meane time his Royall Throne here vpon Earth Isai. 57. 15. what can Man or Deuill or any distrustfull heart say against it And why shouldest thou being such an one be so vnmannerly and vnthankfull nay so vnnecessarily cruell to thine owne heauy heart as not to open the euerlasting doore of thy soule by the key of Faith to let the King of glory knocking with his hand of mercy come in and crowne it with grace and glory with comfort and euerlasting peace II. But alas sayes hee my sinnes are moe then any mans Now when I am searching into the sinke of them I can finde neither banke nor bottome Vnnumbred swarmes of grosse impieties and iniquities thorow my whole life of abominable impurities and pollutions which haue continually defiled my mind heart and affections armed with seuerall stings of terrour doe so restlesly presse vpon my wounded conscience and oppresse it that I cannot I dare not thinke vpon or looke towards any comfort Let them bee what they are and adde thereunto all the sinnes which haue are and shall bee committed by all the sonnes and daughters of Adam from the Creation to the end of the World excepting sinne against the holy Ghost and yet in an hart truly humbled vnder them heartily hating them all cōming with a sincere spirituall hunger at Christs Call to bee disburdened of them they can make no more resistance against the mercies of God then a little sparke of fire against the mighty Sea rhrowne into the midst of it nay infinitely lesse For all these sinnes would still be finite both in nature and number but Gods mercies are euery way infinite Now betweene that which is finite and that which is infinite there is no proportion and so no possibilitie of resistance Whence it is that the Prophet inuiting his people to repentance Esa. 55. 7. by assuring them of Gods sweet mercifull and gracious disposition lest any too fearefull and deiected spirit vndervaluing Gods mercy should thinke thus within it selfe Bee it so yet alas my sinnes are so many and such a sonne of Belial haue I been and so endlesly prouoked the glory of his pure eye that I can expect no mercy the pollutions of my youth haue been so prodigious and infectious that I haue no face to presse vnto his Throne of Grace c. God himselfe doth there purposely preuent the obiection and speaking to our capacitie which cannot comprehend infinity replyes to this sence Oh say not so Stay all such despairefull thoughts doe not cast the incomprehensiblenes of my mercy in the narrow mould of thy finite shallow conceite doe not so vnworthily abridge and confine the vnlimited and boundlesse compassion of the mighty Lord of Heauen and Earth For my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your wayes my wayes For as the Heauens are higher then the earth so are my wayes higher then your wayes and my thoughts then your thoughts Many a bruised reede would not exchange the comfort which the weakest faith may extract out of this sweetest place for all the Kingdomes of the earth For he saith not that his wayes and thoughts of knowledge and wisdome but his wayes and thoughts of mercy are as farre aboue ours as the Heauens are aboue the Earth Indeed as himselfe is aboue man which is infinitely But take notice by the way that the mercies of God doe exercise this infinite vnresistable power onely in truly humbled beleeuing soules heartily hating and sincerely set against all sinne I say so lest any impenitent should peruert this precious point or trample vpon this Pearle For as in such a soule no sinnes either for number or notoriousnesse can possibly withstand or stand before Gods infinite mercies so not one drop of all those infinite merceis belongs vnto any that goes on willingly and delightfully hating to bee reformed in any one knowne sinne or that he might know and wilfully forbeares to bee informed As the vnualuable blood of Christ turnes the very scarlet sinnes of the truly broken beleeuing heart into whitest snow so it will neuer wash away the least sinfull staine from the proud heart of any vnhumbled Pharise Let none therefore that goes on still in his trespasses take vp any vaine confidence or mis-grounded conclusion of false comfort from hence by misconceiuing thus Is it so that the infinitenesse of Gods mercy cannot bee resisted by the greatnesse or multitude of sinnes being euer finite both in their number and nature how is it possible then that I should misse of those infinites mercies Why may not I comfortably hope that my sinnes also shall be swallowed vp in that bottomlesse Sea I will tell thee why As the power of God though it be infinite yet is limited by his will so the mercies of God though they bee infinite are regulated by his truth He is able to make millions of Worlds moe but yet wee see his Will was but to create one His mercies transcend with immeasurable distance the height of Heauen and depth of Hell and are indeed as Himselfe infinite but his Truth hath told vs that none shall haue part in them but those alone who repent and beleeue Gods Truth reuealed in his Word must euer confine the current of his compassions and is the touchstone to try and qualifie those to whom his mercies belong See then what kind of people are partakers of Gods infinite mercies by the testimony of that Word of Truth by which we must be iudged at the last Day Prou. 28. 13. Luke 4. 18. Isai. 61. 1 2 3. Psal. 15. Ezek. 18. 21. Psal. 147. 3. Isai. 55. 7. Psal. 34. 18. Salomon saith in the cited place Hee that confesseth and forsaketh his sinnes shall haue mercy How then can he expect any mercy who takes them not to heart but lyes in them still III. Of the pardonablenesse of my other sinnes saith another I could bee reasonably well perswaded but alas there is one aboue all the rest which now vpon discouery and remorse I finde to be full of ranke and hellish poyson of such a deepe and damnable die to haue strooke so desperately in the dayes of my lewdnesse at the very face of God himselfe and farre deepelier into the heart of Iesus Christ then the speare that pierced him bleeding vpon the Crosse and thereupon at this present stares in the eye of my newly awaked and wounded conscience with such horror and grieslinesse that I feare mee diuine iustice will thinke it fitter to haue this most loathsome inexpiable staine rather at length fired out of my soule with euerlasting flames if it were possible that eternall fire could expiate the sinfull staines of any impenitent damned soule then to bee fairely washed away in the meane time with His blood whom I so cruelly and cursedly pierced with it Oh! this is it that lies now vpon my heart like a mountaine of Lead farre heauier then Heauen and Earth and enchaines it with inexplicable terrour to the dust and
corruptions of the times c. by all dearest meanes and vtmost endeauours to leaue them gracious when they goe out of this world And Godlinesse saith Paul hath the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come It giues right and full interest to all the true honour blessings and comforts which are to be had in Heauen or in Earth 3. Children are ordinarily apt out of a kindly instinct of naturall louingnesse from many and strongest motiues to imitate and follow their Parents either in basenesse or better carriage to Heauen or Hell 4. A father that truly feares God dare not for his heart heape vp riches or purchase high roomes for his children by wrong-doing or any wicked waies of getting whereupon both he and his fare farre the better and happily decline the flaming edge of those many fearefull curses denounced in Gods Book against all vnconscionable dealers Such as that Ecclesiast 5. 13 14. There is a sore euill which I haue seene vnder the Sunne namely riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt But those riches perish by euill trauell and he begetteth a sonne and there is nothing in his hand And Habac. 2. 9 10. Woe to him that coueteth an euill couetousnesse to his house that he may set his nest on hie that hee may bee deliuered from the power of euill Thou hast consulted shame to thy house by cutting off many people and hast sinned against thy soule Vses 1. Wouldest thou then haue thy little babes thou louest so dearely blessed vpon earth truly noble Gods fauourites meete thee in heauen Be holy thy Selfe Men are very carefull and curious to haue their seed-corne and breed of cattell choise and generous and will they not endeauour to nurture manage and conduct the immortall soules of their children with grace by godly education to the highest aduancement of which those noble natures are capable euerlasting blisse fruition of all heauenly ioyes world without end 2. This may also serue to reprooue and correct those couetous Bedlams that labour more to haue their children great than good rich than religious It is a madnesse of that kinde which wanteth termes to expresse it That a Man should goe to Hell himselfe and fit his children to follow him in seeking to establish his house and raise his posteritie by Sacriledge Simony Bribery Vsury Oppression Depopulation or any other course of cruelty and wrong For so they lay their foundation in fire-workes which is able to blow vp themselues and their posterity body and soule roote and branch 3. Let this fill the heart of the dying Christian with sweetest peace For whereas the bloody knife of prophane mens vnconscionable and cruell negligence in training vp their children religiously doth sticke full deepe in their soules and leauing this life they bequeath vnto them the curse of God together with their ill gotten goods he haply finds his conscience by reason of his former thirsty desire and sincere endeauour to doe his children good spiritually freed from the horrour of such bloud-guiltinesse and leaues them to that comfortable outward estate which no iniury or vsurie hath impoysoned and to that neuer-failing prouidence of our heauenly Father which then is wont to worke most graciously and bountifully for vs when wee renouncing the arme of flesh the fauour of man riches of iniquitie and all such broken staues of reede depend most vpon it If wee will needs bee our owne caruers for things of this life either by right or wrong fraud or faire dealing all is one so that wee may thriue and grow great in the world then are we iustly cast off from all mercifull care ouer vs and exposed to ruine and curse But if wee rest sincerely for our selues and ours vpon the all-powerfull Prouidence it will neuer faile nor forsake vs but euer exercise and improoue its sweetnesse and wisedome for our true and euerlasting good In the third Point a description of Noahs spirituall state which is the compleate Character of a true Christian consisting of three Attributes 1. Iustnesse 2. Sinceritie 3. Piety I collect from the first this note Doct. Euery truely religious Man is also a righteous and true-dealing man From the second this Doct. Sinceritie is the sinew and Touch-stone of true Christianitie But these two I haue so often pressed in the course of my Ministery that I will pâ—…sse by them at this time Looke what kinde of honestie to men that is which is not accompanied with Religion towards God the same is that Religion towards God which is not attended with honestie to men Unhonest religion irreligious honesty vnsincere religion and honesty are all in one predicament as they say and all out of the right path If thou haue respect onely to the commandements of the first Table and outward performance of religious seruices but neglect duties of the second and conscionable carriage to thy brethren Thou art but a Pharise and formall Professour If thou dealest iustly with thy neighbour and yet be a stranger to the mysterie of godlinesse canst not pray sanctifie the Lords Day submit to a sincere and searching Ministerie c. which the first Table enioynes Thou art but a meere ciuill man If thou put on a flourish and outward face onely of obedience and conformitie to both and yet be true-hearted in neither as did the Pharises Math. 23. 14 23. thou art but a grosse Hypocrite Beare thy selfe holily towards God honestly towards Man and true-heartedly towards both or thou art no Body in Christs Kingdome but still in the gall of bitternesse and bond of iniquitie Put on righteousnesse and true holinesse in this life or thou shalt neuer put on a Crowne of glory in the life to come In His generations which were many and mainely corrupt In that then Noah stood out and stucke vnto God thorow so many ages and against so wicked a world we may learne Doct. That constancie is euer an inseparable Attendant vpon true Christianitie But because a double constancie is heere implyed 1. One in respect of continuance of time 2. Another in respect of opposition to the corruptions of the times I may obserue two points Doct. 1. Grace once truely rooted in the heart can neuer be remooued See for this purpose Rom. 11. 29. Mat. 24. 24. 1. Ioh. 2. 19 27. Ioh. 10. 28. Rom. 8. 35. Luk. 22. 32. 2. Cor. 1. 21 22. Ephes. 4. 30 c. Reasons may be taken from 1. The dearenesse strength constancie inuiolablenesse of God the Fathers loue vnto His Children It is dearer then a Mothers to her sweetest Babe Isa. 49. 15. It is stronger then the mountaines Esa. 54. 10. It is as constant as the courses of the Sunne and Moone and Starres of the day and of the night Ier. 31. 35 36. and 33. 20 21. It is as sure as God Himselfe Psal. 89. 35 c. 2. Christs triumphant session and intercession at His Fathers
which should euer bee vnto thee meate and drinke thy chiefest and choisest recreation and onely Paradise vpon earth X. Let thy soule full often so are aloft vpon the wings of faith vnto the glory of the Empyrean Heauen where God dwelleth and bathe it selfe before-hand with many a sweet meditation in that euerlasting blisse aboue Oh thinke with thy selfe though it farre passe the reach of any mortall thought what an infinite inexplicable sweetnesse it will be to looke for euer vpon the glorious Bodie of Iesus Christ shining with incomprehensible beautie and to consider that euen euery veine of that blessed Bodie bled to bring thee to heauen and that it being with such excesse of glory hypostatically vnited vnto the second person in the Trinity hath honoured and aduanced thy nature in that respect far aboue the brightest Cherub To say nothing of the beauty and brightnesse of that euer-blessed Place that vnapprochable Light which besets Gods dreadfull Throne the walking arme in arme with the Angels of God that euerlasting ioyfull communion and conuersing with the dearest Christian friends and all the crowned Saints and innumerable felicities moe which infinitely surpasse in excellencie and sweetenesse the comprehension of the largest heart and expression of any Angels tongue contemplate principally the Fountaine of all thy blisse how the mighty IEHOVAH God blessed for euer will powre out of Himselfe by the influence of Beatificall Vision as they call it perpetuall riuers of vnutterable ioyes and pleasures vpon thy glorified Body and Soule thorow all eternity euen as the Sunne powres out his beames and shining euery day afâ—…esh vpon the world without emptinesse or end and with such variety for hee is infinite that they shall bee vnto thee as fresh as new as sweete as rauishing millions of yeeres after thou hast dwelt in those Mansions of rest as they were the very first moment thou enteredst that blisfull Place Such fixed considerations as these of things aboue will serue as notable helpes to draw and keepe thy heart Heauen-ward and may mightily moue thee to delight in God and to hold it the sweetest life vpon earth to walke with him in the wayes of Puritie and Peace Methinkes if a man doe but once a day seriously and solemnly thus cast vp the eye of his Faith vpon that neuer-fading Crowne of Life which after an inch of time shall eternally rest vpon his head the goodly splendour thereof and beames of that incomparable ioy should be able to dispell those mists of fading vanities and hurtfull fumes of honours riches and earthly pleasures which this great dung-hill of the World heated by the fire of inordinate lust doth euaporate and interpose betweene the sight of the soule and celestiall Blisse So that hee might with more affectionate freedome and contempt of earth haue his conuersation aboue and turne the current of all his delights loue and longings with more resolution and constancie towards his heauenly home These Preparatiues thus premised I proceed to some generall directions for a more comfortable walking in the way that is called Holy 1. First and before all other things haue a speciall eye and attendance to a sincere constant and fruitfull performance of holy duties Gods seruices And to say nothing punctually and particularly at this time of priuate reading the Scriptures publike hearing the Word personall Prayer and with thy yoke-fellow if thou liue in that estate singing of Psalmes Meditation Conference dayes of humiliation c. of which thou must proportionably make conscience in their due place obseruing also in them the ensuing Cautions for a knowne grosse customary neglect of any holy dutie religious exercise diuine Ordinance in its season may bring a dampe vpon the rest and a consumption vpon the whole bodie of Christianitie I say to leaue these and the like in their courses and turnes to bee performed also with all good conscience and following Cautions I onely at this time purposely aduise for the better sanctifying thy selfe and all about thee to a more comfortable and successefull managing of all affaires businesses and vnder-takings either spirituall or ciuill that thou beeing Master of a Family for I single out such an one for instance bee euer sure to glorifie God amidst thy people by Morning and Euening sacrifice of Prayers and praises to his heauenly Highnesse In the discharge of which maine dutie of Christianitie vtterly neglected by the most and empoysoned to many by their resting only in the worke wrought take heed of growing into forme customarinesse perfunctorinesse which will most certainely draw the very life-blood and breathing out of those holy businesses being euer the canker and cut-throate of all true godlinesse and gracious acceptation with God Labour therefore by a reuerent recollecting all the powers of thy soule and fresh renewing and strengthening thy watch at euery seuerall time to preserue heart and spirit in those daily deuotions and family-duties Which thou shalt the better doe if thou looke to 1. A right disposition before 2. A spirituall behauiour in the doing 3. An holy carriage afterward 1. For the first 1. Come not before God with any sinne lying vpon thy conscience vnrepented of or delighted in see Psal. 66. 18. 2. Neither with passion wrath or heart-burning against any 3. Stirre vp and quicken the actiuenesse and particular apprehensions of thy Faith about the things desired and deprecated In a word in the Apostles words for that is my meaning Lift vp holy hands without wrath and doubting Bring 1. Resolution against all sinne in respect of God 2. Peace and appeased passions in respect of men 3. Assurance to be heard in respect of thy selfe Or thus Before thou fall vpon thy knees shake off three empoysoning and heauy hindrances which will clog and clip the wings of thy prayers that they will neuer be able to ascend vp vnto Heauen sinne anger distrust And possesse thy heart of three excellent helpes and inflaming furtherances 1. A right apprehension of Gods dreadfulnesse puritie power c. 2. A true sence of thy owne vilenesse abominablenesse nothingnesse c. 3. A heartie suruay of the infinitenesse and vnexpressablenesse of Gods bountie blessings and many compassionate forbearances towards thee 2. For the second 1. Repell with an vndaunted spirit and resolute contempt Satans blasphemous iniections if he be busie that way and he is ordinarily most spitefull against the best businesses and the rather because if they be heartily abominated and abandoned with heart-rising and loathing they are put vpon the Deuils score and are onely thy crosses not thy sinnes 2. Watch ouer the World with all care and timely opposition that if it be possible not an earthly thought may creepe into thy heart all the while 3. Striue to hold thy heart in heate as well in confession as deprecation in deprecation as petition in intercession as for personall blessings as well for puritie of heart as pardon of
