whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Iohn 3. 16. 2. Iohn 7. 47 48. Are yee also deceived have any of the Rulers or Pharisees beleeved on him Heere the chiefe Priests and Pharisees boyling with much envie and indignation against CHRISTS preaching for he preached with power and not as the Scribes And because the people so flocked after him for there followed him great multitudes of people had sent officers to apprehend him and bring him before them Who when they came to him and heard him preach they were so strucke and astonished with the most piercing Majesty of his Ministry that they had no power to lay hands or hold upon him at all Upon their returne these great men gathered together in counsell against him like so many morning Wolves thirsting eagerly for his bloud calls hastily and impatiently unto them before their officers could say any thing Why have yee not brought him They doe not examine them about his doctrine or inquire whether he be guilty or no but like unjust and tyrannicall wretches they labour to lay hold upon him though most innocent to stop his mouth and make him sure But the Officers answered Never man spake like this man Whereupon the spirit of prophane malice being yet further enraged in them they reply Are yee also deceived What Are you turned Gospellers too Will yee also gad with the giddie multitude after this new Master c. And then being frighted least they should fall from them goes about to take them off with a very foolish argument saith Theophylact though the Minor would be true and is the sinew of my proofe Have any of the Rulers or of the Pharisees beleeved on him Alas No. They are so blinded with an opinion of their devout and deeper learning so puft up with the pride of their high places so swolne with selfe-conceitednesse of their owne formes and false glosses and so possest with prejudice against the spirituall and heavenly Doctrine of CHRIST that the very Publicans and Harlots goe into the Kingdome of GOD before them That is when they goe not And thus it is in all ages of the Church There is a Lecture I will suppose To which many of the meaner sort especially resort for spirituall foode as to the Market for corporall Some of which happily wrought upon by the saving influence of that Ministery begins to blesse GOD for the benefit and magnifie his mercy for such meanes but some By-standers like pestilent opposites interpose yea but which of the great men of the Countrey come to it when doe you see any of the Nobles Knights or Gentlemen there No alas They are afraid of hearing of their sins being made Melancholicke and to be tormented before their time and therfore they most wretchedly neglect so great salvation forsake their owne mercies and judge themselves unworthy of everlasting life Bowling-greenes gaming-houses horse-races hunting-matches Their curs and their Kites their cock-pits and their covetousnesse or something doe too often eate up and devoure that blessed fat and marrow of time those golden and goodly opportunities which GOD in great mercy affords them in the Ministry to make their peace with him before they goe into the pit and bee seene no more For one houre whereof to heare but one Sermon after the irrecoverable day of visitation is past and expired they would be content to live as precisely and mortifiedly as ever man did upon earth so long as the world lasts but it shall not be granted A thousand worlds will not purchase it againe And besides when your soules shall then furiously reflect upon their owne wilfull folly in this respect and the wofull misery they have brought upon themselves thereby it will sharpen infinitely the bitings of the never-dying worme and torment moreterribly than ten thousand Scorpions stings Remember this I pray you all ye that forget GOD before that wrath be kindled in His bosome against you which will burne unto the very bottome of hell and set on fire the foundations of the mountaines before He gird about Him those arrowes which will drinke bloud and that sword which will eat flesh and come against you as the Prophet speakes like a beare robbed of her whelpes and rent the very caule of your hearts and teare you in peeces when there is none to helpe 3. Nehem. 3. 5. But their Nobles put not their necks to the worke of the LORD Others as you may see in that place were industriously busie in building up the wals and repairing the holy City for the wonted worship and service of their GOD but the Nobles would do just nothing And thus it hath beene in all times and is just so in our dayes Meane men many times contribute very liberally and farre above their ability to the procurement and maintenance of a profitable and powerfull Ministery but the rich worldly-wise and gentlemen thereabouts will not part with a penny for any such holy purpose Such great men as these will by no meanes put their neckes their power and their purses to any such blessed worke of the LORD though it be for the erecting of the Kingdome of IESVS CHRIST amongst them for the illumination and refreshing of a darke and barren place with the light of the Gospell and waters of life where both their owne soules and many more about them are starving and bleeding to eternall death for want of heavenly food and ministeriall helpe Nay too many of them detaining the Churches Patrimony will neither restore it to the proper native use and end nor which is very lamentable part with a little portion of a large revenew in that kind towards a competency Before you receive encouragement to go on in this course with comfort I pray you procure us from your partakers if there be any such Answers to those many learned Treatises extant upon this argument and for any thing I know utterly unanswered especially Mr. Bernards Dr. Sclaters and Dr. Fields I know well some excellent spirits of late meerely out of the gracious freenesse of their truly noble dispositions to their great honour and adorning profession have given backe to the Church for ever I meane nothing about buying in Impropriations one of the most glorious works in that kinde for any thing I know that ever was undertaken in this Kingdome diverse Church-livings some an hundred pound per annum some sixe or seven score some threescore some one so many as amount to the value of above seven hundred pounds yearely But I must tell you also they are onely such as you mis-call Puritan-gentlemen for I neither heare nor know of any other that stirs this way and how few such are to be found in a Countrey every eye spiritually illightened may clearely see and heartily bewaile For I meane none but such as are in true search and censure GODS best servants and the Kings best subjects I come in a second place to make the
