apply our imitation renewing our lives by the works of Penance First by Fasting whereby wee shall dry up the flux of Intemperance then by taking down into our hearts a dose of the bitter herb of of Contrition whereby wee must vomit up of the poyson of sin at our mouths by Confession and washing our selves in our tears and in the river of the sanctuary the word of God passing through the straits of a firm resolution to serve God and forsake sin we must put off the old man with the lusts therof and by the heat of the sun the love of Christ drying up our facilitie and proness unto sin we must put on the new man Ephes. 4.24 which is created according unto God in justice and holiness of truth and so recovering new strength unto well-doeing wee shall more cleerly understand spirituall things more ardently affect God and our neighbour and more earnestly hunger and thirst after righteousnesse and thus shall wee renew again the life of grace in our decayed souls As abstemious John Baptist was the fore-runner of the birth of Christ so must abstinence usher the new birth of a Christian but the devill enters into the voluptuous as he did into the herd of swin or as into Judas when he had eaten the sop Prayer the weapon by which wee overcome even God himself is by nothing so much sharpened as by Fasting And therefore in the whole current of Scripture shall wee find these two in the examples of holy men linked together like the bells and pomegranates on the vestments of Aaron Prayer rendring a sweet sound Fasting a sweet smel which is therefore compared to cinamon and balsum which drying up the corruption of dead bodies keep them sweet Cúm S. Aug. caro arescit per abstinentiam ab humore luxuriae tunc reddit deo odorem continentiae when the humor of luxurie is dryed up in our flesh by abstinence then doe wee render unto God the sweet odor of continence Neh. 1.4 The Prophet Nehemia saith When I heard these words I sate down and wept and mourned many dayes I fasted and prayed before the face of the God of heaven Also the Prophet Daniel Dan. 9.3 I turned my face unto my Lord God to ask and beseech in fasting sackcloth and ashes And then did he receive an especiall revelation concerning the birth and death of Christ St. Peter when he was fasting saw the vision in the house of Simon the tanner Acts 10. Also Acts 13.2 As they ministred unto our Lord and fasted the Holy Ghost said unto them separate Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have taken them Here wee see that fasting-prayer is most pleasing unto God even as emptie-bellied instruments are sweetest to the eares of men Facilius per jejunium oratio penetrat coelum saith S. Jsodore The darts of our prayers being headed with fasting doe more easily pierce the heavens And as fasting-spittle as Pliny saith kills a serpent so doth fasting-prayer put the devill to flight and with him the many troups of his temptations wherewith he assults our disarmed senses And therefore our Saviour buckling himself to grapple with the devill made this one peece of his armour as the Scripture saith He fasted forty dayes and forty nights S. August saith Fasting doth purge the mind it englightens the soul it subdues the flessh unto the spirit and moulds in a man an humble and contrite heart It purgeth the mind by consuming and drying up the humour of luxury even as the fire which came down from heaven licked up the water about the sacrifice of Elias It enlightens the soul by lightning of the bodie and freeing it from those clogs of flesh to which in not a few it is a prisoner for the bellies fullnesse is mother of the minds dullnesse and repletions of meat in the body breed obstructions of vice in the soul whence saith the Prophet David Psal 34.13 Their iniquitie hath proceeded as it were out of fatnesse then immediatly followes They have thought and spoken wickednesse It subdues the flesh unto the Spirit by striking the swelling sayls of pride and incontinence enabling us to say with S. Paul 1 Cor. 9.27 I chastise my body and bring it into servitude and like Abraham it casts out the bondwoman and her children the devill with his spawn of sin not suffering the handmaids of our affections to advance themselves against their mistresse reason And lastly it makes our souls humble and contrite as the Psalmist saith Psal 72.7 I did humble my soul with fasting And this is the second condition required in the renewing of our lease of life The Passeover was commanded to be eaten with bitter herbs Exod. 12.8 and they that will feed profitably upon Christ our Passeover must have their hearts embittered with compunction and sorrow for their sins Surgeons when a bone that hath been broken is set awry are forced that they may set it right to break it again so the rectitude of our souls being broken by our fall in Adam whereby we goe halting all our lives after that we may set our hearts aright which are thus wryed and crookeded by sin we must break them again by an humble sorrow for all our sins Which must not continue for one assault alone but wee must multiply our stroaks and breakings of our hard hearts untill our sorrow swim in our eys and furrow our faces with our tears even as Moses by striking the rock twice made a river of water to gush forth And we must be sorry that we can be no more sorry and with the men of Israel 1 Kings 30. weep till we can weep no more It is not enough to afflict our souls and bow down our heads for a