of a Nobleman whose Son and Heir was supposed to be bewitched and being advised to go to some Wizard or Cunning-man as they are called to have some help for his Son that he might be unwitched again He answered O by no means I had rather the witch should have my Son then the Devill But iâ— a Man make no Conscience to avoid or remove an Affliction If he will break the hedge of a fair Command to avoid the foul way of some heavy Affliction it is a sign that he mourns more for the cross that lies upon him then for his Sins and Trespasses and that he never grieved so much for his corruptions as for his corrections Worldly-crosses turned into spirituall advantages AS little Children when they see a heap of beautifull and sweet Roses lying upon a Table before them and their Mother goes and pus them in a Mortar and therein beats them all to pieces The children cry out and think the Mother spoils them though she does it meerly to make a Conserve of them that they may be more useful and durable Thus it is that we think we have comforts like beds of Roses yet when God takes them from us and breaks them all to pieces we are apt to conceive that they are all spoiled and destroyed and that we are utterly undone by it Whereas God intends it to work for our greater benefit and advantage Rom. 8. 28. How to become true Possessors of Riches POssessions and Riches of this world are like a Rose in a Mans hand if he use it gently it will preserve its favour and its scent and colour a great while but if he crâ—sh it and handle it roughly it loseth both its colour and its sweetnesse Thus if a Rich man use and employ his Wealth well he will possesse it the longer but if he set his heart too much upon it he will quickly lose it He may possesse it but by no means must he let his Wealth possesse him If Riches encrease he must not set his heart upon them his eye or hand or tongue may be upon them but not his Heart His Money must come no nearer his heart then his hands Hence was that saying of the Heathen Rebus non me trado sed commodâ— I may lend my selfe but I will not give my selfe to my Wealth And so must all of us do if ever we intend to become true possessors of worldly riches and endowments All Wordly comforts transitory IT was a Custome in Rome that when the Emperour went by upon some grand day in all his Imperiall pomp there was an Officer appointed to burn flax before him crying out Sic transit gloria mundi which was purposely done to put him in mind That all his honour and grandure should soon vanish and passe away like the nimble smoak raised from that burning flax And it was a good Meditation that one had standing by a River side saies he The Water which I see now runs away and I see it no more and the comforts of this world are like this running water still gliding and running away from us So most true it is that all Men and such as do most indulge themselves with those bitter sweets that the World doth or can present they are but like smoak that soon vanisheth away transitory either ebbing or flowing never at any certain but fleeting and fading coming to us with Sparrows wings slowly and with much difficulty but flying away with Eagles wings hardly discoverable which way or how they took their flight on such a suddain It must therefore be our care so to use this world as if we used it not for the fashion of it passeth away and seeing we cannot enjoy the comforts thereof any long time let us use them well to Gods Glory that gave them and not abuse them to our own prejudice How it is that a Man may be said to abuse the lawfull comforts of this life IT is a good observation that is made upon that place of Iob 38. 22. where God thus challengeth Iob Hast thou entred into the Treasures of Snow or hast thou seen the treasures of the Hail Where the Observator noteth out That all the Comforts of this world are but like the treasures of Snow Do but take a handful of Snow and crush it in your hands it will melt away presently but if you let it lie upon the ground it will continue for some time And so it is with the things of this world If you take the comforts of this life in your hands and lay them too near your hearts in affection and love to them they will quickly melt and vanish away from you but if you leave them in their proper place and do not set an inordinate affection upon them they will continue the longer with you As if you should line a garment with linnen it would do very well but if you line it with pitch or glew that will stick fast to the body and in all likelihood spoil both the garment and the Man that wears it So when the world is glewed to your hearts it spoils the comforts of all the Mercies that you enjoy and so it may be said that the otherwise lawful use of them is abused when they are either used too afflectionately in making Gods of them or being too eagerly bent in the gaining of them Iam. 4. 13. The things of this World vain and uncertain IT is an observable note that a learned Man hath upon the names of the two first Men that ever were born into the World Cain and Abel Whence saith he we may learn a very good lesson and that from the very interpretation of their Names Caâ—n signifies Possession and Abel Vanity to shew that Adam and Eve who had all the World before them did see nothing but vanity in all their possessions And it were well if the Sons and Daughters of Adam that have a great â—eal lesse of the World then Adam had would not set their hearts so much upon the vanities and uncertainties thereof being such as perish with the using such as are gone before we have almost any hold of them like a flock of Birds that no Man can say they are his own though they sit in his yard so vain uncertain flitting ading are all the thinge all the comforts of this world be they whatsoever they are whatsoever they can be Present occasion of Time to be made use of THe Sun by its annual Revolution makes the day and the year The Moon by her â—unary course draws up the Months and quarters The Pleiades and Hyades make the Seasons of the years and the Dog-star brings in the heat of the Summer And all of these do labour by their ordinary passages to shew us that Orient Ovall that precious Pantaur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the present occasion of Time this very moment which is yet ours and ought
an artificiall contrivance it is so framed that when the wind sitteth in such or such a corner it will move and so having but an externall motor and cause to move and no inward principle no soul within it to move it it is an argument that it is no living creature So it is also if a man see another man move and move very fast in those things which of themselves are the waies of God you shall see him move as fast to hear a Sermon as his neighbour doth is as forward and hasty to thrust himself and bid himself a guest to the Lord's Table when God hath not bid him as any Now the question is What principle sets him a work if it be an inward principle of life out of a sincere affection and love to God and his Ordinances that carrieth him to this it argueth that man hath some life of grace but if it be some wind that bloweth on him the wind of state the wind of law the wind of danger of penalty the wind of fashion or custom to do as his neighbours do If these or the like be the things that draw him thither this is no argument of life at all it is a cheap thing it is a counterfeit and dead piece of service God is not to be provoked to anger THe gods of the Gentiles were senslesse stocks and stones not able to apprehend much lesse to revenge an injury done unto them Well therefore might the Philosopher be bold with Hercules to put him to his thirteenth labour in seething of his dinner and Martial with Priapus in threatning him to throw him into the fire if he looked not well to his Trees A child may play at the hole of a dead Aspe and a silly woman may strike a dead Lion but who dare play with a living Serpent who dare take a roaring Lion by the beard Let Christians then take heed how they provoke the living God for He is a consuming fire and with the breath of his mouth he is able to throw down the whole frame of Nature and destroy all creatures from the face of the earth Religion and Unity the onely supporters of Church and State IT is not possible that those things which are knit together by a bond should hold fast together after the bond it self is broken nor can a sinew hold steddy the joynt if it be sprayned or broken or cut assunder Religion is the band of all society the strongest sinew of Church or Commonwealth God forbid there should be any rupture any sprain in this sinew The like of Unity Pluck iâ— you can a beam from the body of the Sun it will then have no light break a branch from the Tree it will bear no fruit sever a River from the Spring it will be soon dried up cut a member from the body it soon dyeth cast a Pumice-stone into the water and though it be never so big which it remains entire and the parts whole together it will swim above water but break it once into pieces and then every piece of it will sink to the very bottom Thus both Church and Commonwealth which are supported and as it were held up by Religion and unity peace and concord are ruined and destroyed by discord dissention schism and faction O tam bonum quam jucundum How happy are such a People such a Nation such a Church such a State as live together in peace and unity Peace with Men will make our peace with God WHen upon newes of earthquakes and other prodigious signes the Sooth-sayers foretold great calamities that were to befall the State of Rome unlesse the wrath of the gods were suddainly appeased the Orator determineth the point most divinely Faciles sunt deorum ira c. God will be easily reconciled to us if we be reconciled one to another And most true it is we cannot be one with God so long as we are one against another when we are at peace one with another then God will be at peace with us and if God be at peace with us all creatures shall be in league with us so that neither devill nor man nor any thing else shall have any power to hurt us The great folly of too late Repentance in any thing IT was a sad confession that by the testimony of a reverend ear-witnesse drop'd from the mouth of a very considerable person in Scotland viz. That it was true he with the rest of his Nation had buried Episcopacy and their antient Monarchy in one and the same grave but upon the sad consequences of it they would be content to tear up the very earth of that grave with their teeth so that they might but raise both of them up again And such is the precipitate folly and madnesse of many that are at this day to be found in the midst of us who act ill at the first and then to their great griefe consider what they have so acted such as have and do still run headlong upon one mischievous designe or other and then Phrygian-like repent when it is too late wishing that undone which is done whereas one day they will finde to their great losse that the safest course had been with prudent Prometheus to have foreseen a danger and shun'd it then with foolish Epimetheus in the want of due consideration to go on and be deservedly punished The Church robbed of her maintenance upon pretence of Reformation DIonysius the Tyrant entring into a Temple of Idolls took away from the chiefest amongst them a Cloak of gold and being demanded why he did it his answer was This Cloak is too heavy for the summer and too cold for winter Taking likewise a golden Beard from Aesculapius he said That his father Apollo having no beard there was no reason his son should wear any But this was but a mask for his covetousnesse And thus it is with some in these daies they will strip the Church of her maintenance to keep the Clergy from lazinesse and they tell us that the King's Daughter is all glorious within so as they may pocket up her Rayments of needlework and fine gold it is no matter how she is without They professe encouragements to the Ministers of the Gospell and in the mean time pare off a great deal of their necessary maintenance But let them know That it is scandalous maintenance that makes a scandalous Minister and that a beggerly clergy is alwaies the signe of a bankrupt Religion Time to be well used MAny sitting up so long at play are necessitated to go to bed darkling This our living in this world is a kind of playing or gaming whose bed is Eternity Let us then study to give over this play in some good time and not stay at it till the very snuffing and topping of the candle go out lest darknesse overtake us and we
on him sure it is that the fiery trial is now on the Church and the Lord will discover what is in the heart of his Israel while they are in the troublesome wildernesse e're they come into Canaan a Land of rest Religion pretended mischiefe intended IT is reported of young King Edw. the sixth that being about to lay hold on something that was above the reach of his short arm one that stood by espying a boss'd Bible lving on the Table offered to lay that under his feet to heighten him but the good young King utterly disliked the motion and instead of treading it under his feet he laid it to his heart But now there are many amongst us that make Religion but a stalking Horse to their policy that make use of the Bible to no other end but to reach at and to seek out their own wicked designs quaerentes sua non quae Christi seekers of their own things not the things of Iesus Christ Phil. 2. 21. The Churches enemies the Churches good AS we say of fire and water and as the Romans said of Caligula Nemo melior servus nemo pejor dominus we may say of the Churches enemies they are very bad Masters executing their own lusts and cruelty against Gods people yet very good servants if the divine hand make use of them for the Churches service just like the good Husbandman which makes use of bryers and thornes which though they be fruits of the curse and cumber the ground yet will he suffer them to grow in hedges that he make them a fence unto his fruitful ground The Devil's endeavour to darken the understanding IT is written of Antiochus that entering into the Sanctuary he took away the golden Altar and the Candlestick for light And Nebuchadnezzar when he conquered Zedekiah put out his eyes and bound him in chaines and then carried him to Babel In like sort the Devil So soon as he hath entred into mans soul which is Gods holy Temple he doth endeavour instantly to put out the light to darken the understanding that a man may not be able to discern betwixt good and evill and so be more easily carried into Babylon to his souls confusion The Devil's charge and the sinners discharge THere is a story how the Devil appeared to a dying man and shewed him a Parchment Role which was very long wherein was written on every side the sins of the poor sick Man which were many in number and there were also written the idle words he had spoken which made up three quarters of the words that he had spoken in his life together with the false words the unchast words and angry words afterwards came in rank his vain and ungodly words and lastly his actions digested according to the Commandements whereupon Sathan said See here behold thy verâ—ues see here what thy examination must be whereunto the poor sinner answered It is true Satan but thou hast not set down all for thou shouldst have added and set down here below The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all our sins And this also should not have been forgotten That whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life whereupon the Devil vanished Thus if the Devil should muster up our sins and set them in order before us let but Christ be named in a faithfull way and he will give back and fly away with all the speed that may be The dangerous effects of Riches being not well used THere was in the King of Denmarks Court one that played on the Harp so exceeding well that it was said He could put men into what passion he listed though it were into fury and madness One desirous to make the tryal would needs hear him but so that divers Gentlemen standing aloof off out of the hearing should be ready to come in and stay the Musick if they saw him in any distemper Things thus ordered the Musitian began to play and first he struck so deep and sweet a note that he put the man into dumps so that he stood like one â—orlorne his Hat in his eyes his arms across sighing and lamenting Then the Musitian began a new Note and played nothing but mirth and devices that the man began to lose his dumps and fell a dancing But in the third place the Harper so varied his Notes and by degrees so wrought upon the Man according as he saw him incline that from dancing he brought him to showting untill he grew frantick and slew four of his friends that came to stay him And thus it is with Riches if not used the wiselier they will play such feats as the Harper did first in the beginning when a man is gathering of them together they fill him with care and and restlessness that nothing is more miserable then a man carking after the world Then in the second place when he hath tasted the sweetness of them and is gotten through his travel when he comes to be Master then he falls a dancing shews the vanity of his mind speaks high looks big and his apparel is excessive and usually in this fit his Wife fetches a frisk or two with him But when this merry fit is over the third passion is phrensie killing and slaying all that come in his way he becomes a rapacious griping Usurer grinds the face of the poor breaks the backs and cuts the throat of many a Man and is so strong and boysterous that no Man can tell how to get within him and come off with safety Sin onely is the Godly man's terror OH saies Pharaoh take away these filthy frogs this dreadful thunder But what saies holy David Lord take away the iniquity of thy servant The one would be freed from punishment the effect of sin the other from sin the cause of punishment And it is most true that a true Christian man is more troubled at sin then at Frogs and Thunder he sees more filthiness in sin then in Frogs and Toads more horror then in Thunder and Lightning Want of Love to be deplored SUch was the Love of the Saints of God in old time that their hearts were knit one unto the other yea which is more All the believers had but one heart Cor unum Viauna no breach in their affections no difference in their judgements Such Love is not to be read in our books not to be found in our Conversations we are not descended of this peaceable line but rather from that of Câ—elius whose Motto was Dic aliquid ut duo simus who could not be quiet unless he were engaged in one quarrel or other such as the Salamander that live not but in the fire of contention All the true family of love may even seem to be extinguished and the houshold of faith quite broke up for the greatest part of Men as if they had been baptized in the Waters of strife are
