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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	affect_v	joy_n	zion_n	14	3	8.9848	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61120	Kaina kai palaia Things new and old, or, A store-house of similies, sentences, allegories, apophthegms, adagies, apologues, divine, morall, politicall, &c. : with their severall applications / collected and observed from the writings and sayings of the learned in all ages to this present by John Spencer ...	Spencer, John, d. 1680.; Fuller, Thomas, (1608-1661)	1658 (1658)	Wing S4960; ESTC R16985	1,028,106	735

purging the Heart from pollutions of Sin● e. THere is mention made of a certain King that had an Oxe-stall which had not been cleansed in many years and at last was grown so foul that it was thought all the industry of Man could not clean it in a life time The King perceiving that considered with himselfe that if he could bring the River which ran hard by his house to run through it that then it would quickly be emptied No sooner was this conceived thus in his mind but he sets upon the worke and after much expence both of labour and money brought the River to run through the Ox stall with a very sw●ft curren● so that in three dayes the house was cleared and all the filth removed Thus the heart of Man like that Augaean stable is filled with rottennesse and pollution but if true repentant tears do but run through it with a forcible current they will drive down all putrefaction and uncleanness before them they are of such a purging nature that as Rain distilling from the clouds clarifies the air so they purifie the Heart insomuch that if the Men of this world were truly perswaded of the great benefit of true Repentant tears they would not by any means be hindred from weeping Scandalous and seditious Books and Pamphlets fit for the fire Agesilaus when he saw the Usurers bonds and bills set all of a light fire said Nunquam vidi ignem clariorem I never saw a brighter or a better fire in all my life And it were heartily to be wished that of all such scandalous blasphemous seditious Books and Pamphlets that are dayly vended amongst us such as are fraught full of nothing but pestilent and bitter malice and the most shamelesse desperate untruths that the Devill the father of lyes can help to invent there were a fire made of them as was of the Books of curious Arts Act. 19. the flames whereof perhaps might expiate some part of the Authors offences which otherwise would one day help to encrease their torment in Hell fire Men easily drawn by their own Naturall corruption CAlista the Strumpet thus bragged against Socrates All thy Philosophy cannot alienate one of my Lovers from me but my beauty can fetch many of thy Schollars from thee He made her this answer No wonder for thou temptest Men to the pleasing path of perdition but I perswade them to the troublesome way of virtue And it is observed that Philosophers of divers sects turned to the Epicures but never did any Epicure accept of any other sect of Philosohpy Thus it is that Men are easily drawn by their own natural corruption Men are naturally disposed to be evill to be holy and good is the difficulty We are all of us born sinners there is much ado to make us Saints For corrupt Nature to adhere unto a doctrine that holdeth out carnall liberty facilis descensus there 's no more wonder in it then for stones to fall downward or sparks to fly upward but to mortifie our Earthly members to deny our selves to forsake this present world and cleave unto God hic labor hoc opus est this goes against the hair fain we would be Saints but we are loath to be holy To be affected with the falling of others into Sin St. Bernard makes mention in one of his Homilies of an old Man who when he saw any Man to sin wept and lamented for him Being asked why he grieved so for others answered Hodie ille cras ego He fell to day I may fall to morrow Thus if Men could be but affected with the falling of others into sin it would rather draw blood then joy from their hearts not knowing how soon God may withdraw his Grace from them and suffer them to fall as foul as any other besides there is no greater sign of a Reprobate then to laugh at sinne and sinners for he that can make wickednesse his chiefest pastime and the faults of oth●rs his gr●atest joy is no better then the Devill that rejoyceth at the failings of Gods children The World to be contemned in regard of Heaven THe Eagle a Princely bird of a piercing sight a swift and lofty flight mounts upwards setting light by the things that are below never condescending to any of these inferiour things but when Necessity compells not when superfluity doth allure Such an Eagle was Zacheus that left his Extortion Matthew his Toll-gathering Peter all such as used this world as if they used it not wherewith to supply their necessary wants and no further O happy change when Men leave all for him that is worth more then all though Riches encrease yet they set not their hearts upon them though their Estates be changed yet they are not changed their desire is not to be rich unto this world but unto G●d their bodies are be low but their hearts are above their lives here but their Conversa●ions in Heaven Christian Modesty commendable IT is a worthy observation what Paulinus a good Man answered to Sulpi●ius Severus when he wrote unto him to send him his Picture Erubesco pingere quod sum non audeo pingere quod non sum modestly dispraising his own feature I must blush said he to picture my selfe as I am and I scorn to picture my selfe as I am not Here was a modest Man and a modest disposition well met And it were heartily to be wished that the like frame of spirit