THE Fire upon the Altar OR DIVINE MEDITATIONS AND ESSAYES Containing the Substance of Christian Religion Not unto us O Lord Psalm 115. Optimos vitae dies Effluere prohibe Seneca Simile Eccl. 12. Multa tulit fecitque puer sudavit alsit Horat. LONDON Printed by T. S. and are to be sold by Abel Roper at the Sun against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street 1679. Exod. 30. v. 7. And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet Incense every morning when he dresseth the Lamps he shall burn Incense upon it v. 8. And when Aaron lighteth the Lamps at even he shall burn Incense upon it a perpetual Incense befor e the Lord thorow out your generations TO THE READER Courteous Reader HAving conceived these Meditations for my own private Use according to my occasions and inclinations And finding satisfaction and benefit by them I committed them to Paper to the intent that by resort to them I might again excite in my mind the like sollace and pleasure which accordingly I have done and enjoyed Thereupon I communicated them to some of my near Relations and upon their request to the publick Not for any affectation that I have of popularity for my Genius is quite contrary to that Nor yet for any fond or overweening opinion of them or my self in comparison of others who have writ well and learnedly to the same purpose but yet for as much as I am perswaded to it and know that they are well intended and may be useful to many And those that have the Tongue of the Learned may from the weakness which they shall find in these take occasion to do better I adventure to come abroad The Subjects upon which they are writ do challenge thy most studious intention of mind when thou readest of them thence it is that I refuse to be censured upon any mans cursory reading though I know I cannot avoid it but upon a serious weighing and considering of the things writ and I may justly crave allowance for that they were not writ nor designed for the publick If any of the things herein contained shall seem to be a Treatise rather than Meditations know the reason to be this that when first they were writ they were divers of them short Meditations but for methods sake the same were afterwards put into some Order and so took the form of a Treatise or Essay Reader thou mayest take these labours of mine in good part because I seek nothing by the publication thereof but to be serviceable to God to my generation and to thee who am Thy Faithful Friend C. ROWE De Monte Higham ERRATA PAge 1. line last read acessit p. 2. l. 23. r. the extream p. 3. l. 19. r. is in my heart l. 29. r. thereof p. 5. l. 13. r. grow p. 6. l. 24. dele of p. 7. l. 16. dele then p. 10. l. 23. r. feedest p. 12. l. 21. r. his love p. 15. l. 25. r. read in all other duties p. 46. l. 26. r. beneficence p. 54. l. 13. read premisses p. 56. l. 29. r. bolls p. 58. l. 9. r. prescribed p. 84. l. 24. r. then we p. 88. l. 19. r. they p. 94. l. 21. put in the p. 99. l. 29. r. such as thus make use of it p. 115. l. 29. r. of p. 132. l. 11. r. bearest l. 13. r. pledges p. 163. l. 35. r. all things are p. 175. l. 16. r. is l. 28. r. give p. 198. l. 22. r. for which p. 200. l. 19. r. rejoyce p. 202. l. 30. r. tongues p. 221. l. 23. blot out I p. 231. l. 5. r. thy p. 234. l. 13. r. this p. 235. l. 25. put in those injuries which are done to our selves p. 332. l. 16. r. is p. 236. l. 1. put in do it constantly without intermissions a double minded man is unstable p. 241. blot out 1 and 2. lines and l. 25. read first love p. 250. l. 21. blot out comforts of the p. 256. l. last for estate r. labour p. 239. r. oculos p. 259. l. 8. r. flesh y. 267. l. 7. r. 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God p. 376. l. 28. r renew his strength p. 284. l. 30. r. beseech us to be reconciled THE FIRE upon the ALTAR OR Divine Meditations and Ejaculations Containing The Substance of Christian Religion The PREFACE Of Meditation Cor mundum crea in me Deus THE Heart is the fountain which sends forth and streams it self into words and actions and by those it is known whether it be good or evil He that purposeth a Regulation of his life and conversation must begin with this as the first mover preserve and watch this with most diligent care that there come no evil into it whereby it be disordered and so the whole stream be defiled and fouled sincerum est nisi vas quodcunque infundis accessit Prov. 4.23 Keep thy heart with all diligence Ne cures ea quae stultè miraris Horat. Think not on that which may tempt thee It may be compared to a Ship under sale whose Pilot must ever be watchful to look to his steerage lest he split upon Rocks or be swallowed up with Sands This Pilot is Reason Guided and Illuminated not by any Star Cynosura Helice nor other but from a higher Orb the Spirit of God which exerting it self in our actions and conversations is called Grace for the Love of God Humility Patience Charity Chastity and the rest as they are called the fruits of the Spirit are graces and beams of this light so looking to their original they are called the Spirit of Love Joy Peace c. And it is that which the true Light in the internal Horizon and the Fire wherewith Jesus Christ baptizeth the Regenerate Luke 3.16 Reason then in the soul of man must alwaies keep it self in action lest the affections wanting their Governour at the stern precipitate the soul upon Sylla on one side or Caribdys on the other either extreme of excess or of defect or else must steer a contrary course But if by continual Meditation on good things it sets before it self alwaies the place for which it is bound and the end of its creation and hath an eye to that luminary by which it guides its course and keeps on its course with a perpetual motion by every wind and gale without digressions by these means it may sale safely and may expect a safe and happy voyage and blessed be God there is no curtain drawn between us and the light as was to them under the Law What rash person is he that will undertake any work of difficulty or importance but will predmeitate the means opportunities and advantages whereby to effect it and often propound to himself both
fore-skin of our heart taken away by mortification of all the senses and affections and is in all the parts of the body the eyes the hands the tongue the eares the pallate c. This analogical circumcision remaineth that of Moses law is taken away this is Spiritual and may be with blood too as is said You have not yet resisted unto blood striving against Sin That circumcision signified this mortification but this is the more difficult His reasons of his assertion of this are couched in these characters of Christians viz. Which rejoyce in Christ and have no confidence in the flesh As if he should argue that they that rejoyce in any thing but Christ and his merits and alsufficiency are not the heires of Salvation Nor they who have confidence in any fleshly thing as circumcision and outward performances and priviledges Nor those who put off God with outword bodily worship and do not worship him with their hearts and Spirits Spiritually as it is said they draw nigh with their lips but their heart is far from me these things they may do that are in the flesh but cannot please God because they do not justice and love mercy and walk humbly with God Holiness also of our own framing is not that which God accompts holiness that is to say voluntary Humility worshipping of Angels c. These the Apostle saith Have only a shew of Godliness They that trust in themselves and despise others as the Pharisees did that say they have works of supererogation Nor they that say stand off for I am holier then thou and think well of themselves that they are profitable are not Saints The centurion had a meaner opinion of him self when he said Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof So had John the Baptist when he said he was not worthy to loofe the lachet of his Saviours shooe And wise Agar when he said he had not the understanding of a man and was more brutish then any So St. Paul when he said he was the meanest of the Apostles and not worthy to be calld an Apostle And David professeth the same humility Psal 131. saying Lord I am not high minded I have no proud looks c. And Psal He saith Lord I am a worme and no man The very scorne of men and the outcast of the people this comportment is that which becometh holiness and is acepted in the sight of God for he resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble and of Israel he saith when thou wert little in thine owne eyes then thou wert honourable and our blessed Lord and Saviour repressed the contention of the Apostles for the superiority by inculcating this grace But to seek honour from one another and to love the praise of men and salutation in the Market places the uppermost seats in the Synagogues preheminence precedency and be called Rabbi our blessed Lord and Saviour renders these for the charactars of those who would seem to be righteous and are not He plucks of the masks and vizards of these Actors of holiness and instances in their over Actings to prove that they do but personate what they are not they make broad their Phylacteries Tith mint Annis and Comin but neglect the waitysr matters of the law He shews what they are within in their harts and affections they washed but the out side of their cups their inward parts were foul still he compares their holiness to the painted Sepulcres they flourished it with giveing their almes publickly praying publickly fasting and disviguring their faces that they may be seen to fast and thus coming abroad among the people they crave veneration for this maske of holiness and they had their rewards which they sought Our Saviour tells them what course they should take to have a real goodness Math. 12.33 Either make the Tree good and his fruit good or make the Tree corrupt and his sruit corrupt v. 35. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good fruit c. That is a natural production And when the principle or cause is such the effects will be answerable â—o do worthy Acts and not to seek praise and honour for them is true worth for hereby it is manifest that he who doth so doth it for vertues sake for the love of worth and vertue meerly Therefore Bafil's expression seemeth to me to be unsound Fugiamus inanem gloriam duleem Spiritualium operum spoliatricem tincam Virtutum For how can it be called a Spiritutal work when it is done for vain glory and not by the Spirit and for the same reason such a work can not be called virtuous because the glory and not the virtue is counted sweet but nevertheless we may take such admonitious in good part But it appears that these Pharisees principles were not good because they had such base vain and vile ends whereby they neglected the weigher matters of the law and contented themselves with pairing off the external enormities that they might seem fair to men from whom they sought veneration and reverence for their professions sake affecting the honour and reward of virtue more than virtue it self But this evil leaven our saviour warned his Disciples of and in them as I conceive their successors He shews what principles a good man hath and practiseth works by for though none be good but God absolutely yet in some degrees they may be good as Joseph of Arimathea was called a good man And the good ground was he that received the word in an upright heart so that God judgeth of a man according to his state not according to some particular actions which may happen to be evil Such principles and such works makes a good man that these principles do bring forth is proved from the nature of them They are given to that end that they should bring forth for God seeing the heart weak and striving to bring forth such fruit he gives them such graces by the working of his Spirit in their hearts as may enble them Jer. 32.4 I will put my Spirit into their hearts This is active T is called the life the fountain of living waters the spirit of grace and the spirit of a sound mind because these graces are the motions and operations of the Spirit or the Spirit moving And Secondly because of the vigour and strength of these principles called the power of God and godliness 3. From their being The being that Grace hath in the Heart is in its operation so is its well-being therefore they are said to be ready to dye when they do not operate 4. For the Seat of it being possessed of the Heart which is the chief part over all and so gives Life to all 5. The heart is supposed to be the seat of the affections which being made good by such principles they produce fruit answerable The real goodness in the Heart must be exerted in the action and the work that is
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.
