Selected quad for the lemma: judgement_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
judgement_n	heart_n	know_v	lord_n	3,784	5	3.8149	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A84659	Theion enōtikon, A discourse of holy love, by which the soul is united unto God Containing the various acts of love, the proper motives, and the exercise of it in order to duty and perfection. Written in Spanish by the learned Christopher de Fonseca, done into English with some variation and much addition, by Sr George Strode, Knight.; Tratado del amor de Dios. English	Fonseca, Cristóbal de, 1550?-1621.; Strode, George, Sir, 1583-1663.	1652 (1652)	Wing F1405B; Thomason E1382_1; ESTC R772	166,624	277

loved her not because he did not open the secrets of his heart unto her for so she said How canst thou say I love thee when thy heart is not with me and when thou tellest me not where thy great strength lieth When God purposed the destruction of Sodome Gen. 18.17 he saith I know Abraham that he will command his children and his houshold after him to keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgement Here God rests assured in Abraham's love and service to him and what followeth why this that though God intended a secret and sudden burning of Sodome yet he will not do it before he acquaints Abraham therewith and therefore saith Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do We reade the like of God to Moses Exo. 33.9.13 that when God spake face to face with Moses in the Tabernacle that there was a cloudy pillar at the Tabernacle doore so that the people might not see them And at this interview and conference betwixt God and Moses Moses saith unto God If I have found grace in thy sight shew me now thy way The Prophet saith Psa 147.19 20. the Lord shewed his word unto Jacob. And then addeth He hath not dealt so with any Nation but this his beloved And S. Paul saith Col. 1 2● The mysterie of salvation by Christ Jesus hath been hid from ages and from generations but now is made manifest to his Saints In a word he that loveth me saith Christ John 14 21. shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and 〈…〉 my 〈◊〉 unto him And accordingly he saith unto his Disciples To you as my friends it given to know the mysterie or secrets of the Kingdome of God but unto those that are without all these things are done in parables And why in parables to these that seeing Mark 4● 11. saith Christ they may see and not perceive and hearing they may heare and not understand lest at any time they should be converted and their sins should be forgiven them Whence we may gather and learn that whom God loves to those he reveals his word and will so that they may see and heare and understand it to their conversion and salvation of their souls which none can deny to be an especiall argument of Gods love the fruition whereof the Lord grant unto us in Jesus Christ CHAP. XVI God seemeth to be solitary without man which is an especiall argument of his love to man THe Scriptures tell us of thousands of Angels that attend Christ and in the Gospels we finde them upon all occasions at his birth in his life and at his passion with him how then having such a company of holy Spirits ever with him and at his command can he be said to be alone if without man It is true in respect of the sweet society of Saints and Angels he cannot be truly said to be alone yet in regard that he made man to his own Image and every one loves that which is most like unto himself and that God hath said My delight is to be with the Sons of men in this respect without this his like with whom he is delighted he may well be said to be alone In the parable of the lost sheep Matth. 18.12 it is seen that the shepherd had 99. besides that which was strayed yet he left them all Suppose these to be the Saints and Angels in heaven and all to seek the one that was lost which is man The Prophet saith Psal 33.10 The Lord looked down from Heaven to behold the Sons of men and seeing them captiv'd by the Devill weltring in their filth of sin and therefore lamentably afflicted for them he came down and never rested but underwent all travell hardnesse and death that he might exalt them and bring them where himself was to have his everlasting residence in Heaven God under the Law when he saw his Israel scattered in Egypt he rested not till he brought them together and though in the wildernesse yet there he commanded them to make a Tabernacle and after that a large and glorious Temple that he might be with them and injoy as it were their company there together And Christ God in heaven that he might have the company of man he descended from heaven and as though this were too little to have the more full society of man he took his nature and was made man yea so that as it was spoken of Adam to Eve he was so married to mans nature that he might truly say He is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh More yet