is great and so is the Love of a Mother to her Child and so is the Love of a Man to his faithful Friend But all are short of true Love to JESUS And that they must be so we are well assured by the Word from Heaven For that informs us that as it is the first and great Command and so our prime and chief Duty to love the LORD so it tells us at what Rate we must do it even with all our Heart and with all our Soul and with all our Mind Mat. 22.37 Our Love to Him must be raised to an higher Pitch than what it stands in to any thing else And there 's Reason for it For in that its Elevation or Superiority in that its Pre-eminence above or Prevalence over all other Affections lies the very Sincerity or Essence of it So that to love CHRIST no better than other Things or Persons is indeed not to Love Him at all not at all duly and so not at all acceptably And the same Word tells us that Love to CHRIST is such for Ardency as many Waters cannot quench nor Flouds drown Cant. 8.7 And again it tells us of true Lovers of Him that they are sick of Love to Him Cant. 2.5 A plain case that Love to CHRIST is a Passion so strong and that the Fits of it in some are so violent and high that they affect them with a kind of Sickness The Expression came from the HOLY GHOST and believe it there is nothing Hyperbolical in it No Rhetorical Strain or Figurative Scheme of Speech Nothing Catachrestical or Improper What it affirms is literally true without Flourish There are thousands of eminent Christians in the Church whose Affections to JESUS are so vigorous whose Desires of Him are so vehement whose Longings after Him are so earnest that they bring perfect Qualms over their Hearts and make them quite sick of Love to His MAJESTY And where a pure Mind is carri'd out in so powerful a Love to an Object that is infinitely perfect and glorious let Reason judge how inconceivably delightful its Actings must be O LOVE * O Amor quid te Appellam nescio dulcem an asperum suavem an injucundum Ita enim utroque plenus es ut utrumque esse videaris Salvian Epist 1. said a good Man of old I know not what to call thee good or evil delicious or troublesome sweet or unpleasant For so full of both thou art that thou seemest to be both And most true is this of our kindest Love to one another It is at best but a Miscellaneous thing A Compound made up of two Ingredients some satisfaction and much uneasiness But Love to CHRIST is of quite another Nature He that feels that divine Passion finds nothing in it but divine Pleasure His Mind is full of Peace his Soul dwells at Ease and his Spirit is wrapt up in most heavenly Delights Delights so blissful that there are none like them but those above in the eternal World Divine Love is the sweetest Power that humane Souls are capable of and the most perfect GOD is the sole Object of that Power And therefore whenever it is imploy'd in receiving the influxes of His special Favour and in sending up streams of reciprocal Affection to His MAJESTY O LORD what Delights must here be produc'd No less for certain than such as are beatifying beyond Expression And that indeed is the truest Character of them they are inexpressible When we call them so we really say more what they are and give in a juster Description of them than if leaving that out we should discourse never so long and largely concerning them And let any judge that are able to do it if those Comforts that raise this Love which causes these Delights do not render Men truly Blessed For when Time hath sunk them never so low and Old age hath worn them even quite out and both together have put them past relishing all other Pleasures they 'll fill the Religious with such a Love as will replenish them with such Delights as will affect them with unspeakable Sweetness But then Holy Mourning being one chief Door at which these blessed Comforts enter and come in upon us as many as would be Blessed in these Delights which they occasion and which survive all other must look upon it as a thing most eligible and for their own benefit must conscionably use it and keep close to it CHAP. XVI There are false Comforts as well as true How to distinguish the one from the other Whence false Comforts spring A Great deal and very great things have been said of holy Comforts which are Fruits or Effects of Religious Mourning Yet no more than is proper and applicable to them as being indeed most true concerning them For such is their excellent Worth and Usefulness that they do not only answer the Character given them but would easily fill up one far more large and comprehensive And yet as incomparable as these Comforts are there is a kind of mimical or mock-comforts like them And tho' they be false they are Images or Counterfeits of the true and to them that sit under the Influence of them which is Evil and Malignant may prove to be of pernicious consequence That there are False Comforts we need not question for we have loud Hints of them in the holy Books let us note but two King Herod heard John Baptist gladly S. Mar. 6.20 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pleasantly sweetly delightfully And whence came this sweet and delightful Pleasure As for the Baptist he was an austere Man and the Doctrines he taught were undoubtedly strict and severe like himself And so for certain there could be nothing in them which by reason of Agreeableness might take the Humour or tickle the Fancy of that unrighteous Prince The matter of His Preachin◠might be such rather and so delivered 〈◊〉 to be fitter on the other side to incense and provoke him In all likelihood therefore some spark of Comfort whencesoever it came was struck at this time into his Breast Tho' it might be as far from true Comfort as King Herod was from being a good Man The Stony Ground also received the Word with Gladness S. Mar. 4.16 Yet by that Ground as our great Master who delievered the Parable expounds it are meant those that proved unsettled or unsteady such as * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had no Root of Virtue in themselves As had no Fixedness or Stability no living lasting growing Principle of real Goodness but were as He there says of them †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 temporary in Religion or wavering and inconstant Professors of it For as He declares in the 17th verse When Affliction or Persecution ariseth for the Words sake immediately they are offended They were ready upon the first Occasion given by any sad or troublesome Emergencies to manifest their fickleness and unsincerity Now when such a Character of any sort of Men comes
