Horæ succisivæ, or, Spare-houres of meditations upon our duty to [brace] God, others, our selves / by Ios. Henshaw. Henshaw, Joseph, 1603-1679. 1631 Approx. 197 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 180 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2003-11 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A03025 STC 13167.5 ESTC S2727 24561761 ocm 24561761 27778 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A03025) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 27778) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1475-1640 ; 1853:20) Horæ succisivæ, or, Spare-houres of meditations upon our duty to [brace] God, others, our selves / by Ios. Henshaw. Henshaw, Joseph, 1603-1679. The second edition corrected and much inlarged. [6], 160, [10], 190 [i.e. 192] p. Printed by R. Badger for Ralph Mabb, London : 1631. In two parts. The statement of responsibility appears after the edition statement. Signatures: A⁶(-A1) B-G¹² H⁶, ²B-I¹². Error in paging: p. 192 misnumbered 190. Imperfect: torn and tightly bound, with print show-through and slight loss of print. Reproduction of original in the Harvard University. Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Conduct of life -- Early works to 1900. Maxims. 2003-08 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2003-08 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2003-09 Olivia Bottum Sampled and proofread 2003-09 Olivia Bottum Text and markup reviewed and edited 2003-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion Horae Succisivae , OR , SPARE-HOVRES of Meditations : Vpon our DVTIE To GOD , OTHERS , Our SELVES . The Second Edition , corrected and much inlarged , By IOS . HENSHAVV . LONDON , Printed by R. Badger , for Ralph Mabb . 1631. TO The Right Honourable LADIE , the LADIE ANNE COTTINGTON . Right Honorable , I Have provided a PRESENT proportionable to my skill my time and your Honors knowledge of me , short : Your desire many times to heare others writing out of my mouth , made mee to put this of my owne into your hands ; a rapsodie of resolves and observations , some for contemplation , others for caution , the first divine , the other morall , when you lose an houre from better and graver matters , throw it away on these ; wherin you have somewhat of God , of others , of our selves , what God is to us , what we should bee to him , to others : there cannot be much said of it , because there is but little said in it ; in all which little I intend nothing to my selfe , but to others . The generall end of reading is to know , but the end of divine reading is to good our knowledge , and if it doe good , I have my end , and my reward , whose office is to live , not to my selfe , but others , and am a servant to all by a common duety , but your Honors by especiall relation to be commanded , I. H. Horae Succisivae , OR SPARE-HOVRES of MEDITATIONS . MAke God the first and last of all thy actions : so beginne that thou maist have him in the end , otherwise I doubt whether it had beene better thou hadst not begun . That we brought nothing into this world , is not more every where knowne , than it is of every one beleeved ; but that wee shall carry nothing out of this world , is a sentence better knowne than trusted , otherwise I thinke men would take more care to live well , than to dye rich . Wealth is not the way to heaven , but the contrary ; all my care shall bee how to live well , and I am sure I shall never dye poore . Sleepe is but deaths elder brother , and death is but a sleepe nicknam'd ; why should I more feare to goe to my grave than to my bed , since both tend to my rest : when I lye downe to sleepe , I will thinke it my last , and when I rise againe , account my life not continued but restor'd . Too much labour toyles the body , too much looking the minde : I will deale for my study as for my stomacke , ever rise with an appetite , lest if I once surfet , I ever loath it . How hard it is for a man to forget his sinne , or remember his God , not to doe that evill which he should not , and not to leave undone that good which hee should doe , every man can tell by experience . I were no man , if I had no sinne , but if I am a Christian I must not delight in sin ; if I cannot avoyd some sinnes , yet I will stand in none . To doe any thing to thinke to be talk'd of , is the vainest thing in the world ; to give almes and aske who sees , loseth the prayse and the reward : I may be seen to give , I will not give to be seene , that others are witnesse to my piety is not my fault , nor my praise ; I will never bee so ill a friend to my selfe to sell heaven for vaine-glorie . The obedience of good children proceeds not from feare , but love ; it is a very bad nature will doe nothing without blowes ; to turne to our vomit as soone as God is turn'd from his rod , and aske who is the Lord till a new plague , is a state I know not whether more to be feared or pittied : if I cannot avoyd correction , I will mend with it ; not bee beaten twice for the same fault . I know not which is worse ; the bearer of tales or the receiver , for the one makes the other : I will no lesse hate to tell then to heare slaunders : If I cannot stop others mouthes , I will stop my owne eares . The receiver is as bad as the thiefe . With God a Publican goes beyond a Pharisie , a sigh or a groane , that cannot bee uttered , beyond a long prayer with ostentation : Care not how long , or how lowd thy prayer be , but how hearty . Woman was first given to man for a helpe , since for a remedy , what shall we thinke of those , that turne the remedy into a disease , and hold it in all cases for some , and in some cases for all , not onely dangerous but damnable to marry ; what is this but to teach God what Hee hath to doe ? I have ever counted it safe and wise to leave that indifferent which God hath left so . GOD cannot endure a Pharisee that saies and doth not : with His disciples , saying and doing must not bee two mens offices ; if thou canst doe but little , promise the lesse ; so though thou maist bee thought niggardly , because thou performest so little , yet thou shalt be knowne just because thou promised'st no more . A good man would so be honourable , as hee may still bee honest , not broker for preferment ; if not worthy , let him want it , but if deserving , why should he buy his due ? I will neither grow great by buying honour , nor rich by selling it . In injuries it is better to take many , than give one , in benefits the contrary : I will requite the first with bearing them , the second with requiting them . Evill communication corrupts good manners . Peter denied his master among the Iewes , whom he confessed among the Apostles : I may have a bad man of my familie , I will never have a bad familiar ; or if at any time of my court , never of my counsell . So live with men as considering alwaies that God sees thee , so pray to God , as if every man heard thee ; doe nothing which thou wouldest not have God see done ; desire nothing which may either wrong thy profession to aske , or Gods honour to graunt . Every night is an Embleme of death , in this , that in both we rest from our labours : I will labour to long for my rest in heaven , and I shall never be loth to goe to bed to the earth , who would not desire to dye that he might be with Christ ? It is good in prosperity , to make roome for adversity , that however it come unsent for , it may not come unlook'd for ; if it doe not come , wee are never the worse , if it doe come we are the better provided ; expectation , if it doe not hinder crosses , yet it lessens them . Earthly things are like dreames , awake to nothing ; like shadowes set with the sun , wealth and honour will either leave us , or we them . I will labour onely for those pleasures which never shall have an end , and be more delighted that I shall be happy , than that I am so . 'T is a good Signe , when GOD chides us , that He loves us , nothing more proves us His than blowes , nothing sooner makes us His : God can love His children well , and not make wantons of them ; if I suffer , it is that I may raigne . How profitable is that affliction , that carries me to heaven ? Suffering is the way to glory , sometime in this World : Ioseph had never beene a Courtier , had hee not first beene a prisoner . Gods children are ever the better for being miserable , and end in that ; It is good for mee , that I have been afflicted ; let God use me how Hee will on earth , so I may have what Hee hath promised to those that love Him in heaven ; Who would not be a Lazarus for a day , that hee might sit in Abraham's bosome for ever ? Gods Church must be a lillie among thorns , and while I am a member of the Church , I must not looke to fare better than the whole Body , if they have call'd the master of the house Beelzebub , well may it be endur'd to those of the household ; my comfort is if I am reviled for His sake , I shall be blessed . Prosperity is like Vinum merum , all wine ; it makes drunke the soule , and therefore God mingles it , that He may keep us sober ; feeds His children with a bit and a knocke , ever dishes His sweete meate with sowre sause : if wee did alwaies abound wee would grow proud , and forget our selves ; and if not sometimes , wee would despaire and forget our God : I will pray with Salomon , give me neither wealth nor poverty , but a meane ; or if wealth , grace to imploy it , if poverty , patience to endure it . Afflictions are the medicines of the minde , if they are not toothsome , let it suffice , they are wholesome ; 't is not required in Physicke that it should please , but heale , unlesse we esteeme our pleasure above our health : let me suffer , so I may reigne , be beaten , so I may be a son . Nothing can be ever too much to endure for those pleasures which endure for ever . There was never good but was hard to get : the prison and the hatchet , sores and crums leade to Abraham's bosome , and the way thither is by weeping-crosse : if many tribulations will carry me to heaven , on Gods name let me have them ; welcome the poverty , which makes me heire to those riches that never shall have an end . I will deale for my soule , as for my body , never refuse health because the Phisicke that should procure it , is bitter ; let it distast me , so it heale me . There are in the world that thinke it too great sawcinesse to be our owne spokes-men to God and therefore goe to St. Some-body to preferre their petitions for them : I shall ever hold it good manners to goe of my owne errants to God , He that bids me Come , will bid me welcome ; God hath said , Come unto me &c. It is no unmannerlinesse to come when I am call'd . All consciences like all stomacks are not alike how many doe we see digest those sinnes with ease , which others cannot get downe with struggling , one straines at a gnat , when another swallowes a camell : hee that will keepe cleere of great sinnes , must make conscience of all . I will thinke no sinne little , because the least endangers my soule , and it is all one whether I sell my SAVIOVR for thirty pence , with Iudas , or for halfe I am worth , with Ananias ; whether I goe to hell for one sin , or for many . This life is but a journey unto death , and every day we are some spannes neerer the grave ; how is it that wee which are so neere our death , are so farre from thinking of it ? Security is a great enemy to prevention , and a presumption that wee shall not dye yet , makes men that they doe not prepare to dye at all : it is good taking time while time is ; if it come suddenly and find thee unprepared , miserable man that thou art , who shall deliver thee from the body , & c ? Therefore hath Nature given us two eares and but one mouth , that we should heare twice as much as wee should speake : with all thy secrets trust neither thy wife nor thy friend , hee that is thriftie of his owne tongue shall lesse feare anothers . There are that affect not so much to have true friends as to have many , and whisper to that friend what they heare from this , and againe , to this , what from that : and glory to have it knowne , how much they are trusted , whereas they were therefore trusted that it might not be knowne : I have ever thought it a maxime in friendship , that he which will bee intimate with many , is entirely nones ; let me love and be lov'd of all , I will bee inward onely with a few : I had rather have one meane friend that I may call my owne , than the most potent where I must share with others . He that provides not for his owne is worse than an infidell ; 't is not the blame of charity that it begins at home , it is that it ends not abroad : I am not borne all to my selfe , somewhat to my friend , to my neighbour . I will so care for my owne , as I may relieve others , and so doe for others , as I wrong not my owne . Much knowledge not much speech , Emblem 's a wise man. I shall ever hold it neither safe nor wise , alwaies to speake what I know of my owne affaires , nor what I thinke of others ; a man may speake too much truth . Pleasures like the Rose are sweet but prickly , the hony doth not countervaile the sting , all this worlds delights are vanity , and end in vexation ; like Iudas while they kisse , they betray . I would neither be a Stoick nor an Epicure , allow of no pleasure , nor give way to all : they are good sause , but naught to make a meale of , and were given not to fill the belly , but to relish the meate : I may use them sometimes for digestion , never for food . In crosses these two things must be thought on ; first whence they come , from God , Hee strikes thee that made thee , next wherefore they come , for thy good either to try thee or to mend thee , if they bee harsh , yet they be gainfull : I shall ever count it a good change , to have the fire of persecution for the fire of hell , who would not rather smart for a while then for ever : let me rather have that fire which is rewarded with heaven , than these pleasures which shall be rewarded with fire . Salomon's , Rejoyce oh young man in the dayes of thy youth , were the finest thing in the world if it were not for that which follows , for all this thou shall come to judgement ; to goe well , lye soft , sleepe hard , if there were noe after-reckoning ; who would not say out of delight what the Apostles did out of amazement , It is good for us to be here ; but when I have a stewardship to account for , and God knowes how soone , my master returning and my talent to seek ; the Bridegroome entering and my oyle to buy , I have more reason to care how to redeeme my time past , than to spend the present . To grow heavy or lumpish with crosses , argues not so much want of courage , as grace : nothing more soyles the reputation of a Christian , than to have his minde droope with his Mammon ; what if health , friends , meanes , have all forsooke thee , wilt thou lose thy wittes together with thy goods ? all the afflictions in this world , cannot answer the joyes of that other . I will never care whose these pleasures I see be , while those I doe not see are mine , and the fountaine of pleasures whom I shall one day see , as I am seene , shall be mine . Let another praise thee and not thine owne mouth ; either we are far from neighbours or ill beloved among them , when wee are faine to be our owne trumpet , and blaze our selves : the Iews , not the Centurion , say , He loved our Nation and hath , &c. It is both honorable and humble to heare of our praises , and tell of our unworthinesse . Many a little make a mickle , every day a mite will encrease our store ; I wil be ever adding to my heape of knowledge , of faith , &c. That when the Master returnes I may be able to say , behold Lord , thy two Talents have gained other two . The building of the soule , like that of the world , is not done in a day ; grace like Ezekiel's waters , is first to the ancles , then to the knees , &c. In vaine doth any thinke to bee perfect at once , in an instant ; well is it for us , if after many Lessons learn'd , and heard in CHRIST'S Schoole , wee get past the spoone , and with some yeares of teares and prayers come to a stature , a growth ; and with clambering and paines , like Zacheus , get to see Christ time was when it was said to the Apostles , Oh yee of little faith ; and hee was once afraid to confesse CHRIST , that was not afterward afraid to die for him : like Bees , while we are here , we are ever gathering , in His good time wee shall bee perfect , in the meane time LORD suffer us not to bee tempted above that we are able . God is that to the soule which the Sunne is to the world , light and heat , and with them comforts and stores it : he that hath God hath every thing ; God alone is a world of friends against millions of enemies : then will I thinke my selfe poore , miserable , distressed , left , when He leaves me . Every thing almost we see , borrowes its nature from its soile ; thus the body and temper of men differ with the aire ; and the soule like the body , commonly savours something of the company it keepes , and we grow familiar with their sinnes , together with their persons ; at first winke at them , then imitate them , then defend them . I will not bee more scrupulous in the choyce of any thing than of this : hee can hardly have a good soule , that hath a bad companion . Sinne at first is modest , and goes disguised with Saul to Endor , that after a while growes impudent , and dares looke bare-fac'd on the world ; first perswades to civill recreations , thence bids to unlawfull delights . Hee that will prevent the growth of sinne , must resist the beginning ; the remedy is thought of too late , where the disease is past cure ; 't is easier preventing a sicknesse , than recovering it . Custome as it lessens favours , so it lessens sins ; else the same sinne would still be monstrous , which in time is not taken notice of . Goodnesse is not the gift of all but some , but perseverance onely of a few ; how many like Ezekiahs sun have gone backward , and forsaken their first love ? How many have we seene , that with Caiaphas , would have rent their cloaths at the name of blasphemie , have afterward sworne by the life of Pharaoh : what we are , is no argument for what we will be ; every man knows his beginning , not his end ; what hee is , not what he shall be ; let him that thinketh he stands , take heed lest he fall . When I take a serious view of my selfe , and see ( besides inward discontents ) so many outward enemies of quietnesse every where , every minute ; want , sicknesse , dangers , losse of friends , of health , of life , threatning if not pursuing me : and to these my spirituall enemies so strong , my corruptions so many , my infirmities so continuall , and my selfe so overmatched with all these : with Peter I beginne to sinke , and I could wish I had not beene , since I must be miserable , but when I looke up to heaven , and those joyes I am going to , I would not be lesse miserable to be so happie . GOD is my Father , the Angels are my fellowes ▪ Heaven is my Inheritance ; now if my inheritance be in heaven , why is not my desire there ? Where our treasure is , there will our heart be also , where our treasure and our heart is , there shall we be one day : who would exchange his future happinesse for a present ? Contentation is a blessing , not wealth ; true riches consist not so in having much , as in not desiring more : why ▪ then doe wee so labour to abound , and not rather to be content ? If I have but a little , my account is the lesse ; if I have much , and doe not more good , I shall adde to my condemnation , together with my store : I will ever studie rather to use my little well , than to encrease it . I will not care to bee rich , but to be good ; this onely is that treasure , that never shall have an end : let mee be rich in goodnesse , and I cannot complaine of povertie : he onely is poore whom GOD hates . To speake little , is a note of a wise man , to speake well of a good man : goodnesse is not seene in the length or brevity of our speech , but in the matter , the streames of the tongue runs from the current of the heart , and are like the fountaine ; it is a signe we have little goodnesse in us , when there comes little out of us : if GOD were more in our hearts , He would be often in our mouthes , and with more reverence . Though I will never affect to speake of my goodnesse , yet I will shew it in my speech . He that will be a Criticke of others actions , had need look well to his owne : 't is a foule shame to have that found in our selves , which we would take upon us to mend in others : in this I will ever follow my Saviours rule , first get out mine owne