Lord of Israel the kindnesse of thy youth the lose of thine espousals when thou wentest after me in the wildernesse in a land that was not sown Our first works and our last works are commonly our best works when we begin first to live the life of grace and when we are ready to die and are entring upon the life of glory how excellent is our marriage how savoury our words how heavenly our conversation Even so it is when we are delivered from any great danger when enlarged with any singular comforts how lively how zealous and how active are we Call to minde the fifth of November 1605. when we were delivered from that barbarous Gunpowder-treason how forward were we in making laws against Papists how severe in suppressing Jesuites how zealous in setling true Religion Iâ— Iâ— reported of the City of Berne when first delivered from Antichrist when that State cast off that Romane bondage and reformed Religion that they wrote the day of their Redemption upon pillars in letters of gold And it is observable that in all the ages of the Church God hath set out himself to his people by such names and titles as were most suitable to his present dispensations or such as were of the last edition And why so But that his late mercies might be the better considered and remembred Hence in the beginning he was called the most high God the possessour of heaven and earth who had made all by the word of his power Under those times Melchisedech blessed Abraham Blessed be Abraham saith he of the most high God possessor of heaven and earth And Abraham covenanted to take nothing from the King of Sodome and that under these terms I have lift up my hand unto the Lord the most high God possessor of heaven and earth that I will not take from a thread to a shoe-latchet and that I will not take any thing that is thine Afterwards when God entred into a covenant with Abraham and his seed he was called the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. And under those titles God gave his charge to Moses when he sent him to bring his people out of the Land of Aegypt I am the God of thy Father the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. After that he was called the God that brought them out of the Land of Aegypt out of the house of bondage Such was the preface to his law I am the Lord thy God which have brought thee out of the Land of Aegypt out of the house of bondage And so it continued for many generations even until he brought them out of Babylon And then saith the Lord It shall be no more said The Lord liveth that brought them out of the land of Aegypt but The Lord liveth that brought the children of Israel out of the land of the North. And now under the Gospel he is known by this most excellent name The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ And why so But because our redemption by Christ is the last and the great work he hath done for his Church and most fresh in our memories Whilest therefore mercies are fresh and work most upon the heart doe something in remembrance of Gods goodness and why not then write them downe in a Journall A small matter I should think whilest the heart is warm and well affected with the present sense of some singular pledge of Gods loving kindnesse may easily perswade to this duty 5. And finally love the Lord for his goodnesse If any thing under heaven will constrain us and help forward this duty love will Oh! love the Lord all ye his Saints saith the Psalmist And indeed none but Saints can love him He knocks at every dore and as it were pulls every man by the sleeve and saith Oh! love you the Lord Let the drunkard love his cups and the adulterer his harlots and the covetous person his bags but do you that are Saints love the Lord. For the Lord preserveth the faithfull and pletifully rewardeth the proud doer When one bucket goes downe the other will come up When Pharaoh is drowned Israel is saved When Haman is hanged Mordecai is advanced When proud doers are plagued the faithful are delivered Oh! love the Lord therefore And indeed love is all that God looks at in us and expects from us and where there is love there is no lack After so large a repetition of the great things God hath done for Israel What saith Moses to them doth God now require for all this but that you would love him And indeed love is complementumlegis the fulfilling of the Law Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth any thing saith the Apostle but faith that worketh by love Faith and Love are like a pair of Compasses Faith like one point fastens upon Christ as the center and Love like the other goes the round in all the works of holinesse and righteousnesse Now certainly Love hath a good memory or would have a good memory What we slight we soon forget but what we love we endevour to lay up sure in our memories Vbi amâ—r ibi animus Where our love is our minde is Where our treasure is there will our heart be It was the eye that made the match That which which the eyesees not the heart desires not And as love came in by the eye so it delights by the same dore to look after that beloved object Such a soul that hath seen God in all things and therefore loves God above all things delights still to look after God in all his wayes that he may love him more and more Such a soul loves God as Jonathan loved David 1. Amore unionis with a love of union the soul of Jonathan was knit to David for he loved him as his own soul 2. He loved him amore complacentiae with a love of delight for it is said that Jonathan delighted much in David 3. He loved him amore benevolentiae with a love of good will for Jonathan said to David Whatsoever thy souldesireth I will even do it for thee Even so doth a gracious heart love God not onely with a love of union and a love of delight but with a love of good will too who saith to God as Paul at his conversion Lord what wilt thou have me to do Such an one is ready to suffer what ever may be inflicted on him and to do what ever may be required of him especially whatsoever may testifie how well he remembers God and his loving kindnesse to him CHAP. VIII Severall arguments propounded by which Christians may be provoked to keep such a Journall or Diary as hath been commended THat such Christians as have any abilities for the keeping of such a Journal or Diary as hath been commended to them may be encouraged thereunto I shal in the second place propound these foure arguments First it is
