intreat them to joine science and conscience together to live up to their knowledge and duty by burning inwardly with a well-grounded well-guided zeal for God and by shining outwardly towards men with sobriety innocency sanctity Since great gifts parts and abilities without honesty and grace are great snares temptations mischiefs and plagues both to themselves and others And since without a holy diligent careful improvement of them both to Gods glory and the good of others all those whom God hath honoured and enriched with them will by him be greatly and grievously punished for abusing or not using and imploying of them And as for those who are yet in the petty school and lower forms that have not overgrown nor travailed beyond their A. B. C. in understanding and religion nor as yet rightly learned to know themselves sin the world or their Christs crosse that great work duty and comfort of true Christians there are lessens offered and set by me very necessary for them to be acquainted with instructed in imminded of and seasoned withall 5. Lastly because I know that although many instead of accepting my poor indeavours and receiving the truth in the love of it will not only reject and disregard it but also censure yea bite and revile the Author with their invenomed teeth and frothy filthy tongues yet my labour will not shall not be in vain because it 's in the Lord and for the Lord. In his name and fear this plain not mosaick or carved work was undertaken to his glory it was and is intended directed and by his assistance it is finished I do not I dare not say perfected His blessing his powerful gracious fruitful influence I do therefore most humbly beg upon it And do only desire these few very reasonable things and favours of my Readers First that they would instead of carping snarling or barking at my book which I confesse hath too much Alloy and drosse but no poison in it communicate their own more pure and better refined labours to the world It will be I assure them my joy and contentment not envy or sorrow to see and their own not only honour but comfort to build marble and magnificent fabricks where such low mudwalâ—'d Cottages as mine is are erected 2. Secondly that they would prize welcome and imbrace truth though it curb crosse or kill their carnall Joies profane waies and worldly interests 3. Thirdly That they would seriously consider that Jewels are both as precious and resplendent in a woodden box or in an earthen pot as in a cabinet of Pearl That there may be usefull wholesome and savoury herbs in that Garden which wants the bravery beauty glories and the gaudey embroidery of curious flowers And that sweet meats may do well for sauce or to taste of but are not fit or safe to be made our daily bread 4 Fourthly that they would not be their own murderers and Executioners by loving vice and hating vertue by adoring earth and trampling Heaven under their feet by forsaking Christ to follow the world by poisoning their souls to please their senses by deferring their repentance and an holy Life till death or by leaving the safe and pleasant ways of truth and righteousnesse to walk in the dangerous destructive paths of error heresies and wickednesse 5. Lastly I do earnestly intreat them to read what I have written without partiality passion prejudice and prepossession that Maxim being most true here Intus existens prohibet altenum For vessels top full of earth cannot receive without being emptied either gold or gemms And the most precious cordial the most soveraign Julep must needs be lost and spilt if it be put into a dish that is brim-ful of dung or muck-hill-pit water Read them then once more I do importunately pray and request you with hearts willing desirous and resolved to be informed imminded convinced reformed confirmed and if you receive any good by my weak labours remember to give God the glory of his own work and mercy and instead of your praises Crown me with your prayers But if you do not profit by them consider That bad disaffected and distempered stomacks do turn the best meats into ill humours and into dangerous if not mortall diseases That none are more either sure to languish or likely to die then those that refuse loath and cast away the Physick that should cure them That those who hate the light shall one day when 't is too late clearly see their folly sin and misery in outerdarknesse That glorified Saints would be Gaolers Angels tormentors and heaven it self an hell to those that are unholy unheavenly unregenerated on earth That they who have forgotten forsaken left and lost God and Jesus Christ shall never without humbling their souls mourning for their sins and returning to the Lord find or feel any true comfort peace or happinesse either in life or death That they who do not with the spiritual eye of a justifying faith stedfastly behold the sun of righteousnesse Jesus Christ as 't is said the eagle can with her natural eyes the sun of heaven will and do like the kite with the eyes of sense corrupt reason look earnestly yea longingly at stâ—op eagerly unto and feed greedily upon the carrion and garbage of creature-comforts which do only fit and fat the wicked as the richest soil doth beasts for the day of slaughter vengeance and damnation That they who do not impâ— the wings of their knowledge and reason with the golden feathers of vertue and piety will never be able to soar above the World or to mount up to Heaven a Solus vir bonus est revera prudens Arist Ethic. 6. Contrae inquit alius stolidi et imprudentes sunt mali Keck syst Ethic. lib. 1. c. 3. p. 148. That they only are really wise and good who are sincerely religious because discoursing learnedly is but the bark the shell of knowledge and because professing zealously is but the husk the leaf of sanctity for only honesty and piety are the kernell fruit head heart bloud spirits light heat soul and body of true wisdome and saving grace That therefore Christians ought to conform their practise to their principles their works to their words and their Lives to their light That they whose actions are eccentrick to Gods honour word and will will never without repentance and reformation be found weight in the ballance of the sanctuary That it 's infinitely more both honour and happiness to be a truly holy Christian than it is to be a victorious Caesar a famous Scipio a renowned Castriot or an invincible Alexander That it 's transcendently unspeakably yea unconceiveably more both glory comfort and felicity to and for Christians to morâ—ifie their sins lusts and passions then to overcome own or command the whole world Praeclarum quidem est inquit b Xevoph in Orat. de Agâ—filio Agesilaus inexpugnabiles hostium muros superare multo verum praeclarius animum parare suum
righteous because fidelibus totus mundus divitiarum est saith a Christian the Saints have all the world for their possession And if you would increase your riches the surest way is * Prov. 11 24. 1 Tim. 6. 19. Charitably to scatter them e Reinold Orat p. 397. Divitiae quo aliis jurandis profunduntur magis eo magis nobis ipsis amplificantur servando minuuntur minuendo crescunt acquiruntur largiendo congeruntur dissipando cetinentur impertiends Si parcas perdis amittis si recondas si distribuas custodis non erunt diu tuae si sint solius tuae nunquam erunt magis tuae quam si cunctis communes facias Qui ditissimus esse volet profusissimus sit oportet qui parcissimus esse studet egentissimus sit necesse est sayes the Orator elegantly Riches the more bountifully we distribute them the more abundantly we encrease them They are lessened by keeping and multiplied by lessening of them they are gotten by giving them away heaped together by dispersing and retained by bestowing of them If we spare them we consume them if we hide them we lose them but if we releive others with them we save them They will not stay long with us if we keep them only to our selves they will never be more truly ours then when we freely communicate them to others If then we would be wealthy we must be liberall since the way to be beggerly is to be niggardly and to be poor to be parsimonious The safest place to keep our Riches in is Christs treasury the poor When Alexander the Great had given away his Treasure and they asked him where it was he pointed to the poor and said in Scriniis in my Chests And the only way to take our wealth with us to Heaven or to find it there is to send it before on poor mens backs thither Money is a good Maid but a bad Mistress If we over love Riches they will destroy us If we trust in them they will deceive us They will serve a wordly wicked man when he puts off from the shoar of life by sicknesse and launches into the Ocean of eternity by death as Pharaohs Chariot wheeles did him and the Aegyptians in the midst of the red Sea they will fall off and fail him in his greatest extremity And as the f Mr. Weever Funer Acts Monuments Courtiers Counsellers Friends and Servants did that renowned King of England Edward the 3d. upon his death-bed they will forsake him and neither stay nor so much as appear to administer any either temporall or spirituall Comfort unto him g Rainold Oratus p. 290. What Hannibal said of Antiochus his Souldiers Auro fulgebant satis ad Pompam armis ad pugnam nihil valebant 't is most true of them They may yea can indeed make us shine and glitter with bravery but they cannot fit arm inable or spirit us to fight against our spirituall Enemies with Courage nor the wrath of God with victory And therefore Beatus ille qui non post illa abiit quae possessa onerant amata inquinant amissa cruciant A man may be very poor with abundance of Wealth yea when he hath the highest Tide of plenty and a man may be really h Mens bona possidet Regnum Nerva Imperator rich in the midst of wants yea in the lowest Ebbe of Poverty for pauper esse non potest qui apud Deum dives est 't is not goods but goodnesse not earthly wealth but Heavenly Wisdome not a great Estate in the World but a saving interest in Christ not gold * Prov. 8. 21. but grace that makes us truly rich Isse ad deum copiosus * Judges 4. 18 19-21 ille opulentus advenit cui adstabunt continentia misericordia potentia fides charitas God is not alwaies pleased with those he prospers in the World for he gives wicked men riches as †Jael gave Sisera milk and lodging * Judges 3. 17-21 As Ehud gave Eglon a to their destructions * 1 Sam. 18 21. And †as Saul gave Michal to David to be a snare unto them Riches are but the blessings of Gods left hand the comforts of the lower springs and therefore Goats profane men and women that shall be eternally damned may drink freely fill themselves at those wells and have abundance of them The Indians who never heard of Christ were owners of the Gold and Silver Mines when Christians had but quarries of stone But God deals with his Children as * Genes 24. 6. Abraham did to Isaac he gives them all that he hath grace mercy peace here and glory hereafter And as * 2 Cron. 21. 3. Jehoshaphat did with his Sons he gives the eldest those that are regenerate that are adopted and have the Spirit whereby they can truly comfortably cry Abba Father a Kingdome but unto all the rest to all those that are unconverted unholy he gives only gifts of silver and Gold and of precious things for the wicked have nothing but outward Mercies for their Portion The Prayer O LORD thou alone dost both blesse the substance and curse the blessings of Men. Thy dispensations holy God are various perplexing wonderfull For thou makest some persons that are poor oppressed distressed imprisoned banished and very indigent rich in Faith and dost assure them that they are heirs of an heavenly great glorious ever-enduring Inheritance whilst others that are great full opulent free from troubles and prosperous in the World are both exceeding miserable and very Beggers And yet thou art most just equall righteous in all thy doings wayes and dealings with men Thy mercy O Lord is plenty with Poverty Thy blessing is pure reall refined Riches having no mixture of sorrow care or fear in it Thou O God fillest the empty thou satisfiest the hungry and thirsty with good things when the wickedly wealthy are empty both of Grace comfort peace and contentment though they be brimful yea though they runne over with Abundance Let not Christians therefore O Lord fix their eyes or set their hearts upon earth or earthly things only as if there was no Heaven for them to look upon or no Celestiall riches for them to desire and seek But let them account all sublunary enjoyments but fair and fading Flowers which thine Anger can and will both blast and wither in a moment Let them not prefer a muck-hill before a Mine by esteeming gain more then Godlinesse Let them not strangle their souls with a silver Snare nor suffer themselves to be catched in a Net of Gold by either an inordinate Love of or an over-eager and sinful guest and pursuit after Riches while they live lest when they dye their Iniquity and Calamities teach them their folly upbraid them with their phrensy and sting them for ever with unexpressible misery Grant this O thou who art rich in Mercy for his sake in whom are hid all the Treasures of Wisdome reall
Gall then Honey in it To arise to honour it is enough that the body sweat water but to maintain it it is necessary that the heart weep bloud said Sophia the Emperesse to Tiberius Thou wilt not deny said one to Alexander the great that all which thou hast in thy Conquest gotten is little and that the quietnesse which thou hast lost it much the Realms which thou hast subdued are many but the cares sighs thoughts which thou hast heaped upon thy heart are infinite for the Gods do seldome suffer them to injoy that quietly in peace which they have unjustly gotten in warre s Bacon Essai 19. p. 105. Kings like to heavenly bodies have much veneration but no rest for the choycest and best refined treasures or favours which the world hath to bestow upon her eldest sons are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Giftless gifts nor doth she only deceive her Favourites but destroy them also even by advancing of them the price which they usually pay for their worldly felicity being not only temporal calamities but too often eternal miseries For dignity is not only often but most commonly the moth of vertue honour the Canker of honestie power the poyson of piety and greatnesse is too frequently the death of goodnesse t Mr. Baâ—ter Saints everlasting rest p. 78. The difficulty is so great of conjoyning graciousnesse with greatnesse that is next to an impossibility and their conjunction so rare that they are next to inconsistent To have a heart taken up with Christ and heaven when we have health and abundance in the world is neither easie nor ordinary u Oâ—uphriâ—s Pius quintus dixisse fertur Cum essem religiosus sperabam bene de salute animae Cardinalis factus extimui Pontifex Creatus pene despero Quid igitur insanius quam pro momentanea felicitate aeternis te mancipare suppliciis 'T is a madnesse even to miracle to lose eternal blisse and glory to gain temporal withering honour and mundane felicity The Prayer O LORD thou art that God who didst both create this beautifull World out of nothing and dost know that there is nothing in this bewitching beguiâ—ing insnaring intangling World that can either afford the Soul of man any reaâ—â— Comforts or make it truly happy For if thou but frown chide hide thy face or manifest the least displeasure against us all the lower springs of Creature-comforts will immediately fail dry up disappoint deceive us and like the early dew or morning Clouds consume fly away and vanish before the heat and wind of thy fiery wrath and fierce fearful irresistible Indignation Let therefore Christians O Lord I beseech thee that know the greatness the terriblenesse of thy Power admire thine omnipotency adore thy wisdome praise thy goodnesse tremble at thy wrath strive for Heaven and contenm the World Let them O Lord prefer Goodnesse before Greatness Holinâ—sse before Honour Piety above Pleasure and Righteousnesse bâ—yond Riches Let them not ship-wrack their Consciences or destroy their Souls for Dominion Let not their Ambition to be great men make them forget neglect or cease to be Christians and good men Let them study and endeavour more earnestly to command their own rebellious hearts to govern aright their unruly passions to get their misplaced Affections unnailed and their head-strong traiterous Lusts subdued then to obtain Authority or Dignity amongst Men. And let ibem account it a greater happinesse mercy advancement glory to be Loyall faithfull dutifull Subjects and Servants to Jesus Christ then to be Soveraigns over Kingdomes Let not their eyes be blinded with the Splendour of power nor dazled with the Lustre of Honour nor their hearts and affections lime-twigg'd by an inordinate sinfull Love of Wealth or Greatnesse that so their rise may not prove their ruine their exaltation their destruction their power their poyson and that so their temporall Eminency and momentany Felicity may not usher them unto ingulph and suck them into or both sadly suddenly unexpectedly and unpreparedly end in ever enduring misery Amen Mundus delectat decipit destruit VI. Of Loyalty and Rebellion THAT Kings whose Originall in England is beyond the Memory of History whether good or bad do derive and receive their Authority immediately from God That Subjects do justly and indispensably owe both submission and subjection unto them And that God hath placed them so far beyond the power and so high above the reach of their Subjects cruel unjust ingrateful when against them armed hands that they are accountable to himself only for their Actions are Truths so bright so evident that we may run and read them confirmed by the sacred Scriptures asserted by the pens of learned men and sealed with the bloud of pious Christians in all Ages * prov 8. 15. By me saith God Kings reign †Dan. 2 21. He removeth Kings and seteth Kings up * Dan. 1. 37. The God of Heaven saith Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar a wicked King hath given thee a Kingdome power and strength and glory 2. Touch not mine anointed saies David a man after Gods own heart †1 Sam. 24. 5. whose Counsel and Command to others was his own * practise as well as Duty Nor are we only inhibited to oppose or resist him for there is no rising vp against him sayes wise * Prov. 30. 31. Agur But which is yet more we are prohibited by †Eccles 8. 4. Who may say to a King what dost thou words to question him much more then certainly it is unlawful and sinful for his Subjects to depose or with Swords to murder him Holy Augustine tell us that Kings have their Kingdomes from God not from men Solus verus Deus dat regna terrena bonis malis Famous Bracton saith positively Rex non habet superiorem nisi Deum The King hath no superiour but God The Oath of Supremacy which we take both as lawful and necessary hath these expresse words in it The Kings Highnesse is the only Supream Governour of this Realm and all other his Highnesses Dominions and Countreys as well in all spirituall or Ecclesiastical things or Causes as Temporal c. And Lastly our a Magn. Cha. 29. Law saith That none shall be arrested imprisoned disseized of their Estates deprived of his Liberty banished or otherwise destroyed but by the verdict of his equalls and the Law of the Land This Magna Charta was granted enacted confirmed by the Kings of England from whom this and all other Laws receive their life and being For he is Anima Legis his Fiat animates and quickens them without it Bils are but breathless Embryo's where or whence then have we any Law or just power to restrain imprison arraign condemn banish or to destroy our Sacred Soveraign who hath no peers no equals within his Dominions Thirdly this truth That Christians ought not to resist or Râ—bell against their Kings though Pagans Papists or Tyrants hath been subscribed by millions of