that one slender word all the greatness of the rest is included the King being the Fountain of Honour from whence all their glory is derived Thus it is that if all the created goodnesse all the Priviledges of Gods children all the Kingdomes of the Earth and the glory of them were to be presented at one view they would all appear as nothing and emptiness in comparison of the excellency and fullness that is to be found in Christ Iesus The Ministers joy in the conversion of Souls IF it cannot but delight the Husbandman when he seeth his plants grow his fruits ripen his Trees flourish If it must needs rejoice the Shepheard to behold his sheep sound fat and fertile If it glad the heart of a Schoolmaster or Tutor to observe his Schollers thrive in Learning and encrease in knowledg It must needs be matter of abundant joy to any Minister of the Gospell when People are brought to Fellowship with God in Christ Iesus when they are as it were snatched out of the slavery of sin the jaws of Death and Hell and brought into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God then it is that he may be said to reap the fruits of his labours in the great comfort of his own Soul Gods pardoning other Repentan◠Sinners a great motive to perswade us that he will pardon us also IF one should come to a Physitian of whom he hath had a large report of his skill and should meet with hundreths by the way such as were at that time his Patients and all of them should tell him how he hath cured and healed them of their severall infirmities this must needs encourage him to go on with confidence of his skill that he will recover him also So should every Repentant Sinner run to Christ the great Physitian of his Soul because so many thousands have been healed so many great Sinners have been forgiven such as Manasses Mary Magdalen S. Paul c. This may be a great motive to perswade us all that upon Repentance he is and will be ready to forgive us also according to that of the Apostle He hath shewed Mercy unto me that others might believe in God Men to be carefull in the triall of their Faith Whether it be sound or not IF one be told that his Corn is blasted that all the Trees in his Orchard are dead that all his Money is counterfeit that the deeds and Evidences upon which his Lands and whole estate depend are false it must needs affect him much and make him look about him to see if these things be so or no. And shall not Men look then to the Faith they have upon which depends the eternall Welfare of their immortall Souls seeing God accepteth none except it be sound effectuall lively and accompanied with good works such a Faith as worketh by love purifieth the heart and shews it self in fruits worthy amendment of life 1 Thes. 1. 3. Men not to be ashamed of their Godly Profession though the Wicked speak evill of them SUppose a Geometrician should be drawing of lines and Figures and there should come in some silly ignorant fellow who seeing him should laugh at him Would the Artist think you leave off his employment because of his derision Surely no For he knows that he laughs at him out of his ignorance as not knowing his Art and the grounds thereof Thus let no Man be ashamed of his godly Profession because Wicked Men speak evill of it And why do they so but because they understand it not it is strange to them they see the actions of Godly Men but the rules and principles that they go by they know not and hence is it that they throw dirt in the face of Religious profession but a Wife man will soon wipe it off again God ordering all things for the good of his Church PUt the case all were turned upside down as it was in the confused Chaos wherein Heaven and Earth were mingled together and the waters overcoming all the rest yet as when the Spirit of the Lord did but move upon the Waters many beautifull Creatures wee produced and the Sea divided from the rest so that those waters which then seemed to spoil all serve now to water all without which 〈◊〉 cannot possibly subsist Even so were the Church in never so confused 〈◊〉 yet God will in his great Wisedome so order the things that seem to undo us that they shall make much for us and bring forth something of speciall use for the Churches good something to water and make fruitfull the house and People of God Sin the godly Mans hatred thereof IT is said of the Dove that she is afraid of every Feather that hath grown upon on Hauk and brings as much terrour upon her as if the Hauk were present such a native dread is as it seems implanted in her that it detests and abhors the very sight of any such feather So the Godly man that hath conceived a detestation against Sin cannot endure any thing that belongs to it or that comes from it No not the least motion or inclination though it bring along with it never so fair pretences never so specious shews shall have the least welcome or entertainment Vanity of the Creature without God TAke a beam of the Sun the way to preserve it is not to keep it by it self the being of it depends upon the Sun take the Sun away and it perisheth for ever but yet though it should come to be obscured and so cut off for a while yet because the Sun remains still therefore when the Sun shines forth again it will be renewed again Such a thing is the Creature compared with God If you would preserve the Creature in it self it is impossible for it to stand like a broken glasse without a bottom it must fall and break It is well known that the being of an accident is more in the subject then in it self insomuch that to take away the subject the very separation is a destruction to it So it is with the Creature which hath no bottom of it self so as the sepaeration of it from God is the destruction of it as on the contrary the keeping of it close unto God though in a case that seems to be the ruine of it is its happinesse and perfection How it is that God is to every one of his Children alone IT is observed That a Mathematicall point hath no parts it is one indivisible For let a thousand lines come to one point every one hath the whole and ye◠there is but one that answers all because it is indivisible and every one hath all So it is with God though there be many thousands that he loves dearly yet every one of them hath the Lord wholly For that which is infinite hath no parts and therefore he bestowes himself
sword we turn them against their Master and fight against Heaven with that health wir wealth friends means and mercies that we have from thence received Gods infinite Power in the Resurrection of the Body IN Queen Marie's daies the body of Martyr's wife was by the charity of that time taken out of her grave and buried in a dunghill in detestation of that great Schollar her husband sometimes Professour of Divinity in the University of Oxford But when the tide was once turned and that Queen Elizabeth of happy memory swayed the Scepter of this State her bones were reduced to their place and there mingled with the bones of St. Frideswide to this intent that if ever there should come an alteration of Religion in England again which God forbid then they should not be able to discern the ashes of the one from the other Thus Death hath mixt and blended the bodies of men women and children with the flesh of beasts birds and serpents hath tossed typed and turned their ashes both into aire and water to puzzle if possible the God of heaven and earth to find them again but all in vain He can call for a finger out of the gorge of an Eagle for a leg out of the belly of a Lion for a whole Man out of the body of a Fish If the devill or thy corrupt reason shall suggest that this is impossible make no other answer but this God is omnipotent God is infinite Fears of the losse of Gospell-light more at home than from abroad POpe Silvester when he was bid to beware of Ierusalem for that whensoever he should come thither he should surely dye he thereupon flattered himself that he should then live long enough for he was sure that he should never trevell thither little thinking that there was a Church in Rome of that name into which he had no sooner set his foot but he met with his evill Genius as Brutus did at Philippi and suddainly ended his wretched daies Now it is not Rome in Italy which we so much need to fear but Rome in England not Amsterdam in Holland but Amsterdam in England The Popish faction on one side and the Schismaticall party on the other side both of them fire-balls of dissention in the State and of schim in the Church to set all in a combustion Zeal and Knowledge must go hand in hand together PHâ—â—ton in the Poet takes upon him to drive the Charriot of the Sun but through his inconsiderate rashnesse sets the world in a combustion What a Horse is without a Rider or a hot-spur'd Rider without an Eye or a Ship in a high Wind and swelling sail without a Rudder such is Zeal without Knowledge Knowledge is the eye of the Rider that chooseth the best way the bridle in the hand to moderate the pace the rudder in the ship whereby it is steered safely St. Bernard hits full on this point Discretion without zeal is slow-paâ—ed and zeal without discretion is strong-headed let therefore zeal spur on disâ—retion and disoretion reyne in zeal Not so much the quantity as the quality of Devotion accâ—ptable to God IT is said of Saul Duobus annis regnavit that he reigned two years over Israel when notwithstanding according to the computation of men he reigned twenty but the Scripture reckons onely upon the dates of grace not counting those at all which either went before or followed after A Musitician is commended non tam multum sed tam bene not that he played so long but that he played so well And thus it is not the daies of our life but the goodnesse of our life not the length of our prayers but the fervency of our prayers not the measure of our profession but the sincerity of our profession that is acceptable unto God Almighty The deceitfulnesse of Riches HEe that sees a flock of birds sitting on his ground cannot make himselfe any assurance that therefore they are his own and that he may take them at his pleasure Thus he that hath riches and thinks himself fully possessed of them may be deceived and soon deprived of them a small spark of fire may set them flying a thiefe may steal them an unfaithfull servant may imbezle them a souldier a wrack at sea a bad debtor at land there 's a hundred waies to set them packing They have wings and hop from branch to branch from tree to tree from one man to another seldom to him that is the true owner of them Glory is to be given to God onely and why so THat workman should do ill who having built a house with another man's purse should go about to set up his own Arms upon the front thereof and in Iustinian's Law it was decreed That no workman should set up his name within the body of that building which he made out of another man's cost Thus Christ sets us all at work it is he that bids us to fast and pray and hear and give almes c. But who is at the cost of all this whose are all these good works Surely God's Man's poverty is so great that he cannot reach a good thought much lesse a good deed All the materialls are from God the building is His it is His purse that paid for it Give but therefore the glory and the honour thereof unto God and take all the profit to thy self God must be loved for himself onely YOu shall have a man scrape and crouch and keep a do with a man he never saw or knew before one that he is ready it may be when his back is turn'd to curse but yet he will do this for his almes for his gain to make a prey a use of him some way or other this man loves his almes loves his prey loveth his bounty but all this is no argument of love to the man Thus for a man to make towards God and to seem to own him and to be one of the generation of those that seek his face to addresse himself in outward conformity and many other things by which another may if he have no other ground judge charitably of him yet all this is nothing except a man may discern something that may give him a tast that his spirit doth uprightly and sincerely seek God that he loveth God for God himself that he loveth Grace for grace it self he loveth the Commandments of God because they are God's commandments c. And thus it is that our love our desire after God must be carried sincerely not for any by and base respâ—cts whatsoever Every motion towards God is not a true motion towards God THere be many things that move and yet their motion is not an argument of life A Windmill when the wind serveth moveth and moveth very nimbly too yet this cannot be said to be a living creature no it moveth only by an external cause by
any so safely as the dead for you cannot humour them into danger nor melt away your self into flattery Such jewells ought not to be locked up in a â—offin as in a cabinet but to be set out to the view of all men Men though differing in judgment must not differ in affection THere is mention made of two Rivers in the East Sava and Danuby that run along in one chanell theescore miles together without any noise and yet they keep themselves apart the colours of the waters remaining distinct all along And why should not Men go along close together in love though in somethings their judgments and practices be apparently different one from another Opinionum varietas opinantium unitas non sunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Men may go to heaven with the variety of opinions but with the difference of affection they shall never see God in the face to their comfort A man dead in sin is a senslesse man IF a man be naturally dead bring a candle into the room set it on the table he sees it not let the Sun shine in his face he perceives not the beauty or feeles the warmth thereof offer him rich presents he receives them not he hath not an eve to see them nor a heart to desire them nor a hand to reach out unto them Thus it is with one that is spiritually dead let the Sunshine of the Gospell put out never so clear he sees it not because he is in darknesse though he live under plentifull means and rich dispensations yet he is blind and sottish offer unto him the rich pearls of the Gospell those rich treasures of grace in Christ Iesus yet he hath no heart to them no hand of faith to lay hold upon them so blind so sottish is he so stupiâ— and senslesse that though these rich treasures these graces these pearls of the Gospell be conveyed unto him in earthen vessells in a plain and familiar manner yet he doth not he cannot apprehend them judgments do not affright him and mercies do not allure him Antinomians compared to Thieves THieves when they come to rob and steal the first thing that they do is to put out the candle that they may pilfer the more securely Thus the Antinomians that they may cry up their Idoll of Christian liberty with more ease and vent their doctrines of pleasing domnation more freely they set themselves against the Law and would banish it out of the Church and thus carnall and prophane men too labour to abolish it that they may sin the more securely and with greater liberty Not to censure others but look to our selves SOcrates at a banquet falling at odds with one of his familiars and openly rebuking him Plato could not hold but said unto him How much better had this been spoken privately And had you not done better to have told me so privately quoth Socrates Plato could see Socrates's fault of unseasonable reprehension but his own he could not perceive Thus look but amongst such as call themselves holy brethren but indeed rank Protestants devout dissemblers and you shall finde that they are not halfe so forward in examining themselves as in finding fault with other and they are not halfe so curious in their own as they are captious and cruell over other mens lives they can readily accuse others of blacknesse and spirituall deformities saying They are wicked he is naught they are Antichristian rotten-hearted c. such a one hath a Pope in his belly when at the same time they have but little God knowes of Christ in their hearts They can gaze at the moâ—e in their brother's eye but care not for pulling out the beam that is in their own sight They cannot bear with a few infirmities of their brethren no not of their fathers but their own fowl enormities they can easily conceal and continue The least of sins to be prevented BY the want of one nail the iron shoo is lost and the shoo being lost the Horse falleth and the Horse falling the Rider perisheth Such are the dangers that he incurreth that neglecteth small things the neglect of the lesser maketh way but for the greater evill and he that setteth light by small things falleth by little and little One God and three Persons demonstrated THe light of the Sun the light of the Moon and the light of the Air for nature and substance are one and the same light and yet they are three distinct lights The light of the Sun being of it self and from none the light of the Moon from the Sun and the light of the Aire from them both So the Divine Nature is one and the Persons three subsisting after a divers manner in one and the same Nature God knowes his own People however distressed TAmar may so disguise her selfe walk in an unaccustomed path so as Iudah may not know her Isaac through the dimnesse of his sight may blesse Iacob and passe Esau. Tract of time may make Ioseph to forget or be forgotten of his brethren Solomon may doubt to whom of right the child belongeth And Christ may come to his own and not be received But the Lord knoweth who are his and his eye is alwaies over them time place speech or apparell cannot obscure or darken his eye or ear he can discern Daniel in the den Ioh though never so much changed on the dunghill let Ionah be lodged in the Whales belly Peter be put into close prison or Lazarus be wrap'd in raggs or Abel rolled in blood yet can he call them by name and send his Angels to comfort them Ignorance and forgetfulnesse may cause love and knowledge to be estranged in the Creature but the Lord is not incident to either for his Eye as his Essence is every where he knoweth all things For the abuse of a thing the use is not to be taken away LYcurgus saith Plutarch was not so well advised when seeing the Lacedemonâ—ans drink too much and fall to drunkennesse and so to further sin he commanded to cut down their vines and would not suffer any to grow in that Commonwealth It had been better saith he to have diggâ—d Wells neer to the Vines and so to have allayed and asswaged the strength and Licorishnesse of Wine with Water Thus it is that certainly if our Fonts if our Communion-Tables Pulpits Seats Temples have been abused in time of Popery with a multitude of supersâ—titious Ceremonies and needlesse Innovations what shall we therefore use them â—o more rather let us use them no more so Wâ—at shall we therefore give them over that were extream folly rather let us use them better Christ did not condemn Mâ—ses chair for the life of a Pharisee but preached where they had preached though they were notorious hypocrites though he denounced so many woes against them as against none more
