or like a dead Tree withered and plucked up In this forelorn and hopeless condition when no man regards our perishing we come to God for help and he in whose only power it is to help doth help us and deliver us and makes the dry bones live and we have seen the salvation of the Lord and the wonders that he doth for the Sons of men and have been transported with joy as the Israelites when they came out of Babylon were I acknowledge that there be some who come in no misfortune nor are plagued like other men But all those whom Christ Jesus hath chosen to be his souldiers he trains up in this discipline But if it were so that I had not gone thorow such perils such afflictions and such troubles as I see and hear to befall other men Have I not much more cause to praise God for keeping me in health than for raising me up again being fallen sick from keeping me from the perils which befall other men than for delivering me if I had been in danger and for keeping me from troubles wherein others are plunged If I consider the calamities of men far greater than my self As for instance of him who is more worth than thousands of us our Soveraign Lord the King Can I chuse but bless God that my distresses afflictions and perils of life have not been so many and great as his But how great and good above me was he that was after God's own heart What pains perils and troubles did he not go thorow first in his person his reins chastened him in the night he had no soundness in his bones then from his superiours Saul persecuting him as long as he lived from his inferiours his servant curseth him to his face from unkind neighbours as Doeg the Edomite from his Relations his wife scoffing him his Son rebelling and another commits a rape on his Sister c. Besides the temporal mercies he also tells us what God hath done for his soul too as Psal 103. and blesseth God for forgiving all his sin c. ib. For this we can never praise God enough Meditations and Ejaculations Go about Duties not as labours but thy only enjoyments Delight thy self in the Lord and expect the Reward LORD since thou hast promised thy holy Spirit to them who ask it of thee I beseech thee give it to me for without it I cannot serve thee nor walk in obedience to thy holy Commandments for by reading and hearing thy Word I can only know my duty I cannot retain my holy resolutions which are stirred up in the duties one hour Therefore do thou create in me a new heart and a new nature Regenerate me by thy Spirit and the immortal seed and write thy Law in my heart and give me thy holy Spirit the Almighty Helper the Comforter and hold thou me up and I shall be safe Make me willing to undergo conflicts with sin for hereby I shall have comfort in the hour of death and the day of trouble O give me peace of conscience the comforts of a well-spent life that I may be able to say with Hezekiah Lord remember how I have walked before thee in all simplicity when the day of death comes Make me wise to consider alwaies my latter end and what thoughts I shall have then of the world and all its comforts let this restrain me from giving up my self to them else I shall be a fool in my latter end as the wicked are and cry out that the world hath deceived them their consciences being then awakened which in their lime-time they stifled and then the Hypocrites have no hope Therefore Lord give me grace and prudence to make provision against that time that the sting of death may be taken out Let me believe the terrours threatned against the wicked that I may never come to feel them Let me find Christ my Advocate when death comes upon me And that I may not die in my sin make me by thy grace continually to die to sin Deliver me from every evil work and preserve my body and soul blameless unto the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Lord above all things give me to fear sin and the transgression of thy Law who art the great Soveraign of the world its Creator and Preserver to whom we owe both our persons and obedience and if the Gentiles do by nature the things contained in the Law much more let me who have as well the written Law and the Gospel as the Law of Nature do the things contained in the Law else how shall I escape thy wrath But having tryed our obedience thou hast found us all rebels and in thy justice mayest damn us all if thy mercy in Christ Jesus do not save us Since Jesus Christ our Saviour was made under a Law and the glorious Angels fulfil thy commandments and hearken to the voice of thy word and man hath no such perfection as his Saviour or the Angels but our wisdom and our perfection is in obedience to the Law Inable us to keep it for herein God hath shewed us what is good Micah 6.8 Every child of God is as a souldier keeping a garrison in an enemies Country Therefore Lord as I put on my apparel let me remember to put on the Armour of light and to watch and be provided to fight thy battels let me not be destitute of any piece of this Armour but give me all Christian vertues I am naked naturally and without this Armour but unless I have it of thy gift I cannot put it on but must perish by my nakedness for I cannot have any truse from my spiritual adversary who watches to destroy us And give me the skill of an expert warriour to use these Armes against the Devil the World and the flesh inable me to put off all sins which hinder the planting and growth of grace in our hearts for we cannot serve God and mammon let me depart from evil that I may do good Let me feel the power of Christ's death that I may partake of his resurrection Let the sense of my forepast sins make me the more diligent in thy service Since my darkness is passed let me put off the works of darkness Let me not delay considering my danger and the shortness and uncertainty of life and the greatness of the reward if I do thy service For to him that is faithful in much thou wilt give much ten Cities for improving his five talents to that number That I may fear sin and not make light of it or a mock of it as fools are said to do let me consider the great evil of it That it is the foolishness and brutishness of a man the darkness and nakedness the blindness and sottishness and death of the soul which makes us said to be dead in trespasses and sins and that the effects of sin are the worst of evils That it makes us like to the Devils That one sin makes us
the perception of these mysteries so according to this example let thy faithful people prepare themselves with repentance and perfect charity and if we remember that our neighbour hath any thing against us ler us leave our gift at the Altar and go and be first reconciled to our neighbour and then perform our Sacrifice to God and apprehending and discerning the Lord's body that we commit no irreverence And as our souls are prepared so let us prepare our bodies as thy servant David when he eat the shew bread 1 Sam. 21.5 answered the Priest Women had been kept from them three daies and the vessels of the young men were holy Let our bodies be sanctified by fasting temperance abstinence prayer and humiliation lest as the Ark of the Covenant by which the Lord conveyed the greatest benefits to the Israelites being taken by the Philistines brought to them the greatest calamities and so it did to Vzzah for but touching it irreverently In like manner these heavenly gifts if we eat them unworthily shall prove our damnation and if they who but touched the hem of his garments or received him into their house received such benefits shall not they who receive him into their souls be healed of all their infirmities and as the antient martyrs by receiving these mysteries were strengthened to undergo all that tyranny could lay upon them Let them in like manner strengthen us against all that Satan and the world can do against us And as the daily Infirmities of our body are helped by our bodily nourishment so let our Infirmities of our souls by this our Spiritual nourishment be relieved and us be satisfied and delighted therewith as with heavenly manna O Lord sacrifice and offerings and burnt offerings thou wouldest not have but thou gavest a body to thy only begotten Son that he should offer up himself in whom thou art well pleased And this Sacrament was instituted by him in Commemoration of his death and the acceptable Sacrifice of his life for the sins of the world Lord by his death and Sacrifice of his life unto thee which we hereby celebrate be reconciled unto us This is that pure Sacrifice which the Saints shall offer up unto thee in every place LORD since thou turnest the malice of men and the unjustice which they do thy Saints to the advantage either of their secular concerns as Josephs imprisonment was or of their soules Lord inable me to suffer wrong and to take it patiently to suffer railings and reviling as David did Shemei's railing saying If the Lord hath said to Shemei curse David who shall say why hast thou done so So let him curse for who can tell whether the Lord will requite good for his railing If I loath the fool in them I must not act it my self by returning the like Let me consider that by patience I possess my Soul and that it is better to suffer wrongfully than as an evil doer since it is the will of God that we should suffer and let our graces be exercised hereby And let us consider him who endured such contradiction of sinners Jesus our Lord lest we faint and be weary in our mind for the consideration of his suffering such reproach and the frequent remembrance of him hath efficacy and vertue to strengthen and support us who are willing to be conformable to his sufferings but we had rather that this cup might pass from us LORD whenever we fall