them It is true well may imprudent simplicity and cowaraly pitty disadvantage the Prudent the Couragious they nâ—ver can nay sincerity in the end overcometh infidelity and pitty triumpheth over cruelty none ever dealt more plainly then Christ none was dealt withal more deceitfully none used more pitty none was used more cruelly And what was the issue he proved the wisdom of his enemies plain folly and their fury turned to his greater glory And there was never any crafty wit that was not unto himself a snare nor cruel heart whose hands did not give himself the deadliest wounds in the conclusion Destruction is from our selves IUlian the Apostate gave for his Arms in his Scotcheon an Eagle struck through the heart with a flight-shaft feathered out of her own wing wâ—tâ— this Motto Propriis configimur alâ—s our death flies to us with our own feathers and our wings pierce us to the very heart The Eagle struck dead is the Church and Common-wealth the Arrow is the swift judgement of God the feathers shed out of her own wings which carryâ—d the arrow so swift to destruction are the sins of a Church and Commonwealth a lamentable thing it is to hear of the ruine of any Kingdom but when it comes to Perditio tua ex te that Israel should be Israels overthrow that any Church or Common-wealth should be felo de se that any particular man should by sin be accessary to his own death is a thing to be much lamented The Worlds Opposition no obstacle to a child of God ALciat hath it in one of his Emblems That a dog then barketh most when the Moon is at the fullest whether it be by some special influence that it then worketh in the dog or whether it be occasioned by the maculaes or spots in the Moâ—n represented unto him in the form and shape of another dog let the dog bark never so much yet the Moon walks her station securely through the Heavens And thus though Tyranny persecution afflictions bark never so much at the just man yet he doth not stay to take up a stone at every foul mouth'd dog that barks he makes not a stand in every cross way that he meets with but rides on through the storm and comes to his journeys end in safety Opposition is no obstacle to him Unworthy Communicants condemned IT was a smart and piercing speech of St. Ambrose to Theodosius offering himself to the Table of the Lord Istasne adhuc stillantes injustae caedis cruore manus â—xtendes c What wilt thou reach forth those hands of thine yet dropping with the blood of Innocents slaughtered at Thessalonica and with them lay hold upon the most holy body of the Lord Or wilt thou offer to put that pretious blood in thy mouth c The like may be said to many coming to the Sacrament that instead of washing their hands in innocency they rinse them in the blood of Inâ—ocents What will they reach forth those hands of theirs defiled with blood with the blood of Oppression those fingers of theirs defiled with iniquity and with those hands and fingers touch those holy mysteries with those lips of theirs that have driveled out such a deal of filthy communication with those mouths which have drunk of the cup of devils with those mouths and lips will they offer to drink the pretious blood of Christ is it not sin enough that with their sins they have already defiled their hands fingers lips mouths but that now also they will needs come and defile the Lords Table and impudently crowd in to the Sacrament when they come piping hot out of their sins and provocations Not to be children in understanding A Little child never thinks he shall be a man himself and â—aintain himself and live in the world by his own labour or by the Patâ—mony which at years of discretion shall be due unto him he cares for nothing but meaâ— and drink looks after nothing but sport and pastime come day go day God send night that 's all his care Nomine 〈◊〉 de nobis fabâ—la Most of us are even such we 〈◊〉 the childs folly and laugh at it as ridiculous yet we build houses purchase lands lay house to house land to land and all to raisâ— up a glorious name to posterity and to make a great shewâ—d the world but for the getting of grace for the gaining of faith and hope and love and repentance none of our thoughts are so bestowed and is not this to be children in understanding 1 Cor. 14. 20. A competent Estate the best Estate VVHen a man is to travel into a far Country a great 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 back will but â—inder him in his journey One 〈◊〉 in his hand may comfortably support him but a bundle of sâ—aves would be troublesome Thus a competency of these outward things may happily help us in the way to Heaven whereas abundance may be hurtful and like long garments to a man that walks on in the way will trip up our heeâ—s too if we look not well about us Not to continue angry WHat Silenus spake of the life of man Optimum non nasci c. The best thing was not to be born or being born to dye may be fitly applyed to all quarrels and contentions amongst brethren especially Christian brethren it were the happiest thing in the world that such dissentions never saw light but if they should arise and come into the world that they might dye as soon as they were born at the most that they might but be like those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 small creatures Aristotle speaks of whose life exceeds not a Summers day not to let the Sun go down upon our wrath Hearers and not doers of the Word condemned SOme say that the Weezel doth aure concipere ore párere conceive in the ear and bring forth by the mouth Sure it is that there are many such wild conceptions amongst us many that hear tales with their ears and enlarge them with their tongues and such there are too that are zealous to hear the Word preached but all their practise is onely in prating of what they have heard all their Religion is at their tongues end which rather should be at the bottom of their hearts Rich poor men THe Philosopher reckoneth the Camel amongst the beasts that are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which bring forth but one at once and generally it is observed That among the Creatures The greater do bring forth the fewest young and so it is in the spiritual birth Not many mighty not many Noble are called It is noted that the richest men have fewest children whereas the poor are most prolifical and fertile and men that are rich and abounding in the wealth of this world are usually most barren in the fruits of the spirit Greatness and goodness seldom meet together Riches and Religion
a nayl in the work yet all serve for the good of the building The least starre gives light the least drops moystens the least Minister is no lesse then an Angell the least nayl in the Ministery serves for the fastning of Souls unto Christ there is some use to be made even of the lowest parts of Men the weakest Minister may help to strengthen ones Faith Though all are not Apostles all are not Evangelists all have not the same dexterous abilities in the Work yet all edifie And oftentimes so it cometh to passe that God crowns his labours and sends most Fish into his net who though he may be lesse skilfull is more faithfull and though he have lesse of the brain yet he may have more of the Heart and therefore not to be contemned The Minister and Magistrate to go hand in hand together IT is reported of Queen Elizabeth that coming her progresse into the County of Suffolk when she observed that the Gentlemen of the County who came out to meet her had every one his Minister by his side said Now I have learned why my County of Suffolk is so well governed it is because the Magistrates and Ministers go together And most true it is That they are the two leggs on which a Church and State do stand And whosoever he be that would saw off the one cannot mean well to the other An Anti-Ministerial spirit is an Antimagistratical spirit The Pulpit guards the Throne Be but once perswaded to take that away and you give the Magistrates Enemies room to fetch a full blow at them as the Duke of Somerset in King Edward the sixth's dayes by consenting to his Brother's death made way for his own by the same ax and hand The great danger in commission of little Sins WHat is lesser then a grain of â—and yet when it comes to be multiplyed What is heavier then the Sands of the Sea A little sum multiplyed riseth high So a little Sin unrepented of will damn us as one leak in the Ship if it be not well lookt to will drown us Little Sins as the World calls them but great Sins against the Majesty of God Almighty who doth accent and inhance them if not repented of One would think it no great matter to forget God yet it hath an heavy doom attending on it Psal. 50. 22. The non-improvement of Talents the non-exercising of Graces the World looks upon as a small thing yet we read of him that hid his Talent in the earth Matth. 25. 25. he had not spent it onely not trading it is senâ—enced such and so great is the danger of the least Sin whatsoever The Worldling's inordinate desires And why so THe Countryman in the Fable would needs stay till the River was run all away and then go over dry-shod but the River did run on still and he was deceived in his expectation Such are the Worldling's inordinate desires the deceitfull heart promiseth to see them run over and gone when they are attained to such a measure and then they are stronger and wider more impotent and unruly then before For a Covetous heart grasps at no lesse then the whole World would fain be Master of all and dwell alone like a Wen in the body which drawes all to it self let it have never so much it will reach after more adde house to house and field to field till there be no more place to compasse like a bladder it swells wider and wider the more of this empty World is put into it so boundlesse so endlesse so inordinate are the corrupt desires of Worldly-minded Men. To beware of masked specious Sins IT is said of Alcibiades That he embroydered a Curtain with Lyons and Eagles the most stately of Beasts and birds that he might the more closely hide the picture that was under full of Owls and Satyrs the most sadly remarkable of other Creatures Thus Satan embroyders the Curtain with the image of virtue that he may easily hide the foul picture of Sin that is under it Sin that in the eye of the World is looked on as Grace coloured and masqued over with Zeal for God good intentions c. such as hath a fine glosse put upon it that it may be the more vendible Wherein the Devill like the Spider first she weaves her Web and then hangs the Fly in it So he helps Men to weave the web of Sin with specious shews and Religious pretences and then he hangs them in the snare and sets all their Sins in order before them No true Happinesse to be found in the best of Creatures here below SOlomon having made a Critical enquiry after the excellency of all Creature-comforts gives this in as the Ultimate extraction from them all Vanity of vanities all is vanity And have not all of us great experience how loose the World hangs about us If you go to the Creature to make you happy the Earth will tell you that happinesse growes not in the â—urrows of the Field the Sea that it is not in the Treasures of the deep Cattel will say It is not on our backs Crowns will say It is too pretious a gem to be found in us we can adorn the head but we cannot satisfie the heart It is true that these Worldly earthly things can benefit the outward and the Natural Man but to look for peace of Conscience â—oy in the Holy Ghost inward and durable comfort in any thing which the World affords is to seek for treasure in a Cole-pit a thing altogether improbable to be found there How it is that Faith challengeth a superiority above other Graces TAke a piece of Wax and a piece of Gold of the same Magnitude the Wax is not valuable with the Gold but as this Wax hangs at the labell of some Will by vertue of which some great Estate is confirmed and conveyed so it may be worth many hundred pounds So Faith considered purely in it self doth challenge nothing more then other Graces nay in some sense it is inferiour it being an empty hand But as this hand receives the pretious Alms of Christ's Merits and is an Instrument or channel thorow which the blessed streams of life flow to us from him so it doth challenge a superiority over and is more excellent then all other Graces whatsoever Men not living as if they had Souls to save reproved SOcrates in his time wondred when he observed Statuaries how careful they were and how industrious to make stones like Men and Men in the mean time turning themselves into very blocks and stones The case is ours Men walk not as Men that have Souls to be saved many walk as if they had nothing but bellies to fill and backs to cloath fancies to be tickled with vanity eyes and ears to look after pleasure brains to entertain empty notions and tongues to utter them as for their Souls
therefore be a scandal to our Calling not a reproach to our own Names but let us be mindfull of our Vow and duty so oft as our Names are mentioned and as ready to answer to our Faith as to our Names Negligence in the wayes of God reproved THere is mention made of a Prince in Germany who being invaded by a more potent Enemy then himself yet from his Friends and Allies who flock't in to his help he soon had a goodly Army but had no money as he said â—o pay them but the truth is he was loath to part with it For which cause some went away in discontent others did not vigorously mind his businesse and so he was soon beaten out of his Kingdome and his coffers when his Pallace was rifled were found to be thwack't with treasure And thus was he ruin'd as some sick Men dye because unwilling to be at cost to pay the Physitian Now so it is that few or none are to be found but would be glad their Souls might be saved at last but where is the Man or Woman that makes it appear by their Vigorous endeavour that they mean in earnest What Warlike-preparation do they make against Satan who lyes between them and home Where are their Arms where their skill to use them their resolution to stand to them and conscionable care to exercise themselves daily in the use of them Thus to do is a rarity indeed if woulding and wishing would bring them to Heaven then they may likely come thither but as for this diligence in the wayes of God this circumspect walking this Wrestling and fighting this making Religion our businesse they are far from these as at last in so doing they are like to be from Heaven No way to Happinesse but by Holinesse ONe fitly compares Holinesse and Happinesse to those two sisters Leah and Rachel Happinesse like Rachel seems the fayrer even a carnal heart may fall in love with that but Holinesse like Leah is the elder and beautifull also though in this life it appears with some disadvantage her eyes being bleared with tears of Repentance and her face furrowed with the works of Mortification but this is the Law of that Heavenly Country that the younger sister must not be bestowed before the Elder We cannot enjoy fair Rachell Heaven and Happinesse except first we embrace tender-eyed Leah Holinesse with all her severe duties of Repentance and Mortification If we will have Heaven we must have Christ If Christ we must like his service as well as his Sacrifice there 's no way to Happinesse but by Holinesse Men deluded by Satan in not taking the right notion of Sin IT is with men in sinning as it is with Armies in fighting Captains beat their Drums for Voluntiers and promise all that list pay and plunder and this makes them come trowling in but few consider what the ground of the War is or for what Thus Satan enticeth Men to Sin and giveth golden promises of what they shall have in his service with which silly Souls are won but how few ask their Souls Whom do I sin against What is the Devills design in drawing me to Sin Shall I tell thee Dost thou think 't is thy pleasure or profit he desires in thy sinning Alas he means nothing lesse he hath greater plots in his head then so He hath by his Apostacy proclaimed war against God and he brings thee by sinning to espouse his quarrel and to jeopard the life of thy Soul in defence of his pride and lust which that he may do he cares no more for the damnation of thy Soul then the great Turk doth to see a company of his slaves cut off for the carrying on of his design in the time of a siege If therefore thou wilt not be deluded by him take the right notion of Sin and labour to understand the bottome of his bloudy design intended against thee Gods love to his Children in the midst of spirituall desertions And how so AS Ioseph when he spake roughly to his brethren and made them believe he would take them for spyes still his heart was toward them and he was as full of love as ever he could hold he was fain to go aside and weep And as Moses his Mother when she puâ— her child into the Ark of bul-rushes and went a little way from it yet still her eye was toward it The babe wept I and the Mother wept too So God when he goes a side as if he had forsaken his children yet he is full of sympathy and love towards them It is one thing for God to desert another thing to dis-inherit How shall I give thee up O Ephraim Hos. 8. 11. This is a Metaphor taken from a Father going about to dis-inherit his Son and while he is going to set his hand to the deed his bowels begin to melt and to yearn over him though he be a prodigall child yet he is a child I will not cut off the entail So saith God How shall I give thee up though Ephraim hath been a Rebellious Son yet he is my Son I will not dis-inherit him Gods heart may be full of love when there is a vail upon his face The Lord may change his dispensation towards his children but not his disposition So that the believer may confidently say I am adopted and let God do what he will with me let him take the rod or the staff 't is all one to me so long as he loves me The day of Death becomes the good Mans comfort And how so THe Persians had a certain day in the year which they called Vitiorum interitum wherein they used to kill all Serpents and venemous Creatures Such a day as that will the Day of Death be to a Man in Christ this day the old Serpent dyes in a believer that hath so often sâ—ung him with his Temptations this day the sins of the Godly these venemous Creatures shall all be destroyed they shall never be proud more they shall never grieve the Spirit of God more the death of the body shall quite destroy the body of death so that Sin which was the Midwife that brought Death into the World Death shall be the grave to bury sin O the priviledg and comfort of a true believer he is not taken away in his sins but he is taken away from his sins and death is made unto him advantage Heavenly happinesse not to be expressed NIcephorus tells us of one Agbarus a great Man that hearing so much of Christs fame by reason of the Miracles he wrought sent a Painter to take his picture and that the Painter when he came was not able to do it because of that radiancy and divine splendor which sate on Christs face Whether this be true or no penes sit authorem but to be sure there is such a brightnesse on the face of Christ glorified and that Happinesse which
protection but if he stray out of them he exposeth himself to danger God's time the best time for deliverance THe Physician turns the hour-glasse and resolves the physick shall work so long the impatient Patient 〈…〉 and thinks every hour two till he be refreshed but the other knowes the fittest time and will not till then afford any comfort at all Thus the children of God cry out in the midst of their heavy pressures How long Lord how long Shall the rod of the wicked lye alwaies upon the back of the righteous But he hath turned the glasse he will not hearken to their cry they must stay their time he knowes best when and how to deliver them had they but so much Faith as to believe it or Patience to wait for it The difference betwixt Spirituall and carnall Prayers in respect of Answer CHildren shoot arrowes on purpose to 〈◊〉 them and never so much as look where they light but Men when they shoot aime at the mark and go after the arrow to see how neer it falls So wicked carnall men when they have said not made their prayers to Almighty God it is but Opus operatum they have no more regard of them But God's children when they upon the bended knees of their â—ouls dart out their Prayers when they pour out their requests unto him they look after their Prayers eye them up into Heaven observe how God entertains them and wait for a happy return at his good will and pleasure God's knowledge and Man's knowledge the difference in event of things IN a sheet Almanack and man may uno intuntu at one view see all the months in the year both past and to come but in a book Almanack as he turneth to one month so he turneth from another and can but look onely on the present This is the true difference betwixt the knowledge of God and Man he looketh in one instant of time to things past present and future but the knowledge of Man reacheth onely to a few things past and present but knoweth nothing at all of things that are to come that 's God's peculiar so to do and a piece of Learning too high for any mortall man to attain unto Riches Honours Preferments c. transitory THe great Conquerour of the world caused to be painted on a Table a Sword in the compasse of a Wheel shewing thereby that what he had gotten by the Sword was subject to be turned about by the wheel of Fortune Such is the condition of all things here below whether they be Riches Honours or Preferments there is no more hold to be had of them than Saul had of Samuel's lap they do but like the Rainbow shew themselves in all their dainty colours and then vanish away and if by chance they stay with us as long as death they do but like Saint Paul 's friends bring us to the grave as they brought him to the ship and there leave us So uncertain deceitfull unconstant are the things of this world to the owners thereof The Church of God still on the decaying hand THe Church of Christ saith St. Hilary is aptly resembled to a Ship for as the Ship is small in the fore-deck broad in the middle little in the stern so the Church in her beginning was exceeding little in her middle age flourishing but in her old age her company will be so small and her beliefe so weak that when the Son of man shall come to judge the â—ons of men he shall scarce find faith on the earth A good Neighbour a great blessing to all men especially a Minister of Gods Word THemistocles intending to sell a Farm as Plutarch hath it caused the Cryer to proclaim that it had amongst other commodities A good Neighbour as being assured that this one circumstance would be advantagious to the sale and much induce the Chapman to purchase it And surely he that hath a good Neighbour hath a good morrow but a Minister that liveth amongst such hath got a rich Benefice he may acknowledge with David rebus sic stantibus that his Lot is fallen into a fair ground and blesse God that he is not a brother to the Dragons and a companion to the Estriges of the times nor constrained to his great grief to dwell with Meshecâ— and to have his habitation amongst the tents of Kedar Christ fully revealed in the New Testament THe bunch of grapes that the Spies of the children of Israel carried from the land of Promise it is Luther's observation was born by two strong men upon a pole or staffe he that went before could not see the grapes but he that was behinde might both see and eat them So the Fathers Patriarcks and Prophets of the Old Testament did not in like manner see the bunch of Grapes that was the Son of God made man as they that came behinde the Evangelists Apostles Disciples under the New Testament both saw and tasted it after Iohn had shewed this Grape Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world The danger of trusting to worldly greatnesse in time of distresse AS a passenger in a storm that for shelter against the weather steppeth out of the way betaketh him to a fair spread Oak standeth under the boughes with his back close to the body of it and findeth good reliefe thereby for the space of some time till at length commeth a suddain gust of winde that â—eareth down a main arme of it which falling upon the poor passenger either maimeth or mischieveth him that resorted to it for succour Thus falleth it out not with a few meeting in the world with many troubles and with manifold vexations they step asiae out of their own way and too too often out of Gods to get under the wing of some great one and gain it may be some aid and shelter thereby for a season but after a while that great one himself comming down headlong and falling from his former height of favour or honour they are also called in question and so fall together with him that might otherwise have stood long enough on their own legs if they had not trusted to such an arm of flesh such a brâ—ken staffe that deceived them Riches cannot follow us out of this World RIches though they have alas Aquilinas great Eagle's wings to flie away from us whilst we are here in this world yet have nâ— Passerinas quidem not so much as little Sparrowes wings to fly after us and follow us when we go hence Nihil attulisti nihil hinc atâ—olles We brought nothing into this world neither shall we carry any thing hence Naked came we 〈…〉 world and 〈◊〉 naked must we return again Not to be over hasty in the desire of Justice for wrongs sustained AS one that hath been either robbed
giving himself up to God AEschines perceiving every one give Socrates something for a present said unto him Because I have nothing else to give I will give thee my self Do so saith Socrates and I will give thee back again to thy self better then when I received thee So saies God if thou wilt give thy self to me in thy prayers in thy praises in thy affections and in all thy actions I will give thy self back so much mended that thou shalt receive thy self and Me too thy self in a holy liberty to walk in the world in a calling My self in giving a blessing upon all the works of thy calling and imprinting in thee a holy desire to do all things to My glory Excellency of the Robe of Iustice. THere is a story of a certain old woman in the Low-Countries that she being neer her end required her keeper of all loves and in any case to put upon her the Cowle of a Fryer Minorite when she should be ready to give up the ghost which she had prepared for that purpose And said she if death happen to come so suddainly that thou canst not put the whole Cowle upon me yet fail not at the least to put one of my arms into it that by vertue thereof three parts of my sins may be forgiven me and the fourth expiated in Purgatory Thus Meteranus of the old wifes perswasion touching the vertue of the â—ryer's Cowle which perswasion superstition bred covetousnesse tendered and folly entertained It cannot be said so of the vertue of the Robe of Iustice of Equity and square dealing whether distributive or commutative private or publick though all very good that they should have power to forgive sins no The blood of Iesus Christ cleanseth from all sins But this may be boldly said that it is an excellent Robe and a Diadem such a one that yieldeth a sweet savour unto the nostrills of God as Esau's garment upon Iacob's back did to Isaac their father Of all the garments you can put on after Faith and Love there is none to be compared to it Courtiers may have soft cloathingâ— a garment of needle-work is onely for the Queen 's wearing garments of divers colours are suitable for King's Daughters and there was a Babylonish garment which Achan purloyned to his destruction Herod's glittering apparell mentioned by Iosephus garments of gold and silver at which Dionysius jested That they were too cold in the winter and too heavy in the summer Perfumed garments such as were the undoing of Muliasses King of Tunis as Paulus Iovius relateth These were for some persons but not for others for some certain times but not for all But Iustice is a roâ—e for all sorts of men to put on for all times of the year sweet without fulsomnesse pretious without burthensomnesse safe without dangerousnesse indifferent to all degrees to all persons common equall glorious full of majesty and full of good works Miracles why ceased A Gardiner when he transplanteth a Tree out of one ground into another before the â— ree take root he sets stayes to it he powreâ—th water at the root of it dayly but when it once taketh root he ceaseth to water it any more and pulleth away the staies that he set to uphold it and suffereth it to grow with the ordinary influence of the Heavens So the Lord in planting of Religion he put-to the help of Miracles as helps to stay it but when it was once confirmed and fastened and had taken deep rooting he took away such helps so that as St. Augustine hath it Qui expectat miraculum miraculum est He that looketh for a miracle is a miracle himselfe for if the death of Christ will not work faith all the miracles in the world will not do it Other mens harms to be our arms WHen the Lion was sick all the Beasts of the field went to visit him onely the Fox stayed behind and would not go unto him being asked the reason he answered I find the track of many going in but of none comming out and I am not so desperate as to cast my self wilfully away when I may sleep in a whole skin Thus other men's punishments ought to be our instructions nocumenta documenta their harms our arms And that man is a fool whom other men's harms cannot make to beware The â—ootsteps of the Angells that fell may minde us of pride the ashes of Sodom tell us of our filthinesse Absolâ—m's hanging by the hair forwarn us of rebellion c. Encompassed by death on all sides IN the beginning of every Almanack there is usually the picture of a naked man miserably beset on all sides the Ram pusheth at the head the Bull goareth the neck the Lion teareth the heart the Scorpion stings the privy parts another shoots at the thighes c. Every man living is but an emblem of that livelesse Anatomy one dyes of an Apoplexy in the head another of a Struma in the neck a third of a Squinancy in the throat a fourth of a Gough and Consumption of the lungs others of Obstructions Inflammations Pluriâ—ies Gouts Dropsies c. and him that escapeth the sword of Hazael him doth Iehu slay and him that escapeth the sword of Iehu doth Elisha slay Let but God arm the least of all his creatures against the strongest man it is present death and dissolution A rich man had rather part with God than his gold TAke a narrow mouthed botâ—le it will receive the wine or beer that is poured into it without any noise at all but if you turn the bottle upside down the bottom upward it will not let any thing out but with a grâ—at deal of bubling and rumbling Thus it is with every worldly man he would quietly without any noise or reluâ—tation if possible suck in the graces of God's Spirit into his heart but tell him that the bottle must first be emptyed that he must sell all that he hath and giâ—e to the poor durus est hic sermo this is a hard saying how doth he murmuâ— and repine at this choosing with that prophane wretch rather to have his part in Paris than in Paradise the pleasures of sin for a season here in this world than the pleasures which are at Gods right hand â—or evermore How sin is made the prevention of sin WHen children begin to go they use to be so well conceited of the strength of their leggs that they need not any help of their Nurse to let them see their folly the Nurse will leave them to their selves that so smarting by a â—aâ—l they may better be brought to find what need they have of their Nurse The best of us all are but babes in grace yet do we think that we can stand of our selves yea and run the waies of God too now God doth refute us by our own experience and by this