were in the p●ffe-paste Titulado's of our times rather to confesse the unworthinesse they have then arrogantly to boast the worthinesse they have not pretending sanctity at the root of the Tree when no fruit but wickednesse is seen on the branches flattering themselves that their garments are of the holy fashion their goings of the holy pace their language of the holy style and their hair of the holy cut whilst their heart is all this while of an unholy metal Not to be daunted at Afflictions IT is related of that valiant Commander Sr. H●race Vere late Baron of Tilbury that when in the Palatinate a Councell of War was called and there being debate whether they would fight or not some Dutch Lord said that the Enemy had many pieces of Ordinance planted in such a place and therefore it was dangerous to fight he replyed My Lords if you fear the mouth of a Cannon you must never come into the field Thus it is that in the service of God Men must not shrink or give back because of difficulties in the way and though it oftentimes so falleth out that Men fall into divers Temptations and those great ones too as to dispair of Gods mercies and so to lay violent hands upon themselves yet a Christian courage must not be daunted at any crosses or afflictions but endure constant to the end for God is faithfull and just and will not suffer any Man to be tempted above what he is able

the Farms the pleasures the profits and preferments that men are so fast glued unto that they have hardly leisure to entertain a thought of any goodness Goodness and Greatness seldom meet together IN our natural bodies the more fat there is the lesser blood in the veins and consequently the fewer spirits and so in our fields aboundance of wet breeds aboundance of tares and consequently great scarcity of Corn And is it not so with our souls The more of God's blessing and wealth the more weeds of carnality and vanity and the more rich to the world the less righteous to God commonly What meant Apuleius to say that Ubi uber ibi tuber but to signifie that pride and arrogance are companions to plenty And what made Solomon to pray against fulness Prov. 30. but to shew that as they must have good brains that will carry much drink so they must have extraordinary souls that will not be overcome with the world Goodness and greatness do seldom meet together as Asdrubal Haedeus said in Livy Rarò simul hominibus bona fortuna bonaque mens datur Who is the man except it be one of a thousand Cui praesens faelicitas si arrisit non irrisit but if the world ran in upon him he would soon out-run it Perseverance is the Crown of all good actions WHatsoever is before the end it is a step whereby we climb to the top of salvation but it is not the uppermost griece whereby the highest part of the top may be taken hold of A man may be tumbled down from the ladder as well when he is within a round or two of the top as when he is in the midst or below the mi●st And a man may make Shipwrack when he is within ken of land as when he is a thousand miles off What had it profited Peter to have escaped the first and second Watch if he had stuck at the iron gate and had not passed through that also VVho maketh account of land-oats that shead before the Harvest or of fruit that falls from the tree before it be ripe It is not to begin in the spirit and end in the slesh not a putting of the hand to the Plow and looking back but a constant perseverance to the end that shall be crowned Prayers of the godly the unanimity of them WE read of Ptolomeus Philadelphus King of Egypt that he caused the Bible to be translated by seventy Interpreters which seventy were severally disposed of in seventy several cells unknown each to other and yet they did so well agree in their several translations that there was no considerable difference betwixt them in rendring the Text an argument that they were acted by one and the same spirit Surely then it must needs be a great comfort to all good Christians when they shall call to mind what seventy nay seventy times seventy yea seventy hundreth yea seventy thousand which are peaceable in Israel which on the bended knees of their souls pray daily unto God for peace And though they know not the faces no not the names of one another have neither seen nor shall see one another till they meet together in Heaven yet they unite their votes and center their suffrages in the same thing that God would restore peace and order both in Church and State and to every particular member therein that we may yet live to have comfort one of another who no doubt shall have a comfortable return of their prayers in Gods due time The powerful effects of Rhetorical Elocution THe breath of a man hath more force in a Trunk and the wind a louder and sweeter sound in the Organ-pipe then in the open air So the matter of our speech and theam of our discourse which is conveyed through figures and forms of Art both sound sweeter to the ear and pierce deeper into the heart there is in them plus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more evidence and more efficacy they make a fuller expression and deeper impression then any plain rough-hewen long-cart-rope speeches or language whatsoever can do A Caveat for unworthy Communicants MR. Greenham in one of his Sermons speaking of Non-residents wisheth that this Inscription or Motto might be written on their study-doors without and walls within on all their books they look in beds they lie on tables they sit at c. The price of blood The price of blood The like were to be wished for to all that have been bad Communicants that in great letters it were written on their shop doors without walls within on all their doors on their day-books and debt-books and whatsoever objects are before their eyes The guilt of blood the guilt of blood even the guilt of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ who dyed for them Every good Minister to speak a word in season opportunely EVery Husbandman as he hath so he observeth the seasons to sow his seed and his ground to cast his corn into some he soweth in the Autumn fall of the leaf some in the Spring and renewing of the year some in a dry season some in a wet some in a moist clay some in a sandy dry ground as the Holy Ghost speaketh He soweth the Fitches and the Cummin and casteth in Wheat by measure Esay 28. 