heavens he hath done whatsoever he pleased Their Idols are silver and gold c. Be thou exalted O God in thine own strength We will sing and praise thy power Forsake me not until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation and thy power to every one that is to come c. This is given out as the Song of Moses and the Lamb Who shall not fear thee O Lord and glorifie thy name Great and marvelous are thy works Lord God Almighty c. And how do they magnifie his Mercy and Goodness both towards his own people and his creatures in general O how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee that thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the children of men Rejoice in the Lord O ye righteous for praise is comely for the upright Praise the Lord with harp Sing unto him with the Psaltery The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. I will extol thee my God O King I will bless thy name for ever and ever Men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts they shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness and shall sing of thy righteousness The Lord is gracious and full of compassion slow to anger and of great mercy The Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works To insert all that might be mentioned to this purpose were to transcribe a great part of the Bible And in what raptures do we often find them in the contemplation of his Faithfulness and Truth his Justice and Righteousness his Eternity the boundlesness of his Presence the greatness of his Works the extensiveness of his Dominion the perpetuity of his Kingdom the exactness of his Government Who is a strong God like unto thee and to thy faithfulness round about thee Thy mercy O Lord is in the heavens and thy faithfulness reaches unto the clouds Before the mountains were brought forth or ever thou hadst formed the earth or the world from everlasting to everlasting thou art God But will God indeed dwell on the earth Behold the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee The works of the Lord are great sought out of them that have pleasure therein His work is honourable and glorious c. All thy works shall praise thee O Lord and thy Saints shall bless thee they shall speak of the glory of thy Kingdom and talk of thy power To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts and the glorious Majesty of his Kingdom Thy Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom and thy Dominion endureth throughout all generations And his Glory in the general which results from his several Excellencies in conjunction How loftily is it often celebrated with the expression of the most loyal desires that it may be every-where renowned and of greatest complacency in as far as it is apprehended so to be The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever They shall sing in the ways of the Lord for great is the glory of the Lord. Be thou exalted above the heavens let thy glory be above all the earth Let them praise the name of the Lord for his name alone is excellent his glory is above the earth and the heavens When you read such passages as these whether they be elogies or commendations of him or doxologies and direct attributions of glory to him you are to bethink your selves with what temper of heart these things were uttered with how raised and exalted a spirit what high delight and pleasure was conceived in glorifying God or in beholding him glorious How large and unbounded a heart and how full of his praise doth still every where discover it self in such strains When all Nations when all Creatures when every-thing that hath breath when Heaven and Earth are invited together to join in the consort and bear a part in his praises And now eye him under the same notions under which you have seen him so magnified that in the same way you may have your own heart wrought up to the same pitch and temper towards him Should it not provoke an emulation and make you covet to be amidst the throng of loyal and devoted Souls when you see them ascending as if they were all incense When you behold them dissolving and melting away in delight and love and ready to expire even fainting that they can do no more designing their very last breath shall go forth in the close of a Song I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live I will sing praise to my God while I have my being How becoming is it to resolve This shall be my aim and ambition to fly the same and if it were possible a greater height Read over such Psalms as are more especially designed for the magnifying of God and when you see what were the things that were most taking to so spiritual and pious hearts thence receive instruction and aim to have your hearts alike affected and transported with the same things Frame the supposition that you are meant that the invitation is directed to you O Come let us sing unto the Lord let us come before his presence with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise to him with Psalms for the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods c. And think with your selves Is he not as great as he was Is he not as much our Maker as he was theirs Is it not now as true that the Lord reigneth and is high above all the earth and exalted far above all gods Now since these were the considerations upon which so great complacency was taken in him set the same before your own eyes And since these were proposed as the matter of so common a joy and the Creation seems design'd for a musical instrument of as many strings as there are Creatures in Heaven and Earth Awake and make haste to get your heart fixed Lest the heavens rejoice and the earth be glad the world and all that dwell therein Lest the sea roar and the fulness thereof the floods clap their hands the fields and the hills be joyful together and all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord while you only are silent and unconcern'd And seriously consider the kind and nature of that joy and delight in God wherewith the hearts of holy men did so exceedingly abound Which is to be collected from the expressed ground and reasons of it for the most part wheresoever you have any discovery of that joy it self This general and principal character may be given of it that it was a sincerely-devout and a loyal joy not a mean narrow selfish pleasure an hugging of themselves in this apprehension meerly It is well with me or I am safe and happy whatsoever becomes of the world This was still the burden of their Song The Lord is