see Christ in his agony and torture on the Crosse and wanting the company of his Disciples and men believing in him he cries out My God! my God! Mat. 27.46 why hast thou forsaken me and as soon as the the Thief on the one hand was converted and prayed unto him Lord Luk. 23.43 remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdome he was so pleased with this that he readily granted his petition and told him This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise and so gently departed and took his new convert with him to Heaven And it is the opinion of many ancient and learned Fathers that the Saints and holy men which rose out of their graves at the time of our Saviours resurrection that they likewise as pleasing company ascended with Christ into Heaven there to be with him and as of the Chore to sing continuall Allelujahs of glory Glory to the Lamb that was and is and ever shall be S. Hierome cries out O ungrateful man to thy God who ever thou art considerest thou not the wonderful and unspeakable love of him the Lord of heaven to be thus delighted and to do and to suffer so much for thee and thinkest thou thy self best when thou art in the company of the wicked blasphemers murderers adulterers drunkards and profane persons return rather Shunamite return and run to him who is delighted with thee and is thy Saviour CHAP. XVII Charity is most eminent among all the vertues EVery vertue hath its proper opposites as liberality hath covetousnesse and prodigality to encounter whereas Charity is enemy to and opposeth not two or more but all vices And if any particular sin be more opposite to Charity then other it is the enmity to God And it being so that there is no sin that man committeth but more or lesse is tainted with this enmity hereby Charity is become a generall enemy and opposer of all sin When David had wickedly deflowred the wife of his faithfull Souldier Vriah and basely slaughtered the husband here were sins of murder adultery scandall and all these sins and enmities against his neighbour but as though these were nothing in comparison of that one sin and enmity to God Psa● 51.4 he saith Against thee alone O Lord have I sinned But although against this sin principally Charity opposeth her

labours yet at length the day came wherein the rising Sun saw him the second in the Empire and before its setting dragd by a hook through the streets of Rome and thrown from the Gemonies into Tibur his only child ravisht by the hangman and killd his adored statua made vessels for the basest use his friendship esteemed an honour and a crime and his fortune both a blessing and a curse Norcissus the favourite of Claudius slain at the instance of Agrippina Tigellius favourite to Nero Asiaticus to Vitellius and Cleander to Commodus each had their shamefull and ignominious ends The corollary from this consideration of favorites shall be that of King David Put not your trust in Princes Ps 146. 3 no nor in the son of man for it is better Ps 118. 8 9. saith he to trust in the Lord then to put any confidence in man or in Princes and a reason of this again he gives when he saith Ps 107.40 Ps 76.12 Ps 148.8 he powreth contempt upon Princes yea more He cutteth off the spirits of Princes and will bind their Kings with chaines and their nobles with fetters of iron to execute upon them judgement And whether Generalls and Conquerours have proved more happy then favorites see in Abner Generall to King Saul Amasa to Absalom and Joab to King David of which three not one came to his end in peace but had their bloud of war shed in the time of peace Might I not adde to these in holy writ the ends of Abimelech and Olophernes the former of which was brained by a stone cast on him by a certain unknown woman and the latter had his head cut off by a widow So like is victory and conquest to a game at cards where that which is now turned trumpe is at the next dealing cast to the lowest of all or is discarded as of no use Generals and Conquerors remember this when that aire which should be above is thrust into the earth it casts the earth into a quaking and trembling ague but when earthly vapours ascend into the place of the aire above it begets some fiery meteor or a combustion It is fabled that when Perseus went out to fight with Medusa his cause being just and hers wicked each of the Gods assisted and furnisht him with armes and weapons whereby he became the conqueror and cut off the witches head the fable will moralise it self into that which the blessed virgin Mary said he hath put down the mighty the unjustly mighty from their s●ats So that if we look for successe in war we must be sure not to enterprise it without these four requisits or conditions 1. that the cause be sincerely just 2. that the means be honest and lawsull 3. that the end be purely good 4. that the authority of the war be rightly vested in him to whom God either immediatly and extraordinarily hath given the