to thy lovers eye are all my gifts The flowers of all sorts and best persumes wherewith thou delightest so much thy senses I gave them to thee Why then deare Soule dost thou turne from me Why dost thou shun me for other lovers They carry thee to perdition but I to blisse and happinesse They seek thy paines and torment I thy rest and glory They fall away like a flower which to day is and to morrow will not be but I shall remaine for ever Thus O dearly Beloved doth God speake comfortably to a Soulel thus doth he allure her thus doth he woo and entice her thus doth he when furthest she flys from him discover the riches of his mercies to her An ancient Doctor called John Raulinus Cluniacexsis saith what by experience we daily know Quanto magis srigus viget tanto magis videtur Coelum stellatum The greater the frost and cold is the m●re bright do the star's appeare and shew themselves in the darkenesse of the night Lauretus who borrowed his doctrine out of Thomas Aquinas and Austin saith also of the stars in a morall explication Stellae productae in Coelo designare possunt dona Spiritus Sanctir That they may be a symbole or figure of the favours and guifts of the Holy Ghost What then meaneth it that these stars which are symbols of Gods favours shine brightest when the frost and cold is greatest O it signifieth that when a heart is most cold and frozen most voyd of the heat of the love of God then doth the Lord strive to shine brightest into that heart than doth he most discover the glittering spangles of his mercy than doth he manifest the glorious stars of his Heavenly comforts for to teach us that none shall despaire though never so deeply plunged into sin though never so cruelly tyrannized by the Devill for God with his mercies can and often hath changed a wicked sinner to a holy life and of a persecut●r and e●emy hath made a holy Apostle I cannot here passe over with silence a witty observation of Chrysostome upon those words which the Angell of the Lord spoke to Joseph Mat. 2. 13. saying Arise and take the young childe and his mother and fly into Aegypt and be thou there untill I bring thee word for Herod will secke the young Childs to destroy him Vpon these words Chrysostome groundeth great admirations wondring that God would send his only begotten Son into Aegypt a Countrey that above all Countreys misused and kept under hard slavery Gods own chosen people not suffering them to go out till God hardned Pharaoh's heart and Moses after many wonders shewed with the hand of the Lord tooke them out of bondage Now then if this Countrey was first so rebellious against God himself and his Commands how commeth it to passe saith Chrysostome that God will trust his Deare and only Son Jesus Christ with so perfidious and disobedient a Nation Could not there be Order given that Christ might bee kept from the fury of Herod in any other Countrey and not in Aegypt so stubborne an enemy to God and his Elect People Chrysostome answereth O commutatio dextrae excelsi ut popului qui a tefuerat persecutor populi primogeniti postea sieret custos unigeniti● O wonderfull change and alteration of the right hand of the Lord saith Chrysostome that that people which before had been a persecutor and enemy of the first chosen People of God now should be trusted with Gods only Son and should be made keeper of him to desend him and protect him from the wicked plots of Herod What is this But to magnifie and set out the great mercies of God who so strangely worketh alterations in Nations and in particular soules making those his dearest friends which were his greatest enemies and persecutors This is the power of the mercy of God which can prevaile against all the strength of Satan who can deliver a soule possessed by the Devill and bring it to a state more happy than ever miserable it was in Satans power This the Prophet Micah prophecied in the 4 Chap. of his Prophecies and 10 ver. saying Be in pain and labour to bring forth O daughter of Sion like a woman in travell for vow shalt thou go forth out of the City and thou shalt dwell in the field th●u shalt go even to Babylon there shalt thou bee delivered there the Lord shall redeeme thee from the hand of thine enemies What greater confusion was there ever than in Babylon What greater blindnesse than there What greater or crueller slavery than there Yet saith Micah there shalt thou bee delivered there the Lord shall redeeme 〈◊〉 from thine enemies for to teach us that there is no sinner so deeply drowned into the depth of sin so bitterly beaten by Satan so hardly captivated and bound with the bonds and fetters of his iniquities but yet the mercy of the Lord is able to take him out Therefore O dearely beloved make use of this doctrin never despaire of Gods savours though as Christ said in my text to Peter Satan sift you as wheat separating you from the white flower of the elect and chosen p●ople though he separate you like chaffe from the corne from the sin●…full granes and members of the Church by beating you as Corne is beaten with the flaile by striking out your eyes that you may not see by making you dumb that you may not speake nor cry unto the Lord by making you deaf that you may not heare any goodnesse yet despaire not of his mercies for out of Babylon the place of greatest confusion

