Gods Servants will be short for all 't is eternal to the Wicked ver 13. 3. That this God is of unchangeable Love to his own and will evidence it in their Deliverance and Advancement and also by his Presence with them and care of them and kindness to them so as never to relinquish and reject them ver 13 14 17 18 19 21. Now he that undertakes to instruct others in such Doctrines either maintains in his own Soul a commanding sense thereof or he is a Hypocrite which to imagine concerning a divinely inspired Penman of Holy Writ is not only uncharitable but impious If then we entertain no reverent and awful Apprehensions of the Divine Majesty or if our Conceptions of God do not make an indelible Impression upon our hearts to over-rule them into a religious Care that our Actions may be a clear representation to others of our inward Sentiments concerning the Glory and Excellency of God If we pretend God and Heaven and yet like Fiends or Swine live in a Sink or Hell of Ungodliness Unrighteousness Insobriety 't is self-deluding damnable Presumption to intermeddle with and appropriate to our selves any divine Consolations out of the Covenant and Promises This Holy Man presents these adorable Perfections of God to the Minds and Consideration of these wicked ones on purpose to restrain their hands and bridle their very inward Imaginations of Evil against his Inheritance that a venerable Opinion of his Omniscience and Justice might not remain meerly as a barren Speculation in their Understandings but overcome their Wills and Affections and govern their external Actions as no doubt they did his own and if they do not ours if the awful Excellencies of God do not affect us what have we to do to refresh our selves with the comfortable God will not be divided cannot If his infinite Majesty do not get the Victory over our Irascibles our Concupiscibles must not cannot be satiated with his fathomless Mercy He will come in Lightning and Thunder ere he distil upon us in a gentle shower of Love and Peace He that will not retain a powerful Sence of God's Greatness neither shall nor indeed will entertain a reviving sense of his Goodness If Thoughts of God will not work one way they will not another That Man's Comforts are none of God's which are not usher'd in by the Fear of God neither has he any Right to receive Good from any thing of God who is not wrought and formed into Goodness by All of him God will be all or nothing command down our Corruptions by the dread of his Power or he will not command up our Content by the display of his Kindness if he cannot bend us he will break us The sense of his Glory must make us better or the sense of his Bounty must not make our burthen lighter In sum Greatness must awe us or Goodness shall not ease us no sense of God can do us good that is not universal No Promises comfort independently upon the Precepts We steal our Peace if Grace give it not And holy Sensations of the plenitude of all heart and life-ruling Excellencies in God are the very first Principles and beginnings of Grace If a Man can think of God and yet love his Lusts his entry upon the Inheritance of Peace is a bold and impudent Usurpation Ps 50.18 Vnto the Wicked God saith what hast thou to do to declare my Statutes or that thou shouldst take my Covenant in thy mouth seeing thou hatest Instruction and castest my Words behind thee c. The Origin of this both Presumption and Disobedience is declar'd ver 21. Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thy self Low creeping ineffectual Thoughts of God which will permit Men to be unlike God will also suffer them to delude themselves into real Woe by invading his Comforts without the Warrant of his Commands He that hath a Right to solace himself in God or any thing of his must in his proportion be like God 'T is in virtue of his infinite Perfection that he is infinitely pleased with himself if we possess nothing of the one both as a foreign Good and domestick personal Qualification what have we to do with the other If the Perfections of God be not our objective chief Happiness without us if they be not a transforming Principle and Life within us as far as communicable they cannot be our Formal chief Good and Happiness If they be not our Right and Nature they cannot be our Pleasure There can be no Satisfaction whilst there is Dissimilitude Dissension Opposition of Natures What Comfort can Enemies have one in another A harmony of Dispositions must introduce Complacency where this is not there 's no Content All that solaces must be suitable Pleasure and Delight arise from the agreeableness of Objects and Appetites What pleases not comforts not God himself who is an everlasting Fullness and Fountain of the sweetest and richest Satisfactions cannot be a comfort to that Soul which is not pleased with him and then nothing in the World can it being impossible that finite should outdo infinite But how can that Man be pleased with God that does not apprehend his singularly delectable Excellencies or apprehending them does not by consideration work a due respect to them into his inmost Soul so as out of Conscience with a liberal and ingenuous Affection to approve of and chuse and acquiesce in God as his All-sufficient Portion his sole and supreme Felicity Really if we think that we can be and enjoy better any where else than in God or if that be the import of our Actions we neither can nor will possess a Heaven of Consolation in God For that only is our ultimate Comfort which is our best and if we do but make God a means to a further end he cannot be our rest Here then must we fix our Tabernacles for a final repose and content therefore must keep alive and lively in our Minds and Hearts the Thoughts of God He that can live a day without some pleasing Reflections upon immense Wisdom Power Holiness Justice Goodness Faithfulness All-sufficiency c. may be a Devil tomorrow as he is a Beast to day but Title has he none whilst thus brutish to refresh himself with the Comforts of Heaven since he owns not the Well-spring of them Oh let us set the Lord always before our eyes and keep him in view as the Omniscient Supervisor of our hearts and ways having always an eye within us piercing into the most secret recesses of our Souls Let only a Balaam say in the future I shall behold him but not near do thou O my Soul awe thy self into seriousness and Integrity of Conscience by present Consideration that this all-comprehending unconfinable Nature is necessarily more nigh to and intimately present with thee than any thing in the World thine own Body nay thy very Thoughts and most inward Motions not excepted Thou understandest that he is the highest
Psal 45. 〈◊〉 Such Thoughts may possibly lick and sleek over the Affections and give them a Face but cannot give them Life and where our Sorrows are not a living Spring they will never issue in other than dead Contents and Joys Those Thoughts that never warm and melt the Heart do but terminate in cold Comfort If they do not mould and fashion and frame our Souls aright as the Potter does his Clay we shall never be Vessels of Honour to be replenished with divine Consolations Oh then my Soul where are thy piercing heart-wounding Reflections Will the All-wise God be so profuse of his medicinal healing Balms as to apply them wast where there are no Sores Can the all-knowing Physician of Souls be so indiscreet as prodigally to consume and spend his reviving Cordials where neither the Head is sick nor the Heart faint Do no mollifying Considerations distil down as the dew upon the Reck beneath to supple it into a repenting tenderness Dost thou never ascend in thy Meditations to the third Heaven and take a deliberate view of those yerning Bowels of Commiseration which did compass thee about when in thy Blood with the rest of Mankind devoted to everlasting Destruction upon account of thy violation in Adam of the Covenant of Nature Does not God's Eternal Love which was its own motive to establish that Heaven and Earth-astonishing Occonomy of Grace for thy restitution to a condition of Hope and Happiness sometimes solicit and invite thy serious Cogitations to dwell upon it till it thorowly insinuate it self into thy inmost Recesses and with a gentle fervour thaw thy frozen Affections and soften thee into godly Sorrow Art thou hardened against the powerful impressions of that admirable Grace Behold then further in Golgotha a spectacle that would regele and dissolve even Eyes of Flint and intenerate a Heart all Rock of Adamant Oh behold thy panting groaning bleeding dying Redeemer the ever-blessed Son of God breathing out his oppressed Soul under the burthen of thy Curse to procure for thee an Inheritance of everlasting Blessedness This O this is a melting sight indeed Did the very Rocks relent and rent asunder the palsied Earth devest its obstinate natural stableness and as if there had been a luxation of all its Ligaments compose it self into a tremulous Palpitation and the very face of Nature it self put on Sack-cloath gather Blackness enwrap it self in a Mourning dress and envelop all its Glories in a noonday night upon that fatal Eclipse of the Glory of both the visible and invisible World the Sun of Righteousness that the Philosopher did not without good reason infer upon the Contemplation thereof that it imported either the God of Natures Passion or its verging towards a Dissolution And shall that which overcomes all the repugnances of Nature find and leave thee a piece of the nether Milstone with a pervicacious stubbornness hardening thy self against Sorrow In a compassionate regard of thy wretchedness he did then by strength of Love how the Heavens Psal 144.5 Isa 64.1 that he might come down humbling his Deity to embrace thy beggarly Humanity but Oh! Whither wilt thou fly for Sanctuary when he shall break and burn down all at his return in the flaming Severity and Vengeance of an impartial Judge to render Recompences even to thee amongst the rest of impenitent Rebels If he find thee such what Rock more impenetrable than thy self wilt thou search out to cover thee 2 Pet. 3. When the Heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat What shelter canst thou meet with as indissoluble as thy brawny Heart that in a contumacious pertinacy has so long stood out against all the choicest methods of Divine Goodness to dissolve thee to reclaim thee Wilt thou consider or wilt thou not Shall thy thoughts draw out those penitential Waters that will return in a tyde of Joys Hast thou ever been opprest with the thoughts of thy Sins thy Ungodliness thy Worldly Lusts thy Pride Passion Selfishness Earthliness Unbelief Lukewarmness Hypocrisie Customariness of Spirit in holy Performances or omission of them c. and perseverance in these Evils and the like against the Dictates of Conscience Convictions of the Spirit Warnings of Providence by a hard and impenitent Heart treasuring up Wrath against the day of Wrath Rom. 2.5 and Revelation of the Righteous Judgment of God Will neither the thoughts of Love and Heaven engage thee nor of Wrath and Hell affright thee into Seriousness Oh the damnable obduracy and unconcernedness of an unrenewed Heart that neither Life nor Death though Eternal neither Felicity nor Misery though Unfathomable can prevail upon not to be willing and take the ready method to be unutterably miserable till the lamentable experience and feeling of the one eternally do utterly extinguish all hopes of the other except Almighty Power to introduce Repentance create such bitter and sensible foretasts that with Heman Psal 88.15 't is ready to groan out suffering thy Terrors I am distracted thy fierce wrath goeth over me thy terrors have cut me off For 't will be a wonder if any thing less prevail with it to fly from the Wrath to come Matth. 3.7 Did thy thoughts Oh my Soul never affect thee with these and the like things as the greatest Realities matters of Sense not of mere Speculation Hast thou never been sick and sore through the plague of thine Heart Art thou whole without a Physician Hast thou never a Spiritual Wound or want to force and drive thee out of thy self Seest thou never a divine lovely Perfection a suitable attractive Excellency in Christ to draw thee In short hast thou never entertain'd any feeling Considerations of the true way to Comfort Never studied that course and procedure of Divine Goodness whereby he leads to it Never entred in at the strait Gate of Repentance which alone admits into the Mansion of those unfading Joys Hast thou never got thy native Blindness of Mind in some good degree heal'd by the Spiritual Eye-salve of Heaven The digusts of thy Spiritual Palate remedied by a savoury relishing taste of the sweetness of the Truth as it is in Jesus Thy connatural rockiness dissolved by the softening influences of the Spirit of Conviction and Contrition If not thus I like it not thy Peace I fear is naught away with it 't will end in Confusion But if thy thoughts be deep and powerful and have thy Heart at command If thou weigh and consider with all seriousness and deliberation the necessity of being qualified aright for Peace and the danger of presuming thy Conscience into a calm cessation under a state of Enmity to God that for thy life thou darest not entertain a jot of Comfort further than thy Light Spirit and Condition can be fully reconciled to it and freely admit it upon a full and thorow pondering all Circumstances and examining thy Heart searching thy Conscience to the bottom because as much
would Duel it to Death For whilst I am not affraid of and restrain'd from Sin by the Sanctions of the Law I send a Defiance to the Justice of God and set my self above it trample it under my Feet with drawn Sword drive it before me gasht with innumerable Wounds make a Dish-clout of it For did I believe that there were any such thing indeed as Omnipotent Righteousness to vindicate to the utmost all violations of the Law 't would effectually curb and quell the licentiousness of my Spirit and Actions but whilst it does nothing with me I make nothing of it By not standing in awe of it any more than if it were not in effect I do my utmost endeavour that it be not I take away its being as to my self and as far as in me lies to all the World by making a slight of it How these Attributes Holiness and Justice are the Noblest Life of God his richest Glory which whilst I I rob him of I labour to destroy him Lastly Sin is a Contradiction or Contrafaction rather to Gods Government an opposition to and counteracting his Regality Dominion and Rule over the Rational World Treason Rebellion against the Soveraign Majesty of Heaven Yea any the least Sin is no less One would think that a partly enforced transgressing a Law of God in mere indifferent matter when done with a good intention for a good end were the least of all Sins And such was Saul's sparing the best of the Amalekites Cattle for Sacrifices to God 1 Sam. 15. Saul was but newly settled in his Kingdom and some grumbled at his Government 1 Sam. 10.27 and 11 12. In this not throughly composed state of affairs God commands him to destroy utterly the Sinners the Amalekites and all they had chap. 15.3 But he for fear of the Peopel ver 24. i. e. least they should be discontented with him and upon his not hearkning to them ver 24. obeying their Voice be alienated from him and his Government as a Man of a stubborn inflexible Spirit and uncounsellable spared the best of the Cattle for Sacrifices to God ver 15. A good and laudable end had it otherwise been duly circumstantiated Yet this God calls Rebellion ver 23. and equalls it with the most horrid Crimes Witchcraft and Idolatry and punishes it with the utter rejection of Saul and his House from the Kingdom 1 Sam. 20.17 18. Now Rebellion is Treason to our power destroying the Soveraignty of God therefore his Being and Life But an attempt against the Life of God is an Evil astonishingly great and hainous For 1. 'T is in effect a hurling the whole Creation into Ruin and Confusion because it cannot possibly subsist a Moment without him But 2. And especially 't is a vertual annihilation of God himself i. e. of Infinite Perfection and to design nay to effect the destruction of all Created Nature is nothing in comparison of acting toward the destruction of the Diety For to him the whole World is as nothing all Nations but as the drop of a Bucket and the light small dust of the Balance Isa 40.15 The World being but finite to Murther and Ruin all of it intirely Angels Men Brutes Inanimates would but be a finite Evil. But God being an Infinite Nature a vertual destroying him must needs be an Evil vertually infinite and 't is but Justice to proportion Punishments to Crimes especially where the only saving Remedy of infinite value is contemned which is another act of God-slaughter or Murther The Holy Ghost therefore calls it a Crucifying afresh the Son of God and putting him to open shame Heb. 6.6 And which comprehends yet more Indignity a treading under Foot the Son of God and accounting the Blood of the Covenant wherewith he or rather it viz. the Covenant was Sanctified See Heb. 9.18 19 20 22 23. a common translated unholy thing and doing despite to the Spirit of Grace Heb. 10.29 Wilt thou not then Oh my Soul dislike disavow relinquish detest and abhor this greatest of Evils for God's sake whom it so highly affronts and offends Shall any of this abominable cursed thing cleave unto thee And wilt thou in Affection adhere to it Oh let the honourable Respect and Veneration thou bearest to that ever adorable infinite Nature which thou unconceivably wrongest by every Sin prevail with and overcome thee to a willingness to debase and loath thy self for that Evil that only Evil Ezek. 7.5 Evil beyond all superlative even to an Hyperbole Rom. 7 13. How canst thou do less than prosecute with an indignant and implacable Malice those base sensual desires which have glu'd thee to the present dreggy dirty Dunghil Contentments of a vain ensnaring turbulent vexatious defiling World and diverted to a sordid wallowing in the nasty puddle and sink of all Moral Pollutions those noble Faculties which were formed by God to ascend above all Visibles and ravish themselves with the view and fruition of his own incomprehensible Glories Oh Folly and Frenzy not to be parallel'd or equal'd by all the Bedlams upon Earth to prefer the Devil and Hell before God and Heaven Thou art destitute of all Sense Reason and Shame if it do not cut thee to the Heart bleed out at thy Eyes blush in thy Face and groan in thy Conscience Wilt thou then Oh my Soul in sincerity love thy Maker who is infinitely worthy to beloved Wilt thou from that Principle engage thy self to the utmost against every thing which he hates Shall he to whom thou owest thy Being Beauty Hopes and Happyness have that interest in thee as to over-rule all thy inward-Motions and byas them into a course perfectly contrary to that wherein they naturally run and convert all thy Powers into Irascibles or passionate yet rational Combatants against those implacable Adversaries of the Divine and Humane Nature which turn the World upside down and will ere long bury it in Ashes and Ruins Oh my Soul What is there in thy Lusts thut thou canst Love What in thy Sin that merits not a Vatinian hate Is it not all Filth Poyson Curse Hell What in a thing of so pestilent a Nature can bewitch thee to dote upon it Why must that which is worse than all the Devils in the Regions of Infernal Darkness be advanced above thy Self Vertue Peace Comfort Christ and Celestial Glory Are thy reasonable Powers so abominably seduc'd and abus'd by false and fallacious Shadows and Phantasms as to represent that in the dress of Heaven which is the very deformity foam and venom of those dark Mansions of Horrour Would any Man in his Wits ever chuse and embrace those poysonful Toads and Vipers to lie next his Heart and be warm in his very inmost Affections which to his in tolerable anguish and woe will be gnawing out his very Bowels for ever and not intermit those torturings for a moment but augment them gradually to the uttermost But alas this is only an Evil to thy self a poor mean
Railings Revilings Censures Uncharitableness Cursings Excommunicatings Fines Imprisonments Murderings Massacrings for things extrinsecal and foreign to their holy Profession recommended in the Mosaical Prophetical Evangelical and Apostolical Writings As if God had not delivered Precepts enough to guide Men to Heaven ever Party must have new of its own to torture Mens Consciences doubting that there are not Sins enough to damn Men unless we by our whimsies make large additions to the sum discovering thereby how much we are affraid that those who otherwise would securely tread in the Paths of Life and gain the Crown of Glory should not stumble and fall upon our new created Blocks and thereby precipitate themselves into Hell For what else is the meaning of our unwritten Traditions unwritten Canons unwritten Offices unwritten Orders and an hundred more by the by 's Tricks and Snares and Trains and Traps made to help the Devil more certainly to catch enough Is not the Holy Word of God the Scripture in its Rules and Laws too oft too much too foully-transgress'd but the Mouth of Hell must be gagg'd and rack'd wider with new devices that it may be capacious enough to receive the numberless numbers that we resolve to send thither by man-made Sins as if it were in despite of God And least our self-devised Engins should fail of effecting this and a poor quivering trembling Conscience that looks asquint at them should chance to preserve its Innocence and Allegiance to God and its present Light and Sentiments by sliping out of or breaking through the Snare and refusing to wound it self to eternal Death with the Ponyard we put into its hands we must jog and thrust home and drive on its slow and cautious pendulous Arm by the violence of such severe indispensible Sanctions so strictly look'd after so rigorously executed and all under a bold pretence of Divine Warrant that if Men have any thing of Nature Sense and Commiseration to their own Flesh their dearest Yoke-fellows their pretty tender innocent Babes they must be cruelly enforc'd to determine to be damn'd for them or kill their Hearts by dying before their Eyes under as many Agonies as ingenious Malice can invent and this perhaps a thousand times over beside the bequeathing them to the same or more miserable Fortune and all this is doing God good Service As if the Lord that bought Mens Souls to ease them Matth. 11.29 30. had done it only to sell them again to the most bloody butchering Fiends to torment them And God who with so much severity prohibits Cruelty Murder Bloodshed by his Laws had laid in an exception and given Commission for this to as many as can so divest all sense and bowels of Humanity and Christianity as to judge none to be Men and Christians but themselves and invest so much of Wolf Tyger Dragon as to do the utmost to make all others Proselytes of the Gates of Heil like themselves when in the mean time Men with the greatest impunity may violate the noblest Ordinations of Heaven or upon Prosecuon buy off or commute the Penance for a little Trash and Dirt. Oh dear Lord Jesus how long how long shall such a Spirit Triumph and ride in Scarlet How long shall they tear in pieces thy People and Heritage under the Beasts Skins wherewith they have cloathed them Oh blessed Spouse of Christ How long must thou be affronted with the violence of such beastly Ruffians that under a disguise pretend to be thy-very self that they may the more securely ravish and destroy thee The Wolf in the Lambs skin unsuspectedly to devour it A Beast with Horns like a Lamb but a Voice like a Dragon Rev. 13.11 Well Christ's Servants are not Wolves Thorns and Thistles Matth. 7.15 16. Profitable to none hurtful to all publick Curses But Sheep Vines Fig-trees their Temper their Behaviour their Fruit altogether good meek gentle sweet refreshing reviving pleasing generally useful publick Blessings like their Master every way desirable grateful all being better for them none worse in Goods good Name Body or Soul their Designs their Principles their Temper and Spirit their Behaviour and Purpose and Practice being the general benefit of Mankind and the Church of God especially that wherein their Lines are fallen They think it they represent it they indeavour further to make and preserve it a goodly Heritage If it hold the Head if it uphold the main if its established Doctrine be truly Christian if its design be true goodness if its Worship in the substance be Divine They bless God for it they cover its Blemishes they bear with its Infirmities they further its Ends they endeavour to inlarge it to adorn it with real Beauties to vindicate it from Reproaches to promote its Unity Prosperity Peace Purity Felicity lament its Miseries Breaches Corruptions Defects Deformities but expose it but defame it they dare not they will not This is a truly Catholick Spirit proceeding in all its actings upon truly Catholick Principles This and this only when the risk of Partiality Censoriousness Self-idolizing Faction Fury Barbarousness Madness Devilism is run will stand upon a secure basis and yeild a Man the blessed Fruits of Comfort Joy Peace and Contentation But I must come out of the Clouds and be plain Therefore shall first direct what ought to be owned by a Publick Spirit next what Principles will enable a Man to own what he ought 1. Common Humanity engages to be well wishers to that general Nature which is diffused through all the Species and love that in any Man which I honour in my self All the Butcheries and Barbarities on Earth issue from Mens degeneracy from Humanity into a ferine or diabolical Nature But since I am a Man nothing humane shall be foreign to my Cognisance to my Compassion to my Ear to my Conscience When the Vices of Persons give a check to my Bowels the vertue of the Nature shall retrieve their yearning motions and when I can see nothing in Men to engage I will endeavour to imitate the best of Paterns in taking Arguments from my self I will not so much regard their Conditions as their Capacities and that in all their Possibilities If this Nature be personally joined to God why should not I be joined to it in Affection Shall I tread that Man in the dirt who may shine as a Star in the Firmament of Glory Shall a Companion of Angels and God himself be worse dealt with than a Devil May Heaven receive him and shall not my Heart Is God so unkind to me as to give me an Example of brutishness to my own Nature I must not be worse to him than I would have him to me were our circumstances changed the measures I meet to him shall I receive of God 2. Christianity next both renders a man more meet and lays upon me a further bond to desire endeavour and effect his good The honour of the Name the power of the Thing The famed Mr. Fox could never deny
every though never so fortuitous an effect of a spontaneous Agent to look at God I 'll not instance in other than David And 1. for evil Events As he intimates a possibility of Saul's being excited against him by God 1 Sam. 26.19 and was foretold that the Lord would raise up evil against him out of his own House and take his Wives and give them to Absalom under the notion of his Neighbour 2 Sam. 12.11 So even when he was cursed by Shimei he owns it as from God 2 Sam. 16.10 Not that he supposed God had a hand in the sin of the Act but order'd it as a part of the punishment threatned for his own Sin 2. Good Events of all kinds he more frequently ascribes to God Does he conquer his Enemies 'T is the Lord that lets him see his desire upon them Psal 59.10 and subdueth the People under him Psal 18.47 48. See the whole Psalm and smites his Enemies in their hinder parts Psal 78.66 Do his Friends own and anoint and crown him King He entitles God to it Psal 21.3 When his Father and Mother forsake him the Lord takes him up Psal 27.10 Is he secur'd in a strong City 'T is the Lord's marvellous kindness Psal 31.21 What do I enumerating Particulars every Psalm is an Instance And indeed were it not so Prayer would be mere Mockery and Praise Hypocrisie Epist 31. and that of Seneca would be better Divinity than we are taught by the Scriptures which yet to suppose is most horridly Blasphemous Per maxima acto viro turpe est etiamnum Deos fagitare Quid votis opus est Facte ipse foelicem Let those English it that allow it Now when a Man does thus in all Events take notice of the Finger of God and thereby give him the glory of his Efficiency he is in a disposition for renewed Experiments of the Divine Power and Goodness in Peace and Joy Where the Glory will be given to God he will grant the fullest and sweetest tasts of his Graciousness But who will lose a Benefit 'T is lost where no likelyhood of any grateful Acknowledgement Unthankfulness is the most hateful of Sins Ingratum si dixeris omnia dixeris If God must not reap Praises he will not sow Mercies Not that he needs our Gratitude but that we must own our Benefactor and testifie our advances in Love when by new Instances he testifies his Love to us Nevertheless this Love of ours is not profitable to God but highly as all other Graces to our selves Our own Advantage and Interest is alway at the bottom of our Duty which indeed can add nothing to God Job 34. is nothing to him as neither can our Iniquity detract from him or hurt him His good will towards us moves him to take care that it may be well with us therefore doth he follow us with his tender Mercies and richest Blessings that we may proceed upon ingenuous Motives in our observance of him and obedience to him and may not be obnoxious to the check of Satan or our own Consciences for servility of Spirit in that work wherein consists our Liberty Honour and Happiness Indeed we are not really good if we be not ingenuously good nor act at all for God if we act not from a filial disposition Love is every Grace and Virtue that Spirit of Life which as an universal Cause diffuses its benign animating Influences through all the Regions of true Goodness and Honesty All in us that lives to God every holy Disposition every gracious Habit is only a distinct particular modification of Love Even as the varieties of Nature in those innumerable differences of Plants sensitive Creatures and Men in their Bodies are but Earthly Particles diversly modified formed fashioned and qualified Hence Love is said to be the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13.10 But without Love to be Good is impossible 1 Cor. 13. Where this Grace dwells God dwells also and the Soul inspirited by it dwells in God 1 Joh. 4.8 16. The more of Love therefore the more of God He will never be out of our Eye if he be thus in our Hearts Love there will command our Looks 'T was the dominion of this Grace in his Soul that mov'd the Psalmist to make such honourable mention here of the Love and Graciousness of God in his aid and sustentation 't was this that in his distress inclin'd him to take Sanctuary in God and own all the Spiritual Refreshments that solaced his Heart as derivations from God and engaged him to devolve all the Glory thereof upon God And how should that Soul do other that has all in God Hast thou then Oh my Soul evermore and in every occurrent an Eye toward Heaven and by thy acknowledgement of the Finger of God in every thing that befalls thee Dost thou honour his Providence indeavour to relish his Goodness and make some progress in thine affectionate pantings after him complacency in him resolution for him and dutifulness to him O let every thing remind thee of his everlasting Commiseration that in thy lost Estate remembred thee gave Blood for thy Ransom the Blood of God Acts 20.28 The time of thy lothing was the time of his Love Eze. 16.5 8. He loved thee out of the Pit of Corruption Isa 38.17 He hath prevented thee with the Blessings of Goodness Psal 21.3 He redeemeth thy Life from Destruction and crowneth thee with loving Kindness and tender Mercies Psal 103.4 He hath not dealt with thee after thy Sins nor rewarded thee according to thy Iniquities ver 10. Therefore ver 1 2. Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me Bless his Holy Name Bless the Lord Oh my Soul and forget not all his Benefits Hallelujah CHAP. X. The Subject of Comfort Seeks it solely in God THus much of the Character deduced from the Context there only remains one thing out of the Text it self Viz. The Psalmist was a Man who discern'd such an emptiness and insufficiency in all inferiour Contentments as to seek no relief from them nor take up with any in them as his rest in Trouble but in deepest anxiety and distress did look for and find all his comfort solely in and from God This is the very substance and marrow of the Verse Indeed the whole Psalm is a Testimony of his ceasing from the Creature from Man in a believing and affectionate recourse to God Where-ever he cast his Eye upon Earth the Inscription was Vanity and Vexation A deluge of Sin and Misery covered the World that like Noah's Dove he could find no rest for the sole of his Foot below therefore does he direct his course toward Heaven Thus Psal 55.6 Oh that I had wings like a Dove for then I would flee away and be at rest But Rest is not a Denizen of this World Nothing but the Heaven of Heavens is at rest and here does he fix only There was a Windy Storm and Tempest without as Psal 55.8
