like Gods Gen 3. to know good and evill they can never claw of But there is certainely an height to which we may goe but he that rests not there may goe further but it is downewards and that many times impotente sui pondere with a swinge that cannot controule it selfe till it carry him headlong into the dangerous precipice of distraction and errour Such while like Elias they are wrapt in the Chariot of contemplation 2 King 2.11.13 reach not to the perfect vision of the heavens and things done and enacted there which they aspire to but they let fall their mantles which should vaile their nakednesse Knowledge as it is in it selfe is a sweet thing but it hath its sower sauce with it Like Vinegar it doth not so much satisfie the appetite as whet it with a new and fresh desire The Satyre that could not be content to see the fire but must needs in Curiositie feele it scorched his fingers Now for answer to this second argument of Lots and to shew the fallacie of it whereas he saith it is neer The neernesse is so farre from making lawfull his request that it shewes it rather to be absurd for if it be neer Sodom it is neer danger and the more being as neer in condition as in place Is this Zoar a Citie of the Plaines and not in the same condition of sinfulnesse with Sodom Then Lot thou wouldest change place but not company and the next degree to sinne is to be in the company of sinners Woe be to him that is alone saith Solomon and yet say I better it is to be alone then in the company of sinners Eccles 4.10 and that in respect of a double danger infection and judgement First of infection for I dare say it is as great a miracle for a man that permits himselfe the libertie of wicked societie not to be tainted Dan. 3.27 as for the three children in the fiery furnace not to be burned And good reason is therefor this since in our body there is not so great a disposition to catch fire as in our soules to receive the tincture of sinne The customarie beholding of sin committed though by others doth in our selves weaken the strength of our Antipathy and by little and little familiarize it to our nature bringing us by an insensible progression from a full hatred to a faint dislike from dislike to a toleration from a toleration to a consent so to a delight and at last to a societie and actuall commission And as the danger of infection is much so secondly little lesse is the danger of judgement Witnesse Lot himself who suffered in the captivity of Sodom because he so journed in the Citie of Sodom Tum tua res agitur paries cum proximus ardet Virgil. Who desires a vicinitie with danger First therefore looke unto thy safety and then to thine ease 'T is neer to Sodom and therefore farre from safetie He commits a strange soloecisme that makes the way his end that lookes how he goes not whether Such is the folly of us wretched men Doe not we just as Lot did When the seeming pleasures of the way cozen us into hell when foolishly delighted with the pleasures of sin for a time we goe on in the wayes of death Heb. 11.25 as an Oxe goeth on to the slaughter or as a foole to the correction of the stockes till a dart strik through our liver as a bird hasteth to the snare and knoweth not that it is for his life Prov. 7.22 23.27 Thus much for Lots first argument à quantitate viae it is neer I proceed to the second à quantitate termini t is little it is a little one and is it not perexigua a very little one In which words me thinkes I discerne as much passion as hope of compassion Behold it is a little one and is it not a little one Let me with your patience before I enter further into examination of the argument doe what I thinke the words will give me leave looke over the pale of Divinitie into the groves and shades of Philosophy and there would I desire the resolution of a probleme Why men have a kinde of naturall indulgence and delight in little things Or why men are more taken with things that are under their just and ordinary proportion then those that exceed it For inanimate it is not onely not so but directly contrary where with the quantitie of bulke is also encreased the quantity of vertue as in pearles precious stones and the like But for artificiall things 't is indeed many times on the contrary that the valew and esteeme of them is so much the more by how much they are the lesse To comprehend in the compasse of a Wall-nut or in a lesse quantitie so many severall springs wheeles catches motions all distinctly regularly moving is it not farre more admirable then the exemplar of the same in a great clock For our esteeme of these lesser workes the reason is evident in regard it shewes the more art to contrive a worke in the lesse quantitie Materiam superabit opus Nay this is grounded upon nature Ovid. which nunquam abundat in supervacaneis sed agit per lineas breviores goes the most compendious and neer way to work But now for animated things why we are more tenderly affected towards them in their minoritie and infancie rather then in their adult-age and maturitie What may be the reason of that Is it that innocency of theirs with which we are affected that yet is defiled with no other sin then what by the necessity of their procreation is contracted to them Or is it from a noblenesse of nature to be indulgent towards them that are unable to helpe themselves Or is it we love them as the meanes of our eternitie