A POSY OF spiritual FLOWERS, TAKEN OUT OF THE Garden of the holy Scriptures, consisting of these six sorts: 

Hearts ease,  
True delight,  
The World's wonders,  
The Souls solace,  
Time's complaint,  
The doom of Sinners.   Gathered for the 

Encouragement of beginners,  
Direction of proceeders,  
Meditation of good hearers,  
Consolation of true believers,  
Expectation of Zion's mourners,  
Confusion of irrepentant sinners.   By George Webbe, Minister of the Word.  
AT LONDON, Imprinted for William Leake. 1610.   


Heart's ease.   
A TASTE OF Happiness: Or BRIEF DESCRIPTION of that sweetness which Gods children do find in his service.   

TO THE RIGHT Worshipful Sir Henry Baynton, Knight, and his worshipful Lady the Lady Lucy.  
RIght Worshipful,  
I should think myself exceeding happy, if whiles the skilful Bezaleels and aholiab's 
Exod. 36.1.  of our age do adorn and beautify the Sanctuary of the Lord with their curious, rich, and worthy works, I might but bring one stick or stone to the building of the same. But how great soever my desire is, I am too well privy to myself, quàm sit mihi curta supellex, how unsufficient all my sufficiency is. Whiles others launch forth into the deep, it is fittest for me to sit and mend my nets at home: 
Matth. 4.21. Luke 21.1.  whiles the rich men cast their gifts (as well they may) into the treasury, I have but two mites (yea those but small ones also) to cast in: One I have already cast into the treasury, and it hath found acceptance; the other I am now to cast in, (it is all that I have) God grant it may obtain the like favourable countenance. A smaller mite there could not be, for I cannot call it a Work, nor a Treatise, nor so much as words, for they are but Thoughts, even those my meditating thoughts, which (according to David's counsel) at leisure times, 
Psal. 4.4.  I have communed with mine own heart in silence. That I have commumicated them abroad and made them public, it was neither for any excellency I deemed in them, nor for any vain glory I hunt after by the publishing of them. If any man otherwise conceive of me and it, this is mine apology, 
Rom. 14.4.  I stand or fall to mine own master. I was induced to the publishing of them, partly because I have perceived by experience how much people are now delighted with this kind of writings, and how great good hath been received from them, and partly that I might leave some public testimony of my thankful mind to such as in ample manner had deserved the same at my hands. Wherein give me leave (right Worshipful) in the first place to salute you both, by presenting unto you the first of these my selected flowers: your kind acceptance of my other simple treatise dedicated to another, maketh me presume of your favour unto this which is dedicated to yourselves. I present you here with a taste of Happiness, an Enchiridion to make you more and more in love with godliness, 
Heb. 6.5.  that you may taste how sweet the Lord is, and having tasted of that sweetness, may repose therein your chiefest pleasures. Had I the tongue of men and Angels, I could not speak one half of that which they who taste hereof enjoy. Take a taste then of this little taste which here I have provided for you: expect not in it conceited cookery, I seek to profit rather than to please; if you come with an appetite unto it, though it want the savoury sauce of eloquence, yet will it relish well enough unto you. The Lord God evermore prepare your hearts to receive it, and grant a good digestion to you in it.  
Your Worships ever to command in Christ jesus, G. W.   

A TASTE OF Happiness.  PSAL. 34.8. 
Taste and see how good the Lord is: Blessed is the man that trusteth in him.  
WHEN Nathaniel, though otherwise an Israelite indeed, A man in whom there was no guile, 
john 1.47.  yet herein had savoured of a spice of incredulity, 
45.  in that when Philip had brought him news of our sweet Saviour, 
46.  whom long they had expected, and now found at Nazareth, it could not sink into his mind upon the sudden, that so fair a jewel should be found in so foul a place; Philip, to take away that scruple, willeth him to make his eyes the witnesses of that which had been related to his ears, that both his eyes and ears giving joint testimony hereof unto his heart, he might not be incredulous, but believe: Come (saith he) and see. O that our scarce half nathaniel's, who come far short of him, and content themselves only with a civil carriage of themselves, not seasoned with religion, thinking that superfluous, and objecting; Can there any good thing come of godliness? O that they would follow Philip's counsel; would they would come and see. O that our earth-turmoiling Nabals, who no whit savour of nathaniel's spirit, 
1. Sam. 25.10.  but doting upon these unprofitable profits of the world, blush not to pollute the air with such blasphemous speeches: 
job. 21.15.  Who is the Almighty that we should serve him? and what profit should we have if we should pray unto him? which count it but a vain thing to serve God, and demand of us, 
Malach. 3 14.  What profit we have by keeping his commandments? and what pleasure it is that we walk humbly before the Lord? O that they would take a little of nathaniel's pains to come and see: 
Psal. 34 8.  or hearken unto David's counsel; Oh that they would taste and see how gracious and sweet the Lord is; what a good master he is whom the godly do serve, what a good Prince he is whom the righteous do obey, what a sure card he is on whom the faithful trust, how sweet he is to them that love him, what a rewarder he is to them that fear him, what a comforter he is to them that depend upon him. The unexperienced rustic that never tasted Candy's Sugar, perceiveth no more sweetness in it, than there is in Alum; and Aesop's cock thinketh better far his grain of barley in the dunghill, than he doth estimate the richest pearl; and Baalams' Ass that never tasted the sweet fruit of Bees, supposeth there is much more sweetness in his thistle: and wretched souls, whose souls are out of taste, and never made trial of the sweetness of the Lord, do think, that plus Aloes quam mellis habet, that it hath much bitterness, and but little sweetness: Then, silly they, think nothing in heaven worth the having: the reason is, By groveling so much here on earth, they are so far off, that all there is out of their kenning. The diet of a Christian conversation, thinketh the ordinary and common Christian, is but ordinary and common fare; why should we affect it? It is too strait, saith the Libertine, we cannot well endure it: It is too bitter, saith the wanton, we cannot well digest it: It is too sour, saith the Epicure, and hath no pleasure in it.  
Alas poor souls, how are they all deceived? and therefore deceived, because they never tasted it. For did they make a taste hereof, they would then quickly prove it not a bondage, but a freedom; not bitter, but pleasant; not sour but sweet, 
Psalm. 19.10.  yea sweeter than the honey and the honey comb: Did they once but take a perfect view hereof, with the wisest Solomon, they would subscribe and say, that neither the gold of Ophir, 
Proverb. 8.12.  nor the mines of India, nor all the pleasures in the world were in any sort to be compared to it. Yea they would say with him that here commendeth this taste unto them, 
Psalm. 84.4, 5.  Blessed are they which dwell in God's house, for they will ever praise him: Blessed is the man whose strength is the Lord; One day in God's house is better than a thousand elsewhere: 
10.  It is better to be a doorkeeper in the house of our God, then to dwell in the tabernacles of wickedness: 
11.  for the Lord God is the Sun and shield unto them, he will give grace and glory, and no good thing will he withhold from them that have tasted of him. His mercies to them are endless, his favours numberless, his comforts infinite; he is glass to their eyes, music to their ears, Honey to their mouth, Balm to their smell, contentation to their will, continuation to their happiness.  
When a man hath once taken a full taste of him, 
No comfort in the world to the comfort of God's children. Philip. 3.7. Eccles 1.1. Eccles 2.2. Philip. 3.8.  all worldly dainties will seem but vanities, all worldly gains will seem but losses, all worldly pleasures will seem but toys, all worldly delights will seem but madness, all worldly treasures will seem but dungy trash. 
1. Sam. 18.27.  The very taste of this is like unto jonathans' tasting of the honey comb, whereof when he had put but a drop into his mouth, his dim eyes were clarified to a quicker sight: The taste hereof is like unto the Poet's river Lethe, 
Virgil. Aeneid. lib. 6.  whereof whosoever had a taste, did soon forget all other delights and pleasures. The taste hereof made Peter to confess that Bonum est esse hîc: 
Matth. 17.4.  It is good abiding here. 
2. Cor. 12.3.  It made Paul in an ecstasy to forget whether he were in the body, or no: The very taste hereof is enough to ravish the soul, and to cause it to say with jacob, I have enough, 
Gen. 45 26.  I have tasted of this, all other pleasures seem sour, to relish bitter, to be out of taste.  
O that I had now but Ananias his gift, 
Act. 9.17.  that to give a glimpse of the eye-dazeling lustre of this so glorious light, I could but touch the moleblind saul's, the earthworm scoffers of this our age, and make the scales fall from their eyes; how clearly should they see, 
D. Eedes Sermon of heavenly connersation. Philip. 3.20. 2. Cor. 1.12. Galat. 6.15. 1. Tim. 6.6. 1. Cor. 1.9. Revel. 7. Psalm. 34.8.  and seeing taste, and tasting testify, that there is no estate like to a Christian conversation, no joy to the solace of a religious heart, no peace to the peace of conscience, no glory to the cross of Christ, no riches to godliness, no wisdom to that of the spirit, no pleasures to the soul delights, no sweetness to the sweetness of the Lord.  
My soul, 
Greater sweetness in the Lord, then at the first before the feeling of it can be imagined.  thou must needs confess, hadst thou been put to thy choice before thou didst feel a taste hereof, thou couldst not have asked or desired the tenth part thereof; the Lord hath given more than I could ask or think, more then, had I all the tongues of men and Angels, I were able to express, yea more than any heart, but that which feeleth it, can believe. So that thou (my soul:) and what do I speak of mine? every believing soul can say no less: as sheba's Queen said of salomon's wisdom, 
1. King. 6.6, 7, 8, 9  so mayst thou say of this sweet taste of heaven: It was a true word which I heard related to me of the most sweet dainties of God's children, when I was in mine own corruptions, fed with draff, with fancies, and dreams and deceitful pleasures; howbeit I believed not this report, till I came and saw it with mine eyes, and had a feeling and a taste thereof: but lo now I see, the one half was not told me: for the sweetness I feel in the taste hereof, doth far surpass all that ever mine ears did hear reported of it, or mine heart could possibly imagine to be in it.  
And whereas in other delicates satiety may breed loathsomeness, 
The longer it is enjoyed, the sweeter it is proved.  and the continual use of one sort of meat may glut the stomach, in this taste of the sweetness of the Lord, the longer I enjoy it, the better I know it; the sweeter I feel it, the more delight I perceive in it, and receive from it. The longer I taste it, the more I am enamoured on it, & still more and more comfortable I prove it, like to Ezechiels' river which he saw issuing from under the threshold of the temple, 
Ezech. 47.1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.  which at the first arose but to the ankles, then to the knees, afterwards to the loins, and at the last became a river which did overflow: 
Here in this life we can have but a taste.  And yet (my soul) here in this life whiles thou art sojourning in this vale of tears, thou canst have but a taste; 
1. Cor. 13.9.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  here thou canst only know in part, and feel in part, and taste in part, and see it but darkly as through a glass: The full fruition thou shalt enjoy when thou shalt come to sing Hallelujahs in heaven with the choir of heaven unto the King of heaven, 
Revel. 19.4.  at whose right hand are fullness of joy for evermore. 
Psal.  O sweet Lord, if the taste of thee be so excellent, how superexcellent shall that sweetness be, 
Psal. 36.5. Augustine.  when I shall be satisfied with the fatness of thine house, and drink out of the rivers of thy pleasures? If the glimmering light of our happiness be so glorious, how full of glory shall the full prospect be? If there be so great solaces for thy children in these days of tears, what shall there be in their day of marriage? If our jail contain such joys, what shall our country and kingdom do?  
O my Lord and God thou art a good God, 
The infinite sweetness of the Lord.  How great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee, and done to them that put their trust in thee, 
Psal. 31.9.  even before the sons of men. 
Psal. 40.5.  O Lord my God thy comforts are so many that none can count them, I would declare and speak of them, but they are more than I am able to express.  
An unwise man knoweth it not, 
Wicked men think it otherwise. Psal. 92.6.  and a fool doth not understand this: An unregenerate man cannot feel it, and a child of Belial, though he had eyes as clear as Crystal, cannot behold it: Such as make sin their solace, and rejoice only in the pleasures of iniquity, have thy beloved ones, Lord, 
Wisd. 5.4.  in derision, and count their life madness, their conversation dampish, their profession grievous: 
Cantic. 5.9.  They say unto us, What is your well-beloved more than another well-beloved? 
Vers. 10.  what is your well-beloved more than another Lover? Will they needs know it; 
Vers. 11.  why, Our well-beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest of ten thousand, 
Vers. 12. Vers. 13.  his head is as fine gold, his locks curled and black as a raven, his eyes are like doves upon the rivers of waters, 
Vers. 14.  his cheeks are as a bed of spices, and as sweet flowers, his lips like lilies dropping down pure myrrh, 
Ver. 15.  his hands as rings of gold set with the Chrysolite, 
Vers. 16.  his holly like white ivory covered with sapphires, his legs as marble set upon sockets of fine gold, his countenance as Lebanon, excellent as the Cedars; his mouth is as sweet things, and he is totus delectabilis, wholly, wholly delectable.  
Yea thou our God art delectable all together, 
Nothing in God but full of sweetness.  sweet art thou in thy word, sweet in thy promises, sweet in thine inward consolations, sweet in thy mercies, sweet in thy judgements. How perfect is the law of the Lord, 
Psal. 19.7.  connerring the soul! 
Vers. 8.  The statutes of verting the soul! The statutes of the Lord are right and rejoice the heart: 
Vers. 9  The commandment of the Lord is pure, and giveth light unto the eyes: 
Vers. 10.  The fear of the Lord is clean, and endureth for ever: The judgements of the Lord are truth and righteous altogether, and more to be desired than gold, yea then much fine gold, sweeter also than the honey and the honey comb. 
Psal. 109.21.  How sweet are the mercies of the Lord! and that my soul knoweth right well, which forgineth all mine iniquities, and healeth all mine infirmities, which redeemed my life from the grave, 
Psal. 103.3, 4.  and crowneth me with mercies and compassions. And what shall I say of his judgements? May we not see Sampsons' riddle herein expounded without the help of any Sphinx, 
judg. 14.14:  Out of the strong cometh sweetness, and out of the lion the honey comb? O how sweet are his corrections! as the precious balm of Gilead, as cauterismes in physic, and not as punishments in hostility. O sweet Saviour, thou hast well said it, and we find it true, 
Matth. 11.29. Cant. 9.16.  Thy yoke is easy, and thy burden is light; yea thou art wholly delectable.  
O they be blessed whose God is the Lord jehova: 
The security of those which have tasted the Lord. Psal. 84.5. Isai. 48.21.  Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee, and in whose heart are thy ways: His soul shall dwell at ease, when the wicked shall be afraid of their own shadow, and tremble like an Aspen leaf at every little blast of wind or thunderclap: 
Psal. 91.1.  He that dwelleth under the shadow of the Almighty, 
Psal. 46.2.3.  his soul shall dwell at ease, though the earth be moved, and the waters of the sea rage, and the mountains shake at the surges of the same, their minds are void of fear. And why? 
Verse 4.  There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God: 
Psal. 91.4.  He covereth them under his wings, and they are safe under his feathers. They know and are assured that all things shall work together for the best to them, 
Rom. 8.28.  that they are beloved of God, 
Revel. 21.27. Isai. 1.18.  their names written in heaven, and their (though crimson) sins washed in the blood of the Lamb, 
Revel. 7.14.  and that neither height, nor depth, nor death, nor life, nor any thing shall be able to separate them from the love of God which is in Christ jesus their lord 
Rom. 8.38.  The full assurance whereof, when they hold in better tenor than they can hold any thing in this life by seal, lease, writing, witness, or any other way that law can devise; O how it glads their hearts and cheereth up their vital spirits! What an heavenly comfort is it for them to meditate thus often with themselves, 
Psal.  that they shall see the good pleasures of the Lord in the land of the living, 
2. Cor. 5.1.  and have an house not made with hands, but eternal in the heavens!  
Stoop down to this all comfort of wealth, 
Wicked men oft desire his comfort, and would give a world for it.  pleasure, or delight in the world (in what account or price soever they be with worldly fools:) there is never a Balaam (were he well advised) but would give them all for one quarter of an hours feeling of God's loving kindness & sweet countenance toward him. 
Numb. 23.10.  Silly wretches, albeit they would seem to spend their days in mirth, and with a light heart to pass away the time, 
job 21.13.  yet (God he knoweth) with weary sighs and groans that cannot be expressed, many a time their souls thus reason with themselves: O how happy are they whose names are written in the book of life! O that they might die the death of the righteous, and that their latter end might be like his! O what an unspeakable treasure is the peace of conscience! yea and what they would give for a taste thereof? how many thousand worlds, if it were in their power, for a part in God's kingdom? But these pleasures are only for the bridegrooms friends, 
Matth. 25.10.  these dainties are for the children; such whelps shall not be suffered to taste so much as of the crumbs that fall from the children's table. 
Mark. 7.27.   
Behold (saith God) my servants shall eat, and ye shall be hungry; 
Only the godly feel & enjoy it.  my servants shall drink, and ye shall be thirsty; my servants shall rejoice, 
Isai. 65.13.14.  and ye shall be ashamed; my servants shall sing for joy of heart, and ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and howl for vexation of mind. 
john 4.32.  They have another meat to eat which the world knoweth not; they have another drink to drink, which others dream not of, for their meat is of the tree of life, 
Revel. 22.1.  and the Nectar which they sup out of the sweetness of their gracious God is as a well of water springing up to everlasting life. 
john 4.14. God's service not grievous to his.  So that they feel that most delightful, which to the wicked and ungodly is most irksome; they see and feel the service of the Lord to be the chiefest freedom, 
Heb. 11.6.  because the Lord is a plentiful rewarder of them that seek him, they find his yoke not cumbersome but easy, 
Matth. 12.29.  and his burden not heavy but light, 
2. Pet. 1.8.  so that they are neither idle nor unfruitful in the knowledge of the Lord, 
1. Tim. 5.10.  but ready and prepared to every good work: when they have tasted once of the good word of God, 
Heb. 6.5.  and of the powers of the world to come, 
john 4.34.  O then it is meat and drink to them to do their father's will, 
Psalm. 119.110.  the precepts of the Lord are the very joy of their heart, 
Deut. 12.18.  so that they cannot choose but rejoice before the Lord in all that they set their hands unto.  
And albeit by reason of that remainder of sin and rebellion of nature, 
The godly though much troubled with rebellion, yet with comfort proceed in the course of godliness.  which still sticketh to the ribs even of God's dearest children, the flesh in them is oftentimes rebellious against the spirit; so that the good things which they would do, oft times they leave undone, 
Rom. 7.18.19.  and do the evil things which they would not do; so that for grief hereof they break forth into this complaint; O wretched men that we are, 
Vers. 24.  who shall deliver us from this body of death! yet they shall have this word of comfort from their God, 
2. Cor. 12.9.  my grace is sufficient for you; though they sin, yet they have an advocate with the Father, 
1. joh. 2.2.  jesus Christ the righteous, 
jerem. 8.4.  who is the propitiation for their sins; though they fall, yet they shall rise again; 
Luke 22.31.32.  though that Satan desire to sift them like wheat, yet they shall not fail; though all the infernal power seek their overthrow, 
Matth. 16.18.  yet the gates of hell shall not prevail against them. 
Sweet helps for the godly to grow in faith and godliness.   
What should I here speak of the sweetness of those gracious helps which God doth give unto his children, to make them grow in faith and godliness; his holy word to instruct them, his divine inspirations to enlighten them, his sweet Sacraments to nourish them, his often checks of conscience to recall them, his fatherly chastisements to reclaim them, which though they be gall and wormwood to the wicked, yet are sweet and gainful to those that fear our Lord. What a benefit is it by prayer to come unto our God for whatsoever we have need, that is good for us, and may obtain it? How comfortable is it to read and to revolve the book of comfort? 
Psal. 1 2.3. Psal. 1.9.  How heavenly a thing is it to be rapt up as it were into heaven with heavenly meditations, to use Christian conference, 
Psal. 119. part. 2  with our lips always to be declaring the judgements of the Lord, and to be speaking of the testimonies of our God, when we sit in our house, or walk in our way, when we lie down, 
Deut. 11.19.  and when we rise up: O what a pleasure passing pleasure is this, to have the word of God dwell in us plenteously in all wisdom, 
Coloss. 3.16.  teaching and admonishing ourselves mutually in Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing, and making melody to the Lord in our hearts? and to enjoy the blessed communion of Saints, which none but Saints do understand what it meaneth, none but the elect can enjoy.  
Glorious things are spoken of thee, 
The privileges of the faithful. Psalm. 87.3.  thou city of God: O how goodly are thy tents O jacob, and thine habitations, O Israel! As the valleys are they stretched forth, as gardens by the rivers side, as the Aloe trees which the Lord hath planted, 
Numb. 24.5.6.  and as the cedars besides the waters. Why, The secret of the Lord is revealed to them that fear him, 
God's secrets revealed to his children. Psalm. 25.14.  and his covenant to give them understanding. Seemeth it a small thing unto you, 
They are Gods servants.  O ye servants of the everliving God, to be admitted to the privy chamber of the King of heaven, and to be of his counsel? To be the Chancellor, Treasurer, or Secretary to an earthly prince, we see it a matter of great state and much respected honour: but what is that to this honour (which the very poorest and meanest of God's servants are advanced unto) to be the servants unto the King of Kings, & Lord of Lords, then which title the Angels themselves have no greater, 
Heb. 1.14.  and which the greatest part of the mightiest Kings and Emperors could never attain unto? But what do I speak of servants? 
They are Christ's friends.  Christ himself setteth forth your estate to be yet more glorious, when he saith, I have not called you servants, 
joh. 15.15.  but friends, to whom I have communicated my secrets and mind, unto which a servant is not commonly admitted. 
Rom. 8.17.  And if this be not yet enough, behold your God hath adopted you to be his sons and heirs, yea fellow heirs with Christ himself, than which, what greater privilege, what greater prerogative can there be? Hear, I pray you, O ye citizens of heaven; may it possibly seem a small thing to be a people separated unto God himself from the multitude of men, 
Exod. 19.5.  to be the most precious of all the earth to him, though all the earth be his? Is it a small thing to be a chosen generation, 
1. Pet. 2.9.  a royal Priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people? See, and with thankful hearts acknowledge this your privilege, That you are come to the mount Zion, the city of the living God, the celestial jerusalem, and to the company of innumerable Angels, 
Heb. 12.22, 23, 24.  and to the congregation of the first borne which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just and perfect men, and to jesus the mediator of the new Testament, 
Heb. 12.24.  and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than the blood of Abel. Cheer up then your drooping spirits, and take heart at this your happiness, howsoever the children of Belial speak evil of you, and ye are esteemed as the filth of the world, 
1. Cor. 4.13.  and as the offcouring of all things unto this day: For howsoever Ishmael scoff at Isaac; 
Gen. 21.9.  and the children of the bondwoman persecute the children of the free woman, 
Galat. 4.29. jeremy. Psal i.e.  smiting them with their tongue, and shooting out their arrows against them, even bitter words, yet, well I wots, in the midst of their bitter agonies, when the worm of conscience gnaweth on their souls, in those days shall ten men take hold out of all languages of the nations, 
Zach 8.23.  even take hold of the skirt of him that is a Christian, and say, We would go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.  
Yea the Lord is with us indeed, 
God is always with his, and hath a special care of them. Psal. 46.7. Psal. 34.15. Vers. 18. Vers. 7. Psal. 30.6.7.  The God of jacob is our refuge: The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry: the Lord is near unto them that are of a contrire heart: The Angel of the Lord pitcheth his tents round about them that fear him, and delivereth them: He is their shelter from tempests and storms of troubles; he keepeth them safe under his protection, as the hen doth the chickens under her wing, 
Luke 13.34. Deut. 32.10.  yea he keepeth them as the apple of his eye. 
Psal. 34.10.  The lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they which seek the Lord shall want nothing that is good: 
Psal. 23.1. Rom. 8.31.  God is their shepherd, what can they want? He is on their side, who can be against them? 
1. Sam. 2.30.  He honoureth them, whose disgracing of them can hurt them? In every estate he saveth and upholdeth them by his providence, 
1. Pet. 5.7.  what misery can befall them? God is their God for ever and ever, 
Psal. 48.14.  even their guide unto the death. 
Psal. 149.9.  This honour shall be to all his Saints.  
And albeit here it please the Lord for a while to try them with affliction, 
Affliction taketh away nothing of God's sweetness.  and to chastise them with his correction, to mingle their wine with Aloes, and to send much bitterness into their cup: Yet, howsoever it be, God is good to Israel, 
Psal. 73.1. Malach. 3.6. 1. Cor. 4.9.  even to those that are pure in heart: Ye sons of jacob shall not be consumed, though you are in distress, yet you shall not be forsaken: 
Psal. 30.5.  Heaviness may endure for a night, but joy will come in the morning: 
Hosea 6.2.  After two days he will revive us, and the third day he will raise us up again. Thy chastisements, O Lord, are like the precious balm of Gilead, 
Psalm.  which will not break but supple our heads: How many thousands of thy Saints may say, It was good for us, 
Psal. 119.71.  yea exceeding good that we were in troubles? Thou, O Lord, 
Proverb. 3.11.  dost love those whom thou chastenest: and albeit no chastising for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; yet afterward it bringeth the quiet fruit of righteousness unto them which are thereby exercised. 
Heb. 12.11.  
Rom. 8.18.  For the afflictions of this world are not worthy of the joys that succeed them, 
Rom. 8.28. Heb. 12.6.  and All things (even afflictions themselves) turn to the best to them that fear God, and are signs that they are beloved of God. Behold the patiented child of God whose afflictions are the greatest, and mark and behold his end, 
Psal. 37.37.  for the end of that man is peace. And though God for a while do seem to hide away his face, so that the godly soul goeth heavy and mourning all the day long; 
Psal. 30.11.  yet God will turn their mourning into joy; 
Psal. 56.8.  he will lose their sackcloth, and gird them with gladness; 
Rom. 8.37.  he will put their tears into his bottle, and in all these things in the end they shall be more than conquerors.  
O Lord of hosts how amiable are thy tabernacles! 
The boldness of the faithful in their prayers. Psal. 84.1.  how full of sweetness! Why Lord, we see here upon earth how hard a matter it is to have access to the great men of this world, which differ from ourselves not in stuff, but in use, and that for a while; and to an earthly Prince but at sometime and for some one pleasure is few men's cases to obtain an entrance, when as we may boldly press in to the portal of thy privy chamber, and with confidence break our minds, lay open our grief, 
Mark. 11.24.  prefer our suit, and commune familiarly with thee, as with a friend, when we will, as often as we will, thou never being weary of us, never taking scorn nor rejecting us: yea thou dost invite us to come unto thee, and art more near to hear than we to ask: and although in our prayers there are manifold infirmities, and we know not how to pray as we ought, and are soon weary and cold in praying, yet the spirit helpeth our infirmities, yea the spirit itself maketh request for us with sighs which cannot be expressed. 
Rom. 8.26.  O when was there any that could say he prayed in vain, if his prayer were itself not vain? who can repent, or bethink any minute of time herein spent? This is the assurance which we have of him, 
1. joh. 5.14.  that if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us. And albeit God doth not presently grant our requests, and sometimes seemeth to defer the hearing of the prayers of his servants; yet is his goodness herein exceeding large to them that fear him. All this turneth to the best for them; their faith being exercised, their hungering after grace, more hereby strengthened and increased, themselves stirred up the better to esteem of the graces of God when they have them, and to show themselves more thankful for them.  
Whoso is wise will observe these things, 
Psal. 107.43.  that he may understand the loving kindness of the Lord: for his mercy is great unto the heavens, 
Psal. 108.4.  and his truth reacheth unto the clouds. 
Psal. 145.9. & 15.  The Lord is good to all, and his mercies are over all his works. The eyes of all wait upon him, and he giveth them their food: He maketh the Sun to shine upon the evil and the good, 
Matth. 5.45.  and sendeth rain on the just and unjust. 
Luke 6.35.  He is kind even to the unkind; 
Psal. 87.2.  yet the Lord loveth the gates of Zion above all the inhabitants of jacob. He hath liberally provided for them above all other, both here in this life, and in the life to come: he hath laid up for them his sweetest sweets. A taste whereof though they have here in this world, (and that so glorious as that it is ineffable) yet the full fruition is reserved for them in a better world, when they shall be replenished with the sweetness of his presence, and see him face to face, at whose right hand are fullness of pleasures for evermore.  
If in this life only we had hope in Christ, 
1. Cor. 15.19.  we were of all men the most miserable (and yet in this life also our sweetness we feel in God is incomprehensible) but there is reserved for us a better life, and in that life a richer sweetness, by many thousand degrees more than tongue can speak, 
2. Cor. 5.1.  or heart can think. We know this that when this earthly house of our tabernacle shall be destroyed, we have a building not made with hands, 
2. Cor. 5.2.  but eternal in the heavens: therefore we sigh, desiring to be clothed with our house from heaven: There we have in store laid up for us an inheritance immortal and undefiled that fadeth not away, 
1. Pet. 1.4. and 18.19.  but is reserved in heaven for us, bought and purchased not with gold and silver, but with a far more excellent price, even with the precious blood of Christ jesus.  
Had I the tongue of men and Angels, yet were I not able to express the least glimmering light or taste of this reserved sweetness. Paul himself rapt up into the third heaven, 
2. Cor. 5.  and having heard things that were not to be uttered, and seen sights not to be specified, passeth them over with this preterition; The sweetness reserved for God's children in heaven is such, 
1. Cor. 2.9.  as no eye hath seen, nor ear hath heard, neither is the heart of man able to conceive. O happy and thrice happy they that shall one day feel and see and taste the same. Mine heart rejoiceth, my soul leapeth, my tongue and pen exult, to think upon the sweetness of it, and to think upon mine own happiness, who am right well assured that one day I shall enjoy the same: O when shall I come to appear before the Lord in heaven? My soul longeth, 
Psal. 84.2.  yea and fainteth for these courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh rejoiceth in the living Lord: for I am sure that my redeemer liveth, and though after my skin worms destroy this carcase of mine, yet shall I see God in my flesh, 
job 19.25.26.27.  whom I myself shall see, and mine eyes shall behold, and none other for me, though my reins be consumed within me. O happy time (it joys my very heart to think of it before it comes) where this poor soul of mine bidding a farewell to my body for a while, shall be carried with no meaner attendants on it, than a guard of angels into Abraham's bosom, there to take possession of a kingdom, upon the receipt whereof it shall enter the fee simple of life, which it shall never lose: O what a glorious welcome and meeting shall it have with all the company of celestial ever blessed spirits, with Angels, and Archangels, Cherubims and Seraphims, principalities, powers, thrones and dominations, with Abraham, Isaac, jacob, and all the holy patriarchs, with Isay, jeremy, Hosea, and all the famous Prophets, with Peter, james & john. and all the rest of Christ's Apostles, yea with the whole company of Martyrs, Innocents', Confessors and Saints of God, with them together, to enjoy the highest degree of the communion of Saints for evermore! Why, my soul, there is wonderful sweetness laid up in heaven for thee, the time is coming when thou shalt enter into thy glory; where is a city, and the gates of it are pearl, and the streets of it gold, and the walls of it precious stones, and the Temple in it the Almighty God, and the light of it the Lamb, and the vessels to it the Kings of the earth; where is a river, & the spring of it is the throne of God, and the water of it Crystal, and the banks of it set about with the trees of life; where there is a banquet, and the cheer is joy, the exercise singing, the ditty Hallelujahs, 
Verse 4.  the Choir Angels, where all tears shall be wiped away from thine eyes, and there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor pain; where there is infinite joy and mirth without sadness, health without sickness, light without darkness, felicitic without abatement, all goodness without any evil; where youth flourisheth that never waxeth old, life lasteth that never endeth, beauty that never fadeth, love that never cooleth, health that never diminisheth, joy that never ceaseth; where sorrow is never felt, complaint is never heard, matter of sadness is never seen, where in the same instant I shall be ravished with seeing; satisfied with enjoying, secured for retaining. O sweetest happiness, how do I long for to be filled with thee! how do I hunger and thirst after thee! But even here already I have more then either I could desire or deserve: I will not leave my solace in this world for the worldlings heaven, a dram of Christian comfort is better than a pound of earthly joy, I had rather enjoy a taste of this, then to live at rack & manger in any other happiness.  
FINIS.   

