and to thy glorious Father so that I poore worme dust dung even I might be one even as thou art in the Father and the Father in thee that I might be one in both Ob height depth bredth and length of thy love how incomprehensible is thy grace how heavenly my consolation And how hast thou wrought all this for me O my God my Lord my gracious Redeemer where shall I seek words or thoughts to set out this mercy wonderfull is thy love in all the rest and that my soule knoweth right well but in this how farre beyond all possibility of apprehension all expressions of wonder That my miserable mortality might be clothed upon and I be borne anew in the divine nature thou didst strip thy selfe of those robes of divine Majesty in which thou knewest it to be no robberie to be equall to God and wast borne in my weake nature and found in the servileforme of my fleshly infirmities Thou gavest thy body thou gavest thy soule for my sinne thou wast bound thou wast mockt thou wast scourged condemned nailed and dead on the crosse Thou oh mirrhor oh infinite miracle of mercy thou the love of the Father didst taste not onely gall and vineger but even wrath hel for me the child of wrath and brand of hell Oh my dead soule canst thou see all this and want coÌ„fort Can one cup of wine cheere thy heart and shall not such fruit of such a Vine fill thee with joyes unspeakeable and glorious Oh what is thy portion wheÌ„ such is the price what thine inheritance when such the purchase Rejoyce then oh my soule rejoyce evermore in such a Lord and such a love for whatsoever thou hast lost thou hast gained Christ lost but dung with him thou receivest whatsoever is truly good and partest for him with nothing but what in some respect is evill Have I lost Parents Children friends lands livings yet I have not lost Christ nor my Lord will not lose mee If I lose my life with the rest yet shall I not lose the life of Christ he is my life hee in life and death is my advantage Let Father Mother Brother Sister Wife Children forsake and hate me yet the Lord Jesus will never leave me never cease to love me and hee is better than a world of friends and kindred Oh my Lord to be in heaven without thee were exile but a sicke bed a loathsome prison with thee is an heavenly Paradise Why then should I be troubled seeing thou hast made mee to dwell in thee by faith and thou vouchsafest to dwel in me by thy blessed Spirit Onely thou my Saviour who hast loved mee to death make me ever to live in thee and in thy love thou who hast dyed for mee plant thy death in mee and burie my corruptions in thy grave Tho who wast crucified for me crucifie the world to me the flesh in mee and graft in mee the life of thy resurrection make oh make me to reâ—oyce in the fellowship of thy sufferings and in thy good time change this crowne of thornes into that of glory CHAP. XXI Comforts which flow from the holy Ghost AGaine with those former drawn from the two first persons of the blessed Trinity annexe the consolations of Gods holy Spirit who dwelleth in the faithfull Sweete and excellent are these comforts Neither is it in vaine that in specialty the holy Ghost is called the Comforter as being that person who is sent by the Father and the Sonne by himselfe to worke this effect in us Let us then remember that this blessed Spirit doth not onely dwell in us by his gifts faith love c. but personally which is evidently expressed Ephes. 1.13,14 You are sealed with the holy Spirit of promise which or rather who 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greeke cannot in ordinarie construction of Grammar agree with that of Spirit the one being of the neuter the other of the masculine but the gender purposely changed against use to shew that the person of the blessed Spirit is with us in us and so continues and stayes as an earnest of our inheritance and our full redemption in which respect wee are called his Temples 1 Corinth 6. 19. Thus also when the holy Ghost is promised us Ioh. 16. 13 14. our Saviour alters the gender and useth the masculine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee the Spirit of Truth and againe he not it shall glorifie me to shew that the very third person of Trinitie is given us yet hee dwels not in us as sometime in the Temple made with hands but as the soule rather dwels in the body so doth the holy Ghost dwel in the faithfull quickening sustaining leading them on to the rest of their soules and Lieging with us Look as in the body the hart and Head produce life sense and motion by the vitall and animall spirits which being sent by them and diffused into every particular member quicken and move it So the Spirit of Christ flowing from him into his mysticall bodie fils every part with life sense and motion It is the Spirit saith our Saviour so his Apostle that quickens Therefore is he called our life and they that live in the Spirit walk also or move in the Spirit There is also spirituall sense