Railings Revilings Censures Uncharitableness Cursings Excommunicatings Fines Imprisonments Murderings Massacrings for things extrinsecal and foreign to their holy Profession recommended in the Mosaical Prophetical Evangelical and Apostolical Writings As if God had not delivered Precepts enough to guide Men to Heaven ever Party must have new of its own to torture Mens Consciences doubting that there are not Sins enough to damn Men unless we by our whimsies make large additions to the sum discovering thereby how much we are affraid that those who otherwise would securely tread in the Paths of Life and gain the Crown of Glory should not stumble and fall upon our new created Blocks and thereby precipitate themselves into Hell For what else is the meaning of our unwritten Traditions unwritten Canons unwritten Offices unwritten Orders and an hundred more by the by 's Tricks and Snares and Trains and Traps made to help the Devil more certainly to catch enough Is not the Holy Word of God the Scripture in its Rules and Laws too oft too much too foully-transgress'd but the Mouth of Hell must be gagg'd and rack'd wider with new devices that it may be capacious enough to receive the numberless numbers that we resolve to send thither by man-made Sins as if it were in despite of God And least our self-devised Engins should fail of effecting this and a poor quivering trembling Conscience that looks asquint at them should chance to preserve its Innocence and Allegiance to God and its present Light and Sentiments by sliping out of or breaking through the Snare and refusing to wound it self to eternal Death with the Ponyard we put into its hands we must jog and thrust home and drive on its slow and cautious pendulous Arm by the violence of such severe indispensible Sanctions so strictly look'd after so rigorously executed and all under a bold pretence of Divine Warrant that if Men have any thing of Nature Sense and Commiseration to their own Flesh their dearest Yoke-fellows their pretty tender innocent Babes they must be cruelly enforc'd to determine to be damn'd for them or kill their Hearts by dying before their Eyes under as many Agonies as ingenious Malice can invent and this perhaps a thousand times over beside the bequeathing them to the same or more miserable Fortune and all this is doing God good Service As if the Lord that bought Mens Souls to ease them Matth. 11.29 30. had done it only to sell them again to the most bloody butchering Fiends to torment them And God who with so much severity prohibits Cruelty Murder Bloodshed by his Laws had laid in an exception and given Commission for this to as many as can so divest all sense and bowels of Humanity and Christianity as to judge none to be Men and Christians but themselves and invest so much of Wolf Tyger Dragon as to do the utmost to make all others Proselytes of the Gates of Heil like themselves when in the mean time Men with the greatest impunity may violate the noblest Ordinations of Heaven or upon Prosecuon buy off or commute the Penance for a little Trash and Dirt. Oh dear Lord Jesus how long how long shall such a Spirit Triumph and ride in Scarlet How long shall they tear in pieces thy People and Heritage under the Beasts Skins wherewith they have cloathed them Oh blessed Spouse of Christ How long must thou be affronted with the violence of such beastly Ruffians that under a disguise pretend to be thy-very self that they may the more securely ravish and destroy thee The Wolf in the Lambs skin unsuspectedly to devour it A Beast with Horns like a Lamb but a Voice like a Dragon Rev. 13.11 Well Christ's Servants are not Wolves Thorns and Thistles Matth. 7.15 16. Profitable to none hurtful to all publick Curses But Sheep Vines Fig-trees their Temper their Behaviour their Fruit altogether good meek gentle sweet refreshing reviving pleasing generally useful publick Blessings like their Master every way desirable grateful all being better for them none worse in Goods good Name Body or Soul their Designs their Principles their Temper and Spirit their Behaviour and Purpose and Practice being the general benefit of Mankind and the Church of God especially that wherein their Lines are fallen They think it they represent it they indeavour further to make and preserve it a goodly Heritage If it hold the Head if it uphold the main if its established Doctrine be truly Christian if its design be true goodness if its Worship in the substance be Divine They bless God for it they cover its Blemishes they bear with its Infirmities they further its Ends they endeavour to inlarge it to adorn it with real Beauties to vindicate it from Reproaches to promote its Unity Prosperity Peace Purity Felicity lament its Miseries Breaches Corruptions Defects Deformities but expose it but defame it they dare not they will not This is a truly Catholick Spirit proceeding in all its actings upon truly Catholick Principles This and this only when the risk of Partiality Censoriousness Self-idolizing Faction Fury Barbarousness Madness Devilism is run will stand upon a secure basis and yeild a Man the blessed Fruits of Comfort Joy Peace and Contentation But I must come out of the Clouds and be plain Therefore shall first direct what ought to be owned by a Publick Spirit next what Principles will enable a Man to own what he ought 1. Common Humanity engages to be well wishers to that general Nature which is diffused through all the Species and love that in any Man which I honour in my self All the Butcheries and Barbarities on Earth issue from Mens degeneracy from Humanity into a ferine or diabolical Nature But since I am a Man nothing humane shall be foreign to my Cognisance to my Compassion to my Ear to my Conscience When the Vices of Persons give a check to my Bowels the vertue of the Nature shall retrieve their yearning motions and when I can see nothing in Men to engage I will endeavour to imitate the best of Paterns in taking Arguments from my self I will not so much regard their Conditions as their Capacities and that in all their Possibilities If this Nature be personally joined to God why should not I be joined to it in Affection Shall I tread that Man in the dirt who may shine as a Star in the Firmament of Glory Shall a Companion of Angels and God himself be worse dealt with than a Devil May Heaven receive him and shall not my Heart Is God so unkind to me as to give me an Example of brutishness to my own Nature I must not be worse to him than I would have him to me were our circumstances changed the measures I meet to him shall I receive of God 2. Christianity next both renders a man more meet and lays upon me a further bond to desire endeavour and effect his good The honour of the Name the power of the Thing The famed Mr. Fox could never deny
got to the foot of that Ladder whose top is Heaven Comfort is the Off-spring of God and thus descends to Man The matter and substance of it or the thing comforting is originally something of or from the Divine Nature it self Which when we had forfeited by Sin the ever-blessed Jesus God's Eternal Son did interpose to regain and purchase for us and remove all impediments to the conferring it on God's part Whence he is call'd the Consolation of Israel Luk. 2.25 And our Consolations are said to abound by Christ 2 Cor. 1.5 If there be any Consolations in Christ is the Hypothesis of a very powerful Argument Phil. 2.1 And that Prayer 2 Thes 2.16 17. is very considerable Now our LORD Jesus Christ himself and GOD even our Father who hath loved us and given us everlasting Consolation through Grace Comfort your Hearts and establish you in every good Word and Work Hence the Father who is the principal Author and Efficient hath obliged himself to bestow it and therefore is call'd the God of all Comfort 2 Cor. 1.3 God that comforteth those that are cast down 2 Cor. 7.6 See Isa 51.11 12. Hos 2.14 Isa 66.13 Especially that remarkable place foremention'd Heb. 6.16 17 18. The Holy Ghost hath his part also as removing the Impediments of Comfort on Man's part preparing for it and in the use of the means of Grace and Peace the Word and Ordinances applying it actually to us whence if our Translation be of any Authority he has the Name of Comforter given and appropriated to him Joh. 14.16 c. I mention the Word and Ordinances of God as the means of Comfort and not without warrant Psal 119.82 Mine Eyes fail for thy Word saying when wilt thou Comfort me Rom. 15.4 Whatever things were written aforetime were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope And to this purpose is it said of the Comforter Joh. 14.26 He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you And Joh. 15.26 He shall testifie of me all this in pursuance of his Office as Comforter Now by these means 1. He reveals Comfort to us in the Covenant and Promise 2. Declares to us the terms and conditions upon which Comfort may be assuredly obtain'd and 3. Works those Conditions in us 1. Repentance to qualifie and prepare for it 2. Faith to apprehend and apply it which 4. Experience feels with all other connex Graces operating effectually in our Hearts Wherefrom Lastly A full Assurance arises 1. That our Graces are sound and sincere 2. That the Promises are our Portion the Lord our God Christ our Saviour the Holy Spirit our Sanctifier Comfort Joy and Heaven our Inheritance by special Covenant-right and from all these together necessarily grows actual Peace of Conscience and true spiritual Consolation but then 't is only as far as we have the first Assurance for without this we cannot assume to our selves any true Joy and Comfort as far as the rest issue in Assurance but no farther have we solace in and from them Let there be as firm a Foundation laid both without me and within me as is possible yet if I know nothing of it my Heart is uneasie and unsettled I am no better for it But knowing that Sincerity gives right to all in God as soon as ever I attain true Faith of Evidence all is composed into a quiet Settlement and Peace And so certain is this that even the false and fallacious Joys of both Hypocrites and prophane Persons must have an answerable perswasion in the Mind of a right to them For no Man can take comfort in that which he knows he hath nothing to do with Indeed their Assurance is as groundless though they do not know so much as their Comfort is illuding and impostorous and alway the nature of the Comfort doth perfectly answer the quality of the Assurance if this be sound and good that is so also if otherwise we gull our selves into real woe under a delusory dream of merely phantastical Consolation Hence there 's an absolute necessity of abundance of Experience and diligent trial whether our Experience be conform to the Word of God if we desire that our Assurance may stand upon a secure basis For if we feel not the real effects of Divine Power and Goodness fulfilling to us in truth the Promise and Covenant of Grace in writing the Divine Laws in our Hearts and enabling and exercising us to observe and obey them we can have no Assurance that any thing is right within us or gives right to any thing without us We must experience a sound Work that without fallacy may be ascribed to God himself For no Grace is true which is not of God's creating to him doth the Scripture every where ascribe it One full place for all Ezek. 36.26 27. A new Heart also will I give you and a new Spirit will I put within you and I will take the stony Heart out of your Flesh and I will give you an Heart of Flesh and I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes and ye shall keep my Satutes and do them Then shall ye remember your own evil ways and your doings that were not good and shall loath your selves in your own sight for your Iniquities and for your Abominations c. First the Principle and Power must be confer'd by God then and not till then the practice by Man will commence and begin but all under the influence of Divine Grace 'T is first I will I will then you shall and again to show that the very you shall though Man's act yet is not of and from Man it follows not for your sake do I this do I therefore not you without me nor so by my aid neither as that the doing it can more justly and truly be ascribed to you than me yet will not I do it without you for ye shall loath your selves i. e. by my Power nor will I do it without your asking for Ver. 37. Yet for this will I be enquired of by the House of Israel to do it for them We must then have good experience especially of the Work of Divine Grace in making the soundness of our Actings of Repentance and Faith apparent and the fruits of both must concur to give a clear Testimony that they are right and genuine such a full and thorow spiritual sense and feeling must we have of them and their agreeableness to the Rules and Laws of Scripture that require them as to be able to satisfie our selves and approve our Consciences to God that we do not play the Hypocrites and cheat our selves and the World with Counterfeits instead of unsophisticate sincere Graces else we can never be blest with any certainty that God is ours and his Comforts ours and therefore cannot groundedly take comfort in him 'T is then demonstratively clear that
Malignant Spirits These being the Permissions of Providence to punish Sin which as Executions of Justice God attributes to his own Efficiency Amos 3.6 Though mediately may we not also refer hither the immediate Effects of his Power and Justice in Plagues Sicknesses Famines c. Since they agree though not in the Instruments and Means yet in the Original and Author and Meritorious Cause and Principal End 3. Despairing Thoughts and Reflections are beyond all Imagination Afflictive and of this Nature we find some oppressing the Psalmist's Spirit although they were not of the worst kind For despair he did not of Mercy and Relief from Heaven a Misery of all other most intolerable He only despaired as being destitute of all Hope of Help and Succour from Man Vers 16. Who will rise up for me Who will stand up for me The redoubled Interrogation implies a more vehement Negation None none at all For unless the Lord had been my help I had gone without Redemption Vers 17. All the hopes I had upon Earth did utterly fail there was none shut up or left I was reduc'd to the utmost extremity and that was Gods opportunity He was seen in the Mount when the Knife was at the Throat and defunct was all considence in Man Now although the failure of all Earthly Supports be grievous yet when a Man has encouragment to devolve himself on the never-failing Goodness of God he is never destitute of a Satisfaction which will abundantly Counterveil those troublesome Disappointments and therefore his Condition is not really miserable But if this fail also if his strength and hope Perish from the Lord Lam. 3.18 that he be in Saul's sore Distress 1 Sam. 28.6 15. and can have a Prospect of nothing but Eternal Death and Damnation Tongue cannot tell nor Heart imagine the Anxieties and Agonies which as a Prolepsis and Anticipation of Hell sting and excruciate his miserable Soul There 's nothing on this side that Dungeon of everlasting Darkness and Woe can equal this which made Spira sometimes wish himself in Hell that he might feel the worst Oh doleful Perplexity indeed when a Man out of a distracting fear of Hell desires to feel it Oh Horror when anguish of Mind under dreadful Expectations enforces his will to chuse what is infinitely more anguishful and the Drops of Brimstone and Fire that scald his Conscience urge him to a strange unaccountable freeness to be ever consuming in that Bottomless Ocean where Mitigation of Torment end of Misery abatement of Sense will be not only desperate but impossible Oh Despair thou art the sum and strength of Wretchedness the Bitterness and Poison of a never ending Death the Fuel and Flame of an unutterable Torturous Hell Blessed is the Soul that never shall never must feel thy racking Horrors in this or another World CHAP. XII Comforts in general MY last Explicatory Undertaking was to consider and describe the Comforts which now cast so benign an Aspect and Influence upon this Holy Mans afflicted disconsolate Soul They may be considered either Formally or Materially Formally in their proper Nature and true Constitution as an inward refreshment and ease to the Heart Comfort is a Map of Paradise the lovely Meet-Help and Succour of desolate distressed Man the Blessed Repast and Banquet of Holy Angels and Saints The Uncreated Eternal Heaven and Jubilee of God himself the Light wherein he ever dwells that spreads abroad its sweet reviving Rays as largely and liberally as its Fountain the super-intending Care and Goodness of Heaven and especially unto the humble and contrite Heart setling it in a firm and durable Repose and Peace And when the Sin of degenerate Man had banish'd it from the Earth and his own Soul the infinitely Wise and All-knowing God the Father the dearly beloved Word and Wisdom of God his only Begotten Son and the Eternal Spirit of Truth and Grace did by an ever adoreable astonishing Method of Goodness and Love contrive a Retrieval thereof that under its loss Man might not continue the most miserable of the whole Creation 'T is the sweet reviving Breath of boundless Grace and compassion in the Eternal Father infusing new Life and Vigour into Fainting Groaning Bleeding Dying Hearts and Enspiriting them for God A refreshing Beam from the Son of Righteousness which infuses Warmth Strength and Soul into the disconsolate Heart of dejected Man that lies benighted in a Hell of Misery and Darkness The Oyl of Life poured out by the Holy Ghost upon a Benumbed Frozen Restive Soul which gently turns the Wheels of Action in a smooth free ready easie speedy Course and continues them in an unwearied motion toward Heaven A sweet and lovely Paraphrase upon the Promises Ingraven in a Wounded Heart by the Finger of God A powerful Antidote to the Poison of Tormenting Grief and Despair sweeter than Sorrow can be sowre An all-satisfying Foretast and Anticipation of the never Intermitting never Terminating Joys of Eternity When the Sovereign Majesty of Heaven would Ingratiate himself and though in a humble Demission and Debasement of his Glory yet appear in his highest Loveliness to Man 't is in a Robe of Light Joy Comfort and Peace and when a Wounded Spirit that 's discouraged in its Work by the pressure of its own self-created Woes desires to be entertained into and impowred for and chearfully to engage in his Service it implores and sues for the Joy of the Lord to be its Strength When God's Heralds have been denouncing War to Rebels Vengeance against Enemies thereby terrifying them into a War and Enmity against their Sins He next Commissions them as his Embassadors to revive those troubled Souls with a message of glad Tidings of Joy and Peace and Consolation 'T is the refreshing Dew of Heaven upon a barren heart that has been scorched and parched with the fiery Indignation of the Almighty which causes it to bring forth Fruit with rejoycing The gracious Smile of the ever Blessed Jesus upon a weeping wounded Spirit that 's sick of its sins and sores sick for the sense of his Love A hand let down from above to lay hold upon and bring up from the deep an oppressed Spirit sunk with the weight of its own woeful thoughts into an unfathomable Abyss of Miseries A returning Pillar of Cloud and Fire to an Israelite indeed that was bewildred and lost in a vast howling Wilderness of Danger and Horror to direct and lead it with Joy to its Coelestial Rest A secure and welcome Port of safety and repose for a weather-beaten Soul that by the storms and surges of Almighty Vengeance hath been Shipwrack'd and split all to pieces in a Contrition and Humiliation for Sin A Bed of ease and quiet for a weak and sickly weary heart which hath been wrestling and labouring under the weighty Load of Divine Wrath set on and made more grievous by the Lashes of a Scourging Conscience A Heaven of unspeakable Delight and Satisfaction descending into and raising
