not of the terror of the Lord to keep my heart in awe neither do I fear thee according to my fear I had when in danger neither do I seek to thee serve thee and delight in thee according to all my vows and admiration of thy goodness because thou hast been so merciful to hear my prayer and deliver me from all my fear but I am ready to think that it is for my own goodness and virtue that thou hast wrought this Of this sin thou warnedst the Israelites and we are all too prone to it O pardon Lord thy servant and heal him of this evil and give him to walk in the same awe and fear of thee and the like obedience to all thy commandments and love to thy waies watchfulness against sin and in it self examination and humility when the trouble and danger is past as when it is impendent and then I shall know that I have a filial fear of thee and not a servile fear Lord since thou makest thy Mercy and thy Almighty Power the inducements to awe us and allure us to keep and observe thy Statutes saying to Israel I am the Lord the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the Land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage therefore enjoynedst thy people to keep the Commandments following Let me alwaies keep a remembrance of thy mercies and because thou didst injoyn them the keeping of the Passeover in commemoration of their deliverance out of Egypt and that they should continually when they made their offering acknowledge that their Father was a Syrian ready to perish Lord let us in like sort reflect upon thy mercies and deliverances and our former sufferings to humble us and to be thankful to thee and praise thee and whilst we enjoy the benefit let us give thee the glory and the rather because one mercy is the earnest of another as holy Paul argued God hath delivered me and will deliver me therefore let me put a due estimate upon them by apprehending my unworthiness of them which the more I apprehend the more able I shall be to know the true value of the mercy and God's goodness in it The more low I am in my own eyes the more high will God's mercies be in my eyes If we pray for mercies it is for love of our selves but our praises are not so many nor so earnest as our prayers for them Lord increase our praises and let us say with David Praised be the Lord who hath remembred us in our low condition and hath delivered us from all our fears and troubles and keepeth all our bones so that none of them is broken and ladeth us with daily benefits and maketh our life comfortable And let my soul praise him not only with my lips but with a constant living to his praise and using the mercies which he hath given me to the honour of him who gave them Lord give us grace to mortifie our earthly members and affections since the promise is that as we have been planted with Christ into the similitude of his death so we shall also be into the similitude of his resutrection And let this mortification be universal of all our sinful and sensual affections and let it be constant and perpetual without intermission looking to the pattern of Christ on his Cross for our imitation and instructed thereto by thy holy Word and stirred up thereto by a godly sorrow for our sins committed And to this end let us cut off the superfluities of every lust and corruption that may fortifie and strengthen it And that we may destroy it in the birth and keep far off the danger of it as holy Job made a Covenant with his eyes not to look upon a Maid considering that I can never be safe near a danger though sin seem to me as a right eye or hand yet by thy grace let me have power to renounce it not only forbearing the act for fear of punishment but destroying and mortifying the habit and inclination And although the body of sin and death do remain as in Paul it did yet let it be to me as a burthen and grief of soul crying out with him O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of sin and death LORD God the fountain of goodness above all things give me faith in thee for then I must of necessity love thee if I believe thou hast loved me and given thy Son for me and shall have in my soul the joy that is unspeakable Lord when thou layest thy heavy hand of affliction upon us to cause us to search and try our waies and that we should examine our selves and turn unto the Lord in stead of this our wicked heart is prone to cast off God and say Why should we wait upon God any more what profit is there in serving him Who is the Lord we will own him and his goodness no more In stead of humble repentance we are prone with Job's wife to curse God and with those wicked ones prophesied of to come in the last times in the book of the Revelations of whom 't is said That after all the Vials of wrath and the 7 last Plagues poured out they repented not but cursed God or else we are prone to charge God foolishly as they in Ezek. 8.12 said God hath forsaken the earth or 18 Ezek. That our Fathers have eaten sowre grapes and our teeth are set on edge yet we their children have eaten sowre grapes too or we are tempted to have hard speeches of God accompanying our natural complaints and call God's providence into question as if thou didst not govern the earth or not well because we think thou dost not hear us soon enough saying Why have we fasted and thou hearest not Now that we may eschew these iniquities let us see first the fruitlesness of this course though we roar all like Bears and mourn like Doves it doth not better us nor abate our afflictions So is it causeless for thy plagues are the just punishments for our sins and it is the Lord's mercy that we are not consumed as said the Church in Babylon and that we are living And why should a living man complain for the punishment of his sins for that we are alive is more than we deserve That thou givest us our life for a prey for we know we are all sinners and our sins exceed our punishments It was never so bad but it might have been worse with us and at the worst we have some mercy For David saith I know that of very faithfulness thou hast afflicted me In thus murmuring we overlook all Gods mercies As Haman when he had reckoned all his advancements yet said all this is nothing so long as Mordecai the Jew vailed not to him In this we shew our exceding great pride which makes us think all that God hath given us is no more than our due In this is direct rebellion against our God and
things of God and delight our selves in the Lord and count all the waies of his Commandments pleasantness search for them as for hid treasure dig for them seek them evermore we have obtained the greatest and chiefest matter and the rest we may assure our selves that we shall by the like means obtain and by degrees be able to run the waies of Gods commands discretion shall preserve us and understanding shall keep us and deliver us from the temptations and allurements to these and other sins we shall be able to keep our watch against our spiritual enimies that would destroy us But although our heart be thus changed and we renewed so that with our mind we do the Law of God yet it is great danger but that sometimes with our flesh we shall serve the Law of sin because when we would do good evil is present with us unless the hand of God continually hold us up which that it may we must invocate his mercy and almighty power using all the means premised and with watchfulness against the first beginning of evil Oculus ad coelum Manus ad clavum So that our surest perservative is this of prayer although we are renewed in the Spirit of our mind Our own wofull experience tells us so as this holy Apostle tells us by his experience For we know how that we have often endeavoured our selves to hallow the name of God and to 〈◊〉 his will in the resisting of these sins of our complexion and to avoid the temptation And to that end and purpose have read meditated heard the word preached and resolved upon the practice of it we have made that covenant with our eyes as Job made with his or the like to avoid and shun the occasions of that sin which we most fear But yet upon trial we have found in our corrupt hearts so much of the old unregenerate man that when we would do good evil hath been present with us and ready to surprize us and lead us captive And how to do the good we would we know not and we could only bewaile our wretched condition crying out with the Apostle O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of sin and death Therefore we must be alwaies at the Throne of Grace as those holy men were David Psal 119. v. 27. Make me to understand the way of thy Commandments v. 35. Make me to go in the paths of thy Commandments v. 36. Incline my heart to thy testimonies and not to covetiousness 37. Turne away mine eyes lest they behold vanity and quicken me in thy Law 38. Stablish thy word in thy Servant that I may fear the. Expressing his holy desires with fervency and earnestness and Importunity Behold my delight is in thy Commandments O quicken me in thy Righteousness And protests to God how he had used the meanes in studying and meditating of Gods word If we accordingly practice And with such holy desires pantings and breathings with such servency of affection with 〈…〉 purpose resolutions and vows with such Importunity under the sense of our needs and dependencies on him For the Spouse her self though she be assured of her Beloved's kindness and love towards her and her own love reciprocally towards him so prayes Draw us we will run after thee which sheweth what great need we have of craving God's almighty help when we are strongest and with David have sworn and are stedfastly purposed to keep his righteous judgments If we do accordingly pray then we may also obtain to be men after God's own heart as he was for we have a promise for it viz. The weak shall be like the house of David He will incline our hearts to his Testimonies He will work in us both the will and the deed He will order our steps in his Word He will draw us and we shall run after him And we shall do his will on Earth as it is done in Heaven And he will order our feet in his Word Direct our going Make us to delight in that which is good And though our soul be alwaies in our hand yet we shall not forget his Laws but claim them for our heritage and portion for ever Because he is true who hath promised to guide us lead us keep us uphold us strengthen us watch over us to be with us in trouble to deliver us to tread Satan under our feet that no weapon formed against us shall prosper that he will water us every morning and every moment and we shall run and not be weary mount up with wings like Eagles and renew our strength like the Eagle and he will make our way perfect and those that are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the Court of God they shall grow from strength to strength and grow up like the Calves of the stall And though we do fall when we are confident in our own strength as the Apostle Peter did yet shall we rise again But he that feareth alwaies is more happy for he will watch against the beginnings of evil actions and will use these means premised and shall not fall for God will hold him with his hand because he trusteth in him only and will bear him as a man doth bear his Son Deut. 1.31 And as we are taught in the precedent instances so may we suitably be instructed out of the holy Scriptures in all other temptations to other sins If it be excess in drinking which raging vice hath invaded a great part of the world And men are not content to allow themselves in it but generally strive to draw in all those with whom they converse in spight as it were of all holy admonitions moral precepts natural restrictions policies prudential constitutions and councels of the most renowned wise men vertuos men most excellent Law-givers And their own daily experience of the mischiefs and ruines that this sin brings upon those that are guilty of it The remedies whereof being so much predicated and so little practised must needs convince the world of a great deal of practical Atheism and Infidelity But thou that seest this fault in thy self and art grieved at it desiring to be delivered from it and findest it as difficult as to cut off thy right hand or pull out thy right eye follow the prescribed instructions and imitate those prayers and thou shalt reap thy desired grace and quit thy soul and body too of the sin and with it of many more which accompany it and are occasioned by it Because God hath ingaged to be found of them that seek him to help them that have no power nor strength to be with thee in the fire that it shall not burn thee and in the water that it shall not drown thee That thou shalt call upon him in time of trouble and he will deliver thee and thou shalt praise him He will pour water upon him that is thirsty Isa 44.3 He will subdue our iniquities Mic. 7.19 He giveth
power to the faint and to them which have no might he increaseth strength They that wait upon the Lord shall renew thâ—ir strength Isa 40.29 30. The God of Peace shall sanctifie you throughout in spirit soul and body Faithful is he who hath called you who also will do it 1 Thes 5.23 â—4 Sin shall not have dominion over you Rom. 6.14 A new heart will I give you Ezek. 36.26 But it would seem tedious to run through all the sins which humane nature is prone to and to adapt the promises in holy Scripture to particular sins and lusts under which we labour and desire to be eased I therefore pursue it no further the rather because the precedent instances are easily imitated by those who read and meditate in the Scripture which all they do who desire to break off their sins by repentance This Direction I conceive to be necessary viz. That those who come to crave a promise of God do also consider the qualification and in the first place seek that else the promise belongeth not to thee For example if in thy trouble thou prayest that all things may work together for thy good pray also that he would circumcise thy heart and cause thee to love him with all thy heart And pray for this in the first place for the other will follow upon it This is according to God's own direction Seek first the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof all other things shall be thrown in to you And in this manner we are to put in suit all the promises We must look upon the promised blessing as the invitation and incouragement to seek the grace that is the qualification and he who prayes for the grace implicitely and most strongly prayes for the promise annexed And there is no grace but hath a promised reward annexed a cup of cold water given in charity shall not lose its reward or but two mites where little is Then we must believe that no good works shall lose its reward And there is no blessedness promised to any but those who are qualified with this or that grace as may be seen in the 5th of St. Matthews Gospel and in other like places And he that seeks godliness seeks all the promises of this life and that which is to come as incident thereto therefore seek this first For many that have the qualifications of these promises and blessedness are yet in doubt whether they are sufficiently qualified and think that they ought to be better qualified for them and desire to be better qualified as well for their own joy and comfort as also that they may be more excellent and lovely in the eye of their Lord and beloved Saviour And grace wherever it is begets a holy thirst for a greater measure and will still thirst till it enjoy the highest perfection of degrees in glory Therefore they pray chiefly for grace and the improvement of every grace in themselves and others according to that Col. 1.8 9. Since the day we heard of it viz. Their love in the spirit mentioned in the 8th verse we cease not to pray for you and to desire that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding And chap. 4.12 That ye may stand perfect and compleat in all the will of God Phil. 1.11 And be filled with the fruits of righteousness c. And for the Blessings Rewards and Promises which God hath made and limited to those who have these graces and qualifications No man that prayeth for them in the behalf of those that are qualified can doubt of prevailing as when we pray Psal 7.4 Let all those that seek thee rejoyce Psal 40.16 Psal 33.22 Let thy mercy O Lord be upon us according as we hope in thee Psal 25.21 Let integrity and uprightness preserve me for I wait on thee and the like Because we oftener find these blessings and rewards positively asserted to be the portion and peculiar priviledges of those that seek God call upon him love him delight in him trust in him rely upon him have their mind stayed on him hope in him fear him and wait upon him Then we have found them particularly prayed for in the behalf of them who are so qualified Yet we do well to pray for them as well for our selves as for the whole Church of God Now in regard there be many promises free and without any condition on our part it behoves us when we fear that we are not qualified for a promise that we press God with those promises which are free as that I will love them freely Hos 14.4 I will pardon their iniquities I will heal them Hos 14.5 I will pour out my Spirit upon them Joel 2.28 I will put my Laws in their hearts and write them in their inward parts Jer. 31.33 I will be merciful to them and their sins and their iniqnities will I remember no more Jer. 31.34 He will subdue our iniquities and cast our sins into the bottom of the Sea Mich. 7.19 I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake and I will not remember thy sins Isa 43.25 I will put my fear in their hearts Jer. 32.40 A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you Ezek. 36.26 Psal He will teach sinners in the way Isa 32.4 The heart of the rash shall understand Isa 42.7 He shall open the eyes of the blind Isa 44.3 I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground These and many others are promised upon very little or no consideration to be performed on our part As some are for asking seeking coming to God looking up to him If we had the sagacity of the Canaanitish woman we should perceive a door of hope through a little cranny For God will be sometimes prevailed with for a very petty consideration performed from a sincere heart because he knoweth our frailty This David well knew when he prayed Let the liseing up of my hand be as an evening Sacrifice So did the woman that brought two mites to inrich the Treasury And the Thief upon the Cross Also there are promises which are meerly free and grounded upon the privation and want of all consideration on our parts as that Therefore will the Lord wait to be gracious And at other times the Lord will not be prevailed withal but with great intreaty and importunity of prayer and fasting and alms-giving As we read our blessed Saviour told the Disciples in the case of dispossessing unclean spirits And Cornelius also with his prayers used fasting and alms much But sometimes the Lord will not be prevailed with at all as he said to the Prophet Though Noah Daniel and Job should entreat c. Therefore he commands him not to pray for that people and though Moses and Samuel should intercede Jer. 15.1 As it is said in the first chapter of Proverbs Because when I called
