will hear our supplications and prayers if they proceed from a true sense of the want of what we pray for Thirdly he will succour and comfort us in our sorrowes and distresses if we cry unto him in the true apprehension of our own misery Lastly such is the goodnesse of God that he will incline our will and put holy desires into our hearts to seek the light of his countenance when we are prepared for it by true humiliation and sorrow for our sins for then he will hear our prayers he will grant our requests and will graciously accept us though our sins had formerly moved him to hide himself from us Consider further that the principall meanes of grace is by Jesus Christ our Saviour by whose righteousnesse we are justified by whose grace we are sanctified and by the merite of whose blood we are saved so that without Christ we can neither come into grace and favour with God neither can any sanctifying and saving graces be wrought in us to make us capable of salvation Now God hath appointed the sincere Preaching of his Word to be a special meanes to reveal Christ perfectly and fully to us and to work faith in us whereby we are knit and united unto Christ from whom all other sanctifying and heavenly graces do plentifully flow and they are conveyed to us by the operations of the holy Ghost Thus saith the Apostle q Rom. 10. â—7 Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God and it bringeth in with it all other spirituall Graces For the Word of God containeth in it whatsoever is needful to salvation and there is no grace but we may attain to it by this meanes if the holy Ghost doth accompany the administration of it to bring it close to our hearts God hath also other meanes which he useth for the working of grace in us and to bring us home when we go astray from him for every blessing that we receive every affliction that he sendeth and every motion of his Spirit that we feel is a call from God and a meanes that conduceth to the gain of some grace or other His blessings should stir us up to glorifie God with our praises and thankfulnesse r Rom. 2. 4. his goodnesse should lead us to repentance and his love to us should binde us to love him again also the sorrowes and miseries that we suffer in this life should teach us godly sorrow for our sins and patience under the crosse they should humble us and bring us to true repentance and newnesse of life so likewise every motion of his holy Spirit should move us to obedience and to conformity of will to the will of God and the dayly experience we have of Gods care over us should teach us to confide in God and to rest and depend upon him in all conditions of life whatsoever These and the like means God doth use to quicken up those graces that lye languishing in us and are as dead to our apprehension and also to make us seek unto him for his grace and favour which is sufficient to support us in all our tryalls and distresses These heavenly motions of the holy Ghost is Gods still voice which should make deep impression in our hearts because he doth thereby immediatly from himself reveal his will and pleasure to us what we ought to do to which holy inspirations we ought to yield our willing obedience though it be irksome to our nature and crossing the unregenerate part of our will as to repent and to leave a darling sin which we have long nourished in our bosomes This is a time when we may gain the grace and favour of God if we are ready to listen to this voice and cheerfully to obey it Wherefore this ought to be our care to imbrace any meanes or opportunity that God shall tender to us for grace because it is Gods time of grace and he will second his own time and his own meanes with a blessing if we imbrace it but if we will be feasting when we should fast and pray or rejoicing when we should mourn and weep we do then discover too much disobedience and rebellion against the will of God Now we ought to examine our selves how we have profited under the meanes of grace how the Word of God hath wrought upon our hearts and affections what heavenly graces have been wrought in us by it or by any of Gods holy Ordinances and what spirituall comfort we have found by them Also we ought to examine what thankfulnesse we have returned to God for his blessings what sorrow of heart we have had for our sins how we have been humbled under the crosse what reformation of life Grace hath wrought in us how we have obeyed the holy motions of Gods Spirit and how we have been ravished in soul with earnest desires to do the will of God If we have lived long under a powerfull Ministery and yet have gained little or no knowledge of Christ and of the truth and no faith or saving grace is wrought in us by the power of it we have then lost so much time of grace and we have not improved the meanes of grace to our best advantage nor to the right end as God hath appointed which is to gain grace for the spiritual good of our souls Wherefore let these be the Meditations of our hearts how to improve the time and the meanes of Grace to the right end that we may be found good stewards and profitable servants to our Lord and Master Jesus Christ by that gain which we shall make of grace in this little stock of time which he hath given us in this life For the more time and the more meanes of grace we do enjoy the more fruits of grace we must bring forth or else we shall be unprofitable servants If we improve our time for grace as we ought we shall gain the love and favour of God in Christ our hearts will be seasoned with all spirituall graces and our conversation will be in heaven while we live here upon earth for we shall live a gracious and a comfortable life now and a glorious and blessed life hereafter Also let this be the true desire of our souls to redeem the time of grace that we have lost and to improve the meanes of grace to more profit that the fruits of it may appear in our obedience to Gods Commandements in our zeal to the true worship and service of God and in our care to walk in all piety and vertue which we may the better do if we daily addresse our selves to God by faithfull prayer for the gracious assistance of his holy Spirit herein In the last place we must consider that though God doth give us time and meanes for grace yet we cannot attain unto it without the speciall working of the Spirit of grace in us for he must put a spirituall light into our understandings he must open our hearts and
pleased to satisfie our desires for our faith will give us as certain assurance to obtain what we pray for as if we did already injoy it We have no hope of succour in our distresses but by prayer and no prayer is prevailing with God but that which comes from a believing heart The gift of prayer may move the affections for the present but it is the grace of prayer that is powerful with God the gift of prayer is but a common gift of the holy Ghost which may be without faith and consequently without any acceptance l Heb. 11. 6. For without faith it is impossible to please God but faith doth alwayes goe along with the grace of prayer and God will not deny such a prayer though it be made in weak expressions for the heart may sigh out a faithful prayer and grone out our desires which the tongue cannot utter nor expresse Now then look well to the purity of thine affections and to the faithfulnesse of thy heart when thou art in the presence of God to hear his word that thy mind be not then about thy worldly affaires or thy thoughts set upon vain things if thou desirest to receive good thereby For if thou doest hear it with an unbelieving heart or full of worldly cares then thy heart is like barren ground where bryars and thornes grow which cannot receive such spiritual seed to bring forth fruit unto salvation Also in thy holy meditations on spiritual things thy heart must be first purified by faith or else thy meditations will not be comfortable to thy soul because thou hast not faith which is the instrument to draw true consolation from Christ So likewise when thou comest to the Lords Table see there be faith in thine eyes to discern the Lords body in those outward elements that thou mayest spiritually feed on him to nourish thy soul to eternal life When thou makest thy supplications to God believe faithfully that thou shalt receive what thou beggest and then thy prayers will not return empty without a blessing In like manner if thy humiliation for thy sinnes be not a fruit of faith but onely in outward shew and not in the sincerity of thy heart with true contrition and godly sorrow for them thy humiliation is no better m 1 Kin. 21. 27. than that of Ahab which produced no reformation of life Also if thou doest confesse thy sinnes when any sore affliction is upon thee and doest not faithfully purpose to forsake them and turn to the Lord thou doest dissemble with God in thy heart and canst not believe that God will forgive them for thy confession is no better n Exod. 9. 27 28. then that of Pharaoh and thou canst have no comfort in such repentance because it is not a fruit of faith for it is onely faith that doth perfect all thy services to God in their righteousnesse of Christ Fourthly we have no defence against the temptations and wicked suggestions of the devill and against the rage of our spiritual enemies but the shield of faith his fiery darts will wound our soules even to the death o Eph. 6. 16. if we doe not quench them in the bloud of Christ by faith his temptations will pierce us to the heart if we doe not beat them back with this impenitrable shield Also he layeth his snares every where so cunningly in our way that we can hardly take a step but we shall step into a snare p Psal 26. 11 12. if we doe not walk in our integriy by faith that our feet may stand in an even place There is no place secure and no condition of life is free from the snares of the devill he layeth them in our calling upon our table in our chambers and closets and under our feet so that every step we take out of the way of godlinesse is an occasion to bring us into his snares and we have no meanes to escape them but to walk in the light of the Spirit of God which we cannot have but by faith in Christ If we walk thus by the direction of his Spirit then as the wise man saith q Prov. 28. 18 26. we walk uprightly and we shall be saved we walk wisely and we shall be delivered But if we have not this spiritual light to guide us we walk in darknesse r Job 18. 8 9 10. we are cast into a net by our own feet and we walk upon a snare The grin shall take us by the heel and the robber shall prevail against us The snare is laid for us in the ground and a trap for us in the way Now then Å¿ Isa 50. 11. if we walk in the light of our own fire and in the sparkes that we have kindled this we shall have of Gods hand we shall lye down in sorrow Thus do spirituall dangers continually attend us which of our selves we cannot escape but if we trust in the Name of the Lord and rest our selves upon God by faith t Psal 91. 3 he will deliver us from the snare of the fowler he will direct us in all our wayes and will guide our feet into the way of peace u Jer 10. 23 For the way of man is not in himself as saith the Prophet it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps If we are taken in any of these snares that the devil layeth for us we have no meanes of recovery but by faith and true repentance for faith in Christ will break the snare and repentance will draw us out of the pit which did threaten our destruction Consider again that the devil laboureth to insnare us with the alluring baits of pleasure and profit thereby to draw away our hearts and affections from God this is a cunning way to deceive us for we suspect no danger and no evill in those things unto which we are naturally inclined so that we may easily be deceived with these guilded baits for without a spiritual light we cannot see the hook that is in them which will pull us into the pit of perdition n 2 Cor. 11. 14. Thus the devil can transform himself into an Angel of light x Mat. 24. 24. to deceive if it were possible the very elect The devil hath so many wayes to intrap us that we cannot passe thorough this dangerous ocean without shipwrack except Christ be our Pilot by faith to steer our hearts and affections and all the faculties of our soules with his Spirit and then we shall escape all these rocks and quicksands which doe continually threaten the ruine and destruction of our poor soules We cannot mount above this black cloud of deadly snares and dangers without the wings of faith and we cannot break the cords of sin without the strength of faith in the death of Christ neither can we get out of the dominion of sin without the power of the same faith in Christ Such is the goodnesse of our
be so well disposed for such an heavenly duty or else the divell will be ready to suggest unto him evill thoughts or to bring into his remembrance some of his former sins to disquiet the peace of his conscience to trouble the tranquillity of his minde and so to interrupt his thoughts that his meditations may not be for the honour of God nor yet fruitfull and profitable to himself and therefore he must crave the assistance of the Spirit of GOD by Prayer Rules of direction for our holy Meditations VVHerefore now that our Meditations may be holy and acceptable to God and that we may finde sweetnesse and comfort in them we must carefully observe these few Directions following The first is to fix our meditations upon holy things and not upon that which is vain and unprofitable for they do most conduce to the glory of God and to the comfort of our soules This is Pauls counsell a Col. 3. 1 2 to set our affections on things above not on things on the earth whereby we shall give a clear evidence that we are risen with Christ from the death of sin to the life of grace As our affections are carried so are our meditations if they are carried to worldly vanities our mindes will be so incumbered that we cannot freely meditate upon those things that concern the Kingdom of heaven neither will our meditations be for Gods glory or for our eternall good But if our affections are carried toward heavenly things then our meditations will be spirituall and heavenly and our actions will be tending to the honour of God b 1 Chron. 29. 3. David set his affection to the house of his God and therefore he prepared abundantly of his own proper good of gold and silver which he gave to the building of it Wherefore it concerneth us very much to keep our hearts close unto God that our minds may be raised up to him in our heavenly contemplations and that he may be glorified in all our actions The second direction is that our meditations must be of the heart as well as of the brain otherwise this Duty is not so performed that God will accept it It is the heart which God respecteth in all our services to him without which our best duties are not regarded c Luk. 2. 19 The blessed Virgin kept all the sayings of the shepherds and others concerning Christ and pondered them in her heart Oh how acceptable is that sacrifice which is offered up to God with a pure and perfect heart how effectuall is that Prayer which is presented unto him with a true and faithfull heart how pleasing are those Almes to God that are given to the poor with a willing heart and how comfortable are those meditations which proceed from an upright heart The brain may work and the cogitations of the minde may be set upon holy objects and all to little purpose if the affections of the heart be wanting Thirdly the end of our meditations must crown the work with gracious acceptance and this must be the glory of God We do greatly honour God in our meditations when we ruminate upon his incomprehensible Essence how infinite he is in all his Divine Attributes and how wonderfull in all his works also when we meditate upon his Law and upon his gracious promises to us in Christ if hereby we are brought to reverence and adore his Sacred Majesty to love him for his goodnesse and to yield due obedience unto his commands and if we can rest upon his promises and discern his wisdome and glory by his Works This must be the main end of our meditations and if we do seriously meditate upon the holy things of God to an holy end then God will accept them and we shall be edified by them But if we propound any other end to our selves whether it be for discourse or vain-glory or the like we seek not the honour of God herein but we delude our selves and defraud our souls of that heavenly comfort which otherwise they might have Fourthly our hearts and consciences must be purified and cleansed from dead works by faith and true repentance that an holy zeal may be kindled in our affections and that our souls may feel the comfort of a spirituall warmth by our holy meditations For if there be any guilt of sin that cleaveth fast to our consciences because we have no assurance by repentance that it is washt away in the blood of Christ by faith it will cool the zeal of our affections and stop the current of Gods assisting grace so that our meditations can make no holy impression in our hearts no print of Piety in our lives and conversations neither can they send forth any beams of true consolation to our souls Wherefore if our hearts are not sanctified and seasoned with grace our meditations cannot be to the glory of God nor to our own spirituall good neither can we say as the Psalmist did d Psal 104 34. My meditation of God shall be sweet I will be glad in the Lord. This will move our hearts and affections and will put a spirituall life into our meditations when our hearts are cleansed from the guilt of sin so that we can freely meditate upon the bounty and goodnesse of God in all his dealings with us this we may do if faith goeth along in all our holy meditations Fifthly we must have some spirituall understanding in those things whereon we desire to meditate that the holy Ghost may guide us in our meditations and then we shall glorifie God and comfort our souls thereby otherwise the thoughts of our hearts will wander and go far astray from the matter whereupon they should be fixed and we may easily lose our selves in the dark if the spirit of God doth not give us some spiritual light to guide and direct us therein and we can receive no benefit by this holy service if it be not performed with an understanding heart The more knowledge we have of what we intend to meditate the more will our hearts be enlarged for it and the deeper impressions will our meditations make in our affections and the greater will be the comfort of our souls This was the saying of the Psalmist e Psal 49. 3. The meditation of my heart shall be of understanding Thus saith Paul f 1 Cor. 14 15 I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the understanding also I will sing with thâ— spirit and I wil sing with the understanding also so likewise we must meditate with the spirit and with the understanding also How can we learn the Commandements of God and how can we keep his Law if the Lord doth not give us understanding in them by his Spirit This heavenly wisdome is the gift of God which we must with all care and diligence labour for according to this of Solomon g Prov. 4. 7. Wisdome is the principall thing therefore get Wisdom and with all
thy getting get understanding This is a speciall meanes to come to the true way of holy and devout meditation Sixthly We must dayly practice this religious duty and if we learn to meditate upon our selves what our state and condition is whether it be of nature or of grace it will bring us to the meditation of spirituall things Though it be a very hard matter for a true childe of God to meditate upon heavenly things for his own benefit and comfort yet by use and exercise we may attain unto it and the sweetnesse that we shall find in it will by degrees bring us to delight in this pious duty h Phil. 3. â—0 For by this meanes we shall have our conversation in heaven though we live upon earth and we shall enjoy heaven and heavenly happinesse in some part while we live in this world for if we be frequent in our meditations on the Kingdome of heaven i 2 Cor. 1. 12 the grace of God will make our conversation in this world to be in simplicity and godly sincerity The seventh Direction is to choose such times and such places as are most fitting and most convenienient for this holy duty that we be not interrupted by any occurrence of worldly occasions but that our mindes and our hearts may agree and go together in our meditations The fittest time for this religious service is when God is pleased to give an inclination of will and to move our hearts thereunto by his holy Spirit which time we ought not to let slip nor to lose this opportunity which he tendereth to us because it is the time for grace of his own choosing and the time which he will accept If we take this time and set it apart to imploy our selves in this holy service he will then inlarge our hearts for it he will direct us in it and he will graciously assist us with his Spirit to conceive aright of those things whereon we do intend to meditate As we must be free at that time from all incumberances by our affairs so we must retire to such a place where we may be solitary and private that our hearts may wholly intend our meditations A solitary field is a fitting place to ruminate upon the works of God k Mat. 6. 6. Our closet is most convenient to meditate on the Law of God If we choose such times and places we may freely delight our selves with heavenly and spirituall contemplations Lastly we must prepare our hearts for this pious duty by faithfull prayer that God will be pleased to aid and assist us herein with his blessed Spirit to raise up our affections to enlighten our understandings and to purge and cleanse our hearts from all sinful thoughts worldly cares and from every evill concupisence that we may fully devote our selves to the meditation of heavenly things that this holy service may be performed to the glory af God to the increase of our spirituall knowledge to the strengthening of our faith and confidence in God to carry us on cheerfully through all the troublesome chances and changes that are incident to this life for our holy Meditations will lift up our hearts and affections above all worldly cares and above all the crosses and sorrows that we shall meet with here upon earth Holy Meditation is the prerogative onely of a true Christian AMong many Prerogatives that a true believing Christian hath above all other men this is not the least that he can raise up the Affections of his heart to heavenly contemplations by the power of the Spirit of grace that is in him whereas unregenerate men cannot attain to this high degree of true Christianity by all the meanes that art or nature can afford them for their Meditations reach but to the notions of the brain and are practised onely by the outward man which can yield them no spirituall consolation because they have not the power of grace to move the affections of the heart to heavenly things which only can minister sweetness true consolation to an afflicted soul and to a troubled conscience to give them good hope and assurance of the grace and favour of God and of the pardon and forgivenesse of their sins Carnall men set their mindes and affections upon carnall delights voluptuous men do dayly study how to satisfie their souls with unprofitable pleasures and worldly minded men set their hearts upon covetousness and upon the pomp and vanity of this present world These and the like kinde of men are so pressed down with the burden of sin and they are so encumbered with worldly cares and sinfull delights that they have no power to mount up toward heaven in their affections and no hearts fit for Divine contemplations because they have no interest in Christ and therefore they can have no spirituall light to discern aright of heavenly things But a true believing Christian hath the light of Gods Spirit to give him spiritual understanding he hath strength of grace to withstand all spirituall lets and hinderances and to raise up his affections above all earthly things with the wings of faith he can mount up above all the blocks and impediments that the divell or wicked men can cast in his way to depresse his spirits and to keep down the cogitations of his heart from pious and devout Meditations It cannot be denied but that the dearest of Gods servants cannot sometimes perform this religious Duty as they should because they do often finde the flesh to war against the spirit a Rom. 7. 21 23. as Paul did and that they are so yoked with their unregenerate part that when they would do good either for the glory of God or for the comfort of their own souls evill is present with them which doth disturb the peace of their consciences the quiet of their mindes and the freedome of their spirits and doth also stop the sweet influence of comfort that should come to their souls but especially they are hindered in their Meditations which is a Duty meerly spirituall and cannot be performed but by the spirit yet through Christ they get the victory and they will break through all opposition because b Rom. 7. 22. they delight in the Law of God and in heavenly contemplations after the inward man and their mindes will be set at liberty to serve him c Rom. 7. 25. though with the flesh they do sometimes serve the law of sin If we have given up our names unto Christ and are listed in his roul to fight under his banner we must look for continuall conflicts and combates with our spirituall enemies which dayly seek to ruine our souls by hindering us in our Religious duties but we are sure to have comfort in Christ and power from him to prevail against them and to get the conquest over them all if we can raise up our hearts to contemplate his Omnipotent power his infinite Wisdome and his wonderfull care of us Sometimes
we have conflicts with pleasure and plenty sometimes with afflictions and penury with sin and temptations with pain and sicknesse and with the terrours of death all which for a time may hinder the freedome of our spirits that we cannot compose our thoughts nor settle our hearts for holy Meditations but we shall recover our selves again by the power of Christ whose Grace is sufficient to hold us up against all opposition whatsoever and to set our hearts in such a frame as is fitting for the performance of this holy Duty Wherefore d Eph. 6. 11 12. seeing we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darknesse of this world and against spirituall wickednesse in high places we must put on the whole armour of God that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devill e 2 Cor. 10. 3 4. Though we walk in the flesh we do not war after the flesh for the weapons of our warfare are not carnall but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the Knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ The same power that pulleth down the strong holds of sin in us and the sinfull imaginations of our mindes will also raise up the affections of our hearts to devout and pious Meditations of the heavenly and spirituall things The more free we keep our hearts from worldly cares and our mindes from sinfull thoughts the fitter we shall be for this holy Duty the better we shall perform it and we shall reap the more comfort by it But unregenerate men are not acquainted with this spirituall armour they have no power against their spirituall enemies they have no weapons fit for this warfare for untill they are brought out of their naturall condition into the State of grace have interest in Christ by faith they are so clogged with their worldly affairs so wedded to earthly vanities and so intangled with the corruptions of their nature that there is no room in their hearts for any holy contemplations and they have no grace that can give them strength to fight against the allurements of the world the intisements of the flesh and the cunning stratagems of the devill How dreadfull it is to Meditate on God NOw prepare thy heart and all the faculties of thy soul by those former Directions and by prayer to meditate on a Neh. 1. 5. Psal 47. 2. Dan. 9. 4. the great and terrible God who in himself is infinite in Majesty and eternall in glory and the great Creator of heaven and of earth whose Essence and Being is incomprehensible for thou canst not but stand confounded at the consideration of his greatnesse which the blessed Angels are not able to comprehend Wherefore empty thy heart of all sinfull cogitations and lay aside all thy worldly cares that thou maist freely set thy minde upon God to contemplate with all fear due reverence something of his excellencies and greatnesse so far as God hath revealed himself and according to the measure of that heavenly knowledge which he hath given thee let thy Meditations of these things be guided with good understanding and let them be bounded with Christian sobriety lest thou be swallowed up in the depth of this infinite and incomprehensible Ocean Let thy faith regulate thee in thy Meditations for what thou canst not comprehend thou art bound to believe because thou dost deal with the hidden things of God b Joh. 5. 6. who is Truth it self Thus meditate with dreadfull reverence on the high and mighty God for as he is infinite in his Essence so he is also infinite in all his Divine Attributes Wherefore content thy self with what he hath revealed in his Word and by his Works and do not curiously search into those things which are not yet to be known but are sealed up in his own secret counsell untill he shall be pleased hereafter to reveal them c 1 Sam. 6. 19. The Lord smote the men of Bethshemesh with a very great slaughter because they looked into the Ark of the Lord which was not lawfull to any save onely to Aaron and his sons Beware then that he smite not thee if thou presumest to look further into his secret counsells than Christ hath revealed If we duly consider the transcendent majesty and glory of God it will cast great dreadfullnesse into our Meditations for it will dazel the eye of our understanding far more than the brightnesse of the Sun beames can dazel the eyes of our bodies which may strongly move us to a dreadfull fear and reverence of him d Job 37. 22 for as Elihu said to Job with God is terrible majesty Also Job speaketh thus of God to his three friends e Job 13. 11. Shall not his his excellency make you afraid and his dreadfall upon you f Gen. 28. 17. How dreadfull saith Jacob is this place and it was because God was there Thus saith the Lord of hosts by his Prophet g Mal. 1. 14. I am a great King and my Name is dreadfull among the Heathen h Heb. 12. 21. When God gave the Law at Mount Sinai the sight was so terrible that Moses himself said I exceedingly fear and quake i Exod. 34. Moses did earnestly desire to see the face of God to whom he gave this answer that no man could see him and live but yet to satisfie his request and to shew him in part what a terrible and glorious God he was he told Moses that he should see some piece of his glory but he added that it was needfull he should hide himself in the hole of a rock and be covered with Gods own hand for his defence while God in some measure of his Majesty did passe by in his glory And when he was past God took away his hand and suffered him to see his hinder parts onely which was notwithstanding most terrible to behold k Dan. 7. Daniel also did see in a vision the Majesty of this great and terrible God which is recorded in the sacred Scriptures to teach us thereby what a Prince of Majesty is and how dreadfull in his judgements when he is offended Now consider what maketh it so dreadful to Meditate on God it is not onely the consideration of his incomprehensible and Divine Essence or the transcendent glory of his sacred Majesty or his infinite Power whereby all creatures all principalities and powers are under his subjection but also the consideration of the frailty and weaknesse of our nature and the vilenesse of our condition by reason of our many sins wherewith we have offended him and justly incurred his high displeasure and have deserved his wrath and fury to be poured out upon us whereby we stand in continuall fear of his judgements and of the severity of his justice For
will still molest and trouble us and there is no evill in our afflictions and sufferings because the nature of them is changed into Fatherly chastisements which conduce to our good and not to our hurt Also we may draw great consolation from our Adoption if we Meditate upon the right which we have thereby to all the promises of God to all his holy Ordinances to all his blessings to whatsoever is good for us or we stand in need of and also to an heavenly inheritance after this life is ended If we consider the mercies of God to us in Christ they will afford us matter enough of comfortable Meditations for if we search the Scriptures m Zech. 13. 1. we shall find a fountain of mercy that God hath opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for nucleannesse wherein we may wash away all the guilt and stains of our sins if we can apply the streames thereof to our hearts by faith this Fountain is the blood of Christ which the holy Ghost here meaneth n Joh. 4. 10 In Christ we shall finde water of life to refresh our panting souls when we are in any distresse or lye languishing under the sense of our sins o John 6. 48. 58. Christ is also the bread of life whereof if we eat by faith we shall live for ever p Col. 3. 11 Thus Christ is made all in all to us by faith q 1 Cor. 1 13. for he is made unto us wisdome and righteousnesse and sanctification and redemption His wisdome will teach us the way of truth it will guide us in it and it will dispose of all things for our good His Righteousnesse is a garment of salvation to us his Spirit of grace will inrich us with all heavenly endowments to lead an holy and sanctified life and conversation Also r Psal 103 3 4 by his redemption all our iniquities are forgiven all our spirituall diseases are healed our life is redeemed from destruction and we are crowned with loving kindnesse and tender mercies Let us consider also for our further comfort in our Meditations on God Å¿ Eph. 3. 17 that Christ the eternall son of God doth spiritually dwell in our hearts by faith and he doth not come to lodge with us as a guest or to sojourn there for a time and then to be gone from us but he cometh to abide and to dwell with us for ever he hath taken up his habitation there and our faith will cleave so close to him that he will never depart from us neither will he suffer us to depart from him We read that Ittai the Gittite one of Davids worthies would not leave the King when he fled from his son Absalom but he answered the King in this manner t 2 Sam. 15 21 As the Lord liveth and as my lord the King liveth surely in what place my Lord the King shall be whether in death or life even there also will thy servant be Thus close doth our faith cleave unto Christ for it will not suffer us to leave him neither will he leave us but our faith will be still with Christ both in life and in death O happy is our condition if we have such an Inhabitant in our hearts if Christ hath setled his abode there he wil execute his Priestly Office to make intercession to his heavenly Father for us u 1 Pet. 2. 3 and he wil make us a royall priesthood to offer up ourselves and our prayers unto God and to present unto him our spirituall sacrifices and oblations our thanks and praises for blessings and mercies received and a broken and contrite heart for sins committed which sacrifices God will not refuse Christ will also execute his Propheticall Office in our hearts to teach and instruct us the right way to true holinesse and godlinesse of life and conversation and how to attain unto eternall salvation in the life to come So likewise Christ will rule and reign in our hearts as King by his Spirit of grace to order and govern us in all our wayes and actions to over-rule and subdue all the Spirituall enemies of our salvation to protect and keep us from all perills and dangers to provide for us what is needfull for our good and also to comfort us in all our sorrowes and in the anguish of our souls to keep us out of the power of the devill at the hour of death and u 2 Tim. 4. 8 to give us a crown of righteousnesse which he hath laid up for us at the day of his appearing Here is yet more matter of comfort to be drawn from Christ in our Meditations of him when he doth spiritually dwell in our hearts and that by faith we do injoy his sacred society for he doth cloth us with his own Righteousnesse for our justification and he doth endow us with the graces of his Spirit for our sanctification that through him we may be able to overcome the world the flesh and the devill and so to over-power the corruptions of our nature that our sinful lusts and the evill concupiscence of our flesh shal not have dominion over us x Rom 8. 16 and his spirit will bear witnesse with our spirits that we are the children of God Christ will also put a spirituall light into our understanding to discern the things of God which a naturall man cannot do and to know our own condition from whence we are fallen and how to be recovered he will give us grace upon the sight and sense of our sins to be truly humbled for them to repent and turn to the Lord for he delighteth to dwell with those that are of a broken and a contrite heart according as he speaketh by his Prophet y Isaiah 57 15 Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity whose Name is holy I dwell in the high and lofty place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones Christ will also change the perversenenesse of the will to put it into a frame of conformity to the will of God and he will take off the immoderate affections of our hearts from all earthly things and will raise them up to heavenly contemplations to study holinesse of life to love that which Christ loveth to delight in his Commandments and in his Ordinances and to practise with a willing minde all holy duties which he requireth both to God and to our neighbour in Publick and in private at home in our families and to others upon all occasions Then we shall find heavenly joy and spirituall consolation when we set our hearts to Meditate thus on God in Christ Wherefore the consideration of these great benefits and comforts which we have by Christ should be strong and prevalent motives to us to prepare our hearts to receive him to inlarge our
