Lord have Mercy upon Vs. The World, A Sea, A Pest-house. The one full of Storms, and dangers, the other full of Soars and Diseases. The observance from These, (though especially accommodated to the times of this heavy Contagion,) fitted for all times. For all Men, and all Times are sick, of the Cause of this Sicknese. LORD have mercy upon us. Imprinted at London for Henry Gosson. 1636. To the Reader. PVnishment is the Companion of Sin: and although (like a man and his mate) they do not go cheek by jowl, like a man and his shadow they do: for like that shadow, it is still the associate of Sin, and dogs his most private retyrements though as seldom thought on as we think of our worthless shadow. That it is thus, we see; though not, till we see it, to repent it: so bedazeled we are with the beauty, lustre and splendour that is spread by the World over sin, and high-handed offences. While on the other side, it dims, and obfus●●tes that, that were it visible, (Virtue) in his self hath beauty enough to attract, (as the Adamant the Iron) all hearts to admire, and desire it. That we may see this, and that, that is, Virtue, and Vice as we should do, let us in this Picture of the World, presented as a Sea, and a Pest-house, endeavour so to see, as to know them; and knowing them, from thence learn to love, and loath, as we should do. This Lesson made perfect among us, we shall not so misplace our affections: so follow the World, (the corrupt estate and condition, that followed the fall of our first Parents, Adam, and Eve:) Nor do●te on he● painted visor: for she drinker her most bitter potion to them, that make her their portion. Bu● lest I too long keep the sight of her vanities from you, desiring GOD to purge our Souls from her plague's, and our Bodies from the stroke of this Angel, I conclude. Th●. Brew. LORD have Mercy upon us, The World A Sea, A Pest-house. Compared to the Sea, in these many Reasons, Respects, and Resemblances following. 1. By reason of the Motion, and Instability of it. 2. By reason of Ejection, or Casting out. 3. By reason of the Creatures that are in it. and that in their hourly devouring. 4. By reason of its Term or bounds. 5. By reason of the Multiplicity, or Multitude of Eminent and Imminent dangers. 6. By reason of the many and Monstrous Shapes that are in it. 7. By reason of the Non-abiding, or present and speedy passage. 8. By reason of the uncertainty of it. 9 By the reason of the Sapor, Taste, or Relish of it. 10. By reason of the Voracity, and Insatiability of it. Of the First. The Motion and Instability of it. THe Sea is ever flowing and ebbing: now Elevated; now Depressed: Continually swelling and falling. So the world: it is never still, ●rat quiet: now l●tting up; another while casting down: Nay many times, working these contraries; that is: of Exaltation, and Depression, upon one, and the same in an instant. I have seen the exalted, and Flourish, as a green Bay Tree: yet he passed away; lo ●e was gone; I sought him, and her could not be found. Psalm. 37. 35, 36. Man shooteth forth, as a Flower, and is cut down: He vanisheth as a shadow and continueth not. job. 14. 2. Our delights are like Io●●'s Gou●d: Now spread, now dead. While they are, they rejoice us; as that Go●●d did that good old Prophet: But gone like that (which suddenly was, and was not) the privation as much torments us. ●ona. 4. 6, 7. M●●danc prosperity is a staff of a Cane, 〈◊〉 Reed: it may seem to be solid and firm, but he that shall rest upon it, or put any trust unto it, shall find what it is, when it breaks: when it hurts, w●●r● it seemed to help: and pierceth through that part it supported. Isa. 36 6. Among the waves of this Sea, thus do we Rise, thus fall: upon this Billow, we Swim; under the next, we ●●nke: Now Flourish; now perish, as a game that the world delights in. Lord have Mercy upon us. The Second Resemblance, Eiection, or casting out. THe Sea casts out her dead to the Shore: so the world, those that are dead to the world: that is, those that delight not in her sinful delights, and pleasures: That know her delights, to be lightness, and her pleasures, a path to anguish. Attend to that of Saint Pa●l. We are evil spoken of, we are made as the filth of the World, the off-●●ow●ing of all things, even unto this time. 1. Co. 4 13 Thus to the world, and worldings are those that neglect the world: Reproached; Reviled and Slandered: her Language the language of Hell: and with such do such Hellhounds pursue them. If you were of the world, the world would love you: but because you are not of the world, the world hates you. joh. 15. 