love the Lord then Oh my Soul with all thy mind with all thy Heart with all thy strength and thy Neighbour as thy self for his sake let him have thy whole desire thy whole delight at all times Minus te amat qui aliquid tecum amat quod non propter te amat Idiotae contempl de amore Dei c. 12. He loves thee but little Oh Lord who loves any thing with thee which he loves not for thee says a devout Man 'T is but meet that the highest God should have the Supremacy in my heart If in the greater World he be King must he be a Subject in the less I am worse than Hell if God must not be acknowledged Soveraign in my Soul The Spirits there dare not cannot but own him as their Lord this is the duty they pay extorted indeed by their sense and fear which that it may not be thy dismal lot and fate Oh my Soul advance thou him freely to the Crown within thy self in a spontaneous generous Ardour of pure Incorrupt Incorruptible Love Which if thou dost not thou art accursed if thou dost thou art blessed for 't is a Prayer upon record in God's Word 1 Cor. 16.22 and therefore part of the matter of Christ's Intercession Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Incorruption or Immortality i. e. with a never-fading Love Eph. 2.24 and that only is a sincere Love Oh Love the Lord on Earth as thou wilt love him in Heaven with the same kind and press toward the same degree of Love and be happy Thus live in God above the tumult and hurry of external things and be at rest Marc. Antonin l. 2. p. 5 c. Omnem crede diem tibi diluxisse Supremum Live every day as if it were thy last and in every imployment so act Arrian l. 4. c. 10. as one that can be free to be found therein by Death p. 416. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It. l. 3. c. 5 p. 273. Antonin l. 6. §. 3◠What would'st thou be found doing by Death says Arrianus I for my part doing some masculine beneficial publick useful generous Work But if I cannot be found in these yet this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unhinderable this is given to me to amend my self to elaborate that faculty which makes use of Phantasies to endeavour apathy or freeness from Passion to give my Affections their due and if I can be so happy to gain soundness certainty of Judgment If Death find me thus employ'd 't will be sufficient to engage me with hands stretched out to God to say I have not neglected those Powers thou gavest me to observe thy Government and follow it I have done my endeavour not to disgrace thee Behold how I have used my Senses my Prenotions Have I ever blamed thee Have I been displeased with any thing befalling or wish'd it otherwise Have I misguided my Affections because thou begattest me I render thee the praise of thy Gifts in as much as I have well used thine it sufficeth me Resume them now again and where thou pleasest dispose of me For all were thine and thou gavest them me I the rather produce these Testimonies out of Heathen Authors to let Christians see how inexcusable it will be in them who have infinitely better Light Means Aids to neglect what even Nature and Reason taught Philosophers to practise And withall to awaken others with my self to a more assiduous care in these Exercises least it be found more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon for Sodom and Gomorrah than for us at the great day Observe all the inward Workings of the Divine Spirit both in calling out the actings of Grace and reviving thee with Peace and keep them upon record for after advantage Time may come when all thy present Sensations may be so cloudy that thou canst not see a peep of day canst not from any thing that thou feelest conclude that thy state is right before God But if at such a season and hour of temptation thou be'st able to call to mind that upon due trial when in a sober and composed calm of Thoughts the Lord satisfied thee upon sure and indefeisible Evidence that thy Heart was truly changed and that thou wast as a New Creature in Christ Jesus and that thy Objections and misdoubtings and temptations to the contrary were thorowly answered This will be such an ease to thy mind and a revival of thy hopes that ere long the mists and darkness will be driven away and thou wilt again reascend into a clear and serene Heaven of Light and Peace and Joy Make sure in this manner to lay up and reserve a good stock and treasure of Experiences if thou desirest Riches of Comfort yet content not thy self with the old but make new To remember what thou did'st enjoy and feel in the days of the right Hand of the Most High may revive thee but to sense and feel it at present much more Renew then those gracious Exercises over and over that did once produce Halcyon days in thy Soul and they will recall them the same effects will issue from the same Causes Amend what was amiss in former actings which gave Satan advantage to redintegrate thy Troubles and this will establish thy Peace upon