day or to be like the marble which is moyst only against wet weather to weep only when the threatning storms of punishment hang over our heads remaining still inwardly as hard as the marble For as S. Gregory saith Hee that bewayleth his sins yet doth not forsake them makes himself lyable to so much the greater punishment by how much he contemns that pardon which hee might have attained by weeping But if like the Israelites wee pass through the red Sea of our tears of true Contrition we shall leave all the Egyptians our sins overwhelmed therein S. Aug. saith as Grief is the companion of repentance so Tears are the witnesses of grief into which if wee can melt our selves like Niobe through those dolefull images which sorrow imprints in our over-tender hearts for our outward losses of goods or friends or the like and cannot dischannell one rivolet from the fountains of our eys as a tribute due for the Ocean of sorrow which we owe unto the cause of those losses our sins surely we have either no sense of our sins which is bad or no fear of Gods judgements which is worse or no love unto his goodness which is worst of all For
if we had the heat of that love would reflect so strongly on our hearts clouded with sin that it would wholly dissolve them into tearfull sorrow even as the Sun printing hard his hot beams upon a gross thick cloud powrs it down into rain The Prophet David was of a far other temper and yet had an excuse as colourable as any one being a man and amongst men a souldier and amongst souldiers one of the hardiest whom no danger could reach to fear no temporall domage to grieve and yet such impression did sorrow make in his heart for sin that he saith I will wash my bed every night and water my Couch with my tears O faelices lachrymae quas beata manus conditoris absterget saith S. Bernard O those happy tears which the favourable hand of God shall wipe away And O those happy eys which have chosen rather to melt themselves into such tears than to lift themselves up with pride to look aside with disdain or asquint with envy These tears of Compunction and sorrow for our sins doe afford us the same refreshing that taking of soyl doth unto the hunted deer who being hotly pursued by hellhounds the Devill and his temptations and our hearts embost and panting under their pursute are wonderfully refresh'd and restor'd to our lost strength by washing our selves in the bath of our relenting tears into which who so enters as into the troubled waters of Bethesda's pool is assuredly healed of his sins If then the bitter sorrow for sin be the mother of such sweet and wished for effects let us seal up our desires with the words of S. Aug. Let repentance bitter repentance be the continuall companion of my days grief continuall grief the insatiate terror of my life and if I be not worthy to lift up my eys to heaven in prayer yet at least I am worthy to put them out with weeping CHAP. III. THe third thing required to the renewing of our lives is Confession The Dog when his stomack is surcharged with any hurtfull meat by eating grass vomits it up again so when we have burthened our consciences with ever-hurtfull sin wee must by eating the bitter herb of Contrition disgorge our sins at our mouths by Confession For as in a wound so long as the iron or steel or any part of that which gave the wound remains it obstructs the healing so doe the remains of sin in the Conscience through non confession control the influence of any remedy applyed thereunto as Solomon saith Prov. 28.13 He that hideth his sins shall not be directed but he that shall confess and forsake them shall obtain mercy An impostume breaking inwardly threatens death unto the party but outwardly it is a means to purge and cleanse the body So sin suppressed and smothered within our hearts doth empoyson and choak our souls but breaking out at our mouths by Confession it doth purge and clear the conscience and like the breaking out of the lips in an ague is a sign of our amendment So as S. Paul saith Rom. 10.10 With the mouth confession is made unto salvation Which Confession that it may be thus profitable must be also generall When a mans body sweats all over say the Physicians it is a sign of strength of nature but if it sweat in some parts and not in others it is a symptom of debility and weakness and no less testimony is it of the weakness and wickedness of the soul if wee doe not purge our souls universally of all our sins These parcell Confessors are like the children of Israel who cast out most of the heathen out of the land of Canaan yet suffered the Gibeonites to remain and made a league with them who thereby became as nails in their eys Num. 33.55 and spears in their sides so the least sin that remains with us uncast out by Confession will be a prick unto our consciences and an instrument of our destruction Now Confession as it must be accompanied by universality so it must be ushered by examination whereby looking back into the book of our consciences wherein the names of all our sins are written we must awaken the remembrance of all our thoughts words and deeds and muster them up together that so by Consession they may be cast forth as a sick man who being about to take a Purge first takes a Preparative to open the passages that so by the purge they may be the more easily ejected And that we may amongst the millions of our actions know which of them are to be superscribed with the title of