let them stay at Iericho till their beards be grown till they be well principled and enabled for the great work of the Ministry Many seem to be willing yet are loath to die A Gentleman made choice of a fair stone and intending the same for his grave-stone caused it to be pitched up in a field a pretty distance off and used often to shoot at it for his exercise Yea but said a wag that stood by you would be loath to hit the mark Thus many men build their Tombs prepare their Coffins make them death's-headrings with memento mori on them yet never think of death and are very unwilling to die embracing this present world with the greater greedinesse A Minister to be able and well furnished CAleb said to his men I will bestow my daughter upon one of you but he that will have her must first win Kiriath Sepher i. e. a City of Books he must quit himself like a man he must fight valiantly And certainly he that will be one of God's Priests an Ambassador of Christ a true Minister of the Word and Sacraments must not be such a one that runs before he is sent that hath a great deal of zeal but no knowledge at all to guid it But one that is called of God that hath lain long before Kiriath Sepher that hath stayed some time at the University and commeth thence full fraught with good learning such a one and such a one onely is a fit match for Caleb's daughter fit to be a dispencer of God's Word and Sacraments Dangerous to be sed uced by fals-Teachers ARistotle writeth of a certain Bird called Capri-mulgus a Goat-sucker which useth to come flying on the Goats and suck them and upon that the milk drieth up and the Goat growes blind So it befalls them who suffer themselves to be seduced by hereticall and false Teachers their judgment is ever after corrupted and blinded And as it is said in the Gospel If the blind lead the blind both fall into the ditch Tongue-Prayer not the onely Prayer IT is said that David praised God upon an Instrument of ten strings and he would never have told how many strings there were but that without all doubt he made use of them all God hath given all of us bodiâ—s as it were Instruments of many strings and can we think it musick good enough to strike but one string to call upon him with our tongues onely No no when the still sound of the heart by holy thoughts and the shrill sound of the tongue by holy words and the loud sound of the hands by pious works do all joyn together that is God's consort and the onely musick wherewith he is affected The way to have our Will is to be subject to God's Will IT is reported of a Gentleman travelling in a misty morning that asked a shepheard such men being greatly skilled in the Phyâ—iognomy of the Heavens what weather it would be I will be said the shepheard what weather pleaseth me and being courteously requested to express his meaning Sir â—aith 〈◊〉 it shall be what weather pleaseth God and what weather pleaseth God pleaseth me Thus a contented mind maketh men to have what they think fitting themselves for moulding their will into Gods will they are sure to have their will The excellency of good Government IT hath been questioned and argued Whether it were better to live under a Tyrannous government where everâ— suspition is made a crime every crime capital or under an Anarchy where every one may do what he lift And it hath been long since over-ruled That it is much better to live under a State Sub quo nihil liceat quà m sub quo omnia A bad government rather then none So then if the worst kind of government be a kind of blessing in comparision What then is it to be under an able Christian Ruler One that doth govern with counsel and rule with wisdom and under such Judges and Magistracy that do not take themselves to be absolute the Supream Authority but confesse themselves to be dependant that they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like the Centurion in the Gospel and to give an account not onely to him that is Judge of quick and dead but also to the higher Powers on Earth if they should chance to forget themselves We must learn to live well before we desire to die AS old Chremes in the Comedy told clitipho his son a young Man without discretion who because he could not wring from his Father ten pounds to bestow upon his Sweet-heart had no other speech in his mouth but emori cupio I desire to die I would I were dead But what saies the old Man first I pray you know what it is to live and when you have learned that then if you be a weary of your life speak on Thus they that are so hasty to pronounce the sentence of death against themselves that wish themselves in their graves out of the world must first know what belongeth to the life of a Christian why it was given them by the Lord of life to what end he made them living souls what duties and service he requireth at their hands by that time these things are rightly considered they will be of another mind A negligent Christian no true Christian. IF a man should binde his son Apprentice to some Science or occupation and when he had served his time should be to seek of his Trade and be never a whit the more his Crafts-master in the ending of his years then he was at the beginning he would think he had lost his time and complain of the injury of the Master or the carelessness of the servant Or if a Father should put his Son to school and he alwaies should continue in the lowest Form and never get higher we should judge either great negligence in the Master or in the Scholar Behold such Apprentices or such Scholars are most of us The Church of God is the School of Christ and the best place to learn the Science of all Sciences Now if we have many of us lived long therein some of us twenty some thirty some fourty some fifty years c. and some longer and we no wiser then a child of seven Were it not a great shame for us What no forwarder in Religion then so O disgrace And may we not be condemned of great negligence in the matters of our salvation Hypocrisie may passe for a time undiscovered MAud Mother to King Henry the second being besieged in Winchester Castle counterfeited her self to be dead and so was carryed out in a Coffin whereby she escaped Another time being besieged at Oxford Anno 1141. in a cold Winter with wearing whitâ— â—pparel she got away in the snow undiscover'd Thus some Hypocrits by dissembling Mortification that they are dead to the world and by professing a snow-like purity
of a yeoman he become a Gentleman of a Gentleman a Knight as his person is improved so will he improve his port also yea the excesses of all men shew that every man goeth beyond his rank in his house in his fare in his cloaths building like Emperors cloathing like Kings feasting like Princes But in our spiritual estate it is nothing so For our house we can be contented to dwell in seeled houses when the Ark of God is under tents And who doth endeavour that himself may be a Temple fit for the holy ghost to dwell in Aâ— for our cloaths they should be royal our garments should ever be white the wedding garment should never be off but we are far from this kind of cloathing we do not endeavour to be cloathed with the righteousness of the Saints Finally for our dyet we that are called to the Table of the Lord and should be sustained with Angels food content our selves with swines meat for what else are filthy lusts vve are called to be the sons of God yet our eye is very seldom upon our Father to see what beseemeth his sons we are called to be members of Christ but little do we care what beseemeth that mystical body we are rather in name then in deed either children of God or members of Christ. Râ—petition of good things helpful to Memory A Bucket or Tub may for want of â—se and standing dry be so full of slits and rifts that all the water you take up in it runneth out yet the often dipping it into the VVell and filling it with water will make it moister then otherwise it would have been and more retentive Thus it is with our memories in the things concerning God and the good of our souls being very brittle and pertuse that they will hold very little or nothing at all they are dolta pertusa all goes through this must therefore be matter of great necessity to hear often that the frequent inculcation of the same things may imprint that in our mind by often hearing which others of more happy memories have got at the first All the Creatures are at peace with good Men. EUsebius in his Ecclesiastical story recordeth that the persecutors took those Primitive Christians and set them naked before the Lions to be devoured yet tâ—e Lions durst not toucâ— them they stood foaming and roaring before them but hurt them not and thereupon they were forced to put the skin of wild beasts upon them and so tear them in pieces Thus thou that art a wicked man and hast no part of the Image of God to defend thee no marvel if thy dog bite thee thy horse brain thee thy Oxe gore thee c. but as for thee that art the child of God and hast the Image of thy Creator stamped on thy soul thou needst not fear the Creatures though thy walk lie by the vale and shadow of death they can offer no violence or harm unto thee unless it be upon particular dispensation for thy good and spiritual comfort because they are reconciled unto thee by God's own promise Impossible to know God perfectly here in this World TUlly relateth how Simonides being asked by Hiero the King of Sicily VVhat God was desired one day to consider of it And after one day being past having not yet found it out desired two dayes more to consider of it and after two dayes he desired three And to conclude at length he had no other answer to return unto the King but this That the more he thought upon it the more still he might For the further he waded himself in the sâ—arch thereof the further he was from the finding of it And thus Plato What God is saith he that I know not What he is not that I know Most certain it is that God onely in regard of himself knows himself as dwelling in the light inaccessible whom never man saw neither can see Here now the Well is not onely 〈◊〉 but we want a bucket to draw withâ—l God is infinite and never to be comprehended essentially Oh then that we could so much the more long to enjoy him by how muchless we are able to apprehend him Not onely the good but the bad also are imitable in things they do well IT is Christ's own comparison that his second coming shall be like the stealing on of a Thief in the night Et quod decuit Christum cur mihi turpe putem nay Christ bids us imitâ—tâ— not onely the bad Steward in his providence but the Serpent also in his wisdom St. Paul borroweth seâ—tences out of the Heathen Poets St. Augustine made use of a rule of interpreting the Scriptures from Tichonius the Donatist Truth and goodness in whomsoever they are they are God's and therefore whether the point be speculative or prâ—â—tick if it be of this kind in whomsoever we find it we may follow it and in following it we follow not men but God It is too much preciseness to dislike something in our Church because therein we follow the Church of Rome as if all Principles of Religion and Reason were quite extinguished in them Injuries not onely to be forgiven but forgotten also THe Athenians took one day from the moneth of May and raced it out of all their Calendars because on that day Neptune and Minerva fell out with one another they could not endure any remembrâ—nce of that quarrel And it is Pythagoras rule Ignem gladio ne â—odias do not stir up the fire that is almost out Even so let Christians much more bury thâ—se dayes in silence and strike them out in their Almanacks in which any bitter contention fell amongst them and the breach being once made up and the wound closed not to rub upon the old sore and the heat being over not to rake into the Embers or ashes of the fire of that contention lately put out but to make a blessed Amnestia an absolute act of Obliâ—ion upon all injuries forepassed Afflictions lead to Heaven MErchants do usually shew their worst cloaths first to their Customers then the best At the wedding in Cana the last wine was the best Dulcia non meruit qui non gustavit amara before the Israelites could reach to Canaan they must march Southward through the dry and barren parts of the Mountains And thus God sheweth his children great afflictions and troubles the South parts as it were at the first before they can reach the Land of Promise the way to Heaven must be by the gates of hell Through many tribulations we must enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Eternity of punishment in Hell SUetonius reports of Tiberius Caesar that being petitioned unto by a certain Offender to hasten his punishment and to grant him a speedy dispatch he made him this answer Nondum tecum in gratiam redii Stay Sir you and I are not friends
better way then to come to him with Christ in our armes to present our suits by him We have so far provoked the Almighty by our sins that he may justly fall on us with a back-blow that we never yet dreamt of And who in Heaven or Earth can or dare treat for our peace but Christ our Peace-maker Ille oculus est per quem Deum videmus c. saith Ambrose He is our eye with which we see God our hand by which we offer to him and our mouth by which we speak unto him The Vanity of heaping up Riches IT is a great deal of care and pains that the Spider takes in weaving her web she runneth much and often up and down she fetcheth a compass this way and that way and returneth often to the same point she spendeth her self in multitudes of fine threads to make her self a round Cabinet she exenterateth her self and worketh out her own bowels to make an artificial and curious piece of work which when it is made is apt to be blown away with every pusse of wind she hangeth it up aloft she fastneth it to the roof of the house she strengthneth it with many a thread wheeling often round about not sparing her own bowels but spending them willingly upon her work And when she hath done all this spun her fine threads weaved them one within another wrought her self a fine Canopy hanged it aloft and thinks all 's sure on a sudden in the twinckling of an eye with a little sweep of a Beesom all falls to the ground and so her labour perisheth But here is not all Poor Spider she is killed either in her own web or else she is taken in her own snare haled to death and trodden under foot Thus the silly Animal may be truly said either to weave her own winding sheet or to make a snare to hang her self Just so do many Men wast and consume themselves to get preferment to enjoy pleasures to heap up riches and encrease them and to that end they spend all their wit and oftentimes the health of their bodies running up and down labouring and sweating carking and caring And when they have done all this they have but weaved the Spiders web to catch flyes yea oftentimes are caught in their own nets are made instruments of their own destruction they take a great deal of pains with little success to no end or purpose The way to God is a cross-way to the World A Man that walks by a River if he follow the River against the stream it will at length bring him to the Spring-head from whence it issueth but if he go along with the stream it will drill him on to the salt Sea So he that is cross-grained to the humours of the World that swims against the stream of sensual delights and pleasures that well improveth these outward things to God's glory shall at the length be brought to God the sweet fountain of them all but if he sail with wind and tide in the abuse of the good Creatures of God they will carry him down like a Torrent into the mare mortuum of perdition How to know God's dwelling-place Heaven WHen in our travel we chance to cast our eye upon some goodly structure of inestimable value we presently conceive it to be the pallace of a Prince So when we see the frame of Heaven so full of wonders where Stars are but as dust and Angels are but servants where every word is unspeakable and every motion is a miracle we may safely conclude it to be the dwelling of him whose name is Wonderful The dissolution of all ages past is to be a Memento for Posterity ONe Guerricus hearing these words read in the Church out of the book of Genesis Chap. 15. And all the dayes that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years and he dyed All the dayes of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years and he dyed And all the dayes of Enos were nine hundred and five years and he dyed And all the dayes of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years and he dyed c. Hearing I say these words read the very conceit of death wrought so strongly upon him and made so deep an impression in his mind that he retired himself from the world and gave himself wholly to devotion that so he might dye the death of the godly and arrive more safely at the haven of felicity which is no where to be found in this world And thus should we do when we look back to the many ages that are past before us but thus we do not Like those that go to the Indies we look not on the many that have been swallowed up by the waves but on some few that have got by the Voyage we regard not the millions that are dead before us but have our eyes set on the lesser number that survive with us and hence it comes to pass that our passage out of this world is so little minded National knowledge of God no true knowledge LOok upon a common beggar he knows the road-way from place to place can tell you the distance from Town to Town nay more can inform you of such a Noble-mans such a Knights such a Gentlemans house though it stand a great way off from the Road of such a Farmers and such a Yeomans house though it be in never so obscure a Village yet all this while hath no setled home no abiding place of his own Such is the knowledge of every Christian except a true Christian he can tell you of the pleasures that are at the right hand of God in the highest Heavens can talk and prate of God discourse of goodnesse but all this while is not good himself nor can make our unto himself any assurance of Interest in those heavenly things which he so much talketh of A formal specious Christian no true Christian. RAchel was very fair a goodly Woman to see to beautiful to the eye O but she was barren that mar'd all So there are many in the world such as make specious shews of Religion such as vvould seem to be Saints O but they are barren they are fruitless sap-less leave-less Christians they would seem to honour God but not with their substance they would seem to be religious but they will not refrain their tongues they would seem to be charitable but they will not part with a penny they have all form but little or no power of gâ—dliness many goodly blossoms of profession no râ—al fruits of confession appearing outside specious not true not real Christians Order both in Church and State commanded and commended GOd is not the God of confusion but of order Confusion is from the Devil Order is from God especially in the Church which St. Paul resembles to our body wherein the parts are fitly disposed and every one keepeth his place The eye
again and so was recovered out of all the extremities in which he lived before In this life we are just such as those poor men of Israel rifled plundered spoiled in a manner and condition every way straitned now Death is our Iubilee and when the Trumpet begins to sound life is then loss Death is the good mans advantage then it is that he enjoyes a better state than ever he had before What though Death be to the wicked as the Rod in Moses hand that was turned into a Serpent yet to the godly it shall be like that of Eliah a wand to waft them into a better life then it is that the funeral of their vices shall be the resurrection of all their gracious actions The greatest of Men subjects of Mortality IT is with Men as with Letters that have great and glorious superscriptions Right Honourable Right Worshipful c. but when opened there is nothing but a little black ink and dust upon them So though men have great places and offices whether it be in Church or State and make a great outward show in the world yet within there is but a little black blood and dusty flesh to cover it dust they were and to dust they must return again Death strips us of all worldly outward things IT is with us in this world as it was in the Iewish fields and vineyards pluck and eat they might what they would vvhile they were there but they might not pocket or put up ought to carry vvith them Deut. 23. 24. Or as with Boyes that having gotten by stealth into an Orchard stuffe their sleeves and their Pockets full with Apples and Pears well hoping to get out vvith them but when they come to the Door they find one that searcheth them and taketh all their fruit away from them and so sendeth them away empty vvith no more fruit then they brought in Or as poor men that being invited to a rich mans boord have the use of his Plate to drink in and silver spoons to eat with whilst they are there but if any of them dares to be so bold as to put up a piece of Plate or a spoon there is search made by the Porter e're they are let out for what is missing among them and so they are turned out as they came in In like manner it is with us in regard of these temporall blessings we have free liberty to use them while we are here but vvhen we are to go hence there is one vvaiting on us that will be sure to strip us and suffer nothing to pass with us unlesse it be some sorry sheet or a sear ragge to rot with us such as vve shall have no sense of nor be any whit at all the betteâ— for than if vve vvere vvholly vvithout them The worth of a true Christian. WHen Henry the fourth that late King of France vvas told of the King of Spains ample Dominions As first he is King of Castile and I quoth Henry am King of France he is King of Navarre and I am King of France he is King of Naples and I am King of France he is King of the Sicilia's nova Hispania of the Western India's and I am King of France he thought the Kingdom of France equivalent to all those So let the soul of every good Christian solace it selfe against all the wants of this mortall Pilgrimage in this that it is a member of the Church one hath more learning or wit yet I am a Christian another hath more honour or preferment in the world yet I am a Christian another hath more silver and gold and riches yet I am a Christian another hath larger possessions yet I have an inheritance in heaven I am a Christian Were but this consideration of the true Christians worth laid in the ballance of the Sanctuary it would weigh down all temporary conceits whatsoever Magistrates to be advised in point of Iustice. IT is said of Lewis the King of France that when he had through inadvertency granted an unjust suit as soon as he had read that verse in the Psalm Blessed is he that doth righteously at all times recalled himselfe and upon better thoughts gave his judgement quite contrary Hence it is that an act of justice ought to flow from mature deliberation and advised attendency especially there ought to be consideration when it concerns the life or death of a man In getting the things of this World Gods way is the best way AS the Israelites travailing through the Wildernesse towards the Land of promise Numb 9. 22 23. which to have gone the next way had not been a journey of many dayes yet were they many years about it they were to go as God led them as they saw the cloud go before them and not to take that way that seemed best or most compendious in their own eyes So must we observe Gods wayes in our trade at home and traffick abroad in our walking towards wealth we must keep the way that God leads us go no other way then we can see him going before us follow the line of his Law though it seem to lead us in and out backward and forward as it were treading in a Maze and not take those wayes that seem gainer and nearer in our own eyes and much more compendious then the other though we might compass wealth with a word or two with the bow of a knee onely one way whereas we must travail and toyl and moyl much e're we come by it the other way though we might attain to it in a day or a week the one way whereas we are like to stay many weeks many moneths nay many years it may be e're we come at it the other way yet this way must we keep and resolve to forsake all the world with our Saviour Math. 4. 10. If it be offered to entice us out of it The Israelites when they went out of Gods precincts they went withall out of Gods protection and so fell before their foes Numb 14. 44. So those that make more haste then good speed to be rich that balk Gods path and step out of Gods way to get wealth shall surely come to evil Psalm 28. 20. How to judge of an Hypocrite THere can be no difference betwixt a gliding star and the rest the light seems alike both while it stood and whiles it fell but being once fallen it is known to be no other then a base slimy Meteor gilded with the Sun-beams and now a man may tread upon that with his foot which before his eye admired had it been a sâ—ar it had still and ever shined now the very fall argues it a false and elementary apparition Thus â—ur charity doth and must mislead us in our spiritual judgements if we see men exalted in their Christian profession fixed in the upper Region of the Church shining with appearances and outsides of Grace we
not to encroach or intermeddle with that which belongs to others for the saying of that Roman Generall to the Souldier that kept the Tents when he should have been fighting in the field Non amo nimiùm diligentem will be one day used of God if he call us to one profession and we busie our selves about another if he set us on foot and we will be on horse-back if he make us subjects and we must needs be superiours God will not be pleased with such busie-bodies A Blessed thing to have God for our Lord. IT is an usual saying He cannot likely want Money that is Master of the Mint and he can never be poor that hath my Lord Mayor for his Uncle Much lesse then can that man want ought that is good who is possessed of God who is Lord of lords and King of kings the very fountain of all good In regard whereof David having prayed for many temporall blessings in the behalfe of his people that their Sons might be tall and hardy like goodly young Cedaers c. Psalm 144. At last he winds up all with this Epiphonema or conclusion Blessed be the people that are in such a case v. 15. but on the neck of it he cometh as with an Epanorthoma or a Correction of his former speech yea rather blessed are the people that have Jehovah for their God that have the Lord for their portion A good Christian to be Heavenly minded IT is noted that the Creatures which are nearest the Earth take most care to get store of provision those which are more remote are less busied but those who live next the Heavens have their hearts least upon it What hoardeth like the Emmet or Pisemire which is an earthly thing and hath its dwelling thereupon Prov. 6. 8. But the birds of the air which fly next to heaven as Christ himselfe doth teach do neither sow nor reap nor carry into barnes Math. 6. 26. Then let the meditations of every good Christian mount higher then their wings can reach that though they live with men yet their love may be with God Sursum corda was the language of the ancient Liturgies and it is well back'd by the Apostle Let your conversation be in Heaven from whence ye expect a Saviour which is Christ the Lord Phil. 3. 20. The reward of Heaven will make amends for all A Man in his journey sees afar off some great mountain so that his very eye is weary with the foresight of so great a distance yet his comfort is that time and patience will overcome it and that every step he takes sets him nearer to his journies end and being once there he shall both forget how long it then seemed and please himselfe in looking back upon the way that he hath measured It is just thus in our passage to Heaven our weak nature is ready to faint under the very conceit and length of the journey our eyes do not more guide than discourage us Many must be the steps of grace and true obedience that must insensibly bring us thither onely let us move and hope and Gods good grace will perfect our salvation And when we are once come to the top of that holy Mount meminisse juvabit all the weary steps and deep sloughs that we have past through all the pangs that we have felt all the sorrowes that we have undergone all the difficulties that we have met with in the way shall either be forgotten or contribute to our happinesse in the remembrance of them Extream folly not to be mindful of Death IF a Travailer comming into an Inne having but a penny in his purse should sit down and call for all sorts of provision and dainties till such time as the reckoning were inflamed to such a height as his slender stock could no wayes compass what would be thought of such a man Surely in the judgement of all men he would be esteemed a fool or a mad-man and such are most of us whilst we are in this world How foolish and mad is the practice of every man that liveth in his sins bathing himself in the pleasures of this world never thinking how he shall meet God at the last day of judgement and there come to an account of all his doings That which sounded alwaies in S. Hieroms ears ought to ring in the ear of every good Christian Surgite moâ—tui venite ad judicium In all thy doings remember thy end and so thou shalt never do amiss A good name once lost very hardly recovered again THere is a fable how that Reputation Love and Death made a covenant to travail all the world over but each was to take a several way when they were ready to depart a mutual enquiry was made how they might find each other again Death said they should be sure to hear of him in Battels Hospitals and in all parts where either famine or diseases were rife Love bad them hearken after him amongst the children of poor people whose Parents had left them nothing at Marriages at Feasts and amongst the professed servants of vertue the onely places for him to be in They long expected a direction from Reputation who stood silent but being urged to assign them places where they might find him He sullenly answered His nature was such that if once he departed from any Man he never came to him more And it is most true that honour or credit or a good name being once lost seldom or never returns again a crack'd credit will hardly be sodred anew and Credit is said to be a good fore-game but a bad after one very hardly and with much difficulty to be recovered The best Christian is the best Artist MAny there are that are accompted deep Schollars great Linguists profound Philosophers good Grammarians excellent Mathematitians sharp Logicians cunning Polititians fine Rhetoritians sweet Musitians c. these for the most part spend all their time to delight themselves and please others catch usually at the shadow and lose the substance they study the circumstance of these Arts but omit the pith and marrow of them whereas he is the best Grammarian that hath learnt to speak the truth from his heart the best Astronomer that hath his conversation in heaven the best Musitian that hath learnt to sing the praises of his God the best Arithemetitian that numbreth his dayes He that amendeth his life and groweth every day better and better is cunning in the Ethicks He that traineth up his Family in the fear of God is best seen in the Oeconomicks who so is wise to salvation prudent in giving and taking good counsell is the best Polititian and he is a good Linguist that speaks the Language of Canaan Thus the best Christian is the best Artist Magistrates Ministers and People to be peaceably minded IT was a good speech of Alphonsus King of Arragon That if he had lived in
