that it may giue good season and a swéete sauour vnto meates So a true Christian especially one aduaunced to dignitie and placed in authoritie should spare no labor but euen breake himselfe with studie and care and vndergo any paines to do good to profite many and to win some soules to God Such men indeede hath Christ appointed to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth They ought to be full of loue to God and man They should liue as strangers vpon the earth They should haue no acquaintance with pride couetousnes ambition emulation and such other sinnes of the world EVen as the sailers gnomon or rule which is commonly called the marriners néedle doth alwaies looke towards the north pole and will euer turne towards the same howsoeuer thou shalt place it which is maruellous in that instrument and néedle whereby the marriners do know the course of the winds Euenso euery Christian man ought to direct the eies of his minde and the waies of his hart to Christ He is our north pole and that fixed and constant north star whereby we ought all to be gouerned he is our hope and our trust he is all our strength whereupon we must still relie And as the gnomon doth euer behold the north star whether it be closed and shut vp in a cofer of golde siluer or wood neuer losing his nature so a right Christian man whether he abound in wealth or be pinched with pouertie whether he be of high or lowe degrée in this world ought continually to haue his faith and hope surely built and grounded vpon Christ and to haue his hart and minde fast fixed and setled in him and to follow him through thick and thin through fire and water through wars and peace through hunger cold through friends and foes through a thousand perils and dangers through the surges and waues of enuie malice hatred euill spéeches railing sentences contempt of the world flesh and diuell and euen in death it selfe be it neuer so bitter cruell and tyrannical neuer to lose the sight and view of Christ neuer to giue ouer our faith hope and trust in him Let vs followe the counsell of the holy Ghost which saith Put me as a signe vpon thy hart as if he should say Set me in thy hart in stéede of a marke whereat all thy thoughts words and works may be leuelled Put out of thy hart the marke of the world and place me there as the end vnto the which all thy purposes may tend vpon whom all thy cares may be cast and in whom thou maist rest thy soule in all peace A woonderfull gnomon and most excellent sailing néedle was that noble king and famous prophet of God Dauid when he said I set the Lord alwaies before mine eies for he is at my right hand that I shall not be mooued Therefore saith he my hart reioiced my toong was glad and my flesh shall rest in hope And the Apostle saith Let vs run toward the fight that is set before vs looking still vpon Iesus the author and finisher of our faith who hauing ioy set before him indured the crosse God giue vs grace continually to lift vp our harts and mindes our hand and eies to Christ Iesus and as Augustine saith To behold stedfastly our head AS all riuers of waters go into the sea bicause they came out of it and as Salomon saith All riuers and flouds returne to the place whence they came So let vs go and towards our God with all our harts strength and powers bicause we came out from him and were created of him Let vs therefore looke vpon him with the eies of a stedfast and constant faith grounded vpon his word let vs behold his glorie and the blessednes of his saints and let vs conceiue in our harts and soules an vnfained loue to him and let vs not haue two loues one for our selues and another for our neighbors but let vs loue them and our selues both with one and the same loue which may kindle and inflame our harts and mindes throughout with an earnest desire of immortalitie and that heauenly Ierusalem That we may say with the prophet O my soule returne vnto thy rest for the Lord hath done well to thée or as it may be translated bicause the Lord hath restored thée to thy selfe As if he should say O my soule when thou didst serue thy bodie and wast in bondage to it it was no maruell that thou didst séeke the pleasures thereof but now séeing thou art thine owne bicause the Lord hath restored thée to thy selfe séeke not anothers pleasure but thine owne séeke thine owne rest and not the rest of thy bodie of the flesh of the world séeke God delight in him flie vnto him and rest thy selfe in him put all thy cares griefs sorrowes in his loue and swéete comfort thinke of eternall blessednes presse it and print it surely in thy selfe This is thy spirituall rest this is thine own and only delight restored vnto thée by the benefit and bountifulnes of God THere is nothing liker vnto the world than the sea For as it floweth and ebbeth and all the waues thereof at the length fall into the earth So this world is neuer quiet it extolleth some and casteth downe others but all the vanities of it are ended in the graue If the sea lie open to many dangers how perilous then is the world if the sea be troubled with strange stormes with what tempests then is the world tossed If they that serue by sea are neuer without great perils how much more then the seruants of the world They whose heads are vnder the girdle of the world are continually shot at with the darts of enuie hatred and malice and are euer couered as it were with cloudes and stormes of a thousand cares How many are slaues to pride how many are dirtie drudges to couetousnes how many are consumed in substance soules and bodies by foule and filthie lecherie How many are deuoured and swallowed vp quicke of sorrowes and gréefes of hart and minde And doth not too much ioy and reioicing in worldly trifles kill some Many die laughing but mo sorrowing some with eating and drinking too much and many through want of sufficient giue the world adew Some grudge and whine bicause they haue many children and some are malcontent bicause they haue none some grudge not bicause they haue many but bicause they haue bad ones some boast of their beauties and some mourne for their blacknes Many desire to liue long but few to liue well All would be rulers and few will be ruled What then shall we thinke of this world Truly I thinke of it as of a thing most dangerous and most vaine and the going out of it is to me as the shore is to a man that hath trauelled far and long by sea and hath béene dangerously tossed with the surges and waues of
very good king and setteth down a very plaine paterne a most liuely picture of his vertue that such a man as walketh in an vndefiled way to wit whose life is vnreprooueable shall serue him and be to him a courtier and a counseller and voweth that no man of pride no vaine person nor speaker of euill things shall dwel in his house nor kéepe within his court As if he should say I will diligently inquire and search who they be which in any land countrie and kingdome are faithfull and do loue righteousnes and by their counsell with I be instructed and the familiaritie of them will I vse but all vngodly proud blasphemous lying deceitfull and wicked persons of all sorts will I vtterly expulse out of my house and driue and thrust them out of my court and will suffer them to finde no rest within my kingdome God grant that all good godly Christian princes may follow the steps and example of king Dauid in this and all other his princely vertues and holy exercises Amen IT is the part and dutie of euery good Christian that whatsoeuer he doth in word or déede he do all in the name of the Lord Iesus that is to the glorie of God and in an affiance and confidence that he hath in the name of God that he wil protect defend blesse prosper and preserue him in doing of the same and so to giue vp his hart minde will worke and all vnto God before he do attempt the doing and performance of the same There be very many that do some dédes which to sée to are very good works but not the lesse they kéepe their harts mindes and wils diuided and separated far from God Those things to wit their harts mindes wils and purposes they steale from the Lord and do bestow them vpon the world they regard not God they séeke onely to please men in the action of vertue they haue no respect vnto vertue it selfe but onely and barely to the shew and shape or likenes of vertue Such men are like vnto painters which haue a greater regarde to the colours and shadowes of images and pictures than vnto the substance of the same and contemning the inward parts they bestow all the wit skill and cunning they haue in expressing and painting out a bare shadow and outside of the thing and the more they deceiue the eies of them that behold it the more excellent men are they iudged But the Lord requireth at our hands first fruits that is our harts mindes wils desires and all that is in vs and that we should euen offer vp and consecrate vnto him our selues euen our bodies a quicke aâ—â—â—iuing sacrifice holy and pleasing God which is our reasonable seruice of God And when the Apostle willeth vs or rather beséecheth vs that we giue our bodies a liuely sacrifice holy and acceptable to God and calleth the same our reasonable seruice of God he meaneth that the offering of dead calues and vnreasonable beasts as in times past the Iewes offered vnto him wil not please God now neither that the Lord will accept and take in good part any seruice or sacrifice that we shall bring and lay before him either in words or works so long as we loue sinne and harbour iniquitie in our harts mindes and members The Lord will receiue no sacrifice nor seruice of those that be strangers vnto him but onely of those which are graffed in Christ Iesu and are now become in him new creatures in whom there is a newnes a righteousnes and holines of life in whom all old foule filthie and vngodly conuersation is past And therefore the Apostle saith to the Ephesians Be ye renewed in the spirit of your minde and put ye on the new man and to the Colossians he giueth counsell that they destroy the olde man with all his trash and put on the new man and most louingly he beseecheth the Romanes saying Let vs walke in newnes of life But bicause this newnes cannot be wrought in vs without the grace and holy spirit of God Dauid the prophet doth mightily crie vnto the Lord and saith O God create a new hart within me and renew a right spirit within my bowels or inward parts The Lord requireth of vs a lambe that is innocencie humilitie and méekenes and he would haue vs to offer vnto him a yoong pigeon or a turtle doue that is true contrition and puritie of hart and minde for those swéete birds do vse mourning in stéed of singing and are pretie and fine paterns of puritie and innocencie The Lord will not take receiue nor accept barking curre dogs that is railing raging cursing lying slandering blaspheming or any such vngodly persons neither their offerings sacrifices nor praiers when they come and bring and lay them before him no more than he did the sacrifice of Caine. The roring and cruell lion the rauening wolfe the foule and dirtie swine the blinde mole or want that is the tyrannicall and mercilesse man the oppressor piller and poller of his brethren the man that is méere naturall and carnall the man that is blinde and ignorant in spirituall and heauenly things they are neither sacrifices nor sacrificers that God will or is woont to take any pleasure in as he doth abhorre the vices so for the vices sake he doth detest the vessels vntill such time as they be purged and clensed of such foule and filthie matter If there were no other but onely Salomon to tell vs that the Lord requireth and calleth for our harts it is great reason that we should beléeue the Lord at one word and at one message when so louingly and fatherly he saith My sonne giue me thy hart The Lord helpe vs and grant that we may giue him our harts and whatsoeuer else of the inward and outward man Amen HEliotropium the herbe of the sunne so called bicause it windeth it selfe about with the sunne in the morning very early it beholdeth the rising thereof and all the day it euen followeth the course of the sunne euer turning the leaues towards the same but the roote it neuer changeth stirreth nor mooueth it hath that still fast fixed within the earth So very many will séeme to follow the sunne of righteousnes Christ Iesus but it is onely in leaues and outward shewes for their rootes that is their harts are far and fast within the earth where indéede their treasure is according to that which Christ himselfe doth say Where thy treasure is there is thy hart also Such men will lift vp their hands eies and voices towards heauen and God and with such goodly gréene leaues will make a faire florish and a beautfull shew but their harts and affections are surely set vpon earthly vaine vile and transitorie things and are as far from God as heauen and earth are distant one from the other They shew vnto the Lord onely bare and fruitlesse leaues