sin we must have recourse unto the word of God as it is expounded unto us by the Church and the Pastors thereof which like the Mariners card and compass will demonstrate unto us how neer or far off our actions are from the immoveable North Pole of Gods commandemants And as when the Sun shineth not into a house the ayr seemeth clear but if it once enter in at the window it then appears full of motes and dust so the light of Gods word shining in our understandings will discover an infinite number of sins which before its access wee could neither perceive nor would we believe And as the word of God doth shew us our faults so also doth it cleanse them like unto a bason of water wherein a man may both see the spots in his face and wherewith he may wash them away as the Psalmist saith Ps 118 9. How shall a young man amend his way by keeping of thy words In this word of God therefore this river of the Sanctuary in imitation of the Serpent must we wash our selves which not unlike a certain water in Macedonia which being drank by the Sheep maketh them white so this received into our hearts doth blanch our souls with the whiteness of innocence Now where the Well of Gods word is deep and a stone rowled on the mouth thereof that is is hard to be understood with Rachel mentioned in the scripture Gen. 2.9 we must get some Jaacob to remove it that is some one that hath wrestled with God as the name of Jaacob signifies and that hath thereby obtained his assistance unto his studies and endeavours that so he may administer unto us But let us beware above all things that wee doe not drink down the water of Gods word with the abusive interpretation of heretiques for then contrary to the former effect of the Macedonian water it will be like that water in the troughes for the sheep wherein Jaacob laid his pilled rods which made them bring forth spotted lambs so will this make us bring forth opinions erroneous black and foul The serpent as I said in the beginning after his fasting his eating a bitter herb his casting up a poysonous humour and his bathing himfelf in water seekes some narrow hole through which drawing himself he slips off his old skin and drying his slipperinesse in the sun recovers a new one so
wee after our fasting our eating of the bitter herb of contrition and vomiting our poysonous sins at our mouths by Confession and having washed our selves in the water of Gods word must passing through the streights of a firm resolution to forsake our sins and to serve God put off the old man with the lusts thereof and by the heat of the love of Christ drying up our pronenesse unto sin put on the new man Ephes. 4.24 which is created according unto God in justice and holynesse of truth Streight is the gate Math. 7.14 and narrow is the way Saith our Saviour which leadeth unto life through this streight way must wee resolve to passe that so wee may devest our selves of the old-man and invest our selves with the new by departing from evill and turning unto good Cease to doe evill Esay 1.16.17 learn to doe well saith the Prophet Esayas Eschew evill and doe good saith the prophet David 'T is said Psal 36.27 that when the Eagle groweth old his beak is so crooked that he cannot eat his meat he therefore goes to a rock beates his beak against it untill he have broken it off and then falls to his meat and growes young again So our hearts growing crooked toward the earth and earthy things whereby wee cannot receive the spirituall food of Gods word and Sacraments wee must strike them against the rock Christ Jesus by considering both his precepts and example whereby the crookednesse of our beaks shall be broken that is our earthly affections rectified and our souls directed unto God whereby wee shal be enabled to feed upon Christ in his Word and Sacraments and so renew again our youth As it is Psal 102.5 Who fileth thy desire with good things and thy youth shall be renewed as the eagles And as Samuels mother 1. Kings 2.19 as the Scripture saith brought him a new coat at set times when she went up to offer the yearly sacrifice so as often as wee offer the sin-offering of a contrite heart unto God wee must casting off the old rags of sin cloth our-selves with the new robes of justice For wee must not think to wear this new coat with our old to wear the linsy-wolsy garments of religion and wordlynesse together a thing forbidden in the old law nor yet with the Jewes to cry hayl unto Christ and yet crucify him to make a profession of him in words and contradict it in deeds This is to serve God and mammon Math. 9.16.17 to put new wine into old vessells to patch old garments with new cloth which as our Saviour saith is either impossible or dangerous therefore as the Scripture saith 1. Tim. 2.19 Whosoever nameth the name of our Lord let him depart from iniquitie Moyses when he went into the holy mount put off his shooes Elias when he ascended into heaven cast off his mantle and Elisha when he went to serve the Prophet bad adieu to his father and mother so when wee enlist our selves in the catalogue of Gods servants wee must put off the shooes of our evill affections we must cast off the cloak of our unrighteousnesse and take our leaves of all those sins which either through our pronenesse unto them or their long familiarity and acquaintance with us have so endeared themselves unto us that wee are forced to reproach our selves with the title of their acquaintance Moyses commanded