whole course and tenour of 〈◊〉 lives when wee are not off and on 〈◊〉 and downe It argues an ill state of body when it is very hot or very colâ—… or hot in one part and cold in anothâ—… so unevennesse of spirit argues a distemper a wise mans life is of one colour like it selfe The soule bred froâ—… heaven so farre as it is heavenly minded desires to be like heaven above all stormes uniforme constant not as things under the Sunne which are alwayes in changes constant onely in inconstancie Affections are as it were the winde of the soule and then the soule is carried as it should be when it is neither so becalmed that it moves not when it should nor yet tossed with tempests to move disorderly When it is so well balaced that it is neither lift up nor cast downe too much but keepeth a steddy course Our affections must not rise to become unruly passions for then as a river that overfloweth the bankes they carry much slime and soile with them Though affections be the winde of the soule yet unruly passions are the stormes of the soule and will overturne all if they be not suppressed The best as wee see in David here if they doe not steare their hearts aright are in danger of sudden gusts A Christian must neither be a dead sea nor a raging sea Our affections are then in best temper when they become so many graces of the Spirit as when love is turned to a love of God joy to a delight in the best things feare to a feare of offending him more then any creature sorrow to a sorrow for sinne c. They are likewise in good temper when they move us to all duties of love and mercy towards others when they are not shut where they should be open nor open where they should be shut Yet there is one case wherein exceeding affection is not over exceeding As in an extasie of zeale upon a suddâ—… apprehension of Gods dishonour and his cause trodden under foot It is better in this case rather scarce to be 〈◊〉 owne men then to be calme or quiet It is said of Christ and David that their hearts were eaten up with a holy zeale for Gods house In such a case Moses unparalleld for meekenesse was turned into an holy rage The greatnesse 〈◊〉 the provocation the excellencie of thâ—… object and the weight of the occasion beares out the soule not onely without blame but with great praise in such seeming distempers It is the glory of a Christian to be carried with full saile and as it were with a spring tide of affection So long as the streame of affection runneth in the due channell and if there bee great occasions for great motions then it is fit the affections should rise higher as to burne with zeale to be sicke of love to be more vile for the Lord as David to be counted out of our wits with Saint Paul to further the cause of Christ and the good of soules Thus we may see the life of a poore Christian in this world 1. he is in great danger if hee be not troubled at all 2. when he is troubled he is in danger to be over troubled 3. when he hath brought his soule in tune againe hee is subject to new troubles Betwixt this ebbing and flowing there is very little quiet Now because this cannot bee done without a great measure of Gods Spirit our helpe is to make use of that promise of giving the holy Ghost to them that aske it To teach us when how long and how much to grieve and when and how long and how much to rejoyce the Spirit must teach the heart this who as he moved upon the waters before the Creation so hee must move upon the waters of our soules for wee have not the command of our owne hearts Every naturall man is carried away with his flesh and humours upon which the devill rides and carries him whither he list he hath no better comsellors then flesh and blood and Sathan counselling with them But a godly mâ—…n is not a slave to his carnall affections but as David here labours to bring into captivity the first motiâ—… of sinne in his heart CAP. IX Of the soules disquiets Gods dealings 〈◊〉 power to containe our selves in order MOreover we see that the soule 〈◊〉 disquiets proper to it selfe besides thâ—… griefes of Sympathy that arise from the bodie for here the soule complaines 〈◊〉 the soule it selfe as when it is out of the body it hath torments and joyes of its owne And if these troubles of the soule be not well cured then by way of fellowship and redundance they will affect the outward man and so the whole man shall bee inwrapt in miserie From whence we further see that God when he will humble a man needs not fetch forces from without if hee let but our owne hearts loose wee shall have trouble and worke enough though we were as holy as David God did not onely exercise him with a rebellious sonne out of his owne loynes but with rebellious risings out of his own heart If there were no enemie in the world nor devill in hell we carry that within us that if it be let loose will trouble us more then all the world besides Oh that the proud creature should exalt himselfe against God and runne into a voluntary course of provoking him who cannot onely raise the humours of our bodies against us but the passions of our mindes also to torment us Therefore it is the best wisedome not to provoke the great God for are wee stronger then he that can raise our selves against our selves and worke wonders not onely in the great world but also in the little world our soules and bodies when he pleases We see likewise hence a necessity of having something in the soule above it selfe it must be partaker of a diviner nature then it selfe otherwise when the most refined part of our soules the very spirit of our mindes is out of frame what shall bring it in againe Therefore we must conceive in a godly man a double selfe one which must be denied the other which must denie one that breeds all the disquiet and another that stilleth what the other hath raised The way to still the soule as it is under our corrupt selfe is not to parlee with it and divide government for peace sake as if wee should gratifie the flesh in something to redeeme liberty to the spirit in other things for we shall finde the flesh will be too encroching Wee must strive against it not with subtilty and discourse so much as with peremptory violence silence it and vexe it An enemy that parlees will yeeld at length Grace is nothing else but that blessed power whereby as spirituall wee gaine upon our selves as carnall Holy love is that which wee gaine of selfe-love and so joy and delight c. Grace
sword It is a businesse more of the heart then of the tongue more of groanes then of words which groanes and sighes the Spirit will alwayes stirre up even in the worst condition Yet for parts there is no member but it is fitted with some abilities to doe service in the body and by faith may grow up to a greater measure For God calls none to that high condition but whom in some measure hee fits to bee an usefull member and endues with a publique spirit But that is the measure which Christ thinkes fit who will make up that in the body which is wanting in any parâ—…lar member God will encrease the â—…asure of our gifts as occasion shall 〈◊〉 offered to draw them forth for there is not the greatest but may have 〈◊〉 both of the parts and graces of the â—…nest in the Church And here the â—…le may by a spirit of faith goe to God in this maner Lord the estate of Christianity unto which thy love in Christ hath called and advanced mee is an high condition and there is need of a great measure of grace to uphold the credit and comfort of it Whom thou callest unto it thou dost in some â—…asure furnish to walke worthy of it Let this be an evideÌ„ce to my soul of the â—…th of thy call that I am enabled by the Spirit for those duties that are required in confideÌ„ce of which assistaÌ„ce I will set upoÌ„ the work Thou hast promised to give wisdome to theÌ„ that ask it to â—…id none with their unworthinesse Nay thou hast promised the spirit of all grace to those that begge it it is that which I need and it is no more then thou hast promised Onely it must bee remembred that we doe not walke above our parts and graces the issue whereof will be discouragement in our selves and disgrace from others The like may be said for our particular calling wherein we are to expresse the graces of our Christian calling and serve one another in love as members of the State as well as of the Church therefore every one must have 1. a calling 2. a lawfull 3. a usefull calling 4. a calling fitted for his parts that he may be even for his businesse 5. a lawfull entrance and calling thereunto 6. and 〈◊〉 lawfull demeanour in the same Though the Orbe and Sphere we walâ—… in be little yet we must keepe within the bounds of it because for our cariage in that wee must give a strict account and there is no calling so meane but a man shall finde enough to give a good account for Our care must be to know our worke and then to doe it and so to doe it as if it were unto God with conscience of moderate diligence for over-doing and overworking any thing comes either from ostentation 〈◊〉 distrust in God And negligence is 〈◊〉 farre from getting any blessing that â—…rings us under a curse for doing Gods 〈◊〉 negligently For we must thinke 〈◊〉 callings to be services of God who 〈◊〉 appointed us our standing thereâ—… That which belongs to us in our calâ—…ng is care of discharging our duty 〈◊〉 which God takes upon him is assiâ—…ce and good successe in it Let us â—…e our worke and leave God to doe 〈◊〉 owne Diligence and trust in him 〈◊〉 onely ours the rest of the burthen is 〈◊〉 In a Family the Fathers and the â—…sters care is the greatest the childs 〈◊〉 is onely to obey and the servants 〈◊〉 doe his worke care of provision and â—…ection doth not trouble them Most of our disquietnesse in our calling 〈◊〉 that wee trouble our selves about 〈◊〉 worke Trust God and be doing 〈◊〉 let him alone with the rest Hee â—…nds upon his credit so much that it â—…ll appeare we have not trusted him â—…vaine even when we see no appearance of doing any good Peter fishâ—… all night and catched nothing yet up on Christs word hee casts in his net againe and caught so many fish as brakâ—… his net Covetousnesse when men wiâ—… be richer then God would have them troubles all it troubles the house the whole family and the house within uâ—… our precious soule which should bee 〈◊〉 quiet house for Gods spirit to dwell in whose seat is a quiet spirit If meâ—… would follow Christs method and seeke first the Kingdome of heaven all other things would bee cast upon them If thoughts of insufficiency in our places discourage us remember what God saith to Moses when he pretended disability to speake Who hath made 〈◊〉 mouth have not I the Lord All oâ—… sufficiency for every calling is from God But you will say Though by Gods blessing my particular condition be comfortable yet the state of Gods people abroad 〈◊〉 the miseries of the times disquiet me We complaine of the times but let us take heed wee bee not a part of the misery of the times that they be not 〈◊〉 worse for us Indeed hee is a dead â—…mber that takes not to heart the ill 〈◊〉 the times yet here is place for that â—…plaint Help Lord. In these temâ—… doe as the Disciples did Cry to â—…ist to rebuke the tempests and â—…mes This is the day of Iacobs trouâ—… let it also be the day of Iacobs trust 〈◊〉 the body doe as the head did in the 〈◊〉 case and in time it shall bee with 〈◊〉 body as it is with the head In this case it is good to lay before 〈◊〉 all the promises made to his â—…rch with the examples of his preâ—… in it and deliverance of the same â—…rmer times God is never neerer 〈◊〉 Church then when trouble is neere â—…en in earth they conclude an utter â—…throw God is in heaven concludeâ—… a glorious deliverance usually afâ—… the lowest ebbe followes the highâ—… spring tide Christ stands upon 〈◊〉 Zion There is a Counsell in â—…aven that will dash the mould of all â—…trary Counsels on earth and â—…ich is more God will worke the raising of the Church by that very meanes by which his enemies seek to ruine it Let us stand still and behold the salvation of the Lord. God gave too deare a price for his Church to suffer it long in the hands of mercilesse enemies As for the seeming flourishing of the enemies of Gods Church it is but for a time and that a short time and a measured time The wicked plot against the just they are plotters and plowers of mischiefe they are skilfull and industrious in it but they reape their owne ruine Their day is a comming and their piâ—… is in digging take heed therefore of fretting because of the man that bringeth wicked devices to passe for the armes of the wicked shall be broken Wee should help our faith by observing Gods executing of judgement in this kinde It cannot but vexe the enemies of the Church to see at length a disappointing of their projects but then to see the mould of all their
him matter of songs in the night For all this his unrulie griefe will not be calmed but renues assaults upon the returne of the reproach of his enemies Their words were as swords unto him and his heart being made very tender and sensible of griefe these sharp words enter too deepe and thereupon he hath recourse to his former remedie as being the most tryed to chide his soule and charge it to trust in God CAP. I. Generall Observations upon the Text. HEnce in generall wee may observe that Griefe gathered to a head will not be quieted at the first We see here passions intermingled with comforts and comforts with passions and what bustling there is before David can get the victorie over his owne heart You have some short spirited Christians that if they be not comforted at the first they thinke all labour with their hearts is in vaine and thereupon give way to their griefe But we see in David as distemper ariseth upon distemper so he gives check upon check and charge upon charge to his soule untill at length hee brought it to a quiet temper In Physick if one purge will not carry away the vicious humour then wee adde a second if that will not doe it we take a third So should wee deale with our soules perhaps one check one charge will not doe it then fall upon the soule againe send it to God againe and never give over untill our soules be possessed of our soules againe Againe In generall observe in Davids spirit that a gracious and living soule is most sensible of the want of spirituall meanes The reason is because spirituall life hath answerable taste and hunger and thirst after spirituall helps Wee see in nature that those things presse hardest upon it that touch upon the necessities of nature rather then those that touch upon delights for these further onely our comfortable being but necessities uphold our being it selfe we see how famine wrought upon the Patriarks to go into Aegypt Where we may see what to judge of those who willingly excommunicate themselves from the assemblies of Gods people where the Father Son and Holy Ghost are present where the prayers of holy men meete together in one and as it were binde God and pull downe Gods blessing No private devotion hath that report of acceptance from heaven A third generall point is that a godly soule by reason of the life of grace knowes when it is well with it and when it is ill when it is a good day with it and when a bad when God shines in the use of meanes then the soule is as it were in heaven when God withdrawes himself then it is in darknesse for a time Where there is but onely a principle of nature without sanctifying grace there men go plodding on and keep their rounds and are at the end where they were at the beginning not troubled with changes because there is nothing within to be troubled and therefore dead means quicke meanes or no meanes all is one with them an argument of a dead soul. And so we come more particularly and directly to the wordes Why art thou cast downe O my soule and why art thou disquieted within me c. The words imply 1 Davids state wherein he was and 2 expresse his carriage in that state His estate was such that in regard of outward condition he was in variety of troubles and that in regard of inward disposition of spirit he was first cast downe and then disquieted Now for his carriage of himselfe in this condition and disposition he dealeth roundly with himselfe David reasoneth the case with David and first checketh himselfe for being too much cast downe and then for being too much disquieted And then layeth a charge upon himselfe to trust in God wherein we have the duty he chargeth upon himselfe which is to trust in God and the grounds of the duty First from confidence of better times to come which would yeeld him matter of praising God And then by a representation of God unto him as a saving God in al troubles nay as salvation it selfe an open glorious Saviour in the view of all The salvation of my countenance and all this enforced from Davids interest in God He is my God Whence observe first from the state he was now in that since guilt and corruption hath been derived by the fall into the nature of man it hath been subjected to miserie and sorrow and that in all conditions from the King that sitteth on the Throne to him that grindeth on the Mill. None ever hath beene so good or so great as could raise themselves so high as to be above the reach of troubles And that choice part of mankind the first fruits and excellency of the rest which we call the Church more then others which appeares by consideration both of the Head the Body and members of the Church For the Head Christ he tooke our flesh as it was subject to miserie after the fall and was in regard of that which he endured both in life and death a man of sorrowes For the Body the Church It may say from the first to the last as it is Psal. 129. From my youth up they have afflicted me The Church beganne in blood hath growen up by blood and shall end in blood as it was redeemed by blood For the members they are all predestinate to a conformitie to Christ their Head as in grace and Glory so in abasement Rom. 8. 29. neither is it a wonder for those that are born soldiers to meet with conflicts for travailers to meete with hard usage for seamen to meete with storms for strangers in a strange country especially amongst their enemies to meete with strange entertainment A Christian is a man of another world and here from home which hee would forget if he were not exercised here and would take his passage for his country But though all Christians agree and meete in this that through many afflictions we must enter into heaven Yet according to the diversity of place parts and grace there is a different cup measured to every one And therefore it is but a plea of the flesh to except against the Crosse Never was poore creature distressed as I am this is but self-selfe-love for was it not the case both of Head Body and members as we see here in David a principall member When hee was brought to this case thus to reason the matter with himselfe Why art thou cast downe O my soule and why art thou disquieted within me From the frame of Davids spirit under these troubles wee may observe that as the case is thus with all Gods people to be exercised with troubles so They are sensible of them oftentimes even to casting downe and discouraging And the reason is they are flesh and blood subject to the same passions and made of the
for God delights to have his will of those that are wedded to their owne wils as in Pharaob No men more subject to discontentments then those who would have all things after their owne way Againe one maine ground is False reasoning and errour in our discourse as that wee have no grace when wee feele none feeling is not alwayes a fit rule to judge our states by that God hath rejected us because we are crossed in outward things when as this issues from Gods wisdome and love How many imagine their failings to be fallings and their fallings to be fallings away Infirmities to be Presumptions every sinne against Conscience to be the sinne against the Holy Ghostâ—… unto which misapprehensions weake and dark spirits are subject And Satan as a cunning Rhetorician here inlargeth the fancy to apprehend things bigger then they are Satan abuseth confident spirits another contrary way to apprehend great sinnes as little and little as none Some also thinke that they have no grace because they have not so much as growen Christians whereas there bee severall ages in Christ. Some againe are so desirous and inlarged after what they have not that they minde not what they have Men may be rich though they have not millions and be not Emperors Likewise some are much troubled because they proceed by a false method and order in judging of their estates They will begin with Election which is the highest step of the ladder whereas they should begin from 〈◊〉 work of grace wrought within theiâ—… hearts from Gods calling them by hiâ—… spirit and their answer to his call and so raise themselves upwards to know their Election by their answer to God calling Give all diligence saith Peter to make your calling and election sure your election by your calling God descends downe unto us from election to calling and so to sanctification wee must ascend to him beginning where he ends Otherwise it is as great folly as in removing of a pile of wood to begin at the lowest first and so besides the needlesse trouble to be in danger to have the rest fall upon our heads Which besides ignorance argues pride appearing in this that they would bring God to their conceits and be at an end of their worke before they beginne This great secret of Gods eternall love to us in Christ is hidden in his breast and doth not appeare to us un till in the use of meanes God by his spirit discovereth the same unto us The spirit letteth into the soule so much life and sense of Gods love in particular to us as draweth the soule to Christ from whom it draweth so much vertue as changeth the frame of it and quickneth it to duty which duties are not grounds of our state in grace but issues springing from a good state before and thus farre they helpe us in judging of our condition that thougâ—… they bee not to bee rested in yet aâ—… streames they lead us to the spring head of grace from whence they arise And of signes some be more apt to deceive us as being not so certaine as delight and joy in hearing the word as appeareth in the third ground some are more constant and certaine as love to those that are truly good and to all such and because they are such c. these as they are wrought by the spirit so the same spirit giveth evidence to the soule of the truth of them and leadeth us to faith from whence they come and faith leads us to the discovery of Gods love made knowne to us inhearing the word opened The same spirit openeth the truth to us and our understandings to conceive of it and our hearts to cloze with it by faith not only as a truth but as a truth belonging to us Now this faith is manifested either by it selfe reflecting upon it selfe the light of faith discovering both it selfe and other things or by the cause of it or by the effect or by all Faith is oft more knowne to us in the fruit of it then in it selfe as in plants the fruits are more apparant then the sappe and roote But the most setled knowledge is from the cause as when I know I beleeve because in hearing Gods gracious promises opened and offered unto me the spirit of God caryeth my soule to cleave to them as mine owne portion Yet the most familiar way of knowledge of our estates is from the effects to gather the cause the cause being oftentimes more remote and spirituall the effects more obvious and visible All the vigour and beauty in nature which we see comes from a secret influence from the heavens which we see not In a cleare morning we may see the beames of the Sun shining upon the top of hils and houses before wee can see the Sun it selfe Things in the working of them doe issue from the cause by whose force they had their being but our knowing of things ariseth from the effect where the cause endeth wee know God must love us before wee can love him and yet we oft first know that we love him the love of God is the cause why wee love our brother and yet we know we love our brother whom we see more clearly then God whom we doe not see It is a spirituall peevishnesse that keepes men in a perplexed condition that they neglect these helps to judge of their estates by whereas God takes liberty to help us sometime to a discovery of our estate by the effects sometimes by the cause c. And it is a sin to set light by any work of the spirit and the comfort we might have by it and therefore we may well adde this aâ—… one cause of disquietnesse in many that they grieve the spirit by quarrelling against themselves and the work of the spirit in them Another cause of disquiet is thâ—… men by a naturall kinde of Popery feâ—… for their comfort too much in sanctification neglecting justification relyinâ—… too much upon their own performances Saint Paul was of another minde accounting all but dung and drosse compared to the righteousnesse of Christ. This is that garment wherewith being deeked we please our husband and wherein we get the blessing This giveth satisfaction to the conscience as satisfying God himselfe being performed by God the Sonne and approved therefore by God the Father Hereupon the soule is quieted and faith holdeth out this as a shield against the displeasure of God and temptations of Satan why did the Apostles in their Prefaces joyne grace and peace together but that we should seek for our peace in the free grace and favour of God in Christ. No wonder why Papists maintaine doubting who hold salvation by workes because Satan joyning together with our consciences will alwayes finde some flaw even in our best performances Hereupon the doubting and misgiving soule comes to make this absurd demand as Who shall ascend to heaven which is all one
which cannot brooke the most secret corruption but rather casts it out by a holy complaint as strength of nature doth poyson which seekes its destruction And let us bee in love with that worke of grace in us which makes us out of love with the least stirrings that hinder our best condition Seâ—… againe We may be sinfully disquieted for that which is not a sinne to be disquieted for David had sinned if he had not beene somewhat troubled for the banishment from Gods house and the blasphemie of the enemies of the Church But yet wee see hee stops himselfe and sharply takes up his soule for being disquieted Hee did well in being disquieted and in checking himselfe for the same there were good grounds for both He had wanted spirituall life if he had not beene disquieted Hee abated the vigour and livelinesse of his life by being over-much disquieted CAP. VIII Of unfitting dejection and when it is excessive And what is the right temper of the soule herein §. 1. THen how shall we know when a man is cast downe and disquieted otherwise then is befitting There is a 3. fold miscarriage of inward trouble 1. When the soule is troubled for that 〈◊〉 should not be vexed for as Ahab when hee was crost in his will for Nabâ—… vineyard 2. In the ground as when we grieve for that which is good and for that which wee should grieve for but it is with too much reflecting upon oâ—… owne particular As in the troubles of the state 〈◊〉 Church we ought to be affected bâ—… not because these troubles hinder any liberties of the flesh and restrain pride of life but from higher respects Aâ—… that by these troubles God is dishonoured the publike exercises of Religion hindred and the gathering of soules thereby stopped As the States and Common-wealths which should be harbours of the Church are disturbed as lawlesse courses and persons prevaile as Religion and Justice is triumphed over and trodden under Men usually are grieved for publique miseries from a spirit of selfe-love only because their owne private is imbarqued in the publique There is a depth of deceit of the heart in this matter 3. So for the measure when wee trouble our selves though not without cause yet without bounds The spirit of man is like unto moist elements as ayre and water which have no bounds of their owne to containe them in but those of the vessell that keepes them water is spilt and lost without something to hold it so it is with the spirit of man unlesse it be bounded with the Spirit of God Put the case a man be disquieted for sinne for which not to be disquieted is a sin yet we may looke too much and too long upon it for the soule hath a double eye one to looke to sinne another to looke up to Gods mercy in Christ. Having two objects to looke on wee may sinne in looking too much on the one with neglect of the other §. 2. Seeing then disquieting and dejectin for sinne is necessary how shall wee kâ—… when it exceeds measure First when it hinders us from holy duties or in the performance of them by distraction or otherwise whereas they are given to carry us to that which is pleasing to GOD and good to our selves Griefe is ill when it taketh off the soule from minding that it should and so indisposeth us to the duties of oâ—… callings Christ upon the Crosse was grieved to the utmost yet it did not take away his care for his mother so the good theefe in the middest of his pangs laboured to gaine his fellow and to save his owne soule and to glorifie Christ. If this be so in griefe of body which taketh away the free use of reason and exercise of grace more then any other griefe then much more in griefe from more remote causes for in extremity of body the sicknesse may be such as all that wee can performe to God is a quiet submission and a desire to bee carried unto Christ by the prayers of others we should so minde our griefe as not to forget Gods mercy or our owne duty Secondly when wee forget the grounds of comfort suffer our minde to runne onely upon the present grievance it is a sinne to dwell on sinne and turmoile our thoughts about it when we are called to thankfulnesse A Physitian in good discretion forbids a dish at sometimes to prevent the nourishment of some disease which another time hee gives way unto So wee may and ought to abstaine from too much feeding our thoughts upon our corruptions in case of discouragement which at other times is very necessary It should be our wisedome in such cases to change the object and labour to take off our minds and give them to that which calls more for them Griefe oft presseth unseasonably upon us when there is cause of joy and when we are called to joy as Ioab justly found fault with David for grieving too much when GOD had given him the victory and rid him and the State of a traiterous sonne GOD hath made some dayes for joy and joy is the proper worke of those dayes This is the day which the Lord hath made Some in a sicke distemper desire that which increaseth their sicknesse so some that are deepely cast downe desire a wakening ministery and what ever may cast them downe more whereas they should meditate upon comforts and get some sweet assurance of Gods love Joy is the constant temper which the soule should bee in Rejoyce evermore saith the Apostle If a sinke bee stirred we stir it not more but goe into a sweeter roome So wee should thinke of that which is comfortable and of such trueths as may raise up the soule and sweeten the spirit Thirdly Griefe is too much when it inclines the soule to any inconvenient courses for if it bee not lookt to it is an ill counsellor when either it hurts the health of our bodies or drawes the soule for to ease it selfe to some unlawfull liberty When grief keeps such a noise in the soule that it will not heare what the messengers of God or the still voice of the Spirit saith as in combustions loud cries are scarce heard so in such cases the soule will neither heare it selfe nor others The fruit of this overmuch trouble of spirit is increase of trouble §. 3. 3. Another question may bee What that sweet and holy temper is the soule should be in that it may neither bee faulty in the defect nor too much abound in griefe and sorow 1. The soule must bee raised to a right griefe 2. The griefe that is raised though it bee right yet it must bee bounded Before wee speake of raising griefe in the godly wee must know there are some who are altogether strangers to any kinde of spirituall griefe or trouble at all such must consider that the way to prevent everlasting trouble iâ—…