cannot be satisfied that he hath really performed the Conditions of the Covenant of Grace as far as is necessary to found a present right to the Blessings of that Covenant Doubt of this and doubt of all I must have good and sound Evidence of this or I build upon Sand. Imaginary Grace will only introduce imaginary Right therefore none but an imaginary Peace The Superstructure can be no more firm and stable than the Foundation Whence it being impossible to be really Comforted without a sound perswasion of Right and impossible to be certain of right without certainty of the truth of Grace it follows that Comfort is not possible without Assurance Therefore not rational 'T is a very imprudent part in a Man to speak Peace to himself when God does proclaim open War absolute madness to arrest Divine Consolations when it is Indispensible Duty to apply and meditate Terror to bless himself with appropriating Promises when his Condition is palpably under the Threatning and he either knows it or has just reason to suspect it There 's no middle state between Sanctified and Unsanctified Pardoned and Unpardoned If a Man know that he is Unjustified yet assume to himself the Comfort of the Promises he presumes senslessly and sottishly to give the lye to God Let such read and consider Deut. 29.18 19 20 c. If any doubt of his Pardon yet apply Comfort he gives his Conscience the go-by and makes fair weather in despite of Heaven In short Peace of Conscience cannot possibly arise from any other scource than Conscience of a State Frame and Way acceptable to God If I have no motives to conciliate a Credibility to this and yet will solace my self and cast off all trouble care and fear hush the storm within compose the rouling Waves and settle 't is but upon the Lees the Mire and Dirt and too much a Token and Testimony of Madness Drunkenness or Searedness of Conscience The 2d Part of the Conviction concerns Conscience which 't is as necessary to establish as the Mind Truth and Sincerity in the Heart being as momentous and considerable as Truth in the Head or Understanding Humane nay all sublunary Nature is fond of Ease and Rest and entertains all Perturbations with reluctancy and dolour but above all trouble of Mind and Conscience is most uneasie Comfort and Peace most natural agreeable and grateful Prov. 18.14 and 17.22 and 12.25 and 15.13 Hence every one would and will if it be possible live in some kind of Peace But 't is the unhappiness of the Generality through ignorance inconsideration and greediness of Rest to snatch at the mere shadow and so that they may but be free from Pain and the dreadful Convulsions and Cramps of Conscience matter not whether it be through Sleep Numbness Stupefaction or Death But this is not to be accounted Peace any more than a Swoon is Rest 'T is really a Disease the Lethargy of Conscience out of which when it awakes in this or another World 't is tortured with the cruelest Pangs stung and rack'd with the most direful Anguish and Agonies imaginable It therefore is of no little consequence to know whether our Comfort be genuine that we dream not our selves into deeper Woes in the embraces of false and fallacious Joys Let our Consciences therefore see to it that they be not put off with Phantasms and Illusions instead of solid Consolations Seeing then there is a World of adulterine cozening Peace what may be the Criteria the distinctive Characteristicks of true and false Comfort They differ 1. In their Origin or Rise and Antecedents 2. In their Attendants or Company 3. In their Subject and the condition of the Persons 4. In their Effects and Tendency 1. Carnal Comfort springs out of Security Spiritual out of Sense An impenitent Sinner is at quiet in his Mind either because he never knew the deplorable Wretchedness and Wickedness of his Natural State or never would know it or because knowing it and being frighted therewith he takes a sinister method to conjure down the sense and terror of it either murdering Convictions by diverting his Thoughts Cares Course and Conduct as the Prophane or stopping the Mouth of Conscience by entering into the road of Religion as do the Hypocrites when yet there 's something that passes Judgment underneath and whispers to them that all is not right and justifiable before God whatever their shows may be before Men. Or if through blindness of Mind or Self-flattery they have arriv'd to that depth of Delusion as to deceive their own Souls and being accustomed to collogue with God are left by him to believe a lye as 't is just for those that mock God with shadows to be permitted to feed thereon themselves and to be imposed upon by that whereby they attempt to impose upon their Maker they live in a Calm and die in a Mist not knowing where they are till they feel themselves in Hell But these are perverse preposterous Methods to Peace which will issue in a more destructive War and Confusion True Comfort grows out of and in the midst of Thoughts multitude of Thoughts which affect the Heart with godly Sorrow Such I scruple not to call that of the Psalmist's which the Context exhibits and the Text implies under the notion of Branchings here rendred Thoughts but which no less includes the Affections and every thing which issues from the Soul as the Bough from the Tree beside that his Trouble and therefore Grief did mainly respect the publick Interest of the Church Religion and God This was the Harbinger of his Joy And that Comfort is of this Lineage appears by many Scriptures as Psal 112.4 Vnto the upright there ariseth Light in Darkness Only those that sow in Tears shall reap in Joy Psal 126.5 6. Ye shall weep and lament but the World shall rejoyce and ye shall be sorrowful but your sorrow shall be turned into joy Joh. 16.20 See also Isa 57.18 and 61.2 3. Matth. 5.4 If there be not first troubled Thoughts Comfort will neither be sought given nor valu'd The most take no thought about their Condition and Comfort yet are at ease because they never engage their thinking Powers so the senseless careless wicked ones the rest of Men who sleep in the soft Bed of patch'd formal Religion and dream themselves into carnal Security as the Pharisaical never think thorowly Their Thoughts are a lively Emblem of their Devotions or these of them all superficial nothing solid and to good purpose A Man is only that in Religion which his Thoughts are Home Thoughts that go to the bottom of things and represent them as they are and go to the bottom of the Heart and touch it to the quick make a Man sound and serious in Soul concerns But overly Cogitations only paint the outside and form a pretty Picture of a Saint do not renew and reform within where the Eye of God looks for a more eminent Comelyness and Glory
get advantage by nothing according to the Proverb of the Rowling Stone Therefore Command thy self in chief is a good Monition of Mr. Herbert If thou losest the regiment of thine own Mind and canst not bridle the exorbitances of thy Thoughts bring them to a beck like one in Authority keeping them under controul and if thou hast not a good stock of profitable matter treasured up in thy Memory to entertain them with at all times maintaining thy Jurisdiction and Dominion over them to be able to divorce and divert them from any thing to any thing thou canst never live in Tranquillity and Peace Those Cogitations that break the pale and run out of course will still be creating Civil Wars and Combustions among thy Passions and interrupt the Serenity of thy Conscience Hence it is that Meditation is not the immediate duty of nor proper for the constitutionally Melancholick whose temper it is to be too cogitabund and their Disease to be altogether unable to biass their Thoughts and to be too willing to lay out those Cogitations rather upon any thing than what is Joyous and Comforting Let such make use of other Mens Thoughts rather that their own and be more in Company and Conference than Solitude and Soliloquies Neme est ex imprudentioribus qui relinqui sibi debeat Seneea Ep. 10. 'T is dangerous riding in that Chariot where there will be no other Company than the Prince of Darkness and Melancholy by some is call'd the Devil's Chariot 'T is oftner managed by an Evil Spirit than a Good therefore 't is no Wisdom for a Man to trust himself with it alone And if trouble of Heart for Sin degenerate into it as sometimes it does 't is good to set a guard upon it to live under Inspection A Man can never keep himself secure from Sins or Sorrows that hath none to keep his House but a dumpish Mind Think thou but not too much that thy Thoughts do not swallow thee up as they will if that black humour prevail within Get a guide for thy Thoughts least they misguide thee into Darkness And for that end 3. Get a clear practical notion of God This was the Psalmist's great relief In every Distress he could find an accommodate suitable Satisfaction and Solace in God Did the Wicked rage and revel in the Blood of Innocents His Faith beholds a revenging Hand ready to execute Judgment for them Did those presumptuous Deists incourage themselves in Cruelty by renouncing Divine Providence He understands and convinces them that it supervises all even to the very thoughts of the Heart Did he feel the treachery and failure of Friends on Earth He both knew and found a never failing Friend and Helper in Heaven c. In every Trouble and Exigence he meets with God Now had he been unacquainted with his Nature and Perfections we should have seen nothing of all this and then in what deplorable Circumstances would he have found himself under those surrounding Calamities Whence could he have taken any Encouragement Let us take a view of Men making no such Reflections and therefore its likely but little acquainted with such Notions And the Instance shall be in his own Companions 1 Sam. 30.3 David and his Men return to Ziklag find it burnt with Fire their Sons and Daughters taken Captives wherefore ver 4. They lifted up their Voice and wept till they had no more power to weep Ver. 6. And David was in great distress for the People spake of stoning him because the Soul of the People was bitter every Man for his Sons and for his Daughters Here was wild work What fury of Passion first in Grief next in Rage first they swelt in Tears then would swim in Blood and what would they have been the nearer To such Excesses will the frenzy of a drunken Appetite lead Men that are ignorant of God or entertain no serious Considerations of his Excellencies and their concern in the Government of the World Now behold did not an other Spirit rule in David a Man acquainted with God Yes a brave Heroical Spirit Ver. 6. David encouraged fortified garrison'd himself in the Lord his God Mark His knowledge of God and Interest in God now mightily bore up his Heart and stood him in very good stead else might his Spirits have sunk with theirs But whilst they were impotent through effeminate or diabolical Passion he was strong in God Their puling and peevishness did emasculate their Hearts and melt them into Pusillanimity and Cowardice that they did not dare to confront and face this present hardship but he became Couragious and Valiant in God so as with an undaunted masculine Fortitude and greatness of Mind to triumph over and outface the imminent Storm and work his way through it though with redoubled Violence from both Enemies and Friends it rush'd upon him And truly since all our Comfort is originally and eminently and consummately in God 't is impossible to enjoy any sound Quiet and Heart-ease under ignorance of him For how should a Man be able to draw and derive Comfort from he knows not what But if he see that fulness of all delectable Joys in God which are all-sufficient to relieve his Mind and compensate his sorest Troubles as the Love of God in Christ will and contemplate study and dwell upon that infiniteness of Soul-satisfying Good till the inviting amiableness ravish his Desires command his Delight engage his Soul in the most vigorous pursuit and endeavours to gain an Interest therein he shall not fail to obtain that sweet reviving Solace and Peace in the most acceptable season which will place him as in a corner of Heaven Our Sorrows are more than half remov'd when we gain a sight of their most efficacious Remedies If a Man at unawares have drunk Poyson 't is no small satisfaction to see and be sure of a prevalent Antidote Despair is the sting of Miseries Be the Storms and Surges never so high and beat upon us with seemingly the most fatal Violence yet if our Hope can but meet with any Anchor-hold if we can gain a sight of Land if we behold a sufficiency of Help and Security there our Despondencies only are Shipwrack'd we escape Those Hopes can never perish that steer towards Heaven If our Course be guided with an Eye upon the Star 't is safe But if the very Heart despair Psal 73.26 and Hope be sunk yet that case cannot be desperate that 's under-taken by God Almighty Love is never at a loss either in Ability or Will to succour those whom it once Embraces which if we understand neither our Help nor our Hope can perish from the Lord. Fix therefore thine Eye here In summ God is all in all in him if we will but oblige our selves thereto may we behold infinitely more than enough to still the raging of our troubled Minds and all engaged in Covenant to meet us more than half way Pardon of Sin Propriety in God are
Powers hence that which a Man either is above the sence of or hath no sense of is to him as if it were not though never so real in it self Therefore the Venom and Sting of Infelicity is our Sense and the Gall and Bitterness of our Sense lies in our Thoughts the workings of our Minds A Man that lies asleep bound hand and foot upon the top of a Precipice with his Head and a great part of his Body hanging over a bottomless Gulf is in a case most wretched in it self the least hitch tumbles him down into remediless Ruine yet in the condition he is in viz. Sleeping he is aware of no danger to him all 's well and secure he has no apprehensions except of Ease Safety and Rest But awake him that he look about see feel and think of his Peril and Helplessness then will he be all Agony and Horror ready to swoon and die through the direful Apprehensions of his as to himself irremediable Death This is our Case we are naturally asleep in Security and Iniquity upon the brinks of Hell bound hand and foot in the Chains of our Sins and an Adversary Satan at hand to push us headlong into the Abyss of Misery Beside the Omnipotent Vengeance of Heaven awaits us ready to arraign condemn and execute us to which we even dare it every moment But being asleep nay dead Eph. 2.1 we feel nothing reckless and careless in a Bedlam Dream we conceit that we swim upon a smooth and Halcyon Sea of sensual Joys as if 't were a Voyage to Paradise 'till God awake us by the Calls and Convictions of his Word and Spirit but then Oh the inexpressible Troubles Terrors and Astonishment that arrest us because our amazing Jeopardy whereof we had no apprehensions before is now entertain'd into our Thoughts and works so much the more violently there by how much we find our selves the more helpless and therefore hopeless Thus whatever perplexes us does it by way of Thoughts as it invests our Mind and Consideration it tortures us 'Till it thus get within us and engage our considering Faculties it does not ordinarily commit a Rape upon our Irascible or Interrupt the Sweet and Peace of a secure and quiet Composure and Rest But when this Tempest this Hurricane of Thoughts beats upon us we cannot tell which way to turn how to bear up against it It confounds our Reason discomposes our Affections terrifies our Consciences tears down all our Confidences reduces us to an absolute Nonplus Our Thoughts trouble us as Dan. 4.19 even to astonishment and so much the more by how many the more they are Multitudes of Thoughts beget multitudes of Cares and Fears and Griefs and Cumbers and Disquiets and Despondencies and of these so many the more by how much the more intimate and deep within and by how much the more they are our own not of a divine Injection but a corrupt Mind's Fabrication In the multitude of my thoughts within in me in intimo meo intestin in my Heart Septuagint Vulgar Lat. expressing the general sense of the Original Word by the noblest part within to which the Scripture sometimes attributes Thoughts as Gen 6.5 c. Both in conjunction amount to my inmost Heart or Soul If they be Thoughts not meerly the workings of my sensitive Powers inward or outward my Follies or Fancies but the mature and genuine off-spring of my Mind If they be not a few stragglers whereof I can say apparent rarae nantes in gurgite vaslo that they swim only here and there thinly in the vast Ocean of my Understanding but cover the face of my Soul in Multitudes If they be only my Thoughts such as spring in my own Garden having no Author but my self no Original but in and from my self whatever their object be whether that which I feel in my own Brest or that which is an effect of the same cause in others which has such a dismal aspect upon me even Sin And if they be penetrating Thoughts that sink and soak into the bottom and become most intimate within me not lying shallow upon the furface of my Soul In such multitudes of my thoughts within me I cannot find the least glimmering of Comfort at home nothing but Terror and Despair constrain'd am I therefore to look abroad and no where can I enjoy any thing reviving Refer to the 1. Direction but in thee O Lord the Comforts which refresh me must be thine or none And since nothing can pass into my Soul but at the door of Thoughts even these thy Comforts cannot affect me but as Troubles do they must enter into my Thoughts too be apprehended by my Mind ere they can relieve my Heart The same Engine that introduced my Misery must usher in my Mercy I must be cured through the same Weapon that wounded me Thoughts the first born of my Soul must bear my Comforts that heal me the healing is not from any vertue in the Weapon but thy Comforts the Salve upon it My Soul by its Thoughts viewing thy Comforts and transmitting them to my Affections is in a transport of delight and joy The Word rendered Thoughts is but twice found in Scripture Interpreters judge from the affinity of it with other Words of the same sound and almost the same Letters that it carries an allusion to the Boughs of a Tree Such Thoughts then are here to be understood which in like manner proceeding from the Mind of Man spread every way and divide into smaller Branches and the smallest Twigs so entangling themselves together as upon every motion to wound each other and the Tree they spring from Therefore the Seventy render the Word by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies the Pangs of of a Woman in Travail In the fulness of the pangs of my Heart c. Others render it Perplexities entangled Thoughts c. Neither does the English fully express the sence of the other Word translated Delight which primarily signifies to look upon The Mood 't is here used in imports a looking upon with Pleasure Content Love Complacency even as Lovers look upon one another 't is Dr. Hammonds's Paraphrase with a sweet and amiable Regard with loving and lovely glances of Favour and good will The Original does not intimate so much the Act as the Power and Possibility of delighting not that the Psalmist did actually lay hold upon embrace and apply to himself but only that those Comforts of God did rather manifest a forwardness and favorable readiness to lay hold upon him they were not already apprehended by him but offered themselves to him lay plain and fair before him inviting him by their benign and amiable looks by their goodness and sweetness and suitableness to close with and espouse them Even then when we are so overwhelmed with Perplexities and Troubles that we do not or will not or cannot or dare not appropriate divine Comforts to our selves they notwithstanding are prepared for
chip of Being Hell is but a sensible Comment and Paraphrase upon indeed but an Epitome and Breviate of those Evils which Sin attempts to inflict upon the Deity it self which being impassible as a Rock of Marble and Adamant reverberates and reflects back upon the Head of the Sinner those Arrows of Vengeance which were directed against it Were God capable of suffering since he is infinitely sensible Sin would torture him more than all the punishments of Hell can possibly do the Devils and Damned there And the Son of God for the same reason and because he suffered in such a measure as to give satisfaction which all the Eternal Cruciations of the Damned can never do did actually feel more evil in Sin though he never committed any than there can be evil in the everlasting Woes of Hell And 't is but just retaliation to make the Violaters of that Law of Grace established by this Son of God for the recovery of lost Man and his deliverance from the Wrath to come even all unbelieving finally Impenitents to feel something of the evil of that wherein he felt much more and from which they will not be saved by him Oh then my Soul awake thy sense and suffer with him in this Life under some paining doleful Reflections upon the evil and sinfulness of thy Sin as an offence and wrong to him Oh be in bitterness for it for him as one is in bitterness and mourns for his First-born Let nothing more afflict and vex thee than the displeasingness of thy Sin to God the despite in it to the supreme Majesty of Heaven Bleed over those Wounds thy Sin has given the Lord of Life and Glory be every day sick of that which made him die aggravate it to the height in thy Meditations and look to Heaven with the most ardent and passionate desires that God would every day impress something more of his own Image upon thee that thou mayst hate Sin with the hatred of God himself CHAP. VI. The Subject of Comfort Inoffensive to Man 2. AS the Psalmist maintain'd a powerful sense of Duty to God so he walk'd in a conscientious observance of his Duty to Man as will be evident by considering particulars respecting his Equals his Enemies and his Superiours 1. His Compassion to and Condolements of the Servants of God in Affliction intimated ver 5 6. with his Prayers for their deliverance by the God of Revenges ver 1. and the comfortable relief and assurances he gives them ver 12 13 14 15. testifie his love to the Children of God And 2. That he was not awanting to his Enemies appears in the instructive Rebukes he gives them ver 8 9 10 11. and the severe Cautions and Warnings he presents them throughout the Psalm And often the denunciation of Wrath by a terrible brandishing the Flaming Sword of a Divine Threat in the Eyes of Conscience becomes a means through God's Concurrence either to convert or at least restrain a bold and impudent Sinner Neither is it usual for any Sinner with seriousness to look up to God till he be first knock'd down by the dreadful menaces of the Law Attrition is generally antecedent to Contrition though often the motions to Contrition be first presented God himself humbles us ere he will exalt us When the gentle attractives of Grace cannot draw us the Terrors of his Wrath must drive us home to our Father's House When God prevails not by the Cords of a Man the Bands of Love to win us into an ingenuous acknowledgement of him he will further try to vanquish our stubbornness by the direful Scorpions of his Indignation And 't was not incongruous for the Psalmist to express a Love to the Persons even of wicked Persecutors in the same Methods that were made use of by his Maker Lastly His conscience of Duty to his Superiours is plain from ver 21 22. compared For though in ver 21. he speaks indefinitely and in general of condemning the Righteous and Innocent Blood yet the next ver is determinate and particular plainly demonstrating that the Righteous and Innocent he spoke of were no other than himself or that at least he was one of them They condemn the Righteous and Innocent Blood but the Lord is my defence Impertinent if it were not They condemn my Righteous Soul my Innocent Blood And of David this was undoubtedly true as he elsewhere witnesses Psal 59.3 4. The Mighty are gathered against me not for my Transgression nor for my Sin O LORD They run and prepare themselves without my Fault There they were gathered together here they gather themselves together but 't was against one whose Conscience did not challenge him for any Crime that could merit this at their Hands He could appeal to the Lord to be a Witness of his Righteousness and Innocency as to them who as to him were not Righteous and Innocent but framed mischief against him by a Law But I cannot imagine that in a solemn Address to God this Holy Person would profess to be so just and harmless if it were only so in outward semblance and act Could he dissemble so grossly that is act the part of a Knave to God and Man as to pretend these and yet permit his Mind and Heart inwardly to boyl over in Gall and Bitterness ready upon all occasions to break out into Injury and Violence Did he not know that the inward Lust is as really a violation of Innocence as the outward Act And durst he tell the Searcher of Hearts that he was Innocent when his Heart was Guilty Well that which was just and right he practised and his Tongue and Soul did not move in a contradiction to his Hands No hurt he did offer'd no wrong either in Thought Word or Deed. He was active for their good in Righteousness but not at all to recompence them Evil for Evil in Rancour and Revenge Had he taken a contrary Course Had he been any other than passive under their active Malice it might have been a just impeach to both his Righteousness and Innocency Does he right that with-holds from Man his due Does he no harm that acts to the prejudice and hurt of another Let it then be granted that his activity in an opposite way would have rendred him Guilty Particularly 't was a Throne of Iniquity that did persecute him for no Crime of his own Yet you see he does not in the least attempt or design to avenge himself with his own Hand or stretch it out against the Lord 's Anointed as he speaks 1 Sam. 26.9 11. He peremptorily determines that it could not be done without Guilt Thus here he appropriates Revenge solely to God as his Royalty and Prerogative ver 1. it belongs to thee and what then has any other to do with it This is a plain renunciation of all right to it himself The Repetition cannot but have a singular Emphasis Twice O Lord God of Revenges or to whom Vengeance belongs Sure the