a securer and more unexceptionable basis 'T is not possible to refute the Devils Objections against thy sincerity by a method more effectual than a more serious care to act all over again sincerely which he tempts thee to suppose was done unsoundly Renovated Acts of a sound Repentance and unfeigned Faith as sure Testimonies of thy Renovation after the Image of God will dash thine Accuser out of countenance If thou canst make any fresh Experiments of the Power of Divine Grace effecting this If God take thee anew into his bosom of Love to melt thee If a view of him whom thy Sins have pierced cause thy ebbing godly Sorrow again to flow over all the Banks Lastly if with a perfect Heart thou returnest from all thy by-past follies unto him from whom thou hast deeply revolted this will again retrieve thy sinking Heart and hopes as a new taste of the Lord's graciousness and evidence that he hath not forsaken thee but that his Mercy and Godness follows thee and shall all the days of thy life even to Eternity Set about this O my Soul with a resolved obstinacy of endeavour that will not be conquerable by any assaults of Corruption or Temptation For thou canst never take a Heaven of Joy and Rest except by violence and force Weak resolves do but only encrease the Devils Triumphs Strong cares are requisite to possess thee of strong Consolations Observe where when and how the Spirit moves and spread thy Sails before his sweet Spirations He is the Comforter because the Conducter into the way of Peace Thou canst enjoy no more of his Testimony to solace thee than
Paradise who by thine experimental knowledge of this evil of suffering will create in thee a saving knowledge of good and through these Fruits of the Tree of the Cross lead thee to the Tree of Life CHAP. IX The Subject of Comfort Eyes God in all things 7. THis Man of God enjoy'd and liv'd under much experience of divine Goodness and gracious Providence Under all that happen'd he ey'd and own'd the Hand of God 1. In Affliction Ver. 17. Vnless the Lord had been my help my Soul had almost dwelt in silence Ver. 22. The Lord is my defence and my God is the Rock of my Refuge 2. In Temptation When I said my foot slippeth thy Mercy O Lord held me up ver 18. 3. In both ver 19. the Text In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy Comforts delight my Soul A Man of common Principles would have look'd no farther than second Causes and the activity of Instruments and Means in his deliverance from Death ver 17. Than his own Prudence Caution Foresight Care and Endeavour in preservation from falling v. 18. Than his own reasonings and wise conduct of his Affections in the calm and serenity of his Mind v. 19. But this Holy Soul ascribes all to Divine Goodness And indeed to such a Man nothing is accidental he is never at a loss for the cause of any occurrent when he has not the least prospect of the agency of any thing on Earth he can find out a supreme mover in Heaven to whom nothing falls out by chance without either the foresight of his Intelligence or the conduct of his Wisdom or the determination of his Will or the interposal of his Power or the liberty of his Permission which though no cause at all properly but only that called sine quâ non which is but Fatua yet is governed by his Providence and all the possibilities thereof visible to his Prescience God is more concern'd in the World than the Artificer in a Clock who when 't is set together set up and agoing forsakes it He is sure little conversant in Scripture that imagines the Deity only a general cause who having constituted things with such and such particular Natures Propensions Biasses leaves them to run out their course without further Concurrence and Solicitude than to preserve them in the being constitution and activity he first gave them There 's nothing so mean so fortuitous but the Scripture intitles God to it either in way of Efficiency Direction Ordination or Permission If it be Good Natural or Moral he is the doer so if evil Natural if evil Moral though he abhor it cannot effect it or concur to it as such yet can he does he direct and order it to such ends as are consistent with his Wisdom Justice Holiness and Goodness which he well foreknows how to do therefore hinders not its existence as he easily could do without any violence to Nature blemish to his Government or infringement of the Liberty of his Creatures For to me 't is no little Mystery that although God be able to form a Rational Nature with liberty of Will and Prudence so to manage it that it shall at no time be compell'd to offer violence to its own freedom but in every act proceed with an even gentle sweet Spontaneity according to the dictates of its own finite Understanding yet that the infinite Intelligence and Prudence of the Divine Nature must be thought unable and insufficient by the reasonable Understanding and Will to elicite manage and guide these very humane