too late to get grace Matt. 23. 38. Luke 13. 26. he may go like a wretch to Hell and in Hell say would to God I were out I see the Embleme of a surety a fool leaping with his head into the great end of an Horn but being got to the little end he could not get it back how many such foolish ones are there now at Hide Park that leap into the Devils lap of sinful pleasure then into the pan of sufferings sometimes in their bodies and sometimes in their consciences and lastly into the fire of Hell I saw a brave Coach go up Ludgate-hill with a golden Arse and I saw them stand still at Saint Peters Pauls Wharfe but Saint Peter and Saint Paul were never troubled with such kind of hearers as go thereabouts Three things spoyle young Ladies marrying too soon ill edication and such kind of Parsons that preach little or nothing to any purpose let a heart be broken betimes for sin and it will be saved in time from sin death hell and eternal burnings yea Christ will love that Lady with an everlasting love that will love him when she is young and he poor and poor Christ is as poor now as ever and it is as poor a business to be a servant unto Christ as ever I knew it if a man should pluck a Bible from his pocket among some they would be ready to laugh but if a man should look into a Bible and seriously consider what will become of them it would make one weep why weeps my Lord cryed Hazael to Elisha 2 Kings 8 12. to think what evill thou shalt do And to think what some shall suffer for an hundred thousand millions of years for a moments pleasure and all your lives are no more yea the longest life of you all is but a moments time in comparison of eternity O Eternity Eternity when I think on thee how is time ages worlds swallowed up like tittle fishes by the Whales here one Generation comes whilst another goes but all moulters into Eternity like flesh to dust I truly saies my Lady but all this we never think on why then you think your selves to Hell or you go for want of thinking unto Hell but can you think your selves back a man or woman never act so beneath themselves as when they cry they did not think of it or consider of it non-consideration is the cause of most mens damnation what should the Devil mind you of Hell as he does you of your lusts sins and pleasures it were the way to loose you and spoyl his own Kinkdome I am sure God minds you Christ loves you and hath washed or would have washed you in his own blood Revel. 1. 6. and yet you mind not the faithful Ministers tell you this and every line in the Scripture tells you that unless you do beleeve unless you do repent unless you be regenerate and become new creatures in some measure you shall be damned with all the Devils in Hell as sure as God lives in Heaven Iohn 3. 3. 36. and before next May day some of you may yea it may be before next Christmas and when men are serious be not you light and vain I am upon damnation and preaching damnation to the Gallants yea and to all you careless Gallants in general that are now in Hide-Park in the midst of all your Gold and Glory bravery and brave delights of the day that ye remember the night wherein no manocan work as Christ speaks Iohn 9. 3. And therefore for all this great boasting and vyeing for the honour and glory of the day I say for all this you must come to die and to Iudgement and upon pain of damnation I tell you this yea the Lord tells you that if you still goe on to neglect so great Salvation as is freely tendered to you despising his Grace his Love and his Son and the delight of his soul our onely most and ever glorious dear and blessed Redeemer God blessed for evermore Rom. 9. 5. who hath a thousand Crowns to give unto you and a thousand pardons more than you need or ten thousand sinners greater than you were they in the world yet I say Christ stands with these Crowns and Pardons for you if a man should stand with a Rainbow round about you yea if a God should stand with a Rainbow round about you yea if a thousand Gods although there be but one should stand with a thousand Rainbows round about you all it were not half so much as a God and Christ and a God with Christ in his arms a bleeding dying living longing loving Christ for some of your Souls and although Christ would as fain have you as any in the world and as much embrace you and reward you as any in the world yet I say that notwithstanding all this if you shall despise him and think to do below as Angels once did above namely to be above God he will fling you down to Hell and the darksome holes and dens in Hell do not deceive your selves you may seek pleasures here and find ease in Hell but never find sinners may find sinners and old companions may find each other yea some of you may do so but the Devils will find you all torments while God finds wrath and you guilt yea the Devil will find power though you cannot death yea an exquisite torture to torment sinners for evermore if an ugly Collier should but breath upon you it would make you sick but if the Devil come to sit and blow upon you this will make great change for some of you young Gentlewomen that the Sun must now scarce shine on and what a Hell will this be to go from golden Coaches and beds of Downe to fiery Litters and beds in Hell to fry and roare with ugly Devils in burning flames for evermore O for Gods sake consider this all ye that neglect God or despise God and Heaven for a moments lust And if there be not a Heaven and an Hell a reall place where Angels sing and Saints rejoyce Devils roare and sinners fly yea something that is equivolent unto this in the other world burn your Bibles for a cheating Book for they have deceived me and many thousand more but if the Scriptures be a Truth and the very words of God as certainly they be they are so searching into the consciences of every man that seriously looks into them that he must needs confess this truth Heb. 4. 