loved, I have now rebaptized them, and washed them cleaner from that profanation, than ever tripes were scow red from their filth by the nicest huswife in Field-lane. Now, being thus purified, you will find Let us to signify sometimes as much as, Hinder us not," Quixot the 12th verse 8. "Hinder me not, fair Dulcina, from the enjoyment of your sweet company;" sometimes as much as to say, suffer us;" saith the Reverend Buscon, chap. vii. verse 5, to his master in great affliction, "suffer us not to be starved to death," that is, "let us not be starved," &c. Yet it is not meant here, as in those places, by way of petition, but is a kind of rousing up of the spirits to a certain action, as when the carmen would heave a great load into their carts, they exhort one another, by crying hey boys; or as, when the coachman would have his horses to go faster than ordinary, he encourages them by saying, stir up, in which sense our learned Gusman uses this expression, Let us, in this place, as it were a word of incitement, or stirring us up to any undertaking. Some, when they use these words in this signification, do clap one another on the back, which adds a greater emphasis to them. But he goes on, Let us, saith he, while we live. And here you are to understand two things, what is meant by we, and, secondly, what is meant by the words in general, while we live. Note then, that we is a particle of distinction, which shews you that there is another sort of men to whom our dear Gusman doth deny the precious comforts held forth in this verse; for, my beloved, I would not have you think, that, when he spoke this, he had pigs in his belly, as Calvin, in his comment upon this place, doth erroneously conjecture. By we then is meant the godly, such as I and you are, whom the Lord hath chosen to the enjoyments of this world. The other sort of men here implied are all those who profess to be our enemies, men that would cut off our ears with the paring-shovels of their malice, and whip our backs with the scourges of their fury; for, did not the word intimate this distinction, our deceased brother had not used so many pious and painful endeavours to advance some men, and destroy others, that is, to advance his own godly party, and destroy his wicked foes. Let us, saith he, while we live, that is, while we are in power, while we live in authority, or be in favour with those that govern, whether it be a single person or a commonwealth; or, if you will have it otherwise, while we are in a thriving condition, while men think us godly and faithful, and consequently trust us with preferments or profit: I say, when the Lord shall put such opportunities and abilities into our hands, then, my brethren, Let us make use of our time; let us take hold of them with both hands, and hold them as fast as a mastiff holds a sow by the ear; Let us make use of our time, that is, let us use all endea vours, ways, plots, means, manners, tricks, and policies, whether lawful or unlawful, to raise and advance our own ends, whether they be only honourable, or profitable, or both. And when we have attained that which we scek, let us use the same inventions, that the ungodly man may not gain them from us, and thence take occasion to triumph over us. The fathers of the order of Industry, at the council held at Biscar in the year 1590, made a decree, that every one should keep his own, and get what he could from another. I speak this, that I may not leave you altogether without authority in the explanation of my text, but of this more anon. We shall now proceed to the reason of the words, for a man's life is ended in a day; as much as to say, the life of man is very short; for, whereas it was formerly above an ell and a nail long, it is now no longer than a span. How vast a while did Methuselah live to enjoy the pains and labours of his youth? But no sooner had our dear brother Mr. Peters got an estate, a little chariot, and an Onesimus or two to wait on him, thinking to comfort himself with the blessings of the creature, but he was snatched away from us, even as a boy snatches a pippin out of an apple-woman's basket. Some, in regard of the shortness thereof, have compared the life of man unto a lilly; but I am clearly of opinion, that it was a mistake; seeing that of that flower is made a precious oil that prolongeth the days of man by curing festered wounds, and broken pates. Others have likened it unto a rose, but with as little reason; for we know that of the rose is made that excellent conserve which is good against the cough of the lungs, one of the greatest enemies to life; I therefore, rather agreeing herein with that great light of the Spanish church Lazarillo de Tornes, shall compare our beloved brother unto marigold, and his ending in a day unto the fading thereof. For as the flowers of a marigold swimming on the top of a mess of porridge, which is the food of the body, is a great ornament thereunto, so, my beloved, was he a great ornament to our religion, which is the food of the soul; and even as that close's up at the setting of the sun, so did he end in a day, even in that day that the sun of our region was forced