Prayer in time of Wâ—rre Pag. 192 A praier for Gods protection of his Church in respect of the present troubles of it Pag. 195 A Prayer before Sermon Pag. 199 A Prayer before the receiving of the Sacrament ibid. A Prayer after receiving of the Sacrament Pag. 200 A Prayer at the houre of Death Pag. 201 The Fathers Legacy OR Burtons Collections My Sonne FIrst honour God then thy Prince thy Parents and thy Elders be true and just and see thou never grudge to clear the cause of the oppressed Innocent for one day God shall also be thy judge If gold or bribes do corrupt thy Conscience if fear or favour do sway thee in thy Judgment if thou respect the difference of Persons be sure that God will in the end repay thee for it Begin thy dayes work when the day begins first blessing Gods thrice blessed name then at the Evening when thy labour is ended praise him again so bring the year about Say not thou my hand hath brought this work to an end nor this my vertue hath attained rather say thus This hath God wâ—â—â—â—ht by me for God is the Author of that little good we doe The world is like unto a â—ound City where â—ach maâ— may be rightly said to be a Citizen as well the â—ude Barbarian as the Greek as well the meanest as the migâ—tiest States In this fair Cities goodly Walles God planted man and placed him as in a Sanctuary where he himself in a Thousand parts hath planâ—ed with lively colâ—urâ— that â—o never câ—ange There is noâ— a corner so small in all this City wherein Gods greatnesse doth not appear plain which that we might the betteâ— view he hath placed man just in the middle Yet can hâ— nâ— where better know the same then in himsâ—lf wherein he may see as in a glasse Earth Water Ayre and Fire For all the world his Essence doth infould Who of himself hath gained perfect knowledge is not ignorant of any thing that he ought to know but the best means whereby it is attained is oftentimes to go to wisdoms glasse That which thou seest of man is not man but a prison that keepes him Captive it is but a Tombe wherein he is interred it is but a Cradle wherein a while he sleepes This mortall body where the ravished sence sees sinnues flesh bones muskles bloud and skin it is not man man is of more Excellency it is the fair Temple where God himself dwelleth Rightly to speak what we call man it is a beamling of Divinity it is a dropling of Eternity it is a moathling hatcht of Unity O man then know thine own originall and learn to scorn the base Cells of earth sith thou shalt flourish in Heavens glistering Hall and art indeed a Divine Plant by birth Well mayst thou vant thee of thy glorious race Not from thy mortall Parents either line But from thy true immâ—rtall Fâ—â—â—â—â— grace Who by the modell of his 〈…〉 thine Shun thou the filthy sect of 〈◊〉 Epicures bold miscreantâ— every wâ—â— blaspheaming the which do nâ—◠〈◊〉 â—â—spect nor acknowledge God but only the fatall sway of nature And in the mean while like the grunting swine lye alwayes wallowing in the stinking mud and feedes on fiâ—th like to the loathsome froggs voluptious filth of every fleshie desire Happy is he whose hope relies on God alone and who on him in either fortune calls as well in prosperity as adversity and puts no trust in humain help at all Canst thou assure thy hopes on worldly trash frail mortall things I pray thee tell me such are the greatest of earthly men and have more need to be secured then thou God is the just mans aid and his Anchor his sure defence when all the world forsakes him And therefore then is he the least dismade knowing that God is most strongest for him when all wordly means fayles him The goods which we call the goods of fortune they are not goods if we tearm them rightly for they are ever subject to the least change that is But vertue only still persists the same Vertue between the two extreams that hants Between too micle and too little sizeâ— Exceedes in nothing in nothing wants Borrowes of none but to it self suffizes O vertue could we but see thy naked face how wouldst thou ravish us with thy sacred beauty sith rarest witts rapt with a seeming grace have in all ages courted even thy shadowes The Parents comfort is a prudent Sonne now such a Sonne if thou desirest to have direct him young to run in duties race But thy own example is the nearest way If thou be born Sonne of a prudent Father why dost thou not follow his example if otherwise why dost not thou by vertuous deeds strive to cover his disgrace It is no small thing to be descended by our predicessours from an honest and religious stock but it is much more to shine by their light unto our own Successors So long as thou livest cease not to learn think that day lost wherein thou learnest not some good thing that may give new grace to make thy self wiser and better Respect thy credit more then thy own life I mean that which drawes each mans duty to the uttermost we are able