and substance to our members it putteth us in minde that we received our flesh from man when we think of our heart which giveth vitall and naturall heat to our members it puts us in mind that we received our Soul from the living God Lastly when we think of our head that giveth sense and motion to our bodies it maketh us remember how that we receive in our last generation all sense and motion of grace from our head Christ And calling this to minde we must remember that every Christian is a threefold brother unto us First by man as having all of us our flesh from one and the same man Adam Secondly by God as having all our souls infused into our bodies by one and the self same God And thirdly by our Redeemer as having all of us that be Christians received all grace and good motions from one and the same Christ God and man Therfore we ought to love all as brethren in the flesh but love them the more as brethren in Soul but love them best of all that are brethren in grace unto us for whosoever is our brother in grace must needs be our brother in soul and body likewise And therefore a Christian is no half brother or base broâ—hâ—r Sparke 13. O Lord That we may be perfect grant that we may be born b Joh. 3.5 again of water and of the spirit And because our first generation in the flesh is foul and filthy lustfull and lawless grant we may d Rom. 8.13 mortifie the deeds of the flesh by the spirit and subdue the rebellion thereof O Lord beget us again in thy Son e 1 Joh. 5.1 Joh. 3.3 Christ after thine own f Ephes 4 23 24. Image in righteousnes and true holiness of life O Lord grant that as the first Adam by his flesh g 1 Cor. 15.22 corrupted all thy children so the second Adam by his flesh may save all thy children Good Father seeing we are made h Gen. 1.27 by thee and i Joh. 3.3 born again of thee let us have no strife between us for our Fathers sake because we are brethren grant us to love our brother whom we see daily to love thee whom we have not seen least otherwise we be judged of thee to remain in death and counted as k 1 Joh. 3.14 15. Murtherers and man-slayers Therefore give us grace to love our Christian brother more for his father's sake for his own sake for Christ's sake and for thy Image sake than our brother cosen or kinsman in the flesh For by this love towards our brother we shall be known to be thy l 1 Joh. 2.3 disciples Grant us therefore sweet Jesus that we may follow thee as thy Disciples m Ephes 4.11.2 and as dear children walking in love as thou hast loved us and given thy life for us Grant this O Father for thy son and our Saviours sake Jesus Christ Amen Sect. XIV Christ our chiefest felicity VVE count him most happy The feliciâ—â— of the faithfull that hath all things at will wants nothing then most happy are we that are in Christ for he is all in all unto his servants For if we have wounds and would have them cured he is the best Phisician If we be wronged our Master is most just If we be poor our Master is Lord of Heaven and Earth and will not see us want If we fear death he is life If we would go to heaven he is the way If we be in darknesse he is the light If we desire to be nourished he is our meat If learning he is wisdome If strength he is power No marvell then though David had rather be a door-keeper in the house of such a Master than to dwell in the Palaces of Princes Sparke 14. O n Mat. 8.20 sweet Jesus thou wast poor q 1 Cor. 1.5 Luke 1 to make me me rich Thou wast stript stark naked to clothe my nakedness Thou hast spilt thy precious r Mar 15.46 Math. 26.28 blood to make a plaister for my putrified wounds Thou becamest a t Phil. 2. â— servant in earth among sinners that I might be made a King in heaven among Saints Sweet Saviour I honour thee and humbly embrace and kisse the wounds of thy hands and feet I esteem more of thy Crown of thornes thine hysop thy reed thy spunge thy spear thy vineger than of any princely Diadem I am more proud of thy thornes and nailes than of all Pearls and Jewells And I account thy Cross more splendent and glorious than any Princely Crown Teach us O Lord to know thee as we ought for thou art the way the truth and the life without a way men walke not without a truth men know not without a life men live not Be thou therefore still the way for us to walk in the truth for us to stick unto the life for us to hope in For indeed thou art the way inviolable the truth infallible the right way the chiefest truth and the truest life grant we never wander from thee never hope but in thee nor never learn but to know thee our onely Saviour Amen Sect. XV. Of Christ's Passion O Good Lord A Soveraigne Salve why doth not my heart bleed for my sins to think how often my Saviour bled for them First being but young and tender eight dayes old when he was circumcised Secondly when he was condemned and scourged Thirdly when he was nailed