Catholic Divinity: OR, The most Solid and Sententious Expressions of the Primitive Doctors of the Church.  
With other Ecclesiastical, and Civil Authors: Dilated upon, and fitted to the Explication of the most Doctrinal Texts of Scripture, in a choice way both for the matter, and the language, and very useful for the Pulpit, and these Times.  
By Dr. Stuart, Dean of St. Paul's, afterwards Dean of Westminster, and Clerk of the Closet to the late K. Charles.  
LONDON, Printed for H. M. and are to be sold by Timo. Smart at his shop in the Great Old-Bayly near the Sessions-house 1657.   

To the Reader.  
YOu may by these few sheets understand in some part that great benefit of humane Learning, how serviceable it may be made for Divine. For as the Badger-skins, and Goatshair were made use of for the service of the Tabernacle in the Jewish Church: So may the Endowments of profane Infidel-Philosophers, Orators, and Poets, be employed for the service of the Christian. And indeed the Arts are but as handmaids to Divinity. Look but back upon those two famous patterns of Jewish and Christian Divines, Moses learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and St. Paul wise in all the learning of the Grecians, a great Artist, and a good Linguist: Now to what purpose both those gifts, unless improved to a further end, than they were first intended, namely to make Greece and Egypt Proselytes, and to teach those Nation's Christianity from the grounds and principles of their own learning.  
And thus, Reader, mayest thou make use of this Book, if a Minister for thy Pulpit; if a Layman for thy practice. As for the Author, he is too well known, to be praised by a private Pen; only thus much take notice in his behalf, that these were only some loose scattered sheets of his Juvenilia; by which you may guests what his full grown elaborate pieces will be, when ever it shall please God to instruct these ignorant Times with those his most learned Productions. Till when, I am  
Thine in all Christian service, H. M.   

Catholic Divinity: OR, The most solid and sententious Expressions of the Primitive Doctors of the Church, etc.  

quam malè est extra legem viventibus, quicquid meruerunt semper expectant.  Petronius. 
FAt Swine cry hideously, if but touched or meddled with, as knowing they owe their life to every one that will take it. Tiberius' felt the remorse of conscience so violent, that he protested to the Senate, that he suffered death daily: Whereupon Tacitus makes this good Note, Tandem-facinora & flagitia in supplicium vertuntur, as every body hath its shadow appertaining to it, so hath every sin its punishment: And although they escape the lash of the Law, yet vengeance will not suffer them to live (as the Barbarians rashly censured St. Paul Act. 28.) quietly at least. Richard the Third after the Murder of his two Nephews, had fearful dreams and visions, insomuch that he did often leap out of his bed in the dark, and catching his sword (which always naked stuck by his side) he would go distractedly about the chamber, every where seeking to find our the cause of his own occasioned disquiet. It is as proper for sin to raise fears in the soul, as for rotten flesh and wood to breed worms. That worm that never dies, is bred here in the froth of filthy lusts and flagitious courses, and lies gnawing and grabling upon men's inwards; many times in the ruff of all their jollity. This makes Saul call for a Minstrel, Belshazzar for his carousing cups, others for other pleasures, to put by the pangs of their wounded spirits, and throbbing consciences. Charles the fourth after the Massacre of France, could never endure to be awakened in the night without Music, or some like diversion, he became as terrible to himself as formerly he had been to others; but above all, I pity the loss of their souls, who serve themselves as the Jesuit in Laucashire, followed by one that found his glove, with a desire to restore it him; but pursued inwardly with a guilty conscience, he leaps over a hedge, plunges into a Marle-pit behind it unseen and unthought of, wherein he was drowned.   

Vestium curiosit as, deformitatis mentium & morum indicium est.  St. Bernard. 
OUr first Parents, who even after the Fall, were the goodliest creatures that ever lived, went no better clothed, than with leather; no more did those Worthies, of whom the world was not worthy, Heb. 11. 37 And surely, however our condition and calling, afford us better array, and the Vulgar like a Pohemian Cur, fawn upon every good suit (purpuram magis quam dominu● colunt) yet we must take heed that pride creep not into our clothes, those Ensigns of our sin and shame, seeing our fineness, is but our filthiness; our weakness, our nastiness. It is a sure sign of a base mind to think he can make himself great with any thing that is less than himself, and win more credit by his garments than his graces. St. Peter teacheth women, 1 Pet. 3. 3. to garnish themselves, not with gay clothes, but with a meek and quiet spirit, and not as those mincing Dames, whose pride the Prophet Isaiah inveighes against, as punctually as if he had viewed the Lady's Wardrobes in Jerusalem. Rich Apparel are but fine covers for the foulest shame; the worst is Nature's garment, the best but folly's garnish. How blessed a Nation were we, if every silken suit did cause a sanctified soul; or if we could look upon our clothes, as our first Parents did, as love-tokens from God.   

Quicquid propter Deum fit, equaliter fit.  St. August. 
IT is said in the seventh of Gen. vers. 5. That Noah did according to all that the Lord had commanded him; Where the word All, is a little word, but of a large extent; he doth not his Masters, but his own will, that doth no more than himself will. A disspensatory conscience, is an evil conscience, God cries to us, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he will have universal obedience both for subject and object. We must be entirely willing in all things to please God, or we utterly displease him. Herod did many things, and was not any thing the better. Jehues' golden Calves made an end of him, though he had made an end of Baal's worship: He that doth some, and not all Gods will, with no desire and affection at least, doth but as Benhadad, recover of one disease, and die of another; yea if he take not a better course with himself, he doth but take pains to go to Hell. Then shall we not be ashamed, when we have respect to all God's Commandments, Psal. 119. 6.   

Sordet in conspectu judicis, quod fulg●● in conspect ● operantis.  Gregor. 
GOd can find flaws in that for which we may look for thanks. This makes Nehemiah crave pardon of his zealous Reformations; and David cries out, Enter not into judgement with thy servant, O Lord, for no flesh is righteous in thy sight. Ye are they that justify yourselves before men (saith Christ to the Pharisees) but God knows your hearts, for that which is highly esteemed amongst men, is abamination in the sight of God. A thing which I see in the night may shine, and that shining proceed from nothing but rottenness, but be not deceived (or if you be, yet) God is not mocked, when he comes to turn the bottom of the bag upwards (as the Steward did Benjamins) all our secret thefts will out, all our collusions come to light; His Law is a Law of fire, Deut. 33. 2. His Tribunal of fire, Ezek. 1. 27. His pleading with sinners, in flames of fire, Isa. 60. 15. The trial of our works shall be by fire, and before God who is a consuming fire. Happy are they that are here purged by that spirit of judgement and burning.   

Bona res neminem scandalizant, nisi malam mentem.  Tertullian. 
GOod meats displease none but the distempered palates; and must the wholesome dishes be barred the table, because they offend the aguish? No, Scandal in this case is medicinable. You know the Physician offends the sick, that he may the more surely cure him. If to do well cause discontent, we then offend not against men, but their errors; and in this regard, we are tender to the persons themselves when we strike down their ignorance. In Matth. 8. where our Saviour taught the abrogation of Jewish Ceremonies, and that the worst meats could not defile us, the text intimates the Pharisees were offended; nay, and his Disciples from hence seem to entreat his silence, Master, Seest thou not that they are offended? But did our Saviour regard it? Let them alone, saith he, They are blind leaders of the blind. Christ meant to teach us when men grow discontented at the truth itself, the offence is taken only, not given, and they be said then rather to make, than to receive a scandal: Which may serve to reprove too many in our Church, who still cry out of weakness, who sit not easy though on their mothers ' knee, they complain her clothes do offend their tender eyes, her Rites say they are scandalous, and they must be relieved by that text in Saint Paul, If meat offend my brother, I will eat no meat while I live. It follows then that for their weak sakes, we must forbear those weak ceremonies. But is the reason the same? to eat is a private action in common converse, wherein each man is true Lord of himself, he may command his actions, and therefore in this case to use connivency is still to be thought most commendable. But we speak of actions public, solemnly designed for our Religious meetings, actions enjoined by Laws, and approved by the far more, which is the rule of Laws; should the Church give content to some few that dislike, she would displease multitudes, that approve her Ceremonies, and so instead of a pretended sleight offence, she should run herself upon a true gross scandal.   

Non omne quod licet, etiam honestum est.  Paulus Canonista. 
IT is a Rule of the Canonists, and they borrowed it from their own Innocentius. In all our actions three things must be observed, Quid liceat; Quid deceat; Quid expediat: What is lawful, What decent, and what expedient. Our actions must not be lawful only; for he that doth no more than he is bound to, is rather wary than good, and hath learned only safe dishonesty, how by keeping the Kingdom's Laws, he may abuse her people. There is a difference between strict Law and honesty. In rigour things may be done, which yet are neither decent in the actor himself, nor expedient for the Commonwealth. It's thus in the Church too: Many things hath God here left in their own selves indifferent; he hath therefore not forbidden them, because they may oftentimes be done in safety, and yet cannot we be free, except we become injurious. Is there no way to show our own liberty but in our neighbour's destruction? Grant these things to be lawful, yet they may be unseemly, and shall we shame ourselves? They may be expedient too, and shall we endanger others? It is not enough to keep the first Precept to forbear things unlawful: A Christian man must be wary too in matters of indifferency.   

Quae per rationem innotescunt, non sunt articuli fidei, sed praeambula, ad articulos.  Aquinas. 
TO behold this goodly Fabric of the world, may soon force a Pagan to confess that there is a Deity, but to know that this God is both three and one; or that of these three, one was Incarnate: Here nature is blind, and requires help from a clearer light. To instance in the Resurrection, to see the Grave open, the Earth trembling, the Angels attending, did no doubt persuade the Watchmen themselves that Christ was risen, but to believe that he rose both God and man, This proceeds from the Spirit alone, who only can enlighten them that sit in darkness. Our domestic abilities may some way prepare us to entertain faith; when it is received, they may perchance confirm or awaken it; but we must confess the author of it to be the Holy Ghost alone, and the word his instrument. Notwithstanding where thou mayest use these helps, neglect not the benefits of such outward testimonies; for though faith come by hearing, yet let Christians be spectators too, and learn, as well to see God in his Works, as to believe him in his Scriptures, though that he that made thine eye, as well as thy soul, exacts a tribute no less from thy fenfe than from thy reason. These lower powers are made for his glory; and when they are employed to viler ends, remember that thou dost not more abuse thyself, than wrong thy Maker.   

Mors optima est perire, dum lacrymant Sancti.  Seneca in Hypol. 
SOmething is to be given to Custom, something to Fame, to Nature, and to Civilities, and to the honour of deceased Friends. For that man is esteemed to die miserable, for whom no friend, no relative sheds a tear, or pays a solemn sigh. I desire to die a dry death, but am not very desirous to have a dry Funeral. Some flowers sprinkled on my grave would do well, and comely; and a soft shower to turn those flowers into a springing memory, or a fair rehearsal, that I may not go forth of my doors as my servants carry out the entrails of Beasts. But that which is to be saulted in this particular is, when the grief is immoderate and unreasonable; and Paula Romana deserved to have felt the weight of St. Jeroms severe reproof, when at the death of every one of her children she almost wept herself into her grave. But it is worse, yet when people by an ambitious and a pompous sorrow, and by ceremonies invented for the ostentation of their grief, fill Heaven and Earth with exclamations, and grow troublesome, because their friend is happy, or themselves want his company.  
It is certainly a sad thing in Nature to see a friend trembling with a Palsy, or scorched with Fevers, or dried up like a Potsherd with immoderate heats, and rolling upon his uneasy bed without sleep, which cannot be invited with Music; nothing but the servants of cold death, poppy, and weariness, can tempt' the eyes to let their curtains down, and then they fleep only to taste of death, and yet we weep not here: The solemn opportunity for tears, we choose when our friend is fallen asleep, when he hath laid his neck upon the lap of his mother, and let his head down to be raised up to Heaven: This grief is ill placed, and undecent.   

Ne●● me lacbrym is 〈◊〉, nec 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  
Faxit: Cur? Vility vi●●● per ora vi●●●●.  Ennius. 
SOlemn and appointed mournings are good expressions of our dearness to the departed soul of our friend, and of his worth, and our value of him; and it hath its praise in Nature, and in Manners, and public Custom; but the praise of it is not in the Gospel; that is, It hath no proper and direct uses in Religion. For if the dead did die in the Lord, than there is joy in him; and it is an ill expression of our affection, and our charity, to weep uncomfortably at the change that hath carried my friend to the state of an huge felicity. But if the man did perish in his folly, and his sins, there is indeed cause to mourn, but no hopes of being comforted; for he shall never return to light, or to hopes of restitution; Therefore beware lest thou also come into the same place of torment; and let thy grief sit down, and rest upon thine own turf, and weep till a shower spring from thine eyes to heal the wounds of thy spirit. Turn thy sorrow into caution, thy grief for him that is dead, to thy care for thyself who art alive, lest thou die, and fall like one of the fools, whose life is worse than death, and their death is the consummation of all infelicities. The Church in her funerals of the dead used to sing Psalms, and to give thanks for the redemption, and delivery of the soul from the evil, and dangers of mortality. And therefore we have no reason to be angry when God hears our prayers, who call upon him to hasten his coming, and to fill up his numbers, and to do that which we pretend to give him thanks for.   

Ne excedat medicina modum.  Galenus. 
CUt not too deep, nor lance too far; Nam non medicina ista, sed clades est, said Germanicus in Tacitus, when he saw a great number of Soldiers put to death for Mutiny, 
▪ Beriere nocentes  
Sed cum jam soli poterunt super●sse nocentes.  Spoken by Lucan of Scylla; he let out the corrupt blood, but when there was in a manner no other blood left in the whole body of the Commonwealth; and this was not to cure, but to cut off a Commonwealth. And therefore in all punishments let this be your rule, and let the severity of your justice be regulated by this prudential and merciful Aphorism; Poena ad paucos, met us ad omnes perveniat, let the clap fright all, the Thunderbolt strike but a few. For principi non minùs turpia multa supplicia quam medico funera, it is as great a shame for a Magistrate, as for a Physician to have many die under his hand. To save whole multitudes, is a work of God's mercy; and that Prince deserves the name of God's Vicegerent that imitates him in this particular. For which reason it was that Scipio when he put thirty of his Soldiers to death, ante suas lachrymas quam ipsorum sanguinem effudit, shed his own tears before their blood.   

Si molliora frustra cesserint medicus ferit venam,  Senec. 
Et efflatur omne priusquam concutitur,  idem. 
NOthing is struck with the Thunderbolt, which is not blasted before with lightning; first to use gentle means before we take a more severe course. For great spirits are for the most part like the Colossus at Tarentum, which you may move with your finger, but cannot wag if you put your whole strength to it, it a ratio est libramenti, Plin. Much resembling in this the Pyrrhite stone, which may be gently ground, or cut with a sharp tool, but if you press it hard, or handle it rudely, it burneth your fingers; So great men may be wrought upon in a civil courteous way, but if you think to bring them to goodness by authority and power, you will then put them in mind of their own strength, raise enemies, and opposition, where you did expect a compliance, and friends; and so instead of saving others, you will destroy yourself.   

Suâ sponte cadentem maturius extinguere vulnere, inhumanum est.  Cice. 
TO break the bruised reed, to trouble the grieved spirit, to strike the breath out of a man's body, who is giving up the ghost, is cruelty upon cruelty. And therefore it was the complaint of Cyprian against the persecutors of Christians in his time, in servis Dei non torquebantur membra sed vulnera, they laid stripes upon stripes, and inflicted wounds upon sores, and tortured not so much the members of God's servants, as their bleeding wounds.   

Tota funeris pompa contemnenda est in nobis, non tamen negligenda in nostris.  Cice. 
THough the pomp of Funerals concerns not the dead in real and effective purposes, nor is it with care to be provided for within themselves; yet it is the duty of the living to see their friends fairly interred: For to the dead it is all one whether they be carried forth upon a Chariot, or a wooden Beer, whether they rot in the air, or in the earth, whether they be devoured by fishes, or by worms. When Cryton asked Socrates how he would be buried, he told him, I think I shall escape from you, and that you cannot catch me; but so much of me as you can apprehend, use it as you see cause for, and bury it, but however do it according to the Laws. There is nothing in this but opinion, and the decency of some to be served. Let thy friend therefore be interred after the manner of the Country, and the Laws of the place, and the dignity of the person. For so Jacob was buried with great solemnity, and Josophs bones were carried into Canaan, after they had been embalmed, and kept four hundred years, and devout men carried St. Stephen to his burial, making great lamentation over him. And Aelian tells, that those who were the most excellent persons were buried in purple, and men of an ordinary courage and fortune, had their graves only trimmed with branches of Olive, and mourning flowers. It was noted for piety in the men of Jabesh Gilead, that they showed kindness to their Lord Sanl, and buried him, and they did it honourably. And our blessed Saviour, who was temperate in his expense, and grave in all the parts of his life and death, as age and sobriety itself, yet was pleased to admit the cost of Mary's ointment upon his head and feet, because she did it against his burial; and though she little thought it had been so nigh, yet because he accepted it for that end, he knew he had made her Apology sufficient; by which he remarked it to be a great act of piety, and honourable to inter our friends and relatives, according to the proportion of their condition, and so to give a testimony of our hopes of their resurrection.   

In spiritualibus nihil perfectum.  Augustinus Serm. 
TO prove this, that in spiritual things nothing is perfect, we may afford a kind of spiritual nature to knowledge. And how imperfect is all our knowledge; what one thing do we know perfectly? whether we consider Arts or Sciences, the servant knows but according to the proportion of his Master's knowledge in that Art; and the Scholar knows but according to the proportion of his Master's knowledge in that Science: Young men mend not their sight by using old men's spectacles. Almost all knowledge is rather like a child that is imbalmed to make mummy, than that is nursed to make a man; rather conserved in the stature of the first age, than grown to be greater; rather a singularity in a desire of proposing something that was not known at all before, than an improving an advancing, a multiplying of former inceptions; and by that means no knowledge comes to be perfect. St. Paul found that to be all knowledge to know Christ; and Mahomet thinks himself wise therefore, because he knows not, nor acknowledges Christ as Paul did. Though a man knew not that every sin casts another shovel of brimstone upon him in hell; yet if he knew that every riotous feast cuts off a year, and every wanton night seven years of his seventy in this world; it were some degree towards perfection in knowledge. He that purchases a Manor, will think to have an exact survey of the land; but who thinks of taking so exact survey of his conscience, how that money was got that purchased that Manor? We call that a man's means which he hath; but that is truly his means what way he came by it; and yet how few are there (when a state comes to any great proportion) that know that, that know what they have, what they are worth. We have seen Wills where the Testator thinks he hath bequeathed all, and he hath not known half his own worth. When thou knowest a wife, a son, a friend, a servant, no better, but that that wife betrays thy bed, and that son thy estate, and that servant thy credit, and that friend thy secret, what canst thou say thou knowest? But let us consider this Thesis in spiritual things, of a more rarified nature than knowledge in faith, hope, and charity; and we shall find all these to fall within this position, and that there is nothing in any of these three, perfect. And first for faith, if you remember who they were that made that prayer, Domine adauge, and the Apostles themselves prayed, that their faith might receive an increase, Lord increase our faith; you must necessarily second that consideration with a confession, that no man's faith is perfect. There are men that abound in faith, that is in comparison of the emptiness of other men, or of their own emptiness before they embraced the Gospel, they abound now, but still it is as God hath given the measure of faith to every one, Rom. 12. 3. not as of Manna, a certain measure, and an equal measure, and a full measure to every man; no man hath such a measure of faith as that he needs no more, or that he may not lose at least some of that. And as our faith is not perfect so neither our hope, for so argues the Apostle, Jam. 4. 3. Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss; you cannot hope constantly, because you do not pray aright; and to make a prayer, a right prayer, there goes so many essential circumstances, as that the best man may justly suspect his best prayer; for since prayer must be of faith, prayer can be but so perfect as the faith is perfect; and the imperfections of the best faith we have seen, Christ hath given us but a short prayer, and yet we are weary of that. Some of the old Heretics of the Primitive Church abridged that Prayer, and some new fangled men of these times have annihilated, evacuated that prayer, because, say they, the same Spirit that spoke in Christ, speaks in their extemporal prayers, and they can pray as well as Christ could teach them.  
And again (to leave these) which of us says over that short prayer with a deliberate understanding of every petition as we pass, or without deviations, and extravagancies of our thoughts in that half minute of our devotion? I throw myself down in my chamber, and I call in, and invite God and his Angels thither, and when they are there, I neglect God and his Angels for the noise of a fly, for the rattling of a coach, for the whining of a door. I talk on in the same posture of prayer, eyes lifted up, knees bowed down, as though I prayed to God; and if God or his Angels should askmee, When I thought last of God in that prayer, I cannot tell: sometimes I find that I had forgot what I was about, but when I began to forget it, I cannot tell. A memory of yesterday pleasure's, a fear of to morrows dangers, a straw under my knee, a noise in mine ears, a light in mine eye, an any thing, a nothing, a fancy, a chimaera in my brain, troubles me in my prayer; so certainly is there nothing, nothing in spiritual things perfect in this world; not in credendis, in things that belong to faith, not in petendis, in things that belong to hope, nor in agendis in things that belong to action, to works, to charity, there is nothing perfect there neither. I would be loath to say that every good word is a sin, that were to say that every deformed, or disordered man were a beast, or that every corrupt meat were poison, it is not utterly so, nor so altogether, but it is so much towards it, as that there is no work of ours so good, as that we can look for thanks at God's hand for that work; no work that hath not so much ill mingled with it, as that we need not cry God mercy for that work. There was so much corruption in the getting, or so much vainglory in the bestowing, as that no man builds an Hospital, but his soul dies, though not dead, yet lame in the Hospital; no man mends a Highway, but he is, though not drowned, yet mired in that way; no man relieves the poor, but he needs relief for that relief, In all those works of charity, the world that hath benefit by them is bound to confess and acknowledge a goodness, and to call them good works, but the man that doth them, and knows the weakness of them, knows they are not good works. It is possible to Art to put a peccant humour out of a sick body, but not possible to raise a dead body to life. God out of my confession, of the impurity of my best actions, shall vouchlafe to take off his eyes from that impurity, as though there were none, but no spiritual thing in us, nor faith, nor hope, nor charity, have any purity, any perfection in themselves.   

Nobis cum semel occidit brevis lux, nox est perpetuo una dormienda.  Catullus: 
THe Gentiles and their Poets describe the sad state of death so, nox una dormienda, that it is one everlasting night to them, a night; but to a Christian, it is dies Mortis, and dies Resurrectionis, the day of Death, and the day of Resurrection; we die in the light, in the sight of God's presence, and we rise in the light in the sight of his very essence. Nay Gods corrections and judgements upon us in this life, are still expressed so, dies Visitationis, still it is a day, though a day of Visitation, and still we may discern God to be in the action. The Lord of life was the first that named Death; Morte morieris, says God, Thou shalt die the death. I do the less fear, or abhor death, because I find it in his mouth; even a Malediction hath a sweetness in his mouth, for there is a blessing wrapped up in it, a mercy in every correction, a resurrection upon every death. When Jezabels' beauty exalted to that height, which it had by art, or higher than that, to that height which it had in her own opinion, shall be infinitely multiplied upon every body, and as God shall know no man from his own son, so as not to see the very righteousness of his own Son upon that man; so the Angels shall know no man from Christ, so as not to desire to look upon that man's face, because the most deformed wretch that is there, shall have the very beauty of Christ himself; So shall Goliahs' Armour, and Dives fullness be doubled, and redoubled upon us, and every thing that we can call good, shall first be infinitely exalted in the goodness, and then infinitely multiplied in the proportion, and again infinitely extended in the duration.   

Solus Deus verè festumagat.  Philo Judae. 
IT hath been disputed by many both of the Gentiles, with whom the Fathers disputed, and of the Schoolmen, who dispute with one another, ansit gaudium in Deo de semet; whether God rejoice in himself in contemplation of himself, whether God be glad that he is God: But it is disputed by them only to establish it, and to illustrate it; for I do not remember that any one of them denies it. It is true, that Plato dislikes, and justly, that saluration of Dionysius the Tyrant, to God, Gaude & servato vitam Tyranni jucundam, that he should say to God, Live merrily, as merrily as a King, as merrily as I do; and than you are good enough to imagine such a joy in God as is only a transitory delight in deceivable things, is an impious conceit. But when as another Platonique says, Deus est quod ipse semper voluit, God is that which he would be, if there be something that God would be, and he be that, if Plato should deny, that God joyed in himself; we must say of Plato as Lactantius doth, Deus potius seminaverat quam cognoverat. Plato had rather dreamt that there was a God, than understood what that God was, Bonum simplex, saith St. Augustine, to be sincere goodness, goodness itself, Ipsa est delectatio Dei, this is the joy that God hath in himself, of himself; and there says Philo Judaeus, hoc necessarium Philosophiae sadalibus, this is the tenant of all Philosophers (and by that title of Philosophers, Philo always means them that know and study God) solum Deum verè festum agere, that only God can be truly said to keep holy day, and to rejoice.  
This joy we shall see, when we see him who is so in it, as that he is this joy itself. But here in this world, so far as I can enter into my Master's sight, I can enter into my Master's joy. I can see God in his creatures, in his Church, in his Word, and Sacraments, and Ordinances, since I am not without this sight, I am not without this joy. Here a man may transilire mortalitatom, says the divine moral man. I cannot put off mortality, but I can look upon immortality; I cannot depart from this earth, but I can look into Heaven. So I cannot possess that final, and accomplished joy here, but as my body can lay down a burden, or a heavy garment, and joy in that case; so my soul can put off my body so far, as that the concupiscences thereof, and the manifold, and miserable encumbrances of this World, cannot extinguish this holy Joy.   

De fiderium generat satietatem, & satiet as parit desiderium.  Bern. 
THere is a spiritual fullness in this life, of which St. Jerom speaks, Ebrietas foelix, satietas salutaris, a happy excess, and a wholesome surfeit, Quae quanto copiosius sumitur, majorem donat sobrietatem, in which the more we eat, the more temperate we are, and the more we drink, the more sober. In which (as St. Bernard also expresses it in his Mellifluence) Mutuâ, interminab ili, inexplicab ili, generatione, by a mutual, and reciprocal, by an undeterminable, & unexpressible generation of one another, the desire of spiritual graces begets a satiety, If I would be, I am full of them, and then this satiety begets a further desire; still we have a new appetite to those spiritual graces; this is a holy ambition, a sacred covetousness, and a wholesome dropsy. Napth allies blessing, O Napthali, satisfied with favour, and full with the blessing of the Lord. St. Stephen's blessing, Full of faith, and of the Holy Ghost; the blessed Virgin's blessing, Full of grace; Dorcas blessing, Full of good works, and of Alms-deeds; the blessing of him, who is blessed above all, and who blesseth all, Christ Jesus, Full of Wisdom, full of the Holy Ghost, full of Grace and Truth. But so far are all temporal things from giving this fullness or satisfaction, as that even in spiritual things, there may be, there is often an error, or mistaking; even in spiritual things, there may be a fullness, and no satisfaction, and there may be a satisfaction, and no fullness; I may have as much knowledge as is presently necessary for my salvation, and yet have a restless and unsatisfied desire, to search into unprofitable curiosities, unrevealed mysteries, and inextricable perplexities: And on the other side, a man may be satisfied, and think he knows all, when God knows, he knows nothing at all; For, I know nothing, if I know not Christ crucified, and I know not that, if I know not how to apply him to myself; nor do I know that, if I embrace him not in those means, which he hath afforded me in his Church; in his Word, and Sacraments; if I neglect this means, this place, these exercises, howsoever I may satisfy myself with an over-valuing mine own knowledge at home, I am so far from fullness, as that vanity itself, is not more empty.   

