deal further then the eye as to know the glory of all the Monarchies that are past the glory of all things that now are and all the things that are foretold shall be yet our ears have never heard of any thing like thâ—s joy but the understanding apprehendeth things that are and are not and by a divine power calleth things that are not as if they were Disputat de quolibet ente non ente it imagineth Mountains of Gold and Heaven to be a place of infinite joy and yet the heart of Man cannot comprehend this joy Such are the great expressions of the impossibility of expressing it at all Love to be preserved with all Men. VVHen the King of Babylon sack'd Ierusalem it was observable that whereas the Priests might have had what they pleased yet they preserved onely the fire of the sanctuary and hid that in a pit because this fire as it s said came down from Heaven upon the first Mosaicall Sacrifice was kept to that day Thus must we do with Love that divine spark of a farre greater flame which streaming from God hath by the illumination of his holy Spirit from the beginning of the world warmed the Sons of Men Above all these things sayes the Apostle put on Charity Love Friends love Enemies love all Amicum in Domino inimicum pro Domino Love our friends in the Lord our foes for the Lord So that whatsoever else we do amiss as in many things we sinne all admit the opinions and â—udgements of Men be different from ours yet let not us differ in affection but keep up and maintain love one towards another Every Man to labour that he may be a new Creature VVE look upon Guns and Printing as new inventions the former found out by Birchtoldin the Monk Anno 1380 the other by one Faustus a Fryer Anno 1446. Others say that Iohn Guthenburg a German was the first inventer thereof But for certain the first Press was set up at Mentz and the first book there imprinted was Tullies Offices afterwards one â—onradus set up a Press at Rome Nicholas Ienson added much to the art and William Caxton a Merchant free of the Company of Mercersâ— London propagated the same in England in the Raign of K. Edward the fourth having his Work-house in the Sanctuary near the Abbey of Westminster Now the Author of the Belgick Common-weal will have one Laurence Ians a Rich Citizen of Harlem in the Low-Country to precede all these and sets out the manner how That he walking forth one day into the neighbouring Woods for Recreation began to cut in pieces of wood the letters of his Name printing them on the back of his hand which pleasing him well he cut three or four lines which he beat with Ink printed them upon Paper wherwith he was much joyed and determined to find out another kind of Ink more fastning and so with his Kinsman one Thomas Peters found out another way to print whole sheets but of one side onely which are yet to be seen in the said Town Yet for all this It is said that the Chineses had the use both of Guns and Printing long before we in these Western parts had any notice of them Why then should Christians so eagerly hunt after Novelties when Solomon by the Spirit of God sends a peremptory challenge to all Mankind Is there any thing whereof it may be said This is new Let every one then labour to get spirituall eyes to behold the beauty of the new Creature the bravery of the new Ierusalem get into Christ that he may be a new Creature and so he shall have a new Name a new Spirit new Alliance new attendance new wayes and new work a new Commandement a new way to Heaven and new Mansions in heaven Vnder-agents and Instruments to be looked unto in matters of Justice A Clock let it be of never so good mettall and making will not strike orderly and truly but much therein will be out of frame and fashion if the lesser wheeles as well as the greater keep not their due and regular motion So in the curious Clockwork of Iustice there will be many exorbitances albeit the chiefe Agents and movers therein be never so sound in their integrity if the under-agents and Instruments of Iustice as witnesses in proving the Action Counsellors in pleading and prosecuting the cause Jury-men in sifting and censuring the Evidences and allegations do not also take care and make Conscience in discharge of their severall duties Remedy against Vain-glory. THe Naturalists observe that the Eagle building her nest on high is much maligned by a kind of venemous Serpent called Parias which because it cannot reach the nest makes to the windward and breathes out its poyson that so the ayr may be infected and the Eagles Chickens destroyed But by way of prevention the Eagle out of a naturall instinct keeps a kind of Agath stone in her nest which being placed still against the wind preserveth her young ones from infection Thus with the like care and industry we must labour to preserve the honour of any good work that we do keep up the credit of any religious act that we perform And least the Devill should taynt them and make us famam aucupari to hunt after the applause of Men we must place Christ and the glory of God betwixt our good Works and the noysome breath of Mans flattery and commendations The sad condition of a Worldly-minded Man at the time of Death IT is reported of a wretched Rich Man who when he heard that his sickness was deadly sent for his baggs of Money and hugg'd them in his arms saying Oh must I leave you oh must I leave you And of another who when he lay upon his sick-bed called for his baggs and laid a bagge of Gold to his heart and then oad them take it away saying It will not do it will not do A third also being near death clap'd a Twenty-shilling piece of Gold in his mouth saying Some wiser then some I 'le take this with me however Now if these mens hearts had been rip'd up aster they had been dead there might have been certainly found written in them The god of this present world a sad condition wherein may be seen the corruption of nature discovering it self When men are so wedded to the things of this world that they do as it were incubare divitiis sit hatching upon their riches as the Partridge upon her young especially if gotten by their own industry then they think much to be divorced from them by death and to leave them to others to whom many times they know not and usually to them that will never give thanks for them Not to regard what men say Ill if Conscience say Well IT was a good saying of one that in
be washed whatsoever was written with sin and instead thereof must be entred the writing of grace both these are necessary in true repentance God hath dedicated both parts in His own Repentance for as when He repented of the evill intended against us He doth not onely give over to haâ—e us but also He doth embrace us with love Even so when we repent of our sins against God we must not onely cease for to hate Him but begin to love Him also Content a great blessing of God ONe observes concerning Manna when the People were contented with the allowance that God gave them then it was very good but when they would not be content with God's allowance but would be gathering more then saies the Text There were worms in it So when we are content with our conditions and that which God disposeth of us to be in there 's a blessing in it but if we must needs be reaching out for more than God hath allotted or to keep it longer than God would have us to have it then there will be worms in it a canker to eat it a moth to fret it nothing at all that is good Not to envy each others Gifts or Preferments IT is said of one Pelaretus a Lacedemonian that standing for a place of credit to be one of the 300. which was a degree of honour at Sparta and missing of it though a man highly deserving yet he was so far from complaining or grudging or grieving threat that when others marvelled at his contentment and enquired of his reason he told them That he rejoyced at the happinesse of that Commonwealth that it had three hundred men more worthy to govern than himself But how many are there in these times of clearer judgment wherein it is apparently known that true godlinesse teacheth every man contentment to move in that Orb and place where God hath placed him with that portion that God hath given him Yet as sore eyes are offended at clear lights so they fret at the brightnesse of other men's fortunes vertues and prosperity and envy because of other mens wealth or honour How many rage and storm like Aeolus not that 300. nor three but some one eminent person is preferred before them Riches have wings IT is a tearm amongst Falconers that if a Hawk flie high she lessens O she lessens saith the Falconer but if she soar yet higher then he cries out O she vanisheth she vanisheth And it is now found to be true by sad and wofull experience that Riches are upon the wing and have of late by one means or other taken such a flight out of many men's purses that they have lessened and lessened every day more and more and are now at present by the continuance of time even as good as quite vanished Rulers and Governours are the supporters of a Commonwealth THere is a generation of men that are murmurers and mutineers such as speak evill of Authority and do withdraw their necks from obedience upon this ground That Superiours live by the sweat of the Inferiours brows being themselves devoid of care their quarrell is like that in the Apologue That out ward members of the body fell out against the stomack they complained of his lâ—zinesse and their own painfulnesse and therefore conspired to starve him and ease themselves they even discovered their folly for soon after the hands began to faint and the leggs to falter and the whole body to pine Then and not till then they perceived that the stomack which they condemned as lazy laboured for them all and that they were beholden to the labour of the Stomack that themselves had any strengâ—h to labour So it is in the body Politick though the State of the Prince or Ruler be supported by the Commons yet the spring of the Commonwealth is the providence of the Prince and soon will the Streams dry if that Fountain be dam'd up The Devill a deceiver deceived by Christ. A Fisherman when he casts his angle into the River doth not throw the hook in bare naked and uncovered for then he knowes the fish will never bite and therefore he hides the hook within a worm or some other bait and so the fish biting at the worm is catched by the hook Thus Christ speaking of himself saith Ego vermis non homo he comming to perform the great work of our Redemption did cover and hide his Godhead within the worm of his human Nature The grand water-Serpent Leviathan Iob 40. 20. the Devill thinking to swallow the worm of his Humanity was caught upon the hook of his Divinity this hook stuck in his jawes and tore him very sore by thinking to destroy Christ he destroyed his own Kingdome and lost his own power for ever A young raw Minister is blame-worthy PYthagoras bound all those whom he received into his School to five years silence that they might not flie nor be chirping on every hedge before they were fledg'd that as soon as ever they crept from the shell they might not aspire to the house top that their tongues might not run before their wits that they might hear sufficiently before they spake boldly And so strong was his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so much did his word prevail with them that faithfully and constantly they obeyed his commandement Many Tutors now adaies though wiser and better than Pythagoras yet seeing their young ones too forward to make wing cannot possibly beat them back into the nest cannot keep their Pupills within the limits of learners five years no nor four years till they have taken some Degree in Schools but they must needs in all haste take upon them the sacred profession of God's Word and not onely some thin obscure ignorant Roguel some Parishes of the Country but Ierusalem and the chief Cities but the greatest Congregations and most knowing people must take notice of their ripe and rare intelligence in their own though raw in other mens opinions Being drunken with pride they delight to be seen in the most publick Assemblies as there are some that must needs shew themselves in the Market or Fair being drunken with wine or some meaner liquor The blessed Trinity cooperate in the righteous man's Prayer IF a great King should encourage a poor man in his suit and say unto him Alas poor man I pâ—rceive thy distresse do but draw up thy petition and I will give thee a satisfactory answer this would be a ground of great hope But if he shall say Go to my Secretary and bid him draw it up thus and thus and in this manner would not this be a matter of greater comfort Yea but if he shall say to the Prince his Son standing by him Do you present this poor man's petition into my hands what unspeakable comfort must this needs be And just thus God dealeth with his children God heareth our
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
God that is those that did love God fell in love with the daughters of men that is their own lusts What issue had they Giants 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as fought against God The Samaritans worshipped both the God of Israel and the Assyrians Idolls and they were the most deadly enemies of Ierusalem Never have you seen an Heretick that is a person that professeth partly the truth and partly errour but he turned a bloody persecutor of the Truth And he that loveth God and the World out of his love to the world will do the greatest dishonour he can unto God Two loves if one be good and the other bad cannot stand together No man can serve two Masters as Christ tells us if he love the one he will hate the other The direfull effects of War PLiny in his Naturall history writeth that the nature of the Basilisk is to kill all trees and shrubs it breathes upon and to scorch and burn all herbs and grasse it passeth over Such are the dismall effects of war For be the title never so clear the cause never so just yet the means are not without fire and sword nor the end without horrour and bloodshed Nulla salus bello Peace therefore is to be preferred so it be not with blemish of the Prince's honour or prejudice of the publick good God accepts the will for the deed A Pilot as Quintilian observes cannot be denyed his lawfull plea dum clavum rectum tenet Though the Ship be cast away he is not to make satisfaction so long as he held the stern right and guided it by the compasse In like manner though our actions and good intentions miscarry in the event we are not to be blamed if we steered our course according to the Word of God though the Bark be cast away as Paul's was yet the lives of all in it shall be safe It is very true that the Ship even at the Port may be driven back again may meet with many brushes and Knocks when it was thought to be most safe the dearest child of God may be at the gates of death so distracted that not one word of sense or reason may appear yet all no doubt is very well it is the feaver that rageth the disease that speaketh idly not the party and therefore ut ante delirium ita ad judicium said a learned man God measureth our actions not by the obliquity of them but by the rectitude of the heart and will not lay them to our charge Not the assurance onely but the joy of Salvation gives content IT is often day when the Sun doth not shine and though thick clouds breathed from the aire make a sad face of the sky as if it were night yet we cannot say the Sun is gon down This is many men's condition in the state of salvation the Sun is with them they are children of the day yet have they no joy of their salvation their Sun doth not shine they have no clear day Hence it is that assurance of salvation will â—ot content the soul except it may have the joy of salvation also This was that which made David cry out Restore me to the joy of thy salvation To take heed whom we trust BUcholcerus gives a parcell of witty counsell to his friend Huebnerus who being to go to Court to teach the Elector's children at their parting I will give you one proâ—itable rule saies he that shall serve for all your whole life He listning what if should be I commened saies he unto you the faith of the devills At which Hâ—â—bâ—erus wondring Take heed saies he how you trust any at the Court believe their Promises buâ— warily with fear c. The like must we do not believe all that is spokea not confide in all that make a shew of friendship there 's abundance of outside love in the world many complementall promises but little or no performance at all The poysonous nature of Ambition AS poyson is of such force that it corrupeth both blood and spirits besieging seizing and infecting the heart with the venemous contagion thereof quite altering the complexion and condition of the man that hath drunk it So the Pestiâ—erous desire of Soveraignty though it seize on a minde of milde and mansuete disposition yet it is of such forceable operation as it not onely altereth man's nature but maketh man unnaturall How to recover spirituall sight THe Angel bad Tobias to unbowell the fish and to take out the gall as being usefull in medicine and a speciall means to recover his eye-sight The story is Apocryphal but the application is Canonicall and agreeable to the doctrine of the inspired Scriptures If we unbowell worldly pleasures and carnall delights and take out the gall of them that is seriously think upon the bitterness of them the bitterness which they leave behinde them it will prove a soveraigne remedy against our spirituali blindâ—ess The Minister's repetition in Sermons warrantable AS Moses added a Deuteronomy to the former books of the Law though he repeated but the same things And the Evangelists added Gospell upon Gospell of the 〈◊〉 argument And the Apostles added Epistles to Epistles not much varying â—heir doctrine So it must not grieve the Minister to write and speak the same things to the people and for them it is a sure thing as the Apostle teacheth Windy Knowledge and windy doctrine to together AS extream windy stomacks do not only hinder digestion by interposition with the wholsome meat relaxation of the mouth of the stomack which ought to shut it self so close about the meat that not so much as the least vacuity may be left but also either by ill digestion fills the body with crudities obstructions and consequently putrefactions or else because wind is so stirring make ejaculation and a suddain regurgitation of all that is received So in like manner windy knowledge above wholsome sabriety makes such an interposition and relaxation of the mind that it cannot disgest wholsome doctrine but fills it self with all manner of raw humours and unstable opinions which breed such obstructions in the mind that presently It falls into divers sicknesses and can keep nothing that is good and savoury but presently being received by the pride and self-conceit that it hath in it self casts it up again and so by a continuall casting breeds that weaknesse that so much Iâ—aven of evill doctrine is soaked into the very filmes of the Soul that it breeds that disease which Physicians call Corruptio ad acciditatem which sets an eager and sharp appetite in the minde that it hungers continually to be sed with new opinions and so at length rottennesse and putrefaction is bred therein and consequently death and destruction God is to have the glory of all things AS bright shining and golden vessells