25. Thus the spiritual Husbandman dealeth with the husbandry of his God he hath his seed for all seasons and for all grounds and all hearts some for the time of judgement some for the time of mercy some for the season of mirth and mourning as wet and dry seasons some for the birth and burial as for the Spring and Fall some for them who sorrow in Sion and some for them that rejoyce in Jerusalem Esay 6. 2. Pardon of sins the onely comfort A Traitor that is condemned to death may have the liberty of the Tower to walk in and provisions of meat and drink appointed at the States charges yet he takes little comfort in either because his Treason is not pardoned and he expects daily to be drawn to execution Thus a man that hath the advantage of all these outward things if he want assurance of the pardon of his sins and of Gods love in Christ Jesus to his soul they will be but as miserable comforters to him and he cannot take any true delight in them The difference betwixt Sermons preached and Sermons printed SErmons preached are for the most part as showres of rain that water for the instant such as may tickle the ear and warm the affections and put the soul into a posture of obedience hence it is that men are oft-times Sermon-sick as some are Sea-sick very ill much troubled for the present but by and by all is well again as they were But printed sermons or other discourses are as snow that lies longer on the Earth

use it as an occasion served and Rachel that other holy woman did not desire the Mandrakes so much to hold in her hand or to smell to as to be made apt thereby to bring forth the fruit of her womb And we must not come to the Well-spring of life and when we have filled our pitchers spill all presently on the ground nor we must not so much labour to know the Word that we may subtilly dispute or discourse of it as to practise it that we may shew the fruit of it in the amendment of our lives and conversations Dulness and drousiness in the service of God reproved IT is reported of Constantize the great that when divine service was read he would help the Minister to begin the prayer and to read the verses of the Psalms interchangeably and when there was a Sermon if any place of special importance were alleadged that he would turn his Bible to imprint the place the better in his mind both by hearing and seeing it and being as it were revished with those things which he heard he would start up suddenly out of his Throne and Chair of State and would stand a long while to hear more diligently and though they which were next him did put him in mind to remember himself yet he heard the word so attentively that he would not give any ear at all unto them How wonderfully should this confound us that are every way inferiour when we hear Emperors mighty Kings shew such a good heart in hearing of the word of God to be so chearful in the service of God and we in the mean time to have such lumpish and dull spirits as to be never a whit moved or affected with the same that though Christ talk with us never so comfortably in the way yet our hearts are not so much as warmed within us though he putteth his hand to the hole of the door yet we will not list up the latch to let him in and though our well-beloved speak yet we will not hearken unto him A good man bettered by Afflictions SPring water smoaketh when all other waters of the River and the Channel are frozen up that water is living whilst they are dead All experience teacheth us that Well-waters arising from deep springs are hotter in Winter than in Summer the outward cold doth keep in and double their inward hear Such is a true Christian in the evill day his life of Grace gets more vigour by opposition he had not been so gracious if the times had been better I will not say He may thank his Enemies but I must say He may thank God for his Enemies Christ compared to an Eagle CHrist is not unfitly compared to an Eagle in three respects First because as the Eagle fluttereth over her young ones and safeguards them from any that would annoy them so doth Chris carefully protect his Church that the Gates of Hell nor the deepest Counsells of her Enemies shall not prevail against her Secondly as the Eagle stirs up her nest and taketh up her young ones enforcing them to look towards the Sun thereby trying her generous and degenerating brood even so doth Christ make triall of true and counterfeit Christians he rejects them as counterfeits that have but owl light such as hate the light but those which can look upon the Sun of Righteousnesse and delight in beholding of him they go for true Christians Thirdly The Eagle hateth the Serpent and wheresoever he seeth him renteth him with his Beak And Christ the seed of the woman did break the Serpents head The Hypocrites discovery of himselfe THere are a sort of Men that call themselves Christians professe that they know God and that their hope is in Heaven but no sooner doth any vanity come in the way any temporal commodity present it selfe but their hearts quickly betray where their Treasure is just like the Iuglers Ape of