to which we aspire by this renovation of our selves Or will you say it is a weaknesse of our judgements and misplacing of our affections on the imperfection and inchoation of the creature rather then on their adult-age and perfection Or is it a kinde of simpathy with our owne principles Sure if it be none of these and that I may erre in the reason yet the thing it self is evidēt that naturally we are more compassionately indulgent to the infancy and minoritie of the creatures then to them in their adult-age and maturitie and our blessed Saviour himselfe seemes to acknowledge in his owne example this affection as lawfull as naturall in taking little children in his armes Mark 10.16 laying his hands upon them and blessing them rebuking those that forbade them to be brought unto him and many such like passages But I am afraid I have dwelt too long on this theme though I am confident not with any impertinencie to my Text in which I finde the straines of like passionate indulgence it is a little one and is it not a little one and my soule shall live But I proceed to
shew you in this one three severall motives to Lots desire Plentie Societie and Safetie Then in answering these againe I might without being Heterogeneall dilate upon the commendation of their opposites Povertie and Solitarinesse each of which besides the true determining and moderating of our desire of these might suffice to hold discourse beyond the limits of your patience But I shall content my selfe to glance at some of these rather then to tye your patience in a long discourse First then of Lots first argument This Citie T is a Citie the other a rude and barren mountaine This Citie was before time called Bela as appeareth out of Gen. 14.8 untill this occasion of Lots request and the reason of it altered the name to Zoar which signifies little because he said it is a little one and is it not a little one It was one of the five Cities of the Plaines called the Plaines of Jordan Gen. 13.10 a Valley wherein nature prevented the labour of the industrious husbandman in a voluntarie and unbought fruitfulnesse so that it needed not to be watered with the sweat of industry to make it fruitfull but of it selfe yeclded to the inhabitants occasion of idlenesse to the neighbours of envy and to all of wonder Such a place it was that it grew to a word exemplary to set forth the pride and height of fruitfulnesse It was watered like the Garden of God Gen 13.10 and like the plaines of Jordan before the Lord destroyed Sodom Here were then three strong attractives to Lots desire Plentie Societie and Safetie and in this Citie all these three concurre to make life securely happy Abundance of wealth and delicacies to refresh the body abundance of company to delight and cheer the minde and then safety which onely makes the other consummate in the securitie to enjoy them For plentie and riches it is true that Quintillan sayes Quint. dialog de Oratoribus pag. 689. Divitias facilius est ut invenias qui vituperet quam qui contempserit It s easier to finde a man that will dispaire them then that will despise them one that can in the Schooles wittily declaime against them rather then one that will disclaime them Quis nisi mentis inops he shall presently be begd for a foole To stand in tire upon his owne bottome and not need to be beholding to any nay to have all that which shall hold all others either in his friendship or slavery O it is supremum mortalitatis votum locus diis proximus it is the highest condition mortality can be capeable of and riches give it Most of the studies inventions toiles travels and undertakings of men aime at this one end to be rich Heaven it self is but too often made the price of this purchase Men goe there to fetch gold where they loose heaven and day itum est viscera terrae into the bowels of the earth deeper into hell This Image of Caesar causeth an universall idolatry and to that superscription all subscribe That Lot then should desire to go to this Citie rather then to a barren and naked mountaine we need not wonder unlesse we wonder that men preferre plenty before poverty I shall be industriously idle to make more words of so confess'd a theme In that it is a City there is a second attractive Society and that is to man as his owne element Society is the life of our life and solitarinesse is a very living buriall I might here move a Problem why men naturally in remote and silent retirements and solitudes finde a kinde of horror and affrightfulnesse Is it that as Solomon sayes of friends Prov 27.17 they strengthen the faces one of another so our Genius doth receive a mutuall comfort and livelyhood from one anothers presence and so in this solitude being out of the rayes and circle of their vertue acknowledges that want in this weaknesse Or doth the soule apprehend the presence of some good or evill spirit which are both ready the one to offend the other to defend us Or is it the reflexe of our owne conscience upon it selfe which being guilty of sinne must needs be of feare Or is it antipathy of nature which in this sees a praeludium of that universall silence to which all go downe Siquis asperitate ea est ut congress us societatem hominum fugiat oderit qualem fuisse Athenis Timonem nescio quem accepimâ—â—s tamen is pati non possit ut non acquirat aliquem apud quem c Cicero de Amic fol. 220 vide si placâ—t plura