1593. DAVID'S SLING against great GOLIATH: Containing divers notable Treatises, the names whereof follow next after the Epistle to the Reader: by E. H. Mat. 26, 41. Watch and pray. Printed by R. Yardley and Peter Short. Cum privilegio Regiae Maiestatis. To the Right Worshipful Sir George Calueley knight, High Sheriff of the County Palantine of Chester: increase of worship, etc. THe earth being the common mother and milk nurse of all living creatures 〈…〉 gently 〈◊〉 yieldeth a 〈◊〉 more plentiful crop of increase, 〈◊〉 possibly be measured, than, ever at the 〈◊〉 of the husbandman in sowing 〈…〉. A pithy persuasion to thankfulness, and such a notable motive to dutifulness, as a better, no not the like 〈◊〉 devised or imagined. The consideration whereof, 〈◊〉 Worshipful, sinking into mine understanding, and compared with the manifold courtesies, which continu●ly have issued from you, to my normal comfort and commodity hath incensed & set me on fire, though not as I would, yet as I could, to show some manifest sign and argument, that I have your worships goodness in fresh and daily memory: which although I dare not vow to requite, yet will I do what I can in some respect to deserve. Vouchsafe therefore, Right Worshipful, in the mean time, since I have no precious mines, to accept and like well of this my simple mite: simple I confess in common valuation: but precious I dare avouch, in sound judgement and reason. A book it is which a kinsman of mine, not so near as dear unto me, at my urgent request bestowed upon me in writing for my private use, and peculiar exercise. Whereof when I had marked the commodity, and saw that to communicate the same unto the flock of the faithful, were much better, and more thanksworthie, than to keep it at home in my coffer impounded as my proper possession, and portion of my patrimony: I was won and persuaded, at the importunate suit and instance of sundry my trusty friends, who upon circumspect perusing of the same, gave it due and deserved commendation, to consent and agree, Authore agrè serente, & prosus invito, that it should be published for the common benefit of the multitude. Very loath I was, I speak my conscience, to offend my kinsman and friend in any point of presumption: and much more loath, I utter my secret thought, to grieve any godly and devout soul, by detaining any thing, the use whereof might increase their comfort. But being assaulted, as I was, incessantly, with ve hement persuasions and not able with all my five wits, to withstand their weakest reason, I became willing to be ordered and ruled, as they by discretion might dispose me in so honest a request. The same not in writing, Right Worshipful, as I had it: but in print, as you have it, being the firstlings of a Cheshire wit, gathered in a famous seedeplot of great learning and profound knowledge I present unto you with such submission as beseemeth an inferior to his superior, a client to his patron, a well-willer to his benefactor. Beseeching you, of your accustomed courtesy, that as you have from time to time been, not only an earnest savourer and furtherer of godly and zealous men, but also a supporter and maintainer of virtuous and Christian meanings so it would please you with your title of credit and countenance, as with a shield, to defend this religious work, against the darts of the malicious: that underpropped with so strong a pillar, and armed with such furniture of munition and defence, it may have safe conduct and free passage, even through the midst of God's enemies, and so come to the hands of the well disposed and devout. Thus abruptly concluding, I commit your Worship, and all yours, to the tuition and safeguard of him, who never faileth his, the Lord God almighty, who as hitherto he hath, so hereafter he will, even until the day of your death, I doubt not bless you with the dew of heaven, I mean his grace: whereunto I say Amen. Your Worships for sundry causes most dutifully bound, WILLIAM BAKER The Epistle to the Reader. Our adversary the devil is so watchful a lion to devour man, that (as Peter speaketh) he roareth and runneth about seeking by all means possible to devour him. Thus his gre●●●nesse to swallow us aught to be a sufficient motive to make man wary, and a forcible mean to raise him out of the dangerous bed of sin: wherein we daily, yea, and almost 〈◊〉 commit spiritual fornication with the 〈◊〉. ●●sides this, at baptism our sureties in our ●●halfe, did make their protestation before God the father, and mother jerusalem, that we should leave the whorish embracings of Satan, and marry ourselves in holiness of l●fe unto Christ no less carefully than be in the virtue of 〈◊〉 covenant mercifully did offer himself 〈◊〉 all his precious ●ewels at baptism. The marriage was solemnly celebrated by God the father, in the womb of the virgi●● Marie: but at baptism, we in our own per sons do as it were ratify it: protesting that Christ shall be our husband, and that from that time we will take our farewell of the devil, the world, the flesh and all our enmes. Thus being married before such witnesses, we cannot reclaim our league of chastity, unless we will have God himself, and our mother the Church, and Christ himself with all his holy espouse, to bear witness of condemnation against us, to the joy of Satan our capital adversary. And therefore where the devil is called a Dragon with seven heads for his subtilty●: and ten horns, for his cruelty: and now is dust and ashes by nature prone to evil, and therefore unable to withstand him: it behoveth him to take that for his weapon which may keep 〈◊〉 safe from the invasion of Satan: and use that remedy, whereby he 〈◊〉 preserve himself from perjury, and that 〈◊〉 prayer. Wherefore, when man is environed with enemies, when a guilty conscience warreth against him, when the world by falsehood, and the flesh by her allurements is about to deceive him then is standeth him upon to take prayer in hand, that he may be able to conquer all those monstrous Hydra's or rather deceitful whors, which 〈◊〉 and furnish themselves some way or other, to make Christ our Saviour a ●●dowe. And truly of that man would deeply consider with himself, either that he is a perjured person that giveth place to the devil: or that he doth to his power make Christ a weeping widow, as cursed jerusalem did: or that Satan by trapping him in his whorish tricks did utterly undo him: it would not only invite him, but even enforce him to prayer, which is the only means that is able to keep us true and faithful wives to Christ jesus. And therefore the Lord our gracious Saviour weighing with himself not so much man's naughtiness, for the which Bee deserveth a divorcement: as Satan's wondrous pollic●e, and his mother's womb wherein he married us, and baptism, wherein he doth apparel us with his righteousness, as glorious brides, lest that we should play the harlots to cur own harm, whom he had bought with his precious blood, he willeth and as it were beseecheth us, to take prayer, and so to take assistance, that we may live chaste from all sin, even his for ever. Come unto me, saith he, all ye that are heavy and laden, and I will refresh you. Behold, not withstanding our divers and sundry fornications committed with Satan: yet the Lord our gracious husband calleth us unto him, as not willing to divorce us: and inviteth us to prayer, that knowing and acknowledging our own weakness, to withstand the whorish enticements of the Devil, we may desire him our h●d to help and assist us. And truly, as for prayer, we ought so much the more readily to use it, because by it we pierce the heavens, because by it we come into the grooms chamber, and fly as with wings into the lap of our loving husband jesus. And what honest wife would not fl●e to her husband, when an harlot seeketh to abuse her? Sith therefore Satan even from the womb by harlotish trip seeketh to withdraw us from so loving an husband as Christ jesus, who shed his own precious heart blood to redeem us: then, whensoever he attempteth to trap us, it shall be our best safety to leap into his wounds and to run into his bosom by servant & faith full prayer, that being married to him in the virtue of the covenant, we may continue chaste to the end. Otherwise, if being tempted we suffer him to overtempt us: we show ourselves not only despisers of his blood, but also profaners of so holy a marriage, which was kept by the blessed and glorious Trinity in the womb of the virgin Marie. And with what face shall we present ourselves before so loving an husband as jesus Christ at the day of judgement, if that we yield here to the i 〈…〉 sing Devil, and do not by continual and hearty prayer ask assistance that ●e may continue as chaste wives, to live with him in joy for ever. Wherefore, where Christ our husband crieth Come: if we will be counted his wives, and no whores, let us without lingering, always repair unto him in faithful prayer, and let us talk with him in his glorious chamber, and beseech him, as he is a loving husband, that he will take pity upon us, and bestow upon us the gift of spiritual chastity, that so we may be defended from the whorish Pharaoh, who goeth about by all means to make him a desolate widow. But if man be stricken down with the law, and the temptation of his unworthiness withdraw him from presenting his prayers unto the Majesty of God: then must he consider the cursed Can●anite, who being a cur dog, by the testimony of Christ, yet making her appeal unto him, found some crunis of comfort at his hands, and so was exalted to the children's table: look upon this example, and let this suffice. The use of the book I commit to thy discretion, to apply the same unto thy soul, for the succour of the same in necessity, and to thy body, as occasion is ministered Farewell in Christ. E. H. THE NAMES AND NVMber of the Treatises comprised in this book: and where they are to be found by the page. 1 Dauids' Sling against Great Goliath. pag. 1 2 A Sword against the fear of death. 173 3 A battle between the Devil and the conscience. 113 4 The dead man's School. 225 5 A lodge for Lazarus. 243 6 A retreat from sin. 285 7 A prayer unto Almighty God, that the use of this book may be for our profit, made by A. F. pag. 329. DAVID'S SLING against great Goliath. The 1. Morning prayer. O Most Gracious GOD, the Father of all happiness, and fountain of all goodness O wellspring of mercy that art wont beyond merit to display the banners of thy favour, and unlock the closet of thy benefits, not only to the needy Adamite, but generally to all: I am a cursed Canaanite, even a dog un worthy to sit at the table of thy children, or to wait for the crumbs & of scum of their meat O Lord. But notwithstanding all this, my Lord and my God, I hope thou wilt, not whip me out of thy house, but of a dog make me thy drilled by adoption in thy son Christ, who came into this thorny world like a morning star, to guide all straying dogs to their masters palace. The woman of Canaan, she confessed herself a dog. Paul was a Saul, such a cur dog as sought by his teeth to tear the lambs of thy pasture, o Lord: both these dogs did wander in the night of error, and stray from thee their master, to Satan thine enemy, and their adversary. But thy son, mine only joy, of mere mercy became a star to conduct them again unto thee: and so I trust thou wilt deal with me, O God of come for't, and father of mercy. I do not doubt but that as I wander in the field of vanity, so thou wilt recall me by the light of thy Gospel, by the beams of thy sun to thine house, there to dwell with thee for ever, Amen. The 2. Morning prayer. WHat is this world, O Lord? it is evil, it is a palace of vain pleasure, a cage ofiniquitie, or rather a lump of misery. And what am I Lord? what am I but a friend of this present evil world, and an enemy to thee? what am I but a child of wrath and son of darkness, so glued to sin, and limed with iniquity, that my body is a body of sin? What then shall I dó? shall the mountain of sin oppress me? or the world with the baits of vanity so choke me, that I shall never like an eagle fly to the carcase? nor be able to cry for help to thee the only morning star, which art wont to spread forth the beams of comfort unto the needy in time of extremity? O Lord give me wings of faith to fly unto thee, and power upon me the dew of thy blessing, that I may bud and bear the fruit of holiness, through the operation of thy gracious beams. Give me thy grace that I fail not in my vocation that I may do good, & eschew evil, and so make good that vow, which I made unto thee in baptism before beloved Simo on. Save me from falling, and stay my feet from slipping, by thy holy word, which is the glass of thy will, & a lantern to all them that walk in darkness, that being guided over this misty world, I may arrive at the land of promise and palace of rest in a lively faith, Amen. The 3. Morning praisr. QWretch that I am who shall deliver me from this body of sin? oh what shall I do? shall I say with Cain that mine iniquities are greater than can be remitted? shall the mist of mine iniquities choke me? shall the surging waves of mounting sin drown me? or shall I sink in the pit of desperation? noe: I will not. For the sun of mercy can disperse the thick mist and great cloud of mine iniquity: the parching beam of thy sun O Lord, is not only able to calm, but also to dry up the angry flood of sin: and so to dash the ship of Satan that devilish pirate against the sands. So that no storm of the Devil shall overturn me, no raging blast of sin shall dismay me, no thundercracke of biting conscience shall sink the little bark of my weak faith, which is grounded upon a rock, and overcometh the world. Indeed if I were left to myself, than were there no way but sinking and shipwreck: but thanks be to thee O gracious god for it, thou hast not left me to myself to wade in the Gulf of desperation: but thou hast spread forth the beams of thy mercy, and by the heat of thy charity dried the gulf, and kept me from danger: to thee therefore be all glory, Amen. The 4. Morning prayer. THe glorious facc of the sun, which showeth itself, & casteth his beams over the whole world, I take it for an argument and earnest penny of thy good will toward thy children: in the number of whom I account myself, though chief of sinners, and not worthy to lose the latchet of thy sons sh●●e. For if we enjoy such a benefit in this strange country together with thine enemies: then what joyous sights, what store of thy goodness shall we reap in our natural country, the blissful land of Canaan, where we shall not behold this worldly sun and eye of the world, but thee, even thee, good Lord, face to face, the sun of glory, and only star of majesty? Such joys, O Lord, shall we have in the beholding of thee, as neither eye hath seen, nor ear hath heard, nor heart ever conceived. Such joys I say, as pass the reach, not only of man, but also of Angels and archangels to esteem of. Blessed are the door keepers of this house of joy, where thou, O Lord, the sun of righteousness dost most clearly spread forth the beams of thy divine majesty. Ah! how long shall I live in prison? how long shall I journey in this body of sin, before I see thee? Lord, let thy kingdom come. Come Lord jesus, come I beseech thee; Amen. The 1. Evening prayer. O Lord, it is of mercy without merit that I am a branch of the vine jesus: that I am thy house, and temple of the holy Ghost. It is of justice that thou haste appointed thine house to be a place of prayer: and of duty therefore that we should pray unto thee. For thus O Lord I thank thee, that thou hast made me thy child to lodge thee, and I acknowledge that of duty I am bound to serve thee. But give me O Lord, the grace of thy spirit to conduct me in the way of thy will, cleanse or create a new heart within me, that I may be a fit lodging for thee, and yield up the savoury sacrifice unto thee, which thou requirest of every Christian; I mean the sacrifice of prayer the sacrifice of the heart, which savoureth sweetly unto thee, And at this time in hope of the assistance of thy spirit, 〈…〉 thee, that as thou 〈…〉 cie covered me this day under thy wings of safety: so thou wilt defend and keep me this night from storming Satan, who is wont, not only by day but also and that especially by night, to undermine man, when his senses are fettered in bands of rest. But I do hope good Lord, that as I am then most unable to withstand the buffets of Satan, so thou wilt be most ready to secure me: partly because thereby thou shalt unlock the rich chest of thine infinite mercy, and partly because thou lovest every thing which thy hands have made. I will lay me down therefore in hope of thy protection, to whom be all glory, Amen. The 2. Evening prayer. O Most mighty and wise God, power into me abundantly the oil of thy grace unfetter my stammering tongue, that I may utter, and unrippe the strings of my blind & want heart, that I may sufficrentlie conceive the infiniteness of thy favour unto me. But what should I say of thine infinite goodness, which thou hast showed upon me? where shall I begin, or where shall I end to discourse of thy mercy? I was nothing, and what did move thee to make ●●e a man endued with reason and why not a tree, a frog, a beast? I am brought to a nonplus, O Lord what shall I say? I did disgrace thy goodness, and do deface by my daily sins the image of innocency, so that I was not only borne wrapped in damnable estate, but also daily incur the danger of dam nation: and yet dost thou underprop me in the promised seed, in that blessed seed of Abraham, even thine own and one only beloved son jesus Christ, by whom thou hast redeemed me. My body and soul were marvelously eclipsed for want of grace, and are daily filthied in the puddle of iniquity, the reward whereof was death. But what moved thee I being a cast a way, even thine utter enemy to wash and bathe me in the stream of thy sons precious blood? I cannot tell good Lord, it was thy mercy: to thee therefore be the glory both now and ever, Amen. The 3. Evening prayer. O Good GOD, the sun is gone down, the web of this day is spun almost, and night is at hand. After day succeedeth night, after light darkness, after fair weather a 〈…〉 die firmament and frowning element. There is a mist 〈…〉 locked in this, good God; for thereby thou dost lesson us of our mortality. Our birth and life is like the day: our Death is like the night: as the day perisheth, so doth our life vannishe with the vapour: and as night succeed the day, so death followeth life, the term and period of these our days. o sweet jesus of thy mercy beat this lesson into my head, and root it firmly into my heart, and take away the vail from my mind, that I may not only know and acknowledge, but hourly remember that I am mortal. For it would be a bridle to restrain and keep me from ranging licentiously, and a spur to incite me to live holily all the continuance of this my pilgrimage. Thy spirit hath spoken it: saying, Remember thine end, and thou shalt never perish. Give me therefore thy grace that I may remember faithfully the night of this my body, when I shall sleep in the bosom of the earth, till the trumpet shall sound & call me to judgement. Help me Lord before this night. Lord save me or else I perish Amen. The 4. Evening prayer. O Loving Lord of labouring and laden hearts, look down with the e●e of thy pity, see the altar of the cross, where thy son, thine only 〈…〉 is slaughtered. 〈…〉 there of heaven his 〈…〉 bored, his head crowned with thorns, his thirst quenched with vinegar, his side wounded and streaming blood; attend dear father, the cry of his bloody sweat, his long fasting, his great patience, his body racked and crucified, all cry unto thee for mercy, for mercy: father, O father favour and pardon him. This is the trumpeter of joy, this is he that bloweth the blast of comfort and soul's solace: hear him hear O Lord: attend not my life, mark not my steps, for my life is unsavoury and my steps are crooked; let the cry of thy bleeding babe move thee to mercy and put thee in mind of thy covenant, that in him all the nations of the world should be blessed. Bless me, O Lord, better me with the dew of thy blessings, and let the drops of thy sons blood by a lively faith distill into my heart, and fructify it with works worthy repentance I beseech thee, Amen. A prayer for all times against the power of Satan. THe Devil O Lord, like a roaring Lion, runneth about in every corner, he lurketh, and ever he gapeth to devour the lambs of thy pasture. He is an enemy not only ready to devour us, but also able to catch us in the snare of iniquity against thy divine majesty. For daily do we eat the sour grape of nature, and savour of unseasoned & rotten Adam, in whose sinful act we are wrapped by desert in condemnation, and become bond slaves of Satan, unless thou, O Lord do season our hearts with the oil of thy grace, and wash us in the water of thy mercy, that being cleansed from sin, and made as white as snow with the merits of thy son, the devil may lose his title, and forget his obligation that he had against us, & we be quitted from his tyranny. We beseech thee therefore, o gracious father of Heaven, with thy power to bridle satan, and in thy mercy to bear with us, with thy might to master him, and in thy grace to graff us in jesus the lively vine of mercy, that growing in him no storm may be able to toss and overturn us we beseech thee, Amen. Another. daily, O Lord, do we pass the limits of thy will: we sin at the least seven times a day and pledge mother Eve in the dregs of nature. This is the frailty of the flesh, and this is the weakness of all Adam's issue: a miserable case, o Lord, unless in thy mercy thou wilt wrap us & cover the nakedness of nature with the white raiment of grace, that we being thine may never despair for any brunt of storming Satan, be it never so perilous. LORD save us, in thy mercy save us, have pity and compassion upon us, and mark not our steps, which are crooked, but cast the eye of thy favour upon thy son Christ, who was content to suffer the bleeding pains of the cross to satisfy thy wrath, & to deliver us from the sting of an hellie conscience. We beseech thee therefore O loving Lord, not to observe our iniquities, but to wash us from the guiltiness of sin in the flood of thy mercies, and so to save us, that being dead in iniquity, and yet saved of thine infinite pity, we may give all glory unto thee, and sing with our mother the Church, that salvation only belongeth to thee, Amen. A prayer for all afflicted Christians. GReat are the troubles of the righteous, O Lord, and many they be that arise against thee and thine an anointed, like wolves to tear them and butchering Herod's to behead and dispatch them. Even for thy sake, O Lord, are thy children brought to the slaughter-house, for the testimony of thy truth are they tied in bands, and beaten with wands daily. Up Lord, arise and strike thine enemies upon the cheek bone, lift up thy rod of iron, and dash the unsavoury and sour vessels of iniquity in pieces, with thy sanne scatter the chaff, and gather thou thy corn into the garner of joy, Let it be beaten, but let it not be broozed with the threshold of this tyrannous Wolf, that being freed from the chaff of Nature, and severed from the cockle of evil and wicked livers, it may be found with the lost groat, and laid up in thy treasure of eternal pleasure for ever. Do thy good will, O gracious God beat them, beat them and buffet us sharply, O Lord, so thou save us of thy mercy, and pluck us out of Danger by the hand of thy mighty power, prop us with thy power, that we may magnify thee of thy mercy, Amen. Another. THE mountains of this wicked world are many and mighty, O Lord, and little is the flock of thy sheep. The mountains are even parched with fury against thy congregation, to press with the weight of their tyranny the babes of thy family. Awake up therefore O Lord, sleep not, slumber not, but awake and defeat their imagined mischief, as thou hast promised, that they that trust in thee shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed. Suffer them to beat us, that we might live godly in thee: but so let them buffet us, that they never overmaster us, that according to thy promise, as mount Zion we may not be moved. Give us grace to trust in thee whatsoever betid us, and never to start from thee, whatsoever smart we suffer that continuing to the end we may be blessed with thee for ever. And for the mountains of this world, either even them with the valley and babes of thy family, or else pair and parch them with the beams of thy judgement. Thy will be done O Lord, thy kingdom come, and save us we beseech thee, Amen. A prayer for the Queen. O Loving God, we thank thee for the great care, which thouhast over thy Church. She hath been tossed with the waves of this world, and the preaching of thy word did suffer shipwreck: but now O Lord, now of mere mercy thou hast repaired the broken heart of jerusalem, and gladdened our hearts with the wine of comfort. For thou hast appointed a mother over Zion, to cherish and defend her from all her storming adversaries: so that by her means we are freed from the slavery of the Romish Pharaoh, and salved from the sore of heresies, wherewith thy dear espouse was most grievously troubled. O Lord continue this weede-hooke in her hand, that she may throughlie cleanse thy garden. Let thy will and gracious pleasure be her