every though never so fortuitous an effect of a spontaneous Agent to look at God I 'll not instance in other than David And 1. for evil Events As he intimates a possibility of Saul's being excited against him by God 1 Sam. 26.19 and was foretold that the Lord would raise up evil against him out of his own House and take his Wives and give them to Absalom under the notion of his Neighbour 2 Sam. 12.11 So even when he was cursed by Shimei he owns it as from God 2 Sam. 16.10 Not that he supposed God had a hand in the sin of the Act but order'd it as a part of the punishment threatned for his own Sin 2. Good Events of all kinds he more frequently ascribes to God Does he conquer his Enemies 'T is the Lord that lets him see his desire upon them Psal 59.10 and subdueth the People under him Psal 18.47 48. See the whole Psalm and smites his Enemies in their hinder parts Psal 78.66 Do his Friends own and anoint and crown him King He entitles God to it Psal 21.3 When his Father and Mother forsake him the Lord takes him up Psal 27.10 Is he secur'd in a strong City 'T is the Lord's marvellous kindness Psal 31.21 What do I enumerating Particulars every Psalm is an Instance And indeed were it not so Prayer would be mere Mockery and Praise Hypocrisie Epist 31. and that of Seneca would be better Divinity than we are taught by the Scriptures which yet to suppose is most horridly Blasphemous Per maxima acto viro turpe est etiamnum Deos fagitare Quid votis opus est Facte ipse foelicem Let those English it that allow it Now when a Man does thus in all Events take notice of the Finger of God and thereby give him the glory of his Efficiency he is in a disposition for renewed Experiments of the Divine Power and Goodness in Peace and Joy Where the Glory will be given to God he will grant the fullest and sweetest tasts of his Graciousness But who will lose a Benefit 'T is lost where no likelyhood of any grateful Acknowledgement Unthankfulness is the most hateful of Sins Ingratum si dixeris omnia dixeris If God must not reap Praises he will not sow Mercies Not that he needs our Gratitude but that we must own our Benefactor and testifie our advances in Love when by new Instances he testifies his Love to us Nevertheless this Love of ours is not profitable to God but highly as all other Graces to our selves Our own Advantage and Interest is alway at the bottom of our Duty which indeed can add nothing to God Job 34. is nothing to him as neither can our Iniquity detract from him or hurt him His good will towards us moves him to take care that it may be well with us therefore doth he follow us with his tender Mercies and richest Blessings that we may proceed upon ingenuous Motives in our observance of him and obedience to him and may not be obnoxious to the check of Satan or our own Consciences for servility of Spirit in that work wherein consists our Liberty Honour and Happiness Indeed we are not really good if we be not ingenuously good nor act at all for God if we act not from a filial disposition Love is every Grace and Virtue that Spirit of Life which as an universal Cause diffuses its benign animating Influences through all the Regions of true Goodness and Honesty All in us that lives to God every holy Disposition every gracious Habit is only a distinct particular modification of Love Even as the varieties of Nature in those innumerable differences of Plants sensitive Creatures and Men in their Bodies are but Earthly Particles diversly modified formed fashioned and qualified Hence Love is said to be the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13.10 But without Love to be Good is impossible 1 Cor. 13. Where this Grace dwells God dwells also and the Soul inspirited by it dwells in God 1 Joh. 4.8 16. The more of Love therefore the more of God He will never be out of our Eye if he be thus in our Hearts Love there will command our Looks 'T was the dominion of this Grace in his Soul that mov'd the Psalmist to make such honourable mention here of the Love and Graciousness of God in his aid and sustentation 't was this that in his distress inclin'd him to take Sanctuary in God and own all the Spiritual Refreshments that solaced his Heart as derivations from God and engaged him to devolve all the Glory thereof upon God And how should that Soul do other that has all in God Hast thou then Oh my Soul evermore and in every occurrent an Eye toward Heaven and by thy acknowledgement of the Finger of God in every thing that befalls thee Dost thou honour his Providence indeavour to relish his Goodness and make some progress in thine affectionate pantings after him complacency in him resolution for him and dutifulness to him O let every thing remind thee of his everlasting Commiseration that in thy lost Estate remembred thee gave Blood for thy Ransom the Blood of God Acts 20.28 The time of thy lothing was the time of his Love Eze. 16.5 8. He loved thee out of the Pit of Corruption Isa 38.17 He hath prevented thee with the Blessings of Goodness Psal 21.3 He redeemeth thy Life from Destruction and crowneth thee with loving Kindness and tender Mercies Psal 103.4 He hath not dealt with thee after thy Sins nor rewarded thee according to thy Iniquities ver 10. Therefore ver 1 2. Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me Bless his Holy Name Bless the Lord Oh my Soul and forget not all his Benefits Hallelujah CHAP. X. The Subject of Comfort Seeks it solely in God THus much of the Character deduced from the Context there only remains one thing out of the Text it self Viz. The Psalmist was a Man who discern'd such an emptiness and insufficiency in all inferiour Contentments as to seek no relief from them nor take up with any in them as his rest in Trouble but in deepest anxiety and distress did look for and find all his comfort solely in and from God This is the very substance and marrow of the Verse Indeed the whole Psalm is a Testimony of his ceasing from the Creature from Man in a believing and affectionate recourse to God Where-ever he cast his Eye upon Earth the Inscription was Vanity and Vexation A deluge of Sin and Misery covered the World that like Noah's Dove he could find no rest for the sole of his Foot below therefore does he direct his course toward Heaven Thus Psal 55.6 Oh that I had wings like a Dove for then I would flee away and be at rest But Rest is not a Denizen of this World Nothing but the Heaven of Heavens is at rest and here does he fix only There was a Windy Storm and Tempest without as Psal 55.8
Conversion There cannot then be any Divine Comfort if there be not a sweet Composure and Harmony betwixt Earth and Heaven and this can never be where a Man is at peace with his Sins Therefore whatever quiet may seem to be in such a Soul 't is only personated and illusive it reaches not to the real bottom of the trouble takes not out the Core But on the other hand when a Man makes Repentance and Mortification Faith and a good Life the main employ which drinks up his Spirits and Strength and Time industriously contending in all things to approve the sincerity and heartiness of his Affections Designs and Aims and whole Deportment in the sight of God and whilst he is thus doing finds any quietude Rest and Satisfaction of Mind to sweeten his Work and settle his Conscience he may be confident that this is the true Comfort of the Holy Ghost For as 't is impossible to enjoy true Peace under reigning Sin so t is inconsistent with Divine Goodness and Federal Love to permit a true Heart intirely devoted to him to delude it self into true Miseries under the vizor of false Joys I confess if a Man be too greedy of Comfort and too hasty in his Applications without due consideration and indeavour and care to derive his Satisfactions from solid Grounds laying the stress upon things which will not bear it in such indeliberate precipitation of Judgment concerning a Mans state and the true root of Comfort when he founds it upon any thing less than substantial Piety Righteousness and Sobriety as the evidence of his Right he may abuse himself with an unsound unsolid Peace Therefore I always suppose that the procedure in order to Comfort be justifiable and the Grounds upon which a Man bottoms his Evidence be genuine and that his reason and judgment lead him leisurely in the Scripture way to Heart-ease and Rest else all may issue in greater inquietude and trouble whatever fair Weather may at present flatter his conscience But if Spiritual sense light and a serious Preponderation of all circumstances according to the preceeding particular direct our motions hither and true Religiousness confirm them we may be secure that mere Shows and Pageantry do not now delude us into a Fairy Paradise A weak Head 't is true may lead an honest Heart into a deceitful Peace And 't is not the design of Grace to abolish or reform the natural Depravations and Deformities of our Faculties so much as the Moral But that which is defective must not be made a Standard A good Soul that understands it self and observes solid Rules in comforting it self cannot be deceiv'd in that Peace which it possesses whilst it loves God and keeps his way Such as a Mans goodness is will his Consolation be If that be but External and Hypocritical this will be insincere and delusory but a true intelligent honest Heart proceeding with a just caution shall never be gull'd with a Mock-Peace For Psal 97.11 12. Light is sown for the Righteous and gladness for the upright in heart Rejoyce in the Lord ye Righteous What God sows they shall reap Psal 85.8 10. I will hear what God the Lord will speak for he will speak peace unto his people and to his Saints c. Mercy and Truth have met together Righteousness and Peace have kissed each other Their embrace is strict and indissoluble God hath espoused them they cannot be divorced What he hath joyned together none shall finally separate and part asunder They give mutual testimony each to others integrity and soundness In Life they are lovely in Death they cannot be divided but will cohabit eternally Where then Oh my Soul is thy Righteousness not particular meerly but universal Shew me thy comfort by thy Works for 't is dead being alone As the Body without the Spirit is dead so is Peace without Holiness which is its very Life and Soul If thou be not God-like thy Joys are not Heaven-like All true pleasures are drops of those Rivers at God's Right Hand Psal 36.8 and 46.4 and 16. ult If the Waters of Life have never quickned and cleansed thee those Streams of Divine Comfort never yet did refresh thee thou hast only drunk of the Abana and Pharphar of muddy carnal Contentments not of the pure Fountain of Celestial Consolations Wherein then can thy uprightness and real honesty of heart approve it self to God Is this thy rejoycing 2 Cor. 1.12 viz. the Testimony of thy conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly Wisdom but by the grace of God thou hast had thy Conversation in the World What hast thou to shew more than an Hypocrite Wherein does thy Righteousness excel that of Scribes and Pharisees What are thy Principles Motives manner of acting Aims and Ends in thy whole course of Life Do'st thou really act 1. From God a Spirit of new Life breathed into thee by God 2. Through Christ as the Foundation of thy hopes of acceptance 3. By the Spirit as thy immediate aid in every Holy performance 4. Unto God as thy ultimate end Hast thou no secret reserved Dalilahs No one thing in which thou would'st have liberty and presume upon Pardon Do'st thou not run upon a biass in Religion and twine aside in some sinister respect to self or the popular Vogue in which thou would'st be somebody Is it thy great and uppermost care and study to be true to him that sees in secret rather than applauded by those who only see the Outside that thy inward gracious Dispositions may go no less than thy outward Semblances Art thou above all things jealous of thy deceitful Heart afraid of Hypocrisie willing to do any thing that may tend to a full discovery of thy self to thy self And if all be not right within or suspected not to be Art thou unspeakably troubled till it be righted Thou art full of thoughts but have thy Meditations been effectual through Christ to break thy heart from as well as for sin and bow thy Will to a Conformity and subjection to God's Will of Precept and Providence and bring thee to an intelligent self-denying humble penitent believing affectionate owning thy Baptismal Covenant in its whole latitude with sincere and indeflexible Resolutions to stand by it for ever And do'st thou expect thy peace in no other way Hast thou been industriously and labouriously diligent to gain a true and thorow understanding of thy State and Frame Godward searching all to the bottom very solicitous to see in a clear light What Conditions and Qualifications are prerequisite to dispose thee for Comfort and to be clear that in reality they are in thee and that thou do'st not build thy Evidence hereof upon self-flattering deceitful Grounds but do'st in truth find that the interest of God is Soveraign and Supreme in and nearest thy Heart hath the universal Regiment and command over all being thy singular delight and whatever thou feel'st to oppose becomes on that account an
