heavens he hath done whatsoever he pleased Their Idols are silver and gold c. Be thou exalted O God in thine own strength We will sing and praise thy power Forsake me not until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation and thy power to every one that is to come c. This is given out as the Song of Moses and the Lamb Who shall not fear thee O Lord and glorifie thy name Great and marvelous are thy works Lord God Almighty c. And how do they magnifie his Mercy and Goodness both towards his own people and his creatures in general O how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee that thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the children of men Rejoice in the Lord O ye righteous for praise is comely for the upright Praise the Lord with harp Sing unto him with the Psaltery The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. I will extol thee my God O King I will bless thy name for ever and ever Men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts they shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness and shall sing of thy righteousness The Lord is gracious and full of compassion slow to anger and of great mercy The Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works To insert all that might be mentioned to this purpose were to transcribe a great part of the Bible And in what raptures do we often find them in the contemplation of his Faithfulness and Truth his Justice and Righteousness his Eternity the boundlesness of his Presence the greatness of his Works the extensiveness of his Dominion the perpetuity of his Kingdom the exactness of his Government Who is a strong God like unto thee and to thy faithfulness round about thee Thy mercy O Lord is in the heavens and thy faithfulness reaches unto the clouds Before the mountains were brought forth or ever thou hadst formed the earth or the world from everlasting to everlasting thou art God But will God indeed dwell on the earth Behold the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee The works of the Lord are great sought out of them that have pleasure therein His work is honourable and glorious c. All thy works shall praise thee O Lord and thy Saints shall bless thee they shall speak of the glory of thy Kingdom and talk of thy power To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts and the glorious Majesty of his Kingdom Thy Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom and thy Dominion endureth throughout all generations And his Glory in the general which results from his several Excellencies in conjunction How loftily is it often celebrated with the expression of the most loyal desires that it may be every-where renowned and of greatest complacency in as far as it is apprehended so to be The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever They shall sing in the ways of the Lord for great is the glory of the Lord. Be thou exalted above the heavens let thy glory be above all the earth Let them praise the name of the Lord for his name alone is excellent his glory is above the earth and the heavens When you read such passages as these whether they be elogies or commendations of him or doxologies and direct attributions of glory to him you are to bethink your selves with what temper of heart these things were uttered with how raised and exalted a spirit what high delight and pleasure was conceived in glorifying God or in beholding him glorious How large and unbounded a heart and how full of his praise doth still every where discover it self in such strains When all Nations when all Creatures when every-thing that hath breath when Heaven and Earth are invited together to join in the consort and bear a part in his praises And now eye him under the same notions under which you have seen him so magnified that in the same way you may have your own heart wrought up to the same pitch and temper towards him Should it not provoke an emulation and make you covet to be amidst the throng of loyal and devoted Souls when you see them ascending as if they were all incense When you behold them dissolving and melting away in delight and love and ready to expire even fainting that they can do no more designing their very last breath shall go forth in the close of a Song I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live I will sing praise to my God while I have my being How becoming is it to resolve This shall be my aim and ambition to fly the same and if it were possible a greater height Read over such Psalms as are more especially designed for the magnifying of God and when you see what were the things that were most taking to so spiritual and pious hearts thence receive instruction and aim to have your hearts alike affected and transported with the same things Frame the supposition that you are meant that the invitation is directed to you O Come let us sing unto the Lord let us come before his presence with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise to him with Psalms for the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods c. And think with your selves Is he not as great as he was Is he not as much our Maker as he was theirs Is it not now as true that the Lord reigneth and is high above all the earth and exalted far above all gods Now since these were the considerations upon which so great complacency was taken in him set the same before your own eyes And since these were proposed as the matter of so common a joy and the Creation seems design'd for a musical instrument of as many strings as there are Creatures in Heaven and Earth Awake and make haste to get your heart fixed Lest the heavens rejoice and the earth be glad the world and all that dwell therein Lest the sea roar and the fulness thereof the floods clap their hands the fields and the hills be joyful together and all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord while you only are silent and unconcern'd And seriously consider the kind and nature of that joy and delight in God wherewith the hearts of holy men did so exceedingly abound Which is to be collected from the expressed ground and reasons of it for the most part wheresoever you have any discovery of that joy it self This general and principal character may be given of it that it was a sincerely-devout and a loyal joy not a mean narrow selfish pleasure an hugging of themselves in this apprehension meerly It is well with me or I am safe and happy whatsoever becomes of the world This was still the burden of their Song The Lord is
