following If you add to your Faith Vertue and to Vertue Knowledge and to Knowledge Temperance and to Temperance Patience and to Patience Godliness and to Godliness Brotherly Kindness Charity 2 Pet. 1.5 6. 23. IF Thou wouldst be inform'd what God hath written concerning thee in Heaven look into thy own Bosom and see what Graces he hath wrought in thee Truth of Grace saith the Divine Apostle will make good the certainty of your Election Not to instance the rest of that Heavenly Combination do but single the first and the last Faith and Charity For Faith how clear is that of our Saviour He that believeth in him that sent me hath Everlasting Life and shall not come into Condemnation but hath passed from Death to Life Joh. 5.24 What danger can befall us in our acquiring Heaven All the Peril is in the way Now the Believer is already passed into Life This is the Grace by which Christ dwells in our Hearts Ephes. 3.17 and whereby we have Communion with him and an assured Testimony of and from him For he that believeth in the Son of God hath the Witness in himself And what Witness is that This is the Record that God hath given us Eternal Life And this Life is in his Son he that hath the Son hath Life 1 Joh. 5.10 11 12. Oh happy Connexion Eternal Life first This Life Eternal is in and by Christ Jesus he is ours by Faith and this Faith testifieth to our Souls assurance of Life Eternal Charity is the last which comprehends our love to God and Man For from the reflection of God's Love to us ariseth a Love from us to him again The beloved Disciple can say We love him because he loved us first 1 Joh. 4.19 And from these resulteth our Love to our Brethren And such an Evidence we have that the Apostle tells us expresly That we know we are passed from Death to Life because we love the Brethren 1 Joh. 3.14 For the love of the Father is inseperable from the love of the Son He that loveth him that Begets loves him that is Begotten of him 1 Joh. 5.1 25. NOW deal impartially with thine own Heart and enquire seriously as in the Presence of the Searcher of all Hearts Whether thou dost not find in thy self these Evidences of thine Election Art thou not effectually tho not perfectly called out of the World and corrupt Nature Dost thou not inwardly abhor sinful ways and think of what thou wert with Detestation Dost thou not endeavour to be in all things approved to God and confirmed to thy Saviour Dost thou not cast thy self upon the Lord Jesus and depend upon his free All sufficiency for Pardon and Salvation Dost thou not love that infinite Goodness who hath been so rich in Mercies to thee and bless those Beams of Goodness which he hath cast upon his Saints on Earth Lastly Dost thou not love a good Man because he is so Comfort thy self in the Lord and let no Fear and Distrust possess thy Soul Faithful is he that hath Called thee 1 Thes. 5.24 who will also Preserve thy whole Spirit and Soul and Body blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Thes. 5.23 A Prayer for an Afflicted Conscience O GOD the Father of all Mercies and Heavenly Consolation suffer me not at any time to fall from thee or to be swallowed up in the depth of Affliction but when ever it shall please thee to try me in that Furnace let my sure Hope and Confidence be fixed on thee that when multitude of Sorrows shall encompass my Soul my only trust may be in thy Mercies Give me the Oil of Joy for Mourning and the Garment of Gladness for the Spirit of Heaviness that thy great Name may be Glorified by me in a thankful acknowledgement of thy Goodness towards me 2. LORD thou beholdest afar off the manifold Perils and Dangers I am exposed to in this World which is a sea of Miseries and numerous Calamities The Winds blow the deep Waters lift up their proud swelling Waves and the stormy Tempests threaten me with Ship-wrack to the Ruine and Destruction both of Soul and Body But O thou who art the God of Unity speak Peace unto this inward Voice and say unto it I am thy Salvation so shall I be refreshed with thy loving Kindness and Praise thee ever more Amen SECT IV. Remedies against Temptations 1. THOU art assaulted with Temptations And what the Enemy cannot do by Force or Fraud he seeks by Importunity Can this seem averse to thee when the Son of God was in the Wilderness forty Days and forty Nights under the Tempter He that durst set upon the Captain of our