12. then I say I know nothing of the Scriptures if you are not much more likely to be with them that fry and cry and houle at the grates of Hell than any sinners in the world yea you and all you that do nothing but court sin and complement your time and daies away For of all sinners in the world English sinners are the worst and the least to be excused because they enjoy the most mercies means and light of any under Heaven and of all sinners
General leaves a field there is so many at his heeles and something left behind the slain or the dead the trampling of the grasse and the carcasse of the beasts but when the Lord leaves his house there is triming up again for the new commer the old mourning and the old master being laid a side nothing remains but the name the lusts and the sins of the family yea they run from Father to Son and Son to Son and the curse of God after them all some men leave great possessions for all their Children and great houses in good order but if they go to the Devill and leave a thousand houses to every Child and a name to that which may last to Dooms day yet for all this I would be loath to go along with them some men take Gold in their boots when they go to France and others money in their pockets when they go along journey but I had rather take Christ with me for eternity than all the Lords and Ladies in the world to my grave If you stir an old Horse head sometimes you shall see many flyes and if you stir an old Swearer in his sick bed you shall hear many oaths An old gouty and ungodly sinner makes a great noyse when he is punished for his sins and a pocky Surgeon tells a great lye when he sayes he will cure that in a fortnights time with his cursed Pills but some would do well to hang them that put forth such Bills they encourage many men to sin where the grace of God is wanting if a man want a member it is a sad thing but if a man be noysome or unwholesome it is worse but Lord bring me to any shame or misery rather than to perpetual condemnation When Ladies dye of the Cancer or Ulcer in the belly the best side is put outwards but when Lords dye of the Pox it is an ugly business the consumption of the Purse is the want of take heed and the consumption of the Lungs is the want of good dyet but the consumption of the blood and bones is brutish and immoderate love too and foolish fondness of the wife many times bnt if a man kill himself this way or his wife with too many Children he is near kin to a murderer blood will be required if a man shed blood but if the soul be lost this way who shall make amends t is not impossible that he may repent when he is old and they that kill themselves this way when they are young shorten the dayes of grace and of nature when as he that never truly repents nor beleeves shall be eternally damned as sure as the Lord lives When Mr. Kill-devil was called to his Tryal he was taxed for Swearing Lying and Whoring some men are guilty of these sins and almost three thousand more and yet all may be pardoned but Lord have mercy upon me if a man shall answer for every idle word as Christ speaks in the day of Judgement Mat. 12. 26. yea and what shall then become of most of our Mayers and others too whose words and conversations are altogether so But most men are wise when t is too late O that God were mine O that Christ were mine O that Heaven were mine O that I might live a little longer I would never do as I have done yea I would give for Heaven so much when they are going to be damned but if the Sun be going down or setting it is in vain to cry hold Sun hold good Sun hold yet mercy mercy may be found at the last minute but to cry then Lord Jesus Lord Jesus and not to think of God before is a very sad thing what a Gentleman and never think on God and yet a Christian for shame consider what you do and say sometimes in the open Sun t is good to display your bounty but to display your lusts and sins night and day as Sodom crying come come come Sir let us go again again and again to the Maske to the Ball to the Tavern to the Park to the Fields and delights of the World never minding going out of the World or how vain these bewitching things of the World are untill it be too late is to imitate a fool all men know they must dye and most men say they must be called to an account but pray Mr. Graceless what can you say for your self to begin with one O Sir you were at Church once and it may be but once in a month and yet scarce in many months did you mind what was said unto you but to hear once of a Christ and of Gods love giving Christ for the worst of sinners is enough to stop thy mouth for an hundred thousand millions of years take him Devill cries St. Paul if you receive the Grace of God in vain Hard-heart cried he could not repent but Peter asked him why so because he sought it when it was too late but whose fault was that when God gives repentance never to be repented of and mercies