beame , and I shall see better to helpe my brother out with his more . Injuries , if they dye not , they kill : Here onely a CHRISTIAN must learne to forget : for if wee forgive not men their trespasses , neither will our Father , &c. In this case my care shall be onely how to put them up , and leave vengeance to whom it belongs , God is ever his Iudge , that is not his owne . The malicious man is so much no mans foe as his owne ; for while he is out of charitie with others , GOD is so with him ; if he lov'd himselfe , hee would not hate his brother . I will love all men for His sake that made them : but the Christian , because he is GODS sonne , I will love doubly , for his owne sake , for his Fathers sake . GOD lookes not at what we have beene , but what we are : it is no commendation to have beene an Israelite . That we once did well , addes to our condemnation together with our sinne ; and if the righteous man forsake his righteousnesse , his reward is lost : our former goodnesse will not excuse our present evill , the end crownes us : what ever my beginning hath beene , I shall ever pray and endevour that I may dye the death of the righteous ; and my latter end may be like unto his , for as the tree falls , so it lyes . Man till hee sinned was naked and was not ashamed , clothes are not more our covering than our shame , and wee may justly blush every time wee looke on them , not bragge ; the best ornament of the body , is the minde , and the best ornament of the minde , is honesty : that best becomes , which best beseems , not that which is most us'd , But most decent . I will neither looke what others doe , nor what I may doe , but what I ought to doe , many things are lawfull which are not expedient . To doe well and say nothing is Christianly , to say well and doe nothing is Pharisaicall ; if the hands bee not Iacobs as well as the voice , wee are but impostors , cheats : If we are good trees , by our fruit they shall know us . I will not lesse hate not to doe good , than to tell of it : my faith is dead if it beare not . Eating was the first sinne in the world , and it is now the sinne almost of all the world ; and as before the building of Babel so still in this , all the Earth is of one language , what shall we eat , or what shall we drinke , and wherewith , &c. Eating and Drinking have taken away our stomacks to spirituall things : I will never be so greedie as to eat my selfe out of heaven : He loves his belly well , that with Esau will sell his Birth-right for pottage : of the two , I had rather beg my bread with Lazarus , than my water with Dives . Great mens Words are like dead mens shoos , hee may goe bare-foot that waits for them : I will ever bee a Didymus in these , beleeve onely what I see , so I shall neither be deceived with others promises my selfe , nor deceive others with them . The good mans word is his Oath , his actions serve only to make good his words : He that promises either what he cannot , or what hee meanes not : is for the first a Boaster , and for the last an Hypocrite ; by such an one , I will bee deceived but once . Dissimulation is state-policie , and wise men set out themselves as Aristotle did his bookes , not to bee understood at first sight . He that alwayes speakes what hee knowes , is not wise , but hee that doth not alwayes speake what hee meanes , is not honest . As I will not have my heart at my tongues end , yet I will have my tongue speake from my heart , it is not necessary I must be dishonest , or a foole . Commonly your open eares are open mouth'd , and they that are craving to heare , are apt to tell : I will neither desire to know much of another mans estate , nor impart much of my own ; never any man repented him of saying nothing . A Parasite of all Trades is the basest , and in two things like an Eccho ; first , that he speakes only what he heares others ; and that he is nothing but voice , words : next to an ungratefull man , I would not be a flatterer . Sinnes grow like Grapes close , but in clusters : Wee usually say , He that will sweare , will lye ; and he that will lye , will steale ; and hee that will doe all these , will doe any thing . Satan is a Serpent , if the head bee once in , his whole bodie will not bee long behinde . It is better to goe into the House of mourning , than into the House of laughter , &c. Hee is worse than madde , that with Herod will part with a kingdome for a dance . Hee takes little thought for his sinnes , that thinkes to put them out of his head , as Cain and Saul did with Musicke : Hee that truly considers those joyes which never shall have an end , cannot but desire to have an end of these : Where the treasure is , there will the heart be also . Gods promises doe not binde Him to keep us in our wickednesse , our sinnes quit Him of His promise , and us of His protection , when wee leave to be of His Family , wee are none of His Charge , His Friendship keepes pace with ours . If thou doest well , shalt thou not bee accepted ? ( sayes Hee to Cain ) doe well , and have well , such as wee behave our selves towards God , such shall wee finde God towards us ; now if we doe smart , thanke our selves . Wee have too many that have a double heart in one body , but very few that have but one heart to two bodies , yet so is it with friends , the one cānot laugh when the other weepes ; one friend is the looking glasse of the other , where face answers face , when the one smiles the other smiles , when the one is sad the other is trobled , there is no Amity where there is no Sympathy ; If I doe not suffer in my SAVIOVR , I doe not love Him. Can the Head be ficke and the Body not feele it . There is a time to laugh as well as a time to mourne , we are not deny'd the use of mirth , but the excesse , it is not forbidden Fruit. Hee who gave Oyle to cheere the Countenance , gave Wine also to glad the heart : And I will not say , whether Salomons draught be not sometimes in season ; Drinke , that thou maiest forget thy poverty ; yet so as thou remember thy God. God never intended religion should make men Stoicks , as if to mew up our selves from the World , were to single out our selves to God : And because He hath forbid the abuse of things , not to use them ; thus we should abstaine from drink , because some men have beene drunke : If that which is one mans meate proove another mans poyson , the fault is not in the meate , but in the stomake . If they be so easily abus'd , the more our thankes , our praise , if we doe not abuse them wee shall be commended for our temperance : we cannot for our want of them ; GOD makes us but to use them as wee should , and wee cannot have too much of them . Where should Ioy be but in the Fountaine of Ioy , or how doe wee partake of that Fountaine and rejoice not ; that Ioy must beginne to fill here that will be full hereafter . Hee shall never sing Halelujah's , that doth not first sing Hosanna's : Hee is no sound Christian that is not taken with the glory hee shall have , and rejoyce in this , that his name is written in the Booke of Life . God ever helpes at a pinch , when all helpes fail then is He seen , when Iacob wants at home then Ioseph is heard of abroad , and when the prodigall wants abroad then God makes him thinke of home . What if he will not deliver Ionah from the Tempest , yet Hee will from the Whale : If the danger bee great , His Glory shall bee the more ; never despaire then thou drooping soule , why art thou cast down , why art thou so disquieted , & c ? The goodnesse of thy God endureth yet daily . The Contention of Christs time is the contention of all the world , who shall be the greatest , and most men envy to be out-gone in any thing , even by those they love best : If Ioseph be his Fathers darling , hee is his Brethrens eye-sore : and I doubt me whether Davids brothers were more glad that Goliath was slaine , or angry that by their brother : bad natures whom they cannot reach by imitation , they will by detraction : He casteth out Devills through Beelzebub , was the Pharisees of Christ : it argues very little goodnesse in us when we malice it in others , none but a Cain ( that ever I read of ) will envy , because his workes are evill , and his brothers good ; they are desperately wicked that love not the lookes of godlinesse . It is an hard matter for a man to know much or have much and know himselfe , and whence hee hath it , if we would think worse of our selves , we should be better thought of , but now our selfe-conceitednesse breaks our necke . Most men are Pharisies in this , that they love the upermost seats , all would be sonnes of Anak : if their bodies did but swell with their minds . The care of the most is to live honorable not well , their reputation is more car'd for than their God : Occidat modò regnet : With that Mother of Nero , Let them be damn'd so they may be dub'd : what is this but to exchange a heavenly kingdome for an earthly : Hee that will be great upon any termes shall one day repent that He hath beene happie too soone . My Friends faults as my owne , where I see I will remedie : I may ( happily ) hide or excuse them to others , never to himselfe , this were to kill him with kindnesse , and lest I should lose a friend , lose a soule : I am guilty of the losse of that soule I might save and do not . Some Friends there are , such as Ionadab to Ammon , Pandors to their wickednesse : Brethren they are but in iniquitie ; He shall be no friend to me that is a friend to my faults : and I am no friend to my selfe , if I think him my enemy that tells me of them , one day , if not now , I shall heare of them to my cost : Men may , God will not winke at small ful●ts . There is a friend to himselfe , as Nabal , and his charitie beginnes at home , and there it ends ; neere is his coat , but neerer is his skinne ; againe , there is a friend for gain , by Diana wee live , hee shall be their friend that they can live by : So , some love CHRIST , because they feare Him , He can destroy both soule and body in , &c. Others , because they neede him , but if we be true friends , though there were none of these wee would love Him. Friend of all compellations is the dearest , the sweetest ; and as one of ingratitude , si ingratum dixeris , omnia dixeris : So may I of friendship , call him friend , and you have said all , another selfe , or rather the same selfe multiplied ; skinne for skinne and all that a man hath will he give for his life , and yet a man's life will he give for his friend ; if our love will not follow CHRIST through fire and water wee are but counterfeits . Therfore did not God at first make many women and but one man , or many men and but one woman , that everie man should not know there were more than one woman in the World ; nor any woman more than one man , they that know more shall not be knowne ; CHRIST shall say , Depart from me , &c. I know yee not . I see many marriages in the World and never a good , one to his barnes with the foole , another to his board with the glutton , one to his cups , another to his coffers : onely those marriages are blessed from heaven , that are made in heaven , they are ill holpe up , that are married to one another , and not maried to CHRIST . Beauty is as it hits , if the heart do not answere the face , it were better missed , it will proove a snare which was an ornament : the more any have of this , the more cause they have to pray , Leade us not into temptation . Earth is a place of penance ; and small drinke and Camells haire doth well ; t is a place of toile and labour , and men goe not to worke in their best cloathes : Men should do well then to pranke up their insides a little better , and let the bodie shift : I never heard any man found fault with for his ragges , I heare it upbraided to one , that hee went in purple . It is not our meanes , but our sinnes that shuts us out from God ; I will be asham'd of nothing but my sinnes , and proud of nothing but that I am a Christian. I will never care what I am in mens eyes , but in Gods : Beautie , Wealth , Honour , may make us accepted of men , but 't is onely a broken heart can doe the deed with God : never any man came to Heaven for his good lookes . Hee is not a Iew that is so outwardly , then had not Hlerusalem fallen : nor he an Apostle , that doth so professe it , then had not Iudas been a cast-away : The washing of the out-side cleane will not quitt us of being Pharisees ; The Kings Daughter is all glorious within , if wee bee good Christians we are best at core . The good man ever sets God betweene him and harmes ; and sayes , The Lord is on my side , &c. He is no good Christian that thinkes he can bee safe without Him , or not safe with Him. Never any man was a loser by his God , or left in a danger , and stood to Him : Lazarus may stinke in his grave , but he shall not be seene rot there , neither the dungeon nor the denne can shut us from His providence , His care : Elias Ravens shall serve him in his meate : and Daniels Lyons , since they cannot feede him , shall fast with him , and rather starve than eate a Saint : what cannot God doe where He will ? what will He not do where He loves ? Oh God , they doe not know thee that distrust thee . To give with hope to receive , is to lend and not to give : or rather to put to use and not to lend : I will give where I cannot be requited , so shall my reward be in Heaven . Charitie is of that which a man hath , and not of that a man hath not : If the purse will not reach to a Sepulcher with that Counseller of Arimathea , yet a pound or two of spice would bee seene : If Silver and Gold that hast none , yet such as thou hast , a Mite would be spared : Something , hath some savour . Obedience is as well seene in a little as in much ; and if he which gives a cup of cold water shall not lose his reward : I can never be so poore to want this . Where the cruse & meale is low , 't is not look'd that the Cake should be bigge . As wee must use this World , so we must love it , as if wee lov'd it not : God would have earthly things look'd at and affected with all temperance ; We may not be peremptorie in our desire of them . But as our SAVIOVR of His cup , Father if it be thy will , and yet not my will but thy will. Beggers must not be choosers : Religion will teach us in modestie to submit to Him , and thinke that our best , which God thinkes so . Seneca an heathen but a Philosopher , could say , hee was better borne , than to be a slave to his body , and they are no better that are continuall factors for it : Every man layes up for a hard winter and a Rainie-day : I will lay up for that day which I am sure will come , and am not suer how soone it will come . The bare desiring of earthly things , is not unlawfull ; Hee who first taught us to pray , allow'd us this in ; Give us this day our daily Bread ; 't is the excesse , either in using , or in caring for them makes them ill to us , that are not so in them , selves : I will so desire these as I may bee the better for enjoying them and so imploy them , as I may have little to account for them ; Why should I abound to my cost ? Teares are a second B●●●●sme of the soule ; 〈◊〉 it is rinced anew , as the sinnes of the old worlde , so of this little world , neede a deluge . There is but one sorrow never to be repented of , the sorrow of repentance : only these teares goe into Gods bottle , and thus blessed are they that mourne . Others eyes are Sermons unto mine , when I see a Peter weeping for his denyall , it puts mee in minde of mine : why should I weepe for the losse of my friends , 〈…〉 my health , or of 〈◊〉 state , and not of my soule . There are two kindes of teares , of joy and of griefe : and two causes of these kindes : Heaven and our Sinnes ; the one of affection , the other of remorse , the one for what we have done , the other for what we would have , these two shall vie teares in mine eyes , to be forgiven and to be dissolved . This World is a stage , the play is a tragi-comedy of the life and death of man ; every man playes his part and exit : and it may be he that hath liv'd a begger , would not exchange with the KING when he comes to dye ; for then he is rewarded , not according to what he hath beene , but what hee hath done . I wil not greatly care , what part I play , but to doe it well . Home is home , be it never so homely , sayes the Proverbe : Men goe forth to labour , and come home to take their ease ; this world is our worke-house , and Heaven is our home , why am I loth to goe to my rest ? This world is the valley of teares , and we may sooner want them , than cause to shed them : I will bee content to sow in teares , that I may reape in joy . I reade of Augustus , when ever hee heard of any that dyed suddenly , hee wish'd him and his friends the like * happinesse ; he shall not choose for me : Let him and his brother-heathens , pray for their fooles paradise . Our Church hath learn'd us a better Language , From sudden Death good Lord deliver us . I ever thought it not a little blessing to dye by degrees . In this case the farthest way about is the nearest way home . Mee thinkes it is but th' other day I came into the world , and anon I am leaving it : How time runs away , and we meet with Death alway , e're wee have time to thinke our selves alive : One doth but breake-fast here , another dine , hee that lives longest doth but suppe : We must all goe to bed in another World. I will so live every day , as if I should live no more : 't is more than I know , if I shall . All goe to the same home , but all goe not the same way ; one falls by the hand of a brother , another by the fall of a house , &c. Againe all goe to the same home , but all goe not the same pace , one dyes in his cradle another on his crutches , to some their life is a prey , to others a burthen : Iob and Ionah are weary of living , and Lot and Hezekiah would live longer : as for the way , I shall ever pray God that I may take my last sleepe in a whole skinne ; but for the pace , Come LORD IESVS , come quickly . Death was given for punishment of sinne , but is the end of it ; when we lost Paradise , we met with this , and againe when we part with this wee meet our Paradise : they that know whither they are going , cannot but wish themselves gone , and say with our Saviour , but in another sense , Arise , let us goe hence . Through how many dyings doe wee come to our Death ? And how many deaths may wee come to ? Infinite are our waies out of this life , that have but one way into it : Our life is compos'd of nothing but deaths : for that wee may live , other creatures die ; again , our child-hood dyes and is forgotten when we are growne up : Our youth dyes when wee are men : Our man-hood dies when we are aged ; at last Our age dyes and all dyes , and wee dye with it : every day dyes at night ; now if my life consist of dayes , what doe I else but dye daily ? Favour is a thing to esteeme , but not to build on ; hee that stands upon others leggs knowes not how soone they may faile him : Greatnesse is not eternall . I will never leane so hard upon any man , that if he breake he shall give me a fall . The things of this world are in a manner but apparitions , not so indeed : all our Pompe is but like the strowing of Boughes before our Saviour , taken up againe straite , our provision here is like that of the Gibeonites , apt to moulder , open to the theefe , and the moath , to be corrupted , and stole , wee have waters , but like those of Marah , bitter ; we have riches , but we have crosses ; sweete meate but sowre sauce : they make a fair shew but they last not ; I may say of them , what my Saviour did of Israel , their goodnesse is but as a cloude , &c. I will use this world , but I will bee in love with that better onely ; why should I delight to be miserable ? This world is a region of Ghosts , or of dying men , if not dead ; our life is but one continued sicknesse , and we are ever in a comsumption , wasting : wee now accompany those to the grave , whom shortly wee must keepe company with in the Grave : Every man must have his turne , and GOD knowes whose turne is next ; it may bee thine , it may bee mine , and mine before thine , GOD knowes ; thou hast more yeares , ( it may be ) and therefore as thou thinkest , some strides before ; I am no lesse subject to diseases , and therefore no whit behinde , these threaten no lesse to mee , than age doth to others : Every ache , every stitch tolles the bell in mine eares , for some have dyed of these ; but every strong sicknesse digs the grave , and sayes service over mee , and cries , Dust to dust , &c. Since there is a time to dye , and I know not the time , I will provide for it at all times : Blessed is that servant whom when the Master comes he shall finde watching . No man thinkes hee shall live ever , yet most men thinke they shall not dye yet ; otherwise , they would dye better , and more care for the heaven they shall have , than the earth they must part with ; this world will not last alwaies . Our life is but a day , it is now noone : who knowes how soone it shal be night ? I have a great way to goe , and but a little to spend ( a little time I meane ) my care shall be to make it hold out . As we doe not gather , so wee doe not looke for grapes on thornes , or figgs on thistles : such as the seed is , such will the fruit bee , and such as the fruite is , so will the Harvest be , and one day ( if not now ) God will reward every man according to his workes , and ill shall be ill requited . Sinne and punishment are like the shaddow and the body , never apart , like Iacob and Esau , they follow one at the heeles of another . Never sinne went unpunished ; the end of all sinne if it be not repentance , is hell : if I cannot have the first , to be innocent , I wil labour for the second , to repent ; next to the not committing of a fault , is the being sorry for it . That which we usually say of men , is sometimes true of Christians , foule in the cradle , and faire in the saddle ; an unhappie boy may make a good man ; he that should have seene Saul killing , would little have thought ever to have heard him preaching ; we may not judge of the future by the present . He runs farre that never turnes . 