that we may not for a present enjoyment in this life lose the hopes and inheritance of a better Luke Chap. 15. v. 10. There is joy in the presence of the Angells of God over one sinner that repenteth SO great are the Concernments of an immortall Soul that it's recovery from the world sets heaven in a triumph and it 's return to it's Maker is welcom'd back in Quires the angells sing his recantation and rejoyce as if they themselves were made happier by his conversion And yet is not the joy of Angells greater then that of the soul it selfe when it hath found and regain'd it's Maker its sighs are turnd into songs and it's teares to raptures each drop is not onely counted and kept up but turn'd into a streame of joy His sorrowes are turnd to consolation his troubles into peace and the stormes of conscience into calmes of love Such are the fruits of a holy penitence the happinesse of a religious contrition He that went mourning all the day and turned Anchoret for greif whose life was a torment and the grave his feare that desired not to live and yet was afraid to die is now transformed into sweeter passions and breathes nothing but the praises of his Deliverer See with what indignation he lookes upon the world whose embraces had so long imprisoned him to whose false allurements he had been so much a servant Those pleasant trifles he once admired are now his contempt and those shadowes of felicity he once so much pursued he hath now exchanged for more celestiall enjoyments and enduring pleasures And indeed Who that hath once truly tasted heaven can well rellish the world againe whose choisest feasts are worse then an Egyptian diet to this Manna and its largest roade of pleasure but a precipice to that way whose narrowest path carries freedome and felicity He that hath once found the goodnesse of his Maker and those joyes that flow from his service will sacrifice himselfe in pious resolves and grieving that he was so long a stranger to his law all transported beg both pardon and support Tell me who can character the pleasures of this new birth the joyes of a converted soul restored to heaven and his maker He that feels it can expresse it but in raptures and silent signes the ecchoes of his heart Even the Angells here can sing it onely not describe it and in Seraphick consorts give us notice not a copy of it Thus the heavens become harmonious the frame of nature that groaned under the disorder of mans sin is againe revived and set in tune by pardon And no wonder if the creation feel a silent musicke in it's limbs when the Lord our Maker is not onely the Author but a partner in this triumph proclaming even his delight in such happy renovations and that he is best pleased when sinners flie to the refuges of his mercy and humbly beg the riches of that Grace and favour which he onely can give and which he never refuses to them that seek him So infinitely good art thou O Lord that thou dost not onely invite but bring us to thy self and not onely call but cause us to returne We know thou desirest not the the death of a sinner having so freely sacrificed thy Son for sin and that thou delightest in pardoning it for thou hast proclaimed thy self so Though thou didst not spare thine Angells when they fell yet in the riches of thy mercy thou hast contrived a Redemption for our souls even by the blood of Jesus Fill us with perpetuall adorations of thy love that thy goodnesse which is so ready to pardon sin may encourage us to beg it and to continue constant waiters on thee in thy worship here till we are made companions of those blest spirits hereafter that rejoyce in the recovery and salvation of a sinner Matth. c. 6. v. 33. But seeke yee first the Kingdome of God and his Righteousnesse and all these things shall be added unto you AND He that loved his Saviour would no Question do it but alass that which ought to be the first is scarce the last of our thoughts the least and worst of our performances Such Lovers are wee of Heaven that we think it no sinne to serve our selves first and make our Creatour waite the leisure of our Devotion Miserable Creatures whose Religion reaches no higher then their bodyes for whose very Superfluities wee study to provide whilst our Brighter part lyes all naked and unthought of Such Strangers are we even to our own Soules so insensible of the joyes to come that we looke no higher then the World and in sphearing all our hopes within Mortality as if we had nothing durable beyond our breath suffer Eternity to be forgotten Wee cannot live without our Maker and yet how do our lives neglect Him how eager how ambitious after an enjoyment heere but carry not the smallest passion for his Glory The jollities of the World swallow up all thoughts of Heaven and in the pleasures of sense we can drown Immortality What is that we sacrifice our selves to but the hopes of a felicity The very Pagans rather then want a Blisse would fancy one in lovely shades and place the triumphs of immortality in those