And such is the Child as for its owne sake it will find good entertainment though the Father of it were unknowne Adistinct narration of the life and death of the Author you have truly and punctually as becommeth such a narration premised All his Workes do shew that he was full in what he undertooke so full as he leaves scarce any thing if any thing at all for another Author to add more than he hath done to what he hath done He had a very searching and diving gift whereby he was able to anatomize and lay open the severall parts and nerves of the points which he handled and to set out pertinent signes rules meanes and motives thereabout His expression of his mind by fit words and phrases was answerable to his invention Both very copious full of variety Take for instance this ensuing Treatise the maine scope whereof is to furnish a Christian against the evill day Therein you may observe how on the one side he discovers the false meanes which most use and how on the other side he revealeth the true meanes that are of singular use to the end intended yea and how he enforceth the same with reason upon reason the better to demonstrate the equity of the point how also he infers all sorts of Uses thereupon as Reprehension Exhortation Direction and Consolation and finally how he takes occasion from thence of an exceeding large discourse upon the foure last things which to use his owne words have beene ever holden very materiall and of speciall moment to make us by GODS blessing more humble un-worldly provident and prepared for the evill day Those foure Heads are DEATH IVDGEMENT HELL HEAVEN To add more to what he hath set out thereabouts were to powre water into the sea First read then judge and the LORD add his blessing W. G. THE LIFE AND DEATH OF Mr. BOLTON THat one age may tell another that the memoriall of the just shall be ever blessed when the persons and names of those that are otherwise minded shall rot and vanish away It hath beene the pious custome of ancient and later times to commend to posterity the eminent graces of the Saints departed Famous are those Panegyricke Orations made at the tombes of the Martyrs in the Primitive times when as their persecuting Emperours priding themselves in their lamentable deaths have left no other noyse behind them than the loud and long continued cries of spilling innocent bloud Memorable also are the Funerall Orations of the two Gregories Nyssen and Nazianzen on Basill the great And in later times to give a few instances for the number in this kinde is infinite Melancthon and Camerarius wrote the life of Martyn Luther Iunius the life of Vrsine Beza the life of Calvin Antonius Faius the life of Beza Iosias Simler the life of Peter Martyr and Dr. Humphrey the life of our most renowned Iewell This manner of honouring the Saints is warranted by GODS owne example who for ought is revealed to us tooke order for Moses buriall digged his grave covered him with molds and made for him that excellent Funerall Sermon expressed in the first Chapter of Ioshuah And that all-wise GOD who sweetly disposeth all things thinkes it needfull thus to grace his owne people that he may hereby uphold their spirits amid those many pressures scornes reproaches cruell mockings and innumerable other miseries which they endure of the world meerely for his service be they otherwise never so wise just meeke peaceable and unrebukeable amongst men Witnesse those many terrible persecutions mentioned in Ecclesiasticall Stories against the Christians though harmlesse and innocent though they prayed for their Emperours and GOD did miracles in their armies by their prayers yet for this onely cause that they honoured CHRIST and called themselves Christians so odious was that precious name unto their adversaries they were put to the extremest tortures that the utmost inventions of cruelty and rage could devise against them as Iustine Martyr and Tertullian in their learned and eloquent Apologies for them do amply demonstrate this caused Adrian the Emperour to ordaine that thenceforth none of them should be appeached barely for that name unlesse they transgressed the Lawes According to these examples and for the very same causes I have adventured to publish to the world the life and death of this man of GOD the Authour of this Work now a Saint in heaven I confesse his worth and parts deserved rather an advancement by some such eloquent Orators as I mentioned before than a depression by my pen but yet a pearle may be shewed forth as well by a weake hand as by the arme of a gyant I shall do no more And let his owne worth and workes praise him in the gates I knew him from the beginning of my youth being my first Tutour in the Vniversitie of Oxford and my selfe one of his first Schollers and from that time to the day of his death being above seven and twenty yeares none knew him better or loved him more our familiarity was such that alluding to that betweene Paul and Timothy I may say I knew his doctrine manner of life faith charity patience and now will onely relate what I have heard and seene wherein I will not exceed the bounds of modesty or truth To begin with his birth I observe that throughout the sacred Bible and writings on the persons of holy men their places of birth are ever remembred GOD loves the very ground his servants tread on The LORD shall count sayes David when he numbreth up the people that this man was borne there whereas of other men there shall be no remembrance of them they shall have none to lament or bury them but shall be cast forth as dung on the face of the earth so that I may say of them as was said of Pope Boniface the eight famous for nothing but his wickednesse intravit vulpes regnavit leo exivit canis the Prophet David renders it thus in plaine English They spend their daies in mirth and suddenly go downe into hell He was borne at Blackborne a towne of good note in Lancashire on Whitsunday Anno Dom. 1572. His parents being not of any great meanes yet finding in him a great towardlinesse for learning destinated him to be a scholler and strugled with their estate to furnish him with necessaries in that kind apprehending the advantage of a singular Schoole-master that was then in the towne He plied his booke so well that in short time he became the best scholler in the schoole and no marvell for he had those sixe properties of a scholler noted by Isocrates and others which concurring in one thrust up learning to a very high elevation 1. He was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of excellent parts and abilities of mind and of a sound constitution of body 2. He was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a very strong memory I meane such a memory as was notably actuated
in their new purchased place And we must know there is too much truth in that principle of policy in Tacitus Never any came to an high roome wrongfully and unworthily but he exercis'd his power and authority wickedly and unjustly They therefore pitch presently upon such conclusions as these We will pleasure our friends though we prey upon the publike or pinch some peevish precise fellowes which can well beare it we will plague our enemies we must above all manage matters with a fit correspondency to accomplish our owne ends especially to enrich our selves raise our kindred make way to rise higher and greaten our posterity we must looke big and sometimes amaze the multitude with some acts of awfulnesse and terrour to procure and preserve respect feare and all attributions proper to our place and let me tell you by the way He that suspecteth his owne worth or other mens opinions thinking that lesse regard is had of his person than he believes is due to his place holds it good policy to spend all the force of his authority in purchasing the name of a severe man For the affected sowrenesse of a vaine fellow doth many times resemble the gravity of one that is wise and the feare wherein they live which are subject to oppression caries a shew of reverence to him that does the wrong at least it serves to dazle the eyes of underlings keeping them from prying into the weakenesse of such as have jurisdiction over them c. Beside all this men in great place are liable and expos'd daily to moe and stronger temptations than men of lower ranks Honour wealth worldly reputation earthly favours c. are Satans snares to entangle and tie them faster to their fooles paradise