to God to our King to our Lawes and our Country What thou canst do to day defer not till to morrow like sloath Mother of fowlest sinnes nor be thou like to those who do borrow others hands and what themselves might do will do by others Frequent the good flye from ungodly men especially in thy youthes tender age the while outragious appetites provoke and arme thy sences against the sway of reason Go not about to deceive the simple nor wilfully offend thy weaker brother nor wound the dead with thy tongues bitter gall neither rejoyce at the fall of thine Enemy Let thy discourse be true in all things whether then beâ—â— called as a publike witnesse to 〈◊〉 a qâ—estion or in thy ordinary and familiar â—â—â—k To beguile â—he silly birds the crafty fowâ—er doth faine theiâ— sweet notes so doth subtle mates counterfâ—ct the words and guise of honâ—st men Reveal not whatsoever is â—â—uld thee in secret nor busily inquire things of others the Inquisitive can hardly keep Councell and the charitable is commonly a lyer Make thou alwayes lawfull measure and equall waight though none could spye or discover thy dealing And where thou hast received a good turn restore it with some kindnesse back again Whatsoever is committed to thee in trust keep it carefully and when the owner shall demand it again deny it not neither with a large Conscience by subtle Law-tricks and strive to detain it It is not enough that thou dost wrong no man thy self but thou must also suppresse the same in others righting the weak mans cause against the unrighteous whether it touch his life his goods or name Whosoever doth desire the fame of honour must tame his anger and that heart-swelling
Religions the world through and you will find none that ascribes so much to God nor that constitutes so firm a love among men as does the establisht Doctrine of the Protestant Church among us All other either detract from God or infringe the peace of men The Jewes in their Talmod say before God made this he made many other worlds and mard them again to keepe himself from idleness The Turkes in their Alcaron bring him in discoursing with the Angels and they telling him of things which before he knew not and after they make him sweare by Mahomets pen and lines and by Figs and Olives The Papists portray him as an old man and by this meanes dis-deifie him derogating also from his Royalty by their odious interposing of merits and for the society of men what bloody tenents do they all hold as he deserves not the name of Rabby that hates not his enemy to death That 't is no sin to revenâ—e injuries that 't is meritorious to kill an Heritike with whom no faith is to be kept even to the ungluing of the whole worlds frame contexted only by comerse and contracts What abhor'd barbarisme did Selinus leave in precept to his Successour Soliman which though I am not certain they were ratified by their Mufties I am sure they are practiced by the Inheritors of the Empire By this taste learn to detest them all Think not thy kindreds murther ill t is none By thy slain brothers to secure thy Throne This is the way how kingly names may be In fast and from distructive terrors free In other Religions of the Heathen what fond opinions have they held of their gods reviling with unseemly threats wheÌ„ their affaires have thwarted them as if allowing them the name they would conserve the Numen to themselves In their sacrifices how bucherly cruell as if as t is said of them they thought by inhumanity to appease the wrath of an offended Deity The Religion which we now profess doth establish all in another strain what makes more for Gods glory what more for the mutuall love of man then the Gospel all our abilities of good we offer to God as the Fountain from whence they streame Can the day be light and that light not come from the Sun can a Clock go without a waight to move it or a keeper to set it as for man it teaches him to tread on Cotton milds his wilder temper and learnes him in his patience to affect his enemies and for that which doth partake on both it makes just God a friend to unjust man without being unjust either to himself or man Sure it could be no other then the invention of a Deity to find out a way how man that had justly made himselfe unhappy should with a full satisfaction to exactest justice be made again most happy I would wish no man that is able to trye to take his Religion upon others words but once resolved in it 't is dangerous to neglect where we know we do owe a service For God neglected plentiously Plagued mournfull Ittaly And this before Horrace his time when God is neglected of man man shall be condemned of God when man abridgeth God of his honour God will shorten man of his happiness It cannot but be best to give all to him of whom whatsoever we have we have received and we hold I believe it saftest for to take that Religion which most magnifies God and makes most for