there shalt thou be delivered saith the Lord Let my Conversion be a President to you of this truth and strengthen you that you may not despaire of Gods mercies For if I who have sucked my first milk of the Whore of Babylon of the most erroneous Popish doctrin who have worshiped creatures and Saints instead of my Creator who have been disloyall and treacherous to my King and Countrey who have beleeved a damnable doctrine of Purgatory derogating thereby from the infinite merits of the satisfaction of Christs Passion who have superstitiously offered up a sacrifice of the Masse for the quick dead as if the Sacrifice which Christ himselfe offered of his own body upon the Crosse were not a sufficient Sacrifice for a whole world yea and many more worlds if I who erroneously have beleeved that by my own works I might merit de condigno the glory of heaven as if any human or naturall works may work a thing supernaturall and merit a glory which required the meanes and satisfaction of Christ not as man only but as God and man If I who have been almost 40 years thus blinded who have so many years persecuted the chosen elect and Protestant people of the Lord who have so many years been frozen and void of all heat of the love of God who have so many years been in Babylon in confusion and slavery there have been delivered there have found the mercies of God like stars in a winter night shining most confortably into my cold and frozen soule O let none despaire of the mercies of God nor willingly fall into sin by my example least their comming out of Babylon be as hard to them as my conversion hath been to me But how great soever your miseries be trust in the Lord that as he prayed for Peter that his Faith might not faile as he hath pleaded for me before his ●…ernall Father So he may also be an Advocate and only Mediator between God and you when deepest you are in sin and according to mans judgement hardest to be brought out of it The last Point which is plainly to be observed in my text is a precept and cōmand of our Saviour to Peter contained in those words And when thou art converted strengthen thy Brethren This Peter did and this all they are bound to do who are truly converted from sin and from a wicked estate to the true knowledge of Gods Laws True it is Peter did fall and did most cowardly thrice deny his Master But after our Saviour looked upon him and with one look turned his heart then Peter went out and wept bitterly And he did not only weep and repent within himselfe but most zealously endeavoured to strengthen his Brethren as you may observe Acts 2. when having received the Holy Spirit himselfe he preached couragiously unto the Jews to convert them and strengthen them in the true Faith as you may read from the 14● to the 38 verse and forward where publickly he said unto them Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost O he was a true converted man and thought he must not be contented to be himselfe converted only but that he was bound to convert and strengthen others So did Saul who had been so great a Persecutor when he was truely converted presently he strived to do good to others as you may read Acts 9. 19 20. verses And when he had received meat he was strengthned Then was Saul certaine dayes with the Disciples that were at Damascus And strait way he preached Christ in the Synagogue that he is the Son of God And further in the 22 ver. But Saul increased the more in strength and confounded the Jews that dwelt at Damascus prouing that this is very Christ Behold how this converted Apostle is not satisfied with his own conversion but presently burneth with an inward zeale of communicating unto others that good which he had received from God by his Conversion Your Divines say that Bonum est diffusivum sui that which is truly good in it selfe is with a natu●all inclination to impart it selfe yea prodigally to pou●e it self out to others This doctrin also David teacheth us in his 51 Psal. where he repenteth himself for the Adultery which he had committed and having begged of God that he would create in him a clean heart and renew a right spirit within him Then saith he in the 13 verse will I teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee Lo how David doth not only repent himselfe and manifest his conversion by words of sorrow and bitter compunction but promiseth God that he will strengthen others by teaching them the ways of God that also they may come to be converted In the first Chapter of the Canticles ver. 4. You shall find a few words easy in this sense but hard to be understood in any other where the Spouse speaking to her Beloved saith Draw