'T is not with God , as with men , to say I will forgive it , but I will ne're forget it ; with Him sins repented of are as not done , as a broken bone well set is the faster ever after . God lookes not at what we have beene , but what we are . Repentance makes us frends with God , re-intailes us in the inheritance , and by I know not what strange heavenly slight of hand , doth what you would have it . If we would but downe on our knees and aske forgivenesse all should be forgotten . Our life is but a walke , wee come hither but to take a turne or two , and away ; and all our life we are going to our home , and we doe not live but travaile . Some gallop it over , others goe a foot pace : The poore man curseth the houre hee was borne while he lives , because he goes no faster ; the rich worldling curseth the houre hee was borne , when he comes to dye , because he can live no longer : it is a like ungodly to bee loth to dye because we are happy , & to desire to dye , because we are miserable ; I have ill learned Christ , if I have not learn'd to be content . Humility is good to all , best to it selfe ; I doe not heare it said hee that boasteth of his good workes , but he that confesseth his sinnes shall finde mercy : the Publican not the Pharisie goes away justified . God never thinkes well of him that thinks so of himselfe and what he doth : they that scorne to bee humbled , cannot complaine to be scorned . All men would come to heaven , but they doe not like the way ; they like well of Lazarus in Abraham's bosome , but not at Dives doore , they love heaven well , but they would not pinch for it : silly wretch , al the wealth in the world cannot buy thee into heaven , or out of thy punishment , and this thy glory shall adde to thy torment , that thou are now so well , shall one day be the worse for thee . I had rather wait for my happinesse , than smart for it . God preacheth to us no lesse in His judgements than His word ; when He strikes offenders , Hee would warne the standers by , and beats some upon others backes ; when I see another shiprack'd before mine eies , it bids me look well to my tacklings . Every man sees himselfe fall in his neighbour : Others harmes threaten me and say with the Apostle , What makes thee to differ from another ? where the sinnes are the same , Oh God , it is thy mercy that thy judgements are not . 'T is not an easie matter for men to beleeve that which they know ; what-ever they doe whereever they are , they are seene : but because GOD is invisible , they thinke they are so too , and hee sees not because hee is not seene : GOD is inclusively in no place , and yet hee is in every place , and heares and sees what is said and done ; if we did but consider this , wee would neither doe nor speake what wee would not have seene and heard : Consideration would tye mens hands , and if they did but deliberat , they would not sinne . It is no lesse sinne to bee over earnest in purveying for the Body , than over prodigall in pampering it : as well Saint Lukes foole as his glutton ; Nabal as well as Balthazar is condemn'd of folly : and I heare Israel chid not for eating , but for laying up their Manna . Make not hast to bee rich , and make not waste of thy riches . I will neither feare povertie , nor seeke it . Our Eye extends but to the out-side , the skin , the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisies will quit any of the censure of men . Hee that fasts , prayes , gives , goes for current among us , I may not thinke him otherwise in his heart , that is not so in his behaviour , with us every man goes for what he seemes , wee dare not pronounce any man a Leper till we see the scabbe . It was the evidence our SAVIOVR left us , by their fruit you shall know them . Hypocrites while they keepe their owne counsell , doe not onely grow among the wheat , but goe for wheat . None but God , or a Prophet , God in a Prophet , could give Gehezi the lye , and see his sinne through his demurenesse ; only He who knowes all things , knows who are His , and shal one day gather the wheat into His barne , but shall burne up the chaffe with unquenchable fire . To how many , under God , doe wee owe our selves for being : to the sheepe , the silke-worme , for food , rayment ; when wee are at our finest , wee are but like Aesop's Crow in stollen feathers , and if every creature should claime his owne , wee must be glad of fig-leaves againe , or ashamed of our nakednesse : Why are wee more proud of our embroyderies , than our Grandfires were of their Aprons ? Since both are but borrowed ; and what hast thou that thou hast not received ? Now if thou hadst received it , Why dost thou glory as if thou hast not received ? GOD made all the World for man , man for himselfe , other creatures to serve themselves and us ; us to prayse and give thankes to Him ; and He who prepar'd a dwelling for us on earth , is gone to prepare a place for us in Heaven : let us take heede lest by our disobedience wee loose our second PARADISE , as our Fathers did their first . The Covetous man hath his eyes in his feete , ever poring on the earth , all his care is , to lay up for many yeares : like spiders , men spend their bowels to catch flyes , trifles : toyle and sweate , and all that they may leave a little behind them when they dye : if they have but somewhat to leave behinde them , 't is no matter whether they have any thing to carrie with them . All are for the present , is it not good , if there bee peace in my dayes ? Hee that truly remembers what hee hath lost , cannot be so delighted with what hee hath , then onely mayest thou say to thy Soule , Take thy rest , when thou hast wealth layd up , not for many yeeres , but for ever . I usually see Parents most affect those Children , that most resemble them ; I am sure it is so with God , they are best lik'd that are most like him , nothing shall ever be able to separate Christ from him , that will not be seprate from Christ. It is with the soule as with the graine : that which wee sowe pure wheate , comes up with chaffe and straw : there is no fruit but hath it's core , its kernell , its stone : in vaine doe wee thinke while wee live heere to be at our best . It is not look'd wee should bee Angells upon earth : the best have their faults : happie is hee that hath least and fewest : our prayer must bee , Lord keepe us from presumptuous sinnes : for sinnes of infirmitie , like ill weeds , grow apace ; Tares there will be , well is it with us if we be not overgrowne with thornes and briars , surfetting and drunkennesse &c. and the Day of the Lord come upon us unawares . At usuall things wee lesse admire ; While Moses doth onely what the Magicians can , hee is slighted ; men are taken with something that is not ordinary . All Samaria will runne out to see a man can tell them all that ever they did ; and I doubt whether the Apostles drew not more after their miracles than their doctrine , when they beginne to heale and cast out Divels once , Simon Magus will bee one too ; I will admire GOD for His power : but I will love Him onely for Himselfe . Two things our SAVIOVR commends to us from His other creatures , Wisedome and Innocencie , from the Serpent and the Dove : The wisedome of the one may stand with the innocency of the other , nay it cannot well stand without it : Innocency without Discretion will make us too forward with Peter , and wrong our selves : Againe Wisedome without Innocency will make us unjust stewards , and wrong our Master : both doe well , and onely both doe well . The poor man is Gods lottery : cast in earth , and yee shall draw heaven ; cast in a mite , and ye shall draw without measure ; for God returnes not tenne in the hundred , but a hundred for tenne . I will bee an Vsurer only to GOD. Give and it shall be given to you : He that commands the one , promises the other . Almes never made their owner a bankerupt ; Charitie is not so ill a servant , as to leave the master a begger . That cruse and meale shall never waste , that the Prophet hath a Cake of . It is an easie matter not to desire that which we have not ; to complain when wee have no cause , scarce speakes us men , muchlesse Christians , but when all failes to stand our ground , and looke to heaven for a handfull of supply , speakes our faith : At a Lions denne , or a firy furnace , not to turne tayle is a commendation worthy a Prophet . It is no honour to overcome , when it is no danger to fight . Adversity best speakes a Christian in prosperity , it is as easie a matter to finde friends , as not to neede them ; but when wee have nothing left , not to leave GOD , nor so much as whimper , but chide downe our distrust with a Deus providebit : My Sonne , God will provide , tryes our temper . Then is our valour commendable , when wee can endure to bee Iobs . When our Saviour would put to silence the distrusters of his time , He points them to the Lilies and the Crowes : the Lilies of the field , not of the garden , which are digg'd and dung'd ; but of the field which have no gardiner , but the Sun , no watering pots but the clouds , and your heavenly Father ( sayes He ) clothes these : Doth my Father provide for others , and will he see me goe naked ? What will He thinke too much for His sonnes , that is so bountifull to strangers ? How will Hee cloath them , that so cloathes the grasse ? If Salomon in all his royalty was not arrayed like one of these , the Sunne in all his height , shall not shine like one of us ; when He shall have chang'd our vile bodies , that they may be like unto His glorious body . Distrust is a sinne which custome hath almost made commendable . Every man layes up Manna for to morrow , forgetting that if that be not wormes , they themselves may be so . As if there were no heaven , but pleasure and abundance : no other hell but affliction and want ; if their purse grow light , their heart grows heavy , their mirth ends with their store , and they think no man can say to his soule , take thy ease , that hath not wealth layd up for many yeares : but we are not yet what wee should bee , if wee cannot be content to be what we are , what ever it be . Beggers must not be chusers ; 'T is not for us to teach God which way He shall bring us unto heaven , let us thanke Him that we come thither any way , and if He will have us suffer before we shall raigne , downe on our knees , kisse the rod , and not a word , not a sob . Whereever God is , there are these two , increase and multiply ; Abraham and Lot cannot dwell together while they dwell with him , and I see Israel once to bigge for Goshen , that is now too little for Bethlehem , give a man God and throw him into the Sea , with Israel , Ionah , and he sinkes not ; needs must he swim that is held up by the chin . In apparell we are not to respect meerly necessity , but decency . God never meant religion should make men slovens or Stoicks , as if a man could not weare good cloathes and goe to heaven , or a Christian were ever bound in conscience to be out of fashion : We are not tyed to wander , or to weare sheep-skins and goat-skinns , because the Apostle tels us some did , some of whom the world was not worthy , God meant that those holy men should bee patternes of piety , not of fashions . I will never be niggardly of another mans purse , deny my selfe that which God hath not . There may be pride in the meanest things in the world ; no lesse the Cynick of his tub , than Alexander of all the world besides : Sackcloth and Ashes in the same bill with purple and fine linnen , both condemn'd of pride ; to fast and to fare deliciously is strange but true ; and so much worse is that pride than this , by how much it hath a better face ; small drinke and Camels haire goes away Sainted , though but counterfeited when open pride is cryed downe of all hands : and of the two the least suspected is the more intolerable , I am sure the more incurable . A knowne disease is every mans cure , which when it lyes hid is never medled with : There is lesse hope of an Hypocrite than an Atheist . Afflictions are Gods mould in which He casts His Children , spare the rod , and spill the child is as true in grace as nature . God receiveth no sonne whom He chastiseth not , but t is with a gentle hand , He leaves no markes behinde , and He hath soone throwne away His rod , if with unfained resolution you will doe so no more . God though He beate many of His Children till they cry , yet He never beates any for crying . There is a double life in man , and must bee a double nourishment , men live as if there were no more to bee done , but feede and be warme , food and rayment are the maine businesses of the World : 'T is true , wealth and friends and health are things to thanke God for , but better desires better becomes Christians ; the Christian man lives not by bread onely , &c. Meate for the belly and the belly for meate , but God shall destroy both it and them , every good mans meate and drinke is to do the will of Him that sent him . God hath given us this aire to breathe in , it doth not give but continue life , 't is the meanes of living not the Author of life : God gives it us to use , not to serve . How many make this world their God , and serve it : and God ( as it were ) but their World to make use of ? I will never be a servant to my slave . God though He be ever the same in Himselfe , He is not alwaies so in us , though Hee love those whom He doth love unto the end , yet not without Intermission . Men commonly never know the benefit of a thing but by the absence of it ; wee could not so well esteeme of health , if it pleased not God we were sometime sicke : the long absence of a desired friend makes him more welcome at his returne ; thus Christ is pleas'd sometime to withdraw His presence , that with more earnestnesse we might be drawne to seeke Him : Tell mee Oh Thou whom my soule loveth where thou feedest , &c. As when many eyes are fixed upon one pictture , every one thinkes the eyes of the picture to be fixed on him ; so with our soules , all looke together at God , but every one must appropriate Him to himselfe . To know that God is the God of Abraham , the God of Isaack , and the God of Iacob , is but a weake assurance that He will provide for me , unlesse also He be my God ; our faith as our charity , must begin at home , and say , My Lord and my God. Our Saviour doth not say , doe unto others as others doe unto you , but , as you would have others doe unto you . If thou wouldest have thy neighbour do thee right , doe so to him though he have done thee wrong . Lex talionis was never a good Christian Law ; If I forgive not , I shall not be forgiven . As he cannot rise againe the resurrection of the body that doth not first dye the death of the body : no more can he be borne the birth of the soule , that doth not first dye the death of sinne . It is necessary that hee which will bee borne twice , should dye once while he lives , and hee that will once rise the resurrection of life should dye twice . That I may live ever I will dye daily . That two contraries cannot consist in the same subject , is as good Divinity , as it is Philosophy ; Good and evill are like Fire and Water , ever contending till the one be conquered ; either my sinns and I must part , or God and I : I cannot be at once Gods Church , and the Divels chappell . It is the fault of a great many , if God beare with them in their sinnes , they thinke hee countenances them : if they be not presently striken dead with Vzzah , they goe on ; when they smart not , they beleeve not , and he is not fear'd till felt . Sicknesse is not thought of till death , nor that till hell : forgetting that the long sufferance of God should lead them to repentance , he forbeares us that hee might forgive us ; shall I sinne because grace abounds ? God forbid . God as He is infinite in mercy , so is He in justice ; and as His mercy extends to thousands in them that love him , so do His judgments to many generations of them that hate Him. That He is long in comming is no argument that Hee will not come , forbearance is no acquittance : the longer our time , the greater our account , if we have liv'd long and liv'd not well , of young Saints prove old Divells , wee had beene better have gone to heaven young , than to have lived to these yeares to goe to hell : miserable is that mans case whose latter end is worse than his beginning . The relation betweene sinning and falling is so neere , that they are us'd promiscuously the one for the other . Now it is a hard matter to fall without hurt , and once downe , it is not an easie matter to rise without helpe : Where it is so dangerous to fall , and so hard to rise ; if we love our selves we will looke to our footing . Most men feare to heare ill , that feare not to doe ill ; the arrantest hypocrite in the world would not be thought so , he would not be censur'd for sinne , that feares not to be damned for it , and is afraid of holding up his hand to the barre , that is not afraid of standing at the Tribunal seat of God All the care is how to sleepe in a whole skinne , not so much to live well , as to die safe , keepe without the compasse of the Law , though they come within the teach of hell . If this bee not to feare men more than God , I know not what is . I should wonder many times to see sin so smugge to here a Iudas at his haile Master and kisses ; did I not remember of what Sire they come , the Divell : and that he can stil personate that goodnesse he once had . He would be more shunn'd , if he could not bee mistaken , that is not suspected in a disguise where the adversary is so subtile , they had need bee wise as Serpents , that would be innocent as Doves . Charity so forgives offences , that it is ready not only to pardon the offender , but to doe for him , and thinkes it selfe not innocent that it starves not it's enemy , while it sees him starve . What little difference is there in Religion betweene not saving and killing ? we are not commended that we require not evill with the like . We have not forgiven injuries if wee doe onely not revenge them , if wrongs tye our hands from doing good where we ought and may , they prove sinnes to us , that were but crosses ; and we wrong our selves more by not doing than by suffering : and God shall so forgive us our trespasses : For with what measure I mete unto others , it shall be measured unto me againe . God deales by us as He would have us deale by others , and we must doe by others , as we would have them doe by us , and all of us deale one with another , as we would have God deale with all of us . As I cannot love God and hate my brother , so can I not bee loved of God ▪ How iustly is the fire of Envy punished with the fire of Hell ? It cost God more to redeeme the world , than to make it : He that made mee with a word speaking , when he redeemed me , spake , and wept , and bled , and dyed to doe it : what can I thinke too much to endure for his sake , that was made a curse for mine . It is with us heere as with Gedeons fleece ; one while the ground is wet , and the fleece is drye , another while the fleece is wet , and the ground is drye . Sometime wee have Raine , and Faire Weather would