whom God requires it to unite for this very purpose This cannot but add unspeakably to the delightfulness of this transaction and of this effusion of the Holy Ghost in the virtue whereof the thing is done how oft soever it be seriously done As our case and state require that it be very often And to receive him as our Lord which is joined with that other capacity wherein we receive him viz. of a Jesus or Saviour As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord so c. This also and the heart-subduing influence that disposes to it is most highly delectable When the Soul that was so stoutly averse and that once said within it self I will not have him to reign over me is brought freely to yeild and with sincere loyal resolutions and affections devotes it self to him consents to his government submits its neck and shoulder to his yoke and burden says to him with an ungainsaying heart as its full sense Now thou Lord of my life and hope who hast so long striven with me so oft and earnestly prest me hereto so variously dealt with me to make me understand thy merciful design and who seekest to rule with no other aim or intent but that thou may'st save and who hast founded thy dominion in thy blood and didst dy and revive and rise again that thou mightest be Lord of the living and the dead and therefore my Lord Accept now a self-refigning Soul I make a free surrender of my self I bow and submit to thy Sovereign Power I fall at the footstool of thy Throne Thou Prince of the Kings of the Earth who hast loved sinners and washt them from their sins in thy blood Glory in thy conquest Thou hast overcome I will from henceforth be no longer mine own but thine I am ready to receive thy commands to do thy will to serve thy interests to sacrifice my all to thy Name and Honour my whole life and being are for ever thine I say as before there is pleasure in the very doing this it self as often as it is sincerely done And it adds hereto if it be more distinctly considered It is no mean or any way undeserving person to whom this homage is paid and obligation taken on unto future obedience He is the brightness of the Fathers glory the express Image of his person the Heir of all things and who sustains all things by the word of his power It is he whose name is Wonderful Counsellor the mighty God the everlasting Father the Prince of peace 'T is he to whom all power is given both in heaven and earth and more especially power over all flesh that he might give eternal life to as many as were given him 'T is he who spoiled Principalities and Powers and made an open shew of them He whom because when he was in the form of God and thought it no robbery to be equal with God he humbled himself made himself of no reputation took on him the form of a servant became obedient to death the Father hath therefore highly exalted and given him a Name above every name that in his Name every knee should bow And of whom when he brought him his first-born into the world he said Let all the Angels of God worship him And such a one he is whose temper is all goodness and sweetness Tell Sion thy King cometh meek and lowly He came into this world drawn down only by his own pity and love beholding the desolations and ruins that were wrought in it every where Sin universally reigning and death by sin and spreading its dark shadow and a dreadful cloud over all the earth In which darkness the Prince thereof was ruling and leading men captive at his will having drawn them off from the blessed God their life and sunk them into a deep oblivion of their own original and disaffection to their true happiness that could only be found there This great Lord and Prince of life and peace came down on purpose to be the Restorer of Souls to repair the desolations and ruins of many generations He came full of grace and truth and hath scattered blessings over the world wheresoever he came hath infinitely obliged all that ever knew him and is he in whom all the nations of the earth must be blessed And who would not with joy swear fealty to him and take pleasure to do him homage Who would not recount with delight the unexpressible felicity of living under the governing power of such a one And if the tenor and scope of all his Laws and Constitutions be viewed over what will they be found but obligations upon men to be happy How easie his yoke how light his burden what is the frame of his Kingdom or whereof doth it consist but Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost And who would not now say This Lord reigneth let the earth rejoyce let the multitude of the Isles be glad thereof Why should it not be triumphingly said among the Heathen That the Lord reigneth that the world also shall be established that it cannot be moved Let the heavens rejoice and the earth be glad let the sea roar and the fulness thereof let the fields rejoice and all that is therein and all the trees of the wood rejoice It s plain that be the matter of joy here what it will be there never so much cause of exultation and glorying in him The righteousness and peace which his Kingdom promises never actually take place nor the joy that is connexion therewith till the Holy Ghost dispose and form mens spirits thereto For all this is but meer dream and idle talk to those who hear only of these things and feel not that vital influence insinuating it self that may give the living sense and savor of them And we may rather expect seas and fields beasts and trees to sing his triumphant Song and chant his praises than those men whose hearts are not attempered to his Government and who are yet under the dominion of another Lord not being yet by the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus made free from the law of sin and death But where this is effectually done How large matter of most rational pleasure do they find here while there is nothing in that whole System of Laws by which he governs that is either vain unequal or unpleasant or upon any account grievous only this is not the estimate of distempered spirits or of any other than them in whose hearts his Law is written and who because they love him keep his Commandments Unto Love his commands are most connatural For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments They are not grievous i. e. by the Meiosis which some do reasonably enough apprehend in those words they are joyous delightful pleasant but to them only who being born of God have overcome the world This holy influence and communication of God is therefore grateful and contributes not