than to have thus abused thy Being in precipitating thy self into so formidable an Abyss of woe Wilt thou then Oh my Soul live the life of the Just by Faith that thou mast not always be dying this accursed death of Hypocrites and Unbelievers and be yet more grievously rack'd with dismal expectations of infinitely worse to come Shall invisible and eternal things over-rule thee as having a present sensation or feeling of their reality Canst thou now and then take a turn in the superiour World as one come to Mount Sion and unto the City of the Living God the Heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels to the General Assembly and Church of the first born which are written in Heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the Spirits of Just Men made perfect and to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant and to the Blood of Sprinkling which speaketh better things than that of Abel Heb. 12.22 23 24 What report canst thou give concerning the promised Land of Everlasting Light and Love and Life Hast thou ever been upon the Mount to take a prospect of it What remarkable thing therein has invited thy serious Meditations to take a more strict and narrow view and make it thy perpetual repast and delight Hast thou walked through the breadth and the length thereof in a diligent search and survey to behold the Beauty the Sweetness the Perfection the Glory of the Inhabitants the Employments the Fruits the Enjoyments the Entertainments the Joys and Consolations to be possest there in an unconceivably rich degree of satisfactoriness where there 's an everlasting Spring and an everlasting Harvest of unutterable Pleasure and Contentation Dost thou even now enter upon thy lot and rest there Heb. 4.3 and live upon the riches of that Inheritance making a spiritual livelyhood for thy self out of the abundance and store of Heaven Where are thy Treasures thy Jewels and pleasant things thy most amiable and delectable Companions Seeing him who is invisible Heb. 11.27 Canst thou endure and bear up under the Rage and Violence of a turbulent ill-condition'd World the Reproaches and Scorns of Men the Fury of Devils the Pangs of Affliction and in a calm of sweet composure and rest anchor thy self on the Rock of Ages as thy best security and singular satisfaction Really Faith is all things 't is Wealth in Poverty Health in Sickness a good Report or Name under Defamations Heb. 11.2 Pleasure in Pain Rest in Labour Life in Death a Heaven of Peace and Joy in a Hell of Misery and Torment If thou canst not bless thy self with the solace of a Friend on Earth Faith will acquaint thee with and endear thee to Multitudes in Heaven Although thy Circumstances be as deplorable as thy Redeemers worse than the Birds and Foxes yet thy Faith has for thee a House not made with Hands Eternal Is thy own Country or City too hot for thee this Grace finds for thee a better Country a City that hath Foundations whose Builder and Maker is God Heb. 11.16 By it commit the keeping of thy Soul in well doing to thy Faithful Creator Espouse the ever blessed Jesus embrace the Precepts kiss the Promises Heb. 11.13 and then all 's thine own from the clod under thy Feet to the height and crown of Heavenly Glory For Faith to be a Menaicant is impossible It has all and abounds and is full if it be a full unfeigned Faith A Believer is never in want if he want not Faith the due degree and measure of Faith And the measure effectual and acceptable is not high 't is the Truth rather than Strength A Grain will remove Mountains Mat. 17.20 Make Trees to grow in the midst of the Sea Luke 17.6 Divide the Waters and convert Seas and Rivers into dry Land Heb. 11.20 and make even a Nebuchadnezzar's Hell-hot Furnace of Fire so forget its Property as not to be able to singe a hair Dan. 3.27 compar'd with Heb. 11.33 34. Every thing must be a Rebel against its own Nature and bow to the Omnipotency of Faith that is to the Almightiness of that infinite Nature which is engag'd to and by Faith Oh then my Soul where is thy Faith What is thy Faith CHAP. V. A Fourth Property of the Subject of Comfort Inoffensive Conscience 4. THis Sacred Writer was one that took singular care not to live under the reproach of his own Conscience That herein did exercise himself always to have a Conscience void of Offence towards God and toward Man Act. 24.16 1. What apprehensions he entertain'd of that which is displeasing to God we may judge 1. By his applications to and pleadings with God for Vengeance upon the workers of Iniquity Ver. 1 2 3 4. 2. By his deep sense of the Omnipresence and Omniscience of God which he vehemently urges as a pressing Argument to restrain and awe Men from Sinning ver 8 9 10 11. 3. By his esteeming it a part of Blessedness to learn Righteousness under Divine Chastisements ver 12. 4. By his enmity against Wicked Men which he was so wise and good as not to direct against their Persons as such but only as infected with odious Crimes ver 16. and the whole current of the Psalm 5. By his accounting and acknowledging it a special Mercy to be upheld by God when ready to slip ver 18. which I unnderstand of sliding into Sin * which is argued and proved c. 11. 6. By his deprecating the fellowship of a Throne of Iniquity with God ver 20. The Question there Shall the Throne c. is to be resolv'd into a Negative Proposition It cannot shall not Why What because a Throne No assuredly 't is then the Iniquity that dethrones and hurles it down from Communion with Heaven into Confusion with Hell And ver 23. exposes to a certain and remediless cutting off and ruin This was the Holy Authors sense of Sin in others and can any Man do thus that makes no conscience of dishonouring God by Omissions or Commissions Would a Man of his Condition Understanding and excellent Qualifications prosecute other Mens Crimes with such a height and heat of Enmity and yet be at peace with and palliate his own Arraign Treason in others and allow it in himself Enhaunce Publick Wickedness and hug Personal The aggravations whereof he was more privy to than of any Man 's beside and knew that the Treacheries of a Friend are worse resented than the Violences of an Enemy 'T is his own reasoning Psalm 55.12 13. Would he not with an implacable Vengeance pursue and exterminate every Sin in himself that his own Soul might not become the Butt and Mark for that all-intelligent Vengeance of Heaven which he truly thought did look with such a formidable aspect upon others And if so he must maintain a perpetual jealousie of and watchfulness over both Heart and Ways and make Repentance a daily business prosecuting his Corruptions to the very Death in
upon their Consciences They have awakening apprehensions of the Holiness and Justice of God the dreadful menaces of the Law the bitter Agonies undergone by the Son of God for the Sin of Man the dismal Horrors and Woes and Cruciations under the Vengeance of Almighty God in Hell which makes every Sin very formidable They are made to understand that although in respect of the matter some Sins are greater others less yet no Sin is absolutely little which is commited against a great God and also that smaller Sins are aggravated relatively to our Faculties that 't is an heinous offence to God to do the least of Evils against the clear Light and Conviction of Conscience or with a full bent of Will and Affection and that a Sin in respect of the matter comparatively and in it self greater yet is not so to me if committed ignorantly unwillingly Under these Considerations their own particular Sins are set in order before their Faces set on upon their awakned Consciences made bitter and grievous and odious that they Day and Night lament over them are afflicted with them in anguish of Soul under them labouring and being heavy laden and able to obtain rest no where till by serions hearty Repentance for and from them with a bitter loathing and implacable malice and hatred against them they be prepar'd for and made willing to embrace the Lord Jesus Christ in his whole mediatory Latitude and intirely devote themselves to him and his Father in the renewal of their Baptismal Covenant which they most solemnly and unfeignedly engage in and universally submit to the Terms of in the Strength and Grace of Christ Upon this Covenanting with God they see and know that to sin against him in any thing wittingly or willingly will in them be yet more exceeding sinful than before and still the more they oblige themselves to God and he engages them to himself and endears himself to them by the communication of covenant-Covenant-Mercies the more do they find their Sins to be inhanced in their abominable odiousness to God and the smart and sting they leave in their Consciences is so much the more grievous Oh none knows the dire and dismal things which a wounded Spirit undergoes but those that have felt The Spirit of a Man will sustain his Infirmity but a wounded Spirit who can bear Prov. 18.14 And this too has its degrees of Intolerableness in proportion to Sins and Sence and Temper and Time and Spirit and Improvement Men of strong Parts great Reading comprehensive Intellects large Memories ready and present Minds may sometimes soon and easily weather out the Storm But all Mens intellectuals and advances in Knowledge and Goodness are not of one size What shall poor weak shallow Heads or melancholick Constitutions and therefore strong Imaginations defective treacherous Memories but unruly Consciences do when both Heaven and Hell seem to be set in Battle-array against them Horrid Reflections virulent and violent Temptations strange and terrible Injections and Infusions as drawn Swords gashing and galling and killing the very Heart piercing it through with multitudes of Fears Troubles Torments Sorrows Can a Man that hath felt this Groan'd under been Crush'd and Crucifi'd and Rack'd and Rent in pieces with it and that perhaps many Weeks Months Years together ever make light of the cause of it ever have other than dreadful Apprehensions of it as the burn'd Child Fancy and Reason can never comprehend what Sense and Experience will testifie in these Cases Speculative Men that stand upon their Heads which have little or no Communion with their Hearts who understand every thing better than themselves very seldom feel any of these lamentable Twitches and Agonies till a Sickness a Death-bed set their thoughts upon another Bias which in some obtains in most not at all and then according to the largness of their minds are their Horrors of Conscience and their feeling may teach them fellow-feeling when it is too late but the unconcernedness of their Spirits before conjures down all workings of Commiseration As a Man of an Athletick Constitution in the triumphs of his natural Vigour and Health accounts valetudinary Persons a company of pitiful puling Sneaks always whining over an itching Limb in the Scurvey or a smarting Toe in the Gout or a rumbling Belly in the Chollick or Gripes or an akeing Back in the Stone or a squeazy Stomach or tickling Tooth c. in which they are the Objects of his Ridicule rather than compassionate regard But let his brass Pot receive a sound knock from any of these mauling Distempers or the like and the Complexion of his thoughts immediately change and from the foot he can now Collect the Dimensions of Hercules I doubt not but that as many Holy Souls enjoy some refreshing Antepasts of the future everlasting Feast of all Delights and Joys they shall sit down with Christ at in his Eternal Kingdom So many wicked profligate Wretches meet with dismal and sensible Prelibations of the never ending Woes and Horrors of Hell that knowing by some Internal Sensations what awaits them they may either be awak'd into Repentance or if not rendred more inexcuseable And sometimes God in his Infinite Wisdom so orders that even those who ascend not to any heighth in Debauchery yet are reduc'd to such extreamities of Anguish and Pangs in the New Birth that it comes very little short of those more Dreadful Anticipations in the Reprobate nay sometimes it exceeds in a considerable degree Sin must have its Hell of one kind or other and happy is it for that Man whose Hell in this Life is preventive of not introductive to a future For beside the unspeakable Satisfactions in another World this lays the Foundation of the Richest Sweetest Fullest and most durable Consolations even in this Life according to the common saying God digs deepest where he intends to build highest But on the contrary where be breaks no Earth he intends to sow no Seed Those that he permits to be always whole shall never have because they never need a Physician General Experience tells That the Corruption of carnal Ease and Security is the Generation of a Dissenter Troubles for Sin are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first Rudiments of this Embryo It seldom falls out that a Mans or Womans Conscience is thorowly disturb'd and their fallacious Peace and Comfort utterly ruin'd but either the want of a skilful and tender hand to bind up their broken Hearts or some check they meet with in an unseasonable hour from those that should be vers'd in this Art drives them under that great uneasiness of mind to take Sanctuary in the bosom of one or other that with more soft and compassionate Bowels will counsel and encourage them yet not precipitate them into the Pacifick Seas of Consolation but gently and by degrees lead them thither through the Strait of a sound Repentance I know not how it comes to pass God's Dispensations always are Wise Just and
his Children such like Mercy was promised but three Psalms before viz. Psal 91. throughout so Psal 12.7 8. Psal 37. Is 26.20 21 c. and many other Places God reserves some in safety to behold the destruction of Persecutors has a Zoar for a Lot a Pella for the Christians c. If this were not so all Good Men might be extinct and the Gates of Hell prevail against the Church of Christ 'T is also upon good reason For the end of Affliction is Reformation If God meet with so good Proficients under his instructive Discipline as will and do learn every Lesson he teaches there will be no need of the Rod and he who does not afflict willingly will not bring into these Trials except need be 1 Pet. 1.6 But this I will no further insist upon Let the English Translation then obtain and it gives us this Point That in the sense of the Psalmist 't was a blessed thing to be under God's correcting Discipline or instructive Chastenings as a means to prepare for rest when Instruments of Divine Severity were to be destroyed Rest in this World when Judgment returns to Righteousness and the Vpright follow it and especially in the World to come when all the Wicked shall be lodged in the Pit of Hell For the days of Eternity are to the Wicked days of Adversity indeed and to enjoy Everlasting Rest then is a Blessing unutterable This good Man saw nothing in Affliction that could make a Man unhappy He entertain'd such a favourable opinion of God's rigours to his Children that beholding by Faith the good and happy fruit of them he admires the Blessedness of those to whom so great Evils issue so well and therefore we may justly suppose would not be discourag'd by the bitterness of the Cross nor driven by it to an unwillingness to consort himself with the suffering People of God Would not he put in for his share of that Blessedness which descended from Heaven though it cost him a participation of that wretchedness which was the product of the Rage and Fury of the World Chusing rather to suffer Affliction with the People of God than to enjoy the pleasures of Sin for a season as having respect to the Recompence of Reward everlasting Blessedness and Rest with Moses Heb. 11. And indeed this is an admirable Comfort in all Tribulations to consider that there is a reserve of eternal Joy and Peace the sweetest the fullest that there are Blessednesses the Blessedness of this Life the Blessedness of the Life to come laid up in store for the Servants of God though accursed by Men in this World If together with the Rod that we feel he administer a Word that we may hear Mic. 6.9 and under his Corrections seal our Instructions if by his Providences he subdue our Wills to his Precepts and by the sadness of our Countenances make our Hearts better if he discover to us the sunshine of his Favour and Love through the dark cloud of Affliction and bring down a Heaven of Happiness or Blessedness to alleviate the tormenting Purgatory of our Tribulations whether from Men or Devils this sure will bow our Hearts to such a degree of aequanimous submission and resignedness to God that we shall not only sit down in a patient and quiet Contentation but be able to rejoyce in the good pleasure of his Goodness although we smart under it and he that is replenished with Content and Joy is never destitute of Consolation Be not then displeased O my Soul that thy Father in Heaven brings thee under the discipline of his Family on Earth If