OLD Mr. DODS SAYINGS.  
LONDON, Printed by A. Maxwell, in the Year, Anno Dom. 1680   

OLD Mr. DODS SAYINGS.  
1. NOthing can hurt us but Sin, and that shall not hurt us, if we can repent of it. And nothing can do us good but the Love and Favour of God in Christ, and ●hat we shall have, if we seek it.  
2. No man is in a sad condition, but he ●hat hath a hard heart, and cannot pray.  
3. So much Sin, so much Sorrow; so much Holiness, so much Happiness.  
4. Make thy Sin thy greatest Sorrow; ●o shall thy Sorrow never hurt thee. Make jesus Christ thy greatest joy, so shalt thou ●ever want joy..  
5. A man that hath the spirit of prayer, ●ath more than if he had all the world.  
6. Two things to be commended to a Married Couple, Cares and strifes. For the ●●rst, Let your Cares be, which shall please God most; for your strifes, let them be, which shall love one another best: So will ●our Cares and Strifes be to purpose; so will all needless Cares and strifes vanish  
7. If you be in a married estate, know ●nd believe it, Though you might have had a ●etter, or richer Wife or Husband, yet sure ●nough you could never have had a fit, because it was so appointed by God in Heaven, before it could be accomplished here o● Earth; and therefore, though mutual love 〈◊〉 not performed to thee, yet do thou thy part 〈◊〉 obedience to God, and thou shalt be sure 〈◊〉 have comfort in the end, though God exerci●● thee with chastisements for a time.  
8. There can no afflictions or miseries b● fall us, but by God's appointment, and cann●● hurt us, but must needs do us good, if we 〈◊〉 God's Children. But first, Be sure you 〈◊〉 not sin with them, for that only makes the● bitter. Secondly, Look not at the rod, but 〈◊〉 him that smiteth; for that causeth fretting and fainting both.  
9 If thou desirest to be assured thy sins 〈◊〉 forgiven thee, labour to forgive injuries a●● offences done unto thee, according to th● in. Mat. 6.14, 15. Four things consider this end: 1. Christ's example, who forga●● and prayed for his enemies. 2. Christ's command, When ye pray, forgive, if ye have aught again any man. 3. Christ's promise, If ye forgi●● ye shall be forgiven. 4. Christ's threatening, 〈◊〉 ye forgive not, ye shall not be forgiven.  
10. In all miseries and distresses, it is 〈◊〉 wisdom to go to that friend that is most ne● most willing, and most able to help; such friend is God.  
11. He would often say, He had no reas●● to complain of his crosses, being they w●● but the bitter fruit of his sins.  
12. Where sin lies heavy, crosses lie lig●● and contrary, where crosses lie heavy sins lie light.  
13. Either prayer will make a man give over sinning, or sin will make a man give over praying.  
14. Four things we may learn from Children: 1. They take no unnecessary care: 2. They sleep without malice: 3. They are content with their condition. 4. They are humble; the child of a King will play with the child of a beggar.  
15. There is no affliction so small, but we should sink under it, if God upheld not; and there is no sin so great but we commit it, if God restrain not.  
16. If we be raised on, or reviled, or injuriously dealt withal by friend or foe, we should be more troubled for the sin against God, then for the offence done to ourselves.  
17. A godly man is like a sheep every place is the better for him where he comes: A wicked man is like a goat, every place is the worse for him; he leaves a stinking favour behind him.  
18. Sanctified afflictions are spiritual promotions, and are far better for a Christian, than all the silver and gold in the world, being that the trial of our Faith is much more precious then of gold that perisheth, 1 Pet. 1.6.  
19 Directions for the Lord day, Make the Sabbath the Market▪ day for thy soul: Lose not one hour, but be either praying, conferring, or meditating; think not t●● own thoughts; let every day have its dutie● turn the Sermon heard, into matter of pra●er: Instruction into petition, reproof in● confestion, consolation into thanksgiving Think much of the Sermon heard, and make something of it all the week long.  
20. Directions for every day: First, Fo● morning. Every morning presuppose, 1. I must die: 2. I may die or night: 3. whither will my soul go, to heaven or to hell? Secondly, For night. Every night ask at thy soul these Questions: 1. Have I twice this day humbled myself before God in private? 2 How did I pray? In faith and love: 3 what have my thoughts been this day? 4. what have I been in my place and calling? 5. what have I been in company? Did I speak of good things? or did I hear, and with Mary, lay up? 6. If God, with the morning, renewed mercies, was I thankful? 7. If the day afforded me matter of sorrow, did I fret? or did I lie in the dust before God? 8. when you have thus done, where have you been failing, confess it with sorrow; the lesse-work you will have to do when death comes. Thus every night reckon right with thy God. This hath been my daily course, and shall be my practice till I die.  
21. What we win by prayer, we shall wear with comfort.  
22. There is a twofold assurance: 1. A A Sun. shine: 2. A Moon shine assurance. The first is that full assurance, in Heb. 10.22. The Moon. shine is that of the Word, To the which we do well that we take heab, I Thes. 1.5. 2 Pet. 1, 18. The first is given but to few, and that but seldom; and that either upon some great duty to be performed, or some new condition of life to be entered in to, or upon some great suffering to be undergone, of which one saith, The hours it comes, is but seldom, and the stay of it short. The second is that we must trust to, A relying upon the sure Word of God, by the faith of adherence, when we want the other, the spirit of full assurance.  
23. For the comfort of God's people, he observed out of the 129. Psal. that though the wicked were the plowers of the righteous, and would blow deep, make long furrows, and even blow their hearts out, if they could, yet the righteous Lord that sits in heaven laughs at them, and cuts their Cords, and then they can blow no more.  
