Select Thoughts: OR, CHOICE HELPS FOR A Pious Spirit. A Century of Divine Breathe for a Ravished Soul, beholding the Excellencies of her Lord Jesus.  
By I: HALL., B. N.  
N B  
London, Printed for Nath: Brooke, at the Angel in Cornhill. 1654.   

TO THE Christian Reader Grace and Peace.  
IT pleased the Alwise and holy GOD, who order all events to his own glory, to make use of my late Secession for the producing of divers, not, I hope unprofitable Tractates; wherein I much rejoice that my declined Age, even in that retiredness, might be in any measure serviceable to his Church: Now, I send these Select Notions after their Fellows; of which, I wish you may find cause to say with the Wedding-guests at Cana, Thou hast reserved the best wine till now.  
The intent of this Labour is to put some good Thoughts (Reader) into thy mind, which would not otherwise, perhaps have tendered themselves to thee; such, as I hope may not a little further thee on thy journey to Heaven. And if in my Labouring thitherward, I shall, through God's mercy, be a means of forwarding any soul, but some steps up that steep way, how happy am I?  
To which purpose, I know no means more effectual, than those Meditations which conduce to the animation and vigour of Christian practice: Such I have propounded to myself, as most behooveful and necessary; especially for this Age, into which we are fallen; an Age of more brain than heart; and that hath almost lost Piety in the chase of some litigious Truths. And surely had I known how better to have placed my hours, I should gladly have changed my task: But, I must needs say, I have found this employment so useful, and proper, as that I have looked upon those Polemical Discourses which have been forced from me, as no better than mere Excursions. I wis, it will be long enough, ere we shall wrangle ourselves into Heaven: It must be true contrition, pure consciences, holy affections, heavenly dispositions, hearty devotions, sound Regeneration, Faith working by Love, an humble walking with GOD that shall help us thither; and whatsoever may tend to the advancing of any of these gracious Works in us, is worthy to be dear and precious.  
Such passages, Reader, if thou shalt, according to my hopes, meet with here, bless GOD with me, and improve them to the best advantage of thy Soul: Thus shall our gain be mutual, and our account happy in the day of the Lord Jesus: In whom farewell.  
From Higham, near Norwich. Febr. 7. 1647.   

Select Thoughts, One Century.  

I.  
IF miracles be ceased, yet marvails will never cease. There is no creature in the world, wherein we may not see enough to wonder at; for there is no worm of the earth, no spire of grass, no leaf, no twig, wherein we may not see the footsteps of a Deity: The best visible Creature is man; now, what man is he that can make but an hair, or a straw, much less any sensitive creature; so as no less than an infinite power is seen in every object that presents itself to our eyes; if therefore we look only upon the outsides of these bodily substances, and do not see God in every thing, we are no better then brutish; making use merely of our sense without the least improvement of our faith, or our reason: Contrary then to the opinion of those men, who hold that a wise man should admire nothing, I say, that a man truly wise and good should admire every thing, or rather that infiniteness of wisdom and omnipotence which shows itself in every visible object: Lord what a beast am I that I have suffered mine eyes to be taken up with shapes, and colours and quantities, and have not looked deeper at thee (with awful adoration, and wonder) in every parcel of thy great Creation: Henceforth let me see nothing but thee, and look at all visible things, but as the mere shadows of a glorious omnipotence.   

II.  
Our affections are then only safe and right, when they are deduced from God, and have their rise from Heaven; then only can I take comfort of my love, when I can love my wife, my child, my friend, myself, my pleasures, and whatsoever contentments in God; thus I may be sure not to offend either in the object, or measure; no man can in God love whom he should not, nor immoderately love whom he should: this holy respect doth both direct and limit him; and shuts up his delights in the conscience of a lawful fruition: the like must be said of our joy, and fear, and grief, and what ever other affection; for we cannot derive our joy from God, if we place it upon any sinful thing, or if we exceed in the measure of things allowed; we cannot fetch our fear from Heaven, if it be cowardly, and desperate, nor our grief, if it be merely worldly and heartless. And if our affections do begin from above, they will surely end there, closing up in that God, who is the Author and orderer of them; and such as our affections are, such will be the whole disposition of the soul, and the whole carriage of our actions: These are the feet of the soul, and which way the feet walk, the whole man goes; happy is the man that can be so far the master of himself, as to entertain no affections but such as he takes upon the rebound from Heaven.   

III.  
Whence is this delicate scent in this Rose, and Violet? It is not from the root, that smells of nothing; not from the stalk, that is as senseless as the root; not from the earth whence it grows, which contributes no more to these flowers, then to the grass that grows by them; not from the leaf, not from the bud before it be disclosed, which yields no more fragrance than the leaf, or stalk, or root; yet here I now find it; neither is it here by any miraculous way, but in an ordinary course of nature; for all Violets and Roses of this kind yield the same redolence; it cannot be, but that it was potentially in that root, and stem from which the flowers proceed, and there placed, and thence drawn by that Almighty power which hath given these admirable virtues to several plants, and educes them in his due seasons to these excellent perfections. It is the same hand that works spiritually in his elect; out of the soil of the renewed heart, watered with the dew of Heaven, and warmed with the beams of his Spirit, God can, and in his own season, doth bring forth those sweet odours of Grace, and holy dispositions, which are most pleasing to himself; and if those excellencies be so closely lodged in their bosoms, that they do not discover themselves at all times, it should be no more strange to us, then that this Rose and Violet are not to be found, but in their own months; it is enough that the same virtue is still in the root, though the flower be vanished.   

FOUR  
A man that looks at all things through the consideration of eternity, makes no more of a man, then of a flower; that lasts some days, he lasts some years; at their period, both fade: Now, what difference is there to be made betwixt days and years in the thoughts of an eternal duration? Herein therefore I have a great advantage of a carnal heart; such a one bounding his narrow conceits with the present condition, is ready to admire himself, and others, for what they have or are, and is therefore dejected upon every miscarriage: whereas I behold myself, or that man, in all his glory, as vanishing; only measuring every man's felicity by the hopes and interress which he hath in a blessed eternity.   

V.  
When I am dead and forgotten, the world will be as it is, the same successions and varieties of seasons, the same revolutions of Heaven, the same changes of Earth and Sea, the like occurrents of natural events, and humane affairs. It is not in my power to alter the course of things, or to prevent what must be: What should I do, but quietly take my part of the present, and humbly leave the care of the future to that alwise providence, which ordereth all things (even the most cross events) according to his most holy and just purposes?   

VI  
The Scripture is the Sun, the Church is the Clock, whose hand points us to, and whose sound tells us the hours of the day; the Sun we know to be sure, and regularly constant in his motion; the Clock as it may fall out, may go too fast, or too slow; we are wont to look at, and listen to the Clock to know the time of the day, but where we find the variation sensible, to believe the Sun against the Clock, not the Clock against the Sun. As then we would condemn him of much folly, that should profess to trust the Clock rather than the Sun; so we cannot but justly tax the miscredulity of those who will rather trust to the Church then to the Scripture.   

VII.  
What marvelous high respects hath God given to man above all his other visible Creatures! what an house hath he put him into! how gloriously arched, how richly pavemented! Wherefore serves all the furniture of Heaven and Earth, but for his use? What delicate provision hath that bountiful hand made for his palate, both of meats and liquors, by Land and Sea? What rich ornaments hath he laid up for him in his wardrobe of earth and waters? and wherefore serves the various music of Birds, but to please his ear? For, as for the brute Creatures, all harmony to them is but as silence. Wherefore serves the excellent variety of Flowers, surpassing Solomon in all his glory, but to please his eye? mere grass is more acceptable to Beasts. Yea, what Creature but he is capable to survey God's wonders in the deep? to contemplate the great fabric of the Heavens? to observe the glorious bodies, and regular motions of the Sun, Moon, Stars; and (which exceeds all conceivable mercies,) who but he is capable of that celestial Glory, which is within that beautiful contignation? to be a companion of the blessed Angels, yea to be a limb of the mystical Body of the eternal Son of God, and to partake with him of his everlasting and incomprehensible glory? Lord, what is man that thou art thus mindful of him? and how utterly unworthy are we even of common mercies, if we return not to our God, more advantage of glory, than those poor creatures that were made for us, and which cannot in nature be sensible of his favours?   

VIII.  
How plain is it that all sensitive things are ordered by an instinct from their Maker? He that gives them being, puts into them their several dispositions, inclinations, faculties, operations. If we look to Birds; the Mavis, the Blackbird, the Redbreast have throats tuneable to any note, as we daily see they may be taught strains utterly varying from their natural tones, yet they all naturally have the same songs and accents different from each other, and fully according to their own kind; so as every Mavis hath the same ditty with his fellows: If we mark the building of their nests, each kind observes its own fashion and materials, some clay, others moss, hair, sticks; yea if their very motions and restings, they are conform to their own feather, different from others. If to Beasts, they all untaught observe the fashions of their several kinds. Galen observes that when he was dissecting a She-goat big with young, a Kid then ready to be yeaned starts out, and walks up and down the room, and there being in the same place, set several vessels of oil, honey, water, milk, the new fallen Kid smells at them all, and refusing the rest falls to lapping of the milk; whereupon he justly infers, that nature stays not for a Teacher. Neither is it other in Flies, and all sorts of the meanest vermin, all Bees build alike, and order the Commonwealth of their hive in one manner; all Ants keep their own way in their housing, journeys, provisions; all Spiders do as perfectly and uniformly wove their web, as if they had been Apprentices to the trade, the same instincts are seen also in the rational Creatures, although in most cases overruled by their higher faculties.  
What an infinite providence than is this we live under, that hath distributed to every creature, as a several form, so several inclinations, qualities, motions, proper to to their own kind, and different from other; and keeps them in this constant uniformity, and variety, for the delight and contentment of man! O God, that I could be capable of enough wondering at thy great works! that I could be enough humbled under the sense of my own incapacity, that I could give thee so much more glory, as I find more vileness in myself.   

IX.  
When I saw my precious watch (now through an unhappy fall grown irregular) taken asunder, and lying scattered upon the workman's shopboard; so as here lay a wheel, there the balance, here one gimmer, there another, strait my ignorance was ready to think, when and how will all these ever piece together again in their former order? But when the skilful Artisan had taken it a while in hand, and curiously pined the joints, it now began to return to its wont shape, and constant motion, as if it had never been disordered: How could I choose but see in this, the just emblem of a distempered Church and State? wherein if all seem disjointed, and every wheel laid aside by itself, so as an unknowing beholder would despair of a redress, yet if it shall please the great Artist of Heaven to put his hand unto it, how soon might it return to an happy resetlement? Even so, blessed Lord, for thy great mercy's sake make up the breaches of thy Zion, & repair the ruins of thy Jerusalem   

X  
We are, and we are not, all one man's children: Our bodies once met in one root, but our minds and dispositions do so differ, as if we had never been of kin: one man is so gentle and plausible that he would fain please all; another is so churlish and dogged that he cares not whom he displeases, and hardly can be well pleased with himself: One so sparing and pinching that he grudges himself necessaries, another so vainly lavish, that he cares not how he squanders his estate: one is tenderly pitiful, another mercilessly cruel; one religiously devout, another wildly profane; one cowardly fearful, another desperately courageous: one jovially cheerful and lightsome, another sad and dumpish, even to stupidity: one petulant and wanton, another austerely continent; one humble and low-conceited of rich endowments, another swollen big with a little. He did never read men to purpose that is too much troubled with the harsh and unpleasing contrariety of humours, which he meets with in the world; and he shall be too unthankful to God, that finding himself better composed than others, knows not whither to ascribe it; and too neglective of himself, that finding his own distempered, labours not to rectify it.   

XI.  
Nature, Law, and Grace divide all the Ages of the world; now as it is in man (who is a lesser world) that in every day there is a resemblance of his whole life; the morning is his childhood, the midday his youth, the evening his old age; so is it in this greater World; the dim break of day was the state of nature, and this was the nonage of the world, wherein the light of knowledge, both of humane and divine things was but weak and obscure. The Sun was risen higher in the state of the Law, but yet not without thick mists and shadows, till the high-noon of that true Sun of Righteousness, who personally shone forth to the world; upon whose vertical point began the age of Grace, that still continues, which is the clear afternoon, and full vigour of the World, though now in its sensible declination: after this, there shall be no time, but eternity. These than are they, which both the Prophets and Apostles have styled the last days; not only in respect of the times that went before them, but in regard that no time shall follow them: neither have we reason to bogle at the large latitude of sixteen hundred years; there was neither of the two other periods of age, but were longer than this: Besides, how ever, childhood and youth have their fixed terms which they ordinarily pass not, yet the duration of old age is indefinite: We have in our youth known some gray-heads that have continued vigorous, till we have lived to match them in the colour of their livery.  
And if this be (as it is) the Evening of the World, do we not see much difference of time in the shutting in of the Light? A Summer's Evening, is a Winter's day; but if these were to the Apostles the last days, how can they be other then in the last hour, yea, the last minute unto us?  
Why do we not put ourselves into a constant expectation of the end of all things, and set ourselves in a meet posture for the receipt of our returning Saviour?   

XII.  
It is a feeling and experimental expression that the Apostle gives of a Christian, 
2 Cor. 4. 18.  That he looks not on the things which are seen; not that his eyes are so dim as old isaac's, that he cannot discern them, or that his inward senses are so stupefied, that he cannot judge of their true value: but that, taking an exact view of these earthly things, he descries so much vanity in them, as that he finds them not worthy to be looked at with the full bend of his desires; like as it is not the mere sight of a strange beauty that is forbidden (for a man may as well look upon a fair face, as upon a good picture) but a settled and fixed aspect, that feeds the eye, and draws the heart to a sinful concupiscence: Thus doth not the Christian look upon the things that are seen, as making them the full scope, and aim of his desires and affections: So far he takes notice of them, as to make his best (that is, lawful and moderate) use of them; not so, as to make them the chief object of his contemplation, the main drift of his cares. It is well observed by S. Basil, that as there are two contrary ways, the broad, and the narrow; so there are two guides, as contrary, Sense and Faith: Sense presents to us the pleasing delights of this world, on the one side; on the other, the present afflictions and persecutions that attend a good profession: Faith lays before us the glorious things of a future life, and the endless miseries and torments abiding for sinful souls in the world to come: Now, it is not for every one to deny all credit to his sense, alluring him with all present, and visible pleasures, and discouraging him with the terror & pain of present and visible afflictions, and to yield himself hoodwinked, to be led by Faith, forepromising only better things afar off, and foreadmonishing him of dangers, future and invisible. Faith only is that heroical virtue, which makes a man with an holy contempt to overlook all the pleasing baits of the world, and with a brave courage and fortitude to despise all the menaces, and painful inflictions of his present fury: This works our eyes, not to look upon the things which we cannot but see, the present shows of the world, whether alluring, or terrifying: Had Lot but looked back on Sodom; the pleasant plain of Sodom, that lay like the Garden of God behind his back, he had never escaped into the mountain: Had the glorious Protomartyr fixed his eyes only upon his persecutors, his heart could not but have failed, to see the fire in their faces, the sparkling of their eyes, the grinding of their teeth, the bending of their brows, the stopping of their ears, their furious running upon him, their violent halings and draggings; and lastly, a whole volley of stones discharged mortally upon him; he had been utterly daunted with such an impetuosity of death: But he, as not seeing any of this pomp, and ostentation of horror, looks up steadfastly to Heaven, and there sees (that which might well make him blind to all other visible objects) the Heaven's open, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; and upon this sight, he shut up his eyes, and slept. The true Christian then, hath with holy Job, made a covenant with his eyes, not to look upon, either the cruel insolences of the raging world with fear and dejectedness, or on the tempting vanities of the world with amorous glances; but with a sober and constant resolution entertains the objects of both kinds. Very justly did Tertullian jeer that Heathen Philosopher, who pulled out his eyes to avoid concupiscence; and can tell him, that a Christian can hold his eyes, and yet behold Beauty unbewitched; and can be at once open-eyed to nature, and blind to lust: and what the Apostle said of the Use, he can practise of the sight of the world, and earthly objects; he can so behold them, as if he beheld them not. How oft have we, in a deep study fixed our eyes upon that, which we, the while thought not upon, neither perceived that we saw? So doth the Christian to these worldly glories, pleasures, profits, whiles his mind and affections are on the things above, 
Colos. 3. 1, 2.  where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. There, Lord, let me behold those things which cannot yet be seen, but shall, once, in the sight of them make me blessed: And let me not look on the things that are seen; for the things that are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen, are eternal.   

XIII.  
There is not more strangeness then significance in that charge of the Apostle, That we should put on the Lord Jesus Christ. 
Rom. 13. 14.  The soul is (as it were) a body; 
Gal. 3. 27.  not really and properly so, according to the gross error of Tertullian; but by way of allusion: This body of the soul, then, may not be naked, but must be clad; as our first parents were ashamed of their bodily nakedness, (and so still are all their (not savage) posterity,) so may we of our spiritual. Every sinner is naked; those rags that he hath, are so far from hiding his nakedness, that they are part of it; his fairest moralities are but glittering sins, and his sins are his nakedness: 
Exod. 32. 25.  Aaron had made Israel naked to their shame; not so much in that they were stripped of their earings, as that they were enwrapped in the sin of idolatry. No marvel if we run away, and hide us from the presence of God, as our first parents did, whiles we are guilty to ourselves of our Spiritual deformity: As than we are bodily naked, when we come into the world, so we are spiritually naked whiles we are of the world; neither can it be either safe, or comely for us, till we be covered: There is no clothing can fit the soul but the Lord Jesus Christ; all other robes in the wardrobe of Earth, or Heaven, are too short, too strait; like those which the scorn of Hanun put upon David's messengers, reaching but to the hams; for though the soul of man be finite, the sin of the soul is scarce so; and that sin must be covered, else there can be no safety for the soul, according to that of the Psalmist: 
Psal. 32. 1.  Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered: None therefore but the robes of an infinite Righteousness, can cover the soul so woefully dressed; none therefore but the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God blessed for ever, can cover the soul, that it may not appear unrighteous; or can cleanse the soul that it may not be unrighteous; and cleansed it must be, ere the Lord Jesus can be put on: We shall wrong his perfect holiness, if we think we can slip him on, as a case, over our beastly rags: It is with us, as with Joshua the high Priest; 
Zech. 3. 4.  The filthy garments must first be taken off, and then the Lord shall say unto us: Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will cloth thee with change of raiment.  
We put on a garment when we apply it all over to our body; so as that part which is clothed, appears not, but is defended from the air, and from the eye: if we have truly put on the Lord Jesus, nothing of ours is seen, but Christ is all in all, to us; although this application goes yet deeper; for we so put him on, that we not only put ourselves into him, but also put him into ourselves, by a mutual kind of Spiritual incorporation.  
We put him on then, upon our Intellectual parts, by knowing him, by believing on him. (This is eternal life to know thee, and whom thou hast sent, saith our Saviour;) and for Faith, no grace doth so sensibly apprehend him, and make him so feelingly ours.  
We put him on upon our wills, and affections, when we take pleasure in him, when we love him, delight in him, and prefer him to our chiefest joy.  
Thus do we put him on; as our Lord, in our humble and dutiful subjection; as our Jesus, in our faithful affiance; as Christ, the anointed of God, to be our King, in all holy obedience; our Priest, in our willing consecration to him; our Prophet, in our cheerful readiness to be instructed by him: How happy are we, if we be thus decked; we prank up these poor carcases of ours gaily, with no small expense; and when we have done, the stuff, or the fashion, or both, wears out to nothing: But, here is a garment that will never be out of fashion; Jesus Christ yesterday, and to day, and the same for ever; yea, the same to us: here, we put him on in Grace, there, in eternal Glory.  
The Israelites were forty years in the wilderness, 
Deut. 16.  yet their shoes not worn, their apparel not impaired; but this attire shall not only hold good in the time of our wand'ring in this desert, but after we are come into the Canaan of glory, and is best at last. Wherefore do we put on our choicest attire on some high days, but to testify the cheerfulness of our hearts: 
Eccles. 9 7, 8.  Let thy garment be white, saith the Preacher, for now God accepteth thy works: Mephibosheth changed not his raiment since David went out, as one that would have the sorrow of his heart seen in the neglect of his clothes; although many a one under a gay coat hath an heavy heart, but this attire doth not only testify, but make cheerfulness in the soul; Thou hast given me more joy of heart, 
Psal. 4. 7.  than they had in the time that their corn and their wine increased; and, In thy presence is the fullness of joy; what can this apparel of ours do but keep us from a blast, or a shower? it is so far from safeguarding the soul, that it many times wounds it, and that to the death. It was one of the main quarrels against the rich glutton, that he was every day clothed in purple, and byss: How many souls shall once wish that their bodies had been ever either naked, 
Luk. 16. 19  or clad with haircloth? But this array, as it is infinitely rich and beautiful, so it is as surely defensative of the soul; and is no less than armour of proof against all assaults, 
Ephes. 6.  all miseries.  
What a deal of cost and pains do we bestow upon these wretched bodies of ours, only to make them pleasing and lovely to the eye of some beholders, as miserable, perhaps, as ourselves; and yet when we have all done, we are (it may be) no better then hard-favord, and unhandsome creatures, and contemptible in those eyes from whom we desired most approbation; Jezebel, for all her licking, is cast out of the window, and trodden to dirt in the streets: But this robe we can not wear, and not be amiable in the eyes of the holiest: 
Cant. 1. 15.  Behold thou art fair, my beloved; behold thou art fair, and there is no spot in thee: Lo, in this case, the apparel makes the man; neither is it in the power of any spiritual deformity, to make us other then lovely, in the sight of our God, whiles we have Christ put on upon us. What ever therefore become of the outward man, let it be my care that my soul be vested with my Lord Jesus; so shall I be sure, to be safe, rich, amiable here, and hereafter glorious.  
It was part of our Saviour's charge upon the mount, Take no care what to put on; but it must be the main care of our lives, how to put on Christ upon our souls: This is the prime stole wherewith the father of the Prodigal, graceth his returned son; the heaven of heavens is not worth such another; when I have once got this on my back, I shall say, though in a contrary sense, with the Spouse in the Canticles: 
Cant. 5. 3.  I have put on my coat, how shall I put it off? I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them?   

XIIII.  
With how devout passion doth the Psalmist call to all the works of the Almighty to praise him; as well supposing, that every creature (even those that have no tongues to speak for themselves) yet have a tongue to praise their Maker; 
Psal. 19 1.  The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handy work; Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge: There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard; neither is the very earth defective in this duty: Every plant says, look on me, and acknowledge, the life, colour, form, smell, fruit, force that I have from the power of my Creator: every worm and fly says, look on me, and give God the praise of my living, sense, and motion: every bird says; hear me, and praise that God who hath given me these various feathers, and taught me these several notes: every beast, whiles he bellows, bleats, brays, barks, roars, says, It is God that hath given me this shape, this sound; yea the very mute fishes, are in their very silence, vocal, in magnifying the infinite wisdom and power of him that made them, and placed them in those watery habitations; Let every thing that hath breath saith the Psalmist, 
Psa. ult. ult.  praise the Lord. Yea the very winds whistle, and the sea roars out the praise of the Almighty, who both raises, and allays them at pleasure; what a shame were it for man, to whom alone God hath given an understanding heart, a nimble tongue, and articulate language, wherein he can express his rational thoughts, to be wanting to this so universal devotion? and to be as insensible of the great works of God, as the ground that he treads upon? If others shall be thus unthankfully dumb, Yet praise thou the Lord, 
Psal. 103. 1. 2.  O my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy name; 
Psa. 146. 1, 2.  whiles I live will I praise the Lord; I will sing praises to my God whilst I have any being. But alas Lord thou knowest, I cannot so much as will to praise thee, without thee; do thou fill my heart with holy desires, and my mouth with songs of thanksgiving.   

