the Crown dignifieth him whose Lawful inheritance it is and the beholding it there placed where it ought striketh into a just and awful reverence the Loving and rejoycing Subjects Then when Vnion joyneth with an inseperable bond the Members to the Head when Love that an equal power over the affections of Prince and People we seem no more inhabitants of an earthly Kingdome but as if hath up into the possession of Heaven I may very well say so for so vast is the difference between the condition of men who living under the same climate have their affections opposite as Pole to Pole and those who being thought diverse persons yet seem in many bodies to have but one heart and Soul that the same place is by sacred love converted into a Paradise which by unnatural and contemptuous hatred is rendred a most vexations Purgatory In which respect men who have signed up their hearts to God that they might be the more assuredly and plentifully stored with Love have either Heaven descending unto them or are themselves translated and made partakers of supernatural joyes NOW in that many men think to prevent great dangers by active disloyalty they too too manifestly lay open their ignorance What they judge the prevention is the begetting of dangers The wise Man saith that A good Man shall be satisfied from himself Prov. 14.14 whereby we are to understand that his works shall be prosperous But he saith in the foregoing words that the back-slider in heart shall be filled with his own wayes whereby he sheweth that they who fall off from the observation of the Commandement upon the observance whereof the promise of blessedness was given fortune and success shall in like manner desert them Generous principles have an answerable issue but the contrary is most true of evil deeds which are alway pursued with evil Solomon sheweth upon what hopes obedience and disobedience have their dependance The path of the Just saith he is as the shining light which shineth more and more unto the perfect day Prov. 4.18 19. The way of the wicked is as darkness they know not at what they stumble Obedience groweth continually more and more happy and its tapor burneth alway more and more clearly until in heaven it be extinguished by that most glorious splendor which giveth and comprehendeth all light But the disloyal and seditious walk in obscurity and through mists stumbling blocks and rocks of offence surround them traps and snares every where lie prepared for them they pass their time in invincible troubles and suddenly fall into the pit of destruction Let unquiet Spirits seek to remove their conceited troubles and prevent those mischeifs which their wild fancy presenteth unto them yet while they labor to remove imaginary evils they are circumvented with real ones Their toyl also is very ridiculous if more probably successful seeing easier means prevail for the greatest goods And whereas rather then not humor their rebellious inclinations unsetled minds have for justification recourse to the pretended dread of some imminent calamity if timely dare be not used religion daily experience teach us that sin averteth no judgement which is hovering over a Nation But rather sins especially of rebellion hasten that revenge which God taketh of such as slight his admonitory threatnings Where we all men who did fear sin more then sorrow sufferings for sin would not so often excite our griefes and make our eyes so plentiful in showers Certainly as seditious commotions contract many future plagues so do they never bring any present benefit empty hopes are the recompence of a tedious travel LET us at the last rather then never begin to consult what course of life God hath appointed as that wherein Subjects may live most secure Surely great are the blessings which his care keepeth in store for and his bounty conferreth upon those who seek to him as their sole directour And in the plain way he leadeth them which also proveth the richest way Instead of vexatious labours he appointeth them as the greatest pacificatory and obligation the easie task of the offering of Obedience the best of sacrifices which he every where in his Holy Book commendeth and alway even in this life rewardeth No incense ascending with an odoriferous cloud no oblations whose sweet savour and excellency was wont to testifie the offerers generosity and riches did ever so procure from the throne of grace the beatifique smiles of the most bountiful Majesty as the cheap offering of Obedience which commendeth not it self by the vanity of worldly ostentation but the glory of a great and consecrated heart They who gave their bodies to be burnt by the benefit hereof made their sufferings those harmless though fiery Chariots that transported them to joy This sharpened the faith of the general assembly of the first born enabling them to see their names written in heaven Holy men knowing how much this was the ornament and felicity of the Christian Church sound Temples and Oratories where joynt prayers should be offered up for Kings and such as were in authority that under them we might be godly and quietly governed And the unwearied exercise and profession hereof wrought upon the hearts of the cruellest Tyrants and introduced a festival peace into the world making some of the most violent gain-sayers submit to men of so exalted spirits and cherish such as they before persecuted And certainly God spaketh how much he is pleased with it by the evident returns of acceptance those frequent collations of temporal honours and riches wherewith he graceth such as desire to encrease by his Love only And this purchase of liberty wealth and greatness is the cheapest easiest and surest that Heaven and Earth afford Others cost much labour and deficiency is at length their accomplishment Hence therefore is the excellence of Obedience commended that it ascendeth without rub let or molestation it becometh great and glorious without noise and without either the Authors or any ones injury It findeth joy at hand and without the wearying examination of the diversity of opinions and manifold directions where to seek mans Summum bonum lodgeth it most safety at home The Obedient mans well fortified heart hath joy therein immoveably fixt and and knoweth the worth of its own possession which by the Love of God it hath obtained and confirmed Now if we distract the mind with the inquiry after such goods as like the Rain-bow look afar off rich and promising our delusions will end in a shower and our hopes washt away into discontent and sorrow Or eâ—â—â— our joy which we foolishly sought and after much trouble unluckily obtained will prove like to a small tree which we have sometime seen miserably torn with the weight of its untimely fruit They who by civil distractions rise to wealth and power are so persecuted with innumerable mischeifs that they have onely this comfort left that they may say their desired happiness hath destroyed them The obtaining such
trusted Let us become more and more confident in him that he may be more and more visible in us In our trials these must bear a part and are commonly reservs to be sent forth at last when other experiments fail And although these clamorous mischeifs seem afar off less formidable yet upon one and the other assault they make even strength it self sometimes to yeild often to retire We are apt then to break forth into unmanly passions and frustrate our former labours for want of a discreet silence at last Or else when from smaller blasts contumelious words encrease to a general tempest we forget to steer our course with the more care and cowardly faint for fear How perfectly have I seen some to act a Bedlam freak because the honor of their best actions is by fame obscured And then do malevolent Tongues feed the fury of this distemper by adding still new causes Others how Alass do they pine away and like men laid out for an eternal rest wholly compose themselvs to their sleepy revenge As if they repaid the adverse taunts with this silent torture of themselves they so languish into nothing that indeed rather then like men prepared for the graves descent you would think them some express shew of a too too hasty resurrection when the bones start up and leave their covering of flesh and skin as yet not acceptable But a middle way there is wherein he walketh who hath somewhat of the courage of the former somewhat of the silence of the later Both so well mixed and tempered that being made up of both you would admire how a venerable