singularitie I meane it not in respect of any fantasticalnesse of opinion furiousnesse of zeale or turbulencie of faction truely so called but in respect of abstinence from sinne puritie of heart and holinesse of life Reasons 1. Gods holy Word exacts and expects from all that are new-borne and heires of Heauen an excellency aboue ordinary Pro. 12. 26. Matth. 5. 20. 47. Being taken forth as the precious from the vile Ierem. 15. 19. by the power of the Ministerie they must not onely goe beyond the hiest ciuill perfections of the exactest morall Puritane amongst the most honest Heathens Heb. 12. 14. but also exceed the righteousnesse and all the outward religious conformities of the deuoutest Pharises whose sufficiencies Luk. 18. 11 12. many thousands in these times come short of and yet hope to be saued or they can in no case enter into the Kingdome of Heauen But lest any bee proudly puft vp with sence of this singularitie and excellencie aboue his neighbour let him know that humilitie is euer one of the fairest flowers in the whole garland of his supernaturall and diuine worth and that selfe-conceitednesse would impoyson euen Angelicall perfection 2. They must vpon necessitie differ from a world of wicked men by a sincere singularitie of abstinence from the course of this world the lusts of men the corruptions of the times familiaritie with gracelesse companions the worldlings language prophane sports all wicked wayes of thriuing rising and growing great in the world c. 3. They make conscience of those duties and diuine commands which the greatest part of men euen in the noonetide of the Gospell are so farre from taking to heart that their hearts rise against them As to bee hot in Religion Reu. 3. 16. To be zealous of good workes Tit. 2. 14. To walke precisely Ephes. 5. 15. To bee feruent in spirit Rom. 12. 11. To striue to enter in at the straite gate Luke 13. 24. To plucke out their right eyes that is to abandon their bosome delights Matth. 5. 29. To make the Sabbath a delight Isa. 58. 13. To loue the Brotherhood 1. Pet. 2. 17. With an holy violence to lay hold vpon the Kingdome of Heauen Matth. 11. 12. 4. Experience and examples of all ages from the creation downeward clearely prooue the point At this time as you see the Saints of God were all harboured vnder one roofe and yet not all sound there Suruey the ages afterward The time of Abraham who was as a brand taken out of the fire of the Chaldeans The time of Elijah when none appeared to that blessed man of God The time of Esaiah who cryed chap. 53. 1. Who hath beleeued our report The time of Manasseh who built altars for all the host of Heauen in the two Courts of the House of the Lord The time of Antiochus when he commanded the Sanctuarie and holy people to bee polluted with Swines-flesh and vncleane beasts to be sacrificed the abomination of desolation to bee set vp vpon the Altar That darksome time when the glorious Day-Star Christ Iesus himselfe came downe from Heauen to illighten the earth The time of Antichrist when all the world wondred after the Beast Our times wherein of sixe parts of the earth scarce one of the least is Christian. And what a deale of Christendome is still ouer-growne with Popery and other exorbitant distempers in point of Religion And where the Truth of Christ is purely and powerfully taught how few giue their names vnto it And of those who professe how many are false-hearted or meerely formall 5. Me thinks worldly wisdome should rather wonder that any one is wonne vnto God then cry out and complaine Is it possible there should be so few Sith all the powers of darknesse and euery diuell in hell oppose might and maine the plantation of grace in any soule sith there are moc snares vpon earth to keepe vs still in the inuisible chaines of darknesse and sinne then there are starres in heauen sith euery inch euery little artery of our bodies if it could would swell with hellish venome to the bignesse of the greatest Goliah the mightiest Gyant that it might make resistance to the sanctifying worke of the holy Ghost sith our soules naturally would rather die and put off their immortality and euerlasting being then put on the Lord Iesus In a word sith the new creation of a man is holden a greater worke of wonder then the creation of the world 6. Lastly let vs set aside in any Country Citie Towne Family First all Atheists Papists and distempered exorbirants from the blessed Truth of doctrine taught in our Church Secondly all Whoremongers Drunkards Swearers Lyers Reuellers Worldlings Vsurers and fellowes of such infamous ranke Thirdly all meerely ciuill men who come short of Cato Fabricius and other honest Heathens and wanting holinesse shall neuer see the Lord Heb. 12. 14. Fourthly all grosse Hypocrites whose outsides are painted with superficial flourishes of holinesse and honesty but their inward parts filled with rottennesse and lust who haue their hands in godly exercises when their hearts are in hell Fiftly all formall Hypocrites who are deluded in point of Saluation as were the foolish Virgins and that proud Pharise Luk. 18. 11. Sixthly all finall back-sliders of which some turne sensuall Epicures and plunge themselues into worldly pleasures with farre more rage and greedinesse by reason of former restraint by a temporarie profession others become scurrill deriders of the holyway some bloody goads in the sides of those with whom they haue formerly walked into the house of God as friends Seuenthly all vnsound Professors for the present of which you would little thinke what a number there is I say let these and all other strangers to the purity and power of godlinesse be set apart and tell mee how many true-hearted Nathaneels wee are like to finde Vses 1. Trie then the truth of thy spirituall state by this marke of a sober and sincere singularitie If thou still holdest correspondence with the world and conformitie to the fashions thereof if still thou swimmest downe the current of the times and shiftest thy sailes to the sitting of euery Winde if thine heart hanker still after the tastlesse fooleries of goodfellowship and follow the multitude to doe ill if thou be carried with the swinge and sway of the place where thou liuest to vphold by a boisterous combination lewdnesse and vanity to prophane the Lords day to scorne Profession oppose the Ministerie and walke in the broad Way In a word if thou doest as the most doe thou art vtterly vndone for euer But if with a mercifull violence thou bee pulled out of the world by the power of the Word and happily weaned from the sensuall insensible poison of all bitter-sweet pleasures and fellowship with vnfruitfull workes of darknesse If by standing on Gods side and hatred of all false wayes thou art become the Drunkards song as Dauid
as neuer Nation enioyed Walke ouer the World Peruse the whole face of the Earth from East to West from North to South which is aboue one and twenty thousand miles about both wayes and from one side of Heauen to another thou shalt not finde such another illightned Goshen as this Iland wherein we dwell Of sixe parts of the Earth fiue are not Christian and in Christendome what other part is so free from the reigne of Popery the rage of Schisme or the destroying Sword Or where besides doth the Gospell shine with such glory truth and peace Or in what nooke of the World are there so many faithfull Soules who cry vnto God day and night against the abominations of the times for the preseruation of the Gospell that Gods Name may bee gloriously hallowed His Kingdome come His will bee done in euery place and themselues serue him with truth of heart And yet we are too ready if wee haue not the height of our desires and our wils to the ful in stead of patience teares and prayers which best become the Saints to embitter all other blessings and to discouer most horrible vnthankefulnesse for them by repining grumbling and discontent I am sure by not reioycing as we ought in euery good thing which the Lord our God hath giuen vnto vs and by not improouing the extraordinarinesse of His mercies to our more glorious seruice of Him and more humbly and precisely walking before Him Giue me leaue therefore in short to reuiue and refresh your memories with representation of some generall heads onely of those innumerable speciall fauours with which Gods mercifull hand hath crowned this Kingdome for the stirring vp and enlarging our hearts to the entertainment and exercise of this most necessarie and most neglected dutie of praising Iehoua And here wee of this Nation may a great deale more iustly and rightly say then the French Chronicler in the Preface to his Story That we haue liued in a time of Miracles our Posteritie will hardly beleeue the wonders done in our dayes Was it not a miraculous mercy that such a glorious noone tide of the Gospell as wee haue enioyed all our life long should spring out of the darkest mid-night of damned Popery which vnhappily seized vpon the face of this Kingdome in the time of Queene Marie especially watched extraordinarily and most strongly guarded by all the policie of hell and power of the Pepe that the blood of those blessed Martyrs should bring forth since such a world of Gods sincere worship and so many thousands of gracious Soules who are alreadie crowned with euerlasting blisse That Queene Elizabeth that matchlesse Princesse and Pearle of the World should in those fierie times bee preserued in safetie as a sweete harmelesse Lambe amidst so many mercilesse Romish Wolues who implacably thirsted for her precious life Was it not a wonder that the sacred hand of that selfe-same crowned blessed Lady next vnder Gods Almightie One should in despite of all the Powers of Darknesse and Popish rage raise our true Religion as it were by miracle from the dead a thing which the World so little hoped to see that euen they which beheld it done scarcely beleeued their owne senses at the first beholding That afterward the Siluer line of her much-honoured life should be hid in the endless maze of Gods bottomlesse mercies from the fierce assaults of so many Popish Bulls such a prodigious varietie of murdrous complotments against her sacred Person and all those desperate Assasins of Rome who all her life long hunted full greedily after her Virgin blood And was not our deliuerance in Eightie eight a Miracle when the Sea fought for vs and her proud waues enlarged themselues to swallow vp quick their prouder burden There was a day as many of vs may remember which the Papists called The long-lookt-for Day the Day which should pay for all They meant the Day when Queene Elizabeth should die About which their false prophets were so confident and hopefull that they expected vpon the blood of that Day to haue built their Idolatrous Babel againe For they would needs foretell that it would bee a bloody Day By the vncertaintie of the next Heire said one of them in the late Queenes dayes our Countrie is in the most dreadfull and desperate case in the greatest miserie and most dangerous termes that euer it was since or before the Conquest and farre worse then any Countrie of Christendome by the certainty of most bloody ciuil and forren warres all our wealth and felicitie whatsoeuer depending vpon a few vncertaine dayes of Queene Elizabeths life Clouds of blood saith another hang in the Aire which at the death of Queene Elizabeth will dissolue and raine downe vpon England which then is expected as a prey to the ambition of neighbour-Nations I am sure the false prophet spake to this sense And what comes of all this when the Day came God euen wrought a miracle of mercy for the comfort of this Kingdome and further confusion of such tellers and foretellers of lyes For the Sunne set and no night followed the same mercifull hand at the same time crowned Queene Elizabeth with immortall glory and set the earthly Crowne of this Kingdome vpon King Iames his head without sheading so much as one drop of blood And was it not a miraculous mercy to haue such a King after such a Queene who hath alreadie next vnder that mighty God by whom Kings reigne continued the Gospell vnto vs and preserued vs from the destroying Sword now full twenty yeeres And what do you thinke were twenty yeeres Peace and the enioyment of the Gospell worth were it to be bought Who hath ennobled this Kingdome for euer by his excellent Writings in the cause of Religion against Antichrist which would haue created a great deale of honour to a priuate man minding nothing else How illustrious then doe they make our King The child vnborne will blesse King Iames for his premonition to all the Princes and free States of Christendome and that Royall Remonstrance against the rotten and pestilent Oration of the French Cardinal to the vtter and triumphant ouerthrow of it penned in that stile that none can possibly reach but a learned King his Golden pen hath giuen such a blow to that beast of Rome that hee will neuer be able to stand vpon his foure legs againe hee hath shot out of his Royall bow such keene arrowes taken out of the quiuer of Gods Booke which will hang in the sides of that skarlet Whore and make her laâ—…e as long as she liues Did hee not seale vs an Instrument of his hand as it were to testifie his inuincible cleauing to the Truth which he hath so excellently and vnanswerably defended with his Pen the same day hee gaue the Noble Princesse a second Elizabeth to the Palatine Hath he not most happily and seasonably stopped the hasty torrent of the Arminian Sect the domineering rage of bloody
wherein they basely languish and lose their soules and leaue the successe issue and euent of all thy labours and vndertakings vnto the Lord whatsoeuer it may bee resting sweetly and euer relying vpon that gracious promise Heb. 13. 5. I will neuer faile thee nor forsake thee In ordering and guiding the affaires of thy family depend by faith vpon Gods blessing the strength and sinew of all sound comfort and true contentation that way See Psal. 127. In the losse of outward things for thy loue and seruice vnto God by beleeuing that Man of God 2. Chron. 25. 9. The Lord is able to giue thee much more then this Nay in the losse of all earthly things in euery kind see Habac. 3. 17 18. Although the fig-tree shall not blossome neither shall fruit be in the Vines the labour of the Oliue shall faile and the fields shall yeeld no meate the flocke shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stalles yet I will reioyce in the Lord I will ioy in the God of my saluation Consider also for this purpose Iobs patient blessing of God vpon the surprize and concurrence of an vniuersall misery Iob 1. 21. In pangs of the New-birth spirituall infancy weakenesses of faith prayer godly sorrow and other graces by those cordiall refreshing promises Reu. 21. 6. Math. 5. 6. Isa. 42. 3. and 40. 11. and 57. 15. In oppositions against the raising or restauration of spirituall buildings by the Ministery of the Word or in temptations against a mans personall progresse and holding out against Gods waies vnto the end by renouncing our owne strength disclaiming the arme of flesh and crying in euery encounter Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord of Hoasts What art thou O great mountaine c In languishings and tremblings after relapse into some old or fall into some new sinne by such precious places as these 1. Ioh. 2. 1. Luk. 17. 4. 1. Sam. 12. 20. 1. Iohn 1. 9. From this last place a reuerend Diuine collects this comfort If we see our vnworthinesse and with broken hearts acknowledge it God is faithfull and iust to forgiue it bee it neuer so great But this is a iewell fit onely for the eare of a sincere Christian when out of the fearefulnesse of his distrustfull spirit he puts off all comfort though truely humbled after ensnarement in some more speciall affrighting sinne Let no swine trample vpon it In all kindes of temptations by the power of that promise 1. Cor. 10. 13. Nay euen amidst varietie of them by obeying that precept Iam. 1. 2. My brethren count it all ioy when you fall into diuers temptations In spirituall desertion by refreshing and resting thy sinking soule in the meane time vntill the Lord returne vpon that surest Rocke Isa. 30. 18. Blessed are all they that waite for him Most blessed deare and sweetest Sanctuary If the Christian die in that waiting state he shall be certainely saued For the holy Ghost pronounceth him blessed In the deepe and almost despairing apprehensions of thine extreme vilenesse and as it were nothingnesse in grace by apprehending that most mercifull promise from Gods owne mouth Isa. 43. 25. In thy perplexed and troubled thoughts about returne after backsliding by those comfortable encouragements Ier. 3. 1 12 13 14 22. Hos. 14. 1 2 4. In doubts of losing the loue of God and life of Grace by consideration of those passages in Gods Booke where it appeares that the loue of God vnto his child in respect of tendernesse and constancy is infinitely dearer then that of a most louing mother to her little one Isai. 49. 15. stronger then the stony Mountaines and Rocks of flint Isa. 54. 10. as constant as the courses of the Sunne and of the Moone and of the Starres and of the day and of the night Ier. 31. 