sceptre and target, against the frowning band of cloudy Saules. Always erect and pitch about her the tents of thy favour, that no evil betid her, or danger annoy her. Clip her in thy sweet arms, and kiss her in mercy, & be not thou angry with her, but continue her a favourable nurse to little David, that he may grow in all faith and holiness, until he be a perfect man in Christ jesus. Lord save her in thy mercy, and deliver her from all evil, Amen. A prayer for all Magistrates. CRooked is the way of all flesh, O father of heaven, and over plenteous would the harvest of weedy nature be, unless it were lopped and minished by the weedhooke of thy magistrates, whom thou hast appointed as gods under thee to keep thy garden clean from all noisome and stinking herbs. Cleanse them, O Lord, and plant a new spirit within them, that above all things favouring thy Gospel, they may bend all their endeavours to the d●erishing of thy holy Church, and maintenance of the truth, without the which no man shall live and see thee. Give them grace to labour diligently in thy vineyard, to mow down the harvest of sin, & nei 〈…〉 o for fear or flattery to start back from their duty: but without all discouragement to use thy will as an axe, to cut down the root that withereth and beareth nothing but a perished stock and barrayn branches: that the ded boughs of iniquity being broken off, the branches of thy son jesus may without let or hindrance spread forth the sweet leaves of thy savoury grace, and bear in heart the fruits of thanksgiving, which is pleasant & acceptable in thy sight, Amen. A general confession of sins. FAther ADAM, O Lord, gave the first onset, & none of us his children have broken the array. The serpent counseled, Eve gave the apple to Adam, & so both sinned against thy divine majesty. As for us the natural branches of this rotten stock, one of the same stamp shall speak: We are borne in sin, and conceived in iniquity, so that we be damned by merit, before we be borne. But yet, o Lord we con●e●●e it, to our comfort and thy glory, that thou hast concluded all under sin, that thou mightest have mercy on all, and all glory be given to thee. We confess ourselves lost, we are lost groats, and lost sheep: but this is the sole joy of our hearts, that thy son came to seek & to save that was lost. So that though we be lost in ourselves, yet we are found in thy son, who came into this world to s●ue sinners. This is thy vnde● 〈…〉 ved goodness O Lord, to love thine enemies, to save us that have even from the womb rebelled against thy divine Majesty, even before we were borne to save us, by the death of thine only begotten son, and to prepare a joyous kingdom for us, before the beginning of the world Therefore O Lord, what shall we cry but shame, shame upon us, an axe to the root, and an axe to us all the withered branches of rotten Adam by desert. For glory and power dominion and Majesty, salvation and mercy is only thine, and of thee: of the which mercy save us we beseeth thee, Amen. Another. WE are all publicans, O Lord: open the ears of thy favour unto our cry, and have mercy upon us, have mercy upon us. We sin daily, but yet save us of thy pity, save us, oh save us, and show thy compassion upon us. Let us not die a judas death, let us never tune the doleful song of Cain: but engrave in our heart, a full & lively faith in thee, that never doubting of thy bounteous mercy, we may with a free conscience set Satan at defiance and all his hellish band. Pitiful jesus hear this our cry, and fence us with thy grace against the gaping devil, who roareth of cruelty and lurketh in every Corner of malicious subtlety, to trap and to snare, to take and to tear us with the Claws of his fury and merciless envy. Fence us with faith against him, O Lord, lay the plaster of comfort to our wounded consciences, & cover us with the wings of thy favour that we may live and die in thee and so be blessed, Amen. A prayer for humi 〈…〉 ie. IT is thine own Leslon, O Saviour jesus: Be humble and meek, as I am: it is thy word also: My sheep hear my voice. But Lord, what shall I do? the flesh is proud, I daily rebel against thy holy will, I envy my superiors, I love not mine equals, I despise mine inferiors. This is the fruit of the flesh O Lord Death, death: but thou art love and life, O loving jesus. And therefore I beseech thee of thy tender love to pity me, to endue me with the spirit of humbleness, that being poor in spirit, I may with the little ones of thy kingdom be blessed & live for ever. O Lord, for the avoidance of pride, give me thy grace to consider, that by it an Angel became a devil, and man was excommunicate from the paradise of pleasure. Desire of sovereignty begat the devil, sin, death & damnation: so that out of it, as a most filthy puddle issued a whole sea of mischief and misery. Of this cup of pride father Adam drank when by his disobedience he lost thy favour, and by the taste of an apple thought to be thy comate in knowing of good and evil. Give me thy grace not only to consider this, but also fully to digest it, that detesting it as a venomous viper, I may in humbleness of heart serve thee holily and soundly without hypocrisy, who art a pattern of lowliness, and a mirror of humility, continually to be looked upon, and truly to be followed. O life, and lover of souls, give me grace always to hear, & hearing thy words to follow thee, Amen. Another for charity. O Infinite charity, thou son of God, to whom the father hath surrendered all power in heaven and earth: I have offended thee most grievously, & endangered myself desperately. For, charity, O charity thou shalt judge the world in equity, & I have not charity biding within me. I love for gain, I hate mine enemies, I pray not for them that curse and speak evil of me, I have enough of thy benefits, and yet have I spared nothing for Lazarus, and therein I have sinned against thee, o eternal charity, & incurred the peril of thy just judgements. Is there no remedy O charity, but must judgement be given against me? is all thy blood spent? are all thy tears dry? hast thou none to wash me? Correct me not, O charity, in thy judgement or fury, neither chastise me in thine anger, but deal with me according to thy wont mercy. In charity, in thy love unmerited, O blessed Charity have mercy upon me, & quit me from a repliing conscience, & the court of the Devil. For else, o charity, will mine own life reclaim against me & crave damnation for mine uncharitable conversation. Piteous God therefore, I beseech thee, for thy bloody sweat, in thy bottomless pity, drown my transgressions, adopt me thy brother, & give me thy holy spirits testimony, as a gage and earnest of mine adoption, that being freed from sin, I may serve thee with a free conscience in hope and an unwavering faith in thy mercies, Amen. A prayer for the mortification of the flesh. O Lord, the kingdom of the flesh is very strong: so strong that I am not able to withstand it. For in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing: and so infectious is the palsy of the frail flesh, that unless thou O Lord do season it, there is no way but to incur the peril of a mortal plague. I beseech thee therefore O father of heaven, in the name of thy son Christ, to deliver me of this terrible reward of sin, to qualify with the salt of thy grace our unsavoury flesh, and to sweeten our viperous and vile nature with the oil of thy spirit, that fight manfully under our captain Michael against the Dragon, we may not only wage battle or subdue, but also crucify the old man, hand, foot, head, heart, even the whole kingdom of Satan the prince of utter darkness; that the devil being battered down and the old Adam driven out of our hearts, we may offer up our bodies as lively sacrifices unto thee, without any sent of stinking nature. For this O Lord is acceptable in thy sight, that being transformed into thee in newness of life, we may be fit temples for thy holy spirit, to dwell and abide in. Mortify therefore the flaming flesh, O Lord, and appease the waves of our wanton nature, that we may be even as thou willest: holy as thou art holy, Amen. Another. WHat shall I do, O gracious God? for I am borne of flesh, the very affection whereof is death. Shall I die? shall the frame of thy hands be destroyed? no, Lord. For thy mercy's sake remember thy promise: Ask and have. I ask, O Lord, I ask: mercy do I ask, I desire thee in the bow else of thy Son Christ to regenerate me a spiritual man, that being borne anew, not of flesh, nor of blood, nor of the will of man, but of thy spirit, by the power of thy word, I may be consecrate a priest unto thee. O Lord and lover of holiness, guide me in the way of thy will, that I wander not in vanity, which thou abhorrest and canst not abide. Thou hatest sin and all the workers of iniquity: and unless we repent, as father Baptist said; we shall all for our sins suffer the rod of thy justice. Give me therefore the sword of thy spirit, that I may cut off the ear of Malchus, and then be healed by the plaster of Grace. Apparel me with thy heavenly truth, and arm me with thy holy word, that in time of combat I may be able to cut off the desperate assaults of the sinful flesh: Amen, O Lord, Amen, I say unto the words: Ask and thou shalt have. In mercy perform thy promise, O eternal verity and give me grace not to doubt thereof, Amen. A prayer for the obtaining of grace. O LORD, I am thy sheep, thy hands have fashioned me: a lost sheep I am, that have wandered past the pasture of thy will into the broad field of vanity. As thou hast framed me therefore of thy goodness, so recall me from straying by the voice of thy mercy. Give me grace to hear thee, hearing to come unto thee, coming to follow thee, and following thee the way to heaven and door of glory, ever to bear about me the pearl of grace, and never to decline from the rule of thy wil Keep me from the pit of sin, underprop me from falling into the ditch of iniquity by the hand of thy favour, and fence me with grace, the buckler of thy mercy, that I may defeat Satan's wiliness, and repel the blows of frowning sin & a cloudy conscience. O Lord, let grace through the pipe or channel of thy mercy distill into the vessel of my barren heart, that being moistened with the dew of thy gracious blessings and softened with the spirit of thy goodness, I may lodge thee the blessed Trinity linked in an indissoluble knot of unity, to the reparation of the image of grace & recovery of disgraced nature, Amen. Another. IT is thy gracious will, O God of mercy, that all men should be saved. It is not thy will o piteous jesus, that any sheep of thy pasture should be devoured or any Creature perish, which thou of thy goodness hast framed. And therefore O lover of man, and love itself, I a poor wretched sinner, that have a long time pastured in the broad way of iniquity, yet hearing thee continually, and that of mercy calling: Come unto me, do come unto thee for grace and mercy against merited condemnation. Grace Lord, grace is almy suit. For I am a plain castaway: and by thousands more wretched than the crawling Worm of the earth, unless thou bedeck me with the garment of Grace, and marry me in thy mercies promised to the house of David. Lap me therefore, O Father of Heaven in thy white raiment, and apparel my nakedness with the woven coat of thy grace, that Satan finding no seam in my wedding garment, may not be able in any respect to rip up my faults before thee at the day of thy visitation. This do O gracious jesus, clip me in thy sweet arms, and bow down thy head to kiss me in mercy, and be not angry for my sins, but drown them in thy precious blood, for thine own sake I beseech thee, Amen. A prayer for patience in affliction. O Fountain of comfort, O streamie wellspring of undeserved mercy: behold most gracious GOD and loving Father, I beseech thee me thy poor creature. Behold Lord, I am a worm and no man: the bulls of Basan empale me round about, the devil like an hungry Lion roareth and gapeth to dispatch me, and the flesh like a venomous viper seeketh to sting me. Good God behold, behold me and fortify thy servant, thine own handy work, against the stormy blasts of the enemy. Patience, patience O Lord: adorn me with patience, and seal up in my heart the remission of my sins, by the testimony of thy holy spirit, that being holden up by the anchor of a lively hope in thy sufficient merits, I may be able to endure the end of this my combat, which under thy banners I presently do sustain. Most mighty Mychael, fence thy child against the traitorous rebels of this world, which do nothing else but dismember the babes of thy family, & profane thy precious passion. Be thou upon my side, that no enemy may prevail against me: Lord in thee have I trusted let me never be confounded, I beseech thee for thine own merits, Amen. Another. THere is no victory without fight, nor any crown without victory: give me therefore power O Lord, that fight valiantly, I may be crowned gloriously in heaven, with thee to live forever. Minister strength unto me that I may overmaster mine enemies, and give me the spirit of patience, that continuing to the end, I may be found and taken as a faithful soldier of thy son jesus, and so be blessed. Let me not faint in fear but let me fight in a lively faith which overmatcheth the whole world. Plant me a natural branch by the power of thy word, in the vine jesus; and make me able to endure every crack. Let no canker of sin eat me, let no worm of a burnt conscience gnaw me, let no blast of the world overturn me: but stay me up with thy mighty hand, and be ever at mine elbow, that I may be crowned, though I be crossed, and saved though now soused in extreme tyranny. In this is all my hope, for surely of myself I am but a vapour, a worm: I am borne of a woman in sin a sinful child by nature, and to my power wage battle with Satanne against myself, to mine utter undoing O Lord, unless thou regenerate me and assist me with thy spirit, to mine ability always to resist the devil: which do o gracious God I beseech thee, Amen. A prayer in time of persecution. O Lord, whither shall I fly? or to whom shall I go? I am in Peter's ship, the winds rage and blow, the seas rise and roar, the surging and angry waves dash against the ship. Oh, what shall I do? for thou art asleep, O jesus: O master arise or else I perish, Pharaoh is at my heels, the red sea before my face: how shall I escape? whither shall I fly? O gracious Lord, make me a way through the sea before I perish: and drown Pharaoh my deadly Saul with all his company. Remember thy covenant O God of truth, that thou wouldst be with me, and all thy tender chickens to the end of the world, to cover and save me & them from the roaring lion, under the wings of thy mercy. This is the wing that holdeth me up in the air of comfort, that I may fly like an Eagle aloft to the carcase in time of necessity. Lodge me, o Lord in the bosom of comfort, and embrace me between thine arms in safety, that thou being with me, no man may prevail against me: no not the Dragon with his Angels, whom thou the true Michael didst not only encounter with but also overmatch in heaven, as a valiant Captain: that I trusting in thee, and faithfully fight under thy banners, may not despair of the Conquest. Lord and gracious captain, give unto me strength to abidè valiantly all brunts of this world, and never to shrink from thee with fainting Peter, Amen. Another. O Gracious god, look down upon me with the eye of thy mercy. For I am paled about with misery, and compassed with waters of persecution. Assist me O Lord, with thy holy spirit against the fury of the enemy, that I never fearing the toasting or butchering of this mine earthly Tabernacle, may ever for the term of my days fear and kiss thee lest thou be angry with me, who art able and mayest of thy justice, not only destroy this my body, but also cast my soul into the pit of hell. Give me grace that I may present myself boldly before fleering Herod: being persuaded of thy divine providence, that thou wilt never forsake me but be with me during this my pilgrimage. I am better than a pennieworth sparrow O Lord, who cannot die without thy will and pleasure. Guard me therefore with the spirit of boldness, that being asserteined of thy mercy; I may without fear confess thee before men, and so be confessed again before thine Angels in heaven. Let no smart of misery dismay me, let no thorny Saul discourage me in the race of my profession, let no sparks of cruelty or smoke of biting tyranny, choke the confession of thee; but pitch about me the tents of thy grace, that being underpropped I fall not from thee: do this O Lord for thy name's sake, Amen. A prayer against the enemies of the truth. O Lord and gracious GOD, look upon the face of thy Church: judas doth kiss her, and all to betray her or rather make havoc of her. Behold Lord, the tears have almost choked thy corn, and the cockle-sower looketh for a plenteous harvest. Thou seest this O Lord, thou seest it: awake therefore and take rhy fan in thy hand, to divide thy corn from the chaff. Gather thy corn into thy garner, and with a blast of thy mouth scatter the chaff. Purge thy garden O Lord, let no weed grow among thy Lilies, let no thorn hedge in thy savoury rose, but fill thy church with the grace of thy spirit, least being the fairest of all women, she touch the pitch, and so be defiled. Burn up the learned and sour dough of iniquity: but specially of heresy, which the cocle-prophetes seek to bake, that we may not only eat it but also digest it, to the great eclipse of thy word and our own damnation. O Lord convert them, or else restrain them with the bridle of thy judgement. Father forgive them if it be thy will, or else mow them down like hay and let them whither with the grass. If judas will continue in his treachery, or julyan in his apostasy, if the wandering sheep will not hear the voice of thee her shepherd, but still wander in the desert of wickedness, give her to the mouth of the Lion O Lord, least turning to thy little flock, she corrupt the rest. Grant this for thine own name sake, Amen. Another. IT is thine own lesson, O Lord: Take heed of the leaven of the Pharisees, because it soureth & corrupteth the marrow of true religion. O Lord, thou knowest it, & I acknowledge it, that I am a sprig of withered nature, a dead branch of the rotten stock of Adam: what shall I say? a natural man I am, so blinded with the mist of ignorance and overshadowed with the cloud of blindness, that I cannot do well, or will well, no not think well: so unable I am to aspire to the knowledge of thy revealed Gospel. And how can I then O Lord, take heed of leavened doctrine, who am altogether leavened and bend to the worse by force of nature? O loving jesus thou art the eye of the faithful, thou art wisdom itself to defeat Satan's wiliness, the sun of righteousness to consume the gross vapours of ignorance, which drowneth our understanding: so that thou art the only star which showest us the deep dungeons of heresies: and the only touch stone by which we may discern good dough and soured leaven, that we may beware of them both. Endew me therefore with knowledge from above, that I proving the spirits whereof they are, may one lie cleave to thy holy will, O gracious God, to whom be all glory, Amen. A prayer for the sick. ODeere Father, look upon me with the eye of thy merciful pity and pitiful mercy: behold I am thy handy work, a poor Creature of thine, I thank thee for my former health, and I thank thee also for this thy visitation, which I take as a fatherly correction. For I have swerved from the paths of thy commandements, and in my life renounced my vow at baptism made unto thee before thy Church, and therefore lest as the witless sheep I should stray and so fall into the mouth of Satan, I take this thy visitation as thy voice, or a sermon of thy grace, whereby thou criest: Come unto me, O gracious jesus, this is thy wonted goodness towards the children of men. I am but dust and ashes, no better than a worm, a stained clout, no better than a shadow, a vapour or bubble in the water: a very wretch I am good Lord, borne in sin, by nature wrapped in iniquity, and so thine utter enemy, worthy to perish everlastingly. But see thine own goodness, sweet Lord: thine hands form me being nothing: thy mercy hath preserved me till this day being nought. And even now sweet jesus, thou hast sent thy pursuivant sickness to bid me put off the old man, & put on the garment of faith, that I being ready for the marriage, may come and marry thee in the covenant of thy father, wherein all the nations of the world by promise are blessed, Amen. Another. Loving jesus, pitiful jesus, blessed Trinity have mercy upon me. Behold, I am sick Lord: justly buffeted for sin, the mother of every mortal infirmity. Yet Lord, loving jesus pity me, pity my case. Loving father purge me with Isop, cleanse me from my secret sins, dry up the puddle of iniquity with the beams of thy mercy, and cleanse me in the pool of thy precious blood that this sickness and infirmity, the just reward and penalty of sin and iniquity may cease and finish. Beat me, O God, o gracious God, O father of heaven, beat me in favour, and not in judgement: kiss me with the covenant of grace, and be not angry with me. O loving jesus, full of pity and piteous compassion, I would be clean: and if thou wilt, Lord, thou canst make me clean. Behold Lord I am sick, the palsy of sin shaketh every part, the leprosy of mine iniquity hath over run all my soul and body: but yet good Lord, and gracious jesus if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. For thou art my father Almighty, with whom nothing is impossible. Lord I ask thy grace, give it me: I seek it, let me find it: I knock for mercy: open O Lord the chest of thy goodness, and enrich me with the jewels of grace, that I may reign with thee in glory, Amen. A confession for the Sick. MY thoughts, my words, my deeds, all cry unto me: Thou art a sinner. And this do I confess unto thee O Lord: I cannot so much as think a good thought, much less can I speak, much less can I do well. I confess that in me that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing: even so vile a Creature, so wretched a caitiff, that Satan might justly have claimed my life in the swathecloth, being borne the child of wrath and heir of damnation. I am a cankered branch of mother Eve that ancient stock of sin, whose heritage is nothing but iniquity guarded with an infinite sea of misery. For out of sin as out of a filthy puddle or stained fountain issued the rivers of sickness, death and damnation, with such a stream, that they overran and drowned the whole race of Adam's cursed progeny. So that as I confess myself a sinner, so do I confess that I am justly visited with this rod of sickness, wherewith thou art wont of thy justice to beat wanton Adam, that old man of sin, when he will not be ruled Beat me therefore, beat me O Lord, to better me: and sinite me enough, so thou save me, as I do put my trust in thee. Let Satan have no power to harm me, nor the world with the baits of vanity to snare me: but defend me from all evil I beseech thee, Amen. Another. O Bleeding jesus, O slaughtered Lamb, O sweet babe of the virgin Marie, and only beloved darling of God: behold, here I lie sick in body and sore in soul, whom thou hast bought with thy precious blood. Help me, save me from sin, the fountain of sickness, O fountain of mercy. For I am a grievous sinner by nature fettered with iniquity, wherein I was conceived and borne. O jesus, O Christ thou son of David, O gracious samaritan and piteous shepherd have mercy upon me: have mercy upon me, call me, cleanse me, save me, salve me with the merit of thy passion, against the palsy of sin and iniquity. O lamb of God, thou hast taken away the sins of the world, thou hast crucified the devil: confirm this faith in me loving Lord, I beseech thee: I beseech thee increase my faith and renew a right spirit within me. Remember Lord, remember sweet jesus thy crown of thorns & bruised head, thy bored hands, nailed feet and crucified body. Remember the piercing spear, thy wounded side, and thy precious blood that did spin and gush out. Remember thy bloody tears, thy great thirst of my salvation, and gall and vinegar which thou didst drink to save me, and for thy mercy save me, and cry to thy father; Father, father, forgive him. O jesus be mine advocate: pray, pray, sweet jesus pray for me, and bestow some drop of thy blood to wash me, Amen. A prayer against desperation. O Lord, I am a grievous sinner, I have passed & broken the banks of thy commandments; from the womb till this day I have with the pirate Satan sailed in the ship of iniquity, so that I may say with Paul: I am chief of all sinners. This must I needs confess to thee, O god of justice, & this worm of conscience biteth me. What then good Lord? shall the worm devour me? shall this snake of conscience sting me to death? what, good Lord? is the stream of thy mercy stopped? are the rivers of thy grace dried up? is there no drop of thy blood left to wash my seely soul? dost thou not call me? saying: Come unto me. Yes good Lord, and therefore despair I will not. It is not thy will that any sinner should perish: and thou hast not only said it, but sworneit, that thou willest not the death of a sinner, but rather his conversion and life. Behold therefore dear Father, I come unto thee being a