yea though the Temple in his time were become a den of thieves yet then and there sent he up devout and holy prayers to Heaven Get but God and get all AS Noah when the Deluge of waters had defaced the Earth and blotted the great book of Nature had a copy of every kinde of Creature in that â—amous Library of the Ark out of which all were reprinted to the World So he that hath God hath the originall copy of all blessings out of which if all were perished all might easily be renewed Let friends and goods and life and all forsake us yet let but the light of God's countenance shine upon us and that shall be life and friends and goods and all unto us Afflictions the ready way to Heaven A Man taking his journey into a far Country and enquiring for the way is told that there are many plain waies but the streight and right way is by woods and hills and mountains and great dangers that there are many Bears and Lions in the way much difficulty is upon the road thither Now when he is traâ—ailing and finds such and such things in the way such mountains and hills of opposition such flats and vallies of danger he concludeth that he is in the right way thither And so the child of God that is going to the kingdom of Heaven though there be many waies to walk in yet he knowes that there is but one rigâ—t way which is very strait and narrow full of trouble full of sorrow and Persecution full of all manner of crosses and afflictions and when in this life he is persecuted for God and a good cause whether in body or in mind it argueth plainly that he is in the right way to salvation To be provident for daies of triall MEn in policy prepare cloaks for the wet provision for winter a staffe for old age a scrip for the journey they 'l be sure to lay up something for a rainy day or a bank of mony to flie to when occasion serveth Thus it should be with all true Christians they should be alwaies striving for the more and more assurance of God's favour to be sure of a stock going in the Lord's affection to get some perswasion of God's love whereby they may be able to stand in the evill day in the saddest of times in the hour of death and in the day of judgment A good Man is the prop and stay of his Country IT was the Poet's vain and groundlesse conceit of Hector that so long as he lived Troy could not be destroyed terming him the immovable and inexpugnable pillar of Troy But well may it be said of a faithfull man that he is a mighty stay and strength a main defender and upholder of the place where he liveth for whose sake for whose presence and prayers out of the Lord 's abundant kindnesse to all His even the wicked are often within the shadow of God's protection and spared It is Peace that sets up Religion ANtigonus told the Sophister he came out of season when he presented a treatise of Iustice to him that was at that very time besieging a City he could not hear the voice of the Lawes for the noise of Drums And so the Lawes of God the comfortable voice of the Gospell cannot be heard in times of war and hostility Religio doâ—enda non coercenda Fire and faggot are but sad Reformers It is Peace that is the good Ioseph the best Nurse to Religion When the Church had peace and rest then and not till then it multiplied Children to be brought up in the fear of God PArents are very carefull to prefer their children to great places and Noblemen's houses and to that end they give them gentile breeding which is welldon of them But if they would indeed be good parents to their children they should first endeavour to get roomes for them in the kingdom of Heaven But how shall this preferment be had God hath an upper and a lower house His Church and the â—ingdom of Heaven the Church is his house of grace Heaven is his house of glory Now if thou wouldst bring thy child to a place in the house of glory then thou art first of all to get him a place in the house of grace bringing him up so in the fear of God that both in life and conversation he may shew himselfe to be a member of the Church and then assure thy selfe that after this life he shall be removed to the second House which is the house of glory and there for ever be a freeman in the kingdom of Heaven In thus doing thou shalt not leave him an Orphan when thou diest for he shall have God for his Father Christ for his Brother and the Holy Ghost his Comforter to all eternity Heavenly Principles tend Heaven-ward FIre which here we kindle and is engendered on the earth it being no earthly but an heavenly body hath ab origine an aptnâ—sse and inclination carrying it towards the sphear of Fire which is the proper place thereof So from what time a man by God's calling is begotten to be an heavenly creature here on the earth he hath produced in him an inclination which doth make him move God-ward being heavenly principled he tends Heaven-ward Never did poor exile so much long to smel the smoak of his native Country as he breathes and pants after the Kingdome of Heaven Sathan suiting himself to all humours IT is observable that a Huntsman or Forrester goeth usually in green suitable to the leaves of the Trees and the grasse of the Forrest so that by this means the most observant in all the Heard never so much as distrusteth him till the Arrow stick in his sides And thus the Devill shapes himself to the fashions of all men if he meet with a proud man or a prodigal man then he makes himselfe a flatterer if a covetous man then he comes with a reward in his hand He hath an apple for Eve a grape for Noah a change of raiment for Gehezi a bag for Iudas He can dish out his meat for all palats he hath a laste to fit every shoo he hath something to please all conditions to suit with all dispositions whatsoever Love the bond of all perfection AS the Pâ—imum mobile in the Heavens sets all the other Sphears a going which move and make musiâ—k as the Pythagoreans thought in the god's bosome As Ens in Logick communicates his beeing to the ten Preâ—icaments So is Love to the ten Commandements in which they live and move and have their being Love is the end the scope at which they all aime the perfection in which they rest the tribute which they exact it is the bond of perfection or perfection of bonds the most perfect bond that ties all graces to us Forgivenesse of others an argument of God's forgivenesse of us TAke a
suspected that he would cousen him and sought to entrap him If any talked roughly to him then he thought that he contemned him If meat were given to him in any plentifull sort This is but to fat me as a sheep or an ox to be slaughtered Thus his sin did lie upon him and ever remember him that some vengeance was to follow from God or Man or both And this is the case of all wilfull bloody presumptuous sinners that though there be some struglings and wrestlings to the contrary yet their hearts and consciences are greater than themselves and will put them in mind that nothing but destruction waiteth on them if they walk abroad sonus excitat omnis suspensum they are afraid of every leaf that wags if they stay at home nothing but horrour attends them In the day they are struck with variety of sad apprehensions and in the night they are tormented with fearfull dreams and strange apparitions Such and so great is the hell of a guilty conscience Love of Gods children is a sincere love THe Son of a poor man that hath not a penny to give or leave him yields his father obedience as chearfully as the son of a rich man that looks for a great Inheritance It is indeed love to the father not wages from the father that is the ground of a good child's obedience If there were no heaven God's children would obey him and though there were no hell yet would they do their duty So powerfully doth the love of the Father constrain them Ministers to be men of merciful dispositions THe Lord Ellesmer sometimes Lord Chancellor of England a great lover of mercy was heard to professe That if he had been a Preacher this should have been his Text A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast A merciful man and a merciful Text well met But oh the Prophetical incendiaries of the late fearful un-natural civil vvar how far were they from this sweetness of disposition how far from thoughts and bowels of mercy how far from a desire to preach mercy when it was a common course with them by Viperine glosses to eat out the bowels of a merciful Text when nothing was more usual amongst them than to alleadge the words of the Scripture against the meaning than to wrong and wring the Scripture till it bled again but they would misconstrue and misapply it one way or other to stir and incite men to such actions as little became the profession of the Gospel Election known by Sanctification IF any man would know whether the Sun shineth or not let him go no further but look upon the ground to see the reflection of the Sun-beams from thence and not upon the body of the Sun which will but the more dazle his fight The pattern is known by the Picture the cause by the effect Let no man then soar aloft to know whether he be elected or not but let him gather the knowledge of his Election from the effectualness of his calling and sanctification of his life the true and proper effects of a lively faith stamping the Image of Gods Election in his soul. Men commonly are loath to die though seemingly willing thereto IT is but Aesop's fable but the Morall of it is true A poor desolate old Man returning home from the vvood with a burthen of sticks on his back threw them down and in remembrance of the misery which he sustained called often for death to come unto him as if he would live no longer But when death came to him in earnest and asked him what he should do the old Man presently changed his mind and said That his request unto him was that he would help him up with his wood This most commonly is our case vve would find some other business to set death about if he should come to us when vainly we have wished for him we dismiss him with a Nondum venit tempus bid him call to morrow we are not yet at leisure How do men vainly wish for death and how mercifully doth the Eternal deal with them who oftentimes in his love denyeth that which they so earnestly desire and which if they should presently enjoy they would prove of all men most miserable for being removed hence it is to be feared the accounts betwixt God and their own souls would fall short of what they should be A special Sacrament-duty to bless God for Christ's death THe Jews in the celebration of the Passeover did sing the 113. Psalm with the five following Psalms which they called The great Hallelujuh it was always after that cup of wine which they called Poculum hymni or laudationis The cup of praise And thus it should be with us At all times upon all occasions in all places we should sing Hallelujahs to God and praise his holy name but at the Sacrament in that Eucharistical action we should sing a great Hallelujah No time but we should blesse God for the work of our Redemption but at the Sacrament we should have our hearts greatly inlarged in a more special manner to bless God for the benefit of Christ's death and the sweet comforts that we receive therby in the use of the Sacrament Not lawful to fight for Religion WHen Mahomet was about to establish his abomâ—nable superstition wherein he had mingled the Laws and doctrines of Heathens of Iews false Christians and Hereticks with the illusions and inventions of his own brain he gave it forth for a main Principle how God at the first in his love to mankind sent Moses after him Jesus Christ who were both of them endued with power to work miracles but men gave small heed to them Therefore he determined to send Mahomet a man without miracles a Warrior with a sword in his hand that whom miracles had not moved weapons might compell Thus they may derive their authority perhaps by a long descent from Mahomets pretended Charter but most sure it is they can find no syllable of allowance in the great assured sacred Charter of Gods word who seek to set up Religion by the sword fire and faggots are but sad Reformers The Church therefore was wont to be gathered by the mouths of Ministers not by the swords of Souldiers It was well said of one Let Religion sink to Hell rather then we should call to the devill for help to sâ—pport it The weight of sin to be seriously peized POrters and Carryers when they are called to carry a burthen on their shoulders first they look diligently upon it then they peize and lift it up to try whether they be able to undergo it and whether they shall have strength to carry it when it is once on their backs And thus should every man do that for a little pleasure hath enthralled himself to carry the burthen of sin he should first prove and assay what a weight
there is no pleasure in it Every man is to be suited to his Genius too to be planted according to the naturall bent of his mind For a man to make his son a Tradesman if he be fit for Learning or to apply him to Learning when he is cut out for a Tradesman to send him to the Court when he is fitter for the Cart this is as much as if he should apply his toes to feeling and not his fingers and should walk on his hands and not on his â—eet which is never like to do well in the conclusion God the proper Agent in all things THe Scribe is more properly said to write then the pen And he that maketh and keepeth the clock is more properly said to make it go and strike then the wheels and peyzes that hang upon it and every work-man to effect his work rather then the tools which he useth as his Instruments So the Lord who is the chief agent and mover in all actions may more fitly and properly be said to effect and bring to passe all things which are done in the Earth then any inferior or subordinate causes as meat to nourish us cloaths to keep us warm the Sun to lighten us friends to provide for us c. seeing they are but his tools and Instruments but as they are ruled and guided by the power and providence of so heavenly a Workman Afflictions crosses c. a surer way to Heaven then pleasures PAssengers that have been told that their way to such a place lyeth over a steep Hill or down a craggy Rock or through a moorish Fen or dirty Vale if they suddenly fall into some pleasant Meadow enameld with beautiful flowers or a goodly corn-field or a fair Champion Country look about them and bethinking themselves where they are say Surely we are come out of the way we see no Hills nor Rocks nor Moors nor Fens this is too good to be the right way So in the course of our life which is but a Pilgrimage on Earth when we passe through Fields of Corn or Gardens of Flowers and enjoy all worldly pleasures and contentments when the wind sits in such a corner as blows Riches honours and preferments upon us let us then cast with our selves Surely this is not the way the Scripture directeth us unto here are not the Temptations not the Tribulations that we must passe through We see little or no footing of the Saints of God in this Road but onely the print of Dives feet some where we have mist our way let us search and find where we went out of it It is very true that God hath the blessings of this life and that which is to come in store for his children when he seeth it good for them they may go to Heaven this way but certainly afflictions and troubles are surer Arguments of God's love and a readier way to Heaven then the other Desperate Devils AS a forlorn desperate Rebel out of all hope of pardon standeth upon his guard raiseth a Faction and maintains a party against his Soveraign Lord and Master So the Devil past all grace and goodness in despight of God laboureth to set up a Kingdom of his own the Kingdom of darkness against the Kingdom of light the Kingdome of Antichrist against the Kingdom of Christ he knows himself to be damned already and therefore thinks himself most happy when he can make another unhappy Forgetfulness of injuries commendable THemistocles when a famous Artist undertook to teach him the Art of Memory made answer Mallem oblivisci doceres I had rather thou wouldst read some Lectures of Oblivion to me that thou wouldst teach me to forget for I remember many things too wel This is just our case O for a blessed Amnestia to forgive and forget wrongs done unto us were our memories as strong as our sins were we as retentive of God's favours as we are of injuries which affront us there would be no need at all to scrub up our memories but rather an Act of Oblivion to suppress our passion thaâ— works too strongly upon the least apprehension of a wrong though but intended How God is said to be angry with his children AS children with their faults provoke their Parents to anger and move them to turn their fatherly smiles into bitter frowns and the fruits of their love into effects of hatred in outward show as namely severe countenances sharp reproofs and rigorous chastisements and in respect of these outward signs and effects of their anger they are usually said to be out of favour and in their father's displeasure however in truth at the same time they entirely love them and use all this wholsom severity not because they hate but because they would reform them So Gods children when by their sins they do offend him and provoke his anger against them are said to be out of his favour not that God doth ever change his Heavenly affection or purposeth utterly to reject them but because he changeth the effects of his love into the effects of hatred in outward shew as when inwardly he suffereth them to be terrified with horrors of conscience and with the apprehension of his anger and displeasure and outwardly whippâ—th and scourgeth them with temporary afflictions all which he doth not with hatred to their persons for he never hateth them whom he hath once loved in Christ but for the hatred of their sins and love of them sinner whom by this means he bringeth by the râ—ugh and unpleasant way of Repentance unto the eternal pleasure of his Kingdom The very thoughts of former pleasures adde to present sorrows THe Souldiers of Hannibal were much effeminated by the pleasures they had at Capua infomuch that Corpus assuetum â—unicis loricae onus non fert c. their bodies being used to soft raiment cannot bear the weight of an Helmet the head wrap'd in silk night-caps cannot endure an iron head-peece and the hard hilt hurteth the soft hand Sound trees are not blown down with the wind but the root rather fastned thereby but corrupt trees eaten with worms engendred of superfluous moisture are therefore thrown down by the least blast because they had no strength to resist Res adversae non frangunt quos prosperae non corruperunt The cause of our so great distemper in our afflictions we owe to the delights of our prosperity Why else do lâ—sses of goods so vex us but because we trust in uncertain Riches Why is disgrace a Courtiers hell but because he deemed the favour of his Prince and places of honourable employment his Heaven Thus it is that the very thoughts of our former pleasures adde to present sorrows Miserum est fuisse there 's the grief We are therefore astonished at our fall because with David in the heighth of our worldly felicity we said we shall never be moved Prayers to be made for all Men.