Resurrectio à peccato, & cessatio à peccato, non est idem.  Durand. 
EVery cessation from sin, is not a resurrection from sin. A man may discontinue a sin, intermit the practice of a sin, by infirmity of the body, or by satiety in the sin, or by the absence of that person, with whom he hath used to communicate in that sin. But resurrectio est secunda ejus, quod interiit, statio. A resurrection is such an abstinence from the practice of the sin, as is grounded upon a repentance, and a detestation of the sin, and then it is a settling, and an establishing of the soul in that state, and disposition; it is not a sudden and transitive remorse, nor only a reparation of that which was ruined, and demolished, but it is a building up of habits contrary to former habits, and customs, in actions contrary to that sin, that we have been accustomed to, else it is but an intermission, not a resurrection, but a starting, not a waking, but an apparition, not a living body, but a cessation, not a peace of conscience.  
Now this resurrection is begun, and well advanced in baptismate lachrymarum in the baptism of true, & repentant tears. But to put off this repentance to the deathbed is a dangerous delay. For is any man sure to have it, or sure to have a desire to it then? It is never impertinent to repeat St. Augustine's words in this case, Etiam hac animadversione percutitur peccator ut moriens obliviscatur sui, quidam viveret, oblitus est Dei, God begins a dying man's condemnation at this, that as he forgot God in his life, so he shall forget himself at his death.  
Compare thy temporal, and thy spiritual state together, and consider how they may both stand well at that day. If thou have set thy state in order, and made a Will before, and have nothing to do at last, but to add a Codicil, this is soon dispatched at last; but if thou leave all till then, it may prove a heavy business. So if thou have repent before, and settled thyself in a religious course before, and have nothing to do then, but to wrestle with the power of the disease, and the agonies of death, God shall fight for thee in that weak estate, God shall imprint in thee a Cupio dissolvi, St. Paul's not only contentedness but desire to be dissolved, and God shall give thee a glorious resurrection, yea an ascension into heaven before thy death, and thou shalt see thyself in possession of his eternal Kingdom, before thy bodily eyes be shut. When even thy deathbed shall be as Elias Chariot to carry thee to heaven, and as the bed of the Spouse in the Canticles, which was lectus floridus, a green and flourishing bed, where thou mayest find by a faithful apprehension, that thy sickness hath crowned thee with a Crown of thorns, by participation of the sufferings of thy Saviour, and that thy patience hath crowned thee with that Crown of glory, which the Lord the righteous Judge shall impart to thee that day.   

In divinis nihil minimum.  Tertul. 
IT is a wanton thing for any Church in spiritual matters to play with small errors, to tolerate, or wink at small abuses, as though it should be always in her power to extinguish them when she would. It is Christ's counsel to his Spouse, that is, the Church, Capite vulpes parvulas, take us the little Foxes, for they destroy the vine, though they seem but little, and able to do little harm, yet they grow bigger, and bigger every day; and therefore stop errors before they become heresies, and erroneous men, before they become heretics. Capite, says Christ, take them, suffer them not to go on; but than it is Capite nobis, take us those Foxes, take them for us, the bargain is between Christ and his Church. For it is not Capite vobis, take them to yourselves, and make yourselves judges of such doctrinal matters, as appertain not to your cognizance; nor it is not Cape tibi, take him to thyself, spy out a recusant, or a man otherwise, not conformable and take him for thy labour, beg him, and spoil him, and for his Religion leave him as you found him; neither is it Cape sibi, take him for his ease, that is, compound with him easily, and continue him in his estate, and errors; but Cape nobis, take him for us, so detect him, as he may thereby be reduced to Christ and his Church. Neither only this counsel of Christ to his Church, but that Commandment of God in Levitious, is also appliable to this, Non misereberis pauperis in judicio, Thou shalt not countenance a poor man in his cause, thou shalt not pity a poor man in judgement.  
Though a new opinion may seem a poor opinion, able to do little harm, though it may seem a pious, and profitable opinion, and of good use, yet in judicio, if it stand in judgement, and pretend to be an Article of faith, and of that holy obligation, matter necessary to salvation; Non misereberis, thou shalt not spare, thou shalt not countenance this opinion upon any collateral respect, but bring it to the only trial of Doctrines, the Scriptures.  
Neither doth this Counsel of Christ's, Take us these little Foxes, nor this Commandment of God, Thou shalt not pity the poor in judgement, determine itself in the Church, or in the public only, but extends itself (rather contracts itself) to every particular soul and conscience, Capite Vulpeculas, take your little Foxes, watch your first inclination to sins, for if you give them luck at first, if you feed them with the milk and honey of the mercy of God, it shall not be in your power to wean them when you would, but they will draw you from one to another extreme, from a former presumption to a future desperation in God's mercy. So also, Non misereberis, Thou shalt not pity the poor in judgement: Now that thou callest thyself to judgement, and thy conscience to an examination, thou shalt not pity any sin, because it pretends to be a poor sin, either prove so, that it cannot much endanger thee, nor much encumber thee, or poor so, as that it threatens thee with poverty, with penury, with disability to support thy state, or maintain thy Family, if thou entertain it not.  
Many times I have seen a Suitor that comes in Forma pauperis, more trouble a Court, and more importune a Judge, than greater causes or greater persons; and so may such fins as come in Forma pauperis, either way, that they plead poverty, that they can do little harm, or threaten poverty if they be not entertained. Those sins are the most dangerous sins, which pretend reason why they should be entertained; for sins which are done merely out of infirmity, or out of the surprisal of tentation, are (in comparison of others) done as sins in our sleep, but in sins upon deliberation, upon counsel, upon pretence of reason, we do see the wisdom of God, but we set our wisdom above his, we do see the Law of God, but we insert, and interline, non obstantes of our own, into Gods Law.  
If therefore thou wilt corruptly, and viciously, and sinfully love another, out of pity, because they love thee so; if thou wilt assist a poor man in a cause, out of pretence of pity, with thy countenance, and the power of thy place, that that poor man may have something, and thou the rest that is recovered in his right, if thou wilt embrace any particular sin, out of pity, lest thy wife and children should be left unprovided; if thou have not taken these little Foxes, that is, resisted these tentations at the beginning, yet nunc in judicio, now that they appear in judgement, in examination of thy conscience, non misereberis, thou shalt not pity them (as Moses speaks of false Prophets, and by a fair accommodation of all bewitching sins, with pleasure or profit) If a Dreamer of dreams have given thee a sign, and that sign be come to pass; If a sin have told thee, it would make thee rich, and it have made thee rich; yet if this Dreamer draw thee to another god, if this profit draw thee to an Idolatrous, that is, to an habitual love of that sin (Tota habemus recentes Deos, quot vitia, says St. Hierom, Every man hath so many Idols in him, as he hath habitual sins) yet though this Dreamer (as God proceeds there) be thy brother, or thy son, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, how near, how dear, how necessary soever this sin be unto thee; non misereberis, says Moses, Thine eye shall not pity that Dreamer, thou shalt not keep him secret, but thine own hand shall be upon him to kill him: And so of this pleasurable and profitable sin; non misereberis, thou shalt not hide it, but pour it out in confession; non misereberis, thou shalt not pardon, no nor reprieve it, but destroy it, for the practice presently; non misereberis, thou shalt not turn out the mother, and retain the daughter, not leave the sin, and retain that which was sinfully got, but divest all, root, and body, and fruits, by confession to God, by contrition in thyself, by restitution to men damnified; else that will fall upon thee, and thy soul which fell upon the Church, that because they did not take their little Foxes, they endangered the whole Vine.   

Sicut invisibilibus est Sol, in intelligibilibus est Deus.  Nazian. 
When we consider the liberality of our King, the bounty of our God to man in Christ, it is species ingratitudinis, it is a degree of ingratitude; nay, it is a degree of forgetfulness, to pretend to remember his benefits so, as to reckon them, for they are innumerable.  
Bonitas Dei ad extra, liberalit as est, it is the expressing of the School, and of much use, that God is essential goodness, within doors, in himself, but ad extra, when he comes abroad, when this interior goodness is produced into action, than all God's goodness is liberality. Deus est voluntas omnipotens, is excellently said by St. Bernard, God is all Almightiness, all Power, but he might be so, and we never the better. Therefore he is voluntas omnipotens, a power digested into a will, as willing as able to do us all, all good. What good? Receive some drops of it in St. Bernard's own Manna, his own Honey, Creans mentes ad se participandum, so good, as that he hath first given us souls capable of him, and made us so, partakers of the Divine Nature; Vivificans ad sentiendum, so good, as that he hath quickened those souls, and made them sensible of having received him; for grace is not grace to me, till it make me know that I have it, aliciens ad appetendum, so good, as that he hath given th●t soul an appetite, and an holy hunger, and thirst to take in more of him; for I have no grace, till I would have more; and then, Dilatans ad capiendum, so good, as that he hath dilated, and enlarged that soul to take in as much of God as he will.  
And lest the soul should lose any of this by unthankfulness, God is kind even to the unthankful, says God himself which is a degree of goodness, in which God seldom is; nay, in which God scarce looks to be imitated, to be kind to the unthankful. But if the whole space to the Firmament were filled with sand, and we had before us Clavius his number, how many thousands would be; if all that space were filled with water, and so joined the waters above, with the waters below the Firmament, and we had the number of all those drops of water; and then had every single sand, and every single drop multiplied by the whole number of both, we were still short of numbering the benefits of God, as God; but then, of God in Christ, infinitely, superinfinitely short.  
To have been once nothing, and to be now coheir with the Son of God, is such a circle, such a compass, as that no revolutions in this world, to rise from the lowest to the highest, or to fall from the highest to the lowest, can be called or thought any segment, any arch, any point, in respect of this circle; To have once been nothing, and now to be coheirs with the Son of God, that Son of God, who if there had been but one soul to have been saved, would have died for that; nay, if all souls had been to be saved, but one, and that that only had sinned, he would not have been contented with all the rest, but would have died for that. And there is the goodness, the liberality of our King, our God, our Christ, our Jesus.   

Ad patriam itur per ipsum mare, sed in ligno.  August. 
Which way think you to go home to the Heavenly Jerusalem, you must pass through seas of difficulties, and therefore by ship, and in a ship, you are not safe, except other Passengers in the same ship be safe too. Therefore said Christ to James and John, Non est meum dare vobis, it is not mine to give, to ser you on my right, and on my left hand; Non vobis, quia singuli separati● ab ●liis rogatis, not to you, because you consider but yourselves, and petition for yourselves, to the prejudice and exclusion of others. Therefore Christ bade the Samaritan woman call her husband too, when she desired the water of life, Ne sola gratiam acciperet, saith St. chrysostom, that he might so do good to her, as that others might have good by it too. The Spouse saith, Trahe me post te, draw me after thee. When it is but a me, in the singular, but one part considered there is a violence, a difficulty, a drawing, but presently after, when there is an uniting in a plural, there is an alacrity, a concurrence, a willingness, Curremus post te, we will run after thee; if we would join in public considerations, we should run together.   

Quantumlibet sis avarus, sufficit tibi Deus.  St. Augustine. 
Accustom thyself to find the presence of God inall thy gettings, in all thy preferments, in all thy studies, and he will be abundantly sufficient to thee for all. Be as covetous as thou wilt, be as ambitious as thou canst, the more, the better; God is treasure, God is honour enough for thee. Avaritia terram quaerit, saith the same Father, add, & Coelum, wouldst thou have all this world? wouldst thou have all the next world too? Plus est, qui fecit coelum & terram, he that made heaven and earth, is more than all that, and thou mayest have all him.  
Upon this, St. Cyprians wonder is just, Deum nobis solis contentum esse, nobis non sufficere Deum, that God should think man enough for him, and man should not be satisfied with God, that God should be content with Fili da mihicor, my Son give me thy heart, and man should not be content with, Pater da mihi spiritum, my God, my Father, Grant, me thy Spirit, but must have temporal additions too. Non est castum cor, saith St. Augustine, Si Deum ad mercedem colit; as he saith in another place, Non est casta uxor quae amat quiae dives, she is never the honester woman, nor the lovinger wife, that loves her husband in contemplation of her future jointure, or in fruition of her present abundancies; so he says here, Non est castum cor, that man hath not a chaste, a sincere heart towards God, that loves him by the measure, end, proportion of his temporal blessings.  
And indeed what profits it a man, if he get all the world, and lose his own soul; and therefore that opinion that there was no profit at all, no degree towards blessedness in those temporal things, prevailed so far, as that it is easy to observe in their Expositions upon the Lord's Prayer, that the greatest part of the Fathers, do ever interpret that Petition, Da nobis hodie, Give us this day our daily bread, to be intended only of spiritual blessings, and not of temporal; so St. Hierom saith, When we ask that bread, Illum petimus, qui panis vivus est, & descendit de ●olo, we make our Petition for him who is the bread of life, and descended from the bosom of the Father, and so he refers it to Christ, and in him to the whole mystery of our Redemption. And Athanasius, and St. Augustine too (and not they two alone) refer it to the Sacramental bread; that in that Petition, we desire such an application of the bread of life, as we have in the participation of the body and blood of Christ Josus in that Communion. St. Cyprian insists upon the word Nostrum, our bread; for saith he. Temporal blessings cannot properly be called ours, because they are common to the Saints, and to the Reprobates; but in a prayer ordained by Christ for the faithful, the Petition is for such things as are proper and peculiar to the faithful, and that is for spiritual blessings only. If any man shall say, Ideo quaerenda quia necessaria, we must pray, and we must labour for temporal things, because they are necessary for us, we cannot be without them, Ideo non quaerenda quia necessaria, says St. chrysostom, so much of them as is necessary for our best state, God will give us, without this laborious anxiety, and without eating the bread of sorrow in this life, Non sperandum de superfluis, non desperandum de necessariis, says the same Father, It is a suspicious thing to doubt, or distrust God in necessary things, & it is an unmannerly thing to press him in superfluous things. They are not necessary before, and they are not ours after; for those things only are ours, which no body can take from us; and for temporal things, Anferre potest inimicus homo invito, let the inimicus homo be the Devil, and remember Jobs case, let the inimicus homo be any envious and powerful man, who hath a mind to that that thou hast; and remember Naboths case, and this envious man can take any temporal thing from thee against thy will. But spiritual blessings cannot be taken so, ●idem nemo perdidit, nisi qui spreverit, says St. Augustine, No man ever lost his faith, but he that thought it not worth the keeping.   

Perfect a obedientia est sua imperfecta relinquere.  August. 
THis Peter and Andrew declared abundantly when they left their Nets and followed Christ; yet however in this leaving of their Nets, there is no example of divesting one's self of all means of defending us from those manifold necessities, which this life lays upon, upon pretence of following Christ, it is not an absolute leaving of all worldly cares, but a leaving them out of the first consideration, primum quaerite regnum Dei, so as our first business be to seek the Kingdom of God; For, after this leaving of his Nets, for this time, Peter continued owner of his house, and Christ came to that house of his, and found his mother in Law sick in that house, and recovered her there. Upon a like Commandment, upon such a sequere, follow me, Matthow followed Christ too; but after that following, Christ went with Matthew to his house, and sat at meat with him at home. And for this very exercise of Fishing, though at that time when Christ said, Follow we, they left their nets, yet they returned to that trade, sometimes upon occasions, in all likelihood in Christ's life, and after Christ's death, clearly they did return to it, for Christ, after his Resurrection, found them fishing. They did not therefore abandon, and leave all care, and all government, of their own estate, and dispose themselves to live after upon the sweat of others, but transported with a holy alacrity, in this present, and cheerful following of Christ, in respect of that then, they neglected their nets, and all things else. Not to be too diligent towards the world, is the diligence that God requires.  
St. Augustine doth not say, Suae relinquere, but Sua imperfecta relinquere, that God requires we should leave the world, but that we should leave it to second considerations, that thou do not forbear, nor defer thy conversion to God, and thy restitution to man, till thou have purchased such an estate, bought such an office, married, and provided such, and such children, but imperfecta relinquere, to leave these worldly things unperfected till thy repentance have restored thee to God, and established thy reconciliation in him, and then the world lies open to thy honest endeavours.  
Others take up all with their net, and they sacrifice to their Nets, because by them their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous. They are confident in their own learning, their own wisdom, their own practice, and (which is a strange Idolatry) they sacrifice to themselves, they attribute all to their own industry.   

Christus non quaesivit per oratorem piscatorem, sed de piscatore lucratus est imperatorem.  August. 
CHrist having a greater, a fairer Jerusalem to build than david's was, a greater Kingdom to establish than Judah's was, a greater Temple to build than solomon's was, having a greater work to raise, yet he begun upon a less ground; He is come from his twelve Tribes, that afforded Armies in swarms, to twelve persons, twelve Apostles, from his Juda and Levi, the foundations of State, and Church; to an Andrew, and a Peter, Fishermen, Seamen. He sent not out Orators, Rhetoricians, strong, or fairspoken men to work upon these Fishermen; but by these Fishermen he hath reduced all those Kings and Emperors, and States which have embraced the Christian Religion, these thousand and six hundred years.  
When Samuel was sent with that general Commission to anoint a Son of Ishai King without any more particular instructions, when he came, and Eliab was presented unto him, Surely, says Samuel (noting the goodliness of his personage) this is the Lords anointed. But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, nor the height of his stature, for I have refused him; for (as it followeth there from God's mouth) God seeth not as a man seeth, man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord beholdeth the heart. And so David in appearance, less likely, was chosen. But if the Lords Arm be not shortened, let no man impute weakness to the instrument. For so, when David himself was appointed by God to pursue the Amalekites, the Amalekites that had burnt Ziglag, and done such spoil upon God's people, as that the people began to speak of stoning David, from whom they looked for defence, when David had no kind of intelligence, no ground to settle a conjecture upon, which way he must pursue the Amalekites, and yet pursue them he must, in the way he finds a poor young fellow, a famished, sick young man, derelicted of his Master, and left for dead in the march, and by the means, and conduct of this wretch, David recovers the enemy, recovers the spoil, recovers his honour, and the love of his people.  
If the Lords Arm be not shortened, let no man impute weakness to his instrument. But yet God will always have so much weakness appear in the instrument, as that their strength shall not be thought to be their own.  
When Peter and John preached in the streets, the people marvelled (says the Text) why? For they had understood that they were unlearned. But beholding also the man that was healed standing by, they had nothing to say, says that story. The insufficiency of the instrument makes a man wonder naturally, but the accomplishing of some great work, brings them to a necessary acknowledgement of a greater power working in that weak instrument. For if those Apostles that preached, had been as learned men, as Simon Magu●, as they did in him (This man is the great power of God, not that he had, but that he was the power of God) the people would have rested in the admiration of those persons, and proceeded no further. It was their working of supernatural things, that convinced the world; Peter and john's preaching did not half the good then, as the presenting of one man, which had been recovered by them did.  
Twenty of our Sermons edify not so much, as if the Congregation might see one man converted by us. Any one of you might outpreach us. That one man that would leave his beloved sin, that one man that would restore illgotten goods, had made a better Sermon than ever I shall, and should gain more souls by his act, than all our words (as they are ours) can do.   

Oportet hominem fieri unum.  Clem. Alex. 
MAn must grow in his consideration, till he be but one man, one individual man. If he consider himself in humanitate, in the whole mankind a glorious creature, an immortal soul, be shall see this immortal soul, as well in Goats at the left hand, as in Sheep at the right hand of Christ, at the Resurrection; men on both sides. If he consider himself in qualitate, in his quality, in his calling, he shall hear many then plead their Prophetavimus; we have prophesied, and their ejecimus, we have exercised, and their virtutes fecimus, we have done wonders, and all in thy Name, and yet receive that answer, Nunquam cognovi, I do not know you now, I never did know you. Oportet unum fieri, he must consider himself in individuo, that one man, not that man in nature, not that man in calling, but that man in actions.  
Origen makes this use of those words, as he found them, 1 Sam. chap. 1. Erat vir unus, there was one man (which was Elkanah) he adds, Nomen ejus possessio Dei, This one man, says he, was in his name God's possession, Nam quem damones possident, non unus sed multi, for he whom the Devil possesses, is not one. The same sinner is not the same thing, still he clambers in his ambitious purposes, there he is an Eagle; and yet lies still grovelling, and trodden upon at any greater man's threshold, there he is a worm. He swells to all that are under him, there he is a full sea; and his dog that is above him, may wade over him; there he is a shallow, an empty Riter. In the compass of a few days, he neighs like a horse in the rage of his lust over all the City, and groans in a corner of the City, in an Hospital.  
A sinner is as many men, as he hath vices; he that is Elkanah, possessio Dei, possessed by God, and in possession of God, he is unus homo, one, and the same man. And when God calls upon man so particularly, he intends him some particular good. It is St. Jeroms note, That when God in the Scripture speaks of divers things in the singular number, it is ever in things of grace. And it is St. Augustine's note, that when he speaks of any one thing in the plural number, it is of heavy and sorrowful things; as Jeptha was buried in Civitatibus Gilead, in the Cities, but he had but one grave, and so that is, they made Aureos vitulos, Golden Calves, when it was but one Calf.   

Multa relinquitis si desideria renunciatis.  Gregor. 
WE read Mat. 4. That the Apostles left their nets when they followed Christ. Their Nets were such things as might hinder them in the service of God: such nets, even these men the Apostles, so well disposed to follow Christ, had about them. And therefore let no man say, Imitari vellem, sed quod relinquam, non habeo; I would gladly do as the Apostles did, leave all to follow Christ, but I have nothing to leave; alas all things have left me, and I have nothing to leave. Even that murmuring at poverty, is a net, leave that. Leave thy superfluous desire of having the riches of this world, though thou mayest flatter thyself, that thou desirest to have, only that thou mightest leave it, that thou mightest employ it charitably, yet it might prove a net, and stick too close about thee to part with it. You leave your nets, if you leave your over-earnest greediness of catching; for when you do so, you do not only fish with a net, you fish for a net, even that which you get proves a net to you, and hinders you in the following of Christ, and you are less disposed to follow him, when you have got your ends, than before. He that hath least, hath enough to weigh him down from heaven, by an inordinate love of that little which he hath, or in an inordinate and murmuring desire of more. And he that hath most, hath not too much to give for heaven, Tantum valet Regnum Dei, quantum tu vales, Heaven is always so much worth, as thou art worth. A poor man may have Heaven for a penny, that hath no greater store, and God looks that he to whom he hath given thousands, should lay out thousands upon the purchase of Heaven. The Market changes as the plenty of money changes; Heaven costs a rich man more than a poor, because he hath more to give. But in this, rich and poor are both equal, that both must leave themselves without nets, that is, without those things, which in their own consciences they know, retard the following of Christ. Whatsoever hinders my present following, that I cannot follow to day ', whatsoever may hinder my constant following, that I cannot follow to morrow, and all my life is a net, and I am bound to leave that.   

Dilige, & dic quod voles.  August. 
LEt the Congregation see that thou studiest the good of their souls, and they will digest any wholesome increpation, any medicinal reprehonsion at thy hands. We say so first to God, Lord let thy Spirit bear witness with my spirit, that thou lovest me, and I can endure all thy Prophets, and all thy vae's, and the woes that they thunder against me, and my sin: So also the Congregation says to the Minister, Dilige, & dic quod voles, show thy love to me, in studying my case, and applying thy knowledge to my conscience; speak so, as God and I may know thou meanest me, but not the Congregation, lest that bring me to a confusion of face, and that to a hardness of heart; deal thus with me, love me thus, and say what thou wilt; nothing shall offend me. Thus dealt Paul, Heb. 13. 22. I beseech you brethren, etc. And the strangeness of the case is exalted in this, that the word there is solatii, I beseech you suffer a word of comfort; What will you hear willingly, if you do not willingly hear words of comfort? With what shall we exercise your holy joy, and cheerfulness, if even words of comfort, must exercise your patience? And yet we must beseech you to suffer even our words of comfort, for we can propose no true comfort to you, but such as carries some bitterness with it; we can create no true joy in you without some exercise of your patience too. We cannot: promise you peace with God, without a war in yourselves, nor reconciliation to him without falling out with yourselves, not eternal joy in the next world, without a solemn remorse for the sinful abuses of this. We cannot promise you a good to morrow without sending you back to the consideration of an ill yesterday; for your hearing to day is not enough, except you repent yesterday. But yet though with St. Paul we be put to beseech you, that you would suffer instruction, though we must sometimes exercise your patience, yet it is but a word of instruction, and counsel; and though instruction be increpation sometimes, yet it may easily be suffered, because it is but a word; a word, and away: We would not dwell upon increpations, and chide, and bitternesses.   

Lacrimae sanguis animae;  Aug. Ser. de tempore. 
THe repentance and contrition of a sincere Christian for his sins upon his deathbed is such, that at more pores than his weak body sweats drops of water, his sad foul weeps blood, and this more for the displeasure of God, than the stripes of God's displeasure.   
I●●i verè irascitur Deus cui non irascitur; & nihil eo infoelicius, cui nihil infoelix contigit: 
Whom God loves he chasteneth, Heb. 12. 6. Which rule of divine Occonomy, is so general, and without exception, that even those duties that are promised a reward here as Alms-deeds, are yet to expect the payment of this reward, with some mixture of affliction, the hundred fold which some men are promsed to receive, though they be secular blessings, as houses, lands, etc. yet must they be with persecutions, Mar. 10. 30.   

Licet in modum stagni fusum equor arrideat▪ magnos hic campus mantes habet; tranquillitas ista tempestas est.  Hieron. 
IT was more safe for Peter to be called Satan by Christ, than for Judas to be called Friend; such an appellation was a Sarcasme in a compliment; as when God tells his people by his Prophet, Hos. 4. 14. I will not visit, etc. Gods not visiting here was the greatest plague imaginable, and their highest affliction was, not at all to be punished.   

Triticum non rapit ven●●● inanes, pal●ae tempest●●● jactantur,  Cyprian. de simpli●i●at● Frela. 
THe Church is the Barn-floor, the sincere and hypocritical Christian are the corn, and the chaff in that floor, persecution and heretical doctrine are the two winnowing winds to discern betwixt both; the corn is solid, and immovable, and will sooner be ground to powder, than yield either to the rough blasts of persecution, or those smooth flattering gales of heresy, whereas the chaff is carried about, and distracted, with every wind either of persecuting, or pleasing doctrine, Eph. 4. 14.   

N●tu● & elinguis ne hoc qui dem habens ut rogare possit, hoc magis rogat quod rogare non potest,  Hieron. Tom. 1. Epist. 
THe Cripple that cannot stir, works more upon our charity, than the importunate sturdy beggar that follows the length of a street ● and the very dumbness of those impotent persons in the Gospel, was rhetoric equally as powerful with our Saviour, as all those acclamations and Hosannas of the Jews, the fear and modesty of that poor woman in the Gospel, that blushed to ask the cure of her bloody issue, had it by a touch; that very touch was an effectual prayer, and every finger a several votary to beg the blessing.   
Antony's ubi mors non est si jugulatis aquoe? 
DEath meets us every where, and is procured by every instrument, and enters in at every door, by violence, and secret influence, by aspect of a star, and the stink of a mist, by the emissions of a cloud, and the meeting of a vapour, by a full meal, or an empty stomach, by watching at the wine, or by watching at prayers, by the Sun or the Moon, by a heat or a cold, by sleeping nights, or sleeping days, by water frozen into the hardness and sharpness of a dagger, or water thawed into the floods of a River: by a hair, or a raizor, by violent motion, or sitting still, by God's mercy, or God's anger; by every thing in providence, and every thing in manners; by every thing in nature, and every thing in chance. It was a sad arrest of the looseness and wilder feasts of the French Court, when their King Henry 2. was killed really by the sportive image of a fight; and many Brides have died under the hands of Maidens dressing them, for uneasy joy, the new and undiscerned chains of marriage.   