Alexandria which being attired like a reasonable Creature and dancing curiously to his Masters Instrument deceived all the Spectators untill one spying the fraud threw a handful of Dates upon the Stage which the Ape no sooner espied but he tore all his Vizard and fell to his Victuals to the scorn of his Master which gave an occasion to the Proberb An Ape is an Ape though he be clad never so gaily And most sure it is that an Hypocrite will at last shew himselfe an Hypocrite for all his specious shew and goodly pretences The Churches condition under the two Testaments St. Paul resembleth the different conditions of the Church under the two Testaments to the different conditions of a child when he is in his nonage though he be heir and when he is come to his full age While he is in his nonage though he be heir yet he is kept in awe and under a Pedagogue but when he cometh to full age his Father affords him a more cheerful Countenance and a more liberall maintenance Even so under the Law the Church was kept under and scanted of Grace but under th● Gospel she is more free and endued with a more plentifull measure of Gods holy spiri● The Kingdom of Heaven an everlasting Kingdom MOrtal Kingdoms are not lasting and while they last they continue not uniform Are not everlasting they have their Climacterical years and commonly determine within certain periods The Politicians write of it Bodine by name and he out of oth●rs and the stories are clear and experience daily sheweth it to be so Iustin hath calculated the three first Monarchs but Sleidan all four and we see their beginning and ending And as they are not lasting so while they last they continue not uniform The Planters of great States are commonly Heroical men but the Proverb is Heroum ●ilii noxae The Parents were never so beneficiall as the children are mis●h●evous oppressing by Tyranny or wasting by Vanity worldly peace breedeth plenty plenty breeds pride and pride breeds war wherewith cometh Ruine This being the condition of mortall Kingdoms how blessed is that Kingdom of Heaven which shall have no end the words are short but they are full The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it this is typified in David and Saul the Kingdom of the one was temp●rall of the other eternal The Angel repeats the same promise The Psalms do often urge it so do the Prophers Esay especially they all concur in this that it shall have no end Gods Lawes obeyed are the support of a Common-wealth IT fareth with the body politick as it doth with the body naturall if the humours keep their proportion we have health no sooner do they swerve from it but they begin a disease which maketh way to pu●refaction and so to dissolution wherefore we apply physick to reduce them again into a due temper Even so while good Lawes sway our carriage towards our selves towards our neighbours each man doth well the

to be as tickle as Eli's stool from which he may easily break his neck that he must drink wormwood in a cup of gold and lie in a bed of Ivory upon a pillow of thorns so that he may well say of his glory as one said of his roab O nobilem magis quam felicem pannum or as Pope Urban said of his Rochet That he wondered it should be so heavy being made of such light stuff Prayer turning Earth into Heaven IT is said of Archimedes that famous Mathematician of Syracuse who having by his Art framed a curious Instrument that if he could but have told how to fix it it would have raised the very foundations of the whole Earth Such an Instrument is Prayer which if it be set upon God and fixed in Heaven it will fetch Earth up to Heaven change earthly thoughts into heavenly conceptions turn flesh into spirit metamorphose nature into grace and earth into heaven To passe by the offences of our Brethren DAvid was deaf to the railings of his enemies and as a dumb man in whose mouth were no reproofs Socrates when he was abused in a Comedy laughed at it when Polyargus not able to bear such an indignity went and hanged himself Augustus sleighted the Satyrs and bitter invectives which the Pasquills of that time invented against him and when the Senate would have further informed him of them he would not hear them Thus the manlier any man is the milder and readier he is to passe by an offence as not knowing of it or not troubled at it an argument that there is much of God in him if he do it from a right principle who bears with our infirmities and forgives our trespasses beseeching us to be reconciled When any provoke us we use to say We will be eeven with him but there is a way whereby we may not onely be even but above him and that is forgive him We must see and not see wink at small faults especially Qui nescit dissimulare nescit vivere may with some grains of allowance passe current He that cannot dissemble is not fit to live Kingdomes and Common-wealths their successions from God THe Romans closing in with that permanent errour of Mankind to mistake the Instruments and secundary Agents in Gods purposes for the main Efficient were wont variously to distinguish the derivation of their Empire as by force so Iulius Caesar was invested by the Senates election so Tiberius by the Souldiers so Severus and by Inheritance so Octavius Augustus But most true it is that to what means soever they imputed their Emperours were it Birth or Election Conquest or Usurpation 't is God who gives the Title to Kingdoms and Commonweales by the first and it is he also that directs and permits it by the last The whole Heart to be given to God SOme great King or Potentate having a mind to visit his Imperiall City the Harbinger is ordered to go before and mark out a house suitable to his Retinue and finding one the Master of