are more excellent then all others whatsoever So in the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lords Supper there is water in the one and bread and wine in the other yet what is this water this bread and wine more then any other Are not they the same we have at home yea O but if we look upon them as ordained of God to convey his mercies into our hearts to seal unto our souls the remission of sins c. and that God hath set them aside to that end and purpose then they are more excellent than any other water bread or wine possibly can be Our Affections to be regulated HE that rideth a fierce horse let the horse keep what pace he will so long as the Rider commands him by the bridle we say he rides strongly but if the horse get the Bit in his mouth and run away the faster his pace the weaker the Rider because he cannot check him Our affections are just like that fierce horse and our reason should be as a strong bridle stir they never so much if reason command we are strong but if reason have no power and they run loose then certainly the more violent they are the more weake we are A contented man no base spirited man MArcus Curio when he had bribes sent unto him to tempt him to be unfaithful to his Country he was sitting at dinner with a dish of Turnips and they came and promised him rewards well saith he That man that can be contented with such fare that I have will nâ—t be tempted with your rewards I thank God I am contented with this fare And as for rewards let them be offered to those that cannot be content to dine with a dish of Turnips as I do The truth of this is apparently seen the reason why many men do betray their trust and by indirect means strive to be rich is because they cannot be contented to be in a low condition whereas the man that is contented with a hard bed and a bare board is shot-free from thousands of Temptations that prevail against others even to the damning of their souls The resolved Christian makes his way through all difficulties TRavellers that go by Sea meerly to be Sea-sick a little or in sport if there arise but a black cloud they presently give over their Voyage is at an end they come not to be weather-beaten to adventure shocks and storms and dangers they come for pleasure onely But the Merchant that is bound upon a Voyage whose trade and employment of life it is every cloud and gust of wind doth not make him to return back again to shore and so to lose his Voyage but he drives through all So it is with one that is not indeed and in earnest travelling towards Heaven he is easily taken off upon a little storm arising if God do but frown if there be but ever so small a wrinkle as I may say in his brow all the delight in Religion is gone for it was some other thing he aimed at it was but for pleasure that he came in here But a resolved Christian who is bound for Heaven indeed and his course and the bent of his soul lyeth that way that like a ship with full sail is carryed thitherward storms cannot beat him off let the wind rise and the rain beat and the Seas lift up their voice he makes his way through all till he arrive at the Haven intended Afflictions adde unto the beauty of a true Christian. LOok upon a painted poast or sign whose colour is laid in oyle how the rain beats upon it in stormy weather that one would think all the colour would be washed off yet how the water glides away and leaves it rather more beautiful then before And thus it is with every child of God being well varnished and garnished with graces of the Spirit let the wind of persecution blow and the flouds of affliction lift up their voice they shall never braid nor deface but rather adde unto their beauty Such is the condition of grace that it shines the brighter for scouring and is most glorious when it is most clouded A good Prince no advantage to a bad People WE see that though the Sun be above the Horizon and so apt to make a glorious day yet many fogs and mists arising from the Earth overcast the skie and intercept the comfortable influence of the light Even so though God vouchsafe never so good a Prince a Prince under whom the people enjoy abundance of peace and the free passage of the Gospel such may be their gracelâ—ssness that they may be the better for neither of them Contentment brings in all things on a sudden BY the Art of Navigation with great pains and industry men can fetch in the silks of Persia the spices of Egypt the gold of Ophir the treasures of the East and West Indies O but by the Art of Contentment a man may stay at home and fetch in the comfort of any condition whatsoever that is he may have that comfort by contentment that he should have if he had the very things themselves A Godly man is bettered in evil Company THey say that Lillies or Roses or such like pleasant flowers if they be planted by Garlick or Onions or such like unsavoury things they do not lose but rather encrease in their former sweetnesse So it is with good and godly men when they are planted and as it were him'd in with wicked men the vileness and odiousness of their wickedness makes them to loath wickedness so much the more and to love godliness and to blesse God that hath kept them that they have not run to the same excess of Riot The wonderful love of a true Christian to Christ Iesus IT was a true Christian-like speech of St. Ierome If my Father should stand before me my Mother should hang upon me my Brethren should press about me I would break through my Brethren throw down my Mother tread under feet my Father that I might the faster cleave unto Christ Iesus my Saviour O the surpassing love to Christ that is in a true Disciple of Christ let money perish and friends fail the World frown yea life it self vanish Christ is better then them all If Christ should say to him Take thy fill of sinful delights eat drink and be merry solace thy self in the midst of all thy abundance thou shalt not perish onely thou shalt not be with me Not with thee Lord Iesus where then then farewel delâ—ghts farewel pomp and plenty farewel all I will follow thee whither soever thou goest for it will certainly be Hell where thou art not Memory must be active OUr memory is usually a good store-house but no good Steward it layeth up much but of it self dispendeth nothing it needeth some help to make use of her store the speculative memory doth and the
those times when the Roman Common-wealth was almost consumed with mutuall and civill jars he would have built a Temple Iovi positorio wherein men should have deposited and layen down all heart-burnings all quarrells before they entred the Senate How necessary were such a place for the Magistrates Ministers and People of these times For Magistrates before they come into any places of publique judicature where they may meet and lay down all private thoughts all prejudicate opinions that so Iustice and Iudgement may be duly and conscionably administred For Ministers before they preach in publique where they may teach themselves the lessons of self-denial and self-seeking that so the Kingdom of Iesus Christ may be advanced For People before they touch the Mount before they come to hear the word preached or to partake of the blessed Sacrament where they may lay aside all carnall and worldly thoughts all prejudices of the Ministers and Ordinances that so the word of God and the professors thereof be not evil spoken of That Magistrates Ministers and People may be so peaceably minded that the God of peace may delight to dwell amongst them How it is that we may hate our Enemies IT was a true Norman distinction that William the first made when he censured one that was both Bishop of Bayens and Earl of Kent And his Apology to the Plaintiffe Pope-ling was this That he did not medle with the Bishop but with the Earl Thus in the matter of hatred and envy We must hate our enemies as David did his How is that Odio perfecto with a perfect hatred love their persons but hate their vices medle not with them as they are friends or acquaiutance but abhominate their uncleannesse c. Riches ill gotten never prosper SAlis onus unde venerat illuc abiit saith the Latin Proverb The burthen of Salt is returned thither from whence it came The occasion was this A Ship laden with Salt being torn by wrack let the Salt fall into the Sea from whence it was first taken So for the most part Goods gotten by spoil or plunder are usually lost in the same way Vespasian's Officers that by rapine and exaction filled themselves like spunges after they were full were squeezed by the Emqerour And it is dayly seen that the spoiler is himselfe spoiled and that which was gathered by the hire of a Whore returneth to the wages of an Harlot Mich. 1. 7. The excellent connexion of the Scriptures of God THe Heathen said That there were three things impossible to be done Eripere Iovi fulmen Herculi clavam Homero versum to pull Iupiters Thunder-bolt out of his hand Hercules Club out his hand and a Verse from Homer for they thought there was such a connexion between Homers Verses that not one Verse could be taken away without a great breach in the whole Work But this may much more be said of the Scriptures of God there is such a coherence such a connexion such a dependance that if you take away but one Verse the whole will be marred all the Books of Scripture being like a chain linked together except the Book of Solomons Proverbs which is like a bag full of gold Rings every verse being one entire and distinct sentence God the onely delight of his children LEt Iacob but hear that Ioseph his son is yet alive he hath enough If the King come home with freedom honour and safety Ziba may keep the Land let him take all Mephiâ—oshtch is satisfied Could but the son of Hamor match with Dina his Circumcision shall be endured and though the daughters of the Country be denyed him yet shall he be well contented Give but Rahell children and she will not dye And let Simeon see his Saviour and he will dye Thus let God's children enjoy but him the subject of their affections tide life tide death come what can come whatsoever befals them they are contented he is the onely object of their love and he it is in whom their soul principally delighteth wherefore in the enjoyment of him they have all they would have A faint-hearted Christian described SOme freshwater Souldier standing upon the shore in a fair day and beholding the Ships top and top-gallant in all their bravery riding safety at Anchor thinks it a brave thing to go to Sea and will by all means aboard but being out a league or two from the Harbour and feeling by the rocking of the Ship his stomack begin to work and grow sick and his soul even to abhor all manner of meat or otherwise a storm to arise the wind and the Sea as it were conspiring the sinking of the Vessel forthwith repents his folly and makes vows that if he but once be set ashore again he will bid an eternal farewel to all such Voyages And thus there be many faint-hearted Christians to be found amongst us who in calm dayes of Peace when Religion is not over-clouded by the times will needs join themselves to the number of the people of God they will be as earnest and as forward as the best and who but they yet let but a Tempest begin to appear and the Sea to grow rougher than at the first entry the times alter troubles raised many cross minds of opposition and gain-saying begin to blow they are weary of their course and will to shore again resolving never to thrust themselves into any more adventures they would have Christum but not Christum crucifixum Christ they would have by all means but Christ crucified by no means if the way to Heaven be by the gates of Hell let who will they will not go that way but rather sit down and be quiet Diligence in our callings commendable PLiny relateth of one Cressinus who from a very little piece of ground gathering much wealth and much more then his neighbours could from a greater quantity of land was thereupon accused of Witch-craft But to defend himself he brought into the Court his servants and their instruments of labour and said Veneficia mea Quirites haec sunt My witch-crafts O ye Romans are these these servants and these working tools are all the witch-craft that I know of I say not to my servants go and do this or that but come let us go do it and so the work goes on Well it is the deligent hand that maketh rich It is diligence and industry that makes any man excellent and glorious and chief in any condition calling or profession Seest thou a man diligent in his way he shall stand before Princes Different measures of Grace in different persons AS Abimelech's Souldiers some cut down greater branches some lesser according to the proportion of their strength And as St. Paul's Mariners some were saved on boards some on broken pieces of the Ship Even so amongst Christians some in their approaches unto God carry a greater some a lesser confidence
you which he applying to himself besought St. Augustine to strengthen him in the Truth as Christ commanded Peter Tu conversus confirma fratres which task he so well performed that with a little travell in a short space two twins were brought forth to the Church at one time Thus the VVord of God whether heard or read Non ut sonus non ut litera not as it is ink and paper not as it is a sound or collision of the Air but as it is an Instrument of God and the power of God unto salvation Rom. 1. 16. maketh the man of God perfect 2 Tit. 3. 17. It frameth and mouldeth the heart it printeth it like a stamp melteth it like wax bruiseth it like a hammer pricketh it like a nail and cutteth it asunder like a sword A good mans life preserved for the good of others RIvers of themselves would run the straightest and directest way to the Sea as being greedy to pay tribute unto their great Master the Ocean but God in his wise disposal of all things hath set here a Mountain there a hill in the way that so by turning and winding now this way now that way and going further about they might enrich the earth as they pass along with fertility and abundance Thus a good man and a good Christian man having but once tasted of Gods love O how he desires to be dissolved and to be with Christ he prayes but still with reference to Gods will that his hope may be turned into fruition his faith into vision and his love into perfect comprehension but God in his providence hath resolved upon the negative that his dayes shall be prolonged to do good unto others that he may be serviceable in his place to him and his Country The great difference of both good and bad in life and death THe Hawk flies high and is as highly prized being set upon a pearch vervel'd with the gingling bells of encouragement and carryed on his Master's fist but being once dead and picked over the pearch is cast upon the dunghill as good for nothing The Hen scrapes in the dust not any thing rewarded when she is alive but being dead is brought as a choice dish to her Master's Table Thus wicked men are commonly set in high places and prosper in this life and good men lye groveling with their mouths in the dust as the very underlings of the world but being once dead the one is cast into the dungeon of Hell the other advanced to the Kingdom of Heaven the one is into Abrahams bosom whilst the other is tormented with the Devil and his Angels Opportunities of sin to be avoided ST Augustine in his Confessions maketh mention of his friend Alipius that having resolved with himself never to look upon the Fencers prizes was up on a time through the importunity of his friends drawn along to the Theater where these bloody sports were performed protesting that he would keep his eyes shut all the while and not so much as once open them yet it so fell out that upon a sudden great shout of the people be looked about to see what the matter was whereupon he became another man and altered his former course so that his hatred to the sport was turned into love and liking of it It is opportunity we say that makes Thieves Look what a clear fountain is to the thirsty what a shade to the scorâ—hed Traveller such is occasion to a man that is accustomed to do evil He that walketh in the Sun is suâ—e to be tan'd he that toucheth Pitch shall be defilâ—â— Physitians may converse with sick men and cure them but if their diseases be dangerous contagious they will not easily adventure on them lest that in curing others they should kill themselves Vices are of the same nature and vitiouâ— persons and places are alike dangerous and therefore to be shunned How the good and the bad look upon death in a different manner A Child at School when he seeth one riding Post through the streets as if he would run over him or tread upon him cryeth out But when he perceives that it is his Father's man sent to bring him home from School all the feaâ— is past then he laugheth and rejoyceth So whilst men are in the state of nature they look upon Death as an Enemy as a spoyler as one that would bereave them of all their worldly delights but being once the sons and daughters of God by adoption then they apprehend Death as their Heavenly Father's man riding on the pale horse sent to bring them home from a prison on Earth to a place of perfect liberty in Heaven The confidence of much knowledge an argument of no knowledge THales sent the golden Tripos which the Fisher-men took up in their Net and the Oracle commanded to be given to the wisest to Bias Bias to Solon and then they had but seven wise men and if you will but believe the times there are now hardly so many fools to be found If such a thing were now to be had we should all fight for it as the three Goddesses did for the golden apple we are so wise We have now women Polititians women Preachers Preaching Souldiers Teaching Tradesmen Children Metaphysitians every silly fellow can square a Circle make perpetual motions find out the Philosopher's stone interpret the Revelation of St. John make new Theoricks new Logick dispute de omni scibili Town and Country are now so full of deified spirits divine souls that you may sooner find a God than a man amongst us we think so well of our selves and that is an ample Testimony a sufficient demonstration that there is a great deal of folly much ignorance much indiscretion to be found amongst us Afflictions follow the godly man close in this world HE that goeth towards the Sun shall have his shadow follow him but he that runneth from it shall have it flie before him So he that marcheth with his face towards the Sun of Righteousness that setteth himself to do the things that may be without offence to God and Man shall be sure to have afflictions close at his heels as for him that hath his back upon Christ that maketh a Trade of sin his sorrows and vexations of spirit like the shadow are still before him in this world but they will be sure to meet him in another How to read the Scriptures and books Apocryphal WHen Moses saw an Egyptian and an Israelite striving together he killed the Egyptian and saved the Israelite Exod. 2. 12. But when he saw two Israelites striving together he laboured to reconcile them saying Ye are brethren why do ye strive So when we read or see the Apocryphal books or Heathen story or Popish traditions contradicting the Scriptures As for instance Jacob cursed Simeon and Levi for murthering the Sichemites Gen. 49. 7. And Iudeth blessed God for killing