thy Afflictions be light do not despise or make light of them if they be heavy and grievous do not faint under them Blessedness is a thing of so weighty Consideration so great Moment that 't is madness to forfeit it by slighting an evil of little moment folly to reject all support from it under a burthen more intolerable Let the gracious designs of Heaven reconcile thee to the very Antipathies of thy Nature and render all those divine Methods not only supportable but easie and amiable which have a tendency to endear God and Holiness although for the present they do not administer matter of Joy but Sorrow Heb. 12.11 The peaceable Fruits of Righteousness will abundantly compensate the grievousness of all Calamities wherefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lift up straight right the Hands that hang down and the feeble Knees Stretch out thy self Heaven-ward to apprehend and reach by Faith those unconceivable Pleasures and Joys wherein the Miseries of this Life will issue if thou makest not visible but invisible things thy scope in this World Thy Sin or Guilt which merits thy Sufferings is indeed sinful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. beyond all bounds of Thought and Imagination that thy highest Conceptions cannot overshoot in their Notions of its real evil in it self Let it be to thee proportionably grievous But these Fruits of thy Sins viz. thy Sufferings if thou live by Faith upon Invisibles will work for thee an eternal weight of Glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from hyperbole even unto hyperbole that the glory in its superlative excellency does doubly transcend the unfathomable malignity that is in Sin and infinitely overshoot the bitterness in the Affliction the weight of Glory being commensurate to its Eternity 2 Cor. 4.17 The transient momentany lightness of our Affliction worketh out for us an above all expression conception comparison eternal weight of Glory Will not the reviews hereof engage thee O my Soul with a kind and dutiful resentment to accept of the punishment of thy Sin and exterminate all harsh and unbecoming Conceptions of that God whose hatred to thy Sin evidenced in his severe Providences is alway accompanied with a singular love to thy Person whose Eternal Salvation he would compass by the everlasting destruction of thy Sin Oh be thou ambitious to demonstrate thy self a good disposition'd Child under that nurture of Love wherein he evidences himself to be a tender hearted Father Is it only a gentle Correction not eternal Damnation the desert of thy Sin Is it only a profitable Medicine though it might have been Poyson thy final bane and ruin Is it only the scarifying a gangrenated Limb which might have been the scalding and burning for ever of both Body and Soul in unquenchable Fire unappeasable Wrath Oh love the Lord for the mitigation for the transmutation of thy Penance That thou art in a state where thy Sufferings may be sanctified therefore are in Mercy where they may be terminated therefore are no ground of Desperation where they may be recompenced and shall undoubtedly issue in endless Blessedness if thy stubbornness and non-improvement hinder not Take it well and kindly at those gracious Hands that draw the flaming Sword and turn it every way against thy Corruptions which shut thee out and this on purpose that thou mayst be received by the Lord Pure and Innocent into
Paradise who by thine experimental knowledge of this evil of suffering will create in thee a saving knowledge of good and through these Fruits of the Tree of the Cross lead thee to the Tree of Life CHAP. IX The Subject of Comfort Eyes God in all things 7. THis Man of God enjoy'd and liv'd under much experience of divine Goodness and gracious Providence Under all that happen'd he ey'd and own'd the Hand of God 1. In Affliction Ver. 17. Vnless the Lord had been my help my Soul had almost dwelt in silence Ver. 22. The Lord is my defence and my God is the Rock of my Refuge 2. In Temptation When I said my foot slippeth thy Mercy O Lord held me up ver 18. 3. In both ver 19. the Text In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy Comforts delight my Soul A Man of common Principles would have look'd no farther than second Causes and the activity of Instruments and Means in his deliverance from Death ver 17. Than his own Prudence Caution Foresight Care and Endeavour in preservation from falling v. 18. Than his own reasonings and wise conduct of his Affections in the calm and serenity of his Mind v. 19. But this Holy Soul ascribes all to Divine Goodness And indeed to such a Man nothing is accidental he is never at a loss for the cause of any occurrent when he has not the least prospect of the agency of any thing on Earth he can find out a supreme mover in Heaven to whom nothing falls out by chance without either the foresight of his Intelligence or the conduct of his Wisdom or the determination of his Will or the interposal of his Power or the liberty of his Permission which though no cause at all properly but only that called sine quâ non which is but Fatua yet is governed by his Providence and all the possibilities thereof visible to his Prescience God is more concern'd in the World than the Artificer in a Clock who when 't is set together set up and agoing forsakes it He is sure little conversant in Scripture that imagines the Deity only a general cause who having constituted things with such and such particular Natures Propensions Biasses leaves them to run out their course without further Concurrence and Solicitude than to preserve them in the being constitution and activity he first gave them There 's nothing so mean so fortuitous but the Scripture intitles God to it either in way of Efficiency Direction Ordination or Permission If it be Good Natural or Moral he is the doer so if evil Natural if evil Moral though he abhor it cannot effect it or concur to it as such yet can he does he direct and order it to such ends as are consistent with his Wisdom Justice Holiness and Goodness which he well foreknows how to do therefore hinders not its existence as he easily could do without any violence to Nature blemish to his Government or infringement of the Liberty of his Creatures For to me 't is no little Mystery that although God be able to form a Rational Nature with liberty of Will and Prudence so to manage it that it shall at no time be compell'd to offer violence to its own freedom but in every act proceed with an even gentle sweet Spontaneity according to the dictates of its own finite Understanding yet that the infinite Intelligence and Prudence of the Divine Nature must be thought unable and insufficient by the reasonable Understanding and Will to elicite manage and guide these very humane Actions so as to preserve the same Liberty inviolable Let something be allow'd to Infiniteness sure it can do whatever Finiteness can if it be not to its disparagement If I can bring about my own resolute and fixed Purposes without prejudice to my own or others Liberty sure boundless Wisdom and Power can tell how to bring about its determinations by the liberty of the Creature A Reverend Judicious Divine my Relation told me that for experiment sake to try the power of an over-mastering Imagination he had oft requested such things of some Persons in whom he had no Interest at all which he knew they had an aversation to using no Reasons Arguments Motives Importunities at all further than the bare proposal only engaging himself strongly to fansie that he should obtain his desire and he seldom fail'd to prevail I never had the curiosity to make a tryal but am apt to think there may be something in 't upon consideration of the strange effects of the Mothers imagination upon her enwombed Infant as to both Impressions on its Body and Antipathies in its Mind the transpiring animal Spirits modify'd and mov'd strongly by a material Faculty may intermingle with those of a differing Body and over-rule their weaker Modifications and Motions and thereby the material Faculty that acted them as in Sympathetick Cures and the votatil Particles of Vitriol c. Crude or calcin'd do mix with the extravasated vital Spirits and return with them to their Fountain I confess these act only as Physical Causes and cannot vary in their effects of themselves though other external Causes may thwart them And what if a Man allow some such like thing to Spiritual Natures By what impressions they can communicate their Minds to one another by what impulses they bow one anothers Wills we know not but only the Effects God never fails to obtain the free voluntary Obedience of Angels And the more determin'd their Wills are the more free The Devil acts with less Liberty than a Glorified Saint and a Holy Angel with more than a self-determining Man who has both liberty of Contrariety and Contradiction can do both Good and Evil Act and not Act. Well if my Imagination further if my short defective Understanding can the one make such impresses the other produce such weighty momentous Reasons as shall sway my own and others Wills to an inhesitant and free compliance shall I not give that deference to the unfathomable Intellect and Reason of God as to suppose it endued with Ability to suggest such things as shall bow mine own or others Wills to a ready spontaneous ingenuous Concurrence than any thing can that is deduced merely out of the promptuary of mine own Mind I find my freedom in acting is gradually more or less intense according to the satisfaction of my Reason And if the Reason of God which is boundless cannot induce a more ample satisfaction than the Reason of a Creature which is but lame and imperfect and if he cannot with as much Facility without all impeach to our Liberty lead our Minds to the Contemplation thereof as in the use of the empire our selves have over them we can do if he cannot also more throughly excite acuminate quicken and enlarge our considering Powers freely to engage I have done 'T is not strange therefore that the Scripture ascribes all to God as the Origin of every individual Motion I find holy Men in
he would out-brave and out-face even his Maker in his Accusations of the Brethren c. Whatever his Methods Eph. 6.11 or Wiles Devises 2 Cor. 2.11 Snares 1. Tim. 3.7 2 Tim. 2.26 Depths Rev. 2.24 Whatever his Stratagems Policies are to delude defile disquiet or destroy thee however cunningly craftily managed Yet still is he not too wise for God who well knows how to defeat all his Designments and amongst infinite other has this one Method to lead thee to Comfort even when thine Adversary hath out-witted and got the better of thee and is leading thee into Temptation Trouble and Torment viz. to bring thee thorow the narrow way of Repentance to a New Life of Grace Peace Joy and Consolation present and eternal This he doth oftentimes with Man Job 33.28 29. Read from the 14th to the 31st Job 28 28. Vnto Man he said behold the fear of the Lord true Religiousness that is Wisdom and to depart from evil true Repentance that is Vnderstanding He knows how to rule the raging of that Sea of Sorrow Terror and Anguish wherewith the Devil attempts to overwhelm thee and shipwrack all thy Hopes and Happiness and so turns the Storm into a Calm of Godly sorrow that Satans Creature yields and gives place to the Creation of God and the Grief which God exhales does issue in the fruit of the Lips Peace of the same extraction Is 57.19 and thus is Satan over-reach'd and baffled in his most subtle Contrivances and his Machinations to ruine our Comfort become means for its Establishment But if his own immediate Actings be seconded with the Agency of his Instruments that all the Politicks on Earth combine with those of Hell to overturn our security and rest Yet are they never the nearer their Purpose of subverting the Counsels of Heaven for the solace of our troubled Hearts but rather promote them whilst they drive us nearer God as our everlasting Refuge and Sanctuary in whom we may be sure to find a Fulness of Joy and Compensation Is all the Carnal Wisdom on Earth set on the rack to devise the Ruine of True Religion and Thee in the Profession and Practice of it Are wicked Men thy particular Foes in a Confederacy against thee contriving thy Destruction in Spirituals and Temporals Yet where-ever they deal wisely proudly cruelly He is above them Art thou thy self are all Men else at a loss in their Thoughts either how Religion should be secured in whole or in part when at any time its Enemies conspire against it or how Jacob should arise when he is very small or how thy Personal Interest should be safeguarded or how thy Health restored or Death prevented or Deliverance be wrought under some grievous Calamity or any Mercy obtain'd for Soul or Body thy self thy Friends or the Church and Nation Be not solicitous the All-comprehending Wisdom of Heaven can never be at a Loss this unsearchable understanding has all Possibilities present in view and cannot but chuse the best for Himself for Thee for All and it seldom begins of its Work till all be at their Wits end when every thing else fails and the Wisdom of Men has given up all for gone Divine Wisdom resumes the Work and glorifies its self in bringing it to Perfection In short all the Artifices of Earth and Hell cannot invent or reduce into Circumstances so deplorable and desperate as to over-match the Contrivance of Infinite Wisdom for our Comfort under and after them its Provisions are truly Catholick extending to all possible Cases Conditions Seasons Places and Persons whereof the Holy Scriptures are a full Evidence as a legible Declaration of the Unfathomable Wisdom of God Here are the Rivers whose Streams make glad the City of God Psal 46.4 Oh the Adoreable Plenitude of the written Word of God which comprehends the whole Counsel of God for our Illumination Effectual Calling Sanctification Justification Comfort and Eternal Salvation There is nothing devised by the Infinite Understanding of God for the Ease and Quiet of troubled Hearts but which is contained in the Bible a Transcript whereof upon the Heart creates a Life of Joy Peace and Rest God's Wisdom speaks Peace to us in no other Language than that of the Word 'T is indeed visible in his Works of Creation and Providence which are under its Conduct and bear its lively Characters but these scarce intelligible without the Sacred Writings Here only is all perspicuous and plain that 's needful either to purifie or pacify the Conscience What a World of Consolatory Matter is couched in this one Psalm will appear anon What then is there in the whole Book of God Judge of the Immense Ocean by this Little Rivulet Admire and Reverence that incomparable Abstract of the Wisdom of Heaven in these Lively Oracles and hence derive all thy Consolations § 2. This Wisdom is not alone nor in this Case a Self-mover but goes upon the Errand and Designs of Infinite Gooodness An Attribute brim-full of Solace Joy and Rest as our Psalmist found Ver. 18. especially and every where Ver. 12 13 14 15 17.19 21. Indeed every Request in the Psalm supposes it and every Assertion refers to it even his Complaints are Addresses to it and all his Expectations are from it 't is the good Blood that runs in every Vein not a Verse but points at it Now as Wisdom chuses the Method and Means of applying Comfort and pitches upon such as are most accommodate in particular So Goodness administers the Matter in general Every thing that creates the light of Gladness and Consolation in a dark benighted troubled soul is a spark a beam of Goodness The Goodness of God lies in Two Things Love and Holiness Did I call them Two They are both but only Love Love in us is Holiness as a Conformity to the whole Law of God Holiness in God is nothing but Love to himself as the alone perfect Law and Standard of all Incomprehensible Excellency and Glory But to consider them as distinct Love is that illustrious greatest Light amongst the Divine Perfections the benign Rays whereof are plenteously reflected through the Sun of Righteousness upon wretched and miserable Man God is Love 1 Joh. 4.16 and Love in its Perfection is God that Love which God is is God and diffuses its sweet Influences upon us in wonderful variety Not that it is other than Unity indivisible invariable in it self but that it meets with several respects and produces divers effects in us We are Sinners the guilt it pardons the filth it purges the power of Sin it subdues We are miserable through sin Love lays it to heart that 's Mercy Is afflicted in our Afflictions there 's Compassion has yerning Bowels towards us which is Pity bears much at our hands and this is Patience suspends the Punishment due to our sin either for an Indefinite time therefore called Forbearance or a great while whence 't is stiled Long-suffering or exempts us wholly under the
