upon them as upon Heavenly yet they have this advantage that they are present and therefore affect the Sense and the Mind more than things that are better at a distance and therefore we are apt to set up our rest here And this is the reason that even Good Men though they value and prize Grace and the inwaâ—d favour of God yet they commonly love the World a little too much and divide their Affections too equally between God and the World and therefore study and indeavour such a Contemperation that they may hold both And hence it is that God who requires intirely the Heart doth many times make the world bitter to us to make us weary of his Rival that so we may with more Intireness and Integrity set our Hearts upon Him and upon that Everlasting Hope and long after and Integrity set our Hearts upon Him and it and satisfie our selves with the Expectation of it and make it our Treasure and set up our rest upon it and in it And these are some of those many reasons that evidence the Necessity of Afflictions 6. And now we will come to consider these Three matters 1. What Preparations we should use before Afflictions overtake us 2. What should be our Exercise under it 3. What should be our frame of mind in case of Deliverance from it I. And in the first place of the first of these We have seen that it is a Lot to be expected in this World we cannot upon any terms promise our selves an exemption from it nay if we should escape all other Temporal Calamities yet sickness and infirmities of Body will most infallibly overtake us they are part of that black guard that commonly attends death which is the inevitable Lot of the living It concerns us all therefore to be prepared for that which must necessarily sooner or latter be our condition in some kind or other it may be in many it may be in all kinds 1. Therefore the first Expedient Preparatory to Afflictions is this In the time of our Prosperity it must be our care to walk with as much Innocence Watchfulness and Circumspection as can be for it is a most certain truth that the Malignity and Sting and Venome of Affliction is not so much in the things I suffer as in the sense of my former Guilt and Sin No Man is in a better condition to bear Afflictions than he that hath the cleanest Conscience for as any distemper in any part of the Body draws all the mischievous and hurtful humours of the Body to that part so it is a most sure consequent of any manner of Affliction it brings all former Sins to remembrance and calls the thoughts of them together upon such an occasion When Joseph's Brethren were under a strait in Egypt under the threatnings and seeming jealousies of their unknown Brother then comes in the remembrance of their injury to their Brother and it is represented to them with all the aggravations that can be Gen. 42.21 We are verily guilty concerning our Brother in that we saw the anguish of his Soul when he besought us and we would not hear therefore is this distress come upon us Conscience that they had before stifled and injured now takes her time to be even with them and flies upon them when they are in a strait and then she will be heard though in their Prosperity she could not And this Return of the Remembrance of former Sins is the very Gall of Afflictions and that principally upon these two reasons 1. It is that which weakens and impares the strength that should bear them for for the most part all ternal Afflictions they concern the Body or the outward Man whether it be Poverty or Reproach or Sickness or Pain and if for all this the Mind be but free she will be able to bear them pretty well will suggest Reasons for Patience Hopes for Deliverance and Twenty allayes at least to mitigate the present sufferings but when that Mind and Reason and Judgment that should support is likewise wounded and vexed and tormented with the sense of past Sins and the Storms that are within be as violent and turbulent as those without there is nothing to bear up against the Afflictions the Soul it self that should support the outward Man wants support for it self 2. In all external Troubles as it is the Duty so it is the Nature of Man to fly to God and that application possibly gains Relief from it but howsoever it bears up the Man with a convenient strength against them the very liberty of recourse to God gains a Dependance a Hope a Confidence which supports in a very great measure under the Greatest Troubles but this Return of Sins past upon the Conscience and Memory if it doth not wholly deprive yet it doth wonderfully interrupt discourage and divert the Soul from this most admirable expedient When a Man shall have such thoughts as these I am under a very great Affliction either in my Estate Friends Name Body and I know no way to extricate my self but one and that is by application to the Almighty and Merciful God and if I could but do so I were safe but alass the Memory of my former Sins my breach of Covenant with him my frequent Relapses into Sin my Ingratitude to him they fall in upon me and I dare not I know not how I have not the face the confidence to come unto him and so I must lie and sink under as well my Guilt as my Affliction And although this is a very false way of Argumentation and such as is most displeasing to God and derogatory to his high Prerogative of Mercy as well in forgiving as in delivering who hath given to the most hainous Sinner and under the greatest Afflictions a Commission to ask his mercy both to Pardon and to Deliver and that with a Promise of Mercy yet it is most certain that what by our own weakness and what by the Devils subtilty the Remembrance of our past Sins doth most ordinarily make our addresses to God under our Afflictions very difficult Little therefore do people consider in the time of their Prosperity what a stock of Venom and malignity they lay up against an evil day by a dissolute and sinful life Affliction without this most accursed contribution were much more tolerable If thou meanest therefore to make thy Affliction easie keep thy Conscience clean before it comes thou hast then the Strength of thine own Soul to support thee and the liberty of Access to the most Mighty and Gracious God to deliver thee when thou canst in the sincerity of thy Heart with Hezek Isa 38.3 appeal unto God Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in Truth and with a perfect Heart and have done that which is good in thy sight I say with reverence keep God thy Friend in thy Prosperity and thou mayest with confidence resort to him and relie upon him in
Relapses into them Remember the mischiefs they then did thee and let them know they shall do thee no more be most severe and strict against them 5. Make a frequent Vse of thy Deliverance as a singular Preservative against the Power of thy Temptations and Corruptions Deliverance carries in the very apprehension of it these two things 1. A supposition of a former Misery or Visitation 2. A present injoyment of a freedom from that Misery Therefore if any Corruption or Temptation unto Sin sollicite thee improve this consideration to this or the like effect I was lately under the Rack under the Rod under extream Want Imprisonment Disgrace Losses Sickness Sorrows Fears and an imminent expectation of the worst of Evils and though these were sore and sharp Afflictions yet the sense of my former Sins and the importunate restlesness of that Guilt that was contracted from them were more bitter and tormenting than all the rest of my sufferings it was that which was the sting and venome of all my Afflictions and it hath pleased Almighty God to accept of my Humiliation and to remove my Afflictions and to give me Beauty for Ashes and shall I be so very a fool as by committing of a new sin to run the hazard of another plunge another scourge which in all probability must be much more severe than the former because it would be the Issue not only of Sin but of Presumption a Sin committed against the experience that I have had of the bitterness of Sin and with what face or hope could I expect any possibility of Deliverance from a second Relapse into Misery occasioned by so Desperate a presumptuous relapse into Sin But suppose it were possible that notwithstanding my yielding to this Temptation I might escape the Vengeance yet can I be so false so ungrateful to that God that hath delivered me from my Sufferings and from my Fears as to recompence his Love and Mercy and Goodness with a Presumptuous Apostacy from him shall I thus requite his Mercy and Goodness that heard me in my Anguish and Sadness of Soul in my Extremity and Misery and so heard me that he hath delivered me out of all my Troubles and Miseries Certainly if either common Prudence or common Ingenuity be left in a Man the sense of a former Calamity and the sense of so great a Mercy will make a Man abhor the least submission to that Temptation that may at once hazard the continuance of his present Comfort and cannot be entertained without the Presumptuous rejection of him that thus Mercifully sent Deliverance 6. Let the remembrance of thy Misery and thy present Mercy make thee most jealously and passionately careful to keep thy Interest and if it be not too bold a word thy Friendship with God Remember he was thy support in thy Affliction and he was thy Deliverer out of thy Affliction let Gratitude bind thee to it as he was thy Benefactor and let Prudence bind thee to it thou knowest not how soon thou mayst have the same necessity again and where canst thou find such a friend The truth is when we are in extremity and have no whither else to fly O then we run to God and we pray unto him and promise him fair but when once our turn is served and we have gotten our ends and think our selves out of Gun-shot we are like Mariners after a Storm and God hears no more of us but this is as extream Ingratitude so extream Folly Oh keep thy God thy Friend for most certain it is thou wilt have occasion to use him again and thou knowest not how soon keep thine interest in him and estrange not thy self from him in thy Recovery whom thou canst not be without in thy Affliction 7. As I would have thee recollect what were the things in thy life past that most troubled thee in thy Affliction that so thou mayst avoid them so think what things or practices or expence of time in thy life past was most Acceptable and Comfortable to thee in thy Affliction that so thou mayst practise them after thy restitution Consider whether in thy Affliction thou didst remember thy past Recreations thy Merriments thy Feastings thy Lusts thy Honours thy Greatness with any Comfort or Contentment or whether the remembrance of the Hours thou hast formerly spent in Prayer Reading the Scriptures Hearing Sermons Relieving the Poor Visiting the Sick Relieving the Oppressed Harbouring the Persecuted Members of Christ gave thee more contentment And I dare appeal to any Mans Experience under Heaven that when the former sort of Transactions of our lives were either extreamly bitter or at best very insipid to his remembrance yet the remembrance of these of the latter sort were most Comfortable and Contenting Thou art now recovered it is true but as sure as thou shalt dye so sure thou shalt pass through new Afflictions though it may be not of the same kind yet of some kind let it be thy care after God hath thus delivered thee from thy former Affliction to lay up a stock of Good Works against another Evil