produced must be good also and must proceed from that good principle viz. Faith without which it is impossible to please God but these good fruits are not proportionable to the goodness of his heart for he is sorry that they are no better blushing ever at their imperfections not boasting of them nor craving honour for them the end also must be good These qualifications the good works have They are described from their cause Gal. 5.22 The fruits of the Spirit are love joy peace meekness c. Rom. 6.22 described by their end these are fruits unto holiness Another difference is that some of those works are secret and invisible to Men such as are terminated in the action within as the secret risings of the heart against corruptions as was in St. Paul when he said That which I would I do not and groans for deliverance saying who shall deliver me from this bondage of corruption also secret longings after Christ and God and Holiness also dependency upon Christ and God inward mournings for sin c. 2. Such works as have opus ad extra as to shew forth a good Conversation True Holiness defined It is a grace supernatural infused by the Holy Spirit renewing us after the Image of him that made us whereby God is in us Christ is in us and the Holy Spirit is in us and we are in Christ by an inseparable Union and Communion of Natures 1 John 4.16 Gal. 2.20 and 4.19 1 John 4.13 'T is infused because of our selves we are not able to think a good thought and Christ saith That without him we can do nothing God worketh in us both to will and to do though he commands us to work out our own Salvation and the words following viz. with fear and trembling denote the weakness and disability of our selves and the ability which the command doth suppose is from Gods assistance we doing our endeavour our blessed Lord and Saviour compares it to leaven It is an Universal change of the whole Man If any one be in Christ he is a new Creature old things are passed away and all things become new It reneweth us after the Image of him that made us Both the inward Man and the outward are changed as Saul's heart was changed when he was anointed to be King so is every Saint changed by the Spirit of God that is in him and the understanding desires and thirsts after no knowledge but to know God and Jesus Christ and him Crucified because the understanding before was darkned and alienated from the Life of God through the Ignorance that was in it But now it is enlightned and the darkness is passed away because the Light of the glorious Gospel of Christ which is the Image of God hath shined into it for the Gospel is Light and Jesus Christ is that Light that enlightens every one that cometh into the World by this it cometh to pass that the Soul knowerh that all Gods Commandments are True Righteous and Faithful that they are tryed to the utmost That it is Wisdom and Understanding to do thereafter It now puts a true estimate upon God and Christ Heaven and Grace and Glory This is that wise Merchant spoken of in the Gospel that having found a Pearl of exceeding great value in a Field sold all to buy that Field his knowledge is practical diligent and not slothful rests not in the inquisition but proceeds to the acquisition of its true everlasting interest through the knowledge of Jesus Christ as he is revealed in the Gospel Rom. 12.2 Be ye transformed in the renewing of your minds that ye may prove what is the good acceptable and perfest Will of God As the undestanding is changed so the affctions love hatred hope fear c. Are accordingly changed he that before counted the Sabboth weariness now he calleth it a delight He that before rejoyced in the increase of Corne Wine and Oyl and in satisfying the senses his joy now proceeds from higher and nobler causes viz. The light of Gods countenance communion with God in holy duties reading the word of God praying thanksgiveing meditating and the most severe duties of fasting humiliation and repentance and every meanes of begetting and improving grace he preserreth before satisfying of the senses with pleasant viands which whilest they cherish and delight the body they deprave the better part possibly not the intellect and rational faculty of the soul for that may be improved too by God usage of the body so it be not to excess But the new nature the divine Image which is begotten in us by the word of truth is starved stifled and grieved which image and new nature though it be in the understanding yet it doth so far surpass the reason as that doth the senses and is no other thing but the holy Spirit of God which every regenerate person hath received in some measure for this is that which did regenerate him which if any man have not it is certain he is none of his It is known to be the Spirit of God because it works not as reason doth by arguments deduced from things visible to sense nor such as can be proved by reasonable consequence but it is oftentimes directly opposite and repugnant to reason as in Abraham and so in all that undergo any trialls and who doth not undergo them This new soul or new life of the regenerate is not somented nourished or cherished by the elements of the natural sensual vegetative or meerly rational soul but by the word of God and the dictates of the Spirit for which it panteth as the Hart panteth after the water brooks and breaketh out for the very fervent desire that it hath alwaies to Gods commandments which it esteemeth above Gold and thirsteth after as the body doth for the necessarys of life and yet the most regegenerate and renewed person hath the flesh and coruption alwaies remaining in him and must and doth pray sometimes with holy David for renovation Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right Spirit within me Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy holy Spirit from me For we have this treasure but in earthen vessels we are not assured of the continuance of it therefore we watch against our inbred corruptions and pray for divine supportations knowing our slippery standing our own weakness and the strength of our spiritual adversaries which assails us without intermission And when we think our selves most strong we may fall as the great Apostle that denied his Master did because in the best of Saints the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and sometimes leads them captive and suffers not to do the good which they would but draws them to the evil which they would not the law of the members warring against the law of the mind Were it otherwise there would be no virtue nor occasion of resisting The sense of which corruption and uncleanness makes them mourne bewaile and abhor themselves
God and his thoughts which are to us-ward calls him unwise who doth not consider it and him that doth not regard it a fool But he that is wise he saith he will ponder them and shall understand c. intimating that without such pondering he cannot understand his principal concerns How then can the Law of God convert a soul if it be not meditated of by that soul or how can the Testimonies of God make wise the simple if they be not studied and learned How can they rejoyce the heart and comfort us in trouble and afford us hope unless the heart rejoyce in the meditation of them How could they be a light to our feet and lanthorn to our paths How can we be guided by them unless we thus keep them in our minds They can have no desire after the sincere milk of the word who have not tasted it by holy meditation nor can they grow thereby unless they thus feed upon it How can the good seed of God's word take root in our hearts and bring forth fruit in our lives if the cares of this world or deceitfulness of Riches hinder us from considering and meditating upon it so as to fasten it in our hearts and fix it upon our understandings and affections He that desires to draw near to God or to walk with him must do this duty He that desires to be taught of God and hear the voice behind him saying this is the way he must be conversant in this He that doth not this must either be a luke-warm Christian or an Hypocrite or no Christian for an Hypocrite may discourse and talk of the things of Religion Mortification Renovation and Regeneration Repentance Conversion of forsaking the world and taking off his affections from the things below and setting them on things above but he doth little think of those things which be powerful to take off his affections from the lusts of the flesh the lusts of the eyes and the pride of life and to fix them on God and on the beauty of holiness but the Regenerate man that finds corruption in his heart will be restless in his thoughts when he finds some corruption ready to break out and lead him captive to sin until he hath found out some thing in the word of God that hath efficacy and power by his endeavour and the Assistance of God's Grace to conquer every thought inclination and imagination of his corrupt nature As if peradventure a slanderous tongue hath provoked him with such slanders as he most abhors and he finds himself too prone to return the like viz. Railing for Railing Cursing for Cursing He thereupon retires himself and either by his own memory calls to mind the behaviour of the Saints of God and the holy commands of him that hath called us out of darkness into his marvelous light out of sin to sanctification and holiness And what he commands us to do that he hath called us to not to serve sin or live any longer therein but that we should walk as Christ walked and as he was Reviled and Reviled not again but submitted to him that judgeth righteously so he endeavours also and praies to God that he may conform himself or else he betakes himself for the help of his memory to the written word and will search what holy Job did in the like case being falsly accused by his Friends and there finding that the Holy man answered those false accusations thus My witness is in Heaven my Record is on high This directs him and inables him to conquer his passion and he rejoiceth that he hath found such a powerful Scripture and he endeavours to improve it by meditation that he may be able alwaies to make use of it upon the like occasion And God so much blesseth his people and directs and guides them in this business that he often helps them when at a loss and directs them by accident to hear such a Sermon or read such a place as most properly agrees with their meditation and present occasion whereby they receive satisfaction and will never leave the meditation of it till they conceive them selves able to conquer the like temptation So if they be encountered with the love of the world and find themselves hardly beset with the bate of covetousness or with the lusts of the flesh they intend with all their might those arguments which are prevalent with the Saints of God to take them off this sensual love to the heavenly love to love God and his Grace and spiritual gifts and injoyments and Jesus Christ our blessed Saviour and Redeemer who shed his precious blood for us and in deeds and words of the highest expressions hath manifested his love to us courting us to love him again with such significant and full expressions of his love as no tongue could ever express unless they use his very expressions which he useth