required as the sole Conditions of his Grace and Mercy and that there is as perfect an Agreement betwixt their inward Sensations and State and those God will certainly own and embrace with his Love as can reasonably be expected and desired Yet will they find some subtle cunning studied evasions and shifts to perswade themselves and others that they have some reason to be mad in rejecting all and will stifly argue against their own inward sense and feeling and lye against their own Experience rather than by receiving these Comforts comply with the Bounty and Kindness of Heaven that so freely and graciously tenders them Why then dost thou contend against thy self oh my Soul and quarrel with the admirable Condescensions the most bountiful Tenders Largess and Munificence of Heaven Art thou weary of thy Sins and under a practical Conviction of their abominable offensiveness to God heartily willing to relinquish all following thy desires and resolutions hereof with serious Cares and Endeavours not abiding the very thoughts or hankerings of thy heart that lean towards them carefully avoiding all Occasions Temptations Motions which might irritate thee to commit them in indignation and revenge against thy self for indulging thy self in them now resolutely bent with the Aid of God to mortifie them and not to spare hands feet or eyes the most sweet and endearing Dalilahs thy Master-reigning Sins constitutional customary pleasing profitable Corruptions recommended by Age Calling publick Allowance Practice which to forbear may expose to Scoffs Scorns Sufferings Death it self as in Times of Persecution Art thou daily in bitterness of Soul for them Are they evermore in their odious Nature and Aggravations before thee Art thou watchful against them and unto the contrary Duties Graces and holy Exercises that there is not one Law of God which t is not thy earnest desire and labour to observe heartily imploring the strength of Heaven to engage in all for thee and manifest its Might in thy Weakness And when thou hast done thy best hast thou learnt to deny thy self as an unprofitable Servant having only done what nay far less than thou oughtest Not daring to omit any part of thy Work nor when done most exactly to make a Christ of it but committing thy Person and Performances by Faith into his gracious hands to be presented to his Father sprinkled with his Blood of Satisfaction perfumed with his Incense of Intercession nothing but divine Free Grace through Christ's Mediation becomes the sole Support and Stay of thy Hopes as well as the Foundation of thy Faith maintaining in all a never-ceasing Jealousie over thy slippery treacherous heart lest it stain all thy Actions with Impurity or corrupt all thy Intentions by Hypocrisie a Sin to be fear'd and wrestled against above all other thy perpetual dread and hate Is this thy state frame and deportment And yet dost thou boggle at the Promises and start aside in aversation from or a rejection of their refreshing Consolations upon I know not what frivolous Pretences Oh thy Folly Oh thy Fury For beside the infinite wrong to thy self both as a knocking of the Wheels that thou dost but drive heavily in God's Service and a living in the confines or a corner of Hell when Heaven is opening to thee its everlasting Gates thou also blasphemest the unconfinable Goodness and Love of thy heavenly Father the affectionate Bowels and Grace of thy compassionate Redeemer thou grievest the Holy sealing Spirit of Grace and Peace and givest the lye to the Promises Sins as Hellish as any thou hast already renounc'd and forsaken Has Almighty Love and Grace check'd the exorbitancies of thy dissolute licentious Will and Affections bounded the raging Sea of thy Lusts insomuch that thou darest not wilt'st not pass the limits he hath confin'd thee to by his Laws Hath God enabled thee with a free undissembled Consent to embrace the Conditions of the Covenant in repenting and chearfully giving up thy self to be governed in all things by the ever-blessed Son of God which is a performance of thy part of the Covenant And can'st thou conceit that infinite Fidelity which gives thee the power to do all this and works in thee to observe thy part will not be real and faithful in perfecting what concerns himself on his part but that his Covenant is mere Collusion that he hath only brought thee into a Fool 's Paradise and all his great and precious Promises are only great and pompous Nothings not worthy to be rely'd on That he hath done all this for thee carry'd thee thorough the burthen and heat of the day and tenders thee thine Hire yet will be angry if thou accept it For why dost thou not receive and enjoy the Comforts of the Promises and Perfections of God so liberally presented to thy embracement so sweetly by their amiable Aspect inviting thee Is it because they do not suit thee are not proper and sufficient to revive thee Is it because thou needest them not desirest them not No nothing of this Nature What then is the matter oh my Soul They are fit for thee but thou art not fit for them not duly prepar'd That 's something if true But who told thee so God or the Devil If God shew the Scripture Out of the Law and Testimony must thou produce something more than I have described that God requires to qualifie thee for his Mercy Something more than an unfergned owning his Covenant in serious resolution care endeavour and industrious laborious diligence to go through with thy part of it under the influence of his Power and Grace and Holy Spirit Doth Satan tell thee that this is not due Preparation And dost thou dar'st thou believe him rather than God God forbid Where then dost thou stick What art thou afraid of Is there any thing to be feared but Sin There 't is Thou art afraid of sinning by too hasty applying the Promises for thy revival A very laudable Fear 'T is well that Sin is dreadful Stand to that Be then also afraid to sin by refusing to apply them thereby continuing thy perplexities For 't is very certain 1. That 't is a Sin not to serve God chearfully with Love especially when he hath done for us whatever is necessary to engage us thereto If he have in reality prepar'd thee for those Comforts which he hath prepar'd for thee he hath done that upon account whereof he will expect thy ready ingenuous affectionate Obedience whether thou be satisfy'd as to thy Preparations or no. But if thou still refusest his Comforts and protractest thy Troubles thou eludest the highest Engagement to love him and in despite of his Goodness perseverest to do his work as a Slave only wilt not as a Child which is a high Affront to thy Father 2. 'T is a Sin to reject God's Offers a Scorn put upon his Goodness to refuse his Free Gifts When he creates a Storm in our Thoughts and drives us before the blast of his Indignation into
Land of Light that New Jerusalem It cannot be expected that a Compleat Draught of this worthy Man's Life should be drawn by any Pencil but his own May these hints of so rare a Patern of Piety have influence upon his surviving Relations and Hearers to transform them into the same Image that this Legacy of so Rational a Discourse may have a perswasive Power to attract Souls to a Capacity for Divine Consolations and such a real Example have a compulsive Power to draw many to follow this Heroe and others into Eternal Mansions if both do not effect these Ends the Spectator and Reader have more to Answer for ERRATA PAge 2. line 24. read near Series l. 32. r a Prolepsis p. 3. l. 1. r. our collapsed p. 4. l. 14. blot out in p. 5. l. 28. r. interline p. 6. l. 24. r. my Troublers p. 8. l. 33. r. Trmenters p. 21. l. 11. r. the Pharisees p. 38. l. 17. r. this Notion p. 40. l. 15. r. together with it p. 63. l. 10. r. anothers l. 32. r. mediately p. 73. l. 21. r. born and live and act p. 8â— l. 10. f. â—ar r. care p. 83. l. 29. r. the Minisery p. 87. l. 26. r. intension p. 1â—â— l. 34. r. good life p. 123. l. 3. r. undâ—vercibly p. 124. l. 6. the Parenthesis ends with â—eâ— p. 125. l. 30. r. Image p. 136. l. 30. r. a more ready p. 142. l. 16. r of God p. 143. l. 13. blot out the second and. l. 21. f. the r. this p. 144. l. 13. r. express p. 158. l. 25. r. his p. 160 l. 1. r. own p. 162. l. 26. r. unsuppâ—rtable p. 165. l. 2. r. and Pâ—tency l. 33. r. own p. 186. l. 3. r. whatever p. 198. l. 21. r. enjoy'd p. 205. l. 21. blot out uâ— p. 208. l 33. r. mere p. 214 l. 33. r. le p 215. l. 24. r. Though l. 32. r. summ p. 2â—7 l. 16. r. heâ—ghtned or transferr'd p. 237. l. 9. r. these p. 240. l. 5. r. combines p. 242. l. 22. r. in Wisdom p. 245. l. 2. r. and in all l. 25. blot out in p. 248. l. 7. r. true Comforts p. 250. l. 14. r. 9. p. 258. l. 28 r. might hence derive p. 260. l. 26. r. in nocency l. 35â—36 â— make a comma before from and after which p 280 l. 36. insert an Interpreter and r. shew me p. 285. l. 13. blot out 30. p. 303â— l. 20. blot out 4. p. 307. l 17. r. store l. 31. r. â—hat Persâ—â— p. 31â— l. 23. r. 〈◊〉 l. 36. blot out that p. 361. l. 4. r. they THE Nature Origin Subject-Matter Character Method and Means of COMFORT CHAP. I. The Introduction with the Explication of the Words and their Sense Critical and Moral PSAL. XCIV 19. In the Multitude of my Thoughts within me thy Comforts delight my Soul LORD I am Hell but thou art Heaven Bp Hooper was the pathetick Exclamation of the Spirit of Martyrdom in a devout Soul Here you have a prospect of both Tormenting Thoughts are the veriest Fiends nothing can make us miserable without them nor in the enjoyment of the sweet Delectation of those divine desirable Joys which are most suitable and proper to rational Nature and the appetite of an immortal Spirit The former are our natural Inheritance these the free Donations of infinite Goodness or the unmerited communications of Fidelity and Righteousness 1 Job 1.9 By our Apostacy from God we rendered our selves insufficient to attain that Felicity which our innocent Estate did entitle us unto and possess no sufficiency to any thing but the making our selves the most wretched of the whole Creation and are relievable by nothing but the All-sufficiency of Heaven The inanimate Creatures may indeed be dispossest of their Heaven viz. their Centre and Rest but the Evil thereof they can neither fear nor feel Vegetables may live in a Hell through the burning Fever of a Summer's drought but cannot smart and be in pain Sensitive Natures may be farther divested of their Happiness be driven out of their Paradise in Gilead and Bashan and be yet more miserable under the Servitude of that torturing Devil the Lust of degenerate man but a final period is put to all their Infelicities by that which if infinite Grace prevent not will be only the beginning of our remediless Woe at the worst they can but die and 't is without the sting of a cruciating Fear that a Life without end after Death will introduce a Series of never-ending Plagues But Immortality the highest Prerogative of humane Nature is through Sin become its most dismal cause of horrour and in being better than the rest of the inferiour Creation we through our own default are only render'd capable of being worse both in another and even in this present life as far as our dreadful Expectations become prolepsis or pre-occupation of those Sufferings which are no less durable than intolerable Neither can we be eas'd by the hopes that the least part or degree hereof is avoidable through the efficacy of our home-bred endowments or any thing we can scrape out of the rubbish of collapsed Natures since by experience we find that our greatest preventive care is not able totally to exclude and keep down those prepossessing horrible anticipations nor the Furniture we are enrich'd with of power to support and ease our minds under much less to antidote those real Plagues which actually infest and sink us towards a State much more insupportable our hope and help must needs therefore perish from within our relief is wholly from without yet not from Earth but Heaven There 's no Malady so perplexing so dangerous but there 's a sufficient and suitable Remedy in God In Bedlam I have seen a Man under the Severity of that most rigid and most uncomfortable Confinement so not only unconcern'd but triumphant as to bear up himself in the Port and Majesty of a King and in his imaginary height and glory with a disdainful stateliness converse with those little shreds of Mortality who were blest as he thought in the Honour of his Empire and Government and sometimes with a stately humbleness invite them to glory in his Condescensions with such a creative power is Fancy endow'd that it can produce almost any thing out of nothing dwindle substantial Woes into Shadows convert a Hell into an Elysium Of such Madmen the World is full We as the Prisoners of Justice carry our Chains about with us and they sit and sink into our Flesh yea our very bones yet as if we possest an unconfinable liberty we jovially dance about and solace our selves with this lamentable dream till our real Miseries confute our false Imaginations For a Man's state may be miserable yet the Man so rationally stoically or brutishly mad as not to be miserable That is since nothing can make a Man unhappy but by the mediation of something within him his Fancy his Folly his Fears his Feeling his Reasonable
Perfection and plenitude of Essence Existence Substance Glory that more of God is every where than of any thing that there is not so much Soul in a body Light in the Sun Matter in the Universe as there is of God in each that they are not as he is They are but derivative Beings of a thin lank Constitution in comparison of that amplitude and fullness of Being in God who is every thing in the utmost Perfection that he can possible be from Eternity to Eternity unalterable and every where the same boundless Perfection that he is any where And wilt thou dare to be or speak or do any thing unbecoming so august so awful so glorious a Presence Shall the eye of a Worm Job 25.6 give Law to thy Tongue and Hands and shall not the Sovereign Majesty of Heaven and Earth have an Empire in thy Conscience Oh do not dare to be other now than at Judgment thou wilt wish thou hadst been For thy Judge is no less present although thou be less sensible Enforce upon thy self nay rather with a spontaneous and generous Freedom of Spirit out of choice entertain and take complacency in such Considerations alway as may better thee because not to be better for them is to be worse ineffectual Thoughts of God being like to be effectual for thy confusion If the Rays of Divine Glory that shine into thy reasoning Powers have no influence upon thy Appetite and Actions if notwithstanding them thou can'st be as vain frothy carnal secure rocky unsavoury unbelieving formal hypocritical worldly lustful lazy disobedient as if thou didst still sit in darkness and the shadow of Death if thy apprehensions of the super-intendency of Heaven do not over-awe thy unruly untoward Will into compliance with that Will which is supreme and universal Goodness do not quicken thee to Penitence and Holiness to an intire and upright observance of the whole Condition of the Covenant of Grace with a persevering resolution and endeavour thou wilt certainly find Oh my Soul that this Light will be mighty to aggravate thy Sin and Punishment everlastingly Oh for a heart so to work toward God under its Sensations of the Unfathomableness of his Understanding Universalness of his Presence Particularity of his Observance Amplitude of his Goodness Beauty of his Holiness Severity and Impartiality of his Justice Extensiveness of his Power in fine Greatness and Incomprehensibleness of his Majesty and Glory as to be altogether unsatisfiable till it can centre it self upon him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as its only Happiness in an absolute Renunciation of every thing that stands in competition with him and be willing out of love to him readily to embrace his Laws submit to the Government of his Son Jesus Christ and the Conduct of his Spirit of Truth and Grace which if these Thoughts of God will not prevail upon thee to do nothing can since there is infinitely less of Argument in every finite thing nay in all together than there is in the Infiniteness of God Wilt thou hence then be perswaded Oh my Soul to acknowledge that God in all thy ways whom thus thou knowst in some degree though but very imperfect Wilt thou fear and reverence his Greatness love and delight in his Goodness conform to his Holiness stand in awe of his Justice in all things subjugate and submit thy self to his Soveraign Authority and Will as the best and wisest Thine own interest as well as the reason of the thing and the command of thy Maker requires thy speedy and thorow resolution If thou wilt not bid an everlasting adieu to all the Comforts of Heaven thou must thus humbly seek after them which if thou do really 't is no presumption to claim them as thine Eternal Inheritance and Portion This appertains to the First Commandment we shall derive another part of the Psalmist's Character from the Second CHAP. III. A Second Character of the Subject of Comfort Prayer 2. THe Sacred Penman here was a Man of Prayer the whole Psalm is a solemn Address to God and 't is not like the fumbling of one unaccustomed thus to converse with the Divine Majesty the Genius of it gives abundant evidence that it hath been a familiar and frequent practice with such gravity of Expression with such liberty of Spirit with such a holy Parrhesy and Confidence with such variety of Arguments with such endearments of affection does he plead with God as one that long had liv'd upon the trade and was a good Proficient in this heavenly art of Wrestling with God And indeed 't is generally under this Duty that the Lord administers the solace and satisfaction of his Love to revive a drooping Heart Whoever is unacquainted with Prayer is utterly an alien from Divine Peace Those that live most with God in this exercise receive most from God enjoy most in him to sweeten their Spirits under all their Sorrows his Promise engaging him to be found in a way of Peace and Contentation of all those that diligently seek him Beside that his own Glory engages him to answer the Petitions of Peace which are put up in the Name and put into the Hands of his only Begotten to be presented to his Majesty perfumed with the Incense of his Mediation Joh. 14.13 Whatever ye shall ask in my Name that will I do Wherefore is it because you ask or for the merit of your Devotions or the strength of your Faith or the fervency of of your Spirits or the forcibleness of your Arguments or the urgency of your Importunities c. No but I will do it that the Father may be glorified in the Son Oh gracious Redeemer Oh precious Promise Oh blessed Hope How strong and rich are thy Consolations especially considering the relation which this Promise stands in to another immediately succeeding it viz. that of a Comforter the Holy Spirit which our blessed Mediator prevail'd with his Father to bestow that he might give us an Experiment of the prevatence of Prayer ver 16. I will 〈◊〉 the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever As if he had said my personal Prayer you shall to your satisfaction find effectual but this further assurance will I give you that the Prayers you put up in my Name shall be no less efficacious than those I my self present in mine own Person for upon my request you shall be endow'd with the same Spirit that breaths out mine and my Merit is not confin'd to my Person the vertue thereof will be extended to your pleadings in my Name through the co-operation of that Holy One who shall be your aid and with unutterable groans cointercede for you Indeed this Heavenly Dove comes only in at the Window of Prayer but we must put forth our hand to take it and heartily humbly believingly to beg it is as little as we can do if we sluggishly put our hand into our Bosom and refuse this labour
than to have thus abused thy Being in precipitating thy self into so formidable an Abyss of woe Wilt thou then Oh my Soul live the life of the Just by Faith that thou mast not always be dying this accursed death of Hypocrites and Unbelievers and be yet more grievously rack'd with dismal expectations of infinitely worse to come Shall invisible and eternal things over-rule thee as having a present sensation or feeling of their reality Canst thou now and then take a turn in the superiour World as one come to Mount Sion and unto the City of the Living God the Heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels to the General Assembly and Church of the first born which are written in Heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the Spirits of Just Men made perfect and to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant and to the Blood of Sprinkling which speaketh better things than that of Abel Heb. 12.22 23 24 What report canst thou give concerning the promised Land of Everlasting Light and Love and Life Hast thou ever been upon the Mount to take a prospect of it What remarkable thing therein has invited thy serious Meditations to take a more strict and narrow view and make it thy perpetual repast and delight Hast thou walked through the breadth and the length thereof in a diligent search and survey to behold the Beauty the Sweetness the Perfection the Glory of the Inhabitants the Employments the Fruits the Enjoyments the Entertainments the Joys and Consolations to be possest there in an unconceivably rich degree of satisfactoriness where there 's an everlasting Spring and an everlasting Harvest of unutterable Pleasure and Contentation Dost thou even now enter upon thy lot and rest there Heb. 4.3 and live upon the riches of that Inheritance making a spiritual livelyhood for thy self out of the abundance and store of Heaven Where are thy Treasures thy Jewels and pleasant things thy most amiable and delectable Companions Seeing him who is invisible Heb. 11.27 Canst thou endure and bear up under the Rage and Violence of a turbulent ill-condition'd World the Reproaches and Scorns of Men the Fury of Devils the Pangs of Affliction and in a calm of sweet composure and rest anchor thy self on the Rock of Ages as thy best security and singular satisfaction Really Faith is all things 't is Wealth in Poverty Health in Sickness a good Report or Name under Defamations Heb. 11.2 Pleasure in Pain Rest in Labour Life in Death a Heaven of Peace and Joy in a Hell of Misery and Torment If thou canst not bless thy self with the solace of a Friend on Earth Faith will acquaint thee with and endear thee to Multitudes in Heaven Although thy Circumstances be as deplorable as thy Redeemers worse than the Birds and Foxes yet thy Faith has for thee a House not made with Hands Eternal Is thy own Country or City too hot for thee this Grace finds for thee a better Country a City that hath Foundations whose Builder and Maker is God Heb. 11.16 By it commit the keeping of thy Soul in well doing to thy Faithful Creator Espouse the ever blessed Jesus embrace the Precepts kiss the Promises Heb. 11.13 and then all 's thine own from the clod under thy Feet to the height and crown of Heavenly Glory For Faith to be a Menaicant is impossible It has all and abounds and is full if it be a full unfeigned Faith A Believer is never in want if he want not Faith the due degree and measure of Faith And the measure effectual and acceptable is not high 't is the Truth rather than Strength A Grain will remove Mountains Mat. 17.20 Make Trees to grow in the midst of the Sea Luke 17.6 Divide the Waters and convert Seas and Rivers into dry Land Heb. 11.20 and make even a Nebuchadnezzar's Hell-hot Furnace of Fire so forget its Property as not to be able to singe a hair Dan. 3.27 compar'd with Heb. 11.33 34. Every thing must be a Rebel against its own Nature and bow to the Omnipotency of Faith that is to the Almightiness of that infinite Nature which is engag'd to and by Faith Oh then my Soul where is thy Faith What is thy Faith CHAP. V. A Fourth Property of the Subject of Comfort Inoffensive Conscience 4. THis Sacred Writer was one that took singular care not to live under the reproach of his own Conscience That herein did exercise himself always to have a Conscience void of Offence towards God and toward Man Act. 24.16 1. What apprehensions he entertain'd of that which is displeasing to God we may judge 1. By his applications to and pleadings with God for Vengeance upon the workers of Iniquity Ver. 1 2 3 4. 2. By his deep sense of the Omnipresence and Omniscience of God which he vehemently urges as a pressing Argument to restrain and awe Men from Sinning ver 8 9 10 11. 3. By his esteeming it a part of Blessedness to learn Righteousness under Divine Chastisements ver 12. 4. By his enmity against Wicked Men which he was so wise and good as not to direct against their Persons as such but only as infected with odious Crimes ver 16. and the whole current of the Psalm 5. By his accounting and acknowledging it a special Mercy to be upheld by God when ready to slip ver 18. which I unnderstand of sliding into Sin * which is argued and proved c. 11. 6. By his deprecating the fellowship of a Throne of Iniquity with God ver 20. The Question there Shall the Throne c. is to be resolv'd into a Negative Proposition It cannot shall not Why What because a Throne No assuredly 't is then the Iniquity that dethrones and hurles it down from Communion with Heaven into Confusion with Hell And ver 23. exposes to a certain and remediless cutting off and ruin This was the Holy Authors sense of Sin in others and can any Man do thus that makes no conscience of dishonouring God by Omissions or Commissions Would a Man of his Condition Understanding and excellent Qualifications prosecute other Mens Crimes with such a height and heat of Enmity and yet be at peace with and palliate his own Arraign Treason in others and allow it in himself Enhaunce Publick Wickedness and hug Personal The aggravations whereof he was more privy to than of any Man 's beside and knew that the Treacheries of a Friend are worse resented than the Violences of an Enemy 'T is his own reasoning Psalm 55.12 13. Would he not with an implacable Vengeance pursue and exterminate every Sin in himself that his own Soul might not become the Butt and Mark for that all-intelligent Vengeance of Heaven which he truly thought did look with such a formidable aspect upon others And if so he must maintain a perpetual jealousie of and watchfulness over both Heart and Ways and make Repentance a daily business prosecuting his Corruptions to the very Death in
