we mean that the Sacrifices of the chiefest Priest is now finished on the Cross it followes that all his disciples in imitation of their Master according to their several talents should offer likewise Sacrifices to their God in this sence all Christians are Priests to offer Sacrifices 1 Pet. 2.9 not such as were in the old Testament i Pet. 2.9 but Spirituall Priests to offer mystical sacrifices which may be presented from all men as praises and prayers and other services of piety the same is most occurately taught us in the Epistle to the Romans Heb. i3 i5 16. in resemblance of the sacrifices of the ancient Law Rom. 12.1 for there was in them 1. The hallowed to God which to convert to profane use was held a nafarious Crime 2. It was to be a thing living as a sheep or goate or the like 3. It was to be holy that is clean for there were among the Hebrews animals clean and unclean 4. And then the thing hallowed to God was to be burn't that it might send forth an odour of sweetness The like properties must be found in our spiritual Sacrifices 1. Our bodies ought to be hallowed to God that we may use them to his honour not as our own but his to whom they are consecrated by Baptisme and who hath purchased them by his blood 2. They ought to be living sacrifices enlivened with the life of Grace and of the holy Spirit for whosoever are dead by sin are not fit Victimes for God but for the devils our God who is alwayes living and the everlasting fountain of life abhors the stinking oblations of dead carkasses who are profitable for nothing unless for dogs and fowles of the Aire We must then enbalm and preserve the life of the soul with our best and most religious actions that we may give a reasonable sacrifice to our God 3. We must be holy and clean for none shall ascend into the hill of the Lord Psal 24.3 4 or stand in his holy place but he that hath clean hands and a pure heart who hath not lift up his soul unto vanity nor sworn deceitfully 4. And then we must be well pleasing and send up a sweet savour to our God to that purpose in the old Law they used to kill and burn the sacrifie and this is rightly performed in the spiritual Sacrifice when carnal concupiscence is truly mortified and burn't with the coales of charity nothing can sooner or more effectually destroy it then a sincere love to God for he is Lord and King of all the affections of the heart and rules them all whether Fear Hope Desire Hatred Anger or any other perturbation of the soul and love doth not yeild but to a greater so that when divine love doth possess and bear dominion over the inmost corners of the heart then carnal concupiscence gives place and being mortified it vanisheth to nothing Thence flaming desires and most pure prayers ascend to heaven like aromatical perfumes of precious spices this then is that perfect and acceptable sacrifice which God requires and the Apostle here exhorts with a most persuasive argument I beseech you by the mercies of God that you present your bodies c. By his mercy that is as if he had said by him that created you something when you were nothing By him that made you his servants and needed not your service and when your merits were unavaileable blest you with his own by him that made you to his own similitude and by this capable of his love and knowledg by him that made you his adoptive sons and co-heirs with his unigenit by him that made you members of his body whereof he was the head by him that offered himself a full and propitiatory sacrifice on the Cross to redeem you from servitude and wash you from all spots and wrinkles by him I beseech you to give to God in stead of dead beasts lively sacrifice in stead of their blood which was but a shadow and pleased not God of it self the acceptable sacrifice of the spiritual man framed by faith to godliness and charity 4. And then we are here further taught that we shall be crowned with Lawrels and Diademes of eternal happiness if we fight courageously under the banner of Christ against our spiritual enemies and never desist until we have obtained the Victory Christ gave not over until all was finished If God had given over at his second dayes work we had had no sin no seasons if at the fifth we had no being if at the sixth no sabbath but by proceeding to the seventh we are all we have all So Christ if he had stayd at his Circumcision or his Agony or his scourgings our redemption had been imperfect but by continuing to his crowning and his nayling and the piercing of his side on the Cross all was completed that was necessary for mans salvation 2 King 5.24 Naaman could not be cured of his leprosie but by washing in Jordan seven times less could not do it it is not enough for a man to begin or do some few acts of piety or religion unless he make a constant progress therein Are the Angels weary of looking on that face of God which they looked upon yesterday or are the Saints weary of singing of that Allelujah which they sung to Gods glory yesterday Is not that song which is their morning and evening sacrifice and which shall be their song world without end called still A new song Oh! then never be weary never give over performing thy duties to that God that never ceaseth to bless thee for he and he only that continues unto the end shall receive a Crown of