True delight: Or, THE WORLD'S Farewell, and Christ's Welcome.   

TO THE WORSHIPFUL Mr. GEORGE BAINARD, and Mistress BAINARD his Wife.  
Having begun to make these my private Meditations public, and sending them under the protection of many their best well-willers to see the world, I should much forget myself (Worshipful and most especial benefactors) if I should forget your names in these my multiplied dedications. There is no man living who may claim that interest in me, or challenge my very best endeavours in that measure as yourselves, who may justly say to me, as Paul did to Philemon; 
Philem. 19  Thou owest unto us even thine own self. For besides that, your house hath been to me as the house of Onesiphorus was to Paul, 
2. Tim. 1.16.  even this also that I myself have an house to dwell in, and a pastoral charge to labour in, I may impute it unto yourselves, as principal means, raised up by God, to procure it for me. 
job 31.20.  The loins of me and mine may bless you, because by your means we are clothed with a fleece. I have nothing to return unto you for your so great pains, but these few homely papers, the poor present of an ever remaining debtor; I would they were as worthy of any respect with you, as in many respects they do belong unto you. My soul persuadeth itself that you both are of the number of those, 
Revel. 6.4.  who have received the seal of the lion of judah, 
Galat. 6.16.  that long since the world hath been crucified unto you, and you unto the world, & that you have proposed Christ jesus to yourselves the only gain: 
Philip 1.21.  I therefore send not unto you this farewell which I have sung unto the world to persuade you, but rather to encourage you: 
Phil. 1.6.  He that hath begun a good work in you, will perform it and increase it more and more: 
Vers. 9  And this I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge, and in all judgement, 
Vers. 10.  that ye may discern things that differ, and may be pure and without offence until the day of Christ. Amen.  
Yours in the Lord jesus, G. W.   

