WHen I but seriously con­sider this besotted World, how (like a turbulent torrent) it is inundate with all sorts of execrable sinnes, a trembling horror vnties my bodies Liga­tures, my very knees beate to­gether; and I could vnfainedly wish my sinewie Structure to be transformed into a lumpe of Snow, that the ardor of my soules vexation might dissolue it into penitentiall teares. Do not men act sin with an auaritious appetite? Are not all varieties of abho­minations lifted to their verticke point? Is not Sa­than, that subtile Impostor, put to his Nil vltra in coyning them, so fast, as men would willingly put them in practise? Did Pride euer so strut it vpon the Tiptoes as now it doth? Doth not Sir Iaques-Scabd­hams [Page](sole heire to some driueling and gowty Vsu­rer, who to gaine one single deniere to the number of multiplication, would sucke Figges out of an As­ses fundament) bestow more on a paire of spangled Shoo-tyers, then some of our ancient Kings haue done of a whole garment? But ‘Olim haec meminisse, nocebit.’ Can the diuell out of his shop of Fashions, lay open more anticklike Formes then are forged on the An­vile of mans fantasticke Inuention? In Court, the Nobility are hardly distinguisht from their followers: in City, the Merchant is not known from his Factor: in Country, the Gentry cannot be descried or descri­bed from the Bacon-eating, brawny-handed Rustick: and in generall, the Body-publicke is so ore-spredde with the leprosie of that garish Strumpet, PRIDE, as there is scarse any difference betwixt Countesse and Curtezan, Lady and Chamber-maid, Mistresse and greasie Kitchin-wench, Gentleman and Mecha­nicke; as for Knight and Taylor, there goes but a paire of Sheares betwixt them. How many mispend and profusely lauish their forenoones houres in the curious pranking of their sinne-polluted bodies, but how few rescrue one poore brace of minutes where­in to prouide spirituall induments to house their na­ked sinfull soules? Neuer was that Apoththegme of old Bias the Philosopher more verified (Omnia mea mecum porto) then in these our franticke Times: most men carry their wealth about with them, (not as Bias did, in Learning and Vertue) but vpon their backes in gorgeous apparrell: women do so commonly so­phisticate [Page]their beauties, that one (though Linceus-sighted) can hardly iudge whether they possesse their owne faces or no: and which is more then most la­mentabl, euery snowy-headed Matron, euery tooth­lesse An abuse much com­plaind of by the Company of Painters. Mumpsimus, that one may see the sunne go to bed through the furrowes of her forehead, must haue her boxe of odoriferous pomatum, and glittering Stybium wherewithall to parget, white-lime, and complexionate her rumpled cheekes, till shee looke as smug as an handsome painted close-stoole or rot­ten post. But as for those that lap vp their bodyes in the pleasant mists of aromaticke perfumes, let them withall swallow the Poets pill:

Murther is accounted but Manly reuenge, & the de­sperate stabber cares no more to kill a man then to cracke a Flea. Vsury and Extortion are held Laudable vocations; Couetousnesse is styled Thrift; Luxurie and Whoredome are reputed but youthfull trickes. And as for Drunkennesse, why that's a tolerable recreation: do not men pursue it with such inordinat affection, that they oft neglect their functions, bid farewell to that domesticke care they ought to entertaine, dislodge that humane prouidence which should be shut vp in the cabinet of their reasonable part, and soly prosti­tute themselues to quotidian carowsing, till their breathes smell no sweeter then a Brewers Aperne? whilst their families are wrung and grip't in the clut­ches of Pouerty, lockt vp and imprisoned from those [Page]necessary supplements, which shoulde keepe both breath and body together at vnion. This is a wor­thy S. Gregory. Fathers opinion, That a manpossessed with a di­uell may be thought to be in a more hopefull state then a Drunkard: for albeit he be possessed, yet is it compulsiue­ly, and against his will; but the Drunkard wholly adopts and dedicates himselfe with all the powerfull faculties of his soule, voluntarily to the seruice of Sathan. S. Au­gustine likewise descries three fearefull properties in a Drunkard: S. Augustine. It confoundes Nature, (saith hee) loseth Grace, and consequently incurres Gods wrathfull indig­nation to be powred out vpon the embracer thereof.

