a green bay tree cloathed in scarlet and fine linnen and fair deliciously every day the poor Saints even in their bonds are glad to eat ashes as it were bread and to mingle their drink with weeping I confess this hath been ever a sore objection that disheartned many men and made King Davids feet well nigh to slip Sol. but if I shall obtain your patience to stay with me a little in Gods Sanctuary I shall soon unty this Gordian knot or so cut it to pieces that it can no waies be any hinderance to our progress For 1. Seneca proveth Seneca de brevit vitae c. 8. that long life consisteth not in the great number of years but in vertuous actions and the wise man saith an undefiled life is the old age for God esteemeth of no time but what we spend in his service Sap. 1. All time lost that is not spent in Gods service and therefore they that lived 100 years in pleasures have but lost all their time and been as dead all that time which they lived and those holy Saints that were cut off in the midst of their daies have lived longer because they spent their whole time in Gods service the other lost their time and lost their life as Titus was wont to say diem perdidi I lost the day wherein I did no good and these have gained every hour And 2. Afflictions not so esteemed by the Saints as they are by the worldlings 2. Whatsoever afflictions the Saints do suffer we must not account them so great miseries unto them as the world takes them for the Philosopher tells us that quicquid recipitur recipitur ad modum recipientis and they esteem them not as the world doth but they count them as the fatherly chastisements of Gods love and not any arguments of Gods hatred and as the Poet saith How God sweetneth the afflictions of his servants Una eademque manus vulnus opemque tulit the same hand which layed on their stripes will heal their sores Way 1 1. By giving them that invincible gift of patience which doth more iurage their tormenting persecutors Tert. in apolâ—g then themselves are in suffering torments Way 2 2. By filling them with true content that is in any estate to be contented Phil. 4.11 which is far better than to abound with wealth and to want this heavenly gift for he is most rich that desires nothing and he is best pleased that is never discontented And Way 3 3. By making them to rejoyce in tribulation and to account it all joy James 1.2 Rom. 8.31 Ver. 37. when they fall into divers temptations a strange thing that they should rejoyce in that which the world doth most fear yet such is the case of the righteous that neither life nor death nor principalities nor powers nor any other thing shall be able to separate them from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus but they abound in want they are content in Prison they rejoyce in death and in all things they are more than conquerours for his sake that loved them And therefore to conclude let us seek the Lord and we shall live and we shall be happy because he never faileth them that seek him but he will hear their prayers and will help them so that they need fear neither the scarlet gowns nor the sharpest swords neither their dissembling friends nor their greatest enemies for that God is with them in Prison as with Joseph in the Sea as with Jonas in the fire as with the three Children and in all places to preserve them from all evil here and to bring them to all happiness hereafter to live for ever through Jesus Christ our Lord to whom be all praise and dominion for ever and ever Amen Jehovae Liberatori FINIS How the Rebels dealt with the Bishop while he was Preaching this Sermon VVHile Archimedes was very studious in the framing of his Mathematical proportions the enemy saith the Historian was sacking the Town and pulling him out of his house or ready to pull down his House about his ears and not much unlike That very day the 8th of March when I was as Religious as I could I am sure with an unfaigned heart Preaching this very Sermon in S. Maries the Rebels out of Northampton seized upon my House took away all my goods and Cattel and as I am informed by a Letter from a faithful Preacher the Committee concluded to sequester all my Estate and all that I purchased for my Wife and Children by the indefatigable pains of 17 years service in an honourable house to the use of the Parliament so that now the poor Bishop of Ossory Incidit in Scyllam cupiens vitare Charibdins Or as Lucian saith shunning the smoak of the Irish insurrection that only withheld all that they should pay unto him he fell into the fire of the English Rebellion that thus took all that he had from him for which I pray God to forgive them it doth no waies trouble me when I know that he which lent me all may justly send whom he will to fetch all away from me and I do Profess before my God if I had all the Rebels Estate yet I should freely without the least dispute leave it lose it and part with it rather than I would take their wicked Covenant prove disloyal unto my King depart an inch from the truth of God or any waies defile my conscience for any worldly wealthy and I do heartily thank my God that he hath given me this resolution to rejoyce more in the sincerity of this my Prosession than any waies to grieve at my losses afflictions or persecutions and therefore the taking away of my Estate moves me to nothing else but to