Selected quad for the lemma: world_n
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A50491
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Solomon's prescription for the removal of the pestilence, or, The discovery of the plague of our hearts, in order to the healing of that in our flesh by M.M.
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Mead, Matthew, 1630?-1699.
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1665
(1665)
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Wing M1557; ESTC R18395
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97,443
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96
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Men City and Countrey are fadly infected with the same In too many places he 's scarce accounted a good House-keeper that let 's his Neighbours go out of his house sober How can men entertain their Friends or renew their Acquaintance or drive any Bargain without betaking themselves to some Tipling-house Yea how frequently are Drinking-matches appointed for no other purpose but to pour down their Liquor What multitudes are there Who rise up to drink strong drink who tarry at Night till Wine inflame them Yea to such an height of wickednesse are we grown that as if there was some excellency in sinning men strive for the Mastery in it and to be able to drink down others goes for a very Manly Faculty Such enemies have we got to the Cross of Christ whose God is their belly whose glory is their shame And is there not the same Reason that our Crown of Pride and the Drunkards of England should be trodden down as well as of Ephraim Isa 28. 3. Is it not just that they whose Intemperance hath often deprived them of their Reason should be taken with a Distemper that may strip them of the use of it That in those very streets where men have staggered and fallen down dead-drunk they should there fall down stark-dead The like might be said of Gluttony and Luxurious Feastings a sin more confin'd to the greater Sort who can make sufficient provisions for the flesh to fulfill the Lusts thereof abundantly confirming what the Wise man hath told us That the prosperity of Fools destroys them And what a wiser than he hath expresly affirmed though sure believ'd but by very few That Rich men do difficultly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven How much money is expended but once to furnish the Tables of these gluttonous Epicures How do they Sacrifice Gods Creatures meerly to their Lusts eating only for pleasure and to keep themselves alive from one Meal to another without thinking of that Service they owe to God for all They have lived in pleasure and been wanton nourishing their hearts as in a day of slaughter as St. James speaks Chap. 5. 5. What hath been the Life of too many of our Gentry but to eat and drink and sleep and rise up to play Here 's the improvement of the many special engagements God hath laid on them to honour him that they of all will do least to his honour What an exact description may we read of many of them Amos 6. 3 4 5 6. Ye that put away far the evil day and cause the seat of violence to come near That lie upon the Beds of Ivory and stretch themselves upon their Couches and eat the Lambs out of the flock and the Calves out of the midst of the stall That chaunt to the sound of the Viel and invent to themselves instruments of musick like David That drink Wine in bowls and anoint themselves with the chief oyntments but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph And there read on you may find their doom If men will bid their souls take their ease eat drink and be merry well may they expect quickly to hear Your souls shall be taken from you And when they are thus provoking God to anger with their eating and drinking what wonder if his wrath fall upon them whil'st the meat is in their mouths If they so far forget their own natures and the use of his creatures as wholly to be devoted to the satisfaction of their raging sensual desires which they ought chiefly to have denied and if like unprofitable burdens of the earth they fed themselves only that they might live longer to taste the pleasure of their delicious meats and drinks how just is it that when like Swine they were fatted they should there be brought to the slaughter 5. As the next provoking Sin which is rife amongst us I shall reckon Swearing Cursing and Profaning the most holy Name of the dreadful God A sin less excusable than Epicurism because I know no sense gratified with it but though it be less bestial yet is it more Diabolical Oh the horrid Oaths that have been daily belch'd out by the black-mouth'd Sons of Belial Who almost could walk the streets of the City without stopping his ears Or else he was like to hear the Name of God abus'd the Life the Blood the Wounds of our dear and precious Lord tost too and fro by the mouths of wretched Swearers Who that had heard all the Oaths and Curses that were vented but in one day in this one City of London would not have admired that their tongues who were thus set on fire on Hell did not set our whole Nation in a flame Oh well is it for us that our God who is mercy it self rules in the World How quickly would all created Patience though meeting in one Person be quite tired out and worn away These hellish Exhalations streaming forth from the hearts and mouths of corrupted men whereby they have assaulted even Heaven it self might justly have been kindled by the wrath of God and have been returned upon our heads in showrs of Fire and Brimstone And if the polluted breath of these kind of wretches have infected the very Air we breath in 't is not to be thought strange in the least Could those volleys of Blasphemies which have been discharg'd against the glorious Majesty do any other than turn to a black cloud which should light heavily upon us Some think it impossible for the soul of man so far to sink into the Devilish Nature as to sin meerly to sin without a regard to some carnal interest but if any instance will evidence it I think 't is Swearing and Cursing 'T is possible I know though this is far from excusing it for Passion to transport men to an Oath and sometimes a desire to be believed sometimes an ignorance that they do amiss may betray them into it but for men to enterlard their ordinary discourse with full-mouth'd Oaths priding themselves therein as if Gentile and Graceful What Excuse can be invented for such horrible Practices Nay when men shall set themselves purposely to swear and devise new Oaths that shall be al a mode What possible pretence have they for this And hither may I refer those strange unheard of Prodigies of Profaneness Wickednesses too Transcendental to be rank'd under any ordinary Topick Such as killing men in a bravado drinking Healths of their own blood yea Healthing it to the Devil himself for such I know not what to call them as these are we reported to have had amongst us nay canst thou imagine it Reader far worse than these which let those mention who are Masters enough of our Language to render them in fit terms for I profess I cannot So unwilling are the daring Fellows of our days to go to Hell in the old way It cannot consist with the greatness of their spirits to be wicked at these low rates that their silly Ancestours were