grievous sinner, in hope of pardon in the name of Christ thy son, who by his own testimony came into this world to save sinners. He was content to blot out that obligation which satan had against me, by the flood of his precious blood which issued out of his glorious side. In this pool he hath washed away the leprosy of sin, were it never so desperate. And in token that he is ready to receive a sinner, he stretcheth forth both his sweet arms, as ready to embrace, and boweth down his glorious head, as willing to kiss the prodigal child that craveth pardon for his misse-spent days. O Lord and gracious God, I have wasted my days in vanity, I have from time to time trodden under my feet the pearls of Christian profession, even from the womb have I been a rebellious traitor to thy majesty, a friend to this world, to godliness an enemy: but now O Lord, I cry unto thee; forgive me, forgive me. Now I come unto thee, as thou hast called me: now therefore cover me with the wings of thy mercy, and tender me as the hen doth her chickens, lest Satan claw me, and so I perish. Good Lord accept the blood of thy son, the merits of his manhood for a satisfaction for my sins, drown them in the stream of thy mercy, & cast them behind thee, good Lord I beseech thee. O sweet jesus lodge me in thy precious wounds, and look upon me with thy piteous eye, lest that be destroyed which thou of thy great goodness hast made, and Christ thy son of inestimable love and infinite charity hath redeemed, through his bitter passion. This is the total sum of my suit unto thee Lord: mercy, mercy o father of mercy: mercy is the thing that I beg: have mercy upon me, have mercy upon me I beseech thee loving Lord, have pity upon me. Be thou my shepherd to defend me, my Castle of defence to save me against the gaping devil. Thou hast store of mercy for them that ask it: O Lord therefore even for the wounds of thy dear son, have mercy upon me, let not sin sting me to death, but lay to my sore soul the salve of thy mercy, of thy mercy, one drop of thy sons blood, a little dew of thy blessing, good Lord, I beseech thee, Amen. Another. O Lord, my thoughts, my words, mine actions have taken weapons and waged battle against me: and Satan that old rebellious traitor taketh part with them to overthrow me thy poor and impotent soldier. He raiseth up the snake of my conscience to sting me, & the poison of an evil life to infect me with the desperate plague of cain's blasphemy: and I am but flesh unable to withstand the fury of this dragon. Oh what shall I do? I am a Sinner, as Satan saith, and my conscience telleth me, and the reward is death as thy word doth teach me. What then shall I do? shall I die as judas, O Lord? is there no remedy? surely my Lord and my God, I despair in my self, and confess myself the child of wrath by natures voice: but yet O Lord, it is thy voice, it is the voice of grace, that thy mercy is above all thy works: in token whereof thou camest into the world to save sinners. This is the pillar that upholdeth me from falling: this is the rod of iron that dasheth sa tan out of countenance, and defeateth the arguments of my sinful conscience. Arm me with this buckler of faith in thy meritorious incarnation, life and passion, that I may not be given over as a prey to the dragon, but crucify the snaky persuasions of Satan and his company, Amen. Another. AVoid Satan: thou shalt not tempt the Lords servant: thy works are destroyed thy bands are broken, thou shalt not take or bind me. Avoid sin: for thou hast lost thy sting, thou wast condemned in the flesh, nailed to the cross, and crucified with my Lord Christ upon the tree. Avoid death, for thou art dead: and hell, for thou art swallowed up in victory. Avoid thou dragon and all thine angels, for Michael hath beaten thee, and broken thy head: he hath freed us from sin, and led away captivity captive: even he Satan hath overmastered thee, that crieth out unto me, Fear not, for I have overcome the world: even he that hath promised to be with me till the end of my pilgrimage, and crieth out: that if he be with me, no man can be against me, no not hell gates to prevail against me. Fight therefore Satanne as long as thou wilt, thou shalt be at length put to the foil: for the mighty lion of the tribe of juda telleth me, that there is no condemnation to them that be in him, that jesus is the conqueror of the whole world, and vanquisher of thee, fight and rage thou never so much. therefore avoid I say away from me, for in Christ have I passed the sea of my sins, thy cursed army: & if thou follow to pursue me, thou shalt be drowned in the red sea of Christ's blood, to whom be all glory, Amen. A prayer for the avoidance of God's wrath. QTender hearted joseph, have mercy upon me. Great is the flood of mine iniquities, so great O God of mercy, that unless the banks of thy grace repress it, it will overrun and so drown my see lie soul. Drown my s●●s in the pool of thy mercy, cast them into the sea of thy bottomless pity, lest the smoke of my wickedness do smother me, and the rod of thy judgement break and brooze me like a potter's vessel. For the bag of mine iniquities is so stuffed, and the sting of my sins so poisonous, and the sent of them so unsavourye in thy nostrils O Lord, that if thou wilt observe it, who may abide it? the surest pillar of thy Church would shake, the fairest rose would whither, the best lamb should abide the slaughter, if the beams of thy mercy should not parch and burn up the ripe and plenteous harvest of our iniquities. O Lord therefore have mercy upon us, and beat us not with the rod of thy fury, but under prop the ship of our weak faith with the anchor of thy mercy, that believing in thee, we may not perish but have everlasting life. Thou hast appeased, o sweet jesus, the wrath of thy father against sin conceived, by thy meritorious passion, that I might with the holy ones be holy as thou art. But I have profaned thy passion by my daily faults such is the frailty of the flesh, for the which I just lie may be refused. But yet jesus one drop of favour bestow upon me and cry: For my bloody passion father forgive him I beseech thee, Amen. A prayer for remission of Sins. O Lord, what do I daily but wander in the field of vanity? what is my heart but a filthy prison of corrupt thoughts? what is my mouth but a stinking channel of vain words? what are my feet but chariots to bloodshed? what are my hands but battellers with charity? what is my head but a castle of wicked devices? and what is my life but a farthel of iniquity? I am nothing better than a dead tree, the root is perished, the bough withered, I am fruitless and good for nothing but for the fury of the flame. What then, good Lord, shall it be so? I am no better than a dead tree, but what? shall I burn sweet jesus: O save me for thy name sake, and quicken me: create a new heart within me, engraff me in the true Olive purge me that I may bring forth much fruit, and for ever flourish like a tree planted by the rivers side. O power the oil of grace into my defiled heart, and season it with the salt of thy mercy, lest the sum of mine iniquities ascend up to thy nostrils, and provoke thy fury against me. power down some drops of thy precious blood from the clouds of thy mercy, to quench out the angry flame of sin, which I myself am not able to put out by the virtuous water of any merit. Purge me therefore with Isop, O Lord and then I shall be clean. O lamb of God, let me eat thy flesh, and drink thy blood, that I may live by thee, and clothe me in the wool of thy mercy, that no winter of storming sin do pinch my silly soul. This do O Lord, for thy mercy's sake, Amen. Another. O Lord, like a witless sheep I wander in the perilous wilderness of sin: I am lost, o my God in the field of vanity where Satan seeketh to trap and deceive me with the flattering bait of sinful pleasure. Good Lord leave thy ninety nine, and look for the lost sheep till thou have found her. For I am lost good Lord, and must needs perish, unless thou save me: Draw me, up to thee in the bucket of thy mercy, and place me in thy safe pasture of grace, the only sting that overmaistereth Satan. Choose me into the college of joy, that I may sleep in the lap of thy word, which is thy power unto salvation. Do this O Lord, for thine own sake, that thine angels may have occasion to rejoice, and to set forth thy glory. Look for the lost groat, O gracious God, and find it out with the candle of thy mercy, and lock it up in the treasure of joy: even me O Lord, that thou thyself in great joy mayest call thine holy angels and heavenly company to rejoice with thee, because thou hast found me a lost groat, and straying sheep. Be thou my jesus, even for thine own sake, wash away the leprosy of sin, that being cleansed, I may return in joy, to found out the praises of thy holy and undeserved dealings with me thine enemy, Amen. Another. bend down thy piteous eye O Lord, from the palace of heaven, and look upon me thy poor and wretched creature. Behold, I thy handiwork thine own workmanship am disgraced, nature hath wrapped me in sin, the devil hath defaced body and soul, so that I am nothing better than a lump of iniquity. The evil gardener hath planted weeds in thy garden, the evil husband hath sown tars and cockle in thy field. O Lord with the sword of thy mercy dig up the weeds of sin: and with the beams of thy pity parch up the cockle and tars of Satan, that I may flourish like a branch of thy son jesus and grow like a flower in the pasture of grace, by the dew of thy blessing. Scatter away from thy face with the wind of thy mercy, the chaff of iniquity, and gather thine own corn into the garner of glory. Let me not starve for want of grace, but feed me with mercy, and make me a simple dove, that having the wings of a lively faith, and faithful conscience, I may fly up to the beacon of the cross, there to eat the merit of thy Son Christ, my mighty jesus. O Lord wrap me in his passion and death, that no storm of sin do touch me to my utter condemnation, Amen. A prayer for increase of Faith. WHat man, O God, was so fettered in the snare of sin, that he could not by any means deliver himself, and therefore was for ever to lie bound with the chain of Satan in hell: it pleased thee o Lord, to work means of delivery, by thine own son to unloose the shackles of sin, that man might be set at liberty. For this I give thee most hearty thanks O gracious God and father of mercy. For what a thing is this? Man was lost through his own folly. judas for money, but Adam for an apple forsook thee, and so deserved not only to be forsaken, but also like an utter enemy and rebellious traitor, to be executed in justice and judgement. But behold O ye sons of men, where man was unable and angels not sufficient to work recovery of grace, and delivery from Satan's slavery, he spared not to shed the blood of his son for the redemption of man, and satisfaction of his justice. Behold and wonder: God hath but one son, his dear son, his only joy, his own image, his express substance, and yet doth he send this one babe, like a Lamb in this evil world among foxes, to be torn and cruelly butchered, that by the drops of his precious blood he might wash the filthy face of our souls, and with the wool of his passion, the merit of his slaughter, so clothe us, that no storm of raging sin might dismay us. The streams of thy sons blood, unless we bathe ourselves in them, unless we wash us in the pool of his blood, his passion O father of heaven, shall nothing avail us. Give us therefore good God a full and sound hand, that we may receive the blood of thy son Christ to our salvation. Increase our faith in us, give us a winged faith, that we may fly unto Christ thy son and our Saviour, standing on the beacon of the cross to purchase theredemption of the whole world. But especially in time of extremity, when Satan doth seek to choke us with the smothering smoke of sin, and like a wily pirate seeketh to sink the ship of our weak faith: then O Lord, when he raketh our sins out of the ashes, and calleth a parliament of his hellish angels to accuse us before thee and thine holy company, that being convinced of treachery to thy majesty, we may abide the rod of thy fury: even then O Lord, give us a feathered faith, that we may fly above the reach of Satan & rest in the wounds of thy decre● son in safety, without peril of shipwreck, be the waves of sin never so outrageous, or the winds of iniquity never so tempestuous. Cover us with the wings of thy favour, guard us with the hand of thy power, and pull us out of the deep mire of our secret sins, that being drowned in thy mercy, we may in a lively faith spring out of the puddle of misery, into the sea of thy merits for our endless safety, Amen. A prayer for preachers. O Thou good shepherd of our souls, have mercy upon us: thou hast appointed us as Vicars and Deputies under thee, or rather for nurses for thee, to train up the babes of thy family in the love and fear of thee. Give us, we beseech thee, the pure milk of thy Gospel to feed them: but especially the light of honest conversation, to guide them out of this valley of darkness, unto thee the true morning star, and sun of righteousness. Arm us with the buckler of thy truth, that we may not only bicker with, but also put to flight Satan that ravenous Lion O Lord, who seeketh by subtlety to trapp and devour the lambs of thy pasture. Weapon us with Scriptum est, It is written O Lord, which is thy power unto salvation, and the only buckler whereby thou didst defend thyself in thy threefold combat with Satan. Take from us the leaven of the Pharisees, the soured dough of heresies, being the very canker of Christian profession, and the only pitch that defileth the table of thy Children, that we may feed thy children only with the word of thy mouth. This do O jesus for thine own sake, Amen. A prayer for the increase of Preachers. SAtan, O Lord, saileth upon the seas of this world, to hinder and keep back the propagation of the Gospel; killing by sword, boiling in fire, and choking by the darnel of his cockle gospel the babes of thy family. So that now thy Church O Lord, is harrowed, little is the flock of thy beloved Steeven, we have a great dearth of preaching Ieremies, and a very small number of crying esay's to conduct thy children, the tender sucklings of thy Gospel, from danger to safety, out of the rough wilderness of this wicked world. O look upon thy little flock, let the Fox no more fleece them, but send shepherds to feed them with the pure milk and sound meat of thy Gospel. Send us no wolves to tear, but send us dogs to defend the sheep of thy Pasture, against our wolvish Pharaoh, that continually gapeth to devour thy beloved Israel. O Lord have mercy upon us, and let the rivers of thy word have free course in every channel: let no puddle of filthy doctrine, or quagmire of damnable heresy trouble thy little flock & sweet babes, lest they tasting thereof, drink their own destruction. But send down thine Angels to cleanse the pool of thy word, mingled with the water of heresy, that we lying sick at the gate of thy mercy, may descend into it, and so be healed. Grant this for thine infinite mercy's sake, and for the glory of thine eternal Godhead, Amen. A prayer for the Schoolmaster. WHere shall I begin, O Lord, to rip the unseamed coat of thy benefits? O that I were all heart to conceive or all tongue to utter them; For where we had not only lost the inheritance of paradise, but also the integrity of Nature, through father Adam's folly: thou hast set down precepts, and elected governors over youth, that being ruled by tutors, and living well by precepts, the children of Adam might recover the disgraced purity of nature, and at length (of thy mere favour) be exalted, not to an earthly paradise but to an heavenly inheritance, to enter and inherit the palace of an heavenly jerusalem. And whereas, O wellspring of all goodness, thou hast appointed me to view and oversee the natural man, not only to train him up in learning, but also in living: give me thy grace that I may first of a wild olive become a branch of jesus, that awaking myself with the wings of thy mercy, I may crow the better to stumbling Peter, not only in delivering precepts, but also examples of godly life and honest conversation. Give me the true knowledge of thy word, that by it as by a lantern I may guide myself and them the better, from wandering in vanity, into the way of sanctity. Give me also grace to do my duty faithfully, and imprint in my heart the last day when I shall render an account of my calling, so that always remembering it, I may the better fulfil it. O Lord show thy mercy, Amen. Another. O Lord, give me grace to be faithful in my vocation, to be diligent in my calling to train up youth: but before all things to serve thee. School me, o gracious God, in the way of thy will, and teach me the way of thy commandements, that I may not only live by thee, but in thee for ever. Plant me like a branch of grace in the garden of thy gracious pleasure, that I may grow in thee, and not in the broad way of iniquity, or wide field of vanity. Order thou my ways with the rule of thy will, and guide my steps by this lantern of life, that neither for fear or flattery I serve from the lessons of thy holy spirit: but ever may walk with the warrant of a good conscience in thy law and testimonies. For this O Lord, shall redound to the profit of thy Church, whereof by Baptism I am a member: as also to the bettering of youth which is better schooled by examples of a godly life, than by precepts of learning. Therefore, O Lord, that thy Church may be unspotted and without wrinkle, I beseech thee in thy sons name to have mercy upon me and all my brethren, which live in faith and fear of thee, that our good lives may glorify thee our father in heaven: and spur the babes of thy family, to the performance of their vow, by the power of thy spirit, Amen. Apraier for Scholars. O God, we are a cursed progeny, by nature leapt in the bands of sin, and fettered in the chain of death, the due reward of sin and iniquity: but of thy mere mercy thou hast drawn us unto thee out of the jaws of our spiritual Pharaoh, by the death of Christ thine only son, that mighty lion of the tribe of judah, that being delivered from the hands of our enemies, we might serve thee in him all the days of this our life. But because we cannot of ourselves, and by ourselves, aspire to the end of our redemption: we give thee thanks O Lord, that it hath pleased thee to help us by this means, to wit, by placing us under tutors. Thou hast throughlie sifted our nature: thou knowest that there is continual battle between the wanton flesh and the spirit of sanctification: and therefore to repress old Adam, and to crucify the kingdom of the wanton flesh, thou hast put this yoke upon us to be under tutors and governors to crop the crooked boughs off, and to mow down the ripe harvest of wicked nature, that they might by precepts of life, with the assistance of thy spirit, graff us in the true vine jesus, and also print the stamp of Christian knowledge in the tables of our hearts: that being no base metal but pure and fine silver, we might (and yet of grace) be weighed in the balance of thy mercy as currant coin, to be placed in the storehouse of thy joy for ever. To thee as only good, be all glory, Amen. The mother's prayer for the good education of her youth. O Gracious God, in knowledge that thou lovest all things which thou hast made of thy goodness: and that thing cannot perish, which is committed to thy charge. Now I come unto thee with my tender children, committing them into thine hands, and desiring thee to cover them under the wings of thy provident mercy. Hue and square the rough table of their hearts, of stony make them fleshy, that being softened by the dew of thy blessings, they may bear the seal of adoption in thy son Christ. O Lord guide them in this dark vale of vanity, with the light of thy favour, that escaping the dungeon of sin, they may walk in newness of life, and lodge always in thine holy will. Imprint in their heart's faith, hope, humility, and charity: that following thee they may be humble & meek as thou art. In due them with the spirit of fear, that they may kiss thee in faith and live lie obedience, thou being never angry with them, but loving them, as the mother doth her tender sucklings, Amen. The Father's prayer. O Father of all Fathers, have mercy upon me, and give me thy grace, not only to be thankful for this thy gracious gift, but also dutiful to use it after thy good will and pleasure. It is thy will O father of Heaven, that children should come unto thee: yea, that all men should be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth. Fill the cup of thy mercy, O Lord, and let me drink of it, and my children pledge me, that we may together be wrapped in the garment of Grace, and at length be married unto thee into the kingdom of glory. Take my tender babes O Lord, into thy family, that as children of thy house, together with me, they may sit with father Abraham Isaac and jacob, at the table of joy in joy unspeakable, and in pleasure inconceiveable. Give them the spirit of thy favour, that they may cry truly unto thee, Abba, Father, assured in their consciences, that they are thy children, and coheirs with our Saviour jesus of life eternal. O father show thy mercy for thy mercy's sake, Amen. The Child's prayer. IAm borne a natural child, O father of Heaven, weak in body, blind in soul, in all parts maimed, and as it were leapt in bands of misery. O Lord renew me wholly, make me a babe of thy family, that I may suck the paps of thy word, which is of power to save body and soul. Lop the tree of nature, O gracious God, and restrain me within the banks of thy will by the bridle of thy spirit, that I never passing the limits of thy good pleasure, may of thy mercy be taken as worthy to sit with father Abraham in the restefull land of Canaan. Regenerate me O Lord, and make me a new creature, that having put off the old man, I may be transformed into thee the second Adam, in newness of life and be freed from albruntes of storming nature & blows of tyrannous Satan, that I may sleep in the lap of thy Church in safety for ever. O sweet jesus, let no tempest of sin, or thunderboult of Satan or his ministers overturn me thy poor Creature, sailing upon the foaming seas, beset and beaten with the surges of this present world: but guard me with thine hand, and let thine holy Angels pitch their tents about me, lest the brickle bark of my body being broozed with the waves of wickedness, and the ship of my soul shaken with the tempests of iniquity, I utterly come to nought and become a castaway. In all dangers therefore, give me grace to cry unto thee with a loud voice, Help me, thou that canst still the roughness of the sea, or else I perish, Amen. The Husbandman's. prayer. IA poor husbandman O lord GOD do come unto thee for secure. jesus thou son of David have mercy upon me. Thou art the true vine, and GOD thy father the husbandman and a branch engraffed in thee by grace, and nourished by the juice of mercy. O Lord, when the pock of my corrupt nature breaketh out, and the wild Olive showeth itself: then of thy favour lop and crop me: purge me, that I may bud in thee, and bear fruit worthy repentance. Give me thy grace, that I tie not my heart to this world nor lock my thoughts in the chain of vanity: but free me from the slavery of the devil, and unlose the desperate knot of my sinful conscience, that sin being disjointed by remission, and my conscience un linked from sin, I may serve thee in holiness and righteousness all the days of my life. Aid me O father of heaven, when the branch of sin will overwantonlie flourish, & old Adam pass the limits of thy holy will. Do this, O father, and only good husbandman, for thine own sake, Amen. The Maidservants prayer. ALL estates O Lord, depend upon thee, King and beggar: Magistrate & Clergieman, master and scholar: all come of thee. And me thou hast made a poor handmaid, which I do not only willingly bear, as knowing thou haste allotted me this calling: but also very many ways I have to thank thee for it. For thou hast not only delivered me from the slavish service of Satan, but also doest (by this my yoke) restrain the wanton relics of stained nature, preserved me from the pampering of the old man in pleasure and idleness. secondly, that I am not servant to any Heathen, Turk, or Saracen: but unto a Christian, in such a place, where thy Gospel is preached freely, and fully. thirdly and specially, because thou hast called me unto such an estate of life, as wherein I know I do well please thee. For who liveth after thy Gospel, if not I, who get my living with the sweat of my brows? I do not glory here in vain, but to thee be the glory, who hast turned the curse into such a blessing. O Lord give me grace to consider this, that I may be more diligent in my calling, more earnest in serving thee than ever I have been heretofore. Forgive me all that is past, and guide me in things to come, that I may never halt in my vocation. Give me a sound and perfect faith in thy sons blood O father, wherein he hath washed (of his great mercy) my poor soul, that notwithstanding I serve a mortal man, yet above him in all things, I may serve thee, to whom be all glory both now and for ever, Amen. A prayer for a woman with child. IN the beginning of the