a taste whereby wee perceive the sweetnesse of God of the grace of God and the word of his grace whereby the spirituall man savours the things of the Spirit a spirituall touch and tendernesse when the Lord takes away the heart of stone and gives an heart of flesh a spirituall eye whereby the spirituall man discernes all things a spirituall hearing delighting in the Word and promise of God more than any musicall harmony a spirituall sent whereby the verie name of Christ is as an Oyntmeâ—t powred forth Now the holy Ghost doth not onely worke this comfort in us by faith giviâ—g us power to apprehend things absent or to come but applieth them more immediately by this verie sense so that the soule shall even feele with joy unspeakeable the consolations of God flow into it Thus the blessed Spirit doth first speake peace unto us from God and then gives oâ—r spirits an open eare to heare his voyce and know our peace that so we may come to finde our selves children of God and heires with Christ. Thus he doth not only spread a Table for us and there sets forth that Bread of heaven in the holy Ordinances of God but gives us power to eate making them more sweete to us than the hony-combe and thus brings us on to more fulnesse of growth and eternall life thorough Christ. Hence commeth it that a Christian can rejoyce in tribulation because this holy spirit sheds abroad in our harts that love of God which is better than life and gives us so palpable a sense of it that it beareth downe all other feelings before it See
these Sacraments and nature of these seales what rivers of comfort must needs flow into the heart of him who rightly partaketh them Look as Princes grave their owne portraitures in their seales sitting in state upon their Thrones invested with their royall apparell adorned with their Crownes and Scepters So the Lord Jesus Christ in these his Signets hath lively represented himselfe in his death conquering triumphing and leading captive all our enemies and even trampling them under our feete But Princes can grave nothing on their seales but their dead Images Not so here For in these the very person of the Lord Jesus is given us as being not onely represented but presented and exhibited to the faithfull The body of Christ feeding and strengthning the blood of Christ washing and more than wine cheering up our fainting spirits is there offred and given us who reach out the hand of faith to receive him Now how hee should be unhappy who hath Christ or misse of comfort whose soule is filled with the Lord Jesus it is not possible to conceive But let us consider them a little severally Baptisme is that Sacrament wherein God applyes the bloud of Christ to wash us from all the pollution of our sin and to communiâ—â—te unto us his own glorious purenes Let us therefore take some notice first as well of the filthinesse of sinne as our filthinesse by it and then of this excellent purenesse Certaine is it that our created understanding cannot find power in it selfe to conceive much lesse words to expresse the infinite loathsomnesse of sinne Hence is it that in Scripture the wisedome of God resembleth it to all those things which are to our senses most abhorred sinne to stinking mudde a sinner to aswine wallowing in that mire sinne to a loathsome vomit a sinner to a dogge licking up his vomit in a word sinne to death a sinner to a rotten carkasse and his throat to an open Sepulchre exhaling and belching out stench and putrefaction so infectious that one sinne entring into the world tainted and slue the whole world with sinne turning Saints into swine Angels into Divels so loathsome that even both the materials of man in the very touch defile and the most pure and holy duties passing through a sinfull heart are altogether abhorred and abominable It staineth the very righteousnesse of the Saints who are not on earth yet absolutely clensed from it so that in it selfe it is no better than a filthy clout This is our estate from which by Christ applied unto us in Baptisme wee are delivered Secondly ponder well what is this image of Christ which Baptisme imprinteth upon us It is even the Divine nature that glorious beauty of holinesse which in God the blessed Angels above all other attributes admire and prayse Esa. 6.3 Surely if any thing can be in God more excellent than other then holinesse is it As the face is in the body so is holinesse in the Lord the very beauty of the Divine Nature And as a passionate Lover is even ravished with the presence and sight of his beloved so is it the compleate happinesse of the creature to behold that face of God shining with that ravishing bewty of holinesse Men sweare by the greater but because none is greater than God therefore God sweareth by himselfe but in himselfe by nothing that I remember but his holinesse Oh then how unspeakeable is the comfort of this holy Ordinance which clensing us from such a filthinesse washeth us into such