the peaceable conversation of men For as we cannot asscribe too much to him to whom we owe more then we can asscribe So I think the most splended estate of man is that which comes nearest to his first Creation wherein all things wrought together in the pleasant imbracements of mutuall love and Concord That Divinity does not crosse nature so much as exceede it THey that are Divines without Philosophy can hardly maintain the truth in their disputations 't is possible they may have an infused faith sufficient for themselves but if they have not reason too they will scarcely make others capable of their instruction certainly Divinity and morallity are not so averse but that they well may live together For if nature be rectified by Religion Religion is strengthned again by nature And as some hold of fate that there is nothing happens below but is writ above in the Starrs only we have not skill to find it So I beleeve there is nothing in Religion that is contrary to reason if we knew it rightly For conversation among men and the true happiness of man Philosophy hath agreed with Scripture Nay I think I may also adde for defining of God except the Trinity as neare as man can conceive him how exact hath he made Justice how busie to find out truth how rightly directed love exalting with much earnestness all those graces that are any way amiable He that seekes in Plato shall find him making God the solum summum bonum To which a pure and vertuous life is the way For defining God my opinion is that man neither by divinity nor Philosophy can as they say tell what he is It is fitter for man to adore and admire him then in vain to study to comprehend him God is for man to stand amazed wonder at The clogged and drossie soule can never sound him who is the unimaginable Fountain of spirits and from whom all things by a gradnate derivation have their light life and being In these things they agree But I find three other things wherein Divinity overtoureth nature In the Creation of the world in the redemption of man and in the way and rites wherein God will be worshipped In the Creation of the world no Philosophy could ever reach at that which Moses taught us Here the Humanists were all at a stand and far all their conjectures being rather witty and conceits then true and reall Some would have all things from fire some from Ayre some from water some from earth some from numbers some from attomies from simples some and some from compounds Aristottle came the nearest in finding out the truest materia prima but because he could not believe this made of nothing he is content to erre and think it was eternall Surely his conceit was as far from reason as the other his reason might have fled unto omnipotency as well as to eternity And so indeed when Philosophy hath gone as far as she is able she ariveth at Almightinesse and in that Abbi is lost where not knowing the way she goeth but by guesse and cannot tell when she is or right or wrong yet is she rather subordinate then contrary Nature is not crosse but runs into omnipotency and like a petty River is swallowed in that bondles Main For the redemption of man Even the Scripture calles it a mystery and all that humanity could ever reach of this was only a flying to the generall name of mercy by the urgins of the Conscience They all knew they had
the world to doe so too I know not what certaine grounds they haâ—e that dares assume to fore-tell the particular time of the worlds conslagration but surely in reason and nature the end cannot be mightily distant we have seene the infancy the youth the virillity all past nay we have seene it well stept into yeares and desolution the most infallable premonitors of a declination Some could beleeve it with lesse then this twenty nine yeares Because as the Floud destroyed the former world one thousand six hundred and fifty yeares after the first destroying Adam so the latter world shall be consumed with Fire one thousand six hundred fifty six yeares after the second saving Adam which is Christ But I dare not fix a certainty where God hath left the world in ignorance The exact knowledge of all things is in God only but surely by Collections from Nature and Reason man may helpe himselfe in likelihood and probabilities Why hath man an arguing and premeditating soule if not to thinke on the course and causes of things thereby to magnifie his Creator in them I will often muse on such like theames for besides the pleasure I shall meet in knowing further I shall finde my soule by admiration of these wonders to love both reason and the Deity better As our admiâ—ing of things evill guides us to a secret hate so whatsoever we doe applaud for goodnesse cannot but cause some raise in our affection Of Idlenesse THe idle man is the barranest piece of Earth in the Orbe there is no Creature that hath life but is busied in some action for the benefit of the restlesse