and admired folly and as golden fetters to chaine them unmooveably to their noble slavery Secondly great men are for the most part and it is one of their greatest miseries so enclosed and beleager'd with flatterers the basest of slaves with sycophants false-hearted followers selfe-seekers c. that very hardly if at all can any honest man or faithfull Micaiah have accesse come neare them or at any time be heard with patience especially either to tell them the truth or wisely and humbly reprove them for their faults Thirdly those that are verst in story shall find many and many a time this property put upon men in high place to be throwne into the grave or from their greatnesse is both one to them For first they so delight in domineering and dote upon their high roome as their dearest Idoll And withall they know full well that as in naturall privation there is no returne to habit so it is very rarely seene in the privation politique and point of preferment that they would even rather die than be dejected Lay now these two points together and count all the snares from which poorer and private men by reason of their meaner condition are happily exempted And no marvell though not many mighty either in heapes of wealth or height of places be converted or go to heaven In the fourth place what a strong hold for the powers of hell and mighty barre to keepe out grace worldly wisdome is may appeare by taking notice of the nature of it and so of its notoriously pestilent properties This wisdome of the flesh springing from the principles of carnall reason and precepts of humane policie and receiving continuall influence and instigation from that old wily serpent to go on still in his and the worlds waies doth with a proud disdainfulnesse and imperious contempt scorne the great mysteries of godlinesse foolishnesse of preaching simplicity of the Saints and society of the brotherhood crosseth directly and contradicts the counsell and commands of GODS Spirit in all motions to good and matters of salvation accounts in good earnest holinesse hypocrisie sanctification singularity profession and practice of sincerity precisenesse the great things of GODS Law as a strange thing In all its consultations concludes ever things pleasing to flesh and bloud and ends at last with extremest folly and utter confusion Witnesse Achitophel who was wise enough to set his house in order and yet wanted wit to rescue his owne life out of his owne hands he was curious to provide for his family after his death and had no care at all to preserve himselfe from eternall death was not this a madnesse even to miracle as Divines speake He got him home to his house put his houshold in order and hanged himselfe and is hanged up in chaines as a dreadfull spectacle to all posterity for all worldly-wise men to take warning by to the worlds end The Spirit of GOD intimates unto us the pestilency of its properties Iames 3. 15. It is First Earthly Secondly Sensuall Thirdly Devillish Devillish for it imitateth the Devill in plotting and contriving mischiefe and ruine against the glory of GODS Majesty and Ministry of His Word It tasts of his hellish wilinesse in close conveyances and secret infidiations for the undermining supplanting and confounding of the passage of the Gospell and plantation of grace in the hearts of men Satan you know is ever fierce and furious when he spies but the least glimpse of GODS truth or sparke of grace to peepe our and breake forth at any time or in any place When the glorious sun-shine of the Gospell did in these latter times of the world according to the Prophecie in the Revelations arise out of the darksome night and dangerou fogs of Popery and begun graciously to inlighten many thousand soules which lay in darknesse and under the shadow of death with what strange and prodigious rage did the great Dragon presently ascend out of his bottomlesse pit Since that time what furious martyring of the Saints what horrible murthering of Kings what bloudy massacres what invincible Armadoes what hellish powder-plots what devouring of Martyrs by that bloud-thirsty monster the Spanish Inquisition what hatefull imprisonings what desperate conspiracies what a deale of hell hath vext and rent the face of Europe and shaken the pillars of this part of the world as though all the fiends in hell and whole armies of those damned spirits were broke loose to cast the Christian world into a new Chaos of darknesse combustion and confusion And all this hath beene the Devils doings of pure spite and malice against the light of the Gospell and power of the Word The Pope Iesuites and their wicked adherents have beene indeed the instruments and executioners of all these bloudy miseries but Satan himselfe was the principall agent The cursed influence of all this wrath and rage was inspir'd from him and every particular and circumstance of all these mischiefes was first plotted in hell before they were acted upon earth 2. In our owne kingdome also his spite and malice against the light of the Gospell hath beene notorious and transcendent since the Word of truth hath growne powerfull amongst us With what strange fury and
with you and tell you that upon the LORDS Day you must not serve yourselves and your owne turnes in idlenesse travailing sports gaming in any earthly businesse or mis-imployment whatsoever but spend that whole blessed Day wholly and onely in spirituall refreshing heavenly businesses divine worship and holy duties in meditation upon the creatures spiritually upon the great worke of redemption and resurrection of CHRIST and upon that everlasting rest above of all which the Christian Sabbath is a remembrancer unto us in both publike and private prayer reading singing of Psalmes hearing Sermons conference c. and in ruminating and as it were chewing the cud upon Scripture points I say ruminate as it were and chew the cud for it is the very phrase of the Church of England in the Homily for reading Scriptures And those reverend and godly men which composed them expresse the benefit thereof emphatically Thus run the words Let us ruminate of the Scriptures sc. that we may have the sweet juyce spirituall effect marrow honey kernell taste comfort and consolation of them I say suppose ye were thus prest would ye not presently out of your worldly wisdome and impatiency to be so snaffâ—…d at to be tied all the day to spirituall exercises and restrain'd from ordinary recreations conceive of it and cry out against it as a puritanicall novelty and foolish precisenesse Because you mention precisenesse and novelty I could as I am wont and to make you without excuse appeale unto and implore the aid of antiquity which will utterly take off such aspersions And here were it incident and seasonable I were able to procure Councels and Fathers and other authorities concurrently to testifie and take my part that upon the LORDS Day we are to recreate our selves onely with spirituall delights onely then to ply divine businesses and to do those things alone which belong to our soules salvation Heare their owne words We ought upon that Day Solummodò spiritualibus gaudijs repleri Concilium Parisiense Anno 829. Tantùm divinis cultibus serviamus August de Temp. Serm. 251. Soli divino cultui vacemus Idem Ibid. Eaque tantum faciat quae ad animae salutem pertinent Hierom. in Cap. 56. Isa. Nay the whole Church of England hath this threescore yeares and above complyed exactly with antiquity in this point in the Hom. of the place and time of prayer These are the words GODS people should use the Sunday holily