days to hear from Heaven in sweet Illapses of the Holy Comforter chances to miss of his usual Consolations this becomes matter of Trouble to Him That Day goes off but heavily and leaves Uneasiness upon His Spirit as Comforts on the contrary fill it with Pleasantness And so visible are the Indications of the injoyment of Comforts on the one side and of the disappointment of them on the other that were I to converse with such a Man in the close or Evening of such a Day I durst almost undertake from observing his Countenance and his Carriage to tell in some measure what success he hath had Tho when on such a Day he meets with no Comforts the worst effect of it is but this He desires the more that the Like Day may return and also reckons the more upon its coming As hoping that amends shall be made him in the next for his afflictive Want of sweet Solace in the Last The Second beatifying Property of Holy Mourners Comforts is that they are Glorious So we learn from St. Peter who describing that Spiritual Joy or Comfort which comes down upon Christians here in the Body pronounceth it not only to be unspeakable but full of Glory 1 Pet. 1.8 And by so big a Word some very great thing must certainly be meant The least it can import is assuredly thus much That the Joy or Comfort wherein Christians are happy here below is of a most exalted and refined Nature As it is sweet without all mixture of Bitterness so it is noble without any alloy of Baseness It is no way mean nor sordid in the least not at all like Bodily Pleasure which is apt to corrupt and sink the Mind and so tends to Degeneracy and consequently to Dishonour but is most defecate pure and sublime And as it is generous and lofty in it self so it contains a Sublimating Force in it and a Power sufficient to inable us And therefore where-ever it enters and dwells it fails not to raise and brighten the Soul It beautifies and dignifies our Spirits at once and adds more Lustre to them as well as more Life And so indeed it may properly be stil'd Joy full of Glory as being very near a-kin to that glorious Joy in the immortal State That this World hath its Joys such as they are cannot be denied And tho' considering their extreme Shallowness and Emptiness we are ready to think too highly of them and to bestow too fair Epithets upon them yet I do not know that the choicest of them all were ever called glorious Joys Nor is there any Reason for it But that 's the high Title of the Christians Joy even of His Joy here upon Earth and given to it by the HOLY GHOST Himself And He being infallible in what He speaks in the denomination there can be nothing of Strain beyond real Truth In the 45th Psalm the King's Daughter or the Church is proclaimed all glorious within So that how defective soever True Christians may be as to outward Imbellishments yet they shine with inward Splendors and Excellencies Graces and Comforts Their Graces are so bright that they glitter like the dazling Glory above and therefore are called by that Name We are changed from Glory to Glory 2 Cor. 3.18 meaning from Grace upon Earth to Glory in Heaven And then their Comforts must be glorious as well as their Graces else St. Peter would never have express'd them by the Character of * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 glorified Joy And truly in their Graces and Comforts both Saints are so very glorious here and so near to the Glories which shall be hereafter that nothing but those Glories can exceed these Arise shine for thy Light is come said †Chap. 60.1 Isaiah and his Prophecy pointed at the Christian Church Now by what Light can unfeigned Christians shine but by that of Grace and divine Comfort Deprive them of this Light and what dark things are they But so long as that Light rests upon them or remains in them they must be shining and glorious Creatures I do not say that they must glitter before Men for it is not an external but an inward Lustre that adorns them * Psal 45.13 Glorious within says the Psalmist And so their Glory cannot be conspicuous to the World any otherwise than as it beams forth in good Works And Therefore GOD's People were of old called His hidden or His 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Secret ones Psal 83.3 Because their rare Qualifications and refulgent Perfections were ever concealed from common observation and the World's knowledge Yet at the same time they are glorious still and particularly in their comforts The GOD of Truth by His Servant Peter hath expressly said so and therefore for certain so it must be But then where such Joys or Comforts dwell as GOD Himself declares are glorious the Souls through which they are diffused cannot but be blessed in them even while they are on this side Heaven And that Holy Mourners shall have their share in these glorious Comforts we need not question in the Least For where the Apostle