what time soeuer he asketh hee receiueth whensoeuer hee seeketh he findeth and when soeuer he knocketh he is admitted into the presence of God And whatsoeuer misery befalleth him in this life hee feeleth it not so vnsauorie to himselfe as other men conceiue it that beholde and obserue it in him As our Sauiour told his Disciples that hee had meate to eate which they knew not of so hath euerie sanctified regenerate man comfort that carnall men know not of which giueth him such sweete feeling of present happinesse through the assurance of his future promised glorie that he seemeth through the abuÌ„dance of his consolations rapt as it were alreadie out of this earthly Tabernacle into the heauen of heauens where he hath his conuersation in the spirit with-God though hee corporally remaine in this inferiour world CHAP. XV. True contentment not gotten by nature but by grace which produceth prayer the onely meane to obtaine all good SPiritual coÌ„tentmeÌ„t none can attaine vnto by his owne naturall powers and therefore there is a spirituall meane to be vsed for the obtayning thereof which the Apostle reaches saying Let your requests be shewed vnto God in prayer And Who so lacketh wisedome let him ask of God which giueth to al men liberally and reprocheth no man and it shall be giuen him This wisedome is not the wisedome of the world but the knowledge how when and what to ask to conform vs to the likenes of him that hath begotten vs anew who hath left vs an example that wee should follow as deare children If then we be the children of God Co-heirs with him of that heauenly Kingdom shal we not with him walke as becommeth children of such a father Shal our head weepe and lament for our sinnes Shall be suffer for our transgressions and shall wee laugh and reioyce in the vanities of this life and yet think to partake with Christ of his purchased Kingdome Hath he so farre purchased for vs as we need neyther suffering nor patience faith nor prayer Shall we think our selues like that vnspotted Lambe of God and yet defile our bodies soules by committing sinne vpon sin How can we then come vnto our father which is in heauen where no profane thing can haue any being If God heareth not sinners where shall the sinfull mans prayers appeare And how can he haue his conuersation in heauen as S. Paul had or walke with God as Henoch did whose soule and spirituall part which ought to ascend by the wings of faith towards heaueÌ„ is pressed downe by a most vgly and filthy dunghill the bodie clogged with the masse of sinne Cast off therefore all carnall and vncleane affections purifie clense your hearts by liuely repentance that the sauing bloud of the Lambe being sprinkled vpon the dore posts of our beleeuing hearts the holy spirit of God may enter and teach our spirits rightly to crye Abba father So shall wee apprehend that sacred renewing grace that shall breede this most sweet and heauenly change namely to make vs of the children of wrath the children of loue of the children of disgrace the childreÌ„ of glorie which change is not nor can be where faith faileth which faith is not obtained in respect of our prayers or any desert of our selues but only and altogether of the free fauor and good will of God in Christ in whoÌ„ for whom and by whom we haue promise to obtaine the fulnesse of spirituall contentment CHAP. XVI God being wisedome it selfe knowes how to deal with vs for our best aduantage and his own glorie which aboue all things wee must respect in all our prayers GOd being wisedome it selfe knoweth better then we what is fiâ—test for vs to receiue and for him to giue in both which his glorie must goe with our desires as it will of necessitie in his giuing And if wee seeke not his glory in all our demands we breake the order prescribed namely to doe all to the glorie of God much more then should our prayers which are the highest seruice wee can doe vnto God tend to the honour of his Maiestie beyond the desire of supply in our owne necessities and that is in making our prayers vnto him to be confident that he is iust and will according to his promise satisfie our iust desires so farre as may bee most for our benefite For we cannot truly iudge what is most expedient for vs we may aske for and think that best for vs which God in his wisedom knoweth most inconuenient and that to bee hurtfull euill for vs which hee seeth to be most for our good It is therefore agreeable to the right rule of true faith to subiect our wills to the wil of God and to frame all our petitions according to the rule of his word which teacheth vs to aske corporal things with condition that he be pleased therewith and spirituall heauenly things as the graces of the spirit with a full assurance to receiue And the more constant and earnest we be and the more we presse God to giue them so much the more it pleaseth him as to importune him to giue vs power to mortifie our corrupt affections to kill sinne both in our harts and members to begge the increase of faith obedience loue towards God and our neighbours peace in our