world, O father of heaven, after thou hadst form man of the slime of the earth, and yet prince over all creatures; it pleased thee of thy goodness to create a woman of his side, as well for his solace, as for the continuance of his seed. It was thy word unto them, Increase and multiply. This increase was easy, but mother Eve hath made it hard (by passing the bounds of thy will) to all her posterity: so that the woman conceiveth and bringeth forth in great pain, and dangerous travel the fruit of her womb: in so great pain O Lord, in such extreme pangs, that unless thou quench the flame of her sorrows with the water of comfort, it is impossible for her to bear that into this vale of misery which thou of thy goodness haste framed, & she conceived. Wherefore thou GOD of wonders, and Father almighty of Heaven, as thou hast by the slaughter of thine only lamb, taken away the sins of the whole world, and condemned sin in the flesh: so take away the pangs of childbirth, the fruit of sin from all womankind, especially this woman, that bearing joy fully, that which she hath conceived fruitfully, and thou hast fashioned graciously she may glorify thee most carefully, and praise thee most thankfully, the only stay of her estate in all extremity, both now at this present, and hereafter everlastingly, Amen. A prayer for a woman in travel. Lord save me, or else I perish. Lord have mercy upon me a sinner. Pitiful jesus show thy mercy unto me, and let the light of thy countenance shine upon me, that I be not swallowed up in grief and sorrow. Lord, sweet Lord, thou sendest thy servants to call me to the marriage: thy fatlings and oxen are killed, and Dinner is ready: Lord give me grace to come unto thee, that being freed from sin, and eased of sorrow, the fruit of sin, I may marry thee in the covenant of thy mercy, and banquet with thee face to face at the table of joy, in thy heavenly jerusalem. Lord, loving Lord and gracious God, bless the fruit of my womb, and take it into thy family. For I believe Lord, that thou becamest of God the son of man, to make it and all other, whom thy father hath given thee, the Children of God thy heavenly Father. According to my faith therefore O Lord, be it unto me. Open the door of thy mercy and lodge my child in the virtue of thy covenant, that being my God and the God of my seed, I may glorify thee both now and ever, and offer up the sacrifice of praise, the fruits of a joyful spirit unto thee. Lord and Father of heaven, it is thy will that all men should be saved: thy will be done, and save me by thy mercy I beseech thee, Amen. A prayer for the prisoner. O Living GOD and loving Father of Heaven, I have stood in the way of sinners, and wasted my days in iniquity, for the which I am justly tied in bands, and shall suffer the shippewrack of this frail and fading life. O Lord comfort me with thy holy spirit against the terror of death: and so root in me the hope of salvation, that I may look in steadfast saith after the night of my passion, to sup and to be with thee in heavenly paradise. Evil hath been my life, even from the womb have I warred with evil nature against thee, and to my power sought to destroy myself, and to crucify my jesus again most villainously. But yet O. Lord and father of mercy, I believe verily that all thy sons blood is not dried up. I am persuaded that there are some drops of grace reserved for all laden and labouring publicans, and therefore coming unto thee I cry and call: Lord have mercy upon me a sinner: Lord, O jesus thou son of David have mercy upon me. Remember thy bloo die passion, and with the testimony of most thy holy spirit seal up in my heart my salvation, that I may die in thee, and so live with thee for ever, Amen. A prayer to be said at the hour of death. FAther of heaven into thy hands I do commend my soul Lord increase my faith, strengthen my weakness, fortify my soul with the Testimony of thy favour, against the fear of death, which is dreadful unto me. O gracious God, look not upon my merits, for they are none: nor upon my life, for it hath been very nought and abominable, but look upon Christ thy dear son and my loving jesus: who being slaughtered upon the altar of the Cross, crieth unto thee for me and my brethren: Father forgive them. Thy son O Lord, died to deliver us, was bound to lose us out of hellish Egypt, that being freed by him, we might always and solely serve him. But mercy Lord, mercy is all my suit: for I have profaned his precious passion by my evil conversation, and done what lay in my power to crucify him again: but notwithstanding Lord, thou art always merciful and of great pity: and I believe verily, that thy sons mercy is not abated, who cried for the butchering jews, Father forgive them. Loving God therefore bury mine iniquities, and accept thy sons cry as a satisfaction for my sin Lord have mercy upon me a sinner, Amen. A prayer for the truth. Heresy, O Lord, is the spur of dunghill cocks and hirelings, which faint and will not fight in thy quarrel against the wolf, for the sheep of thy pasture. Let not this spur blind the eyes of christians, let it not shut up the window of thy will. Thy truth defend O Gracious God, and with the whip of thy judgement scourge all penny gospelers, and scour thy father's house, which must be a house of prayer, that thy word may be truly preached, which is thy power unto salvation. Grant unto us the pure bread of life, let it not be soured with the leaven of unseasoned Rabbins, lest thy truth being eclipsed with evil doctrine, be utterly buried, and so thy Lambs for hunger starved. The babes of thy family do hunger & gape for meat: they daily cry unto thee, Father of heaven deliver us from evil: Come Lord jesus, come: for thou art truth, and the only teacher of truth. Root up out of thy garden the weeds of heresy, and hinder the blast of slandering Trumpeters, who do nothing else but bark against thy truth, and bite the good names of others, and all to the defacing of thy Gospel, Amen A prayer for the ploughman. IT is thy just reward, O GOD, to man for his treachery and disobedience against thy majesty, that he should get his living by the sweat of his brows. I confess therefore O thou just God and loving father, that I have merited this bondage, that thou mayest be justified when thou art judged. Give me thy grace O Lord, that I may be diligent and faithful in my vocation, to do my duty, not so much for fear as for conscience. Give me thy grace, that I may serve with a willing mind, and a free conscience, that being subject to a Christian in body, yet I may bear rule over sin and Satan in a steadfast faith, and fear of thee. Guard & defend me with thy grace, and fence me with thy favour. Uphold my feet from slipping, stay me that I fall not, and if I fall, raise me up that I may not lie in the mire of desperation, when sin shall assault me. Blow my heart with the threats of thy piercing law, and harrow it with a grievous memorial of my omitied duty: but so O Lord, that thou in the end do so we in it the seed of thy Gospel, the bread of immortality, that I may live in thee and by thee, now and for ever, Amen. A prayer for the blessing of his labour. Such was the fall of Adam, O gracious God, so great was his rebellion against thy divine majesty, that of desert thou mayest forsake him, and stay the hand of thy bounteous liberality. Notwithstanding Lord, because that thou hast commanded all men to ask, and alured them to crave things necessary by thy promise, that he that asketh shall have: therefore, O Lord, in hope of thy wont and offered mercy, I come unto thee in the names of Christ thy beloved son and my loving husband: desiring thee, in the streams of thy bloody tears, to wash me from my sins, to bury them in the bottom of the sea, and to scatter them as chaff before the wind, that I being taken into thy favour, & reconciled to thee in the blood of the immaculate lamb, may look in assurance for thy fatherly providence. Bless, O Lord, the cursed earth: so fructify the barren earth with the dew of heaven, that we may have great cause to glorify thy name, and sufficient for nature against extremity, to relieve us with thy store in time of necessity, Amen. A prayer for peace. AP pease, O gracious God, the surging waves of this present evil world: cut down the angry makebates, and grant unto us the peace of thy spirit: that living in one mind, and bearing about us one will grounded upon thy gracious pleasure, we may, be gathered into one sheepfold, and live in brotherly love and unfeigned unity. O loving maker and God of peace, it is a piteous thing to see the malice of the world: it is a misery to behold how thy members disjoint themselves in ceremonies and beggarly elements: it is a hell to consider how mighty Saul rageth against little David: to see the beastly cruelty and tiger like tyranny of the Pharaos' of this world, who not tendering their own case, not regarding the end of thy passion, or full and sole redemption, do rack and rend the babes of thy Church, thy beloved wife. Redress all this gracious God: either cut off our enemies or else convert them, that we may together wage battle against the devil our archaduersarie. Season the hearts of our brethren, that will for a trifling ceremony, renounce thy verity, and break the bands of Christian unity. Continue the weak novices of thy school in the liberty of thy Gospel, that all offence being taken away, we may serve thee the God of peace, even charity itself, in Charity, Amen. A prayer in time of War. O Lord and only peacemaker, link us in unity that are divided, join us in love that have sundered ourselves, and so transgressed thy holy will. If our cause be evil, good Lord amend us and reconcile us with the peace of thy spirit: if it be good, defend us O Lord, and turn unto us, or else confound our enemies Gracious jesus, thou knot of peace, which hast joined God thy father and man, not only in favour as friends: but also coupled us in one brotherhood with thee, as his children: we beseech thee to sow the seed of concord in us, that we may live in thee as fruitful branches now and for ever. O Lord give us thy grace that we purchase no envy, nor be the fathers of sedition, of war, or any insurrection: but imprint in our hearts thus much, that thou art love, who shalt come to judge the quick and the dead. Charity shall judge the world, and confound all brewers of tumults. Engrave this lesson, O Lord, in the tables of our hearts, and for give us all that is past, & guide us in that which is to come, that we fall not but stand fast in the way of thy will, Amen. A prayer for the Captain. DEfend the righteous cause of thy servant: assist me with strength against mine enemies, with the wisdom of thy spirit against the policy of man, that being wholly guided by thee, I may fight manfully in thy quarrel, to the building of thy Church, and utter rebuke of her adversaries. Without thee, o fountain of goodness, and God of mine estate I can do nothing. Arm me therefore with thy grace, with the buckler of thy word, that I may be able not only to war with, but also to overmatch Satan my deadly foe, and all his hellish band, setting themselves against thee and thine anointed. Enrich me with thy mercy, that I may be able to put upon me the white raiment offaith, and being clothed with it, may stand sure against the foaming ministers of the devil, that no storm may overturn or dismay me. O Lord keep me from all wrestling affections, from inordinate motions defend me, O Lord. Let all discord be removed, whereby thy pelican children may be dissevered. But nourish O God of love, thy babes with the spirit of patience, that I and they being of one mind, may do our endeavours, and bend our whole strength to the reedifying of mother Zion, which traveleth with sorrows, and sinketh in the mist of heresies, unless thou pull her out by the hand of thy mercy: which do O gracious God, I beseech thee, Amen. A prayer for the soldier. THis world is nothing else but a sea of trouble, here the devil stormeth, there the world frowneth, on every side the flesh assaulteth us, so that our life may well be termed a warfare, and our days a treasure of dangers. O Lord, with the anchor of thy mercy uphold us, that we sink not in the sea of this troublous time: but guide us with thy holy spirit, that our lives may please thee, and we in our death praise thee, through jesus Christ our Lord. Plant the tree of peace among us, let it flourish to the gladdening of our hearts; that all dissension cut off, we may be linked in one knot of Christian unity, gathered into one sheepfold, and guided by thee our only and one shepherd. Let nothing sunder the members of thy body, but cherish and nourish them with a full persuasion of brotherhood, in the unity of our Saviour, and thee our one and only father, Amen. A prayer in time of dearth. O Mighty God and maker of all things: thou art just, and in justice hast thou scourged us: we confess it, O Lord. Our lives have deserved thy whip, the excessive riot of sin hath merited the famine and want of thy gracious benefits: but not withstanding loving Lord, bury our iniquities in the multitude of thy wont goodness, and bless us with the store of thy mercy, that as we may now declare thy justice revealed against sin: so likewise we may preach and blaze abroad to the world, the bottomless pit of thine infinite pity. O gracious Lord, thou gavest thine only son our jesus to the death, even to the death of the cross by his bitter passion to purchase our redemption. As thou hast given him: so good Lord give us all thy benefits with him, that as thou hast by him redeemed us, so we in him may be sustained, during this transitory life, with fullness of thy grace, till the day of his great visitation, when meeting him in the clouds, we shall be set on his right hand, to live with him in fullness of joy for ever. Descend us, O Lord, from extreme neediness, and correct us not in thine anger; but store us with sufficient in thy mercy. Food and raiment, good Lord we ask no more. Give us and grant us this our petition, and give us grace therewith to be content, Amen. A prayer against the fear of death. THy hands have ramed me O lord. And whereas to the ble 〈…〉 she of all his posterity, father Adam made himself through folly worse than nothing, a cursed caitiff, even thine utter enemy: it pleased thee of unmerited goodness, to leave the college of thy Saints: the ninety nine just sheep, the band of thy blessed angels, to seek the straying sheep, the groat that lost that royal stamp of a pure nature, to the utter disgrace of all his progeny. Man, this lost sheep thou soughtest O jesus, thou foundest sweet jesus, by death thou foundest her, by bleeding pains thou foundest her, by nailed hands and bored feet thou foundest her, by a sharp & thorny crown, which pearced thy glorious head, by shedding of thine own blood, by drinking of vinegar in thine extreme thirst, by suffering the most violent death of the cross thou foundest her: and so foe undest thy lost sheep, man, lost man, sinful man, the child of wrath O jesus. O loving jesus & tender hearted Samaritan, that of a sick hast salved, of a sore sinner hast saved him, of a wicked Creature washed him clean in the stream of thine inestimable mercy. O jesus, O gracious jesus, thou hast sought lost man, and found lost man, by condemning sin, by breaking the bands of the devil, by conquering hell, sin, death and devil, in the flesh. Sith therefore thouhaste, O loving jesus, pitiful jesus, of thy mercy, shed thy blood, not only for my first father Adam, but also for me, even for the whole world, that as sin overran all men to condemnation by one man: so in thee all the nations of the world might be blessed. And sith thou hast not only made a full purgation for my sins, being the slaughtered Lamb that hast taken away the sins of the world: but also song a conquest over sin, which hath lost his sting, death which was dead, & hell which had lost the victory, and the dragon which thou overcammest in heaven, by preaching liberty to Captives, and leading captivity captive, there is no cause why I should faint and fear death. Arm me therefore, O Lord, with this faith, that thou hast dashed Death in pieces with the rod of thy merits, & drowned the devil in the rivers of thy precious blood, that no torment or biting pain of the flesh sunder me from thee most loving jesus: but imprint in my heart thy grace, that in greatest anguish I may be so far from the fear of it, as rather to cry with thy Saints Come Lord jesus, Come: and desire to be dissolved with Paul, and to be with thee my loving husband, than by any pangs of death to refuse thee. O Lord do thy good will, Amen. Another. Our Father which art in heaven, thou art life; how shall I come unto thee? there is no way O Lord, but thyself: no man cometh unto thee but by thee. There is no remedy but this vessel of earth must be broken, before I shall see thee face to face even as thou art in fullness of glory. Dust to dust, ashes to ashes, clay to clay, earth must return to earth, to pay this borrowed tabernacle to earth where of it came. Grass must whither, the flower must fade, the vapour vanish, I must be dissolved before I shall be joined fully to thee my head and only vine, wherein I live. Thy pursuivant sickness must visit this body of sin, and death must row me over the seas of this world, unto thee in the bark of faith, by the anchor of thy covenants made to the house of David. O Lord therefore give me grace to welcome death, by which I must pass to life, that dying in thee I may be blessed, and live in the storehouse of thy joys for ever, Amen. Another. O Loving husband, mine only jesus, sleep not, slumber not: but awake my joy, awake my comfort, and lose the bands of my misery. Death, death O Lord, thou hast nailed to the tree, by the precious passion, and drowned Satan the prince of darkness in the streamie flood of thy blessed blood. Sweet jesus, loving Lord, and husband mine, lock up the faith of this thy merit in my heart, and clip me in the sweet arms of thy wonted comfort. Kiss me, kiss me, piteous jesus, pity me, and be not angry with me. Divorce me not O merciful jesus: but marry me in mercy, and call me in thy favour to the marriage of grace, that being thine by the testimony of thy spirit, I may sing with a brazen face: sin, where is thy sting? hell where is thy victory? mercy O Lord, mercy, love, loving God, love is thy nam 〈…〉 mercy is my suit, O bottomless pity: thy love I labour and cry for; Lord, Lord, jesus thou son of David have mercy upon me, and spread forth the banners of thy comfort, that I may know that I am thine, and knowing it, may never distrust thine inestimable mercy, Amen. Another in form of a confession. IN thy name, O Lord, Amen. I acknowledge to the publishing of God his glory, and the comfort of my soul, that I am God his own child, that he hath created me of nothing, redeemed me being lost, & preserved me from the womb till this time. In him have I only trusted, & never shall be confounded. Beloved friends in the Lord, for your comfort and mine own duty, hear my confession, which every christian is bound to make. I acknowledge therefore in the face of GOD Almighty, before you all, that whether I live or die, I am his. He hath suffered death to save me from death, he was crowned with thorns to crown me with glory: he was bored and nailed to the tree, to nail and to crucify the sins of the whole world. He was content to be pierced and gored with a spear, yea so pierced, that the blood gushed out, and for nothing else but to wash me clean from the sore of sin, in the streams of his mercy. For this with one consent let us cry, Our souls do magnify the Lord, and our spirits rcioise in God our Saviour. Sccondlie I confess, that though Christ in his precious blood hath cleansed me from the filth of sin, that notwithstanding I do nothing in this present life, but heap sin upon sin, and hoard up trespass upon trespass, so that this day is worse always than yesterday, by increasing as days, so sins: and therefore the indignation of God against me. But yet those of hell shall not be able to prevail against me. For there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ jesus my Saviour. thirdly I confess that as my life is sinful, so it is short; like a smoke, like a shadow, like a warfare, like a flower that fadeth, grass that withereth, a word that soon passeth, it is like a bubble in the water, a weavers shuttle: it is a span long and no more. Again it is not only short but also miserable. For it is an exile, a vale of misery, it is a wilderness, it is stuffed with sorrows, a cage of enemies, a sea of miseries, a dungeon of groanings & grievous sobbings: it is a storm, a tempest that wonderfully troubleth the people of our heavenly father: believe me, it is no better than a woman's travel, and that is extremely miserable: and therefore, as not only short but also wretched I am willing to forsake it. Yea death, welcome death; sickness, sickness of all messengers welcome art thou. Adieu vile life, farewell life, sinful life adieu, and welcome death the pursuivant of my loving Saviour: for by thee my misery shall end. From war to peace, from this stormy world into the calm country of heaven: from groanings and sobbings, from this vale of fighing, to the palace of joy: from earth to heaven, from sinful men & wild beasts to beloved friends, by death I shall pass to life, to have the company of holy patriarchs, and blessed Saints, to have the sight of the glorious Trinity, to have and inherit such joy, as neither eye hath seen, nor ear heard, nor heart ever conceived. By death I shall have liberty without imprisonment, health without sickness, joy without sorrow, pleasure without pain, in such security, eternity and perpetuity as passeth all thoughts. The holy ones of GOD my father, the blessed Angels and Archangels they have attained it, but never can they sufficiently esteem of it. So that O death, thou art welcome: welcome sickness for my Lord jesus hath new sent thee to fetch me from this prison to his palace, from a strange country to my home, from this place of tears and mourning to the day of marriage, sweet jesus to marry thee in thy mercies for ever. Hear dearly beloved, hear and rejoice with me. Sickness is come, death is in coming as a pursuivant from my loving jesus, to cite me to appear before him, that he may appoint me a man sion in his father's house, to sit with him at the table of joy for ever. O the great joy and only joy of a Christian; Now I shall lie no more in this prison: now I shall have Paul's wish: for I shall be delivered from this body of sin: now shall I departed in peace with Simeon to have that peace that passeth all understanding, and surmounteth all thought. Now now shall I see the amiable tabernacles of my Lord: now shall I enter the courts of my God, where one day is better than a thousand elsewhere: now shall I be a doorekeeper in the house of mine heavenly father, now shall I appear before the presence of God, now doth his kingdom come, now Lord jesus, now thou comest to carry my soul into joy, Into thy hands therefore I commit my spirit. Beloved brethren this is my testament, which I leave unto you, it offereth great joy, and no matter of Tears. Shed therefore no tears, for better is the day of death than the day of birth. I entered my life with a cry, it cost my mother pain and tears to bear me, but yet it cost my loving jesus his blood to save me, you, and all the world. Envy not therefore my luckines, that now I shall pass from you out of this vale of tears, unto him who died that I with him might live in joy for ever. If you will mourn, mourn for your own sins, mourn for yourselves, that you shall not so soon sup with God my father as I shall do: & mourn not for me, for you shall shortly follow me, and lose me but for a time, when you shall see in heaven for ever. For blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, whose name for ever be glorified, Amen. A prayer for the rich man. THou art the Wellspring of all good things, O loving Lord: thou art the rich store house and chest of mercy for all naked Adamites O Love inestimable; We are born into this Vale of misery not only wicked in soul, but even also naked in body: a deserved entrance for us by father Adam, through desire of sovereignty: but an undeserved thing it is, O good GOD that notwithstanding our merited poverty & deserved nakedness, by rebellion against thy Majesty, thou shouldest thus clothe me with thy benefits: with plenty against penury, with friendship against enmity, with health against sickness, with store against neediness. This O Lord, is an unmerited benefit, for the which after my bounden duty, I give thee hearty thanks. But what shall I say? what sufficient thanks shall I render unto thee? for thou hast not only armed me against poverty 〈◊〉 but also chosen me as a steward to unlock the chest of thy benefits to needy Lazarus, that as thou hast loved me, so I should tender thee in him. O Lord give me thy grace, that I may be thy steward, by clothing the naked, by feeding the hungry, lodging the harbourless, and defending the fatherless: that I may be able to render a faithful account of my stewardshipp unto thee i 〈…〉 the day of revelation. Grau 〈…〉 this O Father, for Christ his sake, Amen. Another. O Father of Heaven, and rich God of mercy. Behold thy poor creature, in sin rich, in grace poor: bestow