their own weapon to be as proud and consequently as violent as the rest of mankind for it is part of the Game of the world and Humility makes his case worse Veterem ferendo injuâ—â—m invit is novam Where the Countrey is full of Wolves and Tigers it is better be a Wolf or a Tiger as well as they than be a Sheep and expoted to their Violence I Answer to this Objection 1. As to the former part that though it be true that it can never be expected that all the world should be perswaded to be Humble no more than it can be expected that all should be perswaded to be Virtuous Just or Honest but yet if there were some though the lesser part of mankind truly Humble and Lowly it would make very much to the abating of those Evils that arise by the Pride and Haughtiness of men 1. Because the more Humble men there are in the world it necessarily follows there are the fewer Proud men and consequently fewer common Disturbers of the peace and welfare of mankind and humane society 2. When the contest comes by the proud man against the proud man indeed there is the same tumult between them as if there were none humble but when the contest is by the proud man against the humble man the strife is quickly at an end it is a true Proverb It is the second blow makes the sray the humble man gives way to the wrath and insolence of the proud man and thereby ends the quarrel for Yielding pacifieth wrath saith the Wise man and I have very often observed that the Quietness of spirit and Humility of a man attaqued by a Proud man hath subdued and conquered his Pride and Animosity to a wonder and made him tame that by opposition would have been furious and implacable Soft words breaks the bones and a Sword is sooner broken by a blow upon a Cushion or Pillow that yieldeth than upon a bar of Iron that resists But if it should fall out that the Proud man's Violence is not broken by the Gentleness and Facility of the Humble man whereby he suffers in his own particular yet there be two advantages that hereby happen to the publick viz. 1. That the contention is soon at an end the proud man hath got the day and the parties are quiet 2. It gains a secret compassion from the beholders to the injured humble man and a general resentment and detestation of the injury committed to the humble man that receives the injury with so much Humility and bears it with so much Patience and thereby Pride and Oppression become the common objects of the general detestation of insolence pride and oppression and the generality of mankind thereupon look on them as beasts of prey with hatred and abhorrence and endeavour means to secure themselves against it 3. A third advantage is this That though oftentimes humble and good men are exposed to the injuries of the proud violent and insolent yet they are a kind of ferment or leaven in the places where they live and by the secret influences of their virtues the commendableness of their conversation and the secret interest that virtue hath in the Soul not only of good but even of the worst men it doth work upon mankind assimulates in some measure to it self and makes others good and humble by a kind of secret Magnetism that that virtue hath upon the minds of men and the more such are in number in the world the more effectual and operative their example and influence will be upon those with whom they converse 2. As to the second namely the Damage and Detriment that the humble man receives in the world upon the very account of his humility I answer First that Detriment is abundantly recompensed with the quiet and tranquility and evenness and composedness of his own mind As a man possesseth his own Soul by patience so he doth by humility namely the composedness right temper and due estate of his own mind which no proud or violent or impatient man doth or can But secondly it is most certain that though an humble man may upon the very score of his humility and meekness receive a brush in the world yet at the long run he gains advantage thereby even in this present life When I first read the saying of our Saviour Matth. 5. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth I looked upon it as a meer Paradox if applied to the comforts of this life and therefore thought it must be meerly and only intended of that new Heaven and new Earth wherein dwelleth the righteous but upon deeper consideration I found it in a great measure true also of the former for 1. It is most certain that no proud man is truly loved by any but himself but so far as relates to his pride every man hates him One proud man perfectly hates another and looks upon him as his enemy and those very actions of pride that his own self love makes him approve or at least allow in himself he scorns derides abhorrs in another and though an humble man hath a common love to every man though proud or otherwise vicious as being one of mankind yet in relation to his pride he loves him not nor approves That very Consideration therefore that renders a proud man hated or not loved renders an humble man loved and approved yea and by the very proud man himself for he looks upon him as no obstacle or impediment to the attaining of his ends as one that is injurious to none benificent to all gentle and one that stands not in his way giving all due respect honour and difference suitable to his place and dignity he wisheth all the world were such as he except himself and therefore he respects and tenders him yea and we shall by daily experience see in the world that if a proud man injure or oppress an humble man 't is a