averrs that Christians rejoiced with Joy full of Glory it is spoken of those ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 choice Persons who at that time were * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mourning or in heaviness 1 Pet. 1.6 The third beatifying Property of Holy Mourners Comforts is that they are strong So they are denomiated Heb. 6.18 strong Consolations And such they were signified to be long since Neh. 8.10 For there the Joy of the LORD is said to be His People's Strength And here lies the great Difference betwixt Comforts spiritual and divine and those which arise from outward Accommodations and bodily Satisfactions For the latter at best are but faint and weak and languid things whereas the former are most lively and powerful So lively as to revive our Hearts and so powerful as to strengthen our Hands to the more ready and laudable performance of our Duties But in what instances they will thus inliven and enable us need not here be shewn because in some of the Chapters ensuing it will sufficiently appear The fourth beatifying Property of Holy Mourners Comforts is that they are Secure So well secured to faithful Christians that they are like to abide for ever with them And therefore they are called everlasting Consolations 2 Thess 2.16 And let none that are sincerely and throughly Religious doubt at all of their sharing in them they being a most free Gift of as free a Love as is there hinted to the Thessalonic Church Our LORD JESUS CHRIST Himself and GOD even our Father hath loved us and given us everlasting Consolation So that let us but maintain our Christian Sincerity and we need not fear being dispossess'd of our Spiritual Comforts However they may rise and fall and go and return and intermit at times and alter in measures as they often do and always did yet they shall not be
them true and that He really is what our garish and misguided Fancies make Him And tho' 't is hard to give in an exact Account of all our vain Fictions and Misrepresentations of GOD yet this may go for a general Rule and in observing it we shall find that we are pretty constant We usually assimilate GOD unto our selves and our Ideas of Him correspond to our own Complexions or Tempers Thus he whose Breast is surcharg'd with boiling Malice and a swelling Spleen against his Neighbour thinks GOD is full of livid Envy Rancour and deadly Hatred to Men. And He whose Brain is heated and disturb'd with fiery Spirits and whose Mind is toss'd with unbecoming Rage and Phrantic Fury conceives GOD is little better than a Flame of Passion one that loves at times to sally forth in Flashes of devouring Vengeance and to consume His helpless undeserving Creatures And because all darker Minds indeed are ready to harbour crooked Thoughts of GOD concerning the Rigidness of His Disposition He endeavours in His Word to prevent their entertaining any hard and hideous Apprehensions of Him For there He teaches * Isai 27.4 Fury dwelleth not in Him That †ch 28.21 Judgment is His strange Work That He doth not ‖ Lam. 3.33 afflict willingly nor grieve the Children of Men. That His Name is * Exo. 34.6 Merciful and Gracious That His †ch 33.18 19. Glory is Goodness Not to say That His very ‖ 1 Joh. 4.8 Essence is Love And how incomparably Excellent must His Nature be of which these are the true and genuine Characters But when GOD by this fair Description of Himself fences against all black Thoughts of His MAJESTY for us then to fasten such Thoughts upon Him when He strives industriously to beat them off must not only be shameful Folly but hainous Sin as being dishonourable to Him as well as prejudicial and destructive to our selves Here therefore holy Comforts again are helpful to us I mean as they rectify our Mistakes of GOD and disabuse our Minds from harsh and horrid Imaginations of Him by inabling us to judge more rightly concerning Him For however too many that are clouded with Sins and so encompass'd with Fears and so kept in a dark and disconsolate condition may conceive very uncouth and frightful things of the Blessed GOD however they may think Him Touchy and Supercilious Ireful and Implacable and take Him for no better than a vowed Enemy to all Sinners Happiness and inexorable Author of their endless Ruine or at least for one indifferently affected with whatever befalls them and wholly unconcerned whether they live or dye eternally Yet where the Comforts of Heaven dwell down go such incongruous Thoughts of the DEITY and others more becoming and also more agreeable are advanced in their Room And well they may for sacred Comforts as we have said do better our Genius or improve our Temper They do not only help us as to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a good Capacity of Nature rendring our Minds by well composing them and keeping them in order more fit to think and more acute in their Thoughts whereby they are inabled to more suitable and worthy Apprehensions of the ALMIGHTY but moreover they impregnate us with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a good Disposition of Nature They put a great deal of Kindness and Lenity into us and making us mild and sweet and benign in our selves we shall according to the Rule just now laid down in course conclude that GOD is infinitely so For look what we are and such we presently conceive Him to be In case we doubt it the SPIRIT proves it Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thy self Psal 50.21 And if Evil Men because they are evil think GOD to be like them then by the same Reason the better we are the better Thoughts we shall have of Him So that from the Melioration or Improvement of our own Temper we naturally rise up into the more fit and genuine Conceptions