into any sin we find immediately that we have lost our own innocence and thy favour so that we cannot go about our affairs with that quietness and peace and serenity of mind as before we did and in all that we do we fear it will have but bad success because we dare not look up to thee for a blessing Lord give us to consider this when we are tempted that we may fear sin more and make it out to our understandings how we do by sin crucify again unto our selves the Lord Jesus and put him to an open shame for we are all ready to pronounce an Anathema upon the Crucifiers of our Lord therefore let us not suffer these his Crucifiers to live He that seeth in secret he will reward thee openly Let this encourage us to frequent Prayers and duties But O Lord our services are so few and so slight and perfunctory and sinful while our hearts go after our covetousness and lusts so that we forget before whom we are and what we are doing and so our duties are sacriledge and our services provocations sins vain oblations abominations filthy rags like Nadab and Abihu's strange fire like the offering of the lame and blind when we have a male in our Flock so that thou mayest justly deal with us as Pilate did with the Gallilaeans whose blood he mingled with their sacrifice What reward then can we expect O Lord we beseech thee though our prayers are sinful yet accept them offer'd up in the Golden censer of Jesus our Mediator which is full of Incense which are the Prayers of the Saints and let these filty rags be wash'd in his blood and then they will be clean and white as Snow and then thou mayest reward them but yet that reward is thy free mercy therefore not unto us O Lord not unto us but to thy name is all the praise for what can we do for which thou should'st reward us with so many mercies here and with life eternal Any one of thy mercies is of more value then all our services could deserve or requite if we should continue in the duties of prayer and praising thee night and day all our lives for we owe thee all we have or can do It is thine as we are thy creatures and we were but unprofitable Servants after we had done all we can and we have need of an almighty Redeemer Then let us not murmure if the Lord doth delay to hear us Neither let us say 't is in vain to serve the Lord. Let us consider also that thou dost delay out of mercy to try our patience and perseverance and other graces and to make us more servent or may be because thou wilt not reward us with temporal blessings but eternal which is far better and let us not press or be importunate to receive our reward here lest we go without the eternal reward but let us be willing to trust God though he delay LET me not come near to that which may be a temptation or if a temptation come upon me unawares let me not say in my heart I shall be strong enough to resit it and so trust to my own strength but let me have grace to observe those ways and methods of resisting sin as thou hast appointed in thy word Therefore let me fly immediately from the temptation as Joseph fled from his Mistress leaving his Cloak If by chance I fall into the Company of Drunkards let me not say I shall preserve my sobriety because I love that and hate that
here am I. So the Lord speaks Jer. 31.21 I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself so whilst Daniel was praying at the beginning of his Prayer God answered Dan 9. the Prodigal desired to be but as a hired Servant and the Father brings forth the Fatted Calf to entertain him so God gives us more than we ask Is any man afflicted let him pray it teacheth that Gods Children are not free from troubles nor can expect so to be It teacheth also that those prayers that are extorted from us by necessity are heard necessity may first set men awork to pray as it did Jacob. Though men would object against them who come to them in their necessities yet Christ and man had never come together had it not been for necessity necessities are not a putting us off but a drawing us to God as appears by these Invitations 'T is folly to neglect God in our trouble When Joab would not come to Absolom he sets his Corn on fire and then he came Dan. 9. Though all this be come upon us yet have we not made our prayers unto thee Gods aims are accomplish'd when thou comest to him Hos 5.15 I will hide my face and they will call upon me early Let not the affliction simply without regard to the precept and promise drive us to God 2. Cor. 1.10 11. God hath delivered me and will deliver me c. Your helping together in your prayers The qualification of the Persons and of the prayer are contained in this the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous availeth much Nothing will make us more fervent than afflictions Sometimes God doth not hear us at the first to make us more fervent his delays are no denials God hath several ways of deliverance that we know not of we must not obtrude our own model upon God David Ps 34. I sought the Lord and he heard me and deliver'd me out of all my trouble Sometimes God will not give a temporal deliverance that he may give a spiritual sometimes he will give both As St Paul said God hath delivered me from the mouth of the Lion and will also deliver me from every evil work The Martyrs in the 12th of the Hebrews would not accept of deliverance from men There is a Spiritual deliverance in part as Pauls from the Thorn in the Flesh or in the whole God sometimes delivereth us by death as Sampson was from the Philistines sometimes he delivereth by death from eternal death Again seldom doth deliverance fail when either we are inlarged to pray for it or incouraged to wait upon God for it when thou preparest the heart O Lord thou inclinest thy ear so Fathers teach their Children to ask what they have a mind to bestow Till we are past sinning we shall not be past suffering Because suffering follows sin as the effect follows the cause and suffering is the usual means which God makes use of to restrain us from sin and to set our graces on work which begin to decay in the Sun-shine of prosperity Though affliction be the fruit of sin it may be the mother of vertue where it is not the mother it may be and most commonly is the Nurse or foster mother making us renew our vows and resolutions for God brings good out of evil or otherwise he would not permit unjustice and opression to be done to his children by the men of the World of whom he saieth he that toucheth you toucheth the the Apple of mine eye And if the members suffer the head suffers also and our blessed Lord and Saviour saith that he that offendeth the least of the Children of God 't were better for that man that a Mill-stone were hanged about his neck and that he were thrown into the midst of the Sea than that he should offend one of those little ones Since Christ himself accompts their sufferings his as these and many other Scriptures prove he doth if in all theit afflictions he is afflicted if they affect him in the tenderest place the apple of his eye then surely he will not permit them to be inflicted in the least degree or quantity more than he seeth necessary fortheir good From hence viz. the sense of Gods tender love to his Children might spring that undaunted confidence and full assurance of faith which Gods people sometimes discover as Holy Job said Though he kill me yet will I trust in him David when the people talked of Stoning him encouraged himself in the Lord. Habakkuk the Prophet would rejoyce in the Lord though the Fig-Tree should not blossom neither should fruit be in the vine though the labour of the Olive should fail and the Field should yield no encrease though the Flock should be cut off from the fold c. The innumerable company of Martyrs in the late Queen Mary's days and in the 10 persecutions when the bodies of the Servants of God were given to be meat for the wild beasts and others burned with fire for the testimony of Christ and would not accept deliverance in hopes of a better resurrection Their faith was the substance of the things hoped for and it secured the possession of them which verefied that truth in Psal 107. He shall not be afraid for any evil tidings his heart is fixed and he trusteth in the Lord. Faith draweth off the mind from temporal things to eternal and then from the dark waies of Gods providence to his promises in his covenant and so makes a man to commit himself to God as it is 2 of Tim. 1.12 I know whom I have trusted Faith puts all into Gods hand and we are safe when we know our goods are in a sure hand Submission to God is an act of faith and love and an act of obedience thereby Job blessed God taking away David submitted himself to God Saying if the Lord hath said to Shimei curse David who shall say why hast thou done so c. Who can tell whether the Lord will requite good for his railing readily did Hezekiah submit to all that God pleased when the Prophet told Eli of the judgments threatned against his House 2 Sam. 15.21 His submissive answer is 'T is the Lord let him do what seemeth good in his sight he laid his mouth in the dust Guilt makes us fear when God removes the pillar of security from under our heads by any affliction but the knowledg of God by former experience fortifies faith This made the Apostle argue God would deliver him Psal 35. I trusted in thee for I said thou art my God His interest in God and Gods Interest in him made him trust in him 2 Chro. 13.18 The children of Judah prevailed against the Israelites because they relied upon the Lord. Another help of faith is prayer Thou shalt ask of me and I will give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance Another is obedience the old Prophet went out of Gods way and the Lyon slew him The comfort of the Cross to the People of God