a beauty Againe the Lords Supper is that holy Mysterie wherein the Spirit perfecteth this worke which hee hath begun in us and throughly assures us Christ. Looke as when the wax is hard the first impression changeth the forme and makâ—th some though no perfect print of the Image ingraved in the seale so that Image of God which by Baptisme is stamped upon us but by reason of our sinfull hard hearts as yet in part onely is by often applying the Lord in that other Seale more perfectly expressed and more lively pourtrayed in us So being entred into life by Baptisme wee are nourished by the Lords Supper and more strengthned till wee attaine unto full growth and ripenesse CHAP. XII Meditation in these comforts given in the Sacraments NOw here againe let us commune with our owne hearts and say Why oh my soule art thou so distracted and rent with doubts and distrustfull feares Hast thou not the seales of Gods Covenant for thee yea in thee If hee will doe thee good shall any creature bee able to hurt thee If he will knit my heart to him in his feare what shall separate it from his love Oh be perswaded for which thou hast so strong evidence and assurance That no tribulation nor anguish nor life nor death nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come shall be able to seperate thee from the love of God which is in Christ Iesus our Lord. Now therefore cast thy burthen upon his truth leane and stablish all thy hopes upon these his sealed Promises Oh let perfect love cast out all distrust and feare Assure thy selfe hee will not nay in his truth cannot faile thee in such assurances How should not he pitty his owne though never so weake life in thee who pittied thy death in sinne How should hee hate thee now his childe who loved thee once an enemy Oh my God as thou hast given me an eye in some measure to see my sinfull filthinesse so hast thou given me an heart in the same measure to loath my selfe so polluted and filthy Lord thou hast made mee to know and I desire with more feeling to acknowledge that I am beyond measure beyond mine owne apprehension in nature horrible and lothsome my roote rottennesse my stalke corruption my fruit contagion more vile than the earth I tread on more polluted than the dung I scorne to tread on But oh incomprehensible heigth depth bredth and length of thy grace those thine infinitely pure eies could even then with compassion behold this unmeasurably impure and infectious mire when no eye pittied me when I had no pitty on my selfe even then hadst thou compassion on me When I was cast out as the execrable and loathsome dunghill of the world even then dâ—ddest thou not despise me I was dead in sinne stinking in the grave of my lusts yet even then didst thou say unto me Live Thou washedst mee with the water of life the Blood of the Lord Jesus annoyntedst me with the oyle of thy gracious Spirit and diddest set thine owne beauty upon me Thou hast nourished me with the true Manna That bread of heaven which giveth life unto the world And daily dost thou vouchsafe to renew mee after thine image and to strengthen thy life and nature in me And now my God is there any thing like this to be like to thee Oh what an honour what a Crowne is this unto me In all other
is truly good especially when longing after thee thy righteousnes in this barren and thirstie land my soule panteth and fainteth for thy presence and for that holy Spirit wâ—ereby I call upon thee Abba Father Oh how shouldst thou not according to thy Covenant delight in me to doe me good and as thou hast promised rejoyce over me to give me my hearts desire Now then thou my gracious Father who art more ready to give thy Spirit than wee to aske him even that Spirit of Prayer and supplication Thou who hast commanded Call upon mee in the time of trouble and hast promised I will heare thee Heare now rhe supplication of thy servant and when thou hearest be mercifull Thou who commandest Seeke my face and hast given thy servant an heart to answer Lord thy face will I seeke oh hide not thy face from me nor cast thy creature away in displeasure Yea oh my God quickeÌ„ thy servant in the sense of my want and miserie and in the knowledge of thy powerfull grace and mercy alwaies to pray and never to faint So though I walke in the midst of troubles thou wilt revive me and perfect that which concerneth me CHAP. XVI Comforts arising immediatelie from God himselfe And first in generall LOoke as a vessell which is coutinually driven downe by the current of any River will at length fall into the maine Sea which being the common store-house of waters both supplieth the want and receiveth the over-plus of lesser streames So when our soules have beene carryed along within these narrower bankes of comforts they will easily bee wafted into that wide Ocean whence every consolation floweth and into it ebbeth againe and emptyeth it selfe Certainly the final comfort of a Christian soule into which all the