doe better ; anon it is Faire , and Raine would be welcommer : And it fares with our bodies , as with our estates , now happily we have health , and want meanes , then againe wee have other things , and want health ; all our delight here is like our selves fading : and many times with Balthazar , we are fetch'd off in the mids of our jollitie : Nothing here but ebbing and flowing , tumult and alteration ; in heaven onely shall we rest from our labours : now if wee love our ease , why doe we so love our lives ? The good man takes his God as he doth his wife , for richer , for poorer , in sicknesse and in health : we may not alwaies judge of Gods favour by His bounty . I am but a novice in Religion , if I thinke I cannot be Gods sonne and miserable . Commonly those men are hottest in the pursuit of honour that least deserve it ; While deservednesse sits still , and bides his leasure that gives and takes where he list , and when , and how , and to whom ; and at last is importun'd to the place , not for the good he shall receive , but for that he may doe : he will not be great upon all termes , but will rather endure poverty , thā part with his honesty , and not sell his soule to buy a purchase What will it profit a man to gaine the world and lose his soule ? Christ is in us , as the soule is in the body , hee gives life ; wee are in Christ , as the branches in the Vine , whence we receive life . Let our care be to offer up our selves living sacrifices to him , of whom wee live and moove : 'T is all hee requires , an egge of his owne Bird , some minutes of that time which hee hath given us . What can I doe lesse ? one good turne requires another , if I love not those that love mee , I come short of Infidells . Selfe-conceitednesse is the sinne in fashion , 'T is a hard matter not to thinke well of our selves ; I am not behinde the least of the Apostles ( yee know the Voice ) and if he had not beene buffeted , hee had beene exalted above measure , and carried higher in conceite , than he was before in his extasie : he that well remembers from what he once fell , cannot but be ashamed of what hee is and fall yet lower : Oh Lord , I am lesse than the least of thy mercies . Malice never wants a marke . He who hath nothing , hath something to bee envied for , and if nothing else , he is envied for this , that he is content with his nothing . It is hard to bee prosperous , and bee loved at once : Those that will be great , shall be envied ; it is hard but safe , to be contented with a little : but if I cannot avoyd ill tongues , my care shall be no to deserve them ; and then , let Shimei curse . I seldome see sinne but in a religious tire : Nay but I reserv'd them for sacrifice , was Sauls to Samuel : for sacrifice not for prey . Goodnesse is the best disguise of evill , either seeme what thou art , or be what thou seemest : God is not mocked . Their sinne is more unpardonable that sinne of purpose : malice leaves the owner as without excuse so without hope : Sinnes of ignorance excuse a tanto , save some blowes . I may and doe sinne dayly against my will , I will not against my knowledge . What more glorious Master than God ? What better Mother than the Church ? How glorious is that calling that at once serves such a Master , and such a Mother ? As it is our glory to serve them , so it must be our glory to doe them good service . God in us sets the world copies of piety , and wee must live to others no lesse than preach : As we are more eye , so we are more look'd at , motes in others eyes are beames in ours : many things are lawfull that are not expedient , and some things are expedient in respect of the person , that are scandalous meerely for the chaire ; that which is reproveable in another , is in us a reproach : seeing it is so , what manner of men ought we to be . Promotions are neither from the East nor from the West , but from God : He that hath them and not of His gift , hath them with a vengeance who would not rather wish to want , than to be great so . There was never any that was not ambitious : every man is borne a Corah , onely some more superlative than other . But of all men I most wonder at those that are ambitious onely to be talk'd of , and since they cannot bee notable they would bee notorious , and with Cain bee mark'd though for murtherers . Whether I know much , or am knowne of many , it matters not , onely this I will care for , that God may not say to me in the last day , I know thee not . Pride is good to none , worst to it selfe : when Adam would better his knowledge , hee lost his dwelling in Paradise ; and when those builders of Babel would mend their dwelling , they lost their knowledg . The itch of being great , potent , or pointed at , how many hath it undone ? I will never care to be or to know , that which I know shall repent me : what commendations is it to have beene some-body ? The tongue is the only betrayer of the minde : The foole while he is silent is not discovered . I will not be more thriftie of any thing , than of my speech ; I had rather be thought to know a little , than be knowne to know nothing . There is but one thing a Christian need desire of God , that 's a cleane heart : Create a new heart , &c. there is but this one thing that God desires of a Christian , his heart : My sonne , give me thy heart ; and this I will onely desire to have , that I may give . A broken and a contrite heart , Oh God , thou wilt not despise . The Kings daughter is all glorious within , but yet her rayment too is of wrought gold ; our outside , our life must tell the world what we are within . If our lives doe not answere our profession , we are Pharisees , we say and doe not . It is a common fault to forget what we have beene , when wee are changed for the better : how many have beene resolved for heaven in their sicknesse , that in their whole skinne have disclaim'd it , and requited the recovery of the body with a relapse of the soule To receive good at the hands of the Lord , and not evill , is unreasonable to expect : but to receive good at the hands of the Lord , and returne evill , is wicked and not to be endured . I will never pray more hartily to God for a blessing than for grace to manage it ; Wherefore should I be blessed to my cost ? With God all things are not onely alike possible but easie , and he can as well of stones make Abraham children as of Iews . I will never despaire of him that can do al things , I cannot be so infinitely sinful as God is merciful . Oh God , if thou wilt , when thou wilt thou canst make me whole ; why should I give my selfe over , where my Physician doth not ? Workes without faith are like a suite of clothes without a body , emptie : Faith without workes is like a body without cloathes , no warmth , want hear ; Workes without faith are not good workes , & faith without good workes is as good as no faith , but a dead Faith. Then onely are they themselves , when they are together , what God hath joyned let no man put asunder . Our actions are never pleasing to God , when our light doth not shine before men ; let your light so shine before men that they may see your good workes , and glorifie your Father which is in heaven ; that your Father which is in heaven may one day glorifie you . With men , confesse and suffer is good justice , but with God , the contrarie to confesse our sins is the next way to be forgiven them ; that soule is past hope that lyes speechlesse . I will ever pray ; Oh Lord , open thou my lips , and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise , and my owne sinnes . Pray for them that curse you , doe good to them that , &c. Is durus sermo , a hard saying , and against the haire ; 't is not so easie a matter to forget an ill turne , as to doe one , yet this must be if we will be Christians : hee that will not be in charity shall never be in heaven . Why should I doe my selfe a shrewd turne because another would ? It was the divell that first made us enemies to God , and it is still he that makes us enemies to one another ; it is not for nothing ( I have thought ) that he is painted with a clovē foote , hee loves divisions so well , and there is no greater argument of a divell incarnate than a malicious heart : say what thou wilt , but I will never beleeve thee against scripture , that thou lovest God whom thou hast not seene , that lovest not thy brother whom thou hast seene ; if wee love Him we will love one another . If we will be Christs Disciples we must leave all , but it s not all , wee must take up our crosse too ; be readie to take it up , not of our selves , but if it be layd upon us , we must suffer willingly for Christs sake , we must not suffer wilfully or throw our selves into the fire . He that bids us suffer , bids us flye , If they persecute you in one City , flye , &c. It is our commendation to endure to stroke or the Faggot , it is not to seeke it when zeale runnes without discretion , warrant , it commonly makes more haste , than good speed ; CHRIST would have us innocent , but wise too , Serpents as well as Doves , lay downe our lives for His sake , but not fling them downe ; we must neither goe like beares to the stake , nor like mad-men , neither runne to our martyrdome or from it : Pray with our SAVIOVR , if it be possible to misse the cup , or but to kisse it , but still not my will but thy Will , we must submit all to God , and thinke that fittest for us which Hee thinkes so . That which I heare from David , I would heare from every good man , Thy word is a Lanterne to my feete , &c. To his feete , not to his eyes alone ; if we use the Word of God onely to gaze on , and see fine stories , to discourse by , not live by it ; wants his use , and wee want our goodnesse , and shall want our glory : knowledge without practice adds to our punishment together with our sinne . How many Pharisees have sate in Moses , that shall never sit in Abrahams bosome , onely for this , because they knew and did not . Workes of piety must never goe without humility ; he that prayes and is not humbled , like the Pharisie in the parable , goes away worse than hee came . When thou prayest , thou askest blessing , and doe it on thy knees , if to your earthly father , how much more to your heavenly : Men have inverted the course now , they drinke their health upon their knees , and pray for their health upon their tailes , God shall answere such men according to their manners , proudly . Why should GOD stoope to their wants , that stoope not to their owne ? we cannot bee too humble when we are to speake to that Majestie , whom we cannot see and live , and whom wee shall one day see and live to our cost , if we be not humbled ; thanke God thou hast knees to howe , how many would that have not ; why shouldest thou bend and cringe and bow , to thy father or thy friend , or thy betters , and not to thy God. Prayer is the Iacobs ladder of the soule wheron it goes up and downe to God , and conferres with Him ; in our praiers wee blesse Him , and by our prayers wee blesse our selves : there is no part of Gods worship more acceptable or more profitable than this of prayer , and none more slighted , men come to prayer as to a thing indifferent ; wilfull negligence in leaving it undone , and coldnesse in doing of it , are the sinne almost of who not , only , Oh Lord , doe thou be mercifull to the neglect of thy people . There are many services and many Masters , and yet no man can serve two masters , that is , two of a contrary disposition ; for there is the world , the flesh , and the divell , and ye may serve all these at once , nay yee cannot serve one and not all , the glutton he serves his belly & with Esau sells his birthright his blessing for pottage : the drunkard he serves I know not well what , whether the drinke , or the company , or his appetite , or all , but instead of quenching his thirst , drownes his soule : the envious man , and the furious man are alike in this , both serve the passion , onely here they differ , the envious man with Sampson , will braine himselfe so hee may braine others ; the furious man braines others so long till at length he be brained himselfe : the usurer he serves his gold ; the adulterer he serves his lust , but all serve one chiefe Lord , one Master , the Divell , and shall all receive the same Wages , which is the wages of all sinne , death ; Why should God pay them for their paines , that goe not of His errands . FINIS . SPARE HOVRES of Meditations . The Second Part. BLessed are the poore , for theirs is the kingdom of heaven : How are they poore that have a Kingdome ? or what Kingdom is wealthy , if not that of heaven ? or why complain'st thou of that povertie , that saints thee ? that is a happy soule that makes even with God every night ; and every morne begins the World anew . God is love , and hee that loveth is borne of God , & God loveth him ; so there is no love lost ; by this are we knowne to be Gods sons and Christs disciples , if we love one another : I may love others for other respects , my enemies that they may bee good to mee , or my friends because they are so : but God I will love , because I will love Him , and because He is to be beloved . When I at first looke out into the World , and see many men ( and those none of the best ) in better case , I think my selfe forgotten , & wish for more : but when I remember my account , I feare I have too much & forget those wishes ; It may bee if I had more wealth , I should be more riotous : outward losses are somtimes gainfull , and it is good for us that wee are afflicted ; it would be worse with us , if it were not sometimes thus bad ; many if they were not kept short of these would come short of Heaven . He knowes us that keeps us , & if He wil have us Lazar's & not Dive's , bring us to Heaven that way rather than another , His will be done ; let Him give my goods to the poore , and my body to be burn'd , and bring me to Heaven , though in a firy Chariot ; I cannot complaine of the foulenes of that way that carries me to God. Things which wee come easily by , we easily part with ; lightly come , lightly goe ; true friendship , as it is hard to find , so it is hardly lost , and therefore hardly lost , because hard to find : I will put up many injuries before I put off one friend ; small faults I will swallow : others I will winke at ; and if he will not be my other selfe , I will be his , and change my nature before my friend : friends like stones , get nothing by rolling . We are content with a little , when we are by our selves ; who puts on scarlet , and resolves not to be seene ? or is serv'd in plate , when there is none to take witnesse of it ? Nature if it would but be private , it would not be so costly , most men are therefore covetous , because they are ambitious , and love the stage ; and desire to have much , that they may have much to shew , and set their land upon their cupboards ; I thinke they would shew more of their wit , if they shewed lesse of their substance , they doe not so much shew that to their guests as themselves , and are admir'd at , not for the abundance of these , but the want of the other . Pride and Vncharitablenesse are sinnes in fashion , and the one the cause of the other , many thinke they should vvant for their pride , if they should but be charitable ; I have often wondred and grieved to see a rich porch , and a poor Christians walls cloath'd , and men goe naked . Say what thou wilt , but I am sure with the Apostle , That hee cannot love God whom he hath not seene , that loves not his brethren whom hee hath seene , and can indure to see miserable . Many are therefore friends to others , that they may befriend themselves : and like leaves in winter , fall from the trees when they begin to wither , and with Saint Peter , know not the man. How many doe we nick-name friends at large , that prove but strangers at a pinch ; that will be your servants in a complement , and not know you in a businesse ? I will not desire of God not to have friends , but not such friends , or not to need them . We owe more to God for redeeming us , than for making us ; His Word made us , but when it came to redeeme us , that Word must be made flesh , and that flesh must suffer ▪ in our creation He gave us our selves ; but in our redemption He gave us Himselfe ; and by giving Himselfe for us , gave us our selves againe that were lost ; so that we owe our selves , and all that wee have twice told : and now what shall wee give unto thee , ô Thou Preserver of men , for our selves thus given and restored ? If we could give our selves a thousand times over , yet what are we to God ? and yet if wee doe give our selves to Him and His service , such as we are , and such as we can , Hee accepts it , and will reward it . I will never grudge God His owne . I have nothing that is not His ; and if I give it to Him , He wil restore it againe with interest , never any man was a loser by God. The best ornament of the body is the minde , and the best ornament of the minde is honestie ; I will care rather how to live well , than how to go fine . I may have an ill garment , and come to Heaven ; I cannot , and have an ill soule . He who first bid us cast our care upon Him , did not so meane , as if we should take no care our selves ; it will not come to our share , to sit still and cry , God helpe us : Salomon hath read his fortune , that will not worke in summer ; therefore shall hee starve in winter : It was the destinie sinne brought upon the world , in the sweat of thy browes thou shalt eate thy meat , and thanke God we can have it so : He that made us without our selves , will not keepe us without our selves ; it is mercie enough for us , that we eat with sweating . I will never thinke much of my paines , where it is rewarded with a blessing . If an Asse do but speake once in a world , as Balaam's did , a beast have any part of a man in him , we wonder , and justly ; but let a man have every part of a beast , goe upon all foure , & wallow with the drunkard , or lose his speech together with his legges , t is ne're talk'd of . It is the property of a man to speake , as of a beast not to speake : why doe we wonder to heare a beast speake , and not wonder to heare a man not able to speak ? or how justly doth he want the blessing , that cannot aske it ? It was our Saviours to His disciples , Behold , I send you as sheepe in the middest of Wolves ; blessed Saviour , didst thou not care for thy Disciples ? or if thou didst , why are they not rather sent , as Lions in the middest of sheep ; than as sheep in the midst of wolves ? Even because He loved them , therfore He so sent them , that out of the Lions mouth they might come forth more glorious ; as there shall bee ever some poore to exercise our charitie ; so there shall bee some wicked to exercise our patience ; some bulls of Basan to compasse , &c. Where the enemies are so strong and so many , they had need be wise as serpents , that will be innocent as doves . Desperately wicked is that of some , if I shall be sav'd , I shall be sav'd : as if Heaven would come unlook'd for , and they should be sav'd , whether they would or no ▪ God never did , nor will save any man in spight of his teeth , or against his will ; as we cannot keepe body and soule together , without sweating ; no more can wee bring our soule and God together with sitting still ; never any got wealth , by barely wishing for it : and as few come to Heaven , by meerely desiring it . There 's a race to be runne , and a battaile to be fought ▪ and as well in religion as in any thing , we must worke for our living . It is appointed to all men , once to dye : death is a punishment of sinne , not sinne itselfe ; yet sure it is the height of punishment when it is suddaine ; I doe not desire not to dye at all , but not all at once . I know I must dye , and I thinke of my death , yet is it not alwayes in my thoughts ; the best of us all may be taken napping . I will ever pray God when he doth fell me , not to doe it at a blowe , that I may see my selfe falling and bethink me in the fall ; and thus it is a comfortable thing to fall into the hands of the living God. He that knowes his masters will , and doth it not , shall be beaten with many stripes ; and yet I cannot say whether shall bee worse beaten , hee that may know it and will not , or hee that doth know it , and doth it not ; the one sinnes against his knowledge , the other sinnes because hee will not know , and shall one day not be knowne . God made this world not barely to looke on , but to contemplate on , and of Him in it : here the Christian & the Philosopher part , they are led by reason , we by faith : they argue , we beleeve : they enquire the