spiders web which either the hands of enemies or the Bâ—esome of destruction or the wind of Gods displeasure can and will both easily and certainly break sweep down and blow away That deny and deprive themselves of all Comforts to make both themselves and their posterities miserable That acknowledge as it were a statute of that morgage nay sell their souls for a little wealth that so they may buy a corruptible fading inheritance for their Children although to purchase that they are sure to forfeit and lose both Heaven happinesse and their own souls That both lay and give * Esay 9. 18. fire to a train to blow up and consume those †I do earnestly desire all covetous irreligious Parents seriously to consider of and tremble at these few amongst many places of scripture Exod 34. 7. Job 18. 19. Job 19. 10 11 â—5 22. 23. 28. houses and lands which they have built upon and bought with the ruines of others That feed their Children with poysoned dainties That * Prov. 3. 33. sow their Lands with Sinne for their off-spring while they live which will bring forth no better fruits nor yeild any other harvest but infamy beggery curses and misery unto them and intail together with their inheritance the wrath of God upon them Certainly those that do thus are equally mad and miserable for as that Blessed and Pious Martyr Bishop Hooper said the gains of the World with the losse of Gods favour is beggery and wretchednesse And all they are such and so doe who preferre Earth before Heaven plenty before piety for they will one-day to their grief shame and astonishment find that their greenest hopes will be blasted their Aegyptian reeds broken their strongest holds demolished that their honey will be turned into †Prov. 20. 17. gall and gravell and that their wealth will end in wants and endlesse misery Alexander the great going upon a hopefull expedition gave away his Gold and being asked what he kept for himself he answered Spem majorum meliorum The hope of better and greater things But these infatuated Mammonists give away their hopes of the most choice and precious things Christ Heaven Pardon a good Conscience Salvation c. and reserve nothing but their Gold and the guilt both of over-loving and sinfully getting it And although they may or doe expect a plentifull harvest after so laborious and troublesome a seed-time yet they will find that they have only plowed upon a Rock laboured in the fire sown the wind and therefore that they shall reap nothing but the whirl-wind for †Prov. 10. 2. Riches profit not in the day of wrath sayes Solomon And a greater then Solomon God himself saith * Ezech. 7. 19. their silver and their Gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the Lords wrath they shall not satisfie their souls neitheir fill their Bowells Let us then as we desire not to be spirituall beggers and everlastingly undone with an holy greedinesse covet the best gifts and strive to be vertuous and pious since f Plato Omne super terram et sub terra Aurum non est ex ulla parte cum virtute comparandum Let us with an indefatigable diligence labour to be rich in faith and good works And let us with an holy scorne trample upon shining dirt and that thick clay wherewith whereby and wherein so many are both soiled and suffocated defiled and destroyed remembring alwaies that man is de terra ex terra sed non ad terram nec propter terram And also seriously considering that Avarice is one of the Divells strongest toiles wherein he takes a Drag-net wherewith he catches and a pioner whereby he both undermines and kills the soul Superbia clausit Diabolo coelum Gula primo parenti abstulit par adifum Avaritia diviti aperuit infernum All covetous persons are spiritual Idolaters i Heylyn Geog p. 790. so that what the people of Brasile said to the Spaniards holding up a wedge of Gold g viz. Behold the God of the Christians may truly and sadly be objected to and charged upon all avaritious men and women for they make goods their God account gain godliness and so do treasure up wrath instead of Wealth * Prov. 3 33. Curses instead of Riches to themselves and their posterities Having thus presented to your view though very unskilfully an Anatomy of that loathsome meagre unsavory unprofitable carcasse worldly mindednesse together with a true though unlively picture of the folly indigency slavery and misery of all covetous persons I shal now commend to your consideration a duty which Christ commands †Matth. 6. 20. But lay up for your selves treasures in Heaven c. Beg earnestly cry mightily to God for his favour and carefully endeavour to keep your selves in his Love labour for a justifying faith for purity humility and sincerity of heart for holinesse and all heavenly Graces c. For these are such Treasures to which all the Indian Mines are but dust heaps empty Exchequers or Gravel-pits and in comparison whereof the rarest the most precious Jewels in the World are but Glasse and flints As so many spurrs therefore to quicken or Arguments to perswade you to expresse your Loyalty to the King of Righteousnesse your Soveraign by your obedience and conformity to his will and Commands and also to prevail with you even for your own sakes and the eternal good of your Souls Conscientiously and carefully to put this duty the pious performance whereof you will find to be equally necessary profitable and comfortable unto you in practise consider First That these Celestiall treasures are not only permanent but they are also reall Riches such as will make you truely everlastingly great honourable wealthy happy Secondly Consider that these and only such treasures are suitable to the nature and necessities of the soul Gold they say is good Conira palpitationem cordis against that trouble called the palpitation or trembling of the heart but it cannot cure a wounded spirit nor so much as ease a heart that 's burdened with the sense and fear of Gods dreadfull wrath for sin The Soul is a spirituall substance and therefore it cannot be fed contented maintained or preserved with mundane mercies or carnal comforts though shel was Emperesse of the universe No nothing but a saving interest in Christ peace of Conscience a sweet communion with God victory over all her spirituall enemies assurance of Gods mercy in the full and free remission of all her Iniquities c. can quiet or satisfie her And therefore she cries out in her pangs wants and serious reflexions upon her self when she is either scorched with Gods hot displeasure and fiery indignation or warmed with the Beams of Love and Mercy darting from the Sun of righteousnesse and shining upon her as that Martyr John Lambert did in the fire h Fex B. of Martyrs vol. 2. p. 427. col 2. None
wicked and rebellious Children of Adam whose Life on Earth is both a Warfare and a wayfare a Fight and a voyage that thou hast both provided them a Magazine and set them up great yea glorious Land-marks The Holy Scriptures to furnish them with Weapons to subdue all their Enenemies And also to afford them Light and to give them Direction whereby they may safely saile by those Shelves and Quick-sands that threaten to ruine and swallow up their Souls in their passage to eternity And further as one of the greatest and most mischievous of them all hast in love to their Souls acquainted them with the danger mischief and misery of Avarice that so they may both fear avoid decline and escape that Soul-wracking Soul-ruining Rock Blessed God add one Link more I beseech thee to the long the precious Chain of thy free Love and rich immerited Mercy Give Christians hearts I pray thee to hate Covetousnesse Let not their Affections O Lord be riveted to earthly things Let them not set up Gold or goods in their minds above their good God Let them not sinfully love or seek that here which will either leave or betray them when they come to lye under black and sad Providences under the burden anguish trouble and terrours of a wakened Conscience and the affrighting confounding Arrest of Death Give them Grace O Lord to covet the best Gifts and then the best of Gifts Jesus Christ that reall Indie wherein all the most precious I never-failing Mines of Saving Grace heavenly Blessings spiritual Joyes and Comforts everlasting Treasures purest sweetest pleasures highest Honoures and eternal Felicity are to be found and gotten will be given unto them Let them O Lord make Christ their All and then they will be sure to want nothing Let all their fresh springs be in thee and then dry and broken Cisterns Creature-comforts will neither deceive nor destroy them And let all O Lord that enjoy the Gospel of Jesus Christ both remember and consider with timely Care and Fear that covetous Persons are not written in the Book of Life and enrolled in Heaven but that they are Registred Listed and put by the Lord into that black Catalogue and Muster-roll of hainous Sinners and odious Idolaters whose souls shall never enter into Gods rest Kingdome and Glory Amen Avaritia Averni est porta pietatis Gangraena Honestatis Tinea Mors Animae IX Of Pleasure IT s an Itch that overspreads all the senses till it grow an incurable disease A hand which tickles us like Trouts to our ruine A Tarantula that stings men so as to make them die laughing It deprives us of our Palats so that we cannot tast any sweetnesse in the duties of holinesse and service of God It 's pleasing but dangerous Opium to the soul and hath a Sirent tongue wherewith it sings such Melodious Lullabies unto it that at length the heart is laid down by it so fast asleep in the Cradle of security that nothing but either the thunder of threatning or the lightning of flaming wrath and scorching anger or the fire of Hell flashing in the very face of Conscience can awaken it * All sublunary delights pleasures and contentments Gustata magis quam potata delectant Cicer. Tusc lib. 2. The top of the cup is honey but the bottome Gall. It at our first acquaintance with us smiles upon us and bids us welcome but afterwards it scourges us with Scorpions By it men and women a Hackwel Apolog p. 458. like the Jesters of Heliogabalus are smothered with violets and buried under Roses a bitter sweet death Voluptuous persons like the b Sr. Anthony Shirlies relation Kings of Persia doe Hauke at Butterflies with Sparrows their lusts make them pursue vanities They are like the c Howel in the Life of Lewis 3. French of whom one saith in regard of their Inconsideratenesse that they are Animalta sine praeterito futuro Creatures that have no respect either to time past or time to come When they have tired glutted and turned the edge of their lusts by a full and free injoyment of their darling lushious delights and their foolish filthy pleasures they say of such a day or time as the d Burton melancholy Barbarous Prince did of that when he saw Julius Caesar and his gallant Romane Army that he had now seen the Gods and that it was the happiest day that ever he had in his life And as the Glutton did at a great feast sure there is no other Heaven but this They are like that Cardinal who said he would not give his part in Paris for his part in Paradise The Alpha of pleasures is mirth but the Omega mourning It 's a false fire an Ignis fatuus that lights leads and betraies those who follow it to danger dishonour destruction It 's a soft sweet pleasant Gale that fills the sails of mens corrupt affections and wasts them delightfully down the calm streams of carnall Joy and sensuall pleasures into the Mare mortuum of everlasting lamentation It 's like the Apples of Sodome very beautifull without when within there 's nothing but dust and rottennesse Like some pictures exceeding fair and amiable if look't upon one way but most ugly and deformed if beheld another way It hath a weight of lead on the one hand as well as a wing on the other a sting as well as a speckled skin And when best or sweetest it 's but honey and Aloes wine and water mixed together nay many times it stings the heart so painfully that even while smiles sit upon the * Prov. 14. 13. face sighs and sorrowes fill and pearch upon the spirit That very day saith Marcus Aurelius when I triumphed in Rome openly for my Victories my heart wept secretly Pleasure it strangles the soul with silken halters smothers it in a bed of down throws it from a Tower of Pearl stabs it with a Golden dagger kils it with a delicious banquet and drowns it in a Sea of Wine The infatuated Lovers of it are like e Speed Cro. p. 85. Domitian whose delight was to catch and kill flies Like f Hackwel Apolog p. 463. Nero who used to fish with golden hooks and nets drawn with purple coloured Lines for Gudgeons T is like Diogenes his laqueus melleus delightful but deadly A voluptuous person is an Aetna alwaies burning within with foolish and filthy desires and often flaming out in Acts of impurity beastialitie impiety Hee 's an Israelite dying with Quailes in his mouth Pleasure it 's like a Favourite both a summe and a cypher in a very little time all and nothing she serves and deludes her Lovers as t is said the Devill hath done some witches glving them shining leaves instead of reall Gold and proves an empty cloud instead of a Juno to those that embrace her She decoys men into snares and dangers and instead of a pleasant walk she proves at last a deep pit and a narrow
thinks I hear as it were some sweet instrument of Musick sounding in my ears Job 34. 29. Thus when God gives quietnesse who then can make troubles when he comforts speaks peace and gives Joy to his people who or what can make them sad unhappy or disconsolate It 's true Gods jewells may yea often do lye in a black Cabinet in a mournful condition for a time yet like diamonds in a dark night they do then sparkle and give a resplendent lustre for their graces like Sun-beams dart and shine through the thickest clouds of grief and misery Like Ballâ— they rise the higher by being stricken down with the hand of Correction And although they be loaden or pressed with a laden a very ponderous burden of inward or outward troubles yet they make good that impresse which the noble family of the Columni gave when they were banished by Pope Alexander the 6th A bending branch with this inscription Flecti potest frangi non potest They are Oaks proud stubborn obdurate sinners not Osiers meek humble penitent Saints that are torn blasted and consumed by Thunder and lightning by judgments vengeance and fiery wrath from Heaven The worst evills that befall them cannot hurt them n Marsil Ficin Epistolar lib. 4. Mala non patitur nisi malus And which is more they do them good for God takes the venome out of them and so makes them not only safe but healthfull also and necessary for them Christians therefore should yea must be Not only patient submissive and contented under chastisements saying with him ut fiat voluntas Domini quotidie oramus cum facta est voluntas Domini feramus But Joyfull also as the blessed Apostles and those that were spoyled for the name of Christ were when for a good cause a good conscience a good God and a gracious Saviour they were both scourged and plundered saying with another Placent mihi dolores per quos nihil in mundo placet They should be thankfull and say with Iob when all the beautifull and pleasant plumes of riches honour prosperity health and and his dearest creature-comforts were pluckt away from him by the just yet mercyfull hand of God but violent and unjust hands of cruell enemies who stript and left him naked and distressed * Job 1. 28. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Christians should labour to be soundly humbled for the * Lamen 3. 2â— 30. provoking procuring cause of all their sorrows and sufferings their transgressions They should seriously consider that there are two Oceans to drown those Egyptians their sins in Gods wonderfull mercy and the infinite merits of Jesus Christ and so by a lively faith keep their souls both from despairing and mourning They should by servent prayer seek to get the afflicting hand of God sanctified unto them that so his Rod as well as his Staffe may comfort them They must not only clear and justifie God in his severest dispensations towards them bat also acknowledge his mercy in that he doth but whip them with a rod whereas they have deserved to be scourged with Scorpions and because he doth lay but the little finger of his displeasure upon them whereas he might justly have smitten them with the hand of his wrath Christians must resolve to swallow that poyson no more to run into that fire no more that is to commit those crimes and iniquities no more which did so much indanger the lives of their Souls and whereby they did so much both dishonour and displease the Lord. They must be sure when they come safe to land * Psalm 76. 