sword as he did to the Kings of the Jews or ordinarily mediately by the laws of man in other states and if either of these be wanting it is not victory though ye overcome but treachery nor conquest but tyranny And therefore they who have used it may deservedly expect the fate of those in Israel who by unjust conquest gained the crown the stories at large exprest in the Book of Kings I shall abbreviate Politique Jeroboam who by rebellion robbed Reboboam the King of ten tribes and made himself King of Israel had his debaucht son Nadab rooted out with all his house by Baasha this mans son Elah with all that family was made away by Zimri this Zimri was burnt by Omri Ahab Omries son hath his bloud suckt by dogs Ahaziah son to Ahab dies by a fall Jeheram his brother succeeds him but was flain by Jehu who makes an end of all Ahabs line Jehu imitates Jeroboam as his son Joash imitates his father Shallum makes an end of Jehu's race This Shallum is taken off by Menahem Pekaiah the son of Menahem is outed by Pekah and this Pekah is slain by Hoshea who with the ten tribes is caried captive by Shalmaneser of Assyria which ten tribes never recovered the dispersion but were thought to have peopled Tartary and the west Indies Almost each of these usurpers as he gained the Crown by the sword and slaughter so had each of them the Crown snatcht from his head and his life taken away by the sword yea and Jehu though he were appointed to be King by God yet because he ambitiously and bloudily invaded Ahahs Crown shall find as the Prophet speaks the bloud of Jezreel to be avenged on the house of Jehu Ros 1.4 Who sees not in these passages the justice and revengefull hand of God on such enterprises though he suffered them so long to continue yet at last he recompenseth his long abused patience with the severity of his judgments pointing out by the stroak the concealed crime so that we may truly say with the Prophet Ps 9.16 The Lord is known by the judgment which be executeth the wicked it snared in the work of his own hands the prosperity of begun rebellion incouraging their trembling hearts to proceed and the crowning success exciting others to imitate that treason to the teachers destruction so that each may say verely there is a God that judgeth The kingdome and people of Judah are likewise captived and carried away to Habylon and the temple of Jerusalem destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar but as God by his Prophets foretold after 70 years the people are brought back from Babylon to Jerusalem and the temple is reedified dedicated and the Passover solemnized and in this who sees not Gods mercy to his people who served and called upon him although for their great sins they long suffered under their enemies All which considered there remains little more for us then to beleive the Scriptures to trust in the living God to possess our souls in patience to acknowledge that for our sins we have deserved much more and to call upon him in prayer for a timely deliverance Remember but as yesterday Tomaso Anello the fisherman of Naples who for the ease and relief of the peoples heavy taxes was able on a sudden to raise an Army great enough to subdue all the power of the King yet at last failing to perform what he engaged them for he himself is as suddenly slain by the people as he rose in their defence But to close all in one remember that Andronicus who had formerly taken an oath to be true and faithfull to his Liege Lord the Emperor of Constantinople yet after under colour of religion and pretence of freeing the people from the male-administration of the Emperor through his fair but false words and oaths soon gains so many of the people unto him that he as suddenly vanquished the forces of the Emperor whom he caused by the help of a most ungodly Councell to be sentenced to a most unjust and ignominious death which done he imprisons

us and to be imitated rather then to tread in the steps of Tamar the harlot or the strumpet in the Proverbs Prov 7 4. Read and consider what Esther speaks and did when she resorted to the Lord God to put up her prayers to him and to receive his gratious answer where you shall find that she did not then as our women now do deck or trim her self as though she were going to the King or to allure him but the text saith when she resorted unto the Lord Esther 14 2. she put away her glorious apparell and put on the garments of anguish and mourning and in stead of pretious ornaments she covered her bead with ashes a sign of humiliation with the Jews and she humbled not prided or trimmed her self greatly and thus attired the text saith she began to pray unto the Lord God and toward he close of her prayer she saith Thou knowest ô Lord that I abhor the sign of my high estate or pride as a menstruous ragg And this was a woman whom God raised and used as an instrumentall means of the Jews deliverance from their utter destruction intended them by