can be delightful to act against inclination or that a forced imitation of that good whereof you want the implanted vital principle can be any more pleasing to you than it is to God whom you cannot mock or impose upon by your most elaborate or specious disguises And therefore since that holy heart-rectitude must be had it must be sought earnestly and without rest Often ought Heaven to be visited with such sighs and longings sent up thither O that my ways were directed to keep thy righteous judgments Let my heart be sound in thy statutes that I be not ashamed And it should be sought with expectation of good-speed and without despair remembring we are told If we ask we shall receive if we seek we shall find if we knock it shall be opened unto us yea that our heavenly Father will much more readily give his Holy Spirit to them that ask than you would bread to your Child that calls for it rather than a stone 3. When once you find your spirit is become in any measure well-inclin'd and begins to savour that which is truly good know yet that it needs your continual inspection and care to cherish good principles and repress evil ones Your work is not done as soon as you begin to live as care about an Infant ceases not as soon as it is born Let it be therefore your constant business to tend your inward man otherwise all things will soon be out of course God hath coupled delight with the labour of a Christian not with the sloth and neglect of himself The heart must then be kept with all diligence or above all keeping in as much as out of it are the issues of life All vital principles are lodg'd there and only the genuine issues of such as are good and holy will yeild you pleasure The exercises of Religion will be pleasant when they are natural and flow easily from their own fountain but great care must be taken that the fountain be kept pure There are other springs besides which will be apt to intermingle therewith their bitter waters or a root of bitterness whose fruit is deadly even that evil thing and bitter forsaking the Lord. I wonder not if they taste little of the delights of Religion that take no heed to their spirits Such a curse is upon the nature of man as is upon the ground which was cursed for his sake till the blessing of Abraham through Jesus Christ do take place even the Promise of the Spirit that it brings forth naturally thorns and thistles and mingles sorrows with his bread But that promised blessing that will enable a man to eat with pleasure comes not all at once nor do the encreases of it come on or the pleasant fruits of righteousness spring up but in them that give all diligence to add to their faith vertue and to vertue knowledg and to knowledg temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly-kindness and to brotherly-kindness charity Which would make that we be not barren nor unfruitful in the knowledg of our Lord Jesus Christ. Otherwise look in upon thy Soul when thou wilt and thou wilt have no other than the dismal prospect of miserable wastes and desolation Consider it seriously wretched man who tillest thy Field but not thy Soul and lovest to see thy Garden neat and flourishing but lettest thy Spirit lye as a neglected thing and as if it were not thine We are directed for the moderating of our care in our earthly concernments to consider the Lillies how they grow without their own toil and are beautifully array'd without their spinning But we are taught by no such instances to divert or remit our care of our inward man To these concernments let us then apply and bend our selves That is carefully to observe the first stirrings of our thoughts and desires to animadvert upon our inclinations assoon as they can come in view upon our designs in their very formation and enquire concerning each whence is it from a good Principle or a bad whither tends it to good or hurt will not this design if prosecuted prove an unjustifiable self-indulgence Does it not tend to an unlawful gratifying of the flesh and fulfilling some lusts thereof If so let it be lop't off our of hand and the axe be laid even to the root strike at it favour it not Think with thy self this if spared will breed me sorrow so much as I give to it I take away from the comfort of my life and spend of the stock of my spiritual delight in God Shall I let sin the tormentor of my Soul live and be mantain'd at so costly a rate If any good inclination discover it self cherish it confirm and strengthen it Look up and pray down a further quickening influence Say with thy self now that heavenly Spirit of Life and Grace begins to breath More of this pleasant vital breath thou blessed and holy Spirit Account this a Seed-time Now the light and gladness are a sowing in thy soul which are wont to be for the righteous and upright in heart and do promise ere long a joyful Harvest But if thou wilt not observe how things go with thy Soul despair that they will ever go well 4. Be frequent and impartial in the actual exercise of gracious Principles or in practising and doing as they direct Your actual delight arises from and accompanies your holy actions themselves and is to be perceived and tasted in them not in the meer inclination to them which is not strong enough to go forth into act And as these Principles are more frequently exercised they grow more lively and vigorous and will thence act more strongly and pleasantly so that your delight in doing good will grow with the Principles it proceeds from But then you must be impartial and even-handed herein as well as frequent and run the whole compass of that Duty which belongs to you as a Christian. Exercise your self as we find the direction is unto godliness and in such acts and parts of godliness chiefly and in the first place as may be the exercise of the mind and spirit in opposition to the bodily exercise whether severities imposed upon or performances that require the Ministery of that grosser part to which this nobler kind of exercise is justly prefer'd Turn the powers of your soul upon God Act seasonably the several graces of the Spirit that terminate directly upon him Let none grow out of use At some times Repentance at others Faith now your Love then your Fear none of these are placed in you or are sanctified in vain Retire much with God learn and habituate your selves unto secret converse with him contemplate his Nature Attributes and Works for your excitation to holy Adoration Reverence and Praise And be much exercised in the open Solemnities of his Worship there endeavouring that though your inward man bear not the only it may the principal part
