come to these reverend and holy mysteries and that the seldomer we come we shall tast and find a greater sweetnesse in them At other times hee proposes to us the example of others who seldome communicate and yet are thought good Christians Againe sometimes hee stires up his Instruments to vex and disquiet us with opprobrious speeches that so he may prevent and hinder â—s sometime he presseth our thoughts with the lumber of worldly businesse or troubles our heads with vaine and wandring thoughts and afflicts our hearts with the anguishes and terrors of a guilty Conscience if all these will not doe then he stirres up in us strife and hatred against our friends and Neighbours by all which meanes he detaines our soules from all love and affections to Goâ— and holy duties and makes our prepararion to the Sacrament hard and difficult and full of paine and vexation Some he deceives thus hee perswades out of a pretence or shew of Religion to deferre that which they know ought not to be omitted Thus this Grand Impostor being of a Serpentine nature winds and turnes himseife into divers shapes and trickes sets upon us with his cunning wilds and delusions And hence it is that delay followes upon delay and one good purpose and resolution upon the neck of another whilst wee deferre from day to day from weeke to weeke nay from yeare to yeare to come to Christ in this heavenly Supper nay which argues our wickednesse and sinfull corruption we seldome come to this banquet but when we are driven and forc'd to it by the Lawes compultion We find Recorded Luk 14. that a certaine man made a great Supper and bad many Verse 16 and sent at supper-time his Servant to say to them that were bidden Come for all things now are ready And they all with one mind began to make excuse One said hee had bought a farme another Oxen a third reply'd that he had maried a Wife No man is at leisure when he is to come to Christ who is lively represented in the supper of the Eucharist To pretend the care of Wife and Family is an excuse that carries with it some plausibility yet indeed it is attenced with great folly shall we not for one houre lay aside all worldly thoughts and distempering cares the care of our Farmes Oxen and Wives and what else is deare and precious to us that so we may the better imploy our selves in the study and performance of those things which concerne the eternall good and welfare of our soules If wee were call'd to plow or to some such toylesome worke there would be some reason for it if wee should choose rather to sleepe then digge but being invited to sit down at a feast with Christ where wee have none other food but his owne body and blood to withdraw our selves from this banquet to shunne this Feast is certainely a signe of an impudent madnesse If wee did fly from an angry God wee should shew that we descend from Adams race and lineage Gen. 3. but to flye from an appeased and mercifull God from a God that invites us with all love and sweetnesse to his Table adornd vvith heavenly dainties to turne from so good a God is the property not of men but beasts But that our excuses may not vvant their varnish and colours vve do not palliate and cover our faulty Idlenesse vvith filthy and illegall pretences vve pretend not our Thefts nor the foulenesse of our Adulteries to be the cause of our abstaining from this heavenly Feast but our excuse is fram'd and built upon colourable and honest things For it is no sinne to marry nor to take care for ones Family to buy Cattle and purchase Land is a point of good Husbandry But I pray tell mee what good will all these things doe thee what profit wilt thou reape by them if in cleaving to these thou loosest God thy chiefest good and endangerest thy salvation Wee must take care when we pamper the body that we starve not the soule and he that purchases a Farme or buyes a field with the losse of heaven is a worse foole then he was of whom we read in the Gospell who cared more for a full Barne then hee did for God When wee are Invited to dine or sup with some great man we lay aside all businesse for that time and whilest wee converse with God the King of Heaven and Lord of the Angells at this supper of the holy Eucharist Farmes and Oxen and Wife are to be neglected all businesse and worldly cares are to bee silenc'd and suppressed yet we often times proceed to that impudent bouldnesse that we feare not to say wee cannot come we should speake more truly in saying wee will not so long as we persever in this bold Impudence can vve hope to purchase Gods favour or tast the sweet of his goodnesse Ah wretched soules miserable men that wee are hurtfull to none more then our selves vvee freeze with could and yet shun the fire sick vve are and contemne him that can cure us and the more need vve have of a Physition by so much the lesse vvee feele and are sensible of our malady and sicknesse Wee loath svveet