Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by
TICKNOR AND FIELDS,
in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts
UNIVERSITY PRESS:
WELCH, BIGELOW, AND COMPANY,
CAMBRIDGE.
THE author of this book lived and wrote in stirring times. A chaplain in the army during the great civil
war in England, he collected, when
on his marches and countermarches through
the country, materials for his admirable works.
He was born in 1608, and died in 1661, so that
much of his fifty-four years of life was spent
among no very peaceful scenes. He followed
the army with a loyal heart and courageous
spirit, and wrought earnestly to mitigate the violence of hostile parties. Possessed of extraordinary abilities, the king sought him out, and
invited the eloquent minister to preach before
him. One of the wittiest and wisest divines
who have ever ascended the pulpit, he has left
behind him a fame second to none who have
laboured to elevate and make their fellow-creatures better. Those who heard him preach in
Whether he lifted up his voice in the tabernacle or in the garrison, he was ever the same earnest advocate of whatsoever he thought was just and true. Once during the war he so animated the troops to a vigorous defence, that they fought the besiegers to the abandonment of their enterprise with the loss of more than a thousand men.
He wrote many books that will always be
read and remembered. “Next to Shakespeare,”
said Coleridge, “I am not certain whether
Thomas Fuller, beyond all other writers, does
not excite in me the sense and emulation of
the marvellous; the degree in which any given
faculty or combination of faculties is possessed
and manifested, so far surpassing what we would
have thought possible in a single mind, as to
give one’s admiration the flavour and quality
of wonder. Fuller was incomparably the most
sensible, the least prejudiced great man, in an
age that boasted of a galaxy of great men.
In all his numerous volumes on so many different subjects, it is scarcely too much to say
that you will hardly find a page in which some
Fuller’s best-known writings are “The History of the Holy War,” “The Holy and Profane State,” “The Church History of Britain,” “The History of the Worthies of England,” and “Good Thoughts in Bad Times.” His religion was of a practical kind, and his personal piety ever commended itself as springing from a clean heart. Though a warm advocate of the monarchical form of government, he held “he rights of the people in sacred respect. “A Commonwealth and a King,” said he, “are no more contrary than the trunk or body of a tree and the top branch thereof: there is a republic included in every monarchy.”
An anecdote recorded of Fuller, in Basil
Montague’s “Selections,” illustrates the goodness of his heart as well as his ready wit. Dr.
Fuller had an extraordinary memory. He could
name in order the signs on both sides the way
from the beginning of Paternoster Row at Ave-Maria Lane to the bottom of Cheapside. He
could dictate to five several amanuenses at the
same time, and each on a different subject.
The Doctor making a visit to the Committee
of Sequestrators sitting at Waltham, in Essex,
they soon fell into a discourse and commendation
Fuller died just as his earthly prospects began
to look brightest. A bishopric was about to
have been granted him, when the chancel of his
church at Cranford was opened to receive his
remains. The Latin inscription over his body
has the rare merit of telling the truth concerning the sleeper below, for he is certainly one of
the most illustrious, as well as one of the most
original, writers of our language. He is never
barren or tedious, and his imagination follows in
rank that of Taylor and others among the great
names in English literature. One of his biographers says, “He was a kind husband, a tender
He is described as a person whose physiognomy was an index to his natural character. He
had a fine robust frame, light flaxen, curling
This volume of Good Thoughts in Bad Times is reprinted now in this country because there is much in it of a nature relevant to our own disturbed state. Fuller wrote and practised that he might eradicate error and implant the loftiest virtues in the heart of man. His mission was incomparably the highest God vouchsafes to mortals, and in peace and war he wrote and spoke such wisdom as time treasures for the benefit of the world. In our own days of trial it will be well to remember such words as these, which he penned when his own land was plunged in dangers manifold. “Music is sweetest near or over rivers, where the echo thereof is best rebounded by the water. Praise for pensiveness, thanks for tears, and blessing God over the floods of affliction, makes the most melodious music in the ear of Heaven.”
Boston, January, 1863.
MADAM,—
IT is unsafe in these dangerous days for any to go abroad
without a convoy, or, at the least, a pass; my book hath
both in being dedicated to your Honour. The Apostle saith,
Who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? [
Your Honour’s in all
Christian service,
THOMAS FULLER.
LORD, how near was I to danger, yet escaped! I was upon the brink of the brink of it, yet fell not in; they are well kept who are kept by thee. Excellent archer! Thou didst hit thy mark in missing it, as meaning to fright, not hurt me. Let me not now be such a fool as to pay my thanks to blind Fortune for a favour which the eye of Providence hath bestowed upon me. Rather let the narrowness of my escape make my thankfulness to thy goodness the larger, lest my ingratitude justly cause, that, whereas this arrow but hit my hat, the next pierce my head.
LORD, when thou shalt visit me with a
sharp disease, I fear I shall be impatient;
for I am choleric by my nature, and tender by
my temper, and have not been acquainted with
sickness all my lifetime. I cannot expect any
kind usage from that which hath been a stranger
unto me. I fear I shall rave and rage. O
whither will my mind sail, when distemper shall
steer it? whither will my fancy run, when diseases shall ride it? My tongue, which of itself
is a fire, [
LORD, this morning my unseasonable visiting of a friend disturbed him in the midst
of his devotions: unhappy to hinder another
LORD, since these woful wars began, one, formerly mine intimate acquaintance, is now turned a stranger, yea, an enemy. Teach me how to behave myself towards him. Must the new foe quite justle out the old friend? May I not with him continue some commerce of kindness? Though the amity be broken on his side, may I not preserve my counterpart entire? Yet how can I be kind to him, without being cruel to myself and thy cause? O guide my shaking hand, to draw so small a line straight: or rather, because I know not how to carry myself towards him in this controversy, even be pleased to take away the subject of the question, and speedily to reconcile these unnatural differences.
LORD, my voice by nature is harsh and
untunable, and it is vain to lavish any
art to better it. Can my singing of psalms be
pleasing to thy ears, which is unpleasant to
my own? yet though I cannot chant with the
nightingale, or chirp with the blackbird, I had
rather chatter with the swallow, [
LORD, within a little time I have heard
the same precept in sundry places, and
by several preachers, pressed upon me. The
doctrine seemeth to haunt my soul; whithersoever I turn, it meets me. Surely this is from
thy providence, and should be for my profit.
It is because I am an ill proficient in this point,
that I must not turn over a new leaf, but am
LORD, before I commit a sin, it seems to me so shallow, that I may wade through it dry-shod from any guiltiness: but when I have committed it, it often seems so deep that I cannot escape without drowning. Thus I am always in the extremities: either my sins are so small that they need not my repentance, or so great that they cannot obtain thy pardon. Lend me, O Lord, a reed out of thy sanctuary, truly to measure the dimension of my offences. But O! as thou revealest to me more of my misery, reveal also more of thy mercy: lest if my wounds in my apprehension gape wider than thy tents, my soul run out at them. If my badness seem bigger than thy goodness, but one hair’s breadth, but one moment, that is room and time enough for me to run to eternal despair.
LORD, I do discover a fallacy, whereby I
have long deceived myself. Which is
this: I have desired to begin my amendment
from my birthday, or from the first day of the
year, or from some eminent festival, that so my
repentance might bear some remarkable date.
But when those days were come, I have adjourned my amendment to some other time.
Thus, whilst I could not agree with myself
when to start, I have almost lost the running
of the race. I am resolved thus to befool myself no longer. I see no day to to-day, the
instant time is always the fittest time. In
Nebuchadnezzar’s image, the lower the members, the coarser the metal; [
LORD, I saw one, whom I knew to be notoriously bad, in great extremity. It was hard to say whether his former wickedness or present want were the greater; if I could have made the distinction, I could willingly have fed his person, and starved his profaneness. This being impossible, I adventured to relieve him. For I know that amongst many objects, all of them being in extreme miseries, charity, though shooting at random, cannot miss a right mark. Since, Lord, the party, being recovered, is become worse than ever before, (thus they are always impaired with affliction who thereby are not improved,) Lord, count me not accessary to his badness, because I relieved him. Let me not suffer harm in myself, for my desire to do good to him. Yea, Lord, be pleased to clear my credit amongst men, that they may understand my hands according to the simplicity of my heart. I gave to him only in hope to keep the stock alive, that so afterwards it might be better grafted. Now, finding myself deceived, my arms shall return into my own bosom.
LORD, thy servants are now praying in
the church, and I am here staying at
home, detained by necessary occasions, such
as are not of my seeking, but of thy sending;
my care could not prevent them, my power
could not remove them. Wherefore, though
I cannot go to church, there to sit down at
table with the rest of thy guests, be pleased,
Lord, to send me a dish of their meat hither, and feed my soul with holy thoughts. Eldad
and Medad, though staying still in the camp
(no doubt on just cause), yet prophesied as
well as the other elders. [
LORD, I trust them hast pardoned the bad examples I have set before others, be pleased also to pardon me the sins which they have committed by my bad examples. (It is the best manners in thy court to heap requests upon requests.) If thou hast forgiven my sins, the children of my corrupt nature, forgive me my grandchildren also. Let not the transcripts remain, since thou hast blotted out the original. And for the time to come, bless me with barrenness in bad actions, and my bad actions with barrenness in procreation, that they may never beget others according to their likeness.
LORD, what faults I correct in my son,
I commit myself: I beat him for dabbling in the dirt, whilst my own soul doth
wallow in sin: I beat him for crying to cut
his own meat, yet am not myself contented
with that state thy providence hath carved unto
me: I beat him for crying when he is to go
to sleep, and yet I fear I myself shall cry when
thou callest me to sleep with my fathers. Alas!
I am more childish than my child, and what
I inflict on him I justly deserve to receive
LORD, I perceive my soul deeply guilty
of envy. By my good will I would
have none prophesy but mine own Moses. [
LORD, when young, I have almost quarrelled with that petition in our Liturgy,
Give peace in our time, O Lord; needless to
wish for light at noonday; for then peace was
so plentiful, no fear of famine, but suspicion
of a surfeit thereof. And yet how many good
comments was this prayer then capable of!
Give peace, that is, continue and preserve it;
give peace, that is, give us hearts worthy of it,
and thankful for it. In our time, that is, all
our time: for there is more besides a fair morning required to make a fair day. Now I see
the mother had more wisdom than her son.
The Church knew better than I how to pray.
Now I am better informed of the necessity, of
that petition. Yea, with the daughters of the
horseleech, I have need to cry, Give, give [
LORD, unruly soldiers command poor people to open them their doors, otherwise threatening to break in. But if those in the house knew their own strength, it were easy to keep them out, seeing the doors are threatening-proof, and it is not the breath of their oaths can blow the locks open. Yet silly souls, being affrighted, they obey, and betray themselves to their violence. Thus Satan serves me, or rather, thus I serve myself. When I cannot be forced, I am fooled out of my integrity. He cannot constrain, if I do not consent. If I do but keep possession, all the posse of hell cannot violently eject me: but I cowardly surrender to his summons. Thus there needs no more to my undoing but myself.
LORD, when I am to travel, I never use
to provide myself till the very time;
partly out of laziness, loath to be troubled till
needs I must; partly out of pride, as presuming
all necessaries for my journey will wait upon
me at the instant. (Some say this is scholars’ fashion, and it seems by following it I hope to
approve myself to be one.) However, it often
LORD, when in any writing I have occasion to insert these passages, God willing, God lending me life, etc., I observe, Lord, that I can scarce hold my hand from encircling these words in a parenthesis, as if they were not essential to the sentence, but may as well be left out as put in. Whereas, indeed, they are not only of the commission at large, but so of the quorum, that without them all the rest is nothing; wherefore hereafter I will write those words fully and fairly, without any enclosure about them. Let critics censure it for bad grammar, I am sure it is good divinity.
LORD, many temporal matters, which I have
desired, thou hast denied me; it vexed me
for the present that I wanted my will; since,
considering in cold blood, I plainly perceive,
had that which I desired been done, I had been
undone! Yea, what thou gavest me, instead of
those things which I wished, though less toothsome to me, were more wholesome for me.
Forgive, I pray, my former anger, and now
accept my humble thanks. Lord, grant me one
suit, which is this, deny me all suits which are
bad for me: when I petition for what is unfitting, O let the King of heaven make use of his
negative voice. Rather let me fast than have
quails given with intent that I should be choked in eating them. [
LORD, this day I disputed with myself,
whether or no I had said my prayers this
morning, and I could not call to mind any
remarkable passage whence I could certainly
conclude that I had offered my prayers unto
thee. Frozen affections, which left no spark of
remembrance behind them I Yet at last I
hardly recovered one token, whence I was assured
LORD, the motions of thy Holy Spirit were
formerly frequent in my heart; but, alas!
of late they have been great strangers. It seems
they did not like their last entertainment, they
are so loath to come again. I fear they were
grieved, [
LORD, I confess this morning I remembered
my breakfast, but forgot my prayers.
And as I have returned .no praise, so thou
mightst justly have afforded me no protection.
Yet thou hast carefully kept me to the middle
of this day, intrusted me with a. new debt
before I have paid the old score. It is now
noon, too late for a morning, too soon for an
evening sacrifice. My corrupt heart prompts
me to put off my prayers till night; but I know
it too well, or rather too ill, to trust it. I fear,
LORD, this day casually I am fallen into a
bad company, and know not how I came
hither, or how to get hence. Sure I am, not
my improvidence hath run me, but thy providence hath led me into this danger. I was
not wandering in any base by-path, but walking in the highway of my vocation; wherefore,
Lord, thou that calledst me hither, keep me
here. Stop their mouths, that they speak no
blasphemy, or stop my ears, that I hear none;
or open my mouth soberly to reprove what I
hear. Give me to guard myself; but, Lord,
guard my guarding of myself. Let not the
LORD, often have I thought with myself, I
will sin but this one sin more, and then
I will repent of it, and of all the rest of my sins
together. So foolish was I, and ignorant. As
if I should be more able to pay my debts when
I owe more: or as if I should say, I will wound
my friend once again, and then I will lovingly
shake hands with him; but what if my friend
will not shake hands with me? Besides, can
one commit one sin more, and but one sin more? Unclean creatures went by couples into the ark.
[
LORD, the preacher this day came home
to my heart. A left-handed Gibeonite with his sling hit not the mark more sure
than he my darling sins. [
LORD, be pleased to shake my clay cottage
before thou throwest it down. May it
totter awhile before it doth tumble. Let me
be summoned before I am surprised. Deliver
LORD, in the parable of the four sorts
of ground whereon the seed was
sown, the last alone proved fruitful.
[
LORD, thou didst intend from all eternity
to make Christ the heir of all. No
danger of disinheriting him, thy only son, and
so well deserving. Yet thou sayest to him,
Ask of me and I will give thee the heathen
for thine inheritance, &c. [
LORD, I find that Ezekiel in his prophecies
is styled ninety times, and more, by this
appellation, Son of man; and surely not once
oftener than there was need for. For he had
more visions than any one (not to say than
all) of the prophets of his time. It was necessary, therefore, that his mortal extraction should
often be sounded in his ears, Son of man, lest
his frequent conversing with visions might
make him mistake himself to be some angel.
Amongst other revelations it was therefore
LORD, I read how Jacob (then only accompanied with his staff) vowed at Bethel,
that if thou gavest him but bread and raiment, he would make that place thy house.
[
LORD, I read when our Saviour was examined in the high-priest’s hall, that Peter
stood without, till John (being his spokesman
to the maid that kept the door) procured his
admission in. [
LORD, the Apostle saith to the Corinthians,
God will not suffer you to be tempted
above what you are able. [
LORD, I observe that the vulgar translation
reads the Apostle’s precept thus: Give diligence to make your calling and election sure
by good works. [
LORD, I find the genealogy of my Saviour
strangely checkered with four remarkable changes in four immediate generations.
[
1. Roboam begat Abia; that is, a bad father begat a bad son.
2. Abia begat Asa; that is, a bad father a good son.
3. Asa begat Josaphat; that is, a good father a good son.
4. Josaphat begat Joram; that is, a good father a bad son.
I see, Lord, from hence, that my father’s piety cannot be entailed; that is bad news for me. But I see also, that actual impiety is not always hereditary; that is good news for my son.
LORD, when in my daily service I read
David’s Psalms, give me to alter the
accent of my soul according to their several
subjects. In such psalms, wherein he confesseth his sins, or requesteth thy pardon, or praiseth for former, or prayeth for future favours,
LORD, I read of the two witnesses, And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and
shall overcome them, and kill them. [
LORD, I read at the transfiguration that
Peter, James, and John were admitted
to behold Christ; but Andrew was excluded. [
LORD, St. Paul teacheth the art of heavenly thrift, how to make a new sermon
of an old. Many (saith he) walk, of whom I
LORD, I read of my Saviour, that when he
was in the wilderness, then the devil leaveth him, and behold angels came and ministered unto him.
[
LORD, I read how Cushi and Ahimaaz
ran a race, who first should bring tidings
of victory to David. Ahimaaz, though last setting forth, came first to his journey’s end; not
that he had the fleeter feet, but the better
brains, to choose the way of most advantage.
For the text saith, So Ahimaaz ran by the way of the plain, and overran Cushi.
[
LORD, this morning I read a chapter in
the Bible, and therein observed a memorable passage, whereof I never took notice
before. Why now, and no sooner, did I see it?
Formerly my eyes were as open, and the letters as legible. Is there not a thin veil laid
over thy word, which is more rarefied by reading,
LORD, at the first Passover God kept touch
with the Hebrews very punctually; at
the end of the four hundred and thirty years, in the self-same day it came to pass, that all
the hosts of the Lord went out of the land of
Egypt; [
LORD, the Apostle dissuadeth the Hebrews
from covetousness, with this argument,
because God said, I will not leave thee nor
forsake thee. Yet I find not that God ever
gave this promise to all the Jews, but he spake it only to Joshua when first made commander
against the Canaanites; [
LORD, I read that thou didst make grass,
herbs, and trees the third day. [
LORD, I read how Paul, writing from Rome, spake to Philemon to prepare him a lodging, hoping to make use thereof;
[
LORD, when our Saviour sent his Apostles
abroad to preach, he enjoined them in
one Gospel, Possess nothing, neither shoes nor
staff. [
LORD, I discover an arrant laziness in my
soul. For when I am to read a chapter
in the Bible, before I begin it, I look where
it endeth. And if it endeth not on the same
side, I cannot keep my hands from turning
over the leaf, to measure the length thereof
on the other side; if it swells to many verses,
I begin to grudge. Surely my heart is not
rightly affected. Were I truly hungry after
heavenly food, I would not complain of meat.
Scourge, Lord, this laziness out of my soul;
LORD, I find David making a syllogism, in mood and figure, two propositions he perfected.
18. If I regard wickedness in my heart,
the Lord will not hear me. [
19. But verily God hath heard me, he hath
attended to the voice of my prayer. [
Now I expected that David should have concluded thus:
Therefore I regard not wickedness in my heart.
But far otherwise he concludes:
Thus David hath deceived, but not wronged me. I looked that he should have clapped the crown on his own, and he puts it on God’s head. I will learn this excellent logic; for I like David’s better than Aristotle’s syllogisms, that, whatsoever the premises be, I make God’s glory the conclusion.
LORD, wise Agur made it his wish, Give
me not poverty, lest I steal, and take the
name of my God in vain. [
LORD, I read that when my Saviour dispossessed the man’s son of a devil, he enjoined
the evil spirit to come out of him,
and enter no more into him. [
LORD, Jannes and Jambres, [
Only the difference appears in the continuance:
wit is but for fits and flashes, grace holds
out, and is lasting; and, good Lord,
of thy goodness, give it to every
one that truly desires
it.
THE English ambassador some years since prevailed so far with the Turkish emperor, as to persuade him to hear some of our English music, from which (as from other liberal sciences) both he and his nation were naturally averse. But it happened that the musicians were so long in tuning their instruments, that the great Turk, distasting their tediousness, went away in discontent before their music began. I am afraid that the differences and dissensions betwixt Christian churches (being so long in reconciling their discords) will breed in pagans such a disrelish of our religion, as they will not be invited to attend thereunto.
A SIBYL came to Tarquinius Superbus, king of Rome, and offered to sell unto him three tomes of her Oracles:
IN Merionethshire in “Wales there be many mountains, whose
hanging tops come so close together, that shepherds sitting on several mountains
may audibly discourse one with another.
WHEN John, king of France, had communicated the order of the knighthood of the star to some of his guard, men of mean birth and extraction, the nobility ever after disdained to be admitted into that degree, and so that order in France was extinguished. Seeing that now-a-days drinking, and swearing, and wantonness are grown frequent, even with base beggarly people; it is high time for men of honour, who consult with their credit, to desist from such sins. Not that I would have noblemen invent new vices to be in fashion with themselves alone, but forsake old sins, grown common with the meanest of people.
LONG was this land wasted with civil war
betwixt the two houses of York and
Lancaster, till the red rose became white with
the blood it had lost, and the white rose red
with the blood it had shed. At last, they were
united in a happy marriage, and their joint
titles are twisted together in our gracious sovereign. Thus there hath been a great difference betwixt learned men, wherein the dominion over the creature is founded. Some
THE Roman senators conspired against Julius Caesar to kill him:
IT is reported of Philip the Second, king of Spain, that besieging the town of St. Quintin, and being to make a breach, he was forced with his cannon to batter down a small chapel on the wall, dedicated to St. Lawrence. In reparation to which saint, he afterwards built and consecrated unto him that famous chapel in the Escurial in Spain, for workmanship one of the wonders of the world. How many churches and chapels of the God of St. Lawrence have been laid waste in England by this woful war? And, which is more (and more to be lamented), how many living temples of the Holy Ghost, Christian people, have therein been causelessly and cruelly destroyed? How shall our nation be ever able to make recompense for it? God of his goodness forgive us that debt which we of ourselves are not able to satisfy.
IN the days of King Edward the Sixth, the lord protector marched with a powerful into Scotland, to demand their young queen Mary in marriage to our king, according to their promises.
A SAGAMORE, or petty king in Virginia, guessing the greatness of other
kings by his own, sent a native hither, who
understood English: commanding him to score upon a long cane (given him of purpose to
be his register) the number of Englishmen,
that hereby his master might know the strength
of this our nation. Landing at Plymouth, a
populous place (and which he mistook for all
England), he had no leisure to eat, for notching up the men he met. At Exeter the difficulty of his task was increased; coming at last to
London (that forest of people) he broke his
MARTIN DE GOLIN, master of the Teutonic order, was taken prisoner by
the Prussians, and delivered bound to be beheaded.
I READ how Pope Pius the Fourth had a
great ship, richly laden, landed at Sandwich in Kent, where it suddenly sunk, and so,
with the sands, choked up the harbour, that
ever since that place hath been deprived of
the benefit thereof.
JEFFRY, Archbishop of York, and base son
to King Henry the Second, used proudly to
protest by his faith, and the royalty of the king
his father.
I COULD both sigh and smile at the simplicity of a native American, sent by a
Spaniard, his master, with a basket of figs, and
a letter (wherein the figs were mentioned), to
carry them both to one of his master’s friends.
By the way, this messenger ate up the figs, but
delivered the letter, whereby his deed was discovered, and he soundly punished. Being sent
a second time on the like message, he first took
the letter (which he conceived had eyes as well
as a tongue) and hid it in the ground, sitting
himself on the place where he put it; and then
securely fell to feed on his figs, presuming that
that paper which saw nothing could tell nothing. Then, taking it again out of the ground,
he delivered it to his master’s friend, whereby
his fault was perceived, and he worse beaten
than before. Men conceive they can manage
JOHN COURCY, Earl of Ulster, in Ireland,
endeavoured fifteen several times to sail
over thither, and so often was beaten back
again with bad weather.
THE Libyans kept all women in common. But when a child was born, they used to send it to that man to maintain (as father thereof) whom the infant most resembled in his complexion. Satan and my sinful nature enter common in my soul in the causing of wicked thoughts. The sons by their faces speak their sires. Proud, wanton, covetous, envious, idle thoughts, I must own to come from myself. God forgive me, it is vain to deny it, those children are so like to their father. But as for some hideous, horrible thoughts, such as I start at the motion of them, being out of the road of my corruption (and yet which way will not that wander?) so that they smell of hell’s brimstone about them: these fall to Satan’s lot to father them. The swarthy blackness of their complexion plainly shows who begot them; not being of mine extraction, but his injection.
MARCUS MANLIUS deserved exceedingly well of the Roman state, having
valiantly defended their Capitol. But afterward, falling into disfavour with the people,
he was condemned to death.
A DUEL was to be fought, by consent of both kings,
I HAVE heard that the brook near Lutterworth, in Leicestershire, into which the
ashes of the burnt bones of Wickliffe were cast,
never since doth drown the meadow about it.
Papists expound this to be, because God was
well pleased with the sacrifice of the ashes of
such a heretic. Protestants ascribe it rather to
proceed from the virtue of the dust of such a
reverend martyr. I see it is a case for a friend.
Such accidents signify nothing in themselves
but according to the pleasure of interpreters.
Give me such solid reasons, whereon I may
rest and rely. Solomon saith, The words of
the wise are like nails, fastened by the masters
of the assembly. [
ALEXANDER the Great,
THE poets fable, that this was one of the
labours imposed on Hercules, to make
clean the Augean stable, or stall rather. For
therein, they said, were kept three thousand
kine, and it had not been cleansed for thirty
years together. But Hercules, by letting the
river Alpheus into it, did that with ease which
before was conceived impossible. This stall is
the pure emblem of my impure soul, which
hath been defiled with millions of sins for more
than thirty years together. O that I might by
a lively faith, and unfeigned repentance, let the
stream of that fountain into my soul, which is
THE Venetians showed the treasure of their state, being in many great coffers full of gold and silver, to the Spanish ambassador. But the ambassador, peeping under the bottom of those coffers, demanded whether that their treasure did daily grow, and had a root; for such, saith he, my master’s treasure hath: meaning both his Indies. Many men have attained to a great height of piety, to be very abundant and rich therein. But all theirs is but a cistern, not fountain of grace, only God’s goodness hath a spring of itself in itself.
THE Sidonian servants agreed amongst themselves
AN Italian prince, as much delighted with
the person as grieved with the prodigality
of his eldest son, commanded his steward to
deliver him no more money but what the young
prince should tell his own self. The young gallant fretted at his heart, that he must buy
money at so dear a rate, as to have it for telling
it, but (because there was no remedy) he set
himself to task, and being greatly tired with
telling a small sum, he broke off in this consideration. Money may speedily be spent, but
how tedious and troublesome is it to tell it!
And by consequence how much more difficult
to get it! Men may commit sin presently,
pleasantly, with much mirth, in a moment.
But O that they would but seriously consider
with themselves how many their offences are,
and sadly fall accounting them! And if so
hard truly to sum their sins, sure harder sincerely
I KNOW the village in Cambridgeshire
I READ that Ægeus, the father of Theseus,
WHEN I look on a leaden bullet,
therein I can read both God’s mercy and man’s malice. God’s mercy, whose providence, foreseeing that men of lead would make instruments
of cruelty, did give that metal a medicinal virtue; as it hurts, so it also heals; and a bullet
sent in by man’s hatred into a fleshy and no
vital part, will (with ordinary care and curing),
out of a natural charity, work its own way out.
But oh! how devilish were those men who, to
frustrate and defeat his goodness, and to countermand the healing power of lead, first found
the champing and empoisoning of bullets!
Fools, who account themselves honoured with
the shameful title of being the inventors of evil
things, [
I HAVE heard some men, rather causelessly captious than judicially critical, cavil at grammarians for calling some conjunctions disjunctive, as if this were a flat contradiction. Whereas, indeed, the same particle may conjoin words, and yet disjoin the sense. But, alas! how sad is the present condition of Christians, who have a communion disuniting. The Lord’s Supper, ordained by our Saviour to conjoin our affections, hath disjoined our judgments. Yea, it is to be feared, lest our long quarrels about the manner of his presence cause the matter of his absence, for our want of charity to receive him.
I HAVE observed that children, when they
first put on new shoes, are very curious to
keep them clean. Scarce will they set their
feet on the ground for fear to dirt the soles of
their shoes. Yea, rather they will wipe the
leather clean with their coats; and yet, perchance, the next day they will trample with the
same shoes in the mire up to the ankles. Alas!
children’s play is our earnest. On that day
wherein we receive the sacrament, we are often
I KNOW some men very desirous to see the
devil, because they conceive such an apparition would be a confirmation of their faith.
For then, by the logic of opposites, they will
conclude there is a God because there is a devil.