XV.  
It may seem a strange errand upon which our Saviour tells us he came into the world; 
Luk. 12. 49.  I am come to send fire on the earth: When the two fervent Disciples would have had fire sent down from Heaven upon but a Samaritan Village, our Saviour rebuked them, and told them they knew not of what spirit they were; yet here, he makes it his own business, to send fire on the earth: Alas (may we think) we have fire too much already; how happy were it rather, if the fire which is kindled in the world, were well quenched; and what is the main drift of the Prince of darkness but fire? If not to send fire down from Heaven, upon the inhabitants of the earth; yet, to send the inhabitants of the earth down to the fire of hell? As than we find divers kinds of material fire, Celestial, Elementary, Domestic, Artificial, Natural; so there is no less variety of spiritual fires: It was in fiery, cloven, tongues, wherein the Holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles, 
Acts 2.  in their Pentecost; 
Joh. 16. 7.  and even this fire did our Saviour come to send down on the earth: Thy word was in me as fire, 
Jer. 5. 14.  saith the Prophet; and did not our hearts burn within us (said the two Disciples, 
Luk. 23. 32.  in their walk to Emaus) whiles he talked with us; This fire he also came to send: Heavenly Love, and holy Zeal are fire; 
Cant. 8 7.  Many waters cannot quench love. My zeal hath consumed me, 
Psal. 119. 139.  saith the Psalmist: and these fires our Saviour came to send into the hearts of men; holy thoughts are no other than the beams of celestial fire, 
Psal. 39 4.  My heart was hot within me; whiles I was musing, the fire burned, and these, we know he sends: 
Psal. 104. 4.  He maketh his Angel's spirits, 
Heb. 1. 7.  and his ministers a flame of fire: These he sends forth to the earth to minister for them that shall be heirs of of salvation: 
Heb. 1. 14.  Besides these, afflictions and persecutions are fire: We have passed through fire and water: 
1 Pet. 4. 12.  Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you, as if some strange thing had happened to you: and even these are of his sending; 
Lament. 4. 11.  The Lord hath kindled a fire in Zion, and it hath devoured the foundations thereof. There is no evil in the city, but the Lord hath done it: The Lord hath done that which he had devised, 
Lam. 2. 17.  he hath thrown down, and not pitied.  
But this expression of our Saviour goes yet deeper, and alludes to the effect of Separation, which follows upon the fire of our trial: When the lump of Oar is put into the furnace, the fire tries the pure metal from the dross, and makes an actual division of the one from the other; so doth Christ by his Word, and Spirit; even he that is the Prince and God of Peace, comes to set division in the world. Surely, there are holy quarrels worthy of his engagement; for, as the flesh lusteth and warreth against the spirit, so the spirit fighteth against the flesh; and this duel may well beseem God for the Author, and the Son of God for the setter of it: these second blows make an happy fray.  
Nothing is more properly compared then discord to fire; this, 
Judges 9 20.  Christ (the first thing he does) sets in every heart: there is all quietness, secure ease, and self-contentment in the soul, till Christ come there: How should it be other, when Satan sways all without resistance? but when once Christ offers to enter, there are strait civil wars in the soul betwixt the old man, and the new; and it fares with the heart, as with an house divided in itself, wherein the husband and the wife are at variance; nothing is to be heard, but unquiet janglings, open brawlings, secret opposition; the household takes part, and professes a mutual vexation: This Spiritual self-division, where ever it is, though it be troublesome, yet it is cordial; it puts the soul into the state of Rebecca●s womb; which barren, yielded no pain; but when an Esau and Jacob were conceived, and struggling within, yielded for the time, no ease; yet this was that which caused her just joy, That she had not so much children, as nations in her womb; even so the trouble of this inward conflict is abundantly requited with the joy of this assurance, That now Christ is come into our soul, and is working his own desired ends, in, and upon us. Let vain and sensual hearts please themselves in their inward peace and calmness; there cannot be a greater sign of gracelesness and disfavor of God; When they shall say Peace, Peace, then shall come upon them sudden destruction: The old word was, No safety in War; here it is contrary, It is this intestine war of the heart, with fire and sword to our corruptions, that must bring us true rest for the present, and hereafter eternal peace and happiness. Now, Lord, since it is thy desire that this fire should be kindled, kindle thou and inflame my heart with a fervent desire, and endeavour that this thy desire may be accomplished in me: Set me at war with myself, that I may be at peace with thee.   

XVI.  
In all that we have to do with God, he justly requires and expects from us, an awful disposition of heart towards his infiniteness; hereupon it was that he delivered his Law in thunder, fire, smoke, and all dreadful magnificence; And when upon the same day, he would send down his Spirit, for the propagation of the Gospel, it was done with an astonishing Majesty; with a sound from Heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and with the apparition of cloven and fiery tongues: 
Acts 2. 2, 12.  And as it was thus in the descent of the Holy Ghost in the miraculous gifts; so it is in the sanctifying Graces: Seldom ever doth God by them seize upon the heart, but with a vehement concussion going before: That of St Paul's conversion, was extraordinary and miraculous, but in some degree it is thus, in every soul; We are struck down first, and are made sensible of our spiritual blindness, ere our full call be accomplished; as it was with Elijah in the Mount of Horeb, There came first a strong wind, that tore the Rocks, and Mountains, and after that, an earthquake, than a fire, before the still small voice; so it is usually in our breasts, ere the comfortable voice of God's Spirit speak to our hearts, there must be some blustrings, and flashes of the Law: It is our honour, and his favour, that we are allowed to love God; it is our duty to fear him: We may be too familiar in our love, we cannot be too awful in our fear.   

XVII.  
All valuations of these outward things are arbitrary, according to the opinion of their pleasure, or their rarity, or the necessity of their use: Did not men's minds set a price upon metals, what were they better than some other entrails of the earth, or one better than other? If by public law the mint were ordained to be only supplied by our stanneries, how currently would they pass for more precious than silver mines? To an Indian, a bracelet of worthless Beads is estimated above his Gold; an hungry Esau values a mess of pottage above his birthright: In the siege of Samaria an Ass' head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver; and a Kab of Doves dung for five pieces: 
2 Kings 6. 25.  We have heard that those of Angola have valued a Dog at the price of many slaves. In all these earthly commodities, the market rises, and falls according to conceit, and occasion; neither is there any intrinsical, and settled worth in any of them; only Spiritual things, as Virtue and Grace are good in themselves; and so carry their infinite value in them, that they make their owner absolutely rich, and happy: When therefore I see a rich man hugging his bags, and admiring his wealth, I look upon that man with pity, as knowing the poorness of that pelf wherein he placeth his felicity; neither can I behold him with other eyes, than those, wherewith, a discreet European sees a savage Indian priding himself in those trifles, which our children have learned to contemn: On the other side when I see a man rich in the endowments of mind, well-fraught with knowledge, eminent in goodness, and truly gracious, I shall rise up to that man (how homely so ever his outside be) as the most precious and excellent piece which this world can afford.   

XVIII.  
Should I but see an Angel, I should look (with Manoah) to die no other death than the sight of that glory; and yet even that Angel is fain to hide his face, as not able to behold the infinite Majesty of God his Creator: When Moses did but talk with God in the Mount, for forty days, his face did so shine, that the Israelites could not look upon the lustre of his countenance, even the very presence of the Divine Majesty not only hath, but communicates glory: Lord, that I could see but some glimpse of the reflection of those glorious beams of thine upon my soul; how happy should I be in this vision, whose next degree is perfectly beatifical.   

XIX.  
As good, so evil is apt to be communicative of itself; and this so much more, as it meets with subjects more capable of evil then good; the breath of a plague-sick man taints the air round about him; yea, the very sight of blear eyes infects the sound; and one yawning mouth stretcheth many jaws: How many have we known, that have been innocent in their retiredness, miserably debauched with lewd conversation? Next to being good, is, to consort with the virtuous; It is the most merciful improvement of an holy power to separate the precious from the vile; it is the highest praise of a constant goodness, for a Lot to be righteous in the midst of Sodom.   

XX.  
We are all apt to put off the blame of our miscarriages from ourselves: Even in paradise we did so: It was the woman, saith Adam, it was the Serpent, saith the woman: How have we heard fond gamesters cast the blame of their ill luck upon the standers by, which intermeddled nothing but by a silent eyesight: So the idolatrous Pagans of old, though flagitiously wicked, yet could impute their public judgements to none but the Christians, whose only innocence was their protection from utter ruin; So foolishly partial doth our self-love render us to our own demerits, that all are guilty save ourselves: Yea, rather than we will want shifts, our very stars shall be blamed; which are no more accessary to our harms, than our eyes are to the Eclipses of their most eminent Lights. As on the contrary, we are ready to arrogate unto ourselves those blessings, which the mere bounty of Divine Providence hath cast upon us; whereto we could not contribute so much as an hand to receive them, but by the mercy of the giver: It cannot be well with me, till I have learned to correct this palpable injustice in both; challenging to myself all my errors, and guilt of sufferings, and yielding to God the praise his own free and gracious beneficence.   

XXI.  
How profitable and beneficial a thing is affliction; especially to some dispositions more than other: I see some trees that will not thrive, unless their roots be laid bare; unless (besides pruning) their bodies be gashed and sliced; others, that are too luxuriant, except divers of their blossoms be seasonably pulled off, yield nothing: I see too rank corn, if it be not timely eaten down, may yield something to the barn, but little to the granary: I see some full bodies, that can enjoy no health without strong evacuations, bloodletting, fontinells; such is the condition of our spiritual part: It is a rare soul that can be kept in any constant order without these smarting remedies; I confess mine cannot: How wild had I run, if the rod had not been over me? Every man can say he thanks God for ease; for me, I bless God for my troubles.   

XXII.  
When I consider what an insensible Atom man is, in comparison of the whole body of the Earth; and what a mere Center-point the Earth is, in comparison of the vast circumference of Heaven; and what an almost-infinite distance there is betwixt this point of Earth, and that large circle of the Firmament; and therewithal think of the innumerable number, and immense greatness of those heavenly Luminaries: I cannot but apprehend how improbable it is, that those Stars should, at such a distance, distinguish betwixt one man, and another; betwixt one limb of the same body, and another; betwixt one spot of Earth, and another; and in so great a mixture, and confusion of influences, should give any distinct intimation of particular events in nature; and much more of mere contingencies of arbitrary affairs. As for the Moon, by reason of her vicinity to the Earth, and sensible predominance over moisture; and for the Sun, the great magazine of Light and Heat, I acknowledge their powerful (but unpartial) operations upon this whole globe of Earth and Waters, and every part of it, not without just wonder and astonishment; the other Stars may have their several virtues and effects, but their marvellous remoteness, and my undiscernible nothingness, may seem to forbid any certain intelligence of their distinct workings upon me: But whether these glorious Lights give, or take any notice of such an imperceptible mite as I; sure I am, there is great reason I should take notice of them; of their beauteous lustre, of their wonderful magnitude, of their regular motion; and be transported with admiration of that omnipotent power, wisdom, providence, which created this goodly and mighty host of Heaven, and guides them in their constant march, without the least deviation from their first setting out, to the last moment of their final conflagration. O the narrowness of my wretched heart, that affords not room enough for wonder at that which I cannot but see!   

XXIII.  
It becomes not us to be niggardly where our Saviour intends bounty: How glad should we be rather to ampliate the benefit of the great Work of our Redeemer? but surely, I cannot see upon what warrant that favour is grounded, that enlargeth the fruit of Christ's redemption, to the Angels: the good needed it not, the evil were not capable of it; only mankind was captived, and redeemable by that invaluable ransom.  
Doubtless those blessed Spirits have their part in the joy and gratulation of the infinite mercy of our deliverance; for if they rejoice at the conversion of one sinner, what triumph do we think there is in Heaven at the Universal Redemption of all believers? The propriety of this favour hath reason to engage us so much the more: Lord, thy mercy is free, and boundless; thou wouldst pass by the lapsed Angels, and leave them in their sin, and their chains; and only rescue miserable man out of their Hell. O for an heart that might be in some measure answerable to so infinite mercy; and that might be no less captived to thy love, than it is freed by thy Redemption.   

XXIIII.  
Men do commonly wrong themselves with a groundless expectation of good; forepromising to themselves all fair terms in their proceedings, and all happy success in the issue; boding nothing to themselves but what they wish; even the man after Gods own heart could say, In my prosperity I said, 
Psal. 30. 6.  tush, I shall never be removed; wherein their misreckoning makes their disappointment so much the more grievous: Had not David made such account of the strength and stability of his Mountain, it could not have so much troubled him to have it levelled with the Plain; on the contrary, the evils which we look for, fall so much the less heavily, by how much we are fore-prepared for their entertainment; what ever by-accidents I may meet withal besides, I have two fixed matches that I must inevitably encounter with, Age, and Death; the one is attended with many inconveniences, the other with much horror: let me not flatter myself with hopes of jollity, and ease. My comforts for Heaven shall (I trust) never fail me; but for the present world, it shall be well for me, if I can without too much difficulty scramble out of the necessary miseries of life; and without too much sorrow crawl to my grave.   

XXV.  
Heaven hath many tongues that talk of it, more eyes to behold it, but few hearts that rightly affect it: Ask any Christian (especially) whom ye shall meet with; he will tell you, thither he shapes his course; there he hath pitched his hopes, and would think himself highly wronged by that man, who should make doubt of either his interest or speed: But, if we shall cast our eyes upon the lives of men, or they reflect their eyes upon their own bosoms, the hypocrisy will too palpably discover itself: for surely, which way so ever the faces look, the hands and feet of the most men move hellward: If malice, fraud, cruelty, oppression, injustice, excess, uncleanness, pride, contention, covetousness, lies, heresies, blasphemies, disobedience be the way thither, woe is me, how many walk in that wide and open road to destruction? but even there where the heart pretends to innocence, let a man strictly examine his own affections, he shall find them so deeply earthed, that he shall be forced to confess his claim to Heaven is but fashionable: Ask thyself but this one question, O man, whatsoever thou art, ask it seriously; Might I this very hour go to Heaven, am I willing and desirous to make a present change of this life for a better? and tell me sincerely, what answer thou receivest from thine own heart. Thy judgement cannot but tell thee that the place is a thousand times better; that the condition would be infinitely advantageous, to exchange baseness for glory, misery for blessedness, time for eternity, a living death, for a life immortal: If thou do now fumble, and shuffle, and demur upon the resolution, be convinced of thine own worldliness, and infidelity; and know, that if thy heart had as much of Heaven as thy tongue, thou couldst not but say with the chosen vessel, 
Phil. 1. 23.  I desire to depart hence, and to be with Christ, which is far better.   

XXVI.  
There is no earthly pleasure whereof we shall not soon grow weary; and be as willing to intermit, as ever we were to entertain it; and if the use of it continue, the very frequency makes it disregarded; so as that which at first we esteemed rare and precious, is now looked upon as common and despicable; and if it be such, as that our impetuous affection is too much transported with a present fruition, we are so much the more distempered in the loss: on the contrary, those painful yokes, which at the first imposing seemed insupportable, grow tolerable by custom and long acquaintance; so as I know not how it comes to pass, that time hath a contrary power, both to aggravate, and lighten evils: those pleasures are only worthy to carry our hearts, which are measured by no less than eternity; and those pains most justly formidable which know neither end, nor remission.   

XXVII.  
The nearer our Saviour drew to his glory, the more humility he expressed: His followers, 
Joh. 13. 16.  were first his servants, 
Joh. 15. 8.  and he their Master; 
Joh. 15. 14.  then his disciples and he their Teacher; soon after they were his friends, and he theirs; straightways after his resurrection, and entrance into an immortal condition, they were his brethren; 
Joh. 20. 17.  Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend to my Father, and your Father. Lastly, they are incorporated into him, and made partakers of his glory, 
Joh. 17. 21, 22, 23.  That they also may be one with us, saith he, I in them, and thou in me: that they may be made perfect in one; and the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them. O Saviour, was this done for the depressing of thyself, or for the exaltation of us; or rather for both? how couldst thou more depress thyself, than thus to match thyself with us poor wretched creatures? how couldst thou more exalt us, then to raise us unto this entireness with thee the All-glorious, and eternal Son of God? how should we learn of thee to improve our highest advancement to our deepest humility, and so to regard each other, that when we are greatest, we should be least?   

XXVIII.  
How apt we are to misconstrue the Spirit of God, to our own disadvantage? whiles the blessed Apostle bids us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling; he doth not bid us to work it out with doubt and distrust: It is the Psalmists charge, 
Psal. 2.  that we should serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice in him with trembling; so as there is a fear without diffidence, and a trembling that may consist with joy; trembling is an effect of fear, but this fear which we must affect is reverential, not slavish, not distrustful: Indeed, when we look upon ourselves, and consider our own frailties and corruptions, and Gods infinite justice, we have too just cause of doubt and dejection, yea (were it not for better helps) of utter despair; but when we cast up our eyes to the power of him that hath undertaken for us, and the faithfulness of him that hath promised; and the sure mercies of him that hath begun his good work in us, we can fear with confidence, and rejoice in our trembling: For what are our sins to his mercies, our unworthiness to his infinite merits, our weaknesses to his omnipotence! I will therefore so distrust myself, that I will be steadfastly confident in the God of my salvation; I will so tremble before the glorious Majesty of my God, that I may not abate of the joy of his neverfailing mercy.   

XXIX.  
What a large and open hand hath our God? how infinitely doth his bounty transcend not the practice only, but the admiration of man? We think it well if upon often ask we can receive small favours: if after long delay, we can be gratified with a condescent; and if we have received one courtesy, that is a bar to a second; whereas our munificent God gives us not only what we ask, but what we ask not; and therefore before we ask: yea, it is he that gives us to ask, neither could we so much as crave good things, if he did not put into us those holy desires; yea, he not only gives us blessings, before we ask; but he gives us the best things, a right to eternal glory, before we are at all, yea, before the world was; and as he prevents us in time, so he exceeds our thoughts in measure, giving us more than we ask: Rachel would have a Son; God gives her two: Abraham sues that Ishmael may live; God gives him to prosper and to be the father of many Princes: Yet more, he gives us what we cannot ask. The dumb Demoniac could not sue for himself; his very silence was vocal, and receives what he would, and could not request: yea last, which is the great improvement of his mercy, he gives us against our ask; our ignorance sues against our selves, requiring hurtful things, he will not suffer our hearts and tongues to wrong us; but withholds what we unfitly crave, and gives us what we should, and do not crave; as the fond child cries to his father for a knife; he reaches him a spoon that may feed, and not hurt him. O the Ocean of divine bounty, boundless, bottomless; O our wretched unworthiness, if we be either niggardly to ourselves in not ask blessings, or unthankful to our God in not acknowledging them!   

XXX.  
Infidelity and faith look both through the same perspective glass, but at contrary ends: Infidelity looks through the wrong end of the glass, and therefore sees those objects which are near, a far off; and makes great things little; diminishing the greatest spiritual blessings; and removing far from us, threatened evils: Faith looks at the right end, and brings the blessings that are far off in time, close to our eye; and multiplies God's mercies which in a distance lost their greatness: Thus the Father of the faithful saw his seed possessed of the promised land, when as yet he had no seed, nor was likely to have any; when the seed which he should have, should not enjoy it till after four hundred years; thus that good Patriarch saw Christ's day, and rejoiced: Thus our first parent comforted himself after his ejection out of paradise, with the foresight of that blessed seed of the woman, which should be exhibited almost four thousand years after: still, and ever faith is like itself; what use were there of that grace, if it did not fetch home to my eye things future, and invisible?  
That this dissolved body shall be raised out of the dust, and enlived with this very soul wherewith it is now animated; and both of them put into a condition eternally glorious, is as clearly represented to my soul in this glass, as if it were already done. Faithful is he that hath promised, which will also do it.   

XXXI.  
Who can think other then with scorn of that base and unworthy conceit which hath been entertained by some, that our Saviour lived here on earth upon alms? He that vouchsafed to take upon him the shape of a servant, would have hated to take upon him the trade of a beggar: Service is a lawful calling; beggary not so: he that gave life to all creatures, could take a maintenance from them without ask: he that did command the fish to bring the tribute money for himself and his disciples, and could multiply a few loaves and fishes for the relief of thousands; could rather raise a sustenance to himself, and his, then beg it: But here was neither need, nor cause; even ordinary means failed not; many wealthy followers, who had received cures and miraculous deliverances (besides heavenly doctrine) from him, 
Luk. 8. 2.  ministered to him of their substance: neither was this out of charity, but out of duty; in the charge which he gave to his disciples (when he sent them by payrs to preach abroad) he tells them the labourer is worthy of his wages; and can we think this rule doth not much more hold concerning himself? had not himself and his family been furnished with a meet stock raised from hence; what purse was it which Judas bore? and how could he be a thief in his office, if his bags were empty? He therefore that could say, It is a more blessed thing to give, then to receive; certainly would not choose (when it was in his power) rather to receive then give: The earth is the Lords, and the fullness thereof; and he distributes it as he pleaseth, amongst the children of men: For me, I hope I shall have the grace to be content with whatsoever share shall fall to my lot; but my prayer shall be that I may beg of none but God.   

XXXII.  
What a madness it is in us to presume, on our interest in God's favour, for the securing of our sinfulness from judgement? The Angels were deeper in it then we mortals can ever hope to be, in these houses of clay; yet long since are ugly Devils; and they which enjoyed the liberty of the glorious Heavens, are now reserved in everlasting chains of darkness; And if we look down upon earth, what darling had God in the world but Israel? This was his first born, his lot, his inheritance; of whom he said, Here I have a delight to dwell. And now, where is it? O the woeful desolations of that select people! What is it to tell of the suffossion of her vineyards? 
Psa. 80. 13.  vastation of her tents? 
Jer. 4. 20.  the devouring of her land? 
Esa. 1. 7.  demolition of walls? 
Psa. 89. 40.  breaking down Altars? 
Esa. 27. 11.  burning of Cities? 
Esa. 13. 16.  spoiling of houses? dashing in pieces their children, ravishing their wives, 
Psa. 78. 84.  killing of their Priests, eating of their own children of but a span long, 
Lam. 2. 26.  and a thousand such woeful symptoms of war: the Psalmist hath said a word for all (in a just, but contrary sense) Destructions are come to a perpetual end; what destruction can be more, when there is no Israel? How is that wretched nation vanished no man knows whither! so as it was Jezebels curse that nothing was left, whereof it could be said, this was Jezebel, So there is not one piece of a man left in all the world, of whom we can say; This was of one of the tribes of Israel: as for those famous Churches, which were, (since that) honoured with the preaching, and pens of the blessed Apostles, where are they now to be looked for, but amongst the rubbish of cursed Mahumetism? O that we could not be highminded, but fear.   

XXXIII.  
What a woeful conversion is here? The sting of death is sin; and the sting of sin is death; both meet in man, to make him perfectly miserable; Death could not have stung us; no, could not have been at all, if it had not been for sin: And sin, though in itself extremely heinous yet were not so dreadful, and horrible, if it were not attended with death: How do we owe ourselves to the mercy of a Saviour, that hath freed us from the evil of both; having pulled out the sting of death which is sin, that it cannot hurt us; and having taken such order with the sting of sin, which is death, that in stead of hurting, it shall turn beneficial to us: Lord, into what a safe condition hast thou put us? If neither sin, nor death can hurt us, what should we fear?   

XXXIV.  
How unjustly hath the presumption of blasphemous cavillers been wont to cast the envy of their condemnation merely upon the absolute will of an unrespective power, as if the damnation of the creature were only of a supreme will, not of a just merit; the very name of Justice convinces them; a punitive Justice cannot but suppose an offence: It is not for us to rack the brains, and strain the heartstrings of plain honest Christians with the subtleties of distinctions, of a negative, and positive reprobation, of causes and consequences; truths meet for the Schools: It is enough that all Christian Divines; the Synods both of Dort and Trent agree in this truth; that never man is, was, can be miserable but for sin, yea, for his own sin; The Prophet tells us so in terms, 
Lam. 3. 39  Why is the living man sorrowful, man suffereth for his sin: Nothing can be more true than that of Bildad the Shuhite, 
Job. 8. 20.  Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man: thy perdition is of thyself, O Israel. It is no less than rank blasphemy to make God the author of sin: 
Psa. 5. 4.  Thou art the God that hast no pleasure in wickedness, neither shall any evil dwell with thee, saith the Psalmist; our sin is our own, and the wages of sin is death; he that doth the work earns the wages; so than the righteous God is cleared both of our sin, and our death; only his justice pays us what we will needs deserve; 
Ezek. 18. 23.  Have I any pleasure at all (saith he) that the wicked should die, and not that he should return from his ways and live? wherefore return yea and live. What a wretched thing is a wilful sinner that will needs be guilty of his own death? Nothing is more odious amongst men, then for a man to be a fellow of himself; besides the forfeiture of his estate, Christian burial is denied him, and he is cast forth into the highway, with a stake pitched through his body, so as every passenger that sees that woeful monument is ready to say: There lies the carcase, but where is the soul?  
But so much more heinous is the self-felony of a wilful sinner, because it is immediately acted upon the soul; and carries him with pleasure in the ways of an eternal death. 
Psal. 19 12, 13.  O Lord, cleanse thou me from my secret faults; keep thy servant also from presumptuous sins, lest they get the dominion over me.   

XXXV.  
We are wont to say, That we ought to give even the Devil his due; and surely, it is possible for us to wrong that malignant spirit, in casting upon him those evils which are not properly his: It is true, that he is the tempter; and both injects evil motions, and draws them forth into act: but yet, all ill is not immediately his; we have enough besides, of our own: 
Jam. 1. 14, 15.  Every man, saith St. James, is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed; then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death; Lo, both the lust, and the seducement are our own; the sin is ours, the death ours: There are indeed diabolical suggestions which are immediately cast into us by that wicked one; but there are carnal tentations that are raised out of our own corrupt nature; these need not his immediate hand; he was the main agent in our depravation; but being once depraved we can act evil of ourselves: And if Satan be the father of sin, our will is the mother; and sin is the cursed issue of both: He could not make our sin without ourselves; we concur to our own undoing: It was the charge of the Apostle, That we should not give place to the Devil; Lo, he could not take it, unless we gave it; our will betrays us to his tyranny; in vain shall we cry out of the malice and fraud of wicked spirits, whiles we nourish their complices in our bosoms.   