11 10. to perform those vows and promises which they made to God when they were tossed and distressed in the Sea of adversity Lastly Gods people must adore and admire the wisedome and goodnesse of that God who both can and doth make the Lyon of affliction to afford and give the honey of spirituall consolation and the sweet meat of saving grace to the souls of his people it being a most sadly experimented truth that if man should enjoy a Paradise all his dayes in this World he would then seek no further but sit down contented and say of it as Peter once did of Mount Tabor It 's good for me to be here Because that if our lives be not made bitter and sowr by tribulations neither Holynesse Christ nor Heaven will be either dear or desirable to our souls And though the Lord do afflict his Children yet the sharpest the longest calamities and sorrows which they can possibly endure on this side their graves are but a drop a moment of pain distresse trouble misery and griefe to that Ocean of Joy and eternity of Blisse which they shall surely enjoy after their death 2 Corinth 4. 17. * Our light afflictions which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternall weight of glory â— â—ips Epist 63. saith blessed Paul O felices inter omnes miserias hoc uno Christiani quod via nobis per haec ad aliam vitam in qua nec gaudiorum nec modum ullum esse scimus nec finem Adversity sanctyfied is a sharp but a sure way to felicity and glory Like honey it both purgeth and heales a Christian And as affliction hath a sting wherewith it pains and wounds so like that Serpent the Scorpion such is the compassionate goodnesse of the Lord it hath also in its own Bowels an antidote wherewith it doth both ease preserve and cure a Child of God and so becomes his Balsam not his Bane The Prayer O LORD thou art both Wisdome Love and Goodnesse it self 'T is pity therefore as well as anger compassion as well as indignation that moves thee to strike chasten frown upon and afflict thy people Thou knowest that even the best and most dutifull of all thy children are apt to become wilde wanton forgetfull stubborn unthankfull sickly and diseased if thou lay up thy rod and feed them fat with Mercies And thou seest that prosperity makes them to gather dust and to grow both mouldy and rusty but that Adversity makes and keeps them faire bright and clean O let the consideration therefore of thine infinite Wisdome make us quietly willingly contentedly silently to submit unto all thine angry dispensations to bear thine indignation and to kisse thy correcting Hand And let O Lord the serious meditation of thy wonderfull Love and Goodnesse make us both joyful and thankfull for those sharp but safe yea necessary Corrosivâ—s the soundest hearts having some proud flesh in them and for those painfull but purgative healing comfortable potions and pledges of thy fatherly care and tender compassions towards us Let us all when we are afflicted consider and remember that it 's for sinne we suffer and that our transgressions are the source of our punishments that so when we are chastised for our faults we may not murmur but mourn repine but repent nor be peevish but patient submissive
signum esset quam principii lenitas Suctonius like the heavy bloudy and condemning sentence of that cruell Emperour Domitian it do begin with a preface of Clemency with pleasure and outward prosperity yet it like his mercilesse Judgement will be sure to have a wofull horrible and most miserable Conclusion The Prayer O LORD thou hast acquainted us with the vanity frailty and uncertainty of this naturall Life in those lively reall teaching resemblances and comparisons of it in thy Word of Truth to a Post a Race a Shuttle a Vapour Span Bubble Flower Grasse And thou hast also informed us that as short brittle mutable as it is we must either whilest our Souls so journ in these houses of Clay our bodies whose foundations are in the dust both make our peace with God and get our Pardons sealed or else we shall lye under thy dreadful intolerable yet unavoidable vengeance for ever O Grant therefore most gracious God that we may not ravel out those Golden Skeans of precious opportunities offers of Grace and means of Salvation which thy mercy bounty patience have both given and continued unto us to make our callings and elections sure Suffer us not holy God to play loyter sinne or sleep away our precious Time seasons of Grace our Talents Gifts Hopes Comforts Promises lest while we live those daies come upon us wherein like Pashur thou in wrath and justice make us a burden to our selves Lest thou make our lives so bitter and grievous that we shall digge for death as Riches and seek it as for hid treasures even couâ—t crave court it and yet not be able to find it or prevaile to be taken out of our Misery by it And lest after all these terrors sufferings sorrows agonies and languishings our sinful Souls be for ever separated divorced banished from the God of love light life and cast into utter darknesse and eternal death amongst cursed Reprobates and damned Devills when we go hence and shall be seen no more Amen Vita vere religiosa optimum est medicamentum contra Timorem Terrorem Mortis Stimulum Bonus semper Vivit Abit enim non obit Asbconditnr non abscinditur Dormit non perit Mutatur non moritur XXIV Of Death T Is the Souls convoy to Heaven or Hell 'T is the Porter that lets a true sanctified mortified Christian into Paradise through the narrow Gate of Life The Pilot that steers him over the rough raging troublesome Sea of this World and lands him safe at the Haven of Happinesse Heaven 'T is the first statute in Magna Charta A Law made Primo mundi which can never be repealed * Hebr. 9. 27. For it 's appointed It 's inacted ordained in the High Court of Parliament in Heaven for all men once to dye 'T is to a Child of God the Soules Coronation day gaudy-day its glad day as a Mr. Fox B. of Martyr vol. 3 p. 431. Wolsey its wedding day as b Idem vol. 3. p. 502. Bishop Ridly the night before he was to be burned being at Supper he was very cheerful and did bid Ms. Irish his keepers Wise and the rest of the company at Boord with him to his Wedding For saith he to morrow I must be married blessed Bishop Ridley called it and its year of Jubilee But it 's a sluce pulled up to drown the wicked It 's an impenitent sinners ship-wrack 'T is the death buriall and period of his prosperity delights pleasures The funerall of all his comforts and the nativity of his eternall torments 'T is the Bâ—kers going out of Prison to execution a Josephs inlargement and promotion a Queene Elizabeths Exaltation to a Throne 'T is a good Mans Spring a Reprobates Autumne a Nuâ—c dimittis to a pious Simeon a Take him Gaoler bind him hand and foot and cast him into utter darkness to an impious Soul A quietus est a writ of ease to the godly a warrant signed and delivered for the destruction of the Wicked 'T is an Ahimaaz bringing good tidings to the righteous but the last and worst of all Jobs messengers to him that is unholy relating his sad his irrecoverable irreparable losse of all soul body goods riches pleasures friends children house lands honors mirth hopes offices power earth and Heaven unto him It lets that Dove the Soul out of the Cage the Ark of the body It knocks off those bolts mortality and frailty and sets it at liberty It 's the taking up of Jeremiah the Soul out of the dark filthy noysome irksome Dungeon of the flesh and the safe delivery of that Daniel from those hungry cruell terrible Lyons sin Satan Hell Christ hath disarmed death and now to the Godly Mors nomen est tantum c Owen Epiâ— Introitus non interitus So that what Camerarius appointed by his last will should be written on his monument may also most truly be ingraved upon the Tomb of every one that dies in the Lord Vita mihi mors est mors mihi nova vita est Life to me is death and death to me is a new a true a blessed a glorious Life Death t is both unavoidable and certainly uncertain d Apollonius Thyaneus who had travailed over the greatest part of Europe Asia and Affrica being asked at his return n Dial of Princes what wonderful things he had seen in those Countries through which he had travailed answered That he wondred most at two things 1. That in all the parts of the World where he had been he had seen quiet men troubled by seditious persons the humble subject to the proud the just obedient to the Tyrant the cruell commanding the merciful the ignoâ—ant teaching the wise and above all That he had seen great Thieves hang the innocent on the Gallows 2ly That the other thing at which he marvailed was that in aâ—l the Countries and places where he had been he knew not neither could he find any man who was immortal but that at length both high and low had an end And as Death is inevitable so it is also in it self terrible For groans sighs tears convulsions cries palenesse blacks and Funeralls are the Harbingers Heralds and the train thereof And yet to the Godly t is but like a Kings visit to his beloved Subjects in his progresse acceptable honorable welcome and comfortable Nam pompa mortis magis terret quam mors ipsa e Augustus Caesar died in a complement Vespasian in a Jest Galba with a Sentence Septimius Severus in dispatch c. Bacon Essâ—ys 2. p. 8. The very Heathens entertained it without fear embraced it without sorrow The * Hâ—rodotus lib. 5. Thracians or rather Thrausians wept at the birth of their Children and †In the primitive times Câ—ristians were wont at Funerals to sing Psalms of Thanksgiving Kinet Cathol Orthod Quest rejoyced at the death of their Friends Solon could say to rich Croesus Ante obitum nemo beatus No man is happy till
true Beleever is afraid of that which with zeal courage sincerity and constancy he is resolved to do to serve God He delighteth in it yet is grieved that he can perform duty no better He seeketh diligently for that which he knows he shall not find and beggeth that importunately which he is assured will be both denyed and granted in this world unto him He is what he seems to be yet is not what he seems being like Solomons Tents black without but adorned with precious things within He is both black and white weak and strong contemptible and Honourable sick and well at Liberty and in Prison a Sinner and a Saint fearfull and yet bold as a Lyon 19. He leaves the dirty broad way of the World and by crossing that he goeth on directly in the right way toward Heaven Though he be far from home and from his friends in a strange Countrey yea in the darkest night yet he can go to his Father almost in a moment without wandring Though all the men in the World should lye armed in Ambush to surprize him yet he can passe either safely by them or victoriously through them For although he may be taken or killed yet he cannot be kept or overcome 20. A true Beleever loveth Gods Words and Ordinances as dearly as his Life Because by them he was wounded to his healing humbled to his raising inlightened to the beholding of his Blindnesse emptinesse nakednesse nothingnesse filthinesse and because without them though he had been the sole Monarch of the whole world he had been everlastingly undone and a very begger He trembles at the good the holy Word of God yet both rejoyceth in it and findeth transcendent sweetnesse spiritual yea soul-ravishing joy and gladnesse by it 21. He honoureth highly loveth dearly and obeyeth willingly his naturall Parents yet prizeth and affects his spirituall Father a Godly Minister above and beyond all men though he be not at all akin to him Because he knoweth that it 's better never to be then to be everlastingly miserable and never to be Borne then not to be Borne again 22. He will not he dare not spare his own Flock and take anothers only Lamb. He therefore dedicates and consecrates the Sabbath-day which is none of his own wholly cheerfully joyfully thankfully heartily and religiously to the Lord. And by so doing he getteth six for one to himself together with a promise of Gods guidance favour protection and blessing upon him his and his Labours in his calling in them And so by serving God he serves himself too and by giving God his due he both keep 's his own and getteth more then he had 23. A true Beleever increaseth his estate by giving it away gathereth by scattering By clothing others he adorns himself with Robes by relieving others he supplies his owne wants and by sowing Charity he reapâ—s Mercy 24. He saveth his Life by confessing his guiltinesse whereas others condemn themselves by concealing their crimes He 's the only happy man for nothing can make him miserable Because he is comforted when afflicted he is at Liberty in Bondage at home when Banished sed when famished full though empty satisfied when hungry advanced though degraded safe when most cruelly persecuted and when killed crowned 25. He is naturally heavy and droffy yet ascends and the nearer his body comes to its Center the earth and its long home the Grave by age and sicknesse the faster and the higher his Soul mounts towards Heaven And at length his Soul is divorced from his Body both with joy and griefe exultation and mourning 26. A true Beleever is never satisfied yet alwaies contented He feareth continually yet seldome wants Hope He doubts yet stedfastly beleeveth he is not worldly minded and yet he is so covetous that he never thinks he hath enough He is most temperate and sober yet is alwaies thirsty He is a modest Suiter yet is resolved to take no denyal He knoweth and confesseth himself to be unfit to ask and unworthy to receive either a gracious answer or any mercy and yet he will not cease begging till his prayers be heard and his petitions granted 27. He never sits stands nor lies but is alwaies walking His motion is neither retrograde nor circular but progressive yet the longer faster and further he travails the stronger and fresher he is All things â—re become new in him yet the old man is not destroyed He is very pitifull and tender hearted yet so mercilesse and implacable an enemy to sin that he is never quiet or pleased till it be mortified crucified and dead in him He is both in the world and out of it at the same time He is willing yea desirous to keep his estate yet freely parteth with it if God will have it and accounts the losse of all for Christ the greatest the truest gain 28. He injoies that which he doubts he wants loves unfainedly that which he feare he doth not care for prizeth above all things that which others trample under their feet He is assured of his Salvation and that he is an Heir of Glory yet questions his evidences and by * Nulla sunt sirmiora quam quae ex dubiis facta sunt certa doubting makes them firm and good 29. A true Beleever matters not his life nay he desires to dye yet strives more then any man to save himself He is terribly afraid of Hell and Damnation yet would not knowingly and with delight and perseverance commit or live in any one sin to obtain Heaven 30. He is diligent in his calling yet doth not mind earthly things He alone hath a true comfortable and religious right to the Creature yet accounts himself an Usurper till his Title be confirmed by his interest in Christ Though he hold his Land in free Soccage yet he acknowledgeth 't is but in Capite Though his Tenure be in Fee-simple yet he confesseth himself to be but a Tenant at Will Though his goods be his own yet he knows and beleeves himself bound freely and liberally if he be able to distâ—â—bute and communicate them unto others He beâ—eeveth all things without Christ are nothing but vaâ—ity and â—â—â—â—tion of Spirit and that Christ alone is all things without any thing else 31. That which others fear flie and abhorre he courts desires and welcomes That which is their Funerall is his Nuptials For death doth not kill but translate him it doth not execute but remove him He dies daily and so doth not die at all but deparâ— His sleep is a short death and his dissolution is but a long sleep Death which is a destructive deluge to the wicked is only an Ark to him preserving and carrying him safe to Mount Ararat Heaven and there it both lands and leaves him 32 A true Beleever anticipates the last day He accuseth arraigneth and condemneth himself and so is both acquitted and discharged by God at his death He is no Incendiaâ—y yet desires nothing so