established David hearkened what the Lord said before he said any thing to himselfe so should wee Gods Commands tend to this that wee should command our selves God and the Minister under God bid us trust in him but all is to no purpose till grace bee wrought in the soule whereby it bids it selfe Our speaking to others doth no good till they by entertaining what we say speake the same to their owne soules In this charge of David upon his owne soule we may see diverse passages and priviledges of a gracious heart in trouble §. 2. As 1. That a Christian when hee is beaten out of all other comforts yet hath a God to runne unto A wicked man beaten out of earthly comforts is as a naked man in a storme and an unarmed-man in the field or as a ship tossed in the Sea without an anchor which presently dashes upon rockes or falleth upon quicksands but a Christian when he is driven out of all comforts below nay when God seemes to bee angry with him hee can appeale from God angry to God appeased hee can wrastle and strive with God by Gods owne strength fight with him with his own weapons and plead with God by his owne arguments What a happy estate is this who would not be a Christian if it were but for this to have something to relie on when all things else faile The confusion and unquietnesse which troubles raise in the soule may drive it from resting in it selfe but there can never be any true peace setled untill it sees and resolves what to stay upon §. 3. 2. We see here that there is a sanctified use of all troubles to Gods children first they drive them out of themselves and then draw them neerer to GOD. Crosses indeed of themselves estrange us more from God but by an over-ruling worke of the spirit they bring 〈◊〉 neerer to him The soule of it selfe is ready to misgive as if God had too many controversies with it to shew any favour towards it and Sathan helpedâ—… because hee knowes nothing can stand and prevaile against God or a soule that relyeth on him therefore hee labours to breed and encrease an everlasting divisiâ—… betwixt God and the soule but let not Christians muse so much upon their trouble but see whether it carries them whether it brings them neerer unto God or not It is a never failing rule of discerning a man to be in the state of grace when he findes every condition draw him neerer to God for thus it appeares that such love God and are called of him unto whom all things worke together for the best §. 4. 3. Againe hence wee see that the spirit of God by these inward speeches doth awake the soule and keepe it in a holy exercise by stirring up the grace of faith to its proper function It is not so much the having of grace as grace in exercise that pâ—…eserves the soule therefore wee should by this and the like meanes stirre up the grace of God in us that so it may bee kept a working â—…nd in vigour and strength It was Davids manner to awake himselfe by bidding both heart and harpe to awake It is the waking Christian that haâ—…h his wit and his grace ready about him who is the safe Christian grace dormant without the exercise doth not secure us It is almost all one in regard of present exigence for grace not to be and not to worke The soule without action is like an instrument not played upon or like a ship alwayes in the Haven Motion is a preservative of the purity of things Even life it selfe is made more lively by action The spirit of GOD whereby his children are led is compared to things of the quickest and strongest actions as fire and winde c. God himselfe is a pure act alwayes in acting and every thing the nearer it comes to God the more it hath its perfection in working The happinesse of man consists chiefly in a gracious frame of spirit and actions sutable sweetly issuing there-from the very rest of heavenly bodies is in motion in their proper places By this stirring up the grace of God in us sparkles come to be flames and all graces are kept bright Troubles stirre up David and David being stirred stirres up himselfe §. 5. 4. We see likewise here a further use of Soliloquies or speeches to our own hearts when the soule by entring into it selfe sees it selfe put out of order then it injoynes this duty of trusting in God upon it if wee looke onely on our selves and not turne to God the worke of the soule is imperfect then the soule worketh as it should when as by reflecting on it selfe it gathers some profitable conclusion and leaveth it selfe with God David upon reflecting on himselfe found nothing but discouragement but when he lookes upward to GOD there hee findes rest This is one end why God suffers the soule to tire and beat it selfe that finding no rest in it selfe it might seeke to him David yeelds not so much to his passion as that it should keepe him from God Therefore let no man truly religious pretend for an excuse his temper or provoking occasions c. for grace doth raise the soule above nature Grace doth not only stop the soule in an evill way but carries it to a contrary good and raiseth it up to God Though holy men be subject to like passions with others as it is said of Elias yet they are not so inthralled to them as that they carry them wholly away from their God but they heare a voice of the spirit within them calling them backe againe to their former communion with God and so grace takes occasion even from sinne to exercise it selfe §. 6. 5. Observe further that distrust is the cause of all disquiet the soule suffers it selfe by something here below to be drawne away from God but can finde no rest till it returne to him againe As Noahs Dove had no place to set her foote upon till it was received into the Arke from whence it came And it is Gods mercy to us that when we have let goe our hold of God wee should finde nothing but trouble and unquietnesse in any thing else that so we might remember from whence wee are fallen and returne home againe That is a good trouble which frees us from the greatest trouble and brings with it the most comfortable rest It is but an unquiet quiet and a restlesse rest which is out of God It is a deepe spirituall judgement for a man to finde too much rest in the creature The soule that hath had a saving worke upon it will be alwayes impatient untill it recovers its former sweetnesse in God After Gods spirit hath once touched the soule it will never be quiet untill it stands pointed God-ward But conscience may object upon any offence God is offended and therefore not to be trusted It is true where faith
it lookes upon all things it hath or desires to have as comming from God and his free grace and power it desireth not onely wisdome but to be wise in his wisdome to see in his light to be strong in his strength the thing it selfe contents not this grace of trust but Gods blessing and love in the thing it cares not for any thing further then it can have it with Gods favour and good liking Hence it is that trust is an obsequions and an observing grace stirring up the soule to a desire of pleasing God in all things and to a feare of displeasing him Hee that pretends to trust the Lord in a course of offending may trust to this that God will meet him in another way then he lookes for Hee that is a tenant at curtesie will not offend his Lord hence it is that the Apostle inforceth that exhortation to work out our salvation with feare and trembling because it is God that worketh the will and the deed and according to his good pleasure not ours Therefore faith is an effectuall working grace it workes in Heaven with God it workes within us commanding all the powers of the soule it workes without us conquering whatsoever is in the world on the right hand to draw us from God or â—…n the left hand to discourage us it works against Hell and the powers of darknesse and all by vertue of trusting as it draweth strength from God It stirres up all other graces and keepes them in exercise and thereupon the acts of other graces are attributed to faith as Heb. 11. It breeds a holy jealousie over our selves lest we give God just cause 〈◊〉 stop the influence of his grace toâ—…ds us so to let us see that wee stand â—…ot by our owne strength Those that take liberty in things they either know 〈◊〉 doubt will displease God shew they want the feare of God and this want of feare shewes their want of dependancy and therefore want of trust dependancy is alwayes very respective it studieth contentment and care to comply this was it made Enoch walke with God â—…d studie how to please him when wee know nothing can doe us good or hurt but God it drawes our chiefe care to approve our selves to him Obedience of faith and obedience of life will goe together and therefore he that commits his soule to God to save will commit his soule to God to sanctifie and guide in a way of well pleasing Not onely the tame but the most savage creatures will bee at the beck of those that seede them though they are ready to fall violently upon others disobedience therefore is against the principles of nature This dependancy is either in the use of meanes or else when meanes failes us true dependancy is exactly carefull of all meanes When God hath set down a course of meanes wee must not expect that God should alter his ordinary course of providence for us deserved disappointment is the fruit of this presumptuous confidence the more wee depend on a wise Physitian the more we will observe his directions and bee carefull to use what hee prescribes yet we must use the meanes 〈◊〉 meanes and not set them in Gods room for that is the way to blast our hopes The way to have any thing taken away and not blest is to set our heart too much upon it Too much griefe in parting with any thing shewes too much trust in the enjoying of it And therefore he that uses the meanes in faith will alwayes joyne prayer unto God from whom as every good thing comes so likewise doth the blessing and successe therof where much indeavour is and little seeking to God it shewes there is little trust the Widdow that trusted in God continued likewise in prayers day and right The best discovery of our not relying too much on meanes is when all meanes faile if we can still relye upon God as being still where he was and hath wayes of his owne for helping of us either immediately from himselfe or by setting a worke other meanes and those perhaps very unlikely such as we thinke not of God hath wayes of his â—…ne Abraham never honoured God more then when he trusted in God for â—…son against the course of nature and when he had a son was ready to sacrifice him upon confidence that God would raise him from the dead againe This was the ground upon which Daniell with such great authority reprooved Baltbazar that he had not a care to glorifie God in whose hand his breath was and all his wayes The greatest honour we can doe unto God is when wee see nothing but rather all contrary to that we looke for then to shut our eyes to inferiour things below and looke altogether upon his Al sufficiency God can convey himselfe more comfortably to us when he pleaseth without meanes then by meanes True trust as it sets God highest in the soule so in danger and wants it hath present recourse to him as the Conyes to the Rockes And because Gods times and seasons are the best it is an evidence of true trust when we can waite Gods leisure and not make hast and so runne before God for else the more hast the worse speed God seldome makes any promise to his Children but he exerciseth their trust in waiting long before as David for a Kingdome Abraham for a sonne the whole world for Christs comming c. One maine evidence of true trust in God is here in the text wee see here it hath a quieting and stilling vertue for it stayes the soule upon the fulnesse of Gods love joyned with his ability to supply our wants and releeve our necessities though faith doth not at the first especially so stay the soule as to take away all suspitious feares of the contrary There be so many things in trouble that presse upon the soule as hinder the joyning of God and it together yet the prevailing of our unbeliefe is taken away the raigne of it is broken If the touch of Christ in his abasement on earth drew vertue from him certain it is that faith caÌ„not touch Christ in heaven but it will draw a quieting and sanctifying vertue from him which will in some measure stop the issues of an unquiet spirit the Needle in the Compasse will stand North though with some trembling A Ship that lyes at Anchor may bee something tossed but yet it stil remains so fastned that it cannot bee caried away by winde or weather the soule after it hath cast anchor upon God may as we see here in David be disquieted a while but this unsetling tends to a deeper setling the more we beleeve the more we are established faith is an establishing grace by faith we stand and stand fast and are able to withstand whatsoever opposeth us For what can stand against God upon whose truth and power faith relyes The devill feares not us but him whom
hold on God shewing himselfe in love God saith to the soule I am thy salvation and the soule saith againe Thou art my God Faith is nothing else but a spirituall eccho returning that voice bark againe which God first speakes to the soule For what acquaintance could the soule claime with so glorious a Majesty if he should not first condescend so low as to speake peace and whisper secretly to the soule that he is our loving God and Father and wee his peculiar ones in Christ that our sinnes are all pardoned his justice fully satisfied and our persons freely accepted in his deere Sonne But to come more particularly to the words My God The words are pregnant in the wombe of them all that is graciously comfortably good is contained they are the spring head of all particular blessings All particular Relations and Titles that it pleaseth God to take upon him have their strength from hence that God is our God More cannot be said and lesse will not serve the turne Whatsoever else we have if we have not God it will prove but an empty Cisterne at last He is our proper element every thing desires to live in its owne element fishes in the Sea Birds in the ayre in this they are best preserved There is a greater strength in this My God then in any other Title it is more then if he had said My King or My Lord these are words of soveraignty and wisdome but this implies not onely infinite power soveraignty and wisdome but likewise infinite bounty and provident care so that when wee are said to be Gods people the meaning is that wee are not onely such over whom God hath a power and command but such as towards whom hee shewes a loving and peculiar respect In the words is implied 1. A propriety and interest in God 2. An improvement of the same for the quieting of the soule David here layes a particular claim by a particular faith unto God The reason is 1. The vertue of faith is as to lay hold so to appropriate to it self and make its owne whatever it layes hold on and it doth no more in this then God gives it leave by his gracious promises to doe 2. As God offers so faith receives but God offers himselfe in particular to the beleeving soule by his spirit therefore our faith must be particular That which the Sacraments seale is a peculiar interest in Christ This is that which hath alwayes upheld the Saints of God and that which is ever joyned with the life of Christ in us The life that I live saith Paul is by the faith of the Sonne of God who loved me and gave himselfe for me The spirit of faith is a spirit of application This is implyed in all the Articles of our faith we beleeve God to be our father and Christ to be borne for us that he dyed for us and rose againe for our good and now sits at the right hand of God making requests for us in particular 3. This is that which distinguishes the faith of a true Christian from all hypocrites and cast-awayes whatsoever Were it not for this word of possession Mine the devill might say the Creed to as good purpose as we He beleeves there is a God and a Christ but that which torments him is this he can say My to never an Article of â—…aith 4. A generall apprehension of Gods goodnesse and mercy may stand with desperation Take away My from God and take away God himselfe in regard of comfort what comfort was it for Adam when he was shut out of Paradise to looke upon it after he had lost â—…t The more excellencies are in God 〈◊〉 more our griefe if we have not our â—…rt in them the very life blood of the Gospell lyes in a speciall application of particular mercy to our selves All relations that God and Christ have taken upon them imply a necessity of application What if God be a rock of salvation if we doe not rest upon him What if he be a foundation and we doe not build on him What if hee offers himselfe as a husband if we will not accept of him what availes it us How can we rejoyce in the salvation of our soules unlesse we can in particular say I rejoyce in God my Saviour 5. Without particular application we can neither entertaine the love of God nor returne love againe by which meanes we lose all the comfort God intends us in his word which of purpose was written for our solace and refreshment Take away particular faith and we let out all the spirits of cheerefull and thankfull obedience This possessive particle My hath place in all the golden chaine of our salvation The first spring of all Gods claime to us as his is in his election of 〈◊〉 we were by grace his before we were those that are his from that eternall love 〈◊〉 gives to Christ this is hid in the breast 〈◊〉 God till he calls us out of the rest of 〈◊〉 world into CoÌ„munion with Christ 〈◊〉 answering of which call by faith 〈◊〉 become one with Christ and so 〈◊〉 with him Afterwards in justificaâ—… wee feele God experimentally to 〈◊〉 reconciled unto us whence arises 〈◊〉 and inward peace And then upon â—…her sanctification God delights in us 〈◊〉 his bearing his owne image and we â—…om a likenesse to God delight in him 〈◊〉 â—…rs in his Christ and so this mutuâ—… interest betwixt God and us contiâ—… untill at last God becomes allâ—…o â—…o us But how can a man that is not yet in the 〈◊〉 of grace say with any comfort My God Whilest a man regards iniquity in his 〈◊〉 without any remorse or dislike of â—…e same if he saith my God his heartâ—…ll â—…ll give his tongue the lye however in 〈◊〉 outward profession and opinion 〈◊〉 others hee may beare himselfe as if 〈◊〉 were his upon false grounds For there can be no more in a conclusion then it hath from the principle anâ—… premises out of which it is drawne Thâ—… principle here is that God is the God of all that trust in him Now if wee caâ—… make it good that wee truly trust in God we may safely conclude of comfort from him for the more certaine clearing of which try your selves by the signes of trust delivered It is no easie matter to say in truth of heart My God the flesh will still labour for supremacy God should bee all in all unto us but this will not bee till these bodies of flesh together with the body of sinne bee laid aside Hee that sayes God is my God and doth not yeeld up himselfe unto God raiseth a building without a foundation layeth a claim without a title and claimeth a title without an evidence reckoning upon a bargain without consent of the party with whom he would contract But if a man shall out of the sight and sense of sin thirst after mercy in
workes If I be a Father where is mine boâ—…r Speciall relations are speciall enforcements to duty 4. The spirit of God which knowes the deep things of God and the depths of our hearts doth reveale this mutuall interest betwixt God and those that are his it being a principall worke of the spirit to seale this unto the soule by discovering such a cleare and particular light in the use of meanes as swaieth the soule to yeeld up it selfe wholy to God When we truly trust wee may say with S. Paul I know whom I have trusted he knew both that he trusted and whom he trusted The spirit of God that reveales God to be ours and stirres up faith in him both reveales this trust to our soules and the interest we have in God thereby The Lord is my portion saith my soul but God said so to it first If instinct of nature teaches dammes to know their young ones and their yong ones them in the middest of those that are alike shall not the spirit of God much more teach the soule to know its owne father As none knowes what is in man but the spirit of man so none knowes what love God beares to those that are his but the spirit of God in his All the light in the world cannot discover the Sunne unto us onely it discovers it selfe by its own â—…eames So all the Angels and Saints 〈◊〉 heaven cannot discover to our soules â—…he love that is in the breast of God towards us but onely the spirit of God which sheds it into our hearts The spirit onely teaches this language to say my God It is infused onely into sanctified hearts and therefore oft-times meane men enjoy it when great wise and learned persons are strangers to it 5. The spirit when it witnesseth this to us is called the spirit of adoption and hath alwayes accompanying of it a spirit of supplication whereby with a familiar yet reverent boldnesse wee lay open our hearts to God as to a deere Father All others are strangers to this heavenly intercourse In straits they run to their friends and carnall shifts whereas an heire of heaven runs to his Father and tells him of all 6. Those that are Gods are known to be his by speciall love-tokens that â—…e bestowes upon them As 1. the speciall graces of his spirit Princes children are knowne by their costly jewels and rich ornaments It is not common gifts and glorious parts that set a character upon us to be Gods but grace to use those gifts in humility and love to the glory of the giver 2. There is in them a sutablenesse and connaturalnesse of heart to all that is spirituall to whatsoever hath Gods stampe upon it as his truth and his children and that because they are his By this likenesse of disposition wee are fashioned to a communion with him Can two walke together and not be agreed It is a certaine evidence that we are Gods in Christ if the spirit of God hath wrought in us any impression like unto Christ who is the image of his Father both Christs looking upon us and our looking upon Christ by faith as ours hath a transforming and conforming power 3. Spirituall comforts in distresse such as the world can neither give nor take away shew that God lookes upon the soules of his with another eye then he beholdeth others He sends a secret messenger that reports his peculiar love to their hearts He knowes their soules and feeds them with his hidden Manna the inward peace they feele is not in freedome from trouble but in freenesse with God in the midst of trouble 4. Seasonable and sanctified corrections wherby we are kept from being led away by the errour of the wicked shew Gods fatherly care over us as his Who will trouble himselfe in correcting another mans childe yet we oftner complaine of the smart wee feele then thinke of the tender heart and hand that smites us untill our spirits be subdued and then we reape the quiet fruit of righteousnesse Where crosses worke together for the best we may know that we love God and are loved of him Thriving in a sinfull course is a black marke of one that is not Gods 7. Then wee make it appeare that God is our God when wee side with him and are for him and his cause in ill times When God seems to cry out unto us who is on my side who Then if wee can say as those in Esay whereof one sayes I am the Lords and another calls himselfe by the name of Jacob and another subscribes with his hand unto the Lord it s a blessed signe Thus the Patriarchs and Prophets Apostles and Martyrs were not ashamed of God and God was not ashamed to own theÌ„ Provided that this boldnesse for God proceed not onely from a conviction of the judgement but from spirituall experience of the goodnesse of the cause whereby we can justifie in heart what we justifie in words Otherwise men may contend for that with others which they have no interest in themselves The life must witnesse for God as well as the tongue it is oft easier for corrupt nature to part with life then with lust This siding with God is with a separation from whatsoever is contrary God useth this as an argument to come out of Babylon because we are his people Come out of her My people Religion is nothing else but a gathering and a binding of the soule close to God that fire which gathers together the gold separates the drosse Nature drawes out that which is wholesome in meates â—…nd severs the contrary The good â—…hat is to be had by God is by cleaâ—…ing to him and him onely God loves 〈◊〉 ingenuous and full protestation if â—…alled to it It shewes the coldnesse of â—…he times wheÌ„ there is not heat enough â—…f zeale to separate from a contrary â—…ith God is a jealous God and so wee â—…all finde him at last When the day of severing comes then they that have â—…ood for him shall not onely be his but his treasure and his jewels There is none of us all but may some time or other fall into such a great extremity that when wee looke â—…bout us we shall finde none to help â—…s at which time we shall throughly â—…now what it is to have comfort from heaven and a God to goe unto If there be any thing in the world worth labouring for it is the getting sound evidence to our soules that God is ours What madnesse is it to spend all our labour to possesse our selves of the Cisterne when the fountaine is offered to â—…s O beloved the whole world cannot weigh against this one comfort that God is ours All things laid in the other ballance would be too light A Moath may corrupt a theefe may take away that we have here but who can take our God away Though God doth convey some
vessels are something the better for that liquor they keep not but runs through them But if experience should wholly fail â—…ere is such a divine power in faith as 〈◊〉 very little beame of it having no other help then a naked promise will uphold the soule howsoever we must neglect no help for God oft suspends his comfort till wee have searched all our helps Though we see no light yet we ought to search alcrevises for light and rejoyce in the least beam of light that we may see day by It is the nature of true faith to search and pry into every corner and if after all nothing appeares then it casts it selfe upon God as in the first conversion when it had nothing to looke upon but the offer of free mercy If at that time without former experience wee did trust God Why not now when we have forgotten our experience the chiefe grounds of trusting God are alwayes the same whether we feele or feel not nay though for the present wee feele the contrary faith will never leave wrastling till it hath gotten a blessing When faith is driven to work alone having nothing but God and his bare promise to rely upon then God thinks it lies upon his credit to shew himselfe as a God unto us Gods power in creating light out of darknes is never more exalted then when a guilty soul is lifted up by God to look for mercy even when he seems armed with justice to execute vengeance upon him then the soul is brought to a neere conformity unto Christ who 1. when he had the guilt of the sins of the whole world upon him 2. When he was forsaken and that after he had enjoyed the sweetest communion with his Father that ever creature could do And not only so but 3. felt the weight of Gods just displeasure against sin and 4. was abased lower then ever any creature was yet still hee held fast God as his God In earthly matters if we have a Title to any thing by gift contract inheritance or howsoever wee will not bee wrangled out of our right And shall we not maintain our right in God against all the tricks cavils of Satan our own hearts We must labor to have something that we may shew that we are within the covenant If we be never 〈◊〉 little entred into the covenaÌ„t we are â—…e And herein lies the speciall coÌ„fort 〈◊〉 sincerity that though our grace bee â—…ttle yet it is of the right stampe and â—…hews us that we are servants and sons though unworthy to be so Here a little â—…uth will goe farre Hence it is that the â—…aints in all their extremities stil alledg somthing that shews that they are within the covenaÌ„t We are thy childreÌ„ thy people thy servaÌ„ts c. God is mindful of his covenant but is well pleased that we should mind him of it too minde it our selves to make use of it as David doth here Hee knew if he could bring His soul to His God all would be quiet God is so ready to mercy that he delighteth in it and delighteth in Christ through whom hee may shew mercy notwithstaÌ„ding his justice as being fully satisfied in Christ. Mercy is his name that he will be known by It is his glory which we behold in the face of Christ who is nothing but grace and mercy it selfe Nay he pleadâ—… reasons for mercy even from the sinfulnesse and misery of his creature and maintaines his owne mercy against all the wrangling cavills of flesh and blood that would put mercy from them and hearken more willingly to Sathans objections then Gods arguments till at length God subdues their spirits so farre as they become ashamed for standing out so long against him How ready will God be to shew mercy to us when we seeke it that thus presseth upon us when we seeme to refuse it If God should take advantage of our way wardnesse what would become of us Sathans course is to discourage those that God would have encouraged and to encourage those whom God never speakes peace unto and hee thinkes to gaine both wayes Our care therefore should be when we resolve upon Gods wayes to labour that no discouragement fasten upon us seeing God and his word speake all comfort to us And because the best of a Christian is to come we should raise up our spirits to waite upon God for that mercy which is yet to come All inferiour waitings for good things here doe but â—…aine us up in the comfortable expeâ—…ation of the maine This waiting on God requires a great strength of grace by reason not onely 〈◊〉 of the excellency of the things waiâ—…ed for which are farre beyond any thing we can hope for in the world â—…ut 2. in regard of the long day which God takes before hee performeth his promise and 3. from thence the tediousnesse of delay 4. The many troubles of life in our way 5. The great apposition we meet with in the world 〈◊〉 and scandalls oft times even from them that are in great esteeme for Religion 7. together with the untowardâ—…esse of our nature in being ready to be put off by the least discouragement In these respects there must be more then 〈◊〉 humane spirit to hold up the soule â—…d cary it along to the end of that which we wait for But if God be our God that love which engaged him to binde himselfe to us in precious promises will furnish 〈◊〉 likewise with grace needfull till we be possessed of them Hee will give us leave to depend upon him both for happinesse and all sanctifying and quieting graces which may support the soule till it come to its perfect rest in God For God so quiets the hearts of his children as withall he makes them better and fitter for that which he provides for them grace and peace goe together Our God is the God of grace and peace of such graces as breed peace 1. As he is a God of love nay love it selfe to us so a taste of his love raising up our love is better then wine full of nothing but encouragement it will fetch up a soule from the deepest discouragement this grace quickneth all other graces it hath so much spirits in it as will sweeten all conditions Love inables to waite as Iacob for Lea seaven yeares Nothing is hard to love it caries all the powers of the soule with it 2. As he is a God of hope so by this grace as an anchor fastned in heaven within the vaile he stayeth the soule that though as a Ship at Anchor it may be tossed and moved yet not removed from its station This hope as corke will â—…eep the soul though in some heavinesse from sinking and as an Helmet â—…eare off the blowes that they endanger not our life 3. As God is a God of hope so by hope of patience which is