Salvation Heb. 2.10 How shall he spare frail Flesh and Blood Why should Christ suffer himself to be Tempted but to support thee in all thy Temptations The Keys of the Bottomless Pit are at his disposal He could have confin'd that Presumptuous Spirit to Chains of Darkness and admitted him no nearer to him than Hell but he would let him loose and permit him to act his worst purposely that we might not dislike to be Tempted and that he might foyl our greatest Enemy 2. CANST thou think that he who sits at the right Hand of Majesty commanding the Powers of Heaven Earth and Hell could not keep off that malignant Spirit from assailing thee Canst thou think him less Merciful than mighty Would he die to save thee And will he turn that Miscreant of Hell loose to worry thee Dost thou not Pray daily to thy Father in Heaven to Lead thee nâ—t into Temptation Thou hast to do with a God that heareth Prayers Oh thou of little Faith why fearest thou He that was led by his Divine Spirit into the Wilderness to be Tempted of that Evil Spirit bids thee pray to the Father that he would not Lead thee into Temptation implying that thou couldst not go into Temptation unless he lead thee and whilst he that is thy Father leads thee how canst thou miscarry Let no Man when he is Tempted say I am tempted of God for God cannot be tempted with Evil neither tempteth he any Man Jam. 1.13 God Tempteth thee not yet being his thou couldst not be Tempted without him both permitting and ordering that Temptation to his own Glory and thy eternal Welfare 3. THAT Grace which God hath given thee he will have thus manifested How had we known the admirable Continency of Joseph if he had not been strongly sollicited by a Wanton Mistress Or David's Valour if the Philistines had not had a Giantly Challenger to encounter him How had we known the invincible Piety of the Three Children had there been no Furnace to try ' em Or of Daniel if no Lyons to accompany him Be assured thy Glory shall be Proportionable to thy Tryal Neither couldst thou ever be so happy hadst thoâ— not been beholding to Temptations How often sayst thou have I beaten off these base Suggestions yet still they retort upon
Infancy and Youth have their limits age admits of no certain Determination 2. AT Seventy King David was old and stricken in Years and they cover'd him with Cloaths but he got no heat 1 King 1.1 Whereas Caleb can profess Now loe I am fourscore and five Years old and yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me to spy out the Land As my Strength was then even so is my Strength now for war both to go out and come in Josh. 14.10 11. And beyond him Moses was an hundred and twenty Years old when he died his Eye was not dim nor his Natural Force abated Deut. 34.7 Methuselah was but Old when he was Nine hundred sixty and nine Gen 5.27 3. BUT for the generality of Mankind the same Moses who liv'd to see an hundred and twenty hath set Man's ordinary Period at half his own Psal. 90.10 The days of our Age are threescore Years and ten And tho Men be so strong that they come to fourscore Years yet is their Strength but Labour and Sorrow So passeth it away and we are gone Fourscore Years are load enough for the Strength much more for the weakness of Age. But when Labour and Sorrow are added to the Weight how can we but sink under the Burden 4. HE was old and wise that said by Experience That our last Days are the Dregs of our Life The clearer part is gone and all drawn out the Lees sink down to the buttom Who can express the miserable Inconveniencies that attenst the Aged For Cares must needs be multiplied according to the manifold occasions of Affairs For the World is a Net wherein the more we stir we are Entangled 5. AND for Bodily Grievances What Varieties do we meet withal What Aches in the Bones Pains in the Joynts Convulsions of Sinews and Torments in the Bowels the Stone Collick Stranguary and Distillation of Rheums What Hollow Coughs weaknesses of Retention Expulsion Digestion and Decay of Senses So that Age is the common Sewer into which all Diseases of our Life are Evacuated Well therefore might Sarah say After I am waxed Old shall I have Pleasure Gen. 18.12 And good Barzillai justly excuses himself for not accepting the gracious Invitation of David 2 Sam. 19.35 I am this day fourscore Years old and can I discern between Good and Evil Can thy Servant taste what I eat or what I drink Can I hear any more the voice of Singing-Men and Singing-Women Wherefore then should thy Servant be yet a Burden unto my Lord the King 6. THESE are they the Preacher calls the Evil Days and the Years wherein a Man shall say I have no Pleasure in them Wherein the Sun or the Light or the Moon or the Stars are darkned and the Clouds return after the Rain When the Keepers of the House shall tremble and the Strong Men shall bow themselves and the Grinders cease because they are few and those that look out of the Windows be darkned Eccles. 