in the Canticles to endear thee wherein he both advanceth the commendation of the several parts of the body of his Beloved and of the whole saith Thou art all fair my Love And he also promiseth to give her his loves Who so shall diligently consider of these he will easily break out into that expression of his love to Christ which the Spouse maketh viz. Thy Love is better than Wine and ver 4. The King hath brought me into his Chambers we will be glad and rejoice in thee and will find great satisfaction and delight in the name of him as in a sweet perfume Thy name is as ointment poured forth therefore the Virgins Love thee And with the Spouse cannot but seek him though she suffer injuries from rude persons when she enquires after him still she persists Tell me where thou feeds for the inlightned converted soul knoweth that it must not love the world neither the pleasures nor profits and if it doth the love of the Father is not in it nor the love of Jesus Christ for this love expels all other he that drinks of this water thirsts no more And when the heavenly Spouse hath sought her Beloved and besought him for the kisses of his mouth and is enamoured of his beauty and is satisfied with his beauty only and remembers his loves more than wine and delights to hear his name and is sick of love he will not fail then to bring her into his banquetting-house and defend her with his love as with a banner and stay her with flaggons and comfort her with Apples and also he will bring her into his chambers and unvail his beauties to her and give her his loves And now she may well despise all other Rivals of her love like the Eagle that catcheth not Flies or like him who hath drunk the sweet waters of the fountain he will not presently drink in a muddy puddle or seek to quench his thirst in broken Cisterns which hold no water And so for other temptations and perils which the soul findeth it self to lye under through the
water out of the wells of salvation Which promise I conceive extends to all duties of Religion and so to this a-among the rest But sure I am that without this a man cannot be well disposed nor well perform any other with comfort the more we make use of this the more joy we have in us and this is to be alwaies performed others cannot be so Psal 4. Commune with your own hearts and in your Chamber be still What comfort and satisfaction doth it yield to the virtuous mind to contrive and meditate how to do well holily and according to vertue the very Idea of the action hath beauty and delight though peradventure we are not able sometimes to do according because of our infirmities and likewise the evil mind delighteth in evil Jer. 11.15 And this delight in good and the impression of the beautifulness and decency of the action excites to the Act. Although evil be present with us when we endeavour our selves to do the thing by reason of our corrupt nature and our Ghostly enemy If this were not a clear truth it might be sufficiently demonstrated by its contrary The contrivance or remembrance of any unseemly or impious action how full of loathing and horror is it or if they be but vain thoughts that lodge in us as they must needs do in those who read ludicrous vain and scurrilous books or spend their time in the Theatre the mind and manners will be formed accordingly unless we disgust them I mean not that the sins of God's people are often premeditated for if they did premeditate them I suppose they would avoid them but yet sometimes they do consider of sin but most commonly break off their consideration and purpose with loathing of it and themselves too for their thoughts and assayes of sinning but those sins which they committed before their conversion they remember after their conversion with the contrivance of them with loathing and the sins which they see others contrive or read or hear of And often the wickedest persons that are when they remember their foulest sins they abhor them and tremble and endeavour to put out of their minds the remembrance of them for the horrible foulness which they then perceive in them and for the offence which they yield them This Duty then being enjoyned us by God as most necessary and powerful for attaining and improving of every grace and for the avoiding of all and every sin and temptation that our nature is inclined to or liable to be drawn to Let these reasons be sufficient to convince us of the necessity and utility of it and the delightfulness of it both to God and our selves and put us upon the practice of it that we may be Royal Priests to God and our bodies may be the Temples of the Holy Ghost and our hearts God's holy Altars upon which the fire shall ever burn and Incense without ceasing Exod. 30. v. 73. The Corrolary Holy Meditation is the thing whereby we edifie our selves and holy life and conversation is that whereby we edifie one another in the most holy Faith Of the Worship of God in general THAT God is and that he is to be worshiped is written in the heart of man with indelible characters for it appears that before any Law was given the Light of Nature did not only instruct men of the Being of God and of the necessity of Divine Worship but also afforded them such plentiful instruction of the manner of the Worship too that he that had an honest sincere heart might and did perform it in an acceptable manner as Abel did without any other Instructer And Cain might also have done the like as is intimated in those words which God spake to him If thou do good shalt not thou be accepted How far did Cornelius the Centurion go by this light and when by this he could do no more God sent his help Rom. 1. v. 20. The invisible things of him that is of God from the Creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal Power and Godhead so that they are without excuse because that when they knew God they glorified him not as God but became vain c. and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the image of man and beast and birds and creeping things Nature then is a Mistress that teacheth us of God and of his worship else the Gentiles had not been given up for not glorifying him as God Nor would Cain have been reproved for mis-serving him Neither would Cain being a wicked person have done it at all But like as he mis-served God so all doubting and unbelieving sensual and hypocritical and vain persons do only offer that which cost them nothing that which they can best part withal easie service and cheap And this corruption growing more and more upon them and they more and more corrupt themselves till at length they become abominable in their wickedness as it is in Psal 53.2 When they have changed the Truth into a Lye and worship the Creature more than the Creator They are driven to that absurdity of denying the being of God that they may avoid the greater viz. a confessing a Deity and yet to yield him no worship Remarkable it is that there hath never been any people or Nation in the world so barbarous but they have both acknowledged a Deity and had a solemn manner of Divine Worship established by municipal Laws the violation whereof hath been punished capitally And if there be any individual person or persons who do or doth deny God or his Worship the same have nothing of the Image of God left in them nor any thing of the holy Spirit of God in them That wisdom and knowledge which they have in them thus corrupted is the Image of the Devil or the Image of the brute beasts as St. James calls their wisdom carnal sensual and devilish And what they know naturally as brute beasts in those things they corrupt themselves as St. Jude speaks Their chief study care labour and industry all their designs providence and all their wisdom is to satisfie their sensual appetites and to provide for back and belly therefore the Apostle saith of them their God is their belly and they mind earthly things This wisdom doth expel and extinguish the wisdom which is from above So that they become Atheistick The Apostle Pet. 2 ep cap. 3. Hath prophecied that such scoffers shall come in these last daies he saith that they are willingly ignorant Ignorance makes them fearless shamless and hopeless That these Atheistick principles are not from our Nature nor born with us but the contrary are from the light of Nature and by our corrupting of our selves we become Atheists is further proved by this That to us who live under the preaching of the gospel and have liberty to read it our selves the glorious light thereof would shine into our hearts if we
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
man but a diligent Servant shall share the Inheritance with the Sons Pro. What delight can dull lifeless service be to him whom we serve Our service should be suited to the delight of him whom we serve And Our service should be to the honour of him whom we serve But slothful and lifeless service is to the dishonour of God therefore he saith Mal. 4. v. Offer it now to thy Governour and see whether he will accept it The fruit of Christs death is the Zeal of good works Titus 2.11.14 Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify to himself a peculiar people Zealous of good works From Thence it appeares that the note of Gods people is a Zeal of good works namely the works of mercy charity and piety They shall run and not be weary walk and not faint That obedience sway the conscience that the ends and aims be good that we should advance piety to the utmost and repress sin If we expect any benefit by our service we must not do it negligently but with Zeal the more Zeal the more comfort and satisfaction and the more will be our reward Zeal breaks through any restraints that would keep us from God Though Michael scoffed yet David would not leave off his dancing before the Ark. Consider how violent and earnest carnal men are in the ways of sin and shall they serve Satan better than God is served wicked men are so active and laborious that they are said to draw iniquity with cart-ropes they are not drawn into sin but draw sin there is no lust but costs them some self-denial Their pride must feel no cold the worldly man incroaches not only upon the pleasures of his life by rising early and going to bed late but also defrauds himself of necessary comforts they are wise in their generation like the unjust steward If Ammon be sick for Tamar shall not the Spouse be sick for Christ shall they take more paines to undo themselves than the Servants of God to save themselves Consider that you have been violent in the ways of sin and will you not do as much for God Rom. 6.19 I spake after the manner of men as you have yeilded your selves Servants of sin so now yeild your selves Servanss of Righteousness unto holiness So much as you have spent in and upon sin 't is but a modest proposal of the Apostle that you would spend so much in the service of God How can your conversion be right when sin hath more of your heart than God 2 Cor. 5.13 If we be besides our selves it is for Christ he had been mad against Christ 't was not unmeet if he seemed mad for Christ your pace was furious like Jehu's for your beloved lusts will you be slow for God Consider It may be you set out late towards Godliness therefore you must make the more haste Let the time spent in