XXXVI.  
I cannot but think with what unspeakable joy old Simeon died, when, after long waiting for the consolation of Israel, he had now seen, the Lords Christ; when I hear him say, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation; Methinks I should see his soul ready to fly out of his mouth in an heavenly ravishment; and even then upon its wing towards its glory; for now his eyes saw, and his arms embraced, in God's salvation, his own; in Israel's glory, his own: How gladly doth he now see death, when he hath the Lord of life in his bosom? or how can he wish to close up his eyes with any other object? yet when I have seriously considered it, I cannot see wherein our condition comes short of his: He saw the child Jesus but in his swathing-bands, when he was but now entering upon the great work of our redemption; we see him, after the full accomplishment of it, gloriously triumphing in Heaven: He saw him but buckling on his armour, and entering into the lists; we see him victorious. Who is this that cometh from Edom with died garments from Bozra; 
Esa. 63. 1.  this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength, mighty to save? He could only say: 
Esa. 9 6.  To us a child is born, to us a son is given: We can say, Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive, 
Psa. 68 18.  thou hast received gifts for men: It is true, the difference is, he saw his Saviour with bodily eyes, we with mental; but the eyes of our Faith are no less sure and unfailing, than those of Sense: Lord, why should not I, whose eyes have no less seen thy salvation, say, Now let thy servant depart, not in peace only, but in a joyful sense of my instant glory.   

XXXVII.  
When I think on my Saviour in his agony, and on his cross, my soul is so clouded with sorrow, as if it would never be clear again: those bloody drops, and those dreadful ejulations (methinks) should be passed all reach of comfort: but when I see his happy eluctation out of these pangs, and hear him cheerfully rendering his spirit into the hands of his Father; when I find him trampling upon his grave, attended with glorious Angels, and ascending in the chariot of a cloud to his Heaven; I am so elevated with joy, as that I seem to have forgotten there was ever any cause of grief in those sufferings. I could be passionate to think, O Saviour, of thy bitter and and ignominious death, and most of all, of thy vehement struggle with thy father's wrath for my sake, but thy conquest and glory takes me off, and calls me to Hallelujahs of joy and triumph; Blessing, 
Revel. 5. 13.  honour, glory, and power be unto him that sitteth upon the Throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.   

XXXVIII.  
It is not hard to observe that the more holy any person is, the more he is afflicted with others sin: Let vexed his righteous soul with the unclean conversation of the Sodomites; David's eyes gushed out rivers of water because men kept not the Law; Those that can look with dry and undispleased eyes upon another's sin, never truly mourned for their own: Had they abhorred sin, as sin, the offence of a God would have been grievous to them in whomsoever: It is a godless heart that doth not find itself concerned in God's quarrel; and that can laugh at that, which the God of Heaven frowns at; my soul is nearest to me, my sorrow therefore for my sin must begin at home, but it may not rest there; from thence it shall diffuse itself all the world over: 
2 Cor. 11. 19  Who is offended, and I burn not? who offendeth, and I weep not?   

XXXIX.  
The world little considers the good advantage that is made of sins: surely the whole Church of God hath reason to bless God for Thomas his unbelief, not in the act, which was odious (after so good assurances) but in the issue his doubt proves our evidence; and his confession (after his touch had convinced him) was more noble, than his incredulity was shameful. All his attendance upon Christ had not taught him so much divinity, as this one touch: Often had he said, my Lord, but never my God, till now: Even Peter's confession (though rewarded with the change of his name) came short of this: The flame that is beaten down by the blast of the bellows, rises higher than otherwise it would; and the spring water that runs level in the Plain, yet if it fall low, it will therefore rise, high; the shaken tree roots the deeper: Not that we should sin that grace may abound, God forbid; he can never hope to be good that will be therefore ill, that he may be the better: but that our holy zeal should labour to improve our miscarriages to our spiritual gain, and the greater glory of that Majesty whom we have offended: To be bettered by grace it is no mastery; but to raise more holiness out of sin, is a noble imitation of that holy God, who brings light out of darkness, life out of death.   

XL.  
Every man best knows his own complaints, we look upon the outsides of many, whom we think happy; who in the mean time are secretly wrung with the inward sense of their own concealed sorrows, and under a smooth and calm countenance smother many a tempest in their bosom. There are those, whose faces smile, whiles their conscience gripes them closely within; There are those that can dissemble their poverty, and domestic vexations, reserving their sighs till their back be turned; that can pick their teeth abroad, when they are fasting, and hungry at home: and many a one forces a song when his heart is heavy: No doubt Naomi made many a short meal after her return to Bethlehem, yet did not whine to her great kindred in a bemoaning of her want: And good Hannah bit in many a grief, which her insulting rival might not see: On the contrary, there are many whom we pity as miserable, that laugh in their sleeve, and applaud themselves in their secret felicity; and would be very loath to exchange conditions with those that commiserate them. A ragged Cynic likes himself at least as well as a great Alexander: The mortified Christian that knows both worlds, looks with a kind of contented scorn upon the proud gallant, that contemns him; as feeling that heaven within him, which the other is not capable to believe.  
It is no judging of men's real estate by their semblance; nor valuing others worth by our own rate: And for ourselves, if we have once laid sure grounds of our own inward contentment and happiness, it matters not greatly if we be misknown of the world.   

XLI.  
For one man to give titles to another is ordinary; but for the great God to give titles to a poor wretched man is no less than wonderful: Thus doth the Lord to Job; There is none like him in the earth, a perfect and upright man: O what must he needs be, in whom his maker glories! Lo; who would have looked for a Saint in so obscure a corner of the east, and in so dark a time, before ever the Law gave light to the world? yet even then the land of UZ yields a Job; no time, no place can be any bar to an infinite mercy: Even this while, for aught I see, the Sun shined more bright in Midian then in Goshen: God's election will be sure to find out his own any where out of hell; and if they could be there, even there also: Amongst all those idolatrous heathen, Job is perfect and upright; his religion and integrity is so much the more glorious, because it is so ill neighboured; as some rich Diamond is set off by a dark foil. O the infinite goodness of the Almighty that picks out some few grains out of the large chaff-heap of the world, which he reserves for the granary of a blessed immortality: It is not of him that willeth, nor in him that runneth, but of God that hath mercy.  
We might well imagine that such a sprig must sprout out of the stock of faithful Abraham; what other loins were likely to yield so holy an issue? And if his Sarah must be the mother of the promised seed, yet why might he not also raise a blessed seed from Keturah? The birth doth not always follow the belly: even this second brood yields an heir of his father's faith; 
Gen. 25. 6.  it is said, That to the sons of the Concubines Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away to the East: Surely this son of the Concubine carries away as rich a legacy of his father's grace as ever was enjoyed by the Son of the promise at home.  
The gifts that Abraham gave to Midian were nothing to those gifts which the God of Abraham gives to this son of Midian; who was perfect and upright, one that feared God and eschewed evil. I perceive the holy and wise God meant to make this man a pattern as of patience, so of all heavenly virtues; he could not be fit for that use if he were not exquisite; and what can be wanting to that man, of whom God holily boasts that he is Perfect?  
And now what metal is so fit to challenge the fire of affliction as this pure gold? and who is so fit a match for the great Adversary as this Champion of God? Never had he been put upon so hard a combat, if God had not well known both the strength that he had given him, and the happy success of his conflict: little doth that good man know what wager is laid on his head, but strongly encounters all his trials: The Sabeans have bereft him of his Oxen; the Chaldees of his Camels; the fire from Heaven of his sheep; the tempest of his children; Satan of his health; and had not his wife been left to him for his greatest cross, and his friends for his further tormentors, I doubt whether they had escaped.  
Lo there sits the great Potentate of the East, naked and forlorn in the ashes; as destitute of all comforts, as full of painful boils and botches; scraping his loathsome hide with a potsherd; yet even in that woeful posture possessing his soul in patience, maintaining his innocence, justifying his Maker, cheering himself in his Redeemer, and happily triumphing over all his miseries, and at last made the great miroir of divine bounty to all generations: Now must Job pray for his friendly persecutors, and is so high in favour with God, that it is made an argument of extreme wrath against Israel; that though Noah, 
Ezek 14. 14, 20.  Daniel, and Job were in the land they should deliver none but their own souls: O God, this Saint could not have had this strength of invincible patience without thee: thou that rewardest it in him, didst bestow it upon him: it is thy great mercy to crown thine own works in us: thy gifts are free, thou canst fortify even my weak soul with the same powers, strengthen me with the same grace, and impose what thou wilt.   

XLII.  
As it shall be once in glory, so it is in grace, there are degrees of it: The Apostle that said of his auditors, they have received the holy Ghost as well as we, did not say; they have received the holy Ghost as much as we: We know the Apostles had so much as to give it to others; none besides them could do so: It is an happy thing to have any quantity of true sanctifiying grace at all; every drop of water is water, and every grain of gold is gold, every measure of grace is precious: But who is there that when he is dry would take up with one drop of liquor when he might have more? or if covetously minded, would sit down content with one dram of gold? in such cases a little doth but draw on a desire of more: it is strange to see that in all other commodities we desire a fullness: If God give us fruit of our bodies, it contents us not to have an imperfect child, but we wish it may have the full shape and proportion: and, when God hath answered us in that, we do not rest in the integrity of parts, but desire that it may attain to a fullness of understanding, and of stature; and then lastly to a fullness of age: We would have full dishes, full cups, full coffers, full barns; a fullness of all things, save the best of all, which is, the holy Ghost. Any measure of spiritual grace contents us; so as we are ready to say with Esau: I have enough my brother. There is a sinful kind of contentation, wherewith many fashionable Christians suffer themselves to be beguiled, to the utter undoing of their souls: for hereupon they grow utterly careless to get, what they think they have already: who cares to eat that is full cramed? and by this means they live and die graceless: for had they ever tasted how sweet the Lord is in the Graces of his holy Spirit, they could never think they had enough; and whiles they do think so, they are utterly uncapable of either having, or desiring more: As there is a sinful; so there is an holy covetousness, which the more it hath, the more it affects: Lord make me thus covetous, and I cannot choose but be rich▪   

XLIII.  
What a marvellous familiarity was this which Moses had with God: 
Exod. 33. 11.  That the Lord spoke unto Moses, face to face, as a man speaketh to his friend! and yet more, that Moses so spoke to God what a bold and high request was that which Moses made to God: I beseech thee show me thy glory, that is (as it is there interpreted) thy face! that face which no man might see and live: Lo; God had immediately before spoken to Moses even to his face, out of the cloudy pillar: that doth not satisfy his holily-ambitious soul: but, as he heard the voice, so he must see the face of the Almighty: That cloudy pillar did sufficiently represent unto him the presence of the great God of Israel; yet still he sues for a sight of his glory: This is no pattern for flesh and blood; far be it from our thoughts to aspire so high: Thy face, O God, will we seek: but in thy blessed ordinances, not in thy glorious and incomprehensible essence: It is not for me as yet to presume so far as to desire to see that infinite light which thou art, or that light wherewith thou art clothed, or that light inaccessible wherein thou dwelest: Only, now show me the light of thy countenance in grace, and prepare my soul for that light of glory; when I shall see as I am seen.   

XLIV.  
In the waters of life, the divine Scriptures, there are shallows, and there are deeps; shallows where the lamb may wade, and deeps where the Elephant may swim: If we be not wise to distinguish, we may easily miscarry: he that can wade over the ford, cannot swim through the deep; and if he mistake the passage he drowns: What infinite mischief hath arisen to the Church of God from the presumption of ignorant and unlettered men, that have taken upon them to interpret the most obscure Scriptures, and pertinaciously defended their own sense? How contrary is this to all practice in whatsoever vocation? In the Tailor's trade, every man can stitch a seam, but every man cannot cut out a garment: In the Sailor's art, every one may be able to pull at a cable, but every one cannot guide the helm: In the Physician's profession, every gossip can give some ordinary receipts upon common experience; but to find the nature of the disease, and to prescribe proper remedies from the just grounds of art, is proper to the professors of that science; and we think it absurd and dangerous to allow every ignorant Mountebank to practise: In matter of law, every plain countryman knows what belongs to distraining, impounding, replevying: but to give sound counsel to a client in a point of difficulty, to draw firm conveyances; to plead effectually, and to give sound judgement in the hardest cases, is for none but Barristers, and Benchers: And shall we think it safe that in Divinity, which is the mistress of all Sciences, and in matters which may concern the eternal safety of the soul, every man should take upon him to shape his own coat, to steer his own way, to give his own dose, to put and adjudge his own case? The old word was, that Artists are worthy to be trusted in their own trade: Wherefore hath God given to men skill in arts and tongues? Wherefore do the aptest wits spend their times and studies from their infancy upon these sacred employments, if men altogether inexpert in all the grounds, both of art and language, can be able to pass as sound a judgement in the depths of Theological truths, as they? How happy were it if we could all learn (according to that word of the Apostle) to keep ourselves within our own line: As Christians, the Scriptures are ours; but to use, to enjoy; to read, to hear, to learn, to meditate, to practise; not to interpret according to our private conceit; for this faculty we must look higher: 
Mal. 2. 7.  The Priest's lips are to preserve knowledge: and they shall seek the Law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.   

XLV.  
When we see the year in his prime and pride, decked with beautiful blossoms, and all goodly varieties of flowers, cheered with the Music of birds, and stated in a sweet and moderate temper of heat and cold; how glad we are that we have made so good an exchange for an hard and chilling winter; and how ready we could be to wish that this pleasant and happy season might last all the year long: But herein (were our desires satisfied) we should wish to our own great disadvantage: for if the spring were not followed with an intention of Summer's heat, those fruits whose hopes we see in the bud and flower, could never come to any perfection: and even that succeeding fervour, if it should continue long, would be no less prejudicial to the health and life of all creatures; and if there were not a relaxation of that vigorous heat in Autumn, so as the sap returns back into the root, we could never look to see but one years' fruit. And thus also it is spiritually: if our prosperity were not intermixed with vicissitudes of crosses; and if the lively beams of grace were not sometimes interchanged with cold desertions, we should never know what belongs to spiritual life: What should we do then, but be both patient of, and thankful for our changes; and make no account of any constancy, till we attain to the Region of rest and blessedness?   

XLVI.  
What fools doth the devil make of those men which would fain otherwise be accounted wise? who would think that men could be so far forsaken of their reason, as to fall down before those stocks and stones which their own hands had carved; to guide their enterprises by the fond auguries of the flying, or posture, or noise of fowls; or the inspection of the entrails of beasts; to tie the confidence of their success to certain scrawls, and characters, which themselves have devised: to read their own or others fortunes in their hands or stars: to suffer themselves mocked with deceitful visions? neither are his spiritual delusions less gross and palpable; wise Solomon speaks of the wickedness of folly; 
Eccles. 7. 25.  and we may no less truly invert it; the folly of wickedness, 
Matth. 7. 26.  the fool, saith our Saviour, builds his house upon the sand, 
1 Tim 6. 17.  so as it may be washed away with the next waves; what other doth the foolish worldling, that builds all his hopes upon uncertain riches, 
Heb 11. 25.  momentany pleasures, 
Prov. 31. 30.  deceitful favours? 
Eccles. 2. 14.  The fool (saith Solomon) walketh in darkness; 
Eccles. 10. 15.  the sinner walks in the darkness of ignorance, through the works of darkness, to the pit of darkness: The fool, saith the Preacher, knows not the way into the city: The worldling may perhaps hit the way through the golden gates of honour; or down to the mines of wealth; or to the flowery garden of pleasure; but the way of true peace he knows not: he no more knows the way to Heaven, then if there were none: The fool (saith the Psalmist) hath said in his heart, there is no God; Did not the wicked man say so, he durst not wilfully sin in the face of so mighty and dreadful an avenger. Lastly, the fool is apt to part with his patrimony for some gay toys: and how ready is the carnal heart to cast away the Favour of God, the inheritance of Heaven, the salvation of his soul, for these vain earthly trifles? Holy men are wont to pass with the world for God's fools; (alas! how little do these censurers know to pass a true judgement of wisdom and folly? he that was rapt into the third Heaven, tells us, That the foolishness of God is wiser than men, 
1 Cor. 1. 25.  and the weakness of God stronger than men; but this we are sure of, that wicked men are the devils fools; 
Pro. 19 29:  and that judgements are prepared for scorners, and stripes for the back of fools.   

XLVII.  
There are some things which are laudable in man, but cannot be incident into God; as a bashful shamefacedness, and holy fear: And there are some dispositions blame-worthy in men, which are yet, in a right sense, holily ascribed unto God, as unchangeableness, and irrepentance: Attributes and qualities receive their limitations according to the meet subjects to which they belong; with this sure rule, That whatsoever may import an infinite purity and perfection, we have reason to ascribe to our Maker; whatever may argue infirmity, misery, corruption, we have reason to take to ourselves: Neither is it otherwise in the condition of men: One man's virtue is another's vice; so boldness in a woman, bashfulness in an old man, bounty in a poor man, parsimony in the great, are as foully unbeseeming, as boldness in a Soldier, bashfulness in a child, bounty in the rich, parsimony in the poor, are justly commendable. It is not enough for us to know what is good in itself, but what is proper for us: else, we may be blemished with that which is another's honour.   

XLVIII.  
It is easy to observe that there are five degrees of the digestion of our spiritual food: First it is received into the cell of the ear, and there digested by a careful attention; than it is conveyed into the brain, and there concocted by due meditation, from thence it is sent down into the heart, and there digested by the affections; and from thence it is conveyed to the tongue, in conference, and holy confession; and lastly, it is thence transmitted to the hand, and there receives perfect digestion, in our action and performance: And as the life and health of the body cannot be maintained, except the material food pass through all the degrees of bodily concoction, no more can the soul live and prosper in the want of any of these spiritual degrees of digestion; And as where the food is perfectly concocted, the body grows fat and vigorous; so is it with the soul, where the spiritual repast is thus kindly digested: Were there not failings in all these degrees, the souls of men would not be so meager and unthriving as they are. Some there are that will not give so much as ear-room to the word of truth; such are willing recusants: others will admit it perhaps, so far, but there let it rest; these are fashionable auditors: some others can be content to let it enter into the brain, and take up some place in their thoughts and memories; these are speculative professors; some (but fewer) others let it down into their hearts, and there entertain it with secret liking, but hide it in their bosoms, not daring to make profession of it to the world; these are close Nicodemians: Others take it into their mouths, and busy their tongues in holy chat, yet do nothing; these are formal discoursers: But alas, how few are there whose hands speak louder than their tongues; that conscionably hear, meditate, affect, speak, do the word of their Maker, and Redeemer?   

XLIX.  
Men that are in the same condition speed not always alike: Barrabas was a thief, murderer, seditionary, and deserved hangging no less than the two thiefs that were crucified with our Saviour, yet he is dismissed, and they executed; And even of these two (as our Saviour said of the two women grinding at the mill) one was taken, the other refused; one went before Peter to paradise, the other went before Judas into hell: The providence and election of a God may make a difference; we have no reason in the same crime, to presume upon a contrary issue: If that gracious hand shall exempt us from the common judgement of our consorts in evil, we have cause 〈◊〉 less his mercy; but if his just hand shall sweep us away in the company of our wicked consociates, we have reason to thank none but ourselves for our sufferings.   

L.  
How sweet a thing is revenge to us naturally? even the very infant rejoices to see him beaten that hath angered him; and is ready with his little hand to give that sroke to the by-stander, which he would have with more force returned to the offender; and how many have we known in mortal quarrels cheerfully bleeding out their last drop, when they have seen their enemy gasping, and dying before them: This alone shows how much there is remaining in our bosom of the sting of that old Serpent, who was a murderer from the beginning, delighting in death, and enjoying our torment; whereas, on the contrary, true grace is merciful, ready to forgive, apt to return good for evil, 
Col. 3. 13.  to pray for our persecutors; Nothing doth more clearly evince what spirit we are of, than our disposition in wrongs received: The carnal heart breathes nothing but revenge, and is strait wring the sword out of the hands of him that hath said, 
Rom. 12. 19  Vengeance is mine: The regenerate soul, 
Deut. 32. 35.  contrarily, gives place to wrath, and puts on the bowels of mercies, 
Col. 3. 12. 13.  kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long suffering, forbearing, forgiving: 
Rom. 12. 21.  and will not be overcome with evil, but overcomes evil with good. We have so much of God, as we can remit injuries; so much of Satan, as we would revenge them.   

LI.  
It is worth observing how nature hath taught all living creatures to be their own physicians; The same power that gave them a being hath led them to the means of their own preservation: No Indian is so savage, but that he knows the use of his Tobacco and Contra-yerva; yea even the brute creatures are bred with this skill: The Dog when he is stomack-sick can go right to his proper Grass; the Cat to her Nep; the Goat to his Hemlock; the Weasel to Rue; the Hart to Dittany; the sick Lion can cure himself with an Ape; the Monkey with a Spider; the Bear with an Ant-heap; the Panther with man's dung; and the Stork is said to have taught man the use of the clyster; to what purpose should we instance when the case is universal? The Toad hath recourse to his Plantain-leaf; the Tortoise to his Peniroyal; & in short, there is none but knows his own medicine: As for the reasonable creature, in all the civilised regions of the world, we may well say now of every nation as it was of old said of Egypt, That it is a country of Physicians: There is not an huswife, but hath an Apothecary's shop in her Garden; which affords her those receipts, whereby she heals the ails of her complaining family. Only mankind is mortally soul-sick, and naturally neither knows, nor seeks, nor cares for remedy. O thou that art the great Physician in Heaven, first cure our insensibleness; make thou us as sick of our sins, as we have made ourselves sick by sin, and then speak the word, and we shall be whole.   

LII.  
When I consider the precious ornaments of the high Priest, the rich Fabric and furniture of the Tabernacle, the bountiful gifts which the Princes of the Tribes offered at the dedication of the Altar; 
Num. 8.  I cannot but think what a mass of wealth Israel brought with them out of Egypt; these treasures grew not in the wilderness; neither did Jacob and his sons bring them out of Canaan; they were gathered in their Goshen: It was an hard bondage under which Israel was held by the latter Pharaohs; yet, as if then, in stead of the furnaces of bricks, they had been labouring in the Silver mines, to their own advantage, they come out laden with precious metals: What should I say to this? God said, Israel is my first born, and the first born was to have a double portion: What was Israel but a type of God's Church? now the Church of God may be held down with cruel tyranny; but in spite of all opposition it will thrive; 
Psal. 68 13.  And though they have lain among the pots, yet shall they be as the wings of a Dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold; And if the Spouse of Christ shall be stripped of her outward ornaments; yet the king's daughter is allglorious within; rich in those heavenly endowments of Grace and holiness, which shall make her dear and lovely in the eyes of her celestial Bridegroom; shortly, the Church may be impaired in her external estate; but if, the while, she gathers so much the more of those better treasures▪ what hath she lost? Godliness is great gain with contentment; If she have less of the world and more of God, what cause can she have of complaint, or her enemies of insultation?   

LIII.  
He that is a God of Order loves both to set, and keep it; For the service of his Sanctuary he appointed several offices, and in those offices several degrees; none of those might enterfer with others: The Levites might not meddle with the Priests charge; nor one degree of Levites with another: The Porters might not thrust in amongst the Singers, though perhaps some of their voices might be more tuneable; neither might the Singers change places with the Porters: The sons of Merari, that were to carry the boards, 
Num. 4. 29. 23.  bars, and pillars of the Tabernacle, and the Court, might not change with the sons of Gershon for the lighter burden of the curtains, and hangings; nor those of Gershon, 
Num. 4. 15.  for the more holy load of the vessels of the Sanctuary, committed to the sons of Kohath: Neither might the sons of Kohath so much as go in to see the covering of those sacred utensils by Aaron, 
Num. 4. 20.  and his sons; upon no less pain than death: So punctual was God in setting every man his proper station; and holding him to it, without either neglect, or change: And why should we think God less curious in his Evangelical Church? It was the charge of him, who next under the Almighty, had the marshalling of the Church of the Gentiles; Let every man abide in the same calling, 
1 Cor. 7. 20.  wherein he was called: perhaps there may be a better head for policy upon Plebeian shoulders than the Governors: shall that man leave his rank, and thrust into the chair of government? Neither is it other in spiritual offices; It is no thinking that the wise and holy God will be pleased with a wel-meant confusion: For all our employments in the service of the Almighty, we must consult, not with our abilities, but with our vocation.   

LIIII.  
I see too many men willing to live to no purpose; caring only to be rid of time on what terms soever, making it the only scope of their life to live; A disposition that may well befit brute creatures, which are not capable of any other aim save merely their own preservation: but for men that enjoy the privilege of reason, for Christians that pretend a title to Religion, too base and unworthy; where God hath bestowed these higher faculties, he looks for other improvements; For what a poor thing is it only to live? a thing common to us, with the most despised vermin, that breeds on our own corruption: but to live for some more excellent ends, is that which Reason suggests, and Religion perfits: Here then are divers subordinations of ends, whereof one makes way for another, and all for the supreme. We labour and exercise that we may eat, we eat that we may live, and maintain health and strength; we desire health and strength that we may do good to ourselves and many; that we may be able to do service to God, King, and Country; and therein, we drive at the testimony of a good conscience, approving to God our holy desires, and endeavours; and in all these, at the glory and salvation of our souls; and lastly, in that, as the highest of all ends, at the glory of our blessed Creator and Redeemer: This is indeed to live: otherwise, we may have a being for a time upon earth, but a life I cannot call it; and when we must cease to be, we are necessarily swallowed up with the horror of either not being at all, or of being eternally miserable.   