and rest from their common and daily businesse and also give themselves wholly to heavenly exercises of GODS true religion and service And yet for all this you are so wise in your owne conceipts ye will none of this saving folly you are no such fooles as after so long liberty to fall â—…o any such strictnesse Secondly suppose a Minister should counsell you when you come home from the house of GOD to take your Bibles and call both your wives and children to the comparing together and conferring upon those things which were taught That the husband should exact of the wife and the wife aske of the husband those things that were there spoken and read or at least some of them That you should set this law to your selves to be kept inviolably and not onely to your selves but also to your wives and children that you would spend that one whole Day of the whole weeke whereon you meet to heare the Word in meditation of those things which are delivered I say now in this case your carnall wisedome would resolutely condemne such counsells as contrary to the counsell of great houses as a way to become a By-word to the whole Country and as savoring too rankly of a foolish strictnesse and needlesse singularity And yet this was totidem verbis wise holy advise above twelve hundred yeares agoe For it giving the counsell I have but rendred Chrysostome word for word in diverse places Hom. 5. in Matth. In Eph. Serm. 20. Hom. 2. in Ioan. Hom. 5. ad Popul Antioch Thirdly If Preachers should presse you to plant and preserve Family Duties in your house Prayer and reading Scriptures evening and morning Singing of Psalmes c. and you of greatest meanes may best spare time for such blessed businesses Would not your wisedomes thinke this more then need And that it would bee a foolish thing and much against your profit to rob your selves and servants of so much time from your worldly affaires And yet here I could produce foure or five Fathers above a thousand yeares ago pressing this point and punctuall for my purpose Besides Ambrose quoted in my Book of Walking with God pag. 67. Here other Fathers Basil Origen Chrysostome August Fourthly If you were moved by the Ministery to restore every halfe penny that you have any waies at any time got wrongfully or by any wicked meanes or that you detaine unjustly from any man And then casting your eye backe and considering How you are growne hastily rich and by what waies you are come to a great deale of wealth should finde very foule workes would you not force your selves by a strong counter-plea of carnall reason not to beleeve the point and thinke it extreame madnesse at the instance and prating of a precise companion which understands not the world for so or in the like manner would you speake to part perhaps with a good part of your estate And yet Austins Rule of above twelve hundreth yeares standing and confirmed concurrently by all Divines to this day is That Non tollitur peccatum nisirestituatur ablatum No restitution no remission And our owne Church tels us in the second exhortation before the Communion That without readinesse to make restitution and satisfaction for wrongs done the Sacrament as often as you come doth nothing else but increase your damnation Thus might I passe through all the points of Sanctification and passages of holy life And all the great men of the world either in Learning Wealth Nobility or Wisedome according to the flesh would passe these censures upon them and entertaine conceits of them proportionable to that of Nicodemus about the New-birth They will not become fooles in the Apostles sense And therefore they are soakt and fast fettered in the gall of bitternesse and bond of iniquity and that above ordinary Thirdly All ye great ones of the world in the sense I have said As yee are very wise in your own conceits and it may be truly so according to the flesh so you are selfe-conceited and soule-couseners about your spirituall state For you thinke all better then you too precise and all worse then you too prophane and your selves onely to have happily hit upon the golden meane and pitch upon that well-tempered moderation in Religion wherby you may enjoy temporall happinesse here and eternall hereafter Sleepe in a whole skin as they say and with a good conscience Live the life of pleasures and die the death of the righteous Whereas to be so conceited is the very complement and perfection
good Minister at the appearing of that great day and herein GOD wonderfully honoured his Ministery in making him an aged father in CHRIST and to beget many sonnes and daughters vnto righteousnesse for I may truely say many hundreds were either absolutely converted or mightily confirmed or singularly comforted in their grievous agonies by his Ministery for he had such an art in this kinde of relieving afflicted consciences which hee acquired partly by great paines and industry in searching into that skill but chiefly by that manifold experience he had in himselfe and others that he was sought to farre and neare and divers from beyond the seas desired his resolution in divers cases of Conscience which was the onely cause that made him put forth that last learned and godly Treatise of his which he stiled Instructions for a right comforting afflicted consciences And though in his manner of preaching he was a Sonne of thunder yet unto bruised reeds and those that mourned in spirit hee was as sweete a sonne of Consolation as ever I heard and with a very tender and pitifull heart powred the oyle of mercy into their bleeding wounds He as was said of Luther was a mighty opposite to the Divels kingdome and had a singular skill to discerne his sleights and that cunning craftinesse whereby hee lies in wait to deceive He ever thought that there was no such way to cast downe the strong holds of Sathan and to batter his kingdome then after the steps of Iohn the Baptist to lay the axe close to the roote of sinne and to set it on with such power as that the Divell and all his agents were not able to resist it By this meanes he got ground of Satan and wasted his kingdome and there were daily added to his Ministery such whose hearts were softned thereby And in all his Sermons he ever used to discover the filthinesse of sinne and to presse very powerfully upon the conscience the duties of Sanctification in expression whereof three things were remarkeable in him 1. Such courage and resolution of spirit as is scarcely to be found in any I am perswaded that in the cause of GOD he could have beene contented with Martin Luther totius mundi odium impetum sustinere to have undergone the rage and violence of the whole world whereby he gave such vigour unto the truth he delivered that it pierced betweene the very joynts and the marrow 2. Impartiality he would spare none in their sinnes either great or small he knew he was to deliver his Masters will with whom was no respect of persons 3. His wisedome as he was of high courage so was it excellently tempered with wisdome descryed in these foure things 1. In all his denunciations against sinne he never personated any man whereby to put him to shame unlesse his owne inward guiltinesse caused him to apply it to himselfe 2. Hee would never presse upon the conscience the guiltinesse of sinne but he would forâ—…ifie it by Scripture by the ancient Fathers in which he was ripe and ready and the concurrence of the best Orthodoxe Writers to stop the mouth of all slanderers that should accuse his doctrine either of novelty or of too much precisenesse 3. When he had searcht the conscience to the very