we say less than the least of God's Mercies Prayer THat Prayer that is pure and holy entereth into the Heavens and returneth not empty It is a shelter to the Soul a Sacrifice to God and a Scourge to the Devil Austin's Prayer was Lord first give me what thou requirest and then require what thou wilt And he that Prayeth well cannot choose but Live well Mr. Perkins upon his Death-Bed said to his Friends praying for the ease of his Pain Pray not for the ease of Torments but for the encrease of my Patience He that Prays for the good Things that he hath not doth not seek for that which is good but that which seems to be good Oh! what do I inwardly suffer when in my Mind I consider Heavenly Things and presently in my Prayers a multitude of Carnal Imaginations present themselves before me My God be not far from me depart not in thy Wrath from thy Servant cast forth thy Light and scatter them send forth thy Darts and break all the Imaginations which the Enemy casts in Gather in call home my Senses unto thee make me forget all the things of this World grant me to cast away speedily the imaginations of Wickedness Succour thou me thou everlasting Truth that no Vanity may move me come Heavenly Sweetness and let Impurity fly from before thee Pardon me also and mercifully forgive me as often as I think of any thing else besides thee in Prayer I do humbly confess I am wont to be subject to many Distractions for I confess I am not there where I do corporally stand or sit but there am I whither my Thoughts do carry me where my Thoughts are there am I. There are oftentimes my Thoughts where my Affections are that offer themselves quickly unto me which is naturally delightful and by custom pleasing Tho. de Kempis 268. If thou be in God Christ is thy Father and therefore in Prayer thy Applications are to thy Father Mat. 7.7 If we being evil know how to give good things whatsoever thou canst expect from thy Earthly Father so much and much more may'st thou expect from thy Heavenly Father patience to bear with thy Infirmities and Failings Psal 78.18 compassion to pity thy Sufferings Psal 103. Goodness to supply thy Wants Justice to revenge thy Injuries Psal 105.14 Those Prayers that are from the workings and sighings of God's Spirit in us from sincere Hearts lifted up to God through the sense of our own Emptiness and from God's infinite Fulness that are suited to God's Will and the great Rule of Prayer that are for Spiritual things more than Temporal that are accompanied with Faith and dependance these Prayers speak a Man altogether a Christian Mead. A Prayer for Purging the Heart and for obtaining Heavenly Wisdom STrengthen me O God by the Grace of thy holy Spirit give me to be strengthened in the inward Man and to empty my self of all unprofitable Care and Anguish not to be drawn away by sundry desires either mean or precious but looking upon all things as passing away together with them for nothing is permanent under the Sun where all things are vanity and vexation of Spirit Oh how wise is he that considereth of them Tho. de Kempis 112. A Powerful Letter IN a Letter to King Henry the VIII it is concluded thus Wherefore Gracious King have pity on your Soul and consider that the Day is even at hand when you shall give an Account of your Office and the Blood that hath been shed with your Sword. In which day that you Grace may stand stedfast and may have your Quietus est sealed with the Blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ which will only serve at that day is my daily Prayer c. Our Persecutors FRet Fume and Gnash the Teeth to hear that we under these grievous Afflictions can be so Merry let us Pray instantly that this Joy may never be taken from us for it passeth the Delights of this World This is the Peace which passeth all Vnderstanding This Peace the more it is chosen and possessed with the more they feel it and therefore cannot faint neither by Fire nor Water Prosperity HEre lies the danger of a pleasing Condition in regard of Pleasures Credit Delights Riches Friends Habitation Health or any inferiour thing the more of Good that seemeth to be in them as distinct from God the more Dangerous for they are more like to stand up in Competition with him and carry it with our partial and blinded Souls in the Competition Remember this if you love your selves when you would have all things about you more Pleasant and Lovely here lies the danger of a prosperous Condition and State. On the contrary here lies the blessed benefit of Adversity which if Men were not Brutish