friends venture upon Christ for health but when Christ saw their faith by which they brake through all difficulties for they would uncover the roof of the house where he was rather then not come to him he gave him health and the pardon of his sins too which was more then they came for The Prodigal son ventures far upon his Fathers love yet craves no more but the place of an hired servant but he is entertained as a Son he is clad with the best robe and fed with the fatted Calfe he hath a Ring for his hand and Shooes for his feet very rich supplies not only for necessity but sober delight which was more then he desired Jacobs sons venture into Egypt for Corn in a time of Famine and they return with Corn and Money in their sacks yea with very good news at last Joseph is alive and Governour of all Egypt Even thus it is with a believer that can in a straight venture upon God in Christ according to a promise his returns are often above his ventures Faith is the greatest gathergood in the world for it is not only according to our faith but often abo ve our faith When the prayers offai th are answered mercies are multiplyed When Solomon through faith beg'd of God for a wise and understanding heart by which he might be able to judge his people God gave him wisdome and moreover riches and honour more then any King had before him or should have after him so that his returne was far above his venture Are these things so what an happy condition are they in then that believe in the name of the Lord Jesus and who would not upon these terms make it good to their own souls that they have obtained this precious grace of Faith And that they have this grace I know no better evidence then this That they have high thoughts of it and set a great price upon it Now undoubtedly such as have a true esteem of faith will improve all times and talents will imploy all means for the service of their faith that they may abound therein And what better means can be used for the advancement of faith in the growth and strength of it then a rich treasure of experience every experiment of Gods favour to us being a good prop for our faith for the future Thou breakest the heads of Leviathan in pieces saith the Psalmist and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wildernesse that is Thou O Lord didst overthrow Pharaoh and his Host in the Red-sea which experiment of thy power and goodnesse was as meat to the people in the Wildernesse which might uphold their hearts in the midst of those many evils that were either feared by them or inflited on them in that vast and howling desert God hath and doth and will is the language and should be the constant tone of faith amongst all the Saints of God So did Jacob plead with God when he was ready to meet with his brother Esau With my staffe I passed over this Jordan and now I am become two bands Deliver me I pray thee from the hand of my brother from the hand of Esau So did David argue before Saul I slew the Lion and the Bear and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them So did aged Paul reason I was delivered out of the mouth of the Lion and the Lord shall deliver me from every evill work and will preserve me unto his heavenly Kingdome to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen Now doubtless such as will be well stored with such a treasure of experiments had need keep a constant Diary by them of all Gods gracious dealings with them To commend which duty to such as desire to grow in this grace of Faith and abound therein with thanksgiving is Right Honorable the main scope of this present Subject which I have taken the boldness to dedicate to your Honors and do humbly pray that it may passe abroad under your Name and Patronage If any aske why I trouble the Presse that in these dayes is so opprest with a glut of Books I answer that it was not out of any vain humor of mine to appear in Publick who am so far privy to mine own wants and weaknesses that I may truly say not onely as St. Paul I am lesse then the least of all Saints but as Ignatius once said of himself Non sum dignus dici minimus I am not worthy to be called the least So that I could never judge my self able to write any thing that might endure the test of your judicious eyes or the censure of this criticall age But indeed that which principally hinted to this service was partly a desire I had to promote a common good being very confident that such Christians who walk much with God and observe him in the wayes of his Providence may be provoked to this duty and reap much good thereby For without doubt this work here commended is very usefull though the duty be seldome practised because the subject is rarely handled It is as untroden a path as ever I have gone who have had scarce a little day hole of light to direct me much lesse a Cloud of witnesses or a Pillar of fire or a Star to guide me Partly and indeed that which chiefly incouraged me hereunto was the memory of those great favours which I have received from both your Honors the one my most Noble Patron Qui curat oves oviumque Magistros A true friend to the Church of God and the Ministers of it The other my most bountifull Benefactor Nor would I give your Honors thanks in aurem vel in angulo but so publickly that I may have as many eye-witnesses of my hearty acknowledgement of your goodness as there may be courteous Readers of this Book And do presnme that if your Honors will be pleased to throw away an hour or two in the perusall of these lines you may be hence encouraged more and more to observe God in the wayes of his providence and keep some memorials by you of his goodnesse to you and yours which may much encrease your faith in him enlarge your love to him and fortifie your hearts against the evils of these times Confidius a Senator of Rome one day boldly told Caesar That the Senators durst not come to Councell for fear of his Souldiers He replyed Why then doest thou goe to the Senate He answered Because my age takes away my fear Antient Christians should be very bold and couragious in evill days because they are or should be stored with much experience which will much encrease their faith and abate their fears God in rich mercy to you and many others hath added to your lives many daies and your hoary heads are a crown of glory to you being found in the way of righteousness and therefore you are by this time I hope above the fears and flatteries