Pet 2.4 To love thy self into Sobriety or Prudent self Government to cloath thy self with a Robe of Righteousness and Mercy in thy dealings with Men is not enough is not the full and adequate Doctrine and Duty taught by the Grace of God which brings Salvation Titus 2.11 There must be superadded not only a denying Vngodliness so as to crucifie it but a living Godly leading a Religious Life towards God in Love Faith Fear Honour Universal Acknowledgment out of Conscience For what Conscience in dealing well with Men and ill with God that is with the Subjects fairly and not with the Soveraign What Conscience in breaking the first Article betwixt God and Man which is to give him the sole command in his House thy Heart that living Temple which is the sum of the First Commandment What Conscience to dwell in his House and pay him no Rent No external Acknowledgment and Worship in Publick in thy Family in thy Closet the sum of the Second Command What Conscience whilst tender of thy own Name to be regardless of Gods forbid in the Third Command What Conscience in stealing time from God's reserved part when he allows thee so much beside the Fourth Command violated Be never so sober just free kind to Man-ward if thou respect not God O my Soul thou hast no Conscience For where there 's no Godliness there can be no Conscience Oh make it thy first and main business to approve thy self to God Thou canst never be true to thy self or Man if thou be a Traytor to God Thou hast no greater assistance in thy dutifulness to Men than a due regardfulness of God Thou canst have no better evidence of a due regardfulness of God than thy conscientious dutifulness to Men. Thou forfeit'st the reputation of thy Religiousness towards God if thou be not Righteous towards Man and of thy Righteousness if not Religious Like Hippocrates's Twins these are born and act and sicken and die together That 's the 4th ingredient of the Psalmist's Character he upheld universal Innocency and Integrity of Conscience CHAP. VII The Subject of Comfort Publickly Spirited c. True Christianity c. 5. THis Holy Man was of a Publick Spirit living under a Catholick sence of and care for the common concerns of the Church of God Lamenting its Miseries ver 5 6. longing and praying for its redemption from them by the Power and Justice of God ver 1 2 3 4 20. and encouraging his own and its hopes thereof by a serious reflection upon the Divine Attributes ver 1 2 8 9 10 11. Providences ver 12 13. and his own particular experience ver 17 18 19 21. withal by a Prophetick Spirit foretelling it ver 14 15 23. all which are plain in the Psalm and plain demonstrations of a Heart enlarged in its desires and endeavours for Publick Good A good Soul is not well at ease when the Servants of God are ill at ease The Sufferings of the Church are made its own by a sympathizing Spirit which is afflicted in all its Afflictions and cannot enjoy Prosperity or it self in Contentation when God's Children are groaning under the Cross Mourns with Mourning Rejoyces with rejoycing Sion and uses its interest in Heaven to work upon the Bowels of the ever-blessed Son of God that he may demonstrate his tender Commiserations toward his own Members in Misery by turning the course of his Providence And that this is a proper method to Comfort we see Isai 66.10 11. Rejoyce ye with Jerusalem and be glad with her all ye that love her rejoyee for joy with her all ye that mourn for her that ye may suck and be satisfied with the Breasts of her Consolations that ye may milk out and be delighted with the abundance of her Glory God had a People a Heritage which though Afflicted and broken in pieces here ver 5. yet he would not cast off nor forsake either in respect of Affection or Communion ver 14. So neither must we For 't is by Vertue of our Union and Communion with that Body and its Head that all those comfortable Spirits and Influences are derived to us which refresh and revive us I confess 't is through our internal and spiritual Confederation and Fellowship but he that values and receives benefit by this cannot despise and vilifie the External Hence our Psalmist here as a Member vitally joined to the Body and partaking of a common Sense does not only comfort himself and it with the consideration of the inviolableness of that Union and Communion which was of a spiritual Nature ver 14. nor only reflects upon those external Ligaments and Bonds which ty'd together so numerous a People into one single Heritage or Church but also was grievously afflicted for those external breakings in pieces rents and disunion of parts though involuntary which were the fruit of the outward Violence and Rage of Persecutors So should we But then Oh what Affliction would have rent his tender Heart in the view of those voluntary tearing in pieces the Seamless Coat of Christ the Divisions and Breaches we make amongst our selves Those Fractions were only some kind of dissolution of their Civil Political Union ours of the Ecclesiastical and Wounds are most dangerous in the most noble Parts State Factions are not more to be dreaded than those of the Church because these have more immediate respect to the Soul and God Lamentable are the Miseries of a Civil War where Thousands Born Bred up Nourished by one common Mother Brethren by Stock Blood Condition Cohabitation Membership of the same Body Politick perhaps of one Name and Kindred and Family of the same Body Mystical the Church Blind and Dumb and Deaf to the Cries and Shreeks and Wounds and Groans and Deaths of their own proper Limbs in a barbarous drunken rage tear off their own Skin Flesh and Bones rive open their very Hearts to let out Spirit Life Strength Soul hurl one another down to Hell under their Sin in a deluge of Blood and worry themselves by piece-meal into eternal Damnation And are the Church Digladiations in the Christian World less deplorable when those whose respite from everlasting Burnings cost no less than the Blood of God who are denominated from that most venerable Name wash'd in the same Laver of Regeneration Members of the same Spiritual Body privileged with the same most excellent Gospel and Covenants of Promise and would every one be ready to tear out his Heart that should dare to tell them that they shall not each possess the blessedness of an unspeakably glorious Heaven where therefore as in a Center they must meet if their hopes fail not When these I say who thus concenter and agree in their Titles Royalties and Expectations are so far from combining in the common profession and practice of Unity Love Peace Goodness Vertue Godliness Brotherly kindness Charity as to grind one another into Atoms bite and devour one anothers Hearts by bloody Animosities Reproaches
Holy but oft unaccountable yet so it is that either the Genius of Mens Troubles under their Penitential Throws in the new Birth or the understanding Spirit manage and conduct of many Non-conforming Ministers is such or these both so Adapted to one another that the greatest number of Wounded Spirits betake themselves hither for Cure and find it The Study of Casuistical Divinity being less gustful to great Scholars and Rational Theologers is more the business of those who having felt some need themselves of it have also frequent occasion to deal with dejected Hearts rather than elevated Minds And neither Rhetorick nor Reason but effectual Medicines will cure the Maladies of Bodies and Souls The Sick desire not an Eloquent Non quaerit ager medicum eloquentem sed sanantem Sen. Ep. 75. but Healing Physician where they are profited there they love Conscience is such an Impetuous Imperious thing as those may know who converse with their own but who with other Mens much more that a Man had better have all the World to deal with than it especially in a Melancholick Constitution By Conscience I understand the inward Power not in the nature of a Guide but a Judge particularly in its Office of Condemning or at least Accusing as Rom. 2.14 O what Troubles Tragedies Confusions Horrors does it beget carry on and torture with especially in the weaker Sex that have Souls to save and satisfie as well as the stronger who sometimes also are made terrible Examples Witness Francis Spira c. which made one say he had rather undertake the Cure of a Phrenetick in Bedlam than a Phanatick Conscience Truly upon Experience I speak it I had rather Study an Hundred Sermons than converse one hour with a Self-condemning Mind It can understand no Sense it can hear no Reason it can feel no Savour it can receive no Comfort God is against it 't is against it self the whole Bible in every Leaf speaks to its Discouragement and Damnation and all the Politicks in Hell are up in Arms to confound it with Scruples Objections Fears what not Oh! the Doubts the Dolours the Jealousies the inextricable Straits the Fightings the Perplexities the dismal Apprehensions the Despairs the grinding Reflections the roaring Hell that compasses it round about on every side that 't is a very Magor Missabib Really 't would make a Man sick to think of it break his Bones Psal 51.8 to feel it Ah! did but those who so bitterly inveigh against Phanaticks experience but one day what some of them have felt for Months Years together under the sense of God's Indignation 't would to purpose cool that hot Humour which foams out of their Mouths God grant them Repentance that they may never feel worse I would not wish this to the greatest Enemy in the World 'T is true God uses gentle methods with the most yet these dreadful Instances are warnings to them and all not to Sin against Light and Conscience For this is ordinarily the spring of them and they a Judgment of God for it Lastly From this Sense and Conscience arises their fear of offending God in the concerns of his immediate Worship which I confess in some prevails so far as to involve them in the extreams of Superstition This I take to be an excess of curiosity in Religious Worship either in thinking to please or in fearing to displease the Divine Majesty with little things which are neither commanded nor forbidden For if the least things in the World be commanded or forbidden in express words or by plain consequence in special or general Terms 't is no Superstition except more stress be laid upon these than the weightier matters of the Law Plut. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. We require that you should pray to God with an upright and just mouth not so much look at the Tongue c. of Beasts whether right and pure perverting and polluting your own c. So that I will acknowledge that they commit this Sin who think to please God with their extemporary Effusions without inward Devotions as well as they that conceit they do it with the Churches form without the Power of Internal Grace So they who fear to offend God by using the Churches form as such rather than by formality of Spirit c. as well as they that fansie they should more displease him by immediate Conceptions in Prayer than by luke warm Affections I will justifie neither the Positive nor Negative I think he directs his discourse against the Jews mainly the Absolute nor Comparative Superstition Plutarch I confess falls foul upon that which represents the Deity as Tyranical Noxious hard to be pleas'd and works a desponding Dread and Terror which render it unfit for and unwilling to engage it self in any Service of God as fearing to displease in all please in none And the Greek Word may seem to extend no farther than such a fear of Daemons which the Heathen World did not understand as we in an infamous sense Daemons with them were those Blessed Beings that ever lived in Happiness but in an inferiour Station Souls of Heroes and other Spiritual Natures much what such like as the Popish Canoniz'd Saints and Mediators of Intercession to the Noxious Malignant Spirits of the Infernal Regions they did not apply it Yet no doubt the other I have mentioned are Sins and may go under this name in regard of the Affinity they have herewith according to that common Synecdoche in every of the Ten Commands However I am right in terming that over critical fear of displeasing God with little things Superstition as supposing the Deity was of so cheap and easie a Nature as to be bought with Trifles or so tetchy and supercilious as to be lost and sold away for such petty Matters as he would never vouchsafe to take into his Cognizance and concern himself to Honour with the least Shadow of an Injunction but has intirely left to the will and liberty of Man As if a Jew having a Hundred Males in his Flock without blemish alike in their nature and goodness out of which he has a free liberty left him by God to chuse any one for Sacrifice should demur all his days which to take for fear of offending God or having chosen and Sacrificed should perpetually vex his Soul with the dread that his choice has displeased This leads me again to the fore-mentioned Point The sense that some have of the more especial odiousness to God of blemishes in his Worship Certainly of all Sins those in this most weighty Matter are most dangerous For if that the direct and immediate end whereof is to please God and bring me into his Favour do displease him so that I fall under his hate I am in an evil taking beyond all expression What shall I do whether shall I have recourse The Scripture assures us that God is most Jealous of his Worship and External Worship as the Sanction annext to the
sake consider again and again how light a matter a Mode or Ceremony is how heavy a matter Sin is and let not Dust and Vanity be balanc'd with Mens Salvation Say not Contempt of Publick Order is not a light thing tho' these be Oh condemn not the Innocent with the Guilty Let those who contemn manifestly and contumaciously suffer but certainly 't is not Contempt in all but a reverend Fear of contemning the publick Orders of Heaven which all Men confess no Man can order the Violation of It seems clear to many that to do things required is forbidden by God they are mistaken Grant it yet they think not Their Consciences seem to be resolv'd tho' it be in an Error unknown to them Therefore to them 't is as clear that no force can be put upon them no command of man over-rule them where they judge God has obliged them They read they hear they pray they study and consider all things on all hands as they are able yet cannot change their minds tho' it be highly their external Interest so to do And shall no humanity be extended to such modest humble loyal patient teachable Dissenters that are ready to engage in all Bonds to live peaceably in all Oaths to be true Subjects to subscribe according to the Act to the Articles of Religion abating one or two Non-Essentials and therefore are of the same common Faith to the Ten Commands and therefore agree to lead the same godly Life Are there no Commiserations for such as these Oh come Lord Jesus come quickly diffuse abroad that excellent Spirit of Love Unity and Christianity which will engage every one of us to judge that our proper Good is more in the Publique than Our Selves that the common Interest of Religion is infinitely more our Concern than any of our little Bones of Contention that we may not be cracking Nuts pursuing after Butterflies smiting our Fellow-servants eating and drinking with the Drunken when the Heavens begin to crack about our ears and all is ready to be wrapt up in a common Ruine Well Shall we be Christians or shall we not Must that which will be our Glory and Crown above rule our Hearts and Practices now Let us be Persons of great and generous Minds disdaining to debase the Nobleness of those Natures which are capable of enjoying an Immense God to such a degree of Childishness as to be infinitely concern'd about the miserable things which little Souls continually scramble for is it a piece of substantial goodness and honesty Does it conduce to promote and establish a real Deiformity or Similitude to God Will it actually tend to subdue mens Passions and Pride and Worldliness and Sensuality May we by and through it elevate our Minds to that Heavenly Constitution as to be mete for Converses with a Pure and Holy God Does it subjugate the Will of Man to his Maker render him acceptable to Heaven profitable to Earth in the Great Ends of Godliness Righteousness Sobriety Did God institute it for these Purposes With all my Soul am I for it I 'll hug it in my Bosome lay it next my heart honour it with my best endeavours to advance it in my self and the world But if it be only a Trick a Device a Policy to be Grand and Gaudy and Terrible and Triumphant and Imperious to salve a Sore to make maintain please a Party to countenance keep up an Interest or suppress oppress depress real Religiousness under some disguising Pretences Away with it 't is unbecoming the Christian Spirit it savours not nor of true Magnitude of Mind This Man is for Prelacy the other against it one applauds the National Constitution comprehending all Congregations as united under the Ecclesiastical Government of Bishops and the Civil Government of one Political Head the King another allows it not yet professes and is ready to give all desired Security for Allegiance That Man pleads for and uses a Liturgy or Set Form in Divine Offices this would modifie all himself There some think for further Decency and Order Ceremonies must accompany or follow Divine Institutions here are a Company tooth and nail against them This Point of Doctrine must be express'd in such and such Terms the other is untenable except in such a Sense and Dress and every Head in things of this nature has a different Crotchet Well Are the main Substantials of Christianity retain'd Irreligion Idolatry renounc'd the necessity of Government maintain'd the Deity worshipped in and through the only Mediator Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit with his Gifts and Graces in order to a New Life acknowledged In fumm the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament in their plain and most obvious sense receiv'd submitted to as the perfect Rule of Eaith and Manners Holiness and Vertue practised and promoted Here fix What d' ye tell us of Unwritten Unscriptural Phrases and Forms and Modes and Orders and Rites and Circumstances and Phylacteries and Fringes and Laces and Fancies and Fooleries and Phrenzies To Bedlam with the Mad-men that cannot be satisfied and pleas'd with the Noble and Incomparable Ordinations of infinite Wisdom and Goodness but must prescribe to their Maker and out-do boundless Perfection Why like the Aegyptian Apes do we tear in pieces one anothers Ornaments nay one another for Nuts and Trifles Are we not agreed in the main Essentials of Christianity Being therefore of the same Catholick Body Why must this Mans Head be struck off because he hath a Feather in his Cap and the others because he has none That Man be begg'd for a Fool because by paying free Rent he owns a Mesn Lord Another branded for a Knave for desiring to be a Mesn Lord himself or depend immediately upon the King Some sent to the Hospital because they need and would have Crutches others to Bridewel who will have none Are not the one Men as well as the other and should not common Nature ingenerate a common Sense Must it still be Homo homini Lanius Lupus Are not both Christians And shall it be Christianus Christiano Daemon That Man 's a Heretick Devil I 'll sear and tear him with my burning Pincers says St. Dunstan This is a Schismatick Dog I 'll have his Ears says another St. Some-body Thou art a cold Formalist and Hell must warm and fire thee says another St. No-body And a thousand to one the Heretick the Sehismatick and Formalist is the better Man and Christian Oh Babylon Babylon where art thou not Really we may with the Philosopher light our Candle at noon day among Christians to seek for Christianity Let it then pass uncontroulable that a Man can never be publick spirited except upon Principles truly Catholick nor will any other Spirit or Principles administer sound true and solid Comfort and Peace As the contracted shrivling confining narrow Temper begets all the Confusions Broils Branglings and Blood-sheds in the world so it leaves nothing at home in conclusion but dire ingrateful Reflections and an
horrible Combustion of Conscience or at the least Inquietude and Uneasiness of Mind any thing but Satisfaction Joy and Rest Of such Men I say as Gen. 49.6 Oh my Soul come not thou into their Secret unto their Assembly mine Honour be not thou united And now Oh my Soul what is thy Trouble and Sorrow and Anxiety of Mind Or what are thy Desires Cares Delight Joy Contrivances Counsels Activity concern'd about Canst thou feed upon thy sweet Morsels alone and glory in the Affluence of Personal or Domestick Blessings while the Gates of Sion mourn Are any in Affliction imprisoned persecuted for Righteousness sake and wiltest not thou bear a part in their Dolours Remembring those in Bonds as bound with them and them which suffer Adversity as being thy self also in the Body Heb. 13.3 Dost thou not partake of that common Spirit of Goodness Compassion Charity which as good Blood diffuses it self and circulates through all the Members of that one Body ingenerating an universal Fellow-feeling and Care of mutual and general Concerns in all and every one that lives by the Life of the Head in Heaven Art thou weak with the Weak and with the Offended dost thou burn 2 Cor. 11.29 Canst thou bear every ones burthen and so fulfill the Law of Christ and restore those overtaken with Infirmities considering thy self lest thou also be tempted Gal. 6.1 2. See the Apostle prosecuting this Argument fully 1 Cor. 12.12 to 27. If thou be acted by the private strait-lac'd selfish Spirit of the generality who can neither give a jot of ease to themselves under their Personal Straits and Sorrows by a serious Reflection on the Welfare of the Church of God nor will in the least imbitter their Joys with any Considerations of the Afflictions of Joseph suspect thy self to be an Alien from the Life and the Catholick Body of Jesus Christ which subsists by a Vital Union with him What now are the Measures by which thou actest in thy Station and with respect to the Members of Christ If thou espouse and tenaciously adhere to only the Sentiments of some Particular Party or Sect farewel all publick Spiritedness Thou professest a Belief of the Communion of Saints as in one Catholick Church which is indeed an Invisible Thing as are all Objects of Faith in its distinction from Sense Does this Faith work by Love Thou ownest also one Universal Body seen in its parts visible in its whole extent throughout the World actually by the Eyes of its Head seen in its Unity at once and potentially by Man Which is not a Chaos of every thing in confusion but an Organical Body that in diversity of useful comely Members Parts Congregations the least of the denomination Countries and Kingdoms makes up a lovely Community Not a Rope of Sand but a Golden Chain where every very Link has its Beauty Preciousness Connexion Suitableness A Garden enclosed where variety of Walks Beds c. constitute a fair delicious Paradise One Spouse of Christ one Body for one Head Does thy Fancy or Partiality here make Restrictions Can'st thou dar'st thou chop and mangle this Body Tear off a Limb of this Spouse Break the golden Chain for one Link And dote upon these without regard to the rest Can thy Love walk no where but in little Severals and petty Enclosures In this sence I cannot disallow that Saying of a Great Person viz. That the Church of Christ is neither Rome nor a Conventicle There may be some Part of it there but confin'd to either it cannot be exclusively to the rest of the World Art thou a Christian Then must Christianity command the freest Motions of thy Affections the Interest of that thou must and shalt respect honour promote and love not as it is pretended or conceitedly monopolized by any distinct Party but as like the Sun it diffuses its efficiency vertue and influence every where and shines with a lovely radiancy and glory in any Man whatsoever Seest thou one that in the judgment of rational Charity makes Religion his principal Business above all labouring that it may have a prevalent Interest in his Heart Cleave to this Man embrace him in thy most near and intimate Affections be he of what Party soever Dost thou find any diligently searching the Word of God to know him in all his Perfections not meerly for Notion sake but that his inward Soul and outward Conversation may be under the Dominion and Command of what he knows A Man that maintains a high and honourable esteem of the ever blessed Redeemer of the World the only begotten Son of God as the alone Saviour of Mankind taking the greatest care to gain a true and full Understanding of his Excellency Undertaking Offices and Benefits that he may entirely devote himself to him A Man that is daily acquainting himself how much it is his Interest to live under the Conduct of the Holy Ghost and therefore studies his inspired Writings to attain right Apprehensions concerning his Nature Gifts Graces Comforts that he may aspire after them inwardly feel them in their power and accordingly engages his Mind Will Affections Conscience executive Power all within and without him in an universal Subjection to this Holy Trinity in Unity and with a reverend Awefulness minggled with Love demeans himself under the Government of that ever Adoreable Majesty as one that hath present powerful Sensations of its immediate Presence Oversight and perfect Cognizance of the most secret recesses of his Soul A man that understanding his relation to God owns Him pants after Him with insatiable Ardour cleaves unto Him with full purpose of heart in a singular Complacency fears praises glorifies trusts chooses embraces acknowledges Him in all His ways as His chief Good and Happiness and would not willingly displease Him for a World And having with a Holy Religious Veneration observ'd approves of is singularly well pleas'd with that Wonder of all Wonders the Grace of Almighty God revealed by the Gospel in giving His Eternal Son to be the Redeemer of Lost Mankind God in our Flesh manifested in the fulness of time to do and suffer whatever Justice required that our Sins might be pardon'd our Persons accepted sanctified and glorified And Looking unto Jesus doth heartily acquiesce in the Method of Salvation ordain'd by God thro' him intirely yields up himself to him to be and do and suffer whatever he pleases sincerely accepts of him as an All-sufficient Saviour submits to his Government in all things never can be satisfied but is in a restless Agony day and night till he gain some good Evidence that Christ is his and he Christ's spontaneously chearfully with a self-denying humble penitent Heart venturing his All upon him for ever in believing in him hoping for his Sake to obtain the Love and Favour of God in Justification Reconciliation and Eternal Blessedness and therefore deliberately freely with all readiness of mind engages himself to Christ by the Renewal of his Baptismal Covenant with
and Goodness but only from Peace and Rest sinking it into Disconsolateness till he took Sanctuary in the Refreshments of Heaven The Text plainly intimates that if he had not found some effectual help in these his Thoughts would have been an overmatch for him and have born him down Therefore Afflicting they were but not Defiling This was their General Nature 2. Particularly They were of the nature of Meditations i. e. Heart-affecting Thoughts Not mere Speculations or notional Thoughts that were confin'd within the boundaries of his Mind and Understanding but Thoughts that sunk downwards and produc'd some effects on his Soul For since no Thoughts are afflicting to us but only as they work upon those Passions of our Minds which are of a turbulent tormenting Nature hence it appears that these had an influence upon his Irascible Affections as by a Synecdoche they are call'd representing to them some Evils from which they could not but retire in an hostile aversation For no Evils without us cruciate us till they thus get within us and fight us by our own Passions This is the Beelzaebub that possesses us and creates a Hell in our Minds even our masterly imperious Appetite The Thoughts that create a tumult here are as so many Fiends to torture us That rebel rage which they infuse into our Blood and Spitits disorders discomposes our whole Man and makes us Devils to our selves Thoughts then they were exciting Passions Therefore we must search and consider what Passions in particular were in a civil war within the Psalmist and also the quality of those Evils which excited them And that I may not be necessitated to repeat things over and over as the more natural Synthetical way and method of enquiry first after the Objects here particularly set down thence concluding the general Acts which only are implyed would compel me I shall chuse the Analytical rather proposing first the General Passions conversant about the numerous special Objects which shall respectively be referr'd to their general and proper Heads together with such as are of Affinity therewith though not exprest in the Psalm The Thoughts then were of three kinds answerable to three Affections which were vehemently moved by them viz. Fear Grief Dispair Any one of these alone is torturous but altogether intolerable Grief pains our Hearts as an oppressing load wasts and washes away those Spirits that should support us weakens and effeminates our Minds into an insufficency or unwillingness to regard any thing but what will contribute to its own excesses till as an impetuous Torrent or Deluge it overwhelm our Soul and Spirit and sometimes destroy the Body also and herein it is more anguishful than Fear because the Evil present and felt stings more cruelly than when only foreseen in its Causes the Sense presenting many things to torment us which before our Fears were not privy to even as Fear sometimes represents Evils more terrible than they are in reality found to be But now if to the present troublesome Experience be adjoined a dreadful expectation of worse to come or more of the same kind this will double the torture because it doubles the perturbation and further betrays the succours which Reason or Hope might administer to us But if to both these be superadded an absolute hopelessness of relief that we see and foresee and feel our selves miserable without any likelyhood of Redemption that either our Reason is darken'd by the suffusion of our Passions so as not to be able to gain a prospect of remedy or the magnitude of the Evil it self is altogether invincible this strangles Nature and makes it sink under its despondencies into a Hell upon Earth Of these Fear is the first and lightest and many times comes single For whilst an evil is at a distance there 's a possibility to prevent its actual incursion But Grief does often succeed the torment of Fear as when the evil does not surprize but gradually invade us and this is like a new Wound in an old Sore therefore does more smartingly gall us Yet both these together are nothing to Despair which is a compound of the other two besides what it brings of its own to make a Man inexplicably unsupportably miserable 1. Fearing Thoughts terrifing Imaginations are bloody Tormenters 1 Joh. 4.18 and tear the Soul in pieces When an Evil is imminent and we are conscious of an inability to avoid or resist it our Spirits succumb sink and in a pale horrour retire and run away from the approaching danger For some kind of danger is commonly the object of Fear which is excited when the Mind apprehends and the Thoughts dwell upon the greatness nearness or unavoidableness of the Peril The danger in the Psalmist's Thoughts seems to be double viz. of two the greatest evils Sin and Death 1. Of Sin for of that under Correction I interpret ver 18. When I said my foot slippeth c. The Expression is but thrice beside that I find in the Psalms and in two of them 't is evident that a moral slipping or sliding into Sin is meant and the context gives fair probability for the third also Psal 17.5 Hold up my goings in thy paths that my footsteps slip not that is that I sin not Psal 38.16 17 18. When my foot slippeth they magnifie themselves against me For I am ready to halt and my Sorrow is continually before me For I will declare my Iniquity I will be sorry for my Sin These 3 Verses are connected causally I know not how to make sence of them if the slipping and halting be other than the sinning he sorrowed for I take Sorrow in the latter clause of the 17. ver not formally for the Passion of Sorrow but materially and objectively for the thing he sorrowed for viz. his Sin and so account this an equivalent Expression with that Psal 51.3 My Sin is over before me And this is not an unusal thing in Scripture for Affections or Actions to be put for their Objects or Effects as in that very Psalm ver 3. There is no soundness in my Flesh because of thine Anger i. e. the effects of thine Anger And ver 9. Lord all my desire is before thee i. e. the objects of my desire the things I desire However the Sorrow there was for Sin ver 18. and so the Sin was before him immediately in the Sorrow I account that the Clauses of those two Verses answer one another thus I am ready to halt for I will declare my Sin I 'll not deny the Truth though it give advantage to my Adversaries and occasion their magnifying themselves against me I find my self oft liable to fall into Sin I acknowledge it let them make the best and worst they can of it and triumph as they please Only do not thou forsake me ver 21. Hear me ver 15 16. so as to uphold my goings that though I fall I may not be utterly cast down Psal 37.24 The third place is a perfect parallel