and Unbelieving they would heartily welcome it as the surest Condition Mr. Baxters Rest 3d Part 216. Papist MY Lord of Worcester being a Papist had this Maxim That he would not be Disordered within himself only because things were out of Order without him Queen Elizabeth was wont to say That my Lord of Worcester had Reconciled what she thought Inconsistent A stiff Papist to be a good Subject Punishment WHensoever God Punisheth he doth it for just Cause and the Godly never accuse him of Rigour as the Wicked do but acknowledge that in themselves is just cause why they should thus intreat them Dan. 9.7 Why should a Living Man complain for the Punishment of his Sins Hale 130. Reason IT 's Human to use Reason rather than Force and a Christian to seek Peace and ensue it Reformation IT would be an easie matter says Malvezzi for Favourites to Reform Kings Palaces if it were not an hard thing to Reform their own Houses Regiment of Health TO be chearfully disposed at Hours of Meat Sleep and Exercise is one of the best Exercises of long lasting As for the passions and studdies of the Mind avoid Envies Anxious Fears Anger fretting Inward subtile and knotty Inquisitions Joys and Exhilerations in Excess Sadness not Communicated entertain Hopes and Mirth rather than Joy variety of Delights rather than Surfeit on them Lord Bacon 's Essays 188. Rejoycing at Death MR. Edward Deering said As for my Death I bless God I feel and find so much inward Joy and Comfort in my Soul that if I were to make my Choice whether to Live or Die I would a Thousand times rather choose Death than Life if it may stand with the good Will of God And shortly after he Died in the Year of our Lord Christ 1576. Religion REligion and the Practice of its Vertues is the Natural state of the Soul the condition to which God designed it As God made Man a reasonable Creature so all the Acts of Religion are equal and suitable to our Natures and our Souls are then in Health when we are what the Laws of Religion require to be and to do what they Command us to do Dr. Tillotson The great Principals of Religion
thy Face Aquinas Set Death into your Minds and it will put Life into your Actions St. Austin saith There 's nothing more abateth Sin than the frequent Meditation of Death He cannot Die Ill that Lived Well and seldom doth he Die Well that Lived Ill. Ambrose saith Death is the Burial of all Vices To be willing to Die consider the harmlesness of Death to the People of God tho' it keeps its Dart yet it hath lost its Sting Thy Heart may be kept from shrinking back in time of Sickness by considering the necessity of Death in order to the Fruition of God 2 Cor. 5.6 Whilst we are at home in the Body we are absent from the Lord. Another Argument to this unwillingness to Die is The immediate Succession of a more excellent and a more glorious Life it is but Wink and you shall see God Rom. 8.10 11. At Death you will be freed from Trouble here and have Communion with God and Communion of Saints Flavel Cardinal Richleu being Tempted to doubt and disbelieve a God another World and the Immortality of the Soul and by that Distrust to relieve his aking Heart but in vain So strong he said was the Notion of God on his Soul so clear the Impression of him upon the frame of the World so unanimous the Consent of Mankind so powerful the Conviction of his own Conscience that he could not but taste of the Powers of the World to come and so Live as one that must Die and so Die as one that must Live Eternally And being asked one day Why he was so sad he answered Monsieur Monsieur the Soul is a serious thing It must be either Sad here for a moment or Sad hereafter for ever Cardinal Mazarine when he came to Die said O my poor Soul Whither wilt thou go saying one Day to the Queen Mother Madam your Favors have undone me and were I to Live again I would rather be a Capuchine than a Courtier Sir Francis Walsingham towards the latter end of his Life grew very Melancholy and Writ to the Lord Burleigh to this purpose We have lived long enough to our Country to our Fortunes and to our Soveraign It is high time to live to our Selves and to our God. In the multitude of Affairs that pass through our Hands there must be some Miscarriages for which a whole Kingdom cannot make our Peace Whereupon some Court Humorist being sent to Divert Sir Francis Ah! said he whil'st we Laugh all things are serious round about us God is serious when he Preserveth us and hath Patience towards us Christ is serious when he Dieth for us the Holy Ghost is serious when