quicke as he would doe he ever offred CHRIST in all his beauty and sweetnesse and powred it forth upon the conscience with such a torrent of Eloquence as would haue melted the hearts of any but those which obstinately refused the voice of that powerfull charmer 4. He would alwaies protest unto his people that it was a trouble and griefe to him to preach against their sinnes hee delighted not to vexe any of their consciences he should be glad the case was so with them that hee might only preach the riches of the mercies in CHRIST all his dayes But he knew no other way to pull them out of the snare of Satan and state of darkenesse then the way he tooke without drawing the horrible sin of Bloud-guiltinesse upon his soule But that which made his preaching more illustrious was that burning and shining light which appeared in his life and conversation in these five particulars 1. His Piety wherein I need not say much for that second booke of his concerning directions for walking with GOD were framed out of the pious Meditations of his owne heart as a guide for himselfe for the ordering of his steps in the waies of righteousnes which he so strictly observed throughout the course of his life that allowing to him his frailties and infirmities which the holiest men while their flesh is upon them shall not be freed from hee could not bee justly taxed by any no not his very enemies if he had any such of any grosse and scandalous sinnes since his first conversion from them And no marveile if hee attained to such a height of holinesse when he was lifted up thither by the wings of prayer His constant course was to pray sixe times a day twice by himselfe in private twice in publique with his family and twice with his wife Besides many daies of private humiliation and prayer ever before the receiving of the Communion and many daies besides for the miseries of the Churches in France and Germany c which he performed with such ardencie of spirit that as was said of Martin Luther He used such humility as in the presence of Almighty GOD but such fer vencie and faith as if he had beene talking with his friend And GOD heard his prayers for to the comfort of his soule a litle before his death he heard of the mighty victories obtained by the King of Sweden against the Emperour to the astonishment of all the world that those eyes which now behold it with joy doe scarce beleeve themselves in the fruition of it When the LORD saith the Psalmist turned againe the captivity of Zion wee were like them that dreame So indefatigable were the paines of this godly man in his private devotions and publike preaching that being advised by Physitians for his healths sake to breake off the strong intentions of his studies he rejected their counsell accounting it greater riches to enjoy CHRIST by those fervent intentions of his minde then to remit them for the safeguard of his health Much like the speech of that famously learned D â— Reynolds to the Doctors of Oxford comming to visit him in his last sickenesse contracted meerely by his exceeding paines in studie by which he brought his body to a very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who earnestly perswading him that he would not peraere substantiam propter accidentia i. e. â—…o loose his life for learning he with a sweete smile finely answered out of the Poet. Nec propter vitam vivendiperdere causas Nor yet for love of life loose that dare I Which is the cause I live my industry 2. For his Gravity he was of a very comely presence he had a
body was wasted with continuall fits towards the Close of his life yet his understanding and memory was as active and quicke as in the time of his health He encouraged the Ministers that came to him to be diligent and couragious in the worke of the LORD and not to let their spirits faint or droope for any affliction that should arise thereupon To all that came to him he bad them make sure of CHRIST before they came to die and to looke upon the world as a lump of vanity He thanked GOD for his wonderfull mercy to him in pulling him out of hell in sealing his Ministry with the conversion of many soules which he wholly ascribed to his glory About a weeke before he died when his silver cord began to loosen and his golden boule to breake He called for his wife and desired her to beare his dissolution which was now at hand with a Christian fortitude a thing which he had prepared her for by the space of twenty yeares telling her that his approaching death was decreed upon him from all eternity and that the counsell of the LORD must stand and bad her make no doubt but shee should meete him againe in Heaven And turning toward his children told them that they should not expect hee should now say any thing to them neither would his ability of body and breath give him leave he had told them enough in the time of his sicknesse and before and hoped they would remember it and verily believed that none of them durst thinke to meete him at that great Tribunall in an unregenerate state About two daies after divers of his Parish comming to watch with him he was mooved by a friend that as he had discover'd to them by his Doctrine the exceeding comforts that were in CHRIST he would now tell them what he felt in his soule Alas said he doe they looke for that of me now that want breath and power to speake I have told them enough in my Ministry But yet to give you satisfaction I am by the wonderfull mercies of GOD as full of comfort as my heart can hold and feele nothing in my soule but Christ with whom I heartily desire to be And then looking upon some that were weeping said Oh what a deale adoe there is ere one can die The night before hee died when the doores without began to be shut and the daughters of Musicke to bee brought low and hee lying very low with his head expecting every moment when the wheele should be broken at the Cisterne yet being told that some of his deare friends were then about him to take their last farewell He caused himselfe to be lifted up and then like old Iacob bowing himselfe on his beds-head after a few gaspings for breath hee spake in this manner I am now drawing on apace to my dissolution and am just in the Case of Sir Iohn Pickering Hold out Faith and patience your work will speedily be at an end And then shaking them all by the hands prayed heartily and particularly for them and desired them to make sure of heaven and to beare in minde what he had formerly told them in his Ministery protesting to them that the doctrine which he had preached to them for the space of twenty yeares was the truth of GOD as he should answer it at that great Tribunall of CHRIST before whom he should shortly appeare This he spake when the very pangs of death were upon him Whereupon a very deare friend of his taking him by the hand and asking him if he felt not much paine Truely no said he the greatest I feele is your cold hand And then speaking to be laid downe againe hee spake no more untill the next morning when he tooke his last leave of his Wife and Children prayed for them and blessed them all and that day in the afternoone about five of the clocke being Saturday the 17. day of December Anno Dom. 1631. in the LXth yeare of his age yeelded up his spirit to GOD that gave it and according to his owne speech celebrated the ensuing Sabbath in the Kingdome of Heaven Thus in the space of fifteene weekes was the first and most glorious light put out in Broughton that ere that Towne injoyed or that many ages wil render againe And thus haue you good reader the Life and Death of this very