Anceps forma bonum, mortalibus exigui donum breve temporis.  Senec. 
I Have rend of a fair young Germane Gentleman, who living, often refused to be pictured, but put off the importunity of his friends desire by giving way, that after a few day's burial, they might send a Painter to his Vault, and if they saw cause for it, draw the image of his death unto the life, they did so, and found his face half eaten, and his midrife, and back bone full of serpents, and so he stands pictured among his armed Ancestors; so doth the fairest beauty change, and it will be as bad with you, and me, and then what servants shall we have to wait upon us in the grave? what friends to visit us? what officious people to clean●e away, the moist and unwholesome cloud reflected upon our faces from the sides of the weeping Vaults, which are the longest weepers for our Funerals.   

Quid fit futurum cras, fuge quaerere.  Horace. 
LEt no man extend his thoughts or his hopes toward future and far distant Events. This day is mine, and yours, but ye know not what shall be on the morrow, every morning creeps out of a dark cloud, leaving behind it an ignorance and silence, deep as midnight, and undiscerned as the phantasms that make a chrysome child to smile; so that we cannot discern what comes hereafter, unless we had a light from heaven brighter than the vision of an Angel, even the Spirit of Prophecy. Without revelation we cannot tell whether we shall eat to morrow, or whether a squinzy shall choke us. St. James notes the folly of some, who were so impatient of the event of to morrow, or the accidents of the next year, that they would consult Astrologers, and Witches, and Devils, what should befall them the next calends, against this the Apostle opposeth his counsel, that we should not search after forbidden Records; for whatever is disposed to happen by the order of natural causes, or civil counsels, may be rescinded by a peculiar decree of providence. When Rithilda the widow of Albert, Earl of Ebersberg had feasted the Emperor Henry the third, and petitioned in behalf of her Nephew for some lands formerly possessed by the Earl her Husband, just as the Emperor held out his hand to signify his consent, the chamber floor suddenly fell under them, and Richilda falling upon the edge of a bathing vessel, was bruised to death, and stayed not to see he● Nephew sleep in those lands, which the Emperor was reaching forth unto her, and placed at the door of restitution.   

Quid brevi fortes, iaculemur quo multal ja●●te pr●m●t nox,  Horat. 
AS our hopes must be confined, so must our designs, let us not project long designs; the work of our soul is cut short, facile, sweet and plain, and fitted to the small portions of our shorter life; and as we must not trouble our inquiry, so neither must we intricato our labour, with what we shall never enjoy; this rule doth reprove such projects as discompose our present duty by long and future designs; such which by casting our labours to events at distance, make us less to remember our death standing at the door. Seneca tells of G●n●cio Corneliu●, a man crafty in getting, and tenacious in holding a great estate, and one who was as diligent in the care of his body, as of his money, that he all day long attended upon his sick and dying friend; but when he went away, was quickly comforted, supped merrily, went to bed cheerfully, and on a sudden being surprised by a squinzy, scarce drew his breath until the morning, but by that time died, being snatched from the torrent of his fortune; and a likely hope, bigger than the necessities of ten men; this accident was much noted then in Rome, because it happened in so great a fortune, and in the midst of wealthy designs, and presently it made wise men to consider how imprudent a person he is, who disposeth of ten years to come, when he is not Lord of tomorrow.   

Aetate fruere, mobili cursu fugit.  Sen. 
MAke use of this instant; for this instant will never return again, and yet it may be this instant will secure the fortune of a whole eternity. The old Greeks and Romans caught us the prudence of this rule, but Christianity teaches us the Religion of it. They so seized on the present that they would lose nothing of the day's pleasure. Let us eat and drink, for to morrow we die, that was their Philosophy at their solemn feasts, they would talk of death to heighten the present drink; I had reason to say that Christianity taught us to turn this into Religion. For he that by a present and a constant holiness secures the present, and makes it useful to his noblest purposes, he turns his condition into his best advantage by making his unavoidable fate become his necessary Religion.   

Non a●cipi●u● brevem vitam sed f●cimus.  Senec. 
We complain the day is long, and the night is long, and we want company, and seek out arts to drive the time away, and then weep, because it is gone too soon, And as the revenue of Egypt, and the Eastern Provinces was but a little sum when they were to support the luxury of Mark Autony, and feed the riot of Cloopatra, but a thousand Crowns is a vast proportion to feed an Hermit. Just so is our life, it is 100 short to serve the ambition of an haughty Prince, or an usurping Rebel, to trample upon the enemies of our just or unjust interest; but for the obtaining virtue, for the purchase of sobriety, and modesty, for the actions of Religion, God gave us time sufficient, if we make the out-going of the morning and evening, i. e. our infancy and old age to be taken into the computation of a man.   

Omnia crede mihi etiam falicibus ●ubia sunt.  Sen. 
EVen the beauteous spring hath blasts and sharp frosts, the fruitful teeming Summer is melted with heat, and burnt with the kisses of the Sun her friend, and the rich Autumn is full of sickness, and we are weary of that which we enjoy, because sorrow is its biggest portion; And when we remember that upon the fairest face, is placed one of the worst sinks of the body, the nose; we may use it not only as a mortification to the pride of beauty, but as an allay to the fairest outside of condition, which the sons and daughters of Adam do possess. For look upon Kings and Conquerors. I will not tell, that many of them fall into the condition of servants, and their subjects rule over them, and stand upon the ruins of their Families: But let us suppose them still conquerors, and the greatest that ever were, yet whatsoever tempts the pride and vanity of ambitious persons, is not so big as the smallest star which we see scattered in disorder, and unregarded upon the pavement and floor of Heaven: And if we would suppose the Pilmires had but our understandings, they also would have the method of a man's greatness, and divide their little Molehills into Provinces and Exarchates: And if they also grew as vicious, and as miserable, one of their Princes would lead an Army out, and kill his neighbour Antinous, that he might reign over the next handful of a Turf; but then if we consider at what price, and with what felicity all this is purchased, the sting of the painted Snake will quickly appear, and the fairest of their fortunes will properly enter into this account of humane infelicities.   

Proper a vivere, & singulos di●s s●ngulas vitas p●●a; nihil interest i●●●diem & s●culum.  Sense. 
He that would die well, must always look for death, every day knocking at the gates of the grave, and then the gates of the grave shall never prevail upon him to do him mischief. This was the advice of all the wise and good men of the world, who especially in the days and periods of their joy, and festival egressions, chose to throw some ashes into their chalices, some sober remembrances of their fatal period. Such was the black shirt of Saladine, the Tombstone presented to the Emperor of Constantinople on his Coronation day; the Bishop of Rome's two reeds, with flax, and a wax taper; the Egyptian Skeleton served up at feasts. These in their semblances declare a severe counsel, and useful meditation; and it is not easy for a man to be drunk with joy, or wine, pride, or revenge, who considers sadly that he must ere long dwell in a house of darkness, and his body must be the inheritance of worms, and his soul must be what he pleases, even as a man makes it here by his living, good or bad. I have read of a young Hermit, who being passionately in love with a young Lady, could not by all the Arts of Religion and mortification suppress the trouble of that fancy, till at last being told that she was dead, and had been buried about fourteen days, he went secretly to her vault, and with the skirt of his mantle wiped the moisture from the carcase, and still at the return of the temptation, laid it before him, saying, Behold this is the beauty of the Woman thou didst so much desire, and so the man thereby overcame his inordinate passion; and if we make death as present to us, our own death, dwelling and dressed in all its pomp of fancy, and proper circumstances, if any thing will quench the heats of lust, or the desires of money; or the greedy passionate affections of this world, this must do it.   

Non expectavit Christ●●●● Saul 〈…〉 in media insa●i● superavit,  Chryfost. 
When Saul, see Act. 9 4. was yet breathing forth slaughter, than came a voice saying, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou meo? Then when he was in the height of his fury, Christ laid hold upon him. And this for the most part was Christ's method of curing. Then when the Sea was in a tempestuous rage, when the waters covered the ship, and the storm shaked even that which could remove Mountains, the faith of the Disciples, than Christ rebukes the wind, and commands a calm; then when the Sun was gone out to run his race as a Giant, than God by the mouth of Joshuah bids the Sun stand still. Then when that unclean spirit foamed and fumed, and tore, and rend the possessed person, than Christ commanded them to go out. Let the Fever alone, say our Physicians, till some fits be passed, and then we shall see farther, and discern better; but Christ in the Text above, itayes not till Saul being made drunk with blood, was cast into a slumber; but in the midst of his raging fit he gives him physic, in the midst of his madness, he reclaims him. Then when his glory was to bring them bound to Jerusalem, that he might magnify his triumph and greatness in the eye of the world; then, then says Christ to this tempest, be calm; to this unclean spirit, come out; to this Sun in his own estimation, go no further.   

Non in fine sed in principio conversus latro.  Cyril. 
IF thou deferrest thy repentance till the last, because of the Thiefs example, thou deludest thine own soul; the Thief was not converted at last, but at first, as soon as God afforded him any call, he came; but at how many calls hast thou stopped thine ears, that deferrest thy repentance? Christ said to him, This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise. When thou canst find such another day, look for such another mercy; a day that cloven the Grave-stones of dead men; a day that cloven the Temple its self; a day that the Sun durst not see; a day that saw the Son of God (may we not say so, since that man was God too) depart from man. There shall be no more such days, and therefore presume not of that voice, body, this day thou shalt be with me, if thou make thy last minute that day; though Christ to magnify his mercy, and his glory, and to take away all occasion of absolute desperation, did here call the Thief unto him when he was at the last gasp.   

Novit Deus vulnerare ad amar●m.  August. 
THe Lord, and only the Lord knows how to wound us, out of love; more than that, how to wound us into love; more than all that, to wound us into love, not only with him that wounds us, but into love with the wound its self, with the very affliction that he inflicts upon us. The Lord knows how to strike us so, as that we shall lay hold upon that hand, that strikes us, and kiss that hand that wounds us; Ad vitam interficit, ad exaltationem prosternit, saith the same Father, No man kills his enemy because his enemy might have a better life in Heaven, that is not his end in killing him. It is God's end, who therefore brings us to death, that by that gate he might lead us into life everlasting. Ask of me, saith God to Christ, Psal. 2. 8. and I will give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance. Now how was Christ to use these Heathen when he had them? Why thus, Thou shalt bruise them with a rod of iron, and break them in pieces like a Potter's vessel. Now God meant well to the Nations in thus breaking and bruising them: God intended not an annihilation of the Nations, but a reformation; for Christ asks the Nations for an Inheritance, not for a Triumph; therefore it is intended of his way of governing them, and his way is to bruise and beat them: that is, first to cast them down, before he can raise them up; first to break them, before he can make them into his fashion.   

Fancies Dei est quâ Deus nobis innotescit.  August. 
THat is the face of God to us, by which God manifests himself to us, God manifests himself to us in the word and Sacraments: If we see not them in their true lines and colours (the word, sincerely and religiously preached and administered) we do not see them, but masks upon them; and if we do not see them, we do not see the face of Christ. And I could as well stand under his nescio vos, which he said to the negligent Virgins, I know you not, or his nescivi vos, which he said to those that boast of their works, I never knew you, Matth. 7. 22. as under this fearful thunder of his mouth, You shall see my face no more: I will absolutely withdraw, or I will suffer profaneness to enter into those means of your Salvation, Word, and Sacraments, which I have so long continued in their sincerity towards you, and you have so long abused. Blessed God, say not to us yet, Yet let the tree grow another year before thou cut it down; and as thou hast digged about it by bringing judgements upon our neighbours, so water it with thy former rain, the dew of thy grace, and with thy latter rain, the tears of our contrition, that we may still see thy face here, and hereafter; here in thy Kingdom of Grace, hereafter in thy Kingdom of Glory.   

Reperit Deus nocentes,  saith Theocritus, who was an Heathen. 
IN which saying the natural man hath a first, and a second lesson: First, That since God finds out the Malefactor, he never escapes; and then since God doth find him at last, God sought him all the while: though God strike late, yet he pursued him long before, and many a man feels the sting in his conscience, before he feels the blow in his body; that God finds, and therefore seeks, that God overtakes, and therefore pursues, that God overthrows, and therefore resist, the wicked is a natural conclusion, as well as a divine. So that for this Doctrine a man needs not be preached unto, a man needs not be Catechised; a man needs not read the Father's, nor the Counsels, nor the Schoolmen, nor the Ecclesiastical story, nor Summists, nor Casuists, nor Canonists, no nor the Bible its self for this Doctrine. For this Doctrine that God finds out the guilty person, the natural man hath as full a Library in his bosom as the Christian.   

Non judicandum de cru●e secundum preoedicamentum quantitatis sed relationis.  Luther. 
WE must not judge of a calamity by the predicament of quantity, but by the predicament of relation; to what God refers that calamity, and what he intends in it. It was a wise and a pious counsel that Gamaliel gave that state, Abstinete, Act. 5. 33. forbear a while, give God Sea-room, give him his latitude, and you may find that you mistook at first; for God hath divers ends by inflicting calamities, and he that judges hastily, may soon mistake God's purpose. It is a notable expression which the Holy Ghost hath put into the mouth of Naomi, Ruth 1. 19 Call not me Naomi, said she there, Naomi is lovely, and loving, and beloved; but call me Mara, said she, Mara is bitterness; but why so? For, said she, the Lord hath dealt very bitterly with me; bitterly, and very bitterly; but yet so he hath with many that he loves full well. It is true said Naomi, but there is more in my case than so; The Almighty hath afflicted me, and the Lord hath testified against me; testified, there is my misery; that is, done enough, given evidence enough, for others to believe, and to ground a judgement upon it, that he hath abandoned me, utterly forsaken me for ever. Yet God meant well to Naomi for all this testification, and howsoever others might misinterpret Gods proceeding with her.   

A Deo doctus non solùm, divina discit, sed divina patitur.  Dionys. Arcopag. 
HE that is throughly taught by Christ, doth not only believe all that Christ says, but confirms him to all that Christ did, and is ready to suffer as Christ suffered. Truly, if it were possible to fear any defect of joy in heaven, all that could fall into my fear, would be but this, that in heaven I can no longer express my love by suffering for my God, my Saviour, a greater joy cannot enter into my heart than this, to suffer for him that suffered for me. It is said. Matth. 24. 30. That at the day of judgement shall appear in heaven the sign of the Son of man; this is frequently, ordinarily received of the Fathers, to be intended of the Cross; that before Christ himself appear, his sign, the Cross, shall appear in the Clouds. Now though the sign of the Son of man may be some other thing than the Cross, yet of this sign the Cross, there may be this good application, that when God affords thee this manifestation of his Cross in the participation of those crosses and calamities that he suffered here, than thou hast this sign of the Son of man upon thee, conclude to thyself, that the Son of man, Christ Jesus, is coming towards thee, and as thou hast the sign, thou shalt have the substance, as thou hast the cross, thou shalt have the glory; For this is that which the Apostle intends, Phil. 1. 29. Unto you it is given (not laid upon you as a punishment, but given as a benefit) not only to believe in Christ, but to suffer for Christ. Where the Apostle seems to make our crosses a kind of assurance, as well as our faith: For so he argues not only to believe, but to suffer; for howsoever faith is a full evidence yet our suffering is a new seal even upon that faith.   

Et cum blandinis pater es, & pater es cum coedis.  August. 
I Feel the hand of a Father upon me when thou stroakest me; and when thou strikest me, I see the hand of a Father too. I know thy meaning when thou stroakest, it is lest I should faint under thy hand; and I know thy meaning when thou strikest me, it is lest I should not know thine hand: As God saw that way prosper in the hand of Absalon, 2 Sam. 14. 30. he sent for Joab, and Joab came not, he came not when he sent a second time, but when the messengers came to burn up his corn, than he came, and then he complied with Absalon, and seconded, and accomplished his desires: So God calls us in his own outward Ordinances, and a second time in his temporal blessings, and we come not, but we come the sooner, if he burn our corn, if he draw us by afflicting us.   

Contemptu famae contemnuntur & virtutes,  was so well said by Tacitus, that it is pity St. August. said it not. 
THey that neglect the good opinion of others, neglect those virtues which should produce that good opinion; therefore St. Jerome protests to abhor that paratum de trivio, as he calls it, that vulgar, that street, that dunghill language, as long as my own conscience reproaches me of nothing, I care not what all the world says; we must care what the world says, and study that it may speak well of us. For though it is true, that a fair reputation, a good opinion of men, is not a foundation to build upon, yet it is a fair stone in the building, and such a stone as every man is bound to provide himself of: For, for the most part most men are such, as most men take them to be, neminem omnes, nemo omnes fefellit, all the world never joined to deceive one man, nor was ever any one man ever able to deceive the whole world.   

Scinditur incertum studia in contraria vulgus.  Virgil. 
THe Poet here lays the greatest lenity, and change that can be laid to this kind of people, that is, in contraria, that they change from one extreme to another; where the Poet doth not only mean that the people will be of divers opinions from one another; for, for the most part they are not so; for, for the most part, they think, and wish, and love, and hate together; and they do all by example, as others do, and upon no other reason, but therefore because others do. Neither was that Poet ever bound up by his words, that he should say in contraria, because a more mild word would not stand in his verse; but he said it, because it is really true, the people will change into sundry opinions. And whereas an Angel its self cannot pass from East to West, from extreme to extreme without touching upon the way between; the people will pass from extreme to extreme, without any middle opinion. Last minutes murderer, is this minute's God, and in an instant Paul whom they sent to be judged in hell, is made a judge in heaven, Act. 28. 6. the people will change; therefore as David could say, I will not be afraid of ten thousand of men, Psal. 3. 6. So he should say, I will not confide in ten thousand men, though multiplied by millions, for they will change. We find in the Roman story many examples (particularly in Commod us his time, upon Cleander, chief Gentleman of his chamber) of severe executions upon men that have courted the people, though in way of charity, and giving them corn in the time of dearth, or upon like occasions; there is danger in getting them, occasioned by jealousy of others; there is difficulty in holding them, occasioned by lenity in themselves; therefore we must say with the Prophet Jer. 17. 5. Cursed be the man that trusteth in man.   

Sequamur patres tanquam deuces no● tanquam dominos.  Cajetan. 
LEt us follow the Fathers as guides, not as Lords over our understandings; as Counsellors, not as Commanders. It is too much to say of any Father, that which Nicephorus says of chrysostom; In illius perinde atque in Dei verbis acquiesco, I am as safe in Chrysostom's words as in the word of God. It is too much to say of St. Peter himself, that which Chrysologus says, that he is Immobile fundamentum salutis, the immovable foundation of our salvation; & Mediator noster ad Deum, the Mediator of man to God. The holy Patriarches in the Old Testament were holy men, though they strayed into some sinful actions: The holy Fathers in the primitive Church, were holy men, though they strayed into some erroneous opinions; but neither are the holiest men's actions, always holy, nor the soundest Fathers opinions, always sound.   

Molius est mihi non esse quam fine Jesu esse.  Aug. 
I Were better have no being, than be without Jesus: I were better have no life, than any life without him. For as David could find no being without Jehovah, a Christian finds no life without Jesus. For what Jehovah was to David, Jesus is to us. Man in general hath relation to God as he is Jehovah, being we have relation unto Christ, as he is Jesus our salvation; salvation is our being, Jesus is our Jehovah; and therefore as David delights himself with that name Jehovah, for he repeats it eight or nine times Psal. 6. a short Psalm. And though he ask things of a divers nature at God's hands, though he suffer afflictions a divers nature from God's hands, yet still he retains that one name, he speaks to God in no other name in all that Psalm, but in the name of Jehovah. So in the New Testament, he which may be compared with David, because he was under great sins, and yet in great favour with God; St. Paul, he delights himself with that Name of Jesus so much, as that St. Jerome saith, as he loved him excessively, so he named him superabundantly. It is the Name that cost God most, and therefore he loves it best. It cost him his life to be a Jesus, a Saviour. The Name of Christ which is anointed, he had by office, he was anointed as King, as Priest, as Prophet; but his name of Jesus a Saviour, he had by purchase, and that purchase cost him his blood. Of a devout use of this very name do some of the Fathers interpret that Oleum effusum nomen tuum, that the Name of Jesus should be spread as an ointment, breathed as a perfume, diffused as a soul over all the petitions of our prayers, as the Church concludes for the most part all her Collects so, Grant this, O Lord, for our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ's sake.   

Nihil de causâ suâ deprecatur, qui nihil de conditione suâ miratur.  Tertul. 
IN which the Father describes a patience of steel, and an invincible temper. He means that the Christians in those times of persecution, did never entreat the Judge for favour, because it was not strange to them to see themselves, whose conversation was in Heaven, despised, and condemned upon earth. They wondered not at their misery, they thought it a part of their profession, a part of the Christian Religion to suffer, and therefore they never solicited the Judge for favour; they had learned by experience of daily tribulation the Apostles lesson, Think it not strange when tribulations and tentations fall; that is, make that your daily bread, and you shall never starve, use yourselves to suffering, at least to the expectation of suffering, acquaint yourselves with that, accustom yourselves to that before it come, and it will not be a stranger to you when it corns.   

Sanctus in irâ Dei emendari non vult, erudiri non vult.  August. 
A Saint is loath to fall into God's hands, loath to come into God's fingers at all when he is angry; he would not be disputed with all, nor impleaded, nor corrected; no, not instructed, not amended by God in his anger. The anger of God is such a Pedagogy, such a Catechism, such a way of teaching as the Law was. The Law is a Schoolmaster, saith the Apostle, but the Law is such a Schoolmaster, as brings not a rod, but a sword. God's anger should instruct us, but if we use it not aright, it hardens us. Though God's anger be one of his ways, yet it is such a way as you may easily stumble in, and as you would certainly perish without that way, so you may easily perish in that way. For when a sinner considers himself to be under the anger of God, naturally, he conceives such a horror as puts him farther off. As soon as Adam heard the voice of God, and in an accent of anger, or as he tuned it in his guilty conscience to an accent of anger, when Adam heard God but walking in the Garden, but the noise of his going, and approaching towards him, Adam fled from his presence, and hid himself among the trees. Much more than if the Lord come in anger, if he speak in anger, if he do but look in anger, a sinner perishes: He did but look, and he dissolved, he melted the Nations, Hab. 3. 6. David was an obsequious patient to take any physic at God's hand, if there were no anger in the cup. He provokes God with all his emphatical words, Judge me, prove me, try me, examine me, Psal. 26. 1. bring not only a candle to search, but even fire to melt me. But upon what confidence is all this? For thy loving kindness is ever before mine eyes. If God's anger, and not his loving kindness had been before his eyes, it had been a fearful apparition, and a dangerous issue to have gone upon. So also Psal. 139. 23. Try me, O God, and know my heart. But how concludes he? And lead me in the right way for ever. As long as I have God by the hand, and feel his loving care of me, I can admit any weight of his hand, any furnace of his heating. Let God mould me, and then melt me again; let God make me, and then break me again; as long as he establishes, and maintains a rectifed assurance in my soul, that at last he means to make me a vessel of honour to his glory, howsoever he rebuke, or chastise me, yet he will not rebuke me in anger.   

In scalâ prima ascensio est ab humo.  Basil. 
HE that makes but one step up a stair, though he be not got much nearer to the top of the house, yet he is got from the ground, and delivered from the foulness and dampness of that. So in David's first step of prayer, Psal. 6. 2, 3. O Lord be merciful unto me; Though a man be not established in heaven, yet he is stepped from the world, and the miserable comforters thereof. There are certain steps and ascensions of the soul in prayer; and though a sinner may grow up to this strength of devotion, to supplications, to prayers, to intercessions, to thanksgivings, yet at first, when he comes first to deprehend himself in a particular sin, or in a course of fin, he comes bashfully, shamefully, tremblingly, he knows not what to ask, he dares ask no particular thing at God's hand, but though he be not come yet to particular requests for pardon of past sins, nor for strength against future, not to a particular consideration of the weight of his sins, nor to a comparison betwixt his sin, and the mercy of God, yet he comes to a Miserere mei Domine, to a sudden ejaculation, O Lord be merciful unto me, how dare I do this in the sight of my God?  
And thus likewise in the regeneration of a sinner, though he come not presently to look God fully in the face, nor conceive nor prefently an assurance of an established reconciliation, a fullness of pardon, a cancelling of all former debts in an instant; though he dare not come to touch God, and lay hold of himself by his body and blood in the Sacrament, yet the Evangelist calls thee to a contemplation of much comfort to thy soul, in certain preparatory accesses and approaches. Behold, saith he, that is, look up, and consider thy pattern, behold a woman difeased, etc. Matth. 9 20. she knew there was virtue to come out of his body, and she came as near that as she durst; she had a desire to speak, but she went no further, but to speak to herself, she said to herself, saith that Gospel, If I may but touch; but Christ Jesus supplied all, performed all on his part abundantly. Presently he turned about, says the Text; and this was not a transitory glance, but a full sight, and exhibiting of himself to the fruition of her eye, that she might see him: He saw her said St. Matthew here, he did direct himself upon others, and leave out her; and then he spoke to her to overcome her bashfulness; he called her daughter, to overcome her diffidence; he bids her be of good comfort for she had met a more powerful Physician than those upon whom she had spent her time, and her estate; one that could cure her, one that would, one that had already, for so he said presently, Thy faith hath made thee whole; From how little a spark, how great a fire; from how little a beginning, how great a proceeding? She desired but the hem of his garment, and had all him.   

De infirmitate blandimur, & ut liberius peccemus libenter infirmamur.  Bernard. 
WE flatter ourselves with an opinion of weakness, and we are glad of this natural and corrupt weakness, that we may impute all our licentiousness, to our weakness and natural infirmity. But did that excuse Adam, said that Father, that he took his occasion of sinning from his weaker part, from his wife; that thou art weak of thyself, is a just motive to induce God to bring thee to himself, who hath surely born all thine infirmities. But to leave him again, when he hath brought thee, to refuse so light and easy a yoke as his is, not to make use of that strength which he by his grace offers thee; This is not the affection of the Spouse when the person languishes for the love of Christ, but it is when the love of Christ languishes in that person. The former weakness is a good motive for mercy, if in a desire of further strength we come to that of Lazarus his sisters to Christ, Behold Lord that soul whom thou lovest, and hast died for, is weak and languishes; Christ answered then, This weakness is not unto death, but that the Son of God might be glorified, Joh. 11. 3. he will say so to thee too, if thou present thy weakness with a desire of strength from him, he will say, Why will ye die of this disease? Gratia mea sufficit, you may recover for all this, you may repent, you may abstain from this sin, you may take this spiritual physic, the word, the Sacraments, if you will, only as God said to Joshua, be valiant, and fight against it, and thou shalt find strength grow in the use thereof.   

Acceptus in gratiam, hilariter veni ad postulationes.  Bernard. 
When thou art established in favour, thou mayest make any suit; When thou art possessed of God by one prayer, thou mayest offer more; This is a Religious insinuation, and a circumvention that God loves, when a sinner husbands his graces so well, as to grow rich under them, and to make his thanks for one blessing, a reason and an occasion of another; so to gather upon God by a rolling trench, and by a winding stair, as Abraham gained upon God in the behalf of Sodom; for this is an act of the wisdom of the Serpent, which our Saviour recommends unto us in such a Serpentine line, as the Artists call it; to get up to God, and get into God by such degrees, as David doth, Psal. 6. 2. from a miserere, to a sa●a, from a gracious look, to a perfect recovery; from the act of the Levite that looked upon the wounded man, to the act of the Samaritan that undertook his cure; from desiring God to visit him as a friend, to study him as a Physician.   