Thus they will not believe there is a heaven,
except hell itself will be deposed for a witness
thereof. Surely such men’s wishes are vain,
and hearts are wicked; for if they will not believe, having Moses and the prophets, and the
apostles, they will not believe, no, if the devil
from hell appears unto them. Such apparitions
were never ordained by God as the means of
faith. Besides, Satan will never show himself
but to his own advantage. If as a devil, to
fright them, if as an angel of light, to flatter
them, how ever to hurt them. For my part, I
never desire to see him. And O (if it were
possible) that I might never feel him in his motions and temptations! I say, let me never see
I OBSERVE that antiquaries, such as prize skill above profit (as being rather curious than covetous), do prefer the brass coins of the Roman emperors before those in gold and silver. Because there is much falseness and forgery daily detected, and more suspected, in gold and silver medals, as being commonly cast and counterfeited, whereas brass coins are presumed upon as true and ancient, because it will not quit cost for any to counterfeit them. Plain dealing, Lord, what I want in wealth may I have in sincerity. I care not how mean metal my estate be of, if my soul have the true stamp, really impressed with the unfeigned image of the King of Heaven.
LOOKING on the chapel of King Henry
the Seventh, in Westminster, (God grant
I may once again see it, with the saint who belongs to it, our sovereign, there in a well-conditioned peace,) I say, looking on the outside
of the chapel, I have much admired the curious
THE mariners at sea count it the sweetest perfume when the water in the keel of their ship doth stink. For hence they conclude that it is but little, and long since leaked in; but it is woful with them when the water is felt before it is smelt, as fresh flowing in upon them in abundance. It is the best savour in a Christian soul when his sins are loathsome and offensive unto him. A happy token that there hath not been of late in him any insensible supply of heinous offences, because his stale sins are still his new and daily sorrow.
I HAVE sometimes considered in what troublesome case is that chamberlain in an inn, who, being but one, is to give attendance to many guests. For suppose them ah 1 in one chamber, yet if one shall command him to come to the window, and the other to the table, and another to the bed, and another to the chimney, and another to come up stairs, and another to go down stairs, and all in the same instant, how would he be distracted to please them all. And yet such is the sad condition of my soul by nature, not only a servant, but a slave unto sin. Pride calls me to the window, gluttony to the table, wantonness to the bed, laziness to the chimney, ambition commands me to go up stairs, and covetousness to come down. Vices, I see, are as well contrary to themselves as to virtue. Free me, Lord, from this distracted case; fetch me from being sin’s servant to be thine, whose service is perfect freedom; for thou art but one and ever the same, and always enjoinest commands agreeable to themselves, thy glory, and my good.
I HAVE observed, that towns which have
been casually burnt have been built again
OUR Saviour saith, When thou doest alms,
let not thy left hand know what thy
right hand doeth. [
HOW wrangling and litigious were we in time of peace! How many actions were created of nothing! Suits we had commenced about a mouthful of grass, or a handful of hay. Now he, who formerly would sue his neighbour for pedibus ambulando, can behold his whole field lying waste and must be content. We see our goods taken from us and dare say nothing, not so much as seeking any legal redress, because certain not to find it. May we be restored in due time to our former properties, but not to our former peevishness. And when law shall be again awaked (or rather revived), let us express our thanks to God for so great a gift, by using it not wantonly (as formerly, in vexing our neighbours about trifles), but soberly, to right ourselves in matters of moment.
ALMOST twenty years since I heard a
profane jest, and still remember it.
How many pious passages of far later date have
I forgotten. It seems my soul is like a filthy
pond, wherein fish die soon, and frogs live long.
Lord, raze this profane jest out of my memory.
I PERCEIVE there is in the world a good-nature, falsely so called, as being nothing else but a facile and flexible disposition, wax for every impression. What others are so bold to beg, they are so bashful as not to deny. Such osiers can never make beams to bear stress in church and state. If this be good-nature, let me always be a clown; if this be good-fellowship, let me always be a churl. Give me to set a sturdy porter before my soul, who may not equally open to every comer. I cannot conceive how he can be a friend to any, who is a friend to all, and the worst foe to himself.
HA is the interjection of laughter; Ah is
an interjection of sorrow. The difference betwixt them very small, as consisting
I HAVE a great friend whom I endeavour and desire to please, but hitherto all in vain: the more I seek, the farther off I am from finding his favour. Whence comes this miscarriage? Are not my applications to man more frequent than my addresses to my Maker? Do I not love his smiles more than I fear Heaven’s frowns? I confess, to my shame, that sometimes his anger hath grieved me more than my sins. Hereafter, by thy assistance, I will labour to approve my ways in God’s presence; so shall I either have, or not need his friendship, and either please him with more ease, or displease him with less danger.
THIS nation is scourged with a wasting
war. Our sins were ripe; God could
no longer be just if we were prosperous. Blessed be his name that I have suffered my share
in the calamities of my country. Had I poised
WHEN, in my private prayers, I have
been to confess my bosom sins unto
God, I have been loath to speak them aloud;
fearing (though no man could, yet) that the
devil would overhear me, and make use of my
words against me. It being probable, that,
when I have discovered the weakest part of
my soul, he would assault me there. Yet
since, I have considered that therein I shall
tell Satan no news, which he knew not before.
Surely I have not managed my secret sins with
such privacy, but that he, from some circumstances,
IN the midst of my morning prayers I had a
good meditation, which since I have forgotten. Thus much I remember of it, that
it was pious in itself, but not proper for that
time. For it took much from my devotion,
and added nothing to my instruction; and my
soul, not able to intend two things at once,
abated of its fervency in praying. Thus snatching at two employments, I held neither well.
Sure this meditation came not from him who
is the God of order; he useth to fasten all his
nails, and not to drive out one with another.
If the same meditation return again when I
have leisure and room to receive it, I will say
it is of his sending, who so mustereth and
WHEN I go speedily in any action, Lord,
give me to call my soul to an account.
It is a shrewd suspicion that my bowl runs
downhill, because it runs so fast. And, Lord,
when I go in an unlawful way, start some rubs
to stop me, let my foot slip or stumble. And
give me the grace to understand the language
of the lets thou throwest in my way. Thou
hast promised, I will hedge up thy way. [
COMING hastily into a chamber, I had
almost thrown down a crystal hourglass. Fear lest I had, made me grieve as if
WHEN a child, I loved to look on the
pictures in the Book of Martyrs. I
thought that there the martyrs at the stake
seemed like the three children in the fiery furnace, [
TRAVELLING on the plain (which notwithstanding hath its risings and fallings), I discovered Salisbury steeple many miles
off; coming to a declivity, I lost sight thereof;
but climbing up the next hill, the steeple grew
out of the ground again. Yea, I often found
it and lost it, till at last I came safely to it, and
took my lodging near it. It fareth thus with
us, whilst we are wayfaring to heaven, mounted
on the Pisgah top of some good meditation,
we get a glimpse of our celestial Canaan. [
LORD, I find myself in the latitude of a
fever; I am neither well nor ill; not so
well that I have any mind to be merry with
my friends, nor so ill that my friends have
IT seemed strange to me when I was told,
that aqua-vitae, which restores life to others,
should itself be made of the droppings of dead
beer; and that strong waters should be extracted out of the dregs (almost) of small beer.
Surely many other excellent ingredients must
concur, and much art must be used in the
distillation. Despair not then, O my soul!
No extraction is impossible where the chemist
is infinite. He that is all in all can produce
anything out of anything; and he can make
my soul, which by nature is settled on her lees, [
HOW easy is pen and paper piety for one to write religiously! I will not say it costeth nothing, but it is far cheaper to work one’s head than one’s heart to goodness. Some, perchance, may guess me to be good by my writings, and so I shall deceive my reader. But if I do not desire to be good, I most of all deceive myself. I can make a hundred meditations sooner than subdue the least sin in my soul. Yea, I was once in the mind never to write more; for fear lest my writings at the last day prove records against me. And yet why should I not write? that by reading my own book, the disproportion betwixt my lines and my life may make me blush myself (if not into goodness) into less badness than I would do otherwise. That so my writings may condemn me, and make me to condemn myself, that so God may be moved to acquit me.
WHEN
I read the description of the
tumult in Ephesus,
This being our sad condition, I perceive
controversial writings (sounding somewhat of
drums and trumpets) do but make the wound
I confess, a volume of another subject, and larger size, is expected from me. But in London I have learnt the difference betwixt downright breaking, and craving time of their creditors. Many sufficient merchants, though not solvable for the present, make use of the latter, whose example I follow. And though I cannot pay the principal, yet I desire such small treatises may be accepted from me, as interest, or consideration money, until I shall, God willing, be enabled to discharge the whole debt.
If any wonder that this treatise comes patronless into the world, let such know that dedications begin now-a-days to grow out of fashion. His policy was commended by many, (and proved profitable unto himself,) who, instead of select godfathers, made all the congregation witnesses to his child, as I invite the world to this my book, requesting each one would patronize therein such parts and passages thereof as please them, so hoping that by several persons the whole will be protected.
I have, Christian reader (so far I dare go,
not inquiring into thy surname, of thy side,
Thy brother in all
Christian offices,
THOMAS FULLER.
OFTEN have I thought with myself, what disease I would be best contented to die of. None please me. The stone, the colic, terrible as expected, intolerable when felt. The palsy is death before death. The consumption a flattering disease, cozening men into hope of long life at the last gasp. Some sicknesses besot, others enrage men, some are too swift, and others too slow.
If I could as easily decline diseases as I could
dislike them, I should be immortal. But away
with these thoughts. The mark must not
choose what arrow shall be shot against it.
What God sends I must receive. May I not
HEARING a passing-bell, I prayed that the sick man might have, through Christ, a safe voyage to his long home. Afterwards I understood that the party was dead some hours before; and it seems in some places of London the tolling of the bell is but a preface of course to the ringing it out.
Bells better silent than thus telling lies. What is this but giving a false alarm to men’s devotions, to make them to be ready armed with their prayers for the assistance of such who have already fought the good fight, yea, and gotten the conquest? Not to say that men’s charity herein may be suspected of superstition in praying for the dead.
However, my heart thus poured out was not
spilt on the ground. My prayers, too late
to do him good, came soon enough to speak
LIVING in a country village, where a burial was a rarity, I never thought of death, it was so seldom presented unto me. Coming to London, where there is plenty of funerals, (so that coffins crowd one another, and corpses in the grave justle for elbow-room,) I slight and neglect death, because grown an object so constant and common.
How foul is my stomach to turn all food into bad humours? Funerals neither few nor frequent, work effectually upon me. London is a library of mortality. Volumes of all sorts and sizes, rich, poor, infants, children, youth, men, old men, daily die; I see there is more required to make a good scholar, than only the having of many books: Lord, be thou my schoolmaster, and teach me to number my days, that I may apply my heart unto wisdom.
I READ, in the Revelation, of a beast, one of whose heads was, as it were, wounded to death. I expected in the next verse that the beast should die, as the most probable consequence, considering:—
1. It was not a scratch, but a wound.
2. Not a wound in a fleshy part, or out-limbs of the body, but in the very head, the throne of reason.
3. No light wound, but in outward apparition, (having no other probe but St. John’s eyes to search it,) it seemed deadly.
But mark what immediately follows: And
his deadly wound was healed. Who would
have suspected this inference from these premises. But is not this the lively emblem of my
natural corruption? Sometimes I conceived
that, by God’s grace, I have conquered and
killed, subdued and slain, maimed and mortified, the deeds of the flesh: never more shall
I be molested or buffeted with such a bosom
sin: when, alas! by the next return, the news
is, it is revived and recovered. Thus tenches,
though grievously gashed, presently plaster
themselves whole by that slimy and unctuous
humour they have in them; and thus the inherent balsam of badness quickly cures my corruption,
A PERSON of great quality was pleased to lodge a night in my house. I durst not invite him to my family prayer; and therefore for that time omitted it: thereby making a breach in a good custom, and giving Satan advantage to assault it. Yea, the loosening of such a link might have endangered the scattering of the chain.
Bold bashfulness, which durst offend God whilst it did fear man. Especially considering, that, though my guest was never so high, yet by the laws of hospitality I was above him whilst he was under my roof. Hereafter, whosoever cometh within the doors shall be requested to come within the discipline of my house; if accepting my homely diet, he will not refuse my home devotion; and sitting at my table, will be entreated to kneel down by it.
SHAMEFUL my sloth, that have deferred
my night prayer till I am in bed. This
I have read a copy of a grant of liberty from Queen Mary to Henry Ratcliffe, Earl of Sussex,
giving him leave to wear a nightcap or coif
in her Majesty’s presence,
VII. ROOT, BRANCH, AND FRUIT.
A POOR man of Seville in Spain, having
a fair and fruitful pear-tree, one of the
Allured with love to God, and advised by my
own advantage, what he was frighted to do,
I will freely perform. God calleth on me to
present him with fruits meet for repentance. [
Besides, it was doubtful whether the poor
man’s material tree, being removed, would grow
again. Some plants transplanted (especially
when old) become sullen, and do not enjoy
themselves in a soil wherewith they were unacquainted. But sure I am when I have given
myself to God, the moving of my soul shall be
the mending of it, he will so dress αἴρειν
and καθαίρειν, [
I SAW in seed-time a husbandman at plough in a very raining day; asking him the reason why he would not rather leave off than labour in such foul weather, his answer was returned me in their country rhyme:
This could not but mind me of David’s expression, They that sow in tears shall reap
in joy. [
These last five years have been a wet and woful seed-time to me, and many of my afflicted brethren. Little hope have we, as yet, to come again to our own homes, and in a literal sense, now to bring our sheaves, which we see others daily carry away on their shoulders. But if we shall not share in the former or latter harvest here on earth, the third and last in heaven we hope undoubtedly to receive.
GREAT was the abundance and boldness of the frogs in Egypt, which went up and came into their bed-chambers, and beds, and
kneading-troughs, and very ovens. [
Leave I any longer to wonder at Pharaoh, and even admire at myself; what are my sins but so many toads, spitting of venom and spawning of poison; croaking in my judgment, creeping into my will, and crawling into my affections. This I see, and suffer, and say with Pharaoh, To-morrow, to-morrow I will amend. Thus, as the Hebrew tongue hath no proper present tense, but two future tenses, so all the performances of my reformation are only in promises for the time to come. Grant, Lord, that I may seasonably drown this Pharaoh-like procrastination in the sea of repentance, lest it drown me in the pit of perdition.
IN September I saw a tree bearing roses, whilst others of the same kind, round about it, were barren; demanding the cause of the gardener, why that tree was an exception from the rule of the rest, this reason was rendered: because that alone being clipped close in May, was then hindered to spring and sprout, and therefore took this advantage by itself to bud in autumn.
Lord, if I were curbed and snipped in my younger years by fear of my parents, from those vicious excrescences to which that age was subject, give me to have a godly jealousy over my heart, suspecting an autumn-spring, lest corrupt nature (which without thy restraining grace will have a vent) break forth in my reduced years into youthful vanities.
THERE goes a tradition of Ovid, that famous, poet, (receiving some countenance from his own confession,)
Parce precor, genitor, posthac non versificabo.
When I so solemnly promise my Heavenly
Father to sin no more, I sin in my very promise; my weak prayers made to procure my
pardon, increase my guiltiness. O the dulness
and deadness of my heart therein! I say my
prayers as the Jews eat the passover, [
IN reading the Roman (whilst under consuls)
and Belgic History of the United Provinces,
I remember not any capital offender, being condemned, ever forgiven, but always after sentence follows execution. It seems that the very
constitution of a multitude is not so inclinable
to save as to destroy. Such rulers in aristocracies or popular states cannot so properly be
called gods, because, though having the great
May I die in that government under which
I was born, where a monarch doth command.
Kings, where they see cause, have graciously
granted pardons to men appointed to death;
herein the lively image of God, to whom belongs mercies and forgivenesses. [
A VAIN thought arose in my heart, instantly my corruption retains itself to be the advocate for it, pleading that the worst that could be said against it was this, that it was a vain thought.
And is not this the best that can be said for
it? Remember, O my soul, the fig-tree was
charged, not with bearing noxious, but no fruit.
[
Besides, the fig-tree pestereth but one part of the garden, good grapes might grow at the same time in other places of the vineyard. But seeing my soul is so intent on its object that it cannot attend two things at once, one tree for the time being is all my vineyard. A vain thought engrosseth all the ground of my heart; till that be rooted out, no good meditation can grow with it or by it.
IN the most healthful times, two hundred and upwards was the constant weekly tribute paid to mortality in London. A large bill, but it must be discharged. Can one city spend according to this weekly rate, and not be bankrupt of people? At leastwise, must not my shot be called for to make up the reckoning?
When only seven young men, and those chosen by lot, were but yearly taken out of Athens to be devoured by the monster Minotaur,
Were the dwellers and lodgers in London
FINDING a bad thought in my heart, 1 disputed in myself the cause thereof, whether it proceeded from the devil, or my own corruption, examining it by those signs divines in this case recommended.
1. Whether it came in incoherently, or by dependence on some object presented to my senses.
2. Whether the thought was at full age at the first instant, or, infant-like, grew greater by degrees.
3. Whether out or in the road of my natural inclination.
But hath not this inquiry more of curiosity
than religion? Hereafter derive not the pedigree,
THE mariners sailing with St. Paul bare
up bravely against the tempest whilst
either art or industry could befriend them.
Finding both to fail, and that they could not
any longer bear up into the wind, they even
let their ship drive. [
Noah’s ark was bound for no other port, but
preservation for the present (that ship being all
This comforts me, that the most weather-beaten vessel cannot properly be seized on for a wreck which hath any quick cattle remaining therein. My spirits are not as yet forfeited to despair, having one lively spark of hope in my heart, because God is even where he was before.
JOAB chid the man (unknown in Scripture by his name, well known for his wisdom) for not killing Absalom, when he saw him hanged in the tree, promising him for his pains ten shekels and a girdle.
But the man, having the king’s command to
the contrary, refused his proffer. Well he
knew that politic statesman would have dangerous designs fetched out of the fire, but with
other men*s fingers. His girdle promised might
in payment prove a halter. Yea, he added
moreover, that had he killed Absalom, Joab hiinself would have set himself against him.
[
Satan daily solicits me to sin (point blank
against God’s word), baiting me with proffers
DAVID fasted and prayed for his sick son, that his life might
be prolonged. But when he was dead, this consideration comforted him: I shall go
to him, but he shall not return to me. [
Peace did long lie languishing in this land. No small contentment that to my poor power. I have prayed and preached for the preservation thereof. Seeing, since it is departed, this supports my soul, having little hope that peace here should return to me, I have some assurance that I shall go to peace hereafter.
LORD, how come wicked thoughts to perplex me in my prayers,
when I desire and endeavour only to attend thy service?
POPE BONIFACE the Ninth, at the end of each hundred years, appointed a jubilee at Rome, wherein people, bringing themselves and money thither, had pardon for their sins.
But centenary years returned but seldom;
popes were old before, and covetous when they
came to their place. Few had the happiness to
fill their coffers with jubilee-coin. Hereupon,
Clement the Sixth reduced it to every three
and thirtieth, Paul the Second and Sixtus the Fourth to every twenty-fifth year.
Yea, an agitation is reported in the conclave, to bring down jubilees to fifteen, twelve, or ten years, had not some cardinals (whose policy was above their covetousness) opposed it.
I serve my prayers as they their jubilees.
Not long after, this also seems too long; I decontract and abridge the abridgment of my prayers, yea (be it confessed to my shame and sorrow, that hereafter I may amend it) too often I shrink my prayers to a minute, to a moment, to a Lord have mercy upon me!
FATHER l thank thee, (said our Saviour, being ready to raise Lazarus,) that thou hast heard me. And
I know that thou hearest me always,
but because of the people that stand by, I said
it, that they may believe that thou hast sent
me. [
When, before sermon, I pray for my sovereign and master, king of great Britain, France,
and Ireland, defender of the faith, in all causes,
and over all persons, &c., some, who omit it
themselves, may censure it in me for superfluous. But never more need to teach men
ZOPHAR, the Naamathite, mentioneth a sort of men, in whose mouths wickedness
is sweet, they hide it under their tongues, they
spare it, and forsake it not, but keep it still in
their mouths. [
The first and best are those who spit sin out, loathing it in their judgments, and leaving it in their practice.
The second sort, notoriously wicked, who swallow sin down, actually and openly committing it.
The third, endeavouring an expedient betwixt heaven and hell, neither do nor deny their lusts; neither spitting them out nor swallowing them down, but rolling them under their tongues, epicurizing thereon, in their filthy fancies and obscene speculations.
If God at the last day of Judgment hath three hands, a right for the sheep, a left for the goats, the middle is most proper for these third sort of men. But both these latter kinds of sinners shall be confounded together. The rather because a sin thus rolled becomes so soft and supple, and the throat is so short and slippery a passage, that insensibly it may slide down from the mouth into the stomach; and contemplative wantonness quickly turns into practical uncleanness.
JOB had a custom to offer burnt-offerings
according to the number of his sons; for he
said, It may be that my sons in their feasting
have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. [
I see in all doubtful matters of devotion, it is wisest to be on the surest side; better both lock and bolt and bar it, than leave the least door of danger open. Hast thou done what is disputable whether it be well done? Is it a measuring cast whether it be lawful or no? So that thy conscience may seem in a manner to stand neuter, sue a conditional pardon out of the court of heaven, the rather because our self-love is more prone to flatter than our godly jealousy to suspect ourselves without a cause; with such humility Heaven is well pleased. For suppose thyself over cautious, needing no forgiveness in that particular, God will interpret the pardon thou prayest for to be the praises presented unto him.
MOSES, in God’s name, did counsel Joshua,
Was Joshua a dunce, or a coward? did his wit or his valour want an edge, that the same precept must so often be pressed upon him? No doubt neither; but God saw it needful that Joshua should have courage of proof, who was to encounter both the froward Jew and the fierce Canaanite.
Though metal on metal, colour on colour, be
false heraldry, line on line, precept on precept,
[
Be not therefore offended, O my soul, if the same doctrine be
often delivered unto thee by different preachers: if the same precept, like the sword in Paradise, which turned every way,
[
HAD I beheld Sodom in the beauty thereof, and had the angel told me that the same should be suddenly destroyed by a merciless element, I should certainly have concluded that Sodom should have been drowned; led thereunto by these considerations:—
1. It was situated in the plain of Jordan, a flat, low, level country.
2. It was well watered everywhere; [
3. Jordan had a quality in the first month to overflow all his banks.
[
But no drop of moisture is spilt on Sodom, it is burnt to ashes. How wide are our conjectures, when they guess at God’s judgments! How far are his ways above our apprehension! Especially when wicked men with the Sodomites wander in strange sins, out of the road of common corruption, God meets them with strange punishments, out of the reach of common conception, not coming within the compass of a rational suspicion.
WHEN God, at the first day of judgment
arraigned Eve, she transferred her fault on the serpent which beguiled her.
[
THE Amalekite who brought the tidings to
David began with truth, rightly reporting
the overthrow of the Israelites; [
But proceeding, he told six lies successively:—
1. That Saul called him.
2. That he came at his call.
3. That Saul demanded who he was.
4. That he returned his answer.
5. That Saul commanded him to kill him.
6. That he killed him accordingly.
A wilful falsehood told is a cripple not able to stand by itself, without some to support it; it is easy to tell a lie, hard to tell but a lie.
Lord, if I be so unhappy to relate a falsehood, give me to recall it, or repent of it. It is said of the pismires, that to prevent the growing (and so the corrupting) of that corn which they hoard up for their winter provision, they bite off both the ends thereof, wherein the generating power of the grain doth consist. When I have committed a sin, O let me so order it that I may destroy the procreation thereof, and, by a true sorrow, condemn it to a blessed barrenness.
WHEN the angel brought St. Peter out of prison, the iron gate opened of its own accord. But coming to the house of Mary the mother of John, mark, he was fain to stand before the door and knock. When iron gave obedience, how can wood make opposition?
The answer easy. There was no man to
open the iron gate, but a portress was provided
of course to unlock the door; God would not
therefore show his finger, where men’s hands
were appointed to do the work. Heaven will not
super-institute a miracle, where ordinary means
were formerly in peaceable possession. But if
Lord, if only wooden obstacles (such as can be removed by might of man) hindered our hope of peace, the arm of flesh might relieve us. But alas! they are iron obstructions, as come not within human power or policy to take away. No proud flesh shall therefore presumptuously pretend to any part of the praise, but ascribe it solely to thyself, if now thou shouldst be pleased, after seven years’ hard apprenticeship in civil wars, miraculously to burn our indentures, and restore us to our former liberty.
SOME may wonder at the strange incoherence in the words and actions,
And David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and over Jonathan his son: also he bade them teach the children of Judah the use of the bow.
But the connection is excellent. For that is the most soldier-like sorrow, which in midst of grief can give order for revenge on such as have slain their friends.
Our general fast was first appointed to bemoan
SOMETIMES I have disputed with myself,
which of the two was most guilty, David,
who said in haste, All men are liars, [
David seems the greater offender; for mankind might have an action of defamation against him, yea, he might justly be challenged for giving all men the lie. But mark, David was in haste, he spake it in transitu, when he was passing, or rather posting by; or if you please, not David, but David’s haste rashly vented the words. Whereas the other sat, a sad, solemn, serious, premeditate, deliberate posture, his malice had a full blow, with a steady hand, at the credit of his brother. Not to say that sat carries with it the countenance of a judicial proceeding, as if he made a session or bench-business thereof, as well condemning, as accusing unjustly.
Lord, pardon my cursory, and preserve me from sedentary sins. If in haste or heat of passion I wrong any, give me at leisure to ask thee and them forgiveness. But O let me not sit by it, studiously to plot or project mischief to any out of malice prepense. To shed blood in cool blood, is blood with a witness.
SEE by what stairs wicked Ahaz [
First, he saw an idolatrous altar at Damascus. [
Secondly, he liked it. There is a secret fascination in superstition, and our souls are soon bewitched with the gaudiness of false service from the simplicity of God’s worship.
Thirdly, he made the like to it. [
Fourthly, he sacrificed on it. [
Fifthly, he commanded the people to do the
like. [
Lastly, he removed God’s altar away. That venerable altar, by Divine appointment peaceably possessed of the place for two hundred years and upwards, must now be violently ejected by a usurping upstart.
No man can be stark naught at once. Let us stop the progress of sin in our soul at the first stage, for the farther it goes, the faster it will increase.
WHEN a good man is ill at ease, God promiseth to make all his bed in his
sickness. [
But O, how shall God make my bed, who
have no bed of mine own to make? Thou fool,
he can make thy not having a bed to be a bed
unto thee. When Jacob slept on the ground, who would not have had his hard lodging, therewithal to have his heavenly dream?
[
THE Scripture giveth us a very short account of some battles, as if they were
flights without fights, and the armies parted as
soon as met, as
Some will say the spirit gives in only the sum of the success, without any particular passages in achieving it. But there is more in it that so little is said of the fight. For some time the question of the victory is not disputed at all, but the bare propounding decides it. The stand of pikes, ofttimes no stand, and the footmen so fitly called as making more use of their feet than their hands. And when God sends a qualm of fear over the soldiers’ hearts, it is not all the skill and valour of their commanders can give them a cordial.
Our late war hath given us some instances
hereof. Yet let not men tax their armies for
cowardice, it being probable that the badness of
such as stayed at home of their respective sides
THE elder brother laid a sharp and true charge against his brother prodigal, for
his riot and luxury. [
Satan (to give him his due) is my brother, and my elder by creation. Sure I am, he will be my grievous accuser. I will endeavour to prevent him, first condemning myself to God my father. So shall I have an act of indemnity before he can enter his action against me.
I FIND two (husband and wife) both stealing, and but one of them guilty of felony.
And Rachel had stolen the images that were her father’s, [
God keep us from the guilt of Rachel’s stealth. But for Jacob’s stealing away, one may confess the fact, but deny the fault therein. Some are said to have gotten their life for a prey, if any, in that sense, have preyed on (or, if you will, plundered) their own liberty, stealing away from the place where they conceived themselves in danger, none can justly condemn them.
I HEARD a preacher take for his text: Am not I thine ass, upon which thou hast ridden ever since I was
thine unto this day? was I ever wont to do so unto thee? [
1. The silliest and simplest, being wronged, may justly speak in their own defence.
2. Worst men have a good title to their own goods. Balaam a sorcerer; yet the ass confesseth twice he was his.
3. They who have done many good offices, and fail in one, are often not only unrewarded for former service, but punished for that one offence.
4. When the creatures, formerly officious to serve us, start from their wonted obedience, (as the earth to become barren, and air pestilential,) man ought to reflect on his own sin as the sole cause thereof.
How fruitful are the seeming barren places of Scripture. Bad ploughmen, which make balks of such ground. Wheresoever the surface of God’s word doth not laugh and sing with corn, there the heart thereof within is merry with mines, affording, where not plain matter, hidden mysteries.
GOD is said to have brought the Israelites out of Egypt on eagles’ wings.
[
Thus God, in saving the Jews, put himself
betwixt them and danger. Surely God, so
loving under the Law, is no less gracious in the
Gospel: our souls are better secured, not only
above his wings, but in his body; your life is
hid with Christ in God. [
IT is said of our Saviour, his fan is in his hand. [
There is a kind of darnel, called lolium murinum, because so counterfeiting corn, that even
Well then! Christ for my share. Good luck have he with his honour. The fan is in so good a hand it cannot be mended. Only his hand who knows hearts is proper for that employment.