denying the Lord and his justice and his holiness all which blasphemies are hereby committed and God summoned to the creatures bar and we condemn him of injustice LORD heal us of these our iniquities and reform our complaints that we may have none but filial complaints to thy self as our Blessed Lord Jesus who said My God my God why hast thou forsaken me And whatever we suffer to say with Jeremy in his expostulation Lord thou art Righteous yet let me reason with thee Why doth the ungodly prosper And in all extremity of afflictions retain this thought of God that he is righteous and good And let our complaints of the instruments of our afflictions be mixed with prayers for them as Stephens were And let us strive to bring up our wills to God's will and to submit all to thee saying as our Saviour did Lord if it be possible let this cup pass from me Nevertheless not my will but thy will be done And that thou mayest remove thy afflicting hand and thy Rod and thy servants sins and punishments may be removed let us first amend our lives and forsake our sins Search and try our waies to find out the sins we lie under For thou hast said If thy people which are in Captivity shall bethink themselves and turn unto thee thou wilt help them but if when thou hearknest thou hearest no man speak righteously or to say what have I done how canst thou repent of the punishment when we repent not of our sins Let us therefore remember from whence we are fallen and let us turne again to the Lord and forsake our wicked waies lest thou sayest to us as to Israel thou sayedst 10 Judg. 10. You have forsaken me go and cry unto the Gods that ye have served And having tried our waies and forsaken our wickedness let us in humble holy fervent prayer lift up our hearts with our hands to our God in the Heavens Saying we have transgressed and rebelled but thou hast pardoned Thus Davi'd Princes took counsel against him but he gave himself to prayer and thus the Marriners in the storm to Jonas awake thou sluggard and call upon the name of thy God And then our God will save us as he did the Israelites in Babylon under Ahasuerus when commissions were out to slay them And his hand is not shortned to us neither hath he forgotten to be gracious to them who confess their sins with their aggravations as the Prophet doth we have transgressed and rebelled And justify God as Ezra Thou hast punished us less then our iniquities have deserved Made upon hearing of a Sermon to the same effect LORD whatever duties I perform unto thee let me do them from the principle of love and not of custom or necessity to silence the natural or awakened conscience since thou acceptest the will more than the gift as thou didst the poor widows two mites and it is this that perfumes our Sacrifices and it is thiâ— that thy word calls the fulfilling the law And all that thou hast required of us is contained in thiâ— as it is writen what doth the Lord require of thee but that thou love the Lord thy God and my Son give me thy heart O Lord God take this poor worthless heart too good for the World and those brutish pleasures which we so willingly give it to and eagerly and earnestly affect but not any way good enough for thee who by thy bounty and beneficence to us every day dost oblige us more than all we have or can doe will requite but the world can do no such things for us and if beauty excellency worth wisdom kindness beneficence parentage free love pardon or any other motive whatsoever would prevail to win and allure us in thee it is I will therefore resolve to devote my affections to thee and ever to begin my meditation in the morning when I awake with the sweet remembrance of thy undeserved kindness to me When we were cast out in our blood in the open field in the day of our nativity when no Eye pitied us to wash us swaddle us salt us bath us and bind us up then thou passedst by and castedst thy eye of love upon us and didst all these things for us and nourishedst us and broughst us up and then the time of love was and thou madest us beautiful and comely in thy own righteousness and marriedst us to thy self and bestowedst upon us thy self And all that is thine And all that are thine And all this didst thou to us as a stranger passing by and unconcerned for what had our perishing been to thee but thou as the good Samartan didst freely pity us nay while we were thy enimies thou didst all this for us shall not all this love move us nor is this all Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive what the Lord hath prepared for them that love him If we consider the particular benefits we have received from the hand of God and how highly we valued them and earnestly sought them before we had them and the great evils we have been deliverd from and how much we feared them and how restless we were in the fear till we were delivered from them we shall admire thy goodness and love thee with admiration And if we consider thy excellency we may love and admire the perfection and beauty of thee and thine infinite wisdome and power in all thy works in the Heavens in the earth and in the ocean in the Sun Moon Stars the Seasons of the year the living creatures and in the smallest of them O Lord since we cannot but see all loveliness excellency and desirableness in thee let our first and last meditations begin and end the the day with thee eager to take the first opportunity of approaching thy throne and as loath to leave the sweet contemplation of thy exelencies and goodness O Lord God almighty thy holy word teacheth us That except we eat thy Sons body and drink his blood we have no life in us And that whoso eateth his flesh and drinketh his blood hath eternal life Joh. 6.53 54. Give us worthily to receive this Sacrament that we may have eternal life Give us to come to it with grace in our heart that our graces may be increased and strengthened as by the food of our souls as the body is by the food of the body which is not betterd by food if it be not living no more can our souls be if we be dead in trespasses and sins and as the body turns the most wholsom nourishment to its hurt to diseases if the stomach be full of ill humours so our souls shall be worse as Judas was for these holy Sacraments if we come not to them prepared with repentance Therefore as the Lord was pleased to wash his Disciples feet before he gave them the Sacrament of his body and blood that they might be clean and fit for
to make him rich So it is said of Jehosaphat that his heart was lifted up in the waies of God This joy and rejoycing in the Lord is enjoyned us as a duty and it proves our sincerity When God is sweet unto us for himself in the want of outward blessings when we can trust God and not see him 't is a sign we trust him in truth when all the providences of God seem to run counter to his promises That fruit is sound that can hang in a windy day T was a proof of Abraham's love to God that he could follow him into a strange place where he had no place to set a foot on This joy as it begets mortification and self-denyal so these begets this joy It is a sure preservative against Apostacy He that can rejoyce in God when he is in adversity will not be removed by adversity the joy of the Lord is our strength and stability Phil. 4.7 The Peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus Coloss 3.15 Let the peace of God rule in your hearts It rules in us if we can rejoyce in a God All-Sufficient Then the Soul saith to all the Devils offers we have enough already according to that saying of the Apostles to our Saviour Lord whether shall we go thou hast the words of Life The reason why Satans offers seems great to Men is because Gods seem little This is a holy disposition of the Soul that doth most glorifie God Therefore 't is said of Abraham that he gave Glory to God he did not stagger through unbelief It may well be called a Treasure as the Apostle saith we have this Treasure in Earthen Vessels and our blessed Saviour speaketh of the Treasure in the Heart for by this we are assured that all things are ours if we are Christs Whereas on the contrary if we are none of his we may think that we are rich and encreased in goods and have need of nothing yet we are in truth wretched miserable poor blind and naked as it is said of the Church of Laodicea Rev. 3.17 and this treasure is Christ formed in us of whose fulness we receive Grace for Grace And 2 Pet. 1.4 we are said to be partakers of the divine Nature because it is in us and our blessed Saviour saith that we are grafted into him and unless we abide in him we cannot bear fruit That is the fruit of the Spirit which is by him derived to his Members as he saith If I live ye shall live also The same are the fruits of Righteousness and fruit unto Holiness and all have the same end viz. everlasting Life Treasure where ever it is is matter of joy If sin and departing from God be an evil as every Man finds early or late when he casts away the bait that beguiled him with anger then Holiness must needs be good and yield joy Though the Children of God are often sad yet every act and working of the Spirit upon the Soul of Man either is matter of joy immediately or mediately the heart that is broken by the Spirits operation finds it self bound up when it hath been broken enough and hath joy Particular instances of the Assertion That the Saints have joy from the assurance of the pardon of their sins is express that the knowledge of our pardon is matter of joy our Lord and Saviours speech to the sick Man proves Be of good comfort thy sins are forgiven thee for by this speech our Saviour did intend to give him more comfort than by restoring to him his bodily health Blessed is the Man whose Iniquities are forgiven the Apostles knew they had this blessedness as it is expressed In whom we have Redemption through his Blood even the forgiveness of our sins David was assured of his pardon by Nathan sent to him upon that very message and as we pray daily Forgive us our Trespasses so we find that David after he knew he was pardoned his sin did so pray likewise for remission and did also believe that they were remitted and rejoyce in it as he expresseth Ps Praise the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his benefits which forgiveth all thy sins c. And all other Servants of God pray for and obtain it in due time Priviledges of Saints Those that are Gods Servants have the Tutelage of the Angels Ps 34. They tarry round about them that fear him They have God God standing by them to save them Ps They have Jesus Christ strengthning them I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me and the Spirit helpeth them The knowledge of our Interest in God and Christ that he is our God and we his people he our Father we his Children he our Shepherd we his Flock that he is our Strength our Rock Castle and Defence Psal 18. he our Beloved we his he our portion and we his portion he our Head we his Members he our Redeemer c. And all those Texts which express his Relation to us or ours to him And what he hath done doth or will do for us must needs comfort us and rejoyce us in all conditions Psal 23. The Lord is my Shepherd therefore I shall not want he maketh me to lye down in green Pastures c. And holy David when the people talked of stoning him he encouraged himself in the Lord. And our blessed Saviour would banish all fear from the hearts of his people by vertue of their Relation Luke 2.32 Fear not little Flock it is the Fathers pleasure to give you a Kingdom And none can deprive us of enjoying our interest in him as the Prophet Habakkuk expresseth it no condition no time nor no place when the Apostles were cast into the Dungeon they sung 1 Thess 5. Rejoyce evermore God would not command it always if it were not possible to be This enjoyment of our interest in God is greater than any other enjoyment and the Soul most desires it Cant. 1. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his Mouth his Love is better than Wine That the Saints have peace of conscience and joy proceeding thereof is proved by that Rom. 5. That being justified towards God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom also we have access through Faith unto this grace wherein we stand and rejoyce under the hope of the Glory of God They are called the peaceable fruits of Righteousness They are said to be found in peace of them that love peace And every Man that hath made tryal of it hath reaped this fruit peace and tranquility and enjoy it in their Souls according to the promise of our Saviour Matth. And ye shall find rest to your Souls and it is the design of the Gospel to give this peace and rest to the Souls of Gods people by assuring them of pardon of sins and Salvation according to that Prayer of David say unto my Soul I am thy Salvation The excellency of the