24. In case of persecutions and other sufferings, God's people should seriously consider these four things: 1. God wills them, and sends them: Now Gods will is a perfect ●ule of righteousness; and what God doth, ●s so well done, that it could not be better ●one: 2. There is need of them, or else we ●hould not have them. 3. Their number, ●easure and continuance is determined by God; they are but for a moment, and, last for few days, Rev. 2.10. not too heavy, 〈◊〉 many, or too long, as the devil would h● them; not too few too short, or too light, our corrupt natures would have them 〈◊〉 Their end is a weight of glory, and the Cr●●● that attends them, everlasting, 2 Cor. 4. ●  
25. Three things make a man count himself happy here below: 1. To have a g●enate: 2. To have it in a good place: 3. 〈◊〉 good neighbours. Now these three, they 〈◊〉 die in the Lord eminently enjoy. 1. T● heavenly inheritance great; Eye hath not I● nor ear heard the like, 1 Cor. 2.9. 2. It is 〈◊〉 good place, 2 Cor. Heaven, which is a h● made for them, and made by God. and therefore must needs be good: 3. By good neighbour's, God, Christ, the Spirit, Angel's 〈◊〉 Saints. Adam had a good inheritance, an● a good place, but he had an evil nighbou● the devil that troubled him, and marred 〈◊〉 but there is no evil neighbours in heaven.  
26. The passions of God's people do● hinder the success of their prayers. Elias 〈◊〉 a man subject to like passions as we are, 〈◊〉 he prayed, and was heard, james 5.17.  
27. Three things concur to the making of the sin against the holy Ghost: 1. Light in the mind: 2. Malice in the heart: 3. 〈◊〉 insensibleness of the sin. He that fears he 〈◊〉 committed it, hath not committed it.  
28. The reason why many are not wron● ●pon, that live under powerful means of grace, ●hen many that live at a great distance, and ●ome seldom under a powerful Preacher, are ●rought upon by it; he used to give by this similitude: As in a Market Town the Towns people matter not so much for Market ●ares, as they that live in the countries' ●hey come to buy, and must, and will have ●hat they want, what ever they pay for it; whereas they that live in the Town, think ●hey may buy at any time, and so neglect buying at present; and at last, oftentimes they ●re disappointed.  
29. To persuade us not to return railing ●or railing, he would say, That if a dog barked at a sheep, a sheep will not bark at a dog.  
30. Four arguments against immoderate ●ares for earthly things, that we might not dishonour or deny God, he observed out of Mat. 6.1. It is needless: 2. It is brutish: ●. It is bootless: 4. It is heathenish. 1 Need ●lesse. What need we care, and God too? vers. ●0. 31.32. Our heavenly Father knows we have need ●f these things, and he bids us be careful for nothing, but cast our cares on him who careth for ●5. 2. It is brutish, nay more than brutish; v. ●0. Consider the Fowls of the air, and ravens that he ●eeds, they toil not. 3. It is bootless, and to no purpose, v. 27. Which of you by taking though can ●ad one cubit unto his stature, or penny to his estate. ●. It is heathenish: After all these things, the Gentiles seek, v. 32  
31. Many in the world take their Sa●●ship upon trust, and trade in the duties of Religion, with the credit they have gained fro● others opinions; they believe themselves 〈◊〉 be Christians, because others hope them to 〈◊〉 such, and so Zealously trade in duties that 〈◊〉 outmost, to keep up their credit, but no● look for a stock or solid grace within; an● this undoes many.  
32. As we read of daily bread, so of a a●●●ross, Luk. 9.23. which we are bid to take, 〈◊〉 to make. We need not make crosses for ●selves, as we are too prone to do; but 〈◊〉 God make them for us: Crosses being 〈◊〉 in heaven, best fit the Sain●s backs; and 〈◊〉 must not lay them down till they and we 〈◊〉 down together.  
33. It was a notable saying of a human; 〈◊〉 hell, and 〈◊〉 heaven, yet I 〈◊〉 love and fear my God.  
34. It is not crying out upon the devil, 〈◊〉 declaiming against ●●m prayer or discou●● but fight with the devil, and mortifyi● our lusts, that God chief looks upon.  
35. The ●●●●ty professor disappoint 〈◊〉 at ●●ce 1. The world, who seeing th● 〈…〉 sin but finds none: 2. 〈◊〉 self wh● thinks to reach heaven, but fa●● 〈◊〉 of it.  
36. The only way for a distressed soul th● 〈…〉 on former comforts, by reaso● of future backslidings, and so questions 〈◊〉 this former evidences is To renew his repentance, as if he had never believed,  
37. Some are apt to think, if they are in such a family, under such a minister, out of such temptations, the devil would not meddle with them as he doth: But such should know, that so long as his old friend is alive within, he will be knocking at the door without.  
38. The s●ed were sown so deep in the nature of the devil, and the Saint, that they will never be rooted out till the devil cease to be a devil, and sin to be sin, and the Saint to be a Saint.  
39 The sinner is the devil's Miller, always grinding, and the devil is always filling the Hopper, that the Mill may not stand still.  
40. There be some sins that an ignorant person cannot commit; but there are far more that an ignorant person cannot but commit.  
41. There be five ●yes by which the God of heaven hath bound himself to be the Saint's Life guard against the powers of darkness: 1. His relation to them as a Father: 2. His love to them, in respect as they being the Birth of his everlasting counsel, are partakers of his own Likeness: 3. The price of His Son's Blood, and His Covenant with them: 4. Their dependence upon Him, and expectation from him in all their straits. Now the expectations of the poor shall not perish, Psal. 9.18. 5. Christ's present employment in heaven is to see all things carried fairly between God and them.  
42. Brown bread with the Gospel, is good fare.  
FINIS.