your lusts be sufficient All men set out too late we are transgressors from the womb God loved us before we were from eternity he loved us before we loved him or knew how to love him Consider what Christ hath suffered for us his bloody agonies and the sorrows of his Cross He is the Captain of our salvation and we must follow him He hath given us heaven as God gave Canaan to the Israelites but they were to force their way The power of Satan is broken but some relicts are left for our exercise Consider the enemies of our souls are violent The Devil compasseth the earth therefore we had need to stand upon our guard the enemy watcheth and do you sleep Whilest men slept the enemies sowed tares among their Corn. Whilest we are careless the enemy prevails when we make speed in our flight the enemy hath no advantage Whilest the Disciples were a sleep Judas and his Company were watching Small measure of grace must not content the professors of Christianity Except your righteousness exeed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven A temporary believer goeth far but a true believer must go farther Consider that all things in Religion are high and call for more than ordinary from us There are great obligations upon us He had no greater gift to give us than his only Son He could do no more for us then he did in his agonies and sufferings and laying down his life undergoing that intollerable pain that made him cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me So that in love God hath gone to the uttermost for us in his power he hath not so every mercy received obligeth us to do more than we have done the supplies of the Spirit of God which come in upon us and help more than we have done The supplys of the Spirit of God which come in upon us and help our infirmities oblige us The heathen some of them have gone so far by the light of nature that because they could not mortify their lusts they have put out their eyes this they did without those helps which we have Christ Jesus a person of the God head meriting our salvation and interceding for us The Spirit helping us to work out our salvation and the holy precepts of the law of God which is pure converting the soul Psal 19.19 Psal 119. The law of the Lord is exceeding broad It is another obligation that we have a hope exceeding all that we can imagine 2 Cor. 4.16 We have a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory laid up for us Besides these obligations the dreadful threats might make us earnest in the works of religion which if a man do but think of it causeth horrour Consider the danger of coldness in dutys if we don't go forward we go back like those that row against the stream Before we lose our first works we lose our Love first men grow careless then off goes religion and the service of God Some that are high in professing are cold in practice To provoake one another to love and good works is a good contention for solemn piety we cannot do too much In sin every thing is too much in grace nothing enough in particular exercises there may be too much in the love of God there can be no excess many come short Rom. 2.9 They come short of the glory of God 2 Peter 1.11 We are to labour that an abundant entrance may be given us into the Kingdom of Christ Jesus Consider if your heart is dead and cold you loose the comfort of Christian priviledges and duties a dead Christian is as none A change without life is but a morral reformation That is true conversion where we are not meerly changed but quickned by a new principal of life heathens have been changed from profaness to a morral life I am come saith Christ that you may have life and that you may have it more abundantly All the true members of Christ are
Impressions upon the soul 1. A child-like ingenuity in the service of God when a man obeys God not out of the impulses of a natural conscience but from love 2. The heart is borne out by the incouragements of another world 3. Every occurrence makes us go to God 4. Impress It makes us ready and willing to suffer and undergo joyfully any loss or pain or reproach for God not accounting our lives or any thing else dear if we may serve God with it as the blessed Martyr suffered were assured that Christ had suffered for them for them purchased a Kingdom it makes us willing to forsake the world knowing that we have a dwelling place in Heaven It makes the soul humble heavenly contented patient Holy peaceable charitable pure and unspotted of the world For their great and chief desire is to know thier duty and the good will and pleasure of the Lord that they may yield their ready and cheerful obedience to it and may be able to do it when the soul is thus disposed every condition of life is sweetened to it by the Spirit of Adoption because it looks upon all things that befal it as coming from its heavenly Father in love And desires and endeavours that all things may be to him and to his glory And when the soul is thus disposed and finds it self inabled by the Spirit to do and suffer freely willingly and readily all the good will and pleasure of God and to submit all things to God and feels such filial affection to God such love such patience humility and other workings and impresses of the Spirit in it It hath the Testimony of the Spirit upon it that it is the child of God because these dispositions and impressions are wrought in it by the Spirit and now it can lay title to every priviledge of blessedness And the sense and apprehension of God's great love to us in the redemption of mankind and of our own redemption in particular and the sense of the love of Christ Jesus to us in our redemption and the knowledge of our particular interest in it That all his sufferings had respect to me in particular and my title thereby to all priviledges is wrought by the holy Spirit and is testified to us by the holy Spirit and from thence ariseth our love to God and to Christ by the operation of the Spirit as David expresseth in the 18th Psalm I will love thee c. This is the highest degree of the soul's enjoyment and the highest of its desires and the fulness of its happiness and hath all that is desirable and there is no ultra no further thing desirable It followeth that being in Christ we take him for our portion then will we walk as he walked 1 John 2.6 conform our selves to him take him for our pattern our example and guide learn of him go after him which is to be done chiefly by denying our selves and taking up our Cross not doing our own will but the will of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he humbled himself to become man made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant Phil. 2.7 Humbled himself to death even the death of the Cross he denied preferment when they would have made him a King and when Satan offered him all the Kingdoms of the Earth and the glory thereof He denied honour when he would not suffer his miracles to be divulged And this is performed with joy too because though it crosseth our nature yet it is the very life of our new nature as it was his meat and drink to do the will of his Father The soul that feels this Joy hath Heaven let into it therefore it is willing to go to God This is both oyl and wheels to the soul in its heavenly race When thou shalt inlarge my heart I will run the waies of thy Commandments said holy David This proves the truth of that saying of our Saviour I have overcome the world and sheweth us the impotency of our spiritual adversaries which God delights to see his servants to overcome as appears in the tryal of Job and the blessed Martyrs who rejoyced in their sufferings By this others are incouraged to come in to the Church of God Cant. Whither is thy Beloved gone said they to the Spouse that we may seek him with thee The durableness of this joy is expressed by our Saviour's saying My joy no man taketh from you All that oppression and persecution can do cannot take it from us It is proved 1. Because Christ is both able and willing to give and continue it maugre the opposition of evil men 2. Reason because the supports of this joy are the promises which men cannot impeach nor impair Their portion is not within the knowledge of the world nor within the reach of the world 3 Reason the preserver of this joy is the Holy Ghost 4. Because the seat of this joy is within 1 Pet. 3.4 in the hidden man 5 Reason because the seed of this joy is a principle remaining in them John His seed remaineth in them that is the new nature the principle of Holiness which is renewed day by day though their outward man doth decay and it groweth into a nearer communion with God 6 Reason because the enemies that oppose this joy are conquered Christ hath overcome them for us and we by faith overcome them Sensible troubles may take away sensible joys and external comforts but not internal no more than external joyes can take away a sinners sorrow our enjoyments may be taken away and not our joyes If then they rejoyce in the midst of their trouble how will they rejoyce in Heaven when they have meer joy When we enjoy the world most we have least of this joy the external joy takes away the internal as the external heat causeth internal cold Beware therefore O my soul that thou suffer not thy self to go out to external joy And beware my soul that thou dost not esteem troubles greater evils than they are or ought to be esteemed but as fatherly chastisements sent to mortifie or corruptions to take us off the love of the world and to remove our affections from things below to things above then thou wilt not be much terrified or dismayed by them but make a sanctified use of them to improve thy graces and walk by faith and not after the waies of thine own heart and the sight of thine eyes This spiritual joy doth arm thee O my soul against the frowns and allurements of adverse and prosperous fortune As Moses chose to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin And our Saviour for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross and despised the shame For this joy ennobleth the soul that it scorns to be beholden to visible objects as Abraham shewed the nobleness of his mind that he would not be beholding to the King of Sodom