Manna and hunt after stinking Onyons Exod. 16. God in times past commanded the Israelits to gather Manna every day but to rest on the Sabbath And vvee God be praised have our Manna far more precious then that of the Israelites We have the vvord and his Sacraments this Manna vvee may freely use so long as vvee have breath in our Nostrills before death surprise us and our soules be translated to enjoy an eternall Sabbath vvith God and his holy Angells But poore deceived Wretches vvee follow our first Fathers steppes Adam sayes Gerson would not when he might eat of the Tree of life justly therefore was he punished afterwards he could not when he would even so wee whilst wee may will not accept of mercies and herein we betray our proud and contumatious Arrogancy wee post and fly with all hast to rich mens Feasts but wee are hardly drawne and that seldome to the Table of Christ wee are not more drousie and lesse active in any one thing then in that which is the maine even our soules salvation In other matters wee shew an active agility in this only a senseles and dull stupidity which that God Almighty may correct and amend in us he sends us to the Ant an example of Industry and diligence Prov. 6. Go to the Ant thou stuggard Behould her wayes and be wise She by the very guidance and Instinct of Nature knowing that food is not to be got in Winter gathers her food in Harvest and prepares her meat in Summer Thus ought we to doe with more care and circumspection of thoughts out of a religious providence and prospection to our soules good should provide in the Summer of our flourishing youth in the Harvest of this life that vâ—â—t cum that
Lord Apoc. c. 1 19. because they rest as it were in the bosome of the Lord and they thus resting their death to them is but a sleepe Acts 7. So wee reade of Stephen when he was assaild with a storme of stones even in the midst of so great a tumult and noise of his enraged enemies the Text sayes that He fell a sleepe hee slep't in the Lord. So Our Lord and Saviour speaking of his beloved Lazarus uses these comfortable words Jo. 11.11 Our friend Lazaras steepeth Deut. 34 So Moses the servant of the Lord breath'd out his last breath where and when his Lord commanded And as a loving Mother kisses her tender infant sleeping in her bosome and afterwards says it downe softly in it's Cradle to take its rest so there be some who holding close to the Scripture phraise sticke not to say that Moses was dandled as it were by the hands of the Almighty was if wee may so speak with a kisse and embrace layd to sleepe in Abrahams brest The Psalmist in a manner insinuates thus much 1 27. Psa 3. so hee giveth his beloved sleepe And this gift is an inheritance which comes from the Lord a blessing which he bestowes onely on his Elect. Thrice happy are these soules who thus sleep in death Yea from henceforth saith the spirit that they may rest from their labours for their workes doe follow them as servants doe their Master sons their Father and Nobles their Prince they follow them to Gods Tribunall they attend them to the high Court of Heaven where will bee admittance only for so noble a train Whosoever therefore is predestinated to life hee will commend death as the onely remedy to ease and sweetten Natures griefe because he knows there is no other way to passe to heavenly joyes and for that such a man is alwayes prepared for death he thus reasons with himselfe Why doe I tremble at the name of Death why should I feare to dye I doe but walke that way I tread but that common and beaten path which my Fathers and all men have trod why then should I alone desire that priviledge which as yet has beene enjoyd by none I will then doe that willingly which will I nill I must bee done I know whatsoever is undertaken with a willing mind the burden that attends it is lessend if not quite taken away and where the cheerfulnesse of the will comes there the vexation which necessity commonly brings with it findes no roome Neither have I any just cause to decline or shrink at Death sith by the meanes of it I cease to be that which I unwillingly am and that is mortall and subject to corruption I receivd this flesh wherewith my soule is clad upon these termes of restoring it when it was demanded to its Lord and I will therefore restore it cheerfully knowing that I shall at the Resurrection receave it againe with an addition and encrease of glory As yet I am detaind from the sight of my God by meanes of those delayes which Mortality does enforce and which are but a praeludium to a better life For that last houre which most men so dread and feare is the beginning of that day which shall last for ever When a man then is upon his death bed and feeles the night of death approaching Let him solace himselfe with these words There will come a day which will redeeme me from the darksome prison of the Grave and reduce me to the comforts