affections with holy desires to imbrace him z Psal 24. 7 and to set open the gates and doores of our souls that this King of glory may come in and dwell with us for ever If we do sincerely from the heart desire such a glorious King and such a bountifull Inhabitant to make his perpetuall abode with us then we must presse hard upon him and importune him earnestly with our frequent and fervent Prayers to abide and dwell with us a Gen. 19 2 3. The two Angels that came to Sodome refused to tarry all night with Lot upon his first intreaty but when he pressed greatly upon them they turned in unto him and entered into his house and he made them a feast and they did eat and then they preserved him from the burning But behold b Revel 3. 20 Christ standeth at the door of our hearts and knocks if we hear his voice and open the door he will come in to us and will sup with us we shall sup with him O the happinesse of that soul that doth hear the voice of Christ when he calls and doth open his heart unto him when he knocks either by the Ministery of his Word by the motions of his Spirit by afflictions troubles crosses or by any other meanes whatsoever But if we will intertain Christ we must have no corrivall with him for God and Mammon Christ and Belial cannot dwell together Thus saith Christ c Luk. 26 13 Ye cannot serve God and Mammon for no man can serve two masters Also thus saith Paul d 2 Cor. 6. 14 15 What communion hath light with darknesse and what concord hath Christ with Belial e Mat. 10 37. If we love father or mother son or daughtor more then Christ we are not worthy of him If the affections of our hearts are carried after the riches preferments and pleasures of this world or after any darling sin then Christ will not dwell there and we lose the comfortable and blessed Presence of the eternall Son of God and the fulnesse of all his excellencies and rich endowments for that which is nothing else but vanity and vexation of spirit Wherefore now we may Meditate comfortably on God through Jesus Christ our Saviour for the terriblenesse of his Majesty is clouded with the vail of his goodnesse the severity of his justice is sweetened with his mercy and tender compassion Christ hath taken our souls out of the hand of Gods justice and hath put them into the hand of his mercy where they shall be kept for true blessednesse to all eternity If his greatnesse doth affright us his goodnesse will allure us if his justice doth drive us from him his mercy and love will draw us to him for by Christ we have a neer relation to God himself either as his servants by grace or as his children by adoption in both which respects our Meditations of him will be exceedingly delightfull to us So likewise if we fix our thoughts upon Christ though his excellencies and dignities are far above the reach of our humane capacity yet by faith we do apprehend him to be our Redeemer and our Advocate now at the right hand of God his Father in the highest heavens and therefore our Meditations of him cannot but ravish our souls with heavenly joy and spirituall consolation in the assurance of our Redemption and of our Atonement with God and also in the hope of our eternall salvation and to be heirs of the kingdome of heaven which he hath purchased for us with his own blood How to Meditate on the Holy Ghost THe Holy Geost is the same spirituall Essence and Being with the Father and with the Son coequall and coeternall with them both but as the Deity is distinguished into three Persons the holy Ghost proceedeth from the Father and from the Son and he is the third Person in the sacred Trinity Christ doth prove that the holy Ghost proceedeth from the Father in these words a Iohn 15 26 But when the comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father he shall testifie of me That he proceedeth from the Son is manifest by this of Paul b Gal. 4. 6 And because ye are sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father John also the beloved Disciple of Christ maketh it plain that the holy Ghost is the third Person in the holy Trinity by these words c 2 Joh 5. 7 There are three that bear record in heaven The Father the Word and the holy Ghost and these three aâ—e One. The Prophet calls him d Isa 11. 2 The spirit of Wisdome and understanding the spirit of counsel and strength the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD e Heb. 9. 14 He is the eternall spirit of God from whom nothing can be hidden according to this of David f Psal 139 7 Whither shall I go from thy Sptrit or whither shall I flee from thy presence Christ calleth him the Spirit of truth g Ioh 14. 16 7. And I will pray the Father and he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever even the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive John calls him h Rev. 11. 11 the Spirit of life because by the power of his grace de doth quicken our hearts and revive us when we are dead in our trespasses and sins Paul doth also call him i Rom. 8. 15 16 the Spirit of adoption to witnesse to our spirits that we are the children of God If we fix our Meditations on the holy Ghost as he is in his Divine Essence and Being or as he is one of the three Persons in the sacred Trinity we shall be confounded in these deep mysteries of the Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity but if we Meditate upon him according to his proper Office as he is a Comforter or according to his severall operations in our hearts we shall then find much comfortable matter for our hearts to Meditate upon which will minister heavenly and spirituall consolation to our poor souls First therefore we must consider that the proper Office of the holy Ghost is to be a comforter to us in all our afflictions and sufferings for we are dayly exposed to many tribulations and calamities either for the profession of the Name of Christ for the triall of our graces or for our correction when we lye in sin without repentance which would easily swallow us up if we had not some true comforter to support and comfort us in them k 1 Pet. 2. 1â— 1 There is also an host of sinfull lusts in us that war against our souls which do dayly assault us with strong temptations and we are round beset with perills dangers and spirituall enemies which continually threaten our downfall and ruine and do seek to hinder our salvation But above all we are sometimes wounded in our
consciences with the guilt of sin which is a burden heavier than we can bear Thus saith the wise man l Prov. 18. 14 A wounded spirit who can bear We can have no true comfort in these or the like afflictions but what cometh from the holy Ghost and no hope of succour or relief in our distresses without him if our spirits are wounded he onely can apply the true Balm of Gilead to cure them This Balm is the blood of Christ which is an universall Remedy to cure all the spiritual diseases of our souls and none but the holy Ghost can apply it to our hearts by Faith Also if the holy Ghost doth not refresh us with the comforts of grace and with the assurance of the love and favour of God we shall be ready to sink under the great weight of our calamities and miseries But we may draw comfort enough from the holy Ghost in what sad condition soever we be for he will sweeten the bitternesse of all our sufferings with true peace of conscience and tranquility of minde in the assurance of the pardon of our sins he will sanctifie all our afflictions and sorrowes with saving grace that they shall be for our good and will witnesse to our spirits that we are in grace and favour with God through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour Also he will give us strength and courage to suffer any thing for Christ and for righteousnesse sake and likewise heavenly wisedome rightly to use every part of the whole armour of God to defend our selves from all our spirituall enemies and to beat back or quench all the fiery darts of the divell that his temptations and evill suggestions may not wound our souls to the death Lastly he will perfect all with the gift of perseverance so that we shall be able to stand fast in the day of tryall and we shall have assured hope of conquest and victory in all our conflicts and combates here and to be crowned with immortall glory hereafter Now let this be the desire of our souls and the Meditation of our hearts to draw comfort from the holy Ghost when we are afflicted troubled or any way perplexed with grief of heart sorrow of spirit or anguish of soul which we may do if we know that no outward comforts can support us without God and therefore we do not rest and rely upon them but do seek to the true comforter by earnest and faithfull Prayer in all our necessities which is a sure means to draw comfort from him when we want it Also if we be truly sensible that we do want his gracious assistance to carry us on cheerfully through all the difficulties and dangers that we shal meet with in this world upon our humble supplications to him he will return us a comfortable answer as shall be best for us So likewise if the guilt of our sins doth stick close unto us or if we possesse our former iniquities by a sinfull remembrance of them so that we are truly humbled in the sight and sense of them and that our hearts are touched with a godly sorrow for them the holy Ghost will then come with spirituall consolation to comfort our poor souls with an holy assurance that all our sins are washt away in the blood of Christ by faith Lastly we may draw comfort from this spiritual fountain by our pious and devout Meditations of him for then he will give us a sweet taste of his heavenly graces to comfort us in all conditions of life and he will give us spirituall joy in the midst of all our afflictions also he will unite us unto Christ by Faith and will seal our Redemption to us by his blood whereby we shall enjoy eternal felicity for ever O what sweet Meditations may we draw from this heavenly Comforter in all the sadnesse of our hearts Thus we may Meditate on the holy Ghost as he is the true comforter of our souls we come now to consider of his Divine Operations from whence we may also draw much profitable and comfortable matter for our holy Meditations And for our better understanding herein this eternal spirit of life is set forth in the holy Scriptures by severall resemblances to shew in what manner and how variously he worketh in our hearts that our Meditations may be ordered accordingly First the holy Ghost is resembled to a dove for when Christ was baptized m Mat. 3. 16 he descended in the similitude of a dove and rested upon him which was to shew his spirituall anointing to his Office of Mediatorship and to set forth the true nature of Christ how humble and and meek he was how innocent and harmlesse how loving and how ready and willing he was to do good to all These dove-like qualities were poured upon Christ above measure that we his members might receive the same in some measure from him by the holy Ghost for he will put all the faculties of our souls all the affections of our hearts and all the parts of our bodies into a new frame he will change the corruptions of our nature into an holy temper of proud and haughty minded he will make us lowly and meek of hatefull and malicious he will make us loving and courteous to all he will so season us with sanctifying grace throughout that our evill disposition shall be changed into a gracious condition This spirit of truth will bring us an Olive leafe n Gen. 8. 11 like Noahs dove to let us know that though we be in the midst of troubles dangers or distresses yet we shall be preserved and delivered and though we be troubled disquieted or perplexed in our mindes yet at the last we shall have peace tranquillity spirituall joy and comfort Now by this resemblance of the holy Ghost we may examine our selves what purity and holinesse he hath wrought in us what meeknesse of spirit what patience under the crosse what love to God and to our neighbour and how far we are sanctified in all the affections of our hearts in all the parts of our bodies also how much the corruptions of our nature are weakned in us and how far we are changed from that which is sinful to newness of life if we can finde these Operations of the holy Ghost in us they wil afford us profitable matter for our hearts to meditate upon to the glory of God and for the comfort of our own soules Secondly some of the operations of the holy Ghost are set forth unto us by the resemblance of that o Exod. 13 21 pillar of a cloud which went before the children of Israel by day when they marched out of Egypt to guide them the right way that God would have them go toward the Land of Canaan This pillar did also protect and defend them from their enemies it kept the scorching heat of the Sun from them and it cooled and moistned the earth with sweet and comfortable dewes which was a great refreshing
end shall be comfortable to thee according to this of David x Ps 37. 35 37 38. Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace But though the wicked are in great power spreading themselves like a green bay tree yet they shall be destroyed together and their end shall be cut off If we have these benefits and comforts and much more by the operations of the holy Ghost we must then study how to be thankfull to him for his goodnesse and how to expresse it by our conformity to his will and by our ready obedience to his holy motions Also we must have recourse unto him by fervent prayer for what we want as it may stand with his good pleasure to grant But we must take heed with what heart and with what affections we make our addresses unto him for if there be any secret or darling sin lurking in us he will easily find it out he can search into the most secret corners of our hearts and nothing can be hidden from his all seeing eye If our hearts are more set upon carnall pleasures or worldly profits than to meditate on his gracious operations and how to enjoy him he will soon discover our hypocrisie and it will stop the current of his graces to our hearts but if he findeth truth and sincerity in our inward parts he will then plentifully bestow his heavenly gifts and graces upon us for he will give us more meeknesse of spirit more patience in our troubles more comfort in our sorrowes and more grace to cleanse and purge away the leprosie and filth of our sins Also he will put our hard and stony hearts into a gracious condition fit to receive the print of his own image to seal unto us the assurance of our salvation No duty then in the service of God can be hard to us if we are guided by this eternall Spirit and nothing that we suffer can be bitter to our souls if this heavenly comforter hath made his abode in our hearts In the last place we must consider that no saving and sanctifying grace can be wrought in us but by the holy Ghost and we can discern nothing of the deep things of God for our comfort if we have not a spirituall light from him he worketh faith in us to unite us to Christ and to make application to our selves of the merit of his sufferings for our redemption he works repentance to assure us of the pardon of our sins and to manifest the power of Christs death and resurrection in us by the mortifying and killing of the power of our sins and by the quickening of us up unto newnesse of life The holy Ghost worketh our filiall love to God our hope in his promises our Christian patience in bearing the crosse with a meek and a contented minde our Christian fortitude and courage in all our spirituall combates and tryalls and our constancy to hold out untill we have obtained victory He gives us the assurance of our justification the sanctification of our lives ability to pray unto God and to meditate on him as we ought and he worketh the renovation of the whole man in us These heavenly graces are as so many precious jewells to adorn our souls that we may be all glorious within y Psal 45. 13 like Solomons Queen to be espoused unto Christ for if we be decked with these ornaments of grace and cloathed with the righteousnesse of Christ to cover the shame and the deformity of our sins then God will accept of our persons and of our offerings and will hereafter wed us to his own Son Wherefore when we come into the presence of God to partake of his Divine Ordinances or to perform any holy service unto him we must humbly crave the assistance of the holy Ghost to give us understanding hearts and sanctified affections and to put an holy zeal into our prayers and Meditations that they may mount up above all earthly things and ascend up to the throne of grace where they shall be heard and graciously accepted z Acts 7. 30 32 33. When Moses perceived that God was in a flame of fire in a bush he trembled and durst not behold untill he had put off his shoes from his feet because the place where he stood was holy ground So likewise a Josh 5. 13 14. though Joshua was so valiant as to withstand a man of war that stood over against him with his sword drawn in his hand yet when he understood that he was the captain of the host of the Lord even God himself he fell on his face to the earth and did worship and losed his shoe from off his feet because the place whereon he stood was holy Thus we ought to appear before God with fear and trembling and to come with all due reverence into his Presence when we perform any holy duties unto him also to put off all our filthinesse and to put on the righteousnesse of Christ by faith because we come into an holy place where God himself is present who will not suffer any unclean thing to come near unto him If we can thus Meditate on the holy Ghost we shall find much sweetnesse and comfort in our Meditations Now let thy heart Meditate freely on this blessed Comforter with an holy devotion and pure affections when thou art in any sorrowfull or afflicted condition or when any anguish of spirit doth seize upon thee for true consolation is no where to be found but onely in him Let thy heart also ruminate upon those severall resemblances of the holy Ghost which will help thine understanding to discern how he worketh in thy heart to purge thee from thy corruptions to instruct thee in the wayes of godlinesse to confirm thee in the Truth to change thy sinfull disposition into a sanctified condition to seal the assurance of thy Redemption to thy soul to blow away all vain and sinfull cogitations out of thy minde and to give thee all spirituall abilities meet for a Christian warfare in this life that thou maist have a Crown of righteousnesse in the life to come How to Meditate upon the Works of God IF we consider and look well upon the works of God in the Creation of the Heavens and of the Earth how he hath beautified and adorned the Heavens with innumerable glorious bodies and replenished the Earth with all varietie of Plants and fruitfull trees and with all kindes of living Creatures both great and small also how he hath filled the bowels of the Earth with rich and precious mineralls and the seas with fishes of all kindes we cannot then but admire the Omnipotent Power the infinite Wisedome the transcendent glory and the wonderfull Goodnesse of God the great Creatour who hath made them all for our use and service and that he might be glorified by them This consideration will help our understandings in the knowledge of God and to raise up our hearts
shall see d Gen. 47 9 that our dayes are few and evill as Jacob said unto Pharaoh and holy David will tell us e Psa 144. 4. that man is like to vanity his dayes are as a shadow that passeth away also f Psal 39. 5. that our dayes are as an hand-breadth and our age is as nothing before God And in another Psalm he saith thus g Psal 103. 15 16. As for man his dayes are as grasse as a flower of the field so he flowrisheth for the winde passeth over it and it is gone and the place thereof shall know it no more Thus saith holy Job h Job 7. 6. 7 My dayes are swifter than a weavers shuttle and are spent without hope O remember that my life is winde If our life be winde how soon then is it gone how little then is the time of grace and yet upon this little moment dependeth our eternall happiness for when this life is ended there is no more time for grace or to seek the favour of God Wherefore it is extream folly to lose any part of this precious time without some gain of grace or to spend it to any other end than to the glory of God then much more to waste it in sinfull pleasures to the great dishonour of his Name and to the destruction and losse of our own souls Though we be in the State of Grace yet through the corruption of our nature and the frailty of our unregenerate part we are subject to many slips and failings and sometimes we do so dangerously fall that God will hide his face from us and eclipse the bright beames of his gracious countenance for a time so that we shall have no sense nor apprehension of his Grace and favour to us and the fruits of his Spirit will seem to us to be withered and dryed up But God hath his speciall times of grace when he will be found of us and when he will graciously accept us and will manifest again the fruits of his holy Spirit and his sanctifying graces shall again shine forth in us when God hath wrought his own work in our hearts and hath humbled us for our sins with his rod he will then call to us saying i Psal 27. 8. Seek ye my face and our hearts must presently answer with David Thy face Lord will we seek for to answer presently to Gods call is the time of gracious acceptation thus saith David I acknowledged my sin unto thee and mine iniquity have I not hid I said k Ps 32. 5 6. I will confesse my transgressions unto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found Also when we seek with all faithfull diligence unto the Lord in our tribulations and sue unto him with all our hearts we shall find him gracious and propitious to us as the Lord himself saith by his Prophet l Jer. 29. 12 13 14. Then shall ye call upon me and ye shall go and pray unto me and I will hearken unto you And ye shall seek me and finde me when ye shall search for me with all your heart and I will be found of you saith the Lord. But the holy Ghost sets down a more particular time of grace m Heb. 3. 7 13. To day if ye will hear his voice harden not â—our hearts and he giveth this reason lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulnesse of sin for God doth call to us every day by some meanes or other to seek his face and his favour Wherefore we must not put off the time of grace untill the morrow for as James saith n Jam. 4. 14 Wâ— know not what shall be on thâ— morrow For what is our life It is even a vapâ—r that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away It is now plain and evident that the principall time of grace is when God is pleased to offer it and when he doth give us the means to attain unto it for God keeps the gift of grace in his own power to give it to whom and when he pleaseth and except God doth offer it we cannot receive it The very first desires of seeking grace is Gods free offer of it to us for he doth incline the will and works those holy desires in our hearts by the operation of his own Spirit Sometimes the holy Ghost doth work them in us upon the true sight and sense of our sins and thereby moves us to make our peace with God by true repentance according to this of the Prophet o Isa 55. 6 7 Seek ye the Lord while he may be found call ye upon him while he is near Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon The holy Ghost doth also work thus in our hearts upon the sense of our wants and necessities and upon the sense of our afflictions and tribulations to humble our souls before God that our hearts may be prepared to seek his love and favour by fervent prayer Thus saith the Prophet p Isa 26. 16. Lord in trouble have they visited thee they powred out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them If we do duly consider these thiogs and ponder well upon them in our hearts it will teach us highly to prize that time which God doth lend us here in this life for the gain of Grace that hereafter we may attain to eternall happinesse in the kingdom of heaven also not to refuse any offer of Grace that God shall make unto us First because oâ—r time is short and momentany and we know not how long we shall enjoy it Secondly because our little time is transitory and passeth swiftly away and we cannot recall one moment that is gone Thirdly because it is the time which God hath appointed for Grace and the time of his gracious acceptation Fourthly because the eternall salvation both of our souls and bodies dependeth upon this short time of our life Lastly if we lose any opportunity of grace that God doth give us we shew great unthankfulnesse to God and we know not whether he will give us another opportunity for it Wherefore we should not spend our time idly or unprofitably but we must with all care and diligence improve it to those ends for which God hath given it to make our calling and election sure by faith in Christ to make our peace with God whom we have offended and to regain his love and favour when we have lost the apprehension of it by our sins Many heavenly comforts we shall finde if we listen to Gods call and receive Grace when he doth offer it First God will be found of us if we seek him with pure affections and in the uprightnesse of our hearts Secondly he
Jewes and therefore he will not refuse us Lastly consider that Pilate did highly honour our Lord and Saviour Christ when he wrote this Title to be set over his head upon the Crosse r Jon 2â— 10. Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jewes which was a title of great honour and not of shame and disgrace unto him Their manner was to set up a superscription to shew the crimes why a malefactor was put to death but Pilate could find no crime and no fault in Christ and therefore he wrote this superscription to clear his innocencie and to brand the Jewes with perpetual ignominie and shame to all generations for their malice and cruelty against him For though Pilate did not believe that Christ was a King and though he was perswaded by the chief Priests and by the people to condemn him and to put him to death yet God would not suffer him to be perswaded by them to alter the Title but to have it written in Hebrew Greek and Latine that all Nations and Languages might know the honour of his Person and the horrible wickedness of the bloudy Jewes in killing their King whom God had appointed and sent to be their Saviour and Redeemer also to make their name odious to all people as a just judgement of God upon them because they refused the sweet tender of his grace and mercy and killed his dear and onely Son Christ was brought to the lowest degree of his humiliation and now God doth begin to glorifie him and to publish his honour and his great Name by the highest authority to all nations and people and to the perpetual infamy and reproach of all his enemies to all posterity This honour was his due and God would not suffer him to loose it and thus God will do for us also If we are made the scorn of men if we suffer persecution fire sword or famine in a good cause and if we die upon this crosse yet God will manifest the integrity of our hearts and will give us that honour which is due to us as his servants and his children for if we drink of Christs bitter cup of sorrows we shall also drink of his pleasant cup of joy and consolation Wherefore if thou wilt have the meditations of thy heart upon the passion of thy dear and gracious Redeemer to be comfortable and profitable to thy soul thou must not look upon him onely in that despicable condition as he is now upon the crosse to the outward eye but with the eye of faith thou must look upon him as he is the eternal Son of God God and man and as he is dignified with all his excellencies and titles of honour for he was a Prophet and such a Prophet as did endow all the former Prophets with the spirit of prophesie whose Prophesies did chiefly concern him Also he was a Priest after the highest order whose Priesthood was eternal according to this of the Psalmist Å¿ Psal 110. 4. The Lord sware and will not repent Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedeck So likewise he was a spiritual King to rule his Church and in the hearts of all his elect and he did subdue all his enemies under him and he will also subdue all the enemies of his spiritual Kingdom in us If thou canst thus see the excellencies of Christ through his mean and contemptible condition and if thou canst believe that he is thy Redeemer and all-sufficient to be thy Saviour it will inflame the affections of thy heart with intire love to him because he hath humbled himself so low for thy sake it will make thee bend thine ear to his instructions for he will teach thee heavenly wisdom and how to walk in the paths of godlinesse he will also present thy prayers and all thy holy services to God his Father and then they shall be accepted and this will also work a reverential fear in thee to yeild all obedience to his commands If thou doest thus look upon Christ though he be upon the crosse it will give thee abundant comfort in thy sufferings exceeding much joy in the benefits which thou shalt have by his passion and it will stirre thee up to a thankful acknowledgement of his goodness and mercie to thee Now look upon thine own unworthiness and thou wilt admire the moâ—â— that Christ should so much humble himself to exalt thee that he should suffer so much smart pain and torment to free thee from everlasting torments and burnings in hell and that he should loose the comfort of his Deitie and the sense of his Fathers love to reconcile thee unto God and to make an attonement for thy sins Who were the Agents in the Passion of CHRIST VVE come now to consider what Agents there were in this doleful tragedie of our Saviour Christ how every one acted for his own ends how God did make the designes of the devil and of all his wicked instruments to work for his own glorie and how he did afterwards bring their wickedness upon their own heads The whole Passion of Christ and every circumstance of it was decreed from eternitie and the three Persons in the sacred Trinity were the first and principal Agents in this great work of Christs Passion for they decreed that Jesus Christ the second Person in the holy Trinitie should be sacrificed and made a propitiation for the sins of the world which was done at Gods appointed time For God the Father sent him into the world for this end and purpose and God the Son gave himself to be a ransome for us and assumed our nature that he might fulfil all righteousness and suffer the whole penalty of the Law for us also God the holie Ghost did give him all fulness of grace and power to bear the bitterness of his passion and thereby to conquer sin death hell and the devil and to give us power also over all the enemies of our salvation Though God was the principal Agent in the crucifying of Christ yet herein he had no evil intent or purpose and therefore he was without sin for he had a gracious and merciful end in it that his justice might be satisfied for the sin of man and that the redemption and salvation of all his elect might be wrought by the precious bloud and all sufficient sacrifice of his dear Son But the devil was the chief actor in the wickedness and crueltie of this sad tragedie whose end and design was to hinder our salvation by destroying our Saviour and this he did seek to bring to passe by wicked means and of malice to mankind and therefore as soon as he had his permission from God he raised up his wicked instruments for his hellish design First a John 13. 27. he entred into Judas and took possession there b Mat. 26. 25 16. who out of covetousness sold his Lord and Master to the chief Priests and Elders for thirtie pieces of silver
life which do imbitter all our comforts here but when we shall injoy this heavenly Paradise r Rev. 14. 13. the Spirit saith that we shall rest from our labours and we shall feel no more sorrow our bodies shall sleep in the dust untill the generall resurrection but our souls shall rest in joy and happinesse for evermore Though we live a restlesse and uncomfortable life in this world it will be but for a short time but in the world to come we shall have fulnesse of joy and felicity with Christ and with his holy Angels and blessed Saintâ— in heaven which never shall have an end Consider also that Christ did presently grant his request and did suddenly perform his promise for God doth sometimes answer the desires of our hearts before we speak and he will give what we need before we ask When Daniel prayed for the restauration of Jerusalem God answered him before he had made an end of his prayers Å¿ Dan. 9. 21 and caused his Angel Gabriel to flye swiftly to touch him and to inform him of the time when Jerusasalem should be restored But sometimes it is long before we have a return of our prayers because God will try our patience and constancy in waiting his good pleasure and by his delayes to make us more fervent in our supplications for he loves an holy importunity t 1 Sam. 1. 12. Hannah continued long before the Lord in praying for a childe before she obtained her request Also God doth sometimes long delay the performance of his promise to try our faith and confidence in him as he did to Abraham for diverse years before he gave him a child by Sarah his wife and also before he delivered his people out of Egypt Wherefore faint not in thy prayers for what thou desirest neither be weak in faith if thou hast a promise from God but rest upon it with an assured hope for he will choose the fittest time to answer thâ— Prayers and to perform his promise which may most advance his own glory and be best for thy good Of the Virgin Mary NOw did the sorrowes of this blessed Virgin begin when she saw her dearly beloved Son in this lamentable condition upon the crosse and heard the blasphemies and reproaches both of the Jews and Gentiles she saw how the barbarous people did insult over him and what cruell tormens were inflicted upon every part of his body and that he was now ready in this extremity of misery to give up the Ghost a Luk. 2. 34. 35. Now was old Simeons Prophesie fulfilled now did a sword peirce thorough her soul b Isa 8. 14. he was now set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel and for a sign which shall be spoken against If Christ had not strengthened her faith she had been swallowed up of too much grief and sorrow for her tender heart could not induâ—e to see the barbarous inhumanity and savage cruelty that her dear Son suffered whom she knew to be innocent and just and free from any offence For no doubt Christ had formerly revealed to her c Mar. 10. 33 34. as he did to his Disciples both by his words and by his Spirit what he should suffer at Jerusalem and it was so decreed by God his Father for the redemption of man that their faith and confidence in him might be strengthned also that God sent him into the world for this very end and purpose that he might work the salvation of all his Elect by his death And that the holy Virgin might be the better armed to bear her great afflictions at this time she knew him to be the eternall Son of the living God though he was cloathed with her flesh and therefore he was able to bear whatsoewer should be inflicted upon him and that he should suffer no more than what was decreed in the secret Counsel of God She was also fully perswaded that though they did kill him yet he would rise again the third day according to his own words in conquest and triumph over all his enemies maugre all their power and policy to prevent iâ— The blessed Virgin did ponder these things in her minde she laid them up in her heart and did faithfully believe them which did much sweeten her sorrowes and mitigate the anguish of her soul and hereby she did bear her afflictions with the more contented patience Thus will Christ arm his servants with Christian fortitude and will furnish them with spirituall abilities when they are to encounter with any hard tryall and he will give them heavenly comforts for their encouragement when they suffer any sorrowes or afflictions for his sake for they are all as dear unto him as his Mother was Wherefore if we are in any distresse or put upon any service which is above the strength of nature we must look upon the Almighty power of Christ with the eye of Faith as he is God as well as Man and upon his goodnesse and tender love to all his servants and also upon Gods eternall decree and wise providence that nothing can be imposed upon us but what was preordained foreseen by God himself for his own glory and then Christ our blessed Redeemer will fit us for it and if it be too hard for us to undergo he will direct and assist us with his Spirit in it also if the burden be too heavy for our strength to bear he will either lessen the burden or increase our strength or else he will act the part of the Cyrenian and take it off from us in his good time The best of Gods servants can claim no Priviledge from crosses sorrowes and afflictions in this life for they must passe thorough many tribulations before they come to their eternall rest in heaven God hath many gracious ends in suffering his servants to be tempted to be tryed to be buffeted and afflicted and whatsoever the instruments which he useth do intend against them yet he will frustrate their wicked designes and will effect his own work for his own glory and for their good d â— Cor. 12 â— â— 9. Paul had his temptations and his buffetings by the messenger of Satan to keep him from spirituall pride through the abundance of revelations and to manifest the power of God in his weaknesse and the grace and favour of Christ in sustaining him in his sufferings How strangely was Abrahams faith and Jobs patience tryed How was God glorified thereby And how were they rewarded for their obedience and constancy What afflictions did the Israelites suffer in the wilderness and yet they were but the corrections of a loving Father to a stiffenecked son For thus saith Moses to them e Deut. 8. 5 Thou shalt also consider in thine heart that as a man chasteneth his son so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee Holy David did often feel the smart of Gods rod and he found much good and comfort by it f Psal 119.