LV.  
All our love is moved from some good which we apprehend in the party loved; carnal love from beauty; worldly from gain; spiritual from grace; divine, from infinite goodness: It must needs be therefore, that when the ground and motive of our love faileth, the affection itself must cease; those that are enamoured of a beautiful face, find their passion cooled with a loathsome deformity; those that are led by the hopes of profit, like wasps, leave buzzing about the galley-pot, when all the honey is gone; those that could carry the rod familiarly in their hand, run from it when they see it turned to a Serpent: Contrarily, when that which attracts our love is constant to itself, and everlasting, the affection set upon it is permanent, and eternal: If then I love God for riches, for preferment, for my own indemnity; when intervening crosses strip me of the hopes of all these, I shall be ready to say, with that distempered King of Israel: 
2 Kings. 6. 33.  Behold, this evil is of the Lord, What should I wait on the Lord any longer? If my respects to my Saviour be for the loaves, and fishes; my heart is carried away with those baskets of fragments: but if I can love God for his goodness sake, 
Cant. 8. 6.  this love shall outlast time; and over-match death.   

LVI.  
What a wretched narrowness of heart is this which I find in myself; that when I may have all things, I take up with nothing; and when I may be possessed of an infinite good, I please myself in grasping a little thick clay? It was a large word that the Apostle said to his Corinthians; 
1 Cor. 3. 22.  Whether Paul, or Apollo, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come, all are yours. What, shall we think they were richer than their neighbours? or is not this the condition of all those, of whom he can say in the next words, ye are Christ's? There, there comes in all our right to this infinite wealth; of ourselves we are beggars; in him, who is Lord of all, we are feoffed in all things; for whiles he saith, All are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is Gods; he doth in effect say, Christ is yours, and in him, God is yours; for this right is mutual: How else should all things be ours, if God were not ours; without whom all is nothing? and how should God the Father be ours, without that Son of his love, who hath said, 
Joh. 16. 15.  All things that the Father hath, 
Joh. 17. 21.  are mine; 
Joh. 14. 6.  Thou O Father art in me, and I in thee: No man cometh to the Father, but by me? If then Christ be mine, all is mine: and if I have so oft received him, and so often renewed my union with him, how is he but mine? O Saviour, let me feel myself throughly possessed of thee, whether the world slide, or sink, I am happy.   

LVII.  
God will not vouchsafe to allow so much honour to wicked instruments, as to make them the means of removing public evils: The Magicians of Egypt could have power to bring some plagues upon the Land, but had not the power to take them away; Certainly, there needed a greater power to give a being to the frogs, then to call them off; yet this latter they cannot do who prevailed in the first: Moses and Aaron must be called to fetch off that judgement, which the Sorcerers have brought upon themselves; neither is it otherwise still: Wicked men can draw down those plagues upon a nation, which only the faithful must remove: The sins of the one make work for the others intercession: Do we therefore smart, and groan under heavy calamities? we know to whom we are beholden: 
Jer. 14. 10, 12.  Thus saith the Lord to this people, thus have they loved to wander; they have not refrained their feet, therefore he will now remember their iniquity, and visit their sins; When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offerings and an oblation, I will not accept them; but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence. Do we desire to be freed from the present evils and to escape an utter desolation? They are Moses and Aaron that must do it; He said that he would destroy them: 
Psal. 106. 23.  had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach to turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them: When our quarrel is with Heaven, it is not our force, or our policy that can save us: Every faithful man is a favourite of the King of glory, and can do more than command Legions: Then is a people in some good way towards safety, when they have learned to know their friends. Whiles we have good men's prayers to grapple with wicked men's sins, there may be hopes of recovery.   

LVIII.  
The aiming at a good end can be no just excuse for an unlawful act, or disposition; but if contentment did consist in having much, it were a sore temptation to a man to be covetous; since that contentation is the thing wherein the heart of man is wont to place it's chief felicity: neither indeed can there be any possible happiness without it; but the truth is, abundance is no whit guilty so much as of ease, much less of a full joy: how many have we known that have spent, more pleased and happy hours, under an house of sticks, and walls of mud, and roof of straw, then great Potentates have done under marbles, and cedar? And how many, both wise Heathen, and mortified Christians have rid their hands of their cumbersome store, that they might be capable of being happy? Other creatures do naturally neglect that which abused reason bids us dote upon: If we had no better powers than beast, or fowls, we should not at all care for this either white, or red earth; and if our graces were as great as the least of Saints, we should look carelessly upon the preciousest and largest treasures that the earth can afford; now our debauched reason, in stead of stirring us up to emulate the best creatures, draws us down below the basest of them; moving us to place our happiness in those things which have neither life, nor true worth; much less can give that which they have not; It is not for the generous souls of Christians to look so low, as to place their contentment in any thing, whether within the bowels, or upon the face of this earth; but to raise their thoughts up to the glorious region of their original, and rest: looking not at the things which are seen, 
2 Cor. 4. 18.  but at the things which are not seen: for the things that are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.   

LIX.  
The holy Psalmist knew well what he said when he called the thunder in the clouds, 
Psal. 29. 4.  The voice of the Lord: a voice powerful and full of Majesty: The very Heathens made this the most awful act of their Jupiter; which the Spirit of God expresses in a more divine language: The God of glory thundereth; upon this dreadful sound it is, that the Psalmist calls to the mighty ones, 
Psal. 29. 3.  to give unto the Lord glory and strength, 
Psal, 29. 1. 2.  to give unto the Lord the glory due to his name: as it were advising the great Commanders of the world, when they hear it thunder, to fall down on their knees, and to lift up their hands, and eyes, to that great God that speaks to them from Heaven: No man needs to bid the stoutest heart to fear, when this terrible sound strikes through his ear; which is able to drive even Nero's and Caligulaes' into bench-holes: But this mighty voice calls for an improvement of our fear, to the glory of that Almighty power whence it proceeds: Perhaps, the presumption of man will be finding out the natural causes of this fearful uproar in the clouds; but the working by means derogates nothing from the God of nature; neither yet are all thunders natural: That whirlwind and thunder, wherein God spoke to Job; 
Job. 40. 9 38. 1.  that thunder and lightning wherein God spoke to Moses and Israel in mount Sinai; 
Exod. 19  that thunder and rain wherewith God answered the prayer of Samuel in wheat-harvest, 
1 Sam. 12. 17, 8.  for Israel's conviction in the unseasonable suit for their King; that thundering voice from Heaven that answered the prayer of the Son of God, 
Joh. 12. 28, 29.  for the glorifying of his Name; the seven thunders that uttered their voices to the beloved Disciple in Pathmos, 
Revel. 10. 3. 4.  had nothing of ordinary nature in them: And how many have we heard, and read of, That for slighting of this great work of God, have at once heard his voice, and felt his stroke. Shortly, if any heart can be unmoved at this mighty voice of God, it is stiffer than the rocks in the wilderness; 
Ps. 29. 8.  for, The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness, the Lord shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh: For me, I tremble at the power, whiles I adore the mercy of that great God, that speaks so loud to me: It is my comfort that he is my Father, who approves himself thus omnipotent; his love is no less infinite than his power; let the terror be to them that know him angry; let my confidence overcome my fear: It is the Lord, let him do what he will: All is not right with me till I have attained to tremble at him while he shineth, and to rejoice in him whiles he thundereth.   

LX.  
We talk of mighty warriors that have done great exploits in conquering kingdoms; but the Spirit of God tells us of a greater conquest then all theirs; Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world; 
1 Joh. 5. 4.  and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith; Alas, the conquest of those great Commanders was but poor and partial, of some small spots of the earth; the conquest of a regenerate Christian is universal, of the whole world: Those other conquerors, whiles they prevailed abroad, were yet overcome at home: and whiles they were the Lords of nations, were no other than vassals to their own lusts: These begin their victories at home, and enlarge their Triumphs over all their spiritual enemies: The glory of those other victors was laid down with their bodies in the dust; the glory that attends these, is eternal; What pity it is that the true Christian should not know his own greatness; that he may raise his thoughts accordingly; and bear himself as one that tramples the world under his feet? For all that is in the world, 
1 Joh. 2. 16.  is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life; these he hath truly subdued in himself; not so as to bereave them of life, but of rule; if he have left them some kind of being still in him, yet he hath left them no dominion; and therefore may well style himself the Lord of the world: Far, far therefore be it from him, that he should so abject, and debase himself, as to be a slave to his vassals: none but holy and high thoughts, and demeanours, may now beseem him; and in these spiritual regards of his inward greatness, and self-conquests, his word must be; either Cesar, or nothing.   

LXI.  
I see so many kinds of frenzies in the world, and so many seemingly wise brains taken with them, that I much doubt whom I may be sure to account free from either the touch, or (at least) the danger of this indisposition; How many opinions do I see raised every day, that argue no less than a mere spiritual madness? such as if they should have been but mentioned seven years ago, would have been questioned out of what Bedlam they had broken loose. And for dispositions; how do we see one so ragingly furious, as if he had newly torn off his chains, and escaped; another so stupidly senseless, that you may thrust pins into him, up to the head, and he startles not at it: One so dumpishly sad, as if he would freeze to death in melancholy, and hated any contentment but in sorrow; another so apishly jocund, as if he cared for no other pastime then to play with feathers: One so superstitiously devout, that he is ready to cringe, and crouch to every stock; another so wildly profane, that he is ready to spit God in the face: shortly, one so censorious of others, as if he thought all men mad but himself; another so mad, as that he thinks himself and all mad men sober, and well-witted.  
In this store and variety of distempers (were I not sure of my own principles) I could easily misdoubt myself; now, settled on firm grounds, I can pity and bewail the woeful distraction of many; and can but send them for recovery to that divine wisdom, who calls to them in the openings of the gates, and uttereth her words, saying; 
Prov. 1. 22.  How long ye silly ones will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge; turn you at my reproof: 
Prov. 8. 5.  O ye simple understand wisdom, and ye fools be ye of an understanding heart: 
Prov. 8. 34, 36.  Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my ga●es: But he that sinneth against me, wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me, love death.   

LXII.  
Man, as he confists of a double nature, flesh and spirit, so is he placed in a middle rank betwixt an angel, which is spirit, and a beast, which is flesh; partaking of the qualities, and performing the acts of both: he is angelical in his understanding, in his sensual affections, beastial: and to whether of these he most inclineth, and conformeth himself, that part wins more of the other, and gives a denomination to him; so as, he that was before half angel, half beast, if he be drowned in sensuality, hath lost the angel, and is become a beast; if he be wholly taken up with heavenly Meditations, he hath quit the beast, and is improved angelical: It is hard to hold an equal temper; either he must degenerate into a beast, or be advanced to an angel; mere reason sufficiently apprehends the difference of the condition: Could a beast be capable of that faculty, he would wish to be a man, rather than a brute, as he is: There is not more difference betwixt a man, and beast, then between an angel and a brutish man; How must I needs therefore be worse than beast, if, when I may be preferred to that happy honour, I shall rather affect to be a beast, than an angel? Away then with the bestial delights of the sensual appetite; let not my soul sink in this mud; let me be wholly for those intellectual pleasures which are pure and spiritual: and let my ambition be, to come as near to the Angel as this clog of my flesh will permit.   

LXIII.  
There is great difference in men's dispositions under affliction: Some there are, dead-hearted patients, that grow mopish and stupid, with too deep a sense of their sufferings; others out of a careless jollity are insensible even of sharp and heavy crosses: We are wont to speak of some, whose enchanted flesh is invulnerable; this is the state of those hearts, which are so bewitched with worldly pleasures, that they are not to be pierced with any calamity, that may befall them in their estates, children, husbands, wives, friends; so as they can say with Solomon's drunkard, 
Prov. 23. 35.  They have stricken me and I was not sick, they have beaten me but I felt it not; These are dead flesh, which do no more feel the knife, then if it did not at all enter; for whom some corrosives are necessary to make them capable of smart: This disposition, though it seem to carry a face of Fortitude, and Patience, yet is justly offensive; and not a little injurious both to God, and the soul: To God; whom it endeavours to frustrate of those holy ends which he proposeth to himself in our sufferings; for wherefore doth he afflict us, if he would not have us afflicted? wherefore doth the father whip the child, but that he would have him smart; and by smarting bettered? he looks for cries and tears; and the child that weeps not under the rod is held graceless: To the soul, whom it robs of the benefit of our suffering; for what use can there be of patience where there is no sense of evil? and how can patience have its perfect work, where it is not?  
Betwixt both these extremes, if we would have our souls prosper, a mid-disposition must be attained; we must be so sensible of evils, that we be not stupefied with them; and so re●olute under our crosses, that we may be truly sensible of them: not so brawned under the rod, that we should not feel it; nor yet so tender that we should over-feel it: not more patient under the stripe, then willing to kiss the hand that inflicts it.   

LXIV.  
God as he is one, so he loves singleness and simplicity in the inward parts: as therefore he hath been pleased to give us those senses double, whereby we might let in for ourselves, as our eyes, and ears; and those limbs double, whereby we might act for ourselves, as our hands and feet; so those which he would appropriate to himself, as our hearts for belief, and our tongue for confession, he hath given us single; neither did he ever ordain, or can abide two hearts in a bosom, two tongues in one mouth: It is then the hateful stile, which the Spirit of God gives to an hypocrite; 
Jam. 4. 8.  that he is double-minded; In the language of God's Spirit, a fool hath no heart, and a dissembler hath an heart, and an heart; and surely, as a man that hath two heads is a monster in nature, so he that hath two hearts is no less a spiritual monster to God: For the holy and wise God hath made one for one; One mind, or soul, for one body: And if the regenerate man have two men in one; the old man, and the new; yet it is so, as that one is flesh, the other spirit; the mind than is not double; but the law of the mind is opposed to the law of the flesh; 
Rom. 7. 23.  so as here are strive, in one heart, not the sidings of two: for surely, the God of unity can neither endure multiplication, nor division of hearts, in one breast: If then we have one heart for God, another for Mammon, we may be sure God will not own this latter; how should he, for he made it not? Yea, most justly will he disclaim both, since that which he made was but one, this double. And as the wise man hath told us, That God hates nothing which he hath made; so may we truly say, God hateth whatsoever he made not; since what he made not, is only evil: When I have done my best, I shall have but a weak and a faulty heart; but, Lord, let it be but a single one: 
Psal. 134. 23, 24.  Search me, O God, and know my heart, try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.   

LXV.  
There is a kind of not-being in sin; for sin is not an existence of somewhat that is, but a deficiency of that rectitude which should be: it is a privation, but not without a real mischief; as blindness is but a privation of sight, but a true misery: Now, a privation cannot stand alone; it must have some subject to lean upon; there is no blindness but where there is an eye, no death but where there hath been a life: sin therefore supposes a soul, wherein it is, and an act whereto it cleaveth: and those acts of sin are they which the Apostle calls the works of darkness▪ 
Eph. 5. 12.  So as there is a kind of operosity in sin, in regard whereof sinners are styled, 
Luk. 13. 27.  The workers of iniquity: And surely there are sins, wherein there is more toil and labour, then in the holiest actions: What pains and care doth the thief take in setting his match, in watching for his prey? How doth he spend the darkest and coldest nights in the execution of his plot? What fears, what flights, what hazards, what shifts are here to avoid notice and punishment?  
The adulterer says, That stolen waters are sweet; but that sweet is sauced to him with many careful thoughts, with many deadly dangers: The superstitious bygot, who is himself besotted with error, how doth he traverse Sea and land to make a Proselyte? What adventures doth he make, what perils doth he run, what deaths doth he challenge, to mar a soul?  
So as some men take more pains to go to Hell, than some others do, to go to Heaven: O the sottishness of sinners, that with a temporary misery will needs purchase an eternal! How should we think no pains sufficient for the attaining of Heaven, when we see wretched men toil so much for damnation?   

LXVI.  
With what elegance and force doth the holy Ghost express our Saviour's leaving of the world; which he calls his taking home again; 
Luk. 9 51.  or his receiving up? In the former, implying, That the Son of God was, for the time, sent out of his Father's house, to these lower regions of his exile, or pilgrimage, and was now readmitted into those his glorious mansions; In the latter, so intimating his triumphant ascension, that he passeth over his bitter passion: Surely, he was to take death in his way; so he told his Disciples, in the walk to Emaus: 
Luk. 24. 26.  Ought not Christ to suffer these things, and to enter into his glory? He must be lifted up to the Cross, ere his Ascension to Heaven; but, as if the thought of death were swallowed up in the blessed issue of his death, here is no mention of aught but his assumption: Lo, death truly swallowed up in victory: Neither is it otherwise proportionally with us: wholly so it cannot be; for, as for him, Death did but taste of him, could not devour him, much less put him over; It could not but yield him whole & entire the third day, without any impairing of his nature; yea, with an happy addition to it, of a glorious immortality: and in that glorified humanity he ascended by his own Power into his Heaven: For us, we must be content that one part of us lie rotting for the time, in the dust, whiles our spiritual part shall by the ministry of Angels be received up to those everlasting habitations: Here is an Assumption therefore, true and happy, though not, as yet, total: And why should I not therefore have my heart taken up with the assured expectation of this receiving up into my glory? Why do I not look beyond death, at the eternally-blessed condition of this soul of mine; which in my dissolution is thus crowned with immortality? So doth the Sea-beaten Mariner cheer up himself with the sight of that Heaven, which he makes for; So doth the Traveller comfort himself, when after a tempestuous storm he sees the Sun breaking forth in his brightness.  
I am dying; but, O Saviour, 
Joh. 11. 23.  thou art the resurrection and the life; he that believes in thee, though he be dead yet shall he live: 
Esa. 26. 19  Awake, and sing ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead: Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord for they rest from their labours, and their works follow them.   

LXVII.  
What need I be troubled that I find in myself a fear of Death? what Israelite is not ready to run away at the sight of this Goliath? This fear is natural; and so far from being evil, that it was incident into the Son of God, who was heard in that which he feared; Christianity serves not to destroy, but to rectify nature. Grace regulates this passion in us, and corrects the exorbitances of it, never intended to root it out: Let me therefore entertain this fear, but so, as that I may master it; if I cannot avoid fear, let it be such as may be incident into a faithful man: Whiles my fear apprehends just terror in the face of Death, let my faith lay fast hold on that blessed Saviour, who hath both overcome, and sweetened it; on that blessed estate of glory which accompanies it; my fear shall end in joy, my death in advantage.   

LXVIII.  
It is too plain that we are fallen upon the old age of the world; the last times, and therefore nearest to the dissolution; and if time itself did not evince it, the disposition and qualities would most evidently do it; For to what a cold temper of charity are we grown? what mere Ice is in these spiritual veins? the unnatural and unkindly flushings of self-love abound indeed every where; but for true Christian love it is come to old David's pass, it may be covered with clothes, 
1 King. 1. 1.  but it can get no heat: Besides, what whimsies, and fancies of dotage do we find the world possessed withal, beyond the examples of all former times? what wild and mad opinions have been lately broached, which the settled brains of better ages could never have imagined? Unto these, how extremely choleric the world is grown, in these later times, there needs no other proof than the effusion of so much blood in this present age, as many preceding centuries of years have been sparing to spill.  
What should I speak of the moral distempers of diseases, the confluence whereof hath made this age more wickedly-miserable than all the former? for, when ever was there so much profaneness, atheism, blasphemy, schism, excess, disobedience, oppression, licentiousness, as we now sigh under? Lastly, that which is the common fault of age, loquacity, is a plain evidence of the world's declinedness: for, was there ever age guilty of so much tongue, and pen as this last? were ever the Presses so cloyed with frivolous work? Every man thinks what he lists, and speaks what he thinks, and writes what he speaks, and prints what he writes; Neither would the world talk so much, did it not make account it cannot talk long. What should we do then, since we know the world truly old, and now going upon his great, and fatal Climacterical, but as discreet men would carry themselves to impotent and decrepit age; bear with the infirmities of it, pity and bewail the distempers, strive against the enormities, and prepare for the dissolution.   

LXIX.  
There cannot be a stronger motive to awe and obedience, then that which Saint Peter enforceth; 
1 Pet. 1. 17.  That God is both a Father and a Judge: The one is a title of Love and Mercy; the other of Justice. What ever God is, he is all that; he is all Love and Mercy; He is all Justice; He is not so a Judge, that he hath waved the title and affection of a Father: He is not so a Father that he will remit aught of his infinite justice as a Judge: He is, he will ever be both these in one; and we must fasten our eyes upon both these at once; and be accordingly affected unto both: He is a Father, therefore here must be a loving awe; He is a Judge, and therefore here must be an awful love and obedience. So must we lay hold upon the tender mercies of a Father that we may rejoice continually; so must we apprehend the Justice of a righteous Judge, that we do lovingly tremble; Why then should man despair? God is a father; All the bowels of mortal and humane love, 
Isa. 49. 15.  are strait to his: Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget; yet will I not forget thee: saith the Lord. That which is the title of his personality in divine relation, is also the title of his gracious relation to us, Father; neither can he be other than he is styled; And contrarily how dare man presume, since this Father is a Judge? It is for sinful flesh and blood to be partial; foolish parents may be apt to connive at the sins of their own loins, or bowels, because theirs; either they will not see them, or not hate them, or not censure them, or not punish them: The infinite justice of a God cannot wink at our failings: There is no debt of our sin, but must be paid in ourselves, or our surety: 
1 Pet. 1. 17.  If then we call him Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work; why do we not pass the time of our sojourning here in fear?   

LXX.  
How terrible a motion was that, (which was made by the two Disciples) of commanding fire to come down from Heaven, and consume the inhospital Samaritans? Me thinks, I could tremble but at the imagination of so dreadful a judgement, as they did not fear to sue for; Yet if we look to the offence, it was no positive act of indignity offered to Christ; but the mere not lodging of his train; and that, not out of a rude inhumanity, but out of a religious scruple: what could they have said if these Samaritans had pursued them with swords, and staves, and stones? Whom shall we hope to find free from cruelty of revenge, when even the Disciple of Love was thus over-taken? What wonder is it if natural men be transported with furious desires, when so eminent Domestics, and followers of our Saviour were thus faulty? Surely nature in man is cruel; neither is there any creature under Heaven so bloody to its own kind: Even Bears and Wolves, and Tigers devour not one another; and if any of them fall out in single combats for a prey, here is no public engaging for blood; neither do they affect to enjoy each others torment; rather entertaining one another's complaints with pity; Let but a swine cry, the rest of the herd within the noise, come running in, to see and compassionate his pain; only man rejoices in the misery of the same flesh and blood with himself, and loves to triumph in his revenge: whiles we are thus affected, we know not of what spirit we are; we may soon learn; we are even of that spirit who was a manslayer from the beginning; 
Joh. 8. 44.  as for the good spirit, his just style is the preserver of men; 
Job. 7. 20.  and the errand of the son of man was, 
Luk. 9▪ 56.  not to destroy men's lives, but to save to them: and his charge to these, and all other his disciples; 
Luk. 6. 36.  Be merciful, as your Father also is merciful and how easily may we observe that this very disciple (as if in way of abundant satisfaction for this rash oversight) calls more for love, than all the rest of his master's train, telling us that God is love, 
1 Joh. 4. 16.  and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him: and, Beloved, let us love one another: 
1 Joh. 4. 7.  For love is of God; and every one that loveth is of God, and knoweth God: 
1 Joh. 4. 8.  He that loveth not, knoweth not God: for God is love. Shortly then, what would not this holy disciple have given to have recalled this fiery motion? The more mercy and charity is in us, the more we have of God; the more fury, and revenge; of Satan.   

LXXI.  
Much caution must be had in our imitation of the actions of the holiest: cautions, both in respect of the persons, and of the actions: God himself; yea, God clothed in flesh, (though the pattern of all perfection) is not for our universal imitation; the most of their actions are for our wonder, not for our exampling; and amongst men; how absurd were it in a Peasant to imitate a King? or one of the long robe, a Soldier? If Moses climb up the hill of God, Sinai; shall another Israelite say, Moses goes up, why not I? So he might have paid dear for his presumption: Moses was called up, the rest were limited; and if a beast touch the hill, he shall die. That act may beseem one, which would be very incongruous in another; The dog fawns upon his master, and hath his back stroaked; if the Ass do the like, he is beaten: We are naturally apt to be carried with examples: It is one of the greatest improvements of wisdom to know, whom, in what, and how far we may imitate: 
Phil. 3. 17.  The best have their weaknesses; 
1 Cor. 4. 16.  there is no copy without a blur: 
1 Cor. 11. 1.  Be ye followers of me, saith the chosen Vessel; but how? Even as I am of Christ: It is safe following him that cannot erer.   

LXXII.  
God who is simply one, infinitely perfect, absolutely complete in himself, enjoys himself fully, from all eternity, without any relation to the creature: but knowing our wants, and weaknesses, he hath ordained a society for our well-being; and therefore even in man's innocency, could say, It is not good for man to be alone: And why Lord? why might not man have taken pleasure enough in the beauty and sweetness of his Paradise, in contemplating thine Heaven, in the command of thine obsequious creatures, and above all, in the fruition of thy divine presence, in that happy integrity of his nature without any accession of other helps? Surely, thou who knewest well what disposition thou hadst put into him, intendedst to fit him with all meet conveniences: and thou who madest him sociable, before he could have any society; thoughtst fit to stead him with such a society, as might make his life comfortable to him. Wise Solomon observes it out of his deep experience, 
Eccl. 4. 7, 8, 9  for a vanity under the Sun, That there is one alone, and there is not a second; and that, two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labour.  
In the Plantation of the Evangelical Church, the Apostles are not reckoned single, 
Matt. 10. 2, 3, 4,  but by pairs; and so doth their Lord send them upon the great errand of his Gospel: And when he seconded that Work by a commission given to his seventy Disciples; 
Luke. 10. 1.  He sent them two and two before his face, into every City and place, whither he himself would come▪ After this, when our Saviour had left the earth, Paul and Barnabas go together; and when they are parted, Paul and Silas, Barnabas and Mark are sorted: Single endeavours seldom prosper; many hands make the work both quick and sure: They can be no friends to the happy estate of a Family or Church, that labour to cause distractions; Division makes certain way for ruin.   

