work to think of the reasons that moved them to sin and to refuse such duties and to see the folly of all those reasons this will be shame and confusion O Lord let me be ashamed of my sins in time savingly by true repentance that I may avoid the eternal shame and confusion and remember with grief all the hard thoughts which I have had of thee and thy waies and grieved that I turned no sooner from sin to God That being derided for holiness I have so little of it But let me not be of them of whom it is said The Lord hath laughed at their calamity for he hath seen that their day is coming Made upon hearing of Mr. J. B. O Lord give me that earnest and first fruits of eternal life which thou usest to give thy afflicted servants in this life which may make me as it did them to rejoyce in afflictions with joy unspeakable and glorious to undergo with joy all manner of slanders and to take joyfully the spoiling of their goods knowing that they have a more enduring substance in Heaven give thy servant to know this of himself which may make me able for the like sufferings and to undergo all that the wicked can inflict not accepting of deliverance and grant that I may see him by faith who is invisible and Jesus Christ my Saviour my Helper and my Redeemer my Recompence and my Reward O Lord let me not put any stress upon my own works for my salvation If with thy servant Paul I could say that as touching the Law I am blameless yet then also must I not count that I have attained but desire to be found in Christ not having mine own righteousness and be sensible that I have deserved thy wrath and fly to the Righteousness of Christ and say with David I will make mention of thy Righteousness only And with Daniel Not for our righteousness but for thy mercy sake save us Deliver me from the Legal Pharisaical spirit thinking to establish its own righteousness not submitting to the Righteousness of Christ Let my righteousness exceed theirs Let me mortifie the body and live strictly as they did and whatever duties they performed let me perform but let me not leave the others undone and those which I do let me not do to be seen but let me perform them to thee in secret that thou mayest reward me openly Neither let me trust in my felf nor despise others nor strain at a Nat and swallow a Camel Lord let not worldly things disturb my quiet though the Earth be moved and the Mountains shake at the tempest of the same Let the River of Life of thy holy City make glad the people thereof Give me the peaceable fruits of Righteousness Give me grace voluntarily to take Christ's yoak upon me and to learn of him meekness and humility that I may find rest to my soul which I can never find without holiness of life and faith therefore give me both that I may be able to say in all conditions the Lord is my Shepherd therefore I can lack norhing Lord as thou hast given us many commands for the duty of prayer and watchfulness the reto with constancy without ceasing and that in all things we should make our requests known unto God and to incourage us herein thou hast promised to reward it openly what we pray for secretly and hast set forth unto us in thy word how thou art a God hearing prayer and many examples of it And that it is the duty in which thou dost most delight and by my own experience I have always found thee such Therefore let me redeem the time for this so beneficial duty according to the example of thy Servants David seven times a day and Daniel three times in spight of the Tirants threats for thou hast always given me the mercies which I asked and I fear I have lost many for want of asking Lord in my distresses and troubles let me not seek for vain comforts in the Creatures but for those comforts which thy word and thy Spirit afford thy Servants for Christ hath promised that he will not leave us comfortless but will send us a comforter O now send this comforter into my heart that I may rejoice with the joy of thy chosen ones and not with the joy of the World this thou hast often refreshed thy Servant with in the midst of the sorrows which he had in his heart Lord let me not neglect the day of my visitation for thou hast said that thy spirit shall not always strive with us Therefore when we feel thy holy Spirit inclining our hearts to good or drawing us from evil let us follow its motions and the express calls of thy word when it seems to us to speak in particular to our soules that we may escape that threatning which saith because I have called and ye have refused you shall call and I will not answer I will laugh at your calamity so when thou visitest us with mercies or afflictions then thou bowest our ear to discipline for in affliction the wicked often will seek thee but not to see thee in thy merciful dispensations is more brutish then the Ox or Ass who know their keepers that feed them Lord let me know the time of my visitation let me lose no opportunity to do good for we know not how soon the opportunity or our lives will be taken away therefore let me lay hold on all opportunities and redeem all time possible for God's service As Paul in the Gaol converted the Gaoler and Philip in his Journey the Eunuch and Christ when he was on the Cross dying conveyed grace to the hearers and salvation to one of the thieves Let me value my time by the duties which may be done in it and let me not spend it in doing that which is impertinent or doing nothing much less in doing ill but in things necessary which is but one thing to serve God the things of this world being only for convenience Teach me to number not only my daies but my hours that I may husband them well to thy glory especially my youthful time let me consecrate to God since I cannot be too soon out of the paw of Satan into the arms of Christ Let me not listen to the Devil when he tells me I shall serve God hereafter but let me give thee the first fruits of my age and of the day and not the flower to the Devil and the dregs to the Lord and let me consider what value I shall have of time when I come to die Lord when thy afflicting hand is stretched out to afflict me in the ruine of my estate or the loss of my reputation and honour or any earthly good how do I search and try my spirit and fear to commit the least sin against thee but no sooner hast thou removed thy hand and the danger that threatned is overpast but then how careless do I walk again and think
of God we too must be content sometimes to endure the pruning hook that our superfluous and dead branches may be cut off And that the cold North wind and tempestuous South wind arise and blow upon us that our spices may flow out and our Beloved may eat his pleasant fruits Cant. 4.15 16. Med. 10. Examine thy self whether thy heart be not more tender of offending God in the time of thy affliction than it is in the time of prosperity and whether thou findest thy self so well disposed for works of piety and charity in the time of thy prosperity when the world smileth on thee as thou art in the times of thy Visitation If so thou findest and that thou desirest to reap those fruits of righteousness Thou must then endure to have the fallow fields of thy heart brake up Meditat. 