invidentiae a murmur of envy against our neighbours when wee think they are in a better condition then wee are wee dislike it The Grecians murmured against the Jewes because their women were neglected Acts 6. 1. Cain murmured because Abels sacrifice was accepted and his was not Judas murmured at the box of Spicknard that was bestowed upon our Lord. The elder brother of the prodigall child murmured that the fat calf should be killed for his riotous brother that had spent his fathers goods among harlots This people murmured thus against Moses and Aaron They envied Aaron the Saint of the Lord and murmured against Moses in their tents This wee speake not of now this was no◠〈…〉 or envie What murmur was it then The other two First a murmuring of displeasure and discontent against God And then a murmur of disobedience both against God and against the Magistrate First I say it was a murmur of discontent against God and a fearefull murmur you shall seldome heare of the like I pray marke this When God promised them the land at any time hee usually promiseth it to them out of his love Because God loved the fathers therefore hee chose the seed Deuter. c. 4. ver 37. In another place Deuter. 7. ver 8. The Lord set his love upon you not because you were many for you were the fewest of all people but because bee loved you therefore hee brought you out of the land of Egypt I thinke there was never Nation had so many sensible demonstrations of Gods love as this people had Doe you think that God would have brought them out of the land of bondage with such a mighty out-stretched arme if he had not loved them Doe you think he would have made a way for them in the sea and afterward have fed them with bread from heaven and given them water out of the rock and have guided them with a pillar of fire in the night and a pillar of a cloud in the day if hee had not loved them Doe you think hee would have appeared to them in fire and have spoken to them in an audible voice out of Mount Sinai and have chosen them there to be a peculiar people to him of all the people in the earth if hee had not loved them You will say Who doubted of this love O I pray you heare this people hearken to this people out of their impatience and impatiency is ever full of misconstructions they impute all this that God had done to the very hatred of them Would you thinke it Look in Deut. c. 1. ver 27. Because God hated us therefore hee brought us out of Egypt to destroy us with the Amorites O sinfull Nation worthy to be hated indeed not worthy to be loved that takes Gods love thus for hatred This was the murmur of impatiency The murmur of disobedience against God and the Magistrate was in these words O that wee had died in the wildernesse O that wee were dead They were but affraid of death and they might have lived if they had beleeved they were but affraid of death and for feare they should die they wish O that wee were dead The like murmuring you shall finde oft times of this people Fourty yeares long was God grieved and vexed with their continuall murmuring One while they murmured for want of water after they had water then they murmur at the bitternesse of the water One while they murmur for want of bread another time they had bread and the bread of Angels the bread of heaven then they murmur because they had nothing but bread One while they murmur at the government of Moses and Aaron God punished them for that murmuring then they murmur againe because God punished them They murmur at the tediousness of the way from Egypt to Cadesh-Barnea now they murmur because they may not goe from Cadesh-Barnea to Egypt againe Thus they were like swine For as the swine whether full or empty waking or sleeping is ever grunting so this people were still murmuring The Apostle 1 Corinth chap. 10. ver 10. saith that this is written for our example that wee should not murmur as they murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer Brethren beware of this sin of murmuring I will not speake of the murmuring of envie you have in this Psalme v. 16. They murmured one against another I doe not speake of that but I begin First beware of that murmuring of disobedience Children take heed how you murmur against your Parents Servants take heed how you murmur against your Masters Subjects take heed how you murmur against your Soveraigne Let nothing saith the Apostle be done with murmuring and reasoning Doe all things without murmurings and disputings Phil. chap. 2. ver 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Chrysostome on that place excellently It is a grievous sin that same murmuring It is better saith hee there for a man not to have his worke done then done with murmuring The voice of murmuring is but a low voice it is not loud it is rather muttered then uttered it is but a low voice It may be the man heares thee not against whom thou murmurest But it is said The Lord heard the voice of this peoples murmuring Deuteronomy chap. 1. And the Author of the book of Wisedome excellently There is quoth hee auris zeli an eare of jealousie hee speakes of divine jealousie and that is a jealousie as hot as fire and there is an eare of a Jealous God and the voice of murmuring saith hee shall not be hid therefore saith hee in the next verse Beware of murmuring There is not such a secret thought that shall goe for nought If wee must give an account to God for every idle word surely wee shall give an account to God for words of desperate murmuring That is for the one Beware of that murmuring of disobedience Then of the other Beware above