The similitude also of natures may cause love for after the image of God man was made and is so renewed the necessity and the utility of Gods chastisments he that had had very good experience of them upon the same account with the same success confesseth in the Psa 119.67 plainly in these words Before I was afflicted I went astray but now I have learned the Judgements of thy mouth And It is good for me that I have been afflicted Psal 119.71 Unless we are pure in our own eyes And have better conceits of our own hearts than of him who was a man according to Gods own heart we cannot but see with the same eyes as he did That God doth afflict men for their good to sanctify them and teach them in the waies of eternal life as it is Psalm Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest and teachest in the way that thou mayest give him patience in time of Adversity c. Neither were his afflictions for the short season of a day or a year But constant Psal Even from my youth up thy terrours have I sufferd with a troubled minds and Psal All the day long have I been afflicted and chastened every morning Psal 119.109 My soul is always in my hand yet do I not forget thy law Wherefore St. Pet. 1 Epist 4.12 Bids them think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is happened unto you as though some strange thing had happened unto you which implys that afflictions in the highest degree are common and familiar guests to be daily expected Those were no light ones whereby Davids very soul was in his hand and in jeopardy Zach. 13.9 I will bring the third part through the fire It shewes the truth of our profession if we can go on cherfully without outward incouragements Therefore when God would shew the sincerity of Job by removing that objection of Satan Hast thou not made a hedge about him he let loose the tempter to afflict him with all sorrows and to deprive him of all comforts When God would perfect in us the grace of patience he doth it by affliction as it is Jam. 1.4 and that where it is makes a perfect Christian as we ought all to be as it is Mat. 5. ult Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect Paul to the Philip. Cap. 1.12 Saith The things which have happened unto me have fallen out rather for the furtherance of the Gospel so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the pallace and in all other places So far are afflictions from hindering us in the heavenly race or from hindering the sowing of the seed of grace in the heart of others that the patient suffering of the Saints of God provokes others to imitation and to search and inquire what is that principle and Basis upon which such resolutions stand Psal 25.10 Though they are afflicted they acknowledge that all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth to such as keep his covenant and his testimonies they know that of kindness God afflicts them the very same kindness is in afflicting them as was in adopting them His paternal love The assurance of which convinceth them that all things shall work for the good of them that love God This principle every true believer hath and this made Moses to chuse afflictions before the pleasures of sin viz. The assurance of his interest in the love of God and the glorious priviledges of the Saints by faith in gods promises through the merits of the bloody passion of our Redeemer and the Hope which they have of the repositum in the world to come Our Blessed Lord and Saviour was not only our example of suffering wrongfully and undergoing all griefs and sorrows whom being our captaine and head we ought to follow But being our King also hath made it a law for all that will come after him to deny enjoyments and to take up the contrary which our nature so much declines crosses The discipline which he trained up his disciples to and all his followers was suffering The parable of the builder sitting down and first to cast up what his building will cost him coucheth the cost and paines grief and self-denial which a Christian must resolve to undergo for Heaven and happiness He told his followers that the world would hate them pesecute them and kill them for his and the Gospels sake The parable of the Marchant who having found a field wherein was contained a treasure hid sold all to purchase it sheweth what we must part with for Heaven Consider the sharneful painful cursed death of our Lord. How they designed his derision in the robes Crown of thornes salutation in contempt spitting on his face c. If our hopes were in this life we were of all men most miserable What then can a Servant of God expect here The comfort of the Scriptures are suited to such a condition only and a great part of the Scripture would be useless if there were no such condition David in 119. Psal The same is my comfort in my affliction thy word hath quickned me Great are the troubles of the Righetous but the Lord delivereth him out of all Psal 34. v 19. and 7. The Angel of the Lord tarrieth round about them that fear him and delivereth them and the whole Psalm is made to shew the blessedness of them that trust in the Lord and the faithfulness of God toward such as trust in him in time of affliction and many other of Davids Psalms are to the same effect that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have Hope He is a Father of the Fatherless and a help to the friendless Our heavenly Father will not endure to hear his children cry long though heaviness endureth for a night joy cometh in the morning and Psal 140.12 I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted and the right of the poor The patient abiding of the meek shall not always be forgotten before the Lord 3 of the Revela ver I will be with thee in the fiery trial that is to come upon all the earth to try them I will be with thee in the fire that it shall not burne thee and in the Water that it shall not drown thee The hatred which the men of the world bear to the people of God is by the Spirit of God in the Scriptures set forth as a principal cause of their calamities the Cap. of the op of St. Cain was of that wicked one and slew his Brother wherefore because his works were evil and his brothers good conttariety of works is cause of hatred as well as contrariety of natures men blush not before them that are like them the contrariety makes them blush Galat. 4.29 As he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit So it is now he alludes to Ishmaels mocking of Isaac This is most fully set forth in Psal 37.
become the Sons of God even to as many as believed in his Name John 1.12 But he that eats not his Body and drinks not his Blood hath no fellowship in him he that doth eat and drink them hath Eternal Life The receiving then of him and believing in his Name being the qualification that makes us the Sons of God and his Brethren and that Text excluding all from that priviledge that do not eat and drink his Body and Blood sheweth that by receiving him and believing in his Name they eat him not by diminishing him by their Teeth or digesting him in their Stomach but by drawing Life from his Death by Faith and strengthning and maintaining that new Life which it hath from Christ by believing his Body to be crucified and his Blood shed for them and by the Bread and Wine is given to them And if we should understand this eating of Attrition or diminishing with the Teeth and the Drinking of taking by the Mouth into the Stomach by drops and digesting there then God should suffer his Holy One to see corruption For although we should suppose it did not corrupt in our body so long as we live yet when these vile bodies turns to Earth and rottenness then all that is in them must corrupt And the Text that excludes all that eat not his Body and drinks not his Blood would exclude all Believers from Adam until this Sacrament was Instituted by our blessed Saviour But if this eating and drinking be believing then Abraham and the rest of the faithful might eat and drink him as well as they saw his day For all of them eat the same Spiritual meat and drink the same Spiritual drink and receive their Eternal Life and Salvation from the same Jesus Christ And if we do by this eating find our penitent Souls to revive and live a new Immortal and Eternal Life from the belief of his Death and Passion for us his Body Crucified and his Blood spilt for us to give us Life then we eat his body and shall live for ever And thus the faithful people of God by eating the Passeover under the Law did eat Christ the true Passeover by eating that which was the Type of him whom it represented fide non ore at it is said all eat the same Spiritual Bread Of the Eucharist Meditation I feel a hunger in my Soul which neither Manna nor all the World can satisfie though I have all the necessaries and conveniences of Life yet I hunger and thirst as for Rivers of Water in a dry place Isa 32. Do thou then O blessed Saviour give me of the Water of Life out of thy Fountain The living Water and Blood that cometh from that Fountain of Living Water thy side upon the Cross which still is open to the House of Judah and Jerusalem and seals unto us all the promises upon which we live thou hast Instituted this Bread and Wine to represent thy Holy and blessed Body and Blood shed and broken upon the Cross and thereby givest them to the Soul that thirsteth for Eternal Life in thee Isa 32.4 Though my weakness of Faith should be such that I am not able to discern whether virtually or really they become such or whether they be consubstantiated transubstantiated or new-substantiated in their Natures by the blessing and the