had gone by this Rule where had the Gospel been or where is it excepted That you must have such and such provisions or else not to Preach For my own part I acknowledge my self a verie mean Casuist and ignorant of Twentie subtle distinctions which here might be needful And I am verie confident I am speaking to few but are more knowing and better studied in this point than my self and great difficulties there are to me concerning the relation betwixt a Pastor and a people as matters now stand with us how far it holds and how far men are engaged to perform all the duties of that relation wherefore to that I shall say little or nothing onlie so far as concerns my self and verie manie more yea all in part I use thus plainlie to resolve the case to my self when my understanding is most help't by a powerful apprehension of death and judgment near at hand I take it for the indispensable duty of every man to employ himself to the utmost in his place and calling in answering the ends of his Creation and Redemption the glorifying of God in doing his best to save his own and others Souls And if I have been Solemnly Consecrated to this work to make it my verie particular Calling no Command of the highest Emperor iu the World can disoblige me from it God must be honoured the Gospel proclaimed Souls saved my Vows performed storm and rage forbid and hinder it who will or can But if there happen such terms to be put upon me as the condition of my more open exercise of the Function I am devoted to which terms after the use of all due means for Information I judge I cannot lawfully submit to but yet others will whose apprehensions vary from mine who will in some competent measure carry on the Publick work I was employed in which I am forbid to meddle with Then in such a case which if I mistake not is ours I will cast about which way I may do most for those ends I am obliged to carry on And since Christianity it self is not forbid to be Preach't only I must not do it viz. not Publickly but yet others will and in many places do And I foresee that by rushing upon the Publick Preaching more hurt would come of my disobedience than good and I should be more out of a capacity for future Service either by Imprisonment Banishment or the like which are not so much to be shun'd as Sufferings but as they hinder the attainment of my ends I will then see what private opportunities are afforded me for those ends and these with all readiness I will accept and diligently improve as in which all circumstances considered I may do most for the advancement of the Gospel And therefore is not to be thought an effect of Cowardice a baseness unworthy him that remembers what it sounds to be a CHRISTIAN but as my taking that way which most conduceth to Gods glory and the Interest of Religion And this is no other than the course Paul himself took Gal. 2. 2. when he communicated the Gospel privately to them that were of Reputation and why for fear or shame no but lest he should run in vain But if Circumstances should so alter the case that I see venturing upon Publick Preaching be the most probable way for the accomplishment of my just designs then I will embrace that Or if I should be forbid privately to endeavour the Salvation of Souls then I must and will disobey let what will be the event because such commands directly contradict those ends I must promote and leave me no way for the attaining of them Yea though I dye for it I must tell those within my reach who gave us our Being and keeps us alive and to what end who shed his blood for us and why and what we must do to be made partakers of the benefits he hath purchased I must tell them of the evil and danger of sin whither it leads and what an Heaven holiness will end in These are matters that the World must know though a thousand deaths attend upon the Publishers And I would no longer care for a tongue or hand than whil'st I might speak or write of them One word more and I shall conclude this But it so happening since the loss of my Liberty that my self and those that depend on me may be reduc't to such pressing necessities that I must be taken up much more than I was wont some way or other for the procuring of a Livelihood the sad case at present of many precious eminent Ministers then I will betake my self to such care and pains as is requisite hereto in the mean time not relinquishing my great Work but regarding the World as all ought to do and indeed the most of what I have said is appliable to private Christians onlie with a subserriencie to it And this again we may find justified by Paul himself whom if you had found busie at work in making his Tents yet you could not have charged him with neglect of the Gospel for even then he was contriving how to render it most acceptable And thus I have given in my brief thoughts of this Case which though it may seem a digression from the matter in hand yet is it not so from my main design if it may do the least to quicken any to a sense of their dutie and the neglects of it and to put them upon more carefulness for the future And hence many may see how guilty they have been in not laying out themselves for the good of souls so far as they might without breaking any Law or running any hazard Oh Sirs you are men sure somewhat sensible of what worth a soul is and what weighty things Salvation and Damnation are which careless Wretches do but jest with as words of course Why have you not then laboured more in these matters Let none misunderstand me I speak to the negligent only Could we have done no more for God and mens souls to inform the ignorant convince the obstinate quicken the godly than we have done Might there not have been through the blessing of God even upon our private labours fewer to provoke and more to please him more to strive with him by their prayers to turn away his wrath than there are And upon the same account I would beg all private Christians to lay to heart their lamentable dulness aud uselessness in the Places and Towns where they dwell Oh how little are their Neighbours and Acquaintance I wish I might not say their Families better for many of them So little do they make Religion their business but in all their converse are even like other men only plodding on in a life-less Profession and track of Duties and appearing a little zealous for some By-opinions of their own It was time for them to be raised out of their heavy luke-warm temper and to be made to mind and relish a little more