Miseries those thy short Pleasures have wrought thee O thou foolish and sencelesse hadst thou no respect to the death of CHRIST who dyed to redeeme thee but that by thy sinnes thou must anew Crucifie him and make his Wounds to bleed afresh Thou hast againe nayled him to the Crosse by thy pollutions thou hast againe pierc'd his side not with one but many speares of Blasphemy and as it were piece-meale tearing him from Heaven thou hast grinded him by thy oppressions which thou didst to maintaine thy superfluous delights It was his love that caused him to undergoe his Fathers wrath for thy sake but what one sinne hast thou left for his Canst thou say and that truly that thou hast spared one dish from thy Belly to feed his hungry Members or one Garment from thy excessive apparell to cloth the naked or one houres sleepe to meditate on his miseries a poore requitall of such infinite Love Was CHRIST stretched on the Crosse and couldest thou recount it nothing to stretch thy selfe vpon thy downy Beds of sinne Did CHRIST suck downe Vineger and Gall for thee and couldest thou without pricke of Conscience surfeit with overflowne Boles Was CHRIST crowned with Thornes and couldest thou crowne thy selfe with ease and pleasure Then now behold O thou rich Glutton thou who wouldest never cast up thine eyes to behold the true happines till it was too late and consider what the allurements of the Flesh now profit you which you then so much delighted in What is become of your Riches where are your Honours where are your Treasures where are your Delights were are your Ioyes the seaven yeares of Plenty are past and other seaven yeares of Dearth and scarcity are come which have devoured up all your Plenty no memory or footsteps being left of it Ioh. 24. As it is in IOB Drought and heate consume the Snow waters so doth the Grave those that have Sinned your Glory is now perished and your Felicity is drowned in the sea of Sorrowes not onely your delights have not profited you which you injoyed in this World but they shall bee the causes of greater Torments witnesse the Glutton in the Gospell who fared deliciously every day being in Hell was not that member his Tongue most tormented which gave him the greatest delight in Sin Nay speedily and unexpected this horror rusheth upon them for as everlasting Felicity doth quickly follow the Godly in the short race of theyr Misery so everlasting Misery quickly followeth the ungodly in the short race of theyr worldly Felicity It were better therefore for a man to live poorely being assured of the bliste of Heaven then to be deprived thereof though during life hee possesse all worldly riches for intollerable are the burthens they bring with them seeing that the Scripture sayth Where much is given much is againe required besides the memory of the ungodly shall perish as saith IOB The pitifull man Ioh 24. shall forget him the Worme shall feele his sweetnesse he shall bee no more remembred and the Wicked shall bee broken like a Tree II. Motives and Inducements to true Godlinesse HAving already spoken of the unstability of Mans life the wretched estate the Wicked is in at the houre of his Death I will now also set downe some Motives for incouragements to true Godlinesse wherin it shall easily bee discerned that Godlinesse excelleth Wickednesse as farre as Light excelleth Darknesse It is a thing both usuall and lamentable to see how men goe on in wickednesse and can neyther bee drawne to thinke of theyr end by the dayly examples of Mortality nor wonne to remember the infinitnesse of Gods Love by their dayly preservations they call not once to theyr remembrance the saying of the Apostle PAVL wherein hee admonisheth them to worke out theyr Salvation with feare and trembling by which hee depriveth them of all kind of security and the Prophet IEREMIAH cryeth unto them and sayth Jerem. 22. O earth earth earth heare the Word of the Lord. Shewing thereby that howsoever they esteeme of themselves yet they are but dust whose glory is but for a moment and all theyr Pleasures but Deceptio visus For that there is no Peace saith the Lord of the Wicked Esa 48. Wherefore consider this yee that forget GOD least he teare you in pieces and there bee none to deliver you feare this God for he is iust love this God Psal 4. for hee is Mercifull stand in awe and Sinne not commune with your hearts consider your wayes make your Peace with him seeke the Lord Psal 2. whilest he may bee found If his wrath be kindled yea but a little blessed are all those that puts theyr trust in him O taste and see how good GOD is he is a God of Mercies and delights not in the Death of a Sinner as hee sayth Have I any pleasure at all Ezech. 