that blood-sucking Haman the Agagite But may some say If this be a sin how comes it to pass that it is become so generall and common this comes to pass 1 because the sensitive part or soul in man hath got the mastery over his reasonable part 2 Because we look not up and set our affections on heaven as we ought but we mind most the vanities below 3. We living betwixt heaven and hell draw most to that which is neerest us which is not heaven but hell 4 A strumpet told Socrates that she drew more after her with her apparell and wantonness then he did with his wise precepts and eloquence to which Socrates as granting the thing and giving a reason for it saith Thou leadest them down the hill and the descent is easie to sin and hell but I draw them up and this is hard and therefore few follow me And a 5th reason is because we put the day of account and the evil day of death and judgement far from us and this may be the cause why the younger sort are more addicted to this sinfull vanity then the Elder although many old ones offend herein Ezek. 12 27. as though they were younger for when the Prophet threatens the Israelites with speedy destruction uless they repent then they answer the days are prolonged and the times are far off and such or worse though Christians S. Peter had to do with who scoffingly said 2 Pet. 3 4. Where is the promise of Christs comming to judgement for all things continue as they were from the beginning v 11 But these the Prophet answers Thus saith the Lord God There shall none of my words be prolonged any more and so S. Peter doth answer these Know that the day of the Lord will come as a theef in the night V. 10. therefore what manner of persons saith he ought ye to be in all holy conversation looking for and hasting unto the comming of the day of God And yet think not that all will be well with you till then remember that when the Israelites had dedicated their jewels to the dressing up their calf god Exod. 32 25. that Aaron made them and so shewed them naked to their shame and this God ha●● done to many in our days and to our knowledge and why fear we not the like may befall us remember what follows that apparell decking and trimming of the Israelites in stead of sweets there shall be a stink in stead of well-set hair baldness and burning in stead of beauty But if all this seems but spoken in a parable then hear God by his Prophet speaking plain and home zeph 182 I will visit and punish all such none excepted as are clothed with strange apparell and I think none can be so frontless as to deny that our land yearly is full of new and strange apparell and that worn mostly by such as the Prophet speaks of Hab. ● 19 They are idols not men or women which are covered with gold and silver for there is no breath of life in them or there is not that life in the soul which God breathed into them for they are as Christ compared the Pharisees Mat. 83. like Sepulchres or coffins which oft times have a rich herse-cloth or goodly ornaments set upon them whereas within them so in the gloriously apparelled bodies of these living men there is little more then rottenness diseases and filthyness Not withstanding all this the Preacher now may say as the others did Ecclus 10.15 There is an evill and an error which I have seen which proceedeth from the Rulers folly is set in great height and I have seen servants upon horses Prov. 19. ●0 that is as Salomon expresseth it in his Proverbs Servants in royall robes ruling and reigning over Princes Prov. 10. ●2 while the Princes meanly attired walk as servants upon the earth This the Preacher hath seen and he calls it both an error and an evill and is it not an error and an evill to see trades-mens wives decked and mincing like the women in the Prophet Isaiah Is 3. and Ladies or gentlewomen in their apparell to exceed Queen Esther Lay the words to heart which the Lord God hath spoken by his Prophet Zep. 1.3 and in anger I will visit and punish all such as are clothed with strange apparell CHAP. XXXVII Of Favourites to Princes and People and of Generals and Conquerors in war MAny towring and ambitious Spirits have made it the end of their study and endeavour to become the favourites of Princes or People in authority or to be Generals and Conquerors in war that thereby they might attain to power honour and wealth though the success hath seldome answered their expectations but have been rewarded according to their just merit with dishonouoable and shamefull ends In holy writ we read but of two eminent favourites Joseph in AEgypt and Haman in Persia of whom we find that as the first came to that height by his piety to God fidelity to the Prince and an honest care for the publick so he continued that place of trust and honour to his dying day which was for eighty years and as his death was lamented generally by all so he was as honorably interred whereas Haman through his power and greatness of favour growing proud bloody and destructive climbs the gallows which he had prepared for innocent Mordecai In the first time of the Roman Emperors few were there of them but had their favourites who they for the most part gained their places by ill means and held them by worse as by injustice rapine and blood so few of them but came to ends well suiting with their rise and actions Seiavus favourite to Tiberius declared by that Emperor his collegue and companion of his