a good Man though a Papist being desired by one to tell him how he might come to understand the former part of S. Paul's Epistles which are for the most part doctrinal positions made this answer By a careful practising of the latter part of the same Epistles which consist much in Precepts and directions how to lead a life in all godlinesse and holinesse of conversation And thus if any Man desire to know the former part of Predestination whether his name be written in the book of Life whether he be of the Election of Grace whether he be predestinated to life eternal let him but look into the latter part of Predestination the means as well as the end of Predestination whether his Conversation be in Heaven whether his life be suitable to the profession of the Gospel of Christ and though he meet with many rubâ— in the way and through frailty stumble and fall yet riseth again and presseth on to the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Iesus Thus if a Man do he may conclude himself to be within the number of the Elect and this is the right use that is to be made of the doctrine of Predestination but it is otherwise with too too many in these all questioning dayes of ours For whereas S. Paul presents us with a chain let down from Heaven Rom. 8. Election and Predestination at one end of the chain and Glorification at the other end thereof both which ends God keepeth fast in his hand as for the middle links of the chain Calling and Iustification those he leaves for them to lay hold on but they cannot be quiet but must be â—ugging and labouring to wrest those parts out of Gods hand and so misse of the right use and comfort that is to be found in the abstruse yet sweet doctrine of Predestination The Relation of Parents Wife Children to be sleighted if they once appear in competition with the Commandements of God IT was a pious though erronious spirit that lodged in the breast of Sir Thomas Moor once Lord Chancellor of England being at that time a Prisoner in the Tower of London meerly upon the account of denying the King's supremacy who regarded not the Prayers and passed by the tears of his loving and tender Wife when she perswaded him with the forfeiture of his Conscience to endeavour the restauration of his liberty And thus it is that the relation of Parents Wife Children c. are to be sleighted when they once appear in competition with the Commandments of God Pietas est impium esse pro Domino It is piety towards God to be unnatural to our Friends nay which is a more harsh expression to hate them Strange that love it self should require haâ—red but yet just not in an absolute but a comparative sense we must not love Father or Mother more then God yea when their desires come in competition with his Will we must hate them for his sake we must say as Levi nescio vos I know you not or with Christ to his Mother Quid mihi tecum What have I to do with thee trampling underfoot all naturall Relations which would hinder us from obedience 〈◊〉 divine injunctions The sincere upright Man described IT is said of Pachomius a Religious Abbot that digesting his numerous Monks into various Classes according to the letters in the Greek Alphabet suited the names he gave them to the Natures he observed in them As for those whom he found Politicians and dissemblers he compared to the letters ζ and ξ which are full of crooked turnings those whom he observed to be plain-hearted and upright to the letter ι which is carried right upward without any obliquity at all And thus it is that the sincere upright Man is carried in a streight line to the performance of all Religious duties he levells all his actions to a right end the Loadstone of his Soul is not self-interest but Gods honour he casts no squint-eye at by-respects but looks directly forward at his Creator's glory Wives to be beloved of their Hus-bands as Wives WHen Martia Cato's youngest daughter had buried her husband it was after some competent time demanded why she did not marry again she made answer Non se invenire virum c. she could not find a Man that would love her more then hers Thus it is heartily to be wished that this might not be charged on too many Men they love onely with their eyes and their fingers becausâ— of the beauty they see in or the Money they receive with their Wives not with their hearts out of an ingenious or rather pious respect to that relation of a Wife wherein they belong to them Ignorant upstart Preachers reproved PLutarh tells us that the Virgins which were to attend Diana's Temple were for many years as it were brought up in a School and called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as should administer sacred Rites and then being sufficiently instructed they were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 admitted to their divine mysteries and afterwards they became 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Instructors of others Then surely if the light of Nature taught them to use so much care in educating those who were to perform the worship of a false Goddesse How shamefull is the blindnesse of those Christians who think some natural abilities of Memory and Elocution sufficient to qualiâ—y a Priest of the true and most high God such who whilst they can lay no just claim to an immediate inspiration sodainly and unpreparedly enter upon so high employment Sacerdotes momentanei such as in a day in a moment turn Priests modo Idiota mox Clericus how Laicks aâ—on Clerks such as skip from the shop-board to the Pulpit and owe more Sacrifices for their own then the Peoples ignorance Men or Women painting them-selves condemned WHâ—n a Carpenter or Ioyner hath made some accurate piece of work he will not think well that any one should discommend or rend and deface it And can it be otherwise then a great disgrace when God hath in a wonderfull manner framed and fashioned both Men and Women but they must needs be tampering and overlay his work with the Devill 's colours What is â—â—is but in a sort to make Christ a lier For whereas he saith yet cannot make one hair white or black Math. 5. 36. they have a way to make them all of what colour they please Neutrality in Religion reproved THe Bat like the Woman with the adulterous eye watcheth for the twilight Prov. 7. 9. such are all Equivocating Hermophrodite Christians Religious Neuters who love the twi-light of Truth better then the noon-light whose Religion may well-enough be declined with the Article Hoc for it is of the Neuter-Gender Not much unlike him in Pliny whose picture was so ambiguously drawn by Polygnotus Thasius a cunning Painter that it was doubted whether he had painted him climbing
and Men in authority 308. Kings Princes Rulers c. to hearken to good Counsel 520. Kings Princes c. subject to death as well as the lowest of the people 526. The greatnesse of them no protection from death 526. The state of Kingdoms and Common-wealths best known by the administration of Justice 3. A Kingdome divided within it self cannot long stand 195. The Kingdom of Christ a peaceable Kingdome 247. Kingdoms and Common-wealths their successions from God 309. How it is to know whether a Man belong to Heaven or not 4. God knowes his own People however distressed 46. Impossible for a Man to know all his sins 57. Impossible to know God perfectly in this World 96. How to know Gods dwelling place Heaven 100. How to know whether we are more troubled for sin then for worldly sorrow and trouble 356. Knowledg very usefull in the matter of Reformation 4. Gods knowledg and Mans knowledg the difference of them in the event of things 5. Zeal and knowledg must go hand in hand together 15. Difference betwixt a spiritual and carnall Man in point of knowledg 58. The Saints knowledg of one another in Heaven 68. Windy Knowledg and windy doctrine go together 82. Notional knowledg of God no true knowledg 100. Minister of all men to be men of knowledg c. 134. Experimental Knowledg the onely knowledg 156. 437. The confidence of much knowledg an argument of no knowledg 159. Knowledg not to be reserved 168. Knowledg and practice must go together 173. The great danger of concealed knowledg 192. Knowledg without practice reproved 213. Christians and their knowledg to be communicative 227. Man losing himself in the pursuit after knowledg extraordinary 238. True knowledg never rests on the Creature till it center in God the Creator 259. Knowledg in political affairs very uncertain 267. All knowledg but in part 268. The keys of Knowledg much abused by those that keep them 509. To have a perfect Knowledg of God impossible 532. The knowledg of God through Faith in Christ the way to true happinesse 534. Wherein the true Knowledg of Christ consisteth 556. L. LAughter of the Wicked but from the teeth outward 52. How it is that the Law is said to be the strength of Sin 491. How it is that Christ is said to be end of the Ceremonial law 534. The work of the law preceding the work of the Gospel 559. The Law of God abused by Libertinism 487. Law of God a perfect Law 19. The Law Gods Rhetorick in the delivery of it Man's duty to attend it 133. How to behold our selves in the glasse of Gods Law 246. 630. The Law of God bringing Men to the sight of themselves 297. Multiplicity of Law-Sâ—its condemned 588. Good Lawes and good Men are the pillars of State 150. Lex Talionis 157. 416. Good lawes obeyed are the support of a Common-wealth 175. The great danger of Law suits 207. The tedious length of Law-Suits 213. 524. The known laws of any Nation to be the rule of obedience 293. How it is that Men may be said to learn of little children dumb thews c. 409. Practice of the law abused 430. The downfall of piety and Learning to be deplored 118. Not to admire our own Learning or parts 168. University Learning to be countenanced by men in Authority 219. The necessity of humane Learning 240. Learning and honesty to go together 249. A Man of Learning speaks little 263. The Devills plot to root our Learning 276. 576. Excellency of the Knowledg of Jesus Christ above all humane learning whatsoever 363. The commodity and discommodity of learning 366. Knowledg and learning to be owned in whomsoever they be found 412. The right use of humane learning 421. No Man too good to learn 447. No Man so old but he may learn something 471. The right use of humane learning in Divinity 483. 577. The necessity thereof 484. Much learning to be found in few expressions 567. Impossible to arrive at a full perfection of learning in this life 568. Liberty the cause of licentiousnesse 504. Christian liberty abused by the Sectarian party 27. How it is that Men are so much mistaken in the thoughts of long life 375. Consideration of the shortnesse of life to be a Memento for death 430. The Life of Man subject to all sorts of calamity 61. The pretious life of Man to be preserved 62. An ungodly life will have an ungodly end 101. The brevity of our life may moderate our life 104. The life of Man miserable 219. Changing of this life for a better no matter of grief 280. Man's great vanity in proposing to himself long life 334. The great difference betwixt life spirituall and life natural 370. The uncertainty of Mans life 602. Like to like 234. How to be made like unto Christ 260. Likenesse to be a motive to lovelinesse 414. God must be loved for himself onely 16. Love for the most part is but complemental 8. Want of Love is the cause of all our sorrows 36. Love the bond of all perfection 49. The Love of Gods children is a sincere love 75. The wonderful Love of a true Christian to Christ Jesus 106. The strength of a true Christians Love to Christ 112. Want of Love to be deplored 132. 401. Great engagement to love one another 152. Love to Christ how to be recovered when once lost 236. Christ nothing but Love all over 299. Love to be preserved with all Men 313. The abundant love of Christ in dying for our sins 360. Love Peace and Unity the best supporters of Kingdoms Common-wealths c. 375. The Love of God the onely true love 409. The true love of God will cause familiarity with God 447. How it is and why God loves us 536. The exceeding Love of God to Mankind 550. The Love of Riches very dangerous 571. True brotherly love scarce to be found 613. The difference betwixt true and feigned love unto Christ 650. How our love to the Creature is to be regulated 666. Christians ought to be loving one to another 58. No Man a loser by giving himself up to Christ 38. God being once lost not easily found again 185. The losse of a faithful Ministery not to be sleighted and why so 258. Losse of the Soul irrecoverable 505. The good Man's comfort in matter of worldly losse 464. Not to repine at the losse of Friends and children 522. 670. Losse of good Men not laid to heart condemned 659. Simplicity of Men to be more affected with the losse of things eternal 677. Not to mourn for any outward losses because all is made up in Christ 55. A sad thing to lose both body and Soul together 111. Not to mourn excessively for the losse of any Worldly enjoyment and why so 356. To beware of the lusts of the Flesh 141. The lyars reward and punishment 443. M. A Good Magistrate or Minister is the support of the place where he lives 111. The great comfort of such 539.
with spirituall blindnesse THe Eagle before he setteth upon the Hart rolleth himself in the sand and then flyeth at the Stagg's head and by fluttering his wings so dustyeth his eyes that he can see nothing and so striketh him with his talâ—ns where he listeth You may read of an unclean Spirit in the Gospell which led the possessed man into dry places Now the sand and the dust with which this Eagle the Devill filleth his wings are earthly desires and sensuall pleasures wherewith after he hath put out the eyes of the carnall man he dealeth with him at his pleasure Mercury could not kill Argus till he had cast him into a sleep and with an inchanted rod closed his eyes and the devill cannot hurt any man till he have lull'd him asleep in security The obstinate Sinner deserving eternity of punishment and why so TWo men playing at Tables by an inch of candle in the night time and being very earnest in their game the candle goeth out and they perforce give over who no doubt if the light had lasted would have played all night very willingly This inch of candle is the time of life allotted to a wicked man who is resolved to spend it all in sinfull pleasures and pastimes and if it would last perpetually he would never leaâ—e his play And therefore sith he would sin eternally though by reason the light of his life goeth out he cannot he deserveth eternall punishment Civill dissention attended by uncivill destruction IT is said of the Cranes that when they fall out amongst themselves the fight is so fearfull and fierce that they beat down one another and so are taken as they fight This shewes the fruits of civill dissentions the case of such as will diviae one against another till they become a prey to the publick Enemy whereof the Apostle giveth warning If ye bite and devour one another take â—eed lest ye be consumed one of another A poor Child of God comâ—orted with the hopes of Heaven IT was a comfortable speech which the Emperour used to Galba in his childhood and minority when he took him by the chin and said Tu Galba quandoque imperium degustabis Thou Galba shalt one day sit upon a Throne Thus it cheareth the Saints of God how little how mean soever in the eyes of the World that they shal one day reigne with Christ and be install'd with him and receive as it were Stallum in Choro and vocem in Capitulo a seat in the Quire and a voice in the Chapter of that blessed Temple which is above whilst the whole world shall cry with those Vicit Deus Christus ejus The Lord and his Christ hath got the victory the Lord and his Saints do reigne for evermore God's choice of eminent Persons to be exemplary to all others WHen God is disposed to hang up a Picture in his Church to be well observed of all that shall come after that the people which shall be born may praise the Lord he doth it not by limming and painting but by the art of cutting and embroyderie For the Painter deales but in colours ordinary colours which according to the strength of his imagination he tempers and laies out to the view of the eye but the Embroiderer he deals in more costly matter takes the cloth of gold and silver which he mangles into a thousand pieces bits and fragments to frame and set out his curious Imagery So Almighty God being to adorn his Church not with blocks and stones but with some rare pictures of Christian vertues works not these in ordinary colours men of low degree but in gold and silver men of eminency Princes and Nobles and great Estates Abraham a great rich and mighty man a Patriarck of his Country was first tempted in his son and then set up for an example of obedience Moses another Prince and Potentate was first afflicted in Egypt and then erected in the Church for an image of meeknesse David a King first persecuted by Saul and then accounted a statue of uprightnesse Iob the greatest man in all the East was and many others since him have been pull'd in pieces with a thousand miseries but in the latter end shall be blessed up as patterns of patience and princely resolution These are such as God first mangles and cuts into bits and pieces with crosses calamities and deep temptations but afterwards when he finds them supplied and humbled with sorrow and repentance he makes up again into most heavenly and angelicall forms and images to be looked on by us in the Church Militant and to look upon Him in the Church Triumphant The Church's Enemies are in Godâ—s hands THe story sets out Neptune in a Statue holding those two terrors of the Sea Scylla and Charibdis in chains with this inscription as if calling to the ships Pergite securae per freta nostra rates Ships securely saylon Through our watry Ocean And let all drooping spirits lift up themselves in this assurance that God holdeth the Church's enemies in chains having his hook in their nose and his bridle in their lips so that when they seem to be beyond and above all bounds and limits whatsoever even then if he do but utter his voice in token of his commanding power it is enough to make their Chariot-wheels drive heavy and to crush them into Atomes A singular Saint is a pretious Saint AS the morning Star in the midst of the clouds and as the Moon when it is at full as the flower of the Roses in the spring of the year and as the Lillies by the springs of waters as the branches of the Frankincense in the time of summer and as a vessell of massy gold set with all manner of pretious stones and as the fat that is taken from the Peace-offering So is one Henoch that walketh with God when others walk from him one Rhahab in Iericho one Elias that boweth not his knee to Baal one David in Meseck one Hester in Shushan one Iudith in Bethulia one Ioseph in the Sanhedrim of the Iewes one Gamaliel in the Council of the Pharisees one Innocent and Righteous man in the midst of a crooked and froward Generation The glory of God is to be the aime of all our actions A Friend gives me a Ring I 'le wear it for his sake a Book I 'le use it for his sake a Iewell I 'le keep it for his sake that is so as may best expresse my love and report his goodnesse And were we truely thankfull to our God we would then use all his tokens for his sake do all things to his glory we would eat our meat to Him wear our cloaths to Him spend our strength for Him live to Him sleep to Him die for Him c. thus we should do But alas we use his blessings as Iehu did Iehoram's messengers Goliah's