manner , how all were made , the Christian , why : He is not curious in the manner , but lookes at the end , for the glorie of God , and the way to our glorie : and useth them not for spectacles , but motives , to the glorifying of him of whom he hath them ; and if wee enjoy these as we should , we shall one day enjoy him from whom we enjoy them . This World is oft compar'd unto a sea , our life is the Shippe , we are the passengers , the grave is the common haven , Heaven is the shore ; and well is the grave compar'd unto a haven , for there wee unload ; the things of this world are neither borne with us , nor doe dye with us ; we goe out of this world as we came into it , naked : why are wee so covetous of those things , which are so hard to get , and so certaine to be lost ? If I enjoy them all , I shall not enjoy them long : or if enjoy but some , I shall shortly have use of none . I will comfort my selfe against the want of them , with the assurance that I shall one day not have need of them . Who can but once look backe upon his creation , and dares distrust God for his preservation ? whether is it easier to give , or to continue life ? to keepe thee or to make thee ? If He have given thee the greater , why dost thou distrust Him for the less ? Or if thou distrust Him for earth , how will you take His word for Heaven ? Oh God , they have forgot of whō they live , that distrust thee for their life . This life is a race , and wee doe not live but travell ; but we have another race beside this , of our soule as well as of our bodie ; since both must bee runne , and the one will not tarrie for the other : I will trie who can runne fastest ; if I have finished my life & not my course , I have made more haste than good speede . Every thing else hath a beginning , it is onely Gods title , Which was , and is , and is to come : Eternity is only there ; our glory must be , not that wee have liv'd ever , but shall doe so . If wee looke but out into the World , we shall see almost as many miracles as things , that trees and plants should every yeare dye , and recover ; that the Sunne should only lighten and warme the earth , and not burne it ; that the heavens should distill its raine in drops , and not in rivers full , and drowne us , where they do but wet us ; God is not lesse miraculous in preserving the World , than in making it ; and as His mercie , so His glorie is over all His workes . Religion with some men is but a matter of fashion . Many are of Agrippa's Religion , almost Christians ; such men shall be saved , as they doe beleeve ; almost : God will never owne : such halfe-fac'd followers . The hypocrisie of a Pharisee , would have shamed thee into an outside of Christianitie , and unlesse your righteousnesse exceede the righteousnes of the Scribes and Pharisees , you cannot enter , &c. It is not onely want of grace , but wit , to dissemble where we may be discernd , if I will needs bee a Christian , I will be one to some purpose . I heare men cōmended now adaies as the Lord did the unjust steward , because they deale wisely , not honestly ; 't is held no crime to deceive , but to be seene , to be discovered , that 's a foule fault , he is a novice that doth that ; the care of many is , not to live innocent but close , & they cast , how to go ( as Saul to Endor ) to the Divell in a disguise ; but they cosen onely mens eyes , Gods they cannot ; and since they will not be knowne for what they are now , they shall not be knowne for what they would be one day . God shall say unto them , Depart from me yee workers of iniquitie , I know you not . To dissemble sinne was never the way to be pardon'd it , only he that confesseth his sinne shall finde mercie : never be asham'd to say , what thou wer't not asham'd to do : blush to commit them , but not to tell of them ; it is better that the world note thee for a sinner , than God for an hypocrite . Some there are that heare onely to tell , and many times make differences , where there were none meant , it is not good alwaies to tell all wee heare ; many a man speaks that in his anger , which in coole bloud , he would not owne ; and we doe a double wrong by relating that which the one is sorrie to heare , and the other to have spoken , when he is himselfe . I will heare all , and report onely the best , he that makes debate betweene others layes a baite for himselfe , it is safe and honest to compose discords , but sowe none . I will labour what I can , to set others together , but not by the eares . When wee behold ( for who can choose ? ) such a world of sinnes in every corner of the world ; buyers and sellers in the temple , and not whipped out , selling our soules for the provision of their bodies : others with Zimri & Cosbi out-facing judgement ; how , doe we not wonder and blesse our selves that we enjoy so good , so much , some thing , any thing ? that Pharaohs leane kine are not seene amongst us , and the metamorphosis of famine , of the heavens to Brasse , and the earth to Iron ? that either the clouds are not shut , to with-hold their raine , or that the windowes of heaven are not opened , to raine not water , but fire and brimstone ? It is admirable where the fact is so foule , that the reprive is so long ? Oh Lord we have nothing to say for our selves , but acknowledge , it is thy mercie that wee are not consumed . Good natures are wonne rather with intreatie than curstnesse , if wee doe not more love God , for His goodnesse that He doth preserve us , then feare Him for His power that He can destroy us , His mercies are ill bestow'd and worse imploy'd , wee have not receiv'd the spirit of bondage to feare . I will love God , and honour Him , but I will be affraid onely of offending Him. God loves timely holinesse , remember thy Creator in the daies of thy youth . Nature ever begins at the wrong end , layes in , and layes up indeed , but for the theefe and the moth . With Absalom the first care is taken to leave a monument behind , and when they are setled upon earth , they will see if God have any thing to say to them for Heaven : & the best part is the last provided ; such shall one day have their heaven to seeke , because they will not have it to seeke now . He that will not when he may , &c. You know the Proverbe : He that doth not seeke the Lord , while He may be found , cannot complaine , if he do afterward seek , and not finde . All sinnes are forbidden trees to us ; and wee are so much ADAMS sonnes in nothing as in our disobedience , ever reaching after that wee should not ; to do good , there is a lion in the way , like Salomons sluggard ; but to evil , how swift are our feet ? So then , it is not going fast that carries us to Heaven , but going right : I will care rather to set my foot down sure , than to take it up quicke ; What am I the neerer to goe a great pace and the wrong way . Every man is his own worst foe , and his greatest enemies are those of his owne house : we may thanke our selves that we live at no more ease than we doe ; In the sweat of thy browes , thou shalt eate thy meate was of our own procuring . We had never known so much evill , if we had not desired to know too much good , our ambition hindered our preferment ; we were at first made happie , and we made our selves miserable , & now we are miserable . God hath chalked out a way to our happinesse ; now if we love misery rather than blisse , it is fit we should have enough on 't . A good man , still the longer hee lives , the better he dyes ; men should grow better , as they grow older ; not like a dead hedge , the longer it stands , the rottener . To see a man white in his leprosie leaving the world , and not his avarice ; and with S. Lukes foole ; dye thinking of his barnes , is horrible . I had rather have no portion on earth , than buy it with that I shall have in Heaven ; I will not ( with the Curre in the fable ) part with my flesh , for its shadow . The way to sweeten death is to thinke of it , every day I live I will remember I might dye ; and I will not desire to live a day longer , than I growe some drammes better : What will it benefit me that I have liv'd some houres which I cannot answere for ? Worldly minds mind nothing but Worldly things . Laban and Nabal think of nothing but their sheep-shearing , and making merry when they have done ; their businesse is thought on , not their salvation ; for they make that no part of the businesse , onely matter of course ; grudge God His service , and in His service the length of it ; and pay God His due , as Laban did Iacob his wages , with an ill wil ; and would fetch it back again if they could tell how : and yet these men that will steale time from God for their profit and their businesse , will steale time from their businesse for their pleasure : He that will breake the Sabbath for an houres work , will breake off his work for an houres drinking . Thus they prefer the humoring of their soules , to the saving of them . I will never sell Heaven for company , it is better being a good Christian , than a good fellow . Every man would be thought to bee in love with heaven , and yet most men are loth to shake hands with earth ; here is the difference betweene the heavenly Language and ours ; they cry , how long Lord , how long ? and we crie , how soone ? they think He stayes too long , and we thinke He comes too fast . I will labour to bee a follower of those , with whom I would be partner ; he hath not yet enough conn'd Heaven , that is doth to goe to it ; that voice onely is worthy an Apostle ; I desire to be dissolved , and to bee with CHRIST . The just man shall live by his faith , and others live by his charitie : true faith is seene in its workes ; he that sayes he beleeves , and doth not shew it , beleeve him not . To make shew of beleeving , and not in thy workes , is to shew thy Hypocrisie , but not thy saith . Not every one that eats his meat in the sweat of his browes , shal eat bread in the Kingdome of Heaven : and yet it is not eaten but with sweating neither : but 't is such a sweat , as will make thy heart ake , and not thy lims : prizes are not had but with hazard , hee that will drink of the water of the Well of Bethel , with Davids Worthies must thorow his enemies : the water of life is not had , but with hazard of our lives . My comfort shall be , that though I lose my life for CHRISTS sake , I shall not lose my labour . Or , who would not lose this life , which he is ever looking to leave , for that which he is sure ever to enjoy ? Oh Lord , wee want lives to lose ; I cannot endure enough , to come to Heaven . This life , as if it would never be done , is ever providing for ; Eternall life , as if it would never begin , is never preparing for . I will care for this life , but not dote on it ; I will remember I shall live ever , but not here . The love of the earth is the disease of the world , and that gulfe betweene Abrahams bosome and us , to forsake house and land &c ▪ that they do not like of ; if Christ would but leave out , that same , leave all , men would doe well enough with Him : they would enjoy this world , but not with the losse of a better . Againe , they would enjoy that , but not with the losse of this ; they would have their Canaan , but they would have their flesh-pots ; they love the blessing , but they would not lose their pottage : with Naaman , they will worship no other god , but yet , the Lord be mercifull , &c. when I enter into the house of the god Rimmon . They would so please God , as they might neither displease others , nor themselves , & would part stakes with God , let such juglers in religion look upon Saul in the Old Testament , and Ananias in the New , and read their judgement : what society hath light with darknesse ? The Arke & Dagon were never friendly householders : thou canst not at once , have two such guests , as GOD and the divel ; If one heaven could not hold them both , how shall one heart ? No man is so provident for his owne good , as God is for every mans ; every sinner is an Absalom , to Him , and He doth not only wish , Would God I had dyed for thee , &c. But dyed indeed : we doe not so desire our owne salvation , as He doth all ours , promiseth , perswadeth begges our obedience , He leaves no way untried , that He may leave us inexcusable , wash His hands of us , and say , perditio tua ex te , &c. Our destruction if it do come , is from our selves ; if wee could but wish well to our owne soules , we could not but do well : and yet it is not wishing , but doing well that doth the deed . I will do what I can , and I will desire to do what I should and cannot . God accepts a willing mind , and if I am willing beyond my ability , He will either make me able , or accept my wil. O God , thou that workest in me both to will and to do , work my will to thine , and my power to my will , that I may not onely will or desire , but do thy wil. God doth not looke for every thing from every one : for ten talents where He left but two : onely Hee there exacts much , where He hath given much : if the seed of thorny , or stony ground bring forth no fruit , or withered , it is no marvell ; but where He hath dung'd and gooded , to expect a crop is but reasonable . The more I have , the more I have to answere for ; the greater my trust , the greater my account : Let others care how to get more , my care shall be how to pay for that I have already . All lands do not yeeld the same things , and the same land doth not yeeld all things : thus God divides His blessings to us , as He doth to these , to some strength of body , to another strength of wit , to one health , to another knowledge , &c. He hath distributed to no man all things : yet , to every man some thing ; he is strangely miserable , that hath nothing ; but this doth not please , if every one have not all , they growe surly . What wilt thou give me , since I go childlesse ? could the best of the Patriarkes say : It is hard and rare to see that in others , which we want our selves , and would have , and be still . Whil'st I am in this world , I shall ever behold this inequalitie , and if I cannot make a covenant with mine eyes , I will with my heart : Since I cannot but see it , I will learn not to repine at it : it is the Lord , let Him do whatsoever He will. God calls some men to martyrdome , when others would startle at a stake , and yet good Christians too : all men , as all trees , are not fit for fewell , that are fit for use ; every one cannot hold out against the prison , and the hatchet : It is an easie matter to dare affliction before it come , and when it doth come , run away from it . We know not of what spirit wee are , what metall we are made of , our prayer must be , first not to meet with persecutions , and next to endure them ( but not meet them . ) Earth is but our rode to Heaven , and the things of this world , like high-way fruit , are common to all : the sunne shines , and raine falls alike upon the just , and upon the unjust : lest they should bee thought evils , they are given unto the good , and least they should be too well thought of , they are afforded to the evill . There is another good , which is wholly the Godly's , and wholly to be sought for the kingdome of Heaven , and the righteousnesse thereof : they , whose kingdome is not of this world , can see the kingdomes of this world ( with their SAVIOVR from the pinnacle ) and contemn them , or at least not fall downe and worship them . It shall not trouble me that I am out-bid in these things by others , I will bee contented to excell them in better things , the comfort I have , and the glory I shall have . The covetous man never hath enough : like Pharaohs leane kine , eates but is never the fuller ; toiles and sweats & wakes , and wants for all this ; it is a greater miserie to desire much , than to have nothing ; of no man can it be better said , all is vanitie and vexation of spirit : he is his owne tormentor , and doth at once make himselfe a hell here , and provide himselfe one hereafter ; he is never at rest till hee rest his last , which yet is the beginning of a worse torment ; so he robs himselfe , both of the pleasure of this life , and of a better . It is good to bee covetous of good things , and labour for the food which perisheth not : of this I will never have enough , but pray : Lord give me ever more of this bread , ever and more . All that God made at first was good ; He made them so , He left them so : if they be not still so , the dishonour may be His , the smart will be ours ; their goodnes consists in their good usage , and our sinne in the abuse of them . God make us but to remember why they were made , and we cannot be to seek how they should be used . Our Saviours commendation of Iohn Baptist was , that hee was a burning and shining lampe : the hypocrit , like a glow-worme , shines but burnes not ; others , like hell fire , burne but shine not : and must looke to have their portion in the fire , they resemble . We are not excusable , if we doe onely shine and not burne , or burne and not shine ; the one we see condemned in the Laodiceans , because they wanted heate ; the other in the foolish virgins , because they wanted light . Hee must first shine one earth that will after shine in heaven , and burne on earth that will burne in hell . Rest is the whetstone of labour . And that which we usually say of hope , is true of this , if it were not for rest , the heart would breake : wherefore God hath given for every day a night to rest in , and for every seven , a day and a night . We could not live if wee had not this , yet this must not be our life , to live at ease , he shall never enter into Gods rest , that so loves his owne . Every one almost , with the Iewes , is weather wise , and prognosticates without booke , when you see a cloud arise out of the west , ye say there comes a showre , &c. hypocrites that can discerne the face of the weather , and not of the times : how vainely are men inquisitive for the provision of their bodies , and let their soules shift ? you will not plant or graft without consulting with your neighbours , and your almanack ; but in the point of salvation huddle on , and the Minister and Gods Word is not intended ? How ill holp up art thou to know the state of the heavens , and not of thy soule ? If thou wilt needs contemplate it , behold it as thy home , not as thy Calendar to better not thy knowledge , but thy life , or thy knowledge of a better life , and thy desire of that place where the Father of life is , and where thou desirest to live . God made not death , neither delights He in the destruction of the living : ôh God , suffer not that which thou diddest not make , to prevaile over that which thou hast made and redeemed . Man is the glory of His maker , and thy glorie thou wilt not give to another ; and suffer not us to sell that glorie thou hast allreadie given , that we lose not our share of that glorie thou hast yet to give . In some cases and some things , a man may know too much . It is not good to be prying into the privie Counsailes of God : I doubt whether some mens overboldnesse with the hidden things of God , have not made them an accursed thing to them ; and pressing before their time or leave into the Holy of Holy's have barr'd themselves from ever comming thither at all : why should we call for light , where God will have none , & make windowes into heaven ? I will admire God in Himselfe , and be content to know Him no farther than in His word where this light leaves me , I will leave enquiring , and boast of my ignorance . What I have alreadie done , was done long before , and what I am yet to do , is alreadie done before God ; this shall be my comfort , that I can neither doe nor suffer any thing , without His knowledge and leave . God hath given man charge of His other creatures , and His Angells charge over Him , and they are now our keepers , that shall be one day our companions ; great is His love to us in their care , and great should our care be to continue this love ; and since we are alwaies in His sight , and theirs , why doe wee at all that which we would not have seene ? My care shall be , not to shunne His sight , but not to provoke His anger : what I doe , He sees : and I will doe it as I would answer it . Those that honour me , will I honour : is a bargaine of Gods owne making : Gods honour is the way to ours , wee cannot but be blest , if we will but bee observant . I will care onely to serve Him , and I am sure I shall serve my selfe . Never any man lost in Gods service . He who dwells not in tabernacles made with hands , will dwell in tabernacles which His owne hands have made , even the hearts of men : and we enjoy Him though wee