Swearing and blaspheming Gods great and glo­rious name, is reckoned for a Moral vertue, the grace of Birth and Honor, the cognisance of an high-bred spi­rit. VVhat Christian can refrain (that hath any spark of diuine intellect in him) to vnsluce the flood-gates of his eyes, and let his melting heart gush through in teares, when in the streets he shal heare litle children scarse able to go, or speake to be vnderstood, volley forth most fearefull oathes, and vvith such procliui­ty, as if they had bin tutor'd in their mothers womb? whilst their parents standing by, offer not to checke them vvith so much as a sovvre reproofe, but seem­ing rather rather to solace themselues in their chil­drens sinnes, and delight in their owne damnations, like those who die of a Sardinian laughter. If the pe­nall Law of Ludouicus were put in practise, (who hea­ring one sweare, seared vp his lips with an hot yron) scarse ten in as many parishes, but would bee glad to be in league with the Apothecaries Lip-salue. How [Page]many miraculous iudgements hath God shot out against the blasphemers of his sacred Name? (whose instances would be too prolixious:) what sin can be more damnable, and yet what more practised? none can sooner plūge the soule into the implacable gulfe of perdition, and yet no sin (by intentiue indeauour) so easie to be cropt off, and weeded vp; for that it is no incidentall issue of natural corruption, but an ac­cidentall Monster ingendred of corrupted custome. A learned August. Father confesseth, That at euery other word, hee once vsed to sweare, but at length endea­uoring to locke vp the doore of his lips, to set watch before his tongue, imploring diuine assistance ther­in, and intreating moreouer his friends to smite him with the rod of reprehension; in forty daies, hee vt­terly lost the abusiue vse thereof: so that now (sayth hee) Nihil mihi facilius, quàm non iurare, Nothing is more easie vnto mee then not to sweare at all. French In­uentory. It is recorded, that Lewis the 7. King of France divulged an Edict, that whosoeuer was known to war against heauen with oathes, should bee branded in the fore­head as a Capitall offender: should not then euery Christian labor to set a watch before his mouth and keepe the doore of his lips, that no rebellious words salley forth against his Creator? if not for the fear of temporall Iustice, yet lest the God of Iustice should brand his soule with the dreadfull stigme of eternall damnation, which no salue can heale, Haliacmons floud wash out, nor length of time weare off.

O lamentable! when the Turkes and Ethnicks out­strip vs in their cloudy and ignorant zeale: they will dispute in the heart of their highest streetes about [Page]their Alcoran and Mahometish Religion, with holy in­tended deuotion: But what voice is heard in our streetes? Nought but the squeaking out of those Lasciui contus quibus Satyri gaudent. Achan var. [...]st. gen. [...], obscaene and light ligges, stuft with loath­some and vnheard-of Ribauldry, suckt from the poy­sonous dugs of Sinne-sweld Theaters; controuersall conferences about richest Beere, neatest Wine, or strongest Tobacco, wherein to drowne their soules, and draw meager diseases vppon their distempered bodies. Therefore let them bee patient, if I rippe vp their impostumd'd vlcers (as Erasm. A­pophthegm. Diogenes did the luxu­rious scape-thrifts) with the Poets Lancier:

And tell them moreouer, that by their nocturnall superfluities, and insatiable quaffings, they set but fe­thers in Times wings, and (as a woorthy home-bred Author saith) spur but the gallopping horse, hasten on their speedy deaths, and digge their own vntime­ly graues. More haue: recourse to Playing houses, then to Praying houses, where they set open their cares & eies to suck vp variety of abhominations, be­witching their minds with extrauagant thoughts, & benumbing their soules with insensibilitie, where by fin is become so customarie to them, as, That to sin, with them is deem'd no sinne at all; consonant to that Theologicall Maxime, Consuetude peceandi, tol­lit peccati sensum; and semblable to Pythager as his conceite of the sphaericall Harmony: Because (saith [Page]he) we euer heare it, we neuer heare it. I will not par­ticularize those Of [...] an vnsaucuty hea [...] be, in English cal­led Beets. Erasm. Apoph­thegm. Blite a dramata (as Laberius termes another sort) those Fortune-fatted fooles, and Times I deots, whose garbe is the Tooth-ache of witte, the Plague-sore of Iudgement, the Common-sewer of Obscaenities, and the very Traine-powder that dis­chargeth the roaring Meg (not Mol) of all scurrile villanies vpon the Cities face; who are faine to pro­duce blinde Garlicke. Impudence, to personate himselfe vpon their stage, behung with chaynes of Garlicke, as an Antidote against their owne infectious breaths, lest it should kill their Oyster-crying Audience. Or, Tu quo­que. Vos quoque, and you also, who with Scylla-barking, Sten­tor-throated bellowings, flashchoaking squibbes of absurd vanities into the nosthrils of your spectators; barbarously diuerting Nature, and defacing Gods owne image, by metamorphising humane Greenes Ba­boone. shape into bestiall forme.