11. The many temptations that a Christian encounters in his heavenly race are not to be numbered or expressed It is so large a field that I might sooner lose my self in it than make a full survey of it Yet to help a little that we may know what to expect and prepare for we may Meditate of the terms which are used to describe and express them as namely that it is called a warfare a wrestling against principalities a runing a race a Pilgrimage a so journing here taking up the Cross the yoak of Christ bearing a burthen labour of love working in the vinyard a passing through the vail of Baca a strait Gate a narow way That he that will venter for it must sell all to purchase it also they are described by preparations for war and for building We must seriously weigh and consider of these difficulties least we fall upon the like absurdities as those do who undertake building or warfare instanced by our Saviour without due calculations of the charge with their own abilities and thereby are forced to desist from their work shamefully with the loss of all their charge and estates Med. 12. God is pleased to exercise the graces of his Servants by various sorts of afflictions this affliction in the body by sickness seems the greatest therefore Satan moved the Lord to smite Job in his body after he had afflicted him in the loss of his Estate and Children and for all that Job retained his integrity still yet the malice of the subtle Tempter surmised That if God would put forth his hand and touch his bone and his flesh he would curse God to his Face thereupon God put him into Satan's hand to do with him what he would only saving his Life The enemy of Mankind having obtained this liberty who but a Devil can imagine the cruelty by him used to this poor Man in every part of his body certainly all the torments that he could inflict he did inflict them he thus being afflicted and with the noisomeness of his sores driven from the society of Men loathing himself and loathed of all Men setting himself down among the Ashes and scraping the filth from his body with a Potsherd Satan then insinuates his Temptation by an instrument of all that can be imagined most prevalent his Wife she thus bespeaks him Dost thou still retain thine integrity Curse God and dye But what success doth he get not such as he had when he made use of the same subtilty against our first Parent uxorious Adam but the contrary a repulse as course and severe as the motion was absurd and impious but yet then after seven days silence and consternation of himself and Friends he cursed the time of his Birth and Conception because they gave life to him with so much misery Health being in the Judgement of wise Men the choicest Jewel that God hath to bestow on mankind in this Life the loss of that depriving us of all other Earthly blessings and comforts of Food Raiment Wealth Honour the Light of the Sun Wife Children Friends and Relations and of the enjoyment of our selves it must consequently be the very greatest affliction This being added to the other two namely the loss of all his substance which might have relieved his distressed condition and defended him from the contempt of the base people and that other loss of his beloved off-spring that were formerly his solaces and might now have stood by him and ministred to him when all others had forsaken him filled the bitter cup of his affliction yet in all this did not Job sin he retained his Integrity and disproved Satan's Objection that he served God for the gifts and benefits he enjoyed If this should be thy condition resolve thou to trust in him though he should kill thee and wait till thy change come And though he hath left thee nothing for which thou mayest be obliged yet bless him and remember that he that took thy comforts from thee is the same who gave them to thee and he may do what he will with his own and as thou art his creature thou owest submission to him and to do him all the sevice thou canst and having done all yet canst not pretend the least merit Besides which thou expectest eternal recompence for all thou doest or sufferest Med. 13. God had but one Son without sin but never a on without suffering since that thou canst not escape afflictions resolve with thy self to wade through them with as little loss as thou maiest and prefer the temporal loss though never so great to avoid the eternal loss bearing in thy body 2 Cor. 4. Alwaies the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life of Jesus may be manifest in thy self Med. 14. If thou wilt have the things of the world thou must take them with their charges and burthens Transit cum onere Terra So must thou take Heaven also with the charge and burthen through many tribulations thou must enter into it Great must be thy troubles if thou be righteous If thou forsake Father Mother Wife Children Houses and Land for Christs sake the hundred fold reward is promised but with trouble Compare then O my Soul the immence series of thy own Afflictions of bodily sicknesses and infirmities also thy inward perturbations of mind with these Scriptures which have foretold thee of them compare them also with the Afflictions of other Saints David Job the three Children Abraham Isaac and Jacob all the Patriarks Prophets and Apostles and the head of us and them our blessed Lord and Saviour and be thou contented to suffer with him and them the Servant is not above his Master if they do these things in a green Tree what will they do to the dry c. The preface to the following Meditation Having considered Gods people in their adverse and melancholly state of suffering intend a while my soul the issue end and success for thus they are contemned in the eye of the world and their life looked upon as madness for the world knows not that they have a better and more enduring substance in Heaven Heb. 10.34 It knows
did not like love cherish and improve that corruption of Nature which was contracted by the fall of Adam But our blessed Saviour hath told us this truth Light is come into the world but this is the condemnation that men love darkness rather than Light because their works are evil If they affect Darkness they will improve it and the more evil their works are so much the more will they improve their darkness and endeavour to extinguish their light hate it and fly from it because it reproves them And they desire not the knowledge of the Most High because it makes against them and their designs and against their impudence and desperateness Besides which the Apostle sheweth another cause whereby this blindness is contracted viz. The God of this world hath blinded their eyes If they have chosen the God of this world to worship and serve him they must needs pull out their weak eyes which nature corrupted had contracted or suffer him to put them out Such terms as Nahash would have imposed upon the men of Jabesh Giliad 1 Sam. 11. From these two causes it proceeds that men who profess themselves wise and have excellent parts yet knowing him to be God they love him not nor like they to worship him nor to retain him in their thoughts but become vain in their thoughts and imaginations and harden their foolish heart The Lord will not by his Spirit alwaies strive with them but gives them up to their affected blindness and to serve such gods as they have chosen Their bellies and their lusts And he takes away his holy Spirit from them and that talent which he had given them And yet the gifts and graces of God are without repentance for they are changed and not God For seeing that neither the word of God which is the power and wisdom of God contained in the Gospel of our Blessed Lord and Saviour will convince them Nor yet his great and mighty works of the Creation of the world and the preservation thereof The hanging of the Earth upon nothing and the other wonderful works of God mentioned in the 25th of Joh nor the usefulness convenientness of the seasons of the year and the benefits which they themselves reap thereby is not by them considered Psal 19. Nor yet God's extraordinary providences when their mighty preparations of forces and Armies are defeated by silly and weak means as those of the Moabites were by Gideon Or when they are subdued and overthrown as it were by the Heavens as the Poet Claudian expressed it conjurati veniunt in classica venti yet they will not see God's hand but say Though the bricks are fallen down we will build with hewn stone Nay though the Lord doth destroy them by his Angels as in Isa 37. the Angel destroyed 185000. of Senacharib's Hoast they will not see God's hand Nor when an arrow shot at a venture shall find out and smite a disguised murtherer between the joints of his armour 1 Kings 22.33 yet others will not fear his justice nor see the hand of the Lord. What can the Lord do more Either he must give them up or put them to shame with further miracles And try whether Xerxes will fetter the Winds as wisely as he settered the Hellespont and chastise them also with stripes But the Sea did not for all that acknowledge any Allegiance to him more than ours did to the good King Canutus who tryed it but only to rebuke and disprove the flattery of some of his flattering Courtiers who vainly and prophanely called him God But neither those Gentiles spoken of Rom. 1. nor any of those Heathenish Atheists had that great Luminary to enlighten them which our modern Atheists have viz. the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ therefore as their light is greater so must their sin be and their condemnation too because they will not see his light who hath in his right hand seven Stars and his countenance is as the Sun shineth in his strength Apoc. 1. The God of this world hath various fallacies and deceits whereby he blinds and beguiles unstable souls and draws them to this In some he blinds their mind with pride as it is said in the Psalms The ungodly is so proud that he careth not for God neither is God in all his thoughts in the place before mentioned They said in the pride of their heart The bricks are fallen down but we will build with hewn stone Isa So we may read in the 37th of Isaiah of Senacharib's proud boastings and how he blasphemed the holy one of Israel and reproached the Lord 24 and 25 verses mention his boastings And 2 Chron. 