themselves both think and speak highly of themselves and by consequence basely scornfully slightingly of those that are not like themselves in Wickedness and therefore of those qualities that difference both Parties speak well of Wickedness that denominates and delights them but ill of Godliness which they oppose yet both perhaps under the disguise of other Names plausible for their one Wickedness disgraceful for Holyness as the manner and guise of the World alway has been and will be this has not a little of guilt and grief in it Sin is asham'd of its own Name and therefore sights against Goodness under borrowed Colours transferring its own title to that which it opposes and it cannot but be grief to an Innocent to suffer under the notion of a Malefactor to have his Name murdered as well as his Person whilst his Adversaries add Ignominy to Cruelty but especially it afflicts his Soul that God and Religion and Holiness suffer in the repute of the ignorant and sequacious Multitude which is led in its judgment of things by the Hand rather than Head by the power and opinion of its Masters without making any disquisition or inspection into the reality of matters taking all upon trust whether it be true or false good or evil A Beast that with a strong Bridle and sharp Spurs will ride freely Blindfold post hast into Hell but is infinitely malapert and restive in the course toward Heaven its Eyes like those of a Fly consisting of infinite little dim Atoms without a due proportion of Brains of their own to govern them and therefore are as wild and wanton in their motions To this may I join the trouble which the Psalmist seem'd to be affected with through other perverse speeches of those wicked Persons which though not so expresly yet may implicitly seem to relate to Pride because interpos'd between the mention thereof and the effect of it in Boasting ver 4. How long 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall they pour out as a Fountain does Water and speak 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly signifies things hardned with age yet upon the point to be remov'd and pass away as may be gathered from the use and signification of its root These hard things they spoke I take to refer unto others chiefly as what follows did to themselves 1. Hard things in Enoch's Prophecy recited Jude 15. were spoken against God May not our Psalmist refer to that Prophecy which no doubt came to his knowledge either by Tradition or the Prophetick Spirit If so then may they possibly be those recited ver 7. or such like false Atheistical Blasphemous against God his Providence VVord VVays People 2. Hard things Psal 31.18 were spoke against the Righteous proudly and contemptuously in Reproach ver 11. and Slaunder 13. whence his Eye was consumed and his life spent with grief ver 9 10. To this Head then may we reduce all those troubles which arise from the Persecution of the Tongue Threatnings Aspersings Defamations Detractions Censurings uncharitable rash Judgings Mockings and Deridings and cloathing Goodness and good Men with Reproaches branding them with odious Names contrary to their real Nature speaking all manner of Evil Matth. 5.11 3. Persecution which here was bloody and barbarously cruel ver 5 6. They break in pieces thy People O Lord and afflict thine Heritage they slay the Widow and the Stranger and murther the Fatherless Wherein both their Inhumanity and base Cowardice manifest themselves in that they rage against the weak impotent and friendless that have none to plead for succour relieve and help them alive or revenge them when dead This is justly imputable to Dreg and Saul The former by killing the Priests of the Lord 1 Sam. 22.18 did exceedingly afflict God's Heritage and People and brake them in pieces and made many Fatherless and Widows and afterward murdred them in a savage unparallell'd manner ver 19. and when he had done boasted of it Psal 52.1 as the Wicked here if that was not the same fact Saul also slew the Gibeonites 2 Sam. 21.1 2 5. call'd Strangers 2 Chron. 2.17 These may be here understood as well as Proselytes Here then David lost his Friends and Favourers by a violent Death and hither may we refer the loss of Friends and Relations by a natural Death A cause of Grief as just as common But especially to this Head belongs the troubles for the Miseries and Calamities both of Church and State When the Gates of Sion mourn we are but ill Members thereof if it create not some kind of Sympathy in our Hearts 4. Atheism disbelief of God's Omniscience and Providence Ver. 7. Yet they say the Lord shall not see neither shall the God of Jacob regard it This was indeed the spring of all their other Sins and therefore as Asaph in another like case was affected with it Psal 73.11 They say how doth God know and is there knowledge in the most High c So here is David very much concern'd about it and so much the more because Divine Vengeance seem'd to be concern'd so little ver 1. whence he spends the 4 following Verses to evince and convince them of the infinite unlimitable Knowledge of God whereas he contents himself with a bare mentioning their other Sins without such reasoning against them And indeed any serious Heart that duly ponders its dependance for Life Motion and Being upon God will be tenderly sensible of all Affronts put upon him will not with patience indure that he should fall under Disparagement As a dutiful Child will hear untoucht the Reproaches cast upon a Stranger or any other rather than its Father He who can be content that God should go less than infinite in all Perfections can be well pleas'd that he should not be God and that the World be depriv'd and destitute of his Government and Providence which would be the greatest mischief to it conceivable Better infinitely that the whole Universe should be hurry'd back again into its Primitive Chaos and Confusion than God be lessen'd in any one of his Excellencies If ungodly Souls disavow any Divine Attribute and seek to rob God of the honour of that without which a good Man cannot live or live comfortably 't is a Dagger at the Heart and wounds the very Soul and so ought to do in all that are tender of the Glory of their Creator For our own sakes we have reason to abhor Atheism in every degree and form of it because if there were not a God or if he were not of infinite Understanding we were of all Creatures most miserable not only as depriv'd of our true Felicity and the hopes of it for how should he reward us did he not know or regard us and our Integrity but we should fatally be expos'd to all the vilest Indignities and most deplorable Calamities the Wit and Rage of Men and Devils could devise and inflict upon Earth and since their and our Beings are altogether incorruptible as far as
Spiritual we should in like manner be dog'd and pursu'd with their implacable Malice in our separate and immortal State and be desperate of succour and deliverance from that Eternal Erynnis those innumerable Legions of ever torturing Furies that would be let loose upon us to lash and sting us with the utmost of their virulent Indignation For how should the Deity relieve us if he know nothing of us 'T is therefore the highest Interest of real goodness that there is a God of Vnlimitable Intelligence and Love to supervise and care for us that no Evils can be imagin'd against us in the most dark and secret recesses of Hell much less on Earth but are to him as visible as though Writ or Graven in the Roof of Heaven by the Finger of God in Letters formed all of Suns or Stars and he is replenish'd with that Wisdom and Graciousness which both knows how is perfectly willing and effectually engag'd to counteract them But as this and the other Three so all the Sins of the Wicked are a bitter Grief to a good Soul Whence David Psal 119.136 Rivers of Tears run down mine eyes because they keep not thy Law Be their Sins only Omissions which in the Estimate of the World are of a lighter Nature though not in the account of God and an Illuminated Conscience yet will they be grievous to those that love the Lord and his Laws And 't is a good token of Integrity when the Sins of others are a burden Self may engage a Man against his own Sins but if the wickedness of those we have no concern with deeply affect our Hearts 't is an Evidence we are acted by the Interest of God Let this then Oh my Soul over-rule all thy Passions Live under some sense with God What dishonors him let it humble thee Be not so much troubled at the Mischiefs wherewith Men in the Triumphant Madness of their Prosperity indeavour to plague thee as at the Sin whereby they duel Heaven Where thy Father suffers most in his Glory do thou suffer with him Thy Irascibles never act more commendably than when they run upon the Errand of thy Maker Thou art angry and sinnest not when angry at Sin 'T is hard not to Sin in Sorrow if it be not Sorrow for Sin And if thou groan under the Wickedness of others sure thou wiltst not canst not darst not be so much a Hypocrite as to go light under the greater Load of thine own Thou art conscious to thy self of many Circumstances aggravating thine own which thou hast no reason to apply to the Crimes of any beside Where thou knowest of most Evil and that is in thy self there must thou spend Oceans since the little in comparison which thou knowest of other Mens faults requires thy Rivers Let thy Sorrows bear Proportion to thy Condition and Conscience Weep or at least mourn for and bemoan others but most thy self There must thou pay thy Drops here a Deluge To this place therefore appertains all Spiritual Trouble for Sin and the want and weakness and defectiveness of Grace with the effects thereof That Anguish of Mind which springs from the sense of Sin 's odiousness of God The Agonies and Anxieties of the New Birth and under Relapses whatever goes under the name of a Wounded Spirit or Troubled Conscience But 2. Not only the evil of Sin but other Evils in themselves or to him in effect did sadden the Holy Psalmist's Soul Two especially 1. The Prosperity of the Wicked their Joy but his smart Vers 3. How long shall the Wicked Oh LORD how long shall the wicked triumph A common Offence and Trouble to both the Religious and Rational World The Gracious Servants of God often bemoan it What a Multitude of Precepts and Comforts doth the 37. Psal present as an Antidote against fretting about it Habakkuk bewails it Hab. 1.2 3 4. Jer. Ch. 12.1 2 reasons and pleads with God concerning it In Job How many Discourses are there to this purpose And every where in the Psalms to instance in one more only Psal 73. Vers 3. I was envious at the foolish when I saw the Prosperity of the Wicked After a Description whereof he adds Vers 21. Thus my heart was grieved and I was pricked in my Reins This also was a stumbling Block to the Philosophical World whereof the more Considerate and Vertuous made a good use others a bad reasoning from the unequal Distribution of Temporal Things against the Being of God and Providence into such Absurdities may those run who having but dark Apprehensions of Immortality and the Eternal Recompences of a Future State take their measures from sense and consider not the Unproportionableness of this present moment of Temporal Life to a vast Immense Eternity 2. The Unprosperous Afflicted Persecuted State of the People of God did excite in him sorrowful Reflections I doubt not but that with a broken Heart he Writ down that Complaint Vers 5. They break in pieces thy People O LORD and afflict thine Heritage They slay the Widow and the Stranger and murder the Fatherless Sure with a Soul melted into Sympathizing Commiserations doth he remember this So Asaph Psal 73.10 Therefore his People return hither and Waters of a full Cup are wrung out to them 21. Thus my Heart was grieved c. which refers to all before Discours'd concerning prosperous Wickedness and suffering Godliness And How can the Body in many parts of it suffer and the rest have no Fellow-feeling Thou art not vitally united as a Member to the Body of Christ Oh my Soul but may'st justly dread that he will cut thee off as a dead Libm and bury thee in Hell if thou be insensible of its Pains and Agonies Shew that the common Soul and Spirit Animates thee by a common sense with the rest of the Members that Communicate in it with thee If thou be not with them in Passion yet be in Compassion Why Persecutest thou me Says Christ to Saul Acts 9.4 The pain is in the Members the sense in the Head Christ disclaims thee thou art none of that me whereof he is so tender if thou suffer'st not by Commiseration when his Servants suffer Affliction Put on thy Bowels if thou desirest the Yernings of his when thy Condition shall be like theirs With the Prophet Jerem. 9.1 Say Oh that my Head were Waters and mine Eyes a Fountain of Tears that I might weep Day and Night for the slain of the Daughter of my People My Bowels my Bowels I am pained at my very Heart the Walls of my Heart make a noise in me I cannot hold my Peace because thou hast heard Oh my Soul the sound of the Trumpet the alarm of War To this Head may be reduced all those Troubles which are Fruits of Publick Calamities to Church or State Persecutions Martyrdoms Massacres c. Wars and Violence Oppressions Injuries c. whatever may be the Effects of the Rage and Fury of Men and Malice of impure
Malignant Spirits These being the Permissions of Providence to punish Sin which as Executions of Justice God attributes to his own Efficiency Amos 3.6 Though mediately may we not also refer hither the immediate Effects of his Power and Justice in Plagues Sicknesses Famines c. Since they agree though not in the Instruments and Means yet in the Original and Author and Meritorious Cause and Principal End 3. Despairing Thoughts and Reflections are beyond all Imagination Afflictive and of this Nature we find some oppressing the Psalmist's Spirit although they were not of the worst kind For despair he did not of Mercy and Relief from Heaven a Misery of all other most intolerable He only despaired as being destitute of all Hope of Help and Succour from Man Vers 16. Who will rise up for me Who will stand up for me The redoubled Interrogation implies a more vehement Negation None none at all For unless the Lord had been my help I had gone without Redemption Vers 17. All the hopes I had upon Earth did utterly fail there was none shut up or left I was reduc'd to the utmost extremity and that was Gods opportunity He was seen in the Mount when the Knife was at the Throat and defunct was all considence in Man Now although the failure of all Earthly Supports be grievous yet when a Man has encouragment to devolve himself on the never-failing Goodness of God he is never destitute of a Satisfaction which will abundantly Counterveil those troublesome Disappointments and therefore his Condition is not really miserable But if this fail also if his strength and hope Perish from the Lord Lam. 3.18 that he be in Saul's sore Distress 1 Sam. 28.6 15. and can have a Prospect of nothing but Eternal Death and Damnation Tongue cannot tell nor Heart imagine the Anxieties and Agonies which as a Prolepsis and Anticipation of Hell sting and excruciate his miserable Soul There 's nothing on this side that Dungeon of everlasting Darkness and Woe can equal this which made Spira sometimes wish himself in Hell that he might feel the worst Oh doleful Perplexity indeed when a Man out of a distracting fear of Hell desires to feel it Oh Horror when anguish of Mind under dreadful Expectations enforces his will to chuse what is infinitely more anguishful and the Drops of Brimstone and Fire that scald his Conscience urge him to a strange unaccountable freeness to be ever consuming in that Bottomless Ocean where Mitigation of Torment end of Misery abatement of Sense will be not only desperate but impossible Oh Despair thou art the sum and strength of Wretchedness the Bitterness and Poison of a never ending Death the Fuel and Flame of an unutterable Torturous Hell Blessed is the Soul that never shall never must feel thy racking Horrors in this or another World CHAP. XII Comforts in general MY last Explicatory Undertaking was to consider and describe the Comforts which now cast so benign an Aspect and Influence upon this Holy Mans afflicted disconsolate Soul They may be considered either Formally or Materially Formally in their proper Nature and true Constitution as an inward refreshment and ease to the Heart Comfort is a Map of Paradise the lovely Meet-Help and Succour of desolate distressed Man the Blessed Repast and Banquet of Holy Angels and Saints The Uncreated Eternal Heaven and Jubilee of God himself the Light wherein he ever dwells that spreads abroad its sweet reviving Rays as largely and liberally as its Fountain the super-intending Care and Goodness of Heaven and especially unto the humble and contrite Heart setling it in a firm and durable Repose and Peace And when the Sin of degenerate Man had banish'd it from the Earth and his own Soul the infinitely Wise and All-knowing God the Father the dearly beloved Word and Wisdom of God his only Begotten Son and the Eternal Spirit of Truth and Grace did by an ever adoreable astonishing Method of Goodness and Love contrive a Retrieval thereof that under its loss Man might not continue the most miserable of the whole Creation 'T is the sweet reviving Breath of boundless Grace and compassion in the Eternal Father infusing new Life and Vigour into Fainting Groaning Bleeding Dying Hearts and Enspiriting them for God A refreshing Beam from the Son of Righteousness which infuses Warmth Strength and Soul into the disconsolate Heart of dejected Man that lies benighted in a Hell of Misery and Darkness The Oyl of Life poured out by the Holy Ghost upon a Benumbed Frozen Restive Soul which gently turns the Wheels of Action in a smooth free ready easie speedy Course and continues them in an unwearied motion toward Heaven A sweet and lovely Paraphrase upon the Promises Ingraven in a Wounded Heart by the Finger of God A powerful Antidote to the Poison of Tormenting Grief and Despair sweeter than Sorrow can be sowre An all-satisfying Foretast and Anticipation of the never Intermitting never Terminating Joys of Eternity When the Sovereign Majesty of Heaven would Ingratiate himself and though in a humble Demission and Debasement of his Glory yet appear in his highest Loveliness to Man 't is in a Robe of Light Joy Comfort and Peace and when a Wounded Spirit that 's discouraged in its Work by the pressure of its own self-created Woes desires to be entertained into and impowred for and chearfully to engage in his Service it implores and sues for the Joy of the Lord to be its Strength When God's Heralds have been denouncing War to Rebels Vengeance against Enemies thereby terrifying them into a War and Enmity against their Sins He next Commissions them as his Embassadors to revive those troubled Souls with a message of glad Tidings of Joy and Peace and Consolation 'T is the refreshing Dew of Heaven upon a barren heart that has been scorched and parched with the fiery Indignation of the Almighty which causes it to bring forth Fruit with rejoycing The gracious Smile of the ever Blessed Jesus upon a weeping wounded Spirit that 's sick of its sins and sores sick for the sense of his Love A hand let down from above to lay hold upon and bring up from the deep an oppressed Spirit sunk with the weight of its own woeful thoughts into an unfathomable Abyss of Miseries A returning Pillar of Cloud and Fire to an Israelite indeed that was bewildred and lost in a vast howling Wilderness of Danger and Horror to direct and lead it with Joy to its Coelestial Rest A secure and welcome Port of safety and repose for a weather-beaten Soul that by the storms and surges of Almighty Vengeance hath been Shipwrack'd and split all to pieces in a Contrition and Humiliation for Sin A Bed of ease and quiet for a weak and sickly weary heart which hath been wrestling and labouring under the weighty Load of Divine Wrath set on and made more grievous by the Lashes of a Scourging Conscience A Heaven of unspeakable Delight and Satisfaction descending into and raising
Christ whose I am by Right of Redemption and not mine own if He re-invest me in a Liberty to enjoy my self in Him which I could not do under so bad a Master so cruel a Tyrant as the Devil this is a piece of the choicest Happiness which I can enjoy on this side Heaven Liberty to sin is the most uncomfortable Bondage Necessity to serve God the most solacing Liberty The most of this do we enjoy when we live most in and are swallowed up of the Love of God Corruption is a Dungeon a Prison a Pit God loves us out of it Isa 38.17 into the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God Rom. 8.21 Love is the Wealth of Heaven and the World a Treasure invaluable in Comparison whereof every thing all the Riches Honours Pleasures all the Substance and Glory of the World is contemptible Cant. 8.7 Every Comfort is comprehended in it 't is the Life and Soul of all they are but Carrion-Contents that are possest without it Oh Incomparable incomprehensible Love How hast thou even out-done thy self in thy Provisions for the Consolation of inconsiderable Man What infinite Desires could ever have wish'd what infinite Goodness could ever have bestowed a Gift greater than Infinite God's Love gives no less and sure it can no greaten Love is all Comfort and Holiness in God is not a Barren Womb but Pregnant also with the sweetest Consolations From this Topic the Psalmist derived Refreshment to his thoughtful mind Ver. 20. Shall the Throne of Iniquity have Fellowship with thee The Quaere carries in its bowels a Negative Resolution No it shall not It s Iniquity and thy Sanctity are altogether Incompatible Though it attempt yet cannot it prevail to overturn thy Throne 't will therefore assuredly be overturned by it Ver. 15. Judgment shall return to Righteousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and after it all the Vpright in Heart I take 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there to be significative of Time as well as Place The Expression is allusive supposing Judgment and Righteousness were parted to a great Distance and that Righteousness was in a settled fix'd Habitation from which Judgment as a thing in motion was departed And 't is true Righteousness is of a stable Sunt certi denique fines quos ultrà citraque nequit consistere rectum firm invariable nature Judgment or Proceedures in Law are changeable sometimes wrong sometimes right now on this side then on the other depending upon the mutable Constitution of the Judges Whence 't is that Judgment is here represented as a Traveller from home but upon the Return in which motion it should never rest till it which had been so long absent got to the abode of Righteousness again Unrighteous Judgment did then prevail but begun to be weary of it self and at length must down and Righteous Judgment be set up and established which when once accomplished the upright in heart would certainly be advanced Let but true Justice obtain and immediately after that Upright Men will return out of the Retirements into which Unrighteousness had driven them and be in repute again Goodness cannot be supprest by Justice but only by Injury and when it is turned out of doors cannot be introduced except by the Soveraign Goodness of God to which its Restitution is here ascribed Ver. 14. as a Fruit of his Abode with and constant Adherence to his People The whole Process then of the Prophet's Reasoning is this Although God's People be now oppress'd and ruin'd by the violent Perversion of Judgment Yet God will not alway permit it to be so but will establish Righteous Judgment first and then relieve his People by it Divine Purity then will not long permit the Dominion of Unrighteousness God's Holiness will e're long harass all Unholiness out of the World and confine it forever unto Hell There shall be none in thy sight abroad there shall be none in thy heart within That which is thy greatest Discomfort on Earth which muddies thy Thoughts disquiets thy mind racks and tortures thy Conscience discomposes thy Affections blasts thy Hopes sowres thy Joys burthens thy whole Soul makes Heaven and Earth groan and sigh in Pain shall finally give place to the Divine Nature which the Promises bring thee in part 2 Pet. 1.4 and Heaven will perfect Oh blessed solacing Hope a secure Anchor in the deepest Sea of Sorrows Art thou at present in Affliction for thy unholiness Know that this very trouble is a dispensation of boundless Love and Sanctity directed by unfathomable Wisdom and of most illustrious Wisdom acted by unconceivable Love and Holiness for thy highest advantage to embitter thy Corruptions separate them from thy Soul and prepare thee for the embraces of the tenderest Affections of Heaven and its everlasting Joys and Rest Neither can there any other Temptation or Affliction befall thee without God's leave and his Goodness can no more be excluded out of his designments than his knowledge even his Permissions are subservient to the purposes of his Love nor can any thing betide us which will yeild an Argument to prove that he is not Good any more than that he is not God Whatever Perplexities sink thy Heart if they have a tendency to defile thee they are Enemies to Divine Purity and it will overcome them cannot be vanquish'd by them if they tend to disquiet thee the unboundable Love that embraces thee will not cannot leave thee to succumb and finally to despond under them if Spiritual this infinitely gracious Spirit is an Adversary to them and will master them if Temporal there is a Remedy against them in the Goodness of God which is Eternal Divine Goodness answers all things not as Money limitedly and with restriction but universally and infinitely In it is the substance of all real Good in it Compensation for all Evil else could it not be what it cannot but be infinite A Feast is made for Laughter Eccl. 10.19 and Wine maketh glad the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lives or Living Life Oft in Scripture do we find comforting the Heart attributed to our Natural Repast by Meat and Drink Gen. 18.5 Judg. 19.5 8 c. Or Truly Meat truly Drink Poor Comforts in comparison of Jesus whose Body is Meat indeed whose Blood is Drink indeed Joh. 6.48 to the 59th Wine makes glad the Heart of God and Man Judg. 9.13 Psal 104.15 But the Love of Christ is better Cant. 1.2 And more to be remembred Ver. 4. The Bread of Life and the Waters of Life are the very Life of all Comforts the Sweetness of all Comforts and Joys Any Mercy enoy'd with the Love of God is sweet indeed Whence in the Return of the Ransomed of the Lord with Songs and everlasting Joy upon their heads Isa 51.11 12. Jer. 31.11 12. 'T is Prophesied That They shall flow together to the Goodness of the Lord for Wheat and for Wine and for Oyl and for the Young of the Flock
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just 'T is the Office of Justice to take notice in all its proceedings of Right and Wrong but if the Right approve its reality 't is no Work of Justice to take Cognizance how we came by it whether it be natural Inheritance or personal Acquisition whether our own indefeisible Possession or anothers free Donation these are things Foreign and out of the Circuit of Justice Right must carry it whatever be the Foundation of it whatever be the Nature of it whatever Title it proceeds upon For no Varieties in the Right alter the Justice of the Procedure nor convert Justice into Injustice or any other thing The very Essence and Formal Nature of Justice as Distributive consists in dispensing Right Whereever that is the Act is formally Justice and nothing else although some other Vertue may have an antecedent Influence in forming the Right So here No Man hath a Natural Personal Right to that everlasting Rest neither do the best Services of the most perfect Creatures Angel Archangel Cherubim Seraphim found a right to it able in the nature of the thing to command and necessarily over-rule strict Justice so as 't would be Injustice properly so called to withhold or deny it For Heavenly Glory in its full Latitude which I understand by that Rest is a thing boundlesly above the Proportion of any finite Qualities or Operations Those ever Blessed Spirits are doubtlesly incapable of exerting any Acts that in Arithmetical Proportion can be as considerable and valuable as the Reciprocal Actings of the Deity that are return'd upon them For instance those flaming Ardours of Love in Seraphims which denominate them cannot in the Estimate of Reason and Justice be conceiv'd equally valuable with those reactions of Love in the Deity to them Certainly God loves them better than they can possibly love him and his Love rays out to them in infinite more Varieties than theirs can to him and the least degree of his Love is more honourable and worthy than the highest of theirs So that in Commutative Justice they cannot expect his for theirs especially since theirs is this due and the Payment of a Debt cannot make the Creditor a Debtor I have a Conceit but will not impose it that the Devils sin was not an aspiring to a Coaequality or Superiority to his Creator which his Innocent nay even Corrupt Understanding could not but represent as impossible impracticable therefore not designable But rather a challenge and expectation of those Honours from his Maker as due in Commutative Justice to the Excellencies and Actions which he admired in himself and would have had his Inferiours to adore Whence in that Kingdom of the Beast which he established and upholds this is or has been a principal Pillar though now painted over a new and is indeed the Universal Sentiment of all in whose disobedient hearts he retains the Dominion which he usurpt upon the Fall Even good Souls have a difficult Work to disengage themselves from it However 't is madness to conceit that the imperfect Duties or Graces of the lapsed Sons of Adam can stand in a Parity with Coelestial Recompences Nay the Proportion cannot amount to the heighth of that call'd Geometrical proper to distributive Justice which consists in a likeness of Reason For can there be any comparison betwixt finite and infinite imperfect and perfect temporal and eternal Can any say as the Work to the Wage so is Duty to Heaven The Right then here stands upon another bottom than the reason of the thing and that is the free investiture and gift of Sovereign Love and Mercy by a voluntary Grant and Covenant 'T is not common Soccage but Copy hold only Yet on the other hand Hell and Sin stand more in a Parity or equal Proportion There is full as much evil in the Sin as in the Punishment though not as much good in the Duty as in the Reward The demerit of Sin is unlimitable the Treasures of Wrath and Woe comprehended in it are inexhaustible therefore eternal 'T is just then to recompence Tribulation to the wicked because their Works merit it Just to recompence Rest to the godly not because their Works merit it but because free Grace hath promised it Neh. 9.8 And hast performed thy Words for thou art Righteous God cannot be just to the Wicked if he reward not their Works he cannot be just to himself to his own Word and Covenant if he reward not the Works he hath wrought in the Righteous Now even Troubles and Afflictions are less grievous if recompence may be hoped for upon good and sure Grounds If our Miseries become Antidotes to greater Miseries it encourages our Patience if they Work out greater Mercies it increases our Courage and so our Comfort The gain sweetens the pain and we are not so much offended with our Crosses as pleased with the Compensation The World is as a Lottery for a while we must draw nothing but Blanks or what will more grievously vex disquiet or torment us but the last cast will pay for all to our fullest Contentation if we belong to God's Election For this light Affliction which is but for a moment works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4.17 The happiness of the recompence of Reward is a thing of so transcendent Nature that even the serious Thoughts of it may entertain us with more abundant Joy than there can be Grief in the feeling it self of the bitterest Sufferings The Antepasts or Foretasts of Heaven are incomparably a greater delight than the very sense of Misery can be a Torment Therefore sure these exceeding glorious Riches of Coelestial Satisfactions will be an all-sufficient Requital for all the labour of Love the patience of Hope and work of Faith that we exert in this Semibrief moment of our transitory Life And it is no small Comfort to consider that the Fidelity of God has made these Gratuities Justice by making them the subject Matter of so many gracious Promises that what otherwise was mere liberty is now necessity and God by vertue of these his Bonds is become a Debtor to God Oh rich Treasury of strong Consolations God's grace having so ordered it not only that he may but that he must give the penitently troubled Soul in his own way and time the sweetest Peace Comfort and Rest It may indeed be delay'd but never can be finally deny'd and this we owe chiefly to the Justice of God his sweetest Perfection through Christ and the Covenant to an humbled Soul But there are also external Administrations of Justice which are of a refreshing consideration and such did the Psalmist reflect upon and solace himself withal Vers 1 2 15 23. Vindictive Justice is a notable relief to the Oppressed and the sweetness of Revenge a potent Cordial To see those suffer from whom we suffer and the Wicked fall into the trap and snare they lay for us does not a little glad us especially if it
