〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 boils or bubbles forth a good matter We are to judge thereof by the passionateness and earnestness of our desires not by any thing that is obvious to sense not by the loudness or length of Prayer be it without or with a form of words though it were as long as that prayer of Baals Priests from morning to noon or as that prayer among the Papists of fourty hours by which they amuse the weak and injudicious in spiritual things There may be as much yea more of the Spirit of Prayer when there are no words at all There are times when the Spirit maketh intercession with groanings that cannot be uttered affections too quick and strong for expressions and which would cool if put into words Thus Hannah spake in her heart to God her voice was not heard but she poured out her Soul before the Lord and God heard who knoweth the secrets of the heart and the mind of the Spirit These inward breathings of the Soul are ever very precious to God and find favour with him When a Soul prayeth out of a deep sense and feeling of its wants and is full of affectionate breathings after God and hath the most ardent and inflamed desires after Spiritual things this is true praying with fervency and in the Holy Ghost And the silence of the Soul is louder and much sooner reacheth the ears of the Almighty than the greatest loudness and volubility of speech If we would therefore obtain this best and most divine of all blessings let us pray for it with the greatest ardour of affection we may be assured that God will never cast away so rich a Pearl as this upon those that declare themselves insensible of its worth by asking it in a cold and formal manner And the more to excite and quicken our desires after it let us know that if God accepts our prayers and gives us this holy temper of Spirit he doth infinitely more for us than what Herod promised the daughter of Herodias If he gives thee this Empire over thine own Will he bestows that on thee which incomparably excells the greatest earthly Kingdom The Kingdom of God as hath been said is then within us here and we are thereby made meet for his Kingdom of Glory hereafter And who that duly considers this can be flat and heavy in his prayers for this Grace Secondly Our Prayers must be also in Faith Thus S. Iames tells us we must ask this Spiritual Wisdom in the following verse But let him ask in faith nothing wavering That is we must believe that as God is able so he is as willing and ready to give us what we ask if we ask according to his will as S. Iohn qualifies it 1 Ep. v. 14. And it is according to his Will and pleaseth him highly that we ask Spiritual Wisdom This Faith is the ground of all address to God Heb. xi 6. He that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him And this he will assuredly be in his own time which is always the best God may sometimes make as if he did not hear that we may seek him more diligently and pray more fervently that he may prove our patience and just valuation of his blessings and that we may be the more thankful for them when we have them prize them the more and improve them the better but if we persevere in earnest and believing praying we shall undoubtedly in due time obtain And as for such spiritual good things as are necessary to Salvation we are to pray for them with such a faith as to assure our selves that God will give them if we ask aright his most gracious nature and promises assuring us that he cannot deny them to such askers CHAP. III. That in order to our being entirely resigned to the Divine Will we must be willing pati Deum to suffer God and abide the power of his Spirit working in us III. THirdly Having poured out thy Soul before God in humble and earnest Prayer thou must be willing pati Deum to suffer God and abide the power of his Spirit working in thee To this purpose there is an observable passage in St. Austin on Psalm cli 3. Magni languores sed major medicus c. Be the maladies of thy Soul never so great yet there is a Physician that is greater and who never fails to cure for to an all-powerful Physician nothing is incurable onely thou must patiently suffer thy self to be cured Do not thrust back his hand when he begins to touch thy sores and search thy Souls wounds He well knows what he is a doing do not hinder and resist when it begins to pain be not so delicate and tender to thine own hurt but with a quiet patience bear for a while the anguish when he cuts and lanceth considering that the present pain makes way for thy future health and soundness Let not Christ and his holy Spirit have cause to say of thee as it was said of Babylon we would have healed him but he would not be healed Vt corpus redimas ferrum patieris ignes For the health and safety of the body in case of a Gangreen or other dangerous disease how do men endure a tedious course of Physick and much torment Vt valeas animo quicquam tolerare negabis And for the health of thy Soul infinitely more considerable than a little longer life and ease of the body which is all that Physick or Chirurgery can at any time effect but can never secure wilt thou not endure the pain of being cured of its diseases which let alone will make thee eternally miserable Let us be therefore entreated as ever we would obtain this Divine temper of Self-Resignation to take heed of quenching the Spirit of resisting the holy Ghost as the Jews did and paid dear for it Take we heed of stifling any of his Convictions and rejecting his Motions Let us not seek to shift off and put by serious and awakening thoughts working in us as the usual practice of sinners is by diverting to the vain entertainments and false pleasures of the world and the flesh nor endeavour to drown the voice of Conscience which is the voice of God and to be heard with a reverend regard If we would have Christ sit as a Purifier and refiner in the midst of us to purge us as gold and silver that we may offer our selves unto the Lord an offering in righteousness we must abide the day of his coming But alas I must needs observe by the way there are but few of the Christian Profession who are thus patient and will endure the refining and purifying work of the Spirit Most would with Simon Magus have the Holy Ghost in his Gifts such as may make them seem some great ones and procure admiration to them but few would have the renewing of the Holy Ghost and the Sanctification of the Spirit unto