and crucified on the Cross And Fourthly after his death his side was pierced and his very body wept water blood for my sins And Fifthly in his bloody sweat when every member wept and melted for me Sparke 15. O dear Saviour make me sorry that I am no more sorrowfull for my sinnes For if my teares were in quantity like the Sea If my sighes were like the smoake of a furnace If my sobs could pierce the hardest Diamonds and my wailings like thunder yet have I still cause to weep sigh sob bewail my manifold sins Good Lord make my mouth to be filled with thy praise my eyes with tears for my offences and my heart to bleed with sorrow for my sins O Lord by thy blood b Mat. 9 3â— heal the bloody issue of my sins and through thy precious blood wash and cleanse me from all my sins c 1 Joh. 1.7 that through the blood d Rev. 7.14 of that tender Lamb the garments of our filthy spotted flesh may be made white through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen Sect. XVI Of the holy Ghost's operation O Blessed comforter it was thy divine will to shew thy self to thy children in four sundry forms for our comfort and instruction First like fire to manifest thy love and power Secondly like a cloud to manifest thy pitty and compassion Thirdly like a Dove to declare thy patience and peaceableness Fourthly like tongues to shew thy wisdome and eloquence For as the
fire doth heat and warme all things and ascend upward so doth thy love warme our cold zeal and cause our hearts to ascend up to seek those things that he above And as the clouds do drop down waters to wash the filthiness of the earth so the grace of thy holy spirit doth cause often a cloud of sorrow for sins to arise in our hearts and so to dissolve into tears at our eyes Thirdly as the Dove is a mild bird void of gall so that Dove-like spirit the holy ghost would have his nest in our hearts that we might be meek as thou art meeek Lord patient and peaceable like the milde Dove void of anger and malice Lastly As the tongue doth exhort and perswade by the eloquence thereof so the blessed spirit of thee our God by appearing in the forme of tongues would have us to be exhorted and perswaded by the wisdome and eloquence thereof and not to build upon vain philosophy and humane wisdome Sparke 16. Gracious Father let thy good spiriâ— a Psal 143. lâ—â—d us into the lâ—nd of righteousnesse let it go still before us to give us as b Exod. 13.21 a pillar of cloud by day and as the pillâ—r of fire by night Yea let him still be the starre of Grace to direct us unto that blessed Saviour of the world â— Mat. 2.11 thy onely son Jesus Christ our Lord Amen Sect. XVII Our soules are not begotten by men THat principle which denieth the soule to be begotten from the parents The Soul's Pedegree needs no other proof than experience For if the soul came from the substance of the parents as the body doth the soul then of one man should be some kinne to the body and soul of another man his begetter and so one man would love the soul of his friend better than his body But we see by Experience that men are more carefull for the body of their children than for their soul for the most part and men will venter much to fetch the bodies of their friends out of prison or to save them from death but for the soul which is as it were Gods kinsman infused by him into us men are lesse carefull And therefore our Saviour Christ careing most for the soul which was most dear to him taught us â—wo petitions for the good of the soul and but one for the necessities of the body which is the petition for our dayly bread Sparke 17. Good Lord grant we may love both in our selves that which thou best lovest and hate which thou hatest r Mat. 6.10 O good father from thâ—e we have received this soul and living breath Å¿ Gen. 1. by which we breathe we commâ—nd it Lord into thy carefull t Psal 31. hands deliver it good Lord from the ungodly and comfort the souls of thy servants And let our u Luk. 1.46 souls magnifie thee Lord and our spirit ever rejoyce in thee our God and Saviour The very God of peace sanctifie us throughout w 1 Thes 5. and I pray God that our whole spirit and soul and body may be kept blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ Amen Sect. XVIII Love admits no excuse IN man's reason we may finde some excuse for omitting any duty but love for there is no excuse for our defect in love For there is no charges no weariness no labour no pain nor no grief in loving yea it maketh all paines and labour to seeme sweet and delightfull For the hunter for love of his game will travell all day without weariness And herein appeareth the sweetness of God's mercy and the greatnesse of his liberality towards us which would not tye man to that which was heavy laborious and wearisome buâ— to that which was most pleaâ—ant and â—asie Sparke 18 O sweet Lord true it is