selues and with all men patience in suffering Gods corrections gentlenesse meekenesse temperance To aske these absolutely and constantly is pleasing vnto God is acceptable vnto him wherein yet we are to beware that wee aske not spirituall gifts to carnal ends as did Simon the Magician but to Gods glorie as Salomon asked wisedome For the holy Scriptures teach vs that God suffereth many profane men to vsurpe spiritual functions as preaching prophecying and casting out Diuels to whom yet God wâ—â—l say Depart from me I know you not The like may be said of praying namely of meere babling with the tongue without the consent of a feeling faith full heart And in all these to shew more outward sinceritie then to haue inward sanctity is meere hypocrisie CHAP. XVII Three principall motiues to stirre vp men to pray wherof the chiefest is necessitie THere bee three principall motiues to stirre vp Christians to prayer first Gods commandement Pray continually 1. Thess. 5. 17. secondly the promise And ye shall receiue Matth. 7. 7. The third and last motiue is our owne necessities and they are infinite Daniel prayed â—o be preserued among the Lyons the three children froÌ„ the fire Hezekiah from death Ionah to bee deliuered from the bowels of the Whale Susanna to be freed from the vniust accusation of the lasciuious and false Iudges Dauid to be deliuered from the malice of Saul Necessitie hath so manie branches as men are subiect to seuerall dangers which are infinit and therefore a motiue of great force and yet without Gods assistance they can obtain no ease For the more a man strugleth to free himselfe from
action If these most impious consorts enterprise not their wicked acts but in the shew of calling mutually on God were it not a shame to professed Christians to attempt any matter lawfull of greatest moment without touch of any consideration of the necessitie or vtilitie of faithfull prayer If the children of darkenesse can point out their more then heathenish attempts by the outward tokens and termes of deuotion to their assured condemnation what will become of cold Christians that so little regard the holy duty of prayer in all their actions to their soules saluation CHAP. XIII Euery faithfull Christian findeth comfort in praier the neglect whereof admits many euils WHo is that faithfull Christian that hath practised this holy exercise and hath not found comfort to his conscience and helpe in his occasions Whosoeuer findeth the continuance of inward vexation of the mind let the cause arise from spirituall or corporall occasions he may assâ—re himself it proceedeth most ordinarily at least from his seldom or neuer praying vnto God Griefe oftentimes procureth teares which seem somthing to asswage the sorrow but it is as it were the slacking of the band that gripes the wound too hard but teares passing from the heart through liuely prayer doe not onely ease the griefe for a while but heale it altogether and keep the wounded parts sound so long as the plaster of true prayer is applied with faith thereunto The teares that wee spend must bee spent before God who hath promised to receiue them as they fal from a liuely feeling heart and to put them in the bottle of his remeÌ„brance reseruing them as witnesses of our true repentance that the sinnes in sorrow whereof we shedde them may be washed away by the bloud of Christ and not to rise vp in iudgement against vs. And these teares are of themselues as so many petitions vnto God who hath bound himselfe by promise to register them as so many preuayling requests wherby he giues oftentimes what inwardly we desire as soone as the first teare falls from a broken and contrite heart Dauid affirmeth that God pardoned his sinne as soone as he had any motion to craue it God requireth not our prayers because hee hath neede of them as a seruice beneficiall or profitable vnto him but because wee hauing neede of his graces and blessings and that hee loueth vs in his beloued son hee willeth vs to pray vnto him for euery spirituall and corporall blessing And although it be true that hee knoweth wherof we haue need yet in common reason hee that wanteth and disdaines to aske he is not worthy to receiue that whereof he hath neede CHAP. XIV The most happiest men in the world are they that most often communicate with God in prayer and not the most glorious worldly men whose miserie is to come and what consolation remaineth for the godly THe men that haue greatest shewes of happinesse in this life are not the blessedst men but the poor in spirit that haue their continuall recourse vnto God they that communicate often with and truly pray vnto him althogh their estates bee neuer so vnpleasant to flesh and bloud yet theirs is the promise of this life and the life to come The Church of Corinth in the bâ—ginning consisted as appeareth for the most part of the poorest and meanest of the people and such as appeared to the world fools and Idiots and they that seemed more wise more mightie more noble were left out of the number of them that were called Yet God preferred