Amorites not living half their daies Psal. 55. 23. How to be made like unto Christ. HE that intends to have his picture drawn to the life must not wrest and writhe his body this way and that way but sit still with a composed setled countenance having his eye fully set upon the Painter otherwise the resemblance will be false and the work much mis-shapen So he that would have the image of Christ truly stamped on his soul must eye Christ as he is the perfection of all graces do as the Prophet did by the Shunamites child lay his mouth to his mouth his eyes to his eyes his hands to his hands say as he said do as he did Sic oculos sic ille manus propose him as a pattern in all things imitable Otherwise if he gaze upon the vanity of the creature and spread his thoughts at large upon earthly things there will be much of Mammon but little or no likenesse of Christ appearing upon his soul. The certainty not the time of our Calling to be so much looked into WHat a deal of do did the Pharisees make with the poor man that was born blind Ioh. 9. first his neighbours they begin with him How were thine eyes opened vers 10. then the Pharisees asked him How he had received his sight vers 15. The poor â—an tells them That one called Iesus made clay and annointed his eyes c. After many questions they bid him give God the praise for they knew that that man Iesus was a sinner vers 24. Well saies the poor man whether he be a sinner or not that 's more then I know but so much I know for certain that whereas I was blind now I see It matter'd not with him what the man was that cured him nor the place where nor the time when this he took notice of that he was blind but now he did see So the question is not When or How any man is called of God but the main will be Whether he is yet called A woman with child if the babe stir in her womb she takes no thought when it was that the child first quickned but is glad that it is quickned If a man can but see marks and signes of salvation within him and perceive that the blessed Spirit of God hath wrought wonderfully on his soul he may certainly conclude that he is called let the time place and manner be never so uncertain Without Faith impossible to please God OF all the Virgins presented to Ahasuerus none was so pleasing as Hester Let the maiden that pleaseth the King be Queen in stead of Vashtai When that Decree was published what strife what emulation may we think was amongst the Persian Damosells that either were or thought themselves fair every one hoped to be a Queen But so incomparable was the beauty of that Iewesse that she was not onely taken into the Persian Court as one of the selected virgins but had the most honourable place in all the Seraglio allotted unto her The other virgins passe their probation unregarded When Hâ—sters turn came though she brought the same face and demeanour that Nature had cast upon her no eye saw her without admiration the King was so delighted with her beauty that contemning all the other vulgar forms his choice was fully fixed upon her Thus Faith is that Hester to which God holds out his golden Scepter He is pleased with all graces hot zeal and cool patience please him cheerfull thankfulnesse and weeping repentance please him charity in the height and humility in the dust please him but none of them are welcome to him without faith in Christ Iesus All alike in Death AS Trees while they grow are apparently known by their fruites by their severall kinds and so are commonly called by their names but when once the Ax comes amongst them that they be felled fired and consumed none can distinguish of their ashes So when men whilst they live do very much differ in office title place and power but when they be dead and resolved into cinders their dust admits of no seperation it can by no means be divided As there is the like ashes of the Shrub and the Cedar so the like dust of the King and the Beggar Mors sceptra ligonibus aequat Death is the head of the Levelling party makes all men alike the mightiest have no more priviledge than the meanest Ingratitude reproved AN empty bucket that is let down into a well doth as it were open its mouth to receive the water but being drawn up full sheweth his bottom onely to the well that gave it The sea receives her moisture from Heaven sweet and pleasant but returns it salt and brackish The clouds by the power of the Sun-beams are exhaled from the earth but being once mounted they darken that aire and obscure that Sun that raised them The frozen Snake in the Fable stingeth him that refreshed it Thus it is with all unthankfull men men ingratefull to God he ladeth them daily with benefits and blessings and they lade him with sins and trespasses God would have them to be righteous but they will not part with their inventions So ingratefull so swinish are they that having acorns to feed on mercies to encourage them promises to support them they will not so much as look up to the Tree not be thankfull to God that hath so richly provided for them Gods fundamentall love of Election and actuall love of Adoption how distinguished IT so falleth out sometimes that a great person of quality hath a purpose to marry a poor kitchin-maid he provides her cloths and all things suteable for such a state She poor wretch little dreams of any such matter is in the kitchin about her drudgery and it cannot be said but that he loves her still Here now is an intentionall love a virtuall and fundamentall affection but there will be another manner of love when she comes to be his wife and lie in his bosom Thus wretched sinfull Man he is under wrath a very bond-slave of Sathan in a sad condition by nature hath nothing in him that may deserve love yet God intending to adopt him for his son looks after him and treasures him up in Christ Iesus The poor sinner all this while knowes little of it he is not justified because he is not called but when God shall be pleased to manifest himself by the operation of his blessed Spirit the love of Election which was virtuall and fundamentall from all Eternity will break out and he shall be actually adopted a child of God and heir of eternall salvation Faith the root of all Graces THe root of a tree is a ragged and a jagged thing no shape no proportion no comlinesse in it and therefore keeps it self in the earth as unwilling to be seen yet all the beauty that is in the tree the streightnesse
beware of Relapses in sin THe Workmans first care is to lay the foundation sure ne corruat left it fall like the house built on the sands the next to perfect the roofe ne perpluat that it do not rain through and rot the principals The Poet did put no lesse virtue into Tueri than into Quaerere nor will the Lawyer pass a Conveyance with a meer Habendum but he will have a Tenendum too The Physitian ends not the cure of his Patient with the cure of his disease but after all minds the preventing of a Relapse And so must we though we stand take heedlest we fall beware of Relapses in sin St. Peters Cavere ne excidatis is but an exposition of his Masters Memores estote both as fortifications against Recidivation we may fall therefore let us look to our standing we may be lead away the Devil will ventureto try us therefore let us not budg nor give him one foot of ground but if he beckens one way be sure to take the other He labours to trip up our heels and it must be our care to take heed of falling And as we desire to have our faith blessed into vision our hope changed into fruition our love into perfect comprehension our Repentance comforted with pardon our Charity crowned with glory and all our services rewarded with eternal life let us keep the Graces of Gods holy spirit ever in breath and motion alwayes in the Ascendent climing higher and higher till they come to the top of immortality And as when Rivers towards their end approach near unto the Sea then the Tide comes and meets them So when the course of our Piety draws near to the end of our life God comes and meets us comforts us with a taste of Heaven before our death and gives us after death the everlasting possession of it through Iesus Christ. Excellency of the Scripture-phrase EUripides saith the Orator hath in his well-composed Tragedies more sentences then saying And Thucidides hath so stuff'd every syllable of his History with substance that the one runs parallel along with the other Lysias his works are so well couch't that you cannot take out the least word but you take away the whole sense with it And Phocion had a speciall faculty of speaking much in few words The Cretians in Plato's time however degenerated in S. Paul's were more weighty then wordy Timanthes was famous in this that in his Pictures more things were intended then deciphered And of Homer it is said that none could ever peer him for Poetry Then how much more apt and apposite are these high prayses to the book of God rightly called The Bible As if it were as indeed it is both for fitnesse of terms and fulnesse of Truth the onely Book to which as Luther saith all the Books in the World are but waste-paper It is called the Word by way of eminency because it must be the But and boundary of all our words And the Scripture as the Lord Paramount above all other words or writings of Men collected into Volums there being as the Rabines say a Mountain of sense hanging upon every tittle of it whence may be gathered flowers and phrases to polish our spceches with even sound words that have a healing property in them far above all filed phrases of humane â—locution Christian Apparrelling THey that put on the Lord Jesus are cloathed with a fourfold garment First With a Garment of Christs imputed Righteousness 2. With a Garment of sanctification 3. With a Garment of protection 4. With a Garment of Glory The first Garment may be called a winters Garment quia tegit because it covers us The second a summers Garment quia ornat because it adorns us The third a Coat armour quia protegit because it keeps us safe The fourth a wedding-Garment quia admittit because there 's no admission to the supper of the Lamb without it The first three may be called our work-aday suits because we must put them on all the dayes of our lives but the fourth our Holiday-suit because we must not put it on till the week of our Pilgrimage in Baca be ended and the Saboth of our eternall rest in the new Jerusalem begun Changing of this life for a better no matter of griefe IF a Man should come to a Merchant and of two stones laid before him the one false and counterfeit the other true and precious and laying down the price of the worser should get the better Would ye think the Merchant had dealt hardly with him No he could not but would rather admire his love and courtesie in the bargain In like manner there are two lives proposed to all Men the one temporall the other eternal both these he sets to sale but he sels us the eternall Why then like silly Children are we sad because we have received the best it being a great favour to be taken from the evill to come Drunkennesse Whoredom c. the generality of them amongst us THere is a tale of St. Bridget that she heard the blessed Virgin say to her Son Rome is a fruitful Land to whom he answered sed zizaniae tantum onely fruitfull of tares And as Hugo Cardinalis said of Innocentius when he departed from Lyons in France That whereas there were four stews at his coming thither he had left them but one urbs tota lupanar that one reached from one end of the City to the other Thus it is that Drunkards were heretofore as rare as Woolvs in England now they are as common as Hogs Whores were like Owls onely night-birds now they keep open house pay scot and lot with their honest Neighbours Heretofore we had but some Families of Papists Schismaticks and Sectarians now there 's whole Colonyes Streets Lanes and Parishes of the brood of that spotted Harlot and crooked Generation Ministers to preach plainly as well as learnedly to the capacity of their Hearers IT is observable that the profoundest Prophets accommodated themsâ—lves to their Hearers capacities as of Fishes to the Egyptians droves of Cattle to the Arabians Trade and traffique to the Tyrians So our blessed Saviour tells his Fishermen that they shall be Fishers of men And after many plain Parables to the People as if the father the essential word had been at a losse for a fit word familiar and low enough for our dull and shallow apprehensions Whereunto saith he shall we liken the Kingdom of Heaven Yea the Evangelists spake vulgarly many times for their Hearers sakes even to a manifest incongruity In after ages those two great lights of the Church St. Augustine and St. Ambrose the one confesseth that he was fain to use some words sometimes to those Roman Colonies in Africa where he preached that were not Latine as ossum for os dolus for dolor floriet for florebit to the end they might
mad-man that talking with a lean meagre Cook he understood from him what dainty dishes he dressed for his guests and hearing that they were all fat and fair liking and thrived with it he asked him Why he did not feed on those meats himself that he might be fat too The Cook answered That for his part he had no stomack But the mad-man replies Take heed how thou come near Bedlam if the Corrector find you your punishment will be very sharp for certainly you are madder then ever I was Thus it is no better then madnesse for Ministers Magistrates and others in place of eminency to give light to others and walk themselves in darknesse to distribute portions of meat to the Family and starve their own souls to rescue others from the enemy and suffer themselves to be taken to forwarn others of the pit whereinto themselves run headlong to give good counsell to others and not to be guided by that counsell themselves Christ nothing but Love all over IT is the observation of Sr. Walter Rawleigh that if all the pictures and patterns of a mercilesse Prince were lost in this world they might all again be painted to the life out of the story of K. Henry the eighth But on the other side the Iewes had such an high esteem of Esdras that if mercy love and knowledge had put out their candle at his brain they might light it again Behold yet a greater then Esdras Christ Iesus himself If all our love were extinguished at his love we might easily rekindle it Not a word that he spoke not a work that he did not a passion that he suffered but was an argument a character of his love He brought love he bought love he exercised love he bequeathed love he died in love He is all love Needfull Requisites to make up a profitable Hearer of Gods Word IT is said of that Princely Iosiah King Edward the sixth that his carriage in the publick service of God was such that he constantly stood up at the hearing of Gods Word took Notes which he afterwards diligently perused and wrought the Sermon upon his affection by serious meditation Thus it is not a bare sitting under the Ordinance a meer formall hearing of the Word thinking as too many do that when the Sermon is ended all is done But there must be attention of body intention of mind and retention of memory which are indispensably required of all Wisdom's schollars and are the most needfull requisites to make up a profitable hearer of Gods Word Friendship to be made with God in Christ Iesus THe men of Tyre and Sidon two rich and antient Cities of Phoenicia on the costs of Syria when they heard that Herod was displeased with them and intended to make war upon them they made friendship with Blastus the Kings Chamberlain and sought by all means possible to get into favour with him again And why Becâ—â—se said they our lanâ—s are nourished by the lands of the King And this is our case our lands our lives our liberties and all that we have are nourished and sustained by the King of Heaven therefore when we know that he is displeased with us as justly he may for as David saith we provoke him every day then let us do as they did as they made a friend of Blastus so let us make friendship with Jesus Christ and desire him to help us into Gods favour and protection Heaven Men desirous to be there but will not take pains to come thither SAbellicus in his History brings in C. Flaminius playing upon Philoxomenes that he had pulchras manus pulchra crura sed ventrem non habuit he had goodly arms and strong thighs but he had no belly He meant that Philoxomenes had brave and valiant souldiers fair Troops of Horse and foot but wanted that which is the sinews of War he had no money to pay them It may be inverted upon us for we are all belly full of appeâ—iâ—e and desire to happinesse but we have neither hands nor feet we will neither move nor labour to attain to that happiâ—essâ— we have fat desires but lean endeavours fain we would be in Heaven but we will take no pains for it nor seek the way to it we make account to go up to Heaven in a whirlwind or as Passengers at Sea be brought to the Haven sleeping to win Heaven without working to be crowned without striving to dine with the Devill and sup with Abraham Isaac and Iacobin the Kingdom of Heaven by all means we must die the death of the righteous but by no means live the life of the godly nay if death do but offer to prefer us to Heaven we will none of it we thank him heartily we refuse him with deprecations and fortifie our selâ—es against him with antidotes and preservatives So that it may very well be put to the question Where is our desire for Heaven when we rather die necessitatis vinculo quam voluntatis obsequio instead of looking for it we look from it and then onely preâ—end a faint desire to it when we can make no other shift but that we must needs ventâ—â—e on it To be Charitable to the poor and needy THe Iewes at this day though outed their own Country and destitute of a Leviticall Priesthood yet those that will be reputed religious amongst them distribute the tenth of their increase unto the poor being perswaded that God doth blesse their encrease the more for their usuall proverb is Decima ut dives â—ias pay thy Tithes that thou maist be rich Nay saies Philo the Jew They came so willingly to give up their Tithes unto God as if they had been to have received a gratuity from men If then there be such devout Iewes that having neither house nor home Priest or Temple and without Christ in the world so charitable to the poor then how much more suitable will it be for Christians that live in Gospell-times to relieve the poor members of Iesus Christ to honour the Lord wiâ—â— their substance freely expending it in pious and charitable uses whereby their barns shall be filled and they made great gainers in the end Why God suffereth the dearest of his Children to want outward things IT is written of the Pine-tree that if the bark be pulled off it will last a long time else it rots So God sees that many a man if he had his bark 〈◊〉 him if he had the wealth of the world about him a penny in his purse and a friend at Court it would rot him corrupt him and make him worse therefore God is fain to bark him and peel him to keep him naked and bare and poor that his soâ—l may prosper the better For indeed many times it so falls out and a man shall find it so that his soul prospers best when his body prospers â—orst Men to be