surer then the bonds of Grace We call on God our Father we acknowledge or should do one Church our Mother we suck the same breasâ—s of the Old and New Testament we are bred up in the same School of the Cross fed at the same Table of the Lord incorporated into the same Communion of Saints If these and the like considerations cannot knit our hearts in love one to another the very Heathens will rise up in Iudgement against us and condemn us The winning of a Soul unto God very acceptable with God MEmorable is the story of Pyrrhias a Merchant of Ithaca who on a time seeing an aged man captive in a Pyrats Ship took compassion on him and redeemed him and with him bought likewise his Commodity which the Pyrat had taken from him being certain â—arrels of pitch The old man perceiving that not for any service that he could do him nor for the gain of his commodity but meerly out of charity Pyrrhias had done this presently discovered unto him a great mass of Treasure hidden in the pitch whereby he grew exceeding wealthy having not without divine providence obtained an answerable blessing for so good an act of Piety Now if God so bountifully requite the Redemption of a poor old man de servitute corporeâ from a corporal servitude how much rather should every man contend to the utmost of his power Ministers in the Pulpit Magistrates on their benches Masters in their families every one by a good example to win a soul unto God to â—edeem his Brother from the thraldom of the Devil which is to save a soul from death And for which they shall be honoured with the name of Saviours and their reward shall be that they shall shine like stars for ever and ever The great difficulty of forgiving one another IT is worthy observation and such as are conversant amongst little children know it to be true That when they are taught to say the Lords Prayer they are usually out at that Petition Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us The reason is because of the harshnesse of the sound the reiteration of one and the same words the multiplicity of the Consonants and the like It were to be wished that that which they are so often out at we could be more frequently in at that what is not easie for their shallow heads to conceive may not be too hard for our more experimental hearts to practise But it is hard indeed why else did Christ make a Comment on that Petition passing by the other five when he taught his Disciples to pray And hence it is that injuries are registred in sheets of Marble to all Posterity whilst benefits are written in the sand ready to be dashed out by the foot of the next that passeth by Death is the true Christians advantage AS that Ass called Cumanus Ass jetting up and down in a Lions skin did for a time much terrifie his Master but afterwards being descryed did benefit him very much Thus Death by the death of Christ stands like a silly Ass having his Lions skin pulled over his ears and is so far from terrifying any that it benefits all true Christians because by it they rest from their labours and if they be oppressed with cares and troubles of the world perplexed distracted in the midst of a crooked and froward generation let but death come they have their Quietus est and are discharged The great danger of not listning to the Word preached THe Romane Senators conspired against Iulius Caoesar to kill him That very next morning Artemidorus Caoesars friend delivered him a paper desiring him to peruse it wherein the whole plot was discovered But Caoesar complemented away his life being so taken up to return the salutations of such people as met him in the way that he pocketed the paper among other Petitions as unconcerned therein and so going to the Senate house was there slain Thus the World the Flesh and Devil have a design for the destruction of Men Ministers such as watch for their good bring a Letter of advice Gods word wherein all the conspiracie is revealed but who doth believe their report Most men are so busie and taken up with worldly delights that they are not at leisure to listen to them or read the letter but thus alas run headlong to their own destruction Vniversal Repentance WE commend Prisoners for their wisdom who knowing they are guilty more wayes then one desire that all the Indictments may be brought in against them before the Verdict pass upon them that so they might be throughly discharged So he that arraigneth himself before the Bar of God's Iustice should not leave any thing unrepented of whereof he knoweth himself guilty nor conceal any part of his misery that needeth the help of God's mercy Prudence and worldly Policy uncertain THe Chirurgion that dealeth with an outward wound seeth what he doth and can tell whether he can heal it or no and in what time but he that is to make an incision within the body be it for the Stone or the like disease he doth but as it were grope in the dark and may as well take hold of that he should not as of that which he would And the Artizan that worketh in his shop and hath his tools about him can promise to make up his dayes work to his best advantage But the Merchant Adventurer that is to cut the Seas and hath need of one wind to bring him out of the Haven another to bring him out to the Lands end another perhaps to bring him to the place of Traffick where he would be he can promise nothing neither touching his return neither touching the making of his Commodity but as the wind and the weather and the men of War by the way and as the honesty and skill of them whom he tradeth with shall give him leave Juâ—â— so it fareth in matters of prudence and worldly Policy they are conjectural they are not demonstrative and therefore there is no Science of them they have need of concurrence of many causes that are casual of many mens minds that are mutable therefore uncertain not to be built upon Matter enough within us to condemn us PIso one of the Roman Generalls to shew the bloody humour that was in him commanded that a Souldier should be put to death for returning without his fellow with whom he went from the Camp saying that he had killed him The Captain who had the charge to execute this poor Souldier when he saw his fellow coming which had been missed before did spare the first mans life upon this Piso finds matter to take away the lives of all three Hear his worthy reason for it You are a man condemned saith he unto the first my sentence was passed on you and therefore you shall dye then turning him to the second you were the
cause quoth he wherefore your fellow was condemned to death and therefore you must dye and to the third You Centurion because you have not learned to obey the voice of your General shall dye also for company Excogitaverat quomodo tria crimina faceret c. He devised how he might make three faults because he found not one But the just Iudge of all the world needs not do so with us no beating of his brains to invent an accusation against us he needs not draw three faults into one or find one where there is none there 's matter enough within us to condemn us our thoughts our words our deeds do yield him cause enough to pronounce the sentence of death upon us The giving up of our selves an acceptable Sacrifice to God IT is reported of Aeschines when he saw his fellow Scholars give great gifts to his Master Socrates he being poor and having nothing else to bestow did give himself to Socrates as confessing to be his in heart and good will and wholly at his devotion And the Philosopher took this most kindly esteeming it above all other presents and returned him love accordingly Even so the gratious disposition of our heavenly Father taketh in far better part then any man can take it the laying down of our souls the submitting of our selves unto his direction the melâ—ing of our wills down into his Will The Widows two mites were welcome into his Treasury because her heart was full though her purse were empty He accounteth that the best sacrifice which is of the heart External things do well but Internal things do far better Heaven worth contending for IF a man were assured that there were made for him a great purchase in Spain Turkey or some other parts more remote would be not adventure the dangers of the Seas and of his Enemies also if need were that he might come to the enjoyment of his own Well behold Iesus Christ hath made a purchase for us in Heaven and there is nothing required on our parts but that we will come and enjoy it Why then should we refuse any pains or fear any thing in the way nay we must strive to get in It may be that we shall be pinched in the entrance for the gate is strait and low not like the Gates of Princes lofty roof'd and arched so that we must be fain to leave our wealth behind us and the pleasures of this life behind us yet enter we must though we leave our skins nay our very lives behind us for the purchase that is made is worth ten thousand Worlds not all the silks of Persia â—ot all the spices of Egypt not all the gold of Ophir not all the Treasures of bot\â—h Indies are to be compared to it Who therefore would not contend for such a bargain though he sold all to have it Adoption of God's children known by their Sanctification FIre is known to be no painted or imaginary fire by two notes by heat and by the flame Now if the case so fall out that the fire want a slame it is stil known by the heat In like manner there be two witnesses of our adoption or sanctification Gods spirit and our spirit Now if it so fall out that a man feel not the Principal which is the spirit of adoption he must then have recourse to the second VVitness and search out in himself the signs and tokens of the sanctification of his own spirit by which he may certainly assure himself of his adoption as fire may be known to be fire by the heat though it want a flame The danger of Worldly mindedness IT is seen by experience that a man swiming in a River as long as he is able to hold up his head and keep it above water he is in no danger but safely swimeth and cometh to the shore with good contentment but if once his head for want of strength begin to dive then shaketh he the hearts of all that do behold him and himself may know that he is not far from death So is it in this wretched world and swimers of all sorts if the Lord give us strength to keep up our heads i. e. to love God and Religion above the world and before it and all the pleasures of it there is then no danger but after a time of swiming in it up and down we shall arrive in a firm place with happiness and safety but if once we dive and the head go under water if once the world get the victory and our hearts are set upon it and go under it in a sinful love and liking of it O then take heed of drowning Gods delight in a relapsed Sinners repentance AS a Husbandman delights much in that ground that after long barrenness becomes fruitful As a Captain loves that Souldier that once fled away cowardly and afterwards returns valiantly Even so God is wonderfully enamoured with a sinner that having once made shipwrack of a good Conscience yet at last returns and swims to Heaven upon the plank of Faith and Repentance Vnworthy Communicants condemned CHildren when they first put on new shooes are very curious to keep them clean scarce will they set their foot on the ground for fear to dirty the soles of their shooes yea rather they will wipe them clean with their Coats and yet perchance the next day they will trample with the same shooes up to the ancles Alas childrens play is our earnest On that day we receive the Sacrament we are often over-precise scrupling to say or do those things which lawfully we may But we who are more then curious that day are not so much as careful the next day and too often what shall I say go on in sin up to the ancles yea our sins go over our heads Psal. 28. 5. A sense of the want of Grace a true sign of Grace IT is the first step unto Grace for a man to see no Grace and it is the first degree of Grace for a man to desire Grace as no man can sincerely seek God in vain so no man can sincerely desire grace in vain A man may love gold yet not have it but no man loveth God but is sure to have him Wealth a man may desire yet be never the neerer for it but grace no man ever sincerely desired and missed it and why It is God that hath wrought this desire in the heart and he will never frustrate the desire that himself there hath wrought Let no man say I have no Faith no Repentance no Love no fear of God no sanctifying no saving grace in me Doth he see a want of these things in himself yes that is it which so grieves him that he cannot love God stand in awe of him trust in his mercy repent of sin as he should yea but doth he seriously and unfeignedly desire to do thus yes he desires it above all
set before Christ in the Courts of Heaven and there serve up to him that cup of praise but much fuller and much sweeter for ever and ever but if the ravenous bâ—rds of wandring thoughts do devour these Meditations intended for Heaven it is hard to say but that so far as they intrude they will be the death of that service if not of that soul they thus infest God gives warning before he smites NOn solet deus subrepere c. saith Chrysostom God when he doth any great work in the world stealeth not upon the world he giveth a warning piece before he dischargeth his arming piece so did he before he brought on the flood before he delivered his People out of Egypt before he gave the Iewes over unto the Babylonian captivity We cannot read these stories but we must needs find in them Gods palpable Harbingers so that if men be surprised it is not because they are not forewarn'd but because they will take no warning Excess of Apparell condemned IT was an arrogant act of Hubert Arch-bishop of Canterbury who when King Iohn had given his Courtiers rich Liveries gave his servants the like wherewith the King was not a little offended But what shall we say to the riot of our age wherein as Peacocks are more gay than the Eagle himselfe every ordinary subject out-vies his Soveraign what fancies and fantasticall habits are daily seen amongst us The dangerous example of wicked Governours JErâ—boam the Son of Nebat is never mentioned in the Scripture never read or heard of in the Chronicles of Israel but he draweth a tayl after him like a blazing Star who made Israel to sin A sick head disordereth all the other parts and a dark eye benights the whole body It is said Facile transitur ad plures People are apt to flock after a Multitude And it is as true Facilè transitur ad majores Men are apt to imitate great Authority whether good or bad Evill behaviour in Men of high degree corrupteth as it were the air round about which the People drawing in over-hastily are made like to themselves in all manner of lewdness How to use Riches VVHen a Man taketh a heavy Trunk full of Plate or Money upon his shoulders it maketh him stoop and boweth him towards the ground but if the same weight be put under his feet it lifteth him up from the ground In like manner if we put our Wealth and Riches above us preferring them to our salvation they will press us down to the ground if not to Hell with their very weight but if we put them under our feet and tread upon them as slaves and vassals to us â—nd quite contemn them in respect of Heavenly treasure they will raise us up towards Heaven The great danger of concealed knowledge CArdanus tells of one that had such a Receipt as would suddainly and certainly dissolve the Stone in the bladder and he concludes of him that he makes no doubt but that he is now in Hell because he never reâ—ealed it to any before he dyed This was something a hard sentence but what shall we think then of them that know of the remedy of curing souls such as have receipts for hard and stony hearts yet do not reveal them nor perswade Men to make use of them Is it not Hypocrisie to pray daily for their conversion and salvation and never once endeavour to procure it And if Hypocrisie then what is the reward of hypocrisie there 's none so ignorant but knows it How the Gospel propagateth it selfe AS the scope of the Sun is in all the World and yet at one time the Sun doth not shine in all the parts thereof it beginneth in the East and passeth to the South and so to the West and as it passeth forward bringing light to one place withdraweth from another So it is in regard of the Sun of Righteousness the sun-shine of the Gospel he hath jus ad omnem â—eâ—ram but he hath not at the same jus in omni terra the Propriety of all is his but he taketh possession of it all successively and by partâ—s the Eastern Churches the Southern have had his light which now are in darkness for the most part and we that are more Northerly do now enjoy the clearest Noontide but the Sun beginneth to rise to them in the West and it is too to plain that our light beginneth to grow dim it is to be feared that it hasteth to their Meridian and whether after their noon it will set God knoweth yet the cause hereof is not lest we mistake in the Sun of Righteousness as the cause why all have not light at one time is in the corporal Sun The corporal cannot at one time enlighten all the Sun of Righteousness can But for the sins of the People the Candlestick is removed and given to a Nation that will bear more fruit We interpose our Earthliness between our selves and the Sun and so exclude our selves from the beams thereof Englands distractions to be Englands peaceable directions AUlus Gellius tells of certain Men that were in a ship ready to perish by reason of a great Tempest and one of them being a Philosoper fell to asking many trifling questions to whom they answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we are a perishing and dost thou trifle So it may be said of us Is England a sinking and is this a time to be raising of unnecessary Disputes to be wrangling in Controversies about points of Church-Government when God knows whether we shall have any Goâ—ernment either in Church or State at all when there is Hannibalad portas a generation of Men crying out No Governours no Church no Ministers no Sacrament As Elisha said to Gehezi Is this a time to receive money so it may be said again â—eâ—us sic stantibus Is this a time to divide Is such a time as this a time to trouble England with new opinions Is this a time to divide Nay is it not rather a time to unite and to have quiet hearts and peaceable dispositions one towards another that so the God of peace may delight to dwell amongst us Deformity of body not to be contemned AN Emperour of Germany coming by chance on a Sunday into Church found there a mis-shapen Priest poené portentum Naturae insomuch as the Emperour scorn'd and contemned him But when he heard him read these words in the Service For it is he that made us not we our selves the Emperour checked his own proud thoughts and made enquiry into the quality and condition of the man and finding him on Examination to be most learned and devout he made him Archbishop of Colen which place he did excellently discharge Mock not at those then who are mis-shapen by Nature there is the same reason of the poor and of the deformed he that despiseth them despiseth God that made them A poor man is a Pictture of Gods own
making but set in a plain frame not gilded And a deformed man is also his Workmanship but not drawn with even lines and lively colours The former not for want of wealth as the latter not for want of skill but both for the pleasure of the Maker and many times their Souls have been the Chappels of Sanctity whose bodies have been the Spitals of deformity Profession and Practice to go together THe Prophet Esay chap. 58. 1. is willed to lift up his voyce like a Trumpet there are many things that sound lowder than a Trumpeâ— as the roaring of the Sea the claps of Thunder and such like yet he sayes not Lift up thy voyce as the Sea or lift up thy voyce as Thunder but lift up thy voyce as a Trumpet Why as a Trumpet Because a Trumpeter when he sounds his Trumpet he winds it with his mouth and holds it up with his hand And so every faithfull heart which is as it were a spirituall Trumpet to â—ound out the prayses of God must not onely report them with his mouth but also support them with his hand When Profession and Practice meet together quà m benè conveniunt What a Harmony is in that Soul When the tongue is made Gods Advocate and the hand Executor of Gods will then doth a Man truly lift up his voice like a Trumpet All men and things subject to Mortality VVHen the Emperour Constantius came to Rome in triumph and beheld the Companies that entertained him he repeated a saying of Cyneas the Epirote that he had seen so many Kings as Citisens But viewing the buildings of the City the stately Arches of the Gates so lofty that at his entrance he needed not to have stooped like a Goose at a barn-door the Turrets Tombs Temples Theaters Aquaeducts Baths and some of the work so high like Babel that the eye of Man could scarcely reach unto them he was amazed and said That Nature had emptied all her strength and invention upon that one City He spake to Hormisda the Master of his works to erect him a brazen horse in Constantinople like unto that of Trajan the Emperour which he there saw Hormisda answered him that if he desired the like horse he must then provide him the like stable All this and much more in the honour of Rome At length he asked Hormisda What he thought of the City who told him that he took no pleasure in any thing there but in learning one lesson That men also dyed in Rome and that he perceived well the end of that Lady City which in the judgement of Quintilian was the onely City and all the rest but Towns would be the same with all her Predecessors the ruines whereof are even gone to Ruine this is the doom that attendeth both Men and Places be they never so great and stately The consideration whereof made a learned Gent. close up that his admirable History of the World in these words O eloquent just and mighty death whom none could advise thou onely hast perswaded what none hath dared thou hast done and whom all the world hath flattered thou onely hast cast out out of the world and despised Thou hast drawn together all the far-stretched greatness all the pride cruelty and ambition of Man and covered it over with these two narrow words HIC JACET Faith in Christ the onely support in the time of Trouble IN that famous battle at Leuctrum where the Thebans got a signall Victory but their Captain Epaminondas his deaths wound It is reported that Epaminondas a little before his death demanded whether his Buckler were taken by the enemy and when he understood that it was safe and that they had not so much as laid their hands on it he dyed most willingly and cheerfully Suâ—h is the resolution of a valiant souldier of Christ Iesus when he is wounded even to death he hath an eye to his shield of faith and finding that to be safe out of the enemies danger his soul marcheth couragiously out of this world singing S. Paul's triumphant ditty I have finished my course I have kept the faith Henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousnesse 2 Tim. 4. 7. 8. Nothing but Christ to be esteemed as of any worth AS the Iewes use to cast to the ground the book of Esther before they read it because the Name of God is not in it And as St. Augustine cast by Tullies works because they contained not the Name of Christ. So must we throw all aside thâ—t hath not the Name of Iesus on it If honour riches preferment c. come not in the â—ame of Iesus away with them set them by as not worth the taking up give them no entertainment further than as they have reference to Christ and Eternity Humility the way to Glory WE say in our Creed that Christ descended into hell descendit ut ascendat He took his rising from the lowest place to ascend into the highest And herein Christ readeth a good lecture unto us he teacheth us that humility is the way to glory and the more we are humbled the more we shall be exalted Adam and those once glorious Angells were both ambitious both desired to climb but they mistook their rise and so in climbing both had grievous falls If we then would climb without harm we must learn of Christ to climb so shall we be sure to tread the steps of Iacob's ladder which from earth will reach even to the highest heavens A Kingdome divided within it self cannot long stand MElanchton perswading the divided Protestants of his time to peace and unity illustrateth his argument by a notable parable of the woolves and the dogs who were marching onward to fight one against another The woolves that they might the better know the strength of their adversary sent forth a master-woolf as their scout The scout returns and tells the woolves That indeed the dogs were more in number but yet they should not be discouraged for he observed that the dogs were not one like another a few mâ—stiffs there wâ—re but the most were little currs which could onely bark but not bite and would be affraid of their own shadow Another thing also he observed which would much encourage them and that was That the dogs did march as if they were more offended at themselves than with us not keeping their ranks but grinning and snarling and biting and tearing one another as if they would save us a labour And therefore let us march on resolutely for our enemies are their own enemies enemies to themselves and their own peace they bite and devour each other and therefore we shall certainly devour them Thus though a Kingdom or State be never so well provided with Men Arms Ammunition Ships Walls Forts and Bulwarks yet notwithstanding if divisions and heart-burnings get into that Kingdom that State or that City like a spreading gangreen they will
LOok but upon a gallant Ship well rigged trimmed and tackled man'd and munition'd with her top and top gallant and her spread fails proudly swelling with a full gale in fair weather putting out of the Haven into the smooth Main and drawing the Spectators eyes with a welwishing admiration but soon after to hear of the same Ship splitted against some dangerous Rock or racked by some dysasterous Tempest or sunk by some leak sprung in her by some accident this were a suddain change And just such is the Court Favourit's condition to day like Sâ—â—anus he dazleth all mens eyes with the splendor of his glory and with the proud and potent beak of his powerfull Prosperity cutteth the waves and plougheth through the prease of the vulgar scorning to fear any Remora at his keel below or any cross winds from above and yet to morrow in some storms of unexpected dis-favour springs a leak in his honour and sinks on the Syrtes of disgrace or dashed against the Rocks of displeasure is splitted and wracked in the Charibdis of infamy and so concludes his voyage in misery and mis-fortune Every Man haunted with one evill spirit or other THere is a story of a Country-man of ours one Kettle of Farnham in the time of K. Henry the second who had the faculty to discern spirits by the same token that one time he saw the Devil spitting over the Drunkards shoulders into their Pots at another time laughing at a rapacious Usurers elbow whilst he was piling up Gold in his Coffers the same faculty is reported of Anthony the Hermite And Sulpitius reports the same of S. Martin These were the wonders of those dark times but there 's no such matter of admiration in these ill-spirited times of ours to see and clearly discern both Deâ—ils and divellish minded men Hell may now seem to be broken loose What natural Man is free One hath the spirit of errour another the spirit of sornication Hos. 2. another the spirit of fear 2 Tim. 1. another the spirit of slumber another the spirit of giddiness all spiritum Mundi the spirit of the World every man is haunted with one ill spirit or other Want of Maintenance the waste of Religion ONe asked sometimes how it was that in Athens so good and great a City there were no Physitians to whom this Answer was made because there are no Rewards proposed to them that practise Physick The same Answer may be made for our times the cause why the Church of God is so forsaken why Religion and the profession thereof is so much undervalued is because of the want of zeal in them that should either for their courtesie or for their ablility be fosterers of Learning and encrease the Livings where occasion is and give hope and comfort to learned Men What said I encrease Nay the Livings and Provisions which heretofore were given are now quite taken away so that he which â—eedeth the flock hath least part of the Milk and he that goeth a warfare hath not halfe his wages and he that laboureth and sweateth in the Vineyard of the Lord of Hosts hath his hire abridged and abated hence it is that scandalous livings make scandalous Ministers and scandalous necessitated Ministers make the Ordinances of God vilipendious Spoilers of Church and State condemned WHen Augustus had beautified Rome with setting up many fair buildings he said Inâ—eâ—â— lateritiam marmoream reliqui I found it made of brick but I leave it made of Marble Such was the Inscription set upon the Cathedrall at Carlisle as relating to Dr. Robinson then Bishop of that See Invenit destructum reliquit extructum he found it ruined but left it repaired Here was a good exchange Marble for Brick Reparations for Ruine But O the sad inversion of late times as concerning both Church and State the ruines of the one and dilapidations nay the extirpations of the other where Religion was become Rebellion Faith faction Reformation deformation where Temples were turn'd into Stables Princes Palaces into guards of unruly Souldiers Monarchy into Anarchy and the well compacted body of Government both in Church and State into a licentious looseness of life and conversation God regardeth and rewardeth his People WHen Ahasuerus read in the Book of the Records of the Chronicles and there found how Mordecai had discovered a plot of Treason against his Person he did not lay the Book aside and slightly passed by such a piece of service but enquires What Honour and what Dignity had been done to Mordecai It seems if the King had thought on or read him sooner he had rewarded him sooner But God hath ever in his eye all the Records and Chronicles of his Peoples actions he reads their journalls every day and where he meets with any that have done or spoken any thing aright for him the enquireth what honour what dignity hath been done for this Man If none hath been done he will do it himself if any thing hath been done he will do yet more Not a sigh not a tear not a thought for the glory of Christ shall fall unregarded unrewarded Gods wisdom to be attended with Patience IT is a great burrhen to wait upon a â—ool but we can easily stay for the Resolutions of the wise who we are sure have the compass of a businesse in their heads and are skilled in timing and ordering every circumstance thereof How blessed then are they who while they work for things below can attend upon the great God both of Heaven and Earth whose Moderation and Judgement and Wisdom are such as will not suffer them either to do any thing before the set appointed fit time come nor to stay the doing of it one minute after never any man repented his waiting patiently upon Gods disposal of him A worldly minded Man no publique spirited Man IT is recorded of the K. of Navarre then a Protestant being pressed by Beza to appear more in the cause of God and to own Religion to the purpose He makes answer to this effect That he was their friend but he resolved to put no further to Sea then he might get to shore if a storm should arise he resolved not to hazard his hopes of the Crown of France and it is well known what became of him So when men will make Religion as Twelve and the World as Thirteen it is no marvail if with Demas they forsake the cause of God and embrace the world and with those Potters in 1 Chron. had rather work with the King for good wages than build up the house of the Lord. Time present to be well husbanded UPon the Dyall-peece of the Clock in the Colledge Church of Glocester are pourtrayed four Angels each of them seeming to say something to those that look up to see what a Clock it is the whole inscription being made up of two old Latine Verses after the riming