day such Cordials will lie warm at thy Heart even when the cold pangs of Death it self shall be ready to invade and seize upon it and the Comfort of them shall pass into the other World with thee 8. Though the portion of thy life before thy Affliction and under it were very well spent yet remember that the Mercy of God in thy Deliverance doth call upon thee for a farther degree of Goodness and Perfection than thou hadst before it calls for more Humility and more Thankfulness and more Heavenly Mindedness and more Charity and more Devotion and more Self-Denial and more Sanctity and more Jealousie for the Honour of God For 1. On Gods part thou hast more Ingagements and Obligations put upon thee than before Every increase of Mercy calls for an increase of Duty 2. On thy own part thy Experiences are greater thou hast past through the School of Afflictions and that is a season wherein God opens the Ear to Discipline the Rod hath a voice and a lesson to teach and thou hast past through the experience of Gods Goodness Tenderness and Faithfulness in thy Deliverance and that tutors thee to more Dependance upon him Thankfulness to him and Love of him and these affections carry out the Heart to Duty and Obedience 9. Beware that after Deliverance from Afflictions thou be not secure think not with Agag surely the bitterness of death is past that now thou hast escaped this brunt all is safe and the danger past still be Watchful and stand upon thy Guard 1. Thou hast Sins and Corruptions within thee that if thou art not watchful may surprize thee and raise new storms 2. Thou hast watchful and vigilant Enemies without thee Evil Men and Evil Angels that envy thee the more because thou hast escaped 3. As long as thou livest in the World thy condition is uncertain and unstable in Externals and though
love and compassion as hath been observed but though he be thy Father yet he is an Earthly Father and as his Power and Sufficiencies are narrow and weak and not adequate to the Extent of thy wants and desires so his Affections are limited and mingled with the passions and frowardness of his Temper or Age. A Woman may forget the Son of her Womb Isa 49.15 And the hands of the pitiful Woman may seeth her own Children Lam. 4.10 And Fathers are apt to provoke their own Children Ephes 6.4 But were there not mixtures of Distempers in the affections of Parents yet their affections are finite such is our condition that in one day we should out-sin all that stock of Patience to bear and mercy to forgive that the most tender earthly Father ever had or could be capable of We stand in need every day of the infinite bowels of a Heavenly Father to bear and pardon and receive us as of infinite Power to supply and support us Isay 55.7 Let the wicked forsake his wayes and the unrighteous Man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and be will have Mercy and to our God for he will abundantly pardon for my thoughts are not your thoughts nor your wayes my wayes saith the Lord for as the Heavens are higher than the Earth so are my wayes higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts Hos 13.9 Oh Israel thou hast destroyed thy self but in me is thy help I will not return to destroy Ephraim for I am God and not Man Hos 11.9 As if he should have said Were all the Compassions and Bowels and Patience and Tenderness in the World combined in one Man yet thy Sins are grown to that height and thy provocation to that perfection that all that Patience were too weak to bear and all that compassion too small to pardon thee thou hast out-sinned all the Compass and extent of a created Patience but I am God and not Man I have Patience enough for all this to bear with thee and Mercy enough abundantly to Pardon thee Jer. 3.12 Return thou back-sliding Israel saith the Lord and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you for I am merciful saith the Lord and I will not keep anger for ever Only acknowledge thine iniquity that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God The Omnipotence of God runneth through all his Attributes and is no less seen in his Mercy to pardon than in his Power to create Numb 14.17 18. And now I beseech thee let the power of my Lord be great according as thou hast spoken saying the Lord is long-suffering and of great Mercy Now I come to the Requests themselves 1 Hallowed be thy Name Wherein shall be considered 1. What we are to understand by the Name of God 2. What we are to understand by Hallowing or Sanctifying his Name As to the First The Wayes of God and his Judgments are unsearchable and past finding out Rom. 11.33 and if his ways are such how infinitely unsearchable is his Essence and Nature the Angels that are by God endued with an understanding more receptive of this light than ours is do behold his face Matt. 18.10 V. Isa 6.2 But yet that light is too bright for their pure Eyes and too wide for those perfect Intelligences to comprehend but mortal Man cannot behold his Face Exod. 33.20 Thou canst not see my face for no man can see me and live But yet such is his Mercy and Condescention to his creature that he communicates so much of the knowledge of himself unto us as is convenient for us and sufficient to bring us to a more perfect Vision of him when our Souls shall be endued with an Angelical capacity to see him Matt. 5.8 Blessed are the pure in Heart for they shall see God And the means whereby we know him is the Manifestation of his Name unto us John 17.6 I have manifested thy Name unto the Men which thou gavest me The Name of the Lord therefore imports these two things 1. That which he hath been pleased to manifest unto us in his Word concerning himself his Essence and Attributes 2. That Glory and Honour which as a beam from the Sun doth arise from that manifestation 1. Touching the First God hath been pleased to reveal himself unto us by Names or Expressions whereby we may have some conceptions concerning him and though every attribute given to God in the Scripture is a part of his Name yet he hath chosen some expression which he hath in a special manner called his Name as being of a more special use to us and therefore are to have a greater impression upon us sometime to signifie his Absolute and Independent being Exodus 3.13 And Moses said unto God when I come to the Children of Israel and shall say unto them the God of your Fathers hath sent me unto you and they shall say to me what is his Name what shall I say unto them And God said to Moses I AM THAT I AM. Thus shalt thou say unto them I AM hath sent me Sometimes to signifie the greatness of his Authority Esa 42.8 I am the Lord that is my Name and my Glory will I not give to another Sometimes to signifie his Power Jer. 10.16 The Lord of Hosts is his Name Sometimes to signifie the Immensity of his Majesty Exod. 6.3 I appeared unto Abraham Isaac and Jacob by the Name of God Almighty but by my Name Jehovah was I not known unto them Psal 83.18 Thou whose Name is Jehovah Deut. 28.58 That thou maiest fear this Glorious and Fearful Name the Lord thy God Sometimes to signifie his Purity Exod. 34.14 whose name is Jealous Psal 93.3 whose Name is Holy But above all when God himself was pleased at the requests of his Creature to make his Goodness to pass before him and to proclaim his Name consisting of all the ingredients necessary for our knowledge and use Exod. 34.6 7. The Lord the Lord God Merciful and Gracious Long-suffering and Abundant in Goodness and Truth Keeping mercy for thousands Forgiving iniquity transgression and sin and that will by no means clear the guilty c. And this was the Name that our Saviour came to comment upon shewing his Mercy in pardoning us and his Justice in punishing our Sins in his Son his Truth in fulfilling that first Gospel preached in Paradise The seed of the Woman shall break the Serpents head And this Name of God he manifested to his Disciples and to us 2. The Name of the Lord is taken for that Glory and Honour that is due unto his Essence Attributes and Works the reflection of his own Perfection He hath proclaimed himself Merciful and Gracious and his works of Mercy reflect Glory upon this part of his Name Isa 48.9 11. For my Names sake I will defer mine anger for how should my Name be polluted and I will not give my Glory to another He proclaimeth his strength and
Good to deny Lust both in the Practice and Love of it than to Entertain it And Consequently the Will moves towards the Greater Good according to its proper and natural Inclination 2. There is yet a further Effect wrought upon the Will viz. The sense of the Love of Christ the end of his Death to redeem us from these Lusts whereby even by an obligation of Gratitude it takes up Resolutions of Obeying him This Truth though it be first received in the Understanding and entertained by Faith yet it doth immediatly work upon the Will and Affections viz. An Aversion to that Lust that Crucified her Saviour and which the same Saviour upon the Indearment of his own Blood begs us to Crucifie 3. There is yet a further work upon the Will by the secret and powerful working of the Spirit of God strengthning and perswading and restoring it to its Liberty and Just Soveraignty over the sensual Appetite A Poem THe Great Creator gave to Brutes the light Of Sense and Natural Instinct that might Conduct them in a Sensual Life by this They steer their course and very rarely miss Their instituted Rule nor yet reject Its Guidance or its Influence neglect But the Creators great Beneficence Gave unto Man besides the Light of Sense The Nobler Light of Reason Intellect And Conscience to Govern and Direct His Life and Actions and to keep at rights The Motions of his sensual Appetite But wretched Man unhappily deserts His Makers Institution and perverts The End of all his Bounty prostitutes His Reason unto Lust and so pollutes His Noble Soul his Reason and his Wit And Intellect that in the Throne should sit Must lacky after Lust and so fulfil The base commands and pleasure of her will And thus the Humane Nature's great Advance Becomes its greater ruine doth inhance Its Guilt while Judgment Reason Wit Improve those very sins it doth Commit Dear Lord Thy Mercy sure must overflow That pardons Sins which from thy Bounty grow THE FOLLY AND Mischief of SIN 1. IT is a most Vnprofitable and Foolish thing The Content that is in it is but Imaginary and dyes in the compass of a Thought The Expectation of it is nothing but Disappointment and the Fruition of it perisheth in a moment 2. It is the infallible Seed of Shame and Mischief which without it be intercepted by Repentance and the Mercy of God doth as naturally and infallibly grow from it as Hemlock and Henbane do from their proper Seeds and though the nature of some Sins is more speedy and visible in producing that Fruit yet most certainly sooner or later every Sin yields his Crop even in this life The best Fruit it yields is Sorrow and Repentance which though it be good in comparison of their Fruit ensuing if omitted yet certainly it is not without much Trouble and Discomposure of Mind and the Bitterness even of Repentance it self infinitely over-ballanceth the Contentment that the Sin did yield 3. Sin doth not only produce an Ungrateful Fruit but there is also a certain Spight and Malignity in the Fruit it yields carrying in it the very Picture Resemblance and Memorial of the Sin for the most part which doggs a Man in the punishment