19 How unhappy are men so Beloved? How happy are men so Reproved? Moreover, spiritual men are not only cast out of the World, (from her Titles, preferments and Glories) but suffer withal, many grievous and great persecutions. The Servant is not better than his Master: they have persecuted CHRIST, and the Christian must endure persecution. Lord have Mercy upon us. The Third Resemblance. As from the Sea, so from the Creatures within it, and that in their hourly Devouring. IN the Sea among Fishes, the greater devour the lesser: In the World among men, the Richer de●●ur the poorer. They entertain not the poor into their houses, but the houses of thepoore, entertain to their own possessions. They Cloth not the poor, but unclothe them: they feed not the poor, but upon them. God hath given them, that they might give; and do good: but with that they should do good, they do evil. Not knowing that in Saint Luke, 16. 22. The Rich man died, and was buried: but the Poor man died, and was carried, Whither? into Abraham's Bosom. By whom? By Angels. Oh Happy, and thrice happy Beggars: Oh wretched, and thrice wretched oppressors. Lord have Mercy upon us. Wherefore dost thou look upon the transgressor, and hold thy tongue, when the wicked devoureth the man that is more Righteous than he; and makest them as the Fishes of the Sea? Habba. 1. 14. Yet in this vast Sea, the Righteous man shall not perish; but live, though the wicked devour him Even as jonas, who though swallowed, yet lived in the belly, into which he was greedily swallowed. As dying behold we live, as chastened and yet not killed. 2 Cor. 6. 9 Lord have Mercy upon us. The Fourth Resemblance, And that from the Term, or Bounds of the Sea, are the Sands, which we know to be Barren and weighty. SO the Term or Bounds of this world (the end of our mortal being) is unfruitful and weighty in the burden of our sins and offences. What Fruit had ye of those things, of which ye ●●e now ashamed? Rom. 6. 21. What hath man of all the Labour and Toil that he suffereth under the Sun? Eccl. 1. 3. Man finds nothing in death, but his works; and those he must carry with him. Reu. 14. 13. The whole World lies in wickedness. joh. 1. 19 As unapt to the doing, or bringing forth any good work, as the Thorn to bring forth Figgs, or the Thistle to bring forth Grapes. In the confines of Life (which is death,) the wicked man finds nothing, but the weight of his sins committed, and his hopes and desires prevented. An Example of this, our Blessed Saviour gives us, in the Glutton, attired in Purple: who in the midst of the unutterable Tortures he had to torment him, could not purchase a Drop, one drop of cold water to ease him. Lord have Mercy upon us. The fift Resemblance. In the multiplicity, or Multitude of Eminent and Imminent dangers. IN the Sea, (we all know) there be marvelous and manifold dangers by Winds, by Rocks, by Shelves, by Pirates, and the like. They that sail over the Sea, tell of the perils thereof; and when we hear of it with our ears, we marvel thereat. Eccle. 23. 24. And so for the world; which how full of strange Perils, and Dangers, the Apostle Saint Paul informs us, In journeying, I was often in perils of Water, in perils of Robbers, in perils of the Sea, in perils among false Brethren. 2 Cor 11. Periculum probat, Transeuntium raritas; ●t pereuntium multitude, B●rn. The Rar●●y of those that pass safe; and the multitude of those that perish, proves the peril of this dangerous passage: The number of the first very small: the number of the last very great. Love the world, and it shall swallow thee, her lovers she knows better how to devour, then secure: for him with whom the ●a●es, the betrays. Where be the Giants? where be the Potentates? the Eminent and Famous men of all the precedent Ages? Gone. All gone through this World, through a world of Perils and Dangers. Lord have Mercy upon us. The Sixth Resemblance. In the Multitude of Monstrous shapes that are in it. IN the Sea there are many Monsters: many Fishes of strange, of Admirable shapes and proportions. So in the world, there be men in their nature, condition, and