bloody Amalekites and fiery Serpents were in their way So falls it out with any Christian who though whilest he walked in the broad way that leads to more then an Aegyptian darknesse and bondage he had no cause of complaint but all went well with him yet when he set his face to heaven and walkt in that narrow way that leads to life then found that his wants were many and his temptations great The best even in the midst of their abundance have their just complaints and he that hath most hath not all One man hath wealth but no honour he is under a cloud another hath wealth and honour but not a dayes health scarce in a moneth a third hath all these but not a childe The life of the best is like a shuttle-cock kept up a while betwixâ— two battle-dores and at the last falls to the ground Betwixt prosperity and adversity good dayes and evill light and darknesse our lives run on and at the last we are laid in the grave The Germanes have a proverbiall saying of the three Princes Electors that the Palâ—sgrave hath the honour Brandenburg the land but the Duke of Saxony the money No man hath all Even Adam in Paradise was taught to want something he must not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evill Moses one of the five grand favourites of heaven called in one chap. five times the servant of the Lord. And to be a servant of God is a great honor Deo servire regnare est To serve God is to reign And yet Moses must not go into the Land of Canaan though he begg'd hard for it Let it suffice thee saith God to him speak no more to me of that matter I know no man that enjoys that abundance of all good things but I may say to him as our Saviour to the young man in the Gospel One thing thou lackest If the possession of many things make us proud God knows how by the want of one thing to keep us humble Oh be sure that one thing be not that one thing necessary namely faith by which we may see God in all enjoy God with all and love God above all 3. In the midst of all our wants reckon how many wayes those wants are supplyed with other comforts God usually makes us a good amends as David said to Abisha when Shimei railed on him It may be God will requite me for this cursing this day If Adam may not eat of the fruit of the tree in the midst of the Garden yet of the fruit of every tree in the Garden besides he might freely eat If Moses may not goe into the Land of Canaan yet his body shall have the most honorable buriall that ever man had the Lord buried him and no man knows of his sepulchre unto this day and his soul went to heaven which was far better If we be straightned in outward comforts and enlarged with spirituall graces if we be weak in body and strong in the Lord if poor in the world and rich in faith if forsaken of friends and God stands by us we have no great cause to complain Travellers into forain parts will tell you that those Countreys that are most Paganish are most stored with gold and silver and that those lands that are without those rich mines have more of the knowledge of Christ and his wayes One man hath little to live upon but his labours but he hath a very strong and healthy body Many times the poorest men have most children which some esteem a great blessing though others look upon it as a burthen and put it into the bill of charges Even Haman when he boasted before his wife and friends of his great wealth and honors reckons the multitude of his children amongst his great preferments If one childe be a blessing then ten children are ten blessings Children of youth saith the Psalmist are like arrows in the hand of a mighty man happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them And certainly many a man would willingly part with half his estate for the fruit of the loyns and wombe If God send mouths he will provide meat Ashur's blessing was children but God will provide for him and them Ashur shall be blessed with children saith Moses but let him be acceptable to his Brethren and let him dip his foot in oyl his shoes shall be iron and brasse and as his dayes be so shall his strength be His bread shall be fat saith Jacob and be shall yeeld royall dainties Every childe that cometh into the world commonly hath two breasts The like may be said of any other wants and the several wayes by which God is pleased to supply them very graciously to his yea sometimes to those that are without It is said of Galba the Emperor of Rome that he had a crooked body but a good head insomuch that one said of him Galbo's great wit had but an homely habitation Aesop was much deformed but very wise and Erasmus a plain man but a great Scholar Such a man and blessed be God there are many such is but one story high in the world but a very godly man and high in Gods favour and esteem of all his people To conclude could any man live the dayes of Methuselah and should all his way lie by Weeping-crosse God reconciled in Christ with the enjoyment of heaven at the last would make amends for all 4. Take great notice of the singular peculiar excellency of all Gods dispensations towards you above the world Your waters are become wine your gleanings are better then the vintage of the world God dealeth with you as with Sons the Servant shall have his wages and it may be a livery but the Son shall have better He is the Saviour of all but especially of them that believe Every passage of providence towards you if you be the Lords hath something more speciall in it God hath choyce mercies for a chosen generation peculiar favours for a peculiar people hidden comforts for his hidden ones that which eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor can enter into a carnall heart to conceive See this made good in three passages 1. Such have ever what the world hath and something more an overplus the meanest Christian may vie comforts with the greatest men of the world as Paul sometimes with the false Apostles Are they Hebrews So am I. Are they Israelites So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham So am I. Are they Ministers of Christ I am more in labours more abundant c. So a gracious heart Are the men of the world honorable So am I that am a Son of God and a partaker of the divine Nature Have they friends So have I that have union to and communion with Jesus Christ and his members Are they rich So am I that am rich in faith and an heir of heaven as poor