to withdraw himself from Whitehall. Thus much for the exposition. I shall now proceed to the doctrine that creeps out of my text, as a fox creeps out of his hole: That it is the duty of every professor, seeing that he hath but a short while to stay in this world, to make the best use of his time; the particulars of which doctrine I shall labour to make good unto you by reason and example. First, then, that there is a duty that lies upon every professor, we find evident by this, that there is in all men not only a labouring and a panting, but also a tye upon them to look after self-preservation, for, if a child of God be in want, and woeful necessity, as many times they are, the law of nature doth oblige them to seek after maintenance, and not to destroy themselves and their family. Saith Gusman in his second book, c. 3. v. 15, “Poverty is daily death;" so that he, who avoids not poverty, seeks a daily death, and is consequently a daily murtherer of himself; at least he intends it: Now, an intention to sin, without repentance, is a sin as great as the act itself. This it was that urged the holy Gusman to undertake those many atchievements which he performed; for saith he in another place, book the first, c. 8. v. 12, "I thought it not my duty to live in idleness:" Therefore, when necessity, the best school-mis tress of the godly, that maketh magpies to speak, and spaniels to fetch and carry, had made him consider his duty, he was not slack in the exercise thereof; so that, betaking himself to the religious calling of a thief, he stole the cook's silver goblet, the grocer's royals, and cousened the cardinal of his barrel of conserves. Moreover, my beloved, this duty of self-preservation caused our dear sister Agatha, as you may read in the first book of pious Francion, not only to bethink herself, but to bestir her stumps also: Finding herself therefore to be of a well-shaped body, and of comely features, and lovely in the eyes of men, she became an harlot, and was unto the brethren a great comfort in the frail distresses of human nature; whereby she was stored with wealth, and increased in worldly enjoyments. This duty it is that obligeth butchers to preach, and coblers to pray; that teaches them to make profession of religion, and then causeth them to take on them the gainful function of the ministry; whereby they may be the better enabled, after the sweet consolations of boiled beef and bag-pudding, to sing psalms, and rejoice in their families. All these things our deceased brother knew full well, which made him persist in the performance of this duty until the end. He soon found the sweet gain of preaching, and made such a dextrous use of it, that he was beloved of his rulers, and died with the blessing of Job; for I may say of our dear brother, as the text saith of him, that the Lord blessed his latter end more than his beginning. The Lord reward that blessed man who first invented this profitable and advantageous science. Thus much for the first part of our doctrine, that there is a duty lying upon every professor. Now, my beloved, I shall come to tell you what that duty is: 'Tis true the words of my text are so plain, that you may in a manner pick it out of the words, with as much ease as you can pick out the marrow of a leg of mutton bone with a skewer, or the wrong end of a spoon; for, say they, Let us, while we live, make use of our time, seeing the life of man is ended in a day. So that here you see what duty that is, that you ought to make use of your time; but, perhaps, you do not know what it is to make use of your time, which is the next thing I shall inform you. Know ye then, my brethren, there are swarms of such men as make profession of religion, who are not all of one trade or occupation; but some follow one thing, some another, according to their several gifts. For some are stitchers of cloth, some are boddice-makers, some are translators, some are soldiers, and fight the battles of the Lord; some are brokers; some are hewers of wood, that is to say, carpenters; some are drawers of water, that is, victuallers and innkeepers; some are those that gape for state employments; and some, though I deny not that any of these may take the ministry upon them in time, are preachers of the word, as soon as ever they have done playing at trap. Now, that every one of these professions may profit in their several vocations, there are required these nine gifts: The gift of convenient boldness I have placed the gift of convenient boldness in the van, and the gift of hypocrisy in the rear, knowing, that a professor cannot well go on upon any enterprise without the one, nor well come off without the other. Now, though a professor ought always to have an inward working of these gifts, yet the perfection of them is required in some sorts of professors more than in others: For example, the gifts of impudence, lying, and cousening, do more properly belong unto those who have trades and occupations of selling and buying. The gifts of ignorance, lying, impudence, informing, cousening, and hypocrisy belong unto such as seek preferment, whether civil or military; but all of them