Medicinae ars a Deo data, ut inde rationem animae curandae disceremus.  Basil. 
GOds purpose in giving us the science of bodily health, was not determined in the body, but his large and gracious purpose, was by that restitution of the body, to raise us to the consideration of spiritual health. When Christ had said to him who was sick of the Palsy, Mark. 2. Thy sins are forgiven thee: And that the Scribes and Pharisees were scandalised with that as though he being but man, had usurped upon the power of God; Christ proves to them by an actual restoring of his bodily health, that he could restore his soul too in the forgiveness of sins. He asks them there Whether it is easier to say thy sins are forgiven thee, or to say, Arise, take up thy bed and walk. Christ did not determine his doctrine in the declaration of a miraculous power exercised upon his body, but by that established their belief of his spiritual power, in doing that which in their opinion was the greater work; pursue therefore his method of curing; and if God have restored thee in any sickness by such means, as he of his goodness by natural means hath imprinted in natural Herbs and Simples, think not, that that was done only, or simply, for thy body's sake, but that it is as easy for God to say, Thy sins are forgiven thee, as to say, Take up thy bed and walk: So it is as easy for thee to have spiritual Physic, as bodily; because that as God hath planted all those medicinal Simples in the open fields for although some do tread them under their feet, so hath God deposited and prepared spiritual helps, for all, though all do not make benefit of those helps which are offered. Now this is God's method, as in restoring bodily health, he said, Surge, tolle, ambula, Arise, take up thy bed, and walk: So to every sick soul, whose cure he undertakes he saith so too; our beds are our natural affections, these he doth not bid us cast away, nor burn, nor destroy: Since Christ invested the nature of man, and became man, we must not pretend to divest it, and become Angels, or flatter ourselves in the merit of mortifications not enjoyed, or of a retiredness, and departing out of the world, in the world, by a withdrawing of ourselves from the offices of mutual society, or an extinguishing of natural affections; but Surge, saith our Saviour, Arise from this bed, sleep not lazily in an over-indulgency to these affections, but Ambula, walk sincerely in thy Calling, and thou shalt hear thy Saviour say, Non est infirmitas haec ad mortem, these affections, nay these concupiscencies shall not destroy thee.   

Membra etiam animae sunt.  Basil. 
THe soul hath her limbs, as well as the body. Surdi audite, coeci aspicite, saith God in Isa. 42. If their souls had not ears and eyes, the blind could not see, the deaf could not hear, and yet God calls upon the deaf, and blind, to hear and see; as St. Paul saith to the Ephesians, The eyes of our understanding being enlightened; So David saith, Thou hast broken the teeth, Psal. 3. i. e. the pride, and the power, the venom, and malignity of the wicked. And thus the soul hath her bones too in that expression of david's, Psal. 6. 2. for David's bones here, were the strongest powers and faculties of his soul, and the best actions and operations of those faculties, and yet they were shaken; for this hereditary sickness, original sin, prevails so far upon us, that upon our good days, we have some grudge of that fever, eve● in our best actions we have some of the leven of that sin; so that if we go about to comfort ourselves with some dispositions to God's glory, which we find in ourselves, with some sparks of love to his Precepts, and his Commandments; with some good strength of faith, with some measure of good works, yea with having something for the name and glory of Christ Jesus; yet if we consider what humane and corrupt affections have been mingled in all these, our bones will be troubled, even those that appeared to be strong works, and likely to hold out, will need a reparation, an exclamation, O Lord healthese too, or else these are as weak as the worst.   

Qui fine ullà intermissione orat honest à quadam impudentia, agit impndentem.  Nazian. 
INceffant prayer hath the nature of impudence, we threaten God in prayer, as Nazianzen adventures to express it; he said his Sister in the vehemency of her prayer would threaten God, she came to a Religious impudence with God, and to threaten him that she would never depart from his Altar, till she had her petition granted; and God suffers this impudence and more. Prayer hath the nature of violence. In the public prayers of the Congregation, we besiege God, and we take God prisoner, and bring God to our conditions, and God is glad to be straitened by us in that siege. And therefore the Prophet David executed before, what the Apostle counsels after, pray incessantly. Even in his singing he prayed, And as St. Basil saith, Etiam somnia justorum preces sunt, a good man's dreams are prayers; he prays, and not sleepily in his sleep, but with a holy fervent ecstasy and rapture.   

Nescit diabolus quanta bona de illo fiu●t, etiqm cum soevit.  August. 
LIttle knows the Devil how much good he doth us when he tempts us. For by that we are excited to have our present recourse to that God whom in our former security we neglected, who gives us the issue with the temptation. I know what infirmities I have submitted thee to, and what I have laid and applied to thee, I know thy sickness, and I know thy physic; whatsoever the disease be, my grace shall be sufficient to cure it. For whether we understand that de gratra miraculorum, that it is sufficient for any man's assurance in any temptation or tribulation, to consider Gods miraculous deliverances of other men in other cases, or whether we understand it according to the general voice of Interpreters, i. e. be content that there remain in thy flesh matter and subject for me to produce glory from thy weakness, and matter and subject for thee to exercise thy faith, and allegiance to me, still these words will carry an argument against the expedience of absolute praying against all temptations; For still this gratia mea sufficit, will import this, amount to this, I have as many Antidotes, as the Devil hath poisons; I have as much mercy, as the Devil hath malice▪ There must be Scorpions in the world, but the Scorpion shall cure the Scorpion; there must be temptations, but temptations shall add to mine, and to thy glory. And therefore is it conducible to God's purposes in us (which is the rule of all our prayers) to pray utterly against all tentations as vehemeutly as against sins. God should lose by it, and we should lose by it, if we had no tentations. For God is glorified in those victories which we by his grace gain over the Devil.   

Salvus factus ●s 〈◊〉 nihilo non de nihilo tamen▪  Bernard. 
THou bringest nothing for thy salvation, yet something to thy salvation, nothing worth it, but yet something with it. Thyself hath a part in those means which God useth to that purpose, thyself art the instrument, though not the cause of thine own salvation. Thy new creation by which thou art a new creature, i. e. thy regeneration is wrought as the first creation was wrought. God made heaven and earth of nothing, but he produced the other creatures out of that matter which he had made. Thou hadst nothing to do in the first work of thy Regeneration thou couldst not so much as wish it, but in all the rest thou art a fellow-worker with God, because before that there are seeds of former grace shed in thee.   

Nullâ ●o Deus perinde atque corporis aerumna conciliatur.  Nazian. 
A Mo●●ning spirit, and an afflicted body, are great instruments of reconciling God to a sinner, and they always dwell at the gates of Atonement, & restitution and Bonaventure in the life of Christ reports, that the holy Virgin mother said to Elizabeth, that grace doth not descend into the soul of a man but by prayer and affliction. Besides a delicate and prosperous life is hugely contrary to the hopes of a blessed eternity. And certainly he that sadly considers the portion of Dives, and remembers that the account which Abraham gave him for the unavoidableness of his torment was, because he had his good things in this life, must in all reason with trembling, run from a course of banquets, and faring deliciously every day, as being a dangerous estate, and a consignation to an evil greater than all danger, the pains and torment of unhappy souls. So then he that desires to die well, and happily, above all things must be careful that he do not live a soft delicate, and voluptuous life; but a life severe, holy, and under the Discipline of the Gross. No man wants cause of tears, and daily sorrow. Let every man consider what he feels, and acknowledge his misery; let him confess his sin, and chastise it; let him long and sigh for the joys of heaven; let him tremble and fear because he hath deserved the pains of hell; let him commute his eternal fear, with a temporal suffering, preventing God's judgement by passing one of his own; let him groan for the labours of his pilgrimage, and the dangers of his warfare, and by that time, he hath summed up all these labours, and duties, and contingencies, all the proper causes, instruments, and acts of sorrow, he will find, that for a secular joy and wantonness of spirit, there are not left many void spaces of his life.   

Nemo mala morte unquam moriebatur, qui libenter opera charitatis exercuit.  St. Hieron. 
THis the Father with all his reading, and experience verifies. I do not remember to have read that any charitable person ever died an evil death; and although a long experience hath observed God's mercies to descend upon charitable people, like the dew upon gideon's fleece, when all the world was dry; yet for this also we have a promise which is not only an argument of a certain number of years, but a security for eternal ages, Luke 16. 9 Make ye friends of, etc. When faith fails, and chastity is useless, and temperance shall be no more, than charity shall bear you upon wings of Cherubims to the eternal Mountain of the Lord. I have been a lover of mankind, and a friend, and merciful, and now I expect to communicate in that great kindness, which he shows that is the great God, and Father of men and mercies, said Cyrus the Persian on his deathbed. Now I do not mean this should only be a deathbed charity, any more than a deathbed repentance, but it ought to be the charity of our life and healthful years, a parting of a portion of our goods, then when we can keep them, when we cannot then kindle our lights, when we are to descend into our houses of darkness, or bring a glaring torch suddenly to a dark room that will amaze the eye, and not delight it, or instruct the body; but if our rapers have in their constant course descended into their grave, crowned all the way with light, then l●t the deathbed charity be doubled, and the light burn brightest when it is to deck our Hearse.   

Prima quae vitam dedit h●ra carpsit.  Seneca. 
When Adam fell, than he began to die; the same day (so said God) and that must needs he true; and so it must mean that upon that very day he fell into an evil and dangerous condition, a state of change and affliction; then death began, i. e. the man began to die by a natural diminution and aptness to disease and misery; his first state was, and should have been so long as it lasted a happy duration; his second was a daily and miserable change, and this was the dying properly: This appears in the great instance of damnation, which in the stile of Scripture is called eternal death, not because it kills of ends the duration, it hath not so much good in it, but because it is a perpetual infelicity, change or separation of soul and body, is but accidental to death. Death may be with, or without either; but the formality, the curse and sting of death, i. e. misery, sorrow, anguish, dishonour, and whatsoever is miserable, and afflictive in nature, that is death: Death is not an action, but a whole state and condition, and this was first brought in upon us by the offence of one man. But now though this death entered first upon us by Adam's fault, yet it came nearer unto us, and increased upon us by the sins of more of our forefathers. For Adam's sin left us in strength enough to contend with humane calamities, for almost a thousand years together: but the sins of his children, our forefathers, took off from us half the strength about the time of the flood; and then fell off from five hundred to two hundred and fifty, and from thence to an hundred and twenty, and from thence to threescore and ten so often halfing it, till it is almost come to nothing; so that we have not now time enough to get the perfection of a single manufacture, but ten or twelve Generations of the world must go to the making up of one wise man, or one excellent art; and in that succession of those ages, there happens so many changes and interruptions, so many wars and violences▪ that seven years fight, sets a whole Kingdom back in learning and virtue, to which they were creeping, it may be a whole 〈◊〉.   

Debilem facito manu, debiem pede, lubricos quatedent●●, vita dum superest bene est.  Sen. 
THe Gout, the Stone, and the Toothache, the Sciatica, sore eyes, and aching head, are evils indeed; but such, which rather than die, most men are willing to suffer; and Maecenas added also a wish rather to be crucified than to die, and though his wish was low, timorous, and base, yet we find the same desires in most men dressed up with better circumstances. It was a cruel mercy in Tamberlane, who commanded all the leprous persons to be put to death, as we knock some beasts on their head to put them out of pain, and lest they should live miserably. The poor men would rather have endured another leprosy, and have more willingly taken two diseases than one death. Never therefore account that sickness intolerable, in which thou hadst rather remain than die; and yet if thou hadst rather die than suffer it, the worst of it that can be said, is this, that this sickness is worse than death, i. e. it is worfe than that which is the best of all evils, and the end of all troubles, and then you have said no harm against it.   

Levius fit patientia quicquid corrigere est nefas.  Horat. 
ALl impatience howsoever expressed, is perfectly useless to all purposes of ease, but hugely effective to the multiplying of sorrow, and the impatience and vexation is another, but the sharper disease of the two; it doth mischief by its self, and mischief by the disease. For men grieve themselves as much as they please; and when by impatience they put themselves into the retinue of sorrows, they become solemn mourners. Massurius Sabinus tells, that the image of the goddess Aug●●●●● was with a muffler upon her mouth, placed upon the Altar of Volupi●●, to represent that those persons who bear their sicknesses and sorrows, without murmur, shall certainly pass from sorrow to pleasure, and the ease and honours of felicity, but they that with spite, and indignation bite the burning coal, or shake the yoke upon their necks, gall their spirits, and fret the skin, and hurt nothing but themselves.   

Nolo, quod cupio, statim tenere, nec victoria mî plaoet parata.  Petron. 
SIckness is in some sense eligible, because it is the opportunity, and the proper scene of exercising some virtues. It is that agony in which men are tried for a Crown; and if we remember what glorious things are spoken of the grace of faith, that it is the life of just men, the restitution of the dead in tres passes and sins, the justification of a sinner, the support of the weak, the confidence of the strong, the Magazine of promises, and the title to very glorious rewards. We may easily imagine that it must have in it a work, and a difficulty in some proportion answerable to so great effects: And therefore if you will try the excellency, and feel the work of faith, place the man in a persecution, let him ride in a storm, let his bones be broken with sorrow, and his eyelids loosened with sickness, let his bread be dipped in tears, and all the daughters of Music brought low; let God commence a quarrel against him, and be bitter in the accent of his anger, or his Discipline, than God tries your faith. Can you then trust his goodness, and believe him to be a Father when you groan under his rod. For in our health, and clearer days, it is easy to talk of putting trust in God. We readily trust him for life when we are in health; for provisions when we have fair revenues; and for deliverance when we are newly escaped; But let us come to sit upon the margin of our grave, and let a Tyrant lean hard upon our fortunes; let the storm arise, and the keels toss till the cordage crack, or that all our hopes bulge under us, and descend into the hollowness of sad misfortunes, then can you believe when you neither hear, nor see, nor feel anything but objections? Faith is then brought into the Theatre, and so exercised, that if it abides but to the end of the contention, we may see the work of faith which God will highly crown. The same I say of hope, and of charity, or the love of God, and of patience, which is a grace produced from the mixtures of all these, they are virtues which are greedy of danger. And no man was ever honoured by any wise, or discerning person for dining upon Perfian Carpets, nor rewarded with a Crown for being at ease. It was the Sire that did honour to Mutiu● Scoevola, poverty made Fabritius famous, Rutilius was made excellent by banishment, Regulus by torments, Socrates by a prison, Cato by his death, and God hath crowned the memory of Job with a wreath of glory, because he sat upon his dunghill wisely and temperately; and his potsherd, and his groans mingled with praises, and justifications of God, pleased him like an anthem, sung by Angels in the morning of the Resurrection.   

Marcet virtus fine adversario.  Cicero. 
GOd loves to see us struggling with a disease, and resisting the Devil, and contesting against the weaknesses of nature, and against hope to believe in hope, resigning ourselves to Gods will, praying him to choose for us, and dying in all things but faith, and its blessed consequents. For so have I known the boisterous Northwind pass through the yielding air which opened its bosom, and appeased its violence, by entertaining it with easy compliance in all the Regions of its reception. But when the same breath of heaven hath been checked with the stifness of a Tower, or the united strength of a wood, it grew mighty, and dwelled there, and made the highest branches stoop, and make a smooth path for it on the top of all its glories. So is sickness, and so is the grace of God. When sickness hath made the difficulty, than God's grace hath made a triumph, and by doubling its power, hath created new proportions of a reward, and then shows its biggest glory, when it hath the greatest difficulty to master, the greatest weaknesses to support, the most busy temptations to contest with. For so God loves that his strength should be seen in our weakness, and our danger.   

Detestabilis est coecitas, si nemo oculos perdiderit nisi cui eruendi sunt.  Senec. 
BLindness were a most accursed thing, if no man were ever blind but he whose eyes are pulled out with tortures, or burning bafons: And if sickness were always a testimony of God's anger, and a violence to a man's whole condition, than it were a huge calamity; but because God sends it to his servants, to his children, to little infants, to Apostles, and Saints, with designs of 〈◊〉 to preserve their innocence, to overcome tentation, to try their virtue, to fit them for rewards, it is certain that sickness never is an evil, but by our own faults; and if we will do our duty, we shall be sure to turn it into a blessing. If the sickness be great, it may end in death, and the greater it is, the sooner; and if it be very little, it hath great intervals of rest; if it be between both, we may be Masters of it, and by serving the ends of providence, serve also the perfective end of humane nature, and enter into the possession of everlasting mercies. However, if all the calamities were true concerning sickness, with which it is aspersed, yet is it far to be preferred before the most pleasant fin, and before a great secular business, and a temporal care; and some men awake as much in the foldings of the softest beds, as others on the cross, and sometimes the very weight of sorrow, and the weariness of sickness presses the spirit into slumbers, and images of rest, when the intemperate, or the lustful person rolls upon his uneasy thorns, and sleep is departed from his eyes.   

Solatium est pro honesto dura tolerare, & ad causam patientia respicit.  Senec. 
IN all sufferings, the cause of it makes it noble, or ignoble, tolerable, or intolerable. For when patience is assaulted by a ruder violence, by a blow from heaven or earth, from a gracious God, or an unjust man, patience looks forth to the doors which way she may escape: And if innocence, or a cause of Religion keep the first entrance, then whether she escapes at the gates of life, or death, there is a good to be received, greater than the evils of a sickness; but if sin thrust in that sickness, and that hell stands at the door, than patience turns into fury; and seeing it is impossible to go forth with safety, rowls up and down with a circular and infinite revolution, making its motion not from, but upon its own centre, it doubles the pain, and increases the sorrow, till by its weight it breaks the spirit, and bursts into the agonies of infinite and eternal ages. If we had seen St. Polycarp burning to death, or St. Laurence roasting upon his gridiron, or St. Ignatiu● exposed to Lions, or St. Sebastian pierced with arrows for the cause of Jesus, for Religion, for God, for a holy conscience, we should have been in love with flames, and have thought the gridiron fairer than the marriage bed; and we should have chosen rather to converse with those beasts, than those men that brought those beasts forth, and have esteemed Sebastian's arrows to be the rays of light, brighter than the Moon. For so did those holy men account them; they kissed their stakes, and hugged their deaths, and ran violently to torments, and counted whip, and secular disgraces to be the enamel of their persons, and the ointment of their heads, and the embalming their names, and securing them for immortality. But to see Seja●us ●orn in pieces by the people, or Nero crying, and creeping timorously to his death when he was condemned to die, more majorum, to see Judas pale and trembling, full of anguish, sorrow, and despair, to observe the groan and intolerable agonies of Herod, and Antiochus, will tell and demonstrate the causes of patience and impatience, to proceed from the causes of the suffering, and that it is sin only that makes the cup bitter and deadly.   

Non est magnum audiri ad voluntatem non est magnum.  August. 
BE not overjoyed when God grants thee thy prayer, the Devil had his prayer granted when he had leave to enter into the herd of Swine, and so he had when he obtained power of God against Job. But all this aggravated the Devil's punishment; so may it do thine, to have some prayers granted. And as that must not overjoy thee if it be, so if thy prayer be not granted, it must not deject thee. God suffered St. Paul to pray, and pray, and pray, yet after his thrice praying granted him not that he prayed for. God suffered that if it be possible, and that let this cup pass, to pass from Christ himself, yet he granted it not.   

Tentemus animas quae deficiunt a fide, naturalibus rationibus adjuvare.  St. Hieron. 
LEt us endeavour to assist them who are weak in faith with the strength of reason, though God hath not given the Minister a power to infuse faith into men, yet hath God put it into his power to satisfy the reason of men, and to chafe that wax to which he himself vouchsafes to set to the great seal of faith. And truly it is very well worthy of a serious consideration, that whereas all the Articles of our Creed are the objects of faith, so that we are bound to receive them de fide, as matters of faith; yet God hath left that, out of which all these Articles are to be deduced, and proved, i. e. the Scripture, to humane arguments. It is not an Article of the Creed to believe these and these books to be, or not to be Canonical Scripture, but our arguments for the Scripture are humane arguments proportioned to the reason of a natural man. God doth not seal in water, in the fluid and tranfitory imaginations and opinions of men; we never set the seal of faith to them, but in wax, in the rectified reason of men, that reason that is ductile, and flexible, and pliant to the impressions that are naturally proportioned unto it, God sets to his seal of faith; and therefore faith itself by the Prophet Isaiah is called knowledge, Isa. 53. 11. By his knowledge, etc. saith God of Christ, ay, e. by that knowledge that men shall have of him, Insomuch that it is not enough for you to rest in an imaginary faith, and easiness in believing, except ye know also what, and why, and how you come to that belief. Implicit believers, ignorant believers, the adversary may swallow, but the understanding believer, he must chaw, and pick bones before he come to assimilate him, and make him like himself. The implicit believer stands in an open field, and the enemy will ride over him easily: The understanding believer is in a fenced Town, and he hath outworks to lose before the Town be pressed, i. e. reasons to be answered, before his faith be shaked; and he will sell himself dear, and lose himself by inches, if he be sold, or lost at last.   

Anima spiritualiter cadit & spiritualiter resurge●.  August. 
SInce we are sure that there is a spiritual death of the soul, let us make sure a spiritual resurrection too. Aud●cter dicam, saith St. Jerome, I say confidently however, God can do all things, he cannot restore a Virgin that is ●a●n from it to Virginity again, he cannot do this in the body, but God is a Spirit, and hath reserved more power upon the spirit and soul, than upon the body: And therefore I may say with the same assurance that St. Jerome doth; no soul hath so prostituted herself, so multiplied her fornications, but that God can make her a Virgin again, and give her even the chastity of Christ himself. Fulfil therefore what Christ saith, Joh. 5. 25. The hour is coming, and now is, etc. be this that hour, bee-thy first resurrection; bless Gods present goodness for this now, and attend God's leisure for the other resurrection hereafter; and then doubt not but what glory soever thou hast had in this world, glory inherited from noble Ancestors, glory acquired by merit and service, glory purchased by money, and observation, what glory of beauty, and proportion; what glory of health, and strength soever thou baste had in this house of clay; the glory of the latte● house, as it is Hag. ●. 9 shall be greater than of the former.   

Qui peacat quatenus peccat, sit seip so detetion.  Clem. Alex. 
IN every sin a man falls from that degree which himself had before. In every s● he is dishonoured, he is not so good a man as he was; impoverished, he hath not so great a portion of grace as he had; infatuated, he hath not so much of the true wisdom of the fear of God as he had; dis●armed, he hath not that interest, and confidence in the love of God that he had; and deformed, he hath not so lively a representation of the image of God as before. In every sin we become prodigals; but in the habit of sin we become bankrupts, afraid to come to an account. A fall is a fearful thing, that needs a raising, a help; but sin is a death, and that needs a resurrection; and a resurrection is as great a work as the very Creation its self. It is death in semine in the root, it produces, it brings forth death; it is death in arbore, in the body, in its self; death is a divorce, and so is sin; and it is death in fructu, in the fruit thereof; sin plants spiritual death, and this death produces more sin obduration, impenitence, and the like.   

Transeant injuriae plerasque non accipit qui nescit.  Seneca. 
He that knows not of an injury, or takes no knowledge of it, for the most part hath no injury. But alas, how many break their sleep in the night about things that disquiet them in the day too, and trouble themselves in the day about things that disquiet them all night too. We disquiet ourselves too much in being over tender, over sensible of imaginary injuries. They that are too inquisitive what other men say of them, they disquiet themselves; for that which others would but whisper, they publish; and therefore that which he adds there for moral and civil matters, holds in a good proportion in things of a more divine nature, in such parts of the Religious worship and service of God, as are not fundamental, non exp●dit om●●● vide●e, non omnia audire, we must not too jealoussy suspect, nor too bitterly condemn, nor too peremptorily conclude that whatsoever is not done as we would have it done, or as we have seen it done in former times, is not well done.   

Antequam unlneramur monemur.  Origen. 
BEfore our enemies hit us, God gives us warning that they mean to do so. When God himself is so ●ar incensed against us, that he is turned to be our enemy, and to fight against us (it was come to that Isa. 63. 10.) when he hath bend his bow against us as an enemy (it was come to that in the Prophet Jeremy, Law. 2. 4.) yet still he gives us warning beforehand, and still there comes a lightning before his thunder. God comes seldom to that dispatch, a word, and a blow, but to a blow without a word, to an execution without a warning, never. Cain took offence at his brother Abel, the quarrel was Gods, because he had accepted Abel's sacrifice, therefore God joins himself to Abel's party; and so the party being too strong for Cain to subsist, God would not surprise Cain, but he tells him his danger, Why is thy countenance cast down? Gen. 4. 10. You may proceed if you will, but if you will needs, you will lose by it at last. Saul persecutes Christ in the Christians, Christ meets him upon the way, speaks to him, strikes him to the ground, tells him vocally, and tells him actually, that he hath undertaken too hard a work, in opposing him: This which God did to Saul reduces him; that which God did to Cain wrought not upon him, but still God went his own way in both, to speak before he strikes, to lighten, before he thunders; to warn, before he wounds. In Dathan and Abi●ams case, God may seem to proceed apace towards execution, but yet it had all these pauses in arrest of judgement, and their reprieves before execution, yet when Moses had information and evidence of their factious proceeding, he falls not upon them, but he falls upon his face before God, and laments, and deprecates in their behalf, he calls them to a fair trial and examination the next day, Tomorrow the Lord will show, Numb. 16. 5, and they said, We will not come, vers. 14. Then God upon their contumacy, when they would stand mute, and not plead, takes a resolution to consume them in a moment, and then Moses and Aaron return to petition for them, vers. 25. And Moses went up to them again, and the Elders of Israel followed, and all prevailed not, and then Moses comes to pronounce judgement, These men shall not die a common death; and after, and yet not presently after that he gave judgement, execution followed, vers. 31. God opened his mouth, and Moses his, and Aaron his, and the Elders theirs, before the earth opened hers. In all which we see that God always leaves a latitude between his sentence and execution, which interim is sphaera activitatis, the sphere in which our repentance, and his mercy move, and direct themselves in a benign aspect towards one another.   

Vili vendimus coelum, glauci more Christiani sumus.  Tertul. 
HOw poor a clod of earth is a Manor? How poor an inch a Shire? How poor a span a Kingdom? How poor a pace the whole world, and yet how prodigally we sell Paradise, Heaven, Souls, Consciences, Immortality, Eternity, for a few grains of this dust. What had Eve for heaven? so little, as that the Holy Ghost will not let us know what she had, nor what kind of fruit, yet something Eve had. What had Adam for heaven? but a satisfaction that he had pleased an ill wife, as St. Jerome states his fault, that fruit, ne contristaretur delicias suas, lest he should cast her off whom he loved so much, into an inordinate dejection; but if he satisfied her and his own uxoriousness, any satisfaction is nothing. But what had I for heaven Adam sinned, and I suffer, I forfeited before I had any possession, or could claim any interest; I had a punishment before I had a being, and God was displeased with me before I was, I was built up scarce fifty years ago in my mother's womb, and I was cast down almost six thousand years ago in Adam's loins. I was born in the last age of the world, and died in the first. How justly do we cry out against a man that hath sold a Town, or sold an Army, and Adam sold the World, he sold Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the Patriatches, and all the Prophets; and if Christ had not provided for himself by miraculous Generation, he had sold him too.   

Agnoscere nolumus quod ignorare 〈◊〉 possumus.  Cypri. de mortal. 
THere is no meditation more serious, than upon the vanity of the world, no consideration more seasonable, than of the brevity and uncertainty of time itself, no knowledge more wholesome, than of the diseases of the mind; no contemplation more divine, than of humane misery and frailty. Which though we read in the inscription of every stone, see in the fall of everyleaf, hear in the knol of every bell, taste in the garnishing and fancy of every dish, smell in the stench of every dead corpse, feel in the beating of every pulse; yet we are not sensible of it, we will not take knowledge of it, though we cannot be ignorant of it. In which consideration the Wise man, whose words are as goads and nails, vers. 11. pricks us deep with the remembrance hereof, so deep that he draws blood, sanguinem animae, the blood of the soul, as St. Austin termeth our tears, Lachryma sanguis animae. For who can read with dry eyes, that those that look out of the windows shall be darkened; who can hear without horror, that the keepers of the house shall tremble, or consider without sorrow, that the daughters of Music shall be brought low, or comment without deep fetched sighs upon man's going to his long home, and the mourners going about the streets, to wash them with tears, and sweep them with Rosemary.   