pray to God to give them grace to repent them of their sins committed against God and their Rebellion against their King whom God hath commanded them to honour and to obey so I leave them that left nothing besides Loyalty to his King and fidelity to his God unto their Oratour still remaining Gr. Ossory Though the Lord slay me yet will I trust in him saith holy Job and though the pretended Parliament should rob me to my very shirt yet will I both Preach and write and pray against their wickedness this will I do so help me God who is my God in whom I trust Amen THE EIGTHTH SERMON MATTHEW 17.21 This kind of Devils goeth not out but by prayer and fasting THe holy and blessed Apostle S. Paul being a stout Champion of Jesus Christ saith He hath fought with beasts at Ephesus which was a great City full of Great men and of great wickedness and he overcame them and I have fought with beasts in London not inferiour to Ephesus any ways and with the limbs head and tayl of the great Antichrist the members of the the long Parliament and as yet I praise Jehovah my Deliverer I escape invulnerate and now I am
great benefits that this good God had done unto them First Moses tells you They waxed fat and then they kicked as we lately did and forsook God that made them and lightly esteemed the rock of their salvation They provoked him to jealousie with strange Gods and moved him to anger with their abominations They sacrificed to Devils and not to God to Gods that they knew not that came newly up whom their fathers feared not which was and is the fruit of every new Religion as of late dayes we have fully seen amongst us And then as they forsook God that formed them so presently they rebelled against his servants they muttered and murmured and rejected all their Governours and as the Psalmist saith They angred Moses in their tents and Aaron the Saint of the Lord for these two to forsake God and to rebel against their Governours do always go together And if you look into the foresaid sixteenth Chapter of Ezekiel you shall see how the Prophet sheweth their wickedness and how they have multiplied their abominations above measure and as many of us over-wickedly and unjustly seeking to make our children great in this world do bring them unto the Devil in the world to come Ezech. 16.21 so did they slay their children and cause them to pass through the fire and as the Psalmist saith Ps 106.37 They offered their sons and their daughters unto Devils and the Lord himself assureth us that Sodom had not done so wickedly as they had done Ezek. 16.48.51 and Samaria had not committed half of their sins And what an intolerable ingratitude was this The most monstrous thing that ever was not possibly to be described quia dixeris maledicta cuncta cum ingratum hominem dixeris because thou sayest all the evils that can be said when thou namest an ungrateful man especially to God that hath done such great things for us For we read of many bruit beasts that for small benefits have been very thankful unto men as of the Dog that for a peice of bread will follow and be ready to die for his Master and the Lion that for pulling a thorn out of his foot preserved the slave that did it from all the beasts of the forrest and afterwards his life on the Theatre in Rome and Primauday tells us of an Arabian infidel that being taken prisoner and afterwards set at liberty by Baldwin King of Jerusalem in token of his thankfulness for that favour Pet. Prim. c. 40. p. 431. he went to him by night into a Town where he was retired after he had lost the field and declared to him the purpose of his companions and conducted him until he had brought him out of all danger And when bruit beasts and Pagans are thus thankful unto us shall man be unthankful unto God No no He should be truly thankful And Seneca saith there be four special conditions of true thankfulness 1. Grate accipere to receive it thankfully 2. Nunquam oblivisci Never to forget it for he can never be thankful that hath forgotten the benefit 3. Ingenue fateri per quem profecerimus Four conditions of true thankfulness ingeniously to acknowledge by whom we are profited 4. Pro virili retribuere to requite the benefit received in the best manner that we are able But this people scarce observed any one of them I am sure not the second and therefore not possibly the third and fourth for the Prophet David tells us plainly that after the Lord had shewed his tokens among them and his wonders in the land of Ham and had brought forth his people with joy and his chosen with gladness and had given them the lands of the Heathen Is 105.42 43 so that they did as many have done amongst us to take the labours of the people in possession Ps 106.13 Yet within a while they did as we do forget his works and would not abide his counsel V. 21. yea they forgat God their Saviour which had done so great things in Egypt wondrous things in the land of Ham and fearful things by the Red-sea But to let this people pass that were destroyed for their unthankfulness let us look unto our selves and have our eyes behind us to behold and see First What God hath done for us And What God did for us the people of these dominions Amos 3.2 Secondly What we have done for the honour and service of God And First As the Lord said of the Jews You onely have I chosen of all the families