of everlasting life I will therefore cheerefully and most willingly goe out of this world in assurance that I shall bee admitted into a better with what great joy shall I entertaine that gladsome day wherein I shall bee assign'd to my proper home here I am but a stranger and wherein I shall bee snatch'd from the fetters of my body and snares of the flesh to an everlasting inheritance in the heavenly Paradice I confesse O Lord the guflt of many and great sinnes wherewith my Conscience is stain'd yet this is my comfort that thy Mercy is like the great Ocean wherewith the earth is bounded Into this Ocean will I throw my selfe with bosdnesse and confidence when I finde my thoughts dejected and feele deaths approach being assaulted by its forerunner a mortall sicknesse Thus casting my selfe into the bosome of the Almighty and throwing my soule into the Armes of his Mercy I shall quit my selfe of all the bands of this life 's sinfull misery And in an holy subjection to Gods will I wish that death would hasten his approach whensoever hee comes and knockes at my doore he shall finde me willing and prepar'd to entertaine his message and so to rest from my labours I am no â—uch an enemy to quiet and case as to refuse after the toylesome working dayes of this life to keepe Holy-day and to solemnize an eternall Sabbath with God and his holy Angels in heaven And why should I not then rejoyce with gladnesse when I shall close the dayes of this sorrowfull life which is nothing else but an Aegypt of Calamities and shop of miseries when I shall cut off that Yoke the world calls fortune being no more subject to casualties and vexations and troubles and begin a day which shall not bee shut up with night but be freed from all gloomy just and darknesse Most welcome will that Messenger be whom the King of glory shall send unto me to summon me out of this world to releaseme out of this dark prison to enjoy everlasting felicity being loosn'd from the fettars of mortality I then shall be enabled to performe those holy duties which I could never doe so long as I was clogg'd with the burden of my flesh The Bird needs no ejectment but speedily flyes out so soone as ever the Cage is open'd even so I being long since cloid with the toyles of this life most willingly when God shall call me will take my slight to those large and pleasant fields of immortall glory I am solicitous about the place and manner of my death but of the time alrogether carelesse whether I dye to day or to morrow this weeke or the next I â—are not His will bee done who made me and all things of nothing The will of God is my rule according to which I square my desires and proportion my thoughts both for life and death No ill can bee fear'd or expected from him who is goodnesse it selfe and the Author of our life and salvation And may not the Potter doe what he lists with an earthen Pitcher may he not break it if hee will or polish it upon the wheele I am an earthen Vessell made by the handâ—â— that great Celestiall Potter be it spoken with Reverence shall I then complaine and whimper when hee that fram'd and fashion'd me shall crumble me into dust that he may cast me into a new mould and turne my misery into joy making me for ever blessed and happy Is it
to heare the word but to remember and practise what we have heard What good will a mans meate doe him if he casts it up so soon as ever t is sent to his stomack The Mother of our Lord the Virgin Mary is highly commended as for many other vertues so chiefly for this Luk. 2.19 that she kept all the words of the Angell in her heart J have hid thy word within my heart that I might not sin against thee sayes David They are compard in the Gospell to good ground vvho hearing the vvord of God retaine it in a good and Luk 8. honest heart and bring forth fruit with patience for indeed as to read and not understand so to heare and not retaine in memory vvhat vve heare is vaine and fruitlesse and savours of great negligence We ascribe folly and madnesse to that Painter vvho having dravvn vvith great paines and much cost a curious Picture in Colours shall aftervvards dash it and vvipe it out vvith his sponge So unseemly is it for a Christian to heare and bury vvhat he has heard in the grave of Oblivion Therefore let every one of us endeavour so to remember that our memory be not dull and drowsie but Active and strong in its commands to doe that which wee have lok'd up in our memory the treasurie of the head If yee know these things happy shall ye be if ye doe them Ioh. 13. No man went to heaven ever for his knowledg but for practise And he that refuses to know what he ought to doe will never execute or performe his duty The holy Scriptures are the pure and living fountain of saving knowledg And although divers draw Waters out of this fountaine not once or twice but many times without intermission yet it can never be drawn dry