LXXIII.  
Under the Law there was difference, as of Ages, so of Sexes: Circumcision was appropriated to the Male: In the Temple there was the Court of the Jews; and without that, the Court of the Women; neither might that Sex go beyond their bounds; and still it is so in their Jewish Synagogues: But in Christ, there is neither Male, nor Female. As the soul hath no Sex; so God makes no difference in the acceptation of either: As it is the honour of the one Sex, that Christ the Son of God was a man; so it is the honour of the other Sex, that he was born of a woman: And if the woman be (as she is in nature) the weaker vessel, yet she is no less capable of Grace, than the stronger; as the thinest glass may receive as precious liquor, as the best plate▪ Good Anna as well as Simeon, 
Luk. 2. 38.  gave glory to their newborn Saviour, to all that looked for redemption in Jerusalem: And afterwards, the holy women were no less zealous attendants of Christ, both in his life and death, 
Luk. 8. 2, 3.  than the most forward Disciples; yea, they followed him, when his domestic followers forsook him; neither could be parted by either his Cross, or his Grave.  
And they were the first that were honoured with the notice, and message of their Saviour's blessed Resurrection, 
Joh. 20. 17.  and Ascension; than which, what employment could be more noble? The Lord gave the word, 
Psal. 68 11.  saith the Psalmist, great was the company of the Preacheresses; the word is Feminine: However therefore in natural, and politic respects, the Philosopher might have some reason to bless God, that he had made him a man, and not a woman; yet in spiritual (which are the best) regards, here is no inequality; so that it is the great mercy and goodness of our common Creator, that though he hath made a difference in the smallest matters, yet he makes none in the greatest; 
King james his preface monitory.  and that he so indifferently people's Heaven with both Sexes, that, for aught we know, the greatest Saint there, is of the weaker Sex.   

LXXIV.  
There is nothing more easy then for a man to be courageous in a time of safety; and to defy those dangers which he neither feels nor sees. Whiles the coast is clear, every man can be ready to say, with Peter; Though all men, 
Mark. 14. 31.  yet not I; If I should die with thee, I will not deny thee in any wise: But when the evil hour cometh, when our enemy appears armed in the lists, ready to encounter us, then to call up our spirits, and to grapple resolutely with dangers and death, it is the praise and proof of a true Christian valour▪  
And this is that which the Apostle calls standing; 
Ephes. 6. 13, 14.  in opposition to both falling, and fleeing: Falling, out of faintness, and fleeing for fear. It shall not be possible for us thus to stand, if we shall trust to our own feet; In, and of ourselves, the best of us are but mere cowards; neither can be able so much as to look our enemy in the face: Would we be perfect victors? we must go out of ourselves, into the God of our strength: If we have made him ours, who shall, yea, who can be against us? 
Phil. 4. 13.  We can do all things through him that strengthens us: 
Phil. 4. 13.  All things; therefore conquer Death and Hell: If we be weakness, he is omnipotence; 
Rom. 13. 14.  Put we on the Lord Jesus Christ by a lively Faith, what enemy can come within us, to do us hurt? 
Psal. 56. 3, 4.  What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee, O God: In thee, O God, have I trusted, I will not fear what (either) flesh (or spirit) can do unto me: The Lord is my rock, 
Psal. 18. 2, 3.  and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust, my buckler, and the horn of my salvation; I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised; so shall I be saved from mine enemies.   

LXXV.  
It is disparagement enough that the Apostle casts upon all the visible things of this world, 
2 Cor. 4. 18.  That the things which are seen are temporary: Be they never so glorious, yet being transitory, they cannot be worthy of our hearts: Who would care for an house of glass, if never so curiously painted, and gilded? All things that are measured by time, are thus brittle: Bodily substances of what kind soever, lie open to the eye; and being seen, can be in no other, than a fading condition; even that goodly Fabric of Heaven, which we see, and admire, must be changed, and in a sort dissolved: How much more vanishing are all earthly glories? 
2 Pet. 3. 7. 12,  and by how much shorter their continuance is, so much lower must be their valuation: We account him foolish that will dote too much upon a flower, though never so beautiful; because we know it can be but a month's pleasure; and no care, no art can preserve it from withering; amongst the rest the Hemerocallis is the least esteemed, because one day ends its beauty: what madness then were it in us to set our hearts upon these perishing contentments which we must soon mutually leave, we them, they us: Eternity is that only thing which is worthy to take up the thoughts of a wise man; That being added to evil makes the evil infinitely more intolerable; and being added to good, makes the good infinitely more desirable.  
O Eternity! thou bottomless abyss of misery to the wicked; thou indeterminable pitch of joy to the Saints of God; what soul is able to comprehend thee? what strength of understanding is able to conceive of thee? Be thou ever in my thoughts, ever before mine eyes: Be thou the scope of all my actions, of all my endeavours: and in respect of thee, let all this visible world be to me as nothing: And since only the things which are not seen by the eye of sense are eternal; Lord, sharpen thou the eyes of my faith that I may see those things invisible, and may in that sight, enjoy thy blessed eternity.   

LXXVI.  
What is all the world to us in comparison of the Bird in our bosom, our conscience? In vain shall all the world acquit, and magnify us, if that secretly condemn us; and if that condemn us not, 
1 Joh. 3. 21.  We have confidence towards God, and may bid defiance to men and devils: Now that it may not condemn us; it must be both pacified, and purged: pacified in respect of the guilt of sin purged in respect of the corruption:  
For so long as there is guilt in the soul, the clamours of an accusing, and condemning conscience can no more be stilled, than the waters of the Sea can stand still in a storm: There is then no pacification without removing the guilt of sin; no removing of guilt without remission; no remission without satisfaction; no satisfaction without a price of infinite value answerable to the infiniteness of the Justice offended: and this is no where to be had, but in the blood of Christ, God, and Man: All created and finite powers are but miserable comforters, Physicians of no value, to this one.  
And the same power that pacifieth the conscience from the guilt, must also purge it from the filthiness of sin; 
Heb. 9 14.  even that blood of the Son of God, 
Heb. 9 14.  who is made unto us of God, 
1 Joh. 1. 7.  Sanctification and Redemption: That Faith which brings Christ home to the soul, doth by the efficacy of his blessed Spirit, 
Act. 15. 9  purify the heart from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit: Being justified by this faith, we have peace with God: When once the heart is quieted from the uproars of self-accusation, and cleansed from dead works; what in this world can so much concern us, as to keep it so? Which shall be done, if we shall give Christ the possession of our souls, and commit the keys into his only hands; so shall nothing be suffered to enter in, that may disturb or defile it; if we shall settle firm resolutions in our breasts, never to yield to the commission of any known, enormous sin: Failings and slips there will be in the holiest of God's Saints, whiles they carry their clay about them; For these we are allowed to fetch forth a pardon of course from that infinite mercy of our God, 
Zechar. 13. 1.  who hath set a Fountain open to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin, and for uncleanness; by the force of our daily prayers: But if, through an overbold security, and spiritual negligence, we shall suffer ourselves to be drawn away into some heinous wickedness, it must cost warm water to recover us: Neither can it, in such a case, be safe for us, to suffer our eyes to sleep, or our eyelids to slumber, till we have made our peace with Heaven: This done, and carefully maintained, what can make us other then happily secure? Blessed is he whose conscience hath not condemned him, 
Ecclu. 14. 2.  and who is not fallen from his hope in the Lord.   

LXXVII.  
We cannot apprehend Heaven in any notion but of excellency, and glory; that as it is in itself a place of wonderful resplendance, and Majesty; so it is the Palace of the most high God, wherein he exhibites his infinite magnificence; that it is the happy receptacle of all the elect of God; that it is the glorious rendezvous of the blessed Angels; that we have parents, children, husband, wife, brothers, sisters, friends whom we dearly loved, there: For such is the power of love that it can endear any place to us where the party affected, is; much more the best; If it be a loathsome gaol, our affection can make it a delightful bower; yea the very grave cannot keep us off: The women could say of Mary, that she was gone to the grave of Lazarus to weep there: and the zeal of those holy clients of Christ carries them to seek their (as they supposed still dead) Saviour, even in his Tomb: Above all conceivable apprehensions then, wherein Heaven is endeared to us, there is none comparable to that, which the Apostle enforceth to us, that, there Christ sitteth on the right hand of God: 
Colos. 3. 1.  If we have an husband, wife, child, whom we dearly love, penned up in some Tower or Castle afar off, whither we are not allowed to have access; how many longing eyes do we cast thither; how do we please ourselves to think, within those walls is he enclosed whom my soul loveth; and who is enclosed in my heart; but if it may be possible to have passage (though with some difficulty and danger) to the place, how gladly do we put ourselves upon the adventure? When therefore we hear and certainly know that our most dear Saviour is above, in all heavenly glory; and that the Heavens must contain him till his coming again, with what full contentment of heart should we look up thither? How should we break thorough all these secular distractions, and be carried up by our affections (which are the wings of the soul) towards an happy fruition of him? Good old Jacob, when he heard that his darling son was yet alive, in Egypt, how doth he gather up his spirits, and takes up a cheerful resolution, Joseph my son is yet alive, 
Gen. 45. 26.  I will go and see him before I die? Do we think his heart was any more in Canaan, after he heard where his Joseph was? And shall we, when we hear, and know, where our dearest Saviour (typified by that good Patriarch) is; that he is gone before to provide a place for us in the rich Goshen above, shall we be heartless in our desires towards him, and take up with earth? How many poor souls take tedious, costly, perilous voyages to that land (which only the bodily presence of our Saviour could denominate holy, their own wickedness justly styles accursed) only to see the place, where our dear Saviour trod; where he stood, where he sat, lay, set his last footing; and find a kind of contentment in this sacred curiosity, returning yet, never the holier, never the happier; how then should I be affected with the sight of that place, where he is now in person, sitting gloriously at the right hand of Majesty, adored by all the powers of Heaven? Let it be a covenant between me and my eyes, never to look up at Heaven, (as how can I look beside it?) but I shall, in the same instant, think of my blessed Saviour, sitting there in his glorified humanity, united to the incomprehensible— glorious Deity, attended and worshipped by thousand thousands of Saints and Angels, preparing a place for me and all his elect in those eternal Mansions.   

LXXVIII.  
How lively doth the Spirit of God describe the heavenly affections of faithful Abraham; that he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God: 
Heb. 11. 10.  What city was this, but the celestial Jerusalem, the glorious seat of the Great Empire of Heaven? The main strength of any building is in the foundation; if that be firm and sure, the fabric well knit together will stand: but if that be either not laid, or lie loose and unsettled, the tottering frame doth but wait upon the next wind for a ruin: The good Patriarch had been used to dwell in Tents, which were not capable of a foundation: It is like, he and his ancestors wanted not good houses in Chaldea, where they were formerly planted; God calls him forth of those fixed habitations in his own Country, to sojourn in Tabernacles, or Booths in a strange land; his faith carries him cheerfully along; his present fruition gives way to hope of better things: In stead of those poor sheds of sticks and skins, he looks for a City; in stead of those stakes and cords, he looks for Foundations; in stead of men's work, he looks for the Architecture of God. Alas, we men will be building Castles, and Towers here upon earth, or, in the air rather; such as either have no foundation at all; or at the best, only a foundation in the dust; neither can they be any other, whiles they are of man's making; for what can he make in better condition than himself? The City that is of God's building is deep, and firmly grounded upon the rock of his eternal decree; and hath more foundations than one; and all of them both sure and costly; Gods material house built by Solomon had the foundation laid with great squared stone; 
Revel. 21. 19  but the foundations of the wall of this City of God are garnished with all manner of precious stones: Glorious things are spoken of thee, O thou city of God: Why do I set up my rest in this house of clay, which is every day falling on my head, whiles I have the assured expectation of so glorious a dwelling above? 
2 Cor. 4. 1.  For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God; an house not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens.   

LXXIX.  
God, though he be free of his entertainments, yet is curious of his guests: we know what the great housekeeper said to the sordid guest; Friend how camest thou in hither, not having on a wedding garment? To his feast of glory none can come but the pure; without this disposition no man shall so much as see God, 
Heb. 12. 14.  much less be entertained by him: To his feast of grace none may come but the clean, and those who upon strict examination have found themselves worthy: That we may be meet to sit at either of these Tables, there must be a putting off, 
Colos. 3. 9, 10.  ere there can be a putting on; a putting off the old garments, ere there can be a putting on the new; the old are foul and ragged, the new clean and holy; for if they should be worn at once; the foul and beastly under-garment would soil, and defile the clean; the clean could not cleanse the foul: As it was in the Jewish law of holiness, holy flesh in the skirt of the garment could not infuse an holiness into the garment; 
Haggai. 2. 12, 13.  but the touch of an unclean person might diffuse uncleanness to the garment: Thus our professed holiness, and pretended graces are sure to be defiled by our secretly-maintained corruption, not our corruption sanctified by our graces; as in common experience, if the sound person come to see the infected; the infected may easily taint the sound; the sound cannot by his presence heal the infected: If ever therefore we look to be welcome to the feasts of God, we must put off the old man with his deeds, 
Colos. 3▪ 9, 10.  and put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.   

LXXX.  
It is not for us to cast a disparagement upon any work of our Maker; much less upon a piece so near, so essential to us: yet with what contempt doth the Apostle seem still to mention our flesh? and, as if he would have it slighted for some forlorn outcast, he charges us, not to make provision for the flesh: What? 
Rom. 13. 14.  shall we think the holy man was fallen out with a part of himself? Surely, sometimes his language that he gives it, is hard: The flesh rebels against the spirit: 
Rom. 7. 18.  I know that in me (that is in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing: but how easy is it to observe, that the Flesh sometimes goes for the body of man; sometimes for the body of sin: as the first, it is a partner with the soul; as the latter, it is an enemy; and the worst of enemies, spiritual: No marvel then if he would not have provision made for such an enemy: In outward and bodily enmity, the case, and his charge is otherwise: 
Prov. 25. 21.  If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, 
Rom. 12. 20.  give him drink: but here, make no provision for the flesh: What reason were there that a man should furnish, and strengthen an enemy against himself? But if the flesh be the body of the man, it must challenge a respect; but the very name carries an intimation of baseness; at the best, it is that which is common to beasts with us; 
1 Cor. 15. 39  There is one flesh (saith the Apostle) of men, another flesh of beasts; both are but flesh: Alas, what is it but a clod of earth better moulded, the clog of the soul, a rotten pile, a pack of dust, a feast of worms? But even as such, provision must be made for it; with a moderate and thrifty care, not with a solicitous: a provision for the necessities and convenience of life, not for the fulfilling of the lusts: This flesh must be fed, and clad; not humoured, not pampered: so fed as to hold up nature, not inordinateness; shortly, such an hand must we hold over it, as that we may make it a good servant, not a lawless wanton.   

LXXXI.  
What action was ever so good, or so completely done, as to be well taken of all hands? Noah and Lot foretell of judgements from God, upon the old world, and Sodom, and are scoffed at: Israel would go to sacrifice to God in the wilderness, and they are idle; Moses and Aaron will be governing Israel according to God's appointment; Ye take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi: David will be dancing before the Ark of the Lord; 
2 Sam. 6. 20.  He uncovers himself shamelessly as one of the vain fellows: 
Matt. 11. 18, 19  Our Saviour is sociable; He is a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners: John Baptist is solitary, and austere; He hath a devil: Christ casts out devils; He doth it by Beelzebub the prince of devils: He rides in an homely pomp through Jerusalem; he affects a temporal kingdom; and he is no friend to Cesar that can suffer him to live. He is by his Almighty power risen from the dead; his Disciples stole him away, whiles the Soldiers slept: The Spirit of God descends upon the Apostles in fiery and cloven tongues, 
Act. 2. 13.  and they, thus inspired, suddenly speak all Languages; they are full of new wine. Stephen preacheth Christ the end of the Law; 
Act. 6. 11.  He speaks blasphemous words against Moses and against God; and what aspersions were cast upon the primitive Christians, all Histories witness: What can we hope to do, or say, that shall escape the censures, and misinterpretations of men, when we see the Son of God could not avoid it? Let a man profess himself honestly conscionable, he is a scrupulous hypocrite; Let him take but a just liberty in things merely indifferent, he is loosely profane; Let him be charitably affected to both parts (though in a quarrel not fundamental,) he is an odious neuter, a lukewarm Laodicean: It concerns every wise Christian to settle his heart in a resolved confidence of his own holy and just grounds, and then to go on in a constant course of his well-warranted judgement, and practise, with a careless disregard of those fools-bolts which will be sure to be shot at him, which way soever he goes.   

LXXXII.  
All Gods dear and faithful ones are notably described by the Apostle, to be such as love the appearing of our Lord Jesus: 
2 Tim. 4. 8.  for certainly, we cannot be true friends to those whose presence we do not desire and delight in; now this appearing is either in his coming to us, or our going to him; whether ever it be, that he makes his glorious return to us for the judgement of the world, and the full redemption of his elect; or, that he fetches us home to himself, for the fruition of his blessedness; in both, or either, we enjoy his appearance: If then we can only be content with either of these; but do not love them, nor wish for them; our hearts are not yet right with God: It is true that there is some terror in the way to both these; his return to us is not without a dreadful Majesty; 
2 Pet. 3. 10.  for the Heavens shall pass away with a great noise; and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; and the glorious retinue of his blessed Angels must needs be with an astonishing magnificence; and on the other part our passage to him must be through the gates of death, wherein nature cannot but apprehend an horror; but the immediate issue of both these is so infinitely advantageous, and happy, that the fear is easily swallowed up of the joy; Doth the daughter of Jephtah abate aught of her timbrels and dances because she is to meet a father, 
Judg. 11. 34.  whose arms are bloody with victory? Doth a loving wife entertain her returning husband otherwise then with gladness, because he comes home in a military pomp? Is the conqueror less joyful to take up his crown, because it is congratulated to him with many peals of Ordnance? Certainly then, neither that heavenly state wherein Christ shall return to us; nor the fears of an harmless and beneficial death, wherein we shall pass to him, either may, nor can hinder aught of our love to his appearing: O Saviour, come in whatever equipage, or fashion thou wilt, thou canst be no other than lovely, and welcome: Come Lord Jesus, come quickly.   

LXXXIII.  
Suppose a man comes to me on the same errand which the Prophet delivered to Hezekiah; 
2 Kin. 20. 1.  Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die, and not live: with what welcome do I entertain him? Do I, with that good King, turn my face to the wall, and weep? or do I say of the messenger as David said of Ahimaaz; 
2 Sam. 18. 27.  He is a good man, and brings good tidings? Surely, Nature urges me to the former, which cannot but hold Dissolution her greatest enemy; for what can she abhor so much as a not-being? Faith persuades me to the latter; telling me that, To die is gain; 
Philip. i. 23.  Now, whether of these two shall prevail with me? Certainly, as each of them hath a share in me; so shall either of them act its own part in my soul: Nature shall obtain so much of me, as to fetch from me, upon the sudden apprehension of death, some thoughts of fear; Faith shall straight step in, and drive away all those weak fears; and raise up my heart to a cheerful expectation of so gainful, and happy a change: Nature shows me the gastliness of death; Faith shows me the transcendency of Heavenly glory: Nature represents to me a rotten carcase; Faith presents me with a glorious soul; Shortly, nature startles at the sight of death; Faith outfaces and overcomes it; so then, I who at the first blush could say, 
Ecclus. 41. 1.  O Death how bitter is thy remembrance; can now upon my deliberate thoughts, say, I desire to depart and to be with Christ. 
Philip. 1. 23.    

LXXXIIII.  
In the carriage of our holy profession, God can neither abide us cowardly, nor indiscreet: The same mouth that bade us, when we are persecuted in one city, flee into another, said also; he that will save his life, shall lose it; we may neither cloak cowardice with a pretended discretion; nor lose our discretion in a rash courage; He that is most skilful and most valiant, may in his combat traverse his ground for an advantage; and the stoutest Commander may fall flat to avoid a Canonshot; True Christian wisdom, and not carnal fear, is that, wherewith we must consult for advice, when to stand to it; and when to give back. On the one side, he dies honourably that falls in God's quarrel; on the other, he that flies may fight again; Even our blessed leader that came purposely to give his life for the world, yet when he found that he was laid for in Judea, flees into Galilce. The practice of some Primitive Christians, that, in an ambition of martyrdom went to seek out and challenge dangers and death, is more worthy of our wonder, and applause, than our imitation. It shall be my resolution to be warily thrifty in managing my life, when God offers me no just cause of hazard; and to be willingly profuse of my blood, when it is called for by that Saviour, who was not sparing of shedding his most precious blood for me.   

LXXXV.  
He had need to be well under-laid, that knows how to entertain the time and himself with his own thoughts: Company, variety of employments, or recreations, may wear out the day with the emptiest hearts; but, when a man hath no society but of himself, no task to set himself upon, but what arises from his own bosom; surely, if he have not a good stock of former notions, or an inward mint of new, he shall soon run out of all, and (as some forlorn bankrupt) grow weary of himself: Hereupon it is that men of barren, and unexercised hearts can no more live without company, than fish out of the water: And those Heremites, and other Votaries, which professing only devotion, have no mental abilities to set themselves on work, are fain to tyre themselves, and their unwelcome hours, with the perpetual repetitions of the same orisons, which are now grown to a tedious, and heartless formality: Those contemplative spirits that are furnished with gracious abilities, and got into acquaintance with the God of Heaven, may, and can lead a life (even in the closest restraint, or wildest solitariness,) nearest to Angelical; but those▪ which neither can have Mary's heart, nor will have Marthaes' hand, must needs be unprofitable to others, and wearisome to themselves.   

LXXXVI.  
There is nothing more easy then to be a Christian at large; but the beginnings of a strict and serious Christianity are not without much difficulty; for nature affects a loose kind of liberty, which it cannot endure to have restrained: neither fares it otherwise with it, then with some wild colt; which at the first taking up, flings and plunges, and will stand on no ground; but after it hath been somwhile disciplined at the Post, is grown tractable, and quietly submits either to the saddle, or the collar: The first is the worst; afterwards that which was tolerable, will prove easy, and that which was easy will be found pleasant: For in true practical Christianity, there is a more kindly and better liberty; 
Gal. 5. 1.  Standfast (saith the Apostle) in that liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free: Lo here a liberty of Christ's making, and therefore both just, and excellent: for what other is this liberty than a freedom, as from the tyranny of the law, so from the bondage of sin? 
Rom. 6. 18.  Being then made free from sin (saith Saint Paul) ye became the servants of righteousness: Here are two masters, under one of which every soul must serve; either sin, or righteousness: if we be free from the one, we are bondmen to the other; we say truly, the service of God (that is of righteousness) is perfect freedom; but to be free to sin is a perfect bondage; and to serve sin is no other than a vassalage to the devil: From this bondage Christ only can free us; 
Joh. 8. 36.  If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed; and we are no Christians, unless we be thus freed: and being thus freed, we shall rejoice in the pleasant fetters of our voluntary and cheerful obedience to righteousness▪ neither would we for a world return to those gyves and manacles of sin, which we once beld our most dear and comely ornaments: and can truly say, Thou hast set my feet in a large room. 
Psal. 31. 8.  I will walk at liberty, for I seek thy precepts. 
Psal. 119. 45.    

LXXXVII.  
I cannot but pity and lament the condition of those Christians who for the hope of a little earthly dross do willingly put themselves for a continuance out of the pale of God's Church: What do they else, but cast themselves quite out of the Almighty's protection; who hath not bound himself to follow them out of his own walks; or to seek them out amongst Turks and Infidels? well may he say to them (as to the chief Pastor of Pergamus) I know thy works, 
Revel. 2. 13.  and where thou dwellest; even where Satan's seat is; but have they any reason to expect that he should dwell with them there, under the reign of that Prince of darkness? These men put upon themselves that hard measure, which the man after Gods own heart complains to be put upon him by his worst enemies: 
Psal 120. 5.  Woe is me that I am constrained to dwell with Meshech, and to have my habitation in the Tents of Kedar: That holy man could in the bitterness of his soul inveigh against his persecutors for no other terms then these men offer to themselves: 
1 Sam. 26. 19  Cursed be they before the Lord, for they have driven me out this day from abiding in the inheritance of the Lord; saying, go serve other gods: I speak not of those, who carry God along with them in his ordinance; all earth's are alike to us, where we may freely enjoy his presence: but of those stragglers, who care not to live without God, so they may be befriended by Mammon. How ill a match these poor men make for themselves, I send them to their Saviour to learn What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world; 
Matt. 16. 26.  and lose his own soul; or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? God forbid, I should give their souls for lost, but I must say, they are hazarded; for herein doubtless, they tempt God, who hath not promised to keep them in any other, than their just ways; and they do in a sort tempt and challenge Satan, to draw them on either to a love of error and impiety, or at least to a cooling of their care and love of truth: How unlike are these men to that wise merchant in the Gospel; He sold all that he had to buy the pearl of great price: 
Matt. 13. 45. 46.  they sell the pearl to buy a little worthless merchandise. As the greatest part of their traffic stands upon exchange; so I heartily wish they would make this one exchange more; of less care of their wealth, for more care of their souls.   