encourages a fainting Hope alleviates the grievousness of Pains discusses Trouble and Fear and under the Wings of the Son of Righteousness we have it his Power and Skill are not lessened nor his Bowels and Love diminished by his translation into a state of immutable Perfection Here 's an Antidote against every Plague and Poyson a Salve for every Sore not like Humane only of a finite limited Vertue but of infinite and universal Efficacy Oh wonderful Love thou art the only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the true Elixir of Gold which is alway at hand because Omnipreseat can never fail because Omnipotent never decay and lose any vertue because Eternal Who can do less than ever dwell upon thee who hopes for ever to dwell in thee 1 Joh. 4.16 If a Man be alway bending his Mind to pore upon his Troubles they sink him but if any admirable strange thing if any thing of singular pleasure and delight present it self it gives a diversion to our Minds and putting by our bitter Reflections upon those ingrateful damping Grievances that swallow up our Thoughts and Joys makes us forget our Pains and gives us ease whilst we are taken up with those more powerful Contemplations And is there not a relief of this Nature in God in whom every thing is wonderful He is all Miracle his Essence Subsistence Perfection Providence but above all his Goodness Grace and Love with the fruits of it What infinite Beauty What admirable Fulness What unconceivable Freeness What astonishing Descents What transcendent Varieties Oh the Riches the Joys the Pleasures the Triumphs above expectation Desire Thought all freely tendring themselves and wooing our Minds and Hearts to a serious Consideration a kind and dutiful Embracement Oh sweet inviting Magazine of Wonders how shall I endure to leave thee who can with no patience endure to think of being left by thee In thee I am in Heaven how can I descend from thee yet 't is time to give my self the divertisement of a walk in another Paradise § 3. Justice it self under the Conduct and Influence of this over-shadowing Goodness and Love though perhaps not sensibly at present yet really is become the most comfortable of all Divine Attributes Remuner ative Justice is in reality goodness to a believing Soul through Jesus Christ notwithstanding that it is the most terrible to the impenitent Christless A Paradox easily made out thus That which makes our Mercy and Comfort sure and necessary that we cannot miss of enjoying it is more comfortable than that which leaves it at liberty and only renders it possible When a good thing is in the free dispose of a Donor that he may chuse whether he will bestow it or no we can have no certainty at all that we shall receive it no not when we have infallible assurance of his Inclination to bestow it For 't is still in his own Power and he may suspend the Gift as he pleases without any impeach to his Honour And though it may to us seem Congruous to his goodness to grant it yet is he not necessarily ty'd to our Laws of Congruity neither can they impose upon his Freedom and make his Mercy fatality God Almighty bears a singular good Will to all his Creatures especially the reasonable would not that any perish 't is no pleasure to him but that all Mankind should come to the knowledge of the Truth and through Repentance and Faith in Christ be saved This Repentance and Faith are his Gift which remain in the free disposal of his own good pleasure to confer upon whom he pleases therefore the Gift of Repentance stands upon a Peradventure 2 Tim. 2.25 without any injury to Divine Goodness which is not at all the less though this Blessing be denied to the greatest part of the World and to all the fallen Angels For more Goodness and a strong Inclination to Communicate transfers no right therefore no wrong is done by the suspence or denial of the Gratuity expected But then Justice supposes a right and dueness of the Blessing and that it cannot be in Righteousness withholden therefore makes it undoubtedly sure from him that cannot possibly be unjust Now though nothing be or can be due from Justice to a Sinner considered as such but only Indignation and Wrath on account of the Covenant of Works yet the Covenant of Grace transfers a right to Mercy upon those that fulfil its Conditions Therefore the gift of Pardon to the Repentant is no less an Act of Justice than free Goodness and Grace and there the Scripture lays it with Sanctification also 1 Joh. 1.9 If we confess our Sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our Sins and to cleanse us from all Vnrighteousness Mark first Faithful which respects the Promise and Covenant granting aright out of meer good Will and Grace and then and not till then Just distributing what the Covenant and Promise had made due and an Irrevocable Right Oh rich Comfort Pardon and Purification and both from Justice What can we expect more to satisfie our utmost Cravings Since these are Vertually all Spiritual and Coelestial Mercies giving a right to Peace and Glory Oh everlasting inexhaustible mine of the sweetest Joy and Rest What is the source of all thy Sorrows Nothing but sin This grinds thy Conscience in pain this brings all the external Grievances of thy Life By Nature thou art as bad as Sin and Hell can make thee though not in the degree yet in the kind of badness viz. Moral Conscience of forepast Wickedness is a Cut-throat to all Comfort Mens eyes when opened indeed are more apt to look backward than forward Upon Reflection past Evils of Sin sting more smartingly than the Remembrance of past Evils of Suffering can refresh and solace 'T is not so Comfortable to think that the worst is past in Affliction as grievous to consider past Evils of Sin for which the worst is to come The pleasure in acting is infinitely short of the pain in repenting especially in Hell A Man would forfeit all the Joys of his Life upon Condition he had never defiled his Conscience as the Devil in the possessed Woman told the Bishop of Cambray that he could be willing to suffer all imaginable Torments to the Worlds end so he might but then return into Heaven Nothing more bitter in the Belly than the Sins that were most sweet in the Mouth The Digestion troubles the Bowels infinitely more than the Mastication gratified the Palate But why is Sin so dreadful What is it that makes thy formerly pleasing Transgressions so torturous in the Recognition Truly this God knows them remembers them is concern'd about them engaged to animadvert upon them his Justice and Wrath will not let them pass thou canst not get through his hands with thy Lusts about thee as easily as they past through thine Oh this is the sting of Sin 't is a fearful terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God The
unutterable Agonies and Woes of Hell and the horrible Tempest of Divine Vengeance and indignation in everlasting Burnings which will be tormenting above all that any understanding but that of God can comprehend the bitter Weepings Wailings and Gnashings of Teeth without Ease Release Mitigation Relief or End this intolerable after-clap of Sin is even to the remembrance and fore-thought almost as Cruciating as it self to the sense and feeling will be confounding God's Writing down all our Miscarriages in his Book out of which all the Power and Policy in the World can never expunge them his setting even our secret Sins in the light of his Countenance which makes them infinitely more visible than the Sun in the Firmament is a consideration that sticks and stabs us to the Heart and Murders all our Comforts at once and buries us in Horror Yet now if there can be any good token found that this Hand-writing is blotted out If a Man can be assured that Iniquity and Transgression shall by God be remembred no more this is the most reviving transporting Solace in the World But how can I have a Testimony that God hath thus privileged me How shall I know that he will forgive and forget my wickedness if he do not tell me Who can search into the bottom of his Counsels and know his purposes and practice in Heaven if himself do not reveal them And there are but two ways of revealing any secret thing viz. by words and by works Words spoken and written Deeds in Signs The Holy Scriptures reveal God's general Will to pardon some yet do they not name but only describe the Persons giving their true and lively Moral Character setting down at full such Qualifications as may be to any Man a clear Evidence who is and who is not made happy in this forensecal Mercy of Justification If an Angel from Heaven should address himself to thee with this Comfortable Message That thy Iniquities are pardoned If a Bath-kol a voice in Thunder should name thee and say Be of good Comfort thy Sins are forgiven thee thou could'st not be secure that this was not an Illusion to abuse thee into Presumption if thy inward sense did not report those tokens on which the Word of God does suspend thy Pardon But if thou canst but produce these all the Angels and Voices from Heaven imaginable though as particular and clear as possible telling thee thou art unjustified must be acknowledged accursed Deceptions because they Preach another Doctrine than Christ has done in the Gospel Gal. 1.8 Well then that thou may'st find a good token for good thou need'st not ascend into Heaven to search the Archives or court Rolls of the upper Bench there nor turn over the Book of Life in a curious tracing out thy particular name but having duly informed thy mind what are the signs of a Pardoned State look within thy Soul and Conscience and diligently enquire and examine without Partiality and a biass selfward whether the present State Constitution and Frame of thy heart be that in reality which is enrolled in the promises of the Book of God the Scripture which tender to thee Conditionally the forgiveness of Sin produce but those Conditions let it but appear upon sound Evidence that will satisfie thy self and the World and thy Judge that having truly repented of thy Sin thou livest under the Dominion of Faith and a good Conscience and Justice it self is obliged to Faithfulness for the granting thee Indemnity and Remission and the sense thereof in thy own Soul For if a Man can truly say that he hath repented and stands to what he has done in stedfast Resolutions never to return to folly his Reflections upon former Sins will not be torturing though they may be grieving because he hath the promise of Mercy and Pardon Isa 55.7 Acts 3.19 which Justice it self is obliged to perform For Conditional Promises in themselves are Dispensations of free love which was not obliged by any necessity or Congruousness to offer such Blessings upon such terms yet once made and the Conditions observed the Donation of the Mercy becomes the interest of strict Justice and Righteousness But although the New Covenant admit of Repentance which that of Works could not yet this Condescention is only through a Mediator Jesus Christ If therefore to thy Penitence thou do not superadd Faith in him neither will those after Thoughts be sound nor introductive of Peace because without Christ our Righteousness and Peace objective and causal without us Jer. 23.6 1 Cor. 1.30 Mic. 5.5 Eph. 2.14 there can be no Pardon and Peace formal within us Rom. 8.1 and without Faith no Justification no Christ Rom. 5.1 Joh. 3.18 36. Yet both these must be evinced to be sincere and sound and thereby be themselves justifiable and justified which nothing can do but the exercise of a Good Conscience Acts 24.16 This alone is to us the surest Evidence that our Repentance and Faith are unfeigned and that we deceive not our own Souls Indeed the basis of all true bliss and solace is a good Conscience in Justice and Innocency toward Man Inoffensiveness and Piety toward God Moderation and Sobriety in my self the contrary to these and Comfort are incompatible 'T is but a colloguing with my Conscience to my utter Confusion to tender it Peace if it be not pure Jam. 3.17 No Man can be groundedly quiet in Mind if filthy in Heart and Life If thou be a Devil thou must carry thy Hell about thee visibly or under disguise in its self or its Causes Thou hast no just Right to the sweets of Religion if a stranger to its Power A Mans first Designs for Joy are or ought to be laid in Self-survey and Reflection If he can find nothing of God within he can take comfort in nothing of God without but by an unjust Usurpation and Sacrilege All the goodness of God signifies nothing to an ill Man But a Good Conscience or heart is a continual Feast Prov. 15.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that finds all right at home who has no rebuke nor cause thereof from the Domestick Comptroller and Comforter in his Bosom is happy Now there can be no goodness in Conscience but only from God and as far as in Conjunction with God God in thy Conscience makes it good for he is all Goodness and there neither is nor can be any except in and from him And all the goodness which is in thy Conscience from him is first from his Faithfulness acting under his Love in the Covenant wherein he promises to give a new heart of Flesh Ezek. 36 26 27. Jer. 31.33 and Write his Laws in it by his Spirit of Promise which he engages shall cause us to walk in his Statutes c. Next and under Faithfulness all the goodness in thy Conscience is from Justice For the Right that Fidelity gives to Mercy Justice is obliged to maintain God must perform his Word because he cannot