of the earth so I believe the Lord may justly say of our Kings dominions that he shewed more love and favour unto them then he did to any other Kingdom of the World for whatsoever good he did to others he did the same to us And he shewed two more signal favours to us then he did to any other Kingdome of all Christendome As I. He raised the good Emperour Constantine the Son of Helen out of Britaine to close up the days of persecution and shut the doors of the Idol-Temples II. When the mysts of ignorance and errors and superstition had covered and overshadowed almost all the Church of Christ God sent successively no less then five such excellent Protestant Princes King Edward the sixth Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles the I. and II. as no other Kingdom had the like to protest against all the Popish errours and superstition and to make such a perfect reformation of Religion that both for Doctrine and Discipline no Church in Christendom is so purely and so perfectly established as these Churches of our Kings dominions are such love and such mercies of God to us as exceeded all the blessings of the earth and shewed to no other Nation of the world in such a measure but to this And what reward I pray you What requital have we rendred unto God have we and our people rendred unâ—o God for those great unparalell'd benefits that he hath done unto us I do profess I have been a man ever faithful to my King and ever fearless of all the dangers of the world and therefore I must say the truth as Saint Steven told the Jews though I should fare as Saint Steven did that as they were a stiff-necked people that have always resisted the Holy Ghost and persecuted the Prophets and been the traytors and murderers of Christ so have the major part of us shewed themselves a rebellious Nation that confederated to assist the Devil to requite Gods extraordinary signal favour to us with extraordinary signal contempt of Gods service and signal malice to all his servants above any other nation of the World by raising out of us and bringing in amongst us the great Anti-Christ that is the great enemies of Christ you know whom * The Long Parliament to slay the two witnesses of Jesus Christ which were Cohors Magistratuum Chorus Prophetarum 1. the best and blessed King Charles the First that
taedebat apprehendere quia priusquam pene teneretur avolabat if any prosperous thing in this world did seem to smile and offer it self unto me I was loath to take it because that before I could scarce enjoy it it was presently snatched from me For 1. Friends are like the waters of Tenia sliding away and turning as the wheele of your fortune turneth 2. Riches saith the wise man betake themselves to their wings as an Eagle and the sea can drown it fire consume it servants waste it and thieves bereave us of it Prov. 23.5 3. Honour is but Vertues shadow a winde that maketh fooles to swell but cannot satisfie any wise man 4. Beauty is such a thing as the Daughters of Vanity can tell you that the Sun will tanne it a scarr will blemish it sickness waste it and age consume it away as we read fair Helen wept when she saw the wrinckles of her old face which all your black patches cannot make young 5. And for our Health which is the greatest happiness in this life we see mans body is subject to a thousand diseases fraught with frailties within wrapped in miseries without uncertain of life and sure of death And so all the things of this world are but like the Apples of Sodome pleasant to the eyes and provoking to the appetite but vanishing into smoak when they are touched with the teeth And therefore our whole life is but painted over as some Ladies do their faces with vain semblances of Beauty and Pleasure and it is attended on the one side with whole troopes of sorrows sicknesses wants and discontents and on the other side with uncertainty of continuance and certainty of dissolution And 2. The uncertainty of our state Rom. 9.21 2. For our state all is in the hand of God as the clay is in the hand of the Potter who can of the same lumpe make one vessel to honour and another to dishonour and the Heathens conceived all was at the disposing of fortune which they according to their ignorance took for God and said Te facimus fortuna Deam When they saw that as the Poet saith Vna eademque manus vulnus opemque tulit The same hand that hath cast us down can raise us up and the same God that raised us to honour can bring us down to the dust and can either prolong our dayes or cut them off at his pleasure And who then would not serve such a Master and be affraid to offend such a Lord as hath our life our wealth and our woe in his own hands and at his own disposing O consider this all you that forget God and think of it lest he take you away and tear you all to pieces or if this cannot move you to fear God Then 2. Cast your eyes before you 2. To look unto the things that are to come to look unto the things that are to come and must fall upon the world and they are many but especially and inevitably these four 1. Death 2. Judgement 3. Heaven 4. Hell And these are quatuor novissima terribilissima the four last things and the most terrible things that can be to all wicked men to think of them and they may serve as four excellent Preachers to disswade and terrifie all men from evil and to call