not the base in the world before the noble to make them proud of their calling but that they might be constrained as it were to reioyce in the Lord by whose mercie they had obtained in Christ wisedom and all things necessarie to saluation before the more glorious in the world although they were the most base and abiect of all others and to moue them so much the more readily willingly to serue God in thankefulnesse and prayer to testifie their loue to him for his mercies towards them And heauily it will befall them who hauing receiued so many blessings at Gods hands are no whit the more moued to loue him and so many threats for their vnbeleefe and ingratitude and yet not moued to feare him Will they not bee drawne then from their deceiuing vanities will they rather then for lesse then an apple or a messe of pottage disclaime their birth-rights and loose that Kingdome and Crown so dearely pâ—rchased for the faithfull Nay were the losse of it all it were not so horrible If a man missing of the good promised could avoid the dangers threatned it would somthing mitigate the despayring conscience and ease the troubled mind If after death there were neither life nor death if a man might haue no bâ—eing nor feel or endure tormeÌ„t thogh he had no comfort it were a kinde of ease to the carnall mind that knoweth no other heauen then the profits and pleasures of this life nor feareth other hell then the miserie penurie and afflictions of the same But the case is otherwise they that misse the kingdome of heauen by not beleeuing the promise of God by not praying vnto God for direction in the course of their liues may assure themselues thogh they seeme not yet to beleeue it that there remaines for them and attends them the God of darkenesse and the Angels of horror and torment And therefore they that are wise in Christ enlightned with the sanctifying spirit of God obserue the difference between sinne and sanctity betweene the carnall and the spirituall betweene the olde and the new man and finde that the pleasing vanities of this life and the reioycing of the worldly minded haue no solid or sound assurance of continuance no not for a day and after commeth the seueritie of iudgement But the spirituall man vndergoing with patience the bitter miseries incident to a religious and godly life considereth that the continuance of it is but a spanne long and there attendeth him mercie and consolation perpetuall And therfore beareth he the yoake without grudging spending his time not in wantonnesse and chambering not in vanities and carnal pleasures but in all temperance and humblenesse of minde neuer so cheered neuer so full of consolation and alacritie as when hee is hearing God speake vnto him by his word as by preaching or hearing of the same and finding himselfe truely and aptly prepared and zealously exercised in the most holy dutie of praier and heauenly meditations wherein hee speaketh vnto God This is his comfort herein are his ioyes and nothing is so sweete vnto him as heauenly continuall contemplation whereby hee passeth by both the pleasures and penurie of this life as things of that weakenesse to moue loue to the one or feare of the other as hee respects them not but placeth all his affections on God with whom he knoweth that his prayers doe at all times so farre preuaile as at
Sodom how God in iustice is readie to shewe merâ—ie Lâ—â—an his house-hold and cattle prospered for Iacobs sake and Potiphers for Iosephs And therfore wee cannot say but that the prayers of the faithful be they of many few or one auaâ—le much with God And impietie it were to think the contrarie And as God blesseth so hee punisheth manie for one as the whole Host of Israel for the trespasse of Achan yet we cannot but confesse that God in his wisdom oftentimes concealeth his purposes of shewing mercie or sending iudgements to make his dearest children the more watchful and more earnest in prayer and in more and more hardening vnbeleeuers hearts to their deeper condemnation and often delayeth the granting of the requests of his children giueth them in stead some other thing more fit which they asked not He retayneth somtimes things necessary in our opinions lest we shold presume too much vpon his bountie in giuing corporall things crossing our desires lest wee should by the readie successe build too much vpon our vaine vnderstandings as if we knew rightly what were good and what were ill and that we needed but to aske and haue at the handes of God what we would It is enough for the most faithfull Christian to lay downe his request before God to continue his oblation and to waite and attend the leisure of God and rest content with his holy dispensation assuring himselfe that not one thing only but all things whatsoeuer shall worke to the best to them that feare God The faithfull man often exercised in this diuine duty of prayer cannot but acknowledge that things oftentimes fall out better and succeed more to his comfort and true consolatioÌ„ then he required not by chance as many most foolishly conceiue