world even the most venemous and ravinous things that are have their commodities as well as their annoyances and they are ever ingaged in some action which both profiteth the world and continues them in their natures courses even the Vegitables wherein calme nature dwells have their turnes and times in fructifying They leafe they flower they seed nay Creatures quite inanimate are some the most laborious in their motion With what a cheerfull face the golden Sun chariates thorow the rounding Sky How perpetuall is the maiden Moone in her just and horned mutations The Fire how restlesse in his quick and catching flames In the Ayre what trans-actions And how fluctious are the salted waves Nor is the teeming Earth weary after so many thousand yeares predictions all which may tutor the Couch-stretched man and raise the modest red in shewing thorow his unwasht face that Idlenesse is the most corrupting fly that can blow in any humane minde That ignorance is the most miserable which knowes not what to doe the idle man is like the dumbe Jack in a Virginall while all the other dance out a wining Musick this like a member out of joynt sullens the whole body with an ill disturbing lazinesse I doe not wonder to see some of our Gentry growne well neare the lewdest men of our Land since they are many of them so mufled in an non-imployment 'T is action that keeps the Soule both sweet and sound while lying still does rot it to an ordâ—â—'d noysomnesse Augustine imputes Esaus losse of the Blessing partly to his slothfulnesse that had rather receive meat then seek it Surely exercise is the fatting food of the Soule without which shee growes lanke and thinly parted That the followers of great men are so much debauched I beleeve to be want of imployment for the Soule impatient of an absolute recesse for want of wholsome food of businesse preyes upon the lewder actions 't is true men learne to doe ill by doing what is next it nothing I beleeve Salomon meant the field of the sluggard as well for the embleme of his minde as the certaine index of his outward state as the one is over-growne with thornes and bryers so is the other with vices and innormities When one would bragge the blessings of the Roman State that since Carthage was raz'd and Greece subjected they might now be happy as having nothing to feare Sayes the best Scipio we now are most in danger for while we want businesse and have no foe to awe us we are ready to drowne in the mud of vice and slothfulnesse How bright does the Soule grow with use of negotiation With what proportioned sweetnesse does that Family flourish where but one laborious guide steereth an order'd course When Cleanthes had laboured and got some Coyne he shewes it to his companious and tells them that he now if he will can nourish another Cleanthes Beleeve it industry is never wholly unfruitfull if it bring not joy with the in-comming profit it will yet banish mischiefe from thy busied gates There is a kinde of good Angell waiting upon diligence that ever carries a Lawrell in her hand to crowne her Fortune they said of old should not be prayed unto but with hands in motion The bosom'd fist beckons the approach of Poverty and leaves besides the noble head ungarded but the lifted arme does frighten want and is ever a shield to that noble director How unworthy was that man of the world that never did ought but only liv'd and dy'd Though Epaminondus was severe he was yet exemplary when he found a Souldier sleeping in his Watch and ran him thorow with his Sword as if he would bring the two brothers Death and Sleep to a meeting and when he was blam'd for that as cruelty he said He did but leave him as he found him dead It is none of the meanest happinesse to have a minde that loves a vertuous exercise 't is duly rising to blessednesse and contentation They are idle Divines that are not heavened in their lives above the unstudious man every one shall smell of that he is busied in As those that stirre amongst perfumes and spices shall when they are gone have still a gratefull odour with them So they that turne the leaves of the worthy Writer cannot but retaine a smack of their long-lived Author They converse with vertues soule which he that writ did spread upon his lasting paper every good line adds sinewes to the vertuous minde and withall hells that vice which would be springing in it That I my selfe have liberty to doe any thing I account it from the favouring Heavens that I have a minde sometimes inclining to use that liberty well I thinke I may without ostentation be thankfull for it as a bounty of the Deity Sure I should be miserable if I did not love this businesse in this my vacancy I am glad of that leasure that gives me leasure to imploy my selfe if I should not grow better for it yet this benefit I am sure would accrew me I should both keep my selfe from worse and not have time to entertaine the Devill in Of the triall of Faith and Friendship FAith and Friendship are seldome tryed but in extreames To finde friends when we have no need of them and to want them when we have are both alike and common In prosperity who
