WHen I but seriously consider this besotted World , how ( like a turbulent torrent ) it is inundate with all sorts of execrable sinnes , a trembling horror vnties my bodies Ligatures , my very knees beate together ; and I could vnfainedly wish my sinewie Structure to be transformed into a lumpe of Snow , that the ardor of my soules vexation might dissolue it into penitentiall teares . Do not men act sin with an auaritious appetite ? Are not all varieties of abhominations lifted to their verticke point ? Is not Sathan , that subtile Impostor , put to his Nil vltra in coyning them , so fast , as men would willingly put them in practise ? Did Pride euer so strut it vpon the Tiptoes as now it doth ? Doth not Sir Iaques-Scabdhams ( sole heire to some driueling and gowty Vsurer , who to gaine one single deniere to the number of multiplication , would sucke Figges out of an Asses fundament ) bestow more on a paire of spangled Shoo-tyers , then some of our ancient Kings haue done of a whole garment ? But Olim haec meminisse , nocebit . Can the diuell out of his shop of Fashions , lay open more anticklike Formes then are forged on the Anvile of mans fantasticke Inuention ? In Court , the Nobility are hardly distinguisht from their followers : in City , the Merchant is not known from his Factor : in Country , the Gentry cannot be descried or described from the Bacon-eating , brawny-handed Rustick : and in generall , the Body-publicke is so ore-spredde with the leprosie of that garish Strumpet , PRIDE , as there is scarse any difference betwixt Countesse and Curtezan , Lady and Chamber-maid , Mistresse and greasie Kitchin-wench , Gentleman and Mechanicke ; as for Knight and Taylor , there goes but a paire of Sheares betwixt them . How many mispend and profusely lauish their forenoones houres in the curious pranking of their sinne-polluted bodies , but how few rescrue one poore brace of minutes wherein to prouide spirituall induments to house their naked sinfull soules ? Neuer was that Apoththegme of old Bias the Philosopher more verified ( Omnia mea mecum porto ) then in these our franticke Times : most men carry their wealth about with them , ( not as Bias did , in Learning and Vertue ) but vpon their backes in gorgeous apparrell : women do so commonly sophisticate their beauties , that one ( though Linceus-sighted ) can hardly iudge whether they possesse their owne faces or no : and which is more then most lamentabl , euery snowy-headed Matron , euery toothlesse * * An abuse much complaind of by the Company of Painters . Mumpsimus , that one may see the sunne go to bed through the furrowes of her forehead , must haue her boxe of odoriferous pomatum , and glittering Stybium wherewithall to parget , white-lime , and complexionate her rumpled cheekes , till shee looke as smug as an handsome painted close-stoole or rotten post . But as for those that lap vp their bodyes in the pleasant mists of aromaticke perfumes , let them withall swallow the Poets pill : Neuole , nonbenè olet , qui benè semper olet . Martial . Within a sweete and Ciuet-lurking body , often is imprisoned a loathsome stinking soule . Murther is accounted but Manly reuenge , & the desperate stabber cares no more to kill a man then to cracke a Flea . Vsury and Extortion are held Laudable vocations ; Couetousnesse is styled Thrift ; Luxurie and Whoredome are reputed but youthfull trickes . And as for Drunkennesse , why that 's a tolerable recreation : do not men pursue it with such inordinat affection , that they oft neglect their functions , bid farewell to that domesticke care they ought to entertaine , dislodge that humane prouidence which should be shut vp in the cabinet of their reasonable part , and soly prostitute themselues to quotidian carowsing , till their breathes smell no sweeter then a Brewers Aperne ? whilst their families are wrung and grip't in the clutches of Pouerty , lockt vp and imprisoned from those necessary supplements , which shoulde keepe both breath and body together at vnion . This is a worthy * * S. Gregory . Fathers opinion , That a manpossessed with a diuell may be thought to be in a more hopefull state then a Drunkard : for albeit he be possessed , yet is it compulsiuely , and against his will ; but the Drunkard wholly adopts and dedicates himselfe with all the powerfull faculties of his soule , voluntarily to the seruice of Sathan . S. Augustine likewise descries three fearefull properties in a Drunkard : S. Augustine . It confoundes Nature , ( saith hee ) loseth Grace , and consequently incurres Gods wrathfull indignation to be powred out vpon the embracer thereof .