12.1 2 3. In short what is Old-Age but the Winter of Life And how can we expect any other but gloomy Weather chilling Frosts Storms and Tempests 7. BUT whilst we thus querulously aggravate the incommodiousness of Age we must beware lest we derogate from the Bounty of our Maker and disparage those Blessings which he accounts Precious amongst which Old-Age is none of the meanest Had he not put that value upon it he would not have honour'd it with his own Stile calling himself The Ancient of Days Dan. 7.9.13.22 Or would he else have set out this Mercy as a Reward and Obedience to himself I will fulfil the number of thy days Exod. 23.26 and of Obedience to our Parents To live long in the Land Exod. 20.12 8. WOULD he have promised it as a marvellous Favour to restor'd Jerusalem now become a City of Truth That there shall yet Old Men and Old Women dwell in the Streets of Jerusalem and every Man with his Staff in his Hand for every Age Zach. 8.4 Would he else have denounc'd it as a Judgment to over-indulgent Eli 1 Sam. 2.32 There shall not be an Old Man in thy House for ever Far be it from us to despise that which God Honors and turn his Blessings into a Curse For the same God who best knows the Price of his own Favours as he makes no small estimation of Age himself so he hath thought fit to call for a high Respect to be given it by Men out of an Holy Awe to himself Lev. 19.32 Thou shalt rise up before the hoary Head and Honor the Face of the Old Man and fear thy God I am the Lord. 9. HENCE it is that he hath pleas'd to put together the Ancient and the Honourable Isa. 9.15 and hath told us that an Hoary Head is a Crown of Glory if it be found in the way of Righteousness Prov. 16.31 Chap. 20.29 And lastly makes it an Argument of the deplorable State of Jerusalem Lam. 4.16 That They favoured not the Elders Therefore as we too sensibly feel what to complain of so we know what Priviledges we may challenge due to Age even such as Nature hath taught those Heathens which are in the next degree to Savage If Pride and Skill have made the Athenians Uncivil yet a Young Lacedemonian will rise and yield his Place in the Theatre to neglected Age. 10. IT is not a little Injurious to fasten our Eyes upon the disadvantages of any Condition as not to take in the Advantages that belong to it which carefully laid together may perhaps sway the Ballance to an equal Poise Suppose Old-Age is oppress'd with Bodily Griefs yet it may yield other Immunities to keep the Scales even And it is not the least that it gives us firm Resolutions and bold Securities against Dangers and Death it self For the Old Man knows how little of his Thred is left in the Winding and therefore when just Occasion is offer'd insists not much upon so inconsiderable a Remainder OLD-AGE and Orbity as Ceselius profess'd were those things that emboldened him And when Castritius refus'd to deliver the Hostages of Placentia to Carbo the Consul and was threatned with many Swords he answer'd those Menaces with his many Years What young Man would have been so easily induc'd to part with his Life and having been so ready to give entertainment to an unexpected Death Surely the hope and love of Life commonly softens the Spirits of vigorous Youth and disswades them from those Enterprizes which are attended with manifest Perils Whereas extream Age teacheth us to contemn Dangers 12. YET a greater priviledge of Age is a Freedom from those impetuous Passions wherewith Youth is commonly over-sway'd for with our Natural Heat the Fire of our inordinate Lusts is abated so as our weaker Appetite may be subdu'd to Reason The Temperate old Man in the Story when one shew'd him a Beautiful Face could answer I have long since left to be Eye-sick And could say