there will be Water still even Water of Comfort to refresh every thirsty Soule Such is the quality and condition of this rich Mine that the deeper you dig and dive into it it vvil afford the more profound mysteries concerning God and our salvation The holy Scriptures are a spring of ever-living Water affording to the weary Soule inward refreshings and heavenly consolations Now as the Ant gathers her food in summer to sustain her in the hard Winter so a good Christian whose heart burns with the fire of devotion in the time of peace gets a stock out of Gods Word on which hâ—e feeds in the dayes of Tribulation It is manifest by dayly experience that the contemners of the Word have been and are so punishd by God that they themselves and others seeing and feeling Gods heavy Judgement for this sin have accknovvledged and confessed his Justice It is Gods will and pleasure we should submit our selves so farr as to be willing to be taught one by another King David vvas a most wise Prince in many things the holy Ghost was his instructer he knevv full vvell that Adultery and murder vvere forbidden in the vvord yet he never repented of these sinns until he vvas quickned and stirred up by Nnthans instructions Christ had prcached to Paul out of heaven when he repressed his raging cruelty with this reprehension Saul Saul why persccutest thou mee Notwitstanding this Christ sent Ananias to instruct him in the way to heaven Act 8. The Angell told Cornelius that God had accopted his Prayers and Almes and with all sent Peter from Joppa to informe his understanding when the Eunuch was sitting in his Chariot and reading the Prophet Jsaiah An Angel was not sent from God to be his Master but Philip. Moses whom a man may justly term Gods Secretary who was privy to his secret Councells yet as if he had beene a Child without knowledge he was taught and that with sharp and bitter speeches by his Father in Law a stranger how to Govern the people in peace and without all danger Christ himself vvho is the eternall Wisdome of his Father did sit in the midst of the Doctors Learning and asking them Questions There is no Sex on State no condition or calling exempted by God from hearing of Sermons But thirdly thou maist object and say I am one of the learned I shall heare no new thing I know before hand what the Preacher will deliver in his Sermon Here we may discover the pride of humane nature which is skilfull and witty to deceive it self But let me move to such a man this question who was ever so old and learned who was not ignorant of many things might be further in structed But suppose thy self to be a man furnished with all kind of knowledg and to excell all men so farr in understanding that thou canst not come home more learn'd from a Sermon But what say you to the will and memory may not it bee mov'd this stirred up and quickned Does not that sometimes need to be reformed this to be confirm'd and strengthen'd Nothing so easy as for the memory to be deceav'd and for the will to run into mistakes and errors embracing evill for good and shunning good for evill unlesse both memory and vvill be supported by daily helps vvhereby the former may be made firm and the other freed from erroneous conceits that so vve may serve God sincerely in all holines and righteousnesse Therefore it is not only profitable but also necessary for all men to frequent the Church and to heare Sermons The wicked have need of preaching that they may be corrected and their lives amended The good and Godly that they be not corrupted the Ignorant that they may be taught the learned that they may be admonish'd that they may learne some new thing or recollect in their memories old things which they have formerly learnd A wise man will heare and encrease in Wisedom and the eare of the wise seeketh learning That Herod who was so famous for his wicked impiety yet he was not so barbarous and foolish but that he would heare Iohn Baptist his Court Chaplain joyfully and willingly and when hee had heard him do many things gladly In this Herod there was not only a willingness to heare but also a long and unwearied patience for he could not have done many things according to Saint Johns praescriptions unless he had heard him oftentimes concerning divers and many particulars Neither are we to imagine that John the Baptist did only repeat or set downe in a Catalogue and rebuke the Kings vices but to have dealt with him by Reason and Argumentation that so he might not only point at the Tyrants faults but also disswade him from them The adultery of that King and many other hainous crimes such staines could not be wiped out by one or two Sermons each crime required one or more for its purgation A Soule that is hardned in wickedness such was Herods is to be assaulted and shaken with divers batteries Thus did Iohn the Baptist and notwithstanding all this Herod heard him gladly And although Iohn did publikely cast this in his teeth