But God will reward them with an eternal Reward with an exceeding and eternal weight of Glory So that well might the Apostle reckon the sufferings of this present time and consequently the services also not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Rom. viii 18. Thou art not far from thy journeys end thou hast but a short life a little time to testifie thy love to God here on earth and he hath an Eternity to reward thee in which therefore should encourage our patience to persevere and hold out to the end Especially when we consider that though this Reward be future yet it is near at least part of it and a considerable part too Though there will be a further completion of our felicities at the Resurrection of the just and the great day of recompence yet the Souls of the faithful may expect to receive a very considerable part of the recompence of reward before that day And even in this life they have some earnests of that glorious Reward some foretastes of the pleasures of God's right hand some bunches of the Grapes that grow in the upper and heavenly Canaan And the more Christians endeavour to live the life of Heaven the more heavenly their affections and conversations are here the more shall they have here of heavenly Enjoyments And in these respects the Scripture sometimes speaks of those that are excellently religious even whilst they are in this life that they have eternal life John vi 54. 1 John v. 13. And that they sit with Christ in heavenly places Eph. ii 6. Lastly This Resignation to the Will of God is also highly conducing to our Temporal Good And that not onely because it hath the promise of the life that now is as well as of that to come but because it tends in its own nature hereunto Here I will particularly and very briefly shew that it makes for our profit and advantage as to our outward estate as to our ease and quiet and as to our health and strength 1. As to our outward estate This it doth 1. As it engages men against Pride and to Humility and Modesty By this means are avoided vast and needless expenses about Attire and Dressing Building Feastings and a great number of pompous Vanities And also the great charges which men of aspiring and ambitious spirits are at for the procuring of Dignities Honours and high Places and the supporting of their Grandeur that they may be the more esteemed reverenced and admired by the world 2. As it engageth to Temperance and Sobriety against all Sensuality and a delicious luxurious life And so expensive Divertisements Sports and Revellings Incontinence and making provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof which impair and consume mens Estates and bring not a few to a morsel of bread are all avoided The desires of Temperance are cheap easie and soon satisfied 3. As it engages to Meekness in opposition to Wrath Malice and Revenge And by this means Quarrels which often cost men dear and abundance of expensive Law-suits are prevented It costs men much more usually to revenge Injuries than to bear them 4. As it engageth to Labour and Industry in lawful Callings in opposition to Carelessness and Sloth which as Solomon saith shall clothe a man with rags whereas the hand of the diligent maketh rich 2. It makes for our ease and quiet in the world And this 1. As it engageth to Meekness and peaceable spiritedness which as it is a grace most lovely in it self so it makes those that are indued with it lovely and acceptable to others and wins and attracts good will 2. As it engageth to Mercifulness both in giving and forgiving None but a Monster and one prodigiously wicked and unworthy will put affronts upon and procure trouble to those that are mercifull in these two respects 3. As it engageth to Justice Truth and Uprightness in giving to every one his due in not defrauding wronging or defaming any all which plainly tend to the procuring of Peace 3. It makes for our health and strength the good habit and constitution of our Bodies as well as of our Souls This it doth 1. As it engageth to Sobriety against Excess which both begets and feeds diseases and Distempers Incontinence and Intemperance weaken both the body and the mind shorten life and make it painful and uncomfortable while it lasts 2. As it engageth against heart-tearing Cares and such anxious Solicitudes as waste natural strength and prey upon the spirits 3. As it engages against all inordinate affections all fleshly as well as worldly lusts These make men lean and sick as Amnon's lust after Tamar made him 4. As it begets chearfulness and tranquillity of spirit which hath a proper efficacy to the preservation of health As a broken spirit drieth the bones so a chearful heart doth good like a medicine Prov. xvii 22. 5. As it engageth to honest labour in opposition to a soft and delicate life Exercise hath a natural tendency to the making men hardy strong and healthful Now then would we be fully and in all things resigned to the holy and good will of God let us observe this first Direction and labour after a great sense of the truth of the foregoing Principles and all those Considerations which have been proposed to our view which are most powerful arguments to perswade to this Duty CHAP. II. That humble and fervent prayer is a necessary and effectual means to the attaining the grace of Self-Resignation II. IN the second place Being humbled in a deep sense of thy Irresignation and Disobedience wherein thou hast hitherto walked to the hurt and danger of thy Soul beg of God this high and holy temper of Soul This one thing desire thou of God and seek after it all thy days Humble and holy Prayer is one of the greatest helps to the obtaining of any grace or good thing from God Let us then carefully apply our selves to him for this great blessing it being such a one as none but himself can give and he who is our Father in Heaven the Father of mercies will give this and all good things to them that ask him If any of you lack wisdom saith S. Iames let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not and it shall be given him Now this Resignation of our wills to the Will of God is the highest point of wisdom and this sort of wisedom is particularly meant in the Text as appears by the foregoing verses But then our Prayers must be with fervency and in faith First They must be fervent The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much James v. 16. Not cold and languid desires or faint wishes But we are not to judge of the true fervency of Prayer by the heat of the head or phansie but by the heat of the heart and the ardency of our affections My heart saith David 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
knows no Will of its own divided from the Will of God and would not will any thing but what he doth will such a Soul shall understand the fear of the Lord and hath great and frequent occasions of saying with David I will bless the Lord who hath given me counsel 2. Be the doubts about our Condition and State what it is to God-ward and in reference to Eternity as S. Iames speaks Whence come Wars and fightings I may adde Whence come those fears anxieties and uncertainties that are to be observed in many about the state of their Souls those fears that have torment in them come they not from hence even from the lusts that war in their members One lust often wars against another scelera dissident but all war against the Soul Are not most of those tormenting fears and troubles in Christians to be resolved into the want of an entire Self-Resignation as the proper and true ground Men will not come off throughly to this they would be indulged in some thing or other and yet would be at peace and rest they would be cured of their distemper and yet are unwilling to have the root of it taken away Consider therefore is there not something of Self-will that works and is too powerfull within thee Wouldest thou not be unresigned and please thy self in this or that thing dost thou not say with Naaman the Syrian the Lord pardon thy servant in this thing and as Lot in another case is it not a little one If this be so God who seeth the heart seeth all this and he will not be mocked nor be bribed to give thee peace in thy making a great shew of being subdued and resigned in other things But if by the power of God's Grace our Wills be intirely subjected