Infans nondum loquitur, & tamen prophetat.  August. Serm. de bono pat. 
IT is lamentable to hear the poor infant which cannot speak, yet, to boad his own misery, and to Prophecy of his future condition, and what are the contents of his Prophecy, but lamentations, mournings, and woes? Saint Cyprian accords with Saint Austin in his doleful note, Vitae mortalis anxietates, & dolores & procellas mundi quas ingreditur inexordio statim suo ploratu, vel gemit● rudis anima testatur, little children newly born, take in their first breath with a sigh, and come crying into the world, as soon as they open their eyes they shed tears to help fill up the vale of tears, into which they were then brought, and shall be after a short time carried out with a stream of them, running from the eyes of all their friends. And if the Prologue and Epilogue be no better, what shall we judge of the Scenes and Acts of the life of man, they yield so deep springs of tears, and such store of arguments against our abode in this world, that many reading them in the books of Hegesias the Platonic, presently broke the prison of their body, and leapt out of the world into the grave. Others concluded with Silenus, Optimum non nasci, proximum quam primum mori, That it was simply best never to be born, the next to it to die out of hand, and give the world our salve, and take our vale at once.   

Optima quaeque dies miseris mortalibus avi primi fluit.  Horat. 
THe prime scope of the book of Ecclesiastes, is to stir up all Religious minds to set forth towards heaven betimes, in the morning of our days, Chap. 12. vers. 1. Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth; to enter speedily into a strict course of holiness, which will bring us to eternal happiness, to dedicate to God and his service, the prime in both senses, that is the first, and best part of our time. For as in a glass of distilled water, the purest and thinnest first runneth out, and nothing but lees and mother at the last; so it is in our time and age, our best days first run, and our worst at the last. And shall we offer that indignity to the Divine Majesty, as to offer him the Devils leave? Florem aetatis diabolo consocrare, faecem Deo reservare, to consecrate the top to the Devil, and the bottom to God, feed the flesh with the flower, and the spirit with the bran; serve the world with our strength, and our Creator with our weakness, give up our lusty and able members as weapons to sin, and our feeble and weak to righteousness. Will God accept the blind, and the lame, the lean, and the withered for a sacrifice? How can we remember our Creator in the days of our age, when our memory, and all other faculties of the soul are decayed? How shall we bear Christ's yoke, when the Grasshopper is a burden unto us? when we are not able to bear ourselves, but now under the sole weight of age? What delight can we take in God's service, when care, and fear, and sorrow, and pain, and manifold infirmities, and diseases wholly possess the heart, and dead, all the vital motions, and lively affections thereof.   

Senes in limine mortis, vitae sunt avidissuni.  Aristot. de long. & brevi. avit. 
IT was Aristotle's observation, that old men that have their foot on death's threshold, would then draw back their leg if they could, and at the very instant of their dissolution, are most defarous of the continuance of their life; and seeing the pleasures of fin like the apples of Tantalus running away from them, they catch at them the more greedily, for want is the whetstone of desire, and experience offereth us many instances of old men, in whom St. Paul's old man grows young again, who according to the corruption of nature, which St. Austin bewaileth with tears, Malunt libidinem expleri quam extingui, they are so far from having no lust or desire of pleasures, as being cloyed therewith, that they are more insatiable in them than in youth; the flesh in them are like the Peacocks, Quae cocta recrudescit, which after it is sod, in time will grow raw again, so in them after mortification by diseases and age it reviveth. Sophocles the heathen Poet, might pass for a Saint in comparison of them, for he thanked God, that in his old age he was free from his most imperious Mistress, lust: These men on the contrary, desire to enthral themselves again in youthly pleasures, and concupiscence in them is kindled even by the defect of fuel; it vexeth them that their sins forsake them, that through the impotency of their limbs and faculties, they cannot run into the like excess as in former times: Their few days before death, are like Shrovetide before Lent, they take their fill of flesh, and fleshly desires, because they suppose that for ever after they must fast from them. Thus they spur on their jadish flesh, now unable to run her former stages, saying, Let us crown ourselves with Rosebuds, for they will presently wither, let us eat and drink, for to morrow we shall die.   

Respice sepulchra & vide quis servus, quis dominus, quis dives, & quis pauper, discern si potes vinctum a rege, fortem a debili, pulchrum a deformi.  Aug. l. de nat. & great. 
THe hand of a dead man stroking the part, cures the Tympany; and certainly the consideration of death, is a present means to cure the swelling of pride in any form in this life; many things make odds between men and women, as birth, education, wealth, alliance, and honour; but death makes all even, Respice sepulchra, saith St. Austin, Survey men's graves, and tell me then who is beautiful, and who is deformed. All there have hollow eyes, flat noses, and ghastly looks, Nereus and Thirsites cannot be there distinguished. Tell me, who is rich, and who is poor; all there, wear the same weed, their winding sheet: Tell me who is noble, and who base and ignoble, the worms claim kindred of all: Tell me who is well housed, and who is ill; all there are bestowed in dark and dankish rooms under ground. If this will not satisfy you, take a sieve and fifth the dust and ashes of all men, and show me which is which. I grant there is some difference in dust; there is powder of Diamonds, there is gold dust, and brass-pin dust, and sawdust, and common dust, the powder of Diamonds resembles the remains of Princes; gold dust, the remains of Noblemen; pin-dust, the remains of the Tradesmen; sawdust the remains of the day-labourer, and common dust, the remains of the vulgar, which have no quality or profession to distinguish them, yet all is but dust. At a game of Chess, we see Kings, and Queens, and Bishops, and Knights upon the board, and they have their several walks, and contest one with the other in points of state and honour; but when the game is done, all together with the Pawns are shuffled in one bag: In like manner, in this life men appear in indifferent garbs, and take divers courses, some are Kings, some are Officers, some Bishops, some Knights, some of other ranks, and orders. But when this life like a game is done, which is sometimes sooner, sometimes later, all are shuffled together with the many or vulgar sort of people, and lie in darkness and obscurity, till the last man is born upon the earth, but after that, Erunt ipsis quoque fata sepulchris. The grave which hath swallowed up all the sons of Adam, shall be swallowed up itself into victory.   

Theodoro parum interest huminc an in sublime putrescat.  Erasmus. 
ALthough the heathen Philosophers made little account of Burial, as appeared by the speech of Theodorus to the Tyrant, who threatened to hang him: I little pass by it whether my carcase putrify above the earth, or on it. And the Poet seems to be of his mind, whose strong line it was, Coelo teg●tur qui non habet urnam, which was Pompey's case, and had like to have been alexander's, and William the Conquerors; yet all Christians who conceive more divinely on the soul, deal more humanely with the body, which they acknowledge to be membrum Christi, and templum Dei, a member of Christ, and temple of God. If charity commands thee to cover the naked, saith St. Ambrose, how much more to bury the dead? When a friend is taking a long journey, it is civility for his friends to bring him on part of his way; when our friends are departed, and now going to their grave, they are taking their last journey, from which they shall never return till time shall be no more; and can we do less than by accompanying the corpse to the grave, bring them as it were part on their way, and shed some few tears for them, whom we shall see no more with mortal eyes. The Prophet calleth the grave Miscabin, a sleeping chamber, or resting place; and when we read Scriptures to them that are departing, and give them godly instructions to die, we light them as it were to their bed; and when we send a deserved testimony after them, we perfume the room. Indeed if our bodies (which like garments we cast off at our death) were never to be worn again, we need little care where they were thrown, or what became of them; but seeing they must serve us again, their fashion being only altered, it is fit we carefully lay them up in Death's Wardrobe, the grave; though a man after he hath lost a Jewel, doth less set by the casket, yet he who loves much, and highly esteemeth of the soul of his friend, as Alexander did of Homer, cannot but make some reckoning of the Desk and Cabinet in which it always lay: We have a care of placing the picture of our friend, and should we not much more of bestowing his body. If burial were nothing to the dead, God would never have threatened Coniah that he should have the burial of an Ass, nor the Psalmist so quavered upon this doleful note, Dederunt cadaver servorum tuorum coeli volucribus, O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance, thy holy Temple have they defiled, and made Jerusalem an heap of stones, the dead bodies of thy servants have they given to the fowls of heaven.   

Mors non est exitus sed transitus & temporali itinere decurs● ad aeterna transgressus.  Cyp. the mortal. 
Which is verified from Rev. 14. 13. And I heard a voice from heaven etc. From whence we may learn first, That if all that die in the Lord are blessed, from the very moment of their death, and this blessedness is confirmed by a voice from heaven: Let us give more heed to such a voice than to any whisper of the flesh or devil. Whatsoever Philosophy argueth, or reason objecteth, or sense excepteth against it: Let us give more heed to God than man, to the Spirit than to the flesh, to faith than to reason, to heaven than to earth; although they who suffer for the testimony of the Gospel seem to be most miserable, their skins being flayed off, their joints racked, their whole body torn in pieces, or burned to ashes, their good confiscate, their arms defaced, and all manner of disgraces put upon them: Yet they are most happy in heaven, by the testimony of hewn itself, the malice of their enemies cannot reach so high as heaven, it cannot touch them much there, much less awake them out of their sweet sleep in Jesus.  
Secondly, If the dead are blessed in comparison of the living, let us not so glue our thoughts, and affections to the world, and the comforts thereof, but that they may easily be severed, for there is no comparison between the state of the godly in this life, and in the life ●o come, for here they labour for rest, there they rest from their labour; here they expected; here they hunger, and thirst for righteousness, there they are satisfied; here they are continually afflicted, either for their sins, or with their sins, and they have continual cause to shed tears, either for the calamities of God's people, or the strokes they themselves receive from God, or the wounds they give themselves; there all tears are wiped from their eyes: Here they are always troubled either with the evils they fear, or the fear of evil; but when they go hence, death sets a period to all fear, cares, sorrows, and dangers. And therefore Solon speaketh divinely, when he taught Croesus that he ought to suspend his verdict of any man's happiness till he saw his end.  
Lastly, If all that die in Christ are blessed, as a voice from heaven assureth us, we do wrong to heaven if we account them miserable, we do wrong to Christ; if we count them as lost, whom he hath found, if we shed immoderate tears for them from whose eyes, he hath wiped away all tears, to wear perpetual blacks for them, upon whom he hath put long white Robes. Whatsoever our loss may be by them, it cometh far short of their gain; our cross is light in comparison of their superexcellent weight of glory, therefore let us not sorrow for them as those that have no hope. Let us not show ourselves infidels by too much lamenting the death of believers. Weep we may for them, or rather for our loss by them, but moderately, as knowing that our loss, is their gain; and if we truly love them, we cannot but exceedingly congratulate their feasts of joy, their rivers of pleasures, their Psalms of Victory, their Robes of Majesty, their Crowns of glory. Water therefore your plants at the departure of your dearest friends, but drown them not; For whatsoever we complain of here, they are freed from there; and whatsoever we desire here, they enjoy there; they hunger not, but feast with the Lamb; they sigh not, but sing with Moses, having safely passed over the glassy Sea; they lie not in darkness, but possess the inheritance of Saints in light. They have immunity from sin, freedom from all temptations, and security from danger, they have rest for their labours here, comfort for their troubles, glory for their disgrace, joys for their sorrows, life for their death in Christ, and Christ for all.   

Ut Romae mori non potest qui Romae non vixit, ita qui in domino non vixit, in e● non moritur.  Cor. Alapide. 
AS a man cannot die at Rome, who never lived at Rome; so none can die in Christ, who never lived in him, and none can live in him, who is not in him; First, than we must labour to be in him, and how may we compass this? Christ himself teacheth us, I am the Vine, and my Father is the Husbandman, every branch that beareth not fruit in me, he taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit be purgeth, that it may bring forth more fruit; as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the Vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in me. Hence we learn that we cannot bear fruit in Christ, unless as branches we be engrafted into him. Now that a graft may be inoculated, 1 There must be made an incision in the tree. 2 The graft or science must be imped in. 3 After it is put in, it must be joined fast to the tree. The incision is already made by the wounds given Christ at his death, many incisions were made in the true Vine; that which putteth us in, or inoculateth us, is a special faith, and that which binds us fast to the tree, is love, and the grace of perseverance. If then we be engrafted by faith into Christ, and bound fast unto him by love, we shall partake of the juice of the stock, and grow in grace, and bear fruit also more and more, and so living in the true Vine, we shall die in him, and so dying in him, we shall re-flourish with him in everlasting glory.   

Nihil melius aterna lex fecit quam quod unum introitum ad vitam nobis dedit, exitus multos.  Sen. Ep. 10. 
WE come but one way into the world, but we go a thousand out of it: As we see in a Garden pot, the water is poured in but at one place, to wit, the narrow mouth, but it runneth out at a hundred holes. Some dye by fire, as the Sodomites; by water, as the old world: By the infection of the air, as threescore and ten thousand in David's time: By the opening of the earth, as Corah, Dathan, and Abiram, Amphiraus, and two Cities, Buris, and Helice. Some meet with death in their Coach, as Antiochus, their chamber as Domitian, their bed, as John the twelfth, the Theatre, as Caligula, the Senate, as Caesar. The Temple, as Zenacherib. Their table, as Claudius. At the Lord's Table, as Pope Victor, and Henry of Luxenburg. Death woundeth and striketh some with a Penknife, as Soneca a Stiletto, as Henry the fourth. A sword, as Paul. A Fuller's ●e am, as James the Lords brother. A Saw, as Isaiah. A stone, as Pyrrhus. A Thunderbolt, as Amistatius. What should I speak of Felones de se, such as have thrown away their souls. Sardanapalus made a great fire, and leapt into it. Luoretia stabbed herself. Cleopatra put an Asp to her breast stung therewith, died presently; Saul fell upon his own sword. Judas hanged himself: Deronius cut his own veins. Heremius bear out his own brains. Licinius choked himself with a napkin. Dortia died by swallowing hot burning coals. Hannibal sucked poison out of his ring. Demosthenes out of his Pen, etc. What seemeth so loose as the soul in the body, which is plucked out with an hair, driven out with a smell, frayed out with a fancy? Verily that seemeth to be but a breath in the nostrils, which is taken away with a scent; a shadow, which is driven away with a Scarecrow; a dream, which is frayed away with a fancy; a vapour which is driven away with a puss; a conceit which goes away with a passion, a toy that leaves us with a laughter; yet grief killed Homer; laughter Philemon; a hait in his milk, Fabius; a fly in his throat, Adrian; a smell of lime in his nostrils, Jovi●●; the snuft of a candle a child in Pliny; a kernel of a raisin Anacreon; and an Icesickle one in Martial, which caused the Poet to melt into tears, saying, Onbimors' non est, si jugulatis aque? What cannot make an end of us, if a small drop of water congealed can do it? In these regards we may turn the affirmative in the 1 Cor. 15. 55. into a negative, and say truly, though not in the Apostles sense, O death where is not thy sting? For we see it thrust out in out meats, in our drinks, in our apparel, in our breath, in the Court, in the Country, in the City, in the Field, in the Land, in the Sea, in the Chamber, in the Church, and in the Churchyard.   

Domiviam potest a● est ●um utendi 〈◊〉 abutend●.  Justinian. 
GOd may lend thee out even to Satah, suffer thee to be his Bayli●●e, and his instrument to the vexation of others: So he lent out St. Paul to the Scribes and Pharisees, to serve them in their persecutions; so God may lend thee out. God may let thee out for a time to them that shall plough and harrow thee, fell, and cleave thee, and reserve to himself but a little rent, a little glory, in thy patience; So he let out Job even to Satan himself; so God may let thee out, God may mortgage thee to a six months' Fever, or to a longer debilit; so he mortgaged Hezekias. God may lay thee waste, and pull-up thy fences, and extinguish their power, or withdraw their love, upon whom thou hast established thy dependence; So he laid David waste, when he withdrew his children's obedience from him; so God may lay thee waste. God may let out all his time in thee in this world, and reserve to himself only a last year, a last day, a last minute, suffer thee in unrepented sins to the last gasp; so God let out the good, Thief. God is Lord of all that thou hast and art; and then he that is Lord owner, Proprietary, may do with that which is his, what, he will. But God will not, cannot divest his Domirsion, nor sell thee so, as not to reserve a power, and a will to redeem thee, if thou wouldst be redeemed. For howsoever he seem to thee, to have sold thee to sin, to sadness, to sickness, to superstition, (for these be the Ishmalites, these be the Midianite Merchants, that buy up our joseph's, our souls) though he seem to sell his present estate, he will not sell reversions, his future title to thee by a future repentance, he will not sell, but whensoever thou shalt grow due to him, by a new, land a true repentance, he shall reassume thee into his bed, and his bosom, no bill of divorce, and re-enter thee into his revenue, and his audit, no bill of sale, shall stand up to thy prejudice, but thy dejected spirit shall spirit shall be raised from thy consternation to a holy cheerfulness, and a peaceful alacrity, and no tentation shall offer a reply to this question, which God makes to establish thy conscience, ubi libellus, Where is the bill of thy mother's divorcement, etc. Isa. 50. 1.   

Unde illi cura cordis cui ne ipsa quidem adhuc ●ris circumspectia.  Bernard. 
POu● Domine custodiam ori meo, was the prayer of David, Set a watch before my lips. And in the Law of Mases, the vessel that had not the coveting fastened to it, was unclean; and therefore the inner parts of a fool are resembled to a broken vessel, which hath neither part entire, nor covering. He can keep no knowledge while he liveth, Eccles. 21. 14. Hereupon those more nobly bred amongst the Romans, learned first to hold their peace, and afterwards to speak. For he is an ill treasurer of his own thoughts, that keeps not the doors of his lips shut; and that heart is never locked fast upon any secret, where a profuse tongue lays interest to the key. And therefore nature hath provided well by fortisying this member, more than any part of the body, setting a garrison of the strong and stout men about it, Eccles. 12. doubly entrenching it with lips and teeth, not so much to oppose a foreign invasion, as to allay mutinies within, for the tongue is an unruly member, and sides much with the perverseness of our will; and therefore reason should keep strict Sentinel upon it, and as well direct, as guard it. Nature hath proportioned us a double ear and eye to a single tongue, and reason interprets instantly. We should hear, and see twice, ere we speak once   

Natum esse Dee sempiternum est.  
TO be born with God, is to be eternal with God, spoken by St. Austin against the Arrians, and the Father opens himself by his old similitude, Sicut splendor qui gignitur ab igne, as light which is begotten of fire, and defused, is coequal with the fire, and would be coeternal too, if fire were eternal; So the Son with the Father, this being before all time, the other must kiss in the same everlastingness. The Father thinking his reason built too slenderly doth buttress (as it were) and back it with the authority of an Apostle, such an Apostle as was sometimes a Persccutor, and therefore his Authority most potent against a Persecutor where he styles Christ, the Power and Wisdom of God. If the Son of God be the Power and Wisdom of God; and that God was never without Power and Wisdom; how can we scant the Son of a Co-eternity with the Father? For either we must grant that there was always a Son, or that God had sometimes no wisdom, and impudence, or madness, were never at such a growth of blasphemy, as to belch the latter. If the reverend allegation of a learned Prelate, or those more sacred of an Apostle, cannot bring up the mouth of a malicious Heretic, hear the voice of a Prophet, and a Father warbling upon that too. Before me there was no other God, and after me there shall be none, Isa. 43. 10. Quis hoc dicit, pater an filius? (saith Ambrose) Who is here, the speaker; the Father, or the Son (he cometh over him with a subtle Dilemma) if the Son, thus he saith, Before me there was no other Cod; if the Father, After me (saith he) these shall be none: For both the Father in the Son, and the Son in the Father must be known; when thou namest a Father, thou hast also designed a Son, because no man is a Father to himself; when thou namest a Son, thou confessest also a Father, for no man is son to himself, the Son therefore can neither subsist without the Father, nor the Father without the Son, the one being from everlasting, we may not depose the other from the like Omnipotency.   

Vereor ne dum propter te fugis, propter alios sis in pericul● apud dominum.  Athan. in Epist. ad Drac. 
TO avoid all occasions of public service for the Church under a pretence of humility, or recluseness, speaks (too broadly) the delinquent, refractory; your Anchorite that digs his grave in speculation merely, and your Mole that is earthed wholly in an affected solitariness, are not liable so properly to obscurity, as death, such elaborateness tends not to perfection, but disease; and we find an Apoplexy, and sleep, no less on their endeavours than in their name; all knowledge is dusted with them, and it is no more a nursery of virtues, but a Tomb. And (indeed) such silkworms spin themselves into flies, disanimate heartless flies, fit neither for Church, nor Commonwealth. The Laurel, and honour of all Secular designs, is the execution, and the happiness of those sacred ones is not entailed barely to the knowledge of them, but to that fac & vives, and that not at home only in thy particular intendments, but abroad also in thy services for the Church; so that he that retreats at any alarm, or summons of his God, for the common affairs of the Church, to hug, and enjoy himself in his solitary ends, runs himself on the shelves of a rough censure, that of the father to his Dracontius. To stand by, and give aim only whilst others shoot, and thou thyself no markman, proclaims thy laziness, if not thy impotency. What a nothing is thy arm, thy bow, thy shaft? if not practised, nor bend, nor drawn up; or if so glorious a mark, the Church, why not leveled at? either she must be unworthy of thy travel, or thine of her. If therefore this thy mother implore thy aid (so Augustine counsels his Indoxi●s) on the one side, have not ambition on the other, lean not to a l●●ie refusal, weigh not thine own idleness with the necessities and greatness of her burdens, to which (whiles she is in travel) if no good men will administer their help, Certain quomodo nasceremini non inveniretis, God must then invent new ways for our new birth.   

Occidar modo imperet.  Tacit. Annals. 
AMmbition whither wilt thou? Nay, whither wilt thou not? To the pinnacle of the Temple for the glory of the world, though thou tumble for it to thy eternal ruin. The Greek Philosopher Eudorus will beg of the gods, that he may behold the Sun so near, as to comprehend the form, beauty, greatness of it, and afterwards he cares not if he burn, as if there were no such Martyrdom as what Ambition fites. Let me be killed, so that he may reign, was the resolution of Agrippina for her Nero. But lo, how the event crowns the unsatiateness of her desires; he gains the Kingdom, and first digged out those bowels which had fostered him, and then that heart which was the throne of such an aspiring thought, Cruelty, shall I call it, or Justice, when the vainglory of the mother was penanced with the unnatralness of the son. Thus lofty minds (furnished with a strong hope of the success of their designs) have embarked themselves into great actions, and proposing humane ends, as scales to their high thoughts, have been wasted into strange promotions, but after they have (a while) spangled in that their firmament of honour, they become falling stars, and so the success proves as inglorious as the enterprise was bold and desperate. We have seldom met with any eminency that was sudden and permanent: Those which in their dawn of fortune break so gloriously, meet with a storm at noon, or else a cloud at night. The Sun that rises in a grey and sullen morning, sets clearest: And indeed, Ambion is too hasty, and is hurried violently to the end it aims at, without cautiousness, and circumspection to the mean; but humility hath a calm, and temperate pace, and stoops it along in a gentle posture, yet at length attains her mark, but slowly, as if it went unwilling to honour, and slighted those proffers which others sue for.   

Primatus fugientem desiderat desideratum horret.  Chrisol. 
IT is a trick of primacy to fawn where it is not crouched to, but look coy where it is over-courted; like some Weathercock which in a constant and churlish wind break fairly towards us, but in a wanton blast-turn tail. Hence it is that in matters of Authority, and pre-eminence, pride hath for the most part the foil, humility the conquest, that stoops basely to the title, or the profit, and loses either, this in a modest distance, keeps a loof, till worth invite it, and at length gains both; so that it is in ways of promotion, as in some Water-works, where one engine raises it to make it fall more violently, another beats it down that it might mount higher. The advice then of St. Peter comes seasonably here, Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, 1 Pet. 5. 6. The words are not without the strength of emphasis, here is an humiliainis Crowned with an ut exaltet, humble yourselves that he may exalt, as if humility were so necessary a disposition to preferment, that without it God might not exalt.   

Habet hoc vitium omnis ambitio, non respicit.  Seneca. 
THe thirst of Eminency is headstrong, and runs with a loose bridle. It is to see much below satiety, that it still desires, nay it is hungry even in surfeit, and is sharpened with the fruition of that it coveted, so that the birth of this child, is but the conception of another, one honour rooms not the greatness of his thought, and an ambitious desire seldom anchors any where, but goes on still with a full fall, till it hath compassed the Cape it is bound for. This man makes Government the stall both of his pride and tyranny, his projects are loftily cruel, so are his actions too, yet still in a hot scent of promotion, which (if they want a Trumpet for others commendation) shall borrow one from his own, and so at one applaud his designs, and justify them. And indeed this titilation, and itch of honour, if it once find in the bosom of the receiver a fair admittance, doth smoothly insinuate, and cheat upon the powers of reason; but when it is throughly seated, and enthroned there, it is no more a guest, but a tyrant, and leaves the possessor, not a Master, but a captive; and in this case, I know not whether St. Augustine will pity his Anrelius, or excuse him, Quod si cuiquam facile sit gloriam non cupere dum n●gatur difficile est ea non delectari cum offertur, in his 64. Epistle. However the Father seems there to plead only for the delight in glories offered, not in the unjust prosecution of those denied.   

Si nil attuleris, ibis Homer for as.  Ovid. 
IN ways of sufficiency, and worth, it is the si nil attuleris, damps the preferment; the age can instance, in some languishing and weak in their intellectuals, men without sap, or kernel, who (having their store-house well fraught with that white and red earth) have stumbled on the glories of the time, as if fortune would make them happy in despite of virtue; when others of Christ's followers (were truly his Disciples) are sent abroad with their ite & predicate, bare footed, without bag or scrip, but their Commission large, omni creaturae, the wide world is their place of residence; no particular roof to shelter them, or place of rotiredness to lay their head in. Nay some that have served a triple Apprenticeship to Arts and Sciences, and spent in these our Athens the strength of their time, and patrimony, men throughly ballasted for those high designs, well kerned both in years and judgement, he mouldering for non-imployment, and dashed for slowness of promotion, when others of cheap, and thin abilities, men without growth or bud of knowledge, have met with the honours of advancement, and trample on those dejected book-worms which dissolve themselves into industry for the service of their Church, yet meet neither with her pomp, no● her revenue; nay, some that have wasted their lamp, and burned their Taper to an inch of years, have spent those fortunes in the travels of Divinity, which would largely have accommodated them for more secular courses, and enforced to retire themselves to the solitariness of some ten pounds cure, and so spin out the remainder of their age in a discontented contemplation of their misfortunes: and (I pray God) not in a murmuring against his Church. Where the fault lies, he that hath but slenderly trans●iqued with the occurrences of the time, may judge. Spiritual promotions are slow of foo●, and come for the most part halting, or in a by-way. Times more than calamitous, when the inheritance and patrimony of the Church shall be thus leased to avarice and folly, when these her honours which she intails upon desert, shall be heaped upon a golden ignorant, who rudely treads on those sacred Prerogatives. Strange monument of weakness, he that reels under his own burden, stoops to be oppressed with the weight of others, and lo how he tumbles to a mortal sin (the Schoolmen do style it so) directly opposite to a pair of virtues, Justice, Chastity; unjust, that the revenues due to worth, should be packed upon bulkless and unable persons, and uncharitable for him to undertake the guidance and pasturing of a flock who was never trained up in the conditions of a shepherd. Neither is he an enemy only of a double virtue, but a companion of two such sins, which seem to brave, and dare the Almighty to revenge on the prophan●r, Inclusion, Perjury; first, in rushing on the profession not legitimately called; then in purchasing her honours.   