sake consider again and again how light a matter a Mode or Ceremony is how heavy a matter Sin is and let not Dust and Vanity be balanc'd with Mens Salvation Say not Contempt of Publick Order is not a light thing tho' these be Oh condemn not the Innocent with the Guilty Let those who contemn manifestly and contumaciously suffer but certainly 't is not Contempt in all but a reverend Fear of contemning the publick Orders of Heaven which all Men confess no Man can order the Violation of It seems clear to many that to do things required is forbidden by God they are mistaken Grant it yet they think not Their Consciences seem to be resolv'd tho' it be in an Error unknown to them Therefore to them 't is as clear that no force can be put upon them no command of man over-rule them where they judge God has obliged them They read they hear they pray they study and consider all things on all hands as they are able yet cannot change their minds tho' it be highly their external Interest so to do And shall no humanity be extended to such modest humble loyal patient teachable Dissenters that are ready to engage in all Bonds to live peaceably in all Oaths to be true Subjects to subscribe according to the Act to the Articles of Religion abating one or two Non-Essentials and therefore are of the same common Faith to the Ten Commands and therefore agree to lead the same godly Life Are there no Commiserations for such as these Oh come Lord Jesus come quickly diffuse abroad that excellent Spirit of Love Unity and Christianity which will engage every one of us to judge that our proper Good is more in the Publique than Our Selves that the common Interest of Religion is infinitely more our Concern than any of our little Bones of Contention that we may not be cracking Nuts pursuing after Butterflies smiting our Fellow-servants eating and drinking with the Drunken when the Heavens begin to crack about our ears and all is ready to be wrapt up in a common Ruine Well Shall we be Christians or shall we not Must that which will be our Glory and Crown above rule our Hearts and Practices now Let us be Persons of great and generous Minds disdaining to debase the Nobleness of those Natures which are capable of enjoying an Immense God to such a degree of Childishness as to be infinitely concern'd about the miserable things which little Souls continually scramble for is it a piece of substantial goodness and honesty Does it conduce to promote and establish a real Deiformity or Similitude to God Will it actually tend to subdue mens Passions and Pride and Worldliness and Sensuality May we by and through it elevate our Minds to that Heavenly Constitution as to be mete for Converses with a Pure and Holy God Does it subjugate the Will of Man to his Maker render him acceptable to Heaven profitable to Earth in the Great Ends of Godliness Righteousness Sobriety Did God institute it for these Purposes With all my Soul am I for it I 'll hug it in my Bosome lay it next my heart honour it with my best endeavours to advance it in my self and the world But if it be only a Trick a Device a Policy to be Grand and Gaudy and Terrible and Triumphant and Imperious to salve a Sore to make maintain please a Party to countenance keep up an Interest or suppress oppress depress real Religiousness under some disguising Pretences Away with it 't is unbecoming the Christian Spirit it savours not nor of true Magnitude of Mind This Man is for Prelacy the other against it one applauds the National Constitution comprehending all Congregations as united under the Ecclesiastical Government of Bishops and the Civil Government of one Political Head the King another allows it not yet professes and is ready to give all desired Security for Allegiance That Man pleads for and uses a Liturgy or Set Form in Divine Offices this would modifie all himself There some think for further Decency and Order Ceremonies must accompany or follow Divine Institutions here are a Company tooth and nail against them This Point of Doctrine must be express'd in such and such Terms the other is untenable except in such a Sense and Dress and every Head in things of this nature has a different Crotchet Well Are the main Substantials of Christianity retain'd Irreligion Idolatry renounc'd the necessity of Government maintain'd the Deity worshipped in and through the only Mediator Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit with his Gifts and Graces in order to a New Life acknowledged In fumm the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament in their plain and most obvious sense receiv'd submitted to as the perfect Rule of Eaith and Manners Holiness and Vertue practised and promoted Here fix What d' ye tell us of Unwritten Unscriptural Phrases and Forms and Modes and Orders and Rites and Circumstances and Phylacteries and Fringes and Laces and Fancies and Fooleries and Phrenzies To Bedlam with the Mad-men that cannot be satisfied and pleas'd with the Noble and Incomparable Ordinations of infinite Wisdom and Goodness but must prescribe to their Maker and out-do boundless Perfection Why like the Aegyptian Apes do we tear in pieces one anothers Ornaments nay one another for Nuts and Trifles Are we not agreed in the main Essentials of Christianity Being therefore of the same Catholick Body Why must this Mans Head be struck off because he hath a Feather in his Cap and the others because he has none That Man be begg'd for a Fool because by paying free Rent he owns a Mesn Lord Another branded for a Knave for desiring to be a Mesn Lord himself or depend immediately upon the King Some sent to the Hospital because they need and would have Crutches others to Bridewel who will have none Are not the one Men as well as the other and should not common Nature ingenerate a common Sense Must it still be Homo homini Lanius Lupus Are not both Christians And shall it be Christianus Christiano Daemon That Man 's a Heretick Devil I 'll sear and tear him with my burning Pincers says St. Dunstan This is a Schismatick Dog I 'll have his Ears says another St. Some-body Thou art a cold Formalist and Hell must warm and fire thee says another St. No-body And a thousand to one the Heretick the Sehismatick and Formalist is the better Man and Christian Oh Babylon Babylon where art thou not Really we may with the Philosopher light our Candle at noon day among Christians to seek for Christianity Let it then pass uncontroulable that a Man can never be publick spirited except upon Principles truly Catholick nor will any other Spirit or Principles administer sound true and solid Comfort and Peace As the contracted shrivling confining narrow Temper begets all the Confusions Broils Branglings and Blood-sheds in the world so it leaves nothing at home in conclusion but dire ingrateful Reflections and an
rather than Nominatively 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the mighty strong able lusty Man whom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou shalt or wilt Instruct Correct him a Pleonasm of the Pronoun and shalt or wilt teach him out of thy Law So Ver. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Teacher Chastizer of the Nations c. The Primary Signification of the Word is to Teach or Instruct which is very accommodate to the scope of the Place and the whole Paragraph may be rendred thus He that instructeth the Nations shall not be reason Isai 1.18 argue or dispute Job 23.7 plead Mic. 6.2 even He that teacheth man knowledge the LORD knowing the reasonings 1 Cor. 3.10 Luke 9.46 of man that they are vanity Oh the blessednesses of the mighty whom thou wilt instruct Oh Jah and teach him out of thy Law The Authority of the received Translation with the Targum and Syriack and some learned Interpreters is the only Argument against this reading of the words nothing in the Original or the tenour of the Psalmists Discourse but rather the contrary And even this sence will administer something toward the compleating the Character The Psalmist then was one that accounted it a singular happiness to be taught of God to be throughly instructed in Gods law by God himself that is to be effectually brought under the power and led into the practice of Holiness whereof the Law is the Rule for God's Teachings are not only notional and doctrinal but practical and effective of Obedience 'T is all one as if he had said Oh the blessednesses of the man in whose heart thou writest thy Law and thereby principlest for and impellest to a holy life This is the Covenant way to Peace Isai 54.13 All thy Children shall be taught of God and great shall be the peace of thy Children although at present thou beest afflicted tossed with tempest and not comforted V. 11. Oh! this is happy indeed the very Basis and Foundation of all Blessedness without which 't is impossible for a Man not to be finally miserable No Felicity is attainable if God do not Make his Laws vital Principles in our Souls which is the tenour of the New Covenant recited Heb. 8.10 11. through the exceeding great and precious promises whereof 2 Pet. 1.4 We are made partakers of a divine nature viz. a living over-ruling Law within a transcript of the Law eternal upon our hearts Without Grace there can be no true Peace without truth no Grace truth in the light of it to gird up the loyns of our minds truth in the life of it the girdle of integrity in our hearts without Illumination no Comfort without Sincerity no Salvation They must combine and be undivorcedly espoused together or farewel all true Peace For to be taught true and sound Doctrine and to be led into the understanding of all the Divine Commands though Christ himself be the Schoolmaster Luk. 13.26 thou hast taught in our Streets will contribute nothing to the happiness but much to the misery of that Man who never feels the Power of those instructions renewing his Nature and reforming his Life But if by the gracious Influences of Heaven the Precepts of the Law and Gospel become efficacious to mould and form us into universal Goodness all the divided or joynt Confederations of the Wit Policy Power Virulence Rage Malice and Fury of both the Elements of Misery Earth and Hell to mischieve us can never make us really miserable Whereof not to insist upon our blessed Redeemer let Job be a Witness Never had Satan so large a Permission not to say Commission to spend all the Artillery of his Madness and Malice against any Man that ever we read of as against this incomparable Pattern of Patience never did such a whirlpool of Calamities suck in and swallow up in a Moment and at unawares any mortal Man so singled out before or after him All his external Comforts Shipwrack'd his whole body from top to toe an universal Ulcer and Mass of Rottenness except his Organs of Speech which the Devil reserv'd in soundness for a malicious purpose his end in all the rest Nothing lest him but an Eve the Serpent's Instrument to tempt and torture him Job 2.9 and 19.17 The very inward quiet of his mind ravisht way in such a degree that it did commit a Rape on his bodily rest and made all his Comforts and Comforters miserable Job 6.4 and 7.4 13 14 15. c. Yet for all this the Man was blessed and made a blessed End He was under the special regard of Heaven dear to God under his peculiar care and fatherly Discipline of Love and therefore not really although he imagin'd himself to be miserable but truly happy On the other hand take an Ahab in the affluence of all worldly Delights Riches Honours triumphing in Victory over the most potent Kings 1 King 20. Possessing his coveted Vineyard Ch. 21.16 dwelling in a Palace of Ivory Ch. 22.39 enjoying all imaginable carnal satisfactions Yet untaught untutor'd by Heaven destitute of that which would have been the fairest Jewel of his Crown the Grace of God the inward sanctifying and saving Illuminations of the divine Spirit therefore continuing an Enemy to God and Goodness and was this Man happy or blessed Was he not accursed of God and most miserable in the midst of all his external Felicities To have a Heaven in his House a Paradise in his Vineyard and a Hell in his Conscience a lamentable Happiness from which good Lord deliver us Be not thou envious O my Soul at the ensnaring prosperity of the one nor offended with the improsperous uprightness of the other but earnestly implore those Covenant-teachings of the Lord Joh. 6.45 Isai 54.13 Jer. 31.33 which being the first seminal Principles of the new nature will impower thee to live unto God Wilt thou be content with so faint and evanid a light in thy upper Regions as will make no reflection towards Heaven nor beget a greater warmth than will permit thee to freeze in the midst of Summer Oh! aspire after those divine Irradiations which convey an influence more extensive and efficacious than themselves which awakening or creating a central Fire in all the very drossiest or deepest ramifications or branchings of thy thoughts of thy affections also thy inclinations and imaginations may by a divine Projection convert and concoct them into Gold Rev. 3.18 i. e. give them a gracious tincture of moral vertues and motions make them spiritual Gifts and Graces and render them acceptable to God Be not satisfied till thou seest and knowest things as they are in their real nature being apprehensive that pure metaphysical Notions that are not affective nor lead to practice for all their tenuity and levity will never mount thee to Heaven without inward moral sensations spiritual touches and tasts of Truths in their internal Life Fine and thin speculations like cobwebs may take and take with Flies aery volatile Wits and Fancies but
Paradise who by thine experimental knowledge of this evil of suffering will create in thee a saving knowledge of good and through these Fruits of the Tree of the Cross lead thee to the Tree of Life CHAP. IX The Subject of Comfort Eyes God in all things 7. THis Man of God enjoy'd and liv'd under much experience of divine Goodness and gracious Providence Under all that happen'd he ey'd and own'd the Hand of God 1. In Affliction Ver. 17. Vnless the Lord had been my help my Soul had almost dwelt in silence Ver. 22. The Lord is my defence and my God is the Rock of my Refuge 2. In Temptation When I said my foot slippeth thy Mercy O Lord held me up ver 18. 3. In both ver 19. the Text In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy Comforts delight my Soul A Man of common Principles would have look'd no farther than second Causes and the activity of Instruments and Means in his deliverance from Death ver 17. Than his own Prudence Caution Foresight Care and Endeavour in preservation from falling v. 18. Than his own reasonings and wise conduct of his Affections in the calm and serenity of his Mind v. 19. But this Holy Soul ascribes all to Divine Goodness And indeed to such a Man nothing is accidental he is never at a loss for the cause of any occurrent when he has not the least prospect of the agency of any thing on Earth he can find out a supreme mover in Heaven to whom nothing falls out by chance without either the foresight of his Intelligence or the conduct of his Wisdom or the determination of his Will or the interposal of his Power or the liberty of his Permission which though no cause at all properly but only that called sine quâ non which is but Fatua yet is governed by his Providence and all the possibilities thereof visible to his Prescience God is more concern'd in the World than the Artificer in a Clock who when 't is set together set up and agoing forsakes it He is sure little conversant in Scripture that imagines the Deity only a general cause who having constituted things with such and such particular Natures Propensions Biasses leaves them to run out their course without further Concurrence and Solicitude than to preserve them in the being constitution and activity he first gave them There 's nothing so mean so fortuitous but the Scripture intitles God to it either in way of Efficiency Direction Ordination or Permission If it be Good Natural or Moral he is the doer so if evil Natural if evil Moral though he abhor it cannot effect it or concur to it as such yet can he does he direct and order it to such ends as are consistent with his Wisdom Justice Holiness and Goodness which he well foreknows how to do therefore hinders not its existence as he easily could do without any violence to Nature blemish to his Government or infringement of the Liberty of his Creatures For to me 't is no little Mystery that although God be able to form a Rational Nature with liberty of Will and Prudence so to manage it that it shall at no time be compell'd to offer violence to its own freedom but in every act proceed with an even gentle sweet Spontaneity according to the dictates of its own finite Understanding yet that the infinite Intelligence and Prudence of the Divine Nature must be thought unable and insufficient by the reasonable Understanding and Will to elicite manage and guide these very humane Actions so as to preserve the same Liberty inviolable Let something be allow'd to Infiniteness sure it can do whatever Finiteness can if it be not to its disparagement If I can bring about my own resolute and fixed Purposes without prejudice to my own or others Liberty sure boundless Wisdom and Power can tell how to bring about its determinations by the liberty of the Creature A Reverend Judicious Divine my Relation told me that for experiment sake to try the power of an over-mastering Imagination he had oft requested such things of some Persons in whom he had no Interest at all which he knew they had an aversation to using no Reasons Arguments Motives Importunities at all further than the bare proposal only engaging himself strongly to fansie that he should obtain his desire and he seldom fail'd to prevail I never had the curiosity to make a tryal but am apt to think there may be something in 't upon consideration of the strange effects of the Mothers imagination upon her enwombed Infant as to both Impressions on its Body and Antipathies in its Mind the transpiring animal Spirits modify'd and mov'd strongly by a material Faculty may intermingle with those of a differing Body and over-rule their weaker Modifications and Motions and thereby the material Faculty that acted them as in Sympathetick Cures and the votatil Particles of Vitriol c. Crude or calcin'd do mix with the extravasated vital Spirits and return with them to their Fountain I confess these act only as Physical Causes and cannot vary in their effects of themselves though other external Causes may thwart them And what if a Man allow some such like thing to Spiritual Natures By what impressions they can communicate their Minds to one another by what impulses they bow one anothers Wills we know not but only the Effects God never fails to obtain the free voluntary Obedience of Angels And the more determin'd their Wills are the more free The Devil acts with less Liberty than a Glorified Saint and a Holy Angel with more than a self-determining Man who has both liberty of Contrariety and Contradiction can do both Good and Evil Act and not Act. Well if my Imagination further if my short defective Understanding can the one make such impresses the other produce such weighty momentous Reasons as shall sway my own and others Wills to an inhesitant and free compliance shall I not give that deference to the unfathomable Intellect and Reason of God as to suppose it endued with Ability to suggest such things as shall bow mine own or others Wills to a ready spontaneous ingenuous Concurrence than any thing can that is deduced merely out of the promptuary of mine own Mind I find my freedom in acting is gradually more or less intense according to the satisfaction of my Reason And if the Reason of God which is boundless cannot induce a more ample satisfaction than the Reason of a Creature which is but lame and imperfect and if he cannot with as much Facility without all impeach to our Liberty lead our Minds to the Contemplation thereof as in the use of the empire our selves have over them we can do if he cannot also more throughly excite acuminate quicken and enlarge our considering Powers freely to engage I have done 'T is not strange therefore that the Scripture ascribes all to God as the Origin of every individual Motion I find holy Men in