found himselfe there And it is true that omnis homo Hypocrita every Man is an Hypocrite Hypocrisie is a lesson that every Man readily takes out it continues with age it appeares with infancy the wise and learned practise it the duller and more rude attain unto it All are not fit for the Wars Learning must have the pick't and choycest wâ—â—s Arts must have leasure and pains but all sorts are apt enough and thrive in the mystery of dissimulation The whole throng of Mankind is but an horse-fair of Cheaters the whole world a shop of counterâ—eit wares a Theater of Hypocriticall disguises The justice of God what it is and how defined IN the Raign of King Edward the first there was much abuse in the alnage of all sorts of Drapery much wrong done betwixt Man and Man by reason of the diversity of their measures every Man measuring his cloath by his own yard which the King perceiving being a goodly proper Man took a long stick in his hand and having taken the length of his own arm made Proclamation through the Kingdom that ever after the length of that stick should be the measure to measure by and no other Thus Gods Iustice is nothing else but a conformiâ—y to his being the pleasure of his Will so that the counsell of his Will is the standard of his Iustice whereby all Men should regulate themselves as well in commutative as distributive Iusâ—ice and so much the more Righteous than his Neighbour shall every Man appear by how much he is proximate to this Rule and lesse Righteous as he is the more remote Iustification by Christ the extent of it AS the Sun by his beams doth not onely expell cold but works heat and fruitfulnesse also Thus in the Iustification of a sinner repenting there 's a further reach then â—ollere peccata the taking away of sin there is also infusion of grace and virtue into the sinners heart The father of the Prodigall did not onely take off all his Sons rags but put on the best he had and a Ring on his finger And to say truth our Iustification doth not consist onely in the taking away of sin but in the imputation of Christs Righteousness and obedience for though the act be one yet for the manner it is two-fold 1. By privaâ—ion 2. By impâ—tation How is it that the proceedings of God in his Justice are not so clearly disâ—erned TAke a streight stick and put it into the water then it will seem crocked Why because we look upon it through two mediums air and water there lies the deceptio visus thence it is that we cannot discern aright Thus the proceedings of God in his Iustice which in themselves are streight without the least obliquity seem unto us crooked that wicked men should prosper and good men be afflicted that the Israelites should make the bricks and the Egyptians dwell in the houses that servants should ride on horse-back and Princes go on foot these are things that make the best Christians stagger in their judgements And way but because they look upon Gods proceedings though a double medium of Flesh and Spirit that so all things seem to go cross through indeed they go right enough And hence it is that Gods proceedings in his justice are not so well discerned the eyes of Man alone being not competent jugdes thereof Resolution in the cause of God very requisite IOhn Duke of Saxony who might have had the World at will if he would not have been a Christian resolved rather to pass by much difficulty nay rather death it selfe then â—o desert the cause of God which afterward he did heroically maintain against all opposition in three Imperiall Assemblies And when it was told him that he should lose the favour of the Pope and the Emperour and all the world besides if he stuck so fast to the Lutheran cause Here are two wayes said he I must serve God or the World and which of these do you think is the better And so put them off with this pleasant indignation Neither would he be ashamed to be seen which way he chose to go for when at the publique Assembly of the States of the Empire it was forbidden to have any Lutheran Sermons he presently prepared to be gone and profest boldly He would not stay there where he might not have liberty to serve God Thus must every good Christian be throughly resolved for God and for the truth which he takes up to profess Resolution must chain him as it did Ulisses to the Mast of the Ship must tye him to God that he leap noâ— over-board and make shipwrack of a good Conscience as too too many have done It is Resoluâ—ion that keeps Ruth with her Mother it makes a Man a rocky promontory that washes not away though the Surges beat upon him continually Resolution in the waies of God is the best aggioâ—ta of a Christian and a resolved Christian is the best Christian. To be carefull in the censure of others IT is reported of Vultures that they will fly over a Garden of sweet flowers and not so much as eye them but they will seize upon a stinking carrion at the first sight In like manner Scarabs and Fâ—yes will passe by the sound flesh but if there be any gall'd part on the horses back there they will settle Thus many there are that will take no notice at all of the commendable parts and good qualities of others but if the least imperfections shall appear there they will fasten them they will be sure to single out of the croud of Virtues and censure but let such know that Aquila non capit muscas the Eagle scorns to catch at flyes so that they discover what dunghill breed they are come of by falling and feeding upon the raw parts of their brothers imperfections without any moderation at all Prejudice in Judgement very dangerous THe mad Athenian standing upon the shore thought every Ship that came into the Harbour to be his own Pythagoras Schollars were so trained up to think all things were constituted of Nombers that they thought they saw Nombers in every thing Thus prejudice in judgement and prejudicate opinions like coloured Glass make every thing to seem to be of the same colour when they are looked through And it is most true that when Men have once mancipated their Iudgements to this or that error then they think every thing hits right whether pro or con that is in their fancy all the places of Scripture that they read all the doctrinall parts of Sermons that they hear make for their purpose and thus they run into monstrous absurdities and dangers inevitable The Hypocrite Characteristically laid open HYpocrites are like unto white Silver but they draw black lines they have a seeming â—anctified out-side but stuff'd within with malice worldiness intemperance like window cushions made up of
rapacity and drunkenness so soon he declared his censure of them with this exclamation I confess that your Religion may be good your devotion good your Profession good but sure your hospitality is stark naught Apud quos ne Deus quidem biduò commorari permittitur that you will not give your God two days lodging Here now was a sad occasion given for the Enemies of God so to judge of them that seem to make profession of his holy name This the shame of Christians the disparagement of Religion when it is forced against the nature of it to encourage lewdnesse This an abuse of the promises of Grace of the Covenants and pledges of Grace which are the Sacraments when encouragements to evill are derived from so mercifull Indulgence Again it is a dishonour done to the honour of Grace and Godlinesse when from the Sermon which forbiddeth such a sin we shall immediately run into the sin forbidden by the Sermon and so give an unhappy occasion for weak ones to be offended The loss of a faithfull Ministery not to be sleighted And why so GAlinus the Emperour when tydings was brought him of the loss of Egypt Well said he let it go Cannot we live without the Flax and hemp of Egypt And when he had also lost France two great and mighty Countries What said he Cannot the Land stand sine sagis trabeatis without those Souldiers Cassocks which France doth send us This was a piece of Heathenish stupidity But if ever it shall come to pass quod avertat Deus that the Ministers of the Gospel should be driven into corners let no good Christian make slight of it but be deeply affected and affectionately taken with the loss For they are such as watch for our souls the comforters of Sion the Sons of Consolation spirituall fathers repairers of the breach such as stand in the gap of Gods anger spirituall Physitians Doves which bring the Olive leafe of peace to the troubled soul and what not They are sanguis mundi when they dye or fail a Man may justly feare the World 's a dying they are the butteresses and pillars to uphold it from ruine and confusion grievous then must it needs be and matter of great concernment when such are taken away The secure Worldlings suddain ruine LOok upon a weary Traveller scorched with the heat of the Sun how he resteth himselfe under the shady leaves of some fair spreading Trâ—â— and there falls asleep so long that the Sun coming about heats him more then formerly so that he is ready to faint his head akes and all his body is as it were stewed even in its own sweat Thus it fares with the Men of this World such as having wearied themselves in heaping up the things thereof lye down and sing a foolish Requiem to their Souls mean while the course of their life runs on the Sun comes about Death overtakes them and instead of a comfortable shade to refresh them they may easily perceive the fire of Hell if God be not the more mercifull ready to consume them A child of God preserved by God though never so much slighted by the World THey that work in Gold or Silver let fall many a bit to the ground yet they do not intend to lose it so but sweep the shop and keep the very sweepings safe so that that which they cannot at present discover the Finer brings to light Thus the World is Gods Work-house many a dear child of God suffers and falls to the ground by banishment imprisonment sorrow sickness c. but they must not be lost thus God will search the very sweepings and cull them out of the very trash and preserve them What though they be slightly set by here in this world and lie amongst the pots no better accompted of-than the rubbish and refuse of the Earth God will finde a time to make them up amongst the rest of his Jewels Mal. 3. Ult. True knowledge never rests on the Creature till it center in God the Creator AS the Legend speaks Historically which is onely true Symbolically of St. Christopher that before he was converted to the faith he would serve none but the strongest He had for his Master a Man of great strength and puissance but a King subdued him Him he forsook for that King but finding him to be overcome by a Neighbour he betook himselfe to that other Pagan Conquerour This Conquerour was also tyrannized over by the Devill to whom he was a meere slave doing all his base commands This he could not endure but entered into service with the Devill For awhile he admired the power of his new Master and what a dominion he exercised over the sons of Men but in a short space he found out his weakness also so feeble and fearfull was he of a piece of Wood he durst not passe by the Cross but when that stood in his way he must by all means back again Now the weary servant longed to know what this Cross meant that he might find out a more potent Lord It was told him that Christ was the Lord of that Ensign and that the Cross was his Banner Thither then he flyes and there he found out a most mighty yea an Almighty Master So true knowledge never rests on the Creature till it center in the Creator aims at none but the highest and climbs from strength to strength from height to height till it appear before God in Zion higher than Riches in their Treasury then Princes on their Thrones then stars in the Firmament fetching all her light and comfort from God in Christ Iesus How it is that wicked men are said to hasten death BErnardinus Senensis a devout man tells of a stripling in Catalonia being eighteen years of age that having been disobedient to his parents fell to robbing and being hanged on the Tree and there remaining for a spectacle to disobedient children on the next morning a formall beard and gray hairs appeared on him as if he had been much struck in years which the people hearing of and wondering at the suddennesse of the change urging how young he was at his death A grave reverend Father of the Church being then present said That he should have lived to have been so old as he then appeared had he not been disobedient The devout man it 's probable may be out in the story but the other was in at the application For Stat sua cuique dies every mans daies are determined the number of his months is with God he hath appointed him his bounds that he cannot passe there is a measure of his daies in respect of Gods prescience and providence But in respect of the course of nature the thread of life which might have been lengthned is cut off by Gods command for sin as in the Family of Eli and the People of the
that at the noyse of Thunder they are oft-times even terrified unto death insomuch that they which keep them use to beat a drum amongst them that they being accustomed to the softer noyse of the drum may not be daunted with louder claps of Thunder Thus it is with incorrigible sinners of all sorts they are so affected with the whisperings of wordly pleasures so taken up with the jingling noyse of Riches so delighted with the empty sound of popular applause and secular preferments so sottish and besotted are they that they are not sensible of Gods anger against them the very custome of sinne hath taken away the sense of sin that they do not so much as hear that which all the world besides heareth with trembling and amazement the dreadful voyce of Gods wrathful and everlasting displeasure Regeneration the onely work of Gods spirit IT is said of the Bear that of all Creatures she bringeth the most ugly mishapen whelps but by licking of them she brings them to a better form yet it is a Bear still Thus all of us are ugly and deformed in our inward man 'T is true good breeding learning living in good Neighbourhood may lick us fair and put us into a better shape but shall never change our nature without the operation of the blessed Spirit A Man may be able to discourse of the great mysteries of Salvation yet not be changed may repeat Sermons yet not renewed pertake of the Ordinances yet not regenerated not any of these nor any of all these put together will stand in stead till it hath pleased God to square them and fit them and sanctifie them unto us by the blessed assistance of his holy Spirit Scripture-comforts the onely true comforts IT is storyed of an ancient and Reverend Rabbi who that he might by some demonstration win the People to look after Scripture-knowledge put himselfe into the habit of a Mountebank or travelling Aqua-vitae man and in the Market-place made Proclamation of a soveraign Cordial or Water of life that he had to sell Divers call him in and desire him to shew it whereupon â—he opens the Bible and directs them to several places of comfort in it And to say truth there is the greatest comfort to be had being the word of the everliving God The waters of life which are to be thirsted after whereby we may learn to live holy and dye happy The deaths of friends and others not be sleighted THe Frogs in the Fable desire a King Iupiter casteth a stock amongst them which at the first fall made such a plunge in the water that with the dashing thereof they were all affrighted and ran into their holes but seeing no further harme to ensue they came forth took courage leapt on it and made themselves sport with that which was first their fear till at length Iupiter sent a Stork among them and he devoured them all Thus it is that we make the death of others but as a Stock that somewhat at firstâ— affecteth us but we soon â—orget it until the Stâ—rk come and we our selves become a miserable prey Do they who close the eyes and cover the faces of their deceased friends consider that their eyes must be so closed their faces thus covered Or they who shrowd the Coarse remember that they themselves must be so shrowded Or they who ring the knell consider that shortly the bells must go to the same tune for them Or they that make the grave even while they are in it remember that shortly they must inhabite such a narrow house as they are now a building Peradventure they do a little but it takes no deep impression in them Prayers to be made unto God in Christs name JOseph gives strict command unto his brethren that if ever they looked for him to do them any good or to see his face with comfort they should be sure to bring the lad Benjamin their brother along with them Thus if ever we expect any comfortable return of our Prayers we must be sure to bring our elder Brother Christ Iesus in our hearts by faith and to put up all our requests in his Name They of old called upon God using the names of Abraham Isaac and Iacob three of Gods friends Afterwards they entreated God for his servant Davids sake Others drew up Arguments to move God drawn from the Creation of the World and from his loving kindnesse These were very good wayes then and very good to engage the great God of Heaven to us But unto us is shewed a more excellent way by how much the appellation of an onely begotten Son exceeds that of friend and servant and the benefit of Redemption excells that of creation and favour Dulce nomen Christi O the sweet name Iesus Christ no man ever asked any thing of God truly in that Name but he had his asking To be mindfull of Death at all times THere was once a discourse betwixt a Citizen and a Marriner My Ancestors sayes the Marriner were all Seamen and all of them dyed at Sea my Father my Grand-father and my Great-grand-father were all buried in the Sea Then sayes the Citizen what great cause have you then when you set out to Sea to remember your death and to commit your soul to the hands of God yea but sayes the Marriner to the Citizen Where I pray did your Father and your Grand-father dye Why sayes he they dyed all of them in their beds Truly then sayes the Marriner What a care had you need to have every night when you go to bed to think of your bed as the grave and the clothes that cover you as the Earth that must one day be thrown upon you for the very Heathens themselves that implored as many Deities as they conceived Chimaera's in their fancies yet were never known to erect an Altar to Death because that was ever held uncertain and implacable Thus whether it be at Sea or Land that Man is alwaies in a good posture of defence that is mindfull of death that so lives in this World as though he must shortly leave it that concludes within himselfe I must dye this day may be my last day this place the last that I shall come in this Sermon the last Sermon that I shall hear this Sabbath the last Sabbath that I shall enjoy the next Arrow that is shot may hit me and the time will come how soon God knows that I must lay aside this cloathing of Mortality and lie down in the dust Scripture-knowledge to be put in practice MUsicall Instruments without handling will warp and become nothing worth a sprightly horse will lose his Mettall by standing unbreathed in a Stable Rust will take the sword that hangs by the walls The Cynick rather then want work would be still removing his Tub Thus it is not Gods meaning that any Grace should lie
dead in us much lesse the knowledge of divine Truth that should break out into practice for happinesse is not entitled to those that know but those that do what they know Gods Omniscience PLiny makes mention of a silly Bird that if she can but get her head into a hole she thinks no body sees her and that all 's safe whilst she becomes a miserable prey to her common Adversary And this is the folly of many Men amongst us such as would be counted wiser than indeed they are close Polititians that digge deep in their Counsells and draw the Curtains over their deeds of darknesse subtile Machiavillians that spin their mischievous design as fine as a Spiders web and many times under the veyl of Religion too Painted Hypocrites that under the pretence of gravity think they dance in a Net unseen of all Men Prostitute strumpets that first sacrifice and then commit lewdnesse foul Dissemblers that under the pretence of long Prayers devour Widows houses And such as with demure looks think to deceive Christ Iesus himself But let such know that God can find Ionah in the bottom of the ship and Ieroboams wife in her disguise he sees and knows of the diversity of Weights and Measures in Tradesmens shops and Warehouses the least dash of an erring pen in the matter of Accompts the least sin of loosenesse And on the other side our Alms though perhaps they make no great noyse in the World are in debentur with him he hath a bottle for our teares a book for our deeds whether good or evill The whole world is to him as a Sea of glass Corpus diaphanum a clear transparent body There is nothing hid from his eyes so that find but out a place where he sees not then sinne and spare not Worldly things cannot really help us IT was wittily painted by way of Emblem upon the Dutch Ambassadours Coach A woman sitting in a forlorn posture close to the body of a Tree on the shady side the Sun shining out in the strength of its heat with this Motto Trunco non frondibus intimating thereby that she was more beholden to the Trunk then the leaves of that Tree for succour Thus it is that all good Men make God onely to be their support in the midst of danger their refuge in time of trouble the Rock of defence and their strong Tower whereas others cleave close unto the leavy Creature trust in uncertain Riches put their confidence in an arm of flesh and bear themselves high upon their friends in Court their preferments in the State and such like miserable comforters which will nothing avail them in the day of wrath when they should have most need of them Whether it be lawfull to desire Death IT is written of Martyrius that being on his Death-bed he desired that God would be pleased to release him out of the miseries of this sinful World but his Auditors standing by said What will become of us and our poor souls when you are gone your losse will be a great prejudice to us you cannot conceive what hurt we shall receive by your death Well saies he if my life may be profitable to Gods people I will do any thing that he will have me to do He desires to live so as it may stand with Gods good pleasure And a man may wish to die for it is good or sinfull so to do as the the grounds are whereupon the desires are setled It is an expression of faith to be freed from sin and to have a more neer communion with God Thus it is that the Bride in the Revelation saies Come and the Spirit saies Come and both the Spirit and the Church take hands together and say Come Lord Iesus come quickly No man saies Christ can see may face and live O then saies the Church let me die that I may see thy face But such is the frailty of man that even strong desires and unadvised wishes are to be found amongst the people of God such as wish for death in regard of carnall ends thus Eliah because of Iesabels frownes cries out Lord take away my life c. and Ionah in a pettish humour thinks it better to die than to live not considering that Patience is the daughter of Hope and grandchild of Faith so that he that believeth maketh noâ— haste There is Heaven saies Hope It is mine saith 〈◊〉 Yea but saith Patience I will wait till Gods appointed time come Knowledge in Politicall affairs very uncertain THe Chirurgion that deals with an outward wound can tell whether he can cure it guesse in what time but the Physician that undertakes the cuâ—e of a feavour can neither see the time of his patients recovery nor assure him that he shall be recovered at all The Artizan with his convenient shop tools can make up his daies work if he be not hindered but the Merchant Adventurer can promise to himself no such matter he must have one wind to carry him out of the Haven another to carry him about to the lands end and perhaps another to drive him to the place of traffick so that he can promise nothing neither for the time of his return nor the vending of his commodity but as the wind and the weather and the marriners and the Seas and the time of trade will give him leave Thus the uncertainty of our knowledge in secular and politicall businesse doth appear the most wise God hath hidden from us the event of things Caliginosa morte premit All politick successes are conjecturall not demonstrative they stand in need of the concurrences of many things and causes which are casuall and of many mens minds which are mutable and of many opportunities which are accidentall so that we cannot build upon them There 's no policy so provident no providence so circumspect but is subject to errour and much uncertainty Sacramentall Bread and Wine how differenced from others AN Instrument or Conveyance of Lands from one party to another being fairly engrossed in parchment with wax fastned unto it is no more but ordinary parchment and wax but when it comes once to be sealed and delivered to the use of the party concerned then it is changed into another quality and made a matter of high concernment Thus the Elements of Bread and Wine are the same in substance with the othâ—r bread and wine before and 〈◊〉 the Administration is past the same in quality the bread dry the wine moist the same in naturâ— the bread to support the wine to comfort the heart of man But being once seperated not by any Spells or signing with the signe of the Crosse not by any Popish carnall sensuall Transubstantiation nor any Lutheran Consubstantiation from a common to a holy use when Christs Name is set on them in regard of Institution consecration operation and blessing attending
such occasions as this seldom fall out And certainly for women in Masks and Shewes to be apparel'd as men and men as women hath been alwaies a thing distastfull to them which are more sober minded as Tertullian condemneth it directly Nullum cultum à Deo maledictum invenio c. I find no apparell saith he cursed of God but a womans in a man according to that of Deut. 22. 5. especially in Showes and Plaies further adding out of another place Non amat fâ—lsum Author veritatis c. The God of verity loves not falsity every thing that is counterfeit before him is a kind of adultery Sorrow that is true is for the most part silent ST Bernard bewailing Gerhardus the Monk and his dearest brother saith At his death my heart failed me sed feci vim animo with much ado I dissembled my griefe lest affection should seem to overcome religion and whilst others wept abundantly Secutus ego siccis oculis invisum funus my self followed with dry eyes the happy Hearse by-standers with watry cheeks admiring whilst they did not pitty him but me that lost him Indeed whereas tears and words fail the blood leaveth the cheeks to comfort the heart and speech giveth place to amazement They are small miseries when he that hath them can presently tell the world of them Sorrow that is true is for the most part silent That observation of St. Peter is good Flevit sed tacuit he wept but was silent as if his eyes would in some sort tell what his tongue could in no sort utter The known Law of any Nation to be the rule of Obedience IT was the observation of a wise but unfortunate Peer of this Nation at the time of his Triall before an honourable Assembly That if a man should passe down the Thames in a boat and it be split upon an Anchor and a Buoy being not set as a token that there is an Anchor there that party that owes the Anchor should by the Maritime Law give satisfaction for the dammage done But if it were marked out then he must come upon his own perill And thus it is that the known Lawes of a Nation are made the rule of obedience to the People the plain Law and Letter of the Statute that tells where and what the crime is and by telling what it is and what it is not shewes how to avoid it For were it under water and not above skulking onely in the sense of some musty record and not divulged no human providence could avail or prevent destruction No true cause of Rejoycing in this world THere is a story of a certain King that was never seen to laugh or smile but in all places amongst all persons at all times he was very pensive and sad His Queen being much troubled at his melancholly requested a brother of his that he would ask him what was the cause of his continuall sadnesse He did so The King put him off till the next day for an answer and in the mean time caused a deep pit to be made commanding his servants to fill it half full with fiery coals and then causeth an old rotten board to be laid over it and over the board to hang a two edged sword by a small slender thread with the point downwards and close by the pit to set a table full of all manner of delicacies His brother comming next day for an answer was placed on the board and four men with drawn swords about him and withall the best musick that could be had to play before him Then the King called to him saying Rejoyce and be merry O my brother eat drink and laugh for here is pleasant being But he replyed and said O my Lord and King how can I be merry being in such danger on every side Then the King said Look how it is now with thee so it is alwaies with me for if I look about me I see the great and dreadfull Iudge to whom I must give an account of all my thoughts words and deeds good or evill If I look under me I see the endlesse torments of hell wherein I shall be cast if I die in my sins If I look behind me I see all the sins that ever I committed and the time which unprofitably I have spent If I look before me I see my death every day approaching nearer and nearer unto my body If I look on my right hand I see my conscience accusing me of all that I have done and left undone in this world And if I look on my left hand I see the creatures crying out for vengeance against me because they groaned under my iniquities Now then cease hence forward to wonder why I cannot rejoyce at the world or any thing in the world but continue sad and heavy Thus did but men consider their estates then would they find small cause to rejoyce at any thing which the world shall present as a thing delectable but rather employment enough for Argus his eyes yet all little enough to weep for the miserable estate wherein they stand by reason of sin and wickednesse Controversies especially in matters of Religion dangerous ON the Tomb-stone of the learned Sr. Henry Wotton late Provost of Eaton Colledge it is thus inscribed Hic jacet hujus sententiae Author Pruritus disputandi fit scabies Ecclesiae Here lies the Author of this sentence The itch of Disputation becomes the scab of the Church And very true How is Religion in a manner lost in the controversies of Religion For who is there that had not rather seem learned in the controversies of Religion then conscionable in the practice of Religion and that sets not more by a subtle head then a sanctified heart that had not rather disputare quam bene vivere dispute well than live well So that distraction in Religion becomes destruction of Religion Daily Examination of our selves the comfort of it SEneca tells of a Roman that kept his soul as clean as the best housewife keeps her house every night sweeping out the dust and washing all the vessells examining his own soul Quod malum hodie sanâsti qua parte melior es What infirmity hast thou healed what fault haste thou done and not repented in what degree art thou bettered Then would he lie down with O quà m gratus somnus quà m tranquillus With how welcome sleep and how quiet rest do I entertain the night And it were to be wished that all men would do the like to keep a day-book of all their actions and transactions in the world to commune with their own hearts and not to sum up all their words and works in the day passed with an Omnia bene as Church-wardens were wont to do when they gave up their presentments then would their nights rest be quiet and then might they lie down in safety for God himself would keep them Repentant tears
to endure nor lay any more upon him then what he shall be able to bear The Law bringing Mento the sight of themselves THe Swans of Thames and Po beholding with a retorted neck their goodly feathers think themselves Rarae aves interris but when their black leggs and feet are become the object of their sight then they find that they are nigris Cygnts simillimae So when Men behold their lives in what they are commendable or tolerable the Pharisee himselfe is not more proud then they when they hear of the two Tables of Gods Commandements they can carry them as easily as Sampson did the Gates of Azzah But when they look into the glass of the Law of God they find their strength to be but as other Mens then goes the hand to the breast and the word from the mouth O God be merciful to me a sinner Away then as Luther once said with those Antinomian conceits that the Law need not be taught in the times of the Gospel It is confessed That Christ is the end of the Law What end Finis perficiens non interficiens an end not consuming but consummating as himself said I came not to destroy the Law but to teach and do it Mat. 5. 17. The painfull Preachers poverty the idle Impropriators plenty BEes make the honey and drones suck the Hive It is said in Iob ch 1. v. 14. The Oxes were ploughing and the Asses feeding by them What Oxen plough the ground and Asses reap the Harvest This is somewhat preposterous yet so it is That laborious Oxen painful Preachers spend their time in plowing and preaching and lazy Asses idle Impropriators eat up all their labours being alwayes feeding Great revenues belong to the contemplative covent while the devout and active Preacher is a Mendicant the diligent Preacher lives in want of necessaries whilst the lazy Impropiator swells in all aboundance Every Man to be perswaded of his own death TWo Ships meeting on the Sea the Men in either ship think themselvs stand still and the other to be swift of sayl whereas they both sayl onwards toward the Port intended but the one faster then the other Even so Men are as Ships see we an old Man with a staffe in his hand stooping downward Alass poor old Man say we he cannot live long Hear we a Passing-bell toll There 's one going out of the world Visites we a sickâ—friend We think he can hardly live till morning Thus we think all other Men are a dying and we onely stand at stay Whereas God knows it they may go a little before and we are sure to follow after Iohn out-runs Peter to the Sepulchre but Peter is not far behind him Let every Man then be thus perswaded of himselfe that he shall and must dye None can be so sottish as to be perswaded that they shall never dye yet which is a sad thing there is none so old but thinks he may live one year longer and though in the generall he say All must die yet in the false numbring of his own particular days he thinks to live for ever The great danger of any one Sin unrepented of MAny Planks well pinn'd and calk'd make the Ship to float one and but one leak not stopped will sink it One wound strikes Goliah dead as well as three and twenty did Caesar One Dalilah will do Sampson as much spight as all the Philistins One wheel broken spoyls all the whole Clock One vein's bleeding will let out all the vitals as well as more One fly will spoil a whole box of Oyntment One bitter herb all the pottage by eating oâ—e Apple Adam lost Paradise One lick of honey endangered Ionathans life One Acâ—an was a trouble to all Israel One Ionah if faulty is lading too heavy for a whole ship Thus one sinne is enough to procure Gods anger and too much for one Man to commit And if God then take an accompt of one sin let Men have a care of all sin Curses usually fall on the Cursers own head DIogâ—â—es warned the Bastard when he saw him throwing stones at randome among the People to take heed he did not hit his own father Such is the condition of all cursing Men such whose tongues run with great speed on the Devills errand whose Maledictions are shot out of their mouths just like fools bolts not regarding where they light whereas many times they fall upon their friends their children and very often upon themselves or like ill made pieces which while Men discharge at others they recoyl in splinters upon their own faces so that if every curse should stick a visible blister on the tongue as it doth insensible ones on the Soul How many Mens tongues would be too big for their mouths and their mouth sas an open Sepulchre full of rottennesse and putrefaction To be alwayes prepared for Death IT is reported of Sir Iohn Burgh a brave Souldier and a Gentleman of a good Family who receiving a mortall wound in the Isle of Rees and being advised not to fear Death but to prepare himselfe for another world answered I thank â—od I fear not Death these thirty years together I never rose out of my bed in the morning that ever I made account to live till night A religious and Christian-like practise well worthy imitation that every day when a Man awaketh he should commend himselfe to Gods protection whether he live or dye for at the Evening none knoweth whether that nights bed shall be his grave or that nights sleep shall be his death Therefore before his eyes do sleep or his eye-lids take any slumber or the temples of his head takes rest make his peace with God for all his sinnes that whether he live or die he may live and dye to the Lord and Iesus Christ may be to him advantage The sad condition of Man falling away from God COmets and Meteors that hang in the ayr so long as they keep aloft in the firmament of Heaven they glitter and shine and make a glorious and caelestiall lustre in the eyes of all beholders but if once they decline from that pitch and fall down to the Earth as many times they do they vanish and disappeare and come to nothing Such is the case betwixt a Man and his God as long as a Man holds in good tearmes with God and sets his affections upon things above so long will God cast his favour upon him and he shall sbine as a light in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation But if once he decline from that pitch and fall down from a godly conversation into an earthly idle ungodly disposition 't is a venture but his prosperity will fall away and his latter end grow worse than his beginning The madnesse of Ministers Magistrates c. not to be guided by that Counsell they give to others IT is fabled of a