IT is a strange passage,
How comes the elder, when asking a question, to be said to answer? On good reason: for his query in effect was a resolution. He asked St. John, not because he thought he could, but knew he could not answer; that John’s ingenuous confession of his ignorance might invite the elder to inform him.
As his question is called an answer, so God’s
EBER had a son born in the days when the earth was divided.
[
We live in a land and age of dissension. Counties, cities, towns, villages, families, all divided in opinions, in affections. Each man almost divided from himself, with fears and distractions. Of all the children born in England within these last five years, and brought to the font (or, if that displease, to the basin) to be baptized, every male may be called Peleg, and female Palgah, in the sad memorial of the time of their nativity.
BARBAROUS is the custom of some English people on the seaside to prey on the goods of poor shipwrecked merchants. But more devilish in their design, who make false fires to undirect seamen in a tempest, that thereby from the right road they may be misled into danger and destruction.
England hath been tossed with a hurricane of a civil war. Some men are said to have gotten great wealth thereby. But it is an ill leap when men grow rich per saltum, taking their rise from the miseries of a land, to which their own sins have contributed their share. Those are far worse (and may not such be found?) who, by cunning insinuations, and false glossings, have, in these dangerous days, trained and betrayed simple men into mischief.
Can their pelf prosper, not got by valour
or industry, but deceit? surely it cannot be
wholesome, when every morsel of their meat
is mummy (good physic but bad food), made
of the corses of men’s estates. Nor will it
prove happy, it being to be feared, that such
who have been enriched with other men’s ruins
will be ruined by their own riches. The child
of ten years is old enough to remember the
beginning of such men’s wealth, and the man
WHEN Herod had beheaded John the Baptist, some might expect that his disciples would have done some great matter in revenge of their master’s death. But see how they behave themselves. And his disciples came and took up the body and buried it, and went and told Jesus. And was this all? and what was all this? Alas, poor men, it was some solace to their sorrowful souls that they might lament their loss to a fast friend, who, though for the present unable to help, was willing to pity them.
Hast thou thy body unjustly imprisoned, or
thy goods violently detained, or thy credit
causelessly defamed? I have a design whereby thou shalt revenge thyself, even go and tell
Jesus. Make to him a plain and true report
of the manner and measure of thy sufferings:
especially there being a great difference betwixt
Jesus then clouded in the flesh, and Jesus now
shining in glory, having now as much pity and
more power to redress thy grievances. I know
it is counted but a cowardly trick for boys, when beaten but by their equals, to cry that
MARVELLOUS is God’s goodness in preserving the young ostriches. For the
the old one leaveth her eggs in the earth, and
warmeth them in the dust, forgetting that the
foot may crush them, or that the wild beast
may break them. [
Many parents, which otherwise would have
been loving pelicans, are by these unnatural
wars forced to be ostriches to their own children, leaving them to the narrow mercy of
the wide world. I am confident that these
orphans (so may I call them whilst their parents are alive) shall be comfortably provided
for, when worthy master Samuel Hern, famous
for his living, preaching, and writing, lay on
his death-bed, (rich only in goodness and children,) his wife made much womanish lamentation, what should hereafter become of her little
IN the days of King Edward the Sixth, when Bonner was kept in
prison, reverend Ridley having his bishopric of London, would never
go to dinner at Fulham without the company
of Bonner’s mother and sister;
O the meekness and mildness of such men as must make martyrs! Active charity always goes along with passive obedience.
How many ministers’ wives and children
now-a-days are outed of house and home, ready
to be starved! How few are invited to their
THE city of Geneva is seated in the marches of several dominions, France, Savoy, Switzerland; now it is a fundamental law in that signiory, to give free access to all offenders, yet so as to punish their offence according to the custom of that place wherein the fault was committed. This necessary severity doth sweep their state from being the sink of sinners, the rendezvous of rogues, and headquarters of all malefactors, which otherwise would fly thither in hope of indemnity. Herein I highly approve the discipline of Geneva.
If we should live to see churches of several
governments permitted in England, it is more
than probable that many offenders, not out of
conscience, but to escape censures, would fly
from one congregation to another. What Nabal said sullenly and spitefully, [
A CITY was built in Germany upon the river Weser, by Charles the Emperor and Vuidekind
first Christian Duke of Saxony; and because both contributed to the structure thereof, it was called Mine-thine
THE salmon may pass for the riddle of the river. The oldest fisherman never, as yet, met with any meat in the maw thereof, thereby to advantage his conjecture on what bill of fare that fish feedeth. It eats not flies with the perch, nor swallows worms with the roach, nor sucketh dew with oysters, nor devoureth his fellow fishes with the pike: what hath it in the water but the water? yet salmons grow great, and very fat in their season.
How do many (exiles in their own country)
subsist now-a-days of nothing, and wandering
in a wilderness of want (except they have manna miraculously from heaven) they have no
meat on earth from their own means. At what
ordinary, or rather extraordinary, do they diet,
that for all this have cheerful faces, light hearts,
and merry countenances? Surely some secret
comfort supports their souls. Such never desire but to make one meal all the days of their
lives on the continual feast of a good conscience.
[
FORESTERS have informed me, that outlodging deer are seldom seen to be so fat as those which keep themselves within the park. Whereof they assign this reason: that those stragglers, though they have more ground to range over, more grass and grain to take their repast upon, yet they are in constant fear, as if conscious that they are trespassers, being out of the protection, because out of the pale of the park. This makes their eyes and ears always to stand sentinels for their mouths, lest the master of the ground pursue them for the damage done unto him.
Are there any which unjustly possess the houses of others? Surely such can never with quiet and comfort enjoy either their places or themselves. They always listen to the least noise of news, suspecting the right owner should be re-estated, whose restitution of necessity infers the other’s ejection. Lord, grant that though my means be never so small, grant they may be my means, not wrongfully detained from others having a truer title unto them.
ONE Nicias, a philosopher, having his shoes
stolen from him, May they, said he, fit
his feet that took them away.
Whosoever hath plundered me of my books
and papers, I freely forgive him; and desire
he may fully understand and make good use
thereof, wishing him more joy of them than
he hath right to them. Nor is there any snake
under my herbs, nor have I (as Nicias) any
reservation, or latent sense to myself, but from
my heart do desire, that to all purposes and
intents my books may be beneficial unto him.
Only requesting him, that one passage hi his
(lately my) Bible [namely,
THERE was, not long since, a devout but
ignorant Papist dwelling in Spain. He
perceived a necessity of his own private prayers
to God, besides the Pater Nosters, Ave Marias,
In these distracted times I know what generals to pray for. God’s glory, truth, and peace, his Majesty’s honour, privileges of Parliament, liberty of subjects, &c. But when I descend to particulars, when, how, by whom I should desire these things to be effected, I may fall to that poor pious man’s A, B, C, D, E, &c.
GOD, in the Levitical law, gave reward to
the woman causelessly suspected of her
jealous husband, that the bitter water, which
she was to drink in the priest’s presence, should
not only do her no harm, but also procure her children, if barren before; [
His gracious Majesty hath been suspected to be popishly inclined. A suspicion like those mushrooms which Pliny
recounts amongst the miracles in nature, because growing without
a root.
See the operation thereof; his constancy in the Protestant religion hath not only been assured to such who unjustly were jealous of him, but also, by God’s blessing, he daily grows greater in men’s hearts, pregnant with the love and affection of his subjects.
JOHN GERSON, the pious and learned
Chancellor of Paris, beholding and bemoaning the general corruption of his age,
in doctrine and manners, was wont to get a
choir of little children about him, and to entreat them to pray to God in his behalf.
Men now-a-days are so infected with malice,
that little children are the best chaplains to
pray for their parents. But O, where shall
I will make my address to the holy child Jesus, [
STRANGE was the behaviour of our Saviour toward his beloved Lazarus; informed
by a messenger of his sickness, he abode two days still in the place where he was.
[
England doth lie desperately sick of a violent
disease in the bowels thereof. Many messengers we despatch (monthly fasts, weekly sermons, daily prayers) to inform God of our sad
THE mariners that guided the ship in the
tempest,
Do any intend willingly (without special
cause) to leave the land, so to avoid that
misery which their sins, with others, have
drawn upon it; might I advise them, bettermourn in, than move out of sad Zion. Hang
out the scarlet lace at the casement [
SAUL, being in full pursuit of the flying
Philistines, made a law that no Israelite should eat until evening. [
Yea, mark the issue of their long fasting. The people at
night, coming with ravenous appetites, did eat the flesh with the blood, to the provoking of God’s anger.
[
Many English people, having conquered some fleshly lusts which fight against their souls, were still chasing them, in hope finally to subdue them. Was it a pious or a politic design to forbid such the receiving of the sacrament, their spiritual food?
I will not positively conclude that such, if suffered to strengthen themselves with that heavenly repast, had thereby been enabled more effectually to cut down their corruptions. Only two things I will desire.
First, that such Jonathans who, by breaking this custom, have found benefit to themselves, may not be condemned by others. Secondly, I shall pray that two hungry years make not the third a glutton. That communicants, two twelvemonths together forbidden the Lord’s Supper, come not (when admitted thereunto) with better stomach than heart, more greediness than preparation.
WHEN the Jewish Sabbath, in the primitive times, was newly changed into the Christian’s Lord’s day, many devout people twisted both together in their observation, abstaining from servile works, and keeping both Saturday and Sunday wholly for holy employments.
During these civil wars, Wednesday and Friday fasts have been appointed by different authorities. What harm had it been if they had been both generally observed.
But alas! when two messengers, being sent together on the same errand, fall out and fight by the way, will not the work be worse done than if none were employed? In such a pair of fasts it is to be feared that the divisions of our affections rather would increase than abate God’s anger against us.
Two negatives make an affirmative. Days of humiliation are appointed for men to deny themselves and their sinful lusts. But do not our two fasts more peremptorily affirm and avouch our mutual malice and hatred? God forgive us, we have cause enough to keep ten, but not care enough to keep one monthly day of humiliation.
SOME sixty years since, in the University of Cambridge, it was solemnly debated betwixt the heads, to debar young scholars of that liberty allowed them in Christmas, as inconsistent with the discipline of students. But some grave governors maintained the good use thereof, because thereby in twelve days they may more discover the dispositions of scholars than in twelve months before. That is a vigilant virtue indeed, which would be early up at prayers and study, when all authority to punish lay asleep.
Vice, these late years, hath kept open house in England. Welcome all comers without any examination. No penance for the adulterer, stocks for the drunkard, whip for the petty larcener, brand for the felon, gallows for the murderer.
God all this time tries us as he did Hezekiah, that he might know all that is in our
hearts. [
THERE is a disease of infants (and an infant disease, having scarcely as yet gotten a proper name in Latin) called the rickets; wherein the head waxeth too great, whilst the legs and lower parts wain too little. A woman in the west hath happily healed many, by cauterizing the vein behind the ear. How proper the remedy for the malady I engage not, experience ofttimes outdoing art, whilst we behold the cure easily effected, and the natural cause thereof hardly assigned.
Have not many now-a-days the same sickness in their souls? their heads swelling to a vast proportion, and they wonderfully enabled with knowledge to discourse? But, alas! how little their legs, poor their practice, and lazy their walking in a godly conversation! Shall I say that such may be cured by searing the vein in their head, not to hurt their hearing, but hinder the itching of their ears.
Indeed, his tongue deserves to be burnt that talks of searing the ears of others; for faith cometh by hearing. But I would have men not to hear few sermons, but hear more in hearing fewer sermons. Less preaching better heard (reader, lay the emphasis not on the word less, but on the word better) would make a wiser and stronger Christian, digesting the word from his heart to practise it in his conversation.
BY the Levitical law, the firstling of
every clean creature which opened
the matrix was holy to God. [
LONG have I searched the Scriptures to
find a positive precept enjoining, or precedent observing, daily prayer in a family; yet
hitherto have found none proper for my purpose. Indeed I read that there was a yearly sacrifice offered at Bethlehem for the family of
Jesse; [
But let not profaneness improve itself, or censure family prayer for will-worship, as wanting a warrant in God’s word. For where
God enjoineth a general duty, as to serve and fear him, there all particular
means (whereof prayer a principal) tending thereunto are commanded. And surely
the pious households of Abraham, [
SOME loving wife may perchance be (though not angry with) grieved at her husband for excluding her from his private prayers; thus thinking with herself, Must I be discommuned from my husband’s devotion? what, several closet-chapels for those of the same bed and board? Are not our credits embarked in the same bottom, so that they swim or sink together? May I not be admitted an auditor at his petitions, were it only to say Amen thereunto?
But let such a one seriously consider what
the prophet saith: The family of the house of
David apart, and their wives apart; the family
of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives
apart. [
Yet man and wife at other times ought to communicate in their prayers, all other excluded.
HOW comes it to pass that groans made in men by God’s spirit cannot be uttered? I find two reasons thereof. First, because those groans are so low and little, so faint, frail, and feeble, so next to nothing, these still-born babes only breathe without crying.
Secondly, because so much diversity, yea, contrariety of passion, is crowded within the compass of a groan, they are stayed from being expressive, and the groans become unutterable.
How happy is their condition who have God for their interpreter? who not only understands what they do, but what they would say. Daniel could tell the meaning of the dream which Nebuchadnezzar had forgotten. God knows the meaning of those groans which never as yet knew their own meaning, and understands the sense of those sighs which never understood themselves.
EJACULATIONS are short prayers darted
up to God on emergent occasions. If no
other artillery had been used these last seven
years in England, I will not affirm more souls
had been in heaven, but fewer corses had been
buried in earth. O that with David we might
have said, My heart is fixed, [
The principal use of ejaculations is against the
fiery darts of the Devil. [
EJACULATIONS take not up any room in the soul. They give liberty of callings, so that at the same instant one may follow his proper vocation. The husbandman may dart forth an ejaculation, and not make a balk the more. The seaman nevertheless steer his ship right in the darkest night. Yea, the soldier at the same time may shoot out his prayer to God, and aim his pistol at his enemy, the one better hitting the mark for the other.
The field wherein bees feed is no whit the barer for their biting; when they have taken their full repast on flowers or grass, the ox may feed, the sheep fat, on their reversions. The reason is because those little chemists distil only the refined part of the flower, leaving the grosser substance thereof. So ejaculations bind not men to any bodily observance, only busy the spiritual half, which maketh them consistent with the prosecution of any other employment.
IN extemporary prayer, what men most admire
God least regardeth. Namely, the volubility of the tongue. Herein a Tertullus may
equal, yea exceed, Saint Paul himself, whose
SOME lay it to the charge of extemporary
prayers, as if it were a diminution to God’s majesty to offer them unto him, because (alluding
to David’s expression to Oman the Jebusite) [
Surely preparation of the heart (though not
premeditation of every word) is required thereunto. And grant the party praying at that
very instant fore-studieth not every expression,
yet surely he hath formerly laboured with his
heart and tongue too, before he attained that
dexterity of utterance properly and readily
Suppose one should make an entertainment for strangers with flesh, fish, fowl, venison, fruit, all out of his own fold, field, ponds, park, orchard, will any say that this feast cost him nothing who made it? Surely, although all grew on the same, and for the present he bought nothing by the penny, yet he, or his ancestors for him, did at first dearly purchase these home accommodations, whence that this entertainment did arise.
So the party who hath attained the faculty and facility of extemporary prayer (the easy act of a laborious habit), though at the instant not appearing to take pains, hath been formerly industrious with himself, or his parents with him (in giving him pious education), or else he had never acquired so great perfection, seeing only long practice makes the pen of a ready writer.
DEATH in Scripture is compared to sleep.
Well then may my night prayer be resembled
But, being in perfect memory, I bequeath my
soul to God; the rather because I am sure
the Devil will accuse me when sleeping. O
the advantage of spirits above bodies! If our
clay cottage be not cooled with rest, the roof
falls afire. Satan hath no such need: the
night is his fittest time. [
Lest, therefore, whilst sleeping I be outlawed for want of appearance to Satan’s charge, I commit my cause to him who neither slumbers nor sleeps: Answer for me, O my God.
DAVID, surveying the firmament, brake forth into this
consideration: When I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers;
the moon and the stars, which thou hast created; what is man, &c. [
How cometh he to mention the moon and stars, and omit the sun? The other being but his pensioners, shining with that exhibition of light which the bounty of the sun allots them.
It is answered, This was David’s night meditation, when the sun, departing to the other world, left the lesser lights only visible in heaven; and as the sky is best beheld by day in the glory thereof, so it is best surveyed by night in the variety of the same.
Night was made for man to rest in. But when I cannot sleep, may I with this psalmist entertain my waking with good thoughts. Not to use them as opium, to invite my corrupt nature to slumber, but to bolt out bad thoughts, which otherwise would possess my soul.
SET prayers are prescript forms of our own or other’s composing; such are lawful for any, and needful for some to use.
Lawful for any. Otherwise God would not
have appointed the priest (presumed of themselves best able to pray) a form of blessing
the people; nor would our Saviour have set
us his prayer, which (as the town-bushel is
the standard both to measure corn and other
bushels by) is both a prayer in itself, and a
pattern or platform of prayer. Such as accuse set forms to be pinioning the wings of
the dove, will by the next return affirm, that
Needful for some. Namely, for such who as yet have not attained (what all should endeavour) to pray extempore by the spirit. But as little children, to whom the plainest and evenest room at first is a labyrinth, are so ambitious of going alone, that they scorn to take the guidance of a form or bench to direct them, but will adventure by themselves, though often to the cost of a knock and a fall. So many confess their weakness in denying to confess it, who, refusing to be beholden to a set form of prayer, prefer to say nonsense rather than nothing in their extempore expressions. More modesty, and no less piety, it had been for such men to have prayed longer with set forms, that they might pray better without them.
IT is no base and beggarly shift (arguing a narrow and
necessitous heart), but a piece of holy and heavenly thrift, often to use the
same prayer again. Christ’s practice is my directory herein, who the third time said the same words.
[
A good prayer is not like a stratagem in war, to be used but once. No, the oftener the better. The clothes of the Israelites, whilst they wandered forty years in the wilderness, never waxed old, as if made of perpetuano indeed. So a good prayer, though often used, is still fresh and fair in the ears and eyes of Heaven.
Despair not then, thou simple soul, who hast no exchange of raiment, whose prayers cannot appear every day at Heaven’s court in new clothes. Thou mayest be as good a subject, though not so great a gallant, coming always in the same suit. Yea, perchance the very same which was thy father’s and grandfather’s before thee, (a well-composed prayer is a good heir-loom in a family, and may hereditarily be descended to many generations,) but know thy comfort, thy prayer is well known to Heaven, to which it is a constant customer. Only add new, or new degrees of old affections thereunto, and it will be acceptable to God thus repaired, as if new erected.
MIXT prayers are a methodical composition (no casual confusion) of extempore
In the midland sea, galleys are found to be most useful, which partly run on the legs of oars, and partly fly with the wings of sails, whereby they become serviceable both in a wind and in a calm. Such the conveniency of mixt prayer, wherein infused and acquired graces meet together, and men partly move with the breath of the Holy Spirit, partly row on by their own industry. Such medley prayers are most useful, as having the steadiness of premeditate, and the activity of extemporary prayer joined together.
IT is no disgrace for such who have the
gift and grace of extemporary prayer sometimes to use a set form, for the benefit and
God would have created the world extempore, in a moment, but was pleased (as I may say) to make it premeditately, in a set method of six days, not for his own ease, but our instruction, that our heads and hearts might the better keep pace with his hands, to behold and consider his workmanship.
Let no man disdain to set his own nimbleness backward, that others may go along with him. Such degrading one’s self is the quickest proceeding in piety, when men prefer the edification of others before their own credit and esteem.
AMONGST other arguments enforcing the
necessity of daily prayer, this not the
least, that Christ enjoins us to petition for daily
bread. New bread we know is best; and in
a spiritual sense, our bread, though in itself
as stale and mouldy as that of the Gibeonites,
Manna must daily be gathered, and not provisionally be hoarded up. God expects that men every day address themselves unto him, by petitioning him for sustenance.
How contrary is this to the common practice of many. As camels in sandy countries are said to drink but once in seven days, and then in praesens, praeteritum, et futurum, for time past, present, and to come, so many fumble this, last, and next week’s devotion all in a prayer. Yea, some defer all their praying till the last day.
Constantine had a conceit, that because baptism washed away all sins, he would not be baptized till his death-bed, that so his soul might never lose the purity thereof, but immediately mount to heaven. But sudden death preventing him, he was not baptized at all, as some say, or only by an Arian bishop, as others affirm. If any erroneously, on the same supposition, put off their prayers to the last, let them take heed, lest long delayed, at last they prove either none at all or none in effect.
IN this age we begin to think meanly of the Lord’s prayer; O how basely may the Lord think of our prayers! Some will not forgive the Lord’s prayer for that passage therein, as we forgive them that trespass against us.
Others play the witches on this prayer. Witches are reported (amongst many other hellish observations, whereby they oblige themselves to Satan) to say the Lord’s prayer backwards. Are there not many, who, though they do not pronounce the syllables of the Lord’s prayer retrograde (their discretion will not suffer them to be betrayed to such a nonsense sin), yet they transpose it in effect, desiring their daily bread before God’s kingdom come, preferring temporal benefits before heavenly blessings. O, if every one by this mark should be tried for a witch, how hard would it go with all of us! Lamiarum plena sunt omnia.
AT the siege and taking of New Carthage in
Spain, there was a dissension betwixt the
soldiers, about the crown mural due to him who
first footed the walls of the city. Two pretended
to the crown: parts were taken, and the Roman
IT is an ancient stratagem of Satan, (yet still
he useth it, still men are cheated by it,) to set
God’s ordinance at variance, as the disciples fell
out amongst themselves, which of them should be
the greatest. How hath the reader’s pew been
clashed against the preacher’s pulpit, to the
shaking almost of the whole church, whether
that the word preached or read be most effectual
AMONGST all manner of prayer to God, I find in Scripture neither promise, precept, nor precedent to warrant prayers to saints. And were there no other reason, this would encourage me to pray to Christ alone, because
St. Paul struck Elimas blind; Christ made blind Bartimeus see. St. Peter killed Ananias and Sapphira with his word; Christ with his word revived dead Lazarus. The disciples forbade the Syrophoenician woman to call after Christ, Christ called unto her after they had forbidden her. All my Saviour’s works are saving works, none extending to the death of mankind.
Surely Christ, being now in heaven, hath not
I SAW two children fighting together in the street. The father of the one passing by, fetched his son away and corrected him; the . other lad was left without any check, though both were equally faulty in the fray. I was half offended, that being guilty alike, they were not punished alike: but the parent would only meddle with him over whom he had an undoubted dominion, to whom he bare an unfeigned affection.
The wicked sin, the godly smart most in this
world. God singleth out his own sons, and
beateth them by themselves; whom he loveth he chasteneth. [
HOW large houses do they build in London on little ground! Revenging themselves on the narrowness of their room with store of stories. Excellent arithmetic! from the root of one floor to multiply so many chambers. And though painful the climbing up, pleasant the staying there, the higher the healthfuller, with clearer light and sweeter air.
Small are my means on earth. May I mount
my soul the higher in heavenly meditations, relying on Divine Providence; He that fed many
thousands with five loaves, [
I SAW an indenture too fairly engrossed; for the writer (better scrivener than clerk) had so filled it with flourishes that it hindered my reading thereof; the wantonness of his pen made a new alphabet, and I was subject to mistake his dashes for real letters.
What damage hath unwary rhetoric done to religion! Many an innocent reader hath taken Damascene and Theophilact at their word, counting their eloquent hyperboles of Christ’s presence in the sacrament, the exact standards of their judgment, whence after ages brought in transubstantiation. Yea, from the Father’s elegant apostrophes to the dead (lively pictures by hasty eyes may be taken for living persons), prayers to saints took their original. I see that truth’s secretary must use a set hand in writing important points of divinity. Ill dancing for nimble wits on the precipices of dangerous doctrines. For though they escape by their agility, others (encouraged by their examples) may be brought to destruction.
I SAW one, whether out of haste or want of skill, put up his sword the wrong way; it cut even when it was sheathed, the edge being transposed where the back should have been; so that, perceiving his error, he was fain to draw it out, that he might put it up again.
Wearied and wasted with civil war, we that
formerly loathed the manna of peace, because
common, could now be content to feed on it,
though full of worms and putrefied: some so
V. APACE APACE.
ROWING on the Thames, the waterman confirmed me in what formerly I had learnt from the maps; how that river, westward, runs so crooked, as likely to lose itself in a labyrinth of its own making. From Reading to London by land, thirty; by water a hundred miles. So wantonly that stream disporteth itself, as if as yet unresolved whether to advance to the sea or retreat to its fountain.
But the same being past London, (as if sensible of its former laziness, and fearing to be
checked of the ocean, the mother of all rivers,
for so long loitering; or else, as if weary with
wandering, and loath to lose more way; or
Alas! how much of my life is lavished away?
O the intricacies, windings, wanderings, turnings, tergiversations, of my deceitful youth! I
have lived in the midst of a crooked generation, [
I HAVE wondered why the Romish Church
do not pray to Saint Abraham, Saint David,
Saint Hezekiah, &c., as well as to the apostles
and their successors since Christ’s time; for
those ancient patriarchs, by the confession of
But it seems that modern saints rob the old
ones of their honour; a Garnet, or late Bernard
of Paris, have severally more prayers made
unto them than many old saints have together.
New besoms sweep clean; new cisterns of fond
men’s own hewing most likely to hold water. [
Protestants, in some kind, serve their living ministers as Papists their dead saints. For aged pastors, who have borne the heat of the day in our Church, are justled out of respect by young preachers, not having half their age, nor a quarter of their learning and religion. Yet let not the former be disheartened, for thus it ever was and will be: English Athenians, all for novelties, new sects, new schisms, new doctrines, new disciplines, new prayers, new preachers.
CHURCH story reports of Saint John, that
being grown very aged (wellnigh a hundred years old), wanting strength and voice to
make a long sermon, he was wont to go up into
Our age may seem sufficiently to have provided against the growth of idolatry in England. O that some order were taken for the increase of charity! It were liberty enough, if for the next seven years all sermons were bound to keep residence on this text: Brethren, love one another.
But would not some fall out with themselves,
if appointed to preach unity to others? Vindictive spirits, if confined to this text, would
confine the text to their passion; by brethren
understanding only such of their own party.
But O! seeing other monopolies are dissolved,
let not this remain against the fundamental law
of charity. Let all bend their heads, hearts,
and hands, to make up the breaches in church
and state. But too many now-a-days are like
Pharaoh’s magicians, who could conjure up with their charms more new frogs,
[
I HEARD much of a sensible plant, and counted it a senseless relation (a rational beast, carrying as little contradiction), until, beholding it, mine eyes ushered my judgment into a belief thereof. My comprehension thereof is this. God having made three great stairs (vegetable, sensible, and reasonable creatures), that men thereby might climb up into the knowledge of a Deity, hath placed some things of a middle nature as half paces betwixt the stairs, so to make the step less, and the ascent more easy for our meditations.
Thus this active plant, with visible motion, doth border and confine on sensible creatures. Thus in Afric, some most agile and intelligent marmasites may seem to shake (forefeet shall I say, or) hands with the rudest savages of that country, as not much more than one remove from them in knowledge and civility.
But by the same proportion may not man, by
custom and improvement of piety, mount himself near to an angelical nature. Such was
Enoch, who, whilst living on earth, walked with
God. [
I READ how King Edward the First ingeniously surprised the Welsh into subjection, proffering them such a prince as should be,
1. The son of a king.
2. Born in their own country.
3. Whom none could tax for any fault.
The Welsh accepted the conditions, and the king tendered them his son Edward, an infant, newly born in the castle of Carnarvon.
Do not all these qualifications mystically centre themselves in my Saviour?
1. The King of heaven saith unto him, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee.
[
2. Our true countryman, real flesh, whereas he took not on him the nature of angels.
3. Without spot or blemish, like to us in all things, sin only excepted.
Away, then, with those wicked men who will
not have this King to rule over them. [
I FIND two sad etymologies of tribulation. One from tribulus, a three-forked thorn, which intimates that such afflictions, which are as full of pain and anguish unto the soul as a thorn thrust into a tender part of the flesh is unto the body, may properly be termed tribulations.
The other from tribulus, the head of a flail, or flagel, knaggy and knotty, (made commonly, as I take it, of a thick black thorn,) and then it imports, that afflictions falling upon us as heavy as the flail threshing the corn are styled tribulations.
I am in a strait which deduction to embrace,
from the sharp or from the heavy thorn. But,
which is the worst, though I may choose whence
to derive the word, I cannot choose so as to
decline the thing; I must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.
[
Therefore I will labour, not to be like a young colt, first set to plough, which more tires himself out with his own untowardness (whipping himself with his misspent mettle) than with the weight of what he draws: and will labour patiently to bear what is imposed upon me.
I SAW a cannon shot off. The men at whom it was levelled fell flat on the ground, and so escaped the bullet. Against such blows, falling is all the fencing, and prostration all the armour of proof.