and do rent and corrupt the words and doctrine of the holy prophets of God euen as it were a belly and bowels that they may créepe out and escape from a liuely perfect and a sauing faith and they may be confirmed in their errors heresies and infidelitie Yea as the Iewes haue from time to time slain the gracious and wise prophets of God euen so the Papists now where they beare any sway of rule and authoritie do most cruelly torment and murther the saints of God EVen as the delicate ballance of a goldsmith is mooued with euery little weight so that with one graine laid vpon it it falleth downward So with euery thing whether it bée luckie or vnfortunate we are woont to be greatly mooued and do suddenly change our purposes somtime we excéede in mirth by and by we are ouerwhelmed with sorrow we are euen now praising men to the skies and presently we hurle them downe from heauen with our toongs and thrust them into hell We loue men and hate them we saue men and kill them all with one breth now we choose vertue and by and by vice Thus doth mans will obey his vnbrideled lust The Lorde redresse and amend it FOr euen as the Chameleon changeth his colour according to the thing whereupon he sitteth So we at euery tentation do change our mindes and are driuen from our purposes and determinations and our wicked lusts and the vngracious thoughts of our harts do force and driue vs euen whither they will ANd as the Chameleon will be changed into any colour saue white So are we most apt and prone to all kinde of vice but to no vertue AS he that falleth into a riuer if he neither mooue hands armes nor legs is quickly drowned and sinketh downe dead to the bottome but if he swim escapeth aliue So he that trusteth to that faith which the apostle Iames calleth a dead faith bicause it hath no good effects and bringeth foorth no liuely fruits as an holy loue to God and man pietie patience pitie mercie compassion and such like vertues he must néedes be drowned in vtter destruction and sinke downe into the bottomlesse gulfe and pit of hell but he that mooueth his hands and his féete to do the déedes of a true and right faith which as the Apostle Paule saith worketh by loue and shall be a doer of the word and not an hearer onely he shall escape safe out of all dangers and shall arriue at the happie hauen of eternall happines and euerlasting life through Christ Iesus whereto the Lord bring vs all if it be his will Amen EVen as the riuer Hypanis which is very famous and much spoken of bicause of the cléerenes and swéetnes of the water of the same after that it receiueth into it the bitter and troubled waters of the fountaine Exampes is poisoned and made vnprofitable So many men of great and excellent wits which did flow with the pure and pleasant waters of vertues when they haue fallen into the societie and familiaritie of vngracious and godlesse men haue béene poysoned with the lewdnes of their liues and the loosenes of their conditions And conceiuing their inexpiable fraudes haue béene fouly disgraced with their most detestable vices FOr as rotten apples do corrupt those sound ones that do touch them and lie close to them So the euill manners had conditions of the vngodly do infect those that kéepe theÌ„ companie Therefore Blessed is the man that hath not walked in the counsell of the vngodly nor stand in the way of sinners and hath not sit in the seate of scorners c. And I haue not sitten in the counsell of vanitie and will kéepe no companie with the wicked c. Go out of Babylon saith the Lord and flie from the Chaldeans Depart out of the middest of Babylon and go from the land of the Chaldeans Peter denied Christ when he came into Cayphas his hall c. And Paule saith Euill words corrupt good maners AS it profiteth nothing to graffe a plant if with a whirlewinde or storme it be pulled vp by the rootes before it beare fruit So the word of God being heard and laid vp in our minds shall do vs no good if before it bring foorth fruit with some blustering blasts and sturdie stormes of temptations it shall be rooted out of our harts Therefore saith the kingly prophet Dauid Blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of God and in that law doth meditate day and night He saith not that that man is happie and blessed which heareth and readeth the word but he pronounceth him to be happie which doth practise the same in the course of his life and doth digest it in the stomacke of his vnderstanding and endeuoreth himselfe with all diligence to obey it and shal spend daies and nights in the meditation thereof And the Lord by Ezechiel saith Thou sonne of man eate this booke And againe Thy belly and thy bowels shall be filled with this booke Very many do eat the word of God and yet remaine emptie many do take it whose bowels that is their harts and minds are not filled with it bicause in very short time either they do forget it or else they apply it rather to a vaine curiositie than to the profit and good of their soules neither do they obserue those things which they know in their consciences by the instruction of the word ought to be obserued Such a thing did the Lord obiect against the vnthankfull Iewes by Aggeus the prophet Ye haue soweâ— much but ye haue inued little you haue eaten but you are not satisfied They eate much and are not satisfied which heare and reade much and leade euill and wicked liues so far staining and polluting themselues with foule sinne and filthie vices that their life and profession do woonderfully â—ar and vtterly disagrée EVen as that man which goeth about to cut downe a tall and mighty Cypres being barren vnprofitable and an idle trée that other fruitfull plants which are letted and hindered through the noisome shadow of it may increase and prosper doth not despaire though at the first or second blowe he fell it not but by little and little he striketh with the axe vntill at the length he lay it along Euen so a preacher of the worde of God although he sée no profite follow his preaching no faults amended no sinnes abated yet for all that he ought not to despaire to faint and to hide his talent in the ground let him preach againe againe and neuer giue ouer that at the length with the two edged sword of the pure word of God he may hew and fell downe the huge and monstrous trée of sinne and all abhomination and that the new plants of vertue holines and righteousnes may grow prosper and increase AS he that would haue a little flame of fire to mount and rise vp
whatsoeuer ye do else do all to the glorie of God AS a thicke wood and goodly groue giuing great shadowe very pleasant to behold doth delight the eies of the beholders so greatly with the varietie and thicknes of florishing trées and pleasant plants that it séemeth to be ordained onely for pleasures sake and yet within is full of poisonful serpents rauening wolues and other wilde hurtfull and cruell beasts Euen so an hypocrite when outwardly he séemeth holy and to be wel furnished with the ornaments of all sorts of vertues doth please well and delight much the eies of his beholders but within him there lurketh pride couetousnes enuie and all maner wickednesses like wilde and cruell beasts walking and wandring in the wood of his hart So that whiles he séemeth to be that he is not neither will be that he séemeth his exercise is to séeke whose house he may deuoure whose goodes he may gripe whose credit he may cracke whose name he may blemish and whose honest disposition and godly simplicity he may most abuse In the hypocrite this is verified Fained sanctitie is double iniquitie So that I speake with reuerence if any be a knaue the hypocrite is more if some may serue for one he may well stand for two Hypocrisie is a subtill euill a secret poison a lurking venome a painting and counterfetting of vertue a moath of holines In mine opinion there be no woorse men liuing than hypocrites be for when they purpose most to deceiue they handle the matter so and do so paint themselues with counterfet colour that you would thinke them to be very vertuous and godly disposed AS a flint smitten against iron or stéele doth driue out sparks of fire So godly meditations of heauenly things draw out of hard harts some warmnes and as it were fire of the loue of God The prophet Dauid had experience thereof when he said My hart wareth warme within me and in my meditation a fire was kindled That soule which shall be replenished with vertues and shal take pleasure in the contemplation of heauenly things shall no doubt haue most swift and speedie wings and shall be called most woorthily Auis petens alta se à terrae laqueis eripiens A bird that mounteth on high and pearseth the clouds fréeing hir selfe from the traps and snares of the earth Such was the soule of the prophet when he said My soule is euen as a bird escaped out of the snare of the hunter Let vs whiles it is to day and we may flie be lifted vp towards our God and forgetting the vaine things of the earth which are behinde vs and preasing with all our powers to the things aboue and neuer satisfied with the loue of God and the desire of heauen let vs boldly go forward and stretch out our selues to the reward of the high calling of God in Christ Iesu our Lord. For the things of this world haue euer béene false and at the length haue deceiued their louers and déerest friends EVen as he that hath a sonne which is in good and perfect health and a seruant that is excéeding sicke dealeth more roughly and seuerely with his sonne than with his seruant not bicause he loueth his seruant more than his sonne but bicause he would if it might be restore his sicke seruant to his former health but his sonne whom he loueth most déerely he reprooueth checketh taunteth and correcteth Euen so our God somtimes afflicteth his déere children whom