IT is reported of Doctor Ridley, a faith-sealing Martyr, that the onely way to make him a mans friend, was to doe him an ill turne, at least this was the way to gaine his prayers. Parallel to his practise was the Counsell, that M. Omstead lately (a zealous Preacher in Ireland) gave to one that complained of some emulating sneaks, or snakes of his owne Tribe, who had stung him by detraction, and bit him with a dogged and Theonine tooth, that if he might advise him in this case, he should present­ly goe to the Throne of Grace and powre out his soule in prayer for him, as David put on sackcloth and mourned for his enemies, even such as Saul Doeg and Achitophel; and this is all the revenge he would take on them, as the best way withall to doe himselfe good, since to do evill for evill, this was Paganish and Brutish, one Dog, Wolfe and Fox tearing and de­vouring another: to doe good for good was carnall and naturall, manus manum fricat, & mulus scabit mulum, one hand rubs another, one scabb'd mule knaps another, one good turne requires and requites another; to doe evill for good, as Judas did to Christ, and Laffin the false friend to his Pa­tron the French Byron, and as some Favorites and Traytors to their Kings, bringing downe like Elder trees the walls in and by which they grew, as the Cuckow teares the kind hedge Sparrow who bred her and fed her, this is vile and viperous, yea diabolicall; but to good for evill, and to overcome evill with good, Rom. 12.21. this is truly Angelicall, the highest pitch of Christianity, sympathizing with Abraham, who prayed for Abi­melech that would have wronged him in his wife, Gen. 20. with the Prophet whose prayer restored that withered hand of Jeroboams, which was stretch­ed out against him, 1 King. 13. with Paul and Silas who improved their best to save the soule of that cruell Jailor, who whipped and abused their bodies, Act. 16. yea to Christ himselfe, who healed the eare of Malchus, one of his riotous and rigorous apprehenders, Joh. 18.10. and in this case of retaliating or remitting injuries, as Julius Caesar and Pyrrhus the Epirote, and many more which might be historified, gained friends from foes, chief­ly the two Scipioes, Asian and African, so I would have it seriously poized, that as patience is the most heroick fortitude, overcoming a mans selfe [Page 2]more then others, as fortius est qui se, quàm qui fortissima vincit, so impa­tiency is the greatest follie, yea a madnesse fit to be whipped in Bedlam; for a man not to take his crosse quietly, and to bear it with Simon Cyreneus after Christ, but to make his Crosse heavier by his owne fretting, and fu­stian fuming then it is in it own nature, as Thales his Asse made her burden of wool heavier by laying her selfe downe with it in the water, as before she had melted her load of salt lighter by the like posture, as if a man should give me a box on the one eare, I should give my selfe a box on the other, or lay another load on my right shoulder, because a heavy burden is imposed on my left; impatiency being such a salve for every fore, as soute, inke and tarre is to the washing of a foule face to make it seem faire, or as the cutting of the thumb or the toe is medicineable to the curing of the Gout.

But if by patience and penitence thou live like some fire-flies called Pyruustae, in brazen furnaces, in the heat of most scorching crosses, and come out of them as gold out of the fire more pure, with the drosse and tin of thy hereditary corruptions more purged by the spirit of fire and of burning, Esa. 4. then thy most intestine and inveterate foes must doe thee good whether they will or no, even sore against their wills; like that Ro­man, who resolving to kill his enemie in a Duell, by running his sword into his brest, so cured him of an Impostume which he broke, that he made him a sounder man then ever he was; as it is said of a bone, that after breaking is soundly knit, proves stronger then it was before; to this purpose of get­ting summer fruits from tempestuous and winter foes, (as Virgil gathered gold from Ennius his drosse, as Plato had a curb for his pride, by Diogenes trampling on his bed with greater pride, and as from the very oyle of Scorpions the Italians are said to reserve Antidotes against the stinging of Scorpions, and Surgeons to cure the bitings of mad Dogs, from the very livers of the said dead Dogs,) so I heard of a patient and religious Gentle­man, that being unequally yoaked and pestered with a wife, little better then Moses his Zepporah, Socrates his Xantippe, or Jobs wife, (thought to be Dinah,) as soon as ever her waspish and aspish spirit was so conjured up, that she gave him his broth all scalding hot, and scorched him with her tongues wild-fire, immediately he fled from her as from a Snake, and reti­red himselfe into a wood or solitary grove, where in his devout soliloquies he powred out his soule unto God in mentall and ejaculatory prayer; in this and the like patterns of imitation and vertuous emulation, quod cui­quam id cuivis, it is easie for any man in the like cases or crosses, inriched with the like graces of prayer, patience, and penitence, to gather the like figs from thistles, the like roses of sweet refections from the briers, bram­bles, [Page 3]and nettles of the like afflictions, the like golden fruits from the like crosse and cankred foes, more precious then any historified or poetized fruits in the Gardens of Adonis, or the Orchards of the Hesperides, kept so strictly by waking Dragons, or Gryphins, oh fortunati nimium si sua bona norint, happy are the patient in what kind soever passive, all the waves that bluster against this rocke of patience, more excellent then all the white cliffie rocks in our Albion besides, however impetuous in these tumultu­ous and tossing times, they doe but dash themselves to some and froth, and wash it whiter, as the accusations of Potyphars wife, Phedra and the goatish Judges did the innocency of Joseph of Hippolitus and Susanna; the raging waves indeed, and wraths of Tyrants, and hell-hatched Hereticks may bluster against the out-side of the Church built on Christ the true Rock, as the stormes beat against the out-walls of a house, a Pallace, or a Temple, but they disturb not nor distract not the Inhabitants or Sojour­ners within; the insides of Rocks are not penetrated by the most roaring and surging seas, enemies indeed like serpents and toads, and ravenous beasts, may manducare terram, lick this dust of ours, feed as wolves on Carrion, on our outward mould, our terrestriall part; but ultra alam for­tunae, they hurt our soules no more (if sanctified, anchored, and setled in our present Fluctuations) then a sword or a speare doth a spirit or an An­gell, or the chop of an axe the beames of the Sun which shine upon a blocke; now what great hurt is there in the cracking of a shell, and the saving of the kernell, in the losse of a rotten purse, (emblemes of our bo­dies) the soul, like pure gold being reserved and preserved safe.