But that which gave them notice to fall down, was their perceiving of the fire before the ordnance was discharged. O the mercy of that fire! which, as it were, repenting of the mischief it had done, and the murder it might make, ran a race, and outstript the bullet, that men (at the sight thereof) might be provided, when they could not resist, to prevent it. Thus every murdering piece is also a warning piece against itself.
God, in like manner, warns before he wounds; frights before he fights. Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be destroyed. O let us fall down before the Lord our maker; then shall his anger be pleased to make in us a daily passover, and his bullets, levelled at us, shall fly above us.
XII. THE FIRST-FRUITS.
PAPISTS observe (such are curious priers
into Protestants’ carriage) that charity in
England lay in a swoon from the dissolution of
As if in that age of ruin none durst raise religious buildings, and as if the axe and hammer, so long taught to beat down, had forgot their former use to build up for pious intents.
At last comes William Lambert,
I READ how one main argument which the
Apostle Paul enforceth on Timothy, to make
full proof of his ministry, is this: For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure
is at hand. [
How many excellent divines have these sad
times hastened to their long home [
I FIND the natural philosopher, making a
character of the lion’s disposition, amongst
other his qualities reporteth, that first the lion feedeth on men, and
afterwards, if forced with extremity of hunger, on women.
Satan is a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Only he inverts the method, and in his bill of fare takes the second course first. Ever since he over-tempted our grandmother Eve, encouraged with success, he hath preyed first on the weaker sex. It seems he hath all the vices, not the virtues, of that king of beasts; a wolf-lion, having his cruelty without his generosity.
I READ in a learned physician how our provident mother, Nature, foreseeing men (her
wanton children) would be tampering with
the edge-tools of minerals, hid them far from
them, in the bowels of the earth; whereas she
exposed plants and herbs more obvious to their
eye, as fitter for their use. But some bold
empirics, neglecting the latter as too common,
God, in the New Testament, hath placed all historical and practical matter (needful for Christians to know and believe) in the beginning of the Gospel. All such truths lie above ground, plainly visible in the literal sense. The prophetical and difficult part comes in the close. But though the Testament was written in Greek, too many read it like Hebrew, beginning at the end thereof. How many trouble themselves about the Revelation, who might be better busied in plain divinity! Safer prescribing to others, and practising in themselves, positive piety; leaving such mystical minerals to men of more judgment to prepare them.
XVI. MAD, NOT MAD.
I FIND St. Paul in the same chapter confess
and deny madness in himself.
There is a country in Africa,
I BEHELD a lapidary cutting a diamond with a diamond hammer and anvil, both of the same kind.
God in Scripture styled his servants his
jewels. [
In our unnatural war, none I hope so weak
and wilful as to deny many good men (though
MADAM,—
I HAD the happiness, some sixteen years since, to be minister of that parish wherein your Ladyship had your nativity, and this I humbly conceive doth afford me some title to dedicate my weak endeavours to your Honour.
It is notoriously known in our English Chronicles, that there was an ill May-day, Anno Dom. 1517, in the ninth year of King Henry the Eighth, wherein much mischief was done in London, the lives of many lost, and estates of more confounded.
This last good May-day hath made plentiful amends for that evil one, and hath laid a foundation for the happiness of an almost ruined church and state; which as under God it was effected by the prudence and valour of your noble and most renowned husband, so you are eminently known to have had a finger, yea, a hand, yea, an arm happily instrumental therein. God reward you with honour here, and glory hereafter, which is the desire of millions in the three nations, and amongst them of
Your Honour’s most humble Servant,
THOMAS FULLER.
Zion College, May 2, 1660.
I JUSTLY presume thee too much Christian and gentleman to trample on him who prostrates himself. I confess myself subject to just censure, that I have not severally sorted these contemplations, setting such which are, 1. Of Scripture; 2. Historical; 3. Occasional; 4. Personal; distinctly by themselves, which now are confusedly heaped, or rather huddled, together.
This I confess was caused by my haste, the press hourly craving, with the daughter of the horseleech, Give, give.
However, such a confused medley may pass for the lively emblem of these times, the subject of this our book. And when these times shall be reduced into better order, my book, at the next impression, may be digested into better method. Meantime I remain
Thy Servant in Christ Jesus,
THOMAS FULLER
WE read how at the rebuilding of
the walls of Jerusalem,
Surely those females did only repair by the proxy of their purses, in which sense Solomon is said to have built the temple.
Our weaker sex hath been overstrong in making and widening the breaches in our English Zion, both by their purses and persuasions. To redeem their credit, let them hereafter be as active in building as heretofore they were in breaking down.
Such wives, who not only lie in the bosoms,
but lodge in the affections, of loving husbands,
We read of Ahab,
WE read,
Some will say that the weight of heavy taxes
have caused this crookedness. But alas! this
is the least and lightest of all things I reflect at
in this allusion. It is chiefly the weight of our
A pitiful posture wherein the face is made to touch the feet, and the back is set above the head. God in due time set us right, and keep us right, that the head may be in its proper place. Next the neck of the nobility, then the breast of the gentry, the loins of the merchants and citizens, the thighs of the yeomanry, the legs and feet of artificers and day-laborers. As for the clergy (here by me purposely omitted) what place soever shall be assigned them; if low, God grant patience; if high, give humility unto them.
When thus our land in God’s leisure shall be restored to its former rectitude, and set upright again, then I hope she may leave off her steel bodies, which have galled her with wearing them so long, and return again to her peaceable condition.
IT is said,
But the answer is easy, seeing we read in the
same chapter,
Let such Englishmen who have been of the depressed party during our civil wars, enter into a scrutiny and serious search of their own souls, whether or no (if armed with power) they would not have laid as great load on others as themselves underwent. Yea, let them out of a godly jealousy suspect more cruelty in themselves than they can conceive. Then will they find just cause to take the blame and shame on themselves, and give God the glory that he hath not drowned all in a general deluge of destruction.
A LADY of quality, formerly forward to promote our civil wars, and whose well-intending zeal had sent in all her plate to Guildhall, was earnestly discoursing with a divine concerning these times, a little before dinner; her face respecting the cupboard in the room, which was furnished with plenty of pure Venice glasses: “Now,” said she, “I plainly perceive, that I and many of my judgment have been abused with the specious pretences of liberty and religion, till in the indiscreet pursuance thereof we are almost fallen into slavery and atheism.”
To whom the other, betwixt jest and earnest, replied: “Madam, it is no wonder that now your eyes are opened; for so long as this cupboard was full of thick and massy plate, you could perceive nothing through them; but now so many clear and transparent glasses are substituted in their room, all things are become obvious to your intuition.”
The possessing of superfluous wealth sometimes doth hinder our clear apprehensions of matters; like a pearl in the eye of the soul, prejudicing the sight thereof; whilst poverty may prove a good collyrium, or eye-salve unto us, to make a true discovery of those things we knew not before.
I BEHELD honour as of a mounting and aspiring nature, and therefore I expected, rationally enough as I conceive, to have found it ascending to the clouds.
I looked upon wealth as what was massy, ponderous, and by consequence probable to settle and be firmly fixed on the earth.
But oh! how much is my expectation frustrated and defeated! For David,
Our age hath afforded plentiful experiments of both: honour was near the dust, when a new nobility of a later stamp were in a fair likelihood to have outshined those of a purer standard. The wealth of the land doth begin (to use the falconer’s phrase), to fly to lessen. And if these taxes continue, will soon fly out of sight. So uncertain and unsafe it is for men to bottom their happiness on any earthly perfection.
I SAW a traveller in a terrible tempest take his seasonable shelter under a fair and thick tree: it afforded him protection for a good time, and secured him from the rain.
But, after that it held up, and was fair round about, he unhappily continued under the tree so long, till the droppings thereof made him soundly wet, and he found more to condemn his weakness than pity his wetting.
A Parliament is known to be the best refuge and sanctuary to shelter us from the tempest of violence and oppression. It is sometimes the sole, and always the surest, remedy in that kind. But alas! the late Parliament lasted so long, that it began to be the grievance of the nation, after that the most and best members thereof were violently excluded.
The remedy turned the malady of the land, and we were in fear to be drowned by the droppings of that tree, if God of his gracious goodness had not put an unexpected period to their power.
A LADY big with child was condemned to
perpetual imprisonment, and in the dungeon
Why, mother, (said the child,) do you complain, seeing you want nothing you can wish, having clothes, meat, and drink sufficient? Alas! child, (returned the mother,) I lack liberty, converse with Christians, the light of the sun, and many things more, which thou, being prison-born, neither art nor can be sensible of in thy condition.
The post-nati, understand thereby such striplings born in England since the death of monarchy therein, conceive this land, their mother, to be in a good estate. For one fruitful harvest followeth another, commodities are sold at reasonable rates, abundance of brave clothes are worn in the city, though not by such persons whose birth doth best become, but whose purses can best bestow them.
But their mother, England, doth justly bemoan
the sad difference betwixt her present and former condition, when she enjoyed full and free
trade without payment of taxes, save so small
they seemed rather an acknowledgment of their
allegiance than a burden to their estate; when
she had the court of a king, the House of Lords,
I SAW a servant maid, at the command of her mistress, make, kindle, and blow a fire. Which done, she was posted away about other business, whilst her mistress enjoyed the benefit of the fire. Yet I observed that this servant, whilst industriously employed in the kindling thereof, got a more general, kindly, and continuing heat than her mistress herself. Her heat was only by her, and not in her, staying with her no longer than she stayed by the chimney; whilst the warmth of the maid was inlaid, and equally diffused through the whole body.
An estate suddenly gotten is not so lasting to
the owner thereof, as what is duly got by industry.
The substance of the diligent, saith Solomon,
TWO captains on the same side in our civil wars, discoursing together, one of them (with small cause and without any measure) did intolerably boast of his personal performances, as if he had been of the quorum in all considerable actions; at last, not ashamed of, but weaned with his own loquacity, he desired the other captain to relate what service he had done in these wars; to whom he returned, “Other men can tell you of that.”
We meet with many, living at the sign of the Royalist, who much brag of their passive services (I mean their sufferings) in the late war. But that spoke in the wheel which creaketh most doth not bear the greatest burden in the cart. The loudest criers are not always the largest losers.
How much hath Sir John Stowel lost? How many new gentlemen have started up out of the estate of that ancient knight? What hath the Lord Craven lost? Whether more, or more unjustly, hard to decide? Others can tell of their and many other men’s sufferings, whilst they themselves hold their peace.
Here we dare not speak of him who, though
the greatest loser of all, speaketh nothing of himself; and therefore his silence putteth a greater
THIS seeming paradox will, on examination,
prove a real truth, viz. that though Job
lost his seven thousand sheep consumed by fire
of God,
For Job, in the vindication of his integrity,
(not to praise but purge himself,) doth relate,
how the loins of the poor blessed him, being
warmed with the fleece of his sheep (
Such as have been plundered of their estates in these wars may content and comfort themselves with this consideration, that so long as they enjoyed plenty they freely parted with a proportion thereof to the relief of the poor: what they gave, that they have; it still remaineth theirs, and is safely laid up for them in a place where rust and moth do not corrupt, nor thieves break through and steal.
THE Magdeburgenses, out of a spirit of opposition to the Papists, over-prizing the
person and actions of St. Peter, do, in my mind,
on the other side too much decry him, causelessly
cavilling at his words to our Saviour (
What, say they, had he left? He maketh as if he had left great matters, and a mighty estate; whereas this his all was not more than an old ship, some few rotten nets, and suchlike inconsiderable accommodations.
But Bellarmine (always ingenuous, sometimes satirical) payeth them home for their causeless exception against that Apostle: What! saith he, would they have him have left more than he had? All was all, how little soever it was.
Different, I confess, is the standard and measure of men’s losses in this time. Some, in
preserving of their consciences, have lost manners; others farms, others cottages. Some
have had a hin, others a homer, others an ephah of afflictions. However, those men must
on all hands be allowed the greatest losers who
have lost all (how small soever that their all
was), and who, with the widow (
I WAS present in the West country some twenty-five years since, when a bishop made a partage of money collected by a brief amongst such who in a village had been sufferers by a casual fire; one of whom brought in the inventory of his losses far above all belief.
Being demanded how he could make out his losses to so improbable a proportion, he alleged the burning of a pear-tree growing hard by his house, valuing the same at twenty years’ purchase, and the pears at twenty shillings per annum, presuming every one would be a bearing year; and by such windy particulars did blow up his losses to the sum by him nominated.
Some pretend in these wars to have lost more thousands than ever they were possessed of hundreds. These reckon in, not only what they had, but what they might, yea, would have had. They compute not only their possessions, but reversions, yea, their probabilities, possibilities, and impossibilities also, which they might desire, but could never hope to obtain.
The worst is, I might term many of these
men anti-Mephibosheths, who, out of his loyalty
to David,
TWO young gentlemen were comparing their revenues together, vying which of them were the best. My demesnes, saith the one, is worth two, but mine, saith the other, is worth four hundred pounds a year.
My farms, saith the one, are worth four, but mine, saith the other, are worth eight hundred pounds a year.
My estate, saith the one, is my own, to which the other returned no answer, as conscious to himself that he kept what lawfully belonged to another.
I care not how small my means be, so they be my means: I mean my own without any injury to others. What is truly gotten may be comfortably kept. What is otherwise may be possessed, but not enjoyed.
Upon the question, What is the worst bread
which is eaten? One answered, in respect of
the coarseness thereof, Bread made of beans.
A GRAVE divine in the West country, (familiarly known unto me,) conceiving himself over-taxed, repaired to one of the governors of the king’s garrisons for to move for some mitigation.
The governor perceiving the satin cap of this divine to be torn, Fie, fie, said he, that a man of your quality should wear such a cap; the rats have gnawed it. O no, sir, answered he, the rates have gnawed it.
The print or impression of the teeth of taxes
is visible in the clothes of many men, yea, it
hath corroded holes in many men’s estates.
Yea, as Hatto, Archbishop of Mentz, is reported to have been eaten up by rats,
However, let us not in the least degree now
grudge the payment thereof. Let us now pay
taxes that we may never pay taxes; for, as
I care not how much I am let blood, so it be not by the adventure of an empiric, but advice of a physician, who I am sure will take no more ounces from me than may consist with my safety, and need doth require. Such the piety and policy of the present Parliament, they will impose no more payments than the necessity of the estate doth extort. The rather because they are persons (blessed be God) of the primest quality in the nation, and let us blood through their own veins, the greatest part of the payments they impose lighting first on their own estates.
I HAVE known the city of London almost forty years, their shops did ever sing the same tune, that trading was dead. Even in the reign of King James (when they wanted nothing but thankfulness) this was their complaint.
It is just with God, that they who complained without cause should have just cause to
complain. Trading, which then was quick, and
Yet I know not whether to call this decay of trade in London a mishap or a happy miss. Probably the city, if not pinched with poverty, had never regained her wealth.
I MEET with two etymologies of bonfires. Some deduce it from fires made of bones, relating it to the burning of martyrs, first fashionable in England in the reign of King Henry the Fourth. But others derive the word (more truly in my mind) from boon, that is, good, and fires; whether good be taken here for great, or for merry and cheerful, such fires being always made on welcome occasions.
Such an occasion happened at London last February, 1659. I confess the 11th of March is generally beheld as the first day of the spring, but hereafter London (and in it all England) may date its vernal heat (after a long winter of woes and war) from the 11th of February.
On which day so many boon-fires (the best new lights I ever
saw in that city) were made;
The best is, such fires were rather prophetical than historical, not so much telling as foretelling the condition of that city and our nation, which, by God’s gracious goodness, is daily bettered and improved.
But O the excellent boon-fire which the converted Ephesians made,
What was a pint of ashes worth, according to that proportion. But oh! in the imitation of the Ephesians, let us Englishmen labor to find out our bosom sin, and burn it (how dear soever unto us) in the flames of holy anger and indignation. Such boon-fires would be most profitable to us, and acceptable to God, inviting him to perfect and complete the good which he had begun to our nation.
A GENTLEWOMAN some sixty years
since came to Winchester school, where
she had a son, and where Dr. Love (one eminent
Alas! he was only Love in his surname; but
what saith the Apostle,
What then, though the wicked be not only a
rod in the hand of God, but what is worse, a
sword,
A pregnant experiment hereof we have in (the, call it, rod or sword of) our late civil war, which lasted so long in our land, yet left so little signs behind it. Such who consider how much was destroyed in the war may justly wonder that any provision was left, whilst such who behold the plenty we have left will more admire that any was ever destroyed.
WE read,
How cometh this transposition? tell and hear; it should be hear and tell; they must hear it before they could tell it; and in the very method of nature, those that are deaf are dumb.
But know, it is more than probable that many Athenians told what they never heard, being themselves the first finders, founders, and forgers of false reports, therewith merely to entertain the itching curiosity of others.
England aboundeth with many such Athenians; it is hard to say whether more false coin or false news be minted in our days. One side is not more pleased with their own factions than the other is with their own fictions.
Some pretend to intelligence without understanding, whose relations are their own confutations. I know some who repair to such novelants on purpose to know what news is false by their reporting thereof.
THE Archbishop of Spalatro, when Dean
of Windsor, very affectionately moved
the prebendaries thereof to contribute bountifully towards the relieving of a distressed foreigner,
The Episcopal party doth desire and expect that the Presbyterian should remit of his rigidness in order to an expedient betwixt them. The Presbyterians require that the Episcopal side abate of their austerity to advance an accommodation .
But some on both sides are so wedded to their wilfulness, stand so stiff in their judgments, are so high and hot in their passions, they will not part with the least punctilio in their opinions and practices.
Such men’s judgments cannot pretend to the
exactness of the Gibeonites,
O that we could see some proffers and performances of condescension on either side, and
then let others who remain obstinate, and will
IN my father’s time, there was a fellow of
Trinity College, Cambridge, a native of Carlton, in Leicestershire,
Our English pulpits, for these last eighteen
years, have had in them too much caninal
anger, vented by snapping and snarling spirits
on both sides. But if you bite and devour one
another, (saith the Apostle,
Think not that our sermons must be silent if
not satirical, as if divinity did not afford smooth
subjects enough to be seasonably insisted on in
this juncture of time; let us try our skill
whether we cannot preach without any dog letter
I am sure that such soft sermons will be more easy for the tongue of the preacher in pronouncing them, less grating to the ears of pious people that hear them, and more edifying to the heart of both speaker and hearers of them.
WE read how Abraham (
England hath but one Isaac, or legitimate religion of the Church, namely, the Protestant, as the doctrine thereof is established in the Thirty-nine Articles. But how many spurious ones she hath (whether six, sixty, or six score) I neither do know nor will inquire, nor will I load my book and trouble the reader with their new, numerous, and hard names.
O may the state be pleased so far to reflect on this Isaac, as to settle the solid inheritance upon him! Let the Protestant religion only be countenanced by the law, be owned and acknowledged for the received religion of the nation.
As for other sects (the sons of Keturali), we grudge not that gifts be bestowed upon them. Let them have a toleration (and that I assure you is a great gift indeed) and be permitted peaceably and privately to enjoy their consciences both in opinions and practices. Such favour may safely (not to say ought justly to) be afforded unto them so long as they continue peaceably in our Israel, and disturb not the estate.
This gift granted unto them, they need not to be sent away into the east or any other country. If they dislike their condition, they will either leave the land, and go over seas of their own accord, or else (which is rather to be desired and hoped for) they will blush themselves out of their former follies, and by degrees cordially reconcile themselves to the Church of England.
WE read, (
But this motion (and all that follow) I humbly lay down at their feet who have power and place to reform, who may either trample upon it or take it up, as their wisdoms shall see just occasion.
IT was wisely requested by the children of the
captivity,
Let such new practices as are to be brought into our Church be for a time candidates and probationers on their good behaviour, to see how the temper of the people will fit them, and they fadge with it, before they be publicly enjoined.
Let them be like St. Paul’s deacons,
I OBSERVE in Scripture, that power to do some deeds is a sufficient authority to do them. Thus Samson’s power to pluck down the two fundamental pillars of the Dagon’s temple, was authority enough for him to do it.
Elijah’s power to make fire to come at his call on the two captains was authority enough to do it, because such deeds were above the strength, stature, and standard of human proportion.
However, hence it doth not follow that it is
lawful for a private man with axes and hammers
to beat down a Christian church, because Samson
plucked down Dagon’s temple; nor doth it follow that men may burn their brethren with
fagot and fire, because Elijah called for fire from
heaven; these being acts not miraculous but
mischievous, and no might from heaven, but
Here it is hard to say which of these two things have done most mischief in England; public persons having private souls and narrow hearts consulting their own ease and advantage, or private persons having vast designs to invade public employments. This is most sure, that betwixt them both they have almost undone the most flourishing church and state in the Christian world.
HOW bluntly and abruptly doth the
Truly is a term of continuation, not inception of a speech. The head or top of this psalm seems lost or cut off, and the neck only remaining; in the room thereof.
But know that this psalm hath two moieties; one unwritten, made only in the trying-house of David’s heart: the other written, visible on the theatre, beginning as is aforesaid.
Thomas Aquinas, sitting silent in a musing
posture, at the table of the king of France, at
last brake forth in these words: Conclusum est
contra Manichaeos, It is concluded against the
David, newly awaking in this psalm out of the sweet slumber of his meditation, openeth his eyes with the good handsel of these words: Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart. A maxim of undoubted truth, and a firm anchor to those who have been tossed in the tempest of these times.
CHESHIRE hath formerly been called chief of men. Indeed, no county in England of the same greatness, or (if you will rather) of the same littleness, can produce so many families of ancient gentry.
Now let it break the stomachs, but not the hearts, abate the pride, not destroy the courage, of the inhabitants of this shire, that they miscarried in their late undertakings, not so much by any defect in them as default in others.
If ten men together be to lift a log, all must jointly συνάντιλαμβάνειν, that is, heave up their parts (or rather their counterparts) together.
But if nine of them fail, it is not only uncivil, but unjust that one man should be expected to be a giant to do ten men’s work.
Cheshire is Cheshire (and so I hope will ever be), but it is not all England; and valour itself may be pressed down to death under the weight of multitude.
The Lord Bacon would have rewards given to those men who, in the quest of natural experiments, make probable mistakes,
On the same account let Cheshire have a reward of honour, the whole kingdom faring the better for this county’s faring the worse.
I MUST confess myself born in Northamptonshire, and if that worthy county esteem me no disgrace to it, I esteem it an honour to me. The English of the common people therein (lying in the very heart of the land) is generally very good.
And yet they have an odd phrase not so usual in other places.
They used to say, when at cudgel plays (such
The relics and stump (my pen dares write no worse) of the Long Parliament pretended they would settle the church and state; but surely had they continued, it had been done in the dialect of Northamptonshire; they would so have settled us, we should neither have known how to have stood, or on which side to have fallen.
WHEN the famine in Egypt had lasted so
long, the estates of the people were so
exhausted by buying corn of the king, that,
their money failing, they were forced to sell
their cattle unto Joseph,
But the famine lasting longer, and their stock
of cattle being wholly spent, they then sold all
their lands, and after that their persons, to Joseph, as agent for Pharaoh, so that the king of
Egypt became proprietary of the bodies of all
the people in his land,
If our taxes had continued longer, they could not have continued longer. I mean, the nation was so impoverished, that the money (so much was hoarded up, or transported by military grandees) could not have been paid in specie.
Indeed, we began the war with brazen trumpets and silver money, and then came unto silver trumpets and brazen money, especially in our Parliament half-crowns.
We must afterwards have sold our stocks of cattle, and then our lands, to have been able to perform payments. This done, it is too, too suspicious; they would have seized on our persons too, and have envassalled us forever unto them.
But, blessed be God, they are stricken upon
the cheek-bone,
BUT where is the Papist all this while?
One may make hue and cry after him.
He can as soon not be, as not be active. Alas!
with the maid in the Gospel, he is not dead, but
sleepeth; or rather, he sleepeth not, but only
shutteth his eyes in dog-sleep, and doth awake
Where is the Papist? do any say? Yea, where is he not? They multiply as maggots in May, and act in and under the fanatics. What is faced with faction is lined with Popery; Faux’s dark lantern, by a strange inversion, is under our new lights.
Quakers of themselves are a company of dull, blunt, silly souls. But they go down to the Romish Philistines, and from them they whet all the edge-tools of their arguments: a formal syllogism in the mouth of an Anabaptist is plain Jesuitical equivocation.
Meantime we Protestant ministers fish all night and catch nothing; yea, lose many, who in these times fall from our Church as leaves in autumn. God in his due time send us a seasonable spring, that we may repair our losses again.
I KNOW not what Fifth-Monarchy men would have, and wish that they knew themselves.
I dare not flatly condemn them, lest I come
within the Apostle’s reproof,
But some go farther, to expect an actual and personal reign of Christ on earth a thousand years, though not agreeing.
For herein since some make him but about to set forth, others to be well onwards of his way, others to be alighting in the court, others to stand before the door, others that he is entering the palace, according to the slowness or swiftness of their several fancies herein.
However, if this be but a bare speculation, and advanceth not any farther, let them peaceably enjoy it. But if it hath a dangerous influence on men’s practices to unhinge their allegiance, and if the pretence to wait for Christ in his person be an intent to slight him in his proxy (the magistrate), we do condemn their opinion as false, and detest it as damnable, leaving their persons to be ordered by the wisdoms of those in authority.
WHEN King Edward the First marched into Scotland, the men of the bishopric of Durham refused to follow his standard, pleading for themselves, that they were holy-work folk, only to wait on the shrine of St. Cuthbert, and not to go out of their own country. But that wise and valiant prince cancelled their pretended privileges.
He levelled them with the rest of his subjects for civil and military as well as holy-work folk, and made them to march with his army against his enemies.
If Fifth-Monarchy (alias first-anarchy) men challenge to themselves, that (by virtue of their opinion they hold) they must be exempted from their obedience to the government, because they, forsooth, (as the lifeguard to his person,) must attend the coming of Christ to reign on earth: such is the wisdom of the state, it will make them know they must share in subjection with the rest of our nation.
But charity doth command me to believe
that, in stating their opinions, Fifth-Monarchy
men’s expressions are more offensive than their
intentions, mouths worse than their minds,
whose brains want strength to manage their
own wild notions: and God grant their arms
SOME of those whom they call Quakers are, to give them their due, very good moral men, and exactly just in their civil transactions. In proof whereof let me mention this passage, though chiefly I confess for the application thereof, which having done me (I praise God) some good, I am confident will do no hurt to any other.
A gentleman had two tenants, whereof one, being a Quaker, repaired to his landlord on the quarter-day: Here, thou, said he, tell out and take thy rent, without stirring his cap, or showing the least sign of respect.
The other came cringing and congeling: If it please your worship, said he, the times are very hard, and trading is dead, I have brought to your worship five pounds (the whole due being twenty) and shall procure the rest for your worship with all possible speed.
Both these tenants put together would make
a perfect one, the rent-completing of the one,
and tongue-compliments of the other. But
seeing they were divided, I am persuaded that
of the two the landlord was less offended with
God expecteth and requireth both good works and good words. We cannot make our addresses and applications unto him in our prayers with too much awe and reverence.
However, such who court God with luscious language, give him all his attributes, and (as King James said of a divine, who shall be nameless) compliment with God in the pulpit, will be no whit acceptable unto him, if they do not also endeavour to keep his commandments.
It is the due paying of God’s quit-rents which he expecteth; I mean, the realizing of our gratitude unto him for his many mercies, in leading the remainder of our lives according to his will and his word.
ONCE a gaoler demanded of a prisoner
newly committed unto him, whether or
no he were a Roman Catholic. No, answered
he. What then, said he, are you an Anabaptist? Neither, replied the prisoner. What,
said the other, are you a Brownist, or a
Quaker? Nor so, said the man, I am a Protestant, without wealth or gard, or any addition,
This is the misery of moderation; I recall my word (seeing misery properly must have sin in it). This is an affliction attending moderate men, that they have not an active party to side with them and favour them.
Men of great stature will quickly be made
porters to a king, and those diminutively little,
dwarfs to a queen, whilst such who are of a
middle height may get themselves masters
where they can. The moderate man, eminent
for no excess or extravagancy in his judgment,
will have few patrons to protect, or persons to
adhere unto him. But what saith St. Paul,
IN these licentious times, wherein religion lay
in a swoon, and many pretended ministers
(minions of the times) committed or omitted in
Hereupon one in jest-earnest said, that formerly they put down bishops and deans, and now they had put down chapters too. It is high time that this fault be reformed for the future, that God’s word, which is all gold, be not justled out to make room for men’s sermons, which are but parcel-gilt at the best.
WHEN St. Paul was at Athens,
Some will say, Why was there no mention here of the Peripatetics and Academics, both notable sects of philosophers, and then numerous in the city of Athens?
The answer is this: These being persons
acted with more moderate principles, were contented to be silent, though not concurring in
their judgments; whilst the Epicureans and
Peace in our land, like St. Paul, is now likely to be encountered with two opposite parties, such as are for the liberty of a commonwealth, and such as are for an absolute monarchy in the full height thereof; but I hope neither of both are so considerable in their number, parts, and influence on the people, but that the moderate party, advocates for peace, will prevail for the settling thereof.