Actions so as to preserve the same Liberty inviolable Let something be allow'd to Infiniteness sure it can do whatever Finiteness can if it be not to its disparagement If I can bring about my own resolute and fixed Purposes without prejudice to my own or others Liberty sure boundless Wisdom and Power can tell how to bring about its determinations by the liberty of the Creature A Reverend Judicious Divine my Relation told me that for experiment sake to try the power of an over-mastering Imagination he had oft requested such things of some Persons in whom he had no Interest at all which he knew they had an aversation to using no Reasons Arguments Motives Importunities at all further than the bare proposal only engaging himself strongly to fansie that he should obtain his desire and he seldom fail'd to prevail I never had the curiosity to make a tryal but am apt to think there may be something in 't upon consideration of the strange effects of the Mothers imagination upon her enwombed Infant as to both Impressions on its Body and Antipathies in its Mind the transpiring animal Spirits modify'd and mov'd strongly by a material Faculty may intermingle with those of a differing Body and over-rule their weaker Modifications and Motions and thereby the material Faculty that acted them as in Sympathetick Cures and the votatil Particles of Vitriol c. Crude or calcin'd do mix with the extravasated vital Spirits and return with them to their Fountain I confess these act only as Physical Causes and cannot vary in their effects of themselves though other external Causes may thwart them And what if a Man allow some such like thing to Spiritual Natures By what impressions they can communicate their Minds to one another by what impulses they bow one anothers Wills we know not but only the Effects God never fails to obtain the free voluntary Obedience of Angels And the more determin'd their Wills are the more free The Devil acts with less Liberty than a Glorified Saint and a Holy Angel with more than a self-determining Man who has both liberty of Contrariety and Contradiction can do both Good and Evil Act and not Act. Well if my Imagination further if my short defective Understanding can the one make such impresses the other produce such weighty momentous Reasons as shall sway my own and others Wills to an inhesitant and free compliance shall I not give that deference to the unfathomable Intellect and Reason of God as to suppose it endued with Ability to suggest such things as shall bow mine own or others Wills to a ready spontaneous ingenuous Concurrence than any thing can that is deduced merely out of the promptuary of mine own Mind I find my freedom in acting is gradually more or less intense according to the satisfaction of my Reason And if the Reason of God which is boundless cannot induce a more ample satisfaction than the Reason of a Creature which is but lame and imperfect and if he cannot with as much Facility without all impeach to our Liberty lead our Minds to the Contemplation thereof as in the use of the empire our selves have over them we can do if he cannot also more throughly excite acuminate quicken and enlarge our considering Powers freely to engage I have done 'T is not strange therefore that the Scripture ascribes all to God as the Origin of every individual Motion I find holy Men in
every though never so fortuitous an effect of a spontaneous Agent to look at God I 'll not instance in other than David And 1. for evil Events As he intimates a possibility of Saul's being excited against him by God 1 Sam. 26.19 and was foretold that the Lord would raise up evil against him out of his own House and take his Wives and give them to Absalom under the notion of his Neighbour 2 Sam. 12.11 So even when he was cursed by Shimei he owns it as from God 2 Sam. 16.10 Not that he supposed God had a hand in the sin of the Act but order'd it as a part of the punishment threatned for his own Sin 2. Good Events of all kinds he more frequently ascribes to God Does he conquer his Enemies 'T is the Lord that lets him see his desire upon them Psal 59.10 and subdueth the People under him Psal 18.47 48. See the whole Psalm and smites his Enemies in their hinder parts Psal 78.66 Do his Friends own and anoint and crown him King He entitles God to it Psal 21.3 When his Father and Mother forsake him the Lord takes him up Psal 27.10 Is he secur'd in a strong City 'T is the Lord's marvellous kindness Psal 31.21 What do I enumerating Particulars every Psalm is an Instance And indeed were it not so Prayer would be mere Mockery and Praise Hypocrisie Epist 31. and that of Seneca would be better Divinity than we are taught by the Scriptures which yet to suppose is most horridly Blasphemous Per maxima acto viro turpe est etiamnum Deos fagitare Quid votis opus est Facte ipse foelicem Let those English it that allow it Now when a Man does thus in all Events take notice of the