thousand to one he undertakes his patronage defence and vindication and very oftentimes is a means of his protection and deliverance 3. But farther it is a certain and experienced truth that Virtue and Goodness especially that of Humility hath a secret party and interest love or at least approve it in another though they practise it not themselves for Virtue and Goodness and Humility hath a secret congruity to the true and genuine frame of the humane nature and though mens lusts and passions in a great measure obscure the consonancy to it they can never extinguish it but the mind and conscience will give a secret suffrage wherever it finds it 4. It is a thing observable that though the generality of mankind abound with pride intemperance injustice and almost all kind of vicious dispositions yea though the best of men are not without the irruptions of some of those distempers and though it must needs be that where there is the greatest number there is the greatest external force either to make
annexed to this Consideration We are to know that although Death be thus subdued and rendred rather a benefit than a terrour to good men yet 1. Death is not to be wished or desired though it be an object not to be feared it is a thing not to be coveted for certainly life is the greatest temporal blessing in the World It was the passion not the virtue of that excellent Prophet Elijah that desired to dye because he thought himself only left of the true worshippers of God 1 Kings 19.4 We are all placed in this World by Almighty God and a talent of life is delivered to us and we are commanded to improve it a task is set every one of us in this life by the great Master of the Family of Heaven and Earth and we are required with patience and obedience and faithfulness to perform our task and not to be weary of our work nor wish our day at an end before its time When our Lord calls us it is our duty with courage and chearfulness to obey His call but until He calls it is our duty with patience and contentedness to perform our task to be doing of our work And indeed in this life our Lord hath delivered us several tasks of great importance to do as namely 1. To improve our graces and virtues our Knowledge and Faith and those works of piety and goodness that he requires the better and closer we follow that business here the greater will be our reward and improvement of glory hereafter And therefore as we must with all readiness give over our work when our Master calls us so we must with all diligence and perseverance continue our employment out till he calls us and with all thankfulness unto God entertain and rejoyce in that portion of life he lends us because we have thereby an opportunity of doing our Master the more service and of improving the degrees of our own glory and happiness 2. And besides the former he hath also set us another task namely to serve our Generation to give an example of virtue and goodness to encourage others in the ways of virtue and goodness to provide for our Families and Relations to do all good offices of Justice Righteousness Liberality Charity to others cheerfully and industriously to follow our Callings and Employments and infinite more as well Natural Civil Moral employments which though of a lower importance in respect of our selves yet are of greater use and moment in respect of others and are as well as the former required of us and part of the task that our great Lord requires of us and for the sake of which he also bestows many Talents upon us to be thus improved in this life and for which we must also at the end of our day give our Lord an account and therefore for the sake of this also we are to be thankful for our life and not be desirous to leave our post our station our business our life till our Lord call us to Himself in the ordinary way of His Providence for He is the only Lord of our lives and we are not the Lords of our own lives 2. A second Caution is this That as the business and employments and concerns of our life must not estrange us from the thoughts of death so again we must be careful that the overmuch thought of death do not so much possess our thoughts as to make us forget the concerns of our life nor neglect the businesses which that portion of time is allowed us for As the business of fitting our Souls for Heaven the businesses of our callings relations places stations Nay the comfortable thankful sober enjoyments of those honest lawful comforts of our life that God lends us so as it be done with great sobriety moderation as in the presence of God and with much thankfulness to Him for this is part of that very duty we owe to God for those very external comforts and blessings we enjoy Deut. 28.47 A wise and due consideration of our latter ends is neither to render us a sad melancholy disconsolate people nor to render us unfit for the businesses and offices of our life but to render us more watchful vigilant industrious soberly cheerful and thankful to that God that hath been pleased thus to make our lives serviceable to Him comfortable to us profitable to others and after all this to take away the bitterness and sting of death through Jesus Christ our Lord. OF VVISDOM AND The Fear of GOD That that is True WISDOM JOB XXVIII 28. And to man he said Behold the fear of the Lord that is wisdom and to depart from evil is understanding THe great preheminence that Man hath over Beasts is his Reason and the great preheminence that one man hath over another is Wisdom though all men have ordinarily the priviledge of Reason