Sun go down yet if it be twilight Those small remainders of greater Goods are no small refreshings to a loser It doth a man some good to keep some monuments of his better estate especially when they are pledges of some sparkle of good-will towards us continuing in Him upon whose just displeasure we forfeited all Thus as God in favour gives the holy Spirit so in displeasure doth he take Him away and we cannot guesse better at the measure of his displeasure than by the measure of the deprivation if he take it but in part then he tempers mercy with judgment but if he leave no sparkles of grace that may be kindled again if there be such a rowt made that there is no hopes of rallying then we become Lo-ruhama Hos 1. we are clean shut out of the bowells of his compassion God is the onely object of his Children's delight HE that truly loveth his friend transporteth himself often to the place where he was wont to see his friend he delighteth in reading his Letters and in handling the gages and monuments that he hath left behind him how grateful is the sight of any thing that presents unto him the memoriall of his absent friend And thus the child of God to testifie his love to him transporteth himself often to the place where he may find God in his Sanctuary amongst his Saints he delights in reading his Letters the Scriptures he delights in eating those holy monuments and pledges the Sacraments which he hath left behind him as tokens of his good-will untill he come again A peaceable disposition is a God-like disposition BY the Lawes of England Noblemen have this priviledge that none of them can be bound to the Peace because it is supposed that a noble disposition will never be engaged in brawls and contentions It is supposed that the Peace is alwaies bound to them and that of their own accord they will be alwaies carefull to preserve it It is the base bramble that rends and teares what is next unto it Gentlenesse mercy goodnesse love tendernesse of other's sufferings are the greatest ornaments of a noble spirit and where it is sanctified the grace of God shines bright in such a heart Christâ—s victory over Sathan WHen Mahomet the second of that name besieged Belgrade in Servia one of the Captains at last got upon the wall of the City with his Colours displayed A noble Bohemian espying this ran to the Captain and clasping him fast about his middle asked one Capistranus standing beneath whether it would be any danger of damnation to his soul if he should cast himselfe down headlong with that dog so he tearmed the Turkish Captain to be slain with him Capistranus answered That it was no danger at all to his soul. The Bohemian forthwith tumbled himself down with the Turk in his arms and so by his own death onely saved the life of all the City Such an exploit as this Christ plaies upon the Devill the Devill like the great Turk besieged not onely one City but even all Mankind Christ alone like this noble Bohemian encountered with him And seeing the case was so that this dog the devill could not be killed stark dead except Christ died also therefore he made no reckoning of his own life but gave himself to death for us that he onely dying for all the People by his death our deadly enemy might for ever be destroyed Propriety in God is the onely comfort EVery man naturally loves that which is his own and if the thing be good it doth him the more good to look upon it Let a man walk in a fair medow it pleaseth him well but it will please him much more if it be his own his eye will be more curious in prying into every part and every thing will please him the better so it is in a corn-field in an orchard in a house if they be ours the more contentedly do they affect us For this word Meum is suavissima amoris illecebra it is as good as an amatory potion So then if God the Lord be lovely how much more lovly should he be in our eyes if he be our Lord God and doth appropriate that infinite good that he hath unto us And who would not joy to be owner of that God which is independent He is what heart can desire and who can but rejoyce in having Him in having of whom we can want nothing Killing of men heretofore made ordinary THe Romans at the first used to set wild Beasts upon the Stage to kill one another and after this they came to be delighted to see Gladiatores and Fencers kill one another and thirdly they were much affected to see men cast upto the wild beasts to be devoured and torn in pieces so that from the sight of killing of Beasts they delighted to see Men killed And was not this our case by swearing and lying we came at last to killing Thus were we broken out and blood touched bloods blood in the plurall He that hath killed one careth not to kill an hundred a dogg's neck was formerly cut off with more reluctancy than the pretious life of man was taken from him Killing of men was but sporting like that of the young men at the pool of Gibeon Fooles make a sport of sin and so did men of the crying sin of murther But if the Sword had thus plaid Rex any longer it would have been bitternesse in the end which God in the greatnesse of his mercy hath of late years prevented Reverence to be used in the service of God VAlerius Maximus tells a story of a young Nobleman that attended upon Alexander while he was sacrificing this Nobleman held his Censer for Incense and in the holding of it there fell a coal of fire upon his flesh and burn't it so as the very scent of it was in the nostrills of all that were about him and because he would not disturb Alexander in his service he resolutely did not stir to put off the fire from him but held still the Censer If Heathens made such a do in sacrificing to their Idoll-gods that they would mind it so as no disturbance must be made whatsoever they endured what care should we then have of our selves when we come to worship the high God Oh that we could mind the duties of Gods worship as matters of high concernment as things of greatest consequence that so we might learn to sanctifie the name of our God in the performance of duty more than ever we have done The condition of Temporizers IT is observable that the Hedghog hath two holes in his siege one towards the South another towards the North now when the southern wind blowes he stops up that hole and turns him northwards and then when the north-wind blowes he stops up that hole likewise and turns him southward again Such Urchins such
will grow mad and then they tear their own flesh and rend themselves in pieces And it is so with the unbelieving Reprobate with all wicked men if they do but hear the noise of afflictions the very sound of sorrowes approaching how do they fret and fume and torment themselves nay by cursing and swearing how do they reâ—d the body of Christ from top to toe in pieces Malice and Envy not fit guests for God's Table ST Augustine could not endure any at his Table that should shew any malice against others in backbitings or detractings and had therefore two verses written on his Table to be as it were monitors to such as sat thereat that in such cases the Table was not for them Quisquis amat dictis absentâ—m rodere famam Hanc mensam vetitam noverit esse sibi Thus Englished He that doth love an absent friend to â—eer May hence depart no room is for him heer And how much lesse will the Lord endure any at his Table that come thither with malice and hatred against their brethren If love be required at our own Tables how much more will God require it in those that come to His Table When one man's heart swells with envy against another when a second is filled with malice and hatred this is not to eat the Lord's Supper but to eat one another this is not to sit at the Lord's Table but to be a guest at the table of devils Preparation to religious Duties must be free from worldly distractions IT was said of Sr. Wil. Cecill sometime Lord Treasurer of England that when he went to bed he would throw off his Gown and say Lye there Lord Treasurer as bidding adieu to all State-affairs that he might the more quietly repose himself So when we go to any Religious duty whether hearing or praying comming to the Lord's Table or in any other religious addresses whatsoever we should say Lie by world lie by all secular cares all houshold affairs all pleasures all traffick all thoughts of gain Lie by all adieu all We must now be as those that have nothing to do with the world for the time we must separate our hearts from all common uses that our hearts may be wholly for our God Dangerous to interpose with a divided People IT was once said to Luther when he was about interesting himself in seeking Reformation of those bad times Abi in cellam dic miserere nostri O Luther rather get you into your Cell and say Lord have mercy upon us And another being once asked why he did not write his judgment about the controversie of the time answered Cui usui Reipublicae cui bono mihi To what purpose it would not help the cause but much hazard him that should meddle And most true it is he that meddles with the divisions of the times may expect to be divided himself to have his name his repute cut assunder and thrown this way and that way It hath ever been an unthankfull work to meddle with a divided people a man may with as much safety put his hands into a nest of Hornets as to enterpose in the midst of such wild and unruly divisions as are now amongst us A good man is bettered by afflictions THe Bee is observed to suck out honey from the Thyme a most hard and dry herb So the good and faithful minded man sucketh knowledge and obedience from the bitter potion of adversity and the crosse and turneth all to the best The scouring and rubbing which frets others makes him shine the brighter the weight which crusheth others makes him like the Palm-tree grow the better the hammer which knocks others all in pieces makes him the broader and the larger In incude malleo dilatantur They are made broader on the Anvill and with the hammer although it be with the hammer yet dilatantur they are made to grow the wider The triall of faith is the enlargement of faith EXamination and tryall of a good Scholler hurts him not either in his learning or in his credit nay it advanceth him much in both his very examination rubs up his learning puts much upon him and sends him away with the approbation of others And thus in the tryall of faith there is an exercise of faith faith examined and tryed proves a faith strengthened and encreased Some things sometimes prove the worse and suffer losse by triall but the more faith is tryed the more faith is enlarged Unprofitable hearers of the Word described A Mariner when he takes his leave of his friends on thâ— shore sees them a while but when he is failed a little further then they are quite out of sight and he sees onely the houses then failing a little further he sees nothing but steeples and such high places but then sailing a little further nihil est nisi pontus aer he sees nothing but aire and water So it is with too too many unprofitable hearers of the Word it may be that when they are gon home from the Church there are some things fresh in memory but on the next day they have lost some but there are some other things that do yet present themselves before them and then they lose more and more till they have lost the sight of all no more of the Word appears then as if they had heard nothing at all All divisions are against Nature PHilosophers say Non datur vacuum there cannot be vacuity in the world the world could not stand but would be dissolved it every part were not filled because Nature subsists by being one if there were the least vacuity then all things should not be joyned in one there would not be a contiguity of one part with another This is the reason why water will ascend when the aire is drawn out of a pipe to fill it this is to prevent division in Nature O that we had but so much naturalnesse in us that when we see there is like to be any breach of union we would be willing to lay down our self-ends our self-interesâ—s and to venture our selves to be any thing in the world but sin that so we may still be joyning still uâ—iting and not rending from each other The hell of a guilty Conscience PHilo Iudaeus telleth that Flaccus plaid all the parts of cruelty that he could devise against the Iewes for their Religion's sake but afterward when the doom if Caligula fell upon him and he was banished to Andros an Island neer Greece he was so tormented with the memory of his bloody iniquities and a fear of suffering for them that if he saw any man walking softly neer to him he would say to himselfe This man is devising to work my destruction If he saw any go hastily Surely it is not for nothing he maketh speed to kill me If any man spake him fair he
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.
thereof such as plow up the fallow ground of their hearts such as fit them to receive the â—eed of the Word and they can never please him better then when they are employed in such husbandry Heresies and moral vices to be timely avoided ST Augustine had woful experience as himself confesseth of his many years sticking in the heresie of the Manichees and thence was that complaint of his Had I but saith he slip't onely into the error of the Manichees and soon got out my case had been less fearful and dangerous but novem fermè anni sunt quibus ego in illo limo c. God knows that almost for nine years I wallowed in that mud the more I strived to get out the faster I stuck in Heresies and moral vices are like quagmires we may slightly pass over them without any danger but the longer we stand upon them the deeper we sink and if we be not drowned over head and ears in them yet we scape not without much mire and dirt If then we cannot be so happy as to keep out of the walk of the ungodly yet let us be sure not to stand in the way of finners muchless sit in the seat of the scornful if we cannot be so clean as we desire at least let us not with Moab settle upon the lees of our corruption Custom in sin makes content in sin WHen Ulysses in his travels had left his men with Circe that Witch she changed them all into divers sorts of beasts as into Dogs Swine Lions Bears Elephants c. Ulysses when he returned complained that Circe had done him wrong in turning his Men into beasts Circe replyed that the benefit of speech was left unto them all and so he might demand of them whether they would be changed into men again He began first with the Hog and demanded of him whether he would be a Man again or not he answered that he was more contented with that sort of life then ever he was before for when he was a Man he was troubled with a thousand cares and one crosse came in the neck of another and one grief followed another but now he had no care but to fill his belly and so lye-down and sleep And so he demanded of all the rest but they refused to turn Men again until he came to the Elephant who in his first estate had been a Philosopher He demanded of him whether he would be a Man again yea that he would with all his heart because he knew what was the difference betwixt a Man and a Beast Thus beastly Creatures given over to their sensual appetites transformed and changed by Sathan into beasts in their hearts they desire never to return to a better state but to live still in their swinish pleasures and to follow their sinful appetites But those who have the spirit of grace in their hearts and are fallen into some hainous sin having tasted of both the estates like the Elephant they cannot be quiet till they are at their first estate again Repentance is to be universal THere is a story of a devout man who had amongst many other vertues the gift of healing unto whom divers made resort for cure amongst the rest one Chromatius being sick sent for him being come he told him of his sickness and desired that he might have the benefit of cure as others had before him I cannot do it said the holy man till thou hast beaten all the Idols and Images in thy house to pieces O that shall be done said Chromatius Here take my keys and where you find any Images let them be defaced which was done accordingly To prayer went the holy man but no cure was done O saith he I am as sick as ever very weak and sick It cannot be otherwise replyed the holy man nor can I help it there is one Idol yet in your house undiscovered and that must be defaced too True saies Chromatius It is so indeed it is all of beaten gold it cost 200l I would fain have saved it but here take my keys again you shall find it fast locked in my Chest break it also in pieces which being done the holy man prayed and Chromatius was healed Thus ends the story but here begins the moral of it The case is ours we are all of us spiritually sick full of wounds and putrified sores the spiritual Physitian tells us that if we look for any amendment it must be by the amendment of our lives he prescribes Repentance of our sins that we are willing to do in part but not in whole we would fain keep one Dalilah one darling beloved sin but it must not be there must not be one sin unrepented of we must repent as well for our Achans as our Absolons our Rimmons as our Mammons our Davids as our Goliahs our covert as well as open sins our loved as loathed lusts our heart-abominations as well as loathed scandals our babe-iniquities as well as Gyant-provocations Our Repentance must be universal In the loving our Neighbour we love God LIght is the onely Object of our eye for our eye was made to see the light but light is not onely in the body of the Sun or Moon or Stars but by beams it doth insinuate it self into all these lower Creatures and presents it self in that great variety of colours wherewith this lower World is beautified In seeing them we see the light and delighting in them we take pleasure in the light from whom they have their gracefulness Even so God is the proper Object of our love and his goodness must draw our abilities unto it and it is able to satisfie them to the full though they to the full can never possibly apprehend it So that out of the nature of God we need not seek for any other Object of our love But because God is pleased to communicate himself unto his Creatures and frame the reasonable part of them according to his image he would have our love to attend this communicating of himself and be bestowed on them whom he doth so grace And this our so loving of others our neighbours our selves detracts nothing from that All which is due to God because we do it by his direction and our love doth still reflect upon him and in loving them we love and admire him also A Graceless sinner will continue to be a sinner still THe Scolopendra having devoured the bait when she feeleth the hook to prick her casteth up all that is in her belly till she have got up the hook but as soon as that is out of her bowels she suppeth all that up which before she had cast from her How excellently hath Nature in the property of this fish set before our eyes the sad condition of a graceless sinner who after he hath devoured Sathan's morsels feeling the hook of his conscience and being pricked with some remorse rids
to the eye diversity of objects If thou go to it in decent and seemly apparel shalt thou not see the like figure if dejected and in coorse Rayment will it not offer to thy view the same equal proportion Do but stretch thy self bend thy brow and run against it will it not resemble the like person and actions Where now is the change shall we conclude in the glass No for it is neither altered from the place nor in the nature Thus the change of love and affection is not in God but in respect of the object about which it is exercised if one day God seem to love us another day to hate us there is alteration within us first not any in the Lord we shall be sure to find a change but it must be when we do change our wayes but God never changeth such as we are to our selves such will he be to us if we run stubbornly against him he will walk stubbornly against us vvith the froward he will be froward but with the meek he will shew himselfe meekly yet one and the same God still in vvhom there is not the least shadow of change imaginable Adversity rather then Prosperity is the preserver of Piety PLutarch in his Book of Conjugal Precepts maketh use of that knovvn Parable hovv the Sun and the Wind vvere at variance whether of them should put a man beside the Cloak vvhich he had upon his back vvhile the wind blevv he held it the harder but the Sun with the strength of his beams made him throw it away from him And Ice we know that hangeth down from the eves of the House in frosty weather is able to endure the stormy blasts of the sharpest Nothern wind but when the Sun breaks our it melts and falls away Thus it is that Adversity and Necessity are rather preservers of Piety then plenty and prosperity Prosperity makes many men lay aside that clean vesture of purity and innocency which they buckled hard to them while they were trained up in the School of Affliction prosperity melts them down into vanity whilst adversity lifts them up into glory The thought of Gods omnipresence a great comfort in affliction THere is mention made of a company of poor Christians that were banished into some remote parts and one standing by seeing them passe along said That it was a very sad condition those poor people were in to be thus hurried from the society of men and to be made companions wth the beasts of the field True said another it were a sad condition indeed if they were carried to a place where they should not find their God but let them be of good chear God goes along with them and will exhibite the comforts of his presence whithersoever they go he is an infinite God and filleth all places Thus as every attribute of God is a breast of comfort not to be drawn dry so this of his omnipresence is none of the least that he is both where we are and where we are not he is in the midst of our enemies we think that they will even swallow us up alive but God our best friend is with them to confound all their devices and insatuate their Counsells our friends our relations of Wife and Children if they be taken hence God is with them and God is with us too on all occasions in all conditions he is ordering all things for his Childrens good The downfall of Piety and Learning to be deplored BOys Sisi the French Leiger in England enquiring what Books Dr. Whitguift then Archbishop of Canterbury had published was answered that he had onely set forth certain Books in defence of the Ecclesiastical Government and it was incidently told him beside That he had founded an Hospital and a School at Croydon in Surry uttered these words Profectò Hospitale ad sublevandam paupertatem erudiendam juâ—entutem sunt optimi libri quos Archiepiscopus scribere potuit Truly an Hospital to sustain the poor and a School to train up youth are the worthiest Books that an Archbishop could possibly set forth And certainly such was the piety such the charity of former times that in this Kingdom of ours a man might have run and read in many such Books the Founders bounty and Munificence witnesse those Ramahs those Schools for the Prophets those Colledges in both the Universities so well filled so orderly governed and so richly endowed But of late how faintly did those streams run which were wont to make glad the City of our God How were those breasts dryed up that once nurst up so many Kiriath-Sepher made Kiriath-Havala a Kingdom of learning fairly onwards on the way to be made a Kingdom of ignorance and Seminaries of sound learning and saving knowledge likely to be Seedâ—plots of barbarous ignorance and intolerable presumption The exceeding bounty of God WE read of a Duke of Millain that marrying his daughter to a son of England he made a dinner of thirty courses and at every course gave so many gifts to every guest at the Table as there were dishes in the course This you 'l say was rich and Royal entertainment great bounty yet God gives much more largely Earthly Princes are fain to measure out their gifts why because their stock is like themselves finite but the Treasury of God's bounty is puteus inexhaustibilis never to be drawn dry It is he that gives the King his Royalty the Nobleâ—man his Honour the Captain his strength the Rich man his wealth c. And as Nathan said to David If all this were too little he would give yet much more To wait with Patience God's leisure DAvid being assured that he should see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living did not faint but expect with patience the time appointed Psal. 27. 13. The Husbandman patiently expecteth the time of Harvest The Mariner waits with content for wind and tide and the VVatch-man for the dawning of the day So must the faithful learn patience in all their troubles not to make haste or mourn as men without hope but tarry the Lords leisure and he in the fittest season will comfort their drooping souls He that shall come will come and will not tarry Heb. 〈◊〉 To be mindful of the day of Death IT is written of the Philosophers called Brachmanni that they were so much given to think of their latter end that they had their graves alwayes open before their gates that both going out and coming in they might be mindful of their death And it is reported of the women in the Isle of Man that the first Web they make is their winding sheet wherewith at their going abroad they usually guird themselves to shew that they are mindful of their Mortality And thus though we have not our graves digged before our eyes nor carry about us the ugly gastly picture of death yet let us carry