of it with the very Repetition of the Guilt aâ—lex talionis 4. It Poysons and Invenomes all Conditions If a Man be in Prosperity it either makes it an occasion of new Sins to cover or secure them that are past or it sowers and infests the very State it self with sad Pre-apprehensions of the Fruit due to his Sin Or hants him in his Jollity like as I have seen an Importunate Creditor a young Gallant which blasts all his Comfort and Contentment If a Man be in Adversity it adds Affliction to Affliction The best Companion of Affliction is a clear Conscience but when a Man hath outward Troubles and a Mis-giving Guilty Soul it makes his Affliction black and Desperate 5. It Discomposeth and disorders and unqualifies a Man for any Good Duty either to God or Man I pray but I bring along with me a sense of Sin that makes me Ungrateful to my self and how can I expect to be Acceptable to God the Pure and Holy God who hates nothing but Sin I beg Blessings but how can I expect to receive a Blessing from him whom I but lately presumptuously offended If my Son or Servant hath offended me and comes to ask a benefit of me I look upon it as a sawcy Presumption and can I expect to have better Entertainment from my Maker than I think fit to allow my fellow Creature The truth is there is no Petition comes seasonably from a Man under the Guilt of Sin but Pardon Forgiveness and Mercy If I do a Good Work the Sin that I stand guilty of makes the Comfort I take in it or in other commendations of it Insipid and Empty my Heart tells me there is a Sin in my Conscience that makes me ashamed to own the Good that is in the Action If I see a fault in another that my Place or Condition requires me to Reprove the sense of my own Guilt makes me either backward to Reprove or Condemn my self while I am Reproving another with such thoughts as these I am Reproving a Sin in another where I stand as Guilty in the sight of God as the person reprehended if he knew my Sin how justly might he throw my Reprehension into my own face and if he know it not yet the God of Heaven before whom I stand and the Conscience which I bear within me makes my Reprehension of another a Condemnation of my self If I go about any action of my life though never so Honest Just and Lawful yet my mis-giving thoughts make me either un-active in it or fill me with pre-apprehensions of mischief or disappointment in it how can I expect a blessing from God whom I have offended in any business I undertake I carry along with me in all I do the Curse that the Lord threatned Deut. 28.20 The Lord shall send upon thee Cursing Vexation and Rebuke in all that thou settest thy hands unto and verse 29. Thou shalt not prosper in thy ways and verse 34. So that thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see and verse 67. In the morning thou shalt say Would God it were Evening and at Evening thou shalt say Would God it were Morning for the fear of thine Heart wherein thou shalt fear and for the sight of thine Eyes which thou shalt see And Certainly all this grows from the Inconguity and Dissonancy that is between sin and the true right constitution of the Nature of Man that is thereby made unuseful for his proper Operations just as a sore or a bone out of joynt disables the proper serviceableness of a Limb or as a noxious humour disorders the Stomach Liver or Spleen in its proper Office or as a Disease or ill disposition of the Body makes it unserviceable to
Displeasure be not a necessary consequence of that Sin and if it be may not he inflict the issues of that wrath of his when and in what measure he pleaseth and if he may what security can this Temptation give against it hath it an Arm of Omnipotence to secure me against the power of him that is Omnipotent and if it cannot what Compensation or amends can it make me to countervail the Damage of his Wrath or the very Danger of it Can the Pleasure or Contentment of the Sin do it alas the Pleasure will pass away in it may be a Life a Day a moment but the Guilt and Torment continues to Eternity Motives to Watchfulness In reference to the Good and Evil ANGELS AS we see Plants in a Nursery when they come to a due growth are Transplanted into Orchards and those that are unuseful are pulled up and cast into the Fire or as we see Boys in a Free-School such as are undisciplineable are after some years of probation sent away to Mechanical Imployments and those that are Ingenious and Diligent are Transplanted to the Universities So among the Children of Men in this Life those that are Vitious and Incorrigible are by Death rooted out and cast into a suitable Condition and those that are Vessels fit for their Masters use Towardly Plants are by Death Transplanted into another Region a Garden of Happiness and Comfort And possibly as by continuance of time they received Improvement and Perfection here So in that other Region they add to their Degrees of Perfection and are promoted to further Accessions and Degrees and Stations of Happiness and Glory till they come to the state of Spirits of just Men made perfect Could we see the Invisible Regiment of the World by the subordinate Government of Good and Evil Angels as once Elisha's servant saw the Fiery Chariots and Horsmen in the Mount it would give us another kind of representation of things than now they appear to us We have just reason to believe that there are infinite numbers of Spirits of both kinds that have their passings to and fro and Negotiations as well among themselves as among the Children of Men and as Ravens Kites and other unclean Birds haunt Carrion and as Vermine haunt after Putrefaction and are busie about it or as disorderly debauched Companions and Ruffians ever haunt out and hang upon a dissolute and foolish Heir till they have sucked out all his Substance and Wealth So the Impure and corrupted Angels haunt and flock about a Man given over to Vice till they have wholly corrupted and putrified his Soul and those Good Men whom they cannot win over to them they pursue with as much Malice and Envy as is possible and though they cannot come within them yet as far as they can they raise up External Mischiefs against them watch opportunities to insnare or blemish them though the Vigilancy of a better Guard and their own Prudence and Circumspection do for the most part disappoint and prevent them Besides the displeasure of the great God there be some Considerations even in reference to these Good and Evil Angels to make Good Men very Watchful that they fall not into presumptuous or foul Sins 1. It cannot chuse but be a Grief to the Good Angels Luk. 15.10 to be present and Spectators of the Enormities of those Matth. 18.10 for whose Preservation they are imployed 2. It must in all probability work in them a nauseousness and retiring themselves from such Offenders at least till they have renewed and washed themselves by Repentance and made their Peace with God in Christ For there is no greater Antipathy than between these Pure and Chast Spirits and any Sin or Foulness 3. It cannot chuse but be a most grateful Spectacle to these Envious and Malignant Evil Spirits who upon the discovery of such a fall of a Good Man call their impure Company together and make pastime about such an object as Boys do about a Drunken Man and upbraid the Sacred and Pure Angels Look here is your Pious Man your Professor Come see in what a condition he is and what he is about 4. It lays open such a Man to the Power and Malice of those envious Spirits they have gotten him within their Territories and Dominions and unless God in great Mercy restrain them renders a Good Man obnoxious to their Mischief And as the contagion and noysomness of Sin drives away the Pure and Holy Spirits so it attracts and draws together those Impure and Malignant Spirits as the smell of Carrion doth Birds and Beasts of prey It concerns us therefore to be very vigilant against all Sin and if through Inadvertence Infirmity or Temptation we fall into it to be diligent to make our Peace and wash our selves as soon as we can in the Blood of Christ and Water of Repentance OF THE MODERATION OF THE AFFECTIONS Phil. 4.5 Let your Moderation be known unto all Men. MOderation is that Grace or Vertue whereby a Man governs his sensual Appetite his Passions and Affections his Words and Actions from all Excess and Exorbitancy It refers 1. To the sensual Appetite 2. To the Passions of the Mind 3. To Speech and Words 4. To the Actions of our Life 1. Moderation in the sensual Appetite and this is properly Temperance which is a Prudent Restraint of our Appetite from all Excess in Eating Drinking and those other inclinations that gratifie our senses And certainly this becomes us not only as Christians but as Reasonable Creatures for the sensual Appetite and those inclinations that tend to the gratification of our External senses are in a great measure the same in Men and in Brutes and they are in the due order and use Good and Convenient for both we cannot live without them But Almighty God hath given to Mankind a Higher and a Nobler Nature namely Understanding and Reason which in the right posture and constitution of the Humane Nature is to Govern Guide Moderate and Order that inferiour Faculty that is common to the Brutes as well as to Man And that Man that keeps not this Regiment and Superintendency of his Nobler Faculty degrades himself into the condition of a Brute and indeed into somewhat worse for even the Instincts of Brutes do for the most part regulate their sensual Appetite from Excess and Immoderation But because this belongs to that distinct vertue of Temperance I forbear further Instances herein 2. Moderation of our Passions and Affections and these are here principally intended namely Love Hatred or Anger Joy Grief Hope Fear and those other mixt or derivative Passions that arise in Man upon the presentment of their several Objects And although the Passions of the Mind considered simply in themselves are a part of our Nature and not Evil but when duely regulated and ordered are of excellent Use to us yet if they once become unruly mis-placed or over-acted they occasion the greatest troubles in the World both to the