compassionate one towards another IT was an act of Licinius one of the Roman Tribunes whether more cruell or foolish let the world Judge that when Christians were put to their torture he forbad all the lookers on to shew the least pitty towards them threatning the same pains to them that did shew it which the Martyrs then suffered His malice was greater then his power for he could not hinder those from suffering with them that daily suffer in them And this is the way that all good Christians are to walk in if they cannot through disability relieve others with their goods which is the mercy of contribution yet what can hinder their confortable words to them which is the mercy of consolation or their prayers and tears for them which is the mercy of intercession or their pitty and sensible sympathy of their grief which is the mercy of compassion The impartiality of Death IN the reigne of K. Henry the sixth there is mention made of Henry Beaâ—â—ord that rich and wretched Cardinall vvho lying on his death-bed and perceiving his time to be but short expostulated with himself thus Wherefore should I die being thus rich If the whole world were able to save my life I am able either by policy to get it or by riches to buy it Fie fie said he will not death be hired will mony dâ— nothing No such is the impartiality of death that ready mony will do nothing there 's no protection against the arrest of death So true is that which one writeth vvittily of the Grammarian of every son of Adam that being able to decline all other Nouns in every Case he could decline Death in no case Never vvas there Oratour so eloquent nor Monarch so potent that could either perswade or withstand the stroak of death vvhen it came Unhappy prosperity of the wicked IT is Davids observation that the vvicked are in great prosperity and flourish like a green bay-tree vvhich is vvell knovvn to be green all the vvinter long vvhen Oak-trees and Apple-trees and all other far more profitable and fruitfull trees do wither decay and shed their leaves stand naked and bare and look as if they vvere rotten and dead then it is that the Bay-tree looks as fresh and green as it vvere in the midst of the Spring So fares it with all wicked men in such vvinter-times of the vvorld as vve are novv in they prosper and God sends them no crosse nor disease nor judgment to interrupt them but lets them take their svving in the very height of their rebellions against him vvhen many a â—oor Christian is fain to fast and fare hard and go with many a hungry meal to bed then it is that God suffers a company of flagitious villains such as arâ— Mercatores humanarum calamitatum that make merchandise of poor mens miseries to have their will without controle and to thrive and have a great deal of outward unhappy prosperity Heaven the way to it through tribulation JOnathan and his Armour-bearer being upon their march against the Philistins were to passe betwixt two rocks the one called Bozez which signifies dirty the other called Seneh which signifies thorny a hard passage But on they went as we say through thick and thin and at last gained the victory The Israelites were first brought to the bitter waters of Marah before they might taste of the pleasant fountains or the milk and honey of Canaan And in vain shall any man expect the River of Gods pleasures before he hath pledged Christ in the cup of bitternesse When we have pledged him in his gall and vinegar then he will drink to us in the new wine of his Kingdom He that is the Door and the Way hath taught us that there is but one way one door one passage to Heaven and that a strait one through which though we do passe with much pressure and tugging having our superfluous rags torn away from us here in the croud of this world yet we shall be happy He that will be Knighted must kneel for it and he that will enter in at the strait gate must croud for it a gate made so on purpose narrow and hard in the entrance yet after we are entred wide and glorious that after our pain our joy may be the sweeter The Scriptures not to be plaid withall IT was simply done of Cardinall Bobba who speaking in commendation of the Library at Bononia which being a very spacious room hath under it a victualling house and under that a wine-cellar thought he had hit it in applying that text Wisdom hath built her house hath mingled her wine and furnished her table The rudenesse of this application did not in the least become the gravity of a red Hat But let all such know that non est bonum ludere cum sanctis there 's no jesting with edge-tools no playing with the two-edged sword of Gods Word Is there no place but the Font for a man to wash his hands in no cup but the Chalice to drink healths in Certainly they were ordained for a better use and the Scriptures pen'd for a better end then to be plaid withall Vncertain prosperity of the wicked A Man that stands in lubrico in a slippery place as on Ice or Glasse shall have much ado to keep himself upright though no body touch him but if one should come upon him unawares and give him a suddain justle or a suddain rush he hath no power in the world to uphold himself but must fall and that dangerously And this is the case of wicked wealthy men such as are laden with ease and honour such as are blest like Esau with the dew of Heaven and fatnesse of the Earth Such gracelesse Ruffians as feast without fear drink without measure swear without feeling live without God thinking that they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unmovable and fastned on a Rock that never shall be moved But they are deceived God that knowes their standing tells us he hath set them in slippery places and it will not be long ere he send some death some judgment some evill Angell or other to give them such a suddain justle such a suddain rush that without great mercy on â—is part and great Repentance on their part they must fall irrecoverably into the pit of Hell for ever Atheism will unman any Man TAke a Dog and marke what a generosity and courage he will put on when he is maintained by a Man who is to him instead of a God or at least melior Natura whereby it is manifest that the poor Creature without the confidence of a better Nature then his own could never be so couragious Thus it is with Man when he roleth himselfe upon God and resteth on his divine protection then he gathers a force and ability which humane nature it selfe could never attain But when
deal further then the eye as to know the glory of all the Monarchies that are past the glory of all things that now are and all the things that are foretold shall be yet our ears have never heard of any thing like thâ—s joy but the understanding apprehendeth things that are and are not and by a divine power calleth things that are not as if they were Disputat de quolibet ente non ente it imagineth Mountains of Gold and Heaven to be a place of infinite joy and yet the heart of Man cannot comprehend this joy Such are the great expressions of the impossibility of expressing it at all Love to be preserved with all Men. VVHen the King of Babylon sack'd Ierusalem it was observable that whereas the Priests might have had what they pleased yet they preserved onely the fire of the sanctuary and hid that in a pit because this fire as it s said came down from Heaven upon the first Mosaicall Sacrifice was kept to that day Thus must we do with Love that divine spark of a farre greater flame which streaming from God hath by the illumination of his holy Spirit from the beginning of the world warmed the Sons of Men Above all these things sayes the Apostle put on Charity Love Friends love Enemies love all Amicum in Domino inimicum pro Domino Love our friends in the Lord our foes for the Lord So that whatsoever else we do amiss as in many things we sinne all admit the opinions and â—udgements of Men be different from ours yet let not us differ in affection but keep up and maintain love one towards another Every Man to labour that he may be a new Creature VVE look upon Guns and Printing as new inventions the former found out by Birchtoldin the Monk Anno 1380 the other by one Faustus a Fryer Anno 1446. Others say that Iohn Guthenburg a German was the first inventer thereof But for certain the first Press was set up at Mentz and the first book there imprinted was Tullies Offices afterwards one â—onradus set up a Press at Rome Nicholas Ienson added much to the art and William Caxton a Merchant free of the Company of Mercersâ— London propagated the same in England in the Raign of K. Edward the fourth having his Work-house in the Sanctuary near the Abbey of Westminster Now the Author of the Belgick Common-weal will have one Laurence Ians a Rich Citizen of Harlem in the Low-Country to precede all these and sets out the manner how That he walking forth one day into the neighbouring Woods for Recreation began to cut in pieces of wood the letters of his Name printing them on the back of his hand which pleasing him well he cut three or four lines which he beat with Ink printed them upon Paper wherwith he was much joyed and determined to find out another kind of Ink more fastning and so with his Kinsman one Thomas Peters found out another way to print whole sheets but of one side onely which are yet to be seen in the said Town Yet for all this It is said that the Chineses had the use both of Guns and Printing long before we in these Western parts had any notice of them Why then should Christians so eagerly hunt after Novelties when Solomon by the Spirit of God sends a peremptory challenge to all Mankind Is there any thing whereof it may be said This is new Let every one then labour to get spirituall eyes to behold the beauty of the new Creature the bravery of the new Ierusalem get into Christ that he may be a new Creature and so he shall have a new Name a new Spirit new Alliance new attendance new wayes and new work a new Commandement a new way to Heaven and new Mansions in heaven Vnder-agents and Instruments to be looked unto in matters of Justice A Clock let it be of never so good mettall and making will not strike orderly and truly but much therein will be out of frame and fashion if the lesser wheeles as well as the greater keep not their due and regular motion So in the curious Clockwork of Iustice there will be many exorbitances albeit the chiefe Agents and movers therein be never so sound in their integrity if the under-agents and Instruments of Iustice as witnesses in proving the Action Counsellors in pleading and prosecuting the cause Jury-men in sifting and censuring the Evidences and allegations do not also take care and make Conscience in discharge of their severall duties Remedy against Vain-glory. THe Naturalists observe that the Eagle building her nest on high is much maligned by a kind of venemous Serpent called Parias which because it cannot reach the nest makes to the windward and breathes out its poyson that so the ayr may be infected and the Eagles Chickens destroyed But by way of prevention the Eagle out of a naturall instinct keeps a kind of Agath stone in her nest which being placed still against the wind preserveth her young ones from infection Thus with the like care and industry we must labour to preserve the honour of any good work that we do keep up the credit of any religious act that we perform And least the Devill should taynt them and make us famam aucupari to hunt after the applause of Men we must place Christ and the glory of God betwixt our good Works and the noysome breath of Mans flattery and commendations The sad condition of a Worldly-minded Man at the time of Death IT is reported of a wretched Rich Man who when he heard that his sickness was deadly sent for his baggs of Money and hugg'd them in his arms saying Oh must I leave you oh must I leave you And of another who when he lay upon his sick-bed called for his baggs and laid a bagge of Gold to his heart and then oad them take it away saying It will not do it will not do A third also being near death clap'd a Twenty-shilling piece of Gold in his mouth saying Some wiser then some I 'le take this with me however Now if these mens hearts had been rip'd up aster they had been dead there might have been certainly found written in them The god of this present world a sad condition wherein may be seen the corruption of nature discovering it self When men are so wedded to the things of this world that they do as it were incubare divitiis sit hatching upon their riches as the Partridge upon her young especially if gotten by their own industry then they think much to be divorced from them by death and to leave them to others to whom many times they know not and usually to them that will never give thanks for them Not to regard what men say Ill if Conscience say Well IT was a good saying of one that in
being troubled with fears and cares how he should be able to live in that condition in regard that his Incomes were but small enough onely to maintain him as a single man looking out of the window and seeing a Hen scraping for food to cherish her numerous brood about her thought thus with himself This Hen did but live before it had the chickens and now she lives with all her little ones Upon which he added this thought also I see the fouls of the air neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns and yet my heavenly Father seeds them Thus did he and thus many of Gods servants have done before him and thus did our blessed Lord and Saviour himself who took occasion of the water fetch'd up solemnly to the Altar from the well of Shilo on the day of the great Hosanna to meditate and discourse of the water of life And so must all of us do get this sweet and comfortable art of spiritualizing the severall occurrences in the world and observing the providences of God therein drawing like the Bee sweetnesse from every flower and turning every thing that we hear or see into holy meditation the omission whereof cannot be without the neglect of God his creatures our selves The Creatures are half lost if we onely employ them not learn something of them God is wronged if his creatures be unregarded We most of all if we read this great volume of the Creatures and take out no lesson for our own instruction Men hardly drawn out of old customs and forms in Religious Worship IT is reported of the King of Morocco that he told the English Ambassadour in King Iohns time that he had lately read St. Pauls 〈◊〉 which he liked so well that were he to chuse his Religion he would embrace Christianity But saith he every one ought to die in the faith wherein he was born So it is with many amongst us they are perswaded they ought and are resolved they will live and die in those customs and waies wherein they were born and so they may do nay so they must do provided that such customs and forms whereunto they seem to be so fast glued be according to the pattern in the Mount the revealed will of God But it is to be feared that such are more addicted to Customs then Scriptures chusing rather to follow what hath been though never so absurd and irregular then consider what should be though never so orthodox and uniform The great love of Christ to he at an high esteeem and why so THere is a story of an Elephant who being fallen down and unable to help himself or get up again by reason of the inflexiblenesse of his legs a forrester comming by helped him up wherewith the Elephant a creature otherwise docible enough by the very instinct of nature was so affected that he tamely followed the man up and down would do any thing for him and never left him till his dying day Now so it is that if there be such love exprest by bruit beasts to those which have done them any good should not we much more love and prise Christ that hath done so much for us For we were fallen and could not recover or help our selves and Christ hath lifted us up and redeemed us with his own most pretious blood when we were even lost and undone Let us then think nothing too much to do too great to suffer too dear to part withall for such a Christ such a Saviour that thought nothing too much to do or too grievous to suffer that so he might accomplish the work of our Redemption He left Heaven for us let not us think much to lose Earth for him He came out of his Fathers bosom for us let not us be unwilling to leave father or mother or friends or any thing else for him He underwent sufferings reproaches afflictions persecutions yea death it self for us let not us repine at or be impatient under any trouble or misery we shall meet with here in this world for hâ—s sake but still be praising blessing and magnifying the love of God in Christ Iesus who hath done so much for us Faith to be preserved as the head of all Graces and why so IT is observed that the Serpent is of all things most carefull of his head because he well knowes though he be cut and mangled never so much in the body or any part of it yet if his head be but whole it will cure all the wounds of the other members And such wisdom ought all of us to have to labour above all things to keep our head our faith whole and sound to make sure of that whatsoever we do because if any thing else receive a wound if any other of our graces have as it were even lost their spirituall strength and vigour faith will renew them again but if this once suffer shipwrack it will cost many a sigh many a tear many a groan in the spirit before it be recovered again for without it all other graces decay and perish are as in a winter-condition of barrennesse without it yet if it do but appear there will be a spring-tide of all spirituall blessings whatsoever Troubles and vexation of spirit not to be allayed by wrong means and waies IT is said of Cain that being in trouble of mind and terrour of conscience for his bloody sin of fratricide he went to allay it by building a City Gen. 4. And there was no way to drive away Saul's melancholy but by David's tuning of his Harp Thus it is with most of people when they are under trouble of mind or vexation of spirit they use sinfull and wrong means to quiet themselves they run to merry meetings to musick to building to bargaining to buying and selling but they run not to God on the bended knees of their hearts who is the onely speedy help in such a time of need It cannot be denyed but that a merry meeting musick or the like may allay the trouble of mind for a while but it will recoil with more terrour then before A sad remedy not much unlike to a man in a seavouâ— that lets down cold drink which cools for the present but afterwards increaseth the more heat or like a man rubbing himself with Nettles to allay the sting of a Bee or not much unlike to one that hath his house a falling and takes a firebrand to uphold it whereby the building is more in danger Prosperity will discover what a man is IT is said of Pius Quintus so called because that when he was a mean man he was looked on as a good man but when he came to be a Cardinall he doubted of his salvation and when a Pope he dispaired of it So hard a thing is it for a good man to use a prosperous estate well Prosperity is that which will tell you what a man is it will
tormented The great danger of not reconciling our selves unto God SIr Thomas Moor whilest he was a Prisoner in the Tower would not so much as suffer himself to be trimmed saying There was a controversie betwixt the King and him for his head and till that was at an happy end he would be at no cost about it Let us but scum off the froth of his Wit and we may make a solemn use of it For certainly all the cost we bestow upon our selves to make our lives pleasurable and joyous to us is but meer folly till it be decided what will become of the Suit betwixt God and us what will be the issue of the Controversie that God hath against us and that not for our heads but Souls whether for Heaven or Hell Were it not then the wisest course to begin with making our peace and then we may soon lead a happy life It is said He that gets out of debt growes rich Most sure it is that the pardoned soul cannot be poor For as soon as the Peace is concluded a Free Trade is opened between God and the Soul If once pardoned we may then sail to any Port that lies in Gods dominions and be welcome where all the Promises stand open with their treasure and say Here poor Soul take full lading in of all pretious things even as much as thy Faith can bear and carry away Ringleaders of Faction and Schism their condition deplorable VVHat would the Prince think of that Captain who instead of encouraging his Souldiers to fall on with united Forces as one Man against the Common enemy should make a speech to set his Souldiers together by the ears amongst themselves surely he would hang him up for a Traytor Good was Luther's prayer A Doctore glorioso à Pastore contentioso et Inutilibus quaestionibus liberet Ecclesiam Deus From a vain-glorious Doctor a contentious Pastor and nice questions the Lord deliver his Church And we in these sad times have reason to say as hearty an Amen to it as any since his age Do we not live in a time when the Church is turn'd into a Sophister's School where there is and hath been such a wrangling and jangling that the pretious truths of the Gospel are lost to many already whose eyes are put out with the dust these contentions have raised and they have at last fairly disputed themselves out of all their sober Principles as some ill husbands that light among cunning Gamesters and play away all their money out of their purses Woe then to such vile Men who have prostituted the Gospel to such Divellish ends God may have mercy on the cheated Souls to bring them back to the love of the Truth But for the cheaters such as have been the Ring-leaders into Faction and Schism they are gone too far toward Hell that we can look for their return When it is that a Man is said to thorowly forsake his Sin EVery time a Man takes a journey from home about businesse we do not say he hath forsaken his house because he meant when he went out to come to it again No but when we see a Man leave his house carry all his goods away with him lock up his doors and take up his abode in another place never to dwell there more this Man may very well be said to have forsaken his house indeed Thus it is that every one of us are to forsake sin so as to leave it without any thought of returning to it again It were strange to find a Drunkard so constant in the exercise of that Sin but sometimes you may find him sober and yet a drunkard he is as if he were then drunk Every one hath not forsaken his Trade that we see now and then in their Holy-day Suit then it is that a Man is said to forsake his Sin when he throwes it from him and bolts the door upon it with a purpose never to open any more unto it Ephraim shall say What have we to do any more with Idols Hos. 14. 8. Mortification the excellency thereof THere is mention made of one of the Cato's That in his old age he drew himself from Rome to his Country-house that he might spend his elder years free from care and trouble And the Romans as they did ride by his house used to say Iste solus scit Vivere This Man alone knowes how to live What art Cato had to disburthen himself by his retirement of the Worlds cares is altogether unknown But most sure it is that a Man may go into the Country and yet not leave the City behind him his mind may be in a crowd while his body is in the solitude of a wildernesse Alas poor Man he was a stranger to the Gospel had he been but acquainted therewith it could have shewed him a way out of the crowd of all Worldly employments even in the midst of Rome it self and that is by mortifying his heart to the World both in the pleasures and troubles thereof And then that high commendations That he alone knew how to live might have been given him without any hyperbole at all For to speak truth He onely knowes aright how to live in the world that hath learnt to die to the World such is the excellency of Mortification Consideration of the brevity of life to work the heart of Man to Contentment IF a Traveller hath but enough to bring him to his journeys end he desires no more We have but a day to live and perhaps we may be now in the twelfth hour of that day And if God give us but enough to bear our charges till night it is sufficient Let us be content If a Man had the Lease of an House or Farm but for two or three dayes and he should fall a building and planting would he not be judged very indiscreet So when we have but a short time here and Death calls us presently off the stage to thirst immoderately after the World and pull down our Souls to build up an estate were it not extream Folly Therefore as Esau said once in a prophane sense concerning his birth-right Lo I am at the point to die and what profit shall this birth-right do to me So let us all say in a Religious sense Lo I am even at the point of Death my grave is going to be made and what good will the World do me If I have but enough till Sun-setting I am content The Scripture discovering Satan and Sin in its colours IT is reported That a certain Iew should have poysoned Luther but was happily prevented by his picture which was 〈◊〉 to Luther with a warning from a Faithfull friend that he should take heed of such a Man when he saw him by which he knew the Murtherer and so escaped his hands Thus it is that the Word of God shews us the face of those lufts which
Patient it may be impatient of anguish and pain cryes out to have it removed No sayes the Surgeon it must stay there till it have eaten to the quick and effected that throughly for which it is applyed commanding those that are about him to see that nothing be stirred till he come again to him In the mean time the Patient being much pained counts every minute an hour till the Surgeon come back again and if he stay long thinketh that he hath forgotten him or that he is taken up with other Patients and will not return in any reasonable time When as it may be he is all the while but in the next room to him attending the hour-glasse purposely set up till the Plaisâ—er have had its full operation Thus in the self-fame manner doth God deal oft-times with his dearest Children as David and S. Paul The one was instant more then once or twice to be rid of that evil and the other cryes out as fast Take away the plague from me for I am even consumed c. but God makes both of them to stay his time He saw in them as in all others much dead flesh much corrupt matter behind that was as yet to be eaten out of their Souls he will have the Crosse to have its full work upon us not to come out of the fire as we went in not to come off the fire as foul and as full of scum as we were first set on Resurrection of the Just asserted TRees and other Vegetables in the Winter time appear to the eyes and view of all men as if they were withered and quite dead yet when the Spring time comes they become alive again and as before do bring forth their buds blosâ—oms leaves and fruit the Reason is because the body grain and arms of the Tree are all joyned and fastned to the root where the sap and moisture lies all the Winter time and from thence by reason of so â—ear conjunction it is derived in the Spring-time to all the parts of the Tree Even so the bodies of Men have their Winter also and that is in Death in which time they are turned into dust and so remain for a time dead and rotten yet in the Spring-time that is in the last day at the Resurrection of all Flesh then by means of the mysticall Union with Christ his divine and quickning Virtue shall stream and flow from thence to all the bodies of his Elect and chosen Members and cause them to live again and that to life eternall The inestimable valew of Christ Jesus CHarles Duke of Burgundy being slain in battell by the Swissers at Nantz Anno 1476. had a Iewel of very great valew which being found about him was sold by a Souldier to a Priest for a Crown in money the Priest sold it for two Crowns Afterwards it was sold for seven hundred Florens then for Twelve thousand Duckets and last of all for twenty thousand Duckets and set into the Popes triple Crown where it is to be seen at this day But Christ Iesus is a commodity of far more value better then Rubies saith Solomon and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to him He is that Pearl of price which the Merchant purchased with all that ever he had No Man can buy such gold too dear Ioseph then a pretious Iewell of the World was far more pretious had the Ishmaelitish Merchants known so much then all the Balms and Myrrhes that they transported and so is Christ as all will yield that know him To depend upon Gods bare Word THe Earth that we tread on though it be a massie dull heavy body yet it hangeth in the midst of the ayr inviron'd by the Heavens and keepeth its place steady and never stirreth an inch from it having no props or shores to uphold it no beams or barrs to fasten it nothing to stay or establish it but the Word of God In like manner must we learn to depend upon the bare Word of God And when all other ayds and comforts have taken their leaves of us then to rest and relye upon God himself and his infallible unfailable Word of promise not on the outward pledges and pawns of his Providence nor on the ordinary effects and fruits of his favour so shall we see light even in the midst of darknesse and be able to discern the sweet Sun-shine of his blessed countenance through the thickest clouds of his fiercest Wrath and displeasure The day of Death better then the day of life PLato maketh mention of Agamedes and Trophonius who after they had builded the Temple of Apollo Delphicus they begged of God that he would grant to them that which would be most beneficiall for them who after this suit made went to bed and there slept their last being both found dead the next Morning Whereupon it was concluded That it was better to die then to live Whilest I call things past to mind said that incomparable Q. Elizabeth I behold things present and whilest I expect things to come I hold them happiest that go hence soonest And most true it is that Death being aeterni Natalis the birth-day of Eternity as Seneca at unawares calls it And if Death like unto the gathering Hoast of Dan come last into the Field to gather the lost and forlorn hope of this World that they may be found in a better needs must then be the day of Death better then the day of life Therefore as a witty Man closed up a paper of Verses concerning Worldly calamities and naturall vexationâ— What then remains but that we still should cry Not to be born or being born to dye Men to be prepared for Crosses Afflictions Troubles c. IN or about the year 1626 A book formerly printed and entituled A preparaâ—â—on to the Crosse of Christ composed by Iohn Frith Martyr was brought to the Mâ—rket in Cambridge in the belly of a Fish and that a little before the Commencement time when by reason of the confluence of much People notice might be given to all places of the Land which as a late Reverend Divine observed could in his apprehension be construed for no lesse then an Heavenly warning and to have this voice with it England prepare for the Crosse A great work of God it was to be sure and a fair warning to us of this Nation before the sad dayes of trouble came had but Men made good use of it but surdo narratur No Man prepar'd for the Crosse since which time here hath been enough of the Crosse Crosse-doing and Crosse-dealing one with another and much ado hath been about pulling down and defacing material Crosses such as in themselves were but Civill not Religious marks as that Princely Iob defin'd them when they should rather have been busied in pulling down the old Man out of their hearts and so made way for