same causes and meanes that mans love decreaseth the love of God increaseth SOme Divines have propounded the question why Christ the second Person in the holy Trinity rather than either of the other persons was made man and among other reasons this they give in answer That our first parents sin 1 Cor. 1.24 in desiring to be as God knowing good and evill directly opposeth the wisdome of God which is Christ And to shew the infinite love of God to man that Person who most directly was offended came down from Heaven tooke mans nature and suffered more than man could do and all to redeem man So that he alone God that can draw good out of evill and light out of darknesse used mans sin as an occasion through his love to save mankinde The Prophet Zacbary describes the state of the world Zach. 6. and in especially of the Israelites by foure Chariots the first whereof had red horses which typified the bloody Babylonians the second had black horses which noted the Persians under whom the Jews were neer their utter extirpation the third had white horses by which may be meant the Macedonians who as Alexander and others were gracious and favourable to the Jews the fourth had grizled or horses of divers colours which figured the changeable various and mixed government of the Romans which first or last is destructive to a State And now under this power and rule which contained all the misrule and barbarous usage of the three other Governments came the Messias into the world and this by the Apostle is called the fulnesse of time Gal. 4.4 because when the sin of the world was at the full now was the time of our blessed Saviour to come into the world and by his unspeakable love to redeem it The Prophet Isaiah sets forth Jerusalem thus Their hands are defiled with blood and their fingers with iniquity Isa 59.3 their lips have spoken lies and their tongues perversenesse none calleth for justice nor any pleadeth for truth the act of violence is in their hands their feet run to evill and they make baste to shed innocent blood their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity wasting and destruction are in their paths The way of peace they know not yea judgement is turned backward and justice standeth afar off for truth is fallen in the streets and equity cannot enter and he that departeth from evill maketh himself a prey And the Lord saw and wondered that there was no Intercessor therefore his arm brought salvation For he put on righteousnesse as a breast-plate and vengeance for a clothing and according to their deeds he will repay fury to his adversaries but to Zion shall the Redeemer come And is there any thing in all this that savours but of the love of God to truth and justice to his people though laden with their sins and for this punished and oppressed by their enemies The love of Christ in this kinde is not to be uttered or any way expressed I will summe it up therefore in that one passage of S. Paul the same night that our Lord Jesus was betrayed he instituted the Sacrament of his body broken 1 Cor. 11.23 and of his bloud shed as a sacrifice fully and solely expiatory for the sin of the whole world And while the Jews cried to the Romans Crucifie crucifie him he for them more incessantly praies to his Father Father forgive them and though they said Let his blood be upon us and our children yet he tells them My blood is shed for you and for all that will take and apply it to the forgivenesse of their sins The Psalmist in a wonder and amazement of this excessive love Psal ● 4 exclaims Lord what is man that thou art so mindfull of him or the son of man that thou visitest him for what is there in himself as man but that is to be abhorred his body being at the best but a bag of bones a sinke of foule water and stinking dirt and his soule like a cage of uncleane birds or a forge of wicked imaginations and a storehouse of sinne To the Psalmists question Why Lord hast thou so visited man no other answer or reason can be given then this of the Apostle Job 3.16 So God loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son to be made saith the Prophet Isay Isa 9.6 as a childe as the Apostle Saint Paul saith as a Servant who emptied himself as it were Phil. 2.7 to a nothing and all this as the effect onely of his infinite incomprehensible Love CHAP. XIV Gods jealousie JEalousie in man is an excesse of love and for the most part is the attendant of some ill condition in him whereas in God it is the quintessence as it were of his