True delight.  PHILIP. 3.8. 
Yea doubtless I think all things but loss for the excellent knowledge sake of Christ jesus my Lord, for whom I have counted all things loss, and do judge them to be dung, that I might win Christ.  
IN these desperate diseased times, wherein men are so universally drunken with their own conceits, to see how fond conceited the self pleasing humours of Adam's children are, I know not whether with Democritus I might laugh; or with Heraclitus I should rather weep. One maketh his heaven of the dross and rubbish of the earth, 
The divers vain delights of the most part.  his muckie wealth, and so becometh a slave unto his slave. Another maketh his belly his god, 
Philip. 3.19.  reposing his chiefest felicity in pampering of his guts. another toadlike swelleth with ambition, seeking after vainglorious honour, as children after feathers flying in the air, tossed about hither and thither with the blast of many mouths. Another like Narcissus becomes enamoured on Nature's dowry his beauty, 
Ovid Metam.  or Nature's shame his clothes. An other seateth his chiefest pleasure in a Dog, another in a Kite, another in a Horse, another in a smoke evaporating weed: The better sort (at least wise to man's eyes the more ingenious) either like Pharaoh glory in their wit, 
Exod. 1.10. 2. Sam. 16.23. Act. 24.1.2.3.  or like Achitophel in their policy, or like Tertullus in their eloquence, or like Babel's Monarch, 
Dan. 4.27.  proud Nabuchadnezzar, in their building, or like Zenacherib in their greatness, 
1. King. 18. 1. Sam. 17.5. 1. King. 12.8.  or like Goliath in their strength, or like Rehoboam in their birth, 
john 7.48.  or like the pharisees in their knowledge, 
Josh. 9.3.  or like the Gibeonites in their cunning, or else in some accidental gifts (as we call them) of Nature, wit or fortune. 
Arist. Ethic. lib. 2   
All these with a thousand more men pleasing pleasures and delights, 
A censure upon the former delights.  (which worldlings value at so high a rate) were they ten thousand thousand times better than they are, I see no reason why I should count them any better, than apparent losses, bitter sweets, gliding shadows, gaudy toys, yea but chips, draff, and dung, in comparison of those inestimable treasures and delights which are to be had in Christ jesus. For besides that, if we would compare them together, they are past comparison, 
Psal. 103.11.  and as high as the heaven is above the earth, so & much more excellent is Christ jesus unto the soul, than any earthly solace can be in the world: what reason is there, if we had no hope at all of heaven, or expectation of greater happiness in another world, why we should set our hearts or fix our affections upon any thing here in this world? what gain can I make? what contentment is it possible that I should find in any of these things, whose goodness is but in show, 
Isai. 40.6.  whose pleasure is but in opinion, whose glory is but as a flower of the field, with which the mind is never satisfied, the affection never quieted, the appetite never contented? but if we had the experience of them all together, we should prove his testimony of them all to be most true, who had experience in them more than any, 
Eccles. 1.2.  They are vanities of vanities, vanity of vanities, nothing else but vanity.  
I cannot choose but wonder at the Anakims' of our age, 
Nobility.  that carry their heads aloft, and speak with a presumptuous mouth, 
Numb. 13.29. Psal. 78.5.  because they stand upon their blood, and brag of their Nobility; when as I see that Nobility itself (be it never so precious a pearl in the world's eye) is but a name without a nature, a shadow without a substance; make the best of it, it is but the daughter of rottenness, 
job 17.14.  and the sister of worms: the glory of it is but a nominal credit begged from dead men, a trifling title raked from their graves, who are long since dissolved into dust and ashes. 
Gen. 3.  No blood so noble but is attainted with Adam's shame, and when the pedigree is fet as far as possibly it may be, 
Luke 16.  poor Lazarus may shake hands with rich Dives, and call him cousin.  
Me thinks it is but madness and a fretting frenzy which I see in many, whose only mark they aim at is their honour; 
Hanor.  when as Honour what art thou, but a bubble quickly up, & on a sudden down? a very blazing star dreading the mind with presaging ruin. O ye ambitious aspiring spirits, what can you see in Honour that you should affect it? when it most frowneth upon her servants, and casteth down those whom it lifteth up? The greatest honours are exposed to the most dangerous adventures & envying censures: Dignities do but dig thorough the heart with cares; Offices are but services, 
Psal. 49.  and man being in the greatest honour may be compared to the beasts that perish; yea you demi-gods shall turn to dust as well as other. 
Psal. 82.6.7   
And as for Beauty, 
Beauty is but loss.  fools they are, in my conceit, which please themselves with it, when they see it in themselves; or endanger their souls for it, when they behold it in others: For, vain is beauty, 
Proverb. 31.  and deceivable is the favour of the countenance. The fairest face in the world raze it over but with a little scratch, and the grace thereof is gone; let an Ague visit it, the flower thereof is decayed; let the soul depart from it but half an hour, and this lovely face is pale, grim and ghastly to look upon. O ye glittering Ladies and dainty Dames, whose glory is your beauty, and whose labour is your vanitic; that face of yours, upon which the wind may not blow, nor the Sun shine, nor the air breath; those vermilion cheeks so streaked either with nature's sanguine blush, or else bedaubed with counterfeit colours, borrowed from a dissembling art: That body so trimly adorned with rich apparel & costly ornaments, what are they but the food of vermin and the crawling place of worms, the inheritrix of rottenness and subject of putrefaction? The time is coming, yea the time cometh on apace when the keepers of the house shall tremble, 
Eccles. 12.3.4.5  and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease, because they are few, and they wax dark that look out at the windows, and dust return to dust again.  
What madness then is it to glory in our carcase, 
Apparel.  or to take pride in our body's vestments? as if a malefactor should be proud of his halter, or a beggar brag of his rags, the very ensigns of his base estate. The apparel that we wear, we are beholding to the dumb and unreasonable creatures for it; worse than beasts we, if we take pride in that which beasts have worn before us. For our  we are beholding to the silly Sheep; for our Linen, to a Weed; for our Silks, unto the very excrements of Worms; our Gold is but the dregs of the earth, our precious pearls we borrow from the fishes: and be our clothing never so costly, 
Matth. 6.29.  yet none, no not Solomon himself in all his royalty, is clothed like the lilies of the field.  
There is an evil sickness under the Sun, 
Riches.  and it is much amongst men; to compass sea and land for hoarding up of wealth; 
Eccles. 6.1.  and it is reckoned now adays the only gain to fill their coffers with money treasure, the only paradise to look upon these falsely termed goods: 
Sueton. in vita Calig. cap. 42.  I see no such solace in it. Me thinks Caligula was but a fool when he so delighted to touch and handle money, that laying great heaps of gold in a spacious place, he might tread on it bare foot, and tumble it up and down: and I pity their ridiculous practice and toiling life, who thirst so greedily, and scrape together so eagerly, & lock up so carefully these so truly called uncertain riches. 
1. Tim. 6.17.  O you money masters and wealth admirers, your riches are not as the water of life always flowing, but as the brooks of Arabia, which are then most dry when one should most need them for water! They be like unto the Spider webs, which when they wax great, are swept away with a bosom, either they perish from you, or you from them. Why then do you cast your eyes upon that which is nothing? for riches betaketh herself to her wings like an Eagle: 
Prou. 23.5. Psal. 49.17.  The rich man shall take nothing away with him when he dieth, 
job 27.19.  neither shall his pomp follow him: The rich man sleeps, and when he openeth his eyes there is nothing: whiles worldly miser's dream of multiplying their wealth, 
Luke 12.20.  poor fools, death comes and makes a divorce between them and their goods, 
Eccles. 4.15.  and they must return naked as they came, and what profit then hath the rich man that he hath laboured for the wind? And yet we see there is no end of the desire of this, as riches are uncertain, so likewise are they insatiable. There is one alone, 
Eccles. 4.8.  & there is not a second, which hath neither son nor brother, yet is there no end of all his travel, neither can his eye be satisfied with riches, neither doth he think, for whom do I travel, and defraud my soul of pleasure? This also is vanity; a man may swear it is but vanity: mad Orestes might well judge such a miserable man much more mad, that standeth thus like Tantalus in the stygean lake, 
Horat. sat. 1. lib. 1  and like the drudging Indians which toil in the golden mines, but enjoy none of the Ore.  
By how much the more may we still admire the folly or the frenzy rather of those, 
Purchase and possessions.  whose soul, as if it were made of earth, 
Isai. 5.8.  is ever plotting to join house to house & land to land? and though their inheritance stretch to the plain of jordan, 
Numb. 1.14.  yet are always with unquiet minds stirring and striving to enlarge their demains: Doubtless it is but lost labour that they rise up early and so late take rest, 
Psal. 127.2.  whiles Gods beloved take their quiet sleep: for in the midst of all their wealth, their souls shall be taken from them, 
Luke 12.20.  and then whose shall these things be? yea though like another Alexander a man could stretch his Domains from the East unto the West, and from the North unto the South, yet within short space a seven foot of ground, or thereabouts, will be the most that he can claim to be his own.  
Yet they think their houses shall endure for ever, 
Buildings.  
Psal. 49.11.  even from generation to generation, and call their lands by their names: 
2. Sam. 18.18.  therefore like to Absalon they build Pyramids to keep their name in remembrance, and glory not a little in their costly buildings, as if they should remain for ever; This also is mere vanity and vexation of spirit. 
Eccles. 2.26.  For what are all the sumptuous buildings in the world but heaps of stones peeced & patched together with lime and mortar, which like to swallows nests in winter do fall down of themselves, 
Chrysost. in epist. ad Coloss.  and which all consuming time at last dissolveth, 
Luke 19.44.  leaving not so much as one stone upon another?  
I come now to the garden of Adonis, variety of pleasures, 
Pleasure.  which the world maketh her garden of Eden: the flowers which therein grow are the vain plants of pleasure and delight; which albeit they make a glorious show to the eyes, yet is their root bitterness, their gloss vanity, and their fruit poison. Beautiful objects which delight the eyes, sweet sounds that please the ears, fragrant smells that affect the nose, any other accidents that please the other senses, what they are, when they are even at the best, let him, 
Eccles. 2.3. I sought, etc.  let him that drew the thread of delight, and stretched the web of pleasures on the largest tenter of variety, come forth and speak.  
I said in mine heart, 
Salomons probatum est. Eccles. 2.1.  (saith he the wisest Sceptic) Go to now I will prove thee with joy, therefore take thou pleasure in pleasant things. But what followed? I said of laughter, 
joy & laughter. Verse 2.  thou art mad, and of joy, what is it that thou dost? laughter is mingled with sorrow, 
Prou. 14.  and mourning ensueth at the end of mirth. 
Vers. 4. Houses. vineyard. Gardens. Orchards. Vers. 5. cisterns. Vers. 6. Servants. Children. Demaines.  Well, he goeth on: I have made my great works, I have built me houses, I have planted me vineyards, I have made me gardens and orchards, and planted in them trees of all fruit, I have made me cisterns of water, to water therewith the woods that grow with trees, I have gotten servants and maids, 
Verse 7. Flocks. cattle.  and had children borne in the house also I had great possessions of Beoves and Sheep above all that were before me in jerusalem, 
Vers. 8. Silver. Gold. Treasure. Music.  I have gathered unto me also silver and gold, and the chief treasure of kings and provinces, I have provided me mensingers and womensingers; and the delights of the sons of men: whatsoever mine eyes desired I withheld it not from them, 
Vers. 10.  I withdrew not mine heart from any joy. Then I looked on all the works that mine hands had wrought, and on the travel that I laboured to do, 
Vers. 11.  and behold all is vanity and vexation of spirit.  
If thou Solomon out of thy so dear bought experience dost give no better commendation of this world and these worldly treasures; surely, I see no cause why I should affect them, or any of them, for myself, nor envy them in others. No, no, I rather pity them, that dote so much on these, 
Heb. 11.  and to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, take more pains, alas, than I can do for true delight. Well, well, I see that all things here are full of vanity, man cannot utter it, 
Eccles. 1.8.  the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. A fig then for the world, I have done with it, I see nothing worthy my love about it, I will think of them as they be, and never set my affection to them as the centre of my hope.  
Now am I in the prime of my youth, 
Youth.  neither have mine eyes as yet seen (by two degrees) three decades of years: shall I rejoice in this my youth, 
Eccles. 11.9.  because I am but yet in my youth, in the flower and spring time of mine age? No, no, 
10.  I know that Childhood and youth are altogether vanity; I count this all but loss, seeing that this age is prone to fill my bones with sin, 
job 20.11.  and to carry the fire and fuel of iniquity in my bosom: and therefore with David much more justly may I pray, 
Psal. 25.7.  Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my rebellions: 
jerem. 31.19.  for I am ashamed and confounded because I do bear the reproach of my youth. The strength, 
Strength and agility.  nimbleness and agility of youth (which some do glory in) I count likewise but as loss: for the strong man may not glory in his strength, 
jerem. 9.23. judg. 16.  and Sampsons' strength pulled down the house on his own head; and let a man be never so strong, yet the time will soon approach, 
Eccles. 12.3.  when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men bow themselves: The Lord alone is my strength, 
Psal. 27. Ephel. 6.  and my desire is that I may be strong in him, and in the power of his might. Of all the temporal benefits in this life bestowed on us, 
Health. Menander. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  there is none more excellent than Health; and this by the gracious goodness of my good God toward me I do enjoy, as much, I think, as any; yet can I not rejoice in this, I count it but a loss: for well I know, that when thou, Lord, dost begin to chastise man, 
Psal. 39.11.  than health and all consume away like a moth fretting a garment. The Moon is not more variable in his changing, nor the sea in her ebbing, than man in the change of his estate. Long life I never look for, 
Long life. Gen. 47.9.  Few and evil have hitherto been the days of my pilgrimage; and were I sure of long life, I should be so much the more sorry for it: for what is length of life, but as to a sick and pained man a long winter's night? the longer I live the more I increase the score of my sins. I know that whiles I am here at home in the body, 
2. Cor. 5.6. Philip. 1.23.  I am absent from the Lord; I desire therefore to be dissolved and to be with Christ. Prosperity, 
Prosperity.  if it shine upon me as well as others, I see no cause why I should much esteem it: 
Matth. 5.45.  for the just God maketh his Sun to arise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust. 
Gen. 27.39.  And we see that Esau hath the fatness of the earth for his dwelling place, watered with the dew of heaven as well as jacob. As for friendship, 
Friends.  I could commend it, if I could know where to find a faithful friend: 
jerem. 9.4.  But let every one take heed of his neighbour, and not trust in any brother: for every brother will use deceit, and every friend will deal deceitfully. How many be there who (as Augustine ingeniously doth of himself confess) may complain of friendship, O nimis inimica amicitia, 
August. Confess. lib. 2.  how dangerous a thing it is that they have been linked in friendship? Single life I find uncomfortable, 
Single life. Marriage. Children. Psal. 127.3.  and marriage full of trouble. Children indeed are the inheritance of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward, and by experience I find it an extraordinary favour to have them like olive branches about our table; 
Psal. 128.3.  yet the gain of this I see it is but loss: for how can I tell whether my Benjamin will prove Benonie, 
Gen. 35.18. Ruth. 1.20.  or my Naomi will be Mara unto me? If they prove towardly Imps, yet is the future hope of them doubtful, the comfort variable, the continual care most certain and infallible. Surely then all the world is vanity; lay all the pleasures of it in the balance, and they shall be found lighter than vanity itself. 
Psal. 62.9.  And what joy can I have in any of these things, whiles I walk here in this vale of tears?  
Learning I reverence, 
Learning. 1. Cor. 8.1.  but not adore: for knowledge puffeth up, making men to swell like a windy bladder: 
Eccles. 1.18.  He that increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow: and well I know, that unless it be sanctified, it is like Vriahs' letter against himself, and be a man never so well skilled in all Arts and Sciences, yet must he needs confess (as one of the learnedest in that kind doth) Hoc unum scio, 
Socrates.  me nihil scire: Only this I know, that I know nothing. Wit I like, 
Wit and policy.  but not extol; policy I commend, but cannot deify. For if we take the weight of man's wit in civil things, 
Dan. 5.  it will be found like Balthasar too light: but lay his natural understanding upon the balance with spiritual things, and it shall be found lighter than vanity itself. 
Psal. 26.  Doth not wit many times beguile itself, and policies prove snares to entrap themselves withal? There is one above that catcheth the wise in their own craftiness, 
job 5.13. 1. Cor. 3.19.  and the Lord knoweth that the thoughts of the wisest are but vain. 
Psal. 94.11.  I see some rejoice in their memory, 
Memory.  me thinks it proveth but a faithless servant, retaining those things which she should reject, and rejecting those things which she should retain; like the sieve that holdeth fast the course bran, but lets the fine flower fall away. They are without judgement, 
judgement.  in my conceit, the boast so much of their own judgement, when human knowledge is but opinion, and the judgement of the most expert proves many times but a vain Idea of idle speculations.  
If I should reckon up all this world's vanities, which notwithstanding by worldlings are hunted after as the only treasures, I should take in hand an endless task, seeing of the same there is no end: O wretched world, what art thou, but an ark of travel, a school of vanities, a seat of deceit, a labyrinth of errors? what is here in the world that should deserve mine heart to be set upon it? If the Devil should carry me to the top of a mountain, 
Matth. 4.8.  and show me all the kingdoms of the earth, and all the glory of them, if he should offer, or could perform the proffer of them all unto me; what could from thence be presented to mine eyes, but false delights, true asperity, certain sorrow, uncertain pleasures, travelsome labour, fearful rest? Shall my soul stoop then to so vile a subject as the world? shall I be stayed from the noble service of my God, for the love of any earthly vanities? No, no, all these I will trample under feet, and reckon of them no better than they are. And now my soul mount up aloft unto the place where all thy treasure lieth: I will lift up mine eyes to the hills from whence cometh all my help: 
Psal. 120.  
Luke 17.37.  Eagle like will I soar aloft where my soul's food is, and fix my thoughts on none but Christ; he is the centre from whence all my cogitations are drawn, and the circle to which they tend; let the Martha's of this world cumber themselves about many things, full well I know there is but unum necessarium; 
Luke 10.41.42  one necessary thing: God grant me with Mary to choose the better part. As for other pleasures, I count them but bitter sweets, in regard of the joys of heaven, where is fullness of pleasures for evermore. As for other riches, 
Ephes. 1.18.  I count them all trash, in respect of the glorious riches of the inheritance of Saints: all other honour I esteem as base, in respect of my glorious calling in Christ jesus: all other nobility I count obscure, in respect of new birth and regeneration by the holy Ghost: 
john 44.  all other beauty I esteem but foul, 
Psal. 84.  in respect of the beauty of Bethel, which is made by Christ jesus without spot or wrinkle: all other buildings I deem as ruins, in respect of that building which is not made with hands, 
2. Cor. 5.1.  but eternal in the heavens: 
Matth. 10.37.  Father and mother, sister and brother, son and daughter must needs give place to the love of jesus, or else I were not worthy of him my Saviour. Let others rejoice in their wit and policy, my rejoicing shall be the testimony of a good conscience, that in simplicity and godly pureness, and not in fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God I have had my conversation in the world: 
2. Cor. 1.12.  Let others be puffed up with knowledge of human Arts and Sciences, yet I esteem no knowledge to the knowledge of Christ jesus and him crucified, 
2. Cor. 2.2.  by which knowledge I may be able to comprehend with all Saints, 
Ephes. 3.18.19.  what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge. Stoop down all earthly happiness to this, in regard whereof all other gains are but losses, all other privileges are but trifles; yea doubtless I think all things but loss for the excellent knowledge sake of Christ jesus my Lord, 
Philip. 3.8.  for whom I have counted all things loss, and do judge them to be dung, that I may win Christ, and might be found in him.  
O sweet jesus, how great and innumerable be the gains which I find in thee! 
Psal. 42.1.  As the Hart braieth for the rivers of water, so panteth my soul after thee, O Christ, my Lord, my God, my Saviour and my Redeemer. 
Psalm.  Whom have I in heaven but thee, and who is there on earth that I desire in comparison of thee? 
Cantic. 1.2.  Thy name is as an ointment powered out, 
Isai. 9.6.  therefore the virgins love thee. Thy name is Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace: 
Revel. 1.5.8.  Thou art that faithful witness, that Prince of the Kings of the earth, that Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, which hast the key of David, 
Revel. 2.7.  and openest and no man shutteth, 
Revel. 1.18.  and shutest and no man openeth, yea the very keys of hell and of death: 
Heb. 13.8.  jesus Christ yesterday and to day, the same for ever.  
O thou whom my soul loveth, 
Christ the true gain. Philip. 1.21.  my only gain Christ jesus, thou art to me both in life and death advantage. In life; for thus I live, and yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: 
In this life.  and in that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the son of God, 
Galat. 2.20,  who hath loved me, and given himself for me. So that here what expert Arithmetician can reckon up my gains even in this life received by him? 
Remission of sins. Ephes. 1.7.  By him I have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of my sins, according to his rich grace. 
Imputation of his obedience for our justification.  He is made unto us of God wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption; and his full, perfect and all-sufficient obedience is made a gain to me, silly, simple, vile, and sinful creature by imputation. By him we have access through faith unto his grace, 
Access to God. Rom. 5.2.  wherein we stand, and rejoice under the hope of the glory of God: 
Adoption. Rom. 8.15.  By him I am adopted to be the child of God, yea heir of happiness and eternal bliss: By him I do recover back again that right and title to his creatures, 
Right unto the creatures. Ephes. 2.15.  which was lost by Adam: By him the curses of this life are turned into blessings; 
Afflictions good. Rom. 8.26.  for all things work together for the best to them that are in him. And what shall I say more? All that we have we have in him, who is made all in all unto us; he hath taken our pawn, and left us his seal; he hath taken upon himself our sins, 
Ephes. 2.16. Revel. 1.6.  and invested us with his merits; he hath made us Kings and Priests unto God, and even in this life hath given unto us the earnest of his spirit, 
Matth. 28.  with a full assurance that he will never fail us.  
But if in this life only we had hope in Christ, 
Christ is ourgain in death. 1. Cor. 15.19.  we were of all men the most miserable. Blessed be he the author of our blessedness, who as he is our gain in life, so is he also our gain in death, in as much as he hath taken away the sting of death, and hath changed the condition of it, by making it of the gate of hell, the privy portal of eternal life. O death, 
1. Cor. 15.55.56.57.  where is thy sting! O grave, where is thy victory? the sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law: but thanks be unto God that hath given us victory through our Lord jesus Christ. Yea after death in him doth rest our chiefest gain: for than shall we find the virtue of his resurrection, in raising up our dusty bodies into flesh again, which never shall corrupt; who shall change our vile body, 
Philip. 3.21.  that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the mighty working, whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself. And even then when all other gains shall prove men's losses, he to his will prove the only gain: For what shall it profit a man to win the whole world, 
Matth. 16.26.  and lose his own soul? or what shall he lose that forsaketh all the world to win Christ?  
This is the treasury of infinite value; 
jam. 1.17.  this is the fountain from whence all goodness floweth; this is the hand that stretcheth forth all what we want unto us. Do we desire riches? 
Ephes. 1.18.  in him are all the treasures, and his inheritance is glorious. Do we desire pleasures? At his right hand is fullness of pleasures for evermore. 
Psalm.  Do we desire honour? Behold what honour he doth show unto us, that we should be called the sons of God. 
1. joh. 3.1. joh. 1.16.  Do we desire grace? Of his fullness we receive grace for grace. Do we desire peace? 
Isai. 9.6.  he is the Prince of Peace, and bringeth that peace of conscience which passeth all understanding. Do we desire knowledge? In him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid. 
Coloss. 2.3.  He is an eye unto the blind, a leg unto the lame, a hand unto the weak, a gain unto the loser, he is, and so we ought to take him, all in all unto us.  
A fig then for the imaginary treasury of the Popish Church, 
Against the Papists merit gain.  wherein as in a chest, they say, are laid up, not only the overplus of the merits of Christ, but also of Martyrs and Saints to be dispensed in pardons at their unholy father's pleasure. Is not Christ alone our full and perfect gain? Is there not in him an all-sufficient treasury for his Church? And are they not in him complete? All other gain is but matter for the dunghill: None for me but Christ. The woman in the Gospel that had the bloody issue desired to touch the hem of his garment: 
Matth. 9.21.  I will press in further not only to touch him, but by a true faith as it were with both hands to lay hold and hang on him. Thomas desired for his contentation, but to put his finger into his side; 
john 20.25.  I will set before mine eyes Christ crucified, and dive both body and soul into his blood: Show me, 
Cantic. 1.6.  O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou liest at noon; 
Cantic. 2.4.  I will seek him and take hold on him, and leave him not until I have gotten him: I care not to lose all the world, to win him, I esteem not the finding of any other thing, so I may be found in him.  
There was a time when I was lost, 
To be found in Christ.  he was the good shepherd which found me the wandering sheep; there was a time when I was dead, yea dead in trespasses and sins, he quickened me to newness of life; there was a time when I was a stranger, an alien from the common wealth of Israel: 
Ephes. 2.12.  he hath made me free of the celestial incorporation, my desire only is to be found in him, that I may be a member of that body whereof he is head, 
1. Cor. 6.15. john 15.1. john 6.56.  a branch of him the heavenly vine, that I may be in him and he in me, that by him I might be reconciled to God, 
Ephes. 2.14.15.  and accepted to his favour eternally: Not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, 
Philip. 3.9.10.  but that which is through the faith of Christ, even the righteousness which is of God through faith, that I may know him, and grow more and more in holy experience of the endless love of God, and unspeakable fellowship with Christ my Saviour; 
The virtue of his resurrection. 1. Cor. 15.7. Rom. 8.34. Rom. 4.25.  that I may find and feel in me the virtue of his resurrection, whereby as I feel the full and perfect satisfaction of my sins by him that died for my sins, and rose again for my justification, 
Coloss. 3.1.  so likewise I may feel that spiritual vivification, whereby I may be raised up from the 
Ephes. 5.14.  death of sin unto newness of life. That I may also know the fellowship of his afflictions, 
The fellowship of his afflictions.  and may learn to deny myself, and to take up my cross daily; 
Luke 9 23.  and may be made conformable unto his death, 
Conformable to his death.  that as he died, so I may die to sin, and may feel within me the mortification of my flesh, 
Rom. 6.3. Ephes. 5.3. Galat 5.34. Attaining to the resurrection of the dead.  by crucifying the affections and the lust thereof, If by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead, that my sleepy soul might awake from sin, and stand up from the dead, and might cast off concerning the conversation in times past the old man which is corrupt through the deceivable lusts, 
Ephes. 5.14. Ephes. 4.22.23.24.  and might be renewed in the spirit of my mind, and put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.  
But ah alas, 
Philip. 3.12.  I feel how rebellious my frail nature is, how short I come of this mark to which all mine endeavours ought to aim; vile wretch that I am, 
Rom. 7.14.  I am carnal, sold under sin, and sodden in iniquity: For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, 
Rom. 7.18.  dwelleth no good thing: to will is present with me, but I find no means to perform that which is good: for I do not the good thing which I would, 
Rom. 7.19.  but the evil which I would not that do I. O wretched man that I am, 
Verse 24.  who shall deliver me from this body of sin? What way, what means shall I take to find my Christ and to be found in him? This one thing will I do, 
Philip. 3.13.14.  I will forget that which is behind, and endeavour myself to that which is before, and follow hard towards the mark, for the price of the high calling of God in Christ jesus: I will cast away every thing that presseth down, 
Heb. 12.1.  and the sin that hangeth on so fast, and run with patience the race that is set before us. I will sing all worldly care away, and set my affections only in heaven.  
Farewell my former vain and transitory delights; all my delight now shall be upon the Saints, 
Psalm.  and such as excel in virtue: Farewell all other hope of gain and thirsting after earthly pelf; Godliness I reckon still to be my greatest gain, 
1. Tim. 6.6.  which hath the promises of this life and of the life to come: 
1. Tim. 4.8.  Farewell desire of preferment and advancement in this world; for I esteem the rebuke of Christ greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt: 
Heb. 11.26.  Farewell all overweening love of Parents, 
Matth 23.9.  wife, or child, for there is one my father which is in heaven, into whose hands I was cast even from my mother's womb: 
Psal. 22.11. Cant. 6.2.  I am my well-beloveds, & my well-beloved is mine; 
1. Sam. 1.8.  mine Elkanah is better unto me then many sons: Farewell affected knowledge and learning's lore; 
1. Cor. 2.2.  for I esteem not to know any thing, save jesus Christ and him crucified: Farewell humanists and artists studies; my study shall be in the Library of the holy Ghost, 
Psal. 1.1.  and therein will I meditate day and night: Far well Philosophy and diving into Natural causes; I will erect my thoughts unto him that is the primum mobile, 
Gen. 1.1.  the cause of causes: Farewell the knowledge of the Law and quirks of earthly statutes, the gleaning of theology is better than the whole vintage of justinian's faculty: Farewell Physic the lengthener of men's lives; 
Luke 5.31. john 15.5.  my Physician is the same that is my life: Farewell Geometry and measuring of the earth; 
Philip. 3.20.  I will now measure the celestial Globe of heaven in my thoughts: Farewell Astronomy, acquaintance with the Stars, soar up I will above the starry sky, 
Revel. 1.16.  to know him that in his right hand holdeth the seven stars: Farewell Arithmetic the Art of Numbering, Lord teach me to number my days, 
Psal. 90.12.  that I may apply mine heart to wisdom: Music farewell; my music shall be henceforth Hallelujahs to the King of Heaven: 
Revel. 19.4.  Farewell this world for a moment, and welcome Christ jesus for ever.   