When Zuinglius that zealous Belgick Light, received his deaths wound in the wars of the Quinque Pagi about Religion, his last words (as his ultimum vale) to the world were these, Corpus occidi potest animam occidere non possunt, my enemies can kill my body, but they cannot kill the soule, this divinae, par­ticula aurae, this celestiall heavenly infused soule, as it is immateriall, so it is no more penetrable by any terrestriall weapons then the Sun, the Moon, the Planets and the Angells and Intelligences which more them, this soule is extra alam, beyond the power of Tyranny and Cruelty, a note above the Ela of humane hostilitie, tunde Anaxarchi Vasculum Anaxarchum non laedis, a Phalaris a Busiris, an Anacreon may knock in pieces the out-vessell, the out-cask, the out-cabinet, the out-cage of the body, the continent of the soule: but the soule it selfe which is in a manner totum hominis the whole man or the best of man, this inward wine they cannot tilt, this in­closed Pearle of Pearles (better worth then a world) they cannot plunder, this Phoenix, this bird of Paradise, they cannot kill; though the lightning which we see, and the thunder that we heare breaking the inclosed clouds, [Page 4]chiefly the condensate bolt oft breake the bones and the mettled sword without any great signalls on the flesh or the scabberd, according to Aristo­tle and Seneca, yet when truculent Tyrants speak lapides & fulmina, stones and fire-bolts, and lighten and thunder, as Jezabel once against Elias, Eu­doxia that second Herodias against S. Chrisostome, Innocent or Nocent the third against the Emperour Otho, Innocent the fourth against Fredericke, Gre­gory the second against Leo Isaurus, Zacharias against the French Childe­ricke, Pius (or Impius) Quintus against Queen Elizabeth; yet these Bruta Fulmina, as the French Authour derides them, See the Booke called Bru­tum Fulmen. and our Rof­fensis Adversus Bellarminum, pag. 944. & pag. 974., these roaring Bulls of Basan, these squibs and fire-workes, how ere like Davusses or Devills, they disturbed the peace of their States and Kingdomes, as their Incendiaries and Fire-brands the Jesuits, have set all in a Phaetonian confusion in Moravia, Helvetia, Silesia, Au­stria, France, England, and Ireland: yet they wrought and brought no more prejudice to sanctified soules then the curses of the Witch Balaam to Gods owne Israelites, Numb. 23.19, 20. Hence it was a wise Consolatory speech of Augustus Caesar to his daughters Livia and Julia, telling him that all the people of Rome spoke evill of them, he thanking his Gods, that though they spoke evill of them, yet it was not in their power to doe them any evill, Apud Plutarchum. and therefore wished them to suffer free speech in a free Citie, which free speech all the wit and worth of man, yea of Inno­cency it selfe, can no more curb in malignant minds and mouthes, then they can stay the winds, or stint the waves, or shackle the Hellespont, or do such impossible things, as once Xerxes and Canutus attempted, since Lions have been tamed, and Elephants in the warres of King Porus and Pyrrhus, Otters have been tamed like Water-Spaniels, Ravens have been tamed and lured as Hawks, Wolves and Foxes, wild and vild Dogs, have been tamed as houshold Curres, Quoy-ducks have been ta­med to deceive the tame; so Storks, Cranes, Crowes Ave Caesar., Po­pinjayes, all kind of birds, and some kinds of Serpents and Fishes See instan­ces in Corne­lins de Lapi de in cap. 3. Jacobi.; but the tongue-like Panthers and Field-mice is in­domable without the help of Mors and Morpheus, death and deadly sleep: Angells men and Devills cannot tame it, the wild fire in it kindled from hell, Jam. 3.6. like the coales of Juniper, yea like hell-fire it selfe unquenchable: the Inno­cencie of an Elias counted a troubler of Israel, 1 King. 18.17. of Paul held a factious fellow, Act. 24.5. of Joseph of Hippolitus the [Page 5]Paganish Joseph; of Susanna, of Abner, of Eugenius, accu­sed of incontinency, of Athanasius called Sathanasius, and taxed as a Murtherer Apud Cen­tur. Magde­burg passim. of Cato and Scipio, oft produced and traduced before the Romane Senate: of S. Jerome, branded by the Priests of Rome Of which he complains in many E­pistles. for his holy and honest conversing with Paula, Paulina, Eustochium, Demetriades and other chast Matrons and Maids, yea the purity of Christ himselfe conver­sing with Publicans and Sinners (as the Sun shines upon Quagmires and rotten Bogs without any contamination) could cause none of these to escape the aspersions and calumnies of scan­dalizing tongues, no more then the Sun and the Moon can muzzle the barkings of some dogs against their lusterous shines, as Doegs and emula­lating Momists and Zoilists still will bark, invita Minerva, against shining gifts and graces, and places amongst Arts and Armes, yet as we have a greater and more certaine tutelary God, then Augustus had, we may con­dignely thanke this God, that though in unbloudy persecutions we daily heare the mocks of Romish Michols, 2 Sam. 6.20. the railing of Atheisticall and Papisticall Rabshakehs, 2 King. 19.22. the flouts of rejected Ismaels, Gen. 21.9. the curses of Sathanicall Shemcis, 2 Sam. 16. the scoffes of malig­nant Tobiahs, Nehem. 4.3. and Sanballats, all haters of God, of the godly and of all goodnesse, all opposers, Remoraes and obstacles of Religion and Reformation, all as intestine enemies to all of the house of David, Zech. 12.8.9. all Ezekiasses, Ezraes and Nehemiahs, who would rebuild and purge our polluted Temples, as ever Hanniball was unto the Romanes a sworne Antagonist; or Haman the cursed Amalekite to Esther, Mardocheus and all the religious Jewes, yet Gratias superis, God be praised, these whelps of Cerberus, though they barke and shew their tongues and their teeth, they cannot bite further then God pleases to unchaine them and un­muzzle them, and set them upon us, for our playing the pranks of wild Heifers and indomable Bullocks, breaking over the hedges of all comman­ded and limited obedience into forbidden pastures, as David in his Adulte­ry, 2 Sam. 11.9. and Solomon in his uxorious Idolatry, for which God set Absalom, Semei, Sheba and Ammon against the one, 2 Sam. 16. & 13. & cap. 20. and Rezon and Iereboam 1 King. 11.23. & v. 26. against the other, all the Organs of evill to Sion, all the Factors and Agents for Antichrist, for the Scarlet Whore, for the Prince of darknesse, chiefly in their unlawfull, lustfull, and unlimited warres against the Saints, all and every one of them are under the power and command of the King of Sion, the Father of the Saints, he hath all the malignant powers, plots and policies of earth and hell, even Witches, Conjurers, and infernall spirits themselves, all the sor­cering [Page 6]Sorcering Masse-Priests and Friers of the Romish Hierarchie, and all the I­rish Nigromanticks at this day, the Lord of Hosts hath them all as Wolves and Dogs in their chaines, as Lions in their grates, as roaring Bulls at their stakes, and Bears at their rings, he keeps them all in as Seas and rivers with­in their banks and bounds, or lets them out as in the inundations in Duca­lions time, and in Noahs flood; he hath all created powers as staves in his owne hands, as arrowes in his owne quiver, as David his stones in his sting, to keep in or imploy at his pleasure: he being the true Aeolus who hath all the winds in a bag, all the waves in a bank, all the wicked Hereticks and Tyrants within and without the Church, hooked by their noses, as he had Pharoah, Senacherib, Rabshekch, 2. King. 19.27, 28. Holofernes, Antiochus, Epiphanes, proud Cosroes, Saul before his conversion, Act. 9. cap. 22. & 26. and all sanginnolent persecutors in all times, letting them play their reaks and pranks so long, till he got himselfe a name upon them, either in the conversion of some few of them, or the confusion of the most of them; when their sinnes like the sinnes of the Amorites Gen. 11.16. and Sodomites were at the full ripenesse, and fit for the sickle of deserved vengeance, this then is the first cordiall I give to the corosives of the Saints, the first ground of comfort to our present mourners in Sion, Ezek. 9. the wicked which plow deep furrowes on our backs, God himselfe yoakes them, they are but rods in the hands of our Father, but the Jailors and the Executio­ners of the will and decree of our Father Judge, as a moderne Divine sweet­ly alludes to God, they are but Gods Serjeants to arrest us, for our undis­charged debts, our unrepented sins, they cannot hurt us more then a sword in the scabberd, till it be drawne and laid on by a valiant Martialist, being of it selfe a dead instrument without a living hand to weild it; as indeed the creature of it selfe, whether animate or manimate, can doe us neither good nor hurt, without the restraining or mannaging of the Creator, as Doctor Preston hath lively demonstrated as an experimentall Divine, in his golden work of Gods All-sufficiency: and I have fully explained in the Book called the Arraignement of the Creature: And indeed this is a wonder­full ground of comfort to all that by the spirit can cry Abba Father, Rom. 8.15. that their crosses come from a Father, not from a severe Judge, that they are but love-tokens from the Bridegroom to his Spouse, Rev, 3.19. hea­ling pills from a Physitian, castigating rods and ferulaes in in the hand of a Father, Heb. 12.5, 6, 7. as Queen Elizabeth said once in some reall or imagi­nary Delinquencies of her heroick Essex, ad correctionem non ad ruinam, to correction not to destruction; as Gods scourges were so Idolatrizing and Adulterizing Solomon, whom though he afflicted in the revolt of ten Tribes, and in excited enemies, 1 King. 11. yet he rejected not, he tooke [Page 7]not his mercy from him as from Saul the Reprobate, 2 Sam. 7.14. 1 Sam. 16.1.14. Oh, this is indeed Oleum vulneris latificans Galeni, mell in ore melos in aure, as the phrases be melodie to the eare, musick to the mind, and ho­ny to the heart, yea as Rosa Solis and Aqua vitae to our dead sownes and fainting spirits, that though we be whipped for extraordinary sinnes and rebellions with sharp rods, even as it were of wire and knotted cords, not with ordinary willowes and birches, as in former times, that yet not­withstanding a whipping Father is a Father, and purposes to bestow his in­heritance upon his crying Child if as penitent as peccant: he takes not a sword to run him through, nor a Dagge to pistoll him when he is prostrate on his knees imploring mercy, like the Gospells relenting prodigall, with a mouth of confession and teares of contri­tion, extracted by the heat and fire of love from the Limbeck Few fathers prove Tyrants to their owne children, like the Romane Manlius, and Brutus, or as once Manasses was before his conversion, and the Jewish Saul to his Jona­than, whom he would have executed. of a heart full of compunction, Luk. 15.17, 18, 19. Oh pau­lulum supplicii satis est patri, a little punish­ment is enough for a father, as we may see in the passages betwixt David and Ab­salom, 2 Sam. 14.21. & cap. 18.33. the best Father and the worst child: all the water of the Sea will not wash away the love of a Father, it is as strong as death, even when he frownes outwardly, he favours inwardly, as Joseph did his Brethren, when he spoke roughly to them, Gen. 42.6. aequa tamen semper mens est & amica voluntas: Oh suck this refreshing hony, as a second Jonathan, in thy faintings in the wil­dernesse of thy woes, that though the evill of sin this malum culpae be from Satan and thy selfe, yet this malum paenae, the evill of punishment is from God, Amos 3.6. & cap. 2.4. per totum, punishment doe I call it? I thinke I must recant the phrase, for though we read of the plagues of Aegypt, of Sodome, of Moab, of Edom, of Damascus, of Ashur, of Gaza, of Teman, of Ammon, and of Tire, Amos 1. per totum, yet Divines dislike the phrase of punishment ever to be inflicted on the Church of God, or any living members of the Church, the punishment of the sins of all believers being already and at all times laid upon Christ the true Atlas who hath borne the burthen of his Fathers wrath, paid the ransome of his brethren, dischar­ged all their debts, cancelled all their bonds, and given them their quietut est and Acquittance out of the Chancery or Exchequer of mercy, though they were cleane cast by Moses and his infringed Law at the Kings Bench of Justice, Esay 53.4, 5, 6. Rom. 3. v. 19, 20, 24, 25. cap. 5.1. & Ephe. 2. per totum, and in this respect it being unjust with the Judge of heaven and [Page 8]earth, Gen. 18.25. to do ought but right, in craving a debt twice to be paid by the principall, when it is paid by the suerty, 1 Joh 1.9. the soule married and espoused to Christ by faith, Hos. 2.19. Eph. 5.25. being now as under covert Baron, not liable to the debts and the arrests of her widdow-hood, when she was estranged from Christ, Eph. 2.12. Christ her husband being liable unto them, who hath satisfied and paid them by his blood, Eph. 1.7. 1 Pet. 1.18. even eo nomine in this very case, the child of God being freed both from the guilt and punishment of his sinne in life, and death, and judgement, whatever happens to him, being not in the nature of a punishment from a sterne Aeacus, Minos, Radamanthus, or an Orbilius Fla­gellator, or a Dionisius in schola, a severe Tyrant, an inraged Schoolemaster, but a castigation from a Father, non quod odio habet sed quod amat, not out of hatred, but out of love, what a motive is this to drinke patiently, as Christ his Master before him, Mat. 26.39. and Job. Iob. 5.11. and Ezekias, Esa. 39.8. and David, Psal. 39.9. and old Eli, 1 Sam. 3.18. and all the Martyrs Iam. 5. v. 10. and Confessors, the Physicall cup his Father hath prepared for him, though very bitter, in the divine providence so much the better; if another man equall to thy selfe, or inferiour, yea if superiour, hit thee a blow on thy eare, or spurn thee with his foot, perhaps thou art moved, and waspish, even a Micah or a Paul himselfe, suffering humani aliquid, some reluctance, to be unjustly beaten by a Zedekias, a false Prophet, a Prelaticall Anani­as, a painted wall, 1 King. 22.24. Act. 23.2, 3. or to be scourged unjustly by a Governour, Act. 22. v. 25. but put the case that thy King, thy Leige So­veraigne, or thy naturall and affectionate Father give thee a blow or two, (chiefliy upon thy demerits) wilt thou grudge? wilt thou grumble like a curst Cur? whilst thou as a whipped dog fly in thy Fathers face? sure­in this case of muttering, murmuring, impatiency, like the carnall Israelites, against God, against Moses, against Aaron, Exod. 16.2, 3. cap. 17.2. Num. 21.5. in every crosse and losse that hath befallen thee in thy past or present pressures, thou shewest thy selfe not a mournfull dove, but a hissing Snake, yea a stinging Serpent, not a patient plundered sheep, but a gruntling Hog, a tusk-whetting Bore, when the hand of heaven toucheth thee, chief­ly if Satan enter so farre into thee, as he did into Iudas, Ioh. 13.27. and into Ananias, Act. 5.3. and into Elimas the Sorcerer, Act. 13.10. and into Edens Serpent, Gen. 3.1. and into the Pithonist or Ventriloquist at Philippos, Act. 16.16. as still he speaks in seducing Friers and Jesuites, in blaspheming Hereticks, and in all cursing and accursed swearers, that instead of blessing God in thy crosses, in thy losses by the plundering Caldeans, or Papall Babiloni­ans, as Iob blest God in his greatest exigents, Iob. 1.20, 21. thou rave and rage like a Bedlam, set thy mouth against heaven, like Homers Centaures to [Page 9]sight with Iupiter, curse thy Creator, in the devillish Dialect of Iobs wife, blaspheme thy Redeemer in tearing againe, worse then the Jewes on the Crosse his heart, wounds, bloud, as a Dog doth a harmelesse Hare, and a Wolfe an innocent Lambe. In this case thou hast a soule as blacke as pitch, stinking and sulphurious. I say of thee, as Simon Peter said of Simon Magus, Act. 8.23. thou art in the gall of bitternesse, and in the bond of iniquitie, in the very snare of the Devill, 2 Tim. 2.26. yea his sympathizing sonne, Ioh. 8.34. he blaspheming God in hell, or in the aire where ere he carries his hell about him, and thou on earth, like a Dutch­man, a French-man, a Spaniard, or an Italian, thou may be known by thy Tongue, to what Countrey thou belongest, even to the lower and infernall Regions, to the reall Styx, Tartaerus, and Flegeton, thy very speech be­wrayes thee, Mat. 26.37. were Satan on earth, in the forme of a man, or Caine, Iudas, Achitophel, Iulian the Apostate, Porphiry, Libanius, Hacket, Kett, Michael, Servetus, Dioscorus, Nestorius, Arrius, here againe returned out of hell, they would bring their hell-fired tongues with them, and blaspheme just as thou blasphemest, they would be (as birds of a feather) fit companions and comrades with all God-dam-mees, and Roarers, whose mouthes like Butchers dogs, are bloudy with bloudy oathes, Herod and Pi­late, Ahab and Iezabel, Simeon and Levi, the Atheist and the Papist, the Caldean and the Sabaean never agreed better now or heretofore in any mischiefe plotted or performed, then thou, both in thy mouth and in thy minde, would consort with such Sathanicall sympathizers with thy hellish humours: Oh this course, this carriage, is not to kisse thy Fathers rod, like a dutifull, a patient, a penitent, a submissive Child, but to snuffe up the wind like an Onager or wild Asse, yea to kick and spurn (like Iesurum, Deu. 32.15.) with the heel, as a Mule, when God would catch thee, as we catch wild Colts, in a strait, in a lane, or betwixt thorny hedges, as Iudah catched Adonizebek, Iudg. 1.4. and the Assyrians Manasses amongst the thornes, 2 Chron. 33.11. this shewes thou art (as M. Deering once used the phrase at the Court) not tanquam ovis, as a sheep silent before the shearer, Esa. 53.7. who never bleats when the Butchers knife is at the throat, but indomita juvenca, an un­tamed Bullock, bellowing when Sauls Doegs or Dogs be about thine eares: I tell thee Siboleth and Shiboleth did not more clearely distinguish an E­phraimite from a Gileadite, Iudg. 12.6, 7. or the fire doth not more distin­guish gold from drosse, or the touch-stone gold and pure silver from coun­terfeit and adulterate metalls, then patience and impatiency, blessing or blaspheming, the language of Canaan and the language of Ashdod; shew thy heart (thy mouths fountaine) to be carnall or spirituall, degenerate [Page 10]or regenerate, the habitation of Christ, 1 Cor. 13.5. Eph. 3.17, or a den of Devills, a cage of Scorpions and a nest of uncleane Birds, Mat. 15.19. yea, I say, the blew spots nor the Carbuncle broke out, doe not more shew the plague, nor the white spots the Leprosie of a Gehezi, a Miriam, a Naaman, nor a stinking breath demonstrates not more infected lungs, nor the red ploukes and rubies in the face and nose of a Drunkard, testifie not more plainely a too much heated and inflamed Liver, then oaths, curses, and blasphemies demonstrate a rotten, an ulcerous, a poisoned and a pollu­ted heart.