amorous walkes their Ghosts should revell in And who can hope for Heaven that neglects it or expect the joyes of this Kingdome that looks not after it Without Holynesse no man shall see God and he cannot be Master of much Sanctity that prophanely loses himselfe in sinne and is a Stranger to that piety which can truly Enrich Him beyond all the treasures of the most splendid and fortunate transgression How miserable are they then whose pleasures onely divert them from their Maker and have no other Apologie for their neglect of Heaven than what sinne can make that Court the World and for a fading embrace exchange a Diadem of Blisse a Crown of Life Were the whole World turn d into a Seraglio of delight and every region to an Arabia could every field become a Paradise and every object we meet bring a Magazine of pleasure with it had we all the enjoyments this Life can triumph in yet we should quickly finde them without God but miserable fruitions Is there any thing dearer then our lives and yet even these are of no valew in respect of a better the very exigencies of Nature are trifles to the concernments of our Soules It is better to starve then dye for ever and lose God 't is better to goe naked then not to be cloathed with immortality 't is better we should want heere then hereafter that fullnesse which knows none And yet How many are there that had rather lose Heaven then the World pawn their Consciences sooner then want and for a fortune sell away their very Christianity How many make sinne their study and thinke it a credit to invent new methods of impiety and are such carefull providers for Eternity that they will be
Rebell against Heaven 'T is such a Heart that prepares us for this Vision and happy is he that 's such a Puritan Strengthen us therefore O Lord against the vanities of the World and raise up our thoughts to the Contemplation of thy Glory Levell in us every proud thought that dares exalt it selfe against the power and purity of thy Law and Sanctifie us for thy selfe and thy Service more that the practise of a Holy life may be as it ought our chiefest employment that so when we depart from hence we may be received to Thee and being seen no more heere may for ever see there what before neither eye hath seen nor eare heard nor heart conceived the Glory thou wilt impart in the fruition of Thy selfe Matth. Chap. 8. Verse 2. Lord if thou wilt Thou canst make me cleane IS not sinne a Leprosie Then the Lepers Prayer is every Sinners too Hee that had seen the Leper's body would not have wondred at his Prayer and yet could he but have viewed his Soul he might perhaps have seen objects of more prodigie and Horrour the miseries of his blood which had lost its verdure and become but an unprofitable friend to Nature every part being as it were dead-alive by so unnatural a Nutrition taught his tongue this Necesary though Mournfull kind of Confidence Lord if thou wilt And Hee whose Compassion never failes to shew that his Goodnesse was as great as his power would not reject a Suite wherein his Mercy was concerned and those limbes which might have been sooner drown'd then bathed into a Cure re-assume new life and beauty by the bounty of a Touch. Thus the Leper is new bodyed againe but we read not of any Cure wrought upon his better part and that perhaps had more need The bedrid Man his Successour was farre happier whose sinne and disease were both taken away together How many are there that like the Leper looke no higher then their bodyes whose Superficies is all their religion whilst the nobler peece that gives them life lyes all neglected under some Chronicall infection Our blood shall have all the delicacies that Art or the most Chymicall Luxury can invent to feed its flames whilst our brighter part the Divine and Celestiall fire which inspires us lyes all quencht and rob'd of its immortall aliment and can carry back nothing but a dimme and Hectick lustre to it Maker The torment of Limbe shall teach us more devotion in an houre then all the concernments of our Soules could do in a yeer before and the deformity of the meanest part will be an object of more shame and sorrow to us then those pale and infernall shapes that attend sinne and disfigure Heaven in us Of all plagues this is the greatest and yet least feared as if Hell were but a Toy Damnation a Pleasure and the miseries of our Soules a Recreation to us Shew me that beauty that 's not a Leper that innocence which carries not a guilt to blush at that Saint that infant man that knowes not what it is to sinne Were our veines purer then the lips of Violets that perfume the Chymistry of the aire the drops of the Morne were Adam's sinne a stranger to our blood and our birth cleer as the Morn innocent as the new-blown Rose yet the deformity of our lives would soon teach us this prayer and the blacknesse of our very thoughts would silently proclaime our ugliness And yet was not there not in those dayes a Generation that were cleane in their own eyes