IN the year of our Lord 1606, there happened a sad overflowing of the Severn Sea, on both sides thereof, which some still alive do (one I hope thankfully) remember.
An account hereof was written to John Stow, the industrious chronicler, from Dr. Still, then Bishop of Bath and Wells, and three other gentlemen of credit, to insert it in his story; one passage wherein I cannot omit:—
Stow’s Chronicle, p. 889. “Among other
things of note, it happened that, upon the tops
of some hills, divers beasts of contrary nature had got up for their safety, as dogs, cats,
foxes, hares, conies, moles, mice, and rats, who
How much of man was there then in brute
creatures? How much of brutishness is there
now in men? Is this a time for those who are
sinking for the same cause to quarrel and fall
out? I dare add no more but the words of the
Apostle,
I SAW two ride a race for a silver cup; he who won it outran the post many paces: indeed, he could not stop his horse in his full career, and therefore was fain to run beyond the post, or else he had never come soon enough unto it.
But presently after when he had won the wager, he reined his horse back again, and softly returned to the post, where from the judges of the match he received the cup, the reward of his victory.
Surely many moderate men designed a good
mark to themselves, and propounded pious
ends and aims in their intentions. But query
whether, in pursuance thereof, in our late civil
destruction, they were not violented to outrun
If so, it is neither sin nor shame, but honourable and profitable, for such persons (sensible of their over-activity) even fairly to go back to the post which they have outrun, and now calmly to demonstrate to the whole world that this only is the true and full measure of their judgments, whilst the rest was but the superfluity of their passions.
I SAW a mother threatening to beat her little child for not rightly pronouncing that petition in the Lord’s prayer: And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us. The child essayed and offered as well as it could to utter it, adventuring at tepasses, trepasses, but could not pronounce the word aright. Alas! it is a shibboleth to a child’s tongue, wherein there is a confluence of hard consonants together; and therefore if the mother had beaten defect in the infant for default, she deserved to have been beaten herself.
The rather because what the child could not
pronounce the parents do not practise. O how
IT passeth for a general report of what was customary in former times, that the sheriff of the county used to present the judge with a pair of white gloves at those which we call maiden assizes, viz. when no malefactor is put to death therein; a great rarity (though usual in small) in large and populous countries.
England, a spacious country, is full of numerous factions in these distracted times. It is above belief, and will hardly find credit with posterity, that a general peace can be settled in our nation without effusion of blood.
But if we should be blessed with a dry peace, without one drop of blood therein, O let the white gloves of honour and glory be in the first place presented to the God of heaven, the principal giver; and a second white pair of gratitude be given to our general, the instrumental procurer thereof.
ALL devils are not equally easy to be ejected out of possessed people; some are of a more sullen, sturdy, stubborn nature, good (or rather bad) at holdfast, and hard to be cast out.
In like manner all bosom sins are not conquered with facility alike, and these three are of the greatest difficulty:—
1. Constitutionary sins, riveted in our tempers and complexions.
2. Customary sins, habited in us by practice and presumption.
3. Such sins to the repentance whereof restitution is required.
Oh! when a man hath not only devoured
widows’ houses,
Yet even this devil may be cast out with fasting and prayer,
WHEN Job began to set up the second time, he built his recruited estate upon three bottoms:—
1. God’s blessing.
2. His own industry.
3. His friends’ charity.
When our patient Job, plundered of all he had, shall return again, certainly his loyal subjects will offer presents unto him (though they, alas! who love him best can give him least). Surely all is not given away in making the golden calf, but that there is some left for the business of the tabernacle.
But surely those have cause to be most bountiful, who may truly say to him what David said
humbly to the God of heaven,
ISAAC, ignorantly going along to be offered,
propounded to his father a very hard question,
Abraham returned, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt-offering.
But was not this gratis dictum of Abraham? Did not he herein speak without book? Where and when did God give him a promise to provide him a lamb?
Indeed, he had no particular promise as to this
present point, but he had a general one,
It hath kept many an honest soul in these
sad times from sinking into despair, that though
they had no express in Scripture that they
should be freed from the particular miseries
relating to this war, yet they had God’s grand
charter for it,
I LOOKED upon the wrong or back side of a piece of arras: it seemed to me as a continued nonsense, there was neither head nor foot therein; confusion itself had as much method in it: a company of thrums and threads, with many pieces and patches of several sorts, sizes, and colours, all which signified nothing to my understanding.
But then looking on the reverse or right side thereof, all put together did spell excellent proportions and figures of men and cities. So that indeed it was a history, not wrote with a pen, but wrought with a needle.
If men look upon our late times with a mere eye of reason, they will hardly find any sense therein, such their huddle and disorder. But, alas! the wrong side is objected to our eyes, whilst the right side is presented to the high God of heaven, who knoweth that an admirable order doth result out of this confusion, and what is presented to him at present may hereafter be so showed to us as to convince our judgments in the truth thereof.
WE read,
Profaneness is a strange logician, which can collect and infer the same conclusion from contrary premises. Libertines here in England, because they have had so many changes, therefore they fear not God.
Jacob taxed Laban,
But it is a sad truth, that as King Mithridates is said to have fed on poison so long, that at last it became ordinary food to his body; so the multitude of changes have proved no change in many men’s apprehensions, being so common and ordinary it hath made no effectual impression on their spirits. Yea, which is worse, they (as if all things came by casualty) fear God the less for these alterations.
I MUST confess myself to be (what I ever
was) for a commonwealth: but give me
A commonwealth and a king are no more contrary than the trunk or body of a tree and the top branch thereof; there is a republic included in every monarchy.
The Apostle speaketh of some Ephesians, in
the
May I live (if it may stand with God’s good will and pleasure) to see England a commonwealth in such a posture, and it will be a joyful object to all who are peaceable in our nation.
I OBSERVE that the mountains now extant do fall under a double consideration.
Those by creation, and those by inundation.
The former were of God’s making, primitive mountains; when at the first his wisdom did here sink a vale, there swell a hill, so to render the prospect of the earth the more grateful by the alternate variety thereof.
The second by inundation were such as owe
For such mountains of God’s making, who either by their birth succeed to estates, or have acquired them by God’s blessing on their lawful industry, good success may they have with their wealth and honour. And yet let not them be too proud, and think, with David, that God hath made their mountain so strong it cannot be moved; but know themselves subject to the earthquakes of mutability as well as others.
As for the many mountains of our age, grandized by the unlawful ruin of others, swoln to a tympany by the consumption of their betters; I wish them just as much joy with their greatness as they have right unto it.
A WAGGISH scholar (to say no worse),
standing behind the back of his tutor,
conceived himself secured from his sight, and
on this confidence he presumed to make antic
mocks and mouths at him. Meantime his tutor
had a looking-glass (unknown to the scholar)
before his face, wherein he saw all which his
Many things have been done in huggermugger in our age, profane persons conceited that their privacy protected them from Divine inspection. Some say with the wicked in the psalm, Tush, shall the Lord see?
But know that,
GOD hath two grand attributes, first, optimus, that he is the best of beings.
Secondly, maximus, that he is the greatest of
essences. It may justly seem strange that all
men naturally are ambitious, with the Apostles,
But as for his goodness, they give it a go-by, no whit endeavouring the imitation thereof;
This is a fruit of Adam’s fall, and floweth from original corruption. Oh! for the future let us change this our ambition into holy emulation, and fairly run a race of grace, who shall outstrip others in goodness.
In which race strive lawfully to gain the victory, supplant not those that run before thee, justle not those who are even with thee, hinder not those who come behind thee.
WHAT may be the cause why so much cloth so soon changeth colour? It is because it was never wet wadded, which giveth the fixation to a colour, and setteth it in the cloth.
What may be the reason why so many now-a-days are carried about with every wind of doctrine, even to scour every point in the compass round about? Surely it is because they were never well catechised in the principles of religion.
O for the ancient and primitive ordinance of
catechising! every youth can preach, but he
Indeed, sermons are like whole joints for men to manage, but catechising is mincemeat, shred into questions and answers, (fit for children to eat, and easy for them to digest,) whilst the minister may also, for the edification of those of riper years, enlarge and dilate himself on both as he seeth just occasion.
THERE is a new word coined, within few months, called fanatics, which, by the close stickling thereof, seemeth well cut out and proportioned to signify what is meant thereby, even the sectaries of our age.
Some (most forcedly) will have it Hebrew,
derived from the word to see or face one,
Juv. Sat. 4.
Hor. in Poet.
It will be said we have already (more than a good) many nicknames of parties, which doth but inflame the difference, and make the breach the wider betwixt us. It is confessed; but withal it is promised, that when they withdraw the thing we will subtract the name. Let them leave off their wild fancies, inconsistent with Scripture, antiquity, and reason itself, and then we will endeavour to bury the fanatic, and all other names, in perpetual oblivion.
A DEAR friend of mine (now I hope with God) was much troubled with an impertinent and importunate fellow, desirous to tell him his fortune. For things to come, said my friend, I desire not to know them, but am contented to attend Divine Providence; tell me, if you can, some remarkable passages of my life past. But the cunning man was nothing for the preter tense (where his falsehood might be discovered), but all for the future, counting himself therein without the reach of confutation.
There are in our age a generation of people,
who are the best of prophets and worst of historians; Daniel and the Revelation are as easy to
them as the ten commandments and the Lord’s prayer: they pretend exactly to know the time
of Christ’s actual reign on earth, of the ruin of
But these oracles are struck quite dumb, if demanded anything concerning the time past; about the coming of the children of Israel out of Egypt and Babylon, the original increase and ruin of the four monarchies; of these and the like they can give no more account than the child in the cradle. They are all for things to come, but have gotten (through a great cold of ignorance) such a crick in their neck, they cannot look backward on what was behind them.
A HUSBANDMAN, anabaptistically inclined, in a pleasant humour came to his
minister, and told him, with much cheerfulness,
that this very seeds-time the words of the Apostle,
Being desired farther to explain himself; I mean, said he, we husbandmen now plough in hope that at harvest we shall never pay tithes, but be eased from that Antichristian yoke for the time to come. It seemeth he had received such intelligence from some of his own party, who reported what they desired.
He might plough in hope to reach his nine
parts, but in despair to have the tenth; especially
since God hath blessed us with so wise a Parliament, consisting not only of men chosen, but of
persons truly the choice of the nation, who will
be as, if not more, tender of the Church’s right
than their own interest. They have read how
Pharaoh, king of Egypt,
AMBITIOUS Absalom endeavoured to bring
a scandal on his father’s government,
complaining, the petitioners who repaired to his
court for justice were slighted and neglected.
But we know the English proverb, Ill-will never speaketh well. Let us do that justice to David, yea, to our own judgments, not to believe a graceless son and subject, against a gracious father and sovereign.
Some malecontents (Ishmaels, whose swords are against every one) seek to bring a false report on the Parliament, as if the clergy must expect no favour, not to say justice, from them, because there are none in the house elected and deputed either to speak for them or hear them speak for themselves.
Time was, say they, when the clergy was represented in the House of Lords by two archbishops and four-and-twenty bishops. Time was, when the clergy had their own convocation, granting subsidies for them, so that their purses were only opened by the hands of their own proxies; but now, though our matters be good and right, there is no man deputed to hear us.
I am, and ever will be, deaf to such false and scandalous suggestions; if there be four hundred and odd (because variously reckoned up) in the House of Parliament, I am confident we clergymen have four hundred and odd advocates for us therein. What civil Christian would not plead for a dumb man? Seeing the clergy hath lately lost their voice they so long had in Parliaments; honour and honesty will engage those pious persons therein to plead for our just concernments.
I MEET not, either in sacred or profane writ,
with so terrible a rout as Saul gave unto the
host of the Ammonites, under Nahash their
king,
Suppose ten men, out of pretended purity, but real pride and peevishness, make a wilful separation from the Church of England, possibly they may continue some competent time in tolerable unity together.
Afterwards, upon a new discovery of a higher and holier way of divine service, these ten will split asunder into five and five, and the purer moiety divide from the other, as more drossy and feculent.
Then the five in process of time, upon the like occasion of clearer illumination, will cleave themselves into three and two.
Some short time after, the three will crumble into two and one, and the two part into one and one, till they come into the condition of the Ammonites, so scattered that two of them were not left together.
I am sad, that I may add with too much
DIVINE Providence is remarkable in ordering, that a fog and a tempest never did, nor can, meet together in nature. For as soon as a fog is fixed, the tempest is allayed; and as soon as a tempest doth arise, the fog is dispersed. This is a great mercy; for otherwise such small vessels as boats and barges, which want the conduct of the card and compass, would irrecoverably be lost.
How sad, then, is the condition of many sectaries in our age; which in the same instant have a fog of ignorance in their judgments, and a tempest of violence in their affections, being too blind to go right, and yet too active to stand still.
HYPOCRITE, in the native etymology of the word, as it is used by ancient Greek authors, signifieth such a one, qui alienae personae in comoedia aut tragoedia est effector et repraesentator, who in comedy or tragedy doth feign and represent the person of another; in plain English, hypocrite is neither more nor less than a stage-player.
We all know that stage-players some years since were put down by public authority; and though something may be said for them, more may be brought against them, who are rather in an employment than a vocation.
But let me safely utter my too just fears; I suspect the fire was quenched in the chimney, and in another respect scattered about the house. Never more strange stage-players than now, who wear the vizards of piety and holiness, that under that covert they may more securely commit sacrilege, oppression, and what not.
In the days of Queen Elizabeth, a person of
honour or worship would as patiently have digested the lie as to have been told that they
did wear false pendants, or any counterfeit
pearl or jewels about them, so usual in our age;
yet would it were the worst piece of hypocrisy
I WAS lately satisfied in what I heard of before, by the confession of an excellent artist, (the most skilful in any kind are most willing to acknowledge their ignorance,) that the mystery of annealing of glass, that is, baking it so that the colour may go clean through it, is now by some casualty quite lost in England, if not in Europe.
Break a piece of red glass, painted some four hundred years since, and it will be found as red in the middle as in the outsides; the colour is not only on it, but in it and through it.
Whereas, now all art can perform is only to fix the red on one side of the glass, and that ofttime so faint and fading, that within few years it falleth off, and looketh piebald to the eye.
I suspect a more important mystery is much
lost in our age, viz. the transmitting of piety
clean through the heart, that a man become
inside and outside alike. O the sincerity of
the ancient patriarchs, inspired prophets, holy
apostles, patient martyrs, and pious fathers of
CONSIDERING with myself the causes of the growth and increase of impiety and profaneness in our land, amongst others this seemeth to me not the least, viz. the late many false and erroneous impressions of the Bible. Now know, what is but carelessness in other books is impiety in setting forth of the Bible.
As Noah in all unclean creatures preserved but two of a kind, so among some hundreds in several editions we will insist only on two instances.
In the Bible printed at London, 1653, we
read,
Now, when a reverend doctor in divinity did
mildly reprove some libertines for their licentious life, they did produce this text, from the
The next instance shall be in the Bible printed at London in
quarto (forbearing the name of the printer, because not done wilfully by him) in
the singing Psalms,
for godly wealth.
It is too probable that too many have perused and practised this erroneous impression, namely, such who by plundering, oppression, cozening, force, and fraud, have in our age suddenly advanced vast estates.
I REMEMBER one in the University gave for his question, Artis compendium artis dispendium. The contracting of arts is the corrupting of them. Sure I am, the truth hereof appeareth too plainly in the pearl Bible printed at London, 1653, in the volume of twenty-four; for therein all the dedications and titles of David’s Psalms are wholly left out, being part of the original text in Hebrew, and intimating the cause and the occasion of the writing and composing those Psalms, whereby the matter may be better illustrated.
The design may be good to reduce the Bible to so small a volume, partly to make it the more portable in men’s pockets, partly to bring down the price of them, that the poor people may the better compass them. But know that vilis, in the Latin tongue, in the first sense signifieth what is cheap, in the second sense what is base. The small price of the Bible hath caused the small prizing of the Bible, especially since so many damnable and pernicious mistakes have escaped therein.
I cannot omit another edition in a large 12mo. making the Book of Truth to begin with a loud lie, pretending this title:
Imprinted at London by ROBERT BARKER, etc., Anno 1638.
whereas, indeed, they were imported from Holland, 1656, and that contrary to our statutes. What can be expected from so lying a frontispiece but suitable falsehoods, wherewith it aboundeth?
O that men in power and place would take these things into their serious considerations! a caution too late to amend what is past, but early enough for the future to prevent the importing of foreign, and misprinting of homemade Bibles.
WE read of Joseph (when advanced in
the court of Pharaoh), that he called
his eldest son,
Forget his father’s house! the more unnatural and undutiful son he (may some say) for his ungodly oblivion.
O no! Joseph never historically forgot his father’s house, nor lost the affection he hare thereunto, only he forgot it both to the sad and to the vindictive part of his memory; he kept no grudge against his brethren for their cruel usage of him.
If God should be pleased to settle a general peace betwixt all parties in our land, let us all name our next-born child (it will fit both sexes) Manasseh. That is, forgetting; let us forget all our plunderings, sequestrations, injuries offered unto us, or suffered by us; the best oil is said to have no taste, that is, no tang. Though we carry a simple and single remembrance of our losses unto the grave, it being impossible to do otherwise, (except we rase the faculty of memory, root and branch, out of our mind,) yet let us not keep any record of them with the least reflection of revenge.
MOTHERS generally teach their children three sins before they be full two years old.
First, pride: Point, child, where are you fine? Where are you fine?
Secondly, lying: It was not A that cried, it was B that cried.
Thirdly, revenge: Give me a blow, and I will beat him. Give me a blow, and I will beat him.
Surely children would not be so bad, nor so soon bad, but partly for bad precedents set before them, partly for bad precepts taught unto them.
As all three lessons have taken too deep impressions in our hearts, so chiefly the last of revenge. How many blows have been given on that account within our remembrance, and yet I can make it good, that we in our age are more bound to pardon our enemies than our fathers and grandfathers in their generation.
For charity consisteth in two main parts; in donando et condonando, in giving and forgiving. Give we cannot so much as those before us, our estates being so much impaired and impoverished with taxes unknown to former ages.
Seeing, therefore, one channel of charity must
be the less, the stream thereof ought to run
TWO gentlemen, father and son, both of great quality, lived together; the son on a time, Father, said he, I would fain be satisfied how it cometh to pass, that of such agreements which I make betwixt neighbours fallen out, not one of twenty doth last and continue. Whereas not one of twenty fails wherein you are made arbitrator.
The reason, answered the other, is plain. No sooner do two friends fall out, but presently you offer yourself to compromise the difference, wherein I more commend your charity than your discretion. Whereas I always stay till the parties send or come to me, after both sides, being well wearied by spending much money in law, are mutually desirous of an agreement.
Had any endeavoured, some sixteen years since, to have advanced a firm peace betwixt the two opposite parties in our land, their success would not have answered their intentions, men’s veins were then so full of blood, and purses of money.
But since there hath been so large an evacuation of both, and men begin soberly to consider that either side may (by woful experience) make other miserable, but it is only our union can make both happy, some hope there is, that a peace, if now made, may probably last and continue, which God in his mercy make us worthy of, that we may in due time receive it.
LEARNED Master Camden, treating in an
astrological way under what planet
It will add much (in the general apprehension of people) to the judgment of the latter, that so many changes and vicissitudes in so short a time have befell our nation; we have been in twelve years a kingdom, commonwealth, protectordom, afterwards under an army, Parliament, &c. Such inconstancy doth speak us under the moon indeed; but the best is, if we be under the moon, the moon is under God, and nothing shall happen unto us but what shall be for his glory, and, we hope, for our good; and that we may in due time be under the sun again.
TYRANNUS was a good word at first, importing no more than a king; the pride and cruelty of some made the word to bear ill, as it doth in the modern acceptation thereof.
Providence, as good a word as any in divinity, hath suffered so much in the modern abusing thereof, that conscientious people begin to loathe and hate it. For God’s providence hath been alleged against God’s precepts. King’s bare word was never in our land produced against his broad seal. Yet success (an argument borrowed from the Turks) hath been pleaded as the voice of God’s approbation against his positive and express will in his word.
But God hath been pleased to vindicate his own honour, and to assert the credit of providence, which is now become a good word again. If impulsive providence (a new-coined phrase) hath given the late army their greatness, expulsive providence (a newer phrase) hath given them their smallness: being now set by, laid aside as useless; and not set by, so far from terrifying of any, by few they are regarded.
NEWCASTLE on Tyne is, without corrival, the richest town in England, which
before the Conquest was usually known by the name of Monk- Chester.
Exeter must be allowed of all, one of the neatest and sweetest cities of England, which anciently by the Saxons was called
Monk-Town,
God hath done great things already, whereof we rejoice, by the
hand of our great general, in order to the settlement of our nation. When the
same (as we hope in due time) shall be completed, not only Newcastle and Exeter
shall have just cause, with comfort, to remember their old names, but every
county, city, market-town, parish, and village in England may have the name of
Monk put upon them. But oh, the modesty of this worthy person is as much as his
merit, who hath learned from valiant, wise, and loyal Joab [
I EVER beheld Somersetshire, in one respect, as the most ancient and honourable shire in England. For Glastonbury in that county was the British Antioch, where the Britons were first called Christians, by the preaching of Joseph of Arimathea, though the truth of the story be much swoln by the leaven of legendary fictions.
But hereafter Somersetshire, in another respect, must be allowed the eldest county in England; as Christianity first grew there, so charity first sprang thence, in that their sober, serious, and seasonable declaration, wherein they renounce all future animosities in relation to their former sufferings.
Now, as the zeal of Achaia [
IT seemeth marvellous to me that many mechanics, (few able to read, and fewer to write their names,) turning soldiers and captains in our wars, should be so soon and so much improved. They seemed to me to have commenced per saltum in their understandings. I profess, without flouting or flattering, I have much admired with what facility and fluentness, how pertinently and properly, they have expressed themselves, in language which they were never born nor bred to, but have industriously acquired by conversing with their betters.
What a shame would it be, if such who have been of genteel extraction, and have had liberal education, should (as if it were by exchange of souls) relapse into ignorance and barbarism!
What an ignominy would it be for them to be buried in idleness, and in the immoderate pursuit of pleasures and vicious courses, till they besot their understandings, when they see soldiers arrived at such an improvement, who were bred tailors, shoemakers, cobblers, &c.
Not that I write this (God knoweth my
heart) in disgrace of them, because they were
bred in so mean callings, which are both honest
in themselves and useful in the commonwealth;
yea, I am so far from thinking ill of them for
I SAW two men fighting together, till a third, casually passing by, interposed himself to part them; the blows of the one fell on his face, of the other on his back, of both on his body, being the screen betwixt the fiery anger of the two fighters. Some of the beholders laughed at him, as well enough served for meddling with matters which belonged not to him.
Others pitied him, conceiving every man concerned to prevent bloodshed betwixt neighbours, and Christianity itself was commission enough to interest him therein.
However, this is the sad fate which attended
ah 1 moderate persons, which will mediate betwixt opposite parties. They may complain
with David, They have rewarded me evil for
good, and hatred for my good-will. Yet let
not such hereby be disheartened, but know that
(besides the reward in heaven) the very work
of moderation is the wages of moderation. For
it carrieth with it a marvellous contentment in his conscience who hath
endeavoured his utmost
A TRAVELLER who had been newly robbed inquired of the first gentleman he met, who also was in a melancholy humour, (a cause having lately gone against him,) where he might find a justice of peace, to whom the gentleman replied: You ask for two things together, which singly and severally are not to be had. I neither know where justice is, nor yet where peace is to be found.
Let us not make the condition of our land worse than it was; Westminster Hall was ever open, though the proceedings of justice therein were much interrupted and obstructed with military impressions. Peace, we confess, hath been a stranger unto us a long time, heart-burnings remaining when house-burnings are quenched; but now, blessed be God, we are in a fair probability of recovering both, if our sins and ingratitude blast not our most hopeful expectations.
WE read, (
For they lodged not in their hearts the least disloyal thought against the person and power of King David. But alas! when these two hundred were mixed among two thousand, ten thousand, twenty thousand of active and designing traitors, these poor men might in the violent multitude be hurried on, not only beyond their intentions, but even against their resolutions.
Such as are sensible with sorrow that their well-intending simplicity hath been imposed on, abused, and deluded by the subtlety of others, may comfort and content themselves in the sincerity of their own souls; God, no doubt, hath already forgiven them, and therefore men ought to revoke their uncharitable censures of them. And yet Divine justice will have its full tale of intended stripes, taking so many off from the back of the deceived, and laying them on the shoulders of the deceivers.
I NEVER did read, nor can learn from any, that ever Queen Elizabeth had any ship-royal, which in the name thereof carried the memorial of any particular conquest she got either by land or by water. Yet was she as victorious as any prince in her age, and (which is mainly material) her conquests were mostly achieved against foreign enemies.
The ships of her navy had only honest and wholesome names, the Endeavour, the Bonaventure, the Return, the Unity, &c.
Some of our modern ships carry a very great burden in their names; I mean the memorial of some fatal fights in the civil wars in our own nation, and the conquerors ought not to take much joy, as the conquered must take grief in the remembrance thereof.
I am utterly against the rebaptizing of Christians, but I am for the redipping of ships, that not only some inoffensive, but ingratiating names may be put upon them; the Unity, the Reconciliation, the Agreement, the Concord, and healing titles, (I speak more like a bookman than a seaman,) and others to that purpose.
THERE is a pernicious humour, of a catching nature, wherewith the mouths of many, and hearts of more, are infected. Some there are that are so covetous to see the settlement of church and state according to their own desires, that if it be not done in our days, say they, we care not whether it be done at all or no.
Such men’s souls live in a lane, having weak heads and narrow hearts, their faith being little, and charity less, being all for themselves and nothing for posterity. These men, living in India, would prove ill commonwealth’s-men, and would lay no foundation for porcelain or china dishes, because despairing to reap benefit thereby, as not ripened to perfection in a hundred years.
Oh! give me that good man’s gracious temper, who earnestly desired the prosperity of the Church, whatsoever became of himself, whose verses I will offer to translate:
And if we ourselves, with aged Barzillai, [
I HAVE heard the royal party (would I could say without any cause) complained of, that they have not charity enough for converts, who came off unto them from the opposite side; who, though they express a sense of and sorrow for their mistakes, and have given testimony, though perchance not so plain and public as others expected, of their sincerity, yet still they are suspected as unsound; and such as frown not on, look but asquint at them.
This hath done much mischief, and retarded the return of many to their side; for had these their van-couriers been but kindly entertained, possibly ere now their whole army had come over unto us; which now are disheartened by the cold welcome of these converts.
Let this fault be mended for the future, that such proselytes may meet with nothing to discourage, all things to comfort and content them.
Let us give them not only the right hand of fellowship, but even the upper hand of superiority. One asked a mother who had brought up many children to a marriageable age, what art she used to breed up so numerous an issue; “None other,” said she, “save only, I always made the most of the youngest.” Let the Benjamins ever be darlings, and the last born, whose eyes were newest opened with the sight of their errors, be treated with the greatest affection.
ARTHUR PLANTAGENET Viscount Lisle, natural son to King Edward the Fourth, and (which is the greatest honour to his memory) direct ancestor, in the fifth degree, to the right honourable and most renowned lord general George Monk, was, for a fault of his servants, (intending to betray Calais to the king of France,) committed to the Tower by King Henry the Eighth, where, well knowing the fury and fierceness of that king, he daily expected death.
But the innocence of this lord appearing after much search,
the king sent him a rich ring off his own finger, with so comfortable words
that, at the hearing thereof, a sudden joy over-charged his heart, whereof he
died that night;
England for these many years hath been in a languishing condition, whose case hath been so much the sadder than this lord’s was, because conscious of a great guilt, whereby she hath justly incurred God’s displeasure. If God of his goodness should be pleased to restore her to his favour, may he also give her moderation safely to digest and concoct her own happiness, that she may not run from one extreme to another, and excessive joy prove more destructive unto her than grief hath been hitherto.
TWILIGHT is a great blessing of God to mankind: for, should our eyes be instantly posted out of darkness into light, out of midnight into morning, so sudden a surprisal would blind us. God, therefore, of his goodness, hath made the intermediate twilight to prepare our eyes for the reception of the light.
Such is his dealing with our English nation.
We were lately in the midnight of misery. It
was questionable whether the law should first
draw up the will and testament of dying divinity, or divinity first make a funeral sermon for
expiring law. Violence stood ready to invade
Blessed be God, we are now brought into a better condition, yea, we are past the equilibrium; the beam beginning to break on the better side, and our hopes to have the mastery of our despairs. God grant this twilight may prove crepusculum matutinum, forerunning the rising of the sun, and increase of our happiness.
FREDERIC
Being demanded of the Emperor which way lie might most speedily and safely (as to outward danger) recruit his treasury, his secretary gave him counsel to seize on the plate of all the churches and monasteries of that city, which he did accordingly, and amongst the rest he took zonam auream, or the golden girdle, out of one church, of inestimable value.
