from the hony-comb Keep up thy feeling fellowship with God in the closest and choicest reflections upon his love and the fear of death will vanish Make conscience of secret sins and secret duties this will make way for secret communion and sweetly encrease it The more frequent and humbly familiar you are with God in holy reverence the more divine and soul-fainting emanations will flow from his heart to replenish thy soul and enlarge it for glory our a Ps 90.8 secret sins saies Moses are in the light in the broad day light of thy countenance Let 's consider a he sees the least aberration and wandering of our thoughts from his love let 's be as tender to avoid his displeasure as we would be joyfull in the beams of his face let 's b Ps 63 6. remember him upon our beds and meditate on him in the night watches Let 's c Ps 4.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 commune with our own hearts and be still that we may commune with his and be joyfull Silete vacate be still from all passions and hurries give a vacancy to thy Soul to meditate on God and it will still thy fears The more our Souls are wrapt up in this communion the more they dye to the world and live to God Our life is a vapor to dying mortalls but death is a vapor to a living to a lively Saint But now let me end with a caution that 's mixt with a Cordiall A very holy Saint may set in a cloud and arrive at the haven in a storm God's tyed to believers by promise to save them but not to carry them in a Song 3.9 Solomons Chariot of the wood of Lebanon into Heaven Yet it stands firm what David sings in this present Psalm Thou art with me and therefore I 'le fear no evill When the Soul from feeling can chear up its spirits that God is with it It fears not who 's against it God for secret reasons b Luk. 24.16 may hold the eyes of some disciples that they may not know him to shew that all from grace to glory is from free love and that we can challenge neither grace to close with his Covenant nor assurance to discern our adherence The sprinkling of the Conscience from dead works the peace of God that passeth all understanding c Col. 3.15 to rule in our hearts and the joyes of the holy spirit all flow from the same Fountain All our springs are in Zion and bubble up from under the Throne of the Mercy-Seat Yea at the state of Death some ordinary Christians If meek and humble may injoy greater Visions then many gracious holy and sweetly gifted Ministers 'T is not alwayes the strength of Grace but the gift of influence that breeds and nourishes strong and bright assurance A Mary Magdalen shall call Jesus by the name of Rabboni When two experienc'd Disciples shall walk and talk with him many a mile and not see him nor taste him till the evening till the c Luk. 24 29. Supper of Glory But yet 't is rare for holy hearts to want these heavenly Visions The pure in heart shall see him in the Glasse of assurance as well as behold him hereafter face to face CHAP. IX Holy Appeals to God in Prayer great Comforts against Death DAvid was now at Prayer applying and appealing to God at owning and appropriating work telling God that he was with him Did not God know that he was with David Yet but God loves to hear from a Saint that he feels it A Saint must tell God that he feels it not to satisfie him as unacquainted with it For the Lord fills the Soul with himself and known unto the Lord are all his works from the beginning But because God delights to hear that we thankfully own and acknowledge it Thou art with me David speaks it upon his knees and with his Harp in his hands he sings it This Lesson Lord I learnt of thee wilt thou please to hear it Thou art with me in me and thou within me comest unto thy self I am full of thee and therefore my Soul over-flowes to thee Thy love is a fire which hath inflamed my heart and a Excellens sensibile laedit sensum being pent it preyes upon my spirits let it have it 's holy vent into thy bosome It multiplies upon it self and out it must wilt thou accept it For a while let it warm the strings of my Harp as well as of my affection and touch every tone with a flame of love as if a Seraphim had quickened it with a coal from the Altar Then let my Soul like fire ascend before thy Throne winged with that love from whence it came Prayer what is it but a flight of the Soul from it self to God A Soul affected with divine love hath Doves eyes its prayers hath Doves wings and flies with Letters of credence at its feet from the spirit within our Temples unto the holy Oracle within the Vail 'T is in Prayer that David pours out his Soul and sings Thou art with me he sayes not thou wilt be with me but inferres that God would be with him because he was so and therefore I shall fear no evill This God is our God a