that should never be fotgotten do not you remember Sir when you were sick do not you remember when you were like to dye and what you promised then when the Doctors gave you off and the Lord took you up from the grave again when the next newes was O Sir it was in my sickness that I said so and so but if sinners Lords or Ladies will promise unto God when they are sick and forget him when they are well they may be damned when they die and that is time enough If a man hath been twice or thrice at the Barre and is once burnt in the hand t is ten to one but he hangs when he comes there again yet a man may go many times to the throne of Grace for one and the same corruption some go to Cheapside to fetch Flowers and others hard by to get stuff but few go to God when they are young for grace to serve him in their generation yea I think in my conscience some fine fools even think God is beholding to them if they should say their prayers go to Church as other ordinary people do And because we cry to some you are too fine forsooth to do this or that they even think so too in relation unto God when as I tell you God and Christ is more worthy of your service an hundred thousand times than the best of you all or the best of all the Princes of the world are worthy of this honour namely to be an unworthy servant of God what do you condescend to serve a God a God that can damne you and yet a God that will not damne you if you serve him in sincerity Amongst many things there are three great cares that lies on every wise married man first to serve God in his generation secondly to provide for his family thirdly to get his wife well down without sinning when she is on the top of the house t is not good
ever be builders in the Church of Christ But Mr. such an one and Mr. such an ones Letter must pass him especially if he comes with a little of the old Synods Catechisme in his mouth and some of them will so kon it upon the stairs when they are going to be tryed but there is a young Gentleman that makes a sweet trade in getting money for Passes and I know not what yea one told me of a Parson Solicitor that gets more than I can by my trade by rerommending helping and puting young Priests in a right way to obtain their business and ye know he must be a good man such a Tryer commends him and twenty more and you know he is a great Tryers friend Country man or Coosin and therefore he must pass and there was old passing when the great scuffle was as a door keeper told me but let them try and try and do what they will for my part I profess in the presence of God I had rather preach or be in the publick speaking a word to Christ for sinners or a word for sinners to Christ in a way of prayer than eat my meat though never so hungry and yet I would work for my living yea thousands in this Nation thirst after this liberty who are holy humble knowing godly blameless self denying gifted Christians yea equally gifted with most Ministers things might be done in decency and order and yet the Minister never the worse Christian liberty well used doth not abuse or justle out the Ministerial calling in the least t is strange there cannot be a medium found out by those that hold the helme but for my part I am resolved not willingly to pay one penny untill I have liberty to pray or some body else who is godly in the room of most Clarks and Readers that are stark nought a good Minister and a good Christian two or three would do more good in a Parish than he and an old sleepy Reader can or will do in many years We have a good Benefice and a Minister will come there whether we will or no I think and yet he is beloved where he is and we had pitched upon another that is godly and blameless But I fear I shall do little here this day the Lords and Ladies are resolved to go home and so will I yea I resolve to go home and mind home death grave and eternity more than ever I have done and yet I have vowed much writ vowes but a thousand vowes will do no good unless God give a man strength to live to him and for you great persons you can as well come out of you skins as out of your sins and snares yea if God Almighty do not pluck you out of your present conditions all the Men on earth cannot help you no nor all the Saints on earth O pray pray yea at night go home and say Lord Jesus help me Lord Jesus look upon me and make me now to apply my heart to wisdome after all my former folly A man may easily pull a man down hill or down to Hell but he can hardly pluck him up to Heaven or Heaven-ward yea I find it very hard to come to the certainty of Heaven and to be looking off from working for Heaven notwithstanding the promise is not to him that worketh but to him that beleeves in him that justifies the ungodly a golden text O read read Rom. 4. 5. and upon this account the ungodliest man in England may be justified and to be justified you know is to have all a mans sins pordoned hid and done away O the blessedness of that man whose sins are so done away Psal. 32. 1. And now if one of you Gentiles or genteel sinners would go home at night and really beleeve them pardoned they would be so t is but beleeving or not beleeving that makes a man to be saved or damned yea really it is no more Iohn 3. 