LXXXVIII.  
Even when Joseph was a great lord in Egypt, second to none but Pharaoh, and had the command of that richest country of the world▪ yet than his old Father Jacob thought his poor parcel of Shechem worthy to be bequeathed to him, and embraced of him, as a noble patrimony; because it was in the promised land, and the legacy of a dying Father: How justly do I admire the faith both of the father and son in this donation! Jacob was now in Goshen; Shechem was in Canaan; neither was the father now in the present possession; nor were the sons in some ages to enjoy it: It was four hundred and thirty years that Israel must be a sojourner in a strange country, 
Exod, 12. 41.  ere they shall enter into the promised Land; yet now, as foreseeing the future possession, which his posterity should take of this spot of earth, so long after, Jacob gives Shechem to Joseph, and Joseph apprehends it as a rich blessing, as the double portion of the divided primogeniture: Infidelity is purblind, and can see nothing but that which is hard at hand; Faith is quicksighted, and discerns the events of many centuries of years, yea of ages to come; Abraham saw his Saviour's day, and rejoiced to see it, a thousand nine hundred and forty years off; and Adam (before him) almost four thousand years. As to God all things are present, even future, so to those that by a lively faith partake of him: Why do I not by that faith see my Saviour returning in his Heavenly magnificence, as truly as now I see the Heaven whence he shall come; and my body as verily raised from the dust, and become glorious, as now I see it weak and decrepit, and falling into the dust?   

LXXXIX.  
True knowledge causeth appetite and desire; For the will follows the understanding; whatsoever that apprehends to be good for us, the affective part inclines to it: No man can have any regard to an unknown good: If an hungry man did not know that food would refresh and nourish him, or the thirsty that drink would satisfy him, or the naked that fire would warm him, or the sick that Physic would recover him; none of these would affect these succours: And according to our apprehension of the goodness and use of these helps, so is our appetite towards them: For the object of the will is a known good, either true, or appearing so: And if our experience can tell us of some that can say, with her in the Poet; I see and approve better things, but follow the worse: It is not for that evil, as evil, (much less as worse) can fall into the will; but, that their appetite over-carries them to a misconceit of a particular good; so as, howsoever in a generality, they do confusedly assent to the goodness of some holy act, or object, yet upon the present occasion, (here and now, as the School speaketh) their sensitive appetite hath prevailed to draw them to a persuasion, that this pleasure, or that profit is worthy to be embraced: Like as our first parents had a general apprehension that it was good to obey all the commands of their Creator; but when it came to the forbidden fruit; now their eye, and their ear, and their heart tell them, it is good for them, both for pleasure, and for the gain of knowledge, to taste of that forbidden tree: So then, the miscarriage is not in that they affect that which they think not to be good; but in that they think that to be good which is not; for alas, for one true good there are many seeming, which delude the soul with a fair semblance: As a man in a generality esteems silver above brass, but when he meets with a rusty piece of silver, and a clear piece of brass, he chooses rather the clear brass than the silver defaced with rust: Surely, it is our ignorance that is guilty of our cool neglect of our spiritual good; if we did know how sweet the Lord is, in his sure promises, in his unfailing mercies, we could not but long after him, and remain unsatisfied till we find him ours: would God be pleased to shine in our hearts by the light of the true knowledge of himself, we could not have cause to complain of want of heat in our affections towards his infinite goodness.  
Did we but know how sweet and delectable, Christ, the Heavenly Manna, is, we could not but hunger after him; and we could not hunger, and not be satisfied; and, in being satisfied, blessed.   

XC.  
Those which we miscall goods, are but in their nature, indifferent, and are either good or evil as they are affected, as they are used: Indeed, all their malignity, or virtue, is in the mind, in the hand of the possessor: Riches ill got ill kept, ill spent are but the Mammon of iniquity; but if well, 
Pro 14. 24.  The Crown of the wise is their riches: How can it be amiss to have much, when he that was the richest man of the East, 
Job. 1. 1, 3.  was the holiest? Yea, when God himself is justly styled the possessor of Heaven, and Earth? How can it be amiss to have little; when our Saviour says: Blessed are ye poor: 
Luke. 6. 20.  And if from that divine mouth, we hear a woe to the rich; 
Luke. 6, 24.  himself interprets it of them that trust in riches: 
Mar. 10. 24.  If our riches possess us, 
1 Tim. 6. 17.  in stead of our possessing them, we have changed our God, and lost ourselves; but if we have learned to use our wealth, and not enjoy it, we may be no less gracious than rich: If a rich man have a large and humble heart, and a just hand, he inherits the blessing of the poor: If a poor man have a proud heart, 
Prov. 30. 9  and a thievish hand, he carries away the woe from the rich: Riches (saith wise Solomon) make themselves wings, they fly away as an Eagle towards Heaven; So as we may use the matter, our souls may fly thitherward with them; If we do good, and be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, laying up in store for ourselves a good foundation against the time to come, 
1 Tim. 6. 18, 19  that we may lay hold on eternal life. Let me say with Agur, 
Prov. 38.  Give me neither poverty, nor riches; but whethersoever God gives, I am both thankful and indifferent, so as whiles I am rich in estate, I may be poor in spirit; and whiles I am poor in estate, I may be rich in grace.   

XCI.  
Had I been in the streets of Jericho, sure, me thinks, I should have justled with Zacheus for the Sycomore, to see Jesus; and should have blessed my eyes for so happy a prospect: and yet, I consider that many a one saw his face on earth, which shall never see his glory in Heaven: and I hear the Apostle say, Though we have known Christ after the flesh, 
2 Cor. 5. 16.  yet now henceforth know we him so no more. O for the eyes of a Stephen, 
Act. 7. 55, 56.  that saw the Heavens opened, and the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God That prospect did as much transcend this of Zacheus, as Heaven is above Earth; celestial glory above humane infirmity: And why should not the eyes of my faith behold the same object which was seen by Stephen's bodily eyes? I see thee, O Saviour, I see thee, as certainly, though not so clearly: Do thou sharpen, and fortify these weak eyes of mine, 
Psa.▪ 36. 9  that in thy light I may see light.   

XCII.  
How gracious a word was that which God said to Israel, I have called thee by thy name, 
Isa. 43. 1.  and thou art mine. He that imposed that name upon Jacob; makes familiar use of it to his posterity: Neither is the case singular, but universally common to all his spiritual issue. There is not one of them, whom he doth not both call by his name, and challenge for his own: 
Psa. 147. 4.  He that tells the number of the stars, and calls them all by their names; hath also a name for every of these earthly luminaries; He who brought all other living creatures unto man, to see how he would call them, and would make use of Adam's appellation; 
Gen. 2. 19, 20.  reserved the naming of man to himself; neither is there any one of his innumerous posterity, whom he knows not by name: But it is one thing to take notice of their names; another thing to call them by their names; that denotes his omniscience; this his specialty of favour: none are thus graced but the true Sons of Israel. As God's children do not content themselves with a confused knowledge of a Deity, but rest not till they have attained a distinct apprehension of their God, as he hath revealed himself to man; so doth God again to them: It is not enough that he knows them in a general view as in the throng, wherein we see many faces, none distinctly; but he singles them out in a familiar kind of severalty both of knowledge and respect: As than he hath names for the several Stars of Heaven, 
Job 9 9  Cimah, Cesil, Mazzaroth, etc. 
Job. 38. 31.  And for the several Angels, Gabriel, Raphael, Michael, etc. and calls them by the proper names which he hath given them; so he doth to every of his faithful ones: Of one he saith, 
Luk. 1. 13.  Thou shalt call his name John: 
Joh. 1. 42.  Of another, Thou art Simon, 
Joh. 1. 42.  thou shalt be called Cephas: 
Luke 19  To one he says, Zacheus, come down; to another, Cornelius, 
Acts 103, 4.  thy prayers, and thine alms are come up: In short, there is no one of his, whom he doth not both know, and call by his name. What a comfort is this to a poor wretched man to think; Here I walk obscure and contemptible upon earth, in a condition mean, and despised of men; but the great God of Heaven is pleased to take such notice of me, as even from Heaven to call me by my name; and to single me out for Grace, and Salvation; and not only to mention my name from above, in the gracious offer of his Ordinances, 
Luk. 10. 2●.  but to write it in the eternal Register of Heaven? What care I to be inglorious, yea causelessly infamous with men, whiles I am thus honoured by the King of glory?   

XCIII.  
It is the great wisdom and providence of the Almighty, so to order the dispositions and inclinations of men, that they affect divers and different works, and pleasures: Some are for manuary trades, others for intellectual employments: One is for the Land, another for the Sea; one for husbandry, another for merchandise; one is for Architecture, another for Vestiary services; one is for fishing, another for pasturage; and in the learned trades, one is for the mistress of Sciences, Divinity; another for the Law, whether Civil, or Municipal; a third is for the search of the secrets of Nature, and the skill and practice of Physic; and each one of these divides itself into many differing varieties; Neither is it otherwise in matter of pleasures; one places his delight in following his Hawk and Hound, another in the harmony of Music; one makes his Garden his paradise, and enjoys the flourishing of his fair Tulips; another finds contentment in a choice Library; one loves his Bowl, or his Bow, another pleases himself in the patient pastime of his Angle: For surely, if all men affected one and the same trade of life, or pleasure of recreation, it were not possible that they could live one by another: Neither could there be any use of commerce, whereby man's life is maintained; neither could it be avoided, but that the envy of the inevitable rivality, would cut each others throat. It is good reason we should make a right use of this gracious and provident dispensation of the Almighty; and therefore that we should improve our several dispositions and faculties to the advancing of the common stock; and withal, that we should neither encroach upon each others profession, nor be apt to censure each others recreation.   

XCIV.  
He were very quicksighted that could perceive the growing of the grass, or the moving of the shadow upon the Dial; yet, when those are done, every eye doth easily discern them. It is no otherwise in the progress of grace; which how it increaseth in the soul, and by what degrees, we cannot hope to perceive; but being grown, we may see it: It is the fault of many Christians, that they depend too much upon sense; and make that the judge of their spiritual estate; being too much dejected when they do not sensibly feel the proofs of their proficiency, and the present proceedings of their regeneration: why do they not as well question the growth of their stature, because they do not see every day how much they are thriven? Surely, it must needs be that spiritual things are less perceptible than bodily; much more therefore must we in these, wait upon time for necessary conviction; and well may it suffice us, if upon an impartial comparing of the present measure of our knowledge, faith, obedience with the former, we can perceive ourselves any whit sensibly advanced.   

XCV.  
The wise Christian hath learned to value every thing according to its own worth; If we be too glad of these earthly things, it is the way to be too much afflicted with their loss; and whiles we have them, to be transported into pride and wantonness; If we esteem them too little, it is the way to an unthankful disrespect of the giver. Christianity carries the heart in a just equipoise; when they come, they are welcomed without too much joy; and when they go, they part without tears: we may smile at these earthly favours, not laugh out; we may like them, but we must take heed of being in love with them: For love, of what kind soever it be, is not without the power of assimilation; If we love the world, we cannot but be worldly-minded: 
Rom. 8. 5, 6.  They that are after the flesh, do mind the things of the flesh; and to be carnally minded is death: Contrarily if we love God, we are made partakers of the divine nature; and we are such as we affect: If we be Christians in earnest; certainly the inner rooms of our hearts, which are the holy of holies, are reserved for the Almighty; the outer courts may be for the common resort of lawful cares and desires, they may come and go; but our God shall have his fixed habitation here for ever.   

XCVI.  
Nature is sly and cunning; neither is it possible to take her without a shift: The light huswife wipes her mouth, 
Prov. 30. 20.  and it was not she: Rachel hath stolen her father's Teraphim, and the custom of women is upon her: Saul reserves all the fat cattle of the Amalekites; it is for a sacrifice to the Lord thy God: Neither is it so only in excusing an evil done, but in waving a good to be done: I am not eloquent, saith Moses; send by him, by whom thou shouldst send; Pharaoh will kill me; there is a lion in the way, saith the Sluggard: I have married a wife, I cannot come, saith the sensual Guest. If I give I shall want; If I make a strict profession, I shall be censured: Whereas true Grace is on the one side down right, and ingenuous in its confessions; not sparing to take shame to itself, that it may give glory to God; on the other side, resolutely constant to its holy purposes. I and my house will serve the Lord: If I perish, I perish: I am ready not to be bound only; but also to die at Jerusalem for the Name of the Lord Jesus: It is not hard therefore for us to know what mistress we serve: If our care and endeavour be by witty evasions to shuffle off both evil and good, we are the vassals of nature; but if we shall with an humble penitence acknowledge our evil; and set ourselves with firm resolutions upon the tasks of good, we are under Grace, in a way to glory.   

XCVII.  
It is good for a man not always to keep his eyes at home, but sometimes to look abroad at his neighbours; and to compare his own condition with the worse estate of others: I know I deserve no more than the meanest, no better than the worst of men; yet how many do I see, and hear to lie groaning upon their sick beds, in great extremity of torment, whereas I walk up and down in a competency of health? How many do I see ready to famish, and forced to either beg, or starve, whereas I eat my own bread? How many lie roting in Goals and Dungeons, or are driven to wander in unknown deserts, or amongst people whose language they understand not, whereas I enjoy home and liberty? How many are shrieking under scourges and racks, whereas I sit at ease? And if I shall cast mine eyes upon my spiritual condition; alas, how many do I see sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death; 
Mal. 4. 2.  whereas the Sun of Righteousness hath arisen to me with healing in his wings? How many lie in a woeful bondage under sin and Satan, whereas my Saviour hath freed me from those hellish chains, and brought me to the glorious liberty of the sons of God? how many are miserably misled into the dangerous by-paths of error, whereas he hath graciously kept me in the plain and sure way of his saving Truth? If we do not sometimes make these (not proud, but thankful) comparisons, and look upon ourselves, not with direct beams, but by reflection upon others, we shall never be sensible enough of our own mercies.   

XCVIII.  
The true Christian is in a very happy condition, for no man will envy him, and he can envy no body: None will envy him, for the world cannot know how happy he is; How happy in the favour of a God; how happy in the enjoying of that Favour: Those secret delights that he finds in the presence of his God; those comfortable pledges of Love, and mutual interchanges of blessed Interest which pass between them, are not for worldly hearts to conceive; and no man will envy an unknown happiness. On the other side, he cannot envy the world's greatest favourite under Heaven; for he well knows how fickle and uncertain that man's felicity is; he sees him walking upon Ice, and perceives every foot of his sliding, and threatening a fall; and hears that brittle pavement, at every step, crackling under him, and ready to give way to his swallowing up: and withal, finds, if those pleasures of his could be constant and permanent, how poor and unsatisfying they are, and how utterly unable to yield true contentment to the soul. The Christian therefore, whiles others look upon him with pity and scorn, laughs secretly to himself in his bosom, as well knowing there is none but he, truly happy.   

XCIX.  
It was an high and honourable embassy, whereon the Angel Gabriel was sent down to the blessed Virgin; that she should be the Mother of her Saviour: Neither was that inferior of the glorious Angel that brought the joyful tidings of the incarnation and birth of the Son of God, to the shepherds of Bethlehem; but a far more happy errand was that which the Lord Jesus, after his Resurrection, committed to the Maries: Go to my brethren, and say to them, 
Joh. 20. 17.  I ascend to my Father, and your Father, and to my God, and your God: Lo, he says not I am risen, but I ascend; as if he had forgot the Earth, whence he arose; and thought only on that Heaven whither he was going: Upon his Easter, his mind is on his Ascension day. As there had been nothing but discomfort in death, without a Resurrection; so there had been little comfort in a Resurrection, without an Ascension to glory. There is a contentment in the very act, I ascend; even nature is ambitious; and we do all affect to mount higher; as to come down is a Death; but this height is, like the ascendent, infinite, I ascend to my Father: There was the glory which he put off in his humble Incarnation; there was the glory which he was now to resume, and possess to all eternity:  
And, as if Nature and Adoption could give a like interest, he puts both together; My Father, and your Father; my God, and your God: His mercy vouchsafes to style us Brethren; yet the distance is unmeasureable, betwixt him, the Son of his eternal Essence, and us the naturally-wretched sons of his gracious Election; yet, as if both he and we should be coheirs of the same blessedness (though not in the same measure) he says, My Father, and your Father: First, my Father, then yours; and indeed therefore ours, because his: It is in him that we are elected, that we are adopted: Without him, God were not only a stranger, but an enemy; It is the Son that must make us free; It is the Son that must make us sons: If we be his, the Father cannot but be ours.  
O the unspeakable comfort and happiness of a Christian; In respect of his bodily nature, he cannot but say (with Job) to the worm, 
Job 17. 15.  Thou art my mother, and my sister; in his spiritual right, God the Son hath here authorized him to say to the Almighty, Thou art my Father: And if nature shall, in regard of our frail and dying condition, whiningly say, I descend to the grave; Faith makes abundant amends in him, and can as cheerfully say, I ascend to my Father: And what son (that is not altogether graceless) would not be glad to go to his father, though it were to a meaner house than his own? and therefore is ready to say, I will descend to my Father; How much more, when his many Mansions are infinitely glorious; and when all our happiness consists in his blessed Presence, must we needs say, with a joy unspeakable, and glorious, I ascend to my Father?   

C.  
God made man the lord of his Creatures; he made him not a Tyrant; he gave the Creatures to man for his lawful use, not for his wanton cruelty: Man may therefore exercise his just sovereignty over the beasts of the field, and fowls of the air, and fishes of the sea, not his lawless will to their needless destruction, or torment: Had man made the Creature, he could but challenge an absolute dominion over that work of his hands; but now that he is only a fellow creature to the meanest worm, What an insolent usurpation is this, so licentiously to domineer over his fellow dust? Yea, that great God, who gave a Being to the creature; and therefore hath a full and illimited power over his own workmanship, takes no pleasure to make use of that power to the unnecessary vexation, and torture of what he hath made: That alwise and bountiful Creator, who hath put into the hands of man the subordinate Dominion over all the store of these inferior Elements, hath made the limit of his command, not necessity only, but convenience too; but if man shall go beyond these bounds, and will destroy the creature only, because he will, and put it to pain because it is his pleasure; he abuseth his sovereignty to a sinful imperiousness, and shall be accountable for his cruelty. When the Apostle, upon occasion of the Law for not muzzling the mouth of the Ox, 
1 Cor. 9 9  asks, Doth God take care for oxen? Can we think he meant to question the regard that God hath to so useful a Creature? Do we not hear the Psalmist say, 
Ps. 147. 9  He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens that cry? Do we not hear our Saviour say, 
Mat. 10. 29.  That not a sparrow falls to the ground without our heavenly Father? And of how much more value is an Ox than many thousands of Sparrows? Is not the speech therefore, both comparative and typical? Is the main care that God takes in that Law, for provision to be made for the beast; and doth he not rather under that figure give order for the maintenance of those spiritual Oxen, that labour in the husbandry of the Almighty? Doubtless, as even the savage creatures, 
Psal 104. 21, 27, 28.  The young lions seek their meat from God; so they find it from him in due season; He openeth his hand and filleth every creature with good: Is God so careful for preserving, and shall man be so licentious in destroying them? 
Pro. 12. 10.  A righteous man (saith Solomon) regardeth the life of his beast, he is no better, therefore, than a wicked man that regardeth it not: To offer violence to, and to take away the life from our fellow-creatures, without a cause, is no less than tyranny: Surely, no other measure should a man offer to his beast, then that, which if his beast (with Balaams) could expostulate with him, he could well justify to it; no other, than that man, if he had been made a beast, would have been content should have been offered by man to him; no other than he shall make account to answer to a common Creator. Justly do we smile at the niceness of the foolish Manichees, who made scruple to pull an herb or flower, and were ready to Preface apologies and excuses for the reaping of their Corn, and grinding the grain they fed upon, as if these Vegetables were sensible of pain, and capable of our oppression; but surely, for those creatures which enjoying a sensitive life, forgo it with no less anguish and reluctation than ourselves; and would be as willing to live, without harm, as their owners, they may well challenge both such mercy and justice at our hands, as that in the usage of them we may approve ourselves to their Maker: Wherein I blush and grieve to see how far we are exceeded by Turks and Infidels; whom mere nature hath taught more tenderness to the poor brute creatures, than we have learned from the holier rules of charitable Christianity.  
For my part, let me rather affect and applaud the harmless humour of that miscalled Saint, who in an indiscreet humility called every Wolf his brother, and every Sheep, yea, every Ant his sister, fellowing himself with every thing that had life in it, as well as himself; then the tyrannical disposition of those men who take pleasure in the abuse, persecution, destruction of their fellow-creatures, upon no other quarrel, then because they live.    

Supernumeraries.  

I.  
THere is a satiety in all other (even the best) things that I either have, or do: I can be easily apt to complain of being wearied, or cloyed with the same objects but in the thoughts of spiritual things, me thinks, I can never have enough: For as there is infinite scope and variety of matter, wherein to employ my meditations, so in each one of them, there is such marvellous depth, that I should in vain hope, after all my exquisitest search, to reach unto the bottom: Yea the more I look upon the incomprehensible Deity, in any one of his glorious attributes, or any one of his omnipotent works, of creation, government, redemption; the more I long to see, and the less am I satisfied in seeing: and now I find cause to bless that unspeakable goodness, that he hath vouchsafed to give leave to his unworthy creatures, to contemplate those excellent glories, and those saving mysteries; and think myself happy in so gracious a liberty of exchanging these worthless thoughts of the world, for the dear and precious meditations of heavenly things; and now how justly do I fall out with my wretched self, that I have given way to secular distractions? since my heart can be sometimes in Heaven, why should it not be always there?   

II.  
What is this that I see? my Saviour in an Agony, and an Angel strengthening him? Oh the wonderful dispensation of the Almighty! That the eternal Son of God, who promised to send the comforter to his followers, should need comfort! That he, of whom the voice from Heaven said, This is my wellbeloved Son in whom I am well pleased, should be struggling with his Father's wrath even to blood! That the Lord of life should in a languishing horror, say, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death! These, these, O Saviour, are the chastisements of our peace, which both thou wouldst suffer, and thy Father would inflict; The least touch of one of those pangs, would have been no less than an hell to me; the whole brunt whereof thou enduredst for my soul; what a wretch am I, to grudge a little pain from, or for thee who wert content to undergo such pressure of torment for me, as squeezed from thee a sweat of blood! since my miserable sinfulness deserved more load, than thou in thy merciful compassion wilt lay upon me; and thy pure nature, and perfect innocence merited nothing but love and glory.  
In this sad case, what service is it that an Angel offers to do unto thee? 
Luc. 22. 43.  [Lo there appears to thee an Angel from Heaven, strengthening thee] still more wonder! Art not thou the God of spirits? Is it not thou, that gavest being, life, motion, power, glory to all the Angels of Heaven? Shall there be need of one single created spirit to administer strength and comfort to his Creator? were this the errand; why did not all that blessed Chore of celestial spirits join their forces together in so high an employment? Where are the multitudes of that heavenly host, which at thy birth, 
Luk. 2. 13. 14.  sung, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace? Where are those Angels which ministered to thee after thy combat of temptations in the wilderness? Surely there was not so much use of their divine cordials in the desert, as in the garden; O my God, and Saviour, thus thou wouldst have it; It is thy holy will that is the rule and reason of all thine actions, and events; Thou that wouldst make use of the provision of men for thy maintenance on earth, wouldst employ thy servants the Angels, for the supply of thy consolations; and thou that couldst have commanded Legions of those celestial spirits, wouldst be served by one; not, but that more were present, but that only one appeared; all the host of them ever invisibly attended thee, as God, but as man, one only presents himself to thy bodily eyes; and thou, who madest thyself, 
Heb. 2. 9  for our sakes, a little lower than the Angels which thou madest, wouldst humble thyself to receive comfort from those hands, to which thou gavest the capacity to bring it; It is no marvel if that which was thy condescent, be our glory and happiness: I am not worthy, O God, to know what conflicts thou hast ordained for my weakness; what ever they be, thou that hast appointed thine Angels to be ministering spirits for the behoof of them who shall be heirs of salvation, 
Heb. 1. 14.  suffer not thy servant to want the presence of those blessed Emissaries of thine in any of his extremities; let them stand by his soul in his last agony, and after an happy Eluctation convey it to thy glory.   

III.  
Many a one hath stumbled dangerously at a wicked man's prosperity; and some have fallen desperately into that sin, which they have seen thrive in others hands: Those carnal hearts know no other proof of good or evil but present events; esteeming those causes holy and just which are crowned with outward success: not considering that it is one of the cunningest plots of hell, to win credit to bad enterprises by the fairest issues; wherein, the Devil deals with unwary men, like some cheating gamester, who having drawn in an unskilful and wealthy novice into play, suffers him to win a while at the first, that he may at the last, sweet away all the stakes, and some rich manors to boot: The foolish Benjaminites having twice won the field, begin to please themselves with a fale conceit of Gibeahs' honesty, 
Judg. 20.  and their own perpetual victories; but they shall soon find that this good speed is but a pitfal to entrap them in an ensuing destruction. It is a great judgement of God to punish sinners with welfare; and to render their lewd ways prosperuos: wherein, how contrary are the Almighty's thoughts to theirs; their seeming blessings are his heavy curse; and the smart of his stripes are a favour too good for them to enjoy, to judge wisely of our condition, it is to be considered not so much how we fare, as upon what terms: If we stand right with Heaven, every cross is a blessing, and every blessing a pledge of future happiness: if we be in God's disfavor, every of his benefits is a judgement; and every judgement makes way for perdition: For me, let it be my care that my disposition may be holy, and my actions righteous, let God undertake for the event.   