rest are resolved is God himselfe infinit in all goodnes unchangeable in his love and therefore an unexhausted Well a standing overflowing fountaine of infinite consolations Hence as hee challengeth this title and calleth himselfe The God of patience and consolation nay The God of all comfort so his faithfull servants from their experience confesse him every where their strength joy portion inhâ—ritance their Rocke Towre Shield Fortresse c. Well might David rejoyce and glory in the Lord My flesh saith hee faileth and my heart also but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever How strong and invincible was that faith and by it that comfort of Iob Although he kill me yet will I trust in him and hee shall beé my salvation And how answerable was their practice to this their profession Doe but consider what wee read of these holy men David being driven from his native Countrey and from his Fathers house in disgrace with the Court and in displeasure nay deadly hatred of his Prince deprived of all his deserved honours the just recompence of his noble service by the malice and tyrannie of Saul and which he accounted farre above the rest the greatest miserie banished from the holy Assemblies and the house of God affamished and even starved for want of that Word which hee preferred above all the earth not onely thrust out from abiding in the inheritance of the Lord but by the rage of his Adversaries inforced to seeke Sanctuary in idolatous Countries where hee might have beene seduced to serve other gods had yet at length hid his head under the protection of an Heathenish King and found that favour from an enemy a Heathen which he had lost among his friends and Gods people There he placed himselfe in a forraigne City with his wives and some few loose men who for their owne advantage had followâ—d him But when hee retireth thither he findeth the City burned his wives and all his substance the wives children and all the goods of all his followers carried away Nothing now was left him but his souldiers and they grieved and vexed at the heart for their losse take all against him conspire intend and speake to stone him Look out now into all the world and see where you can finde upon earth one spark of comfort for this Saint of God yet even then when he was utterly desolate and forlorne he could send up his dejected soule to heaven and there did finde and feele infinite comfort in the Lord his God See the 1 Sam chap. 30. from the 1. to the 7. vers Doe we not find the like nay more in Iob His estate was lost and for outward blessings goods and children hee was stript as naked as he was borne His wife left him but as a snare His friends come to comfort him but through the craft of Satan shake him more thau all the rest of his afflictions His life was yet whole in his body but his body broken and wounded with sore plagues from the crowne of the head to the sole of the foot But yet the Spirit of a man will sustaine his infirmitie True but a wounded spirit who can beare The inner-man embroyled by Satan and terrors of the spirit joyned to griefes and troubles of the body without plagues continually renued changes and armies of sorrowes set against him within and without the arrowes of the Almightie shot at him sticking in him and their venime drinkâ—ng up his spirit the terrours of God fighting against him made him the most afflicted and if it were possible for the faithfull to be miserable the most wretched man on earth But even then his poore soule over-wrastled with temptations cast downe within him and almost smothered with this load and heape of afflictions could lift up the head to search out the Redeemer and find unspeakable comfort in him I am sure my Redeemer liveth and I shall see God in my flesh c. What was left to those three royal young men Dan. 3. in that burning anger of the Tyrant and that seven-fold heated furnace What to the Apostle persecuted by Jewes disgraced by Heathens stoned by the consent of both and as a dead carrion dragged and cast out of the City yea too little esteemed nay judged by his owne children in the Spirit yet were they then even full of comfort in God Oh consider with what noble courage those three noble Captives defie the roaring of that Lyon even the fiercenesse of that proud King and tell him to his Beard Our God can and will deliver us out of thine hand With what Christian valour could that great Champion of the Lord Jesus compassed in and pressed downe with all the most bitter persecutions of this world cry out Victory and sing his Triumph not onely saying with the Heathen How light are all these things how slightlie doe I weigh them nay These light momentarie afflictions cause to us an excelling excellent eternall weight of glory 2 Cor. 4.17 but In all these things wee are more than Conquerors through him that loveth us So right is it oh