learned and godly man truly set forth if any man shall contradict any thing that I haue written of him I shall not be carefull to answer him For if he be good and well knew Mr Bolton he will not have the face to object If he be bad I hold him not worth answering I shall onely say to him in the language of Tacitus didicit ille maledicere ego contemnere He hath taught his tongue to speake ill and I have learned to contemne it There is onely one obiection which I will answer and noe more which beganne to bee muttered in his life time and is now likely to make a lowder noyse if it bee not put to silence This preaching twice a Sabboth is more then needs halfe of it is but prating And Ministers under the Gospell may take more libertie and are not tied to such precisenes and severity of life as hee used I will not grace this objection so much as to beelong in answering it The former part of this objection this learned Author in his Booke of Walking with God and in his Epistle to his last Booke dedicated to that religious noble Knight Sâ— Robert Carre both by reasons and the constant practise and precepts of the ancient Fathers preaching twice a day sometimes every day hath a bundantly and unanswerably confuted I will onely adde two examples of later times the one of renowned Caluin the glorie of his age who Preached or Lectured almost euery day and some dayes twice which Preachings were so excellent that they were the matter of those laborious and learned Commentaries of his upon the Bible which occasioned D. Reynolds aptly and truly to call him doctissimus fidelissimus Scripturae interpres the most learned and faithfull expounder of Scripture The other of our most precious Iewell who was a very frequent and constant Preacher and hastned his own death this way for riding to preach at Lacock in Wilt-Shire a gentleman that met him perceiving the feeblenesse of his body which he had wasted out in such spirituall labours advised him for his healths sake to returne home againe To whom this godly Bishop by way of allusion to that braue speech of Vespatian the Emperor thus excellently replyed Oportet episcopum concionantem mori which in the storie of his life is thus englished It becommeth best a Bishop to die preaching in the pulpit And so he did for presently after the Sermon hee was by the reason of sicknes forced to his Bedd from whence hee never came off till his translation to
evill conscience attends the one of which eats out their heart when we expect an harvest The other seizes upon the Soule in the time of sorrow and sinks it into the lowest hell And as Men of GOD and Sonnes of Wisdome to mount our thoughts and raise our spirits and bend our affections to things above which are as farre from diminution and decay as the Soule from death and can be no more corrupted or shaken than the Seat and Omnipotency of GOD surprised For besides that they infinitely surpasse in eminency of worth and sweetnesse of pleasure the comprehension of the largest heart and expression of any Angels tongue they also out-last the dayes of heaven and run parallell with the life of GOD and line of Eternity As we see the Fountaine of all materiall light to powre out his beames and shining abundantly every day upon the world without wearinesse emptinesse or end so and incomparably more doth joy and peace glory and blisse spring and plentifully flow every moment with fresh streames from the face of the Father of Lights upon all His holy ones in heaven and that everlastingly O blessed then shall we be upon our beds of death if following the counsell of our dearest LORD who shed the most precious and warmest bloud in His heart to bring our soules out of hell we treasure ap now in the meane time heavenly hoards which will ever happily hold out a stocke of grace which never shrinks in the wetting but abides the triall of the spirit and touch-stone of the Word in all times of danger and Day of the LORD even that accurate circumspect and precise walking pressed upon us by the Apostle Eph. 5. 15. Though pestilently persecuted and plagued by the enemies of GOD in all ages And that purity which Saint Iohn makes a property of every true-hearted Professour 1 Iohn 3. 3. So much opposed and bitterly opprest by the world and yet without which none of us shall ever see the face of GOD with comfort If while it is called To Day we make our peace with His heavenly Highnesse by an humble continued exercise of repentance by standing valiantly on His side by holding an holy acquaintance at His mercifull Throne with a mighty importunity of prayer and godly conversation above by ever offering up unto Him in the armes of our Faith when he is angry the bleeding Body of His owne crucified SONNE never giving Him over or any rest untill He bepleased to register and enroll the remission of our sinnes in the Booke of Life with the bloudy lines of CHRISTS Soule-saving sufferings and golden characters of His owne eternall love If now before we appeare at the dreadfull Tribunall of the euer-living GOD and little know we whose turne is next we make our friends in the Court of Heaven the blessed Angels in procuring their joy and love by a visible constancy in the fruits teares and truth of a sound conversion The Spirit of comfort by a ready and reverent entertainment of His holy Motions and inspirations of grace the Sonne and Heire of the King of glory the Foundation and Fountaine of all our Blisse in this world and the world to come from whose meritorious bloud shed and blessed mediation arise all those flouds of mercy and favour which refresh our Soules in this vale of teares and also those unknown bottomlesse seas of pleasure peace and all unspeakable delights which will superabound and overflow with new and fresh sweetnesse for ever and ever in the Paradise of GOD. Blessed are they that ever they were borne who have already got Him their Advocate at the right hand of His Father For besides many other glorious priviledges thereby in all their exigents and extremities they may be ever welcome to the Seat of mercy and be sure to speed If a man had a suit unto the King it were a comfortable and happy thing to find a friend in Court But if the Kings speciall and choisest Favourite nay His own only Son were his Intercessour how confident would he be to prevaile and prosper to conquer his opposites and crowne his desires Why then should any poore Christian be discomforted and cast downe nay why should he not be extraordinarily raised and ravished in spirit with much joyfull hope and sweet assurance when he throwes himselfe downe at the Throne of grace sith the dearest Sonne of the eternall GOD the Heire of heaven and earth the Mediator of the great Covenant of endlesse salvation is his Advocate at the hand of His All-mighty Father in the most high and glorious Court of Heaven Wherefore when an humbled soule and trembling spirit is sore troubled and almost turned backe from his purpose of prayer and prostration at the foot of heavenly Majesty by entertaining before hand a feeling apprehension of his owne abhorred vilenesse and the holy purity of GODS all-seeing and searching eye which cannot looke on iniquity let this consideration comfort and breed confidence that IESVS CHRIST the Son of GODS love doth sollicite and tender the suit who out of His owne sense and sympathy of such like troubles and temptations doth deale for us with a true a naturall and a sensible touch of compassionatenesse and mercy Shall that blessed Saviour of ours call and cry for a pardon to His Father for those which put Him to death