to make him rich So it is said of Jehosaphat that his heart was lifted up in the waies of God This joy and rejoycing in the Lord is enjoyned us as a duty and it proves our sincerity When God is sweet unto us for himself in the want of outward blessings when we can trust God and not see him 't is a sign we trust him in truth when all the providences of God seem to run counter to his promises That fruit is sound that can hang in a windy day T was a proof of Abraham's love to God that he could follow him into a strange place where he had no place to set a foot on This joy as it begets mortification and self-denyal so these begets this joy It is a sure preservative against Apostacy He that can rejoyce in God when he is in adversity will not be removed by adversity the joy of the Lord is our strength and stability Phil. 4.7 The Peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus Coloss 3.15 Let the peace of God rule in your hearts It rules in us if we can rejoyce in a God All-Sufficient Then the Soul saith to all the Devils offers we have enough already according to that saying of the Apostles to our Saviour Lord whether shall we go thou hast the words of Life The reason why Satans offers seems great to Men is because Gods seem little This is a holy disposition of the Soul that doth most glorifie God Therefore 't is said of Abraham that he gave Glory to God he did not stagger through unbelief It may well be called a Treasure as the Apostle saith we have this Treasure in Earthen Vessels and our blessed Saviour speaketh of the Treasure in the Heart for by this we are assured that all things are ours if we are Christs Whereas on the contrary if we are none of his we may think that we are rich and encreased in goods and have need of nothing yet we are in truth wretched miserable poor blind and naked as it is said of the Church of Laodicea Rev. 3.17 and this treasure is Christ formed in us of whose fulness we receive Grace for Grace And 2 Pet. 1.4 we are said to be partakers of the divine Nature because it is in us and our blessed Saviour saith that we are grafted into him and unless we abide in him we cannot bear fruit That is the fruit of the Spirit which is by him derived to his Members as he saith If I live ye shall live also The same are the fruits of Righteousness and fruit unto Holiness and all have the same end viz. everlasting Life Treasure where ever it is is matter of joy If sin and departing from God be an evil as every Man finds early or late when he casts away the bait that beguiled him with anger then Holiness must needs be good and yield joy Though the Children of God are often sad yet every act and working of the Spirit upon the Soul of Man either is matter of joy immediately or mediately the heart that is broken by the Spirits operation finds it self bound up when it hath been broken enough and hath joy Particular instances of the Assertion That the Saints have joy from the assurance of the pardon of their sins is express that the knowledge of our pardon is matter of joy our Lord and Saviours speech to the sick Man proves Be of good comfort thy sins are forgiven thee for by this speech our Saviour did intend to give him more comfort than by restoring to him his bodily health Blessed is the Man whose Iniquities are forgiven the Apostles knew they had this blessedness as it is expressed In whom we have Redemption through his Blood even the forgiveness of our sins David was assured of his pardon by Nathan sent to him upon that very message and as we pray daily Forgive us our Trespasses so we find that David after he knew he was pardoned his sin did so pray likewise for remission and did also believe that they were remitted and rejoyce in it as he expresseth Ps Praise the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his benefits which forgiveth all thy sins c. And all other Servants of God pray for and obtain it in due time Priviledges of Saints Those that are Gods Servants have the Tutelage of the Angels Ps 34. They tarry round about them that fear him They have God God standing by them to save them Ps They have Jesus Christ strengthning them I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me and the Spirit helpeth them The knowledge of our Interest in God and Christ that he is our God and we his people he our Father we his Children he our Shepherd we his Flock that he is our Strength our Rock Castle and Defence Psal 18. he our Beloved we his he our portion and we his portion he our Head we his Members he our Redeemer c. And all those Texts which express his Relation to us or ours to him And what he hath done doth or will do for us must needs comfort us and rejoyce us in all conditions Psal 23. The Lord is my Shepherd therefore I shall not want he maketh me to lye down in green Pastures c. And holy David when the people talked of stoning him he encouraged himself in the Lord. And our blessed Saviour would banish all fear from the hearts of his people by vertue of their Relation Luke 2.32 Fear not little Flock it is the Fathers pleasure to give you a Kingdom And none can deprive us of enjoying our interest in him as the Prophet Habakkuk expresseth it no condition no time nor no place when the Apostles were cast into the Dungeon they sung 1 Thess 5. Rejoyce evermore God would not command it always if it were not possible to be This enjoyment of our interest in God is greater than any other enjoyment and the Soul most desires it Cant. 1. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his Mouth his Love is better than Wine That the Saints have peace of conscience and joy proceeding thereof is proved by that Rom. 5. That being justified towards God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom also we have access through Faith unto this grace wherein we stand and rejoyce under the hope of the Glory of God They are called the peaceable fruits of Righteousness They are said to be found in peace of them that love peace And every Man that hath made tryal of it hath reaped this fruit peace and tranquility and enjoy it in their Souls according to the promise of our Saviour Matth. And ye shall find rest to your Souls and it is the design of the Gospel to give this peace and rest to the Souls of Gods people by assuring them of pardon of sins and Salvation according to that Prayer of David say unto my Soul I am thy Salvation The excellency of the
danger of the Judgment ver 28. Whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her hath comitted adultry v. 33 34. He tells them it is not sufficient not to forswear themselves but saith swear not at all and ver 39. bids them not to resist wrongs therefore we ought to be such persons and that commanding word that made the world can make us to be what he commands us to be and he hath prayed Sanctify them by thy truth and his prayers were alwaies heard and it is the office of the Holy Ghost to sanctify us It is the only end and design of the ministry as it is said by St. Paul of whom I travel in birth till Christ be formed in you The Apostle writes to the Disciples do as you have us for an example and Revel 2.8 The Church of Smyrna their graces wanted nothing but God would try them whether they would hold on to the end and the Church of Philadelphia God commends her and bids her hold on That Holiness is the only true Interest 2. Meditation Mot. A Good conscience is a continual feast The Authority of the Scriptures do prove it generally and particularly and do refel and destroy and baffle all other Interests according to that saying of the Apostle Godliness hath the promise of this life and of that which is to cemo Consider my soul a while the interests of of the mistaken men of the world whose ends designs and restless endeavours is after the vaine and transitory things of the world which they think to enjoy and repose themselves in the injoyment thereof as in their happiness Oh my Soul thou hast made some trials in these vaine sollacies but hast not found that satisfaction which thou promisedst to thy self and therefore hast vext thy self to see what thou hast ventured even thy soul and body and eternal happiness for a thing of nought that could not satissie thee and of thine own experience thou canst say that in the acquiring and in the keeping and injoying too they are meere vanity and vexation of Spirit and so full of labour as man cannot utter it Thus Solomon found before thee Thus Ammon having enjoyed his lusts desired object in a moment loathed it Thus Judas threw away the bate of his unsatisfied covetousness the like fruit attended all Sinners whether they repented or not So Naboths Vineyard yielded bitter grapes to Ahabs family and Davids bitter sweets which he found by stolen pleasures are by himself sufficiently deplored in Psal 51. The sweet enjoyment of Noahs Wine brought shame to himself and a curse upon his Son and his seed Ambitious Haman fell by his Ambition just then when he expected the greatest height of honour and Herod assuming to himself divine honours immediatly was seized upon and devoured by vermine the same cause procured Julius Caesar murther Many like instances my Soul thou hast heard and read both sacred and civil writers testifying what sad exits have attended pursuers of these sensual interests of covetousness lust gluttony drunkenness ambition c. Thou hast seen in thine own time many of these examples chiefly of lust drunkenness pride and covetousness All Historians testifie these and the like vanities and vexations attending the pursuers of these worldly Interests though carried on with power and with villany Sensual persons themselves notwithstanding the beam in their own eye can see the vanity of one anothers Interest and design and reproach them And do thou compare those vicious persons with the opposite virtuous But for an instance of that which most brave heroick valiant and eminent persons adorned with many excellent virtues stumble at in the height of their honour when to extinguish all their happiness and enjoyment in a moment some mean and unworthy person envious at their height and worth because it is above himself endeavours to suppress and abase that worth which he dispairs himself to attain to reviles calumniates or otherwise puts an affront upon them The examples hereof abound This they conceive they are bound to revenge that they may vindicate their honours which otherwise will be lost but this by which they pretend to assert their honour taints it The vanity of this mistaken worldly interest David's example towards his reviling enemies reproveth because by the eyes of faith he beleived that God was the Author of his sufferings and would reward his patience therefore he submitted to it And if God be provoked by us poor dust and ashes every day we may be contented if he causeth our meaner Bretheren sometimes to provoke us or our Servant Eccles 7.22 Nam lingua mali pars pessima servi Juv. And it serves to humble us which is necessary both to make us know our selves and also to know God And consider that detraction alwaies follows worth as Scipio Annibal or rather Jesus Christ and his Saints have felt And as for anger it resteth in the bosom of fools Eccles 7.10 Therefore he warneth as the Apostle doth to be slow to it It transporteth to lunacy as it did Saul to the destruction of Nob as it did Caracalla to the destruction of the Alexandrians the madness and folly of anger sufficiently manifests it self in the countenance speech habit gesture actions and effects which is repentance for that which cannot be undone again therefore brave and virtuous minds are not so much troubled with this passion as the base weak sick and infirm are for it shews greatness of mind to be unmoved and to disdain affronts and to keep it self serene and clear like the pure Heavens when free from clouds And become like to God himself and shew the greatness of our mind by being merciful to pardon injuries by clemency and slowness to anger and this Princely quality made the Emperour Titus so beloved and honoured And if we would have God so to us we should be so to our Brethren but we suffer our selves to be deceived with shadows as Titus 3.3 We our selves were sometimes disobedient deceived c. So that this may suffice to convince that godliness is most profitable for all things in this life and that which is to come But if thou wilt not be satisfied with this do but examine thine own heart whether every holy action which thou dost upon holy principles doth not yield present tranquility and satisfaction and sweeten thy life ever after And on the contrary whether every sinful action doth not disquiet and disturb thy mind and conscience with often flashes of horrour and imbitter thy life ever after viz. if not repented of with horrour and if repented of with grief and discontent with thy self for the unkindness done to so good a God for a thing of nought Let thy examination be made first in this particular viz. for what injuries received by thee which thou hast forgiven or else revenged and what joy or sorrow thou hast had thereof And how little thou enjoyest thy self or any thing else which thou possessest when thou art enraged