Faith of the Receiver or neither yet thus far thou hast enlightned me to know that all the promises are Yea and Amen in thee that thou hast Eternal Life and givest it and that by these Elements which signifie and exhibit thy Body and Blood to be eaten and drank by Faith Spiritually and for thy Body and Blood I eat and drink them but as separable for I fear least I should through unbelief receive but only the Bread and Wine and not thy Body and Blood which give Eternal Life which every one that hath that eateth thy Body and drinketh thy Blood and if an unbeliever or an unprepared impenitent person the worst of thy enemies he that betrayed thee or any other creature could but eat and drink of them they also would thereby have Eternal Life But thou alone hast power to give it to whom thou pleasest To thee therefore I address my Prayer when the Priest reacheth to me the Bread and Wine that thou wouldest reach to me thy sacrificed Body and Blood that was shed upon the Cross and make these Natural Elements to become those Eternal Aliments to me not by Faith in them but by Faith in thee who hast made them to signifie those and represent them which though I cannot discern by my senses I pray that I may by my Faith in thy Word which makes them operate as thy Body and Blood to me through thy benediction though materially I discern them not and give me thy holy Spirit that I may discern them Spiritually and eat panem Dominum if by looking up to thee we are saved what other thing can I understand this Mystery to be than looking up to thee on the Cross and shedding thy precious Blood for my sins which thou communicatest to us Of Holiness Meditations Mot. Holiness to the Lord shall be writ upon the Bells of the Horses Med. All the graces are so linked together like a golden chaine that they cannot be without each other This is a collective word and containes in it piety charity and humility and all that the first and second table of the law of God containes all the duty of man towards God his neighbour and himself It is the fruit of faith out of which Root this grace springs The necessity of this grace is laid down in this expression that without it no man shall see God the same is implied Psal 63.3 I have sought thee in holiness that I might behold thy glory The precepts are many that command us to get it in general and in the particular branches of it every commandment and precept in the Scripture are to this end Not any one minute of a Christian life nor any one action be it natural action of the body or civil gesture or behaviour but it must have holiness imprinted on it for in the Temple the candlesticks and the snuffers were of pure Gold and Christ came to perfect it and advance it therefore ' tls prophesied of his Kingdom that under it holines to the Lord shall be written upon the Bels of the Horses which inscription was on Arons miter The rights and ceremonies of purification under the law typified as much Although it be said that faith hath this and all other graces for its fruits yet there is a time when a child of God may not percieve in himself much nay scarce any life of Holiness Humility Patience Zeal Meekness Charity or other graces as in the Winter the herbs and Plants shew no life at all usually they are excited again by some extraordinary providence of God either in afflicting us or delivering us from some danger or affliction or by
in sin and wickedness hereby he that enterprizeth it is emboldened in it and takes occasion to question the Being of God as he Quis putet esse deos And God suffereth them to prosper sometimes grow mighty and heap up silver as dust that his own people should know how little to value the world when he gives the Kingdoms thereof to the basest of the people Jer. 12.1 2. The Prophet did require of God the reason of their prospering and prays against them Pull them out as sheep for the slaughter And sometimes God suffereth it for this reason which David mentioneth in Psal 27. that he may cast them down suddenly with the greater ruine So Psal 83.17 18. But we find that this was a grievance to David as it was to afflicted Job Job 21. Wherefore do the wicked live And so it is generally to all God's afflicted people but mark the end of them Job 27.13 Another Obstruction that Satan makes use of to hinder this glorious Light of the Gospel from shining into their hearts is That whatsoever sin they perpetrate yet they sit at ease like the people of Lachish and find no changes nor alterations in their estates and affairs but all things go on after the same manner as before their sins committed they did according to the course of nature and according to the means which they use in their callings Sometimes the Lord is resolved to make them see and be ashamed According to that in the Prophet Isaiah c. 26. v. 11. Lord when thy hand is lifted up they will not see but they shall see and be ashamed Thus he made the Thunderer afraid of Thunder and ashamed So David prayed Put them in fear O Lord that they may know themselves to be but men When they forget themselves they forget God But oh how soon can God dismay them and make them recant whatever they dared against God in their pride of heart when he pleaseth to strike them with fear and consternation And then those who before prosessed themselves wise will confess themselves fools because they can no longer shut their eyes against the light but that they must see their shame I am sensible that Atheists make use of this argument of fear to perswade that it was nothing else that taught men the worship of God according to that saying Primus in orbe deos fecit timor To this first by way of admission I answer that if it should be admitted yet that is a necessary and a good fear which driveth us to God and restraineth from evil The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom But it is a bad fear which drives us from the face of God as Adam after he had sinned was afraid and hid himself So Peter's sense of his sinfulness made him beseech the Lord Jesus to depart from him Secondly By way of negation I conceive that love moveth good people to the service of God more than fear 'T was Abel's Love to God which made him offer the best and to think nothing good enough for God Likewise it was want of love in Cain that made him offer with an evil mind that which was not the best therefore it must needs be slavish fear in him that caused him to give God any Sacrifice But this motive of fear sometimes moveth the most wicked that are to worship God but when the fear is over the worship ceaseth Job 24. And though in their troubles they vowed Hecatombs they scarce will pay one of a hundred Besides it is manifest that the just and upright are little liable to fears Psal 23.4 Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil Psal 27. The Lord is my light and my salvation whom then shall I fear Psa 46. God is our hope and strength a very present help in trouble Therefore will we not fear though the earth be moved and though the hills be carried into the midst of the Sea Though the waters thereof rage and swell and though the Mountains shake at the tempest of the same As the Poet speaks of the just man Si fractus illabatur orbis impavidum ferient ruinae Because they that truly fear God know that they need not fear any thing else Therefore in the 37th of Isaiah upon Senacharib's great boastings and threatnings to destroy Juda the word of the Lord by the Prophet was concerning her The Virgin the daughten of Zion hath despised thee and laughed thee to scorn I need not rehearse the examples of the undaunted courage of these people because they are so numerous I conceive that every one that hath a tongue to speak can tell a Catalogue of them as Abraham Gideon Sampson Baruck Jephta David and the Legio fulminatrix Christianorum And on the other side it is as notorious and commonly known that the most desperately wicked sinners and blasphemers are most timorous and fearful and are full of fears si vel herbam dimovere lacertae corde gemibus tremunt As Belshazzar trembled when he saw the hand-writing upon the wall before he knew whether it were good or bad Because their guilty conscience makes them fear where no fear is and fly when none pursueth It followeth that if fear did make gods to be they should be the greatest worshippers of them but the consequence is not truth and therefore not the antecedent or supposition Neither was it fear that made the differences of good and evil true and false just and unjust honest and dishonest c. but God who is the fountain of goodness and truth and being But if for all this they will not be convinced to take God for their strength and the fear of God and the wisdom which is from above for the true and sound wisdom and still will say to God Depart from us we will none of the knowledge of the Most High and strengthen and incourage themselves in their ungodliness and in the multitude of their iniquities boast themselves And notwithstanding they see their Policy Wit and Ingenuity whereof they so much boasted to be frustrated and baffled by those means which they disdained and their secret sins detected and punished and yet for all this they will not see the hand of the Lord. And their proud flashy wit leads them with Xerxes to fetter the Sea or the like vanities and extravagancies Then let them go on in the waies that they have chosen till such time as the Lord shall please to put a hook in their nose as he did in that Assyrian Monarchs And let those who embrace the true wisdom goodness and humility rest assured of this That the Virgin the daughter of Zion shall despise them and laugh them to scorn Isa 37.22 And so with David we may and must all pray against the enemies of our Lord and Saviour Christ Psal 59.13 Consume them O Lord consume them that they may perish and know that it is God that ruleth in Jacob and