me we will run after thee The King hath brought me into his Chamber we will be glad and rejoyce in thee we will remember thy love Me thinkes the Spouse should have said draw me I will run after thee The King hath brought me into his chamber I will be glad I will remember thy love If one be drawn why do many in the plurall number run If one be brought into the Kings chamber Why be many glad and rejoyce O dearely Beloved it is to teach us how we ought to be have our selves when we are truly converted The Spouso signifieth a soule wedded by Faith to God the true and heavenly Bridgroome The Chamber whereinto this foule is brought is the true Church Therfore if one Soule be drawn by God many must run after this one if one Soule be brought into the true Ancient and Apostolike Church many must be glad and rejoyce Why B●cause we must not be contented to be drawn alone from our iniquities we must not be contented to be brought alone into the Church we must also draw others we must make others also rejoyce by strengthning them by teaching them by converting them by our words works and good example This is the command and precept of our Saviour to Peter in the words of my text And when thou art converted strengthen thy Brethren This cōmand of Christ I that am this day converted brought into the Heavenly Bridgrooms chamber into his true Church must also obey O I must not be contented to be drawn alone I must be the cause that many may run after me This dearely Beloved I have begun to performe already having brought one from the snares of Popery strengthned one soule in the true Protestant Apostolik Religiō of this Kingdom This by the Grace of God both by preaching writing and printing I will endeavour all my life to performe by discovering and laying open to the world those Rocks and quicke sands of Popish doctrin whereupon so many soules do run and are dayly cast away by the ignorance of foolish and unskilfull Pilots O dearely beloved never were you in greater danger than at these times for in Ireland you see how the Papists threaten us with their erroneous doctrines here at home they secretly plot to bring in their superstitions therefore let me warne you this day to hoyse up your sailes and top masts and with the gale of that heavenly Spirit of that Divine blast save your soules from being splinted upon these Rocks of Popish superstition from being swallowed up with the quick sands of Antichristian doctrin O beloved abhor all your lives the chief and principall point of all Popery which is that false authority that Supremacy which the Papists give to the Pope above all the Church O never admit this erroneous doctrin nor ever thinke that Christ left Peter or any other to be Supream head and only head over the Church but this authority was given equally to all the Apostles as ye may gather out of Matth. 28. 3 last ver. where our Saviour equally and with equall authority sent all his Apostles to preach and teach saying Go ye therefore and teach all Nations And further he saith And loe I am with you alway even unto the end of the world Behold how Christ sendeth not only Peter but all his Apostles to preach and teach And saith he will bee not only with Peter but with all his Apostles inspiring spiritually and instructing them all and not Peter alone to rule and governe feed with spirituall food his flock If this be so dearly Beloved never beleeve that the authority which the Pope challengeth to himself over all the Church is due unto him who usurpeth his authority seeketh by it to encroach upon Kings and Princes Crowns as I shall in some other occasion more largely declare Fly therefore deare soules from this chief and most dangerous Rock of all Popery and having once discovered the dangers of this false doctrin abhor then all other erroneous doctrins of Rome which come from him that usurpeth Christs own power and challengeth it to himselfe alone O let my conversion be your strength and comfort O beleeve an experienced and skilfull Pilot who hath travailed almost over all the world and hath by experience of almost 40 yeares discovered all those rocks and quick sands of Popish errors of Antichristian doctrines and superstitions which threaten the losse and utter overthrow of your soules O that this day I may performe what Iesus said to Peter And when thou art converted strengthen thy Brethren O let my example dearely Beloued strengthen you all in the true Protestant Religion that so I may say with the spouse draw me and we will run that I being drawn this day unto the true Faith yee may all run more hastily and speedily to the same that I being brought this day into the Kings chamber that is into the true Church ye may all be glad and rejoyce finding in your soules a new greater strength to continue and dye in this ancient and Apostolike Church that so we may all meet and rejoyce together after this life in another chamber of our Heavenly Bridegroome in the triumphant Church of Heaven Amen FINIS