because thou hast not refused to doe it I sweare to thee saith he by my selfe that I will multiply thy seed as the starres of heaven and the sands of the Sea and among them also one shall be Christ the Saviour of the world Was not this good pay for so little paines King David one night began to think with himselfe that he had ow a house of Cedar and the Arke of God lay but under a Tent and therefore resolved to build a House for the said Arke which onely cogitation God took in so good part as he sent Nathan the Prophet unto him presently to refuse the thing but yet to tell him that forsomuch as he had determined such a matter God would build a house or rather a Kâ—ngdome to him and his posteritie which should last for ever and from which he would never take away his mercy which promise we see now fulfilled in Christ what should I recite many like examples Christ giveth a generall note hereof when he calleth the workmen payeth to each man his wages so duly as also when he saith of himself Behold I come quickly and my reward is with me by which place is evident that God suffereth no labour in his service to be lost or unpaid And albeit he payeth also and that abundantly in this life yet as by those two examples appeareth he deferreth his chiefe pay unto his coming in the end of the day that is after this life in the resurrection of the just as himselfe saith in another place of this payment then reserved for Gods servants in the life to come We are now to consider what and what manner a thing it is and whether it be worth so much labour and travell as the service of God requireth or no. And first of all if we will beleeve the holy Scripturs calling it a Kingdome an heavenly Kingdome an everlasting Kingdome a most blessed Kingdome We must needes confesse it to be a marvellous great reward For that worldly Princes doe not use to give Kingdoms to their servants for recompence of their labours and if they did or were able to doe it yet could it be neither heavenly nor everlasting nor a blessed Kingdome Secondly if we credit that which St. Paul saith of it that neither eye hath seen nor eare heard nor heart of man conceived how great a matter it is Then must we yet admit a greater opinion thereof for that we have seen many wonderfull things in our dayes we have heard more wonderfull we may conceive most wonderfull and almost infinit How then shall we come to understand the greatnesse and value of the rewards surely no tongue created either of man or Angel can expresse the same No imagination conceive no understanding comprehend it Christ himself hath said no man knoweth it but he that injoyeth it and therefore he calleth it hidden Manna in the same place notwithstanding as it is reported of a learned Geometrician that finding the length of Hercules foote upon the hill of Olimpus drew out his whole body by the proportion of that one part so we by some thing only set down in Scripture and by some other Circumstances agreeing thereunto may frame a conjecture of the matter though it come far behind the thing it self I have shewed before how the Scripture calleth it a heavenly and everlasting and a most blessed Kingdom whereby is signified that all must be Kings that are admitted thither To take effect it is called in other places a Crown of glory a Throne of Majesty a Paradice or place of pleasure a life everlasting St. John the Evangelist being in his banishment by speciall priviledge made privy to some knowledge and feeling thereof as well for his own comfort as for ours taketh in and to describe it by comparison of City affirming that the whole City was of pure gold with a great and high wall of the precious stone called Jaspis This wall had also 12. foundations made of 12. distinct precious stones which he there nameth also 12. gates made of 12. rich stones called Margarites and every gate hath an entire Margarite The streets of the City were paved with gold interlaid also with pearles and precious stones the light of the City was the clearnesse and shining of Christ himself siting in the midst thereof From whose seate proceeded a River of water as cleare as Cristall to refresh the City and on both sides of the bankes there grew the tree of life giving out continuall and perpetual fruit There was no night in that City nor any defiled thing entred there but they that are within shall raign saith he for ever and ever By this description of the most rich and precious things that this world hath St. John would give us to understand the infinite value glory and majesty of this felicity prepared for us in heaven though as I have noted before it being the princely inheritance of our Saviour Christ the Kingdom of his