he most tenderly loueth and doth suffer them to be exercised with wants with wéepings and wailings with sighes and sorrowfull sobs with hunger and cold with nakednes and want of harbour with heauines of hart and vexation of soule with sicknes of bodie and want of libertie and with a thousand other calamities and cares and in the meane time suffereth the wicked and vngodlie ones of the world to want nothing he giueth them health wealth and libertie worldly honor and dignitie and what not meaning and purposing by these meanes if the fault be not in themselues to bring them to knowe to feare to honor and to serue him by whose prouidence and appointment they haue and enioy all those good blessings and so be cured and healed of the sores and sicknes of their soules The holy men and seruants of God haue euer béene wel experienced in the Lords chastenings Ieremie the prophet saith to God Thou hast chastened me O Lord and I am corrected And the Apostle saith Whom the Lord loueth he chasteneth and he correcteth euery sonne that he receiueth Againe Let vs reioice in tribulations And to the Galathians God forbid that I should reioice but in the crosse of our Lord Iesus Christ whereby the world is crucified vnto me and I to the world by the crosse vnderstand the afflictions of Christ wherewith the Apostle was exercised for Christs sake For this must euer be true All that will liue godly in Christ Iesu shall suffer persecution So that the troubles and afflictions of this life are not reiections maledictions and the curses of God but rather and most truly infallible signes of his grace and true tokens of his loue and mercies toward vs. Blessed are they saith truth it self that suffer persecution for righteousnes sake AS the skilfull pearle seller and cunning lapidarie doth willingly suffer the Indian diamond or adamant to be smitten and stâ—ooken with great and weightie blowes bicause he knoweth well that the hammer and anuill will sooner be bruised than the diamond or adamant will be broken So our most wise God yea onely wisedome it selfe suffereth men of excellent vertues of vnquenchable loue charitie and inuincible constancie to fall into diuers temptations and to be plunged déepe into manifold miseries bicause he will haue their inward graces to breake out and so shine before men that they seeing the constancie of his saints may glorifie God which is in heauen For he is sure that they be constant and that nothing can separate them from the loue of God Ioseph was imprisoned in Egypt Ieremie in Iudea Ezechiel in Chaldea and Iohn Baptist by wicked Herod and yet all these and infinite others did neuer shrinke from God but as they liued in him so they died in him and are exalted vp on high and shall dwell in his tabernacle and rest in the hill of his holines for euer and euer And so shall we do if we will be as they were AS when thou séest a great and goodly citie consisting of many and sundry sorts of men some of great reputation and very many of smal estimation some exceeding rich and infinite others extremely poore some in their fresh and florishing youth and some crooked with old age where all these though among themselues selues they be diuers and sundrie do liue in great concord and agrée well togither and are kept all within the bounds and limits of good and godly discipline thou wilt
be fed with delicates and dainties from heauen and are nourished with the grace fauor of God they holde vp their hands they turne vp their eies they lift vp their harts and mindes to God that is in heauen from whence their soules receiue comfort ioy saluation and euerlasting life Such men are not in loue with this worlde nor with the transitorie things of the same They know and consider that the earth and all that is in it was once nothing and that it shall returne to nothing againe All is vanitie and vanitie of vanities But all their felicitie ioye and comfort is in the worde and will of God to know it that whiles they liue héere below in the earth they may do it That the course of this life being ended they may haue and enioy euerlasting life through Iesus Christ our Lorde LEarned and famous writers do report that in the vniuersall world there is nothing harder then the adamant stone especially that which is had in the Indians which in firmenes hardnes and valure excéedeth the rest but I am of opinion that the hart of man is harder than it for the adamant though it will giue place to no other thing nor be softened by any other means yet is it said to be subdued and mollified with the warme bloud of a goate But the hart of a man being hardned through the continuance and custome of sinne wil not be mollified brideled nor tamed neither with the bloud of a goat nor yet with the bloud of that immaculate lambe Christ Iesus which gaue himselfe a sacrifice for vs vpon the altar of the crosse and there bestowed his bloud that he might mittigate and appease our wilde mindes and pricke to the quicke our harde and senselesse harts and to open vnto vs the waie to the attaining of eternal life and euerlasting saluation O harde saith Bernard and hardened sonnes of Adam that will not be mollified with so great a force and power of loue With whom the bitter pangs of Christ his death and passion cannot preuaile We are surely that people to whom the Lord speaketh by Esay the prophet sayeng I know that thou art hard harted and that thy necke is a synewe of iron and that thy face is of brasse And Ieremie out of doubt speaketh no lesse of vs than of the Iewes they haue made saith he their faces harder then flint and they will not be conuerted I would to God these sayings did onely touch the Iewes and did not also hit a number of vs that professe the name of Christ looke to be saued by him pat vpon the thumbes Wée are proud hawtie and high minded and we hate to be humbled we are couetous enuious leacherous and we will not be brideled Wée are very rich and religious in words but we are very beggerly and haue no religion in our works Our lips and tongues onely are gilded and tipt with good spéeches but our harts are far from the Lorde The almightie vouchsafe to open the eies of our mindes and to mollifie our harts that we may sée and receiue his grace offered vnto vs and that forsakeing our selues and our sinnes we may be conuerted vnto him Amen AS the sunne doth not leaue shining and sending foorth his bright beames although a cloude will sometimes darken his light Euen so we must not giue ouer to exercise godlines and to do well euen towards them that be our enimies and will hate and persecute vs and the better we do the woorse will deale with vs. Christ commandeth vs to loue our enimies and to do them good and to pray for them that hate vs and persecute vs. AS the nut and oliue trées although they be beaten with rods yet bring foorth most plentifull fruits So we must not be weary of well dooing nor caste the exercise and practise of godlines behinde vs but rather more willingly and feruentlie procéede go on in the same although the friends of this world shall braule and rate at vs shall curse reuile and most vnkindly intreate vs. The lot of vertue is to be enuied and to finde fewe friends and if at all to be but coldly intertained with the most parte and greatest number of the worlde The prophet of God complaineth that for his vertues sake the princes of the earth laid their heads togither against him and yet he shronke not EVen as a quiet calme and pleasant water will shew vnto vs if we looke into it the verie image and likenes of our selues as it were a glasse but mooued stirred and troubled it doth not so euen so our owne harts if they be quiet and not troubled with horrors nor distempered with feares will plainly shew vs what we be so that we may easilie know our selues and not be deceiued but being filled with feares tossed with terrors and ouerwhelmed with troubles they cannot do so It behooueth vs therefore that our harts be not troubled nor ouerladen with feares Christ willeth his disciples that they fears not nor that their harts be troubled and in another place hée saith Feare not my little flocke The prophet was in heauie plight when he cried O Lord my hart is sore troubled And in an other place I was troubled in my sléepe Therefore that we may haue our harts quiet our soules in peace and our consciences vntroubled Let vs beware of sinne flie from all iniquitie and walke vprightly before our God all the daies of our liues God grant we may Then may wée saie The Lorde is the protector of my life of whom shall I be afraid And againe I will feare no ill for thou Lord art with me And if God be with vs who can hurt vs A Scorpion is a venemous creature which hath a pleasant pace but woundeth deadly with hir taile shée stingeth not with hir face but with hir hinder part Such a one is euerie smooth toonged and flattering bodie Which speaketh faire to his neighbours face and killeth him in his hart Honest Cato to see too but cruell Nero in experience AS a Bée doth carie a floure in hir mouth but behinde doth pricke verie sharpely with hir stinge So verie manie in these daies do vse most sweet and pleasant spéeches wil euen stroke as it were thy humor and disposition with soft and sugred communication to the ende that by reason of some malice couched in their harts they may worke thy woe and vtter ouerthrow Of these Dauid speaketh They came about me like bees c. Wicked men therefore must be taken héede of For the Scriptures do painte them out in their colours that we may shun them Mathew and Iohn do call them woolues Luke foxes Mathew and Luke the generation of vipers The Lord deliuer vs from them Amen EVen as a candle that it may giue light vnto others it selfe is burned and consumed And as salt it selfe is brused and molten