Oh, looke to it! thou saist it is thy nature, to curse, and sweare, and tear when thou art abased, abused, wronged or exasperated, thou art of a hot and cholerick disposition (so indeed are all Serpents which make them by a kind of Antipathie with the moisture of the soils, to die as soon as ever they are brought into the Islands of Gaulon in Creet, or into the Northerne Lap­ponia, or to Ebusus, or Sardinia, Apud Aelianum lib. 5. Hist. c. 2 cum Solino, cap. 9. cap. 25. cap. 31. & Mela, lib. 2. ca. 5. as well as they died in Ireland, for the same cause, ere ever S. Patrick was born) then, thou hot spawne of the old Serpent know this, that in this plea of nature, thou shewest there is in thee little grace, rectifying, ruling, conquering, curbing, cruci­fying nature, with all naturall lusts, affections and infections, Gal. 5.24. alas! if there be in thee nought but uncleane and polluted nature by gene­ration, without regeneration by grace, in thee new birth, the true birth, thou shalt (dying in that polluted estate) come to heaven, when the Devill and the damned come out of hell, Joh. 3.6. 1 Cor. 15.50. Rev. 21.8. & 27.

Besides to brush downe the Cobweb lawnes of this excuse, and to shew thee the weaknesse of this poore paper cloake, to keep off the showers and the stormes of deserved vengeance, may not a Dog as well as thou plead, it is his nature to bark, to bite at strangers, to worry sheep; the Wolfe, (yea the Irish Wolfe called Rebell) that it is his nature to devoure our En­glish Lambs? the Hog, that it's his nature to gruntle, to despise Pearles? the Asse to bray? the Lion to roare? the Horse-leach to suck bloud like a biting Usurer? the Scarabean Flea, like a Lecher, to delight in filth and dunghills? the drunken Ape and the Monkey to desire strong liquids? the silent Serpent Dipsas, like the poysoning whisperer and caluminator, secret­ly to sting? the Turky-cock like an open railer, to bluster? the house Cur like a dogged detracter to bite at the best, if they feed him not with crusts? the Parrot, like a trencher Parasite and a Buffon, to prate for an Almond? the Swan and the Peacock like a fautastick to be proud of their plumes, [Page 11]without ever looking at their foule and black feet? and so the rest of beasts sympathizing with gracelesse men, in name, natures, and nurtures, 2 Pet. 2.12. Tit. 1.12. may plead nature for their worst properties most prejudiciall unto man, as well as naturall men for their belluine and bru­tizing conditions, poetized by Ovid to be turned into beasts. But let me expostulate with thee a little further, what gettest thou by thy impatient imprecations or execrations? (which thou mayest as well spare as dirt from thy nailes, or smoke from thy chimney) they gaine thee not so much as a shooe latchet; nay, (like jealousie and gnawing envy) they are their owne plagues, causelesse curses like balls throwne up into the aire, light pat on thine owne pate; thou hurtest none by them but thy selfe, like squibs they flash and crack, and send their stink in thy owne nose: the ball thrown against a wall hurts not the wall, no more then the waves which dash a­gainst the rock hurt the rock, but breake themselves to froath and foame: in raging against God or man thou kickest against an Iron prick, and the Iron enters into thy owne soule, Acts 9.6. thou roasts at thy owne fire, and hurts thy fretting furious selfe: besides impatiency in a crosse cures it, as mire and soot wash thy face fowler and fowler, what is it but as Mercury to a green wound more to fret it? yea, as the horse in a quagmire, a bird in the limebush, and the rabbet in the Warreners net; the more the impa­tient madcap strives and struggles, the more he intangles himselfe; if he belongs unto God, he will make him quiet for all his plunging: if he be his Child by adoption, he will use more rods, and lay them on more sound­ly, but he will ere he have done with him, make him as calme as a Lambe, and as meek as a Dove: when Gods winds of wrath begin to blow and bluster against any soule, he will either make it bow by humiliation, like a yeelding reed, as did David, Psa. 6.5, 6. Ezekias, 2 Chron. 32.24, 25, 26. Ma­nasses, 2 Chron. 33.11, 12. and oft repenring Israel, Judg. 2.5.6.7. 1 Sam. 7.6.7. Judg. 3.9. or he will blow it downe as a sterne and stubborne Oake, by an utter rooting out and subversion, as he did Pharoah, Exod. 14.27. A­hab, 1 King. 22. Jeroboam, and Jeconiah, buried (like many now) with the buriall of an Asse, with millions more in all ages, 1 King. 3, 34.

Besides, I say unto thee, in thy curses and execrations against this Malig­nant and that Round-head, in City, Court, or Camp, or sound head, as our turbulent times have made the unhappy distinctions, as once betwixt the Guelphs and Gibellines in Italy, betwixt the Aurelians and Burgundians in France, and betwixt the Lancastrians, and those of the house of Yorke in England; as once God said to Rabshakeh and Senecharib, whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, even against the holy one of Israel, 2 King. 19.21. against whom [Page 12]dost thou cast thy squibs and darts and fire-brands? against whom (like an Armenian Dragon) dost thou spit fire? thou saiest against man, a weake worme like thy self, I tell thee, nay, it is against God, as I have before made it plaine, who now hath set man against thee, as his rod to whip to scourge thee, as he calls the King of Ashur, his rod against Israel, even the rod of his anger in the hand of his indignation, Isai. 10.5. as Attilas the cruell Goth, called himselfe Flagellum Dei, the whip of God to scourge the world, as Tamberlane was but Gods rod against Bajazet: the Turke, and as the Turk in his conquests of Cyprus, Rhodes, Famagusta, Constantinople, Malta, and in his inroads still into Hungary, Transilvania, Dalmatia, Cracovia, and lately into some Sea coasts in Ireland, hath been and still is Gods rod and scourge to Idolatrous, Adulterous, bloudy, cruell, extorting, proud, drunken, prophane, and hypocriticall Christendome, to apostatizing Europaeans from their first faith, as well as the Romans now in some points, and as the Mahumetanized Churches of Asia, once planted by the Apostles: so what are the Imperialists and Austrians now, but the rod of angry Nemesis against Germany, and the Palatinate for their con­tempt of the Gospel, chiefly for their overspreading painted Popery called Arminianisme, and so what is the confederacy now of Ephraim and Ma­nasses, against Judah, our Hibernified Atheists, Papists, Carnallists, with I­rish Caniballs, spoiling the goods and sucking the blouds of many true-hearted Naboths and Nathanaels: what are these but Gods rods up­on us to correct our long forborne Delinquencies now visited in Gods great Audit or Correction day, Jer. 9.6, 10. yea one of us fighting against another of the same Religion and Profession, as many heads of the Serpent Amphisbena are said to fight one with another, as we lately (like the Midia­nites in Gideons time, Judg. 7.22. against the Midianites, the Ammonites, and Moabites in Jehosaphats time, against the Syrians, 2 Chron. 20.23. as the servants of Abner and of Ioab in Davids time, 2 Sam. 2.15, 16.) sheathing our swords in the bowells one of another, as it is writ of Cadmus his bre­thren, and of Brennus and Brentius, Polinices and Eteocles, Romulus and Re­mus, one of us destroying another, like Bees in a Hive, in a bloudy faction, not Bees against Church-Drones, and State-Catterpillers at home, or a­gainst Romish Wasps and Asps at home and abroad; what are these but rods in Gods hand, by which in his just & unsearchable justice, he makes us to whip and scourge one another more bloodily then the Iewes once scourged S. Paul, 2 Cor. 11.14. or then the Monks of Bangor whipped once poore King Iohn; the result of all is, when any man is an instrument to doe us a­ny good, as Obadiah to a hundred poor Prophets, 1 King. 18.13. and David to lame Mephiboseth, 2 Sam. 9. and the good Ethiopian Ebedmelech to [Page 13] Ieremy, Ier. 38.7, 8. Paul to Onesimus, and Philip to the noble Eunuch, Act. 8.36.37. such a man is unto us a rod of beauty in Gods right hand, Zech. 11.10. when any doth unto us any damage and detriment, either in plunde­ring our goods, as Caldeans to Job 1.17. or shedding our bloods, as Caine did Abells, Gen. 4. or imprisoning our bodies, as the Philippian Magistrates did Paul and Silas, Act. 16. or smiting us, as Pashur the Prelate did Jere­remy, Jer. 20.2. or doing us much evill, as Alexander the Copper-smith did Paul, 2 Tim. 4.14. in these cases and the like, man is unto us (as he is called in Zachary,) a rod of hands in Gods hands, yea how ever man is to man, homo homini Deus, aut demon aut lupus, a God, a Devill, or a Wolfe, though in sheeps cloathing, whether a Jonathan, a Ioab, or a Iudas, he is but an in­strument of God to plague man, or to pleasure man, God himselfe setting even Kings themselves over men good or bad in justice or mercy for his owne secret ends; the same God (if we believe S. Augustine) who gave Augustus Trajan, Adrian, and good Emperours, Fathers of their Countries, giving also Nero, Caligula, Decius, Domitian, and other truculent Tyrants: David was so sensible of this truth, that when Shemei reviled him, he at­tributed to God the setting this Bandog upon him, 2 Sam. 6.10. so Job at­tributes his plunderings not to the Sabeans, the instruments, but to Gods permissive providence, giving and taking Goods from him, Job 1.21. and Joseph ascribes his selling and sending into Egypt not so much to his bre­thren as to God himselfe, Gen 45. v. 5. yea whatsoever Herod and Pilate, and the Jewe and the Gentiles, and Judas did to Christ in his crucifying, the Apostles attribute it to the Counsell and Decree of God, Act. 4.26, 27. Judas acting in the death of Christ out of covetousnesse, Luk. 22.5. the Pha­risees out of envy, Mar. 15.10. Pilate out of base and servile feare to dis­please Caesar, and the Jewes, Mar. 15. v. 15. but God wrought in all these permissively and dispositively, to the glory of his mercy and justice, to the redemption of his elected one, Col. 1.14. the obduration of the repro­bates, the rising and falling of many in Israel, Luk. 2.34. as I have reflexed fully on this point in my Origens repentance.

These premises considered, thou never looking up to God in thy present losses, crosses, pressures, plunderings, the chiefe efficient cause, Iam. 3.38. not to thy owne unrepented sinnus, the meritorious and deserving cause, 1 Sam. 12.18.19. Iam. 3.39. but meerly unto man the instrumentall cause, like a Swine, who hath eyes onely to look downeward to the earth, but never upwards to heaven, looking upon the creature with the eyes of car­nall reason, without the Creator, thou art inraged against this man and that man, thy heart riseth at him, as at an Incendiary object, as Turky-cocks and Unicornes be inraged at the sight of red Stammell, and as Bullocks [Page 14]bellow at the sent or sight of blood; hence thou goarest thy enemy in the sides, thou tearest him with thy tongue, as a chased Horse or Boare, thou casts thy scums and froths upon him, and art as much exasperated against him, as the Romanes against Cassius, Brutus, and Dolobella, when they saw the bloudy garments of stabbed Caesar.

In these mad postures of thine acting the parts of a second mad Ajax against Vlisses, or of Hercules, Furens, or Orestes, in the Tragedians, against meer man, never looking up to God nor into thy selfe; what dost thou but like a testy dog which runs after a stone throwne at him, which he bites and snarles, never looking at the hand that throwes it, as if a foole should breake an arrow all to fitters which hits him and hurts him, wreaking his wrath on it (as the fabled Weazle to her owne burning, bit the hot yron which fell upon her foot) never looking to the arme which drew the bow and shot it; as some gracelesse Fellons and their friends as I have seen, throw stones at the Hang-man and curse the Executioner, never con­sidering that it is the Judge, the Law, and their owne demerits and fello­nies which execute them, the poore hang-man doth but his office: thou in this case that ragest against thy foes, thy formall friends, plunderers, yea, against Committees, Excize men, Sequestrators and the like, licking their owne fingers, and feathering thou thinkest their own wings, (some of them as receivers, deceivers have been, yea, Empsonians, Dudleans, Zacheusses, and Publicans have sitten at the receit or deceit of custome, customarily in all ages;) thou art possessed with such a mad and malignant, spirit as whisome that great hearted Byron in France, and Fisher the Arch-Traitor in England who in their impatiency breathing revenge, even in death would have wrea­ked their wraths on their very Executioners, whom our once noble Essex, Sir Walter Rawely, Sir Thomas Moore and the late Hibernian Heroes as freely forgave, as S. Stephen did his stoners, Act. 7.60. Christ and his primitive and moderne Martyrs, their Crucifiers, Luke 23.34. vade & tu fac similiter, doe thou the like according to Christs practice and precept, Mat. 5.44. if thou willest be a patrizing sympathizing son of a heavenly Father.