36. yea tis beleeving and beleeving more than any thing that makes a man live to God and love God I will warrant if one of you Gallants could now but really beleeve God would love you and save you notwithstanding all your former sinfulness you would be gallant Christians indeed and God loving Christians instead of the Devils slave well there is a new way to Heaven or a nearer way I am sure than most men have hinted at and that is by beleeving before repenting yea by fetching repentance and reformation from beleeving Gods love in Christ to poor sinners as sinners that is while yet they are in their sins when a Leapors Leaprosie is washed off he is as lovely as another man when a sinner is reformed he is as lovely as a Saint in his conversation but before God reformes he loves yea I have loved thee with an everlasting love saith God He is nothing but Love saith Iohn 1. 4. 10. yea he is ever living loving and giving good things to you the worst of sinners else why are you out of Hell and here this day out of sickness out of misery out of want though all these things come in love to his Children O for Gods sake love God if indeed you do but mind him a little in his Son you cannot but love him He is the Fountain of Love and a loving Fountain that hath a thousand Seas of sweetness and divine delights for all those that come unto him with the is the well of life saith David Psal. 36. 9. and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore but t is Christ that is this pleasure and that right hand that God stretcheth out to you the worst of sinners and if you will take hold of his strength upon his word you shall make peace with him Isa. 27. 5. and he will make peace with you and your souls yea Christ will make peace between you both yea to them that are afarre off he maketh peace and preacheth peace by the blood of his Crosse Rom. 5. 1. Peace be unto you in this room saith Christ Iohn 20. 19. And peace be to you in Hide-Park say I and if you will hearken to it there is peace in the blood of Christ for you all for that speaketh better things than the blood of Abell and I beseech you to mind this night what it speaketh I know what your ranting and vaunting in a thing of nought speaks namely Hell all t is to be feared but the blood of Christ speaks yet peace to the worst of you all take heed again and again take heed ye refuse not him that speaks from Heaven that which few of the Princes of this World which come to nought do know or have known for many hundred of yeers 1 Cor. 1. 18. But to you is it spoken not in a voyce of thunder like God in Mount Synai where no man durst come near for fear of death Exod. 19. 15. but in a love and dovelike spirit the spirit of love and the Dove that
you go your way and take your lot and at the end of your dayes you shall stand up again Dan. 12. last And to all under you I give this advice study to be quiet and at peace in your own spirits Gods waies are in the deep and his designes take place in all ages yea they never slack nor stay Children obey your Parents Servants your Masters not with eye service but in singleness of heart as serving the Lord To all good married men I give this first to love your wives as Christ loved his Church if it were possible and in loving love their souls as much above their bodies as you do their bodies above their cloathes it will do the wife the husband good to think the soul is in Heaven smiling when absent here on earth or present in a coffin t is the condition of friends that is more than any thing the true cause of joy or grief if a friend be in prosperity you onely mourn for his absence but if in adversity you mourn double and truly there is a vast difference between a wife gone to Hell and a husband gone to Heaven or a wife gone to Heaven and an husband gone to Hell and so for any other friends now when we do what we can to go our selves and draw others we have done our duty but for you great ungodly Gentry you draw all almost to Hell that come near you and yet I think it is a greater comfort to bury two good wives than one bad who would have a side of his house or body burnt yea his bed-fellow go to Hell and yet most of you and your Children will go thither by reason of your examples Whither do you think the Lord such an one is gone that dyed lately nay in your conscience speak as judging by the rule of Gods Word and Mr. such an one that kept his brave Coach and six Horses and never went without but to your Children I give this advice first to read over the families they came of what sins they have been guilty and what judgements have fallen upon Father Grandfather and great Grandfather one broke his neck another his heart a third lost his head a fourth made a miserable end in his bed yea dyed suddenly and never said Lord have mercy on me it is good to observe these things and it is easier to love repent or begin to live to God before twelve or twenty years of age be past than after and so again before thirty than forty but if a man mis forty years before he begins to look to Christ it is an hundred to one but he goes to the Devill yet hundreds turn civill and morally honest and so go civilly to the pit there is four or five turnings before a man turns into the right way for Heaven and yet some hit on it at the first and that is by throwing themselves upon Gods love in Christ in a way of reall beleeving and that barely upon the account of the promise which is yea and amen without any qualification Rom. 4. 