IV  
It is no easy thing to persuade a man that he is proud; every one professes to hate that vice, yet cherishes it secretly in his bosom: for what is pride but an overweening of ourselves? and such is is our natural self-love, that we can hardly be drawn to believe that in any kind we think too well of our own: Now, this pride is ever so much more dangerous, as the thing which we overprize is more excellent; and as our misapprehension of it m●y be more diffusive: To be proud of gay-cloathes, which is childish; or, to be proud of beauty, which is a womanish vice, hath in it more fondness than malignity; and goes no further than the breast wherein it is conceived; finding no other entertainment in the beholders, than either smiles, or envy: but the pride of knowledge, or holy dispositions of the soul, as it is of an higher nature, so it produceth commonly more perilous effects: for as it puffes up a man above measure; so it suffers not itself to bekept in within the narrow bounds of his own thoughts, but violently bursts out to the extreme prejudice of a world of men: 
Prov. 13. 10.  Only by pride cometh contention, saith wise Solomon: Even purse-pride is quarelous, domineering over the humble neighbourhood, and raising quarrels out of trifles; but the spiritual arrogance is so much more mischievous, as the soul is beyond all earthly pelf: For, when we are once come to advance, and admire our own judgements; we are first apt to hug our own inventions; then to esteem them too precious to be smothered within our own closerts: the world must know of how happy an issue we are delivered; and must applaud it, or abide a contestation, and expect a challenge. The fairest paradoxes cannot pass without a contradiction; it were strange if some as bold, and forward wits as our own, should not take up the gauntlet: now the fray is begun; the multitude is divided; sides are taken; the world is in an uproar, from skirmishes we grow to pitched fields: the Church bleeds on both parts; and it were marvel if kingdoms could be free:  
But that which most notably evinceth the deceitfulness of man's heart in this behalf, is, that this pride is too often lodged in those breasts which are professedly devoted to a godly and mortified lowliness: for, as for those persons which are mere flesh, they are carelessly indifferent to error or truth; neither are at all moved with the success of either; but the religious mind, when it is once possessed with the conceit of some singular and important truth revealed to it, and hid from the rest of the world, is ready to say with the Samaritan Lepers; 
2 King. 7. 9  I do not well; this day is a day of good tidings, and I hold my peace; and therefore makes it matter of conscience to trouble the Church with a misgrounded novelty: Come we to the Test; Let me ask these misguided souls that are no less confidently persuaded of their own humility then Truth; Can it be any other than an height of pride, for a man to think himself wiser than the whole Church of God upon earth? wiser than the whole Church of God that hath been upon earth ever since the Apostles of Christ inclusively, in all successions to this present time? Can they without much pride think they can look deeper into the great mysteries of Godliness, than those blessed attendants of our Saviour, and their gracious successors, the holy martyrs, the godly and religious guides of God's Church, in all the following ages? Had not they, then, the same God; the same Scriptures, the illuminations of the same Spirit? Can they imagine it less than insolent to attribute more to their own private opinion, then to the constant judgement and practice of the whole Christian world in all successions of Generations? Can they suppose themselves in their single capacity (though neither Prophets, nor Prophet's sons) meet Judges or Questionists of those matters of Faith which the general Councils of the purer times have unanimously agreed upon as the main principles of Christianity? can they think themselves privileged by the liberty of prophesying to coin new articles, to deface old? Surely, if the hand of pride be not in all this, I shall never desire to be acquainted with humility; so as it is too plain, that a man may be exceeding proudly and not know it; this vicious habit lurks close in the soul, and unless it discover itself by some scarce— discernible effects (which break out now and then, especially, upon occasions of opposition) is rather more concealed from the owner, then from the eyes of a stranger: But (if ever,) it bewrays itself in the affectation of undue eminence, scornful undervaluation of others merits, obstinacy in opinion, sharpness of censures, and impatience of contradiction; Of all these the world is commonly no less guilty, than all these are guilty of the common miseries.  
Lord deliver us from our pride, and our contentions will die alone.   

V  
What a strange praise and privilege is that which is given to Enoch, above all those generations of men that peopled the first world; of whom the Spirit of God says; 
Gen. 5. 24.  Enoch walked with God, and he was not; for God took him: Doubtless, amongst all those successive families of the sons of Seth, there were many religious and well-affected souls; yet there was no one of them that had this character set upon him, that he walked with God, but he: Whether it were, that God did in a more open and entire way reveal himself to that exemplary Saint; or whether that holy man did in a more close and familiar fashion, converse with the invisible Deity, the presence was certain, and the acknowledgement mutual: neither was this walk short, for a turn, and away; but constant, and continual; even for the space of three hundred years: 
Gen. 5. 22.  And what? did the blessed man retire to some desert, far from all humane society, that he might enjoy this heavenly company alone? Did he this-while cast off all secular thoughts, and abdicate all the care of his family? Neither this, nor that; for in this space wherein he walked with his God; he both begat sons and daughters, and bred them like the children of such a father; as one that knew to make the world subordinate, not opposite to its maker: and had learned to reconcile the use of the creature with the fruition of the Creator: What then were the steps of this walk, but pious thoughts, heavenly affections, fervent love, reverential fear, spiritual joy, holy desires, divine ravishments of spirit; strict obediences, assiduous devotions, faithful affiances, gracious engagements, firm resolutions, and effectual endeavours of good, and whatsoever might work a dearness of respect betwixt the soul, and the God of Spirits: O God, that which thou promisedst (as a reward) to those few Saints of Sardis, 
Revel. 3. 4.  that had not defile their garments, thou hast before hand fully performed to this eminent worthy of the first world; he walked with thee in white, in the white of innocence here; and in the shining robes of glory above; so thou hast told us, He was not, for God took him; Lo; being, and good were wont to pass for convertible; but here, enoch's not-being, is his blessedness; he was not at all here; that he might be perfectly above: The best being on earth is but miserable; even enoch's walk with God cannot exempt him from sorrows; he must cease to be, that he may begin to be happy; He was then happy, not for that he was not; (a mere privation of being can be no other than the worst of evils) but for that God took him: The God with whom he walked so long upon earth, takes him away from the earth to himself, for eternity: Here below though he walked with God, yet withal he conversed with sinful men, whose wickedness could not but many a time vex his righteous soul; now he is freed from all those spiritual annoyances; enjoying only the glorious presence and vision of the Divine majesty, the blessed Angels, and the Saints, copartners of the same immortality. There can be no doubt but that the souls of his holy predecessors Adam, Abel, Seth, returned to the God that gave them; but had not Enoch been blessed with a peculiar conveyance to his glory, it had not been said, That God took him: were only the spirit of Enoch yielded up in the way of an ordinary death, the man had not been taken; now, whole Enoch, body and soul, is translated to an heavenly life.  
His father Jared, 
Ecculs. 44. 16.  and his son Methuselah went to God in the common way of men, by a separation of the spirit from the flesh; but for him, God took him; and clothed him living with immortality: I find none but him and Elijah that were thus fetched to their Heaven: It will be happy for us if we may pass in the common road to blessedness; O God, give me to walk close and constantly with thee, and what end thou pleasest; let my body pass through all the degrees of corruption, so that my soul may be immediately glorious.  
FINIS.    

THE BREATHE OF THE Devout Soul.  

I.  
BLessed Lord God; thou callest me to obedience; and fain would I follow thee: but what good can this wretched heart of mine be capable of, except thou put it there? thou knowst I cannot so much as wish to think well without thee; I have strong powers to offend thee; my sins are my own; but whence should I have any inclination to good but from thee, who art only, and all good? Lord, work me to what thou requirest, and then require what thou wilt.   

II.  
Lord God, whither need I go to seek thee? Thou art so with me, as that I cannot move but in thee. I look up to heaven; there I know thy Majesty most manifests itself; but withal, I know that being here thou art never out of thy heaven, for it is thy presence only that makes heaven: Oh give me to enjoy thee in this lowest region of thine heavenly habitation; and as in respect of my natural being, I live and move in thee, so let me not live and move spiritually, but with thee, and to thee.   

III.  
Whither now, O whither do ye rove O my thoughts? Can ye hope to find rest in any of these sublunary contentments, Alas? how can they yield any stay to you, that have no settlement in themselves? Is there not enough in the infinite good to take you up; but that ye will be wand'ring after earthly vanities? Oh my Lord, how justly mightest thou cast me off with scorn, for casting any affective glances upon so base a rival? Truly Lord, I am ashamed of this my hateful inconstancy; but it is thou only that must remedy it; O thou that art the father of mercies pity my wildness, and weak distractions: Take thou my heart to thee, it is thine own; keep it with thee, tie it close to thee by the cords of love, that it may not so much as cast down an eye upon this wretched and perishing world.   

FOUR  
Lord, I confess to my shame, thou art a great loser by me; for, besides my not improving of thy favours, I have not kept even-reckoning with thee; I have not justly tallied up thy inestimable benefits: Thy very privative mercies are both without, and beyond my account; for every evil that I am free from, is a new blessing from thee; That I am out of bondage, that I am out of pain and misery, that I am out of the dominion of sin; out of the tyranny of Satan, out of the agonies of an afflicted soul; out of the torments of hell: Lord, how unspeakable mercies are these? Yet, when did I bless thee for any of them? Thy positive bounties I can feel, but with a benumbed and imperfect sense. Lord, do thou enlarge, and intenerate my heart; make me truly sensible, as of my good received; so of my escaped evils; and take thou to thyself the glory of them both.   

V.  
Ah my Lord God, what heats and colds do I feel in my soul? Sometimes I find myself so vigorous in grace, that no thought of doubt dare show itself; and me thinks I durst challenge my hellish enemies; another while I feel myself so dejected and heartless, as if I had no interest in the God of my salvation, nor never had received any certain pledges of his favour: What shall I say to this various disposition? Whether, Lord, is it my wretchedness to suffer myself to be robbed of thee, for the time, by temptation? or whether is this the course of thy proceedings in the dispensation of thy graces to the sons of men; that thou wilt have the breathe of thy Spirit, as where, so how, and when thou pleasest? Surely, O my God, if I did not know thee constant to thine everlasting mercies, I should be utterly disheartened with these sad intervals; now, when my sense fails me, I make use of my faith; and am no less sure of thee, even when I feel thee not, then when I find the clearest evidences of thy gracious presence. Lord, shine upon me with the light of thy countenance (if it may be) always; but, when ever that is clouded, strengthen thou my faith; so shall I be safe, even when I am comfortless.   

VI  
O my God, I am justly ashamed to think what favours I have received from thee, and what poor returns I have made to thee: Truly Lord, I must needs say, thou hast thought nothing either in earth, or in heaven too good for me; and I, on the other side, have grudged thee that weak and worthless obedience which thou hast required of me: Alas, what pleasure could I have done to thee who art infinite, if I had sacrificed my whole self to thee, as thou commandest? Thou art, and wilt be thyself, though the world were not; it is I, I only that could be a gainer by this happy match; which in my own wrong I have unthankfully neglected; I see it is not so much what we have, as how we employ it: O thou, that hast been so bountiful, in heaping thy rich mercies upon me, vouchsafe to grant me yet one gift more; give me grace and power to improve all thy gifts to the glory of the giver; otherwise, it had been better for me to have been poor, then ingrateful.   

VII.  
Ah Lord, What struggling have I with my weak fears? how do I anticipate my evils by distrust? What shall I do when I am old? How shall I be able to endure pain? How shall I pass through the horrid gates of death? Oh my God, Where is my faith that I am thus surprised? Had I not thee to up-hold, and strengthen my soul, well might I tremble and sink under these cares; but now, that I have the assurance of so strong an helper, as commands all the powers of heaven, earth, and hell, what a shame is it for me to give so much way to my wretched infidelity, as to punish myself with the expectation of future evils? Oh for the victory that overcomes the world, 
1 Joh. 5. 4.  even our faith; Thou O God, 
Psal. 46. 1. 2.  art my refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble; therefore will I not fear though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the Sea.   

VIII.  
Lord, I made account my days should have been but an inch; but thou hast made them a span long; 
Psal. 39 6.  having drawn out the length of a crazy life beyond the period of my hopes: It is for something, sure, that thou hast thus long respited me from my grave, which looked for me many years ago: Here I am, O my God, attending thy good pleasure; Thou knowst best what thou hast to do with me; Dispose of me as thou wilt; Only make me faithful in all thy services; resolute to trust myself with thee in all events; careful to be approved of thee in all my ways; and crown my decayed age with such fruits as may be pleasing to thee, and available to the good of many; Lastly, let me live to thee, and die in thee.   

IX.  
How oft, Lord, have I wondered to see the strange carriage of thine administration of these earthly affairs; and therein to see thy marvelous wisdom, power, goodness, in fetching good out of evil! Alas, we wretched men are apt enough to fetch the worst of evils, out of the greatest good, 
Judas 4.  turning the grace of thee our God into wantonness: but how have I seen thee, of liveless stones to raise up children to Abraham, of sinners to make Saints? out of a desperate confusion to fetch order; out of a bloody war, an happy peace; out of resolutions of revenge, love; out of the rock, water; out of a persecuter, an Apostle? How can I be discouraged with unlikelihoods, when I see thee work by contraries? It is not for me, O my God, to examine or pre-judge thy counsels; take what ways thou wilt, so thou bring me to thine own end; all paths shall be direct that shall lead me to blessedness.   

X.  
How many good purposes, O my God, have I taken up, & let fall to the ground again without effect? how teeming hath this barren womb of my heart been of false conceptions? but especially, when thy hand hath been smart and heavy upon me in mine affliction, how have I tasked myself with duties, and revived my firm resolutions of more strict obedience, which yet upon the continuance of my better condition, I have slackened? Lord, it is from thee that I purposed well; it is from my own sinful weakness that I failed in my performances; If any good come me, the will and the deed must be both thine; 
Prov. 16. 1.  The very preparations of the heart are from thee; 
Prov. 16. 9  and if I have devised my way, it must be thou that directest my steps: O God, do thou ripen and perfect all the good motions that thou puttest into my soul; and make my health but such as my sickness promised.   

XI.  
Every man, Lord, is unwilling that his name should die; we are all naturally ambitious of being thought on when we are gone; those that have not living monuments to perpetuate them, affect to have dead; if Absalon have not a son, he will yet erect a pillar: yet when we have all done, time eats us out at the last; 
Eccles 2. 16.  There is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool for ever; seeing that which now is, in the days to come shall all be forgotten. O God, let it be my care and ambition, what ever become of my memory here below, that my name may be recorded in Heaven.   

XII.  
Thy wise providence, O God, hath so ordered it, that every man's mind seeks and finds contentment in some thing; otherwise it could not be (since we must meet with so frequent crosses in the world) but that man's life would be burdensome to him; one takes pleasure in his hawk or hound; another in his horses and furnitures; one in fair buildings; another in pleasant walks and beautiful gardens; one in travailing abroad; another in the enjoying of the profits and pleasures of his home; one in the increase of his wealth; another in the titles of his honour; one in a comfortable wife, another in loving and dutiful children, but when all is done, if there be not somewhat else to uphold the heart in the evil day, it must sink. O God, do thou possess my soul of thee; let me place all my felicity in the fruition of thine infinite goodness; so I am sure the worst of the world hath not power to render me other then happy.   

XIII.  
O Lord God, under how opposite aspects do I stand, from the world? how variously am I construed by men? One pities my condition, another praises my patience; One favours me out of the opinion of some good that he thinks he sees in me; another dislikes me for some imagined evil: What are the eyes, or tongues of men to me? Let me not know what they say, or think of me, and what am I the better or worse for them? they can have no influence upon me without my own apprehension: All is in what terms I stand with thee, my God; if thou be pleased to look upon me with the eye of thy tender mercy and compassion, What care I to be unjustly browbeaten of the world? If I may be blessed with thy favour, let me be made a gazingstock to the world, to Angels, and to men.   

XIV.  
Speak Lord, for thy servant heareth: What is it which thou wouldst have me do that I may find rest to my soul? I am willing to exercise myself in all the acts of piety which thou requirest; I am ready to fast, to pray, to read, to hear, to meditate, to communicate, to give alms, to exhort, admonish, reprove, comfort where thou bid'st me; and if there be any other duty appertaining to devotion, or mercy, let me serve thee in it: But, alas, O my God, howsoever I know these works are in themselves wellpleasing unto thee, yet as they fall from my wretchedness, they are stained with so many imperfections, that I have more reason to crave pardon for them, then to put confidence in them; and if I could perform them never so tightly, yet one sin is more then enough to dash all my obedience. I see then, O Lord, I well see there is no act that I can be capable to do unto thee, wherein I can find any repose; it must be thine act to me, which only can effect it; It is thy gracious word, 
Matth. 11. 28.  Come unto me all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest; Lo this rest must be thy gift, not my earning; and what can be freer than gift? Thou givest it then, but to those that come to thee; not to those that come not; To those that come to thee laden and labouring under the sense of their own wretchedness; not to the proud, and careless; O Saviour, thy sinner is sufficiently laden with the burden of his iniquities; lad thou me yet more with true penitent sorrow for my sins; and enable me then to come unto thee by a lively faith; Take thou the praise of thine own work; Give me the grace to come; and give me rest in coming.   

XV.  
O blessed Saviour, What strange variety of conceits do I find concerning thy thousand years' reign? What riddles are in that prophecy; which no humane tongue can aread? where to fix the beginning of that marvelous millenary, and where the end; and what manner of reign it shall be, whether temporal, or spiritual; on earth, or in heaven; undergoes as many constructions, as there are pens that have undertaken it; and yet (when all is done) I see thine Apostle speaks only of the souls of thy martyrs, reigning so long with thee; not of thy reigning on earth so long with those Martyrs; How busy are the tongues of men, how are their brains taken up with the indeterminable construction of this enigmatical truth? when, in the mean time, the care of thy spiritual reign in their hearts, is neglected; O my Saviour, whiles others weary themselves with the disquisition of thy personal reign here upon earth for a thousand years; let it be the whole bent and study of my soul, to make sure of my personal reign with thee in heaven to all eternity.   

XVI.  
Blessed be thy name, O God, who hast made a good use even of hell itself; How many Atheous hearts have been convinced by the very operations of Devils? Those which would with the stupid Saducees, persuade themselves there are no spirits; yet when they have sensibly found the marvellous effects wrought even by the base instruments of Satan; they have been forced to confess, Doubtless there is a God that rules the world; for so great powers of evil spirits must necessarily evince the greater powers of good; It is of thy wise and holy dispensation that thy good Angels do not so frequently exhibit themselves, and give so visible demonstrations of their presence to thy Saints, as the evil Angels do to their Vassals, though they are ever as present, and more powerful; What need they; when thou so mightily over-rulest those malignant spirits, that thou forcest from them thine own glory, and advantage to thy chosen? Lord, how much more shall all thy other creatures serve to thy praise, when thy very hellish enemies shall proclaim thy justice, goodness, omnipotence.   

XVII.  
Speculation, O Lord, is not more easy than practice is difficult; how many have we known, who, as it was said of the Philosophers of old, know how to speak well, but live ill; How many have written books of Chemistry, and given very confident directions for the finding out of that precious stone of the Philosophers, but how many have indeed made gold? Practice is that which thou, O God, chiefly requirest and respectest; who hast said, If ye know these things, blessed are ye if you do them; Knowledge puffeth up, 
1 Cor. 8. 1.  but love edifieth: O Lord do thou enlighten mine eyes with the knowledge of thy will; but above all, do thou rectify my affections, guide my feet into the ways of thy commandments; 
Psal. 119. 112.  apply my heart to fulfil thy statutes always; 
Psal 90. 17.  and Prosper thou the work of my hands upon me, O prosper thou my handi-work.   

XVIII.  
How oft have I wondered, O Lord, at the boldness of those men, who knowing they must shortly die, yet dare do those things which will draw upon them eternity of torments? What shall I say, but, The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God; Surely, men love themselves well enough; and would be loath to do that, which would procure them an inevitable misery and pain; Did they therefore believe there were another world, and that they must be called to a strict reckoning for all their actions, and be doomed to an everlasting death for their wicked deeds, they durst not, they could not do those acts which should make them eternally miserable: Let me say to the most desperate ruffian; there is poison in this cup, drink this draught and thou diest; he would have the wit to keep his lips close, and cast the potion to the ground; were it not for their infidelity, so would men do to the most plausible (but deadly) offers of sin. O Lord, since I know thy righteous judgements; teach me to tremble at them; restrain thou my feet from every evil way; and teach me so to walk, as one that looks every hour to appear before thy just, and dreadful Tribunal.   

XIX  
The longer I live, O my God, the more do I wonder at all the works of thine hands: I see such admirable artifice in the very least and most despicable of all thy creatures, as doth every day more and more astonish my observation: I need not look so far as Heaven for matter of marvel (though therein thou art infinitely glorious) whiles I have but a spider in my window, or a bee in my garden, or a worm under my feet: every one of these overcomes me with a just amazement; yet can I see no more than their very outsides; their inward form which gives them their being, and operations, I cannot pierce into; the less I can know, O Lord, the more let me wonder; and the less I can satisfy myself with marvailing at thy works, the more let me adore the majesty and omnipotence of thee that wroughtest them.   

XX.  
Alas, my Lord God, what poor, weak, imperfect services are those (even at the best) that I can present thee withal! How lean, lame, and blemished sacrifices do I bring to thine altar! I know thou art worthy of more than my soul is capable to perform; and fain would I tender thee the best of thine own: but, what I would that I do not; 
Rom. 7. 15.  yea, cannot do: Surely, had I not to do with an infinite mercy, I might justly look to be punished for my very obedience: But now Lord my impotence redounds to the praise of thy goodness; for were I more answerable to thy justice the glory of thy mercy would be so much less eminent in my remission, & acceptance; Here I am before thee, to await thy good pleasure; thou knowest whether it be better to give me more ability, or to accept of that poor ability thou hast given me; but since, when thou hast given me most, I shall still, and ever stand in need of thy forgiveness; Let my humble suit be to thee always, rather for pardon of my defects, then for a supply of thy graces.   

XXI.  
O my God; how do I see many profane and careless souls spend their time in jollity and pleasure. 
Jsa. 5. 12.  The harp and the Viol, the Tabret and the pipe, and wine are in their feasts; Whiles I that desire to walk close with thee, in all conscionable obedience, droop and languish under a dull heaviness, and heartless dejection: I am sure I have a thousand times more cause of joy and cheerfulness, than the merriest of all those wild and jovial spirits; they have a world to play withal, but I have a God to rejoice in; their sports are trivial and momentany; my joy is serious, and everlasting: One dram of my mirth is worth a pound of theirs; But, I confess, O Lord, how much I am wanting to myself in not stirring up this holy fire of spiritual joy; but suffering it to lie raked up under the dead ashes of a sad neglect: O thou, who art the God of hope, quicken this heavenly affection in my soul; 
Rom. 15. 13.  and fill me with all joy and peace in believing; make my heart so much more light than the worldlings, by how much my estate is happier.   

XXII.  
What shall I do Lord? I strive and tug (what I may) with my natural corruptions, 
Ephes. 6. 12.  and with the spiritual wickednesses in high places which set upon my soul; but sometimes I am foiled, and go halting out of the field; it is thy mercy that I live, being so fiercely assaulted by those principalities, and powers; it were more than wonder if I should escape such hands without a wound: Even that holy servant of thine who strove with thine Angel for a blessing, went limping away, though he prevailed; what marvel is it that so weak a wretch as I, striving with many evil Angels for the avoidance of a curse, come off with a maim, or a scar? But blessed be thy name, the wounds that I receive are not mortal; and when I fall, it is but to my knees; whence I rise with new courage and hopes of victory; Thou who art the God of all power, and keepest the keys of hell and death, hast said, Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you; Lord, I do and will by thy merciful aid still and ever resist; make thou my faith as steadfast, as my will is resolute; Oh still teach thou my hands to war, 
Psal. 144. 1.  and my fingers to fight; arm thou my soul with strength, and at last according to thy gracious promise, crown it with victory.   

XXIII.  
Oh Lord God; how ambitious, how covetous of knowledge is this soul of mine? as the eye is not satisfied with seeing, 
Eccles. 1. 8.  nor the ear filled with hearing; no more is the mind of man with understanding; yea, so insatiable is my heart, that the more I know, the more I desire to know; and the less I think I know: Under heaven there can be no bounds set to this intellectual appetite: O do thou stop the mouth of my soul with thy self, 
Ps. 73. 25.  who art infinite; Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee: Alas, Lord, if I could know all creatures, with all their forms, qualities, workings; if I could know as much as innocent Adam, or wise Solomon; Yea more, if I could know all that is done in earth or heaven, what were my soul the better, if it have not attained the knowledge of thee: Since, as the Preacher hath most wisely observed, 
Eccles. 1. 18.  In much wisdom is much grief, and he that increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow; Oh then, set off my heart from affecting that knowledge whose end is sorrow; and fix it upon that knowledge, which brings eeverlasting life: 
Joh. 17. 3.  And this is life eternal, to know thee the only true God; and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.   