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just 'T is the Office of Justice to take notice in all its proceedings of Right and Wrong but if the Right approve its reality 't is no Work of Justice to take Cognizance how we came by it whether it be natural Inheritance or personal Acquisition whether our own indefeisible Possession or anothers free Donation these are things Foreign and out of the Circuit of Justice Right must carry it whatever be the Foundation of it whatever be the Nature of it whatever Title it proceeds upon For no Varieties in the Right alter the Justice of the Procedure nor convert Justice into Injustice or any other thing The very Essence and Formal Nature of Justice as Distributive consists in dispensing Right Whereever that is the Act is formally Justice and nothing else although some other Vertue may have an antecedent Influence in forming the Right So here No Man hath a Natural Personal Right to that everlasting Rest neither do the best Services of the most perfect Creatures Angel Archangel Cherubim Seraphim found a right to it able in the nature of the thing to command and necessarily over-rule strict Justice so as 't would be Injustice properly so called to withhold or deny it For Heavenly Glory in its full Latitude which I understand by that Rest is a thing boundlesly above the Proportion of any finite Qualities or Operations Those ever Blessed Spirits are doubtlesly incapable of exerting any Acts that in Arithmetical Proportion can be as considerable and valuable as the Reciprocal Actings of the Deity that are return'd upon them For instance those flaming Ardours of Love in Seraphims which denominate them cannot in the Estimate of Reason and Justice be conceiv'd equally valuable with those reactions of Love in the Deity to them Certainly God loves them better than they can possibly love him and his Love rays out to them in infinite more Varieties than theirs can to him and the least degree of his Love is more honourable and worthy than the highest of theirs So that in Commutative Justice they cannot expect his for theirs especially since theirs is this due and the Payment of a Debt cannot make the Creditor a Debtor I have a Conceit but will not impose it that the Devils sin was not an aspiring to a Coaequality or Superiority to his Creator which his Innocent nay even Corrupt Understanding could not but represent as impossible impracticable therefore not designable But rather a challenge and expectation of those Honours from his Maker as due in Commutative Justice to the Excellencies and Actions which he admired in himself and would have had his Inferiours to adore Whence in that Kingdom of the Beast which he established and upholds this is or has been a principal Pillar though now painted over a new and is indeed the Universal Sentiment of all in whose disobedient hearts he retains the Dominion which he usurpt upon the Fall Even good Souls have a difficult Work to disengage themselves from it However 't is madness to conceit that the imperfect Duties or Graces of the lapsed Sons of Adam can stand in a Parity with Coelestial Recompences Nay the Proportion cannot amount to the heighth of that call'd Geometrical proper to distributive Justice which consists in a likeness of Reason For can there be any comparison betwixt finite and infinite imperfect and perfect temporal and eternal Can any say as the Work to the Wage so is Duty to Heaven The Right then here stands upon another bottom than the reason of the thing and that is the free investiture and gift of Sovereign Love and Mercy by a voluntary Grant and Covenant 'T is not common Soccage but Copy hold only Yet on the other hand Hell and Sin stand more in a Parity or equal Proportion There is full as much evil in the Sin as in the Punishment though not as much good in the Duty as in the Reward The demerit of Sin is unlimitable the Treasures of Wrath and Woe comprehended in it are inexhaustible therefore eternal 'T is just then to recompence Tribulation to the wicked because their Works merit it Just to recompence Rest to the godly not because their Works merit it but because free Grace hath promised it Neh. 9.8 And hast performed thy Words for thou art Righteous God cannot be just to the Wicked if he reward not their Works he cannot be just to himself to his own Word and Covenant if he reward not the Works he hath wrought in the Righteous Now even Troubles and Afflictions are less grievous if recompence may be hoped for upon good and sure Grounds If our Miseries become Antidotes to greater Miseries it encourages our Patience if they Work out greater Mercies it increases our Courage and so our Comfort The gain sweetens the pain and we are not so much offended with our Crosses as pleased with the Compensation The World is as a Lottery for a while we must draw nothing but Blanks or what will more grievously vex disquiet or torment us but the last cast will pay for all to our fullest Contentation if we belong to God's Election For this light Affliction which is but for a moment works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4.17 The happiness of the recompence of Reward is a thing of so transcendent Nature that even the serious Thoughts of it may entertain us with more abundant Joy than there can be Grief in the feeling it self of the bitterest Sufferings The Antepasts or Foretasts of Heaven are incomparably a greater delight than the very sense of Misery can be a Torment Therefore sure these exceeding glorious Riches of Coelestial Satisfactions will be an all-sufficient Requital for all the labour of Love the patience of Hope and work of Faith that we exert in this Semibrief moment of our transitory Life And it is no small Comfort to consider that the Fidelity of God has made these Gratuities Justice by making them the subject Matter of so many gracious Promises that what otherwise was mere liberty is now necessity and God by vertue of these his Bonds is become a Debtor to God Oh rich Treasury of strong Consolations God's grace having so ordered it not only that he may but that he must give the penitently troubled Soul in his own way and time the sweetest Peace Comfort and Rest It may indeed be delay'd but never can be finally deny'd and this we owe chiefly to the Justice of God his sweetest Perfection through Christ and the Covenant to an humbled Soul But there are also external Administrations of Justice which are of a refreshing consideration and such did the Psalmist reflect upon and solace himself withal Vers 1 2 15 23. Vindictive Justice is a notable relief to the Oppressed and the sweetness of Revenge a potent Cordial To see those suffer from whom we suffer and the Wicked fall into the trap and snare they lay for us does not a little glad us especially if it
know to be true and sound I can have no Evidence that God or any Covenant Mercy is mine For I can have no demonstration hereof but only by the Effects And if I be not sure that these are genuine the true Productions of God's Relation-Love the Legitimate issue of the Marriage Union betwixt Christ and my Soul I cheat my self under the disguise of a fallacious Peace into real Wretchedness and Woe The Assurance therefore of the Truth and Sincerity of my Grace is to me the very bottom Stone in the Foundation of my Comfort and an experimental sense of the vital Influence Presence and Power of that indwelling Grace is the basis of this Assurance This the Psalmist here does make the nearest ground of his assuming to himself Comfort in God ver 17 18. Vnless the Lord had been my help my Soul had almost or quickly dwelt in silence This was an Experience in a Temporal Case and plainly implies that in his extreme peril when there was no help or hope visible in and from the World yet God did interpose in a peculiar remarkable manner so that it could not but be apparent that his Deliverance was a special work of Providence So ver 18. When I said my Foot slippeth thy Mercy O Lord held me up I was in such eminent danger so near falling that I could not see any possibility of recovering my self but Betwixt the Stirrup and the Ground Mercy I crav'd and Mercy found A visible palpable observable special Intervention of Mercy sustain'd me when otherwise I was irrecoverably gone These were possibly some uncommon undertakings of Grace and Providence for him 1 Sam. 23.6 27. and chap. 25. like that in diverting Saul from the pursuit when he had hunted him to a view and the other in preventing his revenge upon Nabal or such as Hozekiah beg'd Isa 38.14 I know Experiences are things of late more derided than understood by some Admirers of a Rational Religion but whose pretended Reason is indeed too hard for their Religion overturning its Basis that Lowliness which would instruct them to think there are other Men and Christians beside that understand themselves though not understood by these and no more dote on an Animal Religion than their Accusers who are prejudic'd and prepossest against them by other things than either Religion or Reason or common Sence But these I refer to the after-thoughts of one of the great Propugnators of that way the Author of Anti-Sadducism Page 39 40 in 4º in one point of the highest Experience and sometimes most of all scoft at viz. Communion with God His Reason at length was reconciled to the Thing yet so will not his Charity to the Persons of those that alway own'd it they must be still Melancholists and any thing ill enough which a stout Reasoner ex Particulari can make them But possibly their Reason as in that so in other particulars that have undergone the same fate may in like manner approve it self when it has the happiness to be thus an Aborigin in the Rational World for 't is below the grandeur thereof to receive it from the poor despised Animal Well blessed be God that Heaven is an Experimental as well as Rational State although I doubt the Religion thereof will on that account proceed and commence animal in the Schools of Reasons Idolizers 'T is no matter I shall still commend three things as necessary Antecedents to Sincerity in the practice of true Religiousness 1st Reason the lowest the Handmaid which must submit and veil to the 2d Faith the Chamberlain of which is begotten the 3d. Experience the Treasurer the Heir of Faith which hath the honour to abide live and inherit when Faith ceases and dies yet it is not posthumous but brought up under it till it arrive at maturity in Paradise When I speak of Faith I am not so fond as to postpone a credence to Divine Revelations in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments I build all Christian Faith upon that bottom solely and exclusively to all Unwritten Traditions or pretended Revelations which can never found a Divine Faith of which alone I discourse Neither am I so stark drunk as to think that those Scripture Revelations are not most highly rational in the matter of them as well as the motives to believe them nor yet so frantick as to advance any Experiences unconform to Scripture Let the Antinomians and Papists see to the first the promoters of Reason in contradistinction not to say contradiction to Scripture look to the second and Enthusiasts to the last Experience with me is nothing but a sensible yet rational feeling of the performance of Promises to a Man's self in particular When my inward sense assures me that the spiritual Covenant Mercies are really bestow'd upon me and my outward Circumstances demonstrate that God owns me with the Temporal I do not place these in Opposition but Conjunction for without the inward Experiments the outward signifie nothing They may be and are Providential but not Federal Both are call'd Tasts of God's Goodness and Graciousness or of his Word Psal 34.8 1 Pet. 2.3 Psal 119.103 c. Now when an Experience of the performance of any Promise superadds as it were a Seal to that Faith which receiv'd it as true it gives a more full confirmation to a Man's title to the Covenant and all the Blessings and Comforts of it and a further ground of quieting the Heart and therefore is completive of Comfort as Faith is inchoative For if I do but weakly and doubtingly apprehend and apply the Comforts that are in God yet when he bestows upon me some special token of his Favour 't is an emboldning encouraging pledge of his willingness to grant more and a testimony of his owning my right to all As in case of litigious Titles when all stands upon the same bottom if the Occupant freely yield up part to the Claimer 't is a vertual acknowledgement of his right to all and therefore exceedingly animates him in his future proceedings for its recovery Oh Divine Experience the blessed earnest of everlasting Consolation how sweet how satisfying art thou When a disconsolate Heart is sick of its own wants and woes weary of it self and the World as insufficient to yield the least drachm of solid Contentation 't is necessitated at last to send out Faith as a Harbinger to seek for Peace and Rest which it can no where find but in God and no way deduce from God but through those free Engagements which his boundless Goodness has exhibited in the Covenant of Grace These Blessings are as a Honey-comb in the promise but Heaven in the performance Indeed Heaven is no more nor less than the full and universal accomplishment of Promises and that partial incompleat fulfilling them in this Life wherein consists the happiness of Experience is no other than an Antepast or foretast of those eternal Felicities which constitute that immortal state And now am I