32.13 and 14. Know ye not what I and my Fathers have done unto all the people of other lands Were the gods of those Nations able to deliver their lands out of my hands 14. That your god should be able to deliver you cut of my hand In this manner Alexander's proud and ambitious mind leading him first to thirst after the inlarging of his Territories left him by his Father and having conquered Athens and become a terrour to all Greece he was chosen their Captain General He then thirsted for the Empire of the world thereupon he went into Asia with his whole Army and overcame Lydia Ionia and Phrygia and every Country that lay in his way And at length engaging with Darius his innumerable Army and extraordinary preparations and Engines he overcome them and overrunning the Bactrians he extended his Dominion to the Indies And at length becomes transported with the greatness of his fortune and success and forgets God and assumes to himself Divine honours And as Alexander was transported and blinded with pride and ambition so are others by lust covetousness drunkenness gluttony vanity and other baits of Satan quite blinded and besotted and held captive by him at his will and are by insensible degrees drawn on further and further to cast off all fear of God and reverence to his worship The same who now after the Conquest obtained ascribes and assumeth to himself Divine honour and calls himself God and Jovis Hammonis filius He before the joyning of the battel would by no means omit to sacrifice to the gods of the place So Curtius saith Sacrificium Dis presidibus loci secit patrio more he was not then an Atheist nor yet a God The same causes may we assign to that Atheism of Caligula for how can we think of such folly and pride but that they were blinded and besotted with it when just then he had counterfeited the Thunder in his brazen Galleries made for that purpose upon a sudden clap of Thunder he run and hid himself under his bed and cryed out Caligula non est Deus he dared not then to threaten the Air as at another time he did Another Means or Obstruction whereby Satan hinders the light of the Gospel from shining into their hearts so that they see not God is success
to pray and not to faint to which agreeth 1 Thes 5.17 Pray without ceasing To the same purpose our Saviour teacheth Luke 11.5 Where he sheweth that Importunity prevailed more than Love and Friendship 1 Sam. 1.15 It is said I poured out my Soul before God Zeal maketh Importunate and fervent in Spirit serving the Lord. If our Lord and Saviour sweat blood we must undergo some pain and if we apprehend the greatness of the benefits which we beg it will make us zealous Another part of the manner which our blessed Saviour hath enjoined is to ask in his name Ephes 3.12 In whom we have boldness c. He hath not only commanded it but to the observance of the command annexed a promise of reward as large as we can desire John 14.13 Whatsoever ye ask the Father in my name I will do it this is an odoriferous perfume to our prayers In his name every knee must bow it is not at his name in the original He is our only Mediator and high Priest who ever liveth to make intercession for us He presents them and recommendeth them to his Father mixing them with sweet odours purifying them from those corruptions of our nature which attend them as Salt water is made fresh by passing through the bowels of the earth And there is no Mediator to this Mediator and we must needs know our own unworthiness to be such that there is nothing in us to deserve acceptance Another part of the manner is that we pray in faith firmly believing that we shall receive he that prayeth for wisdom St. James bids him ask in Faith nothing wavering James 1.7 He forbids that man to think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord that wavereth and calls him a double-minded man for as we oblige men to be real to us and faithful by believing them so we do God This manner of praying is commanded in many places to this belongeth waiting upon God Isa 30.18 There is no promise to those prayers which superstition hath made to the blessed Virgin nor no command for them therefore they are not of faith Another part of the manner is that we pray with reverence and humility Psal 66. Bow down thine ear O Lord and hear me for I am poor and needy Psal Let us draw nigh to him with reverence and Godly fear for our God is a consuming fire The consideration of God's greatness and almightiness must needs beget a reverence in our approachings to him This reverence is discribed in the Publican Luke 8.13 The Publican standing a far off could not so much as lift up his eyes to Heaven but smote upon his breast saying Lord be merciful to me a sinner 6 Mich. 8. What doth the Lord require of thee but that thou do justice love mercy and walk humbly with thy God Isa 57. He resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble The people of Israel were injoyned that when they came before the Lord with their Sacrifices they should say A Syrian ready to perish was my Father and came down to Aegypt with a few We come as Beggars to him for his almes and having nothing but what we receive of him we must therefore ascribe all to his goodness and bounty as we have an example 1 Sam. 2.6 The Lord killeth and maketh alive bringeth down to the grave and up again ver 8. he raiseth up the poor out of the dust and lifteth up the Beggar from the dunghill to set them among Princes And Isa 66.7 He saith To him will I look that is poor and of a contrite Spirit The lifting up of a pure heart and clean hands and a reverent posture of the body are mentioned as necessary in the manner of praying Whilest Moses his hands were lifted up Israel prevailed but when they were down the Amalakites prevailed Our Saviour fell on his face and prayed He hath also taught us paucity of words as most agreeable to the Omniscience Highness and dignity of God and condemneth vain repetitions which inculcate the same thing again for these are nauseous both to God and men and are as much the Sacrifice of fools as their prayers who neglecting all other things of the manner of praying and matter too think it enough to say Amen They bring religion almost to nothing that they may gain the more proselites He enjoyneth also The circumstances of place Mat. 6. That our private prayers be put up in private places where no eye seeth but God alone for such prayer is sincere because it expects a reward from him only Hypocrisie expects it from men The same circumstance he requires in fasting Alms-deeds also and a perfect reconciliation to our offended brethren is required to make our prayers acceptable as our Lord and Saviour teacheth Matth. 5.23 Leave thy gift before the Altar go thy way first be reconciled to thy brother and then offer thy gift 1 Tim. 2.8 the Apostle commands to pray without wrath and doubting The circumstance of Time is also material although we have alwaies need to pray because of the manifold temptations we meet with yet we read of the Apostles that they went up to the Temple at the hour of prayer That sheweth that there is a time designed for that duty Act. 3. and Apocal. 