Pompa mortis magis terret, quam mors ipsa.  Seneca. 
Why should this sad toil of mortality dishearten us? Groans and Sighs, and Convulsions, are the bodies passing-bells, no less customary, than natural, and more horrid in the circumstance, than the thing, the retinue and compliment of death, speaks more terror, than the act. The Adversary, the Judge, the Sentence, the Jailor, the Executioner, more daunt the Malefactor, than the very stroke, and cleft of dissolution. Are we so foolish as to fear that (says the heathen) which will dash or split us in the whole, no, it is the port which we ought one day to desire, never to refuse; into which (if any have been cast in their younger years) they need repine no more than one, which with a short cut hath ended his Navigation. For there are some whom slacker winds mock, and detain, and weary with the gentle tediousness of a peaceable calm; others swifter wafted by sudden gusts, whom life hath rather ravished thither, than sent, which had they a time delayed, by some flattering intermissions, yet at length, must of necessity strike sail to it. Some faint-hearted Adrian will (to his power) linger it, and fearfully expostulate with a parting soul. Quae nunc abib is in loca, pallidula, rigida, nudula? As if the divorce from the body were everlasting, and there should not be (one day) a more glorious contract.  
When a confident Hilarian, shall dare all those grisly assaults, Soul get thee out, thou hast seventy years served Christ, and art thou now loath to die? Again some spruce Agag, or hemmed Amalakite, would be palsy-struck with an amara mors, death is bitter, death, mors, death is bitter, death is bitter, 1 Sam. 15. When a Lubentius, and a Maximinus have their breastplate on, with a Domine parati sumus▪ We are ready to lay off our garments the flesh: And indeed, saith St. Austin, Boughs fall from trees, and stones out of buildings; and why should it seem strange that mortals die; Some have welcomed death, some met it in the way, some baffled it in sickness, persecution, torments. I instance not in that of Basil, to the Arrianated Val●ns (it is too light) that of Vincentius was more remarkable, who with an unabated constancy thus shuns the rage of his merciless Executioner, thou shalt see the Spirit of God strengthen the tormented, more than the Devil can the hands of the tormenter. And that you may know a true Martyrdom, is not dashed either at the expectation, or the sense of torture; as Barlaam will hold his hand over the very flame of the Altar, and sport out the horridness of such a death, with that of the Psalmist, Thou hast ●aught my hands to war, and my fingers to fight. Seeing then we are compalsed with such a cloud of witnesses, what should scare a true Apostle from his Cupio dissolvi? Let us take his resolution, and his counsel too, lay aside every weight, and run with patience the race set before us, Heb. 1●.   

Iniquitatem damnare novit Deus, non facere.  August. 
GOd knows how to judge, not commit a crime, and to dispose, not mould it, and is often the Father of the punishment, not the fact. Hence it is that the dimness of humane apprehension conceives that oftentimes a delinquency in God, which is a monster of our own frailty, making God not only to foreknow, but predestinate an evil, when the evil is both by growth and conception ours, and if ought savour of goodness in us, it is Gods, not ours, yet ours too, as derivative from God, who is no less the Patron of all goodness, than the Creator; and it is as truly impossible for him to commit evil, as it was truly miraculous to make all that he had made good. And therefore Ter●ulli●● in his first book, de Tri●●●●●●, makes it a non potest fieri, a matter beyond the list and reach of possibility that he should be artifex mali operis, the promoter and engineer of a depraved act, who challengeth to himself, the title no less of an unblemished Father than of a Judge. If any than fall off from goodness, he is hurried no less with the violence of his own persuasion than concupiscence, and in those desperate affairs, Gods will is neither an intermeddler nor copartner; Cujus ope scimus multos ne laberentur retentos, nullos ut laberentur impulsos, saith Aug. by whose hand of providence, we know many to be supported that they might not fall, none impelled that they should: And in his answer to that fourteenth Article, falsely supposed to be his fieri non potest, ut per quem a peecatis surgitur per eum ad peecata decidatur, for one and the selfsame goodness to be the life and death of the selfsame sin, is so much beyond improbability that it is impossible; let this then satisfy our desire of knowledge, Et ab illo esse quod flatur, & non ab illo esse quod ruitur; That his providence is the staff and crutch on which we so lean, that we yet stand our corrupt affections, the bruised and broken reed, on which if we so lean, we fall. If any than go onward in the true road of Divine graces, no doubt, but the finger of the Almighty points out his way to true happiness; but if he wander in the by-paths of a vicious and depraved dissoluteness, his own corrupt affections beckon him to ruin. How then can we without sacrilege and robbing of divine honour, make God the Father of so foul and unwashed a crime as obduration, perditio tua ex te Israel, If destruction dog thee, thank thy corrupt affections, not blame thy Maker, for he doth but leave thee, and they harden. To lay then with some depraved Libertines, the weight and burden of our sins on the shoulder of predestination, and make that the womb of those foul-enormities, may well pass for an infirmity, not for an excuse. For though God from eternity knew how to reward every man either by crown or punishment▪ yet he never enjoined any man either ● necessity, or a will to sin.   

Compeseat se humana temerit as & id quod non est non qu●rat, ne id quod est, non inveniat.  August. 
MOrtal thoughts should not carry too lofty a sail, but take heed how they cut the narrow straits and passages of divine Predestination. A busy prying into this Ark of God's secrets, as it is accompanied with a full blown insolence, so with danger; Humility here is the first stair to safety, and a modest knowledge stands constantly wondering, whilst the proud apprehension staggers, and tumble● too, Here is a sea unnavigable, and a gulf so scorning fathom, that our Apostle himself was driven to his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. O depth, and in a rapture, more of astonishment, than contemplation, he styles it the Sacrament and mystery of his will, being so ●ull of unknown turnings and M●●nders, that if a naked reason hold the clue, we are rather involved, than guided in so strange a labyrinth. To inquire then the cause of God's will, were an act of lunacy, not of judgement. For every efficient cause is greater than the effect. Now there is nothing greater than the will of God, and therefore no cause thereof. For if there were, there should something preoccupate that will, which to conceive were sinful, to believe blasphemous. If any then suggested by a vainglorious inquiry, should ask why God did elect this man, and not that, we have not only to resolve, but to forestall so beaten an objection, because he would; but why would God do it? Here is a question as guilty of reproof as the author, which: seeks a cause of that, beyond, or without which, there is no cause found; where the apprehension wheels, and reasonruns giddy in a doubtful gyre. Here a sorupulous and humane rashness should be hushed, and not search for that which is not, lest it find not that which is: Let him that can descry the wonders of the Lord in this great deep, but let him take heed he sinks not down then with this aspiring thought, this ambitious desire of hidden knowledge, and make not curiosity the picklock of Divine secrets, know that such mysteries are doubly barred up in the coffers of the Almighty, which thou mayest strive to violate, not open, and therefore if thou wilt needs trespass upon the Deity, dig not in its bosom; a more humble adventure, suits better with the condition of a worm, scarce a man, or if so exposed to frailty. It is a fit task and employment for mortality to contemplate his works, not sift his mysteries, and admire his goodness, not blur his Justice. If any therefore stagger at those unfathomed mysteries of God's Election and Predestination, and his reason and apprehension be struck dead at the contemplation of God's eternal, but hidden projects; let him season a little his amazement with adoration, and at last solace his distempered thoughts with that of Gregory, Qui in fact is Dei, etc. In the abstruse and dark mysteries of God, he that sees not a reason, if he sees his own infirmity, he sees a sufficient reason why he should not see. Me thinks this should cloy the appetite of a greedy inquisition, and satisfy the distrust of any, but of too querulous a disposition, which with the eye of curiosity prying too nicely into the closest of God's secrets, are no less dazzled than blinded, if not with profanation, heresy. Divine secrets should rather transport us with wonder, than prompt us to inquiry, and bring us on our knees to acknowledge the infiniteness both of God's power and will, than ransack the bosom of the Almighty, for the revealing of his intents. Is it not blessedness enough that God hath made thee his Steward, though not his Secretary. Will no Mansion in heaven content thee, but that which is the Throne and Chair for Omnipotency to sit on? No treasury but that which is the Cabinet and Storehouse of his own secrets? Worm and no man, take heed how thou struglest with thy Maker. Expostulation with God, imports no less peremptoriness, than danger; and if Angels fell for pride of emulation, where wilt thou tumble for this pride of inquiry? as in matters therefore of unusual doubt, where truth hath no verdict, probability finds audience. So in those obstruct and narrow passages of Gods will, where reason cannot inform thee, belief is thy best intelligencer, and if that want a tongue, make this thy interpreter; so thou mayest evade with less distrust, I am sure with more safety.   

Etsi domine ego commisi unde me damnare potes, ●u tamen non aml●sisti unde me salvare potes.  Anselm. 
O Blessed Jesus, though I have committed those transgressions for which thou mayest condemn me, yet thou hast not lost those compassions by which thou mayest save me. And therefore if our souls were insuch a straight that we saw hell opening her mouth upon us, like the Red Sea, before the Israelites; the damned and ugly fiends pursuing us behind like the Egyptians; on the right hand, and on the left, death and sea, ready to ingulf us; yet upon a broken heart, and undisguised sorrow, would I speak to you in the confidence of Moses, Stand still, and behold the salvation of the Lord. Thou then which art oppressed with the violence and clamour of thy sin●, and wantest an Advocate either to intercede, or pity, hear the voice of the Lamb cry unto th●e, I will hear thee out of my holy hill. Is any heavily loaden with the weight of his offences, or groans under the yoke and tyranny of manifold temptations, Come unto me, I will refresh thee. Doth any hunger after righteousness, Behold, I am the bread of life, take eat, here is my body. Doth any thirst after the ways of grace? Lo I am a living spring, come drink, here is my blood, my blood, that was shed for many for the remission of sins; for many, not for all. Hath sin dominion over thee, or doth it reign in thy mortal heart? Are the wounds of thy transgressions so deep, that they cannot be searched, or so old, that they corrupt, and putrify, here is that good Samaritan that will either bind them up, or pour in oil; but art thou not yet dead in trespasses, are not thy ulcers past cure? Are there any seeds of true life remaining? is there any motion of repentance in thy soul●, will thy pulse of remorse beat a little, hast thou but a touch of sorrow, a spark of contrition, a grain of faith? know there is oil of comfort for him that mourns in Zion, Isa. 61. 3. not a tear drops from thee in sincerity, which is either unpitied, or unpreserved, God puts it into his bottle. On the other side, is there a Pharaoh in thee, a heart unmollified, a stone that will not be bruised, a flint unmalleable? ay, both mourn for it, and leave it. But is this heart of stone taken away? and is there given thee a heart of flesh, is it soft and tender with remorse, truly sacrificed to sorrow, then know there is balm of Gilead, for the broken heart, balm that will both refresh and cure it. T●●● then which groanest in thy spirit, and art drawn out as it were into contrition for thy sins, thou which hast washed thy hands in innocency, go cheerfully to the Altar of thy God, and cry with old Anselm, Etsi domine ego commisi unde me damnare potes, tu tamen non amifisti unde me salvare potes.   

Qui pectus suum tundit & se non corrigit, aggravat peccata, non tollit.  August. 
Where there is an outward percussion of the breast, without remorse of the inward man, there is rather an aggravation of sin, than a release. That subtle fallacy of the eye, pointing towards heaven; that base hypocrisy of the knee, kissing the earth; that seeming austerity of thy hand, martyring thy breast; gains from God neither applause nor blessing, but the curse of the Pharisee, whose example would have chid thee to such an outside of devotion: Is then thy repentance disguised? Hath it a touch of dissimulation in it? Is not thy old corruption clean disgorged, but must thou again to thy former vomit? Hypocrite, thy Altar is without fire, thine Incense without smoke, it shall never touch the nostrils of the Almighty, thy prayers in his ears sound like brass, and tinkle like an ill-tuned cymbal; all this formality of zeal is but a disease of the lip, Give me thy heart, my son, saith God, Prov. 23. I will have that or nothing, and that clean too, washed both from deceit and guilt. Those blanching and guildings, and garnishings of external zeal, are as odious in the eye of God, as those of body in a true Christian: This gloss, this paint of demureness, speaks but our whoredoms in Religion, and the integrity of that man is open, both to censure and suspicion, that is exposed either to the practice of it, or the approbation. A villain is a villain, howsoever his garb or habit speak him otherwise, and an hypocrite is no less, though sleeked over with an external sanctity, and dressed in the affectations of a preciser cut. Let us be truly that what we seem to be, and not seem what we are not; let there be doors, and casements in our breasts, that men may see the loyalty betwixt our heart and tongue, and how our thoughts whisper to our tongue, and how our tongue speaks them to the world. Away with those meteors, and false-fires of Religion, which not only by-paths us in a blinded zeal, but mis-leads others in our steps of error. Let us then put off the old man in our pride, vainglory, envy, malice, hatred, and (that foul disease of the times) hypocrisy, and let us put on the new man in sincerity, faith, repentance, sobriety, brotherly-kindness, and (what without it disparages the tongue both of men and Angels) charity: That so at length we may receive that everlasting benediction, Come ye children, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world.   

Bonum causatur ex integra causa, malum autem ex singularib us defectibus.  Tho. Aquin. 
GOd expects perfection, perfection of parts, where man expects acceptance. Now as unto that which is good, so unto that which is perfect, there must be an entire concurrence of all requisites. The defect, or want of any one thing required, may cause an imperfection, but to the constitution of perfection, there must be a meeting of all things required; It will appear in the cause specified, Leu. 22, 21. The sacrifices of Beefs, or of Sheep, there mentioned, must be perfect. Now if the beast had wanted but any one part, an eye, an ear, an horn, an hoof, any one of these defects had caused an imperfection, and the sacrifice had been imperfect, and so no acceptance of it. But now to have made it perfect, to be accepted, it must have all, and every one of the parts, every member of the body in its number, and proportion. Now the equity holds in all duties of worship. To what end is our worship, if not accepted; if we will have it accepted, we must have it perfect, there must be all these things in it that God requires. Now God requires in worship, not only that we use his Ordinance, but his Order, as outward, so inward. Now when there is this perfection that God requires, then may a blessing and acceptance be expected. But if that Order, that spiritual Order which God calls for, be wanting, if wanting in any one part of it, there the duty is imperfect, there no acceptance can be looked for, but rather a breach. We may see it exemplified in the Law of the Peace-offerings, Levit. 7. First, see the Ordinance of God, vers. 11, 12, 13. There is the substance of the sacrifice prescribed, than the Order is, that they be eaten in due time, vers. 16. It shall be eaten the same day that he offers his sacrifice, that the flesh be clean, vers. 19 And the flesh that touches any unclean thing, shall not be eaten. That the persons that do eat it must be clean, vers. 19 And as for the flesh, all that be clean shall eat thereof; that is, all that eat thereof must be clean, as appears by that which follows, vers. 20. So then as here is the Ordinance prescribed, so the Order of eating, that they may be eaten purely, that pure things be eaten, that they be eaten of pure persons; there Peace-offerings thus eaten, were accepted, because here was perfection from the concurrence, and integrity of the causes constituring perfection. But now if any one of these things were missing in point of order, it made them imperfect, and so unacceptable. If not purely in regard of time, though p●re flesh, and eaten by pure persons; yet no blessing, no acceptance, but a breach, vers. 18. It shall not be accepted, it shall be an abomination, and the soul that eateth of it, shall bear his iniquity. If not pure flesh eaten, though by pure persons, yet not only no acceptance and blessing, but an uncomfortable breach, Even that soul shall be cut off from his people, vers. 20, 21.   

Sacramenta sunt fodinae gratiae, dispositio est vasculum gratiae, promajore dispositione, & affectu tuo majorem gratiam reportabis.  Euseb. 
FIll the men's sacks with food as much as they can carry, says Joseph to his Steward, Gen. 44. 1. Look how they came prepared with Sacks and Beasts, so they were sent back with Corn: The greater, and the more Sacks they had prepared, the more Corn they carry away: If they had prepared but small Sacks, and a few, they had carried away the less. A prepared heart is a vessel that shall be filled at the Sacrament. Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it, Psal. 81. 10. Now the more or less the heart is prepared, the greater or lesser is the vessel. According to the size and capacity of the vessel, shall it be filled. Fill such men's hearts with spiritual blessings, with virtue from Christ, with the comforts of the Holy Ghost, says the Lord at the Sacrament, fill them with spiritual food as full as they can hold, as much as they can carry. What a sweet comfort is that? Who desires not to carry away from the Sacrament as much as may be? Then be careful to prepare our hearts, and prepare them to the purpose, the larger is our preparation, the larger is our vessel, the larger our vessel, the larger is our largess and dole at the Sacrament. If we carry not away as much as we would, it is our own fault, that by preparation we did not furnish ourselves with a more capacious vessel. The poor pittances that many go from the Sacrament withal, make them droop when they are gone. They may thank themselves; for if Josaphs brethren had brought small Sacks, they could not have carried away much corn out of Egypt. Let men come with hearts so prepared as they should, and they shall be laden and filled with as much as they can carry.   

Quicquid recipitur, recipitur ad modum recipientis.  Aristotle. 
SAcraments work according to that disposition wherein they find such as receive them. Such as are the receivers, so prove the Sacraments unto them. It is in this case as it was with the woman under jealousy, and suspicion of uncleanness, drinking the cursed waters, Numb. 5. 27, 28. And when he hath made her to drink the water, than it shall come to pass, that if she be defiled, etc. Look then as the woman was, such was the work of the water. If she were clean, the water did her no hurt; nay, it did her good, she conceived seed, she became fruitful, but if she were defiled and unclean, it wrought with a mischief, Her belly did swell, her t●igh did rot, and she became a curse. It is so in receiving the Sacrament. As men are that receive it, so is the work and efficacy of it, either for good or hurt, either for bain or blessing; if a man be prepared with repentance, and so be clean, than the Sacrament brings a blessing, it makes a man fruitful. But if a man be defiled, and unclean, as every impenitent sinner is, than it banes and mischiefs him, he proves a more rotten, and wretched sinner than before. An unwholesome and diseased stomach that every food it receives, it altars, and rather nourishes the disease, than the body, and turns wholesome nourishment to matter of grief and vexation. So an impenitent soul coming to God's Ordinance in its fins and defilement, doth but turn the wholesome nutriment of the Sacrament to the feeding of its disease, and the increasing of its own sorrow and mischief; as the water that made the clean woman fruitful, made the unclean woman swell and rot. God curses the Sacrament to an impenitent, defiled person, and so makes a sad breach upon him instead of a blessing.   

Pertunte sole, pereunt omnia.  Seneca. 
FOr a man to be stupid and senseless under corporal afflictions, argues a very ill temper of spirit; but for a man to be stupid and senseless under spiritual afflictions, under such a spiritual affliction, as this, the loss of the Son, the loss of Christ as a Comforter, argues a very ill temper of spirit indeed. Strive therefore, O deserted stupid soul, to affect thine heart throughly with thy loss; thou hast lost more than Job when he had lost children, substance, health, honours, and friends; nay, thou hast lost more, than if thou hadst lost this world; nay, thou hast lost more, than if thou hadst lost thy life; which is of more worth than the world; thou hast lost Christ, which is richer than the world, and sweeter than thy life.  
What an infinite loss were it to this world to lose the Sun? It were at once to lose all. Pereunte sole, pereunt omnia; for all things serviceable for the use of man, depend upon the motion and influence of that glorious body. What a loss then is it to the lesser world, to lose Christ the Son of Righteousness? It is to lose all good at once, for soul and body. All graces close and wither, when Christ departs, as all fragrant flowers, when the Sun withdraws his influence. And when these flowers whither in the soul, a man is a moving dunghill, that stinks in the nostrils of God and man where ever he comes. A man that hath lost Christ, may truly say, as she when the Ark was lost, That his glory is departed. As the Sun in the glory of the greater World; So Christ the Son of Righteousness, is the glory of the lesser world, to wit, man.  
Thou hast lost that in the world, that is more worth than the world, and which all the world can never help thee to. Thou hast lost that which would make the worst condition in this life, a Heaven, whereas the best without it, is but a Hell; thou hast lost that which would have been to thy soul a continual feast; whereas now thy soul is in a continual famine and leanness. Thou hast lost thy spirits, and thy soul as in a dead-palsy, so that thou art a living deadman, fit for no spiritual service. Thou hast lost thy head, thou hast lost thy eyes, thou hast lost thy hands, thou hast lost thy clothing; nay, thou hast lost thy best Father, thy best Husband, thy best Friend; all, all this, and much more comfort is Christ to man. Thou hast great reason then, O deserted soul, to lay to heart thy loss.   

Ignis focalis immateriale non urit.  Aristoteles. 
THe sorrows of Hell are such as principally torture the spirit. The fire which we make, can only burn, and torture the bodies of men, because this only of man is material; immaterials, as the souls of men are, our fire cannot fasten upon, but that strange fire, which God hath kindled in Hell for all that disobey him, burns the souls of men, though immaterial substances. Nay, so strange is that fire, that it burns these immaterial substances most fiercely, as being the most sinful part of man; for it is only sin that pitches and defiles the soul, and makes it combustible; which otherwise would never burn if all the fiery Artists of Hell did blow the bellows.  
Now just such is that fire which conscience kindles upon the breach of integrity, to wit, a fire that burns inwardly, and consumes the marrow of the bones, and drinks up the spirits. The Arrows which conscience shuts in upon a man, upon the breach of sincerity, are such as pierce principally the spirit. As long as Job was patient under God's hand, he felt the Arrows of the Almighty, only without him, as I may say, to wit, in his body, in his children, and substance; but when he broke out, and cursed his day, he presently complains that he felt the Arrows of God within him, and that the poison of them drank up his spirits, Job 6. 4. All that which before he felt without, was nothing to that which he now felt within upon his spirit. As the torments which damned wretches shall suffer in their bodies, are nothing to those which shall continually fly up and down in their souls. So David, after he had made breaches in his integrity, God filled his loins with loathsome diseases; but this was nothing to speak of; God made things strike into his heart, and then he roared, I am feeble, and sore broken, I have roared by reason of the [disquietness of my heart.] David felt pains gather about his heart, and then he cries out.  
The heart is the mark that God principally aims at, when a Christian hath turned aside from his upright course; other outward parts he may hit, and deeply wound, but this is but to make holes into the heart, where the seat of unsoundness that principally offends him, is.  
The Fire which Conscience kindles, it may flash forth into the eyes, and tongue, and hands, and make a man look fearfully, speak desperately, and do bloodily against the body; but the heat of the fire is principally within, in the furnace, in the spirit; it is but some sparkles, and flashes only, that you see come forth at the lower holes of the furnace, which you behold in the eyes, words, and deeds of such men.   

Invidia est vitium permanens.  Aristoteles. 
ENvy is a long lived thing, it will live as long as there is any marrow in the bones; It will hunt a David long, through Ziph, En-gedi, many Wildernesses, though never so long; it will find a Dart to throw at a David, till it hath killed him, or stabbed itself. Envy fights desperately, and unweariedly, it will never give over as long as there is breath; it will eat no bread till it hath done its work, killed a Paul, or sterved itself. Envy is all spirit, all evil spirits move; it is a spirit of the right breed for the Devil, it will fight, and fight till death; it will work to the utmost vires, as long as nerves and sinews bind bones together; it is everlasting burning, which nothing will quench but its own blood.   

Ab extremis miseriae, quies.  Seneca. 
I Would speak to such from this sentence which are quite undone, which have lost all money and joy too; which have many sufferings upon them for Christ, but can make no joy out of them. Surely I can guests your pain, you are blind; you know not who hath stripped you, not when he will return it again. It is impossible for a man to joy under long suffering, unless a man can look to the end of it. This makes heavy afflictions light, long afflictions short, to look where they end. — Our light afflictions which endure but for a moment, work about a far more exceeding, and an eternal weight of glory. Long-suffering is but a moment, when compared with eternity of glory. The great Heaven at a distance, makes a little heaven at present, a heaven in hell, to that soul which hath it in its eye. As those lower heavens, give a great lustre and vigour at a distance to beholders, and raise much; so doth the Heaven of heavens. It is a heaven to behold heaven afar off, where ever the body be. It was Canaan to Moses, to see Canaan afar off. The fight of the end shortens the way; suffering is deadly long when a man can see no end, when a man is in darkness, and can see no light, it is hard to bring the soul to joy in such darkness. A man must look upon affliction from one end to the other, that would fetch in joy to his soul from suffering. At one end of long suffering for truth, is a father; at the other end, a reward, which if seen well, will make the longest suffering very short, and very sweet.   

Media gratiae, ordinem creationis subeunt.  Aquinas. 
THe means of Grace have the order of Creation stamped upon them; Christ, the great Wheel, that turns all other wheels of our salvation, is made unto us, what he is, and made of God — Who of God is made unto us, Wisdom, Righteousness, etc. 1 Cor. 1. 30. Christ is a full sea indeed, but not a drop to us, but as made of God. So we are made able Ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit. Could such a poor man as I, by speaking a while to the ear, turn the heart from sin to Christ, did not a creating blessing sit on my lips? Divine institutions have the formality of a creation in them, because they have what they have, and do what they do, from supreme power only, above all cause and reason: Therefore are Institutions and means of Grace, not so much as mentioned, Col. 1. 11. Giving thanks to the Father [who hath m●●e us meet] to be partakers of that inheritance of the Saints in light. Only the Father is here mentioned; Means are so beside likelihood and reason, to so noble an end, as to make and fit souls for heaven, Giving thanks to the [Father] who hath [made] etc. None else worthy to be so much as mentioned in this noble work.   

Alterius perditio sit tua cautio.  Isidor. 
FOr the wickedness of them that dwell therein, it is that a fruitful land is turned into a wilderness, saith David, Psal. 107. And the Heathen Historian saith little less, when he tells us that the ruin and rubbish of Troy, are set by God before the eyes of men, for an example of that rule, that great sins, have great punishments. But now say the Learned, not to be warned by others, is a sure presage of ruin. Scipio beheld, and bewailed the down-fall of Rome, 〈◊〉 the destruction of Carthage: And when Hannibal was beleagureing Saguntum in Spain, the Romans were as sensible of it as if he had then been beating upon the walls of their Capitol. A storm oftentimes begins in one place, and ends in another. When the Sword rides Circuit (as a Judge) it is in Commission, Ezek. 14. 17. And when I begin, saith God, I will make an end, 1 Sam. 3. We cannot but foresee a storm, unless we be like those in St. Bernard, Qui festueam quaerunt unde oculos sibi errand, that seek straws to put out their eyes withal. If we break not off our sins by repentance (that there may be a lengthening of our tranquillity) a removal of our Candlestick, may be as certainly fore-seen, and foretell, as if visions and letters were sent to us from heaven, as once to the Church of Ephesus. God may well say to us; as to them of old, Have I been a wilderness unto Israel, a land of darkness? or as Themistocles to his Athenians, are ye weary of receiving so many benefits by one man? Bona a tergo formosissima, our sins have long since solicited an utter dissolution and desolation of all, and that we should be made an heap, and an hissing, a waste, and a wilderness, Quod Deus avertat.   

Hoc scio, me nihil scire.  Socrates. 
CHrist thought St. John worthy to lay his hand on his holy head in Baptism, who thinks not himself worthy to lay his hand under-christs' feet. The more fit any man is for whatsoever vocation, the less he thinks himself, Who am I, said Moses, when he was to be sent into Egypt, whereas none in all the world was comparably fit for that Embassage. Not only in innumerable other things am I utterly unskilful faith St. August, but even in the holy Scriptures themselves, (my proper profession) the greatest part of my knowledge, is the least part of mine ignorance. I in my little C●ll, saith Jerome, with the rest of the Monks, my fellow-sinners, dare no● determine of great matters. This is all I know, that I know nothing, said Socrates, and Anaxarchus went further, and said, Ne id quidem scire quod nihil sciret, that he knew not that neither, that it was nothing that he knew. This is the utmost of my wisdom, said one, that I see myself to be without wisdom. And Si quando fatuo delectari volo non longè mihi quaerendus est, me video, saith Seneca, if I would at any time delight myself in a fool, I need not seek far, I have myself to turn too. Thus the heaviest ears of corn stoop most towards the ground: Boughs, the more laden they are, the more low they hang, and the more direct the Sun is over us, the less is our shadow; so the more true worth there is in any man, the less self-conceitedness; and the lower a man is in his own eyes, the higher he is in Gods. Surely the Baptist lost nothing by his humility and modesty in the third of St. Matth, for our Saviour extols him to the multitude, Mattb. 11. And there are that doubt not to affirm (where they have it I know not) that for his humility on earth, he is dignified with that, that place in heaven, from whence Lucifer fell. Sure it is, that he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. If men reckon us as we set ourselves, God values us according to our abasements. The Church was black in her own eyes, fair in Christ's.   