his children we can have no stronger motive than this to draw us to seek all good things we stand in need of from him For if we can by faith in Jesus Christ apprehend this relation how can we doubt of receiving the things we ask and stand in need of for we must needs know his love to be great to us if we find a reciprocal love towards him And although we be prodigals and but of little faith our blessed Saviour tells us that yet we are children and under his care And this argument he makes use of to invite us to come to God in prayer the force of Nature must needs be strongest in him who made Nature The motives which excite him must needs be stronger and greater than those which excite us as he is greater And he makes use of the argument to those who are evil If you being evil know c. To prove that God will give his Spirit to them if they ask it though before they had received the Spirit of Christ they were none of Gods children by adoption for this is given by Christ to those only who believe in his name Joh. 1.12 Between God and his adopted children there is a double Relation of paternity That citation in the Acts of the Apostles out of the Poet Aratus that we are Gods off-spring doth relate to the general relation whereby God is the Father of all man-kind as he was Adams So Abraham is the Natural Father of the Jews But the Relation by faith between God and us and Abraham and the Jews is the only saving Relation By the first Relation we do know that we must worship God and pray to him and we may hope to prevail but by the second we are sure to speed we have boldness and title to all the promises and access with confidence to the throne of grace The motives from necessity are of two sorts The first are fetched from the necessity of the absolute Command of God laid upon us The second from our own needs and necessities which press us to it Those commands already mentioned in the precedent motives may be resorted to without repeting them In every thing let your requests be made known to God This duty in many places is perswaded to us with gracious promises rather than commanded which manifests the Infinite goodness of almighty God thus to draw us to our duty with the cords of love as in the precedent heads Here follows some absolute commands engaging us to it Ezek. 36.37 I will be cried after Jer. I will be called upon 1 Pet. 4.7 Watch unto prayer 1 Thess 5. Pray without ceasing Continuing in stant in prayer Praying alwaies with all manner of prayer and supplication 10. Zac. 1. Matt. 6.6 And pray Our blessed Lord and Saviour joynes to the precept the strongest argument to inforce it that can be conceived Joh. 14.13 He propoundeth and promiseth for our reward whatsoever we ask the like Joh. 15.7 And as the use of this duty gaineth us every thing so was it the use of this that first gained us an interest in God as to our feeling and the more frequent use of it we make the more interest we gain in him and again disusage of this loseth the sense of our intrest in God and Christ and this is the finding promised such shall know God and them selves to have interest in him The motive which most strongly forceth us to this duty whether we will or no is our own wants which force us to seek to him as our refuge Josephus tells how that in the siege of Jerusalem the Romans army passing over a lake that was frozen the Ice began to crack and the whole army together fell down upon their knees and prayed The Mareners that were in the ship with Jona in the Tempest did the like So David shews in the 107 Psal How people afflicted with all miseries for their sins when they are at deaths door call upon the Lord in their trouble and are delivered for he saith in another Psalm The Lord is known as a sure refuge Let us therefore find out our needs for soul and body for they are sent for this purpose to move us to resort to God in this duty which for lack of the sense of them is often neglected And we forget our Creator and our dependance upon him till by the rod upon our backs we are made to hear him that hath appointed it and to seek to him as our God our Rock our Castle our Buckler the horn of our salvation and our present help Generally First consider the slipry estate of thy youth wherein thou standest environed with daily temptations and dangers through which of thy self thou art not able to pass without many falls man knoweth not how to walk Eccles This consideration will move thee to seek to him to be guide of thy youth who only can guide thee and hath promised to guide thee continually and to keep thee Isa 40.17 I am the Lord which teacheth thee c. Which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go Psal 25.22 Thy soul will hang on him if thou consider that his right hand upholdeth thee Psal 63.8 Confider what is in thy heart naturally what thoughts and Imaginations come spontaneously into thy mind are they holy thoughts and motions which stir and are fomented at such times as this duty is either wilfully neglected or through much business omitted or are they vain worldly profane and sinful if these be then be careful that when thou awakest thou be present with God and let thy soul instantly fly unto him And seek him early in those words of David in the 63 Psal througout O God thou art my God early will I seek thee c. Or in the like words and Let thy soul fly unto him before the morning watch Psal And continue seeking him ever more All those that know God as theires their Interest in him gives them this boldness of seeking him in all occasions And if any seek him not early they doubt of their interest and property in him Or of their needs for we are not afraid to lose that we never had nor desire to have neither do we think we can make use of that which neither owneth us nor we own that That which we seek early constantly and solicitously is that which we know we need and live upon and cannot live without Therefore thus seek thy God and thus shew thy carefulness to preserve thine Interest in him and to improve it and to make use of it at all times and to acknowledge him in all thy waies in thy outward blessings and preservations and inward gifts and graces c. Thou that art at thy best as Adam was thou must needs know thy mutability and instability and that thou also though strong art in danger of falling at all times and in all places as he fell And the Rock it self the Apostle Peter fell and David by slender
holiness to the Lord be writ upon us and all our common things Make every pot in Jerusalem like as the bolls before the Altar Pardon our iniquities heal our backslidings and receive us graciously Let the Sun of Righteousness arise on us with healing in his wings Subdue our iniquities and cast our sins into the bottom of the Sea Wash away our scarlet sins and make us clean and white as Snow Make the Lion to lye down with the Lamb and to cat straw with the Bullock Make the heart of the rash understand knowledge And let not the fool erre O Christ give thou light to them that sit in darkness Give sight to the blind Plant in the barren Wilderness the Fir-tree the Mirtle-tree the Cedar the Shitta-tree the Pine-tree the Olive and the Box-tree Make the barren Wilderness a standing water and water-springs in a dry ground Pour water upon the thirsty And give us all those means of grace which thou hast promised Give us Pastors according to thine own heart which shall feed us with knowledge and understanding and such as shall teach us by their lives as well as by doctrine And since thou hast appointed afflictions for means make us to rejoyce in them and hear the Rod. Water us every morning and every moment with the dew of grace and make our souls as a watered Garden As a Garden inclosed as a Fountain sealed that no polluting thing may come into us to defile us That we may be more pure in heart more holy delight in thee more and feed upon thy Word more That we may grow up like the Calves of the stall be fat and well liking That we may flourish in the Courts of the house of the Lord. That we may run and not be weary walk and not faint mount up with wings like an Eagle and renew our strength as an Eagle Give us all those means of improving our graces which thou hast promised Strengthen us sustain us support us and hold us up that we may not fall lead us and guide us in that way whorein we shall not stumble Make us to feed by the Rivers of Waters thy holy Ordinances upon thy holy Word and the Lord's Supper That the weak may be as David and the house of David as God That thy willing people may be more and more wiling that they may be zealous of good works alwaies abounding in the work of the Lord knowing that their labour is not in vain in the Lord. Quicken and water the means of Grace Make us able to mortifie our members more and deny our selves more to suffer losses sicknesses and afflictions more contentedly willingly and patiently put a new edge upon those motives which first moved us to forsake our lusts and the world to embrace the love of God and the fear of God the knowledge of God As the eyes of a servant are to the hands of his Master and the eyes of a Maid to the hands of her Mistress so let our eyes be ever upon thee for help strength and direction Give us the means of guarding and defending our selves against Satan All the Armour of Light the Shield of Faith the Sword of the Spirit the Breast-plate of Righteousness and for a Helmet the Hope of Salvation Teach us the Art of well using all these pieces of this