that thy q Mat. 11 30. yoke is easie and thy burden light Lord make us to love thee and thy truth more than all thy creatures yea more than our goods more than our friends d Mat. 10 37. more than our flesh more than our selves our soules and our bodies And seeing thou hast given b Gen. 1.28 29. us all things for thy service Lord give us a heart to love thee above c Psal 119. all with all our hearts with all our strength with all our mind and with all our soul through Jesus Christ Deut. 6. Amen Sect. XIX The love of God and the love of Mammon The Soul's Solace THere 's no proportion between the love of worldly things and the love of God For from the one must needs follow sorrow from the other continuall joy For all things in this world are mutable coâ—ruptible Therefore as often as the object or the thing we set our love upon doâ—h either perish change or vanish so often must it needs be a grief unto us to lose it that we loved â—o well But if God â—e the object of our love and the thing we best affect then must we needs have continual joy and never sorrow For we never sorrow much but for the loss of the thing we love most Therefore if God be the object of our love and marke of our affection our joy can never decay for God can neither die nor perish nor be changed nor be wanting but is alwayes present to our wills alwayes sufficient to our desires alwayes omnipotent to our wants alwayes loving alwayes mercifull alwayes most good most pleasant most just most wise and most glorious Therefore the object of our love never failing our joy shall never fail No marvaile then if with God there is everlasting joy and never dying happinesse himself being the object of our love and cause of our joy For seing all our love ariseth from God and all our joy from our love therefore both our joy and our love will endure so long as God endureth Sparke 19. O Lord God the onely Lover and Saviour of our soules let us not love the world nor the things that are therein q 1 John 2. Good Father thou that best knowest the deceitfull baits of this alluring world let us live in the world and not love the world If riches r Psal 6 10. encrease let us not set our hearts thereon If honours be heaped upon us let us not be delighted therewith If pleasures do tempt us let us not be enamoured therewith x Mark 10. But let us love thee Lord with all our heart with all our soul and with all our strength Let us never love father mother brother sister nor friends more than thee lest we be not worthy of thee y Psal 5.12 For they that onely love thy name shall be joyfull in thee b and they shall prosper that love thee Therefore Lord let me love thee above all and love all in thee and for thy love Grant this O Lord for Jesus Christ our sweet and onely Saviour Amen Sect. XX.
excellent things are spoken of thee thou City of God Psal 87. For thou Lord to shew us the beauty and bravery of that place callest it by the name of a City For whereas it is called in many places a kingdome Mal. 5. to shew the greatnesse and largeness of the place yet left any man by that name of a kingdom might suspect or imagine that there were in heaven many Hils and Deserts and such like waste places where nothing but bruit beasts did inhabite as in Woods and Rocks and such like as in this world therefore though it be called a kingdome yet it is such a kingdome as in all beauty civility pleasantness is like a city where fair Temples Houses Galleries Gardens Orchards and such delights are most plentifull Neither is it termed a city so much for the beauty of the place as for the goodness therein contained and practised For in this city though there be divers Nations of all countries and kindreds yea of Angels Archangels Principalities and Powers an infinite company and an innumerable multitude and in all likelihood more in number than men being of a differing kind from man yet they have all but one law and one language one king and one government being all true citizens having one heart and one mind all guided and governed by the law of perfect charity and because charity is contrary to hatred envy contention discords braules and other sins and vices Therefore that city and place of blisse must needs be void of all anger braule strife envy malice uncharitablenes and such like For there must raign true charity with justice peace and joy in the holy Ghost Rom. 14. neither is peace and amity the onely felicity of this place but perfect liberty is also granted unto the citizens thereof and that in many respects as first a freedome from the servitude of sin For whereas in the earthly Paradise Adam had ability and power not to sin à posse non peccare in this celestiall Paradise they have non posse peccare an impossibility to sin Such shall be their liberty from sin that they shall not be able to sin at all And as they have this freedome and liberty