honest man meeting with a very rich neighbour in his Corn-fields upon harvest very plentifully stored consisting of many acres said to him You have Sir a very rich crop answered Yea I wil have a good crop and gave not God the praise Within a few dayes after by a mighty storm of wind the greatest part of his corn was blown out of the ear and with other wet weather it was so wasted that it came to little If we forget God he will forget us He will remember our sins and punish us for them but he wil forget our persons in time of trouble To wâ—ch purpose I shall relate a sad story which I had from a good hand in the hearing of very many and I believe it to be very true A man that on his sick bed that proved his death-bed had one time an extraordinary appetite and desired something that he might eat which being brought to him he did as much loath as before he longed for and therefore without touching any part of it was carried away suddenly he called for it again his stomach to such provision being as strong and quick as ever which was done accordingly and set before him but his stomach rose against it with as great abhorrency as before This was done a third time upon the former ground carried away again for the same reason At last he confessed that it was just with God so to deal with him that never craved a blessing from God upon his meat when he sat down at his table nor gave God thanks when he rose up but forgat God the giver of all And indeed it is just with God to forget us in our straights that never remember him in our enlargements The keeping of such a Journall would conduce much to the preventing of such an evil Fourthly it is a very profitable course to have such a Journal or Diary by us and you know Who wil shew us any good Who wil bring us any profit is the great question of the world and prevails very far Now it is profitable these 7 ways 1. As it would be an excellent way to advance the name and honorable memoriall of some so it would thereby much promote the good of others For would such as are of singular worth and speciall note for their learning piety and usefulnesse in Church or Common-wealth be perswaded to this duty of keeping a Journall how easie were it for their posterity or speciall friends to write a history of their Lives especially so far as concerned their parents their birth and breeding either in 〈◊〉 University or Innes â—of Court their great preservations from dangers their great preferments to places of trust with their employments and successe in those places and such like Other things might be added as occasion is offered from the relation of others which as it would much conduce to the honor of the dead so it would very far advance the good of those that survive them Most people believe their eyes rather then their ears and walk more by patterns then they do by any rules Mahomet the Great the first Emperor of Constantinople did ever set before him the examples of Alexander and Caesar in all his Wars whom he laboured to imitate And it is reported of Themistocles that he had always in his thoughts the victories of Miltiades which made him unsatisfied till he had imitated him Christians that have such a cloud of witnesses not unlike the pillar of a cloud to Israel in the wilderness may the better be guided through the dark labyrinths of this evil world till they come to that Canaan of unutterable joy and happinesse of which those worthies are now made partakers And indeed who can behold their love to Gods truth their zeal for his glory their patience in tribulation their courage in a good cause their perseverance in well-doing their holinesse of life their prayers fasting tears alms temperance modesty heavenly mindednesse with their triumph at their death but must needs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stir up the grace that 〈◊〉 them stir the coals of their servent desires till they break out into a flame in being followers of those worthies as they followed Christ The Lacedemonians for the better stirring up of young men to noble enterprises used to have the statues of their most famous Worthies either Gown-men or Sword-men set up in their Senate-house with this sentence in golden letters Si fueritis sicut hi eritis sicut â—i If you will be like these for their service you shall be like these for their honour Some have taken good pains in writing the Lives and Deaths of such as have deserved well in their generations a Work in this regard very commendable How many such examples would be preserved and left to posterity which otherwise were like to be lost were this course of keeping Diaries observed 2. This practice would bring Christians into great acquaintance with God and his most gracious nature So the Psalmist who having fully discoursed of his providence over divers sorts of persons in answering their prayers and relieving them in their necessities concludes Whoso is wise and will observe these things even such shall understand the loving kindnesse of the Lord. Now what better way to observe such things then by a constant keeping of such a Journal Thence we may discern his loving kindnesse 1. How full it is who giveth us richly all things to enjoy 2. How free it is who doth all for us for his name sake 3. How firm it is with whom there is no variablenesse nor shadow of turning whose gifts and calling are without repentance And who would not endevour by all means to be wel acquainted with God whom to know is wisdome indeed to fear is godlinesse indeed to enjoy is happinesse indeed 3. It will from hence much inlarge our love to God for we must needs love him that hath loved us first especially that hath loved us thus Certainly the more we know God the better we shall love him I will deliver him saith the Lord by the Psalmist because he hath set his love upon me and he hath set his love upon me because he hath known my name Even Publicans saith our Saviour will love those of whom they are beloved by whom they are rewarded And shall not Christians be in love with such a God whose mercies are more then we can number greater then we can value And will not this our love to God be beneficial to us If we love him he will love us again and in his love there can be no lack for they that seek him early shall finde him He that loveth me saith Christ shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and manifest my self unto him And again If any man love me he will keep my commandements and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him Now this