that house desireth to have but some small chamber wherein to lodge his wife and children It is denyed Then he intreats the benefit of some by-place to set up a Trunk or two full of richer goods then ordinary No saies the Harbinger it cannot be for if your house were as big again as it is it would be little enough to entertain the King and all his royall train Now so it is that every mans body is a Temple of God and his heart the sanctum sanctorum of that Temple His Ministers are sent out into the world to inform us that Christ is comming to lodge there and that we must clear the rooms that this great King of glory may enter in O saies the Old man carnall yet but in part renewed give me leave to love my wife and children No it cannot be having wife and children he must be as having none Then he desires to enjoy the pleasures of the world That 's denyed too he must use this world as if he used it not not that the use of these things is prohibited not that the comfortable enjoyment of our dearest relations is any way to be infringed but the extraordinary affection to them when they come into competition with the love that we owe unto God For he will have the whole heart the whole minde the whole soul and all little enough to entertain him and the graces of his holy Spirit which are attendant on him Nec mihi nec tibi sed dividatur was the voice of a strange woman and such is that of this present world But God will take nothing to halfs he will have the whole heart or nothing The good Christians comfort in time of the Churches trouble MArtin Luther perceiving the cause of the Church to go backward puts pen to paper and writes to the Elector of Saxony where amongst other expressions this was one Sciat Celsitudo tua mhil dubitet c. Let your Highnesse be sure that the Church's businesse is far otherwise ordered in Heaven than it is by the Emperour and States at Norimberg And Gaudeo quod Christus Dominus est c. I am glad that Christ is King for otherwise I had been utterly out of heart and hope saith holy Myconius in a letter to Calvin upon the view of the Church's enemies Thus it staggers many a good Christian at this day to see Sion in the dust the Church under foot the hedge of government and discipline broken down all the wild beasts of Heresie and Schism crept in such as labour to root out true Religion to dethrone Christ and to set up the idle fancies and enthusiasticall conceits of their own phanatick brains some crying out against the Church with those Edomites Down with it down with it even to the very ground others casting dirt upon her harml●sse ceremonies But let the Churches friends rest assured that God sees and smiles and looks and laughs at them all that the great counsell of the Lord shall stand when all 's done that Christ shall reigne in the midst of his enemies and that the stone cut out of the mountains without hands shall bring down the golden Image with a vengeance and make it like the chaff of the summer floor Dan. 2. 35. The sad condition of People under Tyrannicall Government IT was a just complaint of Draco's Lawes in Lacedemonia that their execution was as sanguin as their character for they were written in bloody letters And the Romans lamented the cruelty of those Tribunalls where the cheap proscription of lives made the Iudgement-seat little differ from a Shambles A Man made Offender for a word Poor Men sold for shooes Or as the Turks at this day sell heads so many for an Asper Such is the condition of People under Tyrannicall government under

Saints shall have with him in the highest Heavens as forbids us that dwell in mortal flesh to conceive of it aright much more to expresse it 't is best going thither to be informed and then we shall confesse we on Earth heard not half of what we there find yea that our present conceptions are no more like to that vision of glory we shall there have then the Sun in the Painters Table is to the Sun it self in the Heavens Men to be constant in the performance of holy Duties IT is observable That many who have gone into the Field and liked the work of a Souldier for a battel or two but soon have had enough and come running home again from their Colours whereas few can bear it as a constant Trade War is a thing that they could willingly wooe for their pleasure but are loath to wed upon what terms soever Thus many are soon engaged in holy duties easily perswaded to take up a Profession of Religion and as easily perswaded to lay down like the new Moon which shines a little in the first part of the night but is down long before half of the night be gone the lightsome Professors in their youth whose old age is wrapt up in thick darknesse of Sin and wickedness O this constancy and persevering is a hard word this taking up the Crosse daily this praying alwayes this watching night and day and never laying aside our cloaths and armour i. indulging our selves to remit and unbend in our holy waiting upon God and walking with God this sends many sorrowful from Christ yet this is the Saints duty to make Religion his every-dayes work withou● any vacation from one end of the year to the other How it is that there are so many Professors of Religion and so few Christians and Practisers of Religion ALl Israel came joyfully out of Egypt under Moses his conduct yea and a mixt Multitude with them but when their bellies were a little pinched with hunger and their greedy desires of a present Canaan deferred yea instead of peace and plenty nothing but Warr and pen●ry appeared they like white-liver'd Souldiers are ready to fly from their colours and make a dishonourable retreat into Egypt Thus the greatest part of those who professe the Gospel when they come to push of pike