down at Israels turning their backs before their enemies God reproves him Get thee up Joshua why liest thou upon thy face Some would have men after the committing of grosse sinne to be presently comfortable and beleeve without humbling themselves at all indeed when we ore once in Christ we ought not to question our state in him and if we doe it comes not from the spirit But yet a guilty conscience will be clamorous and full of obiections God will not speake peace unto it till it be humbled God will let his best children know what it is to be too bold with sinne as we see in David and Peter who felt no peace till they had renued their repentance The way to reioyce with joy unspeakable and glorious is to stirre up fighs that cannot be uttered And it is so farre that the knowledge of our state in grace should not humble us that very ingenuity cōsidering Gods love to us out of the nature of the thing it self workes sorrow and shame in us to offend his Maiesty One maine stop that hinders Christians from reioycing is that they give themselves too much liberty to question their grounds of comfort and interest in the promises This is wonderfull cōfortable say they but what is it to me the promise belōgs not to me This ariseth from want of giving all diligence to make their calling sure to themselves In watchfulnesse and diligence we sooner meet with comfort thē in idle complaining Our care therefore should be to get sound evidence of a good estate and then likewise to keepe our evidence cleare wherein we are not to hearken to our own feares and doubts or the suggestion of our enemy who studies to falsifie our evidence but to the Word and our owne consciences inlightned by the spirit and then it is pride and pettishnesse to stand out against comfort to themselves Christians should studie to corroberate their title We are never more in heaven before we come thither then when wee can read our evidences It makes us converse much with God it sweetens all conditions and makes us willing to doe and suffer any thing It makes us have comfortable and honourable thoughts of our selves as too good for the service of any base lust and brings confidence in God both in life and death But what if our condition be so darke that we cannot reade our evidence at all Here looke up to Gods infinite mercy in Christ as we did at the first when we found no goodnesse in our selves and that is the way to recover whatsoever we thinke wee have lost By honouring Gods mercy in Christ we come to have the Spirit of Christ therefore when the waters of sanctification are troubled and muddy let us runne to the witnesse of blood God seemes to walke sometimes contrary to himselfe he seemes to discourage when secretly he doth incourage as the woman of Canaan but faith can finde out these wayes of God and untie th◅se knots by looking to the free promise and mercifull nature of God Let our sottish and rebellious flesh murmure as much as it will who art thou and what is thy worth Yet a Christian knowes whom hee beleeves Faith hath learned to set God against all Againe we must goe on to adde grace to grace A growing and fruitfull Christian is alwayes a comfortable Christian the oyle of grace brings forth the oyle of gladnesse Christ is first a King of righteousnesse and then a King of peace the righteousnesse that hee workes by his Spirit brings a peace of sanctification whereby though we are not freed from sinne yet we are enabled to combate with it to get the victory over it Some degree of comfort followes every good action as heate accompanies fire and as beames and influences issue from the Sunne which is so true that very Heathens upon the discharge of a good conscience have found comfort and peace answerable this is a reward before our reward Another thing that hinders the comfort of Christians is that they forget what a gratious and mercifull covenant they live under wherein the perfection that is required is to be found in Christ. Perfection in us is sincerity What is the end of faith but to bring us to Christ Now imperfect faith if sincere knits to Christ in whom our perfection lies Gods designe in the covenant of grace is to exalt the riches of his mercy above all sinne and unworthinesse of man and wee yeeld him more glory of his mercy by beleeving then it would be to his Iustice to destroy us If we were perfect in our selves we should not honour him so much as when we labour to bee found in Christ having his righteousnesse upon us There is no one portion of Scripture oftner used to fetch up drooping spirits then this Why art thou cast downe oh my soule it is figurative and full of Rhetorique and all little enough to perswade the perplexed soule quietly to trust in God which without this retiring into our selves and checking our hearts wil never be brought to passe Chrysostome brings in a man loaden with troubles comming into the Church where when he heard this passage read he presently recovered himselfe and becomes another man As David therefore did acquaint himselfe with this forme of dealing with his soule so let us demanding a reason of our selves Why wee are cast downe which will at least checke and put a stoppe to the distresse and make us fit to consider more solid grounds of true comfort Of necessity the soule must bee somthing calmed and staid before it can be comforted Whilest the humours of the body rage in a great distemper there is no giving of physicke So when the soule gives way to passion it is unfit to entertaine any counsell therefore it must be stilled by degrees that it may heare reason and sometimes it is fitter to be moved with ordinary reason as being more familiar unto it then with higher reasons fetcht from our supernaturall condition in Christ as from the condition of mans nature subject to changes from the uncomelinesse of yeelding to passion for that which it is not in our power to mend c. these and such like reasons have some use to stay the fit for a while but they leave the coar untouched which is sinne the trouble of all troubles Yet when such considerations are made spirituall by faith on higher grounds they have some operation upon the soule as the influence of the Moone having the stronger influence of the Sun mingled with it becomes more effectuall upon these inferiour bodies A candle light being ready at hand is sometimes as usefull as the Sun it selfe But our maine care should be to have Evangelicall grounds of comfort neere to us as Reconciliation with God whereby all things else are reconciled unto us Adoption and Communion with Christ c. which is never sweeter then under the Crosse. Philip Lansgrave of Hesse being a long
425 28 Divers qualities of the praise due to God With helps therein And notes of Gods hearing our prayers 439 29 Of Gods manifold salvation for his people And why open or expressed in the countenance 463 30 Of God our God and of particular application 477 31 Meanes of proving and evidencing to our soules that God is our God 495 32 Of improving our evidences for comfort in several passages of our lives 508 33 Of experience and Faith and how to wait on God comfortably Helps thereto 529 34 Of confirming this trust in God Seeke it of God himselfe Sins hinder not nor Satan Conclusion and Soliloquite 548 IN OPVS POSTHVMVM ADMODVM REVERENDI mihique multis Nominibus colendi RICHARDI SIBBS S. T. Professoris Aulae S tae Cath. Praefecti digniss mi. VAdé Liber pie Dux Animae pie Mentis Achates Te relegens Fructu ne pereunte legat Quà m foelix prodis Prae sacro Codice sordent Bartole sive tui sive Galene tui Fidus Praeco DEI coelestis Cultor Agelli Affidui Pretium grande Laboris habet Quo Mihi nec Vitâ melior nec promptior Ore Gratior aut Vultu nec fuit Arte prior Nil opus ut Nardum Caro combibat uncta Sabaum Altà ve marmoreus Sydera tangat Apex Non eget HIC Urna non Marmoreâ—…empe â—…empe Volumen Stats sacrum vivax Marmor Urna Pro. Qui CHRISTO vivens incessit Tramite Coeli Aethereumque obiit Munus obire nequit Ducit Hic Angelicis equalta saecula Lustris Qui VERBO Studium contulit omne suum Perlegat Hunc Legum Cultrix Veneranda Senecths Et quos plena DEO Mens super Astra vehit Venduntur quanti circum Palatia Fumi Hic sacer ALTARIS CAREO minoris erit Heu Pietas ubi prisca prosana ô Tempora Mundi Faex Vesper prope Nox ô Mora CHRISTE veni Si valuere Preces unquam Custodia CHRISTI Nunc Opus est Precibus nunc Ope CHRISTE tuâ Certat in humanis Vitiorum Infamia rebus Hei mihi nulla novis sufficit Herba Malis Probra referre pudet nec ènim decet Exprobret illa Qui volet Est nostrum stere silendo queri Flere Tonabo tuas Pietas neglecta querelas Quid non Schisma Tepor Fastus Astus agunt Addo-Sed Historicus TACITUS suit optimus Immo Addam Sphaerarum at Music a muta placet EDV o BENIOSIO Cressingae Templariorum Prid. Cal. Febr. M DC XX XV. On the Work of my learned Friend DOCTOR SIBBS FOole that I was to think my easie Pen Had strength enough to glorifie the fame Of this knowne Author this rare Man of men Or give the least advantage to his name bright Who think by praise to make his name more Show the Sunns Glory by dull Candle-light Blest Saint thy hallow'd Pages doe require No slight preferment from our slender Layes We stand amaz'd at what we most admire Ah what are Saints the better for our praise Hee that commends this Volume does no more Then warme the fire or gild the massie Ore Let me stand silent then O may that Spirit Which ledd thy hand direct mine eye my brest That I may reade and doe and so inherit What thou enjoy'st and taught eternall Rest Foole that I was to think my Lines could give Life to that work by which they hope to live FRA QVA THE SOVLES CONFLICT with it selfe PSAL. XLII Why art thou cast downe O my soule and why art thou disquieted within me Hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God THe Psalmes are as it were the Anatomy of a holy man which lay the inside of a truely devour man outward to the view of others If the Scriptures bee compared to a body the Psalmes may well be the heart they are so full of sweet affections and passions For in other portions of Scripture God speakes to us but in the Psalmes holy men speake to God and their own hearts as In this Psalme we have the passionate passages of a broken and a troubled spirit At this time David was a banished man banished from his owne house from his friends and which troubled him most from the house of God upon occasion of Sauls persecution who hunted him as a Partridge upon the mountaines see how this workes upon him 1. He layes open his desire springing from his love Love being the prime and leading affection of the soule from whence griefe springs from being crossed in that we love For the setting out of which his affection to the full hee borroweth an expressioÌ„ from the Hart no Hart being chased by the hunters panteth more after the waters then my heart doth after thee O God though hee found God present with him in exile yet there is a sweeter presence of him in his ordinances which now hee wanted and tooke to heart places and conditions are happy or miserable as God vouchsafeth his gratious presence more or lesse and therefore When O when shall it bee that I appeare before God 2. Then after his strong desire hee laies out his griefe which he could not containe but must needs give a vent to it in teares and he had such a spring of griefe in him as fedde his teares day and night all the ease he found was to dissolve this could of grief into the showre of teares But why gives he this way to his griefe Because together with his exiling from Gods house he was upbrayded by his enemies with his religion where is now thy God Grievances come not alone but as Iobs messengers follow one another These bitter taunts together with the remembrance of his former happinesse in communion with God in his house made deepe impressions in his soule when he remembred how hee went with the multitude into the house of God and ledde a goodly traine with him being willing as a good Magistrate and Master of a familie not to goe to the house of God alone nor to heaven alone but to carry as many as he could with him Oh! the remembrance of this made him powre forth not his words or his teares onely but his very soule Former favours and happinesse makes the soule more sensible of all impressions to the contrarie hereupon finding his soule over sensible he expostulates with himselfe Why art thou cast downe O my souls and why art thou disquieted within me c. But though the remembrance of the former sweetnes of Gods presence did somewhat stay him yet his grief would not so be stilled and therefore it gathers upon him againe one griefe called upon another as one deep wave follows another without intermission untill his soule was almost over whelmed under these waters yet he recovers himselfe a little with looking up to God who he expected would with speed and authoritie send forth his loving kindnesse with command to raise him up and comfort him and give
as to fetch Christ from heaven and so bring him downe to suffer on the Crosse againe Where as if we beleeve in Christ wee are as sure to come to heaven as Christ is there Christ ascending and descending with all that he hath done is ours So that neither heighth nor depth can separate us from Gods love in Christ. But we must remember though the maine pillar of our comfort bee in the free forgivenesse of our sinnes yet if there be a neglect in growing in holinesse the soule will never be soundly quiet because it will be proane to question the truth of justification and it is as proper for sinne to raise doubts and feares in the conscience as for rotten flesh and wood to breed wormes And therefore we may well joyne this as a cause of disquietnesse the neglect of keeping a cleare conscience Sinne like Achan or Ionas in the ship is that which causeth stormes within and without where there is not a pure conscience there is not a pacified conscience and therefore though some thinking to salve themselves whole in justification neglect the cleansing of their natures and ordering of their lives yet in time of temptation they will finde it more troublesome then they thinke For a conscience guilty of many neglects and of allowing it selfe in any sin to lay claime to Gods mercy is to doe as we see mountebanks sometimes do who wound their flesh to try conclusions upon their owne bodies how soveraigne the salve is yet oftentimes they come to feele the smart of their presumption by long and desperate wounds So God will let us see what it is to make wounds to try the preciousnesse of his Balme such may goe mourning to their graves And though perhaps with much wrastling with God they may get assurance of the pardon of their sins yet their conscience will bee still trembling like as Davids though Nathan had pronounced unto him the forgivenesse of his sin till God at length speakes further peace even as the water of the sea after a storme is not presently still but moves and trembles a good while after the storm is over A Christian is a new creature and walketh by rule and so far as hee walketh according to his rule peace is upon him Loose walkers that regard not their way must thinke to meet with sorowes instead of peace Watchfulnesse is the preserver of peace It is a deep spirituall judgement to find peace in an ill way Some againe reap the fruit of their ignorance of Christian liberty by unnecessary scruples and doubts It is both unthankfulnesse to God and wrong to our selves to be ignorant of the extent of Christian liberty It makes melody to Satan to see Christians troubled with that they neither should or need Yet there is danger in stretching Christian liberty beyond the bounds For a man may condemne himself in that he approves as in not walking circumspectly in regard of circumstances and so breed his owne disquiet and give scandall to others Sometimes also God suffers men to be disquieted for want of imployment who in shunning labour procure trouble to themselves and by not doing that which is needfull they are troubled with that which is unnecessary An unimployed life is a burden to it selfe God is a pure Act alwayes working alwaies doing and the neerer our soule comes to God the more it is in action and the freer from disquiet Men experimentally feele that comfort in doing that which belongs unto them which before they longed for and went without a heart not exercised in some honest labour workes trouble out of it selfe Againe Omission of duties and offices of love often troubles the peace of good people for even in the time of death when they looke for peace and desire it most then looking backe upon their former failings and seeing opportunity of doing good wanting to their desire the parties perhaps being deceased to whom they owed more respect are hereupon much disquieted and so much the more because they see now hope of the like advantages cut off A Christian life is full of duties and the peace of it is not maintained without much fruitfulnesse and looking about us debt is a disquieting thing to an honest minde and duty is debt Hereupon the Apostle layeth the charge that we should owe nothing to any man but love Againe one speciall cause of too much disquiet is want of firme resolution in good things The soule cannot but bee disquieted when it knowes not what to cleave unto like a ship tossed with contrary windes Halting is a deformed and troublesome gesture so halting in religion is not onely troublesome to others and odious but also disquiets our selves If God be God cleave to him If the duties of religion be such as will bring peace of conscience at the length be religious to purpose practise them in the particular passages of life Wee should labour to have a cleare judgement and from thence a resolved purpose a wavering minded man is inconstant in all his wayes God will not speake peace to a staggering spirit that hath alwayes its religion and its way to choose Uncertaine men are alwayes unquiet men and giving too much way to passion maketh men in particular consultations unsetled This is the reason why in particular cases when the matter concernes our selves we cannot judge so clearely as in generall truths because Satan raiseth a mist between us and the matter in question Positive Causes May be 1. When men lay up their comfort too much on outward things which being subject to much inconstancy and change breed disquiet Vexation alwayes followes vanity when vanity is not apprehended to be where it is In that measure we are cast downe in the disappointing of our hopes as wee were too much lifted up in expectation of good from them Whence proceed these complaints such a friend hath failed mee I never thought to have fallen into this condition I had setled my joy in this childe in this friend c. but this is to build our comfort upon things that have no firm foundation to build castles in the aire as we use to say Therefore it is a good desire of the wiseman Agur to desire God to remove from us vanity and lies that is a vaine and a false apprehension pitching upon things that are vaine and lying promising a contentment to our selves from the creature which it cannot yeeld confidence in vaine things makes a vaine heart the heart becomming of the nature of the thing it relies on we may say of all earthly things as the Prophet speaketh Here is not our rest It is no wonder therefore that worldly men are oft cast downe and disquieted when they walke in a vaine shadow as likewise that men given much to recreations should be subject to passionate distempers because here things fall out otherwise then they lookt forâ—… recreations being
aske what shall I doe for the time to come and then upon setling the soule in way of thankes will be ready to aske of it selfe What shall I returne to the Lord c. So that the soule by this dealing with it selfe promoteth it selfe to all holy duties till it come to heaven The reason why wee are thus backward to the keeping of this court in our selves is selfelove we love to flatter our owne affections but this self-selfe-love is but selfe-hatred in the end as the wiseman saies he that regards not this part of wisdome hates his owne soule and shall eate the fruits of his owne wayes 2. As likewise it issues from an irksomnesse of labour which makes us rather willing to seeme base and vile to our selves and others then to take paines with our owne hearts to be better as those that are weary of holding the reines give them up unto the horse necke and so are driven whither the rage of the horse caryeth them sparing a little trouble at first doubles it in the end as he who will not take the paines to cast up his bookes his bookes will cast up him in the end It is a blessed trouble that brings sound and long peace Thâ—… labour saves God a labour for therefore he judgeth us because wee would not take paines with our selves befor 3. And Pride also with a desire of liberty makes men thinke it to be a diminishing of greatnesse and freedome either to be curbed or to curbe oâ—… selves We love to be absolute and independant but this as it brought ruiâ—… upon our nature in Adam so it will upon our persons Men as Luther wâ—… wont to say are borne with a Pope iâ—… their belly they are loath to give 〈◊〉 account although it be to themselves their wils are instead of a kingdome 〈◊〉 them Let us therefore when any lawleâ—… passions begin to stir deale with oâ—… soules as God did with Ionah Doest thâ—… well to be angry to fret thus This wâ—… be a meanes to make us quiet For alâ—… what weake reasons have we often of strong motions such a man gave mee no respect such another lookt more kindly upon another man then upon me c. You have some of Hamans spirit that for a little neglect would ruine a whole nation Passion presents men that are innocent as guilty to us and because we will not seeme to bee mad without reason Pride commands the wit to justifie anger and so one Passion maintaines and feeds another Neither is it sufficient to cite the soule before it selfe but it must be pressed to give an account as we see here David doubles and trebles the expostulation as oft as any distemper did arise so oft did he labour to keep it downe If passions grow too insolent Elies mildnesse will doe no good It would prevent much trouble in this kinde to subdue betimes in our selves and others the first beginnings of any unruly passions and affections which if they be not well tutord and disciplined at the first prove as headstrong unruly and ill nurtured children who being not chastened in time take such a head thâ—… it is oft above the power of parenâ—… to bring them in order A childe set 〈◊〉 liberty saith Salomon breeds shame 〈◊〉 length to his parents Adonizeths example shewes this The like may be saâ—… of the affections set at liberty It is dangerous to redeeme a little quiet by yeelding to our affections which is never safely gotten but by mortificatioâ—… of them Those that are in great place 〈◊〉 most in danger by yeelding to themselves to loose themselves for they 〈◊〉 so taken up with the person for a tiâ—… put upon them that they both in loâ—… and speech and cariage often shâ—… that they forget both their natuâ—… condition as men and much more thâ—… supernaturall as Christians and theâ—… fore are scarce counsellable by othâ—… or themselves in those things that coâ—…cerne their severed condition that coâ—…cerneth another world Whereas iâ—… were most wisdome so to think of thâ—… place they beare whereby they are 〈◊〉 led gods as not to forget they must 〈◊〉 their person aside and die like men David himselfe that in this afflicted condition could advise with himselfe and checke himselfe yet in his free and flourishing estate neglected the counsell of his friends Agur was in jealousie of a full condition and lest instead of saying what have I done why am I thus cast downe c he should say Who is the Lord Meaner men in their lesser sphaere often shew what their spirits would be if their compasse were inlarged It is a great fault in breeding youth for feard of taking downe of their spirits not to take downe their pride and get victory of their affections whereas a proud unbroken heart raiseth us more trouble often then all the world beside Of all troubles the trouble of a proud heart is the greatest It was a great trouble to Haman to lead Mordecaies horse which another man would not have thought so the moving of a straw is troublesome to proud flesh And therefore it is good to heare the yoake from our youth It is better to bee taken downe in youth then to be broken in pieces by great crosses in age First or last selfe-deniall and victory over our selves is absolutely necessary otherwise faith which is a grace that requireth selfe-deniall will never bâ—… brought into the soule and beare ruâ—… there But what if pressing upon our soulâ—… will not help Then speake to God to Jesus Chriâ—… by prayer that as hee rebuked the windes and the waves and went upâ—… the Sea so hee would walke upon oâ—… soules and command a calme there 〈◊〉 is no lesse power to settle a peace in thâ—… soule then to command the seas to 〈◊〉 quiet It is Gods prerogative to rule 〈◊〉 the heart as likewise to give it up toâ—… selfe which next to hell is the greatâ—… judgement which should draw us 〈◊〉 the greater reverence and feare of 〈◊〉 pleasing God It was no ill wish of hiâ—… that desired God to free him from 〈◊〉 ill man himselfe CAP. VI. Other Observations of the same nature MOreover we see that a godly man can cast a restraint upon himselfe as David here staies himselfe in falling There is a principle of grace that stops the heart and puls in the reines againe when the affections are loose A carnall man when he begins to be cast down sinkes lower and lower untill he sinks into despaire as leade sinkes into the bottome of the sea They sunke they sunke like leade in the mighty waters A carnall man sinkes as a heavy body to the center of the earth and staies not if it be not stopped There is nothing in him to stay him in falling as we see in Achitophel and Saul who wanting a support found no other stay but the swords