ibid. What the reason of it is I know not thus much I am sure of that this horror is an evident argument that man is politicum animal that in his nature is implanted a love of Society and that he was as well made for Cities as Cities for him so that Auchorites and Hermits are gone as farre from mans nature as they are from his company Timon himselfe that greatest Owle of Athens and prodigie of nature that profess'd an antipathy to all man nay to all humanity yet he for all his doggednesse as Cicero wittily sayes of him could not carere hominum consortio apud quos virus acerbitatis suae evomeret he could not want the company of men though it were but to spit the poyson of his gall upon them 3. Now for Lots third attractive to the City which is safety that man should desire it needs no more proofe than that a man loves himselfe and it were vaine in me to go about to prove it Here then were seeming reasons to justifie the lawfulnesse of his request and excuse his unwillingnesse to obey God's command But From the specious shew and waight of those arguments I come to the fallacie in them and for answer in generall to all first by concession say 't is true suppose it that this being a City is more convenient to fly unto more comfortable to rest in there are those invitations here which in the mountaines are not But what then must God be obeyed only with our conveniency and the condition of our service be our owne content What is this but to make Gods of our selves and to observe him only whilst he will pleasure us Egregiam vero laudem Virgil. How much better did afflicted Job Iob. 2.10 Shall we receive good at Gods hands and shall we not receive evill What if God commanded thee not to danger but to certaine losse of thy content thy estate nay thy life wilt thou not obey Is not he the supreame arbiter of life and death He that gave thee all may be not therefore command all thou art owner of Must our reason or will or content be check-master with his supreame authority and our obedience be limited to our profit our pleasure or such respects Yet 't is thus alas many times with many amongst us God hath many that seeme his servants who are indeed but their owne men
LOT'S LITTLE ONE OR MEDITATIONS ON GEN. 19. VERS 20. Being the substance of severall SERMONS sometimes delivered By WILLIAM INCE Mr in Arts late Senior Fellow of Trinitie Colledge Dublin Published since his death by R. I. MATTH 5. 19. Whosoever shall breake one of these least Commandements and shall teach men so he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven LONDON Printed by I. R. for the Kingdom of Ireland and are to be sold by Iohn Crook and Richard Sergier in Dublin at the Signe of St Austin in Castle-street 1640. Imprimatur Tho. Wykes August 26. 1640. Reverendissimo in Christo Patri LANCELO TO Providentiâ divinâ D â—o Archiepiscopo Dubliniensi Hiberniae Primati Metropolitae Has fratris charissimi Gulielmi Ince in artibus magistri Colegii Sanctae Trinitatis Dublin nuper socii senioris lucubrationes posthumas igni ab authore devotas è Sybillinis veluti foliis ut plurimum collectas amore curâ fraternis luce corpore donatas in meritissimae Tam authoris dum viveret quam fratris superstitis observantiae testimonium L. M. D. D. D. Clementiae vestrae servus à sacris addictissimus Randulphus Ince The Text. GEN. 19. VERS 18. ET dixit Lot ad eos ô ne sic quaeso Domine mi. 19. Ecce nune invenit servus tuus gratiam in conspectu tuo magnificasti misericordiam tuam erga me servando vitam meam ego non potero liberare me ad montem ne fortè aliquod malum capiat moriar 20. Eccenunc civitas ista propinqua ad fugiendum illuc ipsa exigua est eripiam me nunc illuc nonne exigua est vivet anima mea 18. ANd Lot said unto them ô not so my Lord. 19. Bebold now thy servant hath found grace in thy sight and thou hast magnified thy mercy which thou hast shewed unto me in saving my life and I cannot escape to the mountaine least some evill take me and I dye 20. Behold now this Citie is near to flee unto and it is a little one ô let me escape thither is it not a little one and my Soul shall live GEN. 19. VERS 18 c. And Lot said unto them O not so my Lord c. THese words are a part of a prayer that prayer of a story a story almost as memorable as any that was ever yet left upon record since the creation of man and that is the destruction of Sodom upon which God indeed commanded the wife of Lot not to look back Vers 17. and her hard heart of unbelief and disobedience transformed her into a pillar of stone so that she that on Gods bidding would not goe when she would should now stand stand an eternall monument of Gods displeasure against the children of disobedience Let it not awaken your wonder that where the Text sayes a Pillar of Salt I say of Stone It is consonant to reason and the generall voyce of interpreters that it was Salt rather quoad speciem quam naturam specific am rather in resemblance of the graine then identitie of the nature else would it never have lasted through so many ages and yeers to Iosephus his time Iosephus Antiquit. Iud. lib. 11. nam extat inquit hodie quoque who tels us that in his time there was still extant such a Stone which tradition gave out to be this though then of one Stone it was become two monuments one of Gods anger against the Wife of Lot and the second of Times devouring teeth which had delt with this as with many other monuments whose antiquitie we reade by not reading them and guesse at their age and standing by our neither reading nor understanding of them But of this we are most certain she was punished for disobeying and her disobedience was in looking back towards Sodom when God had forbidden her Luk. 17. 