safety if not in an Omnipotent hand Where without it He is the Rock of my refuge says the Psalmist Vers 22. The Name of the Lord is a strong Tower the Righteous runneth to it and is safe Prov. 18.10 and 29.25 and 21.31 Psal 4.8 12.5 Infiniteness is an impregnable Fortress Psal 18.2 Here have we the comfort of being above the reach of Malice in a quiet and secure Sanctuary Build thy Tabernacle here and nothing can endanger thee make sure of an interest in this and thou hast no reason to be afraid But if thy Fears be not blown over yet a solid Hope may waft thee into Paradise This is a thing that in the greatest hazard will buoy up a sinking Heart and the more grounded our Hope the more refreshing Cut the Cable and loose this Security and we float a drift without Card or Compass in a bottomless Gulf of Misery Nothing so deadly as Despair 'T is the utter wrack and ruin of all our Joy But if we have good reason to expect liberation from an unsupportable Evil or to wait for the communication of a satisfying Good or of the continuance of its Enjoyment so that a sufficient compensation will be made us in this for the hurt we received by the former or if the evil invading us cut off our hopes of present recompence yet if we be certain of a competency of support and succour or that we shall not feel it in the full amplitude of its malignity but with abatement and mitigation that it shall only have a short being but no biding and rest upon us that we shall see through it we are less solicitous in our Minds and herein feel no little relief Now what a safe ground have our Hopes to anchor upon in God's Almightiness Here 's all Hope nought to be despair'd of What is there not to be had in boundless Perfection What may not be hoped for from omnipotent Goodness Can there be any capacity in a finite Being to which infiniteness cannot extend Can there be a rational expectation in a limited Nature to which unlimited Grace will not accommodate it self The unfathomable excellency of God declares him all-sufficient to answer thy expectance to the full and his free gracious Communicativeness and Promise render all thy hopes from him rational Thou canst not desire much less expect more than God can give and he is willing to grant more than thou canst hope for Nothing in thee can be the measure of his unmeasurable Power and Bounty in dispensing whatever may be for thy good and 't is not rational Hope which is not guided by this discretion to look for nothing but what is good in it self or to us For evil is not appetible and what is not the object of Desire cannot be of Hope but Fear Now the Judge of what is Good or Evil in it self or to us is not our Fancy or Appetite or Lust but the unbiassable Wisdom of God We must therefore have recourse to that powerful Hand which is the Agent and Factor for such unconceivable Wisdom and Grace and what cannot that do in our troubled Hearts which both in Heaven and Earth can do all things exceeding abundantly above all that we ask and think Eph. 3.20 It can both prepare us for Comfort by conquering our enmity against it indisposition for it unsuitableness to it and by creating those Qualifications and Conditions which are prerequisite to our enjoyment of it and also prepare it for us and apply it Is thy state so bad that thou canst not be duly comforted Almightiness can change it by regenerating thee Eph. 1.19 20. with 2.1 And supply out of the foregoing Verse that ye may know what is the exceeding greatness of his Power to us ward who believe according to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the inworking of the might of his Power which be wrought in Christ raising him from the Dead and you who were dead in Trespasses and Sins For as the Learned observe this is the plain and evident coherence what interposes is to be included in a Parenthesis Is thy Heart so stubborn sullen or over-whelmed with Anguish or any other Passion that Rachel-like thou wilt not be Comforted even this his Power can subdue and bow into a spontaneous forwardness to accept his gracious offers Art thou so debased and vile in thine own Eyes that thou darest not presume to be Comforted Omnipotence can and will be the instrument of Goodness and Fidelity to create inthee an humble confidence in receiving and applying it as thy peculiarly design'd Portion for which thou art under an immediate preparation The Tempter is not so able to molest as thy Redeemer to pacifie thy Conscience and because he is more able he is more willing also The liberty to act in acting being proportion'd to the potency of the rational Agent What we can best do we most readily freely and cheerfully do Every thing that can be congruously done is not only possible but facil easie to Omnipotency He made a World with a Word Gen. 1. By a Word sustains it 2 Pet. 3.7 And the mere suspence of that Word will destroy it as follows thence by necessary consequence For if by that Word they be reserved in store for the Fire of that day it follows that without it they cannot be reserved The effect must needs be remov'd with its immediate continuing cause they cannot be kept and reserv'd without a Keeper and Reserver continuing his influence for that end as the Light cannot subsist if the Sun Moon and Stars be taken away This Word of Power which upholds all things Heb. 1.2 is engaged for the sustentation of troubled Hearts Psal 55.22 For the bruising Satan the great troubler of Souls under our feet Rom. 16.20 which is spoken I conceive with relation to the Devils discomforting Power My ground is the title given to him who effects this viz. The God of Peace The Devil's power to discompose and disease us cannot equal God's power to heal with Peace which therefore and because 't is produced out of nothing in us is stiled a Creation Isa 57.19 I create the fruit of the Lips Peace Peace to him that is far off the Gentile and to him that is near the Jew saith the Lord and I will heal him What the end of his creating Peace was he had told in the foregoing Verse 18. viz. to Comfort him I have seen his ways Covetousness going frowardly in the way of his own Heart ver 17. and will heal him I will lead him also and restore Comforts to him and his Mourners And who is this I that undertakes all this You may be resolv'd herein by ver 15. 'T is the high and lofty one that inhabits Eternity whose name is Holy who dwells in the high and holy Place c. Words importing the most Majestick Soveraign Power Kings have the Power of Peace and War The Creation of Peace is an Act of God's Supreme Majesty as well
saying be strong and couragious be not afraid nor dismayed for the King of Assyria nor for all the Multitude that is with him for there be moe with us than with him With him is an arm of Flesh but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our Battles And the People leaned themselves upon the Words of Hezekiah King of Judah The Comfort of these Words which was a Stay to their disquieted Minds did consist in the Assurance he gave of the Presence of God And what more common in the Scripture than for God himself immediately or mediately by his Prophets or Messengers to encourage his Servants unto or in any difficult hazardous displeasing terrifying troublesome Undertaking by this I am or I will be or God is or shall be with thee But incomparably above all things of this Nature is that most satisfying Ground of everlasting Consolation beyond all Miracles which we have in IMMANUEL That for the Recovery of Lost Mankind the Eternal Son of God should descend from the Heighth of his Sanctuary and Throne in Heaven to become GOD WITH US The Excellency and Beauty of Heaven The Son of Righteousness did Eclipse and shroud his Transcendent Light and Glory in the dark shadow of mortal flesh that in the humility of our Nature he might do and suffer that for us who had debased our selves even unto Hell Isa 57.9 which would be effectually conducible for our Exaltation to the very Akme of Celestial Perfection and Felicity This This is the everlasting Wonder and Astonishment of Men and Angels an Act of Grace and a Means of Peace truly worthy of an infinitely Glorious God! 'T is only in Vertue of this that sinful Man has any gracious Presence of God at all Joh. 1.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If God had not thus Tabernacled in our Flesh dwelt in our Nature we could have had no dwelling in God but as in a Consuming Fire and Everlasting Burnings All the Support we can derive either from God's Essential Presence or Voluntary depends intirely upon the Hypostatical Vnion and Presence of the Only-begotten Dearly-beloved of God to our Nature But dismiss we this to further Consideration in its proper Place 't was necessary to mention it here as the very Basis of all our Comfort in any thing of God Let a Man be Paradis'd in the sweetest refreshing Garden of all Sublunary Delights yet Solitude will be an Embitterment to all his other Joys he that can evermore be alone is either a Devil or a God The Deity pronounc'd that State Bad when Man's State was at the Best 'T is not good for Man to be alone Gen. 2.18 No his own Thoughts would devour him his Troubles crush him down and sink his Spirits into Despondency and Confusion 'T is no little Solace in Misery it self to have a Fellow though it be in Suffering and an Aggravation when our Sorrows are unparallell'd Is it nothing to you all ye that pass by behold and see if there be any Sorrow like unto my Sorrow c. Lam. 1.12 was the Sting of the Church's Misery But There hath no Temptation taken you but such as is common to Man 1 Cor. 10.13 is a singular Comfort under the most grievous Depressions Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris Society is an Alleviation of Calamities our Griefs are not so oppressive if they be in Consort Company begets a Harmony in Sorrows and the Consonancy of their Dolours makes a kind of pleasing Musick in Consent with our own although no other Interest knit them to us than Community of Cares and Troubles But how pleasant is the Society of a Friend to whom we can ease our Hearts in Adversity and who by condoling our Afflictions and bearing our Burthens lightens our Crosses and cheers our fainting Spirits by comfortable Discourses whom also in all our Prosperity we can make Partaker of all our Joys and all in whose Comforts we have a common Interest whose Good we can rejoyce in when we suffer Evil our selves in the noble Sensuality of reciprocating Kindnesses If the accidental Society of any be sweet much more this Elective neither is the Natural and Relative inferiour especially where the Love is not meer Liberty but Necessity What an unspeakable Solace is the tender pretty Babe to the Compassionate Mother With what ravishing Exultations does she entertain it into her Embraces How does her Heart leap for Joy at the very sight of it And her Bowels yern over it And in its Enjoyment can triumph over all her other Misadventures and Misfortunes In general any thing to which we can let out our hearts in an entire Affection administers Satisfaction The very working of Love and Commiseration singularly pleases There 's no Solace but in something that delights Thy Comforts delight my Soul Under Perplexity no Peace The Heart cannot rest in what displeases What 's unlovely is indelectable Whatever delights comforts whether it be in our own Act or an outward Object Now in incident Company there 's something pleasing something and often much more displeasing else we embrace it with Friendship In a choice Friend there 's much more pleasing than displeasing for we always give some Allowance for Humanity If a Relation in which blind Love sees the least ill yet do in nothing displease 't is ador'd and made a God Whatever is mortal is not without some kind of Embitterment The purest Gold has its Alloy 't is but so many Caracts fine But God is infinite Delectation alway in thy Company Thou art altogether incapable of Solitude He that fills the Universe is ever with thee Ps 139.18 Yet not accidentally but substantially essentially nor only as a Spectator but every way concern'd Afflicted in all thy Afflictions Isa 63.9 So thou enjoy'st that Solamen And if thou hast elected him for thy Freind he hath no less chosen thee In his Love mayst thou rejoice into his Bosome pour out all thy Griefs and meet with a Sympathy in his Compassionate Heart Vpon him mayst thou cast thy Burthen who has promised to sustain it and thee Psal 55.22 He cares for thee 1 Pet. 5.7 He is tenderly affectioned towards thee kind to thee all his is common to thee when none else will or can a Friend will he be and a Relation too the nearest the sweetest To the Natural Relation founded in forming and begetting thee as a Faithful Creator Merciful Father he hath for thy further Comfort superadded a voluntary tye in the condition of a Bridegroom Mat. 25. the beginning But as if Espousals were not firm enough to prevent thy jealousie of a dereliction the Conjugal Bond is actually ty'd Thy Maker is thy Husband Isa 54.5 Rom. 7.1 2 3 4. therefore has he obliged himself to ever enduring Cohabitation and Love with everlasting Kindness will be embrace thee never leave thee nor forsake thee Neither are his Converses and Communication less delightful than his Company and Presence The Discourse
of Friends and Relations mightily revive a dejected Heart not only by diverting and putting by sad disconsolate thoughts but in respect of their matter as Hezekiah's before mentioned to the People of Jerusalem A kind Friend is a Dove with a Olive-branch in his Mouth in and after a deluge of Calamities Good Words are as Oyl to the Joynts Marrow to the Bones a refreshing reviving Medicine to a sick oppressed Heart As a soft Answer turneth away Wrath Prov. 15.1 So a sweet one turns away Sorrow Good Words make the Heart glad even when heaviness in it causeth it to stoop Prov. 12.25 Pleasant Words are as a Honey-comb sweet to the Soul and health Medicine to the Bones Prov. 16.24 God is with us to speak to our Hearts even in a Wilderness State Hos 2.14 How oft are his Words compared to and preferred before Honey and Honey-combs What a revival was it it to Zechariah and the Jews when the Lord answered the Angel-Intercessor for Judah and Jerusalem with good Words and comfortable Words Zech. 1.13 And with no less exultation did the Psalmist say Psal 85.8 I will hear what God the Lord will speak for he will speak Peace to his People and to his Saints Christ himself when present on Earth came preaching Peace Eph. 2.17 His Embassadors by and through him preach Peace Act. 10.36 He is a good Man says David of Ahimaaz and brings good tidings 2 Sam. 18.27 Good Words with a good God are gladsome indeed O take pleasure in the Message more in the Messengers in the Sender most of all The inward secret whisperings of the Spirit of Grace and Peace in thy Conscience the outward publication of Peace by God's Ministers and People are only in the matter and method of the Scriptures in which alone God realy speaks Peace Nothing can comfort but Truth nothing savingly Comfort but Scripture Truth All truth is originally from God Essential Truth is God the Son of God Mat. 28. ult who is where-ever he speaks and maks that comforting Truth which is his Image efficacious by his Presence and Power so that the very Instrument of Comfort does but only delight us relatively to him of whom it is a lively Representation Thou mayst be mock'd with a Lye and bewitch'd into a false deceitful Joy with a Falshood but when the Mask is taken off thy bare Countenance will appear more sad than at first and thy Comforts more unretrievable No real Peace but in the God of Peace through the Prince of Peace Friends and Relations cannot alway be present personally with their Company and Counsel to minister to our Peace A Vertual and Vicarious Presence and Conference does not a little contribute to our Consolation when distance of place renders the other impossible and with what a transport of Joy do we receive their Tokens their Letters their Writings with what a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do we peruse and in a manner greedily devour them How are our Hearts ravished with the kind and affectionate Expressions Professions of Remembrance Respect Love every Word is a Cordial we are in an extasie of Contentation here as in a Glass we behold them their lively Portraicture is afresh painted hereby in our Imagination we hear them we talk with them solace our selves in this Phantastical Enjoyment as if it were Real And why should not our Delights be more transcendent in God who can never be absent whose Presence is Substance and not Phantastry and whose Tokens of Love and Letters of Comfort are not the Curates of a Non-Resident Being nor the Missives of a distant Superintendency but the immediate Visitations of an Overseeing Care and Love that naturally minds and regards our highest Concerns and cannot will not desert us if we first do not desert him How comfortable is good News of any kind what a reviving to our drooping Hearts With what passion do we long for it With what gladness receive it believe it bless God for it The Gospel of Christ is better News than the best on Earth Glad Tidings of the greatest Joy Peace Love and Life Here mayst thou see the omniform motions of Christ's richest Grace perceive the compassionate workings of his Bowels feel the solicitous beatings of his affectionate Heart in a tender regard of thee read of the astonishing effects of his wonder-working Power and Goodness all the Miracles of his Love and Kindness for thy Good in Illumination Sanctification Justification Salvation what he hath done what he still is doing what he further will do to raise thee up out of the bottomless Pit of unspeakable Misery to the top and crown of Heavenly Felicity and Glory Well might the Apostle tell of the Comfort of the Scripture Rom. 15.4 And David long for it as a means to his solace Psal 119.82 This and this alone is the richest Promptuary fullest Treasury of all real Soul-satisfactions hence have we them or they are but mere Legerdemain and Illusions And if the very News of Christ be so sweet what is he in himself What is he in Person None have reason to say of him as the Corinthians of Paul 2 Cor. 10.10 His Letters are weighty and powerful but his bodily Presence is weak His is not the presence of a weak contemptible Body but of an all-powerful Spirit he that can be Omnipresent cannot but be Omnipotent Christ as God is in all is all and even as Man full of Vertue a touch of his very Garments wrought a Miracle of Healing Matth. 9.20 21 22. And if in his Mortal Body there was such Power what is in his Immortal and Glorified The Principle I know was Heavenly though the Vessel Earthly yet this has lost nothing by its Exaltation to the Throne of God no nor we neither for in lieu of that Corporal Presence we enjoy a no less Comfortable Companion the Paraclete the Holy Comforting Spirit of God to abide with us not for a few days and years but for ever Joh. 14.16 So that although our sweetest Relation be gone to Heaven yet are we not Orphans ver 18. The Angel of God's Presence Isa 63.19 that saves us comforts us now by Proxy yet is not absent from us but essentially with us though Corporeally at a distance from us Gods Natural Presence is an immensity of Being Unconfinable to any Place Incomprehensible by all Places Exterminable out of none and with its fullness filling all in all So that there is no need of the supplement of any thing to avoid a vacuity nor is any thing by this Being excluded that needs a Place He is in all Space and beyond all Space not commensurate with it but infinite The Dimetient of all yet without Measure and all Corporeal Dimensions boundlessly greater than all things comprehending all within the Circle of his Essence whose Center is every where Circumference no where in all Varieties of Co-present Beings the same invariable Perfection no other on Earth than in Heaven that he can without any
alteration in himself or varying of his place make Heaven to be any where every where therefore the Joys and Comforts of Heaven For I reckon that Heaven does not import any difference in God but in us no change in his Being but our Vision no new Object except Christ's Flesh but new Eyes Every Spirit and therefore the Father of Spirits hath a Power to conceal its Presence as well as its Sentiments from all other Spirits except God Yet there 's a difference betwixt the Latency of other Spirits and the Deity A finite Spirit is hid through the suspence of its Agency Ad extra its acting upon things without it self so the Deity cannot be hid For if it wholly cease to act upon any Being that Being will wholly cease to be because all live move and have their Being in and from Him Acts 17.28 which Spirits that see not with Eyes but Intellects cannot but perceive only 't is unobserv'd by Man whose Mind looks through the Apertures of Sense which together with it self being darkned through Sin has but very obscure and weak Reflections upon that Being without which he cannot be 't is hid to him by a Veil of Flesh that envelops his Intellectual Eyes or else he shuts and will not open them to behold this invisible Nature which is in reality more conspicuous and evident that is knowable than any thing in the World whatever But the Deities concealment of it self is with respect to some more special Voluntary Operations which give Testimony to his presence and demonstrate the Finger of God which when suspended he is and therefore the Comfort of his presence is hid from our Eyes Such are either Miraculous or Gracious For although every thing in Nature both in respect of his Being and Agency be a sufficient Indication of the Existence Presence and Efficiency of God it being impossible that any Natural Powers should exert themselves in a suspence of the Influence of his the Concurrence whereof gives them to be what they are and do what they do Yet the Deity sometimes as being it self the Law of Laws does in its Actings vary from go beside nay contrary to the common and ordinary Laws of particular Natures and so invert the course and order of things as to give peculiar evidence of his Presence and Power by Effects wonderfull surprizing and astonishing As the Flood of Noah the first that falls within the Cognizance of History after the Creation I need not particularize more the Scripture is full nor balk that for all the ingenious attempts of a late Author to deduce it from Natural Causes it being demonstrable that some necessary parts of his Hypothesis stand in need of the violence of Miracle or the whole process will stick and produce nothing Yet the Manifestations of the Divine presence which constitute Heaven are not in the instances of Power but Goodness even as the Discoveries of it in Vindictive Justice form the Miseries of Hell That Goodness and Justice essentially considered which make Heaven and Hell are Omnipresent as being the Divine Nature But the Objects of them cannot aspire to an Ubiquity being of a limited Nature Should they circulate through all the Regions of Immensity the condition and sense they partake would present them still with the same unaltered unalterable Nature of God Heaven and Hell would be in every place where Souls so sensed reside the Discoveries of God importing no change in him but only in those to whom the Discovery is made Heaven and Hell not being more the alteration of our State than the awakening of our sense to discern and apprehend and feel that which before we did not though before it was the very same immutably and will continue so everlastingly This is the Natural State of Heaven but the Christian State is somewhat more For the choicest sweetest Discoveries of God are therein made in and through the Mediator God-Man and in special to Mankind through the Manhood of Christ which being of a limited presence settles the Divine Manifestations in a certain limited place sufficient to comprehend all Elect Angels and Men. This Divine Presence we enjoy by Faith here by Sight hereafter We have as much of God and Heaven now as we have of Faith Divine Manifestations are proportioned to our Believings All the Effects of Divine Goodness in and upon us depend upon this Christian Grace and the degree of them upon the degree of it Gain but this and thou hast God and all Nothing can pierce the Heavens but this Eye 'T is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 substance of things hoped for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Evidence Eviction of things not seen Heb. 11.1 By it Moses saw him who is invisible vers 27. We never can be without a Heaven if we have but Faith it realizes to us that presence of God which through Christ is the sole and full ground of all Celestial Comforts Satisfactions and Joys Psal 16 11. In thy presence is fulness of Joy and at thy Right Hand are pleasures for evermore In Heaven thy presence Chamber where thou sit'st upon the Throne of Glory cloathed with Honour and Majesty as with a Garment and discoverest and displayest the Splendour of thy incomprehensible Excellency and Perfection And at thy Right Hand where thou hast said my Lord should sit till his Enemies be made his Footstool Psal 110.1 In and through this Jesus at thy Right hand are pleasures everlasting But these are chiefly the Comforts of a Future State Is there not something at present to stay and yet inflame the Appetite Yes vers 8. I would always possess that Saturity of Joys which is before thy face Therefore I have set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved Therefore my Heart is gladed and my Glory Exults rejoyces my Flesh also inhabits in hope because thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell nor give thy merciful or excellent one to see the pit of Corruption but thou wilt make me to know the path of Lives He is at my right hand and therefore Gladness and Joy in my Heart and Soul But Oh what is there at His right Hand My Faith setting him now as present before me brings singular Satisfaction and Delight Oh then what will sense and sight be when I shall possess the reality of that which I now believe The result is That the presence of God apprehended by Faith or Vision is a thing which comprehends the substance and fulness of all Pleasure Joy and Consolation Indeed nothing Comforts but through some kind of presence It either is or is conceived to be and made indistant by our Cogitations Humane Infirmity requires something in hand or in hopes that are as secure and therefore as good as in hand Absence of a solacing good although only imaginary is tormenting God cannot but be near every one of us in Essence and we find him so to be by the effects of