cause quoth he wherefore your fellow was condemned to death and therefore you must dye and to the third You Centurion because you have not learned to obey the voice of your General shall dye also for company Excogitaverat quomodo tria crimina faceret c. He devised how he might make three faults because he found not one But the just Iudge of all the world needs not do so with us no beating of his brains to invent an accusation against us he needs not draw three faults into one or find one where there is none there 's matter enough within us to condemn us our thoughts our words our deeds do yield him cause enough to pronounce the sentence of death upon us The giving up of our selves an acceptable Sacrifice to God IT is reported of Aeschines when he saw his fellow Scholars give great gifts to his Master Socrates he being poor and having nothing else to bestow did give himself to Socrates as confessing to be his in heart and good will and wholly at his devotion And the Philosopher took this most kindly esteeming it above all other presents and returned him love accordingly Even so the gratious disposition of our heavenly Father taketh in far better part then any man can take it the laying down of our souls the submitting of our selves unto his direction the melâ—ing of our wills down into his Will The Widows two mites were welcome into his Treasury because her heart was full though her purse were empty He accounteth that the best sacrifice which is of the heart External things do well but Internal things do far better Heaven worth contending for IF a man were assured that there were made for him a great purchase in Spain Turkey or some other parts more remote would be not adventure the dangers of the Seas and of his Enemies also if need were that he might come to the enjoyment of his own Well behold Iesus Christ hath made a purchase for us in Heaven and there is nothing required on our parts but that we will come and enjoy it Why then should we refuse any pains or fear any thing in the way nay we must strive to get in It may be that we shall be pinched in the entrance for the gate is strait and low not like the Gates of Princes lofty roof'd and arched so that we must be fain to leave our wealth behind us and the pleasures of this life behind us yet enter we must though we leave our skins nay our very lives behind us for the purchase that is made is worth ten thousand Worlds not all the silks of Persia â—ot all the spices of Egypt not all the gold of Ophir not all the Treasures of bot\â—h Indies are to be compared to it Who therefore would not contend for such a bargain though he sold all to have it Adoption of God's children known by their Sanctification FIre is known to be no painted or imaginary fire by two notes by heat and by the flame Now if the case so fall out that the fire want a slame it is stil known by the heat In like manner there be two witnesses of our adoption or sanctification Gods spirit and our spirit Now if it so fall out that a man feel not the Principal which is the spirit of adoption he must then have recourse to the second VVitness and search out in himself the signs and tokens of the sanctification of his own spirit by which he may certainly assure himself of his adoption as fire may be known to be fire by the heat though it want a flame The danger of Worldly mindedness IT is seen by experience that a man swiming in a River as long as he is able to hold up his head and keep it above water he is in no danger but safely swimeth and cometh to the shore with good contentment but if once his head for want of strength begin to dive then shaketh he the hearts of all that do behold him and himself may know that he is not far from death So is it in this wretched world and swimers of all sorts if the Lord give us strength to keep up our heads i. e. to love God and Religion above the world and before it and all the pleasures of it there is then no danger but after a time of swiming in it up and down we shall arrive in a firm place with happiness and safety but if once we dive and the head go under water if once the world get the victory and our hearts are set upon it and go under it in a sinful love and liking of it O then take heed of drowning Gods delight in a relapsed Sinners repentance AS a Husbandman delights much in that ground that after long barrenness becomes fruitful As a Captain loves that Souldier that once fled away cowardly and afterwards returns valiantly Even so God is wonderfully enamoured with a sinner that having once made shipwrack of a good Conscience yet at last returns and swims to Heaven upon the plank of Faith and Repentance Vnworthy Communicants condemned CHildren when they first put on new shooes are very curious to keep them clean scarce will they set their foot on the ground for fear to dirty the soles of their shooes yea rather they will wipe them clean with their Coats and yet perchance the next day they will trample with the same shooes up to the ancles Alas childrens play is our earnest On that day we receive the Sacrament we are often over-precise scrupling to say or do those things which lawfully we may But we who are more then curious that day are not so much as careful the next day and too often what shall I say go on in sin up to the ancles yea our sins go over our heads Psal. 28. 5. A sense of the want of Grace a true sign of Grace IT is the first step unto Grace for a man to see no Grace and it is the first degree of Grace for a man to desire Grace as no man can sincerely seek God in vain so no man can sincerely desire grace in vain A man may love gold yet not have it but no man loveth God but is sure to have him Wealth a man may desire yet be never the neerer for it but grace no man ever sincerely desired and missed it and why It is God that hath wrought this desire in the heart and he will never frustrate the desire that himself there hath wrought Let no man say I have no Faith no Repentance no Love no fear of God no sanctifying no saving grace in me Doth he see a want of these things in himself yes that is it which so grieves him that he cannot love God stand in awe of him trust in his mercy repent of sin as he should yea but doth he seriously and unfeignedly desire to do thus yes he desires it above all
Phocion or Pythagorean to speak briefly to the point or not at all let him labour like them of Crete to shew more wit in his discourse then words and not to power out of his mouth a flâ—ud of the one when he can hardly wring out of his brains a drop of the other How to read with profit AS it is not the best way for any that intendeth to make himselfe a good Statesman to ramble and run over in his travells many Countries seeing much and making use of liâ—tle for the improving of his knowledge and experience in State-policy but rather stay so long in every place till he have noted those things which are best worthy his observation So is it also in the travels and studies of the mind by which if we would be bettered in our judgements and affections it is not our best course to run over many things slightly taking onely such a generall view of them as somewhat encreaseth our speculative knowledge but to rest upon the points we read that we may imprint them in our memories and work them into our hearts and affections for the encreasing of saving knowledge then shall we find that one good Book often read and thorowly pondered will more profit than by running over an hundreth in a superficial manner The severall expressions of God in his Mercies and why so AS Lawyers in this captioâ—s age of ours when they draw up any Conveyances of Lands or ther writings of concernment betwixt party and party are fain to put in many aequivocall terms of one and the same signification as to have and to hold occupy and enjoy Lands Tenements Hereditaments Profits Emoluments to remise release acquit discharge exonerate of and from all manner of actions suits debts trespasses c. and all this to make sure work so that if one word will not hold in Law another may Thus God when he shews himselfe to his People in love he varies his expressions as he did to the Israelites Exod. 34. 6 7. The Lord the Lord God mercifull and gracious long suffering and abundant in goodnesse and truth keeping mercies for thousands forgiving iniquiâ—y transgression and sin c. Here 's an homonomy of words all Synonymaes And why so to raise up the drooping soul to bind up the broken-hearted that if it chance to stumble at one expression it may be supported by another if one word will not reach another may his mind is that the poor soul may rather leave then lack when it comes to draw comfort out of the breasts of Mercy Love to Christ how to be recovered when it is once lost A Man upon the way having accidentally lost his Purse is questioned by his fellow-Travailler where â—e had it last O saies he I am confident that I drew it out of my pocket when I was in such a Towâ— at such an Inne Why then saies the other there 's no better a way to â—ave it again then by going back again to the place where you last had it This is the case of many a Man in these loose unsetled times they have lost their love to Christ and his truth since their corn and wine and oyl have encreased â—ince outward things are in abundance added unto them they have sleighted the light of Gods countenance the love of Christ is defective in their souls but when they were poor and naked of all worldly comforts then they fasted and prayed then they sought Gods face both early and late nothing was more dear and precious unto them than the truth of Christ O how they loved him What then is to be done to recover this lost love of Christ back again back again directly where you last had it to the sign of the broken and contrite heart there it was that you drew it out into good words and better works and though it be since lost in the croud of worldly imployments there and no where else you shall be sure to find it again The generality of Gods knowledge IT is said of King Edward the sixth that he knew all the Ports Havens Harbours and Creeks in and about the English coasts together with the depth and shallowes of the water as also the severall burthens of every ship that could ride therewith safety yet this was but a puny knowledge in that young King when we look upon the general knowledge of God He knows all things all Creatures nothing is hid from his knowledge he knowes the thoughts of Man afar off he knowes what he will think many years hence if he live to it he knowes the stars by their names whereas our eyes are dim they small the distance great yet his infinite essence is a vast Nomenclator of them all such and so general is the knowledge of our all-knowing God that he knows all things also Simul semel uno intuito all at once both things past present and to come Gods goodness and Mans ingratitude IT is storyed of a certain King that fighting a desperate battle for the recovery of his daughter injuriously stollen from him found but ill success and the day utterly against him till by the valour of a strange Prince disguised in the habite of a mean Souldier that pittied his loss and bore love to his daughter he recovered both her and victory Not long after this Prince received some wrong in the point of houour which he deservedly prized He made his complaint to the King desires Iustice the forgetfull King puts him over to a Iudge The Prince replyes Know this O King when thou wast lost I stood betwixt thee and danger and did not bid another save thee but saved thee my selfe Ecce vulnera behold the scars of those wounds I bore to free thee and thy state from ruine inevitable And now my suit is before thee dost thou shuffle me off to another Such was our case Saâ—han had stollen our dear daughter our Soul in vain we laboured a recovery Principalities Powers were against us weakness and wretchedness on our side Christ the Son of God took pitty on us and though he were an eternall Prince of peace disguised himselfe in the habit of a common Souldier Induens formam servi putting on him the likenesse of a Servant undertook the War against our too strong Enemies set himselfe betwixt us and death bore the wâ—unds in his own person which should have light upon us Now his glory is in question his honour much concerned in the transactions of these times We stand by and behold it he appeals to our censure remembers us of the wounds passions sorrows he endured for us we put off from one another and let the cause of him that saved us fall to the ground Wâ—o shall plead for our ingratitude Heaven and Earth Sea and Stars Orbs and Elements Angels and Devills will cry shame upon us The right use that is to be made of Dreams THere
being troubled with fears and cares how he should be able to live in that condition in regard that his Incomes were but small enough onely to maintain him as a single man looking out of the window and seeing a Hen scraping for food to cherish her numerous brood about her thought thus with himself This Hen did but live before it had the chickens and now she lives with all her little ones Upon which he added this thought also I see the fouls of the air neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns and yet my heavenly Father seeds them Thus did he and thus many of Gods servants have done before him and thus did our blessed Lord and Saviour himself who took occasion of the water fetch'd up solemnly to the Altar from the well of Shilo on the day of the great Hosanna to meditate and discourse of the water of life And so must all of us do get this sweet and comfortable art of spiritualizing the severall occurrences in the world and observing the providences of God therein drawing like the Bee sweetnesse from every flower and turning every thing that we hear or see into holy meditation the omission whereof cannot be without the neglect of God his creatures our selves The Creatures are half lost if we onely employ them not learn something of them God is wronged if his creatures be unregarded We most of all if we read this great volume of the Creatures and take out no lesson for our own instruction Men hardly drawn out of old customs and forms in Religious Worship IT is reported of the King of Morocco that he told the English Ambassadour in King Iohns time that he had lately read St. Pauls 〈◊〉 which he liked so well that were he to chuse his Religion he would embrace Christianity But saith he every one ought to die in the faith wherein he was born So it is with many amongst us they are perswaded they ought and are resolved they will live and die in those customs and waies wherein they were born and so they may do nay so they must do provided that such customs and forms whereunto they seem to be so fast glued be according to the pattern in the Mount the revealed will of God But it is to be feared that such are more addicted to Customs then Scriptures chusing rather to follow what hath been though never so absurd and irregular then consider what should be though never so orthodox and uniform The great love of Christ to he at an high esteeem and why so THere is a story of an Elephant who being fallen down and unable to help himself or get up again by reason of the inflexiblenesse of his legs a forrester comming by helped him up wherewith the Elephant a creature otherwise docible enough by the very instinct of nature was so affected that he tamely followed the man up and down would do any thing for him and never left him till his dying day Now so it is that if there be such love exprest by bruit beasts to those which have done them any good should not we much more love and prise Christ that hath done so much for us For we were fallen and could not recover or help our selves and Christ hath lifted us up and redeemed us with his own most pretious blood when we were even lost and undone Let us then think nothing too much to do too great to suffer too dear to part withall for such a Christ such a Saviour that thought nothing too much to do or too grievous to suffer that so he might accomplish the work of our Redemption He left Heaven for us let not us think much to lose Earth for him He came out of his Fathers bosom for us let not us be unwilling to leave father or mother or friends or any thing else for him He underwent sufferings reproaches afflictions persecutions yea death it self for us let not us repine at or be impatient under any trouble or misery we shall meet with here in this world for hâ—s sake but still be praising blessing and magnifying the love of God in Christ Iesus who hath done so much for us Faith to be preserved as the head of all Graces and why so IT is observed that the Serpent is of all things most carefull of his head because he well knowes though he be cut and mangled never so much in the body or any part of it yet if his head be but whole it will cure all the wounds of the other members And such wisdom ought all of us to have to labour above all things to keep our head our faith whole and sound to make sure of that whatsoever we do because if any thing else receive a wound if any other of our graces have as it were even lost their spirituall strength and vigour faith will renew them again but if this once suffer shipwrack it will cost many a sigh many a tear many a groan in the spirit before it be recovered again for without it all other graces decay and perish are as in a winter-condition of barrennesse without it yet if it do but appear there will be a spring-tide of all spirituall blessings whatsoever Troubles and vexation of spirit not to be allayed by wrong means and waies IT is said of Cain that being in trouble of mind and terrour of conscience for his bloody sin of fratricide he went to allay it by building a City Gen. 4. And there was no way to drive away Saul's melancholy but by David's tuning of his Harp Thus it is with most of people when they are under trouble of mind or vexation of spirit they use sinfull and wrong means to quiet themselves they run to merry meetings to musick to building to bargaining to buying and selling but they run not to God on the bended knees of their hearts who is the onely speedy help in such a time of need It cannot be denyed but that a merry meeting musick or the like may allay the trouble of mind for a while but it will recoil with more terrour then before A sad remedy not much unlike to a man in a seavouâ— that lets down cold drink which cools for the present but afterwards increaseth the more heat or like a man rubbing himself with Nettles to allay the sting of a Bee or not much unlike to one that hath his house a falling and takes a firebrand to uphold it whereby the building is more in danger Prosperity will discover what a man is IT is said of Pius Quintus so called because that when he was a mean man he was looked on as a good man but when he came to be a Cardinall he doubted of his salvation and when a Pope he dispaired of it So hard a thing is it for a good man to use a prosperous estate well Prosperity is that which will tell you what a man is it will