Heaven and the day of Iudgement were ever in his thoughts and therefore said to God I feared all my workes knowing that thou do'st not spare sinners Iob 9. as if he should say I suspect all my words and deeds yea and my very thoughts I set a watch before all these whil'st I remember daily Gods memorable Iustice The consideration and thought of which made that good old man Hilarion to tremble when he was dying and going to appeare before Gods Tribunal Hieron in vita illius c. 38. There was a little heat left which warmed his body neither was there any thing left of a living man but only fence and feeling and yet he spake chearfully to his fainting soule Get thee out my soule get the out doest thou now feare doest thou now doubt Thou hast served Christ these seventy yeares and doest thou now feare to die and approach to his presence This good mans Soule did not feare to die or be seperated from the body but was afraid when it thought of Gods severe Iudgement before which it was to stand and be examined consider this O ye Christians who lead sinfull and wanton lives If this Religious man did tremble for feare of failing of his Salvation do ye delight your selves in the vanities of this world going on securely in your sins and heaping up Gold and Silver Go to now teare and consume one another with the tooth of envy and malice hunt after Honours and let preferment and glory be the only ayme of your endeavours please your genius and flatter your selves in pleasures say as some worldlings have done The earth hath he given to the Children of men and we will inhabit it let others if they please labour to be Citizens of Heaven Go feed your eyes with pleasing objects give your thoughts the Raines and deny nothing to your raging and lustfull affections let them excurr and fasten where they please let them have what they desire imagine that to be lawfull which ye like and deny your body no pleasure that it wants and craves Take care only that you may live here voluptuously without any paine or griefe and walk in the sight of your eyes Eccle. 11. and in the wayes of your heart But know that for all these things God will bring you to Judgement And though a man live many years and rejoyce in them all yet shall he remember the dayes of darkness because they are many all that commeth is vanity Therefore labour by your Faith and good workes 2 Pet. 1. to make your calling and Election sure Ye have heard what be the signes of Predestination First not to love our friends only but also our Enemies 2ly To relieve the poor not only by our bounty but also with an affection of commiseration pity 3ly To suffer all adversity patiently relying upon Gods providence and submitting our selves to his will in all our extremities 4ly We must preferr the riches of Heaven before the goods of this world 5ly and 6ly We must not only attend to the outward admonitions of men but also the interior or inward instructions of God and yeeld obedience to both 7ly The sins and offences of our life past are so to be deplored and bewailed that ever after we for sake them for the time to come and never commit the same againe 8ly Let no man think that he pleaseth God unlesse he be displeasing to himselfe 9ly And let no man perswade himselfe that he loves Christ so long as he loves not his mysterious presence in the Sacrament 10ly We must resist our vitious affections in their first beginnings not suffering them to grow into a feirce unruliness He that doth this is an Emperour having the command over himselfe which is the best and greatest conquest 11ly Our wills must be set upon goodnesse otherwise they will waver and totter in the uncertaine and giddie motions of our desires 12. And lastly we must ever meditate on our last end for death when it is oft thought upon is less hurtfull and least feared That man will not die unwillingly who seriously thinks of dying daily And this is the way to attaine to that life which is immortall and shall never be closed up with death Now let every man put questions to his owne conscience let him search by a strict examination and inquiry whither he hath found in himselfe these signes of Predestination whereby he may beleive that he is in the way wherein the godly walke to Heaven The way of Sinners is plaine and smooth Ecclus. 