we shall come to that general assembly and the Church of the first-born which are written in heaven Now then when wee here converse and conferre with them it cannot but be a great delight and refreshing to our soules And the more because in all occurrents and occasions they will furnish us in any duty In receiving of any blessing how shall we see their hearts swell and their lips overflow with all thankfulnesse How doe they melt in humiliation and swimme in teares How doe they sharpen their voyces in fervent petition In any desertion what expressions of longueings What sighing pining mourning How doe they fill their mouthes with insinuating arguments to wooe the Lords returne and regain the sense of his favor giving him no rest till they feele the joy of their salvation restored CHAP. X. The application of this comfort by meditation HEnce also may an afflicted Spirit take words unto it selfe and say Why doe I thus vexe mine owne heart and disquiet my selfe in vaine Doe I not still enjoy the holy blessed Word of my God Is there any losse which it doth not richly supply Can I be poore who possesse those precious Promises Can I be miserable who attend on the posts of his dores and heare him If I lose father mother house lands have not I a promise of an hundred-fold for the present beside that eternal life to come Mar. 10.30 If I am in any distresse have I not a promise that when Father and Mother forsake mee he well take me up Psal. 27.10 Have I not his command to cast my care upon him Psal. 55. 22. and his promise That hee will care for me 1 Pet. 5.7 Have I not his word that he will never turne away from me to doe me good that he will rejoyce in mee to doe me good His promise is that I shall want nothing that is good and his word is good as good as his deed How then shal I be destitute of any good blessing who have the Promise of this life and the life to come Why then oh my soule art thou cast downe and troubled within mee Is not that immortall seed of the Word cast into thy heart Doth it not still abide and remaine in thee Yea though I walke in the valley of the shadow of death I will feare no evill for thy rod and staffe comfort me Is not thy Word my way a way leading mee to life a lamp in the way enlightning mee and a Guide with a light directing me a burning light quickning my frozen heart when it is dull a sweete Companion refreshing me when I am weary Is it not a plaine way an even way a cleane way a strait delightfull and pleasant way Diddest thou ever oh my soule tread one step in it but that thou foundest some precious Jemme and Jewell What treasures of knowledge and wisedome of faith hope love and every rich grace have there offered and even thrust themselves into thy hands Oh what lovely fellowship what heavenly company what sweet and ravishing conferences have and doe I there enjoy No sooner stepped I into that path of faith butâ— instantly that Father of the faithfull went before me and with an hundred sweet comforts drew me on to those his steps that walking in the same faith I might obtaine the same blessing When I entred into the tract of Godly sorrow and true Repentance how cheerfully did that weeping Marie leade and conduct me When I set my foot into the way of heavenly love how fervently did that most zealous Apostle draw mee after him See see how many glorious Saints see oh see the King of Saints and glory thy gracious Saviour in every good way directing sustayning cheering and even carrying thee along to that heavenly Paradise What my soule Shal those three Easterne Sages when one Starre alone leading them to Christ then a poore despised Infant went before them shall they rejoyce rejoyce with exceeding great joy And wilt thou or for very shame canst thou hang downe the head when so many heavenly lights when the Sunne of righteousnesse himselfe comforting thee with his owne and such his Starres presence and chearefull beames leadeth and conducteth thee to that inheritance of light and infinite glory Oh then thou eternall Word Way and Light who hast brought my feet and entred them into thy Word a lightsome way settle me yet more deepely in it that my heart may stand fast in thee my way Put thy Word into my mouth that my mouth ever talking of it may grow fruitfull in edification Oh cleare mine eies with this true heavenly light that I may behold with joy the light of thy countenance CHAP. XI Comforts sealed up in the Sacraments IT hath also pleased our gracious God to adde seals to his Word That by two immutable things wherein it is impossible that God should lye wee might have strong consolation Certainly every word of God is infallible Heaven and earth shall passe but not a word that he hath spoken God hath not therefore annexed seales to his Covenant that it or his purpose but that our weake hearts might bee strengthned and confirmed How unspeakable is this comfort that the Lord should be so farre from despising our weake faith and disdaining our poore soules strugling under unbeleefe that hee should yeelde