upon me some mite of thy mercy, cloth me with the merits of thy son jesus, and bathe my naked body in 〈◊〉 precious blood: satisfy my hungry soul with a crumb of thy gracious blessings, that being clothed with the armour of his meritorious passion, I need not to fear the naked, the desperate corruption, or rather wages of nature. Moisten my heart with the honyedew of thy great & rich grace, that as thou hast enriched me beyond my desert, being by sin an enemy unto thee: so I may continue rich in good works, to the profit of my neighbours, to the comfort of mine own soul, and to the manifestation of thy glorious majesty. O Lord, thou art a zealous God, Such a God as wishest my health, and the safety of thy Creatures, have therefore mercy upon me, bless me with faith towards thee, with love towards my neighbour, and a godly care towards myself, that thou in thyself mayest be magnified, & my conscience rejoice in the testimony of a good life, whose reward in thy son Christ is life eternal, Amen. The beggars prayer. O Mighty Lord, and provident GOD, the stewards of thy plenteous storehouse are not moved to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, and lodge the poor pilgrim at his piteous cry, but notwithstanding all this their tyranny, Father forgive them, and pardon me, as I forgive them that have trespassed against me. Rake the fire of charity out of the dead ashes, and quicken it O Lord, that I may warm me in thy family, in time of extremity: and they be ready in thy great audit to render a full account of their stewardship unto thee. But first of all do I beg grace of thee, that I may ever seek thy kingdom, and so be persuaded in heart by thy word, that I shall want nothing, but that all other things shall be added unto me. This do I ask of thee, O father of Heaven, that ever criest, Ask & have. Give me faith to ask in certainty, that I may look without doubt for this thy craved mercy, o Lord I beseech thee, Amen. Another. Lave mercy upon me: O Lord, and pardon mine offences, the rich men of this world will scarce look upon me, or vouchsafe to relieve my necessity with the crumbs of their over-streaming tables. But yet O Lord, I beseech thee forgive them, and deny me not the crumbs of thy grace: but look upon me with the piteous eye of thy loving countenance. Assist me so O Lord, with thy holy spirit, that being always content with my calling, I may seek to serve thee in holiness and pureness of living without fear all the days of my life. Beat me with poverty, beat me O Lord, strike wound, do thy good will, o loving God: so thou save me of thy mercy, wherein lieth all the joy of my soul. Give me thy grace, never to misdoubt thy providence, that never doubting of thy fatherly care, I may with a gladsome heart endure the end of my warfare. Give me a contented mind, let thy will be my will, and my will always answerable to thy will, that I never offend thee, but do my duty in loving thee, & wishing well to all the world, Amen. The widows prayer. O LORD, I thank thee that thou hast scourged me with the death of mine husband. He was bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: he by the covenant of matrimony was made one body with me: thou gavest him unto me, and thou haste taken him from me: blessed be thy name for ever. The bands of death have sundered me from him: but I hope O Lord, by the power of thy holy spirit, that nothing shall be able to separate me from thee mine only jesus, the only joy of my soul, put the axe of thy mercy to the root of wanton nature, and cut it off: that I do not marry the vanity of this wicked world: but put upon me the garment of innocency, and tie about my heart the jewel of faith, that I may only marry thee in the covenant of thy heavenly father, loving jesus, and have nothing to do with the adulterer the devil, the father of deadly fornication. This is the only bed of joy wherein I will sleep O Lord, & the only ark of comfort, where in I will sail, till I shall see thee face to face. To whom be praise and honour both now and ever, Amen. The Tenant's prayer. I Thank thee, O father of Heaven, that thou haste made me after thin own image. Thou mightest have made me a frog, a worm, a tree, but thou hast not done it, O Lord? And what was in cause? surely not my merit, for I was not before thou madest me: it was thy mercy, good Lord, the true mother of all mankind. Thou hast not made me a king, a ruler, a lord: no Lord, but I thank thee for it thou hast made me a tenant of men, but yet in thee, that ever I might acknowledge thee i● them my chief Lord in heaven. Give me grace O Lord, to thankful for this thy will, and dutifully to walk in my vocation, and give me thy grace, that as I am a tenant to man, so I may always be a tenant to thee, to do thee service, to pay thee yearly my hourly rent, which is a thankful heart for all thy benefits. If man would have me to do wrong against right, Lord give me of thy grace to consider, that better it is to be thy Tenant than man's. If the devil and the world enticing me to walk wanton seek my destruction: give me grace O God, to consider, that all things are subject to thine universal power: and shall not they obey? how then can they or dare they assault me to hurt me, fastening the anchor of my faith upon so sure and firm a rock? if the flesh make war against the spirit, to make me serviceable to sin, minister strength unto me O Lord, that being thy tenant and a child of thy family, I may win the field, and fight valiantly, may be crowned eternally with thy son jesus my blessed Saviour, Amen. The fatherless child's prayer. O Lord, so narrow is the mouth of charity, so consumed is the firebrand of Christian love, that although the foxes have their holes, & birds their nests, yet have we no place to rest our heads on. As Pilgrims we wander from place to place, and are driven with the winds of pinching poverty upon the seas of this world to seek relief: but alas and woe to the world for it. The rich man devoureth all superfluity, or else hoardeth up to fill his Garners niggardly: so that Lazarus may not only walk amid the streets naked, but also lie begging at the gates full sore, and yet go without the crumbs which fall from the Table, to ease the tune of his necessity. O Lord therefore do I fly unto thee: have thou mercy upon me, for it is only thou which fillest with thy blessing every living thing. I am better than a farthing sparrow O Lord: thou knowest it and I acknowledge it to my comfort. Feed my soul with the flesh of thy son, and set me drink of his blood, that seeking first thy kingdom, I may in the end be crowned with glory, and sit at the table of joy in heaven with thee. O Lord grant this, I beseech thee, Amen. A Sword against the fear of death. Wherein is lively declared, with what weapons a Christian soldier should fight to hold and keep his own: made by the said E. H. The first weapon: Consider thyself. MAN doth consist of two parts, an earthly body, and soul spiritual. Thy body what is it? It is a case of thy soul, such a case as is a prison, and therefore Davyd desirous of life eternal, and the sight of his master Christ, cried out; Oh, how long shall I lie in this prison? Yea this case of the soul is such a cage of filth, as a man of God hath said, that no Bocardo, no dungeon, no sink, no puddle, no pit is in any respect so evil a prison for this body, as the body is of the soul. For it is such a case, as stinketh in the sight of God, a body of sin is this cage of the soul, and therefore cried Paul out, oh wretch that I am; who shall deliver me from this body of sin? Behold dear christians, such an heavy burden was the body to the soul, that Paul was willing to give this world a farewell, & with father Simeon he wished that he might departed in peace. Oh that we had this courage of Paul! or were as godly wise as David, to lock that up in the closet of our hearts, which they had fully digested. For than we should have a wished famine of mourning Christians, on rather unchristian paynim, who do weep and wail for the dissolution of this earthy and frail tabernacle, which David longed for, and Paul with father Simeon desired. David that father of the faith full and mouth of the holy spirit, he was a man after GOD his own heart, whom God had spiced with grace, and made of his mercy a vessel of honour. He was a pillar of mother Zion, he lived in the childhood of the Church, when the cloud of the law did yet overshaddowe the appearance of the sun in fullness of comfort. He desired to see the day but could not see it, which is now passed, wherein the son of God hath opened fully the storehouse of joy: and yet being weary of the burden of his body, and willing to forsake it as a most stinking prison house, without fear of death he crieth out, Oh how long shall I lie in this prison? Paul joineth hands with father David, even Paul, that notable Organne of the holy Ghost, who said of himself: It is not I that live, but Christ that liveth in me. He that in body saw the Lord, and knew that as a vapour his life should vanish, & so he in a small space should sup with his master Christ in heaven, after his ascension: yet carrying about himself this case of the soul, accounteth himself wretched, and therefore crieth out: Oh wretch that I am? who shall deliver me from this body of sin? As if he should have said, I know that the time will come when men will faint in faith, and broach infidelity: when this life shall be more loved than wisely loathed, & this body more esteemed than godliness will suffer. I know foolish parents will be so be witched with the immoderate love of their children, that they will grudge at the will of God, when he calleth them, and sorrow and sigh a long time after their departures, which is both sin and folly. But I tell them that they ought to rejoice, because they are rested from their labours, because they are passed from Death to life, because they are blessed. For wretch, O wretch that I am! who shall deliver me out of this body of sin? The body which you have lost, is but a body of sin, it is but a prison of the soul, as father David speaketh, it is but a burden of the soul: so that by Death they are delivered from sin to safety, from imprisonment to liberty, from a yoke of misery to endless felicity: and therefore, oh wretch that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of sin? Paul indeed knew that this world was an exile, and Heaven his country, that he was a pilgrim, this world but an Inn, & heaven his home: nay at a sight of his own Country when he was rapt, he saw at his own home, whence by sin he was banished in Adam, such joys as eye never saw, nor ear heard, nor heart ever conceived. These are the joys which shall endure for ever, for number unmeasurable, for durance perpetual, and without end or period. And therefore let every Christian be ready and willing, in joy of spirit to welcome death, & in token thereof learn to cry out with Paul: Oh wretch that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of sin? Let us account ourselves wretched, as long as we carry this weed of earth about us, until our souls be uncased, and we delivered from this body of sin. But if examples will not be of force to school us, yet let nature speak and prevail. The second causes whereof you are made, are the four elements, which concur to the constitution of every mixed creature, and being ever at combat, do also naturally work the shipwreck of the same, according to the common axiom & rule of nature. The causes of corruption are all one with the causes of generation: and therefore unless we will deny nature, and be unthankful to God for our creation, we may not in any case fear death, which is mothered upon nature our common and general mother. But if neither example nor Nature will or can prevail, yet let the authority of our Heavenly Creator, and his wisdom compel us to welcome death, and to accept willingly the condition of our bodies. Our bodies and souls God created, he made them by the power of his almighty hand, and hath lente them unto us but for a time to use, till mother earth require the body, and he our souls. For, as of earth we came: so into earth we must return again: & therefore unless we will be unthankful to nature, and rebellious to God, we must be willing to pay our debts unto him, lest if we do it not, he cast us into prison, till we have paid the uttermost farthing. So much for thy body. Now consider thy soul. As thy body is a prison, so is thy soul during this pilgrimage a prisoner; as it is a body of sin, so is thy soul lodged in a most stinking prison: as it is of earth earthy: so is thy soul an exile from heaven, heavenly: & therefore to fear death, it is to fear the delivery of thy soul from prison, which is mere folly: it is to wish a stinking lodging and a filthy cage to dwell in, and ever to carry it about thee, which is a very hard and extreme misery: it is to wish thy continual banishment from the joyful realm of heaven, thy natural country, which is extreme madness. So that unless you will be counted foolish, wretched, careless and mad, who are willed to be as wise as serpents, you must in no case fear death, which is the best guest that ever came to the godly. For now there is not condemnation to them that are in Christ jesus, but blessed are the dead that die in the Lord. The second weapon: Consider thy life. IT is short, uncertain, and miserable. It is short: for man that is borne of a woman hath but a short time to live: the days of man are the days of an hireling, yea wind, and nothing: as father job telleth us. A man in his time is but grass, and flourisheth as a flower of the field. For as soon as the wind goeth over it, it is gone, and the place thereof knoweth it no more: as the prophet David teacheth There is a time to be borne, and a time to die. And man is like a thing of nought, his days pass away like a shadow. It is the proclamation of the Lord, uttered by Esay, that all flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. And it is told us by Paul, that here we have no continuing city, but we seek for one to come. This is it which is shadowed unto us in sundry similitudes. Saint james sayeth: Our life is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. Our days on the earth also are but as a shadow, & there is none abiding. They are like a bubble in the water, like a weavers shuttle, like a smoke, they are like a thought, soon conceived, and soon ended. Daily experience doth teach us thus much. For we see, that by some storm or other, the green apple falleth before the mellowed fruit, the lamb is brought to the slaughter-house as well as the sheep, the chicken is killed for the broth as well and sooner than the cock: young men pass away as well as old, our days are short, our life is as the shadow. Now therefore reason with me. Shall we fear death for the loss of a shadow? shall we by sighs and sobs storm against the Lord for the loss of a vapour? nay, shall we not rather be glad to forego the shadow, and by death desire to be knit more fully to our body jesus, whereof we are members in faith and hope? O ye of little faith, cry unto the God of: Lord increase our faith. Be content to leave this vaporous life, and welcome death, and cry in a full belief. Come Lord jesus, come, shorten these latter days for thine elect sake and save us. Save us, O Lord save us, have mercy upon us, and help us, help Lord, and by a blessed death cite us to appear before thee. For one day in thy court, is better than a thousand elsewhere, Amen. Secondly, consider that thy life is uncertain. For death is like a thief that cometh at uncertain hours, he is like a thundercracke, that soundeth on a sudden: yea, this life is so uncertain, that death may ask his due in the swathcloth, and none be able to resist him. He is always a prince, he ruleth not only in the harvest, but also in the spring time and summer Young men and babes old men and maids, green and ripe, all are one: death excepteth no persons, he never regardeth our years, but with his sharp sith on a sudden he cutteth all down. So that our life is like a ruinous house, always ready to fall: like a thin thread, always ready to rot: like a running cloud, whereof we are uncertain, where and when it falleth. This cloud sometimes melteth in the cradle, somtims in the chair. Death is like the sun, whensoever it shineth, it melteth our cloudy life, be the cloud thereof never so thin or thick in years. Our life now being as uncertain as the weathercock, which turneth at every blast: or like the wave, which mounteth at every storm: or like the reed which boweth at every whistling wind: why should we love it, and not rather loathe it, in comparison of the ever-during life of the heavenly citizens, whereunto by death we pass in mercy, Oh that all Christians would engrave in their hearts, the wavering days of this uncertain life, and consider and look for in a full faith, the certainty of that joyful life, whereunto death doth bring us; For than would we, that sail as pilgrims on the waters of this world, and are tossed dangerously by divers pirates, the flesh, sin, and the devil, desire, & with hearty prayer crave of the Lord, that in the bark of a lively faith, by his mariner death, he would carry us to the certain and blessed life of his saints. If we were thus godly wise to consider the uncertainty of this momentany life: or so happy, as to ponder the eternal felicity of jerusalem, and restful Cannaan, we would rather joy and be merry, when sickness and death shall visit us, than mourn and sorrow for it. For they are the Lords ambassadors, which are sent to bring us tidings that dinner and supper is ready, and the banquet of glory to be ministered: and that we must come without tarrying to marry him, and to enjoy him face to face even as he is: and 〈…〉 fore with willing mind t●●aie our debted bodies to mother earth whereof we borrowed them: and to him our souls, that he may marry them in the covenant of his Eternal mercies. We are borne into this world naked, our heritage is sin and misery, our life is labour and sorrow, we ourselves are but tenants under mother earth, concerning our bodies: and under GOD, concerning our souls: which God, our God of joy and father of comfort, by his own son, hath bought us an inheritance immortal, and undefiled for ever, unto the which by sickness & death, as the messengers of his will, he calleth us. Is all this so? and shall we fear death? no: for shame let us bid adieu to this short and uncertain life, and receive death in joy of spirit, as an accomplishment of the obligation of his covenant, wherewith he bond himself of his mere mercy, beyond any merit of ours, that we should never see death, but have everlasting life. Unless therefore you will mourn against death, because by it you pass from an uncertain, to a certain life: from these sorrowing and wavering days, to an everlasting and incorruptible inheritance: and so show yourselves rather willing to have the fleshepots 〈◊〉 Egypt for ever, than to pass to heaven, and to eat of comfortable manna, not in the wilderness, but in new jerusalem: see that ye fear not death, but love it, and welcome it, whensoever the Lord will send it unto you. thirdly, consider thy life is miserable. It is not only short, but also miserable: yea, I may well term it a kingdom of misery. New borne babes do what they can, to persuade us of the truth of this matter. For they begin not this life with smiling countenance, but with weeping eyes. By their cry what else doth nature sing or signify unto us, but that through our sins, our life is become a continual warfare, and the world our enemy, even 〈◊〉 vale of misery, beset with thorns to prick us on every side. Righteous Abel found in his life time a thorn of his own blood to trouble & molest him even Cain his own brother to bache his blade in his blood, & villainously to murder him. john Baptist, the bright dayestar, and forerunner of Christ, the sun of righteousness, he found a thorny Herode to behead him, and holy Stephan stony jews to dispatch him. Yea, what is this life but a farthel of misery, wherein Christ our blessed saviour tasted of nothing, but of the sour grape of persecution? For, no sooner was this lamb of God come into the world: but Herod, by the decree of his hellish convocation, was ready to devo 〈…〉 him: this was a misery to mother Marie. And marvelously doth it paint out the misery of this life, that the honey babe jesus, the very lamb of God and light of this world is so welcomen into the world, which intended mischief. And where he by the providence of his heavenly father, escaped the snare of the ravenous fowler, yet for his sake do the children and sucklings of Bethleem and the coasts thereof, as many as were two years old and under, preach unto us the misery of this our life. The voice that was heard in Ramah, morning, weeping, and great lamentation. Rachel 〈…〉 eeping for her children, with out all comfort, because they were not, teacheth us, and crieth out upon the miserable life of man. If all careless Epicures would ask the judgement of Father job in this case, he would expound the mystical cries of tender sucklings, that man which is borne of a woman, hath not only a short time to live, but also a miserable life to lead: that his life is a warfare, continual labour and sorrow. This judgement of job, without all doubt was rooted in him and his brother jeremy. And thereof it came, without question, that they did curse, not only the day of birth, but also him that brought the message to their father, that a child was borne. They had fully considered the degrees of their misery. Their birth place was but a foul and filthy dungeon, they themselves were but a substance of blood and instruments of their mothers: their nourishment little better than venom, & their birth not without extreme pains of the dear mother, and violent offence of their tender bodies. They knew throughlie that they were conceived in filth and uncleanness, born in sin and care, and nourished with pain and labour. They did know themselves to have been like crawling worms, and that at their entry into this world they were appareled with blood. And therefore considering their miserable condition they cursed the day of their wretched birth. Yea, this made father jeremy to wish, that his mother's womb had served for his tomb: and father Esaie to bewail his birth, and to murmur against the knees that held him up, and also the breasts that gave him suck. They had fully conceived, that man was made of the slime of the earth, conceived in sin, borne in pain, and at the last made a prey for worms. This misery of man's life had they fully digested, and therefore wished to have died before they were borne. Come hither now, beloved Christians: we are many an ace short of job, jeremy, or Esay, in life and in judgement. One, after a through sifting of this miserable life, wished that his mother's womb had been his tomb: another murmured at the paps that gave him suck the third cursed the day of his birth: and not only that, but him also that first declared it. Did they so little set by this miserable life, as to curse it: and so little love the paps that nourished them, as to murmur against them: yea, the very knees that held them up, and by reason of this wretched pilgrimage, to be so weary of this life, as to wish they had been buried in their mother's womb? and shall we fear death? They wished they had never lived: and shall we, for fear of death, wish ever, or a long time to live? they cursed the day of their birth, who were holy men: and shall we weep for the day of death, the very end of their wish? did they murmur against the paps that gave them suck, and shall not we welcome death, when the Lord sendeth him? nay they murmured even against the knees that did bear them up: and shall not we be willing to surrender head, feet, hands, heart, knees, and all, to mother earth, and to salute death in joy of spirit? Fie for shame! and out upon us! if we do not willingly and merrily wish, and cry: Thy kingdom come, o father of heaven! Come Lord jesus, come. Let us deny the old man, & cherish our hope that we have in the full merits of Christ: that when the Lord shall call, we may come unto him, without any rebellion. And as for death, account of it but as a most blessed end or period of this wretched life, & an axe that cutteth off all miseries: and therefore fear it not. The third weapon: Consider the commodities of death. WE are tossed & turmoiled upon the seas of this world, with many a dangerous tempest: even till we be weary, or at least should be with holy Paul, of our short, uncertain, & miserable lives▪ and then doth the Lord, even of mercy, call us to rest and joy with his Saints in heaven 〈◊〉 that resting from our labours, we may continually pray see him with the band of his holy Angels. By death he delivereth us from danger, and therefore to arm us against the fear thereof, it pleased the holy spirit to call death a sleep: by the which being dispatched of all adversities, we are brought to our graves, therein to lie, as it were in a soft featherbed, and in a sweet sleep, abiding the coming of Christ our lord, whe● he shall knock at the bedd● and call us up, to live for eue● with him, and his holy Angels. Death therefore doth not swallow up our bodies, though for a time they must lie in the belly of mother earth. For death is a sleep, and is unpossible as it is, that a whole man