discretion could be extracted from the extreams of madness and folly The appearance of discontent and sorrow in the injured whether it turbulently becomes its own proclamation or fondly represseth words the more to express grief doth but create new pleasures in the Offender and by continual aggravations of his adversaries cares he heighteneth his own delights A regardless enterment of such unwelcome guests as are Scoffes and Reproaches soonest wearieth them If you would force them to depart they stick closest if you would fly from them they follow after and fly faster onely let them not confound and they are suddenly confounded The best course is fear them not regard them not Refrain words they are speechless water them not with tears they wither spare anger you punish them spare violence you crush them Where is the benefit of trial if we will be either outragious or sullen He who like as the rock outbraveth the insolency of a tempest hath put on resolutions as unmoveable and firm as besitteth man endued with a Soul illuminated from God and replenished with hope dareth already in this life account himself of the Church triumphant as having this new name written on his forehead More then conqueror Brave Spirits have retired walks can withdraw themselves from the tumults which without are frequent and do compose themselvs to that diffused bliss of conscience where there is nothing unruly no Murmurs no Ripining no Tormenting counsels how to repay but alway those more excellent faculties of Mercy and Forgetfulness And unto those black Instruments of Obliquy mishappen Tongues to be able to return no other answer but that of an innocent life is a blisse like that of the Saints in Heaven THUS we may and must do because whatsoever is ill spoken of us although it look directly towards us yet doth it not concern us But if reproaches soar yet higher and invade Heaven that more concerning us then our selves how shall we moderate our course and direct our steps They who injure us in our bodies estates and names will not rest here but will yet labour to strike higher if possible It is not strange that they who smite with the fist of wickedness should lash with the tongues of presumption and vanity and because they think no Lord can controul them they will not spare to the injury of God and his to lift them up against Heavens sacracy it self If they cannot pierce our Souls with steel they will try what those lighter darts can effect and how deep these windy arrows will enter They will rather then fail of all attempt the dishonour of him who sitteth in the Heavens to the preservation of which onely immaculate Beauty it is that we are so ready to devote our souls and â—â—â—ld our bodies a sacrifice If no damage or cross as it hath relation to our selves can trouble our well armed and fortified heart so as to make it bleed yet after horrour and amazement death it self is frequently in the entry when we see Religions choice ornaments and Devotions chief glory by subject to the power of a sacriligeous tongue Then if ever our hands hang down helpless our knees wax feeble then are even wise and good men distracted with faintheartedness and fear And here I am at a stand who my self speaking of an uninterrupted joy do wonder how I once dared name it or that I could perswade my self that there were any such thing under Heaven And indeed naming it with a doleful lamentation for its absence would prove at the utmost all did I not foresee for making up my breaches that good Samaritanes approach with healing in his wings He plungeth mine almost slaughtered Soul in baths of wine and rivers of oyl and reviveth me with cordial sweets speaking better and more consolatory language then the sword when it cryeth It is enough He teacheth me not to be afraid for the terrour by night nor for the destruction that wasteth at noon day because he who is higher then the highest regardeth Indeed if we consider that reproaches cannot hurt us we may thence learn that they less hurt God Those things which we observe are not done without his permission This he teacheth us and by this insinuateth to our understandings that he can represse and punish when he will If those vast bodies of the liquid Dominions are bounded by his pleasure if the floods and waves though they roar and make a tumult have yet this curb hitherto shall ye pass and no farther how much less shall man who dwelleth in houses of clay be able to contradict him He inhabiting a ruinated and tottering Fabrick the more he advanceth the top of it the sooner the bottom faileth If he setteth his brains on work to contrive engines to demolish what he would have preserved in strength and beauty if his tongue uttereth any thing proudly and contemptuously against his honour God who for a little time suffereth it will neither forget nor long delay the just punishment of such ire-provoking villanies Could it be that he were like the revolted Israelites dumb God Baal faln into a sleep these loud crying offences would soon awaken him they would rouze up that Majesty which would not again lye down until he had emptied his revengeful quivers and made his arrows drunk with the blood of the slain The just he will keep
secretly in a Pavilion from the strife of tongues he will shew them his secret determinations and how even this tendeth to the good of his Flect ones For they like polished jewels shall then be discerned from other adulterate stones slubbered over with deceit than their most apparent lustre shall receive a multiplicity of unwonted glory whose constancy doth more dignifie than the most impious Sacriledge can deface the excellency of our Christian profession But those whom practice hath made Masters in the Devil's Arts of mischief whom an haughty presumption hath carried on as it were a deluge sweeping away overturning and over-whelming all opposites do but overhastily run their destined course into the bottomless pit where the Devil and they share their purchased inheritance of endless damnation And even those whom a true fear of God never sanctified but only a supercilious gravity adorning the outside made the inside indiscernible to man are not unknown to God He seeth of how rotten a frame their hearts are made and such Imps of hell as fear not to be openly rebellious he suffereth to sift the verity of such as only profess it So is he glorified both in the faithful and unfaithful in the devout Christian and the hypocritical Professor The one inflamed with perfect love casteth away fear not knowing how to be distracted the other what he deceitfully entertained is contented publickly as well as privately to see abused That which the one embraceth as being its own best reward the other with contrary aims courteth and for the same vilifieth and contemneth The one prefereth the contemplative joys of Heaven before all things the other delighteth in the surfeiting sweets proper only to flesh and blood the one is for the gain of godliness the other for the godliness of gain And therefore this slippery Saint doth not stick upon occasion to creep into a religious dress and to become constant to it so long as constancy may be mistaken But he withdraweth himself when he seeth that dress grow out of fashion and with a tongue equal to the loudest condemneth the needless observations of holiness It consisteth not with his hopes or wishes to maintain the Doctrines of Obedience with an empty belly or run barefoot to Heaven He holdeth it far safer to curse God to his face and live than to sing Allelujah's to him with an heart torn upon a rack and even breathing its last He cannot discern Religions glories among the tottered rags of beggary nor its beauty from its defaced Palaces Thus while he deemeth Religion superfluous because forsooth not laden with superfluities he is driven down the same channel with the most violent disturbers of Christian peace perishing wretches with desperate souls TO FAITHFUL men although suffering here are Arguments of a reward that God regardeth and separateth them from the vessels of wrath His Mercy and Justice know no mean but are applied in the eternity of either punishment or reward without neglect And those whom God so owneth he assuredly therefore separateth that in blessing he may bless them and in multiplying may make their seeds of glory to be multiplied as the Stars of Heaven and as the sand which is upon the sea-shore giving them this present assurance that though they suffer yet a little while and the wicked shall