that justified themselves even in their impurity and counted all the World but Lepers to them Was not the Pharisee a greater Leper than the Publican though so proudly he displayed his best plumes His very Pride carried more Contagion with it than the other Mans Sinns all put together Hee that trusts to the merit of his owne paint may lose Heaven and those joyes which an humbler Confidence secures O Lord though I am not so bad perhaps as some yet am I so bâ—d in my selfe that the Leper heere is a beauty to my Soul Lazarusse's Corps a comelinesse to my sores yet were I more impotent then the Cripple of Bethesda more Leprous then the Nine whose ingratitude was more loathsome then their disease were those Legions ejected by thy word received in me were I as bad as Satan could wish to make me yet I know thy Goodness and I do not doubt thy power For Lord if Thou wilt Thou canst make me clean Matth. Chap. 24. v. 39. And knew not untill the Flood came and took them all away HOw securely did these sinners cram themselves for destruction or as if forseeing their inundation they would by full stomacks labour to prevent an entrance Life and luxury were such inseparable companions here that nothing but Death could part them They had waded so long in an Ocean of sin it was impossible to escape drowning and not be surrounded with the depths of a quick and overflowing judgment Noah might have preach't himselfe dumb and have sooner talk't himself asleep in mild and fluent admonitions than awake these drunkards had not the waves made use of a rougher language and in their owne swelling dialect the prodigious roring of the depths buried them and their riotts in silence together Had not God otherwise promised the world how often had it since been delug'd They were but eating drinking but we do even glut and carrouse it in sin commit ryots upon Hell and can teach the Epicure himselfe to revell Our forefathers were but dwarfs to us in sin whose transgressions have to far transcended theirs in bulk that we are become greater Giants in iniquity then those of the first age So monstrous is Sin still in its productions that the whole earth like an infernal Africk brings forth new prodigies of vice daily that were the world in a consumption as some think 't is in vertue onely and the iniquities of the times when they seem to be quite full are but increasing still They were but cold phlegmatick crimes that drown'd the world to the fiery sins of this hotter age that shall and have already almost set it in a combustion 'T is another element then that of water must punish the feared Consciences of this age and chaines of darknesse must fetter those that run after new lights the metors of their owne invention The world was already drown'd in sin when the waters to compleat it's excesse came and carried away these living-dead men and buried them in the same grave together Such is the fruit of a carelesse life the miseries of a retchlesse impenitency they were revelling in their feasts when the greedy element devoured them and they that drank iniquity like water had a fit punishment for their iniquity The waves grow high and mount up to a tombe the sea becomes a spatious monnument both to hide and wash away their sin and they that swam in mirth are now swallowed up in streames and
they will be at no Expences in their Worship like the thrifty Disciple they will not goe to the Cost of Serving God Handsomely How happy was Zacheus whose poore habitation our Saviour pickt out beyond the rest to harbour in and Honour with his presence nor yet was so Rich a Mercy confined to him alone but extended to the whole World too Every family may if they will share in the same fortune This day is Salvation come to every one Hear this then whoever thou art that Sacrificest thy Soul to any thing but Heaven that dancest to the Musick of the World and makest Eternity a Stranger to thy thoughts Canst thou deny thy Saviour an admission or thinke it a trouble to leave the foolish interests of the World and welcome the most Holy Jesus Behold the Miseries of our Natures which will not be perswaded to become happy but suffer an immortall joy to be lost for ever in embraces heere Thou hast brought us from Nothing O Lord that we might see thy Salvation that we who might have been for ever without Thee might through the Knowledge of Thy selfe be made partakers of thy Glory O Enliven us that we may give up our selves wholly to thy Service and perpetually study to do something to the Honour of thy Name that we may not throw away those Soules on the vanities of the world which thou hast given us for Thy selfe and to be employed in thy Service but that Sacrificing our Wills to Thine and our lives to a perfect Love of Thee we may find that joy which accompanies thy Grace heere and that Glory which knows no end or change hereafter in Thy presence for evermore Math. Chap. 13. v. 43. Then shall the Righteous shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdome of their Father WHo then would not be ambitious of so bright a change to become purely Coelestiall to have his body turn'd into a Luminary and every part transformed to lustre when man shall become not onely a Living soul but a Living splendour too and his immortal breath in it's reunion instead of parts find beames to quicken Heare this ye blind admirers of the world that look no higher then a Diadem a purple robe or some honourable trifle and sell your brightest inheritance for a splendid toy Heare this ye Beauries that carry charmes of Lustre in your faces and think your eyes are not onely spheares but treasuries of Light whose attire Emulates the starrs and carries splendour with it that weare your happiness on your back and count a silver vanity your Glory Heare this who ever thou art that canst dote on shadowes the flashes of a transitory pomp and for a glorious Mortality bidst adiew to heaven and an Immortall-blisse Couldst thou put on a roabe of Starrs or pull rayes from that Royall luminary that embrightens the world they would be but gloomy splendours bright obscurities to that Glory that enwraps a Saint The lustre of the heavens is but an emblem of our owne the Prince of planets that dishevells his rays and revels it in splendour the great Magazine that stocks the world with light is but a Curtaine to that Tabernacle that shall invest us Our toombs are our wardrobes for heaven and those Chambers of death whose hangings are winding sheets overlaid with dust are the out-rooms that strip us for our robe of immortality the opening of our Graves is the beginning of our happinesse and we are gather'd to our fathers that we may be gather'd to eternity If that Glimpse which the Disciples saw in the mount made them wish for three tabernacles or an eternall abode there how shall the beauty of revealed Heaven and the glory of an ascended Saviour ravish us with desires after its enjoyment It was the Martyrs comfort amidst their tortures that though their members were in peeces yet the haires of their head were numbred Wert thou bottomed in the seas depth his power can buoy the up if crusted into the earths rubbish he can abstract and forme thee a finer creature then ever thou wert If Peters shadow could cure the sick how powerfull must He be who is Peters Glory He whose name is in the Book of Life dies here but to be laid as it were in a Presse to be extracted a purer modell for eternity Who then would not onely despise the world but welcome even misery for so invaluable a reward triumph in his greatest eclipse and become cheerfull in the midst of chaines He that knowes the glory of his inheritance will little value those pleasant trifles those rich nothings the world admires the painted joyes of an imaginary felicity but in nobler and Diviner expectations prepares himselfe for that change which knowes none where he shall have nothing else to do but to live forever and be eternally received as once the Disciple into the Bosome of his Saviour Thou didst make us for thy selfe O Lord and when we by our sins and follies had for ever lost thee Thou didst restore us to thy selfe againe that we might not be eternally deprived of Thee our onely Good O fill us with perpetuall meditations of thy Love let those joyes which are so much above our thoughts be ever in them let our inability to comprehend the happiness of thy kingdome heighten the piety of our ambition after it more that we may walke in some measure worthy of so Divine a purchase as heaven and as thou hast prepared it for us do thou prepare us for it Prepare us with all those heavenly graces that may entitle us to it and with all those spirituall desires that may make us breathe and long after it that so our hearts being there before we our selves may come after and being transported in our desires may be also in our persons to everlasting enjoyments Luke 18. v. 11. The Pharisee stood up and prayed thus God I thanke thee that I am not as other men are c. HOw ungratefully does the Proud Pharisee thank heaven how strangely hath pride altered him He that used to make long prayers intends to be but short now he stands up He comes not to pray but to bray not to adore God but to commend himself Here is not in the humour of being very devout being so taken up and ravisht with his owne graces that he had scarce either the time or the patience to remember the divine Author whose goodnesse he would seem to acknowledg but t is so colldy 't were better he were unthankfull still He exceeded other men indeed for his impudence was superlative Had he known himselfe better he would have been more thankfull and lesse proud How largely doth he urge heaven with his worth but makes no apology for his Pride he thanks God indeed but t is in transitu rather a complement then a Prayer though it be a sin to worship images he thinks it none to be his owne idolater and therefore dares present God with a catalogue of his own merits How perfectly