life In vain did the perfidious Jews cry if he be King of Israel let him come down from the Cross and we will believe in him Nay rather because he was so he would not desert his place for by his perseverance his interest to the Kingdome was confirmed and the work of redemption was consummated in such a glorious manner that nothing could be deficient to the greatness of its merit or to enduce us to follow so noble a president to proceed in those actions that are pleasant and suitable to our temper is facil and not praise worthy but to persevere in laborious Agonies and sorrows and in such things as are against the dictates of our own natural and carnal affections is indeed difficult but very laudable Christ was so enamoured with his divine Father and long'd so earnestly for the redemption of man that all intervening Crosses seemed Cordials to him and all pains pleasures After his Example we find that Paul enumerating his own sufferings with those of his Co-Apostles breaks thus forth who is able to separate us from the love of Christ Rom. 8. shall tribulation or distress shall anguish persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword As it is written for thy sake we are killed all the day long we
Christ's Valedictions OR SACRED OBSERVATIONS On the LAST WORDS Of our SAVIOR delivered on the CROSSE By JENKIN LLOYD Minister of the Gospel and Rector of Llandissil in Cardigan shire LONDON Printed by D. M. son D. Pakeman at the Rainbow in Fleeâ—â—â—â—â—et 1658. To the READER I Here present thee with such Pious and Plain Observations as I could collect on what our Saviour uttered on Mount Calvary where he consummated the grand Work of mans salvation through the blood of his Crosse Those precedent sufferings of his life were but introductions to his last great Passion nor did he ever produce more and greater miracles then even in his extreme weakness and when death seemed to be his conqueror Miracles on earth were too low to attend a business of so high concernment signs from heaven must descend to seal the infinite merit of his Passion which before the Jewes did most importunately desire but that transcended all other wonders that when he was enthralled to the black confines of death he most triumphantly returned from the furies of hell and by an inexpressible power re-enlivened his bemangled and wounded body and adorned it with the glorious dresses of an eternal life And now in the heat of his great sufferings he so pierced the hearts of his persecutors with such pithy and feeling sentences that many of them at length returned through an infusive knowledg of their owne guiltiness striking their brests and had they not so relented at those cruelties the very rocks would have stood up in condemnation of their injustice The Words are in number seven whereof three were spoken about the sixth hour before the obscuration of the sun which we shall first consider and then the other four that were delivered about the ninth hour when God had withdrawn those dismal curtains and reenlightened that great Luminarie of heaven For methods sake I use first an explanation of each word that the true sense of the holy Ghost may be rightly apprehended and therein I do endeavour to hold forth such a construction as may be most conducible to the glory of God to the Analogy of Faith the exaltation of Devotion and the conservation of peace and union among us so that if happly I may in some things differ from others I desire their charity to leave me to my liberty if I do but differ from them and not from fundamental truths After that I have laboured to satisfie thy judgment with the true meaning of the words my next work is to stir up thy affections by laying down the consequent duties with proper motives to induce us to the performance of them so that you want not those Doctrines and Vses that naturally flow from each Text. But because in vaine doth Paul plant and Apollo water unless God gives the increase I do therefore conclude each part with certain Ejaculatory Prayers pertinent to the precedent discourse that by the influence of Gods grace the whole may be fruitful and salvifical to our souls for indeed that is the chief end for which it is exposed to publick view neither as I believe shall I miss of my aim if fear reverence attend the perusal of the Treatise Thus have you the Occasion Method and Scope of the Work all that is desired of thee is That having the Idaea of Christs charity before thy thoughts as thou shalt track it in each page of this Book thou wouldst in some measure endeavour to parallel so divine a pattern and judge charitably of me the unworthy Author JEN. LLOYD ERRATA Page 9 line 9 read reason p 10 r cloud p 22 r by p 51 r deliciousness p 74 r that p 77 r solved p 104 r 1652 p 119 r of God p 134 r we p 145 r Euripus p 147 r woman p 149 r nourisheth p 159 r seem p 170 r hear p 174 r accurately ibid. r nefarious p 180 r Sun p 190 r occurres p 191 r loquitur p 204 r an Almighty p 211 r mactatur Christ's Valedictions OR SACRED OBSERVATIONS On the Last Words of our Saviour delivered on the CROSSE The First Word LUKE 23.34 Father forgive them for they know not what they do ALl Nations did ever in Nature acknowledg not only a guiltiness of sin but some means of Reconciliation to their gods in the