should he have learned by his own experience what we suffer when we are under the crosse that he might pity us This may teach us to bear patiently whatsoever God doth lay upon us though the instruments that he useth be our deadly foes because it is his will and pleasure to have it so b 2 Sam. 16. 1â— Thus did David meekly bear the cursing of Shimâ—i and would not suffer Abishai to kill him because it was the Lords will it should be so This Meditation will greatly comfort our fainting spirits when we are under any strong temptation or worldly misery that no enemy be he never so powerfull or his heart never so malicious can imagine more against us in his wicked thoughts or act more with his cruell hands than Divine Providence hath appointed Also no calamity pain or sicknesse can afflict us without his will no perill or danger can come near us without his permission and we shall suffer no more under any crosse than God in his wisdom knoweth to to be profitable for us If we are thus perswaded it will greatly comfort us in all our sufferings and keep us from murmuring and repining when GODS visitation is upon us Wherefore let no fear of danger cast down our hope let no storme of persecution shake the foundation of our faith and let no waves of affliction quench the flame of our love or abate the zeal of our affections to our dear Saviour who spared not his own life for us but poured out his very heart bloud for our justification and salvation If the strength of grace that is in us be not answerable to what we suffer or to the power of our corruptions Christ will either take off some part of our burden or give us more strength to bear it and he will also make us able by degrees to overcome our corruptions that we may live a sanctified life to the Lord and then let death come how or when it will we shall dye in the Lord which will be great gain and advantage to us Now let the Meditations of thy heart be fixed upon the death of thy precious Saviour that from thence thou maist draw vertue and power by faith to mortifie and kill the body of sin that by nature is in thee also to have a firm assurance that he hath reconciled thee to God by the merit of his blood Why then dost thou cherish any sin to crucifie thy Redeemer afresh What is this that thou doest when thou delightest in swearing in uncleannesse in drunkennesse and the like Why dost thou delay thy turning unto God Why dost thou thus indanger the salvation of thy soul Oh think upon the iniquity of thy sin with hatred and detestation which hath put to death thy gracious Redeemer think upon thy sin with godly sorrow and true compunction of heart which did so separate thee from thy God that nothing could restore thee into his grace and favour but the death of his eternall Son Wherefore seek earnestly by faithfull Prayer to thy sweet Saviour that thou mayest finde the vertue and power of his death in the crucifying of all the severall members of this body of sin that by nature is inherent in thee that so thy corruptions may be weakened and thou mayest be dayly renewed by the strength of that sanctifying grace which the Holy Ghost hath wrought in thee Consider now in the last place how rigorously God did deal with his onely Son throughout his whole passion he gave him no intermission in his suffering but as soon as one sorrow was past another presently came in the place when one pain was over a greater was ready to supply the room c Psal 102. 4. his heart was smitten and withered like grasse so that he forgat to eat his bread his torturings came so fast upon him that he had no time to refresh himself with bread or water but above all Gods fury was upon him in all his sufferings which made his passion beyond the strength of nature God never dealt thus with any of his servants but still they had some intermission in their afflictions some comfort in their sorrowes and some heavenly consolation to uphold their spirits or else a joyfull deliverance out of them Joseph had his afflictions and yet at length God advanced him to great honour Jobs afflictions came upon him as fast as one messenger could follow another at last misery seized upon his own body but in the end God gave him double as much as he took from him So likewise David and many more have suffered very great afflictions and torments but none like unto Christ whose passion continued to his heath d 2 Cor. 11. Paul was above measure afflicted persecuted and tormented for the Name of Christ and at last he dyed by the sword but all this while he had Christ to support him with many spiritual consolations Wherefore howsoever God is pleased to deal with us in this life it will be in mercy and in judgement for our good and not in fury or in the rigour of his justice for our confusion and he will bountifully reward us in the life to come if we hold out constant to the end What happened at CHRISTS Death VVHen the soul of our blessed Redeemer was dissolved and separated from his breathlesse body a Mat. 27. 51. The vail of the Temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottome the earth did quake the rocks rent the graves were opened and many bodies of the Saints which slept arose and came out of their graves after his resurrection God did shew these strange signs and wonders at the death of his Son as fore-runners of the fearfull judgements that soon after should come upon that renowned City and upon the whole nation of the Jews and so strike terrour into their hearts for their odious and detestable sin in crucifying the Lord of glory if by any means they could be made sensible of their sins that they might repent and turn to the Lord that so God might turn away his judgements and have mercy on them This hath been Gods usuall course to give warning before he strikes to threaten before the judgement comes and nothing but repentance can stay Gods hand b 1 Kin. 21. 29. Ahabs outward form of humiliation kept off the judgement from himself that God hath denounced against his house by his Prophet The Ninivites repenâ—ed at the Preaching of Jouah and therefore God brought not the evill upon them which he threatned against that great City But the house of Juda would not repent though God sent his Prophets to them early and late and therefore they were carried away captives into Babylon Thus doth God in great mercy give warning before he doth visite a nation or a people in his wrath that they should prevent the judgement by their repentance First God did shew by the renting of the vail of the Temple that the partition wall was
with Christ and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus that he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindnesse toward us through Christ Jesus b Eph. 4. 23 This renovation in the spirit of our minde is wrought in us by the holy Ghost through Christ for he was anointed with the holy Ghost for this end and purpose that by him we might be raised up from the death of sin to a spirituall life of grace according to the signification of his Name for as he is Christ he is Anointed of God and as he is Jesus he is the Saviour of the world to save us from our sins and to work salvation for us whereof we are not capable untill we have a spiritual life wrought in us Thus saith the Spouse of Christ c Cant. 1. 3. Thy Name is as oyntment poâ—red forth A precious Oyntment hath many excellent vertues d Psal 104. 15. for it maketh a chearful countenance it comforteth and strengtheneth all the parts of the body it healeth all diseases and it sendeth forth a sweet savour when it is poured out which refresheth and comforteth all the senses Thus is Christ to every true believers soul he is the Anointed of God as saith the Psalmist of him e Psal 45. 7. Thou lovest righteousnesse and hatest wickednesse therefore God thy God hath anointed thee with the oyl of gladnesse above thy fellowes f Act. 10. 38 for he was anointed with the holy Ghost and with power First by the power of his holy unction Christ doth put a spiritual light into our understanding by his Spirit that we may see how to walk in the paths of godlinesse and truth according to this of old Simeon g Lu. 2. 31 32. that God had prepared him to be a light to lighten the Gentiles and to be the glory of his people Israel h Psal 97. 11 Light is sown for the righteous and the comfort and gladnesse of it for the upright in heart This Prophesie was fulfilled in Christ i Isa 2. 9. The people that walked in darknesse have seen a great light they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death upon them hath the light shined k Eph. 5. 14 Wherefore awake thou that sleepest in fin and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light If we want this heavenly light we must needs wander and go astray from God and we have no means to obtain such a light but by Christ It is sin that hath brought this darknesse and this spiritual death upon our souls and none but Christ can take it away This is the beginning of our spiritual life when we have some light to discern the spirituall things of God for the good of our souls Secondly Christ is the food and nourishment of our souls to preserve this spirituall life in us whose flesh we must spiritually eat and whose blood we must spiritually drink by faith in the hearing of his Word preached and Sacramentally when we come to his holy Table or else we have not this spirituall life in us l John 6. 48 53. I am that bread of life saith Christ which came down from heaven who so eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternall life and I will raise him up at the last day for my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed Wherefore if our souls do hunger and thirst after this heavenly food and do earnestly desire to be refreshed and fully satisfied therewith it is an evident sign that there is a spiritual life in us for Christ doth freely offer himself to every empty soul that can feed upon him by Faith in his Word or in his Sacraments But if our desires and the affections of our hearts are taken up with the love of this world and of earthly vanities it s no marvell if we have no hunger nor thirst after Christ and that we feel so little want and need of him Thirdly the blood of Christ is the true balm to heal and cure all the diseases and wounds that sin hath made in our souls it is like m Lu 10. 34 the good Samaritans wine and oyl for it hath a cleansing and an healing vertue There can be no wound so deep in the soul and no ulcer so festered but this precious Oyntment will cleanse and heal it if it be rightly applyed by faith and true repentance for repentance layeth open the wound by true confession and faith applyeth the remedy to it and then repentance giveth us an holy assurance that we shall be cured This is the way and the means of recovery when our souls are sick of any spirituall disease and also to preserve that spirituall life which is in us Lastly when the heavenly graces that flow from Christ are poured out upon our soules they will greatly refresh and comfort our spirits in all sadnesse of heart and they will so persume all our actions and services which we perform unto God that their sweet savour shall ascend up unto him that he may smell it and graciously accept of us and of our offerings n Gen. 8. 21. When Noah offered burnt offerings to the Lord after the floud the Lord smelled a sweet savour and accepted his sacrifice and blessed him exceedingly Wherefore if our souls are perfumed with grace they will so perfume all our holy oblations which we offer up to God that he will in mercie accept them for his Sonnes sake o I rev 5. 8. But the sacrifices of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord and they stink in his nostrils because they proceed from a corrupt and unclean heart which is not perfumed with grace how much â— Eccl. 10. 1 more when he bringeth them with a wicked mind â—o 21. 27 Sin is like dead flies in the ointment of the Apothecary which causeth it to stink for sin maketh us odious in the sight of God Wherefore take heed with what heart thou comest into the presence of God and that thou bringest no oblation to him with a wicked mind but first purifie thy heart from sinne by faith in the bloud of Christ and see that thy soul be perfumed with sanctifying grace and then come and offer thy gift and God will accept it But if there be any sin in thy bosome unrepented of or any iniquity in thy heart which thou seekest to hide from God then he cannot smell a sweet savour of thy prayers of thy praises and thanksgivings or of any duty which thou performest to him to make it accepted because thy heart is not upright before God Now we must examine our selves what spiritual life we have by Christ and we must know how he is our spiritual life if we will have any comfort thereby First q 1 Joh. 2. 20 If we have this holy unction from Christ which was poured upon him above measure that
iniquity of our sinnes unto Christ our Saviour and of his free grace to account us just by the imputation of his righteousnesse to us through faith So likewise hereby we have the adoption of sonnes and all the priviledges that do belong unto sonnes These are such benefits and such comforts as none can conceive but such as doe injoy them and none can injoy them but by Christ and there is no way to have them by Christ but onely by a true and a lively faith in him Secondly by faith we are invested into the Covenant of grace and all the gracious promises that are contained in it doe belong unto us also by faith we have great comfort and hope in all other the promises of God whether they concern this life or the life to come for we believe the truth of his word and his ready will to perform what he hath promised and though his promises are sometimes impossible to nature and above humane reason yet faith gives us ability to rest upon them because we believe that he is faithful that hath promised and able to perform his word Thus saith Solomon Blessed â— 1 Kings â— 50. be the Lord that hath given rest unto his people Israel according to all that he hath promised there hath not failed one word of all his good promises which he promised by the hand of Moses his Servant The promises of God are limited to the condition of faith and obedience and though they are above our capacity yet we may confide in them for he will perform them in his due time b Rom. 4 18 19 20. God made a promise to Abraham that his seed should be as numerous as the starres in the firmament when he was about an hundred yeares old and yet betâ—g not weak in faith he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but against hope he believed in hope that he might become the father of many Nations and he was fully perswaded that what God had promised he was able also to perform c Heb. 11. 11 Sarah through faith received strength to conceive seed though she were barren and past age and she was delivered of a child because she judged him faithful who had promised If we do thus rest upon the promises God in all conditions of life and in all the chances and changes that can happen to us it will fit and prepare us to receive them contentedly at Gods hands But the special servants of God may be so over-pressed with the extremity of afflictions that they are ready to distrust the truth of Gods Word and to waver in their assiance and confidence in him if he delayeth to perform his promise and to help them This was Asaphs case who thus complained d Psal 74. 8 10. Is his mercy clean gone for ever doth his promise fail for evermore But he doth presently check himself and acknowledge that it was his infirmity thus to distrust the goodnesse of God Thus saith Peter e 2 Pet. 3. 9. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise for he will remember to perform it when his time is come that it will make most for his glory and for our good Wherefore f Heb. 6. 12. we must wait patiently upon God and then we shall inherit the promises g Eph. 1. 13. for by faith we are sealed with that holy Spirit of promise that we may confidently rest upon God and upon the truth of his Word Wherefore if we are well acquainted with the Scriptures we shall find many promises of grace to strengthen our faith when we are under any temptation to comfort our soules when we are in any anguish of spirit or under the pressure of any crosse or calamity And when we have found a promise that will suit with our present condition then to make use of our faith to lay hold upon it to apply it to our selves and to rest firmly upon it though it be above hope for God can and will assuredly perform it to our great consolation If God doth deferre the performance of it longer than we expect yet we must patiently wait upon him for when he hath wrought his own work in us for his own glory and our good he will not then delay to perform it a moment longer Thirdly by faith we shall receive much profit and comfort by Gods holy Ordinances without which our services to God cannot be performed according to his will The preparation of the heart to the profitable â—earing of the sacred Word of God is by faith h Act. 15. 9. because hereby our hearts are purified and cleansed from all sin in the bloud of Christ that no guilt of sin may cleave to our soules and consciences to stop the current of grace to our hearts and to hinder the free working of the Spirit of God upon our affections by the ministry of his word that it cannot take root in us for our edification and instruction to convince us of our errours to reprove us for our sinnes and to comfort us in all sorrows and sadnesse of heart It is faith that makes our hearts good ground fit to receive the seed of Gods Word that it may take deep root in us to fructifie and bring forth much fruit to the glory of God What comfort can we have by the Word of God if we doe not hear it with hearts purified from our corruptions by faith how can it profit us if there be not an holy preparation to receive it that the holy Ghost may imprint it in our hearts to be a word of power in us unto salvation and to be the Savour of life unto eternal life and how can it be fruitful in us to the reformation of our lives if our hearts are not seasoned with faith i Rom. 10. 17. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God and then it is a special meanes which the spirit of God useth to convey spiritual knowledge to the understanding holy desires to the will to study and endeavour to a godly life and also true consolation to the soul So likewise our hearts are prepared by faith to the worthy receiving of the Lords Supper for as we doe refresh our bodies with the Bread and Wine so our soules are refreshed and comforted by our spiritual feeding on the body and blood of Christ by faith Also faith will put an holy zeal into our prayers to make them fervent and effectual to prevail with God to send us a gracious answer in his good time Thus saith our Saviour Christ k Mar. 11. 24. What things soever yee desire when yee pray believe that ye receive them and yee shall have them O what comfort might we find in our prayers when we are in want sorrow or in any necessity if we did pray with zealous affections and did faithfully believe that our petitions are granted before we receive them then we would wait upon God until he is
THE COMFORT OF THE SOUL Laid down by way of Meditation upon some heads of Christian Religion very profitable for every true Christian Composed and writen by Iohn Anthony of London Doctor of Physick Psal 19. ver 14. Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be alwayes acceptable in thy sight O Lord my strength and my Redeemer LONDON Printed for G. Dawson and are to be sold by John Mountague at the Sign of the White-Dragon in Duck-Lane 1654. I have perused these Divine Meditations Intituled the Comfort of the Soul and do find them to be so Orthodox and solide pious and profitable that I do approve them well worthy to be Printed and Published JOHN DOVVNAME To the Right Honourable Dame Elizabeth Dygby Baronesse of Geshal in the Kingdom of Ireland Grace Mercy and Peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ HAving nothing of mine own that is worthy your Acceptance to express my Cordiall respects and thankfulnesse for those many favours which I have received from you I have taken some spirituall Receipts out of Gods sacred Dispensatory which I am bold to present or Dedicate to your Honour because they are speciall Cordialls for the spirits and precious Antidotes against the evill of sad times Wherein also you will finde some Balm of Gilead for the cure of all spirituall diseases if it be applyed close to the part that is ill affected with the hand of Faith If these things do relish well with your spirituall Palate then I am confident you will take sometime to ruminate hereupon for I know it hath been your constant course to Meditate something dayly of Divine and heavenly things which did strongly induce me to present these unripe fruits of my labours to you which I gathered in mine old age for mine own use according to my first Intention Though I have thus laboured out of my Calling as I am a Physician yet I am not out of my profession as I am a Christian Now seing this Work is come to Publick view I do humbly desire your favourable construction of the frailties that are in it and that you will be pleased to vindicate it from carping spirits for I did not write it to please their curiosity but to refresh and comfort those that do any way stand in need of spirituall consolation If any thing herein can give you any reasonable satisfaction let God have the honour and glory of his own Work and I shall greatly rejoice therein and shall still remain your much obliged Servant JOHN ANTHONY To the READER COurteous Reader if thou dost live under the Crosse and art sensible of these sad times or if Gods visitation be upon thee which makes thee to sigh and groan under the burden and pressure of thy sorrowes so that thy soul desireth comfort and thy spirits want spirituall refreshing and heavenly consolation then I have written this Treatise for thee which I present to thy view wherein thou shalt finde the true way how to demean thy self under Gods visitation how to bear thy crosse with a contented patience how to make the burden of thy sorrowes more easie or how to be delivered out of them if God seeth it to be most for his glory and best for thy good also how to refresh thy spirits and comfort thy soul in what kinde soever it is afflicted Here also thou shalt finde that many of Gods dear servants have suffered as great afflictions as thou canst and yet God did send them comfort and deliverance but specially what Christ thy Saviour hath suffered for thee and what benefit and comfort thou maist have by it if thou canst draw it to thy self and make a particular application of it to thine own sorrowful condition without which it will yeeld thee but small consolation in thy miseries If thou dost meet with any thing here that will fit thy present condition either for edification or for comfort thou must ruminate well upon it to suck out the spirituall juiâ—e to imprint it in thy minde and to bring it close home to thy heart that it may comfort thy soul and cure thy wounded Spirit David found great comfort when he did Meditate on the Word of God My soul saith he shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatnesse and my mouth shall praise thee with joyfull Psal 63. 5 6 lips when I remember thee upon my bed and meditate on thee in the night watches And it must needs be so for this is a duty which God requireth and he takes speciall notice of those that do practice it to pour down his blessings upon them as he did upon Isaack who went out dayly into the field to Meditate Gen. 24. 63 64. upon the wonderfull Works of God and then at that very time God sent him a vertuous Wife If the Spirit of God goeth along with thee in thy holy Meditations they cannot but be comfortable to thy soul thou wilt then conceive aright of the secret and hidden things of God and thou wilt see the infinite wisdom ond power of God in all the Creatures his goodnesse and bounty to thee in them and a glympse of the Majesty and glory of the great Creator God Almighty His holy Spirit will also open thy heart to let in whatsoever spirituall good thou reapest by thy pious Meditations For if thou lookest upon the creature and doest not Meditate something of God in it thou dost look upon it in vain and if thou readest or hearest his Word Preached and dost not settle it upon thy affections by ruminating upon it thou canst not edifie thy heart nor comfort thy soul thereby So likewise if thou doest read any thing in this Treatise that is comfortable to poor dejected Spirits it will not comfort thee if it be not well digested in thy heart and applyed to thine own soul If thou art not acquainted with this holy Duty I have given thee some directions how to perform it and if thou doest first practise it upon thy self to meditate upon thine own condition what thou art by nature and what by grace and considerest seriously in thy thoughts what way thou walkest what steps thou treadest and to what end thy wayes do tend thou wilt not onely come to the knowledge of thy self but thou wilt also learn how to Meditate profitably and comfortably upon God thy Creator upon Jesus Christ thy Redeemer and upon the Holy Ghost thy Sanctifier and Comforter I conclude with this saying of an ancient Father Nothing is found more sweet in this life nothing is conceived more comfortable nothing doth so separate the affections from the love of this world nothing doth so fortifie the minde against temptations nothing doth so stir up man and further him to every good work and duty as the grace and benefit of Divine Meditation and heavenly contemplation Thine in the Lord Christ JOHN ANTHONY A Table of these severall Heads contained in this Book MEditation is a Duty
which God requireth FOL 1 Rules of direction for our holy Meditations 4 Holy Meditation is the Prerogative onely of a true Christian 9 How dreadfull it is to Meditate on God 12 How to Meditate comfortably on God 20 How to Meditate on the Holy Ghost 30 How to Meditate on the Works of God 48 Concerning the Creation of Man 60 To what end and purpose Man was Created 64 Concerning the Fall of Man 69 Concerning the Redemption of Man 73 The Time of Grace 80 The danger of delayes in seeking Grace 92 Of Christ our Redeemer 97 Of Christs Propheticall Office 106 Of Christs Priestly Office 112 Of Christs Kingly Office 116 Of the Passion of Christ 121 Of Christs Agony in the Garden 128 Concerning the fidelity of Peter and the creachery of Judas 141 What Christ suffered under Caiaphas 157 Peters deniall of Christ 165 Christs sufferings under Pilate 179 Christs sufferings under the Crosse 201 Who were the Agents in the Passion of Christ 211 Of the Penitent Thief 214 Of the Virgin Mary 216 The darkning of the Sun 235 Of the death of our Saviour Christ 248 What happened at Christs death 255 Of the buriall of Christ 261 A brief summe of the Humiliation of Christ 266 Of the Resurrection of Christ 270 Of Christs Ascension up into heaven 275 A brief summe of the Exaltation of Christ 279 Our Aduantage and gain by Christ in this life 282 Our Advantage and gain by Christ in death 290 Our Advantage and gain by Christ after death 296 How Christ is our spirituall life 303 How to injoy true happinesse 314 Concerning our Justification 318 The Benefits and Comforts of true Faith 322 How to increase Faith 329 How to esteem of Faith 333 The sense of Faith may be lost 341 The Stability of true Faith 346 The Conclusion of this Treatise 354 THE COMFORT OF THE SOVL. Meditation is a Duty which God requireth WE read in the sacred Scriptures that God commanded his people a Deut. 6. 8 9. to binde the Words of his Law for a sign upon their hands and to be as frontlets between their eyes to write them upon the posts of their houses and on their gates to teach them diligently unto their children to talk of them in their houses and to think upon them when they walk by the way when they lye down and when they rise up all which was to this end and purpose b Deut. 11 18. that they might lay up his Words in their hearts and in their soules to meditate upon them for their instruction for their spirituall comfort and for their direction in a vertuous life and holy Conversation This is the counsell of the wiseman c Prov. 7. 3 To binde the Commandments of God upon our fingers and to write them upon the table of our hearts that we may be familiarly acquainted with them and to meditate on them upon all occasions Paul gave Timothy diverse holy precepts concerning his life and doctrine d 1 Tim. 4. 15 and then he gave him expresse charge to meditate upon them and to give himself wholy to them that they might be well fastned in his heart to observe them Also when Moses was dead God made Joshua the chief commander of his people and appointed him to bring them into the land of Canaan and to give them the possession of it which was a work so great so difficult and so dangerous by reason of the great strength of the inhabitants of that Land as might make Joshua to shrink from it and afraid to undertake it but God did encourage him by many gracious promises of his assistance to make him able to effect it and therefore he commanded him three severall times to be strong and of a good courage not to be afraid but to rest upon his Word for strength and ability to do that work whereunto God had called him and would assuredly perform his Word if he did observe to do according to all the Law which Moses commanded him and not turn from it to the right hand or to the left that he might prosper whithersoever he went Wherefore God saith thus unto him e Josh 1. 8. This book of the Law shall not depart out of thy mouth but thou shalt meditate therein day and night that thou maist observe to do according to all that is written therein for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous and then thou shalt have good successe Have not I commanded thee This is an holy duty which ought to be fixed upon holy things and performed to an holy end for it is very usefull and profitable very sweet and comfortable to every true Believers soul if it be rightly performed The Saints and servants of God have been very frequent in the practice of this duty whose hearts were inlarged to meditate upon heavenly spiritual things they did thereby draw true consolation to their souls f Psal 63. 6 This was holy Davids exercise day and night g Psal 119. sometimes in the precepts and Statutes of God h Psal 143. 5. sometimes on his wonderfull Acts and excellent Works i Psal 104. 34 and his heart found great sweetnesse in these his Meditations Now then it is richly worth our pains to get this Art of Divine Meditation for it will increase our knowledge of God and of his Laws it will make grace more fruitfull in us and our sorrows lesse grievous It will also strengthen our faith in the promises of God to make us stout and couragious in his Cause to withstand the assaults of the divell and all the oppositions of wicked men How can we be edified by the Preaching of the Word of God if we let it depart out of our mindes and do not chew the cud and ruminate upon it in our hearts How can we teach our children and servants the Lawes of God if they come not frequently into our own meditations How can our wayes be prosperous here upon earth how can we hope to have good successe in what we take in hand if we do not meditate something concerning God day and night If we neglect this pious Duty we do then estrange our selves from God and we bereave our souls of those spirituall benefits and comforts which otherwise they might receive and we lose a great part of the comfort of our lives But this Art is not easily learned common grace or humane learning cannot attain unto it for the affections of the heart cannot be raised up to heavenly contemplations if they are not seasoned with sanctifying grace neither can they delight in spirituall things if they are clogged with earthly cares or drawn away after worldly vanities A true child of God is not alwayes prepared to meditate as he ought to make his meditations edifying and comfortable to his soul for the inward corruptions of his unregenerate part will hinder him the thoughts of his worldly affairs will distract his minde that he cannot
as rebels to him but he takes us for his own people and as his servants d Ier. 31. 33. according to his promise in the new Covenant and also as his children by adoption in Christ which makes the Meditations of our hearts sweet and comfortable to our souls It is a great honour to be servants to an earthly Prince but it is a far higher title of honour to be servants to the King of heaven The holy Patriarchs and Prophets all the Apostles and Saints of God did account it their highest honour to be the servants of God and they did much glory in this honourable title Thus saith that Kingly Prophet David e Psal 116. 16. O Lord truely I am thy servant and the son of thy handmaid thou hast loosed my bonds David useth this as a strong motive to God to hear his prayers and to grant his requests f Psal 86. 2 4 16. O thou my God save thy servant that trusteth in thee Rejoyce the soul of thy servant fâ—r unto thee O Lord do I lift up my soul O turn unto me and have mercy upon me give thy strength unto thy servant and save the son of thine handmaid God gave this title of honour to his choisest servants as to Abraham to Jacob to Moses to David Job Zorâ—babâ—l and to CHRIST himself as he was man For thus he saith by his Prophet g Zech. 3. 8. Behold I will bring forth my servant the Branch This honour have all they that truly believe in Christ because he hath reconciled them to God his Father and hath made them his servants by grace Wherefore now if we have any clear evidence to our consciences that we are the servants of God by vertue of this atonement if we do serve and obey him with faithfull hearts in sincerity and in truth we may then cheerfully fix our Meditations upon God which will be acceptable in his sight and comfortable to our own souls For by this sweet relation that we have unto God through faith in Christ our duties and services to him will be accepted though they be imperfectly performed by us if we shew our best care to please him from an upright heart as his faithfull servants ought to do Also we may apply our selves by holy supplications to our heavenly Lord as being his servants to protect us from our enemies to provide for us in our necessities to succour us in our tribulations and to countenance us as his servants in all our temptations that our faith may not fail us and that our spirits may not sink under the burden of them Whatsoever we want we may have it of God and whatsoever we fear may come upon us he will prevent it or fit us for it or else he will sanctifie it for our good that we may find comfort in it Wherefore we need not be afraid to contemplate his greatnesse for his goodnesse will sweeten that fear we need not fear death in a servile way for it hath no sting to hurt us and we need not be terrified at the Majesty of the great Judge of quick and dead nor at the rigour and severity of his justice at the day of judgement for Christ Jesus shall be then our Judge who is now our Saviour and Redeemer We cannot then but shew our duty to God and our love to Christ by our willing and ready obedience to the commands of God and by our thankfull remembrance of our Redemption wrought by Christ by ruminating on his Word and by contemplating his wonderfull works our thoughts will be continually upon him our delight will be to Meditate on him and the affections of our hearts will be alwayes towards him Consider further what Christ hath done for us that we may the more comfortably Meditate on God he hath not onely redeemed us out of the servitude of sin and Satan and made us the servants of God by grace but also h Iohn 1. 12 he hath given power to as many as believe on his Name to become the sons of God which priviledge and honour we have onely by faith i Gal. 4. 5 6. who hath redeemed us that were under the Law that we might receive the adoption of sons And because we are sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his son into our hearts crying Abba Ftther How comfortable then will our Meditations be to our souls when we ruminate upon God as he is our Father what can deject our spirits or make us afraid if we have a sure confidence that God is our Father Can we be brought to a lower degree of misery than k Luk. 15. 18 19. the poor prodigall in the Gospel was and yet when he remembred his Father he was comforted and refreshed Can any poor soul be deeper plunged in sin or lead a more vicious life than this prodigall did and yet his Father did not cast him off but upon his true submission he received him again as his son Why then should we despair of mercy though our sins are many and very great Why should we fear the terrours of death if we be well perswaded of our adoption for l Gal. 4. 7. we are heirs of God through Christ and we go to possesse that inheritance which belongeth to us as sons and why should the thought of the day of judgement be terrible to us seeing Christ our Redeemer will make up our accounts for us and will perfect with his own righteousnesse whatsoever is wanting on our parts Do we think that Christ will redeem us out of the bondage of Satan and will free us from the strictnesse of the Law the dominion of sin from the sting of death and at last will leave us to our selves to answer the rigour of Gods justice for whatsoever we have done here in the flesh Surely no for then the Work of our Redemption had not been perfectly finished but Christ will be then our hiding place he will cover all our sins under the Robe of his own Righteousnesse and will shelter us from the fierceness of Gods wrath and from the severity of Gods justice We have now much matter for Divine and Heavenly Meditations to comfort and refresh our languishing souls when they are any way perplexed with sorrowes feares or doubtings if we ruminate upon our happy condition by being in grace and favour with God for we have the honour and dignity to be the servants of the great King of heaven and earth by the right of purchase and so are none but such onely whom Christ hath bought with his own blood Also if we Meditate upon our Adoption it wil be very comfortable to us and exceeding sweet to our spirituall taste for Christ hath given us hereby all the priviledges of sons both in what we are freed from and in what we have right unto for we are freed from all evill of sin and from all evill of punishment sin hath no power to condemn us though it