our selves most and judge our selves most severely But self-selfe-love teacheth us a contrary method to translate all upon others it robs us of a right judgement of our selves Though we desire to know all diseases of the body by their proper names yet wee will conceive of sinfull passions of the soule under milder termes as lust under love rage under just anger murmuring under just displeasure c. thus whilest wee flatter our griefe what hope of cure Thus sinne hath not onely made all the creatures enemies to us but our selves the greatest enemies to our selves and therefore wee should begin our complaints against our selves discusse our selves throughly how else shal we judge truly of other things without us above us or beneath us The Sun when it rises enlightens first the nearest places and then the more remote So where true light is set up it discovers what is amisse within first Hence also wee see that as in all discouragements a godly man hath most trâ—…ble with his owne heart so hee knowes 〈◊〉 to carry himselfe therein as David 〈◊〉 here For the better clearing of this wee must know there bee divers kinds 〈◊〉 degrees of conflicts in the soule 〈◊〉 man whilst it is united to the body First betweene one corrupt Paâ—… and another as betweene Covetousnâ—… and Pride Pride calls for expence Covetousnesse for restraint oft Passâ—… fight not onely against God and reâ—… to which they owe a homage but 〈◊〉 against another Sinne fights agaâ—… sinne and a lesser sinne is oftentiâ—… overcome by a greater The soulâ—… this case is like the Sea tossed 〈◊〉 contrary windes and like a kingdoâ—… divided wherein the subjects figâ—… both against their Prince and onâ—… gainst another Secondly there is a naturall conâ—… in the Affections whereby Nature seeâ—… to preserve it selfe as betwixt aâ—… and feare Anger cals for revenge 〈◊〉 of the law bindes the soule to be quiâ—… Wee see in the creatures feare makes them abstaine from that which their appetites carry them unto A Wolfe comes to a flock with an eagernesse to prey upon it but seeing the Shepheard standing in defence of his sheepe returnes and doth no harme and yet for all this as hee came a wolfe so hee returnes a wolfe A naturall man may oppose some sin from an obstinate resolution against it not from any love of God or hatred of sin as sin but because he conceives it a brave thing to have his will As one hard weapon may strike at another as a stone wall may beate backe an arrow but this opposition is not from a contrariety of nature as is betwixt fire and water Thirdly there is a conflict of a higher nature as between some sinnes and the light of reason helped by a naturall conscience The Heathen could reason from the dignity of the soule to count it a base thing to prostitute themselves to beastly lusts so as it were degrading and unmanning themselves Naturall men desirous to maintaine a great opinion of themselves and to awe the inferiour sort by gravity of deportmeâ—… in cariage will abstaine from that which otherwise their hearts 〈◊〉 them unto lest yeelding should rendâ—… them despised by laying themselves too much open as because passion discovers a foole as hee is and makâ—… wise man thought meaner then he is therefore a prudent man will concâ—… his passion Reason refined and raisâ—… by education example and custome doth breake in some degree the foâ—… of naturall corruption and brings iâ—… the soule as it were another nature and yet no true change as we see 〈◊〉 such as have beene inured to gooâ—… courses they feele conscience checâ—… ing them upon the first discontinuanâ—… and alteration of their former gooâ—… wayes but this is usually from a forâ—… impression of their breeding as 〈◊〉 boate moves some little time upon 〈◊〉 water by vertue of the former stroâ—… yet at length we see corruption prevailing over education as in Ioas 〈◊〉 was awed by the reverent respect he bare to his uncle Iehojoda he was good all his uncles dayes And in Nero in whom the goodnesse of his education prevailed over the fiercenesse of his nature for the first five yeares Fourthly but in the Church where there shineth a light above nature as there is a discovery of more sinnes and some strength with the light to performe more duty So there is a further conflict then in a man that hath no better then nature in him By a discovery of the excellent things of the Gospell there may be some kinde of joy stirred up and some degree of obedience whence there may be some degree of resistance against the sinnes of the Gospell as obstinate unbeleefe desperation prophanesse c. A man in the Church may doe more then another out of the Church by reason of the inlargement of his knowledge whereupon such cannot sinne at so easie a rate as others that know lesse and therefore meet with lesse opposition from conscience Fiftly there is yet a further degree of conflict betwixt the sanctified powers of the soule and the flesh not onely as it is seated in the baser parts but even in the best faculties of the soule and as it mingles it self with every gracious performance as in David There is not onely a conflict betwixt sin and conscience inlightned by a common worke of the Spirit but betweene the commanding powers of the soule sanctified and it selfe unsanctified between reasons of the flesh and reasons of the spirit betweene faith and distrust betweene the true light of knowledge and false light For it is no question but the flesh would play its part in David and muster up all the strength of reason it had And usually flesh as it is more ancient then the Spirit we being first naturall then spirituall so it will put it selfe first forward in devising shifts as Esau comes out of the wombe first before Iacob yet hereby the Spirit is stirred up to a present examination and resistance and in resisting as wee see here at length the godly gets the victory As in the conflict betweene the higher parts of the soule with the lower it clearely appeares that the soule doth not rise out of the temper of the body but is a more noble substance commanding the body by reasons fetched from its owne worth so in this spirituall conflict it appeares there is something better then the soul it selfe that hath superiority over it CAP. VII Difference between good men and others in conflicts with sinne BUt how doth it appeare that this combate in David was a spirituall combate 1. Answ. First A naturall conscience is troubled for sins against the light of nature onely but David for inward and secret corruptions as discouragement and disquietnesse arising from faint trusting in God Davids conflict was not onely with the sensuall lower part of his soule which is carried to ease and quiet and love of present things but hee was troubled
to the offence of the strong to the griefe of Gods Spirit in us to the disturbance of our owne spirits in doing good and to the disheartning of us in troubling of our inward peace and thereby weakning our assurance Therefore let us stop beginnings as much as may be and so soone as they begin to rise let us begin to examine what raised them and whither they are about to carry us The way to be still is to examine oâ—… selves first And then censure what stands not with reason As David doth when he had given way to unbefitting thoughts of Gods providence So foolish saith he was I and as a 〈◊〉 before thee Especially then looke to these sinfull stirrings when thou art to deale with God I am to have communion with a God of peace What then doe turbulent thoughts and affections iâ—… my heart I am to deale with a patieâ—… God why should I cherish revengâ—… thoughts Abraham drove away tâ—… birds from the sacrifice Gen. 15. 11. Troublesome thoughts like birds 〈◊〉 come before they be sent for but they should finde entertainment accordingly 6. In all our grievances let us loâ—… to something that may comfort us 〈◊〉 well as discourage looke to that wee enjoy as well as that wee want As iâ—… prosperity God mingles some crosses to diet us so in all crosses there 〈◊〉 something to comfort us As there is a vanity lies hid in the best worldly good So there is a blessing lies hid in the worst worldly evill GOD usually maketh up that with some advantage in another kinde wherein wee are inferiour to others Others are in greater place So they are in greater danger Others bee richer so their cares and sâ—…res be greater the poore in the world may bee richer in faith than they The soule can better digest and master a low estate than a prosperous and is under some abasement iâ—… is in a lesse distance from God Others are not so afflicted as we than they have lesse experience of Gods gracious power than wee Others may have more healthy bodies but soules lesse weaned from the world We would not change conditions with them so as to have their spirits with their condition For one halfe of our lives the meanest are as happy and free from cares as the greatest Monarch that is whilest both sleepe and usually the sleepe of the one is sweeter than the sleepe of the other What is all that the earth caâ—… afford us if God deny health and this a man in the meanest condition may enjoy That wherein one man diffâ—… from another is but title and but for a little time Death levelleth all There is scarce any man but the good hee receives from God is more than the ill hee feeles if our unthankfull hearts would suffer us to thinke 〈◊〉 Is not our health more than our sickenesse doe we not enjoy more than we want I meane of the things that are necessary Are not our good dayes more than our evill but we would go to heaven upon Roses and usually oâ—… crosse is more taken to heart than 〈◊〉 hundred blessings So unkindly 〈◊〉 deale with God Is God indebted to us doth hee owe us any thing those that deserve nothing should be contâ—… with any thing Wee should looke to others as good as our selves as well as to our selves and than we shall see it is not our owne case onely who are we that we should looke for an exempted condition from those troubles which God 's dearest children are addicted unto Thus when we are surprised contrary to our looking for and liking wee should study rather how to exercise some grace than give way to any passion Thinke now is a time to exercise our patience our wisedome and other graces By this meanes wee shall turne that to our greatest advantage which Satan intendeth greatest hurt to us by Thus we shall not onely master every condition but make it serviceable to our good If nature teach Bees not onely to gather hony out of sweet flowers but out of bitter Shall not grace teach us to draw even out of the bitterest condition something to better our soules We learne to tame all creatures even the wildest that wee may bring them to our use and why should wee glve way to our owne unruly passions 7. It were good to have in our eye the beauty of a well ordered soule and wee should thinke that nothing in this world is of sufficient worth to put us out of frame The sanctified soâ—… should be like the Sunne in this whiâ—… though it worketh upon all these inâ—… riour bodies and cherisheth them 〈◊〉 light and influence yet is not movâ—… nor wrought upon by them againe bâ—… keepeth its owne lustre and distanceâ—… So our spirits being of a heaveâ—… breed should rule other things beneâ—… them and not be ruled by them It 〈◊〉 a holy state of soule to bee under tâ—… power of nothing beneath it selfe Aâ—… we stirred than consider It this mâ—…ter worth the losse of my quiet Whâ—… wee esteeme that wee love what wee love we labour for And therefore 〈◊〉 us esteem highly of a cleare calme temper whereby we both enjoy our God and our selves and know how to raâ—… all things else It is against nature fâ—… inferiour things to rule that which thâ—… wise Disposer of all things hath set above them Wee owe the flesh neither suit nor service wee are no debtâ—… to it The more wee set before the soâ—… that quiet estate in heaven which tâ—… soules of perfect men now enjoy and it selfe ere long shall enjoy there The more it will be in love with it and endevour to attaine unto it And because the soule never worketh better than when it is raised up by some strong and sweet affection let us looke upon our nature as it is in Christ in whom it is pure sweet calme meeke every way lovely This sight is a changing sight love is an affection of imitation we affect a likenesse to him we love Let us learne of Christ to be humble and meeke and then wee shall finde rest to our soules The setting of an excellent idea and platforme before us will raise and draw up our soules higher and â—…ke us sensible of the least movings of spirit that shall be contrary to that the attainement whereof wee have in our desires He will hardly attaine to meane things that sets not before him higher perfection Naturally we love to see symetry and proportion even in a dead picture and are much taken with some curious peece But why should wee not rather labour to keepe the affections of the soule in due proportion Seeing a meâ—… and well ordered soule is not onâ—… lovely in the sight of men and Angâ—… but is much set by by the great Goâ—… himselfe But now the greatest careâ—… those that set highest price upon theâ—… selves is how to compose their oâ—… ward carriage in some gracefull mâ—…ner never
to maintaine what is evill or shifts to translate it upon false causes or sences to arme us against whatsoever shall oppose us in our wicked waies Though it neither can nor will be good yet it would bee thought to be so by others and enforces a conceit upon it selfe that it is good It imprisons and keepes downe all light that may discover it both within it selfe and without it self if it lie in its power It flatters it selfe and would have all the world flatter it too which if it doth not it frets especially if it bee once discovered and crossed hence comes all the plotting against goodnesse that sinne may reigne without controule Is it not a lamentable case that man who out of the very principles of nature cannot but desire happinesse and abhorre misery yet should bee in love with eternall misery in the causes of it and abhorre happinesse in the wayes that leade unto it This sheweth us what a wonderfull deordination and disorder is brought upon mans nature For every other creature is naturally carried to that which is helpfull unto it and shunneth that which is any way hurtfull and offensive Onely man is in love with his owne bane and fights for those lusts that fight against his soule §. 4. Our duty is 1. to labour to see this sinfull disposition of ours not onely as it is discovered in the Scriptures but as it discovers it selfe in our owne hearts this must must be done by the light and teaching of Gods Spirit who knowes us and all the turnings and windings and by-wayes of our soules better then wee know our selves Wee must see it as the most odious and lothsome thing in the world making our natures contrary to Gods pure nature and of all other duties making us most indisposed to spirituall duties wherein wee should have neerest communion with God because it seizeth on the very spirits of our mindes 2. Wee should looke upon it as worse then any of those filthy streames that come from it nay then all the impure issues of our lives together there is more fire in the fornace then in the sparkles There is more poyson in the root then in all the branches for if the streame were stopt the branches cut off and the sparkles quenched yet there would bee a perpetuall supply as in good things the cause is better then the effect so in ill things the cause is worse Every fruit should make this poysonfull root more hatefull to us and the root should make us hate the fruit more as comming from so bad a root as being worse in the cause then in it selfe the affection is worse then the action which may be forced or counterfeited Wee cry out upon particâ—…r sinnes but are not humbled as wee should be for our impure dispositions Without the sight of which there 〈◊〉 be no sound repentance arising from the deep and through consideration of sin no desire to be new moulded without which we can never enter into so holy a place as heaven no selfe deniall till we see the best things in us are enmity against God no high prizing of Christ without whoÌ„ our natures our persoâ—… and our actions are abominable in Goâ—… sight nor any solid peace setled in the soule which peace ariseth not from the ignorance of our corruption or compounding with it but from sight and hatred of it and strength against it 3. Consider the spiritualnesse and large extent of the law of God together with the curse annexed which forbids not onely particular sinnes but all the kindes degrees occasions and furtherances of sinne in the whole breadth and depth of it and our very nature it selfe so farre as it is corrupted For want of which we see many alive without the law joviall and merry from ignorance of their misery who if they did but once see their natures and lives in that glasse it would take away that livelinesse and courage from them and make them vile in their owne eyes Men usually looke themselves in the lawes of the State wherin they live and thinke themselves good enough if they are free from the danger of penall statutes this glasse discovers onely foule spots grosse scandalls and breakings out Or else they judge of themselves by parts of nature or common grace or by outward conformity to Religion or else by that light they have to guide themselves in the affaires of this life by their faire and civill carriage c. and thereupon live and die without any sense of the power of godlinesse which begins in the right knowledge of our selves and ends in the right knowledge of God The spiritualnesse and purity of the law should teach us to consider the purity and holinesse of God the bringing of our soules into whose presence will make us to abhorre our selves with Iob in dust and ashes contraries are best seene by setting one neere the other Whilest we looke onely on oâ—… selves and upon others amongst whom we live we think our selves to be some body It is an evidence of some sincerity wrought in the soule not to shunne that light which may let us see the soul corners of our hearts and lives 4. The consideration of this likewise should enforce us to carry a double guard over our soules David was very watchfull yet we see here he was surprized unawares by the sudden rebellion of his heart we should observe our hearts as governours doe rebells and mutinous persons Observation awes the heart We see to what an excesse sinne groweth in those that deny themselves nothing nor will be denied in any thing who if they may doe what they will will doe what they may who turne liberty into licence and make all their abilities and advantages to doe good contributary to the commands of overruling and unruly lusts Were it not that God partly by his power suppresseth and partly by his grace subdueth the disorders of mans nature for the good of society and the gathering of a Church upon earth Corruption would swell to that excesse that it would overturne and confound all things together with it selfe Although there bee a common corruption that cleaves to the nature of all men in generall as men as distrust in GOD selfe-love a carnall and worldly disposition c. yet God so ordereth it that in some there is an ebbe and decrease in others God justly leaving them to themselves a flow and encrease of sinfulnesse even beyond the bounds of ordinary corruption whereby they become worse then themselves either like beasts in sensuality or like devills in spirituall wickednesse though all be blinde in spirituall things yet some are more blinded though all be hard hearted yet some are more hardened though all be corrupt in evill courses yet some are more corrupted and sinke deeper into rebellion then others Sometimes God suffers this corruption to breake out in civill men yeâ—… even in his owne children
that they may know themselves the better and because sometimes corruption is weckned not onely by smothering but by having a vent whereupon grace stiâ—… up in the soule a fresh hatred and râ—…venge against it and lets us see a necessity of hauing whole Christ not onely to pardon sinne but to purge and cleanse our sinfull natures But yet that which is ill in it selfe must not be done for the good that comes by it by accident this must be a comfort after 〈◊〉 surprisalls not an encouragement before 5. And because the divine natâ—… wrought in us by divine truth together with the Spirit of God is the onely counter-poyson against all sinne and whatsoever is contrary to God in us therefore wee should labour that the truth of God may bee grafted in 〈◊〉 hearts that so all the powers of our soules may rellish of it that there may be a sweet agreement betwixt the soule and all things that are spirituall that truth being ingrafted in our hearts we may be ingrafted into Christ and grow up in him and put him on more and more and be changed into his likenesse Nothing in heaven or earth will worke out corruption and change our dispositions but the spirit of Christ clothing divine truths with a divine power to this purpose 6. When corruption rises pray it downe as S. Paul did and to strengthen thy prayer claime the promise of the new couenant that God would circumcise our hearts and wash us with cleane water that hee would write his law in our hearts and give us his holy spirit when we begge it And looke upon Christ as a publique fountaine open for Iudah and Ierusalem to wash in Herein consists our comfort 1. that Christ hath all fulnesse for us and that our nature is perfect in him 2. That Christ in our nature hath satisfied divine justice not onely for the sinne of our lives but for the sinne of our nature And 3. that hee will never give over untill by his spirit hee hath made our nature holy and pure as his owne till hee hath taken away not onely the reigne but the very life and being of sinne out of our hearts 4. That to this end he leaves his Spirit and truth in the Church to the end of the world that the seed of the Spirit may subdue the seed of the serpent in us and that the Spirit may be a never-failing spring of all holy thoughts desires and endeavoâ—… in us and dry up the contrary issue and spring of corrupt nature And Christians must remember when they are much annoyed with their corruptions that it is not their particular case alone but the condition of all Gods people least they be discouraged by looking on the ugly deformed visage of old Adam which affrighteth some so farre that it makes them think No mans nature is so vile 〈◊〉 theirs which were well if it tended to humiliation onely but Sathan often abuseth it towards discouragement and desperation Many out of a misconceit think that corruption is greatest when they feele it most whereas indeed the lesse wee see it and lament it the more it is Sighes and groanes of the soule are like the pores of the body out of which in diseased persons sicke humours breake forth and so become lesse The more we see and grieve for pride which is as immediate issue of our corrupted nature the lesse it is because wee see it by a contrary grace the more sight the more hatred the more hatred of sinne the more love of grace and the more love the more life which the more lively it is the more it is sensible of the contrary upon every discovery and conflict corruption loses some ground and grace gaines upon it CAP. XIII Of imagination sinne of it and remedies for it §. 1. ANd amongst all the faculties of the soule Most of the disquiet and 〈◊〉 necessary trouble of our lives arises from the vanity and ill government of that power of the soule which we 〈◊〉 imagination and opinion bordering betweene the senses and our understanding which is nothing else but a shallow apprehension of good or evillâ—…en â—…en from the senses Now because 〈◊〉 good or evill things agree or disagree to the senses and the life of sense is 〈◊〉 us before the use of reason and the delights of sense are present and pleasing and sutable to our natures thereupâ—… the imagination setteth a great price upon sensible good things and the judgement it selfe since the fall untill it hath an higher light and strength yeeldeth to our imagination hence it coâ—… to passe that the best things if they bee attended with sensible inconveniences as want disgrace in the world and such like are misjudged for evill things and the very worst things if they bee attended with respect in the world and sensible contentments are imagined to be the greatest good which appeares not so much in mens words because they are ashamed to discover their hidden folly and a theisme but the lives of people speake as much in that particular choise which they make Many there are who thinke it not onely a vaine but a dangerous thing to serve God and a base thing to bee awed with religious respects they count the waies that Gods people take no better then madnesse and that course which GOD takes in bringing men to heaven by a plaine publishing of heavenly truths to bee nothing but foolishnesse and those people that regard it are esteemed as the Pharisees esteemed them that heard Christ ignorant base and despicable persâ—… Hence arise all those false preâ—…dice against the wayes of holinesse as they in the Acts were shy in entertaining the truth because it was a way every where spoken against The doctrine of the Crosse hath the crosse alwayes following it which imagination counteâ—… the most odious and bitter thing in the world This imagination of ours is become the seat of vanity and thereupon of vexation to us because it apprehendâ—… greater happinesse in outward goâ—…d things then there is and a greater miserie in outward evill things then indeed there is and when experience shewes us that there is not that good in those things which wee imagine to bee but contrarily we find much evill in them which wee never expected hereupon the soule cannot but be troubled The life of many men and those not the meanest is almost nothing else but a fancie that which chiefly sets their wits a work and takes up most of their time is how to please their owne imagination which setteth up an excellency within it selfe in comparison of which it despiseth all true excellencie and those things that are of most necessary consequence indeed Hence springs ambition and the vaine of being great in the world hence comes an unmeasurable desire of abounding in those things which the world esteemes highly of there is in us naturally a competition and desire of being equall or above
in Christ. 2 the joyes of heaven and the torments of hell 3. the last and strict day of accouâ—… 4. The vanity of all earthly things 5. The uncertainty of our lives c. From the meditation of these truthes the soule wil be prepared to have rigâ—… conceits of things and to discourse upon true grounds of them and thinke with it selfe that if these things be so iâ—…deed then I must frame my life sutable to these principles hence arise true affections in the soule true feare of God true love and desire after the best things c. The way to expell â—…ind oâ—… of our bodies is to take some wholesome nourishment and the way to expell windy fancies from the soule is 〈◊〉 feed upon serious truthes 4. Moreover to the well ordering of this unruly faculty it is necessary that our nature it selfe should be changed for as men are so they imagine as the treasure of the heart is such is that which comes from it An evill heart cannot thinke well before the heart be changed our judgment is depraved in regard of our last end we seeke our happinesse where it is not to be found Wickednesse comes from the wicked as the Proverb is If wee had as large and as quick apprehensions as Sathan himselfe yet if the rellish of our wil affections be not changed they will set the imagination a worke to deuise satisfaction to themselves For there is a mutuall working and refluxe betwixt the will and the imagination the imagination stirres up the will and as the will is affected so imagination worketh When the law of God by the Spirit is so written in our hearts that the law and our hearts become agreeable one to the other then the soule is enclined and made plyable to every good thought When the heart is once taught of God to love it is the nature of this sweet affection as the Apostle saith to thinke no evill either of God or man and not onely so but it carries the bent of the whole soule with it to good so that we love God not onely with all our heart but with all our minde that is both with our understanding and imagination Love is an affection full of inventions and sets the wit a worke to devise good things therefore our chiefe care should bee that our hearts may be circumcised and purified so as they may be filled with the love of God and then we shall finde this duty not onely easie but delightfull unto us The Prophet healed the waters by casting salt into the spring so the seasoning of the spring of our actions seasons all And indeed what can bee expected from man whilest hee is vanity but vaine imaginations What can wâ—… looke for from a Viper but poyson A man naturally is either weaving spidâ—… webbs or hatching Cockatrices egges thâ—… is his heart is exercised either in vaâ—… or mischiefe for not onely the frame 〈◊〉 the heart but what the heart frameth iâ—… evill continually A wicked man that iâ—… besotted with false conceits will adâ—… of no good thoughts to enter 5. Even when wee are good and devise good things yet there is still some sicknesse of fancie remaining in the best of us whereby wee worke trouble to our selves and therefore it is necessary we should labour to restraine and limit our fancie and stop these waters at the beginning giving no not the least way thereunto If it begins to grow wanton tame the wildnesse of it by fastning it to the crosse of Christ whom wee have pierced with our sinnes and amongst other with these sinnes of our spirits who hath redeemed us from our vaine thoughts and conversations set before it the consideration of the wrath of God of death and judgement and the woefull estate of the damned c. and take it not off till thy heart bee taken off from straying from God When it begins once to runne out to impertinencies confine it to some certaine thing and then upon examination wee shall finde it bring home some hony with it otherwise it will bring us nothing but a sting from the bitter remembrance of our former misspent thoughts time which wee should redeeme and fill up with things that most belong to our peace Idlenesse is the houre of temptation wherein Sathan joynes with our imagination and sets it about his owne work to grinde his greese for the soule as a Mill either grinds that which is put into it or else works upon it selfe Imagination is the first wheele of the soule and if that move amisse it stirres all the inferiour wheeles amisse with it It stirres it selfe and other powers of the soule are stirred by its motion and therefore the well ordering of this is of the greater consequence For as the imagination conceiveth so usually the judgement concludeth the will chuseth the affections are carried and the members execute If it breake loose as it will soone runne ryot yet give no consent of the will to it though it hath defiled the memory yet let it not defile the will though it be the first borne of the soule yet let it not as Ruben ascend unto the fathers bed that is our will and defile that which should be kept pure for the spirit of Christ resolve to act nothing upon it but crosse it before it moves to the execution and practise of any thing As in sicknesse many times wee imagine by reason of the corruption of our tast Physick to be ill for us and those meates which nourish the disease to be good yet care of health makes us crosse our owne conceits and take that which fancie abhorres So if we would preserve sound spirits wee must conclude against groundlesse imagination and resolve that whatsoever it suggests cannot be so because it crosses the grounds both of religion and reason And when we finde imagination to deceive us in sensible things as Melancholy persons are subject to mistake we may well gather that it will much more deceive us in our spirituall condition And indeed such is the incoherence impertinencie and unreasonablenesse of imagination that men are oft ashamed and angry with themselves afterwards for giving the least way to such thoughts and it is good to chastise the soule for the same that it may bee more wary for time to come whilest men are led with imagination they worke not according to right rules prescribed to men but as other baser creatures in whom phantasie is the chiefe ruling power and therefore those whose will is guided by their fancies live more like beasts then men Wee allow a horse to praunce and skip in a pasture which if hee doth when he is once backt by the rider we count him an unruly and an unbroken jade so howsoever in other creatures wee allow liberty of fancie yet wee allow it not in man to frisk and rove at its pleasure because in him it is to bee bridled