for givenesse because he sins willingly even at that very time when he seems earnestly to beg of the Lord the pardon of his sins and so doth not please or serve but mock God For the God of love and life doth infinitely hate and will not hear those that love hatred and live in it But he will avenge himself severely upon all those that desire and delight to revenge themselves implacably upon others 64. 'T is midnight with an impenitent transgressor when he hath the brightest noontide of prosperity And 't is a serene a shining Noontide with a Saint when he is in the cloudiest midnight of adversity 65. A Saint is a great gainer though he lose all that he hath in the world But a wicked man is a great loser though he gain all that the world hath in it 66. He is mercifully cruell to his own Soul that spares the lives of those Amalekites his Sinnes But he is both cruelly merciful and merciful without any cruelty to his soul that kils them all without mercy 67. He that would live when he dies must kill by mortification all his deadly sins in his life And he that would never die * Mortibus viâ—imus Senec. must die daily 68. The sins of others will increase his sorrow that doth not sorrow for others sins 69. He that would be married to Jesus Christ must get his heart divorced from an inordinate love of worldly things because Christ Jesus will give him a Bill of Divorce that loves the things of the world inordinately For he that makes earth his Heaven or Paradise by suffering a sinful love thereof to enter into his Soul his Soul shal never enter into the Paradise of Heaven 70. He that hath a saving interest in Christ shall be full and rich even when he is empty wantful and deprived of all creature-comforts But he that wants a saving interest in Christ will be poor and empty in the midst of his fullest injoyments and greatest plenty 71. His Soul is sick to death that neither is nor ever yet was heart-sick with grief for the sins of his Life which will be without true repentance the death of his Soul nor love sick for the great and good physitian of the soul Jesus Christ who is both lovely and loving to those only that are sick of love for him 72. His sins are most both odious and hainous that after he hath repented of them returns again with delight to the commission of his hainous sinnes Because he hath laid God in one and put the Devill into the other Scale of the ballance and suffered the Devill to weigh down the Lord. He hath also heard God and the Devill argue and plead and after a full hearing he doth deliberately by wilful relapsing decree for Satan against his Saviour And so he doth both undervalue dishonour and provoke God and also repent that he did repent God will therefore most certainly judge him for his sins without mercy that gives so sinful a judgment against the God of mercy 73. It 's reported that when Caesar saw M. Brutus come running upon him amongst those that murdered him he said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And thou my son The sins of Gods Children do grieve and offend Christ more then the iniquities of his Enemies Because a contempt or an injury from a friend doth both dishonour him more highly and wound him more deeply then an affront or an abuse from a professed Adversary 74. He is a bad Magistrate that is not good for nothing And as pious Governors do clothe a Nation with the Robâ—â— of Joy and gladnesse So wicked Rulers do put it into Sackcloth and mourning 75. He that undermines the Church of God doth at once labour sweat and weary himself to dig a hole down to hel for his Soul to fall irrecoverably into the bottomlesse pit And he that persecutes the people of God by shedding their innocent crying bloud puls up a sluce to let in a crimson deluge to drown him 76. Never did any wicked men attempt to pull down God from his Throne by setting up themselves their lusts interests and idols above him or his glory but the God of glory pulled or rather tumbled them down headlong for that wicked attempt Either by humbling their proud presumptuous hearts or else by destroying their persons or blasting their cursed designes or which is yet more dreadful by damning their rebellious Souls 'T is then a fearful thing not to fear falling into the omnipotent Arms and the angry hands of that terrible God who both can and will with one irresistable blow kil and confound the offender and with one frown or stroke send him at once both to his Grave and Hâ—ll 77. A pious Christian though he hates no mans person is yet the worst most inexorable and invincible enemy of all mortall creatures to the ungodly whose works and waies his Soul doth loath and detest For by his faithful prayers he can prevail with God to infatuate their Counses dispirit their stout hearts blast their designs wither their flourishing hopes to break the Arme of their power and to rescue himself and those that fear God out of the Jawes of Enemies dangers and death 'T is therefore a stupendious astonishing madnesse in wicked men to hate those whom God loves to destroy those for whose sakes themselves are preserved to hope to build themselves houses upon earth by pulling the pillars thereof to condemn them that shall one day be their Judges and to plot and presume to plant themselves or their Posterities in the World by supplanting and rooting out the upright * Prov. 2. 1. who shall dwell in the Land whereas the * Prov. 3. 33. wicked * in whose house the curse of the Lord is shall be cut off from the earth †Prov. 2. 22. For if Cedars vinâ—â— olive and orenge trees be cut down then brambles briers and barren Fig-trees will certainly suddainly miserably be cursed burned and consumed 78. He is the worst malignant and Incendiary in a State that is a wicked man For he not only hates goodnesse and good Christians but he also both kindles the fire of Gods wrath against it and keeps it burning and flaming by casting continually the oyle of sinne upon it 79. Those Governours and great ones who are so bewitched with the fading dying and killing glories of this World as for the Love of them to slight Heaven neglect the great Salvation offered them and to reject Jesus Christ their pomp will end in pain their honour in Infamy and their Glory in eternal misery 80. He that slights opposes robs and wrongs the Ambassadours of Jesus Christ Gods faithful Ministers doth dishonour displease and bid defiance to their Master the Lord of Hosts He must therefore without repentance restitution and submission expect to receive neither peace pardon nor quarter but death without mercy that steals from or fights against the God of bounty Justice and Mercy and
Lord it 's my own as well as others Joy and wonder that your Lordships dawning is a serene Meridian That you came out of the Mine refined gold and a polished Jewel from the Rock That your equally amiable graces and eminent accomplishments do honour your honour and ennoble your Nobility That your green years and blooming youth have those gray hairs snowed upon them which are at once the Ornament Comfort Crown and Glory of venerable age I mean Learning Wisdome and Vertue That these equally beautifull and fragrant flowers should be full blown in your Lordships January when they scarce peep out but are very rarely â—udded in the May of others and that you are not only fair and flourishing but also both sweet and ripe in the very Blossome when the most are either foul or blasted deformed or withered or both with ignorance and vices in their youth This I say being really true and without an Hyperbole Flattery or fram'd Idea of what might or should be in a Christian or a Person nobly descended 't is both an happy Prodigie and a most auspicious Omen that your Lordship will grow up prosper rise shine and live to be the Glory of your Noble Family the honour of your Nation the darling happinesse and triumph of your Countrey and like the Sun a great choyse blessing to all those that do or shall live under your cherishing comforting reviving influence by being so happy as to have any relation unto or dependance upon your Honour My Lord that is the right the true Nobility indeed that is inlaid with vertue and piety for he is the Noblest peer in the World that is sincere religious There is no creature on this side Heaven either so glorious or excellent as a Godly great man The purest Gold is but shining clay the most precious and resplendent Gemms are but common and dushkish Stones all the sparkling stars are but dim candles set in dark Lanthorns and the refulgent eye of Heaven is but a glimmering Gloworm or Taper compared with his worth and brightnesse He 's a Phaenix whom the other Birds of Honour cannot but applaud esteem and admire though they will not imitate him A Titus Vespasian the love and delight of mankind the Loadstone joy and jewel of all honest gracious hearts He 's one of Gods most honourable Privy Counsellours A Prince of the most truly Royall bloud the richest Heir and the greatest the happiest Monarch in the World for Heaven is his Inheritance and Kingdome These these my Lord are the prerogatives priviledges and portion of those that are great and good My Lord it s a custome in some places when a Tenant dyes for the next that injoies the lease of the deceased to pay his Land-lord an Harriot viz. The best of all his quick goods and Cattle My Fore-fathers who for an hundred years were Tenants to your Lordships noble Progenitors lye all of them in their beds of dust I succeed them in that Relation they had to your Honorable Family I humbly hope therefore that it will not be interpreted a breach of Covenants though I pay that service in lieu of a Harriot to your Lordship which I confesse I doe most justly owe and therefore in Duty and Gratitude ought also to pay unto that mirrour and honour of her Sex Family and Name your Lordships truly noble Mother But yet I dare not tender this Homage to your Honour without this most humble Supplication That your Lordship will be pleased to pardon my very high criminal presumption in thus daring to setan orient Jewel in a leaden Ring to stamp your Lordships beautiful image upon a copper medal and in offering to pay or rather to acknowledge a little of my great debt in leather instead of silver But truly my Lord besides a faithful heart and fervent prayers for your felicity this is the best of all my goods and the chiefest of all my treasures that I have to lay at your Lordships feet And this is also the liveliest the truest portraiture that I am able to draw Either of your Honours merits which to expresse fully or to speak elegantly silence is both the best Orator and the most eloquent Panegyrick Or of your Honourable Family's favours Nobleness and Goodness to their Tenants who did both know and consider that the faint and sickly sweats the naked backs empty bellies crying wants complaining sufferings and the inevitable beggery of Tenants and their Families impoverished famished and undone by being unmercifully racked in their rents were both bloudy gain sinful providence cruel thrift and also a sure way to canker and lessen yea to consume their estates And therefore your Lordships Noble Progenitors so far as I do either know or could ever hear have carefully wisely constantly shunned scorned and abhorred those fatal shelvs of oppression and exaction upon which so many great avaritious worldly greedy Land-lords have wrack't and ruin'd their estates honour consciences and posterities Lastly this is the exactest draught that I can make of my own thankfulnesse and obligations Be pleased therefore my most Noble Lord once more I earnestly beseech you to pardon both my uncivil prolixity and my unmannerly injurious boldnesse in presuming to beg of your Lordship not only that you would condescend so much below your self as to alight and stay in so mean a Fabrick but also that you would deign to lodg in such Sheets as are both very course and black This honour and favour if your Lordship will vouchsafe to confer upon me then these rough-hewn stones which I have set up as columns of my faithfulnesse duty gratitude will become and continue in spite of the iron teeth and the insatiable appetite of devouring time that eats and consumes without fulnesse surfeiting or satisfaction even flinty pillars as well as feeble persons a double monument of your Lordships noblenesse and goodnesse to succeeding ages These these my Lord are the Forces and weapons wherewith you have do and will easily certainly gloriously not only conquer but indear all reall vertuous hearts These are the fetters too wherewith they will be not only chained most strongly and kept most securely but also wherein they will be both willing joyful and ambitious to follow the Triumphal Chariot of your transcendent worth And amongst all those happy Captives who thus adorn your Lordships victories none will or can more cordially honour you then he who with his most ardent prayers for the temporal Spiritual and eternal prosperity Felicity and glory both of your Honour and your Noble relations on earth and in Heaven takes the boldnesse to subscribe himself My LORD Your Honours most Humble and most faithful Servant Tho. Goddard TO THE Christian Reader BOOKS are a Feast or Banquet to which the invited guests all that can read understand do come with various appetites and palats Some do hunger after and like best that meat which is most unwholesom and dangerous corrupt principles Others do desire and delight
r. thy dele own p. 19. l 3 marg r. in Trinitate p. 12. l. 14. r. covet p. 23. l. 10. r. this p. 24. l. 12. r. all miseries p 25. l. 19. r. all whose prayers p. 27. l. 7. marg r. but. p. 35. r. storm p. 44. l. 13. r. but rebellion p 49 l. 6. r. erected p. 50. l. 25. r. pittacus p. 51. l. 24. r. eutrapelus p. 51. l. 19. marg r. Frilby p. 52. l. 22. r. juvandi p. 53. l. 22. r. is l. 36. r. patientia p. 54 l. 9. r. with Isaack p. 55. l. 7. r. quest p. 56. 10. r. dum sitiâ— sitare â—item p. 57. l. 21. r. visiting p. 61. l. 36. r. dark p. 62. l. 2. r. delight in p. 68. l. 27. r. their p. 71. l. 14. r. pleased p. 76. l. 15. r sheds l. 22 r. in the Center p. 89. l. 2. r. as l. 11. God in all things ends the parenthesis p 90. l. 5. r. clean p. 94. l. 16. r. expressions p. 95. l. 12. r. which p. 103. l. 8. r. leaden p. 104. l. 20. r. a Nathan p. 117. l. 31 del that p. 122. l. 9. r. pessimus p. 132. l. 21. r. and in the margenâ— r. and articles of the Ch. of England 23. A little Box of pils p. 13. l. 29. for Varius r. Narius p. 18 l. 23. r. down Reader thou art desired to take notice that all the Pages from 48 are false folied that instead of 49 there is 45 c but we have kept them in this â—rrata as they should be that is in order MISCELLANEA OR Serious Usefull Considerations Morall Historical Theologicall I. Of God THE nature of God who is the deepest Ocean of being cannot be measured by the short the snarled line of mans shallow dark erroneous understanding nay t is equal madness and presumption to attempt it For how can that which is narrow and finite contain or comprehend that which is infinite Deus religione intelligendus est pietate profitendus sensu vero persequendus non est sed adorandus His glorious essence so dazles the purblinde eyes of reason and naturall knowledge that the more they look on him the blinder they are We can at best but spell him in his wonderfull works of Creation Providence Preservation and his Gubernation of the world as Men as Christians we may and can read much of him and see his back parts in his Attributes Word Ordinances by his holy Spirit teaching illuminating and applying the spirituall eye-salve of heavenly wisdome and saving knowledge to our bemisted darkned benighted minds But when we are Saints in Heaven the Prospectives of Glory and Immortality being given unto us we shal then see him face to face and know him as he is Here on earth where we are but strangers guests pilgrims it is our duty to serve obey admire adore him There which is our City Heaven home it will be our both delight happinesse reward and portion to behold possess enjoy him for ever and this is the very Apex and completion of a Christians felicity Here it 's presumption danger sin to peep into the secret Cabinet the Sacred Ark of his unrevealed will there God will discover and the soul will with fresh unwearied renewed desires sweetest pleasures most refined blisse purest Joies and fullest contentment without all possibility of either sorrowing sinning losing them or being satiated with them see and possesse whatever can afford it blessedness glory or satisfaction Here errors crimes miseries and judgments are the fruits effects rewards of a busy bold curious profane inquiry into the essence of that thrice blessed incomprehensible Majestie and therefore we must be sober fearful humble modest in our search of it in our approach towards it and not dare or presume to touch that glorious Mount by any irreligious irreverent unwarrantable notions opinions or expressions of this great God blessed for ever for otherwise in stead of a discovering light to guide and comfort us we shal be sure to meet with a fire that will consume us Lâ—qui volentes de Dei profundo merst sunt in profundum It is honour comfort and happinesse enough for us to know him by a justifying faith to be our God in Christ while our souls abide in the Tents of our bodies in the Wildernesse of this world and that when death hath taken them down we shall have spiritual Mansions and a glorious inheritance in the Canaan of Heaven This Almighty yet most mercifull God is the sole Landlord of the whole world we are his Tenants at will and the Rents which he requires of us and hath obliged us to pay duly truly and not only yearly but daily unto him are obedience holinesse love praises praier and thankfulnesse This God is both omniscient omnipresent omnipotent and just and pure therefore he both knoweth all those sins that are acted though never so secretly or cunningly by the sons of men abhors them and will certainly yea severely punish them Yet he is also patient pitiful gracious and merciful therefore he is not only willing but ready yea desirous to forgive them and to be reconciled to all truly penitent transgressors a Aelius Spartianus Trajane the Emperour of Rome being on horseback to go to the Warrs he alighted again to hear the complaint of a poor Romane If the Lord of Hosts be marching against a poor soul in a way of wrath he will yet both stay to hear the Petition of an humble sorrowful sinner being that God who heareth prayers and he will also turn from his fierce wrath being that God who delighteth in shewing mercy b Thucidides Admetus Molossorum Rex ignovit Hosti suo Themistocli filiolum proprium intuens quem Themistocles supplex utraque manu complexus patri ostentabat This good God who is infinitely more compassionate then the most pitifull Prince yea then the most affectionate father and which is yet more then the most indulgent tender hearted * Esay 49. 15. Mother ever was or possibly can be to the child of her own womb wil both freely and fully pardon all those who bring his own his only son Jesus Christ in the Armes of faith and love with humility and supplication unto him for the life of their souls c Marc. Aurelius in a Letter to his friend Cornelius It was a custome amongst the Romanes after they had proclaimed open wars against an Enemy and when they had sent their Armies against them for all the Romane Senatours to go into the Temple of Jupiter and in it to swear that if those enemies against whom they were going to fight did desire to enter into a league with Rome or aske pardon for their faults that then all revenge laid aside they should grant them mercy The Lord of Hosts hath proclaimed open wars * Esay 3. 11. against all impenitent Sinners who are implacable enemies to his Majesty to the Prince of Peace Jesus Christ his son and to
