ThePeautieofMine Ilar. 110.11.1. 11101gams imoseil*Waeur would then thewhim mercywhen the court ofmercy is flint up ? vvouldi+ thou recurne to the earth,and live there thoufand yeares undercontempt and perfecution for my, fame ? 0 yes, not under thy fervice onely, but un- der the rockes and mountaines of theearth, fo I may be hid from the face of the Lambe. Wilt thou be content to goe to hell andferve me there a thoufand yeeres in the mill of heilifh torments, and the reviling of damned creatures ? 0 yes, even in hellsinfinitely better would it be to be thy fervant than thine enecnie.. Wilt thou re- venge every oath with an yeare ofprayers, every bribe or corruption with a treafury of almes, every vanity with an ageof precifeneffe ? Yes Lord, the fevereft of thy commands to efeapebut the finallefl of thy judge- ments. 0 let usbe wife for our felves, there fhall be no filch eafieconditionsthen propofed when it will be im- poffible to obferve them, and there are now farre eafier propofed, when we are invited to obferve them. Lailly, from hence we learne that nonewill be Fril- ling to come unto Chriii till they Ice Beauty in his ler- vice, which with a carnall eye they cannot doe, for na- rurally the heart is poffeffed with much prejudicea- gain!} it,that the way ofreligion in that exaaneffewhich theWord requires, is but thephantafineof more fubli- mated fpeculations, a meere notiona.11 and airy thing, whichpath no being at all; but in the vvifbes of a few men,who fancie unto themfelves the fhape of a Church, as Zenophon did ofa Prince, or Platoof a Common- wealth. And therefore though with their tongues they doe not, yet in their hearts men are apt to lay a fide that rigour and exaaneffe which the Scripture requires, namely, to pull out our right eyes, to cut of our right hands, to hate father and mother, and wife, and lands, and our owne life ; todenyour felves, to croffe our own defires, to mortifie our earthly members, to follow the Lambe through evill report and good report, through aff1i6lions 363 VE RSE 3.
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