actions so strange, so preposterous, and monstrous, they are monsters rather than men. There have been found in the Sea, Fishes, that in all points are proportioned to a Soldier armed on Horseback: And like unto those on the Land, are our Roarers, ou● swearing and swaggering Companions always armed to do Murders and mischieve. Others you shall find, which have the face in the place of their feet and their feet in the place of the head. And like those, are our coue●ou●●oorders; our greedy, 〈…〉 ritious gripers; and grinders of the face of the needy: who have always this earth in their eye, and Heaven at their heel: seeing to kick at Heaven, and the Heavenly counsel of our Holy Apostle, saying: Seek those things that are above, etc. minding only these things below. For his God, and his Heaven, are his Gold and his Coffers; and to these he looks, and no farther. Lord have Mercy upon us. Others you shall find, that have ● Tongues: And like those, are many of our Advocates; of our Fawners and flattering companions, who have one thing in their words, and another in their wills: those Devil's Choristers, that sing sweetly, but their Notes are honey and poison. The words of the double tongued man may appear ●e be plain, and simple, but they are not so: They pierce through, even unto the bowels. Pr. 18. 8. Lord have mercy upon us. Others you shall find, that have swords in their mouths, or the likeness and resemblance of swords: and so many men that have tongues in their mouths like swords, with which they are still wounding the same and good name of their Neighbours. Behold they brag in their talk, and swords are in their lips. Psal 59 7. Lord have mercy upon us. Another kind of Fish you shall find, that hath many ●eads: And such are such men as are subject to many ●●●es: for so many vices, so many heads; nay, so many Lords and Commanders. Covetousness is the Lord of the covetous: Luxury the Lord of the luxurious: Pride the Lord of the proud: and E●vie the Lord ●●t●● envious. The evil and ungodly man serves so many Lords, as vices. Lord have mercy upon us. The seventh Resemblance. In the non-abiding, or present and speedy passage. THe Sea is no place of abiding, no place to inhabit, ordwell in, but the path of a speedy passa●e, of a swift and violent travel: So this World; we have here no place of abiding: the Apostle to the Hebrews 13. 14 saying, We have here no continuing City, but we seek for one to come. We do, or we should do; for that place to come is our Country. We are here but lodgers and strangers, and like to such, we should not forget our Country, and delight to inhabit strange places, but delight in the path to that, and kéeps it, till we come to our City. What this world is, or the time of this present life, Saint Augustine tells us: Nihil nisi cursus ad mo●tem, Nothing but a race to Death: In which no man can make any stand, neither is it permitted to any one to go either swifter, or ●●●wer than another: The Race may be shorter, or longer, but the pace is to all men equal. Lord have mercy upon us. The Eighth Resemblance. In uncertainty. IT is not in the power of any man that enters himself on the Sea, to keep in the course he proposes, and arrive at the place he wishes: but many times, by cross and contrary winds he is carried to that place to which he would not been carried: neither in that ●●eane, or manner can he came to the Port that he would do. So in this World: it is not in the will of man, but in the will and pleasure of the ever blessed Spirit, directing to arrive at the ●ort of Salvation, or sail to the Haven, Heaven. It is not in him that willeth, neither in him that runneth: but in GOD that showeth mercy. Rom. 9 16. And therefore we ought to pray continually, that God would be pleased to guide us in the way that may lead us to him. It is the counsel of holy Tobit. 4. 