all of that murmuring of impatience There are a generation of men that cannot be troubled with any thing that they would not be troubled with nor can they want any thing that they would have they must not be crossed with wet nor dry with wind nor raine with foule nor faire weather but their mouths are presently set against heaven and they will not stick to charge God foolishly as the people did that God hates them I pray let mee onely give you a few remedies against this impatient murmuring The first is this Consider that that same Discipline of God at which wee murmur is from God Affliction comes not out of the dust as Eliphaz speakes There is nothing befalls thee in thine estate but it comes from a Divine power and is guided by a most wise providence and wilt thou murmur at it The very savage beast that is ready to flee at the throat of a stranger will endure it selfe to be stricken and beaten by his keeper Surely thou art worse then a beast if thou wilt not suffer God thy Father and thy Maker and
to fall that hee might look with an eye of compassion upon sinners Then lastly It pleased God to suffer him to fall thus that hee might be a warning to us Quomodò tener Agnus c. Alas how shall the tender Lamb doe when the Bell-wether of the flock is thus endangered If Aaron the saint of the Lord as hee is called in this Psalme a man so familiarly acquainted with God and divine visions and a man that had been so powerfull with Moses in working miracles a man that approached so near to God a man so long conversant with God a man that had gone of so many errands of God as hee did with Moses to Pharaoh If so holy and so great a man as hee fell into so great a sinne as this then let us learn to worke out our salvation with feare and trembling Howle Firr-tree saith the Prophet when the Cedar fals Be not high-minded but feare It is the use wee are to mak of it So much for the first circumstance The second circumstance is Where they made this calfe In Horeb. There ran all along in Arabia a ridge of mountaines it was but one mountain but there were two great tops of it Sinai was one and Horeb was the other and you shall finde them sometime called by the one name and sometimes by the other sometimes the whole mountaine is called by the name of Sinai sometimes all the mountaine is called by the name of Horeb sometime by the one top sometime by the other Now this is a thing to be observed they were not gone yet from Horeb the law was given in Sinai but a little before where the Lord charged them out of the fire Thou shalt not make an Image to me they were but at the foot of the hill and had not tarried there much above a month after the law was given they saw mount Sinai before them that was the higher top and they could not but remember how mount Sinai was all on a smoaking fire and flame and with what earnestnesse God had charged them Thou shalt not make any similitude of mee they were not yet gone altogether from the mountaine they were yet in Horeb and yet you see as it is ver 13. They made haste and forgat God and fell to this sinne so saith God to Moses Goe get the downe this people are quickly gone out of the way Exod. 32. 7. You may see it in this I stand not upon that point The third circumstance is Whereof did they make this calfe They made it of their golden eare-rings Pull off the golden ear-rings saith he from your wives and your sonnes and your Daughters and give them to mee No doubt of it but the servant of God Aaron would faine by this have diverted them from making them a calfe Hee would faine have turned them from it if hee could Hee knew that all those people in those Easterne parts were much delighted in ornaments in eare-rings they say they weare them usually there to this day And suppose hee could perswade the men to be content to part with their ornaments out of their eares yet he thought it impossible to get the women to part with theirs What for a woman to part with her jewels and ornaments This seems a thing impossible You see they are so desirous of them they will many of them pinch their bellies that they may lay somewhat more upon their backes We know there are many that had rather their bellies should want sufficient sustenance then their backes a superfluous ornament You see what a hard matter it is to get women to leave an idle instrument or a bagge of vanity that they carrie about with them but to leave their jewels to part with their ornaments hee never thought they would doe it though the men might part from theirs yet they all do both men and women Wee may observe how easily men and women will part with any thing to maintaine Idolatry I cannot tell whether it be as that Father imagined the pride of our hearts that wee are in love with the workes of our owne hands with the devices of our owne braine with the invention of our own spirits that because they are our own we like them Or whether it be the vigilancy of the divell that roaring lyon that goes about seeking whom he may devoure or what else is the cause I know not but this I know men are more willing to part with any thing to an Idoll to a superstitious worship then to the true worship and service of God And for this cause Idolatry may fitly be compared to whoredome You see a whore-monger will be pinching and sparing enough to his wife and children at home but he cares not how expensive and excessive and lavish he be upon his whores abroad Thus it is in spirituall whoredome men are never so niggardly as in the worship of God but they are content to part with any thing for the maintaining of Idolatry