spiritual Armour both the defensive and the offensive that we may with them beat down every thought that exalteth it self against God Teach us all our military postures that we may be able to stand Watch thou over us though we our selves watch too and do thou keep us night and day for thy promise sake Bear us in thy hand as a man beareth his child Go with us never leave us nor forsake us Make us to know thy will and do it Be thou our guide unto death Direct thou our way and order our steps in thy Word Incline our heart that we may delight in thee Deliver us from every evil work Let no spiritual weapon formed against us prosper Preserve our bodies and souls blameless unto the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and make us able to overcome all our spiritual enemies Lord whatever promises thou hast made to us thou madest them because thou didst desire to give us the things promised Thou only desiredst an opportunity from the receiver or to be sought to for them We seek to thee according to thy command therefore let thy mercy which first moved thee to promise them move thee now for thy Truths sake to give them as well all other thy promises as these mentioned And give us all those mercies which thou hast invited us to ask or thy Son hath invited us to seek Lord heal our blindness with thy eye-salve which thou hast invited the blind to seek of thee And strengthen our weak sight more and more that we may behold clearly the glory of the Lord and may be changed into the same image from glory to glory and may see the things of our eternal concernment Relieve our nakedness with those pure white Robes which thou hast invited the naked to buy of thee which will never be soiled nor wax old And relieve our poverty and penury with thy refined gold which will inrich to eternity which thou exposest to be sold to the poor and needy who have nothing to purchase it withall Shew us wherwith we poor blind and naked sinners shall purchase of thee these necessary supplies For if we continue without them we shall remain miserable and perish for lack of them Lord our raggs we are willing to part with for those unspotted Robes our wretched poverty for that refined gold and our blind eyes for that clear and quick sight which thy eye-salve will make in us that we may be capable of seeing the remedies of our poverty and nakedness Shew us how we may purchase of thee wine and milk without money and without price to relieve our thirsty souls Lord give us the thirst and desire of those precious liquors to satisfie our thirsts and do thou satisfie our souls with those Rivers of pleasure which are at thy Right hand for evermore And that we may lack no grace and thy relief may supply all our needs and spiritual wants Give us of the fulness of Christ Jesus grace for grace that we may know that be liveth in us as our Head and we in and by him Give us to be like him and to imitate him in all holiness Make us to walk as he walked that we may know that we are members of his body Give us Patience Humility Meekness Temperance Chastity and Charity Mortification and Vivisication Faith and Obedience of his fulness Give us all those graces that any of thy Saints and Servants have had and all those degrees of grace Give us all those graces which thou hast commanded us to have and all those degrees of grace Make us perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect Give us all those
present or afterwards doth speak against can that be gainful to a man that loseth his souls eternal salvation If the ship be drowned in the ocean all that is in it is drowned What gain can that be that is so short that in the next moment we must say it was and is not and for that we have lost eternal happiness Or had I lived the daies of Methusalem and all my daies had been daies of pleasure and this were my last day what would remain of profit of it all or what joy or satisfaction or comfort to beare me up against the fear of death would not a little tidings of death and Judgment confound me in the midst of my pomp and jovialty as it did Nebuchadnezzer Do not the wickedest when they sin think to repent of it and would they so if it were there gaine and commodity or if I should get by sin would not that gaine be loss should I not throw away riches gotten by unjustice upon my unfeigned repentance did not Judas throw away his 30 pieces what man in all the world either that repented or that repented not ever gained by sin What gained Adam or Cain the old world Jerusalem Sodom Sampson Lot David or Peter but besides that it costs the penitent sinner what hath it cost Christ therefore as thou hast made us reasonable men O Lord let us make choice of that that will make us happy thy favour and let us not sell it and all our happiness as it were for a mess of pottage If sinners think nothing too dear for sin let me think nothing too dear for Heaven When sinners cast away their souls for a lust and yet say that we lose our labour for Heaven how incompetent Judges are they but of holiness what fruit have we not what is it not profitable for either in this life or that which is to come it confers all that sin would strip us of That I may fear to sin Let me consider that our God is a consuming fire though he be ours so that we are his people yet our priviledges must not exempt us from this fear for thou hast commanded us to abstain from sin for this cause and all thy people Whoever sinned found thee a consuming fire to punish them as did David When he cried out My flesh trembleth for fear of thee and I am afraid of thy Judgments The Lords judgments were grievious upon him murther and rape committed in his house his Son drave him from his Throne so Eli felt this also when his Sons were vile and he lightly reproved them and Job when he felt one spark of this fire cryed out My soul chuseth strangling rather than life Therefore let all thy people consider the terrour of the Lord and remember that thou art a consuming fire and let them walk in the fear of the Lord and the comforts of the Holy Ghost And as they call on the Father who without respect of persons judgeth every man according to his works so let them pass the time of their so journing here in fear remembring that our blessed Saviour could not escape this fire when he undertook the work of satisfaction for sinners but cryed out under it My God my God why hast thou forsaken men And in respect of our proneness to sin against God let us keep our selves with this as with a bridle and curb and to keep up our vigilancy for religious duties working out our salvation with fear and trembling considering what it is to fall into the hands of the Lord Knowing that it is not a sinful servile fear which is to fear the smart more than the offending of God for this hath an enmity joyned with it for whom we fear with servile fear we hate but this filial fear proceeds from love and the tender sense of God's displeasure against sin And though we could say with the Apostle Paul that we know we have a house in Heaven yet was he still keeping under his body for fear of sinning For the Righteous shall be recompenced on earth and where shall the ungodly and sinner appear To these the Lord shall come in flaming fire rendring vengeance to them that know not God and to them that obey not the Gospel He will wound the head of his enemies He that believeth not shall be damned His wrath shall be poured out like fire The indignation of the Lord shall consume his adversaries The damned spirits and fallen Angels are under this fire But thou hast given thy Son Christ to be a Saviour to save thy people from it O Lord save us through our dear Saviour's merits from this worm that never dies and fire that never goes out and let thy people fear not those who can hurt the body only but those who can hurt both soul and body and cast both into Hell fire Lord thou hast pronounced them cursed who do thy work negligently yet how negligent am I in all religious duties and my heart goes sometimes after covetousness and sometimes after vanities O give me thy grace that I may serve thee with a perfect heart That I may seek thee with my whole heart Let me not think to divide my heart to God and Mammon because it is thine all and thou wilt have all or none because thou madest it and Christ hath bought it Let me not be weary of these duties but be willing to labour in them and wear out my body in them and strive with zeal wrestling with the Lord for a blessing since I have experience that thou art a God hearing prayer and hast not stopped thine ear to mine O Lord God I am not holy but thou hast promised we shall be all holy and required that we should be holy as thou art holy how infinitely short doth the best of men come of this pattern The Apostle Paul confesses he was carnal sold under sin and that he had not attained but pressed forward that he might attain Lord give us with him to see our sinfulness that we may in like manner as he was be stirred up to strive after holiness and fulfil thy promise That we shall all be holy Lord inlighten my understanding that I may see what a shameful thing sin is that the very brute beasts do not so brutishly as sinners For the Oxe and Ass who know their owners reprove them who refuse to acknowledge thee to be their Lord and all others do more rationally without any reason than man who hath understanding yet casts off all understanding and is not ashamed of sin For it is a shame to speak of the things that are done of them yet are they not ashamed when they commit them O let me consider how naked a sinner renders himself to the view of the world and when God himself shall put him to shame as it is written As thou hast put the Son of God to open shame so God shall put thee to shame And when it shall be their everlasting