36. and 33. 20. nay as sure as God himselfe Psal. 89. 33 34 35. In the Haile stormes of slanderous arrowes and empoysoned darts of disgrace by cleauing to most glorious promises 1. Pet. 4. 14. Mat. 5. 11. In the valley of the shadow of death by an assurance of Gods mercifull omnipotent presence Psal. 23. 4. In the extremitie depth of such desperate distresses and perplexities wherein in thy present feeling thou canst see and find no possibilitie of helpe from Heauen or Earth God or Man but art both helpelesse and hopelesse as the Church complaines Lam. 3. 18. by such like places as those Isai. 33. 9 10. 2. Chron. 20. 12. Gen. 22. 14. Exod. 14. 13. Psal. 78. 65. In euery thing or any thing that shall or can possibly befall thee prosperitie or pouertie crosse or comfort calmnesse of conscience or tempests of terror life or death c. by extracting abundance of vnconquerable patience and peace of soule from those three heauenly golden conduits of sweetest comfort Rom. 8. ver 18 28 32. Thus in any trouble of soule body good name outward state present or to come thou mayest by the soueraigne power of faith working vpon the Word not onely draw out the sting and expell the poison of it but also create a great deale of comfort to thy truly-humbled soule and maintaine it in despite of all mortall or infernall opposition in a constant spirituall gladnesse For all those promises whereupon thy heauy heart in such cases may repose and refresh it selfe haue their being from the blessed name Iehoua see Exo. 6. 3. and therefore are as sure as God himselfe they are sealed with the bloody sufferings of his onely Sonne and therefore as true as truth it selfe and if thou be in Christ are all as certainely thine as the heart in thy body or blood that runnes in thy veines Nay and a little more for thy comfort the glory of Gods truth is mightily aduanced and himselfe extraordinarily pleased by thy more resolute stedfast and triumphant cleauing vnto them What a blessed sweete and heauenly life then is the life of faith V. Apprehend in thy minde and settle in thine heart a true estimate and right conceit of the substance and power marrow and materials of Christianitie Which doth not consist as too many suppose In outward shewes profession talking in holding strict points defending precise opinions contesting against the corruptions of the times in the worke wrought externall formes of religious exercises set-taskes of hearing reading conference and the like in some solemne outward extraordinarie abstinences and forbearances censuring others c. But in righteousnesse peace ioy in the holy Ghost in meekenesse tender-heartednesse loue in patience humilitie contentednesse in mortification of sinne moderation of passion holy guidance of the tongue in workes of mercy iustice and truth in fidelitie painfulnesse in our Callings conscionable conuersing with men in reuerence vnto superiours loue of our enemies an open-hearted reall fruitfull affectionatenesse and bounty to Gods people in heauenly-mindednesse selfe-deniall the life of faith in dis-esteeme of earthly things
contempt of the world resolute hatred of sinne in approouing our hearts in Gods presence a sweete communion with him comfortable longing for the comming of the Lord Iesus c. Yet mistake me not thou must make a shew professe and talke if thou wouldest haue Christ Iesus to owne thee at that last and dreadfull Day Mark 8. 38. It is therefore an idle and brainelesse cauill of some lewd ignorant Lozels to say We can by no meanes endure these shewes Cannot a man bee religious to himselfe except he hang out his flag and let all the world know it For where the power of Religion is there will bee the shew also Painted fire shines not ascends not heates not but true fire is euer inseparably attended with these properties We cannot put a Candle in a Lanthorne but the light will shew it selfe thorow the hornes if true grace bee planted in the heart it will shine forth in our words gestures actions all carriages and our whole conuersation He that will take shewes from the substance of Religion let him take brightnesse from the Sunne glistering from Gold breathing from a liue-body Shew and profession of Christ before men is commanded as well as the substance and soundnesse of heart Rom. 10. 9 10. Thou must bee a patrone and in some good measure a practiser of precise points if euer thou wilt haue true peace and assurance of walking in the narrow path that leades vnto life as of walking precisely Ephes. 5. 15. Being feruent in spirit Rom. 12. 11. Striuing to enter in at the strait gate Luke 13. 24. Selfe-deniall 14. 26. Surpassing the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharises Mat. 5. 20. Laying violent hands and hold vpon the Kingdome of Heauen Mat. 11. 12. In a word of the way which is called holy and yet so spoken against euery where Act. 28. 22. For I meane only that precisenesse which is commended vnto vs and commanded by the blessed Spirit in Gods pure and holy Word I know all passages of sanctification are too precise and paradoxes intolerable and burdensome to flesh and blood and in the interpretation of worldly wisedome which notwithstanding are easie and sweet to mortified men Thou must stand at the staues end against the sinnes of the times and like the Eagle prune vp thy selfe against a storme or else thou art a temporizer Outward exercises of Religion are as it were the bodie without which the soule of Christianitie hath no existence Thou must be content to abridge and confine thy Christian liberty at any time according to opportunities and exigents for the enlargement of Gods glory the building vp of thy brother and snaffling thine owne rebellious nature Thou mayest and must iudge by the fruits It is Christs Rule Matth. 7 16. If therefore thou seest the abominable and vnsauory fruits of lying swearing drunkennesse Sabbath-breaking vsury scoffing at Religion c. hanging out in the fight of the Sunne thou mayest iustly censure the tree to be rotten and for the present fewell for the fire of Hell Thou mayest iudge no man rashly nor of his finall estate If we see a malefactour cast and condemned for some grieuous crime yet reprieued vnto the next Assize no man can say he shall be certainely hanged because a pardon may be procured and come from the King in the meane time it is so in the present case But thou mayest call a spade a spade a drunkard a drunkard an vsurer an vsurer Otherwise if thou dawbe and dissemble how shalt thou euer be able to escape liablenesse to that abomination Prou. 17. 15. He that iustifieth the wicked and he that condemneth the iust euen they both are abomination to the Lord And to the sting of that woe Isai. 5. 20. Woe vnto them that call euill good and good euill that put darkenesse for light and light for darkenesse that put bitter for sweete and sweete for bitter Yet know that speaking the euill thou certainely knowest by another must be seasonable charitable and discreete not out of humour spleene imperiousnesse at thy pleasure but for Gods honour the good of the party thine owne discharge vpon a warrantable calling c. according to those Rules I shall hereafter deliuer for guiding the tongue My meaning then in this point is that those greater matters be dearliest prized and principally plied proportionably to their worth and waight and yet these lesser things not neglected It is too true that those who are more fierce and forward about the ceremonials and circumstantials then truly hot and zealous in the essentials and substantials of Christianity prooue too often vaine-gloriously and proudly mounted vpon that foule hellish fiend Hypocrisie and posting apace towards some fearefull Apostacy or Anabaptisticall phrensie VI. Let thy spirit mindfull of its owne heauenly birth immortall nature and euerlasting home euer generously fortifie it selfe with victorious resolution against worldlinesse the canker and cut-throate of all heauenly-mindednes and hearty conuersation aboue Of all the foule fiends that haunt the hearts of carnall men there is none that holds a stronger opposition and counter-motion to walking with God then couetousnesse Ambition sensualitie and other wayes of death cut off their slaues with an accursed disacquaintance and estrangement farre enough from all comfortable accesse vnto the Throne of Grace but affections nailed and glued to the Earth haue this pestilent precedency that they hold the remotest point of declination from the warmth and influence of any sweete communion with the Sunne of righteousnesse and Gods glorious face All earthly-minded men ordinarily howsoeuer they may be outwardly restrained and reserued are secret deriders of the power of godlinesse holy strictnesse of the Saints and mysteries of Grace And the Pharises also saith Luke chap. 16. 14. who were couetous heard all these things and they derided him euen mockt and made themselues merry with the searching and heart-piercing Sermons of the Sonne of God Their hearts and hopes are wholly anchored vpon the Earth and lockt vp in their chests and therefore they dreame of no other heauen then their golden hoards heapes of wealth and present temporall happinesse Whereas notwithstanding one refreshing glimpse shining and shed into our hearts from Gods pleased face and well-grounded assurance of being His is infinitely more worth then all the Gold that euer the Sunne made or shall make while it stands in Heauen VII Let thy holy affections bee euer thorowly warmed and rauisht extraordinarily with the loue of God To which there are infinite inflaming motiues and Obligations 1 Hee being absolutely considered is immeasurably louely The most attractiue obiects of insatiable loue and al amiable excellencies are eminently and transcendently triumphant in him eternally Beauty Glory Worth Wisedome Greatnesse Goodnesse Holinesse Puritie any thing euery thing that is any wayes admirable and loue-worthy 2. Or consider Him in relation to thy selfe and shouldest thou euery moment thorow an interminable time lay down ten thousand liues for His sake thou couldest
pretence and purpose to sollicit them for saluation and preuaile with them about the best things and yet before thou be aware bee plunged and insnared in the woonted vnwarrantable delights of good fellowship pleasant passages of wit idle and impertinent follies and familiarities which thou wast accustomed to exchange and enioy with them in thy vnregenerate time So that in stead of the discharge of a Christian duty thou mayest both hurt thy selfe and harden them 3. As Physicians of the body arme and animate themselues with strong repercussiues preseruatiues and counterpoysons when they visit contagious and pestilentiall patients so in such cases be thou sure to furnish and fortifie thy selfe before-hand with prayer meditation the sword of the Spirit store of perswasiue matter strength of reasons and vnshaken resolution to repell and beate backe all noysome insinuations of spirituall infection 3. Into Christian company which thou shouldest prize thine only Paradise and Heauen vpon Earth the very flowre and festiuall of all thy refreshing time in this vale of teares euer bring 1. A cheerefull and lightsome heart Me-thinks though thou shouldest come amongst the Saints with a sad heart and something ouer-cast with mists and clouds of heauinesse and discomfort yet the presence and faces of those whom hereafter thou shalt meet in Heauen and there with incomparable ioy behold for euer clothed and shining with eminencie and eternitie of glory should disperse and dispell them all and infuse comfortable beames of heauenly lightsomnesse and spirituall mirth I know them who being cast sometimes full sore against their wils amongst profane company are quite out of their element all the while strucke dead in the place as they say as solitary as in the silentest Desart But let them come amongst Christians and they are quite other men as full of lightsomnes and life as full of heart and Heauen as if they had the one foot in the Porch of Paradise already-Sadnesse is not seasonable where such precepts as these haue place Be glad in the Lord. and reioyce yee righteous and shout for ioy all yee that are vpright in heart 2. A fruitfull heart full as the Moone with gracious matter to vphold edifying conference and sanctified talke Being forward and free without any hurtfull bashfulnesse or vaine-glorious aime both to communicate to others the hidden treasures of heauenly knowledge which thou hast happily digged out of the precious quarry as it were of the great mystery of Grace also by moouing of questions and ministring occasion mutually to draw from them with an holy greedinesse the waters of life for a reciprocall refreshing and quickning of the deadnesse and vnheauenlinesse of thine owne heart And here it will bee a profitable wisedome to take notice of and obserue each others singularitie of gifts and seuerall endowments and thereafter with wise insinuations to prouoke and presse them to powre out themselues in those things wherein they haue best experience and most excellency Some are more dexterous and skilfull in discussing controuersed points others in resoluing cases of conscience some in discouering the Deuils depths and treading the Maze of his manifold temptations others in comforting afflicted spirits and speaking to the heart of mourners in Zion c. I am perswaded many times many worthy discourses lie buried in the brests of vnderstanding men by reason of the finfull silence I think I may say so and barrennesse of those about them And therefore Christians ought to be more forth-putting actiue and fruitfull this way 3. An humble heart ready and reioycing to exchange and enioy common comforts soule-secrets heauenly consultations with the poorest and most neglected Christian. If thou bee haunted with the white Deuill of spirituall pride it is likely thou wilt bee either too prodigall and profuse and so ingrosse all the talke which is sometimes incident to new conuerts or counterfeits or else too reserued and curious and so say no more then may serue to breed an applause and admiration of thy worth which is a very filthy and fearefull fault There is no depth of knowledge no height of zeale no measure of Grace but may be further inlarged more inflamed blessedly encreased by conference with the poorest faithfull Christian See Rom. 1. 12. and 15. 24. how Paul that great learned and diuinely inspired Doctor of the Gentiles stood affected in this point V. But aboue all bee most busie with thy heart for it is the roote that either empoysons or ensweetens all the rest that is the fountaine which causes all the streames of thy desires purposes affections speeches and the whole current of thy conuersation to runne either muddy or cleere Ply therefore amongst others these three points of speciall and precious consequence for the present purpose with all seriousnesse and zeale 1. Captiuation and conformitie of the thoughts and imaginations of thy heart to the soueraignty and rules of grace If thy change in words actions and all outward carriage were Angelicall yet if thy thoughts were the same and vnsanctified still thou wert still a limbe of Satan Purity in the inward parts is the most sound and vndeceiuing euidence of our portion and interest in the power and purity of Christs sauing Passion and sanctifying Blood-shed See Ier. 4. 14. Isa. 55. 7. Now that thou mayest the better conquer and keepe the thoughts of thy heart in subiection and obedience vnto Christ be perswaded and acknowledge 1. The pestilencie of that wicked Prouerbe Thoughts are free It is true the immediate inuisible productions and proiects of the heart lie not within the walke of humane Iustice neither are liable to the censure of earthly Courts and Consistories But there is an All-seeing and Omniscient Eye in Heauen to which the blackest Mid-night is as the brightest Noone-tide Psal. 139. 12. which sees our secretest thoughts afarre off ver 2. and sets them in the light of his countenance Psal. 90. 8. Hence it is that many humble soules sensible of their secret prouoking the glory of Gods pure Eye are more grieued setting aside the ill of example and scandall ordinary attendants vpon open and visible miscarriages for the rebelliousnesse of their thoughts then the exorbitancie of their actions For the sting of these is something eased and lessened as they thinke by the absence of Hypocrisie and because the world sees the worst But concerning the other it cuts them to the very heart that they are not as well able to preserue their inward parts in puritie toward the All-searching Eye of that God who stretched foorth the heauens and laid the foundations of the earth as their words and actions in plausiblenesse towards man who shall die and the sonne of man which shall be made as grasse Whereas then the naturall man is woont to let his heart runne riot and at randome into a world of idle imaginations without remorse or restraint doe thou make thy sanctification sure vnto thy selfe by this infallible signe That thou sufferst the consideration of Gods