he striveth with us the Holy Scripture is serious when it is Read to us the Sacraments are serious when they are Administred unto us the whole Creation is serious in serving God and us they are serious in Heaven and Hell and shall a Man that hath one Foot in the Grave Jest and Laugh Dr. Dunn a Man of as great Parts and Spirit as any in this Nation being on his Death-Bed taking his solemn leave of all his most considerable Friends left this with them I Repent of all my Life but that part of it I spent in Communion with God and doing Good. That Person in a Dying hour shall wish himself not a Man that hath not been a good Christian When Queen Mary Died Mr. Fox that Writ the Book of Martyrs was Preaching Comfort to the English Exiles in Geneva at which time he did tell them That now was the time come for their return into England and that he brought them that News from God for which Words many of the Grave Divines Rebuked him greatly for the present but afterwards excused him by the Event for it appeared that Queen Mary Died but the Day before he so spake to them Judge Nichols used to say That he knew not what they called Puritan Preaching but he said that Preaching which went next his Heart and spake as Attorney General Noy used to say of Doctor Preston as if they knew the Mind of God. Mr. Selden that Universal Scholar being suspected by many to have too little Affection to Religion a little before he Died sent for the Bishop of Armagh and Dr. Langbane and told them to this effect That he had Surveyed most part of the Learning that was amongst the Sons of Men And that he had his Study full of Books and Papers of most Subjects in the World yet at that time could he not recollect any Passage out of those many Books and Manuscripts he was Master of whereon he could rest his Soul save of the Holy Scriptures wherein the most remarkable Passage that lay upon his Spirit was Titus the 2. ver 11 12 13 14 15. Grotius one of the greatest of Scholars concluded his Life with this Protestation That he would give all his Honor and Learning for the plain Integrity and harmless Innocency of Jean Urick who was a Devout Poor Man who spent Eight hours of his Time in Prayer Eight in Labor and but Eight in Sleep and other Necessaries And with this Complaint to another who admired his Astonishing Learning and Industry Ah Vitam perdedi opero se nihil Agendo And this Direction to a Third that desired in his great Learning and Wisdom in brief to shew him what to do who bade him Be Serious Count Gundomer was as great a Wit and Statesman as ever Europe knew and took as much Liberty in point of Religion till drawing towards his latter end he would say as they say of Ansalem I fear nothing more in the World than Sin often professing That if he saw Corporally the Horror of Sin on the one hand and the Pains of Hell on the other and must necessarily be plunged into the One he would choose Hell rather than Sin yea that what liberty soever he had taken he had rather be torn in pieces with Wild Horses than wittingly or willingly run into any Sin. Above all says Sir Philip Sidney at the time of his Death govern your Will and Affections by the Word and Will of your Creator and in me behold the end of this World. Damnation PEter Lumbard says GOD Condemns none before he Sins nor Crowns any before he Overcomes Disrespect IF any despise thee do not bear a grudge against him for it And be not offended with any meerly because they do not Honor thee If any neglect or slight thee care not for it yet observe it Distrust IT is Distrust of God to be troubled about that which is to come Impatience against God to be troubled for what is present and Anger at him to be troubled at what is past Vid. Afflictions and Sufferings Doubting ONe cause of uncomfortable Living is That Christians look more at their present Cause of Comfort or Discomfort than they do at their future Happiness and the way to attain it Another cause of Doubting is The weakness and small measure of your Graces