to our weaknesse and underprop it with these powerfull abetters of his truth Hee might shake the head at us when hee seeth so little credite given to his Word but hee rather strengthneth us with these sacred mysteries which are to us as the hand of Christ reached out to Peter to save our wavering soules ready to sinke through unbeleefe The Covenant of God is I will be their God and I will not turne away from them to doe them good but will put my feare into their hearts that they shall never depart from mee Yea I will rejoyce over them to doe them good The consolationsâ— flowing from this Covenant thus sealed how strong how full For first throw downe a man thus sealed up in this covenant of grace from all the joyes of this world into a very hell upon earth Had hee lost all his substance children health of body nay peace of soule also in some measure as Iob yet may hee thence with strong comfort infallibly conclude That this estate is good for him nay best for him For God is faithfull and his Covenant sure beyond all possibility of deceiving or being deceived who hath promised and sealed his promise to doe him good to rejoyce over him in doing him good Hence the faithfull soule will build this conclusion and rest upon it It is good for me to be thus afflicted It is good for mee to beare the yoake in my youth Oh if my faith were as strong as my sense I should taste much more sweetenesse in Gods goodnesse than bitternesse in his affliction Againe especially when wee consider the matter of
endowments every creature may excell me Stones more durable Plants more vegetative Beasts more sensible even Divels more wise and understanding But herein hast thou magnified thy grace toward me thy abject Creature that I excell other workes of thy hands in that wherein thou my glorious God excellest thy selfe that thou hast printed thy holinesse thy Divine image and beauty upon me and crowned me with thy glory and honor Rejoyce then oh my soule in the Lord and dance for joy His grace hath prevented and farre out-runne thy wishes As the first Adam lost all his happinesse by his ambitious desires to bee like unto God in knowing good and evill so the second Adam hath restored all happinesse by satisfying our ambition in making us like himselfe in loving good and hating evill The life and estate which thou enjoyest in Christ the nourishment of that life and the assurance of that estate equalleth and transcendeth thy most ambitious desires and wishes Rejoyce then in the Lord againe I say rejoyce for the world is thine things present and to come are thine life and death are thine nay the Lord of life is thine thy portion the seale of thy portion and of thine inheritance in glory CHAP. XIII Comforts arising from Prayer A Third Ordinance of God in which hee yeeldeth us much consolation is Prayer wherein whether we consider the privilege which wee enjoy namely that we dust and sinfull ashes may speake unto the glorious Lord of heaven and upon all occasions at any time of need boldly through Christ approach unto his presence and make all our wants knowne unto him or the power and efficacie of Prayer that we never speake in vaine but prosper in all our suits what can bee a greater consolation to an afflicted Spirit What Hath God opened an eutrance for us unto his grace through the meditation which is in Christ Hath he set out the Sonne of his love to be our Intercessour Clothed him with our infirmities that he might be an high Priest for us mercifull sensible and tender of our weaknesse Hath he appointed this Angell of the Covenant to incence and perfume our praiers with his most fragrant mediation so to bring them into his presence Hath hee exempted no time but made every howre every minute a season for this holy Ordinance so that the oftner wee come the more welcome and the more importunate our suit the more sweete and pleasing Hath hee not permitted but commanded Call upon mee in the day of trouble and instantly promised and I will deliver thee Hath he not bid Aske ◠and assured us you shal receive Doth hee wish us Be carefull for nothing but in all thiugs let your requests be shewne to God in prayer And because we know not how to pray as we ought hath hee given us his Spirit to helpe our infirmities and to make intercession for u◠with grones which cannot be uttered And can any man want comfort who enjoyeth this privilege of Gods children and of the favourits of the King of heaven But some perhaps will reply here Doe not wee see many Saints complaine and have not I found by experience that God doth not alwayes grant what wee aske Ans. The Rules here of that Ancient Father are good Sometimes God giveth in wrath what is asked of him sometimes denieth in love And againe The Lord is gracious who often giveth not what we aske that hee may give what wee should aske And yet againe God alwaies heareth us not alwaies our wils but alwaies our profit God giveth the Israelites flesh in wrath