THE WORLD'S Wonder.   

TO THE RIGHT VIRTUOUS AND Worshipful Lady, the Lady Mary Ley.  
Madam, 
Master Richard Greenham. Master joseph Hall.  they which have proceeded Graduates in the Art of Meditation, do commend the infinite objects in the Theatre of the world, as the most fit subject of Meditation. Reason showeth this their position to be most true: for where may we have either more variety of matter for our minds to work upon, or more ready means to set the same on work, then in the great variety of the world's wonders, which are continually obvious to our eyes? The whole world is a table, wherein is portraited forth unto us infinite wonders in the several natures of all the creatures, not for us to view alone, but with a fruitful use to meditate upon. All the creatures are made for Man, and shall not we be led by the prospect of them to wonder at the merciful respect God hath to so poor a creature as Man? There is none of all the creatures but readeth us a lecture in this common school, and shall we be such idle truants, as to learn nothing of so many masters? The works of the Lord are great, 
Psal. 111.2.  and aught to be sought out of them that love him: 
Verse 4.  He hath made his wonderful works to be had in remembrance. O that we using the creatures so continually as we do, would make better use of them then usually we do; I have here set down a little pattern of meditation in this kind; had some skilful Apelles hand been in it, to draw and polish the lines of it, it might peradventure been worth the perasall. Now in this colour as it is, though I myself be silent in craving pardon for it, or excusing it, yet you might justly say unto me as Apelles said to an unskilful Painter, Though thou hadst said nothing, yet may I easily guess by the workmanship that it was done in haste. As it is, (Madam) I make bold to consecrate this little Treatise to your name, the rather, for that (besides all other respects of duty which do oblige me unto your Ladyship) you vouchsafed such kind acceptance unto the first fruits of my labours in this kind, which under your name was sent to see the world: In hope of the like acceptation of these my poor endeavours, and favourable pardon of my boldness, I commend this meditation following to your better meditations, and yourself with all your holy meditations to the Almighty's good blessing.  
Your Ladyships in all Christian duties, G. W.   

THE WORLD'S Wonders.  PSAL. 8.9. 
O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the world!  
PAul, the Apostle of the Gentiles, disputing with the Athenians, the most wise & learned amongst the Gentiles, 
Act 17.22.23.24.27.  when he saw their blind devotions in ignorantly giving worship unto God unknown (as by the inscription on one of their Altars he did perceive) wondered much at this their ignorance, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  that this great God should be to them unknown, seeing that by groping after him they could not choose but find him in the very works of wonder which he had done. For albeit the heaven is his throne, 
Isai. 66.1. 1. King. 6.1.  and the earth his footstool, neither dwelleth he in Temples made with hands, 
Act. 7.48. Deut. 4.15, 16.  and no man hath seen any similitude or likeness of him at any time, 
Act. 14.17.  yet hath he not left himself without sufficient witness, not only in his word, but also in his works; yea, The invisible things of him, that is, 
Rom. 1.20.  his eternal power and Godhead are seen by the creation of the world, being considered in his works, that men might be without excuse. Which when I think upon, I cannot choose but wonder at the Buzzardlike Atheists soule-blinded monsters of our age, 
Against Atheists.  who in their hearts do say, 
Psal. 14.1.  There is no God, and whose understanding is so dark and dim, that they cannot discern themselves, nor see a God, that is the fountain of all Natures, in so clear a glass as the mirror of his creatures. They see an Heaven abundant in variety of influences over them, an Earth so plentiful in all sorts of commodities under them, a Sea so full of wonders by them, they see a world which is a building infinitely admirable, for the firmness, capacity, use, order, and motion of it, and in themselves may see themselves a little world, or abridgement of the greater world; and yet cannot surmise a God that was the compactor of this Heaven, and the endower of this Earth, and the controller of the Sea, the worlds both the greater and the lessers Creator. 
Isay. 1.2.  O ye heavens be astonished at this, you bruit and senseless creatures convince these reasonable creatures unreasonable and void of sense. 
Isay. 6.9. Rom. 11.8.  They are possessed with the spirit of slumber, and wilfully they wink with their eyes, like the Idols of the Heathen, 
Psal. 133.15.16.17.  Eyes have they but see not, ears but hear not, hearts but cannot understand. As for my part, I can no where fix mine eyes, but that I do behold a lively Idoea of the incomprehensible Deity; the whole world being a book or large volume, 
Du Bartus in oper. sex dierum.  and every kind of the so many kinds of creatures being a leaf or page, wherein in grand characters and great capital letters are engraven the wonders of our God most wonderful, so that he which runneth by cannot choose but read it.  
For first, 
The heavens wonders.  when I look up to the heavens, and fix mine eyes on those superior Orbs, me thinketh these very heavens abundantly declare the glory of God, 
Psal. 8.3. Psal. 19.1.  and the firmament showeth his handy work: whose huge proportion when I behold like molten glass, 
job 37.18.  and meditate upon the variety of influences in the same, managed by so admirable a consort of divers motions which thwart, and yet disturb not one another, then saith my soul within itself; O Lord my God, 
Psal. 104.1.2.  thou art exceeding great, thou art clothed with glory and honour, 
Psal. 104.1.2.  which coverest thyself with light as with a garment, and spreadest out the heavens like a curtain. O how beautiful, 
Caelum beatorum.  how glorious, how admirable must the heaven of heavens be, seeing there is so glorious a lustre in this lower heaven that is so obvious to our eyes!  
Here he, 
The Sun. 1. john 1. Gen. 1.16.  who is all light himself, hath placed his two glorious lights, the greater for to rule the day, and the lesser to be a nightly Torch: Here hath he set a Tabernacle for the Sun, which cometh forth as a bridegroom out of his chamber, 
Psal. 19.4.5.6.  and rejoiceth like a giant to run his race: His going out is from the end of the heaven, and his compass is to the end of the same; nothing is bid from the heat thereof. It riseth and goeth down, 
Eccles. 1.5.  and draweth to his rising place again: who can express the greatness of this Planet, 
Plato in Epinar. Cicero. 2. de natura Deorum.  whose rays do enlighten the whole globe of the earth, and therefore (though it seem but small unto our eyes, yet) reason demonstrateth that it must needs surmount in greatness all the earth? 
Plin. lib. 2. c. 11.  Who can describe his circular motion in his never wearied race? 
Basil. homil. 6. in Hexam.  who can tract his yearly beaten path thorough the Zodiac, or the milk-white way? what Eagle-sighted eye dareth to confront his beams, and is not dazzled at his lustre? what tongue is able to describe his influence, or paint forth his wonderful effects?  
Come we from this Landlord of light the Sun unto his Freeholder, 
The Moon.  Heavens lesser light, the Moon, 
Gen. 1.16.  and who would think so full a body to our eyes should be so many degrees inferior to the Sun in greatness, 
Plin. lib. 2. c. 11.  were it not for her nearness? who can record the influences of this palefaced precedent of the night, or sufficiently admire her wanings, and increasings, her often changes and eclipses? who can but wonder at her more than strange effects in the sad and silent time of night, 
Psal. 104.20.21  when the beasts of the forest come abroad, and the hungry lions roar after their prey? The more I fix mine eyes upon the firmament, the more mine eyes are dazzled with the great variety of wonders in the same: 
The Stars.  when I behold the glorious glittering canopy of Heaven so decked with stars, 
Gen. 1.17.  as with silver spangles or precious stones, Lord think I then, how great a God art thou, which countest the number of these stars, 
Psal. 147.4.  and callest them all by their names? For, what man is able to discourse, of their number, partition, order, or situation? Can we restrain the sweet influences of the Pleyades? 
job 38.31, 32, 33, 34.  or lose the bands of Orion? Can we bring forth Mazaroth in their times, or guide Arcturus with his sons? No, no, it is the Almighty alone that knoweth the course of heaven, and he that in his right hand holdeth the seven stars, 
Revel. 1.16.  that can sufficiently declare the wonders of the stars.  
He it is that showeth his wonders in the Heaven; 
Meteors fiery. Inel 2.30. The Bolides. Comets. Blazing Stars.  blood, fire and pillars of smoke, heart-dreading Comets, and doom presaging blazing stars are flags of his imperial standard; and who can but admire his divers coloured Bow the ensign of his covenant? 
The Rainbow. Gen. 9.16.  Behold our God is excellent and full of power, neither can his wonders be sufficiently admired at. The earth trembleth and quaketh when he is angry, 
The Lightning.  the foundations also of the mountains shake at his displeasure, a smoke goeth out at his nostrils, 
Psal. 18.7.8.9.14.  and a consuming fire out of his mouth, coals are kindled thereat: He sendeth forth his arrows and scattereth them, his fierce lightning's flash from the one end of the heaven to the other. 
The Thunder. job 37.3.4.  After that a noise soundeth, he thundereth with the voice of his Majesty, and his Demicanons roar so terribly through the clouds, that the undantedst Caligula cannot choose but quake and tremble at the noise thereof. 
Sueton. in vita Caligula.   
Lo these are a part of the ways of God, 
job 26.14. Meteor's atrie.  but how little a portion have we heard of him, and who can record the one half of his works of wonder? 
The winds. Psal. 104. Eccles. 1.6.  It is our God that bringeth the winds out of his treasury, and walketh upon the wings thereof, even the wind which goeth towards the South, and compasseth towards the North, and whirleth round about. The whirl winds and dreadful blasts are the wings upon which he doth fly: 
The whirlwind. Psal. 18.20. The Earthquakes. Ariff. meteor. lib. 2. Psal. 18.17. & 19.6.  with the dry and cold vapours whereof passing thorough the crannies of the earth, he maketh the earth to tremble, and the foundations of the mountains to shake, he maketh the wilderness to tremble, and the Cedars of Lebanon to be rooted up.  
Hearken unto this, 
Meteors watery. The clouds. job 37.37.25.  O man, and consider the wondrous works of God: Who can number the clouds by wisdom? 
job 26.8.  who can sufficiently admire these bottles of heaven? how the waters are bound up in them, and the cloud not broken under them; 
The Dew.  how they are stuffed with watery vapours lift up into the air, 
job 38.28.  and how the spouts thereof are divided to power down rain upon the earth; how wonderful is the generation of the drops of dew, 
The Mists. Psal. 77.  which ariseth out of the earth like a sweat! or of the dew-dropping Mists, which like an hoary mantel overshadeth the earth! What a wonderful thing it is to consider the opening of the windows of heaven, 
The Rain. Gen. 7.11. job 28.26. Psal. 104.13.  and the distilling of the rain from above, whereby the earth is watered, and the thirsty lands do quench their thirst! 
The Snow.  How admirable is the snow which the Almighty scattereth abroad like wool, 
Psal. 147.13.  and which like a sheet is spread upon the earth! 
Eccles. 47.18.  The eye marveleth at the whiteness of it, it dazzleth the eye with the glistering shining of it, 
Et quae me genuit matter mox gignitur ex me.  the senses stand astonished to see it beget again the mother of which itself was begotten. No less wonderful is the Hail which the Almighty casteth forth like morsels, 
The Hail. Psal. 147.17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifieth hail in that place, though our translations read it frosts. Exod. 9.23.  a liquid thing being made solid, and itself being nought but water, yet by an Antiperistasis of heat and cold (a thing in Nature admirable) is conglobated into a stone, deadly to the herbs, and noxious to the trees of the field. What shall I here speak of the Frosts, 
Meteors partly earthy, partly watery.  or of the glassy wonder of the Ice; when the earth groweth into hardness, and the clods like iron are fast together? 
Frost.  The hoar frosts lie upon the earth like ashes, 
job 38.29.38. Psal. 147.16.17 Ice.  who can abide the cold of the ice? When the North wind bloweth, an ice is frozen of the water, it abideth upon the superficies thereof, 
Syracides, cap. 43 19.20.  and clotheth the waters as with a breastplate, the Sun ariseth and it melteth, and is dissolved as it was before. These and many more than these are thy wonders, O Lord, from above: O Lord our God, how excellent is thy name in all these things! In wisdom hast thou made them all, 
Psal. 8.1.2.  and they declare thy mighty power. No less are thy wonders to be seen here below, through the whole circumference of the earth and in the deep.  
For first to begin with the very Earth itself, 
The Earth's wonders.  which albeit in comparison of the Heaven, it be but as a prick or point; 
job 38.18.  yet who can perceive the breadth of it, or reckon the circuit of the same? The Earth is set upon a foundation immovable, 
Aristot. 2. the coe lo, ait Mathematicos sui temporit attribuisse terrae 40. myriades stadiorum. Later Astrologers describe the whole circuit of it to be 2000040 miles.  and yet the foundation thereof is a thing of nought, hanging in the middle of the air: whose figure although it be spherical like a globe or bowl, yet by the alprovident disposition of the Almighty Creator, is so interlined with hills, and dales, and woods, and rivers; that in a wonderful excellency we cannot but admire the infinite variety. 
Psal. 104.5. job 26.7.  Here we see the lofty mountains giving stately prospect from their aspiring tops; here, 
Mountains. Psal. 104.8. Valleys. Psalm. Rivers.  the humble Valleys to laugh and sing with corn and grassy profits; here, the crystal springs and silver rivers sliding, sometimes more silently, sometimes in a basser sort, sometimes in a shriller note making music amongst the pepbles. And as we walk by the way, O what a glorious spectacle it is to view the flagrant Meadows clothed with grass, 
Meadows.  and enamelled with all sort of eye-pleasing flowers; 
Woods.  Thickets lined with most pleasant shade of divers sorted Trees; 
Trees.  Trees richly decked forth with leaves, and swelling in variety with their several kinds of fruits! 
Birds.  Oh what an heavenly consort out of the Wood-quire resounds unto our ears from the cheerful chirping of the many well tuned Birds! How sweet a prospect it is unto our eyes to look upon the great variety both in kind and quality of the Beasts! 
Beasts.  To see the harmless Sheep feeding with sober security, 
Sheep. Lambs.  and their pretty Lambs skipping with bleating choragy! 
Oxen.  To see the strong necked Oxen labouring in the furrow and ploughing the valleys after us; and the stately Horse, 
job 39.12. Horses.  for all his fearful neying, to submit his back unto us! when I fee these strong and sturdy beasts so overruled, to yield their backs to serving, and their lives to feeding weak and feeble man, Lord think I then, of how unmatchable power and unbounded wisdom art thou, which couldst subdue without repining these so great to this so little?  
But when I further think upon those greater and wilder beasts which God hath placed in the earth, in the majesty of the creature, how can I but admire the incomparable majesty of the Creator? 
Behemoh. job 40.10.11.12.13.  Behold Behemoh whom he hath made to lick grass like the ox, whose tail is like the Cedar, 
Vers. 17.  his bones like staves of brass, and his small bones like staves of iron; can the trees cover him with shadow, or can the willows of the river compass him about? 
The Lions.  The great and princely Lions roaring after their prey, do seek their meat of God, 
job 39.1.2.  when they couch in their places, and remain in the covert to lie in wait: He appointeth the time when the wild goats bring forth young, 
job 39.4.5.  and numbereth the months for the Hinds to calf: 
Vers. 12.  Who can tame the Unicorn and bring him to the crib? What pleasant wings hath God given to the Peacocks? 
Vers. 16.  what wings of brass unto the Ostrich? what length of days unto the Hart, swiftness unto the Hare, wiliness unto the Fox, & properties admirable even in every sort of the beasts unreasonable? who can number their several kinds, or describe the several natures of them?  
But leave we these, 
Little beasts and creeping things.  and cast our eyes but on the lesser creatures, which one would think but Nature's excrements mere superfluities: and yet, good Lord, in them how many works of wonders? The wisest of either Heathen or Christian Sages sendeth us to little Pismires, 
Emmets.  Aunts or Emmets to learn diligence, for they having no guide, 
Prou. 6.6.7.8.  governor, nor ruler, prepare their meat in summer, and gather their food in harnessed. What a sweet decorum in their order observe the silly Bees, 
Bees.  the fabric of whose celles or houses, and the glory of whose merchandise cannot be matched by any wit or art of man? What Spinster can make a web like the contemned Spider? 
Spider.  or Weaver frame upon his woof so exquisite a forrell, 
Silkworm.  as the little Silkworm weaveth out of his bowels? If I should reckon up all the mighty wonders in these little creatures, how endless would the subject be? No, these are common and trivial before our eyes, which every where on earth below we see: 
Eccles. 3.11. Psal. 111.3.  Lo God hath made every thing beautiful in his time; and where may we cast our eyes but we may behold his works of wonder?  
Should I meditate of all the fruitful seeds, and trees, and buds, from the Cedar unto the Hyssop that groweth upon the wall; 
Virtues of herbs. 1. King. 4.33.  O how secret & hidden virtue may we behold in most of them? what especial use in each of them? Yea dive we down into the bowels of the earth, what store of projects wonderful lie hidden there? There the Silver mineral hath his vein, 
job 28.1.2.  and the burnished Gold his place; Iron is taken out of the dust, and Brass is melted out of the stone; 
Vers. 5.  out of the same earth cometh bread to strengthen man, 
Psal. 104.15.  and wine to make glad his heart, and oil to make him a cheerful countenance. 
Vers. 6. Vers. 17.  The stones thereof are a place of sapphires, Pearls, Rubies, Topazes, and precious jewels are taken out of her rocks. And shall I then tread upon so rich a Theatre as the earth, and not acknowledge the wondrous Majesty of God the founder? O, no, senseless and brutish creature were I then: Therefore this (my soul) must ever be the burden of my song, O Lord, how manifold are thy works? 
Psal. 104.24.25  In wisdom hast thou made them all: The earth is full of thy riches, so is the sea also great and wide, wherein are things creeping innumerable both small and great.  
Which when I do behold, 
The Seas wonders.  and know that it is but water, (and that is an humour naturally spreading) and yet see it higher than the earth, 
Gen. 1.10.  against its own nature without limit solid, Lord, think I then, how wonderful are thy works, thou mighty controller of the Sea? How could this be? How cometh this to pass? Surely thou hast set up the Sea with doors, and environed it with bars, 
job 38.8.10.11.  thou hast said, hitherto shalt thou come, but no further, and here shalt thou stay thy proud waves. They that go down into the sea in ships, 
Psal. 106.23.24 25.26.27.28.29.  and occupy in the great waters, they see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep. For he commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind, and it lifteth up the waves thereof: They mount up to the heaven, and descend to the deep, so that their soul melteth for trouble: They are tossed to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, than they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distress: He turneth the storm to calm; so that the waves thereof are still. In this liquid region go the ships; there play the infinite multitude of fishes both small and great; 
Psal. 104.26.  there remaineth that Leviathan, 
The Whale. job 41.  whose scales are like strong shields, whose bones are like bars of iron, his heart as strong as a stone, 
Vers. 6. Vers. 15.  and as hard as the neither millstone, his neising make the light to shine, and his eyes are like the eye lids of the morning, 
Vers. 9.10.11.  out of his mouth go lamps and sparks of fire, his breath maketh coals to burn, he maketh the depth to boil like a pot, and the Sea like a pot of ointment: He maketh a path to shine after him, 
Vers. 22.23.24.  one would think the depth as an hoar head; in earth there is none like him: no, neither so great riches, nor so many wonders as in the sea. How full of wonders then both heaven and earth and sea! the eye of man beholdeth but a part of them, neither can man's heart conceive the least part of God's mighty power in them. But for whom were all these things made; 
All these wonders for man's sake. Gen. 17.1.  and why did God ordain such wonders in the wonders in the world? Surely not for himself, for he had no need of these things, 
Ast. 17.28.  being himself the all-sufficient essence, from whom all things have their being. Neither were these things created only for a show, but for the use of man, whom God made in his own image according to his own likeness, to rule over the fish of the Sea, 
Gen. 1.26.  and over the foul of the heaven, and over the beasts, & over every thing that creepeth and moveth on the earth: which when I do consider, Lord, say I then, what is man that thou art mindful of him, 
Psal. 8.5.6.  and the son of man that thou visitest him? thou hast made him here on earth as a Demi-god, etc. row him with glory and worship. Thou hast made him to have dominion in the work of thine hands, thou hast put all things under his feet; yea thou hast made him the chiefest of all thy works of wonder.  
For man being the last of all the works created, 
The wonders in man. Sanctius his animal mentisque capacius altae d●erat ad huc.  and the end for whose sake the rest of the creatures were created, could not but be the chiefest and most perfect work of all these worldly creatures: and therefore is made by the eternal God as an epitome of the whole world; 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  and in regard of the perfect analogy and resemblance between him and the great world's frame, is not unfitly termed the lesser world; There being nothing in the vast compass of the universal circumference, 
The resemblance between man and the whole world.  whose likeness or lively representation is not summarily comprised in man, as in a most perfect compendium or abridgement: whose reason, as the most powerful mistress power of the soul, subdueth to her dominion and direction the servile under-faculties and sensual appetites, like as the first moved sphere carrieth with his motion the subject inferior circles; 
The Sovie resembleth the Primum mobile.  whose heart having the middle part of the body for his habitation, giveth life and heat unto all the rest of the parts of the body, 
The Heart.  whereby they be preserved & enabled to perform their natural and proper functions; like as the Sun, 
The Sun.  which being situated in the midst of Heaven, illighteneth all things with his rays, and cherisheth the whole and all things therein contained with his life preserving heat. The fabric of whose body doth consist of that never sufficiently admired temperature of all the four Elements, and no part of all his body but so miraculously composed, that every part thereof may serve for a work of wonder. Who can sufficiently express or wonder enough at the excellency of man, so little a creature made but of the dust? That he by contemplation should soar up to the skies, and be able to discourse of the motions, aspects, and effects of the celestial orb; that he should ride upon the Seas, and search, and pass over the liquid floods; that he should vindicate both earth and sea unto his profit, and domineer over the beasts, and know the nature of all the creatures; that he should contrive the Arts and Sciences to a method, and being absent to speak to men far distant by letters written, that he should in this mortality seek after immortality, and have a seat prepared for him in heaven, after life ended here on earth. O God, how wonderful are thy works even in ourselves! No tongue is able to express: though I did nothing else but wonder, I cannot sufficiently admire it. 
Psal. 116. Psal. 92. Psal. 111.2.  Surely this is the Lords doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. O Lord how glorious are thy works! 
Vers. 4.  An unwise man doth not understand it, and a fool taketh no notice of it. But well I wots, the gracious God hath so made his marvelous works, that they ought to be had in remembrance: O let me ever be meditating on them, and never be unmindful of the Creator of them, whiles I can not sufficiently admire at them; let my soul in silence ever beat upon this strain: 
Psal. 8.9.  O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the world!  
FINIS.   