9 Bless the Lord always, and desire him to direct thy ways. Lord have mercy upon us. The Ninth Resemblance. In the Sapor, Taste, or relish of it. VAlde amarum est Mare, The Sea is exceeding bitter, and yet to the Fish that are in it, that there have their increase and nourishment, that bitterness is not bitter, but exceeding sweet, and delightful: So the World in the direct and very plain truth of it, is exceeding bitter, and distasteful: yet to the worldling the taste is delightful, and pleasant: Nay, in such a plenitude, such a measure, and height delightful, that he can have no sense, no touch, or conceit of the contrary: That bitterness is only sweet, and in the things of this world flow all the delights that may be. Mistast, or mistake in the taste, proceeds, and arises from the corruption and default of the . The men of this World have corrupt and mistaking palates, like th●se that are sick of a Fever, to whom such things as in themselves are sweet, seem bitter, and things that are bitter, sweet. To the sound and well disposed , that bread is sweet, that to the unsound, and indisposed palate is unsavoury. Woe be to those that call evil, good, and Aug. that which is good evil: putting bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter. Isai. 5. 20. Lord have mercy upon us. The tenth, and last resemblance. In the voracity and insatiability of it. THe Sea swallows all the floods yet exceeds not her bounds nor is satisfied with abundance of water: All the floods go into the Sea, yet the Sea is not full: So the world entertains, receives, and consumes all the good things of the earth, yet never says, it is enough. All that is in the World, is the lust of the flesh; the lust of the eye, or the ●ride of Life. Joh. 2. 16. But the lust of the flesh is not satisfied with delight: the lust of the eye with riches: nor the pride of life with honours. Ergo mundus non satiatur. The world is never satisfied. The worldling never contented. Whatsoever the worldling hath, he hath as if he had it not; still gaping, still swallowing; still wishing, first desiring: He levels first at such a thing, and obtains it, at a thing beyond that at a thing beyond that, and obtains it: yet the possession of every new thing, that he wisheth for, is but the matter of another wish; building wish upon wish and degree upon degree, as if to climb to the height of his wish (which such a one never can reach to) were to climb to heaven: but so to go upward, we may fear, is but so to go downward. Lord have mercy upon us. The World, A Pest-house. AS you have looked upon the world compared to the sea, in these proper & apt resemblances; and seen it full of trouble, vexation, and sinful ab●ses: I would have you now look upon it as a Pest-house, and in these fifteen Rooms (into which we divide this Pest-house) see every misdeed a disease, and every gross sin a sickness. In the first Room, see the disease of Pride, Ambition, Vainglory, and an inextinguishable thirst of great, and unmerited ●●tles. In the second Room, see the disease of Luxury, a Disease that perturbes the mind, d●ls the understanding; enervates and infeeb●es the Memory; ●●ngs in error, oblivion, and ignorance, and make● a man like a beast: Holy Job calls it A Fire. Another, the Devil's Forge: in which the poor sinner made hot, is wrought to what fashion the Forger of all mischief would have him. In this third Room see the disease of Enw: an evil that (as Nazianzen says) is the most just, and unjust of any: Unjust as injurious t● the good: But as it first, and most vehemently, excruciates the wicked possessor; an equal, and most just tormentor. In this fourth Room, see the disease of a dull, and sottish insensibility of that circle of danger, within which we are daily encompassed: A disease, in which, we think we have eyes as quick and clear, as the eye of the Live, or Lynceus; when indeed they are dull and dim as the eye of those birds, that not able to see the Sun, fly only in the dark; or at most by t●e glimmering twilight. In this fift Room, see the common, but incurable disease of oppression: in which, the diseased laughs at the poor: to which, groans, sighs, and laments are music; and the tears, nay the blood of the Widow, the Orphan, and such other, as lie under the weighty pressure, a drink that (spiced with the pro●●t, wrenched, wrung, and extorted from them) goes down with a great deal of pleasure. In the next Room, see a company sick of so extremely strange a disease, that (like madmen) they take the way for their journey's end: and their I●●e for their own inheritance. Lord have mercy upon us. IN this seaventh Room, s●e the Disease of that wealthy poverty, Covetousness: A Disease in which a man has the stock of the wealthy, but the soul of the poor and needy. O Dives haredibus, tibi verò pauper. He is only rich to his heirs, to himself as poor as ●rus. A Disease that makes him so silly, as to think he can serve two Masters: God and Mammon: Though that God and Man, Christ ●esus directly tells him, he cannot, He in whom this disease is rooted, has the root of all manner of evil. In this eighth Room, see a cluster or heap of diseases together: Gaming, swearing, swaggering, stabbing; the disease of mi●e-●akes in pleading; or taking amiss for pleading. With these see that disease in which the diseased will not speak a word or syllable, not steeped in Oil or honey without kissing his finger's ends: nor for his finger's ends without new fashioned legs and faces: that Disease, in which the diseased will lick o'er a vice to the specious appearance of virtue; and strike where he seems to stroke, with many other Soars and Diseases. In this ninth Room, see that Disease in which a man thinks, that whatsoever he will do, ●e can; and whatsoever he fancies, is as easy to perform, as purpose. Like those fools, ●am. 4. 13, 14, 15. To day, or to morrow wet will go to such a City, we will continue there a year: we will buy, and we will sell, and we will gain: Here is nothing but we will, and we will; though no man to day can tell, what shall be to morrow: for what is our life but a vapour? Their Lesson, and ours is this: If the Lord will, we will, without which all our will can be nothing. In this Tenth Room see a Disease, than which no evil is swi●ter, nothing more easily flies out; and of any thing, no thing dilates and spreads itself farther. The heart of the Glutton is in his Ki●chin: of the Lustful man, in a Brothel: of the Covetous man in his Coffer: But the heart of Detraction, pursuing the good name of his neighbour: which if he find but a little defect, or failing, he greedily takes in his teeth, blasts with his venomous breath, wounds with his Serpentine tongue, and with it, (for so it must follow) the heart of the man so detracted. In this Eleventh Room see a Disease, that for the cure of it, the reasonable Creature is sent unto the unreasonable Creature: Vade ad formicam, etc. Prov. 6. Go to the Ant saith Solomon, consider her ways, and weighing them, learn to be wise. She that hath no guide, shall guide thee; she that hath no teacher, shall teach thee; she that hath no Lord, of a servant to this sin, (this drowsy, sluggish, slavish, and of all, a disease the most despicable, shall make thee a Lord and Commander. She prepares her meat in Summer, and gathereth her food in Harvest. She labours, and feeds, while the Grasshopper plays, and fasts. The slothful man sleeps, and does nothing; or evil, which is worse than nothing: While his field and his vineyard is covered with Thorns and Nettles: This is the field of the fool, which salomon's wise man seeing, makes a stand, looks on it, considers, and from it receives instruction. Prov. 24. 30, 31, 32. Poverty comes upon the slothful man unawares, and Necessity, like an armed man: for in this disease a man is thus dull, thus stupid. Before the enjoyment of any thing sweet, we must sweat: for the gods sell all for Labour. In this Twelfth Room see a Disease, to which a meal, a delicate dish, or a Dinner, is a bit: like that morsel or mouthful f●ll that we use to cast to a Dog which as soon as he hath, he swallows, and presently gapes for another. So this man: he gapes, swallows, and gapes. This man, whose God is his Belly, whose Temple is his Ki●chin whose Altar is his Table, whose Ministers are his Cooks whose Offering is a Banquet, and the smoke of that Banquet his Incense. In the 13. Room, after such a gluttonous feeding, see the Disease of Drinking: In which you see a man without eyes, without ●●ete, without heart, without hand, without hearing: or if he have the Organ he hath them not as he ought, in th●●r vigour, and uses. And therefore, to see a man thus, that is, with them, and yet without them, is not to see a man, but in the place of a man, a Mo●ster. A moderate Rain does good, makes the earth fair, fresh, and fruitful: but immoderate showers deprive her of all these blessings. And thus that earth, Man, with moderate and immoderate drinking, fresh, fair, and fruitful: or neither fresh, fair, nor fruitful in any of those things that become him. Take heed, lest at any time your hearts be overburdened with surfeiting and drunkenness. Luke 21. 