soon find him out give him power and he will soon shew what grace is in him put him into an Office and he will presently be seen in it Hence it is observable that the same word that signifies prosperity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 schalvat in the Hebrew is rendred by the Arabick Investigatio and by the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Inquisition or Examination to make a strict search or to examine throughly So that whereas Adversity tries but one grace that is Patience Prosperity will try all graces it will try a mans love whether he love God or the world it will try his zeal whether at a dead lift he will venter Christ or his estate it will try his hope whether it be on Heaven or Earth it will try his charity whether it be at home or abroad it will try the whole Man and suddainly discover to the world what mettall he is made of Gods ends and mans ends as to the persecution of his Church the vast difference betwixt them A Physician letteth a man blood by the application of Leeches and they suck much blood from him but the Physicians ends are one thing and the Leeches ends are another thing the Leech draweth blood from the man onely to satisfie it self but the Physiâ—ian letteth the man blood to cure his distemper Such is the difference between Gods ends and wicked mens ends in the persecution of his own people God by suffering his own Church and People to be persecuted it is for to purge a way their evill distempers of sin and security or whatsoever it is that may offend that thereby he may make his people better by their afflictions but wicked and ungodly men by troubling the Church it is for to destroy them and root them out that they may be no more a People to accomplish their own wicked designes and to satisfie their rage and malice upon them in their utter ruine and overthrow These are their ends but God hath other ends as Ioseph said to his brethren You did intend me hurt but God did intend me good so it may be said concerning all ungodly wicked men they do intend evill against the Church and people of God but God intends his People's good they intend to persecute and destroy but he intends maugre all their contriâ—ments whatsoever to preserve keep and continue his Church to the end of the world Let the Church's enemies plow never so deeply and make furrowes on the backs of Gods people never so long yet Gods ends are grace and mercy and peace to do them good in the latter end The serious confession of one sinner to another may be the conversion of one the other IT is related of St. Iohn the Evangelist that being upon his return from Pathmos to Ephesus after the death of Domiâ—ian he was set upon by a company of Thieves amongst whom was a young man their Captain to him St. Iohn applyed himself by way of wholsom counsell and advice which took so good effect that he became a new man and was converted and went thereupon to all his fellow thieves and besought them in the Name of Iesus Christ that they would not walk any longer in their former wicked waies He told them withall that he was troubled in conscience for his former wicked life and earnestly entreated them that as they tendred the eternall welfare of their own poor souls they would now leave off their old courses and live more conscionably for the time to come The counsel was good and well taken so that many of those great Robbers became great Converts Thus it is that one Sinners confession of his faults to another may happily prove the conversion of one the other Hence is it that the meaning of that Apostolicall precept Confesse your faults one to another Iam. 5. 16. is made out by some Interpreters to be That those that have been partners together in sin they should go one to another and seriously confesse their sins each to other He that hath been a drunkard let him go to his companion and tell him that he is troubled in mind because of his former excesse And let the unclean person go to her partner in sin and tell her God hath troubled his conscience for his lust and it may be this may awaken her conscience too so that she may bethink her self of her wicked courses and be converted The not laying of the Church's troubles to heart reproovable IT is worth the taking notice of how that when the holy Ghost doth reckon up the Tribes of Israel for their renown as Of the tribe of Iudah were sealed twelve thousand of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand c. But if you mark the enumeration you shall find one Tribe left out and that is the Tribe of Dan And why is it so Much ado there is to find out the reason of Gods omission of that Tribe one reason is and that a true one too because this Tribe made a defection from the true worship of God and fell to Idolatry Another reason there is and that probable enough because they did not lay to heart the calamities of Gods Church for when the other Tribes were jeoparding their lives in the highest places of the field they remained in ships let the rest of the Tribes shift for themselves they would not lose their trading so they would follow their Merchandizing And for this it was that God sets a brand of obloquy upon them in not allowing them so much as a name amongst their brethren and companions And thus reprovable are all they too that lay nothing of the Church's calamities to heart let Religion sink or swim the Gospell stand or fall the Church of God prosper or prosper not they are but as so many Gallio's they care for none of all these things like the Tribe of Dan they remain in their ships at their trades at their bargaining buying and selling though the Church's sorrowes come on never so fast they look on as altogether unconcerned not in any way contributing to the support thereof Heaven the poor Saints comfortable inheritance VAlens the Emperour threatned S. Basil That let him go whither he would yet he should neither by Sea nor Land be safe from his power Well said the good man be it so For all the Emperour's rage I shall be either in Heaven or under Heaven And in the like manner there was a Cardinall threatned Luther That there should not be a place left for him in all the Empire of Germany wherein he should be free from danger O saith Luther smilingly If Earth cannot keep me safe Heaven shall Thus it is that many of the dear servants of God such as perhaps have no place in the World wherein to put their heads or such as heretofore had better accommodations but are now glad to live in poor Cottages smoaky houses
the sharpest thorn at his breast lyes at â—ase on a hard bed sleeps quietly over the stouds of trouble and sorrow nay of Death it self and fears no ill Psalm 23. 5. A Faithfull modest Friend very hard to be found THere are some drugs very wholesome but very bitter good in the operation but unkind in the pallate as the common saying is Wholesome but not toothsome Such are some Friends in the World reall in their love but morose in their expressions of it that a Man is almost afraid of their very kindnesses but to meet with a Man that shall be as full of sweetness as â—idelity whose love is not like a pill that must be wrapped in something else before a Man can swallow it but whose candor and serenenesse make his love as amiable as usefull to his friend so that he may very well be said to deserve the character given to one of the Roman Emperours Neminem unquam dimisit tristem of such a disposition made up of love and sweetnesse of such a balsome Nature that is all for healing and helpfulnesse The good Names of Gods people though now obscured yet hereafter will be cleared EVen as it was with Christ the Iews rolled a great stone upon him and as they thought it was impossible he should rise again but an Angel came and rolled away the stone and he arose in a glorious triumphant manner So it shall be with the People of God their good Name oft lyes buried a stone of obâ—oquy and reproach is rolled upon them but at the day of Judgment not an Angell but God himself will roll away the stone and they shall come forth from among the pots where they have been blacked and sullied as the Wings of a Dove covered with Silver and her feathers with yellow Gold Now it is that many of them are called the troublers of Israel seditious factious Malignants rebellious and what not But a day is shortly coming when God himself will proclaim their innocency For the Name of a Saint is pretious in Gods esteem it is like a Statue of Gold which the polluted breath of men cannot stain and though the wicked may throw dust upon it yet as God will wipe away tears from the eyes of his People so he will wipe off the dust that lyes upon their good Names And a happy day must that needs be when God himself shall be the Saints compurgator Men to be thankfull for the little strength of Grace that God affordeth AS soon as ever Moses with his Army was through the Sea they strike up before they stir from the bankâ— side and acknowledge the wonderfull appearance of Gods power and mâ—rcy for them though this was but one step in their way a howling Wildernesse presented it self unto them and they not able to subsist a few dayes with all their provision for all their great Victory yet Moses he will praise God for this handsell of Mercy Now this holy Man knew how to keep credit with God so as to have more was to keep touch and pay down his praise for what was received Thus it is with thee O thou poor weak trembling Christian If thou wouldest have fuller communications of divine strength own God in what he hath already done for thee Art thou weak blesse God thou hast life Dost thou through feeblenesse often fail in duty and â—all into temptation Mourn in the sense of these yet blesse God that thou dost not lye in a totall neglect of duty out of a prophane contempt thereof and that instead of falling through weaknesse thou dost not lye in the miâ—e of Sin through the wickednesse of thy heart Art thou not of that strength of Grace to run with the foremost and hold pace with the tallest of thy brethren yet art thou thankful that thou hast any strength at all although it be but to cry after them whom thou seest to out-strip thee in Grace this is worth thy thanks though it be but a little strength of Graoe that God is pleased to afford thee True real Friendship very hard to be found THe Friendship of most Men in these dayes is like some plants in the water which have broad leaves on the surface of the water but scarce any root at all like Lemons cold within hot without full expressions empty intentions speak loud and do little Like Drums and Trumpets and Ensigns in a battel which make a noyse and a shew but act nothing meet Friendship in pretence and complement that can bow handsomely and promise emphatically and speak plausibly and forget all But a true reall active Friend whose words are the windowes of his heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the notifiers of his affections such a Friend is rare and hardly to be found How it is that the Preaching of the Gospel is of a double and contrary operation upon different persons EVen as it is with the Proclamation of a Prince which he sendeth out to his Rebellious Subjects wherein he maketh offer not onely of pardon but of Grace and favour to those that will lay down their Arms and come in shewing themselves loyall and obedient but on the other hand threatneth extremity of punishment to those that shall yet stand out Now this Proclamation with the same breath breatheth out both life and death Life to those which will hearken to it which is the main end and intent of proclaiming it but death to those that oppose themselves against it Even so it is with the Evangelical Proclamation the preaching of the Gospel it reacheth out life and death after the same manner life to penitent Believers who readily accept the offers of Grace and Mercy there tendered but death to obstinate and Rebellious Sinners who reject them To the one it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the one a savour of life unto life to the other a savour of death unto death to Believers the Morning Star bringing light of Grace here and of Glory hereafter to others the Evening Star leading to everlasting darknesse Not that it is so in it self being in its own Nature the Word of Life but accidentally it becometh so to them through their unbelief and rejection of it Tongue the Hearts interpreter VVHen the Pump goes we shall soon know what water is in the Fountain whether clear or muddy When the clapper strikes we may guesse what mettall is in the bell Thus the tongue of Man becomes the Interpreter of his heart the inward motions of the mind have vent at the mouth as sparks from a furnace and the Souls conceptions are brought out by its busie Midwifery The Tongue is the key that unlocks the Hearts treasury out of whose abundance it speaks so that the corruption of Mens minds not much unlike the inflammation of a Feaver ordinarily breaks forth and blisters upon the tongue He that is rotten in his heart
a true value upon them make a true estimate of them and as much as in us lyeth to be mindfull of them comfortable to them and willing on all occasions to do them good Love Vnity and Peace the best supporters of Kingdoms Common-weals c. THere is mention made of a dispute betwixt Mars and Pallas which of them should have the honour to give the name to the City of Athens at length it was resolved That he should give the name who could find out that which might most conduce to the benefit of the City Hereupon Mars presents them with a stately horse which signified Wars Divisions Tumults c. but Pallas came in with an Olive branch the Emblem of Peace Love and Unity the City chose Pallas to be their guardian rightly apprehending That Love unity and peace would make most to their prosperity and safety And questionlesse great must needs be the happinesse of that Nation Kingdom or Common-weal where they are made supporters Love and Unity to cement all affections and Peace to compose all differences that can be found amongst them Self-seekers reproved IT is reported of one Cnidius a skilfull Architect who building a sumptuous house or Watch-tower for the King of Egypt to discover the dangerous rocks by night to the Mariners caused his own name to be engraven upon a stone in the wall in great letters and afterwards covered it with Lime and morter and upon the out-side of that wrote the name of the King of Egypt in golden letters as pretending that all was done for his honour and glory But herein was his cunning he very well knew that the dashing of the water would in a little time consume the plaistering as it did and then his name and memory should abide and continue to after-generations Just thus there are many in this Nation of ours who in their outward discourse and carriage pretend to seek onely the glory of God the good of his Church and the happinesse of the State but if there were a window to look into their hearts we should find nothing there written but self-self-love self-interest and self-seeking Many such would be found out who instead of loving God to the contempt of themselves love themselves to the contempt of God Many who seek their own and not the things of Jesus Christ or which is as bad if not worse who seek their own under the hypocritical pretence of seeking the things of Iesus Christ. How it is that Men are so much mistaken in the thoughts of long life IT fareth with most Mens lives as with the sand in an hypocritical hour-glasse look but upon it in outward appearance and it seemeth far more then it is because rising up upon the sides whilest the sand is empty and hollow in the midst thereof so that when it sinks down in an instant a quarter of an hour is gone in a moment Thus it is that many men are mistaken in their own accompt reckoning upon threescore and ten years the age of a Man because their bodies appear strong and lusty Alas their health may be hollow there may be some inward infirmity and imperfection unknown to them so that Death may surprize them on a sodain The generality of Men nothing mindfull of Death THere is a Bird peculiar to Ireland called The Cock of the wood remarkable for the fine flesh and folly thereof All the difficulty to kill them is to find them out otherwise a mean marks-man may easily dispatch them They fly in woods in flocks and if one of them be shot the rest remove not but to the next bough or tree at the farthest and there stand staring at the shooter till the whole covey be destroyed yet as Foolish as this bird is it is wise enough to be the Emblem of the wisest Man in the point of Mortality Death sweeps away one and one and one here one and there another and all the rest remain no whit moved or minding of it till at last a whole generation is consumed and brought to nothing Beloved Sins hardly parted withall LOok but upon a Rabbets skin how well it comes off till it come to the head and then there is haling and pulling and much ado before it stirs So it is that a Man may crucifie a great many lusts subdue abundance of imperfections and may perform many good duties and all this while come smoothly off but when it comes once to the head to the Dalilah the darling the bosome beloved Sin then there is tugging and pulling great regret loath to depart but if God have any interest interest in such a Soul he will pull the skin over his ears either break his neck or his heart before that any such Sin shall reign in his mortal body or have any dominion over him The Wicked Rich Mans sad condition at the time of Death IT is observable That a Sumpter-horse or a pack-horse which all the day long hath gone nodling with abundance of treasure hath at night all taken from him and been turn'd a grazing or put into a stable so that all the benefit he hath gain'd by it is that he hath onely felt the weight of it and probably got a gall'd back for his labour Thus many rapacious wretched rich Men such as are little better then pack-horses that all their lise long carry the things of this World lade themselves with thick clay rise early and late and eat the bread of carefulnesse to get a little pelf and a gall'd Conscience to boot are on a sudden either for ill using or ill getting their wealth turned unlesâ—e God be more mercifull into a filthy stable into Hell where their pay is everlasting torment Conscience spoils the wicked Mans mirth THere is a story of one who undertook in few daies to make a fat sheep lean and yet was to allow him a daily and large provision of Meat soft and easy loding with security from all danger that nothing should hurt him This he effected by putting him into an iron grate and placing a ravenous Woolf hard by in another alwaies howling fighting senting scratching to come at the poor sheep which affrighted with this sad sound and worse sight had little joy to eat lesse to sleep whereby his Flesh was sodainly abated And thus it is that all wicked Men have the terrours of an affrighted Conscience constantly not onely barking at them but biting of them which spoils all their mirth dis-sweetens their most delicious pleasures with the sad consideration of the Sins they have committed and punishment they must undergo when in another World they shall be called to an accompt for what they have done here in the Flesh. Sathans subtilty in laying his Temptations AN Enemy before he besiegeth a City surroundeth it at a distance to see where the wall is the weakest best to be battered lowest easiest to be scaled
Solomon be wise for thy self It is not enough for a Man to do good to others though he could to all if he remain an Enemy to himself He must be like a Cynamon-Tree which lets not out all its sap into leaves and fruit which will fall off but keeps the principall part of its fragrancy for the bark which stayes on like a Tree planted by the water side which though it let out much sap to the remoter boughs yet is specially carefull of the root that that be not left dry And to speak truth What profit would it be to a Man if he could heal and help all the sick Men in the World and be incurably sick himself If he could get all the Men on the Earth all the Angels in Heaven to be his Friends and have still God for his Enemy If he could save others and then lose his own Soul to be like the Ship Acts 27. broken to pieces it self though it helped others to the shore Or like those that built the Ark for Noah and were drowned themselves this is to have the cares of Martha upon him on the behalf of others and never mind that one thing of Mary the care of his own Salvation Neglect of the main duties of Christianity reproved SUppose a Master before he goes forth should charge his Servant to look to his Child and trim up the house handsomely against he comes home But when he returns will he thank this servant for sweeping his house and making it trim as he bade him if he find his child through negligence fallen into the fire and so kill'd or cripled No sure he left his child with him as his chief charge to which the other should have yielded if both could not be done Thus there hath been a great Zeal of late amongst us about some circumstantials of Gods worship but who is it that looks to the little child the main duties of Christianity Was there ever lesse love charity self-denyal Heavenly-mindednesse or the power of Godlinesse to be found then in this sad Age of ours Alas these like the child are in great danger of perishing in the fire of contention and division which a perverse Zeal in lesse things hath kindled amongst us Pleasures of Righteousnesse not discerned by unrighteous Men And how so THe Roman Souldiers when at the sacking of Ierusalem they entred the Temple and went into the Sanctum Sanctorum but seeing no Images there as they used to have in their own idolatrous Temples gave out in a jeer that the Iews worshipped the clouds And thus because the pleasures of Righteousnesse and holinesse are not so grosse as to come under the cognisance of the Worlds carnal senses as their brutish ones do therefore they laugh at the Saints as if their Ioy were but the child of Fancy and that they do but embrace a cloud instead of 〈◊〉 her self a phantastick pleasure for the true But let such know that they carry in their bosome what will help them to think the pleasures of a holy life more reall and that the power of Holinesse is so far from depriving a Man of the joy and pleasure of his life that there are incomparable delights and pleasures peculiar to the holy life which the gracious Soul finds in the wayes of Righteousnesse and no stranger intermeddles with his joy The truth is they lie inward and therefore it is that the World speaks so wildly and ignorantly of them Gods different disposal of his blessings WHen a Prince bids his Servants carry such a Man down into the Cellar and let him drink of their Beer and Wine this is a kindnesse from so great a Personage to be valued highly But for the Prince to set him at his own Table and let him drink of his own Wine this no doobt is far more Thus i◠is that God gives unto some Men bona scabelli great Estates abundance of corn and wine and oyl the comforts of the Creature yet in so doing he entertains them but in the common Cellar they have none but carnal enjoyments they do but sit with the servants and in som sensual pleasures they are but fellow-Commoners with the beasts but for his People they have the bona throni his right-hand blessings he bestowes his Graces on them beautifies them with holinesse makes them to drink of the Rivers of his pleasures and means to set them by him at his own Table with himself in Heavenly glory The encrease of Atheism amongst us at this day IT is reported to have been the saying of Mr. R. Greenham a good man in his time That he feared rather Atheism then Popery would be Englands ruine Had he lived in our dismal dayes he would have had his fears much encreased Were there ever more Atheists made and making in England since it was acquainted with the Gospel then in the compasse of some few years past There is reason to think there were not When Men shall fall so far from profession of the Gospel and be so blinded that they cannot know light from darknesse righteousness from unrighteousness Are they not far gone in Atheism This is not natural blindness for the Heathen could tell when they did good and evill and see Holiness from Sin without Scripture-light to shew them No this blindnesse is a plague of God fallen on them for rebelling against the ligh◠when they could see it And if this plague should grow more common which God forbid woe then to England Men to be willing to have their Sins reproved And why so THere was a foolish it may be said cruel Law among the Lacedemonians That none should tell his Neighbour any ill news befallen him but every one should be left in processe of time to find it out themselves And it is to be supposed that there are many amongst us that would be content if there were such a Law that might tye up Ministers mouths from scaring them with their Sins and the miseries that attend their unreconciled estate The most are more carefull to run from the discourse of their misery then to get out of the danger of it are more offended with the talk of Hell then troubled for that sinful state that shall bring them thither But alas when then shall the Ministers shew their love to the souls of Sinners When shall a loving Man have a fitting time to tell his Friend of his faults if not now in the present time And why because that hereafter there remains no more offices of Love to be done for them Hell is a Pest-house there cannot be written so much on the door of it as Lord have mercy on them that are in it Nay they who now pray for their salvation and weep over their condition must then with Christ vote for their damnation and rejoyce in it though they be their own Fathers Husbands and Wives they shall see there
Satan employes to butcher our pretious Soul By them is thy servant forewarned saith David Psal. 19. 11. Let a Man be but carefull to read the Word of God with observation and in it he shall have the History of the most remarkable battels that have been fought by the most eminent Worthies of Christ with Satan that great Warriour against their Souls how Satan hath many times foyled them and how they have recovered their lost ground In it you shall have all Satan's Cabinet-counsels opened there 's not a lust which you are in danger of not the least Sin which presseth down but you have it deâ—cryed and laid open in its proper colours not the least Temptation which the Word doth not arm you against c. Sathan's policy in keeping us off from timely Repentance AS the Paper which came to Brentius from a Senator his dear Friend took him as he was at Supper with his Wife and Children and bade him flee citò câ—tiùs citissimè which he did leaving his dear company and good chear So must we do from our dearest bosome Sins or we may repent our stay when it is too late For Satan labours to while us off with delayes floating flitting thoughts of Repentance he fears not he can give Sinners leave to talk what they will do so he can beg time and by his Art keep such thoughts from coming to a head and riâ—ening into a present resolution few are in Hell but thought of repenting before they came there yet Satan so handled the matter that they could never pitch upon the time in earnest when to do it If ever therefore thou meanest to get out of his clutches citò citiùs citissimè fly out of his doors and run for thy life where ever this warning finds thee stay not though in the midst of thy joyes with which thy lusts shall entertain thee Men through spiritual Pride preferring one Preacher before another reproved ZAnchy tells of one in Geneva who being desired to go hear Viretus that preached at the same time with Calvin answered his Friend If Paul were to preach relicto Paulo Calvinum audireâ—n I would leave Paul himself to hear Calvin Now can it be imagined that Pride in the gifts of another should so far transport any Man as to the very borders of Blasphemy yet so it is and so it hath been of old one was of Paul another of Apollos and now one for this Preacher another for that It is not every Sermon though wholsome food nor every Prayer though savoury will go down they must have a choyce dish that must have an exquisite hault-goust for their curious palaâ—s And are such ever like to get good by Preaching Thus Pride makes them take parts and make sides as they fancy one Preacher to excell another so that Pride destroyes Love and Love wanting edification is lost The Devil hath made foul work in the Church by this engine it is high time to look about us The weaknesse of a Christian without Christ. IT is said of one Mr. Benbridg that being at the stake ready to suffer Martyrdome his heart failed him his heart failed him so that he thrust the faggots from him and cryed out I recant I recant yet this Man when re-inforc't in his Faith and indued with power from above was able within the space of a week after that sad foyl to dye at the stake cheerfully Thus the stoutest Champions of Christ and for Christ have been taught from time to time how weak they are if Christ steps aside or if he should withdraw his Grace and leave them to their own cowardise and unbelief they would soon shew themselves in their own colours Men seeking after the Vanities of all Worldly things reproved SOlomon had more variety of all Worldly things and more Wisedome to improve it then any now have and he made it his businesse critically and curiously to examine all the Creatures and to find out all the good which was under the Sun And the product and result of all his enquiries amounted at last to a totall made up all of Cyphers of meer wind and emptinesse Vanity of Vanities Vanity of Vanities all is Vanity So he begins his book and to shew that he was not mistaken so he concludes it Eccles. 1. 12. And so it is that whereas many seek for joy out of the broken Cisterns of the Creatures as in secular wealth and greatnesse Others in sensuall pleasures feasting gaming luxury excesse some in Titles of Honour others in Variety of knowledg some in stately Structures magnificent retinue goodly provisions others in low sordid and brutish lusts Unto all whom may be said as the Angel unto the Women Why seek ye the living amongst the dead or as Samuel did unto Saul Set not thy mind upon the Asses there are nobler things to fix thy desires upon The true Christian's desires are all for Heaven IT was a notable speech of Erasmus if spoken in earnest and his wit were not too quick for his Conscience Nihilo magis ambio opes et dignitates quam e-lumbis equus graves sarcinas He said he desired Wealth and Honour no more then a feeble Horse doth an heavy Cloak-bag Thus every good Christian ought to be of his mind And indeed all the Christian hath or desires as a Christian is Heavenly the World is extrinsecal both to his being and happinesse it is a stranger to the Christian and intermeddles not with his joy nor grief Heap all the Riches and Honours of the World upon a Man they will not make him a Christian heap them on a Christian they will not make him a better Christian Again take them all away let every bird have his feather when stript and naked he will be still a Christian and it may be a better Christian then otherwise he would have been Men to keep up the credit of their Names IT is observed by an ingenious Divine that the name of Iohn is next to the name of Iesus It was God that first gave them both Iohn and Iesus signifying as much as Grace and Salvation Iohn prepared the way to Iesus hinting out thus much unto us that there is no way to Salvation but by Grace Iohn's name was an honour to him nor was Iohn a disgrace to his Name He both was and was called Gratious But so it is that many of us by our bad manners slander and bely our good Names We have fair appellations and filthy conditions Nay have nothing to betoken us Christians but the Name usurping the style whereof we want the Truth so contrary are our lives to our callings and titles of our persons so unlike the works of our Profession What skilleth it to be called Clement Urbane Pius and yet to be cruell uncivill evill to be called Christian Prudence Grace Faith and yet to be Unchristian unwise ungratious unbelieving Let us not
so about building a Vessel of such bulk and bignesse to prolong his life for so short a time And if it must needs be done I may go and take pleasure for these hundreth years yet and then set upon it twenty or ten years before and get more help then and dispatch it the sooner But Noah did not he could not he durst not defer the doing of it but fells his wood sawes out his planks hewes out his timber and so falls to work The same case is ours God foretells us that a second general destruction shall come not by Water but by Fire the fiercer Element of the twain which even Heathens have taken notice of And that none shall then be saved but those that have a spirituall Temple or Sanctuary built in their Souls an house for the blessed Spirit to dwell in as hard and difficult a work as ever the making of the Ark was For before the spiritual building can be raised we must pull down an old Frame of the Devills rearing that standeth where it must stand and rid the place of the rubbish and remainders of it Let us then fall to work betime we are so far from being able to promise to our selves a hundreth years that we cannot assure our selves of one hour no not of one minute Likenesse to be a motive to lovelinesse THe Naturall Philosophers and others write of a monstrous bird called an Harpy which having the face of a Man is of so fierce and cruel nature that being hunger-bitten will seize upon a Man and kill him but afterwards making to the water to quench her thirst and there espying her own face and perceiving it to be like the Man whom she had devoured is so surprized with grief that she dies immediately Thus our likenesse to Christ and his likenesse to us in all things sin onely excepted ought to be an argument of Love not of hatred Birds of a feather will flock and keep together Beasts though by Nature cruel yet will defend those of their kind How much more should one Man love another bear with one another and stand by one another in the midst of any dangâ—r or difficulty whatsoever they being all fellow-members of that mystical body whereof Christ Iesus is the Head Spirituall and corporall blindnesse their difference A Blind Boy that had suffered imprisonment at Glocester not long before was brought to Bishop Hooper the day before his death Mr. Hooper after he had examin'd him of his Faith and the cause of his imprisonment beheld him very steadfastly and tears standing in his eyes said unto him Ah poor boy God hath taken from thee thy outward sight upon what consideration he in his Divine wisdome best knowes but hath given thee another sight much more pretious For he hath endued thy Soul with the spirituall eye of understanding O happy change doubtlesse there is a wide difference betwixt corporeall and spiritual blindness though every Man be blind by Nature yet the state of the spiritually blind is more miserable then that of the other blind The bodily blind is led either by his Servant Wife or Dogg but the spiritually blind is mis-led by the World the Flesh and the Devill The one will be sure to get a seeing guide but the other followes the blind guidance of his own lusts till they both tumble into the ditch The want of corporal eyes is to many divinum bonum albeit humanum malum but the want of Faith's eyes is the greatest evill which can befall Man in this life For Reason is the Soul 's left eye Faith the right eye without which it is impossible to see the way to God Heb. 11. 6. Good Conscience a Mans best Friend at the last IT is a witty Parable which one of the Fathers hath of a Man that had three Friends two whereof he loved intirely the third but indifferently This Man being called in question for his life sought help of his Friends The first would bear him company some part of his way The second would lend him some money for his journey and that was all they would or could do for him But the third whom he least respected and from whom he least expected would go all the way and abide all the while with him yea he would appear with him and plead for him This Man is every one of us and our three Friends are the Flesh and the World and our own Conscience Now when Death shall summon us to Judgment What can our Friends after the Flesh do for us they will bring us some part of the way to the grave and further they cannot And of all the Worldly goods which we possesse What shall we have What will they afford us Onely a shrowd and a coffin or a Tomb at the most But welfare a good Conscience that will live and die with us or rather live when we are dead and when we rise again it will appear with us at Gods Tribunal And when neither Friends nor a full purse can do us any good then a good Conscience will stick close to us The captivated Soul restless till it be in Christ Iesus THere is mention made of a certain Bird in Egypt near the River Nilus called Avis Paradisi for the beauty of its feathers having in it as we say all the colours of the Rainbow the Bird of Paradise which hath so pleasant and melodious notes that it raiseth the affections of those that hear it Now this Bird if it chance to be any way ensnared or taken it never leaves mourning and complaining till it be delivered Such is the Soul of every Regenerate Man if it be taken by Sathan or overtaken by the least of Sins weaknesse or infirmity it is restlesse with the Spouse in the Canticles no sleep shall come into the eye nor any slumber to the eye-lids till Reconciliation be made with God in Christ Iesus Sin of a dangerous spreading Nature A Mongst many other diseases that the body is incident unto there is one that is called by the name of Gangrena which doth altogether affect the joynts against which there is no remedy but to cut off that joynt where it settled otherwise it will passe from joynt to joynt till the whole body is endangered Such is the nature of Sin which unlesse it be cut off in the first motion it proceedeth unto action from action to delectation from delight unto custome and from that unto habite which being as it were a second Nature is never or very hardly removed without much prayer and fasting Lex talionis MAxentius that cruel Tyrant coming with an Army against Constantine the Great To deceive him and his Army he caused his Souldiers to make a great bridge over Tyber where Constantine should passe and cunningly laid planks on the Ships that when the Army came upon the planks the ships should sink and so