Injuries INjuries of Evils present are to be neglected for hopes of things to come St. Cyprian You must saith St. Jerom be a Dove and a Serpent the one not to do hurt to others the other not to be hurt by others He knows not how to live that knoâ—â— not how to bear Wrongs David Chiterus The Mercies and Forgiveness that I find and hope for at the Lords hands engageth and disposeth me to forgive Injuries and Abuses done to me And I should not think it much that I who am so sinful should bear some Contumelies and Abuses from Men. Corbet The more Men Wrong thee the more watchfully maintain thy Love to them Ibid. When that another hath spoken to thy Disgrace beware of a transport of Anger that thou speak not harshly and unadvisedly against him or too Passionately or as too much concerned for self Ibid. Vid. Wrongs Incarnation TO believe the Incomprehensible Mistery of our Saviour's Incarnation that the omnipotent Divine Nature and the weak Nature of Man are united in one Person of Christ is sure a very hard thing of Belief and requires the express Word of God to submit to and captivate our Understandings in Obedience to it for the Union of the Divine Nature Vid. John 1.1 Idleness HE is a Sluggard that would raign with God and will not labor for God. In the promised Reward he takes delight but the Commanded Combats affright him Bead. Ingratitude ST Austin called Ingratitude the Devils Spunge whereby he wipes out all the favours of the Almighty Integrity SAint Cyprian says There can be no Integrity whereby they that should Condemn the Wicked are ever wanting and they only which should be Condemned are ever present Judgment SAint Jerom said Whatsoever he did he still thought that that Voice was still in his Ears Arise ye Dead and come to Judgment Interest THey who least consider Hazard in the doing of their Duty fare best still The surest way to Safety is to have one Interest espoused firmly as never to be changed KINGS IT is a Maxim that KINGS are like the Sun and Usurpers like Falling-Stars for the Sun tho' it be Effuscated or Eclipsed with Mists and Clouds yet at length becomes refulgent whereas the others are but Figures of Stars to the view and prove no more than Exhalations which suddainly dissolve and fall to the Earth where they are consumed First Jesus Christ is his Enemies King. Secondly His Saints King. Thirdly His Fathers King. The First he Rules Over the Second he Rules In and the Third he Rules For. Knowledge ST Basil said To know thy self is very difficult for as the Eye can see all things but it self so some can discern all Faults but their own There is a common Knowledge and there is a saving Knowledge common Knowledge is that which floats in the Head but doth not Influence and affect the Heart This Knowledge Reprobates may have Numb 23.10 but then the saving Knowledge of God and Christ which doth include the assent of the Mind and consent of the Will This is Knowledge which implies Faith Isa 5.8 By his Knowledge shall my Righteous Servant Justifie many For us to know but to know that 's Curiosity to know to be known that 's Vain-Glory but to know to Practise what we know that 's Gospel-Duty He only knows GOD aright that knows how to Obey him and Obeys according to his Knowledge of him Psal 111.10 a good Understanding have all they that keep his Commandments Law of GOD. EVsebius saith That Moses Wrote the Old Law in dead Tables of Stone but Christ did write the lively and perfect Documents of the New Law in Tables of the New-Testament in living Souls One Law Executed is worth Twenty Made No Laws so no good could be done by a Governor that was not Absolute without either restraint or a Competitor Machiavil Law and Equity have Two Courts but Law and Equity should dwell in one Breast Light Gold. THe Master of a Company affirmed That they had a pair of Scales that would turn with the Two hundredth part of a Grain I should be loath said Mr. Attorney General Noy standing by that all my Actions should be weighed by those Scales We are all but Light Gold. Liberty A People accustomed to live under a Prince if by accident they become free are like Beasts let loose and have much ado either to maintain their Government or their Liberty Machiavil Love. LOve is nothing but a disposition of the Will whereby it cleaves or makes forward to some good thing that is agreeable to it self Preston 216. St. Jerom used this excellent saying If my Father stood Weeping on his Knees before me and my Mother hanging on my Neck behind me and all my Brothers Sisters Children and Friends howling on every side to retain me in a sinful Life I would run over my Father fling my Mother to the Ground despise my Kindred and fling them under my Feet that I may run to CHRIST Here 's Love and Fortitude St. Austin saith Love is strong as Death as Death killeth the Body so Love of Eternal Life kills Worldly Desires and Affections The Love of Christ being predominant in the Soul deadens the Affections to any thing else Christ asked Peter Three Times Lovest thou me not for his own Information but that by his Threefold