Ignis congregat homogenea, segregat heterogenea.  Aristoteles. 
IT is one and not the least property, of the Holy Ghost to assimilate, and make men like itself. As fire turns fuel into the same property with its self; so doth the blessed Spirit inform the mind, conform the will, reform the life, transform the whole man more and more into the likeness of the heavenly pattern, it spiritualizeth and transubstantiateth us, as it were, into the same image from glory to glory, as the Sun, the fire of the world, by often beating with its beams upon the pearl, makes it radiant and orient, bright and beautiful like itself. And this is the property of the Holy Ghost as well as of fire, congregat homogenea segregat heterogenea; it unites men to Saints, and separates them from sinners; For what communion hath light with darkness? It maketh division from those of a man's house, if not of his heart, and yet causeth union with Gentile, Barbarian, Scythian, if truly Christian, Coloss, 3. 11. Oh therefore get this fire from heaven, so shall you glorify God, Matth. 5. 16. and be able to dwell with devouring fire (which hypocrites cannot do, Isa. 33.) get warmth of life and comfort to yourselves, give light and heat to others, walk surely as Israel did by the conduct of the pillar of fire, and safely, as walled with a defence of fire; and if any man shall hurt, such fire shall proceed out of their mouths to devour them. So that a man had better anger all the Witches in the world, than one of those that are baptised with the Holy Ghost, and with fire; especially if they be much mortified Christians, such as in whom this fiery spirit hath done with the body of s●n, as the King of Moa● did with the King of Edom, Amos 2. burnt its bones into lime.   

Mali in area nobiscum esse possunt, in horreo non possunt.  Augustinus. 
THe wicked may be with us in the Floor, they cannot in the Garner; For there shall in no wise enter into the City of the Lamb, any thing that defileth, or that worketh abomination▪ Heaven spewed out the Angels in the first act of their Apostasy and albeit the Devil could s●●ue himself into Paradise▪ yet no unclean person shall ever enter into the Kingdom of heaven; without shall be dogs and evil-doers; no dirty dog doth trample on that golden Pavement, no dross is with that gold, no chaff with that wheat, but the spirits of just men made perfect amidst a Panegyris of Angels, and that glorious Amphitheatre, Heb. 1●. 22. In the mean while, Dei frumentum ego sum (may every good soul say with that Father) I am God's wheat: And although the wheat be as yet but in the ear, or but in the blade, yet when the fruit is ripe, he will put in the sickle (because the Harvest is come) and gather his wheat into his Barn, into his Garner.   

Fider famem non formidat.  Bernardus. 
IF bread fall, feed on faith, Ps. 37. 3. So Junius reads that Text. Jehosaphat found it sovereign, when all other helps failed him, 2 Chron. 20. 6. and the captive Jews lived by faith, when they had little else to live upon, and made a good living of it, Hab. ●. ●. To this text the Jews seem to allude in that fiction of theirs, that Habbakkuk was carried by the hair of the head by an Angel into Babylon, to carry a dinner to Daniel in the Den. It was by faith that he stopped the mouths of Lions; and obtained promises, Heb. 11. and by faith, that one in Queen Mary's days, answered her Persecutors, If you take away my meat, I trust that God will take away my stomach. God made the Ravens feed Elias that were more likely in that Famine to have fed upon his dead carcase, and another time caused him to go forty days in the strength of one meal. Faith fears no famine, and although it be but small in substance, and in show (as the Manna was) yet it is great in virtue and operation. The Rabbins say, that Manna had all manner of good tastes in it, so hath faith, it drinks to a man in a cup of Nepenthes, and bide him be of good cheer, God will provide for him, who likes not to be tied to the second ordiniry causes, nor that in defect of the means, we should doubt of the providence.  
It is true, God commonly worketh by means, when he could do without, that we may not neglect the means, as being ordained of him. David shall have victory, but by an ambush, a Sa●● 5. Men shall be nourished, but by their labour, Psal. 128. 2. But yet not so as that he doth all in all, by those means; he made Grass, Corn, and Trees, before he made the Sun, Moon, and Stars, by the influence whereof, they are, and grow; yea to show himself chief, he can, and doth work otherwhiles without means, 2 Chron. 14. and against means, suspending the power and operation of the natural causes; as when the fire burned not, the water drowned not, the Sun went back ten degrees, the rock gave water, the iron swum. And then when he works by means, he can make them produce an effect divers from their nature, and disposition; or can hinder, change, or mitigate their proper effect. As when at the prayer of Elias it reigned not for three years and an half, and he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruits.  
A man would have thought, that after so long drought, the roots of trees and herbs, should have been utterly dried up, and the land past recovery; But God heard the heavens (petitioning to him that they might exercise their influence for the fructifying of the earth) and the heavens heard the earth, and the earth heard the corn, the wine, and the oil, and they heard Jezreel, Hof. 2. 21. Let all this keep us as it did our Saviour, when he was tempted in the fourtth of St. Matth. from diffidence in God's Providence, and make us possess our souls in patience.  
Hang upon the promise, and account it as good as present pay, though we see not how it can be effected. God loves to go a way by himself, He knows how to deliver us, saith St. Peter, 2 Pet. 2. and he might speak it by experience, if ever any man might. The King shall rejoice in God, saith David of himself, when he was a poor exile in the wilderness of Judah, Psal. 63. 11. but he had God's word for the Kingdom, and therefore he was confident, seemed the thing never so improbable, or impossible. We trust a skilful workman to go his own way to work, shall we not God? Lose we then any particular means, saith one, It is but the scattering of a Sun beam, the breaking of a bucket, when the Sun and the fountain is the same. But we for the most part do as Hagar did, when the bottle was spent, she falls a crying she was undone, she and her child should die, till the Lord opened her eyes to see the fountain. It was near her, but she saw it not, when she saw it, she was well enough. If thou hadst been here, said Martha, my brother Lazarus had not died; as if Christ could not have kept him alive, unless he had been present: So if Christ will come and lay his hands on Jairus his daughter, and Elisha struck his hand over Naaman's leprosy, they shall be cured. So the Disciples believed that Christ could feed so many thousands in the wilderness, but then he must have two hundred pennyworth of bread. But our Saviour soon after gave them an ocular demonstration of this truth, That man lives not by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.   

Preventus diabolus in accusatione, Ultra nos accusare non poterit.  Origen. 
BE sure before thou come to the Sacrament to renew thy repentance in confession; one sweet advantage shalt thou have by it amongst others, and that is this, our self-accusations in ● our confessions, will be a prevention, and a disappointment of Satan's accusations against us: The Devil even at the Sacrament will be laying in against us; It is good therefore to take a course to defeat him. He will be pleading against a man, Lord shall this man be welcome to thy Table? Shall he receive the benefit of thine Ordinance? He hath done thus and thus, I can lay to his charge these and these sins. Thus by his accusations, will he seek to put in a bar against a blessing upon us. Now when a man before the Sacrament renews his repentance, and hath in his confessions brought in the accusations against himself, Satan is prevented; for than we do, as I may say, furnish the Lord with an answer to stop Satan's mouth; for than will God be ready to answer for us, why Satan thou accusest this man of nothing whereof he hath not already to the full accused himself; he himself hath accused himself of all this already. Thou comest too late, all thine accusations shall be no bar to my blessing. The elder brother's nose swells at his father's kindness, and goodness to his prodigal brother, and therefore Luke 15. 30. he rips up all his courses, and throws the filth of them in his face, that he was one that had devoured his Father's living, and had spent it among Harlots. And this he doth now whilst they are at the feast, at the fatted Calf, and good cheer. Yet all this doth the Prodigal no hurt, the music ceaseth not, the feast is not broken off, nor he thrust out of doors again. And how comes it about that all this did him no hurt? because the Prodigal had prevented his brother, he himself had accused himself to the full in his confessions when he came to his Father, and so by his own confession, had took out the sting and poison of his brothers malicious accusation: So that his brother comes too late, now the feast and the merriment goes on nevertheless. So will the Devil be snarling against, and picking quarrels against men, even in the Feast time; but he comes too late to do them hurt, if they themselves have first put in the bills of their own indictments against themselves in their confessions before their coming to the Sacrament.   

Hamine non est solammodo necessarium ut Christum i● ipsius passione depioret, sedmagis seipsum in Christo.  Bernard. 
BEhold, saith the Baptist, the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. Upon the Cross we behold Christ taking away the sins of the world. On it we see Christ crucified, we see his hands, feet, and side pierced; now this sight should so affect us, as it should pierce the very hearts of us. What, the blessed Son of God to strip himself of his glory● to humble and abase himself to the ignominious and accursed death of the Cross? the glorious Son of God thus abused, and abased; the only begotten Son of the Father, to make such bitter lamentation, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? What may the cause of all this be? Alas, all this was for our sins. It was not Judas, nor the Jews, nor Pilate, nor the Soldiers, but they were our sins, thy sins, my sins, that put the Son of God to all this sorrow. We, we, and none but we, were the evil beasts that devoured this Joseph. Our sins were so heinous, and had so provoked the Justice of God, that there was no way to satisfy God's Justice, to appease his wrath, and to make our atonement, but by the precious blood of the Son of God crucified on the Cross. And shall I now see my sins lie so heavy upon him as to make him sweat blood; shall I see him even squeezed under the huge weight of my sins; shall I see my sins crown him with thorns, nail his hands and feet to the Cross, gore his side with a spear, with an unpierced heart? Oh the deep sorrow that our hearts should be filled withal, when we see Christ's body bruising and bleeding upon the Cross. It should be with us then, as it was with them, Zech. 12. 10. They shall look on him whom they have pierced, And how shall that sight affect them? And they shall mourn, and be in bitterness for him, as one that mourns for his only Son, as one that is in bitterness for his first born. How bitterly will such a man mourn? so bitterly shall they mourn when they look upon Christ whom they have pierced. And great reason, for is it not a matter of greater sorrow, to pierce the only Son of God, the first born, the first begotten from the dead, than to lose one only or first begotten son? So here, when we look upon Christ whom we have pierced, this sight should fill our hearts with bitterness, should make our hearts full of sorrow. Not only with an Historical sorrow, or a sorrow of natural compassion when we hear, or see some sad, or sorrowful event, this is nothing; but with a practical sorrow, with an unfeigned sorrow of heart, that we by our personal sins, have had our hands imbrued in the blood of the Son of God, that our sins envenomed those thorns, those nails that pierced him, and by their venom made them put him to such bitter torment; have we hearts conformable to Christ on the cross? Thou beholdest a broken Christ, thou beholdest a bleeding Christ, behold him therefore with a broken heart, with a bleeding heart, with a pierced spirit. So behold Christ on the cross, as the Virgin Mary beheld him there. And how was that? Woman says Christ, behold thy Son. How did she behold him? Simeon tells her, Luke 2. 35. That a sword should pass through her soul, than did a sword pierce through her soul, when she beheld him pierced on the cross, that sight was a sword through the heart of her. So when we see him pierced, it should be as a dagger in our hearts. Oh wretch that I am, that my sins have been thorns on his head, nails in his hands and feet, a spear in his side. Lord, saith David, when he saw the people slaughtered by the Angel's sword, Lo● I have sinned, and I have done wickedly, but these she●● what have they done? So let every one say, Lo I have sinned, I have done wickedly, but this innocent and immaculate Lamb, what hath he done? It is I that have sinned, and it is thou, O Lord, that hast smarted. It is I that have sinned, and it is thou, O Lord, that hast suffered. It is I that have put thee to all these sorrows, my oaths, my uncleannesses, my lusts, my covetousness my drunkenness, these were the Judasses that betrayed thee, these were the Jews that crucified thee. Lord I have eaten the sour grapes, and thy teeth were set on edge: Lord● I played the thief, and thou restoredst the things the● tookest not.   

Quid tam ad mortem quodnon Christi morte salvetur?  Bernardus. 
HE was wounded for our transgressions, with his stripes we are heated, Isa. 53. What sweet comfort may faith retch hence? Look upon the wounds of Christ on the Cross, as on the Cities of Refuge, where the pursued soul by the avenger of blood, may fly for safety and sanctuary. Indeed I am a grievous sinner, I have wounded my conscience with my transgressions, but behold my Saviour here wounded for my transgressions: I have cause to be troubled in my conscience for the wounds my transgressions have made therein; but yet my confcience needs not sink in a despondency of spirit, whiles I look at these wounds of Christ; here be wounds for wounds, healing wounds for stabbing wounds; curing wounds, for kill wounds. He was wounded for our transgressions; what wound so deadly, that may not, or cannot be healed by his death and wounds. What comfort is here for faith in the wounds of Christ crucified, They pierced my hands, and my feet, Psal. 22. They pierced his side with a spear, and there came out water and blood; nay, there comes out of these wounds honey and oil unto faith. By these passages may our faith suck honey and oil out of the rock, and may taste, and see how good and sweet the Lord is. The nails, the spear, the wounds, all preach unto faith a reconciled God, That God is in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. The Lords bowels are laid open by these wounds, so as through them we may see the tender bowels of his mercy, and so as through them, mercy flows from those bowels unto us. Oh my Dove that art in the clefts or holes of the rock, Cant. 2. 14. Some of the Ancients understood those clefts of the rock, the wounds of Christ, in which the Dove, the Church hides and shelters herself. However it may be alluded to, that should be our work of faith when it sees those clefts of the rock opened, like a Dove, to betake her self thereunto, for shelter and security against all fears and distresses that wrath and guilt may put the conscience to. Do any fears of wrath trouble thine heart? Doth any conscience of guilt disquiet thee with the fears of hell? Why now for thy comfort, behold the holes in the rock where thou mayest be sheltered: Dwell now in the Rock, and be like the Dove that makes her Nest in the side of the holes mouth, Jerem. 48. Nessel thy soul in the clefts of this Rock. See, and fully believe thy peace to be made with God in Christ's blood, and look upon him wounded for thy transgressions, with such a faith, as may fill thy heart with an holy security against all such fears.   

Hannibal vel victor, vel victus, nunquam quiescebat.  Augustinus. 
THe Devil left not our Saviour at the first and second temptation, this Master-flye Beelzebub, though beaten away once and again, yet returns to the same place. He solicits and sets upon our Saviour again, and again (as Potiphars wife did upon Joseph for all his many denials) and is not only importunate, but impudent. Stand we therefore still upon our guard, and look for no ease here.  
The Roman Captains when they had once triumphed, took their ease ever after. So did not Cato, and is therefore highly commended. So may not we, if ever we will be approved as good Soldiers of Jesus Christ. Our whole life is a continual warfare, and we must look for the continual hailshot of Satanical assaults and suggestions.  
When Xerxes fought against the Greeks, the Sea was full of ships, saith the Orator, the Earth of soldiers, and the Air of arrows. So fares it with the Saints under Satan's batteries, no truce, but continual conflict. St. Paul sounds the alarm, Eph. 6. Arm, arm, Take the whole Armour of God, and be ever in your harness: And St. Peter gives the reason, Because your Adversary the Devil as a roaring Lion, walketh and watcheth, night and day soeking whom he may devour. For our encouragement, as the Devil is a roaring Lion, so is Christ the Lion of the Tribe of Juda, that delivereth us, and maketh us more than Conquerors, holding the Crown of glory over our heads, as we are fight, with this inscription, Vincenti dabo, To him that over-cometh, will I give. Fight therefore, and faint not, your reward is s●●e, your Armour is of proof. Get on both these pieces of defence (as the girdle of truth, breastplate of righteousness, shoes of peace and patience, shield of faith, helmet of hope, and those also of offence, as the sword of the Spirit, and darts of prayer. It is said of Sc●va at the siege of Dyrrachium, that he so longresisted Pompey's Army, that he had two hundred and twenty Darts sticking in his shield, and lost one of his eyes, and yet gave not over till Caesar came to his rescue. The like, and somewhat more is reported of Cynegrius the Athenian in the Persian wars. These did thus for a corruptible Crown, or temporary honour, what should not we do for an eternal? Hold out, and hold fast that thou hast, that no man take thy Crown from thee. God's Spirit sets up a standard in the Saints, Isa. 59 19 And stronger is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. That old Serpent hath his head so bruised, and crushed by Christ, that he cannot now so easily thrust in his mortal sting, though he assay it never so often, unless we dally with him, and lay ourselves open, unless we tempt Satan to tempt us by inconsideration, security, or venturing on the occasion. Vitanda est glacies si nolis cadere; he that tastes of the broth, will have a mind to the meat. The Nazarites might not, not only drink wine, but forbear to eat of the grape, whether moist, or dry, Num. 6. 3.   

Saturitas ventris seminarium libidinis,  Hieronymus. 
A Full belly, and a foul heart scarce go uncoupled; for indeed how should they? Per membrorum ordinem, saith St. Augustine, Ordo vitiorum intelligitur, as in the Anatomy of our bodies, the parts of gluttony and lust are linked together, so are the sins themselves. And therefore the Apostle joins them, Rioting and Drunkenness, Chambering, and Wantonness; first Rioting, and then Wantonness, that leads on this, and not only this, but a whole troop of rebellious actions, security, disobedience, idolatry. Thus when the Fools barns in the Gospel were filled with Corn, there was no thought of God the Benefactor; all the care was about, Soul take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. And indeed, this eating quite takes away our stomach from all holy duties. I need not tell you of Adam's surfeit, the Israelites in their Paradise of Canaan, fell to eating too, and by eating fell, as he did, from their God: And this the Lord foretell them in the 31. of Deuteronomy, when says God, I shall have brought Israel into the land that floweth with milk and honey i●nud they shall have eaten, and filled themselves, then will they turn to other gods, then and not till then; and just so they did. For in the very next Chapter, at the 15. vers. you have Jeshurun, which is Israel, waxed fat, and kicking, and then saith the Text, He forsook God which made him. Well therefore did the Church of Christ prescribe fasting to a Religious end, to bridle and keep in the lust of the flesh, so to prevent sins to come, and punish ourselves for those already past. And this last St. Paul calls an holy chastising and afflicting himself for that thorn in his flesh, which forced him to his watchings often, and his fastings often, to his Castiga corpus 〈◊〉. To correct the in ward man, and bring his body under the lash. And this was Christ's reason of fasting before tentation. Now Christ abstained thus not for himself, for the Devil could not have prevailed had he not fasted: There were no faulty desires of the flesh to be tamed; no possibility of a freer, and more easy assent and compliance of the soul with God, who was already perfectly united to the Deity; but as for us he would suffer death, so for us too, he would suffer hunger, that first as a Saviour, this last as an example, pointing us that had need, for he had none, the best way to encounter the evil spirit of concupiscence, which is not cast out, no nor kept out neither, but by fasting.   

In Praedicando Evang elium non merita personarum, sed officia sacerdotum considerantur.  Ambrose. 
HOliness becomes every man well, but best of all public persous, and that not only for example of good, but liberty of controling ill. The Snuffers of the Sanctuary made to purge others, must be of pure gold themselves. Thus Herod feared John, not cause he was a powerful Teacher, but a just man. This holiness casts a more dazzling lustre than any other accomplishment whatever. But now suppose the Priest sinful, shall the people notwithstanding follow his doctrine, his doctrine, whose life is not the use, his voice, whose hand points a contrary way? Nothing more, for what if the Sacrificer be unclean, is the offering so? Was the glory of Israel, the Ark, any whit lessened when it came from the Philistims? Did the breath of the Lord his answers pass by the less regarded, cause a Saul prophesied. Scripture is Scripture, though the Devil speak it, no man's sins should bring the service of God into contempt, nor may good be refused, because the means are accidentally evil. It is a gross dull capacity that cannot distinguish betwixt the work, and the instrument, the weakness of the person, and the power of the Function. You know no unclean Viands were for the table of an Israelite, no birds of prey, fit company for a Prophet; yea, Samson made much of his honey, though in a putrified Lion; and if Ravens are sent to preserve an Eiah, he willingly accepts their courtesy, and dislikes not the meat, cause the waiters were black. These then of the Law are less scrupulous, than some of the Gospel, who disdain the graces of God when not served in the purest vessel, and loath their Mannah, if not out of the Tabernacles golden Pot.   

Utilis est scientia Gentilium, dummodo in usum Christianum convertatur.  Hadrianus Sextus. 
Lo a Vision appeared to me, saith Ezekiel, a whirlwind, and a fire; to show, the Prophets of the Lord must have light with them, as well as noise, understanding, as Tongue. God's Ministers are Angels, and these called, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, from their manifold knowledge. I speak this merely, for that there is a generation that square out the Divines study by the Scripture-canon only, all other rules being crooked, and of no use. Would you know the reason, the less learning, the less stipend▪ And indeed good Letters have not a little pined away, since Divinity began to officiate at the Tables end for the Trencher.  
Now it is true, Scripture was ever the Levites predominant element; but if you will make him a perfect mixed body, the Arts are neceslary ingredients. And therefore though Hadrian the Sixth, in his Tract, de verâ Philosophiâ, cries down humane learning with a noise of Fathers, yet he concludes utilem esse scientiam Gentilium dummodo in usum Christianum convertatur, that to shave and pair the captive woman, and then espouse her, was ever held lawful Matrimony. Look back upon the two famous patterns of Jewish and Christian Divines, Moses learned in all the Wisdom of the Egyptians, and St. Paul wise in all the Learning of the Grecians, a great Artist▪ and a good Linguist; and no less may we expect from the rest of the Apostles, to whom it was not said, Follow me, and straight way be Fishers, but follow, and I will make you Fishers. They were to learn▪ ere they were to teach, to be Disciples, before Apostles. No man is born an Artificer, his soul coming as naked into the world, as his body, not having so much freedom as to set up in the meanest Trade without serving an Apprenticeship. And for that, Dabitur in illâ horâ, to speak without coming, was a promise made to the twelve Apostles when they should be called to the Bar, not the Pulpit. The which place, however some of late years in my poor distracted Country, have made it scandalous, requires both learning and industry. And thus much St. Paul intimated, when he sent for his books, finding as great want of them, as his cloak in Winter.   

Ut hilarem ita celerem datorem diligit Deus.  Bernardus. 
IT is said of the unjust steward, Luke 16. that what he did was with dispatch, he called his Master's debtors and bid them sit down quickly. God delights in expedition, as well as cheerfulness; Give Alms with a cheerful heart, and countenance, not grudgingly, or of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver, 2 Cor. 9 and therefore give quickly; when the power is in thine hand, and the need is in thy neighbour, and thy neighbour at the door. He gives twice, that relieves speedily. The more speed, the more comfort. Neither the times are in our own disposing, nor ourselves. If God had set us a day, and made our wealth inseparable, there were no danger in delay, but now our uncertainty, if it quickens not, deceives us. How many have meant well, and done nothing, losing their Crown with lingering; to whom that they would have done good, is not so great praise, as it is dishonour that they might have done it; their death oftentimes preventing their desires, and making their good intentions the wards of their Executors; who many times prove the Executioners of their wills and estates. This therefore should be as a word of advice and caution to all rich men. Let their wracks be our warnings, who are equally mortal, equally fickle. It is a woeful, and remediless complaint, that the end of our days should outrun the beginning of our good works, which are commonly so done, as the poor may thank our deathbeds for them and not us, our disease, rather than our charity. For he that gives not till he dies, shows that he would not give then, if he could keep it: And they that give thus, give by their Testaments, it is true, but I can scarce say they give by their wills; the good man's praise, Psal. 112. was, that himself dispersed his goods, and not left them behind him, and his distribution is seconded by this retribution of Gods, That his righteousness endured for ever. The Saints of God are like Dorcas in the Acts, rich in the good works, which she did herself, and not entrusted others to do them, being her own Executrix. Let us therefore do good in our life time. Our Saviour tells us, Matth. 5. That our good works are our lights: Let your lights so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.  
Now what man will have his candle brought behind him, and not rather carried before, that he may see which way it goes, and which way himself goes by it? Let us therefore do good in our life time; Early beneficence hath no danger, many joys, Isa. 58. 8. For first, the conscience of good done. Secondly, The prayers, and blessings of the relieved. Thirdly, The gratulations of the Saints, are as so many perpetual Comforters, which will make our lives pleasant, and our deaths happy: when every one of us may say to his soul with that rich man in the Gospel, but upon better grounds, S●ul take thine ease, for thou hast treasure laid up not for many years, but for ever.   

Dives verè Christianus non amat divitias sed mavult.  Augustinus. 
Christians' may entertain the unrighteous Mammon in the Gospel, not only as a servant, but a friend, but by no means as a Lord. There is great virtue in the true use of riches, if there be a qualification in our desires. And therefore St. August. (10. Serm. de tempore, 5. Serm. de verbis Apostoli & cap. 10. de Civit. Dei) disputing of that impossible Analogy between heaven and a rich man, a Camel, and the eye of a needle; would have a rich man understood there to be Cupidum rerum temporalium & de talibus superbientem, such an one as joins avarice to riches, and pride to avarice; not prohibiting a moderate and timely care of necessary temporals, but their inordinate appetite, not their propriety and possession, but the difficulty and eagerness of that pursuit. A wise man, as he will not make riches the object of his pursuit, so neither of his refusal, Non amat divitias sed mavult, was St. Augustine's; he weighs them so evenly betwixt desire and scorn, that he doth neither undervalue, nor overprize them: He makes not his mind his chest, but his house, in the which he doth not lock, but lodge them; he loves them not properly but by way of comparison, not as they are riches, but as they are not poverty: yes too, as they are riches, they may not only be temperately loved, but desired, but prayed for, prayed for as our daily bread, not absolutely for our spiritual improvement but by way of restriction; first, humbly with submission to the will of God, then conditionally, so they prove advantageous either to our civil, or moral good. For otherwise if riches are pursued, either with an unlawful, or an unbridled desire, they lead our reason captive, blindfold our intellectuals, and so damp and dead all the faculties of the inward man, that in way of conscience and Religion, we are benumbed merely; Nabal himself not so stony and churlish, not half so supine and stupid as we. And therefore your earthly sensualists have this woeful brand set upon them by the spirit of, They are men of the world, they have their portion in this life only, Psal. 17.   

Quid quaeris brevi immittere vasculo totum mare?  Hieronymus. 
TO endeavour to express fully the joys of heaven, were as vain a work as to endeavour to put the element of waters, or whole sea, into a basin. And this may appear, from that story of St. August. concerning St. Jer. of whom St. Augustine saith, Quae Hieronymus nescivit, nullus hominum unquam scivit; what St. Hierom knew not, no man in the world ever knew: yet of the joys of glory, of heaven, in the fruition of God, St Hierom would adventure to say nothing, no not then when he was divested of his mortal body dead. For as soon as he died at Bethleem, he came instantly to Hippo, St. Augustine's Bishopric, and though he told him, Hieronymi anima sum, I am the soul of that Jerome to whom thou art now writing, about the joys and glory of heaven, yet he said no more of that, but this, Quid quaeris brevi immittere vasculo totum mare? Canst thou hope to pour the whole sea into a thimble, or take the whole world into thy hand? and yet that is easier than to comprehend the joy and glory of heaven in this life. Nor is there any thing that makes this more incomprehensible, than that semper in 1 Thess. 4. 17. That we shall be with God for ever. For this Eternity, this Everlastingness, is not only incomprehensible to us in this life, but even in heaven, we can never know it experimentally, no not in heaven, and all knowledge in heaven is experimental; as all knowledge in the world is causal (we know a thing, if we know the cause of it) so the knowledge in heaven is effectual, experimental; we know it because we have found it to be so. The endowments of the blessed, those which the School calls, Dotes ●●a●or●m, are ordinarily delivered to be these three, Visio, Dilectio, Fruitio, the sight of God, the love of God, and the fruition, the enjoying, the possessing of God.  
Now as no man can know what it is to see God in heaven, but by experimental, and actual seeing of him there; nor what it is to love God there, but by such an actual and experimental love of him; nor what it is to enjoy and possess God, but by an actual enjoying, and experimental possessing of him; so can no man tell what the Eternity and Everlastingness of all these is, till he hath passed through that Eternity, and that Everlastingness; and that he can never do, for if it could be passed through, then were it not Eternity. How barren a thing is Arithetick? and yet Arithmetic will tell you how many grains of sand will fill this hollow vault to the Firmament. How empty a thing is Rhetoric, and yet Rhetoric will make absent and remote things, present to their understanding. How weak a thing is Poetry, and yet Poetry is a counterfeit Creation, and makes things which are not, as though they were; how infirm, how impotent are all assistances, if they be put to express this Eternity. The best help in my poor judgement that can be assigned, is to use well, Aeternum vestrum, our own Eternity, as St. Gregory calls our whole course of this life, Aequum est ut qui in aterno su● peccaverit, in aeterno Dei puniatur; it is but justice, that he that hath sinned out his own eternity, should suffer out God's Eternity; so if you suffer out your own eternity in submitting yourselves to God in the whole course of your life, and glorifying him in a constant patience under all tribulations; It is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation unto them which trouble y●●, and to you which are troubled, everlasting rest, 2 Thess. 1. 6.   