his Goodness Since then he is at our right hand naturally and necessarily we must voluntarily by Consideration and Faith set him before us have an Eye upon his presence fix it in our Minds and Meditations alway And it will replenish us with Spiritual refreshment and solace unspeakable For if God he with us and for us who or what can be against us What can trouble or terrifie us How can that Soul be left in a Hell of disquiet that lives in the presence of God i. e. in Heaven For where God is there 's Heaven he is the all of it 't is nothing without him and his presence is enough to convert any thing into Heaven There cannot possibly be so much Evil in those Infernal Regions of Wickedness and Woe as there is good in the presence of God 'T is an infinite good There is not so much Power in Hell it self to impress the sense of its Evil upon a tormented Soul as there is in God to impress the Comforts of his presence upon a gracious Heart Neither doth the Justice of God more enlarge the Capacity of a Man to sense and anguishfully apprehend and feel the Misery of his absence in Hell than his goodness doth widen the Soul's Capacity to comprehend the felicity of his presence in Heaven that I Judge the Saints to be more happy above through their Inheritance in Light than the Damned are miserable in outer Darkness In the Omnipresence of God we have with us all Things all Perfections all Satisfactions all that ever God can be or do or give and in his gracious Presence we have an Ingagement upon him to be do and give all that he can to us And what can we wish what can we imagine more God is All-present by condition of Nature but graciously present only by Compact and Covenant whereby he obliges himself to be our God that is every thing which he is in himself that we shall enjoy the benefit and comfort of all and every of his Unimitable Soul-satisfying and saving Perfections Now the gracious Presence of God is nothing else but his manifesting himself to be with us by his Communicating all Covenant Mercies to us Making us Partakers of a Divine Nature granting us Pardon Peace and Comfort giving us the full use and advantage of all his Attributes of his Son of his Spirit every thing that he is and hath which will do us any good for this and another World satisfying us with his likeness and filling us with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory When Esau therefore came off only with his Lean 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 33.9 I have much well might Jacob roundly and triumphantly declare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have all vers 11. He can want nothing Habet omnia qui habet habentem omnia who possesseth him that hath all things He is never Poor or Naked or Blind or Wretched or Miserable who enjoys the presence of God He can never be distrest for want of Grace and Holiness or Pardon and Peace and Pleasure and Joy and Comfort who is not without God For Isa 57.15 c. 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 I will restore Comforts c. I create the fruit of the Lips Peace Peace c. A Blessed Denizen indeed But as he dwells and resides in us so also do we in him Psal 90.1 Lord thou hast been our dwelling place in all Generations Psal 91.1 He that dwelleth in the secret of the Highest shall abide in the shadow of the All-sufficient Vers 9 10. Because thou hast made the Lord my hope even the highest thy Habitation Evil shall not befall thee by chance Plague shall not approach thy dwelling Make God thy home and no harm can reach thee Thy Spiritual home will secure thy Civil That Eternal thy Temporal That was thy first and must be thy last toward which 't is strange that thy Appetite works with no greater Violence In every Creature there is a natural instinct and pressing desire inclining to return to the place of its Birth to that Country to those Persons which had its Maiden Affections Notwithstanding the Dominion of reason in our selves 't is no little Gratification to our Fancies to enjoy a retiring place and home where we may refresh our selves after all our wearisome Labours and Travails Where-ever we are beside we are not well here are our Hearts our Delights our Joys whence we say Proverbially Home is Home though never so homely And the Spaniards My House my House though thou be small Thou art to me th' Escurial Our Spirit is from God in his bosom was it born there is our House not made with Hands 2 Cor. 5.1 our Eternal Mansion and is there not infinitely more agreeableness and pleasingness in him to our Souls than there can be sweetness and suitableness in any material Home to our Imaginations We do not inure our selves by Love to dwell in God 1 Joh. 4.16 therefore are so well content to be absent from him to ramble like Vagabonds chusing the Life of Cain or Coryat rather than that of Christians and Saints whose being and bideing should be solely and electively in God as it is essentially and naturally On for such a Disposition of Soul as would never permit us to be at ease but in serious Reflections upon the presence of God with which we are ever surrounded whether we will or no And if we consider this how can we be any other than Engarrison'd in Peace and Joy and Consolation Well might the Psalmist say Thou comfortest me on every side Psal 71.21 for round about him and within him also dwelt a Comfort no less than infinite the Supreme Majesty able and of Authority to command the presence of all Good and countermand the presence of all Evil and the Sovereign Mercy of Heaven willing and of sufficient Love and Fidelity to make every thing a means of Grace and Peace and all things according to his Promise Work together for good to the true Lovers of him and the called according to his purpose Rom. 8.28 § 7. Lastly The Eternity of God is a ground of Comfort as fingular as it self is incomprehensible Everlasting Consolation is built upon no other bottom A perishing Content is in effect none because it issues in nothing but the greater dissatisfaction The durableness of our Joy is its Crown and since 't is in the Eternal God it can be no other in Duration than what he is Therefore as there is in God's presence a saturity or fullness of Joy in respect of Magnitude and Intensiveness So at God's Right Hand pleasures for evermore in respect of extent and continuance And 't is probable our Psalmist might derive some of those Comforts which
Grace as a Preparation for more of his Glory 2 Cor. 4.8 to the end Upon this Providence of God our Psalmist had a special eye throughout the Psalm Whatever he desires and prays for whatever he believes and hopes for whatever he acknowledges and praises God for whatever he bemoans and afflicts his Soul for whatever he experiences and feels was some Act Effect or Permission of Providence That God in the course of his Providence would annimadvert upon the insolent Barbarities of his and the Churches Enemies is the Expostulatory Petition of Vers 1 2 3 4. What was the Permission of Providence Is the condolement and moan of Vers 5.6 The singular concern of Providence is the Doctrine of Vers 8 9 10. as the happy Fruits of the very Severities thereof the Triumph of Vers 12 13 and the returns of its favourable Aspect the belief of Vers 14 15 the notable needful suitable and feasonable Interposals thereof the experience of Vers 17 18 22 and the turning of this great Wheel upon the Adversaries to their confusion the Prophetick hope of Vers 23. All jointly together the comfort of the Text which in the Multitude of his perplexed Thoughts did look with such an amiable regard upon his Soul So that although the Fundamental Ground and Matter of his Satisfaction was the Nature of God in all its plenitude of Perfection yet the more immediate Spring thereof was the Egress or Issuings out of those Attributes in all these Varieties of Providence And the truth is although what God is in himself be eminently and vertually all Comfort in the utmost degree of Excellency yet should he confine his infinitely delectable Glories to himself only and never ray out and communicate of his Beauty Grace and Life to his Creatures they would be utterly at a loss for Happiness 'T is therefore not only the Nature of this Supreme Goodness as it transcends all in Perfection But also 't is its practice and delight and highest end the very thing that is called God's Glory which he has a prime respect to in all his Actings For then have his Creatures the highest Motives to Honour him when they taste most liberally of his bounty in the noblest Instances and he glorifies himself in the Estimate of the World when he is most beneficial as the Sun is most glorious when diffusing without any Interception his benign rayes and influences All which Glories vanish as to us in a total Eclipse or his descent under the Horizon Hence then does our Joy and Peace and Solace actually germinate and grow even from the glory of Divine Perfection branching out it self in infinite methods of Providence wherein he dispenses to us of his own fulness according to our various Exigences and Appetites The out goings of his Wisdom Goodness Justice Fidelity and Power in sweet and suitable Blessings and Supports that in every Condition we can behold something of God of greater value and consideration than either our Mercies or Crosses This is a potent Cordial to our Disconsolate Hearts and replenishes them with wonderful Contentation If these Divine Glories compass us about care for us keep us we are comforted on every side Psal 71.21 Yea though we walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death if God be thus with us in his providential Efficiency for our good his Rod and Staff will comfort us Psal 23.4 Rod and Staff Pastoral not Judicial or Corrective as some understand it But Providence being vertually included in those Attributes whereof it is an effect and issue in discoursing of them I was unavoidably led into some consideration of it also 2. The Privileges which administer Consolation in the greatest hurry and perturbation of Thoughts are many Two whereof only are insinuated in this Psalm yet such as suppose more They are 1. Sanctification 2. Propriety in God and assurance of it 1. Sanctification by the Word and Spirit of God is an excellent ground of Consolation 'T is indeed the first Foundation Stone laid in the Fabrick In vertue of this we receive Comfort from other things Tell any disquieted Heart of the inexhaustible Treasures of everlasting Joys and Refreshments in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost That Multitudes have enjoyed on Earth and in the Eternal Fruition whereof the Blessed Saints and Angels ever triumph in Heaven which the bounty and goodness of God exhibits and offers to all Tell it of the free and gracious Promises and Covenant of God that tenders the sweetest and strongest Consolation Exhort with the most charming Rhetorick and ravishing Suada to embrace these so rich so profitable so necessary Provisions of abounding Love Alas it cannot it dare not Why Because 't is Presumption 't is Stealth Robbery Sacrilege to snatch away any thing to arrest these Divine and Holy things without Right But have you not Right No How do you prove that 'T is plain All Right is founded in Sanctification I am not Sanctified I lie in my Sins dead and buried in Guilt and Wrath unregenerate out of Covenant as not having submitted to its Conditions in Repentance Faith and New Obedience Therefore the Comforts of the Covenant and of the Promises its Branches do not at all appertain to me This Argument cannot be gain-said if it assume right 'T is undoubtedly true That none have Right to the Mercies of the Covenant who do not submit to its terms and that very yielding unfeignedly to the terms is an act of Sanctification which necessarily supposes the Communication of a Principle because none can act grace sincerely except from an inward Life of Grace it being essential to the sincerity of an Act that it proceed from a gracious Disposition from a renewed sanctified Heart Ezek. 36.26 27 31 32. and Ch. 20.43 44. and Ch. 11.19 Jer. 32.38 39 40. and 31.31 32 33 34. and 24.7 Deut. 30.6 Acts 5.31 and 3 26. Phil. 1.29 Eph. 2.8 9 10. For none but acts of Life as contradistinct to Dead Works entitle to the Promises God gives a Heart of Flesh a new Heart and Writes his Law therein infuses his Fear and Love thereinto gives Repentance through the Exaltation of Jesus Christ to whose benignity we owe the Donation of Faith also and are altogether his Workmanship created in Christ Jesus to good Works that we may walk therein evermore Admit that these Promises and Asseverations were designed primarily for Israel according to the Flesh Yet can it not be denied that they delineate and describe the manner and method of God's Proceedings with his Israel according to the Spirit For he no where declares his intent to alter that oeconomy of Grace in the substance thereof which was established by the Covenant of Grace to reduce lost Man to the obedience of the Just though the Circumstances and Ceremonials vary Now if acceptable that is sincere Acts may issue from any Man without or antecedently to all holy Qualifications or Habits as they are usually called ' t were a supervacaneous
needless fond thing for the Deity to promise them or interest his own Agency about them which yet is of a blasphemous importance as 't would savour of the highest Arrogance to imagine that I am in a Capacity to act well-pleasingly to God without God For does it consist with the Divine Wisdom and God's Ingenuous procedure with Man to promise what is in Mans power whether he promise or no. And if we be capable of exerting one acceptable Act without Divine Influence Why not another and another till frequent Acts produce a Habit and all this exclusively to the aids of Heaven That he must be made a liar who said Joh. 15.5 Without me you can do nothing And 2 Cor. 3.5 Not that we are sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves but our sufficiency is of God See also again Eph. 2.8 9 10. Let him stand forth and be a publick Spectacle of Ignominy and Malediction who will not subscribe to or having subscribed contradicts the 10th and 13th Articles of Religion which are these X. The Condition of Man after the Fall of Adam is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself by his own natural strength and good Works to Faith and calling upon God Wherefore we have no power to do good Works pleasing and acceptable to God without the Grace of God preventing us that we may have a good will and working with us when we have that good will XIII Works done before the Grace of Christ and the Inspiration of his Spirit are not pleasant to God forasmuch as they spring not of Faith in Jesus Christ neither do they make Men meet to receive Grace or as the School Authors say deserve Grace of Congruity yea rather for that they are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done we doubt not but they have the Nature of Sin If formally upright and acceptable Acts of Submission to the Covenant and its conditions could issue from wicked Men and Hypocrites so continuing in State and Disposition and therefore Enemies to God and Goodness as there would be no need of the promise to Write his Law in the Heart so God would be obliged in faithfulness to fulfil to them his part of the Covenant in communicating all Covenant Mercies But the whole implies a contradiction For sincerely to observe the terms of the Covenant is to be sincere in that thing and therefore supposes the Law to be Written in the Heart or obliges God to Write it For the condition being observed by Man the Engagement upon God becomes absolute he must do his part or violate his Covenant and be unjust to himself and his Son Jesus Christ whose undertaking founded this New Covenant Dispensation Whence a cordial performance of the terms of the Covenant on our part does really introduce or infer that sincerity of State which is implied in the Writing God's Laws in our Hearts implanting therein his fear and pouring out his Spirit on us which is the very Work of Conversion or Regeneration and the basis of all Consolation for Psal 119.50 This is my comfort in my affliction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because thy word hath quickned me Thy word in general as the Instrument its precepts in particular as the Matter principling my Heart in the nature of a Law engraven on that Fleshly Table by the Finger of God Whatever Mens Sentiments may be under Temptation Melancholy c. yet ordinarily let but this be made out to a considering Man viz. that he is truly born again of God and all his Troubles Disquiets Agonies Horrors of Conscience vanish into nothing and all other his Disconsolate Thoughts are very much moderated If his Grace be found real and sound his Repentance Faith and Love unfeigned his Heart is at ease he has a perfect Demonstration that God the Father is his God and Father Jesus Christ his Saviour because the Holy Ghost has been his Sanctifier Now does he not doubt of the pardon of his Sins of the special Love of God of an interest in all the Benefits purchased by Jesus Christ of a Right to all the Promises and everlasting Consolation and Salvation This is the bottom of all nothing without this will avail in the least to bring the glad tidings of Peace into the Conscience This as a sure and immovable Foundation establishes all our hopes of Comfort which without it is absolutely impossible But this ground laid Joy and Rest and Satisfaction of Soul will infallibly arrive sooner or later all the Malignity and Rage upon Earth all the Malice and Policy of Hell all the Melancholy Imaginations of a Man 's own Heart though they may obstruct and delay it yet cannot finally avert and hinder it any more than a gloomy Night can the rising of the Sun in its season The day of Glory Peace and Consolation everlasting Cant. 4.6 will undoubtedly break Hebr. breath upon such a Soul and Darkness Sorrows Shadows flee away For these Redeemed of the Lord by power and therefore by price shall return and come with singing unto Sion and everlasting Joy shall be upon their heads they shall obtain Gladness and Joy and Sorrow Mourning and Sighing shall flee away Isa 51.11 Weeping may endure in the Evening but Joy cometh in the Morning Psal 30.5 A Child of Prayers and Tears said Ambrose to Monica cannot perish Isa 53.3 A Man of Sorrows and acquainted with Grief whom it pleaseth the Lord to bruise shall see of the Travail of his Soul and be satisfied This was verified first in the Head and shall be also in the Members They must pass through the Jordan of Repentance and there be wash'd seven times that they may be healed of their Spiritual Leprosies but their next Stage is a welcome Canaan of Solace and Rest This is the basis of the other Privilege viz. Propriety in God and assurance thereof and therefore being a connex Blessing more concerning it will necessarily fall under the following Head Now that the Psalmist had some Reflections upon his Sanctification in assuming to himself the Comforts of God seems evident from the 21. vers where he makes a tacit Profession of his Righteousness and Innocency which no doubt were to him as in like case they are to any Man a singular Support and Satisfaction under all the Calamities and Cruelties endured through the violence and fury of Man Though the Floods and Waves and Storms beat high from without yet if there be a sweet Calm within though the World with a savage barbarousness persecute and pursue me to Death yet if mine own Conscience do not reproach me but testifie that in simplicity and godly sincerity I have had my Conversation in this World not by fleshly Wisdom but by the grace of God in innocency and usefulness to Men 2 Cor. 1.12 This is a singular rejoycing and ground of Comfort though our sufferings abound Vers 5. The Peace of a good Conscience is a powerful Antidote
to be destroy'd That is our strongest and most delightful bent of Will being for God and goodness against Sin we sin not out of Love to sin as dntiful Subjects obey their Sovereign out of love to obedience Yet so masterful and imperious are our Corruptions that they will fight against us under their Chains and taking their advantage knock us down and ravish us that according to Rom. 7.18 to the end we sometimes do that we would not or do not that we would our delight being in the Law of God after the inner Man which no unregenerate Man can truly say But the Law in our Members does 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 counterwar and captivate and Sin dwelling in us does overbear our most determinate purposes in some particular Act although for the-main and in the general course of our lives we keep it under alway dislike it are afflicted with it would give Worlds to be rid of it and use God's appointed means for mortifying it that we may gain an absolute Victory Though it may get the better in some slighter skirmishes yet we remain Masters of the Field In brief when Sin has our liking allowance love delight 't is a King when not a Tyrant The former is inconsistent with Sanctification not the latter therefore does not debar our right to Pardon and Peace though it may darken our Evidence and so damp our Comfort But if we enjoy this assurance that God is ours we have Evidence also that Grace is ours Pardon is ours Peace is ours and therefore may solace our selves in its abundance Psal 37.11 As on the contrary antecedently to this assurance there can be no secure and well bottomed although there may be a fallacious and presumptuous Peace For Peace of conscience alway supposes Peace with God and this discovered by some overt act else 't is but a drunken Dream If a Man have no testimony that God is reconciled to him 't is all one in effect as if he were not reconciled The old Maxim must here obtain non esse non apparere tantidem sunt The privilege we enjoy is to us a non-entity the comfort we feel not to us is not My Soul is in woe because I have offended God my trouble cannot must not cease till I know that the offence is past by and forgiven no nor then neither wholly if I be an ingenuous Child I shall be grieved whenever I review the disingenuous baseness of my behaviour toward my heavenly Father although he resolve never to remember it to my prejudice yet with this difference before pardon I shall be afflicted with a tormenting Sorrow the issue of Fear which will at present extinguish and overthrow my comfort but after sense of Remission only with a more generous Compunction and godly Sorrow the fruit of Love consistent with although it something diminish and detract from the fulness and sweetness of my Consolation If I can sit down content under the dishonour I have done and the Provocation I have given unto my affectionate and tender hearted Father I am an unworthy Child nay if I so little and lightly regard his anger as to be in no pain but at ease under it and so affront and undervalue his Love as to be at rest and content without it I am a Rebel not a Child a Devil not a Saint Now let a Messenger be with me one of a thousand to shew my uprightness Job 33.23 24. that I have sincerely observ'd the Conditions of the promise of Pardon and therefore God is gracious to me and saith deliver him from the pit execute not the sentence of Condemnation pronounced by the Law against him I have found a Ransome or Atonement the Satisfaction my Justice hath received at the hands of the Redeemer shall be available for him to all intents and purposes as fully as if he himself in person had given it Mine anger is turned away from him I am at peace with him I have pardoned him If I have good testimony of this it quiets my Heart dispels my Doubts allays my Sorrows satisfies my Conscience replenishes my Soul with Comfort and Peace Hence that sweet reviving Proclamation Isa 40.1 Comfort ye Comfort ye my People saith your God speak ye comfortably Hebr. to the heart to Jerusalem and cry unto her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because her warfare is accomplished 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because her Iniquity is pardoned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because she hath received from the band of the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 two double for all her sins There is an express causal Connexion betwixt these things Proclaim Comfort because 't is thus and thus Here are three Grounds of Comfort and all from your God I begin with the last and lowest which is therefore the Foundation 1. Punishment inflicted to the Satisfaction of Justice She hath received two double She i. e. the Church a Body complex and compounded of Head and Members If not in the Members yet in the Head Christ Jesus she has born the Indignation of the Lord in so full a measure that all the further claims and demands of Justice as to her are sinally silenced as far as they concern the Penalty And 't is not unusual in Scripture for that to be ascribed to the Head Christ Body the Church which is proper to the Body Head and this in consideration of the Mystical Union and Communion betwixt the Head and Members Act 9.4 Saul Saul why persecutest thou me 2 Cor. 1.5 As the sufferings of Christ abound in us so our Consolation aboundeth by Christ Rom. 8.17 if we suffer with him Isa 49.3 And said unto me thou art my Servant O Israel in whom I will be glorified 'T is apparently spoke to and of Christ as the whole Context demonstrates But let the sense be proper and not relative to Christ viz. that the Body the Church had suffered Double i. e. sufficient in the estimate of her tender and compassionate God who is afflicted in all her Afflictions and in the depths of his Love makes aggravating greatning Representations of all the Miseries she groans under as if she had born Punishments truly more than proportionable to her sins yet this implies both an antecedent Compensation made by Christ in vertue whereof God is so wonderfully propitious and candid in his Opinion and Sentiments concerning her Sufferings And also that although these were not a real and full Satisfaction in the nature of the thing yet they were accepted as such and so accounted in the repute and benign Interpretation of her reconciled God who seems as it were repentingly and rueingly to declare this as Jer. 31.20 Hosea 11.8 9. 2. Since there seems to be not only a causal dependance of these three and the Comfort here tendred but also of each upon other that the latter appears to be a ground and reason of the former hence grievous Suffering is alledged as the Motive upon which the Divine Majesty was pleas'd to
Conversion There cannot then be any Divine Comfort if there be not a sweet Composure and Harmony betwixt Earth and Heaven and this can never be where a Man is at peace with his Sins Therefore whatever quiet may seem to be in such a Soul 't is only personated and illusive it reaches not to the real bottom of the trouble takes not out the Core But on the other hand when a Man makes Repentance and Mortification Faith and a good Life the main employ which drinks up his Spirits and Strength and Time industriously contending in all things to approve the sincerity and heartiness of his Affections Designs and Aims and whole Deportment in the sight of God and whilst he is thus doing finds any quietude Rest and Satisfaction of Mind to sweeten his Work and settle his Conscience he may be confident that this is the true Comfort of the Holy Ghost For as 't is impossible to enjoy true Peace under reigning Sin so t is inconsistent with Divine Goodness and Federal Love to permit a true Heart intirely devoted to him to delude it self into true Miseries under the vizor of false Joys I confess if a Man be too greedy of Comfort and too hasty in his Applications without due consideration and indeavour and care to derive his Satisfactions from solid Grounds laying the stress upon things which will not bear it in such indeliberate precipitation of Judgment concerning a Mans state and the true root of Comfort when he founds it upon any thing less than substantial Piety Righteousness and Sobriety as the evidence of his Right he may abuse himself with an unsound unsolid Peace Therefore I always suppose that the procedure in order to Comfort be justifiable and the Grounds upon which a Man bottoms his Evidence be genuine and that his reason and judgment lead him leisurely in the Scripture way to Heart-ease and Rest else all may issue in greater inquietude and trouble whatever fair Weather may at present flatter his conscience But if Spiritual sense light and a serious Preponderation of all circumstances according to the preceeding particular direct our motions hither and true Religiousness confirm them we may be secure that mere Shows and Pageantry do not now delude us into a Fairy Paradise A weak Head 't is true may lead an honest Heart into a deceitful Peace And 't is not the design of Grace to abolish or reform the natural Depravations and Deformities of our Faculties so much as the Moral But that which is defective must not be made a Standard A good Soul that understands it self and observes solid Rules in comforting it self cannot be deceiv'd in that Peace which it possesses whilst it loves God and keeps his way Such as a Mans goodness is will his Consolation be If that be but External and Hypocritical this will be insincere and delusory but a true intelligent honest Heart proceeding with a just caution shall never be gull'd with a Mock-Peace For Psal 97.11 12. Light is sown for the Righteous and gladness for the upright in heart Rejoyce in the Lord ye Righteous What God sows they shall reap Psal 85.8 10. I will hear what God the Lord will speak for he will speak peace unto his people and to his Saints c. Mercy and Truth have met together Righteousness and Peace have kissed each other Their embrace is strict and indissoluble God hath espoused them they cannot be divorced What he hath joyned together none shall finally separate and part asunder They give mutual testimony each to others integrity and soundness In Life they are lovely in Death they cannot be divided but will cohabit eternally Where then Oh my Soul is thy Righteousness not particular meerly but universal Shew me thy comfort by thy Works for 't is dead being alone As the Body without the Spirit is dead so is Peace without Holiness which is its very Life and Soul If thou be not God-like thy Joys are not Heaven-like All true pleasures are drops of those Rivers at God's Right Hand Psal 36.8 and 46.4 and 16. ult If the Waters of Life have never quickned and cleansed thee those Streams of Divine Comfort never yet did refresh thee thou hast only drunk of the Abana and Pharphar of muddy carnal Contentments not of the pure Fountain of Celestial Consolations Wherein then can thy uprightness and real honesty of heart approve it self to God Is this thy rejoycing 2 Cor. 1.12 viz. the Testimony of thy conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly Wisdom but by the grace of God thou hast had thy Conversation in the World What hast thou to shew more than an Hypocrite Wherein does thy Righteousness excel that of Scribes and Pharisees What are thy Principles Motives manner of acting Aims and Ends in thy whole course of Life Do'st thou really act 1. From God a Spirit of new Life breathed into thee by God 2. Through Christ as the Foundation of thy hopes of acceptance 3. By the Spirit as thy immediate aid in every Holy performance 4. Unto God as thy ultimate end Hast thou no secret reserved Dalilahs No one thing in which thou would'st have liberty and presume upon Pardon Do'st thou not run upon a biass in Religion and twine aside in some sinister respect to self or the popular Vogue in which thou would'st be somebody Is it thy great and uppermost care and study to be true to him that sees in secret rather than applauded by those who only see the Outside that thy inward gracious Dispositions may go no less than thy outward Semblances Art thou above all things jealous of thy deceitful Heart afraid of Hypocrisie willing to do any thing that may tend to a full discovery of thy self to thy self And if all be not right within or suspected not to be Art thou unspeakably troubled till it be righted Thou art full of thoughts but have thy Meditations been effectual through Christ to break thy heart from as well as for sin and bow thy Will to a Conformity and subjection to God's Will of Precept and Providence and bring thee to an intelligent self-denying humble penitent believing affectionate owning thy Baptismal Covenant in its whole latitude with sincere and indeflexible Resolutions to stand by it for ever And do'st thou expect thy peace in no other way Hast thou been industriously and labouriously diligent to gain a true and thorow understanding of thy State and Frame Godward searching all to the bottom very solicitous to see in a clear light What Conditions and Qualifications are prerequisite to dispose thee for Comfort and to be clear that in reality they are in thee and that thou do'st not build thy Evidence hereof upon self-flattering deceitful Grounds but do'st in truth find that the interest of God is Soveraign and Supreme in and nearest thy Heart hath the universal Regiment and command over all being thy singular delight and whatever thou feel'st to oppose becomes on that account an