And to set a further edge upon thee to the performance of this dutie and to curb and bridle thy corrupt heart, which is ever meditating mould­ing, plotting, searching and projecting revenge against those that have made thee extreamly passive in plucking thy golden feathers, and making thee as naked as a worme, or as Esops Crow, when she was deplumed, nothing (according to Machiavells rule and the Italians practice) being sweeter then revenge, to give a Rowland for an Oliver, to pay an enemy home in his own coine in retalinted vengeance, an eye for an eye, even as one mad dog or wolfe devoures another; but chiefly since this forgiving and forgetting [Page 15]injuries as the Estridge forgets her egges, writing wrongs in dust, is du­rus sermo, a bitter pill to swallow a hard morsell to digest, going against the haire, against the heart, against the very streame and torrent of cor­rupt nature, against the course and custome of the world and worldlings, since hoc opus hic labor, to subdue thy rebellious nature, and conquer thy corrupt heart in this case is more then an Herculean taske, a greater Conquest then to subdue a Cacus, a Cerberus, an Hidra, a Leana, a Cali­donian Boare, with Meleager, or a Serpent at Bagrada, with Regulus: therefore to help thee in this conquest; this one consideration may be as valiant a Champion for thee as Achilles for his Patroclus, namely, that those against whom thy heart so riseth and rageth, are not thy enemies, and then with whom sightest thou thus, but with thine owne shadow? or as a Don Quixot with Rams and Windmills? but at this thou start­lest as Moses at his rod turned Serpent, Exod. 4.2. and criest out, as once Michay and Laban, Gen. 31.30. they have stollen away my Gods, Judg. 10.24. my goods, my golden Calfe which I adored. Col. 3.5. and are they not mine enemies? but bona verbil quaeso, be not so hasty, festina lentè, pawse a little upon it, and thou wilt find that if thou couldst but fol­low the rule of Plutarch a Pagan, how to make use of enemies, and to get fruits from foes, even grapes of grace from the thornes and thistles of their hostility, as Sampson got hony even out of a dead Lion, Judg. 14.8. then thou wouldest see, that as Isaac mistook Jacob for Esau, Gen. 27.24. so thou hast all this while mistook thy friends for thy foes; and as one cried in Stobeus, O philoioudè philoi, O friends, no friends, so thou shouldst cry, O foes no foes; or if foes in the effects of your Vatinian hate, yet in the effect you are no foes, as you better mine estate, as you are fierce winds to drive my sin-fraught soule to the haven of grace, to the port of peace, as you are like gall and soot laid to the desired duggs of the bewitching world, to weane me from it, as Surgeons with sharp Goads to Phlebotomize my vaine veines, to cure me in the dangerous Plurisies and burning Feavers of my boiling lusts, to prick and breake (though with your swords and rapiers) the secret Impostimes of my pu­trid hypocrisie, my sordid covetousnesse, with the swelling tympany of my pride, and vaine glory, getting thus good from the intended harms of thy foes, as Ioseph and Mardocheus were brought to exaltation by a envious opposition, Daniel to further grace with Darius, and his three companions to higher places by calumination, and detraction, Gen. 40.38. Esther 7. Dan. c. 3. cap. 6. which was also the case of Herod at the ta­ble of Augusius Caesar in Iosephus, and of Themistocles in Athens, exiled to his advancement: I say if thou get sweet siggs of grace from the [Page 16]and wormwood of thy enemies, as Physitians and Paracelsians ex­tract Antidotes and Mithridate against poisons, and Restoratives against Consumptions, even from poisonous Toads, Nutes and Serpents, then thy supposed foes are but men made of strawes, but Scar-Crowes in Cherry Trees; thou fightest but with shadowes, as some Hiperboreans are said to fight with the North wind, and Pigmees with Cranes, thou art more frighted then hurt with these Eutopians, as children with Bug­beares, who onely (like the Apes in Plutarch, who marched with green boughs in their Clawes on the side of a mountaine) seem to be enemies, but are not, or at most enemies in their acts, but friends in their effects, as the divine providence disposeth of their evill wills to effect in thee his owne good worke, as their deep furrowes plowed in thy humbled and rent heart, fits it by receiving the seed of the Word, the Gospell of grace to bring forth the harvest of sanctified fruits more abundant­ly with patience, which being the very marke I shoot at, and the naile I drive at, that the City may be answerable to the gate, this Tractate to the Title of Fruits from Foes, let me but hammer into thy head and heart these subsequent considerations.

First, that if thou be a foe to thine owne lusts, which fight against thy soule, 1 Pet. 2.11. and hatest meerly what God hates, sin in thy selfe and others, as did David, Psa. 119.115. and Lot, 2 Pet. 2.7. and Ieremy, Jer. 9.1. it is an evident argument to thy own soule, that as was said of Abra­ham, Jam. 2.17. of Lazarus, John 11.11. and Christs Disciples, John 15.11. thou art Gods friend, and therefore no marvell if the world be thy foe; for if thou wert of the world, the world would love his owne, John 15.19. as every Ape her owne young, every Crow and Owle her owne Bird, every Ethiopian Mother her owne Child, though as black as her selfe, as cicada cicadae chara, & Graculus assidet Graculo, one Jay jangles to another, and birds of a feather flock together; Ego novi Sino­nem, & Sinon novit me, as Erasmuus hath it in his adage, a couple of Knaves are as well met, as the biting usurer and his broker, the thiefe and the refetter, the braggadochean Thraso and his trencher Parasite Gnato, and as a luxurious Prince and a Gaveston his fatall Pander, a co­vetous Prince that like a Hawke would pounce golden game, loves such Officers as are Spaniels to spring it, and a drowsie, dull, dead hearted people, love such a Pastor as will charme them asleep in their Lethargi­call security, and sow pillowes under their elbowes, to further their slumbering in the shadow of death, but a Boanerges, a sonne of thun­der, that will sound in their eares Esayes Trump, and ring Aarons Bells, and cry with the voice of a Baptist to awaken them ere the Trump of [Page 17]Judgement, 1 Thes. 4.16. he is no Lettice for their lips, away with such a fellow from the earth, Act. 22.22. similis simili gaudet, like loves his like, by a naturall sympathie and similitude, causa amoris, similitude drawes love as the adamant the iron, and the Caesian winds the clouds, but dis­similitude breeds dislike and distaste in judgement and affection: Hence if thou beest in Christ, and crucified to the world and the world to thee, Gal. 2.20. & cap. 5.24. there is as great an Antipathie betwixt thy enemy and Christs enemy, and the worlds friend and favourite that is meerly carnall, 1 Cor. 3.3. Jam. 4.4. 1 Joh. 2.15. and thou that art spirituall, 1 Cor. 2.15. and truly answerest thy name Christian, Acts 15.26. as there is a dis­agreement betwixt grace and nature, light and darknesse, God and Mammon, Christ and Belial, 2 Cor. 6.15, 16. Michael and the Dragon, Rev. 12.7. yea as there is contrariety betwixt the Elephant and the Uni­corne, the Fox and the Lamb, and the Wolfe and the Sheep, whose very guts made into strings will never accord and tune together in a Lute, more then the bloods of Polinices and Eteocles would mix together after they had slaine each other: assure thy selfe, let a carnall man, either an open prophane wretch like Esau, or a rotten hearted hypocrite syco­phantize with thee and observe thee for his owne sinister ends, and ad­here unto thee as Demas once to Paul, 2 Tim. 4. yet so long as thy works are good and his evill, and thy life and light a reall Sermon to blame and shame his, he loves thee no better then Judas did Christ whom he betrayed, then Herod did the Baptist whom he beheaded, though he reverenced and heard him gladly, Mar. 6.20. nay he hates thee inwardly for the same cause that Caine hated Abel, 1 John 3.12. Jezabel Elias, 1 King. 19.2. and Ahab Micaiah, because he prophesied no good unto him, 1 King. 22.8. because thy right steered life, like Noahs once amongst the worldings, and Lots among the Sodomites, Luk. 17.27, 28. shames the irregularities of their vaine discourses and vitious courses, Lux oculis aegris odiosa, thy light which shines before men, Mat. 5.16. offends their blood-shotten eyes, as the Sun doth the pur-blind Owle, the Lion, Wolfe, Fox, Badger, Otter, Fowmant, Weazill, Poulecat, and all beasts of prey, love the night better then the day, darknesse more then light: now thou art of the day, if Christ the Day-star be risen in thy heart, Luk. 1.78. and shine in that Orb by faith, Eph. 3.17. thy enemies are of the night, 1 Thes. 5.4, 5. therefore however they seem to collogue and to close with thee, they are as discrepant from thee in their dispositions, and at as farre a distance in their infected affections, as the Northern and Southern Pole; the Raven is thought by some to forsake her young ones for a time, be­cause in their first hatching they are white and downy, then God is said [Page 18]to feed them; but after a while when she returnes and finds them black like her selfe, she takes to them as her owne, fabula de te narratur, Ber­corius in his Morall Reductory, and Geminianus in his Similies make the Application.

Now is this no fruit from a Foe, that his hostility proclaimes thee to be Christs friend? whose love will stand thee in a thousand times more stead then Ionathans did David, or Damons to his Pithias: A wise Courtier had rather have his King his friend, with his Ego & Rex meus, though all the emulating Court be against him, then to curry favour with the Court, and be at a frowning distance with the King, si Deus nobiscum, quis contra nos? if God be with thee, who can be against thee? Rom. 8.31. if I have the Sun shining in my face, what need I the lesser twinkling Starres, or the light of a candle which may go out with the least windy puffe, and leave in my nose a stinking snuffe? it's some con­tent to be assured I am in the right way in my Pilgrimage to my heaven­ly home, though all the Dogs (and Doegs) barke at me in every Town thorough which I passe.

Secondly, as a Corollary to this consider seriously, that if thou be pa­tient, sustinendo & abstinendo, in which Epictetus epitomized Morall Phi­losophie, in sustaining and bearing the brunts and blasts of thy foes, and in abstaining and forbearing from revenge, then God is ingaged by promise, which he ever performes, 1 Thes. 5.23. to be thy avenger on thy enemies if in thee they oppose him, Rom. 12.19. as he avenged David of Michals mocks, 2 Sam. 6.16.20.23. of Shimeies revilings, 2 Sam. 16.10. 1 King. 2.44. of Nabals churlishnesse, 1 Sam. 25.39. Ezaekiah of the rai­lings of Rabshakeh, and the blasphemies of Senacherib, 2 King. 19.28.37. Abraham of the intended wrongs of Abimelech, Gen. 20.7.18. a zealous Prophet on Ieroboam, whose hand he withered, 1 King. 13.4. Moses on Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, whom the earth swallowed, Numb. 16. Lot on the Sodomites whom he first blinded, Gen. 19.11. and then burn­ed, V. 24. as he did Valens the Arrian in a Shepheards Cottage, the great enemy to S. Basil, Apud Marcell. lib. 3. Hist. so he avenged the Counsell of Calcedon on their grand enemy Anastasius whom he smit with a Thunderbolt, Eutropius, lib. 3. cap. 5. Azariah the high Priest, on presumptuous Vzziah, whom he smit with Leprosie, 2 Chron. 26.20, 21. Athanasius on Constantius the Arrian Emperour, whom hee cut off in great distraction of mind, Idem Hist. lib. 12. Amb. lib. 5. Epist. 52. S. Ambrose on Valentinian his persecu­tor, who was hanged by his owne servants, [Page 19] Gregory the best Roman Bishop of those that succeeded him, on Mauri­tius the covetous Emperour slain by Phocas a cruell coward Blondus lib. 3. decad., with many more which might be enumerated in all times and ages, the Lord ever siding with his Sion, his Militant Church, against all her malignant opposers, as he did with his Christ her Head and Husband against Herod, the Scribes, the Pharisees, Annas and Caiphas, chiefly on Pilate, who hanged himselfe after his disgraces with Tiberius and Caius, as their Tragedies are recorded, not onely by Eusebius, Hist. lib. 2 c. 7. and Nicephorus, lib. 2. c. 10. but even by the Paganish Writers of the Olim­picks of the Greeks.