drown the Enemy but Maxentius hearing of Constantine's suddain approach in a rage rushed out of the gates of Rome and commanded his followers to attend him and through fury forgetting his own work led a few over his bridge And the ships sinking himself and his followers were all drowned Thus it is that the mischiefs of wicked Men fall usually upon their own heads their plots recoyl upon themselves they do but as it were twist a cord to hang themselves whilest they digg a pit for others the Earth falling in beats out their own brains This is that Lex talionis that retaliation which Christ threatens and that David asserteth Nec enim lex justior ulla est Most just it is that he which breweth mischief should have the first draught of it himself Anabaptisticall spirits their madnesse SUppose a Man invited to Dives his rich Table furnished with all sorts of delicacies and delicious fare and that he should passe by all the provision and sit sullenly at the Table not eating a bit of the meat but staring about him should look for a second course to drop down from Heaven or to be usher'd in by a Raven as it was to the Prophet Eliah Would not one think such a one to be a kind of Mad-man Yes surely And such have been at all times and are the Anabaptistical spirits of our times Whereas God hath in his Word set before them a plentiful Feast of holy and sacred vyands full and clear discoveries of himself yet they must needs gape after new Revelations and Enthusiasticall inspirations not much unlike to the Man that pull'd out his eyes and then put his Spectacles on his nose that he might see the better Not to be at peace with Sin CRoesus being taken captive of Cyrus used this one reason to prefer Peace before Warre namely because in the time of Peace the Children might in all likelihood bury their Parents but in Warr the Parents with much heavinesse buried their Children Now in the spiritual Warfare we may use the same argument to prefer Warr before Peace because in Peace our Children and wicked off spring that is our Sins do as it were bury us alive whereas if we make but warr against them we bury them and get Peace with God So that he which hath Peace with his Sins the Lord proclaimeth Warr against him the issue whereof will be most uncomfortable Ministers to be had in respect by the People IT was a good speech of an Honourable Person when some others were undervaluing the Ministers of Gods Word and Sacraments Well said he God blesse them by whom God blesseth us And a great Judge giving the charge at an Assizes professed in open Court That he would assoon bind a Man to his good behaviour for contempt of a Minister as for contempt of a Magistrate This was a good Resolution then but in these licentious dayes of ours most fit to be put into Execution wherein Men have taken upon themselves a sinful liberty both by words and deeds to throw dirt in the very face of the Ministry How comes it to passe else that the Calling is made so contemptible above all others that the name of Priest is become so odious Well they will one day find that God hath made them Fathers so Micah called the young Levite Teachers Seers Guides such as watch for the good of Mens Souls c. let Men then highly esteem of them whom God hath thus honoured The good Mans comfort in Death IT is reported of S. Anselm that riding abroad a Hare that was almost hunted to death squatted down betwixt his horses leggs The good Man conceiving that the poor languishing Creature made to him for shelter relieved her from the rage and violence of the Huntsman and his doggs They that stood by wondred that he should spoyl their game and some of them laughed at it which the good Man perceiving wept and said unto them My Friends this is no laughing matter and thus he applyed it This Hare may very well be compar'd to every Christian Soul when he is at the point of death then it is that the Devill labours all that he can to make his passage out of this World uncomfortable then it is that Nebuchadnezzar-like he heats the oven of his persecution seven times hotter then before and then it is that like a subtile Sophister he brings out his strongest arguments to drive the poor Soul to desperation In the midst of this great extremity the poor Soul looks about for comfort but finds none none in any outward things miserable comforters are they all but then by the eye of Faith looking up unto Iesus is rescued out of the snares of the Devill and is saved To beware of Errors and erronious Teachers IT is said of Spondanus the same that epitomised Baronius that he gives his Reader Popish poyson to drink so slily quasi aliud agens as if he were doing something else and meant no such matter And Schwenkfeldius who held many dangerous heresies did yet deceive many by his pressing to an holy life prayiâ—g frequently and fervently c. by his stately expressions ever in his mouth as of Illumination Revelation Deification the inward and spiritual Man c. so cunning in the cogging of his die as S. Paul phraseth it so wily in the conveyance of his collusion that like a Serpent he stung with hissing Such are therefore to be avoided how slily soever they seek to insinuate with their Pithanology and seigned humility whereby they circumvent and beguile the simple there is no dealing with them Shun their society as a Sâ—rpent in the way as poyson in your meat For such is the nature of their erronious doctrine that as a Noble Writer saith It is like the Ierusalem-Artichoaks plant it where you will it over-runs all the ground and choaks the heart of it The way of Religion irksome in the beginning but comfortable in the end AN Heyser that is not used to the yoke struggles the yoke pincheth the neck but after a while she carries it more gently A new Suite though never so well fitted to a Mans body is not so easie the first day as aftâ—r it is worn awhile Two Mill-stones after they be made fit do not grind so well at the first as afterwards As we see it is with a Man when he goes to bathe himself in the midst of Summer there is a trembling of his body when he first puts into the water but after he hath drench't himself all over he is not sensible of any cold at all So the way of Piery and Religion is irksome at the first but after it gives great comfort and contentment It is called a yoke Grave cum tâ—llis c. grievous when a Man takes it up but after it is born awhile both easie and light It is
Horse would needs have him foaming at the mouth but could not by any means do it Whereupon in a great rage he took the sponge wherewith he made his pensils clean and thrâ—w it at the picture intending to have utterly defared it but it so fell out that the spunge having sucked in severall sorts of colours effected that by chance which the Artist by all his industry could not compasse Thus it is with them that strive to make themselves great and eminent in the World How do they cark and care flatter lie and dissemble and all to be thought some body amongst their fearful Neighbours But all in vain this is not the way to do it for as Charles and Fifth told his sonne That Fortune was just like a Woman the more you woe her the further she flings off Let every good Christian then take up the spunge of contempt and throw it at these outward eminencies Moses did so and found to his exceeding joy that the abjection of vain glory was the acquisition of that which was true and reall The difference of good and bad Men in their preparation for Death A Wife that hath been faithfull to her Husband and waits his coming home let him knock when he will she is alwayes ready to open the door unto him but another Woman that is false to her husband and hath other Lovers in the house if her husband chance to knock at the door she does not immediately go to the door and let him in but there is a shuffling up and down in the house and she delayes the time till she have go the others out of the way Thus it is when Death knocks at the door of these Earthly Tabernacles of ours here 's the difference A good man is willing and ready to open to Death his Heart is in such an Heavenly frame that he is alwayes prepared for Death and seeing 〈…〉 Death that so he may take possession Whereas the Atheist he dares not die for fear of a Non esse that he shall be no more the prophane Person is afraid of Death because of a male esse to be made miserable and every wicked ungodly Man is loath to die for having espoused himself to the things of this World he shrinks at the very thought of Death and cryes out to his Soul as sometimes Pope Adrian did O my Soul whither goest thou thou shalâ— never be merry more Or as those ten Men Stay us not for we have Treasures in the Field of Wheat and of Barley and of Oyl and of Honey c. Jer. 41. 8. Christ to be the summe of all our Actions THere is mention made of one in the Primitive times who being asked What he was answered A Christian. What is thy name he answered Christian. What is thy Profession He answered Christian. Wâ—at are thy thoughts He answered Christian. Thy words and deeds What are they He answered Christian. What life leadest thou He answered still Christian. He had so digested Christ into his Soul by Faith that he could speak nothing but Christians And thus it is that Christ is to be made the summe and ultimate of all our actions we must labour that Christ may be made one with us and we with him that in all our Works begun continued and ended we may still conclude with that expression of the Church Through Iesus Christ our Lord. Gods Immutability A Man travelling upon the Road espies some great Castle sometimes it seems to be nigh another time afar off now on this hand anon on that now before by and by behind when all the while it standeth still unmoved So a Man that goes in a boat by water thinks the shore moveth whereas it is not the shore but the boat that passeth away Thus it is with God sometimes he seemeth to be angry with the Sons of Men another time to be well pleased now to be at hand anon at a distance now shewing the light of his Countenance by and by hiding his face in displeasure yet he is not changed at all It is we not he that is changed He is Immutable in his Nature in his Counsels and in all his Promises whereas all Creatures have and are subject to change having their dependance on some more powerfull Agent but God being onely independent is as the School-men say omninò immutabilis altogether immutable The Godly Man rejoycing in Death IT is storied of Godfrey Duke of Boloigne that when in that his expedition to the Holy Land he came within view of Ierusalem his Army seeing the high Turrets goodly Buildings and fair fronts though but as it were as so many Skeletons of far more glorious bodies being even transported with the joyfulnesse of such a sight gave a mighty showt that the Earth was verily thought to ring with the noyse thereof Such is the rejoycing of a Godly Man in death when he doth not see the Turrets and Towers of an Earthly but the spirituall building of an Heavenly Ierusalem and his Soul ready to take possession of them How doth he delight in his dissolution Especially when he sees Grace changing into Glory Hope inâ—o fruition Faith into vision and Love into perfect comprehension such and so great are the exultations of his Spirit such mighty workings and shoutings of the Heart as cannot be expressed Sin to be looked upon as the cause of all sorrow IN the course of Justice we say and say truly When a Party is put to death that the Executioner cannot be said to be the cause of his death nor the Sheriff by whose command he doth it neither yet the Iudge by whose sentence nor the twelve Men by whose verdict nor the Law it self by whose Authority it is proceeded in for God forbid that we should endite these or any of these of Murther Solum peccatum Homicidae Sin and sin onely is the cause and occasion of all sorrows It is not the looking upon any accidentals any Instrumentals of our Miseries and vexations but upon the principal the prime Agent and that 's Sin to take a wreak or holy Revenge upon that to send out an enquiry in our Souls after that and having found it to passe sentence thereupon The Good Mans comfort in matter of Worldly losse IT was a handsome conceit of a great Duke of Florence that had for his Arms a fair spread Tree having one branch onely lopped off with this Motto Uâ—o avulso non deficit alter intimating thereby that as long as the Trunk or body of the Teee was well rooted there was no fear though a branch or two were withered Thus a good Man bears up himself in the matter of temporal losse As to the matter of Government if a David be gathered to his Fathers a Solomon may succeed him in his Throne If a Iohn be cast into Prison rather then the Pulpit shall stand empty a greater then
thereof there had been lesse sleighting of his Ordinances and much lesse contempt of his Word and Commanments A good Christian will rather part with his life then his Integrity PIerius Valerianus in his book of Egyptian Hierogliphicks maketh mention of a kind of white Mouse called an Armenian Mouse being of such a cleanly disposition that it will rather die then be any way 〈◊〉 so that the passage into her hole being besmeared with any filth she will rather expose her self to the mercy of her cruell Enemy then any way seek to save her life by passing so foul an entrance And thus every well-grounded true-hearted Christian will with those three Nobly spirited Hebrews choose rather to be cast into the Fiery 〈◊〉 then worship the golden Image with Moses rather suffer affliction with Gods people then live a pleasant life in Pharaoh's Court with Daniel rather he fed with water and pulse then eat of the Kings portion In a word rather part with estate liberty life and all then part with his Integrity To have Children male and female Gods great blessing AS it is with the Soul and the body though the Soul be far more excellent then the body yet the Soul alone is not so perfect as when Soul and body are together because though the body be not so strong in Constitution and noble in Condition as the Soul yet Body and Soul in creation were joyned together hence is it that their greatest perfection consists in Unity So likewise is it in a Family though Sons in Nature are more perfect yet because it was the first Institution of a Family Male and Female therefore the fulnesse and compleatnesse of the blessing is in the Union of both Sons without daughters may bear up the Name and Daughters without Sons may enlarge the Family but where there are Sons and Daughters both is the perfection of the blessing because Man was so made at the first Male and Female created be them The Multitude alwaies desirous of change in Government LIvy maketh mention of the Citizens of Capua that being gathered together in a mutinous manner they would needs depose the Senate and being weary of their Government agreed to put them to death But Pacuvius Calavius the head Magistrate being willing to save them When they had passed sentence upon one of them to have him executed bade them first in his stead to choose a good and Righteous Senator At the first they were all silent not knowing how to find a better After when some odde fellow of the crew past all shame and reverence seemed to nominate one to succeed by and by they grew to loud words and great out-cryes Some said flatly they kâ—en not the Man Others laid heinous things to his charge Some said he was of a base and beggarly condition Others objected his Trade and way of living Tâ—us they grew more and more vehement upon the Proposals of a second and third tâ— their choice Whereupon they bethought themselves and repented of what they had done already considering how much they failed and were to seek upon every new Election and so at length they were content to keep their olâ— Senators still And just thus is it with the many-headed Multitude Neutrum moâ—â— Mas modâ— vulgus as changeable unconstant and variable as the weatherâ— never at any certain discontented with the present Government which if changed for another they like that no better weary of present things desirous of change and alteration Either they serve basely or rule proudly As for Liberty that is the mean betwixt them both they have neither the skill to despâ—se with Reason nor the Grace to entertain in any proportionable measure Worldly Policy not to be prejudiciall to the honour of God DAvid coming to the Court of Achish King of Gath saw himself in danger and thereupon feign'd himself mad which though he did in a politique may to save his life and liberty yet he had no warrant so to do because it tended not onely to his own disgrace being King of Israel but it was also dishonourable to God himself whose Majesty he should have represented Thus there are some that think it good Policy and so it is good Worldly Policy to rise â—â—â—ly and go to bed late to eat the bread of care and work full hard yea they have sâ—t hours for working eating resting c. but this their Policy as it is much to be feared eats up the service of God it leaves them small or no time wherein they may offer up the calves of their lips in the morning or at night to come before him with an Evening sacrifice and therefore prejudiciall to his honour and as the Apostle speaks of Wisdome in the same respect earthly sensuall and Divellish To be thankful unto God in the saddest of times and conditions IT was a pretty sweet passage that was once betwixt a distressed Mother and a Child about eight or nine years of age who being reduced to such a straight that hunger began to pinch them both the Child looking earnestly on the Mother said Mother do you think that God will starve us No child answered the Mother He will not The Child replyed But if he do yet we must love him and serve him Here now was language from a little child which being from the heart might well become and argue a child of Grace a well grown Christian Such an one was Iob though God slay him yet he will trust in him And the rod and staffe of God shall be Davids comfort and S. Paul had so learned the art of thankfulnesse as in all conditions to be contented And so must every one labour to have the same frame of spirit that in the worst of times in the saddest of conditions whether publique or private National or personall they be thankfull unto God and speak good of his most holy Name Ministers to be Men of gravity and experience IN the art of Navigation it was a Law wont to be seriously observed that none should be Master of a Ship or Masters Mate that had not first been a sculler and rowed with oars and from thence been promoted to the stern And in Military discipline a Man is first listed a Souldier then riseth by degrees before he come to be a Commander The Levites under the Law were first Probationers before they were allowed to be Practitioners Such ought all Ministers to be Men of gravity and experience not such as run before they are sent and thrust themselves into the vineyard before they be hired that come from Iericho before their beards be grown that are young in years and as young in qualities and qualifications relating to the Ministery young Timothy's and possibly old Demasses that have not shed their Colts teeth nor scarce sowed their wild oats so that it may very well be said of them The Prophet
Wise Men dying as well as Fools IT is observed concerning Paracelsus a great Physitian and a Man exceedingly well verst in Chymical experiments that he bragg'd and boasted that he had attained to such Wisdome in discerning the Constitutions of Mens bodies and studying remedies that whosoever did follow his rules and keep to his directions should never dye by any disease casually he might and of age he must but he would undertaker to secure his health against all diseases a bold undertaking But he who by his art promised to protect others to the extremity of old age from the arrest of death could not by all his art and skill make himself a protection in the prime of his youth but dyed even as one without wisdome before or when he had seen but thirty Thus it is that Wisemen many times do not onely dye as well as Fools but as Fools without Wisdome They who have most Worldly wisdome usually die with the least in not preparing wisely for death they may be said to have had Wisdome but they die as if they never had had any that is they apply not their Wisdome while they live to fit themselves for their death they die before they understand what it is to live or why they live and so dying unpreparedly they die foolishly Neglect of Restitution condemned A Great Lady in Barbary being a Widow called to her an English Merchant trading in those parts with whom she knew her husband had some commerce and asked him if there were nothing owing to him from her deceased husband He after her much importunity acknowledged what and shewed the particulars She tendered him satisfaction yea and after his many modest refusals as being greatly benefited by the dead Barbarian forced him to take the uttermost penny saying thus I would not have my husbands Soul to seek your Soul in Hell to pay his debts Here now was a Fire in a dark Vault great Zeal in blind Ignorance seeing that by the Candle-light of Nature which S. Augustine delivered long since for a doctrinal Truth Non dimittitur peccatum nisi restituatur ablatum thus in Master Latimers old English Either restitution or Hell But O the sadnesse of these grasping Times Where is the Man that restoreth what is unjustly taken away what hath been indirectly gotten The estates credits goods and good Names of Men are taken away by exactions and slanders but where is the Man that maketh Restitution Zacheus may very well rise up in Judgment against such a griping and exacting generation as this is Luke 19. 8. Wives to love their Husbands cordially IT is not without some significancy that the Church in the solemnity of Marriage ordaineth that there shall be a gold Ring of gold it must be intimating that Love should abound betwixt the Married couple Love the best of graces and round it must be to shew that Love must continue to the end besides this Ring must be put by the Man upon the fourth finger of the Woman signifying also thereby that as there is a vein in that finger which correspondeth with the Heart so she should be cordially affected to her Husband having no thought in that kind of any other man as long as he lives whom God by his Ministery hath given unto her The Wicked Mans Folly in his Worldly choyce WHen an Heir is impleaded for an Ideot the Judge commands an apple or a counter with a piece of gold to be set before him to try which he will take If he take the apple or the counter and leave the gold then he is cast for a Fool and so held by the Judgment of the Court as one that is unable to manage his estate because he knowes not the valew of things or how to make a true election of what is fittest for him in the way of subsistency This is the case of all Wicked Men thus foolish and much more When Bugles and Diamonds counters and gold are before them they leave the Diamonds and the gold and please themselves with toyes and baubles Nay when which is infinitely more sottish Heaven and Hell Life and Death are set before them they choose Hell rather then Heaven and death rather then life they take the mean transitory trifling things of the World before the favour of God the pardon of Sin a part in Iesus Christ and an Inheritance amongst the Saints in light coelestiall Custome in Sin hardly broken off THere is an Apologue how four things meeting boasted their incomparable strength The Oake a Stone Wine and Custome The Oke stood stoutly to it but a blast of wind came and made it bow the Axe felled it quite down Great is the strength of Stones yet gutta cavat a continual dropping wears them away and a hammer beats them to pieces Wine overthrowes Gyants and strong Men Senators and Wise Men et quid non pocula possunt yet sleep overcomes Wine But Custome invicta manet remains unconquered Hence it was that the Cretians when they cursed their Enemies did not wish their houses on fire not a sword at their hearts but that which in time would bring on greater woes that mala consuetudine delectentur they might be delighted with an ill Custome And to say truth Custome in Sin is hardly broken off When Vices are made manners the disease is made incurable When through long trading and Custome in Sin neither Ministery nor misery nor miracle nor Mercy can possibly reclaim a Man may very truly write on that Soul Lord have mercy on it For Custome is not another nurture but another Nature and what becomes Natural is not easily reduced It is the principall Magistrate of Mans life the guide of his actions and as we have inured our selves at the first setting out in this World so commonly we go on unlesse we be turned by Miracle and changed by that which is onely able to do it the Grace of God Wives to be subject to their Husbands WHen the Sun is down the Moon takes upon her the Government of the Heavens and out-shines the Stars yet not without borrowing her best light from the Sun but when the Sun appears she vailes her light and by degrees vanisheth out of sight So the Wife in her husbands absence shines in the Family tanquam inter ignes Luna minores like the fair Moon amongst the lesser Stars but when he comes in it will be her modesty to contract and withdraw her self by leaving the Government to him onely Cardinall Wolsey's Ego et Rex meus I and my King is insupportable in the Politiques so I and my husband is insufferable in the Oeconomicks For let but the Moon get the upper hand of the Sun the Wife over her husband the glory of that Family must needs be eclipsed The Safety of Gods people PLutarch in the relation of Alexander's Warrs saith That when he came to
God are conditional made up with Provisoes As there is a reward promised so there is a Condition premised It must be our Obedience first and then comes in Gods recompence Our devotion goes before and his Retribution followes after To be careful of Vowes and Promises made in the time of Extremity THeodoricus Archbishop of Colen when the Eâ—perour Sigismund demanded of him the directest and most compendious way how to attain to true happinesse made answer in brief thus Perform when thou art well what thou promisedst when thou wast sick David did so he made Vows in Warr and paid them in Peace And thus should all good Men do not like the cunning Devill of whom the Epigrammatist thus writeth Aegrotat Daemon Monachus tunc esse Volebat Convalâ—it Daemon Monachus tunc esse nolebat Well Englished The Devill was sick the Devill a Monk would be The Devill was well the Devill a Monk was he Nor like unto many now adayes that if Gods hand do but lie somewhat heavy upon them O what Promises what engagements are there for amendment of life How like unto Marble against rain do they seem to sweat and melt but still retain their hardnesse let but the Rod be taken off their backs or health restored then as their bodies live their Vows die all is forgotten Nay many times it so falleth out that they are far worse then ever they were before The good Christian's absolute Victory over Death WHen the Romans had made Warre upon the Carthagenians and often overcaâ—â— them yet still within eight of ten years or lesse they made head again and stirred up new Warrs so thaâ— they were in successive combustion And it hath been the same in all the Nations of the World he that was erst an underling not long afâ—er becomes the Commander in chief and the same thing that the Lord hath now made the â—ayl may be the head in time to come As for Example Cerealis gets a great Conquest over the Cymbrians and the Tutons and shortly after Sylla had the like over him And Sylla no sooner shines out to the World but is eclipsed by Pompey And Pompey the glory of his time is by the conquering hand of Caesar outed both of life and honours And Caesar in the height of all his pompous state falls by the hands of bloody Conspirators in the Senate-house Thus in the course of this World As one Man is set up another is pull'd down the Conquerour is oft-times conquered himself but in the Victory that every good Man hath over Death it is so absolute that it is without any hope or comfort on Death's part and without any fear or suffering on their part For it is so taken away as if it had never been and that which had the greatest triumph the mightiest Trophies in the World unto which all Kings and Princes have bowed their heads and laid down their Scepters as so many morselsâ—o â—o â—eed on shall by the hand of Iesus Christ be turned into nothing shall have no Name or nation and be berâ—ft of all hope of recovery 1. Cor. 15. To be alwaies prepared for Death WHen Harold King of Denmark made Warr upon Harquinus and was ready to joyn battel a dart was seen flying into the ayr hovering this way and that way as though it sought upon whom to rest when all stood wondring to know what would become of this strange Prodigy every Man fearing himself at last the dart fell upon Harquinus his head and slew him Thus Death shoots his arrowes amongst us here he hits one that is Rich there another that is poor Now he shoots over at one that is elder then our selves Anon he shoots short at one that is younger Here he hits one on the right hand our equal another on the left inferior And none of us know how soon the Arrow may â—all upon our own heads our turn will come let it be our care then we be not surprised on a sodain Religion pretended Mischief intended CElsus the Philosopheâ— upon his defence of Paganism setteth an Inscription oâ— the Word of Truth Manicheus that blasphemous Heretick taking in hand to write to the Church his damnable Paradoxes doubteth not to begin thus Manicheus Apostolus Iesu Christi c. Manicheus the Apostle of Jesus Christ The 〈◊〉 Hâ—reticks were alwayes saying Nos rectaâ—fide iâ—cedimus We waâ—k in 〈◊〉 right Faith All of them seeking the cloak and coverture of Religion It is the old Proveâ—â— In nomine Domini incipit omne malum well Englished In my name have they prophesied lies Ier. 23. Thus it was with them and is it not the â—ame â—ay worse considering the abundance of means afforded to be better with us now and but some few years ago Parsons that Arch-traytor when he was hatching misâ—hief against his Prince and Native Country set forth as if he had been wholly made up of devotion that excellent piece of Christian Resolution And now For Sioâ—s sake I will not hold my tongue sayes one c. So sayes another and so a third Sion at the tip of the tongue but Babel at the bottom of the Heart Religion preteâ—ded Mischief intended like Sons of Simon rather then children of Sion writing Pâ—â—rmaca medicines where they should write venena poysons And by this means they do sugar the brims of their intoxicated cups that Men the more grâ—edily and without suspition may suck in their venomous doctrines that are administred unto thâ—m therein Why God suffers his Children to be in a wanting condition SEverus the Emperour was wont to say of his Souldiers That the poorest were the best For when they begun to grow rich then they began to grow naught Hence is that of the Poet Martem quisquis amat C. If you will bring up a boy or young Man to be a Souldier learn him first to endure poverty to â—â—e hard and fare hard and to encounter all the hardship that Necessity can present unto him and then hee 'l deal the better with his Enemies So in the School of Christ the Lord suffers his People to be in a wanting condition not because he doth not intend to supply them not because he cannot provide for them but the reason is to bring them up in the discipline of Warre to train them up as weaned Children lest they should be taken off with the things of this World and as it were drowned in the vanities of this life and so forget God and their own Soul's health which is most of all to be regarded All Men alike in Death LUcian hath a Fable the Moral is good Menippus meeting with Mercury in the Elizian-fields would needs know of him which amongst all thâ— ghosts was Philip the great King of Macedon Mercury answers He is Philip that hath the hairlesseâ—scalp Menippus replyes Why they have all bald heads Merc. Then he with the flat