and with store of flesh leanenesse of Spirit He giveth a King in anger when they aske him but hee denyed Paul in love that hee might keepe downe his heart from rising in pride and stablish it with sufficiency of grace Sometimes our Children aske of us things which are no way good and sometimes they aske things that are good but out of due time wee give them neither Thus often doe we and therefore receive not But fully to answer this objection we must by no means forget that in all petitions there is both a generall intention and purpose of asking good and a desire of some particular which we suppose to be good but through our dulnesse in understanding and want of a discerning Spirit may bee good or evill Againe wee must remember that in God there is an infinite wisedome which clearely and perfectly discerneth what either in it selfe or to us is evill or good Now then if the Lord should satisfie us in our mistake granting the particular which we cōceive to be good and he knoweth evill and so should deny us the good which he knoweth we intend and purpose this under a seeming grant were a plaine denyall whereas the contrary seeming a deniall yet is and wil hereafter plainly appeare to be an evident grant though not of that which wee ignorantly aske yet of that which in truth we desire Certaine is it that by reason of our great ignorance in asking every faithfull Christian prayeth with al subjection to Gods will and wisdome so we are taught as well by precept Thy will be done as by practice Not my will but thy will be done and as certaine that what wee so aske we shall without faile receive For hee that gave Christ unasked to us when we were enemies will not deny any grace when hee is entreated to them who are reconciled in Christ and aske in his name This then is sufficient for a Christian that he first knoweth that God hath willed and decreed to give him Christ and with him all good things secondly that whatsoever he asketh according to that will he shall without all faile receive 1 Ioh. 5.14 CHAP. XIV An Answer to some further objections BUt some weake dejected Christian will bee ready to reply All things indeed are possible to him that beleeveth but alas I have no faith to pray True it is that prayer is but the speech of faith And how can they call upon him in whom they beleeve not Faith saith that excellent Father gives life to prayer and praier gets strength for faith For answer let an humble soule well consider how a man with griefe should sensibly feele want of faith if he had not some faith to give him sense and feeling How should spiritual sense be without life or spirituall life without faith As he in the Gospel first found his sight in the defect of it that hee saw men like trees So might weake Christians easily discerne some measure of true faith even in this griefe and complaints for want of faith Againe we shall easily perceive in these Complainers much detestation of sinne not onely in others but especially in themselves and passionat desires to glorifie God in all faithfull service And from what root can these fruits arise but from that faith which purifieth the heart Some others
dwell in Christ and Christ in us by that holy Spirit Hence also may a faithfull soule surely gather God himselfe hath most clearely testified that if I love the Brethren I am translated from death to life that I am borne of God and therefore love the children of God because being my selfe his childe I love my Father Christ hath set his badge and cognizance upon me in that love and that holy Spirit is â—hee which by his presence hath brought my heart into obedience of this precept Certaine then is it that this love to the Saints is proper onely to the Saints even to those whom God hath begotten by his Word saved by his death and sanctified by his grace Seeing then I finde this love to the Saints rooted in my heart that my soule cleaves to their persons delights in their fellowship admires their excellencies sure am I that the same grace which I love fâ—ourishing in others is planted in my selfe that their Father is my Father their Head my Head and that Spirit which dwels in them resteth on me and will abide with me forever CHAP. XXXIV Recollecting and applying these things by short meditation NOw then in the last place let the troubled soule in some inward conference underset and prop up his shaken faith by applying these assurances unto himselfe Say then in thy heart How long oh my soule how long wilt thou suffer this feare which hath torment to hold thee downe in continuall affright and vexation how long shall it keep out that spirituall joy which is thy only Paradise on earth Search oh my Spirit search ouâ— in these heavenly Records those sure evidences whereby thy Lord hath graciously convâ—yed unto thee this happy and blessed estate Are they not layed up in the middest of thy heart See here first divers strong assurances that God hath clensed thee from reigning