1. St. John was in the Spirit upon the Lords day for though this duty is alwaies seasonable yet there be Special seasons as we may find by experience wherein we are freer in our holy desires and better disposed and God is nigher the oportunity in every work is half the work therefore observe these Mollissima tempora fandi As under the law The first fruits were to be Sacrificed and the first that opened the womb were to be holy to the Lord. By a parity of reason the services that we do to God under the Gospel are to be of the first things Remember thy Creater in the days of thy youth Eccles. 12. Psal 63. Early will I seek thee and the reason of his so seeking is in the following words my soul thirsteth for thee so Psal 42. my voice shall thou hear betimes in the morning and early will I direct my prayer unto thee and will look up Psal 5. when I awake I am present with thee Prov. 8.17 Those that seek me early shall find me But he that seeketh not early may seek long before he find an accepted time We read Gen. 4.3 In process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering to the Lord. And Abel he also brought of the firstlings of the flock and of the fat thereof And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering But to Cain and to his offering he had not respect The difference of the offering shewed the sincerity of Abl's heart above Cain's For he offered but it is not said the first fruits of the ground but the contrary is understood by the opposition of the offerings and
What perfection then can any man pretend to in any grace so great as not to need continual prayer to God to support him water and strengthen him with his grace and holy Spirit lest he fall David protests his delight was in Gods Commandments Psal 119. v. 39. And yet he there prayeth v. 35. Make me to go in the paths of thy Commandments Incline my heart to thy Testimonies In regard the people of God do esteem grace a thing infinitely desirable and sin infinitely detestable and formidable therefore they think they have not enough of any grace till they can do Gods will on earth as it is done in Heaven And think they are in danger of falling because they have seen great Saints sometimes to fall into dreadful sins Therefore pray to be kept from all sorts of sins Keep me from presumptuous sins said holy David and they think they can never fear them enough or fly them enough nor pray against them enough The wickedest of men will pray for remission of sins but they seldom pray for healing them and renewing their hearts that they may be inclined to Gods Commandments that they may be a holy people and that God would fulful his promises of grace in them to put his Spirit in them and to write his Laws in their inward parts It is cursory with common swarers upon their oaths to say immediately God forgive me and presently swear again This shews no repentance nor sorrow for sin nor desire of amendment it rather begs license to offend with impunity what other thing do those who make their daily confession to their Priests and Friers of such sins which they have committed and intend to commit again upon the first opportunity and never think of repentance or amendment to pray for it themselves or to desire others to pray for them prophane Esan shall rise up in judgment against them But do thou pray to be deliver'd from thy offences Psal 39.9 That God would create in thee a clean heart and establish thee with his Spirit Psal 51. And that God would open thine eyes that thou mayest see the wonderful things of his Law and that he would teach thee his Statutes and make thee to go in the paths of his Commandments and the like and then thou wilt be sure of pardon and sanctifying grace Psal 119. and peace of conscience and that thou hast fellowship with God the Father and Jesus Christ his Son 1 Joh. 1.3 And thy joy shall be full v. 4. ib. Because thou abidest in him walking as he walked though not so perfect We must also pray for these graces with a full purpose and resolution of endeavouring our selves to the utmost in the use of the means for attaining them otherwise our Prayers are but only said as Children are taught to say a Prayer It is but lip labour to draw nigh to God with our lips when our hearts are far from him And those who pray for any grace which God hath promised and resolve not to use their own endeavours for the attaining it do not pray in faith because they separate the Commandments from the promises For he that hath promised to give them to us hath also commanded us to get them and to labour for them to strive for them to sell all for them And yet to continue instant in Prayer for them too that he would bless our endeavours and give us the desired grace for Jesus Christs sake in and by whom only thou canst hope to prevail We must also be sensible of our own need which we have of these graces which we seek or else we shall not be servent in Prayer For instance if thou prayest to God to fulfil that promise that he will tread Satan under thy seet thou must be sensible of this that he doth in some temptations get some ground of thee more or less for which thou art grieved and countest it thy unhappiness It may be thou perceivest thy self to have been more angry than became a patient man or that thou hast spoke more than thou didst perfectly know of thine own knowledg or else hast through the bad example or importunity of thy company drunk one Cup too much or hast had uncharitable thoughts or been tempted to any sin Thou art therefore grieved that Satan hath found any thing in thee to work upon and dost desire so much strength as to shake him off resolutely and readily at thy will and pleasure as Joseph shook off his Mistress if God will be pleased to grant it according to this promise and many more to the same estect Thou must also be sensible of the great advantage and benefit which the grace desired will bring If thus thou canst pray thou mayest be sure to speed whatever promised grace thou desirest whatever degree of grace any Saint of God hath had thou mayest have it for asking if thou ask in faith The patience of Job the chastity of Joseph the zeal of David the Justice of Lot the righteousness of Noah the meekness of Moses the faith of Abraham and Peter the charity of St. John the temperance of the three Children and love of God whereby they gave their bodies to be burned for him c. For God hath promised that the weak shall be as the house of David and the house of David as God It is not my scope to enumerate all those promises of grace which God hath made it is every mans great concern to know them and crave them of God as their portion which Jesus Christ hath purchased with his blood for them and to live upon them and lay hold on them Those general promises which God hath made to his Church and People if thou canst not clearly entitle thy self in particular thou mayest notwithstanding pray in the behalf of the Church and shalt not fear to speed Those promises which tend to the ruine of the enemies of the Church and God's enemies are every mans concern to pray for and though he be weak in faith that he can hardly lay hold of them yet if he pray for them that God may be glorified he doth well and may assure himself that he shall succeed because he seeks it for God's glory For the promises of destroying sin and Satan and his works and treading him under foot is God's own interest as well as ours And God is more ready to do it than we to ask it therefore we can never doubt of the granting of these petitions Now most of the promises of the New Covenant which are to express what God will do for his people are of this nature either what God will do against their enemies or for them And being they were freely made they may we hope be freely performed if we seek them These are briefly contained in the four last petitions of the Lord's Prayer and if we can find faith to believe that we shall receive these we shall easily find faith to believe that God will do the