love And this riseth in God and moves him to anger and punishment when he finds himself dishonoured or neglected by those he loves Moses not onely tells us Exo. 20.5 that he is a jealous God but adds Exod. 34.14 that his Name is jealous And such is his jealousie that although he suffered the rebellious murmurings of his Israel Exo. 34.14 yet when they committed spirituall whoredome in making and worshipping the golden calf he destroyed 33000. of them and had not his deare servant Moses interceded he had in his jealousie utterly destroyed them all Covetousnesse by S. Paul is called Idolatry Col. 3.5 and when God finds his people worshipping or setting their hearts on these it moves him to jealousie Yea God is jealous of the inordinate or overmuch love of the husband to the wife or of the wife to the husband For these may love each other so much that some part of the love and worship due to God is bestowed on the Creature And for this God oft times turns jealous and in his anger takes the one from the other or bereaves them of their delight which is children And it being so that God hath commanded us to love him with all our heart and with all the strength and powers of the soule the least alienation of our love from God and bestowed on vain delights moves God to jealousie and provokes his anger And as the least withdrawing of our love from God works jealousie in him so when he finds us persist in a daily revolt from him he ceaseth any longer to be jealous See this proved in Israels case where God for Israels multiplied departings from him threatens My jealousie shall depart from them Ezek. 16.42 and I will be quiet and will be no more angry And this is the saddest condition that a soule can fall into for then it is apparent that God hath sent a bill of divorce to that soul and hath removed his love utterly from it for where God loves he cannot but be jealous Chap. XV. Gods revealing his secrets is a great demonstration of his love to man DElilab useth this as an argument Judg. 16.15 that Samson

which will and desire each studieth the others good as earnestly and affectionately as his own yea and so far oft-times than he preferreth the outward good of his friend before his own And that such friendship hath been found they tell us of Pylades and Orestes Damon and Pythias Theseus and Pirithous who took upon them to be the persons of their friends imprisoned and in danger of life thereby to hazard their own liberties and lives for the freedome and preservation of their friends To the setling and confirming of this friendship I shall lay down some conditions as necessarily requisite First that there be a kinde of equality betwixt friends which though the learned Roman Tully allows not yet with some Grecians it passed as a Proverb that Amity is Equality which is to be understood not so much in the outward estate and place of wealth honour and office as in the condescension and submission of the reason and will of the one to the other with a due observation to the place and dignity of the other And so Jonathan though the eldest Son of King Saul became a friend to David a shepherd for saith the Text the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David 1. Sam. 1● and Jonathan loved him as his own soul and in this respect may a King be a friend to his Subject for Christ himself thus calleth his disciples and true followers friends Joh. 15. ●4 15. who although he never did nor could devest himself of the glorious Deity yet to the making good his friendship he became in all things as man sin onely excepted yea as he called these his friends Servants in the Text before so that he might prove himself the more their friend he not onely was found in fashion as a man and as they to be a man of no reputation but more he took upon him the form of a servant ●hil 2. and accordingly shewed it before his passion when he humbled himself to the washing his Apostles feet A second condition requisite to this confirmation of friendship is a community of all communicable goods Plato the great Philosopher held this so necessary not only for friendship betwixt private men but for the general peace in a State that he banished from his Common-wealth this thing called Mine and Thine as the onely bane both of friendship and publick peace which opinion some wise men have approved with this small distinction of possession and use So that though the one friend according to the Law be the Lord and Proprietary of his Lands and Moneys yet the use and benefit thereof in case of necessity or conveniency shall be enlarged to his friend And surely as the Apostle speaks if we have Christ with him we have all things for all things are his so he that hath the soul and the heart of a friend with and by these he cannot but command for his necessary use his temporal goods which as before he that shall deny in so doing he denies himself to be a friend And this condition hath a great part of its