to the people of God in their march through that hot Countrey We are by nature under the spiritual bondage of sin and Satan which is far worse than the Egyptian bondage was to the Israelites and we have no means to be brought out of it but by an almighty power and if God doth deliver us yet we are so ignorant of the way to the heavenly Canaan that we cannot set one step toward it except the holy Ghost doth put a spiritual Light into our understanding to teach and instruct us in the right way to heavenly happinesse And because we shal meet with many spiritual enemies so long as we march thorough the wildernesse of this world the holy Ghost will so protect and defend us that they shall neither hurt our souls by their power nor keep us out of Canaan by their subtilty or malice He will guide and direct us into all holy duties he will give us holy desires and true endeavours to do the will of God and to walk humbly before him in this present world Also the holy Ghost doth protect us from the heat of Gods wrath by working faith in us to lay hold upon the merit of Christs death for the pardon of our sins and by conferring grace for the sanctification of our lives So likewise he doth refresh and comfort our fainting spirits with the sweet dewes of heavenly consolations and he doth mollifie and soften our obdurate and stony hearts with those influences of grace that descend from him that we may p Joel 2. 28 Gal. 5. 22 23. be fruitfull in all good works This holy Spirit doth also quench the fire of sin which otherwise would inflame the whole man with sinful lusts And lastly the holy Ghost doth purge and cleanse the soul from the filth of sin as water washeth away the filth of the body This doth God promise by his Prophet q Zech. 36 25. I will pour clean water upon you and you shall be clean from all your filthinesse and from all your idols will I cleanse you Wherefore we ought seriously to ruminate upon these operations of the holy Ghost for we cannot find the right way to the heavenly Canaan by all that nature or humane learning can afford us we cannot over power our spiritual enemies by our own strength we have no holy desires and no ability in our selves to any thing that is good nothing that is in our power can keep us from the wrath of God and we have nothing that can refresh and and comfort our afflicted spirits But here we shal find that the holy Ghost wil be our guide to this heavenly Country he wil be our Protector against all adversary power and he wil be a true comforter to us in all our sorrowes and upon all occasions in all conditions of life He will bring us unto Christ and wil firmly unite us unto him by faith r 1 Cor. 10. 1 2. for as the ancient Fathers were all under the cloud and all passed thorough the sea and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea so we are baptized unto Christ by the holy Ghost that our sins may be washed away in his blood and that we may be sanctified by this spirit of grace to live in true holinesse and righteousnesse all our dayes If we can thus Meditate on the holy Ghost it wil be exceeding profitable and comfortable to our souls Thirdly the holy Ghost is resembled to the pillar of fire that conducted the Israelites by night out of Egypt toward the Land of Canaan Now we must consider that such as are the properties of fire such are some of the operations of the holy Ghost in our hearts Fire is the most pure Element and purifies all other elements it doth naturally mount upward it is bright and shining and giveth light to all dark places It doth also warm and comfort every part of our bodies and it is the most active of all the other elements it purifies the gold and burnes away the drosse Thus it is with the holy Ghost for he is essentially pure in himself and purifies every soul from dead works into which he comes he wil not suffer any unclean lust or evill concupiscence to have dominion where he dwelleth and he wil raise up the cogitations of the minde and the affections of the heart to mount upwards in heavenly contemplations Also whereas by nature Å¿ 1 Cor. 2. 10 11. we cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishnesse unto us neither can we know them because they are spiritually discerned God hath revealed them to us by his Spirit for the holy Ghost wil put a spiritual light into our hearts to discern the deep things of God he wil also inflame our affections with an holy zeal to the glory of God and will make our love fervent to the truth So likewise the holy Ghost wil melt our hard and stony hearts and make them tender and gracious flexible and yielding to every holy duty And whereas our hearts are naturally bound up in unbelief and heavy and sluggish to any thing that is good t Psal 119. 32. the holy Ghost wil so inlarge them that with all cheerfulnesse of spirit and willingnesse of minde we shall run the way of Gods Commandements Wherefore now if we have found any of these operations of the holy Ghost in our hearts we shal be in some measure purified and refined from our sins and pollutions we shall have some of the drosse of our corrupted nature consumed and the heavenly graces of the Spirit of God wil shine forth in the integrity of our lives and conversations Also we shall have some spiritual light to guide our darkned understandings in the knowledge of God and of his wayes some fervency in our Prayers some love to the truth and some holy zeal to the true worship and service of God we shal delight in his Law we shal study to do good works and it will be the desire of our hearts and the comfort of our souls to Meditate day and night in the Commandements of God If these Operations of the holy Ghost which are resembled to these two pillars cannot easily work upon us if these cannot raise up our affections to heavenly contemplations and to be forward and ready to every good duty in the service of God then surely we are exceeding dull and stupid and we have great need to pray earnestly that the holy Ghost will be pleased to come with his unresistible power and break our hard stony hearts and molifie this extreme obduracy that is in them with his suppling grace that so we may more easily take the impression of his sanctifying grace in us Consider further that these two pillars which did lead the Israelites out of Egypt were a visible sign of the presence of God with them to conduct them in the way to Canaan to protect and defend them from all their
trees untill we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads The holy Ghost doth also seal the New Covenant and all the gracious promises of the Gospel to our hearts by faith k Joh. 3. 33. and if we receive his testimony we do set to our seal that God is true Why then do we not rest upon them why is our faith shaken with every gust of temptation and with every little trouble that cometh nere us Are we so weak in faith that every blast of affliction shall blow us down Why are we so doubtfull of our salvation that we are ready to let go our hold on Christ when we look upon our dayly slips and failings that are caused by the subtility of the devill by the inchantments of the world and by the allurements of our carnall lusts We do not consider that we are sealed with the holy Ghost unto the day of Redemption And when we suffer afflictions or tribulations we do not consider that they shal not hurt us for we have the seal of God in our foreheads and he wil sanctifie all our sorrowes for our good whereas to the wicked they are the beginnings of those eternall torments which they shal suffer hereafter for ever Here we may find sweet consolation in all conditions of life for if we are loath to leave this world and those possessions which we do here enjoy let our hearts and mindes be raised up to meditate upon that inheritance and those possessions which Christ hath purchased for us by his blood which we shal enjoy in heaven for we have the seal of the holy Ghost for the truth of it and then we shal be willing to leave these vain and earthly riches and we shal earnestly desire to enjoy those heavenly and durable treasures which are there laid up for us If the foundation of our faith be shaken this seal of the holy Ghost will settle it sure The Lord knoweth them that are his The Covenant of Grace is confirmed to us by this seal and we may faithfully rest upon it for all the promises of God therein contained shall be performed in their season Our spirituall enemies our crosses and tribulations and death it self cannot hurt us because we have this seal of the holy Ghost for he will take away the print of the devils seal which by nature is upon our hearts and wil stamp his own image in the room l Rev. 9. 4. 5 But those men that have not the seal of God in their foreheads lye open to all the judgements of God to be tormented as with the torment of a Scorpion when he striketh a man Lastly the Holy Ghost is resembled to winde for when he hath any great work to do in us he will come with power to rectifie our stubborn wils our obdurate hearts and rebellious affections he will come like a rushing winde to make us quake and tremble before him and to beat down all the strong holds of sin that our hearts may be prepared to receive him and that he may freely work his own work in us Thus he came upon the Apostles m Act. 2. 2 3 with a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty winde and filled all the house where they were sitting and then he gave them the gift of tongues to speak the language of every nation whither he should send them and he gave them all spirituall graces and abilities fit for that Office and function whereunto he had called them Secondly he is resembled to wind because his Operations are free to himself and he is no way necessitated in his workings for he worketh in every one when and how he pleaseth Thus said Christ to Nicodemus n John 8. 3. The winde bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth so is every one that is born of the spirit Gods election is of free grace not of works o Gen. 4. 4. he had respect to Abell and to his offering but he refused Cain and his offering p Rom. 9. 11 13 15 20. God did choose Jacob and rejected Esau the children being not yet born for thus saith God to Moses I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion We are as clay in the hand of the potter cannot he make of the same lump one vessel unto honour and another unto dishonour Shall the thing formed say unto him that formed it why hast thou made me thus Thus saith the Lord by his Prophet q Isa 45. 10 Wo unto him that saith unto his Father what begettest thou or to his mother what hast thou brought forth r Jer. â—8 6. for we are in Gods hand as the clay is in the potters hand So likewise Å¿ 1 Cor. 12. the holy Ghost bestoweth his gifts diversly some have one gift some another some have more and some have lesse none but Christ had a fulnesse of all gifts and t John 1. 16 of his fulnesse have all we received and grace for grace As there is great diversity in the gifts u 1 Cor. 12. 6. so there is as great in the operations of the holy Ghost and yet all proceed from the same Spirit for God worketh all in all Thirdly the holy Ghost is resembled to winde because he doth blow away the chaff and vanity of our sinfull inventions and idle cogitations that our mindes may be the better fitted and prepared for heavenly contemplations and for the worship and service of God Now to bring all this home in particular to thy self consider what comforts and benefites thou dost enjoy by the holy Ghost both as he is the true comforter whom Christ sent down from the Father to abide with thee for ever and also by his holy operations according to those severall resemblances and then thy meditations of him will be comfortable to thy soul He will be a carefull Father to provide for thee he will be a wall of defence round about thee he will dull the sense of all thy pains and torments that thou maiest the better bear them as he did to the three children in the fiery furnace and to some of the holy Martyrs in their torments Though thy sufferings are above humane strength yet he will give thee strength of grace to bear them contentedly for he will raise up thy heart u Heb. 11 20 to look to the recompense of reward which God will give thee in heaven of his own free love bounty and goodnesse Also if the crosse lieth long upon thee and thou canst not get it removed by thy earnest supplications yet thou needest not be out of hope for the heavenly comforts of the holy Ghost will never fail thee but will still bear thee up against all the boysterous billowes of temptations and sorrowes Though thy whole life be a life of misery yet the
patience yet God would bring him out of all his afflictions and restore him again to joy and gladnesse of heart Why then do we take so much thought for food and rayment why do we cark and care for the things of this life why are we so cast down if we want them why are we so disquieted if trouble sicknesse or sorrow presse heavy upon us is not the life more than meat and the body more than rayment hath not Christ had experience of these wants and of the crosse and and hath not he sanctified them to us This is the counsel of our Saviour Christ r Luk. 12. 29 30. That we should not be of doubtfull minde to seek after earthly things with too much greedinesse because our heavenly Father knoweth that we have need of them Holy David doth thus parly with his own soul when he was in a sad condition Å¿ Psal 43. 5 Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me then he doth thus comfort him self Hope in God for I shall yet praiss him who is the health of my countenance and my God For he will provide for us he will sweetly comfort us in our necessities and will put a blessed end to all our soorows and tryalls But to look a little more about the Works of God if we consider the wonders that are in the sea where the great Leviathan doth sport himself and the costly and precious mineralls that are in the earth which God hath created for the use of man we shall see Gods stamp upon every creature which giveth us just occasion to imploy our pious thoughts and the affections of our hearts in the Meditation of his wonderfull works and how to praise him for his goodnesse and cheerfully to serve him in true thankfulnesse for all his benefits to us We must not therfore be more ignorant and dul of understanding than the beasts we must not be like the Jewes of whom God complaineth thus by his Prophet t Isa 1. 3. The ox knoweth his owner and the asse his makers crib but Israel doth not know my people doth not consider Wherefore let our hearts be now enlarged in the contemplation of the Works of God that we may Meditate his praise and glory for the comfort of our souls How can we forget God seeing his Works are alwayes before our eyes and seeing he doth dayly feed us and cloath us with his good creatures and how can we neglect our praises and thanksgivings unto him when we lye down at night and when we rise up in the morning seeing he hath created both the day and the night for use and comfort Though God hath given us the use of all his creatures here below and power to dispose of them at our own pleasure so that it be for his glory yet we know not how long we shall enjoy them for God onely is the dâ—sposer of time to give more or lesse as he pleaseth for as the Psalmist saith u Psal 74. 16 The day is his the night also is his he hath prepared the light and the Sun God hath given us no more time but the very moment that is present for if it be past we cannot recall it if it be not yet come we know not whether we shall enjoy it when one moment is past it is at Gods pleasure to give us another Wherefore every day and every night that we enjoy from God should be spent to that end for which God hath ordained them which is that his holy worship and service be principally regarded that our lawfull calling be carefully followed in their due seasons which we may take for the glory of God either by our Meditations in his Word or on his Works or by some pious duties as God shall give us fit opportunity For God did not create the day for works of sin and wickednesse but for Works of piety and holinesse neither did he give us the use of the day to spend it vainly idly or unprofitably but to be spent about that which doth conduce to his honour and glory and to the good of our own souls Also God did not create the night to be spent in works of darknesse neither did he give us the use of the night for luxurious pleasures but to weep and mourn for our sins u Psal 6. as David did and for holy Meditations also to refresh our bodies and spirits when they are wearied with the labours of the day before to make us the more fit for the duties following If we thus spend our time it will keep us from sin in the day and from uncleannesse in the night Thus God doth teach us highly to prize our time and to improve it to the best advantage of his honour x Phil. 2. 12 and to the working out of our own salvation with fear and trembling So likewise y Eph. 5. 16. we ought to redeem the time that we have lost because the dayes are evill and that must be by doubling our future obedience to Gods Commandements Thus we may enrich our souls in the knowledge of God if we do devoutly Meditate on him and upon the creatures which he hath made We have shewed in generall how God provideth what is fitting for all living creatures we come now to shew some speciall works of Divine Providence to the Saints and Servants of God when they are brought into such straits that they know not what to do nor which way to turn themselves for safety If we have means to escape the danger or to be delivered out of it and we do neglect it we have then no ground to hope for safety or deliverance by the Providence of God because we bring our selves into the danger but if we have no means to escape and no way to be delivered out of any dangerous strait we may then cast our selves upon the Providence of God and he will make a way for us to escape because he hath brought us into this strait to manifest his own work of Providence for his own glory and for our safety z Gen. 22. Thus he brought Abraham into a great strait when he did expresly command him to offer his onely son Isaac whom he loved for a burnt offering Abraham must now either violate his faith and obedience to God or else he must slay his own dear son who was the heir of the promise but Abraham cast himself upon the Providence of God and would not disobey his command then God shewed him a Ram which he took and offered up for a burnt offering in the stead of his Son God did likewise bring the children of Israel into a terrible strait when they marched out of Egypt for they could turn no way from apparent danger of destruction the red sea was before them their enemies were behinde them and mountains were on each side so that there was no way or means to escape a Exod. 14.
Adam and how rebelliously we have sinned against God in the whole course of our lives If this be our condition which is most true as we are in the Staâ—â— of nature what comfort can we then take in all worldly pomp and dignities what contentment is there in all earthly pleasures and delight they are all nothing else but vanity and vexation of spirit We may injoy more of this world than our hearts can desire and yet our soules may starve for want of spiritual food and comfort d Gen. 4. 12 Cain was heir apparent to the whole world and yet he was driven out from the presence of God and became a vagabond upon earth So we may injoy whatsoever the world can afford us and yet God will not look upon us with a gracious aspect and then our condition will be no better than that of Cain We may injoy health wealth peace liberty and all manner of prosperity and yet our souls may be sick they may languish with sadnesse of heart they may be much perplexed and shut up as it were in a dungeon because they are so restrained by the corruptions of our nature that they have no freedome to mount upwards towards heaven It is nothing so uncomfortable to live in perpetuall darknesse and never to see the light of the Sun as it is to have our understandings spiritually darkened and to live without the light of the e Mal. 4. 2 Sun of righteousnesse to have no appearance from him to open the eyes of our understandings to be a guide to our reason to season our hearts with grace and to shew us the way that will bring us to heavenly happinesse This is our condition by nature we are out of the favour of God our life is void of all true comfort and consolation we walk in darknesse f Isa 53. 6 we go astray like silly sheep and follow our own inventions and we have no ability in our selves to return again into the right way Wherefore let our hearts be throughly affected with this our sad condition let our Meditations hereupon draw us to a godly sorrow for our sins which may bring us to true repentance and newnesse of life let this be our chief care and the desire of our soules to regain the grace and favour of God and to be reconciled unto him Let our souls bewail our sins with hearty contrition and true compunction let our teares manifest the grief of our hearts and the truth of our repentance for our transgressions and let us cast our selves down at Gods footstool and humbly acknowledge our offences to him suing earnestly to God by prayer for the pardon and forgivenesse of them through Faith in Christ Also we ought to be humble petitioners to God for a supply of such graces as we want to strengthen â—s against the corruptions of our nature and against all the enemies of our salvation This should be our constant practise every night before we sleep to make our peace with God for the sins of the day past wherein we have failed of our duty and wherein we have dishonoured God that our souls may rest in peace as well as our bodies do rest in quiet So likewise every morning we should acknowledge our thankfulnesse to God for the comforts of the night past and to crave his blessing upon our labours the day following If we continually practise this duty it will keep us from grosse sins and great offences and it will make us take all occasions to renew our Repentance with God for our sins Every fit of pain or of sicknesse that we feel and every crosse or affliction that we suffer calls loud for repentance because it is a fruit of our sins also every blessing and every good thing that God is pleased to bestow upon us cryeth loud for our thankfulnesse because it is bestowed of his own free bounty and goodnesse and not for any merit or desert of ours Though we are miserable vile and wretched in our selves yet God is gracious and mercifull and doth dayly give us occasions to glorifie him and he doth use all means to bring us home again unto himself for he doth not delight in the death of a sinner but rather that he should repent and turn unto him neither doth he deal with us according to our sins nor reward us according to our deservings but hath paid a great prize for our redemption out of this miserable condition Concerning the Redemption of Man VVHen God saw man in this sad condition a lamentable spectacle of wofull misery then he took pity upon him a Ezek. 16. 8 and this time of his wretched estate was the time of Gods love to him for soon after his fall God made a gracious promise of Redemption to him b Gen. 3. 15 that the seed of the woman should break the serpents head This promise God did afterwards renew to the Patriarks which was concerning Christ the Lord that should come in his appointed time whom God did plainly reveal to some of the Prophets c Gal. 4 4 5 VVhen the fulnesse of the time was come God sent forth his son made of a woman made under the Law to redeem them that are under the Law that we might receive the adoption of sons d 1 John 4 9 10 In this was manifested the love of God toward us because that God sent his onely begotten Son into the world that we might live through him Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the Propitiation for our sins e John â— 18 The onely begotten son of God who is in the bosome of his Father came down from heaven and assumed our nature and took upon himself the guilt of our sins to Redeem us from the curse of the Law from the dominion of sin and Satan and from the power of death f 1 Cor. 7. 23 Christ hath also paid an infinite price for our Redemption even his own most precious blood and the full vialls of Gods wrath were poured out upon him because he did undertake to satisfie the justice of God for our sins for thus saith the Prophet g Isa 53. 6. The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all h Acts 12. 7 8 Now let us gird up our loines with Peter and binde on our sandals i Eph. 6. 15 and let our feet be shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace to be fitted and prepared for our deliverance out of prison for the chains of our sins are taken off and the prison doores are opened to set us at liberty and to redeem our souls from destruction This Work of our Redemption is so great a mystery that the blessed Angels do adore it with much admiration but they cannot comprehend it it was decreed in heaven before the world was and all the three Persons in the holy Trinity had their severall operations
Prophet b Isa 59. 2. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have made him hide his face from you that he will not hear For God will not regard us untill the pardon of our sins be sealed to us by faith in the bloud of Christ and we can have no comfort in God nor hope of his grace and favour untill we have some assurance of the remission of our sins by true repentance and turning unto God For thus saith the Prophet c Isa 56. 3 4 5 7 Thâ—ugh we have been strangers to the people of God and as fruitlesse as a dry tree yet if we now kâ—â—p his Sabbaths and choose the things that please him and take hold of his Covenant he will give us a place in his house and an everlasting name that shall not be cut off he will bring us to his holy mountain and make us joyfull in his house of Prayer and all our offerings shall be accepted Though Christ by his death and resurrection hath perfectly wrought our redemption from all our spirituall enemies yet we have not the full vertue and power of it in this life for we are often foiled with the temptations and suggestions of the devill our sins do prevail against us our sinfull lusts and unruly passions do often over-power us d Rom. 7. 19 20 23. and the corruptions of our unregenerate part do war against the Law of our minde and bringeth us captive to the Law of sin so that the good which we would we do not but the evill which we would not that we do it is then no more we that do it but sin that dwelleth in us Wherefore we can feel the power of our redemption but in part so long as we live in the flesh but it will be fully perfected when our corruptible shall put on incorruption and our mortall shall put on immortality and that cannot be untill the generall resurrection at the last day when all the enemies of our salvation shall be subdued For death will seize upon our bodies and will keep them in the prison of the grave untill Christ shall come with power and break open the prison doores by the power of his resurrection and raise them up to immortality and to eternall glory and then our Redemption will be made perfect to us and this e John 6. 54 Christ hath promised and he doth plainly manifest it to us for when he had shewed his disciples some signes and tokens of his second comming which were forerunners of the generall resurrection he said f Luke 21 â— 28. That when they see those things begin to come to passe then they should look up and lift up their heads for their Redemption draweth nigh whereof we are as fully perswaded by faith in this life as if we did already injoy it Wherefore let nothing weaken our faith in our Redemption for we may confidently rest upon it though we have it but in part in this life for Christ will perfect it to us at the last day when he will raise up our bodies out of the dust by his Almighty Power which is the last part of our Redemption Here is matter of great comfort if our hearts do piously ruminate upon the transcendent love of God to us in our Redemption g John 3. 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Redemption is freely offered to all yet none can have the assurance of it but such as believe in Christ and belong unto him through the election of Grace these and none but these shall have the benefit of it for they are within the New Covenant h Heb. 9. 15 which Christ hath procured for them by his death these onely shall receive the promise of an eternall inheritance and shall be advanced to an higher degree of felicity and blessednesse than they had in Adam before his fall Adam had but a dimme light of his Redemption yet it was sufficient to ground his faith upon it and the promise of grace was very mystically delivered to him but the Patriarks and Prophets had a clearer evidence of it God hath given us a full demonstration of our Redemption because Christ is come in the flesh and hath finished the whole work of our Salvation by treading down all principalities and powers under his feet and by subduing to us all the enemies of our salvation and because death is our last enemy which will undoubtedly seize upon our bodies we do assuredly believe that by the power of Christs Resurrection who is our head our bodies shall be raised up out of the dust at the last day for Christ hath redeemed our bodies from death as well as our souls from the devill that both in soul and in body we may live and reign with Christ for evermore Wherefore if God hath been so rich in goodnesse to us and if his grace and love hath been so free as to redeem our souls from hell and our bodies from the grave even when we were his enemies and when he saw nothing in us but misery then let us with the Prophet David say thus with our selves i Psal 116 12 13 14 What shall we râ—nder unto the Lord for all his benefits towards us how shal we pay our vowes which we have made to him in our Baptism or at any other time we will take the cup of salvation and call upon the Name of the Lord we will be his servants and will offer to him the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving Thus let our thoughts and the Meditations of our hearts be alwayes upon the love of God to us and not upon the vanities of this world let them be set upon the joyes and happinesse of heaven and not upon earthly transitory pleasures and delights let us study how to live a sanctified life unto God and a blamelesse life to our neighbours and not how to fulfill our own sinfull desires and the evill concupiscence of our flesh otherwise we have received the grace of God in vain and we can have no good assurance of our Redemption by Christ for God bestoweth his grace upon us and hath given us the light of his Spirit that we should walk as in the light and not in darknesse that our conversation should be holy and pure and not corrupted and defiled with uncleannesse but that we should perform holy obedience unto God and serve him with pure affections Now let our hearts and souls devoutly Meditate upon the great Work of our Redemption for it was far greater than the Creation of the whole world God did but say the Word let such a thing be made and it was made he did not disrobe himself of any part of his glory in the creation of any creature but rather his glory wisdom and power was magnified in the making of the least of them
incline the will or else we cannot receive it All heavenly gifts and spiritual graces come from God which the Father is sometimes said to give according to this of James Å¿ Jam. 1. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights Sometimes also the Sonne is said to give them for thus saith the Apostle t Eph. 4. 8. when he ascended up on high he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men that is he gave not onely places of dignity and of authority to some in his Church but also he gave them all spiritual indowments of grace meet for their several places and functions But these heavenly graces are properly wrought in our hearts by the holy Ghost how and when he pleaseth We must therefore crave his help we must wait his time and attend upon the means until he shall be pleased to work grace in us and we must resolve without delaies or excuses u Heb. 3. 7. to accept of grace even that very day when God doth offer it and not to grieve his good Spirit by refusing the sweet tender of grace or by losing any opportunity wherein God may be glorified by this heavenly work of grace in us Wherefore Ps 8. 4 5. be not thou like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear which will not hearken to the voice of charmers charming never so wisely but when any means of grace is offered or when thou feelest a good motion in thy heart be ready to imbrace it for that is Gods call and then Christ knocketh at the door of thy heart x Rev. 3. 20. as he did at the door of the Laodiceans if thou dost presently open unto him he will come in to thee and will sup with thee and thou shalt sup with him but if thou deferrest it until the morrow thou knowest not whether he will knock again or not O what a bountiful and gratious guest dost thou lose if thou wilt not open thy heart when the Spirit of Christ knocks there either by the preaching of his Word by holy inspirations by his blessings by afflictions or by any other means whatsoever If thou belongest unto him thou wilt know his knock thou wilt know his voice thou wilt make hast and prepare the best rooms in thine affections to give him entertainment and thou wilt clear away all the filth of thy sins by faith and true repentance that he may come into a clean heart that nothing may displease or discontent him for he comes not to lodge with thee a night or two as a stranger or to sojourn with thee a moneth or a year and then to leave thee y Eph. 3. 17. but he will dwell in thy heart by faith z Joh. 14. 23 and will abide with thee for ever by his holy Spirit When he is come he will furnish his rooms with his own furniture he will perfume them with his own merits so that whatsoever issue from thence shall be a sweet savour well pleasing and acceptable to God he will also beautifie and adorn all the faculties of thy soul with spiritual and heavenly graces he wil heal and cure al thy spiritual diseases he will be a Prophet to thee to teach and instruct thee in the wayes of godliness he will be thy High-priest to make intercession for thee and to present thy prayers and oblations unto God his Father also he will be thy King to rule in thy heart with his scepter of righteousness and to subdue all the enemies of thy salvation Christ will feast thee at his own table with bread of life water of life and with heavenly Manna which are precious dainties and spiritual food for thy soul to feed upon and thy heart will rejoice and be glad in him Thou shalt also injoy a Gal. 5. 22 23. the fruits of his Spirit which are love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodnes faith meekness temperance and all that belong unto thee shall partake of the riches of his goodness and of his blessings b Ps 24. 7. Let thy gates therefore stand open that the King of glory may enter in and be thou as ready to receive him with all joy and gladness of heart c Luc. 19. 6. 9. as Zachaeus was to receive Christ when he was in the flesh who brought salvation to his House Be not thou like the spouse in the Canticles d Cant. 5. 2â— who would not rise out of her bed of security to open the door of her heart to her beloved but suffered him to stand knocking and calling until his locks were wet with the drops of the night Now if thou hast any care of thy souls health study and meditate how to observe the times and means of grace and how to improve them to the glory of God and to thine own spiritual gain Canst thou observe the times and seasons of the year for the fruits of the earth and hast thou no care to take the opportunities that God gives thee for grace learn of the marriner who will hoyse up sail when the wind serves for him and when God offers thee grace do thou raise up thy heart and affections to receive it If thou refusest his gracious goodness to thee herein it is no wonder if thou art barren of true vertue and piety if thy soul be without spiritual comfort in thy sorrows and afflictions and it is no marvel if thou art fruitless in all good works If thou wilt make the true gain of thy time thou must diligently attend to the holy ordinances of God thou must thankfully receive his mercies and blessings thou must bear the Cross of Christ with patience and with meekness submitting thy self with all humbleness of spirit to the will and pleasure of God Also thou must repent of holy duties omitted as well as of sins committed and howsoever God shall deal with thee at that very time make an holy use of it for the glory of God and for the comfort of thy soul If the devil hath deluded thee with false pretences or hath lulled thee asleep in his bed of security so that thou hast slighted the means of grace and hast vainly spent thy precious time without any spiritual or heavenly gains thou must labour with all Christian diligence to recover it again which thou maist do by the gracious help and assistance of the holy Ghost herein for thou hast no ability in thy self to get out of these dangerous snares of the devil or to redeem the time that thou hast lost To conclude if thou dost desire to make the true gain of the time of grace thou must strive to remove out of thy heart whatsoever doth displease or dishonour God and whatsoever may hinder the operations of the holy Ghost and the current of grace to thy heart For if thy mind is carried after the love of the world after vain pleasures or sinful delights and if thou dost