21. but the end thereof is Hell and darknesse notwithstanding this so many and so great a company run to their destruction in this plaine and pleasant way that they make good by their practise the saying of Christ wide is the Gate and broad is the way that leads to perdition and many there be that enter in at that and walk in this certainly they are many we see that they are many It is delivered in the writings of many learned Authors that a certaine Anchoret being once in an Extasie did see the soules of men glide and drop into Hell like to Snow and Raine So that the damned Spirits may not unfitly demand as one affirmes they did whether the world did persevere and continue in that state in which it was for indeed so many soules go to that place of Torment that a man would scarce beleive there could be so many men living on the earth Vincentius Ferarius a Dominican Preacher discoursing out of the Pulpit concerning the small number of the predestinate confirmed all that he said by a remarkable passage Vid. Philip Disy To 5. his words were these or to this effect Before Christs comming into the world in our flesh there had passed above five thousand yeares it which time the whol woâ—ld being given to much wickedness peâ—â—shed in their sins excepting a â—ew Isâ—â—elites that were saved by the Covenant of faith whâ—â—â— God made with Abraham 〈◊〉 seed So now likewise in the time of the Gospel under Christ how many men women die are dâ—â—med for want of Faith Aâ—so how many Iewes Turkes how many Pagans and Infidells perish for want of the knowledge of Christ Besides these how many Christians be there vvho have pertaked of Baptisme and have an outvvard shew of godliness yet wanting the power of 〈◊〉 in their lives being proud and covetous and luxurious wanton livers Hovv many I say be there of these that never pertake of Heavens joyes Faith and Baptisme joyned with a good life will bring a man to salvation the way that leadeth unto it And to hope to be saved vvithout these going in this way is high presumption These things being so I will conclude this point with that exhortation of our Saviour strive to enter in at the strait gate The strait gate of Paradice is the Will of God we must squeese and contract our selves by repentance and humility wholly denying
our selves and doing Gods will if we have a purpose to enter into Paradice The wide gate is our owne Will which we must renounce by a cheerefull and constant submission to God and obedience to his Commandements The broad way that leads to Hell is a worldly conversation to live in surfeting drunkenness to spend our dayes in Luxury and wantonness to be revengefull and never to forget or forgive injuries c. This is the common practise of the world therefore Few there are that shall be saved We find a story among the Popish Legends of which we may make some use It is of Bertoldus a Franciscan an Eloquent Preacher in Germany This man declaiming in a Sermon with strong invectives against a certaine sin there was a Woman then present who heard this sin ripp'd up and the foulness of it laid open and Conscious to her selfe of being guilty of the same was stoken with so great sorrow and perplexity in her soule that she presently in the mid'st of the people fell into a Swoon but afterwards comming to her selfe againe and standing up with horrour in her countenance and palenesse in her cheeks she related what shee had seene don at the Tribunall of God but among other things she affirmed this That shee saw brought before it sixty thousand soules of diverse Nations Christians and Barbarians who had died severall deaths and of all these but only three were saved the rest were throvvn dovvn to Hell to be for ever tormented The truth of this story vve will not now discusse but let us all beleive this to be most true That many enter in at the broad gate and many walk in the wide and spacious way that leads to perdition Therefore St. Chrisostom said well to this purpose Tom. 3. Hom. 24. et Tom. 5. Hom. 40. glossing upon our Saviours words There be many more that enter in at Hells Gate but yet the Kingdome of Heaven is greater although the Inhabitants be fewer And how many think you are in our City that shall be saved I know said he that what I say will not be pleasing to you yet I will not forbeare to speak it Amongst so many thousands there are scarce one hundred that shall be saved Nay I doubt of that too For what malice may we find in young men what Idleness and drowsiness in the auntient c. Thus Chrisostom a most wise and holy man a great Doctor of the Church and he spake this of Anâ—ioch a most populous City and at that time when the fervency of that spirit and heat of Zeale which warmed the hearts of the Primitive Christians was not yet extinguished and decayed who then can wonder novv that Saint Paul should so solicitously exhort and admonish us Phil. 2. To work out our salvation with feare and trembling Luk. 13. seeing that Christ too has so cleerly advised us To strive to enter in at the strait gate Strive sayes he who is truth it selfe Strive i. e. labour endeavour with all your strength and povver to enter in at the strait gate by bringing forth fruit worthy of Repentance We must not look to enter in with faint and cool desires but vve must use the utmost of our best and most vigilant endeavours such as vvill break through all difficulties and vvade through the deepest vvaters of trouble and afflictions For unlesse vve be carried