This blind secretary, returning home to his
wife, told her, “Now I am even with the Emperor
Let such who are concerned herein see what success the Emperor had in this his expedition, founded on sacrilege; and the longer they look thereon, the worse I am sure they will like it, to bar further application.
ONE, needlessly precise, took causeless exception at a gentleman for using the word “in troth” in his discourse, as if it had been a kind of an oath. The gentleman pleaded for himself, that “in truth” was a word inoffensive, even in his judgment who accused him.
Secondly, that he was born far north, where their broad and Doric dialect pronounced truth, troth, and he did humbly conceive the tone of the tongue was no fault of the heart.
Lastly, he alleged the twenty-fifth Psalm as it is translated in metre:
And thus at last, with much ado, his seeming fault was remitted.
I am afraid if one should declare for troth and peace, and not for truth and peace, it would occasion some offence; however, rather than it should make any difference, the former will be as acceptable to the north of Trent, as the latter will please all good people south thereof.
HAD not mine eyes, as any other man’s may, read it in the printed proclamations of King Edward the Sixth, (when the pulpits, generally Popish, sounded the alarm to Kett’s rebellion, and the Devonshire commotion,) I would not have believed what followeth:—
2 Edw. VI. Sept. 13.
“By these presents, Wee inhibite generally all manner of
Preachers whatsoever they be, to preach in this meane space,
What hurt were it if in this juncture of time all our preaching were turned into praying for one month together, that God would settle a happy peace in this nation?
However, if this be offensive to any, and giveth cause of distaste, the second motion may be embraced: that for a year, at least, all pulpits may be silent as to any part of differences relating to our times, and only deliver what belongeth to faith and good works.
I DO not remember that the word Infinite
is in Scripture attributed to any creature
save to the city of Nineveh,
But what is now become of Nineveh? It is even buried in its own ruins, and may have this epitaph upon it:
HIC JACET FINIS INFINITI.
Here lieth the end of what was endless.
He who beheld the multitude of actors and beholders at the mustering in Hyde Park on the twenty-fourth of April last, will say that there was an infinite number of people therein. Some would hardly believe that the whole nation could afford so many as the city of London alone did then produce.
My prayer shall ever be, that this great city
may be kept either in the wholesome ignorance
SOLOMON’S temple was seven years in
building,
Now had Solomon at the beginning of this building abolished the tabernacle made by Moses, because too mean and little for so mighty and so numerous a nation, God had been seven years without any place of public service.
But that wise prince continued the tabernacle to all uses and purposes until the temple
was finished, and then,
It had been well if, before the old government of the Church was taken down, a new one had first been settled. Yea, rather let God have two houses together, than none at all; lest piety be starved to death with cold, by lying out of doors in the interval betwixt the demolishing of an old, and the erecting of a new church discipline.
CHRIST when on earth cured many a spot, especially of leprosy, but never smoothed any wrinkle; never made any old man young again.
But in heaven he will do both,
Triumphant perfection is not to be hoped for
in the militant church; there will be in it
many spots and wrinkles as long as it consisteth
Such, therefore, are no good politicians who will make a sore to mend a spot, cause a wound to plain a wrinkle, do a great and certain mischief, when a small and uncertain benefit will thereby redound.
YOUNG King Jehoash had only a lease of
piety, and not for his own but his uncle’s life,
Jehu was good in the midst of his life and a
zealous reformer to the utter abolishing of Baal
out of Israel, but in his old age,
Manasseh was bad in the beginning and middle of his life, filling Jerusalem with idolatry;
only towards the end thereof, when carried into a strange land, [
These three put together make one perfect
servant of God. Take the morning and rise
with Jehoash, the noon and shine with Jehu,
NEBUCHADNEZZAR observed three gradations in plundering the temple; first,
he mannerly sipped and took but a taste of the
wealth thereof,
Next, he mended his draught, and drank very
deep,
Lastly, he emptied the cup, not leaving one
drop behind,
It was the mercy of God to allow his people space to repent: had they made their seasonable composition with God after the first inroad, they had prevented the second; if after the second, they had prevented the last and final destruction.
God hath suffered our civil wars some sixteen years since, first to taste of the wealth of our nation; and we met not God with suitable humiliation. His justice then went farther, and the sword took the goodly vessels, the gallantry and gayety of England from us; 1. Our massy plate; 2. Pleasant pictures; 8. Precious jewels; 4. Rare libraries; and 5. Magnificent palaces [Holdenby, Theobalds, Richmond]; carrying majesty in their structure; 1. Melted down; 2. Sold; 3. Lost, or drowned; 4. Transported; 5. Levelled to the ground.
God grant that we may sue out our pardon by serious repentance, before all the vessels, great and small, be taken away in a renewed war, that the remnant of wealth which is left in the land may be continued therein.
WE read that the nails in the holy of
holies,
Now, I was present at the debate hereof,
betwixt the best working-goldsmiths in London,
where, among many other ingenious answers,
God’s work must not be done lazily, but leisurely: haste maketh waste in this kind. In reformations of great importance, the violent driving in of the nail will either break the head, or bow the point thereof, or rive and split that which should be fastened therewith.
That may insensibly be screwed which cannot suddenly be knocked into people. Fair and softly goeth for; but, alas! we have too many fiery spirits, who, with Jehu, drive on so furiously they will overturn all in church and state, if their fierceness be not seasonably retrenched.
I WAS much affected with reading that distich in Ovid, as having somewhat extraordinary therein:
But what, do I listen to the language of the
crow, whose black colour hath a cast of hell
therein, in superstitious soothsaying? Let us
hearken to what the dove of the Holy Spirit
saith, promising God’s servants, though the
present times be bad, the future will be better,
A COVETOUS courtier complained to King Edward the Sixth, of Christ’s College in Cambridge, that it was a superstitious foundation, consisting of a master and twelve fellows, in imitation of Christ and his twelve apostles. He advised the king, also, to take away one or two fellowships, so to discompose that superstitious number.
O no, said the king, I have a better way than that to mar their conceit, I will add a thirteenth fellowship unto them; which he did accordingly, and so it remaineth to this day.
Well fare their hearts who will not only wear out their shoes, but also their feet, in God’s service, and yet gain not a shoe-latchet thereby.
When our Saviour drove the sheep and oxen
WE read,
No, surely, Solomon’s act therein was lawful and laudable, there being a threefold blessing.
1. Imperative; so God only blessed his people, who commandeth deliverances for Israel.
2. Indicative; solemnly to declare God’s blessing to, and put his name upon, the people, and this was the priest’s work.
3. Optative; wishing and desiring God’s blessing on the people, and this was done by Solomon.
Yea, it is remarkable that, in the same chapter,
MARVELLOUS was the confidence of
those merchants,
What false heraldry have we here, presumption on presumption! What insurance office had they been at to secure their lives for a twelvemonth!
But, this being granted, how could they certainly promise themselves that they this year should get gain, except they had surely known what would have been dear the next year? Merchandising is a ticklish matter, seeing many buy and sell, and live by the loss.
Either, then, trading in those times was quicker and better than in ours, or (which is most probable) they were all resolved on the point, to cheat, cozen, lie, swear, and forswear, and to gain by what means soever.
Our age and land affordeth many of their
temper, and of such St. Paul speaketh,
A WOMAN, when newly delivered of a child, her pain is ended, her peril is but new begun; a little distemper in diet, or a small cold taken, may inflame her into a fever, and endanger her life. Wherefore, when the welfare of such a person is inquired after, this answer-general is returned. She is well for one in her condition; the third, fifth, and ninth days (all critical) must be expected, till which time bene-male is all the health which the Latin tongue will allow her.
England is this green woman, lately brought to bed of a long-expected child, Liberty. Many wise men suspected that she would have died in travail, and both child and mother miscarry. But God be thanked for a good midwife, w*ho would not prevent, but attend the date of nature.
However, all, yea, most of the danger is not yet past. Numerous is the multitude of malecontents, and many difficulties must be encountered before our peace can be settled.
God grant the woman be not wilful in fits of
her distemper, to be ordered by the discretion
SOON after the king’s death I preached in a church near London, and a person then in great power, now levelled with his fellows, was present at my sermon. Now, I had this passage in my prayer: God in his due time settle our nation on the true foundation thereof.
The [then] great man demanded of me, what I meant by true foundation. I answered, That I was no lawyer, nor statesman, and therefore skill in such matters was not to be expected from me.
He pressed me farther to express myself, whether thereby I did not intend the king, lords, and commons.
I returned that it was a part of my prayer to God, who had more knowledge than I had ignorance in all things, that he knew what was the true foundation, and I remitted all to his wisdom and goodness.
When men come with nets in their ears, it is
good for the preacher to have neither fish nor
fowl in his tongue. But, blessed be God, now
we need not lie at so close a guard. Let the
KING Henry the Seventh was much troubled (as he was wont to say) with idols, scenecal royaletts, poor, petty, pitiful persons, who pretended themselves princes.
One of these was called Lambert Simnel, whom the king at last,
with much care and cost, some expense of blood, but more of money, reduced into
his power and got his person into his possession. Then, instead of other
punishment, he made him a turn-broach, and afterwards (on his peaceable
behaviour) he was preferred one of the king’s under-falconers,
The king perceived that this Lambert was no daring, dangerous, and designing person, and therefore he would not make him, who was contemptible in himself, considerable for any noble punishment imposed upon him.
Royal revenge will not stoop to a low object; some malefactors are too mean to be
made public examples. Let them live, that the
pointing of people’s fingers may be so many
Such a life will smart as death; and such a death may be sanctified for life unto them: 1 mean, may occasion their serious sorrow, and cordial repentance, whereby God’s pardon and their eternal salvation may be obtained; which ought to be the desire of all good Christians, as well for others as themselves.
THE soldiers asked of John Baptist,
Good counsel to the soldiers of this age. Do violence to no man, plunder no man, accuse no man falsely.
Make no men malignants by wrongful information, and be content with your wages.
But I have heard some of the most moderate
of the soldiers, not without cause, to complain: “He is a mutineer indeed who will not be content with his wages; but alas! we must be
content without our wages, having so much of
Indeed, their case is to be pitied, and yet such as are ingenuous amongst them will be persuaded to have patience but awhile, the nation being now in fermentation, and tending to a consistency. The wisdom of the Parliament is such, they will find out the most speedy and easy means to pay them; and such their justice, no intent is there to defraud them of a farthing, whatsoever ill-affected malecontents may suggest to the contrary.
GOD in his providence fixed my nativity in a remarkable place.
I was born at Aldwinkle, in Northamptonshire, where my father was the painful preacher of St. Peter’s. This village was distanced one good mile west from Achurch, where Mr. Brown, founder of the Brownists, did dwell, whom, out of curiosity, when a youth, I often visited.
It was likewise a mile and a half distant east from Lavenden, where Francis Tresham, Esquire, so active in the Gunpowder Treason, had a large demesne and ancient habitation.
My nativity may mind me of moderation, whose cradle was rocked betwixt two rocks. Now, seeing I was never such a churl as to desire to eat my morsel alone, let such who like my prayer join with me therein.
God grant we may hit the golden mean, and endeavour to avoid all extremes; the fanatic Anabaptist on the one side, and the fiery zeal of the Jesuit on the other, that so we may be true Protestants, or, which is a far better name, real Christians indeed.
ALL generally hate a sluttish house, wherein nastiness hath not only taken livery and seizin, but also hath been a long time in the peaceable possession thereof.
However, reasonable men will be contented with a house belittered with straw, and will dispense with dust itself, whilst the house is sweeping, because it hath uncleanness, in order to cleanness.
Many things in England are out of joint for the present, and a strange confusion there is in church and state; but let this comfort us, we trust it is confusion in tendency to order. And, therefore, let us for a time more patiently comport therewith.
SOME, perchance, will smile, though I am sure all should sigh, at the following story.
A minister of these times sharply chid one of his parish for having a base child, and told him, he must take order for the keeping thereof.
“Why, sir,” answered the man, “I conceive it more reasonable that you should maintain it. For I am not book-learned, and ken not a letter in the Bible; yea, I have been your parishioner this seven years, present every Lord’s day at the church, yet did I never there hear you read the ten commandments; I never heard that precept read, Thou shalt not commit adultery. Probably, had you told me my duty, I had not committed this folly.”
It is an abominable shame, and a crying sin of this land, that poor people hear not in their churches the sum of what they should pray for, believe, and practise; many mock-ministers having banished out of divine service the use of the Lord’s prayer, creed, and ten commandments.
SOME alive will be deposed for the truth of this strange accident, though I forbear the naming of place or persons.
A careless maid, which attended a gentleman’s child, fell asleep whilst the rest of the family were at church; an ape, taking the child out of the cradle, carried it to the roof of the house, and there (according to his rude manner) fell a dancing and dandling thereof, down head, up heels, as it happened.
The father of the child, returning with his family from the church, commented with his own eyes on his child’s sad condition. Bemoan he might, help it he could not. Dangerous to shoot the ape where the bullet might hit the babe; all fall to their prayers as their last and best refuge, that the innocent child (whose precipice they suspected) might be preserved.
But when the ape was well wearied with its own activity, he fairly went down, and formally laid the child where he found it, in the cradle.
Fanatics have pleased their fancies these late years with turning and tossing and tumbling of religion, upward and downward, and backward and forward; they have cast and contrived it into a hundred antic postures of their own imagining. However, it is now to be hoped, that, after they have tired themselves out with doing of nothing, but only trying and tampering this and that way to no purpose, they may at last return, and leave religion in the same condition wherein they found it.
SOLOMON was the riddle of the world, being the richest and poorest of princes.
Richest, for once in three years the land of Ophir sailed to Jerusalem, and caused such plenty of gold therein.
Poorest, as appeareth by his imposing so intolerable taxes on his subjects, the refusal of the mitigation whereof caused the defection of the ten tribes from the house of David.
But how came Solomon to be so much behindhand? Some, I know, score it on the account of his building of the temple, as if so magnificent a structure had impaired and exhausted his estate.
But in very deed, it was his keeping of seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines, and his concubines in all probability more expensive than his wives (as the thief in the candle wasteth more wax than the wick thereof). All these had their several courts, which must needs amount to a vast expense.
How cometh the great treasure of our land to be low, and the debts thereof so high? Surely it is not by building of churches; all the world will be her compurgators therein. It is rather because we maintain (and must for a time for our safety) such a numerous army of soldiers.
Well it had been both for the profit, credit, and conscience of Solomon, to have reduced his wives to a smaller number, as we hope in due time our standing army shall be epitomized to a more moderate proportion.
A NUNCIO of the Pope’s was treated at Sienna, by a prime person, with a great feast. It happened there was present thereat a syndic of the city (being a magistrate, parallel in his place to one of our aldermen), who, as full of words as empty of wit, engrossed all the discourse at the table to himself, who might with as good manners have eaten all the meat at the supper.
The entertainer, sorry to see him discover so much weakness to the disgrace of himself, endeavoured to stop the superfluity of his talk. All in vain: the leaks in a rotten ship might sooner be stanched. At last, to excuse the matter (as well as he might) he told the nuncio privately, You, I am sure, have some weak men at Rome, as well as we have at Sienna. We have so, said the nuncio, but we make them no syndics.
It cannot be otherwise but that, in so spacious
a land, so numerous a people as England is, we
God grant, that, as the several day’s works in
the creation were singly by God pronounced
good, but the last day’s work (being the collection and complication of them all) very good,
[
KING James was no less dexterous at, than desirous of, the discovery of such who belied the father of lies, and falsely pretended themselves possesssed with a devil.
Now a maid dissembled such a possession, and for the better colour thereof, when the first verses of the Gospel of St. John were read in her hearing, she would fall into strange fits of fuming and foaming, to the amazement of the beholders.
But when the king caused one of his chaplains
I know a factious parish, wherein, if the minister in his pulpit had but named the word kingdom, the people would have been ready to have petitioned against him for a malignant. But as for realm, the same in French, he might safely use it in his sermons as oft as he pleased. Ignorance, which generally inflameth, sometimes, by good hap, abateth men’s malice.
The best is, that now one may, without danger, use either word, seeing England was a kingdom a thousand years ago, and may be one (if the world last so long) a thousand years hereafter.
CHARLES the Second,
The weight of these so clogged the child,
that he enjoyed not himself in any degree, but
It happened that an aged rocker, which waited on him, took the steel boots from his legs, and cast them in a place where it was hard to find them there, and impossible to fetch them thence, promising the Countess of Dorset (governess of the prince) that, if any anger arised thereof, she would take all the blame on herself.
Not long after, the king, coming into the nursery, and beholding the boots taken from his legs, was offended thereat, demanding, in some anger, who had done it.
” It was I, sir,” said the rocker, “who had the honour, some thirty years since, to attend on your Highness in your infancy, when you had the same infirmity wherewith now the prince, your very own son, is troubled. And then the Lady Gary (afterwards Countess of Monmouth) commanded your steel boots to be taken off, who, blessed be God, since have gathered strength and arrived at a good stature.”
The nation is too noble, when his Majesty
(who hitherto hath had a short course, but a
long pilgrimage) shall return from foreign parts,
to impose any other steel boots upon him than
the observing the laws of the land, (which are
But I remember, when Luther began first to mislike some errors in the Romish Church, and complained thereof to Staupitius, his confessor, he used to say unto him, Albi in cellam et ora, Get you gone into your cell and pray. So will I do, (who have now done,) and leave the managing of the rest to those to whom it is most proper to advance God’s glory and their country’s good. Amen.
MADAM,—
BY the judicial law of the Jews, if a servant [
I need not mind your Ladyship how God hath measured outward happiness unto you by the cubit of the sanctuary, of the largest size, so that one would be perplexed to wish more than what your Ladyship doth enjoy. My prayer to God shall be, that, shining as a pearl of grace here, you may shine as a star in glory hereafter. So resteth,
Your Honour’s,
In all Christian offices,
THOMAS FULLER.
Boughton, January 25, 1646.
AS one was not anciently to want a wedding-garment at a marriage feast, so now-a-days wilfully to wear gaudy clothes at a funeral is justly censurable as unsuiting with the occasion. Wherefore, in this sad subject, I have endeavoured to decline all light and luxurious expressions: and if I be found faulty therein, I cry and crave God and the reader pardon. Thus desiring that my pains may prove to the glory of God, thine, and my own edification, I rest,
Thine in Christ Jesus,
THOMAS FULLER
What a wounded Conscience is, wherewith the Godly and Reprobate may be tortured.
SEEING the best way never to know a wounded conscience by woful experience, is speedily to know it by a sanctified consideration thereof: give me, I pray you, the description of a wounded conscience, in the highest degree thereof.
PHILOLOGUS. It is a conscience frightened at
the sight of sin, [
TIM. Is there any difference betwixt a broken spirit [
PHIL. Exceeding much: for a broken spirit
is to be prayed and laboured for, as the most
TIM. In this your sense, is not the conscience wounded every time that the soul is smitten with guiltiness for any sin committed?
PHIL. God forbid: otherwise his servants
would be in a sad condition, as in the case of
David, [
TIM. Are the godly, as well as the wicked, subject to this malady?
PHIL. Yes, verily; vessels of honour, as well as vessels of wrath in this world, are subject to the knocks and bruises of a wounded conscience. A patient Job, pious David, faithful Paul, may be vexed therewith, no less than a cursed Cain, perfidious Achitophel, or treacherous Judas.
TIM. What is the difference betwixt a wounded conscience in the godly, and in the reprobate?
PHIL. None at all, ofttimes, in the parties’ apprehensions; both, for the time being, conceiving their estates equally desperate: little, if any, in the wideness and anguish of the wound itself, which for the time may be as tedious and torturing in the godly, as in the wicked.
TIM. How then do they differ?
PHIL. Exceeding much in God’s intention: gashing the wicked, as malefactors, out of justice; but lancing the godly, out of love, as a surgeon his patients. Likewise they differ in the issue and event of the wound, which ends in the eternal confusion of the one, but in the correction and amendment of the other.
TIM. Some have said, that, in the midst of their pain, by this mark they may be distinguished, because the godly, when wounded, complain most of their sins, and the wicked of their sufferings.
PHIL. I have heard as much; but dare not
lay too much stress on this slender sign, (to
make it generally true,) for fear of failing.
For sorrow for sin and sorrow for suffering
are ofttimes so twisted and interwoven in the
same person, yea, in the same sigh and groan,
that sometimes it is impossible for the party
himself so to separate and divide them in his
own sense and feeling, as to know which proceeds
TIM. Inform me concerning the nature of wounded consciences in the wicked.
PHIL. Excuse me herein: I remember a
passage in St. Augustine,
What use they are to make thereof, who neither hitherto were, nor haply hereafter shall be, visited with a wounded Conscience.
ARE all God’s children, either in their life or at their death, visited with a wounded conscience?
PHIL. O no: God invites many with his golden sceptre, whom he never bruises with his rod of iron. Many, neither in their conversion, nor in the sequel of their lives, have ever felt that pain in such a manner and measure as amounts to a wounded conscience.
TIM. Must not the pangs in their travel of the new birth be painful unto them?
PHIL. Painful, but in different degrees. The
Blessed Virgin Mary (most hold) was delivered without any pain; as well may that child
be born without sorrow, which is conceived
without sin. The women of Israel were sprightful and lively, unlike the Egyptians.
[
TIM. Who are those which commonly have such gentle usage in their conversion?
PHIL. Generally such who never were
notoriously profane, and have had the benefit
of godly education from pious parents. In
some corporations, the sons of freemen, bred
under their fathers in their profession, may set
up and exercise their father’s trade, without
ever being bound apprentices thereunto. Such
children whose parents have been citizens of new Jerusalem, [
TIM. What may be the reason of God’s dealing so differently with his own servants, that some of them are so deeply, and others not at all, afflicted with a wounded conscience?
PHIL. Even so, Father, because it pleaseth
thee. Yet in humility these reasons may be
assigned,—1. To show himself a free agent,
not confined to follow the same precedent, and
to deal with all as he doth with some. 2. To
render the prospect of his proceedings the more
pleasant to their sight who judiciously survey it,
when they meet with so much diversity and
variety therein. 3. That men, being both ignorant
TIM. I am one of those whom God hitherto hath not humbled with a wounded conscience: give me some instruction for my behaviour.
PHIL. First, be heartily thankful to God’s infinite goodness, who hath not dealt thus with every one. Now because repentance hath two parts, mourning and mending, or humiliation and reformation, the more God hath abated thee in the former, out of his gentleness, the more must thou increase in the latter, out of thy gratitude. What thy humiliation hath wanted of other men, in the depth thereof, let thy reformation make up in the breadth thereof, spreading into an universal obedience unto all God’s commandments. Well may he expect more work to be done by thy hands, who hath laid less weight to be borne on thy shoulders.
TIM. What other use must I make of God’s kindness unto me?
PHIL. You are bound the more patiently to
bear all God’s rods, poverty, sickness, disgrace,
TIM. How shall I demean myself for the time to come?
PHIL. Be not high-minded, but fear; for thou canst not infallibly infer, that, because thou hast not hitherto, hereafter thou shalt not taste of a wounded conscience.
TIM. I will, therefore, for the future, with continual fear, wait for the coming thereof.
PHIL. Wait not for it with servile fear,
but watch against it with constant carefulness.
There is a slavish fear to be visited with a
wounded conscience, which fear is to be
avoided, for it is opposite to the free spirit
of grace, derogatory to the goodness of God
in his Gospel, destructive to spiritual joy, which
we ought always to have, and dangerous to the
soul, racking it with anxieties and unworthy
suspicions. Thus to fear a wounded conscience,
is in part to feel it antedating one’s misery, and
tormenting himself before the time, seeking for
that he would be loath to find: like the wicked
in the Gospel, [
TIM. What fear, then, is it, that you so lately recommended unto me?
PHIL. One, consisting in the cautious avoiding of all causes and occasions of a wounded conscience, conjoined with a confidence in God’s goodness, that he will either preserve us from, or protect us in the torture thereof; and if he ever sends it, will sanctify it in us, to his glory and our good. May I, you, and all God’s servants ever have this noble fear (as I may term it) in our hearts.
Three solemn Seasons when Men are surprised with wounded Consciences.
WHAT are those times wherein men most commonly are assaulted with wounded consciences?
PHIL. So bad a guest may visit a man at any hour of his life; for no season is unseasonable for God to be just, Satan to be mischievous, and sinful man to be miserable; yet it happens especially at three principal times.
TIM. Of these, which is the first?
PHIL. In the twilight of a man’s conversion,
in the very conflict and combat betwixt nature
and initial grace. For then he that formerly
slept in carnal security is awakened with his
TIM. Sins thus set in order must needs be a terrible sight.
PHIL. Yes, surely, the rather because the metaphor may seem taken from setting an army in battle array. At this conflict, in his first conversion, behold a troop of sins cometh, and when God himself shall marshal them in rank and file, what guilty conscience is able to endure the furious charge of so great and well-ordered an army?
TIM. Suppose the party dies before he be completely converted in this twilight condition, as you term it, what then becomes of his soul, which may seem too good to dwell in outer darkness with devils, and too bad to go to the God of light?
PHIL. Your supposition is impossible. Remember
TIM. Can they not therefore die in this interim, before the work of grace be wrought in them?
PHIL. No, verily. Christ’s bones were in themselves breakable, but could not actually be broken by all the violence in the world, because God hath fore-decreed, A bone of him shall not be broken. So we confess God’s children mortal; but all the power of Devil or man may not, must not, shall not, cannot, kill them before their conversion, according to God’s election of them to life, which must be fully accomplished.
TIM. What is the second solemn time wherein wounded consciences assault men?
PHIL. After their conversion completed, and this either upon the committing of a conscience-wasting sin, such as Tertullian calls peccatum devoratorium salutis, or upon the undergoing of some heavy affliction of a bigger standard and proportion, blacker hue and complexion, than what befalls ordinary men, as in the case of Job.
TIM. Which is the third and last time when wounded consciences commonly walk abroad?
PHIL. When men lie on their death-beds,
Satan must now roar, or else forever hold his
peace; roar he may afterwards with very anger
to vex himself, not with any hope to hurt us.
There is mention in Scripture of an evil day,
which is most applicable to the time of our death. We read also of an hour of temptation;
[
TIM. Your doleful prediction disheartens me, for fear I may be foiled in my last encounter.
PHIL. Be of good comfort: through Christ
we shall be victorious, both in dying and in
death itself. Remember God’s former favours
bestowed upon thee. Indeed, wicked men,
from the premises of God’s power, collect a
conclusion of his weakness,
The great Torment of a wounded Conscience, proved by Reasons and Examples.
IS the pain of a wounded conscience so great as is pretended?
PHIL. God saith it, [
TIM. Whence comes this wound to be so great and grievous?
PHIL. Six reasons may be assigned thereof. The first drawn from the heaviness of the hand which makes the wound; namely, God himself, conceived under the notion of an infinite angry judge. In all other afflictions, man encounters only with man, and in the worst temptations, only with Satan; but in a wounded conscience, he enters the lists immediately with God himself.
TIM. Whence is the second reason brought?
PHIL. From the sharpness of the sword
[
TIM. Whence is the third reason derived?
PHIL. From the tenderness of the part itself which is wounded; the conscience being one of the eyes of the soul, sensible of the smallest hurt. And when that callum, schirrus, or incrustation, drawn over it by nature, and hardened by custom in sin, is once flayed off, the conscience becomes so pliant and supple, that the least imaginable touch is painful unto it.
TIM. What is the fourth reason?
PHIL. The folly of the patient; who being
stung, hath not the wisdom to look up to Christ,
the brazen serpent, but torments himself with
his own activity. It was threatened to Pashur,
TIM. What is the fifth reason which makes the pain so great?
PHIL. Because Satan rakes his claws in the reeking blood of a wounded conscience. Beelzebub, the Devil’s name, signifies in Hebrew the Lord of flies, which excellently intimates his nature and employment; flies take their felicity about sores and galled backs, to infest and inflame them: so Satan no sooner discovers (and that bird of prey hath quick sight) a soul terror-struck, but thither he hastes, and is busy to keep the wound raw,—there he is in his throne to do mischief.
TIM. What is the sixth and last reason why a wounded conscience is so great a torment?
PHIL. Because of the impotency and invalidity of all earthly receipts to give ease thereunto. For there is such a gulf of disproportion betwixt a mind-malady and body-medicines, that no carnal, corporal comforts can effectually work thereupon.
TIM. Yet wine in this case is prescribed in
Scripture; Give wine to the heavy-hearted,
[
PHIL. Indeed, if the wound be in the spirits, those cursitors betwixt soul and body, to recover their decay or consumption, wine may usefully be applied: but if the wound be in the spirit, in Scripture phrase, all carnal, corporal comforts are utterly in vain.
TIM. Methinks merry company should do much to refresh him.
PHIL. Alas! a man shall no longer be welcome in merry company than he is able to sing
his part in their jovial concert. When a hunted
deer runs for safeguard amongst the rest of the
herd, they will not admit him into their company, but beat him off with their horns, out
of principles of self-preservation, for fear the
hounds, in pursuit of him, fall on them also.