that they that went unto the tabernacle should goe out of the Camp and we out of our sins if we will goe unto Christ Wherefore as S. Paul saith Heb. 13.13 let us goe out unto him without the Camp And being once out let us not prove retrograde in the sphear of goodnesse nor with Lots wife look back unto Sodom nor say of any sin as Lot did of Zoar Gen. 19.20 Is it not a little one It is certain the devill will be tempting of us to turn back and say unto us as Solomons mother did to him I have a small sute unto thee 3. Kings 2.22 I pray deny mee not to which if wee yeeld as he foresaw so wee shall find that it will cost us no lesse than the losse of the kingdome even the kingdome of heaven Therefore having once cast out the old Adam out of the Paradise of our souls let us place there the Cherubin of grace with the flaming sword of the Spirit to resist the entrance of sin and in all the temptations of the world the flesh and the devill unto sin let us answer in the words of the spouse in the Canticles I have put off my coat Cant. 5.3 how shall I put it on I have washed my feet how shall I defile them And thus if we be renewed as the serpent by recovering a new skin doth with it resume new strength sees more cleerely moves more lively feeds more hartily so shall wee by this means enrich our selves with the strength of well doing wee shall more cleerely understand spirituall mysteries wee shall walk more uprightly in the love of God and of our neighbour wee shall more eagerly feed on and more strongly digest the spirituall food of Gods word and Sacraments by the nourishment whereof we shall walk from grace to grace untill wee come to be perfect men in Christ Jesus from grace unto glory untill wee be perfect Saints in the kingdome of heaven CHAP. IIII. A Second property of wisdome in the serpent worthy our imitation is this The serpent by reason of that enmity which it hath with mankind to secure it self from the danger of mens invasions creepeth away and hideth it self under bushes and delighteth to dwell in desarts and unfrequented places so the children of God mindfull of that irreconcilable enmity which God hath put betwixt that old mysticall serpent the devill with his viperous brood wicked men and the seed of the woman the Children of the holy Church should shroud themselves under Gods protection who appeared unto Mayses in a bush and with Enoch walk with God in the desart of divine contemplation that so they may baulk the companie and the consequents thereof the mischiefs of the wicked The Poets feign of Arachne that contending with Pallas for the prize in workmanship and being conquered by her disdaining at the ill successe of her enterprize she did so swell with the poyson of envy and hatred that she turn'd into a Spider so the devill in the pride of his thoughts contending with his Maker and by him like lightning being cast down from heaven hath had his nature ever since transformed into a serpent full of the deadly poyson of envy and hatred against God and all good men continually assaulting them either by battery or undermyning by open force or secret fraud by the feircenesse of the lion or subtilty of the serpent Which enmity of the devill against God like that which often happens betwixt the fathers of two potent families here on earth hath devolved it self unto each
that fear standing at the dore of our hearts would resist the entrance of sin into our souls and teach us to apply such a mean and moderation to all worldly endeavours that as the Apostle saith wee should use this world as though we us'd it not 1 Cor. 7.31 The latter means wherby we must make deaf our ears to the powerfull charms of the devils temptations is the meditation of our own end like the Serpent which stops her other ear with her tayl Which meditation may justly claim the exercise of our most serious thoughts since the devils suggestions are chiefly plotted for the undermining of this consideration Who is therefore likened to a Serpent which biteth the horses heels that he maketh him cast his rider mans body is this horse his soul the rider his heel his end the meditation whereof if the devill doe bereave us we are overthrown both horse and man There is no stronger bit to curb the temptations of our unbridled flesh than to consider what a dear price we shall pay for our pleasures in our death and at our judgement In all thy works remember the last things saith the wise-man and thou shalt never sin Eccles 7.40 The birds direct their passage through the ayr with their tayls so doe the Fishes in the Sea the rudders motion guideth the Ship and the beasts with their tayls beat away the flyes temptations are flyes whence the Devill is called Beelzebub which signifies the God or Father of flyes all which are repelled by the mediation of our end signified by the Serpents tayl and the course of our actions for which we embarque our selves thereby as by a rudder rightly steered to the Port of happiness When the devill tempteth us to pride our flesh to lust the world to vain delights if we did but allow this meditation of our end a full place in our thoughts that we must die one day we may dye this day and that after death commeth judgment wherein we must satisfie to the uttermost farthing the great debt of our sins and that in such a manner and measure as neither eloquence nor silence can express surely I think we should not as many doe run on in evil faster than the devill can