THE ANCHOR of the Soul: Or, THE ONLY SOLACE of a Christian here in this life.   

TO THE Worshipful Mistress Gertrude Dantesie.  
THe Lord (as job witnesseth) doth visit man every morning, and try him every moment. 
job 7.18.  Many and sundry are the ways of these his trials, Gods children have experience of them, you yourself have had your share in them: I therefore send unto you here an anchor, wherewith at all times you may take sure hold fast, though the tempest arise, and the winaes blow, 
Matth. 7.26.  and the waves dash never so violently against your ship. I commend this little meditation following unto your reading, not for the worthiness of it, as it is here contrived, but for the sweet comfort of that matter to which it aimeth. I know you are better stored with richer meditations in your own breast, than my barren garden can present unto you; yet I presume so much upon your wont kindness, that I doubt not of your acceptance of these my abortive labours, who have given me so great encouragement from time to time, by your attentive presence at my implumed Lectures. The Lord hath opened your heart (as he did the heart of Lydia) to be attentive to those things which are taught; 
Act. 16.14.  when the greatest part of your sex and rank, like Martha, encumber themselves about many needle's things, 
Luke 10.41.42.  like Mary you have chosen the better part. Go on in that good course which you have begun; if this poor mite which I offer here unto you may in any sort in this good course further you, I have all that my wishes aim at. And so I commend the following meditation to your use and God's blessing.  
Yours both in heart and endeavours, G. W.   