XXIV.  
O my God, what miserable uncertainties there are in these worldly hopes! But yesterday I made account of an eminent advantage of my estate, which now ends in a deep loss. How did we lately feed ourselves with the hope of a firm and during peace, which now shuts up in too much blood? How confidently did I rely upon the promised favour of some great friends, which now leave me in the suds, as the scorn of (a miscalled) fortune? In how slippery places, O Lord, do our feet stand? If that may be said to stand which is ever sliding, never fixed; And not more slippery, then brittle; so as there is not more danger of falling, then of sinking: With thee, O God, with thee only, is a constant immutability of happiness; There let me seek it, there let me find it; and overlooking all the fickle objects of this vain world, let my soul pitch itself upon that blessed immortality which ere long it hopes to enjoy with thee.   

XXV.  
Lord God, What a wearisome circle do I walk in here below; I sleep, and dress, and work, and eat, and work again, and eat again, and undress, and sleep again; and thus wearing out my time find a satiety in all these, troublesome; Lord, when shall I come to that state, wherein I shall do nothing but enjoy thee; do nothing but praise thee; and in that one work shall find such infinite contentment, that my glorified soul cannot wish to do any other? and shall therein alone bestow a blessed eternity?   

XXVI.  
O God, how troublesome and painful do I find this Sun of thine, whose scorching beams beat upon my head? and yet, this excellent creature of thine is that, to which, under thee, we are beholden for our very life; and it is thy great blessing to the earth, that it may enjoy these strong and forceable rays from it; Oh, Who shall be able to endure the burning flames of thy wrath, which thou intendest for the punishment, and everlasting torment of thine enemies? And if men shall blaspheme the name of thee the God of heaven, 
Rev. 16. 9  for the great heat of that beneficial creature, what shall we think they will do for that fire which shall be consuming them to all eternity? Lord keep my soul from those flames, which shall be ever burning, and never, either quenched, or abated.   

XXVII  
Which way, O Lord, which way can I look, and not see some sad examples of misery: One wants his limbs with Mephibosheth, another his sight with Bartimeus, a third with Lazarus wants bread, and a whole skin; One is pained in his body, another plundered of his estate, a third troubled in mind; one is pined in prison, another tortured on the rack, a third languisheth under the loss of a dear son, or wife or husband; Who am I Lord, that, for the present, I enjoy an immunity from all these sorrows? I am sure none groans under them that hath deserved them more: It is thy mercy, thy mere mercy, O my good God, that any of these calamities have fallen beside me; Oh make me truly thankful for thine infinite goodness; and yet only so sensible of thy gracious indulgence this way; as that when any of these evils shall seize upon me, I may be no more dejected in the sense of them, than I am now overjoyed with the favour of their forbearance.   

XXVIII.  
O blessed God, what variety of gifts hast thou scattered amongst the sons of men? To one thou hast given vigour of body, to another agility, beauty to a third; to one depth of judgement, to another quickness of apprehension; to one readiness and rarity of invention; to another tenacity of memory; to one the knowledge of liberal arts, to another the exquisiteness of manuary skill; to one worldly wealth, to another honour; to one a wise heart, to another an eloquent tongue; to one more then enough, to another contentment with a little; to one valour, to another sagacity: These favours, O Lord, thou hast promiscuously dispersed amongst both thy friends, and enemies: but oh, how transcendent are those spiritual mercies which thou hast reserved for thine own; the graces of heavenly wisdom, lively faith, fervent charity, firm hope, joy in the holy Ghost and all the rest of that divine beavye. For any competency of the least of thy common blessings I desire to be thankful to thy bounty; (for which of them, O God, can I either merit or requite?) but oh for a soul truly and eagarly ambitious of those thy best mercies; Oh let me ever long for them, and ever be insatiable of them; Oh do thou fill my heart with the desire of them, and let that desire never find itself filled.   

XXIX.  
How comfortable a style is that, O God, which thine Apostle gives to thine Heaven, whiles he calls it the inheritance of the Saints in light? None can come there but Saints; the rooms of this lower world are taken up, commonly, with wicked men, with beasts, with Devils; but into that heavenly Jerusalem no unholy thing can enter; Neither can any Saint be excluded thence; each of them have not only a share, but an entire right to thy glory: And how many just titles are there, O Saviour, to that region of blessedness; It is thy Father's gift, it is thy purchase, it is thy Saint's inheritance; theirs only in thy right; by thy gracious adoption they are sons, 
Rom. 8. 17.  and as sons, heirs: coheirs with thee of that blessed Patrimony; so feoffed upon them, so possessed of them, that they can never be disseized: And, Lord, how glorious an inheritance it is! An inheritance in light: In light incomprehensible, in light inaccessible: Lo, the most spiritual of all thy visible creatures is light; and yet this light is but the effect, and emanation of one of thy creatures, the Sun; and serves only for the illumination of this visible world; but that supernal light is from the Al-glorious beams of thy Divine Majesty, diffusing themselves to those blessed spirits, both Angels, and Souls of thy Saints, who live in the joyful fruition of thee, to all eternity: Alas, Lord, we do here dwell in darkness, and under an uncomfortable opacity, whiles thy face is clouded from us with manifold temptations there above, with thee, is pure light, a constant noon-tide of glory; I am here under a miserable and obscure wardship; Oh teach me to despise the best of earth; and ravish my soul with a longing desire of being possessed of that blessed inheritance of the Saints in light.   

XXX.  
What outward blessing can be sweeter than civil peace? What judgement more heavy than that of the sword? Yet, O Saviour, there is a peace which thou disclaimest; and there is a sword which thou challengest to bring; Peace with our corruptions is war against thee; and that war in our bosoms, wherein the spirit fighteth against the flesh, is peace with thee: O let thy good Spirit raise and foment this holy and intestine war more and more within me. And as for my outward spiritual enemies; how can there be a victory without war; and how can I hope for a crown without victory? O do thou ever gird me with strength to the battle; enable thou me to resist unto blood; make me faithful to the death, that thou mayst give me the crown of life.   

XXXI.  
O Lord God; how subject is this wretched heart of mine to repining, and discontentment? If it may not have what it would, how ready it is (like a froward child) to throw away what it hath. I know and feel this to be out of that natural pride which is so deep rooted in me; for could I be sensible enough of my own unworthiness, I should think every thing too good, every thing too much for me; my very being, O Lord, is more than I am ever able to answer thee; and how could I deserve it when I was not? but that I have any helps of my wel-beeing here; or hopes and means of my being glorious hereafter, how far is it beyond the reach of my soul? Lord, let me find my own nothingness; so shall I be thankful for a little, and, in my very want, bless thee.   

XXXII.  
Where art thou, O my God? whither hast thou withdrawn thyself? it is not long, since I found thy comfortable presence with my soul; now I miss thee, and mourn and languish for thee: Nay, rather, where art thou O my soul? my God is where he was; neither can be any other than himself; the change is in thee, whose inconstant disposition varies continually, and cannot find itself fixed upon so blessed an object. It will never be better with me, O my God, 
Ps. 51. 12.  until it shall please thee to establish my heart with thy free Spirit; and to keep it close to thee, that it may not be carried away with vain distractions, with sinful temptations: Lord my God, as thou art always present with me, and canst no more be absent, than not be thyself; so let me be always with thee, in an humble, and faithful acknowledgement of thy presence; as I can never be out of thine allseeing eye; so let mine eyes be ever bend upon thee who art invisible; Thou that hast given me eyes, improve them to thy glory and my happiness.   

XXXIII.  
My bosom, O Lord, is a Rebeccaes' womb, there are twins striving within it; a Jacob and Esau, the old man and the new: whiles I was in the barren state of my unregeneration all was quiet within me; now this strife is both troublesome, and painful; so as nature is ready to say, 
Gen. 25. 22.  If it be so, why am I thus? But withal, O my God, I bless thee for this happy unquietness; for I know there is just cause of comfort in these inward struggle; my soul is now not unfruitful, and is conceived with an holy seed which wrestles with my natural corruptions; and if my Esau have got the start in the priority of time; yet my Jacob shall follow him hard at the heel, and happily supplant him; And though I must nourish them both, as mine, yet I can, through thy grace, imitate thy choice; and say with thee, Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated; Blessed God, make thou that word of thine good in me, That the elder shall serve the younger.   

XXXIV.  
Alas, my Lord God, how small matters trouble me? every petty occurrence is ready to rob me of my peace; so as, me thinks, I am like some little cockboat in a rough Sea, which every billow topples up and down, and threats to sink: I can chide this weak pusillanimity in myself; but it is thou that must redress it: Lord, work my heart to so firm a setledness upon thee, that it may never be shaken; no not with the violent gusts of temptation; much less with the easy gales of secular mis-accidents: Even when I am hardest pressed, in the multitude of the sorrows of my heart, let thy comforts refresh my soul; but for these sleight crosses, oh teach me to despise them, as not worthy of my notice, much less of my vexation: Let my heart be taken up with thee, and then, what care I whether the world smile or frown.   

XXXV.  
What a comfort it is, O Saviour, that thou art the first fruits of them that sleep: Those that die in thee, do but sleep: Thou saidst so, once, of thy Lazarus; and mayst say so of him again; he doth but sleep still: His first sleep was but short, this latter, though longer, is no less true; out of which he shall no less surely awake at thy second call, than he did before at thy first; His first sleep and waking was singular, this latter is the same with ours; we all lie down in our bed of earth, as sure to wake, as ever we can be to shut our eyes; In, and from thee, O blessed Saviour, is this our assurance; who art the first fruits of them that sleep: The first handful of the first fruits was not presented for itself, but for the whole field, wherein it grew: The virtue of that oblation extended itself to the whole crop: Neither didst thou, O blessed Jesus, rise again for thyself only, but the power and virtue of thy resurrection reaches to all thine; so thy chosen Vessel tells us: 
1 Cor. 15. 23.  Christ the first fruits, afterwards they that are Christ's at his coming: So as, 
Act. 24. 15.  though the resurrection be of all the dead, both just and unjust; yet to rise by the power of thy resurrection, is so proper to thine own, as that thou, O Saviour, hast styled it the resurrection of the just; 
Luk. 14. 14.  whiles the rest shall be dragged out of their graves by the power of thy Godhead to their dreadful judgement: Already therefore, O Jesus, are we risen in thee: and as sure shall rise in our own persons; The Loco-motive faculty is in the head; Thou who art our head art risen, we who are thy members must, and shall follow: Say then, O my dying body, say boldly unto Death, 
Micah 7. 8.  Rejoice not over me, O mine enemy, for though I fall, yet I shall rise again: Yea, Lord, the virtue of thy first fruits diffuseth itself, not to our rising only, but to a blessed immortality of these bodies of ours: for, as thou didst rise immortal and glorious, so shall we by, and with thee; 
Phil. 3. 21.  Who shalt change these vile bodies, and make them like to thy glorious body. The same power that could shake off death, can put on glory and Majesty: Lay thee down therefore, O my body, quietly and cheerfully; and look to rise in another hue; 
1 Cor. 15. 42, 43.  Thou art sown in corruption, thou shalt be raised in incorruption; thou art sown in dishonour, thou shalt be raised in glory; thou art sown in weakness, but shalt be raised in power.   

XXXVI.  
In this life, in this death of the body; O Lord, I see there are no degrees, though differences of time; The man that died yesterday is as truly dead, as Abel the first man that died in the world; and Methuselah that lived nine hundred sixty nine years, did not more truly live, than the child that did but salute, and leave the world; but in the life to come, and the second death, there are degrees; degrees of blessedness to the glorified, degrees of torments to the damned; the least whereof is unspeakable, unconceivable: Oh thou that art the Lord of life and death, keep my soul from those steps that go down to the chambers of death; and once set it (for higher I dare not sue to go) but over the threshold of glory and blessedness.   

XXXVII.  
O Lord my God, I am as very a Pilgrim as ever walked upon thy earth; Why should I look to be in any better condition than my neighbours, than my forefathers? Even the best of them, that were most fixed upon their inheritance, were no other than strangers at home: It was not in the power of the world to naturalise them, much less to make them enrol themselves free-Denizons here below; they knew their country, which they sought, 
Heb. 11. 13, 14, 15.  was above; so infinitely rich, and pleasant, that these earthly regions which they must pass through, are, in comparison, worthy of nothing but contempt.  
My condition is no other than theirs; I wander here in a strange country; What wonder is it, if I meet with foreigner's fare, hard usage, and neglect? Why do I intermeddle with the affairs of a nation that is not mine? Why do I clog myself in my way with the base and heavy lumber of the world? Why are not my affections homeward? Why do I not long to see and enjoy my father's house? O my God, thou that hast put me into the state of a Pilgrim, give me a Pilgrim's heart; set me off from this wretched world wherein I am; let me hate to think of dwelling here; Let it be my only care how to pass through this miserable wilderness to the promised land of a blessed eternity.   

XXXVIII.  
One Talon at the least, O Lord, hast thou put into my hand; and that sum is great to him that is not worth a dram; but, alas, what have I done with it? I confess I have not hid it in a napkin; but have been laying it out to some poor advantage; yet surely the gain is so unanswerable, that I am afraid of an Audit: I see none of the approved servants in the Gospel brought in an increase of less value than the receipt; I fear I shall come short of the sum. 
Luk. 19 16. 17, 18, 19  O thou, who justly holdest thyself wronged with the style of an austere master, vouchsafe to accept of my so mean improvement; and thou, who valuedst the poor widows mites above the rich gifts cast into thy Treasury, be pleased to allow of those few pounds that my weak endeavours could raise from thy stock; and mercifully reward thy servant, not according to his success, but according to his true intentions of glorifying thee.   

XXXIX.  
What a word is this which I hear from thee, O Saviour; Behold I stand at the door and knock! Thou which art the Lord of life, God blessed for ever, to stand and knock at the door of a sinful heart! Oh what a praise is this of thy mercy and long suffering? What a shame to our dull neglect and graceless ingratitude? 
Ps. 40. 1.  For a David to say I waited patiently upon the Lord; Truly my soul waiteth upon God; 
Ps. 62. 1.  it is but meet and comely; for it is no other than the duty of the greatest Monarches on earth, yea, of the highest Angels in Heaven to attend their Maker; but for thee the great God of Heaven to wait at the door of us sinful dust and ashes, what a condescension is this, what a longanimity? It were our happiness, O Lord, if upon our greatest suit and importunity we might have the favour to entertain thee into our hearts; but that thou shouldst importune us to admit thee, and shouldst wait at the posts of our doors, 
Cant. 5. 2.  till thine head be filled with dew, and thy locks with the drops of the night, it is such a mercy, as there is not room enough in our souls to wonder at. In the mean time what shall I say to our wretched unthankfulness; and impious negligence? Thou hast graciously invited us to thee, and hast said; knock and it shall be opened; and yet thou continuest knocking at our doors, and we open not; willingly delaying to let in our happiness; we know how easy it were for thee to break open the brazen doors of our breasts, and to come in; but the Kingdom of Heaven suffers not violence from thee, though it should suffer it from us; Thou wilt do all thy works in a sweet and gracious way; as one who will not force, but win love; Lord, I cannot open unless thou that knock'st for entrance, wilt be pleased to enable me with strength to turn the key, and to unbolt this unwieldy bar of my soul. O do thou make way for thyself by the strong motions of thy blessed Spirit, into the inmost rooms of my heart; and do thou powerfully incline me to mine own happiness: else, thou shalt be ever excluded, and I shall be ever miserable.   

XLI.  
In what pangs couldst thou be, O Asaph, that so woeful a word should fall from thee, Hath God forgotten to be gracious? 
Ps. 77▪ 9  Surely, the temptation went so high, that the next step had been blasphemy; Had not that good God, whom thy bold weakness questions for forgetfulness, in great mercy remembered thee, and brought thee speedily to remember thyself and him, that which thou confessest to have been infirmity, had proved a sinful despair: I dare say for thee, that word washed thy cheeks with many a tear, and was worthy of more; For, O God, What can be so dear to thee as the glory of thy mercy? There is none of thy blessed attributes which thou desirest to set forth so much unto the sons of men, and so much abhorrest to be disparaged by our detraction, as thy mercy: Thou canst, O Lord, forget thy displeasure against thy people; thou canst forget our iniquities, and cast our sins out of thy remembrance; 
Micha. 7. 18, 19  but thou canst no more forget to be gracious, than thou canst cease to be thyself; O my God, I sin against thy justice hourly, and thy mercy interposes for my remission; but oh keep me from sinning against thy mercy; What plea can I hope for, when I have made my Advocate mine enemy?   

XLI.  
How happy, O Lord, is the man that hath thee for his God? He can want nothing that is good; he can be hurt by nothing that is evil; his sins are pardoned, his good endeavours are accepted; his crosses are sanctified; his prayers are heard; all that he hath are blessings, all that he suffers are advantages; his life is holy, his death comfortable, his estate after death glorious; Oh that I could feel thee to be my God; that I could enjoy an heavenly communion with thee; In vain should earth or hell labour to make me other then blessed.   

XLII.  
How just a motion is this of thine, O thou sweet singer of Israel; 
Psal. 31. 23.  O love the Lord, all ye his Saints; Surely they can be no Saints that love not such a Lord; Had he never been good to them, yet that infinite goodness which is in himself, would have commanded love from Saints: Yet, how could they have been Saints, if he had wholly kept his goodness to himself? In that then he hath made them Saints, he hath communicated his goodness to them, and challengeth all love from them; and being made such, how infinitely hath he obliged them with all kinds of mercies? How can ye choose O ye Saints but love the Lord? What have ye, what are ye, what can ye be, but from his mere bounty? They are slight favours that he hath done you for the world; in these his very enemies share with you; How transcendent are his spiritual obligations! Hath he not given you his Angels for your attendants; himself for your Protector; his Son out of his bosom for your Redeemer; his Spirit for your Comforter; his heaven for your inheritance? If gifts can attract love; O my God, Who can have any interest in my heart but thy blessed self, that hast been so infinitely munificent to my soul? Take it to thee, thou that hast made and bought it; enamour it thoroughly of thy goodness; make me sick of love; yea let me die for love of thee, who hast loved me unto death that I may fully enjoy the perfection of thy love, in the height of thy glory.   

XLIII.  
Lord, how have I seen men miscarried into those sins, the premonition whereof they would have thought incredible, and their yeildance thereto, impossible? How many hazael's hath our very age yielded, that if a Prophet should have fore told their acts, 
2 Kings. 8. 13.  would have said, Is thy servant a dog that he should do these great things? Oh my God, why do not I suspect myself? What hold have I of myself more than these other miserable examples of humane frailty?  
Lord God, if thou take off thy hand from me, what wickedness shall escape me? I know I cannot want a tempter; and that tempter cannot want either power, or malice, or skill, or vigilance▪ or baits, or opportunities; and for my self, I find too well, that of myself I have no strength to resist any of his temptations: O for thy mercy's sake, uphold thou me with thy mighty hand; stand close to me in all assaults; show thyself strong in my weakness: 
Psal. 19 13.  Keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me; then (only) shall I be upright, and shall be innocent from the great transgression.   

XLIV.  
It is thy title, O Lord, and only thine, that thou givest songs in the night: 
Job 35. 10.  The night is a sad and dolorous season; 
Eccles. 11. 7.  as the light contrarily is the image of cheerfulness; like as it is in bodily pains and aches, that they are still worst towards night; so it is in the cares and griefs of mind; then they assault us most when they are helped on by the advantage of an uncomfortable darkness: Many men can give themselves songs in the day of their prosperity; who can but howl in the night of their affliction; 
Act. 16. 25.  but for a Paul and Silas to sing in their prison at midnight; for an Asaph to call to remembrance his song in the night, 
Ps. 77. 6.  this comes only from that Spirit of thine, whose peculiar style is the Comforter: And surely, as music sounds best in the night, so those heavenly notes of praise which we sing to thee our God in the gloomy darkness of our adversity, cannot but be most pleasing in thine ears: Thine Apostle bids us (which is our ordinary wont) when we are merry to sing, when afflicted, to pray; but if when we are afflicted we can sing, (as also when we are merriest we can pray) that ditty must needs be so much more acceptable to thee, as it is a more powerful effect of the joy of thy Holy Ghost; O my God, I am conscious of my own infirmity; I know I am naturally subject to a dull and heavy dumpishness, under whatsoever affliction; Thou that art the God of all comfort, remedy this heartless disposition in me; pull this lead out of my bosom; make me not patient only, but cheerful under my trials, fill thou my heart with joy, and my mouth with songs in the night of my tribulation.   

XLV.  
It is a true word, O Lord, that thy Seer said of thee long ago; 
1 Sam. 16. 7.  The Lord seeth not as man seeth: Man sees the face, thou seest the heart; man sees things as they seem, thou seest them as they are; many things are hid from the eyes of men, all things lie open and displayed before thee. What a madness than were it in me to come disguised into thy presence, & to seek to hide my counsels from thine all-seeing eyes? I must be content, Lord, to be deluded here by fair appearances; for I may not offer to look into the bosoms of men, which thou hast reserved for thyself; it is only the outside that I can judge by; Yea, O God, if I shall cast my eyes inward, and look into my own breast, even there I find myself baffled at home; The heart of man is deceitful above all things; who can know it? None but those piercing eyes of thine can discover all the windings and turnings of that intricate piece. What would it avail me, O Lord, to mock the eyes of all the world with a semblance of holiness, whilst thou shouldst see me false and filthy? Should I be censured by a world of men, when I am secretly allowed by thee, I could contemn it, yea glory in their unjust reproach; But if thine eye shall note me guilty, to what purpose is all the applause of men? O thou that art the God of truth; do thou open, and dissect this close heart of mine; search every fiber that is in, or about it; and if thou findest any ill blood there, let it out; and if thou findest any hollowness, fill it up; and so work upon it, that it may be approved of thee that madest it; as for men, it shall be alike to me whether they spend their breath or save it.   

XLVI.  
Lord God, What a world of treasure hast thou hid in the bowels of the earth, which no eye of man ever did, or shall, or can see? What goodly plants hast thou brought forth of the earth, in wild, unknown regions, which no man ever beheld? What great wits hast thou shut up in a willing obscurity, which the world never takes notice of? In all which thou showest, that it is not only the use and benefit of man which thou regardest in the great variety of thy creation, and acts of administration of the world; but thine own glory, and the fulfilling of thine own good pleasure; and if only the Angels of heaven be witnesses of thy great works, thou canst not want a due celebration of thy praise; It is just with thee, O God, that thou shouldst regard only thy blessed self, in all that thou dost, or hast done; for all is thine, and thou art all: Oh that I could sincerely make thee the perfect scope of all my thoughts, of all my actions; that so we may both meet in one and the same happy end, thy glory in my eternal blessedness.   

XLVII.  
Indeed, Lord, as thou sayest, the night cometh when no man can work; What can we do, when the light is shut in, but shut our eyes, and sleep? When our senses are tied up, and our limbs laid to rest, what can we do, but yield ourselves to a necessary repose? O my God, I perceive my night hastening on apace, my Sun draws low, the shadows lengthen, vapours rise, and the air begins to darken; Let me bestir myself for the time; let me lose none of my few hours; Let me work hard a while; because I shall soon rest everlastingly.   

XLVIII.  
Thou seest, Lord, how apt I am to contemn this body of mine; Surely when I look back upon the stuff whereof it is made, no better than that I tread upon; and see the loathsomeness of all kinds that comes from it; and feel the pain that it oft times puts me to, and consider whither it is going, and how noisome it is above all other creatures upon the dissolution; I have much ado to hold good terms with so unequal a partner; But on the other side; when I look up to thy hand, and see how fearfully and wonderfully thou hast made it; what infinite cost thou hast bestowed upon it, in that thou hast not thought thine own blood too dear to redeem it; that thou hast so far honoured it, as to make it the Temple of thy holy Ghost; and to admit it into a blessed communion with thyself; and hast decreed to do so great things for it hereafter; even to clothe it with immortality, and to make it like unto thy glorious body; I can bless thee for so happy a mate; and with patience digest all these necessary infirmities; and now I look upon this flesh, not as it is, withered and wrinkled; but as it will be, shining and glorified. O Lord, how vile so ever this clay is in itself; yet make me in thine interest and my hopes so enamoured of it, as if I did already find it made celestial. Oh that my faith could prevent my change, and anticipate my ensuing glory.   

XLIX.  
Lord, what a dreadful favour was that which thou show'dst to thy Prophet Elijah, to send a fiery chariot for him, to convey him up to Heaven! I should have thought that the sight of so terrible a carriage should have fetched away his soul beforehand, and have left the body grovelling on the earth: But that good Spirit of thine, which had fore-signified that fiery rapture, had doubtless fore-armed thy servant with an answerable resolution to expect, and undergo it: Either he knew that chariot, how ever fearful in the appearance, was only glorious, and not penal; Or else he cheerfully resolved that such a momentany pain in the change would be followed with an eternity of happiness: O God, we are not worthy to know whereto thou hast reserved us: Perhaps thou hast appointed us to be in the number of those, whom thou shalt find alive at thy second coming; and then the case will be ours; we shall pass through fire to our immortality: or, if thou hast ordained us to a speedier dispatch, perhaps thou hast decreed that our way to thee shall be through a fiery trial. O God, what ever course thou in thine holy wisdom hast determined for the fetching up my soul from this vale of misery, and tears, prepare me thoroughly for it; and do thou work my heart to so lively a faith in thee, that all the terrors of my death may be swallowed up in an assured expectation of my speedy glory: and that my last groans shall be immediately seconded with eternal Allelujahs, in the glorious Chore of thy Saints and Angels in Heaven. Amen. Amen.  
FINIS.