This forwardnesse of this people even to pull their very eare-rings out of their eares to bestow upon an Idoll it will rise up and condemne us that are not willing to pull any thing out of our purses to the worship and service of God Many men in this liberall age we live in are content with the Wise men to take a great journey to see Christ peradventure they are content to fall downe and worship him but they are not willing with those Wise-men to open their treasures Speake to them of opening their treasures whether for works of piety to God or of charity to men then they stand at it as Naaman the Assyrian Nay the Lord be mercifull to me for that Brethren I could speak a great deale more to this purpose but I am loath to trouble you Then besides I know how unnecessary this is in this place I have had many a time here twice especially a plentifull experience of your forwardnesse I have seene how your hearts have beene enlarged in bounty towards the enlarging of this place towards the maintenance of the Ministery and service of God in this place I need not speake of that now But yet I will exhort you now to a worke of charity Do you remember the Briefe that was read even now for that poore towne of Cambridge Me thought your hearts did even yearne within you with pity and compassion to heare of almost 3000. poore distressed soules brought into this extreame misery through the The great plague in Cambridge Aug. 1630. hand of * God Brethren I need say no more I beseech you give us that are your servants in ordinary here in the worke of the Ministery both of the one side and of the other we are all brought up in the Universities I pray give us leave to repaire to your houses and If there be any consolation of Christ any comfort of love any fellowship of the Spirit any communion of Saints any bowels any mercy fulfill our joy
us And let us take heed that the pleasures of this land make us not forget him I pray marke When ever God shewes to his people the commodities of this pleasant land of Canaan that hee would give them as in Deuter. c. 8. hee gives them this charge When thou art come into that good land and findest it a land of springs and fountaines of wheat and barley of pomegranats and vines and fig-trees a land the stones whereof are Iron and out of whose mountaines thou mayest dig brasse When thou hast eaten and art full then take heed that thou forgettest not the Lord thy God that gave thee that good land It is an easie matter to forget God in abundance Nimia bonorum copia ingens malorum occasio too too great plenty of good is too too great an occasion of ill That same abundance of good things that should make us remember our good God makes us forget him Then take another lesson with you and I have done with it that is Take heed that wee defile not this good land Were a land never so pleasant were it a more pleasant land then this land of Judea were it the very Eden the garden of God if it once come to be defiled with sinnes of an high nature Gods soule can take no pleasure in it I conclude this point with that exhortation that David a little before his death gave to the Over-seers of the people assembled together And now quoth hee here before the Congregation of Israel and in the Audience of your God I give you this charge That you seeke the Commandements of God and keepe them that you may enjoy the good things of this land and continue them to inherite to your children and to your childrens children for ever 1 Chron. 28. 8. This is the first thing the sinne of theirs in despising this land it was a fearefull sinne in regard the land was a pleasant land The sin was yet a little more fearefull I can but touch this point if you consider how they despised this land in regard of the house of bondage whence they came They knew their usage in Egypt well enough they knew how they were loaden there with burthens and blowes and injuries so loaden that their very lives were bitter to them as the Scripture saith all the while they were in Egypt yet forsooth they will forsake this pleasant land to goe back againe to the house of bondage If they had despised this pleasant land in regard of something that had been better it had been well done If a man despise the faire beautifull wife that lies in his bosome out of love to Christ and the Gospell from the which that wife would seeke to draw him hee should doe well to despise her Hearken what our Lord saith Hee that forsakes not father and mother and wife and children and all for my sake and the Gospels he is not worthy of mee hee cannot be my disciple Luke 14. 26. But if a man despise this faire beautifull wife out of love to a foule baggagely strumpet this is a sin an untolerable abominable sin If this people had despised this good land this pleasant land in regard of heaven of an heavenly country O they had done well in that their fathers are commended for doing that Abraham Isaac and Jacob the Apostle saith of them They regarded not that good land of Canaan they tooke themselves there to be like pilgrims and strangers they regarded not that They sought for a better country the heavenly one Hebrews 11. ver 16. If I say they had despised this pleasant land in regard of heaven they had done well in it but to despise it in regard of Egypt though it was a fruitfull land wee deny it not though it was a plentifull land yet in regard it was the land of their servitude and bondage wherein they had been so ill used and out of which God brought them with such a mighty hand and out-stretched arme to despise this pleasant land in regard