no more be although they be oppressed by them for a while yet at length they shall possess the gates of their enemies Let a fading beauty and decaying lustre present fools with admiration men soundly wise and discreetly politick laugh at these Images of content If they at all mourn it is not at their own seeming calamities but that any should by such happiness dream themselves into vengeance and wo interminable And as much do they wonder how such men can ever hope to effect their designs How little furious words violence and rage can weaken Religions Nerves although they sometimes force not only tears but blood the miraculous growth of the primitive Church under persecution may teach them As we have seen a fire for some time stifled presently after flame up and spread it self into almost an incredible extent waving its brandished head with the ambition of reaching Heaven So Religion threatned confined and oppressed committeth violence on violence it self and maketh suppression become its glory They who would bereave the Church of her children did but from each wound of theirs shed that blood which generated anew In the greatest rage of persecutions that world was in a sort too narrow for the reception of Faith's numerous Issue and therefore Heaven became a colony for those many who so willingly left earth out of confidence of an inheritance above We see then that these adversaries of our temporal prosperity which too too frequently proveth the Souls canker are not altogether inconvenient instruments Their potions given us to drink though intended for mischief become cordials and wholsome medicines from Stygian in the gift they become Elysian in the receipt and are properly said to make us glad because once tasted they encourage us and cherish in us a certain generous animosity which without such contentions languisheth and dyeth NOW that we may not mistake God's love neither commit a rape upon our own expectations let us consider that that life is not the best which is but which shall be free from trouble that those joys are not the most sincere which touch the sense but the soul with delight So then the only means to remove the injuries of suspitious joys is to make friendship with their opposites We must work our souls joy not out of ease which is but the gate of corruption not out of worldly favour which is but deceitful not out of any settled affection upon other the like things as doting upon wealth content in pleasure an over-high value of our reputations among men We may not by these think to accumulate to our selves benefit or bliss they will make us at last come short of our aim but by a laborious care to fortifie both soul and body by an earnest endeavour to have God's love and all our trials not to be found of another temper than we were before willing to have them thought of by dedicating the heart which is the throne of love to him alone and so making poverty reproach and such like if he be pleased to appoint us thereto our favourites and familiars And thus shall we also make to our selves reparations for the loss of other things which I account but the injuries of mortality if courted and wooed TRIBULATION is frequently extended to all mankind but is a beneficial priviledge only to the just To them it becometh a benefit because they know how to prize it but especially because they know how to use it to others it is not so for the contrary reason The effects of it are according to each mans apprehension and esteem of it as trials they are good if we be pleased to think so as punishments also
we make our subtil and take our â—ecure escape from sin Which we discerning are to make hast forward rather than be of those who draw back in whom God saith his Soul shall have no pleasure O let us then escape thither and our souls shall live Seeing tribulation to be the reward of sin let us by bearing it wisely reach at the reward of Patience In our adversity we must be possess'd with patience for it is in our patience that we must possess our Souls Iron by fires duration maketh armour sufficient to withstand deaths formidable contrivances and man often heat in the chimneys of affliction and hammered upon the anvils of worldly miseries is enabled for his victory through the Captain of his salvation who was made perfect through sufferings Thus all the before-named seeming causes of trouble are but preparatives to our joy they are but mists which cool and bedew one hour of our morning that the rest of our day may the more sensibly flourish and our Sun victoriously break forth into a continuing splendour Let him as he justly deserveth it be deprived of joy who deemeth deliverance from evil a plunge into misery I in the mean time praying Thy will O God be my delight and prosperity WHICH so happening according to my wishes I shall not now as formerly let my thoughts creep low nor shall I brook their defilement with what I my self tread upon Earth ought not to claim with Heaven a participation of us It were enough to destroy the hopes of our harvest should we notwithstanding the husbandry diligently managed and our field well manured let tares spring up among our wheat Let us not suffer any thing which was meant for our good to turn to our hurt It is both pity that good seeds should unluckily be oppressed in their growth and evil ones permitted to flourish in contempt of art which if it happeneth in mans heart it is a sign of its being nigh to cursing We are rackt and torn large furrows made on our backs and the Ploughers go over our heads that evil and unprofitable seeds may be overlaid and perish Here the intent of the good husbandry is quite averse to a fond nourishing or indiscreet fostering of them but yet that is not all The labour would be reduced to the number of folly's impetuous vanities if only to this purpose undergone But the consequence of overturning bad ones is a prudent disposition of better in their places And so doth the heart receive only those seeds as its own which have their injection after so excellent an order which when they have taken root do thrive worthy the prosperous hand of the divine husbandry For indeed tribulation worketh in us thus much that we love God after a sincere sense of it more than we did before in a corrupt sense of his earthly gifts For there is apparently in them more of his blessings because unquestionably more of his love We meeting with forreigners and strangers are commonly more addicted to liberality and outward tokens of courtesie than to reprove those vices which we see in them but wholsome reproofs we lay in store for the homebred inheritours of our fortunes Acts of indulgence to suffer men peaceably to enjoy as to the outward man can do nothing to the inward Lands riches and estates may be extended to enemies chastisements men use to their beloved children Wherefore the punishments of this life are far better than the benefits of fortune We then deservedly apprehending so much praise God for his unsearchable wisdom and love him for his ineffable goodness God who spared not his own First-begotten and Well-beloved in not sparing us manifesteth his affection to us as well-beloved and heirs of his promises and we by being exercised in his love grow from grace to grace from strength to strength until we appear perfect before God in Sion the coelestial Tribulation in this life doth not only try and correct us but maketh our inward man more gloriously to advance his trophies over sin it maketh us eminent in the practice of the better part and richer to our selves because we treasure up in the Soul those jewels which the dull pleasures of the world bury all over in oblivion I condemn not peaceable tranquillity it is to be the care of our hearts I condemn not prosperity God hath frequently given it to his great Favourites But without reaching an offensive finger towards the disturbance of any of its well-composed ornaments I will presume to say that it becometh more glorious after a conflict with adversity and is not truly splendid till furnished with lustre from afflictions store Things of the world even the best although good are yet imperfect when compared to heavenly of the number of which I judge afflictions to be according as God seeth meet to bestow them And although in either estate it is not impossible for a man to live piously yet because adversity is an approved and more certain way to Heaven because prosperity if it be not altogether remiss is commonly not so exact as it ought in performance of