remission of sins For they had al some formal Ceremonial Sacrifices and Expiations by which they thought their sins to be purged and washed away and the people of Israel were prescribed by God himself what and how to offer their religious Victims But the proper and true Propitiatory Sacrifice to take away the sins of the world was only Jesus Christ the Incarnate Word of the Eternal Father who much Coveting that Ineffable work of man's Salvation thought it not only enough to suffer but before he submits himself to those great undertakings deemed it also expedient to win the hearts of the people as well by Doctrine as Miracles His whole Life was a continued Lecture and Method of teaching and because the words of a dying man works commonly a great impression on the affections and judgments of the hearers therefore being now to seal the Lease of that inestimable purchase with his own blood on the Cross he delivered such divine Legacies such Soul-livening words as ought to survive in the hearts and actions of all true Christians The first whereof was this Father forgive them c. The Explication He called him Father not God or Lord because he well knew in this condition to be needful the Benignity of a Father not the Severity of a Judge the Smiles of Compassion not the Frowns of Justice And because to bend God to a Lenity who was without doubt much incensed for such grand iniquities it was convenient to present the amiable title of a Father the words seem to imply thus much I who am thy suffering Son do pardon them pardon thou also O Father their impieties and forgive me thy Son this offence though they deserve it not Take it to thy compassionate Remembrance that thou art their Father by Creation and Preservation O then let thy Paternal favour shine upon them for though they are evil yet they are thy sons though they are sinners thou art merciful The word Forgive which is the sum of the Petition may as well be referred to the Punishment as the Fault if to the Punishment this Prayer was heard whilst the Jews for this present iniquity deserved instant revenge yet was it defer'd for forty years and if in that interim they had repented they had remained safe and untouched but because they did not God permitted an Army of Romans Vespasian then Governing to come against them who overthrew their Head City and destroyed the Jewish Nation some by the Sword some by Famine some sold the rest Exiled into divers places of the earth as foretold by the Parable of the Vineyard and of the Kings inviting of guests to the marriage of his son
and enforce the wicked to such an obedience that the just may lead a quiet and peaceable life But if Humane Justice should sometimes sleep yet the Providential eyes of God are still open who never suffers the evil to go unpunished nor the good unrewarded and through an admirable way when the wicked think they vex and torment the good he makes these the more famous the more illustrious Saevisti persecutor in Martyrem Leo. Ser. de S. Laur. saevisti auxisti palmam dum aggeras Poenam The Rage of a Tyrant adds to the Glory of a Martyr nothing made Joseph so renowned as the persecutions of his brethren Gen. 40 Some to avoid the shadow of a little disreputation among men and to preserve the smoke of honour will rather persecute then forgive their enemies thereby displaying themselves to be void of true wisdom when as they to shun a lesse evil fall into a far greater It is an undenyable axiome pronounced by the Apostle Rom. 3. â— Evil things may not be done that good may come He that receives an injury falls into the evil of punishment he that revengeth falls into the evil of the fault betwixt which two there is no Symmetrical proportion for the punishment makes a man but miserable the guilt and fault makes a man as well evil as miserable the first deprives a man of Temporal felicity the other robs him as well of Eternal as Temporal Besides it is generally held an argument of a noble mind to pardon and a sign of a mean Pusillanimous spirit to revenge Julius Caesar that victorious Emperor of Rome excelled more in Pardoning then Conquering his enemies of whom Cicero gives this high Eulogie That he forgot nothing but injuries O let not a Heathen under the Law of Nature surpass us in clemency and charity under the Law of Grace But that which makes men most averse from doing good and praying for their enemies is their difference about holy things Religion which should be the grand motive to Peace and Unity is now become the main occasion of such rents and divisions among us as our Ancients never heard of and Posterity will scarce believe The Jews were so infatuated in their counsels that they knew not what they did and many of the Christians are in such a confusion they know not what to hold some for Paul some for Apollo some for they know not whom And that which is most to be lamented is that for some diversities in opinion they should pronounce such an heavy sentence upon one another as is that of Damnation If God should censure us as we censure one another I know not who should be saved But my hope and praier is That the Lord will be more merciful to all dissenters then they are to one another The seven Churches of Asia were all the Churches of Christ he walkt in the midst of them Rev. 1.13 Chap. 2.1 even in that Luke-warm Laodicean he held the seven Stars in his right hand and though some were more perfect then others yet hath he a particular charge against the best of them Chap. 2.4 14. Let the Romanists tell us never so much of their unerring Chair and Infallibility and let the Cartharists tell us never so much of their Purities yet there is no Congregation so spotless but Christ may find a blemish in her no Church so blameless but that he hath few things to urge against her Let us not then judge of others but learn to reform our own errors nor study how to dispute but to live well to that purpose the Apostle's counsel is very pertinent Put on as the elect of God Col. 3.12 13. 