ground from this That betwixt friends there must be as before I spake of Jonathan to David but one soul or the soul of the one so knit to tho other that each loveth the other as it were with the same soul This love is exprest to be betwixt the bridegroom and the bride Christ and his Church where she saith My beloved is mine Cant. 2.16 and I am his where first he is made hers by the love of his soul and then I am my well-beloved c. 6.3 and my beloved is mine she first returns her soul and love to him and confirms his to her self and when love hath thus united their souls all the affections and actions of the soul to say will and do the same thing will follow It is storied of two twins That when the one laughed or cried or the like the other did the same and so it should be betwixt friends and such friendship or love is commended unto us in holy Writ not onely by the example of Christs disciples who were said to be of the same minde Acts 2. 4. Rom. 12.15 but by their precept to us as when it is said Rejoyce with them that do rejoyce and weep with them that weep and then in the next words which causeth this mutual compassion Be of the same minde one towards another And not onely have we this precept but Christ hath prayed that we be enabled to the performance hereof when he speaks to his Father Holy Father Joh. 17.11 keep those whom thou hast given me that they may be one as we are one and thus the heart of friends being made one in an honest holy love the one shall not will nor ever bear the sway but they will in some things so submit to the judgement and will of the other that neither shall seem to over-rule the other but at the most they shall seem to rule by turns And love being thus preserved by the unity of an holy soul the fourth condition must take its place That friends must will and desire nothing but that which is just and honest Just betwixt man and man and from man to God and honest that is of good report I have read of one Pericles who being desired by his friend to speak in his cause more then was truth he answered True I am your friend but no further then to the Altar which afterwards become a Proverb among the Grecians and had this sense that when they spake as Witnesses they laid their hands on the Altar which no friend should dare do no not for his friend in a matter of untruth 'T is true that many held this too strict in friendship when they say So much you will do for every man and will you do no more or have you not a case for a friend To which I must briefly say He deserves not to be accounted a friend who of a friend requires more then what is honest and just And from hence ariseth another condition in friendship That the acts and desires of a friend must not solely tend to his own interest and behoof for this is not just but equally or by turns mutually to the good and benefit of each other A picture well drawn looks from its self casting his eyes and countenance and as it were with them following the beholder which way foever he turns and a friend being the image or picture of his friend should in all good desires wishes and actions shew himself like this picture for otherwise he that loves another for himself loves himself and not the other for the end of his love looks inward to himself and not outward to him whom he professeth to love To the better cherishing friendship this sixth condition is somewhat requisite That there should be as much and as often as well may be a mutual interview and conference between friends The

have been known so overcome with the desire of having that they did not themselves desire to enjoy their wealth but have lived as Tantalus feigned by the Poets to stand in a goodly stream of water with a tree full of pleasant fruit over his head yet was ready to starve for hunger and choke for thirst and such is that wretched mans estate who in his abundance can hardly find in his heart to afford himself necessaries but in stead thereof he is well pleased to live in the middest of all his wealth as a rat imprisoned in a trap standing in a roome full of grain or as a ferrit with his lips sewed up So that to such men their wealth is of no more use then a shadow whereof they can make no more advantage then for sight to look upon And this is so far from giving joy to the possessors of wealth that when Christ pronounceth his first blessing saying Lu. 6.20 Blessed be the poor for yours is the kingdom of God then as answerable hereunto he denounceth his first woe to the rich 〈◊〉 ●4 saying Woe unto you that are rich for you have received your cons●l●t●●● 〈◊〉 which last words may be understood Iro● 〈…〉 by the way of a scornfull jeere unto them 〈◊〉 call it a consolation to have riches or at the most they can intend no more then woe be to you hereafter for here and only here you have that you call consolation in your wealth And this is evident from that parable uttered by Christ Luk. 16.25 where he saith under the person of