all idle slothfulnes in the matters of God and our saluation and to fill our harts full of vnfained loue to himselfe aboue all things and to our neighbors as to our selues and for his owne sake euen to our enimies that sathan our sworne enimie that soule flie of hell may neuer finde so much as one chinke or chap where through he may créepe into our harts Amen Amen AS in a true perfect and certaine clocke the whéeles being tempered and in equall and due proportion diuided do performe their courses and do keepe their seuerall compasses without iarring or differing one from another euenly and alike so that one moouing the others are mooued and one standing the rest are still and stir not so that though they be many in number in frame fashion and agréement they are but one Euen so in a Christian commonwealth there ought to be one and the selfesame will and so great a concord and likenes of mindes reconciled and drawen togither by vertue it selfe and so inseparably linked one to another with the infringible band of sincere loue in Christ that though in bodies they be infinite and innumerable yet in vnanimitie consent and good agréement in the Lord Iesu they should be all as one man This is that vnitie and brotherly loue which God himselfe so highly commendeth in the mouth of his prophet saying Behold how good and how ioyfull a thing it is brethren to dwell euen togither c. To this end came our sauiour Christ that I may vse the words of Zacharie euen to guide and direct our feete into the way of peace And the holy Apostle doth admonish vs to kéepe the vnitie of the spirit in the band of peace And to the Romanes he saith The kingdome of God is not meate and drinke but righteousnes and peace Againe is not that example of our sweete sauiour woorthie of all men to be imbraced and imitated Simon saith Christ to Peter of whom do the kings of the earth take tribute or poll mony of their children or of strangers Peter answered Of strangers then said Iesus Then are the children frée Neuertheles saith Christ least we should offend them go thy way to the sea c. and pay for thée and me Lo◠to auoid offence and to preserue peace what our sauiour Christ himselfe was contented to do euen that he néeded not and was frée from Much to blame therefore are all they and far from following the steps of Christ which séeke not by all meanes lawfull and possible to maintaine the vnitie and peace of the church of Christ The enimies of this peace are very intolerable men The Lord by his prophet calleth them wicked and vngodly men There is no peace to the vngodly And Salomon doth number them among the enimies of God which do sowe discord and dissention among brethren EVen as the spirit of man doth not strengthen the members of the body vnlesse they be fast and surely ioined togither So the holy Ghost doth not reuiue and comfort the members of the Church when they fall away and will not continue in league and fellowship with the seruants of God Longer than they are fast bound and knit to the congregation of Gods people in loue and peace in Christ the holy Ghost doth minister no strength no consolation no comfort vnto them There remaineth nothing else in such men but a numnesse and an extreme blindnes in heauenly things And whiles in their arrogancie and pride they forsake and condemne the church of God bicause they cannot draw it into subiection to their fond and fantasticall humors they become of men diuels incarnate AS the pilote of a ship without the shine of sunne or moone cannot take the hauen of any land So a man without the light of grace can neuer attaine to the hauen of glorie but howsoeuer he persuadeth himselfe that he casteth his anchor in a place of safetie it falleth out in the end that he casteth it vpon a rocke where there is no hope of saluation AN eagle so long as hir yoong ones be not very flidge and throughly feathered she doth not suffer them to go out of the nest and to flie abroad but after they be perfectly winged in the beautie strength of their feathers she throwes them out of the nest that they may flie and exercise their wings and feathers and vse them to the end wherfore they haue them Euen so our sauiour Christ that heauenly eagle after his resurrectiō commanded his disciples to stay at Ierusalem as it were in a nest and not to depart thence vntill in the day of Pentecost he had filled them with the grace of the holy Ghost then he commanded them that passing through the world and traueling through diuers coasts of the earth they should publish abroad and spread far and neare the Gospell of his kingdome This example of Christ is followed at this day to the great comfort and benefit of Christ his church when godly Archministers lay not their hands vpon any to admit them to be laborers in the Lords vineyard nor to do the office of a minister vntill they finde them sufficiently learned and well furnished with gifts and graces from God so far as they be able to discerne and iudge EVen as the eagle hauing hir yoong ones shut vp in the nest although she flieth excéeding high pearseth the loftie aire yet she withdraweth not hir eies from hir yoong ones but still beholdeth them and they also crying after their maner with their stretched out necks do looke after hir Euen so the Lord Iesus ascending into heauen did behold his disciples and they also hungring and thirsting after him did fasten their eies vpon him and did not lose the sight of him vntill he pearsed and broke open the heauens and entred into the presence of his father And although they were diuided from him in body yet in hart and minde they followed him still And Iesus that heauenly eagle séeing from heauen a fierce and cruell hauke preparing to destroy his nest and to kill his yoong ones he on the other side prepared himselfe and came against the hawke ouerthrew him and laid him prostrate vpon the ground The hawke was Saule who that I may speake as the scripture speaketh breathing out threatnings and slaughter against the disciples and seruants of the Lord he went vnto the high priest and desired letters of him to Damascus against all the Christians that he should finde there c. but the Lord Iesus did hurle him against the ground and gaue him for meate vnto his church and to the yoong ones of his nest whom he sought to destroy who now being called Paul doth recreate and refresh the whole church of God with holy most heauenly doctrine Behold how the lord hath euer prouided well for his nest that is his church his saints and seruants And this is our comfort in all
his hand an angling rod and with a baited hooke fishing in an obscure and troubled riuer although he doth not sée the fish rush vpon the baite yet he perceiueth very well that the fish is taken and hanged vpon the hooke bicause the corke or barke of his fishing line is pulled downe and hid vnder the water So sathan that most subtle and wilte fisher although he séeth not our thoughts being in the secrets and bottomes of our harts yet notwithstanding by outward signes he many times doth know them as by our words For out of the aboundance of the hart the mouth speaketh by our actions and by the gestures of our bodies For Christ himselfe affirmeth That out of our harts do come euill and wicked thoughts And Salomon in his Prouerbes doth number among those things which God hateth An hart that is fraught with euill thoughts Héere hence may most easily be gathered that all our euill thoughts do not come vnto vs from without neither are wrought in vs nor stirred vp altogither by sathan but that they come and créepe out of our owne corruption And so by outward signes and tokens comming to the knowledge of our enimie the deuill he neuer ceaseth with infinite temptations of all sorts to do his greatest indeuour to drawe the same cogitations of our harts into most dangerous and damnable practise if the Lord of his mercie and goodnes shall not giue vs true repentance and the assistance of his spirit wherby we may auoide his snares and escape his traps Which thing the Lorde grant vs. Amen AS the smith doth not make himselfe the hote coles that be in his forge but doth blowe the fire with bellowes and so the coles are kindled and made hot and firie So the diuell doth blowe and inflame those dangerous and wicked cogitations which are conceiued in our harts and minds with the bellowes of great and manifold temptations and so laboring to kindle the fire of all iniquitie he ministreth nourishment to all our wicked and damnable purposes For the hart of man is like vnto a smithes forge his euill and bad cogitations are hote burning coles he that doth blowe the bellowes to make them to burne vp and to consume both our soules and bodies is the diuell that ancient enimie of our happines and saluation It is to be lamented verily and with bitter tearâ—s and blubbering eies to be bewailed that such pestilent cogitations and deadly thoughts should be nouzeled and nourished in our harts and soules which do kill both bodie soule for euer euen as the frie of vipers in comming to light do kill their dams most miserably EVen as a begger doth couer and hide those parts of his body which be whole sound and perfect and doth open and shew abroad those parts or members which be â—ore wounded maimed lame putrified and rotten to mooue the harts and mindes of passers by and of all that shall behold him the rather to pitie him and to minister vnto him some reléefe and comfort Euen so we that be poore and miserable sinners in this world must not bring before the Lord our God our owne merits good déeds or vertues as able and sufficient to win the fauour and loue of God and to cléere vs of our sinnes and transgressions but we must most willingly with harts that be rent and torne with gréefe and sorrow for our misdéedes and heinous offences done and committed against the maiestie of God open bring foorth and lay before him the botches of our soules the corruption of our natures and the putrifaction and rottennes of our sinnes and iniquities that we may obtaine at Gods hand ease and comfort to our soules and consciences his great mercie and frée remission for all our rebellions sinnes and wickednesses through Iesus Christ our Lord. AS they which do dig mettals out of the earth do not contemne nor despise the least gobbets and peeces that they espie but take all but especially if they finde by digging a veine of gold they leaue no way vnsought but with all care and diligence they looke about them and do dig the gold and earth togither and most diligently do saue and kéepe the same Euen so ought we to deale in the holy word of God we must passe ouer nothing therein lightly nor despise one word of all the sacred and diuine scriptures but eagerly and earnestly to do our best and greatest indeuors yea and to call and to crie most mightily to the Lord to aide assist and enable vs to dig out of the same word whatsoeuer is requisite and necessarie for the saluation of our soules and eternall life It is not earth and gold mixt togither it is all most pure and throughly tried yea it is purer by a thousand degrées than any golde that hath béene tried seauen times in the fire The prophet affirmeth that it is better than thousands of gold and siluer AS the sea doth cast to shore shell fishes of al sorts wéedes and many other things and not long after doth sup vp receiue deuoure and cast into the depth the same againe Euen so this world doth now thrust vs out of fauour and by and by receiueth vs againe and when we thinke our selues to be vpon a very safe shore and that we haue leisure and time to rest vs and to meditate vpon some woorthie and excellent things euen then we finde our selues deceiued and are tossed among the waues of infinite troubles and are swallowed vp of innumerable calamities bicause many things that we neuer thought of haue preuented vs and the flickerings and false promises of this cosoning world haue deceiued our hope and disappointed our expectation AS a weake and brittle wal is easily cast downe and ouerthrowen with euery engine but an huge fense a mightie strong wall and a tower that is firme and fensed on euery side doth stand surely and endureth the force that commeth against it without yéelding staggering or falling insomuch that the enimies that seeke to ouerthrow it are driuen and constrained to vse warlike engins and policies yea and to batter and shake it with engins torments and ordinances of wars which will send and throw out stones weapons bullets and pellets of iron and lead Euen so sathan doth most easily ouerthrow with euery light temptation fraile and weake men which are not well setled in vertue nor grounded in godlines nor armed with the holy word and spirit of God but to win and ouercome if he could men that are furnished with a strong and liuely faith and such as are staied and do relie vpon the Lords protection and loue he vseth sundrie subtilties and most dangerous and forcible temptations He that tempted our sauiour Christ will neither spare any man nor meanes to destroie vs if he can bring to passe and effect his purposes The Lord kéepe and defend vs from his craft subtiltie and force and so strengthen vs with the holy