yet all men have not the habit of Wisdom The greatest commendation that we can ordinarily give a man is that he is a wise man and the greatest reproach that can be to a man and that which is worst resented is to be called or esteemed a fool and yet as much as the reputation of wisdom is valued and the reputation of folly is resented the generality of mankind are in truth very fools and make it the great part of their business to be so and many that pretend to see◠after wisdom do either mistake the thing or mistake the way to attain commonl◠those that are the greatest pretenders 〈◊〉 wisdom and the search after it place it i◠some little narrow concern but place i◠not in its true latitude commensurate to th◠nature of mankind And hence it is tha◠one esteems it the only wisdom to be 〈◊〉 wise Politician or Statesman another t◠be a wise and knowing Naturalist anothe◠to be a wise acquirer of Wealth and th◠like and all these are wisdoms in their kind and the World perchance would be much better than it is if these kind of wisdom were more in fashion than they are bu◠yet these are but partial wisdoms the wisdom that is most worth the seeking and finding is that which renders a man a Wise Man This excellent man Job after a diligen◠search in the speech of this Chapter after Wisdom what it is where to be found doth at length make these two Conclusions viz. 1. That the true root of wisdom and that therefore best knew where it was to be found and how to be attained is certainly none other but A mighty God vers 23. God understandeth the way thereof and knoweth the place thereof and 2. As he alone best knew it so he best knew how to prescribe unto mankind the means and method to attain it To man he said to fear God that is wisdom that is it is the proper and adequate wisdom sutable to humane nature and to the condition of mankind and we need not doubt but it is so because he that best knew what was
enemies and unintermitted dangers and difficulties that our light afflictions which are here but for a moment work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory Our afflictions and incoveniences in this world 1. are light in comparison of that exceeding far more exceeding weight of glory 2. As they are but light so being compared with that eternal weight of glory they are but for a moment The longest life we here live is not ordinarily above threescore and ten years and though the more troublesom and uneasie that life is the longer it seems yet compared with the infinite abyss of Eternity it is but a moment yea less than a moment if less can be yet such is the longest stay in this life if compared with Eternity And the gracious God hath presented this greatest and most important truth to us with the greatest evidence and assurance that the most desponding and suspitious Soul can desire 1. He hath given his own Word of Truth to assure us of it 2. He hath given his own Son to seal it unto us by the most powerful and convincing evidence imaginable by his mission from Heaven on purpose to tell us it by his Miracles by attestations from Heaven by the laying down his own Life in witness of it by his Resurrection and Ascention by the miraculous Mission of his Holy Spirit visibly and audibly Again 3. He hath confirmed it to us by the Doctrine and Miracles of his Apostles by their Death and Martyrdom as a Witness of the Truth they taught by the numerous Converts and Primitive Christians and godly Martyrs who all lived and dyed in this Faith and for it who made it their choice rather to suffer afflictions with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season declaring plainly that they sought a better City and Countrey that is a heavenly Heb. 11.15 25. and this Countrey and this City they had in their Eye even whiles they lived in this troublesom world And this prospect this hope and expectation rendred this lower world of no great value to them the pleasures thereof they esteemed but low and little and the troubles and uneasiness thereof they did undergo patiently cheerfully and contentedly for they looked beyond them and placed their hopes their treasure their comfort above them And even whiles they were in this life yet they did by their faith and hope anticipate their own happiness and enjoyed by faith even before they actually possessed it by fruition for Faith is the substance of things hoped for Heb. 11. and makes those things present by the firmness of a sound perswasion which are in themselves future and to come And this is that which will have the same effect with us if we live and believe as they did and be but firmly and soundly perswaded of the truth of the Gospel thus admirably confirmed unto us This is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith Heb. 10.38 The just shall live by faith 2 Cor. 5.7 We live by faith and not by sight and excellent is that passage to this purpose 2 Cor. 4.16 17 18. For which cause we faint not but though our outward man perish yet our inward man is renewed day by day For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory while we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal And therefore if we do but seriously believe the truth of the Gospel the truth of the life to come the best external things of this world will seem but of small moment to take up the choicest of our desires or hopes and the worst things this world can inflict will appear too light to provoke us to impatience or discontent He that hath but Heaven and everlasting glory in prospect and a firm expectation will have a mind