blessing of others upon their children yet God hath promised a blessing to the offices of Communion of Saints performed by one private man towards another Can we have a greater incouragement then under God to be gainer of a soule which is as much in Gods esteeme as if we should gaine a world Spirituall almes are the best almes mercy shewed to the soules of men is the greatest mercie and wisedome in winning of soules is the greatest wisedome in the world because the soule is especially the man upon the goodnesse of which the happinesse of the whole man depends What shining and flourishing Christians should wee have if these duties were performed As wee have a portion in the communion of Saints so wee should labour to have humility to take good and wisedome and love to doe good A Christian should have feeding lips a healing tongue the leaves the very words of the tree of righteousnesse have a curing vertue in them Some will shew a great deale of humanity in comforting others but little Christianity for as kinde men they will utter some cheerefull words but as Christians they want wisedome from above to speake a gracious word in season Nay some there are who hinder the saving working of any affliction upon the hearts of others by unseasonable and unsavoury discourses either by suggesting false remedies or else diverting men to false contentments and so become spirituall traitors rather then friends taking part with their worst enemies their lusts and wills Happy is hee that in his way to heaven meeteth with a chearefull and skilfull guide and fellow-travellor that carrieth cordials with him against all faintings of spirit It is a part of our wisedome to salvation to make choice of such a one as may further us in our way An indifferency for any company shewes a dead heart where the life of grace is it is sensible of all advantages and disadvantages How many have beene refreshed by one short apt savoury speech which hath begotten as it were new spirits in them In ancient times as wee see in the Story of Iob it was the custome of friends to meet together to comfort those that were in misery and Iob takes it for granted that to him that is afflicted pity should bee shewed from his friends for besides the presence of a friend which hath some influence of comfort in it 1. The discovery of his loving affection hath a cherishing sweetnesse in it 2. The expression of love in reall comforts and services by supplying any outward want of the patry troubled prevailes much thâ—… Christ made way for his comforts to the soules of men by shewing outward kindnesse to their bodies Love with the sensible fruits of it prepareth for any wholesome counsell 3. After this wholesome words carry a speciall cordiall vertue with them especially when the Spirit of God in the affectionate speaker joines with the word of comfort and thereby closeth with the heart of a troubled patient when all these concenter and meet together in one then is comfort sealed up to the soule The childe in Elizabeths wombe sprang at the presence and salutation of Mary the speech of one hearty friend cannot but revive the spirits of another Sympathy hath a strange force as wee see in the strings of an Instrument which being played upon as they say the strings of another instrument are also moved with it After love hath once kindled love then the heart being melted is fit to receive any impression unlesse both pieces of the iron bee red hot they will not joyne together two spirits warmed with the â—…ne heat will easily soâ—…der together §. 2. In him that shall stay the minde of another there had need to bee an excellent temper of many graces as 1. Knowledge of the grievance together with wisedome to speake a word in season and to conceale that which may set the cure backwards 2. Faithfulnesse with liberty not to concealâ—… any thing which may bee for his good though against present liking The very life and soule of friendship stands in freedome tempered with wisedome and faithfulnesse 3. Loue with compassion and patience to beare all and hope all and not to bee easily provoked by the way wardnesse of him we deale with Short spirited men are not the best comforters God himselfe is said to beare with the manners of his people in the wildernesse It is one thing to beare with a wise sweet moderation that which may be borne and another thing to allow or approve that which is not to be approved at all Where these graces are in the speaker and apprehended so to bee by the person distempered his heart will soone embrace whatsoever shall bee spoken to rectifie his judgement or affection A good conceit of the spirit of the speaker is of as much force to prevaile as his words Words especially prevaile when they are uttered more from the bowels then the braine and from our owne experience which made even Christ himselfe a more compassionate high Priest When men come to themselves againe they will bee the deepest censurers of their owne miscariage §. 3. Moreover to the right comforting of an afflicted person speciall care must be had of discerning the true ground of his grievance the coare must bee searched out if the griefe ariseth from outward causes then it must be carried into the right channell the course of it must bee turned another way as in staying of blood we should grieve for sinne in the first place as being the evill of all evills If the ground be sinne then it must be drawne to a head from a confused griefe to some more particular sinne that so wee may strike the right veine but if wee finde the spirit much cast downe for particular sinnes then comfort is presently to be applied But if the griefe be not fully ripe then as we use to help nature in its offers to purge by Physick till the sick matter be carried away so when conscience moved by the spirit begins to ease it selfe by confession it is good to help forward the worke of it till wee finde the heart low enough for comfort to be laid upon When Paul found the Iaylor cast downe almost as low as hell hee stands not now upon further hammering and preparing of him for mercie that worke was done already but presently stirres him up to beleeve in the Lord Iesus Christ here being a fit place for an interpreter to declare unto man his righteousnesse and his mercy that belongs unto him after he hath acknowledged his personall and particular sins which the naturall guile of the heart is extreamely backward to doe and yet cannot receive any sound peace till it be done If signes of grace be discerned here likewise is a fit place to declare unto man the saving worke of grace in his heart which Sathan labours to hide from him Men oft are
not able to reade their owne evidences without help In case of stifnesse and standing out it is fit the Man of God should take some authority upon him and lay a charge upon the soules of men in the name of Christ to give way to the truth of Christ and to forbeare putting off that mercy which is so kindly offered when we judge it to be their portion which course will be succesfull in hearts awed with a reverend feare of grieving Gods spirit Sometimes men must bee dealt roundly withall as David here deales with his owne soule that so whilest we aske a reason of their dejection they may plainly see they have no reason to be so cast downe for oftentimes grievances are irrationall rising from mistakes and counsell bringing into the soule a fresh light dissolves those grosse fogges and setteth the soule at liberty What griefe is contracted by false reason is by true reason altered Thus it pleaseth God to humble men by letting them see in what need they stand one of another that so the communion of Saints may be indeared every relation wherein we stand towards others are so many bonds and sinewes whereby one member is fitted to derive comfort to another through love the bond of perfection All must be done in this sweet affection A member out of joynt must be tenderly set in again and bound up which onely men guided by the spirit of love seasoned with discretion are fit to doe they are taught of God to doe what they should The more of Christ is in any man the more willingnesse and fitnesse to this duty to which this should encourage us that in strengthening others we strengthen our selves and derive upon our selves the blessing pronounced on those that consider the needie which will be our comfort here and crowne hereafter that God hath honoured us to be instruments of spirituall good to others It is an injunction to coÌ„fort the feeble minded there is an heavie imputatioÌ„ on those that coÌ„forted not the weaks when men will not owne men in trouble but as the herd of Deere forsake push away the wounded Deere froÌ„ them And those that are any wayes cast downe must stoope to those wayes which God hath sanctified to convey coÌ„fort for though sometimes the Spirit of God immediatly comforts the soule which is the sweetest yet for the most part the Sun of righteousnesse that hath healing in his wings conveyeth the beames of his comfort by the helpe of others in whom hee will have much of our comfort to lie hid and for this very end it pleaseth God to exercise his children and Ministers especially with tryalls and afflictions that so they having felt what a troubled spirit is in themselves might be able to coÌ„fort others in their distresses with the same comfort wherwith they have beene comforted God often suspends comfort from us to drive us to make use of our Christian friends by whom hee purposeth to doe us good Oftentimes the very opening of mens grievances bringeth ease without any further working upon them the very opening of a veine cooles the blood If God in the state of innocencie thought it fit man should have a helper if God thought it fit to send an Angell to comfort Christ in his agonies shall any man thinke the comfort of another more than needs Sathan makes every affliction by reason of our corruption a temptation to us whereupon we are to encounter not onely with our owne corruptions but with spirituall wickednesses and need we not then that others should joyne forces with us to discover the temptation and to confirme and comfort us against it for so reason joyning with reason and affection with affection wee come by uniting of strength to bee impregnable Sathan hath most advantage in solitarinesse and thereupon sets upon Christ in the wildernesse and upon Eve single and it added to the glory of Christs victory that he overcame him in a single combat and in a place of such disadvantage Those that will be alone at such times doe as much as in them lieth to tempt the tempter himselfe to tempt them The Preacher gives three reasons why two are better than one 1. Because if one fall the other may lift him up as that which is stronger shoreth up that which is weaker so feeble mindes are raised and kept up by the stronger Nay oftentimes he that is weaker in one grace is stronger in another one may helpe by his experience and meekenesse of love that needs the help of another for knowledge 2. If two lye together one may warme another by kindling one anothers spirits Where two meete together upon such holy grounds and aymes there Christ by his spirit makes up another and this three-fold cable who shall breake While Iâ—…as lived Iehoiada stood upright While Latymer and Ridley lived they kept up Granmer by intercourse of letters and otherwise from entertai ning counsells of Revolt The Disciples presently upon Christs apprehension fainted not withstanding he laboured by his heavenly doctrine to put courage comfort into them 3. If any give an on-set upon them there is two to withstand it Spirit joyning with Spirit and because there is an acquaintance of spirits as well as of persons those are fittest to lay open our mindes unto in whom upon experience of their fidelity our hearts may most safely relie Wee lose much of our strength in the losse of a true friend which made David bemoane the losse of his friend Ionathan Woe is me for thee my brother Ionathan He lost a piece of himselfe by losing him whom his heart so clave unto Saint Paul accounted that God had shewed especiall mercy to him in the recovery of Epaphroditus §. 4. But there are divers miscarriages in those that are troubled which make the comfort of others of none effect 1. When the troubled party deales not directly but doubleth with him that is to helpe him Some are ashamed to acknowledge the true ground of their grievance pretending sorrow for one thing when their hearts tell them it ariseth from another Like the Lapâ—…ings which make greatest noise furthest from their neast because they would not have it discovered This deceit moved our blessed Saviour who knew what was in the harts of men to fit his answeres many times rather to the man then to the matter 2. Some relie too much upon particular men Oh if they had such a one they should do well and mislike others fitter perhaps to deale with them as having more thorough knowledge of their estates because they would have their disease rather covered then cured or if cured yet with soft words whereas no playster worketh better then that which causes smart Some out of meere humorous fondnesse must have that which can hardly be got or else nothing pleases them David must needs have the waters of Bethlem when others were neerer hand And oftentimes
when men have not onely whom they desire but such also who are fit and dexterous in dealing with a troubled spirit yet their soules feele no comfort because they make idols of men Whereas men at the best are but conduits of comfort and such as God freely conueyeth comfort by taking liberty oft to deny comfort by them that so he may be acknowledged the God of all comfort 3. Some delude themselves by thinking it sufficient to have a few good words spoken to them as if that could cure them not regarding to apprehend the same and mingle it with faith without which good words lose their working even as wholesome Physick in a dead stomack Besides miscarriages in comforting times will often fall out in our lives that we shall have none either to comfort us or to be comforted by us and then what will become of us unlesse we can comfort our selues Men must not thinke alwayes to live upon almes but lay up something in store for themselves and provide oyle for their owne lamps and bee able to draw out something from the treasury of their owne hearts We must not goe to the Surgeon for every scratch No wise traveller but will have some refreshing waters about him Againe wee are often driven to retire home to our owne hearts by uncharitable imputations of other men even friends sometimes become miserable comfortens it was Iobs case his friends had honest intentions to comfort him but erred in their manner of dealing if he had found no more comfort by reflecting upon his owne sincerity then he received from them who laboured to take it from him hee had beene doubly miserable We are most privy to our owne intentions and aimes whence comfort must bee fetched Let others speake what they can to us if our owne hearts speake not with them we shall receive no satisfaction Sometimes it may fall out that those which should unloose our spirits when they are bound up mistake the key â—…isses the right wards and so we lâ—…e bound still Opening of our estate to another is not good but when it is necessary and it is not necessary when we can fetch supply from our owne store God would have us tender of our reputations except in some speciall cases wherein wee are to give glory to God by a free and full confession Needlesse discovery of our selves to others makes us feare the conscience of another man as privie to that which we are ashamed hee should bee privy unto and it is neither wisedome nor mercy to put men upon the racke of confession further then they can have no ease any other way for by this meanes we raise in them a jealousie towards us and oft without cause which weakneth and tainteth that love which should unite hearts in one CAP. XV. Of flying to God in disquiets of soule Eight observations out of the text WHat if neither the speech of others to us nor the rebuke of our owne hearts will quiet the soule Is there no other remedy left Yes then looke up to God the Father and fountaine of comfort as David doth here For the more speciall meanes whereby he sought to recover himselfe was by laying a charge upon his soule to trust in God for having let his soule runne out too much hee begins to recollect himselfe againe and resigne up all to God §. 1. But how came David to have the command of his owne soule so as to take it off from griefe and to place it upon God could hee dispose of his owne heart himselfe The child of God hath something in him above a man hee hath the Spirit of God to guide his spirit this command of David to his soule was under the command of the Great Commander God commands David to trust in him and at the same time infuseth strength into his soule by thinking of Gods command and trusting to Gods power to command it selfe to trust in God so that this command is not onely by authoritie but by vertue likewise of Gods command As the inferiour orbes move as they are moved by a higher So Davids spirit here moves as it is moved by Gods Spirit which inwardly spake to him to speake to himselfe David in speaking thus to his owne soule was as every true Christian is a Prophet and an instructer to himselfe It is but as if inferiour officers should charge in the name and power of the King Gods children have a principle of life in them from the Spirit of God by which they command themselves To give charge belongs to a Superiour David had a double Superiour above him his owne spirit as sanctified and Gods Spirit guiding that Our spirits are the Spirits agents and the Holy Spirit is Gods agent maintaining his right in us As God hath made man a free agent So he guides him and preserves that free manner of working which is agreeable to mans nature By this it appeares that Davids moving of himselfe did not hinder the Spirits moving of him neither did the Spirits moving of him hinder him from moving himselfe in a free manner for the Spirit of God moveth according to our principles it openeth our understandings to see that it is best to trust in God It moveth so sweetly as if it were an inbred principle and all one with our owne spirits If wee should hold our will to move it selfe and not to be moved by the Spirit we should make a God of it whose property is to move other things and not to be moved by any We are in some sort Lords over our owne speeches and actions but yet under a higher Lord. David was willing to trust in God but God wrought that will in him he first makes our will good and then works by it It is a sacrilegious liberty that will acknowledge no dependance upon God Wee are wise in his wisedome and strong in his strength who saith without me yee can doe nothing Both the budde of a good desire and the blossome of a good resolution and the fruit of a good action all comes from GOD. Indeed the understanding is ours whereby wee know what to doe and the will is ours whereby wee make choice of what is best to be done but the light whereby wee know and the guidance whereby wee choose that is from a higher agent which is ready to flow into us with present fresh supply when by vertue of former strength wee put our selves forward in obedience to God Let but David say to his soule being charged of God to trust I charge thee my soule to trust in him and hee findes a present strength inabling to it Therefore we must both depend upon God as the first Mover and withall set all the inferiour wheeles of our soules a going according as the Spirit of God ministers motion unto us So shall wee bee free from selfe-confidence and likewise from neglecting that order of working which God hath
is not above naturall conscience but a conscience sprinkled with the blood of Christ is not scared from God by its infirmities and failiags but as David here is rather stirred up to runne unto God by his distemper and it had beene a greater sinne then his distemper not to have gone unto God Those that have the spirit of sonnes in their hearts runne not further from God after they have a little strayed from him but though it be the nature of sinfull passions to breed griefe and shame yet they will repaire to God againe and their confidence overcomes their guilt So well are they acquainted with Gods gracious disposition Yet we see here David thinkes not of trusting in God till first he had done justice upon his owne soule in rebuking the unruly motions thereof Censure for sinne goeth before favour in pardoning sinne or boldnesse to aske pardon of God those that love God must hate ill If our consciences condemne us of allowing any sinne we cannot have boldnesse with God who is light and can abide no darknesse and greater then our consciences §. 7. 6. Moreover hence wee see it is no easie thing to bring God and the heart together David here as he often checkes his heart so hee doth often charge his heart Doubts and troubles are still gathering upon him and his faith still gathering upon them As one striving to get the haven is driven back by the waves but recovering himselfe againe gets forward still and after often beating back at length obtaines the wished haven and then is at rest So much adoe there is to bring the soule unto God the harbour of true comfort It were an easie thing to be a Christian if Religion stood onely in a few outward works and duties but to take the soule to taske and to deale roundly with our owne hearts and to let conscience have its full work and to bring the soule into spirituall subjection unto God this is not so easie a matter because the soule out of self-selfe-love is loath to enter into it selfe least it should have other thoughts of it selfe then it would have David must bid his soule trust and trust and trust againe before it will yeeld One maine ground of this difficulty is that contrariety which is in the soule by reason of contrary principles The soule so farre as it is gracious commands so farre as it is rebellious resists which drew holy Austen to a kinde of astonishment The soule commands the body and it yeelds saith he it commands it selfe and is resisted by it selfe it commands the hand to move and it moveth with such an unperceiveable quicknesse that you can discerne no distance betwixt the command and the motion Whence comes this but because the soule perfectly wills not and perfectly injoynes not that which is good and so farre forth as it fully wills not so far it holds backe There should bee no need of commanding the soule if it were perfect for then it would bee of it selfe what it now commandeth If David had gotten his soule at perfect freedome at the first hee needed not have repeated his charge so often upon it But the soule naturally sinks downward and therfore had need often to be wound up §. 8. 7. Wee should therefore labour to bring our soules as David doth here to a firme and peremptory resolution and not stand wavering and as it were equally ballanced betwixt God and other things but enforce our soules we shall get little ground of infidelity else drive your soules therefore to this issue either to rely upon God or else to yeeld up it selfe to the present grievance if by yeelding it resolves to be miserable there 's an end but if it desires rest then let it resolve upon this onely way to trust in God and well may the soule so resolve because in God there are grounds of quieting the soule above all that may unsettle it In him there is both worth to satisfie and strength to support the soule The best way to maintaine inward peace is to settle and fixe our thoughts upon that which will make us better till wee finde our hearts warmed and wrought upon thereby and then as the Prophet speaks God will keepe us in peace peace that is in perfect and abundant peace This resolution stayed Iob that though God should kill him yet hee resolved to trust in him Answerable to our resolution is our peace the more resolution the more peace Irresolution of it selfe without any grievance is full of disquiet It is an unsafe thing alwayes to begin to live to bee alwayes cheapning and paltering with God Come to this point once Trust God I ought therefore trust God I will come what may or will And it is good to renew our resolutions againe and againe for every new resolution brings the soule closer to God and gets further in him and brings fresh strength from him which if wee neglect our corruption joyning with outward hinderances will carry us further and further backward and this will double yea multiply our trouble and griefe to recover our selves againe wee have both winde and tide against us Wee are going up the hill and therefore had need to arme our selves with resolution Since the fall the motion of the soule upward as of heavy bodies is violent in regard of corruption which weighes it downeward and therefore all enforcement is little enough Oppose therefore with David an invincible resolution and then doubt not of prevailing If wee resolve in Gods power and not our owne and bee strong in the Lord and not in our selves then it matters not what our troubles or temptations bee either from within or without for trust in God at length will triumph Here is a great mercy that when David had a little let goe his hold of God yet God would not let goe his hold of him but by a spirit of faith drawes him back againe to himselfe God turnes us unto him and then wee returne Turne us againe saith the Psalmist cause thy face to shine upon us and wee shall be saved When the soule leaves God once it loses its way and it selfe and never returnes till God recalls it againe If morall principles cherished and strengthened by good education will enable the soule against vicious inclinations so that though some influence of the heavens worke upon the aire and the aire upon the spirits and the spirits upon the humors and these incline the temper and that inclines the soule of a man such and such wayes yet breeding in the refineder sort of civill persons will much prevaile to draw them another way What then may wee thinke of this powerfull grace of faith which is altogether supernaturall Will not this carry the soule above all naturall inclinations whatsoever though strengthened by outward occasions if wee resolve to put it to it David was a King of other men but here hee shewes that hee
is a subsisting of three persons every one so set out unto us as fitted for us to trust in the Father as a Creator the Sonne as a Redeemer the Holy Ghost as a Comforter and all this in reference to us God in the first person hath decreed the great work of our salvation and all things tending to the accomplishment of it God in the second person hath exactly and fully answered that decree and plot in the worke of our redemption God in the third person discovers and applyes all unto us and fits us for communion with the Father and the Sonne from whom he proceeds 3. GOD cannot be comfortably thought upon out of Christ our mediator in whom hee was reconciling the world to himselfe as being a friend both to God and us and therefore fit to bring God and the soule together being a middle person in the trinity In Christ Gods nature becomes lovely to us and ours to God otherwise there is an utter enmity betwixt his pure and our impure nature Christ hath made up the vaste gulfe betweene God and us there is nothing more terrible to thinke on then an absolute God out of Christ. 4. Therefore for the better drawing of us to trust in God we must conceive of him under the sweet relation of a Father Gods nature is Fatherly now unto us and therefore lovely 5. And for further strengthning our faith it is needfull to consider what excellencies the Scripture giveth unto God answerable to all our necessities what sweet Names God is pleased to be knowne unto us by sor our comfort as a mercifull gracious long suffering God c. When Moses desired to see the glory of God God thus manifested himself in the way of goodnesse I will mâ—… all my goodnesse passe before thee Whatsoever is good in the creature is first in God as in a fountaine and it is in God in a more emiâ—… manner and fuller measure All grace and holinesse all sweetnesse of affection all power and wisdome c. as it is in him so it is from him and we come to conceive these properties to bee in God 1. by feeling the comfort and power of them in our selves 2. by observing these things in their measure to be in the best of the creatures whence wee arise to take notice of what grace and what love what strength and wisdome c. is in God by the beames of these which we see in his creature with adding in our thoughts fulnesse peculiar to God and abstracting imperfections incident to the creature for that is in God in the highest degree the sparkles whereof is but in us 6. Therefore it is fit that unto all other eminencies in God wee should strengthen our faith by considering those glorious singularities which are altogether incommunicable to the creature and which gives strength to his other properties as that God is not onely gracious and loving powerfull wise c. but that he is infinitely 〈◊〉 and unchangeably so All which are comprised in and drawne from that one name Iehovah as being of himselfe and giving a being to all things else of nothing and able when it pleaseth him to turne all things to nothing againe As God is thus so he makes it good by answerable actions and dealing towards us by his continuall providence the consideration whereof is a great stay to our faith for by this providence God makes use of all his former excellencies for his peoples good for the more comfortable apprehension of which it is good to know that Gods providence is extended as farre as his creation Every creature in every element and place whatsoever receiveth a powerfull influence from God who doth what pleaseth him both in heaven and earth in the sea and all places But we must know God doth not put things into a frame and then leave them to their owne motion as wee doe clocks after wee have once set them right and ships after wee have once built them commit them to winde and waves but as hee made all things and knowes all things so by a continued kind of creation he preserves all things in their being and working and governes them to their ends Hee is the first mover that sets all the wheeles of the creature a working One wheele may move another but all are moved by the first If God moves not the clock of the creature stands If God should not uphold things they would presently fall to nothing from whence they came If God should not guide things Sathans malice and mans weaknesse would soone bring all to a confusion If God did not rule the great family of the world all would breake and fall to pieces whereas the wise providence of God keepeth every thing on its right hinges All things stand in obedience to this providence of God and nothing can withdraw it selfe from under it If the creature withdraw it selfe from one order of providence it falls into another If man the most unruly and disordered creature of all withdraw himselfe from Gods gracious government of him to happinesse hee will soone fall under Gods just government of him to deserved misery If hee shakes off Gods sweet yoake he puts himselfe under Sathans heavy yoake who as Gods executioner hardens him to destruction and so whiles hee rushes against Gods will he fulfils it And whilst he will not willingly doe Gods will Gods will is done upon him against his will The most casuall things fall under providence yea the most disordered thing in the world sinne and of sins the most horrible that ever the Sunne beheld the crucifying of the Lord of life was guided by a hand of providence to the greatest good For that which is ca suall in regard of a second cause is not so in regard of the first whose providence is most cleerely seene in casuall events that fall out by accident for in these the effect cannot be ascribed to the next cause God is said to kill him who was unwarily slaine by the falling of an axe or some instrument of death And though man hath a freedome in working and of all men the Hearts of Kings are most free yet even these are guided by an over ruling power as the rivers of water are carryed in their channels whither skilfull men list to derive them For setling of our faith the more God taketh liberty in using weake meanes to great purposes and setteth aside more likely and able meanes yea sometimes he altogether disableth the greatest meanes and worketh often by no meanes at all It is not from want of power in God but from abundance multiplying of his goodnesse that hee useth any means at all there is nothing that he doth by meanes but hee is able to doe without meanes Nay God often bringeth his will to passe by crossing the course and stream of meanes to shew his own soveraignty and to exercise our dependance and maketh