God 2 Thes 2.12 which is his word we must believe the truth of his threatnings as well as the truth of his promises Jer. 32.19 This belief saved Noah and his family from the destruction of the deluge and this was commanded in him for a worthy act of faith and by this Lot escaped when Sodom was destroyed and his doubting wife made a perpetual monument or spectacle for her infidelity the chief and special object is Christ Act. 16.37 If we must leve Christ then is Christ the principle the cause efficient and final the matter and the forme of that life His example our pattern and his will ours to me to live is Christ is meant in some or in all these senses for faith verifies it in them all He is the end of our conversation because we can desire no more nor can we need any more if we have him he is the matter and forme of it because the natural life is drowned in this and is made spiritual as it is said If we have known Christ in the flesh yet henceforth know we him no more The holy soul doth not injoy its life if it doth not feel Christ living in it by his Spirit quickning its graces it crys O miserable man that I am c. As faith tells the instrument and meanes whereby we attain the greatest good so it is the Armour that defends us from the greatest evils therefore said the Apostle Ephe. 6.16 Above all take the shield of faith whereby ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked Whereby he commends faith above all the spiritual Armour shewing the cause of his commendation from the exceeding virtue of it that it inables them to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked the virtue of it is universal against the worst of evils if it be taken that is if it be used It must be used in the relying act and in the aplying act staying our selves upon the Lord Psal 37.5 Commit our way unto the Lord. The Applying act is when the soul can say his righteousnes is mine to justify me his blood which he shed upon the Cross an attonement for my sins his Spirit mine to quicken me The fiery darts which Satan shoots are first the guilt of sin then afflictions inward and out ward those who were stung by the fiery Serpents could not be cursed unless they looked up to the brazen Serpent Faith sees that the blood which Christ shed for sinners was shed for my sin that he had an eye unto me in his sufferings A 2 Way faith quenches the fiery darts of Satan by seeing that sin is condemned if so then it can have no power to condem the soul A 3 Way is to see afflictions to be a means of grace that they sanctify us and work for us a more exceeding and eternal weight of glory And to see God in the afflictions working for our good and keeping us from the hurt which men intended to us I will be with thee in the fire and in the water that the fire shall not burne thee nor the water hurt thee Isa 43.2 I will keep him secretly from the strife of tongues This made the suffering Martyrs more than conquerors through Christ that loved us and gave his life for us therefore they were wiling to suffer for him and lay down their lives for the testimony of the Gospel to take joyfully the spoiling of their goods and to think all too little for God for whom they suffered it therefore let us set before us our blessed Saviours suffering who endured for us such bitter paines mocking and contradiction of sinners lest we faint in our minds and are weary of the Cross of Christ Let us also set before us the examples of the Prophets Apostles and Martyrs and the examples of our own memory Our late King whose head was anointed with holy oyle yet his Majesty trampled upon with the greatest indignities and when the meanest of his subjects a common Souldier spit in his face used no reproof and he that was Gods vicegerent of the Crown was humbled to be Christs vicegerent of his Cross a rare and wonderful example of suffering patiently the good will and pleasure of God Our imitation of his virtues shall be a lasting monument of his Glory Aere ceu vacuo pendentia Mausolaea Mart. Holy David went far in this as when one abject fellow cursed him and threw durt at him he let him alone saying Who can tell whether God will requite good for his railing And God did not fail him because his faith did not faile though it was tried to the uttermost this faith carried him through all When the people talked of stoning him by this he encouraged himself in the Lord and was not dismaied and if it became the Captain of our salvation to be made perfect by sufferings why should it be thought strange if all that fight under the same banner be made perfect Soulders by the same discipline Oh that we could all follow him not only in drinking of the Cup which he drunk off viz. The bitter Cup of the Cross but also do it with the same charity to our enemies as he had when he prayed Father forgive them for they know not what they do whose steps the Proto Martyr St. Stephen also followed and for his reward he saw the Heavens opened and his Saviour standing at the right hand of God by this we are sure that the same Spirit is in us as was in Christ T was impossible for Job to have undergone so many of Satans fiery darts upon his estate his relations and bodily sufferings but that he believed that his redeemer lived and that he should see him with his eyes at the last day though wormes consumed his flesh And St. Paul having fought the good fight of faith had the like assurance as he testifieth henceforth is layed up for me a Crown of glory this inabled him to undergo the fight with victory and this took away the sting of death so that death it self was not formidable to him nor to the holy Prophets Apostles and Martyrs who willingly underwent it for a good conscience not accepting deliverance Those great temptations which Satan most relieth upon are those of sins guilt accusing the conscience and bloody persecutions though all manner of temptations as the vanities of the world the cares of the world the lusts of the flesh the pride of life are all of them by the arts of our Spiritual adversary so suited and managed according to several complexions that without this grace they are unresistable therefore the Scripture testifieth that this is the victory whereby we overcome the world and if morality could be sufficient to mortify our lusts and good education as some pretend how came it to pass that those moral Philosophers who writ so many things against lust covetousness and other vices were yet themselves overcome of them but through faith in Christ the world is
our minds to make known our requests to him whereby we can call God Father Gal. c. 4 v. 6. because ye are Sons he hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your heart whereby ye call him Father therefore as oft as we find our Souls thus let us wrastle it out with God till we get the blessing and desir'd grace Men that want the Spirit of God have these three dispositions Slavishness Mercenariness and Sensuality They pray out of fear and in doubt of acceptance and when they have their desires their Prayers cease unless they be customary and formal Prayers and they crave but sensual things The Spirit also supplyeth a Christian with holy ends and represseth carnal ends so that in all our requests we seek the glory of God as it is sought in all the petitions in the Lords Prayer in such the largeness of our desires doth not hinder the obtaining of them but furthereth rather for he hath commanded open thy mouth wide and hath promise to fill it The larger the desires the more pleasing to God and the more like to speed for the more of the Spirit is in them There is no colour then why any should neglect this duty upon pretence of having the Spirit for the Apostles and Disciples of our Lord continued in Prayer and breaking of Bread after they had received the spirit for God is to be found met with in those ordinances as he saith he walketh in the midsts of the Golden Candlesticks And the Spirit is to be sought in these for the best of Saints have need of seeking it in a greater measure and for continual supplies and watering every moment which they obtain in and by their communion with God in this duty But the more we have of the Spirit the more we ought to be conversant in this Duty because we are furnished with ability and for not using our Talents they may be taken away and by using they are improved And the more effectual and fervent they will be by this that they are more spiritual Much less may we neglect prayer if we think we have not the Spirit for we pray for it And this circumstance of fasting and watching is sometimes joined with this duty to the end our prayers may be more spiritual I mean a Fast from a meal that none may perceive not a Fast of 40 days nor exchange of Flesh for Fish Fasting doth as much promote it as the contrary doth let and hinder it though possibly we may use the same expression full as fasting yet they who have tryed know the advantage which this gives above that to the fervency and earnestness and the holiness of our desires and prayers and to repentance and sorrow for our sins And our Saviour tells his Disciples of a sort of Devils which could not be cast out but by fasting and prayer And Mark 9. Cornelius thus prayed and thus Daniel Dan. c. 9. both with good success David also humbled himself with fasting for they knew well that words of course as a Sacrifice that costs nothing is nothing worth And unless we thus pray in the Spirit it appears we cannot please God for the prayer cannot otherwise be holy and for such things as are pleasing to God for who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean Although we ought to pray in this manner yet nevertheless ought we not to neglect the duty though we cannot perceive the assistance of the Spirit for God feedeth the young Ravens that call upon him If they can call upon him no man can pretend a disability And David in the 107 Psalm sheweth how people that are plagued for their wickedness because they rebell'd against the Lord and contemned the counsel of the most high v. 11 and 17. Yet crying unto the Lord in their trouble he deliveretd them out of their distress Though these prayers were extorted from them in their extremities when their soul abhorr'd all manner of Meat and they were even at Deaths door And when they were at their wits end and ready to perish through their hunger and thirst and bondage which for their sins they suffered yet in their extremities they cry to God whom they had sinned against and he delivereth them These were not such prayers as are put up by the Spirit for such relief even nature though degenerated can easily pray but the dictates of the Spirit are spiritual yet in regard the heart and lip go together those are prevalent much more if prayed in faith If God heareth such prayers and thou thy self hast obtained thy Requests for these or the like benefits and temporal deliverances thou mayest then be emboldened and encouraged to ask and continue praying for all thou lackest as David expresseth Psal 116. I am well pleased that the Lord hath heard the voice of my prayer therefore will I call upon him as long as I live And if thou hast been heard for things temporal thou needest not to despair or doubt when thou prayest for those things which are pleasing to God which he hath commanded thee to ask and Jesus Christ also hath commended to thee to seek and promised to procure Not but that a Child of God may and must by Faith and by the Spirit ask the things of this life for our blessed Saviour teacheth us to pray for our daily bread he pray'd Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from me yet not my will but thy will be done This submission made that prayer which was natural to be spiritual although he prayed for that which he knew was impossible And since God in his mercy hath given his peculiar people many promises of temporal blessings they may and must ask them in faith in such order as Jesus Christ hath appointed viz. seeking the Kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof first and with modesty and such other circumstances as hereafter is express'd and God will grant our requests as far as is for our good But that which is sure to prevail is the holy appetite that planteth Hungers and Thirsts after righteousness for to that is the promise annexed and blessing too Matth. 5.6 Isa 55.1 Ho every one that thirsteth come ye Isa 44.3 I will pour water upon him that is thirsty The desires of such shall be satisfied though not utter'd with full expressions nor strength of Lungs as Prayers learn'd may be Importunity which our Saviour Christ so much presseth is comprehended under this of praying in the Spirit for he taught nothing but what was spiritual And his practice too proves it to be the operation of the Spirit that makes us importunate in Prayer for when he prayed he was frequently in agonies and prayed most earnestly It reproves those that mind other things when they pray how shall God mind their prayers what he teacheth and urgeth for this is in Luke 18. where he sheweth that for our importunities sake we are hear'd of God and argueth that we ought always
those corruptions of Nature called the old man those infirmities and weaknesses and indispositions to the new nature to grace and to the meanes of grace and for those graces those helpes and occasions and meanes of grace which the Saints and Servants of God under the law have prayed for and God promised to give them As for instance all those petitions of David in the Psalms shewing his own corruptions weaknesses failings sins and infirmities wandrings and strayings from Gods Commandments and praying for the Lords help against them we now under the Gospel if we flatter not our selves as some sects do we all at sometimes shall find by sad experience that we have need to pray so too And those that are most renewed and most conformable to the Image of God those search out most and know there own failings in grace and proneness to sin for it may be said of us All have sinned and are justified freely by his grace for if St. Paul counted not that he had atttained perfection but pressed forward neither may we imagine that those of this age who pretend to it have attained it for in many things we offend all Therefore in as much as those graces are to be in us which they sought and prayed for that they should be in them we also are to imitate their examples of praying for them and the improvement of them and against the contrary viz. the corruptions and sins which we find our natures liable to Every mans condition doth shew him what temptations he is most liable to and what graces he hath most need to pray for Those that will be rich the Apostle saith fall into temptation and a snare and divers noisome lusts they will be rich though therefore have need to pray against those temptations of pride anger disdain oppression contention strife wilfulness covetousness love of the World and all those lusts which accompany a plentiful fortune as gluttony drunkenness effeminateness the love of pleasure c. and that they may escape all those snares whereby the Soul is taken and held captive viz. those advantages which they have of sinning with impunity those helps which their wealth ministers and all the opportunities which wealth makes for them that by the help of Gods holy Spirit they may be able to take off their affections from things below that so they may set them on things above that they affect not mind nor nor converse with these things of the world which they have plentifully to enjoy That notwithstanding their abundance they may have their conversation in Heaven and mind only heavenly things and use the World as if they used it not buy as if they possessed not and be rich in good works and may be able to deny themselves and may be crucified to the World and buried with Christ in Baptism and rise again with him in newness of life that the life which we now live we may no more live it but Christ may live in us and the life which we live we may live by the faith of the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us A special help and incouragement it is to us if we can find out a promise of obtaining these graces which we thus pray for in time of need for having these precepts as here before mentioned it urgeth us to the practice of them as the Apostles profess they practised But the promise puts hope into us of obtaining the like graces if we seek them by Prayer Meditation and other means appointed by God to be used The promise then which we may urge and charge God with in our prayers may be this viz. The Sun shall not burn thee by day nor the Moon by night or that That all things shall work together for good to them that love God For these promises were therefore given to us that we should have boldness at the Throne of Grace The contrary condition of life Poverty hath likewise its temptations Therefore we find the wise Agur praying equally against it and riches shewing the temptations of both and the blessedness of the middle or mean estate Those that experience the extremity of poverty not having a place where to lay their head have many promises of a God alsufficient to trust unto and he will never leave nor forsake his Servants In like manner other conditions of life are accompanied with multiplicity of temptations Therefore the Scripture gives cautions and admonitions to all to warn them and arm them against them young and old Masters and Servants Parents and Children Husbands and Wives Kings and Subjects Priests and People and every mans daily experience tells him what temptations he lies under and his proneness of nature and inclination to them which when the Scripture in particular warns us against and instructs us how to avoid we know that we ought by Prayer to seek assistance and help from God because without his almighty help we are not able to overcome them For instance The Lord commanding to fly youthful lusts If we find our selves by natural inclination liable to those lusts we may as the Apostle St. Paul hath given us an example Beseech the Lord that this Messenger of Satan may depart from us and never cease to beseech him until we obtain an answer like to that which he obtained sufficiency of grace or else removal of the temptation and as often as it recurs we may pray with holy David Psal 119. Hold thou me up and I shall be safe And whilest we do continue praying and caling upon God why may not we be confident in it as the Apostle was That the Lord will deliver us from every evil work since the promise is to all that trust in him That he will stand by them and save them and deliver them Or if by nature we are inclined to covetousness David's prayer will stand us in stead Incline my heart to thy Testimonies and not to covetousness In like sort he fearing to be overtaken with that common sin of lying prayed to God to take from him the way of lying to grant him his Law and to teach him his statutes for he well knew that there was no remedy against sin but grace And the Law of God dwelling in his heart that he might run the way of God's Commandments without halting or looking back If we have been overtaken with this sin this prayer suits for our occasion for by praying to God to take from us the way of lying we intend we have more of it than we ought and so probably he intended or else how could it be taken from him And if we should be so unhappy as to be so overtaken with lust as he was If in the bitterness of our soul and sorrow of a broken heart washing our bed with our tears having no health in our flesh nor rest in our bones because of God's displeasure We pray as he did with humble confession of our sins and vileness to him to wash