gemms Joy Peace Honour Riches Comfort Light Life and Blisse O let us all-blessed God make thee our end our Center and Rest our Portion Our Treasure and our All and let us never be quiet till we know and experience thee to be a reconciled God and our merciful Father in and through thy dear Son Jesus Christ that so we may both enjoy thy Love O God which is better then life whilst we sojourne upon earth and live Crowned with the God of Love in glory when these Mud-wall'd Cottages of our fraile Bodies shall be crumbled and resolved into Dust by Death Grant this O God for Jesus Christ his sake Amen Sine Deo nec Gratia Gaudium Bonum nec Coelum II. Of Jesus Christ and A Christians Duty unto Christ HEE is truly really both God and man God that he might satisfie the Lords justice appease his wrath justifie and acquit guilty condemned man * Propter hominem homo Deus factus est man that he might die for sin purchase life for those who were spiritually dead and redeem them both from their woful slavery and from eternall misery He put off those Royall robes of Majesty and Glory and put on in his Incarnation the course rotten Garments or rather rags of flesh and frailty and so became like us in all things sin only excepted Behold here infinite astonishing miraculous debasement Compassion Condescension The Creator of the world became a mortall man the King of Kings a subject Man sins and his God willingly dies to expiate his Crimes The Actions and passion of this blessed Jesus are a continued series of miracles a golden chain let down from heaven to earth all whose links are love mercy goodnesse pity wonder a Dio Cassius Trajanum ferunt suorum vulneribus medicam manum adhibuisse cum fasciae dificerent nec fuaelquidem vesti pepercisse sed eam totam in ligamenta fomenta discidisse But this and ten thousand times more Compassion affection charity is not so much as a drop to the Ocean a beam of light to the Sun or a dust in the ballance to the whole earth compared with the love of Christ to undone man For never did the most tender hearted Soveraign do that for a wounded Souldier nor yet the most faithful lover for his dearest friend which Jesus Christ did for his deadlyest enemies What Prince did ever give his Throne Kingdome to his chiefest Rebells What Physitian did ever let the bloud out of his own heart to cure a most malitious unthankfull Patient What Judge did ever freely sacrifice his own life to save a condemned malefactor who did not only desire and resolve but indeavour to murther him upon the Bench What Generall or Commander did ever suffer willingly himself to be mortally wounded to cure the hurts or save the lives of those Souldiers who conspired to betray him Yet Jesus Christ did all this and infinitely more for he left heaven descended out of the Chariot and came down from the Throne of his Glory to sit upon his foot-stool the earth He willingly indured a close imprisonment in that dark Dungeon the womb of his both Mother and Creature for a time and afterwards he removed himself into that greater Gaole the world into which he was no sooner entred by his birth but disregard dishonor contempt dangers attended on him saluted him and was the best entertainment the chief Rent and Homage which his Tenants Subjects Creatures afforded presented paid unto him their Lord King Creator Immediately yea constantly after this cold uncivil unkind ingrateful usage till his death bloudy enemies hunted this Royal Lion of the Tribe of Juda to destroy him cruell Eagles pursued this harmlesse galless Dove to prey upon him Malitious cunning Foxes attempted to catch this innocent meek Lamb of God whom they should have worshipped to worrey him some openly persecuted others secretly combined against him some impudently affronted others subtilly by questions varnished with Religion and gilded with pretence of conscience laboured to insnare him some scorned and derided others blasphemed him This golden Ball was continually bandied and tossed up and down in the Tennis Court of this world by wicked men with the Rackets of Implacable malice inraged ignorance blind ambition and barbarous persecution till he was stricken into the hazzard of his Grave by the hand of death And yet all this was kindnesse Comdie to those injuries to that Tragedie which he received and soone after acted for they consulted apprehended accused buffeted derided reviled undervalued insulted slandered crowned with thornes at once to mock and wound him arraigned condemned and then crucifi'd him And yet all this too was love ease pleasure mercy to that ineffable yea unconceivable misery which their own and the sins of the whole world burthened and afflicted him withall in that bloudy violent terrible conflict of his upon the cross with sin Satan and the wrath of God the dreadfulnesse weight horror and fiercenesse whereof was such that it amazed affrighted nature and almost unhinged the whole Creation * Matth. 27. For the sun of heaven whilest the son of God was suffering upon earth hid his resplendent face under a pitchy cloud at once blushing grieving and fearing to behold so sad a spectacle The heavens put themselves into mourning wore a sable garment and gave a black livery to the world when that prodigious fact was committed that so they might both weare an habite sutable to the crime and apparell heaven aâ—d earth in a dresse fit to attend their maker withal to his grave expressing their sorrows in showers of tears The very Rocks to upbraid his more then flinty hearted Enemies to teach them and us compassion when others especially those who are innocent do suffer and compunction when we by sinning do crucifie our Saviour did relent yea break and because man was dumbâ— or rather silent and would not they clave themselves into mouths and tongues to proclaim and preach his Majesty mercy Divinity torments funerall The senselesse earth seemed to apprehend grew aguish and falling into a cold fit she did quake and tremble as if shee had both understood and been terrified with those wofull dismall dreadful calamities plagues and judgments with her equally stupid cruell and rebellious Children were then with both hands deliberately diligently certainly pulling downe upon their own wicked heads and by that fearfull bloudy prevailing Imprecation * Matth. 6 25. his bloud be upon us and our Children importuning an omnipotent just and highly offended God to intail upon their unborne posterity The vail of the Temple rent from the top to the bottome in twain and by that Sympathizing mysterious Act did declare assure and publish both to them and all the world 1. That the vail of ignorance and superstition which had so long covered and blinded the minds of men should be immediately taken way and torne in pieces by the promulgation of the glorious precious comfortable Gospell
which so hurt his face that he bled again he left his singing and clapt both his hands on his face but afterwards he put his hands abroad and sung again m Idem vol. 3. p. 537. And when George Roper came to the stake where he was to be burned he leaped at it for joy Some have blessed God for setting the Crowne of Martyrdome upon their heads n Idem vol. 3. p. 850. When Alice Driver who was burned at â—pswich had the Iron chain put about her Neck O said she here is a goodly Neckerchief blessed be God for it Id. vol. 3. p. 888. Blessed be the time that ever I was born to come to this said John Noye when he came to the stake to be burned Others have both fervently desired to glorifie God in those fires and grieved that God would not suffer them to be made a burnt sacrifice as that precious Jewel our Bishop Jewel did Thus we see the pious gracious faithful Servants Subjects and Souldiers of Jesus Christ are not only desirous to raign with him but they are also ready to suffer for him And for such Lambs and such only as do copy out the holy Life of Jesus Christ and write it in their owne in those golden characters of sanctity constancy humility meeknesse patience charity prayer obedience c. did this Lambe of God Jesus Christ die Redemptor noster pro bonis misericorditer incarnatus est Nihil igitur haec Margarita ad porcos canes The Prayer MOST deare and yet most dreadful Jesus who art a God of might and Majesty as well as mercy of justice as we as pity a Lyon as well as a Lamb a Saviour and a Soveraign and at once the Creator Husband Brother and Redeemer of thine Elect Be pleased blessed Jesus to grant that those who own thine own name wear thy Livery and have Covenanted with thee to be thy Servants may be careful watchful zealous conscientious and willing to honour their Master thy sacred and most excellent Majesty to obey thy commands to imitate thy holy Life and to accept thee on thine own terms joyfully thankfully heartily even as a Lord King Prophet to govern command teach them as well as a Priest and Saviour to sacrifice and die for them Let them consider what it will cost them to buy this precious field this inestimable jewel what they must do to be real Christians and to get a saving Interest in Jesus Christ That they must sell all that they have part readily and resolvedly with the World with their sins their Isaacs Idols yea their Lands Liberties and Lives also if he who is the Lord and giver of them require us to surrender them to and for his own use and glory That they must take Christ as in a matrimonial Covenant and be not only chast obedient pleasing faithful constant to him but also that they must honour and esteem him above all other things admit no corrival into their affection with him rejoyce in his presence mourn for his absence grieve when he 's offended by them and angry with them forsake all for him cleave stedfastly to him and neither for either love of life or fear of death leave dishonour or deny him That they must be mortify'd Self-denying sincere Christians That they must not expect to be carryed on Beds of Down or to have their way green smooth easy soft or strawed with flowers to Heaven That they must run without fainting loytering or tyring to the end of the Race if they would obtain the prize That they must cheerfully couragiously bear Christs crosse or else they shall never triumphantly wear a Crown That they must not only sweep sweeten cleanse and open the dusty dirty-filthy sin-lockt houses of their hearts with the beesome of repentance and the hands of Faith and Love to entertaine him but they must also welcome him set him at the upper end of the Table in the highest seat esteem affect him above and beyond all other persons or things whilest they live on earth or else when they die he will never open the narrow Gate of Life to let them into Heaven That if they be not good and holy in the Kingdome of Grace they shall never be great or happy in the Kingdome of Glory That if their sins and lusts which Lord it over them revel in them captivate them and are dear and sweet unto them be not hated crucified and forsaken by them the Lord Jesus Christ though he was crucified for sinners and died to purchase Life for transgressors who were spiritually dead will never save them That therefore we may resolve and labour to get into that Arke Jesus Christ where safety and salvation only are to be found make us I beseech thee speedingly really savingly sensible of the want the worth the excellency All-sufficiency and the necessity of a Jesus that so we may court seek and value thee in and from whom alone is all fulnesse sweetnesse happinesse above all things And let O most gracious God all our sins be laid upon the Head set upon the Account of that Scape-goat Jesus Christ that so they may be carried into the Wildernesse of forgetfulnesse Take away O Lord our filthy Garments from us and clothe us with change of Raiment impute the Righteousnesse of Jesus Christ to us that so being found in the Garments of our elder Brother we may receive from our heavenly Father the Blessing of Grace here and that wherewith thou crownest thy own freely given and yet by Christ dearly purchased Grace eternal Glory hereafter Grant this O Lord for his sake who died to satisfie thy dreadfull Justice who shed his heart-bloud to quench the fire of thy flaming consuming wrath to pay our debts to purchase our pardon to redeem us from eternall slavery and misery and to save our undone Souls Amen In Christo per Christum solum modo Vita Libertas Foelicitas et beata Aeternitas III. Of the Holy Ghost THE Holy Ghost is the third Person in the glorious blessed a Deus est indivise â—â—us in Triniâ—e et inconfuse trinus in unitate undivided b Sacramentum hoc venerandum non scrutandum quemodo pluralitas sit in unitate unitas it plura litate Scâ—utaâ—i hoc temeritas est credere pietas nosse verò vìta aeterna Incomprehensible Trinity proceeding from both the Father and the Son and yet Coessentiall Coeternall and Coequal with them The opera officia the works and Offices of the Holy Ghost are these 1. It illuminates our blind understandings and teacheth us to know what we are by nature together with the necessity and felicity of being born again It teacheth us also to know the danger deformity and misery of sin the infinite and undeserved love of God and Christ to undone man and the means both to escape eternal death and to obtain immortal glory 2. It regenerates us making us that were profane holy barren fruitfull rebellious
stubble fully dry therefore God wil be a consuming fire to them that they have walked so far and so long in the broad way of death that it 's now too late to turn into the narrow way of life that their iniquities have made them too filthy for Gods pure eyes to pity them that they have turned a deaf care to their Makers commands and therefore he will not now hear their cries that they have both lockt and bolted the iron doors of their hearts against Christ and therefore God will not open the gate of mercy to them that they have sinned against infinite love admirable patience glorious light c. and therefore the Lord will now in fury both pour out the fullest vials of his dreadfull wrath upon them and cast their souls into utter darknesse that they have troden the precious bloud of Jesus Christ under their profane feet and therefore God will never set a Crown of glory on their heads that they have chosen to have their portion in this world and therefore God will not give them an inheritance in Heaven With these and such like Milstones of temptation which he strives to hang about the necks of their guilty awakened amazed perplexed consciences he both endeavours and hopes to sink and drown their souls in the Dead sea of despair For our groans are the Devils musick our sins his Banquet our sufferings his solace our torments his pleasure our sorrow his Joy our evills his doth desire and satisfaction our wickednesse his very wisâ— our destruction his delight and our eternal ruine his Triumph And our sins are those murdering peeces wherewith this politick cunning active cruell enemy of mankind both wounds and kils so many immortal souls They are the wheels of that Chariot wherein this Prince of the Aire rideth triumphing up and down the World over vanquished captivated murdered men and women They are the Rocks and quick-sands which split and swallow up so many millions of precious souls It is then a dear bargain when men purchase a few empty transient delights with infinite endless pain grief torments when they sell heaven and their souls to buy Hâ—ll yet thus do all wicked profane persons Breve est quod delectat aeternum quod cruciat for impenitent sinners shal be alwaies burning in streams and drowning in flames without all hope or possibility of ever being either drowned or consumed Those that are truly wise will therefore fear Sinne. But a fool for so the wisest of men * Prov. 1. 7. 32. Solomon calls every one that is wicked makes a mock at it sports with it and like one that I have read of Joco venenum bibit serio mortem obiit He drinks the poysoned waters of sin in jest but murders his own soul in earnest And as i Julius Caesar was killed with daggers Fabius was cheaked with an hair some have been killed with a plumbstone and others have been choakâ—d with a bit of Châ—ese And the lâ—ast sin without Râ—pentance will be deadly to the soul because it 's an essence and contempt done and committed against an infinite puâ—e holy just God Cleopatra killed her self with a little serpent called Apis So wicked men do destroy themselves not only with great Scarlet and gross sins but with little ones also because the soul may be strangled with cords of vanity as well as with the Cart-ropes of iniquitie And the greatest wisest man in the world if wicked will or however hath just cause when he dies to say as Nero did Heu qualis Artifeâ— pereo since if he be not rich in grace and wise to salvation in this life at his death he will find himself to have been the veriest Idiot and the poorest Lazar that ever had a being upon Earth What was said of Domiâ—ian namely That all those evils which were scattered in others met and were united in him is most true of sin it being that Ocean from which all those streams of miserie and mischief flow which over whelm and destroy the ungodly If sin reign the man is dead since Grace and sin like Mezentius his couples cannot live together Like light and darknesse Heaven and Hell they are irreconcileable so that what was at first said of those two Princes Conradine of Sicily and Charles of Anjou and afterwards k Camden Annal. of Q. Elizabeth lib. 2. p. 142. applied to Elizabeth Queen of England and Mary Queen of Scots The death of Mary is the Life of Elizabeth and the Life of Mary the death of Elizabeth is most true of them for the life of piety is the death of iniquity and the life of impiety is the death of Sanctity and the Soul Besides all this both danger and misery to which a wicked person renders himself obnoxious by his sins enough one would think to rouse affright and humble the most Atheistical wretch in the world every impenitent transgressor doth yet add more fewell to the fire of Gods wrath and more weight to the already insupportable burden of his sins by his ingratefull injurious dishonourable undervaluing of Christ for he prefers Barabbas before Jesus his lusts before his Lord and which is a crime both most horrible and abominable Satan that roaring lyon who seeks daily to devour him before his Saviour the Lyon of the tribe of Judah who laid down his life to deliver him For Christ commands and he rebels Christ woo's and he will not love Christ knocks and he will not open the door to him but now let the Devill call and he will run let the Devill perswade and he will obey let the Devill knock by a temptation and he will let him in either at the gate or window and rather then he shall be kept out his ears eyes mouth heart and all shall be unlockt for him His condition is most sad and woful for bloudy cut-throats are got into his house his heart yet he fears no danger he is mortally sick yet he feels no pain death stands at the door and destruction is ready to come over his Threshold and yet he sayes Soul take thine ease Nihil enim est miserius misero se non miserante Let then all unholy ungratious men and women consider that if they do live and dye on earth fast asleep in a sinful * Quisquis desolationem non novit nec Consolationem agnoscere potest et quisquis ignorat consolationem esse necessariam super est ut non habeat gratiam Dei Inde est quod homines seculi negotiis flagitiis implicati dum miseriam non sentiunt â—o attendum misericordiam Bern. security their souls will most certainly awaken in Hell in unavoydable never dying misery for if impiety and impenitency be the praemises eternal damnation both of body and soul will be the conclusion Peâ—â—atum puniendum est aut ate aut a deo si punitur ate tunc punitur sine te si vero non punitura te tecum punietur To