32. But what was to her forbidden is to us commanded to look back upon Sodom 2 Pet. 2. 6. All judgements are more for publike example then private revenge and whatsoever was written Rom. 15. 4. was written for our instruction Yea and sure by the qualitie of the judgement God meant it for publike notice and therefore God sent a flaming judgement that all eyes might see it and by the light of it reade his just and fearefull indignation against impenitent sinners a flaming judgement that it might be the world's Beacon to rouze and startle snorting securitie to awaken to repentance and detestation of sin a flaming judgement that men in this might see a glimce of hell and in this temporarie foresee and foreseeing feare and fearing prevent another which is eternall Look then back yee penitent and weeping soules and judge whether is better to be bathing in those teares or frying in those flames Look back impenitent and relentlesse wretches and let your hearts frozen in the Lees and and Dregs of sinne melt and thaw at those flames and let the horror of so prodigious a judgement work the like effect on you as on the Wife of Lot to transforme you that it may be true of you which was of Nabal at the tydings of his wife Abgail that his heart dyed within him and became as a Stone 1 Sam. 25. 37. 1 Sam. 25. 37. Look then back and behold prodigions sinne requited with prodigious punishment unnaturall lust kindled with the fire of hell punished with fire that against nature rained from heaven In this behold the severity of God with no lesse wonder behold his Mercy Though for one righteous mans sake he will not spare Sodom yet for Sodom will be not destroy one righteous man In this Citie which was all chaffe and therefore fit fewell for the fire there was but one sheafe the familie of Lot yet God will not destroy that Mat. 3.12 but graciously as he promiseth in his holy Gospel sends his Angels to hinde it together and lay it in the Garner of safety when he burnes the chaffe with fire unquenchable Behold the riches of Gods goodnesse Rom. 2.4 he might without the least taxe of his justice have destroyed Lot who was not so righteous but God might have beheld matter of anger in him He can never want in mans wickednesse a patronage and defence of his own justice and though he cannot finde in the worst of men so much goodnesse as may merit the least blessing yet he cannot misse to finde in the best of men so much evill as may merit the greatest punishment Notwithstanding that good God which is never exceptiously apprehensive of mans infirmitie nor uses the advantage of our weaknesse to shew the greatnesse of his power in punishing but mercy in delivering yea though he I say doe sometimes make his temporarie judgements like his common favours the Sunne and raine to fall with equall indifferencie on the just and unjust Matth. 5.45 yet more often and that especially in notorious and exemplary judgements the good mans
is the more cunning Why beleeve it he askes as much in a poriphrasis now he askes thee but this thy little he askes thy soule and aymes though he seeme to play at small games indeed at thy whole stock He askes thy soule but more slyly least thou shouldst deny him And therefore thou oughtest to be the more circumspect against his cheating modestie by how much there 's the more reall danger in his seeming lesse desire It is so farre from any care of thee that it is indeed but a cunning tolling of thee on by a seeming carelessenesse and the innocence of a little sinne For know undoubtedly that of these littles is made the devils skrew and the staires that lead to bell are winding Nemo repentè fit turpissimus No man at onst jumps into the extremity of sin Invenal Sat. 2. and the kingdome of hell like that of Heaven commeth not with observation Luk. 17.20 but by an insensible progresse we goe downeward and therefore are bid to remember from whence we are falne Rev 2.5 and the servants come to their Lord with wonder in their mouthes Matth. 13.27 Master didst not thou sow good seed in thy field from whence then hath it tares It escap't their notice for a long while even till the blade sprung up and the fruit appeared Thou seest here it is wisedome to be a precisian and that a nice and tender conscience is the best antidote against secretly insinuating poyson Had David before made a covenant with his eyes Iob. 31.1 he had not so neerely unmade his covenant with his God when he beheld Bathsheba from his tarras 2 Sam. 11.13.17 Little thought David that little thiefe lust that through the windowes of his eyes stole into his heart should have opened the doore to those two great sinnes adultery and murther 2 Sam. 12.9 Little thought he the fruitfulnesse of that sinne of lust would for one infant have doublely lost a man first in drink and then in bloud Little thought Peter when he ment at first Mark 14.66 67. c. with a plaine deniall handsomely to have shitted of the dangerous inquisition to 01 have runne into oaths and execrations By stepping but aside he little thought to have run so farre from Christ even further then they that before forsooke him and fled from him Matth. 