14. 15. holy and beloved bowels of mercy kindness humbleness of mind meekness long suffering forbearing one another forgiving one another If any man have a quarrel against any even as Christ forgave you even so also do ye And above all things put on Charity which is the bond of perfection and let the peace of God rule in your hearts Ejaculations 1. THou God of Love and Peace we are in such blindness and distractions that we know not what we think speak or do we are at such deadly few'd among our selves that like Herod and Pilate we joyn together and muster up our forces against thee and all friends to Peace Profaneness Hypocrisie and Ingratitude towards thee Malice Hatred and Revenge towards one another are the reigning vices of our Times Pardon thou those against thee and give us grace to forgive these against our selves 2. We are taught Lord there is one fin irremissible Mat. 12.31 1 Joh. 5.16 and incapable of mercy and therefore not to be prayed for but being we know not who that sinner is and hope to find him no where therefore we make prayers and supplications for all men 1 Tim. 2.1 even for our enemies We have Thee for a President and thy Word for a Precept 3. Thou prayest their pardon that are shedding thy blood shall not we forgive those that do us injuries Thou art merciful to thy Enemies shall we be cruel to our Brethren How grievously do we provoke thee every day to thy face one of our offences against thy infinite Majesty is more then we are capable to receive from all our enemies on earth yet how silently dost thou pass by all our hainous affronts and bidst thy Sun to shine and thy rain to fall as well upon our grounds as thy holiest owners Thou dost graciously invite us to thee with new mercies and do we call our selves the sons of that Father whom we will not imitate Do we daily pray to thee To forgive us as we forgive others whiles we resolve to forgive none whom we can plague with revenge 4. Shall we hear a Cato say That he could and did pardon all offenders but himself and shall we pardon none but our selves Shall a Pagan without God have such rule over his Passion and shall a Christian who professeth a more divine Phylosophy give the reins to the wild and unruly erruptions of his rage 5. And what Lord though we differ in Judgments yet let us not vary in Affections What though our Brains be diverse yet let our Hearts be one 6. We all believe in thee O God and in the same Christ and are all Baptized into him and look to be saved by his sufferings We agree in that one and only Foundation we all embrace the two Testaments and as I hope the three Creeds and many other very material points why should we vary about the superstructures and circumstantials of Religion 7. We believe thy mercy to be of that extent Act. 2.21 Rom. 10.13 that whosoever shall call upon thy Name shall be saved why should we then be so uncharitable as to exclude so many millions of weak but true believers out of the Church below or out of heaven above for no other reason but because they are not of our judgments
had need of him too least the cares and troublesomeness of this world should choake the good seed sown in their hearts Christ not content with good works many and great which he had formerly done ascends by the Cross to higher and descends not from thence till he beholds a vanquished enemy prostrate at his feet Nothing more hurts a Proficient then when he languisheth in his course and stifles his proceedings according to that old Moral In the way of Virtue not to go on is to go backward Bern. ad Ganinum as Bernard doth rightly exemplifie in an Epistle in which he produces an instance of Jacobs Ladder where all do either ascend or descend none keeps a fixt station Those also who are Perfect and Virgins as Mary and John were and for that cause the more beloved of our Saviour I say those do much need the assistances of Christ's sufferings for they are in an higher condition and ought much to fear the tympanies and swellings of pride and self-conceit which can no better way be asswaged and taken down then by looking into the glass of the Cross There they may find an admirable president of true humility even Omnipotency it self yielding to most contemptible sufferings He in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledg Col 2.3 permits himself to be illuded and reputed may by Herod and his armie He that sits between the Cherubims and can blast a star with a breath Psal 99.1 and melt a Church with a look and molder a world with a touch even he suffers himself to be crucified in the midst of theeves and to die the