but by the meer mercie and prouidence of God who as he granted vnto Salomon more then hee asked so doeth hee euen in these dayes to his obedient children And yet they cannot truely obserue by any outward or visible working how it should so come to passe no deuice of their own nor instrument of their owne procuring working it to their handes God raised Ionathan to loue Dauid and moued the Rauen to feed Eliah I do my selfe acknowledge Gods vnsearchable goodnesse and prouidence to haue the chiefe place in the working of infinit my deliueries from many dangers and his relieuing me in many and infinit wants And who so denieth that GOD hath his working now both in mercie and in iustice beyond the naturall course or operation of his creatures for the good of his children and punishment of the wicked hath neither spirituall vnderstanding nor true faith Such yet there are whom I haue heard to maintain that they can obserue no difference betweene the reputed religious and the supposed Atheist for they cannot see but either of these haue their fortunes alike he that prayeth hath no better nor hee that prayeth not the worse share in this life whereby they raise an argument that all things succeed to all men at all aduenture Let a religious man willing to moue a carnall man to serue God tell him what happy and wished successe he hath had by his prayers to God what continuall comforts he findeth thereby how hee hath beene deliuered from apparent iminent perils how he hath bin prouided for in his greatest wants how hee hath escaped the things hee feared and how all things worke to his good contentment will not the carnall man say Tush this befalls all men without respect of the ones vertues or the others vices Will he not affirme that the Cattell Corne and all earthly blessings fall as well vpon the Drunkard Whoremonger Blasphemer and whatsoeuer irreligious as vpon the most zealously religious and deuout person And do they not hereby shew that in their hearts they say that either there is no God or that he is a God that maketh no difference betweene the good and the euill between the religious profane betweene the faithfull and the infidell Yet indeede it cannot bee denied but God in mercie keepeth vnder his children whom he will saue exercising them with fatherly crosses and gentle corrections and in iustice permitteth the Reprobate to haue their portions in the fulnesse of pleasures and delights of this life But who so obserueth the ends of both cannot but see the carnall man leaue this life with horror and his goods with griefe and the other in peace who expiring his last breath recommends his soule into the hands of God aspiring in a liuely faith vnto the Kingdome promised with most holy and heauenly alacritie CHAP. XX. The naturall man misconceiueth of true happinesse whereby hee runneth into many absurdities by the suggestion of Sathan THe sottishnes of mans nature and mans misconceiuing of good and euil things is such as it thinketh nothing heauenly but pleasure and profit nothing to befal by a diuine prouidence but by chance and therfore they that pray or pray not are equally rich strong wittie healthfull and alike happie Oh more then blind ignorance palpable Atheisme peruerting the harts of men supplanting Religion and quenching faith condemning prayer the prop of all mens happines which without faith is yet of none effect Infinit are the absurdities whereinto such as know not God plunge themselues for being once ledde out of the way which is Christ they cannot but follow Sathan For there are but two principall spirituall powers that haue dominion ouer al men and they haue their seuerall Kingdomes opposit as light and darkenesse truth falshood heauen and hell And as their Dominions are spirituall so leade they their subiects spiritually the one by grace to the performance of all spirituall dueties in heauenly obedience the other by all possible illusions deceits and spirituall wickednesse in this corporall life This latter gaineth more meÌ„ by his plausible suggestions then Christ by his true and infallible word the reason is for that he first preuayled to betray man euen the father of men by whom and in whom all men by nature are subiect to the same falling from God who made him to the diuell that seduced him And no maruell thogh he lay baits to betray vs now hauing so long practised his treacheries preuailed so much leading men into a thousand by-wayes he careth not how menwalk so they follow not Christ hee cannot beare with patience that men should beleeue the promises of God in Christ nor his threats for disobedience and for not belieuing the Gospel of Christ. And therefore casteth hee a mist before the eies of mens vnderstandings that they may not apprehend Gods mercies towards them that doe well nor his iudgments towards them that doe euill But as GOD cast Adam in a slumber when hee tooke out his ribbe to make a woman so doth he couet to lull men asleepe when he purposeth to steale their hearts from GOD to make them reprobates And as he turneth himselfe into an Angell