to be such then let us be sensible of our dangerous condition we are in or soon may be and we shall seek in time for strength supportation preservation and deliverance from him who hath promised to be with us in trouble and never to leave nor to forsake us And to keep us to guide help and deliver us and bring us to honour And not to suffer our feet to be moved Oh when shall it once be O Lord that thou wilt tread Satan under our feet make us more than conquerour over him We cannot be enough sensible of our spiritual dangers of our immortal souls The frequent admonitions of our blessed Saviour to watchfulness self-denial prayer seeking of God and other means to be used by us that we may be able to stand shew us how difficult a thing it is and God suffereth his servants sometimes to be brought to the highest top of the precipice and then plucks them as brands out of the fire of Hell that they may see their danger for unless they do see and know their danger they will be but cold in prayer and such prayers can never prevail or obtain any promise Quid quisque vitet nun quam homini satis Cautum est in horas Horat. But those who are sensible thereof will be fervent and frequent in prayer to God and they will take Heaven by force If they can by importunity and affiduity they will obtain of God the same answer that the Apostle Paul obtained sufficiency of grace and in their weakness he will perfect his own strength but if they had sufficiency of gifts and parts to conquer temptations they would not know that God doth it nor seek him nor depend on him Let us not imagine that such dangers and difficulties rarely befal the people of God When Jesus Christ tells his Disciples that through many tribulations they must go to Heaven They must be hated of the World That in the World they must have trouble Men shall say all manner of evil of them falsly for his sake and pronounceth a blessing upon such sufferers If we will come after him we must deny our selves and take up our Cross So the Apostle That we have need of patience that when we have done Gods will we may inherit the promise And they of their own experience testifie that they found the truth of his sayings David said Psal 119. My soul is alwaies in mine hand From my youth up thy terrours have I suffered with a troubled mind All the day long have I been afflicted and chastened every morning And the pains of Hell came about me the snares of death overtook me I am troubled above measure Psal 119. If my delight had not been in thy Law it had not failed but I had perished in my troubles My tears have been my meat day and night Shall we then expect to go to Heaven upon any easier terms nay but we must wade thorough with the same staff of comfort Consider what difficulties God's children do find in every good work and what opposition of contrary principles When they would do good evil is present with them What great necessity then have they of this duty Those things which are hurtful to our bodies we can easily leave them but not so the things which are hurtful to our souls though we are mortified as St. Paul was by keeping under our body and renewed in our hearts by the Spirit Be sensible then of these difficulties as the Apostle was and of thy remaining corruptions and thou wilt cry to God with importunity as he did and watch against thy spiritual adversary and thou shalt have cause also with him to glory in God through Jesus Christ Look upon temptations as fire and thy corrupt nature as the gunpowder Also those who by their own experience can affirm that they have called upon the Lord in their trouble and he hath delivered them out of their distress and saved them and delivered them from all their fears and that by him they have been unholden ever since they were born That he hath been to them a present help in trouble That he hath ever stood by them saved them and delivered them Hath never left them nor forsaken them That he hath known their soul in adversity That he hath been their helper That in the multitude of the sorrows of their heart his comforts have refreshed their souls And those whose conscience beareth witness to them of their sincerity and uprightness as Job's did Job 31. ch throughout And know that their Nature is renewed by their quickness in the actions of grace when they are tempted to sin even these are sometimes dismayed and cast down as David expressed it in this saying sc Psal Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled So Job 13. Wherefore hidest thou thy face But if the Lord doth shew the light of his countenance upon them and his presence go with them then they can rely upon the Truth of God's promises in the valley of the shadow of death in the midst of the fiery furnace and in the Lion's den and though he should kill them they will trust in him And they can praise him when he takes away as well as when he gives and pray unto him But our own experience of his Truth and our own purposes vows and resolutionns and watching without his presence his supportation and the light of his countenance will not be sufficient to bear us up in the fiery tryal no more than it did Peter and David and the other Saints therefore he hath promised to be with us in it In the sire he will be with us that it shall not burn us and in the water that it shall not drown us and so he was with Job though he hid his face and seem'd his enemy The spirit of a man can bear his infirmities but a wounded spirit who can bear Psal 42. These considerations teach us how great need and necessity all men have of diligence in this duty consider also whether it be not meet and necessary for the children of God to seek those priviledges which Jesus Christ hath purchased for them by this duty of prayer Because our Blessed Saviour did thus seek his priviledges and birthright as God appointed Psal 2.7 8. Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Ask of me and I will give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession And thus the children of God do ask for and beg their rights and priviledges through the name merit and meditation of Jesus Christ by the Spirits assistance As the Lord taught them to do As in that particular priviledge of putting the Spirit into them promised by God in the new Covenant Christ Jesus commands them to ask it Therefore they ought also to pray that God would tread Satan under their feet That he would deliver them from every evil work that he would keep them night and
the designes and interests which the world in general carrieth on and how vigilant they are and industrious in their own secular interests insomuch that they quite lay aside the design of Jesus Christ and the promotion of Gods Glory of goodness and vertue and every grace Yet there must be a holy seed a peculiar people zealous of good works and a Spiritual Temple and there must be some to carry on the holy interest and designe of Gods glory both by doing and suffering graces and therefore I have resolved to my uttermost ability to promote this and the rather because I see so many carrying on Satans design as if the Devil were let loose Ten Lepers were cleansed They all received equal benefit but one only of ten acknowledged his benefactor and returned him thanks let not the paucity of thy companions discourage thee in thy duty and good resolutions Lord that I may do thee this service the better affect me so with the sense of thy mercys and goodness now and alwaies as I was affected when I first received them For then I admired thy goodness and thought I could never love thee enough and praise thee enough And then I enjoied the sweetness of thy mercys but much more I enjoied the sweetness of thy self for I did enjoy thee as the Lord God alsufficient And as a God hearing prayer and as My God And I enjoied my self as thy Servant And that I may the better do this duty of thankfulness let me remember the affliction and oppression sorrow and grief fear and fearful misgiving of mind that I lay under before the Lord delivered me and let it be evermore before me and affect me with the sense of it else I can never be thankful enough for thy mercy for so thou prescribedst to thy antient people the Jews that when they brought their offerings before thee they should make their recognition and say a Syrian ready to perish was my Father and came down to Aegypt with a few c. And I find holy David praising God in this manner Praised be the Lord who remembered us in our low estate Psal And few there be who may not as fitly as he use this form But if there be any who have not experienced this condition it is to be feared they shall for as great as they are reduced daily He also remembers his fears before God and praiseth him for his deliverance from them all And there is no man so valiant but sometimes his fears make him at his wits ends therefore all man-kind may use this form too And for deliverance from troubles we may all praise God as we find him doing Psal 34. He further praiseth God for deliverance from afflictions from breaking his bones ibid. We also may remember the time when we have narrowly scaped the like danger Therefore we must acknowledge it thankfully to Gods gracious preservation He praiseth God also for raising him up from his sickness This occasion of praise we all have had He praiseth him for delivering him from his enemies and all that will live Godly must have enemies as he had and shall have occasion to praise God for delivering them from them He that is born after the flesh will persecute him that is born after the Spirit but shall not prevail against him For if he should prevail how then were it better that a Milstone were hanged about his neck and he were cast into the Sea then that he should offend them that are such And all those that belong to God may say with him By this I know that thou favourest me because mine enemie doth not prevail against me for the Lord will not leave them in the hand of their enemies though they persecute them and wrong them in word and deed and despitefully use them and say all manner of evil of them falsely He only that is little in his own eyes can be thankful to God Therefore David assaying to give God praise for his mercies first strips himself of all pretence of merit saying What am I and what is my Fathers house And the blessed Virgin in her magnificat ascribes lowness to her self whom God exalted so highly He only can bless God for afflictions who is sensible of his straying inclination And Gods restraining goodness The troubles of the righteous are many but the Lord delivers them out of all Therefore their thanks and praises of God must not be few I will shew forth all his praises saith he in the Psalms And I will alwaies give thanks unto the Lord his praise shall ever be in my mouth Psal 34. He shews the cause In the multitude of the sorrows that I had in my heart thy comforts have refreshed my soul If we are sensible that God hath heard our prayers we must remember too that he hath heard our vows It is but a reasonable imposition of a never-failing Benefactor I will deliver thee and thou shalt praise me Psal For we receive our wages before we perform our service And what doth it avail the Lord and what doth accrew to him whether we are delivered or whether we perish in our affliction our praises is all that redounds to him the benefit to us This duty is so delightful and satisfying in the very act of performance that it is a reward to it self Psal 63. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and satness when my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips Thus he sings sweetly in the ears of God of Angels and of good men and in his own ears too or else how was he so fully satisfied whilst he performed it And why else did he so often perform it with such studied variety Certainly it doth much delight a man to recount how much God hath favoured him helped and heard him The Royal Prophet doth not only recount his own troubles and sorrows and perils and travels that he had gone through from his youth up but he recounts also the National mercies what God wrought for them when he brought them out of Aegypt and downward to his own time Also he admires God's goodness to all sorts of men in affliction as at large may be seen in the 107 Psal as particularly to men driven from their own place and Country into strange Lands wandering without succour To prisoners cast into dungeons because of their sin To sick men and to seafaring men when they reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man and are at their wits end then they cry unto the Lord and he delivers them Lord How Good How Gracious art thou When our condition is so desperate that we know not what to do which way to turn us And know no way to escape no more than he that flies from a Lion and is torn in pieces by a Bear When we see that we cannot be delivered without God will please to work a miracle When we seem to our selves irrecoverable like the dried Bones in the Valleys in Ezekiel's Prophecy
or like a dead Tree withered and plucked up In this forelorn and hopeless condition when no man regards our perishing we come to God for help and he in whose only power it is to help doth help us and deliver us and makes the dry bones live and we have seen the salvation of the Lord and the wonders that he doth for the Sons of men and have been transported with joy as the Israelites when they came out of Babylon were I acknowledge that there be some who come in no misfortune nor are plagued like other men But all those whom Christ Jesus hath chosen to be his souldiers he trains up in this discipline But if it were so that I had not gone thorow such perils such afflictions and such troubles as I see and hear to befall other men Have I not much more cause to praise God for keeping me in health than for raising me up again being fallen sick from keeping me from the perils which befall other men than for delivering me if I had been in danger and for keeping me from troubles wherein others are plunged If I consider the calamities of men far greater than my self As for instance of him who is more worth than thousands of us our Soveraign Lord the King Can I chuse but bless God that my distresses afflictions and perils of life have not been so many and great as his But how great and good above me was he that was after God's own heart What pains perils and troubles did he not go thorow first in his person his reins chastened him in the night he had no soundness in his bones then from his superiours Saul persecuting him as long as he lived from his inferiours his servant curseth him to his face from unkind neighbours as Doeg the Edomite from his Relations his wife scoffing him his Son rebelling and another commits a rape on his Sister c. Besides the temporal mercies he also tells us what God hath done for his soul too as Psal 103. and blesseth God for forgiving all his sin c. ib. For this we can never praise God enough Meditations and Ejaculations Go about Duties not as labours but thy only enjoyments Delight thy self in the Lord and expect the Reward LORD since thou hast promised thy holy Spirit to them who ask it of thee I beseech thee give it to me for without it I cannot serve thee nor walk in obedience to thy holy Commandments for by reading and hearing thy Word I can only know my duty I cannot retain my holy resolutions which are stirred up in the duties one hour Therefore do thou create in me a new heart and a new nature Regenerate me by thy Spirit and the immortal seed and write thy Law in my heart and give me thy holy Spirit the Almighty Helper the Comforter and hold thou me up and I shall be safe Make me willing to undergo conflicts with sin for hereby I shall have comfort in the hour of death and the day of trouble O give me peace of conscience the comforts of a well-spent life that I may be able to say with Hezekiah Lord remember how I have walked