good the one is permitted to succeed the other by way of probation and adversity still carrieth the day She is Religions more natural nurse because freed from pride which is a close adherent to ambitious felicity and hath those goods to which prosperity doth unwillingly stoop Obedience and Love And adversity possessing the soul of these two majestick yet humble graces what need I more words to make my comment upon her more copious Would we have peace tranquillity joy and all inward happiness upon earth Here are all these in loves banners to be displayed Would we have glory joy rest and felicity more than earthly Obedience reacheth at them and giveth them unto us here in assurance hereafter in deed And as these give vs joy and peace so are they also their Guardians placing them above humane contingencies and out of the reach of curs'd Fortunes malicious arrests Our joy is in heaven where also our conversation is and while there we may be sure it is fixed and immoveable So we impartially surveying the immensity of God's love find afflictions of the body to be the riches and welfare of the Soul and the impairing thereof the building up of our perfections The consideration whereof doth easily induce us to profess that although God be pleased to exercise our patience in hardships we will not cast off our joy and hope which have so great a recompence of reward neither will we cease with that worthy sufferer to say that although he slay us yet will we trust in him Of which sufferer yet more What was there in him but love towards God still carefully nourished when he taketh all thus patiently What shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil And as he received them patiently so assuredly joyfully For thanksgiving being the exuberance of joy and a fecundation of Benefits he
with good at my latter end Let me never return with fury to them who backbite me but with humility to theâ— who dost correct me so shalt thou be please with the sin-offerings and oblations of mâ— lips If I am tryed by words or actions againâ—â— thee O Lord I am unable to bear or restraiâ— them Arise and maintain thine own causâ— remember how the foolish man reproacheâ— thee daily If I have seen O Lord I have seen 〈◊〉 that the enemy hath done wickedly in tâ— Sanctuary A man was famous according as he liftâ—â— up axes upon the thick tree but they braâ—â— down all with axes and hammers and thoâ—â— otherwise hindred from the execution of mâ— chief they yet speak swelling words and theâ— talking is against the most High Thou knowest O God that many have fâ—â—lowed their own pernicious ways by whom 〈◊〉 way of truth hath been evil spoken of We were and indeed are yet made a striâ—â— to our neighbours our enemies laughed amoâ—â— themselves All this hath come upon thy people yet haâ—â— they not forgotten thee nor stretched out their hands to a strange God They would not turn away from thee to fall down before sacrilegious Vsurpers neither give that honour to them which was due to thy sacred Vicegerent only I beseech thee establish the just but with mine eyes let me behold and see the reward of the wicked and let not any wilful transgressor prosper in his way Let me never desire to eat of their dainties mischievously gotten but hide me from both the infection and danger of their counsel and all thine from further insurrections of the workers of iniquity Let thy truth be alway my shield and buckler and do thou both defend and guide me with thy free Spirit If it be thy friendly pleasure to try me it may be also thy fatherly will to chastise me but Oh correct me in mercy not in thine anger lest thou bring me to nothing I have sinned What shall I do unto thee O thou Preserver of men I will patiently bear thy rod and the chastisement of my peace Thou art just O Lord and correctedst me for mine iniquities I have sinned and done foolishly for which although thou hast plagued me yet thy loving kindness is ever before mine eyes Before I was afflicted I went astray but now I say surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life Truely my soul waiteth upon thee from whom cometh my salvation yea under the shadow of thy wings will I take my refuge until the calamities of this be over-past Surely thou art my Rock and my Salvation I shall not be greatly moved Amen Sweet Jesu Amen Our Father which art in Heaven c. CHAP. II. Reflections on the Mercies of Restauration NOW is our revenge throughly wrought we desired not evil and behold good came We were innocently as we only ought avenged of our adversaries by deprecating their souls vengeance by pitying them whose self-created miseries were the bitterest of our afflictions And we assuredly find that love is a pregnant passion having conceptions and productions beyond supposition While God considered the silent rhetorick of our hearts freely disposed to forgive and heard those louder cryes of our sighs and tears for their amendment he answered them with such success as suited with our desires because with his glory but hath moreover added such benefits as transcended both our desires and hopes Our desires if they did fly high yet could not soar so high as God can reach nor could they dive so deep as the descents of his humble bounty He maketh the out-going of the evening and morning to rejoyce and bringeth joy unto us farther than the eyes of our mind can discern Whether in our Sun-setting or rising he is the same light still and his day hath no end And although the shadow as it were of an approaching night mindeth us of our natures declination somewhat darkening our understandings yet where God is the light of joy is still permanent however it be for an additional delight changeably represented The substance is still the same notwithstanding its various dress as I may say doth beguil the natural vision and multiplieth one into different pluralities That invincible peace of mind which although still worried is unalterable after a long conflict with the treacherous world becometh at last augmented having sooner wearied all than it self it is rendred greater by its conquest and more joyous through a continual disdain of slavish sorrow And God who loveth patience loveth also to have an end of it and to give it the same end and beginning alacrity and the diffused bliss of a calm security Which end when Patience hath had her perfect work he wisely setteth at his meetest time sometimes making delays where he will give more than an ordinary joy to the former stock treasured up in an extraordinary trial Otherwhiles he dispenseth with time himself in a sort thinking his love absent when it is not burthened with speedy dispatches of cessation and rest So he did by his good friend Job whom he held not out the lingring expectation of another life but gave a rest and recompence on earth as the short emblem of a recompence eternal Patience after such a degree of service is emerita and the soul having been long enough exercised therewith she is exempted from farther labour and resigneth her place to some other Virtue Neither because a true joy may and ought to be retained in the fiery trials of temptations is it always necessary that we push those pikes God will give unto his servants more than a bare single cause of rejoycing he loveth to multiply them that so they may be known to be his gift who giveth not by peice-meal neither is scantingly liberal The influences of his bounty are proportionable to his unlimited love descending as for divers causes so in divers manners By variety and multiplicity of gifts his bounty is not diminished but is amplified and enriched by liberality and by giving rendred as it were more able to give Now after we have a while patiently endured his will his benefits by course so run that we no longer suffer but receive Either in heaven or both earth and heaven there is for us assurance of having the former benefits of suffering compleated by an immunity from suffering and even this immunity crowned with all accessory joys befitting a triumph Come we now to look back upon scoffs reproaches ignominies contempts and whatsoever injuries they could not harm us because not lasting and the very foresight of their speedy end must needs excite our joy A most divine expression is that of his who introduceth that incomparable Pattern of patience in these words Jesus Christ the Author and Finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame even for the joy which was the evident support of his souls so weighty burthen and unto which he was