the Psalmists process here For before the Text though he have frequent occasion to make mention of God almost in every one of the foregoing Verses viz. ten or eleven times yet 't is with that seeming distance and strangeness that we meet not with a word of appropriation to himself in special But upon the benigne Aspect of the Consolations of God his Love will no longer stand off but makes its nearest approaches and runs into his embraces in a double affectionate claim of Propriety in the compass of four Verses following as oft as he mentions the Lord he follows it with a Relative not permitting it to pass by as before like an Alien Vers 22. The Lord is my defence My God is the Rock of my Refuge I have now abundant reason to follow him with relation Love as mine own since he love my Soul into Rest and Peace becoming my Comforter Oh sweet reviving token of the singular Love of my God! How dearly do I love him for it Yet this is not all Is this Honey-comb for my self alone Do I arrogate sole Propriety in these Riches No my Charity obliges me to Judge that my Brethren in Affliction are not destitute of the same Consolation through interest in God I so love my Neighbour as to make account he is as good as my self and has an equal share with me in this infinite Treasure therefore for my Brethren and Companions sake I say OUR GOD without restriction to my self Vers 23. Yea our God shall out them off He is a common good yours as well as mine and brings a common benefit to us all in saving us from our Adversaries And herein he shews not only his love to Man and thereby consequentially that it did respect a higher object 1 Joh. 4.20 21. but directly and immediately demonstrates that he grew in love to God himself in that he glorifies the Communicativeness of Divine Goodness by an acknowledgment of its extensiveness in a peculiar manner to Multitudes besides himself even all included in the relative OUR as if it had been said I love him because he loves me so as to be mine I love him yet more because he together with me loves mine condescending to be theirs also I love that goodness that flows to me I further love that goodness that overflows to all with me my Friends my People For my own sake for their sake for its own sake I love it above all Thus as the Work of Righteousness is Peace and the effect of Righteousness quietness and assurance for ever Isa 32.17 So on the other hand the Work of Peace is Righteousness Psal 85.8 I will hear what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the strong God Jehovah will speak because he will speak peace to his people and to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his merciful ones 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Indicatively not Imperatively and they shall not return to folly This Peace will be a preservative against Sin whence 't is said to Engarrison our Minds and Hearts in that so often mentioned Phil. 4.7 so promotes it that Holiness which some call Negative but it is no less productive of Positive Holiness Isa 61.2 3. Christ is anointed and endowed with the Holy Spirit to Preach good tidings c. To comfort all that mourn To appoint unto them that mourn in Sion to give unto them beauty for Ashes the Oyl of joy for mourning the Garment of Praise for the Spirit of heaviness But wherefore all this It follows That they might be called i. e. might be as before Isa 4.3 and 35.8 and 56.7 compared with Luk. 19.46 Matth. 5.9 19. Trees of Righteousness the planting of the Lord that he might be glorified To this purpose also is that Prayer of the Apostle 2 Thes 2.16 17. God who loves and gives everlasting Consolation through Grace comfort your Hearts and stablish you in every good Word and Work Grace begets Consolation and this begets good Conversation He that through Grace comforts does also through Comfort establish in every good Word and Work Shew then Oh my Soul the soundness of thy Comforts by their Fruits That Peace which is imprignant is impostorous In what further degree do thy inward Joys impower thee to Love the Lord the giver or thy Neighbour thy Partaker Canst thou pretend Peace in thy Conscience and live in contention or uncharitableness with thy Brother Does not thy inward Comfort calm thy passions meeken thy converses render thee profitable useful to Men in the best endeavours to induce them to love God and Vertue and abhor Immorality Viciousness and Hypocrisie that by thy means they may be also led in this method into the way of Peace and through it again into the way of Purity If thy Comforts be solid and sincere thou wilt by them be enabled to use the utmost diligence in propagating them since that is one of Gods great Designs in communicating them 2 Cor. 1.3 4. Blessed be God even the Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of Mercies and the God of all Comfort who comforteth us in all our Tribulation for what end That we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the Comfort wherewith we our selves are comforted of God And if God make thee able thou ought'st to be willing They are only fallacious Joys that are envious A corrupt Heart so that it self do but enjoy rest matters not though all the World be in trouble nay grudges others the quiet it enjoys and triumphs or secretly rejoyces at or at least is not afflicted in their Afflictions Haman will drink and be jolly when the whole City is in perplexity A wicked Soul is not concern'd for the content of any beside it self will rather add Affliction to the afflicted than indeavour or rejoyce in their Consolation Thy Comfort is not good if not conformable to the Fountain of Goodness in Communicativeness As far as confin'd 't is corrupt In the Harvest of true Joys thy Jordan will overflow the Banks Uncharritable illiberal unbountiful Consolations are Illusions If thy light and gladness diffuse not its beneficial rayes abroad to revive and refresh the Disconsolate Heart 't is but a glimmering Meteor not a Beam from the Sun of Righteousness and thus does it not extend it self if a Vital Heat and Influence do not accompany it as 't is but a flashy wild deceitful Spark Isa 50.11 which will vanish into Smoak and darkness if it be not kindled by a flame of true Love to God and Universal Righteousness Wherefore thou canst never bless thy self in reflection upon thine own Peace if it engage thee not in serious cares to propagate Holiness first and thereby Peace For an unholy Soul is absolutely inconsolable for want of Right therefore should be so for want of Will since a Will to apply Comforts without Right will certainly reduce to that woful plight which the Apostle with so much concern reports 1 Thes 5.3 When they shall say peace and
engage my self to the use of all possible means of thy appointment to suppress all Motions to Sin to strengthen and renew my Resolutions dayly to establish me against Temptations and carry me on in an assiduous Exercise of Repentance till I have no more Sin to repent of and yet will not account this any Amends for the Wrong I have done thee but in an absolute Renunciation of all that I am can be or do my repenting it self my holy Duties my striving against Sin the World the Devil and my Religious Performances as altogether insufficient and unavailable to give Compensation or secure me from Justice I come despairing of my self and all the stock I can be furnish'd with at home hopeless and helpless by the whole world and in an humble and hearty Prostration of Soul throw down my self at thy feet seeking Relief where alone it is to be found and that is in thy self Oh Lord thy Son and Spirit and therefore with my whole mind will desire delight and strength I freely heartily fully give up my self all my Powers and Possibilities unto thee alone avouching Thee only to be my God and All-sufficient Goodness and Happiness and therefore with a lowly Reverence and Submission I cast my self as thy sworn Vassal at thy gracious Foot-stool in a sincere and absolute Choice and Acceptance of Thee O blessed Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost for my sole Portion and Rest dedicating my self from my very inmost Soul to Thee O Heavenly Father as my Soveraign Creator Owner and Governour to be wholly and unreservedly Thine entirely at thy Disposal from the very bottom of my Heart devoting the Remainder of my Spirits Strength and Life universally to thy Fear Love Honour Worship and Service in the Works of Repentance and Mortification of my Sin watchfulness against and resistance of Temptation and over my Heart and Way and diligence in exercising my self unto Godliness Righteousness and Sobriety And to this purpose as one utterly lost and undone in my self with a renewed humble Veneration I offer up my self wholly to thee O blessed Redeemer of the World the only begotten Son of the Eternal Father and with a bleeding broken Heart that hath no other relief but only in and through thee being in my self a very Hell of Wickedness and Woe condemned by thy Law condemned by mine own Conscience I lift up mine Eyes look unto and long for thee O dear Lord Jesus as my only Saviour Joy and Crown thee I earnestly press after I value above my Life my Hopes my Soul heartily approving of pleasing my self in and closing with that Method of Salvation ordained through thee as the only Mean and Help into the Favour and Love of God Therefore with the All of my Understanding and Will and Might I chuse and embrace and honour and love and delight and rejoyce in and venture my self my hopes my happiness my All upon thee for ever and ever trusting solely to thy Merit and Mediation accepting Thee in all thy Offices and Relations as Prophet Priest King Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification Redemption as my Soveraign Lord and Master the only Espoused Bridegroom of my Soul resolving through thy Grace to betake my self only to Thee to be Thine alone abrenunciating and disclaiming all that stands in competition with Thee and receiving cordially all thy Holy Counsels and Laws as the only Guide and Rule of my Thoughts Affections Words and Actions with a thorow purpose and endeavour to take the highest Care under the Aids of thy Grace both to conform in every thing thereto and boggle at no difficulties dangers or sufferings which I may expect or meet with in these thy ways but persevere therein to the end neither shall any Corruption within or Temptation from without have my heart or liking or allowance so as to withdraw my Soul from these Holy Resolves For which end I cast my self whole and entire upon thy Free Grace and Almighty Power and Holy Spirit to work in me both to will and to do all according to thy good pleasure being firmly engaged to be Thine and to take Thee to be Mine without a Moments farther Procrastination Come Holy Ghost Eternal God and breathe into my Soul infuse thy Gifts and Graces communicating thy Power to a poor impotent succourless Sinner that here lo consecrates himself to Thee and with a self-resigning Spirit resolves to venture all upon thy Conduct and Influence to be at thy Beck and Command in all things not knowing nor being able nor therefore willing to do any thing without thee Inspire my Mind direct my Heart awe my Conscience regulate my Life strengthen and uphold my goings that notwithstanding mine own insufficiency I may by Thee be enlarged in heart to run in the ways of thy Commandments And now Merciful God Father Son and Holy Ghost through that All-sufficient Merit that has procured all Blessings accept of me and own me as none of mine own but thy Portion and Inheritance who have taken Thee to be mine This this O my Soul is the One thing needful to be done in good earnest speedily with an uncontroulable Bent and Steadiness of Will and never to be repented of I am pained in my very Soul for and heartily bewail my Neglects Deferrings and Aversations And here I am blessed Lord setting to my Seal and firmly binding my self in this my Baptismal Covenant with an irreversible purpose to act all the remainder of my Life thro' thy Mercy and Assistance only according to the Tenour of it Be serious then here O my Soul or thou abjurest all solid Consolation Thou canst never enjoy good Hopes without a good Conscience If thou desirest to build high in thy Comforts be sure thou lay a good Foundation If thou never enterest into such Meditations and Resolutions as these bid everlastingly adieu to all true Contentation If thou do not really turn to God thou turnest away thy Peace The Holy Ghost will never be a Comforter where He is not a Converter Except thou be born again of Water and the Spirit thou canst not enter into the Kingdom of God the Kingdom of Peace See to it therefore that thou be raised from thy Death in Trespasses and Sins as ever thou desirest a Resurrection of thy Joys No Purity no Peace 5. Having thus begun go on Make Repentance Mortification Watchfulness Faith Love Resignation to the Will of God thy daily uninterrupted Exercise and endeavour to grow in all and be upright in all else all 's nothing Make Sincerity thy great Aim and Endeavour Hypocrisie is Heritor no where but in the Land of Darkness and dismal Woe Thy Joys will resemble their Parents If they be a Cheat so will they also Be really good and eminently so too Aut Caesar aut nullus Lean Graces do but devour fat Comforts never enjoy them The sweetest promises yield no lasting Refreshment to fickle hearts unestablished with Grace If thy Spiritual Strength be small when thy standing in
love the Lord then Oh my Soul with all thy mind with all thy Heart with all thy strength and thy Neighbour as thy self for his sake let him have thy whole desire thy whole delight at all times Minus te amat qui aliquid tecum amat quod non propter te amat Idiotae contempl de amore Dei c. 12. He loves thee but little Oh Lord who loves any thing with thee which he loves not for thee says a devout Man 'T is but meet that the highest God should have the Supremacy in my heart If in the greater World he be King must he be a Subject in the less I am worse than Hell if God must not be acknowledged Soveraign in my Soul The Spirits there dare not cannot but own him as their Lord this is the duty they pay extorted indeed by their sense and fear which that it may not be thy dismal lot and fate Oh my Soul advance thou him freely to the Crown within thy self in a spontaneous generous Ardour of pure Incorrupt Incorruptible Love Which if thou dost not thou art accursed if thou dost thou art blessed for 't is a Prayer upon record in God's Word 1 Cor. 16.22 and therefore part of the matter of Christ's Intercession Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Incorruption or Immortality i. e. with a never-fading Love Eph. 2.24 and that only is a sincere Love Oh Love the Lord on Earth as thou wilt love him in Heaven with the same kind and press toward the same degree of Love and be happy Thus live in God above the tumult and hurry of external things and be at rest Marc. Antonin l. 2. p. 5 c. Omnem crede diem tibi diluxisse Supremum Live every day as if it were thy last and in every imployment so act Arrian l. 4. c. 10. as one that can be free to be found therein by Death p. 416. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It. l. 3. c. 5 p. 273. Antonin l. 6. §. 