form Isa 6.6 Heb. 4.14 Hence may it not be inferr'd that the framing Fire in which Christ appears will be so far from being hurtful painful to his and their glorified Bodies as to be an object of special Sensitive Delectation and cause a pleasurable refreshment wonderfully grateful to those Celestial Natures which shall dwell for ever in and be cloathed with the Eternal Light of Heaven That if it were possible for a glorified Saint to be hurried into the material Fire of Hell 't would not be hurt or for a Damned Wretch to be led through Heaven the Light thereof to him would be tormenting Fire But this I leave in Medio as a Speculation perhaps too curious I question not but that the Almightiness of God which is engaged to promote to the utmost the happiness of the Saints can make those things that now to the Body are most painful to be then most pleasureful that even in its Physical Constitution as well as Moral it shall be delighted with that which is distastful in this Life if it be not sinful And possibly Adam's Body in its Primitive Innocent Estate of Creation might be of the same Constitution invulnerable incombustible c. as far as was requisite to his security from Death For I cannot so much as implicitly impute such Collusion to the Divine Majesty as to imagine that he only threat ned that as a Punishment of his Sin which was the condition and necessity of his Nature Neither will I deny that the Tree of Life was a Sacrament of Immortality But conceive that nor he nor it could be ubiquitary or inseparable nor do I think that the Deity obliged himself to a Providence respecting innocent Mankind which would have been a perpetual series of Miracles since 't was as easie with God to make Impassibility an amissible Condition of this Nature as Immortality But I am not Determinate here neither However the Elevated Sense of that Immortal State above will be abundantly pleasured with Super-natural and Super-sensual Gratifications in the Jucundity Profitableness and Honour of Heaven the vain and empty Shadows whereof engage it in endless Pursuits during this its Degenerate state on Earth The Generosity and Nobleness thereof will be so Transcendent that it cannot but entertain with Indignation Scorn and Horror all imaginable Solicitations to any thing sinfully Delightful Commodious and vain Glorious Every thing to it being as it self Sublimated into a Spiritual and Celestial Nature that it enjoys the sweet of all without the sowr in an unfading Quintessence of most exquisitely delicious Contentments where although there can never be any troubled Thoughts yet may we ever sing Thy Comforts Oh Lord delight my Soul Then Oh my Soul delight thou thy self in and with them alone and not meerly as in the Streams but in the Well-spring it self Own God in every inferiour means but rest no where except in God Oh do not in a pompous Dress of Shadowy delusory Satisfactions cheat thy self into substantial Miseries Secure to thy self something of a solid durable Nature by making the son of God Jesus Christ thy sure and everlasting Foundation that being strongly built upon the Rock when the Rain descends and the Floods come and the Winds blow and beat upon thee thy Comforts may not perish with thee And Phil. 4.7 The Peace of God which transcends or passes all mind or understanding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall watchfully guard or keep as with a Garrison 2 Cor. 11.32 thy heart and the devices thoughts of thy mind through Christ Jesus Must God be all in that Eternal Heaven after which thou aspirest and is there enough in him to satiate the most raised and sublime Desires of the Spirits of just Men made perfect and even the Angels those more Noble and Capacious Creatures Nay is there an all-sufficiency in him Commensurate to his own infinite Love in all the possibilities of its Perfection And canst not thou Oh my Soul fill thy self to the brim and measure out a Satisfaction more than adaequate to thy Rational Appetite in that unmeasurable fulness which comprehends the eminency and glory of all things If Infiniteness cannot overfill thee a poor Worm a little Atome of that which in comparison of him is less than nothing Isa 40.17 then mayst thou with some Shadow of reason attempt to eek out thy content with the Accumulation of other things But since there is in God all that good Vertually Unitedly and Transcendently as in a common Store-House and Treasury and that without the rebatement and allay of any the least commixtures of Evil Vanity or Imperfection which stain the Glory of all those dispersed Excellencies in the Creation that thy most unboundable desires in all their conceivable Varieties can court or make Suit unto and whatever thy longings reach out after thou mayest enjoy it cheaper and better in God than any where and since beside all this there is an unfathomable Surplusage of proper Excellency and Glory in that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Maximus Tyrius calls the Deity Immense Ocean of all Goodness which has been is and will be his own and the whole Superiour Worlds Everlasting Contentation And since he declares his ready willingness to communicate and impart of all this unto thee not only what thine own Rational Consideration but even what his own unmatchable Love and Graciousness can make thee willing to receive thou canst not but be altogether inexcusable if thou goest about to patch up an evanid and delusory Felicity to thy self out of those cast-away Shreds and Rags of the inferiour Creation which are not sufficient for themselves but will be fatally disappointing to thee and frustrate thy most Solicitous Expectations whilst in the mean time thou sottishly and frantickly defraudest thy self of that plenary Satisfaction and Joy which is tendered to thee by and in God both on Earth to raise and quicken thy devout and active Suspirations and in the Heaven of Heavens to terminate and perfect them in an Everlasting Fruition Here then only Oh my Soul build thy Tabernacle Is it not good to be here Where thy Faith it self shall be converted into Sense Sight and Taste in a never ending Possession of what Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor hath entred into the Heart of Man to conceive Thou art allowed to eye and enjoy God in the Creature obliged to make all sensitive Contents which thou mayest lawfully or sinlessly receive from the Creature as so many steps to mount upon and ascend towards the Spiritual Contents of Heaven necessitated to use every good thing below as a Remembrancer to thee of its Perfection in God that it may blow up thy passionate Aspirations into a more vehement and inextinguishable Flame and Ardour toward him In all things thou mayst taste that the Lord is Gracious and enjoy sweet and comfortable Prelibations of Heaven This is thy privilege But on the other hand thou art prohibited to make a God of this World
up a dejected Mind which it found deeply buried in a doleful Hell of Wretchedness and Woe Oh sweet and amiable Peace How lovely are thy Looks How dear and pleasing thine Embraces What art thou not that is good desirable delightful contenting satisfying Riches in Poverty Health in Sickness Honey in Life Heart-ease in Death the Glory of Eternity But to give a Logical Description of it Formal Comfort is the inward Rest Quiet Contentment Satisfaction Ease and Refreshment of the Mind arising from the View Sense Consideration Application and feeling of such proper and suitable Remedies for all manner of Troubles as answer the Necessities Exigencies and Desires of the Soul in all things strengthning for Work supporting under Temptations inspiriting for Sufferings chearfully to bear them perfectly to conquer them and everlastingly to triumph over them Taken Actively and in Fieri it imports a Mans applying to himself the things which God hath provided to refresh and strengthen him Passively a Man is comforted when upon the Application of such things the Mind Heart and Conscience are satisfyed and settled within themselves in a calm and quiet Rest and Peace This is Comfort in facto esse as the Schools phraze it If we speak properly and according to the English Translation here This Formal Comfort is not that Comfort which the Psalmist reports but rather the delight in his Soul which did or might issue therefrom as an effect from its immediate Cause and therefore is not a stranger to the Text. Yet indeed the Comfort here mentioned is not to be understood Formally but Objectively or Materially for comforting things as in Physick a Cordial is not the Comfort the Heart receives but the Medicine which has Vertue and Power to Comfort the Heart as a means under Providence In Discoursing to this several things might be considered 1. The Matter or Thing it self which comforts which is God his Being Nature Perfections c. 2. The Instrument Vehicle or Means 1. Revealing Tendering Conveying The Word and in special its Promises 2. Receiving Appropriating Applying Faith 1. In the Mind Thoughts 2. In the Heart and Will Consent 3. The Condition or Qualification without which no right to Comfort is possible True Goodness particularly Goodness in Distress 4. The Principal immediate Efficient The Holy Ghost the Comforter Some of these I acknowledge concern Comfort Formally considered as well as Materially For though the matter or thing Comforting God have no cause and the Spirit cannot be said to be in respect hereof an Efficient but only of the Formal Comfort or Satisfaction in our minds and of the Instrument and Condition the Word being of his Immediate Inspiration and Sanctification his proper and peculiar Work Yet the Word is a means to beget Formal Comfort as well as convey the matter of it so also is Faith And Goodness is a Qualification necessary to inward Peace as well as right to the Material Cause of it I am not concern'd except about the Matter Means revealing containing and the Believing Thoughts that receive and apply with the Holiness that prepares the Heart for Reception and Application of Comfort Whatever Comforts is something of or from God The Father Son and Holy Ghost yet those things from them Comfort not in the same manner as they do themselves The Word and Promises are a Cordial as far as Messages of Love from Heaven no otherwise As they bring good News from our best Friend they revive us but nothing can give ease to our Minds which doth not report something of God If our Troubles be Spiritual for our Sins the assurance by any sound Evidence that God has pardoned them dispels our Sorrow Fear and Despair The feeling that God has purged away their Filth taken away their Dominion quiets us as an Evidence and Testimony that he hath pardoned us and is reconciled to us but all this only as a token of God's Love to us For a good Soul cannot sit down with its own Mercy without the God of Mercy Nothing Spiritually Comforts on Earth but what will solace in Heaven There God alone is the Eternal Ravishment of glorified Souls Now God as the matter of our Comfort solaces us merely as apprehended and applied by Believing Thoughts If we think not of him we derive no Content from him and our Thoughts taking in some comfortable Notion of God lay it before our Concupiscible and Irascible Affections that being embraced by the former it may appease still and quiet the other which is heedfully to be observed this being the true and natural Method to attain solid and substantial Peace and Consolation For they are Brutish not Rational Comforts that we are not led to by Light in the Mind observing the suitableness of the Object to our Condition which prevails with our Will to close with and embrace it Till this be done our Passions cannot be rationally calmed God doth not work upon them as Christ upon the raging Sea by way of Empire and immediate Power to hush them in a moment by Miracle That Peace which springs in the Conscience immediately without any antecedent Actings and Perceptions of the Mind or Election of the Will is Delusory not to say Satanical There 's nothing that can any ways Comfort but God is that very thing either Formally or Eminently He is the summ and substance of all Appetibles Eligibles Comfortables as the Chief Good and Happiness of Man who as he wants nothing for his own everlasting solace and contentation so neither for ours Whatever is of a refreshing Influence either to Body or Mind is the Ordination of God both in its Matter and that peculiar Formality For he both made all things and endowed them with all their Powers and Vertues which all are superlatively in himself i. e. either in his Nature or Power in Essence or Equivalence God's Love is a Comfort to our Souls and God is Love Meat and Drink are a comfort to our Bodies God is not these but he can create and give them and in Heaven supplies the want of them by causing us not to need them and giving us better in himself that Countervails them Thus 't is also in all other Cases whatever satisfies us is from him is in him Thy Comforts delight or look favourably upon my Soul Thy Comforts which thou Ar't Givest CHAP. XIII Comforts in God I. THE Comforts which God is delight the Soul These or none For nothing issuing from God is greater or better than himself He is much more than all without him therefore a more sufficient satisfaction both because there is a plenitude of Perfection in him and because he can inlarge the capacity of the Recipient and quicken the perceptive Powers more exquisitely to sense and relish the Sweetness of all those delectable Excellencies that adorn his Nature Now as God is every thing which is comfortable so every thing in God is a Well-spring of over-flowing Consolation to a good Heart his Being Names Attributes
of Friends and Relations mightily revive a dejected Heart not only by diverting and putting by sad disconsolate thoughts but in respect of their matter as Hezekiah's before mentioned to the People of Jerusalem A kind Friend is a Dove with a Olive-branch in his Mouth in and after a deluge of Calamities Good Words are as Oyl to the Joynts Marrow to the Bones a refreshing reviving Medicine to a sick oppressed Heart As a soft Answer turneth away Wrath Prov. 15.1 So a sweet one turns away Sorrow Good Words make the Heart glad even when heaviness in it causeth it to stoop Prov. 12.25 Pleasant Words are as a Honey-comb sweet to the Soul and health Medicine to the Bones Prov. 16.24 God is with us to speak to our Hearts even in a Wilderness State Hos 2.14 How oft are his Words compared to and preferred before Honey and Honey-combs What a revival was it it to Zechariah and the Jews when the Lord answered the Angel-Intercessor for Judah and Jerusalem with good Words and comfortable Words Zech. 1.13 And with no less exultation did the Psalmist say Psal 85.8 I will hear what God the Lord will speak for he will speak Peace to his People and to his Saints Christ himself when present on Earth came preaching Peace Eph. 2.17 His Embassadors by and through him preach Peace Act. 10.36 He is a good Man says David of Ahimaaz and brings good tidings 2 Sam. 18.27 Good Words with a good God are gladsome indeed O take pleasure in the Message more in the Messengers in the Sender most of all The inward secret whisperings of the Spirit of Grace and Peace in thy Conscience the outward publication of Peace by God's Ministers and People are only in the matter and method of the Scriptures in which alone God realy speaks Peace Nothing can comfort but Truth nothing savingly Comfort but Scripture Truth All truth is originally from God Essential Truth is God the Son of God Mat. 28. ult who is where-ever he speaks and maks that comforting Truth which is his Image efficacious by his Presence and Power so that the very Instrument of Comfort does but only delight us relatively to him of whom it is a lively Representation Thou mayst be mock'd with a Lye and bewitch'd into a false deceitful Joy with a Falshood but when the Mask is taken off thy bare Countenance will appear more sad than at first and thy Comforts more unretrievable No real Peace but in the God of Peace through the Prince of Peace Friends and Relations cannot alway be present personally with their Company and Counsel to minister to our Peace A Vertual and Vicarious Presence and Conference does not a little contribute to our Consolation when distance of place renders the other impossible and with what a transport of Joy do we receive their Tokens their Letters their Writings with what a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do we peruse and in a manner greedily devour them How are our Hearts ravished with the kind and affectionate Expressions Professions of Remembrance Respect Love every Word is a Cordial we are in an extasie of Contentation here as in a Glass we behold them their lively Portraicture is afresh painted hereby in our Imagination we hear them we talk with them solace our selves in this Phantastical Enjoyment as if it were Real And why should not our Delights be more transcendent in God who can never be absent whose Presence is Substance and not Phantastry and whose Tokens of Love and Letters of Comfort are not the Curates of a Non-Resident Being nor the Missives of a distant Superintendency but the immediate Visitations of an Overseeing Care and Love that naturally minds and regards our highest Concerns and cannot will not desert us if we first do not desert him How comfortable is good News of any kind what a reviving to our drooping Hearts With what passion do we long for it With what gladness receive it believe it bless God for it The Gospel of Christ is better News than the best on Earth Glad Tidings of the greatest Joy Peace Love and Life Here mayst thou see the omniform motions of Christ's richest Grace perceive the compassionate workings of his Bowels feel the solicitous beatings of his affectionate Heart in a tender regard of thee read of the astonishing effects of his wonder-working Power and Goodness all the Miracles of his Love and Kindness for thy Good in Illumination Sanctification Justification Salvation what he hath done what he still is doing what he further will do to raise thee up out of the bottomless Pit of unspeakable Misery to the top and crown of Heavenly Felicity and Glory Well might the Apostle tell of the Comfort of the Scripture Rom. 15.4 And David long for it as a means to his solace Psal 119.82 This and this alone is the richest Promptuary fullest Treasury of all real Soul-satisfactions hence have we them or they are but mere Legerdemain and Illusions And if the very News of Christ be so sweet what is he in himself What is he in Person None have reason to say of him as the Corinthians of Paul 2 Cor. 10.10 His Letters are weighty and powerful but his bodily Presence is weak His is not the presence of a weak contemptible Body but of an all-powerful Spirit he that can be Omnipresent cannot but be Omnipotent Christ as God is in all is all and even as Man full of Vertue a touch of his very Garments wrought a Miracle of Healing Matth. 9.20 21 22. And if in his Mortal Body there was such Power what is in his Immortal and Glorified The Principle I know was Heavenly though the Vessel Earthly yet this has lost nothing by its Exaltation to the Throne of God no nor we neither for in lieu of that Corporal Presence we enjoy a no less Comfortable Companion the Paraclete the Holy Comforting Spirit of God to abide with us not for a few days and years but for ever Joh. 14.16 So that although our sweetest Relation be gone to Heaven yet are we not Orphans ver 18. The Angel of God's Presence Isa 63.19 that saves us comforts us now by Proxy yet is not absent from us but essentially with us though Corporeally at a distance from us Gods Natural Presence is an immensity of Being Unconfinable to any Place Incomprehensible by all Places Exterminable out of none and with its fullness filling all in all So that there is no need of the supplement of any thing to avoid a vacuity nor is any thing by this Being excluded that needs a Place He is in all Space and beyond all Space not commensurate with it but infinite The Dimetient of all yet without Measure and all Corporeal Dimensions boundlessly greater than all things comprehending all within the Circle of his Essence whose Center is every where Circumference no where in all Varieties of Co-present Beings the same invariable Perfection no other on Earth than in Heaven that he can without any