18. that the Wicked should dye sayth the Lord and not that hee should returne from his wayes and live hee will bee found of them that seeke him hee hath ingaged his word for it and againe he saith Those that come to mee I will not cast away nay hee calleth with aboundance of love Come unto mee Math. 11. all yee that are wearie and heavie laden with the burthen of your sinnes and I will ease you hee is that good Samaritaine he may powre in Wine to make those wounds of your Sinnes to smart but hee will againe refresh you with the oyle of his Mercies O then prostrate thy selfe at his feete creepe under the wing of his compassion for he is slow to wrath Ioel. 2. and of much mercy and repenteth him of the euill alas it was thy weakenesse that made thee sinfull and thy sins haue made the miserable thy miserie must now sue to his mercie if thy misery were without sinne then thou mightest pleade before his Iustice and his Iustice would releeue thee but for that it proceedeth from sinne approach the barre of his mercy and thou shalt finde the lustre thereof to shine through all his workes remember Christs owne words were Math. 15. I am not sent but to the lost sheepe of the house of Jsrael what though with the woman in the Gospell he call thee dogge wilt thou therefore leaue off thy sute consider that the tender mother many times for faults committed by her childe hideth her louing countenance and as it were altogether reiecteth it not for any hatred she beareth to the childe but thereby to indere the obtaining of his favour and to cause the greater feare of offending if then thou seasing thy sute goeth without mercy whome wilt thou accuse Christ sayd to Ierusalem Thy destruction is of thy selfe O Jerusalem but in me is thy saluation Christ came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance Hee is infinitely good and hurteth no man vnlesse the blame be in himselfe through his owne default for as the Sunne beame is
cleare and comfortable in it self and so is it to the eye that is sound yet to a sore eye it is very grieuous not through any default in the sunne but by the diseased disposition of the eye so albeit he in himselfe be perfectly good and doth nothing but good yet to an vnrepentant sinner he is grievous and terrible but if he returne to him by unfained repentance he soone inclineth to mercy as is euident in that wo man whom Christ so called upon her humiliation and acknowledging her selfe to be no better she receiueth this gracious answer Be it vnto the euen as thou wilt and againe in the Nenivites though his decree was gone out against them that yet forty dayes and Ninivie should be destroyed Ionah 3. upon their unfained repentance he also repented of that euill and with aboundance of mercy revoked that sentence For the eyes of the Lord ◠Chro. 16 beholds all the earth to strengthen them that with a perfect heart beleeve and hope in him and againe it is sayd O how good is the Lord unto them Lament 3 that put theyr trust in him and to the Soule that seeketh after him never was there any forsaken that put theyr trust in him and though the hand of your Faith be not strong enough to lay fast hold on him as IACOB did who sayd I will not let thee goe unlesse thou blesse mee Gen. 32. yet if hee perceiue thee creeping after him hee will imbrace thee for hee hath sayd The bruised Reede Math. 12. I will not breake and the smoaking Flaxe I will not quench that is hee will not reiect the desires of the heart though in weake measure if unfeyned and what he hath promised is Truth Hee loveth not as man loveth for they in prosperity will regard vs but if Afflictions or wants come they regard us not but so farre is our good God from this that his beloved Sonne CHRIST IESVS tooke our shape upon him suffering Hunger Cold Nakednesse Contempt and Scornings for his owne mouth testified That the Foxes had Holes and the Birds of the Ayre had Nests but the Sonne of Man had not whereon to lay his head showing thereby to us how farre hee was from contemning our Povertie or refusing us for our wants let us therefore flie to this God who will not fayle us nor forsake us let us cast our care upon him for hee careth for us and set us first seek the Kingdome of heaven and the righteousnesse thereof and all things else shall bee ministred unto us How many haue beene knowne which have gayned to themselves Riches or Honours by unlawfull meanes that have prospered but if for a time they have seemed to doe well their Posteritie have come to ruine and theyr owne ill-gathered treasure like a dilating Gangrene hath rotted theyr owne memory and consumed every part of theyr heyres possession seeming as it were a Curse and doome intayled with the land upon the successour and so proveth not a Blessing but the bane of him that Injoyed it They may for a time flourish like a Bay Tree but suddainely they fade and their place is no where to bee found Oh therefore that they would consider what great evils and how many inconveniences this small prosperity bringeth with it they should find this love of Riches more to afflict by desire then to delight by use for it inwrappeth the Soule in divers temptatiōs bindeth it in infinit cares it allureth it with sundry delights provoketh it to sinne and disturbeth the quiet no lesse of the body then of the Soule and that which is greater Riches are never gotten without troubles nor possessed without care nor lost without griefe but that which is worst they are seldome gathered without sinne and offence to GOD Why then should man bee so greedy of this Worlds pelfe life beeing so short and death following at our heeles What neede is there of so great Provision for so short a Iourney What would man doe with so great Riches especially seeing that the lesse he hath the more lightly and freely hee may walke and when hee shall