outward ministration of it to make it profitable and comfortable to our souls Examine now thy self what impression the doctrine of Christ hath made in thy heart which thou hast often heard sincerely preached and how thou hast been profited by it what knowledge thou hast gained in heavenly things how thou art confirmed in the truth of Gods Word how thy faith in Christ is established what hope thou hast of eternal salvation and how firmly thy faith is grounded upon the promises of God Also how thou art humbled for thy sins and what reformation of life it hath wrought in thee what patience and meekness of Spirit thou hast in thy sufferings what zeal for the glory of God what constancy in thy tryals and what love thou bearest to thy neighbour these and the like benefits thou maist have by the Word of God if thou art a profitable hearer of it If upon due examination of thy self thou doest find any of these operations of the Spirit of God in thee it is a sure evidence that he hath made thee a profitable hearer of his Word Many did hear Christs doctrine from his own mouth and yet they received no good by it so thou maist hear his holy Word and be no whit the better for it if it be not preached as wel to thy heart by the Holy Ghost as it is to thine ear by his Ministers Oh consider how many worthy sermons thou hast heard without profit what thou hast been taught and yet not edified nor reformed because thou didst hear them with uncircumcised ears and with a poluted and unbelieving heart for thy heart is naturally unfit to receive the heavenly doctrine of Christ until rhe holy Ghost doth prepare it and season it with grace that it may bring forth fruit unto newness of life o Hos 10. 12 There is so much fallow ground in us which is barren and unfruitful that the good seed of the Word of God cannot be sown to us in righteousness to reap the fruits of it in mercy untâ—l the holy Ghost breaks up this fallow ground with the power of his sanctifying grace neither can we seek the Lord that he may come and rain righteousness upon us Wherfore p Ier. 4. 4. we must be circumcised to the Lord and the foreskins of our hearts must be taken away and the vail that is upon our understandings must be removed and we must be purified by faith before we can be made fruitful in an holy and vertuous conversation by the Ministry of the word Wherefore imbrace the holy doctrine of Christ with pure affections lay it up in a clean heart and ruminate upon it in thy serious meditations that it may abide with thee to make thee grow dayly in grace vertue and godliness until thou comest to a full stature in Christ Consider therefore and observe how thou art inwardly affected when thou hearest it what delight thou hast in it and what impression of grace it makes in thy heart for if thou delightest in the Lords Sabbath and rejoicest when his Word soundeth in thine ears q Luc. 5. 41 as the babe did leap for joy in Elizabeths wombe when she heard the salutation of the Virgin Mary because Christ was then in the Virgins wombe thou art then in a blessed and comfortable condition r Isa 58. 13 14. and thy soul shall delight in the Lord who shall feed thee with the heritage of Jacob. Christ doth also teach us what we ought to do by his works that we dayly see both of justice and of mercy which are his silent Preachers and therefore they ought to be carefully regarded for there is no act of his but is intended for our instruction Noah was many years in building the Ark which was a long sermon to teach the world of the ungodly what God intended to do God Å¿ 1 Pet. 3. 20 waited then for their repentance and conversion an hundred and twenty years while the Ark was a preparing t 2 Pet. 2. 5 Noah also was a Preacher of righteousness to them all that time and did warn them of the wrath of God which did hang over their heads for their sins Thus doth God also deal with us for he doth visit us with sickness he doth teach us thereby to prepare our selves for the hour of dissolution and to perfect our account which we must make to the great Judge of heaven and earth at the last day that so we may willingly resign up our selves unto God when death shall part them from our bodies When God suffereth us to fall into temptations then he calls us to pray for his assisting grace for strength of faith and for constancy to stand out against the devil to the end that he may give us the crown of victory If he doth visit us with losses troubles or afflictions it is to teach us patience and meekness and to humble our selves under the hand of God until he doth deliver us If he doth chastise us for our sins it is to bring us to repentance When God bestoweth his blessing upon us or removeth the cross from us u Ps 50. 15 then he calls for a thankful remembrance of his mercy and goodness to us howsoever God dealeth with us either in judgement or in mercy it should teach us to glorifie him as well in our sufferings as for his blessings Thus God doth teach and instruct us what we should do and how to obey his will both by his Word and by his Works and as our ear must be open to his Word that it may be conveyed to our hearts by the holy Ghost so we should dayly observe the Works of God and how he dealeth with us that our hearts may receive instruction and our tongues may blesse his great and glorious name Wherefore we ought to listen to Gods voice in them that our hearts may return an answer of obedience agreeable to his will Of Christs Priestly Office GOd did also ordain Christ to be a Priest accord-to this of David a Ps 110. 4. The Lord sware â—nd will not repent Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedeck He was anointed to his office not with the material oyl of the sanctuary but with the spiritual unction of the holy Ghost when he was baptized and he did execute it partly by his prayers which he did frequently offer up to God his father for all his elect in the dayes of his flesh and partly by that sacrifice which he offered up upon the cross at his death b Heb 7. 24 25. Christs priesthood is unchangeable and eternal for he is still our High-priest and ever liveth to make intercession for us and therefore he is able also to save us to the uttermost that come unto God by him c Heb. 8. We have such a High-priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heaven d Heb. 7. 26 27. For
such an High-priest became us who is holy harmless undefiled separate from sins and made higher than the heavens When Christ did offer up himself a sacrifice to God his whole humane nature was bound to the altar of his Divinity with the cordes of unseparable union and love e Isa 53. 10 and his soul was made an offering for sinne as well as his body which was crucified and his precious blood which was poured out upon the Cross f Heb. 7. 27. This sacrifice though it were but once offered was sufficient to satisfie the justice of God to appease his wrath to blot all our sins out of his book of remembrance and to perfect for ever them that are sanctified This is also piously to be considered g Rev. 1. 6. that Christ by his eternal Priesthood hath made us Kings and Priests unto God and his Father h 1 Pet. 2. 5 and an holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ These sacrifices are our prayers our praises thanksgivings and a broken and a contrite heart for our sins i Phil. 4. 1â— also our deeds of charity to the poor members of Christ are and odour of a sweet smell a sacrifice acceptable an well pleasing to God Paul did beseech the Romans k Rom. 12. 1 to present their bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable to God which is their reasonable service so that whatsoever we offer unto God it must be offered with a sanctified heart which is washed and purified in the blood of Christ by faith and indued with sanctifying grace from above and then our sacrifice will be clean and accepted of God Though our prayers and praises be imperfect and come farre short of that which they ought to be yet if they proceed from a sincere heart and are offered up by Iesus Christ our High-Priest then he will perfect them with his own righteousness and present them to God his Father for us and we may rest assured that God will be pleased to accept them graciously Wherefore seeing Christ hath made us Priests unto God because we belong unto him we must offer up our prayers and oblations to God and not to Saints or Angels for he is the author and the giver of every blessing and mercy that we receive he provideth for us food and raiment and whatsoever is needful both for this present life and for that which is to come he doth protect us from dangers he doth support us in our tribulations and delivereth us out of our distresses when we cry unto him with a faithful heart We have therefore great cause to ascribe all honour and glory unto him and thankfully to acknowledge that God is the sole author of all our good to whom we must return all praise and thanks for it Also if our prayers and oblations have no relation unto Christ by faith they cannot be accepted neither can we confidently hope to receive a gracious return of them with a blessing except we believe that Christ our Advocate will present them to God his Father If we did duly consider how much we stand in need of Gods helping hand and of his assisting grace to carry us on through all the troubles and dangers that we shall meet with in this life also how God doth continually follow us with his tender mercies and loving kindness we would not be so slack in our prayers and praises unto him and if we did consider that our prayers must mount up even to the throne of Gods Majesty they would not be so cold so dull and so much clog'd with worldly cares and sinful thoughts as commonly they are which doth hinder their swift ascent up to heaven but we would labour to be more heavenly minded and to put more holy zeal and fervency into them and to send our faith along with them which will soon bring them unto Christ and then he will present them unto God for us So likewise if we consider how careless we are in the worship and service of God how ready we are to fall from him how imperfectly our best duties are performed what sins we dayly commit and what wrath and fury we do justly deserve for them we should then be more humble more affected with godly sorrow and more carefull to renew our repentance every day our sighs and groans for our sinnes would proceed from our hearty contrition and from true compunction of spirit and then our faith in Christ will give us a firm assurance of the pardon and forgivness of them all for thus saith the Lord l Isa 66. 2. To this man will I look even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word Also m Isa 57. 15 Thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity whose name is holy I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones Wherefore now if we think to have our wants and necessities supplied by our industry in our callings without prayer if we think to be supported in our troubles or to be delivered out of our miseries with prayer to be nourished at our tables or refreshed in our beds without prayer and to be eased of our paines or recovered of our diseases without prayer we shall either miss our desires or else we shall have them without a blessing We cannot conceive how prevailing faithful prayer is with God if it be presented to him by Christ Thus saith James n Jam. 5. 15 16 17 18 The prayer of faith shall save the sick and if he commit sins they shall be forgiven him And again The effectual servent prayer of a righteous man availeth much Elias prayed earnestly that it might not rain and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six moneths and he prayed again and the heaven gave rain and the earth brought forth her fruit o Gen. 20. 17 At the prayer of Abraham God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maid servants and they bare children p 1 Sam. 1. By prayer Hannah obtained a sonne q Exod. 32. 11. Moses by prayer did stop the flud gates of Gods fury that were ready to be poured out upon his own people for their idolatry in worshipping the golden calf By prayer we may obtain any blessings from God and escape any judgement that he hath threatned Likewise our interest that we have in Christ by faith will make our praises and thanksgivings to God for blessings received to be accepted and will also make them not to return empty again into our bosomes If our repentance for our sinnes be without faith in Christ it will give us no good assurance of pardon though we do express all the outward signes of true humiliation and though we break our hearts with grief yet we can
more For the guilt of our sinnes brought all this evil upon him our sins brought the eternal Son of God from his glorious palace in heaven to be of the lowest degree and condition among men here upon earth and to be exposed to all the ignominy reproach and cruelty that the devil and wicked men could put upon him otherwise we had been still aliens and strangers unto God we had been still under the curse of the Law and under the dominion and power of sinne and Satan Wherefore we have great cause to admire the riches of his mercy of his goodness and love to us nothing could move him to do this for us but his tender mercy and his free grace for he saw nothing in us to move him to pitty but our misery and wretched condition this was the time of his love then did he cast his skirt over us to hide our shame and then did he undertake this great work of our râ—demption Now let the consideration of what Christ hath suffered for us and of the great benefits which we received thereby bind us in a firm bond of love and thankfulness to him and how to express it by our due respect to all his Commandements The incarnation of Christ without his Passion could profit us nothing the purity of his doctrine could not edifie our hearts if he had not shed his blood to clense us from our sins his prayers to God could not avail us nor procure mercy for us if he had not offered a sacrifice and shed his blood to satisfie the justice of God for all our transgressions also the perfect pattern of his holy life could not bring us to the integrity of conversation if he had not died that sinne might be mortified and killed in us and if he had not also rose again to quicken us up to newness of life It is therefore the Passion of Christ that reconcileth us to God that takes away the guilt of our sinnes that gives us power to mortifie and subdue them that pulleth out the sting of death that bringeth heavenly joy and comfort to our dejected spirits and at length will bring salvation to our souls But an unregenerate man is not sensible of the bitter passion of Christ he can feel no sweetness in it because he hath no spiritual tast he knows not the power of it and he can have no benefit by it so long as he is in that condition because he hath no spiritual relation to Christ He lives in health wealth and pleasure he feels no misery he is not afflicted with crosses troubles and sorrowes like other men his mind is not troubled and his thoughts are not disquieted for his sinnes they come not neer his heart and therefore he regardeth not the afflictions of Ioseph he looks not after the Passion of Christ nor after the salvation of his own soul thereby but he blesseth himself in this his condition though there be no true comfort in it Thus the devil deludes him and leads him on in blindness of understanding in hardness of heart and in gross security to the great danger and hazzard of his soul unless God in much mercy doth annoint his eies with his spiritual eye salve to let him see his own sad condition and to bring him unto Christ by faith Let no man therefore measure his spiritual condition by those outward blessings that he enjoyeth for a poor man may be rich in grace and godliness and a rich man may be empty and void of all piety and goodness God doth commonly give more wealth to the wicked than he doth to his own servants c Eccl. 5 3 and their large portion of earthly blessings may be for their hurt Consider now O vain man who blesseth thy self in thy plenty that thy misery is so much the greater by how much thou art less sensible of thy sinne and the closer thou art joined to the world the farther thou art from Christ and the more thou delightest in earthly pleasures the less comfort canst thou have in the passion of Christ Though thy riches and honours do dayly increase yet thy sinnes will make them bitter to thee for the least of all thy sinnes though conceived but in thought onely and never acted will bring thee under the curse of the Law and will make thee lyable to the eternal wrath of God and it will so pollute and defile thy soul and so poison the whole man that God will abhorre thee for thy filthiness and whatsoever floweth from that corrupted fountain is unclean Thy riches and pleasures will keep thee from mount Calvary where Christ was crucified so long as thou delightest in them more than in the meditation on the Passion of Christ The blessings which thou injoyest are curses unto thee so long as thou art without Christ and him crucified and continuest in thy sinnes without repentance There is a sting in every thing that thou possessest which sting is the evil of sinne and it will wound thy soul to the death if it be not cured by the blood of Christ which he shed in his passion and it must be truly applied to thy heart by faith Do not think that the mercy of God will save thee for if thou hast no interest in Christ crucified and neglectest the means of grace when it is offered the guilt of thy sinnes cleaveth still to thy soul and thou canst lay no claim to the mercies of God but art under the severity of his justice Where is now the civil honest mans comfort that thinks to gain heaven by his outward form of godliness without the blood of Christ What is the condition of the great men and mighty hunters of this world who think they are highly in the favour of God because they abound in all earthly pomp and pleasure if they have no interest in the passion of Christ Surely their condition is no better than that of the Lacdiccans d Rev. 3. 27. who thought themselves rich and increased with goods and had need of nothing and knew not that they were spiritually wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked If any cloud of afflictions and crosses doth but shadow their earthly felicity it takes away all their joy and it is ready to break their hearts for they think that to be their greatest misery because they do not see how poor and naked they are of grace nor the evil of their sins how they are holden in subjection to every carnal and base lust and to every evill concupiscence which will bring all misery whatsoever upon their souls But let my heart still ruminate and meditate upon the Passion of my dear Saviour e 1 Cor. 2. 2 and let it be the desire of my soul to know Iesus Christ and him crucified who is my wisdome righteousness sanctification and redemption For f Heb. 9. 14. it is onely the blood of Christ who through the eternall Spirit offered himself without spot to
use the power of Angels for his defence nor his own Divine Power to keep him from their fury and rage for though by the power of his word they were smitten to the ground yet he suffered them to rise again and he did voluntarily put himself into their hands to lead him away whither they would Thus meekly did Christ submit to his Fathers will for he was not of Elijahs fiery spirit m 2 Kings 1 who called for fire from heaven which consumed two captains and their fifties whom king Ahaziah sent to apprehend him The Disciples that were at Cesarea besought Paul with many teares not to go up to Jerusalem because Agabus had Prophesied that there he should be bound and delivered into the hands of the Gentiles yet Paul would not be perswaded but lâ—ke a true Disciple of Christ he answered them thus n Acts 21. 13. What do ye mean to weep and to break mine heart for I am ready not to be bound onely but also to dye at Jerusalem for the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ Look also upon the admirable mildenesse of Christ who gave these friendly and familiar words to that wicked traitor when he came to betray him o Mat. 26 50 Friend Wherefore art thou come And again he said p Luk. 22. 44. Judas betrayest thou the Son of Man with a kisse These milde and gracious words might have mollified his obdurate heart and touched his conscience with remorse if q Rom. 1. 28 God had not given him over to a reprobate minde This is to teach us meeknesse of spirit when our supposed friends prove treacherous and when our kindnesse is spitefully rewarded for we are commanded by Christ himself r Mat. 5 48. to blesse them that curse us to love our enemies to do good to them that hate us and to pray for them that despitefully use us and persecute us As Christ gave us this in precept so likewise he gave it us by his own example But this Doctrine is unpleasing to our corrupted nature and we cannot hear it unlesse Christ doth endow us with his Spirit of meeknesse By the example of these two Disciples we may examine the condition of our own hearts whether there is the seed of grace in us to make us faithfull to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ that we can stick close to him with Peter whatsoever we shall suffer for his sake or the seed of hypocrisie which reacheth onely to the profession of his Name when there is no opposition against it and when it may stand with their own profit and advantage for troubles and persecution will make an hypocrite forsake Christ and hope of lucre will make him change his profession of him as it did Judas We may also learn from hence That to live in a religious family is not sufficient to make a good servant and to injoy the meanes of grace is not sufficient to mak a faithfull Disciple of Christ except the holy Ghost doth change the heart and affections from their sinfull condition to an holy conformity to the will of God Wherefore let this be the Meditation of our hearts to expresse the truth of our graces by our faithfulnesse unto Christ in all our sufferings for him Also so to live in a religious family and so to improve the meanes of grace that some gracious operations of the holy Ghost may be seen upon our hearts and affections by the purity of our lives and conversations What Christ suffered under Caiaphas VVHen Christ was apprehended they brought him bound to Caiaphas the high Priest as if he had been a Malefactor where he was examined a Mat. 26. spit upon buffeted smitten derided and most spitefully used they sought false witnesses against him but found none that did agree one with another notwithstanding he opened not his mouth to complain or to clear his own innocency that this prophesie of him might be fulfilled b Isa 53. 7. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is dâ—mb so he openeth not his mouth His own Nation the Jews did offer those blasphemous indignities to him for they were ever a rebellious and stiffe-necked people c Ezech. 2. which made the Lord so much and so often to complain of them by his Prophets and they were still maliciously bent against them because they rebuked them of their sins and rebellions against God whereby we may see how neer it comes unto God himself when his own People and they that professe his Name prove disobedient and rebellious to him But they could find no fault with Christ d Joh. 8. 46. they could not convince him of any sin there was no guile ever found in his lips he did miraculously feed the hungry he cured the diseased he cleansed the lepers he cast out the devils he observed the Ceremonies of the Law and paid his tribute unto Caesar and yet their rage and malice against him was full of cruelty because he laid open their grosse hypocrisie and condemned their vain traditions and because he discovered the unfaithfulness of their hearts and the evil of their wayes Such was the wilful blindness of their Rabbies that they would not know Christ nor acknowledge him to be the Messiah that was promised though his doctrine was most pure and powerful and his life sutable thereunto though he had wrought many great miracles among them and though most of their prophets had so plainly fore-told of him which was fulfilled in their dayes for they stumbled at his low condition of life and could not see the excellencies and great worth that was in him Though the wicked Jews did use opprobrious words and blasphemous speeches against our sweet Saviour and though they did disdainfully abuse him and unjustly sought matter against him by false witnesses that they might accuse him before the Romane Governour to put him to death yet he did shew divine patience and gave not the least word of offence to his enemies notwithstanding they did thus strongly provoke him to it If we doe well consider this it will teach us by the example of our gracious Saviour how to demean our selves when we are under the like sufferings Also it will keep us humble minded and lowly not to be puffed up with spiritual pride as the high Priest was for then we shall give the devil great advantage against us he will blind our understandings that we cannot rightly discern that which is holy and just and he will infect our hearts with hypocrisie so that others shall be seduced and beguiled by our outward shew of godlinesse whereas there is no sincerity in our hearts and at last our feigned holinesse will be discovered e 2 Tim. 3. 5 because we content our selves with a form of godliness and regard not to have the power of it in our lives and conversations Who were so proud of their outward holiness as the Scribes and
also defend us from all the delusions of worldly vanities and of our own sinful lusts howsoever the world the flesh or the Devil shall tempt us for it will preserve and keep us from the evil of their temptation Consider now that God who can bring good out of evil and can make all things work together for the good of his servants made Peters fall to be a means of exceeding great good unto him for thereby he did see the weakness of his Faith to keep him from presumption also unsuspâ—cted dangers to keep him from security he did see the malice and subtilty of the Devil to make him more careful and watchful over himself and he was the better able by his own experience to comfort and strengthen his brethren in their slips and falls but above all it made him love Christ his dear Lord with more intâ—re affections and to stick closer unto him for the time to come and to be more couragious in his cause Thus God turned the evil which the Devil intended for Peters hurt and made it conduce to hâ—s great good and thus also will he turn away the evil of our sins and of our temptations and the evil of our sorrows and sufferings and will make them advance his own glory and to be profitable to us if we can bath our sins in our penitentiall teares as Peter did Now we come to consider more fully how the divell went to work to make Peter fall so fearfully surely the instruments which he used were but the high Priests servants the words which they spake to Peter were of no great consequence they were neither threatning nor terrifying which in themselves could not so much afright him neither was it onely the sudden fear of danger or those wicked suggestions of the divel though they did work much upon him to make him doubt of the Deity of Christ now he saw him so contemptibly used of the Priests and Elders that made Peter fall so dangerously for he was in more danger of his life but a little before and yet he was not daunted but the divell knew that Peter was of an hot fiery spirit and violent in his passions which would easily make him say he knew not what and therefore he did chiefly work upon them which would transport him beyond the bounds of his reason and understanding and also beyond the bounds of grace and godlinesse All that went before were but as engines of warre which he fitted and prepated for this great battery By his suggestions he did undermine Peters faith and confidence in Christ to make way that fear might take the greater hold upon him that so he might by degrees bring him to such an hight of passion as should over-power his reason understanding faith and all spiritual grace that was in him and thus he brought him to deny to forswear and to abjure his dear Saviour even with execrations whom he knew to be now about the great work of mans salvation When Jesus was transfigured upon Mount Tabor t Mar. 9. 6. Peter spake he wist not what for sudden fear carried him beside himself Also when Jesus shewed his Disciples what he should suffer at Jerusalem u Mat. 16. 21 22 23. Peter began to rebuke him for it for he was carried beyond the bounds of modesty and sobriety with a preposterous zeal and a secret pride which the divell did stir up in him Thus was the violence of Peters passions the immediate cause of his downfall because they did exceed moderation and were not regulated according the holy will of God Thus also did the devill go to work with us to bring us to perditiou first he will set upon us with his subtile wiles and delusions then he will labour to undermine our faith and trust in God by his evill suggestions and wicked stratagems that we should not wait upon God for his help and succour in our distresses that we should not depend upon his Providence for relief and comfort in our wants and necessitiâ—s and that we should not rest upon him and upon his mercy in Christ for our salvation If all this will not serve his turn to bring us to confusion then he will assault us with feares and doubtings to disquiet the peace of our consciences he will frighten us with troubles and dangers for the profession of the Truth he will make us doubt of the Wisdome of God to direct us in all our affairs that we may trust to our own Wisdome with our God he will make us doubt of his power to deliver us when we are in any straits as he did Peter to make us trust to secondary meanes without God or else to use unlawfull meanes for our safety and he will make us doubt of the mercy and love of God when we feel the smart of his rod or the anguish of our spirits for our sins to make us think that God hath forsaken us that he hath cast us out of his favour and that there is no hope of comfort for us that so he may bring us into despair How was holy Job terrified with these doubts and feares in his afflictions Job 7. 13 25. when his bed did not comfort him his couch did not ease his complaint and when his soul chose strangling and death rather than his life thus it was also x Psal 77. with Asaph and others If all other meanes fail then the divell will work upon our passions and personall infirmities and he will kindle such a fire there as will devour our reason and understanding as will mislead our zeal and the affections of our hearts and will carry us beside our selves and beyond the limits of Piety and goodnesse If he meeteth with such men as will give way to their passions he will easily inflame them with fury and rage beyond all moderation or else heâ— will drive them down into discontent and despair which is very hardly recovered But by the wisedome of the Spirit of God we shall discover and escape his wiles and delusions by the power of grace we shall withstand his wicked suggestions by vertue of a good conscience we shall stand upright in the fear of troubles and dangers y Rom. 1. 1. 20. and the strength of our faith in Christ will carry us on cheerfully through all afflictions crosses and sorrowes and it will confirm our trust and confidence in God so that we shall find this of David to be true z Psal 22. 4 5. They that trust in the Lord shall be delivered out of all their troubles and shall not be confounded a 2 Kin. 1â— 5. Hezekiah was delivered from Senacheribs great Army because he trusted in the Lord. If Peter had trusted in his Lord and Master Christ Jesus whom he knew to be the Son of God he had never fallen so dangerously as he did Faith will also bring us to the true fear of God which will enable us to over-power and