Profession he might help his Threefold Negation of him Nicephorus To Love God and to be conformable to him is that which I most of all desire should be in me Corbet's Enquiry God will never Damn in Hell any Soul that hath the habitual Predominance of the Love of God in his Soul tho' culpable or otherwise sinful whil'st remains such yea Hell and such Love are inconstant Ibid. 30. I Love to Love GOD says Mr. Corbet and desire this Love not only as an evidence of my Salvation but for it self I had much rather have an Heart to Love him perfectly than to have all the Honors Riches and Pleasures of this World. Ib. 17. Love to God is the Fountain and Spring of all true Obedience most of the Hypocrites Love empties it self in Vain-Glory Mat. 6.2 5. Hos 10.1 We know that we have passed from Death unto Life because we love the Brethren John 3.14 10. there we understand Brethren by Grace and not by Nature or otherwise to love God for Godliness sake the Saints for Saintships sake this is a sure Testimony of our Christianity A Sinner cannot Love a Saint Quatenus a Saint neither can a Saint love a Sinner Quatenus a Sinner John 15.19 Psal 57.4 It is a true Rule That Love is ever Rewarded either in the Recipoque or with an Inward or secret Contempt Watch against all secret Pleasure in the lessening of another for advancing of thy self Divine Love says Basil is a never failing Treasure he that hath it is Rich and he that wanteth it is Poor Chrisostom saith A Bulwark of Adamant is not more impregnable than the Love of Brethren
Moment unto me for that it hath as great an Influence on my Spirit as any inward thing hath and I believe God will provide for me herein or otherwise supply the want of it My earnest request therefore to God is That my outward Condition may be so stated by his wise and gracious Providence as may be least exposed to Temptations and best disposed and furthered as to Duty Mr. Corbet Truth DIonisius Areopagitus said That he desired Two Things of God 1st That he might know the Truth himself 2d That he might Preach it as he ought to others Help me O Lord that I may examine my Self in the Evening how I have born the Troubles and Crosses of the Day Did I not Murmur Vex and Sink Did I not Entertain hard Thoughts nor utter hard Words against God One being designed an Agent waited on the knowing Lord Wentworth for some Directions for his Conduct and Carriage who delivered himself thus To secure your self and serve your Country you must at all Times and upon all Occasions speak Truth and by this means Truth will secure your self if you be questioned and those you deal with who will still run counter to a loss in all your Disquisitions and Undertakings Theodosius Junior said That Emperors of all other Men were most Miserable because commonly the Truth of Business was concealed from them Vntowardliness SIR Edward Fox in his First years none more untowardly in his last none more staid The untoward Youth makest the ablest Man he that hath Mettle to be Extravagant when he cannot govern himself hath a Spirit to be eminent when he can Vsurpation THE Earl of Strafford used this Maxime That there is no danger small but what is thought so This was his great Principle Usurped Royalty was never laid down by Perswasion from Royal Clemency for with Tirants Omne Jus Regni Vain-Glory I Have an Inclination to seek Self particularly in vain Applause and that in Religious Services and herein I have been highly Guilty but I shame my Self for it before God and am willing to be satisfied with the Praise that comes from Him alone I trust through his Grace that I my self in matter of Reputation seek to do his Will. Corbet's Enquiry Victory THere is a compleat Victory and an incompleat over the World 1 John 1.3 If we say we have no Sin we deceive our Selves and the Truth is not in us The compleat Victory our Saviour only performed John 14.30 The Prince of this World hath nothing in me which cannot be so with us until our Change come for until then we carry about with us Lusts Passions and Corruptions which without Vigilancy kept under and daily impaired in their Power and Malignity will hold Corespondency with the Prince thereof and be ready to betray and deceive us tho never to regain their Empire and So veraignty and the Reason is significantly given by the Apostle 1 John 3.9 For his Seed abideth in him and he cannot Sin because he is born of God Indeed he may and shall have Sin as he hath Flesh about him 1 John 1.3 If we say we have no Sin we deceive our selves and the Truth is not in us