intolerable burthen thy daily lamentation Thou darest not assume to thy self any comfort nor be at rest in thy Spirit till thou beest in some good degree safied that God and goodness have as far as Humane Infirmity and this present state will permit the all of thy Heart Mind Soul and Strength or thy most earnest pressing active industrious persevering desires hereof which not to feel is a grief and torment insupportable and drives thee to new exercises of Repentance and Faith in Christ for Pardon and Aid that thy second endeavours may be more upright thy after thoughts more efficacious And do'st thou seek and find ease and rest for thy self in no other method than looking and coming to Jesus with a weary labouring heavy-laden Heart entirely devoted to him and therefore sincerely willing and desirous to learn of him meekness and lowliness of Heart and to take his Yoak upon thee which is easie and his Burthen which is light Matt. 11.29 30. If this be thy frame practice and way and thou canst not wilt not comfort thy self till thy sense and real feeling of these things and a full insight into thy self make thy way very plain as infinitely afraid of being cheated by Satan or choused by thine own deceitful Heart under a shadow of Spiritual Joys into substantial Woes If thy Feet being first guided into the paths of Righteousness be guided also with this caution and wariness into the way of Peace and setled in a quiet and comfortable Repose this ½ doubt not is real Divine Consolation 3. The differences of true and false Comforts which are derived from the Subject or Persons feeling their reviving Influence or rather indeed the adjuncts of those Persons considered in their absolute or relative State are as palpable as any The soundest Joys being only the Possession of a truly Regenerate Godly Soul The unsound lodging in the wicked Hypocritical for the most part as their proper Habitation So that if it can be known to a Mans self whether he be really good or bad it may ordinarily be known whether his Peace be right or wrong But for this I refer to the Characters of the Psalmist in the beginning of this Discourse I only add That where there 's no Life there can be no true Comfort 'T is My God vers 22. Now he is not the God of the dead but of the living Matth. 22.32 'T is no less true in a Spiritual sense than a Natural If My God in natural Relation argue the Life of Nature My God in federal Relation does as strongly infer the Life of Grace For 't is not any where affirmed of Cain Esau Judas c. after their Death that God was then their God as of Abraham c. although they be no less alive in Soul the Immortality whereof is a common Privilege and admits of no degrees in one more than other My God then to Abraham c. is another thing and to be taken in another sense than that wherein it may be applicable to Cain c. since 't is used of the godly after Death in an appropriate incommunicable sense It may truly be apply'd to the very Devils and damned in any sense not importing the Moral Spiritual Life of Purity and Peace but in this 't is the sole Prerogative of the godly that are born again not of Blood nor of the Will of the Flesh nor of the Will of Man but of God Joh. 1.13 When therefore our Psalmist owns the Divine Majesty under the Relation of My God the meaning is Mine to whom I am confederated united as a principle of new Divine Spiritual Life as the Soul of my Soul in whose all I have a true federal Right in his Being his Perfections his Knowledge Coodness Love Life Peace c. whose Comforts therefore benignly eye me and invite my acceptance because I and all mine are his He himself and all his through not Creation merely but the Covenant of Grace are mine I therefore possess living Comforts because I enjoy a living God as mine own by Vital Vnion Indeed Spiritual Joys only affect Spiritual living Souls Cordials are never administred to disanimated Carkases nor Divine Comforts to the Dead in Sins and Trespasses First Resurrection then Ascension into a Heaven of Rest Natural Animal Life inherits no Spiritual Peace 1 Cor. 15.44 50 51. any more than a natural Body Celestial Pleasures All must be changed ere they can be translated into this Paradise As the corruptible part of us is abolished at the Resurrection of the Body else we cannot enter into Life So the corrupting part must be Crucified at the Resurrection of our Souls or we cannot enter into Peace Isa 57.2 He shall enter into Peace they shall rest upon their Beds walking in uprightness A Scripture something cloudy which the former clause being singular this plural in the Hebrew and both Figurative renders yet more perplex'd But by a Transposition not unusual and taking the last word of the foregoing Verse as a Supplement to this being 't is the Substantive to the Participle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it may be read thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Righteous walking in his uprightness shall come goe into Peace they i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sickly Men of Mercy or Holiness shall quietly rest upon their Beds To compleat the sentence and sense understand and insert here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 walking in uprightness for although the number disagree yet the matter requires it An exceeding proper allusion to the Signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Enosh A Bed for the sick The Bed is either 1. The Grave for the Body a common Metaphor 2 Chron. 16.14 c. as 't is to stile Death a sleep yet this would but be a jejune Interpretation improper to the place for even to the wicked 't is so 2. Therefore the Bed imports the state of everlasting repose and rest for the Soul in Heaven Though righteous and merciful Men of infirm Bodies and Souls be taken away from approaching Evils yet living and dying in uprightness they enter into never ending Rest and Peace That is their Portion after Death and the first Fruits thereof their present Possession That of Solomon Eccles 2.2 is every way verified of the wicked I said of laughter it is mad and of mirth what doth it For what greater frenzy than to laugh in the face of incensed condemning Justice And Oh mirth what dist thou In the midst of the devouring Fire and everlasting Burnings which are already kindled in a cauterized Conscience though for a little while rak'd up and smothered But whether so or no I am sure there 's just reason that even in laughter their hearts should be marvellous sorrowful because the end of that mirth will be doleful heaviness Prov. 14.13 For the wicked are like the troubled Sea when it cannot rest whose Waters cast up mire and dirt There is no peace saith my God to the wicked Isa
the Psalmists process here For before the Text though he have frequent occasion to make mention of God almost in every one of the foregoing Verses viz. ten or eleven times yet 't is with that seeming distance and strangeness that we meet not with a word of appropriation to himself in special But upon the benigne Aspect of the Consolations of God his Love will no longer stand off but makes its nearest approaches and runs into his embraces in a double affectionate claim of Propriety in the compass of four Verses following as oft as he mentions the Lord he follows it with a Relative not permitting it to pass by as before like an Alien Vers 22. The Lord is my defence My God is the Rock of my Refuge I have now abundant reason to follow him with relation Love as mine own since he love my Soul into Rest and Peace becoming my Comforter Oh sweet reviving token of the singular Love of my God! How dearly do I love him for it Yet this is not all Is this Honey-comb for my self alone Do I arrogate sole Propriety in these Riches No my Charity obliges me to Judge that my Brethren in Affliction are not destitute of the same Consolation through interest in God I so love my Neighbour as to make account he is as good as my self and has an equal share with me in this infinite Treasure therefore for my Brethren and Companions sake I say OUR GOD without restriction to my self Vers 23. Yea our God shall out them off He is a common good yours as well as mine and brings a common benefit to us all in saving us from our Adversaries And herein he shews not only his love to Man and thereby consequentially that it did respect a higher object 1 Joh. 4.20 21. but directly and immediately demonstrates that he grew in love to God himself in that he glorifies the Communicativeness of Divine Goodness by an acknowledgment of its extensiveness in a peculiar manner to Multitudes besides himself even all included in the relative OUR as if it had been said I love him because he loves me so as to be mine I love him yet more because he together with me loves mine condescending to be theirs also I love that goodness that flows to me I further love that goodness that overflows to all with me my Friends my People For my own sake for their sake for its own sake I love it above all Thus as the Work of Righteousness is Peace and the effect of Righteousness quietness and assurance for ever Isa 32.17 So on the other hand the Work of Peace is Righteousness Psal 85.8 I will hear what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the strong God Jehovah will speak because he will speak peace to his people and to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his merciful ones 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Indicatively not Imperatively and they shall not return to folly This Peace will be a preservative against Sin whence 't is said to Engarrison our Minds and Hearts in that so often mentioned Phil. 4.7 so promotes it that Holiness which some call Negative but it is no less productive of Positive Holiness Isa 61.2 3. Christ is anointed and endowed with the Holy Spirit to Preach good tidings c. To comfort all that mourn To appoint unto them that mourn in Sion to give unto them beauty for Ashes the Oyl of joy for mourning the Garment of Praise for the Spirit of heaviness But wherefore all this It follows That they might be called i. e. might be as before Isa 4.3 and 35.8 and 56.7 compared with Luk. 19.46 Matth. 5.9 19. Trees of Righteousness the planting of the Lord that he might be glorified To this purpose also is that Prayer of the Apostle 2 Thes 2.16 17. God who loves and gives everlasting Consolation through Grace comfort your Hearts and stablish you in every good Word and Work Grace begets Consolation and this begets good Conversation He that through Grace comforts does also through Comfort establish in every good Word and Work Shew then Oh my Soul the soundness of thy Comforts by their Fruits That Peace which is imprignant is impostorous In what further degree do thy inward Joys impower thee to Love the Lord the giver or thy Neighbour thy Partaker Canst thou pretend Peace in thy Conscience and live in contention or uncharitableness with thy Brother Does not thy inward Comfort calm thy passions meeken thy converses render thee profitable useful to Men in the best endeavours to induce them to love God and Vertue and abhor Immorality Viciousness and Hypocrisie that by thy means they may be also led in this method into the way of Peace and through it again into the way of Purity If thy Comforts be solid and sincere thou wilt by them be enabled to use the utmost diligence in propagating them since that is one of Gods great Designs in communicating them 2 Cor. 1.3 4. Blessed be God even the Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of Mercies and the God of all Comfort who comforteth us in all our Tribulation for what end That we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the Comfort wherewith we our selves are comforted of God And if God make thee able thou ought'st to be willing They are only fallacious Joys that are envious A corrupt Heart so that it self do but enjoy rest matters not though all the World be in trouble nay grudges others the quiet it enjoys and triumphs or secretly rejoyces at or at least is not afflicted in their Afflictions Haman will drink and be jolly when the whole City is in perplexity A wicked Soul is not concern'd for the content of any beside it self will rather add Affliction to the afflicted than indeavour or rejoyce in their Consolation Thy Comfort is not good if not conformable to the Fountain of Goodness in Communicativeness As far as confin'd 't is corrupt In the Harvest of true Joys thy Jordan will overflow the Banks Uncharritable illiberal unbountiful Consolations are Illusions If thy light and gladness diffuse not its beneficial rayes abroad to revive and refresh the Disconsolate Heart 't is but a glimmering Meteor not a Beam from the Sun of Righteousness and thus does it not extend it self if a Vital Heat and Influence do not accompany it as 't is but a flashy wild deceitful Spark Isa 50.11 which will vanish into Smoak and darkness if it be not kindled by a flame of true Love to God and Universal Righteousness Wherefore thou canst never bless thy self in reflection upon thine own Peace if it engage thee not in serious cares to propagate Holiness first and thereby Peace For an unholy Soul is absolutely inconsolable for want of Right therefore should be so for want of Will since a Will to apply Comforts without Right will certainly reduce to that woful plight which the Apostle with so much concern reports 1 Thes 5.3 When they shall say peace and
and trembling afflicted Souls the Son of God hath done his part in the way of Mediation as the Father hath done his by revealing his Covenant and Promise with the Terms upon which he will be at Peace and his readiness to embrace every one that submits to them both the Father and the Son have farther contributed towards this by the Mission of the Holy Ghost the Comforter who waits in the Ministry of God's Word and other Ordinances to be gracious to unworthy Sinners in illuminating their Minds and bowing their Hearts and Wills to comply with the Will of God and entertain Conditions of Peace and accept of their own Mercy God's Ministers also under these divine Influences take their Task in hand as Instruments by way of Proposal in explicating and directing about these Terms in propounding offering urging counselling perswading exhorting to yield to them And unworthy I amongst the rest would here contribute my Mite to promote the Establishment of true and solid Consolation in an endeavour to guide doctrinally as my Lord and Master does physically and efficaciously poor wand'ring Feet into the Psalmist's experimented way to Peace as far as there are any Lineaments and Footsteps thereof in the Psalm and this with all convenient brevity because some of the Rules have upon other Occasions offered themselves to Consideration 1. Be Men of Thoughts Exercise your selves in Meditation As there can be no Discomfort so neither Comfort without a multitude of Thoughts For if they only swim upon the Surface of the Mind they will but introduce a superficial Trouble or Rest Thoughts that sink and soak in go to the bottom and reach the most intimate Recesses of the Soul as the Psalmist's in intimo meo Thoughts that stick by us and are not easily shak'd off but follow us night and day these are most cumbersome or comfortable Men of desultory Minds that cannot settle their Cogitations but rove and ramble and skip like a Squirrel from Bough to Bough from Tree to Tree are here and there and every where throughout all the Ramifications of Thoughts yet no where fix'd as a Weather-cock may now face a blustering Storm and in a moment the sweet and refreshing Sun but never feel any thing never tast any durable Disquiets or Joys Lay up therefore a good Stock before-hand of heart-relieving Considerations as an Antidote to all sadning molesting Passions This no doubt was the Psalmist's Practice Those reviving Meditations which he afterward digested into this Psalm did dwell in his mind before in and upon the first Assaults of his Trouble and did their Work within him before he committed this Narrative to Writing What he felt then he here discovers 'T would be nauseous to recollect and repeat here those Cogitations which I have all this while been observing out of the Psalm that influenced his troubled heart and established it in Peace tedious to make new Observations throughout the Psalm where they very plentifully occur I shall only therefore take notice of a few Verses and I cannot furnish you with a richer Treasury of pertinent calming comforting Thoughts than are presented in Ver. 12 c. Take it according to the Translation Blessed is the Man whom thou chast'nest O Lord and teachest out of thy Law 13. That thou may'st give him Rest from the days of Adversity until the Pit be digged for the Wicked 14. For the Lord will not cast off his People neither will be forsake his Inheritance 15. But Judgment shall return unto Righteousness and all the Vpright in heart shall follow it Here we behold the Condition of Man troublous under chast'ning But 1. 'T is comfortable in that 't is only Child-like Discipline as the Word both in Hebrew and Greek imports and therefore proceeds from the Wisdom Heart Love and compassionate Bowels of a Father There cannot be more smart in the Rod which is at the worst but a finite Evil than there is sweet in the Love that manages it and is of an infinite Vertue and Satisfactoriness Then sence and feeling of that is bitter and grievous but the importance most pleasing and delectable How lamentable would thy Case be should the Lord spare the Rod and leave thee to harden thy self in thy evil Manners that is forbear all Designings for thy good that thy Damnation may become more inevitable and supersede his Corrections preventive of thy Sins and Woes that Hell may the more certainly devour and consume thee Happy Cross that is an Index of the good Will of God that is a demonstration that thou art a Child of God Heb. 12.5 6 7 8 9. 2. 'T is a blessed thing to be chastized the greatest Curse to be forborn as a Token of being devoted to everlasting Curses God has not pardoned those he does not punish no their Guilt escapes a present Reckoning because the Righteous Judge intends to pay them home in another World If thy Father in Heaven forbear thee not 't is because he hath forgiven thee the eternal Penalty and that 's a blessed thing indeed Psal 32.1 2. Sin must smart if thou be'st made to feel its Evil by Corrections now 't is to prevent the more grievous Pains of another Life God designs thy good by bringing upon thee these Evils Heb. 12.10 and his Purposes can never admit of a frustration 3. These Chastenings are only a burthen laid upon one who by Grace is or shall be made strong or mighty to bear and improve them 'T is not Adam Earthly Man nor Enosh sickly weak Man but Haggeber the strong 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Emphat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 praevaluit robustut fuit mighty Man with an Emphasis whom God picks out to bless with his Chastenings If they do not find him so they shall be Means of Grace to make him so God who is Faithful and that supposes a Promise will not suffer to be tempted above ability but with the Temptation will also make a way to escape that he may be able to bear it 1 Cor. 10.13 Be thou never so weak diffident desponding in thy self yet if God call thee out to Affliction thou art strong not in thy self but in him he is with thee Psal 23.4 Yea though I walk through the Valley of the shadow of Death I will fear no Evil for thou art with me Thy Rod and thy Staff they comfort me Heer 's strong Confidence strong Support and it had a strong Foundation Ver. 3. He restoreth my Soul he leadeth me in the Paths of Righteousness for his Names sake Restoring turning again Psal 60.1 bringing back Ezek. 38.8 the Soul and leading it strengthens it to do or suffer any thing Isai 41.9 10 13. Thou art my Servant I have chosen thee and not cast thee away which being laid as a Foundation then 10. Fear thou not for I am with thee be not dismayed for I am thy God I will strengthen thèe yea I will help thee yea I will
your Hearts that you may know your own Vprightness and Righteousness for upon this depends all None of these Privileges appertain to Hypocrites or wicked Persons in State But no sincere Soul shall fail of obtaining them in one kind or other Let your thoughts therefore be much imploy'd within Reflect upon your selves and see what title you have to so rich Blessings If you can approve your selves in Integrity to God you shall have Comfort and Joy unspeakable and full of Glory even in and under your sorest Tryals from the experience of Divine Goodness in all these Particulars Busie therefore your Meditations mainly about this Dive into the bottom of your own Hearts to see whether any hid Treasure lie there Never give your Thoughts rest till they either find it or bring it You are undone if Afflictions meet you rotten at Heart Take no content in any thing lay out your Thoughts about nothing else till thy bring you in the assurance that there is a sound root of Grace planted in your Souls Let your Minds perpetually work this way All thoughts will be cannot but be troubling perplexing till they be sanctified by a Principle of Divine Life Therefore 2. Endeavour to gain Ability to give Law to your Thoughts and duly to govern them A Man can never enjoy Peace till he can command at home Unruly Rebel Thoughts will ever be creating new Broyls Master your Thoughts by Thoughts Nothing is more imperious or impotent Masculine generous Cogitations possess a kind of Omnipotency nothing can resist them Engage your Minds about important matters and engage them thorowly and those Meditations will obtain the Empire To think seriously of God his Attributes and Providence and dwell thereon to take a full view of the Love and Bloodshed of the Son of God his Covenant and the Provisions of it to consider and weigh thorowly the Cursedness and Offensiveness of Sin the Glory of a vertuous Heart and Life to take a due prospect of the Terrour of Death Judgment and Hell and the Blessedness and everlasting Joys of Heaven is the beginning of that Wisdom which alone will over-rule your Hearts for God Reflections upon these things will break in with such an Emphasis Energy and Awe upon your Consciences that vain and evil Cogitations cannot bear up against them but will be supprest and dash'd out of Countenance The Psalmist with one of these Considerations viz. that of the Divine all-penetrating Eye of Providence suppos'd himself an overmatch for and able as with a smooth Stone out of the Brook to strike dead the barbarous profligate Goliahs that rag'd in the devastation and slaughter of the Heritage of the Lord Ver. 5 6 7 8 9 10 11. And what will not a multitude of such Thoughts effect upon an attentive and inclinable Mind and Conscience where they are made Familiar Domestick and Perpetual Companions If hereby thou attainest to victory over frothy vile corrupt Thoughts that they dare no more make Insurrections a foundation is laid for an entire conquest over disconsolate Thoughts which are their Off-spring acknowledging none other Original but live move and have their being in them For nothing hath power to discompose us till it first corrupt us Sin first pollutes then pains us Till our Consciences be wounded by it they do not cannot rationally worry us Prevent the offence against God and you bind Conscience to the Good-behaviour and so to the Peace Remove the Provocation to Heaven by true Repentance and you put an end to and non-suit the quarrels of Conscience Now this is done by nothing more effectually than by Thoughts Indeed nothing can do it but by the instrumentality of Thoughts When good Thoughts counter-work evil then will refreshing solacing Thoughts overcome and eject disquieting Make this then Oh my Soul thy first care to set up God in thy Thoughts to over-rule and guide them Erect a Throne in thy Mind for the Son of God give him there the sole power of the Militia of Peace and War and then amongst other Opposers every thought will be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10.5 If thy Thoughts acknowledge no external Soveraign they will be ungovernable without foreign aid too hard for thee There is a Prince the Prince of the Power of the Air who hath already usurpt and rules in the corrupt part of thy Mind and leads thy Thoughts into rebellion against and disobedience to that which is the true Law of thy Mind the remaining Principles of the Light and Law of Nature within thee and also the Light and Law of the Spirit of Life in the Scriptures And these two Satan and the corruption of thy Mind are odds to the reliques of the Divine Image in thee 'T is therefore of absolute necessity that a higher Prince be admitted The King of Glory The Prince of Peace to expel that strong One and keep thy Mind stayed in himself that it may be kept in perfect Peace Isa 26.3 Let God have a Primacy of order as well as Supremacy in thy Thoughts Thus the Psalmist here the first thing in his Mind and Mouth is God Let him so be in all thy Thoughts Season and Sanctifie sweeten all thy other Meditations with thoughts of God So He likewise in this Psalm viz. God fills up all and is at every end and turn in the Holy Man's Memory and Contemplations That Thought which forgets and leaves out God may let in Satan Begin then proceed and end with God This all prescribe even Heathens In one thing delight and quiet thy self viz. to pass from one publick Action to another with remembrance of God Mark Ant. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Marc. Antonin Lib. 6. §. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Arrian Lib. 2. Cap. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theocr. Idyl 17. Ab Jove Principium Virg. Eccl. 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gr. Naz. in Acrostic The conflict is great the work divine it concerns a Kingdom it concerns Liberty c. Be mindful of God c. Epictet Nazianzen more Christianly gives the sense of Theocritus and Virgil. Make God the beginning and end of all things I need no more Consideration then is the beginning of Consolation Meditation is the Medicine of the Mind to heal its sickly because disorderly turbulent unruly Passions If thou wilt not O my Soul oblige thy self to it thou stiflest thy Peace in the Birth or stranglest it in the Cradle and adoptest thy Disquiets a new as if in Love with thine own Woe But then if thou canst not guide and rule thy Thoughts if thou canst not direct them to proper Subjects and call them off from such as are unsuitable if they will be Lords and Masters and run without bidding in a licentious Imperiousness Primum argumentum compositae mentis existirpor posse consistere secum morari Seneca Ep. 2. from one thing to another and be no where fixt they will
there promised and least we should object incapacity to enjoy and be happy in so rich and glorious Blessings 't is added as the Crown of all that he will dispose and prepare our Hearts for it by engraving thereon his Holy Laws by that means perfectly removing all obstructions to our Hopes and occasions of our Fears that with a full assurance we may enter upon our Inheritance of his Everlasting Consolations This he hath most plainly revealed this he does most fully accomplish to his chosen Servants If we be partakers of his Nature and Image through the Law of the Spirit of Life in our Hearts setting us free from the Law of Sin and Death all is our own and how is it possible for him that knows all this that really believes and feels it by any scruples and jealousies to make his Life miserable Dispel then Oh my Soul those Clouds and Mists that benight thy Understanding thereby turning the Day in thy Will and Affections into Darkness Endeavour to open the Windows that the Glory of God in the Face of Christ may shine upon thee with a powerful Ray to warm impregnate and spirit thee with a new divine Fervour Strength and Life Study the Scriptures which are a bright Beam of the Sun of Righteousness a fair Pourtraicture of that Eternal Essential Word of God who is the Brightness of his Father's Glory the express Image of his Person Let thy Mind in its Meditation dwell continually here with delight To ruminate hereupon Day and Night is the true method to attain the soundest Wisdom even that which is Eternal Life consisting in the saving effectual transforming experimental practical fruitional knowledge of the only true God and Jesus Christ whom be hath sent Joh. 17.3 2 Tim. 3.15 This is Wisdom unto Salvation through Faith in Christ Jesus Be thy Intellectuals as bright as those of an Angel of Light in other things so as to understand all Mysteries Philosophical Political Theological yet if thou here be in the dark thou art but a Hell which though in its Physical being surrounded with Heaven yet is at the greatest moral distance from it and therefore no wonder if thou never seest the day break of Joy and Rest and Peace Ignorance which some account the Mother of Devotion but is indeed of Damnation is alway pregnant with Disquiets Troubles Fears The Night is full of Terrors Cant. 3.8 Lucretius adds As Children by Night so Men fear in the Light Omnia nobis fecimus tenebras nihil videmus c. Sen Ep. 110. But Seneca corrects him We make all things darkness to our selves we see nothing neither what 's hurtful nor what 's profitable yet ramble on without Pause or Prudence What a mad thing is Impetuousness in the dark But if we will the Day may dawn And thus If a Man will let in the knowledge of things Humane and Divine not merely to be dash'd but dyed with it again and again recognizing recollecting what he knows if he examine what is truly good and evil what falsly if he enquire what 's Honest what 's Filthy and what is Providence What can be spoke more wisely more truly This he prescribes as a Remedy against Fear which he makes the Daughter of Tradition rather than Truth A wise Man and then he must be good for Wickedness is Madness and Folly fears nothing slavishly Nemo nostrum quid veri esset excussit metum alter alteri tradidit ib. For nothing is formidable but to Ignorance false Opinion Improvidence and Wickedness Fix thy self therefore Oh my Soul upon the right Basis of Truth leading to Goodness and thou art above Gun-shot Nothing can hurt thee if it do not first debauch thee thy Mind with undue Sentiments and thy Heart thereby with corrupt Notions nothing can disquiet thee till it debase and abuse first thy Judgment and thy Conscience by it Good Intellectuals will promote good Morals Entertain high noble and worthy Conceptions of God and every thing that guides to God and this will singularly conduce to thy security against Vice and to thy establishment in Vertue and thereby in tranquility of Mind For two things concur to solid Consolation clearness of Apprehensions and calmness of Conscience Serenity above Tranquility below The worst of Men may have the one none but the godly wise have both The Devil has Light enough in his Understanding though he be the Prince of Darkness his Notions are sublime but Peace has he none A dreadful Storm may rage in the Conscience when the Sun shines clear in the Mind Men of great Parts and Gifts and deep Heads have not alway the quietest Hearts The simple Vnlearned saith one rise up and take Heaven by Violence whilst we with all our Learning drop down into Hell 'T is well if more Scholars be not found in Hell than Heaven 'T is not how much but how well a Man knows that is conducible to Peace On the other hand the Tempest may be hush'd and Conscience charm'd to a stilness but then the Heavens above are dark and cloudy and a new Storm sleeps in its causes if thou be an Enemy to God The Witness within may be gagg'd a while that it cannot speak out The Lion chain'd and muzzled in his Den that it cannot worry thee but afterward it will be let loose upon thee arm'd with the greater fury perhaps even in this Life and it is more tolerable to be lug'd into Goodness by a snarling snatching tearing Conscience now than have all thy Bones broke and devoured by it and the roaring Lion of Hell in his den of everlasting Darkness Wo wo be to that Man that never wanted or was without rest and quiet in his Mind A dumb Conscience is a dark one and If the Light that is in thee be Darkness how great is that Darkness If nothing within thee did ever proclaim War nothing has right to speak Peace He that never saw God as an Enemy never yet saw Him as a Friend If thou be ignorant of thy own State thou are ignorant of God unacquainted with his Peace with his Joy Thus Oh my Soul if thou be'st ambitious to enjoy any real approvable quietness in thy Mind thou must maintain in it clearness of Notion concerning God But although there be Light in the Heavens it may suffer an Eclipse or rather thou dost for the Light leaves not the Sun but the Earth if thy Corruptions as an opaque Body interpose Wickedness in the Heart opposes the efficacy of our Notions of God that although we retain them we are no better for them therefore 't would be better for us were we without them None lie deeper in outer Darkness than those that ascend highest in Light and Knowledge in this Life but improve it not He that knows his Master's Will and does it not and so his Master and loves him not shall be beaten with many stripes Our Passions are proportionable to our Sensations The more enlarged