who were so farre from seeking unto him that they sought and suckt his bloud and shall He shut His eares against the groanes of thy grieved spirit and heavy sighes of thy bleeding soule who values one drop of His bloud at an higher price than the worth of many worlds It cannot be Thus that saying of Salomon and this counsell of CHRIST makes good the truth of the Point which may further appeare by these Reasons 1. Taking this counsell betime and hoarding up heavenly things in this harvest time of grace mightily helps to asswage the smart mollifie the bitternesse and illighten the darknesse of the evill Day It is soveraigne and serves to take the venime sting and teeth out of any crosse calamity or distresse and so preserves the heart from that raging hopelesse sorrow which like a devouring Harpie dries up dissolves and destroyes the bloud spirits and life of all those who are destitute of such a divine Antidote What vast difference may we discerne betweene Iob and Iudas David and Achitophel in the daies of evill The two men of God being formerly enriched with his favour and familiarity so behaved themselves the one in the ship-wracke of his worldly happinesse the other in the hazard of his Kingdome as though they had not beene troubled at all The LORD gave and the LORD hath taken away saith Iob when all was gone blessed be the name of the LORD If I shall find favour in the eyes of the LORD saith David He will bring me againe and shew me both it and His habitation But if He thus say I have no delight in thee behold here
am I let Him do to me as seemeth good unto Him But the spirits of the other two false and rotten-hearted fellowes in the time of trouble were so overtaken nay over whelmed with griefe that they both hanged themselves 2. This holy providence before hand may happily prevent a great deale of restlesse impatiency reprobate feares forlorne distractions of spirit hying to the caves crying to the mountaines bootlesse relying upon the arme of flesh Cursing their King and their GOD and looking upward roaring out with hideous groanes Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire Who among us shall dwell with the everlasting burnings c. All which desperate terrours and tumultuations of conscience are wont to surprize and seize upon unholy and unprepared hearts especially when GODS hand is finally and implacably upon them 3. And we shall hereby excellently honour and advance the glory of Profession when it shall appeare to the world and even the contrary-minded are enforced to confesse that there is a secret heavenly vigour undauntednesse of spirit and noblenesse of courage which mightily upholds the hearts of holy men in those times of confusion and feare when theirs melt away within them like water and be as the heart of a woman in her pangs Worldlings wonder and gnash the teeth hereat When they see as Chrysostome truly tels us the Christian to differ from them in this that he beares all crosses couragiously and with the wings as it were of faith out soares the height of all humane miseries He is like a Rocke incorporated into IESVS CHRIST the Rocke of eternity still erect inexpugnable unshaken though most furiously assaulted with the tempestuous waves of any worldly woe or concurrent rage of all infernall powers But all the imaginary man-hood of gracelesse men doth ever in the day of distresse either vanish into nothing or dissolve into despaire 4. Expression of spirituall strength in the time of trouble from former heavenly store is a notable meanes to move others to enter into the same good way and grow greedy after grace to draw and allure them to the entertainment and exercise of those ordinances and that One necessary thing which onely can make them bold and unmooveable like Mount Zion in the day of adversity I have knowne some the first occasion of whose conversion was the observation of their stoutnesse and patience under oppressions and wrongs whom they have purposely persecuted with extremest malice and hate So blessed many times is the brave resolute and undaunted behaviour of GODS people in the time of triall and amidst their forest sufferings that it breeds in the hearts of beholders thoughts even of admiration and love nay a desire of imitation and turning on the other side When they represent to the eye of the world their ability to passe thorow the raging flames of fiery tongues untouched to possesse their soules in peace amidst scorpions thornes and rebels to passe by basest indignities from basest men without wound or passion to hold up their heads above water in the most boisterous tempests and deepest seas of danger to triumph over all adversary power in the evill day I say by GODS blessing this may make many come in and glorifie GOD marvelling and enquiring whence such invincible fortitude and bravenesse of spirit should spring concluding with Nabuchadnezzar Surely The servants of the most high GOD. And so at length their affections may be so set on edge after the excellency and amiablenesse of IESVS CHRIST who being The mighty GOD and The Lion of the Tribe of Iudah doth alone inspire all His with such a Lion-like courage that they may seriously and savingly seek His face and favour saying with those Cant. 5. 9. What is thy Beloved more than another Beloved O thou fairest among women That we may seeke Him with thee When they behold such a deale of Majesty and miâ—…th to shine in his face whom they make the marke of all their spitefull rage and revenge their teeth with which they could have torne him in peeces may water and they industriously desire to know what that is which makes such a man so merry in all estates Vses 1. This may serve to awaken and reprove all those secure and carelesse companions who if they may enjoy present contentment and partake in the meane time of the prosperity and pleasures of the times wherein they tumble themselves with insolency luxury and ease take no thought make no provision at all against a day of reckoning provide no food against a foule day treasure up no comfort against the LORDS coming prepare no armour or aid for that last and dreadfull conflict upon their beds of death Alas poore soules Did they know and feelingly apprehend what a deale of horrour astonishment and anguish dogs them continually at the heeles ready and eager after a few daies of filthy and fugitive pleasures to seize upon them like travaile upon a woman with child suddenly unavoidably and in greatest extremity and that so intolerable that they shall never be able either to decline or endure the very weakest biting of the never-dying worme or the least sparkle of those everlasting flames they would think all the daies of their life few enow to gather spirituall strength against that fearefull houre Nay some are such cruell caitifs and Cannibals to their owne soules and so accursedly blinded by the Prince of darknesse that instead of comfortable provision they heape up wrath against the day of wrath instead of grace GODS favour and a good conscience peace joy and refreshing from the presence of the LORD they lay up scourges and Scorpions for their naked soules and guilty consciences against the time and terrour of the LORDS visitation For let them be most assured all their lies oathes rotten and railing speeches all their covetous lustfull ambitious and malicious thoughts all their swaggering and furious combinations against GODS people sensuall revellings joviall meetings c. will all When their feare commeth as desolation and their destruction commeth as a whirlewind like so many envenimed stings run into their sinfull soules and pierce them thorow with everlasting sorrow Alas What will the sonnes and daughters of pleasure do then And all those spirituall beggers and bankerupts who have greedily hunted all their life long after these mortall things of this life as if their soules had beene therein immortall and utterly neglected those things which are immortall as if their selves after the world had been but mortall What do you think wil be their thoughts upon the very first approach of the Port of death to which in the meane time all winds drive them Fullsad and heavy thoughts LORD thou knowest then at leisure enough to reflect severely upon their former folly though formerly beaten from them by their health and outward happinesse and will pay them to the uttermost for all the pleasing passages of their life past O then they shall lie upon their last beds like Wild Buls in