resembles the highest Region of the aire where there is no ouer-shadowing clouds nor tempestuous thunders but perpetuall fairenesse serenity and peace I haue the longer insisted vpon these morall instructions purposely to make Christians ashamed who besides the honest extractions of purerreason haue also rules of Religion heauenly remedies and yet are too often ouertaken with this mentall drunkennesse as some call it For you must know that all this while I meane hasty vniust and exorbitant Anger which misses in measure Obiect end season ablenesse or other circumstances For there is a sinlesse and holy Anger and therefore saith Paul Ephes. 4. 26. Be yee angry and sinne not Vpon the describing and limiting of which it is neither incident nor seasonable for me at this time to insist Now then in a second place for religious directions and more immediately drawne from diuine learning consider 1. That all thy wrongs and vnworthy vsages all thy iniuries and indignities crosses and vncomfortable accidents that shall euer any way befall thee are fore-appointed ordered and disposed by Gods wise and mercifull prouidence and that to thy spirituall and euerlasting good This very one thought that God is euer the principal Agent kept fresh and on foote in thy mind will be of soueraigne power to coole and beate backe any intemperate heate which might either rise in thine heart or rage in thy tongue against his instruments and cause thee many times when thou art chaâ—…ing ripe and ready to raue to lay thy hand vpon thy mouth and say vnto God sweetly with Dauid Psal. 39. 9. I was dumbe I opened not my mouth because thou didst it And not like a child to beate the place that hurt it but rather to walke more heedfully or a foolish Curre to snarle and snatch at the stone neuer looking after the thrower or a mad man to bite the sword that sticks in his flesh but rather to pull it out softly and get to the Surgeon There was matter and malice enough in the mouth of Shemei to haue made Dauids royall heart naturally to rise with implacable indignation against that dead dogge vnkindnesse and crueltie enough in the hearts of Iosephs brethren to haue made him for euer vnreconcileable wrong and villany enough in the carriage of the Caldeans to haue set Iob on fire with rage and reuenge against them But these holy men by practise of the present point and from the strength of this consideration which I now commend for the restraint of choler procured a great deale of sweete peace and patience to their owne hearts pleasednesse and acceptation with God admiration and example to posteritie For they glanced by the meanes and the men and fastened their eyes vpon their Maker and the first Moouer Ioseph lookt beyond his Brethrens barbarous dealing with him and said The Lord sent me before you Iob beyond the Caldeans lawlesse outrages and said The Lord hath taken away Dauid beyond Shemeis dogged rancour and said The Lord hath bidden him Iesus Christ Himselfe blessed for euer looked beyond the Pharises Priests Iewes Iudas and the Souldiers to his Fathers Cup Ioh. 18. 11. This Cup which my Father hath giuen me shall I not drinke when he commanded Peter to sheathe his sword This Christian counsell passeth that which was giuen to Augustus when the obiects and occasions of choler are in thine eye or eare when thou art any wayes wronged belyed rayled vpon spurned at or trampled vpon by the feete of honoured insolency or dunghill malice before thou inwardly fret or break out into any impatient behauiour say first seriously and feelingly in thine owne heart This is from God for my good or with old Eli It is the Lord let him doe what seemeth him good 1. Sam. 3. 18. And let it for euer snaffle nay sweetly compose the hastinesse and sowrenesse of thy corrupt nature in case of choler â—… Let the wonderfull patience of that mighty Lord of Heauen and Earth who is able with one word to cast all the creatures in the World into Hell nay euen with the breath of his mouth to turne Hell and Heauen and Earth and all things into nothing I say let his patience against the infinite intolerable and endlesse prouocations of his owne most obliged creatures who like so many desperate traitours liue and lye continually in open rebellion against so great a Maiestie bee a Patterne and Precedent vnto thee a silly worme dust and ashes earth or any thing that is naught of proportionable forbearance if there could be any proportion betweene infinite and finite towards thy fellow-creatures How many blacke and blasphemous mouthes are vncessantly open against his blessed Maiesty With what damned oathes doe they teare and re-crucifie the precious Body of his glorious Sonne which sits at his owne right hand With what lyes and slanders doe they reuile his Ambassadours and vilifie his Chosen How many gracelesse wretches doe wilfully and obstinately prophane his Sabbaths pollute his Sacraments and turne their backes vpon his Word How many doe dayly turne themselues into beasts by their swinish drunkennesse to the great reproch of mankinde and dishonour of their reasonable nature How many inclosing Nimrods and cruell Landlords doe grind the faces of the poore Nay plucke off their skins teare their flesh breake their bones and chop them in pieces as for the pot and eate the flesh of Gods people In a word How many incarnate Deuils doe march vp and downe the earth with hearts and hands as full as Hell with all manner of mischiefe lewdnesse and rebellion So many and with such extreme insufferable audaciousnesse and impudency that as a learned Diuine speakes If but any tender-hearted man should sit but one houre in the Throne of God Almighty if it be fit so to suppose and look downe vpon the earth as God doth continually see what abominations are done in that houre he would vndoubtedly in the next set all the World on fire and not suffer his wrath to be pacified or the fire to be quenched And yet for all this our gracious God in the meane time though hee be armed with his owne vnresistable omnipotencie and a thousand Charets in the Whirlewinde though he haue euer in a readinesse all the Angels in Heauen all the Diuels in Hell all the Creatures in the World nay the very hands and consciences of prophane wretches and all that prouoke the eyes of his Glory with their pollutions to be the instruments and executioners of his iust wrath vpon their sinne yet I say our gracious God opposes his infinite patience against all these restlesse outragious prouocations Hee sweetly and fairely tempers and moderates in the meane time his most iust causefull indignation to see if the bountifulnesse of his forbearance long-suffering will leade them to repentance Be thou then for euer ashamed to take on for euery trifle to breake patience vpon euery triuiall prouocation to turne Lyon in thine owne house and
I. That much and generally neglected duty of Christian reproofe By reason of that generall and common fellowship whereof I gaue a taste and touch before of his arbitrary and intimate company euery Christian makes conscience of better choyce which thou must sometimes entertaine and exercise with the men of this world except thou wilt goe out of the world thou shalt meete now and then vpon vnauoydable necessitie and by the exigencie of thy calling with men of intolerable conuersation and very scandalous discourse and at vnawares and vnwillingly fall amongst such companions as will sweare blaspheme Gods Name talke filthily slander the Ministery rayle against good men besides many other scurrill base and prophane speeches much froth and folly in this kind Now in this case ordinarily prophane men meddle not They hold it a point of precisenesse to marre the mirth and cast the company into dumpes of melancholy by calling sinne into question They loue not as they say in their hearts to bee displeasing and vnplausible where themselues gaine nothing and perhaps doe no good to the partie They are commonly old-excellent in rayling vpon and slandering a good man in his absence but they are starke-naught and no-body in reproouing a notorious wretch vnto his face If they open their mouth this way it is commonly in iest in brauerie in forme in derision for some Ones sake in the company who they know cannot endure it or at best out of a ciuill detestation of outragious villany and furious blasphemies of Gods glorious Name But in such cases the Christian is truely sollicitous and zealous very much troubled and carefull how to frame and hold a serious wise and seasonable contradiction to the language of hell which consisteth in oathes lying slandering in obscenities raylings contemptuous insolencies against the Ministerie and wayes of God defence of Poperie and in such rotten and Bedlam talke Hee dares not many times in such company for his heart hold his peace lest thereby he be guiltie in some degree 1. Of the parties going on in sinne 2. Of betraying Gods glory by a cowardly and vnchristian silence and 3. For feare of wounding his owne conscience The omission of the discharge of this dutie will somtimes very much vexe the conscience and grieue the heart of the true-hearted Professour when hee is departed the place and considers that by his basenesse and frailty he hath failed in so holy a dutie and beene faint-hearted in the cause of God For this kinde of reproouing then and such censuring of the words and workes of darkenesse the Christian is not to bee censured too censorious and precise Conscience charitie and Gods Commandement calles and cries vpon him for the performance of this needfull dutie whensoeuer vnauoydable necessitie or the exigencie of a warrantable calling shall haue cast him vpon prophane wretches and imprisoned him for the while amongst fellowes of lewd discourse and gracelesse carriage Except they bee Dogs or Swine Christ himselfe hath commanded that Pearles and holy things shall not bee cast away vpon such Giue yee not saith hee that which is holy vnto Dogs neither cast yee your Pearles before Swine Matth. 7. 6. See also Prou. 9. 8. and 23. 9. The ground of this Commandement of Christ I take to be two-fold 1. A deare compassionate and tender-hearted care of God euen ouer the temporall liues of his children Besides the glorious Ministery and continuall guard of the blessed Angels for their preseruation that they hurt not their foote against a stone his own also All-seeing All-pittying Eye doth euer graciously watch ouer them to keepe them as dearely as the Apple of his owne Eye and therefore hee forbids them to cast themselues desperately into the mouth of a barking Dogge or vpon the paw of a reuengefull and blood-thirsty Lyon that is he would not haue his child to vouchsafe so much as a reproofe to any blasphemous wretch or desperate Swaggerer that would furiously flie in his face for offering him a Pearle 2. An holy iealousie ouer the glory and Maiestie of his owne blessed Word It is that holy Wisedome which issued immediately out of his owne infinite vnderstanding It is farre more pure and vnspotted then siluer tried in a furnace of earth fined seuen-fold It is a sacred Pearle framed and fashioned by His owne Almighty hand in the Palaces of heauen which onely by an inuisible and inspired power can raise those which are dead in sinnes and trespasses to spirituall life stop the bloody issue of originall corruption and preserue the soules of men in euerlasting health In a word it is the Word of God and therefore most vnworthy to be troden vnder foote or trampled in the mire by any sensuall Swine that is no wayes to be vouchsafed to those hatefull and Swinish wretches who out of a malicious sottishnesse entertaine so glorious a message from the mighty God of heauen with contempt and scorne These two reasons of the Commandement lye the Text Giue ye not c. lest they trample them vnder their feete and turne againe and rent you Whence wee haue also some light to discerne who are Dogs who are Swine 1. By Dogs we see are meant obstinate enemies that maliciously reuile the Ministery of the Word the Doctrine of God and the Messengers thereof who doe not onely tread the words of instruction and reproofe vnder foote but also turne againe and all to rend the Teachers and furiously flie in the face of those who fairely tell them of their faults Consider this and tremble all yee that are become scornefull and furious opposites to the power and purity of the Word and bloody goades in the sides of the faithfullest Ministers Alas poore wretches forlorne Caitifes you cast your selues desperately into that accursed and horrible condition that euery good man is bound in conscience not to affoord you so much as an admonition or reproofe or a caueat to preuent those curses which are comming vpon you And you wilfully draw vpon your owne heads that most fearefull doome from Gods Spirit and from the Church of God He that is filthy let him be filthy still He that is a Swine let him bee Swinish still He that rayles against the power of Grace let him continue still a mad Dog He that sets himselfe maliciously against the Ministery of the Word let that man receiue no comfort or benefit by the Word of Life If hee will needs let him roare still swagger be drunke despaire die and be damned 2. By Swine are meant those sottish scurrill wretches who doe scornefully and contemptuously trample vnder foote all holy instructions reproofes admonitions tendred vnto them out of the Word of Truth 1. Some of these are Swine as it were only in practise they do not say much or keepe any great grunting against good men but they feed vnsatiably though silently vpon the drosse and filth of sensuall pleasures and carnall contentments and if at any time a Pearle
heare and digest with patience and silence the oathes and rotten speeches of their seruants and perhaps their sonnes without any contradiction or correction In their owne families some perhaps sweare others talke filthily some raile against the Ministry others iest vpon the sinceritie of the Saints c. and yet the wicked Gouernor ◅ayes neuer a word But in this point my purpose is principally to counsel Christians I meddle not at this time with such Synagogues of Satan and dennes of Atheists 2. Some others it may be but they are not neere so many may runne into the other extreme and out of a spirituall foole-hardinesse as it were and furious zeale with an imperious and vnwarrantable boysterousnes flie in the face of some desperate Swaggerer with an vndigested and vnseasonable reproofe whereby they both incurre the guilt of giuing an holy thing vnto a Dog and vnnecessary danger from the gracelesse fury of the partie Or else for want of spirituall wisedome and an holy discretion of circumstances they may tender an admonition to some such contemptuous swinish wretch which will passe ouer and put by the precious seuerity of the Word of Truth with a scurrill iest or with a dull and scornefull sottishnesse trample vnderfoote that sacred Pearle Though it be no constant character of Dogs and Swine yet commonly those desperate wretches to whō by Christ s commandement we must giue no holy things are fellowes of dogged sowre and contracted countenances especially towards true Christians and haue a kinde of desperate furiousnesse impressed vpon their foreheads which is then most visible when they are crost in their villanies and heare of any contradiction or condemnation of their gracelesse courses and contemptuous carriages And those Swinish Gadarens before whom we must cast no Pearles are fellowes of a ◅leering gibing and scornefull carriage especially towards good men and godly exercises they are so drowned in sensualitie and glued to the earth that they doe not onely despise but also deride the precious things of Heauen As I take it sensualitie and earthly mindednesse mingled with a great deale of Atheisme begetteth in men this sottish swinishnesse and brutish contempt of the blessings of Grace and directions to euerlasting blisse These premonitions and cautions premised and obserued euery Christian ought to addresse himselfe with resolution and conscience to discharge this Christian duty of reproouing when a iust occasion and a calling thereunto doe require and exact it at his hands For these reasons First in respect of the party offending 1. A seasonable reproofe mingled and sanctified with the spirit of inuocation and compassion may by the blessing of God be an occasion of conuersion to the offender And let him know that he which conuerteth the sinner from the errour of his way shall sa◅e a soule from death and shall hide a multitude of sinnes And it is the most glorious worke in the World and the noblest imployment vnder the Sunne to haue an hand in the holy businesse of sauing a soule Let hope then of doing spirituall good to thy brothers soule be the speciall aime and a principall motiue of performing this dutie There is a Law Exod. 23. 4 5. that if a man meete his enemies Oxe or Asse going astray he must bring him againe If he see his enemies Asse lying vnder his burden hee must helpe him vp againe How much more deare and precious in our eies should the immortall soule of our Brother be then the Asse of our enemie If we must turne backe the straying Oxe of our enemie and lift vp his Asse when he is crusht vnder his burden with what eagernesse and zeale ought wee to labour to stop the furious course of a reasonable creature towards the pit of Hell and to put our helping hand to raise vp that silly foule which by reason of the heauy weight of its finne is full sorely bruised and bleeding ready euen to breathe out it last and sinke into the misery of endlesse horrour Speake then boldly in the cause of God when thou hearest thy brother blaspheme his Name iest with his Word talke filthily raile against holines slander good men pleade for prophane pastimes c. for they are so many mortall stabs into his owne poore soule besides the naturall infectiousnesse of rotten speeches which may doe much mischiefe to the standers by Though thy reproofe preuaile not at the present yet thou knowest not what impression and working it may haue afterward vpon his hard heart whereby perhaps he may happily thinke vpon a new course and of conuersion to God and so thou be a blessed instrument of sauing a soule 2. But if it haue not so happy a successe vpon his soule yet it may be thou mayest thereby tame and take downe his insolency so cut his combe by a seasonable contradiction that he doe not carry it away brauely so coole and confound his swaggering humour that he doe not glory in his villany that hee doe not pride himselfe in his blasphemies and bloody oathes in his contempt of Grace and other outragious carriages Answer a foole saith Salomon according to his foolishnesse lest he be wise in his owne conceit lest hee bee too proud If a desperate and prophane wretch will needs sweare and swagger and raile against the seruants and seruices of God yet let him know that all the while hee fights against God damnes his owne soule and pleases none but Deuils Drunkards and deuilish men If he will needs labour to be famous by a surious opposition to the Ministery and wayes of God let him know that his name shall rot after him as vilely as his carkeise in the graue and himselfe burne in Hell euerlastingly if hee hold on in that humour without timely repentance and reformation 3. Thirdly at the least thou shouldst thereby increase and aggrauate his inexcuseablenesse and so glorifie the Tribunall of Gods Iustice when it shall there appeare that besides many other meanes afforded and offered vnto him by Gods mercies thou also diddest lend him thine hand to haue puld him out of the fire gauest him one call to haue stayed him in the furious and wilfull pursuit of his owne damnation But because he still hated to be reformed because varietie of meanes for his amendment made him more malicious and obstinate in his owne wayes and that contradiction and counsell to the contrary inflamed and set on fire the lustfull viciousnesse of his corrupt nature to hunt more greedily after forbidden pleasures therefore I say hee will bee more and more fearefully ashamed and confounded at that great and fearefull Day and the moe occasions he hath had of his conuersion the iuster cause then will he see of his deserued confusion and by consequent more glory will accrew vnto the glorious Tribunall of Gods Iustice. Secondly in such cases the Christian must speake in respect of himselfe 1. When the aire is impoysoned with any infectious vapour men vse to fill their