Finger of God and thereby give him the glory of his Efficiency he is in a disposition for renewed Experiments of the Divine Power and Goodness in Peace and Joy Where the Glory will be given to God he will grant the fullest and sweetest tasts of his Graciousness But who will lose a Benefit 'T is lost where no likelyhood of any grateful Acknowledgement Unthankfulness is the most hateful of Sins Ingratum si dixeris omnia dixeris If God must not reap Praises he will not sow Mercies Not that he needs our Gratitude but that we must own our Benefactor and testifie our advances in Love when by new Instances he testifies his Love to us Nevertheless this Love of ours is not profitable to God but highly as all other Graces to our selves Our own Advantage and Interest is alway at the bottom of our Duty which indeed can add nothing to God Job 34. is nothing to him as neither can our Iniquity detract from him or hurt him His good will towards us moves him to take care that it may be well with us therefore doth he follow us with his tender Mercies and richest Blessings that we may proceed upon ingenuous Motives in our observance of him and obedience to him and may not be obnoxious to the check of Satan or our own Consciences for servility of Spirit in that work wherein consists our Liberty Honour and Happiness Indeed we are not really good if we be not ingenuously good nor act at all for God if we act not from a filial disposition Love is every Grace and Virtue that Spirit of Life which as an universal Cause diffuses its benign animating Influences through all the Regions of true Goodness and Honesty All in us that lives to God every holy Disposition every gracious Habit is only a distinct particular modification of Love Even as the varieties of Nature in those innumerable differences of Plants sensitive Creatures and Men in their Bodies are but Earthly Particles diversly modified formed fashioned and qualified Hence Love is said to be the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13.10 But without Love to be Good is impossible 1 Cor. 13. Where this Grace dwells God dwells also and the Soul inspirited by it dwells in God 1 Joh. 4.8 16. The more of Love therefore the more of God He will never be out of our Eye if he be thus in our Hearts Love there will command our Looks 'T was the dominion of this Grace in his Soul that mov'd the Psalmist to make such honourable mention here of the Love and Graciousness of God in his aid and sustentation 't was this that in his distress inclin'd him to take Sanctuary in God and own all the Spiritual Refreshments that solaced his Heart as derivations from God and engaged him to devolve all the Glory thereof upon God And how should that Soul do other that has all in God Hast thou then Oh my Soul evermore and in every occurrent an Eye toward Heaven and by thy acknowledgement of the Finger of God in every thing that befalls thee Dost thou honour his Providence indeavour to relish his Goodness and make some progress in thine affectionate pantings after him complacency in him resolution for him and dutifulness to him O let every thing remind thee of his everlasting Commiseration that in thy lost Estate remembred thee gave Blood for thy Ransom the Blood of God Acts 20.28 The time of thy lothing was the time of his Love Eze. 16.5 8. He loved thee out of the Pit of Corruption Isa 38.17 He hath prevented thee with the Blessings of Goodness Psal 21.3 He redeemeth thy Life from Destruction and crowneth thee with loving Kindness and tender Mercies Psal 103.4 He hath not dealt with thee after thy Sins nor rewarded thee according to thy Iniquities ver 10. Therefore ver 1 2. Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me Bless his Holy Name Bless the Lord Oh my Soul and forget not all his Benefits Hallelujah CHAP. X. The Subject of Comfort Seeks it solely in God THus much of the Character deduced from the Context there only remains one thing out of the Text it self Viz. The Psalmist was a Man who discern'd such an emptiness and insufficiency in all inferiour Contentments as to seek no relief from them nor take up with any in them as his rest in Trouble but in deepest anxiety and distress did look for and find all his comfort solely in and from God This is the very substance and marrow of the Verse Indeed the whole Psalm is a Testimony of his ceasing from the Creature from Man in a believing and affectionate recourse to God Where-ever he cast his Eye upon Earth the Inscription was Vanity and Vexation A deluge of Sin and Misery covered the World that like Noah's Dove he could find no rest for the sole of his Foot below therefore does he direct his course toward Heaven Thus Psal 55.6 Oh that I had wings like a Dove for then I would flee away and be at rest But Rest is not a Denizen of this World Nothing but the Heaven of Heavens is at rest and here does he fix only There was a Windy Storm and Tempest without as Psal 55.8