34. In this 14. Room see the strange disease of strange and new fangled fashions: let them be what they will, adorn, or deform, the fashion is the fashion, and a man must be in the fashion. The present fashion is, a Doublet two inches too short, and the Breech ten inches too long, scarce half a leg to be seen: the waist so embraced with points, and the knee with the young, or spawn, otherwise called sprigs, or jinglers, that old Buckle and Thong, the Girdler, is a thing that is seldom thought on and Timothy Tag the principal man in the Parish. I could from the Hat, with the band, as light as a Feather, observe to the sole of the shoe, and in diverse places between them, show you other spots of the fashion, but so I might stay too long, and the fashion go out before me: For as if every new fashion made m● Gallant a very new man, he must wear out ten fashions, before he can wear out one suit; or he is not a man in fashion. In this 15. Room see that grievous Disease of Neglecting, and leaving what our best Ph●sitian prescribes us: and affecting and embracing what this Mountebank World shall prepare for us. Lord have mercy upon us. This infection, these Diseases, and a multitude hard to be thought on, are still to be found in this Past house: Saint Bernard saying, Peccatum morbus est anim●, Sin is a disease of the foul: And that the principal ca●se of all the Diseases of the body, are those of the Soul, which is Sin, take these holy places to witness. 1. By one man sin entered into the world, and Death by sin; and so Death went over all men, forasmuch as all men have sinned. Rom. 5. 12. 2. Behold all Souls are mine, both the soul of the father, and also the soul of the son: The soul that sinneth, shall dye. Ezek. 18. 14. 3. Thy sorrow is incurable for the multitude of thine iniquities: because thy sins were increased, I have done these things unto thee. jerem 30. 15. 4. Si● no more, le●t a worse thing happen unto thee. John 5. 14. 5. Thus saith the Lord of Hastes: This City must be visited, O●pres●on is in the midst of it: As the fountain caste●●●ut her water so she casteth out her malice: truelty and spoil is continually found within her. ●er. 6. 6, 7. 6. For sin hath Fami●● meagerly stalked among us: Bia 〈…〉 s Mildews, Caterpillars, and the greedily devouring Pe 〈…〉. 1 Kings 8. 37. Lord have mercy upon us. These and many other places do most perspicuously demonstrate unto us the cause of these heavy Uisitations, Sin; the disease that Adam died of, and so all the sons of Adam. It cannot he time ill s●ent, here to make a stand, and a little to 〈◊〉 ●●cke to that heavy commination or threat 〈…〉 at this 〈…〉 re 5. And the better to fix it upon our Hearts, to observe it in these four circumstances: Who, how, what, and for what. Who threatens? The Lord God of Hosts▪ How? As a man compelled, constrained, and vecessitated by the multitude of Sins & Transgressions: intimated in this word Must, This City must, What? Be punished, afflicted, For what? Sin: Oppression is in the midst of it. Oppression which was in the midst of that City, is in the midst of this, even in the Centre of it; and so in the Centre of this Kingdom: diffusing, shedding, and spreading itself into every part of her fair and large circumference. As the Fountain casteth out her water, so she casteth out her malice, etc. Lord have mercy upon us. For these, and their spotted companions, did the Pestilence, that Tyrant, in the year of that never to be forgotten number, 1625. Arrest, and Imprison (in that Goal in which they must rot that enter) so many, many thousands of people: sparing neither the silver head of the old man, nor the golden hopes of the young man; the strength of the Male, nor the beauty of the Female. Lord have mercy upon us. For these, did this Tyrant, that neither fears the rich, nor pities the poor, take the rich from his wealth, and the poor from his want, and make them in the grave companions. Lord have mercy upon us. For these did this Tyrant snatch the wife from the husband, and the husband from the wife: the parent from the child, and the child from the parent: the first be wailing the loss of half themselves, and their beautiful Olive-branches: and these branches (their children) the loss of that root, from which they received their being. Lord have mercy upon us. For these, did this Tyrant make the Citizen fly the City to meet what he fled in the merciless