himself the Glory and Honour and Praise thereof might return unto himself who only can be the adequate End of himself of all he doth Thanksgiving therefore and Praise answers the greatest and most noble End in the World If I want and pray for what I want my immediate End therein is my own Good and yet that End is too narrow if I propound not to my self to Praise and Glorifie the Bounty of that God which answers my Prayer 3. Again whereas all the Irrational and inanimate Creatures in the World do passively praise Almighty God in that they bear every one of them the Inscription of his Wisdom Goodness Power The Reasonable and Intellectual Natures of Men and Angels have that noble Advance that they can and may Actively and Intentionally Glorifie and Praise the Goodness of God and it is indeed the noblest Harmony that they can make when they summon all their Understanding Will Affections all that is within them to Praise that God to whom they owe their Being and Benefits And the Wise and Glorious God doth therefore Communicate the sensible Experimental Eminent Influences of his Mercy Goodness and Bounty unto the Reasonable and Intellectual Natures of Men and Angels that they might touch and strike upon those noble strings of the Heart and Mind and Affections that may thereupon return the Harmony of Thanksgiving and Praise to the great Lord of the World And surely the Nature of Man in its true state and temper is as naturally and effectually moved to the returning of Thanksgiving to God for Mercies received as a well tuned Lute or other Instrument doth give an Harmonious sound upon the touches of a skilful Artist And most certainly that nature is strangely out of Tune and Order that upon Mercies received makes not a sweet return of Thanksgiving and Praise This therefore as it is the noblest so it is the most natural production of the Reasonable Nature the fullest of Congruity to the right disposition of its Faculties Almighty God sends upon the Children of Men Benefits Blessings Deliverances Favours And the fruit that he doth and that most justly expect is a Crop of Praise Glory Honour and Thanksgiving Call upon me in the day of Trouble and I will Deliver thee and thou shalt Glorifie me And it is a barren degenerate stupid Heart that yields not such fruit of such a Semination So that Praise and Thanksgiving is Con-natural to our very Faculties the tribute that the Rational Nature naturally payes to the Divine Being as his Benefactor the very fruit that the great Lord of the Harvest expects for all his Goodness and Mercy 4. The truth is Thanksgiving is the very End of Prayer and as the End is more noble than the means conducible to the End so therefore is the Duty the business of Thanksgiving in its self though equally necessary yet more noble than Prayer it self I want something that I would desire Almighty God to give me and I therefore pray my Merciful Lord grants me my desire and gives me what I pray for and therefore gives it and gives it upon my Prayer to him that therefore his Mercy and Goodness may be more Evident unto me and that thereupon I may Praise and Glorifie and give Thanks unto him And if with the Nine Lepers in the Gospel I receive the Benefit I ask and do not with the Tenth give Glory to God for the Benefit I receive I disappoint both the Giver of what he designed in the Gift and disappoint my very Prayers in that which is their just and proper End And hence it is that our Blessed Lord in that absolute form of Prayer which he hath taught us premiseth the first and greatest Petition of the Hallowing or Glorifying of the Name of God and the first the great the regnant Petition that is to influence all the rest that follow especially those that are for the supplies of our own wants 5. Whereas in Prayer we ask that we may receive from God Almighty God hath been pleased to Honour and Dignifie our Duty of Thanksgiving with so much condescention of his Majesty that he receives or at least interprets it as a Receipt from his poor Creature It is true our Praises add nothing to his Perfection and self-sufficiency Nay our very Thanksgiving and Praise is but a gift that he gives to himself He gives us a Being that may be Capable to Praise him gives us Hearts and Affections that may be willing to Praise him gives us Grace that may enable us to Praise him gives us Benefits that may Excite us to Praise him gives us Directions how to Praise him gives us Laws Commands Promises Encouragements to Praise him So that in truth our very Thanksgivings and Praises to him are but his own work and yet such is his Goodness that he takes and accepts and Rewards our Praises and Thanksgivings as if they were our own Actions And whereas in Prayer we receive from him in Thanksgiving he is pleased so far to Honour this Duty as if he received somewhat from us and accordingly accepts and rewards it Meditations UPON THE Lord's Prayer MEDITATIONS UPON THE Lord's Prayer Matth. 6.9 After this manner therefore pray ye Our Father c. BY the Sin of Adam and the Corruption and Obliquity that thereupon entred into the humane nature Mankind had contracted a three-fold mischief 1. Guilt that needed an Expiation 2. Blindness that needed an Illumination 3. Perverseness and Rebellion that needed Power and Victory to subdue it In the fulness of time God sent his Son into the World with healing for all these Diseases 1. He sent his Son to be our Sacrifice and our Priest and not only so in his own Person but by derivation unto those that believe on him he hath imprinted upon them and communicated unto them a participation of his own Office and hath made them Kings and Priests 1. By making an Atonement for them with his Father whereby they are accepted John 16.26 27. I say not unto you I will pray the Father for you for the Father himself loveth you not to Exclude the continuance and Efficacy of his Intercession but to intimate the fulness of our Reconciliation that having made us of his houshold Ephes 2.19 we may have access to the Master and Father of the Family Ephes 2.18 for through him we have access unto the Father 2. By sending his own Spirit to instruct and warm and fit our spirits to come into the presence for through him we have access by one Spirit Ephes 2.18 teaching what to ask and inabling us to ask as we should Rom. 8.26 For we know not what we should pray for as we ought 2. As he made him a Sacrifice for our Guilt so he sent him to be a Light for our darkness John 1.5 the World was all in Darkness and Error the most Exact Sublimate Wits inscribed their Altar To the Unknown God They were ignorant of things to be known and of
Comprehensive Prayer and therefore fit to be supplemental unto thine own prayers Thy present wants or fears or desires carry thy spirit in thy own prayers eagerly and vehemently in pursuit of those thy wants fears or desires because they are things presently incumbent upon thee and in thy view and by that means thou dost many times in thy prayers overshoot many matters that are of more concernment it may be for thee to ask as the Glory of God thy preservation from future inconveniencies that are not yet in thy view and this prayer gathers up thy omissions calls home thy spirit unto that frame and temper of heart that is fit viz. Submission to the Will and Glory of God in the first petition of this Prayer furnisheth in a short Compendium to pray over that which thou hast before asked and to pray for that which before thou hast omitted 4. As it is a Comprehensive Prayer and contains much so it is a Compendious Prayer and contains much in little The Wise and Merciful God knowes the frailty of our Nature and therefore hath fitted us according to our own narrowness with abridgments he knowes the shortness of our Memory and therefore he gave his Will under the Old Law in Ten Words Christ he gave us another abridgment of that abridgment Love God and thy Neighbour God also knowes the weakness of our spirits and therefore he gives us a short Prayer that in the using of it our spirits may bear up and the fire last till the Prayer ended It is true when we have a continuing sense of Evil felt or feared upon us our spirits are able to hold out a Prayer long in warmth and heat But when the matters of our desires are not so apparent to our sense our spirits are apt to grow cold before we come at the end of it Here is a short Prayer furnish'd in all things fit to be asked and such as thy spirit may go along with to the End without being tyred It is true that a Man shall usually find more intention of spirit in his own prayers than in this Bless God that thou hast this intention of spirit in thy own prayers and neglect them not but pray for pardon that thou wantest it in this and strive to amend it Now the great Cause of the unprofitable use even of this Prayer and of divers other Ordinances grows from this That people use them without a distinct and deep consideration of the things contained in them The Sun in the Firmament is the greatest Wonder in the World and of infinite more consideration than the appearance of a new Star or a Comet But the commonness of the Sun makes Mankind pass over that without any observation and yet look upon the latter with much admiration and astonishment Just thus it is with this and other Prayers This Prayer being taken up and learnt with our speech we swallow by whole-sale and never weigh it or consider it but other Prayers of our own or others whilest they are new to us we use more attentively and it may be more profitably It should therefore be our care to rub out the Corn out of this Ear to Examine and Consider this excellent Prayer distinctly that so in the use of it a full understanding and affection may go along with it without which it is no Prayer for in Prayer we have to do with the God of the Spirits of all flesh that judgeth not neither regardeth the bare repetition of words the thing condemned by our Saviour when he commanded this Prayer But by the uniting our Souls and Spirits to him our words are not so much our prayers as the consequents and signs of our prayers The known Division of this Prayer is first the Preamble Secondly the Requests Thirdly the Conclusion 1. The Preamble Our Father which art in Heaven The general duty we learn from it is this that we come not suddenly and unseemly in our Requests to him but as much as may be to prepare our Souls with fitting apprehensions and affections before we come to ask of him with apprehensions of his goodness that may draw us to him in that he is our Father and with apprehensions of his Greatness that may make us consider our distance and come before him with Reverence in that he is in Heaven Eccles 5.2 Be not rash with thy Mouth and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God for God is in Heaven and thou upon Earth therefore let thy words be few God is in Heaven and thou upon Earth it teacheth thee thy distance and it is fit thou should'st throughly digest that apprehension before thou ask that thy asking may be with Reverence External Reverence of it self is inconsiderable but as it is the figure of that internal Reverence that is in the Soul Where the external Reverence is without the internal it is base and odious Hypocrisie a dead and a despised performance a picture of Piety without life But the internal Reverence of the Mind cannot be without an external expression of it The Forms or Natures that God hath put into every creature are those which shape their external figure in some proportion answerable to their internal Form And it is as impossible for an heart sensible of the Majesty Glory Greatness and Power of God to come before him either with a petulant sawcy presumptuous or unseemly carriage as it is for the Form of a Lamb or a Child to render it self either in the shape of a Lion or a Wolf Again God is in Heaven and thou upon Earth As thou hast a business to do to prepare thy heart with the sense of thy distance that thy desires may be with a sutable humility when thou prayest so thou hast need of preparation to bring up thy heart out of that Earth wherein thou art unto Heaven to defecate that Earthy heart of thine that it may be fit to come into the presence of the God of Heaven When God beholds the highest things in nature the Heavens he humbles himself he descends below his own Excellency Psalm 113.6 And if thou art a Sutor to this great King it is fit thou shouldest come unto the Throne of his Majesty and not expect that he should come to thy Cottage to be importuned though yet he doth this also in his great Mercy and Condescention yet it is not fit for thee to expect it Again thy lifting up of thy heart to him is thy Advantage the nearer thou drawest to his Glory and Presence so it be with an humble and clean heart the more thou wilt partake of his Bounty and Goodness the fitter thy heart will be to have communion with him The Holy and Glorious Angels and Souls departed partake more of his fulness and perfection than Man doth because by the purity of their nature they have a nearer approach to the Fountain of Good than Man hath and the nearer or farther off the Spirit of a man