Mar. 12.7 Luke 20.14 How sure work did they think they had mâ—de when they saw him through their subtil procurement nailed to the cross and dying upon that tree of shame and curse when they saw him laid under a Sealed and Guarded Gravestone And now begins their Confusion and his Triumph Now doth the Lord of Life trample upon Death and Hell and to perfect his own Glory and Man's Redemption by his most Glorious Resurrection 20. AND as it was with the Head so with the Members When Satan had done his worst they are zealouser upon their sins and happier upon their miscarriages God finds out a way to improve their evils to advantage and teaches them of Vipers to make Soveraign Treacles and safe and powerful Trochises The Temptations of Satan sent from his Power Malice and Subtilty are but fiery darts for their Suddenness Impetuosity and Penetration If we can hold the Shield of Faith before us Eph. 6.16 They shall not be quenched but retorted in the Face of him that sends them and we shall with the holy Apostle find and profess that In all things we are more then Conquerors through him that loved us Rom. 8.37 And in a bold defiance of all the Powers of Darkness say ver 38 39 I am perswaded that neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. A Prayer in Spiritual Conflicts O Blessed Jesu the Lord of Life Prince of Glory and Captain of our Salvation the perplexing trouble of my destracting thoughts do by their sly insinuations and secret importunities disturb the quiet of my mind and make my holy duties become a weariness to my Soul They cool the heat they damp the Vigor and dead the Comfort of all my Devotions Yea even when I beseech God to forgive my sins I then sin whilst I am praying for forgiveness whether it be in the Church or the Closet so Frequently and so Violently do these vain thoughts withdraw my heart from thy service that I cannot have confidence thou hearest my Suit because I know by Experience my own deafness and therefore sure needs must thou O God be far off from my Prayers whilst my heart is so far out of thy presence and hurried away with a Crowd of vain Imaginations 2. But Lord keep my Faith fixt upon thy Mediation let me behold thy Incense when I offer my Sacrifice and though distractions have withdrawn me from my self yet let not distrust drive me from my Jesus O give me an encrease of Saving Knowledge which will prove a sure means of Sanctifying my thoughts Mortifie in me all vile Affections and Inordinate Passions and suppress all evil thoughts and vain Imaginations and by thy Special Grace Excite and Cherish in me Holy and Speritual Affections Thou who hast vanquisht Satan and all the powers of Darkness O give Victory to me and all languishing Souls in our Spiritual Conflicts guide us with thy Counsels sustain us with thy Grace refresh us with thy Comforts preserve us in thy Love and crown us with thy Glory Amen Amen Hallelujah SECT XIX The Character of Patience 1. PATIENCE is a peaceable disposition of the whole Man not troubled nor troublesome but abstaining from whatsoever may disturb himself or others In its Definition we may observe these five heads first the nature of Patiencâ— it is peaceable and quiet not subject to sudden Passion light Motions or short Affections towards it but an habitual Disposition and due Composure of a Mans self which may bear the impression of David's Motto Psal. 120.7 I am for Peace 2. SECONDLY the subject of Patience The whole Man not the external but the internal the heart and head the mind and manners must be dispos'd and compos'd towards it Principally indeed the Heart For out of it are the issues of Life Prov. 4.23 and unless there be a Meek and Quiet Spirit 1 Pet. 3.4 It is impossible to acquire it but withall there must be a quiet Hand Psal. 24.4 A quiet Eye Job 31.1 A quiet Ear Prov. 2.2 And a quiet Tongue Psal. 39.1 And all parts and faculties of the Soul disposed to Patience 3. THIRDLY the parts of Patience is not in being troubled or being troublesom neither actively impatient in displeasing others nor passively impatient in being disquieted by others Fourthly the practice of Patience is an abstinence from whatsoever may disturb for so the word Patience commonly Translated doth import And St. James doth thus describe it Jam. 1.21 A laying aside of all filthiness and superfluity of maliciousness 4. FIFTHLY The Object of Patience or Impatience either in our selves or others Men disquiet themselves either by Causeless conceit of offence offered when it is not By being too suspicious and Inventers of evil things Rom. 1.30 or by too much taking to heart an offence when it is offered by being too Furious 2 Tim. 3.3 Men disturb others either in offering occasion of offence by being Injurious and Disorderly 2 Thess. 