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

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

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

Those also stand within the stroke of my penne , who were wont to Curtaine ouer their defects with knauish conueyances , and scum off the froth of all wanton vanity , to qualifie the eager appetite of their slapping Fauorites . In fine , these are the Maisters of those Mint-houses , wherein are coyned all kinds of Atheisticall prophanations : these are they , who by their wantonizing Stage-gestures , can ingle and seduce men to heaue vp their heartes and affections , as a voluntary sacrifice to that exulcerated Fiend * * The spirit of Lechery . Asmodeus , and all other abhominable Idoll-sinnes , obstinately alienating and tearing their selues and soules from the spirit of Grace ; and by howe much more exact these are in their mimicke venerean action , by so much more highly are they seated in the Monster-headed Multitudes estimation : notwithstanding one might thus gleeke them , ( as Diagenes did the fellow that exercised the Play called * * A foolish game vsed by louers , Erasin . Apophthegm . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) The better they doe , the more it is . Hee therefore , who ( by the assidual drinking vp the loathsome Lectures ) with auaritious delectation whiffes down the muddy lees of their damnable doctrine , fals par into the pawes of the Poets tart invectiue : Ridiculus tot as simul absorbere placentas , Horat. lib. 1. Sat. 8. — In lieu of delicies , The wit-blinde gull will swallow guilded Flies . These are they , whose exemplary lascinious subiect-matter , leaue behind it ( like the snaile ) a slimy trackt , in which many of their Sectaries insensibly post on so fast , till they plunge themselues praecipitate into the Charybdis of incuitable destruction , and contemned beggery . O then let the honest heart lay fast hold of the Poets counsell , who being hoode-winkt with the condensate and cloudy night of ignorance , could by naturall instinct discerne this light , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Theognis . Keepe and conuerse with honest company , For still from them , thou mayst gleane honesty . Could not the impetuous stormes bee quieted , the foaming billowes calmed , nor the ship preserued , till Ionas was hurl'd ouer-board ? Then surely neither can Gods wrath be qualified , nor his pestilential arrows , which fly amongst vs by day , & lethally wound vs by night , be quiuer'd vp , till these Menstruous * * Bawdy Players . Ragges be torne off ( by the hand of Authority ) from the Cities skirts , which so besoyle and coinquinate her whole vesture . The Primum mobile which giues motion to these vnder-turning wheeles of wickednesse , are ( those mercenary Squitter-wits mis-called Poets , whose illiterate and picke-pocket Inuentions , can Emungere plebes argento , slily nip the bunges of the baser troopes , and cut the reputations throat of the more eminent rank of Cittizens with corroding scandals : these are they , who by dipping their Goose quils in the puddle of mischiefe , with wilde and vncollected spirites make them desperately drunke , to strike at the head of Nobility , Authority , and high - seated Greatnesse . And all this they doe , but onely to purchase the Fee-simple of a Long-lane Suite , to entaile a Punke in some new-stript Peticoate , and to cancell the Tauern-bill for two Bacchanall Suppers : albeit , for the whole next-ensuing quarter , they bee faine to liue by the denariall lines drawne from the Center of an Essex Cheese ; and be glad sneakingly to sucke vp the bottomes of gamesters leauings , or young Prodigals superfluities , ( to whome they stick as fast as a kibe to a Boyes heele ) as Flies doe in sommer the drunkards spillings . Oh! how their teeth will stand wet-shodde at the presence of a brace of blacke Puddings ? and think themselues as braue men as