to the Divine Will we cannot have the least reason upon any account whatsoever to torment our selves with anxious thoughtfulness about our state we may be sure that the outward Hell shall not be our portion if we are delivered from the Hell within and that we cannot miss of the Heaven above while we have a Heaven within us and are put into a fit disposition for it by a free Resignation to the Will of God They to whom the doing God's Will is connaturall and their meat and drink have eternal life as in the Epistles of St. Iohn the phrase is more than once they in a lower degree live the life of Souls in Glory are affected as they are and have the disposition and temper of Heaven Indeed it is as impossible for Souls whose sincere care it is to purifie themselves as God is pure and onely to will as he wills to be in Hell as it is for impure self-willed and disobedient Souls to be in Heaven 'T is as impossible for Love Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance and the like fruits of the Spirit to be in Hell as it is for Vncleanness Lasciviousness Hatred Strife Wrath Envyings Cruelty Vnrighteousness and the like works of the Flesh to grow in Heaven That Soul cannot be miserable and is uncapable of the Hellish state which is intirely resigned for such a Soul dwelleth in love and therefore in God and God in him Nor can the infinitely good God abandon and cast off any Soul that cleaveth to him with full purpose of heart and preferreth his Will above her chief Joy Thirstings and holy breathings after the enjoyment of God God-like dispositions and a frame of heart agreeable to the heart of God cannot fail to be united to him their Original CHAP. V. That Self-Resignation is the way to rest and peace That those that have attained thereunto find satisfaction and pleasure both in doing and suffering the Will of God That it procures outward as well as inward peace and that Self-willedness is that which puts the World into Confusion V. SElf-Resignation is the way to true Peace Rest and Ioy Ioy unspeakable as St. Peter calls it Peace which passeth all understanding as St. Paul By the way observe that neither words nor thoughts can reach Spiritual Excellencies this is their sole priviledge that they can never be over-valued over-praised Other things we may easily speak too highly of but we can never invent too magnificent expressions concerning these we cannot raise mens expectations too high concerning them they will ever prove better then they are reported to be It will be said by the Soul that comes to know these things by experience as it was by the Queen of Sheba Behold half was not told me This Self-Resignation I say it is the way to an holy rest to the Sabbatum cordis the Sabbath of the heart as St. Austin calls it If thou wilt enjoy the true rest and keep the inward Sabbath thou must not do thine own ways nor speak thine own words nor find thine own pleasure to borrow those words in Isaiah lviij Thou must cease from thine own works as the phrase is Hebr. iv 10. All desire rest peace and pleasure but no where shall we find it but in yielding our selves to God and that it is to be found in this way our Saviour hath told his Disciples Mat. xi 29. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me and ye shall find rest to your Souls In taking Christ's Yoke upon us in bearing his burden in a sincere free and entire obedience to his Laws in learning of him who was meek and lowly in heart a pliable and obedient frame and temper of spirit we shall undoubtedly find the sweetest ease and tranquility of mind As the Soul groweth in Resignation it returns more to its rest it comes to be more as it would be by being more restored towards its original constitution its first state Man was made after God's Image and while his Will was the same with the Divine Will he dwelt in peace and joy But when he would needs have a Will of his own divided from the Will of God in falling from Resignation he fell also from peace and rest into trouble fears shame and confusion The Resigned Soul enjoys Religion in all the Sweetnesses and Priviledges of it it is prepard to taste and see how good the Lord is and the more a man is conformed to the Will of God and grows in Obedience the more he enjoys the peaceable fruits of Righteousness To him that overcometh that overcometh his own Will those Lusts that war against his Soul shall be given the hidden manna the white stone with a new name in it known by him onely that receiveth it and a stranger intermeddleth not with his joy Such an one hath meat which the world knows not of and is fed with the food of Angels Those which have the Holy Spirit for their Guide shall undoubtedly have him for their Comforter The work of righteousness shall be peace and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever If. xxxij 17. A man can have no peace that lodgeth
This is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith I John 5. 4. Above all take the shield of faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked Eph. vi 16. Glorious things are spoken of thee O Faith who can recount the mighty acts and great atchievements of those holy Souls who have strongly confided in the gracious power of God and Christ Jesus for the subduing of sin as well as in God's mercy and Christ's merits for the pardon of it These through this Faith that I may borrow those expressions in the Eleventh to the Hebrews have subdued Kingdoms even the Kingdoms of divers lusts and pleasures and the Kingdoms of the Prince of this world to which they were once subject Through Faith they have wrought righteousness even the righteousness of God far excelling that outward slight and partial righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisee Through Faith they have stopped the mouths of Lions the impetuous and ravening solicitations and greedy desires of their selfish will Through Faith they have quenched the violence of fire or the Lusts of Passion Malice and Uncleanness which burned like fire within them out of weakness were made strong and turned to flight the armies of the Aliens Now there are many exceeding great and precious promises scattered through the Scriptures which are of soveraign force and virtue for the encouragement of our Faith and Hope in God for the strengthening of us against his and our enemies But there is abundantly enough in that one passage Luke xi 13. If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your Children how much more shall your heavenly Father give the holy Spirit to them that ask him What could our Saviour have spoken more plainly and fully for our encouragement to a dependance on God for Grace and Spiritual strength and to a quiet unsolicitous expectation of assistance from him This promise concerned not onely those Disciples that heard Christ preach then from the Mount but all his Disciples and Followers all that shall believe on his Name to the end of the world It is said to them that ask him without any limitation either to a certain age or people language or nation and therefore we may be as much comforted from these words as if we had been in the number of those in whose hearing our Saviour preached that best of Sermons wherein they were uttered For as there is the same need of the Holy Spirit for us as there was for them who were then present with our Saviour so there is now and ever