Ps 48.14 for ever and ever he will be our guide unto death and through death and after b Ps 73.24 death receive us to glory Faith carries the foot of prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b Rev. 14.6 into the midst of Heaven as with Angels wings And as the Lord said to Joshua so may we say to praying Saints a Josh 1.3 every place that the soal of your foot shall tread upon that hath he given you the good land is before you go in and possesse it When we pray we enter the Court of Heaven where the Lord b Exod. 24.10 Ezek. 1.26 sits on a Saphire Throne embellisht with the morning Stars and the Rain-Bow of the Covenant round about him and thousands of Legions of Cherubims to minister to him We are taught by our blessed Saviour to pray Our Father which art in Heaven as if a Saint in prayer should account himself as it were assum'd into Heaven The Father sees us at all times but in prayer we doe Sistere nos coram present our Souls to be seen by him Should our hearts be in heaven when our souls are in prayer what heavenly hearts become so heavenly a presence as God's and so heavenly a quire as the Angells round about him Let 's pray that his will be done as it is in heaven that we be like a kind of earthly Angells that in all our prayers our wills may be hallowed into his d 1 Joh. 5.14 as when we shall come to heaven Then if we ask any thing e according to his will he heareth us To have our wills the best way is to have his holy will to be ours and then we may pray with reverence
19 12. secret faults or are purely cleansed from all the stains of hypocrisie But that the bent of the heart is to God that the constant pointing of the needle of our love is to heaven that we approve no sin not the least intumescence fermentation or rising of an evill thought without actuall combate or at least a serious inward habituall displicency of heart against it springing from that radicall hatred which is in us through grace against the least concupiscence Though when we b Rom. 7.22 would doe good evill be present with us yet there is a chrystall fountain of delight in the Law of God bubbling from the inward man that cleanses and carries away the very soil of our thoughts This holiness of heart conformity of will to the Law of God flowes from the grace that dwelleth in us Thou art with me saies David A holy God makes the heart holy the heart of a Saint by the light of holiness sees God a holy God to be with it In c Ps 36.9 thy light we doe see light the light of grace and we shal see light even the light of glory Many infirmities are and will lurk in the choicest of Saints The Ivy of sin will shoot its roots and fibres into the joints and cracks of our Mud-walls but when these fall that shall wither A Saint is alwaies hacking at the boughs of actual and stubbing at the root of originall sin His sincerity makes him to lay about him and though he can't appeal Lord I have no sin yet thus he can Lord be mercifull to me a sinner d Ps 51.9 Hide thy face from my sins the face of thy justice the face of thine anger and look upon the e Ps 84. â— face of thine anointed within the vail f Ps 55.1 hide not thy self from my supplications g Ps 119.19 hide not thy commandments from me O h Ps 69.17 hide not thy face from thy Servant I am i Ps 119.94 thine Lord save me for I have sought thy Precepts I have kept the waies of the Lord and have not k Ps 18.21 wickedly departed from my God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have not dealt so wickedly as to go away from God and his holy wayes through the tentation of any wickednesse Not as if there were any departure from God that were not wicked but I have not committed so great a wickednesse as to fall away from the wayes of God His Judgments a Ps 18.22 were before my face and I did not put away his Statutes from me Neither his Statutes in respect to purity of worship nor his judgments that is his judiciall Law in respect to morall obedience Therefore the Lord hath recompensed me according to the cleannesse of my hands in his b V. 24. eye sight To wash our hands in the Laver of the Sanctuary before his eyes because he sees them not because men see their impurity David would not rake in any foul dunghill of sin or pollute his fingers with the pitch of bribery or the sanies the ulcerous matter of any corruption because God saw him Nay I was upright c V. 23 before him and have kept my self from mine iniquity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have guarded watcht and strictly observed my self as to mine own iniquity whatever it were ambition lying or any fruits of a sanguine complexion Can'st thou thus appeal to God in Prayer that thou keepest thine eye upon God and that the eying of his face guards thy heart from sin Thou