doe not see Him , for no man hath seene God at any time ; He is invisible , but not insensible . Our blessednesse consists here in feeling of Him , in heaven in seeing of Him , whom yet I doe not see , and shall one day see as I am seene : in the meane time I will doe nothing which I would not have Him see , or may rob mee of His sight . I have read of the Hart that hee weepes everie yeere for the shedding of his head , though to make roome for a better : thus I see the worldling goe away sorrowfull at that saying ; Goe , sell all that thou hast , though it be for treasure in Heaven ; men do not look at what they are to have , but what they are to part with , and are for one bird in the hand , above five in the bush ; but he that consults with his body for the saving of his soule , will never bring it to heaven . Let me sowe in teares , so I may reape in joy , I will be contented with the heaven I shall have . Many a man is therefore sinfull , because it is gainfull . By Diana wee live , that shall bee their god , that they can live by ; but he trafficks ill for his soule , that loseth it , to fill his coffers . I had rather be poore than wicked ; it is not thy poverty but thy sins that shut thee out from God ; it is better going to heaven in ragges , than to hell in purple . It is with the growth of our soule , as with the creation of our bodie , we come up by degrees : First , with Nicodemus , we must be borne againe , and then we must dwell a while at the sucking-bottle , from strength to strength : which the Eunuch , from reading the Scriptures to understanding them ; from understanding to applying , from applying to practising , of hearers we become knowers , of knowers doers of the Word , from perfection to perfection , or rather from imperfection to perfection , from persecuting the Church , with Paul to preaching to it : till we come from Dives doore to Abraham's bosome , from eating and drinking , from marrying and giving in marriage , to be as the Angells in heaven . Many live as if they came but into this world , to make merry and away , and after some yeares of quaffing with Nabal , die of a drunken fit : it were well for such men , as they have liv'd like beasts , if they could die like them too , never to live againe : but alas they cannot , her 's their miserie ; that they only leave their pleasures behinde them and not their sinnes . I will labour to leave my Sinnes behinde mee , and have my repentance goe before me , and my good workes follow after me , and I shall meet with pleasures that never shall have an end . The eares are the doores of the soule ; without these we were but artificiall creatures , men onely in shew : hence we know , we discourse , we beleeve , we learne to speake to God , and heare God speake to us ; without these we could not speake , not know , not understand ; in a word , by these ( under God ) we are what we are ; but some ther are that cannot heare , others that will not heare . It is a lesse judgement to want the power of hearing than the will , to be borne deafe , than to become so , they that cannot heare are the more excusable ; but they that will not heare , it were farre better for such if they had no eares . Every envious man is a mad-man , for he will starve himselfe , to see another thrive , he needs no other lent , than his neighbours well-fare , other mens prosperitie is his gallowes , where hee will hang himselfe a hundred times over , and at last , with Achitophel , once for all : I will not so dedesire of God to have much , as not to cover much : hee that can but thinke his owne enough , will never think anothers too much . I will never grudge any mans going before me , but to Heaven . Most men look for the theefs Paradise , to meet with CHRIST upon His crosse , Heaven upon his death-bed , and reserves his repentance , as the best bit , for the last : and meane to goe out of the world , and out of their sinnes all together . But how shall God then heare them , that before could not be heard of them ? In this case it is good being formost , why should'st thou put off repentance till to morrow , when for ought thou know'st thy soule is going to hell this night without it ? God give thee of the dew of heaven , and of the fatnesse of the earth , was Isaaks blessing to mistaken Iacob . First of the dew of heaven , and then of the fatnesse of the earth , ( for alas what is earth without a blessing from heaven ? ) but of Esau quite contrarie , first of the fatnesse of the earth , and then of the dew of heaven ; your Esau's preferre earth before heaven , and therefore have their heaven upon earth , God gives them as much as they care for : Ishmael shall be made a great nation , and that 's enough ; but hee goes a wrong course for his soule , that thinkes preferrement is the way to happinesse . My indeavour shall bee not to leave a name behinde me upon earth , but to finde it written in heaven . The Sun is plac'd in the heaven , as the heart in this little world of ours , keeping its seate in the middle , lends life to everie part , whereas if it had beene seated above , it would have beene miss'd below , and if below , it could not so easily have communicated above ; so that I knowe not whether wee owe more to God , for creating the Sunne , or for placing it ; not in the lowest sphere then ( like another Phaeton ) instead of lighting the world , it had burnt it ; or did it change place with the higher planets , wee should complaine of cold , so wisely hath God provided for our welfare , with our being , and hath set the Sunne not too neare us , lest wee should complaine of it , nor too farre , lest wee should want it , but in the middle , where it is neither an ill neighbour , nor too great a stranger : when we doe but looke upon what we have , wee cannot distrust God for what wee have not , and would have . Oh God , they deserve to want , that can distrust thee in sight of these . Whatsoever was necessarie for our preservation was created ; and whatsoever was necessary for our salvation was written . I will neither desire to know more than God hath revealed , nor to have more than Hee hath provided . Great mens actions are authenticke : If Herod and Caiaphas but begin , Christ shall have fists enough about His eares ; if Abimelech lead the way , every man cuts his bough , and askes no question : with inferiours , Example doth more than Precept , and like men in a streame , they do not swimme , but are carried : Doe any of the Rulers beleeve in him ? is thought argument enough why others should not ; these see but by their candle , and if the light be darknesse , how great is their darknesse ? I will do nothing which I would not have God see , and others learne ; else my light were better under a bushell , unseene , than follow'd where it should not ; thus I shall helpe , not to light others , but to burne them . Of idlenesse comes no goodnesse , doing nothing will in time come to doing ill , and from beeing idle to bee ill occupied ; the labour that is impos'd upon the soule is not to sit still , but to runne . Good men must not be like Davids images that have feete , and walke not ; then only have wee hope to come to our journies end , when wee keepe going . Some mens devotion is like hangings , which they can take off , and tack on as they please : outsides of Christians ; their hands and their eyes like some tombe which they have mark'd , are lifted up ; and they talke as the divell to our Saviour , nothing but Scripture : and with the Pharisee give farthings in the market-place ; and yet all 's but alchymie , but counterfeit : these are ill men , but well thought of . If I am not what I should be , yet I will not seeme what I am not , or be an ill man in good esteeme ; what am I the better , to bee a Cast-away with credit ? What is GOD to me without CHRIST ? and what is CHRIST to me without faith ? and what is my faith to me without charitie ? but a dead faith ? and if my faith be dead , what am I else but a dead man ? As it is vaine-glory to boast of our workes , so it is in vaine to boast of our faith without works . God as He loves young holinesse , so He loves it old ; ye are those that have continued with me , &c. was the praise of the Apostles ; Perseverance is the pillar of our salvation : if that fail al goes to the ground . What commendation is it to have done well ? If thou hast forsaken thy first love , if thou hast lost thy first hopes . Hee must carrie his goodnes to his grave , that will have it carrie him to heaven . If we looke but on our bodies , we have matter enough of wonder , to see such a Common-wealth of order ; such a world of varieties in this little world of ours : But when wee cast our eye aside , on that part wherein wee resemble God , the soule ; how doe we blush , and are asham'd at our houses of clay ? that so glorious an Image should dwell so meanly , so pent up ? that the Bodie should bee a companion for the Soule , which shall one day be a companion for Angels ? but thus was God pleas'd to allay our pride . Wee should have thought too well of our selves , if we had not had some peece of us , like other creatures of the earth , earthie . It shal not trouble me what metall my bodie be made of ; if my Soule be heavenly , my body shall one day be so too . When God sawe the thoughts of mans heart that they were evill , and onely evill , and continually : It is said , it repented Him that Hee had made man ; and that man whom He shall see so still , will have just cause to repent him , that ever hee was made , if he doth not repent him of what he hath done . God make me but truly penitent for my sin , and I shall never repent me of my being . It is a great way , and requires a long time to come to heaven ; I admire their strength , or rather weaknesse , that talke of getting it at the last gaspe , as if it could be had with a wet finger : I know those that have liv'd some yeares , and taken some paines too , to set themselves forward , and if they come thither at last , wil think they have done well too ; for my owne part , I neither desire , nor hope to enjoy it without a great deale of difficultie , anguish and agonie : and shall thinke it labour well bestowed , that I have it upon any termes . Men usually measure others by their owne bushels : they that are ill themselves , are commonly apt to thinke ill of others ; since no man is free from slaunders , I will not presently beleeve the worst of any man , but I will speake only the best . Our greatest enemies are within us : and therefore our greatest victorie is to subdue our selves : there is no such slavery as to be a slave to ones selfe ; it is a strange weaknesse , but ordinarie , to bee at everie mans becke , but our owne . Olde men are twice children ; and some , as if they were children for yeares againe , as well as for discretion , waxe most worldly when they are leaving the world ; and as their bodies draw nearer the earth , so their minds grow more earthie ; as if they were to live anew againe , or should set up againe under-ground : It is good and commendable to use these things while wee have them , yet still so , as remembring wee must part with them . I will never be loth to part with that which I cannot enjoy long ; for to enjoy that which I shall never part with . Every man for himselfe , and God for us all , is a common position , but an ungodly one ; that God is all in us , and all in all , is true : but that we should bee all for our selves is wicked ; every man for himselfe , and every man for another . Thou it may bee hast enough , and to spare , another hath not enough to live ; why hath God given thee so much above others , but that thou should'st spare somwhat of thine to releeve others ? It may be thine owne case ; Every man knowes his beginning , not his ending ; in the meane time thank God , that thou art not so , and help those that are . The barrennesse of the bodie is sometime a curse , but the barrennesse of the soule is accursed ; that is a punishment , this a sin , and punished with hell . We came not into this world , meerely to fill up roome , but to bring forth fruit , not for shew , but for use : Our chiefe studie must be not for ease , for riches , or pleasure , but fruitfulnesse : If we are all for pleasure , our fruit is hell ; and if we are fruitfull , our pleasures shall never end . Blessed are they which dye in the Lord , for they rest from their labours : in this world , there is nothing but dangers and discontents , vanitie and vexation : then only shall we be at rest , when we cease to bee : If wee thought more of this , we would not thinke much of our affliction . If I am never so beleaguer'd with sicknesse , or want , or famine , or all at once , I will remember I came not into this world to take my rest , but to prepare for it . That ground is verie hard , where the travellers foot leaves not impression : and that heart 's very stonie , where Gods blessing not only takes no roote , but leaves no signe , as soone forgotten as receiv'd ; 't is all He askes for all He doth , a thankfull heart : With what face can wee expect God should give us our asking , that deny Him His ? God made other creatures for mans service , man for His owne : them for our use , and us for His glorie : How much , O Lord , do we owe to thee for our selves and them , that hast so abounded to us , above them , and hast not made them but for us ? Teach us to give our selves to thee , for them , who hast given them to us , for our selves . God is glorified in all His creatures , but not in all alike ; some glorifie Him in their beauty , others in their deformity : His glorie is not lesse seene in our wants , than in our abundance : in striking with blindnesse , than in our aboundance : in striking with blindnesse , than in healing the blinde ; no lesse in Ieroboams arme dryed up , than restor'd : therefore do we see some want their sight , others their feet ; and yet it may be neither for the childs sinne , nor the Parents , as our Saviour told the people , but that the glorie of God might be seene . Againe , we see not only by nature , but by accident , one , with Mephibosheth , by the negligence of a nurse , another with Abimelech by the fall of a stone lose a limme , or their life : when wee see this in others , and not in our selves ; how are wee not thankfull to God for our selves beyond others ? Lepers in Soule ( God knowes ) and it is His mercy we are not so in Bodie ; whereby wee should at once neede the helpe and want the companie of friends , and not onely bee miserable , but shunn'd . I will prayse God not only for the good which I have , but for the evill which I might have , and have not . Our SAVIOVR knew what He did , when Hee taught us to pray : Our FATHER which art in Heaven , &c. To give us , and to forgive us , for He onely can doe both ; none can forgive sinnes , or give grace , but God alone . Yet doth He not alwaies give with His owne hand , but reacheth grace and salvation in His Word and Sacraments , by the hands of His Ministers ; and because no man can heare His voice and live , Hee speakes in them ; it is the wonder of His goodnes , that He respects not only our wants , but our infirmities , and would so appeare to us , as Hee might teach us , but not fright us : Thus wee see Him speaking to Moses himselfe , to Israel by Moses : He proportions the meanes answerable to our strength ; wee are not like our Maker , if we think scorne to stoope to the weaknesse of our brethren . I will be all things to all , that by any means I may win some . A good tree is knowne by its fruit ; yet all trees doe not beare the same fruit ; our fruit may bee all good , though it bee not all the same : all are not workers of miracles ; 't is not lookt wee should remove Mountaines , or walke upon the Sea , command the windes , or appease the waters : there are other fruits of the Spirit , that wee must beare : Now the fruits of the Spirit are these , love , peace , joy , long-suffering , &c. GOD make us fruitfull in these , and we shall have no neede of those . The end of all our SAVIOVRS miracles , for the most part was , see you tell no man : It is one lesson in religion , not to be seen : and yet not precisely not to be seene , but not therefore to doe well , to be seene : our commendations must be to doe , and not say ; or if we say any thing , say , we are unprofitable servants . As the outward service of the body , without the inward sinceritie of the heart is unprofitable : so the contrary is uncivil ; Gods service requires reverence , as well as holinesse . Many go to God as they do to their companions , not kneeling , but sitting , or lolling along ; as if they were the Iudge , not the petitioner , or were to grant suites , not to begge some ; and that unreverentnesse which they would not , nay , which they durst not use to this or that Mr Gentleman , they use to God : this is neither becomming Christians , nor reasonable , or at least civill men . It is the fault of envie , that it sees nothing but injuries ; but of charitie that it sees none , or takes no notice of them ; but when one cheek is struck , it turnes the other : and when it can turne no way , lies downe under the stroke : he that will be righting himselfe of every wrong , doth but pluck more fistes about his eares , and set God against him too : who , if hee would but be quiet , wold revenge it to his hands ; unlesse we doubt of His power , wee will trust God with our wrongs ; and stay His leasure , that is the fittest time for our deliverance , which Hee thinkes so ; in this case we are like men in a pit , the more we stirre , the more we are mired . I see MOSES in the Mount , and with the people with a different face ; open to GOD , veil'd to them ; GOD would not alwaies have us shew our brightnesse to the world : in some cases He loves our talent in a napkin , lapt up and hid . Let it suffice , Hee knowes thee , that will reward thee : others , if they commend thee not , it is because they know thee not ; or if they doe commend thee , there 's all , and it may bee to thy cost . Why shouldest thou lose Heaven for good words ? or what art thou the better , that others commend thee , if God do not ? who therefore doth not , because they do , I will never care to have my praise ascend up to Heaven , but to come downe from Heaven . Blessed are the mercifull for they shall receive mercie : GOD's promises , though they be gracious , yet they are confin'd : and he only shall receive mercy that shewes mercy ; all the wrongs thou receiv'st , cannot equall one sinne thou committest , and art forgiven : now when God hath forgiven thee thy hundred Talents , which thou owedst , and could'st not pay : do not with the evill servant take thy brother by the throat for two ; be not so cruell to others , that hast God so mercifull to thee : freely thou art forgiven , freely forgive ; with what measure yee mete unto others , with the same shall it bee measured to you againe , and if you give , you shall receive good measure ; not only shaken together and pressed down , but running over . God as He doth not let goodnesse go unrequited , so doth He not requite it with a little , or inch out His blessings . He never hath done enough for those that love Him ; one good turne drawes on another , and Hee is ever thinking , What could I doe more for my Vineyard that I have not done ? There is no pains of ours which falls to the ground unaccepted , unrewarded , who would not serve that master , whose service is perfect freedome , and the wages eternall life ? I cannot bee more mine owne friend , than by beeing GOD's servant , and the Worlds enemie . Our bodies waxe weaker , as they waxe older ; our sinnes as they waxe older , they waxe stronger ; I will labour to bee olde in goodnesse , and I cannot complain of weaknesse ; let mee but bee too strong for my sinnes ; and I have strength enough . Some men doe not revenge injuries , because they cannot , they want power ; others because they want opportunitie , and doe but waite with Esau : the dayes of the mourning for my father are at hand , and then I will slay my brother . It is no god-a-mercie to passe over injuries when we can do no other , he is not innocent that is so perforce : then is our goodnesse commendable , when we may hurt , and will not . It is the fault of the world , yet it is the fashion of it , to put off God to the last ; the fall of the leafe , will serve his turne : and thinke one sigh at their death , enough for all their lives before ; but true repentance as it is not for a spurt , so it is not done in an instant . He that goes about thorowly to make riddance of his sinnes , shall finde it a long businesse ; sinnes are