this reason For that obedience is alwaies more faithful and acceptable which floweth from love then that which is extorted by fear Thus in the correction of Children and servants if there be no other help Iustice must be observed First that there is a fault committed and that the fault so committed deserveth punishment and that the punishment do not exceed the quality of the fault which will otherwise seem to rage and revenge then to chastise â—or amendment Christians not to revile and reproach one another IT is a notable speech of one Nemon that was a Generall of the Persian Army that when he was fighting against Alexander one of his Souldiers run upon Alexander's face with much ill language and many opprobrious terms the General hearing of it smote him on the face saying I did not hire thee to reproach Alexander but to fight against him Thus if an Heathen could not endure to hear that his Enemy should be reproached How much lesse will God bear it to have his Children reproaching one another It was therefore a brave speech of Calvin Etiamsi Lutherùs vocet me Diabolum c. Although Luther call me Devill yet I will honour him as a dear Servant of Iesus Christ And so though those that are our brethren do cast Reproach upon us we should honour the Grace of God in them and not cast reproach upon them again It is more then enough that the briars and thorns of the Wildernesse such as are without do tear the Flesh and rend the good names of Christians let not them do it then one unto another A Child of God bettered by Afflictions STars shine brightest in the darkest night Torches are better for the beating Grapes come not to the proof till they come to the Presse Spices smell sweetest when pownded young Trees root the faster for shaking Vines are the better for bleeding Gold looks the brighter for scowring Glow-worms glister best in the dark Iuniper smells sweetest in the Fire Pomander becomes most fragrant for chasing The Palm-Tree proves the better for pressing Camomile the more you tread it the more you spread it Such is the condition of all Gods Children they are then most triumphant when most tempted most glorious when most afflicted most in the favour of God when least in Man's as their Conflicts so their Conquests as their Tribulations so their Triumphs True Salamanders that live best in the Furnace of Persecution so that heavy Afflictions are the bâ—st Benefactors to Heavenly affections And where Afflictions hang heaviest corruptions hang loosest And Grace that is hid in Nature as sweet water in Rose-leaves is then most fragrant when the fire of Affliction is put under to distill it out The great benefit of repentant Tears IT is reported of a River in Sicily wherein if black sheep be but bathed their wooll immediately will turn white And it is well known that the waters of Iordan cleansed the Leprosie of Naaman the Syrian So whosoever he be that bathes himself in the pure Fountain of Repentant tears shall be purged from all the filthinesse of Sin though it be as red as scarlet yet it shall be made as white as wooll And the reason is given by S. Ambrose Quia lacrymae tacitae quaedam preces sunt non pâ—stulant sed merentur non causam dicunt sed consequuntur Our tears are a kind of silent Prayers which though they say nothing yet they obtain pardon and though they plead not a Man's cause yet they procure Mercy from Gods hands as we find in S. Peter Non legitur quid dixerit c. he said nothing that we can read of but wept bitterly and obtained Mercy How to bear the Reproaches of Men. DIonysius having not very well used Plato at the Court when he was gone he feared lest he should write against him and therefore sent after him to bid him have a care how he set out any thing prejudiciall unto him Tell him sayes Plato I have not so much leisure as to think upon him So we should let those that reproach us know so much from us that we have not leisure to think of them and though we should not be insensible yet not to take too much notice of every Reproach that is cast upon us but as when the Viper came upon S. Paul's hand he shook it off so when Reproaches come upon our good names or credits shake them off For it is a dishonour to think upon them as if we had nothing else to do The true Love of God will cause a Man to love his Ordinances IF the wounded Iew in the Parable should have cast away the two pence which the Samaritan left to provide for him it had been an Argument that he neither regarded him nor his kindnesse And it was a sign that Esau loved not God because he esteemed not his birthright Thus the true Love of God is far from us if we set not an high esteem upon his Ordinances those pledges of his favour which he hath left with us to wit the Word and Sacraments the Word wherein we hear him speak lovingly and the Sacraments wherein we see him speak comfâ—rtably to us The Vanity of gay Apparrell IT is a pretty observation of a Iewish Rabbi That it was good policy for husbands to attire themselves below their ability for so they might the sooner â—hrive and to cloath their Children according to their ability so they might the better match them but to maintain their Wives beyond their ability for so perhaps they might live in more peace then they should otherwise do But now it is so that Husbands and Wives Parents and Children Masters and Servants are very vain in the matter of Apparell all of them antick and fantastick in garb and fashion of many whereof it may be truly said That when they have their best cloathes on they are in the very midst of their Wealth Whereas a modest discreet Man goes in a plain Suit but hath rich Linings Reproaches to be born chearfully because God is concerned therein AS a Man going to Sea if he know that the Martiner hath skill that he loves him and hath promised that he will have a care of him and that many others have had experience of his former industry this is much But when he considers that his life is the Marriners life that being both in one bottom if the one perish the other cannot be safe this now is full assurance that as far as the Matriner can do it it shall be well with him Thus in the matter of Reproaches and the cheerful bearing of them Were it that we onely did know that God had a love to us and were mercifull to us that were enough to assure us But when we shall find that as God hath loved us so he hath engaged himself that he will stand by his People in the time of
neither or some kind of Monster betwixt both new devices for gain new wayes of cheating new wayes of breaking So that without all doubt God is devising some new manner of Iudgment as was said of Korah and his complices Numb 16. 29. To blesse God for all THere is a kind of Dialogue betwixt one Doctor Thaulerus and a poor Man that lay begging by the high-way side Good morrow poor Man 〈◊〉 the Doctor I never had any bad morrow said the beggar No sayes the Doctor Thou art a miserable poor Man thou art as good as naked without any cloaths on thy back no Friends nor any one to relieve thee How can it then be true that thou sayest thou never hadst any bad morrow I 'le tell you sayes the beggar Whether I am sick or in health whether it be warm or cold weather whether I be cloathed or naked rich or poor I blesse God for all O but Friend said the Doctor What if Christ should cast thee into Hell If he should sayes he I would be contented but I have two arms the one of Faith the other of Love wherewith I would lay such fast hold on him that I would have him along with me and then I am sure that Hell would be Heaven if he were there And thus it is that we should blesse God at all times in all places upon all occasions and in all conditions as well for years of Dearth as years of Plenty times of Warre as well as times of Peace for Adversity as well as Pâ—osperity in sicknesse and in health in weal and in woe in liberty and restraint whether it be that the Lord giveth or whether he taketh away still to blesse the Name of the Lord. Godlinesse a great mystery and why so THe World hath her mysteries in all Arts and Trades yea Mechanical appertaining to this life which are imparted to none but filiis scientiae Apprentices to them These have their mysteries have them nay are nothing but mysteries So they delight to stile themselves by such and such a Mystery such and such a Craft c. Now if Godlinesse be great gain and profitable unto all things a Trade of good return and in request with all good Men then to be allow'd her Mysteries At least such as all other trades have And the rather for that that there is Mysterium iniquitatis a Mystery of iniquity so that it would be somewhat hard if there were not Mysterium pietatis a Myâ—â—ery of Godlinesse to encounter it That Babylon should be allowed the name of a Mystery and Sion not that there should be profunda Satanae deep things of Satans and there should not be deep and profound things of God and Godlinesse for the Spirit to search out and dive into Apoc. 2. 24. How a Man should demean himself being fallen into bad Company IT is said of Antigonus that being invited to a great Feast where a notable Harlot was to be present he asked Counsel of Menedemus a disâ—reet Man What he should do and how he should behave himself in such Company Who bade him onely to remember this that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Son of a King So good Men may be invited where none of the best may â—eet Many an honest Man may fall into a Knaves company the best counsel is Keep ever in mind that they are Kings Sons Gods Children and therefore it were a base thing for them to be allured by the Wicked to do things unseemly and that they should much degenerate if they should make any sinfull compliance with such as are notoriously wicked The desperate Sinner's madnesse ST Ambrose reports of one Theotymus that being troubled with a sore disease upon his body when the Physitian told him that exâ—ept he did abstain from intemperance as drunkennesse and excesle he was like to lose his eyes his heart was so desperately set upon his sin that he said Vale lumen amicum Farewell sweet light then I must have my pleasure in that Sin I must drink though I drink out my eyes thea farewell eyes and farewell light and all O desperate madnesse for Men to venture upon Sin to the losse not onely of the light of the eye but the light of Gods loving Countenance for evermore It is to be supposed that no Man will be so far owned by his words as to say Farewell God and Christ and eternal life and all I must have my Sin yet though directly they say not so they do in effect say it They know that the Scripture saith that no Drunkard Whoremonger nor Covetous nor unclean person shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven then whosoever that knowing this goeth for all that in such a way doth as it were say Farewell God and Heaven and farewell all that God hath purchased by his bloud rather then I will lose my Sin I will lose all Christ-masse day to be held in remembrance AS Kings keep the day of their Inauguration As Cities have their Palilia when the trench is first cast up And Churche's their Encaenia's when they are first dedicate As Men their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when they first came into the World So all good Christians celebrate the day of Christ's Nativity a day of Joy both in Heaven and on Earth In Heaven for a day of glory unto God on high On Earth for a day of Peace here below and good-will towards Men A day of joy to all People past present and to come such a day as wherein after long expectation the best return was made that ever came to the poor Sons of Men such a day as the Lord himself made let us therefore rejoyce therein How to Feast comfortably JOseph had his Tomb in his Garden to season his delight with Meditations of his death The Egyptians had a Skeleton or carcasse brought into their Feasts for the same purpose At Prester-Iohn's Table a Deaths-head is the first thing set on And Philip had not onely a Boy every Morning but a Dead-Man's skull on his Table every meal to put him in mind of his Mortality And thus ought we all to do mingle our Feasting with the meditation of our Farewell out of this wretched life when we sit at dinner to think of our dissolution and ever â—o set our own carcasse before the eyes of our mind saying within our selves Alas this feeding and Feasting is but a little repairing and propping up of a poor ruinous house that ere long will fall down to the ground and come to nothing Heaven not to be found upon Earth IT is storied of a King of Persia that he must have an imaginary Heaven and thereupon he is at the charge of a stately brave Pallace where in the top he caused the Heavens to be artificially moulded and the Sun Moon and Stars to be painted and under them the clowds that by art moved up and down distilled
Wise Men dying as well as Fools IT is observed concerning Paracelsus a great Physitian and a Man exceedingly well verst in Chymical experiments that he bragg'd and boasted that he had attained to such Wisdome in discerning the Constitutions of Mens bodies and studying remedies that whosoever did follow his rules and keep to his directions should never dye by any disease casually he might and of age he must but he would undertaker to secure his health against all diseases a bold undertaking But he who by his art promised to protect others to the extremity of old age from the arrest of death could not by all his art and skill make himself a protection in the prime of his youth but dyed even as one without wisdome before or when he had seen but thirty Thus it is that Wisemen many times do not onely dye as well as Fools but as Fools without Wisdome They who have most Worldly wisdome usually die with the least in not preparing wisely for death they may be said to have had Wisdome but they die as if they never had had any that is they apply not their Wisdome while they live to fit themselves for their death they die before they understand what it is to live or why they live and so dying unpreparedly they die foolishly Neglect of Restitution condemned A Great Lady in Barbary being a Widow called to her an English Merchant trading in those parts with whom she knew her husband had some commerce and asked him if there were nothing owing to him from her deceased husband He after her much importunity acknowledged what and shewed the particulars She tendered him satisfaction yea and after his many modest refusals as being greatly benefited by the dead Barbarian forced him to take the uttermost penny saying thus I would not have my husbands Soul to seek your Soul in Hell to pay his debts Here now was a Fire in a dark Vault great Zeal in blind Ignorance seeing that by the Candle-light of Nature which S. Augustine delivered long since for a doctrinal Truth Non dimittitur peccatum nisi restituatur ablatum thus in Master Latimers old English Either restitution or Hell But O the sadnesse of these grasping Times Where is the Man that restoreth what is unjustly taken away what hath been indirectly gotten The estates credits goods and good Names of Men are taken away by exactions and slanders but where is the Man that maketh Restitution Zacheus may very well rise up in Judgment against such a griping and exacting generation as this is Luke 19. 8. Wives to love their Husbands cordially IT is not without some significancy that the Church in the solemnity of Marriage ordaineth that there shall be a gold Ring of gold it must be intimating that Love should abound betwixt the Married couple Love the best of graces and round it must be to shew that Love must continue to the end besides this Ring must be put by the Man upon the fourth finger of the Woman signifying also thereby that as there is a vein in that finger which correspondeth with the Heart so she should be cordially affected to her Husband having no thought in that kind of any other man as long as he lives whom God by his Ministery hath given unto her The Wicked Mans Folly in his Worldly choyce WHen an Heir is impleaded for an Ideot the Judge commands an apple or a counter with a piece of gold to be set before him to try which he will take If he take the apple or the counter and leave the gold then he is cast for a Fool and so held by the Judgment of the Court as one that is unable to manage his estate because he knowes not the valew of things or how to make a true election of what is fittest for him in the way of subsistency This is the case of all Wicked Men thus foolish and much more When Bugles and Diamonds counters and gold are before them they leave the Diamonds and the gold and please themselves with toyes and baubles Nay when which is infinitely more sottish Heaven and Hell Life and Death are set before them they choose Hell rather then Heaven and death rather then life they take the mean transitory trifling things of the World before the favour of God the pardon of Sin a part in Iesus Christ and an Inheritance amongst the Saints in light coelestiall Custome in Sin hardly broken off THere is an Apologue how four things meeting boasted their incomparable strength The Oake a Stone Wine and Custome The Oke stood stoutly to it but a blast of wind came and made it bow the Axe felled it quite down Great is the strength of Stones yet gutta cavat a continual dropping wears them away and a hammer beats them to pieces Wine overthrowes Gyants and strong Men Senators and Wise Men et quid non pocula possunt yet sleep overcomes Wine But Custome invicta manet remains unconquered Hence it was that the Cretians when they cursed their Enemies did not wish their houses on fire not a sword at their hearts but that which in time would bring on greater woes that mala consuetudine delectentur they might be delighted with an ill Custome And to say truth Custome in Sin is hardly broken off When Vices are made manners the disease is made incurable When through long trading and Custome in Sin neither Ministery nor misery nor miracle nor Mercy can possibly reclaim a Man may very truly write on that Soul Lord have mercy on it For Custome is not another nurture but another Nature and what becomes Natural is not easily reduced It is the principall Magistrate of Mans life the guide of his actions and as we have inured our selves at the first setting out in this World so commonly we go on unlesse we be turned by Miracle and changed by that which is onely able to do it the Grace of God Wives to be subject to their Husbands WHen the Sun is down the Moon takes upon her the Government of the Heavens and out-shines the Stars yet not without borrowing her best light from the Sun but when the Sun appears she vailes her light and by degrees vanisheth out of sight So the Wife in her husbands absence shines in the Family tanquam inter ignes Luna minores like the fair Moon amongst the lesser Stars but when he comes in it will be her modesty to contract and withdraw her self by leaving the Government to him onely Cardinall Wolsey's Ego et Rex meus I and my King is insupportable in the Politiques so I and my husband is insufferable in the Oeconomicks For let but the Moon get the upper hand of the Sun the Wife over her husband the glory of that Family must needs be eclipsed The Safety of Gods people PLutarch in the relation of Alexander's Warrs saith That when he came to
body by course of Nature but still unborn by strength of Love The Father saith Son thou art ever with me but the Mother saith Son thou art ever within me such and so great is the power of Motherly love and affection To have a perfect Knowledg of God impossible WE read in the Prophet Esay of the Sâ—raphins standing about the Throne of the Lord and that each of them had six wings that with twain the Cherub covered the face of God with twain his feet and with twain he did fly intimating as one well noteth on the pâ—ace that with twayn they covered his face the face of God not their own face with two wings they covered his feet not their own feet They covered his face his beginning being unknown they covered his feet his end being incomprehensible onely the middle are to be seen the things which are whereby there may be some glimmering knowledg made out What God is Thus as the Wiseman hath it That which is aâ—ar off and exceeding deep Who can find it out Who can find out What God is The knowledg of him à priori is so far off that he whose arm is able to break even a bow of steel is not able to reach it so far off that he who is able to make his nest with the Eagle is not able to fly unto it And so exceeding deep that he who could follow the Leviathan could not faddom it that he who could set out the center of the Earth is not able to find it out And who then is able to reach it In a word so far ofâ— and so deep too that the depth saith It is not in me And the Sea saith It is not with me deep to Men and Angels as exceeding the capacity of both Insomuch that S. Augustine saith making out the question What God is gives this answer Certè hic est de quo et quum dicitur non potest dici c. Surely such a one is he who when he is spoken of cannot be spoken of who when he is considered cannot be considered of who when he is compared to any thing cannot be compared and when he is defined groweth greater by defining of him Parents to be carefull in the Instruction of their Children THough Solomon was dear and tender in the eyes of his Parents yet they did not cocker him up but taught him what he should do and what he should not do God knew that Abraham would teach his Children Alexander's Father provides Aristotle to be his Tutor And Theodosius finds out Arsenius to be his Son's School-master Thus it is that good and careful Parents have from time to time been careful to have their Children well instructed ever whetting the Law upon their hearts and seasoning their tender years with Religious Principles O! but there is a love in too too many Parents a doating love which teacheth nothing and there is a government in Parents which looseneth all the reins and suffereth to riot and excesse And there is a pity in Parents a Foolish pity which pardoneth all and punisheth nothing till God come with the sword of his Judgment as he did to the Sons of Eli and kill where the Parents leave uncorrected A strange love to kill their Children with too much kindnesse But good carefull Parents truly love their Children and to prove that love they teach them as thinking them much betâ—er unborn then untaught Fervency in Prayer the prevalency thereof IT is observed of S. Augustine That coming as a Visitant to the house of a sick Man he saw the room full of Friends and Kindred who were all silent yet all Weeping the Wife sobbing the Children sighing the Kinsfolks lamenting all mourning The good Father sodainly uttered this short ejaculatory Prayer Domine quas preces exaudis si non has Lord What Prayers dost thou hear if not these And certainly It is the fervent effectuall Prayer that availeth much It is Zeal that puts the heart into a good temper and apts it for motion which cannot be without an heat it feathers the wings of Prayer and makes it fly swift into Heaven Well may Prayer be the weapon with which we fight and struggle with God but Zeal is that which sets an edge upon devotion and makes it prevalent hence are those usual Phrases of crying wrestling and striving with God all which argue an holy importunity and sacred violence unto Heaven How Christ is said to be the end of the Ceremonial Law THe Earth bringeth forth fruit of it self but first the blade then the ear afâ—er that the full corn on the ear So did the blade or hearb spring out of the Law of Nature the ear or culm in the Law written but we have in the Gospell the pure grain or full corn which is Christ Iesus Therefore as the stalk or ear are of necessary use till the corn be ripe but the corn being ripe we no longer use the chaffe with it So till Christ was exhibited in the Flesh which lay hidden in the blade and spike of the Law the Ceremonies had their use but since that by his death and passion this pure wheat is threshed and wiâ—nowed and by his Ascension laid up in the garner of Heaven they are of no further use The Jews were taught by those shadows that the body should come and we know by the same shadows that the body is come The Arrow moveth whilst it flyes at the mark but having hit the mark resteth in it So the Law which did level and shoot at Christ with so many moveable signs and Sacraments doth as one may say cease from her motion of practising them any more having attained to her full end in Christ Jesus Carnal Unregenerate Men unserviceable both in Church and State IT is the fashion of some vain-glorious Braggadochia-Courtiers that when they go down into the Countrey they do nothing but talk of what Friends they have in Court what power they have with the Lord Protector the Council of State the Lords Commissioners c. filling their mouthes with the names of greatnesse and eminency whereas indeed they have neither command nor the least of power to do any good where they most pretend it Such are all Carnal unregenerate Men let their pretences be never so specious and their discourses never so Heavenly they have no interest with God no encouragement to appear before him no knowledg or acquaintance in the Court of Heaven and therefore no confidence to be helpfull or serviceable to the place or Common-weal wherein they live The Knowledg of God through Faith in Christ the way to true Happinesse THere is a dangerous Harbour in our Seas as Marriners say at whose mouth is the Goodwin out of which the Pilot cannot make forth but he must strike upon the sands unlesse he so steer his Ship that he bring two steepls which stand at a distance