may'st then cheerfully infer that God is with thee that he will enlighten the lamp of thy Soul with the light of his love and thus lift up thy Soul with David The Lord my God will enlighten my darknesse and though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death I will fear no evill for thou wilt be my guid to glory Section 2. A second Appeal may flow from a retrospect a reflection on a well spent life He that hath faithfully appealed about the sincerity of his heart may doubtlesse reap his Sheaves with joy from the Harvest of a holy life For out of the abundance of the heart d Mat. 12.34 the mouth speaketh the hand worketh and the foot runneth In whose hearts are the a Ps 84.5 waies of them that passe through the Valley of Bacah up to the Temple of Beracah Such as have Gods holy waies in their hearts want not feet to walk and run in them when the heart is in the foot it runs nimbly like a Roe or a young Hart upon the Mountains of Bether They goe from strongth to strength till they all appear before him in Zion Thy law is in b Ps 40.7 8 my heart that 's the root of obedience and therefore lo I come to thee When the heart believes the c Rom. 10.10 mouth confesses unto Salvation when the heart is fixed settled and calmed from carnall fears then d Ps 57.7 108.1 the tongue praises the harp warbles and the ten-string'd Instruments of the Soul make the Temple-Marbles to ring aloud of his glory When the heart bubbles up with a good matter e Ps 45.1 then the tongue becomes the pen of a ready writer The body alas is but the f Rom. 6.13 weapon the organ and altar of the soul When some persons are impeacht of an ungodly life they retort let every one answer for himself their hearts are good and that they are no hypocrites But can hearts be good when lives be naught or can lives be unholy when hearts be gracious Such as the vein is such will the metall prove that 's melted from it as the fountain such is the stream as the root such the fruit like star like influence The Pleiades will soften with showres and Orion will bind with frost The cause and its effects are of the same blood and kindred Out g Pro. 4.23 of the heart are the issues of life naturall carnall and spirituall Whoever can look back on a well ordered conversation to him shall be shewn h â—s 50.23 the Salvation of God He that hath his Quiver full of holy works may shoot at this enemy Death in the gates The ungodly cannot i Ps 1.5 stand in Judgment but he that delights in the Law of the Lord whatever he doth shall prosper when holinesse hath taken root in the heart it blossomes and flowers in peace of conscience and joy of the Spirit and brings forth pleasant fruits in the conversation and goodly spices in the hour of death Like the Psalmist in his affliction so a Saint at death comforts himself with the holy Songs he had warbled in his youth The end of the wicked is to be cut off Ps 77.6 and a Prov. 14 32. he is driven away in his wickednesse but the righteous he that hath walkt uprightly hath hope in his death Mark the perfect and
behold the upright for the b Ps 37.37 end of that man is peace He 'l give grace and glory and no good thing will he withhold If there be any choicer thing than grace and glory and truly that 's God himself he 'l keep back nothing From whom from such as walk c Ps 84.11 uprightly He 'l shew d Ps 16.11 Ps 23 3 the path of Life but 't is to such as first have been lead by him in the paths of righteousnesse Happy man that can unfeignedly and skilfully tune Hezekiahs Song Remember e Isay 38.3 now now at the point of death O Lord how I have walkt before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight Integrity of hearr and the goodness of his doings are his double appeal at the appearance of death Though the good we have done be very little yet if that little fruit grow from a sanctified root God graciously accepts it because 't is of his own planting As David spake of his royall preparations for the Temple So must we of all our graces duties services f 1 Chron. 29 14. All things come of thee and of thine own have we given thee Do any fragrant spices perfume the air of a Saints discourse Or any pleasant fruits garnish the garden of a Saints life We must invite as the Spouse doth Let g Song 4.16 my beloved come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits The trees of righteousnesse are h Isai 61.3 of his planting that he may be glorified like the Trees of Lign-Aloes like the Cedars of Lebanon which the Lord hath planted and not man Numb 24.6 and Psal 104.16 i Phil. 2.13 To will and to doe to think and to act the hearts integrity and the lifes sanctity are all from his good pleasure Whoso can enter his appeal at the throne of grace with the testimony of his conscience that k 