before thee in all simplicity when the day of death comes Make me wise to consider alwaies my latter end and what thoughts I shall have then of the world and all its comforts let this restrain me from giving up my self to them else I shall be a fool in my latter end as the wicked are and cry out that the world hath deceived them their consciences being then awakened which in their lime-time they stifled and then the Hypocrites have no hope Therefore Lord give me grace and prudence to make provision against that time that the sting of death may be taken out Let me believe the terrours threatned against the wicked that I may never come to feel them Let me find Christ my Advocate when death comes upon me And that I may not die in my sin make me by thy grace continually to die to sin Deliver me from every evil work and preserve my body and soul blameless unto the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Lord above all things give me to fear sin and the transgression of thy Law who art the great Soveraign of the world its Creator and Preserver to whom we owe both our persons and obedience and if the Gentiles do by nature the things contained in the Law much more let me who have as well the written Law and the Gospel as the Law of Nature do the things contained in the Law else how shall I escape thy wrath But having tryed our obedience thou hast found us all rebels and in thy justice mayest damn us all if thy mercy in Christ Jesus do not save us Since Jesus Christ our Saviour was made under a Law and the glorious Angels fulfil thy commandments and hearken to the voice of thy word and man hath no such perfection as his Saviour or the Angels but our wisdom and our perfection is in obedience to the Law Inable us to keep it for herein God hath shewed us what is good Micah 6.8 Every child of God is as a souldier keeping a garrison in an enemies Country Therefore Lord as I put on my apparel let me remember to put on the Armour of light and to watch and be provided to fight thy battels let me not be destitute of any piece of this Armour but give me all Christian vertues I am naked naturally and without this Armour but unless I have it of thy gift I cannot put it on but must perish by my nakedness for I cannot have any truse from my spiritual adversary who watches to destroy us And give me the skill of an expert warriour to use these Armes against the Devil the World and the flesh inable me to put off all sins which hinder the planting and growth of grace in our hearts for we cannot serve God and mammon let me depart from evil that I may do good Let me feel the power of Christ's death that I may partake of his resurrection Let the sense of my forepast sins make me the more diligent in thy service Since my darkness is passed let me put off the works of darkness Let me not delay considering my danger and the shortness and uncertainty of life and the greatness of the reward if I do thy service For to him that is faithful in much thou wilt give much ten Cities for improving his five talents to that number That I may fear sin and not make light of it or a mock of it as fools are said to do let me consider the great evil of it That it is the foolishness and brutishness of a man the darkness and nakedness the blindness and sottishness and death of the soul which makes us said to be dead in trespasses and sins and that the effects of sin are the worst of evils That it makes us like to the Devils That one sin makes us
prone to all other sins As David's adultery made way for murther As the Heathen who liked not to retain God in their thoughts God gave them up to all uncleanness So it hardens the heart against repentance and blinds the mind that it cannot understand good from evil And finally that it loseth God's favour and all things that are worth desiring and makes us liable to endure all evils that are worthy to be feared and let these considerations work in me an antipathy to it And on the contrary that I may apprehend the excellency of holiness and the fear of the Lord which is the best of good things as sin is the worst of evils and as sin is the greatest folly and stupidity so holiness contrariwise is the greatest wisdom and to fear God and do thereafter is good understanding That the righteous is more excellent than his neighbour and they that are precious in God's eyes are honourable that it makes us like the Saints and like to Christ and like God to be perfect as God is perfect to be holy as he is holy That it is our security and ingages God to be a Sun of perpetual comfort and a shield of defence to us That if we do good none will harm us But to the wicked there is no peace And that it gains God's favour and all those things that are worth desiring in this life And eternally Lord Let these considerations work in me a hunger and thirst after grace O give me to apprehend the terrour of the Lord that I may fear him accordingly to consider that thou gavest the Law with thunder and lightning that those that despised Moses Law died without mercy that I may fear to offend against the Gospel and the blood of Jesus Christ counting it unholy as all that are not sanctified by it do Let me apprehend the strictness of thy precept Thou hast commanded that we keep thy precepts diligently That we have covenanted in Baptism to do it and upon our repentance likewise and renewing of cur Covenant with thee and every thought of our hearts is under this Law Therefore that I may walk accordingly let me be diligent in all God's Ordinances which are both food and physick to the soul Let me use frequent prayer which will surely make me weary of sinning if sin doth not make me weary of praying And give me unweariedness and constancy in the duty of reading searching and meditating in the Scriptures Let me hide thy Word in my heart that I might not sin against thee Let the Word convey the Spirit into me since it is received by the hearing of faith and not by the works of the Law and let me often renew my Covenant with thee in the blood of Jesus Christ LORD since thou promisest a reward to him who overcomes Let me have grace to fight thy battels and let me not expect the reward till I have done thy service let me contemn the labour and the allurements that would divert me while I look upon the incouragement Though Satan offereth present rewards for sin and puts an edge upon the temptations and makes them suit my temper either in the things of the world or the flesh and my heart is ready to betray me within and my reason is ready to follow my appetite yet let my jealousy over my heart and my constant watchfulness prevail against them all through Christ Jesus by whom only we can overcome so powerful an adversary as Satan is who is unwearied in his temptations For we wrestle not against flesh and blood nor by flesh and blood but by Faith in Christ upon whom we rely for the victory Therefore give us the shield of faith Faith reflecting upon the glory to come and the love of Christ past who left Heaven for us that we might leave earth for him And let us know that we fight Christs battels an that he is our Captain and will succour his that are tempted and we shall be able to do all things through him that strengthens us when we call upon him And fighting thy battels and overcoming thy enemies give me the promised reward of blessedness the white stone the sentence of absolution from the guilt of sin and the seal of thy favour to my soul whereby I shall taste the joys of Heaven which the men of the world apprehend not THAT I may fear to sin let me weigh seriously the seeming pleasure and profit it offers with its losses it brings What profit have carnal pleasures satisfying the senses and the pleasing of the fancy the vain breath of mans applause unless I view Heaven and happiness as fables how can I neglect them for these base things or Satan and my own lusts beguiles me and deceive me for if I were indifferent in my Judgment I must needs contemne these poor bates as Solomon did after he had made tryal of them O Lord inlighten my understanding and rectify my Judgment and my depraved will and affections that I may not be cheated nor be willing to be deceived that I may not buy pleasure at so dear a rate being a lover of it more than of God who is blessed for ever let me not set so light by God and blessedness and Heaven and my true eternal interest teach me to fear the loss of my soul and the favour of God and the peace of conscience all which either early or late the sinner finds he loseth Give me that spiritual eye salve whereby I may discern the vizard and sucus of sin Teach me to consider all the seeming gainers by sin youthful persons who are in the strength and vigor of their age who make the most and the best of their pleasure of whose merry meetings the wise man hath said Their laughter is madness And the sins of their youth are the sorrows of their age when they cry out with Job Remember not the sins of my youth and thou makest me possess the sins of my youth or what gaine can the great ones of the earth boast of though they drink a greater draught of pleasures than other men who the more they seem to gain the more they lose they lose the peace of conscience and the favour of God and his blessings but if any gaine it is those who after sining are saved by repentance But these all their life after do complain of nothing but there sins and with great difficulty do recover their peace with God and their conscience for what likelihood is there that that should prove profitable to any that God doth forbid or would God gaine any profit by it if it were my loss to forbear it the Lord doth not envy us he that can afford us Heaven would he grudge us the pleasure of sin which the Devel will allow us can this be good for us that is against God is that like to be a mans good which deprives a man of internal peace and injoiment of himself and which every man either in
present or afterwards doth speak against can that be gainful to a man that loseth his souls eternal salvation If the ship be drowned in the ocean all that is in it is drowned What gain can that be that is so short that in the next moment we must say it was and is not and for that we have lost eternal happiness Or had I lived the daies of Methusalem and all my daies had been daies of pleasure and this were my last day what would remain of profit of it all or what joy or satisfaction or comfort to beare me up against the fear of death would not a little tidings of death and Judgment confound me in the midst of my pomp and jovialty as it did Nebuchadnezzer Do not the wickedest when they sin think to repent of it and would they so if it were there gaine and commodity or if I should get by sin would not that gaine be loss should I not throw away riches gotten by unjustice upon my unfeigned repentance did not Judas throw away his 30 pieces what man in all the world either that repented or that repented not ever gained by sin What gained Adam or Cain the old world Jerusalem Sodom Sampson Lot David or Peter but besides that it costs the penitent sinner what hath it cost Christ therefore as thou hast made us reasonable men O Lord let us make choice of that that will make us happy thy favour and let us not sell it and all our happiness as it were for a mess of pottage If sinners think nothing too dear for sin let me think nothing too dear for Heaven When sinners cast away their souls for a lust and yet say that we lose our labour for Heaven how incompetent Judges are they but of holiness what fruit have we not what is it not profitable for either in this life or that which is to come it confers all that sin would strip us of That I may fear to sin Let me consider that our God is a consuming fire though he be ours so that we are his people yet our priviledges must not exempt us from this fear for thou hast commanded us to abstain from sin for this cause and all thy people Whoever sinned found thee a consuming fire to punish them as did David When he cried out My flesh trembleth for fear of thee and I am afraid of thy Judgments The Lords judgments were grievious upon him murther and rape committed in his house his Son drave him from his Throne so Eli felt this also when his Sons were vile and he lightly reproved them and Job when he felt one spark of this fire cryed out My soul chuseth strangling rather than life Therefore let all thy people consider the terrour of the Lord and remember that thou art a consuming fire and let them walk in the fear of the Lord and the comforts of the Holy Ghost And as they call on the Father who without respect of persons judgeth every man according to his works so let them pass the time of their so journing here in fear remembring that our blessed Saviour could not escape this fire when he undertook the work of satisfaction for sinners but cryed out under it My God my God why hast thou forsaken men And in respect of our proneness to sin against God let us keep our selves with this as with a bridle and curb and to keep up our vigilancy for religious duties working out our salvation with fear and trembling considering what it is to fall into the hands of the Lord Knowing that it is not a sinful servile fear which is to fear the smart more than the offending of God for this hath an enmity joyned with it for whom we fear with servile fear we hate but this filial fear proceeds from love and the tender sense of God's displeasure against sin And though we could say with the Apostle Paul that we know we have a house in Heaven yet was he still keeping under his body for fear of sinning For the Righteous shall be recompenced on earth and where shall the ungodly and sinner appear To these the Lord shall come in flaming fire rendring vengeance to them that know not God and to them that obey not the Gospel He will wound the head of his enemies He that believeth not shall be damned His wrath shall be poured out like fire The indignation of the Lord shall consume his adversaries The damned spirits and fallen Angels are under this fire But thou hast given thy Son Christ to be a Saviour to save thy people from it O Lord save us through our dear Saviour's merits from this worm that never dies and fire that never goes out and let thy people fear not those who can hurt the body only but those who can hurt both soul and body and cast both into Hell fire Lord thou hast pronounced them cursed who do thy work negligently yet how negligent am I in all religious duties and my heart goes sometimes after covetousness and sometimes after vanities O give me thy grace that I may serve thee with a perfect heart That I may seek thee with my whole heart Let me not think to divide my heart to God and Mammon because it is thine all and thou wilt have all or none because thou madest it and Christ hath bought it Let me not be weary of these duties but be willing to labour in them and wear out my body in them and strive with zeal wrestling with the Lord for a blessing since I have experience that thou art a God hearing prayer and hast not stopped thine ear to mine O Lord God I am not holy but thou hast promised we shall be all holy and required that we should be holy as thou art holy how infinitely short doth the best of men come of this pattern The Apostle Paul confesses he was carnal sold under sin and that he had not attained but pressed forward that he might attain Lord give us with him to see our sinfulness that we may in like manner as he was be stirred up to strive after holiness and fulfil thy promise That we shall all be holy Lord inlighten my understanding that I may see what a shameful thing sin is that the very brute beasts do not so brutishly as sinners For the Oxe and Ass who know their owners reprove them who refuse to acknowledge thee to be their Lord and all others do more rationally without any reason than man who hath understanding yet casts off all understanding and is not ashamed of sin For it is a shame to speak of the things that are done of them yet are they not ashamed when they commit them O let me consider how naked a sinner renders himself to the view of the world and when God himself shall put him to shame as it is written As thou hast put the Son of God to open shame so God shall put thee to shame And when it shall be their everlasting