temptations Therefore let not thy many graces and perfections cause thee to overlook thy insufficiency or despise the strength and subtilty of thine adversary who is compared to a roaring Lion but contninue thou instant in this duty and watch lest thou fall as they did And as Moses Noah Lot and David and other Saints have fallen Blessed is he that feareth alwaies If when we would do good evil is present with us much more is it present when we are about secular affairs And further Thou that art throughly sanctified consider what need thy graces have of continual watering that they may not wither nor decay for God who bests knows our needs would not have promised to water us every morning and every moment were there no need but because it is necessary he promised it and we are to beg that he would water us with his own teaching with his word and new dictates of the Spirit And make our soul as a watered Garden And a Garden inclosed and a Fountain sealed that no polluting thing may come into it to defile it and that he would quicken us in his statutes so that all men may be convinced of their necessity and thereby be moved to the performance of this so necessary so profitable and delightful a duty And to seek his face and his grace evermore and to be alwaies upon our knees at the throne of grace when we can other necessities there are which may move us daily to the duty as namely the burden of those sins which lie upon our consciences which whosoever hath felt knoweth how pressing it is and of how great importance the easement will be to his soul that God would speak peace to it And say to his soul that he is his salvation This guilt doth sometimes lye festering in the soul and doth not disquiet at all but woful is the state of it then He that is most speedy in his repentance will most easily find it as the Apostle Peter when he had sinned in denying his Lord and Master immediately went out and wept bitterly But David who lay in his guilt found it a sore burthen too heavy for him to bear Psal 38. And was almost consumed by means of God's heavy hand Psal 39.11 His chastisements made his beauty to consume away like as it were a moth fretting a garment But this brings him to confess his wickedness and be sorry for his sins ib. Psal 38.18 and to pray to God to help him v. 22. And God healeth him in his own time Though he suffer him long to lye under the burden that he may fear to commit the like again And that seeing his own sinfulness and unrighteousness he may seek his righteousness out of himself in Christ Jesus How many sudden and unexpected provocations and temptations do hurry men into the greatest sins that ever they committed in their lives as this of the matter of Vriah did David So that we must fear alwaies and watch and pray to God to keep us and work in us both the will and the deed that is good How many sad and unexpected accidents do we see daily befalling other men as good as wise as strong and as wealthy as our selves some by fire some by water some by shipwrack All the four elements by which we live and the very meat we eat and the drink we drink bring sudden and unexpected death and destruction upon unprepared and secure mortals Sometimes a Tyle falls upon their head of which death is caused sometimes they stumble and falling break a bone and so death cometh And a thousand waies more which no mans wisdom and strength can foresee nor prevent All which when we see them to befal others we know they might as well have befallen our selves if God did not keep us and deliver us from all evil and we must acknowledge with David Psal 41. Thou upholdest me in health And that he would be pleased so to do we call upon him as it is meet and necessary Consider whether this be not the end and purpose for which God suffers them to befal men for so it is intimated in that place of the Prophet In their affliction they will seek me early For God complains there how they had sinned and provoked him and had forsaken him but he would have them return by this means And this is intimated likewise from that of Daniel c. 9. v. 13. All this evil is come upon us yet made we not our prayers before the Lord our God that we might turn from our iniquities Whosoever hath been brought to extremity and found no means in himself to escape he knows this to be his refuge And if he hath obtained his deliverance at the hand of God and shall afterwards forget or neglect his worship he can ill expect that the Lord will be found of him at his time of need afterwards But this is too frequently done as it was by the rebellious Jews Isa 63.16 There they come saying Doubtless thou art our Father but when God shall shake them off and say unto them as he said to them If I be a Father where is my honour certainly they will be put to shame and silence and confusion of face Hence we may take occasion to consider the miserable and helpless condition of those who wholly neglect this duty and will only pray in their extremity Their own consciences it is to be feared will accuse them and tell them that they are of their Father the Devil and probably they will then seek to him too As Saul did when the Lord had forsaken him and the Lord may send them to their lusts which they have served But what spiritual extremities are the children of God often brought to when the Messengers of Satan are sent to busset them as the best may fear they may be And when these and the outward troubles concur to make up a fiery trial such as the holy Apostles experienced many times as they testifie viz. Without were troubles and within were fears and in many other parallel places is testified how are they put to it when Satan thus bruiseth their heel and they are afraid that he will bruise their head also because they seel no power in themselves for the present to bruise his with the two-edged sword of the Word When they find by experience That the Righteous shall scarcely be saved That the way to Heaven is narrow and found but of few The Devil like a roaring Lion rageth to devour them and they see not those that are for them and how strong and many they are and God hides his face and the light of his countenance and makes them as his enemies and seems to have forsaken them and though they have called long he hears not and their distracting griefs and pains are so bitter that they cannot consider of the daies of the right hand of the Most High Let these considerations enter into our hearts for if our case may happen
denying the Lord and his justice and his holiness all which blasphemies are hereby committed and God summoned to the creatures bar and we condemn him of injustice LORD heal us of these our iniquities and reform our complaints that we may have none but filial complaints to thy self as our Blessed Lord Jesus who said My God my God why hast thou forsaken me And whatever we suffer to say with Jeremy in his expostulation Lord thou art Righteous yet let me reason with thee Why doth the ungodly prosper And in all extremity of afflictions retain this thought of God that he is righteous and good And let our complaints of the instruments of our afflictions be mixed with prayers for them as Stephens were And let us strive to bring up our wills to God's will and to submit all to thee saying as our Saviour did Lord if it be possible let this cup pass from me Nevertheless not my will but thy will be done And that thou mayest remove thy afflicting hand and thy Rod and thy servants sins and punishments may be removed let us first amend our lives and forsake our sins Search and try our waies to find out the sins we lie under For thou hast said If thy people which are in Captivity shall bethink themselves and turn unto thee thou wilt help them but if when thou hearknest thou hearest no man speak righteously or to say what have I done how canst thou repent of the punishment when we repent not of our sins Let us therefore remember from whence we are fallen and let us turne again to the Lord and forsake our wicked waies lest thou sayest to us as to Israel thou sayedst 10 Judg. 10. You have forsaken me go and cry unto the Gods that ye have served And having tried our waies and forsaken our wickedness let us in humble holy fervent prayer lift up our hearts with our hands to our God in the Heavens Saying we have