2 Cor. 1.12 in simplicity and godly sincerity he hath had his conversation in this world may rejoyce at the remembrance of the day of the Lord Jesus and long for its approach Section 3. A third Appeal concerns our love to God Opticks teach us that lines and raies of light come from all parts of a luminous body and traverse and cut one another at innumerable angles but some are centrall from the midst All the affections are but emanations beamings from the heart and will but love is the cardinall centrall ray What we love that sets all the wheels of the Soul in motion Love 's the commandresse of all our forces It a Ps 86.11 unites all the powers under its banner and leads all the squadrons of the soul into the fortress of Gods name The Soul before acquaintance with God was like a bird wandring from its nest but now she hath found where to lay her a Ps 84.3 young even all its unfledg'd desires upon thine altars O Lord of Hosts my King and my God The Soul that 's in love with God loves him only thirsts pants cries after him Whom b Ps 73.25 have I in heaven but thee and none upon earth do I desire beside thee Are there no Saints there no Angels there Yes but they move in the stated inferior Orbs both of their own essence and his affection he mounts higher and the glory of the Sun of Gods countenance eclipses all these Stars that a Saint sees none in heaven to love like God All these he loves in the order of his ascension to the bosome of God A Saint passes by the Angells ascending and descending on Jacobs Ladder till he comes to the embraces of the c Gen. 28.12 13. Lord above at the top of all Non aliud tanquam illum as d Bernard f. 94. b. Bernard heavenly non aliud praeter illum non aliud post illum A Saint loves none like him none besides him none after he hath tasted of his loveliness And again Nec pro illo aliud nec cum illo aliud neâ— ab illo ad aliud convertamur The Soul embraces none in stead of him none in competition with him neither turns about from him to any besides him Bern. p. 77. b. Bonum est magis in camino habere te mecum quam esse sine te vel in coelo It 's better to be with thee in a Furnace then in Heaven without thee A Saint loves heaven for God not God for heaven Heaven is heaven because God is there and where ever God is that place is a Saints heaven As a faithfull Spouse is not taken with the Jewells Bracelets and Ear-rings but the lovely person that gives them 'T is not the place but the person not the Palace but the Prince not the glorious Throne but the Father of Mercies upon it God lov'd first and kindled these holy flames and whither doe they towre but upward into the element of love within his bosome O let my prayer saies David a Ps 141.2 Dirigatur instar coâ—umâ—â— be directed as incense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the love of my heart like a pillar of incense No incense was fragrant to God but what smoaked in the fire that first came down from heaven no love but that which first flasht from God O let our love stream straight upright into heaven in perfumy and spicy pillars not waved by chill blasts of the worlds tentations The Torch of our affections was first kindled from b Ezec. 10.6 between the wheels of the chariot of Cherubims and it lights our winged feet into the Chamber of Presence We have none in heaven to love and none in earth to desire but God Here upon earth there 's nothing desireable but God In heaven there are things desireable but nothing so lovely as God He is the only prime and ultimate object of the Souls satiety Hearken to this c Ps 45.10 O daughter consider his lovely and beautifull glory incline thine ear and forget thy fathers house The memorable relish of the song of divine love inchants the Soul with a holy forgerfulness of old terrene relations So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty O Queen of Zion forget thy black Egyptian Father and all his tawny-moor Princes of the adust race of Cham. Run to the arms of thy Solomon desire him upon earth and love none besides him in heaven and he will greâ—tly desire thy beauty Thy beauty a Alas 't is his beauty that shines upon thee First thy beloved is thine and then thou art his he plants his Lillies and then feeds among them But let 's descend a little and try the pretended love of mortalls by these higher than Lydian touchstones Dost thou love any thing in the world more then God above God beyond God without God and not in order to him How then can d 1 Joh. 3 17. the love of the Father dwell in you Dost thou love him