not of the terror of the Lord to keep my heart in awe neither do I fear thee according to my fear I had when in danger neither do I seek to thee serve thee and delight in thee according to all my vows and admiration of thy goodness because thou hast been so merciful to hear my prayer and deliver me from all my fear but I am ready to think that it is for my own goodness and virtue that thou hast wrought this Of this sin thou warnedst the Israelites and we are all too prone to it O pardon Lord thy servant and heal him of this evil and give him to walk in the same awe and fear of thee and the like obedience to all thy commandments and love to thy waies watchfulness against sin and in it self examination and humility when the trouble and danger is past as when it is impendent and then I shall know that I have a filial fear of thee and not a servile fear Lord since thou makest thy Mercy and thy Almighty Power the inducements to awe us and allure us to keep and observe thy Statutes saying to Israel I am the Lord the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the Land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage therefore enjoynedst thy people to keep the Commandments following Let me alwaies keep a remembrance of thy mercies and because thou didst injoyn them the keeping of the Passeover in commemoration of their deliverance out of Egypt and that they should continually when they made their offering acknowledge that their Father was a Syrian ready to perish Lord let us in like sort reflect upon thy mercies and deliverances and our former sufferings to humble us and to be thankful to thee and praise thee and whilst we enjoy the benefit let us give thee the glory and the rather because one mercy is the earnest of another as holy Paul argued God hath delivered me and will deliver me therefore let me put a due estimate upon them by apprehending my unworthiness of them which the more I apprehend the more able I shall be to know the true value of the mercy and God's goodness in it The more low I am in my own eyes the more high will God's mercies be in my eyes If we pray for mercies it is for love of our selves but our praises are not so many nor so earnest as our prayers for them Lord increase our praises and let us say with David Praised be the Lord who hath remembred us in our low condition and hath delivered us from all our fears and troubles and keepeth all our bones so that none of them is broken and ladeth us with daily benefits and maketh our life comfortable And let my soul praise him not only with my lips but with a constant living to his praise and using the mercies which he hath given me to the honour of him who gave them Lord give us grace to mortifie our earthly members and affections since the promise is that as we have been planted with Christ into the similitude of his death so we shall also be into the similitude of his resutrection And let this mortification be universal of all our sinful and sensual affections and let it be constant and perpetual without intermission looking to the pattern of Christ on his Cross for our imitation and instructed thereto by thy holy Word and stirred up thereto by a godly sorrow for our sins committed And to this end let us cut off the superfluities of every lust and corruption that may fortifie and strengthen it And that we may destroy it in the birth and keep far off the danger of it as holy Job made a Covenant with his eyes not to look upon a Maid considering that I can never be safe near a danger though sin seem to me as a right eye or hand yet by thy grace let me have power to renounce it not only forbearing the act for fear of punishment but destroying and mortifying the habit and inclination And although the body of sin and death do remain as in Paul it did yet let it be to me as a burthen and grief of soul crying out with him O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of sin and death LORD God the fountain of goodness above all things give me faith in thee for then I must of necessity love thee if I believe thou hast loved me and given thy Son for me and shall have in my soul the joy that is unspeakable Lord when thou layest thy heavy hand of affliction upon us to cause us to search and try our waies and that we should examine our selves and turn unto the Lord in stead of this our wicked heart is prone to cast off God and say Why should we wait upon God any more what profit is there in serving him Who is the Lord we will own him and his goodness no more In stead of humble repentance we are prone with Job's wife to curse God and with those wicked ones prophesied of to come in the last times in the book of the Revelations of whom 't is said That after all the Vials of wrath and the 7 last Plagues poured out they repented not but cursed God or else we are prone to charge God foolishly as they in Ezek. 8.12 said God hath forsaken the earth or 18 Ezek. That our Fathers have eaten sowre grapes and our teeth are set on edge yet we their children have eaten sowre grapes too or we are tempted to have hard speeches of God accompanying our natural complaints and call God's providence into question as if thou didst not govern the earth or not well because we think thou dost not hear us soon enough saying Why have we fasted and thou hearest not Now that we may eschew these iniquities let us see first the fruitlesness of this course though we roar all like Bears and mourn like Doves it doth not better us nor abate our afflictions So is it causeless for thy plagues are the just punishments for our sins and it is the Lord's mercy that we are not consumed as said the Church in Babylon and that we are living And why should a living man complain for the punishment of his sins for that we are alive is more than we deserve That thou givest us our life for a prey for we know we are all sinners and our sins exceed our punishments It was never so bad but it might have been worse with us and at the worst we have some mercy For David saith I know that of very faithfulness thou hast afflicted me In thus murmuring we overlook all Gods mercies As Haman when he had reckoned all his advancements yet said all this is nothing so long as Mordecai the Jew vailed not to him In this we shew our exceding great pride which makes us think all that God hath given us is no more than our due In this is direct rebellion against our God and
are with him And if God be with us who can be against us And we must convince our selves of this comfortable presence of God with us by our presence with him If we walk with him desire and love him for if he be with us he warmes the Soul and the love of God is spread abroad in our hearts then we must continue seeking till we find him Cant. 1.7 Tell me my Spouse where thou restest Because she thought he was all Lovely therefore she sought him And because she could not be without him Psal 80. v. 87. All my fresh springs are in thee She trusts in him and stays her self upon him when she is in darkness and sees no light as it is expressed in those words Though he slay me I will trust in him It is like death unto the soul and it can find no joy nor content no rest nor quiet in this condition When Zion said The Lord hath forsaken me and my God hath forgotten me it was her misunderstanding of her own condition for it follows But I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands When we know we have God's presence with us we are ravished like the Spouse in the Canticles Ere ever I was aware my soul was like the Chariots of Aminadab She is vigorous in holy duties and carried with an Impetus to desire an enjoyment of God in his Ordinances But in the withdrawings of God and the hiding of his face the soul is troubled If any trial be a fiery Trial this is It it more fiery than that of the three children in the furnace But comfort thy self with these promises I will be with thee in the fiery tryal that is to come upon all the world to try them The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a contrite heart And I will never leave thee nor forsake thee The Angel of the Lord tarrieth round about them that fear him and delivers then of Look upon them as sent from a merciful Father for good ends either to restrain thee from sin to humble thee or to drive thee to seek God by prayer and fasting and other holy duties which thou haply hast neglected and therefore the Messengers of Satan are sent to buffet thee Look upon Christ bearing a part of thy sufferings and suffering with thee Look upon the Holy Spirit helping thy infirmities and look upon the Crown and the exceeding weight of glory which they work But if thou hast walked with God in prosperity put him in mind of it as Hezekiah and Job did Also comfort thy self with the Love of Je-Jesus Christ thy Saviour revealed to thee who suffered the like that he might know the better to succour thee his unspeakable Love For seeing it is so that he seeth such beauty loveliness and perfection in his beloved Spouse as he expresseth Canticles 4. throughout If he be so inflamed of her love as is there expressed he cannot if he would long absent himself from her nor brook her absence from him In the first sixth verses he admireth her several beauties and in the seventh verse least he should seem to have overlook'd any imperfection he giveth a large commendation of the whole and exempteth it from all imputation of Imperfection Thou art all fair my Love there is no spot in thee Vers 8. It followeth Come with me my Spouse c. He must needs desire her company in whom he seeth such excellent