come to the end of his Pilgrimage if he be poore his estate shall not be worser then rich mens who are loden with much gold the Grave shall both alike containe them as sayth IOB Iob. 3. The small and great are there and the Servant is free from his Master Nay it is better with the poore then with the rich for they shall feele lesse griefe in parting with this trash and pelfe of the World and a smaller accompt is to be rendred before GOD whereas on the other side Rich men leaves theyr Mountaines of Gold with great griefe of heart which they adored as GOD neyther are they without exceeding gerat hazard and danger in rendring an accompt for them Besides as hee came forth of his Mothers Wombe Eccles 5. so naked shall he returne to goe as hee came and shall take nothing of his labour which he may carry away in his hand Psalm 7. Therefore a little that a Righteous man hath is better then the Riches of many wicked I have seene sayth DAVID in the same Psalme The wicked in great power and spreading himselfe like a greene Bay tree yet hee passed away and loe hee was not I sought him but hee could not bee found the transgressours shall be destroyed together the end of the Wicked shall bee cut off but marke the upright man and behold the Iust for the end of that man is Peace Thrice blessed then is that man that feareth God and they whose God the Lord is and he that sots his feare alwayes before his eyes Iob. 5. For they shall bee delivered out of sixe troubles and in the seaventh no evils shall touch them in Famine he shall redeeme them from Death and in Warre from the power of the sword they shall come to the Grave in a full age like as a shocke of Corne commeth in in his season They may for a time bee bungry but they shall be filld for God himselfe will feed them with blessings from aboue and from beneath Even naturall reason will not suffer them to doubt for he that giveth meate in due season to Ants and Wormes of the Earth will he suffer Man to famish who night and day serve and obey him as CHRIST himselfe saith in MATTHEVV Math. 6. Behold the Fowles of the heaven for they sow not neyther reape nor cary into Barnes yet your heavenly Father feedeth them are yee not much better then they This happines moved DAVID to invite us to serve the Lord saying O feare the Lord yee that be his Saints Psalm 34 for they that feare the Lord lack nothing the Lyons doe lacke and suffer hunger but they that feeke the Lord shall want no manner of thing that is good The ungodly man when he is full of wealth dyeth for hunger and when they sit even up
know him but bid him be gone and barre the doore against him I know thou wouldest account him most inhumane and ungratefull Isa 5 3. and yet how farre short comes this of CHRIST'S love and bounty to thee for the chastisement of thy Peace was layd upon him and with his stripes thou wast healed O wretched Soule to loose such a Friend Oh unhappie man by this opposition to deprive thy selfe of all Happines for what greater Happinesse canst thou have then to injoy that Fatherly providence by which God preserveth his what sweeter Delights then the Divine Grace the Light of wisedome the consolations of the holy Ghost the Ioy and Peace of a good Conscience the good event of Hope the true liberty of the Soule the inward peace of the Heart to bee heard in Prayer to be helped in Tribulations to be provided for temporall necessities and to bee ayded and to taste of Heavenly Comforts in death whilst I seriously meditate upon these things my Soule is as in a Rapture me thinkes I see CHRIST IESVS comming in the Clouds with thousand of Angels about him the Heavens and Earth flying away at his presence millions of damned Soules yelling and crying to the Rocks and Mountaines to fall upon them and to cover them from the fiercenesse of his sight The Divels quaking and trembling expecting the denouncing of their Torments and the Ioyes the Godly have at that houre For as it is a day of horror and terror to the Wicked so is it a day of joy and gladnesse to the godly for as the body of the one rests in the earth without taste of those miseries it hath deserved even so the Righteous by this sleepe of Death is deprived of this blessednesse in their body untill corruption hath put on incorruption and mortality hath put on immortality and that they are wakened by the sound of the Trumpet which sūmoneth them to appeare before CHRIST when then their soules become againe reunited to their bodyes and both with Ioy beholds the face of God not as their Iudge for he is their Brother and therefore can expect from him nothing but mercy he hath purchased them for himselfe with no meaner a 〈◊〉 price then his owne precious bloud and there fore must needs bee to him acceptable this is theyr yeare of Iubilee this is the Marriage of the Lambe with him they enter Revel 21. and he is theyr God and they are his Sonnes they now behold his face and his Name is in theyr foreheads They now receive the fulnesse of theyr Ioy Revel 22. they now possesse that happinesse theyr Soules thirsted for they now injoy the reward of all theyr labours this blessednesse truly considered on affoordeth more pleasures then the tongue of Man can utter or his Soule remayning in the Prison of his flesh is able to