alteration in himself or varying of his place make Heaven to be any where every where therefore the Joys and Comforts of Heaven For I reckon that Heaven does not import any difference in God but in us no change in his Being but our Vision no new Object except Christ's Flesh but new Eyes Every Spirit and therefore the Father of Spirits hath a Power to conceal its Presence as well as its Sentiments from all other Spirits except God Yet there 's a difference betwixt the Latency of other Spirits and the Deity A finite Spirit is hid through the suspence of its Agency Ad extra its acting upon things without it self so the Deity cannot be hid For if it wholly cease to act upon any Being that Being will wholly cease to be because all live move and have their Being in and from Him Acts 17.28 which Spirits that see not with Eyes but Intellects cannot but perceive only 't is unobserv'd by Man whose Mind looks through the Apertures of Sense which together with it self being darkned through Sin has but very obscure and weak Reflections upon that Being without which he cannot be 't is hid to him by a Veil of Flesh that envelops his Intellectual Eyes or else he shuts and will not open them to behold this invisible Nature which is in reality more conspicuous and evident that is knowable than any thing in the World whatever But the Deities concealment of it self is with respect to some more special Voluntary Operations which give Testimony to his presence and demonstrate the Finger of God which when suspended he is and therefore the Comfort of his presence is hid from our Eyes Such are either Miraculous or Gracious For although every thing in Nature both in respect of his Being and Agency be a sufficient Indication of the Existence Presence and Efficiency of God it being impossible that any Natural Powers should exert themselves in a suspence of the Influence of his the Concurrence whereof gives them to be what they are and do what they do Yet the Deity sometimes as being it self the Law of Laws does in its Actings vary from go beside nay contrary to the common and ordinary Laws of particular Natures and so invert the course and order of things as to give peculiar evidence of his Presence and Power by Effects wonderfull surprizing and astonishing As the Flood of Noah the first that falls within the Cognizance of History after the Creation I need not particularize more the Scripture is full nor balk that for all the ingenious attempts of a late Author to deduce it from Natural Causes it being demonstrable that some necessary parts of his Hypothesis stand in need of the violence of Miracle or the whole process will stick and produce nothing Yet the Manifestations of the Divine presence which constitute Heaven are not in the instances of Power but Goodness even as the Discoveries of it in Vindictive Justice form the Miseries of Hell That Goodness and Justice essentially considered which make Heaven and Hell are Omnipresent as being the Divine Nature But the Objects of them cannot aspire to an Ubiquity being of a limited Nature Should they circulate through all the Regions of Immensity the condition and sense they partake would present them still with the same unaltered unalterable Nature of God Heaven and Hell would be in every place where Souls so sensed reside the Discoveries of God importing no change in him but only in those to whom the Discovery is made Heaven and Hell not being more the alteration of our State than the awakening of our sense to discern and apprehend and feel that which before we did not though before it was the very same immutably and will continue so everlastingly This is the Natural State of Heaven but the Christian State is somewhat more For the choicest sweetest Discoveries of God are therein made in and through the Mediator God-Man and in special to Mankind through the Manhood of Christ which being of a limited presence settles the Divine Manifestations in a certain limited place sufficient to comprehend all Elect Angels and Men. This Divine Presence we enjoy by Faith here by Sight hereafter We have as much of God and Heaven now as we have of Faith Divine Manifestations are proportioned to our Believings All the Effects of Divine Goodness in and upon us depend upon this Christian Grace and the degree of them upon the degree of it Gain but this and thou hast God and all Nothing can pierce the Heavens but this Eye 'T is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 substance of things hoped for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Evidence Eviction of things not seen Heb. 11.1 By it Moses saw him who is invisible vers 27. We never can be without a Heaven if we have but Faith it realizes to us that presence of God which through Christ is the sole and full ground of all Celestial Comforts Satisfactions and Joys Psal 16 11. In thy presence is fulness of Joy and at thy Right Hand are pleasures for evermore In Heaven thy presence Chamber where thou sit'st upon the Throne of Glory cloathed with Honour and Majesty as with a Garment and discoverest and displayest the Splendour of thy incomprehensible Excellency and Perfection And at thy Right Hand where thou hast said my Lord should sit till his Enemies be made his Footstool Psal 110.1 In and through this Jesus at thy Right hand are pleasures everlasting But these are chiefly the Comforts of a Future State Is there not something at present to stay and yet inflame the Appetite Yes vers 8. I would always possess that Saturity of Joys which is before thy face Therefore I have set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved Therefore my Heart is gladed and my Glory Exults rejoyces my Flesh also inhabits in hope because thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell nor give thy merciful or excellent one to see the pit of Corruption but thou wilt make me to know the path of Lives He is at my right hand and therefore Gladness and Joy in my Heart and Soul But Oh what is there at His right Hand My Faith setting him now as present before me brings singular Satisfaction and Delight Oh then what will sense and sight be when I shall possess the reality of that which I now believe The result is That the presence of God apprehended by Faith or Vision is a thing which comprehends the substance and fulness of all Pleasure Joy and Consolation Indeed nothing Comforts but through some kind of presence It either is or is conceived to be and made indistant by our Cogitations Humane Infirmity requires something in hand or in hopes that are as secure and therefore as good as in hand Absence of a solacing good although only imaginary is tormenting God cannot but be near every one of us in Essence and we find him so to be by the effects of
did bear so favourable an Aspect upon his troubled Soul as vers 14. does not obscurely intimate For the Lord will not cast off his People neither will he forsake his inheritance The Negative excludes universally perpetually He will never cast off nor forsake it also infers the Affirmative He will own and accompany his People and Inheritance for ever and ever Which he is enabled to do only by vertue of his Eternity Possibly that Expression vers 22. may also import something of like nature My God is the Rock of my Refuge He could not be unacquainted with the Song of Moses and the Blessing he pronounc'd upon the Twelve Tribes Deut. 32. and 33. There are these Titles first of all given to God Rock in the Song is five times apply'd to the Lord vers 4 15 18 30 31 twice to Idols vers 31 37. But that which I have chiefly in my eye is Chap. 33.27 The Eternal God is thy refuge very proper and Emphatical For 't is the Eternity of God that renders him a sufficient and compleat Refuge Notwithstanding all other Perfections if he were not the Everlasting God our Refuge would finally fail and be none at all He is called The Rock of Ages which our Translation renders Everlasting Strength Isa 26.4 And indeed a Rock the most indissoluble and durable part of the Earth is an Emblem of perpetuity A Rock of Refuge is therefore an everlasting security and comfort Nor is it a mean Satisfaction to remember that as there is a sufficiency of Ability and good Will in our God who by Covenant is engaged to put an end to our troubles and replenish us us with the Joys of his Salvation So he lives for ever to continue them that they shall have no period short of Eternity He is an ever-over-flowing fountain of Everlasting Consolations as they are called 2 Thes 2.16 17. Now our Lord Jesus Christ and God even our Father who hath loved us and given us everlasting Consolation through Grace Comfort your Hearts c. Our Consolations are Eternal because God is for in him they are as in the Well-spring therefore cannot be as Waters that fail as Jerem. Expostulates Chap. 15.18 If they could our Wound might be incurable indeed refusing to be healed and our pain perpetual But all this shall certainly have an end because God cannot This cannot be Eternal because God is Whatever is wanting in the durableness and sweetness of these fluxible perishable Enjoyments which we possess on Earth whatever we suffer through the continuance and bitterness of our Calamities is made up and amends made us abundantly in the Perennity of all Excellencies in God There is in this Attribute a suitable relief in all kinds of Distresses outward and inward All the short liv'd Comforts of this World have a better Being and Life in the Eternity of God Thou losest thy Friends and Relations the sweetest the best perhaps by the immediate hand of God as the Psalmist here by the violent hands of wicked Men vers 5 6. The Church of God in some places is laid waste and the stormy Cloud hangs over more and its implacable restless Adverries threaten all The Innocency of Christ's Lambs is no Protection against the Thrones of Iniquity in Babylon and Hell vers 20 21. No that 's the very ground of the Quarrel and Enmity Conformity to them Innocency and Iniquity would reconcile them Do'st thou tremble for the Ark of God And is thine own Personal Jeopardy or Suffering in Body Mind or Estate in any extremity Be not disinay'd Nubecula est cito transitura The greater the Tempest the sooner over Storms may huff against the Heavens yet cannot hurt them but only spend themselves And the Church is oft call'd Heaven in the Apocalypse and its Officers Stars from betwixt our Eyes and which the most raging furious blasts may dispel and drive away the Clouds that Eclipse and darken them but still leave those Coelestial Lamps more clear and inextinguishable whilst themselves are extinct in a moment The Dragons Flood will be soon swallowed up and the fury of Men and Devils shall quickly faint and melt away but the Love of God to his chosen never never Isa 40.27 28. Why sayest thou Oh Jacob and speakest Oh Israel My way is hid from the Lord and my Judgment is passed over from my God Hast thou not known hast thou not heard that the Everlasting God the Lord the Creator of the ends of the Earth fainteth not neither is weary there is no searching of his understanding Therefore possesses he an unfathomable Skill and Ability to refresh and revive thee but this is laid as the Foundation Stone upon which thou may'st rebuild thy decaying hopes viz. that he is the Everlasting God I therefore return again to that Deut. 33.26 27 28. There is none like the God of Jeshurun who rideth upon the Heavens in thy help and in his Excellency on the Skie The Eternal God is thy refuge and underneath are everlasting Arms and he shall thrust out the Enemy from before thee and shall say Destroy them Israel shall then dwell in safety alone c. Happy art thou Oh Israel who is like unto thee Oh People saved by the Lord the shield of thy help who is the Sword of thy excellency c. Hence in the Title given to Christ Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace have an immediate Connexion and Dependence Isa 9.6 If trouble be long 't is light but brief if grievous Si longa levis si gravis brevis Goodness cannot groan for ever because it leads to God and the more 't is oppressed the more it grows upward Heaven-ward where it shall only enjoy its everlasting Crown The Fire upon the Altar of God will be inextinguishable if from Heaven and those Coelestial Sparks of Divinity or Grace which the Holy Spirit kindles will by the bluster and storms of Affliction conceive a more vehement Flame perish and die they cannot as long as God lives from whom they derive their Being and Eternity But suppose all other sweet Satisfactions whether Spiritual Joys and Refreshments or Temporal Contentments be totally extinct as to present sense yet finally they shall not because they possess a perennity of Life in God And when Goodness and He meet in the Superiour World these will revive and Misery die I grant the most flourishing Gourds of Earthly Pomp and Glory may wither in a Night as being a vain Pageant and mere Phantastry Acts 25.23 The fairest freshest sweetest Flowers of the Youthful Spring of Humane Life may be blasted in a moment and converted into dust and rottenness The most pleasing Sun-shine of the smiling Morn of a fortunate Prosperity may suffer an Eclipse and issue in a dismal Hurricane of insupportable Calamities Nay Heaven it self may seem to frown and a dark Cloud to cover the Light of God's Countenance Lam. 3.44 But none of these Evils can extend beyond the Grave there are they buried
Grace as a Preparation for more of his Glory 2 Cor. 4.8 to the end Upon this Providence of God our Psalmist had a special eye throughout the Psalm Whatever he desires and prays for whatever he believes and hopes for whatever he acknowledges and praises God for whatever he bemoans and afflicts his Soul for whatever he experiences and feels was some Act Effect or Permission of Providence That God in the course of his Providence would annimadvert upon the insolent Barbarities of his and the Churches Enemies is the Expostulatory Petition of Vers 1 2 3 4. What was the Permission of Providence Is the condolement and moan of Vers 5.6 The singular concern of Providence is the Doctrine of Vers 8 9 10. as the happy Fruits of the very Severities thereof the Triumph of Vers 12 13 and the returns of its favourable Aspect the belief of Vers 14 15 the notable needful suitable and feasonable Interposals thereof the experience of Vers 17 18 22 and the turning of this great Wheel upon the Adversaries to their confusion the Prophetick hope of Vers 23. All jointly together the comfort of the Text which in the Multitude of his perplexed Thoughts did look with such an amiable regard upon his Soul So that although the Fundamental Ground and Matter of his Satisfaction was the Nature of God in all its plenitude of Perfection yet the more immediate Spring thereof was the Egress or Issuings out of those Attributes in all these Varieties of Providence And the truth is although what God is in himself be eminently and vertually all Comfort in the utmost degree of Excellency yet should he confine his infinitely delectable Glories to himself only and never ray out and communicate of his Beauty Grace and Life to his Creatures they would be utterly at a loss for Happiness 'T is therefore not only the Nature of this Supreme Goodness as it transcends all in Perfection But also 't is its practice and delight and highest end the very thing that is called God's Glory which he has a prime respect to in all his Actings For then have his Creatures the highest Motives to Honour him when they taste most liberally of his bounty in the noblest Instances and he glorifies himself in the Estimate of the World when he is most beneficial as the Sun is most glorious when diffusing without any Interception his benign rayes and influences All which Glories vanish as to us in a total Eclipse or his descent under the Horizon Hence then does our Joy and Peace and Solace actually germinate and grow even from the glory of Divine Perfection branching out it self in infinite methods of Providence wherein he dispenses to us of his own fulness according to our various Exigences and Appetites The out goings of his Wisdom Goodness Justice Fidelity and Power in sweet and suitable Blessings and Supports that in every Condition we can behold something of God of greater value and consideration than either our Mercies or Crosses This is a potent Cordial to our Disconsolate Hearts and replenishes them with wonderful Contentation If these Divine Glories compass us about care for us keep us we are comforted on every side Psal 71.21 Yea though we walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death if God be thus with us in his providential Efficiency for our good his Rod and Staff will comfort us Psal 23.4 Rod and Staff Pastoral not Judicial or Corrective as some understand it But Providence being vertually included in those Attributes whereof it is an effect and issue in discoursing of them I was unavoidably led into some consideration of it also 2. The Privileges which administer Consolation in the greatest hurry and perturbation of Thoughts are many Two whereof only are insinuated in this Psalm yet such as suppose more They are 1. Sanctification 2. Propriety in God and assurance of it 1. Sanctification by the Word and Spirit of God is an excellent ground of Consolation 'T is indeed the first Foundation Stone laid in the Fabrick In vertue of this we receive Comfort from other things Tell any disquieted Heart of the inexhaustible Treasures of everlasting Joys and Refreshments in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost That Multitudes have enjoyed on Earth and in the Eternal Fruition whereof the Blessed Saints and Angels ever triumph in Heaven which the bounty and goodness of God exhibits and offers to all Tell it of the free and gracious Promises and Covenant of God that tenders the sweetest and strongest Consolation Exhort with the most charming Rhetorick and ravishing Suada to embrace these so rich so profitable so necessary Provisions of abounding Love Alas it cannot it dare not Why Because 't is Presumption 't is Stealth Robbery Sacrilege to snatch away any thing to arrest these Divine and Holy things without Right But have you not Right No How do you prove that 'T is plain All Right is founded in Sanctification I am not Sanctified I lie in my Sins dead and buried in Guilt and Wrath unregenerate out of Covenant as not having submitted to its Conditions in Repentance Faith and New Obedience Therefore the Comforts of the Covenant and of the Promises its Branches do not at all appertain to me This Argument cannot be gain-said if it assume right 'T is undoubtedly true That none have Right to the Mercies of the Covenant who do not submit to its terms and that very yielding unfeignedly to the terms is an act of Sanctification which necessarily supposes the Communication of a Principle because none can act grace sincerely except from an inward Life of Grace it being essential to the sincerity of an Act that it proceed from a gracious Disposition from a renewed sanctified Heart Ezek. 36.26 27 31 32. and Ch. 20.43 44. and Ch. 11.19 Jer. 32.38 39 40. and 31.31 32 33 34. and 24.7 Deut. 30.6 Acts 5.31 and 3 26. Phil. 1.29 Eph. 2.8 9 10. For none but acts of Life as contradistinct to Dead Works entitle to the Promises God gives a Heart of Flesh a new Heart and Writes his Law therein infuses his Fear and Love thereinto gives Repentance through the Exaltation of Jesus Christ to whose benignity we owe the Donation of Faith also and are altogether his Workmanship created in Christ Jesus to good Works that we may walk therein evermore Admit that these Promises and Asseverations were designed primarily for Israel according to the Flesh Yet can it not be denied that they delineate and describe the manner and method of God's Proceedings with his Israel according to the Spirit For he no where declares his intent to alter that oeconomy of Grace in the substance thereof which was established by the Covenant of Grace to reduce lost Man to the obedience of the Just though the Circumstances and Ceremonials vary Now if acceptable that is sincere Acts may issue from any Man without or antecedently to all holy Qualifications or Habits as they are usually called ' t were a supervacaneous