Father the eternall habitation of the holy Trinity prepared before all worlds to set out the glory and expresse the power of him that hath no end not measure either in power or glory we may very well think with St. Paul that neither tongue can declare it nor heart can imagine it O miserable Children of men that are born to so rare and singuler a dignity and yet cannot be brought to consider love or esteem of the same Other such considerations there be to shew the greatnesse of this felicity is that if God hath given so many pleasures and comfortable guifts in this life as we see are in this world being a place of bannishment a place of sinners a vail of misery and the time of repenting weeping and wailing what will he do in the life to come to the just to his friends in the time of joy and marriage of his Son This was a most forceable consideration with good St. Augustine who in the secret speech of his soule with God said thus O Lord if thou for this vile body of ours give us so great and innumerable benefits from the Firmament from the Ayre from the Earth from the Sea by light by darknesse by heate by shadow by dewes by showers by winds by raines by birds by fishes by beasts by trees by multitude of hearbes and variety of plants and by the ministry of all thy Creatures O sweet Lord what manner of things how great how good and how innumerable are those which thou hast prepared in our heavenly country where wâ— shall see thee face to face If thou do 〈◊〉 great things for us in our prison whâ—â— wilt thou give us in our pallace If thâ—â— givest so many things in this world tâ— good and evill men together whâ—â— hast thou layd up for good men onlâ— in the world to come If thine enemieâ— and friends together are so well provided for in this life what shall thâ— only friends receive in the life to comâ—â— If there be so great
he is most in generall So in workes we should weigh the generality and according to that censure If it be rather good than ill I thinke he deserves some praise for raising Nature above her ordinary flight Nothing in this world can be framed so intirely perfect but that it shall have in it some delinquencies to argue more were in the compriser if it were not so it were not from Nature but the immediate Deity The next if we had never seene that frame whether or no we thinke we could have mended it To espy the inconveniences of a house built is easie but to lay the plot at first well is matter of more repute and speakes the praise of a good contriver The crooked lines help better to shew the streight Judgement is more certaine by the eye then in the fancy surer in things done then in those that are but in cogitation If we finde our selves able to correct a Copy and not to produce an Originall yet dare to deprave we shew more Criticisme than ability Seeing we should â—ather magnifie him that hath gone beyond us then condemne his worth fâ—â— a few failes Selfe examâ—nation will make our â—udgement charitable 't is from where there is no judgement that the heaviest â—udgement comes If we must needs â—ensure 't is good to doe it as Suitonius writes of the twelve Caesars tell both their vertues and their vices unpartially and leave the upshot to collection of the private minde So shall we learne by hearing of the faults â—o avoyd them and by knowing the â—ertues practise the like Otherwise we should rather praise a man for 〈◊〉 little good then brand him for 〈◊〉 more of ill we are full of faults by nature we are good not without our care and industry Let us never forget but consider with good attention for what intent and purpose God created us and thiâ— world for our sakes and in placing us therein as Lords of the same for nothing made it selfe so nothing was made for it selfe nor to serve it selfe The Heavens we see doe serve the Ayre the Ayre serveth the Earth the Earth serveth the Beasts the Beasts serveth man And then is the question Who man was made to serve for seeing he was not made by himselfe it is not likely he was made to serve himselfe but his Creator who created him and all things else for his use True faith is the ground of things hoped for and the evidence of things that are not seene Prayer is an humble request made unto God in Christ with the lively and feeling affection of the heart faithfully beleeving to receive what we religiously desire Let a man never thinke to come to the Kingdom of glory except he enter in at the gates of grace Where truth is not invested grace is not in the heart A gracious man is lovely to himselfe and sin makes him loathsome to his soule and afraid of his condition Let us use our Profession as it should be not to have an upper Garment to cover a naughty heart but to labour more and more to put off the old Man and not to make Religion a cloke and vaile of Hypocrisie for besides all the sinnes we have to make Religion serve our turnes it makes our sinnes the