So hard it is for man or beast in misery, to find
a faithful friend. In like manner, when a set
of bad-good-fellows perceive one of their society
dogged with God’s terrors at his heels, they will
TIM. Give me, I pray, an example thereof.
PHIL. When Adam had eaten the forbidden fruit, he tarried a time in paradise, but took no contentment therein. The sun did shine as bright, the rivers as clear, as ever before, birds sang as sweetly, beasts played as pleasantly, flowers smelt as fragrant, herbs grew as fresh, fruits flourished as fair, no punctilio of pleasure was either altered or abated. The objects were the same, but Adam’s eyes were otherwise; his nakedness stood in his light; a thorn of guiltiness grew in his heart before any thistles sprang out of the ground; which made him not to seek for the fairest fruits to fill his hunger, but the biggest leaves to cover his nakedness. Thus a wounded conscience is able to unparadise paradise itself.
TIM. Give me another instance.
PHIL. Christ Jesus, our Saviour, he was
blinded, buffeted, scourged, scoffed at, had his
TIM. Why is a wounded conscience by David
resembled to arrows, Thine arrows stick fast in me? [
PHIL. Because an arrow, especially if barbed, rakes and rends the flesh the more, the more metal the wounded party hath to strive and struggle with it: and a guilty conscience pierces the deeper, whilst a stout stomach with might and main seeks to outwrestle it.
TIM. May not a wounded conscience also work on the body to hasten and heighten the sickness thereof?
PHIL. Yes, verily, so that there may be employment for Luke, the beloved physician,
[
Sovereign Uses to be made of the Torment of a wounded Conscience.
SEEING the torture of a wounded conscience is so great, what use is to be made thereof?
PHIL. Very much: and first, it may make men sensible of the intolerable pain in hell fire. If the mouth of the fiery furnace into which the children were cast was so hot that it burnt those which approached it, how hot was the furnace itself! If a wounded conscience, the suburbs of hell, be so painful, O how extreme is that place where the worm never dieth, and the fire is never quenched!
TIM. Did our roaring boys (as they call them) but seriously consider this, they would not wish God damn them, and God confound them, so frequently as they do.
PHIL. No, verily: I read in Theodoret of
the ancient Donatists, that they were so ambitious of martyrdom (as they accounted it),
that many of them, meeting with a young
gentleman, requested of him, that he would be
pleased to kill them. He, to confute their
folly, condescended to their desire, on condition, that first they would submit to be fast
TIM. What other use is to be made of the pain of a wounded conscience?
PHIL. To teach us seasonably to prevent
what we cannot possibly endure. Let us shun
the smallest sin, lest, if we slight and neglect
it, it by degrees fester and gangrene into a
wounded conscience. One of the bravest spirits
TIM. What else may we gather for our instruction from the torture of a troubled mind.
PHIL. To confute their cruelty who, out of
sport or spite, willingly and wittingly wound
weak consciences: like those uncharitable Corinthians, [
TIM. Are not those ministers to blame, who, mistaking their message, instead of bringing the Gospel of peace, frighten people with legal terrors into despair?
PHIL. I cannot commend their discretion, yet will not condemn their intention herein. No doubt their desire and design is pious, though they err in the pursuit and prosecution thereof, casting down them whom they cannot raise, and conjuring up the spirit of bondage which they cannot allay again: wherefore, it is our wisest way to interweave promises with threatenings, and not to leave open a pit of despair, but to cover it again with comfort.
TIM. Remaineth there not, as yet, another use of this point?
PHIL. Yes, to teach us to pity and pray for those that have afflicted consciences,
not like the wicked, who persecute those whom God hath smitten, and talk to the grief of such whom he hath wounded.
[
TIM. Yet Eli was a good man, who, notwithstanding, censured Hannah, a woman of sorrowful spirit, to be drunk with wine.
[
PHIL. Imitate not Eli in committing, but amending his fault. Indeed, his dim eyes could see drunkenness in Hannah where it was not, and could not see sacrilege and adultery in his own sons, where they were. Thus, those who are most indulgent to their own, are most censorious of others’ sins. But Eli afterwards, perceiving his error, turned the condemning of Hannah into praying for her. In like manner, if in our passion we have prejudiced or injured any wounded consciences, in cold blood let us make them the best amends and reparation.
That in some Cases more Repentance must be preached to a wounded Conscience.
SO much for the malady, now for the remedy. Suppose you come to a wounded
PHIL. If, after hearty prayer to God for his direction, he appeareth unto me, as yet, not truly penitent, in the first place I will press a deeper degree of repentance upon him.
TIM. O miserable comforter! more sorrow still! Take heed your eyes be not put out with that smoking flax you seek to quench, and your fingers wounded with the splinters of that bruised reed you go about to break.
PHIL. Understand me, sir. Better were my tongue spit out of my mouth, than to utter a word of grief to drive them to despair who are truly contrite. But on the other side, I shall betray my trust, and be found an unfaithful dispenser of divine mysteries, to apply comfort to him who is not ripe and ready for it.
TIM. What harm would it do?
PHIL. Raise him for the present, and ruin him, without God’s greater mercy, for the future. For comfort daubed on, on a foul soul, will not stick long upon it; and, instead of pouring in, I shall spill the precious oil of God’s mercy. Yea, I may justly bring a wounded conscience upon myself, for dealing deceitfully in my stewardship.
TIM. Is it possible one may not be soundly humbled, and yet have a wounded conscience?
PHIL. Most possible: for a wounded conscience is often inflicted as a punishment for lack of true repentance: great is the difference betwixt a man’s being frightened at, and humbled for, his sins. One may passively be cast down by God’s terrors, and yet not willingly throw himself down as he ought at God’s footstool.
TIM. Seeing his pain is so pitiful as you have formerly proved, why would you add more grief unto him?
PHIL. I would not add grief to him, but alter grief in him; making his sorrow, not greater, but better. I would endeavour to change his dismal, doleful dejection, his hideous and horrible heaviness, his bitter exclamations, which seem to me much mixed in him with pride, impatience, and impenitence, into a willing submission to God’s pleasure, and into a kindly, gentle, tender Gospel repentance for his sins.
TIM. But there are some now-a-days who maintain that a child of God after his first conversion needs not any new repentance for sin all the days of his life.
PHIL. They defend a grievous and dangerous error. Consider what two petitions Christ
couples together in his prayer: when my body,
which every day is hungry, can live without
God’s giving it daily bread, then and no sooner
TIM. But such allege, in proof of their opinion, that a man hath his person justified before God, not by pieces and parcels, but at once and forever in his conversion.
PHIL. This being granted doth not favour their error. We confess God finished the creation of the world, and all therein, in six days, and then rested from that work, yet so that his daily preserving of all things by his Providence may still be accounted a constant and continued creation. We acknowledge in like manner, a child of God justified at once in his conversion, when he is fully and freely estated in God’s favour. And yet seeing every daily sin by him committed is an aversion from God, and his daily repentance a conversion to God, his justification in this respect may be conceived entirely continued all the days of his life.
TIM. What is the difference betwixt the first repentance, and this renewed repentance?
PHIL. The former is as it were the putting
of life into a dead man, the latter, the recovering of a sick man from a dangerous wound:
by the former, sight to the blind is simply
restored, and eyes given him; in the latter,
only a film is removed, drawn over the eyes,
TIM. But do not God’s children after committing of grievous sins, and before their renewing their repentance, remain still heirs of Heaven, married to Christ, and citizens of the New Jerusalem?
PHIL. Heirs of Heaven they are, but disinheritable for their misdemeanour. Married still to Christ, but deserving to be divorced for their adulteries. Citizens of Heaven, but yet outlawed, so that they can recover no right, and receive no benefit, till their outlawry be reversed.
TIM. Where doth God in Scripture enjoin this second repentance on his own children?
PHIL. In several places. He threatens the
Church of Ephesus (the best of the seven)
with removing the candlestick from them, except they repent: [
Only Christ is to be applied to Souls truly contrite.
BUT suppose the person in the minister’s apprehension heartily humbled for sin, what then is to be done?
PHIL. No corrosives, all cordials; no vinegar, all oil; no law, all Gospel must be presented unto him. Here, blessed the lips, yea,! beautiful the feet of him that bringeth the tidings of peace. As Elisha, when reviving the son of the Shunamite, laid his mouth to the
mouth of the child; [
TIM. Which do you count the head-stone of the building, that which is first or last laid?
PHIL. The foundation is the head-stone in honour, the top stone is the head-stone in height. The former the head-stone in strength, the latter in the stature. It seemeth that God’s Spirit, of set purpose, made use of a doubtful word, to show that the whole fabric of our salvation, whether as founded, or as finished, is the only work of God’s grace alone. Christ is the alpha and omega thereof, not excluding all the letters in the alphabet interposed.
TIM. How must the minister preach Christ to an afflicted conscience?
PHIL. He must crucify him before his eyes, lively setting him forth; naked, to clothe him; wounded, to cure him; dying, to save him. He is to expound and explain unto him the dignity of his person, preciousness of his blood, plenteousness of his mercy, in all those loving relations wherein the Scripture presents him: a kind father to a prodigal child, a careful hen to a scattered chicken, a good shepherd that bringeth his lost sheep back on his shoulders.
TIM. Spare me one question: why doth he not drive the sheep before him, especially seeing it was lively enough to lose itself?
PHIL. First, because though it had wildness
too much to go astray, it had not wisdom
TIM. Pardon my interruption, and proceed, how Christ is to be held forth.
PHIL. The latitude and extent of his love, his invitation without exception, are powerfully to be pressed; every one that thirsteth, all ye that are heavy laden, whosoever believeth, and the many promises of mercy, are effectually to be tendered unto him.
TIM. Where are those promises in Scripture?
PHIL. Or rather, where are they not? for
they are harder to be missed than to be met
with. Open the Bible (as he who drew his bow in battle) [
TIM. Are these more principal places of consolation than any other in the Bible?
PHIL. I know there is no choosing, where
all things are choicest. Whosoever shall select
some pearls out of such a heap, shall leave behind
TIM. Must ministers have variety of several comfortable promises?
PHIL. Yes, surely: such masters of the assembly being to enter and fasten consolation in an afflicted soul, need have many nails provided beforehand, that if some for the present chance to drive untowardly, as splitting, going awry, turning crooked or blunt, they may have others in the room thereof.
TIM. But grant Christ held out never so plainly, pressed never so powerfully, yet all is in vain, except God inwardly with his Spirit persuade the wounded conscience to believe the truth of what he saith.
PHIL. This is an undoubted truth, for one
Answers to the Objections of a wounded Conscience, drawn from the Grievousness of his Sins.
GIVE me leave now, sir, to personate and represent a wounded conscience, and to allege and enforce such principal objections wherewith generally they are grieved.
PHIL. With all my heart, and God bless my endeavours in answering them.
TIM. But first I would be satisfied how it
comes to pass, that men in a wounded conscience have their parts so presently improved.
The Jews did question concerning our Saviour,
How knoweth this man letters, being never
learned? [
PHIL. Two reasons may be rendered thereof. 1. Because a man in a distemper is stronger than when he is in his perfect health. What Samsons are some in the fit of a fever? Then their spirits, being raised by the violence of their disease, push with all their power. So it is in the agony of a distressed soul, every string thereof is strained to the height, and a man becomes more than himself to object against himself in a fit of despair.
TIM. What is the other reason?
PHIL. Satan himself, that subtle sophister,
assists them. He forms their arguments, frames
their objections, fits their distinctions, shapes
their evasions; and this discomforter (aping
God’s Spirit, the Comforter,
TIM. To come now to the objections which
afflicted consciences commonly make; they may
be reduced to three principal heads; either
drawn from the greatness and grievousness
PHIL. I approve your method; pray proceed.
TIM. First, sir, even since my conversion, I
have been guilty of many grievous sins; and,
which is worse, of the same sin many times
committed. Happy Judah, [
PHIL. All this is answered in God’s promise in the prophet,
Though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them as snow. [
TIM. But, sir, I have sinned against most serious resolutions, yea, against most solemn vows, which I have made to the contrary.
PHIL. Vow-breaking, though a grievous sin,
is pardonable on unfeigned repentance. If thou
hast broken a vow, tie a knot on it to make it
hold together again. It is spiritual thrift, and
no misbecoming baseness, to piece and joint thy
neglected promises with fresh ones. So shall
thy vow in effect be not broken when new
mended: and remain the same, though not by
one entire continuation, yet by a constant successive renovation thereof. Thus Jacob renewed his neglected vow of going to
Bethel;
TIM. What mean you by the addition of that clause, if of moment and material?
PHIL. To deal plainly, I dislike many vows
men make, as of reading just so much and praying so often every day, of confining themselves
to such a strict proportion of meat, drink, sleep,
recreation, &c. Many things may be well done,
which are ill vowed. Such particular vows
men must be very sparing how they make.
TIM. But, sir, I have committed the sin against the Holy Ghost, which the Saviour of mankind pronounceth unpardonable, and therefore all your counsels and comforts unto me are in vain.
PHIL. The Devil, the father of lies, hath
added this lie to those which he hath told before, in persuading thee thou hast committed
the sin against the Holy Ghost. For that sin
is ever attended with these two symptoms.
First, the party guilty thereof never grieves
for it, nor conceives the least sorrow in his
heart for the sin he hath committed. The
second, which followeth on the former, he
never wishes or desires any pardon, but is delighted
Answers to the Objections of a wounded Conscience drawn from the Slightness of his Repentance.
I BELIEVE my sins are pardonable in themselves, but alas! my stony heart is such, that it cannot relent and repent, and therefore no hope of my salvation.
PHIL. Wouldst thou sincerely repent? thou dost repent. The women that came to embalm Christ did carefully forecast with themselves who shall roll away the stone from the door of the sepulchre?
[
TIM. But, sir, I cannot weep for my sins; my eyes are like the pit wherein Joseph was put; there is no water in them, I cannot squeeze one tear out of them.
PHIL. Before I come to answer your objection, I must premise a profitable observation.
I have taken notice of a strange opposition betwixt the tongues and eyes of such as have
troubled consciences. Their tongues some have
known (and I have heard) complain that they
cannot weep for their sins, when at that instant
their eyes have plentifully shed store of tears:
not that they spake out of dissimulation, but
distraction. So sometimes have I smiled at
the simplicity of a child, who being amazed,
and demanded whether or no he could speak,
hath answered, No. If in like manner, at the
TIM. This your observation may be comfortable to others, but is impertinent to me. For, as I told you, I have by nature such dry eyes that they will afford no moisture to bemoan my sins.
PHIL. Then it is a natural defect, and no
moral default, so by consequence a suffering,
and no sin which God will punish. God doth
not expect the pipe should run water where he
put none into the cistern. Know also, their
hearts may be fountains whose eyes are flints,
and may inwardly bleed, who do not outwardly weep. Besides, Christ was sent to preach
comfort, [
TIM. You say something, though I cannot
weep, in case I could soundly sorrow for my
sins. But alas! for temporal losses and crosses,
I am like Rachel, lamenting for her children,
PHIL. In the best saints of God, their sorrow for their sins being measured with the sorrow for their sufferings, in one respect will fall short of it, in another must equal it, and in a third respect doth exceed and go beyond it. Sorrow for sins falls short of sorrow for sufferings, in loud lamenting or violent uttering itself in outward expressions thereof; as in roaring, wringing the hands, rending the hair, and the like. Secondly, both sorrows are equal in their truth and sincerity, both far from hypocrisy, free from dissimulation, really hearty, cordial, uncounterfeited. Lastly, sorrow for sin exceeds sorrow for suffering, in the continuance and durableness thereof: the other like a land-flood, quickly come, quickly gone; this is a continual dropping or running river, keeping a constant stream. My sins, saith David, are ever before me; so also is the sorrow for sin in the soul of a child of God, morning, evening, day, night, when sick, when sound, feasting, fasting, at home, abroad, ever within him. This grief begins at his conversion, continues all his life, ends only at his death.
TIM. Proceed, I pray, in this comfortable point.
PHIL. It may still be made plainer by comparing two diseases together, the toothache and consumption. Such as are troubled with the former shriek and cry out, troublesome to themselves, and others in the same and next roof: and no wonder, the mouth itself being plaintiff, if setting forth its own grievances to the full. Yet the toothache is known to be no mortal malady, having kept some from their beds, seldom sent them to their graves; hindered the sleep of many, hastened the death of few. On the other side, he that hath an incurable consumption saith little, cries less, but grieves most of all. Alas! he must be a good husband of the little breath left in his broken lungs, not to spend it in sighing, but in living; he makes no noise, is quiet and silent; yet none will say but that his inward grief is greater than the former.
TIM. How apply you this comparison to my objection?
PHIL. In corporal calamities, thou complainest more like him in the toothache, but thy sorrow for thy sin, like a consumption, which lies at the heart, hath more solid heaviness therein. Thou dost take in more grief for thy sins, though thou mayest take on more grievously for thy sufferings.
TIM. This were something, if my sorrow for
PHIL. I answer, first in general: I am glad to hear this objection come from thee, for self-suspicion of hypocrisy is a hopeful symptom of sincerity. It is a David that cries out, As for me I am poor and needy; but lukewarm Laodicea that brags, I am rich, and want nothing.
TIM. Answer, I pray, the objection in particular.
PHIL. Presently, when I have premised
the great difference betwixt a man’s being a
hypocrite, and having some hypocrisy in him.
Wicked men are like the apples of Sodom,
TIM. But some in the present day are utter
enemies to all marks of sincerity, counting it
PHIL. I know as much; but it is the worst sign, when men of this description hate all signs: but no wonder if the foundered horse cannot abide the smith’s pincers.
TIM. Proceed, I pray, in your signs of sincerity.
PHIL. Art thou careful to order thy very
thoughts, because the Infinite Searcher of the
heart doth behold them? Dost thou freely and
fully confess thy sins to God, spreading them
open in his presence, without any desire or
endeavour to deny, dissemble, defend, excuse,
or extenuate them? Dost thou delight in an
universal obedience to all God’s laws, not thinking with the superstitious Jews, by over keeping
the fourth commandment, to make reparation
to God for breaking all the rest? Dost thou
love their persons and preaching best, who most
clearly discover thine own faults and corruptions unto thee? Dost thou strive against thy
revengeful nature, not only to forgive those who
have offended thee, but also to wait an occasion
with humility to render a suitable favour to
them? Dost thou love grace and goodness even
in those who differ from thee in point of opinion
and civil controversies? Canst thou fee sorrowful for the sins of others, no whit relating unto
TIM. Why do you make these to be the signs of sincerity?
PHIL. Because there are but two principles which act in men’s hearts, namely, nature and grace; or, as Christ distinguishes them, flesh and blood, and our Father which is in Heaven. Now seeing these actions, by us propounded, are either against or above nature, it doth necessarily follow, that where they are found, they flow from saving grace. For what is higher than the roof and very pinnacle, as I may say, of nature, cannot be lower than the bottom and beginning of grace.
TIM. Perchance, on serious search, I may make hard shift to find some one or two of these signs, but not all of them, in my heart.
PHIL. As I will not bow to flatter any, so I
will fall down, as far as truth will give me leave,
to reach comfort to the humble, to whom it is
due. Know to thy further consolation, that
where some of these signs truly are, there are
more, yea all of them, though not so visible
and conspicuous, but in a dimmer and darker
degree. When we behold violets and primroses fairly to flourish, we conclude the dead of
the winter is past, though as yet no roses or
July flowers appear, which long after lie hid
Answers to the Objections of a wounded Conscience drawn from the Feebleness of his Faith.
BUT faith is that which must apply Christ unto us, whilst (alas!) the hand of my faith hath not only the shaking, but the dead palsy; it can neither hold nor feel anything.
PHIL. If thou canst not hold God, do but touch him, and he
shall hold thee, and put feeling into thee. Saint Paul saith, If that I may
apprehend that for which also I am apprehended
of Christ Jesus. [
TIM. But I am sure my faith is not sound,
because it is not attended with assurance of salvation. For I doubt (not to say despair) thereof.
PHIL. Such deliver both a false and dangerous doctrine; as the careless mother killed her little infant, for she over-laid it:
[
TIM. Is not certainty of salvation a part of every true faith?
PHIL. No, verily, much less is it the life and formality of
faith, which consists only in a recumbency on God in Christ, with Job’s
resolution, Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. [
TIM. Is then assurance of salvation a peculiar personal favour, indulged by God, only to some particular persons?
PHIL. Yes, verily: though the salvation of
all God’s servants be sure in itself, yet is only
assured to the apprehensions of some select people,
TIM. May they that have this assurance afterwards lose it?
PHIL. Undoubtedly they may; God first is gracious to give it them, they for a time careful to keep it; then negligently lose it, then sorrowfully seek it. God again is bountiful to restore it; they happy to recover it; for a while diligent to regain it, then again foolish to forfeit it, and so the same changes in one’s lifetime, often over and over again.
TIM. But some will say, If I may be infallibly saved without this assurance, I will never endeavour to attain it.
PHIL. I would have covered my flowers, if I had suspected such spiders would have sucked them. One may go to heaven without this assurance, as certainly, but not so cheerfully, and therefore prudence to obtain our own comfort, and piety to obey God’s command, obliges us all to give diligence to make our calling and election sure, both in itself and in our apprehension.
God alone can satisfy all Objections of a wounded Conscience.
BUT, sir, these your answers are no whit satisfactory unto me.
PHIL. An answer may be satisfactory to the objection, both in itself and in the judgment of all unprejudiced hearers, and yet not satisfactory to the objector, and that in two cases: First, when he is possessed with the spirit of peevishness and perverseness. It is lost labour to seek to feed and fill those who have a greedy horseleech of cavilling in their heart, crying, Give, give.
TIM. What is the second case?
PHIL. When the bitterness of his soul is so
great and grievous, that he is like the Israelites in Egypt, who hearkened not to Moses, for
anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage. [
TIM. Such is my condition; what then is to be done unto me?
PHIL. I must change my precepts to thee
into prayers for thee, that God would satisfy
thee early with his mercy, that thou mayest rejoice. [
TIM. What is the difference betwixt God’s and man’s speaking peace to a troubled spirit?
PHIL. Man can neither make him to whom he speaks to hear what he says, or believe what he hears. God speaks with authority, and doth both. His words give hearing to the deaf, and faith to the infidel. When, not the mother of Christ, but Christ himself, shall salute a sick soul with Peace be unto thee, it will leap for joy, as John the babe sprang, though imprisoned in the dark womb of his mother. Thus the offender is not comforted, though many of the spectators and under officers tell him he shall be pardoned, until he hears the same from the mouth of the judge himself who hath power and place to forgive him; and then his heart revives with comfort.
TIM. God send me such comfort: in the mean time, I am thankful unto you for the answers you have given me.
PHIL. All that I will add is this. The Lacedemonians had a law, that if a bad man, or one disesteemed of the people, chanced to give good counsel, he was to stand by, and another, against whose person the people had no prejudice, was to speak over the same words which the former had uttered. I am most sensible to myself of my own wickedness and how justly I am subject to exception. Only my prayer shall be, that whilst I stand by, and am silent, God’s Spirit, which is free from any fault, and full of all perfection, would be pleased to repeat in thy heart the self-same answers I have given to your objections: and then, what was weak, shallow, and unsatisfying, as it came from my mouth, shall and will be full, powerful, and satisfactory, as re-inforced in thee by God’s Spirit.
Means to be used by wounded Consciences for the recovering of Comfort.
ARE there any useful means to be prescribed, whereby wounded consciences may recover comfort the sooner?
PHIL. Yes, there are.
TIM. But now in the present day, some condemn all using of means. Let grace alone (say they) fully and freely do its own work: and thereby man’s mind will in due time return to a good temper of its own accord: this is the most spiritual serving of God, whilst using of means makes but dunces and truants in Christ’s school.
PHIL. What they pretend spiritual will prove airy and empty, making lewd and lazy Christians: means may and must be used with these cautions. 1. That they be of God’s appointment in his word, and not of man’s mere invention. 2. That we still remember they are but means, and not the main. For to account of helps more than helps is the highway to make them hinderances. Lastly, that none rely barely on the deed done; which conceit will undo him that did it, especially if any opinion of merit be affixed therein.
TIM. What is the first means I must use; for I re-assume to personate a wounded conscience?
PHIL. Constantly pray to God, that in his due time he would speak peace unto thee.
TIM. My prayers are better omitted than
performed; they are so weak they will but
bring the greater punishment upon me, and
involve me within the prophet’s curse, to
PHIL. Prayers negligently performed draw a curse, but not prayers weakly performed. The former is when one can do better, and will not; the latter is when one would do better, but, alas! he cannot: and such failings, as they are his sins, so they are his sorrows also: pray therefore faintly, that thou mayest pray fervently; pray weakly, that thou mayest pray strongly.
TIM. But in the law they were forbidden to
offer to God any lame sacrifice, [
PHIL. 1. Observe a great difference betwixt
the material sacrifice under the law, and spiritual sacrifices (the calves of the lips) under
the Gospel. The former were to be free from,
all blemish, because they did typify and resemble Christ himself. The latter (not figuratively
representing Christ, but heartily presented unto
him) must be as good as may be gotten, though
many imperfections will cleave to our best performances, which by God’s mercy are forgiven.
2. Know that that in Scripture is accounted
lame which is counterfeit and dissembling, (in which sense hypocrites are
properly called halters,) [
TIM. What other counsel do you prescribe me?
PHIL. Be diligent in reading the word of God, wherein all comfort is contained; say not that thou art dumpish and indisposed to read, but remember how travellers must eat against their stomach; their journey will digest it; and though their palate find no pleasure for the present, their whole body will feel strength for the future. Thou hast a great journey to go, a wounded conscience has far to travel to find comfort, (and though weary, shall be welcome at his journey’s end,) and therefore must feed on God’s word, even against his own dull disposition, and shall afterwards reap benefit thereby.
TIM. Proceed in your appointing of wholesome diet for my wounded conscience to observe.
PHIL. Avoid solitariness, and associate thyself with pious and godly company: O the
blessed fruits thereof! Such as want skill or
boldness to begin or set a psalm, may competently follow tune in concert with others: many
houses in London have such weak walls, and
are so slightly and slenderly built, that, were
they set alone in the fields, probably they would
not stand an hour; which now ranged in streets,
receive support in themselves, and mutually return
TIM. What else must I do?
PHIL. Be industrious in thy calling: I press
this the more, because some erroneously conceive that a wounded conscience cancels all
indentures of service, and gives them (during
their affliction) a dispensation to be idle. The inhabitants of the bishopric of Durham pleaded a privilege,
TIM. But though wounded consciences are not to be freed from all work, are they not to be favoured in their work?
PHIL. Yes, verily. Here let me be the advocate to such parents and masters, who have sons, servants, or others, under their authority, afflicted with wounded consciences. O, do not, with the Egyptian taskmasters, exact of them the full tale of their brick! O, spare a little till they have recovered some strength! Unreasonable that maimed men should pass on equal duty with such soldiers as are sound.
TIM. How must I dispose myself on the Lord’s day?
PHIL. Avoid all servile work, and expend
it only in such actions as tend to the sanctifying thereof. God, the great landlord of all
time, hath let out six days in the week to
man to farm them; the seventh day he reserves as a demesne in his own hand: if therefore we would have quiet possession, and comfortable use of what God hath leased out to us,
let us not encroach on his demesne. Some Popish people
TIM. What other means must I use for expedition of comfort to my wounded conscience?
PHIL. Confess that sin or sins, [
TIM. This confession is but a device of divines, thereby to screw themselves into other men’s secrets, so to mould and manage them with more ease to their own profit.
PHIL. God forbid they should have any other
design but your safety, and therefore choose
your confessor, where you please, to your own
contentment; so that you may find ease, fetch
TIM. But such confession hath been counted rather a rack for sound, than a remedy for wounded consciences.
PHIL. It proves so, as abused in the Romish Church, requiring an enumeration of all mortal sins, therein supposing an error, that some sins are not mortal, and imposing an impossibility, that all can be reckoned up. Thus the conscience is tortured, because it can never tread firmly, feeling no bottom, being still uncertain of confession, (and so of absolution,) whether or no he hath acknowledged all his sins. But where this ordinance is commended as convenient, not commanded as necessary, left free, not forced, in cases of extremity sovereign use may be made, and hath been found thereof, neither magistrate nor minister carrying the sword or the keys in vain.
TIM. But, sir, I expected some rare inventions from you for curing wounded consciences: whereas all your receipts hitherto are old, stale, usual, common, and ordinary; there is nothing new in any of them.
PHIL. I answer first, if a wounded conscience had been a new disease, never heard
of in God’s word before this time, then perchance we must have been forced to find out
TIM. But your receipts are too loose and large, not fitted and appropriated to my malady alone. For all these (pray, read, keep good company, be diligent in thy calling, observe the Sabbath, confess thy sins, &c.) may as well be prescribed to one guilty of presumption, as to me, ready to despair.
PHIL. It doth not follow that our physic is not proper for one, because it may be profitable for both.