to be tried what they will do deny endure for Christ grow sick of their enterprise Alas their hearts fail them they are like the waters of Bethlehem but if they must dispute their passage with so many Enemies they will even content themselves with their own Cistern and leave Heaven to others that will venture more hardly for it Gods comfortable presence in the midst of spiritual desertions THe Gardiner digs up his Garden pulls up his fences takes up his plants and to the eye seems to make a pleasant place as a waste piece of ground but every intelligent Man knowes that he is about to mend it not to mar it to plant it better not to destroy it So God is comfortably present with us even in our spirituall desertions and though he seem to annihilate or to reduce his new Creation yet it is to repair its ruines and to make it more beautifull and glorious Or as in the repairing of an house we see how they pull down part after part as if they intended to demolish it quite but the end is to make it better it may be some posts and pillars are removed but it is to put in stronger It may be some lights are stopped up but it is to make fairer So though God take away our props it is not that we may fall but that he may settle us in greater strength he batters down the life of sense to put us upon a life of Grace And when he darkens our light that we cannot see it is but to bring in fuller light into our Souls As when the Stars shine not the Sun appears repairing our losse of an obscure light with his clear bright shining beams So that though God do forsake his people yet not totally not for ever not ceasing the affection of Love but the acts of Love for some time And when he seems to be turning a Man into a desolate and ruinous condition yet even then is he building and preparing him to be a more excellent structure The Christians spiritual growth when seemingly dead and declining AS in the lopping of a Tree there seems to be a kind of diminution and destruction yet the end and issue of it is better growth And as the weakning of the body by Physick seems to tend to death yet it produceth better health and more strength and as the ball by falling downward riseth upward and Water in pipes desc●nds that it may ascend So the Christians spiritual growth when seemingly dead and declining and to stand a stay is still carried on by the hidden method of God to encrease For every true Christian is a member of a thriving body in which there is no Atrophie but a continual issuing of spirits from the head so that life being wrought by the Spirit of life never dyeth but is alwayes upon the growing hand ripening and encreasing even in the midst of tentations and trouble Backwardnesse in the service of God reproved AStone needs not to be driven downward because that motion is suitable to it and it affects the Centre the Eagles fly willingly to their prey an hungry Man needs not either perswasion or compulsion to eat his meat So did but Men delight in God What means their hanging back from him How is it that the Counsels and thoughts of their hearts the pressing perswasions of the Word the strong motions of the Spirit the shining Examples of the godly the wise advice of Faithful friends the sweet inducements of pretious Promises the sad menaces of fearfull Evils yea the heavy strokes of an angry God yea the tender Mercies of a melting Father yea the bleeding wounds of a crucified Redeemer How is it that none of these do more prevail with them to a more ready walking with their God Surely such backwardnesse such unwillingnesse in the service of God cannot but be hatefull unto him Religion consisting in duty both to God and Man AS the Boat cannot move rightly when the Oars onely on one side are plyed Or as the Foul if she use onely one wing cannot fly up So Religion consisteth of duties to be performed some to God and some to Man some for the first Table of the Law some for the second otherwise that Religion will never profit that hath one hand wrapped up that should be towards Man in all offices of Charity though the other be used towards God in all offices of Piety The paucity of true Believers IT is the observation of a Learned Man That if the World were divided into thirty equall parts nineteen

at first spread his glorious banner Act. 11. 26. that they might freely meet there and publiquely joyn together in the service of their God The motion he could not but know must be exceedingly unwelcome to the Emperor because he was an Arrian and so it proved For the Emperor tore his Petition and bade him ask something else but Terentius gathered up the torn pieces of the paper and said Hoc tantum desidero c. This I ask as a reward of my service and I will ask nothing else Here was a ●ree sp●rited Man a true Christian Souldier that sum'd up all his service for the publique in an humble Petition for the Churche's good Dic mihi Musa virum S●ow me such another Do men improve their Interest in great ones and make such use of opportunities as may conduce to the good of Gods cause and Religion They do not It is too too apparent that Men are too much byassed too much 〈◊〉 ended seeking quae sua non quae Christi their own things not the things of Iesus Christ preferring their own private gain and Worldly profit before the advancement of Gods true Religion Gods Omnipresence the consideration of it to be a restraint from Sin IT is the perswasion of Seneca to his Friend Lucilius for the better keeping of himself within compasse of his duty to imagine that some great Man some strict quick-sighted clear-brain'd Man such as Cato or Laelius did still look upon him And being come to more perfection would have him to fear no Mans presence more then his own nor any