of GOD. And the meet Idea or proper Character of His Nature being by this means the more fairly drawn or stamped upon our Minds from hence again will spring most Blessed Delights For they that so far as humane Measures reach attain to a right Notion of GOD's excellent Nature do plainly see Him with an intellectual Eye And they that see Him see a most exquisite and most infinite Beauty A Beauty consisting of such essential Glories and divinest Perfections that all other Beauties in compare with it are but Dirt and Darkness and the ugliest Deformity And as such a Beauty when beheld with an intent and fixed Eye must raise great Admiration in those that view it so that Admiration must cause as great Delights and those Delights a rare kind of Blessedness I cannot but cast in this as an Overplus that they who have the truest Notion of GOD's Nature and so the clearest Prospect of His bright and beauteous Excellencies are not more blessed than others in seeing Him only but in serving Him also For all that they do in Adoration of Him or in Obedience to Him He being the object of their highest Delights must commonly be pleasant as well as easy to them and matter of Felicity as well as of Duty Indeed as many as have gross and grisly Apprehensions of GOD can know no Religion but what is Mechanical They never pay any Service to Heaven with hearty Willingness nor act its Commands from a free ingenuous and noble Choice But when they move towards Duties they are forc'd to do it by slavish Fears and when they run through them 't is meerly because they dare not pretermit them Necessity and Constraint give Laws to their Devotion But they who conceive of GOD as they should worship Him as they ought They do not only perform His Service but they do it chearfully and faithfully so they will do it to the End of their Days For what they do of that nature proceeds from a Principle of divine Life and from the Power of a divine Love within And this brings me to the Second Means whereby holy Comforts furnish us with such high and noble Delights as will stick by us When all other forsake us and that is by inflaming us with Love to the LORD JESUS For where this Flame is throughly kindled it fills the Heart with such sacred Ardors as turn the Saints into lower Seraphim and while they are but Men make them like to Angels Like to Angels not only in their Purity and burning Zeal but also in their Pleasures and extatic Delights Where Souls are throughly enamoured on CHRIST that their Affections run high we need not doubt No Tongue can tell the heat and vigour of that holy Love which flames in the Hearts of good Men towards Him So superlative is it that to compare it with any natural or civil Love were to disparage it or detract from it The Love of a Wife to her Husband
it And this Work of our Redemption he makes a great Proof of the Transcendency of that Love as it is a mighty Product of it GOD so loved the World that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have everlasting Life Joh. 3.16 Where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so is made use of only to amplify or set off GOD's Love to the World of Men in making His SON the Price of our Redemption Here was Love indeed such as was never heard of such as we may justly stand and wonder at even all our Life long crying out with the mentioned inspired Writer * 1 Joh 3.1 Behold what manner of Love the Father hath bestowed on us But what do I speak of wondring at this Love while we live When we are dead and gone and got to Heaven Eternity it self will be little enough for us to admire and adore it in 'T is such a Love as can no where be parallell'd An Heighth that cannot be reached a Depth that cannot be fathom'd a Breadth that cannot be measured a Vastness that cannot be comprehended When Man by falling into Sin was sunk into Death and a state of Perdition if GOD had entertained but some Thoughts of His Redemption that would have been a piece of kindness to us but He resolv'd and decreed to have it effected When with full Resolution and Purpose of finishing it He set about it He might have shown great Love in bringing it to pass by a meaner Instrument as by an Angel or Arch-angel a Cherubin or Seraphin or a more inferior Creature but He laid the heavy Burthen upon the Shoulders of His SON When He imposed this Task on His begotten SON He might have authorized Him to perform it in a more honourable way by sitting in Heaven suppose and dispatching it there by the word of His mouth or by the force of His power as some conceive He might but this was not allow'd He must do it by Humiliation of Himself When GOD had humbled Him for our sakes and from the highest Heavens had sent Him down to this despicable Earth He might have set him in a more suitable Station or Degree Considering his Dignity he might have made him a puissant Emperour or a mighty King or some illustrious Prince or Potentate but this might not be neither He was fain to stoop to lowest circumstances He had a poor Jewish Maid to His Mother and an ordinary Mechanick for His reputed Father and as some think was by him brought up to the Carpenters Trade and so according to the Letter of that piece of His Character he plainly appear'd in the Form of a Servant And answerable to this was His worldly condition His Estate as low as His Person seem'd little For he had * Mat. 8.20 not where to lay his head And when a Tribute was to be paid for Him and His Disciples He was forc'd by a Miracle to fetch up the Money from the bottom of the Sea before He could discharge it When GOD had rankt Him thus low in the World and made Him in appearance so very inconsiderable He might have pleas'd that this marvellous humiliation of Him should have done