Those also stand within the stroke of my penne, who were wont to Curtaine ouer their defects with knauish conueyances, and scum off the froth of all wanton vanity, to qualifie the eager appetite of their slapping Fauorites. In fine, these are the Maisters of those Mint-houses, wherein are coyned all kinds of Atheisticall prophanations: these are they, who by their wantonizing Stage-gestures, can ingle and seduce men to heaue vp their heartes and affections, as a voluntary sacrifice to that exulcerated Fiend The spirit of Lechery. Asmodeus, and all other abhominable Idoll-sinnes, obstinately alienating and tearing their selues and soules from the spirit of Grace; and by howe much [Page]more exact these are in their mimicke venerean ac­tion, by so much more highly are they seated in the Monster-headed Multitudes estimation: notwith­standing one might thus gleeke them, (as Diagenes did the fellow that exercised the Play called A foolish game vsed by louers, Erasin. Apoph­thegm. [...]) The better they doe, the more it is. Hee there­fore, who (by the assidual drinking vp the loathsome Lectures) with auaritious delectation whiffes down the muddy lees of their damnable doctrine, fals par into the pawes of the Poets tart invectiue:

These are they, whose exemplary lascinious subiect­matter, leaue behind it (like the snaile) a slimy trackt, in which many of their Sectaries insensibly post on so fast, till they plunge themselues praecipitate into the Charybdis of incuitable destruction, and contem­ned beggery. O then let the honest heart lay fast hold of the Poets counsell, who being hoode-winkt with the condensate and cloudy night of ignorance, could by naturall instinct discerne this light,

Could not the impetuous stormes bee quieted, the foaming billowes calmed, nor the ship preserued, [Page]till Ionas was hurl'd ouer-board? Then surely neither can Gods wrath be qualified, nor his pestilential ar­rows, which fly amongst vs by day, & lethally wound vs by night, be quiuer'd vp, till these Menstruous Bawdy Play­ers. Ragges be torne off (by the hand of Authority) from the Cities skirts, which so besoyle and coinquinate her whole vesture. The Primum mobile which giues motion to these vnder-turning wheeles of wicked­nesse, are (those mercenary Squitter-wits mis-called Poets, whose illiterate and picke-pocket Inuentions, can Emungere plebes argento, slily nip the bunges of the baser troopes, and cut the reputations throat of the more eminent rank of Cittizens with corroding scandals: these are they, who by dipping their Goose quils in the puddle of mischiefe, with wilde and vn­collected spirites make them desperately drunke, to strike at the head of Nobility, Authority, and high- sea­ted Greatnesse. And all this they doe, but onely to purchase the Fee-simple of a Long-lane Suite, to en­taile a Punke in some new-stript Peticoate, and to cancell the Tauern-bill for two Bacchanall Suppers: albeit, for the whole next-ensuing quarter, they bee faine to liue by the denariall lines drawne from the Center of an Essex Cheese; and be glad sneakingly to sucke vp the bottomes of gamesters leauings, or young Prodigals superfluities, (to whome they stick as fast as a kibe to a Boyes heele) as Flies doe in som­mer the drunkards spillings. Oh! how their teeth will stand wet-shodde at the presence of a brace of blacke Puddings? and think themselues as braue men as a new chosen Scauenger, if they be but prefer'd to [Page]the caruing vp of a two-penny Custard. With re­ucrence notwithstanding, must my petulant Muse stoope low to those wit-wonders of our age, whose Inuentions sphaere moues in a mystick orbe beyond the common Intellect. But without farther euasi­on, I will returne into the path of my intended pur­pose. Many set faire out-side colours vppon their profession of Religious honesty, but being strictly lookt into by the penetrating eye of Practise & Per­formance, proue seldome dyde in grayne. Some glit­ter like Gold in their conuersation, but put once to the touch, are found but counterfeit Alcamy: Others will needs seeme [...], a substantiall body, in integrity of life; but shaken and fisted with the hand of Triall, become but [...], an Anatomy of bones. To giue Almes is thought but a phantastick Ceremony, and to refresh the comfortlesse Lazarus, is deem'd but the maintenance of idle and exorbitant vagabonds. O where is Charity fled? Is shee not whipt and foysted out of great mens Kitchins, glad to keepe sanctuary in straw-cloathd Cottages? Are not larger beneuo­lences often distributed at the doore of one Russet­clad Farmer, then at ten mighty mens gates? The Magnifico's of this worlde reare vp sumptuous buil­dings onely for shew & ostentation; whiffing more smoake out of their Noses then their Chimneyes:& it begets more wonder to see them shake down their bounty into the poore mans lap, then to see a Court Lady vnpainted, or to finde an open-fisted Lawyer, that without a Vulgarly ter med bribe. New-yeares guift will faithfully pro­secute his Clients cause. Notwithstanding al this, [Page]so parcimonious are they in their domesticke proui­sion, that not a Rat of any good education, but scornes to keepe house with them. In those Gol­den Times of yore, Charity was the rich mans Idoll: for they did emulate each other, in supplying the widdowes wants, in comforting the orphans mise­ries, and in refreshing the trauellers wearines; and it was their earthly Sammum bonam to bee open hear­ted and handed to each hungry stranger; this In­scription commonly engraued vppon the front of their gates:

But in these our moderne dayes, they can cunningly transpose the poynt, and thus peruert the sense:

Doe not these Heauen-tempting Nimrods depopu­late & leuell with the ground whole Townes, crowd and iustle many honest and ancient Farmers out of their demesnes, deuastate their possessions, and ex­pose them, with their wiues, children, and families, to be Camerades with pale-fac't beggery? onely to lay the Basis of their Babell-out-brauing Pallaces, a­billimented with Punkish out-sides, to cheate the speedy-approaching traueller of his hungry hopes, as Zeuxis did the silly Birds with his liuely-limbed Grapes: and if they bee in-lined with quaint garni­shings, [Page]shings, and costly furniture, and beautified with curi­ous-pencild peeces, whereon thy eye may glut it selfe by gazing, yet perhappes mayst thou be Chap­falne for want of victuals. These glittering obiects are the Medusa's that inchant, the violent instigati­ons that spurre on young luxurious heires, to hurle out their angle to catch their Fathers liues, and lan­guishingly to long, till they see their mossie bearded Sires topple vp their heeles. Neuer could the Po­ets tristall song be better adapted, then to these our degenerate times: ‘ Ouid. Filius ante diem patries inquirit in anuos.’ And when their Fathers surrender vp their breathes to him from whome it was first diffused, then do they mourne (forsooth) though ceremonially, not for that they are dead, but because they dyed no sooner.

The premises preconsidered, what can bee ex­pected then but an imminent desolation, or conclu­siue dissolution of this foolish doting worlde, since vniuersally it is but an indigested Châos of outragi­ous enormities? Religion is made the Canopy to shroud the putrifaction of Hypocrisie; and its grown the highest Maxim in mundane policies, to seeme (not be) religions: equall-handed Iustice is rusht aside by stubborne Authority, and all morall Vertues, em­braced in their Contraries.

How long then (most milde, and more merci­full God) wilt thou forget to be iust? Oh, how long wilt thou shut vp the vesselles of thy wrath, and pro­tract [Page]reuenge? Art thou not the powerful God of Iustice? howe canst thou then bee any thing but thy selfe? what infinitnesse of sinnes are shot vp to hea­uen against thee? yet still, and still, thou wooest vs with the humble and heauenly breath of thy holy Gospell, vncouering those vnexpressible woundes thou receiuedst for our redemption, from sinne and Sathan, that we might with pittifull commiseration behold them: and vncessantly crying out vnto vs, How oft (O my deare childeren, whome I haue bought with the price of my most precious bloud) woulde I haue gathered you together, euen as an Henne doth her Chic­kins, and yet, nor yet, will you be collected? How oft hath he thundred and knockt at the doores of our hearts with the power of his spirit, to wake vs from the pro­found Ecstasin of Soule-killing sinnes, yet still lye wee snorting on the bed of Security, and cannot be rowzed? How often, O how often, hath hee out­stretched his all-sauing hand, to heaue and helpe vs out of the slimy mud of our impieties, yet still lye we groueling and orewhelm'd in the insensible Lethar­gie of abhominable transgressions? How many war­ning-peeces hath hee discharg'd vppon vs? how oft hath he displayed his Milke-white Ensigne of Peace vnto vs? what deuouring Plagues, what Fires, what Inundations, what vnseasonable Seasons, what pro­digious Births, what vnnaturall Meteors, what ma­leuolent Coniunctions, what ominous Appariti­ons, what bloudy assassinations of mighty Kings, what Rapes, what Murthers, what fraudulencies be­twixt Brother and Brother? what horrible Conspi­racies [Page]by Sonnes against Fathers; all these sent as Heralds to denounce Gods iust Iudgements against vs, yet will we not come in and be reconciled.

These prodigious precursions, or precursiue pro­digies, should deterre each humane creature from spurning against his Creator; these premonitions should instruct vs, that Gods dreadfull vengeance waites at our doores, and like a staru'd Tygar gapes for our destruction; and notwithstanding he do for a while fore-slow to let fall his flaming rod of fierie indignation vpon vs, yet is the axe already layde to the roote of the tree, and God must and wil assured­ly come to iudgement, seeing that nowe, not any of those ancient predictions, mystically poynted out vnto vs in the Soule-sauing WRIT, by the holy Prophets, remayne vnfinished, but only the finall de­struction of that Romish seuen headed Monster, to­gether with the recollection of the vagabundiall lewes into the sheepe-fold of Iesus Christ.