not like servants , to be gone at a quarters warning . In many things we offend all , is the voice of an Apostle ; the best have their faults , he is happie that hath least and fewest . I can never be so holy as to have no sinnes : my care shall bee to repent me of those I have ; if my repentance be daily , my score shall never be long . Youth , and holinesse , doe not meet often , to see a young man dead to sin and ready for death , is admirable , but rare ; it is a good thing to be good betimes , sinnes as they growe old they growe lusty , and if they once get head , they know no master , it is a harder matter to restore to godlinesse , than to make godly ; for there must be a dedocebo te , &c. an unteaching of that evill , which they before learned , before there can be an insertion of that good which they must after practise . Custome will alter nature , and an use of sinning make them in love with sinne ; it is rarely seene that a young divell proves an old Saint . I will so begin , as I would hold out , with GOD ; otherwise , it is ill that I have begun , but worse that I hold not out . GOD desires not the death of a sinner , but that is not all , He doth not onely not delight in our ruine , but He desires our recoverie . If we repent , He spares us , if we returne Hee receives us : for the first , mercy to forgive ; for the second , an Abrahams bosome to receive ; if we wander , He recalls us , if we be obstinate , he intreats us : if we come but slowly , He will stay for us : in all His workes He is wonderfull ; but in His workes of mercy , He exceeds . I will never despaire of that goodnesse that hath no bounds ; my sinnes are infinite , but not unpardonable . Hee was once a persecutor , who was after an Apostle : and not behind the best of the Apostles , that was once before the worst of the Iewes for cruelty : God is able to make of a cast-away , a convert ; of a theefe , a disciple : of stones , children : of dead men , living Saints , if the disease be desperate , the cure is the glorie of the Physician ; the recoverie is more remarkeable of a dead man to life , than of a sicke man : if the danger were not great , there were lesse praise of our redemption : but when our sinnes are gone over our heads ; when the beame of the timber , and the stone in the wall crie us guiltie ; when thou art possest , and not as Mary Magdalen with a few divels , but with Legions : not one sinne , or small sinnes , or a few sinnes , seven divels , as it is said of her , but past number ; like the starres or the sands ; and of the worst sort of divells too , that cannot easily be cast out , but with fasting and praier , and hast not onely committed them , but lived in them , and art now dead in them : when we have thus lost our selves , and Him , to bee found of Him and brought to our selves , pusles us for thankes : His armes are ever open , onely our hearts are shut : wee receive not , because wee aske not , wee are not received , because wee returne not , or returne to our vomit ; It is but just , when wee turne to our sinnes , that GOD turne to His judgements : either wee must bee cut off in our sinnes , or from them . Salvation is the gift of God , it is given , and yet it is got with a great deale of struggling ; thou must fast , and watch , and fight ( as Saint Paul saies ) and as Saint Paul did too , not onely with beasts , after the manner of men ( though wicked men are beasts in a manner ) but with principalities , and powers , not the Aegyptians , but the Anakims , Gyant sinnes , growne temptations . My glory shall be not to have no sinnes , but to have the mastery ; not that I am not set upon , but not beaten . That we shall all dye , we all know ; when wee shall dye , God knowes ; but how any man should be dead while he is alive , is strange wil some think , and would bee glad to know ; yet so it is , sin is a death , and every obstinate sinner is dead for the time . Some with Iairus daughter are not dead but sleepe ; others with Lazarus , are not onely dead , but stinke ; and it is with sinne as with sicknesse , it weakens by degrees ; first it distempers the palate of the soule , or spoiles the stomake , so that either it refuseth meat , or distastes it , or puts it up againe ; and next it takes away the sense that they feele not their sinnes , and then are remedilesse ; and as our Saviour told the Iewes , they wil dye in their sins ; and this is a death men care not to be acquainted with til they be past cure : and then onely thinke of Heaven , when they are going to hell , and after forty or fifty yeares living , know not what belongs to dying , more than , with Ezekiah , to turne their face to the wall , and weepe when it comes : The way to dye willingly is to conne death before hand ; he that hath spent his life in providing for his death , is not troubled at his death how to be provided of a better life . My care shall be not how I may not dye , but how I may live ever . Prosperitie is a great enemy to goodnesse , how hardly doe those which have riches enter into the Kingdome of Heaven ? I heare Israel praying in Aegypt , quarreling in the wildernesse ? When they were at their bricke-kills , they would be at their devotion , and no sooner are they at ease , but they are wrangling for their flesh-pots ; I think many a man had not been so bad , if he had but been poore . It is the saying of a wise Father , that Salomons wealth did him more hurt , than his wisdom did him good . Trouble , and want do that many times , which faire meanes cannot ; wealth , like knowledge puffes up , when poverty ( as their infirmities did many in the Gospell ) make men flock to CHRIST . I will never pray more heartily to God for His blessings , than for grace to use them , nor to lessen my miseries , but to add to my strength . Though my afflictions be many or often , so my strength be equall , I shall get by them ; the stronger my tryall , the greater will be both my victorie and my reward . The way to live ever , is to live well , there is no way to everlasting life , but a good life ; it is not living at ease , or at randome , or at rack and manger , in pompe and plentie , mirth and jollity , and with Saul think to drive away the divell with musike . God cares not how rich , or how powerful thou art , but how good . We should so live as wee may have joy of our life , and bee made partaker of those joyes , and that life which are for ever . There are many dead men and manie deaths ; there is a death in sinne , and a death for sinne , and a death to sinne ; the two first we may thanke our selves for , if wee had not knowne sinne , we had not known death , but the last we must thanke God for , it is from Him that wee dye to sinne , that have deserv'd to dye for it , who Himselfe dyed for us , and hath taken our sins upon Him , and at once delivered us from the sting of death , and the strength of sinne . And thankes be to God who hath given us this victorie , through our Lord IESVS CHRIST . We are in this world , as Israel in the wildernes : and Christ is to us as Moses was to them ; if He leave us , wee know not which way to turne us ; nature cannot carrie us to God. Here all our sufficiencie is from Him , and we say well in our praier , for thine is the power and the glorie ; and it is by that power , that wee come to that glorie , our strength is but borrowed ; our standing but leaning upon His arme ; our going , but leading in His hand . It is with us as it was with S. Paul upon the way , wee must be led , we must be carried to God ; we must pray , turne us , O Lord , unto thee and wee shall be turned . Of our selves wee are unable to goe , yet drawe us , and wee shall runne after thee ; so shall wee come to thee , with thee , that are rather images , that have feete , and walke not , without thee . It is betweene some sinners and God , as betweene some men & their creditors ; all their care is how to be trusted , not how to pay . My first care shall be as little as I can to come in Gods debt , and my next care how to come out of it . Our goodnesse must be that part of the wallet that hangs behinde us , seene of others , not of our selves : our sinnes must bee that part that hangs before us , seene both of others , and our selves . To conceale sinne , was never the way to be forgiven it ; or what art thou the safer , that thou canst conceale it from men , and not from God ? I had rather be censur'd for my sin , than be damned for it . As in Moralitie so in Divinitie , not to goe forward is to goe backwards ; and not to thrive in goodnesse , is not to be good . When I compare what I am , with what I have beene , I am not a little proud ; but when I compare what I should bee , with what I am , with Peter I begin to sinke ; only here 's my comfort , I shall be receiv'd , not according to what I am ; but what I am in Christ. Every good heart is accuser , judge , and executioner of its ownfaults : Why should I be afraid of standing at the tribunall of my owne conscience , and not of God ? at one I must ; and if I judge my selfe , I shall not bee judged : I will prevent Gods judgements with my owne , and the feare of what I should suffer , with the sorrow for what I have done ; to him only is the last judgement terrible , that shunnes the first . Wicked men as they make most shew of mirth , so they have least ; their heart and their face do not agree ; they carrie that in their owne bosome , that spoiles their laughing : they are alwaies pursued by themselves , and encountred with their own thoughts . Their sleepe is dreaming , and they dreame of those judgements in their sleepe , which they have deserv'd waking : every noyse is of thunder , and everie thunder of the last day ; every shadow is a spirit , and their sinnes are so many divels about them ; they have a double hell , they dy a thousand deaths here , and hereafter dye eternally . There is no joy like the joy in the Holy Ghost : Nay , there is no joy but that , and that is as farre above all earthly joy , as our heavenly joy shall be above this . Hallelujah above Hosanna . Let mee but have this within , and I care not how the square goe without ? Death to the wicked ever comes unwelcome , because they see it in its worst shape , ghastly . Faine they would not goe , and goe they must , it is impossible they should live still , but it is intolerable to be still dying , which is the life they are to live , a living death . I will pray God to season this life to me , as I may not bee in love with it , and so to remember me of my death , as I may not be afraid of it ; and in my life so to prepare me for my death , that at my death I may not onely bee prepared , but assured of a better life . When I remember the sinnes I have already committed , and some it may be not throughly repented of ; and those which I do hourely commit , and some it may be not taken notice of : so many of infirmitie stealing upon me , and other stronger sinnes breaking in upon me : I doe not will that good which I should , or want power to that will , or perseverance to that power : I am at a stand with the Apostle , and thinke , miserable man that I am , who shall deliver me from this body of death ? Even He that delivered His body to death for me : Oh God , thou that workest in me , both to will and to doe , worke my will to thine ; da Domine quod jubes , &c. Give but power to obey , and what thou wilt command . Death is as hatefull to man , as old age to beautie ; and we are ever complaining of the shortnesse of our time , unlesse calamitie make it seeme long ; which yet if they be never so little over , they are weary of that which before they wished for , death : as I will not be in love with tribulations , so I will not love my life the worse for them , nor the better for wanting them : if prosperity make me fond of living , or afraid of dying , it had been better for mee , if it had not been so well ; I shall pay deare for my ease . It is better to go into the house of mourning , than into the house of laughter ; nay , the way to the house of laughter , is through the house of mourning ; so our Saviour , Blessed are they that mourne , for they shall be comforted : Mirth , like Salomons strumpets , leads to the chambers of death ; and the voluptuous man goes out of this World , as hee came into it , crying ; and into another world , where there is nothing but weeping . It is a great weaknesse to defer to doe that , which must be done , if I must once weepe , I will doe it now . It is better to cry for remorse , than for anguish . There were no such tyrant upon earth , as the envious man , if he had but his will , no man should live a quiet life , or dye a naturall death , but himselfe ; hee sees his neighbours house burning , and warmes him by the fire , and is refreshed : there is no estate that he hath not a quarrell to , no person ; his equals hee hates , because they are his equals ; his inferiors , because they are not his equals ; and his superiors , because he is not their equall : he is an enemy to all mens peace , but most of all to his own , and I think if he were put to it , himselfe knowes not what hee would be , or have others be . It is the greatest vanity in the world , to runne mad for others pleasures : what if I have not the same thing , or in the same measure ? I have enough to serve my turne , if they have more , yet they must account for it , and I will never envy any man , that he hath more to answere for to God , than I have ; I shall not account for the talents which I never had . Gods blessings , and our thankes must ever goe hand in hand , one good turne requires another . Wee must not thinke to serve our selves of God , and not serve Him ; His blessings are not only encouragements , or rewards , but bonds . Of these , the more we have , the more we owe , and our care must be , not onely to receive , but to repaie . Why should we strive to come out of every mans debt , but GODS . The charity of forgiving , is more difficult than that of giving , and more worth , by how much our selves are more deare to us than our goods , in the one wee are doers , but in the other sufferers , and many a man would doe for another , that would not suffer for him : I am but halfe a Christian if I have only learn'd to pitie , and not to forgive : we cannot at once , remember our profession , and our wrongs , if they bee small , the matter is the lesse ; if they be great , our glorie is the more : nor only our glorie , but our reward ; it is our owne faults , if wee be not gainers by our injuries . Gluttony is not onely a sinne , but a disease : not onely to be forbidden , but to bee afraid of ; other sinnes hurt in future , this in present , and robbes not only of eternall life , but of this , and destroies the body together with the soule . Our bodies were not given for cellarage , to lay in bread and beare in . I will remember , that I was not therefore borne , or doe live , meerely to eate and drinke ; but therefore eate and drinke , that I may continue life . I have seldome known any wickednesse so hainous , that had not clients as well as patrons . Corah had cōpanions with him in his sinne , before in his punishment . But innocency doth not go by voices , I will never looke at my partners , but my cause . I desire no other Advocates , but GOD and the truth . It was the accusation of the old world , that they were eating and drinking , till they entred , &c. and is still of this , and will be so to the end , though this were not the end of our being , but for the continuance of it : I will use my meat , as others doe their Physicke , onely for health , to satisfie not my desire , but my stomach . I can a great deale cheaper , and safer , feede my belly than my eye . We see men set not their best wares upon the stalls , but within , lapp'd up ; it is neither commendable , nor wise to shew our excellencies ( as Musicians do ) in all companies ; what are we the better , that we thinke well of our selves while others thinke not so ? Or what are we then worse , that others thinke meanly of us , while we think so too ? Since those art never the better for thy selfe-conceitednes , nor the worse for thy humilitie , why shouldst thou make thy selfe envied for those graces which thou hast , by shewing them , and derided for making shew of those thou hast not , and would'st seeme to have ? and art at once noted of men for a boaster , and of God for a dissembler ? I will be content to be lowly in mine owne esteem , and others , that I may bee high in Gods. A handsome garment is no argument of a strait body : those are not alwaies the best men that make the most shew of holinesse . Demurenesse may stand with falshood : Pretences are evermore suspicious ; they that are ever perfum'd , 't is to be thought have naturally ill breaths , we must not ever beleeve our senses : goodnesse is plaine , and would be knowne by her workes , but not tell of them , whilest hypocrisie is painted to hide ' its wrinkles , and would bee taken for better than it is , and with the figge-tree , it shall be curst for flourishing ; if wee are true Christians , wee are both sides alike . Goodnesse doth not go by yeeres ; many times you shall have that from a Samuel in his long coates , which you shall not have from a Saul , at forty yeeres old ; and yet it is not forwardness commends us , but perseverance : Some men , like some fruits promise faire in the blossome , but wither ere they be pluck'd ; others like some graine , lye long in the ground , but grow up the taller ; it is dangerous to deferre long , but it is worse not to hold out . I will love and endevour early holinesse ; yet it is better to begin late , than to have done betimes , there is a penny for him that comes at the eleventh houre : If thy youth have been faulty , it is comfort that thy age is otherwise . It is no disparagement to have beene wicked , but to continue so ; who hath not bin overseen sometime ? Hee was once a Persecutor that was after an Apostle . I will glorie , not that I have never done amisse , but that I am now asham'd of it . As promotion , so povertie , is neither from the East , nor from the West ; but from God. Hee hath sayd to every man , rule thou here , or worke thou there , bee this , or thus . Why doe men grudge at their wants , when it is not chance but providēce ? It is lesse praise to be honourable , than to be content not to bee so : our happinesse is , not to want affliction , but to beare it . The lesse I have , the more I have to come : no Lazarus would change states with that Dives , who if he might but live againe , would bee Lazarus to choose . Iob in his description of man , sayes , His daies are as the daies of an hireling , now wee doe not hire men to be idle , but to doe our businesses , our life is a long day , and this day hath many houres , and these houres have all worke ; every man is a day-labourer , and must doe his taske , to have his wages . I doe not see the penny given to those that stand in the market place , but that labour in the vineyard : 't is not for us to be lookers on , GOD and the holy Angels are spectators ; we must be actors , doers . I will bee content to do nothing but labour , while I am here , that hereafter I may doe nothing but rest . The food of the soule , as it is farre more excellent than that of the body , so it is farre more dangerous ; for , where it saves not , it kills : How many ( with Esau ) have eaten themselves out of the blessing in this , and gone from Gods table , as Baltazar did frō his condemn'd men ? Not the presence , but the preparednesse makes the acceptance : to come , and not worthily , is to bee more bold than welcome ; it is all one to thee whether God have thy roome , or thy company ; if thou have not thy garment , thou art condemn'd in both ; let others care only to come , my care shall bee to be welcome . GOD is a God of pure eyes , and cannot behold sinne , and yet He continually beholds us that are altogether sinful . Lord how are we bound to thy goodnesse , that onely thy eye is upon us , and not thy hand ? That thou doest but take notice of our sinnes , and not take vengeance on them ? If wee had any good nature in us , if for nothing else , yet we would be better , because thou art so good ; and dislike sinne , not for our owne sakes , but thine . GOD , saies the Heathen , hath woollen feet , but iron hands ; yet He hath sometimes iron feet , and woollen hands ; where He would correct , and not in wrath , He makes a great noyse , but doth little , only to fright , not hurt them : Where Hee will judge , and not correct , He treads softly , but strikes home , and is upon them ere they are awares ; there is love in His corrections , but