Psal 73.28 The Priests under the Law when they were to come near unto God in their Administrations were to be washed and clean from their natural and external Impurities and a Leper was not suffered to come into the Tabernacle but what is that to the Leprosie and Impurity of thy Spirit that very part of thee that only can have an immediate access to God and what Communion can there be between an holy God and an unholy Soul Psal 66.18 If I regard Iniquity in my Heart God will not hear me Consider therefore that thy approach is unto Heaven the dwelling place of his Majesty and of his Glory and Holiness becomes such an Habitation Psal 93.5 But who then is fit for such a communion What is Man that he should be clean and he which is born of a Woman that he should be righteous Behold he putteth no trust in his Saints yea the Heavens are not clean in his sight how much more abominable and filthy is Man which drinketh iniquity like water Job 15.14 15 16. But for this thy Saviour hath given thee an Expedient he taketh away the iniquity of thy Holy things and mingles thy Sacrifice with his own insense and covers thy impurities with his own righteousness and if for all this the cense of thy own vileness cover thy Heart with shame and the burden of thy Sins and Corruptions keeps thy Soul under that it cannot with that clearness and confidence look up unto Heaven but with the Publican in the Gospel stand afarr off and scarce darest ask for any thing but what the sense of Guilt inforceth viz. Mercy to pardon thee yet such is the Goodness of God in Christ to thy low and humbled Soul that though thou hast scarce confidence enough to draw nigh unto God yet he hath compassion enough to draw nigh unto thee Psal 34.18 The Lord is nigh to them that are of a broken Heart And though thy laden Soul can scarce get up into Heaven into the presence of thy Creator yet he will bring down Heaven into thy Soul Isa 57.15 Thus saith the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth Eternity whose Name is Holy I dwell in the High and Holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones 3. Let thy Prayer be full of Reverence with thy whole Man for as thou comest to a Father and in that relation thou owest him Reverence so thou comest to a Heavenly Father the great Lord and Judge of all things 1 Pet. 1.17 And if ye call on the Father who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's works pass the time of your sojourning here in fear And as a Father and such a Father calls for thy Reverence so especially when thou considerest that thou comest to this great King in his Throne in the place of his Majesty and Glory And therefore this Expression is added to take up the whole Latitude of thy thoughts with the highest apprehensions of the Glory and Majesty of the Lord before whom thou comest and that thou maist consider the Infinite distance that is between thee and the Lord of Heaven Isa 55.9 For as the Heaven is higher than the Earth so are my thoughts than your thoughts and my ways than your ways And upon this consideration to admire and magnifie the Goodness and Mercy of this great King that is pleased to admit poor sinful Worms to come into his presence and beg for our Lives and for our Souls with a Promise of Mercy and Acceptation 4. Let thy Prayers be full of Intention Thou dost or shouldest bring up thy Soul into Heaven into the Presence of the Great and Glorious God and what should thy wandring thoughts thy Earthly business do there leave them at the foot of the Hill when thou ascendest into the Mount of God Consider the person to whom thou comest exactly views and observes the frame and connexion and workings and motions of thy thoughts and desires and whether they go along with thy words or with thy External deportment and if they do not so much of thy Prayer is not only lost but a mockery and abuse of thy Maker And as the consideration of the Person to whom thou makest thy address so the Place where thou comest doth not sute with those impertinent and vain diversions Therefore when thou prayest do it considerately advisedly and with the whole Intention of thy Soul Eccles 5.2 Be not rash with thy mouth and let not thy heart utter any thing hastily before God for God is in Heaven and thou upon Earth 2. As this Expression teacheth us our duty towards God in Prayer so it teacheth us what to Expect from him 1. Hence learn the All-seeing Eye of God that is acquainted with all thy wants and with all thy desires It was a mistaken use that was made of his being in Heaven Job 22.14 Thick Clouds are a covering to him that he seeth not and he walketh in the circuit of Heaven No but Psalm 33.13 The Lord looketh from Heaven he beholdeth all the Sons of Men. Psal 11.4 The distance of the place is no disadvantage to his sight or hearing Again Though Heaven be the Seat of his Glory yet all places are filled with his Presence but especially he is nigh to them that call upon him to all that call upon him in truth Psal 145.18 is nigh to such as be of a broken Heart Psalm 34.18 is round about his people Psal 125.2 is nigh unto them in all they call upon him for Deut. 4.7 will bow down his Ear to hear Psal 31.2 will bow the Heavens and come down for their good Psal 18.9 So that thy Prayers have no great distance to go for all places are Heaven where God is and he is in all places especially where two or three are gathered together in his Name to call upon him 2. Hence learn the All-sufficient and Almighty Power of God Psal 115.3 Our God is in Heaven he hath done whatsoever he pleased As the relation of a Father carrieth with it a fulness of love to be willing to grant thy largest requests so the Consideration that he is a Heavenly Father carrieth with it a fulness of Power to grant them These considerations of the Love and Power of God bear up the Heart in Prayer as once Aaron and Hur did Moses hands Exodus 17.12 And therefore they are both placed in the Porch of this Prayer like the pillars of Jachin and Boaz in Solomon's Temple 1 Kings 7.21 To stablish and strengthen thy Heart in thy Prayer to God 3. As the consideration of Heavenly or which art in Heaven carries thy Heart to confidence in his Power and All-sufficiency to grant thy Petitions so it improves thy Faith in his Infinite Tenderness and Goodness When thou comest to the Father of thy flesh thy Earthly Father that relation imports and carries with it much
that will but come in and enter into Covenant with God in Christ Jer. 31.34 I will forgive their iniquity and will remember their sin no more And although this one Sacrifice of Christ offered up once for all is a full satisfaction for all the sins of his Elect to the end of the World yet the same eternal Contract that made it so did likewise appoint certain Means actually to apply it And make it effectual to us of Faith to lay hold upon it And in as much as notwithstanding our giving up our Names to Christ many renewed daily sins are committed by us our Lord teacheth us to resort daily to this Sacrifice this Magazine of Mercy this Fountain opened to wash for sin and for uncleanness thence to fetch new applications of this one Sacrifice for our renewed offence and to beg our Pardon as often as we beg our Bread So then 1. We have the true Original of Forgiveness the Free Love of God which gave Christ as the Sacrifice for Sin and accepted that Sacrifice as the price of our Pardon So God loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believed in him should not perish but have everlasting Life John 3.16 2. We have the Meritorious Cause of it that Sacrifice of Christ whereby Pardon is impetrated for as many as lay hold upon it 3. The Act which that Eternal Counsel appointed to be the Means of the actual Application of it to the Soul receiving of the Pardon thus offered To as many as received him to them c. Joh. 1.12 For as we live and move and have our Being by God and his Will and Providence yet the same Will of his hath appointed the means whereby that Will of his is accomplished our daily Bread and the use of it So although from God we have our Pardon yet the same Will of his hath appointed Faith in Christ to be the instrument of an Actual or Effectual Application of it and the Efficacy of Faith as an instrument for that purpose depends likewise upon the same Will of God which hath so appointed When the Israelites were bitten with fiery Serpents in the Wilderness God commanded Moses to erect a brazen Serpent for their cure Numb 21.8 But although the Divine Will had annexed a power of healing unto that Serpent instrumentally yet the same Will appointed the actual application of that power to the looking upon that Serpent Every one that is bitten when he looketh upon it shall live So though by the Eternal Will of God a Pardon is obtained by the Death of Christ yet the same Will of his hath appointed Faith in Christ the means of the receiving of that Pardon and yet this very means is not in our own power but it is the Gift of God John 6.44 No man can come unto me except the Father draw him 4. The renewed Exercise of that Act upon occasions of sin committed or renewed Prayer for Pardon which as it doth most naturally flow from the sense of sin and of a Pardon impetrated by Christ so by the Divine Institution it is required to apply that Pardon actually to the Soul and it is a high Mercy of God to grant it for the asking and an argument of a proud unbelieving heart to think to have it without it and whensoever the Spirit and the Word of God hath wrought in a man a belief of and in the Sacrifice of Christ the same Spirit doth work in the heart a desire of it which is nothing else but the Prayer of the Mind for it maketh intercession according to the Will of God Rom. 8.27 And herein we therefore see two things 1. Our Duty Our sins are many and daily even after we have given up our Names to Christ If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves 1 Joh. 1.8 And though meritoriously Christ hath satisfied for those very sins yet we are to have often recourse to this Sacrifice to fetch our cure and our cleansing in the actual application of this Sacrifice unto us Had a man been bitten by a fiery Serpent he might look upon the brazen Serpent and live and had he been bitten again he must have looked again or else he had died it is so with us only here is the odds the man that had been once cured if bitten again might perchance not have looked again upon the Serpent and so have died but it is otherwise here the same principle of Life that abiding seed 1 John 3.8 that did at first make him to seek and sue to Christ for his first actual Pardon will after a fall a renewed sin send the Soul to this Fountain for a new act of application of that cleansing and pardoning he cannot commit sin that is lye in it without recourse to God for Pardon because his Seed abideth in him 1 Joh. 2.8 2. Our Priviledge If any man sin we have an Advocate 1 John 2.1 an Advocate