greater When a mans Religion shall be a cover to his sinfull courses that inâ—reases his sinne and makes his sinnes abhominable A good Conscience is a Casket to keep Divine truths in and when we have gotten soule-saving truths let us keep them by a good Conscience When we doe any thing let us reason thus Is this becomming my Religion And say thus to our selves I should walke worthy of Christ and as it becommeth the Gospell for what is the ornament of a Christian but the graces he hath All the beauty we have is to be religious Many there be that can talke well and discourse well but for inward graces they never looke nor regard and it is this that upholds many Christians they see Religion is respected of those of whom they desire to be had in some esteeme but God sees their Hypocrisie and they shall have their reward What seasons Warre but the hope of Peace The troubles and Tempests at Sea but the hope of the Haven The labour and cost in sowing but the expectation of Harvest Shall not we much more indure a little labour here for endlesse happinesse assured to us hereafter this is much forgot But here is the pitty men labour sweat taking paines and travell here spare no cost and all this to goe to Hell to heape up wrath against the day of wrath The Devill has more servants in his barren and fruitlesse service then God gets with all promises and good things that he so liberally bestowes upon them Observe the good motions of Gods Spirit in thee further them to the most advantage in thee turne them to present practise lose nor delay them not for else the Devill will steale them away from thee If we doe any good the deed is Gods if we will it the will is Gods and then we please God when we will that which God wills and not when we doe that which God wils not Wee ought to bee as thankfull to God for any sinne he keeps us from as for any good he causes us to perform for there is not any sinne that another hath committed but if God had pleased I might have committed it Light is a heavenly quallity So is the Word of God holy pure transforming godly men to its own likeness to be heavenly his bread is from heaven his affections desires thoughts indeavours are heavenly his way is upward he is heavenly minded while he is on earth he is in heaven Light makes a thing ful of Evidence all the world cannot perswade a man contrary to that he sees so doth the Word of God discover to us our estates in grace and so severely as all the world cannot shake the foundation of our Faith Therefore if we desire to be lights let us communicate with the chiefest light As the Sarres are ever in the presence of the Sunne and from his light they receive theirs Be sure thou placest thy selfe in Gods eye continually secondly use the meanes use the glasse of Gods Word thou shalt not onely see thy estate therein but by it thou shalt be transformed into Gods Image other glasses have no such power like this mirrour of the Gospel it makes us like God because it hath the Spirit of God ever to accompany with it whence it is called the Word of light True patience is a fruit and effect of repentance and humiliation for sin True patience is likewise the fruit of Faith True patience is a fruit of our obedience unto God and of a heart subdued and made able to yeeld unto God in all things Yea it is indeed a chiefe part of our obedience unto him Patience perforce as we call it without all reference to the will of God and
down and wonder at the unspeakable love and bounty of God expressed towards us in these three Petitions for by the first we are assured of eternity by the second of a Kingdom by the third to be like the Angels or if we like it better to say by the first we are informed what we shall be as Angels by the second what we shall have a Kingdom by the third what we shall do the will of God These are blessings worthy to come from a heavenly Father these are rewards which worthily become a bountifull Master And now let the swine flesh and blood go murmure against God that he is a hard Father and a bad Master and that there is no profit in serving him because he gives them not the mire of the world to wallow in as though he had no other way to expresse his favours but by clods of earth But do thou ô my soule meditate upon these Petitions and in them upon these blessings and in these upon the infinit love and bounty of God and think how happy thou art to have such a Father how much thou art bound to love such a Master and think not much to love him with thy whole heart seeing he hath blessings to bestow upon thee which cannot enter into thy heart Think not much to submit thy self wholly to his will seeing his will is to give thee beauty for ashes the oyle of gladnesse for mourning that we shall ever find it a most happy thing for us to say Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven But why do we say thy will be done in earth which is done in earth