together are required to make up a minister of the word. I shall not here stand to tell you in particular how every one of these callings ought, according to their several gifts, to make use of their time; but in general, as a foot-boy skippeth over kennels, skip over those in. structions which concern the professors that are of my own livery. First, therefore, that a preaching professor may make use of his time, it is required, that he should be stored with impudence, even as a woodmonger's wharf is stored with faggots and sea-coal. The uses of it are these two, first, to encourage you to the most desperate enterprises; and secondly, to make you scorn the reproaches of those that reprove you: As for example, my beloved, if you see one of your enemies seated in a warm living, and that your heart pant and thirst after the same, you ought then to put on your night-cap of devotion, and your garment of hypocrisy, and go unto your superiors and say, yonder is a man who is not of the congregation of professors, who is planted in a rich living; he is a scandalous and disaffected person, and I am more worthy than he, pray put me into his place. If men therefore rebuke you, and call you accuser and devil, then ought you to make use of your gift of impudence, and laugh at them all. Thus did holy Nye throw out unrighteous Juxon out of his parsonage of Fulham: Thus our brother Marshall became possessed of his fat living in the land of Essex. This imboldened our departed brother to hold forth in the pulpit of Whitehall, where so many learned, as the heathen call them, had beer before him. What cared they for the reproaches of men, for their hearts were seared with the hot iron of impu. dence, finding themselves at ease and filled with joy? This likewise imboldened the poor Spaniard, as we find in the book of our dear Gusman, book I. c. 7. first to beg money, and then, without bidding, sit down cheek-by-jowl, with the ambassador; for, saith he, in the last verse, he was carried away with bravadoes, and an impudent behaviour. The next virtue, we are to make use of, is the gift of nonsense: For, perhaps, thou mayest not be a scholar, nor one of the number of the learned, and it may concern thee to talk two hours together; thou oughtest therefore to be well furnished with nonsense, that thou mayest be inabled to go through with thy work; to which purpose often repetitions, and telling of tales, do very much conduce; as when our departed brother told the story of his being in heaven and hell, and the tale of puss in her majesty. The next gift is that of lying, which may be very profitable to thee, and whereof thou mayest make a very great advantage; for, if thou art bid to preach for the benefit of thy rulers, if then thou art furnished with soul-cousening doctrine; if then thou hast the right art of lying and wheedling the people, by telling them, that the cause thou speakest of is the only true cause, and that God will certainly own them in their obedience to it, then there will arise unto thee a very great emolument. With these arts our deceased brother furnished the parliament with basons, rings, and bodkins. Thus he, by telling them that Ireland was a place that flowed with milk and honey, and where broad-cloath of twelve shillings a yard grew upon the trees, inticed the soldiers over against the publick enemy. Thus we read in the fore-mentioned chapter of Gusman, how the same Spaniard, by relating the nobleness of his family, though he were but a cobler's son in Cordova, and by, boasting of several great actions, which he never did, got of the said ambassador both money and his dinner. We find also Mr. Sterry practising this gift, when to ingratiate himself with his new master, our late protector, he assured him, that his father was sitting at the right hand of God, when most divines do affirm the contrary. The next thing, requisite for a man that will make you but use of his time, is the gift of accusing and slandering: Knowest thou not, O man, that slanders are like the defilement of printers ink, easily laid on, but hard to rub off? If then thou seekest to work any one into disfavour with his superiors, that thou mayest obtain thy desired end, make thy first shot at him with the pot-guns of slander; for the disgrace, thou throwest upon him, throws him out, and tosses thee into the haven of thy wishes. Thus our deceased brother never left accusing unsanctified Laud, till his head had satisfied his wrath; and the benevolences, which the professors bestowed on him out of his worldly profits, had appeased the hunger of his almost famished purse: Thus the brethren likewise accused the Lord Craven, being of the race of Ishmael, and got his estate. Thy next gift is ignorance; for thou must know that there are few wise men in authority. Thinkest thou then, O foolish Galatian, that any man will advance such a one as is more cunning than himself? No, thou must at least pretend ignorance; and if, after such advancement, thou dost grow wiser than thy brethren, then, I say, make use of thy time, saith blessed Machiavel in his book of the Right Path to Preferment, " Let every man counterfeit that |