but Christ None but Christ He alone being able to quench her thirst to satisfie her hunger to grant her desires to supply her wants to cure her maladies to support her under pressures to ease her of her burdens to vanquish her enemies to resolve all her doubts to revive her in her swounings to strengthen her in her languishings to give her cordials in her faintings to secure her from her fears to comfort her in her sorrows to calm her in to sanctyfie unto her and to free her from all her troubles by confirming her faith increasing her graces multiplying her Joyes and establishing her peace in the firm assurance and cleer Evidence by his holy Spirit of his free infinite eternall unchangeable love unto her the full satisfaction given by him to the Justice of God for her and his free miraculous redemption of her from her spirituall thraldome from the curse and rigour of the Law from the raigning condemning power of sin and from Satan wrath eternal Death and Hell Thirdly Consider that these divine Treasures will afford you reall comforts in the dark cloudy showry daies of adversity yea in the saddest condition whereas all those sublâ—nary injoyments comforts and contentments which the worldly minded in their prosperity do so much admire delight and so eagerly pursue if you seek to them when you are afflicted tempted or dejected for relief deliverance or consolation will answer you as the * 2 Kings 26. 27. King of Israel did that distressed woman in the Famine of Samaria when she cryed to him as he passed by Help my Lord O King If the Lord do not help thee said he whence shall I help thee Riches will answer it is not in me to succour solace or save you Honour power pleasure c. will answer too nor in us For all we cannot make or give you an healing plaister for your hurt We cannot cure the wound which the fiery Serpent of sin hath made in your Consciences nor take out its painfull deadly sting We can neither make your peace with the Lord shield you from his mortall arrows interest you in his tender mercies procure the yearning bowels nor purchase the precious bloud of Jesus Christ to sanctifie or save to cure or comfort you Thus and no otherwise will they answer own befriend and bestead all those in the day of their visitation that have made earth their Heaven Honour their Idoll Opulency their Deity the World their God and Greatness their Happiness Fourthly Consider that you may have a Confluence of all temporall blessings and yet be both hated and Cursed of God You may have all the good things of this Life and yet be bad men You may enjoy the world and yet want Christ and so be truely eternally wretched undone ruined for all that Quid enim prodest si omnia habes eum tamen qui omnia dedit non habere 'T is not lucre but losse 't is not wealth but wants yea beggerie to have all the world from God if that God who made the World and gives us all things be not our God But if you have these spirituall treasures then you will enjoy Christ and with him all things * Rom. 8. 32. Will he who hath freely given us gold denie us clay Will he who hath bestowed pearls upon us refuse to grant pebbles to us Will he who hath cloathed us with Robes denie us Raggs will he who hath given us Diamonds denie us dust or dirt No * 1 Cor. 21. 22. 33. no do but read that great Charter of all true Christians which like the Laws of the Medes and Persians will never be altered nor repealed and there in Golden Letters you may run and read the portion priviledges and inheritance of every true beleever All is yours saith that great Apostle whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas or the World or Life or Death or things present or things to come all are yours and you are Christs and Christ is Gods So that every heavenly minded Christian as well as a holy Corinthian having a deed of Gift made to him by God written with Christs bloud sealed by his holy Spirit and witnessed by his faithful Servant pious and blessed St. Paul of such precious inestimable Riches may truly contemningly say to the World when she Courts him to imbrace covet love Idolize her and saies as the Divell did to Christ when he tempted him to worship him All these things will I give thee sugred pleasures gaudie riches glittering pomp swelling studied titles downâ—e ease rosie delights dazling Majestâ—e c. as * Dan. 5. 17. Daniel did to Belshazzer when he promised him Riches honour and promotion to interpret his Dreams Let thy gifts be to thy self and give thy Rewards to another And as †Genes 33. 9. Esau did to his Brother Jacob when he tendred his present to him I have enough keep that thou hast thy self For how can they want any thing whose Husband is not only kind loving and faithful but also both the Lord and Heir of all things and whose Father the God of truth hath promised to give to his Sons Wife every sincere Christian for a Dower or Jointure both * Psalm 84. 11 Grace Glorie and every good thing Lastly Consider that an holy greecinesse and covetousnesse after these ever enduring treasures these best gifts an indefatigable diligence to attain them a restlesse care for them and the setting of your hearts the fixing of your affections intirely upon them is both the best and surest way to provide not only for your selves but for your posteritie also For if God be your Father he will be your Childrens Guardian he will take the charge of them and care for them so that they shall neither * Psalm 37 25 want nor be wronged since the Lord is not only able but willing to protect and supply them And it 's a truth equally bright and comfortable that the Children of religious Parents who have had no other inheritance portions or legacies but their faithful prayers holy Counsells and pious Examples to settle upon them or be queath unto them to live upon and to set up withall in the World have yet prospered come to honour and been blest with both plentie and felicitie whereas the off-spring of the wicked who have been left heirs to very vast summs of money and great estates have come to a morsell of Bread by reason of Gods either secret or visible but alwaies most just curse upon what they enjoy for either their own or the sins of their fore-fathers in wickedly getting unlawfully keeping or sinfully abusing and mispending of them Male parta male et cito dilabuntur Besides Injusta lucra breves habent voluptates longos autem dolores The momentanie pleasures of unjust Gaine will be imbittered and punished with eternall pains and sorrows The Prayer O LORD so desirous art thou to save and so unwilling to destroy the miserable undone because
and carryed to the Court to be honoured advanced so highly by the King as not only to become his Favourite but his Son and Heir also But it 's the greatest wonder of all and the highest phrensy for men to wound and poyson themselves because they may be cured to break their bones because they may chance to get them well set again to run into the fire because it 's possible their Father will pull them out and not suffer them to be burned and to love act live and persevere both in theft murder and rebellion in hope of being not only pardoned but promoted when they come to be executed And certainly it 's no lesse then the greatest folly yea madnesse and cruelty to our own Souls that we are capable either to invent act or expresse to presume and expect to obtain mercy favor and pardon from God at our death when we have knowingly wilfully and impenitently continued both robbers of God and traytors to God by sinning against him all our life For it 's most just and equall that the Lord should abhorre reject and burn the bone when the Devill hath had all the marrow The Prayer O LORD under the Law those sacrifices that were acceptable to thy Majesty were offered up with Fire but under the Gospell those Oblations those duties and services are most pleasing to thee which are presented and tendered with Water with penitentiall tears flowing from the bitter-sweet springs of a saving sight of sin and godly Sorrow for sin Grant O Lord that we may both love thee and grieve that by our Iniquities we have offended thee Let us serve thee with gladnesse of heart and yet be in bitternesse of Soul for our dishonouring of thee O give us Holy God to worship serve and pray unto thee not only with the fire of Love and zeal burning upon the altars of our inflamed hearts but also with the waters of contrition and remorse streaming out of broken Spirits Let us not seek thee and sin wilfully against thee Let us not professe repentance and practise rebellion Let us not O Lord forsake Egypt and long to enjoy it again But grant that we may never any more attempt or presume to repeat or act our former old or any new crimes And since most Holy God every known sin even the very least is a great a grievous a deep and a desperate wound to the Soul so soon as it is acted that festers in it by continuance gangrenes by delight and kills the Soul by impenitency O let all transgressing Christians speedily search their Souls and sores with the Probe of serious consideration let them behold them with the eyes of grief and humiliation let them bath and wash them with Tears of sorrow and contrition inable them by a justifying Faith to receive and apply unto them that Soveraign all-healing plaister made of that most precious Balm the bloud of Jesus Christ let them bind up their wounded spirits with the hands of compunction and self-abhorrency and grant that they may keep on their plaister both by a through reformation and a constant conscientious care willingly deliberately knowingly to sinne no more that so they may recover be healed and live Grant this great mercy O thou God of mercy unto us for the merits of Jesus Christ Amen Poenitere est vere sapere valere vivere XIII Of Prayer 'T Is that safe carefull nimble spirituall messenger and post that carries and brings letters of intelligence and love-tokens to and from Christ 'T is the language of Canaan A Christians Shiboleth 'T is the souls both Orator and Sollicitor in that great Court of Requests Heaven 'T is a Jacob wrastling with God and prevailing A Jonah though buried alive in a swimming Sepulchre though shipt in a living Vessel and carried down under Deck to the confines of Hell crying for and obtaining a safe landing on the shoar of Life 'T is a Moses begging and receiving cure of the souls Physitian of Almighty God for Miriam a leprous sinful person 'T is a Christians Forces wherewith he besieges Heaven and takes it by storm by violence 'T is the souls industrious faithfull factor in Heaven from whence it brings the precious everlasting riches and Jewell of grace forgivenesse comfort to the heart T is the key that opens and shuts Heaven Oratio justi clavis est coeli ascendit precatio et descendit Dei miseratio licet alta sit terra altum coelum audit tamen Deus hominis linguam si mundam habet conscientiam Prayer like a Hackw Apolog p. 295. histor of Flanders .. Dousa's Doves when Leyden was besieged it brings certain intelligence of relief supplies assistance coming from the Lord of Hosts to strengthen succour and deliver the soul when it 's beleaguered indangered or assaulted by sin Satan or the world What was said of Luther is true of prayer It may have almost what it will of Christ There is a kind of omnipotency in it whereby it holds hinders and with an humble holy reverence be it spoken binds the arm of Almighty God that he cannot strike Let me alone saith the Lord to Moses and get thee out of Sodome said the * Genes 19. 22. Angell to Lot for thy supplication is her preservation thy prayers and presence are her protection thy company is her security thy residence her reprieve I cannot do any thing I cannot rain down Hell out of Heaven in a fiery showre to consume her till thou beest out of her and got to Zoar. As Faith is the Emperesse of Graces so prayer is the Queene of duties The Elements of effectuall Prayer are First Faith Vt oremus credamus ut ipsa non deficiat fides qua oramus * James 5 16. Hebr. 11. 5. Oremus Fides fundit orationem fusa oratio fi dei impetrat firmitatem Faith and prayer are like the fire and fewel fire makes the fewell burn and flame and fewell feeds the fire and keeps it burning and flaming Faithlesse prayers are fruitlesse prayers or rather such supplications are provocations for God is so far from smelling a sweet savour in the sacrifices of unbelievers that he loaths them they stink in his nostrils and therefore he will cast their duties like dung into their faces 2. * James 5. 16. Fervency Qui frigide rogat negare docet prevalency is the child of importunity An * Luke 18 4 5. Atheisticall unjust judge that neither fears God nor cares for man will grant the earnest suit of a poor Widow though a stranger to him How much more then will the great judg of Heaven and earth who is not only a just but also a most gracious compassionate God and Father both hear and grant the ardent humble and hearty petitions of his own Children He that did never say to the house of Iacob seek ye my face in vain He that commands us to aske and seek and hath promised that we shall receive and find
it be not animated by striving and resolving to please Gâ—od in all things in all his actions to honour God and so though he shoot many Bowes short yet he both reaches and hits the mark the white because his heart aimes chiefly ultimately in all his services waies and works at Gods glory who requires not of us in this world perfection but integrity He 's alwaies afraid of sinning and that prevents his both offending and suffering b Probus Mater timidi non solet flere * Vis in timore esse securus securitatem time He fears falling and by that means stands fast upon an hill of Ice the world Qui semper timet securus Hâ— will not endure a Rimmon in his heart because he knows that God like Alexander will have no Co-partner nor corrival Aut Caesar aut nullus That inscription which the Common-wealth of Venice hath politically written in their Magazine c Burt. Melanch Felix civitas quae tempore pacis de bello cogitat he hath religiously ingraved in his memory and mind and therefore 't is both his resolution and care in health to provide for sicknesse in a calm to prepare for a storme in Life for death He strives and aspires to be greater stronger higher in grace and Gods favour every day then other and gives this which was Pompeys for his Motto Ego cupio praecellere et esse supremus He can neither rest nor be quiet till like Saul he be grown taller then worldly morall hypocriticall men by the shoulders neck and head in honesty vertue piety And never as t is said of the Crocodile gives over * Psalm 92. 13. 14. Job 17. 