to be as tickle as Eli's stool from which he may easily break his neck that he must drink wormwood in a cup of gold and lie in a bed of Ivory upon a pillow of thorns so that he may well say of his glory as one said of his roab O nobilem magis quam felicem pannum or as Pope Urban said of his Rochet That he wondered it should be so heavy being made of such light stuff Prayer turning Earth into Heaven IT is said of Archimedes that famous Mathematician of Syracuse who having by his Art framed a curious Instrument that if he could but have told how to fix it it would have raised the very foundations of the whole Earth Such an Instrument is Prayer which if it be set upon God and fixed in Heaven it will fetch Earth up to Heaven change earthly thoughts into heavenly conceptions turn flesh into spirit metamorphose nature into grace and earth into heaven To passe by the offences of our Brethren DAvid was deaf to the railings of his enemies and as a dumb man in whose mouth were no reproofs Socrates when he was abused in a Comedy laughed at it when Polyargus not able to bear such an indignity went and hanged himself Augustus sleighted the Satyrs and bitter invectives which the Pasquills of that time invented against him and when the Senate would have further informed him of them he would not hear them Thus the manlier any man is the milder and readier he is to passe by an offence as not knowing of it or not troubled at it an argument that there is much of God in him if he do it from a right principle who bears with our infirmities and forgives our trespasses beseeching us to be reconciled When any provoke us we use to say We will be eeven with him but there is a way whereby we may not onely be even but above him and that is forgive him We must see and not see wink at small faults especially Qui nescit dissimulare nescit vivere may with some grains of allowance passe current He that cannot dissemble is not fit to live Kingdomes and Common-wealths their successions from God THe Romans closing in with that permanent errour of Mankind to mistake the Instruments and secundary Agents in Gods purposes for the main Efficient were wont variously to distinguish the derivation of their Empire as by force so Iulius Caesar was invested by the Senates election so Tiberius by the Souldiers so Severus and by Inheritance so Octavius Augustus But most true it is that to what means soever they imputed their Emperours were it Birth or Election Conquest or Usurpation 't is God who gives the Title to Kingdoms and Commonweales by the first and it is he also that directs and permits it by the last The whole Heart to be given to God SOme great King or Potentate having a mind to visit his Imperiall City the Harbinger is ordered to go before and mark out a house suitable to his Retinue and finding one the Master of that house desireth to have but some small chamber wherein to lodge his wife and children It is denyed Then he intreats the benefit of some by-place to set up a Trunk or two full of richer goods then ordinary No saies the Harbinger it cannot be for if your house were as big again as it is it would be little enough to entertain the King and all his royall train Now so it is that every mans body is a Temple of God and his heart the sanctum sanctorum of that Temple His Ministers are sent out into the world to inform us that Christ is comming to lodge there and that we must clear the rooms that this great King of glory may enter in O saies the Old man carnall yet but in part renewed give me leave to love my wife and children No it cannot be having wife and children he must be as having none Then he desires to enjoy the pleasures of the world That 's denyed too he must use this world as if he used it not not that the use of these things is prohibited not that the comfortable enjoyment of our dearest relations is any way to be infringed but the extraordinary affection to them when they come into competition with the love that we owe unto God For he will have the whole heart the whole minde the whole soul and all little enough to entertain him and the graces of his holy Spirit which are attendant on him Nec mihi nec tibi sed dividatur was the voice of a strange woman and such is that of this present world But God will take nothing to halfs he will have the whole heart or nothing The good Christians comfort in time of the Churches trouble MArtin Luther perceiving the cause of the Church to go backward puts pen to paper and writes to the Elector of Saxony where amongst other expressions this was one Sciat Celsitudo tua mhil dubitet c. Let your Highnesse be sure that the Church's businesse is far otherwise ordered in Heaven than it is by the Emperour and States at Norimberg And Gaudeo quod Christus Dominus est c. I am glad that Christ is King for otherwise I had been utterly out of heart and hope saith holy Myconius in a letter to Calvin upon the view of the Church's enemies Thus it staggers many a good Christian at this day to see Sion in the dust the Church under foot the hedge of government and discipline broken down all the wild beasts of Heresie and Schism crept in such as labour to root out true Religion to dethrone Christ and to set up the idle fancies and enthusiasticall conceits of their own phanatick brains some crying out against the Church with those Edomites Down with it down with it even to the very ground others casting dirt upon her harmlâ—sse ceremonies But let the Churches friends rest assured that God sees and smiles and looks and laughs at them all that the great counsell of the Lord shall stand when all 's done that Christ shall reigne in the midst of his enemies and that the stone cut out of the mountains without hands shall bring down the golden Image with a vengeance and make it like the chaff of the summer floor Dan. 2. 35. The sad condition of People under Tyrannicall Government IT was a just complaint of Draco's Lawes in Lacedemonia that their execution was as sanguin as their character for they were written in bloody letters And the Romans lamented the cruelty of those Tribunalls where the cheap proscription of lives made the Iudgement-seat little differ from a Shambles A Man made Offender for a word Poor Men sold for shooes Or as the Turks at this day sell heads so many for an Asper Such is the condition of People under Tyrannicall government under
therefore be a scandal to our Calling not a reproach to our own Names but let us be mindfull of our Vow and duty so oft as our Names are mentioned and as ready to answer to our Faith as to our Names Negligence in the wayes of God reproved THere is mention made of a Prince in Germany who being invaded by a more potent Enemy then himself yet from his Friends and Allies who flock't in to his help he soon had a goodly Army but had no money as he said â—o pay them but the truth is he was loath to part with it For which cause some went away in discontent others did not vigorously mind his businesse and so he was soon beaten out of his Kingdome and his coffers when his Pallace was rifled were found to be thwack't with treasure And thus was he ruin'd as some sick Men dye because unwilling to be at cost to pay the Physitian Now so it is that few or none are to be found but would be glad their Souls might be saved at last but where is the Man or Woman that makes it appear by their Vigorous endeavour that they mean in earnest What Warlike-preparation do they make against Satan who lyes between them and home Where are their Arms where their skill to use them their resolution to stand to them and conscionable care to exercise themselves daily in the use of them Thus to do is a rarity indeed if woulding and wishing would bring them to Heaven then they may likely come thither but as for this diligence in the wayes of God this circumspect walking this Wrestling and fighting this making Religion our businesse they are far from these as at last in so doing they are like to be from Heaven No way to Happinesse but by Holinesse ONe fitly compares Holinesse and Happinesse to those two sisters Leah and Rachel Happinesse like Rachel seems the fayrer even a carnal heart may fall in love with that but Holinesse like Leah is the elder and beautifull also though in this life it appears with some disadvantage her eyes being bleared with tears of Repentance and her face furrowed with the works of Mortification but this is the Law of that Heavenly Country that the younger sister must not be bestowed before the Elder We cannot enjoy fair Rachell Heaven and Happinesse except first we embrace tender-eyed Leah Holinesse with all her severe duties of Repentance and Mortification If we will have Heaven we must have Christ If Christ we must like his service as well as his Sacrifice there 's no way to Happinesse but by Holinesse Men deluded by Satan in not taking the right notion of Sin IT is with men in sinning as it is with Armies in fighting Captains beat their Drums for Voluntiers and promise all that list pay and plunder and this makes them come trowling in but few consider what the ground of the War is or for what Thus Satan enticeth Men to Sin and giveth golden promises of what they shall have in his service with which silly Souls are won but how few ask their Souls Whom do I sin against What is the Devills design in drawing me to Sin Shall I tell thee Dost thou think 't is thy pleasure or profit he desires in thy sinning Alas he means nothing lesse he hath greater plots in his head then so He hath by his Apostacy proclaimed war against God and he brings thee by sinning to espouse his quarrel and to jeopard the life of thy Soul in defence of his pride and lust which that he may do he cares no more for the damnation of thy Soul then the great Turk doth to see a company of his slaves cut off for the carrying on of his design in the time of a siege If therefore thou wilt not be deluded by him take the right notion of Sin and labour to understand the bottome of his bloudy design intended against thee Gods love to his Children in the midst of spirituall desertions And how so AS Ioseph when he spake roughly to his brethren and made them believe he would take them for spyes still his heart was toward them and he was as full of love as ever he could hold he was fain to go aside and weep And as Moses his Mother when she puâ— her child into the Ark of bul-rushes and went a little way from it yet still her eye was toward it The babe wept I and the Mother wept too So God when he goes a side as if he had forsaken his children yet he is full of sympathy and love towards them It is one thing for God to desert another thing to dis-inherit How shall I give thee up O Ephraim Hos. 8. 11. This is a Metaphor taken from a Father going about to dis-inherit his Son and while he is going to set his hand to the deed his bowels begin to melt and to yearn over him though he be a prodigall child yet he is a child I will not cut off the entail So saith God How shall I give thee up though Ephraim hath been a Rebellious Son yet he is my Son I will not dis-inherit him Gods heart may be full of love when there is a vail upon his face The Lord may change his dispensation towards his children but not his disposition So that the believer may confidently say I am adopted and let God do what he will with me let him take the rod or the staff 't is all one to me so long as he loves me The day of Death becomes the good Mans comfort And how so THe Persians had a certain day in the year which they called Vitiorum interitum wherein they used to kill all Serpents and venemous Creatures Such a day as that will the Day of Death be to a Man in Christ this day the old Serpent dyes in a believer that hath so often sâ—ung him with his Temptations this day the sins of the Godly these venemous Creatures shall all be destroyed they shall never be proud more they shall never grieve the Spirit of God more the death of the body shall quite destroy the body of death so that Sin which was the Midwife that brought Death into the World Death shall be the grave to bury sin O the priviledg and comfort of a true believer he is not taken away in his sins but he is taken away from his sins and death is made unto him advantage Heavenly happinesse not to be expressed NIcephorus tells us of one Agbarus a great Man that hearing so much of Christs fame by reason of the Miracles he wrought sent a Painter to take his picture and that the Painter when he came was not able to do it because of that radiancy and divine splendor which sate on Christs face Whether this be true or no penes sit authorem but to be sure there is such a brightnesse on the face of Christ glorified and that Happinesse which
Saints shall have with him in the highest Heavens as forbids us that dwell in mortal flesh to conceive of it aright much more to expresse it 't is best going thither to be informed and then we shall confesse we on Earth heard not half of what we there find yea that our present conceptions are no more like to that vision of glory we shall there have then the Sun in the Painters Table is to the Sun it self in the Heavens Men to be constant in the performance of holy Duties IT is observable That many who have gone into the Field and liked the work of a Souldier for a battel or two but soon have had enough and come running home again from their Colours whereas few can bear it as a constant Trade War is a thing that they could willingly wooe for their pleasure but are loath to wed upon what terms soever Thus many are soon engaged in holy duties easily perswaded to take up a Profession of Religion and as easily perswaded to lay down like the new Moon which shines a little in the first part of the night but is down long before half of the night be gone the lightsome Professors in their youth whose old age is wrapt up in thick darknesse of Sin and wickedness O this constancy and persevering is a hard word this taking up the Crosse daily this praying alwayes this watching night and day and never laying aside our cloaths and armour i. indulging our selves to remit and unbend in our holy waiting upon God and walking with God this sends many sorrowful from Christ yet this is the Saints duty to make Religion his every-dayes work withouâ— any vacation from one end of the year to the other How it is that there are so many Professors of Religion and so few Christians and Practisers of Religion ALl Israel came joyfully out of Egypt under Moses his conduct yea and a mixt Multitude with them but when their bellies were a little pinched with hunger and their greedy desires of a present Canaan deferred yea instead of peace and plenty nothing but Warr and penâ—ry appeared they like white-liver'd Souldiers are ready to fly from their colours and make a dishonourable retreat into Egypt Thus the greatest part of those who professe the Gospel when they come to push of pike to be tried what they will do deny endure for Christ grow sick of their enterprise Alas their hearts fail them they are like the waters of Bethlehem but if they must dispute their passage with so many Enemies they will even content themselves with their own Cistern and leave Heaven to others that will venture more hardly for it Gods comfortable presence in the midst of spiritual desertions THe Gardiner digs up his Garden pulls up his fences takes up his plants and to the eye seems to make a pleasant place as a waste piece of ground but every intelligent Man knowes that he is about to mend it not to mar it to plant it better not to destroy it So God is comfortably present with us even in our spirituall desertions and though he seem to annihilate or to reduce his new Creation yet it is to repair its ruines and to make it more beautifull and glorious Or as in the repairing of an house we see how they pull down part after part as if they intended to demolish it quite but the end is to make it better it may be some posts and pillars are removed but it is to put in stronger It may be some lights are stopped up but it is to make fairer So though God take away our props it is not that we may fall but that he may settle us in greater strength he batters down the life of sense to put us upon a life of Grace And when he darkens our light that we cannot see it is but to bring in fuller light into our Souls As when the Stars shine not the Sun appears repairing our losse of an obscure light with his clear bright shining beams So that though God do forsake his people yet not totally not for ever not ceasing the affection of Love but the acts of Love for some time And when he seems to be turning a Man into a desolate and ruinous condition yet even then is he building and preparing him to be a more excellent structure The Christians spiritual growth when seemingly dead and declining AS in the lopping of a Tree there seems to be a kind of diminution and destruction yet the end and issue of it is better growth And as the weakning of the body by Physick seems to tend to death yet it produceth better health and more strength and as the ball by falling downward riseth upward and Water in pipes descâ—nds that it may ascend So the Christians spiritual growth when seemingly dead and declining and to stand a stay is still carried on by the hidden method of God to encrease For every true Christian is a member of a thriving body in which there is no Atrophie but a continual issuing of spirits from the head so that life being wrought by the Spirit of life never dyeth but is alwayes upon the growing hand ripening and encreasing even in the midst of tentations and trouble Backwardnesse in the service of God reproved AStone needs not to be driven downward because that motion is suitable to it and it affects the Centre the Eagles fly willingly to their prey an hungry Man needs not either perswasion or compulsion to eat his meat So did but Men delight in God What means their hanging back from him How is it that the Counsels and thoughts of their hearts the pressing perswasions of the Word the strong motions of the Spirit the shining Examples of the godly the wise advice of Faithful friends the sweet inducements of pretious Promises the sad menaces of fearfull Evils yea the heavy strokes of an angry God yea the tender Mercies of a melting Father yea the bleeding wounds of a crucified Redeemer How is it that none of these do more prevail with them to a more ready walking with their God Surely such backwardnesse such unwillingnesse in the service of God cannot but be hatefull unto him Religion consisting in duty both to God and Man AS the Boat cannot move rightly when the Oars onely on one side are plyed Or as the Foul if she use onely one wing cannot fly up So Religion consisteth of duties to be performed some to God and some to Man some for the first Table of the Law some for the second otherwise that Religion will never profit that hath one hand wrapped up that should be towards Man in all offices of Charity though the other be used towards God in all offices of Piety The paucity of true Believers IT is the observation of a Learned Man That if the World were divided into thirty equall parts nineteen