them continually to the service of God For the Son of Syrach saith Whatsoever thou takest in hand Eccles 7.36 remember the end and thou shalt never do amisse And 1. Death makes an end of our life 1. Of death and before it shuts the eyes of our bodies it commonly openeth the eyes of our consciences And then every man shall see his owne state though he seldome or never thought of the same before For 1. The state of the wicked Revel 12.12 1. The wicked man shall see all his sins set before his face and Satan will now bestir himself to gain his soul for he knoweth that his turn is short and therefore he will tell him that if he would have entred into life Rom. 2.13 he should have kept the commandments that not the hearers but the doers of the Law shall be justified that if the just shall scarce be saved where shall he being such a wicked wretch as he is appear when as the Apostle tells him plainly that neither adulterer nor fornicator nor covetous person nor the like Traytor Rebel Perjurer 1 Cor. 6.9 10. or such other shall inherit the kingdome of God and so what the Preachers of God now cannot beat into the thoughts of these careless men this damned spirit will then irremovably settle in their deepest considerations O then what agonies and perplexities will tear the wofull hearts of these wicked men In that day saith the Lord I will cause the Sun to go down at noon Amos 8.9 10. and I will darken the earth in the clear day I will turn their feasts into mournings and their songs into lamentations that is I will make all those things that were wont most sweetly to delight them now most of all to torment them for now that pleasure which they had of sin shall turn to be as bitter as gall when they do see that as the Father saith transit jucunditas non reditura manet anxietas non peritura and now they must die and live they can no longer and Satan whose will they did and whose wayes they followed all their life will not forsake them at their death but will say Me you have served and from me you must expect your wages For so we read that the Devil assailed some of the best Saints as Saint Martin Saint Bernard Ignatius Eusebius and others and if these things be done in a green tree what shall be done in a withered saith our Saviour If he be so busie about the Saints what will he do to sinners And this is the state of a wicked man at his dying day 2. The state of the godly But 2. In the death of the godly it is not so for having served God all his life he hath hope in his death and he knoweth not whom he needs to fear Prov. 14.32 2 Tim. 1.12 because he knoweth whom he hath believed and when his body is weakest his faith is strongest and therefore with Saint Paul he desires to be dissolved and he longs for death that he may be with him which was dead and is alive and liveth for evermore and he is well contented that his body shall go to the grave that his soul may go to glory and that his flesh shall sleep in the dust that his spirit may rejoyce in heaven And this is the state of the godly man at the day of his death And therefore if men would seriously consider this before they come to this then certainly the fear of the most fearful death of the wicked and the love of the most comfortable death of the godly would make them to have
cleansed before we can receive the graces of God Spirit because as Solomon saith The holy Spirit of discipline flieth from deceit and dwelleth not in the body that is subject unto sin and can no more stand in one heart than the Ark of God and the Idol Dagon could stand upon one Altar and then as S. Chrysostom saith If thine hand be full of Counters thou must cast them out of thine hand before thou canst receive it full of Gold so if thy heart be full of sins thou must cleanse the same and cast thy sins away before there can be any room for the graces of God Therefore our Saviour first of all telleth us what we should not do that is not to be too carefull and solicitous for the things of this world but to take heed and beware of covetousness And to that end he laboureth much and produceth many reasons to pluck up out of our hearts this evil weed of Covetousness which as the Apostle saith is the root of all wickedness And the Summ and substance of the whole Discourse is this that of all the wealth and riches of the whole world 1 Tim. 6.10 no man no King no Lord can have any more but his food and rayment And the Providence of God hath so wisely disposed things that every man the poorest man hath these things though not so excellent yet competent while he liveth as we see the poor Labourer hath his food of coarse bread and roots as healthfull to him and his sleep as delightfull and oftentimes better then the daintiest Diet is to the greatest Glutton and the mean man that is clad in Frize or with John Baptist in Camels hair may be and is as well preserved from the heat of Summer and the cold of Winter and hath his nakedness as well covered thereby which is all the use and end of apparel as they that are clothed in Purple or Scarlet or fine Linnen And this Providence of God to find competent food and rayment for all men the poor as well as the rich our Saviour illustrateth by the example of the Fowls of Heaven and the Lillies of the field whereof the one i. e. the Fowls are sufficiently fed though they neither sow nor reap