a new chosen Scauenger , if they be but prefer'd to the caruing vp of a two-penny Custard . With reucrence notwithstanding , must my petulant Muse stoope low to those wit-wonders of our age , whose Inuentions sphaere moues in a mystick orbe beyond the common Intellect . But without farther euasion , I will returne into the path of my intended purpose . Many set faire out-side colours vppon their profession of Religious honesty , but being strictly lookt into by the penetrating eye of Practise & Performance , proue seldome dyde in grayne . Some glitter like Gold in their conuersation , but put once to the touch , are found but counterfeit Alcamy : Others will needs seeme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a substantiall body , in integrity of life ; but shaken and fisted with the hand of Triall , become but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , an Anatomy of bones . To giue Almes is thought but a phantastick Ceremony , and to refresh the comfortlesse Lazarus , is deem'd but the maintenance of idle and exorbitant vagabonds . O where is Charity fled ? Is shee not whipt and foysted out of great mens Kitchins , glad to keepe sanctuary in straw-cloathd Cottages ? Are not larger beneuolences often distributed at the doore of one Russet-clad Farmer , then at ten mighty mens gates ? The Magnifico's of this worlde reare vp sumptuous buildings onely for shew & ostentation ; whiffing more smoake out of their Noses then their Chimneyes : & it begets more wonder to see them shake down their bounty into the poore mans lap , then to see a Court Lady vnpainted , or to finde an open-fisted Lawyer , that without a * * Vulgarly termed bribe . New-yeares guift will faithfully prosecute his Clients cause . Notwithstanding al this , so parcimonious are they in their domesticke prouision , that not a Rat of any good education , but scornes to keepe house with them . In those Golden Times of yore , Charity was the rich mans Idoll : for they did emulate each other , in supplying the widdowes wants , in comforting the orphans miseries , and in refreshing the trauellers wearines ; and it was their earthly Sammum bonam to bee open hearted and handed to each hungry stranger ; this Inscription commonly engraued vppon the front of their gates : Porta patens esto , nulli clauderis honesto , O gate , stand ope to all , be shut gainst none : But in these our moderne dayes , they can cunningly transpose the poynt , and thus peruert the sense : Porta patens esto nulli , clauderis honesto , Stand open ( Gate ) to none , be shut gainst all . Doe not these Heauen-tempting Nimrods depopulate & leuell with the ground whole Townes , crowd and iustle many honest and ancient Farmers out of their demesnes , deuastate their possessions , and expose them , with their wiues , children , and families , to be Camerades with pale-fac't beggery ? onely to lay the Basis of their Babell-out-brauing Pallaces , abillimented with Punkish out-sides , to cheate the speedy-approaching traueller of his hungry hopes , as Zeuxis did the silly Birds with his liuely-limbed Grapes : and if they bee in-lined with quaint garnishings , shings , and costly furniture , and beautified with curious-pencild peeces , whereon thy eye may glut it selfe by gazing , yet perhappes mayst thou be Chap-falne for want of victuals . These glittering obiects are the Medusa's that inchant , the violent instigations that spurre on young luxurious heires , to hurle out their angle to catch their Fathers liues , and languishingly to long , till they see their mossie bearded Sires topple vp their heeles . Neuer could the Poets tristall song be better adapted , then to these our degenerate times : Ouid. Filius ante diem patries inquirit in anuos . And when their Fathers surrender vp their breathes to him from whome it was first diffused , then do they mourne ( forsooth ) though ceremonially , not for that they are dead , but because they dyed no sooner .