being in a sound sleep, should not wake up again: even so unpossible is it, that a Christian should continue in Death for ever. And as for this sleep, it is but a short sleep: for the day is at hand, and the time of judgement draweth near, when dead bodies shall arise, and the earth shall render them up, that be in her, that meeting and appearing together, with our beloved friends, and set upon the right hand of his blessing, we may as lively members be fully knit in our body Christ jesus. So that death is but a sleep, and a short sleep, out of the which, we, and all our brethren sisters, and friends that are departed in the Lord, shall rise, more fresh than ever we were, to leave this frail and earthy body, and to have it made like to the glorious body of jesus Christ. And who now would fear death? or who should grudge at the Lord for casting us asleep? Death is a sleep, the earth is the Christian man's featherbed where he must lie● till the trumpet shall sound to awake him and call him unto judgement. Who will murmur against this necessity? or rather against this mercy? for mercy it is, that we die but for a time, or rather sleep for a time: where of merit we should die for ever. And therefore unless by your groanings and sigh you will exclaim against the mercy of the Lord, by the which you are saved, do not fear Death, or murmur against him: but bless him with father job, and thank him heartily that he hath granted thee thy daielye petition, wherein thou prayest, saying: Our Father which art in heaven, thy will be done, deliver us from evil. For, as for the first, his will is done, whensoever any man dieth. The very farthing sparrow can not fall without his providence: the hears of our head can not perish, without his will: much less dieth any man without his will, who far surpasseth all farthing Sparrows. So that to wish them alive that are departed in peac it is to wish, that God his will were not done: and what is that, but to wish that GOD were no God? For if God be God, his will is just, and must needs be done. But as for many, they will acknowledge that the will of God is done: again, that hi● will was just in calling for their children, whom he had but lent them for a time: and yet will carry a biting sorrow in their hearts, and so will they go near to bring death upon themselves. But to such mourning mothers I say, Why do you mourn? this life is a warfare, death is asleep. Why do you mourn? this life is short, by condition and full of miseries: by death they are blessed, and rest from their labours. Why do you mourn? this life is a vapour: by death, for a vapour, they possess an heavenly and ever during inheritance. Why do you mourn? do you not think that heaven is better than earth: that the company of angels, archangel's, patriarchs, Prophete●, Apostles, Martyrs, Confessors, Virgins, and the holy ones of God, is better than the fellowship of men, and the company of beasts. Do you not believe, that joy is better than sorrow? that life eternal is better than this short, vain, and vile life? that it is better to see God face to face, & to follow the lamb jesus in heaven, in fullness of joy to possess him at his Heavenly table to banquet with father Abraham, Isaac, & jacob, than to dwell with you? all our fare in this world is dung in respect of the heavenly meat, which Christ doth set before them that are passed by death to life: and why then do you mourn? Mourn not for them, for they are happy: happy and thrice happy are they. But as I say, mourn for yourselves that be not so lucky as they; to be taken from this vale of misery to the storehouse of felicity, as they are. For by death they are not dead, but by death they are passed to life, to such a life as passeth all understanding, the joys whereof do surmount the conceit & thought, not only of man, but also angels and Archangels. But miserable are you, which do yet carry about you this earthy Tabernacle: yea even in this one thing you are miserable unless you repent, that you mourn for the death of your friends or children. For in that you deny the will of God to be just, for that he hath made man of earth, earthy and mortal. Mourn for this your unbelief, mourn for this your sin, weep for the sins of your youth, for your secret sins: and desire God to wipe and to wash your soul from all infection of sin, that being prepared by death to follow your friends and children, you may with willing hearts in a lively faith, give a farewell unto this world, and be ready to marry Christ jesus in glory: to whom be all glory, Amen. A battle between the Devil and the Conscience: Wherein all true Christians are taught how to oppose and set themselves against the assaults of their Archaduersary Satan, made in form of a dialog, by the said E. H. Satan. THou art a Sinner, and therefore the child of wrath. Conscience. I am a sinner Satan: I confess it, that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing, which may move my Lord to take pity upon me: but yet I deny thy consequent. For though I be a sinner, yet shall not my sins prevail against me. For behold, saith john, The lamb of God hath taken away the sins of the world, he hath condemned sin in the flesh, so that now there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ jesus. Satan. I grant that there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ, but such are in Christ, which walk not after the flesh as thou doest, continually boarding up trespass upon trespass against the day of judgement. Conscience. Thou liest Satan. I walk not after the flesh, but with Paul I will the thing that is good, though I be not able to perform it, by reason of that combat which is between the flesh and the spirit. Indeed at the least I sin seven times a day: but notwithstanding, avoid Satan: for john telleth me, that if any man sin, we have an advocate, with the Father, jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the propitiation for the sins of the world. Sat. But how knowest thou that he will be thine advocate? For he is a righteous mediator, and therefore he will not deal for thee 〈◊〉 most miserable sinner. Con. I know it Satan, that he will be mine advocate. For so his holy word preacheth unto me, which is the word of Christ the everlasting truth, which I by his grace will never misdoubt. And herein thou showest what thou hast been, even from the beginning a liar. For john telleth me, that If any man sin, yet there is an advocate, and a righteous advocate, even jesus Christ the righteous. Sat. Yea, but how darest thou look up to heaven, and fly to this advocate, thou being a vile sinner, and he a righteous God? Con. In a full faith of his mercy, Satan, I dare go to him, For he crieth to all laden and labouring Christians: Come unto me. And why then should I fear to go unto him? especially, since he hath promised to refresh me, If I come unto him. Sat. Thou mayest go unto him, but thou shalt find him a judge. For he will never refresh thee with mercy, but punish thee with deserved judgement and reward thee according to thy deserts. Con. Avoid Satan: for thou liest. I will go to him in assurance of his mercy: for he is truth, and cannot fail in his promise. He will indeed reward me according to my deserts: but what deserts? Christ his deserts are my deserts: he by his death deserved life for me and all the world, not for himself, but for us, according to the saying of Peter. He bore our sins in his body. And therefore, sith Christ by his full obedience hath deserved life, my desert in him is life. And therefore will I dare to go unto my Lord and my God, for I am sure of mercy. Sat. I am the prince of darkness, and all sinners belong to my kingdom. For the reward of sin is death, and therefore assure not thyself of mercy, for that is in vain. Con. Avoid Satan: For what though thou be the prince of darkness, yet do I set thee at nought. I am a sinner, but what of that Satan? my sins have lost their sting, and so mayest thou gape for a prey, and go without a reward. For in the blood of jesus Christ am I purged from my sins, yea from all my sins, the sins of my childhood, my youth, my old age, committed in thought, word, or deed: whatsoever they have been, are, or shall be, they are drowned in the bottom of the sea, and so covered in mercy, that the Lord will never remember them. Sat. Thou liest conscience. For the Lord is just, and therefore he will remember them, that he may punish them. Con. The Lord is righteous, thou fowl devil: just, and true are all his ways, but yet thou liest in thy consequent, for it standeth not with his justice, to remember our sins, that he may punish us, whose sins he hath punished in his son Christ. Christ jesus, by his death hath delivered us out of debt to the wrath of his heavenly Father, and purchased us remission of sins. And therefore I am sure that as God is just: so he will not remember my sins to punish them in me again, sith his son hath paid his debt for me. For it is against justice, that any debt should be twice paid, or twice required. Sat. Though Christ once died, to save thee from sin: yet have I thine evil life to lay against thee, for the which thou art and shalt be mine. Con. Christ indeed died to save me, and by his own death hath he fully bought me from the wrath of his Father. And I confess Satan, to my Lord, that I have not lived after his law, but many ways transgressed his holy will: but what than thou foul spirit, am I thine? no Satan no. For the Lord hath mercy in store for every Publican when he craveth it, be he never so ill a liver. He is at this point with us, Ask and have. I will therefore ask mercy of God, who gave his own son, by his bloody Death to save me: and I am sure that I shall have my suit. For he hath spoken it, and can not lie. Thou liest therefore for I am not thine. But thou sayest that I am, and shall be thine. Avoid Satan, avoid like a coward. For he that is with me hath broozed thy head, even the mighty Lion of the tribe of judah, that hath promised to be with his church even till the end of the world: he is with me, and if he be with me who can be against me? do not therefore crack of this Satan, that I am an evil liver, and therefore thine. Give over thy combat, for if thou do not I will call upon my captain Michael, by the power of his Angelic band to dash thee out of countenance, who did beat thee in Heaven, and all thy hellish army. The call of Conscience in conflict for succour against present danger. THe devil, O Lord, like a ravenous lion doth seek to tear the lamb of thy Pasture; and unless thou helpest there is none other way, but to the slaughter-house, It hath been a continual practise of his, even from the beginning, to rob thy children of the riches of their redemption, wrought & accomplished by the blood shed of thy beloved son. He some like a bore of the desert, and seeketh by violence to break into the vineyard of my soul, which thy hands O thou heavenly husbandman, have planted. Up therefore and arise O gracious god and good shepherd of my soul. And as thou hast promised, so be thou with me in time of this my skirmish, that I may give Satan the foil, and sleep fafelie under the wings of thy mercy, with whom is store of mercy. To thee be all glory both now and ever, Amen. The dead man's School: Wherein Death teacheth all Estates and degrees, from the Prince to the beggar, many notable lessons, most necessary to be learned: made by the said E. H. Approach ye sons of Adam, you that are as I was: and shall be as I am. Draw near and learn those things diligently, wherein I shall instruct you. First I would have you to learn this lesson, that as sin, came in by Adam, so by sin death as a due reward followed. And therefore, when you look upon me, remember whence you are fallen in adam from grace into sin, from sin into death: and thereupon sorrow for your sins, and prepare yourselves to death. For it is the way of all flesh. There is a time to be borne in sin, and a time to die for the same: all flesh is grass, ye must all whither and fade with the flower. This natural death which followeth the combat of the Elements and sin, shall creep upon your mortallims: for as the sun hath an east to rise in, so he hath a West to fall in: even ●o you shall all dance with me one day, and this day is uncertain, no man knoweth when it shall come. For it shall come at unawares upon you, and therefore do good, and eschew evil, sin not, lest a worse thing than this natural death do happen unto you. For if you do still wallow in sin, answer me, What if death suddenly strike you with his dart as he doth many men: how would you be able to stand in the judgement of God? Therefore leave off in time, and live like christians, that GOD yet at the least, seeing your lives are so wicked, may find a good will and purpose in you towards a godly conversation. Do we not still hold the same pace like old carthorses, but repent and amend, for the kingdom of God is at hand. Secondly, when you see me remember the spiritual death of Adam, wherein you are all wrapped, by nature borne in sin & children of wrath. Dead you are in Adam, stark dead in your sins, until the Lord do regenerate you anew with his holy spirit, and water your barren nature with the drops of his grace. And herein see that you do acknowledge your weakness, or rather your misery: that by sin you are dead, even without life by nature, and without any power to attain unto life, as I am and shall be, until the Lord do knock at my bed and raise me from death to life, to live with him for ever. Avoid sin therefore, as your deadly enemy, which would rob you of life, and fetter you in bands of eternal death; and cry unto the Lord for help. For without him, against this enemy, you can do nothing. Cry with the prophet David, Create, O Lord, a new heart, and renew a right spirit within us, that being quickened again by the dew of his blessing, and strengthened with the armour of grace, you may be able to withstand the fury of Satan, and constantly to endure the battle of a raging conscience. thirdly, when you look upon me, remember whereof you are, even of earth: no better than dust and ashes, to the which I now return. And therefore to the lofty minded man I say; Dust and ashes, why art thou proud? for earth thou art, & to earth thou shalt, and become a prey for knawing worms. Deck thy body never so gloriously, tie jewels about thy neck, lad thy fingers with rings, sit at thine overrunning tables and make merry, despise all men: yet I tell thee, thou art dust, as I am, so shalt thou be. Thy body shall stink, which now thou embaulmest: thy lofty look shall be humbled, the worms shall feed upon thee. Look upon me, & think upon thyself, be not as thou art: but think upon me, and what thou shalt be, and follow him that is able of dust to raise thee to life, & crieth unto thee: Be humble and meek, as I am If thou refuse this exhortation, remember that pride shall have a fall: that earth is heavy by nature, and falleth: that he that exalteth himself shall be humbled, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. Acknowledge therefore that earth is thy mother, which is the basest of all other elements and follow Christ thy master, and only guide to his father in joy: that out of earth he may raise thee to heaven: and after thy resurrection, for thine earthy and stinking body, give thee a glorious and immortal body that thou mayest shine with him like a star in the kingdom of glory. Fourthly, let all covetous persons look upon me, and amend their evil lives. For as I came naked into this world, so did they: and as I carry nothing with me but my winding sheet, even so shall they. Their riches, the pelf of this world shall they leave behind them, which they have gathered in pain, and hoarded up with greedy minds. Oh you hungry lions! you are always gaping for the prey, you are ever hungry, and never satisfied: get you never so much by hook or by crook, by violent injury, or biting usury. But look you upon me. For an eln of earth now shall serve me, and so must it serve you, whom nothing may suffice in this world. Sorrow therefore, and amend in time. For you were not borne to gather wordly substance: but to serve poor jesus, who of God made himself poor to enrich you. You were not borne to continue in this world. No, you have no continuing city here, but you must look for another, even Heaven, whence you are now exiled: and therefore you must seek the things that be above. Your conversation must be in Heaven. You must not tie your hearts to the earth, and hoard up the pelf of this world, lest the very moths and rust of your treasure cry for a plague upon and against you in the day of vengeance. For die you must one day, and be as I am, and so rest in the belly of mother earth, until the day of accounts, when God shall reward every man according to his deserts. fifthly, let all envious persons, and evil willers behold my heart: let all bloodshedders look upon my feet, all backbiters, slanderers and cursers, mark my tongue: all robbers and Usurers view my hands: all covetous persons note my winding sheet: all selfelovers and proud men gaze upon my face and hollow eyes, let all men look upon me & amend their lives, for as I am, even so shall they be. Sixtly, let all Christians look upon me, courtiers and country men, high and low, rich and poor, young and old, noble and unnoble: all, let them look upon me, and remember their end Die they shall all: this 〈…〉 l remember, that they may never sin. Let all swearing belly gods, all selfelovers, men or women, that monstrously disguise chaste nature, and paint their bodies, which are stinking tombs of their seely souls, with intolerable vanities, let all that care for beauties hew look upon me, and judge of their own vanity, and condemn themselves, lest they be judged of the Lord. For their broidered hair, their faced and defaced apparel, their superfluous lasings, their sumptuous velvets and silks, their golden cawls, their wrought clothes, their ringed fingers, and their costly fare in this world, which Lazarus wanteth, they are all vanity, neither shall they redeem them but to earth they shall, and vanish with the vapour. They shall all sleep with me, and they shall be one day no better than I am: worms meat, stinking carcases, dust and ashes they shall be, whatsoever they do appear to the foolish world. Kings and princes, magistrates and subjects, scholars and masters, rich and poor, all may look upon me. For I am able to teach them a lesson, which they forget daily: That earth they are, and unto earth they must with me one day, and no man knoweth how soon. Disdain not to learn this at me: for I teach you the truth, which one day you yourselves shall approve to be very true. Seventhly, let all mourning mothers & sorrowing friends, let them give over weeping and unchristian wailing. For that cannot help them, because it grudgeth and complaineth against the will of God: but rather let them be merry and rejoice. For behold, this life is a warfare, even a continual warfare, as job calleth it, and death is a sleep, a sweet sleep, so that by it I rest from my labours, I am delivered from danger to safety, from labour to joy, from travel to rest, from pain to pleasure, and lie in the earth as it were in a bed, till I must rise to judgement. This is the lucky estate of them that are dead in the lord. And therefore did father Simeon desire to depart in peace: and Paul counted himself a wretch because he was not delivered from this body of sin. So that you have no cause to mourn for your friends, who by death are passed beyond death: even to life, to live with GOD, and to see him face to face, even as he is. But rather you have cause to rejoice, because by death they are taken into joy, to be where Christ jesus is. The dead man is but a sleep, he is not dead but for a time, and at length he shall awake, even by the sound of a trumpet and cry of an Archangel, to see his redeemer in heaven, where he with thee and thou with him, and the heavenly army of Angels & saints mailive for ever. Look upon me, and remember this, all you that mourn for the death of your friends. For blessed am I, and thrice blessed. This world is an exile, Heaven my natural country: and so by death I am delivered from exile, and herein I am very happy. This present world is evil, in heaven are joys that pass sense and conceit. And so by death in the Lord I am freed from evil, and placed in joy: and herein I am happy. This world is no continuing city, but another, that is heaven, which when I lived, in faith I looked for: so that by death I am set in a permanent place, and herein am I happy. This life is a pilgrimage, my home: and so by death of a pilgrim, I am made a citizen, and herein I am happy. To conclude, by death, from earth to heaven, from men to Angels, from war to peace, from pain to pleasure, from grief to everlasting gladness, from vanity & misery to perpetual felicity I have passed in peace: & herein I am happy. So that death is not to be feared, nor yet to be lamented: but rather welcome in joy of spirit whensoever it cometh. And for this are all Christians bound to render hearty thanks unto the Lord, that hath turned the curse into a blessing, and by his precious death upon the cross made death no death but an entry to life, a passage to joy, a delivery from misery. For this blessing, blessed be the name of the Lord, and let all people say, Amen. Imprint these few lessons in your memories, and engrave them in the tables of your hearts. And thus farewell. A Lodge for Lazarus. Wherein the poor and friendless are exceedingly comforted in spirit against all kind of calamities incident to this temporal and miserable life: made by the said E. H. THere are two sorts of pilgrims in the world, some are rich, and some are poor. Though the earth be the Lords, and the riches thereof his own possessions, though all men be his subjects, & have deserved the like condition of life: yet to blaze his mercy and to open his judgements and justice unto the world, it hath pleased him to bless some with store of his goodness, and to punish others with the want of his temporal blessings. Thus with poverty he beateth the poor to declare his judgement against sin: and the rich man he storeth with abundance to the manifestation of his undeserved mercy. By these his benefits upon the rich, and these his scourges laid upon the poor, he crieth out to them: Sin no more, alluring the one party by fair and gentle, the other by sharp and bitter means unto safe repentance. The rich man he maketh his deputies on earth, or rather the stewards of his family, or rather the patterns of his mercy, to take pity upon the beggar, when he craveth relief: even as he hath taken compassion upon them, who never deserved it. And that they may use themselves as showers of his mercy he hath promised that they shall always have the poor with them: this we see at this day. What a band of beggars be in every place? the poor do swarm in every corner, the fatherless and widows, young and old, of all ages infinite do groan and cry for very need. Some want cloth to cover their naked bodies, some have not meat to mitigate their hunger, some no drink to ease their thirst, some lie under hedges in steed of lodgings, some are lame and cannot go, some are blind and cannot see, some are deaf and cannot hear, some are dumb and cannot speak, some are sick, some are sore, of all people to the judgement of the world most miserable: and therefore do they seem to make this complaint to God our heavenly father. O Lord thou hast created us, thou hast framed us: we are thy handiwork, and thou the potter, that madest our grandfather Adam of the mould of the earth. Was thy goodness such to make us when we were not gentle Lord, and wilt thou beat us now thou hast made us? O Lord, where is thy mercy? is the eye of thy pity dimmed? are the ears of thy wonted goodness sealed? what Lord? is the hand of thy favour shortened? is the river of thy goodness dried up? Shall we hunger? nay, shall we hungerstarve for want of thy blessings? what now, good Lord? thy son taught us to pray, Our Father, Are we thy children, and thou our Father? Oh! where is thy fatherly providence? for behold, O piteous Lord, we are borne to nothing: beside, skin, flesh, and bones, we have nothing in this world. We post from place to place, & run from town to town, we go from house to house, we cry for relief in thy name, we ask it for thy sake: but alas good Lord, we can get nothing. If we be strong though we have charge of children, we are whipped, we are stocked, we are imprisoned, and how not abused? if we be lame, dumb, deaf, sick or sore, we may cry: but alas, charity is frozen, where one heareth hundreds do stop their ears, and are deaf at our suits. O Lord, charity is drowned, the best friend which we should have: hard hearts do reign, the stoutest enemy that we can have: with this enemy we are assaulted almost in every place alas for pity! pity, sweet lord is our request, have mercy upon us. Look upon Lazarus our king and captain: behold Lord, he cometh to the rich man's gate, there he lieth, there he crieth; Crumbs, crumbs he craveth to ease his hunger, but he cannot get them, dogs have them, but Lazarus cannot have them. The dogs come to Lazarus and lick his sores: but Dives hath no feet to carry him, no tongue to lay the plaster of comfort to his earnest suit, no hand to help him, not a crumb to feed him. Behold Lord, dogs are better unto us