and the other i. e. the Lillies are as bravely clad though they neither weave nor spin And yet Solomon in all his royalties was not arrayed like one of these nor all the colors in the Court of Spain cannot make so glorious a show as these fading flowers and Sardanapalus Diet Herodian in vitae Heliogabali or Heliogabalus fare that as Herodian saith feasted on the rarest Fish when he was the furthest from the Sea and would have the daintiest Flesh and Fowls that could be gotten when he was nearest unto the Sea could add no more unto their stature then the Ravens carkases or the Horse his grass doth any whit lessen his full growth and therefore seeing none can have but food and rayment S. Paul saith that having food and rayment we should therewith be contented 1. Tim. 6.8 But seeing we are all so bewitched with the love of this world that we spend most of our time and bestow most labour and weary our selves in the pursuit of the vanities of this world give me leave to explain unto you four special properties of these wordly things that will shew unto you the great folly of them that are their greatest followers and are most delighted with them and beautified by them for The four inseperable proparties of all worldly things 1. They are variable 2. They are unprofitable 3. They are deceitfull 4. They are very hurtfull 1. They are variable and Solomon tells us 1. They are variable they are all vanities evanescentia transeundo and vanishing away by passing away from one to another as being with one to day with another to morrow and gone again from him the next day after as the Stories tell us how Cheops King of Egypt that built the Pyramides all of Theban Marble and kept every day above thirty thousand men afore that work became so poor that he was fain to prostitute his Daughter to relieve his necessities And of Croesus the rich King of Lydia the Poet saith Irus est subito qui modo Croesus erat He suddenly became as poor as Irus And to what end should I tell you of Caius Marius that was seven times Consul and yet was brought so low as to hide his head in the Fens of Mynturnes Or of Marcus Attilius Regulus that had fettered many a noble Carthaginian yet at last found himself fettered in Carthage Or of Belisarius that brave Commander and most excellent Souldier under Justinian and that was more famous then the King of Sweden and had taken Gilimer and Vitiges two mighty Kings his Prisoners yet came to so low an ebb as to cry Date obolum Belisario quem virtus exaltavit malitia depressit et fortuna caecavit O give one half-penny to Belisarius whom Vertue advanced Malice suppressed and Fortune hath made now a poor blind Beggar Or of a thousand more that Histories do record to have been tumbled from the top of all honour wealth and dignity to the lowest degree of all misery when as within these few years your own eyes may see and observe thousands of wealthy men and honourable persons that are brought to the dust and to have nothing and a thousand of others that had nothing to become filled some with the riches of Egypt and others with the spoils of Israel which doth sufficiently shew unto us how vain and variable a thing is wealth honour and all other worldly things that turn round like a wheel Et ut Luna mutantur And are as changeable as the Moon and unconstant like the Wind. 2. They are unprofitable 2. As they are vain and variable so they are unprofitable for none of all these things can redeem our souls from hell nor make satisfaction for one sin when as the Prophet tells us Mich. 6.7 That thousands of rams and ten thousand rivers of oyle will not satisfie our God for the sin of our soul And the Prophet David saith It will cost more to redeem our souls then so And Christ himself saith Matth. 16.26 What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul As if he had said All the wealth and all the honour in the world are not sufficient to redeem one soul The which thing St. Peter meaneth when he saith 1 Pet. 1.28 That we were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold that could not do it but with the pretious blood of Jesus Christ And as all the riches of the world cannot purchase the redemption of one soul so no more can they procure the health of our bodies For the Poet tells us Non domus fundus non aeris
lift up his Rod over the Sea and promised the Sea should be divided Exod. 14.16 so that the children of Israel might go on dry ground through the midst of the Sea and so likewise when he commanded him to smite the Rock of stone and promised that the waters should flow thereout which had no possibility with all the power of nature to be done yet Moses never doubted of Gods Promise but presently did what God commanded both in the one and the other Even so when God commands us to do any thing and promiseth we shall have such and such blessings by doing it as to have our sins remitted by being baptized in a little water and by the worthy receiving of a little Sacramental Bread and Wine to injoy all the benefits of the body and bloud of Christ and by a stedfast faith in the death of Christ to be assured of eternal life how unlikely soever they may seem to be we ought with Abraham and Moses and the rest of Gods faithful Servants most readily do what God biddeth us and undoubtedly believe what he promiseth And though it may seem a