Gentlemen, do you know indeed, what it is that you make so great a stir for? which you value at so high a rate? which you hold so fast? which you enjoy so delightfully? You do not know: I dare say by your using of it that you do not know it. Or else you would soon have other thoughts of it, and use it in another manner. Come nearer, and see it through: and look into the inside. Consult not with blind and partial sense; but put on a while the spectacles of faith: go into the Sanctuary, and see the end. Nay Reason it self may t•ll you much of it. When you must part with it, you'll wish it hanged loose from you, and not been so glued to you, as to tear your hearts. You feel not what the Devils lime-twigs have done, till you are about to take wing, either by an heavenly contemplation, or by death; and then you•l find your selves entangled. The world is like to bad Physicians, quorum successus Sol intuetur, errores autem Tellus operit. The earth beareth yet all the good it doth you, but Hell hath hidden from you the mischief that it hath done to millions of your Ancestors: and therefore though this their way was their folly, yet do their posterity approve their sayings, Psal. 19. 13. Dic mi•i, saith Bernard, ubi sunt amatores mundi, qui ante pau•a t•n p•nobiscum fuerunt? Nihil ex ej• rema•sit, nisi cin•••s & vermes. Attende diligenter, qui sunt & suerunt, si•ru, commederunt & biberunt, riserunt, duxerunt in bonis dies suos, & in puncto ad inferna descenderunt. Hic caro eorum vermibus; illic anima eorum slammis deputatur, donec▪ ⟨image 13⟩rursus infelici collegio colligati sempiternis ignibus in volvantur. Who would so value that which he must eternally complain of, and not only say, It hath done me no good, but also say; It hath deceived me and undone me? I would not thank you to make me the Owner of all your Lands and Honours to day, and take it from me all to morrow. What the better now are your Grand fathers, and great Grandfathers, for living in those houses and possessing those lands, and honours and pleasures, that you possess? Unless they used them spiritually, and holily for God, and heaven, and the common good, they are now in hell for their sensuality upon earth, and are reaping as they have sown, (Gal. 6▪ 7, 8.) and paying dear for all their pleasures. Their bones and dust do give you no notice of any remnants of their honours or delights;
Gentlemen, do you know indeed, what it is that you make so great a stir for? which you value at so high a rate? which you hold so fast? which you enjoy so delightfully? You do not know: I dare say by your using of it that you do not know it. Or else you would soon have other thoughts of it, and use it in another manner. Come nearer, and see it through: and look into the inside. Consult not with blind and partial sense; but put on a while the spectacles of faith: go into the Sanctuary, and see the end. Nay Reason it self may t•ll you much of it. When you must part with it, you'l wish it hang'd loose from you, and not been so glued to you, as to tear your hearts. You feel not what the Devils lime-twigs have done, till you are about to take wing, either by an heavenly contemplation, or by death; and then you•l find your selves entangled. The world is like to bad Physitians, quo•um successus Sol intuetur, errores autem Tellus operit. The earth beareth yet all the good it doth you, but Hell hath hidden from you the mischief that it hath done to millions of your Ancestors: and therefore though this their way was their folly, yet do their posterity approve their sayings, Psal. 19. 13. Dic mi•i, saith Bernard, ubi sunt amatores mundi, qui ante pau•a t•n p•nobiscum fuerunt? Nihil ex ej• rema•sit, nisi cin•••s & vermes. Attende diligenter, qui sunt & suerunt, si•ru, commederunt & biberunt, riserunt, duxerunt in bonis dies suos, & in puncto ad inferna descenderunt. Hic caro eorum vermibus; illic anima eorum slammis deputatur, donec▪ ⟨image 13⟩rursus infelici collegio colligati sempiternis ignibus in volvantur. Who would so value that which he must eternally complain of, and not only say, It hath done me no good, but also say; It hath deceived me and undone me? I would not thank you to make me the Owner of all your Lands and Honours to day, and take it from me all to morrow. What the better now are your Grand fathers, and great Grandfathers, for living in those houses and possessing those lands, and honours and pleasures, that you possess? Vnless they used them spiritually, and holily for God, and heaven, and the common good, they are now in hell for their sensuality upon earth, and are reaping as they have sown, (