than Dives: nay, they are in better case than we are; for they have the crumbs that falls from their masters table: but alas! Lazarus cannot come by them. O Lord, now where is thy wont mercy? shall Lazarus want? shall he want the crumbs of bread to ease his hunger? what? shall he cry for them, & shall he not have them? shall he shout, but shall he not be heard? what good Lord? shall he die for hunger, and Dives wallow in pleasure? What Lord? hast thou lost thy name god, which soundeth as much as good? thou art called Deus, quasi Dans, and yet shall Lazarus want bread to refresh him? This complaint of the poor man doth gnaw him: nay, sometimes it quite devoureth him. But to lay a salve of comfort to this sore of Lazarus: O Lazarus, why dost thou weep? why dost thou cry out? why dost thou seem to blame the Lord, he hath appointed Dives as a father to regard thee. But what, doest thou come to his gate, doest thou crave charity, art thou denied it? the Lord commanded it, & therefore is the Lord instified, when he is judged. But Dives hath abused his benefits, and therefore shall he answer for it. Let this be thy commfort: let this be thy lodge to rest in, from all complaints, that one day God, who is charity, shall judge the world, the greatest scourge that Dives shall have. Then shall he say, as accounting that not done unto him, which was not done unto you. when I was hungry, thou gavest me no meat, Noah not the crumbs that fell from thy table: when I was thirsty, thou gavest me no drink: when I was naked, thou didst not clothe me; when I was in prison thou didst not comfort me; when I was harbourless, thou didst not lodge me; give an account of thy stewardship. Then shall he cry out, that he never saw him hungry or thirsty, or else he would have refreshed him: not imprisoned, or else he would have visited him: not lodgles, or else he would have harboured him. But this is all lies, and therefore will he say unto him: Nescio, I know thee not: Depart as cursed into everlasting fire, where shall be weeping and gnashing ofteeths. Come hither crying Lazarus, thou that criest and showtest out upon the Lord, and upon the tyranny of worldlings: art thou sick? art thou sore? art thou deaf? art thou dumb? art thou naked? what? hast thou no place to lay thy head in? come hither, for here are palaces of pleasure to pastime in, excellent turrets of joy to banquet in, and lodgelesse of infinite comfort to harbour in. For what? have you not had meat, when you have craved it? or drink when you have asked it? have you been in prison, and not visited? sick & not comforted? sore & not eased? naked and not clothed? wanderers and not succoured? Behold, in your behalf Christ will judge the rich and merciless gluttons of this world: and in the day of revelation, you to your joyous conquest, and to their utter shame shall testify & bear witness against them. This is the first lodge of comfort. But yet there is another besides this: enter into that. Behold, when you asked relief, it was Christ that asked and was denied, so that in this world you bear an image of Christ, who came unto his own, and yet was not received, Noah not known: who had not his nest, as the birds of the air have: nor his den to fly unto, as the foxes have: no not so much as a place to lay his head on. He sought once to harbour in Peter's ship upon a pillow: but mark, how the waves the winds disquieted the ship, it frighteth Peter, poor jesus is pinched at and awakened, so that he could not have a good nap to comfort his weariness in his harbouring place. Was this the estate of the master? then rest in peace, and harbour in joy. For the scholar is not above his master. Nay, doth the tyranny of Dives pinch him, when it pincheth you? doth he hunger, when you hunger? doth he thirst, when you thirst? is he naked, when you are naked? is he sick when you are sick? is he sore when you are sore? is he harbourless when you be lodgles? what? doth he smart when you smart, doth he cry for alms, when you crave: is it he that made you, he that saved you, he that spent his life and shed his own precious blood to redeem you from satan, & yet will you complain? let it not be so, but in patience lean unto the loving Lord, and let him be a palace of joy to lodge and rest in. There is a third lodge of comfort for all Lazars. For the uncharitable dealing of Dives shall be his utter ruin. If Dives have shut his ear against thy cry, and denied to relieve thee in time of needy extremity: if he have not opened his heart to pity thee, nor stretched out his arm to raise thee, when thou art fallen into misery: hen woe, woe: a rod is at hand to beat him: O fool, this night the devil shall fetch thy soul from thee. Hear is a glorious lodge of comfort for all Lazars If Dives have his barns filled with corn, his chests with treasure, his table furnished with plenty of meat, if he have all things at will: yet shall nothing redeem him from misery, if he will not attend the piteous cry of Lazarus in time of extreme necessity. For he that will not hear the poor when he doth cry: when he crieth himself, the Lord will him deny. Hath Dives now denied you alms? then will the Lord deny him mercy: will the Lord deny him mercy, because he hath not pitied your misery? hath the Lord such care over your estate, that he will revenge it sharply if you be not cherished: and will you yet complain? Fie, no, for shame, but let this be a lodge for you to rest in. God is your guard, howsoever it go with you: you are his little ones, his darlings, and dearly beloved. If Dives do abuse you, if he do not cherish you: behold how he loveth you, for Dives for your sake shall suffer pains for ever. You want food on earth: but he shall want the bread of life in hell. You want drink, but he shall want even a drop of water in hell to cool his flaming tongue. You want in this world cloth to cover your nakedness: but he shall want the white raiment of innocency: and therefore wallow in misery for ever: You want lodging here, but he shall want the lodge of joys elsewhere. You cannot be his guest, but a worm for your sakes shall be his guest everlastingly. He had store of all things: what wanted he? neither silver nor gold to have enriched you, nor meat to have fed you, nor drink to have eased you: he had cloth to have covered you, crumbs of his table that would have relieved you, he had lodges wherein he might have granted you harbours. But see the judgements of God for your sakes. This Dives is not worth a drop of water in hell: for all his pleasure he reapeth lasting pain, for his melodious harmony, he heareth howling & weeping, and gnashing of teeth. This is the woe that they shall swim in, that with Dives neglect the cry of silly Lazarus. But yet view a fourth lodge of comfort, a princely lodge, you band of beggars: approach and look up, what? was Lazarus clothed in sores? did no man visit or comfort him? had he no physician either by word or by work to cure him? had he no surgery, but only by dogs? Nay, what? was he not only sore in body, but pinched in stomach? did he want food? nay, did he so hunger, that he desired crumbs of bread to please the cry of his greedy stomach, and yet could he not get it? What? are any of you in the same case? behold a lodge of comfort: look up, and there you shall see Abraham's bosom and Lazarus therein lodged. See, he that wallowed in sores & might have washed in tears such was his misery to the eye of the world. Behold, he that was not worth a crumb of bread in this world, he that had no lodge place to rest in, now lodgeth in Abraham's bosom, an harbour of rest. What now you beggars, you that wander from place to place, and have no resting place to stay in: nay, you that wander, and for want of charity do always hunger: be patiented, bless God in your adversity, and rest in the lodge of Lazarus. Dives was above Lazarus in this world: Dives waded in plenty, but Lazarus in poverty: Dives sat at his table, Lazarus at the gates: Dives healthy Lazarus sick; Dives with a fulbellye, but Lazarus lived with an hungry stomach: and yet look up, and now you shall see Dives below, and Lazarus above him. Dives in this world had rich men for his comates, gentiles and potentates for his guests: but now he keepeth company with the devil and his angels. Lazarus in this world had no company to comfort him: nay, he had none that always tarried with him, but sickness and poverty: they were from time to time his two guests, & at Dives his gates the dogs too did visit and lick him. But now behold, Dives biteth the bread of misery in hell: but Lazarus lodgeth in Abraham's bosom, and now in heaven banqueteth at the table of ever-during joy, with the patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles Martyrs, and holy ones of God. Oh! will the impatient Lazarus say: this is a heavy case, to be always beaten with pinching poverty, always to bite of sorrow, and never to live at ease. Surely if this be thy case, as thou moanest: yet I say, look up to the lodge of rest, even Abraham's bosom: for though thou do swim in seas of extremity, yet thou doest banquet with Lazarus, who even in this world did suffer pinching extremity, and yet now he doth rest in peace. But thou art beaten, thou sayest: thou art buffeted: so was Lazarus. Oh! but thou art beaten sore, so was he. But yet thou singest on the same song: thou art beaten. Art thou beaten? then lodge in comfort. For better it is to be beaten with Lazarus, than damned with Dives: it is better to be crossed, than not crowned: it is better to be beaten, than never to be chastised. For God receiveth no child, but whom he scourgeth. But yet thou criest: Oh my life is miserable! is it miserable: then lodge in comfort. For misery is the high way to felicity. Thou must be buffeted, if thou wilt be saved: for he that will live godly in Christ jesus must suffer persecutions. I am the way saith he. But what was his way to Heaven? A cross was his way unto the crown, and thus would he lead thee to immortal glory. What sayest thou now, Lazarus? hast thou any thing to complain of? I hope these lodges of comfort do please thee. But if they do not, yet hearken a little. Is thy life a castle of misery, because thou art wrapped in poverty? art thou a wretch of this world, because thou art clothed in sores? doest thou sing of nothing but calamity, because health faileth thee, or store of temporal blessings? why then reason with me. What if thou hadst the riches of Dives, his health, his wealth his garners, his treasure, his lands, his cattle? yet vanity of vanities, crieth the Preacher, and all is vanity. Vanity? what, Vanity of vanities? nay, what? is all vanity? riches, health, treasure, pleasure, wealth: is all woe? nay, is all vanity? vanity, what? worth a nit? nay, worth nothing: and yet art thou troubled? The rich men of this world do fall into many temptations, in so much that where they should be gods on earth, to help and to aid the needy, when need requireth: they prove themselves cages of un clean devils. Some lords of lands do beggar their poor tenants, they rack and impoverish them to better their own estate: some hoard up corn for dear times, to the utter beggaring of the poor, some have catching hands, who though they have enough, yet are always catching and snatching at the widows mite. Usurers or rather robbers, who have enough but the rich? who want it but the poor? why want they it, but because charity is dead, and the rich are snared in deadly temptations? But yet they will be rich, they scrape and travel for goods. But what cry the proud and the rich men in the fift of wisdom? Oh say they, what hath pride profited us? or what hath the pomp of riches brought us? Come hither Lazarus, art thou poor? desire not to be rich: for this is the usual song of such as are rich in this world Oh! what hath the pomp of riches brought us? do not riches better a man? nay, doth not the pomp of riches bring any commodity with it. What? can it not deliver us from dancing with death, from the gnawing worm, from the bed of earth? no though we were as beautiful as Absalon, as long lived as Methuselah, as eloquent as Cicero, as subtle as Aristotle: to end, as rich as Croesus, yet we must needs become worms meat, & turn to dust and ashes, How now Lazarus? what if thou hadst courtly palaces to lodge in? excessive plenty of all things? even the pomp of riches? what should they avail thee? nothing: yea nothing, and yet is poverty a burden unto thee? It is the will of God Lazar that thou shouldest be a Lazarus: and it is thy daily prayer, that his will be done: and it is his will to save all men. But what? is it his will, that thou shouldest be poor? and art thou not merry? It is his will to save thee? nay, is it he that can only save thee? nay, is he wont to save us by crossing us, that we should enter into heaven by many tribulations: and wilt thou not yet lodge in comfort? Nay what? dost thou pray that the will of God be done? if thou pray for it, as it standeth thee upon, so thou doest wish it. Now his will is to beat thee with poverty: thou prayest for it, thou wishest it. What now? doest thou wish it? and yet art thou sad and pensive? Men are wont to joy, yea and to rejoice when they have their wish? but thou hast it: and wilt thou be sorry? The Lord saith, nay the Lord sweateth it, that He will not the death of a sinner: and death is the due wages of thy sins, the which of justice he might pay unto thee, but he will not of mercy. Will he not thy death, which is due unto thee? and yet dost thou complain of poverty, which is his will to lay upon thee? let this be thy lodge of comfort, that his mercy is our safety: and that his will is nothing else but his mercy: yea, though he do beat and buffet us never so much. And to persuade us in this point, who are so incredulous of nature from time to time, it hath pleased him to scourge his children, or rather to scour the vessels of their hearts, the lodge place of his holy spirit, from the dregs of iniquity. Cain was an heir, he possessed all, he was the child of this world: but Abel the child of God, he had his name of vanity, his end was to be murdered, he received his death's wound, even by high 〈…〉 〈…〉 wne brother. Look upon the whole college of Saints, and we shall see some imprisoned with jeremy, some be headed with Baptist, some stoned with Steven, some crucified with Christ jesus, lapped in loathsome sores, wrapped in bands of utter extremity with poor Lazarus: notwithstanding Dives the worldling wallow in all health and wealth. How now Lazarus? look upon thy brethren, & be thou comforted: yea if thou haste been rich, even as rich as job, if thou hast sat on the pinnacle of pleasure, and mounted up with the highest trees: if thou haste flourished like the glorious lily, and yet upon a sudden whither away: if thou hast fallen from the top to the eight of a hill, that is, from prosperity to adversity, and become a bare job, yet behold the palace of comfort: I am sure, that my redeemer liveth, and that with these eyes I shall see him, saith job. Who was this job? a rich man he was, he had plenty of all things. GOD had blessed him with children, and upon a sudden all is gone, Oxen, Camels, children and al. His own friends do forsake him, he wadeth in woe and sickness: and yet these clubs can not batter him down, but still he climbeth to the lodge of comfort, saying: I am sure that my redeemer liveth, and that with these eyes I shall see him. What though this earthy mass our body, this dusty tabernacle bestormed and tossed with the winter blasts of this world: what though our bellies feel the gnawing worm of a plaining stomach, & our backs want cloth to cover it: yet is here a lodge of comfort, which by faith we must take possession of, every one saying with father job: I am sure that my redeemer liveth: and that with these eyes I shall see him. Though God scourge me, yet as a father to correct me, & not as a judge to condemn me: for I am sure that my redeemer liveth, & that with these eyes I shall see him. Though I do here want bread to quench the cry of hunger, and drink to cool the heat of my burning stomach: though I have neither cloth to apparel me: nor friend to comfort me, nor place to lodge in, yet behold, I am sure that my redeemer liveth, and that with these eyes I shall see him. If thou be a spiritual Lazar, and wantest the crumbs of come for't, if the devil lay thine own sins before thee, to the end thou mayest eat with him, the bread of desperation: yet run to the lodge of comfort, and there sing thou in spite of thy sins, of Satan and all his hellish hounds: I am sure that my redeemer liveth, and that with these eyes I shall see him. In this lodge of comfort S. john doth finger out to thy hungry soul the food of life, saying, behold the lamb of God that hath taken away the sins of the world. But what? was this lamb crucified? did he not die? yes, and rose the third day a conqueror over sin, death, hell, the devil and all his angels. But yet perchanse thou wilt not believe it: if thou do not, come hither Thomas, sayeth Christ, and thrust in thy finger doest thou not believe it? then come hither and try, try and then trust. This side of Christ is the sole lodge of rest for all spiritual Lazars, that hunger and thirst after their salvation. Marry Magdalen, that was possessed with so many devils: Peter that had once, twice, yea the third time denied his master Christ: yea the thief on the cross by faith leapt into this side of safety, and lodge of Christ jesus. This lodge is his wounds, which he had on the cross to heal us: which wounds always are open, for all st 〈…〉ng Thomasses to harbour and to lodge in. For at what time soever a sinner will repent him of his sins, I will blot all his sins out of my remembrance, saith the Lord. Here is a lodge for all Lazars, that groan in spirit. All such as are heavy and laden, & hear and follow that proclamation of Baptist, Repent: all that with father David weep, & learn to wet the couch of their hearts with the tears of their groaning souls. This lodge of comfort is open to all, it is denied to none that repent, have they been never so grievous sinners. Besides these two sorts of Lazars, there are some that are rich in temporal blessings, and yet very Lazars in grace: covetous men and usurers, they do not only want that they have, but by ever seeking more and more, they drown their seely souls in sin, and for a lodge of comfort, they harbour in hellish Egypt. Thus was Dives the glutton a Lazar: he had plenty of all things, and yet he was not so rich in grace as to bestow a crumb of bread upon Lazarus: and therefore doth he now thirst for a drop of water, and cannot get it, to ease the fury of his tormenting tongue. Dives is the ringleader of the dance to all careless rich men that have departed this life, as covetous wretches. But unto them that are yet alive, although they have been a long time disciples of Dives, yet are the wounds of jesus Christ open to lodge them, against the storms of a frowning conscience. Yea, it is open for all sinners, who are Lazars by nature, and want the very crumbs of goodness: they gape to receive us, and they are always fresh and green. Lo a fountain of Christ's precious and outstreaming blood, wherein all that repent are washed from their leprosy, and delivered from the sting of iniquity for ever. In the world there is nothing but misery, it is nothing but a kingdom of calamity: and the wounds of Christ are a lodge of all rest, where there is no pain, no sorrow, no vexation, no trouble, but all joy, even such joy as passeth all con ceipt, to the which the Lord of his mercy bring us all, Amen. A retreat from sin: Wherein is sounded, as with a shrill trumpet in the ears of all men, what damnable dangers depend upon continuance in sin, neglect of repentance, abuse of the acceptable time of grace: and other excellent means daily moving men to the amendment of their finneful life: made by the said E. H. COnsidering with myself the frailty of man, and the dangerous traps of Satan, which he hath laid in every corner of this wicked world, to catch us: his crafty devices which he worketh con tinuallye to snare us, and the drowsiness of man, as careless to avoid them, I thought good to make this base retreat from sin, that being called from straying, we might come unto the true sheepfold, and so be saved. And here I might begin with wondering at the churlish nature of man, who being so often called by the voice of God and his deputies, from sin: doth yet notwithstanding wallow therein, like swine in filth and mire. Dust and ashes! shall the Lord himself cry upon thee? Sin not: and wilt thou not hear him? if not sinning be thy soul's safety: wilt thou be so unmindful of thyself, as to suffer thy gracious lord to have the repulse? Shall the king command his subject, and be obeyed: and the king of glory command thee not to sin, and not be obeyed? shall the good and trusty subject be so dutiful to the king, who is yet but dust and ashes: and wilt thou show thyself so rebellious against God, who is the God of comfort, & father of mercy? O thou drowsy creature! awake, be wise. Consider if God being wisdom, do call thee from sin, then is it folly to follow sin. If God being the father of mercy, do call thee from sin the mother of endless misery, then o wretched creature return, repent, least for mercy thou do reap the reward of sin, which is death eternal. But why should we by sinning make ourselves thrall to so tyrannous a master as Satan? and despise the call of so loving a Saviour as jesus Christ, crying unto us, Sin not. The service of Satan is miserable bondage: the service of jesus Christ is a blessed liberty, it is a freedom, that passeth all freedoms: and so much the rather to be embraced, as the other is miserable and to be detested: yea, it is with both hands to be received, forsomuch as our Lord jesus Christ in commanding requireth it. For being bondslaves of Satan, so vile a varlet, shall the Lord offer us his service, which is perfect liberty, and shall we refuse it, and not rather receive it? Eve did so much as obey the lying serpent in paradise, & shall we deny obedience to jesus Christ? she obeyed to sin, but her obedience wrought her misery? and shall not we obey the Lord, that our end may be felicity? For how can we, deserving eternal misery, be accepted to bliss, if that by disobedience we provoke to wrath the only purchaser of mercy? I say therefore, where Christ crieth, Sin not, obey him, and kiss the son lest he be angry: kiss him, and obey him; for if he be but a little angry, blessed are all they that put their trust in him. But to make this retreat to sound more shrill in the ears of slumbering Adam: look upon the damned spirit of Dives, he burneth in hell: but why if not for sin? His tongue flameth, neither can he get a drop of water to quench it: and why but for sin? The fire that he burneth in is unquenchable: his doleful music is gnashing of teeth, howling, weeping, and great lamentation: his case is cursed for ever, and why but for sin? If Dives had known, that the service of the Lord had been perfect liberty, and that obedience to his commandments had been the pathway to heaven, or that his sinful life would have wrought him such a web of woe, or rewarded him with death for his wages in serving Satan: no doubt he would have followed as good counsel, as he wished by the dead to be revealed to his brethren: that is, he would have sought grace of the Lord, that he might have obeyed him in holiness, and so be saved. But mark o ye living, and learn of the dead. Dives was a sinner, he served sin, and the old serpent, but his service wrought his woe, even a woe eternal. Now what a tyrannous master is that, that so rewardeth his servant? or what a miserable servant is that, which reapeth nothing by his service but woe? But O thrice miserable are we! if we will serve the same master, whose service in Dives we see to be a slavish thraldom, and our wages nothing else but biting misery. So that, if the Lord our Saviour jesus Christ, by his loving call be not able to recall us from sin: yet let the bitter end of Dives, and the flaming torments of his soul damned for sin, be a sufficient retreat unto us. Woe, woe, was due to him for sin, and therefore sin not. This Dives was a rich man, God had blessed him with his creatures, and these arguments of his love cried upon him, Come home by repentance, & to holiness in conversation: he notwithstanding neglected, and still continued a servant of sin, for the which his service, he doth now lament in hellish torments, and so shall do for ever. He shall always howl weep and wail, in pain with out ease, in sorrow without comfort, in grief without relief, and that for ever. But, O miserable Dives! why didst thou not repent and return from sin, at the retreat of so many and so great benefits of the Lord? why didst thou not play the good steward of thy riches, in bestowing something upon needy Lazarus? why wast thou more ungentle and unnatural than the very dogs, that licked his sores? where was charity? surely it was frozen, it was dead: Noah better evidence than thine own confession, which thou makest amidest thine endless torments, crying out and saying: My life was sinful, mine obedience was to Satan, my paradise was the wicked world, I neglected the retreat of so many benefits from sin, & therefore I lie in pain, and so shall do, till I have paid the utmost farthing, and that is ever. Come