of those thirty would prove to be overspread with Heathenish Idolatry six of the eleven remaining with the doctrine of Mahomet so there would remain but five parts of the thirty wherein were any thing of Christianity And among those Christians so many seduced Papists on one hand and formal Protestants on the other that surely but few are saved Nay such is the paucity of true believers that as that Olive-Tree mentioned by the Prophet with two or three berries on the uppermost bough Satan may be said to have the harvest and God onely a few gleanings It should therefore make us strive the more tanquam pulvere Olympico that we may be of the number of those few that shall inherit Salvation Spiritual sloath in the wayes of God reproved THere is mention made of certain Spaniards that live near unto a place where there is great store of Fish yet are so lazy that they will not be at the â—ains to catch them but buy of their Neighbours And such is the sinful stupidity of most Men such the spiritual sloath upon them that though Christ be near them though Salvation be offered in the Gospel and as it were brought to their very houses yet they will not work out their salvation This was the case of the Israelites It is said that they despised the pleasant Land Psal. 106. 24. And what should be the reason Canaan was worth the looking after for it was a Paradise of delight a type of Heaven I but they thought it would cost them a great deal of trouble and hazard in the getting and they would rather go without it And thus many had rather go sleeping to Hell then sweating to Heaven To be more carefull for the Body then the Soul a thing justly reproveable THere is a Parable of a Woman which travelling with child brought forth a twin and both children being presented to her she falls deeply and fondly in love with the one but is carelesse and disâ—respectfull of the other this she will nurse her self but that is put forth her love grows up with the child she kept herself she decks it fine she feeds it choicely but at last by overmuch pampering of it the child surfets becomes mortally sick and when it was dying she remembers her self and sends to look after the other child that was at nurse to the end she might now cherish it but when the Messenger came she finds it dying and gasping likewise and examining the Truth she understands that through the Mothers carelesnesse and neglect to look after it the poor child was starved thus was the fond partiall Mother to her great grief sorrow and shame deprived of both her hopefull babes at once Thus every Christian is this Mother the children are our Body and Soul the former of these it is that Men and Women fall deeply and fondly in love with whilst indeed they are carelesse and neglect the other this they dresse and feed nothing is too good or too dear for it but at the last the body surfets comes by some means or other to it's death-bed when there is very little or no hope of life then Men begin to remember the Soul and would think of some course to save it the Minister he is sent for in all haste to look after it but alasse he finds it in part dead in part dying and the very truth is the owner through neglect and carelesnesse hath starved the Soul and it is ready to go to Hell before the Body is fit for the Grave And so the foolish fond Christian to his eternal shame and sorrow loseth both his Body and Soul for ever The nature and properties of the Holy Spirit set forth for our instruction in the similitude of a Dove THough Pliny and all the Heathen writers were silent the Holy Word of God hath enough to set out unto us the nature and properties of the Dove There is first of all Noahs Dove with an Olive branch in her mouth a peaceable one 2. Davids dove for the colour with Feathers silver white not speckled as a bird of divers colours but white the emblem of sincerity and there 's Solomons dove for the eye a single and direct eye not learing as a Fox and looking divers wayes 3. Esayes Dove for the voice in patience mourning not in impatience murmuring and repining Lastly our Saviour Christs Dove for bill and claw innocent and harmlesse not bloudy or mischievous Now qualis species talis spiritus as the Dove so the Holy Ghost 1. A Spirit that loves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men of one accord 2. Et qui â—ugit fictum cannot abide new tricks meer fictions indeed feyned by feyned Christians party-propositions half in the mouth and half in the mind 3. And when he speaketh he speaketh for us with sighs and groans that cannot be expressed such is his love and so earnest 4. And hurts none not when he was in the resemblance of a Dove No not when he was Fire he was harmlesse Fire at the same time And thus it is that the nature and properties of the Holy Spirit are set forth for our instruction in the resemblance of a Dove teaching us to be peaceable to love singlenesse in meaning speaking and dealing to sufâ—er harm but to do none Magistrates Ministers c. to be Examples of good unto others and why so NAturalists report of the bird Ibis whereof there are many in Egypt especially in the City of Alexandria that it â—ateth up all the garbage of the City but leaves somewhat behind it that is more noysome then any filth it had eaten Others write that it will devour every Serpent it meets with but from the egge of this bird cometh the most hurtfull of all Serpents the Basilisk the sight whereof killeth Thus it is to be heartily wished that those who are entrusted for the Peoples good whether in Church or State be not like unto this bird seem to do something good but much hurt withall but that in them as they are Gods upon Earth may alwaies be found that which the Psalmist hath of God in Heaven Thou art good and dost good Psalm 86. 5. that their lives may be Examples of good because that otherwise their authority will be lesse prevailing for suppressing those evils whereunto their bad Examples give encouragement God to have all the glory JUstinian is said to have made a Law that no Master-workman should put up his name within the body of that building which he made out of another Mans cost And our own History tells us that when William of Wickham then Chaplain to Edward the third was by him made overseer of the work for the repair of Windsor Castle that those three words which he caused to be inscribed upon the great Tower This made Wickham had not he construed them another way as that no he made the work
otherwise afraid to enter the troops of ten thousand armed Men will be so scared with the strangenesse of the noyse that the Rider shall be scarce able to sit him yet if this bladder be but prick'd with a pin it comes instantly to nought A true resemblance of such whom God enricheth with his blessings casting into their bosoms some beans and pease of extraordinary gifts and graces of authority honour wisdom and the like with which they make such a ratling that even valiant hearts are daunted with the sound thereof and they themselves drawing in the wind of popular applause begin to swell as big as any bladder with presumption of their own merits but if their Princes displeasure do but breathe on them or some feaver or distemper seize upon them this great wind is abated their Souls are galled with impatience and they sing their part with those wretched ones What hath Pride profited us or what hath the pomp of Riches brought us Wisd. 5. 6. Security the cause of all Calamity IT was well observed that it was as necessary for Rome that Cato should be born as well as Scipio the reason was Alter cum hostibus alter cum vitiis bellum gessit the one kept Warr with their Enemies the other with their vices so that being alarm'd on both sides they were ever in a posture of defence Thus it is that what with the sword of the Spirit drawn against the exorbitance of the time and that of the Militia to defend the Frontiers the People rouze up themselves and become vigorous well considering that no Man is sooner overthrown then he that feareth nothing and most usually it so falleth out that Security is the main cause of all calamity Riches Honours c. the different use that is made of them IT is said of the seeds of Henbane that they kill all birds saving Sparrows and to them they are nourishing food the reason given is this their veins are so narrow that the fumes thereof cannot passe to the heart and surprise it so soon as it doth other Creatures Such is the condition property quality and use of Riches honours preferments or any other outward thing whatsoever they do nothing at all hurt the Godly such as know how to make a right use of them but to the Wicked and Ungodly such as know no other Heaven upon Earth but the bare enjoyment of them they are but as so many â—nares and temptations to entrap them so that what is one Man's meat becomes the others poyson And why so because the Godly have certain private veins of Knowledg and goodnesse whereby that deadly fume of Henbane the love of the World cannot passe to the heart Let Honours mount never so high Riches encrease never so much they look above them they set not their hearts upon them but take up that of the Wiseman Omnia bonis in bonum All things to the good are turned to good Wisd. 39. The soveraign Vertue of Humility PHysitians and Naturalists do say that there is nothing of the Mulâ—erry tree but is medicinal and usefull in some sort or other the fruit the root the bark the leaf and all Such is the soveraigne Vertue of Humility that every part of it as well the root of affections and the bark of Conversation as the leaves of words and the fruit of Works heals some diseases or other of the drooping Sin-sick Soul Hence is it that the great Physitian of our Souls as if they could never be at rest or quiet otherwise prescribes us this Recipe against all spiritual qualms and agonies Learn of me that I am lowly and meek and you shall find rest to your Souls Matth. 11. 29. The love of Riches very dangerous A Tree when it is half cut through deceives the Elephant when he leans unto it Mandrage if duly taken is good Physick but if immoderately it casts into a dead sleep congeals the spirits and deaddens the Natural faculty And as one said of Parliaments in England that they are very good purges to evacuate the ill humours of the body Politick but very bad Diet-drink to live upon weakning the vigorous spirits thereof and making it liable to much inconvenience Such is the immoderate love of Riches and the things of this life they deceive all that lean unto them there 's no safety in living upon them no rest in the acquiring of them They cast their Favourites and all such as dote upon them into strange dreams their reason and understanding being stupified their devotion and goodnesse congealed and in fine their bodies and Souls in great jeopardy to be everlastingly damned Worldly honours and greatnesse their Vanity to be considered THe Romans to expresse the Vanity of Worldly honour and greatnesse painted Honour in the Temple of Apollo as representing the form of a Man with a Rose in his right hand a Lilly in his left above him a Solsequy or Marigold and under him Wormwood with this Inscription Levate Consider by all this declaring that Man in this World flourisheth as a Rose in delights and Riches but at night that is in the time of Death or adversity he is dryed up rejected and set at nought as a dryed Rose which all the day long is carried in the hand with contentment but being once withered is cast away on the dunghill The Lilly excelling Solomon in its glorious cloathing but the leaves falling it becomes sordid aptly denoting the favour of Man whilst in worldly honour but once clouded by misfortune made of no accompt The Marigold opening and shutting with the Sun shewing that when the Sun of Prosperity shines he sees all things delectable but the Sun setting Death or Adversity approaching then appears nothing but darknesse and horrour of the grave The Wormwood signifying that all the delights in this World are sweet in the execution but bitter in the retribution no better then a bitter potion and the very gall of Dragons Esay 24. Lastly the word Levate is very necessary lift up your heads and consider ye that are proud of your honours and greatnesse ye are but Roses that will wither Lillies that will lose their beauty Marigolds that open and shut with the Sun and your portion without Repentance will be but Wormwood and bitterness The Heart of a VVorldly-minded Man never satisfied ALexander on a time having many Philosophers with him at a Banquet would needs have it put to the question what was the greatest thing in the World some of them said the hill Olympus some the Sun some the Earth some one thing and some another but one of them said that surely the Heart of Man must needs be the greatest because that in a moment it passed through the whole VVorld Heaven Earth Sea and all And such is the Heart of every Worldly-minded Man though in the substance of it such a bit as will hardly give a
he is certainly called it matters not much for the time when nor the place where both of them being so uncertain The Ministers Calling full of labour and toil THe Vocation of an Husbandman admits of little or no Vacation from his daily labour the end of one work is but the beginning of another every season of the year bringeth its several travel with it And the harvest Labourers are of all other the sorest Labourers no labour more toilsome then theirs Such is the Calling of every Faithfull Minister Hath he broke up the fallow ground of his Peoples hearts then must he sow the pretious seed therein Hath he sowed seed then he must water what he hath set and sowed yea tares and weeds will grow and soon sprowt up sleep he never so little and therefore great need of daily weeding so that surely the sweat of the Ministery be it followed as it ought exceeds the sweat of other Callings and with the sorest labour doth the Minister eat his bread in the sweat of his brows his Calling is not easy but painfull and laborious as it is an honour so it is a burthen and such an one too as requireth the strength of Angels to bear it True brotherly Love scarce to be found HIstories make mention of one Ursinus a Christian Physitian who being to suffer Martyrdome for the Gospell of Christ began to waver and faint Which when Vitalis a holy Man saw he step't to him And though he knew it would cost him his life comforted and encouraged him saying Whaâ— have you been heretofore so industrious to preserve Mens bodies and will you now shrink at the saving of your own Soul Be couragious c. For which Faithfull Counsell he also was condemned to death and suffered accordingly But now so it is that brethren have forgot that they are brethren and almost every Man stands aloof when necessity requires his succour they flinch away as Demas and others did from Paul leaving him to answer for himself Few such Friends as Vitalis are to be found that will lay down their lives or hazard them to the relief of their distressed brother Men to be Compassionate one towards another And why so IT is observed of the Bees that aegrotante unà lamentantur omnes when one is sick they all mourn And of the Sheep that if one of them be faint the rest of the flock will stand between it and the Sun untill it be revived Thus it is that God hath hewen us all out of one Rock tempered all our bodies of one â—ay and spirited all our Souls of one breath We are all Sons of one Father members of one body and heirs of one Kingdome in respect of which near linking together there should be Compassion and sympathy betwixt us If one Member do but grieve all suffer with it When a thorn is got into the foot how is it that the back bows the eyes pry into the hurt and the hands are busied to pluck out the cause of the anguish And we being Members of one another should bear with and forbear one the other the not doing whereof will stick as a brand upon our Souls that we are of the number of them that have forsaken the fear of the Almighty Ioh 6. 14. Men to be at Peace one with another IT is reported of two Noble Lacedemonians that being at mortall hatred were met by Archidamus their King in the Temple of Minerva he requires them to put the matter to an indifferent Umpire They choose the King himself He makes them swear to abide his order which accordingly they do Now saith the King I order that you shall not go out of this Temple untill you be Friends And so they patted Friends For an Oath taken in that Temple was unlawfull to be broken Now it were heartily to be wished that we who are the Temple of God and such as usually meet in the Temple of God and there partake the holy things of God would keep the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace not to be unpeaceable with the peaceable which argues a devillish mind not unpeaceable with the unpeaceable which argues a corrupt mind nor yet content our selves in that we are peaceable with the peaceable which argues but a civill mind but if it be possible and as much as in us lyeth to be peaceable with the unpeaceable which is that that argues onely a true Christian and Heroicall mind And so should we make it good that we are endowed with true Grace and are true Subjects of that Kingdome which is the Kingdome of Peace whose King is Peace Men to labour that they be Regenerated S. Augustine relateth of the Serpent that when she groweth old she draweth herâ—self through a narrow hole and by this means stripping off her old skin she reneweth her age Thus it is our Saviours directions to be as wise as Serpents Math. 20. 6. and if in any thing then sure it is in this that we should follow their Wisedome that forsaking the bâ—oad waies of vices we may passe through the narrow and strait way of Repentance and leaving off our old Coat of Sin we may be cloathed anew with the Rich garments of Righteousness and so become new Men in Christ Iesus The Ministers and Magistrates duty in the suppression of Vice IT was a good Christian resolution of S. Basill who writing to Amphilochius Bishop of Iconium hath these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The People through ambition are fallen into grievous Anarchy Whence it comes to passe that all the exhortations of the Rulers are in vain No man will submit but all would reign being puffed up with pride growing from ignorance Shall I then keep silence I may not Though some supplant others insult over me being down and the rest applaud them that do insult How can it be otherwise since Charity is decayed Hence some sit no lesse implacable and bitter examiners of things amisse then unjust and malevolent Iudges of things well-done so that we are become more bruit then the very beasts for they are quiet amongst themselves but we wage cruel war against each other Shall I then hold my peace Charity will not suffer me The Children in Babylon discharged their duty though they were but three Having God then for my Patron and Protector I le not be silent c. And thus it is that both Minister and Magistrate in their respective places are to beat down the vices of the time Where the reins of Government lye â—lack upon the People shoulders there they must needs be straitned Where wickednesse and Sin have put on a Whores forehead it is high time to unmask them Nay if Gods people and the house of Iacob will be doing that which is not right it is the Ministers duty to set up his throat and tell the one of