will be the same benignity and philanthropy in God the same good will compassion and love to men that there was then and in former ages He is without variableness or shadow of turning the same yesterday and to day and for ever But this word of promise is so rich and precious that it deserves a more particular Consideration If ye that are evil Earthly Parents are too commonly envious and niggardly close hard and cruel to others being all for themselves and not caring for the good of others Know how to give good gifts unto your Children As backward as they are to give to others they cannot find in their hearts when their Children ask to withhold from them they will be free open-handed and bountiful to them And such is the tenderness of their affection to their Children that they will not give them any thing that they know to be evil and hurtful to them they will not give them Stones for Bread a Serpent for a Fish or a Scorpion for an Egg. How much more shall your heavenly Father He who being good cannot but do good He who is the Father of Mercies the God of Love and Goodness and Love it self He who best knows what is good and is best able to bestow whatsoever is so He who is as willing to do us good as he is able and as able as willing as no earthly Parent is He in whom is nothing of envy towards others and hath in himself all fullness is Infinite Almighty and All-sufficient Give the holy Spirit to them that ask him so saith one Evangelist and give good things saith another The greatest good that Omnipotence it self and infinite Goodness can do for us is the giving the holy Spirit and with him spiritual light to know and spiritual strength to do his Will and to subdue our own Wills and whatsoever is contrary to him in us To be indued with the holy Spirit doth import an accession both of light and strength knowledge and power So that our Saviour argues from the less to the greater from the drop of goodness and benignity in Creatures and those sinful Creatures too to that Fountain-fulness which is in God What good soever children may expect from their Parents that and infinitely more may God's Children expect from him And it is impossible to conceive that the infinitely good God will be more wanting to his Childrens Souls than are evil men to their Childrens Bodies All that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those affections and tendernesses which God hath implanted in all Parents for the good of their Offspring are but a little drop to that ocean of Love and Mercy that is in himself are but a dark and short representation of those unconceivable riches of Goodness and bowels of Compassion which are in him Nullus Pater tam Pater No Father is so fatherly so much a Father as God is said Tertullian He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Clemens Alexandrinus stiles him out of Orpheus the tendernesses of both a Father and Mother are in God Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb yea they may forget it is possible but very prodigious yet will not I forget saith God Isaiah xlix 15. God doth not take empty titles to himself but fills up the utmost of whatsoever relation he is set forth by in the Holy Scriptures Whatsoever the wisest most careful and loving Parents are to theirs God is such and incomparably more to his Children If the affections of ten thousand Parents were in one Father or Mother how secure would the Child be of their tender care who indeed is secure without such a supposal but all these in one person are far short of God's affection who is the Spring and Original of all the Fatherly tenderness which is dissused in the hearts of so many millions of Fathers as are in the world Let me adde this That the promise of the Spirit is the great promise of the Gospel the great priviledge of the Evangelical Dispensation or New Covenant Greater aids and supplies of Grace for the subduing our corruptions we are encouraged to hope for under the Gospel The Apostle saith Titus iii. 6. that the Holy Ghost is shed on us abundantly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a rich and plentiful manner through Iesus Christ our Saviour If
innumerable and transcendent Blessings we receive from God will work in us such an ingenuous gratitude as will excite us to give up our hearts and our all to him The excellencies of his Nature and the exceeding riches of his Bounty will represent him as most worthy to be known 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the flower of our mind as Zoroaster expresseth it and our highest apprehensions And to be loved with the flower of our hearts so that our sweetest and dearest affections will not be thought too precious for him Let us briefly reflect upon the power of worldly and sensual Love and see what this will do First The Love of Money How doth this oblige and inforce the men of this world to hard labours dangerous adventures anxious cares To rise early sit up late eat the bread of sorrows to deny themselves many of the comforts aud contents of this life to fare hardly and to live a toylsom and painful life and in a word to use the Apostles phrase to pierce themselves through with many sorrows Secondly The Love of Honour Dignities and Preferments How doth it put ambitious men upon restless labours tedious attendances servile offices base flatteries and compliances Such stick at nothing for the obtaining their ends devote and surrender themselves to the will and humour of their Patron as if he were their God and they his Creatures more than God's They deport and address themselves to him by whose favour they hope to be raised in such a form of respect and devotion as approacheth near to that regard and reverence which is onely due to the most high God So full of zeal and observance is this civil kind of Superstition Thirdly The Love of Beauty What a strange power and force hath it upon the fond man To him no services no sufferings seem grievous that his Mistress wills him to undertake With all submission and devotion he admires and adores this his Souls Idol this Deity of Clay and that in such strains as blasphemously resemble that most affectionate and humble devotion which none but his Creator may challenge from him He gives her his whole heart and resigns his whole will to her will complies with all her humours yields an entire obedience to all her commands be they never so unreasonable He patiently suffers tedious delays and waitings meekly bears her frowns affronts and disdains her harsh language and hard usage and all the other arts she hath of afflicting him besides the troubles and hazards he sometimes meets with from his Rivals This Love Bigot such is his devotion neglects himself his rest his food his health renounceth all his own contentments and denies himself in whatsoever is for either his delight or advantage if he understands it to be the pleasure of his Mistress He mortifies himself pines and consumes and is lean from day to day for her as lustful Amnon was for Tamar These and such like are the severe Penances Mortifications and Austorities that this man is wont to undergo in this idolatrous Love-service yea and sometimes he sacrificeth his very life which the poor wretch calleth Love's Martyrdom Here is Self-denial Self-Resignation with a witness With what a deal of pains and trouble doth this poor creature purchase to himself misery