shameful flight If thou assist us not in our callings our labouurs are but in vain except the Lord keep the City the Watch-man watcheth in vain In vain we rise early and go late to bed except the Lord give us his blessing Therefore will we seek the Lord and his blessing upon our Labours And though we find no worth in our prayers for which the Lord should hear them or reward them but punish us for them yet nevertheless it is his command that we should offer up our weak services to him and he hath promised to hear us for the things we ask for in his Sons name and in obedience to that command And in the faith we give to his promise we seek to him to assist us and to let his presence go with us For the Lord hath shewed us by frequent experiences That those who have most means do not seldom miss their purpose or if they by Gods blessing do attchieve their purposes yet it is frequently without the use of those means by some accident that it might be seen to be of God and not of man and our unbelief be convinced Praise the Lord O my Soul who hath often brought to pass my desires without any considerable means by me used And all that is within me praise his holy name because he hath accepted my two Mites my worthless Prayers for his mercy endureth for ever Meditation When I am tempted to any sin let me consider how I have loathed my self heretofore when I have been overcome by any lust or sensual pleasure If I have at any time yielded to the pleasures of any of my senses which is all that the world can offer though it hath been but to a very small degree as to drink one glass more than the necessity of nature or a competent refreshing required for though it makes not drunkenness yet it sets the mind too much at liberty from that strictness and watchfulness that mortification and crucifying the flesh and self-denial that the Scripture requires or if I give way to a lustful thought or glance or action whereby my mind is carried to effeminate meditations from the more serious and virtuous considerations which an honest mind should meditate how do I seem sordid to my self and degraded from my pristine excellency And though the person whose beauty excellency and perfections drew me aside thereto be incomparable yet when I consider the baseness of the last acts of lust and fruition to which all this tends and serves how poorly do I think of all those allurements of beauty and parts carriage wit and other excellencies since they are the motives and incentives to concupiscence And I no sooner perceive that I have yeilded too much to any temptation of lust or covetousness or any other whatsoever but I presently perceive that my honour is gone from me or if I know of any other who hath yeilded to any temptation I think the same of them All these arguments and reasons are not sufficient to restrain from relapsing into the very same offences and sensualities for sense with one glance of the eye captivates the affections in a moment whereas reason and strength of Argument prevails only upon deliberation so that I cannot expect to stand by my own strength unless thou Lord holdest me up I shall fall one day by these my spiritual enemies And it is by thy power only that we are kept from the evil of the World Therefore as the eyes of a Servant are to the hands of his Master so shall my eyes be to thee And I will continually pray unto thee for supportation and strength since thy strength is perfected in our weakness why then should my weakness discourage me and for grace and faith in thy promises since grace alone is sufficient for us and faith alone is the victory whereby we may overcome the World that by faith I may look upon the infinite joyes of Heaven and contemn the vain and base joyes of this life or else be terrified with the horrid torments thou hast threatned to the disobedient and fear to do evil LET me think it greater pleasure to resist lust or any sensuality than to yield to it for if I resist I satisfy and delight my reason which delights in manly noble resolute actions and in eschewing the contrary viz. Effeminate sensual pleasures which the mind doth oppose and disdain as brutish and below it for how is it possible that the mind should be satisfied contented or delighted with the objects and delights of the senses any more then the senses can enjoy or take delight in the objects of the mind or intellect since the senses are of the Brutish nature of the meanest creature and the mind and understanding is of the divine nature of the Creator and since the Saints are said to be made partakers of the Divine nature let us endeavour to partake of the Divine nature by holiness of life And if we have received Christ in his teaching and in his Sacrament of his supper to walk in him that our life may grow out of the death of Christ Not to be unprofitable Servants as Israel was said to be an empty vine but let us be ever sowing the fruits of righteousness that we may reap accordingly and be studious to know the things which belong to our peace before they be hid from our eys and to do them too lest thou remove our light from us remembring that if we be like the dry and unprofitable chaff we shall be burned with unquenchable fire But the Gospel bringeth forth fruit in all the World Colos 6.1 LORD if thou dost but seem to have forsaken me so that when I think of thee I dont perceive comfort but fear though I have all the outward comforts and all the pleasures which the World can afford I am in horror in the midst of my pleasures I will therefore walk in the waies of righteousness for her waies are waies of peace and all her pathes pleasantness and this will bring a man peace at the last Blessed are they that do righteousness alwaies they walk with thee and have sweet communion with thee and thou wilt come in and sup with them and abide with them then hath their soul fulness of joy but I fear I grieve thy holy Spirit continually in this that I am carnal and do not live by faith above the World Lord that I could live as those whose conversation is in Heaven whose treasure is there and they are always adding to this treasure who are spiritually wise whose hearts are fixed upon thee and go not astray as the Israelites did in the wilderness forgetting God their Saviour who had done wonders for them but they thought not of his hand nor remembered what wonders he had wrought for them but lust came upon them in the desert wherefore the Lord thought to have destroyed them had not Moses stood in the gap to turn away his wrath If we in
in the deluge As thou art the God of our strength and therefore we need not to go mourning through fear of the enemy so art thou our exceeding joy whereby we are holily transproted to rejoyce in thee in singing thy praises Psal 43. Praise the Lord O my soul and all that is within me Praise his holy name Psal 103 As thou art gracious and merciful patient slow to anger ready to forgive the sins of thy people for thy names sake so art thou also righteous in all thy waies and holy in thy works If a man will not turne thou wilt whet thy sword and bend thy bow thou wilt bring upon such all the curses written in thy book till thou hast destroyed them for so thou hast done to thine own people the Jews who would not believe thy threatnings to be warned thereby Thou who shewedst mercy to Niniveh repenting after the judgment pronounced and to Ahab going mournefully when he heard the judgment threatned against his house which shews that thy threatnings are conditional viz. if we turn not thou likewise laidest thy hand so heavy upon thy Servant David day and night that his moisture was like the drought in summer The light of his eyes was gone from him he was almost consumed by means of thy heavy hand he had no health in his bones nor no soundness in his flesh his teares was his meat day and night All the day long was he punished and chastened every morning because his iniquities were gone over his head these and many more as Eli Lot and Noah are set out in the word for examples of the truth of thy threatnings against sin though repented of Give me therefore thy grace that I may watch against sin and all temptations and occasions thereof and against the least degrees and beginnings of sin and all appearance of evil with prayer that I entter not into temptation and the Lord support me and hold me up that I fall not in temptations And when I pray unto thee in the name of Jesus Christ my Saviour for pardon for my manifold sins O Lord remember that thou hast declared thy self to be the Lord gracious and merciful slow to anger that forgivest the iniquities of thy people for thy name sake and let thy mercy be magnified by the greatness of my sins my sins are more in number than the hairs of my head But thy mercys as infinit thy thoughts are not like our thoughts For as far as the Heaven is above the earth so far are thy thoughts above our thoughts And let the greatness of my Redeemers merits be magnified by the greatness of my unworthiness He is mighty to save And though our sins be as scarlet he can make us white as snow by his blood which he hath shed for us for if he be Lord of all and the World was made by him then was he able also to reedeem all the World that come unto God by him for redemption do thou but assure me that the least drop of his blood the least sigh of his heart or the least degree of his humiliation was for my sins or had respect unto me among the rest and I do undoubtedly believe they are fully pardoned and I am saved from all the curse that is due unto them Lord since thou hast imputed to him my sins for it is said that he hath born the Iniquities of us all it is but just with thee that I should be acquitted and have his rightoeusness imputed to me else why did he suffer LET us then be made the righteousness of God in him since he was for that end and purpose made sin for us since thou hast given him for a covenant to the people give us also to find in our selves that we have him and with him all those promises of grace that belong to this covenant which in him are verified and fulfilled With him therefore give us thy Spirit in our hearts to cause us to walk in thy statutes to know and do thy judgements cause us to love thee with all our hearts to delight in thee and to fear thee to run and not be weary and to be holy in all our common things c. Of Afflictions Let him deny himself and take up his Cross are the first and second step to happiness therefore that we may not be so effiminately fearful to touch the Cross as we are nor be so longing and licorish to gratify our selves in whatsoever our heart desires is this meditation Afflictions are Christs School whereby he teacheth his followers in the discipline of holiness as he is said to have learned obedience by the things he suffered so he prescribes a suffering condition to his and they who are not partakers of his sufferings but are without chastisement are said to be bastards and not sons of their heavenly father so it concerns us to expect them and not beds of Roses oiled paths or the pleasures of the sences and that we make a sanctified use of them for those holy ends and purposes for which they are sent whether it be for our conversion from the state of nature and unbelief by true and unfeigned repentance or to renew our repentance after some fall to awaken us out of security or to improve our patience or holiness humility or any or all our graces and so to purify us to himself for as soon as they have attained their end he removeth them from us for he doth not afflict nor grieve willingly the sons of men to help me to make a sanctified use of them are these meditations Fides Fructifica 1 James 4. Let patience have her perfect work Meditation LORD teach us with thy blessed Apostles Paul and Silas to sing Psalmes in the midest of the Dungeon and with the three children when the furnace is made three times hotter than at other times And that we may have perfect patience make us sensible that the hand of God is upon us for our sins deservedly as the thief upon the cross was If we have no success either in our spiritual or Worldly affaires let us believe that it is the hand of God for our sins That we have not made better use of the afflictions which God hath laid upon us to purge us of some sin and do not search out the causes thereof and try our waies it is our sin for his hand is streched out still for if we know that God chastens and scourges every Son whom he loveth we may then understand that with one judgment God punisheth us for the sins passed and delivereth us thereby from sin and destruction for the time to come As when his Servant David had sinned by numbering the people God sent the Prophet to him to declare his will to punish him with one of those three evils he cried I have sinned so that whereever sin is there God detests and punisheth The righteous shall not go unpunished But the Sons of Ely when their Father reproved
let me be strong and of good cheer and undaunted incouraging my self in the Lord let me not be so cowardly and fearful and base spirited as to lye down under afflictions Let me remember thy loving kindnesses of old that I may encourage my self with them Thou hast delivered me therefore let me trust that thou wilt still deliver me and therefore let me bless thy name when thou shalt take away from me remembring how freely thou gavest it to me LET the righteous be bold as a Lyon and daunt their enemies so that they may never rise up against them any more SINCE thou hast often given me clear and undoubted evidence of my Title to eternal life and hast shewed me that the way by which I must pass thither is through many tribulations make me willing to take the means with the end and to go to Heaven by that way as thou hast appointed to all Saints How can I imagin that thou hast exempted thy Servants from affliction when thou hast said the contrary and that Judgment must begin at the house of God and that through many tribulations they must enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and I know by my own experience that it is good and beneficial to my soul that it should be so Therefore I do not only submit to them but chuse them as Moses did I chuse rather that Satan should prevail against me to impair my estate or to cast me into prison if thou wilt have it so as thou hast foretold thy Saints that some of them shall be Revel 2. For their probation That thereby I may be restrained from sin and made to walk humbly with my God and closely than that thou shouldst suffer me to fall into any sin that should wound my conscience ever after LORD If in our affliction we stand to thee we know thou wilt not leave us But will stand the by us and save us and break all the snares of ungodly to pieces therefore fear not worm Jacob. LORD cause the uncessant lies and slanders with which the world afflicts thy people that they serve to make their vertues more conspicuous because thy promise is to make their righteousness as clear as the light and their just dealing as the noon day therefore do thou assert their righteousness though for a while their enemies Eclipse them yet let their bright shining break out like the Sun out of a Cloud and dazel the eyes of their enemies and remember too thy promises to root out those false tongues which slander them and to stop the mouths of those that speak lies and since it is vileness that vilifies goodness and baseness debaseth honour let us contemne them and let us look to the weight of glory which they work for us The Soliloquy O my soul that thou couldst in this thy day see the things that belong to thy peace that thou couldst have grace to lay hold on this season of Prayer the time of thy affliction seasonable both to thee to Pray and to God to hear and to implore his mercy with strong crys and tears and give him no rest with thy Prayers who gives thee no rest with his Chastisments as his hand is heavy upon thee day and night so let thine eyes be ever looking unto him from whom thy salvation must come and let thy hands be ever lifted up to him and always be mindful of his promise and word wherein he hath caused thee to put their trust Saying call upon me in the time of trouble and I will deliver thee Let it be thy comfort in thy trouble to quicken thee in thy faintings that thy hope may not faile nor thy patience tire nor thy Prayers cease nor the holy fire of Zeal upon the Altar of thy heart go out That fire that came down from Heaven Divine love to him that made thee and redeemed thee and to his servants and all that bear his Image Let thy affections be set on things above and wait thou still on the Lord hold fast on him stay thy self on him though with Jonah thou shouldst be cast into the Sea or with the 3 children into the fiery furnace for his hand is not shortned that it cannot save now say Lord look upon my assliction and misery and forgive me all my sins Lord pitty and pardon and heal our souls let not thy wrath wax hot against the people of thine inheritance whom thou hast redeemed Let not thy jealousy burn like fire for ever Lord remember thy loving kindness of old wherefore hast thou made all men for naught Lord all thy waves and storms are gone over me yet is my soul resolved not to go back from thee nor to behave her self frowardly in thy covenant nor to charge God foolishly still I will learn obedience by the things which I suffer still will I make my Prayer unto God and cease not but increase them and still will I make my confession before him still will I believe that my Redeemer liveth and that I shall see him with these eyes though wormes consume my flesh for I shall utterly faint unless I can still believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living and unless I can with patience tarry the Lords leisure and still put my trust in the Lord although he should seem to make me as his enemy still will I bless God though he should take away all my comforts for I can enjoy none in the want of health or inward grief of Soul Though my troubles and griefs are never so many I have Gods word that he will deliver my soul out of all and he hath delivered me and therefore will deliver me afflictions shall not always rest upon the back of the righteous in measure he will debate with them the end of the righteous is peace Bless the Lord O my Soul if he hath spared thee nothing but thy life and confess it to be his mercy that thou art not consumed and that it is because his compassion fails not And though he visit thy iniquity with rods and thy sin with scourges yet it is his Fatherly mercy that he doth not utterly take his loving kindness from thee That he thus bringeth thee to the sight of thy sins and restraines thee from others Meditations on several Scriptures of Zeal Rom. 10.2 They have a Zeal of God but not according to knowledg Med. LORD Teach me to bound and moderate all my affections and duties which I perform to thee according to the rules which thy word hath laid down lest I mis-serve thee as the Jewes did and Saul before he was converted and instead of a reward procure a punishment Teach me to labour first to know thy will then to do it and not to overdo it as Peter who would not have his feet only washed but his head also Let knowledg proportion my Zeal to thy will This teacheth me in repenting for my sins not to sorrow above measure and so