9. growing in goodnesse and godlinesse till his death What Alexander the great said to one of his Captains named Alexander Recordare nominis Alexandri see thou do nothing that will smut stain or darken the fair the illustrious name of Alexander He being like the Ermin to whom nothing is so troublesome as to be soul for it will rather dye then be soyled indeavours carefully to observe and conscionably to perform and therefore he labours to keep himself unspotted from the world to get and to keep a pure heart and clear hands to be undefiled in Gods Law and to wash his heart from all wickednesse He doth as really endeavour never to commit sin as he doth unfaignedly desire never to be damned for sin He doth think speak and act at all times in all duties and places as under the eye and in the presence of God because he knows d Seneca Epist ad Luc 83. p. 711. Sic certe vivendum est tanquam in conspectu vivamus sic cogitandum tanquam aliquis in pectus intimum inspicere possit potest Quid enim prodest ab homine aliquid esse secretum Nihil deo clausum interest animis nostris cogitatiocibus nostris intervenit And also because he knows that although man can make no through lights to look clearly into the heart yet it lies unbowelled dissected unto his all-seeing eye to whom all things even the most dark hidden and undiscernable are both naked opened and transparent He makes God his center and so enjoyes both rest happinesse and stability in the midst of all either national or personal overturnings and shakings e Let their money perish with them who esteem all the gold in the world worth one days society with Jesus Christ and his holy spirit said that noble and pious Marquesse of Vico Gealacius Caraciolus when a Jesuit offered him huge sums of money to forsake his Religon and to turn Papist again videte jus vitam He like an Eagle disdains to pursue flies earthly enjoyments and sublunary comforts because like flies they are only to be seen and found in the sun-shine and summer of prosperity but flye away and hide themselves in the dark cloudy dayes and winter of adversity spirituall desertion and death Thou art not said Cleopatra to Mark Anthony to fish for Gudgeons and Trouts but thou art to angle for Castles and Towers and Forts and Cities When the heart of a true Nathaniel like Dinah begins to gad abroad to hanker and thirst inordinately after creature-comforts he considers and tells his Soul Soul thou wert not created by an omnipotent power nor sent into the world by an omniscient holy just glorious and dreadful God to fish for Gudgeons or Trouts for pleasure wealth honour or greatnesse to love and mind such poor contemptible empty treacherous worthlesse things as these burby faith and prayer holinesse hope and perseverance in a constant course of sanctification to angle to seek wait and labour for the impregnable Castle of a good Conscience for the strong rich and beautifull Forts of vertue and piety for the Citie of Heaven and for the Towers of glory felicity and immortality He desires and delights in the society of the brethren the people and servants of God because he sees the superscription of Caesar upon them the Image of Christ lively and truly drawn and stamped by the Spirit of God upon their souls And also because he doth experimentally find that f Socrates Bonorum conversatio est virtutis exercitatio he gets good by good company He doth with an ardent zeal and pious care set up the worship of God in his family because he knows that the prisons stink but yet not so much as those sweet houses where the fear and true honour of God is wanting As that blessed Martyr g Fox B. of Martyrs vol. 3. p. 156. Bishop Hooper said And he desires to serve God who is the purest of Spirits with spirituall puritie If the candle of the Lord shine upon his Tabernacle so that his riches or honours increase he notwithstanding both longs and seeks for higher and better things and sayes as Luther did when many of the great ones of Saxony sent very rich gifts unto him Lord thou shalt not put me off so for he will not take or accept outward things for his portion or inheritance nor exchange Heaven for earth He is the Epistle the letter of Christ wherein men may run and read saving grace written by the finger of the Holy Ghost therefore he is exceedingly yea constantly carefull to keep both his heart and life fair and free from the spots of vice and the stains of sin That King of Rivers in Germany the rhine crosseth the muddy lake of Constance with a clean cours and keeps his streams both pure and clear So a sincere Christian keeps himself free from the corruptions sins and pollutions of the world and like Lot in Sodom he is grieved for but not defiled with the crimes vices and filthy conversation of the wicked for though he be in the world yet he is not of the world He mourns for the abominations of the land wherein * Psalm 119. 158. idem ver 136. and of the ungodly amongst whom he lives He rejoyceth in the
peace of Sion and the prospeâ—ity of Jerusalem but is grieved for the afflictions of Joseph and above all for the dishonour done to his God for his own worldly interest relations or life are not so dear to him as the glory of his Maker and Redeemer He accounts Gods ordinances the rarest dainties the sweetest delicates and with Job esteems Gods holy word and them more then his necessary food He stumbles often seldome falls but never lies down in sin so as not to rise up out of it He like a laboriqus Bee doth industriously daily delightfully suck not only the sweet and beautifull flowers of Gods precious promises heavenly counsells and holy commands but also the bitter yet wholesome hearbs of Gods just and terrible threatnings growing in that rare garden or rather Paradise the sacred Scriptures that so he may fill the hive of his Soul with the honey and wax of holinesse and honesty He 's a good Theodosius who had rather be a living member of that true Church whereof Christ is the glorious head then an Emperour in the World And saith with holy Ignatius who perswaded his friends not to disswade him from suffering Martyrdome It is better for me to die in Jesus Christ then to reign in the ends of the earth because Jesus Christ is the life of the faithful and life without Christ is death And because as blessed Bradford h Fox B. of Martyrs vol. 3. p. 283. said when the Queens mercy was offered him if he would recant and forsake his Religion Life in Gods displeasure is worse then death and death with his true favour is true life He is one in whom the house of David prevails against the house of Saul And is not †gilt but Gold He hath no sweet sin nor secret lust lapped close up within the folds of guile or hypocrisie in his heart He like * Qualis animus talis oratio qualis oratio talis vita His life as well as his lips his works as well as his words do praise God for he doth not flatter but truly fear the Lord. Enoch walke with God Like Caleb and Josuah his heart follows the Lordsfully while he is travailing through the wildernesse of this world towards Canaan Heaven And he is an * Genes 5. 22. Abraham a friend of God Sincerity 't is the highest round and pitch of Grace and goodnesse that the Soul can fly or climb to while it 's pinioned and loaden with the flesh * Esay 41 8. 2 Chron. 26. 7. 'T is the Souls cordial when fainting its bladder when sinking its leg when stumbling staffe when falling comfort while living Joy when dying and its Crown after death But without sincerity we are but light without heat mudwals pargetted Rotten posts gilded ugly wrinkled creatures painted professors blanched without it we are odious and loathsome both to God and Man God hates us for not being * Quid tibi prodest nomen usurpare alienum et vocari quod non es It wil be no real profit advantage or comfort unto us either to be called Saint or to be accounted the children of God by men if we be but whited Tombs but carnal rotten dissembling Christians and professors in the sight and esteem of God nay we are much more odious to the Lord for being pious only in shew and appearance really and man for being seemingly religious so that we are too bad for Heaven too good for earth and therefore only fit for Hell An Hypocrite is like an Aegyptian Temple which was very curious glorious and beautifull without but had nothing within except a Serpent or an Ape Though he professeth himself to be a Temple of the Holy Ghost yet his heart hath nothing in it but either filthy or foolish venemous or vain lusts and desires He is like that tree in Pliny whose leaf is as broad as a hat but its fruit no bigger then a Bean. Like that Oxe slain and sacrificed in Rome the same day that Caesar was murdered in the Senat without an Heart at least without a good one for * Prov. 10. 20. the heart of the wicked is little worth Like that shield which had God painted on the one side and the Devill on the other Hee hangs like Mahomets Tomb or as the Papists picture Erasmus betwixt Heaven and Hell Like Janus he hath two faces being intus Nero foris Cato Loquituâ— ut Psâ—â— vivitur ut Gallonius audi nemo melius specta nemo pejus He is like a man with corrupted Lungs a bad Liver rotten teeth and an artificiall perfumed breath Like a stinking carcasse stuck with lillies violets and roses like a rotten dunghill covered with snow like one cloathed in white with a plague-sore upon him and like a thiefs coat plush or scarlet without and cloth within of another colour He 's like Nebuchadnezzars Image whose feet were clay for his affections though his words be gilt with golden 1 Camden Annal Of Queen Elizabeth lib. 4. p. 489. holy expressions and his outward behaviour with a silver civill specious religious profession are carnal earthly vile and sinfull i Squire when he anointed the Pummel of Queen Elizabeths Saddle with poyson to destroy her cried with a loud voice God save the Queen An Hypocrite when he seems most zealous to honour Christ even then murders him he cries Hosanna with his tongue but his heart sayes Crucifie him for it loves and preferreth some Dalilah more then him and before him He hath certainly a Diana in the Temple a Dagon in the Ark of his heart like those * 2 Kings 17. 35. that feared the Lord and served other Gods And like k Speed Chro. p. 297 Redwald the 7th Monarch of the English men who in the same Temple erected an Altar for Christ and another little altar for burnt sacrifices to his Idols He is like those leones Syriaci l Aristotle Solinus qui primo quinque foetus pariunt deinceps quatuor post ad singulos partus uno pauciores donec ad extremum omnino steriles nullum foetum pariunt He is like the Cypresse tree beautiful but barren m Fox B. of Martyrs vol. 3. p. 967. 'T is reported of Castellanus an Apostate professor who persecuted the Christians at Orleans that he was stricken by the hand of God with this most strange judgment the one half of his body burned as hot as fire and the other part of it was as cold as Ice and thus crying and lamenting he continued till his death The fire of piety kindles in the mouth burns upon the tongue and blazes out in the verball expression of an Hypocrite but his heart is frozen and cold as snow for all that because there is not so much as one spark of true grace therein to thaw or heat it while he lives here nor to prevent his sufferings hereafter in that place where through Gods just judgment upon him he shall both freeze and fry
where you will meet with aboundant satisfaction in this particular In short therefore for it 's not my design to be Polemicall herein to me it seems to be a very safe and good rule which g Arist Ethic. lib. 10. c. 3. That rule also of St. Augustine is very sate and good viz. Quod universa tenet ecclesia nec conciliis institutum sed semper retentum est non nisi authoritate apostolica traditum rectissime creditur Aug. Baptis contr Donatist lib. 2. c. 7. Aristotle layes down sc That whatsoever hath been affirmed by almost all should not hastily be denyed by any because h Vincent â—yrinensis Quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus tenetur Ecclestis id demum Catholicum 'T is a Merldian shining truth that all new waies are false waies and therefore they must be carefully declined by all those that really desire to walk in that good old way of life that leads to blisse and glory And 't is as true that they must needs wander stumble and fall that resolve to walk in crooked uneven blind and slippery foot-paths of their own making The Prayer O LORD it is no less then a signall a singular and a very great Mercy to thy Church and Children that thou hast provided and given them a remedy for Infants against the danger the poyson and the pollution of Originall Sinne wherein they are born and thereby come into the world both defiled and spiritually deformed In that thou hast set open the door of Baptisme for them at which they enter and are admitted to come within the pale of thy visible Church Lord still continue this great Priviledge nnto them And as then and there they are listed under and Covenant with the great the glorious the victorious and invincible Captain of our Salvation to fight under him against the implacable Enemies of their gracious both Saviour and Soveraign and their own immortall Souls the World the Devill and the flesh O let them be conscientiously carefull to pay their Vows to discharge their solemn ingagements and to expresse their fidelity piety and loyalty by continuing Christs faithfull Souldiers and Servants unto death Amen Baptismus janua est Vitae Christianitatis Ostium Regenerationis Sacramentum XVIII Of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper T Is the Souls Banqnet 'T is one of those * Certainly then those Ministers are very not only unkind but cruel and injurious to their flocks and people that either cut off this breast by absolutely â—â—susing or dry it up by deferring and neglecting to administer this necessity food this holy and comfortable Sacrament unto them Breasts wherewith our Mother the Church nurseth and nourisheth the Children of Christ 'T is both the food and fewell of Grace Jesus Christ is in this necessary Holy Sacrament a Pelican in deed and reality for he feeds his faithfull ones with his own Bloud 'T is a lively representation of Christ crucified to the eye of faith 'T is spirituall glue which joynes and cements Christians one to another in Love and Unity 'T is a Christians commemoration-day of his best and greatest Benefactor 'T is the last Will and Testament of Jesus Christ whereby he bequeathed the precious ineftimiable everlasting Treasures comforts and blessing of his Death and passion to all worthy Receivers I acknowledg the Sacrament of the Body and Bloud of Christ administred according to Christs institution to be one of the greatest treasures and comforts that he left us upon the earth a Fox B of Marty 5 vol. 3. p. 556. col 1. Those Ministers then do rob defraud wrong their people that either take away or keep from them this precious treasure faith Mr. Philpot. 'T is a deed of Guift A Conveyance from Jesus Christ of himself and all his merits both sealed and delivered with livery and seisin to all true Beleevers whereby they have a just right an unquestionable title unto and a saving interest in the Lord Jesus and all the sweet blessed and glorious benefits of his death resurrection and intercession b Camerar lib. 1. p. 64. Darius King of Persia had in his Bedchamber a vine all of Gold which was inriched with precious stones and did bear grapes made of pearl of an inestimable value And yet this Vine was but a barren figstree and its orient Gemms but dry and withered leaves compared with that * Joâ—n 15. 1. true vine Jesus Christ and the most precious fruit thereof For if all the Gold Jewells rarities and wealth of the whole world were put into one scale of the ballance and but one drop of that invaluable bloud which flowed from this vine when it was cut when Christ was crucified upon the cross in the other Scale all those would be but feathers chaffe or mosse light vain and worthlesse things in respect of the excellency and necessity of this Since 't is only the bloud of Christ that cleanses us from fin and makes the soul beautifull in the eyes of God and redeemeth it from eternall damnation For it is not in the power either of all the glorious Angels and blessed Saints in Heaven or of all the Christians upon earth to satisfie the Justice of God for one Soul much lesse then can stones or clay reconcile an angry God and free a sinner from everlasting misery To neglect this holy Sacrament then wherein this precious bloud of Christ is freely offered to us to purge and save us is both dangerous and sinfull to contemne it without repentance damnable Si qui Sacramentorum usum ac si opus iis non 〈◊〉 erent aspernarentur non modo arrogantiae summae sed etiam impietatis in Deum merito damnari debent quum non suae tantum infiâ—mitatis subsidia sed et Deum ipsorum authorem contemnant ipsius gratiam respuant et spiritum quantum in ipsis est extinguant saith one c â—â—akwel Apolog p. 417. Aesops Son at a Feast which he made dissolved Pearls in Vinegar and gave to each guest one to drink And yet his bounty was but parsimony his pearls below pebbles compared with the love and excellency of this true Magarite this pearl of infinite price and value the Lord Jesus Christ which every rightly qualified and prepared communicant both drinks and eateth also at this Supper of the Lamb. And Cleopatras draught when she swallowed an Exchequer and drunk an Indies was but puddle muddy water to those pure refreshing life-preserving streams which flow into the Soul from that Rock of living-water Jesus Christ through the golden conduit-pipe of this blessed Sacrament â—on Anthory de Guevara Dial of Princ. Fol. 417. d When the feast of the God Janus was celebrated in Rome none were suffered to go into his Temple but those that had new apparell That day also the Emperor put on his imperiall Robes and all the Captives who could with their hand touch them were delivered prisoners for debt were discharged