vouchsafe Pardon Her Iniquity is pardoned because she hath received two-double c. Else 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must be here Translated that as in the two former Clauses Indeed in the New Covenant Oeconomy Satisfaction made Actually or Vertually as the Lamb of God was slain from the beginning of the World is Antecedent to Pardon and the meritorious Cause of it 3. By like Reason both from the Nature of the thing and the Contexture of these Clauses Warfare or appointed time for hostility is accomplished Remissâ culpâ remittitur poena when Sin is Pardoned The Fault being forgiven the Punishment Eternal at least is remitted and sometimes the Temporal wholly however in the nature of a satisfactory Penalty Guilt is pardoned but the Essence of Guilt consists in a binding over to Wrath or Punishment Therefore the punishment is remitted in this Notion that it shall not be inflicted in vertue of that Obligation to Wrath although the very same material Pains under another form viz. as Corrections ver 12. may be undergone nay must be in some degree and kind Acts 14.22 Psal 34.19 2 Tim. 3.12 c. I know no Declaration or Promise made by God that these and the like shall not continue part of Canonical Scripture and be true to the Worlds end Afflictions are formally Penal till Sin be remitted but afterward the Sting is taken out and they are not Conflicts of War but only Chastisements of Peace The Enmity of God is then terminated the Warfare betwixt him and the Soul issued in a serene perfect and everlasting Tranquility and Peace And therefore 4. These Foundations being laid the Word of Promise Proclaims and Crys Comfort ye Comfort ye your selves for I am your God who command and warrant you to do it There 's nothing now to debar you from assuming it and quieting your troubled Hearts with the application of it it is ready for you and you for it it invites you with its amiable aspect to run into its Embraces and solace your selves with all the Marrow and sweetness comprehended in the Covenant and Promises all is yours by right And consequently Lastly When God proclaims Peace and crys Comfort ye Comfort ye Conscience transgresses if it do not so likewise For being God's Viceroy and Judge in Man it hath no Commission to Act but deriv'd from God from which it must not cannot swerve an Hair's-breath without incurring the Penalty of its Presumption The Law of God in Nature and Scripture is the perfect and adequate Rule and Standard of all its Proceedings herein are all its Powers contain'd a counterpart whereof it retains after Illumination within it self which Copy is null if it do not perfectly agree with the Original To interline or rase out does wholly evacuate and destroy the validity of its proceedings Therefore whatever God says or does in the Concerns of his Government within us Conscience must not vary from in the least tittle it must speak when and what he does and be silent where he is so If God condemn Conscience must do so likewise if he absolve Conscience must justifie also neither adding to his Words nor diminishing nor yet concealing his Counsels If then he be at Peace Conscience is obliged no longer to proclaim War If he call to Comfort it must not contradict his Calls and so oppose and blaspheme his Grace it must harmonize with Heaven or else it abjures its Allegiance to God and acts by Commission from Satan and lyes against the Holy Ghost In summ all Spiritual Discomfort is finally resolvable into trouble 1. about a Man's 1 State Absolute Relative or 2 Frame of Soul or 3 Way of Walking or 4 Particular Acts of Sin or 5 Satan's Temptations or 6 Divine Derelictions under all which there is abundant Comfort in this MY GOD For if he be my State is good witness the Covenant My Ways and Frame shall be so Jer. 32.38 39 40 41 and 24.7 Deut. 30.1 to 10 Inclusive Ezek. 11.19 20. and 36. 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 the latter part of 36 and beginning of 37. By these exceeding great and precious Promises not only Healing Sanctifying Stablishing but also Preventing and Pardoning Grace is given for particular Acts of Sin and assurance that God will not finally forsake us therefore not leave us to the Will and Power of the Old Serpent though he tempt to Sins as black as the Regions he Inhabits as foul as his own Face as malignant as his own venomous Heart The Fear of God which his everlasting Covenant engages to give will command urge and enforce thy dissent or the Love of God will oblige him to Pardon as he hath promised if thy Consent be ravish'd because his Covenant Grace the Law in the Heart will enable to Repent and Believe for Pardon Here 's all The Comfort of Sanctification we have in the forecited Psal 119.50 and Isa 12.1 O Lord I will praise thee though thou wast angry with me thine anger is turned away and thou comfortedst me Rom. 5.1 Being Justify'd by Faith we have Peace with God There 's the Comfort of Justification upon which two all Spiritual Comforts depend yea and Temporal also upon the latter as to their Substance and the former as its Evidence For we know not that we are pardoned but only by feeling our selves purified by God's Holy Spirit of Grace Whence Isa 32.24 The Inhabitant shall not say I am sick the People that dwell therein shall be forgiven their Iniquity Sickness the sharpest the nearest the most perilous of all Bodily Troubles by a Synecdoche put for all the rest the bitterness whereof is antidoted by the sweet of Pardon and Peace sense of Pardon will take away sense of Pain because it takes out the Poyson and Curse of it That is the comfort of forgiveness or exemption from eternal intolerable Pains does out-balance the trouble of any temporary tolerable Pains as joy for the birth of a Man-Child drowns the remembrance and sense of all preceeding Pangs and Sorrows Joh. 16.21 Lastly If to all these be superadded any plain and sensible Experiments of Divine Goodness in the special Fruits of it this doth abundantly satisfie and solace our Souls as compleating our evidence of right to the Comforts of God being as it were an immediate Testimony from Heaven that God is ours in Covenant and owns us as his peculiar Treasure Mal. 3.15 For 't is a confirmation of our Assurance of and Title to Comfort under the Hand and Seal of the Holy Spirit of Grace and Consolation This contributes to Comfort thus and thus only as corroborating our assured Perswasion and Evidence that our Peace is not self-flattery and deceit For 't is merely in vertue of Assurance that we are enabled to comfort our selves in God Assurance I say in both its parts both as referring to an external Object viz. Propriety in God all of God and as respecting those inward Qualifications and Dispositions which if I do not
all the boundless Treasures of Soul-satisfying Contents which are laid up in God Christ the Holy Spirit Heaven the Covenant and Promises are no actual Comfort to us but only by the mediation of Grace within us nor Grace it self except its Integrity and Truth be evidenced plainly to us So that in short all Comfort does immediately spring from Assurance A Man hath so much Peace as he hath of this and not a jot more This is the nearest matter and ground thereof yet not absolutely and in it self considered merely but relatively to Grace but neither Grace absolutely no 't is relatively to God that it introduces real Consolation viz. as an evidence that God is ours and as it carries out our Souls to him to place their whole Felicity in him This therefore is the Genealogy or Pedigree of Comfort 't is the immediate Off-spring of Assurance which is the Off-spring of Grace which is the Off-spring of God Assurance comforts as it refers to Grace Grace comforts as it leads to God God comforts Architectonically Originally Eminently as the principal Efficient and Matter of all Legitimate Consolation Thus have I finished all I conceive necessary to explain the Nature Origin Matter and Method of deriving Comfort into the Soul CHAP. XV. Inferences I. Doctrinal WHat remains is only to deduce some profitable Inferences Doctrinal and Practical immediately from the Text in its Coherence and Scope and such only as are clearly included in the Bowels of it To direct wherein I shall make 2 Tim. 3.16 my Card and Compass All Scripture is Divinely inspir'd and profitable for Doctrine for Evidence for Conviction for Reproof for Correction for Rectification for Reformation for Instruction for Discipline which is even that in Righteousness My Doctrinal Inferences are Three 1. Hence see that it is a very lamentable thing for a Man to be left by God to be worried by his own Thoughts In what deplorable Circumstances would David have been had there been no Divine Comforts to moderate and asswage the violence of his turbulent Cogitations There 's nothing in Man better or worse than Thoughts If a Good Angel act them they are Birds of Paradise They are the furest Guides the sweetest Companions the soundest Comforts the First Movers in the Heaven of Vertue and Goodness the last alive to God the most delightful Anticipations of Everlasting Blessedness which realize those Pleasures and Joys that are unutterable the bright and fair Idea of the Invisible Majesty and Glory of God Himself Contrarily if acted by an Evil Genius they are the very Beelzebub of the lesser World the Ignis Fatuus that leads us into the Pits and Precipices of Errour Wickedness and Woe They are the Locusts and Smoak of the Bottomless Pit that darken the Heavens of Peace and Contentation devour and blast every living thing in us the dreadful Image and Representation of the black Horrours and Confusions of Hell A Man is a Brute a Fool a Mad-man or a Devil as his Thoughts are and his Thoughts will be as bad as Hell can make them if Heaven do not supervise govern and direct them and yet there needs no other Fiend to debauch them than that Corruption that first enter'd into us by them and does perpetually dog and haunt them How many by them have been hurried into Hospitals Halters Bridewel Bedlam and the dismal Regions of eternal Darkness How do they act all the Parts appear in all the Forms advance to all the degrees of Malignity and Misery But in none more than the Melancholick Here Satan rides as in a triumphant Chariot the Wheels are Thoughts which by presenting Objects and exciting Corruptions he sets a going sometimes with Consent sometimes without Hence proceed Atheistical Blasphemous c. Injections which ravish the Mind in the greatest abhorrence of the Will Hence despairing Reflections which realize and antedate those intolerable Cruciations of outer Darkness Hence terrifying Motions which deaden and betray the Aids and Supports of Reason and Religion and finds a Devil in every Corner Any one Thought armed by Justice and acted by Satan is sufficient to embitter all the Joys of Life and render a Man as miserable as is possible on this side never ending Miseries Who then can bear up against a Multitude Guarde me Dieu de moy was my School-Masters Motto No Man can have a greater finite Enemy than his own Thoughts A Multitude of these Tormentors within is worse than all the ravenous Lions and Bears and Tigers and Wolves in the Universe which by Power or Industry or Policy Art and Wit a Man may avoid but how shall he escape from himself and that which is nearest himself his wild mad untutour'd ungovernable Cogitations 'T was then no improper Litany From my self good God guard and deliver me 2. See here that the best of Men may fall into such Perplexities that all natural Aids may be insufficient for their Relief Not my Carnal Contents and the Pleasures of Sense not my Worldly Grandeur and the Hopes or Fruition of a Kingdom not my Invincible Spirit Valour Conduct Victories and Military Glory not my Rational Considerations and Philosophy but thy Comforts are the Sanctuary of his persecuted and persecuting Thoughts Here and here alone does he find repose and rest Indeed if it were not thus we could not be our selves Did we enjoy all at home we should not be Men but Gods Self-sufficiency is an incommunicable Perfection of the Deity He that can be without all other Persons and Things is all Sociableness is the Property and Felicity of Humane Nature and therefore declares its Dependency Man cannot be without Man much less without God But if the Constitution of our Natures had been such that in all Exorbitances of Thoughts we could readily compose our selves into a serene and sober Calm of Rest Such is our Native Pride and Self-fullness since we were debased and emptied of all good by the Fall that we should never be induc'd to pay our due Tribute of Honour and Homage unto God to which not so much Ingenuity leads us as necessity drives us 'T is true in the State of Integrity Man was endowed with an Ability not to recompose and redintegrate the Disorders and Ruines in his Mind and Conscience introduced by irregular pestilent and intemperate Cogitations which suppose Loss of Integrity but to maintain in his Soul a constant and durable Peace and Rest but then 't was because he was possest of a Sufficiency of Wisdom and Goodness to govern his Thoughts with that Balance as to secure himself from all their Inordinacies But in laps'd Nature the Case is otherwise An unresistible Impetus of Thoughts is sometimes inevitable for there are two Principles in degenerate Man of a contrary Genius which possess his Principal Faculties Reason but this much debilitated in his Mind Corruption tho' not without some Alloy in his Will In all Moral Essays of Reason 't is very much thwarted by Corruption and even in
its Speculations infinitely weakned and debased The Will possesses a kind of Empire over the Mind to excite divert direct or determine Thoughts and vary all their Circumstances by proposal of Objects c. and sometimes to give a Supersedeas to some kind of Thoughts though not all but oft it raises up such Spirits as it cannot conjure down and very seldom has Dominion over the Matter or Subject of our Thoughts to biass the Mind into such Conceptions of Things as it pleases difform and dissonant from the Nature of the Things themselves except where there is a more than ordinary Debauch upon both Mind and Will For the Reason of the Subject must necessarily accord with the Reason of the Object if there be any Truth in our Conceptions Thoughts disagreeing from Things are Errours and Delusions The Remainders therefore of Corruption in the Will after its Renewal by Grace together with a subtile Tempter and sometimes the Holy Spirit of God himself as under Convictions of Sin do excite such Cogitations as are too hard for us and bear down all the Supports of Nature raising such Tumults and turbulent Affections that our Spirits are ready to succumb and sink under them into the most pensive Dumpishness Dolour Despair Horror and Confusion He is a Stranger to Himself the World the Scriptures Christianity the Church and particular Souls that know not this If any will not yet believe it I remit him to Bedlam where his Sense will convince him what doleful Tragedies of this nature have been and are acted by Amorous Envious Studious Dolorous and Religious Melancholy to omit other kinds And what Man is there that with any Sense and Seriousness reflects upon his own particular Sins against the Holy Majesty of Heaven in their odious Aggravations together with the declared Displeasure and Indignation the menaced Wrath and Curse of Almighty Vengeance against them and his Person for their sake but will sometimes find so great and oppressive Perturbations in his Mind and Conscience as to be utterly at a Non-plus and scarce able to secure himself from Despondency Who is there that in some either common or uncommon Calamity or imminent Danger thereof does not sometimes find the Passions excited by his Thoughts to be an Over-match for his Reason Who but a senseless stupid Log does not a little sometimes pass the bounds of Decorum in the Internal Workings of Sorrow upon the I oss or Death natural but especially suddain and violent of or any considerable Crosses in and by dearest and nearest Relations and yet more especially when their immortal Souls are apparently hazzarded if not finally lost and sunk into Eternal Damnation Now no inward Affections are Self-movers they neither do nor can act but upon the apprehension of Sence or Motion of Thoughts or Influence of some exterior very powerful Agent that can make immediate Impressions upon the Blood and Spirits as neither are our Thoughts no nor can be any Molestation or Affliction but only as irritating our Passions And I would gladly see the Man who by Rational or Religious Considerations has reduc'd his Thoughts and Passions to that equable Temperament and Balance that they neither are nor can be induc'd or impell'd won or wrested into any Irregularity or Excess by the single or united Powers of Earth Hell and Heaven which last never depraves them though it oft punishes us by them Surely Job was a very good Man yet the Extremity of his Afflictions provoked him to talk and therefore think extravagantly And if God Almighty cast away the Reins out of his hands and let loose a Man's Thoughts upon him and who is there that gives him not a world of Provocation I know not whither even the most mere Man's Thoughts may not hurry him on this side Hell If any desire a full Conviction what a wicked Man's Thoughts can do let them a little survey those dismal Regions of Everlasting Horror not in Person as the poor Prisoner in Alex. ab Alexandro Genial Dier L. 6. C. 21. but in Thought and Meditation and I hope it will do him this Good viz. engage him to implore Omnipotent Grace to Restrain and Govern his Thoughts that they may not be an Introduction and Earnest of those easeless endless remediless Woes and if his Thoughts thereof will permit him to sleep or rest before he hath done this he thinks to little purpose Lastly Behold the infinite Condescension and Care of Heaven towards impotent degenerous Man in the Provision made not only for his Necessity but Consolation Rather than our Thoughts should be too many and so an Over-match for us the Divine Goodness will interpose and relieve us and has exhibited such a full Treasury of Comforts that no Distress can befal us so uncouth so uncommon so inextricable as to be out of the reach and road of the Relief therein tendered us That so inconsiderable a Piece as a Sinner a Pourtraicture of Hell limn'd after the Image of Satan the Father of all Wickedness an Enemy thro natural depravement to God and Goodness should engage the Solicitude and Providence of Heaven in such admirable instances to retrieve its lost Happiness and recover it out of the Sink and Abyss of Filth and Wretchedness that it may be set aloft in the Galleries of Glory and be beautified in rather than beautifie the Presence-Chamber of the King of Kings This this is a wonder beyond the Dimension of all other Miracles to be ascrib'd to the Benignity and Efficiency of nothing Inferiour to Infiniteness Men may flatter themselves in their sweet Harangues concerning the Celsitude Dignity and Nobleness of Humane Nature let it in its positive State as the effect of a most excellent Cause be advanc'd and admir'd as much as it can by Words or Thoughts yet what is it comparatively to God What is it under the debasements of Sin Which is infinitely more odious to God than any thing short of Himself can be pleasing so that nothing less than Divinity could give Satisfaction for the Wrong it did to the Supreme Majesty of Heaven not all the natural Excellencies of the whole Creation not all the Moral Perfections and Performances of Men and Angels and what Account is to be made of a drop of Honey intermingled with an Ocean of Gall The ever Adoreable Son of God who was much more a Man in respect of all eximious humane Endowments than ever any born of Woman besides his Sinlessness yet in the Person of David saith of himself Psal 22.6.4 I am a Worm and no Man if that be not to be understood estimatively that he was no better in the account of his Reproachers that shaked the Head at him saying be trusted in the Lord c. compare this with Matth. 27.39.43 See also Psal 8.4 5 6. Heb. 2.6 c. In Job 25.6 Man is considered with respect to that which does most of all ennoble viz. Goodness and Righteousness Yet because 't is allay'd with the