With much more ease and less vexation had his love been placed upon the best of objects he might have been happy to eternity He might have lived with God who is Love it self holy and unspotted Love and reigned with Christ the faithful lover of his Soul in a Kingdom of peace and joy for ever By these instances we may discern the strange force of a degenerate and impure Love and what a degree of Self-renunciation it forceth those to in whom it reigns And is the Love of uncertain Riches a little white and yellow Clay so powerful with men and shall not the Love of the true durable Riches the glorious Inheritance in Heaven which is incorruptible and fadeth not away be more forceable Hath the Love of airy Honour such power and shall not the Love of that Honour which is from God that honour and glory that he hath promised to every soul that worketh good that honour of shining forth as the sun in the Kingdom of the Father shall not the love I say of such inexpressible honour as this have as powerful effects upon us and much more powerful Shall the Love of a fading Skin-beauty the love of a little red and white the love of withering Roses and Lillies and Violets with which fond Lovers bestick the Cheeks and Hands and Veins of their Mistresses besides I know not how many more such gay embellishments of their foolish fancies shall this impotent kind of love so potently command poor mortals and shall not the Love of God do much more who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first-fair and original Beauty as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first good whom Angels the flower and top of the Creation admire and adore with the greatest complacency and ardor of affection Shall not Love fixed upon such an object as this inflame us with an holy resolution to undertake or undergo any thing for the fulfilling and satisfaction of his Will Considering withall that his Commands are as hath been shewn in themselves most reasonable most fit to be approved and observed by us agreeable to the dignity of our Souls in their own nature most lovely excellent and worthy and have moreover a mighty recompence of reward which cannot be said of the Commands of Lust and sensual impure Love but the perfectly contrary they being most vain and foolish unreasonable and cruel and obedience to them of most pernicious and sad consequence Nor is there any thing that God would have us part withall but what it is better for us to be without better for our ease peace and pleasure and more for our liberty to be freed and disintangled from As hath been already proved And so I pass to that other branch of this Direction viz. that we should labour to be affected with a strong and ardent Love as of God so of Divine things of Vertue and Holiness the impressions of the Divine Image upon the Soul Had we a worthy resentment of Spiritual Excellencies and a due sense of the beauty of Holiness they would even ravish our hearts and mirabiles amores excitare excite in us strange and wonderful affections to them as Tully speaks of Vertue and consequently secure us from the allurements and attractions of any earthly vanity whatsoever But till a man comes to admire and be enamoured with the Divine Graces and Vertues every thing will be ready to get his heart which gratifieth sensuality and to carry him away captive By one unacquainted with the loveliness of Holiness will the least twinkling of this worlds glory be admired but there can be no better way to put by and frustrate the attempts and temptations of the things below than to be
is another observable thing mentioned Heb. xi 27. He that had received the promises offered up his onely begotten Son of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called Whom thou lovest That is very dearly and passionately as being the Son of their old age their onely Son and a Son of the promise These two go together tender and the onely one Prov. iv 3. The onely one and the choice one Cant. vi 9. To lose the onely Son is that which causeth bitter lamentation and the mourning for such a one is used to express the most passionate and doleful mourning Amos viii 10. Zech. xii 10. Ier. vi 26. And get thee into the land of Moriah and offer him there Abraham himself must offer him he might not command his two servants to do it and they went no farther than till they came within sight of the place where he was to be offered The tender Father must take his onely Son whom he loved and bind him with his own hands upon the Altar and take the knife to slay him As his eyes must behold him bleeding and gasping and burning so must he be himself the Executioner And offer him there for a burnt-offering on one of the mountains which I will tell thee of This was the place where the Temple was to be built by Solomon the place of offering Sacrifices And it was three days journey from Abraham's habitation which might make the Command yet more grievous As often as in that journey he looked upon the Wood or Fire for burning the Sacrifice or the Knife that must do the Execution or the place where it was to be done which he saw afar off how could it be otherwise but that his eye must most deeply affect his heart It follows ver vi And Abraham took the wood of the burnt-offering and laid it upon Isaac his Son and he took the fire in his hand and a knife and they went both of them together What an affecting and heart-piercing sight was this And herein was Isaac a Figure of our Blessed Saviour who bare the wood of the Cross upon his Shoulders whereon he was to be offered up for a Sacrifice to God And it is hence to be concluded that Isaac was now no Child or weak Stripling in that he was able to travel with so great a burden such a quantity of wood as was sufficient to burn his body to ashes could be no small weight Iosephus makes Isaac to be now twenty five years old but an Hebrew Tradition about thirty and three If so and for what end should they feign it he was in this circumstance also a Figure of our Saviour who was offered up at about the same age Now Isaac being at this time grown up to a good age and strength it might make his Father the more unwilling to part with him and considerably added to the greatness of his Trial. And those words of Isaac which he spake in a strain of sweet innocence and simplicity v. 7. My Father behold the fire and the wood but where is the Lamb for a Burnt-offering they must needs cause a great colluctation within him and yerning of bowels No doubt Abraham's affections did strangely work now and he was pained at the very heart There is one thing more which we may take notice of in this Command of God it is said Offer him there for a Burnt-offering 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This kind of Offering was an Holocaust all of which was to be consumed by fire so that there was not the least Relick to remain of him This was the Command and was it not a most difficult one could there have been a sorer trial But behold the signal Resignation and Obedience of Abraham to the Will of God! He without the least delay or demurring betook himself to the performance of the divine pleasure It is said v. 3. that Abraham rose up early in the morning it is like the Command came secretly to him in a dream or vision of the night and at or before the first peep of day he addressed himself to obey it Thus he denied his natural