all transgressions pardoned and exiled persons were recalled Whoever cometh to this holy Sacrament clothed with the new and rich apparell of Christs righteousnesse and can with the hand of a justifying faith touch Jesus Christ shall be sure to find and receive comfort favor acceptance a discharge from the debt of sin liberty and inlargement from the slavery of his own Lusts and from the captivity of Satan communion with Christ here and admission into the Kingdome of Heaven out of which man was justly excluded exiled for sin and Rebellion hereafter For when by death a true Christian doth put off the Rags of his mortality God will invest him with the Robes of Glory to all Eternity The Prayer EVer blessed God such are thy tender mercies unspeakeable Love and matchlesse Bounty to thy Children upon earth that as thou hast prepared and provided for them both Mansions and a feast a Supper of Glory with the Lamb in the Kingdome of Heaven so hast thou also provided a spirituall Banquet and furnished thy Table with most exquisite curious precious and delicious dainties to refresh nourish comfort strengthen and unite them in their journey and whilest they are upon their way thither this Blessed Sacrament O Lord let not I beseech thee this Soul-feeding heart-chearing Grace-strengthening and increasing communion and Supper be neglected undervalued contemned or denyed through the corruptions contentions differences carelesnesse or ungrounded scrupulousnesse of Men. â—ut let Ministers O Lord carefully obey thy command and conscientiously discharge their own Duty in rightly and frequently administring of it to their people that thy bitter thy bloudy Death O Blessed Saviour may be constantly and thankfully remembred thy wonderful unparalleled undeserved love pity goodnesse acknowledged and thy great Name praised and glorified And let Christians O Lord come to this Holy Sacrament so qualified and prepared that their Graces may be strengthened their Souls as with marrow and fatnesse satisfied their interest in Christ cleared and confirmed their joyes and comforts multiplied their Affections inseparably united and their mutuall love to one another mightily increased Grant this O Lord for his sake who is both the maker of the Feast and the Feast himself Jesus Christ Amen Coena Domini cibus est Animae alimentum Gratiae Nutrix pietatis solaminis canalis pignus amoris condonationis sigillum et corroborationis Sacramentum XIX Of Preaching THE sacred word of God purely rightly and powerfully preached is that Bethesday wherein Mephibosheths souls lamed in their feet their affections by the fall which they had out of the arms of Adam and Eve are cured and thereby inabled to run the ways of Gods commandements 'T is the * Cantic 4. 16. and 7. 5. Garden the Gallery where Christ meeteth speaks to and walks with his people 'T is the mount of blessings conduit of faith Golden Scepter of mercy and the spirituall seed of Grace and Life 'T is the Chariot in which Christ rideth triumphantly into the Soul 'T is the hammer that breaks open the iron door of the heart the key that unlocks it T is the fire that consumeth all Satans strong holds in the spirit 'T is spirituall eye-salve that gives a blind Bartimeus his sight And 't is the voice that awakens the most drouzy deaf secure sinner a Rainold Orat. 1. p. 41. What the Orator saith de Oratione is true de praedicatione Morbis inquit animi medicinam facere debet praedicatio facit comprimendo quae tument roborando quae languent quae inflammant leniendo coercendo quae diffluunt expurgando quae redundant 'T is an Ark alwaies bringing blessings with it Nathan which wil rouse convince and humble Davids relapsing Saints T is a Peter pricking the hearts of great and grosse sinners to their conversion sanctification Salvation 'T is a messenger sent from God and bringing with it those three wonderfull glorious instimable Jewels and blessings to the soul sense of sin assurance of pardon and a through reformation both of the Heart and life It s the means which God hath promised commanded owned blessed and sanctyfied by the inward powerfull and effectual operation of his holy Spirit speaking home to the conscience stirring those healing waters of the sanctuary and accompanying the outward administration of the word most ordinarily and efficaciously to instruct the ignorant confirm the weak to warm the cold mollifie the hard melt the frozen comfort them that mourn to awaken those that are drowsie resolve those who doubt incourage and quiet such as fear guide them that erre bind up the broken hearted and to quicken those that are dead in trespasses and sins T is a Cornâ—copia of all those excellent spirituall mercies and comforts 'T is the granary of celestial food and Manna the silver trumpet of peace and the white flag of mercy to a people It 's a Nilus that softens refresheth and fructifieth barren hard and languishing hearts T is a Mary with Christ in the womb of it an Angell instructing a Philip a light in the thickest saddest darknesse and a comfortable seasonable rain in a drought 'T is both meat to the hungry water to the thirsty physick to the diseased milk to the weak a Lamp to them that wander and wine to the sorrowfull In Asia it was a custome that the Child which was not nursed by his mother should not have the goods of his Mother Those who are not nursed by that Mother the true Church of Christ with the breasts of Gods word and ordinances faithfully and duly administred are never like to have God for their Father nor to be heires of the Churches estate I mean the love promises protection grace and blessing of the Lord nor to enjoy the glorious inheritance of her Children eternall felicity hereafter The Prayer O LORD thou art so farre from desiring or delighting in the eternall Damnation of the vilest greatest grossest sinners that thou hast commanded the Gospell of Salvation to be preached to every creature both to Jews and Gentiles Yet since even this word of Life is both a dead and a killing Letter without the quickening sanctifying influence and efficacy of thy holy Spirit Grant blessed God that the Holy Ghost may both teach and speak effectually convincingly convertingly savingly to the ears and hearts of unregenerated Sinners that so the dead may both hear and feel the voice and power of the Son of God and live And be thou pleased most merciful God so to own blesse and prosper thine own Labourers in thy vine-yard that the Consciences of those who are enemies to thine own ordinances and Ministers may be convinced their spirits grieved and humbled their mouths stopped their sin and errours discovered to them hated by them and forsaken of them And that the understandings of those who hear and enjoy them may be savingly enlightened their hearts graciously changed their Lives throughly reformed and their souls everlastingly saved Let him who is the Word Jesus Christ be ushered
against her or any part of her be cast over-boord by her vigilant and valiant Pilots pious orthodoxe and zealous Magistrates * O quâ—m beati erunt in illo die judcii Magistratus illi qui subditos non modo honestis legibus judiciis disciplinâ— rexerunt sed etiam omnium maxime in hoc studium incubucrunt ut incorrupta Religio apud suos exculta sit doctrina coelestis per fidos eruditos et constantes Ministros sit tradita ingens hominum multitudo per spiritum et verbum renata in conspectum Christi prodeat quae tali Magistratui aeternas gra ias agat E contra quam infelices qui c. Religionem per varâ—as corruptelas passi sunt adulterare sayes one And an Heathen could say In nauâ—ragio Rector laudandus quem obruit more clavum tenentem Senec. ad Petil. c. 6. and Ministers that Pirates strangers and enemies the profest cruel subtle and secret adversaries opposers and underminers of thy Glory Gospel ordinances and Ministers may neither be inriched by her woful wrack nor pleased with the birth and sight of those grievous miseries and overwhelming calamities which too often proceed from her contentious and disagreeing Children but let the desires and designs O Lord of Sions enemies be blasted and frustrated And let blessed God all those spiritual Merchants those heavenly Mariners thy Saints thy faithful Souldiers and Servants that are resolved or shal resolve to venture all their treasures their souls lives and worldly interests in that Arke thy Church and to imbarque themselves in her for a voyage to the Holy Land to that new and glorious Jerusalem which is above Let them dear God I once more humbly beseech thee be crowned with a calm with quietnesse serenity and safety in their passage over the brackish boysterous dangerous Ocean of life and when they shall put into and cast Anchor in the port of Death then let them find that they are safely arrived at the Isles of Paradise the Kingdome of Heaven Glory and Felicity Amen Qui pugnat sine mandato poenam accipit non mercedem Qui praedicat sine vocatione peccat non prodest XXII Of a good and a bad Conscience A Good Conscence 't is the suburbs of Heaven 'T is the Sanctuary of the Soul when it 's pursued by sin Satan fear or temptation 'T is Heaven in hell riches in poverty honour in disgrace health in sicknesse in bonds liberty and light in darknesse 'T is Balm that healeth all woundâ— A medicine infinitely more precious then all the Benedicta Medicamenta of Physitians for it cures all spirituall maladies and antidotes the mind against all temporall miseries T is the best Mithridate to expell all troubles from the heart T is Gods temple Christs Bed-chamber and the Spirits Mansion for the highest Heavens and the humblest purest holiest heart are the two places of Gods most glorious * Esay 57. 15. Residence 'T is the souls soft Bed whereon it resteth quietly and sweetly with a pillow of Gospel promises and the left hand of Christ under its head his right hand also imbracing it when it 's either troubled dejected or distressed T is an admirable Soveraign Balsome against the stinging perplexing fears and all the dreadfull dismaying apprehensions of sin Gods wrath Satan Death judgment and Hell 'T is an Ark that keepeth the Soul safe and preserves it from sinking under the heaviest burden of sin or sorrow in the greatest deluge of inward or outward troubles 'T is a ship with Christ in it Heaven in a little volume 'T is divine love and speciall mercy printed usually upon the soul by the Spirit of God in the presse either of Gods ordinances or afflictions in great and golden characters with notes of choicest favour tenderest mercies and free grace upon it T is a Kingdome of fortified rich safe and happy 't is the daughter of faith and repentance and the Mother of all reall ineffable endlesse Joy comforts pleasures 'T is a serene skie with the Sun and Moon of Faith and repentance fixed and shining in the â—irmament of the Soul together with the brightest sparkling stars of all other saving graces which beautifie bespangle it and make a glorious constellation therein 'T is a feast in a famine an haven in a storm life in death 'T is an invincible fort in a Leaguer when the outworks City and Castle of health riches liberty are taken 'T is a Paradise with a tree of Life in it 'T is the Vialactea in a Laetitia bonae conscientiae paradisus est â—nimarum gaudium angelorum hortus deliciarum ager benedictionis templam Sclomonis aula Dei habâ—tac ulum spiritus heavenly heart The vena porta of * 2 Corinth 1. 12. gladnesse joy and a consolation to the spirit here and the beginning of that matchlesse felicity which will out-live time and run parallel with the longest line of eternity 'T is a Dove that brings an Olive branch of peace to a Noah a righteous person in the greatest inundation of perplexity and sorrow of heart 'T is the way to a life without fear or trouble 'T is a John lying in the bosome of Jesus 'T is a transcript a true copy of eternall felicity 'T is a consolatory epistle written with the bloud of Jesus Christ by the finger of the Holy Ghost sent by love and read by faith to a languishing mourning drooping bleeding Soul 'T is ipsum coelum saith Augustine a continuall feast saith Solomon Yea it is a Goshen in Aegypt an Angell in a Dungeon an harbour in a Tempest an Heaven upon earth and the day-star of Glory 'T is an immarcescible Crown A treasure which once got can never be lost for what that b Cicere parâ—dâ—x ad sinem Prince of Orators saith of vertue is most true of a good conscience Nec eripi nec surripi potest â—nquam Neque naufragio neque incendio amittitur nâ—â— tempestatum nec temporum permutatione mutatur But a bad conscience it 's the souls inquisition and strappado It 's the epitome or abridgment of eternall torments 'T is the gloomâ—e evening to the black day of Damnation 'T is the terrible Harbinger of that dreadfull furious cruell train and troop of dismall intolerable unconceiveable woes and plagues which are marching â—ay at the door to take up their everlasting Quarters and abode in the miserable Soul 'T is secretum ftagellum an hell in the soul before the Soul be in Hell 'T is the lightening of those horrors which the thunder of that confounding â—â—ntence Goye cursed into Hel-fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels c. will suddainly inflict upon the for ever undone impenitent sinners Perillus his brasen Bull when hottest was a Down-bed warmed to the scorching anguish of an evill Conscience Nam urit caedit lancinat et eo gravius quia sine morte The stinging of the most venemous Serpent is pleasure and delight to the agonies
before all time and created the world was yet born in the fulnesse of time and became man in the world That he who fils both Heaven and earth and can neither be included nor excluded any where was shut up and confined within the narrow womb of a Virgin That he who is the Omnipotent and can do whatever pleaseth him could neither go nor stand That he who is Wisdome it self could not understand That he who is the Word could not speak That Christ was killed before he was alive and slain before he was born That he who is Almighty was held in the Arms and bound in the hands of a weak Woman That the Mother of Christ was both his Daughter Creature Spouse and a pure Virgin even after her Son was born And that if Jesus had not been slain for her from the beginning of the World Mary had not lived 3. A true beleever is both a Pebble and a Diamond a Pillar and a Troubler of the World He is both the honour and scorn the love envy and hatred of men In the Arithmetique of the wicked he standeth but for a Cypher but in the account of an holy God he is a Summe In the scales of the World he is drosse but in the Ballance of the Sanctuary Gold 4. A true Beleever is a merry mourner one cheerfully sorrowfull And as sometimes the clouds and Sun do rain and shine together So while Rivers of penitent griefe and tears spring up in his heart and run out at the floud-gates of his eyes celestiall beams of unknown joy comfort gladnesse dart upon irradiate and revive his dark troubled drooping Spirit 5. He riseth by falling Humiliation is his exaltation He goeth to Heaven by Hell And is never so high and precious in Gods eyes as when he is vilest and lowest in his own 6. A true Beleever is cured by sicknesse being never so well as when he fainteth is even ready to die of love for Christ Affliction is his physick Julip happinesse He is saved by ship-wrack landed by stormes and deeply rooted by winds and shakings 7. He beeleveth God to be most just and yet that the Lord from all eternity decreed that the innocent should be condemned and suffer to acquit the guilty And also that the greatest sinners should be saved by one should dye for sin and yet never committed any sin He beleeveth himself to be freely pardoned and yet knows that a price was paid for his redemption worth more then ten thousand Worlds He beleeves God to be most mercifull most loving and yet knows that God delivered up his own his only Son and suffered him to suffer not only the most bitter painfull and cruell but also the most shamefull Death And likewise that the Lord poured out upon him the fullest vials of his fiercest wrath and that all this was done endured and suffered for those who were both Enemies and Traytors to God and his Son 8. A true Beleever hateth all the World yet is no mans Enemy He is implacable yet without malice inexorable yet easy to be perswaded He prayeth for and heartily forgiveth his very Murderers His worst enemies are friends to him and do him good He sinneth least when he is most angry Taketh revenge on no body but himself And never pleaseth God more then when he is most offended and displeased with himself 9. A true Beleever is the most ambitious man in the World For nothing can satisfie or bound his aspiring mind but a Kingdome and Crown yet he is the most Loyall Subject and the greatest contemner of all sublunary things He wageth and maintaineth with courage resolution delight and constancy perpetuall Warrs and yet he is the greatest lover of peace lives in peace is the most quiet man and dies in peace He is victorious yea invincible yet fights without men against both men and Devills And though he be plundered beggered and lose all yet he groweth rich and great by wars without pay or pillage 10. He is born both alive and dead He dies twice and lives a threefold life of Nature Grace Glory He hath one resurrection before another after he is dead 11. He studieth with delight and diligence to know that which he is assured will both grieve and trouble him being known He is never so wise as when he knoweth himself to be a Fool. He is never so likely to get safe to shore as when he is most fearful of being cast away He is never beautifull untill he see and acknowledge himself to be ugly and deformed and the more he loaths himself the more God loves him 12. He is born of mean and base Parents and yet he is the only truly noble Man For he hath the Royallest bloud greatest alliances and relations highest titles choycest honours honourablest Attendants and the best estate of any man For God is his Father Christ is his Husband Heaven is his mansion Saints are his Brethren Angells are his Servants and Glory is his inheritance 13. A true Beleever is born both a Begger and an Heir He often lives poor yet is alwaies Rich and dies wealthy though without Lands money goods He keepeth his estate by sending it away and increaseth it by spending of it when others not only lessen but lose theirs by sparing and saving it And he taketh his treasure with him to his Grave and beyond it 14. He is never whole till he hath been broken He is never rightly throughly cured until he hath been deeply wounded He is never on earth more really happy then when he seemeth to be truly miserable Injuries are favours to him losses gain calamities mercies afflictions consolations The breaking of his bones setteth them and makes them both straight and strong 15. A true Beleever liveth in Heaven whilest he sojourns upon Earth he speaketh in company without being heard receives answers which no man can either intercept demurre or perceive enjoyes the best company though alone He walks while he lies still and is not there where men behold him 16. He hath a continuall feast without flesh and eating A Banquet without sweet meats melody without musick and Joy in the middest of sorrow He is dear beloved owned when he thinks himself despised rejected hated He beleeves he shall find pleasure in pain honey in gal life in death and doth so 17. He hath all things in the midst of his extreamest wants yet is beholding to the World for nothing for he fetcheth his meat drink clothes mercies comforts and whatever he possesseth from Heaven He sends by faithful frequent fervent prayers to Christ for them bids patience wait and appoints hope to bring him an answer which believing he shall receive it cometh indeed either according to his desires and expectation or beyond them He alwaies speeds and obtains even when his suit is denyed He hath what he will because he will have but what he may and therefore he sits down both contented and thankfull though he be crossed 18. A