of this O that wee had died in Egypt this was a thing that made God lift up his hand that for this they should never come to the land of Promise This was the sin of them And brethren is it not our sinne too You heard how the people despised the good land God promised them and you thinke this was a great sin of them to doe it and you will say more when you heare the words following But are not wee guilty of the same sin too Hath not God promised us a country a better country then this That same better country that the Apostle speakes of when hee saith Abraham Isaac and Jacob sought a better country Hath not God promised us a Canaan not a terrestriall but a celestiall Canaan a Kingdome of heaven And we say of the fruits of the land O they are glorious fruits O what a blessed country is that O how happy are they that are in heaven Wee all say it is a goodly country If some of these countries upon earth are such Paradises O what a Paradise is that in heaven What a country is that Yet though God hath promised us that country when wee are told it is hard coming by it and we must fight for this country before wee come to it and that not with flesh and bloud those sons of Anak those mighty men but with Principalities and powers with the divell with the world with the flesh that we must forsake our selves and forsake all that stands in the way father and mother and wife and children and through many afflictions come to it O then we despise this good land nay wee despise it in regard of the earth Shall I saith the worldling looke after an uncertainty in heaven and lose my certainty here upon earth Must I forsake such a sin that brings me in profit Must I forsake such sins as bring me pleasure upon earth No let others seek heaven if they will let me have earth Thus they crie for earth and thus they preferre the spirituall Egypt of this world before the celestiall Canaan the Kingdome of heaven Thus wee preferre a mess of pottage before our birth-right and our swine with the Gergasens before Christ and these vaine transitory joyes before the joyes of the Kingdome of heaven that cannot be conceived and shall never be ended To which eternall joyes the Lord for his mercies sake and for his Christs sake bring us FINIS PSAL. 106. 24 25. Yea they despised the pleasant land they beleeved not his Word But murmured in their tents and hearkned not unto the voice of the LORD c. YOU have in these verses foure sins of this people Wee have done with the first of them which was this They despised the pleasant land I now goe on to the next sinne which is their Unbeliefe They beleeved not his Word That word was a word of promise that promise was a particular promise of the land they did not beleeve
being in the state of Nature But a man doth good to the soule when he doth communicate such a thing as may be a means of a wel-being here in the state of grace and of his eternall wel-being hereafter in the state of glory Now to doe good both to the soule and body of thy brother forget not for with such sacrifice c. I begin with the soule first that is the principall part Doest thou see thy brother ignorant of some truth that hee should know that is necessary to salvation Thou canst not doe him a greater good then to instruct him Doest thou see him doubtfull what to doe Why then doe him good to direct him Doest thou see them over-taken with some infirmity Why then restore them againe as the Apostle saith Brethren if any of you be over-taken with infirmity you that are spirituall restore such a man The Greek word is put him in ioynt againe hee is out of ioynt set him right put him in ioynt with the spirit of meeknesse and gentlenesse Doest thou see thy brother unruly and rush into sinne as the horse into the battaile Thou mayest doe a great deale of good to admonish and reprove him to pluck him as Iude saith in his Epistle out of the fire that hee perish not Doest thou see thy poore brother feeble and weak-hearted Thou shalt doe a great deale of good then to encourage him Doest thou see him deiected and cast downe and almost swallowed up of despaire Thou canst not doe a greater good then comfort him These things you may doe And if thou see thy brother past all help from men then thou canst not doe a greater good then to pray and beg help for him at Gods hand And in very deed that sweet Communion of Saints that we believe in the Creed I believe the Communion of Saints that Communion of Saints appears in nothing more then the doing of good thus to the soule one man of another to edifie and build up one another in our holy faith to exhort one another to holinesse of life to provoke one another to love and good works to comfort one another in sicknesse to mourne one over another for your corruptions This they may doe when they are together And then pray one for another and that they may do when they are a thousand miles asunder This is the Communion of Saints Thus wee may doe good to the soules of our brethren and to doe this good to the soules of your brethren forget not with this sacrifice God is well pleased To the body we may doe good in the outward estate many wayes I will think of these three especially First wee may doe them good defendendo by defending of our brother by defending his person from violence by defending his goods from ruine by defending his name from reproach and dishonour Pro. 24. 