Abraham to the rich man Son remember that thou in thy life time received thy good things this was thy consolation the good things of this world in this life and therefore now in hell thou art tormented where we see that as the poor Lazar that suffers here on earth shall be comforted in heaven so the rich miser that comforts himself here in his wealth shall be tormented in hell so that with these it fares as with the Hen that scratcheth hard to get her living yet dead is served to the best mans table when the hawke a bird of prey well fed and attended on once dead is cast to the dunghill And this is the evil of all evils or that may comprise all evils in it self that by the covetous desire of riches the soul is too often in jeopardy of being cast into utter darkness In the Gospels our Saviour speaking of riches and cares of the world Mat. 13. Mark 4. Luk. 8. which chook and hinder the growth of Gods seed sowed in mans heart he calls them thornes and besides the reason here assigned by our Saviour riches and worldly cares may be rightly likened to thorns 1 They grow for the most part in the worst grounds so the love of riches comes up in the most sordid and basest souls 2 They draw and suck the juice and fat of the earth from other good seeds and plants whereby they oft times to the 〈…〉 of the world seem neer sterved and so 〈…〉 it with the rich man and his poor neighbour 3 If the poor harmless sheepe shall chance to fall among these thorns the rich men he is sure to be fleeced 4 Thorns hinder and often wound the poor travailer in his journey many a man to his sad experience hath found the like in his way to heaven 5 Thorns are smooth and not discerned to prick or hurt save only by the point and end and so it fareth with riches which few men seem to be troubled with till they grow to their end of death or come to the end of judgement and then they prick and wound or as S. Paul phraseth it they pierce the soul through and round with torturing paines Now the same Lord who hath compared the cares and riches of this world to thorns committed not the purse the bag of these thorns to any of his beloved Apostles or Disciples save only to Judas that miscreant wretch because he considered what a vexation and torture they would prove unto them 2 He knew that as the prodigall mentioned in the Gospel never returned unto his father untill all his temporall goods were spent so neither could he have had any good or comfort in his disciples company so long as they had been intangled therewith as indeed he had not till they had left all and followed him And the leaving these Christ held so necessary towards the attainment of eternall bliss that he pronounceth it as impossible for a rich man to enter heaven Luk. 10.23 as it is for a Camel to go through the eye of a needle But lest these words might have reflected upon holy men then living and dead yet rich Christ expounds himself to speak no● simply of men that are rich though at 〈…〉 seemed to speak so but of men that trust in 〈◊〉 riches and for such to enter into heaven it is impossible for God will admit none thither but such as trust in him and they cannot trust in him who trust in their riches To conclude this point in a word ●ol 3.5 S. Paul in one place of his Epistles tells us that covetousness is Idolatry and the root of all evill and in another place that no idolater unclean person or sinner can enter where God is in heaven now put these two texts together and it must evidently and necessarily follow from them that the covetous cannot possibly enter heaven because he is an Idolater trusting in his riches and hath moreover with it the growth of all other sins springing from this one root But if I proceed any further in this Argument I may fear to be taken for some Scholar that is poor and given to his book or contemplation and therefore for the prosecuting this theme so far I may expect the like entertainment as our Saviour Christ had who twice and but twice for ought I read was derided and laughed at once was when he said that the maid who was really dead was but a sleep and for this say the Gospels they laughed him to scorn Mat. ● 24 and the other occasion that moved the Pharisees with others to laugh at him was when Christ had Preached against such as pretended to serve both God and Mammon and hereupon the text saith that the covetous hearing these things they derided him Luk. 1● 14 so that although this sin of covetousness be the most large spreading ingendring and corrupting sin and therefore such as hath been most severely spoken against by Christ and his Apostles yet so common it is to the ●●st and the most are so hardned in it that 〈…〉 to speak against it were but to be la●ghed at And the rather say these worldlings for that riches are the promised and granted blessings of God as in reward to the well doers and therefore for that most of the Patriarchs good Kings and holy men have been very rich they held it a