cut off thy arme and the arme of thy fathers house And shortly after the Scripture saith That his sonnes were slaine in fight and that Hely himselfe fell backward out of his chaire and broke his necke God grant that this example of Hely and his sonnes may be a warning to all parents to traine vp their children in the feare and nurture of the Lord and to punish their sinnes and vices so often as they perceiue and know them But againe the vngodly motions and mischieuous thoughts of our harts what are they els but children and brats of our owne bréeding The which we ought very seuerely to restraine and without pittie to punish them sharply when they are vnruly and wil cast from them the empire and gouernment of reason offending God and dangering our soules If we do not howsoeuer we breake not our necks in this world we shall perish for euer in the world to come IF thou dwellest with prophane vngodly faithlesse and wicked men and dost still hold fast and kéepe surely the faith religion profession and integritie and honestie of life and maners and dost so beare and endure all their spites malice obloquies contumelies railings ratings and what else soeuer shall be offered and done vnto thée that thou neuer swarue nor fall from the state of nature grace feare faith and loue of God It is an euident argument and a manifest proofe of a great and Christian magnanimitie and courage that is in thée of excellent vertues and of the holy Ghost himselfe that dwelleth in thée and doth arme and strengthen thée against sathan and all his cunning sleights and violence For euen as a looking glasse though it be most cléere and cleane with the foule breath of those that blowe vpon it is obscured and dimmed euen so a man that is honest vertuous and godly with continuall custome acquaintance and familiaritie of dishonest vngodly and gracelesse men is oftentimes corrupted infected and blemished And therefore Ecclesiasticus saith Whoso toucheth pitch shall be defiled with pitch c. IF it shall happen that a planet otherwise very beneuolent and wholsome shall be ioined to other stars or planets which are maleuolent and of bad influence it also will send foorth influence that is euill and vnwholsome Euen so a man that is vertuously giuen and well bent to godlines if he shall take and ioyne vnto him prophane wicked and vngodly men in too much acquaintance custome and familiaritie he also at the length wil become prophane and vngodly as they be For all for the most part are woont to imitate the maners of them with whom they are conuersant and familiar vnles they haue some speciall gifts and strength from God to preserue and to kéepe them from such baits and snares as sathan is woont to spread and lay abroad in the persons and maners of men badly and lewdly disposed THat we may perfectly behold and sée a thing it behooueth that there be some space betwéene our eies and the obiect or thing that is to be séene So that we may sée the world plainly and throughly looke into it it is requisite that there be some distance betwéene vs and it But euill lewd and vngracious men which please themselues in all things that displease God séeing they are the world it selfe how can it be that they should sée it when there is no space nor distance betwéene them and it So then if thou wilt sée the world and all the vanities flickerings and deceits of the same be not one with it fashion not thy selfe after the maners of it be stil at ods with it let there be a distance and space betwéen you so shall it neuer deceiue thée EVen as the eie doth not sée the lids of the same bicause there is no space betwéene the eie and them So the vaine and pestilent sort of people cannot sée the world bicause they are not separated from it by any distance or space at all In the middest of Babylon they sée it not in the middest of Sodom they cannot perceiue the filthines nor féele the stinch thereof they haue eies and sée not they haue eares heare not they haue hands and handle not féete and go not c. They are in the world of the world and the world it selfe therfore they loue the world they inhalse and imbrace the world They cannot they will not spie any faults in the world To them the stinch of the world is a swéete smelling sauour the foulnes of it is excellent beautie the corruption of it is perfect goodnes That saying of the Psalmist agréeth well with worldlings Fire came down vpon them and they did not sée the sun shine This fire that the prophet speaketh of is an extraordinarie and rotten loue of themselues which bringeth such a darknes vnto them that couereth and ouerwhelmeth their vnderstanding it blindeth their eies and stoppeth their eares it doth manacle their hands and fetter their féete so that in all goodnes they are senselesse The sunne that the prophet meaneth is that whereof mention is made in the booke of Wisedome The sun shine of vnderstanding is not risen or hath not appéered vnto them EVen as oyle doth cause the fire to flame So flatterie doth minister nourishment to errors Beléeue not a flatterer for vnder the person of a most swéete friend he is a most bitter enimie It is not for nothing that Salomon saith He that flattereth his neighbor laieth abroad a net before his steps to trap and to take him withall It is the office and as it were the profession of a cunning flatterer with his smoothe words and soft and sugred spéeches to vndermine supplant deceiue men and to draw them into some dangers and snares whereout they shall not easily escape but with some harme Euen as the end of an Orator is with eloquence to perswade and the end of the physition with medicine to cure and to heale so the end of the flatterer is with his humble communication and swéete alluring talke to deceiue Be sure of this one thing whensoeuer an euill and wicked man or one that is vaine and prophane doth séeme to stoupe and to crouch vnto thée in his words and spéeches then is he spreading his net and casting in his minde how to deceiue thée and to bring one euill or other vpon thée Plato calleth a flatterer a wilde beast that is very pestilent and hurtfull to mankind and saith he is like an vncleane deuill that féedeth mens minds that are not wise and warie with deadly dainties and with foule things that are dangerous and poysonfull He also compareth a flatterer with a sorcerer and a witch And in my iudgement there is no théefe woorse nor vnwoorthier to liue in the world than a flatterer bicause he doth not onely rob men of their mony and goods but also of reason and iudgement Augustine saith there be two kindes of persecutors one is
and transitorie spirituall things and fleshly matters the things that are aboue with God and the deceiuable trifles that are belowe in the earth may not be mingled togither Thou canst not both sauour of the Lord and of the world thou canst not beare both good and bad fruit it is not possible that thou shouldest both be barren and fruitfull If thou louest God and his doctrine be graffed in thée then art thou fruitfull if not thou art vnfruitfull For the truth it selfe saith He that abideth in me and I in him he bringeth foorth much fruit SAlt is made of sea water but so long as it is in the sea it is not salt it must be taken out of the sea and placed vpon the dry lande that being in salt pits where the sun may shine the aire blow vpon it the water may be thickned and so conuerted into salt This world is a sea so long as we liue in the world being tormoilde in the swelling surges of the pride thereof and tossed with the ebbings flowings of the worlds inconstancie and ouerwhelmed in the bitter waters of the sinnes and wicked practises of the same we are as yet no salt We must go out of the world and enter into the lande to wit into our selues and take a iust view of our owne imbecilitie and haue a due consideration of our owne miserable and wretched estate that the sun of righteousnes may thrust out his beames and the winde of heauenly grace may blow vpon vs and so we may be turned into an admirable and woonderfull salt that being seasoned our selues we may be meanes and the Lords instruments to season others We may be bold to inueigh against all iniquitie when we haue amended our owne amisses Yet must that be done in measure and according to knowledge for so it behooueth al men to do all things that they do It is well saide of one that salt is an excellent sauce and seasoner of all things so that measure be not wanting Otherwise measure and meane missing the salt it selfe is lost and that which should haue béene seasoned is vtterly spoyled For too much doth make very bitter that which measure would haue made ful swéete And yet notwithstanding all men must but especially the ministers of the worde lift vp their voices and crie out against all maner of sinne and wickednes For the Lord saith by Ioel the prophet Sound out the trumpet in Sion crie out vpon my holy mountaine and let all the inhabitants of the earth be troubled and quake And Esaias saith Crie out cease not lift vp thy voice like a trumpet The Scripture doth signifie so much when it saith That God commanded Moses to make two trumpets of siluer wherewith he should call the people togither when their tents were to be remooued For with the sound of those trumpets the people were roused and stirred vp to wars and to celebrate certaine daies wherein sacrifices were offered vp vnto God Euen so euerie preacher of the worde of God ought to call vpon sinners to remooue their tents from this wicked world and the maners and fashions of the same and so much as in him lieth to bring the people that are blinded in their sins and falling from God out of their errors perils and dangers with all their force and skill to mooue and stir them vp to be that in déede which true christianitie doth require That euery one may say with the prophet Esaie Let the vngodly man forsake his owne waie and the wicked man the cogitations of his owne hart and be turned vnto the Lord And with Iohn in the Reuelation My people auoide out of the midst of Babylon be yée not partakers of their sinnes As if he should saie Remooue and separate your selues from the transitory and lieng things of the world forsake the wickednes of it and pitch your tents by godly meditations and holie affections of your harts and minds not in the earth but in heauen For euery preacher of the Gospell ought to prepare his hearers so much as in him lieth and by his owne example to stir them vp against the enimies of their soules And to counsell them with the apostle To put on the armor of God that they may be able to stande against the deceits of the deuill for we wrastle not against the world flesh and blood but against princes powers and the gouernors of the darknes of this world It behooueth vs therefore to be well furnished with the armour of light and that the weapons of our warfare be not carnall but spirituall AS an expert and skilfull husbandman doth first draw out of his fields or lands and pulleth vp by the rootes thistles briers brambles and all other venemous and wilde wéedes and afterward committeth vnto them his good séedes Euen so a wise teacher of the word of God ought first to roote out sinne and vices and to till as it