13. but some turn from wildness to sobriety and so from bravery to plainness from Papistry to Protestantism and yet are little the better and so back again without being much the worse and some turn from the ordinary protestants to be Professors and yet are ten fold more the child of the Devil than before Every turn is a turn from God if the heart be unturn'd to God and the white Devil is the worst and will carry a man to Hell when he thinks he is going to Heaven persecute another only for a Gospel spirit and a Gospel light without a Gospel life will certainly rise in judgement against any man in the world and so will all your Ladyships sins if you do not take heed in time Mouls see and Swans sing a little before they dye and it may be then most of you will be wise and till then few are so do you think Christ made you so fine and so handsome so rich and so noble for nothing yea do you think he made you Christians as you say and brought you forth in England the Garden of the world and in some sense you the Flowers of this Garden for nothing but to sing and dance make a French Courchy complement for a husband and height about with a Servant truly Christ will have little reason to damn heathens and save you t is true you are called by his name but that should teach you good manners and good lives I beleeve some would be ashamed if we should tell of a Cromwell that would not fight or a Fayrfax whose name I hope will never be forgotten and truly Christ will be ashamed of you that will not live to him as well as be baptized and if you were not baptized there is no man living but would take some of you to be the Devils children you are so wicked But the end of all things is at hand and that is your funeral text with which I shall conclude 2 Pet. 4. 7. But you will ask me what end not the end of Gods Mercy for there is no end thereof that is from everlasting to everlasting to them that fear him Psal. 103. 17. Nor is there any end of his love or the promises of his love for they are numbeâ—less from one end of the Bible to the other and so is his providence to his Children even from the womb to the grave yea that never leaves them till they come to Abrahams bosome and then God is all in all to them 1 Cor. 15. 19. But there is an end of your sinning and Saints sorrowing of your living and the Kingdomes of the world raigning yea there is an end of this suns shining the rains fulling the winds blowing and the spirits breathing yea that breaths where when and as long as it listeth take heed of grieving and resisting that for if ever that finally leave you and come no more to your consciences beds and elbowes saying go to Pelham go to Pelham go to God go to Christ look to God look to Heaven Hell mind both for all these bewitching things and fooling up and down or else thon art undone for ever Soul hast thou ever another if thou loosest this have a care of loosing all for a moments lust but there is an end of all this kind of breathings and your singing yea there will be no more May dayes after a few dayes more I think you had best take your solemne leave and weep over one anothers backs necks shoulders and say farewell Ladies farewel Lords farewel Coaches farewel bravery and brave delights birds fields hedges bed Sun Moon Saints and sinners farewel all for ever and farewel all for evermore for I must now be damn'd for ever or I go I know not whither as that great man said to his soul when he cryed soul soul whither art thou now going and then the fine fare and the good chear
and the fine linnen with the Lemmon sauce must have an end and the sweet singing but the howling that must be for evermore But take a touch of Heaven or ahout Heaven though you never intend to come there and I have done And for Heaven first it is a place for divine discoveries secondly of divine rest thirdly of divine joyes fourthly of divine glories and in it God discovers four things the secrets of his heart the fulness of his glory the nearness of relation and greatness of his love we shall know as we are known Gods decrees purposes and secrets his glory the fulness of his glory and nearness of relation yea we shall come from the East and from the West the North and the South and sit down with Abraham Isaack and Iacob in the Kingdome of our God and Father and know him to be our Father even from everlasting Isa. 63. 16. Luke 13. 29. God shall so abundantly discover his love unto us calling of us by his own name O Ephraim Ephraim my dear child thou art mine yea Lord God and Father I am and so is all that glory that thou hast given me as Christ speaks in another case God gives to Christ Christ gives to Saints and Saints gives to God all again and so God is all in all and ever shall be 1 Cor. 2. 9. But secondly Heaven is a place of divine rest from sorrow sin and labour tumults noyses feares and troubles in this world you shall have trouble but in me ye shall have peace saith Christ Iohn 16. 