transgressed and rebelled but thou hast pardoned Thus Davi'd Princes took counsel against him but he gave himself to prayer and thus the Marriners in the storm to Jonas awake thou sluggard and call upon the name of thy God And then our God will save us as he did the Israelites in Babylon under Ahasuerus when commissions were out to slay them And his hand is not shortned to us neither hath he forgotten to be gracious to them who confess their sins with their aggravations as the Prophet doth we have transgressed and rebelled And justify God as Ezra Thou hast punished us less then our iniquities have deserved Made upon hearing of a Sermon to the same effect LORD whatever duties I perform unto thee let me do them from the principle of love and not of custom or necessity to silence the natural or awakened conscience since thou acceptest the will more than the gift as thou didst the poor widows two mites and it is this that perfumes our Sacrifices and it is thiâ— that thy word calls the fulfilling the law And all that thou hast required of us is contained in thiâ— as it is writen what doth the Lord require of thee but that thou love the Lord thy God and my Son give me thy heart O Lord God take this poor worthless heart too good for the World and those brutish pleasures which we so willingly give it to and eagerly and earnestly affect but not any way good enough for thee who by thy bounty and beneficence to us every day dost oblige us more than all we have or can doe will requite but the world can do no such things for us and if beauty excellency worth wisdom kindness beneficence parentage free love pardon or any other motive whatsoever would prevail to win and allure us in thee it is I will therefore resolve to devote my affections to thee and ever to begin my meditation in the morning when I awake with the sweet remembrance of thy undeserved kindness to me When we were cast out in our blood in the open field in the day of our nativity when no Eye pitied us to wash us swaddle us salt us bath us and bind us up then thou passedst by and castedst thy eye of love upon us and didst all these things for us and nourishedst us and broughst us up and then the time of love was and thou madest us beautiful and comely in thy own righteousness and marriedst us to thy self and bestowedst upon us thy self And all that is thine And all that are thine And all this didst thou to us as a stranger passing by and unconcerned for what had our perishing been to thee but thou as the good Samartan didst freely pity us nay while we were thy enimies thou didst all this for us shall not all this love move us nor is this all Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive what the Lord hath prepared for them that love him If we consider the particular benefits we have received from the hand of God and how highly we valued them and earnestly sought them before we had them and the great evils we have been deliverd from and how much we feared them and how restless we were in the fear till we were delivered from them we shall admire thy goodness and love thee with admiration And if we consider thy excellency we may love and admire the perfection and beauty of thee and thine infinite wisdome and power in all thy works in the Heavens in the earth and in the ocean in the Sun Moon Stars the Seasons of the year the living creatures and in the smallest of them O Lord since we cannot but see all loveliness excellency and desirableness in thee let our first and last meditations begin and end the the day with thee eager to take the first opportunity of approaching thy throne and as loath to leave the sweet contemplation of thy exelencies and goodness O Lord God almighty thy holy word teacheth us That except we eat thy Sons body and drink his blood we have no life in us And that whoso eateth his flesh and drinketh his blood hath eternal life Joh. 6.53 54. Give us worthily to receive this Sacrament that we may have eternal life Give us to come to it with grace in our heart that our graces may be increased and strengthened as by the food of our souls as the body is by the food of the body which is not betterd by food if it be not living no more can our souls be if we be dead in trespasses and sins and as the body turns the most wholsom nourishment to its hurt to diseases if the stomach be full of ill humours so our souls shall be worse as Judas was for these holy Sacraments if we come not to them prepared with repentance Therefore as the Lord was pleased to wash his Disciples feet before he gave them the Sacrament of his body and blood that they might be clean and fit for
not that these Afflictions work for them a more exceeding and eternal weight of glory It knows not that they are sent to make them partakers of his Holiness nor seeth the munition of rocks about them they know not the supports that they have in their sufferings from Jesus Christ and the holy Ghost nor the joy proceeding from the exercising and improving their Faith Patience and other Graces nor the carresses and embraces between Christ and his Spouse and although they may read his Love-letters to her yet they do not understand the hope which she hath by the comfort of the Scriptures And though they see them meet at the Ordinances they know not how that God makes them joyful in the house of prayer Isa 56.7 Psal 69. How they are satified with the pleasure of Gods house How their souls are satisfied as with marrow and fatness when they praise God with joyful lips Psal 63. Or how they rejoyce in the Lord. And sing for joy nor that it is their priviledge that God hath given them his statutes and his laws Nor how it is a priviledge to suffer for Christ and not to be dismayed while they have God for their shield Prov. 30. And because they know not of their joys and comforts they like not their waies nor chuse their portion because they are led by their senses and this life is lived by faith and not by sight And the God of this world hath blinded their eyes that the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ might not shine unto them Our Saviour tells his Apostles that they are the light of the world their successours who preach to us should shew us fully the sweets pleasantness comfort safety and profitableness of Religion and draw us with the cords of love as Christ leads his Spouse into the banqueting-house into the garden of Nuts and allures her with all manner of sollaces and courtships Cant. 7.13 At our gates are all manner of pleasent fruits new and old which I have laid up for thee O my Love so ought Pastors to inculcate these priviledges of Gods Children as Gods word doth 54. of Isaiah at large And our blessed Saviour in the 6. of St. Matth. where he sheweth Gods paternal care over men to ease them of care that they may intend the matters of their eternal salvation And largly inculcates Gods love to them and his own love Fides Exultans Meditations of that Incomparable Priviledg which Gods Children only can have The joy in the Holy Ghost Motto The voice of joy and thanksgiveing is in the dwellings of the righteous The holy Scripture is very full of proofs to make it out that they have this priviledg Rom. 14.17 The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Gal. 5.22 The fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace c. 1 Thes 1.6 Having received the word in much affliction and with joy of the Holy Ghost 2 Cor. 7.4 I am exceeding joyfull in all our afflictions I am filled with comfort Psal 5.11 Let all those that put their trust in thee rejoyce Let them ever shout for joy because thou defendest them Let them also that love thy Name be joyful in thee Psal 97. v. 12. Rejoyce in the Lord O ye Righteous Acts. Repent and be baptised every one of you for the remission of your sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost And Psal 59. My joy shall be in the Lord. Our blessed Saviour testifieth the truth of this Assertion John 14.16 17. I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter whom the world cannot receive because it seeth him not neither knoweth him but ye know him because he dwelleth with you and shall be in you Comfort gives joy