full of contentation in the midst of the lowest and darkest condition here on Earth Impatience and discontent never can stay long with us if we awake our minds and summon up our faith and hope in that life and happiness to come Sudden passions of impatience and discontent may like clouds arise and trouble us for a while but this faith and this hope rooted in the Heart if stirred up will like the Sun scatter and dispell them and cause the light of patience contentation and comfort to thine through them And as we have this hope of immortality and blessedness set before us so the means and way to attain it is easie and open to all no person is excluded from it that wilfully excludes not himself Isa 51.1 Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters and he that hath no money come ye buy and eat without money and without price Rev. 22.17 Whosoever will let him take of the waters of life freely Matth. 11.28 Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest The way to everlasting happiness and consequently to contentation here is laid open to all It was the great reason why God made mankind to communicate everlasting happiness to them and when they wilfully threw away that happiness it was the end why he sent his Son into the world to restore mankind unto it And as the way is open to all so it is easie to all his yoak is easie and his burthen light The terms of attaining happiness if sincerely endeavoured are easie to be performed by virtue of that grace that God Almighry affords to all men that do not wilfully reject it namely to believe the truth of the Gospel so admirably confirmed and sincerely to endeavour to obey the precepts thereof which are both just and reasonable highly conducing to our contentation in this life and consummating our happiness in the life to come And for our encouragement in this obedience we are sure to have if we desire it the special grace of the Blessed Spirit to assist us and a merciful Father to accept of our sincerity and a gracious Saviour to pardon our failings and deficiencies So that the way to attain contentation in this life and happiness in the life to come as it is plain and certain so it is open and free none is excluded from it but it is free and open to all that are but willing to use this means to attain it And I shall wind up all this long Discourse touching Contentation with this plain and ordinary Instance I have before said that our home our Countrey is Heaven and Everlasting Happiness where there are no sorrows nor fears nor troubles that this World is the place of our travel and pilgrimage and at the best our Inn Now when I am in my journey I meet with several inconveniencies it may be the way is bad and foul the weather tempestuous or stormy
it may be I meet with some rough companions that either turn me out of my way or all dash and dirt me in it yet I content my self for all will be mended when I come home but if I chance to lodge at my Inn there it may be I meet with bad entertainment the Inn is full of guests and I am thrust into an inconvenient lodging or ill diet yet I content my self and consider it is no better than what I have reason to expect it is but according to the common condition of things in that place neither am I solicitous to furnish my lodging with better accommodations for I must not expect to make long stay there it is but my Inn my place of repose for a night and not my home and therefore I content my self with it as I find it all will be amended when I come home In the same manner it is with this world perchance I meet with an ill and uncomfortable passage through it I have a sickly Body a narrow Estate meet with affronts and disgraces lose my friends companions and relations my best entertainment in it is but troublesom and uneasie But yet I do content my self I consider it is but my pilgrimage my passage my Inn it is not my countrey nor the place of my rest this kind of usage or condition is but according to the law and custom of the place it will be amended when I come home for in my Father's house there are Mansions many Mansions instead of my Inn and my Saviour himself hath not disdained to be my Harbinger he is gone thither before me and gone to prepare a place for me I will therefore quiet and content my self with the inconveniencies of my short journey for my accommodations will be admirable when I come to my home that heavenly Jerusalem which is the place of my rest and happiness But yet we must withall remember that though Heaven is our home the place of our rest and happiness yet this World is a place for our duty and employment and we must use all honest and lawful means to preserve our lives and our comforts by our honest care and diligence As it is our duty to wait the time till our Lord and Master calls so it is part of our task in this world given us by the great Master of the Family of Heaven and Earth to be employed for the temporal good of our selves and others It is indeed our principal business to fit our selves for our everlasting home and to think of it but it is a part of our duty and an act of obedience whiles we are here to employ our selves with honesty and diligence in our temporal employments Though we are not to set our hearts upon the conveniencies of this life yet we are not to reject them but to use them thankfully and soberly for they are blessings that deserve our gratitude though they ought not entirely to take up our hearts Again though crosses and afflictions must be the exercise of our patience we must not wilfully