fancy Heare this O thou Miser whom the Silver Rhetorick of a bag can court to Hell and art greedily wonne to damne thy selfe at the Musick of a purse that canst gaze thy selfe blind at the splendour of a Gemme and cursest Geography for describing riches beyond thy reach wishing thy selfe an Indian that thou mightest dwell among Treasures and inhabit Mines till thy very haire became silver indeed till thou thy selfe went all turnd to Ore and and every Bone into a wedge of Gold Heare this ye Gallants that are so enamounted with the fashions of this world that ye have lost all Idaea's of a better ye that live meerly to please your sense and feed your luxury with the curious martyrdom of a thousand creatures As ye have purer veins have purer passions too and have nobler inclinations for heaven the riches of your attire wil not cloathe you with immortality should you sell your estates when ye die 't would not purchase paradise It was the best speech the old Oratour ever uttered when he said he would not buy repentance so deare 'T was but an extemporary expression and yet all his Rhetorick could never match it that one straine was worth all his Orations and will outfame the labours of his pen. Could we treble the lives of Patriarchs and with them the pleasures of the grandest Epicures Could we like Cleopatra in a dissolv'd pearl swallow the treasure and pleasure of a kingdome at a draught or command the Creatures as peremptorily as ever the Centurion did his servants had we all the enjoyments we can either wish or fancy what ever the ambition of the most vaine and carnall appetite can long for were the whole earth turnd into a paradise or a constant spring beautifying its face Could we live and not grow old or being old not feele the miseries of age could we unwind time againe and reverse it's wheels stop the coelestiall Mercuries the posts of heaven in their course and set the Great Clock of the world backward againe nay were our bodies as durable as our soules that we could out live Time it self and be above ground even when the world shall receive its period yet what shall we get if after all our imaginary felicities and sliding contentments we become a sacrifice for hell enlisted in the cursed catalogue of the damned crue a victime for eternal flames lost for ever from God and Heaven Then tell me who ever thou art and aske Dives himself What is man profited though he should gaine the whole world and lose his owne soule What is there in the world O Lord that we should love it thus weary our selves in vaine desires and make the pleasures of this life our felicity How hard is it for him that is a stranger to thy law to perceive the emptinesse of those enjoyments he hath so long rowled himselfe in to resist the tempting advantages of sin and undervalew the flashes of this life for that glory Thou wilt impart My God teach me so to enjoy the world that I lose not Thee let the blessings thou bestovvest quicken and increase not dul my devotion raise up my obedience not drowne my gratitude that so the vanities of the world may be my scorne and the joyes of heaven my onely ambition that I may never for a perishing fruition in this life lose both my soule and thy grace together Matth. Chap. 5. v. 8. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God WHo then would not strive to become pure No wonder David was so earnest for a clean heart and a right Spirit if this be the reward of Piety who would not become religious Blest Spirits how happy how pure are ye that behold the face of your Heavenly Father who would not labour to imitate you heer that he might be like you there and possesse joyes such as raptures never knew Shall the false and treacherous vanities of the World steale away our hearts and rob us of the hopes of this Glory the fruition of this Sight A Sight in Comparison whereof the royalties of the World the triumphs and splendours of the eye and the beauty of the whole Creation is not worth the looking at A sight which no eye ever saw but may if it do not blindly lose it selfe on objects heere No Ear ever heard its perfect description but may the Harmony and Halelujahs of it if it bow not to the charms of sinne and the musick of the flesh 'T is a sight whose Ideae cannot be drawn by the most lively and subtile Speculations of any Scholastick brain though never so Angelical 't is not fancy but piety can reach it The Divine Traveller St. Paul himselfe though newly there could not give us a Copie of it and Scripture Characters it out but in Similitudes to shew how infinitely transcendent is that Glory which is so much above expression so much above all comprehension Were all the Diamonds the earth is mother of mustred to a Splendour they would not match the smallest glance of the Sun's eye and yet that noble Luminary surrounded with so many waiting Starrs that begge their lustre from him is but a sparke to the Brightnesse of of His face Who then would sacrifice that part to the World which may become the instrument of so much