The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit Besides the Authorities cited and many more which might be cited It is evidenced by reason that the Saints have such a priviledge The first Reason to prove it may be this That the chief object of their desire is grace Psal 42. As the Hart panteth c. Psal 63. From whence I argue That the desire accomplished is sweet to the soul Prov. 13.19 And their desire shall be accomplished Prov. 20.24 The desire of the Righteous shall be granted Psal 145.19 He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him Now that the object which is chief in their desires is grace is proved by Psal 26.8 The desire of our souls is to thy Name And Psal 119.97 Oh how I love thy Law all the day long is my meditation therein Desire is the act Love the passion from which it proceeds Psal 1.2 His delight is in the Law of the Lord. Delight is the enjoyment of that which is loved and desired Fruition or enjoyment is joy So the holy Spouse accompts it Cant. 1.2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth for his love is better then wine The Holy Gost doth and will work these desired graces in their souls and Christ will returne reciprocal love and carresses to his Spouse and the fulness of joy and will come in and sup with him that opens to him Revel 3.20 Then the soul injoyes her self when she sits under his shadow with delight Can. It is satisfied as with marrow and fatness Psal 63. Another Argument to prove it may be a Congruo It well became the goodness of so good and gracious a Soveraign when according to his Kingly office he put the yoak upon the necks of his Subjects to facilitate the yoak and sweeten the lives of his faithful Subjects in the greatest measure when his goodness was such that he laid down his life for them John 10.11 I am the good shepherd the goodshepherd layeth down his life for the Sheep He draws them to obedience by love the gratest that can be imagined he promiseth them rewards greater than could be conceived Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither hath it entered into the heart of man what the Lord hath prepared for them that serve him And to facilitate their obedience gives them the holy Spirit to help their infirmities And sends him for a comforter to relieve and comfort them when they are afflicted oppressed or destitute of comfort in the world which he foresaw they would be therefore promised to send it and his Truth will not suffer him to fail so that when their afflictions do abound their consolations do much more abound And when their outward man doth decay their inward man is renewed day by day that makes amends for what their outward man suffers with the certainty of their hope begotten and strengthened in them by the Holy Ghost That our vile bodies shall one day be made like to his glorious body That when this earthly Tabernacle is dissolved we have a building not made with hands but eternal in the Heavens which hopes the Holy Ghost doth assure to us and thus gives us
with Anger Also examine thine own reason whether it be not more honourable and more satisfying to thee to shew meekness goodness of Nature ingenious Education Courtesie Generosity Love and Pity in forgiving affronts and provocations than to shew thy Pride Malice Boldness Undaunted Spirit and Courage in revenging them besides the timerity of hazarding thine own Life and Immortal Soul Then examine thy self also in all other actions of Holiness and Unholiness viz. If thou hast led thy Life in Temperance Sobriety and Frugality whether hast thou not found the benefit of it throughout thy Life in thy Mind Body and Estate But if thou hast otherwise lead thy Life thy Health is impaired thy Estate wasted thy Soul polluted and the faculties of thy mind dulled and crased The like examination thou mayest make if thou hast kept thy Body in Chastity whether thou hast not found this to be the best means to preserve thy Life Health and Estate and to propagate the same benefits to thy Issue besides many other blessings which this and every other Grace hath entailed upon it But if thou hast on the contrary been addicted to thy lusts thou wilt feel the pains of it in thy bones when age groweth upon thee and if thou hast not quite wasted thy Estate yet either thou hast no lawful Issue to inherit it or if any yet they are unsound or such as thou hast no comfort of for such persons who are thus addicted are generally thus punished with one of these punishments as we read of Solomon and have seen in our own times Hast thou fed the hungry and cloathed the naked with thy fleece thou knowest that thou hast treasure in Heaven if not thy riches will make themselves wings But alas if thou couldst attain all secular ends and interests Salva Conscientia what are they to him that carrieth on the design of an eternal Interest viz. For eternal happiness how inconsiderable how impertinent how vile But since holiness is the only meanes of attaining happiness and lusts and unholiness are the obstacles and impediments that hinder us and deprive us of it then be constant in the way of holiness and take this for thy design and main business according to that which the Poet Horrace directeth thee by the light of Nature Lib. Epistolar Primo Ep. 6. Si virtus hoc sola potest dare fortis Omissis Hoc age deliciis And Hoc primus repetes opus hoc postremus omittas And make no Omisions of duty for that puts thee back T were endless labor and needless to cite all authorities Civil Moral and Divine that might be brought to prove holiness to be the way and meanes of obtaining happiness for it is so inseparably joyned to happiness that it can hardly be distinguished from eternal happiness which I conceive is begun in this life in holiness I will only mention the Authority of the greatest of the Sons of men John the Baptist who makes repentance and workes meet for repentance to be the way to bring us to Christ who is the way the truth and the life eternal In whom we have eternal life and happiness And I conceive all men will confess the same though in workes they deny it All the precepts which our blessed Saviour taught he propounded as the means to attain happiness And the doers of them he pronounceth happy actually in the present tense likewise all the Commandments which God enjoyned the Israelites were therefore given them to make them happy and when they kept them they did make them happy as they made them holy Whither tend all Divine and Moral precepts and Philosophical improvements of the light of nature but to repress mortiify the inordinate passion and preturbations of the mind and the lusts of the flesh the lusts of the eyes and the pride of life that by this means we might enjoy a sweet and happy life in all ease rest and peace joy quietness holiness and happiness But imagining that the sensual persons of this age will still oppose and say that happiness is mans interest but the holiness of man is Gods design and interest I answer first What profit shall the Lord have if thou do good 2. Admitting it were Gods Interest it follows if he be greater than thou and thou canst not attain thy end without him then thou must of necessity promote his design and do nothing to cross it Holiness Described 3. Meditation Though it be too great a task for me to undertake nay for any creature for he hath found folly in the Angels and the Heavens are not clean in his sight therefore God himself teacheth us by his word and Spirit And from that word of truth these few collections are drawn for my own help in this grace The Negative part that sheweth what is not true holiness though by some it is supposed to be holiness is the first to be considered Our Saviour describes the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees and then tells his Disciples that Except their Righteousness exceeds theirs they shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Their Righteousness is condemned as insufficient for they justified themselves and condemned others and did their works of Piety and Charity to be seen of men and were Hypocrites Therefore Jesus Christ pronounces several woes against them Again our Saviour reproves the Jews ingeneral for relying upon the outward priviledges without the inward Qualifications saying unto them Think not to say within your selves we have Abraham for our Father This priviledg without the life of Holiness is like a dead body without a soul which the Prophet Jeremiah reproves thus Trust not in lying words saying The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord are these Jeremiah 7.4 They did frequent the Temple with their Sacrifices but the Prophet saith you trust in lying words Do you think to lye steal and come into my house Matth. 