beauty and perfection Further reasons he expresseth of this his desire of her company in the following verses In â—â—e 9th Thou hast ravished my heart my Sister my Spouse thou hast ravished me of my heart with one of thine eyes with one chain of thy neck How fair is thy Love my Sister my Spouse How much better is thy Love than Wine and the smell of thine ointment than all spices Thy lips O my Spouse drop as the hony comb hony and milk are under thy tongue and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebenon A Garden inclosed is my Sister my Spouse a spring shut up a fountain sealed Thy plants are an Orchard of Pomegranats with pleasant fruits Camphire with Spikenard c. These are the amorous Courtships which thy most loving and lovely Saviour courteth thee with These and many more of like love and kindness he useth to thee to satisfy thee of his love and to gain thine And having said all that in love could be said and done all for thy love that could be done unless it were the last Act of giving thee his hearts blood suppose him thus speaking to thee immediately before his passion And now my Sister my Spouse what wilt thou have me say or do more wilt thou have my hearts blood If thou wilt I am ready to give it thee Methinks I see the Spouse astonished at this ravishing kindness and grieving fore that her need is such that she must have her lovers hearts blood to heal her she answereth thus O Blessed and most dear Lord worthy of all love and service for this real expression of thy love how can I entertain such excess of love but be inflamed with love to thee again and if I am inflamed with love and desire of thee how can I admit of this thy wonderful offer the effusiion of thy blood And yet I must accept of this thy offer to cure those my greifs which otherwise are incurable And so with tears she breaks off her speech because her heart is broak and she knoweth not how to answer such high and reall expressions of love But yet the Lord who is love resteth not there he doth for us above all that we are able to ask or think And seeing that thou must needs have his hearts blood to cure thee or perish he suffereth death and inviteth thee to the funeral banquet and there under the complexion of of noble wine presenteth thee with his hearts blood to drink and under the complexion of bread presents thee his heart to eat And now thou must needs feel thy self revived and healed with the heat and virtue of this heavenly food and thou knowest thou hast ravished him of his heart therefore maiest rejoyce in thy Beloved Ejaculations LORD Since I cannot experience thy goodness and mercy in my deliverances or thy faithfulness in keeping promise to them that trust in thee hope in thee call upon thee delight in thee and love thee unless I first experience troubles dangers calamities and the malice of my enemies and fiery trials from which thy promise is to deliver us to save us and be with us in them Then make me be contented to fall into these troubles and trials the fire and the water of affliction and let them not seem strange to me though never so fiery Neither let me be cast down or dismayed faint or sorrow as those that are without hope and have no promise of God to trust to LORD Supply me with all suffering graces as well as doing graces
Faith is that which fixes the heart upon things eternal and holdeth it as by an anchor when in the world there can be no fixation but because of the raribility of the objects thereof and the instability of the subject viz. The mind of the natural man all is fast and loose and nothing can be trusted in But faith trusteth in the Lord because it knows the faithfulness of his promises Isa 7.9 Except you believe you can not be established Faith is that which inables us to walk with God because it believeth in and trusteth to his alsufficiency bounty and goodness and dependeth upon them casting its care upon God so that it makes the conversation of a believer to be without covetousness Heb. 13.5 Because he hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee This holy dependancy upon God David expresseth Psal 63. With the benefits he received thereby in these words My soul hangeth on thee thy right hand also shall uphold me They that seek the hurt of my soul they shall go under the earth but he would rejoyce in God Faith is that which gives the soul an interest in God and in Christ Jesus from whence flows all true comfort that the soul can desire and reciprocally it gives God an interest in us that we should be wholly his both soul and body living and dying As to the interest of God in us 't is said Psal 119.94 I am thine and in divers other Psalmes O save thy Servant and by the Apostle Whether we live therefore or dye we are the Lords David makes use of this interest of God in him as an argument for him to hear his prayers and deliver and succour him in his need but they seem more doubtful when they make use of Gods interest in them than when they make use of their interest in God for then they are high in their confidence and faith in God Psal 35. I trusted in thee for I said thou art my God And Psal 18. I will love thee O Lord my strength The Lord is my stony rock and my defence my Saviour my God and my might in whom I will trust my buckler the horne also of my salvation and my refuge 2. v. I will call upon the Lord which is worthy to be praised so shall I be safe from my enemies 3. v. The sorrows of death compassed me and the overflowings of ungodliness made me afraid 4. v. The paines of hell came about me the snares of death overtook me In my trouble I will call upon the Lord and complain unto my God so shall he hear my voice c. Psal 63. I will rejoyce in God my strength The assurance of our interest in God inables us to lay hold on every promise and every priviledg of the Servants of God and to challenge God upon his word with confidence as it is expressed in Psal 119.59 Remember thy word unto thy Servant wherein thou hast caused me to put my trust He looks upon his faith in the promise as that which obliged God to the performance and God looks upon it so too as it is said Psal 91.14 Because he hath set his love upon me I will deliver him c. Dan. 6. No hurt was found upon Daniel because he believed in God 2 Chron. 1.13 18. The children of Israel prevailed because they trusted and relied upon the Lord Psal 37.40 He shall deliver them from the ungodly because they put their trust in him Therefore our Blessed Saviour prayed for his Disciples faith that it might not fail when Satan desired to Winow them as wheat is Winnowed Could Satans fiery darts have been quenched and he baffled by this reply I believe as the Church believes as some pretend this had been easy for them to have said and so quitted themselves of all his winnowing or had they not so much faith as to say so or not so much cunning as they that teach us that but if it did not profit the Jews to say that they were Abrahams children and not bastards no more will it profit us to say we believe as the Church believe or as Abraham believed unless we do the works of Abraham and can shew our faith by our works for they are of the Devil that do his works And which of all the promises do they mean or which threatnings which precept or which commandment or word of the Gospel of eternal life and if they mean all these yet by referring to anothers belief they confess there own ignorance and imply that they are not able to give an accompt of their faith nor know what it is that they believe and how then can they believe for they cannot believe in him of whom they have not heard therefore their belief is a lye and they infidels but he to whom they make this answer must be supposed to know the belief of the Church and their pretended belief better than they and so it is because they are not permitted the reading of that Gospel whereof they pretend belief This saying of these deceivers came from the same Minerva as that saying of Claudius Caesar did and is the parallel of it speaking of a certain business he pronounced gravely as if he had read it in a book That he was of the same opinion with them who had offered true things The words in the Author are Secundum eos se sentire qui vera proposuissent Suetonius It followeth ibid. Propter quae usque eo eviluit ut passim ut propalam contemptui esset c. And I can see no reason why the asserters and upholders of this silly saying which they so magnify and affect should not fall into a parity of contempt for so doing But that sandy foundation of theirs That ignorance is the Mother of Devotion and 't is true of their devotion can bear no other superstructure than ignorance of the faith and ignorance of the Scripture nor can it otherwise be supported but life eternal consists in knowledg and Prov. 13.16 Every prudent man dealeth in knowledg But whenever subtilty craft is requisite there they use it and where ignorance is helpful to their designs there that is appiled I can compare them to nothing more fitly than to briars which take root and grow at both their ends and whereever they lay hold of the silly sheep they tear off the fleece But that faith which makes us the Sons of God and gives life eternal must be more knowing and be able to give an account of it self viz. To know God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent according to the promises of illumination They shall all know c. And knowing him must receive him and believe in his name as in John 1.12 To as many as received him to them he gave power to become the Sons of God to them that believe in his name The object of faith which is said to be the evidence of things not seen generally is God and the truth of