hypocrisie that hee hath given thee a thirst of righteousnesse not onely a desire to know him but to walke with him in all sincerity of obedience That hee hath given thee an unfeined delight and joy not onely in the Promises but in every Commandement of thy Lord liking and heartily loving that purifying fire of the Word whereby thou art refined as gold and seperate from this sinfull drosse which is so mixed and incorporate with thee A zealous anger and griefe burning within thee detesting every sinne whereby thy Saviour is dishonoured and above all thine owne in which thou unthankefull wretch too often forgettest that incomperable incomprehensible love wherewith hee hath compassed and embraced thee A continuall longing after the Lord Jesus after his death that thou maist be buried in it after his resurrection that thou maist be quickened by it and not only justified in that other but sactifiâ—d in this life and renewed after that his glorious image and divine beauty True indeed my weake soule too true thou art full of infirmities very unfruitfull very unprofitable every one out-strips thee and those who have set out long after thee in this heavenly race are now much before thee But yet comfort thy selfe for even in this estate thy gracious Saviour leaves thee not altogether comfortlesse but still affords thee some token of his eternall love for seeing thy weakenesse thou art humbled within me and broken with griefe of thy barrennesse Remember that he as much delights in the low feat of an humble spirit as in the loftiest Throne of his glorious heavens But rise my dejected soule oh rise up in strong consolations and glorious rejoycings See here oh see thou hast an infallible evidence that the Father of lights hath begotten thee through the word of Truth and that thou art borne anew not of mortall but immortall seede the Word of God and therefore entred not into a corruptible but eternall life For seest thou not that seede of thy Father abiding in thee feelest thou not an unslaked thirst of that sincere milke of the Gospell not that thou mightst have it in thy mouth for discourse but in thy heart for growth growth in all obedience growth in all holinesse and perfection Behold also behold with joy unspeakeable Thy Saviour hath assured his victory unto thee and hath already throwne downe the dominion of sinne in thee It is indeed an enemy a strong a grievous encombring vexing and ah too often prevailing enemy but an enemy thou professest no obedience but proclaimest open warre to every sinne how much more will he who conquered it reigning subdue it rebelling in thee yea certainely the Lord Jesus hath set up his victorious Crosse in thee and he that now hangs out a flagge of defiance will shortly set up his banner of triumph trample all thine enemies and bruise under thy feet both sinne and Satan Consider also that the bleâ—sed Spirit the life of thy spirit dwelleth and continually worketh in thee It cannot bee that uncleane spirit the Prince of disobedience it cannot bee the spirit of the world or that fleshly sinfull spirit within thee which is ever washing thee from uncleannesse seperating thee more and more from the world and the corruption which is in the world through lust which drawes and frames thy desires and actions to all obedience unto the Lord Jesus which gives thee no peace in sinne suffers thee not to rest in any imperfection discovers thy corruption causeth thee to groane under it puts thee forward in thy race enflames thy affections and orders thy feet to turne out of the evill into the good way and to runne in it Dost thou not finde in thee an unfeyned love to the Brethren Doth not thy judgement highly esteeme them Doth not thy will doe not thy affections entirely love and honour them Doth not thy whole soule blesse them How dost thou cleave to them in heart How dost thou admire those that excell upon the earth in holinesse How doest thou delight in them and art ravished with their heavenly fellowship Looke now to thy evidence sworne by the Father written by the Spirit sealed by the bloud of thy Saviour Is not hee borne of God who loves the children of God Is not hee a member who loves a fellow-member Is not hee quickened by the same Spirit who is united in the same spirituall love to those who live walk in the Spirit Rejoyce then oh my sonle rejoyce in the Lord and in these assurances of his everlasting truth and favour Cast out this spirit of bondage this servile this tormenting feare Bring in that joy of the Spirit seat it in the midst of thy heart There let it abide there let it reigne making thee to delight in the Lord to turne and tune thy grones and sighs to hymnes and spirituall songs ever blessing him who never ceaseth to blesse thee to love his glory and glory in his love to serve him in joy and rejoyce in his service CHAP. XXXV Conâ—luding all with Prayer OH glorious Trinity of persons in the unity of one God draw mee nearer