King for a King rather that he should be good then great but withal hoping that God had designed him to be both that is King and defender of the truly ancient and Apostollick faith That God hath made him the one is to the performance of the other and that he will alway prove both he giveth us to hope and believe Which Title if some according as their several humors transport them will not acknowledg due for their sakes do we chiefly rejoyce to apply it The want of their concession maketh no diminution of his honor That he Laboureth by example power to restrain the madness of distempered brains in a general good even theirs over whom the power is exercised would delusion suffer them to see it But that we have one to say to the fools deal not foolishly and to the wicked lift not up the horn is an especial felicity which God hath given to them who are desirous to serve him in truth and uprightness Whose prayer it constantly is That God would ever give him to the Church such a nursing Father under whom her Children may thrive and prosper and devotion be cherished and magnified that glory may dwell in our land and the beauty of our God might rest upon us Great men by their good examples do exceedingly propagate piety which is by so much rendred the more illustrious by how much it is admired and practised by illustrious persons who are to the people in their religious growth as heaven it self to the tender plant GOD in his love to us through our most blessed Saviour hath in a great measure provided for our souls and bodies He hath given his Church beauty and ornament and we hope that he will add strength too by a King who cannot but know how to rule his people for whom and with whom he hath been throughly tried he hath learned to cherish them being himself alway cherished in the bosome of the Almighty to be returned to us a sure pledge of Gods love he knoweth how to rule them who hath manifested his moderation and power over himself in scorning revenge and in silence passing over so expiatiating those numerous injuries indignities which might otherwise have injured the Nation with the brand of perpetual infamy And as we found in him a noble acknowledgment that his Subjects have not been all guilty but many of them partakers with him of his miseries so we reverently adore that admirable temper of Majesty mixed with meekness hands bountiously open to reward the constant and armes expansed to embrace the penitent whereas sowre aspests and revengful hands had been less then the merit of those to whom his favour hath been beyond measure extended Herein he hath truely manifested to the world how fitly the Scepter burtheneth his shoulders how hopeful a Governour he may justly seem in his Subjects eyes who could so easily sway his own passions Where Reason as Soveraigne is enthorned in the heart governing all mentual suggestions that mans actions are drawn by the true line of virtue and keep within the just lines of mediocrity So did his most gratious Majesty moderate his course being princely and undejected in his lowest condition humble and full of clemency in his exalted No offers or temptations could deduce him from his love zeal to that Religion and Church wherein he had been so carefully educated We may thence hope that he will in gratitute to God Omnipotent who hath restored him to that and that to him labour to continnue a Trofphee or fame a Mirour of perfection and pray That God will to use the words of his Father of ever blessed memory still dispose him to all princely endowments and employments which will most gain the love and intend the welfare of those over whom God hath placed him and think it his greatest title to be called and cheif glory to be the defender of the Church both in its true faith and just fruitions Which that he may be the more signally God grant him a long and happy life among his subjects his subjects integrity of heart ardency of kind affections and perpetual loyalty and after all to both him and them that which surpasseth all Vnity in Eternity of Bliss Amen IT is of thy mercy O Lord that we are not consumed because thy compassions fail not In the height of our calamities thou makest a way for us to escape which we never imagined so wonderful art thou in thy doings towards the Children of men And now strengthen we pray thee that which thou hast wrought for us Let thine hand be upon the man of thy right hand to conduct him out of dangers to the mansions of safeguard Let him flourish among us by a long and joyful life let him win and receive the Congregations and judge uprightly among the sons of Men that his name may indure to all generations Let divine peace flourish in his time with plenty and prosperity in his dayes Make us truely to understand that thy Providence alone was wonderful in returning him the head to us his viduated members and not to make sinful and scornful recourses to the dotagss of humane wisdome or worldly â—hance However if malignant Envy will needs break out into detestable repinings rather let them grieve who acknowledge them not then we who now give thee thanks for thy blessings But because we know that the foolish shall not stand in thy sight we will come into thine house in the multitudes of thy mercies and in thy fear will we worship towards thy holy Temple We will praise thee who givest deliverance unto Kings and shewest mercy to thine Anointed And now O God give the people peaceable and loyal hearts to behold consider and repent of their past folly neither let the curse of Jotham or Hothams end light upon any of us as the reward of revolting giddiness Behold we beseech thee O God our sheild and look upon the face of thine Anointed Deliver him from the counsel of the wicked from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity Let not the enemy exact upon him nor the wicked approach to hurt him but scatter them as the dust before the wind consume them as the stubble by the fire who shall offer to send forth injurious words or stretch forth an offensive arme to disturb his peace and discompose our joy As for all such as have formerly turned aside to their crooked wayes let them be covered with their own confusion as with a mantle till they be ashamed of their actions and repent of them that thou mayest forgive and receive them Hear thou our prayers for him and thy name O God of Jacob defend him Send him help from thy Sanctuary and pour down blessings upon him from heaven granting his desires and fulfilling his counsel Thou hast prevented him with the blessing of Goodness and set a crown of pure gold upon his head let him therefore evermore trust in thee that through the mercy of
aliquid necessarium subtrahit quia duÌ„ laetus optatur ab omnibus cunctos contristat si probetur offensus The wit of men of this humor who are apt to be distasted upon so slight an account and to give distaste where Men of sound judgement do alway think it a glory to be liberal is to be observed from his judicious scorn of such base providence Who said Bark dâ— Arg. libâ— 4. Egregia Scilicet cura timemus ne non hostis cum saeviet plenas domos opulentas inveniat Repetamus memoria vastitates peculatus exitia c. Should God armed with his incited Vengeance prosecute our ingratitude and over-whelm our black deeds which although our late miseries should make us detest yet our language seemeth to desire with the crimson ruines of each others slaughtered bodies making each others sword to revenge the wrongs offered unto heaven it were less then the desert of so ungratful underweighing and inconsiderate contemning of his blessings Absolom had better have been close shaven and have been without that extraordinary beauty of his long hair then to have kept it to be the fatal accomplishment of his dayes and his hastened death And every subject upon second thoughts will acknowledge that there is nothing more commendable in a subject than a frugal care of himself and a liberal loyally that to give much and want something is far more profitable than expend highly and keep little or to endanger all by endeavouring the keeping of all The Apostle S. Paul makes tribute custome fear and honour to be the parts of obedience the respect to our duty and a true chearfulness do perfect obedience It is too too fresh in our memories that among other things the people clamouring concerning a ship money tax and some other inconsiderable grievances became proditor sui proditionis merces Assuredly they who Love to have the Head dishonoured and kept