Impressions upon the soul 1. A child-like ingenuity in the service of God when a man obeys God not out of the impulses of a natural conscience but from love 2. The heart is borne out by the incouragements of another world 3. Every occurrence makes us go to God 4. Impress It makes us ready and willing to suffer and undergo joyfully any loss or pain or reproach for God not accounting our lives or any thing else dear if we may serve God with it as the blessed Martyr suffered were assured that Christ had suffered for them for them purchased a Kingdom it makes us willing to forsake the world knowing that we have a dwelling place in Heaven It makes the soul humble heavenly contented patient Holy peaceable charitable pure and unspotted of the world For their great and chief desire is to know thier duty and the good will and pleasure of the Lord that they may yield their ready and cheerful obedience to it and may be able to do it when the soul is thus disposed every condition of life is sweetened to it by the Spirit of Adoption because it looks upon all things that befal it as coming from its heavenly Father in love And desires and endeavours that all things may be to him and to his glory And when the soul is thus disposed and finds it self inabled by the Spirit to do and suffer freely willingly and readily all the good will and pleasure of God and to submit all things to God and feels such filial affection to God such love such patience humility and other workings and impresses of the Spirit in it It hath the Testimony of the Spirit upon it that it is the child of God because these dispositions and impressions are wrought in it by the Spirit and now it can lay title to every priviledge of blessedness And the sense and apprehension of God's great love to us in the redemption of mankind and of our own redemption in particular and the sense of the love of Christ Jesus to us in our redemption and the knowledge of our particular interest in it That all his sufferings had respect to me in particular and my title thereby to all priviledges is wrought by the holy Spirit and is testified to us by the holy Spirit and from thence ariseth our love to God and to Christ by the operation of the Spirit as David expresseth in the 18th Psalm I will love thee c. This is the highest degree of the soul's enjoyment and the highest of its desires and the fulness of its happiness and hath all that is desirable and there is no ultra no further thing desirable It followeth that being in Christ we take him for our portion then will we walk as he walked 1 John 2.6 conform our selves to him take him for our pattern our example and guide learn of him go after him which is to be done chiefly by denying our selves and taking up our Cross not doing our own will but the will of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he humbled himself to become man made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant Phil. 2.7 Humbled himself to death even the death of the Cross he denied preferment when they would have made him a King and when Satan offered him all the Kingdoms of the Earth and the glory thereof He denied honour when he would not suffer his miracles to be divulged And this is performed with joy too because though it crosseth our nature yet it is the very life of our new nature as it was his meat and drink to do the will of his Father The soul that feels this Joy hath Heaven let into it therefore it is willing to go to God This is both oyl and wheels to the soul in its heavenly race When thou shalt inlarge my heart I will run the waies of thy Commandments said holy David This proves the truth of that saying of our Saviour I have overcome the world and sheweth us the impotency of our spiritual adversaries which God delights to see his servants to overcome as appears in the tryal of Job and the blessed Martyrs who rejoyced in their sufferings By this others are incouraged to come in to the Church of God Cant. Whither is thy Beloved gone said they to the Spouse that we may seek him with thee The durableness of this joy is expressed by our Saviour's saying My joy no man taketh from you All that oppression and persecution can do cannot take it from us It is proved 1. Because Christ is both able and willing to give and continue it maugre the opposition of evil men 2. Reason because the supports of this joy are the promises which men cannot impeach nor impair Their portion is not within the knowledge of the world nor within the reach of the world 3 Reason the preserver of this joy is the Holy Ghost 4. Because the seat of this joy is within 1 Pet. 3.4 in the hidden man 5 Reason because the seed of this joy is a principle remaining in them John His seed remaineth in them that is the new nature the principle of Holiness which is renewed day by day though their outward man doth decay and it groweth into a nearer communion with God 6 Reason because the enemies that oppose this joy are conquered Christ hath overcome them for us and we by faith overcome them Sensible troubles may take away sensible joys and external comforts but not internal no more than external joyes can take away a sinners sorrow our enjoyments may be taken away and not our joyes If then they rejoyce in the midst of their trouble how will they rejoyce in Heaven when they have meer joy When we enjoy the world most we have least of this joy the external joy takes away the internal as the external heat causeth internal cold Beware therefore O my soul that thou suffer not thy self to go out to external joy And beware my soul that thou dost not esteem troubles greater evils than they are or ought to be esteemed but as fatherly chastisements sent to mortifie or corruptions to take us off the love of the world and to remove our affections from things below to things above then thou wilt not be much terrified or dismayed by them but make a sanctified use of them to improve thy graces and walk by faith and not after the waies of thine own heart and the sight of thine eyes This spiritual joy doth arm thee O my soul against the frowns and allurements of adverse and prosperous fortune As Moses chose to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin And our Saviour for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross and despised the shame For this joy ennobleth the soul that it scorns to be beholden to visible objects as Abraham shewed the nobleness of his mind that he would not be beholding to the King of Sodom
priviledge may be gathered from this Argument that it was Jesus Christ's Legacy which he left to his Friends And it may be gathered from the Prayers of the Apostles 2 Thess 3. Now the Lord of Peace himself give you peace always by all means 1 Pet. 5.14 Peace be with you all that are in Christ Isa 26.3 Thou shalt keep him in perfect Peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee vers 22. O Lord thou wilt ordain peace for us That the Saints have freedom and confidence in Prayer and joy thereof If the Lord hath delight in their prayers he will give them reciprocal delight The promise of our blessed Saviour assures us of this priviledge he saith Whatever you shall ask the Father in my Name he will give it you Ask and ye shall receive that your joy may be full David found the truth of it when he said The Lord hath heard my petition The Lord will receive my prayer Psal And Moses in The Lord heard me this time also And Jam. 5. v. 16. The effectual fervent prayer of the righteous availeth much The greatness of the Joy is expressed in the instance of Hanna her countenance was no more sad after she had prayed And agreeable hereto is that of Solomon Eccles Eat thy bread with joyfulness for the Lord hath accepted thee He that hath once obtained his desires of God by prayer is transported with excess of joy and is emboldened and encouraged for all that he wants and can hardly be dejected or dismayed in any trouble if he call to mind the same for the experience of this priviledge inlargeth the soul to enjoy God as his God in whom he hath a sure interest and to a thankfulness of consecrating those mercies as Hanna did to God As they have priviledges of enjoying so have they of doing That the righteous person performs holy and virtuous actions by the assistance of the Spirit with more freeness facility and delight than they can be performed by any principle of morality good nature or ingenuous education is plain for this and that being compared we shall easily see that those that are virtuous by the light of Nature have had more falls than those that are illuminated by the Spirit and the Word of God Therefore David prays Psal 51. Establish me with thy free Spirit And Psal 119. I shall run the waies of thy Commandments when thou hast set my heart at liberty For instance consider with what facility and readiness Joseph being solicited and tempted by his Mistriss to unchast embraces avoided put by and cast off the temptation How can I do this great wickedness and sin Gen. 39. And it came to pass as she spake to Joseph day by day that he hearkned not unto her to lye with her or to be with her And it came to pass that Joseph went into the House to do his business and there was none of the Men of the House there within And she caught him by the Garment saying lye with me And he left his Garment in her hand and fled and got him out Here encountred and assaulted with so strong a temptation of unchastity importunately and uncessantly assailing him backed and assisted with the temptations of Ambition and Covetousness and fit opportunity to accomplish it with secresie and no restraint at all but the All-seeing eye of God would any of the moral Philosophers thus easily and readily have conquered such a Temptation and held it out against the continual importunity and opportunity by the strength of Right Reason Honesty and Truth Certainly they would have broken out into Impatience Rage and bitter invectives of an angry proud Spirit studying revenge and defamation of the Tempter and the extolling of their own virtue or otherwise have transgressed against some of the cardinal virtues which would have giveâ— an offence another way to their own disparagement the offence of others and the discredit of the profession of Philosophy But the freeness readiness and facility of the new Nature yieldeth abundance of peace joy delight and satisfaction to him who is renewed and acted by it and giveth no offence to the beholders but full satisfaction And as in this instance of Chastity we have considered it so may we as fully and clearly see the sweet face and comely beauty of this new Nature and the joy that it yields in the mirrour of patience acted by holy Job And his facility of repelling and vanquishing all the Temptations of Satan his Wife and his three Friends And this freeness smoothness readiness and facility is so delightful in all the encounters that the new Nature hath with the old corrupt unregenerate part that the generosity thereof being compared with the morosity of the severe sullen churlish rigid Philosophers that like the beams of the Sun will make this quite lose its borrowed lustre like the Moon at mid-day Yet those virtuous persons found such sweet delight in virtue by the dimn light of Nature that they esteemed the contemplation thereof above all enjoyments and all content to be in the practice thereof For they were not Men stripped of outward enjoyments and forced to retire but eminent Among the rest Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Pius the Emperour How great then must the joy and content be which the Soul enjoyeth when it feeleth the actings of the holy Spirit carrying it above the strength of Nature in Holiness and every Grace through the Spirit whereby it is assured that Christ liveth in it and enjoyeth him as the Spouse enjoyeth her Beloved in which relation the Soul rejoyceth with exceeding joy as it is described in the Canticles And this relation is inseparable from that Relation of being the Sons of God 1 John 1.1 2. We are the Sons of God but it doth not appear what we shall be The joy of being a Son of God and to be accepted of God as it is said Acts 10.35 In every Nation they that fear God are accepted This must needs satisfie the Soul with joy peace and content and remove all grief and fear The Apostle saith This is our rejoycing that in simplicity and Godly sincerity we have our conversation in the World it is the Nature of Grace to give inward joy And it is often pressed as a duty incumbent upon Believers to rejoyce in the Lord. For such have no cause of fear distrust or despair be their condition what it will Psal 46. Though the Earth be moved and the Mountains shake at the Tempest though the Waters rage and swell here is repose and rest and refuge in the midst of troubles And every grace of the holy Spirit doth causally bring satisfaction peace and joy in themselves And as they excite one another they cause happiness as well efficiently in genere causarum as conditionally by virtue of the pact or Covenant of God made in the Gospel through the merit of Christ Jesus And by those Graces we are restrained from those evils of sin and