onvvard to Heaven vvith a fervent intention of mind and spirit and unless a man force himselfe to go forvvard he vvill easily start backward as not able to pass through the straites of that narrow gate being combred with a load of worldly cares and pestred with the burthen of his unsatiate lusts In our strait passage too we are like to meet with many Tentations and persecutions which the World and the Devill raise against those that labour to enter in at that gate which leads to happiness And as Watermen that Row against the Wind and Tide buckle themselves to their Oares with all force and might So those men who in their laborious passage to Heaven shall meet with many assaults from their violent and malitious enemies must stand fast to their faith never relinquish that whose power is such that no strength of their enemies shall be able to master it If they let go this hold give up this faith their Soules like unto a Boat driven with the Tide will be hurried into a Gulf from which they shal never be recovered 1 Cor. 10. Awake therefore to live righteously and sin not 1 Cor. 15. That man truly awakes and watches who does alwayes and in all places so order his life and Actions that he accompts every day to be his last day and in all his thoughts words and Workes has such a care not to violate his Conscience as if he were to die each day And indeed thus should we do And let us all do that whil'st we may and have time to do it i. e. repent which those that are in Hell would faine do but cannot Whatsoever a man sows that shall he reap Gal. 6 And he that sowes to the flesh shall of the flesh reap Corruption but be that sowes to the spirit shall of the Spirit reap life Everlasting LAVS DEO A POSTSCRIPT To all tender-hearted Christians who are weake in Faith and desire to get assurance of their Interest in CHRIST MANY are the titles which God in his Holy Word fastâ—eth to his Elect ones for whom 〈◊〉 Kingdome is provided l. Io. 15.14 2 Lu 12.4 3 Acts 16.17 4 Ps 83.3 Psal 135.4 5 Mal. 3.7 some â—f them are plaine and positive as there he calls them his 1. friends â—nd 2. Servants others more â—â—struse and figurative as when he â—iles them his 3. sucret ones his â— peculiar Treasure and his 5. â—wells c. Which latter appelâ—tion is Analogicall built upon this ground or reason for that as Jewell are rare and precious having in them a lustre a lightsome brightness which is not to be found in ordinary stones so Gods Saints in Comparison of Worldlings that have no right to Christ nor his promises so they are as the Israelites were to the huge host of the Syrians they in comparison of these are as a little flock of sheep 1 King 20 27. and Gods Children if compared with the Syrians of this World are a small number as hath been demonstrated in the former Treatise Againe they are precious and deare in the Esteem of God whose Image they beare in their Soules his Image of Holiness and Righteousness Luk 1.71 containing a conformity of their wills and actions to God's and Likeness being the Mother of love they must needs be deare to their heavenly Father whose mercy and Iustice they represent and set forth in their lives In the last place they are his Jewells because of that light and lustre which is in their soules For when Christ visits a soule in mercy and unites himselfe unto it
This is confirmed by that saying of Byas Good men are rare but many are the ungodly these excell the other in number Saint Ambrose in a manner speakes the same words In comparison sayes he of the reprobate small or little is the number of the Elect for we may See every where and at all times a multitude of Sinners there is every where a great sort of men that run to Hell from happiness Lam. 1. Truly the ways of Sion do mourne but the paths that lead to Babilon do laugh and sing indeed if a man cast his eyes upon the way which leads with a downfall and descent to Hell he shall find that it is so stuff'd and crammed with Travailess that one crowds and presses another Thus most men hasten to the flames of Hell as it were to a banquet or marriage corrupting each other by the vitious examples of their lives The vvay to Vice is not only plaine and easie but also a dovvnfall vvith a Vast precipice But the vvay that leads to vertue is hard and uneasie and those that vvalk in it are fevv and those strangers not acquainted vvith the World and it 's vaine delights The Prophet Isaiah presaging of this utters these mournfull vvords Is 24. Surely thus shall it be in the midst of the earth among the people as the shaking of an O live tree and as the Grapes when the Vintage is ended By this Prophecy the rarity of good Christians is intimated to us they being compared unto a few little boughs and Olive branches which are left for the use of the poor when the Vintage is ended but the great plenty of the ungodly who are Satans instruments to a plentifull increase of