with Anger Also examine thine own reason whether it be not more honourable and more satisfying to thee to shew meekness goodness of Nature ingenious Education Courtesie Generosity Love and Pity in forgiving affronts and provocations than to shew thy Pride Malice Boldness Undaunted Spirit and Courage in revenging them besides the timerity of hazarding thine own Life and Immortal Soul Then examine thy self also in all other actions of Holiness and Unholiness viz. If thou hast led thy Life in Temperance Sobriety and Frugality whether hast thou not found the benefit of it throughout thy Life in thy Mind Body and Estate But if thou hast otherwise lead thy Life thy Health is impaired thy Estate wasted thy Soul polluted and the faculties of thy mind dulled and crased The like examination thou mayest make if thou hast kept thy Body in Chastity whether thou hast not found this to be the best means to preserve thy Life Health and Estate and to propagate the same benefits to thy Issue besides many other blessings which this and every other Grace hath entailed upon it But if thou hast on the contrary been addicted to thy lusts thou wilt feel the pains of it in thy bones when age groweth upon thee and if thou hast not quite wasted thy Estate yet either thou hast no lawful Issue to inherit it or if any yet they are unsound or such as thou hast no comfort of for such persons who are thus addicted are generally thus punished with one of these punishments as we read of Solomon and have seen in our own times Hast thou fed the hungry and cloathed the naked with thy fleece thou knowest that thou hast treasure in Heaven if not thy riches will make themselves wings But alas if thou couldst attain all secular ends and interests Salva Conscientia what are they to him that carrieth on the design of an eternal Interest viz. For eternal happiness how inconsiderable how impertinent how vile But since holiness is the only meanes of attaining happiness and lusts and unholiness are the obstacles and impediments that hinder us and deprive us of it then be constant in the way of holiness and take this for thy design and main business according to that which the Poet Horrace directeth thee by the light of Nature Lib. Epistolar Primo Ep. 6. Si virtus hoc sola potest dare fortis Omissis Hoc age deliciis And Hoc primus repetes opus hoc postremus omittas And make no Omisions of duty for that puts thee back T were endless labor and needless to cite all authorities Civil Moral and Divine that might be brought to prove holiness to be the way and meanes of obtaining happiness for it is so inseparably joyned to happiness that it can hardly be distinguished from eternal happiness which I conceive is begun in this life in holiness I will only mention the Authority of the greatest of the Sons of men John the Baptist who makes repentance and workes meet for repentance to be the way to bring us to Christ who is the way the truth and the life eternal In whom we have eternal life and happiness And I conceive all men will confess the same though in workes they deny it All the precepts which our blessed Saviour taught he propounded as the means to attain happiness And the doers of them he pronounceth happy actually in the present tense likewise all the Commandments which God enjoyned the Israelites were therefore given them to make them happy and when they kept them they did make them happy as they made them holy Whither tend all Divine and Moral precepts and Philosophical improvements of the light of nature but to repress mortiify the inordinate passion and preturbations of the mind and the lusts of the flesh the lusts of the eyes and the pride of life that by this means we might enjoy a sweet and happy life in all ease rest and peace joy quietness holiness and happiness But imagining that the sensual persons of this age will still oppose and say that happiness is mans interest but the holiness of man is Gods design and interest I answer first What profit shall the Lord have if thou do good 2. Admitting it were Gods Interest it follows if he be greater than thou and thou canst not attain thy end without him then thou must of necessity promote his design and do nothing to cross it Holiness Described 3. Meditation Though it be too great a task for me to undertake nay for any creature for he hath found folly in the Angels and the Heavens are not clean in his sight therefore God himself teacheth us by his word and Spirit And from that word of truth these few collections are drawn for my own help in this grace The Negative part that sheweth what is not true holiness though by some it is supposed to be holiness is the first to be considered Our Saviour describes the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees and then tells his Disciples that Except their Righteousness exceeds theirs they shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Their Righteousness is condemned as insufficient for they justified themselves and condemned others and did their works of Piety and Charity to be seen of men and were Hypocrites Therefore Jesus Christ pronounces several woes against them Again our Saviour reproves the Jews ingeneral for relying upon the outward priviledges without the inward Qualifications saying unto them Think not to say within your selves we have Abraham for our Father This priviledg without the life of Holiness is like a dead body without a soul which the Prophet Jeremiah reproves thus Trust not in lying words saying The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord are these Jeremiah 7.4 They did frequent the Temple with their Sacrifices but the Prophet saith you trust in lying words Do you think to lye steal and come into my house Matth. 7.22 Christ shews how that many will come at the day of Judgment with great confidence saying we have prophesied in thy name cast out Devils and done many wonders But he will disown them how little then will it avail the Papists to call themselves the Church and their Pope Peters Successour Our Saviour Christ doth divide professors into 2 sorts Mathew 25. Under the terme of wise and foolish Virgins some had Oyl in their Lamps and some none all had Lamps The causes why men rest in the forme of Godliness without the power are first because they see a necessity that their actions must be changed but do not see a necessity that their hearts must be changed The Apostle Paul in the 3d. of the Philip. Refutes the Righteousness which the Jews imputed to their circumcision and outward priviledges and calls them the concision and vers the 3d. We are the Circumcision which worship God in the Spirit and have no confidence in the flesh This is the reall circumcision whereby we have the
will of him that sent me He would not suffer them to divulge his miracles nor be made a King 12. In his zeal 'T is said of him The zeal of thy house hath even eaten me up 13. In his Truth he saith To this end was I born that I should bear witness to the Truth 14. In his obedience to his Parents 15. In his publick spirit he was born and died and rose again upon a publick accompt Sic oculus sic ille manus sic ora movebat Those that are otherwise are not holy as they ought to be therefore let us press forward and pray that we may receive of his fulness grace for grace The last means but not the least is Repentance the same which was the first not a slight confession of our sins only with sorrow for a day as the Prophet Isaiah expresseth it Isa 58.5 To hang down our heads like a bulrush for a day Wicked Ahab did more than so Thy stony heart will endure more malliating than one daies contrition and not be broke But such sorrow as may work a change as that of the Ninevites Jonah 3.8 10. They turned from their evil way cloathed themselves in sackcloth and cryed mightily to God And since notwithstanding our repentance our corruptions and our spiritual enemies do sometimes prevail against us we must as oft as we fall rise again by repentance and mourn over the sinfulness of our nature as David did Psal 51. In sin hath my Mother conceived me And Paul When I would do good evil is present O wretched man that I am And this we shall have cause to do as long as we live and this causeth us to iterate our repentance which we first made upon our conversion as it did in holy David and Job calling to mind the sins of their youth For I conceive the method of the Argument of the penitent is that he believes that his sins were sharers in procuring those bitter sufferings to his Saviour which he cannot think of without grief and breaking off those sins and that grief leads him to believe that Christ in his sufferings had respect to his sins that affords comfort Meditations of Repentance Mot. The Sacrifices of the Lord are a troubled spirit Psal 51. When I have fallen into any sin I immediately perceive my loss of my innocency as our first parents did and the injury done to God And then I loath my self and would give all I have to be restored to my guiltless state again if I could but undo that which I have done and I resolve to spend all my life in weeping fasting and prayer if so be the Lord will have mercy upon me and pardon my sin and not destroy me then I see that nothing I can do or suffer can make attonement to God for my sin But my stedfast resolution is that I will never sin more O Lord give me the same minde now and ever that my sins may be ever in my sight to bewaile the loss of my innocency and the injury done to thee to loath my sinful self to endeavour night and day to undo those sinful acts by teares of repentance mourning humble confession prayers fasting charity and severe watchfulness against my corruptions the duties of mortification and self-denial And to renew my vows and resolutions never to sin more And for the remainder of my days to abstain from the least degree of every sin and not to go as far as I think I may lawfully do in the satisfying of my senses and passions least I be drawn in one degree too far That the Lord may behold my grievous sorrow and repentance as he did Peters and Davids and may have mercy upon me and pardon me and not destroy me and take his holy Spirit utterly from me as he did from Saul O Lord Though my sins are as scarlet do thou wash me throughly with the blood of my Saviour which onely can purge my sins and is the only propitiation to attone thy wrath and to reconcile me to thee and restore