suppresse the violence of our passions though we be naturally inclined thereunto Lastly Faith will strengthen us against all doubtings and distrust when Gods corrections are upon us b Heb. 12. 6 7. for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth If we endure chastening God dealeth with us as with sons Thus saith Eliphaz to Job c Job 5. 17. Behold happy is the man whom God correcteth therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty Why then should we mistrust the love and favour of God when we are under his visitation Why do we not put more confidence in his power to defend us more trust in his care to preserve us and more hope in his promises to save and deliver us from our enemies and out of troubles and dangers Wherefore if we do piously meditate upon these things it will be a great strengthening to our Faith and exceeding comfortable to our souls in all our temptations sorrows and sufferings Consider in the next place that as Christ appointed the crowing of the Cock to be Peters remembrancer of his sin so likewise God in much mercy hath many waies to put us also in minde of our sins and to call us to speedy repentance for them which we ought with all care and diligence to mark and observe If God doth forbear and suffer us to go long unpunished for our offences d Rom. 2. 4. his goodnesse herein should lead us to repentance But if he doth give us any check of conscience or layeth any affliction upon us they are as so many warnings to make us remember our sins with grief of heart and to bring us to repent of them that we may escape the evill which otherwise our sins would bring upon us But when the holy Ghost doth touch our hearts as he did Peters he will work with unresistible power to make us think upon our sins with godly sorrow with true contrition and compunction of spirit with hatred and detestation of them he will make us confesse and acknowledge them before God and earnestly to crave the forgivenesse of them by Faith in Christ and to have an holy assurance of it by our true and sound repentance But if we remember our former sins with delight and approbation we sin them over again and this remembrance is sinfull and it proceedeth from our corrupted nature and not from grace which will never bring us to forsake them or to repent of them When Peter came to himself and remembred his unthankfulnesse to his Lord and Master and did see from whence he was fallen he was wounded to the very soul and presently went out to seek a place where he might ease the grief of his heart with his bitter teares Consider now with all pious devotion how dangerous it is and what advantage we give the divell if we reiterate any sins as namely swearing lying uncleanness drunkennesse Sabbath-breaking or the like for it will fasten the guilt of that sin closer to our souls which will not be removed without bitter teares but will press us down to the pit of destruction Consider also that great and crying sins require loud cryes deep sighs and grones and many teares which we cannot pour forth untill we do abandone all our wicked and lewd companions and all former occasions that did intise or provoke us thereunto and untill Christ doth look upon us and touch our hearts with his Spirit to let us know that he doth take notice of them e 1 Cor. 16. 13. We should therefore watch and stand fast in the faith that we depart not from Christ but support our faith with stedfast hope and assurance that he will stablish us with his free Spirit never to fall away from him totally and finally But thou wilt say as sometimes Peter did that though thou shouldst dye with Christ yet thou wilt never deny him nor forsake him but do not trust too much to thine own strength though thou art in the State of grace for if Christ doth not uphold thy faith the power of Satans temptations will prevail against thee thine own heart will deceive thee and the devill will be too cunning for thee f Ezech. 33. 31. Thou maist honour Christ with thy lips and yet in heart thou maist deny him for if the power of a Christian life goeth not along with thy outward profession thou dost then dishonour his holy Name dost forsake Him in thy heart If there be such unfaithfulnesse in thee to Christ thy Saviour and if there be such hypocrisie hidden under a fair profession then every rumour of trouble or danger for Christ every alluring vanity and every delightfull sin will make thee turn aside from him g Psal 78. 57. like a deceitfull bow because thy heart is not well seasoned with grace to make thee stand firm and stedfast unto Christ and to his truth against all opposition If this be thy fidelity to thy Saviour and if thou dost repose so little confidence in him then surely he will not regard thee though thou dost howle and call unto him day and night when thou art in any distresse or misery The Lord complaineth of his own people h Hos 7. 14 that they had not cryed unto him with their heart when they howled upon their beds for they did still rebell against him Wherefore let there be truth and sincerity in thy heart that thy heart and thy tongue may go together in thy Prayers in thy vowes and in all thy services to God and man let thy heart and thy hand go together in thy almes to the poor and in all thy works of charity for if thy heart be not faithfull to God thy best services and duties cannot be accepted Also keep thy heart closely knit to Christ by faith and then he will cast an eye of mercy upon thee as he did upon Peter if at any time through humane weaknesse or upon the violence of any passion or strong temptation thou shalt fall away from him Thy heart is that which Christ requireth for thus he saith by Solomon My son give me thy heart i Prov. 23. 26. give not thy heart therefore to the pleasures and vanities of the world nor to carnall lusts and delights but onely unto God Now Meditate seriously upon all the circumstances of Peters fall and thou wilt find thy self likewise subject to the like provocations and to the like frailties and failings and learn instruction thereby not to be secure because dangers and temptations do every where attend thee and not to presume upon thine own strength for that will not preserve thee but labour to be well rooted in the truth and well grounded in the faith and love of Christ and then no spirituall enemy shall prevail against thee and the cunning stratagems of the divell shall not hurt thee no fear of perills and dangers shall make thy faith in Christ to fail and no afflictions or troubles shall
further to what height of impiety the spiteful and malicious Jews are brought u Mat. 27 24. Pilate washed his hands in water before he gave sentence against Christ in token as he thought that he was innocent of the guilt of his blood because he knew him to be a just person but the Jewes drowned themselves in the blood of that immaculate Lamb and said Let his blood be on us and on our children O what a burden is innocent blood to the conscience What fearful judgements did they pull down upon themselves and upon their posterity hereby David found this to be true when he did unjustly shed the innocent blood of Vriah â— 2 Sam. 11. for x Psal 51. this fact of his cost him many a tear before he coul get assurance of pardon for it How severe was the punishment that God laid upon Cain for killing his brother Abâ—l and yet these wretched Jewes did wish that the most precious blood of Christ the eternall Son of God might lye upon them and upon their children to which God in justice did say Amen That blood which was the blood of the New y Heb 9 20 Covenant and sealeth redemption to all that do apply it to themselves by faith is made a most heavy curse to the Jewes for their unbelief and it doth rest upon their posterity even to this day because they did despise it and most maliciously trampled it under their feet for they rejected him and would not believe in him for their salvation but preferred a murtherer before him which made their sin the more odious in Gods eye Wherefore let the thoughts and the Meditations of our hearts be how to moderate and suppresse our rash and raging passions that they break not out to wicked wishes or impious execrations to our own hurt or to the hurt of another but specially concerning blood lest God that heareth in heaven should say Amen to it for then the guilt of that sin will lye heavy upon us and the evill which we have unadvisedly wished will be grievous to them except we do speedily repent that God in mercy may forgive us We should therefore set a continuall watch before our lips that we speak nothing against themselves or to the hurt of another for God in his justice may bring the same evil upon us which we have wished either to our selves or to others but we ought to accustome our selves to blessing and not to cursing to wholesome speeches that may tend to edification and not to mischievous words that tend to destruction and then God in mercy will say Amen to it Now observe and mark what barbarous cruelly the Gentiles did use against our dear Saviour for as soon as he was condemed z Mar. 15. 15. they scourged him without limitation of stripes so that this of the Psalmists was verified in Christ a Psal 129. 3. The plowers plowed upon my back they made long their furrows whereas the Jews were limited by the Law of God to fourty stripes When Christ was thus b Deut. 25 3 cruelly scourged then Pilate delivered him to be crucified c Mat. 27. and then the savage Gentiles did mock and deride him they did spit upon him they crowned him with thornes and smote him on the head with a read and then they led him away to be crucified This was a dolefull spectacle and able to make a deep impression of tender compassion in any Christian heart to see a righteous man thus miserably tortured but much more to see the onely begotten Son of God thus dishonoured and thus shamefully used with as much disgrace and shame as they could devise But such inhumanity did reign in their murthering mindes and such cruell deeds were acted with their bloody hands that nothing could swage their malice and cruelty and nothing could mollifie their stony hearts or melt them into compassionate pitty because they were given up to a reprobate minde But let our hearts be touched with a true sense of our Saviours sufferings and with a godly sorrow and compunction for our sins when we ruminate and ponder in our thoughts how unjustly our blessed Redeemer was condemned and how cruelly he was used for our sakes for Gods controuersie was against us and not against his dear Son But because he of his tender love and compassion stept in between Gods fierce wrath and us which he knew was too heavy for us to bear and took upon himself the guilt of our sins and because the desire of his soul was to reconcile us to God his Father he was willing that so much of Gods severe wrath as in justice was due to us for our transgressions should light upon himself which he did meekly undergo to free us from it If we are thus affected when we do seriously think upon the passion of our Saviour Christ it will make us hate our sins with a perfect hatred it will pull down our proud and haughty spirits it will make us thankfully to acknowledge our unworthinesse of so great love from him and it will bind us in a firm bond of love and obedience to him then Christ will commiserate and pitty us in our sorrowes and will comfort us in our sad condition But alas we take no pleasure in such dolefull Meditations we are not feelingly affected with our Saviours tedious and bitter passion and therefore we cannot bring it home to our selves by faith neither can we raise up the affections of our hearts hereunto because we are not perswaded that he suffered more than his humane nature could have born if it had not been supported by his Deity neither do we faithfully believe that what he suffered was for our redemption as it was for all the elect of God and therefore we can draw no spirituall comfort from thence to our souls These sad contemplations are not sweet to our taste they are not delightfull to our corrupted nature nor pleasing to our carnall desires for we had rather go to the house of feasting than to the house of mourning our love to Christ is not so firm and our faith in him is not so strong as to make our mindes constant in these heavenly Meditations which are most profitable for the good of our souls If we find such obduracy in our hearts so little grace in our affections and that our unregenerate part is so prevailing in us that we can take no pleasure to Meditate on the bitter passion of Christ as if he were not to be pitied we may justly condemn our selves of too much ingratitude for his great love to us and we cannot then expect any compassion from him in our afflictions and miseries If we look upon a Kings onely Son and see him suffer all kind of rebuke and shame by rebells and traitors and all kinde of torturings and tormentings for no offence given shall we not pity his miserable condition And shall we not think upon his miseries with sad
blasphemous words and cruell torments upon the crosse even to the pouring out of his very heart blood to purge and cleanse us from the guilt and from the filth of all our sins and that he suffered whatsoever the malice and power of the devill could inflict upon him and also that for the time his Divine nature did refuse to minister comfort to his humanity in these his bitter torments what thankfulnesse then do we ow to our dear Saviour for his wonderfull love to us What can be too dear for him that did account nothing too dear for us what duty what reverence and fear do we ow unto him who hath paid so great a price for our redemption Our best expressions of love and duty are no way answerable to that which Christ hath deserved and which we are Sound to perform unto him yet if they come from a willing minde and from a sincere heart Christ our Saviour will accept them and out of his fulnesse will supply what is wanting in us and God will be well pleased with it for his sake Here is much matter of heavenly comfort for us if our hearts can devoutly Meditate upon it and receive it Our life may be full of misery and our hearts full of sadnesse and perplexity our faith may be so weak that we can have no apprehension of the love and favour of God and our spirits may be so cast down that we cannot raise them up towards heaven we may be pressed with troubles crosses and sorrowes beyond our strength and the light of Gods countenance may be so eclipsed that we can see no token of his grace and favour to sweeten the bitternesse of our sufferings and to support us under the pressure of them but we are ready to faint and to cast off all hope of relief and comfort b Psal 42. 11. but for all this we need not fear our souls need not be disquieted within us for if we wait on God he will be our present help he will be our God and he will not forsake us The brightnesse of his countenance may be darkened for a few hours as it was with the Sun at this very same time c Mal. 4. 2. but the Sun of righteousnesse will again appear to us with healing in his wings then we shal see the salvation of the Lord if we can look up with the eye of faith to our sweet Saviour who was brought to a lower degree of spirituall desertion in the apprehension of his humane nature thn we can be and yet he found a return of the gracious aspect of his Fathers countenance toward him whereby he hath sanctified and sweetned whatsoever can betide us to sink our spirits or to shake our faith and confidence in God If our ear is spiritually bored to hear those dolefull and lamentable words which our Saviour uttered upon the crosse when he was ready to yeild up his Spirit to God his Father and yet apply them to our selves by faith we may then draw vertue and power from them to strengthen our faith and to support our hope in the assurance of his love that he will not bring us to so low a degree of spiritual desertion because our weaknesse will not bear so great a tryall but will make us to hold out to the end by the Almighty power of his eternall Spirit Now learn O my sorrowful soul so to imprint the crucifying of thy dear Saviour in thy heart by faith that thou maist draw grace and vertue from thence to crucifie all thy corruptions and the evill concupiscence of thy flesh that thine affections may not be carried after worldly vanities that thine eyes may not delight to gaze upon obscene spectacles that thine eares may be dull to unsavory speeches but swift to hear words that tend to edification and that thy tongue may have no motion to utter any thing that is dishonourable to God or hurtfull to thy neighbour d Gal. 6. 14. Thus by the power of Christ crucified the world shall be crucified to thee and thou unto the world if thou dost truly believe that he was crucified for thee because it will dull the edge of thine affections to all earthly things it will work in thee an hatred and detestation of all sinfull pleasures and thou wilt dayly labour and e Col. 3. 9. Eph. 4. 22. strive to mortifie the old man of sin that hath had his habitation in thy bosome above these threescore years In thy first creation thou wert a lovely creature beloved of thy God without spot or blemish in soul or in body thou wert beautified and adorned with all graces and holy vertues reverenced and obeyed of all other creatures here upon earth and the celestiall orbs did cast no evill aspects upon thee but now thou art deformed with sin thou art polluted in all the faculties of thy soul and in all the parts of thy body for thou art spiritually blinde naked and void of all goodnesse thou art deaf and dumb to heavenly things thou art lame and impotent and canst not walk in the paths of righteousnesse also thou art so bent and bowed to the earth that thou canst not raise up thy heart toward heaven and so full of spirituall diseases and infirmities that there is no sound part in thee But this is thy comfort O my soul that the blood of thy crucified Redeemer which was spilt upon the crosse will take away all thy deformities of sin and will heal all thy spiritual diseases and his righteousnesse will make thee lovely in the sight of God If this be our condition by nature if we are thus deformed with the guilt of sin that cleaveth to our souls by our fall in Adam and if we have no meanes to regain our first happinesse in Adams first innocency but by Christ and to be cleansed from all our sins but by his blood then our chief care must be how to injoy Christ and how to have this great benefit by his blood If we are ingrafted into him by faith we shall injoy him in his whole nature as he is God and Man we shall partake with him in all his excellencies and graces he will work a new creation in us by his Spirit and a thorough change in all the faculties of our souls and in all the affections of our hearts that no sin shall cleave to our souls for our condemnation for he will also nail the the guilt of all our sins to his crosse upon which he shed his most precious blood to make an attonement for them all He will also take away the stains and filth of our sins by his sanctifying grace and holy Spirit and will put upon us the robe of his own righteousnesse which will cover all our deformities and will make us amiable and lovely in the sight of God By the merit of Christs blood our sins shall never be laid to our charge by the power of his death we are made able
other so likewise there were two thieves crucified with e Luk. 1â— 34. Christ and he had compassion on the one but he rejected the other for he bestowes his grace upon whom he will and when he pleaseth There is no person so vile no condition so base and no time so late as to hinder Christ from shewing mercy to a poor sinner that is truly sensible of his misery and feels the burden of his sinâ— and doth humbly acknowledge his miserable condition and his unworthinesse to him and doth earnestly sue for his grace and favour with a broken and a contrite heart as this Malefactor did Also Christ will not refuse those that renounce themselves and their own merits and rest onely upon his righteousnesse by faith for their justification also upon the merite of his death for the pardon of their sins and for the salvation of their souls for his promises of grace and mercy are made to such as sigh and mourn for their transgressions Now examine thy condition with a faithfull heart art thou a malefactour and a grievous sinner against God Doth the guilt of thy sins presse heavy upon thee Dost desire from thy heart to be eased of that burden Is the remembrance of them bitter unto thee though it be when thou art weak and faint and ready to give up the ghost Then look up to Christ with the eye of Faith confesse thy sins unto him with a penitent heart and if thine ear be spiritually opened thou wilt then hear a gracious and mercifull answer from him to thy Petitions and if thou wilt diligently search the Scriptures thou wilt find some promises of grace which will sute with thy condition that Christ hath made to such as thou art which thou must apply to thy fainting soul by true faith and stedfast hope that it belongeth unto thee then rest upon it with a firm confidence to comfort thee in the assurance of thy reconciliation unto God which will take away the evill of all thy sorrowes and the terrour of death it self which to a naturall man is most uncomfortable and death is most fearfull and terrible to such as see the hand-writing of God against them for as they have lived in sin without repentance so they dye with the guilt of sin upon their souls without forgivenesse This Act of Christ in the conversion of this poor sinner was extraordinary and it was a speciall work of mercy to manifest his power and goodnesse to him even at the last hour when he had no hope and no meanes of his salvation and when he was upon the Crosse expecting death every moment and also it was to shew that he is no respecter of persons and that he is not limited to time or meanes when or how to work repentance in the heart of a dejected sinner or to save any that come unto him with an upright heart and sincere affections though it be immediatly before they go hence and shall be seen no more For it doth not appear that this man had ever any knowledge of Christ or any opportunity to come unto him or any means of grace before this time or that he did wittingly and wilfully defer the time of his salvation or neglect the means of grace to the last hour or desperately reserve the hope of his Redemption to the time of his death But though it were late before this Malefactor was converted or had any true saving grace wrought in him or before he did believe in Christ yet his faith was true f Luk. 23. 41. and he made a good confession of his sins and did justifie the innocency of Christ in that instant of time when none of his friends durst speak in his cause and his Apostles either doubted or seemed to stagger in their faith of his Divinity Also this mans conversion was at such a time as that he could neither be baptized nor have further time for the amendment of his sinfull life Here is much matter of Spirituall comfort if we duly consider how powerfull true faith is to prevail with Christ in all our troubles sorrowes and necessities for if we rest and depend upon him and if our hope and confidence be onely in him let our condition of life be what it will he will not deceive us in our hope nor leave us without support and comfort also if he findeth faith and truth in our hearts he will deny us no good thing that we crave of him be it never so great or begged never so late for this poor sinner begged heavenly happinesse at the very last hour of his life when he had no time to expresse any thankfulness for so great a blessing and yet he had his request granted But this particular Act of Christs mercy makes no generall rule for remission of sins to those that do wilfully defer their repentance and turning to God to the last and worst part of their lives not that Christ is not alwayes ready to receive the truly humbled and repenting sinner but because late repentance is seldome sound God will not bestow this heavenly grace at their pleasure who do willingly neglect the meanes of grace and lose the opportunity that God hath given them for it and do rather choose to continue still in their sins than to leave and forsake them and to turn to the Lord with all their heart and with all their soul We cannot but dayly see what meanes the Lord useth to bring us unto Christ and to make us get an holy assurance of the pardon of our sins through him by true repentance his Law doth shew us the deformity of our sins and what we have justly deserved thereby which is a forcible means to drive us unto Christ by him to have Redemption from the curse of the Law the sense of our sins and the anguish of our Spirits for them are strong motives to make us seek to our crucified Redeemer that they may be washt away in his blood which he shed upon the crosse Also the smart of his rod in our troubles sorrowes and afflictions are speciall means which God is pleased to use to bring us to repentance but specially if we finde by the manner of his visitation that it is for some particular sins which we have committed we ought then speedily to repent of them and to seek after the blood of Christ to apply it to our selves by faith that the guilt of such sins may not cleave to our souls and consciences but that those spiritual wounds which they have made in us may be quickly healed before they come to putrid sores and ulcers and we may have a true assurance hereof by our repentance If repentance be truly wrought in us there will be such an holy change in all the faculties of our souls in all the affections of our hearts and in all the parts of our bodies that the corruptions of our Nature and the sinfull lusts of our flesh will be mortified and
resurrection whereof the earthly Paradise was but a shadow i Psal 16. 1. 1. This blessed place is in the presence of God where we shall have fullnesse of joy and it is at Gods right hand where there are pleasures for evermore k Exod. 34. 6. Thus is Christ abundant in goodnesse and in truth if we have but little comfort in this short time of our life yet when we come to the end of our dayes we shall have fulnesse of joy in the Paradise of God together with Christ our Saviour for evermore Wherefore though this life be full of vexations and troubles the meditation and hope of heavenly happinesse which we shall hereafter injoy to all eternity will sweeten the bitternesse of all our momentany afflictions and tribulations Now comfort thy self O penitent sinner if thou art so cast down in the apprehension of thy sins that thou darest not come into the presence of God in regard of Divine justice l Luk. 18. 13. or lift up thine eyes unto heaven with the poor Publicane to crave what thou wantest or desirest because thou hast justly incurred his high displeasure by thy manifold transgressions yet be not disheartned faint not but come cheerfully to Christ with true faith and firm confidence to be received for he will open a Fountain to thee from whence all Divine mercy floweth and thou wilt find him alwayes ready and willing to accept of thee make thy condition therefore truly known unto him put up thy prayers and supplications to him and though thou desirest but a drop of comfort yet he will give thee abundant consolation in what thou sufferest and much more than thou desirest By the example of this Malefactor we may draw holy Meditations upon the Divine Nature of true faith for our instruction and comfort for it looketh beyond the eye of reason and above the reach of nature it maketh us evidently to apprehend that which our reason or naturall capacity cannot shew us and it will make us believe in hope even against hope that which is impossible to nature and incredible to humane reason This miserable sinner had no reason to believe in Christ and to confide in him for his salvation for we do not read that ever he heard his preaching or saw any of his miracles but he saw him now ready to dye an ignominious and cursed death upon the crosse and he heard him thus reviled m Mat. 27. 39. If thou be the Son of God come down from the crosse Also he heard him mocked in this manner by the chief Priests and Elders He saved others himself he cannot save if he be the King of Israel let him come down from the crosse and we will believe in him He trusted in God let him deliver him now if he will have him for he said I am the Son of God Though these and the like blasphemous words were spoken in derision against him which were sufficient in all reason to keep back this Malefactor from trusting in him yet the holy Ghost did so work upon his heart that he did faithfully believe that Christ was the Son of God that he was the King of Israel that he had saved others and therefore he could save him also which made him to apply himself to Christ for comfort and for his salvation and in his addresses to him he came with all modesty and humble submission he gave him all due honour and reverence as much as he was then able to expresse and then he made this humble suite and supplication to him and no sooner was his request made but it was granted because Christ did see truth and sincerity in his heart and integriry in his expressions We may observe from hence for our instruction and consolation that the holy Ghost can work the conversion of a sinner either without meanes or by contrary meanes he doth sometimes work very strangely upon the will and upon the affections of the heart for Christ was now preached by his deadly foes out of scorn and mockery n Phil. 1 15 as there were some in Pauls time that did preach Christ even of envy and strife others of love and good will yet the Spirit of God did so enlighten the understanding of this sinfull man and did so work upon his will and so seasoned his heart with saving grace that he received holy instruction thereby and what the enemies of Christ did speak in his disgrace he did apply it to himself to confirm him in the truth of his Divinity which made him stick close to him by faith when he was in the lowest degree of his humiliation his faith made him rest upon Christ and upon his promise above the strength of nature and contrary to all humane reason If he had seen the glory of Christ in his transfiguration upon Mount Tabor and if he had seen some of his great miracles or had heard his Divine Doctrine and powerful Preaching his faith had not seemed so great but now he did see him onely upon Mount Calvary nailed to his crosse as the worst of Malefactors are and rejected of his own nation so that to the outward eye he appeared nothing else but a pitiful spectacle of woful misery and yet this penitent sinner did expresse an admirable faith in the pangs of a cruell and violent death though his faults had been intolerable in his dissolute life for nothing but faith could move him to honour and reverence Christ now he was in this sad condition and to sue unto him to be remembred in his Kingdome By the eye of his faith he did see in Christ more than humane meeknesse and patience in his sufferings undaunted courage above the strength of nature to go thorough with all constancy those torturings and torments which with all cruelty and malice were inflicted upon him and he did see some glympse of Divine mercy in him when he heard him pray so graciously for his persecutors and tormentors and for those that put him to death In the last place ponder well in thy heart upon the mercifull answer of Christ to this penitent Malefactor Verily I say unto thee To day thou shalt be with me in Paradise whereby he did shew his power to forgive sins upon earth Thus he said to the sick of the palsie o Mar. 2. 5â— 10. Son thy sins are forgiven thee and hereby also he did shew that he had power to dispose of heaven at his own pleasure p Mat. 28. 18. for all power was given to him both in heaven and in earth therefore he did assure this Petitioner that though his body did now suffer the torments of a cruell death yet his soul should live and presently injoy a most happy and blessed condition in the Paradise of God and in the mansions of heaven to all eternity which place q John 14. 2. Christ hath prepared for his servants We shall meet with labour and toil troubles and crosses in this
6â— Before I was afflicted saith he I went astray but now have I kept thy word Also he saith g Psal 23. 4 Thy rod and thy staffe they comfort me and then he concludes thus h Psal 94. 12 Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest O Lord. This exhortation the wise man giveth i Prov. 3. 11 12. My Son despise not the chastening of the Lord neither beweary of his correction for whom the Lord loveth he correcteth even as a Father the son in whom he delighteth k Heb. 12. 11. But no chastening for the present seemeth joyous but grievous neverthelesse afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousnesse unto them which are exercised thereby Wherefore we must not measure the love of God by the outward blessings which we injoy nor his displeasure by the crosses which we suffer Consider now that none could ever claim greater priviledge from afflictions and sorrowes than the Virgin Mary and none was ever more to be honoured upon earth than she for she did bear Christ the only Son of the eternal God in her blessed womb who had the command of all creatures in heaven and in earth and who was the fountain of all true consolation and she injoyed the comfort of his sacred society many years and yet she had her cares she had her sorrowes her whole life was full of afflictions wants and necessities she was put to great extremities when Christ was born soon after she fled into Egypt for the safety of her Sons life she lost him three dayes at Jerusalem and at that time she sought him with a sorrowfull heart But above all behold and see how her soul is now pierced thorough with grief for she must now lose his gracious company for ever she now beholds him upon the Crosse she seeth how his tender body is rent and torn with the thornes and with the whip how his hands and feet are nailed to the Crosse as if he had been a notorious malefactor and she hears the revilings and blasphemies that were uttered against him in a most shameful spiteful manner which was enough to break her sorrowfull heart but especially she did see his very heart blood gush out of his side which was pierced with a spear This was the wofull and lamentable condition of the blessed Virgin at this time but Christ gave her inward comfort and strength of faith answerable to the greatnesse of her sorrowes which did uphold her heart from fainting and her soul from sinking This may be the condition of any of Gods servants they may be oppressed and pressed down with temporall miseries they may drink deep in the bitternesse of them but yet they are freed from the curse that was upon them and there is nothing in them to hurt their souls for that is taken away by these sufferings of Christ which makes the burden of them more easie that they may bear it with a willing minde When our afflictions are thus sanctified we shall find the fruit and benefit that comes thereby to be very sweet and profitable so that we shall have good cause to rejoice under them for as our sorrowes and sufferings do abound so also grace shall superabound l 2 Cor. 1. 5. and as the sufferings of Christ abound in us so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ Consider yet further that as the holy Virgin was continually exercised under the Crosse and had her share in common calamities so likewise she had her particular cares of want and scarcity for her condition of life was but mean and her livelihood was but small therefore she was now like to be left destitute of all comfort relief and succour But Christ her beloved Son takes care of her he provides as well for the maintainance of her body as for the comfort of her soul and commends her to John his beloved Disciple m John 19. 26 27. Woman saith he to his Mother behold thy Son and to John he said Behold thy Mother And from that hour John took her unto his own home and provided for her during her life Thus was the blessed Virgin trained up in the school of affliction and sorrow to keep her from spirituall pride though she were honoured and blessed above all other women and that her minde should not be drawen away after the pomp and vanitis of the world but still to bear Christ in her heart as sometimes she did bear him in her wombe It was also to free her from all earthly cares that the meditations of her heart might be alwayes heavenly and that the desire of her soul might be to be with Christ This care Christ will have to provide whatsoever is needfull for all those that belong unto him for he best knoweth what is good for us and he will not suffer us to want if we put our trust in him We need not carke and care for the transitory things of this life which are given to the wicked as well as to the godly We need not distrust the wise Providence of God but we may confidently rest upon Christ for he will support and comfort us in our tribulations and will provide for us in our wants and necessities troubles and sorrowes may come upon us losse of Parents Children or Friends will come and casualties may happen in our estate which we would neither foresee nor prevent these and the like will imbitter all the comfort and content that we can finde in this world but if we belong unto Christ we shall never lose him neither can any thing bereave us of the sweet consolation that we shall finde in him This we may believe to be true that our crosses and sufferings in this life may be better for us then to injoy all earthly pleasures and delights Moses refuseth to be called the son of Pharaohs daughter chosing rather to â— Heb. 11. 35 25 26. suffer affliction with the people of God than to injoy the pleasures of sin for a season esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward o Heb. 12. 12 Then lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees Let not outward crosses or afflictions too much seaze upon thee but by faith have respect unto the recompence of the reward and raise up thy Meditations to Spirituall things set the affections of thy heart upon Christ and him crucified which will make thy life comfortable here and will bring thee to reign eternally with him hereafter Now we must learn how to draw true consolation to our souls from this eternal Fountain of comfort when outward calamities or anguish of spirit doth overpresse us Our worldly preferments our natural endowments humane learning or common grace cannot reach this Fountain the well is deep and nothing can reach it but true Faith which is the onely bucket to draw this water of comfort from Christ which will refresh