happinesse and suffer the extravagancies of his blood to revell there where nobler passions and flames should triumph He that would dwell among the Spirits of the just must teach his own to become so and turne his body to a Temple wherein his heart must be the the Altar and Sacrifice too or rather a kinde of Sanctum Sanctforum for the choisest Gifts of the Spirit to inhabite The Seat of Life must be turn'd into the Seat of Love and the pallace of the Spirits into a Court of Graces and then that part which as Naturalists observe is the first that lives and the last that dyes shall become purely vitall and not dye at all Nothing but a Trinity can fill this Triangle which we must therefore shape to the purest forme and teach it in all its pulses to beate nothing but Heaven and Sanctity Our breasts must become Clossets of Devotion and our hearts the Cabinets of innocency and prayer enricht with that great diamond a lively faith the Lamp at which all our smaller Graces as Candles light themselves and like Stars borrow their Lustre from this Luminary 'T is not a heart that can dance to the Tune of any Religion and pretend a Sanctity which it wears onely in its face that makes Fancy its Conscience and stiffnesse of humour tendernesse of Spirit No 't is a heart robed with Humility and Crowned all with Love perfum'd by Prayers the odours of Charity and the fragancies of a pious life that couches it self within the arms of our Saviour's Spouse and becomes a mourner in its perfections that looks upon the World as the Enemy of its Glory and had rather dye then be a
little dreaming of their deaths are shipwrackt in their very houses in the midst of their pleasures being fatally suprized by a terrible and unwelcome guest So righteous art Thou O Lord and infinitely pure that thy Justice though it may seeme to winke at yet will not pardon impenitence nor passe by the resolv'd impieties of wilfull transgressours and yet so infinitely good that thou never heightenest thy punishments but when men do their iniquities nor are thy judgments epidemicall but when sin is so Thou that desirest not the death of a sinner wouldst not have destroyed so many even all had not their transgressions been so universally prodigious that they came up in a cry together to pull downe thy justice And though thou hast since out of the greatnesse of thy love and compassion promised a security from the same yet not from all punishment Let the memory therefore of those that perisht by thy wrath for their neglect remind us of our duty and thy glory that so the examples of thy judgments upon others may teach us by a lively repentance to prevent our owne Luke Chap. 7. v. 5. For he loveth our nation and hath built us a Synagogue BEhold the character of a good Magistrate one that might well be styled the father of his country though a Roman whose patronage so eminently extended itselfe over both and the best part of their commonwealth This man was Cheife not onely in place but in piety too all Judea could not match him which since it lost its freedome was not wont to find or enjoy the happinesse of such Rulers and had they not hated Idolatry they would have worshipped this lover of their nation Herod indeed did re-build their Temple but it was more for feare then love 't was not out of piety but policy the better to get the crowne 't was his ambition not his devotion that founded that stately edifice not somuch out of zeale to God or his countrey as out of pure religion of becoming King Such is the Sanctity of the world which makes Gods Honour not the foundation but a passage to their owne turnes religion into a footstool for ambition and makes heavenly pretensions a stair-case to iniquity The Centurion here was a benefactor to the Nation out of pure zeal and if not of their religion yet a great freind to it whose charity not content to shew it selfe in the management of their civill interests only so nobly employed its power for the good of their souls and Church Unlike the Rulers of the world whose Religion it is to have none at all and are such lovers of sacred Foundations that instead of laying new they are the onely new fashion Templers that dare fight for to ruine the old and defend their pulling down Piety is lovely even in the meanest but in Kings and governours it carries a splendour like those rayes that surround the head of a pictur'd Saint Pyramids whose proud-reach dares justle the clouds and make them stumble in their race Piles of Alablaster carv'd to various shapes and pictures lively as the dead and the more like because both breathlesse Tombes of marble Vaults of brass are but poor monuments worthlesse conservatours to that building without hands wherein deceased Piety eternally shall live The Centurion here by building Synagogues rais'd a structure to his owne memory that hath out lasted them and the Jewes ravish't with such unwonted favours in a Ruler to expresse their Gratitude run in streames to Jesus and petition him to