from the servitude of sin so likewise from the servitude of death and mortality For as in the earthly Paradise Adam had non posse non mori a disability not to die so in the city of Heaven he hath an impossibility to die So that not to be able to sin or not to be able to die sheweth a freedome from sin and death And as they are free from sin and death so from all kinde of necessity For here men have need to eat drink sleep sit stand and walk sometimes but in Heaven the Saints of God have no such need for they need nothing but enjoy the glorious liberties of the sons of God Rom. 8. How sweet this liberty is the poor the rich and the hollest men in the world may quickly know and perceive For what pains do poor take yea how do they toile and moile cark and care trot and drudge for a little meat drink and cloathing which they must have to supply their bodily wants and what great thanks do they heartily give unto those that supply their present want free them from this painfull servitude of necessity Yea not onely poore men feele the misery of this but holy and sanctified persons are much molested and cumbred with this servitude of necessity and think it a grievous burden to be bound to care for their own bodies necessary provision accounting the time they spend about such business in a manner lost and ill spent or at least that this care in providing is a hinderance to them from better imployments in holy businesses in so much that many Christians in the time of the Apostles were so busied and delighted in holy meditations Euseb lib. 2 Hist c. 15. that commonly they never took leisure to feed their bodies till after the suns going down yea some forgetting to take meat and for three days together Mar. 8. and some for whole weeks This bondage of necessity and corporall need was so heavy unto some of them that no doubt it made them cry out with St. Paul Oh wretched man that I am Rom. 7. who shall deliver me from this body of death And though the rich citizens of this world seem to be little troubled with this bondage of necessity because their meat and drink is sweetly prepared for them their rest in soft beds a kinde of contented quietness and Sabbaoth of rest yet if they exceed never so little in the use or abuse of any of these they fill their bodies with sundry and perhaps incureable diseases for the expelling of which they shall be fain carefully to seek and unwillingly to take many bitter potions and to endure many griping pains yea they shall be driven wiâ—l they nill they either to be at debate with God and to undergo his wrath or else to fight with their fleshly concupiscence for temperance and sobriety which strife is often both dolorous and dangerous to the patient Therefore both rich and poore wicked and godly are troubled and vexed in the city of the world with this servitude of necessity but the children of God in the city of God are freed from the servitude of all this misery For they cark not toil not eat not drink not sleep not surfeit not sicken not but have perfect liberty from the bondage of sinne of death of necessity and which is more from the law because the law is not given to the just but to the unjust and none are more just than the blessed Saints which are justified in the blood of the lamb and cloathed with his white unspotted robe being confirmed in true justice and unable to do injustly and though the just that live in this world have no threatning and permanent law to which they are bound because willingly and with a glad heart they obey unto the precept of God without law or compulsion yet they have a directing law and rule of godliness given them of God binding them to do what the law commandeth and to leave undone what it forbiddeth but the Saints in heaven which enjoy that glorious liberty of the sons of God need no law or direction who in the word and Son of God behold all righteousnesse and are so confirmed in perfect love that they cannot decline from the will of their God Thus do they live and love in that holy place as crowned Kings and free Citizens in the heavenly Jerusalem being freed from the bondage of sin death necessity and the law attending the service of the everlasting God which is true liberty and perfect freedome forever Sparke 6. O Gracious God bring me unto thy strong City d Psal 40. say unto me in the worthiness of thy son thou good and faithfull servant enter into thy Lords joy e