strange wonder that cannot sink into worldly mens heads that Christ his death should procure to us eternal life and therefore the preaching of this doctrine is to the Jews that looked for such a Christ that should abide alive for ever a stumbling-block and to the Grecians that gloried only in their eloquence and ascribed all things with Aristotle to their natural causes meer foolishness 1 Cor. 1.23 as the Apostle testifieth Yet if you truly weigh this doctrine of our deliverance from eternal death How just it is that the death of Christ should free all men that believe in him from eternal death and obtaining of everlasting life by the death of Christ we shall find it very consonant to just reason and no wayes to be doubted of and that in a twofold respect 1. Because that although we for our sins deserved most justly to die the death that is to suffer the eternal wrath of God whom we have and do so highly offend yet seeing it Reason 1 pleased Christ out of his great pity to our miserable condition and his infinite love to mankind to become our Surety and to die and so satisfie the wrath of God for us Is it not agreeable to reason that Christ paying our debt and suffering for our sins as the Prophet testifieth he hath done we should be discharged and have our lives spared For so when the Officers came to apprehend Christ and to arrest him and he asked them Whom seek ye And they answered Jesus of Nazareth And he said I am he and if you seek me then let these that are my Disciples and do believe in me go their way It is apparent by these words that Christ held it agreeable to all reason that if he paid the debt the debtor should be free and if he suffered death for us we should be delivered from that death which we deserved Reason 2 2. Because that although the death of Christ was but the death of one man and we that sinned and deserved death are many thousand millions of men even all the posterity of Adam yet the death of this one man Propter unionem hypostaticam by reason of the hypostatical union of the Godhead with the manhood in the person of that one man whereby he is not only man but also God himself his death being the death of God must needs be of sufficient worth and value to satisfie God and be more satisfactory to his justice then the death of all Men on Earth and all the Angels in Heaven in as much as the death of the Creator is of more infinite value then the death of all creatures And therefore well might Christ say and happy are we that he said it That the Son of man must be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life And I if I be lifted up or being lifted up will draw all men unto me that is all which will believe in me And so you have seen what was typified in the Wilderness unto the Jews by the brazen Serpent was presented and performed to us by Jesus Christ to whom for his infinite love and favour towards us and his bitter Passion and death when he was lifted up and crucified for us to deliver us from eternal death be all honour and glory and thanks and praise for ever and ever Amen A SERMON PREACHED AT THE PUBLICK FAST The eighth of March in St MARIES OXFORD Before The Great Assembly of the Members Of the HONOURABLE HOUSE OF COMMONS There Assembled By GRYFFITH WILLIAMS L. Bishop of OSSORY And Published by their Special Command JOHN 14.6 I am the way the truth and the life London Printed by J. Hayes 1664. Die Sabbati nono Martii 1643. ORdered that Mr. Bodvell and Mr. Watkins give the Bishop of Ossory thanks and desire him to Print his Sermon Noah Bridges THE ONLY VVAY TO PRESERVE LIFE Amos 5.6 Seeke the Lord and you shall live LIght is the first born of all the distinguished Creatures The excellency of the light the first word that the Eternal Word after so many ages of silence uttered forth was Let there be light Gen. 1.3 light that giveth life to all Colours that is the mother of all beauties which hath no positive contrary in nature which maketh all things manifest to the detestation of all evil and the crowning of every good and which is a creature so beloved of the Creator that he calleth himself by this name saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 John 1.5 and he makes it the most worthy associate of Truth when he saith Send forth thy light and thy truth therefore Light is a Jewel Psal 43.3 not to be valued by the judgment of man And yet the sight by which we partake of all the benefits of the light and without which the light will avail us nothing nor yield us any comfort as good old Toby sheweth saying Quale gaudium est mihi qui in tenebris sedeo is but one sense and but scarce the fifth part of the happiness of the sensitive Creature a small thing in respect of that most invaluable good which is termed Life Life how precious and which is of more worth to every living creature then is all the world for the Father of Lies spake Truth herein though to a lying end That Skin for Skin and all that ever a man hath Job 2.4 he will give for his life Therefore as the greatest threatning that God laid upon Adam to deter him from Rebellion and to detain him within the Compass of his Obedience Gen. 2.17 was In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death so the greatest Blessing that he promiseth to any man for all his Service is Life or to live â—s The just shall live by faith Hab.