heal his Son pressing him with an argument of great force with them for He hath loved our Nation and built us a Synagogue Such honour have all they that Honour Thee O Lord whose zeale for thy Glory seldome returnes empty to themselves the meanest offering to thy Altar is not onely accepted but rewarded too and they that make it their Ambition to exalt thy Name shall not have theirs forgotten Let not those that knew Thee not be more passionate for thy Glory then we whose very Profession ought to adorne our Religion whose bodies ought to become Temples fit to entertaine thy Spirit the spirit of Holinesse of Love Thou wilt now no more be worshipt in Synagogues but more spirituall Assemblies Teach us therefore to turne our souls into Sanctuaries and to raise up our thoughts in more lively addresses that we may not so much endeavour to obtaine the worlds time by a moral fame as by the Sacrifice of obedience the Righteousnesse of eternity Luke Chap. 9. v. 57. Lord I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest IT was the best resolution he ever made nor can any blame him for his boldnesse when it was his glory to have been an intruder he might have gone on long and farre enough and not have met with such heavenly Company Was it his Confidence or his Love to Jesus that put him on See with how pious an importunity he accosts him whom perhaps he had never seen nor known before but by his Miracles onely and that life which so astonish't the eyes of the world could not but attract his and his heart too and therefore thinking it no presumption to use all meanes of bettering himselfe nor willing to lose so fair an opportunity of becoming happy ambitious of an admission all in raptures without any other Complement then an humble earnestnesse salutes Him Lord c. Nor could our Saviour's poverty stop or weaken his resolve or discourage his intention being not onely Content but Ambitious to share even in the miseries of so good a Master in whose very wants he should find a felicity beyond all the enjoyments of the earth Is not this Man a president for the whole world He that will not follow Jesus out of love yet let him not for shame suffer a Jew or Publican to out-step and strip him too Are the joyes of an everlasting Blisse of so poor a value that they are not worth the coming to or shal we think any step too weary that brings us to happinesse Were the way to heaven but strewed with roses or a thousand pleasures to revive the flesh the sensualist would turne a constant walker there and be the formost in those pathes the rich Man cannot follow Jesus for his pretious Luggage with which because he cannot without it he will not stirre The Epicure will not be of a Religion that prescribes him temperance for although perhaps he might make a shift to pray he cannot tell how to fast The way to heaven is too narrow for Ambition whose lofty port loves not to be strained in its passage but must have a road wide as the world or Hell can make him wherein his traine of sinfull glories may follow him in a breast together So difficult a thing it is to leave the world even for heaven and strive against the blandishments of sense for an invaluable blisse as if all our hopes all our happinesse were lap 't and tied up in the Concernments of this
hath the world learnt his lesson How do the Catholicke Pharises pride themselves in a supererogatory devotion and thinke to climbe heaven by a ladder of their owne making glorying in a superabundant piety and triumphing in a meritorious excesse of dooing even more then they need How nimbly do our Trembling Enthusiasts too follow their leaders steps here in a sanctimonious pride by a supercilious purity presuming to reforme the world and new modell it againe That saint themselves Stylo novo and with the Pharisee not onely thanke but tell God plainly they are not as other men That raylingly proclaime themselves the great light of the world and in a pious Lunacy would new gospell it againe extravagantly proscribing all religions but their own These melancholy Pretenders seclude themselves from others and by a sullen devotion are become so strangely divine that they have almost lost their humanity So that if the Pharisee was not as other men yet these are as like the Pharisee as may be having so exactly learnt both his nature and religion So naturall is it for us O Lord to be deluded even in our best Performances and whilst we vainly thinke our selves not onely better then others but good enough in Thy Sight to be carried into presumption 'T is humility crownes all our Graces and puts a Beauty on our requests whilst the confidence of our owne merits does not onely deforme but seclude us from thee Teach us therefore with such gratitude to use thy gifts that we become not forgetfull of our selves or Thee Whilst others Pride themselves in a meritorious supererogation let us indeavour humbly to confesse and bewaile our imperfections Let not a spirituall Pride seise upon our souls so shall