24. as one without hope but rathâ—r to watch for the day of my redemption and the glorious comming of my saviour to deliver me from thi body of sinne Rm. 9.7 that my vile body may be made like his glâ—rious body and that in the mean time whether I slâ—ep or wake I may continually hear the sound of thy Trumpe in mine ear saying Arise ye dead and come unto judgement Phil. 3.21 and at last be ravished with the sweet sentence of my Saviour Venite Benedicti c. Sect. XCI The fruitfull Valley I See alwayes the highest hills to be most barren and the low valleys fruitfull therefore the higher I exalt my self like a mountain the more barren I shall be before God And the lower I humble my self the more fruitfull I am to others by good and wholesome examples Sparke 91. O Lord teach me to learn meekness of thee that art meek and to humble my self that I may be exalted Amen Sect XCII The Scorner's Chayre IT is noted for no small disdain in Pharaoh to say Who is the Lord that I should obey him Such as those Okes of Basan and those tall Cedars of Lebanon in the height of their pride as being too wise to be moved with ordinary judgements If we have thâ— honour to be Gods among men or the power to work mighty things in the world Hab. 1.16 We sacrifice to our owne nets and burne incense to our yarn and say if not in our mouth yet in our heart There is no God Psal 14.1 If our evill counsels have good success and when we rebelliously transgress we prosper in our wickedness we spare not to say Tush Ezek. 9.9 the Lord seeth not If when we multiply sin upon sin and by the cords of vanity draw on the cart-ropes of iniquity and adde thirst unto drunkenness we be not plagued like other men we presume to say Tush Zeph. 1.12 the Lord careth not he will do neither good nor evill If God forbear us we think his hand shortned and if we do not feel his rod we make a question of his power yea the irreligiousnesse of this prophane age is such and growne to that impudency as to dispute of principles and grounds of faith to call not onely God and his holy Word the Scripture but Heaven Hell Angells Devills the Resurrection of the body and the Immortality of the soul into question so that if he will finde any faith among such he had need come with new miracles and more than miracles least our searching wits should finde the reason of them or otherwise conclude them to be but our ignorance of the cause For whatsoever exception either vain Philosophy Exod. 3.2 or prophane Gentility took against the wonderfull works of God in elder times as that the burning and not consuming Bush was but a Meteor 14.12 that the passage of Israel through the Red-Sea upon dry ground 16.15 was but the advantage of an Ebbe-tide that the Manna which God rained in the Wilderness was but the Mildew of the Countrey Josh 6.20 that the fall of the walls of Jerico at the sound of the Trumpets was but an Earth-quake that our Saviour himself did no Miracles but by the help of Belzebub Yea that and worse than that do the scorners and licentious wits of our times object against the power of God to make God and his power either nothing at all or tie him unto second causes as if thâ— world did run upon the constant wheeles of everlasting motions which is not in his power so much as in the power of a Clock-keeper either to break or to alter Sparke 92. O thou wonderfull and powerfull Essence whose strength is seen in our weakness we beseech thee to give us grace to humble our selves under thy Almighty hands Psal 1.1 that we neither walke in the Counsell of the ungodly stand in the way of sinners 10. nor sit in the seat of the Scornfull 20.9 Arise O Lord God and lift up thy hand forget not the poor put thâ—m in fear O Lord that the Heathen may know themselves to be but men for the ungodly walk on every side 12.9 when they are exalted the children of men are put to rebuke O Lord thou canst do whatsoever thou wilt both in heaven and earth For heaven is thy seat and the earth is but thy footstool Yea the earth is thine and all that therein is the compass of the world and they that dwell therein O Lord Psal 24.1 by thy Word were the heavens made and all the hosts of them by the breath of thy mouth c Be thou exalted Lord in thine owne strength so shal we sing praise thy power for ever and ever Amen Sect. XCIII The Gospell's Law VVEll might our Saviour say that he came not to destroy but to fulfill the Law For the Gospell of Grace is so far from taking away the obedience of the Law as that it addeth to our obedience and is severe against the affections as the Law against the actions of evill making it theft to covet our Nâ—ighbours goods and murther to be angry with our Brother adultery to look upon a Woman to lust after her Mat. 5.22 Ecl. 12.20 and Treason to curse the King though but in thought 1 Thes 5.22 Esay 2.18 Math. 12. restraining not only from evill but from all appearance of evill condemning not onely the Cart-ropes of sin but the cords of vanity taking a strict account not onely of every wicked but idle word nay our wandring thoughts also Sparke 93. O dear Father thy law is a perfect law converting the soul It is no eye-service that can please thee but thou requirest truth in the inward parts Good Lord as thy Gospel is a new law adding perfection unto perfection So create in me a