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
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
one Wave be past another may follow And if there were nothing else to make thee Watchful yet be sure the hour of Sickness and the hour of Death will overtake thee and that is an hour of Affliction which thou must alwayes prepare for lest it take thee unawares OF SUBMISSION PRAYER THANKSGIVING HF that freely Submits not to the Divine Disposition and Providence gains nothing by his Contumacy for submit he must whether he will or no. But he gains this Loss and Disadvantage thereby that those Providences that are not according to his desire gall him more by the Unquietness and Impatience of his mind under them He that with an entire freeness of Soul submits to the Divine Providences gains thereby these Advantages namely 1. That certainly such a resolved willing submission never makes the Providences the more harsh or severe 2. That commonly they are even in themselves more gentle and easie because the Man needs not a severity to bring him to a right temper of mind namely due subjection to the Divine Will 3. But be the Providences never so harsh and hard they sit more easie upon a quiet patient resigning Soul A Man never loseth by Prayer for if the thing be Granted it makes the Blessing both the sweeter and the safer being the Humble Victory and Acquest of his Prayer and it makes the Man the Better the more Thankful for he looks upon it as a Gift and not a Chance the more Dependent upon God and the readier upon all occasions to call upon him who hath honoured the Prayer of his Servant with a Concession And if it be Denied yet he loseth not for it may be the thing he asked might have done him harm and been his prejudice Again though he be not gratified in the thing he desired a Thousand to one but he is gratified with what was fitter or better But if not yet the man receives infallibly this benefit by being denied that he is made the better the more Humble and Patient and to be content that Almighty God should be Master of his own Bounty and not to be commanded by our Prayers Or at least it discovers unto him the Distemper of his Heart if he be not contented to be denied his Heart was Proud and his Prayer Hypocritical he seemed to Pray but indeed meant to Command not to pray for what he desired which makes him thus Impatient of a denial Sense of Misery Want or Danger when we find no other means of Remedy or prevention doth carry us to prayer and Invocation upon God The Sailors did this in the Storm But commonly though Deliverance follows even upon our very Prayers we rarely with that seriousness and intention of mind return unto God the praise and Acknowledgment of his Goodness Of the Ten Leapers that were cleansed we read only of One that returned Thanks for the Benefit and commonly we either forget the Benefit and our Benefactor when our turn is served and are content to attribute our Deliverance to Chance to Means or to any thing rather than to the Goodness of God And the Reasons may be these 1. The Pride and Naughtiness of our Hearts that are unwilling to own our Dependance upon God when we think we stand not in need of him 2. Necessity and Fear and the Incumbent sense of Evil are more pressing and urgent and by a kind of force oftentimes drive us to Pray when we cannot probably find help elsewhere But when the Necessity and Fear and Incumbence of Evil is removed it is only a true Judgment and the Grateful temper of our Hearts that do ingage us to render Thanks for the Mercy received which is ordinarily more flat and less active than Evils felt or feared Natural Necessity prompts a Man to Prayer oftentimes but it is sincerity and a right temper of the Soul that prompts a Man to Gratitude and Thankfulness He that in his Necessity prayes for Help and orbtains it if his prayers were the fruit barely of his Exigence is seldom Thankful and if he be not Thankful it is an Evidence that his Prayers did not move from a Heart sincere and truly principled with a Dependence upon God and a habit of Dutifulness to him But if he be Thankful for the Mercy received it is an Evidence that not only his Gratitude but his Prayers sprang from the same Principle namely a Good and sincere Heart principled with the same habit of Grace Piety Dependance upon God and Obedience to him There is an admirable Oeconomy of the Divine Goodness and Wisdom to bring his Creature Man both to his Duty and Happiness many times he invites us to come to him by Perswasions and Monitions and secret Motions and when we neglect that voice he oftentimes sends upon us Troubles and Afflictions and Dangers and this he doth by a kind of moral force to make us flie to him by prayer for help and relief deliverance And it seldom misseth its effect if there be but any Wisdom or the Common Instinct implanted generally in the Humane Nature When we know not which way to turn we then flie to God 2 Chro. 20.12 because all other ways are most commonly obstructed and hedged up and this passage only left open to an escape In their Affliction they will seek me early Hos 5.15 Almighty God deals by us as a wise Artist that hath a purpose to turn a stream towards some designed place stops all other egresses but that which fits his design or as a Father that is minded to bring an Extravagant Son to his Duty and Dependance obstructs all supplies but such as may be had from himself So oftentimes God Almighty doth so methodise his Afflictions that all ways of relief are obstructed but such as may lead a Man to him It is true many times in such cases we will be shifting and trying every avenue to get out at but when we find every passage hedged up with Thorns but that only which leads to him our Stomachs come down and we are glad to seek relief in that way where we find only it can be had Like Jonas his Mariners in the Storm we try all experiments and Artifices to save our selves throw out our Anchors take down the Sails ply the Pump throw over the Goods to lighten the Vessel and when all will not do then we begin to call upon God Lord save us we perish But yet the method of the Divine Goodness resteth not here but brings us a step forward He is often graciously pleased to grant the Deliverance we pray for to let us see that we call not upon his Name in vain and to incourage us to depend upon him to draw near unto him to make him our Confidence as well as our Fear And though sometimes he defers our Deliverance yet he doth it partly to give unto our selves an Experiment of our own Sincerity and Patience partly to Discipline and Tutor us to Constancy and Patient