not partly on one and partly on another but he bestowes all himself on every one and expects that every one should do the like unto him Excesse of Apparrell condemned WHat heavy things are thundred against those curious Dames of Ierusalem by the Prophet Isaiah who being himself a Courtier inveighs as puncutally against the Noble vanity of Apparrell as if he had late viewed the Ladies Wardrobes And our Saviour finds fault with the Scribes that loved to go in long cloathing But to come nearer In the year 1580 great ruffs with huge wide sets and cloaks reaching almost to the ancles no lesse comely then of great expence were restrained here by Proclamation saith Mr. Cambden And need we not the like Law now when so many Prodigals turn Rents into ruffes and lands into lace singulis auribuâ— bina aut terna pendunt Patrimonia as Seneca hath it hang two or three Patrimonies at their ears a pretty grove upon their backs a reasonable Lordship or living about their necks from whence both S. Cyprian and S. Augustine drew up this conclusion That superfluous Apparrel is worse then Whoredome because Whoredome onely corrupts Chastity but this corrupts Nature God to be seen in the works of the Creation A Godly Antient being asked by a Prophane Philosopher How he could contemplate high things sith he had no books wisely answered That he had the whole World for his book ready open at all times and in all places and that he could therein read things Heavenly and divine And most true it is that God is to be seen and admired in the works of the Creation there 's not a Flower in the Field not a pile of grasse we tread on but sets forth God unto us in very lively colours so that not to see him is to incur the curse he hath denounced against such as regard not the work of the Lord i. the first making neither consider the operation of his hands i. the wise disposing of his Creatures for our good Esay 5. 12. To keep close to the Word of God in seeking after Christ. IT is the observation of a good Man now with God That the Wise-men travelling to find Christ followed onely the starre and as long as they saw it they were assured that they were in the right way and had great mirth in their journey but when they entred into Ierusalem whereas the starre led them not thither but unto Bethlem and there would be instructed where Christ was born they were not onely ignorant of the place Where but they had lost the sight of the Starre that should guide them thither Whereof we learn in any case that whilest we be going to learn Christ to seek Christ which is above to beware we lose not the Star of Gods Word which onely is the mark that shews us where Christ is and which way we may come to him These are the good Man 's own words whereunto may be added That whereas David made the Word of God a lanthorn to his feet and a light unto his paths we would not suffer our selves to be led aside by every ignis fatuus every false fire that presents it self unto us but to keep close to the Word of God which will bring us to the Knowledg of Christ here and the full enjoyment of him hereafter What it is to trust in God really and truly THere was a King of this Land that being engaged in Warre sent to the Generall of his Army to spare such a City yet he had a command under the broad Seal and the King 's own hand to do it and to disobey his warrant was death but withall the King gave him private instructions to destroy the City and in so doing he would save him harmlesse The Generall did so and trusted the King for his life so that if he had failed him he had been utterly destroyed Thus if a Man be brought to such an exigent if he will trust God in such a case as wherein if he fayl him he is undone so to lean upon God that if he slip away he sinketh so to be unbottom'd off himself and every Creature so to cast himself upon God that if he step aside he is like to perish this is to trust in God really and truly The monstrous Sin of Ingratitude Q. Elizabeth in a letter of hers to Hen. 4th King of France amongst many other expressions hath this upon the sin of Ingratitude That if there were any unpardonable sin in the World such as the sin against the Holy Ghost it was Ingratitude Call me unthankfull said another and you call me all that naught is And without all doubt such a Vice it is that Nature frowns at though she smile at many others Nay It is a Monster in Nature a Solecism in manners a Paradox in Divinity an ugly sinl Insomuch that Christ himself joyned the Evill and unthankfull together Luke 6. 35. How it is that Faith is said to be made perfect by Works AS one that professeth That he hath an art and that he is able to do this and that by his art Now if he make up some exquisite piece of Workmanship by that he is said to make good his Art Or as when we say such and such Trees are good because they have sap in them they are not dead Trees yet for all this the Tree is made perfect by the fruit So Faith by Works is made perfect Not that works put life into Faith the sap must first be in the Tree and then it bringeth forth fruit so there must be first a life in Faith and then it bringeth forth good works So that when it is said Faith is made perfect by Works the meaning is that Faith is made good by Works that Works declare Faith to be right as the Fruit doth declare the Tree to have sap How to make tryall of Faith whether it be right or not TAke a cup of Wine and if you would know whether it be good or not drink it off but if it heat you not warm you not at the Hearâ— quicken you not nor in any way revive your spirits you will say It is â—aught flat and dead had it been good Wine it would have done all this Then if you come to Plants and find no fruit nor leaves you say This plant is dead If you come to take a dram of Physick and it do not work you say It is bad Physick And so if you take leaven and put it into the dough if it sowr not the lump you say it is a dead leaven a counterfeit Thus if a Man find not Faith in the operation thereof that it works not a generall change in the Soul that it fire not the heart with love to Christ if there be no life in it then let such a Man know that he is deceived his Faith is not right not effectuall not any way
Love unto Christ. VVhat Alexander said of his two Friends Hephestion and Craterus is made good in the practice of too too many in these daies Hephestion saies he loves me as I am Alexander but Cratâ—rus loves me as I am King Alexander so that the one loved him for his Person the other for the benefits he received by him Thus some Nathaniels there be that love Christ for his Person for his personall excellencies for his personal beauty for his personall glory they see those perfections of grace and holinâ—sse in Christ that would render him very lovely and desireable in their eyes though they should never get a Kingdome or a Crown by him But so it is that most of those which is to be lamented do it onely in respect of the benefit they receive by him scarce any loves Christ but for his Rewards some few there are that follow him for love but many for the loaves few for his inward excellencies many for his outward advantages and few that they may be good by him but many that they may be made great by him The dangerous use of Riches IT was a wise and Christian speech of Charls the fifth to the Duke of Venice who when he had shewed him the Treasury of S. Mark and the glory of his Princely Pallace in stead of admiring it or him for it onely returned this grave and serious Memento Haec sunt quae faciunt invitos mori c. These are the things that make Men so loath to dye so that they cry out with S. Peter Bonum est esse hîc It is good to be here but that of S. Paul Cupio dissolvi c. I desire to dissolved and to be with Christ which is best of all they cannot abide to hear of Thus it is that Riches not well used prove very dangerous If Poverty with Saul has kill'd her thousands Riches with David has kill'd her ten thousands they are called thorns and that not improperly as piercing both head and heart the head with cares in getting them and the heart with grief in parting with them Many are the Souls that Riches have pierced through and through with many sorrows Many are the Minds that Riches have hlinded Many the hearts that Riches have bardened Many the Wills that Riches have perverted Many the Affections that Riches have disordered Whereas the Riches that are to be found in Christ Iesus are such as will neither harm not hurt the Soul there was never any that was ever made worse by them God's Mercies to the worst of Sinners repenting There is a story concerning a great Rebell that had made a great party against one of the Roman Emperous A Proclamation was thereupon sent abroad That whoever could bring in the Rebell dead or alive he should have a great sum of Money for his Reward The Rebell hearing of it comes and presenting himself before the Emperor demands the sum of Money proposed The Emperor bethinks himself that if he shouldput him to death the World would be ready to say that he did it to save his Money and so he freely pardoned the Rebell and gave him the Money Here now was light in a dark Lanthorn Mercy in a very Heathen And shall such a one do thus that had but a drop of Mercy and compassion in him and will not Christ do much more that hath all fulnesse of grace and Mercy in himself Surely his bowels yearn to the worst of Sinners repenting let them but come in and they shall find him ready to pardon yea one that is altogether made up of pardoning Mercies Nehem. 9. 17. Rulers Magistrates c. to be Men of publique spirits IT is written of Augustus Caesar in whose time Christ was born that he carried such an entire and Fatherly affection to the Common-wealth that he called it Filiam suam his own daughter and for that cause refused to be called Dominus Patriae the Lord or Master of his Country because he ruled not by fear but by love so that at the time of his death the People were very much troubled and much lamenting his losse said Utinam aut non nasceretur c. Would he had never been born or never dyed And such were Titus and Aristides and many others both in divine and humane story that have been famous in their generations for prefering the publick good before their own private advantage And it were heartily to be wished that all Rulers Magistrates c. may be so spirited by God that they may be willing to be any thing to be nothing to empty and deny themselves and to trample their sinfull selves under foot in order to the honour of God and the publique good that so neither Saints nor Heathens may be Witnesses against them in that day wherein the hearts and practices of all the Rulers of the Earth shall be laid open and bare before him that shall judge the World in Righteousnesse and true Judgment The heavy weight of Government ill attained SIdonius Apollinaris relateth how a certain Man named Maximum who arriving at the top of greatnesse and that by means sufficiently indirect was the very first day of his Government much wearied and perplexed in his thoughts insomuch that fetching a deep sigh he broke out into this expression Oh Damocles how happy wast thou for having been a King but a dinner-while Whereas I have been so one whole day and cannot possibly bear it any longer Thus without all doubt his heart and head too must needs ake whose browes are empailed with a Crown that is ill acquired his shoulders bow whereon lyes the weight of a Government usurped and his hands tremble that swayes the Scepter of an ill-gotten power and dominion Worldly Professors of the Gospel reproved MElancthon tells a story of an Abbot that lived strictly walked demurely and looked humbly so long as he was a Monk one in somewhat a lower form in the Monastery but when by his seeming extraordinary sanctity he got to be Abbot he grew intollerably proud and insolent that being asked the reason of it he confessed That his former lowly looks were but to see If he could find the keyes of the Abby Such is the case of many Worldly Professors at this day they loâ—k low that they may riâ—e high they put on Religion but as a Cloak to cover their foul designs so that they are not acted from spirituall and intrinsecall Principles as from the sense of divine love to act for God sweetnesse of the Promises to wait on God excellency of Communion with God and pretious discoveries that the Soul hath formerly had of the beauty and glory of God but from poor low vain externall motives as the ear of the Creature the eye of the Creature the rewards of the Creature and the keeping up of a Name amongst the Creatures and a thousand such
of his childre 139. The Soul's delight once set upon God hardly to be removed 183. Gods time the best time for deliveâ—ance 5. God doth not onely deliver but comfort his Children 25. In all deliverances spiritual and temporall to give God the glory 339. God raising up Instruments for the deliverance of his people 551. The workings of God in the deliverance of his people various 648. Spiritual desertions no distractions to the child of God 49. How it is that there may be partial desâ—rtions of spirituall grace in the Souls of Gods dearest children but never totall nor final ones 383. Gods love to his children in the midst of spiritual desertions 395. Gods comfortable presence in the midst of spiritual desertions 397. Not to be over-hasty in the desire of Justice for wrongs sustained 7. The godly Man's desires are above his reach 122. The true Christian's desires are all for Heaven 394. Desperation the complement of all sins 317. The desperate Sinner's madnesse 454. Dâ—struction is from our selves 164. 659. Not so much the quantity as the quality of Devotion acceptable to God 15. The great benefit of devotion at bed time 247. The Devil a deceiver deceived by Christ 30. The Devil suiting himself to all humours 48. Satan's restlesse uncessant employment 49. Satan tempteth by degrees 68. Despâ—rate Devils 85. Satan subdued by Christs death 126. His policy to defile the Soul with sin 289. The Devill rewarding his servants 500. The Devils cunning to deceive 578 637. The Devils rage and arguments of the Judgment day at hand 626. Why it is that the children of God die usually sooner then others 522. All must die 341 522. We dye daily 162. Wisemen dye as well as Fools 478. Many seem to be willing yet are loath to dye 64 76. Man alwaies in a dying condition 12. We must learn to live well before we desire to dye 65. Dâ—scretion the guid of all Religious actions 574. A main part of true Wisedome 650. Discord ill-becomes the Disciples of Christ 43. Discord in Church or Common-wealth prejudicial 58. The deepest dissembler at one time or other discovered 478. Civill Dissention attended by uncivill destruction 13. Dissention the Fore-runner of confusion 626. Distractions will prove destructions 8. Englands distractions to be Englands peaceable directions 193. Dangerous to interpose with a divided People 74. Division amongst Christians is the disgrace of Christians 44. All divisions are against Nature 75. The danger of Divisions 94 317. Divisions usher in destruction 204. The evill of Division 474. Divisions in Church and State to be prevented 559. The stuâ—y of Divinity necessary 220. The study of School-divinity not altogether necessary 241. False doctrine is treason against God 44. To do as we would be done by is praise-worthy 163. Dreams not altogether to be sleighted 1. The right use that is to be made of Dreams 237. A drunkard hardly to be reclaimed 87. Drunkennesse condâ—mned 140. Drunkennesse the shame of England 190. The encrease of drunkennesse in England 206. Drunkennesse Whoredome c. the generality of them 281. The scoffing drunkards sad condition 472. To be careful of extraordinary drinking 474. Excessive drinking condemned 475 580. Drunkennesse a great punishment of it self 483. To be carefull of our Duty of God and Man 10. Not to rest in outward performance of duty because dangerous 178. Compleat Christian duty 383. Neglect of the main duties of Christianity reproved 388. Men to be constant in performance of holy duties 396. Constancy of holy duties makes the performance of thâ—m easy 442. Holy duties call for holy preparation 469. The sins of our Religious duties corrected by Christ and then presented to his Father 633. E GOds decree of Election not to be made the proper objâ—ct of Faith 656. Mans happinesse consistech onely in Gods free Election 288. The true comfort of Election 586. How to be assured of our Election 586. Election known by Sanctification 76. Gods fundamentall love of Election and actuall love of Adoption how distinguished 261. To make our calling and Election sure 488. Eloquence if not affected an excellent gift of God 284. Eloquence not to be abused 306. Good endeavours assisted by God 157. All endeavours to be sanctified by prayer 551. The Churches Enemies in Gods hands 13. A Forreign Enemy to be prevented 34. To love our Enemies and do them good 73. How it is that we may hate our Enemies 138. 112. The great good which cometh by Enemies 112. Not to envy each others gifts and prefermenâ—s 29. The great power of Envy 173. The destructive quality of Envy 518. The incorrigibility of Errour 184. To beware of erronious doctrine 243 417. The obstinate Sinner deserving Eternity of punishment and why so 12. Eternity of punishment in Hell 97. to be considered 442. In all our doings we should have our eye uppon Eternity 103 443. Not to serve time but Eternity 202. Nothing but Eternity will satisfy the gratious Soul 438. In the midst of worldly enjoyments to mind Eternity 440. The evill of Excesse 616. A wicked Man hardly drawn to examine himself 107. Daily Examination of our selves the comfort of it 294. Gods choice of eminent persons to be Exemplary to others 13. Rulers actions Exemplary 32. A good Man will be a good Example to others 127. The dangerous Example of wicked Governours 192. The prevalency of a good Example 256. Christ to be our Example and pattern of imitation in life and death 484. Wicked men reserved for exemplary judgment 507. Magistrates and men in authority to be exemplary to others 516 531. Christ to be our example in bearing the Cross 624. The sufferings of Christ as so many Examples to teach us how to suffer 677. Experience of Gods love to be a motive unto better obedience 126. The experimented Christian the onely undaunted Christian 596. Mans extermity Gods opportunity 408. F. A Factious-spirited Man unfit for the work of the Ministery 21. Ring-leaders of Faction and Schism their condition deplorable 391. Factious hearers of the Word condemned 460. The happy succession of a Christian Family 423. Wicked persons may be in a good Family 461. The unhappinesse of a disordered Family 655. How to make tryall of Faith whether it be perfect or not 644. The great benefit of Faith truly appropriated 665. Faith and love inseperable 671. Complaint of the want of Faith an argument of true Faith 35. More comfort in a strong Faith then a weak one 435. The life of Faith the happy life 40. Faith is the Fountain of all Graces 51. The gradation of Faith 53. The tryall of Faith is the enlargement of Faith 74. Justifying Faith accompanied with good works 98. The certainty of Faith 111. Faith makes partakers of every good thing in Gods ordinances 113. Faith in the time of tryall needful 150. How Faith justifieth alone 163 151. The power of Faith reviving the deadly sin-sick Soul 177. The great power of Faith seated in the heart of Man 229. The least measure