new heart and put a right spirit within me that my thoughts being undefil'd may please thee my words being seasoned with grace may praise thee and my actions being sanctified by thy spirit and proceeding from the holy motions thereof may glorifie thee To whom be all honour praise and glory for ever Amen Sect. XCIV Vertue is in action GOd infused not the soul of man into a lump or block or such a body as was unfit for motion but into such a body as had legs arms hands feet eys and ears to shew that we must not be idle but work with our hands labour with our feet instruct with our tongues and mark with our eyes Spark 94. Lord let me not be given to idleness but be diligent in my place and painfull in my calling getting my living either by the sweat of my browes or my braines that thou mayest not finde me idle all the day long but working either in thy field or thy vineyard and doing alwayes that which is just and acceptable in thy sight through Jesus Christ Amen Sect. XCV Passe
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 OR SPARKES OF THE SPIRIT BEING Motives to Sacred Theorems and Divine Meditations By a Reverend Father of the Church of England This book of the Law shall not depart out of thy mouth but thou shall meditate therein day and night that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is writâ—en therein c. Josh 1.8 London Printed for Edw. Thomas at the Adam and Eve in litâ—le Brittain without Aldersgate 1658. TO ALL True Protestants especially to the Religious Knights Esquires Gentlemen and all others his loving Country-men in the County of Glamorgan and to all their vertuous Ladies and Wives A. D. wisheth health and happines both here and hereafter Honoured Sr. THe Prince of the air is assisted with no smal armies of spiritual warriours who are for their number Legions for their power Lions for their feircenes Dragons and for their subtilty Serpents who have made such a Pestilent advantage in these kingdomes by our late great distractions factions and fractions I mean not onely those Heresies of old which the Ebionites Chiliasts Gnosticks Donatists Eunonians Marcionites Nestorians Valentinians Montanists Novatians Sabellians Maniches Arrians Eutychians Patripassians Jacobites Arminians Monothelites c. held but by these late upstart Tat-poles of our times who go under the notion of Seekers Shakers Quakers Ranters and the like who are of yesterday-standing as I may say and know nothing that God be mercifull unto us and our times I fear me there were not more bodies when Christ came possessed with ill spirits than souls are now with odd ones and yet not one but pretends he hath the spirit but I am sure it is rather that spirit that tempted our Saviour in the Wilderness than led him thither Aecebolius his ghost haunts them they have been in religion wrong and right and right and wrong again it fares now with Religion in England as with her in Plutarch who having many Suiters when every one could not have her to himself they pull'd her in pieces that so none might have her using her no better than the body of that Harlot which was chopt in pieces flesh and bones and cast into all the quarters of Israel these men I say dare and do call their private conceits the Spirit This is the speciall errour with which St. Augustine long ago charged this kind of men Tantò sunt ad seditionem faciliores quantò sibi videntur spiritu excellere by so much the more prone are they saith he to kindle schism and contention in the Church by how much they seem to themselves to be indued with a more eminent measure of spirit than their Brethren Therefore let every good soul beware of these devillish deceivers for they are the greatest and the most pernicious quacksalving Juglers that ever the earth did bear or hell hatcht These false Prophets have Linsey-wolsey garments intus linum subtilitatis extra lanam simplicitatis demonstrant the subtile thred of deceit is with inside but the plain web of simplicity with outside their inside is of Fox furre their outside of Lambs wool Quaenam sunt istae pelles ovium nisi nominis Christiani extrinsecus superficies All these Sheep cloathing are nothing else but precise titles of holiness and outsides of Christianity And as Sathan the Prince of darkness oftentimes transformeth himself unto an Angel of light so these his children quote Scripture for their practise using fair vizards to cover their foul faces but yet dealing with Scriptures as Chymicks do with naturall bodies torturing them to extract that out of them which God and nature never put in them Scripture is a rule which will not fit it self to the obliquity of our conceits but our perverse and crooked discourse must fit it self to the straightness of that rule but as it was in the Lacedaemonian army all were Captains so it is with these all are Doctors and as he that bought