Doth not an vncouth terrour seize vpon a man, when in the depth or noone of night this sudden & vnthought-of out-cry of Fire, Fire, shall fill his af­frighted eares, and chase him out of his soft and qui­et slumbers; whereat, skipping from his easefull bed, and distractedly gazing through the casement, shall behold his owne house ore-spred with a bright-but­ning flame, & himselfe, together with his wife, chil­dren, seruants, goods, and all, most lyable to the de­uouring rapacity of imminent danger? O consider then thou wicked man, how thy soule will be belea­guer'd with anguish & horror, when in that last and [Page]terrible Day, thou shalt behold with thy mortall eies the Cataracts of Heauen vnsluc'd, & hushing sho­wers of sulphurious fires disperse thēselues through all the corners of the earth and ayre, the whole Vni­uerse ore-canoped with a remorcelesse flame: when thou shalt see the worldes great and glorious Iudge appeare triumphantly in the skies, whilest mighty winged clouds of deuouring flames flye before him, as vshers to his powerfull and terrible Maiesty; at­tended with countlesse multitudes of beauteous An­gelles, golden-winged Cherubims and Seraphims sounding their Trumpets, whose clamorous toungs shall affright the empty ayre, and call and awake the drowsie dead from their darke and dusky Cabines: when thou shalt see the dissipated bones of all Mor­tals since the Creation (concatenate & knit in their proper and peculiar forme) amazedly start vp, and in numberlesse troupes flocke together, all turning vp their wondring eyes to gaze vppon their high and mighty Creator. Then, ô then will thy Conscience recommemorate afresh thy past-committed sinnes, & with the corroding sting of guilt wil stab through thy perplexed soule; then, ô then will it be too late to wish the mountaines to fall vpon thee; for they themselues for feare would shrinke into their cen­ter: alas, it cannot then bee auaileable to wooe the waters to swallow thee; for they would bee glad to disclaime their liquid substance and be reduced to a nullity: what will it boote thee then, to intreate the earth to entombe thee in her dankish wombe, when she her selfe will struggle to remoue from her locall [Page]residence, and to flye from the presence of the great Iudge: the ayre cannot muffle thee in her foggy va­stiry, for that will bee clearely refin'd with celestiall flames, before contaminated with humane polluti­on. In fine, how will thy soule tremblingly howle out, and break forth into bitter exclamations, when thou shalt heare that definitiue, or rather infinitiue sentence denounced against thee, Non noui, diseede, ito in Gehennam, I know thee not, depart, and goe in­to euerlasting torment; whilest Legions of deuils with horride vociferations muster about thee, like croking Rauens about some dead carkasse, wayting to carry thee. O then thou Vsurer, and thou that grindest the Faces of the pore, thy gold cannot ran­some thee: then, thou mighty man that wrackest the widdow, and circumuents the orphan of his succes­siue right, thy honour cannot priuiledge thee: then thou murtherer, adulterer, and blasphemer, thy co­lourable excuses will not purge thee: then, ô thou vncharitable churle who neuer knewest, that Nil di­ues habet de diuitijs, nisi quod ab illo postulat pauper, A rich man treafures vp no more of his riches, then that hee contributes in almes: thou, that neuer im­bracedst the counsel of that reuerend Ambrose. Father, who cryes, Pasce fame morientem: quisquis pascendo serua­re poteris: si non paucris, fame occidisti: Feed him that dyes for hunger, whosoeuer thou art that canst pre­serue and wilt not, thou standest guilty of famishing: then I say, in that day shalt thou pine in perdition: then, ô thou luxurious Epicure, that through the fiue senses, which are the Cinque-ports, or rather sinne­ports [Page]of thy soule, gulpest downe delightfull sinne, like water, they will be to thee like the Angels booke, sweet in thy mouth, but bitter in thy bowels: then, ô thou (gorbellied Mammonist) that piles vp and con­gesteth huge masses of refulgent earth, purchased by all vnconscionable courses, yet cariest nothing with thee, Nisiparna quod vrna capit, but a Coffin and a Winding-sheet; thy faire pretences will bee like characters drawne vpon the sands, or arrowes shot vp to heauen-ward, they cannot release thee from Satans inexpiable seruitude: Then, ô thou Canker­worme of Common-wealths, thou monster of man, thou that puttest out the eye of Iustice with bribes, or so closely shuts it, that the clamorous cry of the poore mans case cannot open it; thou that makest the Lawe a nose of waxe to turne and fashion it to thine owne priuate end, to the vtter disgrace of con­scionable Iustice, and to the lamentable subuersion of many an honest and vpright cause, thy quirkes, di­latorie demurres, conueyances and conniuences cannot acquit thee: but thou shalt bee remooued with the Writ Corpus cum causa, into the lowest and darkest dungcon of damnation. No, no, the Lord of hea­uen and earth (who is good in infinitnesse, and infi­nit in goodnesse) will winnow, garble, and sanne his corne, the choyce wheate hee will treasure vp in the garners of eternall felicity, but the chaffe and darnell must be burnt with vnquenchable fire: There must you languish in torments vnrelaxable: there must you frie and fieeze in one selfe-furnace: there must you liue in implacable and tenebrous fire which (as [Page] August. de ciu. t [...]dei. Austin defines) shall giue no light to comfort you. Then will you wish (though then too late) that you had beene created loathsome Toades, or abhorred Serpents, that your miseries might haue clos'd vp with your liues: but you must be dying perpetually, yet neuer dye; and (which enuirons mee with a trembling terror) when you haue languisht in vnex­pressible agonies, tortures, gnashings, and horrid howlings ten thousand millions of yeares, yet shall you be as far from the end of your torments, as you were at the beginning. A confused modell & mi­sty figure of hell haue wee conglomerate in our fan­cy, drowsily dreaming that it is a place vnder earth, vncessātly (Aetna-like) vomiting sulphurious flames, but we neuer pursue the meditation thereof so close as to consider what a thing it is to liue there eternal­ly: for this adiunct Eternall intimates such infinite­nesse, as neither thought can attract or supposition apprehend:and further to amplifie it with the words of a woorthy writer: Though all the men that euer haue or shal be created, were ( Briareus like) hundred-handed, and shoulde all at once take pennes in their hundred hands, and should doe nothing else in ten hundred thousand millions of yeares but summe vp in figures as many hundred thousand millions as they could, yet neuer could they reduce to a totall, or confine within number, this tri-sillabled word E­ternall.