THE ANCHOR of the Soul.  1. TIM. 1.15. 
This is a true saying, and by all means worthy to be received, that Christ jesus came into the world to save sinners; whereof I am chief.  
AVgustine (as Possidonius doth record) for the more deep impression of his most serious meditation, was wont to choose out of David's heavenly Psalms certain select sentences, which in his bedchamber walls he caused to be engraven, that he might read and meditate thereon even in his bed. Of all the golden sentences in the book of God, which I would chief choose to meditate upon, this shall be my choicest motto; of all the flagrant flowers in the garden of the Lord, this shall be the sweetest smelling posy to my soul, whether I eat or drink, or sit, or walk, to muse and meditate upon this worthy word of Truth, by all means worthy to be thought upon, That no less than the Son of God and Prince of peace Christ jesus my Lord my God, should vouchsafe to come into the world, and take upon him our nature, to save sinners his greatest enemies, in which predicament, I, G.W. humbly and ingenuously acknowledge myself to be the chiefest.  
This is the anchor on which my billow-beaten Bark doth rest, whiles it is sailing through the Ocean of temptations to the cape of never failing Hope; this is my Quietus est, when my conscience is called unto her sins account; this is my fortress against the enemy's assault, my shield & buckler against their fiery darts; the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of my faith, and full assurance of mine, yea mine own salvation. Which although the Devil bids my soul despair of, and Antichrist would feign persuade me at the least to make a doubt thereof, yet (blessed be the Lord my God) I feel the full assurance of his love, neither needs my soul to waver between hope and despair. For why, we have a most sure word of the Prophets, 
2. Pet. 1.19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  and the Apostles, testifying the certificate thereof unto our souls, whereto as to a stable pillar we may lean. 
Luke 6.48.  The fabric of my faith is not built upon the sand, whose foundation may shake or flit away: but it is built upon the rock, which all the winds and waves of Hell can never shake. If Hope-well only were the Cable of my ship, and I were forced to cast Anchor at Adventure, the Straits of care would be too deep for any hold, and waves of fear would quickly blow me to the rock Despair. 
Livius.  If like metius Suffetius his body, my soul were racked asunder between hopes and fears, what comfort could I have of any worldly comfort? or if my persuasion only herein were conjectural grounded upon no better foundation then on likelihoods, how could I choose but be dismayed with a mutiny of doubts? Or were my certainty herein but the warrant of a mortal man, I might be soon beguiled by trusting to so fickle ground. But this hope is more than hope, my confidence is not conjectural but infallible, my warrant is sealed unto me more than by the bare word of a mortal man: For he that hath the words of truth, yea who himself is Truth itself, 
john 14.6.  doth assure the truth of this unto my soul. 
2. Pet. 1.21.  The Apostles which spoke not of themselves, but as they were inspired from the holy Ghost, confirm the same unto me, 
john 21.24. Ephes. 4.30.  and I know their testimony is true. The spirit of God whereby we are sealed up to the day of redemption, 
Ephes. 1.13.  hath sealed the same unto me, and given the earnest of it unto my spirit. 
2. Cor. 1.22.  Things that pass to and fro amongst men, 
Perkins treatise of Conscience.  though they be in question, yet when the seal is put to, they are made out of doubt; and the giving of earnest is an infallible sign and token unto him that receiveth it, that the bargain is ratified, and that he shall receive the things agreed upon. Why, go to then; what needs thou doubt, my soul, or make any scruple of thy sure salvation, seeing thou hast it already under hand and seal, yea under far surer evidence than any writing, lease, seal, witness, or any human order can imagine? But more, my soul, God that hath sealed it unto thee, hath already given thee the earnest herein of his own spirit, and therefore return unto thy rest, thou needest not fear, thou hast a pledge already.  
But yet, 
To acknowledge certainty of salvation is no presumption.  me thinks, I dare not be so bold; to be thus confident, flesh and blood doubteth will come within the compass of presumption, unless the same be certified by some special revelation. Hagar, 
job 2.  thou talkest like a foolish woman; Is that presumption which of purpose belongeth to thine apprehension and application? 
August. de verb. Dei, serm. 28.  To rest on the full assurance of the forgiveness of thy sins, is not arrogancy, but faith; to acknowledge what thou hast received, is not pride, but devotion. Dost thou not hear, the Apostle counseling thee never to rest until thou hast gotten the full assurance of this so great a benefit? 
2. Pet. 1.10. 2. Cor. 13.5.  Dost thou not hear thy blessed Saviour persuading thee above all other things to rejoice in this assurance? 
Luke 10.20.  And dost thou not hear him checking thee for this thy doubting; O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? Remember Abraham, 
Rom. 4.20.22  how he did not doubt of the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, 
Rom. 8.38.  being fully assured: and Paul, that went not by hope well, but by knowing certainly; and james, 
jam. 1.6.  that willeth us to be constant in faith, and not to waver. Remember the powerful promise of God himself, who to as many as believe in him hath given power to be the sons of God, namely, 
joh. 1.12.  to them that believe in his name.  
O but the multitude of my sins stand up as a rampire or mount against me and biddeth me fear, 
The multitude of our sins may not debar us from the truth of this assurance. Rom. 11.20.  and Satan telleth me that this full persuasion, is but only a fantasy and strong imagination of mine own head, and that my nature being thus rebellious, I should not stand so much on mine assurance, 
Psal. 42.11.  but fear. Why art thou so cast down, O my soul, and why art thou so disquieted within me? Cheer up thyself: thou hast not received the spirit of bondage to fear again, 
Rom. 8.15.16.  but the spirit of adoption, whereby thou criest, Abba, father, and this spirit beareth witness with thee that thou art the child of God. For know (wrangling Satan) that I stand not upon weak terms or blind presumptions, 
Assurance of salvation not easy to be had in all. Luke 12.32. Matth. 7.14.  like many a carnal gospeler, which notwithstanding he heareth that Christ's flock is small, and that in comparison few shall be saved, yet thinks this assurance of salvation to be an easy and a trivial thing. No, no, I take notice of the full assurance of my salvation upon a surer foundation: I flatter not myself in mine own conceit, but have the testimony of a twofold witness, the spirit of God beareth witness with my spirit, 
Rom. 8.26.  that I am the child of God.  
For lo, 
Tokens of the assurance of salvation. 1. joh. 4.13. Rom. 8.16.  what pregnant testimonies to this purpose find I unto myself. By this I know that I dwell in Christ, and he in me, because he hath given me of his spirit: which maketh me with boldness to cry, Abba, father, unto him, and this very spirit helpeth mine infirmities, 
Vers. 26.  that whereas I know not to pray as I ought, the spirit itself maketh request for me with sighs that cannot be expressed. 
2. Cor. 7.10.  By this I know that my sins are undoubtedly pardoned, 
Galat. 5.17.  in regard that for sins passed I feel a godly sorrow, for sins present I find a fight and striving of the mind against them, 
1. joh. 5.18.  for sins to come I endeavour with religious care for to prevent them. By this I know unto myself the assurance of life eternal, 
john 7.37.  because I believe in him that is the author of life eternal; I hunger and thirst after him, and so highly do I value him, that all things else I esteem but dung in regard of him. 
Philip. 3.4.  By this I know the assurance of my sins remission, because my desire is to keep his commandments; 
1. joh. 2.3.  not as if poor I in any sort could perform a perfect obedience unto them, but because in his acceptance the will of the believer is taken for obedience. The love to God and his children, is another testimony of our translation from death to life: 
1. joh. 3.14.19.21.  For hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall before him assure our hearts: and if our hearts condemn us not, then may we have boldness towards God. Away then, vile Satan, that feign wouldst drive me to despair, and you malevolent Satanists, that would have me turn my assurance into doubting: For this is a true saying, I have the sure testimony of the Prophets for it, and the double witness God's spirit and mine own to seal it, I have the pledge and earnest of it already, therefore I will rejoice in it.  
O let this worthy sentence be written in mine heart as in a book; 
And by all means worthy to be received.  let it be graven with an iron pen, and printed ever in my mind with the point of a Diamond. For what sweeter comfort can I find? 
job 19.23.  what more joyful news can I muse upon? What can be more acceptable than the wells of water to a thirsty soul? What more delightful then in war to hear of peace, in misery to hear of mercy, in the midst of death to hear of life? and yet all this and more than this we find here in this true saying, most worthy by all means to be received, that Christ jesus came into the world to save sinners. No news like to this: no such joyful tidings ever was heard of in the world. Well might the heavenly news carrier of the birth of this unto the Bethlehemetish shepherds give this encomium of it to their ears, 
Luke 2.10.  Behold I bring you tidings of great joy that shall be to all people. Well might the Choir of Heaven chant forth their Christmas Carol upon the relation of it, 
Luk. 2.13.14.  Gloria in excelsis, Glory be to God in the high heavens, peace in earth, and towards men good will. Well might old Simeon for a lullaby unto his Saviour, sing his Nunc dimittis, 
Luke 2.28.  Lord now lettest thou, thy servant departed in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation: for there is no solace like to this, no joy to be compared to it.  
The more I think upon it, the more I do admire it, 
That Christ jesus.  and stand amazed in the meditation of it; especially when I call to mind the author and finisher of this our comfort; 
Heb. 12.2.  
Revel. 1.  who being no less than jesus Christ the Son of God, and Prince of peace, 
Isai. 9.6.  whose name is Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, and everlasting father; whose being is from everlasting, 
Revel. 1.8.  the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning & the ending, which is, which was, and which is to come, even the Almighty. Why: this ravisheth my soul beyond all admiration, that he, who was the heir of all things, 
Heb. 1.2.3.  the brightness of his father's glory, and engraven character of his own person, 
Philip. 2.7.  should make himself of no reputation, and take upon him the form of a servant, 
Galat. 4.  to make us that were children of the bondwoman to be heirs, 
Rom. 8.17.  even the heirs of God, and fellow heirs with himself; that he, in whom was the fullness of riches, 
Ephes 2.7. 2. Cor. 8.9. joh. 6.35.  should become poor, that he might enrich us; that he, who was the bread of life, should suffer hunger, to feed us; 
Luke 4.2. Deut. 18.15.  that he, who was the fountain of living waters, should suffer thirst to satisfy us; that he, who was the light of the world, 
joh. 4.7. joh. 7.37.38. john 8.12. john 11.9. 1. Cor. 1.22.  should live obscurely to enlighten us; that he, who was the power of God, should be tempted, that he might strengthen us; that he, who was the life of the world, 
Matth. 4.1. job. 1.4.  should die, that he might quicken us; that he, who himself was innocent, 
Galat. 3.13.  should sustain the curse of the law, that he might deliver us, 
Isai. 53.5.9.10.11.  and be wounded to heal us, and be broken for us to stop up our breach. Who can here but acknowledge the infiniteness of his snspeakeable love? who can choose but say with Paul; O the deepness of the riches both of the wisdom and mercy of God, 
Rom. 11.33.  how unsearchable are his judgements, and his ways past finding out! Who can choose but say with David; O Lord, 
Psal. 8.4.  what is man that thou art so mindful of him, or the son of man that thou so regardest him! Who can but with the Church in the Canticles confess that his name is a precious ointment powered out, 
Cantic. 1.2.  because of the sweet savour whereof our hearts must needs be alured to love him and admire him?  
Especially if we but meditate upon that never sufficiently admired love of his, 
Came into the world. Gen. 1.  who being the God of Nature, to free us from the corruption of our nature, 
Rom. 7.5.  took upon himself our nature, & came into the world to save us from the destruction of the world; me thinks this one thing might be sufficient to woe and win our love to him, when we consider that he who had his seat above the Heaven of Heavens, 
Psal. 148.4.  should vouchsafe to come down and dwell upon the earth his footstool; 
Isai. 66.1.  that he might draw us after him to heaven; that he who was equal to the Father, 
Philip. 2.7.8.  should humble himself to be a servant, that he might purchase for us the right of sons; that he which was God, 
john 1.1.2.  should not disdain to become that which we are, that he might make us partaker of that place where he now is. The meditation of which in general, though it be enough to add wings to the mind that is most dull, and work an impression in the soul that is most void of sense; yet if we take a further survey in the particulars thereof, and note the unkind entertainment of him so kind a guest, unless our heart were an heart of flint it can not choose but melt. For (ah alas) he was in the world, 
joh. 1.11.12.  and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not: he came unto his own, and his own received him not. The Bethlemits, 
Luke 2.7.  amongst whom he was borne, would not afford him houseroom, 
Luke 4.29.  but such as their oxen and asses were wont to lodge in: The Nazarites, his countrymen by education, drive him out of their city to the top of an hill, to throw him thence down headlong: And we, yea all of us, 
Isai. 53.  for whose sakes he came into the world, what gave we him but the heavy burden of our sins for his welcome? His entrance into the world was obscure, his being here dolorous, his departure hence ignominious. The place of his birth little Bethleem, 
Mich. 5.2.  one of the least of the many thousands of judah; 
Matth. 2.6.  the chamber where he was borne, but a stable; the cradle in which he was laid, but a manger; the swaddling bands wherein his sacred body was wrapped, 
Luke 2.16.  but homely rags; the parties that first came to greet him, but silly shepherds: All things in the nativity of him, so great a one, even below the lowest degree of means. Thus grew he up as a branch, and as a root out of a dry ground, 
Isai. 53.2.3.  having neither form nor beauty, when men did see him, that they should desire him. Despised was he and rejected of all men, a man full of sorrows, and one that had experience of our infirmities: No sooner was he borne, 
Matth. 2.16.  but Herod fought to destroy him; no sooner was he baptised, 
Matth. 5.1.  but the Devil set upon him to tempt him; no sooner was he in his public preaching, 
Matth. 15.40. Matth. 9.34. Luke 6.7.  but the pharisees envy him, the Sadduces accuse him, the Scribes slander him, the common people scorn him, 
Matth. 13.55.  the high Priests send their officers to entrap him, 
joh. 7.45.  his own Disciple spareth not to betray him, 
Marth. 26.48. Matth. 26.60.  false witnesses are suborned to bely him, and tossed he is from Pilate to Herod, 
Luk. 23.7.8.  and from Herod back again to Pilate, to mock him and make sport of him: 
Matth. 27.28.32.35.  neither did they leave until that after much buffeting, torturing and tormenting, by a cruel death they had made away with him. So cold an entertainment found he in this world, to show that his kingdom was not of this world: He had no legions of men or angels to be his guard, no chariots nor horsemen to be his pomp, no palace to be his court: He wore no crown but that of thorns, no Sceptre but that of Reed, no throne but that of his cross: In his life time not having so much as a fox's hole to couch in; at his death not having a shroud, but what was left him, to be wrapped in; nor a tomb, but what was borrowed, to be buried in.  
What shall I here recount his grievous pains and direful maladies, which, while he was in the world, he sustained here? My soul gush out with tears of blood, whiles thou dost call to mind the sorrow of his soul, when in Gethsemane his soul was heavy even to the death, 
Matth. 26.36.37 38.  when though an Angel from heaven appeared to comfort him, yet his agony was so bitter, that his sweat was like drops of blood trickling down to the ground: 
Luk. 22.43.44.  O let mine head be full of water, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, 
jerem. 9.1.  that I may weep day and night for the afflictions which he endured who was afflicted for my sins: 
Matth. 26.49.  when I call to mind those dismal days, wherein my saviours own servant did betray him with a kiss, 
Vers. 55.  and the High Priests catchpoles came forth with clubs and staves and swords to apprehend him like a thief; 
john 18.12.  when he that made us free was bound, and haled, and dragged, and brought as a sheep to the slaughter, 
Isai. 53.7.  as a lamb dumb before his shearer, so he opened not his mouth. Bitter be the remembrance of that gloomy night, 
job 39  and let the stars of the twilight be dim through the darkness of it, when he that gave others often sight, 
Mark. 8.22. Mark. 10.46. Isai. 9.1.  and came to lighten those that sat in darkness, himself was blindfolded to be made a scorn of; he that never offered wrong, 
Matth. 4.15.  and when himself was wronged, opened not his mouth, 
Luke 22.64.  was buffeted and smitten on the cheek; that face, 
Isai. 53.7.  that glorious face of his which on mount Thabor shined as the Sun, was made a loathsome jewish spitting place, 
Matth. 17.2. Mark. 14.65. Psal. 45.6. 1. Cor. 4.9. job 3.6.  and himself, the head of men and angels, made a gazing stock to men and angels. Let that day be darkness, and not be joined to the days of the year, nor come into the accounts of the months, wherein with sighs and sobs I call not to mind that doleful day; when he which one day shall come in the clouds with glory and great majesty, 
Matth. 24.30.  was brought before the tribunal of an earth petty judge, 
Matth. 27.1.  and stood at the bar with all disgrace and infamy; 
Isai. 53.7.  when he the innocent Lamb was arraigned, & though found not guilty was condemned wrongfully; 
Matth. 27.22.  he the prince of glory was placed as a grievous malefactor between two thieves, 
joh. 19.18.  his sacred hands and feet being nailed to the cross; 
john 19.2.  his head scratched rend and torn with a thorny crown, and his sacred sides pierced thorough with a ghastly soldiers spear, 
john 19.34.  with which there gushed forth both blood and water. Behold & see if there were any sorrow like unto this sorrow which is done here unto my Saviour, 
Lament. 1.12.  wherewith the Lord afflicted him in the day of his fierce wrath: witness the gristly, ghastly groan given by himself whiles he was hanging on the cross, when that he bellowed forth his Eli, Eli, 
Matth. 27.46.  lamasabachthani; My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Witness the whole face of Nature changed at his suffering, 
Vers. 51.  The Sun being clothed in black, 
Vers. 52.  the pillars of the earth rocking, 
Vers. 53.  the vail of the temple renting, the rocks shievering, and the very graves themselves opening their more than brazen gates.  
But why was all this? 
To save.  and what was the end of Christ his coming into the world, and his suffering of so many things here in the world? Surely he came for us, not for himself, he came to save. Therefore did the Lord anoint him, therefore did he send him, that he might preach good tidings to the poor, 
Isai. 61.1.  and bind up the broken hearted, and preach liberty to the captives, and to them that are bound the opening of the prison: To preach the acceptable year of the Lord, 
Vers. 2.  to comfort them that mourn, to give beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of gladness for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees of righteousness, 
Vers. 8.  the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified. This was the good shepherd that came to seek us lost and wandering sheep; 
john 10.  this is that mighty champion which came to deliver us from the jaws of the lion and the wolf; 
1. Sam. 17.34.  
Numb. 21.9.  this is that brazen Serpent which cureth us stung to the heart by that old fiery Serpent Satan; 
john 3.14.  this is that good Chirurgeon, whose coming was to heal our sores: 
Luke 10.33.  The good Physician who came to save us from death. 
Matth. 9.12. john 10.10.  He came to save: so saith he himself, I am come that they might have life, and have it in abundance. So saith the Angel of him which brought news of his coming into the world, Unto you this day is borne a Saviour, 
Luke 2.11.  which is Christ the Lord. O sweet jesus, 
Cantic. 1.2.  thy very name is as an ointment powered out to make the virgins love thee. Well mayst thou be called jesus, for there is no other name under heaven whereby we may be saved, 
Matth. 2.27.  but by thine, whose name agreeth with thy nature, to save the people from their sins.  
The very savour of which so flagrant ointment of his precious name, 
Sinners. Cantic. 1.2.3.  as it well may draw the love of all good hearts unto him, and make them run after him: so when I further consider with myself our quality and condition what we were when first he cast his love upon us, me thinks it carrieth me beyond admiration, that so great a Saviour should so much as respect such vile and miserable wretches: for this so sweet a Saviour came not to call the righteous, 
Matth. 9.13.  but sinners to repentance. Were we righteous? No, there was none righteous, 
Psal 14.2.3.  no not one: we were all gone out of the way, there is was none of us all that did deserve his favour, no not one. Were we his friends that he did impart such kindness unto us? Nay, we were his deadly enemies, we were sinners. 
Rom. 5.8.9.  Doubtless one would scarce die for a righteous man: but God setteth out his love towards us, seeing that whiles we were yet sinners Christ died for us. The party offended came to help the offenders, the just to die for the unjust, the innocent for the guilty, the king of peace for his enemies, Christ jesus to save sinners. We were dead in sins and trespasses, wherein we walked according to the course of the world, and after the prince that ruleth in the air; 
Ephes. 2.2.3.4.  but he rich in mercy through his great love wherewith he loved us, was content to die for us to quicken us. We were alients from the common wealth of Israel strangers from the covenant, 
Ephes. 2.12.14.19.  without hope, without God in the world: He is become our peace, who by breaking down the stop of the partition wall, had made us of strangers and foreigners, citizens with the Saints and of the household of God: Our habitation & our kindred was of the land of Canaan, 
Ezech. 16. Vers. 3.  our father was an Amorite, and our mother an Hittite: in our nativity when we were borne, 
Vers. 4.  our navel was not cut, we were not washed in water to soften us, 
Vers. 5.  nor salted with salt, nor swaddled in clouts: 
Vers. 6.  None eye pitied us to do any of these things unto us, or to have compassion on us: then did he pass by us, & saw us polluted in our own blood, he said unto us even then when we were in our blood, Thou shalt live: 
Vers. 8.  He spread his skirts over us and covered our filthiness, and made a league and covenant with us: when we were sinners he came to save us, 
Rom. 5.7.  when we were his enemies he came to seek us, when we were yet of no strength he died for us.  
Wherein as we cannot but acknowledge the riches of his unspeakable love, who loved us before we were, and followed us with his love, when we were his enemies; so may it well assure us of his perpetual love and favour towards us. 
Rom. 5.8.9.10.  For, seeing that whiles we were yet sinners Christ died for us, much more than being now justified by his blood shall we be saved from wrath through him: If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more being reconciled we shall be saved by him. What then though the bead-roll of our sins reach up to the clouds, and vice attracting vapours do overshadow my soul as innumerable as Atoms? what though our rebellious nature will not be kept in as we desire, and Satan plead full sore to bring our hearts to desperation, here, here our endless comfort is, 
Isai. 1.18.  be our sins as crimson, they shall be made as white as snow, though they be of a scarlet engrained die, they shall be made as white as wool. For this is the Anchor on which assuredly we may repose our trust, This is a true saying, and worthy by all means to be received, that Christ jesus came into the world to save sinners.  
But if in general only this my comfort were, 
Whereof I am chief.  that there was a jesus Christ, that he came into the world, and that his coming was to save, and yet not feel the assurance of my part and portion in it; cold comfort, God wots, would this be to my soul, small matter for me to rejoice. Nay, blessed be the author of my peace, I can apply it to myself: 
Ephes. 3.12.  for I have boldness and confidence by faith in him to put my finger into his side with Thomas, 
joh. 20.28.  and to say, My God, my Lord, to call him my jesus, my Christ; and to rely wholly by faith upon this Son of God, who hath loved me, 
Galat. 2.20.  and given himself for me; yea even for me, G.W. the meanest, poorest, vilest, unworthiest of all God's children, the greatest and most miserable sinner in the world: 
Rom. 7.18.  For I know that in me, in this my sinful wretched flesh, dwelleth no good thing; from the sole of my foot unto my head, 
Isai. 1.6.  there is nothing whole but wounds, and swellings and sores full of corruption. In sin was I conceived, 
Psal. 51.4.  in sin was I borne, sin seized upon my childhood, and hath lackeyed my life unto this my youthful age, and the longer I live, the surer foothold getteth foul sin in my bosom, and settleth the contagion in my soul: How huge a mass of sin lieth in me, hidden from mine eyes, which take possession on me, and I, poor I, never took notice of them? These, O these that I see before mine eyes, by looking into the bottomless gulf of my sins, appear as many as the stars in the sky, or drops of water in the Ocean sea. When I look upon myself, I am ashamed of myself; me thinks the heavens over me cast a dire aspect upon me, and the albearing earth groaneth under the sinful burden of me; me thinks the Sun is ashamed of me, and the palefaced Moon looks wan upon me, and the airy clouds do mourn for me. I cannot choose but wonder how in so little a substance, as my soul, should be so great a sink of sin. Of this sure I am, I know none so sinful as myself, neither have I any reason to imagine how any can be a greater sinner than myself; yet why should I despair? I know that my Redeemer liveth, 
job 19.25.  and he liveth to be my Redeemer. Though my sins were more, he could pardon them: though they were a thousand times greater than they be, he hath satisfied for them. Be they black & ugly? his blood hath washed them: Be they great and many? he hath paid the ransom for them: Be they heavy & weighty? he hath mercy in store for them. Hear then will I cast my anchor, and pull down the sails of fear, to harbour in this safest haven: let the flesh say, despair, and the world say, relent, and the Devil seek to cut the cable of my hope; yet my footing is sure, I know on whom I fix my hope, even on Christ jesus, yesterday, and to day, the same for evermore.  
FINIS.   

THE MOURNER'S Lamentation: Or, THE BEWAILING OF the miseries of our times, with God's fearful judgements to be expected for the same.   

TO THE Worshipful, my Christian neighbour, and most religious hearer, Mistress Amie Long.  
WHen the Lord in a vision would show to the Prophet Ezechiel the destruction of the City jerusalem, he is brought in by the same Prophet speaking thus unto one of his Agents herein; Go through the midst of the City, 
Ezech. 9.4.  even through the midst of jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of them that mourn, and cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof. Doubtless many such mourners are there in our jerusalem, whose tears are put in God's bottle, and for whose sake the Lord yet spares this our Israel: the Lord increase the number of them. For (God knoweth) we had need call one an other to mourning, and take up continual lamentation: for who seethe not how rotten ripe the sins of this land are, 
Amos 5.16.  and how deep all estates of the same are settled upon the lees of their transgressions? And who can choose but fear that there is a day of wrath, 
Zephan. 1.15.  of trouble and heaviness, of woe and horror near approaching? For mine own part, what deep impression the meditation hereof maketh in mine heart, he knoweth which knoweth the secrets of all men's hearts. One of my private contemplations which I have communed with my own heart in silence, 
Psal. 4.4.  I here make public, by communicating them to you and others: To you especially, because I know you to be one of the mourners in Zion, as having had experience of your zeal to God's house, love to his word, and hatred to the common corruptions ever since you came to be partaker of the unworthy labours of my ministry. The Lord increase that good work which long since he hath begun in you. This little Enchiridion, if you please, you may bind up in the volume of your daily meditations. Thus to mourn, is neither hurtful to ourselves, nor offensive to our Church. We may be merry in the Lord, and yet without lightness; sad and heavy in heart for our own sins and the corruptions of our times, & yet without dumpishness. If we forget jerusalem, let our right hand forget to play; 
Psal. 137.5.6.  if we remember not the peace of this our Zion, let our tongue cleave to the roof of our mouth, yea if we prefer not jerusalem to all our mirth.  
Yours entirely in Christ jesus, G. W.   