bare may not prudently comfort themselves with the blind Hope of a long safety And indeed to speak plainly none wrong themselves more then these especially if the ground of their complaints be well considered That what is required for the publick good they cannot spare from their own too publick vices Want of moderation in the disposing their lives and affairs begetteth other wants which proceeding from ill government multiply into disorders and then the blame forsooth must be laid upon other causes and the true forgotten It is a strange kind of imaginary happiness wherewith some men please themselves to maintain their own by impoverishing other mens honours and to delight in transferring the name of that crime upon others whereof themselves onely must keep the guilt The contrary is the more thriving way to impute all greivances to the right causes and remove them to consider the mischeifes to which men are exposed by extravagancies and for the future so to live within the prescribed limits of reason as to be able to do the publique good service without the least sense of a domestique injury If a giddy and seduced faction in an ignorant zeal could upon a crew matchless as in its most execrable villanies so in a most ravenous appetite as it were force an unusual liberality it is impossible that to pious subjects moderate demands and those necessary can prove offensive pressures A small thing indeed proveth a burden to the neck which loveth no manner of yoke and unwillingness striving although in a in a most smooth and easie yoke that neck is soon galled which with cheerfulness could have borne a more considerable weight Improvident impatience alway overturneth that happyness whereof our prudent Architect layeth the foundation and onely meekness will see that prosperity accomplished which it did peradventure rather hope for than foresee 2. BUT some mens hopes having flourished some time upon the rocks top are scorched with the beams of other mens prosperous virtues Therefore where they have unprofitably sown they will no longer lâ—bour but turn themselves to some other exercise And what after a discouraged hope offereth it self to exercise the thoughts sooner then discontent the friend of vitious mindes and betrayer of innocency an evil which may peradventure glance upon a mind fraught with virtues but never there inhabit or fructifie A wise man considereth that no hope fixed upon things temporal is certainly successful and a good maâ— knoweth that evil hopes ought not to aspire to fruitions but to be forthwith destroyed that there may be no more of the viperous ofspring Enjoyment is dangerous discontent upon the miss mischievous Yet is it better to have some wicked men sad because of their uneffected designes than all good men weep by reason of the calamities proceeding from evil mens unfortunate triumphs And discontent could not have made its entry into a sort of persons who knew more advantagiously to execute revenge by the common poysonous way of contumely then certain men who long hoping for satisfaction of some illigitimate desires but having their hopes frustrated are more known by their murmurs against then their prayers for the Government established And although religion must seem to adorne and sanctifie their whole life yet he who truly knew as the comfortable blessing so the assured way of an holy life exhorted those whom he would have thrive under Christian discipline to do all things without murmurings and disputing that they might be blameless and harmless the Sons of Gods Philâ— 2. And S. Jude an unblameable servant of Christ maketh it the mark that ungodly men are known by These are murmurers complainers c. Which because most undoubtedly true we must take off the sheep-skin and see underneath the biting Wolf the man who would seem innocent yet loveth nothing more than a wounded reputation and an afflicted mind But let such men seem once Loyal and still holy we know what they were and by underlooking their paliating pretences may perceive that they are in both respects still what they were They have put their new wine into their old bottles and do but dress up their aged falsehood with a gay and new fashioned hypocrisie They have their old devises and the continuance of their grudging perversness sheweth it to be inherent to their temper and made natural No musick giveth them such delight as the reproach of a superiour the recitalls of whose honour and worthy deeds although elevating good mens minds to an exceeding gladness soundeth in their ears with a jarring discordancy Nothing doth more discompose and distort their countenance then such unwelcome relations but the contrary doth introduce a smiling festivity And if any of them want eares he will make amends with his pregnant invention anâ— make a supply for the defect by the doubâ— diligence of his tongue Now where it reconcilable Enmity failing of the greate abilities is content with the weaker miâ—chiefes of a murmur and complaint the moâ—â— upright administrations are not withoâ—â— the cause of a disgust Even virtue whicâ— keepeth the
observed by one that the greatest disease of distrust Dalinâ—â— lib. 3. A◠〈…〉 and most incurable is in him who hath wronged his Prince whose guilty Conscience feedeth on fearful distrust 〈◊〉 just occasion be offered These un◠〈…〉 â—rits although they have promised 〈◊〉 sworn Allegiance yet sound Reason 〈◊〉 biddeth any too confidently to trust thâ—m whose refuge is Medea's Absolution Quae scelere pacta est scelere rumpetur fides What they perfidiously swear they will as deceitfully break Peace they love no longer than necessity compelleth them to it debarring them the opportunities of Commotions which they most artificially court and diligently solicite Rather than not commit their beloved sin they will tempt all occasions till they find a way to advance both it and its interest Therefore they violate truth obligations duty and conscience lest any of these should by the help of inquisitive fear make them see and pursue better things They who adore impiety making the successes thereof their Paradise must reer their conscience and do abominate scrupulous niceties onely using the name of good for the greater confusion of such as embrace the substance TO know whether their devises tend we must guess by the rules of contrariety their meanings having ever contradicted their professions They pretend to reformation but let such as have had the most aged experience of their performances speak plainly and acquit others of the dangers of fallacies We might well think the subversion of a Kingdome to be no good Physick for the Church therein neither that civil wars which do license misdeameanour can introduce good manners Their words had heretofore instead of more soundness infused madness into the people and too much action heightened the distempers of the Nation which convenient rest will qualifie Until they prescribe this they will never be good Physicians Give it this and each part of the body will thereupon be reduced to its order and duty When temperance guideth those who now trouble themselves and others we may have just cause to Hope for the so much discoursed Reformation But no encouragement is there for us to suppose that they can ever do others good who do themselves so much harm in being the professed factours of disobedience men who make it their sole employment to bring up an evil report upon God's inheritance and to stir up the peoples malignity against the King and Church They who taught the Israelites the scurrilous lessons of reproachful taunts against the Prince and the Arch-Bishop Moses and Aaron brought a plague upon themselves and the misadvised tribes yet did they pretend a remedy against some I know not what evils There can no plague prove so destructive as this spreading one brought in by sedition which to our great sorrow and shame hath been known to search and sweep each corner and part of these miserable Kingdomes and when after its long rage by discontinuance we hoped for respite by these poysonous blasts it threatneth anew its return and triumphs But God we trust will make these menaces to be but the regardless puffes of angry vanity For these Hopes we have ground from the rich authority of God's word which testifieth that He who hideth hatred with lying lips and he that uttereth a slander is a fool And then we are sure that he answereth the fool according to his folly God can do what he pleaseth and is most gracious and merciful whom