Grapes and Olives There is no truth sayes the prophet Hoseah nor mercy Hos 4. nor knowledge of God in the Land But swearing and lying and murther and stealing and adulteries do abound so that blood toucheth blood By this and the former instances we may perceive that the paucity or small number of good men was ever deplored by the Prophets The Apostles teares for this do mingle with the Prophets for they too bewaile the scarcity of the godly 1 Ioh. 5. St. Iohn affirmes That the whole world lies in wickednesse And St. Peter demands If the godly shall scarcely be saved 1 Pet. 4. where shall the ungodly and Sinne appraâ—â— Paul complaines That all men seek their owne Phil. 2. Mat. 11. and 〈◊〉 the things that be Christs Christ himselfe said The King 〈◊〉 of Heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force Neither did he forbeare to threaten Woe unto you rich men for you have your Consolation Luk. 6. Luk. 8. Woe unto you that be full because ye shall hunger Woe unto you that laugh now because ye shall mourne and weep Againe we find it recorded in St. Luke That part of the good seed fell among stones Luk. 7. this was dried up and parched part of it was sowen among thornes and Briars this was suffocated and Choaked and part fell by the way side which was trodden under foot how little a part and portion of it was sowed in good ground whereby it was preserved So of the ten Lepers that were cured Luk. 14. only one returned with thanks in his mouth Those that were invited to a great Supper began all to excuse themselves for not accepting of the invitation When the Pool of Bethesda was stirred by an Angell Ioh. 5. but one of many impotent diseased men were healed Ioh. 7. Amongst the Ie wish Senators only Nicodemus was bold to beg the Body of Christ And out of many rich misers that lived in Iericho out of so many Camells laden with heavy burthens only Zacheus laying down his bunch as Beza speaks he casting off the burthen of his riches and having entred in at the strait gate made restitution of all that he had gotten by extortion Only Mathew out of the receipt of Custome Luk. 19. and Mary Magdalen out of a Stews are reported to have bin translated from the state of Sin to a better life of innocency and holiness St. Paul when he preached at Philippie a City of Macedonia Act. 16. had many hearers but found no doers that did follow his instruction Only Lydias heart was opened and she obeyed his precepts The same Paul being at Athens disputed of Christ in the Synagogue Act. 17. and found many Auditors there and those learned ones but with all many scoffers but there were none but Dyonisius and Damaris that beleeved his sayings In the famous Councell of the seventy two High Priests and Elders Luk. 23. there vvas scarce one vvhich did not thirst after Christs blood and seek his ruine So our Saviour vvhen he vvas crucified had many Spectators but fevv lovers of his Cross and imitatours of his sufferings So at this day Sermons do abound amongst us but vve see little amendment or Change of manners The flame of mens vices is only tonched not extinguished they scarce endure to be pointed at much less to be extirpated All this proves that of our Saviour to be true Many are called Hom. 19. in Evangel but few are chosen many sayes St. Gregorie came to the Faith but few are brought to the Kingdome of Heaven Indeed there is in the sloore of the Church more Chaffe then Wheat more leaves then fruit many twigs in the Vine but few Grapes many Thornes but few Roses in our Gardens many flints but a few Iewells so the number of those whom the divine providence will advance to happiness is small if compared with that infinite multitude of the wicked which shall be doomed to eternall paines Hiercmias Prophesie is true and fit to our purpose Jer. 12. The whole Land lyeth wast because no man setteth his mind upon it or thinketh on it with his heart By this is implied that our thoughts are flitting and wavering and cannot abide to fasten upon the serious cogitation of our future good they wander where they please and roave up and downe and hence it is that there is so little feare of Hell amongst us our desire of Heaven is cold and not lasting That of the Psalmist may be fitly applyed to CHRISTIANS They thought meanly of that pleasant Land Ps 106. So do these slight and contemne Heaven then which nothing is more desireable but because our thoughts seldome or never mount up thither and we disdaine this blessed Kingdome as a thing unknown and Coldly do we desire it as if it were a thing not worthy our estimation hence it is that the Devill that Tartarean Gyant or Behemath takes courage and gets strength against us He trusteth that he can draw up Iordan into his mouth Iob. 40. and he is confident whilst we neglect Heaven that he shall swallow us up to our everlasting perdition The holy man Job he was of another temper then such Christians are