Can any Christian then (vpon due considerati­on hereof) forbeare to prostrate himselfe with flexi­ble humility before the glorious throne of grace, & [Page]there with flouds of vnfained teares, repentantly ab­iure and disclaime the allurements of carnal corrup­tion, the painted pleasures of the world, and the bit­ter-sweetnesse of sinne, which is the deaths-wound of his soule: for Peccatum in animo, quasi vulnus in corpore, a weapon wounds the body, and sinne the soule: for what profits it a man to winne the whole worlde, and loose his owne soule: The soundest me­thod therefore to preuent our exclusion from the throne of Gods mercy is to imagine we still see him in his Iustice present, whatsoeuer or whensoeuer we intend or attempt any blacke deseigne; let vs but ad­umbragiously fancy (as one hath it) the firmament to be his face, the all-seeing Sunne his right eye, the Moone his left, the winds the breath of his Nostrels, the Lightning and Tempests, the troubled action of his ire, the Frost and Snow his frownes, that the hea­uen is his Throne, the earth his Foot-stoole; that he is all in all things, that his omnipresence filles all the vacuities of heauen, earth, and sea: that by his power hee can vngirdle and let loose the seas impetuous waues, to ore-whelme and bury this lower Vniuerse in their vast wombes in a moment: that hee can let drop the blew Canopy (which hath nothing aboue it whereto it is perpendicularly knit) or hurle thun­der-bolts through the tumerous cloudes, to pash vs praecipitate through the center into the lowest dun­geon of hell. These allusiue cogitations of Gods omnipotent maiesty wil curb in and snafflle vs from rushing into damnable actions, if we vnremouably seate them in our memories.

Make then a couenant with thine eies and heart ô man, least they doate on earthly drosse, surfet on the sugred pils of poysonous vanities, and so insensi­bly hurle downe thy better part into the gulph of ir­reuocable damnation: if not for thy selfe sake, yet iniure not thy Creator, who hath drawne thee by his owne [...], or Patterne, moulded thee in his owne forme, and to make thee eternally happy, hath infus'd his own essence into thee. For thy Soule (by the Aristotle. Philosophers confession) is [...], an Infusion Celestiall, no Natural traduction: and in that respect, Philo. another calles it Coeli apopasma, an arrach­ment, or cantell puld from the Celestiall substance, which cannot terminate it selfe within a lumpe of flesh; euen as the beames of the Sun, though they touch the earth, and giue life to these inferior crea­tures, yet still reside in the body of the Sun, whence they are darted: so thy Soule, though it be seated ei­ther within the filme of the brain, or confined in the center of the heart, and conuerseth with the Senses: yet, Haeret origini suae, (sayeth Seneca. one) It will still there haue being, whence it hath its beginning.

Remember then thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth; call vpon him, while it is called to day, opor­tunely: for as the Poet no lesse sweetly, then discreet­ly sung:

Who knowes ore-night, that he next morne shall breath?

Then take Dauids Manè, early in the morne, not the deuils Mane, stay till to morrow: for thou knowest hee will bring thee to iudgement, yet thou knowest not when, nor in what yeare, nor in what moneth of the yeare, nor in what weeke of the moneth, nor in what day of the weeke, nor in what houre of the day, nor in what minute of the houre, nor in what mo­ment of that minute: for hee will come Sicut fur in nocte, like a theefe in the night, suddenly, before with a winke thou canst locke vp thine eie, or in thy brain create the nimblest thought. Canst thou then hope to stand iustified in thy Makers presence, when thou hast cram'd the diuell with thy sap of strength, and full-gorg'd him with the purest acorne-mast of thy sinowey virility, if at last thou come limping on Times tottering crouches, to present vnto him the offall, huskes, and morosity of thy doating decrepite age? What thank it is to pardon our enemies when we cannot hurt them? to giue away our goods whē we can enioy them no longer? to abandon our plea­sures, when we cannot vse them? to forsake sin, when it bids farewell to vs? and at last only to surcease to offend, when ability of offending is taken from vs? No, no, he will then paralell thee with the sluggard, that neuer wold acquire food till he was first staru'd, and ranke thee with the sottish Ideot, that could not learn to know a fish, till he was already stung with a Scorpion: thy palsey-shaken praiers wil be like Cains oblation, vnacceptable to the Lord and noysome to his nosthrils. Thinkst thou to expiate Gods Iustice when thou hast prodigally sweal'd out the blazing [Page]lampe of thy brightest daies in the diuels Chappel, if at last thou come creeping (when thy breath lyes twinkling in the socket of thy nosthrilles) to set it vp in Gods Sanctuary, hoping then and there to hane it replenisht with his all-sauing Grace and Mercy? O mocke not thy soule with these deluding Phan­tasma's: for as Plut. in. vit. Alex. Alexander seeing one of his souldi­ers whetting his dart, when others his fellowes went forth to fight, cashierd him, saying, Inutilis acte, qui pararet arma tune cum [...]s vtendum, he's vnfit to beare armes that ha's them to make ready when he should skirmish: so will God send thee packing (as he did the foolish virgins) with this retorsion; Thou comst disfurnisht with no oyle in thy lampe, and thou de­sern'st no mercy, that neuer desirdst it till now in mi­sery.