choose them nor run into them Let God be still the Master of his own Dispensation for he is wise and knows what is fit for us when we know not what is so fit for our selves When he sends them or permits them our duty is patience and contentation but commonly our own choice is headstrong and foolish It was the errour of many new Converts to Christianity that they thought that when Heaven and heavenly-mindedness was pressed that presently they must cast off all care of the World desert their callings and busily and unnecessarily thrust themselves into dangers that so they might be quit of all worldly cares and business and of life it self This the Apostles frequently reprove and shew the errour of it and that justly For the truth of it is our continuance in this life and in our honest employments and callings our thankful use of external blessings here and our honest endeavours for them the endeavour to do good in our places so long as we continue in them our prudent prevention of external evils are part of that obedience we owe to our Maker and part of that exercise or task that is given us by him to perform in this life and our cheerful faithful diligent conversation herein is so far from being incompatible to Christianity that it is a part of our Christian duty and of that service we owe to our Maker and it is indeed the exercise of our patience and the evidence of a contented mind For whosoever presently grows so weary of the World that presently with froward Jonah he wisheth to dye or throws off all it is a sign of want of that contentation that is here commended because true Contentation consists in a cheerful and ready compliance with the will of God and not in a froward preference of our own will or choice It was part of our Saviour's excellent prayer for his Disciples Joh. 17.15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil The business therefore of these Papers is to let you see what are the Helps to attain Patience and Contentation in this World that our passage through it may be safe and comfortable and agreeable to the will of God and to remedy that impatience and discontent which is ordinarily sound among men To teach men how to amend their lives instead of being weary of them and to make the worst conditions in the World easie and comfortable by making the mind quiet patient and thankful For 't is the discontented and impatient mind that truly makes the World much more uneasie than it is in it self OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST CRUCIFIED 1. COR. 11.2 For I determined not to know any thing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified AS the Understanding is the highest faculty of the reasonable creature because upon it depends the regularity of the motions or actings of the will and affections so Knowledge is the properest and noblest act or habit of that faculty and without which it is without its proper end and employment and the whole man without a due guidance and direction Hos 4.6 My people perish for want of Knowledge And as knowledge is the proper business of that great faculty so the Value of that Knowledge or employment of the understanding is diversified according to the subject about which it is exercised For though all knowledge of the most differing subjects agree in this one common excellence viz. the right representation of of the thing as it is unto the understanding or the conformity of the image created in the understanding unto the thing objectively united to it which is truth in the understanding Yet it must needs be that according to the various values and degrees of the things to be known there ariseth a diversity of the value or worth of that knowledge that which is of a thing more noble usesul
Immortality which was wrapt up in the mysteries of the Old covenant and yet those mysteries vailed and inclosed up within the vail is now brought to light through the Gospel 2 Tim. 1.10 and the vail rent in twain that as well the meaning of those mysteries and types under the Law is discovered 4. That now the use of the Ceremonial Law is at an end the greatest and most sacred mystery of the Tabernacle and indeed of the whole ceremonial Law was this that was within the vail the most holy place wherein were the most holy and revered mysteries the Ark and the Mercy-Seat But now the vail is rent the use abolished the covenant of the people is given the Body of Christ typified by the Temple separated and so the use of the other Temple Tabernacle and the holy Places Vessels Instruments thereof ceased 5. That now the Kingdom of Heaven the most Holy Place is open unto all believers Christ our High Priest is entred in with his own blood and hath not closed the vail after him but rent it in sunder and made and left a passage for all believers to follow him with our prayers and access to the glorious God and hereafter in our persons Heb. 10.19 20. Having therefore bloldness to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way which he bath consecrated for us through the vail that is to say his flesh let us draw near with a true heart And now we have gone thus far with our Lord unto his death we shall follow him to his Grave Joseph of Arimathea having an honorable mention by all four Evangelists Matth. 