drive them and dare him to present them with a temptation which they dare not execute but rather like the Peacock who when he looks upon the blackness of his feet le ts fall his Plumes and forgets the beauty of his train So wee casting our thoughts down upon our end should neglect all the delights that temptations promise in their sinfull satisfaction Every man when he is upon his bed of sickness when hee is counting his last sand when death is so neer him that hee cannot turn his eyes from it every one seeing it in his eyes then how many vows and promises doth he offer up of â—esisting all tempâ—ation unto sin unto which he hath formerly too easily consented if he may but by the return of his health renew again the almost expired league betwixt his body and his soul Yea even the devill himself as the old dâ—â—â—ich hath it when he waâ— sick would be a Monk and a holy man Aegrotat Daemon Monachus tunc esse volâ—bat Convaluit Daemon Daemon ut ante fuit The Devill was sick the Devill a Monk would be The Devill was well the Devill a Monk was he But if we did in our healths entertain this consideration of death and the day of judgement and make it as familiar and present to our minds as the approaches thereof are neer unto the sick no doubt but it would work in us the same never fayling effects If wee did make remembrance our Philips boy to ring the knell of mortality each morning in our ears and if with S. Jerome there were no action of our life in whose performance we did not think wee heard the sound of the Archangels trumpet proclaming this convocation in our ears Arise ye dead and come to judgement if we did remember these tormenting flames which God hath prepared for the devill and wicked men Isay 30.33 whose fuell is fire and much woâ—d the breath of our Lord like a torrent of brimstone enflaming it which though it torment them yet it shall not consume them as though they should have a period of their pains but like the Salamander they shall live still in the flame and be denyed with Dives a drop of water more than their tears which will be so far from asswaging their heat that the saltness thereof shall encrease their ames and yet in the high boyling of this their heat such conflicts of punishment shall meet in them that through extream cold they shall gnash their teeth for as our Saviour saith there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth If I say these meditations were in us and did abound surely they would strengthen us to strangle temptations in their conception and to resist the untimely birth of sin If the rich man mentioned in the Gospell had thought that his soul should have been hurried that night to hell he would never have dream'd of building his barns bigger Few men will steel at the gallows or speak treason on the rack but it is our putting the evill day far from us that makes every day evill to us We forget the evill of punishment which make us commit the evil of sin Wher wee may prevent our sins by remembring of the punishment then we think not on it and when we think on it which is not til we feel it then it is to late to prevent it O how humbly think you would the fallen Angels behave themselves if they were enthroniz'd in their antient glory O how abstemiously would our first Parents have walked by the forbidden fruit if they might have been repossessed of their earthly Paradice And how temperatly would Dives have used the pleasures of this life if hee might have been redeemed from hels tormenting flames Let us then be as carefull not to fall into their evils as they would bee if they were risen out of them which care the meditation thereof will mainly strengthen as the oyl of Scorpions doth heal their sting that while death and hell are in us by remembrance we may never be in them by sufferance For as 't is said if the Basilisk see a man first it kils him but if a man see that first he kils it So if death see and apprehend us first being unprepared it destroys us but if we see it first by meditation and preparation we kill it and become the death of death and may justly take up that joyfull acclamation of S. Paul 1 Cor. 15.55 O death where is thy victory O death where is thy sting Yet all must dye For deaths meditation though it take away the sting of death yet it takes not away the body of death But here 's the difference that death which is the wicked mans shipwrack is the good
the long tract of mens lives can wear out Thus did the private hatred betwixt Caesar and Pompey pull down ruine on the Roman Empire Thus Arius disdaining at his repulse in aspyring to a Bishoprick broacht such an heresie as overspread the whole Christian world yea death it self on the one party in some cannot destroy the hatred of the survivor witnesse the Story of Pope Stephen the sixt who caused the body of his Predecessor Formosus to be taken up and beheaded in the market place and afterwards cast into Tyber Yea death in both parties which hath killed the men yet hath not kild their malice if the story of Eteocles and Polynices be true which saith that when they had by mutuall wounds made windows for each others soul to fly out at their bodies being burnt together their very flames divided themselves as hating to be united in their dead bodies who were so divided in their living affections Thus homo homini Lupus one man is a Wolf unto another in whose hearts and hands and mouths are the instruments of mischief as the Prophet David