of folly And the very same attempt as to make two parallel lines to meet You thinke yee have a reach beyond the Moone To lie in some sweete sinne and yet to nourish in your selves some hope of salvation To have two heavens one in this world and another in the world to come which was never heard of to weare two crownes of joyes whereas IESVS CHRIST himselfe had the first of thornes But alas Beloved if you be saved in this condition you must have a new Scripture and there must bee found out another way to heaven then any of the Saints ever went since the Creation or shall doe to the end of the world And therefore we may say of you as Quintilian some where of some deluded with an overweening conceit of themselves That they might have prooved excellent Schollers if they had not beene so perswaded already So if you did not thinke falsly your selves safe already you might be saved But while you thus hugge the golden dreame of your mistaken states to GOD-ward like the Pharisees the very Publicans and Harlots shall goe into the Kingdome of heaven before you Matth. 21. 31. Fourthly you that are great in the world in the foure forenamed respects and meant in the Text cannot possibly downe with and digest downe-right dealing and the foolishnesse of preaching as it is called vers 21. And that vtterly undoes you You like well enough nay and much approve and applaud such Sermons as King IAMES censures in the reasons of his directions for preaching c. which he there cals a light affected and unprofitable kind of preaching which hath beene of late years saith he taken up in Court University City and Countrey whereby the people are filled onely with ayrie nourishment c. and I warrant you not especially hating to be reformed or disquieted for these are not wont to discover your consciences nor disturbe you in your present courses they never terrifie you with any fore-thought of the evill day neither torment you before the time but now let a man come with the foolishnesse of preaching by which it pleaseth GOD saith the Apostle to save them that believe with demonstration of the Spirit and of power and come home to the conscience if he suffer not Satan to revell in the bloud of your soules without resistance nor see you post furiously towards eternall fire but will tell you that the pit of hell is a little before you In a word if he take the right course to convert you and shew you therefore onely your spirituall misery that you may be fitted for mercy c. O such a fellow is a dangerous man a terrible and intolerable Teacher able to drive men to distraction despaire selfe-destruction he breaths out nothing but damnation and his searching Sermons are as scorching as the very flames of hel Fit phrases for the Devil himself railing in a drunkard or scoffing Ishmael against faithfulnesse in preaching and if you know where or when such men preach and it may be you entertaine some intelligence for that purpose to prevent the torture you will not you dare not heare them for your hearts except you cannot decline it for starke shame or for a time or two to satisfie your curiosities but as S. Paul saith you become their enemies because they tell you the truth to which truth not to have listened in this day of your visitation will herafter when it is too late torment you more than ten thousand fiery Scorpions stings and gnaw upon your consciences with unknowne and everlasting horrour Alas Beloved what meane you You will give your Physitian leave to tell you the distempers of your body the Lawyer to discover unto you any flaw in your deeds your horse-keeper to tell you the surfets of your horses nay your hunâ—…sman the surrances of your dogs and shall onely the Minister of GOD not tell you that your soules are bleeding to eternall death Preposterous and prodigious incongruity If it be thus then that of all the severall sorts of great men mentioned before by reason that they are beset with such variety of snares entangled in so many temptations so much taken up by the world and for other reasons rendred already very few are called converted and saved my counsell in a word unto all such is CHRISTS owne word Luke 13. 24. Strive to enter in at the strait gate lay violent hands upon flesh and blond strangle your lusts contend and wrastle as for the Garland in the Olympian Games to which the word seemes to allude become fooles in the worlds censure that you may be wise in the mystery of CHRIST be little and vile in your own esteeme that you may be great and gracious in the eyes of GOD. In a word submit your soules to the sword of the Spirit and foolishnesse of preaching as the Apostle cals it that you may be wrought upon savingly and brought into the good way and that by such works and waies as these Upon which before I enter give me leave to give you an account why at this time I labour rather to work upon your consciences for your personall conversion than as heretofore to tender unto you counsels and considerations for a more conscionable deportment in your severall publike places When I well weighed with my selfe the truth of that principle and position in Hooker That it is no peculiar conceipt but a matter of sound consequence that all duties are by so much the better performed by how much the men are more religious from whose abilities the same proceed And finding by experience of all ages and most of all in these worst and wofull times that men of publike imployment and in high places untill there be infused into their soules by the Spirit of grace an internall supernaturall principle and divine habit to worke by untill aliquid CHRISTI as they say be planted in them by the power of the Ministry they cannot possibly be universally thorow and unshaken Some strong affection feare favour or some thing will make them flie out and faile in some particular very fowly Upon extraordinary temptation they will serve the times and their owne turnes for alas as yet their spirits are not steeled with that heavenly edge and mighty vigour as to set to their shoulders against the torrent of the times and not to be overflowen with it I say upon this ground I have advisedly chosen to assay and follow this way at this time for if once you turne on the LORDS side in truth you are won for ever to an invincible constancy and conscionablenesse in an uniforme regular and religious discharge of your publike duties and will ever hold fast without partiality cowardlinesse or feare of mans face that brave and noble resolution Vt fiat justitia ruat coelum let heaven and earth be blundred together with horrible confusision before I make shipwracke of a good conscience or be any waies drawne to do basely Being