sends f Isa 30 2◠his holy spirit to whisper to us where he is Art thou like Christ Dost thou delight in g Song 2.14 hearing the voice and seeing the face and changing breaths in conversing with Saints Does the blood of David run in thy Veins Does thy goodness thy kindess extend to Saints on earth to those h Ps 16.2 3 excellent ones more excellent i Prov. 12.26 then their neighbour Is thy delight in these Princes of the daughters of Zion these k Ps 45.16 Princes in all the Earth God calls Zion his Hephzi-bah my delight is in her Dost thou call the Suns of Zion thy Hephzibam My delights in them So David did l Ps 16.3 Col-Hephzibam All my delights in them All his delight All his time and all his parts all his estate and all his affections are spent with God and Saints With his good will he could spend all his dayes in the Courts of Gods house and society of Israelites that come up to worship Art thou one of these then all these are thine because thou art Christs thy heart 's in them and one day in their company is a little heaven For what makes heaven Ps 84.7 but a purer and a longer communion with God and Saints Why did David so long and pant to dwell in Gods house that he calls it his n Ps 27.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one thing his one his only his darling his choice petition chiefly to a Ps 27 4. behold the amenities the pleasantnesses the beauties of the Lord and to inquire in his Temple to tast the b 36.8 fatness of his house the fat sacrifices of the peace-offerrings with God God had his part and the Priest his and the Saint his In c Lev. 7.14.15 c. the old Sacrifices all the fat d C. 3.16 was the Lords but in the spiritual sacrifices all the e Isa 25.6 Ps 63.5 fat is a Saints at the Gospell mountain when the cloth is spread for the feast of fat things of fat things full of marrow when the wine 's mingled and f Pro. 9.2 the rable's furnisht and Wisdome cries g Song 5.1 Eat O friends and drink abundantly O beloved But this is not all yet more then all besides though David love God above all seeks him before all and loves Zion for finding God there yet the Saints he loves too and therefore delights to go to Zion to meet the multitude that kept holy feasts in h Ps 42.4 the courts of God Hamon i Turba tripudians chogag To rejoyce with the multitude of dancers and hear the joyfull k Ps 89.15 sound where they are still l Ps 84.4 praising him and m Ps 145.11 12. talking of his power They sing of his righteousness his mighty acts and the glorious majesty of his Kingdome Whereas the man that pleads his name in Zion Court-roll he that 's n Ps 87.5 7 born there delights to be there among the Singers and Players on Instruments he loves the Songs of Zion For all his Springs are in Zion and stream from the God of Zion Would you sind a Saint or would you find your self to be so look in the Courts of Zion in pure Ordinances with a pure God do all true Saints converse Do'st thou enquire for the o Song 1.7 8. foot-steps of the flocks of his companions Perhaps the Fathers flock the little chosen flock of Christ is with his son Moses some faithfull Shepheard in the p Exod. 3.1 2. back-side of a Desert coming to the mountain of God and there see Visions of the flaming Bush and the Angell of the Covenant in it Do'st thou delight where Christ does feed though in secret and retired corners and holdest communion with Saints there 'T is not glittering pomp of outward services that takes the heart of a Saint that 's the mark of a Roman strumpet Joh. 420 2 King 16.11 Altare amascenum To worship in spirit and truth not in gaudy Gerizims or stately Samaritan Temples not to burn incense on Altars like those of Damascus but in naked and plain simplicity of the Gospel lies the beauty and glory and ornament of the true Church Divine institutions not a tittle beyond them of mens invention please a holy heart A true Convert alwaies inquires after purity of worship like the woman a Joh 4.20 of Samaria when Christ was working upon her heart is very inquisitive and busie about the truth of worship and Christ as ready and clear in answers Art thou a walker with God thou walkst then and conversest with him and with holy Saints in holy worship But is thy delight in vain Companions that 's an ill token Dost thou fancy and rellish b Mat. 15.9 vain worship and settest in the assemblies of superstitious Zealots It s a bad omen of a carnall heart and an ignorant head A mans company shews his moralls and a Saints his graces Where our treasure is there our heart and love and communion lies A vain habit and a vain gesture and vain discourse with vain and trifling spirits are the Sign-Posts that hang out from an empty and a vain heart Do'st thou bowl away thy time shoot away thy seasons and bett away thy precious hours among the wasters of the day of grace I fear thy profession is rotten at core David argues his integrity before God in not having sat c Ps 26.4 with vain persons nor having gone in with dissemblers or