there is wrath in His judgements . I will pray , Correct mee , oh Lord , but not in thy furie , lest I bee consumed and brought to nothing . There is no living without repenting ; for all sins are against God , and all forgivenesse is from God , and there is no forgivenesse without repentance ; so then without this thou canst neither live comfortably , nor dye peaceably . I will not presently give God and my selfe over , because I have sinn'd ; but I will therefore neither give God over till He have forgiven my sinne ; nor my selfe till I have forgotten it , or remember it with detestation . I have seldome seene a rich man want friends , or a poore man enemies ; though He have scarce to live , yet he is grudg'd his life , that hee takes up roome in the earth : these men make much of this , for it is all they have to trust to . I will grudge no man this world ; it shall suffice me there is another to come , and that mine shall beginne , when this is ended . I will bee content to want this for a while , that I may enjoy the other for ever . Holinesse is not borne with us , nor doth growe up with us : sometime , you shall see the hoare-head , come short almost of the long coates . I will never regard how long I live , but how well ; and rejoice , not that I dye an old Christian , but an old man in CHRIST . Some men drawe nigh unto God , but with their lips , as Iudas did ; others drawe nigh unto Him with their whole bodie , and will for outward complement come short of none : into their sackcloath with Ahab , and downe upon their knees with face with Saul ; they will dye the death of the Righteous as well as any , if wishes will doe it ; but their heart is not sound . Not to drawe nigh unto GOD at all , is open rebellion ; to drawe nigh unto GOD , and not all , by halves is secret dissembling ; then only doe wee come as we should , when wee come ( like S. Pauls Sacrifice , ) our selves , our soules and our bodies : and thus if I draw nigh unto God , He will draw nigh unto me . If God only saw as we , there were no difference between holinesse in jest , and in good earnest . Ahab is in ashes as well as Ninivie ; nay , what doth Ninivie more than Ahab , to the eye ? What doe the Apostles more than the Pharisies , or Iohns disciples than theirs ? they fast , pray , give : by the out-side wee cannot tell who serves God with his bodie , or with his heart ; wee see they are painted , God onely sees they are sepulchers ; wee see their fairenesse , but not their rottennesse ; onely GOD which sees their heart , shall one day unmaske it , and as they have before been applauded for what they seemed , so they shall then be punish'd for what they are . If I have only the rin'd , the out-side of Christianity , and not the bulke , I am sure to be cast out : what I can , I will so carry my selfe , as I may neither bee condemn'd for beeing worse than I should be , or seeming better than I am . There is no musike like that of the Word , yet it is not lik'd ; we have piped unto you , and you have not danced ; was the complaint of Christs time : men have eares to heare , but not that ; any musike but that of the Cymbals ; any Harpe but Davids ; any Bells but those of Aaron : they can heare others revil'd , or God prophan'd , or themselves sooth'd ; they have eares to their commendations , but not to their faults : the sluggard hath his eares in his pocket ; the drunkard hath his eares in his pot ; the proud man hath no eares , but to his commendation ; the covetous man hath no eares but to his profit ; the luxurious man hath no eares but to his pleasure ; there is no musike but in trumpets , nor in them but at banquets . But he that will not heare now , shall one day crie and not be heard , and be forc'd to heare that heavy doome , Depart from me , ye workers of iniquitie , into that lake , where there is nothing but crying . It is strange , no men would be sicke , and yet some men will not bee well ; for they take courses to overthrow their health ; as if God had nothing to doe but to waite on them : they are never well when they are well , but when they are doing of ill ; where the affliction is Gods , wee may challenge Him of helpe ; where the disease is debauchnes , He may challenge us of sinne : when our sicknesse is His correction , it is comfortable , but when we need to bee corrected for our sicknesse it is fearefull : what God laies upon us is to be boarne ; what men bring upon themselves , is not to be answered ; and if in mercy thou art delivered , Go and sinne no more , lest a worse thing come unto thee . Ill weeds grow apace ; wicked men like Aegyptian grashoppers ly in heaps , when the good , like Noah in his Arke , are two or three in a corner : our blessed Saviour ( as Hee could never say otherwise ) said true , The way had neede be wide that leadeth to destruction , for many there bee that finde it . They must looke to suffer , that look to reigne ; this world is Gods house of correction for His Children : wee must not think not to have crosses , wee must studie to make the best of them . I will thinke of afflictions before they come , that when they come , I may bid them welcom ; while they tarrie , I will make use of them , and when they go , I will take leave of them , onely as of an Ague , for a well day or two , but to come againe . In Heaven all vessells shall be full , but none shall runne over ; here on earth I see some runne over , and yet complain of emptinesse ; they have not enough , if they have not all : Thus I have seene some beasts , not knowing when they were well , burst with feeding : they had more than enough , if they could be content another should have more than they ; if they could but be lesse envious , they would be lesse covetous : all Vessels beare not the same sailes , those do but speed a tall Ship , wherewith a Bark is overborn : wee know not our owne strength , submitte ourselves to Him that doth : Hee that gives us all wee have , knowes we have all we should have , and that if wee had more , wee would sinke : that man that thinkes hee is never full , is never thankfull . Whether I abound , or am poore , I will endevour but these two , to be thankfull , and to be content . Crosses are harsh , but they are the best Physike ; I know not whether prosperity have lost , or adversity recover'd more ; none praies so heartily for His daily bread , as Hee that wants it : miserie like Ionah's fish sends them to their prayers that never thought of GOD under their goard ; it is pitty faire weather should doe any harm ; yet it is often seen , we even adore those Physicians in our sicknesse which being recovered , wee onely salute with a complement ; abundance makes many forget those friends , which want wold make crouch to ; how welcom should that state be which makes us familiar with God ? I will not , I may not wish for afflictions , nor meet them . I am good Christian enough , if I can be content to be poore , and not desirous . Our practice must be not to make much of crosses , but to make use of them ; yet I had rather endure a world of crosses to come to God , than to be crossed in nothing in this world , and once want him : let my sinnes rather be punished , then sooth'd : oh God , let my hell be here . CHRIST hath many followers , but few disciples ; GOD hath many creatures , but few sonnes . GODS flocke is a little one , one of a family , two of a tribe , like the Prophet Esaiahs tall Tree , heere and there a berrie in the toppe of a bough : there are many of Israel , but few Israelites , many that have Abraham to their father , but a few his children . Many that came out of his loines , but few that shall sit in his bosome . Goodnes goes not by multitude : the many followers may shew thy greatnesse , not thy holinesse ; the most are commonly the worst . How fondly then , how falsely do any boast of the truth of their religion by their multitude ? Every thing , we say , is the worse for wearing ; it is true of the world ; the older the more corrupt : we are forewarn'd of the last daies , that they shall be notoriously wicked ; the world did almost begin with sinne , but it shall end ( in a manner ) with nothing but sinne , and that in fire : Here 's our comfort , the just are no part of the world . If we had not knowne sinne , we had not knowne sicknes , and now we know not how to be wel of our sinne , but by Him against whom wee have sinned ; our health is from God , our sicknesse is from our selves : Heale thy selfe , is only for that Physician to whom it was upbraided , it is not Saul and his witch , or Asa and his Physicians can prevent death or a disease , without God ; all is originally from him , yet derivatively by meanes . I will use the one , but I will trust onely the other ; if wee are confident either without them , or in them , we presume . Whilest we are here , we are in continuall want of somewhat , either our mindes are sicke , or else our bodies , diseases or discontents . How should wee long for that place , where we shall enjoy nothing but rest , and want nothing but a consummation of our rest ? This world is a lyer , and he will find it so , that serves it : riches like their master , are full of deceit , promise that they have not . How many have we seen that have thoght no joy but in abundance , have , after , ended their joy where they begin to abound , and at last envied the quiet rest and merry meales of their labourers ? To impatient , inconstant mindes , the present state is ever cumbersome , and they would change thogh for a worse ; If wee can but make the best of our owne , and thinke our selves well , even when others thinke not so , wee are happy men . Why should I think that grievous which God thinkes fit ? If there were no providence , I would struggle : but now it is hard to kicke against the prickes . Lord , be it unto thy servant according to thy will. Pleasures are pleasing , but they are vanishing : the Pharisies were not so truly painted sepulchers , as these , faire but rotten , fading nor onely dying , but killing . Like guilded pills ( save that they are not Physicke ) but small , and ill tasted ; if they were either not short , or but sweet , there were some colour for loving them . But now they are not lasting , and yet unsavoury : Why are we not ambitious of those pleasures , which are beyond al time for length , and all conceit for sweetnesse ? Some men are afraid to sinne , because they are afraid to smart for their sinne , they would goe on in their sinnes , if they could go away with them ; it doth not so much trouble them to be wicked , as to be tormented , and their study is not that they may not provoke God , but that they may run away from Him. Oh God , if we could runne out of the world , we should run farther into thy judgements . Oh God , if we go downe into hell , thou art there , there is no running from the punishment , till from the sinne . All sicknesse is not of the body : every leprosie is not in the skinne , it were well for some men it were : every sinne is a disease , our soules are no lesse subject to infection , than our bodies ; some are diseas'd and do not know it , others are diseas'd and doe not care for it : both cases are hard , but the last is desperate . To make light of sin , and because thy soule is sicke even unto death , to say with the Atheist & Epicure , Let us eat and drinke , for we must dye , is to shake hands with vengeance : Hee that will not so much as aske to be heal'd ; how justly shall he dye in his leprosie . It is strange , but it is ordinary to see every man greedy to continue this life , and not to procure a better : If the head doe but ake , strait to the Prophet with the Shunamite , to the Physicians with Asa : If they bee but talk'd to of dying , with Ieroboam's wife they run and ride , and send ; and as the Cripple to our Saviour , pul downe the tiles to come at him ; but in the matter of their soule , they are deafe to the disease : why are wee not as industrious for Heaven , as for our health ; and to live ever , as to live long ? Alas ! what is age without goodnesse , but a fairer marke for vengeance ? What is Dives the better to out-live LAZARVS , and at last dye and be damn'd ? Let others trouble themselves and the world , how to maintaine this body , my care shall bee how to subject it : whilest I employ my soule only for the setting out of my flesh , what am I else but a glorious slave ? Diseases though they were the fruit of sinne , and brought upon us by our selves , yet they are not dispos'd of amongst us but by God , they head doth not ake but with his leave : nor leave aking but with His helpe ; it is from above both that wee are sicke , and that wee are made whole ; to whom should I not only owe my life , but bestow it , but to him of whom I live and move ? As it is in extremities , for men to remember God , but with repining ; so it is hard in prosperity , to remember themselves , and what they have receiv'd of God ; we are apt to forget what wee have bin , when we are chang'd for the better ; Pharaoh's butler hath forgot he was a prisoner : it is too true , that too many love God for their owne sakes , either they are poore , and would be rais'd ; or they are sicke and would bee heal'd ; and like beggers , no sooner are they serv'd but they are gone . I may both love my selfe , and God ; I may not love God for my selfe , I would not love my selfe but for that I am His , and I will love Him but for Himselfe . When I consider the yeeres I have already lived , me thinkes they are few , but evill ; evill not in respect of affliction alone , but of sin , and I am found guilty : if I consider the present , ( if there be any present , when it is ever passing ) I do but adde to my score , and if I consider the time to come ( if I have any to come , God knowes ) I do but adde to the measure of my owne sinnes , and Gods wrath together with my yeeres ; since I must live , and cannot but sinne , I will study how my sinnes may not hinder me of a better life ; first , I will abhorre them , and then I will abhorre my selfe for them ; and if I could not before break my heart of them , I will now breake it for them : A broken and a contrite heart , O God , thou wilt not despise . To every one it shall one day be sayd ; Give an account of thy stewardship , &c. It is that which everie man should tell himselfe and one tell another , what the Apostle hath long since told us all , that we must all stand before the tribunall seate of Almightie GOD ; the righteous thinkes long of this day , and longs for it ; because hee is long since provided for it ; the wicked thinks it coms too fast , and yet thinkes not of it till it come ; and when it is come , can think of nothing but that , and is stown'd with the thought of it : his pleasures which were never but shadowes ( yet accounted recall ) then appeare as they were , and not as they were accounted ; and those torments which were ever thought but shadowes , bug-beares , then appeare as they are , and prove reall : the comparing of what he hath enjoi'd , with what he hath lost , and that little lesse than nothing of time which he hath liv'd , with the eternitie of torment , hee is to dye in , makes him curse the time of his birth , since there is a time of death , and another death beyond all time ; so the godly and the wicked differ not more in their lives , than in their deaths , but most of all after death . Oh my God! as thou hast made mee of the best sort of creatures , a man , and of the best of that sort , a christian ; so let mee be yet better , by beeing one of those whom thou hast sorted for thy selfe ; what am I better , if I am only call'd and not chosen . All bookes are not alike easie ; those that are , are not all alike profitable ; some would profit more , if they did but rellish , others would rellish better , if they were more profitable ; he doth well that doth both , utile dulci ; I will neither drowne my meat in sauce , nor dish it dry . They are not the only robbers that breake houses , guile is worse theft than outrage ; it is alike wicked to make wine of other mens grapes ( as Ahab did of Naboth's ) and to be drunk of our owne ; hee that will have riches in spight of heaven shall have hell to boote . The malicious man is his owne moth ; that God is better to him than hee can expect , is nothing , whilest He is better to others than Hee is to him : like Gideon's first miracle hee would have all the ground dry but his fleece ; if Cain's sacrifice miscary , Abel must not bee accepted and live ; no man may bee either greater or better with safetie . I will not looke at what I have , but what I deserve , and I shall never thinke my ▪ owne little , or anothers too much : that is a wicked heart that would have all men worse than it selfe , and hates all those whom others thinke better . God is therfore bountifull to us , that we might be so to others ; to feast those , that cannot bid us againe , and to build for those that cannot lodge us againe , is the way to that marriage-feast , and those buildings , whose Builder & Maker is God : he alone hath the true use of wealth that receives it onely to disburse it ; if of wealth that receives it only to disburse it ; if men were their owne friends they would make others so with this Mammon ; why should the rust of that gold rise up in judgement against thee , the use of which will set thee with those that shall sit in judgement ? Persecution is the dore to happines , Canaan hath still the same way , a wildernesse ; who can looke for heaven cheape , that sees his SAVIOVR bleeding ? I may not afflict my selfe , yet I shall suspect my selfe without affliction ; calmes are no lesse dangerous than stormes . Some men doe not climbe , but vault into preferment at a leape ; I know not their sleight , I mistrust their quicknesse ; few men were ever great and good in an instant . All the harme I wish these , is , that their early rising do them no harme ; they that are their owne brokers in these , are likely their owne theeves in better ; and steale themselves out of heaven . Favours are more binding , but aflictions are more profitable ; to have much is more glorie , but to be content with that we have is more victory ; there is no conquest like that of our selves , no conquest of our selves like that of want ; it is a hard matter not to find poverty a burden , or prosperity a snare ; this religion obtains us , that if we are not richer than others , yet we are content to be poorer ; he only hath enough that would have no more . Our endevors are in vaine without God's blessing , yet in vaine shall he challenge a blessing that endevors not ; sloth is no lesse guiltie than coveteousnesse . I can doe nothing without God , yet I will not looke God shall doe all . The cause of all punishment is sinne ; and the end of all sinne is punishment . Either present or to come ; how then doe we love to be punished , and yet love to sinne ? if we could but be innocent , we could not but be safe ; while I am here I cannot but sinne , but I hope to avoid the punishment through Him who hath borne the punishment and the sinne . Our life is but a breath ; at first God breath'd upon man the breath of life , &c. And it is gone with a breath , if He breath upon us in displeasure we die , for at the breath of His nostrills wee are all consum'd : since we doe not live but by His leave , why doe we not live to His glorie ? Oh God , I have not liv'd long , yet so much of my life as I have not liv'd to thee , I have liv'd too much ; all I desire is , that as this life was thy gift to me , so it may be my gift to thee ; I I can afford God little , if not His owne . All punishments are from the same hand , Iobs boyles are no lesse Gods finger than Pharaohs ; but all are not with the same end ; those are but chastnings upon some , that are judgements upon others . God strikes His owne because He loves them , He strikes the wicked because they love not Him ; those Hee corrects but these He executes ; it is a signe Hee loves us when Hee strikes us , and if his strokes bring us to love him , wee may brag with David , it is good for us that we have beene afflicted . God is all eare and all eye , and all in all ; grant Lord , that as I am alwaies seene of thee , so I may be alwaies heard of thee : and may alwaies heare thee in thy Word , and contemplate thee in thy workes ; that I may one day see as I am seene , and heare and bee heard in that heavenly quire of Hallelujah's , Glorie , and power , and honour be unto the Lambe , and to Him that sitteth on the Throne , for evermore . Amen . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A03025-e180 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , similem .