26.56 You see then how one sinne ushers an other and like one wave cals another till at last the deepe waters goe over thy soule Canst thou pull one linke of a chaine and thinke the rest will not follow In that little sin thou art dejectus de statu gradu discomposed and disordered in thy posture so that thine enemie may close with thee Such is the fruitfulnesse and improvement of sin Since then it is sins method to winne upon us by little and little here a snatch and there let us be wise as serpents Matth. 10.16 and countermine against the policy of that grand serpent Let us arme our selves with a sacred jealousie and well wrought resolution which as Satan in vaine by force at onst should attempt to breake let us take heed that he never by his policie unravell Seneca and as Seneca counsells nobis quia regredi non est facile optimum est non progredi because we cannot easily return ' it s best way not to goe forward I have thus farre insisted out this argument of Lots in a three fold sense naturall morrall and theologicall In the first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in way of essay I inquired into the reason why men are naturally compassionate and indulgent to little things Secondly I inquired what this is which we call little and whether i import any essence or quiddity positive and absolute or onely comparative and of relation In the morall sense of the words I endevoured by some Ethicall precepts to stop the voracitie and greedinesse of our desires both to God and man to cure men of that wolfe and to traine them up unto a discreet modesty in all requests that what we aske may be without a blush and given without a straine which will then be when like Lot of his Zoar we can say for our request it is a little one and nonne perexigua est is it not a very little one The Theologicall sense I have shewed might be twofold in regard of a twofold object that may be supposed Gods power or His justice 1. His power and then would the words involue an errour as dangerous as popular viz. that any thing were easier or harder to God whereas this is so onely in a measured and finite strength It is a little one is a good argument in that it implies our modestie but it is a little one is a bad argument if it looke at Gods power 2. The second sense supposing the second object which is Gods justice is likewise dangerous as confessing that Bela or Zoar a Citie of the plaines of Sodom doth partake with the rest of the Cities in the communitie of the same sinnes but it is but a little Citie and Gods justice cannot be impeached as partiall in sparing so few men so little a Citie Hitherto I have proceeded and though perhaps I have made much adoe about a little yet I am unwilling to let goe the same theme Who will not there most fortifie where he knowes his enemie will make the greatest battery It is this way and almost this way onely the devill winnes upon us The Serpent thus by little and little windes himselfe in He never delt with any except our Saviour Matth 4.6 to bid him cast down himselfe from the highest pinacle of the Temple it is his wont to us to cozen us by degrees from the height of our zeal and vertue as by winding stayres and this way he 's so much the more like to obtaine his end by how much we are lesse able to discerne either the declination or danger of the way I had almost vented a paradox and yet though I call it so I will adventure to expose it to the hazard of your censure and am much deceived if it be not acknowledged for more than halfe a truth and this it is Little sinnes or those sins which we take for little ones are many times of greater guilt and danger than those which we esteeme great ones Be pleased to suspend your censure till I acquaint you with two or three reasons First they are committed in greater numbers and so numero si non pondere valent their number will weigh against the others weight The fruit of this forbidden tree growes if not great in bulke yet in branches and clusters Secondly they are done with greater boldnesse and holdnesse is the very formale of a sinne that which dies in the deepest guilt and aggravates it beyond all excuse as if forsooth by the priledge of some extraordinary familiarity with God we might be borne out in a little boldnesse
which followes in these words O let me escape thither But before I passe to the request and last argument here stands in a parenthesis a passionate Epanalepsis set downe by way of interrogation is it not a little one In which having done with the matter of the words the Rhetorick only is left to our observation It is a little one O let me escape thither and is it not a little one In which words methinkes I finde as somewhat of passion so much of a compassionate indulgence so that I know not what more winning and affectionately moving could have been spoken A right piece of true Rhetorick that woes the affections like a right artist like one that would derive both powerfull and pathetically into his auditory his owne notions his owne sence and like a common Genius of the whole body animate the whole company with one and the same soul This is the true end of all Rhetorick both prophane and sacred ducere affectus to take and lead the affections quoquo velis which soever way you please And to doe that is there any way but through the understanding Which being truely and undoubtedly so I can but wonder for understand I doe not what end they have proposed to themselves whose preaching is more affectedly obscure then Delphian Oracles or Egyptian Ieroglyphicks that indeed make good in a bad sence that of the Apostle that calls preaching prophesying 1 Cor. 14 3. that have mouthes nay words and speak not and would make good that curse upon their auditors to be of those that hearing heare and understand not Isa 6 9. 