for tho we have Sin still abiding in us and like the Byas of a Bowl warping us to the World yet that Vital Seminal Principle of the Grace of God in Christ always keeps its Ground its Life its Tendency towards Heaven and wears out and gradually subdues the contrary Tendency of Sin and Corruption Hales 101. Vertues TO set out Vertues and by Words to destroy the same are nothing worth All the Vertues are so linked together that he that hath one hath all and he that wants one wants all Vertues separated are annihillated Chrysologus Heavenly Sayings SEneca a man of great Parts Prudence and Experience after a serious Study of almost all the Philosophy then in the World was almost a Christian in his severe Reproofs of Vice and Excellent Discourses of Vertue and Jerom reckoning him for his supposed Epistle to St. Paul and St. Paul's to him being read by them that study saith Mr. Gattater Divinity as they that study other Learning came to that Excellent Temper by the Consideration of his reduced years which is to be seen in his Excellent Preface to his Natural Questions What a pitiful Thing is Man were it not that his Soul soared above these Earthly Things yea and was somewhat dubious as to the future Condition of the Soul Yet he could tell his dear Friend Lucilius With what Pleasure he could think of it and at last he was settled in his Opinion of an everlasting State with thought That the Soul had the mark of Divinity in it That it was most pleased with Divine Speculations and conversed with them as matter that did not merely concern it and when it had once viewed the Dimensions of the Heavens it was asham'd of the Cottage it dwelt in Nay were it not for these Contemplations it had not been worth the while for the Soul to have been in the Body as he goes on Whence come such amazing Fears such dreadful Apprehensions such startling Thoughts of their Future Condition in Mind that would fain ease themselves believing that Death would put an end or period to Soul and Body When on the other side come such encouraging Hopes such confident Expectations comfortable Preposessions of their future State in the Souls of Men when their Bodies are nearest the Grave and whilst the Soul is kept in its Cage it is coutinually fluttering up and down and delights to look out now at this part and then at the other to take a view by Degrees of the whole Universe To these Notions of the future State it was that Caesar owed that Opinion of Death That it was better to die once than to lose his Life in continual Expectations of Death being troubled with that Unhappiness of Men mentioned in Atheneus That he had done his Work as if it had been his Play and his Play as if it had been his Work. Daniel Hensive Historiographer at Leyden Secretary and Bibliotheatory of that Famous University appointed Notary of the Synod at Dort said at last Ah as to Humane Learning I may use Solomon's Expression That which is crooked cannot be made streight Methinks saith the same Hensive and Mr. Baxter out of him I can bid the World farewel Immure my self among my Books and look forth no more were it a Lawful Course but shut the Door upon me as in the lapse of Eternity and among those Divine Sages employ my self with Content and pitty the Rich and Great Ones that know not this Happiness Surely then it is true Delight indeed which in the true Lap of Eternity is enjoyed Francis Junius a Gentile and Ingenious Person who hath written his own Life as he was reading Tully de Legibus fell into a Perswasion Nihil curare Deum nec sui nec alieni till in a Tumult at Lyons the Lord
Instinctive flight Whose weary Wings may on thy Hands still light Teach me to soar aloft yet so When near the Sun to stop again below Thus shall my humble Feathers safely hover And tho' ne'er Earth more than the Heavens discover And then at last when homeward I shall drive Rich with the Spoils of Nature to my Hive There will I sit like that Industrious Flie Buzzing thy praises which shall never Dye Till Death abridge them of exceeding Glory Bid me go on in a more lasting Story Will of God. SOME have satisfied themselves with this single Thought that 't is in vain to be troubled since things must not be as we will but as the Almighty Being pleases Cold comfort But God be thanked we have much better to Comfort us viz. That the World is not governed meerly by God's Will but by his Wisdom he disposeth of all things according to his good Pleasure but it pleaseth him to dispose of all things to the best He ruleth the World not only as an absolute