and very great affection to his Son and gave a most illustrious proof that nothing was so dear to him nothing so powerful with him as the Will of God Wisdom kept him strong against his tender compassion towards his son saith the Author of the Book of Wisdom chap. x. 5. The completion of his Obedience is set forth in the ninth verse And Abraham built an Altar in the place which God told him of and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his Son and laid him on the Altar upon the wood By the way not onely Abraham but Isaac too was herein a rare example of Resignation He was doubtless as appears by what was said of his age and strength able to have resisted his Father now stricken in years but he expressed no reluctancy he quietly and meekly suffered himself to be bound and laid upon the Altar And herein again as in several other particulars was he a Figure of our Saviour who though he could have rescued himself from the power of the Jews and Romans yet permitted them to take and bind him to heap a many vile indignities upon him and at last to nail him to his Cross. And then it follows And Abraham stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay his Son This God accounted to him as if he had done it because he was fully purposed in his mind to do it and had it not been for God's interposition had performed his purpose Therefore the Scripture reports it as if he had actually offered up his Son Heb. xi 17. By faith Abraham when he was tried offered up Isaac and he that had received the promises offered up his onely begotten Son And James ii 21. Was not Abraham our Father justified by works when he had offered Isaac his Son upon the Altar And hereupon as it follows ver 23. he was called the friend of God He eminently approved him as such for this high act of obedience This is a title thrice given him in Scripture in this place in 2 Chron. xx 7. and Esay xli 8. and implied in Gen. xviii 17. Shall I hide from Abraham the thing that I do Where Philo addes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shall I hide from Abraham my friend And by this Periphrasis the friend of God without any mention of his name is he described in the Alcoran the Turks Bible I will conclude this great Example of Resignation with that in Esay xli 2. who raised up the righteous man from the East and called him to his foot Abraham was sequacious and obeyed God in all things he had him at his call as the Faulconer hath a well man'd Hawk and calls her to his hand And shall not the Spiritual Seed of Abraham for so Christians are be sequacious and observant of every call of God though
for him than at Shimei's injuries and thus replies to him What have I to do with you ye sons of Zeruiah so let him curse because the Lord hath said unto him Curse David that is because the Lord saw it good to permit him to curse me for my punishment who then shall say Wherefore hast thou done so Again Behold saith he my son which came forth of my bowels seeketh my life how much more now may this Benjamite do it Let him alone and let him curse for the Lord hath bidden him David was not a person of a dull phlegmatick temper of a slow and stupid disposition but of a vigorous active spirit he was sensible what a barbarous act this was in Shimei thus to insult over his King and that in his great distress but being also sensible of God's Providence in permitting this wretched man thus to affront revile and curse him to correct him for his sins he quietly and meekly submitted to it And David lost nothing by his humble submission for God delivered him from the policies of Achitophel from the powerful Army of Absolom and brought him back with joy and triumph to Ierusalem And as for Shimei God returned his wickedness upon his own head and David found that true which he did but modestly suppose upon Shimei's cursing It may be saith he the Lord will look upon mine asfliction and that the Lord will requite good for his cursing this day And he that spake with such an humble resigned mind But if he say I have no delight in thee behold here am I let him do to me as seemeth good to him found that God did delight in him and therefore delivered him As he himself expresseth it Psalm xviii 19. He delivered me because he delighted in me God did what seemed good to David seeing he was willing he should do what seemed good to himself I will adde one more passage expressive of David's Resignation It is in Psal. xxxix The particular occasion is not mentioned but that he was in a most afflicted condition we find in the tenth verse Remove thy stroke away from me I am consumed by the blow of thine hand And v. 13. he prayeth that God would spare him that he might recover strength But yet he was patient submissive and quiet ver 9. I was dumb I opened not my mouth because thou didst it As in another case he saith Surely I have behaved and quieted my self as a child that is weaned of his mother my soul is even as a weaned child Psal. cxxxi 2. See how this great man expresseth himself in words of greatest lowliness and humility When he has to do with God he is as a little child a poor low contemptible thing in his own esteem as a worm and no man as he speaks Psal. xxii 6. Though when he had to do with men and was to fight the Lord's Battels whom more a man than David Who more courageous and stout-hearted When he was but a stripling he encountred and slew a Lion and a Bear and the great Giant Goliah Now if David a King one of such heighth and dignity one of so great fame and renown in the world one of such incomparable courage and magnanimity did with such meekness and subjection of Soul submit to the Divine Providence and in such instances as these wherein as a King and as a Father he was most highly provoked and unworthily dealt with is it not a shame for us who are so much his inferiors to be impatient and unresigned and that in far less trials than his were CHAP. XII Of the Example of our BLESSED SAVIOUR XII OUr fifth Example of Holy Resignation is our Lord Jesus Christ Of all Examples the greatest the brightest and fairest Pattern of all for none ever obeyed none ever suffered so much as the holy and blessed Jesus and through sufferings was this Captain of our Salvation made perfect Heb. ii 10. He is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Captain and brave Leader of the noble Army of Martyrs as all self-resigning Souls are For to give their body of Sin and Self-desires to be burnt their own Wills to be consumed by the flames of Divine Love what is it less than Martyrdom And I chuse to mention our Saviour next to David though he was indeed far before him in Obedience and Submission because he is the Spiritual David and called by the name David by the Prophets David being an Historical Type and Figure of Christ both in his Troubles and Triumphs and therefore the second Psalm is applicable both to David and Christ and because there are some memorable conformities between them as to this particular of Resignation 1. Christ had his Iudas as David his Achitophel one near to him and that did eat at his table conspired and lift up the heel against him 2. Israel whom God calls his Son dealt as unworthily with Christ as Absolom did with David 3. David as we have shewn being conspired against goeth with his servants out of Ierusalem passeth over the Brook Kidron goes up by the ascent of Mount