d 35.16 with hypocritall mockers in Feasts But that he was a Companion a Ps 119.63 of all such as feared the Lord and kept his Precepts Sheep do not use to company with hogs and lye down in the mire together you never saw Doves feeding upon Carrion with Crows and Ravens Such whom thou perceivest by a spirituall instinct and expectest to sing with thee in heaven do thou company with pray hear conferre and converse with here upon earth I need not bid thee If gracious the magnetisme the Loadstone of holiness will draw and allure thee The perfume of that precious ointment its fragrant aromaticall smell will attract thy society by a spirituall naturality Those that are c 1 Joh 4.7 born of God love the Brethren To issue this If thou findest inward solace and pleasure 1. In a holy conversation 2. In pure Ordinances And 3. In gracious Saints It s evident thou walkest hand in hand with God And by experience thou shalt feel both warmth conduct and sustentation from that holy hand He infuses lively spirits for motion directs thee in a straight way to the Land of uprightness and upholds thee from dashing thy foot against any stone of stumbling For thou lovest his Law a Psal 119 165. and nothing which God does to thee shall offend thee These tokens plainly manifest that God is with thee but dost thou feel it Can'st thou say it from an
as Luther said Let our will be done Gerson de Mendicitate f. 760. for our will is become thine Ne tradas me voluntati meae O give me not up to mine own will but to thine The will of God is e 1 Thes 4.3 our sanctification and a Saints renewed will delights in the holiness of God Here 's a union of wills in the communion of holinesse For both f Heb. 2.11 he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one g Joh. 17.23 I in them as our Lord in his heavenly prayer and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one Receive we such a Kingdome h Heb. 12 28. let us serve him with reverence Nothing renders us more revenent in our services then an inward sense of the divine holinesse that sills his essence and is the lustre of his Kingdome This argument of the divine holinesse to put us in a reverent frame is often pleaded in Scripture Thou art h Ps 22.3 holy O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israell Thou dwellest in the Temple where they are still praising thee and therefore they serve and praise thee because thou art holy What services are the Cherubims continually ingaged in but crying Holy a Rev. 4.8 Holy Holy before the Throne Ye shall b Lev. 19.30 reverence my sanctuary my holy place I am the Lord. Holinesse is the attractive of Reverence from a holy heart The nearer we approach to a holy God the more awfull impressions are stampt upon a holy Soul I will be c Lev. 10.3 sanstified in them that draw nigh me saith the Lord and before all the people I will be glorified Drawing nigh to him commands sanctity in us and the more we sanctifie his name by our holy addresses the more we glorifie him He is d Exod. 15.11 glorious in his holinesse and therefore fearfull in his praises The raies of glory round about his holiness that none can behold and live should imprint submissive through filiall fear upon our spirits in his praises and services It 's true that God is to be feared as to the matter of his praises his dreadfull acts upon his Egyptian enemies yet when his wrathfull judgments have sunk the Chariots as lead in the deep waters still a holy fear should tune the e Timbrells and measure the Dances of his People in praise 〈◊〉 2â— 21. Serve the Lord with f Ps 2.11 fear and rejoyce with trembling we serve him acceptably when we attend his presence not with slavish but g Heb. 12. â—8 godly fear and when we rejoice in his goodnesse and tremble at his greatnesse our heavenly joy defends us from the base terrors of bondage and our holy fear from luxuriant wantonness Nay when h Phil. 2.3 we work out our Salvation in the Vineyard of the promises we must sweat at it with a Son-like fear knowing that our work is not worth our peny with due trembling being assured that when the Lord i Ps 36.6 preserveth one and lets another perish yet his righteousnesse is like the great mountains and his Judgments are a great deep O but say some where the spirit of the Lord is there is k 2 Cor. 3.17 liberty Again we have accesse with l Eph. 3.12 bolnesse by the faith of him Again we are invited to come boldly m Heb. 4.16 to the Throne of Grace and Again we have n Heb. 10.19 boldnesse to enter into the Holiest by the Blood of Jesus Truly some Translators seem a little too bold with the greek word and make other Christians thereby too bold with the thing unlesse the word boldnesse be taken in a very reverent sense it might better be translated by liberty or