hither now ye living, consider in time and be wise. Dives was a sinner, and so are you: Dives neglecting the retreat from sin, and putting off from day to day, was at length upon a sudden thrust down into hell: and surely, if you do not in time repent, but follow his paths, then as his end was torments, so shall yours be. For God is no accepter of persons. Therefore, o ye living, consider & be wise: and if you have begun the race of Dives, repent, return, awake, lest Satan take you napping, and the Lord in his just judgement suffer him to take your souls from you, and so rob you of all joy for ever. If Dives had known the tyranny of Satan, or the wages of his service, or the dangerous extremities of carnal security: no doubt he would have awaked from sin, and been as wise before hand to have provided for himself, as he was to late for his brethren. And shall we, knowing the danger of deferring to repent, & the villainy of sin, not provide before hand against such a dangerous tempest, as Dives abode, and walk wisely: but incur the danger of extremity by sleeping in carnal security, and perilous service of sin? O ye sons of men, be wise and repent, return from your wicked ways, give the old serpent the slip, forsake your old master sin, bid adieu to all iniquity, if you will not swim in the tormentorie seas of hell with Dives. Besides this bitter retreat from sin, there be other trumpeters of Gods just judgements which ought continually to move, and effectually to persuade us to forsake the service of sin and Satan. The whole world did serve Satan, because it overflowed with sin, therefore behold, it overstreamed with water, and all the world was drowned. Here, if it please all sinners to put on the spectacles of discretion, they may see what it is to serve sin, and what to neglect the lords retreat from iniquity. The whole world having forsaken the lord God, went a whoring after Satan, and married itself to sin, renouncing innocency of life, to follow vice; but lo the end: when Satan by sin had gotten such a mastery, and by reason of iniquity was become a prince of this world, behold the end of all his practices: the ruin and destruction of the world. And surely this was the judgement of the Lord, to destroy them wholly, that had neglected to hear his voice in the day of visitation: & this judgement is bend against all those that continued in sin and will not repent. Indeed the Lord hath made a covenant, and thereof he hath given us a certain sacrament and earnest penny, that he for sin will never drown the world again: but yet the covenant may breed in us no security, but rather it is a retreat from sin, forsomuch as it is a covenant between the Lord and us, between whom no covenant can continue for ever, unless we return from sin. For although he hath promised not to destroy the world again for sin, and this promise shall be performed, not because we deserve it, but because he hath promised: yet unless we repent, Omnes similiter peribimus. We shall all likewise perish. He will drown us in woe for ever. This flood of torments, and hellish lake, wherein the damned do wallow, and wade in unspeakable pain: this flood doth pass the other, and unless we repent, and by hearty repentance leap into Noah's ark, and so into the bosom of mother Zion, there is no salvation for us. Let us therefore repent, and lament our sins, and close ourselves in the ready ark of Moses, lest being at the brink of death, the waters of hell over swallow us. But to come from the whole world to the part: behold Sodom and Gomorrha, the two stews of Satan, wherein he daily committed fornication with the sons of men. Those two, Sodom and Gomorrha, were as wanton Damosels of this world, given to all lewdness and lust, they 〈…〉 sed after sin, howsoever Satan piped. They had renounced all godly chastity, and to marry the old serpent they had broken their obedience unto the lord. But be hold, those two wild cities were tamed, destroyed: yea burnt with fire and brimstone. Now, O ye children of men, come and see the terrible sight of these two cities burning & consuming with fire: repent and lament your own lives, that you are not behind Sodom and Gomor in wickedness, but like miserable wretches, have pledged them in the cup of spiritual fornication with sin and Satan. Let this fire and birmstone, like terrible Trumpeters of Gods just judgements, sound so shrill in your ears, as to awake you from sleeping any longer in sin, lest a worse thing than this do happen unto you: yea whensoever you see water, fire, and brimstone, think upon the judgements of God against sin, and sin not. Consider that Sodom and Gomor were destroyed for sin, and that God, when it pleaseth him, may execute his judgement upon thee, whosoever thou be unless thou repent: & therefore return from sin, and sin not. Consider, that where all creatures were made for man's use: yet the Lord in his wrath against sin, doth use them as swords of vengeance, to cut him off. And therefore, if we will not only have the Lord, but also his creatures to profit us, so that we may use them to the end they were created, then where not only the Lord himself, but also all his creatures do cry upon us, Repent and sin not: it standeth us upon to amend our faults, to reform our lives, and to frame ourselves to all good works, which God hath prepared for us, that we should walk therein. But, o the lamentable case of jesus Christ! O the unspeakable churlishness of man! for if the churlishness of one wicked city jerusalem, did wring tears out of the glorious eyes of our Saviour jesus Christ, and made him to sigh and sob, because she had dealt so uncourteously with him, so preposterously with herself, as to stone his prophets, to refuse his clocking, and to serve satan, and so to work her own destruction: then what year, what day, what hour: nay, what moment do we not all make our Saviour jesus Christ, beholding our iniquities, to weep and to sob, sith that our sins almost do pass in number the sands of the sea, and hairs of our heads? Yea, O the churlishness of man! yet by sin so to grieve our Saviour jesus Christ, from the which to redeem us it cost him bloody tears, even the effusion of his most precious blood. But is it not a miserable folly in man, by such churlish dealing to offend our Lord jesus Christ, who shall come to judge the quick and the dead. Ye swearers, ye cursers, and railers, ye usurers, thieves, and murderers, ye epicures, Papists, and carnal Gospelers, all ye sinners that lie in sin, that know sin, and yet forsake it not, with what face will you present yourselves before this heavenly judge, out of whom you have wroonge so many sobs, as you have committed sins in your life? If you have used him so unthankfully, and wrought him such grief: how can you look but for grief for your reward? But, O the mercy of the Lord! that yet crieth, Come unto me all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you. Behold, notwithstanding your infinite offences, notwithstanding your infinite sins: yet, if you will acknowledge them, and be heartily sorry for them, that in committing them, you have grieved the spirit of jesus Christ, he is ready to receive you: yea, and as one thirsting to receive you into favour again, he calleth unto you Come: promising, that notwithstanding you be laden and clogged with sin, that yet he will ease you, if you will come unto him. This is a comfortable retreat, grounded upon the promise of jesus Christ, that if we will come unto him, he will refresh us. Now what is jesus Christ? and what are we? we are sinners, and therefore our due is death: but jesus Christ is a saviour: yea, salvation and life itself: and therefore to go to him, and to leave sin, is to pass from death to life, from sorrow of conscience to peace: yea, such a peace as passeth all 〈…〉 erstanding. Yea, jesus Christ is truth, and therefore if we will sin no more, but in a contrite spirit repair unto him, then will he receive us: he will refresh us with the dainty comfort of his holy spirit, and at length receive us into joy, therein to live with him for ever. Therefore, if we have stopped our ears at so many retraits sounded against sin: yet let this one comfortable speech uttered by our Saviour Christ, serve in stead of many, Come: but and if this retreat of jesus Christ be not able to call thee effectual to repentance, then turn thine eyes unto his cross, and beholding the villainy of sin thy master, and Satan the subtle serpent, repent and amend. Behold the lamb of God, he that came in the similitude of sinful flesh, to save thee by his death. Behold how the devil hath handled him, behold how his hellhounds have entreated him, and all for s●nne. Behold his holy body racked, behold his holy feet & hands rend with nails, his head crowned with thorns, his precious side lanced with a spear. Behold his precious blood dropping, yea outstreaming: behold how the only beloved son of God, our loving and blessed Saviour, lo how tyrannously the ministers of Satan have used him. But why are his holy arms outstretched? why doth his holy head bow itself down? why are his feet and hands so torn with nails? why doth his precious blood spin out? why is this holy lamb of God so piteously slaughtered upon the tree? Surely O man, thou thyself haste ministered the cause, and thy sins have wrought this cruelty upon this innocent Lamb jesus Christ: so that if thou either love jesus Christ whom thy sins have torn so cruelly, or tender thine own case, for whom he died so mercifully, beyond thy merit: sin no more, but repent, repent, repent, and defy the devil, and all his tyranny. Yea, and sith his head, his arms, his hands, his feet, his side, and precious blood do so clearly show the tyranny of sin: detest, abhor, and avoid it. And whereas his thorny crown that tore his head: and the nails that rend his hands and feet: and the spear, that pierced his glorious side: do all cry out upon us, that we have so rent and torn by our sins jesus Christ our blessed Saviour, let us for shame be ashamed of our villainy. Let us lament, and repent our iniquities, lest that the ve rye thorny crown of his head the very nails that fastened him to the tree, and the spear that pierced his side, do testify a just condemnation against us, that we did so unthankfully use them to destroy the son of God, and yet do commit sin, to our power seeking to slay him again. O ye butchers! consider this innocent Lamb, how he bleedeth, and sheaddeth his precious blood, to cleanse you from sin, and so to save you from Satan: drink up in faith the droppings of his blood, and moisten your souls therewith: eat him and chew him: for he is the bread of life, which whosoever eateth, he shall never hunger any more. Bid war to old Adam proclaim battle against the subtle serpent, and fight like good soldiers of Christ crucified, against sin: that death and hell being put to the foil, by the strength of your valiant captain, ye may at length be registered among the blessed saints of God for ever. But if all this will not move thee, O foolish creature, to repentance: neither the miserable service of Satan, nor the horrible end of sin, nor the majesty or mercy of jesus Christ, nor the villainy that sin wrought unto him, which all aught to be forcible motives, and sufficient retentives from sin: yet consider a while the condition of sinners, which of all other is most miserable. For first, they are Gods enemies, even such rebellious enemies, as with open arms in Satan's quarrel, under corrupt nature, as their sovereign, resist God's government: which thing, O sinful man, is of all other most horrible, to be God's enemy, to be at war with God to be hated of the most mighty, puissant and omnipotent Lord of hosts. Neither do sinners, by warring against the honour of God under sin and Satan, only purchase the anger and hatred of God upon their heads: but also they grieve the courtiers of jerusalem, which is above and put the Angels and Saints of God to great grief and for row. For if that they rejoice at the conversion of a sinner, and be glad when the lost groat is found, and the straying sheep brought to the sheepfold: then what grief, what sorrow, what heaviness do sinners purchase unto them, when being lost, they will not be found: and being straying sheep, they will not be brought to the sheepfold of grace again. And here it may please all sinners to consider, that as repenting we gladden the Angels and Saints of God, and make the devil to repine and grieve: so, when we commit sin, and decline from the right line of righteousness, then do we keep wakes for the devil, then doth he hop for joy, when we defraud the good angels of God of their joy. These irrevocable sinners, these the Lord doth hate, as utter enemies: yea, rotten and stinking carrion is more sweet before men, than is such a soul before God and his Angels. And therefore let all such repent, not only because they are injurious to God, and offensive to the good: but also because they are stinking creatures and such as the Lord neither may nor will abide, unless they return unto him in sackcloth and ashes: and therefore repent and amend. Secondly, those sinners that stop their ears against the retreat of these motives, let them consider their wondrous folly. For sin is the dung of the old serpent, and he that sinneth for the vilest thing that is, forsaketh the most precious jewel in heaven and earth. For what doth man's soul lose by sin? from whom departeth she? from whom doth she separate herself? even from God her maker, her redeemer and Saviour: yea when she sinneth she forsaketh salvation and her own safety, she runneth into the stinking lap of the devil her desperate adversary, and hasteneth herself unto hell. Yea, by sin the kingdom of the devil is enlarged: for he that committeth sin is the servant of sin. And what if I say that sin maketh man like to Satan? for whatsoever deformity or filth is in the devil, that is by sin: of the which if the Devil might be freed, he were a noble and excellent creature. Even so the soul of man, by sin is made filthy and deformed like the Devil. And what an injury is this to God, that by sin, of his own image, we should make the image of the devil? Repent therefore, and consider thirdly, that it gladdeneth the devil to see us sin, because thereby we become his dwelling house. Now how cursed a thing is sin, which maketh the temple of God the temple of Satan? what folly: nay, what madness is it to lodge the devil in our hearts, and to drive Christ and his holy spirit out of doors? Why should man deal so unthankfully with him, that being God, came from the top of the heavens to this valley of misery, to take man's flesh upon him, that he might be his jesus? or why should we sin, and by continual sinning, bid adieu to the spirit of holiness, & harbour satan in our hearts? shall he, by whom all creatures were made glorious, by sin be banished far from us? and he, by whom all creatures were deformed, be wholly lodged within us? But tell me, O man, Christ is salvation, life, joy, love, and all in all; the devil is the father of death, a murderer, a manslayer, a tyrant, a prince of darkness, the worker of woe. Now answer, dost thou like better of death, than of life: of pain, than of joy: of hatred, than love: of damnation, than salvation: and of hell, than of heaven? if thou do, then shalt thou departed cursed into the everlasting fire. But if thou do prefer jesus Christ, with his inesti mable blessings, before Satan: then why dost thou wallow in sin, which is the only way to prefer Satan in this world, & to establish his kingdom of darkness? Wherefore, O miserable man repent and amend: consider that jesus Christ, like an evangelical hen, never ceaseth clocking to gather thee under his wings like a chicken: let him not clock & call in vain, neither be thou like unto them that stop their cares against the charmer, charm he never so wisely. Consider that God created thee wholly to serve him, with all thy heart, soul, strength, and power: remember that thou at baptism didst vow and swear obedience to his name: remember that before GOD, and all the band of the holy Angels and Saints, thou didst renounce satan, & all his works, and repent, unless thou wilt have God and all his heavenly Citizens, at the great day of revelation, to give sentence of condemnation against thy perjury. And why, O miserable man, shouldest thou break thy faith given to God in baptism? it is not an oath to be repent. For the service of the Lord is only man's safety, as the service of Satan is the only cause of man's misery. The jailor that held us in a slavish and spiritual Egypt, was not Pharaoh, but the devil, and that for sin: and therefore, if we covet to inhabit the land of promise, and to live in liberty, free from calamity, it standeth us upon to return unto the Lord, who is only able, by his outstretched arm to save and defend us, from the miserable servitude of so tyrannous a ruler. Again, all the spirits in hell may curse the filthy bondage of sin, by service whereof they are in torments, and shall continue in pains unspeakable for evermore. The saints and holy ones of God are in bliss, in joy: yea in such joy, as neither eye hath seen, nor ear heard, nor heart ever conceived. And why? even because they repent, forsook s 〈…〉 ne, and did the will of God in heaven. For they only have entered, and shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, that do the will of our heavenly father. Therefore, sith his will is our sanctification, innocency of life, purity in conversation, uprightness of heart, abstinence from the lusts of the flesh: if that we hope to enjoy the give ear unto his voice, conforming of ourselves unto his steps, as near as we could. Let not the love of riches, the desire of any worldly promotion, or any thing under the sun, be it never so glorious since the preacher crieth out & saith that all is vanity, blind the eyes of your understandings, withdraw your affections, or restrain and pull pack your hearts from thinking upon the torments in hell, or the triumphs in heaven: the one appointed as punishment for wickedness and iniquity, the other assigned as rewards for righteousness and innocency. The Lord of his mercy so moisten our hearts, that all hardness being taken away, we may with most willing consents join hands with jesus Christ our captain, against Satan, sin, the flesh, and the world: which enemies do bitterly, and also continually war against us, and far exceed our strength to resist them, unless that we forsake them, and shroud ourselves under jesus Christ, to whom be all glory both now and for ever, Amen. A prayer unto almighty God, wherein we beseech his divine majesty, so to bless us with his grace, that the use of the prayers contained in this book, and the wholesome lessons comprised in the same may take Christian effect in us, to our great comfort even at all assays, and esp●icially in time of necessity. Made by A. F. O Father of endless mercy, the fountain and wellspring of all perfect happiness, the giver of grace, the bestower of true blessedness, & felicity: here us, o hear us for thy bottomless compassion sake, and grant unto us, we humbly beseech thee, whatsoever wanteth in us towards the acomplishment of our calling and duty. And because thy holy word the trumpet of truth, & treasure of great riches, hath in express speech threatened many stripes to that negligent servant which knoweth thy will, and yet doth it not: vouchsafe us, and as many of us as are instructed & taught, and thereby perceive and understand thy heavenly pleasure, endeavouring to walk thereafter, may avoid that penalty of negligence, which is denounced against the idle servant: thy grace preventing us in all our actions and intents. We can not deny, but that the saying of thy well-beloved son, the substance of truth, and lively image of thine own majesty is undoubted, certain, and infallible: namely, that not every one which crieth Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he which fulfilleth thy will: & forsaking the world, and all worldly pomp, betaketh himself wholly unto the service of thee, and submitteth himself a scholar in thy school; where learning sound & substantial knowledge, he may be the more in love with the riches of thy kingdom, and bid all earthly vanities avant. Now, most merciful Father, for that the helps to holiness of life are infinite: some, and those singular, consisting in thy Gospel preached: some, and those notable, in sincerity of conversation, and examples of godliness expressed: some, and those special, in exhortations tending unto Christianity declared: some, and those heavenly, in prayers and supplications contained: may it please thee, of thine unspeakable goodness, o merciful Father, to give us grace so to imprint them in our memories, and to have them sealed in our hearts, that the course of our whole life may testify to the world, that thy gifts in us are not void and frustrate, barren and fruitless, vain and unused. Lest being otherwise, it chance unto us, as unto him that knitting up his talon in a napkin, & hiding the same in the ground, had not only the same taken from him, but was also cast into utter darkness for his idleness & unprofitable service. Among all which helps, o eternal God, and faithful overseer of our souls, for that this, which we have in hand, is not of least account, since thereout we suck the sweet sap of come fort, the assistance of thy spirit being present with us: we beseech thee with all submission, to direct our understandings, to increase our faith: to confirm our hope, to kindle our zeal, to guide all our affections, and to govern the whole course of our life: that exercising ourselves in this, or any other godly volume, published for the edification of thy Church, we may use it and them with integrity & uprightness of judgement, with devotion void of hypocrisy, with faithful invocation, with humility and submission: that in●ring ourselves to prayer unfeignedly, we may obtain that which we pray for effectual, and for the same ministered unto us in time of necessity, with heart and voice extol thy most dreadful majesty: to whom be all honour, glory, power and dominion everlastingly: To this let all people say Amen most joyfully: Amen. FINIS. ¶ A Catalogue containing the several titles of every prayer, and treatise comprised in this book, easy to be found by the true number of the page. 1 THe first Morning prayer pag. 1 2 Second morning prayer. 3 3 Third morning prayer. 6 4 Fourth morning prayer. 8 5 First evening prayer. 10 6 Second evening prayer. 13 7 Third evening prayer. 15 8 Fourth evening prayer. 17 9 A prayer for all times against the power of Satan. 19 10 Another. 21 11 A prayer for all afflicted Christians. 23 12 Another. 25 13 A general Confession of sins. 31 14 Another. 33 15 A prayer for humility. 35 16 Another for charity. 37 17 A prayer for the mortification of the flesh. 40 18 Another. 42 19 A prayer for the obtaining of grace. 44 20 Another. 46 21 A prayer for patience in affliction. 48 22 Another. 50 23 A prayer in time of persecution. 52 24 Another. 55 25 A prayer against the enemies of the truth. 57 26 Another. 59 27 A prayer for the sick. 61 28 Another. 64 29 A Confession for the sick. pag. 66 30 Another. 68 31 A prayer against desperation. 70 32 Another. 75 33 Another. 78 34 A Prayer for the avoidance of God's wrath. 80 35 A prayer for remission of sins. 82 36 Another. 85 37 Another. 87 38 A prayer for increase of faith. 89 39 A prayer to be said at the hour of death. 123 40 A prayer for the truth. pag. 125 41 A prayer for peace. 131 42 A prayer in time of war. pag. 133 43 A prayer in time of dearth. pag. 139 44 A prayer against the fear of death. 141 45 Another. 146 46 Another. 147 47 Another in form of a confession. 149 Peculiar Prayers appliable to particular persons of sundry states and degrees. 1 A Prayer for the Queen. pag. 27 2 A prayer for all Magistrates, pag. 29 3 A prayer for preachers. 94 4 A prayer for the increase of preachers. 96 5 A prayer for the Schoolmaster. 98 6 Another. 101 7 A prayer for Scholars. 103 8 The mother's prayer for the good education of her youth. 105 9 The father's prayer. 107 10 The child's prayer. 109 11 The Husbandman's prayer. pag. 111 12 The maidservants prayer. pag. 113 13 A prayer for a woman with child. 116 14 A prayer for a Woman in travel. 118 15 A prayer for the Prisoners. pag. 121 16 A prayer for the Ploughman. 127 17 A prayer for the blessing of his labour 129 18 A prayer for the Captain. pag. 135 19 A prayer for the Soldier. pag. 137 20 A prayer for the Rich man. pag. 158 21 Another. 160 22 The beggars prayer. 162 23 Another. 164 24 The widows prayer. 166 25 The Tenants prayer. 168 26 The fatherless child's prayer. pag. 170 ❧ Five notable treatises, and one devout prayer orderly placed as they follow in the leaf. 1 A Sword against the fear of death divided into three weapons. 173 The first weapon. ibid. The Second weapon. ●84 The Third weapon. 203 2 A battle between the devil and the Conscience. pag. 213 The call of Conscience in conflict, for secure against present danger. 223 3 The dead man's School. 225 4 A lodge for Lazarus. 243 5 A retreat from sin. 285 6 A prayer unto Almighty God, that the use of this book may be for our edification, made by A. F. pag. 329 Glory to God: AMEN. FINIS. 1593. Imprinted at London by Richard Yardley and Peter Short, for the assigns of W. Seres. Cum privilegio Regiae Maiestatis.