Lord but as a loving Father It is a poor center of a Man's Actions Himself it is Earth for that only stands fast upon its own Center where all things that have Affinity with the Heavens move upon the Center of another which they benefit L. Bacon Seeming wise Men may make shift to get Opinion but let no Man chose them for Employment for certainly you had better take for Business a Man somewhat absurd than over formal Bacon 148. A Noble Lord at the time of his Death told his Son That he would leave him a Legacy out of David's Psalms Lord lead me into a plain Path for said he I would have you a plain Honest Man. To which I may add that excellent saying of the same Noble Lord The Wisdom of those young Men is most Excellent who by Providence and Discourse of Reason do so Order their Affairs that they stay not till Necessity and Experience force them to that Order which fore-sight would much sooner have taken Wrongs WRongs many times make way for better Fortune If Men slight us and despise us and speak evil and unjustly against us and take away our good Name yea if they take away our Estates c. if we be not angry nor fill'd with Despight nor retaliate their wrongs then it is not we but they that ought to be troubled The Word HE that Delights in the Word because it is Spiritual he is a Christian indeed the more Spiritual the Ordinances the more Spiritual they are the more doth a gracious Soul delight in them when the word comes close to the Conscience rips up the Heart and discovers Sin and yet delights in it notwithstanding this is a sign of Grace Also when Delight arises from that Communion that is to be had with God there this is from a Principle of Grace in the Soul. Mead 73. The Word was made Flesh to teach Patience and to perswade to Vertue Vide Scripture Mr. Knox was tempted by Satan to think that he merited for his great Service until God brought into his mind that of St. Paul What hast thou that thou hast not received Not I but the Grace of God that is in me Vnless says Luther My Adversaries can convince me by sound Arguments taken out of the Word of God I cannot satisfy my Conscience for I can plainly prove that both Pope and Councel have often erred grievously and therefore it would be an ungodly thing in me to assent unto them and to depart from the Holy Word of God which is plain and cannot err Cromwel from K. Henry the Eighth advises the Covocation That they conclude all Differences by the Word of God neither will his Majesty suffer the Scriptures to be wrested by false Glosses Papistical Laws or by any Authority of Doctors or Councels much less will he suffer any Articles not contained in Scripture but only founded on a Continuance of Time and Custom or by unwritten Verities as you were wont to do But the only way to Unity is to determine Acts and Things by the Rule of Gods Word as himself requireth In thy Zeal against others be mindful of thy own exceeding Sinfulness call to mind thy great Offences which when they are unfeignedly repented of give thee to understand what Cause thou hast to be Meek Humble and Patient towards all Men for Right Zeal is a Coelestial Fire the true temper and heat of all the Affections to God and Christ Qui non Zelat non Amat It is a Zeal kindled in the Soul by the Spirit of God who first knows it and then sets it on work It is a Zeal that hath the Word of God for its Guide directing it in its workings both in regard of its Object and End in Manner and Measure It is a Zeal that checks Sin and furthers an Heavenly Life It is a Zeal that makes God and the Glory of God its chief end and swallows up all by-ends The Zeal of thine House hath eaten me up The Emperor Valence sent a Message to St. Basil promising him great Preferment if he would turn Nessorian but he replied i.e. These Speeches are fit to catch little Children that look after such things but we that are nourisht by the Holy Scriptures are readier to die a thousand Deaths rather than to suffer one Syllable or Tittle of the Scriptures to be altered Theodosius was wont to say That he accounted it a greater Honour that he was a Member of the Church than that he was the Head of the Empire It is reported That a Minister having reproved a Gentleman's Tennant for many Disorders yet would not forgo them for which he complained of him to his Landlord who advised him to admonish him once more and that if he did not then amend That he should then sanctify his Hand and give him a Box on the Ear. Full quickly waxeth cold Religious Fame Unless by Zeal we do uphold the same FINIS