night and the preservation of the world from any further overflowing of waters continueth which if it should fayle yet his covenant with his people shall abide firme for ever though the whole frame of nature were dissolved When we have thus gotten a fit foundation for the soule to lay it selfe upon Our next care must be by Trusting to build on the same All our misery 's either in having a false foundation or else in loose building upon a true therefore having so strong a ground as Gods Nature his providence his promise c. to build upon the only way for establishing our soules is by trust to rely firmly on him Now the reason why Trust is so much required is because 1. it emptyeth the soule and 2. by emptying enlargeth it and 3. seasoneth and fitteth the soule to joyne with so gracious an object and 4. filleth it by carrying it out of it selfe unto God who presently so soone as he is trusted in conveyes himselfe and his goodnesse to the soule and thus we come to have the comfort and God the glory of all his excellencies Thus salvation comes to be sure unto us whilest faith looking to the promises and to God freely offering grace therein resigns up it selfe to God making no further question from any unworthinesse of its owne And thus wee returne to God by cleaving to him from whom we fell by distrust living under a new covenant meerely of grace And no grace fitter then that which gives all to Christ considering the fountaine of all our good is out of our selves in him it being safest for us who were so ill husbands at the first that it should be so therefore it is fit we should have use of such a grace that will carry us out of our selves to the spring head The way then whereby faith quieteth the soule is by raising it above all discontentments and stormes here below and pitching it upon God thereby uniting it to him whence it drawes vertue to oppose and bring under whatsoever troubles its peace For the soule is made for God and never findes rest till it returns to him againe when God and the soule meet there will follow contentment God simply considered is not all our happynesse but God as trusted in and Christ as wee are made one with him The soule cannot so much as touch the hemme of Christs garment but it shall finde vertue comming from him to sanctifie and settle it God in Christ is full of all that is good when the soule is emptyed inlarged and opened by faith to receive goodnesse offered there must needs follow sweet satisfaction §. 2. For the better strengthning of our trust it is not sufficient that we trust in God and his truth revealed but we must doe it by light and strength from him Many beleeve in the truth by humane arguments but no arguments will convince the soule but such as are fetched from the inward nature and powerfull worke of truth it selfe No man can know God but by God None can know the Sunne but by its owne light None can know the truth of God so as to build upon it but by the truth it self and the Spirit revealing it by its owne light to the soule that soule which hath felt the power of truth in casting it downe and raising it up againe will easily be brought to rest upon it It is neither education nor the authority of others that professe the same truth or that we have been so taught by men of great parts c. will settle the heart untill we finde an inward power and authority in the truth it selfe shining in our hearts by its owne beames hence comes unsetlednesse in time of troubles because we have not a spirituall discerning of spiritual things Supernaturall truths must have a supernaturall power to apprehend them therefore God createth a spirituall eye and hand of the soule which is faith In those that are truely converted all saving truths are transcribed out of the Scripture into their hearts they are taught of God So as they finde all truths both concerning the sinfull estate and the gracious and happy estate of man in themselves they cary a divinity in them and about them so as from a saving feeling they can speake of conversion of sin of grace and the comforts of the spirit c. and from this acquaintance are ready to yeeld and give up themselves to truth revealed and to God speaking by it Trust is never sound but upon a spirituall conviction of the truth and goodnesse we rely upon for the effecting of which the Spirit of God must likewise subdue the rebellion and maâ—…e of our will that so it may be sutable and levell to divine things and rellish them as they are wee must apprehend the love of God and the fruits of it as better then life it selfe and then choosing and cleaving to the same will soone follow for as there is a fitnesse in divine truths to all the necessities of the soule so the Soule must be fitted by them to savour and apply them to it selfe and then from an harmony between the soule and that which it applyes it selfe unto there will follow not onely peace in the soule but joy and delight surpassing any contentment in the world besides As there is in God to satisfie the whole soule so trust caries the whole soule to God this makes trust not so easie a matter because there must bee an exercise of every faculty of the soule or else our trust is imperfect and lame there must be a knowledge of him whom we trust and why we trust an affiance and love c. Onely they that know God will trust in him not that knowledge alone is sufficient but because the sweetnesse of Gods love is let into the soule thereby which draweth the whole soule to him Wee are bidden to trust perfectly in God therefore seeing wee have a God so full of perfection to trust in we should labour to trust perfectly in him And it is good for the exercise of trust to put cases to our selves of things that probably may fall out and then returne to our soules to search what strength we have if such things should come to passe thus David puts cases perfect faith dares put the hardest cases to its soule and then set God against all that may befall it Againe labour to fit the promise to every condition thou art in there is no condition but hath a promise sutable therefore no condition but wherein God may bee trusted because his truth and goodnesse is alwayes the same And in the promise looke both to the good promised and to the faithfulnesse and love of the promiser It is not good to looke upon the difficulty of the thing wee have a promise against but who promiseth it and for whose sake and so see all good things in Christ made over to
help to multiply our faith tryed truth and tryed faith unto it sweetly agree and answer one another It were a course much tending to the quickning of the faith of Christians if they would communicate one to another their mutuall experiences this hath formerly beene the custome of Gods people Come and heare all ye that â—…re God and I will declare what he hath done for my soule And David urgeth this as a reason to God for deliverance that then the righteous would compasse him about as rejoycing in the experience of Gods goodnesse to him The want of this makes us upon any new tryall to call Gods care and love into question as if hee had never formerly beene good unto us whereas every experiment of Gods love should refresh our faith upon any fresh onset God is so good to his children even in this world that he traines them up by daily renewed experiences of his fatherly care for besides those many promises of good things to come he gives us some evidence and taste of what wee beleeve here that by that which wee feele wee might be strengthned in that wee looke for that so in both 1. sense of what we feele and 2. certainty of what we looke for we might have full support But yet we must trust God as he will be trusted namely in doing good oâ—… else we do not trust him but tempt him Our commanding of our soules to trust in God is but an Eccho of what God commands us first and therefore in the same maner he commands us we should command our selves As God commands us to trust him in doing good so should wee commit our soules to him in well doing and trust him when wee are about his owne workes and not in the workes of darknesse we may safely expect God in his wayes of mercy when we are in his wayes of obedience For Religion as it is a doctrine of what is to be beleeved so it is a doctrine according to godlinesse and the mysteries of faith are mysteries of godlinesse because they cannot be beleeved but they will inforce a godly conversation where my true impression of them is there is holinesse alwayes bred in that soule therefore a study of holinesse must goe joyntly together with a study of trusting in God faith lookes not onely to promises but to directions to duty and â—…eds in the soule a liking of whatsoever pleaseth God There is a mutuall strengthning in things that are good trusting stirres to duty and duty strengthens trusting by increasing our liberty and boldnesse with God Againe wee must maintaine in our soules a high esteeme of the grace of â—…aith the very try all whereof is more â—…ious then gold what then is the grace of faith it selfe and the promises which it layeth hold on certainely they transcend in worth whatever may draw us from God whence it is that the soule sets a high price upon them and on faith that beleeves them It is impossible that any thing in the world should come betwixt the heart and those things if once we truly lay hold on them to undermine faith or the comfort we have by it the heart is never drawne to any sinfull vanity 〈◊〉 frighted with any terrour of trouble till faith first loseth the sight and estimation of divine things and forgets the necessity and excellency of them Our Saviour Christ when hee would stirre up a desire of faith in his Disciples shewed them the power and excellency of the same great things stirre up faith and keepe it above and faith keepes the soule that nothing else can take place of abode in it when the great things of God are brought into the heart by faith what is there in the whole world thâ—… can out bid them Assurance of these things upon spirituall grounds over-rules both sense and reason or what ever else prevailes with carnall hearts CAP. XIX Faith to be prized and other things undervalued at least not to bee trusted to as the chiefe THat faith may take the better place in the soule and the soule in God the heart must continually be taught of what little worth all things else are as reputation riches and pleasures c. and to see their nothingnesse in the word of God and in experience of our selves and others that so our heart being â—…ed from these things may open it selfe to God and imbrace things of a higher nature otherwise baser things will be neerer the soule then faith and keepe possession against it so that faith will not be suffered to set up a throne in the heart There must bee an unloosing of the heart as well as a fastning of it and God helpes us in both for besides the word discovering the vanity of all things else out of God the maine scope of Gods dealing with his children in any danger or affliction whatsoever is to imbitter all other things but himselfe unto them Indeed it is the power of God properly which makes the heart to trust but yet the Spirit of God useth this way to bring all things else out of request with us in comparison of those inestimable good things which the soule is created redeemed and sanctified for God is very jealous of our trust and can endure no Idoll of jealousie to be set up in our hearts Therefore it behooves us to take notice not onely of the deceitfulnesse of things but of the deceitfulnesse of our hearts in the use of them Our hearts naturally hang loose from God and are soone ready to joyne with the creature Now the more we observe our hearts in this the more wee take them off and labour to set them where they should be placed for the more wee know these things the lesse we shall trust them But may wee not trust in riches and friends and other outward helps at all Yes so farre as they are subordinace to God our chiefe stay with reservation and submission to the Lord onely so far and so long as it shall please him to use them for our good Because God ordinarily conveyes his help and goodnesse to us by some creature we must trust in God to blesse every mercy wee in joy and to make all helps serviceable to his love towards us In a word we must trust use them in under God and so as if all were taken away yet to thinke God being al-sufficient can doe without them whatsoever hee doth by them for our good Faith preserves the chastitie of the soule cleaving to God is a spirituall debt which it oweth to him whereas cleaving to the creature is spirituall adultery It is an error in the foundation to substitute false objects either in Religion or in Christian Conversation for 1. in religion trusting in false objects as Saints workes c. breeds false worship and false worship breeds Idolatry and so Gods jealousie and hatred 2. In Christian Coâ—…versation false objects
are good but confidence in them is hurtfull and there is more of our owne in them for the most part to humble us then of Gods spirit to embolden us so farre as to trust in them Alas they have nothing from us but weaknesse and defilement and therefore since the fall GOD would have the object of our trust to be out of our selves in him and to that purpose he useth all meanes to take us out of our selves and from the creature that he only might be our trust Yea wee must not trust trust it selfe but God whom it relyes on who is therefore called our trust All the glorious things that are spoken of trust are onely made good by God in Christ who as trusted doth all for us God hath prescribed trust as the way to carry our soules to himselfe in whom we should only rely and not in our imperfect trust which hath its ebbing and flowing Neither will trust in God himselfe for the present suffice us for future strength and grace as if trusting in God to day would suffice to strengthen us for tomorrow but wee must renew our trust for fresh supply upon every fresh occasion So that wee see God alone must be the object of our trust There is still left in mans nature a desire of pleasure profit and of what ever the creature presents as good but the desire of gracious good is altogether lost the soule being wholy infected with a contrary taste Man hath a nature capable of excellency and desirous of it and the Spirit of God in and by the word reveales where true excellency is to bee had but corrupt nature leaving God seeketh it elsewhere and so crosseth its owne desires till the Spirit of God discovers where these things are to be had and so nature is brought to its right frame againe by turning the streame into the right current Grace and sinfull nature have the same generall object of comfort onely sinfull nature seekes it in broken Cisterns and grace in the fountain the beginning of our true happinesse is from the discovery of true and false objects so as the soule may cleerely see what is best and safest and then stedfastly rely upon it It were an happy way to make the soule better acquainted with trusting in God to labour to subdue at the first all unruly inclinations of the soule to earthly things and to take adâ—…antage of the first tendernesse of the soule to weede out that which is ill and to plant knowledge and love of the best things in it otherwise where affections to any thing below get much strength in the soule it will by little and little be so overgrowne that there will be no place left in it either for obiect or act God or trust God cannot come to take his place in the heart by trust but where the powers of the soule are brought under to regard him and those great things hee brings with him above all things else in the world beside In these glorious times wherein so great a light shineth whereby so great things are discovered what a shame is it to be so narrow hearted as to fixe upon present things Our aymes and affections should be sutable to the things themselves set before us Our hearts should be more and more inlarged as things are more and more revealed to â—…s Wee see in the things of this life as wisedome and experience increaseth so our aimes and desires increase likewise A young beginner thinkes it a great matter if hee have a little to begin withall but as he growes in trading and seeth further wayes of getting his thoughts and desires are raised higher Children thinke as Children but riper age puts away childishnesse when their understandings are inlarged to see what they did not see before we should never rest till our hearts according to the measure of revelation of those excellent things which God hath for us have answerable apprehension of the same Oh if we had but faith to answer those glorious truths which God hath revealed what manner of lives should we leade CHAP. XX. Of the method of trusting in God and the tryall of that trust LAstly to add no more our trusting in God should follow Gods order in promising The first promise is of forgivenesse of sinne to repentant beleevers next 2. of healing and sanctifying grace then 3. the inheritance of the Kingdome of Heaven to them that are sanctifyed 4. and then the promises of all things needfull in our way to the Kingdome c. Now answerably the soule being inlightned to see its danger should looke first to Gods mercy in Christ pardoning sinne because sinne onely divides betwixt God and the soule next to the promises of grace for the leading of a Christian life for true faith desires hea ling mercy as well as pardoning mercy and then to Heaven and all things that may bring us thither By all this wee see that it is not so easie a matter as the world takes it to bring God and the soule together by trusting on him It must be effected by the mighty power of God raising up the soule to himselfe to lay hold upon the glorious power goodnesse and other excellencies that are in him God is not onely the object but the working cause of our trust for such is our pronenesse to live by sense and naturall reason and such is the strangenesse and height of divine things such our inclination to a selfe sufficiency and contentment in the creature and so hard a matter is it to take off the soule from false bottomes by reason of our unacquaintance with God and his wayes besides such guilt still remaines upon our soules for our rebellion and unkindnesse towards God that it makes us afraid to entertaine serious thoughts of him and so great is the distance betwixt his infinite Majesty before whom the very Angels doe cover their faces and us by reason of the unspiritualnesse of our nature being opposite to his most absolute purity that we cannot be brought to any familiarity with the Lord so as to come into his holy presence with confidence to rely upon him or any comfort to have communion with him till our hearts be sanctified and lifted up by divine vigour infused into them Though there be some inclination by reason of the remainder of the image of God in us to an outward morall obedience of the Law yet alas we have not onely no seeds of Evangelicall truths and of faith to beleeve them but an utter contrariety in our natures as corrupted either to this or any other good When our conscience is once awaked we meditate nothing but feares and terrors and dare not so much as think of an angry God but rather how wee may escape and fly from him Therefore together with a deepe consideration of the grounds wee have of trusting God it is necessary wee should thinke of the indisposition of our hearts unto it especially
that God puts into the Câ—…p so much afflicts us as the ingrediâ—…ts of our distempered passions mingled with them The sting and coare of them all is sinne when that is not â—…ely pardoned but in some measure â—…led and the proud flesh eaten out â—…n a healthy soule will â—…eare any thing After repentance that trouble that before was a correction becomes now a triall and exercise of grace Strike Lord saith Luther I'beare any thing willingly because my sinnes are forgiven We should not be cast downe so much about outward troubles as about sinne that both procures them and invenomes them We see by experience when conscience is once set at liberty how chearefully men will goe under any burthen therefore labour to keep out sinne and then let come what will come It is the foolish wisdome of the world to prevent trouble by sin which is the way indeed to pull the greatest trouble upon us For sinne dividing betwixt God and us moveth him to leave the soule to intangle it selfe in â—…s owne wayes When the conscience is cleare then there is nothing between God and us to hinder our trust Outward troubles rather drive us neerer unto God and stand with his love But sin defileth the soule and sets it further from God It is well doing that inables us to commit our soules cheerefully â—…to him Whatsoever our outward condition be if our hearts condemne us 〈◊〉 we may have boldnesse with God In my trouble our care should be not to avoid the trouble but sinfull miscari age in and about the trouble and so trust God It is a heavy condition to be under the burthen of trouble and under the burthen of a guilty conscience both at once When men will walke in the light of their owne fire and the sparkes which they have kindled themselves it is just with God that they should lye downe in sorow Whatsoever injuries we suffer from those that are ill affected to us let us commit our cause to the God of vengeance and not meddle with his prerogative He will revenge our cause better then we can and more perhaps then we desire The wronged side is the â—…er side If in stead of meditating revenge we can so overcome ourselves 〈◊〉 to pray for our enemies and deserve well of them wee shall both sweeten our owne spirits and prevent a sharpe temptation which wee are prone unto and have an undoubted argument that we are sonnes of that Father that doth good to his enemies and members of that Saviour that prayed for his persecutors And withall by heaping coales upon our enemies shall melt them either to conversion or to confusion But the greatest triall of trust is in our last encounter with death wherein we shall finde not only a deprivation of all comforts in this life but a confluence of all ill at once but wee must know God will be the God of his unto death and not only unto death but in death We may trust God the Father with our bodies and soules which he hath created and God the Sonne with the bodies and soules which he hath redeemed and the holy Spirit with those bodies and soules that he hath sanctified We are not disquieted when wee put off our cloathes and goe to bed because we trust Gods ordinary providence to raise us up againe And why should we be disquieted when we put off our bodies and sleep our last sleep considering we are more sure to rise out of 〈◊〉 graves then out of our beds Nay we are raised up already in Christ our â—…d who is the resurrection and the life in whom we may triumph over death that triumpheth over the greatest Moâ—…chs as a disarmed and conquered enemie Death is the death of it selfe and not of us If we would have faith ready to die by wee must exercise it well in living by it and then it will no more faile us then the good things we lay hold on by it untill it hath brought 〈◊〉 into heaven where that office of it is â—…aid aside here is the prerogative of a true Christian above an hypocrite and a worldling when as their trust and the thing they trust in failes them then a true beleevers trust stands him in greatest stead In regard of our state after death a Christian need not bee disquieted for the Angels are ready to doe their office in carying his soule to Paradise those â—…ansions prepared for him His Saviour will bee his Judge and the Head will â—…t condemne the members then hee is to receive the fruit and end of his Faith the reward of his Hope which is so great and so sure that our trusting in God for that strengtheneth the heart to trust him for all other things in our passage so that the refreshing of our faith in these great things refreshes its dependance upon God for all things here below And how strong helpes have we to uphold our Faith in those great things which wee are not able to conceive of till wee come to possesse them Is not our husband there and hath hee not taken possession for us doth he not keep our place for us Is not our flesh there in him and his spirit below with us have we not some first fruits and earnest of it before hand Is not Christ now a fitting and preparing of us daily for what he hath prepared and keepes for us Whither tends all we meete with in this world that comes betwixt us and heaven as desertions inward conflicts outward troubles and death at last but to fit us for a better condition hereafter and â—…y Faith therein to stirre up a strong desire after it Comfort one another with â—…se things saith the Apostle these bee 〈◊〉 things will comfort the soule CHAP. XXV Of the defects of gifts disquieting the â—…le As also the afflictions of the Church AMong other things there is nothing more disquiets a Christian â—…at is called to the fellowship of Christ and his Church here and to â—…ory hereafter then that he sees himselfe unfurnished with those gifts that 〈◊〉 fit for the calling of a Saint As â—…ewise for that particular standing â—…d place wherein God hath set him in 〈◊〉 world by being a member of a boâ—… politick For our Christian calling wee must â—…ow that Christianity is a matter raâ—…er of grace then of gifts of obedience then of parts Gifts may come from a more common worke of the â—…pirit they are common to castawayes and are more for others then for our selves Grace comes from a peculiar favour of God and especially for our owne good In the same duty where there is required both gifts and grace as in prayer one may performe it with evidence of greater grace then another of greater parts Moses a man not of the best speech was chosen before Aaron to speak to God and to strive with him by Prayer whilst Israel fought with Amaleck with the