Psal 45. 〈◊〉 Such Thoughts may possibly lick and sleek over the Affections and give them a Face but cannot give them Life and where our Sorrows are not a living Spring they will never issue in other than dead Contents and Joys Those Thoughts that never warm and melt the Heart do but terminate in cold Comfort If they do not mould and fashion and frame our Souls aright as the Potter does his Clay we shall never be Vessels of Honour to be replenished with divine Consolations Oh then my Soul where are thy piercing heart-wounding Reflections Will the All-wise God be so profuse of his medicinal healing Balms as to apply them wast where there are no Sores Can the all-knowing Physician of Souls be so indiscreet as prodigally to consume and spend his reviving Cordials where neither the Head is sick nor the Heart faint Do no mollifying Considerations distil down as the dew upon the Reck beneath to supple it into a repenting tenderness Dost thou never ascend in thy Meditations to the third Heaven and take a deliberate view of those yerning Bowels of Commiseration which did compass thee about when in thy Blood with the rest of Mankind devoted to everlasting Destruction upon account of thy violation in Adam of the Covenant of Nature Does not God's Eternal Love which was its own motive to establish that Heaven and Earth-astonishing Occonomy of Grace for thy restitution to a condition of Hope and Happiness sometimes solicit and invite thy serious Cogitations to dwell upon it till it thorowly insinuate it self into thy inmost Recesses and with a gentle fervour thaw thy frozen Affections and soften thee into godly Sorrow Art thou hardened against the powerful impressions of that admirable Grace Behold then further in Golgotha a spectacle that would regele and dissolve even Eyes of Flint and intenerate a Heart all Rock of Adamant Oh behold thy panting groaning bleeding dying Redeemer the ever-blessed Son of God breathing out his oppressed Soul under the burthen of thy Curse to procure for thee an Inheritance of everlasting Blessedness This O this is a melting sight indeed Did the very Rocks relent and rent asunder the palsied Earth devest its obstinate natural stableness and as if there had been a luxation of all its Ligaments compose it self into a tremulous Palpitation and the very face of Nature it self put on Sack-cloath gather Blackness enwrap it self in a Mourning dress and envelop all its Glories in a noonday night upon that fatal Eclipse of the Glory of both the visible and invisible World the Sun of Righteousness that the Philosopher did not without good reason infer upon the Contemplation thereof that it imported either the God of Natures Passion or its verging towards a Dissolution And shall that which overcomes all the repugnances of Nature find and leave thee a piece of the nether Milstone with a pervicacious stubbornness hardening thy self against Sorrow In a compassionate regard of thy wretchedness he did then by strength of Love how the Heavens Psal 144.5 Isa 64.1 that he might come down humbling his Deity to embrace thy beggarly Humanity but Oh! Whither wilt thou fly for Sanctuary when he shall break and burn down all at his return in the flaming Severity and Vengeance of an impartial Judge to render Recompences even to thee amongst the rest of impenitent Rebels If he find thee such what Rock more impenetrable than thy self wilt thou search out to cover thee 2 Pet. 3. When the Heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat What shelter canst thou meet with as indissoluble as thy brawny Heart that in a contumacious pertinacy has so long stood out against all the choicest methods of Divine Goodness to dissolve thee to reclaim thee Wilt thou consider or wilt thou not Shall thy thoughts draw out those penitential Waters that will return in a tyde of Joys Hast thou ever been opprest with the thoughts of thy Sins thy Ungodliness thy Worldly Lusts thy Pride Passion Selfishness Earthliness Unbelief Lukewarmness Hypocrisie Customariness of Spirit in holy Performances or omission of them c. and perseverance in these Evils and the like against the Dictates of Conscience Convictions of the Spirit Warnings of Providence by a hard and impenitent Heart treasuring up Wrath against the day of Wrath Rom. 2.5 and Revelation of the Righteous Judgment of God Will neither the thoughts of Love and Heaven engage thee nor of Wrath and Hell affright thee into Seriousness Oh the damnable obduracy and unconcernedness of an unrenewed Heart that neither Life nor Death though Eternal neither Felicity nor Misery though Unfathomable can prevail upon not to be willing and take the ready method to be unutterably miserable till the lamentable experience and feeling of the one eternally do utterly extinguish all hopes of the other except Almighty Power to introduce Repentance create such bitter and sensible foretasts that with Heman Psal 88.15 't is ready to groan out suffering thy Terrors I am distracted thy fierce wrath goeth over me thy terrors have cut me off For 't will be a wonder if any thing less prevail with it to fly from the Wrath to come Matth. 3.7 Did thy thoughts Oh my Soul never affect thee with these and the like things as the greatest Realities matters of Sense not of mere Speculation Hast thou never been sick and sore through the plague of thine Heart Art thou whole without a Physician Hast thou never a Spiritual Wound or want to force and drive thee out of thy self Seest thou never a divine lovely Perfection a suitable attractive Excellency in Christ to draw thee In short hast thou never entertain'd any feeling Considerations of the true way to Comfort Never studied that course and procedure of Divine Goodness whereby he leads to it Never entred in at the strait Gate of Repentance which alone admits into the Mansion of those unfading Joys Hast thou never got thy native Blindness of Mind in some good degree heal'd by the Spiritual Eye-salve of Heaven The digusts of thy Spiritual Palate remedied by a savoury relishing taste of the sweetness of the Truth as it is in Jesus Thy connatural rockiness dissolved by the softening influences of the Spirit of Conviction and Contrition If not thus I like it not thy Peace I fear is naught away with it 't will end in Confusion But if thy thoughts be deep and powerful and have thy Heart at command If thou weigh and consider with all seriousness and deliberation the necessity of being qualified aright for Peace and the danger of presuming thy Conscience into a calm cessation under a state of Enmity to God that for thy life thou darest not entertain a jot of Comfort further than thy Light Spirit and Condition can be fully reconciled to it and freely admit it upon a full and thorow pondering all Circumstances and examining thy Heart searching thy Conscience to the bottom because as much
excessive enough in their grief for Sin but are still ambitions to find their Head become Waters and theirs Eyes a Fountain of Tears that they may weep day and night which if they experience in any desired measure then are they well satisfied and at ease making this an Ingredient of their Comfort stiling it melting and being affected which when they feel not they are all upon the whine and cannot be reconciled to their more deep solid and less superficial Repentings and Dolors But this womanish part of Repentance in God's Whinls as one used to call them though in its due degree and place desirable and commendable yet is the least considerable and lowest thing in it as every judicious Divine and Christian very well knows being only sensitive not deliberative or spiritual in its rise and acting and real nature and the former viz. melancholick Pensiveness and delight therein is no part of Repentance at all but only an effort of natural Constitution or a gratification thereof including nothing reasonable and humane nor divine and spiritual No more is any thing in that Person who cannot satisfactorily resolve that Quaere of the Psalmist Why art thou cast down ob my Soul And why art thou disquieted within me Psal 42. ult For this is distinctive of sound trouble and unsound the former has some special and particular Matter as a reason and ground to alledge for it self the latter either can give no reason at all or hovers in the wild confusion of generals whence it springs and how it rises and for what it is lies in the dark Let not that pass then for right trouble which cannot give a just account of it self at the bar of Reason guided by the Word of God and if it cannot stand there how will it plead before the Tribunal of Christ Where we must render a reason of all things done in the Flesh whether good or evil 2 Cor. 5.10 the very Thoughts of the heart being there to be judged Rom. 2.15 16. troubled and troubling thoughts as well as others As then those are infinitely blame-worthy who maintain an ungrounded Peace in their minds although their hearts have never been sensible and sick of their native habitual enmity against God and Holiness and will not be beaten out of their presumptuous confidence in the Goodness and Covenant of God although altogether unqualified and those also who being a little chastized with the Whips and Scorpions of the Law in a tart Conviction and Terror of Conscience soon grow weary of the burthen and pain and being more sick of their Corrosives than their Corruptions begin Dog-like to lick whole their Sores and will have the Promises right or wrong as a lenitive or stupefactive rather to ease their pains or destroy their sence though the Core abide within and being well-pleas'd and satisfy'd with the palliate Cure trail on a little while 'till the more deep lancings of a thorough Conviction discover the deceit or the incurable gangrene break out at Death and Judgment to their ineffable Horror So likewise are they worthy to be greatly blamed on the other hand who are really sick but afraid of Balm and the Physician and though every Sin be made grievous and pain them at the very heart and nothing in the World would be more acceptable than a Saviour whom to subject themselves to they appear heartily resolved and willing to embrace every one of his Laws yet make danger of applying to themselves and taking encouragement from his Promises of Mercy that in Him are Yea and in Him Amen because forsooth they are not so and so humbled holy affectionate c. As if 't was not Evangelical New Covenant-Perfection i. e. Vprightness but Legal Personal Vniversal and Perpetual Obedience which God required as the Condition of the Covenant of Grace and they must not dare to accept of Christ and his Benefits except they were so good before-hand as to stand in no need of them But why I beseech you thus in love with your own Torture and desirous still to abide upon the Rack of Anxiety and Dolour Trouble is not its own end God does not wound our Consciences or crucifie our Comfort in carnal Things merely because he loves to torment us or that we may be Devils to ourselves by protracting our own Woes beyond the bounds of Decorum and Necessity He only designs by the Antiperistasis of our Sorrows more to sweeten the Joys of his Salvation which he hath prepared for us and by mingling Gall and Wormwood with our delicious Sins to embitter that which only prepares us for and assigns us over unto the direful Miseries of everlasting Damnation In brief one would not think that the reason of any could be reconcil'd to their own Woes much less their Sense Yet common Experience tells us that some will every moment be conjuring up new Fiends to torture themselves and seem to study nothing else but by fetching in all the Fuel they can possibly reach and all the Fire that divine Vengeance breaths out in the Scriptures to kindle a Hell in their own Consciences as though Misery were their proper Element and infinitely more desirable than divine Mercy which they solicitously fly from and with all imaginable Artifice and Industry fence against as if in a pernicious Malice against themselves they were sure 't would be their utter undoing to be happy Corruption Temptation and a dark cloudy Complexion with confederate strength and stratagems besiege and storm their Imaginations which having invested from thence as a strong Citadel they batter down their Reason so that nothing can be heard or regarded but what will take the stronger side to war against Comfort and God Display before them all the amiable Beauties of Infinite Goodness and Love in its wonderful descents to the Chief of Sinners with whose Transgressions their sober Considerations cannot dare to equal their own Represent to their view in a clear Heaven of Light the incomprehensible Glories and Condescensions of the ever to be admired and adored Son of Righteousness whose astonishing Free Grace induced him to be willing for the sake of lost Mankind to suffer an Eclipse under that thick Cloud of divine Vengeance which was due for the Sins not of one particular Sinner only but of the whole World and the Merit of whose Passion was sufficient to expiate the Sins of infinite Worlds yet will they scarce allow this to be a balance for their own Lay open before their Eyes the rich and glorious Treasury of the divine Promises and gracious Invitations to such as are under like Circumstances with theirs and therefore to them as fully and clearly as if their Names were engraven in the Front of every one of those Bonds upon God's Fidelity or these written upon their own Foreheads or proclaimed to them by name from Heaven Discover to them with the brightest Evidence that their Spirit Condition Frame and Preparations are really such as God hath described and
our Minds are the more enlarged are our Hearts to receive Comfort from our raised Speculations if we conscionably improve them but if not so much the more Anguish Vexation and Torment He that knows most of God knows most to torture and rack his Conscience for ever if like a Devil he notwithstanding it rebel against God If thy Illuminations do not warm thy Affections of Desire and Love they will awaken those bitter Passions of Fear Grief Horror and Despair as anticipations and earnests of Everlasting Woes Labour therefore to superadd to thy knowledge of God a true Notion of thy self and thine own estate absolute and relative of the latter by the former For by what thou feelest thy self to be in thy self must thou judge what thou art in relation to God and thus thy inward sense must bottom thy Faith i. e. thou mayst have good ground to believe that God has justified pardoned accepted adopted thee and will save thee if thou feelest by inward sense that he hath Regenerated and Sanctified thee Thus the Psalmist ere he claim Propriety in God ver 22. lays the Foundation of that Assurance in Conscience of Innocency and Righteousness ver 21. Admit this to be meant of particular limited doing harm to none good to all or only to the Concern'd viz. his Enemies that sought his Life Yet since 't was such as could approve it self to God 't will infer universal For particular Justice c. is not to be pleaded before God if it be but Hypocritical and such it is if its Principles Motives Ends be unsound But if these be sound they will certainly be Introductive of nay they are Vniversal Righteousness That is if Love to God and Goodness respect to his Will and Command and an Eye to his Glory lead and induce thee to Act and regulate thee in harmlessness and just dealing with Men they will not permit thee to rest there but with the same Efficacy and generous Violence urge and command thee into Sobriety and Godlyness Yea Love to God and Goodness is eminently both Particular Justice then without Universal is mere Hypocrisie and upon a bottom so base so weak so sandy no wise Man dare build the confidence to say My God no nor arrogate to himself a privilege of so noble and eminent a Nature no nor lastly would a serious Considerer so much as dare to mention Innocency and Righteousness toward Man in a solemn Address to God without a secret check from his own Conscience for and a serious deprecation anent his own Injustice and Nocency before the Divine Majesty had he not some inward Testimony of his Uprightness We will then adventure to suppose this carriage toward Man to be only an instance of that Cátholick Sincerity whereof the Psalmist was an excellent Pattern and mentioned as an aggravating Circumstance inhancing the guilt of these Persecutors that brake in Pieces God's People ver 3. Viz. That they did this without any manner of Provocation merely out of Malice against their Goodness and Relation to God and him in particular only upon false and ungrounded surmises However this be 't is certain that if a Man do not partake of the Divine Nature in Holiness in Faith Vertue Knowledge Temperance Patience Godliness Brotherly Kindness Love he can never make his Calling and Election sure 2 Pet. 1.4 5 6 7 10. i. e. except a Man know God experimentally in having his Image renew'd upon his Soul he can never know God comfortably in any true assurance of his Love and Favour and pardoning Grace therefore never solace himself with the being much less abundance of Peace Thus then if thou know'st not God thou knowest not thy self if thou know'st not thy self thou knowest not God Here therefore Oh my Soul lay out thine endeavours and cares to get a true understanding of thy state whether truly Sanctified Thou hast no true peace if not born again to it Get a distinct notion concerning the New Birth in general and thine own in particular For thou hast nothing to do with any thing in God if thou be'st not again begotten of God Lastly Endeavour to attain a clear notion of the Covenant of Grace its Nature terms and Obligation For be there never so much Comfort in God and never so much need and disposedness in thee for it yet what can make God so far a Debtor to thee as to necessitate him to bestow it on thee if he do not oblige himself thereto To that Covenant then do'st thou owe all thy right unto and hopes of enjoying God and his Consolations If thou found not thy confidence there 't is lost and thy self also No wise Man will neglect the perusal of those Deeds by which he holds his Inheritance Thy Comforts are indeed but only Copy-bold look to it 4. I advised to endeavour a clear understanding of thine absolute state of Sanctification under the preceeding Particular upon Supposition of such a state in Being But what if it be not Non entis nulla est scientia We know not that which is not Least therefore an error be found in the very Foundation of all in that which above all things is most essential to and differential of true Comfort my next Rule is about that Make sure that thou be converted from Darkness to Light and from the Power of Satan to God Lay the Ground Work of thy Peace in true Penitence For as Seneca Fidelissimus ad honesta ex Poenitentia transitus I subjoyn ad solantia Nat. quaest 1.3 init Repentance most undeceivingly leads to honesty and peace Thou canst never pass by Land to Paradise but by Water the Sea of godly Sorrow The Laver must stand betwixt the Tent and the Altar wash thou must ere thou canst make Atonement with the Psalmist thou must be righteous and innocent ere God revive thee The Wisdom that descends from above is first pure then peaceable Jam. 3.17 None but the Eagle can face the Sun A Salamander cannot subsist in Water nor a Fish in Fire Nothing that is unholy can live in the Element of everlasting Light Joy and Rest None but a true and honest Heart must be blest with a Heaven of unperishable Consolation God will not justifie and encourage Wickedness by the entail of true Contentation nor appropriate the Portion of his Friends to his Enemies Give the Childrens Bread to Dogs neither deny Celestial Manna to his Israel though in the Wilderness Even Rocks shall yield Honey to his People that hearken to his voice and walk in his ways Psal 81.13 16. And he speaks peace only to his People and holy or merciful ones Psal 85.8 and none are ever made such except only by Regeneration The single Eye sees farthest none but pure Hearts can look into Heaven and there see Visions of Peace If old Simeon wait and hope to see the Consolations of Israel he must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 just and devout Luk. 2.25 which no Man is by Nature
but only by converting Grace God alone enjoys himself in perfect Rest nor can any thing partake of this Moral Rest further than 't is happy in a Participation of the nature of God Whatever is in God is necessarily in him and the Combination of all his Excellencies is as necessary as their Existence 't is impossible that any one should be without all the rest and the rest without any one Indeed they are all but one Essence and that one Nature is all undividedly They are also inseparable in all their Emanations and Outgoings to his Servants If any be communicated to Man all other that are communicable accompany it Wherever then the Divine Life in Holiness diffuses it self 't is seconded with its Individual Companion Happiness If a Man have no feeling of this 't is because be hath none of the other See to it then Oh my Soul that thou be formed after the Similitude of God as ever thou hopest for Satisfaction in and from him Conformity to the Divine Will in its Precepts is indispensibly required in order to inheriting the Promises God himself neither will nor can comfort thee if Ungodlike but only by first making thee Godlike till thou communicate in his Sanctity thou canst not communicate in his Love 't is impossible to be happy in his Peace when thou art miserable in his Enmity or rationally to conclude that he loves thee when thou knowest he hates thy Lusts which yet are unseparated from thee and therefore hast all the reason in the World to believe that for their sake he hates thy Person 't is not possible to know that he respects thee when thou knowest that thou hatest Him To thy Work then or take thy doom converted thou must be or comforted thou canst not be Oh! as thou iovest thy Life thy Peace and an everlasting state of Glory and Felicity in Heaven retire into thy self Survey all thy inward Recesses dive into the bottom of that Sea of filthiness in which thou art naturally drenched and at the point of Drowning and which casts up all that abominable Mire and Filth and Poison that renders thee infinitely hateful to God and rages as a secret Plague and Pestilence in thy Heart and Bowels to gripe and gnaw thee to Death everlasting Oh behold how nasty odious detestable execrable it has made thee the very scum and offscouring of the Creation fit for nothing but the Dunghil and Dungeon of everlasting darkness to be consumed in the ever-burning unquenchable Tophet of Divine Indignation Oh look into that foul loathsome Sty of ordure and rottenness thy wicked Heart what Toads what Vipers are thence crawling out continually by Legions Sins of Complexion Age Calling Customary Beloved Master Sins thy own thy other Mens appropriated by thy Consent Counsel Connivence if not Compulsion Oh how numerous Oh how hainous How soon did'st thou begin like a bloody Butcher thus mortally to Wound thy self How long hast thou continued with a never ceasing frenzy and fury to gore and torture thy self in every Limb every Faculty every Place Time Company as if thou couldest never be barbarously enough truculent in thine own Execution except thou couldest create a raging Hell in every distinct atom of Body and Soul and by infinite Tormentors Devils rack and rend and tear thy self with the most intensive Cruciations O what a World of Light of Love of Means of Calls of Motions of Motives of Blessings of Prayers of Vows Promises Covenant Engagements Resolutions Professions Convictions Corrections c. hast thou with a shameless sauciness dared to tread in the Dirt and hast broke through all the Rampires that Conscience Education Awe Providence Law Divine Humane and their severest Sanctions have set up against thee that in a desperate madness of fool-hardy impudence thou mightest spew thy stinking Vomits in the very face of boundless Goodness and Righteousness Oh the beastlyness of thy Fleshly Lusts Oh the heathenishness of thy Worldly Lusts Oh the devilishness of thy Spiritual Wickedness Could'st thou but command a view of them in their malignant venomous hellish Nature all those Infernal Fiends that inhabit the black Recesses of everlasting Darkness all the dismal Plagues and Horrors of that doleful Region of Fire and Brimstone could not make or present a Spectacle of greater Formidableness and Deformity Yet all this is intimately within thee cleaving as close to thee as thy very Nature as inseparable as thy desire of it and delight in it can possibly make it a sight that would make thee quiver be sick and swoon and die should the Lord fully open thine Eyes Oh wretched Soul who shall deliver thee who shall relieve thee Thou art as black as Hell as foul a sink of Contagious Filth and Putrefaction as infects the World the chief of Sinners not knowing so much of aggravation in the sin of Devils themselves as thou do'st of thine own yet do'st not know the one half Oh accursed of God by Nature and Practice What wilt thou do What! wilt thou plead with thy Maker Where do'st thou think to appear What Mountains and Rocks wilt thou call to cover thee from the face of him that sits upon the Throne and from the Wrath of the Lamb How wilt thou stand at that dreadful Tribunal How darest thou look at God or into thy self where thou wilt find Creatures of thine own Sins I mean of a more prodigious frightful hue than Beelzebub himself Oh look upon them and tremble look till thy Heart ake and break and sink and sweat in an agony of Blood and Woe look and be in Pangs like those of a Woman in Travail look till the Sluces break open till thou canst pour out thy strength in a flood of godly Sorrow Ah wretch What hast thou done Whom hast thou Wronged Dishonoured Crucified Murthered First by thy ungodliness and worldly Lusts next afresh by thy Impenitence Unbelief and neglect of the healing Balsam which he tenders in his own Blood Ah Beast Bedlam Blood-sucker Murtherer Hast thou bathed thine Hands in thine own and the Heart-blood of God And does it not cut thee to the Heart Art thou still offering the most vile horrid cruel Affronts Indignities Injuries to the Eternal Father of Heaven the Blessed Jesus his only begotten dearly beloved Son to the Holy Spirit of Promise and yet rock and adamant untouched undissolved unaffected Oh Savage Monster Oh barbarous Homicide Deicide again to rake in the Heart and tear the Flesh and bore the Hands and Feet and spit in the Face of infinite Love that bleeds over thee in thy Blood and melts into the tenderest Commiserations when thou art drowning thy self in the deepest pit of Perdition Did he suffer such dolorous Torturings in his Body but an infinitely more intolerable Hell in his Soul for thy sake to quicken thee even when thou art killing him anew by thy Sin And does he with such yerning Bowels of compassion strive with thee if it be possible to exalt and