the work without farther trouble but neither could that be esteem'd sufficient It was not enough for Him to be mean unless withal he was miserable Pains must be superadded to His strange Poverty and He must want ease as much as He did Plenty When GOD had pitch'd upon JESUS's Sufferings as the properest means of our Redemption He might have favoured Him here yet For He might have accepted of some ordinary sufferings and have been satisfy'd with gentle and moderate Inflictions but these would not serve the turn And therefore He was not to endure Pain only but Death it self and so be made a Sacrifice and Propitiation for us When GOD determin'd that His SON should Die as knowing his Death to be necessary to our Redemption yet then He might have appointed Him a fair and easie Death but this likewise was too much to be granted And therefore as we know He died on the Cross the very worst Death in several respects which He could possibly undergo Yet Crucify'd He was and that betwixt two Thieves as if He had been the leudest Malefactor of the Three Put all this together and say if it will not make up a peerless love Especially if we consider the objects of it and that we were they to whom it was expressed And pray what are we Naturally but men and so Dust and Ashes Morally Sinners and so the worst of humane Creatures Far worse than I can speak or any can imagin Yet when we were thus mean and thus extremely bad ye see what GOD was pleas'd to do for us He seriously thought upon our Redemption He did not only think of it but resolv'd to accomplish it He did not only resolve to do it but appointed it to be done He appointed it to be done not by a mean Instrument but by his SON Not by his SON sitting in Heaven but humbled to the Earth Not by his Humiliation into Poverty only but into painful Sufferings such as terminated in Death Nor was it a common Death which He suffered but the Death of the Cross And as a sad Addition to all his misery or rather as the utmost complement of it He lost the sense of GOD's favour and lay under the Pressure of all that trouble which the want of communion with his Heavenly FATHER could afflict him with And was not this a most Superlative Love Could we have desired so much of GOD Could GOD ever have done more for us What would we have the ALMIGHTY do Would we have Him seemingly undeifie himself as it were by becoming a man like one of us So he did Would we have Him become the sorriest and most contemptible of Men So He did For as the Prophet says * Isa 53.3 He was despised rejected and not esteemed Would we have Him become a Sinner Be it spoken with Reverence and to His Honour he made Himself sin upon our account which was very near it For He took upon Him the sins of the whole World and so was the greatest sinner in it by imputation O mighty Love O matchless Love too big to be conceived and consequently not possible to be fully expressed and therefore let us say no more concerning it Only GOD having dealt thus lovingly with us we may assuredly conclude that not any thing he can do shall be wanting to our Happiness And in case he does not advance us to it by irresistible power and a force invincible as some are ready to argue he may 't is meerly because he cannot do it as * Vid. Episcop in 1 Joh. 4.8 some think Even because 't is inconsistent with His Blessed Law the Result of his infinite Goodness and Wisdom and because 't is unagreeable to our own Nature and so implies repugnancy and
ruin to both But now that which intollerably aggravates our Guilt is that we have sinned against this Wondrous Love All its Flames have not consum'd our Dross all its heat hath not melted us into Obedience to that gracious GOD who loved us so exceedingly Nay we have wretchedly made this Love of His an occasion of sinning against His MAJESTY and have done amiss with more freedom and frequency because His Love abounded towards us Our Surety was able to pay our Debts and therefore we cared not how far we ran on in the Score We valu'd not stabbing our precious Souls because we had a Sovereign Medicine at hand to heal the Wounds We have made CHRIST's Death a Patent for Licentiousness and have been the more ready to offend GOD because he gave his SON to die for our Offences The biggest Aggravation of Baseness that can be It lifts up our Guilt above that of Devils the worst of which never rebelled against Redeeming Love nor committed one sin against a crucify'd LORD who laid down his Life for their Salvation A most sad consideration and did we but keep our Minds close to it and dwell upon it in serious and compos'd Reflections methinks we should need no better suasive to Mourning for our own and the Nation 's Sins Yet here we may advance a little farther some of us at least and fitly think that we have sinned against the Love of our best Friends Our truest Friends are most concern'd for our greatest Interests They look chiefly at the Dispositions and habits of our Minds and are anxious and solicitous for the welfare of our Souls With a watchful eye and a yearning heart they mark and observe us in our Spiritual relations and capacities how we carry our selves towards GOD how we are affected with Religion how we are furnisht with Christian Perfections how well prepared we are to die and how well provided to live for ever And if they find us defective in these Accomplishments it becomes an occasion of sadness to them and sinks them down into Grief and Misery A famous instance and pattern of this was the rarely virtuous and renowned Monica Mother of St. Augustine When he was young and vain and loose in his Manners this pious Matron laid his Extravagancies deeply to heart and night and day lamented his wild and exorbitant life And this may be