Now is this no fruit from a foe, that as his wrongfull, undeserved, un­provoked hatred and opposition shewes thee (as I have proved) to be Christs friend, so reciprocally Christ to be thy friend: as Pilades was to Orestes, as well as Orestes to Pila­des Ʋt praestem Piladem ali­quis mihi praestat Orestem. Nisus to Eurialus, Titus to Gisippus, as well as Eurialus to Nisus, Gisippus to Titus, according to the rule, ut ameris ama­bilis esto, love begetting love, as one candle lights another, one burning coale kindles another, yea, as Naphtha is said to take fire at the neere approach of fire: and is Christs friendship barren of golden, of gracious fruits? Can a true friend indeed, an alter ego, a second selfe, a Phila­delphus, a sworne brother, a friend and a brother, in the bond of bloud, in the neerest link of love, as Christ is to his Church, Heb. 2.12, 17. stand by and see his friend need and bleed, yea in the paw of a Wolfe, or a Lion, or in the fangs of a mad Dog, or on the hornes of a Bull of Basan, and he administer no helpe from a strong and an armed arme? Can a father, though as sterne as a Manlius, or a Brutiu, do this to a child, if there be any storge or sparke of affection in him, if he do not more stu­pidly then a Stoick or stock, hominem exuere, put off all that speaks him man, like a brutized monster? yea, can a Husband doe this that loves his Wife in the neerest and dearest union, which Tullie himselfe makes mariage, in his book of friendship. Now was there ever any Father lo­ved a Child as Christ doth all his Children by adoption, who cry Abba, Father, Rom. 8.14, 15. Did Abraham ever so love his Isaac, his sonne by nature and by promise, as Christ doth every beleever the sonne of A­braham by faith, Gal. 3.7. as Zacheus was called, Luke 19.10. Was there ever in the best improvement of love, such a neer and dear union and communion of morall love, betwixt Solomon and Hiram, Agamemnon and Nestor, Theologicall love, betwixt Basil and Nazianzene, Augustine [Page 20]and Alipius, Eusebius and his Pamphilus, naturall love betwixt Jacob and Ioseph, Helena and her Constantine, Matrimoniall love betwixt Jsaac and Rebecka, Elkanah and Anna, Admetus and his Alcest, Brutus and his Portia, Collatinus and his Lucrece, as betwixt Christ and his espoused and contracted Church, and every living and loving member of the same? Hos. 2.19. Eph. 5.23.24.32. now thou art ingrafted into Christ as a wild Olive by nature into a good Olive tree, Rom. 11.24. and in him brings forth much fruit, John 15.4, 5. this is one fruit amongst the rest which growes on the tree of thy penitence and patience, that if thou stand for Christ, for his Truth, for his Religion, as once that Athanasius called the Atlas of the Faith, he will be sure to stand for thee, and to be with thee as thy Champion, and deliver when thou passest through the wa­ters, and through the rivers that they doe not overflow thee, as he was with Moses, and Aaron, and Israel in the red Sea, Exod. 14. and with Noah in the first universall Deluge, Gen. 7.1. and he will be with thee when thou walkest through the fire, as he was with the three Jewish Martyrs in the furnace, Dan. 3.25. and with S. Iohn in the furnace, into which Domitian cast him, Tert. in praescrip. adver­sus Haeret. according to his promise to all true Israelites, the spirituall sonnes of Iacob, Esay 43.1, 2, 3. yea he will be with thee as he was with wrestling and con­quering Iacob, Gen. 32.24. when any Laban or Esau comes against thee for any intended mischiefe; Oh assure thy selfe he will be with thee when thou art amongst Lions, as he was with Daniel, cap. 6. and when thou fightest with such beasts as Paul fought with at Ephesus, 1 Cor. 15.32. with Beares as David, 1 Sam. 17. with young Lions as Sampson, Judg. 15. and with men whose tongues are swords and sharp arrowes, and under whose lips is the poyson of Asps; yea if thy enemies with the horne of their power push thee into prison he is with thee there also, as with Io­seph, in Putiphars Goale, Gen. 29.21. with Ieremy in the dark Dungeon, Jer. 32.2. with Paul and Silas in the Philippian Prison, Act. 16.25, 26. yea with pious Philpot, once in the Bishop of Londons Cole-hole, and with that Martyr in Mr. Fox his Martyrologie, who writ from his prison his delectable Paradise in Argiers, yea if thou beest exiled and banished from thy house and harbour, he is with thee where ever thou art racketed and bandied, as he was with Abraham in a strange Countrey, Gen. 12.7. with Isaac amongst the Philistines, Gen. 26.12.24. with Jacob in Padan-Aram, Gen. 20.43. and in Egypt, Gen. 47.27. yea if thou beest led to execution and to suffering for his names sake, to which there is a blessing pro­nounced, Mat. 5.12. he is with thee there also, as he was with Peter and [Page 21] Paul, crucified with their heads downwards, with Laurence roasted on a Gridiron, with Polycarpus, grinded to be pure Manchet for Christ, with the teeth of Lions, with Dagilla, Tecla, Quintilia, Petronella, pulled and torne in their flesh from the bone with burning Pincers, yea with our Q. Maries Martyrs, sincere Saunders, blessed Bradford joyfully pay­ing his vowes in Smithfield, trusty Tailor skipping in joyfull Levaltoes when he was neere his burning sacrifice, godly Glover sensible of the ap­proach of the Spirit, and with that young man who at the stake no soo­ner cryed Sun of God shine upon me, but in a dark and gloomy day the Sun cast such gleames on him on a sudden, as astonished all the Spectators, yea as their last foe and enemy that is to be subdued is death, 1 Cor. 15.

Christ according to his promise, Psal. 41.3. is with his Saints, they have him with old Simeon in the armes of their faith: and with Paul live and die by faith; both in their naturall death as he was with Jacob bowing and worshipping on his sick bed; and with Theodosius, Augustne, Am­brose, Luther, Calvin, Oecalampadius and others, whose last spirituall breathings, with Spirits surrendred into their Fathers hands, are recorded to exultation and admiration by Grineus in his Apothegmata morientium, amongst his Thesis in quarto, as also he is with them in the most virulent & violent deaths, which cruelty and tiranny can invent; as he was with every one of his Apostles, who were martired (excepting S. John) whose acts, lives and glorious deaths, are fully recorded to any that will for con­solation and imitation peruse them in Eusebius his first book of Histories cap. 25. his second book, cap 1. his third book. cap 1. his ninth book cap 1. Nicephorus his second book cap. 40. his fourth book cap. 7. Sabellicus his seventh book Eneid. 4. Russinus his first book cap. 9. Hierom in the life of Paul, the Magdeburgians in their Centuries, Cent. 1. lib. 2. cap. 10. and Hosiander their Epitomizer, Cent. 1. lib. 2. cap. 30. which I alledge as Inns by the way, where the learned reader may drink if he will, the un­learned passe by them if he like them not.

The result of all is this, if thou be a Believer, (for I have Cordialls onely for such as corasives to the slaves of sinne and Satan) if thou hast such relations to Christ as I have touched upon, as to a head, a husband a father, a friend, then let who will be the rod in Gods hand to afflict thee, the instrument or executioner to torment thee, be they Achito­phels and Hamans for pestilent plots, Judasses and Joabs for treachery, Ne­roes, Caligulaes, and Perianders, for cruelty, Serpents for subtilty, Lions for power, Foxes for policie, though they spin never such Spiders webs to catch thee, set never so covered snares to intrap thee, though they despise thee, dispight thee, vilifie thee, nullifie thee, revile thee, [Page 22]peesecute thee, and hunt thee as Saul did David, as Iezabel did Elias, and Pope Leo Luther, though they defame thee and sleight thee, as the false Apostles did Paul, as the Pharisees did Christ, as the Arrians the Orthodox Christians, as the Papists all Protestants, some calling their very hounds by the name of Luther, Calvin, and the like, as the mad and unwormed whelps of Cerberus, our Familists, Fantasticks, new See­kers and Anabablers, terme now all zealous and judicious Divines no bet­ter then black Dogs barking in Pulpits, in Steeple and Stone Churches, as Satan speakes in them as at first, so still in Serpents: I fay, if they could hate thee, and howle at thee more then Iulian the Apostate, Por­phiry and Lucian the Atheist against thy incarnate Saviour, yet neverthe­lesse I can give thee this mirth in mourning, joy in tribulation, light in darknesse, rejoycing in suffering, Act. 5.40. 1 Cor. 4.9, 10. honour in thy disgrace, 1 Sam. 2.30. and such an Ariadnees thred to bring thee out of the mazes and Labyrinths of their perturbations, (as I have given Cor­dialls for every other crosse in the end of my seven helps to Heaven) that thou mayest be sure of a good issue in a victorious Trophie and Tri­umph over all thy enemies, if thou canst but rest and rely by faith and affiance on the Lord of Hosts, who fights in thee, with thee, and for thee, as he fought in and for David against Goliah, 1 Sam. 17.45. in and for Ionathan against the Philistines, 1 Sam. 14.6. for Gideon against the Midianites, Judg. 7.20. for Iehosaphat against the Amorites and Syrians, 2 Chro. 20.12.13. in and for Abraham against five Kings, Gen. 14.13. in and for Joshuah against the Canaanites, Jos. 1.5. cap. 5.14. in and for A­biah against Idolatrous Jeroboam, 2 Chron. 13.9, 10. in and for Asa, who relyed on him against the Lubims and Ethiopians, 2 Chron. 16.8. in and for Barak and Deborah, against Jabin and Sisera, Judg. 4. yea besides infallible Scripture instances, as he is the same God to day, yesterday and for ever, Heb. 13.8. semper praesenter hic & ubi (que) potenter, as the great soule of the world, as Plato calls him ever present and resident with his Church, Mat. 28.20. ever neer to them who draw neer to him, Jam. 4.8. as a friend to helpe at a dead lift, even in the last exigent of extremity, which is usually his oportunity, even when a red Sea is before his Church, and a Pharaoh behind: so why can he not, why will he not deliver thee, yea this whole nation according to his promise, Jer. 18.4, 5. in his due time, since his hand is not shortned, Esay 59.2. as well free us from our in-bred enemies to our Sion, to our grace and peace at home, as he deli­vered Rehoboam and all Israel from the Egyptian Shishak, a mighty for­raign enemy abroad, could we act the same parts with them in godly sorrow which brings salvation, 2 Cor. 7.10. as we re-act their sins, yea, [Page 23]the very sins of Sodom, Ezek. 16.49. Esay 1.10. yea, though all things in Church and State seem to be luxate and dis-joynted, as a body without nerves and sinews, as once in Israel, when there was no King, Jud. 18.1. or as some say in Rehoboams time, when the green blades were preferred before the riper heads, the young counselling Phaetons before the solid Senatours, yea though all things, as some mutter, some vociferate, & utter, seem to be turned suique deque, topsie turvie, upside downe, in our an­tipodized times by the wracks of warre, as if a dish were turned with the bottome upward, and a ship with the sails downward, in such a Hysteron Proteron, as few Ages have ever seen, chiefly Plebeian Owles throwing downe Eagles nests, Crowes chattering, and Nightingales the sweet singers of Israel, silent, learned and Orthodox Buclarks Cyphers, and Dolts and Dorbells Figures, knowledge a meere mute, and ignorance a sounding Vowell, though never Consonant, Mechanicall, blind arro­gance perking into Moses his Chaire, with as much perill to mushrump ungifted, uncalled usurpers, both to their own soules and others, as once to leprous Ʋzziah intruding into the Priests Office, 2 Chron. 26. to Ʋzzah in staying the tottering Ark without a call, 2 Sam. 6. to Nadab and Abihu, in offering strange fire, Lev. 10.1, 2. and to Dathan, Korah and A­biram resisting proudly and rebelliously Moses and Aaron, Numb. 16. as though they were dropt out of the clouds to curb, yea to crush both Magistracy and Ministerie, which tooke too much upon them, and that they had such a flash and flux of Revelations to guide and governe both themselves and others for life and Doctrine, that Christ as Office perde, cleane out of Office, unable or unwise to rule Church or Commonwealth by his Powers or Ordinances secular or spirituall, might take them back againe to heaven if he would, and lock them as Aeolus the disturbing winds into his owne closet, they had no more need of them then the Ephesians had of Pauls Gospell, when they would cry up their Diana, Act. 17. then Idolatrous Israel had of Moses when they caused Aaron to set them up a golden Calfe of their owne making, Exod. 32.3. then Iohn a Leyden, Knipperdolin, and Munster had need of any other warrant from the word, but Revelations for massacring a hundred thousand Commons besides Nobles in their Rustick Belgick Warre, or then the Fratricelli, the Flagellants, the Beguardines, the Familists, the naked A­damites of latter times in Germany and Italy, with the Enthusiasts and David-Gorgians, the Swinekfeldians, and the Anabaptists, Michael Ser­vetus in Geneva, Gentilis in Berne, Iack Cade, Wat Tiler, and Straw in Eng­land, Ket the blasphemous Arrian in Norfolk, Hacket once in London, yea Montanus and Priscilla, who both hanged themselves in Tertullians [Page 24]time, the Donatists and Circumcellians in Augustines time, or any that would set up thirteen or fourteen Religions in one Kingdom against one Truth, one Christ, one Salvation, Joh. 14.6. Eph. 4. all as erroneous as the Jewes Thalumd or Tucks Alchoran, and with as much warrant, as to grant thirteen wives to one husband, thirteen Suns in one Firmament, thirteen Kings in one Land, should for all their folly, fantasticalities, blas­phemies, and heresies of old, from hell new varnisht, stand any more in need of the Word, of Scripture, Counsells, Fathers, or Schooles of the Prophets, then of a sixt-finger Revelations and a pretended spirit, like the Popes all-commanding unerring Authority in his Chaire must be the Domine fac totum, that which strikes with the great ham­mer hits the naile on the head, the great Apollo, the Ipse dixit the deciding Judge, the Oracle of truth; though from a Diabolicall Delphos from which there is no appeale, like Hercules his pillars, nè plus ultra, now I say though in such Apostatizing in part or whole, many have forsaken their first faith, fallen from their first love, set up strange Gods, strange Idolls, even as Israel in Rehoboams time were said to for­sake the Law of the Lord, and the Lord to forsake them, 2 Chron. 12. yet there is hope in Israel, as repentance hath ever won what sin hath lost, as may be seen in Manasses, 2 Chron. 33.9, 10, 11, 12. in Nebuchadnezar, Dan. 3. in the Ninevites, Ionas 3. in Peter, and oft in sinning and re­penting Israel, Iudg. 3.9 cap. 6.7. cap. 10. v. 10.