most ignominious death the death of the Cross Learn hence O man not to be proud of thine honor wealth learning no nor of thy Piety it self but lay them all down at the feet of Christ and learn to be meek and lowly in heart Mat. 11.29 for so was he 5. And lastly we may observe hence the Reciprocal love of Parents to their Children and of children to their parents 1. The Virgin-mother did most accurately demonstrate this when she stood near the Cross with much sorrow and constancy and how could she chuse but bestow on him her choicest love whilest he was not only her son but also the Son of glory a Son that according to his Divine generation had a Father without a Mother and according to his Humane generation had a Mother without a Father and therefore may be stiled unigenite her only begotten Son A Son that was qualified with most special endowments as well of body as soul far excelling both men and Angels And yet even for this Son she had no inordinate no impatient grief but though his Passion was violent unparallell'd yet she beholds him with a holy and a Religious Courage humbly subjecting her self her son and all to the Divine will and dispose of the highest Thereby giving us this instruction That we look not upon any natural relations but with a love subordinate to the love of God for he hath told us He that loveth son or daughter above me Mat. 10.37 it not worthy of me And that whensoever he calls us to part with them we must not unmeasurably grieve for them but chearfully resign even our dearest comforts to that God that hath given them unto us 2. Neither was there a mutual retribution of love wanting on our Saviour his part towards his parent when notwithstanding he was then in the midst of most distracting torments he forgot not to recommend her to the care of his bosome friend and dearest Disciple It is a saying among the Heathens Diis Parentibus Magistris nunquam redditur aequivalens The Gods Parents and Teachers are never sufficiently gratified I need not inlarge my self upon this point even nature it self dictates unto us what love respect obedience and assistance is owing to those that begate us and did for us when we could do nothing for our selves They are therefore to be recompensed by performing these duties to them Eph. 6.1 Heb. 12.9 1. To obey them in all things in the Lord. 2 To bear their corrections with submission 3. To reverence them Mal. 1.9 in giving them all outward submission and fearing to offend them 1 Tim. 5 16. 4. To cherish and maintain them in time of need This the Apostle clearly teacheth If any faithful man or woman have widows that is to their mothers or aunts let them minister unto them and let not the Church that is other Christians be charged 1. O Most glorious God and gracious Father that sentest thy Son in no sort to assume the shape of Angels but the nature of a woman the seed of Abraham and didst glorifie that substance with the bright robe of immortality and place it at thy right hand We hope and pray that every one of us may have a portion in that sacred body of our Lord Jesus Christ 2. Make us partakers of his Divine nature as he was of our Humane make us free from sin as he was holy as he was holy and in the end glorifie both our souls and bodies with his in thy heavenly Kingdom 3. O thou Saviour of the world that wert pleased on thy Cross to cast an affectionate thought on thy dear Mother and amidst all thy sorrows to chuse her a Guardian to have her in his cares teach us never to forget those duties we owe them that are under thee the makers and preservers of our lives Give us grace to love serve obey and cherish them that so we may be as children of their love so heirs of their blessing the blessing which thou hast promised to loving and obedient children 4. And we beseech thee Lord to teach all parents by her example who loved thee to the last to be constant in their affection and care of their children and to bring them up in thy fear Let them know that thou art the Father of their spirits they but of their bodies Heb. 12.9 let them then put all confidence in thee for them as their best Father and make their daily supplications to thee for all goodness to them 5. Thou that didst favourably look at thy dear Disciple and adopt him of thy servant thy mothers son we pray that the light of thy countenance may shine on all us that professe thy Name make us who are by nature the children of wrath by thy grace inheritors of heaven 6. Teach us with Magdalen to repent with the wife of Cleophas to proceed in all good and pious works and with the Virgin Mary to attain to a good measure of perfection Let us be ashamed that the weaker Sex should excel us in the acts of pietie or religion yet powre forth thy grace upon all Sexes and all degrees of people that they may all know and serve thee the only true God and Jesus Chist whom thou hast sent Joh. 17 for that is eternal life The Fourth Word MATTH