11. Deliver him that is appointed to die if it be in thy power Deliverance it is a thing that holy Iob among other works of his hee speaks of this I delivered the poore when hee cryed and helped him that was fatherlesse I brake the iawes of the wicked in pieces and took the prey out of his teeth If thou canst doe it by thy calling if thy calling will allow thee to doe it thou art bound to doe it to doe that good to right them when they suffer wrong either in their person or goods or good name if it be in thy power to right thy brother doe good that way defend him That is one way Secondly thou mayest doe good accommodando by lending and indeed sometimes a man may doe as much good by lending as by giving And this is a work of mercy that God requires of his people mark that place Deut. 15. 7 8. Thou shalt not harden thy heart nor shut thy hand from thy poore brother But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need in that which he wanteth Thou shalt help and help him wide so the word is Thou shalt open wide to thy brethren and shalt surely lend to them The Originall word doubles it in lending thou shalt lend that is thou shalt surely lend and lend sufficiently according to his need So the Old Testament And Christ in the New Testament saith Lend looking for nothing again Luke 6. 35. And it is the commendation given to the righteous man A righteous man is mercifull and lendeth Psal 112. 5. but then mark the words that follow after too hee guides his affaires with discretion That is the second way Thirdly a man may doe good donando by free giving Of what That which is according to the necessity of our brother If he be hungry then we shall doe good to feed him to give him bread if hee be thirsty we must give him drink if hee be naked we must give him clothes if hee be sick if it be in our power wee are to give him remedy if hee be dead then to give him buriall decent buriall and among the works of charity and works of mercy you shall ever find reckoned in Scripture the buriall of the dead When the Traitor Iudas grudged at the box of Spikenard that was bestowed upon our blessed Saviour saith hee Let her alone shee hath done a good work towards my buriall And The Lord shew mercy saith David to the men of Iabesh-Gilead because they shewed mercy to his Master Saul What mercy Many they buried his bones It is a work of mercy Thus you see how many wayes there be of doing good and communicating A man may doe good you see to the Publike many wayes And then to the Private a man may doe good to the soule to the body To the soule by instructing by directing by admonishing by reproving by encouraging by comforting by praying for them A man may doe good to the body by defending them from wrong by lending that which is necessary by giving according to their necessity that aske And thus to doe good to the Publike to Private to the soules and bodies of our brethren when it is in our power forget not it is a sacrifice with which God is pleased Seeing there are so many wayes of doing good thus I will set down two Correllaries and Consectaries two things follow on it The first is this Since there are so many wayes of doing good certainly as long as wee live here in this life wee can never want oportunity of doing good some way or other That is the first We cannot want oportunities of doing good there be so many wayes to doe it either a man shall find some ignorant poore body that hee may instruct as David did Come yee children hearken unto mee I will teach you the feare of the Lord. Or a man may find some person wronged whom hee may help and succour as Iob did Or a man may sit in his tent doore and find some stranger passe by that hee may entertaine as Abraham did
reâ—us Temporalibus c. B. Abbot of Sarisbury for his Book in Defence of Master â—â—â—â—ins Bâ—â—ingâ—â—â— for his Workes Bishop cake for his learned Sermons Bishop Davenant for his Praelectiones de duobus in Theologia controversis Capitibus c. and other Tracts Bishop White for his Book against Fisher Bishop Carleton for his Book against Arminianisme The Lord Primate of Armagh never to be mentioned without honour for his unparallel'd Workes and many others whereof some are fallen asleep and some remain to this day and long may they live to the performances of the like services Who hath so plainly discovered unto us a See Bishop Mâ—rton his Book of that Argument THE GRAND IMPOSTURE OF THE now CHURCH OF ROME Who hath so openly laid before us b See his Institution of the Sacrament the superstitious sacrilegious and idolatrous abominations of the Romish Masse Who hath so fully manifested c See his Catholike Appeale with many other of his accurate and learned Treatises against the Romanists the Antiquity of our Religion and satisfied all scrupulous Objections which have been urged against us Who hath so evidently demonstrated d See Bish Downham his Diatribe de Antichristo Bish Abbot of the same Argument the Pope to be The Antichrist Who hath so fully cleared that high point of e See Bish Downham his Treatises of Justification Justification and overthrown the Popish Doctrine of Merits Who hath so clearely set downe f See Bish usher his Historica Explicatio of that subject the beginning progresse and encrease of the mystery of Iniquity from the birth of Antichrist to his full age out of manifold Records of Antiquity Who hath given us so wholesome a g See Bish Hall of the old Religion Preservative against all Popish Insinuations In a word who have more approved themselves the worthiest Champions most willing most ready most able to oppose all Popish Antichristian Arminian Pelagian Doctrine then some of These who have been stiled in the late pamphlets Popish Antichristian Arminian Pelagian Bishops It is no open enemy that hath done this wrong but the men of this Land and children as they would be thought to be of this Church that have dishonoured these Worthies that have been an Honour to this Church and Land As for us Ministers of the Gospel of inferiour rank who have alwaies preached the same divine Truth some of us in the dayes of Queen Elizabeth and have received that mercy from God to be faithfull in holding the same profession without wavering or warping unto this day how are we at this time only because we walk in the way of the Church and study the peace of it desirous to yeeld obedience to God and our Superiours how are wee I say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 brought upon the Stage Heb. 10. 