Olivet he weeps as he went his heart was sore pained within him the storms of death were fallen upon him and horrour overwhelmed him as he complained upon this occasion Psalm lv 2 4 5. And now it was that he exprest his humble Resignation to the Will of God in those words Behold here am I let him do to me as seemeth good unto him And this Spiritual David beginning to undergo his last and greatest Sufferings goes out of Ierusalem where his enemies were conspiring to destroy him and Iudas helping to facilitate their cruel enterprise He with his Disciples passeth over the Brook Cedron the same with Kidron John xviii 1. he comes to the mount of Olives the same with Mount Olivet Matth. xxvi 30. and in a Garden there he began to be sorrowful and sore amazed and very heavy Told his three Disciples that his Soul was exceeding sorrowful even unto death Here he wept he offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears And being in an Agony sweat as it were drops of bloud And here he exprest his humble Resignation to the Will of his Father in these words O my Father if this Cup may not pass away from me except I drink it thy will be done Matth. xxvi 14. Or as it is in St. Luke Father if thou be willing remove this Cup from me nevertheless not my will but thine be done And those words whereby David expresseth his Resignation Psal. xl 7 8. we find applied unto Christ Heb. x. 7. Lo I come in the volume of the book it is written of me I delight to do thy will O my God And in him were they verified in a far more eminent degree There was no compare between David's Resignation and our Saviours his Cup was much more bitter his Sufferings were not such as are common to men but were of an extraordinary
and to rise with him to newness of life such a knowledge would not have availed him in the end The third passage is that in Rom. vi 4 5 6. Like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection By this likeness of Christ's Death and likeness of his Resurrection it appears that there is a lively resemblance of both which a Christian is obliged to endeavour after Then it follows Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin 3. The Death and Sufferings of Christ are very powerful to engage and enable us to the great duties of crucifying worldly lusts and mortifying corrupt affections as they are effectual to work in us the most heart-bleeding sorrow for sin the most vehement hatred and detestation of it and to raise the soul to the greatest degrees of love and ingenuous gratitude 1. To work in us the most heart-bleeding sorrow for sin Who can seriously consider Christ crucified Christ bleeding on the Cross bleeding from the sixth to the ninth hour from our twelve a Clock to three his bleeding Head crowned with sharp thorns his bleeding Hands and Feet and Side I say who can consider this and not bleed within Who can look upon him that was pierced and not be inwardly pierced himself not be prickt to the heart as they are said to be Acts ii 37. at the preaching of Christ crucified And when we consider that he was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities or as the words are rendred by some of our transgressions and iniquities When we consider that we have crucified the Lord of Life and Glory that our sins nailed him to the Cross wounded him to the heart and put him to all the grief and pain he underwent how can it be that our hearts should not be wounded within us How can we forbear to express our sorrow for sin in some such words as those of Ieremiah My bowels my bowels I am pained at the very heart O that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears And can we consider his Agony in the Garden the exceeding sorrowfulness of his Soul his extream heaviness and sore amazement his strong crying and tears and his sweating great drops of bloud and not be melted into holy mournings and relentings for our sins and for all our unkind and unworthy behaviour towards Christ who thus suffered for us How hard is that heart which the so great and dolorous sufferings of our Saviour cannot melt and dissolve At the Passion of Christ besides other Prodigies it is said the rocks rent and are our hearts harder than rocks not to be affected with remorse at the consideration of Christ crucified It is Saint Hierom's observation When Christ died all creatures were his fellow-sufferers the sun was eclipsed the earth shook the rocks were cleft in sunder the veil of the Temple was rent in twain the graves opened Man alone for whom onely Christ died suffered not with him Certainly if the consideration of our Saviour's Sufferings for our sakes cannot prevail to melt our hearts into an holy sorrow for our sins nothing will ever do it And if it hath such a peculiar and soveraign efficacy to work an heart-bleeding sorrow for Sin it will consequently be very effectual to the disengaging us from it to the taking us off from all those vanities and lusts which were formerly most dear and pleasing to us If we are grieved at the heart for our Self-will Self-love and manifold disobediences we will not continue to make provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof 2. The Death and Sufferings of Christ are effectual to work in us the most vehement hatred and detestation of Sin It appears from thence how hateful and abominable a thing Sin is to God who is original Rectitude and infinite Purity For how could he demonstrate a greater antipathy and displeasure against Sin than in being pleased to bruise and put to grief the Son of his love and to give up the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person to inexpressible dolours to the end he might make expiation for it If Sin were a sleight inconsiderable thing if it were not a thing of a most odious and vile nature a high injury to God and of sad and dismal consequence to man he would not have required such a Sacrifice for it This consideration must needs be most forceable to the working in us detestation of Sin whatsoever grace and favour it hath found in our eyes Suppose we our selves to have seen Christ in the last Scene of his Sufferings and to have accompanied him from the Garden of Gethsemene where he was in his Agony and sweat drops of bloud to the High Priests house thence to the Judgment Hall before Pilate thence to Mount Calvary in which places he was reproached spit upon the face scourged and at last nailed alive to the Cross And suppose him speaking to us as in another sence Pilate spake of him Behold your King Behold your Lord and Saviour See the wounds which your Sins have given me See how they have torn my flesh and despitefully used me But the unseen wounds the inward sorrows of my Soul are such as the heart of man cannot conceive as neither hath the eye seen nor the ear heard what may compare to them Thus have your lusts dealt with me and in all this see their cruelty If we had I say beheld our blessed Lord in his direful Sufferings and heard him thus expressing himself to us do we think we could still cherish and entertain hug and embrace those Enemies of his which have put him to all this shame and torment But if we have an inward knowledge and feeling of Christ crucified it will most undoubtedly inflame us into a just indignation against those Lusts which suckt the Life-bloud of Christ which slew and crucified the Lord of Glory We shall say concerning them what the Iews cried concerning him Away with them away with them they are not worthy to live Let these murderers of the just one die the death but let Iesus live and let the Life of Christ be manifested in us How can that be longer sweet to me which made Christ's Cup so exceeding bitter How can I delight in that which made his Soul sorrowful unto death How shall that be my pleasure which was his pain and put him to grief such grief that there was no sorrow like unto his sorrow How should I glory in that which put him to such an open shame 3. The Death and Sufferings of Christ are powerful to raise the Soul to the greatest degrees of Love and Gratitude We have already shewn