things Would not the word of an ordinary man premonishing you of any advantage or danger which you have no other knowledg of be of more value with you Constant suspicion of any one without cause or pretence most certainly argues radicated enmity You love him not whom you cannot trust Do you love him whom upon all occasions you most causlesly displease whose offence you reckon nothing of Is that ingenuous towards a Friend or dutiful towards a Father or a Lord How do you in this carry towards the blessed God Are you wont to displease your selves to please him or cross your own will to do his Do you take delight in him whom you make no difficulty to vex whose known declared pleasure though you confess him greater wiser and more righteous than your self you have no more regard to wherein it crosses your own inclination than you would have to that of your Child your Slave or a Fool Have you any thing to except against that measure and character of loyal affection to your Redeemer and Lord If ye love me keep my commandments Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you This is the love of God that we keep his commandments Do you not disobey the known will of God in your ordinary practice without regret Do not you know it to be his will That you strive to enter in at the strait gate That you seek first the Kingdom of Heaven That you keep your heart with all diligence That you deny your self crucifie the flesh be temperate just merciful patient Do you aim at obeying him in these things Can you say Lord for thy sake I refrain the things to which my heart inclines Hath his prohibition any restraining force upon your hearts Do you not allow your self to be licentious earthly vain proud wrathful revengeful though you know it will offend him And is this your love to him or delight in him Do you bear goodwill to him whose reproach and dishonour you are not concern'd for yea whom you stick not to dishonour and reproach whose interest among men hath no place in your thoughts whose friends are none of yours whose enemies are your friends whose favour you care not for nor regret his frowns whose Worship is a burthen to you that you had rather do any thing than pray to him and his fellowship an undesired thing Make an estimate by these things of the temper of your hearts towards God and consider whether it bespeak delight in him or not rather habitual aversion and enmity It may be you will admit these things seem to carry somewhat of conviction with them But they concern many that are taken for godly persons and lovers of God as well as they do you And it may be many such may take themselves for godly persons and lovers of God and be mistaken as well as you And what will that mend your cause If these things will prove a person one that hath no delight in God they equally prove it as to you and others which will make nothing to your advantage But if they who have sincere love to God are in a degree peccant against the Laws of such love as that they are they will hear in due time They are more ready to accuse themselves than other men They abhor themselves that they do not more entirely delight in God and repent in dust and ashes It better becomes you to imitate their repentance than glory in their sinful weakness which while they patronize not themselves you should not think it can afford a valuable patronage unto you When did you check and contend with your own hearts upon these accounts as they are wont to do And if these things in a degree found with them prove their delight in God imperfect their prevailing contraries will prove it however sincere And if you will not now understand the difference God grant you may not hereafter at a more costly rate between the imperfection and the total want of his love between having your heart and Soul imperfectly alive towards God and perfectly dead You may further say God is out of your sight and therefore how can it be expected you should find a sensible delight in him But is he out of the sight of your minds If he be what would you infer That then you cannot delight in him at all and therefore that you do not the thing that you are charg'd with all this while But he is out of sight by the high excellency of his Being for which reason he should be delighted in the more i.e. with a deeper delight though not like that you take in the things of sense And he hath been so beyond all things notwithstanding his abode in that light which is inaccessible This therefore is confession without excuse and would never be offered as an excuse by any but those that are lost in flesh and sense have forgot they have reasonable Souls and had rather be numbred with Brutes than Men As if there were not many things you have not seen with the eyes of flesh more excellent than those you have Or as if you had no other faculty than eyes of flesh to see with Which since you have and the depravation thereof is vicious and sinful as your not-delighting in God the matter of fact seems to be yeilded and so you quit your first Post It will thence appear that it cannot but be sinful too And since at that you seem to make a stand as at your next Post either thinking to deny or extenuate the evil of it our Expostulation must follow you thither and be aimed 2. To evince to you the greatness and horridness of that sin Suffer your selves therefore to be reasoned with to this purpose and consider First That you have somewhat of delectation in your Natures i.e. you have the power naturally inherent in you of taking delight in one thing or other You have such a thing as love about you Are not some things grateful and agreeable to you in which you can and do take complacency Therefore herein an act is not enjoined you which is incompetent to your Natures or simply impossible to you Next then Do you not know your delight or love ought to be placed on some good or other that is known to you and among things that you know to be good proportionably to the goodness which you find in them and supreamly on the best Further Do you not acknowledg the blessed God to be the best and most excellent Good as being the first and fountain-Good the fullest and most comprehensive the purest and altogether unmixed the most immutable and permanent Good How plain and certain is this How manifestly impossible is it if there were not such a Good that otherwise any thing else should ever have been good or been at all Is not this as sure and evident as any thing your senses could inform you of Whence is the glorious excellency of this great