The triall of a Christians sincere loue vnto Christ. By Mr William Pinke, Mr of Arts late fellow of Magdalen Colledge in Oxford

TO THE HONOVRABLE AND TRVLY Noble Lord, the Lord GEORGE DIGBY, Sonne and Heire of the Right Honourable the Earle of BRISTOLL.

Right Honourable and my very Good Lord,

THAT I haue pre∣sumed to present to your Lordships Patronage, these few Sermons of a deceased worthy friend, it is not so much the acknowledgment of those great favours and noble respects wherewith you were pleased to grace

Him, and since his death haue vouchsafed to extend to mee your vnworthy ser∣vant as a due consideration (if in Dedicatiōs matchable∣nesse be to be regarded (how properly and peculiarly they doe belong to your Lord∣ship both in respect of the Authour and the Argument. The Authour was one, whom, for his singular dex∣terity in the Arts, depth of iudgement, sharpnesse of wit, and especially his skill in languages, Hebrew, Greeke, Arabicke, you were pleased to make choice of for one of your Readers during your abode at Magdalen Colledge in Oxon, in which time you

so obliged him by the abun∣dant testimonies of your good affection to him, that He oft professed to mee how great & iust an interest your merits claimed in all his stu∣dies and labours. This which you here see is but an Essay to some master-peece which you might haue expected, if he had liued to finish what he attempted in the Greek An∣tiquities, & obseruations on the Hebrew Text. For the matter, it being a Theame of the weightiest businesse in Christianity, the ground∣worke of all; which if it bee not first rooted in the heart, all other our conclusions and speculations in Diuinity will

bee but like the building a Castle in the ayre, and may giue the soule content per∣haps, of a rare speculation, but cannot of a powerfull, experimentall, soule-quick∣ning, and soule sauing Reli∣gion: The Argument, I say, being such, as I could not harden my selfe against the requests of some who desired the publishing thereof for the good many soules might reape by it, so neither could I thinke any, fitter to Patro∣nage a Theam of piety, than one who shewed himselfe a∣mongst vs, both a Patron & an example of it. I would be as farre from flattery as you are from the want of it, and I

would not, you should looke your selfe in a false Glasse: ouerweening in any man is a thing that exposeth to secret contempt, when∣soeuer the weaknesse shall be espied, but Great men so much the more, by how much they are the more obserued, and haue occasi∣on oftner to come vpon the stage. You remēber what manner of man he was, se∣rious in his studies, deuout & strict in an holy conuer∣sation, the things you lo∣ued in him, and imitated: A singular O men, when No∣ble mē begin betimes to be countenancers of goodnes and good men: so perseuere

to doe like a good Obadiah* 1.1 the Church shall blesse you and God shall honour you, * 1.2 For those that honour him, he will honour, and them that despise him hee will couer with shame, either by bring∣ing on them some notable judgement, or by giuing them vp to such headlong courses and filthy vices, whereby their honour shall be stained, their estates wa∣sted, themselues and their posterity ruined (it being not vnusuall with God to punish men by their owne deuices and sinnes wherein they delight.) And so doth your Lordship perseuere to doe, I will not load your

modesty with a slender re∣port of your owne worth: What perhaps I ought to say, your Lordship may guesse by what the people doe say of you, and what I should commend vnto you (if I were able or worthy) by what the world expects from you: I know there is nothing more vaine then to liue by opinion, by what men say or expect; opinion is but an ill rule and gouer∣nesse of our liues and acti∣ons (another mans measure being too long, or too short for me) yet this vse we may make of it; when men be∣gin to applaud and take no∣tice of that which our selues

haue the greatest reason to study & affect, it may serue to raise our vertues to an higher pitch, than our own priuity could lightly bring them, the loue & practise of any good increasing with the acceptance it findes a∣broad: But I forget what I haue in hand, I close all with apprecatiō of all hap∣pinesse to your Lordship: the God of Ioseph double vpon you the blessings of Ioseph,* 1.3 Blessed let him make you for the precious things of Heauen, and of the deep that coucheth beneath, for the precious things of the Earth, & the fulnesse there∣of, but especially, for the

good will of him, that dwelt in the Bush: Doe worthily in Ephratah;* 1.4 and bee you famous in our Isreal: The seeds of Vertue and pious education wherewith your tender yeeres haue beene seasoned, let them budde and yeeld their pleasant & wholsome fruit in their sea∣sons. I still trespasse. Mo∣neo, quod facis

Spondes digna tuis ingenti∣bus omnia coeptis.* 1.5

Shirburn. Iul. 7. 1630.

Your Lordships humble and deuoted seruant, WILLIAM LYFORD.

Notes

• * 1.1

  1 King. 18.
• * 1.2

  1 Sam. 2. 30.
• * 1.3

  Deut. 33. 13. 6.
• * 1.4

  Ruth. 4. 11.
• * 1.5

  Virg. Aen. 9▪