the case of our Real Friends and at such a rate they may be afflicted for some of us They may pine at our Wickedness and pray for our Repentance and sigh and sorrow to behold our stubborness and strange Perverseness While we with delight and brutish complacence dishonour GOD and destroy our selves they may be almost overwhelm'd with sadness at the sight of our Prophaness and the sense of our Debauchery Let us think upon this and learn to mourn for our own Sins that have been so offensive to our choicest Friends They could no way shew truer never shew greater kindness to us But then the singular Cordial Affection on their side grievously aggravates the sins on ours and that aggravation should still raise our sorrow and encrease holy Mourning If thou that readest this knowest it thy case if thou knowest that thy sins afflict thy best Friends I have this Caveat to leave with thee Take heed of abusing their affectionate Tenderness There 's too much ill Principle in thy Proceedings already do not superadd ill nature to it If sin hath eat out all sense of Religion yet surely thou hast somewhat of humanity left something of common civility in thee especially to kindest Friends and Relatives Cease to sin then in respect to them who manifest such pious compassion to thee lest thou shortnest their Lives and sendest them sorrowing to their Graves O it is a rich and invaluable mercy to dissolute Persons that they have such Friends as these I speak of Friends that can weep over their provoking miscarriages and with plenty of powerful Tears and Prayers intercede to the Merciful GOD for them But let none of these sinners be so unkind and ingrateful and unhappy too as by obstinate persistence in a course of unrighteousness to break the hearts of these incomparable Friends and so deprive themselves of an inestimable Blessing CHAP. XXIV The Third Aggravation of our own and others Sins considered as the Third suasive to mourning for the same We have sinned in a most shameful manner NOW follows the last Aggravation of our sinfulness which as it is very heinous should be as affecting to us We have sinned in a most shameful manner Light could not controll nor could Love restrain us we sinned under and against them both But which adds to our Guilt and renders it much more grievous still we have sinned withal most hideously or shamefully This will appear if we will consider these Four things 1. The nature and malignity of our Sins 2. The multiplicity or variety of them 3. The repetition or frequency of them 4. Our boldness or impudence in Sinning First Our Sins are of an high Nature or Malignity As if Sins of a lower Quality or lesser Rate would not throw us fast or far enough out of GOD's Favour or sink us down deep enough into His Displeasure we have been forward to those of a worser sort and of a larger size Sinful Thoughts and sinful Words would not content us we have broken out into sinful Actions and in actual sins we have exceeded For sins of incogitancy or inadvertency would not serve us we have run into sins of Deliberation Sins of omission or neglect would not satisfie us we have plunged into sins of commission Sins of infirmity or weakness could not bound us we have rushed into sins of Presumption And all these high Acts of sin have not been of the least kinds of Sins neither For if we look narrowly into our Transgressions perhaps we shall find them of a fouler nature of a blacker stain and of a deeper Die than we are aware Yea think what sins are most odious to GOD and flagitious in themselves and these I fear will appear to have been ours in too great measure if we throughly examine our Spiritual state Secondly Our Sins are multiform and various They are not all of one sort but of several kinds According to the Character of the Impious Psal 69.27 we have fallen from one wickedness to another or have added iniquity to iniquity To Sins against GOD we added Sins against our Neighbours and to Sins against them Sins against our selves if we distinguish them according to the Object And if diversified according to other circumstances as Time and Place and Providence c. we have sinned in our Youth and in our riper years secretly and openly by our selves and with others Against Mercies and against Judgments c. But lest in diversifying sin I should here run out into too large a Series of Particulars instead of going farther I refer the Reader to those brief * See them under
the 〈…〉 Love O that Thou wouldst satisfy it with the abundance of thy Goodness of thy sweet delicious and most ravishing Kindness I know Thou discernest and understandest every thing and if Thou seest any thing that hinders me from loving Thee above all I beseech Thee take it forthwith out of the way or make it for ever cease to be any manner of impediment of my Love to Thee Especially dispel O dispel and scatter those Clouds of Darkness and Mists of Ignorance which keep me from beholding thy great and wonderful and most amiable Perfections and give me a Sight of Thy Beauty and a Prospect of Thy Glories and such clear Apprehensions of Thy marvellous Excellencies that I may never conceive amiss of Thee But seeing Thy incomparable and surpassing Loveliness the Eyes of my Soul may so affect my Heart that my Heart may burn with holy Fervours towards Thee With such Fervours as may make me not only live in thy Love but ready to dye even with Torments for the same if Thou callest me to it And that I may ‖ Cant. 1.4 run after Thee with a LOVE * 8.6 stronger than Death with a LOVE kindled into so †ib. vehement a Flame as no ‖ v. 7. Waters of Affliction can quench or Flouds of Temptation or Persecution drown draw me I intreat Thee with the Cords of Thy Love Give me such a lively and powerful