were the minds of his hearers and as much as in him lieth to draw and pull out of them both roote and rinde of all maner of euill and wickednes and to prepare and make them méete to receiue the good séeds of the holie word and to sowe in them those things which being rooted and growne vp may bring foorth both pleasant profitable and plentifull fruites And although vertue and godlines vnto the wicked and vngodly séeme euen horrible and bitter and all vice and naughtines swéete and well sauouring so that they are not willing that the gardens of their harts should be wéeded and trimmed bicause they would haue no vprightnes no integritie of life no truth nor honestie to grow there yet not the lesse the Lords ministers must euer thinke that the same is spoken to them which was deliuered to the prophets long since Make Ierusalem to know hir abhominations And shew my people their wickednes and the house of Iacob their sins Offer vnto them salt wherewith their corruption may be drawne out and they made to sauour swéetely in the nostrilles of God if they be not altogither rotten and consumed in their sinnes Thrust at them with the goade of the holie word and strike at them with the two edged sword of the law of God that if they be not starke dead in their abhominations and be not alreadie swallowed vp of hell if there be any recouery in them at all they may be awaked out of their deadly slumbers and may be so pricked at their harts that they may finde and féele how forlorne they are in the sight of God and flie to him for succour grace and mercy if they belong to his kingdome WHat doth it profite a riuer to flowe from a pure and cléere fountaine if it selfe be foule filthie and vnholesome Euen so the noblenes of fathers and the honours of elders and auncestours what doth it pleasure their sonnes when they themselues degenerate from their
wicked cogitations of all sorts and doth allure hale drawe and euen drag him to do those things which are so odious in the sight of God that he must either most earnestly repent that he hath done them or else he must die eternally for doing of them Idlenes therefore doth not become Christians for so doth our God and maker teach vs when he saith to Adam in the labour of thy hands shalt thou eate all the daies of thy life And iust Iob saith that man is borne to labour And the Apostle saith If any man will not labour let him not eate When Dauid continued at home in idlenes then did adulterie and murther créepe into his hart and ceased not vntill it broke out into effects and most dangerous actions Christ did shew a great hatred to idlenes when he said Why stand ye héere all the day idle SOmtimes it falleth out that a hen sitteth vpon ducks eggs and with hir diligent sitting the heat of hir bodie she doth hatch and bring them foorth and when they be able to follow hir she clucks them after hir maner as though they were hir naturall chickens she doth call them about hir but they being not of hir but the ducks kinde though by hir they haue beene hatched and of hir haue receiued life and though she hath a continuall care to bring them vp and to defend them from such enimies as séeke to deuoure them yet neuerthelesse they wil follow and séeke after that whereunto by nature they are inclined and giuen When she is scraping and scratching the earth to finde them foode they will be in the water mire or foule puddle after their kinde she may clucke and walke alone they will not kéepe hir companie vnlesse perhaps in some danger when the kite is readie to catch them for some succour they will â—lie to hir howbeit at the length when she perceiueth them to be vnnaturall and vnkinde to hir she doth forsake them and giue them ouer Euen so our swéete Sauiour Christ Iesus hauing taken great paines for vs and hauing humbled himselfe euen in the lowest degrée of all humilitie that can be named as in comming down out of his fathers bosome being most perfect most holy and omnipotent God being euery way equall and in nothing inferiour to his father to take our weake fraile and féeble nature vpon him and sinne excepted to haue a perfect féeling of all our infirmities as wearisomnes of bodie hunger and thirst and such others and besides the induring of these many yéeres togither hauing suffered a most cruell death and euen at his death vpon the crosse hauing tasted and taken a full cup of his fathers furie and indignation which was in déed filled and prepared for vs as a iust reward for our sinnes and should haue béen our owne cup and our owne portion for euer and euer had he not euen then taken and supt it vp to cléere and to frée vs from it Againe after all these things hauing still continued his humilitie in suffering death to kéepe his bodie thrée daies in the graue and euen as it were to tread and trample vpon him and then mauger death hell diuell and Iewes hauing risen againe and being ascended and gone vp to his father where now vntil his comming again to iudge the quicke and the dead he sitteth at the right hande of maiestie and power He now speaketh and calleth vnto vs by his prophets apostles and ministers and willeth vs to remember what case and estate we were in before he died and suffered all these things for vs and he would haue vs to know to be sure and neuer to forget that if he had not suffered death héere vpon the earth as he did we should neuer haue found any way or entrance into heauen the celestiall ioyes and pleasures of the Lords saints saluation and eternall life should neuer haue belonged vnto vs we should haue had no more to do with them then they that liue without faith and die infidels The horrors of hell and the stincking lakes of vnspeakable shame confusion torments endlesse death and damnation should haue béene our inheritance lot and perpetuall portion Christ therefore doth daily put vs in minde that we be not our owne but his and that we be the greatest and déerest purchase that euer was made in heauen or in earth and that the like price and cost was neuer bestowed vpon any creatures as vpon vs. When the angels which werâ— in heauen in the presence of their creator did once offende they were hurled out and cast into hell Christ woulde not bestow vpon them one peny of all that great price and rich ransome which he paid for vs he would not then become man to shed one drop of blood for them but for our sakes he spared not one drop but shed all The Hen that himselfe speaketh of was neuer so diligent and carefull to gather hir chickins vnder hir wings as he hath euer béene most ready to shroude and to protect vs against all the enimies of our soules and bodies Many mothers shall sooner forget the children of their own wombs and vtterly forsake them before Christ will forsake vs yea he will neuer forget nor forsake vs vnlesse we first forget and forsake him Now therefore we being his so déerely bought and so truely paide for he calleth vpon vs euery day he clucketh vs and looketh for vs that we should follow him and tread in such steps as he hath appointed and that we shuld not range at randon but kéepe our selues within the hearing of his voice and our liues within the limits of obedience vnto the same these things I saie he looketh for at our hands But how deale we with this most kinde most louing and most mercifull redéemer and if the fault be not in our selues the fauiour of our seules and bodies Verily euen so as the vnnaturall and vnkind ducks deale with the hen of whom they haue receiued life they regarde not hir clucking neither we Christs calling when she is séeking and prouiding for them on the faire drie and wholesome earth they will be in some foule water filthie mire or stinking puddle And when the Lord Iesus calleth vs to integritie of life to do the thing that is iust and right in his owne eie and to speake the truth according to the knowledge of our harts then will we with gréedines pollute our soules and bodies with all wickednes and things that be abominable then will we oppresse our brethren not caring who sincke if our selues swim then will we not sticke to speake lies euen to Gods owne face And when the Lord calleth and sendeth vs to seeke heauenly things we presently returne to the foule puddles of the world carnall delightes and vaine yea vile pleasures so that we euer take the contrary wâ—y to that which Christ commandeth Christ calleth for our harts to haue them in truth and sinceritie with all diligence
to attende vpon his pleasure and to waite on his will he would haue vs not in part but wholy to giue them vnto him and without the hart he will receiue and take in good part at our hands and lips nothing But we on the otherside giue nothing lesse to God then our harts What is it that cannot and may not command our harts and haue them at pleasure sooner then Christ Iesus that with the death of his owne hart gaue life to our bodies and soules If the worlde do but a little smile vpon vs and giue vs but an alluring looke and a faire though a false word we will by and by follow it and bestow vpon it all our attendance If the diuell himselfe can make vs beléeue that we shall either haue profite or pleasure by doing his wil our harts mindes wils and all are readier for him then for Iesus Christ O matchles yea monstrous madnes they that séeke our destruction can sooner with a pleasant looke then Christ with the giuing of his life for vs haue vs at commandement Christ would haue vs to mortifie our earthly members as fornication vncleannes inordinate affections euill concupiscence and couetousnes which is idolatrie But who doth not nourish pamper and cherish all these The Lord woulde haue our conuersation in heauen but we are altogither earthly and carnally minded The Lord would haue our féete to stand within the gates of Ierusalem but we loue rather to be trampling the stréetes of Egypt Babylon and Sodom The holie ghost would haue vs to fight a good fight to finish our course after the will of God and to kéepe the faith not onely in words but also in life and déedes Indéed we are apt and ready to fight for worldly promotion honor dignitie reuenues and riches but for heauen and heauenly things we will neuer striue take no paines nor once trouble our selues we will haue i◠with ease and all maner of pleasure or else not at all farewell it The courses we take héere in this life are very bad and the end vnlesse we repent is like to be woorst of all And whiles we haue no care to kéepe good consciences it is vnpossible for vs to kéepe faith Let stande before vs Christ and sathan the one pointing vs to heauen and eternall felicitie but the way to it ful of troubles gréefes and sorrowes the other pointing to hell but the way to it ful of delicates pleasures and daintie delights and let God call and the diuell call and I speake it with gréefe of hart the diuell is like to haue the greater number to follow him for those short pleasures and Christ but a fewe to follow him bicause they must go loden with crosses Daily experience doth teach vs no lesse when all our actions are carnall haue onely but a little outward shew and no taste at all of true godlines nor so much as any rellish of the spirit and loue of Christ Some will abstaine from the committing of many grosse sins now and then and yet not that I feare greatly in any true and sincere loue to God but either for feare of shame and punishment in this worlde or else feare of