by-standers to conceiue that howsoeuer they bee not so precise and forward or make so great a show as others yet they are fully as honest men as they and may perhaps step into heauen before them 3. To wreake their spite vpon the children of Light who are euer eye-sores and heart-sores to all sorts of sinners Hee meaning the righteous man saith the Author of the Booke of Wisdome though Apocryphal yet ancient is grieuous vnto vs euen to behold for his life is not like other mens his wayes are of another fashion And it angers them at the very heart-roote to consider that whereas they hope and hold themselues sufficiently qualified for Heauen yet the righteous mans forwardnesse zeale and liuing of another fashion if ingenuousnesse dispell the mist of preiudice clearely remonstrates to their owne consciences and proclaimes aloud to all spiritually vnderstanding men that in truth and vpon tryall they are in the state of wretchednesse and of the family of Hell Hereupon it is that they labour might and maine with many disgracefull censures to dimme the glory of his goodnesse and if it were possible by publishing their owne malicious surmises others slanderous tales or spitefully aggrauated frailties to pull him backe at least in opinion of their fauourites and dependants to the same measure of infirmities and pitch of impietie with themselues But now the ends which humble Christians propose vnto themselues of iust dislikes and seasonable censures of vnsanctified men are briefly such as these 1. To preserue their thoughts innocent from accessarinesse to sinne by a secret inuisible allowance of it in other men and their tongues from cowardly silence when they haue a calling to disgrace it 2. Left a Knaue goe for an honest man and hypocrites deceiue true-hearted Nathaneels 3. Left the power of Christianitie wherein Gods glory is highly interessed suffer and be vnderualued For instance Thou hearest sometimes a fellow notoriously branded with some infamous sinne yet so spoken of by some dawbers with vntemperate morter or at least by ignorant worldlings as though his present condition were tolerable towards God and hopefull in respect of saluation by reason of some other good parts for which they praise him In this case if the vnderstanding Christian hold his peace the by-standers may be so farre scandalized and mistake as to conceiue and collect that a man may lye in a sweet sinne and yet liue in Gods fauour that the pleasures of the World and peace of conscience may consist together which are as incompatible as Heauen and Hell And why should not that silence be sinful which suffers an open knowne prophane man to carry away the reputation of one in the right way if there be time and place for a seasonable wise and charitable contradiction as well as that which suffers one which is true of heart to bee charged with hypocrisie 2. Secondly be silent from slandering backbiting falsaccusing Heere I will say nothing of downe-right forging and fastning a false crime vpon an innocent which is the most pestilent and palpable and other grosse kindes of this very foule sinne for so it is indeed howsoeuer to a carnall eye looking vpon it painted with the colours of commonnesse and selfe-loue thorow the false glasse of these corrupt times it appeares not so ougly The very Casuists and Schoolemen none of the precisest Diuines I am sure doe deseruedly vilifie it with a brand of hainousnesse farre aboue theft as they may well both for a greater breach of loue preciousnesse of obiect vnrecompensablenesse of losse difficultie of restitution concurrence of many sinnes consequence of much ill c I say I will bee heere silent of the grosser sorts of slander because of them Gods children are for the most part more easily sensible and ordinarily watchfull but let mee a little aduise and awake thee to further inspection of the present point lest sometimes euen in telling the truth thou bee intangled in the briars of this base sinne and iustly incurre the fault of a false accuser which thou maist many wayes For detraction to speake Logically doth not formally consist in the diminution of the truth but in the denigration of a mans good name 1. By discouering secret infirmities which loue that couereth a multitude of sinnes would haue concealed It is a base ambition and most vnworthy the noble magnanimitie of a Christian heart to hunt after and purchase an opinion of precedencie in graces and zeale by the disgrace of another perhaps euery way saue onely in the censurers owne ouer-weening conceit better and more worthy then himselfe When thou hearest a man worthily magnified for eminencie of parts and spirituall worth bee it farre from thee or any that euer tooke sinne truely to heart to come in with a But onely because out of a pang or rather predominancy of priuie pride thou wouldest gladly bee noted for a None-such and passe for the matchlesse Professour Let it euer bee the property and veine of vaine-glorious Pharises to raise their reputations and sometimes themselues but with execrable villany vpon the imaginary ruines of good mens innocencies and to hold euery insolent detraction from other mens sufficiencies and addition to their owne 2. By drawing out of other mens words actions and behauiours vpon the suspicious racke of a busie wit aimes insinuations and intentions which the Author neuer dreamed on and by fathering vpon them such enforced sinister sences and wrested crooked constructions which an ingenuous impartiall Expositour could neuer possibly extract It is the easiest thing of a thousand for a malicious minde to soile the glory of the brauest and most beautifull actions with ill and wrong interpretations and surmises of By-ends For the pride of a mans owne disdainefull nature and the deuill himselfe are ready mid-wiues at such monstrous conceptions and bastard births There is some truth in that hyperbolicall speech of him who said Let any man present mee with the most excellent and blamelesse action and I will oppose it with fifty vicions and bad intentions all which shall carry a face of likelihood Vpon this very point Tribunals of Iustice which hold more vpon policy than piety especially of priuate spleene embitter their Iudiciary power against the party too often strangely blinde the common peoples eyes and doe a great deale of wrong A wicked wit and wide conscience mounted on horsebacke amongst a number of Princes walking like seruants vpon the ground the Epidemicall disease of these worst and most vlcerous times vpon this aduantage many times worke a world of reuengefull villany But how soeuer it bee easie and too ordinarie for blacke tongues to blast and staine by wresting and wier-drawing the beauty of the best actions with malicious misconstructions yet it is villanous and base To let lawes of diuine loue alone euen the light of Reason led wise men to this resolution as appeares by their rules of Law That in doubtfull things we must euer pitch vpon the more
owne heart they are no better then the cutting off of a Dogges necke or the sacrifice of a foole Ill gotten goods are for restitution not for distribution Lest any couetous cauiller thinke the point too harsh precise heare what the ancient Fathers say to this purpose Bernard God receiueth not any almes at the hands of an oppressor or vsurer Hierome Significantly saith the Prophet His owne bread lest men should turne bread gotten by oppression and Vsury into a worke of Mercy Austin When God shall begin to iudge those that liue now by fraud and giue almes of the spoyles of the oppressed will say Lord we haue kept thy Commandements and in thy name wee haue done workes of mercy we haue fed the Hungry we haue clothed the Naked and entertained Strangers To whom God will reply You tell me what you haue giuen but you tell me not what you haue taken away You recount whom you haue fed but why remember you not whom you haue vndone They reioyce whom you haue clothed but they lament whom you haue spoyled c. A man is filled with bread whom thou feedest with spoyle but the Lord will blesse not thee but him whom thou hast vndone c. Chrysostome But what is the excuse of many I haue indeed been an Vsurer say they but I haue also been good to the poore A sweete piece of matter sure But God accepts not such sacrifices It were farre better to giue nothing to the poore at all then giue in that manner That wealth which is wonne by thy iust labours is many times quite mard with such wicked mixtures c. The very Heathen man tells vs That the poore are not to be fed like the Whelpes of wilde beasts with blood and murther rapine and spoile but that which is most acceptable to the receiuers they should know that that which is giuen vnto them is not taken from any body else Nay one of the bloodiest men that euer breathed Selymus a Turkish Emperour yet vpon his bed of death replyed thus to his Bassa moouing him with the wealth taken from the Persian Merchants to build an Hospitall for reliefe of the poore Wouldest thou Pyrrhus that I should bestow other mens goods wrongfully taken from them vpon workes of charitie and deuotion for mine owne vaine glory and praise Assuredly I will neuer doe it nay rather see they bee againe restored vnto the right owners Which was done forthwith accordingly to the great shame saith the Author of many Christians who minding nothing lesse then restitution but making ex rapina holocaustum doe out of a world of euill gotten goods cull out some small fragments to build some poore Hospitall or mend some blinde way A poore testimony of their hot charitie Wretchedly then doe they delude the World and deceiue their owne soules who vainely thinke that some workes of mercy at last when they must needs leaue all will expiate and recompence the cruelties and vnconscionable dealings of their whole life before Zacheus penitent Proclamation consisted of two branches Luk. 14. 8. As well for restitution as distribution He that would find the same mercy must follow the same methode 3. Let thy desire and delight neuer fall or be fastened immoderately vpon any earthly thing though neuer so excellent delicious or amiable For exorbitancy and errour this way brings many times 1. A losse of the thing so doted vpon 2. Sometime a crosse 3. Euer a curse 1. For the first our righteous and holy God when hee â—…ees the current of his creatures affections to bee carried inordinately and preposterously from the Fountaine of liuing waters vpon boken Cisternes that can hold none from the bottomlesse treasury of all sweetest beauties dearest excellencies amiable delights vpon painted shadowes from the Rocke of eternitie vpon a staffe of Reede I meane from the Creator vpon the creature He wisely and seasonably in the equitie of his Iustice and out of the iealousie of his owne Glorie takes away that earthly Idoll that the occasion of such irregular affection remoued he may draw the heart in which he principally takes pleasure to his owne glorious Selfe the onely Load-Starre of all sanctified loue and boundlesse Ocean of happinesse and blisse Nay it may be said in the sweetenesse of his mercy also when he sees vs distracted and as it were desperately mad with making too much of any transitorie thing so that our mind doth still runne and rest vpon it as our onely heauen vpon earth He snatches the edge toole out of our hands lest we make away our selues spiritually and withdrawes the beloued vanitie from before our eyes lest we grow starke blind in the mysteries of Faith and matters of Heauen by too much gazing vpon the fading beauty of any baser earthly obiect Thus the immoderate partiall affection of Parents may become many times occasionall and accessary to the vntimely taking away of a sweete faire and towardly child Whereby our gracious God iustly intimates vnto them their intolerable vnthankefulnesse of his mercy and extreme indignitie to his Maiesty in wickedly preferring in their loue a creature before their Creator and mercifully teaches them that the flowre and seruour of their best and dearest affection is onely due and should bee wholly deuoted to the greatest Good God himselfe and those truest vnutterable euer-during delights prepared for the Blessed in his Word here and in the World to come hereafter 1. Cor. 2. 9. Conceiue proportionably of other things immeasurably desired and delighted in If thou dotest vpon a good wit thou mayest be stricken with distraction if vpon abundance of learning or much worldly wisedome thou mayest be infatuated at least at some speciall times when thou wouldest gladly doe the best or in some important businesse which most concernes thee if vpon some highplace thou mayst with Haman Shebna and thousands moe be throwne down into the gulph of calamitie and woe contempt and scorne if vpon a faire house it may be leuelled with the ground by the flames of Gods wrath if vpon a beautifull face it may bee disfigured with the Poxe or other deformities if vpon a hoard of gold it may be disperst by fire robbery desolations of warre nay if euen vpon thy graces with an ouerweening conceit of selfe-excellency selfe-opinion selfe-sufficiency if they be onely generall graces thou mayst bee quite stript of them if sauing thou mayst bee cast into a dampe and desertion for a time in respect of all comfort sense vse and exercise c. 2. For the second though God may permit thee to possesse still that outward worldly comfort vpon which the fury of thine affection is so fastened and thine heart graspes with such greedinesse and excesse yet in this case thou mayest iustly expect a crosse either 1. In the thing doted vpon With what a deale of cutting discomfort and gashes of bitter griefe did Absalom dandled in Dauids affection with too much indulgence rent his Fathers
satisfaction to its expectation and large capacitie Hence it is that giue Rome to Caesar as they say and he will ambitiously pursue the Soueraigntie of the whole earth Let Alexander conquer the world and he will aske for moe let those be subdued he would climbe vp the staires of his vast desires towards the starres if hee could aspire thither hee would peepe beyond the heauens c. No rest vnto mans soule but in Gods eternall rest 3. That there being no proportion betweene spirits and bodies thou maiest aswell vndertake to fill a bag with wisedome a chest with vertue as thine immortall soule with gold siluer riches high roomes this whole materiall world or any earthly thing See Eccles. 5. 10. 4. I say Besides these three causes of vnsatisfiablenesse God himselfe doth iustly put that property and poyson into all worldly things doted vpon and desired immoderately that they shall plague the heart that pursues them by filling it still with a furious and fresh supply of more greedinesse longings iealousies and many miserable discontentments So that they become vnto it as drinke vnto a drunkard a man in a dropsie or burning feauer serue onely to inflame it with new heate and fierie additions of insatiable thirst and inordinate lust No maruaile then though the working heart of euery naturall man vnreconciled to God be like the raging sea that cānot rest That roaring Element to which the Spirit of God resembles a wicked man must needes bee a much troubled and very restlesse creature sith it is continually tossed turmoyled with variety of contrary and confused motions that of estuation reuolution reflectiō descension and agitation by the windes semblably if thou couldest see the inside of the greatest gracelesse Monopolist and ingrosser of all the most desireable excellencies vnder the Sunne glistering in the highest Emperiall Throne vpon the earth thou shouldest behold his heart for all that rent asunder with many raging distempers and tempestuous whirlewindes of contrary lusts a very hiue of vnnumbred cares sorrowes and passions boyling incessantly with irkesome suspitions false feares insatiable longings secret grumblings of conscience torturing distractions and tumultuations of hell By the way let me tell you that this immoderate desire inordinate delight which I speake of glued to some speciall sensuall obiect which naturall corruption singles out and makes chiefest choice of to follow and feed vpon with greatest contentment and carnall sweetnesse become the parents of euery mans bosome sinne If it fall in loue with honours and greatnesse it breeds and brings forth ambition which is an vnquenchable thirst after visible glory and a gluttonous hunting after high roomes As it inhabiteth the highest and haughtiest spirits and is superlatiue and transcendent in its obiect and aspirations so of all the stormy perturbations which rent and rage in the heart of man it is most tempestuous and desperate Ventrous it is to climbe vp any staires of basenesse bribery blood to tread vpon the ruines of the noblest innocency vpon the mercilesse desolations of dearest friends and neerest kindred to domineere for a while though it be damned euerlastingly afterwards as it is too cleere in the Turkish Emperors and in that great Master of mischiefe and Machiauelisme Richard the third of this Kingdome who with a bloody hand pressed out the breath of those two orient Princes in the Tower his Nephewes and naturall Lords It is victorious ouer all other affections and masters euen the sensuality of lustfull pleasures as appeares in the greatest Warriours and ancient Worthies amongst the Heathen who tempted with the exquisitenesse and variety of choisest beauties yet forbore that villany not for conscience sake and feare of God whom they knew not but lest they should interrupt the course and stop the current of their warlike reputation ambitious designes and atchiuements of state But whatsoeuer other pestilent properties empoyson it it neuer failes to ingender in the heart which harbours it as its proper Thunder-bolt and blasting feares cares iealousies enuies enraged thirst of rising still impatiencie of competition vncapablenesse of satiety which is most for my purpose For the proud and ambitious man enlargeth his desire as hell and is as death and cannot bee satisfied Hab. 2. 5. Who can fill the bottomlesse pit of hell or stop the vnsatiable iawes of death neither can the greedie humour of an haughtie spirit the aspiring insolencie of a boisterous Nimrod be possibly stayed or stinted no not with the top and variety of highest honours though hee should alone and absolutely be crowned with the Soueraignitie of the whole earth and command the felicities of this wide world If it fall in loue with riches it breeds and brings forth couetousnesse the vilest and basest of all the infections of the soule in the most contemptible and dunghill disposition For this kyte-footed corruption wheresoeuer it seizeth and domineeres blasts and banisheth all noblenesse of spirit naturall affection humanity discretion reason wisedome manlinesse mutuall entertainements entercourse of kindnesse and loue and turnes all euen the soule it selfe into earth and mudde It drawes by a cunning reserued basenesse all occasions circumstances aduantages witte policy euen friends and acquaintance nay religion conscience and all to bee seruiceable and contributary to a greedy wolfe and raging gangren of hoarding vp Gold and worldly pelfe In a word it makes a man with a Bedlam cruelty to contemne himselfe body and soule for a little transitory trash wilfully to abandon both the comfortable enioyment of the short time of this present mortality and all hope of the length of that blessed eternity to come And as the obiect of it is most earthly base and incompetent so of all other vile affections it is most sottishly and senselesly vnsatisfiable For how is it possible that earth should feed or fill the immateriall and heauen-borne spirit of a man It can not be and the Spirit of God hath said it shall not be Eccles. 5. 10. 4. 8. He that loueth siluer shall not be satisfied with siluer The eye is not satisfied with riches Hence it is that the deepelier and more eagerly the dropsie heart of the couetous man doth drinke of this golden streame the more furiously still it is inflamed with vnsatiable thirst nay certaine it is that if he should purchase and possesse a Monopoly of all the wealth in the world were he able to empty the Westerne parts of Gold and the East of all her Spices and precious things should hee enclose the whole face of the earth from one end of heauen to another and heape vp his hoard to the starres yet his heart would be as hungry after more riches as if he had neuer a penny and much more If it fall in loue with beauty and the swaggering brauery of good fellowship it begets lust and sensuality which make their minions madde with bitternesse and malice against the very least glimpse of holinesse or any religious restraint enrage them