82 and seeing see and perceive not Act 28.26 And indeed I wonder at the patience of them that heare such who are delt with as the Foxe did with the storke Who inviting the storke to a feast powr'd his liquor into so slat and shallow a dish that the poor stork was only a spectator while the Fox lapt up the meat his long bill being unable to dip in that shallow platter For you that heare such I know not in that regard what you loose if you sleep whilst such preach for if they will not make you auditors I know not why you should in the Church onely be spectators But for such Preachers I would upon the pardon of a question give them I think good counsell What need they labour an houre not to be understood Is it not a more compendious way if they would not be understood to say nothing 2. There is an other sort that on the contrary as the former make preaching prophesying so these in as bad sense would make good that of the Apostle of some that call preaching foolishnesse as if because preaching must not be gareish 1 Cor. 1.21.23 it must therefore be sordid T is beyond the patience of an understanding man to beare the rankenesse of their undigested meditations and God sure but for our punishment never made such Ambassadors It is beyond both my purpose and skill to prescribe the best way who acknowledg my selfe in the lowest classe of learners But sure there is a latitude wherein men may both please and profit and it will prove best when men learne first the inclination of their owne Genius and seeke to perfect that whether in the kinde of prosecution or action Much of imitation is distort and lame I have with a perfunctory touch done with this and come to Lots affirmative request O let me escape thither God prescribes Lot the way to escape flye to the mountaine Lot replyes O not so my Lord for I cannot c. there 's a nè sic of disobedience O not so and there 's a nè fortè that is his distrust and then behold this Citle is better there is confidence 1. Man 's a distrustfull creature and yet man 's a presumptuous creature For is there any climax in sinne whose highest step we have not reached If the basenesse and abjectednesse of our feares shrinke us as low as hell the swolne pride and height of our presumption preaches us as high as heaven so that with a saucie presumption we dare capitulate and indent with God nay even chalk him out the way with a not so my Lord but behold a better conveniency O let me escape thither thither to Zoar one of the five Cities of the plaines 2. Man you see desires to serve God easily and cheaply would have the way to heaven downe the hill the way broad strawed with violets and roses good store of merry companions along with him and at the end a wide and open gate that might be hit blindfold O who then would not goe to heaven He thinkes it not for the state of so glorious a Palace to have so narrow a Gate It 's that that offends many and makes them turne back againe to Sodom that the way should be so narrow set with thornes of afflictions that scratch and pull back a solitary and melancholick way as many think through disgraces and reproaches 2 Cor. 6.8 c. loaden with an heavy yoake an heavy crosse Matth. 11.29 that all the way must professe patience Luk. 9 23. and invite a second blow after the first Luk. 21.19 and at the end agate that to get through they must creep low as the dust Matth. 5.39 and so straight that to get through a man must leave his wealth Matth. 7.14 his dearest sins nay even his flesh The Israelites way to the spirituall Canaan is through a sea of sorrow made big with their owne teares that goes high with their owne sighes with a spirituall Pharaob full of rage and at their heeles through a Wildernesse where there are all things that threaten death and no sustenance for life Deut. 8.15 no bread no water no flesh no houses a long way through deserts and wildernesses amongst many fiery serpents through many enemies O these are the things that make many a one returne againe towards Egypt Act. 7.39 and goe on merrily in the wayes of death Prov. 7.23 till a dart strike through his soule Men will with much adoe perhaps be brought to desire to escape the spirituall Sodom but not by the mountaine O that 's up hill and against the haire but by the way of the Plaines of Zoar all would escape O sayes every one let me escape but thither this way by Zoar and my soule shall live We would be content to invert that petition thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven to thy will be done in heaven as it is on earth that our pleasure might rather be Gods service then Gods service our pleasure Most men deeme the man in the Gospel a foole to buy so deare a bargaine when he found the Pearle Matth 13.46 that is to part with all that he had to purchase it What needed this cost without doubt say they heaven ' may be had at an easier rate and he but over-bought his