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

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

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

Doth not an vncouth terrour seize vpon a man , when in the depth or noone of night this sudden & vnthought-of out-cry of Fire , Fire , shall fill his affrighted eares , and chase him out of his soft and quiet slumbers ; whereat , skipping from his easefull bed , and distractedly gazing through the casement , shall behold his owne house ore-spred with a bright-butning flame , & himselfe , together with his wife , children , seruants , goods , and all , most lyable to the deuouring rapacity of imminent danger ? O consider then thou wicked man , how thy soule will be beleaguer'd with anguish & horror , when in that last and terrible Day , thou shalt behold with thy mortall eies the Cataracts of Heauen vnsluc'd , & hushing showers of sulphurious fires disperse themselues through all the corners of the earth and ayre , the whole Vniuerse ore-canoped with a remorcelesse flame : when thou shalt see the worldes great and glorious Iudge appeare triumphantly in the skies , whilest mighty winged clouds of deuouring flames flye before him , as vshers to his powerfull and terrible Maiesty ; attended with countlesse multitudes of beauteous Angelles , golden-winged Cherubims and Seraphims sounding their Trumpets , whose clamorous toungs shall affright the empty ayre , and call and awake the drowsie dead from their darke and dusky Cabines : when thou shalt see the dissipated bones of all Mortals since the Creation ( concatenate & knit in their proper and peculiar forme ) amazedly start vp , and in numberlesse troupes flocke together , all turning vp their wondring eyes to gaze vppon their high and mighty Creator . Then , ô then will thy Conscience recommemorate afresh thy past-committed sinnes , & with the corroding sting of guilt wil stab through thy perplexed soule ; then , ô then will it be too late to wish the mountaines to fall vpon thee ; for they themselues for feare would shrinke into their center : alas , it cannot then bee auaileable to wooe the waters to swallow thee ; for they would bee glad to disclaime their liquid substance and be reduced to a nullity : what will it boote thee then , to intreate the earth to entombe thee in her dankish wombe , when she her selfe will struggle to remoue from her locall residence , and to flye from the presence of the great Iudge : the ayre cannot muffle thee in her foggy vastiry , for that will bee clearely refin'd with celestiall flames , before contaminated with humane pollution . In fine , how will thy soule tremblingly howle out , and break forth into bitter exclamations , when thou shalt heare that definitiue , or rather infinitiue sentence denounced against thee , Non noui , diseede , ito in Gehennam , I know thee not , depart , and goe into euerlasting torment ; whilest Legions of deuils with horride vociferations muster about thee , like croking Rauens about some dead carkasse , wayting to carry thee . O then thou Vsurer , and thou that grindest the Faces of the pore , thy gold cannot ransome thee : then , thou mighty man that wrackest the widdow , and circumuents the orphan of his successiue right , thy honour cannot priuiledge thee : then thou murtherer , adulterer , and blasphemer , thy colourable excuses will not purge thee : then , ô thou vncharitable churle who neuer knewest , that Nil diues habet de diuitijs , nisi quod ab illo postulat pauper , A rich man treafures vp no more of his riches , then that hee contributes in almes : thou , that neuer imbracedst the counsel of that reuerend * * Ambrose . Father , who cryes , Pasce fame morientem : quisquis pascendo seruare poteris : si non paucris , fame occidisti : Feed him that dyes for hunger , whosoeuer thou art that canst preserue and wilt not , thou standest guilty of famishing : then I say , in that day shalt thou pine in perdition : then , ô thou luxurious Epicure , that through the fiue senses , which are the Cinque-ports , or rather sinneports of thy soule , gulpest downe delightfull sinne , like water , they will be to thee like the Angels booke , sweet in thy mouth , but bitter in thy bowels : then , ô thou ( gorbellied Mammonist ) that piles vp and congesteth huge masses of refulgent earth , purchased by all vnconscionable courses , yet cariest nothing with thee , Nisiparna quod vrna capit , but a Coffin and a Winding-sheet ; thy faire pretences will bee like characters drawne vpon the sands , or arrowes shot vp to heauen-ward , they cannot release thee from Satans inexpiable seruitude : Then , ô thou Canker-worme of Common-wealths , thou monster of man , thou that puttest out the eye of Iustice with bribes , or so closely shuts it , that the clamorous cry of the poore mans case cannot open it ; thou that makest the Lawe a nose of waxe to turne and fashion it to thine owne priuate end , to the vtter disgrace of conscionable Iustice , and to the lamentable subuersion of many an honest and vpright cause , thy quirkes , dilatorie demurres , conueyances and conniuences cannot acquit thee : but thou shalt bee remooued with the Writ Corpus cum causa , into the lowest and darkest dungcon of damnation . No , no , the Lord of heauen and earth ( who is good in infinitnesse , and infinit in goodnesse ) will winnow , garble , and sanne his corne , the choyce wheate hee will treasure vp in the garners of eternall felicity , but the chaffe and darnell must be burnt with vnquenchable fire : There must you languish in torments vnrelaxable : there must you frie and fieeze in one selfe-furnace : there must you liue in implacable and tenebrous fire which ( as 2 2 August . de ciu. t●dei . Austin defines ) shall giue no light to comfort you . Then will you wish ( though then too late ) that you had beene created loathsome Toades , or abhorred Serpents , that your miseries might haue clos'd vp with your liues : but you must be dying perpetually , yet neuer dye ; and ( which enuirons mee with a trembling terror ) when you haue languisht in vnexpressible agonies , tortures , gnashings , and horrid howlings ten thousand millions of yeares , yet shall you be as far from the end of your torments , as you were at the beginning . A confused modell & misty figure of hell haue wee conglomerate in our fancy , drowsily dreaming that it is a place vnder earth , vncessantly ( Aetna-like ) vomiting sulphurious flames , but we neuer pursue the meditation thereof so close as to consider what a thing it is to liue there eternally : for this adiunct Eternall intimates such infinitenesse , as neither thought can attract or supposition apprehend : and further to amplifie it with the words of a woorthy writer : Though all the men that euer haue or shal be created , were ( Briareus like ) hundred-handed , and shoulde all at once take pennes in their hundred hands , and should doe nothing else in ten hundred thousand millions of yeares but summe vp in figures as many hundred thousand millions as they could , yet neuer could they reduce to a totall , or confine within number , this tri-sillabled word Eternall .

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