freedome that is from a spirit of bondage For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the notation and acceptation of the word in greek Authors and in its opposition to straitnesse and pentnesse of spirit in our addresses to God most properly signifies the speaking out the mind of a man fully with enlargedness of heart and fluency of expression 'T is an encouraging word to allure drooping and to incite and raise desponding weak believers not to spur on audacious irreverent and presumptuous spirits Improbe audes irrumpere in osculum oris si nec pedibus cum lachrymis Gerson de mystic Theolog. Tom. 3. p. 66 2. c. Saies Gerson thou art wickedly audacious to rush into the kisses of his mouth that hast not first washt his feet with thy tears I know God calls us to a more sweet and heavenly familiarity with himself under the Gospel Rev. 4.10 then when under the ancient pedagogy of the Law But let 's not be sawcy and put on our Hats in the Court Moses was commanded not to draw too nigh the flaming bush and to put off his shoes and so was Joshua Jos 5. all to signifie the danger of too much prying curiosity and the necessity of a holy reverence in the presence of God a Behold how the twenty four Elders fall down before him in worship and cast their golden Crowns before the Throne Let 's remember that we are but o Ps 73.22 Behemoth's great beasts before him But dust and ashes still worms and no men less then the least of his mercies nay when in heaven we are but glorified dust and sparkling ashes but spirituall flesh but atomes and lesse then nothing to stand before God The very heavens are impure in his sight and he charges his Angels with folly When they cry Holy Holy before him they cover their faces and may justly cry out with Lepers unclean b Lev. 13.49 unclean Their created holinesse considering its infinite deficiency from Gods is like folly and pollution and their lips uncircumcised before his unfadomable beauty inaccessible light and Angel-confounding holinesse And did they not suck in streaming raies of holinesse from beholding his face continually and drink in rivers of divine dignation to make and accept them as worthy they could never be able or fit to fly before his Throne or to be imployed in the messages of his services Ps â—3 22 Eternity is insufficient for the highest of finite beings to praise an infinite essence and that unsearchable abysse of holinesse glory and Majesty O then what 's man That God should visit him when we consider the impurity of the heavens and its celestiall inhabitants Nay what 's man That God should suffer him to peep and mutter out of the dust before him Well however come near but humbly and we may come freely come we reverently and what grace we feel within us we may appeal with before him Examine me O Lord and prove me sayes David a Ps 26 2. Ure reneâ— try my reins and my heart search me O God and b Ps 139. â—3 know my heart try me and know my thoughts Sit as a refiner upon me melt away the drosse
of my impure affections that my Soul may appear like glittering gold seven times purg'd by the fire of thy love Nay Lord thus David appeals thou c V. 1. hast searched and known me and oh how precious are thy d V. 17. thoughts unto me O God how great is the sum of them Thy thoughts of me and my thoughts of thee how precious to me O God how great is the sum of them Thy thoughts of electing love of justifying and sanctifying grace Nay thou hast thoughts for e 2 Sam. 7.19 a great while to come A great while indeed for they are thoughts of eternall f Jer. 31.3 love Thy thoughts in number transcend the sands on the Sea-shore the hairs of my head and the stars of heaven Archimedes may number the sands Spigelius the hairs and Hipparchus the visible stars But who can expend thoughts commensurate to the love of God The circle of his love cannot be squared nor its cubick root extracted We may study and pray g Eph 3.18 to comprehend with all Saints the glorious love of God in Christ But still it passeth knowledge and surmounts our numbers Well might David when waking h Ps 139.18 be still with God In the morning watches when his Soul was freshest his thoughts warmest his parts quickest while the yet-remaining darknesse presented no diverting objects to his eyes and the deep silence of the night distracted not his audience with various clamours Then David hath his Songs in the night Ps 30.29 as in the holy Solemnities Then does he meditate on the divine love and remember God i Ps 63.6 upon his Bed His wonderfull works and the thoughts of God concerning him he professes they could not be reckoned up in order before him Though he was stil with God searching and following after him yet l Joh 11.7 could not find out the Almighty to perfection But yet the