devices turned upon their owne heads will more torment them In this case it will much comfort to goe into the Sanctuary for there wee shall be able to say Yet God is good to 〈◊〉 God hath an Arke for his there is no condition so ill but there is Balme in Gilead comfort in Israel The depths â—…f misery are never beyond the depths of mercy God oft for this very end strips his Church of all helpes below that it may onely rely upon him and that it may appeare that the Church is ruled by an higher power then it is opposed by And then is the time when we may exâ—…ct great deliverances of the Church when there is a great faith in the great God From all that hath beene said wee see that the only way to quiet the soul is to lay a charge upon it to trust God â—…d that unquietnesse and impatiency me symtomes and discoveries of an unâ—… leeving heart CHAP. XXVI Of divine reasons in a beleever Of his minding to praise God more then to bee delivered TO goe on I shall yet praise him In these words David expresseth the reasons and grounds of his trust namely from the interest hee had in God by experience and speciall covenant wherein in generall we may observe that those who truly trust in God labour to back their faith with sound arguments faith is an understanding grace it knowes whom it trusts and for what and upon what grounds it trusts Reason of it selfe cannot finde what we should beleeve yet when God hath discovered the same faith tells us there is great reason to beleeve it faith useth reason though not as a ground yet as a sanctified instrument to finde out Gods grounds that it may rely upon them He beleeves best that knowes best why hee should beleeve Confidence and love and other affections of the soule though they have no reason grafted in them yet thus farre they are reasonable as that they are in a wise man raised up guided and laid downe with reason or else men were neither to be blamed nor praised for ordering their affections a right whereas not only civill vertue but grace it selfe is especially conversant in ruling the affections by sanctified reason The soule guides the will and affections otherwise then it doth the outward members of the body It swayes the affections of confidence love joy c. as a Prince doth his wiser subjects and as Counsellors doe a well ordered State 〈◊〉 ministring reasons to them but the â—…le governes the outward members by command as a master doth a slave â—…his will is enough The hand and foot â—…ve upon command without regarding any reason but wee will not trust 〈◊〉 rejoyce in God without reason or a 〈◊〉 of reason at the least Sinne it selfe never wanted a reason 〈◊〉 as it is but we call it unreasonable â—…use it hath no good reason for it for reason being a beame of God cannot strengthen any worke of darknesse God having made man an understanding creature guides him by a way sutable to such a condition and that is the reason why God in mercy yeelds so far to us in his word as to give us so many reasons of our affiance in him What is encouragement and comfort but a demonstration to us of greater reasons to raise us up then there are to cast us downe Davids reasons here are drawne partly from some promise of deliverance and partly from Gods nature and dealing with him whom as he had formerly found an healing a saving God so he expects to finde him still and partly from the covenant of grace hee is my God The chiefe of his reasons are fetched from God what he is in himselfe and what hee is and will be to his children and what to him in particular though godly men have reasons for their trst yet those reasons be divine and spirituall as faith it selfe is for as naturally as beames come from the Sunne and branches from the roote even so by divine discourse one truth issueth from another And as the beames and the Sunne as the roote and branches are all of one nature so the grounds of comfortable truths and reasons taken from those grounds are both of same divinity and authority though in time of temptation discourse is oft so troubled that it cannot see how one truth riseth from another this is one priviledge of heaven that our knowledge there shall not be so much discoursive proving one thing by another as definitive seeing things in their grounds with a more present view the soule being then raised and enlarged to a present conceiving of things and there being no flesh and blood in us to raise objections that must be satisfied with reasoning Sometimes in a clearer state of the soule faith hath not so much use of reasons but upon neere and sweet communion with God and by reason of some likenesse betweene the soule that hath a divine nature stamped upon it and God it presently without any long discourse runneth to God as it were by a supernaturall instinct as by a naturall instinct a childe runneth to his Father in any distresse Yea and from that common light of nature which discovereth there is a God even naturall men in extremities will runne to God and God as the Author of nature will sometimes heare them as he doth the yong Ravens that cry unto him but comfortably and with assurance onely those have a familiar recourse unto him that have a sanctified sutable disposition unto God as being well acquainted with him Sometimes againe faith is put to it to use reasons to strengthen it selfe and therefore the soule studieth arguments to help it selfe by either from inward store laid up in the soule or else it hearkeneth and yeelds to reasons suggested by others and there is no gracious heart but hath a frame sutable and agreeable to any holy and comfortable truth that shall be brought and enforced upon it there is something in his spirit that answers what ever comes from the spirit of God though perhaps it never heard of it before yet it presently claimes kindred of it as comming from the same blessed Spring the â—…ly Spirit and therefore a gracious heart sooner takes comfort then another as being prepared to close with it The reasons here brought by David are not so much arguments to convince his judgement as motives and inducements to encline his will to trust in God for trusting being a holy relying upon God carieth especially the will to him now the will is led with the goodnesse of things as the understanding is led with truth the heart must be sweetned with consideration of love and mercy in him whom we trust as well as convinced of his ability to doe us good the cords that draw the heart to trust are the cords of love and the cords of love are especially the love of him to us whom we love and therefore the most prevailing reasons that
putting man out of the power and possession of himselfe and therefore David here when he had thoughts of praising God was faine to take up the quarrell betwixt him and his soule first Praising sets all the parts and graces of the soule aworke and therefore the soule had need gather it selfe and its strength together to this duty It requires especially selfe-denyall from a conscience of our own wants weaknesses and unworthinesse it requires a giving up of our selves and all ours to be at Gods dispose the very ground and the fruit which it yeelds are both Gods and they never gave themselves truly up to God that are not ready to give all they have to him whensoever he calls for it thankfulnesse is a sacrifice and in sacrifices there must be killing before offering otherwise the sacrifice will be as the offering up of some uncleane creature thanksgiving is 〈◊〉 Incense and there must be fire to â—…rne that Incense thanksgiving requires not onely affections but the heat of affections there must be some assuâ—…ce of the benefit wee praise God â—…or and it is no easie matter to maintaine assurance of our interest in the best things Yet in this case if we feele not sense of assorance it is good we should praise God for what we have we cannot deny but God offers himselfe in mercy to us and that he intends our good thereby for so wee ought to construe his mercifull dealing towards us and not have him in jealousie without ground if we being our hearts to be willing to praise God for that wee cannot but acknowledge comes from him hee will be ready in his time to shew himselfe more clearely to us we taste of his goodnesse â—…ny wayes and it is accompanied with much patience and these in their natures leade us not onely to repentance but likewise to thankfull acknowledgement and wee ought to follow that which God leades us unto though hee hath not yet acquainted us with his secrets It is good in this case to help the soule with a firm resolution and to back resolution with a vowe not onely in generall that we will praise but particularly of something within our owne power provided it prove no snare to us For by this meanes the heart is perfectly gayned and the thing is as good as done in regard of Gods acceptance and our comfort because strong resolutions discover sincerity without any hypocriticall reservation and hollownesse Alwayes so much sincerity as a man hath so much will his inward peace be Resolution as a strong streame beares downe all before it little good is done in Religion without this and with it all is as good as done So soone as we set upon this worke wee shall feele our spirits to rise higher and higher as the waters in the Sanctuary as the soule growes more and more heated see how David riseth by degrees Be glad in the Lord and then rejoyce ye righteous and then showt for ioy 〈◊〉 yee that are upright in heart the spirit of God will delight to carry us along â—…n this duty untill it leaves our spirits in heaven praising God with the Saintsâ—…d â—…d glorious Angels there to him that â—…h and useth it shall be given hee that â—…weth God aright will honour him by trusting of him hee that honours â—…m by trusting him will honour him by praying and he that honours him by prayer shall honour him by praises hee â—…at honours him by praises here shall perfect his praises in heaven and this will quit the labour of setting and keeâ—…ing the soule in tune this trading with God is the richest trade in the world when we returne praises to him 〈◊〉 returnes new favours to us and so an everlasting ever-encreasing intercourse betwixt God and the soule is maintained David here resolved to praise God â—…use hee had assurance of such a deâ—…rance as would yeeld him a â—…ound of praising him Praising of God may well be called â—…ense because as it is sweet in it selfe and sweet to God so it sweetens all that comes from us Love and Ioy are sweet in themselves though those whom wee love and joy in should not know of our affection nor returne the like but wee cannot love and joy in God but hee will delight in us when we neglect the praising of God we lose both the comforts of Gods love and our owne too It is a spirituall judgement to want oâ—… lose the sight or sense of Gods favours for it is a sign of want of spirituall life or at least livelinesse it shewes wee are not yet in the state of those whom God hath chosen to set forth the riches of his glory upon When we consider that if we answer not kindnesse and favour shewed unto us by men we are esteemed unworthy of respect as having sinned against the bond of humane society and love wee cannot but much more take shame to our selves when wee consider the disproportion of our carriage and unkind behaviour towards God when in stead of being temples of his praise wee become graves of his benefits what a vanity is this in our nature to stand upon exactnesse of justice in answering petty curtesies of men and yet to passe by the substantiall favours of God without scarce taking notice of them the best breeding is to acknowledge greatest respects where they are most due and to think that if unkindnesse and rudenesse be a sinne in civility it is much more in Religion the greatest danger of unthankfulnesse is in the greatest matter of all if wee arrogate any spirituall strength to our selves in spirituall actions wee commit either sacriledge in robbing God of his due or mockerie by praising him for that which we hold to be of our selves if injustice be to be condemned in man much more in denying God his due Religion being the first due It takes much from thankfulnesse when we have common conceits of peculiar favours praise is not comely in the mouth of fooles Godloves no blind sacrifice We should therefore have wisdome and judgement not onely to know upon what grounds to be thankfull but in what order by discerning what be the best and first favours whence the rest proceed and which adde a worthiness to all the rest it is good to see blessings as they issue from grace and mercy It much commends any blessing to see the love and favour of God in it which is more to be valued then the blessing it selfe as it much commends any thing that comes from us when we put a respect of thankfulnesse and love to God upon it and if we observe we shall find the unkindnesse of others to us is but a correction of our unkindnesse to God In praising God it is not good to delay but take advantage of the freshnesse of the blessing what we adde to delay we take from thankfulnesse and withall lose the prime and first fruits of our affections It is
advenâ—…re we may well looke for a returne 2. It is a signe God hath heard our prayers when hee stirres up thankfulâ—…e aforehand upon assurance thankfulnesse cannot be without either the â—…ce of God by which we are thankâ—…ll or some taste of the things we are thankfull for God often accepts the prayer when hee doth not grant the thing and will give us thereby occasion of thanksgiving for his wise care in changing one blessing for another fitter for us God regards my prayers when 〈◊〉 prayer my heart is wrought to that frame which he requires that is an humble subjection to him from an acknowledgement of my wants and his fulnesse There is nothing stirred up in our hearts by the Spirit no not so much as a gracious desire but God will answer it if we have a spirit to waite 3. We may know God hath accepted our prayer wheÌ„ he makes the way easie plain after prayer by a gracious providence when the course of things begin to change and we meete with comforts in stead of former crosses and finde our hearts quieted and encouraged against what we most feared 4. Likewise earnestnesse in prayer is a signe God heares our prayers as fire kindled from heaven sheweth God accepts the sacrifice the ground of prevailing by our prayer is that they are put up in a gracious name and for persons in favour and dictated by Gods owne spirit they work in the strength of the blessed Trinity not their owne giving God the glory of all his excellencies It is Gods direction to call upon him in trouble it is his promise to deliver and then both his direction and promise that we shall glorifie him When troubles stirre up prayer Gods answer to them will stirre up praises David when 〈◊〉 saith I shall praise God presupposes â—…d would deliver him that he might â—…ve ground of praising his name And 〈◊〉 knew God would deliver him beâ—…use as from faith he had prayed for deliverance so hee knew it was the order of Gods dealing to revive after drooping and refresh after fainting God knowes otherwise that our spirits would faile before him A thankfull disposition is a speciall â—…lp in an afflicted condition for thankfulnesse springs from love and love rejoyâ—… in suffering Thankfulnesse raises â—…e soule higher then it selfe it is a traâ—…g with God whereby as we by him â—…o be gaines by us Therefore the Saints â—…d this as a motive to God that hee would grant their desires because the â—…ing praise him and not the dead If God expect praise from us sure he will â—…t us into a condition of praise Unthankfulnesse is a sinne detestable â—…th to God and men and the lesse puâ—…hment it receives from humane lawes the more it is punished inwardâ—… by secret shame and outwardly by publique hatred if once it prove notorious When Gods arrests come forth foâ—… denying him his tribute he chiefly eyeâ—… an unthankfull heart and hates all sinne the worse as there is more unthankfulnesse in it the neglect of kindnesse is taken most unkindly Why should we load God with injuries that loadeth uâ—… with his blessings who would requiâ—…e good with evill Such mens mercies will prove at last so many inditements against them I beseech you therefore labour to be men of praises If in any duty wee may expect assistance we may in this that altogether concernes Gods glory the more we praise God the more we shall praise him When God by grace enlarges the will he intends to give the deede Gods children wherein their wilâ—… are conformable to Gods will are sure to have them fulfilled In a fruitfull ground a man will sow his best seed God intends his owne glory in every mercy and he that praises him glorifies him When our wills therefore cary us 〈◊〉 that which God wills above all wee â—…y well expect he will satisfie our deâ—…es The living God is a living founâ—…ine never drawne dry he hath never â—…one so much for us but hee can and will doe more If there be no end of our praises there shall be no end of his goodnesse no way of thriving like to 〈◊〉 By this meanes we are sure never 〈◊〉 be very miserable how can he bee dejected that by a sweet communion with God sets himselfe in heaven nay â—…keth his heart a kinde of heaven A Temple a holy of holies wherein Incense 〈◊〉 offered unto God It is the sweetest â—…anch of our Priestly office to offer â—…p these daily sacrifices It is not only â—…e beginning but a further entrance 〈◊〉 our heaven upon earth and shall bee â—…e day our whole imployment for eâ—…r Praise is a just and due tribute for all â—…s blessings for what else especially â—…e the best favours of God call for at â—…r hands How doe all creatures â—…aise God but by our mouthes It is a debt alwayes owing and alwayes paying and the more we pay the more we shall owe upon the due discharge of this debt the soule will finde much peace A thankfull heart to God for his blessings is the greatest blessing of all Were it not for a few gracious soules what honour should God have of the rest of the unthankfull world which should stirre us up the more to be trumpets of Gods praises in the midst of his enemies because this in some sort hath a prerogative above our praising God in heaven for there God hath no enemies to dishonour him This is a duty that none can except against because it is especially a work of the heart All cannot shew their thankfulnesse in giving or doing great matters but all may expresse the willingnesse of their hearts All within 〈◊〉 may praise his holy name though wee have little or nothing without us and that within us is the thing God chiefly requires Our heart is the Altar on which wee offer this Incense God lookes not to quantity but to proporâ—…ion he accepts a mite where there is â—…o more to be had But how shall we be enabled to this great â—…y Enter into a deep consideration of Gods â—…rs past present and to come think of the greatnesse and suteablenesse of them 〈◊〉 our condition the seasonablenesse â—…d necessity of them every way unto 〈◊〉 Consider how miserable our life â—…re without them even without â—…mon favours but as for spirituall â—…ours that make both our naturall â—…d civill condition comfortable our â—…y life were death our light were â—…nesse without these In all favours â—…ke not of them so much as Gods â—…cy and love in Christ which sweeâ—… them Thinke of the freenesse of 〈◊〉 love and the smallnesse of thy own â—…rts How many blessings doth God â—…tow upon us above our deserts yea â—…e our desires nay above our very â—…ghts He had thoughts of love to 〈◊〉 when wee had no thoughts of our â—…es What had we been if God had not been good unto us How many blessings hath
in him If we will not trust in salvation what will we trust in and if salvation it self cannot save us what can out of salvation there is nothing but destruction which those that seeke it any where out of God are sure to meet with How pittifull then is their case who goe to a destroyer for salvation that seeke for help from hell Here also we see to whom to return praise in all our deliverances even to the God of our salvation The virgin Mary was stirred up to magnifie the Lord but why Her spirit rejoyced in God her Saviour Whosoever is the instrument of any good yet salvation is of the Lord whatsoever brings it hee sends it Hence in their holy feasts for any deliverance the cup they drank of was called the Cup of salvation and therefore David when he summons his thoughts what to render unto God hee resolves upon this to take the Cup of salvation But alwayes remember this that when we thinke of God as salvation wee must thinke of him as hee is in Christ to his For so every thing in God is saving even his most terrible attributes of justice and power out of Christ the sweetest things in God are terrible Salvation it selfe will not save out of Christ who is the onely way of salvation called the way the truth and the life David addeth He is the salvations of my countenance that is hee will first speake salvation to my soule and say I am thy salvation and when the heart is cheered which is as it were the Sâ—… of this little world the beames of that joy will shine in the countenance True joy begins 〈◊〉 the center and so passeth to the circumference the outward man The countenance is as the glasse of the soul wherein you may see the naked face of the soule according as the severall affections thereof stand In the coutenance of an understanding creature you may see more then a bare countenance The spirit of one man may see the countenance of anothers inner man in his outward countenance which hath a speech of its owne and declares what the heart saith and how it is affected But how comes God to be the salvation of our countenance Answ. I answer God onely graciously â—…nes in the face of Jesus Christ which 〈◊〉 with the eye of faith beholding receive those beames of his grace and reâ—…ct them backe againe God shineth â—…on us first and we shine in that light â—…f his countenance upon us The joy of salvation especially of spirituall and â—…all salvation is the onely true joy all other salvations end at last in destruction and are no further comfortable then they issue from Gods saving love God will have the body partake with the soule as in matter of griefe so in matter of joy the lanthorne shines in the light of the Candle within Againe God brings forth the joy of the heart into the countenance for the further â—…eading and multiplying of joy to others Next unto the sight of the sweet countenance of God is the beholding of the cheerefull countenance of a Christian friend rejoycing from true grounds Whence it is that the joy of one becomes the joy of maâ—… and the joy of many meet in one by which meanes as many lights together make the greater light so many lightsome spirits make the greater light of spirit and so God receiveth the more praise which makes him so much to delight in the prosperity of his children Hence it is that in any deliverance of Gods people the righteous doe compasse them about to know what God hath done for their soules and keep a spirituall Feast with them in partaking of their joy And the godly have cause to joy in the deliverance of other Christians because they suffered in their afflictions and it may be in their sinnes the cause of them which made them somewhat ashamed Whence it is that Davids great desire was that those who feared God might not be ashamed because of him insinuating that those who feare Gods name are ashamed of the falls of Gods people Now when God delivers them this reproach is removed and those that had part in their sorow have part in their joy Againe God will have salvation so open that it shall appeare in the countenance of his people the more to daunt and vexe the enemies Cainish hypocrites hang downe their heads when God lifts up the countenance of their brethren when the countenance of Gods children cleares up then their enemies hearts and looks are cloudy Ierusalems joy is Babylons sorow It it with the Church her enemies as it is with a ballance the scales whereof when one is up the other is downe Whilst Gods people are under a cloud carnall people insult over them as if they were men deserted of God Wherupon they hang down their heads the rather because they think that by reason of their sins Christ his Religion will suffer with them Hence Davids care was that the miseries of Gods people should not be told in Gath. The chief reason why the enemies of the Church gnash their teeth at the sight of Gods gracious dealing is that they take the rising of the Church to bee a presage of their ruine A lesson which Hamans wife had learned This is a comfort to us in these times of Iacobs trouble and Zions sorrow The captivity of the Church shall returne as rivers in the South Therefore the Church may say Reioyce not over me O my enemy though I am fallen I shall rise againe Though Christs Spouse be now as black as the Pots yet shee shall be white as the Dove If there were not great dangers where were the glory of Gods great deliverance The Church at length will be as a Cup of trembling and as a burthensome stone The blood of the Saints cry their enemies violence cryes the prayers of the Church cry for deliverance and vengeance upon the enemies of the Church and as that importunate widow will at length prevaile Shall the importunity of one poore woman prevaile with an unrighteous Iudge and shall not the prayers of many that cry unto the righteous God take effect If there were Armies of Prayers as there are Armies of men wee should see the streame of things turned another way A few Mosesâ—… the Mount would doe more good then many souldiers in the valley If wee would lift up our hearts and hands to God he would lift up our countenance But alas wee either pray not or crosse our owne prayers for want of love to the truth of God and his people It is wee that keepe Antichrist and his faction alive to plague the unthankfull world The strength he hath is not from his owne cause but from our want of zeale we hinder those Halâ—…luiahs by private brabbles coldnesse and indifferency in Religion The Church begins at this time a little to lift up
These be the â—…vours I waite for at thy hand O visite 〈◊〉 with the salvation of thy chosen O remember mee with the favour of thy people that I may see the good of thy â—…sen Whilest the soule is thus exerciâ—…d more sweetnesse falls upon the will 〈◊〉 affections whereby they are drawne â—…ll neerer unto God The soule is in a â—…ting and a thriving condition For â—…d delights to shew himselfe gracious 〈◊〉 those that strive to be well perswaâ—…d of him concerning his readinesse 〈◊〉 shew mercy to all that look towards 〈◊〉 in Christ. In worldly things how 〈◊〉 wee cherish hopes upon little â—…ounds if there shineth never so little â—…pe of gaine or preforment wee make â—…er it Why then should we forsake â—…owne mercy which God offers to be our owne if we will embrace it having such certain grounds for our hope to rest on It was the policie of the servants of Benhadad to watch if any word of comfort fell from the King of Israel and when hee named Benhadad his brother they catched presently at that and cheered themselves Faith hath a catching quality at whatsoever is neere to lay hold on Like the branches of the vine it windeth about that which is next and stayes it selfe upon it spreading further and further still If nature taught Benhadads servants to lay hold upon any word of comfort that fell from the mouth of a cruell King Shall not grace teach Gods children to lye in wait for any token that hee shall shew for good to them How should we stretch forth the armes of our faith to him that stretcheth out his armes all the day long to a rebellious people God will never shut his bosome against those that in an humble obedience flye unto him wee cannot conceive too graciously of God Can wee have a fairer offer then for God in Christ to make over himselfe â—…to us which is more then if hee should make over a thousand worlds Therefore our chiefe care should bee first by faith to make this good and â—…hen to make it usefull unto us by liâ—…ing upon it as our chiefest portion which wee shall doe 1. By proving God to be our God in particular 2. By improving of it in all the passages of our lives CHAP. XXXI Meanes of proving and evidencing to our soules that God is our God NOw we prove it to our soules that God is ours when we take him at his offer when wee bring nothing but a sense of our owne emptinesse with us and a good conceit of his faithfulnesse and ability to doe us good when we answer God in the particular passages of salvation which we cannot doe till â—…e begins first unto us Therefore if â—…e be Gods it is a certaine signe that God is ours If we chuse him wee may conclude he hath chosen us first If wee love him we may know that he hath loved us first If we apprehend him it is because he hath apprehended us first Whatsoever affection we shew to God it is but a reflection of his first to us If cold and dark bodies have light and heat in them it is because the Sun hath shined upon them first Mary answers not Rabboni till Christ said Mary to her If we say to God I am thine it is because he hath first said unto us thou art mine after which the voice of the faithfull soule is I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine We may know Gods minde to us in heaven by the returne of our hearts upwards againe to him Onely as the reflected beames are weaker then the direct so our affections in their returne to God are farre weaker then his love falling upon us God will be to us whatsoever wee make him by our faith to be when by grace we answer his condition of trusting then he becomes ours to use for our good 2. Wee may know God to be 〈◊〉 God when wee pitch and plant all our happinesse in him when the desires of our soules are towards him and wee place all our contentment in him As this word my is a terme of appropriatiâ—… springing from a speciall faith so it is a word of love and peculiar affection shewing that the soule doth repose and rest it selfe quietly and securely upon God Thus David proves God to bee his God by early seeking of him by thirsting and longing after his presence and that upon good reason because Gods loving kindnesse was better to him then life This he knew would satisfie his soule as â—…ith marrow and fatnesse So S. Paul proved Christ to be his Lord by accounting all things else as dung and drosse in â—…parison of him Then we make God our God and set a Crowne of Majesty upon his head when we set up a Throne for him in our hearts where selfe-love before had set up the creature above him when the heart is so unloosed from the world that it is ready to part with any thing for Gods sake giving him now the supremacy in our hearts and bringing downe every high thought in captivity to him making him our trust our love our joy our delight our feare our all and whatsoever we esteem or affect else to esteem and affect it under him in him and for him When we cleave to him above all depending upon him as our chiefe good and contenting our selves in him as all-sufficient to give our soules fit and full satisfaction When we resigne up our selves to his gracious government to doe and suffer what he will offering our selves and all our spirituall services as sacrifices to him When faith brings God into the soule as ours we not onely love him but love him dearely making it appeare that when wee are at good tearmes with God we are at a point for other things How many are there that will adventure the losse of the love of God for a thing of nothing and redeeme the favour of men with the losse of Gods Certaine it is whatsoever we esteeme or affect most that whatsoever it be in it selfe yet we make it our God The best of us all may take shame to our selves herein in that we doe not give God his due place in us but set up some Idoll or other in our hearts above him When the soule can without hypocrisie say My God it ingageth us to universall and unlimited obedience we shall be ambitious of doing that which may be acceptable and well pleasing to him and therefore this is prefixed as a ground before the Commandements enforcing obedience I am the Lord thy God therefore thou shalt have no other Gods before me whomsoever else wee they it must be in the Lord because wee see a beam of Gods authority in them and it is no prejudice to any inferiour authority to preferre Gods authority before it in case of difference one from the other When we know we are a peculiar people wee cannot but bee Zealous of good