How delightful a thing is it to be paying actual avow'd homage to the great Lord of Heaven and Earth before Angels and Men And never think your Religious and Devotional Exercises can acquit you or supply the want and excuse the absence of Sobriety and Righteousness Exercise a just authority over your selves Keep your imagination passions sensitive appetite under a due restraint so as to be moderate in your desires and enjoyments patient as to your wants and sufferings Do to others as you would be done unto Study common good Endeavour so far as your capacity can extend all about you may be the better for you Forbear and forgive the injurious relieve the necessitous delight in good men pity the bad be grateful towards friends mild and unrevengeful towards enemies just towards all Abhor to do not only a dishonest but even a mean and unworthy act for any self-advantage And all this out of an awful and dutiful respect to God by which the ordinary actions of your life may become as so many acts of Religion or be directed and influenc't thereby tinctured as it were with the savour of godliness Pass thus in your continual practice through the whole circle of Christian Duties and Graces with an equal respect to all Gods Commandments not so partially addicting your selves to one sort of exercise as to disuse and neglect the rest which kind of partiality is that which starves Religion and stifles the delight of it There are those that affect the reputation of being sober just kind charitable persons and do appear such who yet are great strangers to God and to the more noble exercises of the Divine Life know not what belongs to communion with God live not in his love and converse savour not heaven have not so much as the taste of the great vital powers of the world to come Others that pretend to much acquaintance with God and are much taken up in discoursing of his love and of intimacies with him that count Justice and Charity mean things and much beneath them can allow themselves to be covetous oppressive fraudulent wrathful malicious peevish fretful discontented proud censorious merciless and so glory in a Religion which no one is the better for and themselves least of all and which is quite of another stamp from the pure Religion and undefiled which the Apostle describes and recommends And certainly their Religion hath as little of pleasure in it to themselves as it hath of beauty and ornament in the sight of others So maim'd a Religion can be accompanied with little delight Would it not detract much from the natural pleasure of a mans life if he should lose an arm or a leg or have them useless and unserviceable Or if he should be deprived of some of his senses or natural faculties so as to be uncapable of some of the more principal functions of life And if we should suppose the new creature alike maimed and defective will there not be a proportionable diminution of its delight But the Spirit of God is the Author of no such imperfect productions and therefore the total absence of any holy disposition will not argue the true delight of such a one to be little but none at all However let all the integral parts of the new man be supposed formed at first and existing together when this creature is thus entirely framed it is our business to see to the due exercise and thereby to the improvement and growth of the several parts wherein if one be neglected it infers a general enfeeblement of the whole Let patience have its perfect work saith that Apostle that ye may be perfect c. Implying That not only the absence of that one grace but it s not being throughly exercised would render us very defective Christians We may say of the several members of this Divine Creature as is said of the complex body of Christians If one suffer all the members suffer with it if one be honoured all rejoice with it Therefore that you may experience the delightfulness of Religion see that in the exercise and practice of it you be entire thorow Christians 5. Be confirmed in the apprehension that Religion is in it self a delightful thing even universally and in the whole nature of it Whereby a double practical mistake and error will be avoided that greatly obstructs and hinders the actual relish and sensation of that delight 1. That either Religion is in the whole nature of it such a thing to which delight must be alien and banisht from it As if nothing did belong to or could consist with it but sowre severities pensiveness and sad thoughts Or else 2. That if any delight did belong to it at all it must be found only in peculiar extraordinary assurances and perswasions of Gods love and be the attainment consequently of none but more eminent Christians That apprehension being throughly admitted both these misapprehensions fall and vanish And it will take place if it be duly considered That there is a delight that will naturally arise from the congruity and fitness of actions in themselves and the facility of them that they flow easily from their proper principles Whereupon there can be no true vital act of Religion but will be delightful And we may appeal herein to the judgments of such as shall allow themselves to consider whether the matter do not evidently appear to be so upon a serious review and revolving with themselves of the several gracious operations that proceed from the holy rectitude mentioned in the former part as the acts of even Repentance self-abasement self-denial self-devoting appearing to be in themselves most fit and becoming things and readily without force proceeding as they cannot but do from a rectified and well-disposed heart how can they but be pleasant And it is much in our way to the experiencing of such delight to be at a point with our selves and well-resolved wherein it is to be sought and found 6. However all the acts and operations of true and living Religion be in themselves delightful yet apply your selves to the doing of them for an higher reason and with a greater design than your own delight Otherwise you destroy your own work therein and dispoil your acts of their substantial moral goodness and consequently of their delightfulness also That is not a morally good act which is not refer'd to God and done out of at least an habitual devotedness to him so as that he be the supream end thereof You would therefore by with-drawing and separating their reference to God ravish from them their very life and soul yea and perfectly nullifie those of them that should be in themselves acts of Religion So as that in respect of all your actions that separation were unjust and as to these that should be direct acts of Religion impossible Since therefore they are only delightful as they are vital acts proceeding from a principle of Divine Life and that an