3.11 or by bitter seeking Revenge being full of Maliciousness Rom. 1.29 So Men likewise disturb themselves and others when they continue in their sins and never think of Repentance As Elijah told Ahab 1 King 18.18 It is thou and thy Fathers house that trouble and disquiet Israel 5. BY this short view we have taken of Patience we may behold the true Character of a Patient Man He is one of a Mild Nature and true Christian Temper swift to hear slow to speak and slow to wrath 1 Pet. 3.4 Phil. 2.5 Jam. 1.19 His head is not over-laden with Cares of this Life nor his heart with Fears his eyes are not itching after Vanities nor his Ears after Novelties Luk. 21.34 Prov. 29.25 Jer. 22.17 Act. 17.21 6. His Hands are not intermeddling with impertinent business nor his Feet swift to run into Evil His Mouth is far from Cursing and Bitterness kept in as a Bridle that it should not Offend 1 Thes. 4.11 Prov. 4.26 Rom. 3.14 Psal. 39.1 Psal. 17.3 His whole body is fit for a Load of Injuries which he bears not out of baseness and cowardise because he dares not Revenge but out of Christian Fortitude because he will not Rom. 12.13 7. HIS Arms are strengthned by the Mighty God of Jacob his hands are washt in Innocency and his breast is the breast plate of Righteousness Gen. 49.24 Psal. 26.6 Eph. 6.4 The hid-man of his heart consisteth of A meâ—k and a quiet Spirit and his Bowels are Bowels of Mercy Meekness and Compassion 1 Pet. 3.4 Col. 3.12 His Loins are girt about with Truth his Knees are pliable to Bow his Legs to bear and his Foot standeth in an even place Eph. 6.14 Psal. 26.12 8. HE is one can moderate himself in Prosperity and content himself in Adversity His hopes are so strong they can insult over the greatest discouragements and his apprehensions so deep that
the Seasons or Measures of his Bounty That most free and beneficent Agent will not be tyed to our Terms but will give us what he sees necessary Therefore humbly wait upon his Goodness and be confident that he who hath begun his good Work in thee will perform it until the Day of Jesus Christ Phil. 1.6 14. IT is true thou say'st if God had began the Operation He would at last for his own Glory finish it But for me I am a Man dead in Trespasses and Sins and never had any true Contrition in me Some shew indeed I have made of a Christian Profession but I have only deceived the World with a fallacious Pretence and have not found in my self the Verity and Solidity of those Heavenly Vertues whereof I have made an Ostentation It were pity thou shouldst be so bad as thou representest thy self I have no tender Compassion in store for Hypocrisie nor no Disposition is more odious to the Almighty insomuch as when he expresses Vengeance against Sinners he uses those terms of Terror I will appoint him his portion with the Hypocrites Mat. 24.51 Were it thus with thee it were high time to work thy Repentance in Dust and Ashes and resign thy self into the hands of his Almighty Protection to be created anew by his Powerful Spirit and never to give thy self Peace till thou findest thy self Renewed in the Spirit of thy Mind Eph. 4.23 But in the mean while take heed of being guilty of mis-judging thine own Soul and misprising the Operation of God's Spirit God hath been better to thee than thou wilt acknowledge Thou hast a true Sense of Grace and perceiv'st it not There is no Cognisance to be taken of the Sentence thou passest upon thy self in the hour of Temptation When thy heart was free thou wert in another Mind and shalt upon better advice reasume thy former Thoughts 15. IT is with thee as with Eutychus that fell down from the third Story and was taken up for Dead when his Life remained in him We have known those in Trances without any perception of Life yea some as that subtil Johannes Duns Scotus laid in their Graves before their Souls had taken leave of their Bodies though unable to exert those Faculties which might Evince her hidden Presence Such perhaps art thou at the worst and wert thou in Charity with thy self thou wouldest be found in a better Condition There is