love thee into Heaven when thou debasest and hatest and would sin him if it were possible into Hell And yet does not thy Heart relent and smite and gall thee Oh is this thy kindness to thy Friend to thy Redeemer to thy self Oh! What do'st thou deserve for these foul Villanies committed against a Person of thee the best deserving in the World How many Hells How many tormenting Devils are thy just reward for so horrible Affronts Despites Scorns put upon the Majesty and Mercy of Heaven Oh! What canst thou do or think or hope in this lamentable case Wherewithal wilt thou come before the Lord What hast thou to tender as a just Reparation Or canst thou bear up against the fiery tempest of his devouring Indignation Oh woe unto thee that ever thou wast brought out of the Womb of Nothing to behold thy self in Circumstances so deplorable and so little affected afflicted This this is the most miserable scene of all thy Miseries To be ready to be spew'd out of the Mouth of Jesus into the very jaws of the roaring Lion to be tumbled down out of the bosom of God into the everlasting Burnings of the bottomless Pit and yet be senseless secure fearless careless remorseless Oh astonishment Oh horror Awake awake Oh my sense Oh my stupid benummed brawny Heart and melt in the fiery Oven of Wrath or the warm refreshing Sun-shine of Love Oh Grief and Anguish Where do ye inhabit Whither are ye retired Oh come and dwell in a sinful Soul and pour it out in a penitential Deluge Oh Almighty Love shed abroad thy heart-dissolving Influences and make the Floods overflow Oh in what bitterness of woe am I that I have undervalued and trod thee under my profane Feet that I have kick'd at those Bowels and even torn out that Heart that hath yearned over me in the most affectionate degree of Pity and Clemency My Bowels my Bowels I am pained at my very heart for the sordid disingenuousness as well as the bloody barbarousness of my Deportment toward thee Oh beloved and blessed Son of God whom with accursed cruel wicked hands I have crucified and slain Whoever were the Instruments yet 't was I as a principal meritorious Cause by my Sin that was the Judas the betrayer the Jew the Murtherer I drive the Nails I push'd forward the Spear I tore open thy very Heart to let out that blessed Spring of Water and Blood 'T was my guilt that first made my own then thy unpolluted Body passible and mortal 'T was I that armed the more formidable vengeance of thy Father against thy innocent Soul I that set open the flood-gates of Divine Wrath and let in that terrible Inundation of Miseries upon it which overwhelmed it destroyed kill'd it as far as was possible for that which was Immortal and thy Body in its Ruins Oh 't was sinful I that poured out all those scalding Hells into that blessed Soul of the Holy One of God which melted his Body into a showre of Blood that I became as far as possible the Author of the Death of God Bleed Oh my Soul bleed a deluge over those bleeding Wounds that dying Heart that cruciated Soul of the Crucified Son of God Oh grieve and mourn bitterly for thy vexing rebelling against and grieving the Spirit of Grace whom thou hast so often thrust away by quenching his Motions strangling his Convictions resisting his Operations as if 't was thy design to frustrate all the methods of infinite Love for thy Salvation Oh hateful to God and Man Wilt thou not be stung to the Heart with all wherewith thou hast despited all the kindness and goodness and tenderness of Heaven Oh my vileness Oh my baseness 't is unutterable 't is unsufferable where can a Parallel be found throughout the whole Creation Oh what am I What have I made my self An abhorrence to all Flesh to all Spirits and shall I not be so to my self Is there a poisonful Serpent on Earth a squalid Fury in Hell more virulent and abominable The Heart of God Christ the Spirit Angels Blessed Saints rise against me as the viperous-Brood the filthy Vomit of Satan spit out of his Mouth as like him in form or deformity rather and ugliness as Hell to Hell And what now is thy Portion Oh miserable Soul What thy doom See it dread it yet expect it for how canst thou avoid it Ah! the bottom of the bottomless abyss of Woe the hottest Mansion in the raging Furnace of Divine Wrath how canst thou abide it I am tottering upon the very brinks of Hell Down I fall I sink I perish What can save me Who can redeem my Soul from Destruction everlasting I my self cannot no nor all the created Powers of Heaven and Earth And have I not abundant reason to fear that the blessed Trinunity will not Oh woful Soul Whither hast thou suffer'd thy Wickedness to hurry thee What wilt thou do in the day of God's fierce Anger which in a moment may arrest thee and swallow thee up And what Remedy Where wilt thou seek where canst thou find security against that Omnipotent Vengeance that is ready to Arraign thee Oh! What wilt thou do to be saved Is there any possibility Is there no Balm in Gilead Is there no Physician there Oh there there alone is thy Succour wilt thou reject it In this Perplexity wilt thou despise it Wilt thou defer and delay applying thy self to a serious Care to make use of it Oh! Be willing be forward be eager to do nay to suffer any thing but the loss of Holiness and God that thou maist be healed I come Lord now I come a poor Prodigal returning to my wits my self that I may return to thee and with a groaning oppressed pained Heart weary of Sin the Cause sick of self dead to all mine own Righteousness and every thing I thus under the Influence and Conduct of thy Holy Spirit present my self at the lowest step of thy Throne as unfit unworthy to lift up mine Eyes to look thee in the face and being in a grievous Agony of Woe because I have offended thee so hainously so frequently so perseveringly by a Deportment so dishonest vile sordid I loath my self and all my fore-past evil ways of Spiritual and Carnal Wickedness Omissions Commissions Sins of Nature Heart and Life in Word or Deed or Thought they wound me to the very Soul I faint under them I cannot with patience reflect upon my unuttereble Folly in living unto and under them I abhor my self in dust and ashes I utterly and eternally abandon them resolve against promise vow covenant to be an utter and implacable Enemy to them Down all ye Idols of my Heart Lusts of the Eyes Lusts of the Flesh Pride of Life Filthiness of Spirit as well as Flesh In good earnest I now purpose through thy Aid and Grace never to return to any of these Follies more never never more and under the Assistance of thy Power I
engage my self to the use of all possible means of thy appointment to suppress all Motions to Sin to strengthen and renew my Resolutions dayly to establish me against Temptations and carry me on in an assiduous Exercise of Repentance till I have no more Sin to repent of and yet will not account this any Amends for the Wrong I have done thee but in an absolute Renunciation of all that I am can be or do my repenting it self my holy Duties my striving against Sin the World the Devil and my Religious Performances as altogether insufficient and unavailable to give Compensation or secure me from Justice I come despairing of my self and all the stock I can be furnish'd with at home hopeless and helpless by the whole world and in an humble and hearty Prostration of Soul throw down my self at thy feet seeking Relief where alone it is to be found and that is in thy self Oh Lord thy Son and Spirit and therefore with my whole mind will desire delight and strength I freely heartily fully give up my self all my Powers and Possibilities unto thee alone avouching Thee only to be my God and All-sufficient Goodness and Happiness and therefore with a lowly Reverence and Submission I cast my self as thy sworn Vassal at thy gracious Foot-stool in a sincere and absolute Choice and Acceptance of Thee O blessed Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost for my sole Portion and Rest dedicating my self from my very inmost Soul to Thee O Heavenly Father as my Soveraign Creator Owner and Governour to be wholly and unreservedly Thine entirely at thy Disposal from the very bottom of my Heart devoting the Remainder of my Spirits Strength and Life universally to thy Fear Love Honour Worship and Service in the Works of Repentance and Mortification of my Sin watchfulness against and resistance of Temptation and over my Heart and Way and diligence in exercising my self unto Godliness Righteousness and Sobriety And to this purpose as one utterly lost and undone in my self with a renewed humble Veneration I offer up my self wholly to thee O blessed Redeemer of the World the only begotten Son of the Eternal Father and with a bleeding broken Heart that hath no other relief but only in and through thee being in my self a very Hell of Wickedness and Woe condemned by thy Law condemned by mine own Conscience I lift up mine Eyes look unto and long for thee O dear Lord Jesus as my only Saviour Joy and Crown thee I earnestly press after I value above my Life my Hopes my Soul heartily approving of pleasing my self in and closing with that Method of Salvation ordained through thee as the only Mean and Help into the Favour and Love of God Therefore with the All of my Understanding and Will and Might I chuse and embrace and honour and love and delight and rejoyce in and venture my self my hopes my happiness my All upon thee for ever and ever trusting solely to thy Merit and Mediation accepting Thee in all thy Offices and Relations as Prophet Priest King Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification Redemption as my Soveraign Lord and Master the only Espoused Bridegroom of my Soul resolving through thy Grace to betake my self only to Thee to be Thine alone abrenunciating and disclaiming all that stands in competition with Thee and receiving cordially all thy Holy Counsels and Laws as the only Guide and Rule of my Thoughts Affections Words and Actions with a thorow purpose and endeavour to take the highest Care under the Aids of thy Grace both to conform in every thing thereto and boggle at no difficulties dangers or sufferings which I may expect or meet with in these thy ways but persevere therein to the end neither shall any Corruption within or Temptation from without have my heart or liking or allowance so as to withdraw my Soul from these Holy Resolves For which end I cast my self whole and entire upon thy Free Grace and Almighty Power and Holy Spirit to work in me both to will and to do all according to thy good pleasure being firmly engaged to be Thine and to take Thee to be Mine without a Moments farther Procrastination Come Holy Ghost Eternal God and breathe into my Soul infuse thy Gifts and Graces communicating thy Power to a poor impotent succourless Sinner that here lo consecrates himself to Thee and with a self-resigning Spirit resolves to venture all upon thy Conduct and Influence to be at thy Beck and Command in all things not knowing nor being able nor therefore willing to do any thing without thee Inspire my Mind direct my Heart awe my Conscience regulate my Life strengthen and uphold my goings that notwithstanding mine own insufficiency I may by Thee be enlarged in heart to run in the ways of thy Commandments And now Merciful God Father Son and Holy Ghost through that All-sufficient Merit that has procured all Blessings accept of me and own me as none of mine own but thy Portion and Inheritance who have taken Thee to be mine This this O my Soul is the One thing needful to be done in good earnest speedily with an uncontroulable Bent and Steadiness of Will and never to be repented of I am pained in my very Soul for and heartily bewail my Neglects Deferrings and Aversations And here I am blessed Lord setting to my Seal and firmly binding my self in this my Baptismal Covenant with an irreversible purpose to act all the remainder of my Life thro' thy Mercy and Assistance only according to the Tenour of it Be serious then here O my Soul or thou abjurest all solid Consolation Thou canst never enjoy good Hopes without a good Conscience If thou desirest to build high in thy Comforts be sure thou lay a good Foundation If thou never enterest into such Meditations and Resolutions as these bid everlastingly adieu to all true Contentation If thou do not really turn to God thou turnest away thy Peace The Holy Ghost will never be a Comforter where He is not a Converter Except thou be born again of Water and the Spirit thou canst not enter into the Kingdom of God the Kingdom of Peace See to it therefore that thou be raised from thy Death in Trespasses and Sins as ever thou desirest a Resurrection of thy Joys No Purity no Peace 5. Having thus begun go on Make Repentance Mortification Watchfulness Faith Love Resignation to the Will of God thy daily uninterrupted Exercise and endeavour to grow in all and be upright in all else all 's nothing Make Sincerity thy great Aim and Endeavour Hypocrisie is Heritor no where but in the Land of Darkness and dismal Woe Thy Joys will resemble their Parents If they be a Cheat so will they also Be really good and eminently so too Aut Caesar aut nullus Lean Graces do but devour fat Comforts never enjoy them The sweetest promises yield no lasting Refreshment to fickle hearts unestablished with Grace If thy Spiritual Strength be small when thy standing in
love the Lord then Oh my Soul with all thy mind with all thy Heart with all thy strength and thy Neighbour as thy self for his sake let him have thy whole desire thy whole delight at all times Minus te amat qui aliquid tecum amat quod non propter te amat Idiotae contempl de amore Dei c. 12. He loves thee but little Oh Lord who loves any thing with thee which he loves not for thee says a devout Man 'T is but meet that the highest God should have the Supremacy in my heart If in the greater World he be King must he be a Subject in the less I am worse than Hell if God must not be acknowledged Soveraign in my Soul The Spirits there dare not cannot but own him as their Lord this is the duty they pay extorted indeed by their sense and fear which that it may not be thy dismal lot and fate Oh my Soul advance thou him freely to the Crown within thy self in a spontaneous generous Ardour of pure Incorrupt Incorruptible Love Which if thou dost not thou art accursed if thou dost thou art blessed for 't is a Prayer upon record in God's Word 1 Cor. 16.22 and therefore part of the matter of Christ's Intercession Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Incorruption or Immortality i. e. with a never-fading Love Eph. 2.24 and that only is a sincere Love Oh Love the Lord on Earth as thou wilt love him in Heaven with the same kind and press toward the same degree of Love and be happy Thus live in God above the tumult and hurry of external things and be at rest Marc. Antonin l. 2. p. 5 c. Omnem crede diem tibi diluxisse Supremum Live every day as if it were thy last and in every imployment so act Arrian l. 4. c. 10. as one that can be free to be found therein by Death p. 416. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It. l. 3. c. 5 p. 273. Antonin l. 6. §. 3◠What would'st thou be found doing by Death says Arrianus I for my part doing some masculine beneficial publick useful generous Work But if I cannot be found in these yet this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unhinderable this is given to me to amend my self to elaborate that faculty which makes use of Phantasies to endeavour apathy or freeness from Passion to give my Affections their due and if I can be so happy to gain soundness certainty of Judgment If Death find me thus employ'd 't will be sufficient to engage me with hands stretched out to God to say I have not neglected those Powers thou gavest me to observe thy Government and follow it I have done my endeavour not to disgrace thee Behold how I have used my Senses my Prenotions Have I ever blamed thee Have I been displeased with any thing befalling or wish'd it otherwise Have I misguided my Affections because thou begattest me I render thee the praise of thy Gifts in as much as I have well used thine it sufficeth me Resume them now again and where thou pleasest dispose of me For all were thine and thou gavest them me I the rather produce these Testimonies out of Heathen Authors to let Christians see how inexcusable it will be in them who have infinitely better Light Means Aids to neglect what even Nature and Reason taught Philosophers to practise And withall to awaken others with my self to a more assiduous care in these Exercises least it be found more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon for Sodom and Gomorrah than for us at the great day Observe all the inward Workings of the Divine Spirit both in calling out the actings of Grace and reviving thee with Peace and keep them upon record for after advantage Time may come when all thy present Sensations may be so cloudy that thou canst not see a peep of day canst not from any thing that thou feelest conclude that thy state is right before God But if at such a season and hour of temptation thou be'st able to call to mind that upon due trial when in a sober and composed calm of Thoughts the Lord satisfied thee upon sure and indefeisible Evidence that thy Heart was truly changed and that thou wast as a New Creature in Christ Jesus and that thy Objections and misdoubtings and temptations to the contrary were thorowly answered This will be such an ease to thy mind and a revival of thy hopes that ere long the mists and darkness will be driven away and thou wilt again reascend into a clear and serene Heaven of Light and Peace and Joy Make sure in this manner to lay up and reserve a good stock and treasure of Experiences if thou desirest Riches of Comfort yet content not thy self with the old but make new To remember what thou did'st enjoy and feel in the days of the right Hand of the Most High may revive thee but to sense and feel it at present much more Renew then those gracious Exercises over and over that did once produce Halcyon days in thy Soul and they will recall them the same effects will issue from the same Causes Amend what was amiss in former actings which gave Satan advantage to redintegrate thy Troubles and this will establish thy Peace upon a securer and more unexceptionable basis 'T is not possible to refute the Devils Objections against thy sincerity by a method more effectual than a more serious care to act all over again sincerely which he tempts thee to suppose was done unsoundly Renovated Acts of a sound Repentance and unfeigned Faith as sure Testimonies of thy Renovation after the Image of God will dash thine Accuser out of countenance If thou canst make any fresh Experiments of the Power of Divine Grace effecting this If God take thee anew into his bosom of Love to melt thee If a view of him whom thy Sins have pierced cause thy ebbing godly Sorrow again to flow over all the Banks Lastly if with a perfect Heart thou returnest from all thy by-past follies unto him from whom thou hast deeply revolted this will again retrieve thy sinking Heart and hopes as a new taste of the Lord's graciousness and evidence that he hath not forsaken thee but that his Mercy and Godness follows thee and shall all the days of thy life even to Eternity Set about this O my Soul with a resolved obstinacy of endeavour that will not be conquerable by any assaults of Corruption or Temptation For thou canst never take a Heaven of Joy and Rest except by violence and force Weak resolves do but only encrease the Devils Triumphs Strong cares are requisite to possess thee of strong Consolations Observe where when and how the Spirit moves and spread thy Sails before his sweet Spirations He is the Comforter because the Conducter into the way of Peace Thou canst enjoy no more of his Testimony to solace thee than
Memory which are but dead things mere Carcasses of Devotion not to be insisted on in Competiton with an enlarged Heart Take with thee Words and turn unto the Lord. Lord at thy bidding I will take thy Words which thy self here prescribes Hosea 14.2 3. They shall be my stinted Liturgy none can tell which will be acceptable to thee better than thy self What are they Take away Iniquity and receive us graciously so will we render the Calves of our Lips What 's that The substance is Praise But some Antients thus descant upon it Calves not of our Stall Mal. 4.2 but Lips When a Calf or other Beast was to be Sacrificed to which this is an allusion God required the Blood the Fat and sometimes the Flesh but never the Skin and Hair these were to be carried away and burnt in another place The Blood of these Calves of the Lips is Faith in the Blood of Christ which is the Life of Prayer and Praise The Fat pure and holy Affection and Grace Sorrow Desire Love Delight Hope c. The Flesh is the matter or thing pray'd for Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification Redemption c. The Skin and Hairs the Words and Expressions with the Method Mode Order which if alone and not spirited with the former are of no value with God who looks at Things not Words and Phrases They must indeed be brought to God in vocal Prayer which is never a Duty except when we joyn with others and they with us and we must see that all accord with or do not disagree from the general Rules of the Scripture But 't is a folly to think that we for these are more acceptable in Person or that our Prayers the Flesh the Fat the Blood are more well-pleasing to God We must not lay any stress upon put any confidence in that which God will not vouchsafe his Altar to Sanctifie Offer then even this vocal Prayer God expects in some cases this in Conjunction but take heed O my Soul of relying upon it as such viz. the Skin without the other in Separation Whether form or no form what matters it 't is but Skin and Hair Why so much adoe about it Give the main to God or thou givest nothing God will take off the Skin and burn it burn not thy Fingers about it 't is not for the Altar Oh bring that chiefly which must be presented there God is a Spirit what are Words to him Oh let thy Prayers be all Spirit Words are but the vehicle sometimes only Aereal mere Wind seldom Aethereal defecate and pure Quintescence without Froth and Vanity c. However O see thou that there be an Angel within if there be not an Intelligence to turn about this Orb of Devotion if a Soul do not animate this Body of Duty away with it to the dunghil with it 't is but mere Carrion Bring the Male in thy Flock not this corrupt thing Thou canst never derive Comfort from Heaven if thou lay nothing upon God's Altar but Froth and Wind. Substantial Prayers and all substance is an invisible inward thing and these alone introduce solid and substantial Consolations 2 Thes 2.16 Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God even our Father which hath loved us and given us everlasting Consolation through Grace 17. Comfort your Hearts and stablish you in every good Word and Work 1 Thes 5.23 And the very God of Peace sanctifie you wholly and I pray God your whole Spirit and Soul and Body be preserved blameless unto the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ Heb. 19.20 Now the God of Peace who hath raised from the Dead our Lord Jesus Christ that great Shepherd of the Sheep through the Blood of the everlasting Covenant 21. Make you perfect in every good Work to do his Will working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be Glory for ever and ever Amen FINIS THE CONTENTS Chap. I. THE Introduction with the Explication of the Terms and their Sense Critical and Moral and Doctrine page 1. Chap. II. The Doctrine explained in a Resolution of three Queries a three-fold Essay p. 9. 1. The Character of the Psalmist not so much Personal as Moral which determines the Subject universally p. 10. 1. He was a Man that lived under a due and deep sense of God ibid. Chap. III. 2. He was a Man of Prayer p. 18. Chap. IV. 3. That lived by Faith not by Sight p. 25. Chap. V. 4. That did not live under the reproach of his own conscience p. 31. 1. He was very sensible of the odiousness of Sin to God ibid. Chap. VI. 2. Consciencious in the observance of his Duty to Man p. 45. Chap. VII 5. Of a Publick Spirit p. 73. Chap. VIII 6. Honours God 's Discipline Instructive Corrective p. 121. Chap. IX 7. A Man of Experience Eyes God in all things p. 133. Chap. X. 8. Seeks Comfort solely in and from God p. 140. Chap. XI 2. The Nature and Quality of the Psalmists Thoughts p. 151. 1. Fearing Thoughts p. 156. 2. Grieving Thoughts p. 164. 3. Despairing Thoughts page 174. Chap. XII 3. What Comforts these are in general p. 175. Chap. XIII 1. Comforts in God which God is derived from p. 182. 1. His Existence ibid. 2. His Names and Titles p. 183. 3. His Attributes p. 184. § 1. His Wisdom and Omniscience p. 185. 2. His Goodness p. 189. 3. His Justice p. 207. 4. His Omnipotence p. 224. 5. His Fidelity and Vnchangableness p. 234. 6. His Presence p. 241. 7. His Eternity p. 258. Chap. XIV 2. Comforts from God which God gives in p. 265. 1. Providence p. 266. 2. Privileges p. 269. 1. Sanctification ibid. 2. Propriety in God and assurance of it p. 276. 3. Experiences p. 286. Chap. XV. Inferences 1. Doctrinal 1. 't is lamentable to be left to our own Thoughts p. 296. 2. The best may be in perplexities inextricable by Nature p. 298. 3. The infinite Condescention of God in the Provision he hath made for us p. 302. Chap. XVI 2. Elenctical 1. Convictive 1. Theoretical confutes the Doctrine of Incertitude p. 305. 2. Practical establishing the conscience in the right method of discriminating true and false Comforts which differ p. 309. 1. In their Origin p. 310. 2. Their Attendants p. 317. 3. Their tendency and effects p. 330. 2. Reprehensive for neglect of preparing for and possessing our selves of Divine Comforts p. 337. Chap. XVII 3. Paideutical or Instructive how to attain solid Comforts p. 352. 1. Be Men of Thoughts p. 353. 2. Indeavour to attain Ability to give Law to Thoughts p. 361. 3. Get a clear notion of God and Goodness p. 366. 4. Lay the Foundation of Peace in Repentance and Holiness p. 375 376. 5. Be fervent and constant in Prayer p. 401. ADVERTISEMENT These BOOKS are Published by the Reverend Mr. Oliver Heywood M. A. Minister of the Gospel and Sold by Thomas Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside viz. 1. BAptismal Bonds Renewed being some Meditations on Psal 50.5 2. Closet Prayer a Christians Duty 3. Sure Mercies of David 4. Israels Lamentation after the Lord. 5. The Holy Life and Happy Death of Mr. John Angier Minister formerly at Denton near Manchester 6. Advice to an only Child or excellent Counsel to all young Persons 7. Best Intail a Discourse on 2 Sam. 23.5 8. Family Altar a Discourse on Gen. 35.2 3. for to promote the Worship of God in private Families 9. Meetness for Heaven on Colos 1.12 designed for a Funeral Legacy 10. The New Creature on Gal. 6.15 lately Published 11. The General Assembly or a Discourse of the gathering of all Saints to Christ BOOKS Written by the Reverend Mr. J. How OF Thoughtfulness for the Morrow With an Appendix concerning the immoderate Desire of Foreknowing Things to come Of Charity in reference to other Mens Sins A Sermon at the Funeral of Mr. Richard Adams M. A. sometime Fellow of Brazen-Nose College in Oxford The Redeemer's Tears wept over lost Souls In a Treatise on Luke 19.41 42. With an Appendix wherein somewhat is occasionally discoursed concerning the Sin against the Holy Ghost and how God is said to will the Salvation of them that perish A Sermon directing what we are to do after a strict enquiry Whether or no we truly love God A Funeral Sermon for Mrs. Esther Sampson the late Wife of Henry Sampson Doctor of Physick The Carnality of Religious Contention In Two Sermons preach'd at the Merchants Lecture in Broad-street A Sermon for Reformation of Manners A Sermon preach'd on the Day of Thanksgiving December 2. 1697. to which is prefix'd Dr. Bates's Congratulatory Speech to the King A Calm and Sober Enquiry concerning the Possibility of a Trinity in the God-head A Letter to a Friend concerning a Postscript to the Defence of Dr. Sherlock's Notion of the Trinity in Unity relating to the Calm and Sober Enquiry upon the same Subject A View of that part of the late Considerations to H. H. about the Trinity Which concerns the Sober Enquiry on that Subject The Redeemer's Dominion over the Invisible World A Funeral Sermon for Mrs. Hammond A Funeral Sermon for Dr. Will. Bates A Funeral Sermon for Mr. Mat. Mead. This Written by Mr. Flavel THE Fountain of Life open'd or a Display of Christ in his Essential and Mediatorial Glory containing Forty two Sermons on various Texts Wherein the Impetration of our Redemption by Jesus Christ is orderly unfolded as it was begun carried on and finished by his Covenant Transaction Mysterious Incarnation solemn Call and Dedication blessed Offices deep Abasement and Supereminent Advancement