that knows the mind of our Judge and out of that knowledge hath taught us as often as we beg our Bread to beg our Pardon and that with assurance that we shall be heard if we do it in Faith and Sincerity 1 John 1.9 He is faithful and just to forgive It is the Proclamation of his Name Exod. 34.7 Forgiving iniquity transgression and sin It is his promise Jer. 31.34 Jer. 33.8 I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more Even to a revolting and backsliding creature upon true repentance Isa 56.7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Jer. 3.12 Return thou backsliding Israel and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you for I am merciful saith the Lord and will not keep anger for ever only acknowledge thine iniquity Christ came into the World to restore in Man the lost Image of God And when Peter asked him Matt. 18.21 How oft shall my Brother sin against me and I forgive him till seven times Jesus said unto him I say not unto thee till seven times but till seventy times seven times And surely that Mercy that Christ required in a poor mortal Man is infinitely fuller in the merciful God who delights in Mercy and Forgiveness Only remember 1. To take heed of Presumptuous Sins Premeditated Sins Sins against knowledge and against convictions Sins with a presupposition of Pardon Deut. 29.19 That shall bless himself in his heart saying I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of my heart The Lord will not spare him These though they cannot exceed the Mercy of God to pardon them they many times shut and seal up the Soul against Pardon hardning the heart to a great difficulty if not a final impossibility of Repentance and by that means the Soul is disabled with any comfortable ground or assurance to beg Pardon without the great Mercy of
God to soften that heart again 2. Make a frequent and serious Examination of thy past Actions measure them by the Rule of the Word of God and find out that accursed thing whatsoever it be that is displeasing to him so that as much as may be thou maist distinctly and with reference to particular sins or faults or failings pray over this Petition There is not a day but by a wary observation thou wilt not only find a general indistinct distemper which is to be the subject of this request but particular special eminent Evils that deserve a particular reflection upon them in the repetition of this Petition Let us search and try our wayes and turn to the Lord our God And to this end 3. Endeavour to keep thy Conscience always Wakeful Vigilant Tender be content to listen to her chidings she soldom quarrels without a cause but suppressing checking and stifling the language of Conscience makes her at last either sullen or senseless or outragious A vigilant Conscience will prevent thee from many sins but if it do not it will tell thee of them and bring thee upon thy knees and make this Petition seasonable and a Pardon gotten thereupon acceptable and comfortable for how can that Man with any sense beg Pardon for a sin when he scarce finds himself sensibly guilty of any This Petition is delivered up but carelesly and coldly and fruitlesly by such a person 4. Give God the Honour of his Justice even when thou suest for the Benefit of his Mercy in aggravation of thy sins to the due height in owning damnation and utter rejection as the just reward of every sin humble thy Soul truely and deeply for it This will make thy Prayer earnest and thy Pardon dear it gives to God the Honour of his Justice and the Glory of his Mercy which is all the Tribute thou can'st pay unto him for his free Goodness in giving thee that Pardon without which thou wert eternally lost 5. Give thy Mediator the Honour and End of thy Redemption Thy Saviour died it is true to obtain thy Pardon but wilt thou continue in sin that Grace may abound sin that thou maist be pardoned and renew thy sins that God may renew his Pardon God forbid Thou dost as much as in thee lyeth disappoint the End of Christ's Death who therefore died that he might redeem unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Let the begging of thy Pardon be ever accompanied with a resolution not to offend again otherwise God that sees thy heart looks upon thy asking of Pardon as a higher and more impudent and presumptuous sin than that which thou seemest to beg the forgiveness of 6. Upon the discovery of any particular sin which in a special manner concerns thee beware of these things 1. Sleeping in it without recourse to God for Pardon for it or slipping over it in thy Prayer without a particular animadversion upon it Be content to open this sore The longer it is kept covered the worse it is Thou must know that every sin is written before God with a point of a Diamond and though thou art contented to forget it or by incursion of time to wear out the remembrance or at least the horror of it yet it is written and thou shalt be sure to hear of it and the longer it continues the harder thy heart grows and the deeper doth the canker and stain of that Sin work and spread into thy Soul and the more difficultly is thy Pardon obtained and yet the less earnestly sought It is a secret curse in thy bosom that makes all thy services to God unacceptable and unsavory and who can tell when the decree may come out when this Sin will ripen into an eminent Judgment Therefore clear thy account with God betimes let not the guilt of a Sin lye long upon thy conscience but make thy peace betimes sue out thy Pardon speedily Thou knowest not what a day may bring forth 2. Yet after a Sin freshly committed fall not presently to beg thy Pardon till thou hast humbled thy Heart and put it into a fit frame to come into the presence of God till thou hast got a sense that it is an evil thing and a bitter to depart from him till thou hast crept to thy Saviours Feet for his Blood to wash thee and for his Righteousness to cover thee and for his Mediation to bring thee otherwise a defiled polluted creature into his Fathers presence under his Patronage till thou hast mourned over him whom thou hast pierced and been ashamed before him of thy miscarriage and acted thy Faith upon his All-sufficient satisfaction till thou hast taken up Resolutions of future amendment and then in the Name and Mediation of thy Saviour fall upon thy knees and beg thy Pardon As we forgive our Debtors Luk. 12. For we forgive our Debtors Here we Learn 1. That it is our Duty to forgive others Matt. 18.21 22. Upon their repentance Luk. 17.4 If he trespass against thee seven times in a day and seven times in a day turn to thee saying I repent thou shalt forgive him and that upon these considerations 1. From that conformity that is or should be in our Nature to the Nature of God he is slow to anger and of great Mercy Psal 145.8 Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage he retaineth not his anger for ever because he delighteth in Mercy Mic. 7.18 And Christ coming to renew the broken Image of God in Man and to renew him after the Image of him that created him doth enjoyn imprint this part of the Divine Image Luk. 6.36 Be ye merciful as your Heavenly Father is merciful And Mercy in the Heart is that excellent habit from whence forgiveness proceeds And hence it is that where the Spirit of Christ comes it assimilates the Nature to that disposition Gal. 5.22 The fruit of the Spirit is Long-suffering Gentleness Meekness 2. From that great commandment enjoyned by God in the Moral Law Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self And much more inforced under the new Covenant even to the Love of our very Enemies Matt. 5.44 I say unto you Love your Enemies and consequently forgive your Enemies for Love is that affection that produceth Pardon and this injunction lyes upon us under the same obligation whereby we are bound to love our Brethren for the Love we owe to God is that grand Obligation that binds to whatsoever he commands Joh. 14.15 If ye love me keep my Commandments Therefore if ye love me love and pity and pardon your Enemies 3. From that great Equity and Reason the proportion of Gods dealing with us Matt. 18.32 I forgave thee all that debt because thou desiredst me Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant even as I had pity on thee Colos 3.13 Forbearing one another and forgiving one another even as Christ
forgave you If God should require obedience to any command though I saw no reason for it yet the Love of God would constrain me to reason thus Though I see no reason of this command yet when I consider who it is that commands it even the Infinite and Merciful God to whom I owe my self and all I hope for I see reason enough for me to obey though I see not the reason why God should command But in this injunction of Forgiving my Enemy I see a most just and proportionable reason of my Obedience I owed unto God a most Infinite Love and Obedience to the uttermost possibility of my Being for from him I had it and when I broke that Allegiance I owed unto him an Infinite Debt of Guilt and Punishment and with this guilt I likewise contracted an innate enmity against that God to whom I owed so vast a debt of Duty and of Guilt this very God freely without my seeking when I hated him sent me his Son with a free Pardon of all this Infinite Guilt and commanded me to shew Mercy to my offending brother the offence that I committed was against an Infinite Obligation of the creature to his Creator the offence that my Brother commits as against me is only against some petty relation we are otherwise both equals God freely forgave me when there was nothing to enjoyn or inforce or deserve or so much as to seek it and is it not reasonable that I should forgive my brother that it may be seeks my Pardon but if he doth not our common Lord and Master enjoyns it 2. Consequently upon the former the not observing of this Duty doth most Justly and Reasonably deserve that I should not be heard in this Petition If I can so boldly and unthankfully encounter a Command of God standing upon such just and reasonable grounds with what face I can expect a Pardon from him at my request when I refuse to Pardon my Brother at his command 3. Consequently also the pardon of my Brother is no Meritorious cause for God to pardon me the Breach of any command is a meritorious cause of Punishment but the Observation of one duty cannot deserve the Pardon of the violation of another God requires me to forgive my Brother and when I have done so I have done but my duty and no not deserve my Pardon and therefore when I say forgive me for I forgave others I make not the Pardon I ask the wages for the Pardon I gave for as my Brothers offence against me holds not proportion with my offence against God so neither doth my Pardon of him hold proportion with Gods Pardon to me 4. Nor consequently is my Pardon of others the measure of that Pardon I beg of God The offences committed by my brother against me are not in truth so much offences committed against me as against God for it is therefore an injury to me because done against that law that he hath interposed between him and me and so though I am concerned yet in truth the foundation of my concernment is that Law that God hath set between him and me and were it possible to suppose no such Law it were impossible to conceive any injury to be done from one man to another So then my Pardon of him is but of slender concernment of my own the chiefest