wonderful efficacy of Love to God and Divine things VI. SIxthly Labour to be affected as much as is possible with the Love of God and Divine things To Faith add Love they are joyned together in Scripture and should be conjoyned in the hearts of Christians In 1 Thessalonians 5.8 Love as well as Faith is called a breast-plate whereby we may be secured against the assaults of temptations If the Love of God be perfected in us we shall find Self-denial and Self-Resignation as easie and pleasant as heart can wish Love will make us think nothing precious that God will have us part with it will make us with great chearfulness to part with a right eye a right hand our own will if it offend us It will make us without grudging to cross our own will when it contradicts the Will of our Beloved It will cause us to believe no suffering harsh that God shall inflict no duty difficult which he shall command This is the love of God that we keep his Commandments and his Commandments are not grievous 1 John 5. 3. If you love me is a familiar and potent form of speech with us to perswade one another to the doing or forbearing any thing and what humane love doth work among men that and wuch more will be effected by divine Love This is a far more powerful and vigorous principle of action And yet the effects of that Love have been very strange and wonderful the observation whereof hath caused them to be sung by Poets and copiously set forth in Romances which are imitations of true Histories Solus amor est qui nomen difficultatis erubescit It is Love alone that is ashamed to mention difficulty saith St. Austin Nay Love welcomes difficulties and pleaseth itself in hard instances of obedience because by them it sheweth forth more of its reality strength and power Easie and ordinary performances being but mean and short significations of a hearty love And the greatest and bravest atchievements such acts as are most heroick as denying our selves in what is most dear to us are the true and proper results and expressions of divine Love these are the worthy exploits of this holy affection Love makes the noblest Champions in the Holy War against Sin the World and Satan and animates a Christian to the greatest adventures As for easie and common performances 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a cheap and costless Religion and Self-denial in small matters viz. in such things as a man is but little inclined to and are less for his pleasure and advantage the divine Love is less solicitous about them But it chuseth rather to awaken and animate the Soul to the harder services of Religion It doth not think it quitteth it self in engaging against the weaker lusts or in taking some of the slight out-works but it sets its self against the most powerful Corruptions it plants its batteries against 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the strong holds the inmost Fort where Self-will hath ensconced her self The weapons of its warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds casting down imaginations or reasonings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. There is a lion in the way is the voice of the cold and lazy Sluggard but this is no discouragement to the Lover of God it affrights him not Nay so far is this Love from being cooled and disheartned by difficulties and oppositions that it is rather kindled and improved By these it heightens it self into an holy indignation against whatsoever would attempt to draw it from God Many waters cannot quench love neither can the flouds drown it Nay as water cast into lime they increase instead of lessening its heat Love though it be a soft and delicate affection yet it is hardy and strong withall Love is strong as death and it is as ingenuous and noble as strong for if a man would give all the substance of his house for love it would utterly be contemned Neither the hard and evil things which the world threatens nor the most tempting allurements of the world or the flesh can either affright or corrupt that heart where the divine Love rules from a faithful adhering to the will of God But to the several temptations it meets with in the world this is the constant resolute answer of every holy Lover as it was Iosephs How can I do this wickedness and sin against God Yea Love enables a Christian to do his duty much sooner and better That which is in others the effect of great severity to the body long fastings and other toilsome exercises often repeated is done in a more compendious and effectual way by the power of Love in such Christians as are indued with a more than ordinary measure of it Now that this Divine Love may be inkindled in us and the flame of it more and more increased First Let us very often lift up the eyes of our mind and fix them upon those infinitely lovely perfections glories and excellencies that are in God which the holy Scriptures do so abound with the mention and celebrations of Let us view these frequently in the Scriptures and also in the works of Creation and Providence Let us often consider with our selves how that all the lovelinesses and sweetnesses that are in Creatures are but so many drops from the fountain of them that is God and that every Love-attracting excellency every thing which the world calls precious and desireable is but a very weak resemblance of what is to be tasted and enjoyed in him Secondly Let us also as frequently contemplate those transcendent and invaluable mercies and favours those numberless benefits and kindnesses which we stand obliged to God for And above all that Gift of Gifts his Son in whom he expressed a Love to us that passeth knowledge Would we have the fire of holy Love kindled in our Breasts let us I say dwell very much in the admiring contemplation of the Divine Excellencies and the Divine Benefits The Contemplation of the infinite Perfections that are in God will render all things contemptible compared with him and consequently make them weak unperswading untempting things What Pythagoras said he learned by his Philosophy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to admire nothing we shall learn by this Contemplation When the Soul hath inured her self to view the Divine Glories how near to nothing is this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the whole Universe in its eyes what a little spot and point When she hath been upon the Mount with God and ravished her self with his astonishing beauty she must needs be affected with such a magnanimity and generosity of spirit as will couragiously repell the strongest temptations she meets with to withdraw her from a close union and conjunction of will and affection to him And the consideration of the