Gather thy selfe betimes then, within the wea­pons of Faith, Hope, Charity, Repentance, and Per­seuerance, and let Prayer stand perpetuall Sentinel: for if the diuell once get footing within thee, he will hardly bee eiected, so wily is hee in peruenting thee, that thou canst not bee too wary in preuenting him. For as Plutark. Iphicrates answered his Generall (who asked him, why hee surrounded his souldiours with a wall, when there was no feare of foe-mens approach) A­bundans cautela non nocet, A man cannot be too pro­uident in preuenting obuious and occurrent dan­gers: so canst thou not be too cautelous in repelling the perillous stratagems of the diuels assaults; there­fore may I close vp the precedencie, with that wor­thy saving of a more worthy Owen. Epigr. Epigrammatist, [Page]

O cleanse and purifie thy heart then by earnest prayer and powerfull eiaculations, which is made the loathsome cage of sinne, the silent receptacle of all diabolicall cogitations, and the dismall dungeon of malignant motions; that the Spirit of grace may there finde harbour, and take delight to be thy In­mate. Remember, ô thou mighty man, that swel­ling titles of Honor are but folia vanitatis, the leaues of vanity, a Gnathonicall puffe, and a blast of the chaps: Remember, ô thou rich man, that terrene & transitory pleasures are like the Bee, though they yeeld hony, yet carry they a sting, and are but Lilia terrae, more delectable in shew, then durable incon­tinuance: Remember, ô thou Extortioner, thou cruell man, thou murtherer, thou adulterer, thou de­ceitfull man, thou that vnconscionably detainest the hirelings wages, and thou that actest inexorable vil­lanies secretly in the darlie, imprisoned from the worldes dull eye; that if the Eagle can discerne, Sub frutice Leporem, sub fluctibus piscem (as Augustm. one hath it) the Hare vnder the bush ^o, and the Fish vnder the waues; much more can God, who is the Creator of creatures, penetrate the closet of thy hart with his all-seeing eye, and discerne thy clandestine sinnefull practises, before, and in their very conception, and for them he will bring thee to iudgement. Remem­ber, ô thou that swayst the sword of Iustice, to strike [Page]or saue, as thou art suggested by thine owne endes, profites, or affections, that though thy couert pro­iects bee not envulgar'd to the worlds generall eye, yet a day of Reuelation will come, that Nihil occul­tum quod non reuelabitur, when all thy partiall and priuate practises shall bee stript, euiscerate and laide as apparantly open, as the Sheepe vppon the gam­brell. But now with reuerence, and Doue-like hu­mility, to you (which are Iehouahs Embassadors, the Light of the world, and Salt of the earth,) doe I ad­dresse my speech, mustred vp in the meanest & mil­dest ranke of words: O I could wish, that all of you stood without the list of that reprehension of vices, which once an ancient and honest Guil. Malm. de Pont ficibus. Historian twit­ted the Monkes of Canterbury with: Monachi Cantu­artenses (saith he) secularibus haud absimiles erant, ca­num cursibus auocari: aui [...]m praedam raptu aliorumque valucrum per mane sequi: spumantis equi tergum pre­mere: tesser as quatere, &c. Some rise earely in the morning to see their hounds pursue the prey, but not to pray: some delight to catch foules, but not soules: some take pleasure to cast a Dye wel, but not cast to die well. Doth the wilde Asse bray, saith Iob, when he hath grasse, or loweth the Oxe when he hath fod­der? but I dare not say, no more doe some of you preach when you haue once got a Benefice. If there bee any that entertaine Religion with their Lord, preach the praise of their Patrons; Preachers in the Pulpits, chatters in their chambers, suiting their lin­sey-woolsey professions with their seuerall ends; O let those remember how God met with a mischiefe [Page]that notorious Cassiodorus, lib 12. cap. 4. Nicephoru [...]. lib. 14. cap. 31. Nestorius, who, for his tempori­zing inconstancie set wormes a worke to eat out his tongue: O let them looke into the story of one He­cebolus a Socrat. Tri­partit. l [...]b. cap. 38. Sophister, who accommodating his pro­fession to the fashions of the Emperors, fained him­selfe in the dayes of Constantius, to bee a most fer­uent Christian; But when Iulian the Apostata was ruler, presently hee turn'd Paynime, and in his orati­ons proclaim'd Iulian a God; and when Iulian was dead, in Iouinians time, hee would haue turn'd backe to Christianity; whereupon, for his mutability and lightnes in his Religion, his horrid conscience draue him to the Church gates, & there hurling himselfe flat, cried and bellowed with a lowd voice, Conculca­te me sal infatuatum; trample mee vnder your feete, vnsauoury salt that I am, entirely wishing out of his soules agony, that he had neuer seene the light, or [...]t his Conception his tongue had beene riuetted to the roofe of his mouth.