life Though the soul be thus highly to be prized and far excelleth the body in worth and dignity yet naturall men will pamper and garnish out the body which is every day subject to corruption and change but they suffer their souls to starve for want of spirituall food and to go naked for want of spirituall cloathing whereby they are exposed to the venomous darts of the Divell and to the scorching heat of their sinfull lusts Their souls have no spirituall light to foresee dangers and to shun them they have no heavenly grace to resist the temptations and allurements of the world the flesh and the Divell but what the eye or the eare lets in is willingly received Thus their souls are polluted and unclean and death doth snatch them away because they cannot willingly deliver them up for they have no faith to believe and no assurance to perswade them that God will receive their souls when they are parted from their bodies This is the condition of our souls by nature and so long as they are in this condition God will not receive them and then they must needs be a prey to the Divell u Psal 103 4. But Christ hath redeemed our souls from destruction u 1 Cor. 6. 20. he hath bought us with a great price he hath shed his most precious blood upon the crosse to take away the guilt and filth of our sins Wherefore God may justly claim our whole man both soul and body as his due by a treble right by the right of creation of donation and of purchase x Act. 17. 28 for in him we live and move and have our being y 1 Cor. 4. 7 What have we that we did not receive from God What shall we bequeath unto him in thankfulnesse for all his benefits to us We can do no lesse than devote our selves souls and bodies to him and to his service while we live here and when this life shall be ended to bequeath our precious souls unto him purified and cleansed from all sin in the blood of Christ by faith for nothing can be too pure that is presented to him and nothing can be too dear and precious for him If we bequeath this precious legacy to God in our life-time then he will require it as of right belonging unto him and he will receive it from us at our death This will sweeten the bitternesse of death to us which will put an end to all our sorrowes and this will make us willing to leave this world and desire with Paul to be dissolved because we do stedfastly believe that we shall be with Christ But if we give our selves to worldly vanities to lewd and licencious living and not to the true worship and service of God we shall then be unwilling to part with this life or to look upon death when it comes because we know not to whom it will deliver our poor souls for we cannot comfortably commend them to God when we dye with any hope or good assurance that he will receive them seing they did God no service while we lived What thankfulnesse is it then to commend our souls unto God when we can keep them no longer for the world or for our sinfull delights And what comfort can we have at our death if we have no faith to believe that we shall injoy all happinesse with Christ but rather just cause to fear that the sinfulnesse of our life will bring us to everlasting torments after death It may sometimes fall out that we shall neither have time nor ability to dispose of our souls when we dye as we desire and as we ought for if death comes suddenly upon us by any casualty or otherwise we have then no time to commit our souls unto Gods protection or if we are taken away by some violent or malignant disease which doth distemper our senses and weaken our understanding and reason that we are unfit for this great work we have then no ability to resign up our spirits unto God in an holy way What shall we do then Where is our comfort in death This need not trouble our thoughts if we have formerly in our life had any holy assurance of our union with Christ of our justification by his righteousnesse of our redemption by the merit of his blood and of his death and of his sanctification by the holy Ghost and that we have lived vertuously and piously in the fear of God and have served the Lord our God with a perfect and upright heart in the time of our life for then death cannot come suddenly upon us and no extremity of sicknesse or pain can separate us from Christ nor take away our comfort from our souls at our death because God will receive them up into his holy habitation to abide and dwell with Christ for ever though we have neither time nor ability to commend them unto him Lastly let us zealously meditate for our great comfort upon the bloud and water that gushed out from our Saviours heart after he was dead when his side was pierced with the spear There was bloud to take away the guilt of sin for our justification and there was water to wash away the stains of sin for our sanctification For as our sins were imputed to him as our surety so by faith his righteousnesse is imputed to us and God doth account us just and righteous in his sight for the sake of Christ so likewise by grace we are renewed dayly and sanctified in our lives and conversations Wherefore we should raise up our thoughts and the affections of our hearts to this sanctifying water when we think upon our Baptisme or see that Sacrament celebrated that our hearts may be sprinkled with it by faith to purifie our souls from the leprosie and spots of our sins Also we must set the cogitations of our hearts upon this sacred blood when we feed at the Lords Table that by faith we may be perswaded that Christ did shed his blood and was crucified for us Consider also that though the body of our blessed Redeemer was miserably rent and torn by the cruelty of his enemies yet God would not suffer them to break a bone of him according to this of David z Psal 34. 20 He keepeth all his bones not one of them is broken and though they brake the bones of the two malefactors that were crucified with him yet they brake not a bone of him that the Scripture might be fulfilled a Num. 9. 12. that not a bone of him should be broken God so restrained his bloody enemies that they could do no more than what was decreed and what Christ was willing to suffer for he did not yield to their malice and cruelty but onely in obedience to his Fathers will for a word of his mouth had been sufficient to confound all his tormentours but how then should our redemption be wrought How should the will of God be fulfilled And how
now broken down which was between the Jew and the Gentile and that Christ was as freely given to the one as the other and the merit of his blood was as effectuall for the salvation of the Gentile as it was for the Jew if he were truly received by faith The vail being now rent the Gentile hath free accesse to the Mercy-seat which did typifie the Throne of grace by Christ Long before this God did choose some to be the first fruits of the Gentiles as namely Eliezâ—r of Damascus in Abrahams family Rahab of Jericho Ruth the Moabitesse and Naaman the Syrian with many more Secondly God did hereby shew that now there was an end put to the sacrifices of the Ceremoniall Law because the true Paschall Lambe was slain of whom these sacrifices were but types and shadows and that the Ceremoniall Law was now abrogated c Joh. 4. 22 23. and the true worship and service of God was not confined to Jerusalem or to the Temple but now God might be worshipped in any other place so that it be in spirit and in truth Thirdly we may see the free mercy and goodnesse of God to the Jew and also to the Gentile d Acts 15. 10. for by the death of his Son he hath cased the Jew of the great burden of Ceremonies which neither they nor their fathers were able to bear by putting an end to the Ceremoniall Law and he hath brought the Gentile within the Covenant of grace and hath admitted him into the most holy place for the vail of the Temple which before kept him out is now rent asunder God hath also sanctified every place where he is truly worshipped and served with a pure and upright heart and hath given us as great Priviledges in Christ as he gave to his ancient people the Jews Fourthly by these miraculous signes and wonders God did convince his people of the hardnesse of their hearts and of their wilfull blindnesse who would not see the fulfilling of their ancient Prophesies in Christ nor believe that he was that Messiah which was promised though they could object nothing against it Wherefore their hearts did not relent for their great impiety but the earth and the stony rocks were more sensible than they If we are thus hardned in our sins and thus blinded in our understandings it is a fearfull sign that we are given up to a reprobate minde Fifthly we may hereby see how God made the senselesse creatures to honour his Son at his death though both Jew and Gentile did most spitefully dishonour him in his life Christ honoured his Father while he was living and his Father honoureth him now he is dead by these great wonders and by the Testimony of the Centurion and others who seeing what came to passe said e Mat. 27. 54. Truly this was the Son of God Thus will God honour those that honour him by a vertuous and godly life or by their sufferings in his cause for he will make their innocency to appear and will manifest the truth of their Profession to the honour of his own Name and he will give them immortall glory in the life to come Wherefore if thou art in place of authority honour God by executing judgement and justice without exception of persons if thou art rich honour him in the right use of them and with works of mercy to the poor and needy if thou art poor be content with thy condition If thou hast children honour God in their good education teach them the fear of the Lord and let thy verteous life and good conversation be an example of piety to them Also if thou hast a family command thy children and servants to keep the way of the Lord to walk in his Statutes and to do righteously that the Lord may bring a blessing upon thee and upon thy house If thou art under the crosse honour God with thy patience hope and confidence in him whatsoever thy condition be honour him with thy thankfulnesse Sixthly God doth give us to understand by the trembling of the earth and by the renting of the rocks how powerfully the holy Ghost doth sometimes work upon our hearts at our first conversion to bring us to repentance f Acts 9. as he did at the conversion of Paul g Acts 16. and at the conversion of the Jailor and of diverse others for though our hearts be naturally as stupid and dull to any thing that is spirituall and heavenly as a lump of earth yet when the holy Ghost works upon them with his Almighty power he will make them quake and tremble and he will put a new Principle of grace into them whereby they shall be changed into a gracious condition and their natural dull and stupid properties shall be made active and ready for every holy duty And though our hearts are by nature as hard as any stone and no way capable of any gracious and heavenly impression yet the Spitit of God will break them in pieces and will mollifie and soften every piece to make it tender and flexible to the will and pleasure of God Wherefore if thou dost find this dulnesse in thine understanding this earthly mindednesse and this stupidity in thine affections that thou hast no will to serve thy God also if there be such obduracy in thy heart that thou canst not lament and mourn for thy sins and thy heart cannot melt into sighing and tears for thy transgressions and if there be such unbelief in thee that thou canst not apply any promise of mercy to thy self and canst have no hope nor assurance of the pardon and forgivenesse of thy sins upon thy repentance and turning unto God then make thy condition known to thy Saviour Christ in all meeknesse of spirit and he will put an holy light into thy understanding by his Spirit he will sanctifie thine affections and season them with grace he will take away thy hard heart of unbelief and will make it more sensible of thy miserable condition and will fit and prepare it for a deeper impression of grace Lastly God doth shew by the opening of the graves that there shall be a generall resurrection of every mans body at the last day when they must appear before the judgement seat of God to give an account of whatsoever they have done in the flesh Though our bodies are lockt up in the grave for thousands of years and though their dust and ashes are scattered abroad with the winde to the utmost parts of the earth yet at the last every grave shall be opened and shall deliver up her dead and every grain of dust shall be gathered together that every man may have his own body to deliver up his account before the great and dreadfull Judge of heaven and earth to receive the just reward of their works the wicked to be thrust down with the devils into everlasting burnings for their evill deeds and for their unbelief but such as belong unto
a spirituall manner because Christ will draw him to himself by his Spirit Thus is Christ also present with us by his grace and holy Spirit to assist and support us to teach and instruct us in what condition soever we be There is the same relation by faith between Christ and us as is between the head and the members and we shall injoy the comfort of this blessed relation by our heavenly Meditations of him for then by his Spirit he is present with us to teach us some heavenly instructions for our edification which we ought carefully to practice that he may be honoured thereby There is no time or place but we may take occasion to Meditate something on Christ for the good and comfort of our souls either as he is our Mediator and Redeemer or as he is our Prophet to teach and instruct us our high Priest to present our Prayers and oblations to God or our King to rule and govern us by his Spirit If we Meditate upon his passion upon his death and buriall he will shew us how low he did humble himself to advance us and it will much comfort us in our afflictions and sorrowes and also it will fit and prepare us for death and for the grave that we may as willingly lye down in the grave where we shall rest in peace as we take our rest and sleep in our beds By these and the like Meditations of Christ we shall injoy his sacred society by his Spirit and he will make us feel true consolation thereby But if we Meditate upon the Exhortation of Christ we must raise our affections up to the highest heavens for there he sitteth at the right hand of God above all principalities and powers and then he will shew us how victoriously he triumpheth over all his enemies and that he hath subdued all the enemies of our salvation to teach us to fear and reverence his sacred Majesty to perform all dutifull obedience to his Commands and to submit to his rule and government And because he is our Advocate with the Father we may come boldly to him in all our wants troubles and necessities Also faithfull Prayer is another speciall means to injoy the comfort of this happy relation and Communion which we have with our Saviour Christ in all conditions of life and upon all occasions whatsoever to give us comfort in all our distresses strength of grace against temptations protection in all dangers and deliverance out of all troubles If our Prayers proceed from a faithfull heart they cannot return without a blessing for they will open Christs rich treasury and whatsoever is there we shall have so much of it as is good for us This kind of prayer will yet reach higher for it will so prevail with Christ that he will open his heart to us and conceal nothing from us that may conduce to an holy and sanctified life here and to the injoyment of eternall blessednesse hereafter If we dayly converse thus with Christ in our Meditations and Prayers we shall have our conversation with him in heaven though we live in a vale of misery here upon earth Now then examine thy self what communion thou hast had with thy dear Saviour hath he walked with thee in the field as he did with Isaack in his Meditations Hath he travelled with thee in the way as he did with the two Disciples as they went to Emmaus Went he into a strange land as he did with Joseph into Aegypt or was he in prison with thee as he was with him and with the Apostles Hast thou had his company in thy bed-chamber or in thy closet as David had Was he in the dungeon with thee as he was w th Jeremiah Hast thou had his company when thou hast been among spoilers as Daniel had among the Lyons and as Paul had when he was in the Lyons mouth And hath he been with thee upon thy sick-bed as he was with Hezekiah Then surely thou hast received some blessing from him then thou hast learned holy instructions of him how to bear thy crosse without murmuring and how to endure thy sufferings with meeknesse of spirit Then also thou hast learned how to pray zealously how to live piously how to fix thy trust and confidence on him and how to set thine affections upon him by the plentifull experience which thou hast had of his goodnesse to thee that so thou maist dye in his love and favour Examine thy self also what sin thou hast killed and buried for if thou dost leave thy sins because thou hast not ability to continue still in them thy sins do leave thee but thou dost not leave them and they are not buried with Christ in his Sepulchre for thou retainest still the remembrance of them with delight and approbation and if thou hadst ability and opportunity thou wouldst be as vicious still as ever thou wert before For unlesse faith had sealed thy union with Christ thou canst have no power from his death to mortifie thy corruptions or to bury thy sins with him neither canst thou live unto righteousnesse and true holinesse Consider in the last place what subtile policy was used to make the Sepulchre sure that the body of Christ might not be stoln away and to prevent his resurrection from the dead for they sealed the Stone and set a watch about the Sepulchre But God did hereby make the truth of his resurrection the more evident to the great comfort of his children and servants but to the perpetuall shame and confusion of his enemies and of such as will not believe it For Gods Decree must stand and nothing can prevail to frustrate his determinate Councell Whatsoever wicked men do vainly imagine or contrive God will bring to passe what he hath decreed for his own glory This is great comfort to the servants of God that are under tyrannicall pressures and can see no means how to be delivered out of their slavery for God will bring about his own purposes and will be honoured in their deliverance to the shame and rebuke of all their enemies Consider also that those malicious Jews could not but be convinced in their consciences that Christ was the Son of God by those strange wonders which they saw at his death and yet they still spit out their blasphemies against him though he were dead and in the presence of Pilate they term him a deceiver Thus it is with wicked men when they are given up to a reprobate minde for there is no end of their wickednesse against God and no end of their malicious and mischievous practises against his servants and against all that professe his Name A brief Summe of the Humiliation of CHRIST CHRIST was in the bosome of the Father from eternity where he was cloathed with fulnesse of Majesty and Glory in the highest heavens and had the Dominion and power over all things both in heaven and in earth but when he was to undertake the Work of our Redemption
which was determined by all the three Persons in the holy Trinity before the world was he laid aside his Glory and humbled himself for that great Work which was decreed in the secret Counsel of God and to be wrought at his appointed time The first degree of Christs Humiliation was that he gave away the manifestation of glory of his Deity which he had with the Father in heaven which was his due from his first incarnation the bright beams whereof were clouded with his humanity for he took upon himself our flesh and was cloathed with our weak and frail nature and was subject to such humane passions and infirmities as might be without sin This was a great degree of Humiliation for the eternall King of glory to leave his glorious mansions in heaven and to come down and be with us men here upon earth and to take up his habitation in an earthly tabernacle which was subject to hunger thirst and heat and cold to pain torment and death it self The second Degree of his Humiliation was that he took upon himself the guilt of our sins and did undertake to fulfill the whole righteousnesse of the Law for us and to satisfie the justice of God for all the sins of his Elect not that his humane nature was polluted or stained with any sin For the holy Ghost did so sanctifie the Virgins wombe that he was conceived and born without Originall sin and he lived without any actuall transgression but our sins were imputed to him and therefore as the Apostle saith a Gal. 3. 13 He was made a curse for us Also b Tit. 2. 14. Christ gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works He gave his body and all the parts of it to the persecutors tormentors he gave his blood to be spilt and his life for the redemption of man he gave his soul to suffer anguish and sorrow c â—sa 53. 10. and to be aâ— of fering for sin also in some sort he gave his Deity by suffering most horrible blasphemies that were cast upon him d Acts 20. 28. and God purchased to himself a Church with his own blood This was a very low abasement of Christ when he left all his glory in heaven and came down to live here upon earth not in the nature of Angels but he cloathed himself with our flesh which was all stained and defiled with the guilt of our sins e Isa 53. 6. for God laid on him the iniquity of us all The third degreee of Christs Humiliation was that he was content with a mean condition of life here upon earth his birth and education was very mean he was exposed to wants and necessities to perils and dangers even from his infancy and after he began his Ministry he had no abiding place f Mat. 8. 20. he had not where to lay his head and he did the office of a servant to his own Disciple g John 13. 5 when he washed their feet for as the Apostle saith h Phâ—l 2. 7. He made himself of nâ— reputation and took upon him the form of a servant Christ continually travelled from place to place to teach the people to heal the sick to cleanse the lepers and to cast out Devils he was often wearied often hungry and often thirsty Thus was his whole life full of sorrowes and full of afflictions and thus low did the eternall Son of God humble and abase himself to advance us and to perfect the work of our redemption Lastly in his passion he was made a scorn to the most abject of all the people and a derision both to Jew and Gentile he suffered both in his soul and in his body as much anguish pain and torment as the power of the divell and the malice of wicked men was able to inflict upon him And as if all this was not sufficient to humble him enough God himself did fiercely assault him for he kept all comfort from him when he was in his greatest extremity and his wrath went along with all his other sufferings When Christ had suffered to the full so much as the justice of God required in satisfaction for all our sins and that the work of our Redemption was perfectly finished then he commended his soul unto God and dyed upon the Crosse according to this of the Apostle i Phil. 2 8. He humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the crosse this kinde of death was most painfull shamefull and accursed Here is a short view of the humiliation of Christ for our weak understandings cannot reach to the depth of that which Christ suffered for us much lesse can we reach to the honour and dignity of his Person in his Divine nature which doth make his sufferings and his Humiliation far the greater If we do seriously meditate upon it with pious affections it will teach us to adore his sacred Majesty with reverence and godly fear to love him with a perfect love to serve and obey him with a pure and upright heart and to suffer any thing for his sake with a cheerfull minde Also if we have gained any grace by the death and passion of Christ it will teach us meeknesse of spirit and humility of minde though we have places of preheminence and authority above other men If God shall bring us down from an high degree to a mean condition of life we shall bear it contentedly because God is the sole disposer of all things and he can raise us to an higher degree if he pleaseth If what we have be too little for us and that we can improve more to the best advantage of Gods glory he will then in his good time bestow more upon us If our life be full of troubles and sorrowes the Humiliation of Christ will teach us k 1 Pet. 5. 6 7 to humble our selves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt us in due time We may safely cast our care upon him for he careth for us l Psal 18. 35 His right hand will hold us up m Psal 17. 5 He will hold up our goings in his paths that our footsteps slip not n Cant. 2. 6. Christ also will put his left hand under our heads and with his right hand he will imbrace us Wherefore if we have this gracious humility of spirit it will produce these and many more blessed fruits to give us comfort in a troublesome and painfull life And when death comes it will be favourable to a meek and humble spirit and well-come to a good conscience if we be thus qualified it will bring us to our graves in peace and then we shall have a joyfull and a blessed resurrection Christ did willingly humble himself to the death for us why should we be unwilling to resign up our life unto him do we know no other happinesse or
up thy spirit thou fainting soul for Christ hath redeemed thy body from the grave and thy soul from death by his Resurrection he hath conquered all the enemies of thy salvation sin hath no condemning power over thee death is advantage to thee hell is lockt up from thee and the Devill himself cannot go beyond his commission for thy hurt Though the world doth frown upon thee h Joh. 16. 33 and thou findest tribulation here yet be of good chear and lift up thy head for Christ hath overcome the world and he will sanctifie all thy tribulations to thee Thou livest here subject to shame and reproach to diseases of body and sorrow of spirit and to all miseries and calamities but death will put an end to all thy labour and travell the grave will refine thy body from all imperfections and diseases and thy resurrection will bring thee to thy reward which is laid up for thee in heaven If the powers of darknesse set themselves in array against thee if the terrours of death assault thee fear not but keep close to the Resurrection of thy Saviour by faith he hath overcome them all and will also subdue them unto thee i Eph â— 30. If thou art a member of his body of his flesh and of his bones thou must be made conformable to him as to thy head as well in his glory as in his shame as well in his resurrection as in his death and buriall If the crosse must try thy strength he will not tire thee with a greater burden than thou art well able to bear If pain or sicknesse brings thee near unto death the faithfull hope of a joyful resurrection will greatly refresh and comfort thy soul for though thy soul must be parted from thy body yet neither thy soul nor thy body shall be parted fuom Christ but thou shalt rise again out of the dust with a spirituall and immortal body to be joyned unto Christ thy head for ever Now think on these things with holy affections and they will minister heavenly comfort to thy soul when thou art in any perplexity of minde or body Consider now to whom Christ appeared after his Resurrection it was first to holy Women who in their pious devotion and love to him came to imbalm his body with spices and sweet odours then he appeared to his Disciples at sundry times and also to many Brethren that they all might be well confirmed in the truth of his Resurrection and of his Deity to comfort them in their sorrowes to uphold them in their sufferings to strenthen their faith against all persecutions and bloody tryals and to be able to strengthen others in the Doctrine of the Resurrection Thus did the holy Apostles testfiie that they had seen the Lord Jesus after he was risen to confirm their Doctrine of his Resurrection But Christ did not appear to any wicked or ungodly men for they could neither believe it nor understand it nor receive any comfort or benefit by it because they have no spirituall eye to discern his glorified body but chiefly because they have no relation to him as their Saviour Christ doth appear to us at this day by his Spirit when he doth manifest to us the truth of his Resurrection by his Word and doth give us grace to apply it to our selves for the confirmation of our faith in the Resurrection of our bodies at the last day But chiefly Christ doth appear to us when by faith we draw vertue and power from his Resurrection to rise from the death of sin to the life of grace when we can raise up the affections of our hearts from earthly and worldly cares to heavenly contemplations and when we can with the wings of faith mount up above the sinfull delights and pleasures of this life and above all the calamities and tribulations that we shall meet with here upon earth to have our conversation in heaven and can draw comfort to our selves in all our sorrowes and miseries from the hope of our resurrection There will also be a day of resurrection to the wicked which will be most sad wofull and miserable to them for they shall not rise with purified and glorified bodies but with filthy ugly and unclean bodies all besmeared with the guilt of sin which will make them odious to look upon and they have no covering to hide their sins but onely the Divels liverey which is a guilty conscience that they may be known to whom they belong For there is no place and no inheritance in heaven for such unclean monsters but they shall be thrust down into the lowest hell to partake with the devil and his angels in their everlasting torments which is the reward of all wicked men for their evill works Of CHRISTS Ascension up into Heaven VVHen Christ had fully instructed his Apostles after his Resurrection in those things which concerned the Kingdom of Heaven and had taught them how to plant his Church here upon earth he was taken up in the sight and view of them all and ascended up into heaven where he sitteth at the right hand of God in fulnesse of Majesty and glory until he shall come again to judge both the quick and the dead whereby Christ is now become our eternall Advocate with the Father to make intercession for us and he is also our eternall high Priest to present our Prayers and oblations to God At his Ascension he carried up our humane nature with him into heaven and hath advanced it above the Angels and above all Principalities and powers also Christ hath taken possession of that heavenly Inheritance which we shall hereafter injoy for he keeps it for us Wherefore now let the thoughts of our hearts be raised up in our holy Meditations to contemplate the transcendent glory of Christ now he is at the right hand of the Father that we may firmly confide in him and have a longing desire to be with him to injoy that place of true blessednesse a John 14. 2 which he hath prepared for us in his Fathers house Also let all our Prayers and sacrifices proceed from an upright and a believing heart that they may be such as Christ will present to his Father for us and then we may confidently believe that God will graciously receive them Here is also great comfort for us that though we sin dayly through humane frailty or through the corruption of our nature b 1 John 2. 1 2. that we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins who will intercede for us and will present the merit of his blood unto him in full satisfaction for all our sins whereof we may have an holy assurance by faith and true repentance If we do faithfully believe that we have such an high Priest and such an Advocate in heaven why do we give our selves liberty in sin to displease him Why do we cherish any darling sin
in our affections Why are our prayers our praises and our thanksgivings so few and so seldome sent up to him Why are they so cold and so dull that they cannot mount up to him And why are our spirituall oblations so full of unbelief Do we think that Christ will intercede for us if we sin wittingly and willingly against God Will he procure our pardon if there be any accursed thing hidden in our hearts Will Christ present our Prayers to God if they proceed out of feigned lips And will he present our duties and services to God if they are performed with unbelieving and deceitfull hearts If we thus conceive of the intercession of Christ we delude our selves and indanger our souls to utter perdition If we did truly believe that Christ hath taken possession of that heavenly inheritance which is prepared for us our souls would be ravished with an holy desire to injoy it we would contemn the vanities of this world in comparison of that and our affections would not be carried after sinfull pleasures afflictions and crosses would not cast down and deject our spirits but we would live chearfully in the midst of all troubles and sorrowes because by faith in Christ we are made heirs of the kingdom of Heaven If that place be so perfectly pure that no unclean thing can enter there we should study to live piously and vertuously to the glory of God while we live in the flesh that we may have a sure hope to injoy it hereafter If a Kings Son that is heir apparent but to an earthly Crown should live like a base peasant and delight in the company of such as are of mean and low degree we wil be ready to say that he is unworthy of such an Inheritance Let us make this our own case and consider to what honour and dignity we are born by our adoption in Christ that we may not live in subjection to every base and sinfull lust as unworthy of that Inheritance which Christ hath prepared for us in the Kingdom of heaven Though our condition â—e mean in this world and our calling such as that we must converse with ungodly people as to the outward man yet the conversation of the inward man may be spirituall and holy c Joh. 17. 15 for Christ hath prayed his Father to keep us from the evill that is in the world that we may imitate here upon earth the blessed Angels and Saints in heaven by glorifying God and by our readinesse to fulfill his will and pleasure Thus saith the Apostle d Col. 3. 1 2 If we be risen with Christ we should seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God and there should our affections be set and not on things on the earth Thus we may have our conversation in heaven thus we may live a spirituall life upon earth and thus we may injoy the sweet communion of the blessed Trinity even in this life for God the Father will be gracious and loving to us in Christ as a Father is to his children God the Son will be righteousnesse sanctification and Redemption to us according to the nature of a Saviour to his elect people and God the holy Ghost will abide with us for ever in all difficulties and dangers according to the nature of a true Comforter A brief summe of the Exaltation of CHRIST IF we look now upon our beloved Saviour we may contemplate his great Exaltation with much joy and gladnesse of heart a Eph. 4. 8. for he is ascended up on high and hath led captivity captive b Rev. 19. 11 12 13 14 15 16. John doth describe him sitting upon a white horse because he doth judge in righteousnesse his eyes were as a flame of fire and on his head were many crownes he was cloathed with a vestare dipt in blood and his name is called the Word of God and the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses and out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword that with it he should smite the nations and he shall rule them with a rod of iron and he treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God and he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written King of kings and Lord of lords c 1 Tim. 6. 15 16. He is the blessed and onely Potentate who onely hath immortality dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto whom no man hath seen or can see d Phil. 2. 9 10. God hath highly exalted him and given him a Name which is above every name that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth e Rom. 9. 5. for he is over all God blessed for ever f Psal 2. 6 8 God hath now made Christ a King and set him upon his holy hill of Sion he hath given him the heathen for his inheriritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession Also the Apostle saith g Col. 2. 9 10. In Christ dwelleth all the fulnesse of the Godhead bodily and we are compleat in him which is the head of all principality and power We may yet consider further how God hath exalted Christ h Eph. 5. 23. For he hath made him the head of his Church i Eph. 1. 22. and hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the Church Also k Psal 118. 12. Christ is become the head stone of the corner in this spirituall building and he doth so firmly binde every stone of this building to himself that they shall never depart from him Thus God is pleased to reveal in some measure how highly he hath exalted our dear Saviour after his great sufferings in his bitter passion but as we are not able to conceive what he suffered so our weak capacity cannot reach to that transcendent glory and Majesty which he now hath in the same nature as he was our Redeemer God and Man If God hath so highly exalted our glorified Redeeemer then we must study and Meditate with an holy zeal and pious devotion how to exalt him in our hearts how to prize him in our affections according to his excellencies and dignities how to have a reverent esteem of his worth how to honour and reverence him for his greatnesse and l Hos 3. 5. how to fear and love him for his goodnesse Also we must have a diligent care to obey his rule and government as he reigns and rules in our hearts by his Spirit that we may withstand and resist the temptations of the devill that the alluring vanities of the world may not insnare us and that no evill concupiscence may overpower us to make us dishonour our God or disobey the will of our dear Saviour If Christ be truly advanced in our mindes and thoughts according to the glory