the same reason of the Natural Life and the Spiritual Where it is discern'd by Breathings Sense and Motions where there is a breathing Motion there must be a Life that sends it forth If then the Soul breaths Holy Desires doubtless there is a Life whence they proceed Now deny if thou can'st that thou hast not these Spiritual Breathings of Holy Desires Internally Dost thou not many times sigh for thine own Insanity Is not thine heart perplexed with the Thoughts of thy Spiritual wants Dost thou not truly desire that God would Renew a right Spirit within thee Be cheerful This is the Operation of God's Spirit As well may a Man breath without Life as thou couldst be thus affected without Repentance Sense is a quick Discrier of Life Wound a dead Man he is not sensible but the Living perceiveth the easiest Touch. When thou hast heard the Judgments of God denounced against Sinners and laid to thy Conscience has thy heart been pierced with them Hast thou not secretly thought how shall I decline this dreadful Damnation When thou hast heard the Mercies of God to Penitent Sinners hath not thy heart said Oh that I had my share in ' em When thou hast heard God blasphem'd hast thou not felt a horror in thy Bosom All these are Symptoms of a Spiritual Life 16. MOTION is the perfectest Discoverer of Life He that stirs his Limbs is not dead The Feet of the Soul are the Affections Hast thou not found an hate and detestation of that Sin wherein thou hast been allured And discover'd Grief of heart for thy Indisposition to all good things Hast thou not found a Love to and Complacency in those who are truely Religious and Conscionable Without a Life of Repentance Penitence had vanisht Are not thine Eyes and Hands often lift up to implore mercy Canst thou deny thou hast a real though weak Appetite to the means and degrees of it This is that Hunger and Thirst after Righteousness to which Christ hath pronounc'd Blessedness Matth. 5.6 Discomfort not thy self with the disappearance of God's Spirit In the hour of Temptation it is with thee as with a Tree in Winter whose Sap is run to the Root where there is no Appearance of Vegetation by any Buds or Blossoms but appears motionless Yet when the Sun returns his comfortable Beams it sprouts forth afresh and bewrays that Vital Juice which lay in the Earth So thou must with Patience wait till the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with Healing in his Wings and Summon thy Humidity into thy Branches that that Grace may spring in thee which is able to save thy Soul Then thou wilt say of thine heart as Jacob of his hard Lodging Surely the Lord is in this place and I knew it not Gen. 28.16 Only use the means and wait patiently God's Leisure stay upon the Bank of this Bethesda till the Angel descend and move the Water 16. I could gladly thou repliest attend with Patience upon God in this happy Work of the Excitation of Grace were I but sure I had it or could be perswaded of the Verity of my Conversion But it is my unhappiness that here I am at an uncomfortable loss for I am inform'd that every Convert can design the Time Place means and manner of his Conversion and demonstrate how near he was to the Gates of Death nay to the Verge of Hell when God by a mighty Arm has snatcht him away from the Pit of Perdition and rescu'd him from everlasting Damnation placing him in a State of Eternal Salvation Which I cannot attain to not finding any such vehement Concussion hearty Contrition or such forcible and irresistable Operation of God's Spirit in me nor can I practice the Sermon design'd for my Conversion or those Approaches my Soul made towards an hardly-recovered Desperation To which I answer It is not safe for any Man to set Limits to the Almighty or to prescribe Rules to that Infinite Wisdom That most free and All-wise Agent will not be tyed to walk always in one Path but varies his Courses according to his Divine Will One he calls suddenly as St. Paul another by sweet Solicitations as Philip Nathanael Andrew Peter Matthew and other Apostles One he draws to Heaven with gracious Invitations another with a strong hand We have known those who having mispent their Juvenile Years in notorious debauch'd Courses living as without God and have been heart-stricken with some Denunciation of Judgment which hath so wrought upon 'em that it hath brought them within sight of Hell But after deep