holy man holds fast his confidence For thou art with me and I with thee God with us keeps us with him Doe our desires and affections hast after him they 'le bring in the food of assurance that he is ours Talem illum invenies saies Gerson a Gerson de Mendicitate spiritual f. 75. a. Op. 3. part qualis tu fueris in tuis desideriis Our spirituall desires longing and panting after God interpret and manifest the gracious motions of the divine love to us The more we seek him the sweeter we find him and the more we trust him the more he loves us Let us with David in all our straits make to him as our rock our refuge our strong Castle our Fortresse our City of Defence and Munition of Rocks b our Waters shall never fail and our bread shall be sure is 33.6 Appeals to God To Appeal to the Majesty of Heaven is a matter of most important moment because of his omniscience omnipresence his exactnesse in justice and judgment If our hearts c 1 Joh. 3.10 condemn us God is greater and knoweth all things but if our heart acquit us then have we confidence towards God yea d And 4.17 in the day of Judgment To be scalded with condemnation from conscience and from God too is double judgment and our hearts condemnation is but the harbinger to Gods Conscience is but the Prison till execution and if the earthly Prison be so noisome and dismall what 's the eternall It behoves all therefore that dare appeal to God to examine and try their hearts with impartiall strictnesse before they turn about their faces to heaven David spends the largest part of an excellent Psalm in choice ruminations upon the divine attributes and the works of God on his former experiences and deep meditations upon the all-searching eye of God before he dares to make an essay of a reverent e Ps 139.23 appeal unto him Holy Paul makes small account of being judg'd by the Church or by morall men or his own conscience in comparison with f 1 Cor. 4.3 4. divine judgment Our heart is g Jer. 17.9 deceitfull above all things who can know it But the Lord is a God of knowledg and by him h 1 Sam. 2.3 actions are weighed The ballances of the Sanctuary will turn at a grain of the least action yea at the thousandth part of a thought His 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his piercing and searching eye enters the innermost parts of the belly His eyes doe behold his eye-lids i Ps 11.4 try the children of men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Explorabunt They search into the hearts and pry into the reins of men The Lord sits in specula aeternitatis upon the watch-tower of glorious Majesty and discerns all the secrer recesses and caverns of the hearts of Men and Angells The Metaphor seems to be taken from Souldiers that stand upon the guard on a high Tower to observe and ken the approaching enemy When men doe connivere oculis even close their eyes and make as it were a small portion of a Tube with their eye-lids to exclude the light and discern objects the clearer or like refiners that look narrowly into the Crucible or Cople to discern when the melted Gold gathers into a clear and pure circle and hath cast out all its drosse All this is to shew with what nicenesse and accuratenesse the Lord doth pierce into the hearts of men When we consider the excellency of the searcher the curiosity of his observation that nothing escapes the Eagle eye of his Omnisciency when we ponder upon the purity of his Judgment and the equity of his tremendous tribunall who should not fear before him and tremble at his imperiall Majesty For who can stand If he doe but a Ps 143.2 enter into Judgment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ne veniat let him not come toward the work saies the Psalmist unlesse we can stand before him To impose upon men is base hypocrisie but to impose upon the Maker and searcher of hearts is cursed Atheism abominable impudence b Ps 14.1 2 4. and corrupt folly of the works of iniquity When we enter our appeals before God we imply his all-searching providence his avenging hand his acquitting justice his pardoning grace the resurrection of the dead and the dreadfull Judgment-Seat of Christ ' Ev 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon this account c Act. 24.16 2 Cor. 5.2 saies Paul we exercise our selves in having a conscience void of offence in the sight of God that the d Ps 19 14 meditation of our heart may be acceptable in his sight our Strength and our Redeemer As to the matter of our appeals in prayer there are but four cases whereof I would treat in respect to our comforts at death Isa 33.16 Section 1. Our first Appeal may be about the integrity and sincerity of our hearts Not that we have escap'd all outward sins or perform'd all inward duties or can absolve our selves from a Ps