an unsearchable bottomless Fountain of Power as well to pardon as to punish Our Temptations unto sin meet us upon every occasion from without us and from within us and we have no wisdom in our selves to foresee them no strength nor yet any will to oppose them but thou hast infinite Power to foresee to prevent to divert them and to deliver from them The least of Evils armed with the guilt of any one sin will like a weight of Lead press us into an impossibility of recovery from it the enemy of our Souls is conversant within us and about us and ready upon every occasion to seduce us into sin and to torment and disorder us for it and his power and strength and subtilty is beyond our power to resist and indeed he finds us willing captives but as thou hast Authority so thou hast Power to restrain him to discover him to fortifie and strengthen us against him and to deliver us from him And therefore I here lay hold of the strength of Omnipotency to grant these my Petitions but this is not all And the Glory Omnipotency though it be one addition of strength to our Prayers yet it is not enough The Leper in the Gospel said truly to our Saviour If thou wilt thou canst make me clean but yet he doth not conclude Thou canst therefore thou wilt but thy Glory is the great End of all thy Works the End of thy great Work of Creation Prov. 16.4 the End of thy Son 's coming into the World to redeem Mankind Luk. 2.14 the End of thy Eternal Counsel in electing some to Life and leaving others Rom. 9.22 It is the only Tribute that all thy Works can give thee for their Being and Preservation and that which thou accountest most dear and peculiar unto thy self Isa 42.8.48.11 I am the Lord that is my Name and my Glory I will not give to another And in all these my requests I have sought nothing but what conduceth to thy Glory In granting what I have here asked the Benefit is ours but the Glory is thine In it Thou hast the Glory of thy Mercy the Glory of thy Power the Glory of thy Bounty and Goodness the Glory of thy Truth and Faithfulness thou hast said of old that thy Glory shall be revealed and that all flesh shall see it Isa 40.5 that they shall sanctifie thy Name Isa 29.23 that thou wilt set up a Kingdom that shall never be destroyed and shall break in pieces and consume other Kingdoms and shall stand for ever Dan. 2.44 Dan. 7.27 That thy counsel shall stand and thou wilt do all thy pleasure Isa 46.10 That thou wilt give us a new heart and a new spirit and wilt cause us to walk in thy Statutes and to keep thy Judgments and do them Ezech. 36.26 27. That verily we shall be fed Psal 37.3 That though the young Lions do lack and suffer hunger yet they that seek thee shall not want any good thing Psal 34.10 That if we return unto thee thou wilt have Mercy and abundantly Pardon Isa 55.7 That thou art a God Pardoning iniquity transgression and sin Exod. 34.7 That thou wilt not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able but wilt with the Temptation make a way to escape 1 Cor. 10.13 That if we call upon thee in the day of trouble thou wilt deliver us and we shall glorifie thee Psal 50.15 And yet though thou the great God of Power and Truth hast spoken all this and wilt do it yet that thou maist have the due acknowledgment of our subjection and dependance upon thee thou wilt be enquired of for this to do it for us Ezek. 36.36 37. And although we are so sinful that we cannot so much as deserve thy pity in our greatest misery yet for thy Name 's sake and for thy Glory's sake hear us Psal 106.8 For thy own sake Isa 48.11 And though all the Praises and Acknowledgments of thy Creatures add nothing to thy Glory for thine is an essential infinite absolute independent Glory yet since thou art pleased to accept of this our poor and our only Tribute and to take it in good part from thy Creature we will thankfully acknowledge thy great condescension to us in accepting of our Prayers and granting our Requests giving us liberty through thy Son to be intercessors for our selves for others nay for thine own Glory and Kingdom and the manifestation of it What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me I will take the cup of Salvation and call upon the Name of the Lord. Give me Grace in all my wants and necessities to fly to thee by Prayer and in all my supplies and deliverances to return unto thee with Thanksgiving For Ever Thy Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations Psal 145.13 A Kingdom which shall in time break and subdue all the Kingdoms of this World and the Kingdom of darkness Sin Death and Satan And as is thy Kingdom such is thy Power infinite in extent infinitely more comprehensive than the vastest wants or desires of thy Creatures infinite in duration unexhaustible by all the successions of Time and of Eternity it self And as is thy Kingdom and Power such is thy Glory an Eternal and endless Glory before the birth of Time when nothing had a Being but thy self thou had'st Infinite Self-sufficiency and an incomprehensible fulness of Glory Joh. 17.5 And when thou did'st in time create the World it did not contribute unto thy fulness of Glory but thou did'st communicate and imprint some of thy Glory upon it and all the Glory that thy Creatures bring unto thee is nothing else but the reflection of thine own Glory a recoyl of that Beam that came from thy Sun yet though the Glory of thy Essence cannot receive any increase by this reflection yet thou art pleased everlastingly to perpetuate this thy reflexive Glory by the immortal Angels and Spirits of just men made perfect to whom thou wilt unto all Eternity communicate a fulness of the Vision of thy Self according to the measure of their perfected but finite Natures and from that communication of thy Glory to them they shall everlastingly return Glory to thy Name saying Blessing Honour Glory and Power be unto him that sitteth on the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever Amen Rev. 5.13 THE Lord's Prayer PARAPHRASED Our Father O Eternal and Glorious Lord God for thou gavest at first Being to the Common Parents of all Mankind Thou art our Father by Nature we owe our own immediate Being more to Thee than we do to our immediate Parents for thou art the Father of our Spirits Thou art our Father by our Preservation we could not support our selves in being one moment of time without the uncessant influence of thy Providence and Goodness Thou art our Father by Adoption receiving us in a more special manner to be thy Children in and through Jesus Christ