33. internal external and eternal A mans enemies shall be at peace with him sometimes and yet his friends warre against him if his waies please God And so the soul is like the needle on the point the Ark or Dove upon the waters she wants footing for the sole of the foot and God is often wanting to the soul of a Saint thou didst hide thy face saith David and I was troubled and the greatest trouble in the world is Gods hiding of his face but time shall pass and time will come that Israels God will be no more a hiding God Isa. 45. I5 nor they a wandring people in the barren wilderness of this world for in their Country which is Heaven there is rest without weariness for the wavering Man and the wearied Saint and the bed and pillow is not half so sweet to the wearied man as is this rest And the Saints rest is God yea God is their sweetest true and lasting rest and home and so is Heaven yea this is the Land of Canaan indeed and that Canaan which every one would land in when they come to dye I knew one of you the other day that alwaies wore a feather in his cap but being sick he sent a Bill to beg that he might be pardoned and go thither yea there is none of you all but would fain lay your bones and lodge your sinning souls in Canaan when you come to dye Oh but you must live in Canaan or go the way to Canaan if ever you mean to come thither t is not an old fashion'd priests benediction or absolution with a little Common Prayer a sup of Wine with a bit of Bread will lodge you there this may seal your damnation but it will never bring you to salvation no no these low things shore none upon the Land of Canaan it is Gods love Christs merit and regeneration of the spirit a thing ye never knew what belongs to Iohn 3. 5. that sets the soul there But to go on Heaven is a place of divine joyes and they that live in Heaven live in joyes and yet the joyes of Heaven can never live in them they are so great Enter into thy Masters joy saith Christ Light may enter in the eye but not the body of light joy may enter into the heart but not the body of joy Men and Angels are but finite creatures but the joyes of Heaven are infinite unspeakable unconceivable earthly joyes are but shadowes of spiritual the joy of the Harvest is nothing to the joy of the Elect and the sweetest joyes of the spirit is nothing in comparison to the joyes of Heaven ye shall rejoyce saith Christ and no man shall take your joy from you Iohn 16. 22. and this is that joy which Christ speaks of some Fountains have their mouths or pipes by which they continually send their Christal streams into the artificial Wells with pleasant noyses God hath his continual joyes and glories which he alwaies sends forth by discoveries from himself into the souls of his which they being filled withal sends forth as it were from other golden pipes his continual praises and herein lies the joyes of Heaven and the Heaven above which you scarce beleeve Angels and communion with Angels are not the joyes of Heaven Saints and communion with Saints are not the joyes of Heaven these may sing and joy and play together yet are they not the joy of Heaven t is the musick rather than the string that is the melody of musick and it is God rather than the creature that is the joy of Heaven and hence it is that their joy is alwaies fresh and green musick dulls beauty fades yea the Sun appears sometimes darker than at other at leastwise unto apprehension but this joy is alwaies rising more and more delighting now where there is a continual rising of divine joyes glories there can be no ebbing of divine delights the eccho rises with the voice the musick with the string joyes by discoveries do the like yea they rise unanimously in all the Saints and being risen in them Heaven is made a double Heaven shout O ye Inhabitants of Jerusalem for great is the Holy One in the midst of thee Isa. 12. 6. But howle ye Ships of Tarshish and pleasant pictures yea let the ungodly and rich howle together Isa. 2. 16. Iam. 5. 1. But shout O Inhabitants of Jerusalem above the City of the great King this shouting denotes the highest pitch of joy that Saints shall be filled with when they shall come to sup with God and Christ by feeding on divine delights Rayes joyes and glories which are the dishes of that wedding Supper where every Saint shall feed his full Revell 19. 8. 3 26. his full of joy his full of praise and sing his part yea every Angell his and all shall try their skill and strain their voices to make one melodious song of praises unto God and the Lamb for evermore Revell. 7. 10. 15. 3. Some say that a Syrrian or the song thereof will so inchaunt a man that irresistibly it shall draw him to his fatall ruine confident I am were one Saint or Angell to sing from Heaven this day to you in Hide-Park but one quarter of an hour it would kill all other delights and make you mind the God of Heaven and the joyes of Heaven for evermore and all your former sinful sweetest pleasures would be but as the
in England you Lords and Ladies and you great Gentry have the most reason to be eternally damned you go best fare best lie best and have least to do of any in the world you need not care for your honours it will be honour enough for to serve Christ and they that honour me them saith Christ will my Father love and honour Iohn 12. 