So had we but Ninevehs and Rehoboams humiliations, 2 Chro. 12.6. why might not we have their exaltations? if we could sow in tears, why might we not reape in joy? Psa. 126.6. if we have a wet seed time, why might we not have a hopefull harvest? if we did mourne, why might we not yet be comforted? Mat. 5.4. why might not all things prosper as in Rehoboams time, ver. 12. and goe well with us, and with our posterity? why might we not have Halcyon dayes after all these storms and clouds? why might not our Horizon clear after all these showres of bloud? why might we not, like a bone that is broke and right knit, be stronger then ever we were, both with God and man? Psal. 51.8. could we with Jacob wrestle with God, we should prevail with men yea with our foes, with our selves being our owne foes, as I hope by degrees to manifest, Gen. 32.28.

Let the conclusion of this pressed point be this, let us turne like Jordan and the red Sea backward, all the streame and torrent of our ho­stility and hatred one to another, against our selves and our owne sinne, which onely make us odious unto God, which are onely the Ates and Haggs, which throw the balls and brands (as Adultery betwixt man and wife) of division betwixt God and us, Esa. 59.2. take away the [Page 25]cause, and the effect will cease; take the mote out of the eye, the thorne out of the heele, the thiefe out of the candle, the eye leaves watering, the heel rankling, and the candle smoaking: let us cast our refractory Jonasses out of the Church, Achans out of the campe, Achitophels out of the Court, Sinons and Hereticall Simon Magusses out of our Cities, self-seekers, finger-lickers, pence-spongers, state-caterpillars, corrupt Officers out of place and grace, both in City and Country, chiefly every man hew every Agag in pieces at home, mortifie his owne lusts, put the sacri­ficing knife of the word and spirit to his bosomed Delilah, his owne be­witching domineering sin that most reigns in him, or as an entertained spi­rit is his familiar; and so all remoras & obstructions removed, the chamber of our hearts furnished for Christs cohabitation, Joh. 14.23. Rev. 3.20. as he lodged with Zachous, Luke 19. then he that is the Lord of our Ca­stles will be sure to keep them, the strong armed man being thrown out, Luk. 11.22. we need no more then feare foes spirituall or corporall, for­raign or domestick, then one, of the sons of Anak, or a Briarcus feares a Pygmie, then Ajax or Ashilles feared babling Thersites: will men both cominus and eminus, in offensive and defensive warres, fight for their own rights, and possessions: and will not the Lord of Hosts hold his owne in us? will a Spaniard keep a Hold or Fort with tenacity, that he once possesseth? and as Jepthah told the King of Ammon, Jud. 11.24. will every man hold his owne, and keepe that which God hath given him, and will not God hold his owne? if we be his, will he suffer men to swallow us up quick, as the great Whale did Ionas? if God command us not to forsake our friend and our fathers friend, Prov. 27. he that hath been a friend to our father Abraham, and to David, and delivered them out of all their troubles, Psal. 139.1. if we insist in Abrahams steps, Rom. 4 12. and be of the spirituall House and heart of David, Zach. 12.10. he will also deliver us as he did them, according to his purpose and pro­mise, Psa. 34.18.19. he will not faile thee nor forsake thee, more then he did Ioshua, cap. 1.5. Heb. 13.5. he will lift up himselfe, and his strength against thine enemies, Psal. 7.6. he shall turne them backward, Psa. 9.3. and breake the armes of then power, Psa. 10.15. they shall fall into the pit that they have digged, and into the snare they have set for thee, as Faux, Garnet, Digby, and our Jesuited powder Traytors were catcht in their own snares, Psa. 9.10, 11. he will keep thee as the apple of his eye, and hide thee under the shadow of his wings, from the wicked that intrea­cheth thee, Ps. 17.9.10. though he come upon thee like a Lion greedy of his prey, v. 11.12. If God once arise, and be present with thee, thy enemies shall be scattered as the dust and chasse before the wind, they shall vanish [Page 26]as smoak, and melt as the wax before the fire, Psa. 68.1.2. though they come about thee like Bees, or like Thornes, they are but a blaze, they shall be extinct.

Call thou upon God in the day of thy trouble, that's thy duty; he will deliver thee, that's thy dignity, Psal. 50.15. Will the Regall Lion lose life, but he will rescue his Whelps if he heare them yell? and will not the Li­on of the Tribe of Judah, to whom vengeance belongs, Psal. 94.1. avenge the cause of his little ones, who cry night and day unto him? Did not the Romans, the Athenians, and all the Pagans fight to the death pro focis, for their wives and children, as well as pro Aris, for their Paenates, their house Gods! Oh! if the Greeks were so incouraged in their Ajax and Achil­les, the Trojans in their Hector and Troylus, the Philistines in their Goliah? and most Nations in the Colyphonians (though mercenary, like our Swit­zers) if they could get them to stand for them? Shall not he that is arm­ed cap a pe, with the shield and buckler of faith, be confident of a Tro­phie over every malignant enemy, externall, internall and infernall, that fights under the banners of Jehovah Elohim, the great Commander and disposer of all created powers and natures, Angelicall, humane and belluine, from the Lion to the Worm, and the wretched Wren who can do a thousand times more for his friends and favourites, then ever Achilles for his Patrocius, whose death he so revenged; or Hercules for his These­us, or Pirotheus, not being able to save himselfe from the plots of Nessus the Centaure, no more then Samson (the Jewish Hercules) from the com­plottings of his Harlot and the Philistines against his life and liberty, Iud. 16.20. so unhappy is all humane power and strength (as all may see in these two broken glasses) if God once leave it, as the German Phoenix Melancthon hath well observed: so happy are all those true Israelites, true-hearted Nathanaels, patrizing with Abraham, to whom God hath made a promise, that he will blesse those who blesse them, and curse those who curse them, Gen. 12.3. there being as it were a covenanted League (as now betwixt two Nations, and oft betwixt the Romans and their Con­federates) betwixt Christ and his Church, mutually to aid one another in all essayes and assaults. Oh! if the Saints be blessed who offer themselves willingly to help the Lord, Iudg. 5.9.23. it's no question of the other aux­iliary; God will never be wanting to help them, secundum necessitatem, non voluntatem, according to their necessity, when God will, not according to their own will, (which is now the case of our English Sion) forbeggers must be no choosers: Novit Medicus, non agrotus, our Physitian knowes better then we, poore impatient Patients, how and when to balme our long Phlebotomized bleeding times from our regnant crimes: we must [Page 27]not indent nor articulate with the King of Kings, nor limit the Almigh­ty by our prescriptions, as did the Bethulians, Iudith 7.30, 31. and that wicked Iehoram, 2 King 6.33. it is enough that he will not alwayes be plowing, and that the rod of the wicked shall not alwayes be upon the godly, but at last be burned, when his peccant children are scourged and humbled, upon his promises of deliverance, tandem aliquando, at his good leisure and pleasure, not at ours: In the interim, let every perplexed spi­rit work upon this meditation, (even parallelling parvis magna, the strong God with the weak arme of flesh:) that if the Romans put such suc­cessefull confidence in their Manlius, the defender of their Capitoll; in their Camillus, languishing Romes restorer; in their Marcellus, Romes sword; in their Fabius, Romes Atlas against Hannibal, the Greeks in their Themistocles, the prop and pillar: in their eloquent and thundering Orators Demosthenes and Pericles, and of latter times the French in their Huon of Bourdeaux, their great Virago Jean de Pucill, but chiefly in their Charles the sonne of Pipin, called the Hammer of their enemies; as the Germanes in their Otho the fourth, called for his victories, Mundi mira­culum, the wonder of the world; as the Hungarians once in their Hunni­ades and Mathias, with others, whose Martiall exploits are famoused in Plutark, Livie, A. Gellius, Lib. 2, cap. 11. Sabellicus, Lib. 6. Aeneid. c. 13 Aventinus, Lib. 3. an­nal. Pontanus, De Forti­tudine. Fulgosus, Alex. ab Alexandro, lib 2. c. 11. and others, yea if our English were sometimes so confident in the glories of our Nation, our Bevis of Hampton, our Prince Arthur and his Knights, our Ed­mond son of Etheldred, called Iron sides, our Guy of War­wick the Conquerer of Corinaeus, and other subduers of men and monsters, yea, if we that were lately stormed and distressed in the Land of Ire by the numerous Rebells, were so happy in the ever successefull valour and Heroick resolves of that un­daunted Sir Charles Coot, the scourge Kerne as his Anagram beares it, and the terrour to the Rebells, as Richard the first once to the Turks, and our Talbot to the French, whose very name put them into a pannick feare, and made them fly as tripping Does and Rascalls before our Mar­tial Beagles into Tyrones old Forts of Woods and Bogs.