receive without crying out with the Spouse in the Canticles Cant. 2. I am sicke of Love It is no marvell that the Church cryeth Come Lord IESVS come quickly for in this his comming consisteth all happinesse Here is the finall end of all miseries and sinnes it onely prooveth the waters of Mara to the ungodly it is terrible to none but the unrepentant even they who had their eyes sealed from beholding any other Happines then what tended to their pleasures They which tooke to them the Timbrell and the Harp and rejoyced in the sound of the Organs they spend theyr dayes in wealth and were of them that sayd Speake no more to us in the name of the Lord they sayd to God depart from us for wee desire not the knowledge of thy wayes What is the Almighty that we should serve him and what profit shall wee haue if we pray unto him Now alas but too late they see theyr owne follyes now without hope of redresse they behold theyr owne miseries no marvell though the mentioning of the day of Iudgement be terrible to such a man who by his wickednesse deprives himselfe of all those Blessednesses for ill will it prove if the day of Death be not alwayes in his remembrance which is the first judgement and wherein he must stand eyther convicted or acquitted eyther condemned for his bad workes or justified for his good whereof he can have little hope unlesse hee meet his Iudge in the way and make his peace with him whilst he may be found yet there is time to furnish thy lamp with Oyle yet the Gates of Mercy are not shut yet thou mayest so cry as thou mayest bee satisfied with this gracious answer Come yee blessed of my Father Whereas if thou deferre thy Repentance from time to time putting farre from thee the evill day if thou doe not expect the comming of thy Lord but become drunken and fall to smiting thy fellow Servants if thou hide thy Talent in the Earth which God in his goodnesse hath bestowed on thee to better uses Thy Lord will come when he is not looked for Math. 21. and in a time when thou art not aware of and cast thee into utter Darknesse where shall bee wayling and gnashing of Teeth giving thee a just hyre for thy carelesse security It is not thy pleasures that can deferre thy calamities it is not the inlarging thy Barnes that can resist thy misery the greatnesse of Friends will not availe thy Iudge is blinde to Bribery and deafe to all but Iustice if his wrath be not appeased before he come to give sentence it will then be too late to expect mercy V. Comforts for the weake Christian and to beware of Backesliding OVR most subtle malicious Enemy retayning still the hatred hee bare our first Parents at the beginning seeketh to bring us into ever lasting Perdition and so to gaine us to himselfe by one meanes or other to a man nouzeled in Sinne hee useth no other wayes then the lulling him still the faster asleepe in worldly pleasures the Miser he perswadeth still to covet Riches thereby making his Gold his God by which meanes hee filleth up the measure of Wrath against the day of Iudgement the Adulterer hee draweth on more easily by the delightsomnesse of the sinne telling him that stolne bread is sweet Prov. 5. and hid waters pleasant the Proud man hee hath hud-wincked not to thinke of time but to account all loft but what is spent in decking and setting himselfe foorth in the Divels Feathers Thus all sinnes he lessens that so he may cause man to defer his repentance till the last then the which there is nothing more dangerous but when he meets a child in religion who is glad to suck milke from the sweet paps of Gods word him he so to sceth shaketh with telling him of his owne unworthines and the severity of Gods Iustice that the poore Soule is ready to leave his hold and to fall into desperation not daring scarce to looke up to Gods Mercy but if his weaknes become strength and he be raysed by Faith then hee strives
Angels and Martyrs with the foure and twenty Elders that offer up golden Vials full of odours which are the Prayers of Saints but which is chiefe of all delights there will be GOD himselfe who will bee a Looking-Glasse to the eyes of his Elect Musicke to theyr eares Nectar and Ambrosia to their Palates odoriferous Balsamum to theyr Smelling There thou shalt see the variety and beauty of the seasons the pleasantnesse of the Spring the brightnesse of Summer the fruitfulnesse of Autumne and the quiet of Winter and there shall bee whatsoever may delight thy sences and every faculty of thy Soule there will be the fulnesse of light to thy understanding the aboundance of Peace to thy will and the contitinuance of Eternity to thy memory there the Wisedome of SALOMON shall seeme ignorance there the beauty of ABSASOM shall seeme deformity there the strength of SAMPSOM shall seeme weakenesse there the long life of METHVSALEM shall seeme a span there the Riches of CRoeSVS shall seeme drosse for there thou mayst worthily call the treasures of all Emperors and Kings starke poverty and beggery These things beeing thus Why shouldest thou O man delight to begge and live of Almes when thou shalt finde such aboundance in Heaven looke upon thy selfe and consider how the Lord hath bestowed upon thee a countenance of Majesty with thy face erected towards Heaven and thy eye-lids to move upwards