The Mourners Lamentation.  PSAL. 119.126. 
It is time for thee, O Lord, to work for they have destroyed thy law.  
TRue it is, Lord, that we are not to appoint thee thy times and limits, for thou art the Ancient of days, 
Daniel 7.9. Gen. 1.15.  Time's Creator and destinator. Neither do we presume to press in at the portal of thy privy chamber, to know the times and seasons which thou our Father hast reserved in thine own power: yet, Lord, 
Act. 1.17.  thou hast taught us, as to discern the face of the sky, 
Matth. 16.3.  so to descry the signs of times, and from the cause to expect the effect which necessarily doth ensue. 
Psal. 103.8.  Thou art a God full of compassion and mercy, slow to anger and of great kindness, and thou dost sustain many wrongs of the sons of men, being crushed with their sins, as a cart is laden with sheaves: but if still they continue to load thee, thou wilt ease thyself of that burden, and cast it on the ground of confusion. Thou art slow to anger, 
Nahum 1.3.  but great in power, and wilt not surely clear the wicked. Thou dost for a long space hold thy peace at men's sins and art still, 
Isai. 42.14. Psal. 7.12.  and dost restrain thyself: but if men will not turn, thou wilt whet thy sword, and bend thy bow, and make it ready. Patiented thou art, and for a long time dost forbear thine hand: but when the forehead of sin beginneth to lose the blush of shame, when the beadroll of transgressions do grow in score from East to West, when the cry of them pierceth above the clouds, when the height of wickedness is come unto the top, 
Gen. 15.16.  and the fruits thereof are ripe and full, than it is time for thee Lord to take notice of it, to awake like a giant, 
Gen. 18.21.  
Psalm.  and to put to thine alrevenging hand.  
But our sins are already ripe, yea rotten ripe, the measure of our iniquities is full up to the brim. Doubtless our land is sunken deep in iniquity; 
Isai. 3.8.  Our tongues and works have been against the Lord to provoke the eyes of his glory; 
Isai. 3.9.  the trial of our countenance doth testify against us, yea we declare our sins as Sodom, 
Gen. 18.20.  we hide them not, the cry of our sin is exceeding grievous, 
jam. 5.4.  the clamours of them pierce the skies, and with a loud voice roar, saying: How long Lord, holy and true? 
Revel. 6.10. jerem. 9.9.  how long ere thou come to avenge thyself on such a nation as this is?  
If there were but one unjust man amongst us, 
Sin in all sorts of people.  iniquity for this one man's sin were lamentable; 
Josh. 7.1.  much more now when whole families, nay whole streets, yea whole towns and cities are such, the case is to be lamented, and the estate to be feared; when like a Gangrene sin hath eaten thorough every rank of people, and in a body politic from the sole of the foot unto the head there is nothing whole therein, 
Isai. 1.6.  but wounds and swellings, and sores full of corruption: 
In Children. Psal. 22.31.  when our young children which should be a sanctified seed to serve the Lord, suck blasphemy from the dug, and not learn to speak before they learn to swear, filling each house, and street, and high way with their oaths: 
In young men. Eccles. 12.1.  when our young men which should remember the Lord in the days of their youth, have their heads full of drunkenness, their eyes full of adultery, their tongues full of ribaldry, their ears full of flattery, their hands full of blood, their feet full of vanity, destruction only and calamity being in their ways, 
Psal. 14.3.  and no fear of God before their eyes. When our old men which should be sober, 
In old men.  are given to drunkenness; which should be chaste, 
Tit. 2.2.  are given to wantonness; which should be discreet, are full of foolishness; which should be sound in the faith, are as ignorant as horse and mule; which should be in charity, are full of envy; which should take their farewell of the earth, are then most greedy of the earth, when themselves are more than half earth. 
In women. 1. Tim. 2.9.  When our women which should adorn themselves with shamefastness and modesty, strive who can most disguise themselves in clothes of vanity, 
Isai. 3.16.  and in stead of having the hidden man of their heart uncorrupt, 
1. Pet. 3.4.  look only to their outside to paint that unto the world. 
In the Commons.  When our common and ordinary sort of people are murmurers, complainers, 
Jude 16.17.  walkers after their own lusts, makers of sects, fleshly minded, and full of profaneness. When the children shall presume against the ancient, 
Isai. 3.5.  and the vile against the honourable. When young and old shall thus openly, without blush of shame, expose their sins to the sunshine of the world, when every one hunteth his brother with a net, 
Mich. 7.8. Psal. 12.2.  and in one body there is a double heart: 
jerem. 9.9.  Shalt not thou be avenged for these things, O Lord? shall not thy soul be avenged on such a nation as this?  
But be it that generally the common sort of men were so ill inclined; 
In Ministers.  yet so long as the watchmen of the Lords vineyard were unpolluted with blood, 
Groenham in his common place of sin, cap. 62.  there were some hope the rest might be recovered: But when they which should be eyes to others, themselves are blind as beetles; 
Matth. 6.23.  when they which should be lamps to others, 
Matth. 5.14.  have no oil within their lamps; when they which should be Pastors to feed the flock of Christ, 
Matth. 25.8. Ezech. 34.2.3.  cloth themselves with the fleece, and eat of the fat, but feed not the sheep; 
Malach. 1.7.  when they at whose mouth the people should seek the knowledge of the law, speak good of evil, 
Isai. 5.20.  and evil of good, put darkness for light, and light for darkness, bitter for sweet, and sweet for sour: when they that should be faithful stewards, 
Luke 12.42.  giving to God's household their portion of meat in due season, 
2. Cor. 2.17.  make merchandise of the word of God, selling the cause of the Lord for handfuls of barley and pieces of bread: 
Ezeth. 13.19.  when they which should show the people their transgressions, 
Isai. 58.1.  and the house of jacob their sins, heal the hurt of the people with sweet words, saying, Beace, peace, when there is no peace; 
jerem. 6.13.  when they that live of the Altar, 
1. Cor. 9.13.  live from the Altar, and working evil in the eyes of the people, cause men through their profanes to abhor the offering of the Lord: 
1. Sam. 2.17.  
Psal. 119.126.  Is it not then high time for God to put to his hand, and to visit our coasts?  
Yet all hope of remedy were not altogether cut off, 
In Magistrates.  if they which are in authority would put to their reforming hands in this extremity. But when security shall lull asleep authority; 
Rom. 13.4.  when they that bear the sword are afraid to strike; they that should plead God's cause, 
1. King. 18.21.  halt between God and Baal; they that should be zealous for the Lord of hosts, 
Numb. 29.9.  have no courage for the truth; 
jerem. 9.3.  when they that should preserve equity and justice, turn judgement into wormwood, 
Amos 5.2.  and leave off righteousness in the earth; when gifts do blind the eyes of the wise, 
Exod. 23.8.  and pervert the words of the righteous; when they do the greatest wrongs that sit in highest rooms, when iniquity and authority shall kiss each other, and the workers of iniquity will not be controlled, and cannot be corrected: Is it not then high time for thee, Lord, 
Psal. 82.  to put to thine hand? is it not time for thee, judge of all the earth, to arise to judgement?  
The noble sons of Zion comparable to fine gold, 
In Nobles.  how are they become dim? 
Lament. 4.2.7.8.  our Nazarits that were purer than the snow, and whiter than the milk, now their visage is blacker than a coal, that men cannot know them in the streets: the greatest of many maketh them forget the greatest, 
Amos 6.1.  honour and pleasure steal away their heart. They that are at ease in Zion, trust in the mountain of Samaria: They put far from them the evil day, 
Verse 3.  and approach to the seat of iniquity: 
Verse 4.  They lie upon their beds of ivory, and eat the lambs of the flock, and the calves out of the stall: 
Verse 5.  They sing to the sound of the viol, and invent unto themselves the instruments of music: They drink wine in bowls, 
Vers. 6.  and anoint themselves with the chief ointments; but no man is sorry for the affliction of joseph: They say unto God, Depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of thy ways: 
job 21.14.15.  Who is the Almighty that we should serve him, and what profit should we have, if we should pray unto him? If the Prophets in their days did bewail these things, what should we do? we that live in these desperate diseased times, wherein the deluge of wickedness hath almost covered the highest mountains of godliness, wherein the monuments of goodness are so weatherbeaten, that impiety and impunity hath almost left no character thereof undefaced, the rust of irreligiousness hath eaten into the most steely tempers of our age.  
Yet if these sins were few, (though, as we see, they be not to be found in few) yet might some hope of pardon be, 
All sorts of sin in this land.  until they filled the measure, and came to the height of sin. But now (alas) this measure is already full: As sin abounds in every sort of men, so is there to be found amongst them every sort of sin. What town or village is there but is polluted with some of David's fools, 
Atheism. Psal. 14.1.  that say within their heart, There is no God, and therefore live as if there were no heaven nor hell, 
Act. 23.8.  no Saint nor Devil, nor God at all? 
Papisme.  How many thousands of Manna-loathing Papists swarm every where within our coasts, 
Exod. 16.3.  whose mouths are watering after the flesh-pots of Egypt again, and whose hearts are thirsting after the Circean dregs of the purple whore of Babylon? 
Revel. 17.  Think we that God doth not see what is done in many houses of the land? The children gather wood, 
jerem. 7.18.  and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough to make cakes to the Queen of Heaven, and to power out drink offerings to other gods. These thine adversaries, 
Psal. 74.4.  O Lord, roar in the midst of thy congregation, and set up their banners for tokens. They go to and fro, 
Psal. 59.6.  and bark like dogs, and run about the city. These Canaanites are as pricks unto our sides, 
Josh. 23.13.  and as thorns in our eyes: They gnash their teeth at the prosperity of thy Sanctuary, 
Psal. 137.7.  and cry down with it, down with it even to the ground.  
Yea, 
irreligiousness.  Lord, thy Sanctuary is already too much polluted, and the dwelling place of thy name too much alas despised, 
Psal. 74.7. Verse 6.  for they break down the carved work thereof with axes and hammers. Every private man's garden is a paradise, 
Greenham.  and their fields a garden; but the Lords garden (whether for want of manuring, or for the sleeping of the dressers) lieth like the field of the sluggish man: 
Proverbs.  when every house is curiously fieled, and every city aptly compacted, the house of the Lord lieth void in many places, so that they that pass by are constrained to say, O Lord, 
Psalm.  why dost thou behold us thus and suffer us to see so great vastation? If thieves had come by night, 
Sacrilege.  would they not have stolen till they had enough? If the grape gatherers had come, 
Obad. 5.6.  would they not have left some grapes? O, but how are the things of Esau sought up, and his treasures searched? 
joel 1.7.  Is not the bark piled off from every pleasant tree? how is it made bare? is there one branch which the enemy hath not made white? 
Vers. 4.  That which the Palmer worm hath left, the Canker worm hath eaten; that which the Canker worm hath left, the Caterpillar hath eaten. Thus have they spoiled the Church from hand to hand: O Lord, how long shall the adversary reproach thee? 
Psal. 74.10. Vers. 22.  shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever? Arise, O God, maintain thine own cause, 
Vers. 22.  remember the daily reproach which is offered unto thy name. 
The contempt of the word. jerem. 6.10.  For why, thy word, O Lord, is unto them a reproach, they have no delight in it: The children of thy people talk of thee by the walls, and in the doors of their houses, and speak one to another, saying, Come and hear what is the word that cometh from the Lord: They come indeed unto thee as people use to come, and they sit down before thee, 
Ezech. 33.30.31.32.  and hear thy words, but they will not do them; for with their mouths they make jests, and their heart goeth after covetousness, and lo, thy Prophets are unto them as a jesting song of one that hath a pleasant voice, they hear their words but do them not. And which is worse, 
Light account of God's benefits.  there is no balm at Gilead, no means of medicine whereby the health of the daughter of this people might be recovered: for they will not be wrapped, 
jerem. 8.22. Isai. 1.6.  nor bound up, nor mollified with oil. This people hath an unfaithful and rebellious heart, they are departed and gone. 
jerem. 5.23.24.25.  They say not in their heart, Let us now fear the Lord our God, that giveth rain both early and late in due season, and reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest: yea our iniquities have sometimes turned away many of these things, and our sins have hindered good things from us: 
'Slight regard of God's judgements. Isai. 1.3.  The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib, but our Israel will not know, this people will not understand: Thou hast stricken them, O Lord, but they have not sorrowed: Thou hast consumed them, 
jerem. 5.3. Hardness of heart.  but they have refused to receive correction, they have made their faces harder than a stone, and have refused to return: yea they have made a covenant with death, and with hell are at agreement, saying, 
Isai. 28.15.  Though a scourge run over and pass through, it shall not come to us: for we have made falsehood our refuge, and under vanity are we hid. This thou seest, O Lord, and canst thou suffer it? or shall not thy soul be avenged on such a nation as this? 
jerem. 5 9   
When as for swearing & blaspheming, 
Swearing and blaspheming.  from the names of sins, they are now shrouded under the habit of ingenuity and valour, 
Exod. 20.5.  and he is counted a Precifian that maketh a conscience of an oath, 
jam. 2.6.  when the very air is polluted with blasphemous speeches, and every little child, as if their tongues were set on fire of hell, can rend and tear thy sacred body, Christ, and the whole land groan under oaths; 
jerem. 23.10.  canst thou see it, Lord, and suffer it, that what thou condemnest for so capital a crime, men should count it for a glorious virtue? 
Sabbath breaking.  When thy Sabbaths, Lord, whose sanctification thou enjoinest so straightly, 
Gen. 2.23. Exod. 20.11. Heb. 4.4.  and givest us a memorandum so seriously to make it our delight, and to consecrate it, 
Isai. 58.13.  as glorious unto thee, are not only now polluted with fearful profanation, but also called into irreligious question, when there is almost no wickedness which is not especially committed upon this day, 
Bucer. in Psal. 92  it being perverted from the service of the Lord to the pleasures of the flesh, 
Muscul. in praecept. 4.  and from the honour of the great and high God to the rites of Bacchus and Venus, and so made the devils high holiday with many: Will't not thou for this kindle a fire in the gates of our Zion? and shall it not devour the palaces of jerusalem?  
When whoredom and adultery are esteemed as tricks of youth, and usury, consenage, 
Adultery and whoredom.  and oppression as things indifferent; when the adulteries of men are written in their foreheads, and the whoredom of women between their breasts, 
jerem. 8.12.  when they are not ashamed that do commit these things, neither can be brought to any shame: but though thou feedest them to the full, 
jerem. 5.7.8.9.  yet they commit adultery, and assemble themselves by companies in the harlot's houses, and rise up in the morning like fed horses, every man neighing after his neighbour's wife. When whoredoms prodromus or pandar Pride doth so taint and infect all degrees, 
Pride.  and the vanity of all other nations is little enough to make up the measure of an English folly: When the daughters of Zion are haughty, 
Isai. 3.19.  and walk with stretched out necks, and wandering eyes, 
Rom. 1.27.  and men effeminate to fashion themselves according to the world only, 
Rom. 12.1. Rom. 13.4.  making it their only thought to fulfil the lusts of the flesh: When the stone crieth out of the wall, 
Covetousness. Hab. 2.11.  and the beam out of the timber answereth it against the common practice of those that join house to house, and lay field to field, 
Isai. 5.8.  till there be no place for the poor, that they may be placed by themselves in the midst of the earth: when every one hunteth his brother with a net, 
Mich. 7.2. Hab. 1.16.  and sacrifice to their yearn, and to their net: and as a cage is full of birds, 
jerem. 5.27.  so are their houses full of deceit, by which they are become great and waxed rich: When the fat bulls of Baashan gore the sheep of the flock, 
Oppression, Psal. 22.12.  and the rich men swallow up the poor, that they may make the needy of the land to fail, and the sellers make the Ephah small, 
Amos 8.4.5.6.  and the Shekel great, and falsify the weights by deceit, that they may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for shoes: Is it not then time for thee, O God, to whom vengeance belongeth, to show thyself? 
Psal. 94.1.2.  Arise thou judge of the world, and reward the proud after their deserving, 
Psal. 10.16.  for the poor committeth himself unto thee, who art the helper of the fatherless and needy.  
When Court and Country swarms with desperate hackster's brawls, 
Cruelty and quarreling.  with whom rapine, envy, malice, and murder are but venial sins, which yet like Abel's blood from out of the earth do cry unto the Lord: 
Gen. 4.10.  When men rise up early to follow drunkenness, 
Drunkenness.  and continue till night, until the wine do inflame them, 
Isai. 5.11.  and reckon it a point of valour to be mighty to drink wine, & strong to power in strong drink. 
Vers. 22.  And Sodoms' trinity of master sins, pride, 
Ezech. 16.40. Idleness.  fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness, abound in us; there being so many millions that live inordinately amongst us: 
2. Thess. 3.11.  and so many walking the sluggards pace, of whom the heavenly Apostle Paul hath told us often, 
Philip. 3.18.19.  yea and told us weeping, that they are enemies to the cross of Christ, whose end is damnation, whose god is their belly, whose glory is their shame, which mind earthly things. 
Unfaithfulness.  When there is no trust to be reposed in a friend, 
Mich. 7.5.  nor confidence in a counsellor, and the doors of a man's mouth had need be locked up from her that lieth in his bosom; when the whole land like a bowl is overswayed by the strong bias of iniquity, 
Nothing but sin.  and bends without opposition to black corruption: when there is no care of truth, 
Hosea 4.1.2.  nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land, but by lying, and swearing, and killing, and stealing and whoring men break out, and blood toucheth blood: Can there be a God, and he not see? can he see and not punish these so vile abominations?  
No, no, 
It agreeth with the equity of God's justice to punish these sins.  thou art a God of pure eyes, and canst not endure the sight of evil: Thou art jealous of thy glory, and will not hold him guiltless that shall profane thy name; 
Hab. 1.13.  thou wilt not surely clear the innocent, but wilt visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, 
Deut. 5.11. Exod. 34.7.  and upon the children's children unto the third and fourth generation. Art not thou the same that whurledst down angels from the heaven because of their sins, 
jerem. 32.18.  and madest Sodom and Gomorrha, 
God is no less bend to punish sin now then heretofore.  which sometimes were as an other Eden, a breeding place for nettles, and a lake of ashes? yea thou didst not spare jerusalem thine own selected city, 
Jude 6. 2. Pet. 2.4. Genes. 13.10. Genes. 19.24. jerem. 25.29. Matth. 24.3. Isai. 59.1. Heb. 1.11.  but hast made it for sin an heap of stones: yea, Lord, thine hand is not shortened that it cannot strike, nor thine ears heavy, that they cannot hear: Thou art still the same, and thine hatred against sin now as great as ever it hath been.  
Or have we a greater privilege to plead upon then other people had? 
We have no more privilege to secure vi from God's judgements, than other nations had. Nahum 3.8.  Are we better than No which was full of people, that lay in the rivers, and had the waters round about it, whose ditch was from the sea, and her wall from Egypt to Ethiopia, yet she was carried away and went into captivity? Are we in safer shelter than the people of other countries, who for their sins are rooted up as though they had not been planted, as though their stock had taken no root in the earth? 
Isai. 41.24.  the Lord hath blown upon them, and they are withered, and the whirlwind like stubble hath taken them away: yea the Lord hath not spared the city wherein his own name was called upon; 
jerem. 25.29.  and shall we go free? O no, it is impossible, it cannot be. The Lord hath sworn by his holiness, 
Amos 4.2.  that his eye shall not spare, neither will he have pity, but will power out his wrath and fulfil his anger in us, 
Ezech. 7.8.9.  and pay us home according to our ways, and of the abominations that are in the midst of us. 
jerem. 7.16.  Bootless, ah I fear, is it to lift up cry or prayers against the same: for though Moses and Samuel stood before him to entreat him, yet how could his affection be towards this so sinful people? 
jerem. 15.1.  Though hitherto he hath for a long time held his peace, 
Isai. 42.14.  yet now he will destroy and devour at once.  
Yea verily, 
What the reason is why these judgements have not already seized on us.  it is the Lords mercy that we are not yet consumed: for we had long ere this have been as Sodom, and our country as Gomorrha, had not some zealous Phineahses delayed his wrath, and some of his chosen Moseses stood in the breach before him to turn away his wrath, 
Lament. 3.22. Zeph. 2.9. Numb. 25.11.  lest he should destroy them. But now, alas, these righteous men decay apace, 
Psal. 106.23.  and no man considereth it in his heart; merciful men are taken away, & no man understandeth that they are taken away from the evil to come. 
Isai 57.1.  What hope of health now, when there is scarce a godly man left, 
Psal. 12.1.  and the faithful are diminished from among the children of men? Therefore now the days of our visitation must needs be near, 
The near approach of God's judgements.  the days of recompense are coming, Israel shall know it, ourselves, 
Hosea 9.9.  our wives, our children, I fear shall shortly feel it. Me thinks I hear already the noise of the whip, 
Nahum 2.2.  and the moving of the wheels, the axe is already lifted up and ready for the stroke.  
O would to God our Elders would sanctify a fast, 
What the way is to prevent God's judgements.  and our Priests the Ministers of the Lord would weep between the porch and the altar, and cry, Spare, Lord, 
joel 2.15.16.  spare thy people, and all the people from the highest to the lowest would turn to the Lord with fasting, 
Vers. 12.  weeping and with mourning; 
Vers. 14.  who knoweth whether the Lord will return, and yet spare and leave a blessing behind him? Doubtless our God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness.  
But, Lord, 
What to do when God's judgements shall seize on us.  if the decree be already come forth and cannot be revoked, yet, Lord, correct us, but with judgement, not in thine anger, lest we be consumed and brought to nothing. 
jerem. 10.23.  power out thy wrath rather upon the Heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not upon thy name. Or if there be no remedy, yet well I know, that in the midst of these his judgements God is loving unto Israel, 
Psalm.  to such as are true of heart: He will deliver them from six troubles, 
job 5.19.  and in the seventh the evil shall not touch them: 
Psal. 37.24.  they may have a fall, but they shall never be cast off. All things even God's greatest earthly judgements work for the best to God's children: 
Rom. 8.28.  for Zions' sake I will not hold my tongue, but mourn for her desolations. As for mine own part I will rest myself upon David's resolution; 
2. Sam. 15.25.  If I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me again, and show me both it, and the Tabernacle thereof: but if he thus say, I have no delight in thee: Behold here am I, let him do to me as seemeth good in his eyes.   

THE SINNERS Doom: Or, A SURVEY OF THE wretched estate of the wicked both in this life, and in the life to come.   

TO MY WORTHY and much respected friend, Mistress Mary Prime.  
I Began with a taste of happiness, and now I end with a taste of wretchedness. Both of these are necessary to be known, that we may love the one, and fear the other. I dedicate this my last theorem unto you, not as pertinent to your condition, but as an Amulet for your consolation: For I bear you record that you have already tasted how sweet the Lord is, 
Psal. 34.8.  you have had a taste of the good word of God, 
Heb. 6.4.5.  and of the powers of the world to come, and have found them sweeter to your soul than the honey and the honey comb. 
Psal. 19 10. Luke. 10.6.  And I am well assured that you are a child of peace, far free from that portion which here my following treatise describeth to be the sinner's legacy: for I have had experience of your unfeigned faith in Christ, your love to his word, 
Psal. 16.3.  and delight in his Saints. I therefore commend this little Pamphlet to your meditations, to stir you up more & more to thanksgiving unto God, 
Coloss. 1.13.  who hath called you out of darkness into this marvelous light, 
john 15.19.  and hath chosen you out of the world that you should not perish with the world. Doubtless the peace of conscience, 
Philip. 4.7.  that peace which the godly do enjoy, is an invaluable treasure, it passeth all understanding: This peace shall ever be upon the Israel of God, though there be no peace at all unto the wicked. As you therefore have begun in the spirit, so I cease not to pray for you, 
Colos. 1.9.10.5.  that you may be fulfilled with the knowledge of the will of God in all wisdom and understanding, that you may walk worthy of the Lord, and please him in all things, being fruitful in all good works, and increasing in the knowledge of God, for the hopes sake which is laid up for you in heaven: whereof you have heard before by the word of truth, which by me and others hath been preached unto you. And here I leave with you these following meditations, as a testimony of my thankful remembrance of many kindnesses which you have showed unto me, and not to me alone, but to all those which come in the name of a Prophet amongst you. 
Matth. 10.41.  Read, meditate, and use it to your comfort, and the God of peace sanctify you both in soul and body, and keep you with all yours blameless until the coming of our Lord.  
Yours ever in jesus Christ, G. W.   