I say, if there have been such helps, such hopes in all Ages, in armes of flesh, in fraile men, whose breaths were in their nostrills when God pleased to animate them, as Organs of doing good, or preventing e­vills in some States and Common-wealths, then rouzing our hearts a little higher, how much more hope and affiance ought we to place in the fountaine of strength, then in the streames? in the root and strong bole, [Page 28]then in the weak and broken branches? in the primitive power, then in the derivative? in him that both in the Abstract and Concrete is both power­full and power it self, both mighty and might it selfe, even omnipotent as well as omniscious, and omnipresent, who as by speaking but a word he made the heavens, Gen. 1.15. calmed the Seas, turned the red Sea backward, Exod. 14.22. stayed the raging of the waves and winds, Mat. 8.26. cast out Devils, Mark 1.26. cured the Leapers, Mark 1.40. raised the dead, Joh. 11.43, 44. recovered the Centurions servant, Mat. 8.8. hea­led all diseases, Mat. 9.2.29. so if he speake but the word he can sheath the sword, it shall not drink a drop of blood more: if we could but turne to him as we are injoyned, with rent hearts and broken, as corn in a Mill, and pepper in a Mortar, Joel 2.12. Psa. 51.17. we should by turning our mirth into mourning, Jam. 4.9. so turne his frownes into favours, his judgements into mercies, that in a trice his eare being not heavie to heare, Esa. 59.2. more then in the like cases with ours, 1 Sam. 7.6, 7, Judg. 2.5, 6, 7. & cap. 20.26. with one word he would turn our storms into calmes, our warres into peace, our sighs into songs of deliverance; yea our Swords into Scythes, our Iron Helmets into Bee Hives, our in­struments of cruelty into instruments of mercies, our Mars into Mi­nerva, our Martiall Guns into Gownes: were but we turned as once Saul to Paul, Act. 9.6. from Wolves to Lambs, from Goats to Sheep, from Newtralls and Laodiceans to anchored Zealists, yea from Lions and rearing Tygers, to Kids, living and loving together in a peace, insepara­bly married unto grace, Esa. 11.6, 7, 8. Oh! could we with the old yeare cast away the old man, which is corrupt, and old fashions and deceivable abhominable lusts, Col. 3.9. Eph. 4.22. Rom. 12.2. and with the new yeare put on Christ the new man, and be renewed in the inner man, Rom. 13.14. Eph. 4.23, 24. as the Serpent casts off his old slough, the Stag his old head, the Colt his old haire, the Lobsters their old shells, the Eagle her old bill, whereby her age reneweth, and some men, women and chil­dren their old teeth, (rather then their old tongues) could we thus cast off our abominations, Ezek. 18.31. our lying vanities, Jon. 2.8. our heart Idolls, Esa. 31.7. our works of darknesse, Rom. 13.12. with hatred and indignation, in loathing and leaving every sin, the true signall of sa­ving repentance, 2 Cor. 7.10.11. how soon then would God cast all our transgressions into the grave of his sonne, into the midst of the Sea as a milstone, Micah 7.19. how soon would he make an act of oblivion, Ezek, 18.22. of all our former Delinquencies, how soon (contrary to the na­ture of Foes, but superficially reconciled) would he write our enmity in dust, our repentance in brasse? were we but once cast in a new [Page 29]mould, as old metalls broke melted and renewed, to ring better peales of prayers, and praises, how soon should we be cast into the armes of his mercies, that by a justifying faith having peace with him, Rom. 5.1. by our grand peace-maker, Eph. 2.14. we should soon have peace one with another, though as yet there is no peace to the wicked, saith my God, Esa. 57, 21. neither let us ever expect it, or delusively dreame of it, so long as the Whoredomes and Witchcrafts of so many Jezabels conti­nue, 2 King. 9.22. of he and she, false Prophets, Rev. 2.20. as by such old Heresies new conjured up from hell, and such new fantasmes and fop­peries as Angells and men fearce ever heard before, the soules of so many millions are so poisoned, their minds so distracted, and their intestine hatreds so inflamed one against another, more then ever the Samaritans against the Jewes, Joh 4.9. that Timpler, Althusius, Arnisaeus, Tholosanus, Bodin the French-man, our English Case, and all Politicians within the sphere of my reading, should be deceived, if Schisma Ecclesiasticum an Ecclesiasticall Schisme, as it is now the mother, so it do not continue as in all States where it kindles her wildfires) the Nurse seminary and fu­ellizer of Schisma Politicum, of perpetuated factions, fractions, distra­ctions, and (Germany tells us) destructions also in our Common-wealths, and for my part I wish my predictions might prove as false, as they will be sleighted, though as true as those of Laomedon, Chalcas and Cassandra, which were not believed, till supine secure and incredulous Troy were fired, that the Toleration of many Religions in one Kingdome, which some would thrust in upon us by head and shoulders, invita Minerva, without one breathing of the Spirit from the word, or the least glimpse of Conscience grounded on Science, Conscientia cordis scientia, taking light from the unerring Scriptures, as the Moon from the Sun, without which it is but like a Papall Purgatory, a Triton, a Chymaera, an opinion at best, or a phantasme, that such a Toleration of Liberty as the Libertines in Belgia once pleaded, and planted at last in bloud, in the Rustick war, will bring any more peace amongst us, then betwixt Menclaus and Paris, striving for one Helena; or betwixt the true Mother and the false in So­lomons time, contesting for one Child; or betwixt Caesar and Pompey, bandying bloudy blows for one Supreme Power; or betwixt the seven Cities that contested for one Homer; or then was in Rome Papall, when three Anti-Popes, siring the whole Christian world, run at Tilt for one Triple Miter; or then was betwixt Henry Monmouth, the right Heir to an Albion Crown, and Richard the Usurper, when the sword decided the undivided Scepter in Bosworth field: yea, no more probable peace amongst many Religions, or indeed many painted errours, vanities, and [Page 30]grosse Heresies, if not such blasphemies as in the Jewish Thalmud, or Tur­kish Alcoran, which (as our late powder Treason, the Irish Rebellion, Absaloms conspiracy, Ahabs assasinating of Naboth, Read instances in Tholosa­nus de rep. lib. 13. pag. 878. c. 7. pag. 909. c. 8.903, 904, 905. Bodin de rep. lib. 7. c. 7. pag. 547. Eusebius lib. 2. c. 13. Scorates lib. 5. hist. c. 16. Herods intensive butchering of the Bethlehem Babe, and the most pestilent plots and designes for vile and sinister ends, ever amongst Jews, Turks, Christians and Pa­gans, have ever been palliated and cloaked and vailed in the habit of Religion, and in the helmet of holinesse and honesty.

I say all these Hydra-headed errours, different from truth, and from themselves, will no more gain or retain any peace, with one true Ortho­dox and Uniforme Religion, then there was peace amongst the diver­sified lustfull Lovers of one Penelope, all hating Ʋlysses her legall husband, as well as one another; or then peace betwixt Agamemnon and Achilles, about Briseis; Troilus and Diomedes about one Cressida; Turnus and Aeneas about one Lavinia: alas such Peace, (as any may foresee a storm, that sees the pendent pitchy Cloud,) as hath been ever among the Tur­kish Ottomans, when he that prevailed in the Throne, whether justly or unjustly, ever either imprisoned, exoculated, or executed all the rest of the Bloud-Royall, as Abimelech the bramble, dealt with all his Brethren, the sons of Gideon, Judg. 9.5. and Jehu with all the sons of Ahab, 2 Kings 10.17. or such Peace between Heresie and Truth as will set all on fire, Luk. 12.47. as would be between 6 or 7 Cocks of the game in one Pit, where they will either be all victors, or all die, though upon no other quarrell then Ambition, which domineers in Beasts and men, but most in men metamorphosed to Beasts, by being brutized either by lusts in their life and conversation, or drunke with errours and strange opinions, as a Crow with Nux vomica; even to reeling, and staggering, and occasioning or causing a whole Kingdom to reel, stagger, and totter with them to pro­bable ruination, quod omen avertat Deus: which to prevent, let us halt no more betwixt two opinions, nay betwixt more opinions then colours in the Rain-bow, if not then Argus eyes in the Peacocks traine: if every Babilon and every Baal, every reared Dagon, be God or for God, or from God, adhere to it, 1 Kin. 18.21. but if God be God, and there be but one God, ipsissima veritas, as one essentiall soule, saving truth, and but one true way of worshipping this God, in spirit and truth, John 4.23, 24. as there is but one soul and spirit in man to be saved by this right worship, without will worships, Papisticall, Pharisaicall, or Schismaticall, and if this God will admit no corrivalls in a Church or state (as was told the [Page 31]Romane Senate, that Christ would have no copartnership with their Paganish Gods,) yea if this God hate all plowing with an Oxe and a Horse, all sowing with miscellanian seeds, all linsey-woolsey weavings; all compounded, interwoven, intermixed Worships in a hotch-potch, and a galley-mawfrey Religion, as hee is a pure and simple Spirit, no more mixing with false Spirits of lies and errours, then fire with wa­ter, oyle (which ever swims above) with any poysoned liquids: if it be thus with God, then let my pen, as well as tongue, in presse, pew, and Pulpit, preach to all John-indifferents, all Scepticks, all Seekers for any new Religion, as if they went yearly or monethly to Poland, or Am­sterdam, or Holland, to seeke a new one, or were white paper, fit to take any print or blot, or wax for any seale, new vessels for any seasoning, sweet or sower, with wine or vinegar: let me say to such, even what Christ preached to Sathan himselfe, who is a liar in the tongues of Here­ticks, as well as a murtherer in the swords of Tyrants, John 8.44. doe thou worship the Lord thy God, and him only do thou serve, Mat. 4.10. so shalt thou gain such figs from thistles, such fruits from foes, both to thy body and soul, goods, goodnesse and good name, that though the Land should be darke like Egypt, yet thou shalt find a lightsome Goshen in thine owne soule, Exod. 10.23. thy fleece should be wet like Gideons, with the dews of grace, though the whole Kingdome should be as dry and barren as the sands of Africk: thou shouldst be as a cube or square, undique quadratus, to fall right and straight, which way soever the many headed multitude moved, right or wrong; thou shouldst bee fixed as the two poles, the Axhurried as in a ratling Coaeltrees of Heaven, which way soever the scopperill and whirligig times did volve and rowle, thou shouldest cast the Anchor of truth in our tempestuous seas, in the high swoln waves of all wind­blown-opinions, ruffling in such fierce and furious opposition; yea if thy wayes do please the Lord, thy enemies shall be at peace with thee: Let these curative cordials, be as words spoken to the weary in dueseason, let them be as apples of gold, with pictures of silver to refresh him who saith with Gideon, if the Lord be with me, why then is all this evill befallen me? Judg. 6.13. why goe I thus heavily oppressed with my foe? as Han­nah was provoked by her adversary, to make her fret, 1 Sam 1.6. how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me, Psa. 13.2. how long shall my false familiar friend, my Junior Achitophel plot mischiefe against me? yea, being unequallly yoaked with a Zipporah, or a Xantippe, my uxor, my vexer, how doe I wear a strait pinching shoe, yet unlesse I goe barefoot and wear upon the hoof, I cannot put it off, no more then the horse in the Fable could put out of his mouth the curbing bitt, or throw off the saddle [Page 32]of servitude which man his rider and derider put upon him, when he was once as free as the wild Stag and Buck upon the wide mountaines, ere he foolishly vassalized himselfe, like an infranchized free-man made a slave? Oh how long shall I hold a Wolfe by the eares, if I hold him he bites, if I let him goe and resist him, he worries? how long shall I be hurried as in a ratling Coach, or tossed ship, which way I would not: yet if I leap out, I break my leg or neck by land, or drowne by sea? quo me vertam nescio, doe what I can, I faile betwixt Scylla and Charibdis, I split on one rock or other: my proposed salves will be as ill as my sores, like Androdus the Roman: I am fed as in the Lions Den; all the waies I pro­ject to helpe my selfe, seem to me as desparate as to him who cut off his great Toes to cure the Gout, yea, leaping as it were out of the frying-pan into the fire, lik to the Flounder, a malo ad pejus, from evill to worse; for escaping (with such difficulty and danger, as the Hare from the Hounds) from the Irish Caniballs and Nimrodians, thinking here to swat & tapez safely, I have in two or three places sheltred my selfe as the sheep under brambles and briers with some torne fleece, if not flesh; and at this instant I and my poor perishing Children, roasting as at a lingring sire, and dy­ing and consuming by degrees, as Lampes goe out wanting Oyle; wee cry for bread as hungry Birds to their Dams, and children to dry nurses, yea as Prisoners in Ludgate to Adders eares: while the corne (saith vox populi) to feed us reaped in a silver Harvest in Holland and in England, is either (as is vox loculi) put into private poakes, from whence like the prey in the Lions paw, there is reductio perimpossibile, or elfe diverted a­nother way, as if Peter should be rob'd to pay Paul; and further this is my misery, that though venter non habet aures, the belly hath no eares, and those that grieve must groan; yet if hunger the worst of all plagues as Homer calls it, find but a complaining tongue, it's probable to get me a bolted heel: if I do but vent my mind, my wind, like the Whale and the Otter in the water, and the Moal above the Earth, I may be struck with the sharp spear of construction or correction. Oh is there any hope in Israel for these harmes? any balm in Gilead for these griefs? any Mi­thridate for these maladies, miseries? any Roses from these pricks, cries Pierce Pennilesse) Oh yes: for if we beleive Dioscorides Dodoneus, & Sir F. B. Centuries, Roses grow best and smell sweetest, neer unto strong sented Onions and Garlick, yea we see amongst Nettles and Thornes: and it is observed by Herbalists, that those Roses that are without pricks, as your wild Cop-roses in cornes, and Canker-roses in hedges, are ill sented and good for nought, base (as excellent Emblemes of prosperity and adversi­ty) in respect of those with pricks, excellent in colour, odoriferous in smell, [Page 33]which though they oft grow low, and amongst thornes, yet exceed your canker-roses high bloom'd in hedges, as much as a scale weighed downe with gold is above a scale fild with feathers and fuzballs, which flurts up like some light heads, from low barnes, chaires and tubs, as high as Ez­ra's pulpit, Nehem. 8.4.