already and that by creatures which one would think we are never able to do it He hath set bounds to the Sea which it must not passe and the Sea as raging as it is and provoked by all the Rivers of the earth that come running into it as it were for the nonce to make it passe its bounds yet keepes it self precisely within the limits He hath appointed the earth to stand still and not for to move and the earth though but hanging in the Ayre and nothing at all to hang upon yet offers not so much as once to stir He hath charged the Trees to bring forth fruit and the Trees though almost even killed with could of winter and threatned with the tempests of the spring yet takes heart to come forth and seeme to rejoyce they can do as they are bidden The very beasts though never so wild and savage yet observe the properties of their kind and none of them incroach upon the qualities of another And why all this but only to do the will of God and that which may seeme more strange The flowers come out of the durty earth and yet how neate and cleane out of the unsavory earth and yet how fresh and fragrant out of the sower earth and yet how mellifluous and sweete out of the duskish earth and yet how orient and virmillion out of the unshapen earth and yet in what dainty shapes in what curious formes in what inamilings and diapers of beauty as if the earth would show that for all her being cursed she had somthing yet of Paradice left And why all this but only to do the will of God And why then should there be complaining as though the will of God were not done in earth O wretched man it is only thy self that is out of tune in this harmony Man that should be best is of all the worst that should be cleanest is of all the fowlest that should be most beautifull is of all the most deformed most full of graces yet most void of grace of most understanding to direct his will yet of least will to follow the direction of understanding Man indued with celestiall qualities yet leaves them all to incroach upon the qualities of every beast upon the obcaenity of swine in drunkennesse upon the greedinesse of Cormorants in covetousness upon the craftinesse of Foxes in fraud upon the cruelty of Tygers in malice as if he would strive to exceede his first parents in transgressing and try whether God had any greater punishment left then casting out of Paradice That if Christ would have served us in our kind and as we deserve he needed not to have gone for paterns to heaven he might have found paterns good enough for us amongst the meanest Creatures of the earth And as he tould the Pharisees that the Queen of the South should rise up in judgement against them so he might have told us the flowers the trees the beasts shall all rise up in judgement against man That we have more need to say O that my head were waters and mine eyes a Fountain of teares that I might weep day and night Then after trees and beasts have done Gods will to come after them all but with only saying Thy will be done in earth as it is in Heaven O God so frame our wills that they may be fit links to be fastned to this Chaine of thy will that as one link drawn on drawes on another so our spirits being guided by thy grace may be guides to our flesh and that our flesh as living by thee may live to thee knowing that though the way of thy will may be troublesome in the going yet the journey shall be comfortable in the ending and though it be the secret of thy will that in doing it we shall meete with many crosses yet it is the purpose of thy will that by doing it we shall purchase many joyes and therefore can have no cause to make us a fraid to say Thy will be done in earth as it is in Heaven And now having thought these Petitions to be for such most proper let us conforme our selves according to them When we say Hallowed be thy Name let us lift up the voyces of our hearts as if we were now joyning with the Angels in singing their Hallelujah When we say Thy Kingdome come let us raise our thoughts as now offering to set our hands to the Petition of the Saints in heaven When we say Thy will be done let us fix our minds wholly as in the solemnity of dedicating of our selves to God with all the faithfull upon earth When we say Give us this day our daily bread let us humble our selves as being in state of other Creatures and are glad to joyne with them in their common suit When we say Forgive us our trespasses let us think our selves enrolled in the company of Penitents and as the greatest sinners chosen speakesmen to present their supplication And when we say Leade us not into temptation let us acknowledge our selves in the number and weaknesse of little Children and are glad to joyne with them in crying for help that the Angell of Infants which alwaies behold the face of God may be imployed by him to work our deliverance But what should be the cause that in the three latter Petitions we seem