Orpheus's Harp thought it would of it self make admirable melody how unskilfull soever he toucht it so these men suppose that Scripture will sound wonderfully musical if they do but strike it with how great infelicity or incongruity soever it be it booteth not let every good soul beware of their pernicious wayes For as St. Chrysostome saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 new ways are no ways Old wine and the old way was ever held the best Gentlemen I am neither worthy of note nor noted the consideration not only of your greatness but goodness hath emboldned me to dedicate this learned Piece to your gracious Patronage and Protection not doubting of your favourable acceptance being your honoured Ladies have already vouchsafed to his eldest Brother The Protestant's Practise so gracious a Patronage it were the highest ingratitude a most heynous and horrid kinde of unthankfulness to bury in oblivion their unmerited favours and to judge your honours so uncharitable to a poore Orphan and a younger brother so worthily descended having so excellent a spirit indu'd with a Benjamin's portion as to deny your Favour Patronage and Protection unto him but being more than confident of your goodness herein I heartily commend you all to the Protection of the Protector of us all and humbly take my leave and rest Your servant in all Christian commands ATHANASIUS DAVIES To the courteous READER READER THose that honour God God will honour and so will all good men do but such as forget him shall go into the land of forgetfulness and shall have their portion in that infernall lake which burneth with fire and brimstone Look therefore in time before he on the pale horse comes who is the childe of sin the father of confusion and the Pursivanâ— of Hell Consider well how oft thou hast provoked thy Maker stirred up his anger deserved his displeasure and a thousand wayes done evill in his siâ—ht and that not ignorantly but presumptuously not weakly but wilâ—ully and not fearfully but impudently who when thou erredst did reduce thee when thou wert ignorant he did instruct thee when thou wert negligent he did correct thee when thou stumbledst he did stay thee when thou wert fallen he did raise thee when thou stoodst he did strengthen thee in all thy affaires he did direct theâ— in thy trouble he did help â—hâ—e in thy dangers he did deliver thee waking he did enlighten thee sleeping he did watch thee sinning he did suffer thee and praying he did hear thee how canst thou then forget him who remembreth at all times in all places by all means ever every where and every way in thy journeies by his conduct at home by his safeguard in thy Prayers by his assistance in thy afflictions by his comfort in thy board by his bounty in thy bed by his protection and in all thy wayes by his support who doth by outward means and by secret inspirations invite thee unto him beating continually at the doore of thy ears by his words and at the doore of thy heart by his spirit suggesting
unto thee both wayes the greatness of thy sins the severity of his justice the shortnesse of this life and the eternity of that to come Reader Let me crave thy patience awhile mark diligently my words follow well my Counsell let these my words take deep impression in thy heart by all means walk in the strait way but let it be the right way beware of superstition in Religion to decline to the left hand and of rash zeal to run on the right be to God faithfull and to lawfull Authority not disloyall Endeavour to be what thou oughtest to be though thou canst not attain to that thou shouldest be never presume to reform others before thou hast well ordred thy self see at home then look abroad redresse that which is faulty and in thy power to amend before thou doest meddle with that which is beyond thy reach be not faire in publike and foule in private hate hypocrisie and avoid vain-glory let not the badge of Religion be the bond of wickednesse receive no opinion in Religion but what the word of God doth evidently warrant see unto the glass of the word by thy own sight without other menâ— Spectacles and hold what thou judgest truth onely in love of the truth beware of by-respects be not high minded and be not wise in thy own conceit but make thy self equall with them of the lower sort and if it be possible have peace with all men avenge not thy self but give place unto wrath be angry but sin not ow nothing to any man but love put on the new man which after God is created in true holinesse Cast off lying and speak the truth from thy heart let no corrupt communication proceed out of thy mouth work out thy salvation with fear and trembling and give all diligence to make thy Calling and Election sure And consider hadst thou Sampson's haire Milo's strength Scanderbergs arme Solomon's wisdome Absolon's beauty Craesus his wealth Caesar's