interest is Gods Again my offence against God is against an Infinite Obligation and against an Infinite Person but my brothers offence against me as it relates to me is but of finite relation or obligation and against a finite Person and therefore the measure of the thing forgiven by me is too short and too narrow to fit and sute with that whereof I beg my Pardon Again my Pardon to my Brother is with a great deal of corruption superciliousness pride grudging aversness expostulations secret risings of my Heart against him O! But such a Pardon will not serve my turn I beg a Pardon at the hands of the God of Mercy and Perfection a full a perfect Pardon Measure not out O Lord thy Pardon to me according to my Pardon to my Brother the thing I pardon holds not proportion with the offence which I have committed against thee his is but a finite offence against me a finite Creature mine is an infinite Offence gainst an infinite Obligation and against an Infinite God the Pardon that I give is mingled with ruggedness with revenge with remembrance of the thing I forgive but the Pardon I beg of thee is an abundant Pardon Isa 55.7 A blotting out and an everlasting forgetting of my Sins Isa 43.25 Such a Pardon as leaves not behind it the tincture of my former guilt that though my Sins were as scarlet they may be as white as snow Isa 1.18 But 5. Forgive us for we forgive By our Union with Christ we partake of his Priviledge of being the Sons of God so that as a Father hath tenderness towards his child and is apt and ready upon his submission to Pardon him so there is the same and a far greater readiness in him to forgive I said I will confess my Transgressions unto the Lord and thou forgavest the Iniquity of my Sin As soon as he had but a resolution to beg his Pardon God prevents his Petition by granting that Pardon which he intended to ask And as by this Union with Christ we partake of his Priviledge so we partake of his Spirit and that Spirit is a Merciful Spirit ready to Pardon an Enemy even before he ask it This was the command he gave us and this was the Pattern he left us who when he was reviled reviled not again 1 Pet. 2.21 23. but prayed for those that sought his Life Luk. 23.34 Father Forgive them for they know not what they do And therefore this Conformity unto the Mind of Christ is an Evidence unto a Man of his Participation of him and that God heareth him as a Father heareth his Child and by this means Faith is strengthened and the Soul argues thus in this Petition O Lord I am guilty in my self of many Sins but yet if I am found in thy Son thou wilt look upon me with the same tenderness that a Father looks upon his child and wilt be more ready to forgive me than I can be to ask it I find thy Son was Merciful and ready to forgive even his Enemies and I thank thy good Grace I find in my self the same mind that my Saviour bore a mind ready to forgive the injuries that were offered him and this disposition I have not from my self nor my own spirit for that spirit lusteth after envy but surely it comes from that meek and gentle Spirit that is in thy Son and upon this I do believe I am in some measure united to him and as I do partake of his Spirit so I doubt not but I partake of that relation of his even the relation of a Son unto thee and in that relation I
come before thee and beg thee to pardon my Sins assuredly trusting that thou that hast created in me a mind of Mercy and Forgiveness unto others wilt shew thy self a God of Mercy and Pardon unto me 6. Forgive us for we forgive It is true our Pardon of others deserves not thy Mercy nor can it make thee a debtor unto us but Bountiful Lord thou hast been pleased in Christ in whom all thy Promises are Yea and Amen by thine own free Promise to engage thy self unto thy creature Psal 18.25 That with the merciful thou wilt shew thy self merciful Matt. 5.7 That the merciful shall obtain Mercy Mat. 6.14 That if we forgive men their Trespasses thou wilt forgive us and these Promises of thine freely and undeservedly made by thee I lay before thee when I beg my Pardon in Jesus Christ thereby to strengthen my Soul in thy Goodness in the free remission of all my Sins To conclude In this Petition the Soul breathes out such thoughts as these O Lord I confess before thee I am a sinful creature I have a sinful and polluted Nature a Body of sin and death and this sinful Nature sends forth through all my Thoughts Words and Actions foul and filthy streams in every moment of my Life and if thou shouldest pass by all the sins of my Nature and Life unto this day and shouldest call me to an account for my errors since I last begged my Pardon there were guilt enough left to press me down to the lowest Hell And this guilt of the least of any of my sins as it is more than I am able to answer so it is more than I am able to expiate there is no escaping but by thy free Pardon and that Pardon I beg of thee in the Name and Righteousness and Promise of thy Son who knew all thy mind and taught me to seek my Pardon as often as to seek my daily bread And in confidence only of that free Mercy of thine I beseech thee pardon me and as I beg the Pardon of my sins in general so in special I beg the Pardon of those Sins which I committed since thy last act of remission granted and manifested and ratified unto me this or that neglect of my Duty to thee or my neighbour this or that sinful proud unclean vain Thought which hath stained my Soul and grieved thy Spirit and polluted or weakned my Conscience this or that uncharitable or malicious or unseemly or vain Word this or that unjust or unbecoming or unchristian or ungodly Action every one of these leaves a spot in my Soul which nothing but the Blood of Christ and thy Free Grace can take away It leaves a Disease a Weakness a Wound in my Soul which nothing but thy Free Spirit can heal and recover And though I know that my greatest mercy to others cannot merit mercy from thee because that mercy is but my duty and a duty mingled in the performance of it with many of my own imperfections which stand in need of thy mercy to pardon it and that little good that is in it is not my own but the work of thy Grace as free as thy Pardon yet it is an evidence to me that thou wilt be merciful unto me in that thou hast contrary to my own nature wrought a merciful temper in my heart to others the same mind that was in thy Son and therefore I am humbly confident that thou hast given me that Spirit of thy Son and consequently the relation and priviledge of a Son that in as much as thou hast given me a heart to pardon others thou wilt make good thy Promise of Mercy and Pardon unto me I make mention of my remission of others not as the merit of thy forgiving of me but thereby to strengthen my Faith and to lay hold of thy Promise made in and by thy Son that if we forgive Men their offences thou wilt also forgive us And this I beg not to make room for new offences by pardoning the old nor to continue in sin that Grace may abound but with a resolution to forsake my sins as well as to confess them and not turn again to folly strengthen me so with thy Grace that as thou hast now cleansed my Soul from my past sins and spots so I may keep my self from mine Iniquity that I may live more to thy Honour that I may walk with more Vigilance that I may every day find my account less and thy Spirit and Grace more and more effectual in me to conform me to the Will and Example of thy Son in all Holiness and Blamelessness of mind and life and to that end Lead us not into Temptation c. This Petition directs us to pray for 1 Preventing Mercy Lead us not into Temptation 2 Delivering Mercy but deliver us from Evil. Keep us from falling into Evil but if we fall into it deliver us from it The Former part wherein is considerable 1. What is meant by Temptation 2. What to lead into Temptation Temptation may be understood 1 for an Active Solicitation unto Evil of Sin this is done either by the Devil thus our Saviour was led by the Spirit into the Wilderness to be tempted of the Devil Matt. 4.1 And therefore he is often called the Tempter who being a Spirit is by the advantage of his Nature and by the permission of God able to mingle himself so with our Souls and faculties that he can immediately solicite unto Evil. Thus he mingled himself with the Spirits of the Prophets of Ahab and became a lying Spirit in their Mouths 1 Kings 22.21 Thus he mingled himself with the Spirit of Judas tempting him to betray Christ Luke 22.7 with the spirit of Ananias Act. 5.3 Why hath Satan filled thy Heart or it is done by Evil Men either by their Counsels Perswasions or Examples or by our own corrupt hearts James 1.14 Every Man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own Lusts and inticed Our corrupt and sinful flesh breathes and evaporates into our Souls those ill and filthy vapors which infect and disorder and seduce it from God the Law of our Members bringing us into captivity to the Law of sin Rom. 7.23 2. For that Objective Temptation or the Object from whence occasionally Temptation ariseth And thus almost every Object of our sense is a Temptation not that there is any proper active motion or action of the Object to perswade to sin but the corruption of our sensual Nature meeting with such an Object acts amiss upon it and so it becomes a Temptation to sin and especially if the Object be such as bears a disproportion to our enjoyment of it The beauty of the Apple was a Temptation to Eve the wedge of Gold and the Babylonish Garment to Achan Naboths Vineyard to Ahab Bathsheba to David yet in these the Objects were innocent and had in themselves no active solicitation to Evil but because they were seemingly good yet prohibited corrupted