thereby to teach thee that thou wert not formed to spend thy dayes in the moiling cares of this troublesome world but to aspire to that true Happines that maketh all the other Misery Marke the Sea-mans Needle whose nature of that Iron is that in what part it hath touched the Loadstone that part alwayes looketh towards the North and remaineth unsetled till it hath found the Pole even so hath God created Man and hath infused into him a naturall inclination and readinesse that hee should alwayes looke to his Maker as to the Pole and onely true happines When the Children of Jsrael in the Wildernesse were stung by fiery Serpents none could live but those that looked up to that brazen Serpent which MOSES erected so no man beeing stung by those fiery Serpents of sin can live but those that by the eye of Faith looke up to CHRIST IESVS beholding him dying upon the Crosse and applying his death and merits to their otherwise deadly-wounded Soule whereby that Vlcer is cured and they assured of life After ADAM had sinned in eating the forbidden fruit Gen. 3. GOD sent him to Till the Earth out of which he was taken but the soule of man was infused into him by the breath of God Gen. 2. let therefore the cogitations of thy heart and Soule bee turned towards him from whence it had the beeing seeing as sayth Saint AVGVSTINE There is nothing more blessed than this life where there is no feare of Poverty no infirmity of Sicknesse no deceipts of the Divell neyther Death of body or Soule but a pleasant life through the guift of Immortality then there shall be no mischiefes no discords but all agreement because there shall be one concord of all the Saints peace and joy imbrace all things What is it that thou canst desire heere upon Earth that thou shalt not there freely possesse If thou defirest pleasures lift up thy heart and see how delightfull that Good is that contayneth in it the delight and pleasure of all good things If this life created doth please thee how much more shall that life please thee which hath created all things If health given make thee merry how much more shall he make thee merry that giveth all health If the knowledge of the Creatures bee sweet how much more sweeter shall the Creator himselfe be if beauty bee acceptable unto thee it is he at whose beauty the Sunne and Moone admire the glory of which was so great that when MOSES went up to the Mount though he saw but the hinder part thereof his Face became so bright and shining that the Israelites could not behold him what should I stand longer to set forth the beauty of that which if I had the tongue of Men and Angels I could not doe for as the Apostle fayth 1. Cor. 2. Eye hath not seene Eare hath not heard neyther hath it entred into the heart of Man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him Wilt thou then choose with the Prodigall Sonne to eate Huskes with the Swine rather than to returne home to thy Heavenly Father will not all these delights move thee nor cause thee to desire it it may bee thou art timerous knowing thy owne unworthinesse but bee incouraged by the words of thy Saviour who seeing thy faint heartednesse sayth Feare not little flocke Luke 15. for it is your fathers pleasure to give you a Kingdome Thou art one of the flocke and this Kingdome is prepared for thee why dost thou not long to take possession of thy owne pu chased for thee by CHRIST who though hee be thy Elder brother yet thou shalt bee co-heyre with him whose love thou mayst see expressed by his infinite care for in his Prayer to his Father for his Disciples he remembred thee when he sayd I pray not for these alone Iohn 117. but for those that shall beleeve on me that they may all be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee and the glory which thou hast given mee I have given them that they may bee one even as wee are one I will also that those thou hast given mee bee with me Canst thou now have any doubts or waverings in thy Mind Repayre unto him and in true humility of Soule confesse thy selfe unto him and say Father I have sinned against Heaven and against thee and I am no more worthy to bee called thy Sonne This done doubt not but hee will imbrace thee in the Armes of his Mercy the Ring and Robe shall be brought and the fatted Calfe shall be kild for there is more joy in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth than of ninety and nine just persons It is a place prepared for thee before the Foundations of the World were layd O happy Soule that art made possessor of this blessednesse How art thou able to behold any thing in this life with true contentment having seriously beheld this though thou didst dayly suffer torments if for a long time thou didst indure Hell it selfe so that at the length thou mightest see CHRIST in his glory and injoy this blessednesse and haue society with the Saints were it not worthy all Sufferings All Bitternes and all Crosses that thou mightest be partaker of all this good At last what though the world account not of thee but deride thee for thy vertuous living Remember ELIZEVS the Prophet of the Lord who was mocked and called Bald-head in contempt Resolve with thy selfe no sooner to enter into the path of Godlinesse but such is the malitiousnesse of thy Mortall