7.22 Christ shews how that many will come at the day of Judgment with great confidence saying we have prophesied in thy name cast out Devils and done many wonders But he will disown them how little then will it avail the Papists to call themselves the Church and their Pope Peters Successour Our Saviour Christ doth divide professors into 2 sorts Mathew 25. Under the terme of wise and foolish Virgins some had Oyl in their Lamps and some none all had Lamps The causes why men rest in the forme of Godliness without the power are first because they see a necessity that their actions must be changed but do not see a necessity that their hearts must be changed The Apostle Paul in the 3d. of the Philip. Refutes the Righteousness which the Jews imputed to their circumcision and outward priviledges and calls them the concision and vers the 3d. We are the Circumcision which worship God in the Spirit and have no confidence in the flesh This is the reall circumcision whereby we have the
helpe in trouble I have wilfully opened a gap to let in a stream of corruptions a Breach is made in my spiritual Castle for all the enemies of my soul to break in at and I am disposed to greater sins which by little and little creep in and get ground by degrees till at last it reigns uncontrolled and brings us in the end to a hardned heart a seared conscience that cannot repent and eternal damnation I consider also what might and ought to have drawn me from my sin to the contrary virtue What strength of humane reason what moral precepts natural modesty and shame fear of being seen examples of moral serious and religious men to the contrary serenity of mind the publick good and my own private good contentation and transquility and happiness with many more motives from the light of nature and good education ready to inform and restrain a mind willing to be virtuous Besides innumeâ—able other restraints from the word of God the instructing of the Spirit The life of faith the fear of God and his alseeing eye the terror of the curse upon the disobedient Hope of Heaven and eternal recompences to the obedient the exceeding and eternal weight of glory which is laid up for us the exceeding precious promises able not only to support the soul of a believer in the greatest difficulties but also to ravish it which excess of joy under the greatest sufferings Besides if I had no such light of nature no education no knowledg of the scriptures and humane precepts no knowledg of histories of Gods dealing in judgment with other sinners who have felt the truth of all the threatnings denounced against sinners as Josephus and the scriptures and other writings testify the Jews did and all notorious sinners have done and daily do if I had no promises to allure no threatnings to drive me no conscience to testify unto me no testimony of other men in all ages both wicked and righteous yet this one argument were perswasive enough to have deterred me from wickedness to the service of God namely my dependance on him for the necessaries and conveniencies of life my supplys my sustentation and preservation from imminent dangers unexpectedly surprising me This might be sufficient to make me bewaile my own improvidence and folly in casting away my succour my hope my sustentation safeguard and preservation for that which hath not profited me I therefore with grief of heart bewail my self But that which may cumulate more grief is to consider the ungratitude of my sinful soul for so many mercies received which have transported me with admiration As when I received form the hands of the Lord houses that I built not and wealth that I laboured not for whereby I was delivered from getting my bread with the sweat of my brow and the labor of my mind and body in pain and sorrow with continual carping and caring and restlesness the benefit whereof I continually enjoy with comfort therefore my duty of gratitude obligeth me to consider what I shall render to God and to use these mercies to his honour and glory and not to abuse them to his dishonour in sinning against him And when I have done the contrary I have dealt unworthily with so good a God for if Hanna would needs retribute for one mercy what must I do for so many The many deliverances that God hath wrought for me in bringing me out of troubles which I have sometimes brought upon my self sometimes my enimies have brought upon me sometimes the hand of God hath brought upon me and my relations either for our sins or for our trials out of all which the Lord delivered me so that I can testify and set to my seale that God is true and hath performed all his gracious promises to me that he hath made to them that fear him He hath been with me in six troubles and in the seventh he hath not forsaken me his deliverances have exceeded both these numbers therefore I must confess that he hath also verified his largest promises to me saying I will never leave thee nor forsake thee And also when he saith No weapon formed against thee shall prosper And when he saith Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it For his mercies have been greater than my desires and my tongue would fail me to recount them All which fly in my face and testify against me when I sin for how can I recount all his benefits which I have received from him upon which I live beginning with that of being born of virtuous parents And all the deliverances which he hath wrought for me in abundance of mercy and chiefly that he hath delivered my soul from Hell But I must reflect upon my sin with shame and confusion of face with loathing and abhorring my self in sackcloth and ashes with fasting and depriving my self of all comforts and injoyments with humiliation and abasing my self with earnest and humble supplications sighs and tears of a contrite heart but when I consider the vows promises and protestations which I have made to God in my time of trouble when I sought to God for my deliverance and that he did pluck me as a brand out of the fire and did hear my prayers and delivered me and did grant my requests above my desire or hope as he did Jacobs These broken vows put me to shame and cause me to abhor my self and with Ephraim to smite upon my breast desiring in my heart that I could do any thing whereby I might but undo one sinful action or that I could expiate the same by any sufferings but my conscience tells me that all I can do or suffer through the whole course of my life will not be sufficient to expiate or attone for one sin so as to make me innocent again Therefore I have resolved and vowd to sin no more And I have wished my self dead that I might no more sin and I have resolved to separate my self from the world that I may spend all my time in serving God who hath not dealt by me after my sins Thy word O Lord hath shewed me that if thy people repent them of their sins and forsake them though they be as scarlet thou wilt make them white as snow and thou wilt abundantly pardon them and thou wilt repent thee of the evil which thou bringest upon them If Ahab go mourning thou wilt not bring the evil in his days and all thy threatinings are only conditional unless we repent So the City of Ninivie diverted thy wrath by turning unto thee and seeking thee with fastings and prayers This duty all the Prophets taught This St. John the Baptist preached Saying Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand This our Blessed Saviour and his Apostles taught Therefore let me practise this so necessary a duty but unless thou inablest me with thy grace and unless thou givest me repentance I cannot have it of my self because my heart is hard of it self