we ought earnestly to beseech that he would not use these men as the scourge of our transgressions neither make us a rebuke unto the foolish But certainly such as have seen the event of those former dishonorable reports raised and kept on flight by the complicies of rebellion cannot otherwise judge of the same things again practised but that the intents are the same and would produce the like effects did not God's mercy prevent and frustrate He who rebuked the winds and the Sea roaring against the Church both in Christ the Head and the Disciples the Members who with with a Peace be still quieted the loud voyce of the disobedient winds and laid the rude tumult of the rebellious waves can soon subdue these pestilent tongues and he who doth Let them from proceeding further in mischeif will we need not doubt still let until they be taken out of the way BUT to see of what a various and partly-coloured substance Hypocrisie is composed would make any one much to marvel how such antipathies could be combined in one body to make a publique cheat Nil mortalibus arduum est Caelum ipsum petimus stultitia Men alarm Heaven it self as if they would O wretched Age pull God's Children out of his bosome and all pretensively for his sake who abhorreth the cruelty as much as he disowneth the service The Church being reproached and the King the Head thereof aspersed with calumnies they say it is all for Religions sake and Gods glory of vain are some to shake hands as that glorious Martyr observed with their allegiance K. Char. I. and obedience under pretence to lay faster hold on their religion These filthy dreamers how regardless they are of so grant a crime as the despising Dominions and speaking evil of Dignities nay of fathering the same upon God as if he took not vengeance of villanies but countenanced and rewarded them They cast out the name of religion to beguile some silly souls pleading God's Ordinance and will for what they sacrilegiously attempt against his Anointed ones as if that spotless Purity and purely perfect Vnity were too liberally divided into contradictions of its own writ and patern But he is the same ever constant and good God who so far detesteth such wickedness that by the decree of his dreadful justice is ordained for such reprobates a place of endless bitterness and torment with the Divel and his Angels company and reward suitable to such galiish spirits which triumph intortured reputations and bloody delights into which the weight of their sins will most deeply repress and over-whelm them Sin is a weighty evil and sins against Authority are excessive but the largest term is too narrow for this which capaciously compriseth a design against the Powers coelestial and terrene Into the inferior parts of the bottomliless pit where the dregs of treasured fury must this soaring ambition unrepented of irrecoverably fall O let us humbly Sollicite Heaven begging for them the rescue of repentance and the expiatory blood of that Innocent Lamb whom they Religiously revile and persecute Let not their reproachful words sound louder than our importunate prayers God is gracious who knoweth but that he may turn and have mercy upon them although their provocations have never so impetuously resisted his Clemency BUT although many whom they injure doubtless forget not this holy Office this Divine Charge given by him who did vouchsafe to be a General Satisfaction and the Saviour of all yet these would if possible discourage all good and by their continuance or
with the glimmerings of success even while they hear God denouncing the Thunders of his wrath against such Prostitutes of sin Much more do I wonder how God or the World to come can be in their thoughts and lips and they not presently fall into an extasie of horrour The meditation of our approaching end is the most necessary thought to take up both the beginning and continuance of our life Our chief study should be to die well which is a long Art and considering the violent distempers of our nature none of the easiest It moreover requireth a peaceable time but in War the Sword devoureth one as well as another How much Christian then can he be who is resolutely contriving an entrance into the Field without the Divine Guidance and looketh death in the face practising Rebellion not knowing but that in a moment he must give an account to his injured and angry Judge Or how much is his zeal to be accounted of who prodigally wasteth his treasure of Reason wherewith God hath been pleased to bless him to the corruption of other mens judgments not considering that he who lent that misimployed breath may suddenly remand it from those debased uses and commit the Speaker bound over to his self-contrived miseries The consideration of lifes brevity and uncertainty should methinks make every man busied not in a forreign search but an home-enquiry after guilt The time which is so spent upon others is clearly lost what upon our selves is truly gained Most men when they speak of other mens faults encrease their own but they who speak to God of their own by the example undoubtedly make many to be sooner cleansed Then also hath the self-examiner this advantage of others that he dismayeth not at Deaths Menaces having pacified his Judge Whereas the backbiting murmurers hellish life here is all his Heaven He who exerciseth himself with the lashes of pious reproof liveth comfortably and peaceably nay joyfully here but is assured of a superabundant joy after the frail body is cloathed with Honour and Perfection by an happy Resurrection and desired Union with its glorified Redeemer Amen HAve mercy upon us O Lord for the dark places of the Earth are full of the habitations of cruelty Lo the wicked bend their bow they make ready their arrow upon the string that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart If we had done this evil which they mention or those iniquities were in our hands wherewith they asperse us then were we out of thy protection and the enemy persecuting our souls could not but take and destroy us But thy peircing Knowledge seeth that they travail with iniquity that they have conceived mischeif and brought forth falsehood Surely false witnesses have risen up against us laying to our charge things which we knew not O take thou the matter into thine own hand and be thou the defence of the humble for the wicked have purposed to overthrow their goings They who have known thee will put put their trust in thee and call upon thee in the day of trouble for thou wilt hear them We will not trust in our bow our Sword shall not save us but thou shalt save us from our enemies and put them to shame who hate us Although the blood thirsty lay snares and they who seek to do hurt speak mischeivous things imagining deceit all the day long yet thou maintainest the right thou sittest in the throne judging right and thine Eye-lids try the children of men Thou who alone knowest it do good unto those who are good and upright in heart But as for such as turn aside to their crooked wayes teach them that their end will be to be led forth with the workers of wickedness O Gracious Father and Merciful Redeemer consider the trouble which we suffer of them who hate us and of thy great compassion deliver us and in ransoming deliver us we pray thee from all our offences that we may not deservedly be the rebuke of the foolish Thou hearest and from the seat of thy Majesty beholdest all our miseries Arise for our help and Redeem us for thy mercies sake that the mouths of them who speak lies may be stopped Remember the reproach of thy servants how we do bear in our bosomes the reproach of many people wherewith thine enemies have reproached thee O Lord. And for the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips consume them that they may not be that by thy judgements they may make it known that not cursed policy but thy good power ruleth unto the ends of the earth Instead of the desired effects of mischeif prolong thou the Kings life and his years as many generations O prepare mercy and truth which may preserve him Because he will not yeild to the dishonour of thy Church they burden him with these indignities but do thou repay him seven fold into his bosome and let his honour be great in thy salvation This is thine own cause Arise then and plead it remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily the tumult of those who rise up against thee encreaseth continually In thee we trust we cry unto thee to save us For Lo they breath