Lastly, and indefinitly to all, remember so to liue, as you stil may be prepar'd for the stab of death: then will you desire to sing your Requiem, and Quo­usque Demine? longing to be dissolued and to sleepe in peace, reclusiuely from the turbulent sea of earthy carefull miseries; discerning clearely by the spiritual eye of vnderstanding, that mans life is a wayfare, and a warfare; a wayfare, because it is short, and a warre­fare, for that it is sharpe; and that worldly delightes are deceitefull, and of no durability; like the water­serpent ^d Ephemeron, simu [...] oritur, moritur, no sooner [Page]bred, but dead: collecting likewise out of humane experience, that the best life, is but a weary and tedi­ous pilgrimage, and feeles no touch of true solace, till at the euening of his dayes, he lodge at the Inne of death; for Death is the path to Life, a Gaole-de­liuery of the Soule, a perfect health, the hauen of heauen, the finall victory of terrestriall troubles, an eternall sleepe, a dissolution of the body, a terror to the rich, a desire of the poore, a pilgrimage vncer­taine, a theefe of men, a shadow of life, a rest from trauell, an epilogue to vaine delight, a consumpti­on of idle desires, a scourge for euill, a guerdon for good; it disburdens vs of all care, vnmannicles and frees vs from vexation, solicitude, & sorrow. Of all those numberlesse numbers that are dead, neuer any one returned to complaine of Death, but of those few that liue, most complaine of Life: on earth Ne­mo suâ sorte contētus, euery man grumbles at his best estate. The very Elements whereby our Ens (as the secondarie cause) is preseru'd, conspire against vs: the fire burnes vs, the water drowns vs, the earth an­noyes vs, and the aire infects vs: our daies are labo­rious, our nights comfortlesse: the heate scorcheth vs, the cold benumbs vs: health swels vs with Pride, sicknes empaleth our beauties; friends turne Swal­lowes, they will sing with vs in the Sommer of pro­sperity, out in the Winter of trial, they wil take wing and bee gone: Enemies brand our reputations with deprauing imputations; and the enuious man hur­leth abroad his grins to ensnare our liues: who wold then desire to liue where there is nothing that be­gets [Page]content? For this world is a Theater of vani­ties, a Chaos of confusions, an Embassadour of mis­chiefe, a tyrant to vertue, a breaker of peace, a fauo­rite of warre, a sweet of vices, a coyner of lyes, an an­uile of Nouelties, a table of Epicurisme, a furnace of lust, a pitte fall to the rich, a burthen to the poore, a Cell of Pilgrims, a denne of Theeues, a calumniator of the good, a renowner of the wicked, a cunning impostor, and a deceiuer of all.

How is the progresse of poore-proud-mans life violently agitated (like the riuer Eurypus) with con­trarious motions? The pleasure of the wily world thus inueagles him, Veni ad me, ego reficiam, Come vnto me and I will drowne thee in delight: the cor­ruption of the luxurious flesh thus ingles him, Veni ad me, ego inficiam, Come vnto mee, and I will infect thee, the diuell hee whispers this in his eare, veni ad me, ego decipiam, Come vnto mee, and I will cheate and deceiue thee: but our sweet and sacred Sauiour Iesus Christ, with perswasiue inducements, thus in­treates him, Veni [...] ad me, ego retipiam, Come vnto me (I pray thee) that are heauy laden, and I will receiue, and exonerate thee, and with the mighty arme of my mercy and compassion, lift off that in­supportable loade, which crusheth downe to hel thy groaning soule.

Study then to liue, as dead to the world, that thou­maist liue with God: for the iust man is saide, nun­quam, sed post mortem viuere, neuer to liue till after death. Indeauor thy selfe to march faire through this worlds labyrinth: not to squander and looke a­squint [Page]vppon the Cyrcean allurements thereof: but without turning either to the right or left hand, run straight on in that Eclipiticke line, which will con­duct thee to that Celestiall Ierusalem, where (with that immaculate Lambe Christ Iesus) thou shalt en­ioy, pleasure without paine, wealth without want, rest without labour, ioy without griefe, and immen­siue felicity without end. Therefore I will bind vp the premises with this conclusiue exhorta­tion of the Apostles, Repent, and amend your lines, Math. 4.17. for the King­dome of God is at hand.