TIM. But despair and presumption, being contrary diseases, flowing from contrary causes, must have contrary cures.
PHIL. Though they flow immediately from contrary causes, yet originally from the common fountain of natural corruption: and therefore such means as I have propounded, tending towards the mortifying of our corrupt nature, may generally, though not equally, be useful to humble the presuming, and comfort the despairing; but to cut off” cavils, in the next dialogue we will come closely to peculiar counsels unto thee.
Four wholesome Counsels, for a wounded Conscience to practise.
PERFORM your promise; which is the first counsel you commend unto me?
PHIL. Take heed of ever renouncing thy
filial interest in God, though thy sins deserve
that he should disclaim his paternal relation
to thee. The prodigal, returning to his father,
did not say, I am not thy son, but I am no more
worthy to be called thy son. [
TIM. I conceive this a needful caution.
PHIL. It will appear so if we consider what
the Apostle saith, that we wrestle with principalities and powers. [
TIM. Proceed to your second counsel.
PHIL. Give credit to what grave and godly
persons conceive of thy condition, rather than
what thy own fear (an incompetent judge) may
suggest unto thee. A seared conscience thinks
better of itself, a wounded worse, than it ought:
the former may account all sin a sport, the
latter all sport a sin: melancholy men, when
sick, are ready to conceit any cold to be the
cough of the lungs, and an ordinary pustule no
TIM. But it seems unreasonable that I should rather trust another saying, than my own sense of myself.
PHIL. Every man is best judge of his own self, if he be his own self; but during the swoon of a wounded conscience, I deny thee to be come to thy own self: whilst thine eyes are blubbering, and a tear hangs before thy sight, thou canst not see things clearly and truly, because looking through a double medium of air and water; so whilst this cloud of pensiveness is pendent before the eyes of thy soul, thine estate is erroneously represented unto thee.
TIM. What is your third counsel?
PHIL. In thy agony of a troubled conscience,
always look upwards unto a gracious God to
keep thy soul steady; for looking downward on
thyself thou shalt find nothing but what will
increase thy fear, infinite sins, good deeds few
and imperfect: it is not thy faith, but God’s faithfulness, thou must rely upon; casting thine
eyes downwards on thyself to behold the great
distance betwixt what thou deservest and what
thou desirest, is enough to make thee giddy,
TIM. Sir, your fourth and last counsel.
PHIL. Be not disheartened, as if comfort
would not come at all, because it comes not
all at once, but patiently attend God’s leisure;
they are not styled the swift, but the sure mercies of David: and the same prophet says, the
glory of the Lord shall be thy reward: [
TIM. Wherein was it remarkable?
PHIL. In obedience to his master: he went
several times to the sea; it is tedious for me to
tell what was not troublesome for him to do,
one, two, three, four, five, six, seven times sent down steep Carmel, [
TIM. I shall be happy if I find it so.
PHIL. Consider the causes why a broken leg
is incurable in a horse, and easily curable in a
man: the horse is incapable of counsel to submit himself to the farrier, and therefore, in case
his leg be set, he flings, flounces, and flies out,
unjointing it again by his misemployed mettle,
counting all binding to be shackles and fetters
unto him; whereas a man willingly resigns
himself to be ordered by the surgeon, preferring rather to be a prisoner for some days, than
a cripple all his life. Be not like a horse or
mule, which have no understanding: [
Comfortable Meditations for wounded Consciences to muse upon.
FURNISH me, I pray, with some comfortable meditations; whereon I may busy and employ my soul when alone.
PHIL. First, consider that our Saviour had
TIM. Proceed, I pray, in this comfortable subject.
PHIL. Secondly, consider that herein, like
Elijah, thou needest not complain that thou art
left alone, seeing the best of God’s saints in all
ages have smarted in the same kind: instance
in David: indeed, sometimes he boasts how he
lay in green pastures, and was led by still waters; [
TIM. I am loath to interrupt you in so welcome a discourse.
PHIL. Thirdly, consider that thou hast had,
though not grace enough to cure thee, yet
enough to keep thee, and conclude that he
whose goodness hath so long held thy head
above water from drowning, will at last bring
thy whole body safely to the shore. The wife
of Manoah had more faith than her husband, and thus she reasoned: If the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not have received
a burnt and a meat offering at our hands.
[
TIM. It is pity to disturb you; proceed.
PHIL. Fourthly, consider that, besides the
private stock of thy own, thou tradest on the
public store of all good men’s prayers, put up
to heaven for thee. What a mixture of languages met in Jerusalem at Pentecost,
[
TIM. Is it not requisite, to entitle me to the profit of other men’s prayers, that I particularly know their persons which pray for me?
PHIL. Not at all, no more than it is needful that the eye or face must see the backward parts, which is difficult, or the inward parts of the body, which is impossible; without which sight, by sympathy they serve one another. And such is the correspondency by prayers betwixt the mystical members of Christ’s body, corporally unseen one by another.
TIM. Proceed to a fifth meditation.
PHIL. Consider, there be five kinds of consciences on foot in the world; first, an ignorant
TIM. I hearken unto you with attention and comfort.
PHIL. Lastly, consider the good effects of a
wounded conscience, privative for the present,
and positive for the future. First, privative,
this heaviness of thy heart (for the time being)
is a bridle to thy soul, keeping it from many
sins it would otherwise commit. Thou that
now sittest sad in thy shop, or walkest pensive
in thy parlour, or standest sighing in thy chamber, or liest sobbing on thy bed, mightest perchance
TIM. What are the positive benefits of a wounded conscience?
PHIL. Thereby the graces in thy soul will be proved, approved, improved. Oh, how clear will thy sunshine be, when this cloud is blown over! And here I can hardly hold from envying thy happiness hereafter. Oh that I might have thy future crown, without thy present cross; thy triumphs, without thy trial; thy conquest, without thy combat! But I recall my wish, as impossible, seeing what God hath joined together, no man can put asunder. These things are so twisted together, I must have both or neither.
That is not always the greatest Sin whereof a Man is guilty, wherewith his Conscience is most pained for the present.
IS that the greatest sin in man’s soul, wherewith his wounded conscience, in the agony thereof, is most perplexed?
PHIL. It is so commonly, but not constantly. Commonly, indeed, that sin most pains and pinches him, which commands as principal in his soul.
TIM. Have all men’s hearts some one paramount sin, which rules as sovereign over all the rest?
PHIL. Most have. Yet, as all countries are not monarchies governed by kings, but some by free states, where many together have equal power; so it is possible (though rare) that one man may have two, three, or more sins, which jointly domineer in his heart, without any discernible superiority betwixt them.
TIM. Which are the sins that most generally wound and afflict a man, when his conscience is terrified?
PHIL. No general rule can exactly be given
herein. Sometimes, that sin in acting whereof
TIM. May one who is guilty of very great sins sometimes have his conscience much troubled only for a small one?
PHIL. Yes, verily: country patients often
complain, not of the disease which is most
dangerous, but most conspicuous. Yea, sometimes they are more troubled with the symptom
of a disease (suppose an ill colour, bad breath,
TIM. Reckon them in order.
PHIL. First, that God may show in him, that as sins are like the sands in number, so they are far above them in heaviness, whereof the least crumb taken asunder, and laid on the conscience by God’s hand, in full weight thereof, is enough to drive it to despair.
TIM. What is the second reason?
PHIL. To manifest God’s justice, that those should be choked with a gnat-sin, who have swallowed many camel-sins, without the least regret. Thus some may be terrified for not fasting on Friday, because indeed they have been drunk on Sunday: they may be perplexed for their wanton dreams, when sleeping, because they were never truly humbled for their wicked deeds, when waking. Yea, those who never feared Babylon the great, may be frightened with little Zoar; I mean, such as have been faulty in flat superstition may be tortured for committing or omitting a thing in its own nature indifferent.
TIM. What is the third reason?
PHIL. That this pain for a lesser sin may occasion his serious scrutiny into greater offences. Any paltry cur may serve to start and put up the game out of the bushes, whilst fiercer and fleeter hounds are behind to course and catch it. God doth make use of a smaller sin, to raise and rouse the conscience out of security, and to put it up, as we say, to be chased, by the reserve of far greater offences, lurking behind in the soul, unseen and unsorrowed for.
TIM. May not the conscience be troubled at that which in very deed is no sin at all, nor hath truly so much as but the appearance of evil in it?
PHIL. It may. Through the error of the understanding, such a mistake may follow in the conscience.
TIM. What is to be done in such a case?
PHIL. The party’s judgment must be rectified, before his conscience can be pacified.
Then is it the wisest way to persuade him to
lay the axe of repentance to the root of corruption in his heart. When real sins in his
soul are felled by unfeigned sorrow, causeless
scruples will fall of themselves. Till that root
be cut down, not only the least bough and
branch of that tree, but the smallest sprig,
Obstructions hindering the speedy flowing of Comfort into a troubled Soul.
HOW comes it to pass, that comfort is so long a coming to some wounded consciences?
PHIL. It proceeds from several causes: either from God, not yet pleased to give it; or the patient, not yet prepared to receive it; or the minister, not well fitted to deliver it.
TIM. How from God not yet pleased to give it?
PHIL. His time to bestow consolation is not
yet come: now no plummets of the heaviest
human importunity can so weigh down God’s clock of time, as to make it strike one minute
before his hour be come. [
TIM. How may the hinderance be in the patient himself?
PHIL. He may as yet not be sufficiently humbled, or else God perchance in his providence foresees, that as the prodigal child, when he had received his portion, riotously misspent it, so this sick soul, if comfort were imparted unto him, would prove an unthrift and ill husband upon it, would lose and lavish it. God therefore conceives it most for his glory, and the other’s good, to keep the comfort still in his own hand, till the wounded conscience get more wisdom to manage and employ it.
TIM. May not the sick man’s too mean opinion of the minister be a cause why he reaps no more comfort by his counsel?
PHIL. It may. Perchance the sick man hath
formerly slighted and neglected that minister,
and God will now not make him the instrument
for his comfort, who before had been the object
of his contempt. But on the other side, we must
also know, that perchance the party’s over-high
opinion of the minister’s parts, piety, and corporal presence (as if he cured where he came,
and carried ease with him) may hinder the
operation of his advice. For God grows jealous
TIM. How may the obstructions be in the minister himself?
PHIL. If he comes unprepared by prayer, or
possessed with pride, or unskilful in what he
undertakes; wherefore in such cases, a minister
may do well to reflect on himself (as the disciples did when they could not cast out the
Devil), [
TIM. However, you would not have him wholly disheartened with his ill-success.
PHIL. O no; but let him comfort himself
with these considerations. First, that though
the patient gets no benefit by him, he may gain
experience by the patient, thereby being enabled more effectually to proceed with some
other in the same disease. Secondly, though
the sick man refuses comfort for the present,
yet what doth not sink on a sudden may soak
in by degrees, and may prove profitable afterwards.
TIM. But what if this minister hath been the means to cast this sick man down, and now cannot comfort him again?
PHIL. In such a case, he must make this sad accident the more matter for his humiliation, but not for his dejection. Besides, he is bound, both in honour and honesty, civility and Christianity, to procure what he cannot perform, calling in the advice of others more able to assist him, not conceiving, out of pride or envy, that the discreet craving of the help of others is a disgraceful confessing of his own weakness: like those malicious midwives, who had rather that the woman in travail should miscarry, than be safely delivered by the hand of another more skilful than themselves.
What is to be conceived of their final Estate who die in a wounded Conscience without any visible Comfort.
WHAT think you of such, who yield up their ghost in the agony of an afflicted spirit, without receiving the least sensible degree of comfort?
PHIL. Let me be your remembrancer to call or keep in your mind what I said before, that our discourse only concerns the children of God: this notion renewed, I answer. It is possible that the sick soul may receive secret solace, though the standers-by do not perceive it. We know how insensibly Satan may spirt and inject despair into a heart, and shall we not allow the Lord of heaven to be more dexterous and active with his antidotes than the Devil is with his poisons?
TIM. Surely, if he had any such comfort, he
would show it by words, signs, or some way,
were it only but to comfort his sad kindred, and
content such sorrowful friends which survive
him; were there any hidden fire of consolation kindled in his heart, it would sparkle in
his looks and gestures, especially seeing no
PHIL. It may be he cannot discover the comfort he hath received, and that for two reasons: First, because it comes so late, when he lies in the marshes of life and death, being so weak, that he can neither speak, nor make signs with Zechariah, being at that very instant when the silver cord is ready to be loosed, and the golden bowl to be broken, and the pitcher to be broken at the fountain, and the wheel to be broken at the cistern.
TIM. What may be the other reason?
PHIL. Because the comfort itself may be incommunicable in its own nature, which the
party can take and not tell; enjoy, and not
express; receive, and not impart: as by the
assistance of God’s Spirit, he sent up groans which cannot be uttered, [
TIM. All this proceeds on what is possible or probable, but amounts to no certainty.
PHIL. Well, then, suppose the worst, this is most sure, though he die without tasting of any comfort here, he may instantly partake of everlasting joys hereafter. Surely many a despairing soul, groaning out his last breath with fear and thought to sink down to hell, hath presently been countermanded by God’s goodness to eternal happiness.
TIM. What you say herein, no man alive can confirm or confute, as being known to God alone, and the soul of the party. Only I must confess that you have charity on your side.
PHIL. I have more than charity, namely, God’s plain and positive promise, Blessed are such as mourn, for they shall be comforted. [Matth.v. 4.] Now though the particular time when be not expressed, yet the latest date that can be allowed must be in the world to come, where such mourners, who have not felt God in his comfort here, shall see him in his glory in heaven.
TIM. But some who have led pious and godly lives have departed, pronouncing the sentence of condemnation upon themselves, having one foot already in hell by their own confession.
PHIL. Such confessions are of no validity, wherein their fear bears false witness against their faith. The fineness of the whole cloth of their life must not be thought the worse of, for a little coarse list at the last. And also their final estate is not to be construed by what was dark, doubtful, and desperate at their deaths, but must be expounded by what was plain, clear, and comfortable in their lives.
TIM. You then are confident, that a holy life must have a happy death.
PHIL. Most confident. The logicians hold,
that, although from false premises a true conclusion may sometimes follow; yet from true
propositions nothing but a truth can be thence
inferred;
TIM. What makes that place to your purpose?
PHIL. Exceeding much. Five cordial observations are couched therein. First, that God
sets a high price and valuation on the souls
of his servants, in that he is pleased to hide
them: none will hide toys and trifles, but what
is counted a treasure. Secondly, the word hide,
as a relative, imports, that some seek after our
souls, being none other than Satan himself, that
roaring lion, who goes about seeking whom he
may devour. [
TIM. It is pity but that so comfortable a doctrine should be true.
PHIL. It is most true: surely as Joseph and Mary conceived that they had lost Christ in a
crowd, and sought him three days sorrowing, [
Of the different Time and Manner of the coming of Comfort to such who are healed of a wounded Conscience.
HOW long may a servant of God lie under the burden of a wounded conscience?
PHIL. It is not for us to know the times and
the seasons, which the Father hath put in his
own power. [
TIM. How then is it that St. Paul saith, that
God will give us the issue with the temptation,
[
PHIL. The Apostle is not so to be understood, as if the temptation and issue were twins,
both born at the same instant; for then no
affliction could last long, but must be ended as
soon as it is begun; whereas we read how Æneas,
truly pious, was bedridden of the palsy eight years; [
TIM. What then is the meaning of the Apostle?
PHIL. God will give the issue with the temptation; that is, the temptation and the issue bear both the same date in God’s decreeing them, though not in his applying them: at the same time wherein he resolved his servants shall be tempted, he also concluded of the means and manner how the same persons should infallibly be delivered. Or thus: God will give the issue with the temptation; that is, as certainly, though not as suddenly. Though they go not abreast, yet they are joined successively, like two links in a chain; where one ends, the other begins. Besides, there is a twofold issue; one, through a temptation; another, out of a temptation. The former is but mediate, not final; an issue to an issue, only supporting the person tempted for the present, and preserving him for a future full deliverance. Understand the Apostle thus, and the issue is always both given and applied to God’s children, with the temptation, though the temptation may last long after, before fully removed.
TIM. I perceive, then, that in some a wounded conscience may continue many years.
PHIL. So it may. I read of a poor widow,
in the land of Limburgh,
TIM. Doth God give ease to all in such manner, on a sudden?
PHIL. O no: some receive comfort suddenly, and in an instant they pass from midnight to bright day, without any dawning betwixt. Others receive consolation by degrees, which is not poured, but dropped into them by little and little.
TIM. Strange, that God’s dealing herein should be so different with his servants.
PHIL. It is to show, that, as in his proceedings there is no variableness,
[
TIM. Why doth not God give them consolation all at once?
PHIL. The more to employ their prayers, and exercise their
patience. One may admire why Boaz did not give to Ruth a quantity of corn
more or less, so sending her home to her mother, but that rather he kept her
still to glean; [
TIM. What must the party do when he perceives God and his comfort beginning to draw nigh unto him?
PHIL. As Martha, when she heard that Christ was coming, stayed not a minute at home,
but went out of her house to meet him; [
How such who are completely cured of a wounded Conscience are to demean themselves.
GIVE me leave now to take upon me the person of one recovered out of a wounded conscience.
PHIL. In the first place, I must heartily congratulate thy happy condition, and must rejoice at thy upsitting, whom God hath raised from the bed of despair: welcome David out of the deep, Daniel out of the lion’s den, Jonah from the whale’s belly, welcome Job from the dunghill, restored to health and wealth again.
TIM. Yea, but when Job’s brethren came to
visit him after his recovery, every one gave him
a piece of money, and an ear-ring of gold: [
PHIL. I have need to come to thee, and comest thou to me? Fain would I be a Paul, sitting at the feet of such a Gamaliel, who hath
been cured of a wounded conscience in the
height thereof: I would turn my tongue into
ears, and listen attentively to what tidings he
brings from hell itself. Yea, I should be worse
TIM. But waiving these digressions, I pray proceed to give me good advice.
PHIL. First thankfully own God thy principal restorer, and comforter paramount. Remember that, of ten lepers, one only returned to give thanks,
[
TIM. Go on, I pray, in your good counsel.
PHIL. Associate thyself with men of afflicted minds, with whom
thou mayest expend thy time to thine and their best advantage. O how excellently
did Paul comply with Aquila and Priscilla! As their hearts agreed in the general
profession of piety, so their hands met in the trade of tent-makers, they abode
and wrought together, being of the same occupation. [
TIM. What instructions must I commend unto them?
PHIL. Even the same comfort wherewith
thou thyself wast comforted of God: [
TIM. What else must I do for my afflicted brethren?
PHIL. Pray heartily to God in their behalf:
when David had prayed,
TIM. Must I not also pray for those servants of God, which hitherto have not been wounded in conscience?
PHIL. Yes, verily, that God would keep them from, or cure them in, the exquisite torment thereof. Beggars, when they crave an alms, constantly use one main motive, that the person of whom they beg may be preserved from that misery whereof they themselves have had woful experience. If they be blind, they cry, Master, God bless your eyesight; if lame, God bless your limbs; if undone by casual burning, God bless you and yours from fire. Christ, though his person be now glorified in heaven, yet he is still subject, by sympathy of his saints on earth, to hunger, nakedness, imprisonment, and a wounded conscience, and so may stand in need of feeding, clothing, visiting, comforting, and curing. Now when thou prayest to Christ for any favour, it is a good plea to urge, edge, and enforce thy request withal, Lord, grant me such or such a grace, and never mayest thou, Lord, in thy mystical members, never be tortured and tormented with the agony of a wounded conscience, in the deepest distress thereof.
TIM. How must I behave myself for the time to come?
PHIL. Walk humbly before God, and carefully avoid the smallest sin, always remembering Christ’s caution: Behold, thou art made
whole; sin no more, lest a worse thing come
unto thee. [
Whether one cured of a wounded Conscience be subject to a Relapse.
MAY a man, once perfectly healed of a wounded conscience, and for some years in peaceable possession of comfort, afterwards fall back into his former disease?
PHIL. Nothing appears in Scripture or reason to the contrary, though examples of real relapses are very rare, because God’s servants are careful to avoid sin, the cause thereof; and being once burnt therewith, ever after dread the fire of a wounded conscience.
TIM. Why call you it a relapse?
PHIL. To distinguish it from those relapses
more usual and obvious, whereby such who
have snatched comfort before God gave it them,
on serious consideration that they had usurped
that to which they had no right, fall back again
into the former pit of despair; this is improperly
TIM. Is there any intimation in Scripture of the possibility of such a real relapse in God’s servants?
PHIL. There is; when David saith, I will hear what God the Lord will
speak, for he will speak peace unto his people,
and to his saints, but let them not turn again to
folly: [
TIM. But this methinks is a diminution to the majesty of God, that a man, once completely cured of a wounded conscience, should again be pained therewith: let mountebanks palliate, cures break out again, being never soundly, but superficially healed: He that is all in all never doth his work by halves, so that it shall be undone afterwards.
PHIL. It is not the same individual wound in number, but the same in kind, and perchance a deeper in degree: nor is it any ignorance or falsehood in the surgeon, but folly and fury in the patient, who, by committing fresh sins, causes a new pain in the old place.
TIM. In such relapses, men are only troubled for such sins which they have run on score since their last recovery from a wounded conscience.
PHIL. Not those alone, but all the sins which they have committed, both before and since their conversion, may be started up afresh in their minds and memories, and grieve and perplex them, with the guiltiness thereof.
TIM. But those sins were formerly fully forgiven, and the pardon thereof solemnly sealed, and assured unto them; and can the guilt of the same recoil again upon their consciences?
PHIL. I will not dispute what God may do in
the strictness of his justice. Such seals, though
still standing firm and fast in themselves, may
notwithstanding break off, and fly open in the
feeling of the sick soul: he will be ready to
conceive with himself, that as Shimei, [
TIM. What remedies do you commend to such souls in relapses?
PHIL. Even the self-same receipts which I
first prescribed to wounded consciences, the
very same promises, precepts, comforts, counsels, cautions. Only as Jacob, the second time
that his sons went down into Egypt, commanded them to carry double money in their
hands; [
Whether it be lawful to pray for, or to pray against, or to praise God for, a wounded Conscience.
IS it lawful for a man to pray to God to visit
him with a wounded conscience?
PHIL. He may and must pray to have his
high and hard heart truly humbled, and bruised
with the sight and sense of his sins, and with
unfeigned sorrow for the same: but may not
TIM. Why interpose you those terms explicitly and directly?
PHIL. Because implicitly and by consequence, one may pray for a wounded conscience: namely, when he submits himself to be disposed by God’s pleasure, referring the particulars thereof wholly to his infinite wisdom, tendering, as I may say, a blank paper to God in his prayers, and requesting him to write therein what particulars he pleases; therein generally and by consequence, he may pray for a wounded conscience, in case God sees the same for his own glory, and the parties’ good; otherwise, directly he may not pray for it.
TIM. How prove you the same?
PHIL. First, because a wounded conscience
is a judgment, and one of the sorest, as the
resemblance of the torments of hell. Now it
is not congruous to nature, or grace, for a man
to be a free and active instrument, purposely
to pull down upon himself the greatest evil that
can befall him in this world. Secondly, we
have neither direction nor precedent of any
saint, recorded in God’s word, to justify and
warrant such prayers. Lastly, though praying
TIM. But we may pray for all means to increase grace in us, and therefore may pray for a wounded conscience, seeing thereby at last piety is improved in God’s servants.
PHIL. We may pray for and make use of all
means whereby grace is increased: namely,
such means as by God are appointed for that
purpose; and therefore, by virtue of God’s institution, have both a proportionableness and
attendency in order thereunto. But properly,
those things are not means, or ordained by God,
for the increase of piety, which are only accidentally overruled to that end by God’s power
against the intention and inclination of the
things themselves. Such is a wounded conscience, being always actually an evil of punishment, and too often occasionally an evil of sin;
the bias whereof doth bend and bow to wickedness: though overruled by the aim of God’s eye, and strength of his arm, it may bring men
to the mark of more grace and goodness. God
can and will extract light out of darkness, good
out of evil, order out of confusion, and comfort
TIM. But a wounded conscience, in God’s children, infallibly ends in comfort here, or glory hereafter, and therefore is to be desired.
PHIL. Though the ultimate end of a wounded conscience winds off in comfort, yet it brings with it many intermediate mischiefs and maladies, especially as managed by human corruption: namely, dulness in divine service, impatience, taking God’s name in vain, despair for the time, blasphemy; which a saint should decline, not desire; shun, not seek; not pursue, but avoid, with his utmost endeavours.
TIM. Is it lawful positively to pray against a wounded conscience?
PHIL. It is, as appears from an argument
taken from the lesser to the greater. If a man
may pray against pinching poverty, as wise
Agur did; [
TIM. May one lawfully praise God for visiting him with a wounded conscience?
PHIL. Yes, verily. First, because it is agreeable to the will of God, in everything to be thankful:
[
AND
now God knows how soon it may
be said unto me, Physician, heal thyself, and how quickly I shall stand in
need of these counsels, which I have
prescribed to others. Herein I say with Eli to It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth
him good: [
Cambridge: Stereotyped and Printed by Welch, Bigelow, & Co.
Genesis
1:11 1:16 1:31 3:8 3:10 3:13 3:15 3:24 3:24 5:22 6:5 6:11 7:2 10:25 14:10 15:1 18:19 22:7 25:5 28:12 28:20 28:20-22 31:19 31:41 33:13 33:19 35:1 35:1 38:26 38:29 41:51 43:12 43:12 45:28 47:17 47:22 47:23
Exodus
1:19 6:9 7:12 8:3 8:7 8:10 12:11 12:41 16:56 19:4 21:4 34:6 34:19
Numbers
5:28 6:23 11:26 11:28 11:33 22:30
Deuteronomy
Joshua
1:5 1:6 1:7 1:9 1:18 2:18 24:15
Judges
Ruth
1 Samuel
1:13 1:14 3:18 11:11 14:24 14:32 15:11 17:36 20:29 24:5 25:10 31:1
2 Samuel
1 1:17 12:13 12:23 12:23 12:28 15:3 15:26 18:13 18:23 19:30 19:32 24:24
1 Kings
2:44 3:19 6:38 8:4 8:6 8:33 8:55 8:66 15:14 18:21 18:42 18:43 21:25 22:34
2 Kings
3:15 4:34 10:31 12:2 16 16:10 16:11 16:13 16:15
1 Chronicles
2 Chronicles
3:8-9 25:22 32:31 33:15 36:7 36:10 36:18
Nehemiah
Job
1:5 1:16 2:8 8:14 13:15 13:26 17:14 20:12 20:13 31:20 39:14 39:15 42:11 42:11
Psalms
2:7 2:8 3:7 7:5 8:3 17:13 19:12 21:3 23:2 23:4 25:2 32:9 37:11 38:2 38:3 38:4 41:3 47:7 50:20 50:21 51:17 55:19 57:7 66:18 66:19 66:20 67:2 68:20 69:2 69:26 73:1 78:20 85:8 90 90:12 95:7 102:6 103:5 103:22 115:10 116:11 119:106 121:1 123:2 125:5 126:5 126:6 147:9
Proverbs
12:27 14:10 15:15 18:14 19:17 23:5 30:8 30:9 30:15 31:6
Ecclesiastes
Isaiah
1:18 7:20 14:23 28:10 38:14 40:1 51:3 54:7 54:11 55:3 58:8 61:1
Jeremiah
Daniel
Hosea
Joel
Nahum
Habakkuk
Zephaniah
Zechariah
Malachi
Matthew
1:7 1:8 3:8 3:8 3:10 3:12 4:11 6:3 9:20 10:10 11:28 12:20 13:8 14:17 17:1 17:19 17:21 18:3 23:14 25:2 25:10 25:18 26:44
Mark
5:37 6:8 8:26 9:25 10:28 12:1 12:44 14:33 16:3
Luke
2:48 3:14 4:13 12:11 13:7 13:11 15:21 15:29 17:17 19:14 19:20 21:26 22:24 22:31 22:32
John
2:4 5:5 5:14 7:15 11:6 11:20 11:41 11:42 14:26 15:2 16:33 18:16 20:19 21:17
Acts
1:7 2 3:2 4:27 9:33 10:2 12:10 14:22 15:39 17:18 17:21 18:3 19:19 19:32 21:14 26:11 26:25 27:15 27:30-32
Romans
1:20 1:30 2:15 4:18 8:26 8:28 9:28
1 Corinthians
6:9 8:12 9:7 9:10 10:13 10:13 10:13 15:19 15:58
2 Corinthians
Galatians
Ephesians
2:12 2:19 3:14 4:19 4:28 4:30 5:16 5:19 5:20 5:27 6:12 6:16 6:18
Philippians
Colossians
1 Thessalonians
1 Timothy
2 Timothy
Philemon
Hebrews
4:12 8:5 11:13 12:1 12:6 12:13 12:22 13:5
James
1 Peter
2 Peter
1 John
Revelation
i ii iii iv v vi vii viii ix x xi xiv 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397