saith Psal 13.3 Their throat is an open Sepulcher they delt deceitfully with their tongues the poyson of Aspes is under their lips whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness their feet are swift to shed blood Sorrow and unhappiness is in their wayes and the way of peace they have not known the fear of God is not before their eyes I have read that a string made of Wolfs guts laid amongst a knot of strings made of the guts of Sheep corrupts and spoyls them all it is a strange secret in nature and serves to insinuate the malice of these Lycant hropi these Wolf-turn'd men against the Sheep of Christs flock for which cause our Saviour gave us this commandement saying Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of Wolves be ye therefore prudent as Serpents and simple as Doves Simple as Doves 1 Pet. 3.9 not returning evill for evill nor curse for curse but on the contrary bless because you are called to this to be heirs of blessing as saith S. Peter S. Paul also saith Rom. 12.17.18.19 Render evill for evill to no man If it be possible as much as in you is have peace with all men Avenge not your selves but give place unto wrath for it is written vengeance is mine I will repay saith our Lord. And as it is reported of the wals of Bizantium that they were so smoothly and closely wrought that they seemed to be but one stone and of the building of Salomons temple that there was not so much as the noyse of a hammer to bee heard therein So should wee have all our thoughts our words our deeds so even so smooth so polisht that they should not send forth the least noyse of injury to our neighbour or sound of disaffection CHAP. IIII. YEt this is not enough to doe no evill but we must also doe good Christ cursed the fig-tree not for any hurt it did but because it did no good it brought forth no fruit And this exercise of good must not be centred in those only which either prevent or return us with an equall measure like the Scribes and Pharisees the Publicans and sinners but it must expatiate and diffuse it self like the impartiall Sun to all even to our enemies And so we shall be simple as Doves who besides that they doe no hurt to any living creature doe also indifferently nourish both their own and others young ones Now this practice of good must receive its form from the former prohibitions of evill to wit in thought word and deed First then in thought wee must have our hearts suppled and entendred with charity meekness gentleness humility and patience It was the greatest commendation of Moyses that he was stiled Num. 12.3 the meekest man upon earth for which cause God conversed with him more familiarly than ever he did with any as the Scripture saith Exod. 33.11 God talked with him face to face as a man talketh to his friend and our Saviour saith Math. 11.29 Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls The valleys are more fruitfull than the mountains and the weightiest ears of corn bow down their heads the lowest towards the ground such are the riches of humility disposing men like figures in arithmetique where the last in place is greatest in accompt Our charity likewise expecteth of us that we should breath forth nothing but desires of bliss unto our brethren not suspecting evill without great ground not beleeving evill without strong proof 1 Cor. 13.5 for charity thinketh no evill as saith the Apostle And God hath propounded himself for an example unto us to prevent our too easy taking up upon trust a prejudiciall report against our brethren in the eighteenth of Genesis where he saith speaking of Sodom and Gomorrha those wicked Cities Gen. 18.21 I will goe down and see whether they have done according to the cry that is come up unto me and if not so that I may know not as if God were ignorant of the truth of any thing but for our instruction it is thus written to teach us as Solomon saith that wee should not apply our hearts to all words that are spoken Eccles 7.22 nor by too hasty beleef doe that which must be undone again Our patience likewise in which our Saviour commandeth us to possess our souls Luke 21.19 claimeth of us an unresisting sufferance of evill though there be whole vollies of injuries discharged against us yet must our hearts be in ury-proof and our patience preserve us un-hurt unprovoked to anger hatred desire of revenge and their dangerous effects for as Salomon saith Eccles 7.10 anger resteth in the bosome of a fool And although the Apostle bids us be angry and sin not Ephes 4.26 yet it is but a permission not a command and I suppose it is easier not to be angry at all than to be angry and not sin at all For anger in mans brest is like fire in an Oven which if it be quite damd up is extinguished but having but a little vent is apt to rage too fiercely Wherefore the Apostle saith Ephes 4.32 Be ye courteous one to another and mercifull forgiviâ—g one another even as God for Christs sake forgave you Yea so far must our patience in injuries and our charitable return to those that have injured us proceed that we must not only cancell the debt of all their injuries so that not so much as in a thought may we wish them any evill as it is evill but also if any adverse accident doe befall them wee must be inwardly moved with a compassionate sorrow for the same As Job declaring his own innocence testifieth of himself Job 31.29 If I have rejoyced in the ruin of him that hated me or have exulted that evill found