O it is a comfortable truth, which is affirmed and confirmed from many examples in all ages by the best Belgick Divines, Melancthon in postillis part. 4. pag. 4.37. & in locis, fol. 466. Luther Pag. 241. in his Colloquies; Stri­gellius in his Chronicles Part. 1. pag. 351. part. 2. p. 51 Sigfridus Saccus in his Postils Part. 1. pag. 126., with others; that as Roses grow the best with pricks and among thornes, Onions best and biggest in stormes and tempests Pezelius de Margaritis c. 3. the Palme tree (according to Pliny) in terra salsa & nitrosa, in a salt earth, and when it is most prest with weight, according to the old verse,

Yea as it is green like the Lawrell in winter as well as in Summer, and buds againe succisa & emortua, when cut, and seemingly dead, with many other rarities in it, de­scribed by Camerarius Cap. 84. pag. 472. in his Centuries: so the Church of Christ, and every true Christian is and hath been ever more glorious under the Crosse, under Tyrants, Sophi­sters and Hereticks, (the three great pests and plagues of the Church now) as they have been ever, (if we be­lieve Hemingius In his Postils fol. 264.269. Gualter In Mat. cap. 23. Strigellius In Argum. Psal. 28. & 83. fol. 79. and Melan­cthon In his Postils part. 4. p. 585.) then when it had most rest and peace, it increa­sing more, and budding more under Nero, Domitian, Decius, Iulian, Maximinus, Gensericus, Theodorick and other Pagan and Arrian persecutors, when it was water­ed and grew by the bloud of the Martyrs, as both Ter­tullian Plures effi­cimur quoties metimur., and Eusebius Lib. hist. 9., yea experience have observed, then when it had most rest and peace under Constantine, and other Halcyon dayes of tranquillity, when Heresies were hatcht like Summer Gnats in heats and Sunshines: and at last the Antichristian Pope, from ambition of Prelates and Patriarchs for superiority See Morney de progressu Papatus., when Reli­gion begot riches, and the daughter viper-like devoured the mother: when prosperity (like the Sun which cau­sed the Traveller in Plutarch to cast off his cloke) made men cast off the true worship of God, and adversity (like the raine, which made him Hist. lib. 13. c. 4. [Page 26]buckle his cloke to him) caused men to cleave closer towards God, even as Iacob was more glorious in his vision of Angells when he lay in the open fields with a stone under his head, then when he possessed Canaan, Gen. 28.11, 12. Noah more glorious pent a whole yeare in the Arke, preserved a­mong wild beasts, then when he planted vines and was drunk, Gen. 7.1. c. 8.1. cap. 9.20, 21. so Joseph was most glorious in prison, where God revea­led dreames unto him, Gen. 39. Iohn in his exile in Pathmos, where he re­ceived Revelations, Rev. 1. The children of Israel in the red Sea, where they had their preservation, Exod. 14. In the wildernesse, where Manna from heaven was their meat, and the rock gave them drink, Exod. 16. The captived Jewes in Babylon, where God stir'd them up such excellent Pro­phets, as Daniel, Ezekiel, Zachary, Haggai, and propagated his worship by them to Kings and Kingdomes. And as Christ himselfe was more glo­rious on the Crosse, then when the Jewes entertained him with their Ho­sanna's, John 12.14. for then the Centurion, Luke 23.47. Pilates wife, Mat. 27.15. the darknesse of the earth, Marke 15.33. the eclipsed Sun, Mat. 27.15. the earthquake, the opened graves, the veile of the Temple, and the rocks rent, vers. 51, 52. testified his innocency, as also Iudas his betrayer, Mat. 27.4. and the thief that was crucified and converted, Mat. 27.43. so if thou be a true disciple of this Master, a living member of this mysticall Head, and not as a wooden leg, and a glassie eye, livelesse and senslesse: the more thy enemies seek to cloud thee, the more thou shalt shine, like starres in a darke night: the hotter the furnace of their wrath, the more shall the gold of thy Faith be purified: the more the winds blow, the more Oake like shalt thou be fixed and rooted in thy holy resolutions, 2 Sam. 6.20, 21. as David by the mocks of Michal: the more thy foes rub thee like a Pomander, yea pounce thee in the mortar of their malice, the spices of thy graces smell the sweeter: the more that Sathan and his Organs winnow thee, the lesse chaffe they leave in thee; the more thy Kitchin-sculs scum thee and scour thee as a vessel of Honour, the brighter they make thee: the tongues of these Dogs, these Cerberized whelpes, doe but medicinably lick the sores of thy sins, as once the ulcers of Lazarus; their Gall and Aloes doth but imbitter the dugs of the world to thee, that Christ may be more sweet; these bug-beares do but make thee cry and fly into the armes of thy Fa­ther, & faelix crux quae ducit ad Christum, it is a happy Crosse which drives thee, yea drawes thee nearer unto Christ; it is no matter how fierce and rough the winds be, that drive the loaden ship sooner and safer into her Haven, the Port of Peace.

The conclusion of all is to prevent confusion, we may be wronged [Page 35]by others, hurt only by our selves, others may plunder our goods, but so long as the flesh is sound the silver feathers may grow againe, as in Jobs case, Job 42.10. the Devill himselfe could not hurt Job, nor his cur­sed wife, though called the Devills Dam, Naomi that is emptie may be full againe, Ruth 1.21. however, thou runnest thy race never worse to heaven, though thon wantest thy trappings and golden Bosses, and though thou beest in as great exigents as once David, 1 Sam. 21.3. & ca. 25.8. and as Elias, 1 King. 17.12, 13. to beg thy bread of some Nabal, some poor Widdow, yea as poore as Job on the dunghill, or as once Christ thy Master, Luk. 9.58. yet in all this not forsaken, Psa. 37.21. the Lord forsakes not his Saints, V. 28. though the Lions lack and suffer hunger, yet they shall not want, Psal. 34.10. though they gather but a little Manna it sufficeth, Exod. 16.18.20. godlinesse with contentation is enough, 1 Tim. 6.8. God can blesse to them a little meale, a little oyl in a cruse as to two poor Widdowes, 1 King. 17.13. 2 King. 4.2. a little pulse to Daniel, cap. 1.12.13. as sometimes a few Turnops and Potatoes, when we were besieged in Ireland as well as a stalled Oxe. There is one Pearle even for a Prince which cannot be plundered, it adornes a Crown though beset with Thornes, and this Pearle is patience, a great possession unto all, as Christ calls it, Luke 21.19. a rich dowry to a Widdow as poore as Ruth, a possession out of which the Devill himselfe could not dispossesse Job, c. 1.22. withall, thou mayest be wronged in thy name, a Joseph may be falsly accused, a Cato, a Scipio, an Abner, a Themistocles, a Phocion, a Socrates, yea the best Patriots and Patricians may be questi­oned, an Athanasius, an Eugenius, a Narcissus may be scandalized in life and Doctrine by the Arrians, as was Calvin, Beza, Luther, our best Belgick Divines, by Cocleus, Bolsecus, Scurrilous Kellison, Endemon, (Caco­demon,) and other Romish Rabshakehs: but what of this? is an Eagle hurt by the chartering of a Crow? or a Lion by the yelps of a Curre? doth the Moon shine lesse though the Dogs of Egypt bark at it? can earthly or lunatick interpositions long ecclipse the Sunshine of the Saints? we have heard of a Grandee which wished his man to call him Knave, and then shakt the lap of his Gowne, and what was he worse for it? words are but wind, they breake no bones, quid male feci, what evill have I done may any Plato say, that a bad man speakes well of me, de me male dicunt ast mali, God will doe David good, even eo nomine, because Shimei reviles him, 2 Sam. 16.12.

Besides thou art imprisoned, yea Paul and Silas may be so far wrong­ed as whipt in prison, Act. 16. yet not hurt, these blessed Birds sing swee­ter tones in their cages, v. 25. then ever the birds of Hanno or Sapho; [Page 36]thou mayest be also so farre wrong'd, as to be banished thy Countrey, and bandied, and racketed from post to pillar, and find no rest like Noahs Dove, to the soale of thy foot, yet not hurt, so long as thou findst rest in Christ, so long as the Spirit doth visit thee in thy Pathmos, Rev. 1.10, 11. omne solum forti Patria, the Sun shines every where, and God is found in every Countrey, indeed could thy foes banish God from thee, as thy sinnes doe, thy worst foes, then thy case were lamentable, as once Sauls, 1 Sam. 16.14. & cap. 28.15, 16.

Lastly, thy foes may take away thy life, yet they hurt thee not, onely sin hurts thee, that deprives thee of the life of grace and of the life of glory, that deads thy soule here, Ephes. 2.1. Luk. 6.60. and damnes it hereafter, Rom. 6.23. it is onely sinne the sting of death which hurts thee, 1 Cor. 15.55, 56. which sting being taken away by Christ, thou maist put this stinglesse Bee in thy bosome, v. 57. death is to thee a sweet sleep, E­say 57.2. a blessed rest, Rev. 14.13. in Abrahams bosome, Luk. 16.22. in these and whatever else is obnoxious to humane nature, the Saints are Conquerors, Rom. 8.37. now did Conquests ever hurt a Caesar, a Pom­pey, a Lucullus, a Fabius? doe all things health, wealth, poverty, sick­nesse, life, death, friends, foes, worke together for the good of the E­lect, Rom. 8.28. as all the Physicall Simples in a compound for the good of a Patient? all the Starres and Planets by their influence, for the good of these sublunary bodies? and can that which works for our good doe us hurt, unlesse we hurt our selves? as indeed we doe, bring­ing the worst foes we have from home with us, yea carrying them a­bout with us as Snakes in our bosomes to sting us, our sinnes our darling regnant unmortified sinnes bred in our soules, these and onely these be­ing the Achans in our Camps to disturb us, the Sinons in our Cities, chiefely in our Troynovant, yea the Quoy-ducks, the Dalilahs in our Families, our Chambers, our Closets, to betray us, the vipers which breed within our bowells, the wormes within our intralls, the Flesh Wolves within our flesh which corrode us, yea kill us, the Cantharides in our oynt­ments to soile us, to spoile us, the Moaths in our Garments to fret us, the Midianites amongst us to vex us, the Canaanites in our borders, as pricks in our sides and thornes in our eyes, Judg. 2.31. to torture us, to torment us: that of Chrisostome being to me oraculous, truer then from Delphos, that nemo laeditur nisi à seipso, hone is hurt but by himselfe, by his owne sinnes, as Noah was drunke with his owne wine, Gen. 9.22. Cam­bises slaine with his owne sword, Marlow stabbed with his owne Dag­ger, so we are slaine by our owne lusts which fight against our soules, 1 Pet. 2.11. and vassallize us as they did Hercules, Sampson, Alexander, [Page 37]Caesar, Hannibal, Achilles, and the greatest Conquerers, who were slaves to their owne unlimited luxuries, as I could largely Historifie them and Parallel our very postures and pressures with that fond horse in the Fable, bred neare the smoaks and fogs of some thick aire, not on the pure airy Mountaines with the wily Stag, who suffering man to ride him, being as free as the Buck, was so vassallized by man his rider and deri­der, that he could never yet for all his fretting at his owne folly, put the curbing bit out of his mouth, nor shake the saddle of subjection from his back.

Oh! we are slaves to our lusts, as that great Alcides to his Dianira, to him Deiira, these are the Lord-Danes which rule us as by armed Law, either we cannot or will not resist them; these are to us like Traytors bred in the breasts and bosomes of Kings, yea as Favourites growing up by their Kings, as Ivies by strong Oakes, and Elder Trees in and by walls, yet bringing them downe by whom they grew, and every way as fatall to them as Ieroboam once to Solomon and his house, Cleander Phrix to Comodus, Philip Arabs to Gordianus, Calippus to Dion, Phocus to Mauri­tius, Giges to Candaulus, and our Court Ganimede Gaveston once to Ed­ward the second, with many more recorded by Tholosanus in his Com­monwealth, l. 22. p. 1403, 1409. Guicciardine in his Politikes, part 2. p. 94. and the French Bodin in his republick lib. 6. c. 5. p. 1154. with others, whose fates and falls to prevent, since a volumn might be multiplied, what States and Potentates such sins have ruinated, as are regnant at this instant both in our Church, State, Countries, and Cities; let us crush them as Cockatrices in their shells, and Serpents in their heads; let us put the sacrificing knife of the Word to their throats, and mortifie them by the Spirit, Rom. 8.13. so killing these vipers that will otherwise kill us, we shall gain, and re­tain Grace and Peace with God, with man, and with our selves, even Peace externall, internall, eternall: chiefly let us close hastily, heartily with Christ our Peace, Eph. 2.14. with Simeon let us claspe him in the arms of an applying faith, Luke 2.28. then we shall be sure to find Sun-shine in our Rains, songs in our sighs, calmes after stormes, peace after warres: in this Sun we shall have all light, in this Manna all meat, in this fountain all refreshing waters of life, John 4.10. in our dead times, Deus meus & omnia, said a Martyr) my God and all things, my Rock, Refuge, Sanctu­ary, and Salvation, Psal. 18.1. Iesus esto mihi Iesus, O Saviour be to me a Saviour, AMEN, AMEN.