3◠What would'st thou be found doing by Death says Arrianus I for my part doing some masculine beneficial publick useful generous Work But if I cannot be found in these yet this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unhinderable this is given to me to amend my self to elaborate that faculty which makes use of Phantasies to endeavour apathy or freeness from Passion to give my Affections their due and if I can be so happy to gain soundness certainty of Judgment If Death find me thus employ'd 't will be sufficient to engage me with hands stretched out to God to say I have not neglected those Powers thou gavest me to observe thy Government and follow it I have done my endeavour not to disgrace thee Behold how I have used my Senses my Prenotions Have I ever blamed thee Have I been displeased with any thing befalling or wish'd it otherwise Have I misguided my Affections because thou begattest me I render thee the praise of thy Gifts in as much as I have well used thine it sufficeth me Resume them now again and where thou pleasest dispose of me For all were thine and thou gavest them me I the rather produce these Testimonies out of Heathen Authors to let Christians see how inexcusable it will be in them who have infinitely better Light Means Aids to neglect what even Nature and Reason taught Philosophers to practise And withall to awaken others with my self to a more assiduous care in these Exercises least it be found more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon for Sodom and Gomorrah than for us at the great day Observe all the inward Workings of the Divine Spirit both in calling out the actings of Grace and reviving thee with Peace and keep them upon record for after advantage Time may come when all thy present Sensations may be so cloudy that thou canst not see a peep of day canst not from any thing that thou feelest conclude that thy state is right before God But if at such a season and hour of temptation thou be'st able to call to mind that upon due trial when in a sober and composed calm of Thoughts the Lord satisfied thee upon sure and indefeisible Evidence that thy Heart was truly changed and that thou wast as a New Creature in Christ Jesus and that thy Objections and misdoubtings and temptations to the contrary were thorowly answered This will be such an ease to thy mind and a revival of thy hopes that ere long the mists and darkness will be driven away and thou wilt again reascend into a clear and serene Heaven of Light and Peace and Joy Make sure in this manner to lay up and reserve a good stock and treasure of Experiences if thou desirest Riches of Comfort yet content not thy self with the old but make new To remember what thou did'st enjoy and feel in the days of the right Hand of the Most High may revive thee but to sense and feel it at present much more Renew then those gracious Exercises over and over that did once produce Halcyon days in thy Soul and they will recall them the same effects will issue from the same Causes Amend what was amiss in former actings which gave Satan advantage to redintegrate thy Troubles and this will establish thy Peace upon a securer and more unexceptionable basis 'T is not possible to refute the Devils Objections against thy sincerity by a method more effectual than a more serious care to act all over again sincerely which he tempts thee to suppose was done unsoundly Renovated Acts of a sound Repentance and unfeigned Faith as sure Testimonies of thy Renovation after the Image of God will dash thine Accuser out of countenance If thou canst make any fresh Experiments of the Power of Divine Grace effecting this If God take thee anew into his bosom of Love to melt thee If a view of him whom thy Sins have pierced cause thy ebbing godly Sorrow again to flow over all the Banks Lastly if with a perfect Heart thou returnest from all thy by-past follies unto him from whom thou hast deeply revolted this will again retrieve thy sinking Heart and hopes as a new taste of the Lord's graciousness and evidence that he hath not forsaken thee but that his Mercy and Godness follows thee and shall all the days of thy life even to Eternity Set about this O my Soul with a resolved obstinacy of endeavour that will not be conquerable by any assaults of Corruption or Temptation For thou canst never take a Heaven of Joy and Rest except by violence and force Weak resolves do but only encrease the Devils Triumphs Strong cares are requisite to possess thee of strong Consolations Observe where when and how the Spirit moves and spread thy Sails before his sweet Spirations He is the Comforter because the Conducter into the way of Peace Thou canst enjoy no more of his Testimony to solace thee than
second Command evinces and therefore calls the Sin there forbidden expressly by the foulest name Adultery the highest Violation of the Matrimonial Covenant a Man can bear any thing in his Wife better than that 'T is with allusion̄ to this that the Lord stiles himself a Jealous God This imports that he hath a peculiar and special enmity against the Violations of the Second Command beyond all other since this is affixed to no other And indeed Idolatry may well be set in the uppermost rank of Sins because the External Woship of Idols does imply the Internal together with the rejection of the true God which is a Violation of both the First and Third yea and Fourth Command as well as the Second For he that externally adores other Gods besides the true has them inwardly in his bea rt and therefore casts off the Creator of the World in that he gives him not the Honour of God which is Supreme takes his Name in vain seeing it has not that due effect upon his Mind and Heart and therefore cannot Remember the Sabbath as God's Rest from his Six days Labour nor keep it Holy to him because he owns him not in his Soveraign Excellency and Glory These Considerations with the terrible Executions upon the Israelites and others for Corruption in the Worship of God as warnings to us Rom. 10. are of mighty moment when duly applied and therefore no wonder that Men who have been in bitterness for other Sins do above all dread these against the Second Command which God above all abhors no wonder if they be jealous where God is of any thing that may seem to intrench so near upon the Honour God Let Men prate and droll what they will against serious Men this is certainly the bottom of all their Fears and that is not a vain Superstitious Fear which is rightly directed here but the very first principle and beginning of all Divine and Spiritual Wisdom and ought not to be discouraged and wrested from Men by the Power and Policy of Earth and Hell which combine to do this by exciting other Fears viz. of Temporal Punishments The Damnation of Mens Souls by acts so abominable to the Divine Majesty is infinitely more formidable in its self than any thing And therefore weak frail Flesh in which we are oft more sensible should not be tempted and terrified into a regardlesness of this greatest of all hazzards by any designs upon that most natural Instinct and Law of Self-preservation which indeed is madness when it cannot take place but in the Eternal Destruction of the Soul I said this Fear must be rightly directed that it may not be Superstition And 't is so when 't is graduated according to the nature of the thing and the Sentiments of the Divine Majesty so that what he most hates we most fear and proceed therein according to the Revelation of God and let fall our fear where he lets fall his loathing or reveals nothing of it for there begins Superstition So again 't is ill regulated though we dread to offend in lighter Matters possibly under Divine Prohibitions if yet we regard not the main For to fear where no fear is or to fear more where less fear is or fear less where more fear is these three are Superstition But to fear proportionably to the greatness of the Sin and clearness of the Light is not but a regular fear of God which he will accept own and reward It is not my Province or Design nor Proper to this place to recite and plead or refute and disprove the Allegations of either one Party or other only do heartily wish that I could see more of that true Christian Spirit of Love Moderation and Meekness on all sides which the Gospel so earnestly recommends for Comfort shall we find in nothing else when the Account is cast up at last Church-men of all others should be men of dispassionate soft and tender Hearts because entrusted with the Guidance of the tenderest Part of their People viz. their Consciences But truly I meet it not on any hand except amongst a very few The violent bitter irremediable Prejudices of the Laity in every Party have their Root in the Clergy 'T is rare to light on a man of a healing Spirit which is as a speckled Bird when found the Birds round about are against her every Man has an Arrow to shoot at her But Will the end and issue hereof be Peace No it will not it cannot Since then that fear to offend God in the Concerns of his Honour and Worship which would approve it self not to be Superstition must be a Branch of that general Awe and Fear which is the beginning of Wisdom 't is absolutely necessary that it have a sure and infallible Light and Guide For let not Men think that a fear of offending the Divine Majesty unprescribed by God in his Word either in express terms or by plain consequence can slip the halter and get out of the danger of that Scripture which condemns the Traditionary Man-created Fear of the Scribes and Pharisees prophesied of by Isa 29.13 applied by our Saviour Mat. 15.8 9. See then to your bottom that some plain Scripture teach you to be affraid of displeasing God by joyning in the Worship used by the Church else this very Scripture which you think makes for you does really condemn you For 't is evident that such a Fear is a part of that Internal Worship which you pay to God and if that be unprescribed by God Where are you But it never can be made evident I think that the Church prescribes any parts or means of Worship unprescribed by God although there be some things adjoined to the Worship which is in Circumstantials allowed by all Parties that are not commanded neither forbid by God On the other hand I doubt the Scriptures that are alledged by the Dissenters are not so thorowly weighed so calmly debated so unprejudicately examin'd so fully answer'd as they might be not such a Spirit of Love and Compassion manifested in the manage of Disputes against them 〈◊〉 is necessary to win them and win upon them For they generally conceive the Replies given do not reach the Case and so thought Mr. Jeans also a Man who hath writ something that I have in behalf of the Church Now let it be consider'd what Christian Equity and Moderation should be extended to Persons whose Understandings are not omniportant but Hearts and Consciences good for the main and in all the Essentials of Christianity and whether it does not highly become such a flourishing Christian Church such a noble well-regulated State to make a difference of Persons Jude 22. lest the Bowels of Christ be wounded through our want of Bowels to those whom the same Church might receive if some inferiour Matters were forborn and the same Heaven must receive or we are of all Creatures most miserable For the Mercies of God's sake for the Love of Christ's
sake consider again and again how light a matter a Mode or Ceremony is how heavy a matter Sin is and let not Dust and Vanity be balanc'd with Mens Salvation Say not Contempt of Publick Order is not a light thing tho' these be Oh condemn not the Innocent with the Guilty Let those who contemn manifestly and contumaciously suffer but certainly 't is not Contempt in all but a reverend Fear of contemning the publick Orders of Heaven which all Men confess no Man can order the Violation of It seems clear to many that to do things required is forbidden by God they are mistaken Grant it yet they think not Their Consciences seem to be resolv'd tho' it be in an Error unknown to them Therefore to them 't is as clear that no force can be put upon them no command of man over-rule them where they judge God has obliged them They read they hear they pray they study and consider all things on all hands as they are able yet cannot change their minds tho' it be highly their external Interest so to do And shall no humanity be extended to such modest humble loyal patient teachable Dissenters that are ready to engage in all Bonds to live peaceably in all Oaths to be true Subjects to subscribe according to the Act to the Articles of Religion abating one or two Non-Essentials and therefore are of the same common Faith to the Ten Commands and therefore agree to lead the same godly Life Are there no Commiserations for such as these Oh come Lord Jesus come quickly diffuse abroad that excellent Spirit of Love Unity and Christianity which will engage every one of us to judge that our proper Good is more in the Publique than Our Selves that the common Interest of Religion is infinitely more our Concern than any of our little Bones of Contention that we may not be cracking Nuts pursuing after Butterflies smiting our Fellow-servants eating and drinking with the Drunken when the Heavens begin to crack about our ears and all is ready to be wrapt up in a common Ruine Well Shall we be Christians or shall we not Must that which will be our Glory and Crown above rule our Hearts and Practices now Let us be Persons of great and generous Minds disdaining to debase the Nobleness of those Natures which are capable of enjoying an Immense God to such a degree of Childishness as to be infinitely concern'd about the miserable things which little Souls continually scramble for is it a piece of substantial goodness and honesty Does it conduce to promote and establish a real Deiformity or Similitude to God Will it actually tend to subdue mens Passions and Pride and Worldliness and Sensuality May we by and through it elevate our Minds to that Heavenly Constitution as to be mete for Converses with a Pure and Holy God Does it subjugate the Will of Man to his Maker render him acceptable to Heaven profitable to Earth in the Great Ends of Godliness Righteousness Sobriety Did God institute it for these Purposes With all my Soul am I for it I 'll hug it in my Bosome lay it next my heart honour it with my best endeavours to advance it in my self and the world But if it be only a Trick a Device a Policy to be Grand and Gaudy and Terrible and Triumphant and Imperious to salve a Sore to make maintain please a Party to countenance keep up an Interest or suppress oppress depress real Religiousness under some disguising Pretences Away with it 't is unbecoming the Christian Spirit it savours not nor of true Magnitude of Mind This Man is for Prelacy the other against it one applauds the National Constitution comprehending all Congregations as united under the Ecclesiastical Government of Bishops and the Civil Government of one Political Head the King another allows it not yet professes and is ready to give all desired Security for Allegiance That Man pleads for and uses a Liturgy or Set Form in Divine Offices this would modifie all himself There some think for further Decency and Order Ceremonies must accompany or follow Divine Institutions here are a Company tooth and nail against them This Point of Doctrine must be express'd in such and such Terms the other is untenable except in such a Sense and Dress and every Head in things of this nature has a different Crotchet Well Are the main Substantials of Christianity retain'd Irreligion Idolatry renounc'd the necessity of Government maintain'd the Deity worshipped in and through the only Mediator Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit with his Gifts and Graces in order to a New Life acknowledged In fumm the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament in their plain and most obvious sense receiv'd submitted to as the perfect Rule of Eaith and Manners Holiness and Vertue practised and promoted Here fix What d' ye tell us of Unwritten Unscriptural Phrases and Forms and Modes and Orders and Rites and Circumstances and Phylacteries and Fringes and Laces and Fancies and Fooleries and Phrenzies To Bedlam with the Mad-men that cannot be satisfied and pleas'd with the Noble and Incomparable Ordinations of infinite Wisdom and Goodness but must prescribe to their Maker and out-do boundless Perfection Why like the Aegyptian Apes do we tear in pieces one anothers Ornaments nay one another for Nuts and Trifles Are we not agreed in the main Essentials of Christianity Being therefore of the same Catholick Body Why must this Mans Head be struck off because he hath a Feather in his Cap and the others because he has none That Man be begg'd for a Fool because by paying free Rent he owns a Mesn Lord Another branded for a Knave for desiring to be a Mesn Lord himself or depend immediately upon the King Some sent to the Hospital because they need and would have Crutches others to Bridewel who will have none Are not the one Men as well as the other and should not common Nature ingenerate a common Sense Must it still be Homo homini Lanius Lupus Are not both Christians And shall it be Christianus Christiano Daemon That Man 's a Heretick Devil I 'll sear and tear him with my burning Pincers says St. Dunstan This is a Schismatick Dog I 'll have his Ears says another St. Some-body Thou art a cold Formalist and Hell must warm and fire thee says another St. No-body And a thousand to one the Heretick the Sehismatick and Formalist is the better Man and Christian Oh Babylon Babylon where art thou not Really we may with the Philosopher light our Candle at noon day among Christians to seek for Christianity Let it then pass uncontroulable that a Man can never be publick spirited except upon Principles truly Catholick nor will any other Spirit or Principles administer sound true and solid Comfort and Peace As the contracted shrivling confining narrow Temper begets all the Confusions Broils Branglings and Blood-sheds in the world so it leaves nothing at home in conclusion but dire ingrateful Reflections and an