love thee into Heaven when thou debasest and hatest and would sin him if it were possible into Hell And yet does not thy Heart relent and smite and gall thee Oh is this thy kindness to thy Friend to thy Redeemer to thy self Oh! What do'st thou deserve for these foul Villanies committed against a Person of thee the best deserving in the World How many Hells How many tormenting Devils are thy just reward for so horrible Affronts Despites Scorns put upon the Majesty and Mercy of Heaven Oh! What canst thou do or think or hope in this lamentable case Wherewithal wilt thou come before the Lord What hast thou to tender as a just Reparation Or canst thou bear up against the fiery tempest of his devouring Indignation Oh woe unto thee that ever thou wast brought out of the Womb of Nothing to behold thy self in Circumstances so deplorable and so little affected afflicted This this is the most miserable scene of all thy Miseries To be ready to be spew'd out of the Mouth of Jesus into the very jaws of the roaring Lion to be tumbled down out of the bosom of God into the everlasting Burnings of the bottomless Pit and yet be senseless secure fearless careless remorseless Oh astonishment Oh horror Awake awake Oh my sense Oh my stupid benummed brawny Heart and melt in the fiery Oven of Wrath or the warm refreshing Sun-shine of Love Oh Grief and Anguish Where do ye inhabit Whither are ye retired Oh come and dwell in a sinful Soul and pour it out in a penitential Deluge Oh Almighty Love shed abroad thy heart-dissolving Influences and make the Floods overflow Oh in what bitterness of woe am I that I have undervalued and trod thee under my profane Feet that I have kick'd at those Bowels and even torn out that Heart that hath yearned over me in the most affectionate degree of Pity and Clemency My Bowels my Bowels I am pained at my very heart for the sordid disingenuousness as well as the bloody barbarousness of my Deportment toward thee Oh beloved and blessed Son of God whom with accursed cruel wicked hands I have crucified and slain Whoever were the Instruments yet 't was I as a principal meritorious Cause by my Sin that was the Judas the betrayer the Jew the Murtherer I drive the Nails I push'd forward the Spear I tore open thy very Heart to let out that blessed Spring of Water and Blood 'T was my guilt that first made my own then thy unpolluted Body passible and mortal 'T was I that armed the more formidable vengeance of thy Father against thy innocent Soul I that set open the flood-gates of Divine Wrath and let in that terrible Inundation of Miseries upon it which overwhelmed it destroyed kill'd it as far as was possible for that which was Immortal and thy Body in its Ruins Oh 't was sinful I that poured out all those scalding Hells into that blessed Soul of the Holy One of God which melted his Body into a showre of Blood that I became as far as possible the Author of the Death of God Bleed Oh my Soul bleed a deluge over those bleeding Wounds that dying Heart that cruciated Soul of the Crucified Son of God Oh grieve and mourn bitterly for thy vexing rebelling against and grieving the Spirit of Grace whom thou hast so often thrust away by quenching his Motions strangling his Convictions resisting his Operations as if 't was thy design to frustrate all the methods of infinite Love for thy Salvation Oh hateful to God and Man Wilt thou not be stung to the Heart with all wherewith thou hast despited all the kindness and goodness and tenderness of Heaven Oh my vileness Oh my baseness 't is unutterable 't is unsufferable where can a Parallel be found throughout the whole Creation Oh what am I What have I made my self An abhorrence to all Flesh to all Spirits and shall I not be so to my self Is there a poisonful Serpent on Earth a squalid Fury in Hell more virulent and abominable The Heart of God Christ the Spirit Angels Blessed Saints rise against me as the viperous-Brood the filthy Vomit of Satan spit out of his Mouth as like him in form or deformity rather and ugliness as Hell to Hell And what now is thy Portion Oh miserable Soul What thy doom See it dread it yet expect it for how canst thou avoid it Ah! the bottom of the bottomless abyss of Woe the hottest Mansion in the raging Furnace of Divine Wrath how canst thou abide it I am tottering upon the very brinks of Hell Down I fall I sink I perish What can save me Who can redeem my Soul from Destruction everlasting I my self cannot no nor all the created Powers of Heaven and Earth And have I not abundant reason to fear that the blessed Trinunity will not Oh woful Soul Whither hast thou suffer'd thy Wickedness to hurry thee What wilt thou do in the day of God's fierce Anger which in a moment may arrest thee and swallow thee up And what Remedy Where wilt thou seek where canst thou find security against that Omnipotent Vengeance that is ready to Arraign thee Oh! What wilt thou do to be saved Is there any possibility Is there no Balm in Gilead Is there no Physician there Oh there there alone is thy Succour wilt thou reject it In this Perplexity wilt thou despise it Wilt thou defer and delay applying thy self to a serious Care to make use of it Oh! Be willing be forward be eager to do nay to suffer any thing but the loss of Holiness and God that thou maist be healed I come Lord now I come a poor Prodigal returning to my wits my self that I may return to thee and with a groaning oppressed pained Heart weary of Sin the Cause sick of self dead to all mine own Righteousness and every thing I thus under the Influence and Conduct of thy Holy Spirit present my self at the lowest step of thy Throne as unfit unworthy to lift up mine Eyes to look thee in the face and being in a grievous Agony of Woe because I have offended thee so hainously so frequently so perseveringly by a Deportment so dishonest vile sordid I loath my self and all my fore-past evil ways of Spiritual and Carnal Wickedness Omissions Commissions Sins of Nature Heart and Life in Word or Deed or Thought they wound me to the very Soul I faint under them I cannot with patience reflect upon my unuttereble Folly in living unto and under them I abhor my self in dust and ashes I utterly and eternally abandon them resolve against promise vow covenant to be an utter and implacable Enemy to them Down all ye Idols of my Heart Lusts of the Eyes Lusts of the Flesh Pride of Life Filthiness of Spirit as well as Flesh In good earnest I now purpose through thy Aid and Grace never to return to any of these Follies more never never more and under the Assistance of thy Power I
love the Lord then Oh my Soul with all thy mind with all thy Heart with all thy strength and thy Neighbour as thy self for his sake let him have thy whole desire thy whole delight at all times Minus te amat qui aliquid tecum amat quod non propter te amat Idiotae contempl de amore Dei c. 12. He loves thee but little Oh Lord who loves any thing with thee which he loves not for thee says a devout Man 'T is but meet that the highest God should have the Supremacy in my heart If in the greater World he be King must he be a Subject in the less I am worse than Hell if God must not be acknowledged Soveraign in my Soul The Spirits there dare not cannot but own him as their Lord this is the duty they pay extorted indeed by their sense and fear which that it may not be thy dismal lot and fate Oh my Soul advance thou him freely to the Crown within thy self in a spontaneous generous Ardour of pure Incorrupt Incorruptible Love Which if thou dost not thou art accursed if thou dost thou art blessed for 't is a Prayer upon record in God's Word 1 Cor. 16.22 and therefore part of the matter of Christ's Intercession Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Incorruption or Immortality i. e. with a never-fading Love Eph. 2.24 and that only is a sincere Love Oh Love the Lord on Earth as thou wilt love him in Heaven with the same kind and press toward the same degree of Love and be happy Thus live in God above the tumult and hurry of external things and be at rest Marc. Antonin l. 2. p. 5 c. Omnem crede diem tibi diluxisse Supremum Live every day as if it were thy last and in every imployment so act Arrian l. 4. c. 10. as one that can be free to be found therein by Death p. 416. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It. l. 3. c. 5 p. 273. Antonin l. 6. §. 3◠What would'st thou be found doing by Death says Arrianus I for my part doing some masculine beneficial publick useful generous Work But if I cannot be found in these yet this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unhinderable this is given to me to amend my self to elaborate that faculty which makes use of Phantasies to endeavour apathy or freeness from Passion to give my Affections their due and if I can be so happy to gain soundness certainty of Judgment If Death find me thus employ'd 't will be sufficient to engage me with hands stretched out to God to say I have not neglected those Powers thou gavest me to observe thy Government and follow it I have done my endeavour not to disgrace thee Behold how I have used my Senses my Prenotions Have I ever blamed thee Have I been displeased with any thing befalling or wish'd it otherwise Have I misguided my Affections because thou begattest me I render thee the praise of thy Gifts in as much as I have well used thine it sufficeth me Resume them now again and where thou pleasest dispose of me For all were thine and thou gavest them me I the rather produce these Testimonies out of Heathen Authors to let Christians see how inexcusable it will be in them who have infinitely better Light Means Aids to neglect what even Nature and Reason taught Philosophers to practise And withall to awaken others with my self to a more assiduous care in these Exercises least it be found more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon for Sodom and Gomorrah than for us at the great day Observe all the inward Workings of the Divine Spirit both in calling out the actings of Grace and reviving thee with Peace and keep them upon record for after advantage Time may come when all thy present Sensations may be so cloudy that thou canst not see a peep of day canst not from any thing that thou feelest conclude that thy state is right before God But if at such a season and hour of temptation thou be'st able to call to mind that upon due trial when in a sober and composed calm of Thoughts the Lord satisfied thee upon sure and indefeisible Evidence that thy Heart was truly changed and that thou wast as a New Creature in Christ Jesus and that thy Objections and misdoubtings and temptations to the contrary were thorowly answered This will be such an ease to thy mind and a revival of thy hopes that ere long the mists and darkness will be driven away and thou wilt again reascend into a clear and serene Heaven of Light and Peace and Joy Make sure in this manner to lay up and reserve a good stock and treasure of Experiences if thou desirest Riches of Comfort yet content not thy self with the old but make new To remember what thou did'st enjoy and feel in the days of the right Hand of the Most High may revive thee but to sense and feel it at present much more Renew then those gracious Exercises over and over that did once produce Halcyon days in thy Soul and they will recall them the same effects will issue from the same Causes Amend what was amiss in former actings which gave Satan advantage to redintegrate thy Troubles and this will establish thy Peace upon a securer and more unexceptionable basis 'T is not possible to refute the Devils Objections against thy sincerity by a method more effectual than a more serious care to act all over again sincerely which he tempts thee to suppose was done unsoundly Renovated Acts of a sound Repentance and unfeigned Faith as sure Testimonies of thy Renovation after the Image of God will dash thine Accuser out of countenance If thou canst make any fresh Experiments of the Power of Divine Grace effecting this If God take thee anew into his bosom of Love to melt thee If a view of him whom thy Sins have pierced cause thy ebbing godly Sorrow again to flow over all the Banks Lastly if with a perfect Heart thou returnest from all thy by-past follies unto him from whom thou hast deeply revolted this will again retrieve thy sinking Heart and hopes as a new taste of the Lord's graciousness and evidence that he hath not forsaken thee but that his Mercy and Godness follows thee and shall all the days of thy life even to Eternity Set about this O my Soul with a resolved obstinacy of endeavour that will not be conquerable by any assaults of Corruption or Temptation For thou canst never take a Heaven of Joy and Rest except by violence and force Weak resolves do but only encrease the Devils Triumphs Strong cares are requisite to possess thee of strong Consolations Observe where when and how the Spirit moves and spread thy Sails before his sweet Spirations He is the Comforter because the Conducter into the way of Peace Thou canst enjoy no more of his Testimony to solace thee than
Minds and sue for that Mercy for our selves which once we would not receive or so much as desire as an answer to the Petitions of our Mediator Be not a Stranger to thine own Heart yet do not think to dig thy Peace out of thine own Bowels If it be a comforting reviving thing to find in thy self the truth of Grace yet that refreshing vertue of Grace it self is from God Whence we find some that although they be tolerably satisfied of their soundness yet through Ignorance or Inadvertency or Melancholy or Temptation c. cannot settle in a calm and quiet composure of Mind For as I said the Assurance of the truth of a Man's Grace is only comforting as it is the ground of his Assurance of the Love of God of which if a Man be not satisfied i. e. that true Grace is an infallible evidence that God does embrace him with his special Love and is at peace with him through Christ his Conscience will not be at rest for it cannot rest in discord with God whose Deputy 't is in Man Now some are so weak as not to understand this others so opprest with dumpishness of Spirit as not to heed it others so deluded by Satan as not to believe it which mists if not dispell'd damp the comfort of Grace Look therefore to the Sun of Righteousness to clear up thy Comforts by expeling this Darkness Seek abroad for Peace The Bee finds not her Honey at home without the labour of her Wings Let thy Supplications then O my Soul be continually winging thy Affections towards Heaven that they may there suck and be satisfied Isa 66. with the full Brests of Divine Consolation milk out and be delighted with the abundance of its Glory The Celestial Canaan is the Land that flows with the Milk and Honey of Divine and Spiritual Joy into which as at first thou passest over the Jordan of Repentance not upon dry ground but wafted by the breath of Prayer So must thou take possession of it in Armour fighting the good Fight of Faith with Heart and Hands like Moses lift up in earnest Supplications Exod. 17.11 Isa 61.1 3. The Spirit of God is upon Christ because the Lord hath anointed him To appoint to them that mourn in Sion to give them Beauty for Ashes the Oyl of Joy for Mourning c. If it be his Gift to him must we address for it The Tree from whence this Oyl of Gladness flows is planted in the Paradise of God descend to thee it shall not unless thou ascend to it and be ingrafted in the same Stock Oh transplant thy self from Earth to Heaven and take root at the Throne of Grace fix thy self and grow at the Footstool of Mercy by Frayer if as a Tree of Righteousness thou wouldst draw in be nourish'd and refresh'd by those consolatory dews of Divine Love which are the spring of that River of the Waters of Life which makes glad the City of God Be more above with the Father of Meries and God of all Comfort in these Devout and Ardent Suspirations than below glued to the Earth by Carnal Affections if thou desirest to be a Barnabas may I thus transfer it from its active to a passive Sense a Son an Heir an Inheritor of Celestial Consolations If thou canst but pray indeed thou art secure the furious Waves of these two meeting Seas Sin and Suffering may wrack thee but cannot swallow thee up Sink perhaps thou maist but Drown thou canst not the gentle Gales of the Spirit in this duty will most safely transport thee to the Haven of Everlasting Joy and Peace even in the ruin of all thy Fortunes Thy Miseries thy Corruptions shall perish thou thy self shalt not so true is that Saying of a Reverend Bishop Fashionable Suppliants may talk to God Bp. Hall but be confident he that can truly pray can never be miserable Of our selves we lie open to all Evils our rescue is from above and what intercourse have we with Heaven but by our Prayers This is his Catholicon Seneca advises his Lucilius to superadd new to his old Prayers to ask a good Soul good Health of Mind Epist 10 Quidni t◠ista vota saepe facias audacter Deum roga then of Body Why dost not oft renew these Requests Beg of God boldly So live with Men as if God saw so speak to God as if Men heard A good Precept to which adjoyn the like from the wisest of Men Eccles 5.1 2. Keep thy Foot when thou goest into the House of God c. Be not rash with thy Mouth and let not thine Heart be hasty to utter any thing before God For God is in Heaven and thou upon Earth therefore let thy Words be few 'T is not much speaking but hearty that God regards not the Tongue of Men and Angels but Truth in the inward Parts Broken Expressions from a broken Heart are as sweet Eloquence in the esteem of God as the best in Tully or Demosthenes Oh then pour out thy Prayers as a Flood Isa 26.16 If thou desirest they should return in a Tyde of Peace They can never reach Heaven if they have not a spring of Grace within they will never be received there if not the warm Exhalations Transpirations of a melting contrite Heart drawn out and drawn up by the dissolving attractive Rayes of the Son of Righteousness If the Divine Spirit infuse this Breath into thee it will follow him to Heaven and through his Influence who is the Comforter possess thee of the fulness of the Comforts of Elshaddai God all-sufficient If as a cloven Tongue of Fire the Holy Ghost descend and sit upon thee and give thee utterance Acts 2.3 4. not merely in conference with Men but secret speech Isa 26.16 with God If he envigorate and heat thy Graces and Affections that the Fire burn within Psal 39.3 and give speech to thy Tongue If he cast the pure Incense of Spiritual Devotion upon that flaming Altar thy fervent zealous Heart that may ascend in a sweet smelling Cloud to the Throne of God If Lastly this Fire from Heaven fall upon thy Sacrifice as a testimony or the audience of thy Prayers then wilt thou shout for Joy Levit 9. ult and triumph in his Salvation If thou would'st entertain any grounded hopes that the Lord will speak comfortably to thy Heart oh do thy utmost by Premeditation by Reading by Ejaculation c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to blow up into a living Fire those Divine Sparks of the Grace of Prayer which the Spirit doth cast within thee as a preparation for thy solemn Exercise in the duty of Prayer it self and let thy Supplications be rather the inward workings of thy Heart in aversation from Sin and panting after God by godly Sorrow Repentance Desire Faith Love Resignation c. than the labour of thy Lips and a bodily Exercise or the Work of an enlarged invention and fancy or strong Head and