27.57 a rich man and Jesus disciple Mar. 15.43 an honorable Counsellor who waited for the Kingdom of God Luk. 23.50 a Counsellor a good man and a just who had not consented to the counsel or deed of the Jews and waited for the Kingdom of God Joh. 19.38 a disciple of Christ but secretly for fear of the Jews this man manifested his faith and love to his Master when he was in his lowest condition goes to Pilate boldly and begs his Saviour's body he wraps it in a clean linnen cloth laid it in a Tomb provided for himself and hewed out of the rock and rolled a great stone upon the door of the Sepulchre And as by his death with the malefactors so by his burial in this rich man's Sepulchre he fulfilled both parts of the Prophecy Isa 53.9 He made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death The high Priests continued their malice and their jealousie even against the dead body of our Saviour and to secure themselves against the suspition of his Resurrection the third day take order for making the Sepulchre sure till the third day was past Matth. 27.60 they seal the stone and set a watch And it is very Observable how the almighty Counsel of God made use of the very malice and jealousie of these people for the confirming of his own truth Christ's Resurrection and our Faith Their malicious and curious industry to prevent the possibility of a fictitious Resurrection abundantly and uncontrollably convincing the reality of our Saviour's death and true Resurrection He is laid in the grave the evening of the day wherein he suffered a Stone rolled upon the mouth of the grave such as required a considerable strength to remove it insomuch that the women that came the first day of the week to embalm the body were in a great difficulty how it should be removed Mar. 16.3 for it was a Great stone Matth. 27.60 and this stone Sealed and as if all this were too little and the bonds of death and the grave were too weak they add a Watch of Souldiers to secure the body Matth 27.66 And here we leave for a while our Saviour's body interred with Spices Joh. 19.39 in a new Sepulchre wherein never before any lay Joh. 19.41 hewen out of a rock in the garden Joh. 19.42 that as in the garden death at first laid hold of the first Adam so in the garden the second Adam undergoes the state of death and gains the victory over the grave his agony in a garden and his interrment in a garden his body rests in the grave and his soul translated into Paradise for so he witnessed of himself This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise Luk. 23. 43. For at the instant of his dissolution our Satisfaction was made and the work of our Redemption so far as it depended upon his suffering finished So that had it not been for a witness of the reality and truth of his death and of the power and reality of his Resurrection and the fulfilling of the decree of God manifested in the Scriptures he might have reassumed life in the next instant after his death For the debt to the Justice of God was fully satisfied and his continuance in the grave until the third day was not by the power of death which he vanquished in the instant of his dissolution but a voluntary subjecting of himself unto that state for the strengthening of our faith and the fulfilling of the Scriptures And now we come to the Consideration of the Resurrection of our Lord by which he was declared to be the Son of God with power and by which the fulness and compleatness of our Redemption by him is abundantly manifested He chose that Time to dye when the Passover was slain that time wherein Adam was created the sixth day of the week at even He chose that time for his body to rest in the grave and for his soul to rest in Paradise wherein his Father rested from all the great work of the Creation the seventh day of the week and he chose that day to rise again which his Father chose to begin the Creation the first day of the week that the same day might bear the inscription of the Creation and of the Resurrection of the World and that as in that day the Lord God brought light out of darkness so this light the light that enlightneth every man that comes into the world should arise from the land of darkness the grave This is the day that the Lord hath made let us be glad and rejoyce therein The Time of the Day wherein our Lord arose was very early in the morning of the first day of the week as it began to dawn Matth 21.1 while it was yet dark or scarcely full light Joh 17.1 And the Manner of it was full of wonder and astonishment An Angel from heaven comes down to draw the curtain of our Saviour's grave and with an Earthquake rolls away the stone that covered it the Keepers who had watchfully observed the command of their Commanders were stricken with astonishment and became as dead Matth. 28.2 3 4. Our Lord who had power to lay down his life and power to take it up again Joh. 10.17 reassumes his body which though it had tasted death yet had not seen
the former Rom. 5.1 Being justifica by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ the only cause of breach between God and his creature is sin and this being quite removed the enmity between God and his creature is removed and peace and love restored between them 3. Free Access unto God for we are restored unto peace with him and consequently access unto him and indeed it is a part of that duty which he expects from us our access to him is not only our priviledge as the access of a Subject to his Prince or a child to his father but it is our duty as a thing enjoyned unto us in testimony of our dependence and love unto him 4. Consequently Peace with our selves and our own Conscience and that upon a double ground 1. Because our Conscience is sprinkled by the blood of Christ which defaceth and oblitereth all those black Items that otherwise would