it The crafty Fox in the Fable hugg'd himself to think how he had cosened the Crow of his breakfast but when he had eaten it and found himself poyson'd with it he wished that he had never medled with it Thus Wealth got by deceit it like a piece of butter'd spunge an Italian trick it goes down glib but in the stomach swells and will never be got up again The gains a Man gets by cheating and basenesse at last he may put it all in his eye yet see himself most miserable Men to be careful of their principles in Religion AS in the things of this life Men have great care to gain the skill to know Money whether it be currant and lawful and Wares whether they be good and Marchantable and Meat whether it be wholesome and â—ound Much more then may we think it concerneth us there being so much counterfeit false and unâ—ound doctrine abroad to learn skill and knowledge of the true Religion to beware of our Principles to stirre up and sharpen our endeavour upon the search and tryall of the true Faith and to gain ability to judge and discern of that which is erronious and false To be fruitfull in Children a great blessing of God LUdovicus Vives maketh mention of a Town in Spain consisting of about one hundred Families all of them inhabited by the seed of one old Man then living so that the youngest of them knew not what to call him and he giveth this reason Quia lingua Hispanica supra Abavum non ascendit because the Spanish tongue hath not any word of expression higher then the great Grandfather's Father Such as this must needs be then a numerous issue a prolificall and fertile brood and without all doubt a great and inestimable blessing of God especially when they are not so much the fruits of their bodies as of their Prayers such as was promised to Abraham to Isaac to Iob and to the Man that feareth the Lord. Yet let none trust too much in this blessing it was Haman's fault and his Childrens ruine nor any grumble and count them a crosse or a curse to their faint estate not look upon them as a Bill of Charges when God hatâ— put them upon the Accompt of Mercies Neither let the barren womb de discouraged For that God that knowes how to raise good out of evill doth sometimes blesse an aâ—ulterous copulation with increase and sometimes to the chast embraces of honesâ— Wedlock denyes it Better to be Honestly then hastily Rich. THe Poet feigned Pluto to be the God of Riches and of Hell as if Hell and Riches had both one Master and to be lame yet withall swift and â—â—mble as Fire When Iupiter sent him to a Souldier or a Scholler he went limping but when to one of his Bawds or Mistresses he flew like Lightning The Morall is thus The Riches that come in Gods Name and are sent to honest Men come slowly but they that come by unjust dealing flow in apace He that resolves to be evill may soon be Rich When the spring of Conscience is screwed up to the highest pin that it is ready to crack When Religion is lock'd up in an out-room and forbidden on pain of Death to look into the shop or Ware-house then is the Devill on his Throne But more safe and welcome is the gain that comes in the slow Wayn of Honesty then that which comes hurrying in the swift Chariot of Iniquity Gods Watchfulnesse over his People for their good THe Egyptians had an Idol called Baal-Zephon which is by interpretation Dominus speculae Lord of the Watch-Tower his office was to fright such Fugitive Iews as should offer to steal out of the Country but when Moses and the People of Israel past that way and pitched their Camp there this drowsie god was surely fast asleep for they all marcheâ— on their way without let or molestation Whereas He that keepeth Israel neither slumbreth nor sleepeth He kept his Israel then and since He made good his Title then and will do the like to us his eyes run to and fro through the World He is Watchfull over his People for their good Husband the Head of the Wife THe Persian Ladies have to this day some resemblance of a foot worn in the top of their Coronets in token that the top of their glory must stoop even to their Husbands feet remembring that of Vashtai And who knowes it not but that the Virgin when she is married leaveth to be called after her Fathers Name and from thence forward is owned by her Husbands besides Women are said to be under Covert-Baron so that whatsoever Contracts or Bargains they make are of no force either by the Lawes of God or Man except the Husband do approve the same Hence it is that the Husband is called the Head of the Wife And Man is more excellent then Woman not to go so far as Aristotle to say she is onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the aberration of Nature and surely more eminent respectu originis et ratione finis The Man was not created for the Woman but the Woman for the Man and then ratione dominii God gave him not onely power to rule over the beasts but the Woman too And every School-Boy can say The Masculine is more worthy then the Foeminine so that obeying Husbands and commanding Wives may be well said to live very unnaturally and contrary to the Order of Creation Riches the danger that attends them AeSop hath a Fable of the two Froggs that in the time of drought when the the plashes were dry consulted what was best to be done One advised to go down into a deep Well because it was likely the Water would not fail there The other answered But if it do fail How shall we get up an again Thus Riches are a pit whereinto we soon slip but can hardly scramble out Small puddles light gains will not serve some they must plunge into deep Wells excessive profits but they do not consider how they shall get out again they do not mind the great dangers that are attendant upon Riches whereby it comes to passe that they are either famished for want of Grace or drown'd in a Deluge of Wealth If then this World be a Sea over which we must swim to the Land of Promise there will be no nâ—cessity of such abundance of luggage except it be to make us sink the deeper The unconstancy of Worldly honours and preferments WHen Alexander in the height of his glory kept as the History saith Conventum terrarum orbis a Parliament of the whole World himself was summon'd by Death to appear in another World And it was Res spectaculo digna saith another Historian a wonderful precedent of the Vanity and variety of humane condition to see mighty Xerxes to flote and fly away in a
Men to be evil but they shall not much feel the evill of them Nay they shall receive much good for the evill that they suffer For as it is an exercise of their Patience so shall it be the encrease of their glory Goodnesse not Greatnesse that holdeth out to the last WHen a wealthy Merchant bragged to Lycon a Wise Philosopher of the multitude of his great Ships and Furniture for Sea being able to trade into all parts the Wise Man made this answer I esteem not that to be Felicity which hangs upon ropes and cables Thus when a Man is at the last cast it is Piety and the true fear of God not plenty and Prosperity which are traâ—sitory that shall stand a Man in stead The smoak of a Great Mans sacrifice smells never the sweeter before God because he is cloathed in silk or like the Bird of Paradise adorned with plâ—mes and fine Feathers No it is the inside that God regards He looks on Mans obedience requires his service loves his thankfulnesse respects his holinesse and will reward his Faithfulnesse How it comes to passe that Death is more generally excused then accused IT was a Fable amongst the Antients in former times that God appointing to every thing it's office and function he gave order unto Death to take away the lives of Men but Death refused the employment and gave this reason because he should be by every one accused They would all be ready to say that he had killed them No sayes God they shall all be forward to excuse thee Nay then sayes Death let me alone to undertake the service Hence it comes to passe that of such a one we say He died because he was an old Man of another because he was intemperate in his diet of a third because he was carelesse of his Health a fourth might have been a living Man had he not gone such a journey by land or such a Voyage to Sea so that with one thing or other Death that Prince of terrours though he have his name in Latine Mors à mordendo yet he is more generally excused by all Men then accused by any A Minister to keep close to his Text. THe Poet was witty who made this fiction A Client having fee'd his Lawyer to plead for the recovery of his two Hogs His Counsellour tels him it should be his first motion and so steps to the bar and there makes a long Oration so far from the matter that the poor Client thinking he had been upon another businesse pulls him by the sleeve saying Domine jam age de Porcis Sir now plead for my Hogs This is a great fault in Lawyers that many times in their Pleadings they are so far from the matter that neither Judge nor Jury can well tell what to make of it But the like may be said of some bold Ignaroe's such as in the Pulpit after they have repeated the Text shake hands with it and so part never coming at it again In ventum verba proferunt their discourse iâ— like wind And yet the people are much taken with these Euroclydons Men of more tongue then Judgment O sayes one He is a very ready Man he was never out and that 's true For he was never in O sayes another He never looked on his book And that 's as true His Tutor if he had one could never get him look upon any It were therefore to be wished that as the Lawyer was advised to come to the point so he to keep close to his Text. Kings Princes Protectors c. subject to Death as well as the lowest of the People IT is written of Alexander that having heard of Paradise and that it was upon the Earth he was very eager in seeking of it out and to that end coming into the East part of the Earth an old Man meeting with some of his Souldiers bad them to tell Alexander that he sought Paradise in vain For the way to Paradise was the way of Humility which he did not take But saith he take this stone and carry it to Alexander and tell him that from this stone he shall tell what he is Now the stone was a pretious stone and of such a quality that whatsoever thing was weighed with it that was still the heavyer onely if it were covered with dust then it was as light as straw The meaning of the thing did easily appear as shewing Alexander and all others in power like unto him that though in their lives they outweigh others by greatnesse of their Authority yet that in Death all their greatnesse signifies as much as comes to nothing and then they weigh as light as any other they may forbid things by the Laws of their Nations but they cannot banish Death by any Law they can make they may dispatch away their Ambassadours to treat with Men but not with Death they may send out their Military forces to withstand their Enemies but they cannot resist Death Eccles. 8. 8. Magistrates to be impartial in Justice SEleucus that impartial Law-giver of the Locrians made a Law against Adulterers that whosoever should be found guilty thereof Exocularetur they are the words of Reverend Bede should have his eyes put out It so hapned that his Son proved the first offendor sentence was pronounced execution ready to be done Whereupon the Peopleâ— submissis precibus rogitabant c. earnestly entreated the Judge his Father that he would pardon the fact Who upon serious deliberation put out one of his own eyes and one of his Sons and so shewed himself pium Patrem et severum Iudicem a Godly Father and an upright Judge together Thus it is that Magistrates like the Earth should be immoveable though the Winds should blow at once from all the points of the Compasse not to favour Friends nor fear the frowns of enemies but proceed impartially according to the merits of the cause that is before them Prov. 18. 5. The greatnesse of Kings Princes Protectors c. no protection from Death THere is a Relation of Alexander the great that as he went on conquering the World coming near some Wise men he called them unto him and upon asking them some questions he found them to be Wise men indeed He bad them to ask some gifts of him and they should have them Whereupon one of the Philosophers said We desire of thee certain Immortality At which Alexander laughing said I accounted you to be Wise men but now I perceive you to be ignorant I cannot give that unto myself How can I then give it unto you Are you Mortall then say they unto him I am said he Then replied they Why dost thou disturb the whole World seeking the dominion of it as if thou wert Immortal Thus it is that the greatnesse of Kings Princes and Rulers of the Earth may do great things at home and abroad may protect others from dangers
recorded of one Sir William Champney in the Reign of King Henry the third that living in Tower street London he was the first Man that ever builded a Turret on the top of his house that he might the better overlook all his Nâ—ighbours but it so hapned that not long after he was struck blind so that he which would see more then others saw just nothing at all A sad judgment And thus it is just with God when Men of towring high thoughts must needs be prying into those Aâ—cana Dei the hidden secrâ—ts of God that they should be struck blind on the place and come tumbling down in the midst of their so curious enquiry At the Ascension of Christ it is said that he was taken upo in a Cloud being entred into his presence Chamber a curtain as it were was drawn to hinder his Disciples gazing and our further peeping yet for all that a Man may be pius pâ—lsator though not temerarius scrutator he may modestly knock at the â—ounsel door of Gods secâ—ets but if he enâ—er further he may assure himself â—o be more bold â—hen welcome Gods comfortable appearance to his People in the hour of Death MAster Dering a little before his death being raised up in his bed and seeing the Sunshine was desired to speak his mind said There is but one Sâ—n that giveth light to the whole World but oâ—e Righteousnesâ—e one Communion of Saints As concerning Deaâ—h I see such joy of spirit that if I should have pardon of life on the one side and sentence of Death on the other I had rather choose a thousand times to dye then to live And another one Mr. Iohn Holland lying at the point of Death said What brightnesse do I see and being told it was the Suâ—shine No saith he My Saviour shines Now farewell World welcomâ— Heaven the Day-star from oâ— high hath visited me Preach at my Funeral God dealeth comfortably and familiarly with Man I feel his Mercy I see his Majesty whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell God he knoweth but I see things that are unutterable Thus it is that the People of God have the comfortable appearance of him self at the time of their dissolution the door of Heaven standing then as it were a charr they are ravished with the very glimpse of those things that are at Gods right hand Whether they look up to God wâ—om they have offended or downward upon Hell which they have deserved backward upon Sins committed forwards upon Iudgments to be feared the Spirit helpeth their Infirmities Christ intercedeth for them and God standeth by with the arms of his Mercy ready open to receive them A good Man denominated from the goodnesse of his Heart IT is one of Aristotles axiomes that the goodnesse or badnesse of any thing is denominated from its Principle Hence it is that we call that a gooâ— Tree that hath a good root that a good house that hath a good foundation that good Money that is made of good Mettal that good cloth that is made of good â—ool But a good Man is not so called because he hath good hands a good head good words a good voice and all the lineaments of his body similar and composeâ— as it were in a Geometrical symmetry but because he hath a good Heart good affections good principles of Grace whereby all the faculties both of Body and Soul are alwaies in a posture of readinesse to offer up themselves a living and acceptable Sacrifice unto God Almighty Faith and Repentance to be daily renewed and encreased AS the natural life of Man doth consist upon that which by the Physitians is called Humor radicalis and Calor naturalis Natural heat and radicall moysture for indeed all life is sustained by motion and motion is between contrarieties So in the life spiritual there must be of necessity two contrary qualities Repentance continually to put off our own Unrighteousnesse and Faith to put on Christ's the one to work upon the other so to preserve life by motion Not to sit down with those Anabaptistical and fanatick spirits that limit a certain time for sorrow and Repentance for the best of us all are but leaking Vessels and we must ply the Pump daily for fear of drowning as long as there is excesse of evill and defect of good within us Repentance must be renewed and Faith increased daily Death onely being the end and complement of our Repentance and Mortification even as our Râ—surrection shall be the period and ultimate of our Faith and Vivificatiâ—n To be much more carefull of the Soul than body IT was provided in the old Law that the weight of the Sanctuary should be double to the ordinary weight and that the shekell of the Sanctuary should be worth as much again as that of the Common-wealth which was valued at Fifteen pence And all this to hint out unto us that God must have double weight in matters that appertain unto him in the salvation of our Souls double care double diligence that is twice as much care of our Souls as of our bodies begging oftner for Spiritual then temporal things hence is it that there is in the Lords prayer but one Petition for Earthly things and two for Heavenly linked as it were together but one for daily bread and two for pardon of sins and Graces to fight against them The Crown of Perseverance S. Chrysostome makes mention of the Women of Corinth who had a custome to set up lights or tapers at the birth of every child with proper names and look what name the taper bare which lasted longest in the burning they transferd that name to the Child But the Lord doth put up a perpetual burning lamp to be as a Monument for all those that shall persevere in well-doing to the end It is not enough to begin in the spirit and end in the flesh It is not for him that runneth but for him that runneth so that runneth to the end that persevereth that the Crown is reserved It is he that shall eat of the hidden Manna he that shall have the white stone and in the stone a new name written which no Man knoweth saving he that receiveth it Rev. 2. 17. How to discover our thoughts in Preparation to Prayer IN the Levitical Law things that crept upon all four were forbidden yet if they had feet to leap withall they were judged to be clean Even so howsoever some of our thoughts are taken up about the things of this World our trades and businesse yet if we have leggs to leap up with that we can raise up our hearts to God and better things when we come to pray and prostrate our selves before him it is not to be condemned they may passe for clean well enough But if they alwayes creep on the ground if never raised higher then the Earth if no good
they might not be inferiour to the Iews They boasted themselves to be of the Progeny of Ioseph and worshippers of God also with them but when they perceived that the Iews were câ—nelly afflicted by Antiochus Epiphanes for the worshipping of God then fearing lest they should be also handled in like manner they changed their coat and their note too affirming that they were not Israelites but Sidonians and had built their Temple not unto God but Iupiter Thus it is that times of Trouble and danger easily distinguish the counterfeit and true Professour Trouble is a kind of Christian Touch-stone a Lapis Lydius that will try what Mettal men are made of whether they be gold or drosse whether they be reall or â—arnall Professours sincere Christians or rotten-hearted Hypocrites The hardnesse of a Rich mans Conversion IT is observed amongst Anglers that Pickerils are not easily nor often taken a Man may take an hundreth Pinks or Minums before he catch a Pikeril For he preyethâ—o â—o sore at his pleasure upon the lesser frye that he seldome or never hath any stomach to 〈◊〉 at the bait And so fareth it with the Rich Men of this World their stomachs are so cloyed and surfetted with the things of this life that when the doctrine of Salvation is preached they have no appetite unto it tell them of selling all that they have and giving it to the Poor then with the young Man in the Gospell they cry out durus est hic sermo this is a very hard saying Who can bear it and it is as hard for such to enter into the Kingdome of Heaven whilst the Poor run away with the Gospell A small plat of ground sufficient for the greatest landed Man at the time of Death SOcrates carried Alcibiades as he was bragging of his lands and great possessions to a Map of the whole World and bad him demonstrate where his land lay he could not by any means espy it for Athens it self was but a small thing to the World where his lands at that time were Thus many there are that bear themselves very high upon their lands and livings so much in one place so much in another such a Lordship in this shire and such a Mannour in that but Saint Basil tells them truly where their land lyes and what 〈◊〉 be said to be really theirs Nonne telluris tres tanâ—â— cubiti te expectant So much measure of ground to the length and breadth of their bodies as may serve to bury them in or so many handfulls of dust as their bodies go into after their consumption that is terra sua terra mea and terra vestra their land and my land and thy land and more then this no man can absolutely claim Riches very dangerous in the getting of them SUppose a Tree whose leaves and boughs were clog'd and hung with honey unto which an hungry Man coming falls a licking one bough and leaf after another untill he is carried so high from one to another through the greedinesse of his hunger that he slips and slides and cannot stay himself but down he comes and breaks a leg or an arm and it is well if he escape with his life So dangerous is it to climb up the Tree of Riches For most commonly Men lay hold so upon one hundreth after another one thousand after another per fas et nefas no matter how or which way they do it though they endanger themselves sore even to the loss of their pretious and immortal Souls to all Eternity A great blessing of God to be gently used in the matter of Conversion IN some Corporations the sons of Freemen bred under their Fathers in the same Profession may set up and exercise their Fathers Trade without ever being bound Apprentices thereunto And whereas others endure seven years hardship at the least before they can be free they run over that time easily and are encorporated by their Father's Copy Thus it is that they who never were notoriously prophane such whose Parents have been Citizens of the new Ierusalem and have been bred in the mystery of Godlinesse are oftentimes entred into Religion and become Children of Grace without any Spirit of bondage seizing upon them and though otherwhiles they taste of legal frights and fears yet God so preventeth them with his blessings of goodnesse that they smart not so deeply as other Men A great benefit and rare blessing to that Soul where God in his goodnesse is pleased to bestow it Perfection of Grace to be endeavoured AS the Waters spoken of in Ezekiel grew up by degrees first to the ancles then to the loynes and lastly to the head Or as that gradual Wheat our Saviour spoke of First there was the blade then came the stalk after that the full Corn but lastly came the Harvest Even so like that Water we must grow higher and higher till we come to our head Christ Iesus and like that Corn riper and riper untill the end of the World when God shall come to winnow us We must resolve endeavour contend and strive for Perfection as for a prize though there may be many hindrances as Worldly allurements the Devils temptations and our own sinful provocations ever adding one grace unto another till we are in some sort secundum hujus vitae modum according to the capacity of our humane Nature perfect Men in Christ Iesus Matth. 5. 48. The pain of a Wounded Conscience greatned by the Folly of the Patient SHeep are observed to flye without cause scared as some say with the sound of their own feet Their feet knack because they flye and they poor silly Creatures fly because their feet knack An Emblem of Gods children under the pains of a Wounded Conscience self-Fearing self-srighted For as it is that the pain of a wounded Conscience amongst other reasons thereof assigned as from the heavinesse of the hand that makes the Wound an Angry God from the sharpnesse of the sword wherewith the Wound is made the Word of God from the tendernesse of the part it self which is wounded the Conscience becomes intolerable so from the Folly of the Patients themselves who being stung have not the Wisdome to look up to the brazen Serpent but torment themselves with their own Activity Hear they but their own Voyce they think it to be that which hath so often sworn lyed talked vainly wantonly wickedly their own voyce being a terror to themselves See they their own eyes in a glasse they presently apprehend These are they which shot forth so many envious covetous amorous glances their own eyes being a terror to themselves and as it was threatned to Paâ—hur themselves become a terrour to themselves Ier. 20. 4. No true Content to be found in the things of this World THere is an old Apologue of a Bird-catcher who having taken a Nightingale the poor Bird
otherwise afraid to enter the troops of ten thousand armed Men will be so scared with the strangenesse of the noyse that the Rider shall be scarce able to sit him yet if this bladder be but prick'd with a pin it comes instantly to nought A true resemblance of such whom God enricheth with his blessings casting into their bosoms some beans and pease of extraordinary gifts and graces of authority honour wisdom and the like with which they make such a ratling that even valiant hearts are daunted with the sound thereof and they themselves drawing in the wind of popular applause begin to swell as big as any bladder with presumption of their own merits but if their Princes displeasure do but breathe on them or some feaver or distemper seize upon them this great wind is abated their Souls are galled with impatience and they sing their part with those wretched ones What hath Pride profited us or what hath the pomp of Riches brought us Wisd. 5. 6. Security the cause of all Calamity IT was well observed that it was as necessary for Rome that Cato should be born as well as Scipio the reason was Alter cum hostibus alter cum vitiis bellum gessit the one kept Warr with their Enemies the other with their vices so that being alarm'd on both sides they were ever in a posture of defence Thus it is that what with the sword of the Spirit drawn against the exorbitance of the time and that of the Militia to defend the Frontiers the People rouze up themselves and become vigorous well considering that no Man is sooner overthrown then he that feareth nothing and most usually it so falleth out that Security is the main cause of all calamity Riches Honours c. the different use that is made of them IT is said of the seeds of Henbane that they kill all birds saving Sparrows and to them they are nourishing food the reason given is this their veins are so narrow that the fumes thereof cannot passe to the heart and surprise it so soon as it doth other Creatures Such is the condition property quality and use of Riches honours preferments or any other outward thing whatsoever they do nothing at all hurt the Godly such as know how to make a right use of them but to the Wicked and Ungodly such as know no other Heaven upon Earth but the bare enjoyment of them they are but as so many â—nares and temptations to entrap them so that what is one Man's meat becomes the others poyson And why so because the Godly have certain private veins of Knowledg and goodnesse whereby that deadly fume of Henbane the love of the World cannot passe to the heart Let Honours mount never so high Riches encrease never so much they look above them they set not their hearts upon them but take up that of the Wiseman Omnia bonis in bonum All things to the good are turned to good Wisd. 39. The soveraign Vertue of Humility PHysitians and Naturalists do say that there is nothing of the Mulâ—erry tree but is medicinal and usefull in some sort or other the fruit the root the bark the leaf and all Such is the soveraigne Vertue of Humility that every part of it as well the root of affections and the bark of Conversation as the leaves of words and the fruit of Works heals some diseases or other of the drooping Sin-sick Soul Hence is it that the great Physitian of our Souls as if they could never be at rest or quiet otherwise prescribes us this Recipe against all spiritual qualms and agonies Learn of me that I am lowly and meek and you shall find rest to your Souls Matth. 11. 29. The love of Riches very dangerous A Tree when it is half cut through deceives the Elephant when he leans unto it Mandrage if duly taken is good Physick but if immoderately it casts into a dead sleep congeals the spirits and deaddens the Natural faculty And as one said of Parliaments in England that they are very good purges to evacuate the ill humours of the body Politick but very bad Diet-drink to live upon weakning the vigorous spirits thereof and making it liable to much inconvenience Such is the immoderate love of Riches and the things of this life they deceive all that lean unto them there 's no safety in living upon them no rest in the acquiring of them They cast their Favourites and all such as dote upon them into strange dreams their reason and understanding being stupified their devotion and goodnesse congealed and in fine their bodies and Souls in great jeopardy to be everlastingly damned Worldly honours and greatnesse their Vanity to be considered THe Romans to expresse the Vanity of Worldly honour and greatnesse painted Honour in the Temple of Apollo as representing the form of a Man with a Rose in his right hand a Lilly in his left above him a Solsequy or Marigold and under him Wormwood with this Inscription Levate Consider by all this declaring that Man in this World flourisheth as a Rose in delights and Riches but at night that is in the time of Death or adversity he is dryed up rejected and set at nought as a dryed Rose which all the day long is carried in the hand with contentment but being once withered is cast away on the dunghill The Lilly excelling Solomon in its glorious cloathing but the leaves falling it becomes sordid aptly denoting the favour of Man whilst in worldly honour but once clouded by misfortune made of no accompt The Marigold opening and shutting with the Sun shewing that when the Sun of Prosperity shines he sees all things delectable but the Sun setting Death or Adversity approaching then appears nothing but darknesse and horrour of the grave The Wormwood signifying that all the delights in this World are sweet in the execution but bitter in the retribution no better then a bitter potion and the very gall of Dragons Esay 24. Lastly the word Levate is very necessary lift up your heads and consider ye that are proud of your honours and greatnesse ye are but Roses that will wither Lillies that will lose their beauty Marigolds that open and shut with the Sun and your portion without Repentance will be but Wormwood and bitterness The Heart of a VVorldly-minded Man never satisfied ALexander on a time having many Philosophers with him at a Banquet would needs have it put to the question what was the greatest thing in the World some of them said the hill Olympus some the Sun some the Earth some one thing and some another but one of them said that surely the Heart of Man must needs be the greatest because that in a moment it passed through the whole VVorld Heaven Earth Sea and all And such is the Heart of every Worldly-minded Man though in the substance of it such a bit as will hardly give a