me to everlasting righteousness better than mine own which I lost and makes me white as Snow and being so washed and cleansed I shall have communion again with my God and peace of conscience and abhor those sins that caused my Saviours sufferings Lord thy mercy would have no object if there were no misery All that are descended from Adam have been prodigal Sons as he was and by their prodigalities have forsaken thee daies without number and have sought out to themselves many inventions I find in my own heart that I would stay from thee and never return to thee if I could but find empty husks to satisfie the thirst of my soul which are only fit for the voluptuous Swines of the world and can never satisfie Thou sittest upon a Throne of grace to this can we come by Christ only through him we may come boldly and find mercy in a time of need and all that come unto thee come by this and to this I desire to approach that I may find mercy in this time of need receive me I beseech thee as a returning Prodigal desirous to break off my sins by repentance and a new life Lord give me that Repentance that I shall never repent of that I may search and try my waies examine my own heart and discuss all my actions what I have done through the whole course of my life let me performe this duty by thy assistance that I may not run on in wickedness without regret as they did of whom the Prophet Jeremiah speaks Jer. 8.6 They said not What have I done I will therefore make this reflection seriously particularly and constantly In this Examination I will consider the bate that cought me and deceived me that I may abhor it as a mean base and vile thing to be put in the scales against that communion with God his favour and hopes which the soul had in God which it lost by that sin as to its present feeling and if it should at any time reinforce its allurements I will reject them utterly and not have to do with them any more I consider also the present and future evils brought upon my soul by this sin for though I must not dispaire of pardon through the alsufficient merits of my Saviours sufferings yet I find my self fearful and ashamed to approach the throne of grace least I should find him a consuming fire I am undisposed for every holy duty and deprived of the assistance of the Spirit And not only so but I am as it were left to my self with the tempter and see none to succor me and I know not what to take in hand with hopes of success I am at a loss what I should do because I seeme to have lost God who hath withdrawn himself for my sin and hides his face I am also made naked and destitute for he was my defence and shield my strength and refuge my hope and
helpe in trouble I have wilfully opened a gap to let in a stream of corruptions a Breach is made in my spiritual Castle for all the enemies of my soul to break in at and I am disposed to greater sins which by little and little creep in and get ground by degrees till at last it reigns uncontrolled and brings us in the end to a hardned heart a seared conscience that cannot repent and eternal damnation I consider also what might and ought to have drawn me from my sin to the contrary virtue What strength of humane reason what moral precepts natural modesty and shame fear of being seen examples of moral serious and religious men to the contrary serenity of mind the publick good and my own private good contentation and transquility and happiness with many more motives from the light of nature and good education ready to inform and restrain a mind willing to be virtuous Besides innumeâ—able other restraints from the word of God the instructing of the Spirit The life of faith the fear of God and his alseeing eye the terror of the curse upon the disobedient Hope of Heaven and eternal recompences to the obedient the exceeding and eternal weight of glory which is laid up for us the exceeding precious promises able not only to support the soul of a believer in the greatest difficulties but also to ravish it which excess of joy under the greatest sufferings Besides if I had no such light of nature no education no knowledg of the scriptures and humane precepts no knowledg of histories of Gods dealing in judgment with other sinners who have felt the truth of all the threatnings denounced against sinners as Josephus and the scriptures and other writings testify the Jews did and all notorious sinners have done and daily do if I had no promises to allure no threatnings to drive me no conscience to testify unto me no testimony of other men in all ages both wicked and righteous yet this one argument were perswasive enough to have deterred me from wickedness to the service of God namely my dependance on him for the necessaries and conveniencies of life my supplys my sustentation and preservation from imminent dangers unexpectedly surprising me This might be sufficient to make me bewaile my own improvidence and folly in casting away my succour my hope my sustentation safeguard and preservation for that which hath not profited me I therefore with grief of heart bewail my self But that which may cumulate more grief is to consider the ungratitude of my sinful soul for so many mercies received which have transported me with admiration As when I received form the hands of the Lord houses that I built not and wealth that I laboured not for whereby I was delivered from getting my bread with the sweat of my brow and the labor of my mind and body in pain and sorrow with continual carping and caring and restlesness the benefit whereof I continually enjoy with comfort therefore my duty of gratitude obligeth me to consider what I shall render to God and to use these mercies to his honour and glory and not to abuse them to his dishonour in sinning against him And when I have done the contrary I have dealt unworthily with so good a God for if Hanna would needs retribute for one mercy what must I do for so many The many deliverances that God hath wrought for me in bringing me out of troubles which I have sometimes brought upon my self sometimes my enimies have brought upon me sometimes the hand of God hath brought upon me and my relations either for our sins or for our trials out of all which the Lord delivered me so that I can testify and set to my seale that God is true and hath performed all his gracious promises to me that he hath made to them that fear him He hath been with me in six troubles and in the seventh he hath not forsaken me his deliverances have exceeded both these numbers therefore I must confess that he hath also verified his largest promises to me saying I will never leave thee nor forsake thee And also when he saith No weapon formed against thee shall prosper And when he saith Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it For his mercies have been greater than my desires and my tongue would fail me to recount them All which fly in my face and testify against me when I sin for how can I recount all his benefits which I have received from him upon which I live beginning with that of being born of virtuous parents And all the deliverances which he hath wrought for me in abundance of mercy and chiefly that he hath delivered my soul from Hell But I must reflect upon my sin with shame and confusion of face with loathing and abhorring my self in sackcloth and ashes with fasting and depriving my self of all comforts and injoyments with humiliation and abasing my self with earnest and humble supplications sighs and tears of a contrite heart but when I consider the vows promises and protestations which I have made to God in my time of trouble when I sought to God for my deliverance and that he did pluck me as a brand out of the fire and did hear my prayers and delivered me and did grant my requests above my desire or hope as he did Jacobs These broken vows put me to shame and cause me to abhor my self and with Ephraim to smite upon my breast desiring in my heart that I could do any thing whereby I might but undo one sinful action or that I could expiate the same by any sufferings but my conscience tells me that all I can do or suffer through the whole course of my life will not be sufficient to expiate or attone for one sin so as to make me innocent again Therefore I have resolved and vowd to sin no more And I have wished my self dead that I might no more sin and I have resolved to separate my self from the world that I may spend all my time in serving God who hath not dealt by me after my sins Thy word O Lord hath shewed me that if thy people repent them of their sins and forsake them though they be as scarlet thou wilt make them white as snow and thou wilt abundantly pardon them and thou wilt repent thee of the evil which thou bringest upon them If Ahab go mourning thou wilt not bring the evil in his days and all thy threatinings are only conditional unless we repent So the City of Ninivie diverted thy wrath by turning unto thee and seeking thee with fastings and prayers This duty all the Prophets taught This St. John the Baptist preached Saying Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand This our Blessed Saviour and his Apostles taught Therefore let me practise this so necessary a duty but unless thou inablest me with thy grace and unless thou givest me repentance I cannot have it of my self because my heart is hard of it self
joy unspeakable This priviledge and many other Christ Jesus hath purchased for and given to his people to oblige and endear them that they should be a willing people 2 Tim. 5.2 By whom we have access through faith unto this grace wherein we stand and rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God Ephes 3.12 In whom we have boldness and access with confidence to the Throne of grace Gal. 2. v. 20. The life which I now live I live by the faith in the Son of God He is the Author of our salvation and of all the priviledges we enjoy because to as many as receive him he gives the priviledge to become the Sons of God and that entiltes them to all priviledges Another Argument may be fetched a causis for as there are pleasures and comforts desires and enjoyments natural causing the joy natural so are there found pleasures comforts desires and enjoyments supernatural undependent separate and removed from the natural and had and injoyed meerly and only in the privation of those according to that of the Apostle when we have no comfort in the world then we have most in duty As having nothing yet possessing all things which joy is fully described by the Prophet Habakkuk c. 3. Though the Fig-tree should not blossom neither should fruits be in the Vines though the labour of the Olive should fail c. yet he would rejoyce in the Lord And it is promised by our blessed Lord and Saviour Joh. 10. My joy shall no man take from you Which the blessed Martyrs in the Epistle to the Hebrews found true when they took joyfully the spoiling of their goods and would not accept deliverance Christ calls it his joy partly because he is the Author of it and doth give it according as he promised and partly in opposition to the joys of the world which proceeds from worldly causes and because the world cannot take it away no more than it can give it for afflictions and persecutions cannot take it away therefore it is said Heb. 