26. but Lords and Ladies look for shadows and neglect the substance the substance of honours is to honour Christ and to be a servant to Christ yea this is honour indeed a Crown to your honour and that little thing you call your honour And therefore David cryed thy servant Lord thy servant Lord making that and that alone his joy and glory but for a man to be the Son of such a Swearer Lyar Belly-god Heathen or Idolater yea to be the Son of such or such a Flatterer moneyed rich or landed man in comparison of being the Son the Saint and the Servant of God a faithful Covenant keeper and a man 〈◊〉 of God in his Generation But as for those that have God in their mouths power in their hands onely honour and profit in their eyes let them and their names rot yea let the next Generation utterly forgâ—â— those that love not our Lord Jesus but seek themselues and have no heart to do to the uttermost for God Christ Saints Souls and Nations but of all Nations I still say this is the sinfullest if you consider the love light means and mercies which still we sin against and of all sinners in this Nation great men and great professors that are nought are the greatest sinners and of all professors the richest are the greatest and yet of all rich and great professors gifted professors in some sense are the greatest that do nothing in the Church of Christ but bury their talents and their souls also in the World the love lusts and pleasures of the World nevertheless many of these may and shall be saved because his mercy endureth for ever and his Covenant he will and shall keep with all the seeed of Abraham and David Psal. 88. 3. 4. But O ye seed of Abraham Isack and Iacob mind this text and what your duty is to such a living loving giving faithful Covenant keeping God But when Money-bag the Usurer was called to the Bar it was asked him what he thought of Money and what was the best improvement of it he cryed eight eight or six in the hundred now as things stand t is better than to buy Land for that is never paid for so long as the world lasts if the the Tax so long continue a penny well got and a penny well spent is better than a pound of another mans he that gets a little by birth right moderate industry faith and prayer gets well but he that gets much by right or wrong or continual setting his heart upon the world is but a fool or worldling at the best I knew a man that got a great estate and he goâ— it from a small and low begining but he got nothing but money for few loved him and as few missed him and when he dyed he gave but one grunt and cryed I am sick and by and by dyed with the Curtains drawn to him and he that 〈◊〉 as is likely besides what the Devil had gave two or three mourning Suits and so buried him handsomely but if a man bury himself or soul with these self soul deceaving cares and pleasures of this cursed and bewitching World which lies altogether in wickedness and under condemnation yea the whole World doth so upon the matter 1 Iohn 5. 19. he may be raised again though not to glory that which every man sowes be shall reap here or hereafter When Dives was in Hell he thought upon his brethren but when a Citizens Heir comes to be a Spark he seldome thinks upon the old fool that goes there for the money which he so profusely spends or the portion of his daughter yea few of these upstarts think upon the old folks that go to the Devil if a man should be hang'd for anothers mans stealing it would be sad but if a man be damn'd for another mans vain glory pride gaming carding ranting or whoring it is much more truly some make no better use of that estate than this or to piss again the wall that for which many are damn'd I will not say how many but I beleeve above an hundred every year within the walls of London If a man steal for another suffer and be hang'd it is sad as I said before but to be eternally damn'd is much more and it may be onely to make him a fine Gentleman a fine Fool a swearing Gentleman and a brave Spark but the old fool hath no carriage in him and the old mother must scarce be known where she lives by the fine daughter if the Ministers of London could preach themselves and many of their hearers out of this cursed damning sin of Covetousness it were a gallant thing some talk was of the Jewes and the coming in of the Jewes but if the Devil be more covetous than many Gentiles Priests and Citizens I am mistaken for a Belly god to mind his gut and a filthy swearer his ungodly lust is a common thing but no Swearers Drunkards Whores or Harlots in the World have their hearts so much going after any sin in the World than some noted Ministers and professors that are called Saints have after this cursed sin of Covetousness they talk of Faith and preach you must live by Faith others write Sermons all the year about frequent meetings and enter into fellowships many of them but Money Money is their God and for Money they will chop and change cheat and lye and make any man a Saint I knew two great men that were about last year near St. Martins canonized for Saints one was worth forty thousand Pounds and the other an hundred but the Devil is Money and in Money if that will make a Saint I will never beleeve he goes to Heaven that does no good gets a great estate and makes no profession at all of Christ the waies Saints and servants of Christ say you what you will to please fools friends and kindred yet a little money and it may be mourning If a man should look into the sepulchre of a man newly buryed it would be a loathsome business but if a man look into the lives of many rich men which Ministers make Saints in their funeral Orations it might be said the man was more a fool a beast a muck worme or at best a civil Gentleman or an ignorant Christian rather than a Saint truly I know nothing so much as three things that make a Saint faith in the blood of Christ union with the person of Christ and receaved measure of sanctification from the Spirit of Christ and these three things with chearfulness thankfulness fruitfulness or holiness make a brave Saint