THE SINNERS Doom.  ISAI. 57.21. 
There is no peace, saith my God, unto the wicked.  
FRet not thyself (saith David) because of the ungodly, 
Psal. 37.1.2.  neither be thou envious for the evil doers: for they shall soon be cut down like grass, and whither as the green herb. Me thinks it should be an easy matter to dissuade any man from envying them, who are rather to be pitied because they are set in slippery places, 
The seeming prosperity of the wicked.  rather to be lamented because their estate is so dangerous, fickle, and full of woe. For albeit these are they that seem to prosper in the world, and to increase in riches, 
Psal. 73.12.5.7.  which are lusty and strong, and not in trouble like other men, their eyes stand out for fatness, and they have more than heart can wish. Though they live and wax old, 
job 21.7.8.9.10  and grow in wealth, their seed is established in their sight with them, and their generation before their eyes. Their houses are peaceable and without fear, and the rod of God is not upon them: Their bullock engendereth and faileth not, their cow calveth and casteth not her calf. 
Psal. 49.11.  Though they think their houses and their habitations shall continue for ever, even from generation to generation, and call their lands by their names. Though the people fall down unto them, and they be deemed the only happy men in the world: 
The unmasking of the wicked. Psal. 73.17.18.  yet let a man but go into the Sanctuary of the Lord, & seek to understand their end, and he shall find that their wealth is not in their own hand, 
job 21.16.17.18.  but they are set in slippery places, and their change is fearful. O how oft shall the candle of the wicked be put out, and their destruction come upon them at unawares! he shall be as stubble before the wind, and as chafe that the storm carrieth away. O how suddenly are they destroyed, perished, and horribly consumed! 
Psal. 73.19.20.  as a dream when one awaketh, so shall the Lord make their image despised. For why? 
job 21.30.  the wicked is kept but as a stalled ox unto the day of destruction, & he shall be brought forth unto the day of wrath: In the hand of the Lord there is a cup, & the wine is red, it is full mixed, 
Psal. 75.8.  and he poureth out of the same; surely the wicked of the earth shall wring out and drink the dregs thereof. This is God's just doom upon them, they shall be like the raging of the sea, that cannot rest, 
Isai. 57.20.21.  whose waters cast up dirt and mire. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.  
And surely how true this restless doom of wicked wretches is, 
The restless and wretched estate of the wicked even in this life.  who seethe not, that hath but an eye to see, and an heart to understand? whose mouths though they be set against heaven; 
Psal. 73.9.6.  and their tongue walketh through the earth, though pride be a chain unto them and cruelty covereth them like a garment: 
job 21.9.  Though the houses of their hearts seem peaceable and without fear: yet, God he knoweth, their doleful minds are tossed up and down with many a blast of anguish, and blown about with many a gale of terror, like surging waves which rage upon the seas, 
Pompon. Mel. lib. 2.  and like Euripus which ever boileth and is in continual agitation. The wicked man is continually as one that traveleth with child, 
job 15.20.21.  oppressed with inward throbs and gripes of heart; A sound of fear is ever in his ears, terrors shall take him as waters, 
job 27.20.21.  and tempest shall carry him away by night, the cast wind shall take him away, 
Prou. 28.1.  and he shall fly when none pursueth him.  
And why? 
The worm of conscience.  there is a worm that never dieth, which is always nibbling at their hearts, and, like the Poet's furies, lashing their guilty conscience with accusing horror. 
Mark 9.44.  In the midst of all their hearts delights & pleasing mirth, there appears an hand writing before their eyes which troubleth their thoughts within them, and maketh the joints of their loins loose, 
Dan. 5.6.  and their knees to smite the one against the other. Whiles they seem to enjoy their chiefest jollity, there hangeth over their head a weighty sword by a small twine of thread; when they full feign would put God out of their minds, 
Amos 6.3.  and put the evil day far from their thoughts, and would rejoice in their youth, and cheer up their heart in their delights; will they, nill they, an heavy hammer knocketh this memento into their hearts, 
Eccles. 11.9.  Know that for all these things God will bring thee unto judgement. Yea, his eye shall fail with fearful looking for the dreadful judgement and violent fire which shall devour the adversary. 
Heb. 10.27.   
But say some senseless soul and cauterised conscience should be so fast asleep as not to feel this smart, 
Want of feeling this horror of conscience in the wicked most desperate.  as doubtless many sinners are, yet shall we think their case as void of fear? No, no, a deadly lethargy possesseth such men's souls, whose pangs may well be thought most grievous then, when least they are felt, and whose estate is most terrible when they are most insensible; 
1. Tim. 4.2.  whose consciences are seared with an hot iron. O take heed of such, for well we know that such a one is perverted, 
Tit. 3.11.  and sinneth being damned of his own self, and being senseless of his sin, is given over to a reprobate sense, 
Rom. 1.24.  and being past feeling, 
Ephes. 4.19.  give themselves over to work all uncleanness even with greediness: being already within the jaws of hell before they be awares. And well I wot, that when such sleepy souls shall awake, (and wake they shall, securely now although they sleep) that than their horror shall be the greater far: like wild beasts, which though so long as they lie asleep, seem tame and gentle, yet being roused up, are fierce and wrathful.  
In the mean, 
Sinners Gods enemies.  albeit in outward show they may seem joyful, yet let them know their case is fearful: for if the wrath of an earthly King be raging, how dreadful then must needs be their estate who are professed enemies to the King of Heaven? 
Isai. 26.11.  Surely he hateth all those that work iniquity, 
Psal. 5.6.  and both the wicked man and his wickedness are in hatred with him. 
Psal. 14.  
Prou. 15.9.  The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord: 
Isai. 1. Psal. 50.  He cannot abide nor permit the sinner to praise him, to pray unto him, or to take his covenant in his mouth: no marvel then if at the last day he show such rigour unto them, who in this life are so extremely hated and detested of him. 
God's threatenings against sinners.  What peace then can they have that have the Lord of hosts to be their enemy? 
Psal. 10.  God shall rain snares of fire upon sinners, brimstone with tempestuous winds shall be the portion of their cup: the Lord shall break their teeth in their mouths, 
Psal. 57.6.9.10.  and shoot forth his arrows and destroy them: He shall carry them away as a whirl wind in his wrath, and wash his feet in the blood of the ungodly: He will power out his wrath upon them, and fulfil all his anger in them: 
Ezech. 7.8.9.10.  He will judge them according to their ways, and lay upon them all their abominations, neither shall his eye spare them, neither will he have pity on them, and they shall know that he is the Lord that smiteth them. Cursed be they in the town, and cursed in the field, cursed in the fruit of their body, 
Deut. 28.16.17.18.  and cursed in the fruit of their land, the increase of their kine, and in the flocks of their sheep: cursed when they come in, and cursed when they go out: cursed in their bodies, and cursed in their souls.  
Now then let them boast while they will of their prosperity, 
The beginning of hell here in this life to the wicked.  and let such as are like unto them flatter them in their folly: though they seem with Capernaum to be lifted up to heaven, 
Matth. 11.23.  yet behold already they are in the confines of hell: though they have a name of mightiness, yet indeed they are in the lowest estate of abjectness: Though they may seem the only men that live, yet they are but dead while here they live: 
1. Tim. 5.6.  Though worldlings do admire them, 
Rom. 6.16.  yet are they but the Lords laughing stocks, Sins slaves, and Satan's drudges. Poor woodcocks are they ensnared in Satan's springs, 
2. Tim. 2.26. Rom. 9.22.  vessels of wrath ordained for the devils black kitchen, already treading the ways of darkness, 
Prou. 4.19. Exod. 3.  the prince of darkness task men in the works of wickedness: yea they dwell already in the land of darkness, and in the shadow of death, 
Psal. 107.10.  being fast bound in misery and iron: 
Psal. 37.8.  when God's children are satisfied with the dainties of his house, 
Luke 15.16.  they feed on husks of sin and draff of beastly life: when the souls of the Saints are temples of the holy Ghost, 
1. Cor. 6.15. Revel. 18.2.  their souls be nests of Scorpions & dungeons of Devils: 
Revel. 21.27.  when God's children have their names registered in the book of life, their names are engrossed in the book of perdition, being already in the power of the Devil and his angels, 
1. Tim. 5.6.  subject to sin and all temptations, dead in trespasses and sins, whiles in their bodies they be alive, and when they die, having this death the earnest penny of the second death.  
For certainly, 
The doleful estate of the wicked in the day of death.  The rejoicing of the wicked is but short, and the joy of hypocrites is but a moment: though his excellency mount up to the heaven, & his head reach unto the clouds, 
job 20.5.6.7.8.9.  yet shall he perish for ever like his dung, and they which have seen him shall say, Where is he? He shall flee away as a dream, and shall pass away as a vision in the night: Go he shall, there is no remedy, 
job 10.22.  into the land of darkness and shadow of death, into a land, I say, dark as darkness itself, and into the shadow of death, where is none order, but the light is there as darkness. 
Heb. 9 Eccles. 3.19.  And albeit this is the condition of the just as well as the unjust, and as the one dieth so must the other die and return unto the dust: yet (good Lord) how great a difference is there between the righteous and the wicked at the day of death? Mark the upright man, 
Psal. 37.37.  and behold the just for the end of that man is peace: when ghastly death approacheth with her inexorable destiny, then do they lift up their heads, 
Luke 21.28.  for that their redemptin draweth nigh from the labours and toils of this world. 
Psal. 40.1.3.  Blessed then are they that fear the Lord, the Lord will strengthen them upon their bed of sorrow, and make their bed in their sickness. So that with holy Hilarion, they then begin to cheer up their soul: 
Hieron. in vita Hilarion. Exito anima mea, exito etc.  Go out my soul, go out, thou needest not fear, thus long thou hast served Christ, why should dost thou now be afraid to go to him? But for the wicked and ungodly man, as there is no peace to him during the whole course of his life; so shall he find least peace at the hour of death. O Death how bitter is the remembrance 
Eccles. 41.  of thee to a man that liveth at rest in his possessions? how irksome shall it be to an unrepentant sinner, when he shall see Death itself standing before his face to arrest him, and approaching unto him with this incultable doom; Thou soul, 
Luke 12.19.  this night I must take away thy soul from thee, and then whose shall these thy pleasures and thy profits be? A woeful anguish must then needs possess his heart, when he must part from all his earthly joys, pleasures & commodities which he hath traveled for with the hazard of his soul, and find no profit in them, but that he hath traveled for the wind. 
Eccles. 5.15.  But what should I speak of the loss of these toys and trifles? they must part with life itself: 
job 2.4.  Skin for skin, and all that a man hath will he give for his life. But all the wealth and riches in the world cannot purchase one hours lease of longer life, Death will claim his due, an inexorable creditor: which when it cannot choose but breed an horror in the heart of him that lieth a dying; so will it fill his soul with direful grief to call to mind the vain attempts of his forepast life, when they shall sigh for grief of mind, and say within themselves; O senseless we and more than frantic fools, We have wearied ourselves in the way of wickedness, 
Syracides, 5.1.3.7.8.9.  and we have gone through dangerous ways, but we have not known the way of the Lord. What hath our pride profited us? or what profit hath the pomp of our riches brought unto us? all those things do pass away like a shadow, 
2. Cor. 5.  and as a post that passeth by. At that day will God be known of them to be a terrible God, and dreadful. He will then write bitter things against them, 
job 13.26.  and make them possess the sins of their youth. The conscience will come in then with her bill of accounts, and show many old reckonings and arrearages of sins, and Satan will shoot forth many millions of canons of desperation against the sick besieged soul, and lay before his eyes the large beadrole of their sins: which when the guilty conscience cannot deny, O how it filleth the heart with horror, and souseth the dreadful soul with fear! How bitter and lamentable is that parting farewell which they make to their departing soul? 
Aelius Adrianus. Animula, vagula, blandula, quae nunc abibis in loca, pallidula, frigida, nudula, etc.  like that of Adrian the Roman Emperor, when he was now a dying; My darling soul, poor soul, poor fleeting wandering soul, my bodies sometimes best beloved guest and equal, whither art thou now going, pale, wan, and naked, into places ugly, dismal, full of horror and tribulation?  
Yet happy, yea thrice happy were it, 
The wicked have no peace after death.  if death were the Catastrophe of the sinner's Tragedy, and the end of their being might come with the end of their earthly living: 
Their souls posting to hell.  happy were it for them if like to dogs and toads, and beasts, they might perish and be no more, but lo their chiefest woe is yet to come: for when they lie in the grave like sheep, 
Psal. 49.14. job 19.26.  death gnaweth upon them; whiles worms destroy their carcase, hell fire seizeth upon their souls, and vexeth them with torments. What shall I here recount the sudden dreadful passage of their souls from the body to their doom, dragged down by furious fiends of hell, unto their place of torment, 
2. Pet. 2.4. Jude 6.  where they shall be in everlasting chains under darkness unto damnation, and to the final judgement of the great day. At which day (good Lord) what horror & amazement will affright them? when the ungodly, whose bodies are rotten in the dust of the earth, 
The horror of the wicked at the day of resurrection. Matth. 25.  shall on a sudden be roused from their deadly sleep by the Trumpet of an Angel; and like guilty malefactors, they shall come forth of the filthy dungeon of rottenness to appear at the tribunal for their trial. 
2. Cor. 5.  What a dreadful day will that be for those that have passed their time securely here in this world? how will they be amazed at the suddenness of this their rousing up from the bed of death? What a sea of miseries and terrors shall rush upon them, when on a sudden being raised up, 
Matth. 24.30.31.32.33.34.35.36.37.  and appareled with the same robes of their bodies, so long laid up in the wardrobe of the dust, they shall hear about their ears so hideous a noise of Trumpets, sound of waters, motion of all the elements; when they shall see the earth reeling and tottering, the hills and dales skipping, the Moon darkened, 
2. Pet. 3.12.  the Stars falling down from heaven, the firmament shivered in pieces, and all the world in a flaming fire? If Adam, 
Gen. 3.8.  after his eating of the forbidden fruit, would feign have hid himself from God, walking in the garden at the cool of the day; how shall the desperate forlorn sinner then abide the presence of the judge, 
2. Thess. 1.7.  not walking in the cool of mercy, but coming in flaming fire, and sitting in his throne of Majesty; 
Matth. 25.31. Revel. 20.12.  when the books shall be opened, when not only they shall be called to account for their gross and heinous sins, 
Matth. 12.36.  but shall be compelled to give account for every idle word, 
Rom. 2.16.  and their very secret thoughts shall be brought to judgement? 
1. Cor. 1.  Alas, what will those wise people do then that now live in delights, and count a christian conversation foolishness? What shift will they make in those extremities? what will they answer for themselves? doubtless they shall not be able to answer him one of a thousand: 
job 9.3.  whither will they then turn themselves? Will they hope that the Bill of their Indictment may be lost? 
Revel. 2.23.  They have small hope of that, for he, who is their judge, searcheth the heart and reins, yea all things are naked and open to his eyes. Hope they that their greatness shall countenance them out? Behold he findeth no steadfastness in the Angels; 
job 4.18.19.  how much less than in them that dwell in houses of clay, and whose foundation is in the dust? Do they persuade themselves that they can bribe the judge? Lo, 
Prou. 11.4. Matth. 16.16.  riches avail not in the day of wrath; and what shall a man give for a recompense of his soul? Do they hope upon a Psalm of mercy or a pardon? There was a time indeed when that was offered unto them, if with repentant minds they would have accepted of the same: but now there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin, 
Heb. 10.26.27.  but a fearful looking for of judgement which shall devour the adversaries. Good Lord, then what will the wretched sinner do at that most doleful day? what shift will he make? He shall even dry up for very fear: 
Matth. 24.  He shall seek death, and death shall fly from him: 
Revel. 6.15.16.  He shall cry to the hills to fall upon him, and to the mountains to cover him. But all in vain, for there shall he stand a desperate, forlorn, caitiff wretch, until he receive that dreadful and irrevocable sentence, 
Matth. 25.41.  Go thou cursed wretch into everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and his angels.  
Which final sentence once pronounced, 
The endless misery of the wicked after the day of judgement.  me thinks my heart doth quake to think upon the horror presently rushing upon these dammed wretches: what howling, crying, wailing, and yelling by them will be made, 
Revel. 16.9.11.  when the infernal officers and fiends of hell with bitter skofes and taunts will hale and drag them unto torments? 
Revel. 16.9.11.  then shall they curse the day of their nativity, 
job 3.9.10.  and wish that they never had been borne, and that they had perished as an untimely birth: They shall be ready to rend and tear their souls, for that they so neglected the time of grace offered unto them, There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth with them, 
Luke 13.28.  when they shall see Abraham, and Isaac and jacob, and all the Saints in the kingdom, and themselves thrust out of doors: 
Psal. 112.10.  The ungodly shall see the happiness which they have lost, and it shall grieve him, He shall gnash with his teeth and consume away, and his hope shall perish. For though like Dives they would give a thousand thousand worlds for a drop of cold water to cool their tongue, 
Luke 16.25.  they may not have it. No, no, but whurled shall they be to hell, 
Isai. 66.24.  to be companions with Devils and damned spirits, in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone, 
Mark. 9.44.  where the worm dieth not, and the fire never goeth out.  
Who is able to dwell in this devouring fire? 
The pains of Hell. Isai. 33.14.  or who shall be able to dwell in these everlasting burnings? 
Matth. 8.12. 1. Pet. 3.19.  The place itself so loathsome into which they are cast, a dungeon far more dark than pitch, worse than the Egyptian darkness which might be felt; 
Exod. 10.21.  A lake that burneth with fire and brimstone, 
Matth. 11. Matth. 8.13.  where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. In that lake, it is wonderful to think how wicked damned souls shall be tormented day and night: 
Revel. 10.14.  not only body, but soul and all with bitter hellish torments; to which all plagues and torments man's heart can devise, are but like flea-bite and not to be named: for as the joys of heaven are so exceeding great, 
1. Cor. 2.9.  as neither eye hath seen, nor ear hath heard, or heart of man can possibly conceive: so the pains of hell are such as the tongue of men or Angels cannot utter, nor any thought imagine. Happy be they that hear, and fear, but never feel these fearful pains: 
Dan. 12.2.  for tribulation and anguish shall be upon their ever burning never dying souls; the shame that shall cover their faces is perpetual, 
Jude 7.  the fire that shall devour them is eternal, the horrors that shall astonish them are everlasting, 
2. Thess. 1.9.  the worm the gnaweth upon their conscience never dieth, 
Matth. 25.46.  and the fire which shall devour them never goeth out; the pains which they shall feel shall never, never have an end.  
How can I then but pity those many thousand silly souls, 
The application.  who prove themselves such fools, as to buy the pleasures of sin for a season, 
Heb. 11.  at so high a price, as will cost them a dreadful setting on for ever? How can I but admire their senseless madness, 
Prou. 14.9.  who though they hear and know this doom of sinners, 
job 15.16.  yet make a jest of sin, and drink up iniquity like water? Why should men be like Thomas, 
joh. 20.25.  that will not believe except they see? 
Exod. 10.7.  and so near of Pharaos' mind, that will be destroyed before they leave their sins? As for me, seeing this is the sinner's portion, I will endeavour as near as I can to keep myself from sin: Surely I shall never be able to endure the pains of hell, and therefore as near as God will give me grace, I will keep me far from them. Seeing there is no peace to the wicked, I will not leave my peace of conscience for a thousand worlds.  
FINIS.