in all corners of the Christian world the blood of the Martyrs of Iesus as greedily and with as furious thirst as euer hee did since the Dragon first gaue him his power But I hope in the strong God of our saluation For strong is the Lord God who iudgeth the Whore that this is the last draught and that vpon his next health as it were begun to the Deuill in this cup of fierie crueltie against the seruants of Christ the Vial of Gods vnquenchable wrath wil choake him for euer Blood he shal haue enough but from the reuenging hand of the Lord God of recompences in fury and iealousie 2. Besides that thus the rage of vnsatiablenesse and restlesnesse of pursuit doth still boyle in euery carnall heart that is carried immoderately after its owne wayes or inordinately vpon any earthly thing it is also thereby in Gods iust iudgement extraordinarily hardened and estranged from God For the deepelier our affections are drowned in the World and endeared to any sensuall delight the more desperately are they diuorced from God and deaded to heauenly things It is iust with God to suffer that heart to be turned first into earth and mud and after to freeze and congeale into steele and Adamant which preferres Earth before Heauen a dunghill before Paradise broken cisternes which can hold no water before the euer-springing Fountaine of glory and blâ—…sse a few bitter-sweet pleasures for an inch of time in this vale of teares before vnmixed and immeasurable ioyes through all eternity in those glorious mansions aboue Our hearts are originally hard by the curse of Nature Ezek. 11. 19. afterward by a wilfull course and continuance in sin we adde Adamant of our owne Isai. 48. 4. Zech. 7. 12. and by not suffering the Sword of the Spirit to search and sunder our minion-delights from our bosoms Heb. 4. 7. Then Satan is let loose to put to his iron sinewes Luk. 22. 3. Lastly God himselfe hardeneth by an act of Iustice as wee may see Exod. 9. 12. Thus the heart which hates to be reformed being glued to a sensuall obiect or worldly lust by its owne inbred corruption infusion of hellish poyson and iust curse of God growes into such a prodigious rocke That no crosse or created power not the softest eloquence or seuerest course nay not the waight of the whole World were it all prest vpon it can possibly mollifie or reclaime it It will neuer yeeld or relent or be rent from its darling delight but dye in its deadnesse and be desperately hardened for the very depth of Hell except the Almightie Spirit take the hammer of the Word into his owne hand that by his speciall vnresistable power and mercifull violence he may first breake it in pieces with legall remorse and after by the sprinkling and powerfull application of Christs blood resolue it into teares of true Euangelicall repentance that so onely by a gracious miracle of diuine mercy it may be softned sanctified and saued The stubborne Iewes were heauily loaden with an extraordinary variety of most grieuous crosses and afflictions There was nothing wanting to make them outwardly miserable and no misery inflicted vpon them but vpon purpose to humble and take downe their rebellious hearts The Prophet Isaiah Chap. 1. paints out to the life the rufull state of their fresh bleeding desolations The whole head saith he is sicke and the whole heart is heauie c. for the place is meant not as some take it of their sinnes but of their sorrowes But all these blowes and pressures were so farre from melting them that they made them harder Wherefore should you be smitten anymore for yee fall away more and more What created power can possibly haue more power vpon the soules of men then the sacred Sermons of the Sonne of God who spake as neuer man spake And yet His deare intreaties and melting inuitations which sweetely and tenderly flowed from that heart which was resolued to spill its warmest and inmost blood for their sakes moued those stiffe-necked Iewes neuer a iot Hierusalem Hierusalem how often would I and you would not Matth. 23. 37. Isaiah that Noble Prophet whose matchlesse stile incomparably surpasseth the vtmost possibility of all humane inuention and to which the choicest elegancies of prophane Writers are pure barbarisme shed many and many a gracious showre of most heauenly piercing sweetest eloquence vpon a sinfull Nation and rebellious people which were fruitlesly spilt as water vpon the ground or lost as vpon the hardest flint His many heauenly soule-searching Sermons which breathed nothing but spirit and life yet to them hardened in their sinnes and hating to be reformed were but as an idle and empty breath vanishing into nothing and scattered in the ayre The Lord as he saith made his mouth like a sharpe sword and himselfe a chosen shaft and yet that two-edged sword was full often blunted vpon their hardest hearts and his keene arrowes discharged by a skilful hand rebounded from their flinty bosomes as shafts shut against a stone-wall Which made that Seraphicall Orator cry out I haue laboured in vaine I haue spent my strength for naught and in vaine A course of extraordinary seuerity and terrour was taken with the Tyrant Pharaoh he was not onely chastised with rods but euen scourged with Scorpions and yet all the plagues of Egypt were so farre from taming and taking downe his proud heart that euery particular plague added vnto it a seuerall iron sinew so farre they were from softning it that they seared it more No materiall weight can more crush the heart of a man into pieces then braying in a morter and yet saith Salomon Though thou shouldest bray a foole an old obstinate sinner in a morter among wheate with a pestle yet will not his foolishnes his wilfull cruelty in killing his owne soule and Bedlam madnesse in exchanging a little transitorie pleasure with endlesse paine depart from him Prou. 27. 22. Now what an horrible hardnesse and hellish stone is that which no ministery or misery nay nor miracles See Exod. 10. 27. 1. King 13. 33. 2. King 1. 11. Ioh. 18. 12. nor mercies Isai. 26. 10. can possibly mollifie Here now should I haue passed out of this point did I not conceiue that of all the waightiest ciuill affaires incident to humane deliberation there is none more materiall important or of greater consequence either for extremest outward vexation and hearts-griefe or extraordinary sweete contentment and continuall peace then matter of marriage A word or two therefore of 1. conuenient entrance into and 2. comfortable enioyment of that honourable estate For the first 1. Let thy choyce be in the Lord according to blessed Saint Pauls Rule 1. Cor. 7. 39. onely in the Lord. Let pietie bee the first moouer of thine affection the prime and principall ponderation in this greatest affaire and then conceiue of personage parentage and portion as they say and such outward things and
for our dealing in the world and ciuill affaires V. Now concerning workes of mercy which springing from an heart melting with sense of Gods euerlasting mercy to it selfe quickened with a liuely faith in the Lord Iesus and shining with sauing graces are an odour of a sweet smell a sacrifice acceptable well pleasing to God Philippians 4. 18. Hebr. 13. 16. Conceiue first there be two sorts of them 1. Spirituall 2. Corporall 1. Spirituall flow from the fountaine of truest mercy and compassion of greatest tendernesse and consequence euen to relieue repaire and refresh the pouerty wants and miseries of the soule 1. By instructing the Ignorant Prou. 10. 21. and 15. 7. 2. By giuing counsell to them that need or seeke it Exod. 18. 19. c. Ruth 3. 1 c. 3. By reducing the erroneous Exo. 23. 4. 4. By labouring the conuersion of others Psalm 51. 13. Luk. 22. 32. 5. By exhorting one another Heb. 3. 13. 6. By reproouing the offendor Leuit. 19. 17. 7. By admonishing them that are out of order 1. Thes. 5. 14. 8. By considering one another to prouoke vnto loue and to good workes Hebr. 10. 24. 9. By comforting the heauy heart and afflicted spirit 1. Thes. 5. 14. 10. By forgiuing from the heart our brethren their trespasses Matth. 18. 35. 11. By chastising delinquents Prou. 22. 15. 12. By raising those which are fallen by infirmity with much meekenesse and tendernesse of heart Gal. 6. 1. 13. By mutuall encouragements against the cruelty and confusions of the times in the way to Heauen Mal. 3. 16. 14. By supporting and mercifully making much of weake Christians 1. Thes. 5. 11. 15. By patience towards all men 1. Thes. 5. 14. 16. By praying one for another Iam. 5. 16. 2. Corporall spring from a compassionate heart and fellow-feeling affection yerning ouer the temporall wants and necessities of our brethren whereby we are stirred vp as occasion is offered according to our ability to succour and support their outward extremities and distresses To feede the Hungry To giue drinke to the Thirsty To clothe the Naked to entertaine the Stranger To visit the sicke To goe to those that are in Prison Math. 25. 35. To put to an helping hand for raising our Brethren fallen into decay Leuit. 25. 35. To lend hoping for nothing againe c. Luke 6. 35. Thus Christians ought to be ready to distribute willing to communicate in all kindes to the outward necessities also 1. First Of those of the houshold of faith the principall and most moouing obiect to draw bounty from a truly charitable heart Gal. 6. 10. 2. In the next place Of the lame the blind the sicke the aged the trembling hand or any that God hath made poore 3. Thirdly Of any whosoeuer in a case of true necessitie and extremity whatsoeuer the party hath bin before For there thou relieuest not his notoriousnesse but his nature though thou abhorre the man for his former villany yet vpon poynt of perishing doe good vnto the common state of humanity Now of these two kindes Fathers Schoolemen Casuists all concurre and conclude that spirituall almes caeteris paribus as they say are more excellent and acceptable then corporall Because 1. The gift is more noble in its owne nature 2. The obiect more illustrious Mans immortall soule 3. The manner transcendent being spirituall 4. The charity more heauenly which aimes at our brothers endlesse saluation Let then euery Christian conscionably and constantly endeauour to improoue to the vtmost vpon all occasions and seasonable offers all his spirituall abilities heauenly endowments illuminations of learning morall wisedome prouidence discretion c. all his skill in the Mystery of Christ Word and waies of God all his experience in temptations cases of conscience spirituall distempers his spirit of counsell comfort courage or what other gift or grace soeuer he is illightened and endowed with to relieue and refresh euery way the soules to procure and promote by all meanes the eternall saluation of others Let the sauing light of thy diuine knowledge spirituall wisedome heauenly vnderstanding or what other excellencies and perfections of the minde shining in thy soule resemble in all fruitfull improouement and free communicating it selfe that bountifull light in the body of the Sunneâ—… That 1. first illighteneth that goodly Creature wherein iâ—… originally dwels and makes it the fairest and beautifulleâ—… thing in the world 2. Next it illuminates and beautifiâ—… all the Orbes and heauenly bodies about it 3. Thirdly bâ—… the proiection of his beames it begets all the beauty glory sweetnesse wee haue here below on the earth 4. Fourthly it insinuates into euery chinke and crany of the earth and concurres to the making of those precious metals which lye in her bowels 5. Fiftly his beames glide by the sides of the earth and illighten euen the opposite part of Heauen with all those glorious Starres we see shining in the night 6. Sixthly it is so communicatiue and greedy of dooing good in its kinde that it strikes thorow the firmament in the transparent parts and seekes to bestow its brightnesse and beauty euen beyond the Heauens and neuer restraines the free communication of its influence and glory vntill it determine by naturall and necessarie expiration Euen so proportionably let the fruitfull light of thy diuine knowledge and heauenly counsell especially be still working shining spreading to doe all possible good 1. Let it First make thine own soule all glorious within fairely enlighten it with an humble reflection of selfe-knowledge with puritie peace and spirituall prudence to guide constantly thine owne feete with all vprightnesse and patience in the path that is called holy 2. Secondly Let it shine vpon thy family and those that are next about thee with all seasonable instructions in conuincing them of the truth and goodnesse of the wayes of God either for their conuersion or inexcusablenesse 3. Thirdly let it bee spent and imployed vpon thy neighbours kindred friends acquaintance visitants of all sorts when they come towards thee to warme their hearts all thou canst with heauenly talke and to winne their loues to the life of grace 4. Fourthly let it insinuate also amongst strangers and into other companies vpon which any warrantable Calling shall cast thee and intimate vnto them especially if it finde acceptation and entertainment That one thing is necessarie That all impenitents shall bee certainly damned That vpon this moment dependeth eternitie c. 5. Nay let it offer it selfe with all meekenesse of wisedome and patient discretion euen to opposites and labour to conquer if it bee possible the contrarie minded if their scornefull carriage and furious visible hate against the mysterie of Christ hath not set a brand of Dogges and Swine vpon them 6. Lastly when vpon all occasions in all companies by all meanes it hath done all the good it can yet let it still retaine that constant propertie of all Heauenly Graces an edge
occasion or rather then faile to make matter in their owne spitefull braines or take it vp from the lying oracle of some frothy Ale-bench wherby to staine the honour of Profession with the vnworthiest imputations of couetousnesse hard-heartednesse vnmercifulnesse whereas themselues meere men of this world are as couetous as the skinne will hold fast nailed and glued vnto the earth neuer in their life lift vp a ioyfull thought towards heauen neither dare thinke seriously vpon the world to come without a great deale of slauish sadnesse and secret terrour And in their grasping of worldly goods they care not a button for conscience make no account at all of that most certaine strict account at Gods dreadfull Tribunall but only how to carry matters smoothly and plausibly in the eyes of men and dawbe ouer their vniust dealings with close conueyances and trickes of wit I goe not about heere to Apologize for any vncharitable counterfeits or those most odious outside-Christians who put on the glory of an Angell in outward profession that they may play the deuils more vnobseruedly in Vsurious practises oppressions and vnconscionable griping weare a cloake of zeale in conformitie to the externall formes of obedience to the first Table vpon purpose to couer their crueltie and inhumanitie in vndermining and ouer-reaching their brethren and to prey the more inuisibly vpon the simplicitie of those whom they deceiue by Seeming But yet I must tell you that many times euen some of Gods owne best Children are full falsly and fouly charged by foule-mouthed worldlings themselues with worldlinesse couetousnesse and imputations of that nature who by Gods mercy are so farre from doting vpon earth and the fading glory thereof that in their retired aduised thoughts they would not loose the loue and light of Gods countenance and testimonie of a good conscience to winne the whole world they would not exchange their comforts of godlinesse and interest in a Crowne of life for ten thousand worlds were they all turned into one inualuable Pearle They feele themselues incomparably more comforted and kindly refreshed at the heart roote with one thought of heauen and that endlesse ioyfull rest aboue through all eternitie then with a world of earthly contemplations though all composed of gold pleasures possessions honours Diadems and all the glorious and most desireable treasures vnder the Sunne And who in respect of any vnconscionablenesse wrongs iniustice or wicked wayes of getting might with sinceritie of heart proportionably to their states and callings take vp Samuels protestation Behold here I am witnesse against mee before the Lord and before his Anoynted Whose Oxe haue I taken or whose Asse haue I taken or whom haue I defrauded whom haue I oppressed or of whose hand haue I receiued any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith and I will restore it And sincere thoughts resolutions and protestations to this purpose are cleere euidences of vnearthly-mindednes Blessed Iob doth pregnantly illustrate this point His owne friend chargeth him with inhumanitie couetousnesse and cruelty and thereupon inferreth that Gods afflicting hand was heauy vpon him How much more thinke you would the children of fooles and children of villaines viler then the earth of whom hee elsewhere complaines vexe him slanderously Is not thy wickednesse great saith Eliphaz Iob 22. 