the sanctifying graces of his holy Spirit may season our hearts and affections to walk before him in holinesse and purenesse of living all our dayes Wherefore now our afflictions and troubles which are part of this curse are sanctified to us and made salubrious and wholesome for our good and the evill of punishment which we suffer is taken away by the merit of his sufferings and the nature of them is changed into fatherly chastisements to correct us for our sins that we may walk more obediently before God or else they are to try the truth of our graces for the honour of God that gave them Fourthly this is another great Advantage and Gain that we have by Christ which unregenerate men cannot finde that he hath also freed us from the dominion of sin for though sin will dwell with us so long as we live in the flesh yet the strength and power of sin is weakened and killed by the vertue and power of that grace which Christ hath given us by his death The best of Gods servants do often complain how the unregenerate part in them doth sometimes prevail against the Spirit which makes them groan under the burden of their corruptions as holy David and others have done Paul also found this to be true for thus he saith e Rom. 7. 18 19. I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing for to will is present with me but how to perform that which is good I finde not for the good that I would I do not but the evill which I would not that I do And he had no power but onely from Christ to be freed from this dominion of sin and therefore he cryeth out saying f Rom 7. 24 25. O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord for he found this Benefit and Gain by Christ for saith he g Phil. 1. 21. To me to live is Christ and to dye is gain or else we may read it thus For Christ is to me both in life and in death advantage This is not the gain which natural men look for they seek after the gain of riches the gain of honours and the gain of worldly preferments they look not after spiritual gain they do not esteem of vertue and godliness piety towards God is out of request with them though it be the true gain and most to be desired Fifthly that we may get this spirituall gain of Godlinesse which is the advantage onely of a true Believer Christ doth wash us in the Laver of his righteousnesse and therefore he bestowes all sanctifying and saving graces upon us to purifie us from the silth and pollutions of our sins For Christ doth unite us unto himself by Faith whereby we are cloathed with his righteousnesse and have all the benefits that come by the merite of his blood then faith drawes in with it all other sanctifying graces to make us compleat and perfect in Christ to beautifie and adorn our souls that we may lead a vertuous and pious life in the right way of true holiness h 1 Pet. 2. 2 Christ doth also give us an holy desire to the sincere milk of the word that thereby we may grow in i 2 Pet. 3. 18. grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we are brought into the favour of God k Rom. 3. 24 by whose grace love we are freely justified through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ l Eph. 2. 8. by whose free grace also we are saved through faith in Christ Saving grace was one of the special gifts that Christ gave after his Ascension according to this of Paul m Eph. 4. 7. But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ n Heb. 13 9. Wherefore if our hearts are stablished w th grace we shal not be carried about with diverse and strange doctrines but we shall stand firm in the Faith and in the truth of our Profession and our hearts will be purged from dead works Sixthly we have this great Advantage by Christ above all other men o Gal. 4. 5 6 7. that by him we receive the adoption of sons and thereby we injoy all the Priviledges that belong to sons for God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying Abba Father and we are made heirs of God through Christ Wherefore p Heb. 4. 16. in him we may come boldly unto the throne of grace by Prayer that we may obtain mercy and finde grace to help in time of need For God will have a fatherly care of us to protect us in all dangers to provide whatsoever is good for us and to comfort us in all our sorrowes and distresses q Psal 9. 9. Isa 25. 4. Thus was God a refuge and a shield of defence to David and to other holy men in their troubles and afflictions If his rod of correction be upon us it will be in love r Heb. 12. 6. as a father chasteneth his son that he may receive us as his sons and though we feel his visitation sharp Å¿ Lam. 3. 31 yet he will not cast us off for ever for t Eph. 4 30. we are sealed unto the day of Redemption u Heb. 6. 12. that we may through faith and patience inherit the promises u 1 Pet. 1 4. as heirs to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for us Lastly Christ hath sealed the Covenant of grace to us with his own blood whereby we are freed from the strict keeping of the legal Covenant of Works and Christ will perfect with his own righteousnesse whatsoever is wanting in us to the fulfilling of the Law if we endeavour the best we can with an upright heart to do the will of God and then God in mercy will accept of our imperfect obedience for his sake This new Covenant which Christ hath procured for us will admit of the obedience of Christ for us and also of our true repentance for our sins which the legal Covenant would not because it required perfect and personal obedience to every tittle of the Law both in thought in word and in deed By vertue of this new Covenant x Jer. 31. 33 34. God is our God and he will forgive all our iniquities and will remember our sins no more upon condition that we believe in Christ y Heb. 12. 24. who is the Mediator of this Covenant and that with our faith we joyn piety and new obedience Christ hath also given us his Sacraments whereby this Covenant is sealed to us if we do worthily partake of them but of this Covenant and also of the Sacraments I have written more fully in another Treatise Now Meditate with an holy devotion upon all these Advantages which every
Cor. 1. 3. who is the God of all comfort for thus he saith by his Prophet h Isa 51. 11 12. The redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing unto Zion and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads they shall obtain gladnâ—sse and joy and mourning shall flee away I even I am he that comforteth you What comfort can we then want if God be our Comforter Secondly if we delight in pleasures heaven will afford us more than our hearts can desire i Psal 36. 8 9. There we shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatnesse of Gods house and he will make us drink of the river of his pleasures for with him is the fountain of life in his light shall we see light Also the Psalmist saith thus k Psal 16. 11 God will shew us the path of life in his presence is fulnesse of joy at his right hand there are pleasures for evermore For heaven is the place of all peace and comfort of all joy and happinesse and of all glory and immortality Thirdly heaven is the place of all security as Abraham said to Dives l Lu. 16. 26 Between us and you there is a great gulf sixed so that they which would passe from hence to you cannot neither can they â—asse to us that would come from thence Also thâ—â— saith Christ m Mat. 25. 10. When the Bridâ—groom cometh and they that are ready are gone in with him to the marriage the door will be shut and theâ— none can go in and none can come out n Mat. 6. 20 â—n heaven we may safely keep our spiritual â—reasure from the moth and rust and from that arch theif the devil If this precious jewel which is our â—ouâ— be laid up in heaven it will be safely kept there for nothing can corrupt it and no theif can steal it away Lastly that which makes up the fulnesse of our joy and happinesse in the Kingdom of heaven is the eternity of it for if we should injoy it but for a time it would greatly lessen the comfort of our felicity there shall be an end of time but there will be no end of our blessed condition in heaven For thus saith the Lord o Isa 65. 17 18. Behold I create new heavens and a new earth and the former shall not be remembered nor come into minde But be you glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create for behold I create Jerusalem a rejoicing and her people a joy And again he saith by the same Prophet p Isa 66 22 For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain bâ—fore me so shall your seed and your Name remain Thus saith John q Rev. 2 2. 5. The servants of the lambe shall be in this city of God and they shall reign for ever and ever Paul speaking of the resurrection saith thus r 1 Thes 4. 17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Daniel also saith thus Å¿ Dan. 7. 18. And the Saints of the most high God shall take the Kingdome and possesse it for ever even for ever and ever Holy David saith t Psal 37. 18 that the inheritance of the upright shall be for ever Thus it is evident how great our gain shall be by Christ after death and that there shall be no end of our happinesse Consider now that whatsoever we suffer in this life is but for a short time and that the bitternesse of our sorrowes is sweetned with some comforts also that our joy and felicity in heaven is for eternity and that it is no way imbittered with any troubles or vexations that we may patiently and meekly bear whatsoever God shall lay upon us and earnestly desire to be uncloathed of this corruptible body that we may put on the glorious robes of immortality for ever Thus saith Paul u â— Cor. 4. 17 Our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternall weight of glory So likewise if we consider and believe that we have this Gain and advantage onely by Christ it will make us study and labour by all meanes to injoy him and when we have gotten some interest in him to stick close to him by Faith to love him with intire affections and to be obedient to his will and commands Wherefore now if thou hast any holy desire to be freed from all temptations from all sin and from all sorrow vexation and calamity then set the Meditations of thy heart upon the fruition of the Kingdom of Heaven where thou shalt be freed from all these evils though here upon earth they will rush in upon thee Also if thou desirest to injoy all the happinesse that heaven can afford thee and to injoy God himself for ever then look up unto Christ thy Saviour with the eye of faith who hath purchased heaven for thee with his own blood and hath made thee the Son of God by adoption that he might bestow all this upon thee whereof he hath given thee some taste in this life but thou canst not be made perfect in it untill this life is ended u 2 Pet. 1. 10. Give all diligence therefore as Peter saith to make thy calling and election sure by a lively faith in Christ and get the seal of the new Covenant which is the blood of Christ to be stamped upon thy heart that thou mayest carry it to thy grave and then death will give thy soul free passage into the mansions of heaven where this perfect freedome is to be obtained and where this gain of eternall blessednesse is to be gotten Wherefore walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit live not as a citizen of this world but live here as a free denizen of the heavenly Jerusalem having thy minde and the affections of thy heart set upon the holinesse and righteousnesse thereof that thy life and conversation may be pure and holy here upon earth and then thy soul shall live and eternally possesse it after it is dissolved from thy body How CHRIST is our Spirituall life MAn in his first creation had a spirituall life which was free from any spot or stain of sin but he soon lost it by his transgression and defaced this lively image of God that was stamped upon his soul and then in himself he had no ability to recover his lost happinesse This leprosie of sin hath infected all his posterity that proceed from him by naturall propagation which hath brought upon them a spiritual death and layeth them open to eternall death hereafter Though this be our condition by nature yet a Eph. 2. 4 5 6 7. God who is rich in mercy for his great love where with he loved us even when we were dead in sins hath quickned us together in
it might run down to every member of his mystical body which was typified by r Psal 133. 2. that pâ—ecious ointment which was poured upon Aarons head and ran down to the skirts of his garments so that we have a spiritual light to discern the things that belong to our peace then Christ hath wrought this life in us by his holy Spirit for in the state of nature we were dead to any thing that is heavenly f 1 Cor. 2. 14 and we could not receive the things of the Spirit of God because they are spiritually discerned Secondly if our soules can feed upon heavenly food and if we can expresse all other actions of a spiritual life as to walk in the paths of holinesse to speak the pure Language of Canaan and to have our conversation in heaven while we live here upon earth we may then be fully perswaded that there is a spirituall life in us for so long as sin reigneth in our mortall bodies and untill there be a new creation wrought in us we are spiritually dead to every good work and we can expresse no actions of a sanctified life Thirdly if our souls are cleansed from the guilt of sin in the blood of Christ and if the filth and stains of our sins are washed away in the Laver of Regeneration by his sanctifying grace and covered under his righteousnesse that they appear not to the dishonour of God or to the hurt of our neighbour and that we delight not in any sin but do study and endeavour to serve and please God with a sincere heart and pure affections it is a sure evidence that Christ hath quickned and raised us up from the death of sin to the life of grace Lastly if our duties and services to God proceed from a clean and a purified heart which is sanctified and perfumed with the graces and merits of Christ then God will smell the perfume of them to accept of our persons and of our holy offerings because the Spirit of Christ is in us Thus we may know to our great comfort if we narrowly look into our condition what spirituall life we have and that we have it onely from Christ and by him Wherefore now if thou desirest to live spiritually by Christ thou must faithfully believe that he hath taken away that spiritual death which by nature was upon thee for thy sins and that he onely can give thee this spirituall life for as he hath vanquished and overcome the power of death both spiritual and temporal so he can give a spiritual life as well as a temporal to whom and when he pleaseth This spiritual life thou must have from him if thou canst make a particular application of him to thy self by faith that he is thy Saviour and thy Redeemer for he hath then breathed into thee the Spirit of grace which hath wrought this spiritual life in thee though at the first thou canst feel no power of it without this application of Christ to thy self thou canst draw no comfort from him and he will profit thee nothing It did much comfort Job in his greatest misery when he did thus apply Christ to himself t Job 19. 25 27. I know saith he that my Redeemer liveth whom I shall see for my self If thou canst bring thy heart to close thus with Christ he will give light to thine eyes food to thy soul balm for thy diseases and comfortable refreshing for thy languishing spirits But if thou art still dead in thy sins and hast no spiritual life in Christ thou canst then feel no comfort by him for what good can light do to a dead man What benefit can he have by the daintiest food What can the best medicine profite him And what sense hath he of the best perfume But if thou doest live in Christ and he in thee thou shalt partake with him in his fulnesse of all spiritual graces u Col. 1. 19 for it pleased the Father that in him should all fullnesse dwell u John 1. 16 And of his fulnesse have all we received and grace for grace Now consider further that Christ is the meritorious cause of this spiritual life x Tit. 2. 14 for he gave himself freely and voluntarily to be an oblation and a sacrifice for us to redeem us from all iniquity and from whatsoever we are lyable unto by reason of sin to wit from the guilt of sin from the dominion of sin from the curse of the Law from the bondage of Satan from the terrours of death and from eternall condemnation Also by the power of his resurrection he hath subdued and overcome death hell and the grave that we might be raised out of the grave of sin to live a spiritual life to God in Christ Christ hath wrought our redemption by his active and passive obedience to the will of God whereby we are justified in his sight for he hath taken our life out of the hand of Gods justice where we had no hope to injoy it and hath put it into the hand of his mercy where we are sure through Christ to have the comfort of it here and the happinesse of it hereafter Though we must passe by the gates of hell before we can injoy the sweet consolation of this spiritual life and though we must bring our selves so low in our humiliation and in mortifying of our sins and corruptions as if we were ready to be thrust down into hell yet God will then give us a spiritual life in Christ to support us he will then raise us up to newnesse of life by the sanctifying grace of his Spirit that our spiritual life may appear and that we may be made fit to injoy Christ for ever in the Kingdom of heaven This is the first main end of the passion of Christ that we may be redeemed by the merit of his blood Secondly Christ is the efficient cause of our spiritual life for as we have our justification by the merit of his blood so we have our sanctification by the same blood and these two cannot be separated but must go together for we have no sure evidence that we are justified in the sight of God but by the sanctification of our lives The Act of our justification is wrought at once as soon as we are ingrafted into Christ by Faith but our sanctification must be a continued Act so long as we live in the flesh for the best of Gods servants have so many spots and stains of sin in them that they have dayly need to pray to be every day purified and cleansed with the blood of Christ and to be dayly renewed with the graces of his Spirit This is the second main end why Christ gave himself to be an oblation for us that he might purifie us to be a peculiar people to himself according to this of Paul y Tit. 2. 14 Christ gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself
t Acts 3. 8. If the creeple whom Peter and John cured leaped and praised God then we have much more cause to praise and glorifie God with joyfull hearts because Christ hath cured us of our spirituall lamenesse and of all other spiritual infirmities Also u Mat. 27. 54. if the Centurion when he saw the earth-quake and what was done at Christs death glorified God saying Truly this was the Son of God then ought we to glorifie God for our regeneration and for our Spirituall life and to say Truly this was the work of the Son of God We may dayly see the wonderfull works of God which he doth for his own glory to give us dayly occasions to honour and glorifie him and therefore this should be our continual practise to magnifie the Name of God according to this of Paul u Cor. 10. 31. Whether ye ear or drink or whatsoever ye do do all to the glory of God It is the continual work of the Saints and Angels in heaven to sing Hosanna to the highest and it should be our constant care here upon earth to glorifie God and to magnifie him for all his benefits mercies and goodnesse to us Thus we may come to have an holy assurance that we have a spiritual life in Christ if we do truly believe that he hath redeemed us by the merit of his blood from all our iniquities and from all the issues of sin also that he hath sanctified us and made us an holy people to himself not to serve the world the flesh or the divel but to serve the living God with a clean heart and pure affections So likewise if we finde a new principle of grace planted in our hearts whereby we are able in some measure to walk in the paths of godlinesse and so to steer all our actions that they may tend to the honour and glory of God the Peace of our consciences and the eternal comfort of our souls How to injoy true Happinesse ALL men desire to be happy but few seek it where it is to be found some seek it in morall vertues and natural endowments some in morall vertues and natural endowments some in worldly pleasures and profits others think to finde it in riches and honours but all come far short of the glory of true happinesse though they do obtain their desire in all earthly things for all that this world doth afford cannot make a man truly happy so much as in this life much lesse can it procure his happinesse in the life to come for there will still be something wanting or else something to imbitter their contentment in these things here below If we have honour or authority to day we may be in ignominy and disgrace to morrow if we have riches and plenty to day we may be exposed to want and penury to morrow sicknesse or pain will blast all our earthly contentments but when death comes it will bereave us of them all It is in vain therefore to seek our happinesse in these vain things or to put our confidence in them for our felicity doth not consist in uncertain riches or in transitory honours and pleasures which in themselves are nothing else but vanity and vexation of spirit But true happinesse is from above and it consisteth in the sweet fruition of God this happinesse we had in the state of innocency but we lost it by the fall of our first Parents and we have no means to recover it but onely by Christ Jesus our blessed Redeemer Wherefore a Rom. 8. 32. God took pity on our miserable condition and of his infinite mercy and love hath not spared his own Son but delivered him up for us all to work our redemption by his death and passion and to bring us again into the favour of God And as John saith b Joh. 3. 16. God so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life so that we cannot have this true blessednesse but onely by Christ which is every where set forth in this Treatise Thus doth the boundlesse mercy and unlimited goodnesse of God appear in offering his dear Son to all that will come and imbrace him but some cannot come because they live not where the Gospel of Christ is preached which doth reveal him and must instruct them in the right way how to finde him some will not come but make excuses c Lu. 14. 1â— 19. like those in the Gospel that were bidden to the great Supper for they are hindered by their worldly occasions others are wholly taken up with carnall delights and pleasures which keeps them from coming to Christ though they may injoy this true happinesse by him Consider now that riches honours and lawful pleasures are not in themselves simply evill for they are Gods good creatures and his blessings neither do they keep us from coming unto Christ but we may injoy Christ together with them if we do not immoderately covet them and use no unjust means to get them or put our trust and confidence in them to derogate from the honour of God If we injoy Christ with them he will sanctifie them to us for our comfort and will make them the first fruits of our happinesse whereby we may glorifie God and do much good to our neighbour otherwise they are but the shadow of happinesse and not the true substance of it which in the end will be bitternesse when we must give a strict account unto God how we have used them Many a poor man that injoyeth Christ is more happy in his poverty than they that abound in wealth and honour if they are without Christ for they injoy a contented minde peace of conscience and joy in the holy Ghost and they have an holy assurance that their joy and happinesse shall be made perfect in the life to come Wherefore he that hath Christ hath the Fountain of all true happiness and some streams thereof will flow to him even in this life But this is true which Christ saith d Joh. 6. 44 No man can come unto me except the Father which hath sent me draw him and we can have no part in Christ nor happinesse by him except we do truly believe in him This is the way that God himself hath taught us Whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life Also this is the same way which Christ taught his Disciples e Joh. 14. 1 Yee believe in God believe also in me Our faith must be as firm as strong and as well grounded upon Christ as he is our Redeemer God and Man as it is upon God alone or else we cannot injoy him and all that happinesse which floweth from him Though we dare not approach neer unto God in regard of his divine justice yet through the mediation of Christ our gracious Redeemer we may have free accesse unto our God and we shall find him sitting
nor his parents had sinned but it was that the works of God should be made manifest in him Lastly God doth sometimes visit us with afflictions to stir us up to more frequency and fervency of prayer untill we are delivered out of our troubles Howsoever or to what end soever God doth visit us our faith in Christ will stand us in great stead to support us in our sufferings and tryals and to make the right use of all Gods dealings with us that our soules may receive profit and comfort thereby If we did live in sad and mournful times when we could scarcely see any thing but oppression injustice rapine and wrong k Ps 82. 2 3 when the Judges judge unjustly as the Psalmist saith and accept the persons of the wicked and doe not defend the poor and fatherlesse nor doe justice to the afflicted and needy when the Church of God is under affliction and torn in pieces by persecutors and spoilers with sects and scismes and the sincere Word of God corrupted with humane inventions or else troden down by the authority of unjust men then were the time to live by faith and to strengthen our faith with firm hope that God will arise as the same Psalmist saith and judge the earth and will send deliverance to his Church in his good time and that he will awake as a Gyant out of sleep to avenge the desolations thereof and the oppressions of his people In the mean time we should remember those that suffer in our prayers and comfort our selves with faith in the promises of God waiting with patience for the salvation of God when he will visit his people in mercy and remember what his Church hath suffered and by whom to render to every man according to his works Among many calamities that God doth sometimes bring upon a nation or a people to humble them for their sinnes to rouse them up out of security to pull down their pride and to break their stubborn hearts this is one of the greatest when he doth take away the pillars of his Church and doth suffer it to be underpropt with weak meanes for though it may stand for some short time yet it cannot continue long for if the winds doe blow or the billows of the sea rise against it they will shake it and much indanger the fall of it This was Davids request unto God in the like case l Psal 12. 1. Help Lord for the godly man ceaseth for the faithfull fall from among the children of men When we see these things come to passe we had need cry mightily to the God of our salvation for his help for they are fore-runners of great calamities But we trust that God will not bring such visitations upon us but that he will pitty us as a father pittieth his child upon his submission to his will though by reason of our sinnes and rebellions against his sacred Majesty we have deserved no pity Now then if these things be well considered thou wilt find that whatsoever thy condition of life be that sorrows and troubles will daily attend thee that the corruptions of thy nature will break out upon thee to make thee fail of thy duty to God to make thee yeild to sinful motions and to fall sometimes into grosse sinnes and so to loose the sense of Gods grace and favour which doth more perplex the soul of a true Christian than to suffer the greatest miseries but here is thy comfort that if thou hast faith in Christ thou wilt rest upon him for he will support thee in all thy sorrows he will free thee from all thy sinnes and will procure thy pardon upon thy true repentance and he will bring thee again into the favour of God by the merit of his bloud Nothing can make thee so unhappy and so comfortlesse but that true faith well grounded upon Christ and upon the promises of God will take away the apprehension of thy unhappinesse and will give thee true consolation in the assurance of the love and favour of God to thee in Christ Sixtly Faith will give us comfort in all the pious actions of our life for by our union with Christ God will accept for his sake both of our persons and of our works whether they be works of piety to God or works of charity to our neighbour That our works may be such as God requireth first the Word of God must be our rule to teach us to frame our actions according to the will of God and not according to the conceit of our own fancie Secondly Our works must be such as come within the compasse of our calling either publick or private otherwise we have no ground to believe that God will accept them m â— Sam. 6. 7 Vzzah was stricken dead for staying the Ark when it was shaken in the cart because he had no calling for it God requireth that we should teach instruct and admonish our children and servants in the wayes of godlinesse but if we presume to execute the office and function of the Minister without a lawfull calling thereunto God may set his mark upon us for our presumption n 2 Chro. 26. as he did upon King Vzziah for going in to the Temple of the LORD to burn incense upon the Altar which pertained not unto him to do Thirdly we must take the time and opportunity that God gives us for any good action and not to put it off with delayes for that is the time which he will accept God hath set a part one day in seven for his peculiar service and for good works which is the Lords Day and that day must be wholely sanctified to him Fourthly our Adoption by Faith in Christ will strongly move us to perform good works and holy duties out of a filiall love to God and not out of a slavish fear to do them willingly in obedience to Gods command and not upon constraint also with an holy zeal and not with a blinde devotion o Acts 17. 24. like the Athenians who worshipped an unknown God p 1 Chro. 18. 9. David did counsel his son Solomon to worship God with a willing minde for God accepteth free-will offerings But if we are forced to the service of God like slaves for fear of punishment our service will not be well accepted Fifthly Faith will make us do all our religious duties with chearful hearts and pure affections to the glory of God q Psal 35. 15. for the Lord considereth all our works Thus God saith by Solomon r Prov. 23. 26. My son give me thy heart And thus saith the Apostle Å¿ 2 Cor. 9. 7. God loveth a chearfull giver Lastly Faith will make us constant in well-doing which will crown all our good actions with gracious acceptation so that we have respect t Psal 119. 6. as holy David had to all Gods Commandements then if we do our best endeavour in Gods service though we fail of our
should highly prize our Faith because it is the principall grace that the holy Ghost worketh in our hearts and it maketh all other graces profitable and effectuall to us according to their severall natures Our repentance is not sound and true if it be not a fruit of Faith for we cannot truly humble our selves before God and freely confesse our sins unto him with a contrite heart if we do not look upon him as our mercifull Father by Faith in Christ that we may have good hope of the pardon of our sins neither can we shew any fruits of repentance by mortifying the corruptions of our nature but by the vertue and power of Christs death which we must draw to our selves by Faith and also by our regeneration to newnesse of life but by the power of his resurrection which we must also have by faith Our repentance can give us no holy assurance of the remission of our sins if we do not believe that Christ hath fully satisfied the justice of God for them all by the merit of his death g Lu. 21. 19 We cannot possesse our souls in patience when we suffer afflictions and tribulations and when we are under the crosse if we do not belive that Christ hath sanctified our sufferings to make them work for our good and that h Act. 14. 22 through much tribulation we must enter into the Kingdom of heaven We cannot love God with true filiall love nor obey him with filiall reverence and fear if we are not perswaded of our adoption in Christ by Faith i Mat. 10. 42 Our works of charity will not be accepted unlesse they are done in Faith as to the Disciples of Christ and then we shall not lose our reward Thus doth Faith put life and vigour into all other graces to make them effectuall and powerfull for our sanctification and for the spirituall comfort of our souls which is a special consideration to make us account of our faith as a principall Grace without which we can have no hope of salvation Thirdly k Mat. 13. 46 Faith is that Pearl of great price which the Merchant man in the Gospel found and sold all that he had to buy it for no humane learning no abilities of nature no wealth or riches can purchase we must renounce our trust in all these before we can buy this rich pearl for it is above the strength of nature to attain unto it and no power of men or Angels can procure it but we must have it of the holy Ghost he keeps it in his own power and we may have it of him without money and without price if in the true humiliation of our spirits we beg it of him But if we seek to buy this pearl of the world we shall pay dear for it and yet not have the right Pearl the lustre of these pearls can reach no further than to the object of the eye but the lustre of this true Orientall Pearl will shine in all dark places of woe and misery and it will pierce the very heavens to the eye of God himself Notwithstanding we do so highly value the pearls that nature or this world doth afford us that we will take any pains or be at any cost to gain some of them though they are of no worth to rest upon when we are in any spirituall misery whatsoever but as for this precious Pearl we are loath to part with any thing for it that by nature is near or dear to us or wherein we take pleasure and delight Thus we delude our selves with vain hopes and we rest upon that which cannot help because we know not the worth of true Faith to make it the instrument of our trust and confidence in God through Christ Let this consideration also advance the estimation of Faith in our hearts and affections because by it we gain Christ with all his excellencies and in Christ we gain the injoyment of the grace and favour of God and the assurance of eternall salvation Wherefore if this be the transcendent worth of true Faith we should then with all care and diligence seek out where it is to be had and labour by all means to obtain it If God seeth this holy desire in us he will then give us to understand by his Spirit that this rich pearl is no where to be found but in his own Cabinet also he will prepare our hearts and our will for it he will anoint our eyes with spirituall eye-salve to finde it and he will direct us to the means how we may obtain it First therefore we must know l Eph 2. 8. 8. that Faith is onely the gift of God which he bestoweth upon whom be pleaseth m Eph. 1. 19 and he works it in us by his mighty power Secondly God will give us hearts to seek it of him by fervent Prayer which is a powerfull means to obtain any thing of God Thirdly his Spirit will go along with the Preaching of his Word that if we hear it with sincere affections it may work Faith in us n Rom. 10. 17. for faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God Lastly when we have found this precious Pearl in his Word God will make us willing to buy it though we give for it our souls and all the faculties thereof our hearts our affections and all the parts of our bodies all which must be given up to the Lord or else we cannot injoy true faith and yet this is not all for we must empty our selves of all conceit of our own worth and quite renounce all confidence in worldly things all sinfull pleasures and every sin that presseth us down or that cleaveth close to us or else we cannot obtain this precious Pearl of God Fourthly we may conceive that Faith is of great estimation because it is so rarely found upon earth Thus saith our Saviour Christ concerning Faith o Lu. 18. 8. When the Son of man cometh shall he finde faith on the earth It is such a rare Jewell as is scarcely to be found few do injoy it and none can rightly esteem of it but onely such as have it p Rev. 2. 17. Christ promiseth to give a white stone to him that overcometh and in this stone a new name is written which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it We cannot obtain this white stone of purity righteousnesse and true holinesse but by Faith whereby we are cloathed with the righteousnesse of Christ which is this white stone also we shall know this new name that is written in it for by Faith we shall put on Christ and shall be made new creatures to live as becometh new Christians in newnesse of life and in uprightnesse of conversation It is true which Paul saith q 2 Thes 3. 2. that all men have not faith for there is so much wickednesse fraud deceit and unbelief among men that true faith can hardly be found is it is