sense of * Tit. 3.4 the Kindness and Love of GOD our SAVIOUR which hath appeared towards men as may †2 Thes 3.5 direct my Heart into the Love of GOD and make me most entirely to love Thee ‖ 1 Joh. 4.19 because Thou hast first loved me and that so miraculously And help me so to * Jude 21. keep my self always in Thy Love that no †Rom. 8.39 Creature may be able to separate me from it Of all the Sections here I may safely say that this deserves to be oftenest used to be used even day and night For of all the Divine Graces there is none more sweet than divine Love None more excellent in it self or useful unto us as being most conducive to an Heavenly Life upon Earth VI. For Love to Neighbours LET Him enrich me with a large and noble Charity With such a Charity as is the ‖ Col. 3.14 Bond of Perfectness and will make me * Mat. 19.19 love my Neighbours as my self With such a Charity †1 Cor. 13.4 5 6 7. as is kind and long-suffering and neither envieth vaunteth nor is puffed up As thinketh no evil as seeketh not her own as is not easily provoked nor behaves it self unseemly As rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the Truth bearing all things believing all things hoping and enduring all things ‖ Rom. 13.10 Love I know is the fulfilling of the Law * Mat. 22.39 and the great and †1 Joh. 2.8 New Commandment which thou hast given us As it behoves me therefore let me keep it inviolate in all respects Let me never shut up the Eyes of my Observation or the Bowels of my Compassion or the Hands of my Bounty from those that are in need But let me chearfully ‖ Luk. 11.41 give Alms of all things that I have and be * 1 Tim. 6.18 19. ready to distribute and willing to communicate according to my Abilities laying up in store for my self a good foundation against the Time to come that I may lay hold on Eternal Life And as GOD laid down His Life for me so let me be content to do the same for others upon good accounts as †1 Joh. 3.16 I ought to do that so I may prove I am passed from ‖ ver 14. death to life because I love the Brethren * Rom. 12.9 without dissimulation Nor let my Charity extend only to †Psal 16.3 the Saints upon Earth to such as excell in virtue and are of the Houshold of ‖ Gal. 6.10 Faith but to all that partake of humane Nature and even to the worst with whom I converse Let it teach me gently to forbear and frankly to forgive * Col. 3 13 if I have quarrels against any even as GOD for CHRIST's sake hath †Eph. 4.32 forgiven me chusing rather to take ‖ 1 Pet. 2.20 all patiently than to * 1 Thes 5.15 render evil for evil to any man And let my Charity I pray Thee be more ample still and raise me up to so Christian a Temper as that I may not only be able to put up evil but forward and desirous to the utmost of my power to do good against evil and never to †Gâ—l 6.9 be weary of such well-doing till I ‖ Rom. 12.21 overcome evil with good If my * ver 12. Enemies hunger let me feed them if they thirst let me give them drink Let me love them †Mat. 5.44 that hate me and bless them that curse me and pray for them that despitefully use me and persecute me that so I may ‖ Luk. 6.35 be one of the Children of the HIGHEST who hath declared He is kind to the unthankful and the evil VII For Humility LET Him * 1 Pet. 5.5 clothe me with real and profound Humility Even with such an Humility as my REDEEMER practised That so the same †Phil. 2.5 8. mind that was in Him who humbled himself and became obedient unto Death even the Death of the Cross may be in me and I may never ‖ Rom. 12.3 think more highly of my self than I ought to think VIII For Patience LET Him beget in me a true Christian Patience Such a Patience as may make me submissive to GOD's Pleasure in all His Providences Such a Patience as may make me thankful and make me joyful in the worst Emergencies and Occurrencies of the World and in the wofullest Circumstances and contingencies of Life and in the Approaches and Agonies of Death it self That I thus * Luk. 21.19 possessing my Soul in Patience and †Jam. 1.5 Patience having its perfect work upon me I may be perfect and entire wanting nothing IX For Chastity LET Him beautifie me with an excellent and unspotted Chastity With such a Chastity as becomes the Servants and the Spouse of CHRIST With such a Chastity as may enable me to hate Uncleanness and to ‖ 1 Cor. 6.18 flee Fornication and to * 1 Thes 4.4 possess my vessel in Sanctification and honour as a †1 Pet. 2.11 Pilgrim and stranger abstaining from fleshly lusts which war against the Soul With such a Chastity as may make me * Mat. 5.8 pure in my Heart as well as in my Actions that so I may see GOD. See Him to my comfort while I live upon Earth and my Eternal Satisfaction and Bliss in Heaven X. For Meekness LET Him adorn me with Religious Meekness which in †1 Pet.
surely some have advised and admonisht us Parents I hope have not been so unnatural to us nor God-fathers and God-mothers so regardless of us nor Relatives and Friends so inconcerned for us nor Ministers so forgetful of their care over us but at times they have given us serious Instructions and religious Directions and have earnestly and affectionately intreated and importun'd us to listen to them and be led by them But were we so wise Alas how many instead of that have not minded or have not mattered what hath been said to us but have at once despised the Counsel that was given us and the Persons who gave it And is not this another amazing Aggravation of our sinfulness Unless we repent we shall find it so at last For look how many have been faithful Monitors cautioning us against Sin and so many Witnesses there will be against us in the final Judicature to cast us in our Trial and condemn us to Torment And will not that