5. c. and thine iniquities infinite For thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother for nought and stripped the naked of their cloathing Thou hast not giuen water to the weary to drinke and thou hast withholden bread from the hungry Thou hast sent widowes away empty and the armes of the fatherlesse haue beene broken Therefore snares are round about thee and sudden feare troubleth thee Wheras in deed and truth righteous Iob was right nobly minded tender-hearted charitable bountifull as appeares by his confident contestation to the contrary Iob 31. 16 c. If I haue withheld the poore from their desire or haue caused the eyes of the widdow to faile or haue eaten my morsell myselfe alone and the fatherlesse hath not eaten thereof If I haue seene any perish for want of cloathing or any poore without couering If his loynes haue not blessed me and if hee were not warmed with the fleece of my Sheepe if I haue lift vp my hand against the fatherlesse when I saw my helpe in the gate then let mine arme fall from my shoulder blade and mine arme be broken from the bone Thus many times an imputation of worldlinesse hard-heartednesse vnhospitalitie c. is layd vpon Gods children without all cause truth or conscience occasioned as I conceiue for I desire to discouer vnto you a depth of Satans malice in this point partly from the parties accusing and slandering partly from the parties accused and slandered Occasions ministred by prophane men are such as these 1. First They many times when they finde their consciences disquieted their former courses controlled their carnall humours crossed and contradicted and themselues much diseased and disturbed in the securefull pursuit of their sensuall pleasures by the searching power of a conscionable Ministerie or when they plainely see that their vnzealousnesse lukewarmnesse and formalitie in Religion is censured and condemned by the forwardnesse and zealous carriage and conuersation of the Saints they seeke by all meanes and labour might and maine to bee meete with those Ministers which so vexe them with their faithfull Preaching and those godly Christians which silently disgrace them with their gracious life and zealous exercise of Christianitie And therefore sith many times by Gods goodnesse they cannot finde any visible or conspicuous matter or miscarriage to charge them with truely because the Saints lie not in grosse and notorious sinnes such as are swearing drunkennesse lying vncleannesse Sabbath-breaking idlenesse the vanities of goodfellowship c. as themselues are woont therefore I say they audaciously diue into their hearts with vnhallowed censures and lay vnto their charges those inuisible errours which none can see but Gods All-seeing Eye from which they cannot be cleered and acquit but onely by their owne consciences and his highest Tribunall So that they take order that such imputations though groundlesse and false yet shall be sure to cleaue to the good name of Gods Children as certainely without redresse or remedie as they were deuised without truth or charitie Wee may see this cleerely in the present point and the slander of hypocrisie which is also the ordinarie portion of the best from men of the world When prophane opposites vnto grace pry curiously into all the wayes of Gods Child and can finde nothing so faulty in his outward carriage or reprooueable in the ordinarie course of his life as they expect and desire yet left they should not shew themselues the right children of Satan the Accuser of the Brethren they will be medling one way or other they will bee nibling at his good name with some such speeches as these Well well though he be an excellent Pulpit man or a forward
good reason besides Religion that they should grow into such resolutions for all things here below are full of transitorinesse mortality and change Vanity of vanities all is vanity but aboue is constancy and eternitie of all excellencies perfections and pleasures Besides that thou shalt haue there a Body brighter then the Sunne a Soule replenished with vnutterable delights the glorious company of Christ Iesus Angels Saints Christian Friends the vision and fruition of God blessed for euer wherein consists the Crowne and Life of all celestiall ioyes I say to say nothing of these but euen the space of one foot vpon the pauement of the Empyrean Heauen is incomparably more worth then the great Body of the whole Earth were it all turned into Gold and beset with as many vnualuable Pearles as it is now with piles of Grasse 5. Nature saith a meere Moralist seemeth in the first birth of Gold and wombe from whence it proceedeth after a sort to haue presaged the misery of those that are in loue with it For it hath so ordered the matter that in those Countries where it groweth there growes with it neither Grasse nor Plant nor any thing that is worth any thing as giuing vs to vnderstand thereby that in those minds where the desire of this metall growes there cannot remaine so much as a sparke of true honour and vertue 6. God is not onely a Father but also All-sufficient Why shouldest thou then feare want that fearest him He prouides euery day for millions of Fowles Will Hee then bee wanting to a Man to a Christian to His owne Child Christ himselfe pressing reasons to this purpose tells vs that our heauenly Father cloathes the Lilly aboue Solomons Royalty and feedes the Fowles of the aire which neither sow nor reape nor gather into barnes What a cursed vaile then of base distrust darkens thine hard heart that thou shouldest either carke or deale vnconscionably 7. One two houres fire will disperse and consume the hoard of an hundred yeeres heaping together And where art thou then Thine heart then is seized vpon at once with vnutterable anguish and the very horror of Hell for the losse of thine Heauen vpon Earth and with cryes of blood and furies of conscience for thy couetous cruell vsurious iniurious courses for many yeeres Thus many a worldling spins a faire thread to strangle himselfe both temporally and eternally 8. The Sunne is a very glorious and contented creature and yet it harbours no golden Mine in its faire and refulgent Body The blessed Angels are full of all felicities and yet they haue no siluer they want no happinesse and yet they want gold Heauen the chiefe and Royall Seate of Blessednesse is empty of these treasures there grow no Minerals the Veine of siluer and gold is not to be found there The Sonne of God himselfe infinitely the most happy Creature I speake in respect of his Humanitie that euer issued out of the hands of God were there any such great matter or excellency in riches had neuer said of himselfe The Foxes haue holes and the Birds of the Aire haue nests but the Sonne of Man hath not where to lay his head Could a Bearing-mantle of cloth of gold an empearled Cradle delicious fare euery day thousands a yeere make a man truly happy the right and Royall Heire of all things would neuer haue chosen a Stable for his Birth-chamber A Manger for his Cradle Barley-bread for the entertainement of his Followers a lesse fixed habitation for himselfe then the poorest Bird c. 9. The Sunne and Moone are farre more glistering and glorious then the burnisht gold of Ophyr and the poorest man hath as large a prospect and part in them as the vastest Incloser or most griping Vsurer but much more benefit by them then the rich worldlings by their golden heapes For he is comfortably warmed and refreshed with the influence of their heate and light but they if the Deuill did not hoodwinke them might see euery time they looke thereon that rust cleauing to their vnrighteous Mammon which hereafter shall eate their flesh as it were fire 10. One Starre doth incomparably exceed in beauty and worth a golden earth and if thou be truly Gods and haue thy foote already vpon the Moone as thou oughtest thou shalt hereafter tread euerlastingly vpon thousands of them Disdaine then in the meane time to let thy heauenly spirit dote vpon those baser hoards of shining earth which are making themselues wings to flie away as an Eagle toward Heauen for riches are like transitorie streames which posting by the side of a Citie no man can stay Were it not a sencelesse and brainelesse endeauour and expectation for a Towne to hope and assay to keepe with them the hasty current of a mighty Riuer which none of an hundred Townes before could hold And doest thou expect any constancy of abode with thee of that thicke clay which hath passed thorow so many hands before Neither is it so much thine as the Worlds A Dog followes two men it is not knowne to whom he belongs vntill they bee parted Vpon the arrest of death thy wealth leaues thee euerlastingly and cleaues vnto the World and therefore it was worldly wealth 11. Moderation and conscionablenes in getting may by the mercy of God draw from His bountifull hand a more speciall extraordinarie gracious prouidence and blessing vpon posterity whereas contrary carriage may bring an heauy curse The Prophet who was husband to her who came crying to Elisha for comfort 2. King 4. 1. did feare God saith the Text. Whereby he was happily restrained from all wicked wayes of gaining and growing into wealth Durst he haue enlarged his conscience proportionably to the corruptions of those times and shifted his Sailes according to the sitting of euery wind as pillow-sowers vnder mens elbowes and preachers of smooth things are woont I see no reason but he might haue been aduanced to Iezabels table as well as the foure hundred flattering false temporizing prophets and by seruing the time also haue risen and enricht both himself and his But this honest man would rather die in debt leaue his wife and children in extreme pouerty and expose his two sonnes as bondmen to the Creditour then to put his hand to any manner of iniquitie in getting or to raise an outward rotten estate vpon the ruines and bloody desolations of mens precious soules And what followes Rather then the wife and children of such a man shall want God will haue the Prophet doe a Miracle for their supply and comfort as appeares in the Story But now on the otherside Gehazi in the very following Chapter 2. King 5. will needs by Bribing make himselfe and his children for euer And what is the issue He puls thereby an horrible curse both vpon himselfe and his posteritie The Leprosie therefore of Naaman shall cleaue vnto thee and vnto thy seed for euer Vers. 27. Thou haddest better
molestations vnnecessarily causelesly For so might yee roote vp your Rose-trees because a worme sometimes breeds in the sweetest bud So might yee extinguish Monarchies from the face of the earth because they sometimes degenerate into tyrannies So might yee conceiue ill of Peter and the rest of the Apostles because Iudas prooued naught c. 2. Sometime hee suffers him to fall into some grosse sinne in the face of the World and before the watchfull eye of scornefull enemies the infamy and scandall whereof being once on wing flye abroad as swift as the Eagles of the Heauens ouer a whole Countrey ouer a Kingdome the Deuils and their drunken trumpetters are speedy Dromedaries to carry such newes and this concurrent cry resounds from all places with much wicked triumph and insultation You see now what these professors are One so famous for his forwardnesse is fallen into such a grosse sinne and so notoriously They are euen all alike c. Which by accident and in the euent redounds too often to the inexpiable disgrace of our holy profession the strengthening of the stubborne the staggering of the strong the stunting of those which are comming on the hindering of the weake the hardning of the wicked the chaining of the scorner farre faster to his chaire of pestilence Woe vnto him by whom such offence doth come except by a remarkeable repentance and recouery after blessed Dauids example hee reestablish himselfe in the hearts of Gods people and stop the mouthes of the aduersaries who are equally guilty of impenitency as of farre perhaps grosser impieties Austin doth excellently expresse and to the life the wylinesse of the wicked and humour of the world vpon such vnhappie occasions There was as it seemes some such scandalous accident befell in his family Whereupon hee writes an Epistle to the Ministers Seniours and whole Citie of Hippo and heartily intreates them all that themselues would not therefore either faint in that Christian course and holy profession or fall foule with suspicions and censures vpon all for the faults of a few for there is no societie so happy which is not stained with some villany Although saith he discipline be exercised in my family with a watchfull eye yet I am a man and liue amongst men and therefore cannot presume that mine house should bee better then the Arke of Noah then the house of Abraham then the house of Isaac then the house of Iacob then the house of Dauid c. In all which some were naught nay then the family of Iesus Christ in which there was a traitour and a thiefe Lastly then Heauen it selfe from which the Angels fell But that which I would principally haue you take notice of in that Epistle and for which I specially mention it is Austins emphaticall elegant and effectuall expressing the eager itching ambitious humour of the wicked to father and fasten the faults of some vpon the whole generation of the iust Instant saith he Satagunt ambiunt I cannot expresse their full significancy in English but part of his meaning is They euery way and infinitely labour that when some professors of holinesse haue foulely fallen indeed or be only so slandered the World would beleeue That they are all such Doe you not thinke in his time the World did thus insult and exclaime or in the like manner vpon Lots fall Here now you see Puritan Lot who could not indure the good fellowship of the Sodomites he is now himselfe seized vpon by Incest They are all such I will awarrant you In Dauids time What Dauid a man so precise that he professeth a lyer shall not tarry in his sight Psa. 101. Hath he taken away another mans wife You see now what they all are c. Proportionably in these times and it will be the humour of those that hate to be reformed to the worlds end so to calumniate if any who haue giuen their names vnto Christ be detected nay or suspected of any notorious scandalous crime it is a sufficient warrant for the wicked to raise a generall cry and to proclaime euery where They are all alike And good fellowes as they call them will thinke themselues wronged if the World thereupon doe not conceiue the onely difference betweene them and forward Professours to be that these carry things more cunningly and haue an art in concealing their miscarriages We say they are plaine-dealing men and appeare as we are we are flesh and bloud and must haue our pleasures and therefore refresh our selues at many merry and Iouiall meetings we sweare sometimes and drinke and game and to tell you true doe a great deale worse but without hypocrisie whereas these demure holy Ones beare themselues more reseruedly weare a vizor in their visible conuersation but assure your selues sinne in secret as well as we Iust as Austin saith in the forecited place The wicked watch and obserue and if they spie any of the betrer side to fall they would presently haue the World to thinke That the rest are all such onely they are not euer discouered Now the Lord rebuke thee Satan who so infatuatest the iudgements and blindes the vnderstandings of men otherwise of good parts and very worldly wise whom thou wofully hoodwinkest and hardnest to their endlesse ouerthrow 1. That they should wickedly and absurdly condemne all for some whereby they barre themselues euerlastingly from the loue of the Brotherhood 2. That they should erect Tribunals in other mens consciences which is Gods Royall prerogatiue and so miscensure their hearts to their own hardening 3. That they should not be able to discerne betweene being haled and hurried as it were into some sinne against the generall purpose of a mans heart and practise of his life by the violence of some temptation passion or impetuous sudden insnarement which hee after heartily bewailes with much bitternesse of spirit and exemplary repentance willing if God were so pleased to redeeme the scandall of his fall with the shedding of his blood taking occasion thereupon to walke more warily and to doe more nobly in the seruice of his God all the dayes of his life and a resolued delightfull wallowing in variety of lusts pleasures and grosse sinnes without any repentance or reformation at all I conclude the whole point and a good part of my meaning in the words of an excellent Writer not much altered I not onely hold it lawfull to reioyce in those good things wherwith God hath blessed vs in any kind whatsoeuer especially the sauing gifts of the holy Ghost but a note of much vnthankefulnesse to entertaine them with a sullen and vnfeeling disposition Yet all humane affections and endowments wherein due reuerence to God is wanting are no better then obscure clouds hindring the influence of that blessed Light which clarifies the soule of man and predisposeth it vnto the brightnesse of eternall felicitie So that insolent ioy and ouerweening which a man in the pride of his vaine imagination conceiueth of