Nature laid hold upon that seeming good and violated the Command This taught the Wise man to pray against extreams either of Plenty or Poverty because his corrupted Nature was ready to turn either into Temptation Riches into Arrogance and Presumption Poverty into Blasphemy and Murmuring Prov. 30.9 3. For that Act which is not ordered unto Sin but to some Experiment or Tryal of the temper or disposition that is in a Man a Temptation of Trial. Thus God tempted Abraham when he commanded him to offer up his Son to prove the sincerity of his Love and Obedience to God Gen. 22.12 By this I know that thou fearest God To the like purpose were all those difficult dispensations to the People of Israel at the Red Sea and in the Wilderness that he might humble them and prove them and to know what was in their heart Deut. 8.2 And for this end God often sends several Afflictions upon those he truely loves that their Faith may be tryed And these Tryals are called Temptations 1 Pet. 1.6 7. Ye are in Heaviness through manifold Temptations that the Tryal of your Faith may be found to praise c. Jam. 1.2 Count it all Joy when ye fall into divers Temptations knowing that the Tryal of your Faith worketh Patience 2. What it is to lead into Temptation and how God may be said to lead us into them 1. As to the latter of these sorts of Temptations they may and do come from God viz. Tryals of Grace by the permitting and inflicting of afflictions It is a work no way unbecoming his Purity and Justice It is ordained to singular Ends. 1. To his own Glory 2. To the good of those that he thus tryes thereby teaching them to despise the World to adhere unto him to reach out after a better Life to live by Faith and not by Sense patiently to submit to his hand and to wait upon him for deliverance By this Refiners fire he consumes their dross their carnal confidence building Tabernacles here drives them to their true home and gives them a proportion of Eternal Comfort and Hope far more valuable than that Temporal comfort which they want 2. As touching Temptation unto Sin 1. That God tempteth no Man He that is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity will never solicite any Man to that which only he hates It is the great work of God to withdraw Men from sin and surely he will never draw Men into it Jam. 1.13 God cannot be tempted with Evil neither tempteth he any Man 2. As he doth not actively tempt any Man or move him to Evil so neither doth he infuse into the Heart or Soul a Receptivity of Temptation he doth not excite the Heart to close with any Temptation or create or stir up any corruption in the Heart to take fire from a Temptation And yet in some sort he is said to lead into Temptation 1. By withdrawing that Grace of his whereby we are prevented from and defended against Temptation We walk in the midst of Enemies and snares the Prince of the air hath his Instruments that most Vigilantly takes all opportunities to draw us into sin evil Angels and evil Men And were there not a Devil or his Instruments without us to tempt us to Evil we have an old Man within us a fountain a Sea of Corruption a deceitful and wicked heart a Body of sin and death that can with much advantage and doth with much ease draw us into Sin and the merciful God that seeth these snares which the evil one layes for us in our way though we see them not sends out his own Grace and Spirit and sometimes removes the snare out of our way sometimes leads us another way that we miss the snare he over-rules and restrains this raging Sea of our own corruptions and as our Saviour did to the Winds and Seas commands them Peace and be still he doth by the same Spirit strengthen and inable our hearts to resist and oppose and subdue those Temptations that rise from within and comes from without And this Grace of his he owes not to us It is meerly of his free Mercy Gen. 20.6 For I withheld thee from sinning against me and yet such is his Goodness that he seldom withdraws this Grace from us unless we thrust it away and reject it and then he withdraws that Grace of his and that being withdrawn that cruel and subtil Enemy of our Souls falls in upon us and subdues us and that Sea of corruption within us that hath now no banks to keep it in breaks in and over-whelms us And thus was the heart of Pharaoh hardned by himself Exod. 8.15 And yet said to be hardned by God Exod. 10.1 By withdrawing from him that Grace that should soften it And this Subduction of the Grace of God principally respects Temptations from our selves 2. By Permission The Devil and his Instruments are under the restraint of the Power of God and without a commission or at least a permission from him cannot actually execute that evil that is in their Natures and Wills he solicits Job by himself and his instruments to let go his integrity but this he cannot do without a Permission Job 1.12 he seduceth Ahab to his destruction but this he cannot do without a Permission 1 Kings 22.21 he tempts David to presumption and carnal confidence 1 Chro. 21.1 But this he cannot do without a Permission 2 Sam. 24.1 he watcheth the opportunity of Gods displeasure against Israel and gets leave thereupon to tempt David to number the People and here we may see the Infinire Wisdom of God in managing that evil that was in the Devil to tempt and in David's heart to be overcome to a most just and excellent end the punishment of the sin of Israel by Davids sin Here was in the same action Malice in the Devil corruption in David yet nothing but Purity and Justice in God He never gives the Devil a Permission to tempt that Man may thereby sin but he turns that Temptation and that sin into a work either of singular Mercy or Justice The Devil could not have entered into Judas without a Permission nor Judas have betrayed our Lord without a Permission nor the Jews have delivered him up to Judgment without a Permission nor Pilate have judged him without a Permission John 19.11 Here was Malice in the Devil and Treachery in Judas and envy in the Jews and Injustice in Pilate and Murder in the Souldiers and yet in God the greatest manifestations of his Truth and Justice and Wisdom and Purity and Mercy that ever the World did or shall see While he permits the Instrument to sin he nor his action is in no sort defiled by it but manageth that sin which is none of his to bring forth that Righteousness that is only his 3. He is said to lead into Temptation by the External Dispensation of his Providence and that 1. By withdrawing those External restraints from sin such are
Almighty God in the entrance into our Prayers And because our thoughts are easily taken off from these considerations and like Moses Arm our Faith soon declines and our light soon burns out and because there is an equal necessity of Intention of spirit as well in our last request as in our first our Saviour teacheth us to remind those considerations that may support and fortifie our Souls in the close of our Prayers as well as in the beginning that so the consideration of Almighty God his Power and Goodness who is the Beginning and the End the First and the Last may be also the Beginning and the End as of our Prayers so of all our Services Thine is the Kingdom Thou art the only and absolute and rightful Soveraign of all thy Creatures and to thee do all the Creatures in the World owe an Infinite subjection for by thy Power and Goodness they were created and are preserved and yet if it were possible that Infinitude could admit of degrees the children of Men owe a more Infinite subjection unto thee than any of the rest of thy Creatures for thou yet sparest unto them that being that by sin they have forfeited unto thee and yet more than this those whom thou hast redeemed by the Passion of thy Son and sanctified owe thee yet a more Infinite debt of subjection than the rest of the Children of Men and because thou art our King whither should we go to make our requests but unto our King in whom all Authority is justly placed and if thou art our King it is but reasonable for me to desire That thy Name may be glorified that all the subjects of thy Kingdom according to their several conditions may Magnifie and Glorifie the Name of their King That thy Kingdom may come with evidence and demonstration of it self and that all thy Creatures as they owe a just subjection to thee so they may duly perform it that those that have rebelled against thee may return and be brought into subjection to thee that though other Lords have had an usurped dominion over us yet that thy Kingdom may break in pieces all Usurpations and recover thy revolted subjects unto their just Allegiance That thy Will the only rightful Law and Rule of Justice may be done in all places of thy Dominion in Earth and Heaven and that all thy Creatures may submit freely to this thy Will which is the only rule and measure both of their perfection and obedience The Wills of Earthly Kings are subject to Error Oppression and Injustice and therefore thy Providence hath regulated their administrations by Laws and Rules but thy Will is the only Rule Exemplar and Foundation of Justice therefore let thy Will be done That thou wouldest give us our daily bread when the seven years of plenty had filled Pharaoh's store-houses and were after entertained with seven years of Famine the Egyptian's cryed unto their King for bread Gen. 41.55 And whither should we go for Bread for our Bodies but to our King who is Lord of all the store of the World and gives meat to all his Creatures in their season and feeds the young Ravens when they cry And whither should we go for bread for our Souls but to Thee our King who hast intrusted this Bread of Life under the hands of our Joseph our Saviour that thou wouldest Forgive us our sins For our sins are as so many Treasons against thy Majesty and thou alone canst remit against whom alone we can offend the pardoning of Sins as it is thy peculiar Prerogative for who can forgive sins save God only so it is thy Property a part of thy Name pardoning iniquity transgression and sin Exod. 34.7 That thou wouldest deliver us from Temptation the cause of sin and from Evil the fruit of sin from the incursions of that Rebel against thy Majesty the Prince of Darkness for whither should the Subjects fly for Protection but to their King and though that Prince hath a Kingdom too yet it is regnum sub graviore regno the very Kingdom of Hell is subject to thy Authority and therefore as thou art our King we beseech Thee Protect and Deliver us And the Power There may be a lawful and a just Authority where yet there wants Power to act it but as thou hast a just Sovereignty and Authority over all thy Creatures so thou hast an Infinite Power to do whatsoever thou pleasest nothing is too hard for thee Evil Men and evil Angels though they resist thy Authority cannot avoid thy Power My requests that I have here sent up unto thee they are great requests but yet they are all within thy Power to grant Sin hath drawn a cloud and darkness over our understandings that we cannot see thee It hath infused a malignity into our wills that we cannot abide thee and how then shall we sanctifie that Name which we know not or if we know yet we hate it But thou hast Infinite Power to scatter this darkness that we may see thee to conquer this perversness that we may love and glorifie thee The Prince of darkness hath set up his usurped power and is become the Prince of the World and sets up strong holds in our hearts and mans them with principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness but thou hast Infinite Power even by a poor despised Gospel to pull down these strong-holds to subdue those Principalities and Powers to bind the strong man that keeps the House and to set up thy Throne and thy Kingdom even where Satan's seat is The state of our nature is so changed that we that were once fitted for an obedience to thy Will are now become enemies to it resisters of it dead to the obedience of it but thou hast infinite Power by thy very Word of Command to quicken us as well as to create us to change our Natures to conform our Wills to the obedience of thine that so thy Will may be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Sin hath put a curse into the Creature that it hath lost much of that effectual power to support and to preserve our Nature that once it had and it hath put a disorder into the whole Creation so that it is a wonder to see that such a World of men and Creatures amongst whom sin hath sown such a disorder and enmity should be one able to live by another yet thou hast power to remove that curse to provide for the several Exigencies of all thy Creatures according to their several conveniencies to feed us in times and places of necessity to make a Raven our purveyor a Cruise of Oyl or a Barrel of Meal to be a supply for three years Famine Our daily sins committed so often against so great a duty against so many Mercies so much Patience so much Love so much Bounty received from one that owes us nothing are enough to sin away any stock of Pardoning Mercy and Patience below Infinitude But thou hast