Magna parvis minime exprimuntur.  Seneca. 
SAcred Communication, is to make suitable demonstration of infinite love. Great love is not suitablely expressed by small things. Springs make Channels, Streams, Rivers, suitable to their strength, they make their rent without, suitable to their bubbling within, under ground. Heaven is but a suitable expression of the love of a God: It is but strange, suitable to such a fountain; but legible writing out of infinite love. Were not heaven made communicable, infinite love would be but half expressed, it would be far more in itself, than known to us: It is with Christ here in this world, as it is with a Christian, a Christians fortune here doth not suit his titles, called a King, and hath nothing. Now are we the Sons of God▪ but it doth not appear what we shall be. Why we shall be but the Sons of God; his meaning is, that now Title and Revenue do not agree, nothing in possession that speaks out the Sons of God, the Son of a King; State and Title do not fitly and fully express one another; So it is with Christ, now his love, and his expression of it, are short one of another: Many expressions of love are made here, but they all express it but brokenly. Heaven will speak out an infinite love, it will demonstrate it to the life, to all senses at once, which is such a demonstration of a thing, as here man cannot make of any thing. There a man shall have the advantage of all senses together, to fathom infinite love; He shall hear it, see it, taste it, etc. he shall see the fountain where, and how it riseth; the Ocean how vast it spreads, and how broad it bears, Christ demonstrates infinite love fully, fitly, therefore is heaven made communicable to poor earthen creatures, Partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light, Col. ●. 12.   

Qui Gehennas met ●it, non peccare me●uit, sed ardere. Ille autem peccare metuit, qui peccatum ipsum sic ut Gehennas odit.  Augustinus. 
THe Object of repenting sorrow, is sin. It is sin that specially afflicts and disquiets a repenting soul, that is the thing that wrings and pinches it. Where was it that the Prodigals shoe did specially wring him? Luke 15. 21. Father I have sinned against heaven; that is, against God in heaven: He doth not say, Father, I am in a depth of misery, ready to perish with hunger, in that pinching distress that I would be glad to eat husks with Hogs. But Father I have sinned. This is the grief of a repenting soul, that God's Majesty hath been offended in, and by his sins, this was that which lay heaviest upon, and sat closest to David's heart. He neither cries out of his discredit, and shame in the world, nor yet speaks a syllable of wrath or hell, but Psal. 51. 3: 4. My sinis ever before me, against thee only have I sinned, and have done this evil in thy sight. My sin is ever before me, not Hell and damnation is ever before me; Not the fame and reproach of the world, but my sin is ever before me. It is this, Lord, that pinches and disquiets me, that I have sinned, and done this evil in thy sight. A good heart fears more the committing of sin, than the suffering of punishment following it, Prov. 30. 9 Give me not poverty, lest I be poor, and steal and take the name of my God in vain. He doth not say, lest I be poor and steal, and bring myself under the Magistrate's sword, or thy wrath; but he looks only at the sin, lest▪ I steal, and take thy Name in vain. He fears the profaning of God's Name, more than the bringing of his name and person in question. And to this purpose is that which Elihu charges Job withal, Job 36. 21. Regard not iniquity, for this thou hast chosen rather than affliction; that is, thou hast rather chosen sin and iniquity, than poverty and affliction; as if he had said, Inasmuch as thou hast vainly, and rashly expostulated with God, vers. 20. desiring death, rather than to bear this affliction; thou art guilty of iniquity, and sinnest in this thy choice. This therefore implies that a good heart would rather choose affliction than iniquity, to suffer affliction, than to do iniquity. Now as a good heart is more afraid of sin, than affliction and punishment, so likewise a repenting heart, is more grieved or sin committed, than for sorrow to be suffered. We shall find David in great anguish and distress of spirit, Psal. 25. 17, 18. The troubles of mine heart, are enlarged, Oh bring thou me out of my distress, wring, pressing anguishes; look upon my affliction, and my pain. Here be troubles of heart, distresses of spirit, affliction and pain, but what is it now that thus wrings, distresses, and pains David? See the last words, And forgive all my sins, not forgive all my punishments; David's sin, not his punishment, was his pain. We shall see the like in him, 2 Sam. 24. 10. I have sinned greatly, I beseech thee to take away the iniquity of thy servant: He mentions not the taking away of any smart; nay vers. 17. He is willing to bear it, I have sinned, let thine hand be against me. He begs that the punishment may be laid upon him, but begs that his iniquity may be taken away. Let God be pleased to take away his iniquity and he is nothing solicitous for the punishment. The offence of God troubled him more, than his personal smart: So that God's heart were but towards him in the pardon of his sin, he did not care though God's hand were against him smiting him with temporal chastisement. And this will better appear, if we do but compare Pharaoh with David, Exod. ●. 8. Entreat the Lord, that he may take away the Frogs from me. The Frogs troubled him more than his sin against God. Take away the Frogs, but no mention at all of taking away his sin. And when afterwards a confession of sin is extorted from him; yet was it not his sin that disquieted him. Exod. 9 27, 28. not take away my sin, but take away the Thunderings, and Hail; Lord, says David, Take away the iniquity of thy servant: Oh! says Pharaoh, Take away these filthy Frogs, and this dreadful Thunder.  
A repenting heart is more troubled, than a Thunder and Frogs. It seems more filthiness in sin than in Frogs, or Toads, or ever else can be presented more ugly to it.  
A repenting sinner hath his eye upon God, and upon his Law, He sees the hollness of God, that he is a God of pure eyes, that cannot behold iniquity, Hab. 1. 13. He sees him a good, gracious, patient Father, and so it cuts him to the heart, to have offended such a Father, and God. He looks upon the Law, and sees it to be holy, just, and good; and this galls him to the heart, to have violated so holy, and so pure a Law.  
Now wicked men, they look wholly at the justice and wrath of God, at the curse of the Law, and so nothing troubles them, but the fear of hell and death. If these might be avoided, the offending of an holy and good God, the violating of an holy and good Law, would not a whit afflict, or disquiet them: Nay it is remarkable in David, that though he had upon nathan's message to him, confessed his sin, and Nathan upon his confession had pronounced the pardon of it; yet after this he cries out, My sin is ever before me, against thee only have I sinned. Mark then, that even pardoned sin, forgiven sin, vexes and disquiets a repenting heart. It pinches him, and disquiets him, though it be forgiven; it grieves him that he hath so played the fool, and that ever he was such a beast to offend so gracious a God. When the Prodigals Father sees him coming afar off, he runs to meet him, shows compassion to him, falls upon him, and kisses him. That kiss was the seal of his pardon, as if he had said. Behold, I forgive all thy sin; as when David kissed Absolom, and Esau kissed Jacob, they both did it in token of full reconciliation. And yet for all this, see how the Prodigal speaks; he says not, O Father, from the ground of my heart, I unfeignedly thank thee, Oh how great is my Father's goodness thus to pardon me, etc. but Father, I have sinned against thee. ay, but his Father had kissed him, and thereby testified that he had freely forgiven him, what need he confess his pardoned sin? Why is he not rather in the confession of praise, than in the confession of sin. Oh no, a repenting sinner is so affected and grieved with the offence of God in his sin, that though God have pardoned and forgiven it, yet he cannot but mourn for it, and be afflicted with it, that so holy a Law hath been broken by him, that so good a God hath been offended by him, Psal. 25. 6 7. Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies, remember not the sins of my youth. If God remember mercy, he forgets, and forgives sin. If God forget it, why doth David remember the sins of his youth? Yes, so will a true repenting heart do: It will remember the sin that God forgets, it will mourn for the sin which God hath forgiven.   

Now est poenitens sed irrisor, qui adhuc agit, unde poeniteat.  Bernardus. 
REpentance not only confesses, but forsakes the confessed sin, Job 34. 22. If I have done iniquity, I will do no more. That is the language, and the resolution of true repentance, Eph. 4. 28. Let him that stole, steal no more. True repentance makes men do as God did, when he repented him, Gen▪ 6. 6. 7. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on earth, and it grieved him at his heart: But that was not all: And the Lord said▪ I will destroy man, whom I have created, from the face of the earth, both man and beast, etc. for it reputes more that I made them. Nay, repentance in man goes further, one Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and he was spared from the common destruction; but hear, not one lust or sin finds grace in the eyes of a man that truly reputes, but all must be drowned in the flood of the tears of Repentance. It is with a man that hath the grief of true Repentance, as it was with Nehemiah, Neh. 13. 7, 8. I came to Jerusalem, and understood of the evil that Eliashib, had done for Tobiah, in repairing him a Chamber in the Courts of the house of the Lord, and it grieved me sore: But he rests not there, but goes further, therefore I cast forth all the household stuff of Tobiah out of the Chamber. What should Tobiah do with a Chamber there? Therefore he not only outs Tobiah, but out goes all his stuffs too. So doth repentance, when it considers all the evil, that Satan and corruption hath done, and how they have taken up Chambers in the heart, that should be the house of God, it is grieved sore, and thereupon it outs Satan, and all his stuff; neither Satan, nor his stuff shall be chambered there any longer. So doth repentance dispossess Satan of the soul, as Christ dispossessed his body of him, Mark. 9 2●. Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee to come out of him, and enter no more into him; So repentance cast Satan and filthy abominations out of a man, that they enter no more, they are cast out for ever. Tears of repentance are not only wetting, but washing tears, Isa. 1. 16. Wash you, make you clean; David● tears wash his couch, Psal. 6. and so much more wash himself.  
Baptism is called the Baptism of repentance, Luke 3. 3. In Baptism there is a washing away of sin. And how is Baptism the Baptism of repentance? If in repentance there were not the doing away of sin. If a man could shed a sea of tears, yet if he do not drowned his sin in that sea, what were he the better? If a man should weep his eyes out, yet if he weep not his sins out, to what purpose were it? Wheresoever repentance is, there must necessarily follow this forsaking and casting off our sins. Try therefore thy repentance by this, consider what have thy sins, thy beloved sins been; is thy drunkenness, with loathing and indignation forsaken? are thine oaths, uncleanness, covetousness, curses, etc. with loathing and indignation abandoned? It is a good sign, but how idly talk they of repentance, who because they have blubbered out a few tears, think all is well, when yet they still live, and lie in their sins, and hold them as fast as ever the Mariners when they found out Ionas, yet fain they would have saved him, wondrous loath to cast him overboard. Many see their sins, and know them to be dangerous sins, but yet exceeding loath to shake hands with them, loath to throw them into the sea, but will rather adventure their own casting away, than cast them overboard. Never deceive thyself therefore, though thou hast sighed, cried, prayed, begged mercy, yet if still thou live, and go on in thy sinful courses, there is no truth of repentance in thee.   

Dives in Evangelio damnabatur, non quia abstulerat aliena, sed quod non donaret sua.  Anselmus. 
EVery Christian ought to imitate the high pattern of his Creator, whose best riches is his bounty. He that hath all, giveth all, reserves nothing. In our creation he gave us ourselves, in our redemption he gave us himself, and in giving himself for us, gave us ourselves again that were lost. Only good use than commends earthly possessions, and he alone knows the true use of the unrighteous Mammon, that receives it merely to disburse it. For what commendation is it to be the keeper of the best earth? that which is the common coffer of all the rich Mines, the earth, we do but tread upon, and account vile, because it hides those treasures: whereas the skilful Metallist, that refines these precious veins for public use, is rewarded and honoured. If therefore your wealth, and your will be not both good, if your hands be full, and your hearts empty; you deserve rather pity, than commendation, and may be said to have riches indeed, but neither goods, nor blessings; your burdens being greater than your estates, and yourselves richer in sorrows than in metals. And this was the rich Gluttons case in the Gospel, who was damned, not for taking away any thing from poor Lazarus, but because he relieved not his wants. It is reported of Warram Archbishop of Canterbury, being on his deathbed, sent his steward to see what store of corn was in his Treasury, and when answer was brought, that there was either very little, or none at all, the good man cried, Nimirum sic oportuit, that it was very fitting it should be so: For when said he could I die better, than when I am thus even with the world.   

Vera virtus radices agit.  Seneca. 
THings have their specification from their form. Christ in the soul, or truth in the heart, is the form of a Christian. Hence is that expression, He is a Jew that is one inwardly, so he is a Christian which hath Christ in him, and he upright whose heart is so; therefore is uprightness annexed in the 94, Psal. and the 15. verse, to that which is its proper subject, and without which, it subsists not, nor can, to wit, the heart; Upright in heart, all the upright in heart shall follow righteousness. A good man is called a good man as he can derive goodness from within; 
Luke 6. 45.  A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good. Truth treasured up in the heart is the only true treasure, and then out of this treasure, motion made to this, and to that expense from hence upon God, upon man; this is a good man, and bringeth forth that which is good, an upright heart. A man is noted for an evil man, as evil seizeth the heart. Son of man, these men have set up Idols in their hearts, should I ●ee inqu●red of at all by them? Ezek. 14. So to set up truth in the heart, as that, and only that which I love to bow down to, and be governed by; this is an upright heart. It is said of the Devil, that he abode not in the truth, because no truth is in him, Joh. 8. 44. whilst he was in heaven, heaven was not in him, but pride, and that is hell where ever it is. Truth in the heart, and we abide in truth, that is, we walk in it, and ate ruled by it. Lust in the heart, and let the creature be where he will, in heaven, or on earth, he abides in this, is led up and down by this, and not by truth, and so is called according to that which is in him, and informs him a sinful, deceitful hearted man. There is truth in the heart, ●or in the midst of the heart, the expression is, I think with allusion to the natural form of the heart. The heart hath a tunicle, and a ventricle, one to cover it, the other to hold life, blood and spirits, and these small ventricles are in the midst of the heart and these the life of the heart; Truth within the tunicle of the heart is not enough, it must be in the ventricle, in the midst. The expression imports th●s much, that if truth be not in the soul as the soul of the soul, as the life blood in the heart, giving life and motion to all, the soul is not healed by it of its unsoundness, and so consequently no upright heart. The Psalmist speaking of a righteous man, saith, That his mouth speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgement: But is this enough to give the formality of a righteous man. Many can talk very sound, and judiciously, and yet very unsound at heart: Observe therefore what follows, where he centres the formality of integrity, the Law of God is in his heart, none of his steps shall slide, Psal. 37. 31. the small lines of truth, the string of the heart; the Law of God, a Law in and unto the heart; binding and losing that which lives as it were a life by itself, continually moving when all other parts are still; that this organ which makes so many steps to others, and yet not making one step, but in, and under the Law of Truth and Christ, this is an upright heart.   

Meditatio pascit scientiam, scientia compunctionem, compunctio devotionom.  Augustinus. 
MEditation gives a man a sight and knowledge of himself, of his sins, of the riches of God's mercy in Christ; and such knowledge is it, which works compunction of spirit, we are to be taken up in the duties of Thanksgiving and to be more than ordinarily enlarged therein. There is no such way to enlarge the heart in that duty, as by meditation to heat, and warm our hearts. So Psal. 104. 33. 34. I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live, my meditation of him shall be sweet, I will be glad in the Lord. There is nothing so feeds spiritual joy, and so maintains and holds up that holy flame that should be in a man's heart, as doth meditation; that is the oil and fuel that keeps such fire burning; the sweeter our meditation is, the more is the heart prepared and enlarged to praises, and thanksgivings, and joy in the Lord. Therefore as in other Religious exercises, so more particularly in the Sacrament, one special duty to be done, is to take up our hearts with serious meditation. And for the better raising and feeding this meditation, it is good when we are come to the Lords Table, to do as Solomon wishes to do in that case. Prov. 23. 1. When thou fittest to eat with a Ruler, consider diligently what is before thee. He adviseth it for a man's better caution, if he be a man given to his appetite, that he may not be desirous of such dainties as are set before him. But in this case it is good to consider what is set before us, to provoke our appetite, and to stir up in us a longing after those dainties. Consider therefore what is set before thee, what is done before thee. Consider the Sacramental promises, the Sacramental elements, the Sacramental actions. Behold then, and meditate what a feast God hath prepared for us, and set before us, such a feast as that, Isa. 25. 6. A feast of fat things, a feast of wine on the lees, etc. Alas how lean are our souls, what hungerstarved spirits have we, but here be fat things full of marrow to feed and fat our lean souls. How dead and dull are our hearts, but here is wine upon the lees, wine that goes down sweetly, That will cause the lips of those that are asleep to speak, that will refresh and quicken our spirits. Here we see the bread broken, the wine poured out. Here we see Christ crucified before our eyes; now we see him hanging, and bleeding upon the Cross, we now see him pressed and crushed under the heavy burden of his Father's wrath. Now we see him in the Garden in his bloody sweat. Now we may behold him under the bitter conflict with his Father's wrath upon the Cross. Behold the man, saith Pilate. This is our duty by meditation, to present unto ourselves the bitterness of Christ's passion, Exod. 24. 8. And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the Covenant. So here, Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world: And behold the blood of that innocent, and spotless Lamb; yea behold him now shedding his precious blood to take away the sins of the world, and look upon him as the Scape-goat, bearing and carrying our sins upon him. Represent we unto ourselves in our meditations, as lively as we are able, all the sorrows of Christ's passion. This Christ commands, and makes it one main end of the institution of the Sacrament, Do this in remembrance of me: Therefore appointed he the Sacrament, that therein we might in special manner meditate upon his passion, and his love to us therein. David had a Psalm of remembrance, Psal. 38. in the title. But for the death of Christ his love in it, and the benefits by it, we have not only some Psalms of remembrance, as Psal. 16. 22. and 69. and others; But besides, the Lord Christ hath to the world's end appointed a Sacrament of remembrance, that this great work of Christ's death, and his infinite love and mercy therein, might above all other works be meditated upon, and had in remembrance.   
FINIS.   

A Catalogue of such Sentences of the Fathers, and other Ecclesiastical, and Civil Authors, as are explained, and applied to the use of the Pulpit, and the practice of Christians, in this Book.  


QVàm malè est extra legem viventibus, quicquid meruerunt semper expectant. Page 1.  
Vestium curio sit as deformitatis mentium & morum judicium est. 3  
Quicquid propter Deum fit, equaliter fit. 5  
Sordet in conspectu Judicis, quod fulget in conspectu operantis. 6  
Bone res neminem scandalizant, nisi malam mentem 7  
Non omne quod licet etiam honestum est 9  
Quae per rationem innotescunt, non sunt articuli fidei, sed praeambula ad articulos 10  
Mors optima est perire dum lachrimant sui p. 12  
Nemo me lac hri● is decoret, nee funera fletu faxit; cur? volito vivus per ora virum 14  
Ne excedat medicin● modum 15  
Si molliora frustrà cesserint, medicus ferit venam 17  
Suâ sponte cadentem maturiùs extinguere vulnere inhumanum est 18  
Tota funeris pompa contemnenda est in nobis, non tamen negligenda in nostris 19  
In spiritualibus nihil perfectum 21  
Nobis, cum semel occidit brevis lux, nox est perpetua una dormienda 27  
Solus Deus verè fest um agat 29  
Desiderium generat satietatem, & satiet as parit desiderium 32  
Resurrectio a peccato, & cessatio a poccato, non sunt idem 34  
In divinis nihil minimum 37  
Sicut in visibilibus est sol, in intelligibilibus est Deus. 43  
Ad patriam itur per ipsum mare, sed in ligno 46  
Quantumlibet sis avarus, sufficit tibi Deus 47  
Perfecta obedientia est sua imperfecta reli●quere 51  
Christus non quaesivit per oratorem piscatorem, sed de piscatore lucra●us est imperatorem 54  
Oportet hominem fieri un●m 58  
Multa relinquitis, si desideria renunciatis 62  
Dilige, & dic quod voles 63  
Lachrimae sangnis animae 65  
Illi verè irascitur Deus, cui non irascitur; & nihil eo infaelicius, cui nihil infaelix contigit. ibid.  
Licet in modum stag●i f●sum aequor arrideat magnos hic campus montes habet; tranquilit as ist a tempestas est 66  
Triticum non rapit ventus, ina●es paleae tempestate jactantur 67  
Elinguis ne hoc quidem habens ut rogare possit, hoc magis rogat quod rogare non potest 67  
Vbi mors non est si jugulatis aquae? 68  
Anceps forma bonum, mort●libus exigui donum breve temporis 69  
Quid sit futurum cras, fuge quaerere 70  
Quid brevi fortes jaculam●r aevo multa? jam te premet nox 72  
Aetate fruere, mobili cursu fugit 74  
Non accipimus brevem vitam, sed facimus 75  
Omnia crede mihi etiam faelicibus dubia sunt 76  
Propera vivere, & singulos dies singulas vitas puta, nihil interest inter diem & saeculum 78  
Non expectavit Christus ut Saul fatigatus debacchando mansuesceret, sed in mediâ insanin superavit 80  
Non in fine, sed in principio conversus Latro 81  
Novit Deus vulnerare ad amorem 82  
Facies Dei est, quâ Deus nobis innotescit 84  
Reperit Deus nocentes 85  
Non judicandum de cruce secundum praedicamentum quantitatis, sed relationis 86  
Adeo doctus, non solùm divina discit, sed divina patitur 88  
Et cum blandiris pater es, & pater es cum coedis 90  
Contemptu famae contemnuntur & virtutes 91  
Scinditur incertum studia in contraria vulgus 92  
Sequamur patres tanquam duces, non tanquam dominos 94  
Melius est mihi non esse quam sine Jes●e esse 95  
Nihil de causâ suâ deprecatur, qui nihil de conditione sua miratur 97  
Sanctus in ira Dei emendari non vult, erudiri non vult 98  
In scala prima ascensio est ab humo 100  
De infirmitate blandimur, & ut liberius peccemus, libenter infirmamur 103  
Acceptus in gratiam, hilariter veni ad postulationes 105  
Medicinae ars a Deo data, ut inde rationem animae curandae disceremus 106  
Membra etiam animae sunt 109  
Qui sine ulla intermissione orat, honest a quadam impudentia agit impudentem 110  
Nescit diabolus quanta bona de illo fiunt etiam cum saevit 112  
Salvus factus es pro nihilo, non de nihilo tamen 114  
Nullare Deus perinde atque corporis aerumna conciliatur 115  
Nemo mala morte unquam moriebatur, qui libenter opera chariatatis exercuit 117  
Prima quae vita dedit hora carpsit 118  
Debilem facito manu, debilem pede, vita dum superest bene est 121  
Levius fit patientia quicquid corrigere est nefas 122  
Nolo quod cupio statim tenere, nec victoria mihi placet parata 123  
Marcet virtus sine adversario 126  
Detestabilis esset cacit as, si nemo oculos perderet nisi cui eruendi sunt 127  
S●latium est pro honesto dura tolerare, & ad causam patientia respicit 129  
Non est magnum audire ad voluntatem non est magnum 131  
Tentemus anim as quae deficiunt a fide, naturalibus rationibus adjuvare 132  
Anima spiritualiter cadit, & spiritualiter resurget 134  
Qui peccat quatenus peccat, fit seipso deterior 136  
Transeant injuriae, plerasque non accipit qui nescit 137  
Antequam vulneramur, monemur 138  
Vili vendimus coelum, Glauci more Christiani sumus 141  
Agnoscere nolumus, quod ignorare non possumus 143  
Infans nodum loquitur, & tamen prophetat 144  
Optima quaeque dies miseris mortalibus avi prima fluit 146  
Senes in limine mortis v ita sunt avidissimi 148  
Respice sepulchra, & vide, quis servus, quis dominus, quis dives, & quis pauper, discerne si potes, vinctum a rege, fortem a debili, pulerum a deformi 150  
Theodoro parum interest huminè, an in sublimi putrescat 152  
Mors non est exitus sed transitus, & temporali itinere decurso ad aterna transgressus 155  
Ut mori Roma non potest qui Romae non vixit, ita qui in domino non vixit in ●o non moritur 159  
Nihil melius aeterna lex fecit, quam quod unum introitum ad vitam nobis dedit exitus multos 161  
Dominium potestas est tum utendi tum abutendi 164  
Vnde illi cura cordis, cui ne ipsa quidem adhuc or is circumspectio 166  
Natum esse Deo sempiternum est 168  
Vereor ne dum propter te fugis, propter alios sis in periculo apud dominum 170  
Occidar modô imperet 172  
Primatus fugientem desiderat, desiderantem horret 174  
Habet hoc vitium omnis ambitio non respicit 175  
Si nil attuleris ib is Homer foras 177  
Pompa mortis magis terret, quam mors ipsa 180  
Iniquitatem damnare novit Deus, non facere 183  
Compescat se humana temeritas, & id quod non est non quaerat, ne id quod est non inveniat 186  
Et si domine ego commisi unde me damnare potes, tu tamen non amisisti unde me salvare potes 190  
Qui pectus suum tundit, & se non cor●igit, aggravat peccata, non tollit 193  
B●num causatur ex integra causa, ma●um autem ex singularibus defectibus 196  
Sacramenta sunt fodinae gratiae, dispofitio est vascul●m gratiae, pro majore dispositione & affectu tuo majorem gratiam reportabis 199  
Quicquid recipitur recipitur ad modum recipientis 201  
Pere●n●e sole pereunt omnia 203  
Ignis focalis immateciale non urit 205  
Invidia est vitium permanens. 208  
Ab extremis miseriae quies 209  
Media gratiae, ordinem creationis subeunt. 211  
Alterius perditio sit tua cautio 212  
Hoc scio, me nihil scire 214  
Ignis congregat homogenea, segregat heterogenea. 216  
Mali in area nobiscum esse possunt, in horreo non possunt. 218  
Fides famem non formidat 219  
Praeventus diabolus in accusatione, Ultra nos accusare no poterit 224  
Homini non est solummodo necessarium ut Christum in ipsius passione deploret, sed magis seipsum in Christo 226  
Quid tam ad mortem quod non Christi morte salvetur? 231  
Hannibal vel victor, vel victus, nunquam quiescebat 233  
Saturitas ventris, seminarium libidinis 237  
In Praedicando Evang elium non merita personarum, sed officia sacerdotum considerantur 239  
Utilis est scientia Gentilium, dummodo in usum Christianum convertatur 241  
Ut hilarem it a celerem datorem diligit Deus 243  
Dives verè Christianus non amat divitias sed mavult 247  
Quid quaeris brevi immittere vasculo totum mare? 249  
Magna parvis minime exprimuntur 253  
Qui Gehennas metuit, non peccare metuit, sed ardere. Ille autem peccare metuit, qui peccatum ipsum sic ut Gehennas odit 255  
Non est poenitens sed irrisor, qui adhuc agit, unde poeniteat 262  
Dives in Evangelio damnabatur, non quia abstulerat altena, sed quod non donaret sua 265  
Vera virtus radices agit 267  
Meditatio pascit scientiam, scientia compunctionem, compunctio devotionem 270    
FINIS.