originall corruption and by reason of his vnauoideable frailties and imperfections but yet comely as the curtaines of Salomon by the glory of his new creation and gracious beames that shine vpon his soule from the face of Christ. 3. The further the Moone is remoued from the Sunne the fairer she is and fuller of light The more an humble soule vpon sight of that holy Maiestie and purest eye ten thousand times brighter then the Sun which cannot look on iniquitie doth retire with lowliest thoughts into himselfe to abhorre himselfe in dust and ashes as most vile and farre worthier to be throwne into the lowest dungeon of the kingdome of darknesse then to bee honoured with the loue and light of his countenance is more beautifull and amiable in the eyes of God Fure as the Sunne The Moone shadowes out inherent fairenesse the Sunne resembles and represents our imputed puritie So that this Royall Robe the Sunne of righteousnesse the vnspotted Iustice of Iesus Christ doth glorifie the soule 1. With an entire vnstained beautie our inherent holinesse hath some spots and staines of imperfection like the Moone but that imputed for our iustification is much more spotlesse and orient then the Sunne 2 Vniuersally Wee are washed as it were from top to toe in the blood of Christ and couered wholly with his perfect righteousnesse 3. Constantly The exercise of spirituall graces and sence of inward comfort may sometimes ebbe and waâ—…e for a time but the Robe of Christs Royall Iustice once put on by the hand of Faith is sure and the same for euer Terrible as an armie with banners Besides this rich and royall attire all this abundance of spirituall fairenesse and beauty wee are to put on also leâ—…t hellish Harpies that I may so speake snatch away our delicious and diuine dainties that glistering Armour thicke seâ—… with heauenly Pearles described Ephes. 6. The glorious splendour whereof is able to dazle the deuils eyes to daunt his courage and driue him out of the field For hee well knowes it to bee tryed and of proofe worne by our Captaine Christ Iesus who foild him by the sword of the Spirit in that great combate in the Wildernesse Mat. 4. And it is that by which the weakest Christians shall shortly by the blessing of the God of Peace bruise Satan vnder their feet The summe is The heauenly attire of a sanctified soule is farre fairer and more amiable then the exquisite concurrence of all earthly beauties and visible glory Were the light of all the starres aboue collected into Sunnes which Astronomers say would make many and added vnto that great bright Body the Prince of all the lampes in heauen nay if besides there were an accession of all the orient splendour of all the Pearles and Iewels of all the Crystall and glistering things in this lower world and all compacted into one beautifull body it would be but as a lumpe of darknesse to the glory and fairenesse of a sanctified soule For the beauty and amiablenesse of an holy soule inflames the heart and affections of the Sonne of God with an extraordinarie pang of spirituall feruent loue Cant. 4. 9. whereas not all the glory of the world though represented to his eye with the fairest lustre and in the most refined forme could moue him euer a whit Matth 4. 8 9 10. Plato was wont to say if morall vertues could be seene with the outward eye they would stirre vp in the heart extraordinary flames of admiration and loue what vnspeakeable rauishments then would Christian graces enkindle were they visible to the carnall eyes They would be able to make Persecutors Professors to turne euen Drunkards into Puritans as they call them the most sensuall Epicure into a mortified Saint For the second Let thy spirituall appetite seed merrily vpon that sweetest place Isa. 25 6. And in this mountaine shall the Lord of Hosts c. Heere is prouided as wee may see a magnificent and glorious feast composed all of marrow and fatnesse of most refined and purified wines which shadow vnto vs spirituall delicacies those golden dainties digd out of the rich myne of the mysterie of Christ by the hand of Faith in the Word Sacraments Prayer Communion of Saints solemne humiliations sweet Soliloquies solitary conferences with our God feeling forethought of infinite ioyes thorow eternity c. Euery circumstance breathes out nothing but sweetnesse In this mountaine It is dressed in Mount Zion The perfection of beautie The ioy of the whole earth The glory of all Lands which represents vnto vs by way of shadow and type the ouerflowing glory of the Christian Church the very Heauen of all humane societies our onely Sunne in this inferiour world which though so much maligned yet were it remooued there would bee a little hell vpon earth and nothing left but a darke Midnight of villany and horror for incarnate Deuils to domineere in A feast of fat things a feast of wines on the lees of fat things full of marrow of wines on the lees well refined Hereby is intimated the matter of the Feast and Royall prouision amplified with extraordinary Emphasis of words elegancy of phrase and iteration of the same sence with variety of expression which also argues its excellency It is not enough to haue said of fat things but there is added of fat things full of marrow and so proportionably of the wines to intimate the most exquisite refined flower of all delicacies and dainties The marrow of the fatnesse as if a man should say the spirit of the quintessence the Diamond of the Ring the sparkle of the Diamond c. And yet all this comes infinitely short of what the holy Ghost would shadow and shew vnto vs by the most sumptuous materials of earthly Feasts But aboue all that which makes the Feast most matchlesse is the Feast-maker Iehouah is the founder and furnisher of it The maker of heauen and earth makes it The Poets describing men of most ambitious appetites after choisest dainties say that they rob all the Elements to please their palates The Master of this Feast the euer-blessed Iehoua tells vs of his store and treasuries this way Psal. 50. 10 11. Euery beast of the 〈◊〉 is mine and the cattell vpon a thousand hills I know all the fowles of the mountaines and the wild beasts of the field are mine But all these being but onely matter of corporall food are yet nothing to the spirituall sweetenesse of this heauenly Banqueâ—… The secret and sacred delight of those diuine dainties intended here by the holy Ghost being vnspeakable and glorious doth infinitely transcend the possibility of all creatures to contribute and the capacity of the largest naturall vnderstanding to conceiue So must be construed as a worthy Diuine sayes truly that Text 1 Cor. 2. Not of the ioyes of heauen which heere the spirituall man himselfe cannot tell what they shall bee but of the Gospels ioy of the Wine and
Fatlings ready prepared and now reuealed to the Beleeuer by the Spirit For the third Heare the voice of sweetenesse and peace Esa. 27. 2. Sing vnto her A Vineyard of red Wine Sing sounds nothing but ioy lightsomnesse and mirth Unto her the sexe of more amiablenesse tendernesse and loue A Vineyard Vineyards Orchards Gardens and such inclosed Plots are as it were the flowers starres and Paradises of the earth Of Wine as though the Vine-trees of this Inclosure brought not foorth the grosser and vncrushed Grapes but more immediately the refined and pure blood of the Grape Red The most generous sparkling delicious wine A Vineyard is as it were the Diamond of the Ring wine the sparkle red the splendour of the sparkle all excellencies sweetenesses transcendencies where God opens expresses his heart and loue to his Church or any of his Chosen For the fourth Let thy faith peruse with enlarged Meditations those precious passages of gracious inuitation and bountifull entertainement Mat. 22. 3 4. Isa. 55. 1 2. Pro. 9. 2 3. Cant. 2. 3 4. Thou shalt sucke and be satisfied euen with the brests of consolations Thy dearest and most glorious Mother which is clothed with the Sunne treads vpon the Moone and weares on her head a Crowne of twelue Starres shall sweetly and tenderly beare thee vpon her sides and handle thee vpon her knees Isa. 66. 11 12. For the fifth It is compared to a wedding Feast and that of a Kings sonne which is woont to be honoured and crowned with height and variety of all magnificence and Maiestie ioy and triumph mirth and musicke When an humbled soule is first made sure to the Sonne of God the ioyfull harmony of all good hearts that heare of it and the triumphant Halleluiahs of the blessed Angels in heauen concurre in consort as it were of congratulation for so happy a match in gladnesse and ioy for so holy a change This Feast begins at thy first betrothing when thou receiuing a Ring as it were beset with fiue precious stones 1. Righteousnesse 2. Iudgement 3. Louing kindnesse 4. Mercies 5. Faithfulnesse It is afterward continued with many gracious passages of loue and sweetest entertainements on both sides euen in this life as appeares in Solomons Spirituall Loue-song It shall at last be crowned with an euerlasting Iubilee and pleasures moe then the Starres of the firmament in number when the Lambe receiues his wife into his neerest and dearest embracements euen into full possession of the most blessed neuer-ending Kingdome of heauen bought for her full dearely with his owne hearts blood Then our Feast of grace ends in the endlesse fruition of Glory How merry then ought wee to be in the meane time who are admitted and enrighted to this gracious and glorious Feast Of expressing which to the life the finest fare and most exquisite delicates of all earthly feasts come as farre short as the dull earth comes short of the glistering heauen a grosse mortall body of the preciousnesse of an euerliuing soule An inch of time of the length of eternity For corporall dainties fat a fraile body for a span of time with earthly food accompanied with a little poore vanishing delight of sence But spirituall food fills an immortall soule with heauenly Maâ—…na out of the mysterie of Christ attended with purest ioy and sincerest pleasures through all eternity 6. As thou doest honour Gods Iustice in trembling at his threats and throwing thy selfe into the dust as extremely vile and fewell for hell vnder his mighty hand and the piercing Maiesty of his pure Word representing clearely vnto thy conscience and pressing terribly vpon it the hainousnesse of all thy lusts iniquities abominable prouocations of the eyes of his glory and diuine indignation flaming against them so when thou findest and feelest thy heart truly wounded by the sword of the Spirit with remorse and sorrow for thy sinnes weary with the heauy weight and burthen of them possessed with sincere hatred and lothing of euery euill way thou oughtest and are bound in conscience and by the commandement of the holy Ghost to glorifie Gods truth in his promises of mercy by throwing thy selfe into the blessed armes and bleeding embracements of the Lord Iesus dying vpon the Crosse in whom they are all yea and Amen with much assurance and peace with vnspeakeable and glorious ioy And the rather because the speciall season and onely opportunity of thy magnifying and honouring the sweet influence of Gods dearest mercies tender-heartednesse and truth vpon humble soules through the precious promises of life is in this life In the world to come they shall all bee accomplished vpon thee to the vtmost and crowned with a cleere vision and full fruition of that euer-blessed and most glorious Maiesty Then faith for euer expires and we see face to face These things being so and most sure let euery true-hearted Nathaneel be heartily intreated nay iustly charged in the name of Iesus Christ by the blessed Spirit the fountaine of all comfort as hee will answer it at the glorious Throne of Mercy erected in heauen vpon purpose to make him euerlastingly merry that hee henceforth most resolutely and for euer cast out of his conscience sprinkled with the Blood of the Lambe and out of the Kingdome of Christ ouerflowing with Peace and Ioy now comfortably established in his soule those intruding vsurpers Tyrants onely naturall Lords ouer naturall men I meane horrours of guiltinesse false feares slauish terrours damps and droopings all vncomfortable pensiuenesse deiections and feare And leauing such Harpies as these and heart-eaters onely to the grumbling and guilty consciences of all those that hate to be reformed and Satans slaues as their proper furies let him with an holy violence against the deuils cruell assaults and contradictions of his owne distrustfull heart and with a cheerefull spirit lay hold vpon his iust inheritance and euerlasting portion purchased for him by the bitter and painefull sufferings of the Sonne of God euen floods and fresh successions of sweetest ioyes shed and showred downe continually from the Throne of Grace vpon his vpright heart in great abundance if hee will but onely vouchsafe to open the doore by the hand of faith that the blessed beames of such lightsomnesse and comfort shining from the face of Christ may come in Let his soule full fairely arayed with its heauenly roabes to which the beauty of the morning brightnesse of the Moone and glory of the Sunne are but a shadow and listning sweetly to that melodious Song composed all of Peace and Ioy Pleasures and Pardon of finne which the mercy of God makes in the eare of its faith fall to and fill it selfe at the Wedding Feast of the Kings Sonne with those euer-springing riuers of spirituall refreshing out of the bottomlesse depth of Gods free loue reuealed in the mysterie of Christ by the ministery of the Word and Sacramentall grace as with marrow and fatnesse Let it sucke aboundantly and be satisfied with the
place of Dragons This alone stings desperately keepes mee from Christ and cuts mee off from all hope of Heauen I am afraid my wilfull wallowing in it heretofore hath so reprobated my mind seared my conscience and hardened my heart that I shall neuer be able to repent with any hope of pardon And why so Is this sinne of thine greater then Manassehs familiaritie with wicked spirits Then Pauls drinking vp the blood of Saints Then any of theirs in that blacke Bill 1. Cor. 6. 10. 11. who notwithstanding were afterward vpon repentance washed sanctified and iustified in the name of the Lord Iesus and by the Spirit of our God Then Eâ—…s transgression who opened the floodgate to al the sins which shall bee committed from the Creation to the end of the World and to all those torments which shall flame in Hell thorow all eternitie Then that horrible sin of killing Christ Iesus And yet the murderers of that Iust and holy One vpon their true compunction of heart were saued by that precious blood which they had cruelly spilt as water vpon the ground But be it what it will a scarlet sinne a crimsin sinne a crying sinne and adde vnto it Satans malicious aggrauations and all that horrour which the deiectednesse of thy present afflicted spirit and darkenesse of thy melancholike imagination can put vpon it yet Pauls precious Antidote Rom. 5. 20 holds triumphantly Soueraigne aswell against the hainousnesse of any one sinne as the confluence of many Where sinne abounded grace ouer-abounded It is indeed a very heauy case and to bee deplored euen with teares of blood that thou shouldest euer haue so highly dishonoured thy gracious God with such an horrible sinne in the dayes of thy vanitie and thou oughtest rather chuse to bee â—…orne in pieces with wilde Horses then commit it againe yet if thy heart now truely wounded with horrour and hate of it will but cleaue to the truth and tenderheartednesse of Iesus Christ in his promises and fall into his blessed and bleeding armes stretched out most louingly to â—…ase and refresh thee as the hainousnesse of it hath abounded heretofore His grace will now abound to the same proportion and much more Nay I will shew thee a Pearle In this case by accident Gods mercies shal be extraordinarily honoured in pardoning such a prodigious prouocation because they are thereby as it were put into it and their dearenesse sweetnesse and infinitenesse improoued to the greater height and excellency and the blood of Christ made as it were more orient and illustrious and the honour and preciousnesse of it aduanced by washing away such an hainous hellish spot If we bring broken beleeuing hearts towards his Mercy-seate it is the Lords Name to forgiue all sorts of offences iniquitie transgression and sinne Exod. 34. 7. It is His Couenant to sprinkle cleane water vpon vs that we may be cleane and to cleanse vs from all our filthinesse and from all our Idols Exek 36. 25. euen from Idolatry the highest villany against the Maiestie of Heauen So that a Papist vpon repentance may be saued It is His promise not onely to pardon ordinary sinnes but those also which be as scarlet and red like crimsin Isai. 1. 18. It is his free compassion to cast all our sinnes into the depths of the sea Mich. 7. 19. Now the sea by reason of his vastnesse can drowne as well Mountaines as Molehills the boundlesse Ocean of Gods mercies can swallow vp our mightiest sinnes much more It is his mercifull power to blot out our sinnes as a cloud Isai. 44. 22. Now the strength of the Summers Sunne is able to scatter the thickest Fog as well as the thinnest Mist nay to driue away the darkest midnight the vnresistable heate of Gods free loue shining thorow the Sun of Righteousnes vpon a penitent soule to dissolue to nothing the desperatest worke of darkenesse and most horrible sinne farre more easily But this mysterie of mercy and miracle of Gods free loue is a Iewell onely for truely humbled soules and the sealed Fountaine Let no stranger to the life of godlinesse meddle with it Let no Swine trample it vnder his feete FINIS a Haec iustorum simplicitas deridetur quia ab hâ—…ius mundi sapientibus puritatis virtus â—…atuitas câ—…editur Greg. in â—…ap 12. Iob cap. 16. b Et quid diuitiae perâ—…untes transitoriae facultates nisi 〈◊〉 aeter na diligentibus sunt â—… Greg. in 1 Reg. cap. 2. c Non debet pro magno habeâ—…i honor humanus quia nullius est ponderis fumus August de Ciâ—…it Dei lib. 5. cap. 17. d Cùm coeperit Deo quisque viâ—…ere mundum contemnere iniurias suas nolle vlcisci nolle hîc diultias non hîc quaerere foelicitatem terrenam contemnere omnia Dominum solùm cogitare viam Christi non deserere non solùm à Paganis dicitur insanus sed quod magis dolendum est quia intus multi dormiunt vigilare nolunt à suis à Christianis audiunt Dictum est de ipso Domino quod insaniret August in Psal. 84. e Nobilitas Heroica est eminentia quaedam notabilis c. per quam homo fiâ—… per adoptionem Filius Dei fit Sponsa Christi sit Templum Spiritus Sancti sine quâ nobilitates caetâ—…rae nihil sunt nhiil proficiunt Gers. Tractat. De nobilitate Psal. 11. 6. f Cùm coeperit homo Christianus cogitare proficere incipit pati linguas aduersaâ—…tium Quicunque illas nondum passus est nondum proficit quicunque illas non patitut nec conatur proficere August in Psal. 119. g Heb. 11. 36 38. h Isa. 6. 2 3. i Ezech. 16. 14. zech 13. 11. g Lib. 5. Sect. 1. Prou. 3. 17. a Câ—…los 1. 1â—… b Rom. 12. 11. c 1. Iob. 3. 3. d Phil. 3. 20. Colos. 3. 2. e Ephes. 5. 15. f Iob 30. 8 9. Psal. 35. 15 16. and 69. 12. I am verò illud quale quà m sanctum quòd si quis ex Nobilibus ad Deum conuerti coeperit statim hâ—…norem nobilitatis amittit aut quantus in Christiano populo honor Christi est vbi religio ignobilem facit Statim enim vt quis melior esse tentauerit de eâ—…ioris abiectione calcatur ac per hoc omnes quodammodo mali esse coguntur ne vises habeantur Ita seculum totum iniquitatibus plenum est vt aut mali sint qui sunt in illo aut qui boni sunt multotum persecutione crucientur Si honoratior quispiam religioni se applicueâ—…it illicò honoratus esse defistit Si fuerit splendidissimus fit vilissimus Si fuerit totus honoris fit totus iniuriae Si bonus est quispiam quasi malus spernitur Si est maluâ—… quasi bonus honoratur Nihil itaque mirum si deteriora quotidâ—…è patimur qui deteriores quotidiè fumus Saluianus De verâ—… iudicio prouidâ—… tia Dei Lib 4. pag. 128 129. g