Protection Thy Father left thee O Son of God in that sad Agony that thou mightest the more gloriously triumph he left thee to struggle with Death that thou mightest unsting Death and having overcome the sharpness of it open the Kingdome of heaven to all believers Thou mightest have had a numerous Army of Saints and Angels for thy defence against thy enemies and death it self for all Power in heaven and earth was given unto thee O Lord but thou wert pleased to permit that Divine decree between thee and thy Father and thy Spirit that thou shouldst first suffer all these things and then to enter into thy Glory But tell us we pray thee Thou Lever of Men whether or no did the vehemency of thy sorrowes in that space silence thine heart from thine accustomary devotion for we when we are but toucht with any affliction can scarce lift up a thought to thee or speak of thy praises But O our Saviour it was not so with thee for though thy flesh was weak yet thou didst bear a Spirit prompt to all holy exercises We know that though thy tongue moved not yet with the mouth of thine heart thou didst send implicit ejaculations to thy Father for us neither didst thou only pray in heart but in wounds and blood And as many wounds as were in thy Sacred body so many supplicants there were for us to thy heavenly Father and as many drops of blood so many tongues petitioning mercy for us O our God! we are justly confounded in the Abysse of thy love and mercy to the sons of men O were our sins so great that no sacrifice could at tone thine Anger but the blood of thy Son thy only begotten Son in whom alone thou art well pleased O superabundant love O prodigious Mercy But Lord teach us by his example not to cast cur affections on the pleasures and vanities of this world but to delight in the cup of affliction whereof he drank in an overflowing measure Make us fear to sin for his sake who sinn'd not and yet so highly suffered for our sins and when me fall under the rod of thy displeasure for them correct us not in thy fury lest we should be consumed and brought to nothing Though thou dost eclipse thy savours sometimes from thy deaâ—est ones yet we are confident thou wilt not totally and finally forsake those who do not so forsake thee Therefore we pray thee be not farre from us O God and though we attribute to thy Justice the glory of our deserved sufferings yet let thy mercy have the glory of our deliverance from them for the Passion of thy son's sake Amen The fifth Word JOHN 19.28 1 Thirst FOr the better explanation of This it is necessary to add the precedent and subsequent words of the Evangelist After this Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished that the Scripture might be fulfilled saith I thirst now there was set a vessel full of vinegar and they filled a spunge with vinegar and put it upon hyssop and put it to his mouth The Lord would have a full Consummation of all the Propheticall predictions of his life and death this only remained according to the Psalmist Psal 69.21 They gave me vinegar to drink Our Lord said I thirst The Prophet foretold it because he foresaw it the prediction or prevision is not the cause of a thing to Come but the thing to come is the ground of either The emission of so much blood could not chuse but provoke an extremity of thirst as I knew a man grievously wounded who called for nothing but drink which notwithstanding he entertained with a patient silence from the beginning of his Crucifixion His flesh had been long unacquainted with any moysture his veines his tongue his Palate and all his Interiours did labour under a miserable dryness but O sad refreshment in stead of giving him Cordials or pleasant drinks they offer him that which might either increase his torments or hasten his dissolution The summ of all is this As a little before his affixction to the Cross they offered him Wine mingled with Gall Mat. 27. so in the last period of his life they brought him Vinegar that from the beginning to the end he might have a continued Passion not mixed with any solace or refreshment The new Testament is for the most part an explanation of the Old but in this mystery of the Lords Thirst the words of the Psalmist may be styled a Commentary on these words of Christ I looked for some to sorrow with me Psal 69. but there was none and for Comforters and I found none they gave me gall to eat and vinegar to drink And of such the Lord here complains and saies I thirst Hence learn first O Man 1. To possesse thy soul in patience in thy afflictions after the great example of our Lord and Master Christ though in the fourth word there shined his humility joyned with his Patience yet here it appeares in its proper place This is it which setteth a seal upon all vertues even the first in the list and last in the triumph It is the Crowned Pomegranate which hangeth among bells in the lowest border of the high Priests robe of the old Law all was imperfect without the Crown of Patience it is the Salt of the Prophet Elisaeus which purifieth the polluted waters and sweetneth all the bitterness of life it is the School of Christianity So learned are we as we have Patience Ambross in Prov. 19 so much do we participate with God as we can endure by his example he hath taken a body to be able to suffer and to make himself the mirrour and reward of sufferours But we must distinguish true Patience from false True patience is that which commands us to suffer the evils of punishment that it may not enforce us to commit the evils of sin such was the patience of true Martyrs who would rather undergo the torments of villanous executions then deny the saving faith of Christ and would rather tolerate the loss of all they had then adhibit any adoration to false Gods false patience is that which perswades us to suffer all evil things that we may obey the law of lust and to loose eternal things to conserve the Temporal such is the patience of the Devils Martyrs who will easily suffer hunger thirst cold heat the loss of a good name and which is to be admired of the kingdom of heaven that they might augment their riches satisfie carnal concupiscence and ascend to the slippery mount of honours It is the innate property of true Patience to continue in a good cause to the end till by working it hath polished us Jaâ—â— 1.1 and made us perfect men and that is it which the Apostle declares in the Encomiums of it other vertues cannot long subsist without it in regard of some difficulties which are found in their actuations which by her assistance are conquered with
the patience to learn the following Article he might hear of his Triumphant Ascension into heaven and sitting there in Majesty and power on Gods right hand all the consolation of a Christian consists in this principally that after a troublesome warfare here he shall be carried to Abrahams bosome the Celestial Paradise to the durable Jerusalem to his Masters joy to an inheritance immortal undefiled reserved in the heavens to a rest from his labours and to behold the glory of God O how it behoves each man then to secure his interest in those felicities and daily and hourly commend his soul to that God that made it We are all careful enough when death approaches to put our houses in order and dispose of our temporals but few take a thought for that which is spiritual We had rather with King Asa seek to the Physitian then to the Lord 2 Chr. 16. when seized with sickness or with the Pharisees tithe mint and cummin and leave the weighty Matters of the Law undone but so we do but present God with maim not perfect with dead not living sacrifices Nothing can enter into the Kingdom of heaven but what is pure and immaculate and therefore our chiefest care should be if we desire to have admission there to prepare our souls by true faith and timely repentance without which our prayers and tears will nothing avail for without holinesse no man shall see the face of God He made our souls spirits let us not then make them carnal by feeding on corrupt lust He made them immortal let us not murder them with our sins and deprive them of eternal life He made them noble and after his own image let us not make them brutish and earthly by doting on the pleasures and vanities of this transitory world For what shal it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul TO thee therefore O thou Father of our Spirits do we make our humble addresses that thou wouldst be pleased to be a Protector of our souls and bodies both here and to all eternity Thou art our Rock and our Fortresse therefore for thy Names sake defend and guide us We have no confidence in saints or Angels for thou hast charged the best of them with folly but in the multitude of thy mercies for thou alone hast redeemed us O Lord God of truth Thou that didst shew thy power in weakness and shake the foundations of the earth when suffering on thy Cross make us to tremble through the horror of our sins and to fear thy judgments for them which we justly merit As thou didst then cleave the Rocks and rend the vail of thy sanctuary so melt our stony hearts with the beams of thy grace that they may receive the impressions of thy favors and that we may enter into the Holy of Holies above which thou hast prepared for thy chosen The height of our love is but to lay down our lives for our dearest relations but thou didst depose thy precious life for thy enemies that rebelled against thee Lord who by thy active and passive obedience wouldst leave nothing undone or unsuffered for our salvation O teach us to obey thy word to embrace thy metions to practise what thou commandest Let our wills be wholly resolved into thine and make us conformable to thee as thy saints and angels in heaven are We confess Lord that the wages of sin is deaeth and that we justly deserve to be reduced to our first nothing but O let not death which is the work of the divel have dominion over thy creatures who are the work of thine own hands Before we receive a summens to our end we pray thee furnish us with all requisite graces that we may be clothed with the wedding garment of holinesse and righteousness to meet thee the sweet Bridegroom of our souls Let us not commend unto thee foul sinful spouses but clean and sorrowful spirits for thou despisest not Lord humble and contrite hearts At the hour of death Lord speak comfortably to our souls and seal in our hearts by thy holy Spirit the pardon of all our sins Assist us with thy presence against all the assaults of our spiritual adversaries for if thou wilt be with us we shall neither fear nor feel any evil though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death And grant that though our souls and bodies be separated by death for a short space they may be re-united at thy great day and by vertue of thy Resurrection be raised to live in thy ever blessed eternity Grant this for his sake who lived and dyed and rose again for our salvation Jesus Christ Amen FINIS