so eeven in his sight that they may seem to be but one And doubtlesse we cannot come to true happinesse without the Knowledg of God through Faith in Christ We shall sink into endlesse errour unlesse we believe God the Father and God the Son to be the same in substance the same true and living God who is our onely Pilot to guide us in this way and teach us all things if all things then this Truth the ground of Truth the Knowledg of the Father and the Son Christ Iesus blessed for ever God a jealous God of his Honour VVHen the Empresse of Constantinople had let slip some words of Contempt against the Valiant Narses that she would make him spin amongst her Maidens It so enraged the injur'd Captain that he protested in his anger he would weave such a web as all their power should never be able to undo And thereupon in a deep revenge brought the Lombards into Italy Thus if the generous of all other injuries can least bear disgraces can it possibly be imagined but that if we speak contemptibly of Gods power if undervaluingly of his Wisedome if complainingly of his provisions if murmuringly of his providence or if impatiently of his corrections but that we do all things that we can to disgrace him and that he will be highly provoked for the same Christ freely discovering himself to all that truely seek him WHen Ennius sought his Friend at his house and asked his servant where his Master was the Master said to his servant Tell him I am not at home Which speech Ennius over-heard but took the answer from the servant Next day the same Man comes to Ennius his house and asked his servant where his Master was Ennius spake aloud Tell him I am not at home What sayes he will you deny yourself with your own tongue Why not said Ennius I believed when but your Man told me you were not at home and will not you believe me which say so myself Thus the Ministers and servants of Iesus Christ should shew Christ to all that diligently seek him but if there be any such as that servant which denied his Masters presence when he knew where he was as some which for belief in God bring Men to Romanam Ecclesiam Catholicam the Romane Catholick Church for Faith in Jesus Christ to Papa non potest errare the Pope cannot erre yet Christ is like Ennius he cannot deny himself he shewed himself to those wicked trayterous Iews that sought his life and surely he will make a gratious discovery of himself to those that truely seek him Sin to be looked on as it is fierce and cruel IT is usual with us to conceive of a Lyon or a Bear or a Dragon as indeed they are fearfull and terrible beasts but if we should see them painted on a wall they would not in the least dismay us though the Painter should use and bestow the best of his Art and the utmost of his skill in the laying of his colours to make them look most fierce And why because we know they are but painted And thus it is that the most of men look upon Sin as a dead thing onely painted out by the Oratory of witty Preachers and therefore they are nothing at all troubled But if they should chance to meet a living Bear or Lion in some open place gaping and ready to devour it would amaze them Just such is Sin of a murthering destroying Nature let every Man labour to see the life of it the danger of it the fierce gaping mouth of it and then it will make them to run for safety by repentance The book of Scripture to be preserved above all other books FRancis the first King of France questioned Budeus a good Scholler of his time that if all the Volumes in the World were doomed to the fire what one would he have his answer was Plutarch's works because they had the impression of all sciences And Thomas Aquinas chose rather to have Saint Chrysostome on Saint Matthews Gospel then the huge City of Paris Here now was a couple of Schollers choice But if the like Quaere were put to a sincere downright Christian his reply would be Epistolam Creatoris ad Creaturas the Epistle of the Creator to the Creature i. e. the book of holy writ not Lipsius de Constantia not Seneca de tranquillitate animi nor Boethius de consolatione animae would he make choice of but the holy Scriptures knowing very well that in them he shall find the way to everlasting life Sin and the Sinner very hardly parted OBserveable is the story of Phaltiel David had married Michol Saul injuriously gave her to another When David came to the Crown and was able to speak a word of command he sends for his wife Michol her husband dares not but obey brings her on her journey and then not without great reluctancy of spirit takes his leave of her But what Was Phaltiel weary of his wife that he now forsakes her No he was enforced and though she were gon he cast many a sad thought after her and never leaves looking till he sees her as far as Bahurim weeping and bemoaning her absence Thus Carnal and Unregenerate Men though for fear or some other Reasons they shake hands with their Sins yet they have many a longing heart after them they part and yet they are loath to part assunder Hence it is that as the Merchant throws away his goods in a storm because he cannot keep them So they in the times of sicknesse and distresse when the Sea grows high and the Tempest rageth when they begin to apprehend what Death is and what Hell is and know unlesse the Vessel be leighed they cannot be safe then they are hard at work heave overboard their Usury their drunkennesse their swearing and such like stuffe not out of hatred to them but love to themselves For if they could but continue in their Sins and be saved when they have done they would never part with them all How it is and why God loves us THe Ethnicks feign that their Gods and Goddesses for some lovely good loved certain Trees Jupiter the Oak for durance Neptune the Cedar for stature Apollo the Laurel for greennesse Venus the Poplar for whitenesse Pallas the Vine for fruitfulnesse But what should move the God of all gods to love us poor Wildings in this Fools Paradise here below Trees indeed but such as Saint Jude mentions corrupt fruitlesse twice dead and pluck'd up by the roots S. Bernard resolves it in three words Amat quia amat he loves us because he loves us The root of Love to us lieth in himself and by his communicative goodnesse the fruit is ours Naturall perswasions the invalidity of them in the point of true believing A Roman writ to Tully to inform him in something concerning the Immortality of the Soul Tully writ
as do but plunge them further and deeper into such a Labyrinth of evils out of which they seldome or never get out again The great benefit of timely accompting with God A Merchant or Tradesman that at leisure times casteth up and ballanceth his Accompts and brings all to one entire summe is at any time ready if on a sodain he be called to a Reckoning though he have not time or leisure then amidst many distractions otherwise to run over Accompts or to cast up the particulars yet to tell how things stand with him it requires no more then the bare reading he needs not stand to recount it being sure it was well and truly cast up before So he that hath before-time truly examined his own estate and made up the Accompt betwixt God and his own Soul may thereby know how it standeth with him in regard of God by calling to mind onely the issue of his former Examination when by reason of disturbance and distraction through the violence of Temptation he shall have small liberty and lesse leiâ—ure to take any exact tryall or proof of it at the present Ignorance especially in the wayes of God reproved SOcrates being asked What was the most beautiful Creature in the world He answered A Man deck'd and garnished with Learning And Diogenes being demanded What burthen the Earth did bear most heavy replyed An ignorant and illiterate Man Now if these Philosophers did thus judge of the excellency of Knowledge and vilenesse of Ignorance How should Christians blush for very shame that having lived so long in the School of Christ trod so often upon the threshold of Gods Sanctuary and sate so many years under the droppings of Gospel-dispensations they should yet be found ignorant of Christ and of the wayes to everlasting happinesse All the Creatures subservient to the good Will and Pleasure of God IT is reported of the River Nilus that it makes the Land barren if in ordinary places it either flow under fifteen cubits or above seventeen And therefore that Prester-Iohn through whose Country it runneth and in which it ariseth from the Hills called The Mountains of the Moon can at his pleasure drown a greâ—t part of Egypt by letting out into the River certain vast Ponds and Sluces the receptacles of the melted snow from the Mountains Which that he may not do The Turks who are now the Lords of Egypt pay a great tribute unto him as the Princes of that Land have done time out of mind which tribute when the great Turk denyed to pay till by experience he found this to be true he was afterwards forced with a greater summe of Money to renew his peace with that Governour of the Abussines and to continue his ancient pay The truth of this Relation may be questionable but this we are all bound to believe That the great Emperour of Heaven and Earth who sits above us can at his pleasure make our Land and all the Regions of the Earth fruitful or barren by restraining or letting loose the influences of his blessings from above At his Command the winds blow and again are husht the Ayr pours down rain or sends Mildews upon the Earth and it rests in his power to make our Land barren if we continue disobedient or to fructifie it more and more if we repent He hath dams and ponds yea an Ocean of Judgments in store which he can when it seems him good let down upon us to make both the Land fruitlesse and the Soul it self accursed that rebelleth Not onely Fire or hail or lightning or Thunder or Vapours or Snow or stormy winds blasting or Mildews but even whole Volleys or Volumes of Curses more then can be numbred are prest to do his Will to afâ—lict and vex them that grieve his holy Spirit by their sins and daily prâ—vocations Heaven a place of Holinesse IT was a good Inscription which a bad Man set upon the door of his house Per me nihil intret malt Let no evil passe through me Whereupon said Diogenes Quomodo ingredietur Dominus How then shall the Master get into his own house A pertinent and ready answer How it agrees with our Mansions upon Earth let every Man look to that But most sure it is that no unclean thing can enter into Heaven whatsoever is there is holy the Angels holy the Saints holy the Patriarks holy the Confessors Martyrs all holy but the Lord himself most holy and blessed to whom all of them as it were in a divine Antheme sing and say Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty Heaven and Earth are full of the Majesty of the glory God a sure fast Friend IT is usuall with Men to make towards a Sun-dyall whilest onely the Sun shineth And with Women to make much of Flowers and to put them in their bosomes whilâ—st they are grâ—en and flourishing but when once withered they cast them upon the dunghill But the Almighty deals not so with his Friends yea when their danger is greatest his help is nearest And though oft-times the case is so desperate that Friends society can onely afford pity not succour they may look on they cannot take off but the presence of God is ever active and powerfull And whereas most Faithful Friends part at death this Friend will not leave us David knew he would be with him in the shadow of death and S. Paul assureth us that neither death nor life shall separate his love not onely when we walk through the pleasant meadow of Prosperity but when we go through the salt-waters of Aâ—â—liction nay when we passe Mare mortuum the Sea of death he will be with us It is the deriding question which the Saints enemies put to them in the time of Affliction Ubi Deus Where is now their God but they may return a confident answer Hic Deus Our God is here nigh unto us round about us in the midst of us It was his promise to Ioshua then and is since repeated by S. Paul as belonging to all the Faithful I will never leave thee nor forsake thee To rely upon Gods blessing notwithstanding all opposition WHen an Alderman of London was given to understand by a Courtier that the King in his displeasure against the City threatned thence to divert both Term and Parliament to Oxford he asked Whether he would turn thither the channel of the Thames or no if not said he by the grace of God we shall do well enough Thus when either Envy of meaner Men repiâ—eth or the Anger of greater persons rageth against our lawful thriving we shall do well to remember That there is a River which shall make glad the City of God a current I mean of Gods blessings which whilest he vouchsafeth to our honest labours and legal Callings no malice of Man or Devill shall be able to stop or avert For whilest this blessed River of God keeps its
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
fair impression once so visibly seen may not at present appear yet all this marrs not the evidence nor ought to weaken the assurance of Heaven for there it shall go currant and hold out in the matter of right as a greater fairer and fuller because it was once as good as any and once loved ever loved to the end Christ a sure pay-master IT is reported of a certain godly Man that living near to a Philosopher did often perswade him to become a Christian Oh but said the Philosopher If I turn Christian I must or may lose all for Christ To whom and to which the good Man replyed If you lose any thing for Christ he will be sure to repay it an hundred fold I but said the Philosopher Will you be bound for Christ that if he do not pay me you will Yes that I will said the other So the Philosopher became a Christian and the good Man entred into bond for performance of Covenants Some time after it so fell out that the Philosopher fell sick on his death-bed and holding the bond in his hand sent for the party engaged to whom he gave up the bond and said Christ hath paid all there 's nothing for you to pay take your bond and cancel it Thus it is that Christ is a sure willing able Pay-master whatsoever any Man ever did for him hath been fully recompensed and put the case so far that a Man should be a loser for Christ yet he shall be no loser by Christ he will make amends for all in the conclusion The Soulâ—s neglect condemned THere is a story of a Woman who when her house was on fire so minded the saving of her goods that she forgot her onely child and left it burning in the fire at last being minded of it she cryes out Oh my child Oh my poor child So it is that the most of Men here in this World scrabble for a little pelf and in the mean time let their Souls be consumed with cares and then at the time of their death cry out Oh my Soul Oh my poor Soul so mad are they so bewitched with the things of this life that while they pamper their bodies they starve their Souls great care is taken to neatiâ—ie the one when the other goes bare enough not having one rag of Righteousnesse to cover it so that many times under a silken and Sattin Suit there 's a very coorse Soul in a clean house a sluttish Soul under a beautifull face a deformed Soul but all such will one day find that he that winneth the world with the losse of his Soul hath but a hard bargain of it in the conclusion How our love to the Creature is to be regulated RIvers that come out of the Sea as they passe along do lightly touch the Earth but they stay not there but go on forward till at last they return again into that Sea from whence they first came Thus it is that our love must first come from God to the Creature yet being so come it must not rest and settle there however like a River it may in passage touch it no it must return back again into that infinite Sea even God himself whence it first came All Creatures therefore are to be loved in God and for God onely so that the love of the Creature must be so far from taking any thing from the love of God that rather it must confirm and encrease the same And then is the love of the Creature truly regulated when it is referred to the Creator when it may be said We love not so much the Creature as the Creator in the Creature How to demean our selves after we are sealed by the Spirit LOok but upon a poor Countryman how solicitous he is if it be but a bond of no great value to keep the Seal fair and whole But if it be of an higher nature as a Patent under the broad Seal or the like then to have his box his leaves and wooll and all care is used that it take not the least hurt And shall we then make slight reckoning of the Holy Ghost's seal vouchsasing it not that care do not so much for it as he for his bond of five Nobles the matter being of such high concernment Let us then being well and orderly sealed by the Spirit be careful to keep the signature from defacing or bruising not to suffer the evill Spirit to set his mark put his print with his image and superscription upon it then not to carry the seal so loosely as if we cared not what became of it And whereas we are signati to be close and fast not to suffer every trifling occasion to break us up not to have our Souls to lye so open as all manner of thoughts may passe and repasse through them without the least reluctation Rulers Magistrates c. to stand up for the cause of the Poor and needy IT is an Honourable memorial that Iames the fifth K. of Scots hath left behind him that he was called The poor Man's King And it is said of Radolphus Habspursius that seeing some of his Guard repulsing divers poor persons that made towards him for relief was very much displeased and charged them to suffer the Poorest to have accesse unto him saying That he was called to the Empire not to be shut up in a chest as reserved for some few but to be where all might have freedom of resort unto him And thus as great Persons are in Scripture expressed by the Sun which affordeth his influence so well to the lowest shrub as to the tallest Cedar shines as comfortably upon the meanest Cottage as the stateliest Pallace that amongst other good things done by them they may be renowned to Posterity for being the Poor man's Advocate eyes to the blind feet to the lame alwayes ready to right and relieve those that have no other means to right and relieve themselves but by flying to them for shelter The Vanity of all Worldly greatnesse AS it is in a Lottery the Place with the great basin and ewer make a glistering shew and are exposed to the publique view of all and if a Man by chance light on a prize it is usually no great matter onely it is drummed out and trumpetted abroad to tell the World and this is the glory of it Even so if some of those many that venture hard for Honours and struggle for greatnesse do speed it is no such great matter onely the businesse is trumpetted out told abroad and the World hath some apprehension of it but the wisest of Mortals found this also amongst other things to be vanity a supposed excellence which hath no true being accompanied with cares and cumber the object as well of Envy as esteem the happinesse of all such greatnesse consisting in this that it is thought happy rather then that it is so indeed The