10. To you it is given to suffer that is with joy and patience and content for otherwise it were no gift Another argument to prove this priviledg is from the Identity of the principles of the new nature of the Regenerate man which is the Spirit These that are such are lead by the Spirit which is in them they live after the Spirit they are in the Spirit The Spirit of grace and of glory resteth upon them and being Spiritual they are delighted with and savour the things of the Spirit only Spiritus sanctus exhilerat sui participes he quickens and stirs up those graces that are in them and replenishes them with the dew of Heaven without which continual supply our graces would fail Zach. 4. The two Olive Trees emptied themselves by golden Pipes into the Lamps Mortification and Vivification and all graces are wrought in us by the Spirit John 4. The water that I shall give him shall be a well of water springing up to eternal life Rom. 8.22 If ye by the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live 1 Pet. 1.22 Since ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit being born again c. Both the Will and the Deed are from him helping our infirmities That which is their meat and drink which they hunger and thirst for and live upon their Pabulum Animarum must be so qualified as to refresh strengthen delight and comfort and so it doth This priviledge will be further made out by the effects thereof which the Heavenly soul doth injoy therefore it is proper to search out in what particulars the Holy Ghost doth rejoyce and make joyful the believing soul the particulars are contained under three heads First in their duties performed the Holy Spipit doth exhilerate the souls of the faithful people of God this head containeth both active and passive duties whereby they do exert and put forth their graces in doing and suffering the good will of God For duties well performed are their injoyments because they do find the assistance of the Holy Spirit inabling them in the performance of them when they find themselves insufficient and indisposed and this is matter of joy and comfort to them because they have performed by the Spirits assistance the work of prayer and praising God according to his will and they are confident that they shall enjoy that blessed priviledg which Christ hath purchased for them by his blood viz. confidence in their access to the Throne of Grace and assurance that they shall receive their petitions through the merit of his bloody passion and intercession And as every degree of sin if but a sinful or vain thought makes a child of God loath himself so every degree of holiness and every good thought yields him pleasure content and enjoyment Hereby they are encouraged and delighted to walk with God in holy Meditation and converversation So suffering with Christ also called by David loving correction is matter of joy If we suffer with him we know we shall also reign with him therefore they are willing to bear his reproach which they are enabled to do by the assistance of the Spirit in the time of their tryals he revives the spirit of the contrite ones Isa 57.15 A second head to which these particular acts may be referred is the sealing and ensuring the exceeding precious promises of the Gospel to them whereby they are enabled to live upon a promise by faith in him who made it and is able and willing to perform it to them that trust in him through the merits of Jesus Christ And they find themselves contented and willing to live upon the promise and to wait God's leisure for the time till it is accomplished and for the manner of the accomplishing thereof And these workings of the Spirit are all matter of joy and enjoyment to the soul to find them stirring in their hearts because they know it to be the Spirit By this they lay hold of the promises in the greatest latitude I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Whoso dwelleth under the defence of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty No good thing will he withhold from them that live a godly life They shall want no manner of thing that is good Call upon me in the time of trouble and I shall deliver thee and thou shalt praise me Psal 50.15 He will not be afraid of evil tydings Psal 107. No plague shall come nigh his dwelling Isa 54.17 No weapon formed against thee shall prosper c. And that all things shall work for their good but chiefly they lay hold on the promises of grace These consolations are alwaies bestowed upon God's suffering Servants and are most proper and suitable to that condition In the multitude of the sorrows that I had in my heart thy comforts refresht me The holy Ghost working in our hearts shew us our
Adoption and the Pardon of our Sins and that God is at peace with us and assures us of Gods favour and of Life and Blessedness to come and so sweetens the bitterness of the Cross by a better hope Thus God is to us a Sun and a Shield And in this sense it is the earnest of Heaven as it is said 2 Cor. 1.22 Who hath Sealed us and given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts The nature of an earnest is to be but a little part of a greater benefit to come 'T is also called the First Fruits which shews That the Saints enjoy Heavenly Happiness here in some degree for the first Fruits and the full Crop are of the same nature and so is the Earnest and the whole reward God kisseth the Child whom he chastised to assure him of his love and his Bowels yearn till he doth it But yet it is not peculiar to Gods afflicted People only to live upon their Earnest their Hopes and the promises of Heaven and prelibations of Glory But those also who are not in a suffering condition do so as Abraham did in the Land of Promise and Moses in Pharoah's Court and all the Servants of God do mortifie the Deeds of the Body and are Crucified with Christ that they may live to him and Christ may live in them Rom. 8.22 The Third place or Head to which these Spiritual Joys and Comforts may be referred is In appropriating those many High and Glorious Priviledges of Blessedness and Happiness which Christ hath purchased for his People Isa 45.24 Isa 62. v. 1 2 3 4. and Revel 1.5 These Priviledges can only be rightly understood I conceive by those who are heirs of them for if the Carnal Man could understand the value of them he would seek the World less and them more and would like the wise Merchant-man in the Gospel sell all to Purchase them for therein is all Blessedness and safety Yet I conceive That all that have right to them do not at all times know their Interest in them because the suffering priviledge seems to cross the injoying For Isa 49.14 Sion said The Lord hath forsaken me and my God hath forgotten me when the Lord said He hath graven her upon the palmes of his hands And David Psalm When I made haste I said I am cast out of the sight of thine Eyes nevertheless thou heardst me He did not then injoy these Priviledges because God sometimes works by contrary means to accomplish his Promise And not by those means on which we had our expectation God hath not tied himself to means Hence the Soul rashly concludes against it self as David did Psal I shall one day perish by the hands of Saul So in Lam. 3.18 The Church concludes against her self My strength and my hope are perished from the Lord. But the Holy Spirit doth make out to the Soul its Right and Title to these Priviledges First summarily and comprehensively when the Spirit certifieth us of our Adoption into Filiation with Christ Jesus throughout his Passion and merit making us his Brethren and so Children of the same heavenly Father as it is Rom. 8 16. The Spirit it self bears Witness with our Spirit that we are the Children of God the soul knoweth its title to all other priviledges and blessings as it is said all are yours ye are Christs and Christ is Gods but it doth not alwaies thus satisfy the soul because sometimes we grieve the Spirit they have the effect of their Adoption but they have not alwaies the comfort of their Adoption nor the sense of it therefore Tim. 3.5 We are commanded to give deligence To make our calling and election sure Because he doth not give us the sense and comfort of it without diligence and it is not preserved without diligence all that are lead by the Spirit of God are the Children of God though God might sometimes hide his face from them As the unregenerate are all their life time under the Spirit of bondage and intitled to all curses and put out of Gods protection and though they are not all their life-time in terror as Cain was when he said Whosoever meets me will slay me Sometimes they are free from the impressions thereof And Gods children are sometimes without the impressions of joy and the certain apprehension of their title to it or their joy is less sometimes and is not full for want of diligence in exercising their graces or else it may be through weakness in grace or it may be for want of seeking it of God by prayer and Meditation thereupon or for some unkindness done to the Spirit of grace or may be only because God pleaseth to give it but at special seasons But who is there so strong but may sometimes feel corruption stirring in his heart either an inclination to hearken to the tempter or some sinful thought injected or else perceiveth his corruptions not so much conquered as he would have them and his heart so much renewed as he would have it These cause much grief and sadness in the soul which desires to be delivered from them For the regenerate soul is more sensible of one grace that it wants or is weak and defective in than it is of many graces which it possesseth But when it overcomes that temptation which it hath most cause to fear then hath it double joy Also who is there so watchful careful and tender of offending the Holy Spirit but sometimes is unkind to it and causeth a breach of love But as it happeneth in friendship he that falls out with his friend presently falls out with himself for it and seeks all opportunities of reconciliation So the Child of God when he hath grieved the Spirit doth afflict himself for it and will not rest till the knot of friendship is stronger tied and the love made greater Now when this Irradiation of the Spirit of God upon our Spirits is thus interrupted by the hiding of Gods face or the light of his countenance from us we are then troubled as David was or as the Spouse in the Cant. When her Beloved had withdrawn himself And she sought him and could not find him but never left seeking him till she did find him Being wholly inamoured of him as she expresses by her delight in the persume which his fingers touch left up the locks If he leaves so much sweetness behind him where he but toucheth and goes away what glorious ravishments doth he bring into that soul wherein he is entertained here the Spouse suffered as it were an ecclipse but not total when the light of Gods countenance returnes againe then her light returnes also this is the Spirits bearing witness with our Spirit and these bear witness to one another of Gods love to us and our reciprocal love to God and consequently of our Adoption and title to all priviledges and blessings this testimony also inflames our love more and more to God and makes these high and holy