be a most astonishing Light that shall only show Evidence in the high Court of Justice to cut us off and consign us to eternal Vengeance Lastly We have sinned against the Light of humane Laws And here I shall concern my self no farther than to shew that we have commonly and presumptuously broken several Statute-laws under which we live In many Cases they lay their illightning Obligations upon us but we have rudely violated them by consenting to and acting of such gross Immoralities as they expressly forbid and put under just Penalties Such hath been the laudable Piety of our Legislators that they have taken due care to keep us innocent and virtuous by restraining us from vitious and enormous Practices or at least by endeavouring their best to do it To this end they have wisely enacted that if such and such Crimes were wilfully committed the Perpetrators of them should be so and so punisht But we too like the unjust Judge who neither feared GOD nor regarded Man in many instances of affected unrighteousness have boldly sinned against humane Ordinances as well as divine Thus as many of us as have been guilty of prophane and customary Swearing and Cursing which I fear is little less than epidemical amongst us have sinned against the Light of a Law * 16. Car. 1. made perpetual to prevent and reform prophane Swearing and Cursing and †6 7. W ◠afterwards reinforced and the Penalties inlarged The Light of which Law methinks is very bright in our Horizon As many as have suborned others to forswear themselves or have been guilty of Perjury in their own Persons have sinned against the Light of a Law made * 29 Eliz. perpetual for the punishment of such Persons as shall either procure or wilfully commit that horrid Wickedness And does not this Light shine full in our Eyes As many as have been guilty of Drunkenness have sinned against the Light of a Law made †4. Ja. 1. perpetual for the repressing that sin And by the Light of that Law one would think we should see so much Vileness in it as to hate and leave it For it declares it to be ‖ See Pulton a loathsom and odious Sin and the root and foundation of many other enormous Sins That besides impoverishing many by abusively wasting the good Creatures of GOD it occasions Bloudshed Stabbing Murder Swearing Fornication Adultery and such like Lastly As many as have been guilty of Prophaning the LORD's Day have sinned against the Light of a Law * 29 Car. 2. made for the better Observation of it And this Light in conjunction with that of an higher Nature which we happily injoy should have guided us directly to our Duties in the case and where it hath not our selves must needs be egregiously to blame Now when the Providence of GOD and the Wisdom and Piety of good and great Men have provided such excellent Laws as these to keep us from the aforesaid and such like Impieties if we notwithstanding have committed and repeated them this of necessity must heighten our Guilt and proportionably inflame GOD's Wrath against us Indeed when the Sins of a People grow rife and rampant and their Transgressions spreading and notorious if then good Laws be made to crush them this vindicates the Government and hinders those Sins in a great Measure from becoming National because the Head of the Nation or the Ruling Legislative part thereof not only disowns them but appears against them and labours to suppress them But then the same Laws which make these Sins unimputable to Governours as such and so renders them less national do mightily aggravate them on the People's side as being committed against Laws designed to prevent them So far then as we know this to have been our Case or perceive it to be the Case of the Nation that we live in let us well weigh and rightly consider it and in reason it must be as strong a suasive to Mourning as it really is a sad Aggravation of our Sins And therefore I have thus represented it here shewing how to consider it and by some Hints given how in our Thoughts to expatiate upon it so as it may help to raise sorrow in us both for our own and the Nations Impieties CHAP. XXIII The second Aggravation of our own and others Sins considered as the second Suasive to Mourning for the same we have sinned against the greatest LOVE As against the LOVE of GOD and against the Love of our best Friends THE second Aggravation of our sinfulness which is exceeding hainous and O that it might be but as affecting is that we have sinned against the Greatest Love This will easily be made appear for we have sinned against GOD and He is Love and infinite Love and so the greatest that can be GOD is LOVE 1 Joh. 4.8 An over-flowing Fountain of sweetest Kindness or rather an immense and boundless Ocean of Clemency and Benevolence unto Men. And as His Disposition to us is such also are His Dealings with us unless our unworthiness provokes and forces Him to make them otherwise Besides illustrious Revelations in many Periods of His Word He hath given us such glorious Tokens of it as strongly argue and plainly evidence that He is not only Love in Himself but strangely expressive of His Love to us Some happy Creatures there are in the World that know this is true as finding it to be so by blessed Experience I mean by their free Intercourse humble Familiarity and holy Intimacy with the ALMIGHTY And they that do not feel it from sensible Influences and Communications of His Favour may yet be sufficiently convinced of it by many Arguments I alledge but one which indeed may serve instead of all as carrying the clearest Demonstration with it and that is in short His Redeeming Mankind by the Death of His SON St. John the Evangelist of all the Apostles that writ treats most of the Divine Love as being perhaps best acquainted with