we be innocent from the Great Transgression Romans Chap. 6. v. 21. For the end of those things is death WHo then would propose that for his happinesse which shall perish with himself whose end is not only death but hell and will destroy him not onely now but hereafter too Indeed were there no hope that our remains should revive again or the ruins of our frame rise up to a finer shape we might well drown our selves in enjoyments heere and fixe our felicity in pleasures Every man might then without sin become an Epicure and he that could invent new fashions of luxury would not only be more ingenious but more fortunate too Morality would be all vice yet vice it self no more a crime but our felicity not to be extravagant then were a sin against nature he that is most Brutish would be most Rational Law would then become an enemie to Humanity there could be no society but in confusion and in spight of policy were there no heaven no hell we should pleasantly mingle to a chaos and obey no other discipline then that of riot Every one might then turne Atheist without scandall to be without God in the world would be no misfortune every man might be his own without blasphemy Could they that live dye like Brutes too and revive no more the comfort of not being damned would be greater then the sweets of sin But alas he that dies now must live againe that his life may be rememberd nor yet is it somuch the feare of Death as the horrours of a guilty conscence the terrible presages of a future eternity that scares the departing soul The pangs of expiring nature are nothing to those stings the memory of our crimes bring with them The sorrowes of the Grave and our being here no more for ever are joyes to the miseries that are to come Tell me thou that hug'st the world then and gropest for paradise in a grove of sins thou that makest earth thy treasure and wrap'st up the riches of thy hopes in time's bosome or the enclosure of a span when those bright and nimble guides of life thy eyes shall grow weak with age or weary with paine when every limbe shall become an object of sorrow and those parts that were so officiously employed in sin shall become instruments of despaire When that delicious frame that darling edifice thy Body shall by its tottering qualmes and trembling convulsions affrighten its disconsolate owner how will the flashes of a future justice and the terrours of thy end confound thee Can those enjoyments that flattered away thy soul restore it now can those pleasures that stole heaven from thee recover it again can thy vanities asswage thy sorrowes or the memory of thy sins the misery of thy end Where 's that musick whose aires like Davids harpe might charme the cries of conscience and by its straines drop a harmony that might still the trouble of thy anguisht soul Where are those trophies thy ambition purchased at the easy rate as onely sinning for that Honour for which thou hast sold heaven that soveraignty for which thou becamst a slave thy selfe and lost the freedome of thy soul Cannot all thy Greatnesse raise thee up a litle and by a power once so much feared and applauded reprieve thee from the grave or a more eternall prison Where are those treasures thou soldest thy best inheritance for whose ravishing splendours took away thy sight and made thee blinder then themselves Can they neither bribe nor buy thy pardon or will the grave know no other fee then so rich a misery Where are all those diversions that robb'd thee of thy piety and the thoughts of thy Maker those pleasing vanities that took away all sense of heaven and foresight of thy end Are all vanisht to a toomb and an unwelcome period are all thy jollities terminated in a Coffin and no other object left to keep thee company but thy Crimes and those terrours thy guilt presents Behold now then ye Lovers of the world more then of God and see the picture of your end those ruines you have so smoothly built on Try if all your imaginary felicities are proofe against this shaft or can secure you from this intruder the single Conquerour of the world whose very prison is but a reserve for a worse and its execution here but a repriefe for a more lasting and yet living death He that liv'd in pleasures must live in flames and having revell'd it in sin riot it in tortures and the misery is that wishing not to live he can never die And yet how vaine are our desires still after the world O Lord how soon how smoothly are we led by the false and transitory pleasures of this life from Thee The wages of sin is death and yet how foolishly do we preferre its service before thine whose reward is life The end of prophaness is eternall ruine and the pleasures of impiety period in confusion and yet we sadly embrace the proffers of sin before the promises of thy glory Pitty O Lord the frailties of our natures and forgive the irregularities of our lives fill us with noble desires after Thee that the vanities of the world may be our scorne and thy Glory onely our Ambition