entertain of the Country, that undutiful handmaid; that instead of taking to heart, the heartsick estate of her Lady, to the numberless number of her tears, her groans, her sighs, and unutterable measure of anguish, added the matter of them all in the hardness of her heart to her miserable sons and daughters. Lord have mercy upon us. For these, did that Tyrant cast so great an Eclipse o'er the glory of this City, that nothing was seen but black; no more of her brightness, no more of her splendour & beauty, than of the beauty of the heavens, when the dark robe of night over-spreads it. Lord have mercy upon us. To particularise the calamities of that year were needless, so few years have past since we felt it, that in husband, wife, child, parents, kinsman, friend, trading, or in o●●e sad thing or another, many thousads yet living feel it. And to make us the more to feel it, God again has begun to strike us: But like an ●noulgent father, he yet hath been pleased to strike us, telling his strokes by leisure; and in that telling us, he had rather affright, than hurt us. As I live (saith the Lord) I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked may turn from his ways and live, Ezek 14. 11. For his way is the way to death; but the way of the Lord to life, and both eternal. Lord have mercy upon us. Hear God Almighty has strooke one, there another; there another, and a great way off, another: this week so many; another so many: one Bill rising, another falling: the increase bidding fly from sin: the decrease not to fly from the City: a command to departed, and asw●et invitation to tarry. Let every one that calleth on the name of Christ, depart from iniquity. 2. Tim. 2. 19 Lord have mercy upon us. The best flight we can make is to fly from that, as fast as we can, the farther, the nearer to God. Every punishment is an Arrow from the qu●ver of God Almighty's anger: and those aimed only at sin; from which, if we carefully fly, we remove the mark, and with it evade the danger. Lord have mercy upon us. My wish to the flight of those that fly, is, that flying, they may thus fly: and withal (Gods will ever placed in the fore front of all our wishes) that they may not (as sometimes it happens at a shooting) intending to run from the arrow they see not, run under it, and sink where they seek their safety: Too many so have run: too many been so over-taken. L●t our prayers be one for another, that staying or flying, living, or dying, we may all live and dye in the fear, love, and favour of Go● our Almighty Creator. Lord have mercy upon us. It is written of two of the Scholars of I socrates (Euphorus and Theopompus) that for their difference in the swiftness, and slackness in Learning: The one had need of a Bridle, the other need p●aspu●re. But we had need of them both: every one both of Spur and Bridle: A Bridle to ●ur●e us from running so fast in those courses for which God Almighty plague's us: and a Sp●rre to prick us forward to those things that may m●ve him to spare us. Lord have mercy upon us, And enlighten our understanding, make us see what we ought to see and know what we ought to know: Which that we may assuredly do; teach us O Lord to know thee; and to know, that to b●e able to speak (as it is said of Solomon) from the Ce●er in Lebanon, to the Hyssop that 〈◊〉 ●o it of the Va 〈…〉 ●o know all the Creatures, and not to know the● their Creator, is, in knowing of all things, to know nothing, and seeming so wise, to be foolish. Lord have Mercy upon us. St. Austen tells us: That he that knows thee, though these things he do not know, is a happy and a blessed man: He that knows thee, and these for these, is never a whit the more blessed: but he that knows thee, for thee; for thyself the Fountain of all our happiness, is happy and blessed for ever. Lord have mercy upon us. Teach us O Lord to know thee; to know thee angry; and give us grace to endeavour to please thee: Following the counsel of thy holy servant Ho●ea, in turning to thee O Lord, that so having smitten us, thou mayst ●eale us; having wounded us, thou mayst make us whole; and in thy good time, translate us from this Sea full of storms and dangers: this Pest-house full of Sores and Diseases, to that Haven, and that Habitation, where there is no storm or tempest, and where Death or Disease never entered. Lord have mercy upon us. FINIS.