whereby the soule is steeled and preserved immoveable in all conditions whether present or to come and is not changed in changes And why but because the spirit knows that God on whom it rests is unchangeable We our selves are as quick-silver unsetled and moveable till the spirit of constancie fixe us We see David sets out God in glorious termes borrowed from all that is strong in the creature to shew that hee had great reason to be constant and cleaving to him He is my rock my Buckler the horn of my salvation my high Tower c. God is a rock so deep that no flouds can undermine so high that no waves can reach though they rise never so high and rage never so much When wee stand upon this rock that is higher then wee wee may over-looke all waves swelling and foaming and breaking themselves but not hurting us And thereupon may triumphantly conclude with the Apostle That neither height nor depth shall ever separate us from the love of God Whatsoever is in the creature he found in his God and more aboundant the soule cannot with an eye of faith look upon God in Christ but it will be in its degree as God is quiet and constant the spirit aimeth at such a condition as it beholdeth in God towards it selfe This constancy is upheld by endeavouring to keepe a constant sight of God for want of which it oft fares with us like men that having a City or Tower in their eye passing through uneven grounds hils and dales sometimes get the sight thereof sometimes lose it and sometimes recover it againe though the Tower be still where it was and they neerer to it thē they were at first So it is oft with our uneven spirits when once wee have a sight of God upon any present discouragement wee let fall our spirits and lose the sight of him untill by an eye of faith we recover it againe and see him still to be where he was at first The cherishing of passions take away the sight of God as clouds take away the sight of the Sun though the Sunne be still where it was and shineth as much as ever it did We use to say when the body of the Moon is betwixt the Sunne and us that the Sunne is eclipsed when indeed not the Sunne but the earth is darkned the Sun loseth not one of its glorious beames God is oft neere us as he was unto Iacob and we are not aware of it God was neere the holy man Asaph when hee thought him far off I am continually with thee saith hee thou holdest me by my right hand Mary in her weeping passion could not see Christ before her hee seemed a stranger unto her So long as we can keep our eye upon God we are above the reach of sin or any spirituall danger CHAP. XXXIV Of confirming this trust in God Seeke it of God himselfe Sins hinder not nor Satan Conclusion and Soliloquie § 1. BUt to returne to the drawing out of our trust by waiting Our estate in this world is still to waite and happy it is that we have so great things to wait for but our comfort is that wee have not onely a furniture of graces one strengthening another as stones in an arch but likewise GOD vouchsafeth some drops of the sweetnesse of the things wee wayte for both to encrease our desire of those good things as likewise to enable us more comfortably to wayte for them And though we should die wayting onely cleaving to the promise with little or no taste of the good promised yet this might comfort us that there is a life to come that is a life of sight and sense and not onely of taste but of fulnesse and that for evermore Our condition here is to live by faith and not by sight onely to make our living by faith more lively it pleaseth God when he sees fit to encrease our earnest of that we looke for Even here God waytes to be gracious to those that wayte for him And in heaven Christ waytes for us wee art part of his fulnesse it is part of his joy that we shall be where he is he wil not therefore be long without us The blessed Angels and Saints in heaven wayte for us Therefore let us be content as strangers to wayte a while till we come home and then wee shall be for ever with the Lord there is our eternall rest where we shall enjoy both our God and our selves in perfect happinesse being as without need so without desire of the least change When the time of our departure thither comes then we may say as David Enter now my soule into thy rest This is the rest which remaineth for Gods people that is worth the waiting for when we shall rest from all labour of sinne and sorow and lay our heads in the bosome of Christ for ever It stands us therefore upon to get this great Charter more and more confirmed to us that God is our God for it is of everlasting use unto us It first begins at our entring into covenant with God continues not only unto death but entreth into heaven with us As it is our heaven upon earth to enjoy God as ours so it is the very heaven of heaven that there we shall for ever behold him and have communion with him The degrees of manifesting this propriety in God are divers rising one upon another as the light cleares up by little and little till it comes to a perfect day 1. As the ground of all the rest wee apprehend God to be a God of some peculiar persons as favourites above others 2. From hence is stirred up in the soul a restlesse desire that God would discover himselfe so to it as he doth to those that are his that he would visite our soules with the salvation of his chosen 3. Hence followes a putting of the soul upon God an adventuring it selfe on his mercy 4. Upon this God when he seeth fit discovers by his spirit that he is Ours 5. Whence followeth a dependance on him as ours for all things that may cary us on in the way to heaven 6. Courage and boldnesse in setting our selves against whatsoever may oppose us in the way As the three young men in Daniel Our God can deliver us if he will Our God is in heaven c. 7. After which springs a sweet spirituall security whereby the soule is freed from slavish feares and glorieth in God as Ours in all conditions And this is termed by the Apostle not onely assurance but the riches of assurance Yet this is not so cleare and full as it shall be in heaven because some clouds may after arise out of the remainder of corruption which may something over-cast this assurance untill the light of Gods countenance in heaven for ever scatters all There being so great happinesse in this neerenesse betwixt
God and us no wonder if Sathan labour to hinder the same by interposing the guilt and hainousnesse of our sinnes which he knows of themselves will worke a separation But these upon our first serious thought of returning will be removed As they could not hinder our meeting with God so they may cause a strangenesse for a time but not a parting a hiding of Gods countenance but not a banishing of us from it Peter had denied Christ and the rest of the Apostles had left him all alone Yet our Saviour after his Resurrection forgets all former unkindnesses he did not so much as object it to them but sends Mary who her selfe had been a great sinner as an Apostle to the Apostles and that presently to tell them that he was risen his care would have no delay Hee knew they were in great heavinesse for their unkindnesse Though he was now entred into the first degree of his glory yet we see his glory made him not forget his poore Disciples Above all he was most carefull of Peter as deeper in sinne then the rest and therefore deeper in sorow Goe tell Peter he needs most comfort But what is the message that I ascend not to my Father alone but to your Father not to my God onely but to Your God And shall not wee bee bold to say so after Christ hath taught us and put this claime into our mouthes If once we let this hold goe then Sathan hath us where he would every little crosse then dejects us Sathan may darken the joy of our salvation but not take away the God of our salvation David after his crying sinne of murther prayes Restore unto me the Ioy of thy salvation this hee had lost but yet in the same Psalme hee prayes Deliver mee from blood O God thou God of my salvation therefore whatsoever sence reason temptation the law or guilt upon conscience shall say Nay however God himselfe by his strange cariage to us may seeme to be yet let us cast our selves upon him and not suffer this plea to be wrung from us but shut our eyes to all and look upon God All-gracious and All-sufficient who is the Father the begetter of comfort the God the Creator of consolation not onely of things that may comfort but of the comfort it self conveied through these unto us Who is a God like unto our God that passeth by the sinnes of the remnant of his people This should not bee thought on without admiration and indeed there is nothing so much deserves our wonderment as such mercy of such a God to such as we Since God hath avouched us to be his peculiar people let us avouch him and since he hath past his word for us let us passe our words for him that we will be his and stand for him and to our power advance his cause Thus David out of an enlarged spirit saith Thou art my God and I will praise thee thou art MY God and I will exalt thee Whatsoever wee engage for God wee are sure to bee gainers by The true Christian is the wisest Merchant and makes the best adventure He may stay long but is sure of a safe and a rich returne A godly man is most wise for himselfe We enter on Religion upon these tearmes to part with our selves and all when God shall call for it §. 2. God much rejoyceth in sinners converted as monuments of his mercy and because the remembrance of their former sinnes wher 's them on to bee more earnest in his service especially after they have felt the sence of Gods love they even burn with a holy desire of honouring him whom before they dishonoured and stand not upon doing or suffering any thing for him but cheerefully embrace all occasions of expressing obedience God hath more worke from them then from others why then should any be discouraged Neither is it sinnes after our conversion that nullifie this claime of God to be Ours For this is the grand difference betwixt the two covenants that now God will bee mercifull to our sins if our hearts by faith be sprinkled with the blood of Christ. Though one sinne was enough to bring condemnation yet the free gift of grace in Christ is of many offences unto justification And we have a sure ground for this for the righteousnesse of Christ is Gods righteousnesse and God will thus glorifie it that it shall stand good to those that by faith apply it against their daily sinnes even till at once we cease both to live and sin For this very end was the Son of God willingly made sin that we might be freed from the same And if all our sins laid upō Christ could not take away Gods love frō him shal they take away Gods love from us when by Christs blood our souls are purged from them O mercy of all mercies that when we were once his and gave away our selves for nothing and so became neither his nor our owne that then hee would vouchsafe to become ours and make us his by such a way as all the Angels in heaven stand wondring at even his Sonnes not onely taking our nature and miserable condition but our 〈◊〉 upon him that that being done away wee might through Christ have boldnesse with God as ours who is now in heaven appearing there for us untill he brings us home to himselfe and presents us to his Father for his for ever Thinke not then onely that wee are Gods and he Ours but from what love and by what glorious meanes this was brought to passe What can possibly disable this claime when God for this end hath founded a covenant of peace so strongly in Christ that sin it selfe cannot disanull it Christ was therefore manifest that he might destroy this greatest worke of the devill Forgivenesse of sins now is one chiefe part of our portion in God It is good therefore not to pore and plod so much upon sinne and vilenesse by it as to forget that mercy that rejoyceth over judgement If wee once be Gods though wee drinke this deadly poison it shall not hurt us God will make a medicine an antidote of it and for all other evills the fruit of them is by Gods sanctifying the same the taking away sinne out of our natures so that lesser evils are sent to take away the greater If God could not over-rule evils to his owne ends hee would never suffer them §. 3. I have stood the longer upon this because it is the one thing needfull the one thing wee should desire that this one God in whom and from whom is all good should be ours All promises of all good in the new covenant spring first from this that God will be ours and we shall be his What can we have more and what is in the world lesse that will content us long or stand us in any stead especially at that time when all must be taken from us Let us
put up all our desires for all things we stand in need of in this right wee have to God in Christ who hath brought God and us together hee can deny us nothing that hath not denied us himselfe If he be moved from hence to doe us good that wee are his Let us be moved to fetch all good from him on the same right that he is ours The perswasion of this will free us from all pusillanimity lowlinesse and narrownesse of spirit when wee shall think that nothing can hurt us but it must break through God first If God give quietnesse who shall make trouble If God be with us who can be against us This is that which puts comfort into all other comforts that maketh any burthen light This is alwayes ready for all purposes Our God is a present and a seasonable help All evills are at his command to be gone and all comforts at his command to come It is but goe comfort goe peace to such a mans heart cheere him raise him Go salvation rescue such and such a soul in distresse So said and so done presently Nay with reverence be it spoken so farre doth God passe over himselfe unto us that he is content himselfe to be commanded by us Concerning the worke of my hands command you me lay the care and charge of that upon mee He is content to be out-wrastled and over-powred by a spirit of saith as in Iacob and the woman of Canaan to be as it were at our service Hee would not have us want any thing wherein hee is able to help us And what is there wherein God cannot help us If Christians knew the power they have in heaven and earth what were able to stand against them What wonder is it if faith overcome the world if it overcomes him that made the world that faith should bee Almighty that hath the Almighty himselfe ready to use all his power for the good of them to whom he hath given the power of himselfe unto Having therefore such a living fountaine to draw from such a center to rest in having all in one and that one Ours why should we knocke at any other doore we may goe boldly to God now as made ours being bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh Wee may goe more comfortably to God then to any Angell or Saint God in the second person hath vouchsafed to take our nature upon him but not that of Angells Our God and our Man our God-Man is ascended into the high Court of heaven to his and our God cloathed with our nature Is there any more able and willing to plead our cause or to whom wee may trust businesses with then he who is in heaven for all things for us appertaining to God It should therefore be the chiefe care of a Christian upon knowledge of what he stands in need of to know where to supply all It should raise up a holy shame and indignation in us that there should be so much in God who is so neere unto us in Christ and wee make so little use of him What good can any thing doe us if we use it not God is ours to use and yet men will rather use shifts and unhallowed pollicies then be beholding to God who thinkes himselfe never more honoured by us then when we make use of him If we beleeve any thing will doe us good we naturally make out for the obtaining of it If we beleeve any thing will hurt us we study to decline it And certaine it is if wee beleeved that so much good were in God we would then apply our selves to him and him to our selves whatsoever vertue is in any thing it is conveyed by application and touching of it that whereby we touch God is our faith which never toucheth him but it drawes vertue from him upon the first touch of faith spirituall life is begun It s a bastard in nature to beleeve any thing can worke upon another without spirituall or bodily touch And it is a Monster in Religion to beleeve that any saving good will issue from God if we turne from him and shut him out and our hearts be unwilling Where unbeleefe is it bindes up his power Where faith is there it is between the soule and God as betwixt the iron and the Loadstone a present closing and drawing of one to the other This is the beginning of eternall life so to know God the Father and his Sonne Christ as thereby to embrace him with the armes of faith and love as Ours by the best title he can make us who is truth it selfe Since then our happinesse lies out of our selves in God we should goe out of our selves for it and first get into Christ and so unto God in him and then labour by the spirit of the Father and the Sonne to maintaine acquaintance with both that so God may be Ours not onely in covenant but in Com◅anion hearkning what he will say to us and opening our spirits disclosing our wants consulting and advising in all our distresses with him By keeping this acquaintance with God peace and all good is conveyed to us Thereafter as we maintain this communion further with him wee out of love study to please him by exact walking according to his commands then we shall feele encrease of peace as our care encreaseth then he will come and s◅p with us and be free in his refreshing of us Then he will shew himselfe more and more to us and manifest still a further degree of presence in joy and strength untill communion in grace ends in communion in glory But wee must remember as David doth here to desire and delight in God himselfe more then in any thing that is Gods It was a signe of S. Pauls pure love to the Corinthians when he said I seeke not yours but you We should seeke for no blessing of God so much as for himselfe What is there in the world of equall goodnes to draw us away frō our God If to preserve the dearest thing we have in the world we breake with God God will take away the comfort we look to have by it and it will prove but a dead contentment if not a torment to us Whereas if we care to preserve communion with God we shall bee sure to finde in him whatsoever we deny for him honor riches pleasures friends all so much the sweeter by how much wee have them more immediately from the spring head We shall never finde God to be our God more then when for making of him to be so we suffer any thing for his sake Wee enjoy never more of him then then At the first we may seeke to him as rich to supply our wants as a Physitian to cure our soules and bodies but here wee must not rest till wee come to rejoyce in him as our friend and from thence rise to an admiration of him for his owne excellencies that being so high
with a mutiny in his understanding betweene faith and distrust and therefore hee was forced to rouze up his soule so oft to trust in God which shews that carnall reason did solicite him to discontent and had many colourable reasons for it Secondly a man indued with common grace is rather a patient then an agent in conflicts the light troubles him against his will as discovering and reproving him and hindring his sinfull contentments his heart is more byased another way if the light would let him but a godly man labours to helpe the light and to worke his heart to an opposition against sinne he is an agent as well as a patient As David here doth not suffer disquieting but is disquieted with himselfe for being so A godly man is an agent in opposing his corruption and a patient in induring of it whereas a naturall man is a secret agent in and for his corruptions and a patient in regard of any helpe against them A good man suffers evill and doth good a naturall man suffers good and doth evill Thirdly A conscience guided by common light withstands distempers most by outward meanes but David here fetcheth helpe from the Spirit of God in him and from trust in God Nature works from within so doth the new nature David is not onely something disquieted and something troubled for being disquieted but sets himselfe throughly against his distempers hee complaines and expostulates hee censures and chargeth his soule The other if hee doth any thing at all yet it is faintly he seeks out his corruption as a coward doth his enemie loth to finde him and more loth to encounter with him Fourthly David withstands sinne constantlie and gets ground Wee see here he gives not over at the first but presseth againe and againe Nature works constantly so doth the new nature The conflict in the other is something forced as taking part with the worser side in himselfe good things have a weak or rather no party in him bad things a strong and therefore hee soone gives over in this holy quarrell Fiftly David is not discouraged by his foiles but sets himselfe afresh against his corruptions with confidence to bring them under Whereas he that hath but a common work of the Spirit after some foiles lets his enemy prevaile more and more and so despaires of victory and thinks it better to fit still then to rise and take a new fall by which meanes his later end is worse then his beginning for beginning in the Spirit he ends in the flesh A godly man although upon some foile he may for a time bee discouraged yet by holy indignation against sinne he renues his force and sets afresh upon his corruptions and gathers more strength by his falls and groweth into more acquaintance with his owne heart and Satans malice and Gods strange waies in bringing light out of darknesse Sixtly An ordinary Christian may be disquieted for being disquieted as David was but then it is onely as disquiet hath vexation in it but David here striveth against the unquietnesse of his spirit not onely as it brought vexation with it but as it hindred communion with his God In sinne there is not onely a guilt binding over the soule to Gods judgement and thereupon filling the soule with inward feares and terrors but in sinne likewise there is 1. a contrarietie to Gods holy nature and 2. a contrariety to the Divine nature and image stamped upon our selves 3. a weakning and disabling of the soule from good and 4. a hindring of our former communion with GOD sinne being in its nature a leaving of God the fountaine of all strength and comfort and cleaving to the creature hereupon the soule having tasted the sweetnesse of GOD before is now grieved and this grief is not onely for the guilt and trouble that sinne drawes after it but from an inward Antipathy and contrariety betwixt the sanctified soule and sinne It hates sinne as sinne as the onely bane and poyson of renewed nature and the onely thing that breedes strangenesse betwixt God the soule And this hatred is not so much from discourse and strength of reason as from nature it selfe rising presently against its enemie The Lambe presently shuns the Wolfe from a contrariety Antipathies wait not for any strong reason but are exercised upon the first presence of a contrary object Seventhly hereupon ariseth the last difference that because the soule hateth sinne as sinne therefore it opposeth it universally and eternally in all the powers of the soule and in all actions inward and outward issuing from those powers David regarded no iniquity in his heart but hated every evil way The desires of his soule were that it might be so directed that he might keepâ—… Gods law And if there had beene no binding law yet there was such a sweet sympathy and agreement betwixt his soule and Gods truth that he delighted in it above all naturall sweetnesse Hence it is that Saint Iohn saith He that is borâ—… of God cannot sinne that is so farre forth as he is borne of God his new nature will not suffer him he cannot lie he cannot deceive he cannot be earthly minded hee cannot but love and delight in the persons things that are good There is not onely a light in the understanding but a new life in the will and all other faculties of a godly man what good his knowledge discovereth that his will makes choice of and his heart loveth What ill his understanding discovers that his will hateth and abstaines from But in a man not throughly converted the will and affections are bent otherwise he loves not the good he doth nor hates the evill hee doth not Therefore let us make a narrow search into our soules upon what grounds wee oppose sinne and fight Gods battells A common Christian is not cast downe because hee is disquieted in Gods service or for his inward failings that he cannot serve God with that liberty freedome he desires c But a godly man is troubled for his distempers because they hinder the comfortable intercourse betwixt God and his soule and that spirituall composednesse and Sabbath of spirit which hee enjoyed before and desires to enjoy againe Hee is troubled that the waters of his soule are troubled so that the image of Christ shines not in him as it did before It grieves him to finde an abatement in affection in love to God a distraction or coldnesse in performing duties any doubting of Gods favour any discouragement from dutie c. A godly mans comforts and grievances are hid from the world naturall men are strangers to them Let this be a rule of discerning our estates how wee stand affected to the distempers of our hearts If wee finde them troublesome it is a ground of comfort unto us that our Spirits are ruled by a higher spirit and that there is a principle of that life in us
others in that which is generally thought to make us happy and esteemed amongst men if wee bee not the onely men yet wee will bee somebody in the world some thing we will haue to bee highly esteemed for wherein if we be crossed we count it the greatest misery that can befall us And which is worse a corrupt desire of being great in the opinion of others creepes into the profession of religion if we live in those places wherein it brings credit or gaine men will sacrifice their very lives for vaine glory It is an evidence a man lives more to opinion and reputation of others then to Conscience when his griefe is more for being disappointed of that approbation which hee expects from men then for his miscarriage towards GOD. It marres all in religion when wee goe about heavenly things with earthly affections and seeke not CHRIST iâ—… Christ but the world What is Popery but an artificiall frame of meâ—… braine to please mens imaginations by outward state and pompe of Cereâ—…nies like that golden image of Nebuchâ—…nezar wherein hee pleased himselfe so that to have uniformity in worshipping the same he compelled all â—…der paine of death to fall downe before it this makes superstitious persons alwaies cruell because superstitious devises aâ—… the brats of our owne imagination which we strive for more then for the purity of Gods worship hence it is likewise that superstitious persons aâ—… restlesse as the woman of Samaria iâ—… their owne spirits as having no bottome but fancie in stead of faith §. 2. Now the reason why imagiâ—… works so upon the soule is hee ariseâ—… stirres up the affections answerable 〈◊〉 the good or ill which it apprehends and our affections stirre the humors of the body so that oftentimes both our soules and bodies are troubled hereby Things worke upon the soule in this order 1. Some object is presented 2. Then it is apprehended by imagination as good and pleasing or as evill and hurtfull 3. If good the desire is â—…ried to it with delight if evill it is rejected with distast and so our affections are stirred up sutably to our apprehension of the object 4. Affections stiâ—… up the spirits 5. The spirits raise the humours and so the whole man becomes moved and oftentimes â—…pered this falleth out by reason of â—…e Sympathy betweene the soule and body whereby what offendeth one reâ—…deth to the hurt of the other And we see conceived troubles have the same effect upon us as true Iacob was as much troubled with the imagination of his sonnes death as if hee had been dead indeed imagination though it bee an empty windy thing yet it hath reall effects Supertious persons are as much troubled for negleâ—…ing any voluntarie service of maâ—… iâ—…vention as if they had offended agaiâ—… the direct commandement of God 〈◊〉 superstition breeds false feares and 〈◊〉 feare brings true vexation it trâ—… formes God to an Idoll imagining liâ—… to be pleased with whatsoever pleâ—… our selves when as wee take it ill 〈◊〉 those who are under us should take â—…rection from themselves and not frâ—… us in that which may content us â—…perstition is very busie but all in vâ—… in vaine they worship mee saith God 〈◊〉 how can it choose but vexe and 〈◊〉 quiet men when they shall take a grâ—… deale of paines in vaine and whiâ—… worse to displease most in that whâ—… in they thinke to please most Goâ—… blasteth all devised service with 〈◊〉 demand Who required these thingâ—… your hands It were better for 〈◊〉 aske our selves this question beâ—… hand Who acquired this Why doe 〈◊〉 trouble our selves about that which we 〈◊〉 have no thanke for Wee should not bring God downe to our owne imagâ—…nations but raise our imaginations up to God Now imagination hurteth us 1. By false representations 2. By preventing reason and so usurping a censure of things before our judgements try them whereas the office of imaginatiâ—… is to minister matter to our understanding to worke upon and not to leade it much lesse misleade it in any thing 3. By forging matter out of it selfe without ground the imaginarie grievances of our lives are more then the reall 4. As it is an ill instrument of the understanding to devise vanity and mischiefe §. 3. The way to cure this malady in us is 1. To labour to bring these risings of our soules into the obedience of Gods truth and Spirit for imagination of it selfe if ungoverned is a wilde and a ranging thing it wrongs not onely the frame of Gods worke in us setting the baser part of a man above the highâ—…r but it wrongs likewise the worke of God in the creatures and every thing else for it shapes things as it selfe pleaseth it maketh evill good if it pleaseth the senses and good evill if it be dâ—… gerous and distastfull to the outâ—… man which cannot but breed an â—…quiet and an unsetled soule As if 〈◊〉 were a god it can tell good and evill at its pleasure it sets up and pulls doâ—… the price of what it listeth By reaâ—… of the distemper of imagination the life of many is little else but a dream Many good men are in a long dreame of 〈◊〉 sery and many bad men in as longâ—… dreame of happinesse till the tiâ—… awaking come and all because they 〈◊〉 too much led by appearances and as iâ—… a dreame men are deluded with 〈◊〉 joyes and false feares So here wiâ—… cannot but breed an unquiet and 〈◊〉 unsetled soule therefore it is necesâ—… that God by his word and spirit shâ—… erect a government in our heaâ—… 〈◊〉 captivate and order this licentious 〈◊〉 culty 2. Likewise it is good to preâ—… reall things to the soule as the 〈◊〉 riches and true misery of a Christian the true honour and dishonour true beauty and deformity the true noblenesse and debasement of the soule What ever is in the world are but Shadowes of things in comparison of those true realties which Religion affords and why should wee vexe our selves about a vaine shadow The Holy Ghost to prevent further mischiefe by these outward things gives a dangerous report of them calling them vanity unrighteous Mammon entertaine riches thornes yea nothing because though they be not so in themselves yet our imagination over-valuing them they prove so to us upon triall Now knowledge that is bought by triall is often deere bought and therefore God would have us prevent this by a right conceit of things before hand least trusting to vanity wee vanish our selves and trusting to nothing wee become nothing our selves and which is worse worse then nothing 3. Oppose serious consideration against vaine imagination and because our imagination is prone to raise false objects and thereby false conceits and discourses in us Our best way herein is to propound true objects for the minde to worke upon as 1. to consider the greatnesse and goodnesse of Almighty God and his love to us