out cruelty against us Deliver us who desire to serve and worship thee in spirit and truth from lying lips and from these deceitful tongues which speak lies in hypocrisie And let our adversaries be clothed with shame let them cover themselves with their own confusion as with a mantle Let them curse but bless thou let them be ashamed but let thy servant rejoyce O Lord God of Hosts who judgest righteously if they will not return let us see thy vengeance upon all perverse promoters of bewitching sedition Let their conspiracies be as the dust before the wind and themselves as the stubble before the fire that the World may see that this is thine hand that thou Lord doest establish the just by casting down the wicked So shall the Congregations of the people compass thee about for their sakes therefore lift up thy self on high And to thy servants give patience to bear their calamities and together with a religious boldness to withstand and rebuke their wickedness grant such an innocent and meek deameanour as befitteth the sincere Disciples of a most humble Master By shunning backbiting and the reproach of our neighbour and endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace fit us for our dissolution that we may in peace go down into the bed of silence and joyfully rise again to the possession of invincible tranquility through Jesus Christ our onely Mediatour and Advocate Amen Our Father which art in Heaven c. CHAP. VII How little the minds of some men are wrought upon The continual examples of miscarrying Factions SOLOMON thought the desire accomplished to be sweet to the Soul But it was also his observation taken from the humour of men over-eager in pursuit of their desires that it is an
opinion hath the same power to make them useful Even in this respect there is in afflictions an artificial love consonant to all God's favours In them we cannot but acknowledge a divine power making us learn obedience from the things we have suffered Thereby the Holy Ghost doth more effectually breath into us than by the Prophets and holy Scriptures themselves We too too frequently resist those sacred dictates of the Spirit and vilifie the monitions of pious men but afflictions render us not only attentive to God speaking by them but also yielding and obedient To which man can hardly do other than submit they being true mollifiers of the heart They speak unto us so powerfully that we are sure to answer in such language as may witness an humiliation and change wrought in us Indeed the language of some differeth from that of others Therefore the repining Reprobate is clamorous crying out My punishment is greater than I can bear but he who hath in him any thing savouring of piety remembreth these punishments to be the chastisements of his peace and imploreth the divine mercy in laments and tears the eruptions of a penitent heart Punishments are for the better until by the offender they are turned to the worse He who correcteth every Son whom he receiveth correcteth many that none may be lost Neither will his rod seem troublesome to any whom the memory of their transgressions doth truly afflict If sin cause sorrow the rest hath nothing of sorrow but is its remedy which although it smelleth sowre its rellish is sweet When any of us forgetteth to wash his polluted breast with a deluge of repentant tears to that cross as we call it or mishap which forceth him to pour out what to his own damage he wretchedly detained he ought especially to give a ready welcome In the possession of this very fortunate adversity mortal man hath so much cause to rejoyce as incessantly to pray rather by misery thus to be made happy than to be in a possibility of mistaking God's love through a tedious worldly prosperity Could we live in the world without sin we needed not by one misery to be wracked out of another But seeing we cannot but sin 't is meet we should bear the remedy nay because we know it to be a remedy rather invite it than refuse it A tree driven by an adverse and violent wind is better preserved by a prop although perhaps it rub off some of the bark or for due placing some small regardless branch be lopt off than be turned up to be destroyed root and branch So if we could stand alway in that innocent posture and holy order which beseemeth us as there would be no need of it so there would be undoubtedly an immunity from tribulation But seeing we either cannot or will not but incline that way which corruption driveth us let us stand as we may better it is that part be impaired than all lost And if nought but superfluities be impaired such impairing endeth in a blessed reparation Losing what we have commonly maketh us find our selves Find our selves I say For it frequently happeneth that among our many stupendious toyes and glorious trifles we ramble until we are at a loss We commit sin and make daily progresses in it sin hath its deluding enticements which we listen to and follow we follow so far till we forget our selves we listen till we are lulled asleep Thanks then and courtship for that friendly hand which awakening and correcting us pointeth out the way of our return This hand is affliction the merit yet withal the purgation of sin We do not use to see Colliers with white faces Mortals as sinners have a smutty hue and besides that the fruits of their works have a sooty taste Ugliness bitterness crosses and perplexities come of conformity with things of nought But yet it is for our good to have our ill dispositions thwarted which cannot more profitably be than by God's hand afflicting which although seemingly perplexing is found consolatory for after due observation it will appear that even the rod it holdeth and useth is comfortable and delightsome It frequently happeneth that we have heard some of our ungoverned actions rehearsed with addition by those whom we might truly imagine meant us no good neither spake for our bettering But ought we nevertheless furiously to swell against or passionately to expostulate with God who suffered our enemies thus to triumph over us when surprized by infirmity No It is but our bounden Religion to thank that Fountain of pity for so unexpected and most beneficial help in the time of our greatest necessity His careful love wrought in him a timely compassion towards us distressed by whether natural or accidental pollutions and to the end that we might not to our Creator's dishonour and our own confounding shame lye long in them out of enmities high flown rage did he find means to make a desired reconciliation Those whom we call friends and have reason peradventure in other things so to esteem them will not so readily cast these stones at us either considering their own frailty or overweighing the displeasure many times proceeding from a just reprehension But our enemies will freely disperse them without either fear or weariness From whom our wise diligence ought quietly to take things of this nature and acquaint our selves therewith as from the better hand Other times probably we may be assaulted with violent shelves of accusations concerning those things wherein without blinding self flattery we have judged our selves not irreligiously innocent But then laying into the same scale actions of ancienter commission of the knowledge whereof our adversaries have been deprived we shall find it best to put this bill with other accompts all upon the same file Seeing we have deserved as much otherwise without complaining then may we hear somewhat of injury seeing we had not been for a long time justly dealt with nor so much as met with our own in a tedious discourse Who is there that would exempt himself from the number of sufferers Let him not bring innocency for his bail Although he be in the next degree to that self nobilifying perfection which might take the pliant wings of the dove to fly away and be at rest yet that little be it as I may say but a part of defect so insupportably cloggeth man that he cannot advance himself above the injuries of mortality Life upon earth is but a pawn deposited in sin-begotten miseries griping hand But if she be able so to squeeze and temper us that our outside and inside do at last become a lump all of good liking in the sight of our good and gracious Father we are neither foolishly to fear nor currishly to snap at that hand which new mouldeth us The place of this our reordination may indeed seem dreadful yet is it none other but the house of God and the gate of heaven it is the Sanctuary of devout piety whereinto