vengeance in the world to come which both are vnprofitable for the Lord hath no pleasure in forced seruice he will haue it voluntarie with the hart and procéeding of loue not of a seruile feare otherwise it shall be numbred with the rest of our sinnes This doth greatly condemne vs that though we do not such things our selues yet we can without trouble of conscience gréefe of hart or vexation of minde sée and heare the Lords name blasphemed his saboth vnhalowed idolatrie committed parents dishonored whooredome theft murder and couetousnes commonly vsed and all the lawes of God vtterly contemned and it shall neuer offend the greatest number so much as a thorne in a foote or a blaine vpon a finger What other thing is this but to forsake God in the plaine field and to be afeard to serue him in truth and sinceritie least we should thereby purchase mans displeasure Vnlesse therefore we learne to serue him better in more truth with greater zeale and singlenes of hart we haue nothing else to looke for but that he will forsake vs both in this worlde leauing vs destitute of his assistance that our enimies may pray vpon vs and also in the world to come in giuing out against vs his malediction curse wo and sentence of death The Lord make vs new creatures and giue an vnfained loue of himselfe déepe roote in our harts drawing after it a chéerefull obedience to his sacred word and the selfe same to our brethren wherwith we loue our selues so that all be in God that we may escape dangers in both the worlds that when death that inexorable executioner shall do his office we may arriue at the safe and happy hauen of Gods euerlasting kingdome purchased and paide for by Christ and kept in store for all those that beléeue aright and shall liue and die in him But alas the most part of vs as yet vntill it shall please the almightie to inrich vs be like proud beggers which not being woorth one farthing will boast of great wealth So many brag of great holines but haue none and of great faith as though they could remooue mountaines out of their places and yet know not what true faith is How fearful a saieng is that of Christ When the sonne of man shall come to iudge the quicke and the dead do you thinke that he shal finde any faith vpon the earth As if he should saie he shall finde very little howsoeuer now all perswade themselues that they be faithfull inough The Lorde amende vs for we haue receiued great and infinite good things from the Lords hand both for our bodies and soules but in giuing thanks we are like to the nine leapers mentioned in the Gospell which neuer turned backe to thanke God for their healing The Lord hath poured vpon vs infinite dewes of his swéet and blessed word and yet still we continue to be those drie trées to whom his curse cutting down and casting into the fire belongeth The Lord grant that with all spéede we may turne from our sinnes to righteousnes and holynes of life that God may turne his anger from vs and his fauor towards vs Amen MArcus Antoninus with an oration that he made vpon the death of Caesar is said to haue greatly delighted the people of Rome and that he mooued very many of them to shed great store of bitter teares when he put them in remembrance of the great benefits which they had frō time to time receiued of Caesar withal did shew them Caesars garment wherin his enimies Cassius Brutus had slaine him all full of blood whereat they were so mightily mooued that they expulsed the homicides out of the citie so that they durst not if they woulde liue any
he be throughly tried S. 35. P. 13. The best foode for the soule of man S. 36. P. 13. 14. Not proud but humble men do profite by reading and hearing of the worde of God S. 37. 38. P. 14. 15. The riches dignities and honors of this world and the life of man are fitly compared to clouds in the aire which are suddenly dispersed and scattered with the windes S. 39. P. 15. 16. The word of God is a looking glasse that wil deceiue no man If a man behold himselfe well in it he shall see plainly that before he was man he was earth and before he was earth he was nothing S 40 P 16. As a birde thrusteth hir bill through the loopes of hir cage in token of hir great desire to be at libertie So the soule of a true Christian groneth and sigheth in the bodie in desire to be dissolued and to go to dwell with the Lord Iesu S. 41. P. 16. 17. Papists compared to vipers S. 42. P. 17. Man for his inconstancie is compared to a ballance that is mooued with euerie little weight S. 43. P. 17 18. Man is so wauering that he is compared to a Chameleon which changeth his colour according to the thing that is next him and also bicause the Chameleon will be changed into any colour saue white S. 44. 45. P. 18. Not they that trust to a dead faith but they that haue a liuely and working faith shall be saued S. 46 P. 18. Many men of very good qualities and indewed with sundrie vertues and full of good parts haue been strongly altered and greatly disgraced through their familiaritie with the wicked S. 47. P. 18. 19. When Peter came into Cayphas his hall he denied Christ S. 48. P. 19. What it is not to eat the word of God and not to fill a mans bellie and bowels with it S. 49. P. 19. The harder that the tree of sinne and wickednes is to be cut downe the more earnestly and diligently ought the preachers of the word to strike at it with the sharpe edge of Gods most mightie and most holie worde S. 50. P. 20. The Lord doth humble vs in this world that he may exalt vs in the world to come this world doth smile vpon vs with a purpose to deceiue vs S. 51. 32. P. 20. Wicked men are wilfull murtherers of their owne bodies and soules S. 53. P. 21. Vngodly men finde no comfort nor sweetnes in the word of God S. 54. P. 21. In mens iudgements words and works we may be deceiued in Gods we cannot Whatsoeuer is writteÌ„ in Gods word is truth whatsoeuer is taught in it is vertue and holines and whatsoeuer it promiseth in the world to come is eternitie S. 55. P. 22. The onely weapon that we must vse to ouer come the world flesh and diuell is the word of God and the practise of the same S. 56. P. 22. Poore men feare they God neuer so much are little set by in this world S. 57. P. 23. Christ hath his cup and the world his the one is bitter but wholesome the other very pleasant but pestilent and deadly S. 58. P. 23. and 24 and also S 60. P. 24. As a guiltie man whose conscience doth accuse him would neuer see the iudge and a traitor would neuer willingly be espied of his prince nor a disloyall person of one that knoweth him and on the other side a true and faithfull subiect that hath done dutifull seruice desireth the presence of the prince in hope to be well rewarded So the wicked and vngodly ones of the world are greeued to heare of Christs comming to iudge the quicke and the dead but they that haue liued with good consciences do grone for his comming S. 61. P. 24. There be great braggers of religion which make a great noise as thogh none were right professors of the truth but themselues such be not the best men humble minded Christians are better than they S. 62. P. 25. Death commeth suddenly vpon many that neuer thought to die nor cannot tell what shall become of them when they bee dead S. 63. P. 25. 26. All men are alike subiect to death whether they beyoong or olde this world is like a potters warehouse and all men in it are earthen vessels S. 64. P. 26. As the moone decreasing hath hir open side hanging downward but increasing and gathering light hath hir opening vp towards heauen So men meere naturall haue their harts set only vpon earth and earthly things but men regenerate haue the open side of their harts euer towards God heauen and heauenly things S 65. P. 26. 27. A common wealth without good lawes and holy ordinances put in practise is like a bodie without a soule S 66 P 28. As the horse is ordained to run the oxe to plough and the dog to hunt So is man borne to loue God aboue all things S. 67. P. 28. Mans hart is so hard that it must be smitten with the Lords owne hand and bruised with one calamitie or other or else no godo thing will euer issue out of it S. 68. P. 28. and S. 69. P. 29. S. 70. P. 29. The earth is the Lords steward and doth dispose and detaine the increase of it selfe at the Lords appointment when God wil plentie when he will scarciâ—ie S. 71. P. 29. 30. If man cleaue to God God will sticke to him if he will run from God yet can he not escape his hands S. 72. P. 30. A man that is vertuous without hypocrisie is an excellent iewell he is greatly greeued to see any bewitched with the forceries of the world he doth what he can that none may Carnall men are meere strangers to true christianitie S. 73. P. 31. Vaine and carnall men compared to organs S. 74. P. 31. Naturall men will do no good thing vnles they be pricked forward with the praise and commendations of the world S. 75. P. 31. 32. Hypocrites most plainly and truly described by a wood or groue full of goodly trees and pleasant plants to delight men and also full of stinging serpents to poyson and to kill men S. 76. P. 32. Heauenly meditations doe molliâ—ie and warme the hart and do greatly inflame men with a feruent loue of God This world and the things thereof haue euer been false and haue deceiued euen their louers and deerest friends at the length S. 77. P. 32. 33. The Lorde suffereth his owne children whom he loueth most deerely to bee oftentimes in great wants when the wicked haue euen the world at will The afflictions of this are not the maledictions and curses of God but rather most certaine signes of his loue and tokens of his grace S. 78. P. 33. 34. God doth suâ—fer his saints heere vpon the earth to be smitten and sore beaten of the world and to be throughly tried with diuers tentations to the end that their inward graces may breake