nothing is good in Religion which does not catch and overmaster rational Affections reduce the will of Man into an Harmony with the Will of God and better the Life Oh be not in love with a notional Religion Let the Holy Spirit that illustrious Ray of Divine Love reflected upon and from the Son of Righteousness descend into thy bowels dwell and act in thy very inmost heart by his Light to create Life Be in love with no knowledge but that which is of a transforming power and tendency that by its vertue thou may'st be intirely renewed after the Imagine of God That Knowledge which will introduce Faith that Faith which will work by Love that Love which to the rest will add as 2 Pet. 1.5 6 7. Vertue Temperance Patience Godliness Brotherly-kindness and in summ all the Elements of a holy conversation that and that only will be introductive of solid Peace and Consolation But this hath all been spoke only upon supposition of a dfferent yet very proper Translation of the Words in V. 10. and. 12. Which are rendred chastize Now must we Procecd upon this authorized Version and 't is certain the Words will allow it as among other Places is demonstrable from 1 Kin. 12.11 14. My Father chastised you with whips c. Psal 118.18 Chastening the Lord hath chastened me but hath not given me over to death Here the word cannot signify to teach or instruct in a proper Sence Yet in the place I discourse upon there 's nothing to enforce this Sence but rather the other as the English Annotator observes Only the Syriack Version the Chaldee Paraphrast Piscator Vatablus Ainsworth c. render it here as we do chasten And if it receive the former Sence may it not seem restrain'd to such Instructions as in a peculiar manner qualifie Men patiently to bear and improve Afflictions This Sence will be favoured by that clause in the following Verse which is declarative of the end and use of these Teachings finding rest in the day of adversity Paraphrase the whole thus Oh the blessednesses of the mighty man Psal 33.16 whom thou so instructest inwardly by thy Spirit and teachest Outwardly by thy Law in the Ministry of the Word and other Ordinances * So Calvin as to engage and enable him with an even composed Spirit resting in the good pleasure of thy Goodness and with patience to indure Adversity Thus I make account 't is a parallel to Jam. 1.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 happy Blessed is the Man that not suffereth meerly but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 patiently endureth Temptation For the Substantive derived from it viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rend red Patience V 34. and ch 5.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we count happy or bless the patiently indureing or biding under ye have heard of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Patience of Job or Trial 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 approved he shall receive the Crown of Life c. It seems to be an allusion to the Isthmick or Olympick Games in Greece where if any doubt did arise about the Victory the Agonists or Contenders did appeal to the Judges and he who by their Suffrage or Judgment was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 approv'd did receive the Garland or Crown Thus here Blessed is the man whom thou so disciplinest and learnest as to give rest or quiet sedateness or settlement of mind or appeasement Prov. 15.18 the same word of all turbulent motions in the working raging sea of his Passions and Affections which otherwise cannot be quiet composed and rest Isai 57.20 the same word again till or while the Pit be digged for the wicked For as Dr. Hammond well observes if it be understood of external rest or freedom from the days of Evil the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not properly translated until For that supposes the rest in being before the removal and in the very time of disrest or oppression or adversity by the wicked and the rest to terminate or end when the Wicked are destroyed But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is translated While Job 1.16 17 18. While he was yet speaking c. and yet more accommodately to this place When Jonah 4.2 Was not this my saying when I was yet in my own Country c. Thus here when the pit of corruption as the word signifies shall be digged for the Wicked the Lord 's blessed ones shall rest from the days of Adversity Then is the season for it This literal proper Sence seems more suitable than Calvin's figurative For Moral Rest answers not the Letter of the Text as well as civil 'T is rest from not in the days of evil as it should if the moral sence for quiet of mind obtain yet I think there may be a commodious Sence given of the Words retaining the until which is the only Basis of the moral sence and still interpret the words concerning Political Rest For until does not alway signifie the cessation of the preceding State upon the introduction of that which it relates to Hereof there are multitudes of Instances Rom. 5.13 Vntil the Law Sin was in the World but it did not cease to be when the Law came Rev. 2.25 Hold fast till I come Must they let go their hold then But to confine my self to the Hebr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isai 22.14 This Iniquity shall not be purged from you till you die If not 'till then 't will never Not to wander out of this Book of Psalms Psal 112.8 He shall not be affraid until he see his desire upon his enemies and sure his fearlesness will not determin then Psal 110.1 Sit thou on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool Must Christ forsake God's right hand when that is accomplished I 'll add no more It cannot then by necessary consequence be concluded from the until here that the Rest or Quiet of the Blessed shall expire when the Wicked perish it rather infers a more eminent degree of it So also it does in the cited places denote and import an answerable amplification in the succeeding state of what was in the foregoing if it be capable of gradation as sure David's fearlesness would be greater after his desire was accomplished upon his Enemies than before Let that interpret this He shall be fearless before even when his enemies hope to have their desire of him much more when he has his of them Thus God will give those whom he graciously instructs and teaches real quiet and rest both when the wicked Reigns and when he is Ruin'd So that I make it a privilege and part of Blessedness granted by special indulgence to these to be secured from trouble in troublous Times to have a good day when others not so taught of God meet with an evil day to be hid in the day of God's Anger to be preserved from the Malice and persecution of the Wicked This sometimes the Lord vouchsafes to
affraid of being abused by Satan and Self-flattery into a false Peace as ambitious of and in love with a true If thou reflect upon those Sorrows which are introductory to Spiritual Joys to enquire whether they be of the right Model what Image and Superscription of God there is upon them and with infinite care and endeavour strive to rectifie whatever is amiss therein whether respecting their Object Motive or End that thou mayst not take the left Hand way but the right by weeping Cross to Comfort still renewing thy Griefs for their own failures till the real Effects demonstrate them to be indeed according to God 2 Cor. 7.9 10 11. If thou canst not be satisfied till Sin as Sin an offence against God truly break thy very Heart and work it into an ingenuous tenderness that the warm Bosom of everlasting Love thaw thy frozen Affections and with its sweet and gentle Impulse and Influence melt the flinty Rock within and pour it down in Penitential Showrs that not mere Self-love which engages Grief in a fear of Wrath and desire of Indemnity nor mere Natural Conscience acting upon Rational Principles without respect to God may draw out thy Sorrows but thy disingenuous unworthy base carriage to so kind tender affectionate every way amiable and obliging a Father may dissolve thee into repentant Groans and Dolours if thou take as much pains that thy Penitence may be sincere as thou cherishest desire that thy Peace may be sweet and sure and under the conduct of this endeavour feel any Revivings these are the Comforts of God 2. True and false Comforts differ in their Attendants or Company Sound Peace is always attended with War and watchfulness against Sin and a sincere delight in God and Goodness As in the Psalmist How afraid was he of slipping What a singular respect did he bear to God whom he owns in every thing and to all intents and purposes as his God his Defence his Rock of Refuge his upholder c. Vers 22. Vers 18. Contrarily false Joys are at Peace with Sin and have little or no respect for God or Holiness However there 's nothing cordial there all 's but pretence and Phantastry A setled course of Sin Love to any one Omission or Commission Servitude to Sin are utterly inconsistent with the Peace of God which passeth all understanding For this keeps watchfully both Mind and Heart as with a guard and Garrison Phil. 4.7 Therefore true Peace always lives in a state of War there 's an Enemy in prospect What need of a Guard where no danger The Foes that immediately assault the Mind and Heart are Error and Sin these are the Sting the Strength of the old Dragon who can harm us by nothing else these batter down our Defences make breaches in our Walls bury our Peace in Rubbish and Ruins Which therefore only lives when it fortifies and secures against these but if they prevail it certainly and inevitably dies and is incapable of a Resurrection till Sovereign Grace renew us to Repentance beating down our Corruptions and reviving our decayed Graces that we begin with new Life and liveliness to strive against Evil and to do good which the Scripture enjoyns under the Metaphor of entring into and in at the little pressed narrow or strait way and Gate God will not lose this precious Seed of Peace by sowing it among Weeds or Thorns or Rocks or common Roads A good and honest Heart only receives it keeps it and is kept by it He that hath really felt the bitterness of enmity with God as every one must ere he be solac'd with a sense of his Love cannot easily be reconciled to his own woe or return to the silthy Vomit that brings it For War with Heaven is Hell where pure unmixed Justice acts against Sinners according to the demerit of their Sins and without Intermission or Mitigation and Sinners act against God with the full and unrestrained bent for their Wills without regret or rebuke of Conscience for the Sins there committed though under the deepest Agonies and most dismal Remordencies of Conscience for the Sins committed here And if the highest degree of this Enmity be the lowest Abyss of Misery all inferiour degrees must necessarily in the same proportion partake of the same Nature and retain as much of the latter as they do of the former and an Ounce of Mercury is Poyson as well as a Pound I know there are Mountebanks in Religion that dare adventure to drink down a Toad in confidence of an Orvietan or Antidote but that had need be sure which yet is impossible that this Preservative be not in the Power of an Enemy who hath liberty and authority to withhold it at pleasure even in their extremest Necessity else they certainly swallow their own as to themselves remediless Damnation If Men take the boldness to sin upon presumption that Repentance and the Merit of Christ will secure them who yet may be fully assured that both are solely the gift of God whom by their confident and daring impudence herein they infinitely disoblige and irritate they for a while after this sweet Figg may enjoy the content of a little rotting ease but the Poyson is secretly insinuating it self into their Vitals and corrupting them with so malignant a Contagion as renders their Disease the more incurable and their eternal Perdition inevitable He that is in love with such Comfort as this may take it much good may it do him if it can but I fear he will never have Joy of it in another World We dread that which hath once burnt us Ask a wounded Spirit what ease there is in rebelling against Heaven and what Satisfaction it can hope for in that state of War and how in its present circumstances it can relish all those sensual Joys where-from it once receiv'd so much seeming Contentation Oh now they are Wormwood and Gall and create in Reflection as much anguish and torment as ever they did comfort in Fruition The Honey is gone the Sting remains the Pleasure is vanish'd Rom. 6.21 the Pain emerges and will endure till a thorow Penitence and unfeigned Faith introduce a sense of Reconciliation with God that it becomes as clear and evident that the Enmity in our minds against God and God's Enmity against us is abolished as before it was plain that there had been no good understanding betwixt us For how can an enlightned Conscience be quiet till it be satisfied that it stands upon good terms with its Sovereign Lord If its fears build upon the old bottom viz. a perswasion that omnipotent Wrath is arming against it how can it be at rest To be patient under this much more to be content most of all to be pleased and Jovial is brutish stupidity and senselesness or desperate fool-hardiness and madness which can issue in nothing but the everlasting torturous Sense and Plagues of Hell if boundless Mercy prevent not by a sound awakening and