Mans testimony above that of his own Conscience and addes this Reason because he might flee from another but not from himself and escape another's censure but not the censure of his own Conscience Thus did but Men set God before their eyes and alwaies remember that his eyes are upon them it would be a notable bridle to pull them back and to hold them up when they are ready to fall into any Sin it would make them to watch over themselves that they did not do any wickednesse in his sight who is greater then their Consciences and so upright in his Iudgments that though Conscience may be silenced for a time and give no evidence or be a false Witnesse to the truth yet it is impossible to escape his sentence either by flight or any appeal whatsoever The holy Scriptures to be valewed above all other Writings JOsephus in his book of the Antiquities of the Iews maketh mention of one Cumànus a Governor of Iudea that though he were but an Heathen and a Wicked Man yet he caused a Souldier to be beheaded for tearing a Copy of the Book of Moses Law which he found at the sacking of a Town And venerable in all Ages and amongst all Nations have been the books that contained the Laws either of their Belict or Politie as the Jews their Talmud the Romans the Laws of the twelve Tables the Turks their Alcoran and all Pagans the Laws of their Legislators And shall not Christians have then an high esteem of the holy Scriptures and deem them as the good old Christians did to be the Miroir of divine Grace and Mans misery the Touchstone of Truth the Shop of remedies against all evill the Hammer of Hereticks the Treasury of Virtue the Displayer of Vanities the Ballance of Equity and the most perfect Rule of all Truth and honesty Men to be forward in frequenting the Ordinances of God IT is a note of Mr. Calvin's upon that Text Seek ye my face Psal. 27. 8. That Superstitious People will go on Pilgrimage to the Image of such a Lady or such a Saint or to visite the Monument of the Sepulcher at Ierusalem and they will go over Mountains and through strange Countries and though they be used ●ardly and lose much of their estates sometimes in perils of false brethren other times in the hands of Arabian Robbers they satisfie themselves in this I have that I came for Alas What came they for the sight of a dumb Idol a meer nothing If they then will endure such hardship for the sight of a meer empty shadow How much pains should we take to see God in his Ordinances What though the way to Sion lie through the valley of Bacha Surely when God moves the hearts of Men to joyn with his People a little difficulty cannot hinder them they will be content to go through the valley of tears so as they may appear before God in Sion they will go through thick and thin rather then not go to Church at all And thus as it is prophesied of the Church of God that she should be called Sought out i. e. sought unto or sought after Esay 62. 12. It is heartily to be wished that it might be so a place had in high estimation and regard which out of respect and devotion Men would repair and resort unto encouraging others also so to do saying Come let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord that our hearts may be refreshed with the consolations of our God in the way of his Ordinances Experimental Knowledge the onely Knowledg IT is well known that the great Doctors of the World by much reading and speculation attain unto a great height of Knowledge but seldom to sound Wisdome which hath given way to that common Proverb The greatest Clerks are not alwaies the wisest Men It is not studying of the Politiques that will make a Man a wise Counsellor of Estate till his Knowledge is joyned with experience which ●eacheth where the Rules of State hold and where they fail It is not book-knowledge that will make a good General a skilfull Pilot no not so much as a cunning Artizan till that knowledge is perfected by practice and experience And so surely though a Man abound never so much in literal knowledge it will be far from making him a good Christian unlesse he bring precepts into practice and by feeling experience apply that he knowes to his own use and spirituall advantage The Church of the Gospel it 's amplitude above that under the Law THe Samaritans Inne was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it gave entertainment to all strangers Luk. 10. 34. In S. Peter's sheet were all sorts of Creatures four-footed Beasts and creeping things Act. 10. 11. The Net mentioned in S. Matthews Gospel caught all kind of Fish Chap. 13. 47. Ahashueru's Feast welcom'd all comers Esth. 1. 4. Such is the Church of the Gospel in its amplitude The Prophetical Gospel was hedg'd in and limited within the pale of Palestine but the Apostolical Gospel is spread over the face of the whole Earth Then it was lux modii a light under a bushell now lux mundi the light of the World Then the Prophets sang In Iudaea natus est Deus In Iury is God known his Name is great in Is●ael but now