borne in the world yet they very little or nothing resemble it they rather resemble heauen in some measure from whence they receiue the influeÌ„ce of the grace and fauor of God S. 124. P. 58. Preachers of the word of God must temper and frame themselues to meete with the maners qualities conditions and sinnes of all men S. 125. P. 59. The preacher of the word is to take good heed that none of his hearers for want of discretion in him depart vntouched S. 126. P. 59. A preacher must do his best indeuour to know the maners qualities and dispositions of his auditorie S 127. P. 59. A Christian will shew patience and constancie in all calamities S. 128. P. 59. Whatsoeuer is in the hart of man at the length it will breake out For not onelie the toong will speake but the rest of the members of the bodie wil also be exercised according to the abundance of the hart S. 129. P. 60. That common wealth house or man is very happie that is ruled and gouerned by such counsell as is grounded and built vpon the holy word of God S. 130. P. 60. By our words deedes gestures and moouings our enimie sathan doth knowe the secrets of our harts and so worketh vpon vs S. 131. P. 60. 61. The hart of man is like vnto a smithes forge his bad cogitations are hote coles he that doth blowe the bellowes to make them burne and consume both soules and bodies is the diuell the euill thoughts in mans hart are compared to the frie of vipers which in comming to light do breake the bellies of their breeders and so kill them S. 132. P. 61. The nearest waie for man to obtain Gods fauour and free remission of sinnes is to acknowledge and confesse them with greefe of hart for committing of them and not to doubt through Iesus Christ the forgiuenes of them and not to trust to any merits or righteousnes of his owne S. 133. P. 62. Nothing in the word of God is superfluous it must all be beleeued imbraced and honored with all obedience possible It is not gold and earth togither that a man may take the one and refuse the other it is all most pure and all to be applied to the comfort of man S. 134. P. 62. This world will cosen and deceiue all that put their trust in it S. 135 P. 63. Sathan doth very easily drawe after him euen whither and to what he will men that are not setled in true religion nor armed with the holy word of God yea the best armed and strongest in faith haue much adoe to escape his snares S. 135. P. 63. They that are continually exercised with great troubles and afflictions in this life are not to be iudged reprobates and cast awaies as though God had giuen them ouer but rather we are to thinke that by that meanes the Lord will throughly trie them and finding them faithfull and constant doth make them the fitter for his kingdome neither are we to iudge all to bee the children of God that liue without afflictions S. 136. P. 63. 64. Vnlesse a man be well grounded in true religion and clothed with the armor of righteousnes on the right hand and on the left to wit on euery side and against all brunts and assaults whatsoeuer he shall neuer quit himselfe well against the subtle sleights and forcible tentations of his professed enimies world flesh and diuell S 137. P. 65. If man woulde remember that he was moulded of earth dust and ashes and that he must be tumbled into the earth againe it would bring him to a far better temper than otherwise hee will bee brought vnto S. 138. Pag. 65. The groundworke of Christian philosophie is vnfained humilitie and the deeper that the same is laid and setled in our harts the surer and more permanent will the building of our religion be S. 139. 140. P. 66. The centre from whence the lines of all abhominations do flowe is mans inordinate selfe loue Two loues builded two cities the loue of God Ierusalem and mans selfe loue Babylon S. 141. P. 66. 67. There is no miserie comparable to this that a man knoweth not his owne miserie and of follies none greater than that a man seeth not his owne follie S. 141. P. 67. After great troubles do follow quietnes of hart and minde and peace of soule and conscience S. 142. P. 67. Ouermuch ease and pampering of the bellie are great prouocations to sinne S. 143. P. 67. 68. They which care not to keepe a good conscience do at the length fall into an extreme contempt of faith he that will haue his faith acceptable in the sight of God must keepe a good conscience otherwise his faith is dead S. 144. P. 68. The riches of couetous tyrants increasing the wealth of inferior persons doth decrease and as couetousnes doth increase in men vertues do decrease in them Riches are the gift of God and to be bestowed to his owne glorie and the comfort of our brethren The couetous man in gaining riches loseth himselfe The couetous man if he had more golde and greater riches than was in that ship which came from Ophyre to Salomon yet would he neuer be contented nor any whit neare satisfied S. 145. 146. P. 68. 69. 70. The riches of this world are to verie many poison but godly men possesse their riches and not their riches them Their riches are drudges to them and not they to their riches S. 147. P. 70. As the touch stone trieth golde so golde trieth man A very good huntesman and his hounds S. 148. P 71. Not to giue vnto the poore if a man be able to giue is sacrilege It is a very lamentable thing to see and consider how viâ—ely and wickedly manie men do lauish out and consume the riches wherewith God hath put them in trust to vse them to his owne glorie and the good of his church S. 149. P. 72. Christ suffered and died as he was man but as he is God he neither suffered nor died All that be surely grounded and graffed in Christ Iesu whatsoeuer tribulations and heauie crosses they beare in their bodies yet their faith hope and loue to God will neuer shrinke but they will be constant come what shall S. 150. P. 73. Wicked men are neuer satisfied with committing of any euill they make no ende of their vngodly practises the more euill they do the more still do they desire to do S. 151. P. 73. 74. The vnskilfull and vngodly minister that deliuereth the worde and sacraments to those that are well prepared woorthily to receiue the same hurteth himself only though he perish they may be saued they receiuing it woorthily his vnwoorthines doth not preiudice them S. 152. P. 74. It greeueth our God greatly to see man make so little account of his soule and so lightly to regarde that which he hath loued so deerly he cannot abide to see it beset with wicked
thoughts on euerie side S 153. P. 74. and 75. To dwell among prophane and wicked men and yet still to be constant in thy faith and religion is an euident argument of Gods spirit dwelling in thee and preseruing thee from all the cunning and sleights of sathan for as a looking glasse is made foule with the breth of those that blowe vpon it so oftentimes good men are corrupted with euill companie S. 154. P. 75. 76. Sathan doth spread and lay abroad most dangerous baites and snares in the persons of lewd and vngodly men and all to trap vs and to preiudice our saluation S. 155. P. 76. Wicked and gracelesse men cannot see this world nor the sleights and deceits of the same bicause there is no distance betweene the world and themselues For the eie it selfe cannot see a thing vnlesse there be some distance betweene the eie and the obiect that is to be seene S. 156. P. 76. There is no maner of sinne as it is sinne that can offend the wicked and vngodly sort displease it God neuer so greatly in the middest of Babylon they see it not in the middest of Sodom they feele not the stinch of it As they be in the world so they be of it and the world it selfe and therefore they loue and imbrace it they cannot they wil not spie any faults in the world the stinch of the world is to them a sweete sauour the foulnes of it to them is beautie it selfe S. 157. P. 76. 77. A flatterer is a wilde beast an vncleane diuell a sorcerer a witch a theefe and no theefe in the world vnwoorthier to liue than he He that doth dispraise thee and he that doth flatter thee bee both persecutors of thee but the flatterers tong wil do thee most harm Flatterie is a sweete musicke to a mans â—ares but in deede there is none more pernicious and pestilent than it S. 158. P. 77. The flatterer hath alwaies at his fingers ends and readie vnder his girdle the gestures voices inclinations and dispositions of all persons high and lowe Say what thou wilt and do what thou wilt he will please thy humor in all things S. 159. P. 78. Though the bloodie minded Papists do want power and opportunitie yet they neuer want good will to performe their trecherie and malice against the seruants of God with all tyrannicall crueltie S. 160. P. 79. Where the skin of a lion is not ynough nor will not serue it is woont to be peeced with the skin of a foxe that which a cruell man cannot accomplish by force he wil performe it by fraud S. 161. P. 79. An olde foxe is hardly snared and yet at the length they be either snared for their conuersion or knared for their confusion Hypocrites and arrogant persons do neuer follow Christ S. 161. P. 80. An hypocrite is like an apple that is verie beautifull without and rotten within and like a goodly tall tree that florisheth and is full of leaues but fruitlesse he would seeme to be that he is not and hateth to be that he seemeth S. 162. P. 80. If thou loue to be fed with flatterie then thou wilt feede thy flatterers and they at the length will serue thee as Acteons dogs serued him The flattered shall be deuoured of his dog the flatterer and the flatterer himselfe shal be deuoured of that foule curre and most cruell hell hound sathan S. 163. P. 81. It is a very hard thing for a man to giue ouer his acquaintance with the world A childe will loue his nurse for the dugs sake though she be an whoore and men loue this present world for the vaine pleasures and carnall delights of the same though indeede the world be a very strumpet S. 164 Pag. 81. and 82. If men would euen steale as it were and priuily conuey themselues but one hower in euerie day from the seruice of the worlde flesh and diuell to serue the Lord in truth and sinceritie they woulde at the length by little and little take such pleasure and finde such comfort in the seruice of God that they would giue themselues wholy and most willingly to it and be â—orie and repent them from the bottome of their harts that they had been so long in so bad a seruice S. 164. Pag. 82. Vicious liuing is more oftensiue and doth more harme in old age than in green youth An olde man or woman ought to instruct others as well by good example of godlie life as by counsels and admonitions but when old men or women fall to follie they hurt themselues with their sinnes and infinite others with their euill example S. 165. Pag. 82. The Lord doth not open the mysteries and secrets of his word vnto those whom he perceiueth vainly and curiously to seeke after them but vnto such as will both profite themselues and others by the same He that will profit by hearing or reading the word of God must bring faith and humilitie with him S. 166. P. 82. and 83. Many men in the world are fitly compared to the drie skin which a snake doth cast to renew hir aâ—e the skin hath the shape likenes and prints of eies and the very rinde also wherewith the eie is couered but yet no seeing eies So many men haue eies to see the creatures of God but not one halfe eie to see the creator And manie that beare the name of christians haue no more true knowledge of Christ than they had of the sunne or moone when they were yet in their mothers wombes So that when they read or heare the word of God they profit no more than a blinde man should profit by a looking glasse set before him S. 167. P. 83. and 84. Some do come to church to heare the word of God to the end they may know him and his will to do it and do beare away with them such heauenly lessons as they neuer forget wherewith their faith is strengthened their soules comforted and their consciences greatly quieted some againe do come in hope to heare some thing fall from the preachers mouth vnwisely vndiscrâ—â—tly or barbarously spoken wherewith they may sport themselues and scorne the preacher Such men as they come with wicked purposes and cauilling mindes so they depart with harts so hard as adamants far woorse than when they came S. 168. P. 84. and 85. Afflictions troubles and calamities are great helpes to keepe our soules from the canker and rottennes of sinne and the spots of the world and to put vs in remembrance of the goodnes mercies and loue of God toward vs. Men are borne vnder that condition that their liues should euer be open and subiect to all the ineuitable darts of infinite troubles and that there is no refusing to liue and leade their liues in that condition where vnder they were borne Come what shall the children of God are still patient S. 169 P. 85. 86. and 87. Darknes and blindnes cannot remaine in the hart of that