Kite a breakfast yet of that extent as to the desires thereof totus non sufficit Orbis the whole World is not able to satisfy it If an Earthly-minded Man should gaiâ— unto himself the whole World and being placed in the middle of it so that if possible he might at once view his purchase he would Alexander-like ask whether there were any more Worlds any more land any more Wealth that he might grasp that into his hands also Pride in Apparel condemned OUr Chronicles record it of William Rufus one of the three Norman Kings who in his time was held for one sumptuous in his Apparrel that when his Chamberlain had brought him a pair of new breeches to put on and he demanding what they cost it was answered Eight shillings The King being offended bade him begone like a beggar and bring him a pair of a Mark price Now it is much to be feared that Histories for the time to come shall have little or no cause at all to commend our sober moderation in this kind but rather complain of the most intolerable and damned excesse that ever reigned amongst Christians such being the Vanity thereof that Sâ—xes can hardly be distinguished and when one sees Men and Women in their bravery they may safely conclude many of them to be in the midst of their Wealth the basest of them wearing more in gold and silver-lace or a sett of points then would in times past have bought one of our ancient Kings a Suit of Apparrel Carelesse Worldly hearers of Gods Word to be reproved IT is said by the Naturalists how true let them look to it that a Vessel being made of the Iâ—ie-Tree iâ— Water and Wine be poured into it together the Wine will leak out and leave the Water behind it Such are all carelesse worldly Hearers of Gods Word they hold a true resemblance with this Wood for receiving into them the Wine of Gospel-dispensations which should inebriate them with the love of God and goodnesse and also taking in the Water of â—orldly apprehensions they leave out all the Wine forget all the good so that notâ—ing remains behind but the pudled water of Vanity Pride Ambition Luxury and such other pests of the Soul which without the mercy of God upon true Repentance will endanger it to all Eternity Pride and Ambition the Folly thereof IT is reported of a certain Philosopher who dying demised a great sum of Moâ—â—y to him that should be found most foolish and left another Philosopherâ—is â—is Executor It fell out so that travelling many Countreys to find out a Man exceeding all others in Folly that he came to Rome where a Consul abusing his place was adjudged to death and another immediately chosen who joyfully tâ—ok it upon him to this Man the Philosopher delivered the sum of Money telling him that he was the most foolish Man in the World who seeing the miserable end of his Predecessor yet was nothing daunted therewith but joyfully took upon him the succession of his Office O how Foolish then are the most Men of this World that live and see the miserable wrack that Pride and Ambition have made every where In Heaven in Paradise and through the whole World and every part thereof especially that of the Court of great ones where but few prosper and those that prosper perish yet dare adventure with joy and contentment to hoyse out their sayls and run themselves upon such dangerous rocks ruine and destruction Men by Nature looking more after their bodies then their Souls SOcrates one day meeting Zenophon the sonne of Coryllus in a certain angiport or Haven-street and seeing him a youth of great hopes stayed him with his staffe and asked him this question Where was the place where severall Merchandizes and Commodities were to be sold To whom Zenophon readily replyed In such a place he might be furnished with all sorts Then Socrates demanded of him another question Where was the place where Men were to be made good To this his answer was That he could not tell Then saith Socrates to him Follow me that thou mayst learn it And so from that time he began to be Socrates's Scholler Now as it was with Zenophon at that time so it is now with most part of Christians they know readily and are very well verst in all the waies of Worldly Trade and Commerce as having special care to be ignorant of nothing that belongs to profit or pleasure but if the demand be made concerning the Pearl of price the rich Merchandize of the Soul the graces of Gods holy Spirit and where and how one may purchase them they answer with Zenophon they cannot tell And why because they never made it their work to enquire after things of that Nature Magistrates Ministers c. their rule to walk by THe Sea-men have a Proverb or rather a Riddle Mare ab imbecillibus victum fortior a vincit that the Sea is overcome of things weak but the strongest are overcome of the Sea which is thus to be understood That those â—abulous dirty and fenny places about the Sea are by aggregation and access of mire sand and other things falling into them continually enlarged and so the Sea about such places is contracted restrained and as it were overcome but the rocky strong and hard places are by the Sea strongly assaulted and by little and little so battered and eaten out that it gets much ground there and overcomes that stony-hearted opposition A good Rule for Magistrates Ministers and Men in power to walk by to be gentle and loving and of a yielding disposition to the humble virtuous and Religious persons and suffer such to be overcome by them but to the stubborn stiff-necked and proud rebellious spirits to extend the waves and billows of their Iustice and power to break down their oppositions and bring under their aspiring thoughts but with this Proviso that their Sins may be hated not their Persons and that to be done too not with a desire of Revenge but of healing and curing their Infirmities Graces of the Spirit to be made the Souls furniture ALexander having conquered Darius there was a box brought unto him from the Kings Cabin curiously wrought with gold and pearl And asking of them who were not ignorant of the Persians profusednesse and vanity What use there was of so pretious a Vessel It was answered That the King used therein to keep his Oyntments which as soon as he understood he gave order forthwith that it should be the keeper of a more pretious Iewell meaning the Iliads of Homer and be no more called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not the box of Oyntments but the box of Homer Now how much rather should every Christian make his most pretious Soul which hath for a long time been no better then a cage full of unclean birds the keeper of
with the vicissitudes he had run through being asked by one by what meanes he preserved his fortune he replyed that he was made ex salice non ex quercu of the pliant Willow not the stubborn Oak alwaies of the prevailing Religion and a Zealous Professour Thus it is that the wicked State-Polititian sides with all parties If Religion be fashionable you can scarce distinguish him from a Saint He will not onely reverence Godly Ministers but if need be he will preach himself If cunctation prevail he acts Fabius If the buckler must be changed for a Sword he personates Marcellus If mildnesse be usefull Soderini of Venice was not more a Lamb then he If Severities are requisite Nero's butcheries are Sanctities compared with his Thus like a subtle Proteus he assumes that shape which is most in grace and of most profitable conducement to his ends onely he hath so much advantage of the Camelion that he can turn himself into white For he is often to be found wearing the Vest of innocency to conceal the uglinesse and blackness of his attempts Tyrants raysing themselves by a seeming compliance with the People A Thenaeus tells a pretty story of one Athenion born obscurely who as long as he was private and poor excel'd in a soft and tractable disposition but when by jugling he had obtained the Athenian government there was none more odious for a cruell barbarous covetous Tyrant Nero's quinquennium will never be forgotten not that which is reported of Caligula that there was never a better servant and a worse Master Thus it is by wofull experience made out that Tyrannically-minded Men personate goodnesse till they have accomplished their ends make a shew of all goodnesse till they have wrought themselves into the good liking of all those whom they intend to deceive And then off goes the Vizard of dissimulation and they appear in their native colours what indeed they are bloudy barbarous inhumane True Obedience IT is reported of the old Kings of Peru that they were wont to use a Tassell or Fringe made of red Wool which they wore upon their heads and when they sent any Governour to rule as Vice-roy in any part of their Countrey they delivered unto him one of the threads of their Tassell and for one of those simple threads he was as much obeyed as if he had been the King himself yea it hath so happened that the King hath sent a Governour onely with this thread to slay Men and Women of a whole Province without any further Commission For of such power and authority was the Kings tassell with them that they willingly submitted thereunto even at the sight of one thread of it Now it is to be hoped that if one thread shall be so forcible to draw Infidel-obedience there will be no need of Cart-ropes to hale on that which is Christian Exemplary was that Obedience of the Romans which was said to have come abroad to all men Rom. 16. 19. And certainly Gospell-obedience is a Grace of much worth and of great force upon the whole Man For when it is once wrought in the heart it worketh a conformity to all Gods will be it for life or death one word from God will command the whole Soul assoon as Obedience hath found admittance into the Heart The true improvement of Peace IT is observeable in Scripture that Moses Altar was but five cubits in length and five in bredth and three in heigth but Solomons Altar was much larger Now the reason hereof seems to be this because Moses was in a warfar in an unsetled condition in the Wildernesse in continual travel full of troubles and could not conveniently carry about an Altar of that bignesse But Solomon was on his Throne in a tranquill estate setled in quiet possession of his Kingdome and as his name was so was he a true Solomon that is Peaceable Thus it ought to be with all good Men that when they have more Peace and prosperity then others their service of God should be proportionable Solomons Temple must out-strip Moses his Tabernacle in beauty and glory and Solomons Altar must exceed the bignesse of Moses his Altar In their Peace and plenty their holinesse should out-shine others that are in want and misery when God layes not so much sorrow upon them as upon others they should lay the more duty upon themselves If God send them fewer Crosses and more comforts they are to return more service and commit lesse evill The true Christians confidence and contempt of Death OBservable is that speech of King Agag when Samuel sent for him Surely the bitternesse of Death is past Now the ground of this speech was either his â—alse hope as thinking that the worst was past because he was fetched off the Kings guard of Souldiers and brought to Samuel the Prophet who was Vir togatus a Man of Peace Or else if the Messengers did tell him why he was sent for then he set a bold face upon it and spake out of stomach intimating his resolutenesse and contempt of Death that he was resolved to die bravely and like himself This now was carnall gallantry And thus many a man may Agag-like contemn Death and all Gods judgments out of stoutnesse and stiffness of heart But all true believing Christians may and do gratiously despise Death and say thus from a principle of Faith and cerâ—ain hopes of Heaven Surely the bitternesse of Death is past certainly Christ by his Death hath taken away the bitterness of Death and hath sweetly perfumed our graves by the burial of his own blessed body so that we shall taste nothing but the sweetness of Death and may now couragiously and triumphingly sing and say not as Agag did Surely the bitternesse of Death is past but as S. Paul did O Death where is thy sting c. and to me to dye is gain Phil. 1. 21. Mans Nothingnesse JOsephus Phavorinus a learned Physitian of Italy marvelled at nothing in the World but Man and at nothing in Man but his mind And Abdala the Saracen King of Toledo being asked what he most wondred at upon the stage of the World answered Man One calls God an immortall Man and Man an immortall God Another sets him out as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little World and the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great Man Now these Men were not certainly so well-knowing of Gods word and Mans sin and of the matter that Man was made of as they should have been Whereas such as know God in his most excellent glory and Man in his best estate to be but Vanity turn'd from his Innocency to Iniquity must and do acknowledg themselves to be less then the least of Gods mercies such as he created being Nothing recreated being worse then nothing and without great Mercy on his part are like to fall again to Nothing Men of corrupt
conducing to life eternal The proposall of Rewards and punishments very usefull to the bringing into Christ. A Spouse that is considering with her self Whether she should marry such a Husband or not beginneth to consider What she should be without him and what she shall have with him she considers him perhaps as one that will pay her debts and make her Honourable c and yet it may be she considers not the Man all this while however these considerations are good preparatives to draw her on to give entertainment to him but after some converse and acquaintance with the person she comes to like the Man himself so well that she is content to have him though she have nothing with him and so she gives her full and free consent to him and the match is made up betwixt them out of true and sincere free love and liking Thus it is that the proposals of Rewards and punishment are as it were a beginning a Prodromus a good introduction to the full sight and fruiâ—ion of God When it is that Men begin at first to consider their own misery most and that if they should apply themselves to other things as remedies they would be still to seek For there is a Vanity in all things And if to themselves that they cannot help themselves in time of Trouble therefore they judge that they must go to Almighty God who is able to do more than all and to rid them out of misery And they consider that going to him they shall have Heaven besides yet all this while they consider not the Lords power however this consideration makes way that God and they may meet and speak together it brings their hearts to give way that the Lord may come to them it causeth them to attend to him to look upon him to converse with him to admit him as a Suitor and to be acquainted with him And whilest they are thus conversing with him God reveals himself And then being come to the knowledg of him in himself they love him for himself are willing to seek his presence to seek him for a Husband though all other things were removed from him And now the Match is made up and not till now and then they so look upon him that if all other advantages were taken away they would yet still love him and not leave him for all the Worlds enjoyments No Man a loser by giving up himself unto God IT is said of Vapours that arising out of the Earth the Heavens return them again in pure water much clearer and more refined then they received them Or as it is said of the Earth that receiving the Sea water and puddle-water it gives it better then it received it in the Springs and Fountains For it strains the water and purifies it that whereas when it came into the bowels of the Earth it was muddy salt and brinish it returns pure clear and fresh as out of the Well-head waters are well known to come Thus if Men would but give up their hearts desire and the strength of their affections unto God he would not onely give them back again but withall much better then when he received them their affections should be more pure their thoughts and all the faculties of Soul and Body should be renewed cleansed beautified and put into a far better condition then formerly they were Ignorance and Wilfulnesse ill-met IT is a Maritime observation that if a thick Fogg darken the ayr there is then the great God of Heaven and Earth having in his providence so ordered it no storm no Tempestuous weather And if it be so that a storm arise then the sky is somewhat clear and lightsome For were it otherwise no Ship at Sea nor Boat in any Navigable River could ride or sayl in safety but would clash and fall foul one upon another Such is the sad condition of every Soul amongst us wherein Ignorance and Wilfulnesse have set up their rest together And why because that if a Man were Ignorant onely and not Wilfull then the breath of wholesome Precepts and good Counsell might in time expell those thick mists of darknesse that cloud his understanding And were he Wilfull and not Ignorant then it were to be hoped that God in his good time would rectifie his mind and bring him to the knowledg of himself but when the storm and the fogg meet when Wilfulnesse and Ignorance as at this day amongst the Iews and too too many Christians do close together nothing without the greater Mercies of God can befall that poor Shipwrack't Soul but ruine and destruction Unsteadfastnesse giddinesse c. in the profession of Religion reproved IT is said of an intoxicated Man who the liquor being busie in his brain fancied himself at Sea in a great storm in present danger of Shipwrack and thought there was a necessity of lightning the Ship and throwing some of the lading over-board and so threw the goods of his house out at the Windows Thus it is that this Age hath been taken with an unhappy Vertigo which hath made some Men not keep the ground they first stood upon and wanton delight hath possessed many Men to be medling trying of experiments and ringing changes Nay so distempered have divers been that like the drunken Man they have fancied a great necessity of abolishing and throwing away what they would have done better to have kept Men in the midst of their Worldly contrivances prevented by Death AS it is with a Man being come to some great Fair or Market with a con siderable summe of money about him who whilest he is walking in the throng considering with himself how he should lay out his money to the best advantage some sly fellow either cuts his purse or at unawares dives into his pocket and there 's an end of all his marketting So it is with the most of Men that whilest they are in the midst of all their secular employments and as it were crowded in the throng of Worldly contrivances how to secure such a Ship advantage trade compasse such and such a bargain purchase such and such Lands c. things in themselves with necessary cautions not unlawful in steps Death cuts the thread of their life spoyls all their Trade and layes their glory in the dust Riches their uselesnesse in point of Calamity NUgas the Scythian King despising the rich Presents and Ornaments that were sent unto him by the Emperour of Constantinople asked him that brought them Whether those things could drive away sorrow diseases or Death looking upon them as not worthy presenting that could not keep off vexation from him And such are all the Riches and glories of this world they cannot secure from the least calamity not make up the want of the least Mercy It is not the Crown of gold that can cure the head-ache not the gilded Scepter that can stay the
Love unto Christ. VVhat Alexander said of his two Friends Hephestion and Craterus is made good in the practice of too too many in these daies Hephestion saies he loves me as I am Alexander but Cratâ—rus loves me as I am King Alexander so that the one loved him for his Person the other for the benefits he received by him Thus some Nathaniels there be that love Christ for his Person for his personall excellencies for his personal beauty for his personall glory they see those perfections of grace and holinâ—sse in Christ that would render him very lovely and desireable in their eyes though they should never get a Kingdome or a Crown by him But so it is that most of those which is to be lamented do it onely in respect of the benefit they receive by him scarce any loves Christ but for his Rewards some few there are that follow him for love but many for the loaves few for his inward excellencies many for his outward advantages and few that they may be good by him but many that they may be made great by him The dangerous use of Riches IT was a wise and Christian speech of Charls the fifth to the Duke of Venice who when he had shewed him the Treasury of S. Mark and the glory of his Princely Pallace in stead of admiring it or him for it onely returned this grave and serious Memento Haec sunt quae faciunt invitos mori c. These are the things that make Men so loath to dye so that they cry out with S. Peter Bonum est esse hîc It is good to be here but that of S. Paul Cupio dissolvi c. I desire to dissolved and to be with Christ which is best of all they cannot abide to hear of Thus it is that Riches not well used prove very dangerous If Poverty with Saul has kill'd her thousands Riches with David has kill'd her ten thousands they are called thorns and that not improperly as piercing both head and heart the head with cares in getting them and the heart with grief in parting with them Many are the Souls that Riches have pierced through and through with many sorrows Many are the Minds that Riches have hlinded Many the hearts that Riches have bardened Many the Wills that Riches have perverted Many the Affections that Riches have disordered Whereas the Riches that are to be found in Christ Iesus are such as will neither harm not hurt the Soul there was never any that was ever made worse by them God's Mercies to the worst of Sinners repenting There is a story concerning a great Rebell that had made a great party against one of the Roman Emperous A Proclamation was thereupon sent abroad That whoever could bring in the Rebell dead or alive he should have a great sum of Money for his Reward The Rebell hearing of it comes and presenting himself before the Emperor demands the sum of Money proposed The Emperor bethinks himself that if he shouldput him to death the World would be ready to say that he did it to save his Money and so he freely pardoned the Rebell and gave him the Money Here now was light in a dark Lanthorn Mercy in a very Heathen And shall such a one do thus that had but a drop of Mercy and compassion in him and will not Christ do much more that hath all fulnesse of grace and Mercy in himself Surely his bowels yearn to the worst of Sinners repenting let them but come in and they shall find him ready to pardon yea one that is altogether made up of pardoning Mercies Nehem. 9. 17. Rulers Magistrates c. to be Men of publique spirits IT is written of Augustus Caesar in whose time Christ was born that he carried such an entire and Fatherly affection to the Common-wealth that he called it Filiam suam his own daughter and for that cause refused to be called Dominus Patriae the Lord or Master of his Country because he ruled not by fear but by love so that at the time of his death the People were very much troubled and much lamenting his losse said Utinam aut non nasceretur c. Would he had never been born or never dyed And such were Titus and Aristides and many others both in divine and humane story that have been famous in their generations for prefering the publick good before their own private advantage And it were heartily to be wished that all Rulers Magistrates c. may be so spirited by God that they may be willing to be any thing to be nothing to empty and deny themselves and to trample their sinfull selves under foot in order to the honour of God and the publique good that so neither Saints nor Heathens may be Witnesses against them in that day wherein the hearts and practices of all the Rulers of the Earth shall be laid open and bare before him that shall judge the World in Righteousnesse and true Judgment The heavy weight of Government ill attained SIdonius Apollinaris relateth how a certain Man named Maximum who arriving at the top of greatnesse and that by means sufficiently indirect was the very first day of his Government much wearied and perplexed in his thoughts insomuch that fetching a deep sigh he broke out into this expression Oh Damocles how happy wast thou for having been a King but a dinner-while Whereas I have been so one whole day and cannot possibly bear it any longer Thus without all doubt his heart and head too must needs ake whose browes are empailed with a Crown that is ill acquired his shoulders bow whereon lyes the weight of a Government usurped and his hands tremble that swayes the Scepter of an ill-gotten power and dominion Worldly Professors of the Gospel reproved MElancthon tells a story of an Abbot that lived strictly walked demurely and looked humbly so long as he was a Monk one in somewhat a lower form in the Monastery but when by his seeming extraordinary sanctity he got to be Abbot he grew intollerably proud and insolent that being asked the reason of it he confessed That his former lowly looks were but to see If he could find the keyes of the Abby Such is the case of many Worldly Professors at this day they loâ—k low that they may riâ—e high they put on Religion but as a Cloak to cover their foul designs so that they are not acted from spirituall and intrinsecall Principles as from the sense of divine love to act for God sweetnesse of the Promises to wait on God excellency of Communion with God and pretious discoveries that the Soul hath formerly had of the beauty and glory of God but from poor low vain externall motives as the ear of the Creature the eye of the Creature the rewards of the Creature and the keeping up of a Name amongst the Creatures and a thousand such
2. The policy of Tyrants in doing many good things for the publique 233. V. VAin-glory remedy against it 314. The Uncertainty of temporall Victories and successe 489. The convenience of Virginity 142. Prayers of the godly the Unanimity of them 109. Unanimity the excellency thereof 402. The Uncharitable Christian described 600. The Devils endeavour to darken the Understanding 131. Not to be children in Understanding 165. The Souls comfortable Union with Christ 44. The great mystery of the Hypostatical Union in Christ shadowed out c. 333. The Union and Fellowship of Gods Children c. 499. Religion and Unity the onely supporters of Church and State 16. The excellency of Unity in Church and Common-wealth 401. Unlawfull things not to be asked of God in prayer 561. God's goodnesse Man's Unthankfullnesse 596. Christians not to upbraid and revile one another 445. The great danger of use and custome in jesting at Religion and Piety 378. The biting Usurer described 682. The griping Usurer and his Broker characterised 329. The griping Usurer and the Devil compared together 580. The fad condition of borrowing upon Usury 598. W. THe sword of War impartial 452. The compleatest armed Man of War naked without God c. 305. The direful effects of War 81. The event of War uncertain 166. The rage of War in the richest Countries 647. Watchfulnesse of life rewarded 249. Christian watchfulnesse enjoyned 530. God gives warning before he smites 192. How to prevent wavering-mindednesse 179. Gods Way the safe Way to walk in 5. The Way to God crosse-way to the World 100. The difference betwixt a spiritual worldly Man in the wayes of God and goodnesse 362. Non-proficiency in the wayes of God and Religion condemned 560. Though a weak Christian yet a true Christian 42. Straâ—ge Women Harlots c. the Devil's night-net to ensnare Men 208. Laughter of the Wicked is but from the teeth outward 52. God suffers wicked Men to torment his People 161. The Wicked-worker hatâ—th the light 172. Wicked Men instrumental for the good of Gods children 201. A wicked life hath usually a wicked end 244. Wicked Men made by God instrumentall for the good of his People 418. Every wicked Man a curse to the place he lives in 42â— The implacable malice of wicked Men against profâ—ssors of the Gospel 426. Cruelty of the wicked no prejudice to the godly 524. How it is that wicked Men are said to be none of Gods Children 561. Wicked Men see the miseries but not the joyes of Gods people 631. Tâ—e Magistrate and Ministers duty in suppressing Wickednesse and Vice 614. A Wife and no Wife 606. To be careful in the choyce of a Wife 18. The Wiâ—e to be subject to her husband 130 480. Every Man to think the best of his own Wife 427. A Wife to be an House-wife 432. Folly to repent the choyce of Wife marriage being past 529. Wives to love their husbands cordially 479. God onely able to work Man to will and to do 569. To rest contented with Gods good Will and pleasure 422. 584. To regulate our Wills by Gods Will 342. Submission to the â—ill of God in all things eâ—joyned 323. The way to have our Will is to be subjâ—ct to Gods Will 65. God accepts the Will for the deed 81. To submit to Gods Will in all things 152. 665. God wills not the death of a Sinner 203. How God may be said to will and nill the death of a Sinner 291. Wit how to make a right use thereof 579. Wisdome of Christ above all other Wisdome even to admiration 102. Wisdome of the World proves solly 163. A Man to be wise for himself as well as for others 287. Every Man to be wise for himself as well as others 388. Wisdome how to be regulated 591. Good Works are not the cause but the way to true happinesse 78. Not to talk of our good Works or deeds 233. Works of Mercy very rare to be found amongst us 306. Men of few and men of many words their differâ—nce 522. The vanity of using many words 521. To depend upon Gods bare Word 407. Swelling big words of wicked Men not to be regarded 278. Riches cannot follow us out of this World 6. Gods favour above the Worlds conâ—â—ntments to a godly Man 7. The things of this World a great stop in the way to Heaven 11. The true Christian takes no comfort in this World 19. The World like a Fisher-mans net 22. The works of God in the Creation of the World are to and beyond all admiration 53. The Worlds dangerous allurements 70. In getting the things of this World Gods way the best way 124. How to use the things of this World 134. 500. The Worlds opposition no obstacle to a child of God 164. Gods people meet with many discouragements in the world 191. Love of the World enmity to God 223. A Child of God preserved by God though never so much sleighted by the World 259. The World to be contemned in regard of Heaven 296. Why God suffereth the dearest of this Children to want the outward things of this World 301. How it is that at the second coming of Christ to Judgment the frame of the World shall not be consumed but repaired new 338. Not to grieve or be troubled at the Worlds discourtesies and why so 342. The things of this World vain and uncertain 358 459. The Worlds deceitfulnesse 477. Not to be trusted unto 544. Things of the World not to be so highly prised 494. How the Devil makes use of the World to destroy Man 592. Men not easily brought to believe the Worlds vanity 664. A Worldly-minded Man speaketh of nothing but worldly things 69. Submission to the wisdome of God as concerning Worldly outward things required 87. Worldly things dispensed by God in Wisdom 89. Worldly Men look after Worldly things 108. The danger of VVorldly-mindednesse 155. The competency of Worldly things the best estate 165. A Worldly-minded Man no publique-spirited Man 210. Worldly-Men easily taken off from the service of God 211. A Worldly-minded Man no Heavenly-minded Man 218. The secure Worldlings suddain ruine 259. Worldly things cannot really help us 267. Worldly things their suddain downfall 268. The sad condition of Worldly-minded Men at the time of death 314. Worldly-mindednesse a great hindrance to the comfortable enjoyment of spirituall graces 351. Worldly-crosses turn'd into spiritual advantages 357. All Worldly things transitory 357. The inconstancy of them 497. The Worldling's inordinate desires and why so 367. The emptinesse of all Worldly delights without Christ 387. Men seeking after the vanity of Worldly things reproved 393. The vanity of Worldly temporal things compared with those eternal 439. The wicked Man's folly in his Worldly choyce 479. The Worldling's woe and the Just Man's joy at the time of death 517. No true joy in Worldly things 518. The uncertainty of VVordly things 529. How the vanity of Worldly things may be easily discerned 530. The moderate use of VVorldly