God are conditional made up with Provisoes As there is a reward promised so there is a Condition premised It must be our Obedience first and then comes in Gods recompence Our devotion goes before and his Retribution followes after To be careful of Vowes and Promises made in the time of Extremity THeodoricus Archbishop of Colen when the E●perour Sigismund demanded of him the directest and most compendious way how to attain to true happinesse made answer in brief thus Perform when thou art well what thou promisedst when thou wast sick David did so he made Vows in Warr and paid them in Peace And thus should all good Men do not like the cunning Devill of whom the Epigrammatist thus writeth Aegrotat Daemon Monachus tunc esse Volebat Conval●it Daemon Monachus tunc esse nolebat Well Englished The Devill was sick the Devill a Monk would be The Devill was well the Devill a Monk was he Nor like unto many now adayes that if Gods hand do but lie somewhat heavy upon them O what Promises what engagements are there for amendment of life How like unto Marble against rain do they seem to sweat and melt but still retain their hardnesse let but the Rod be taken off their backs or health restored then as their bodies live their Vows die all is forgotten Nay many times it so falleth out that they are far worse then ever they were before The good Christian's absolute Victory over Death WHen the Romans had made Warre upon the Carthagenians and often overca●● them yet still within eight of ten years or lesse they made head again and stirred up new Warrs so tha● they were in successive combustion And it hath been the same in all the Nations of the World he that was erst an underling not long af●er becomes the Commander in chief and the same thing that the Lord hath now made the ●ayl may be the head in time to come As for Example Cerealis gets a great Conquest over the Cymbrians and the Tutons and shortly after Sylla had the like over him And Sylla no sooner shines out to the World but is eclipsed by Pompey And Pompey the glory of his time is by the conquering hand of Caesar outed both of life and honours And Caesar in the height of all his pompous state falls by the hands of bloody Conspirators in the Senate-house Thus in the course of this World As one Man is set up another is pull'd down the Conquerour is oft-times conquered himself but in the Victory that every good Man hath over Death it is so absolute that it is without any hope or comfort on Death's part and without any fear or suffering on their part For it is so taken away as if it had never been and that which had the greatest triumph the mightiest Trophies in the World unto which all Kings and Princes have bowed their heads and laid down their Scepters as so many morsels●o ●o ●eed on shall by the hand of Iesus Christ be turned into nothing shall have no Name or nation and be ber●ft of all hope of recovery 1. Cor. 15. To be alwaies prepared for Death WHen Harold King of Denmark made Warr upon Harquinus and was ready to joyn battel a dart was seen flying into the ayr hovering this way and that way as though it sought upon whom to rest when all stood wondring to know what would become of this strange Prodigy every Man fearing himself at last the dart fell upon Harquinus his head and slew him Thus Death shoots his arrowes amongst us here he hits one that is Rich there another that is poor Now he shoots over at one that is elder then our selves Anon he shoots short at one that is younger Here he hits one on the right hand our equal another on the left inferior And none of us know how soon the Arrow may ●all upon our own heads our turn will come let it be our care then we be not surprised on a sodain Religion pretended Mischief intended CElsus the Philosophe● upon his defence of Paganism setteth an Inscription o● the Word of Truth Manicheus that blasphemous Heretick taking in hand to write to the Church his damnable Paradoxes doubteth not to begin thus Manicheus Apostolus Iesu Christi c. Manicheus the Apostle of Jesus Christ The 〈◊〉 H●reticks were alwayes saying Nos recta●fide i●cedimus We wa●k in 〈◊〉 right Faith All of them seeking the cloak and coverture of Religion It is the old Prove●● In nomine Domini incipit omne malum well Englished In my name have they prophesied lies Ier. 23. Thus it was with them and is it not the ●ame ●ay worse considering the abundance of means afforded to be better with us now and but some few years ago Parsons that Arch-traytor when he was hatching mis●hief against his Prince and Native Country set forth as if he had been wholly made up of devotion that excellent piece of Christian Resolution And now For Sio●s sake I will not hold my tongue sayes one c. So sayes another and so a third Sion at the tip of the tongue but Babel at the bottom of the Heart Religion prete●ded Mischief intended like Sons of Simon rather then children of Sion writing P●●rmaca medicines where they should write venena poysons And by this means they do sugar the brims of their intoxicated cups that Men the more gr●edily and without suspition may suck in their venomous doctrines that are administred unto th●m therein Why God suffers his Children to be in a wanting condition SEverus the Emperour was wont to say of his Souldiers That the poorest were the best For when they begun to grow rich then they began to grow naught Hence is that of the Poet Martem quisquis amat C. If you will bring up a boy or young Man to be a Souldier learn him first to endure poverty to ●●e hard and fare hard and to encounter all the hardship that Necessity can present unto him and then hee 'l deal the better with his Enemies So in the School of Christ the Lord suffers his People to be in a wanting condition not because he doth not intend to supply them not because he cannot provide for them but the reason is to bring them up in the discipline of Warre to train them up as weaned Children lest they should be taken off with the things of this World and as it were drowned in the vanities of this life and so forget God and their own Soul's health which is most of all to be regarded All Men alike in Death LUcian hath a Fable the Moral is good Menippus meeting with Mercury in the Elizian-fields would needs know of him which amongst all th● ghosts was Philip the great King of Macedon Mercury answers He is Philip that hath the hairlesse●scalp Menippus replyes Why they have all bald heads Merc. Then he with the flat