valour Alexander's spirit Tullies eloquence Gyge's ring Perseus's Pegasus Gorgon's head and Nestor's years yet thou canst have no true content or happiness in this world which is but a maze or labyrinth of errours a desart a wilderness a den of thieves and cheaters nor ever arrive at the port of rest without the two wings of Davids Dove Prayer and Meditation those inseparable twins like those of Hypocrates's which did feed together joy together weep together live together and die together Prayer disposeth our souls to meditation meditation supplieth matter to our prayer both give life and strength the one to the other Meditation prepareth our souls and maketh them fit to receive God Prayer inviteth that glorious guest b th to entertain him and make him pleased to abide in them or to speak more properly Prayer is the speech of the soul unto God and Meditation is as it were the speech of God to the soul both make a familiar conference and conversing between God and the soul In this Treatise thou shalt finde a sweet Dialogue both of Meditation and Prayer the devout soule humbly praying unto God and God graciously answering the soul this is Jacob's his ladder whereupon the Angels of God cease not to ascend with our Petitions and descend with Pardons This is the rod of Aaron with which we may do wonders this is the haire of Sampson wherein lies all the strength of a Christian And this is the Path-way of perfection which will safely bring thee to thy journey's end where are those joyes which neither eye hath seen nor ear heard nor ever entered into the heart of man To which place God of his infinite mercy in Christ bring thee and all Christians which shall ever be the hearty prayer of the greatest of sinners and the least of Saints thy unknown freind in the Lord Athanasius Davies SPARKES OF THE SPIRIT SECT I. Of the holy Scripture LORD The Atheists conviction as thou art full of Majesty and might of command and Authority so dost thou shew thy self no where to be of greater credit and Authority than in thy Word For all other Books and writings to induce the Reader to give credit unto the Authors thereof are full of reasons and arguments and of naturall probations But thy Word good Lord is most plain and absolute declaring simply and absolutely thy will without any further Naturall or Philosophical arguments shewing thereby that it is the Word of such an Author who is to be believed upon his bare word simply and absolutely without any further reasoning For we know dear Lord that thy holy Scriptures differ from all mens writings because they command and controll all Princes Potentates of the world absolutely enjoyning forbidding vice threatning everlasting misery to the wicked and assuring eternal felicity to the godly Therefore Lord we know and believe that the holy Scriptures are thy holy and Sacred Words and thy undoubted books For it belongeth to no creature to be able to inflict eternall punishments or to bestow endless blessedness Therefore those Books that contain threatnings of the one and assurance of the other must needs have none other but thy Majesty for their Author For what creature can or dare say I will judge all men in the day of judgement and I will give unto every man according to his works Who 's of that Authority power as to threaten eternal pains to all men past present to come resisting his will but only thou most mighty God What is he that could say or write That there lights not a Sparrow on the ground without his knowledge and providence That he knoweth all the words deeds and thoughts of all men but onely thou most wise gracious Lord Who could say I will bring a generall deluge upon the earth I will melt the Elements with heat I will rayse up all the dead at the sound of a Trumpet and judge the world but thy Infinite power For if any creature had been the Author of the Scripture he must be either good or evill It was not an evil creature for the words be simply and absolutely good dehorting from all evill and exhorting unto all godlinesse and to the chief good and therefore these words which are contained in the Scripture could not proceed from the nature and inclination of any evill creature Neither could these words properly proceed from the motion and disposition of any good creature because they are spoken in precepts and in commanding manner with great Authority in much power threatening punishment to such as obey it not as eternall happinesse to such as follow it For no good creature would presume to take upon him such power and Authority of himself as to threaten eternall damnation to some and assure eternal salvation unto others which onely is proper to a Divine and Infinite Power and therefore it were intolerable pride and presumption in any creature to take so much Authority upon him being a thing so flat and contrary against the nature and