33. traduced as Baals Priests derided contumeliously used reproached in our streets our Churches our Pulpits accounted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the filth of the world and the off-scouring of all things a spectacle to Angels and men But holy Brethren to come to my third point wherein I shall make the use of all this Wee may approve our selves to be the true Ministers of Jesus Christ if that neither honour puffeth us up nor dishonour disheartneth us if neither a good report doth make us proud nor an evill report faint-hearted but can passe through all these honour and dishonour evill report and good report counting nothing in life nor life it selfe dear to us so as we may finish our course with joy and the Ministration which we have received of the Lord Jesus Christ To that end let me tender these things briefly to our consideration First that this vicissitude of honour and dishonour evill report and good report is from the Lord who must be allowed to doe what seemeth good in his eyes The time was wee doe confesse with thankfulnesse that the people did esteem us as the Ministers of Jesus Christ that they knew us and did acknowledge us worthy and accordingly had us in exceeding great love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for our works sake that they might shew that they could have pulled their eyes out of their head to have done us good that they honoured us with much honour and laded us with necessaries and plentifull provision for our encouragement to the worke of the Ministery Have wee received so much good at the hand of God and may we not now with patience receive some evill There is no evill done in the City in this kinde but the Lord hath done it Amos 3. 6. God hath bidden them to curse us and revile us and traduce us and load us with all these contumelies and reproaches and it may be these things being sanctified to us God may doe us good for all our reproaches this day wee should consider that as it cometh not without due desert seeing God is just so it shall not passe away without due profit seeing God is good Consider againe That there is nothing can come from the hand of this God to his servants but it cometh in the nature of a mercy while wee were honoured it was in mercy to encourage us and now wee are dishonoured and our soules filled with contempt it is done in mercy to admonish us to walke both more humbly with God and more warily with men Againe It is but the pride of our hearts that makes us so impatient of every light dishonour for it wee were as wee should be vile in our own eyes it were nothing nothing to be vile in the eyes of others Besides hear what our Lord sayes to his Disciples Blessed are you when men shall say all manner of evill of you falsly for my sake Rejoyce and be glad For so persecuted they the Prophets that were before you Matt. 5. 11 12. The Prophets before the Apostles were thus persecuted the Apostles and all the Worthies since the Apostles dayes have bin so persecuted in their severall Generations and our blessed Lord the Head both of Prophets and Apostles hath been as you heard before persecuted in like manner Now the disciple must not look to be above his Master nor the servant above his Lord. It is enough for the Disciple that hee be as his Master and the servant as his Lord. If they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub how much more shall they call them of his houshold Mat. 10. 24 25. Lastly Behold there is a crown in the right hand of Christ and the word upon it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to him that overcometh Brethren let us hold fast that which we have and let no man take away our crown let us hold on still 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to divide the Word of God aright and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to walk with a right foot in the profession of it Et innocenter agere scienter praedicare not studying so much to have our gifts commended as to have God glorified the consciences of people edified their lives reformed and their souls saved And then if wee finde favour in Gods sight God may bring us againe into favour with men but if hee thus say I have no delight in you nor in your services behold here are we let him doe to us as he pleaseth He that passing through honour and dishonour as St. Paul did can say as St. Paul said I have fought the good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have kept it may assure himselfe of a crowne of Righteousnesse laid up for him which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give him that day and to all them that love the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ To whom with the Father and the blessed Spirit Three Persons one True Immortall Invisible onely Wise God be given all Honour Glory Dominion and Power now and for ever Amen FINIS