be continually calling upon us 2. Because Conscience ever sideth with God whose vicegerent she is in the Soul and hath the very same aspect for the most part that heaven hath and therefore if it be clear above it is ordinarily quiet within and if God speaks peace the Conscience unless distempered doth not speak trouble 5. An Assurance of a continual supply of sufficient Grace to lead us through this vale of trouble without a final apostacy or falling from him Were our Salvation in our own hands or managed by our own strength we should utterly lose it every moment but the Power and Truth and Love of God is engaged in a Covenant of the highest solemnity that ever was sealed in the blood of the Son of God for our preservation and it shall be as impossible for us to fall from that condition as for the Almighty God to be disappointed No his counsel and truth the constant supply of the blessed Spirit of Christ shall keep alive that seed of life that he hath thrown into the soul 1 Joh. 3.9 For his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God 6. Sufficient Grace to preserve us from or support us in or deliver us out of temptations We stand more in need of Grace than we do of our bread because the consequence of the want of the former is of more danger than the latter by so much as the Soul is more valuable than the Body If our Father is pleased to furnish us with our daily bread how shall he then deny us our daily and hourly supplies of his Grace Especially since our interest therein is founded upon the covenant made in the blood of Christ 2 Cor. 12.9 My grace is sufficient for thee 7. A favourable Acceptation of our duties since they are the performances of children and therefore not measured according to their own worth but according to the relation and affection from whence they proceed 8. A Gentle and Merciful Pardoning of our Failings even as a Father pitieth and pardoneth the infirmities of a Child and though he doth not dispense with Presumptuous Offences yet he either observes not or forgives their many Infirmities And it is a Priviledge of high concernment to us that as in our first conversion the blood of Christ washeth away a whole life of sins at once so after our conversion the same fountain stands open whereunto we may and must resort to cleanse our daily Failings Christ received by faith in the heart is a continual Sacrifice which I may present unto the Father for my sins committed after my conversion 9. A comfortable Restitution of a just Interest in the creatures When man forsook the Allegiance he owed to his Maker the interest he had in the creature did as it were escheat to the Lord and though his goodness after permitted him the use of them yet it was still as it were upon account And as the sons of men have a great Account to give unto God for their sins so they have for his creatures Christ hath restored unto us a better propriety in that which Civil right hath made ours than what we had before 10. A Comfortable and Sanctified Use of all Conditions in Prosperity Moderation in Adversity Contentedness in all Sobriety For as our Lord hath purchased for us Grace to use all things aright so he hath obtained for us an inheritance that renders the best the world can give us unworthy to be valued and the worst it can give us unworthy to be feared in respect of the blessedness which he hath setled upon us 11. Consequently Contempt of the World because higher matters are in my eye such as the best the world can yield cannot equal nor the worst it can inflict cannot take away And all this upon 12. A Lively Hope a hope that maketh not ashamed even of that Glory which my Saviour came down from heaven to purchase by his blood and the assurance whereof he hath sealed with his blood Joh. 14.2 3. I go to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto my self that where I am ye may be also A hope of a blessed Resurrection after death a hope of that blessed appearance of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ a hope of that glorious sentence in the presence of Men and Angels Come ye blessed and an hope of an Everlasting estate of Blessedness and Glory in the presence of the great God and the glorified Saints and Angels unto all Eternity And the efficacy of this hope dipt in the blood of Christ brings us Victory 1. Victory over Sin Sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the Law but under Grace Rom. 6.14 He that hath this hope purifieth himself even as he is pure 1 Joh. 3.3 2. Victory over the World in the best it can afford us its flatteries and favours these are too small and inconsiderable when compared with this hope they shine like a Candle in the Sun and are ineffectual to win over a Soul that is fixed upon this hope and victory over the worst the world can inflict Our Lord hath conquered the world in this respect for us Be not afraid I have overcome the world Joh. 16. 33. and conquered it in us This is the victory that overcometh the world even your Faith 1 Joh. 5.4 3. Victory over Death which now by means of this blessed hope is stript as well of her terror as of her power Thus thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 15.57 And now though the nature of this argument hath carried my meditations to a great height yet to avoid mistakes some things I must subjoyn 1. That when I thus aggravate the sufferings of our Lord under the imputed guilt of the sins of mankind yet we must not think that his sufferings were the same with the Damned as not in duration so neither in kind nor in degree