errours misdoings and mistakes ignorances and follies as procure to Men shame fear grief guilt and the Wrath of God due to sin Though meritoriously Christ only can deliver us yet he hath injoyned these operations of his Spirit as the means to make us Subjects capable of his merit And though it be said that while we were sinners he died for us and he justifieth the ungodly yet he doth not justifie ungodliness but they are changed by the renewing of the Spirit in the new Birth in all their faculties namely in the Judgement Will and affections whereby they are first enlightned to understand the principles of Christ's Doctrine and do believe and do resolve to practise the same as it is commanded resigning and submitting our wills to his who hath made us and redeemed us all which operations of the Spirit do excite joy in the Soul of the Regenerate viz. first it rejoyceth in knowing the truth and the good will of God and every particular discovery thereof rejoyceth the Soul but chiefly it rejoyceth to find Grace in it self and a conformity to that will of God and every degree of Grace in it self and in others rejoyce it for we find the Apostles rejoycing in the Graces which they found in others but they grieve at sin stirring in themselves and others King Solomon was sufficiently accomplished for his design in the pursuit of finding out the thing that was profitable What would give rest What would afford satisfaction What delight he could find in any thing What improvement he could make of knowledge But he did not nor could attain thereby with all his labour and industry any thing but to find out the vanity of all things below and so to fill himself with vexation restlesness much grief and encrease of sorrow Eccles c. 1. If so then we must account him no wise Man who takes any worldly thing for his contentment satisfaction repose profit commodity joy or delight but he is truly wise who can both discern the madness vanity unprofitableness restlesness vexation nausiousness and trouble with which these worldly things fill vex and disquiet and dissatisfie vain Man and seeks his joy comfort pleasure fruition content satisfaction and happiness in things more certain more lasting more excellent more spiritual Thus far also Philosophy went and hath defined happiness to be the operation of the Soul according to perfect virtue in a life that is perfect And what those virtues are Natures light hath shewed the knowledge of God and the worshipping him accordingly they defined to be happiness and virtue for thither tend all moral virtues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. But what Nature could not find out God hath revealed viz. The Gospel of our blessed Saviour which was first made known by Angels to the Shepherds and by this Gospel or good tydings we are taught That happiness is To know God and Christ This is Life Eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent Now if these operations of the Soul according to perfect virtue proceed from the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Saviour as they must if it be in the perfect life which is in Heaven then the Philosophers happiness is the same with a Christians for their graces proceed from this knowledge as it is said by David they that know thy Name will put their trust in thee they that know God to be All-sufficient will walk before him in perfection they that have tasted how gracious the Lord is and that he is a God hearing Prayer will come unto him this life is begun here from whence this certain conclusion may be drawn that there is happiness joy satisfaction and all sweetness of Life and enjoyment in the Soul that hath continual motions of Grace and none of sin or vanity quod quaerimus The Immense greatness of this Joy is not to be expressed Therefore the Apostle calls it Joy unspeakable and glorious 1 Pet. 1.8 but to prove the immensity of it we must consider the cause which is Infinite Eternal and Almighty such as the cause is the effect must needs be The assurance of God's love and favour in Christ Jesus for our Eternal happiness hereafter for our security and preservation here for our deliverance from all the evills of sin and the punishments due to it which coming into the Soul though but by a little glimpse ravisheth the Soul with infinite joy when God sheweth the light of his countenance and smiles if I may so express it or looks pleasant upon the Soul that thirsteth after him in this Land of barrenness It is satisfied When God owns thee by hearing thy Prayers and puts forth his Almighty Power at thy request for thy succour whereby thou knowest thou hast an Almighty power for thy assistance great is thy joy Especially because thou hast earnest thereby for the future that he will never leave thee nor forsake thee so that no time limits thy joy nor no degree of enioyment because the matter and cause is the infinite power and infinite goodness of God and the duration of it to Eternity and this enjoyment doth begin here when we know our interest that Christ is ours our Attonement our Passeover slain for us as a sacrifice for our sins our Reconciliation and Peace-maker our Redeemer who hath bought us Our Mediator our High Priest our King our Food our Bridegroom our Head our Life our Way our Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption the Hymenaeans of these holy Nuptials and the Song of the Lamb are everlasting When God doth assure us by his Spirit that we are reconciled to him through Christ and we are confident of his Almighty power and goodness ready always to succour us as his Children his Beloved his People his Portion and his Flock and that all things are his and whatever is his we have an interest in it as we have in him by reason of our Relation to him in Christ When we know Christ and God in him and are known by him and behold as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord and are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory being renewed after the Image of him that made us and when the Spirit of Grace and Glory rests upon us 1 Pet. 4.14 When the glorious Majesty of the Lord is upon us when we can serve him in the beauty of Holiness What do we want but to see him Face to Face whom now we see in a Glass And to have that in perfection which now is but in part and to have our vile bodies like his glorious body Of the Eating and Drinking the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist When our blessed Saviour plainly tells us that the words which he speaks are Spirit Why should I not understand a Spiritual meaning in those of this mystery namely a Spiritual eating of his body and drinking his Blood To as many as received him he gave Power and Priviledge to
will of him that sent me He would not suffer them to divulge his miracles nor be made a King 12. In his zeal 'T is said of him The zeal of thy house hath even eaten me up 13. In his Truth he saith To this end was I born that I should bear witness to the Truth 14. In his obedience to his Parents 15. In his publick spirit he was born and died and rose again upon a publick accompt Sic oculus sic ille manus sic ora movebat Those that are otherwise are not holy as they ought to be therefore let us press forward and pray that we may receive of his fulness grace for grace The last means but not the least is Repentance the same which was the first not a slight confession of our sins only with sorrow for a day as the Prophet Isaiah expresseth it Isa 58.5 To hang down our heads like a bulrush for a day Wicked Ahab did more than so Thy stony heart will endure more malliating than one daies contrition and not be broke But such sorrow as may work a change as that of the Ninevites Jonah 3.8 10. They turned from their evil way cloathed themselves in sackcloth and cryed mightily to God And since notwithstanding our repentance our corruptions and our spiritual enemies do sometimes prevail against us we must as oft as we fall rise again by repentance and mourn over the sinfulness of our nature as David did Psal 51. In sin hath my Mother conceived me And Paul When I would do good evil is present O wretched man that I am And this we shall have cause to do as long as we live and this causeth us to iterate our repentance which we first made upon our conversion as it did in holy David and Job calling to mind the sins of their youth For I conceive the method of the Argument of the penitent is that he believes that his sins were sharers in procuring those bitter sufferings to his Saviour which he cannot think of without grief and breaking off those sins and that grief leads him to believe that Christ in his sufferings had respect to his sins that affords comfort Meditations of Repentance Mot. The Sacrifices of the Lord are a troubled spirit Psal 51. When I have fallen into any sin I immediately perceive my loss of my innocency as our first parents did and the injury done to God And then I loath my self and would give all I have to be restored to my guiltless state again if I could but undo that which I have done and I resolve to spend all my life in weeping fasting and prayer if so be the Lord will have mercy upon me and pardon my sin and not destroy me then I see that nothing I can do or suffer can make attonement to God for my sin But my stedfast resolution is that I will never sin more O Lord give me the same minde now and ever that my sins may be ever in my sight to bewaile the loss of my innocency and the injury done to thee to loath my sinful self to endeavour night and day to undo those sinful acts by teares of repentance mourning humble confession prayers fasting charity and severe watchfulness against my corruptions the duties of mortification and self-denial And to renew my vows and resolutions never to sin more And for the remainder of my days to abstain from the least degree of every sin and not to go as far as I think I may lawfully do in the satisfying of my senses and passions least I be drawn in one degree too far That the Lord may behold my grievous sorrow and repentance as he did Peters and Davids and may have mercy upon me and pardon me and not destroy me and take his holy Spirit utterly from me as he did from Saul O Lord Though my sins are as scarlet do thou wash me throughly with the blood of my Saviour which onely can purge my sins and is the only propitiation to attone thy wrath and to reconcile me to thee and restore me to everlasting righteousness better than mine own which I lost and makes me white as Snow and being so washed and cleansed I shall have communion again with my God and peace of conscience and abhor those sins that caused my Saviours sufferings Lord thy mercy would have no object if there were no misery All that are descended from Adam have been prodigal Sons as he was and by their prodigalities have forsaken thee daies without number and have sought out to themselves many inventions I find in my own heart that I would stay from thee and never return to thee if I could but find empty husks to satisfie the thirst of my soul which are only fit for the voluptuous Swines of the world and can never satisfie Thou sittest upon a Throne of grace to this can we come by Christ only through him we may come boldly and find mercy in a time of need and all that come unto thee come by this and to this I desire to approach that I may find mercy in this time of need receive me I beseech thee as a returning Prodigal desirous to break off my sins by repentance and a new life Lord give me that Repentance that I shall never repent of that I may search and try my waies examine my own heart and discuss all my actions what I have done through the whole course of my life let me performe this duty by thy assistance that I may not run on in wickedness without regret as they did of whom the Prophet Jeremiah speaks Jer. 8.6 They said not What have I done I will therefore make this reflection seriously particularly and constantly In this Examination I will consider the bate that cought me and deceived me that I may abhor it as a mean base and vile thing to be put in the scales against that communion with God his favour and hopes which the soul had in God which it lost by that sin as to its present feeling and if it should at any time reinforce its allurements I will reject them utterly and not have to do with them any more I consider also the present and future evils brought upon my soul by this sin for though I must not dispaire of pardon through the alsufficient merits of my Saviours sufferings yet I find my self fearful and ashamed to approach the throne of grace least I should find him a consuming fire I am undisposed for every holy duty and deprived of the assistance of the Spirit And not only so but I am as it were left to my self with the tempter and see none to succor me and I know not what to take in hand with hopes of success I am at a loss what I should do because I seeme to have lost God who hath withdrawn himself for my sin and hides his face I am also made naked and destitute for he was my defence and shield my strength and refuge my hope and
helpe in trouble I have wilfully opened a gap to let in a stream of corruptions a Breach is made in my spiritual Castle for all the enemies of my soul to break in at and I am disposed to greater sins which by little and little creep in and get ground by degrees till at last it reigns uncontrolled and brings us in the end to a hardned heart a seared conscience that cannot repent and eternal damnation I consider also what might and ought to have drawn me from my sin to the contrary virtue What strength of humane reason what moral precepts natural modesty and shame fear of being seen examples of moral serious and religious men to the contrary serenity of mind the publick good and my own private good contentation and transquility and happiness with many more motives from the light of nature and good education ready to inform and restrain a mind willing to be virtuous Besides innumeâ—able other restraints from the word of God the instructing of the Spirit The life of faith the fear of God and his alseeing eye the terror of the curse upon the disobedient Hope of Heaven and eternal recompences to the obedient the exceeding and eternal weight of glory which is laid up for us the exceeding precious promises able not only to support the soul of a believer in the greatest difficulties but also to ravish it which excess of joy under the greatest sufferings Besides if I had no such light of nature no education no knowledg of the scriptures and humane precepts no knowledg of histories of Gods dealing in judgment with other sinners who have felt the truth of all the threatnings denounced against sinners as Josephus and the scriptures and other writings testify the Jews did and all notorious sinners have done and daily do if I had no promises to allure no threatnings to drive me no conscience to testify unto me no testimony of other men in all ages both wicked and righteous yet this one argument were perswasive enough to have deterred me from wickedness to the service of God namely my dependance on him for the necessaries and conveniencies of life my supplys my sustentation and preservation from imminent dangers unexpectedly surprising me This might be sufficient to make me bewaile my own improvidence and folly in casting away my succour my hope my sustentation safeguard and preservation for that which hath not profited me I therefore with grief of heart bewail my self But that which may cumulate more grief is to consider the ungratitude of my sinful soul for so many mercies received which have transported me with admiration As when I received form the hands of the Lord houses that I built not and wealth that I laboured not for whereby I was delivered from getting my bread with the sweat of my brow and the labor of my mind and body in pain and sorrow with continual carping and caring and restlesness the benefit whereof I continually enjoy with comfort therefore my duty of gratitude obligeth me to consider what I shall render to God and to use these mercies to his honour and glory and not to abuse them to his dishonour in sinning against him And when I have done the contrary I have dealt unworthily with so good a God for if Hanna would needs retribute for one mercy what must I do for so many The many deliverances that God hath wrought for me in bringing me out of troubles which I have sometimes brought upon my self sometimes my enimies have brought upon me sometimes the hand of God hath brought upon me and my relations either for our sins or for our trials out of all which the Lord delivered me so that I can testify and set to my seale that God is true and hath performed all his gracious promises to me that he hath made to them that fear him He hath been with me in six troubles and in the seventh he hath not forsaken me his deliverances have exceeded both these numbers therefore I must confess that he hath also verified his largest promises to me saying I will never leave thee nor forsake thee And also when he saith No weapon formed against thee shall prosper And when he saith Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it For his mercies have been greater than my desires and my tongue would fail me to recount them All which fly in my face and testify against me when I sin for how can I recount all his benefits which I have received from him upon which I live beginning with that of being born of virtuous parents And all the deliverances which he hath wrought for me in abundance of mercy and chiefly that he hath delivered my soul from Hell But I must reflect upon my sin with shame and confusion of face with loathing and abhorring my self in sackcloth and ashes with fasting and depriving my self of all comforts and injoyments with humiliation and abasing my self with earnest and humble supplications sighs and tears of a contrite heart but when I consider the vows promises and protestations which I have made to God in my time of trouble when I sought to God for my deliverance and that he did pluck me as a brand out of the fire and did hear my prayers and delivered me and did grant my requests above my desire or hope as he did Jacobs These broken vows put me to shame and cause me to abhor my self and with Ephraim to smite upon my breast desiring in my heart that I could do any thing whereby I might but undo one sinful action or that I could expiate the same by any sufferings but my conscience tells me that all I can do or suffer through the whole course of my life will not be sufficient to expiate or attone for one sin so as to make me innocent again Therefore I have resolved and vowd to sin no more And I have wished my self dead that I might no more sin and I have resolved to separate my self from the world that I may spend all my time in serving God who hath not dealt by me after my sins Thy word O Lord hath shewed me that if thy people repent them of their sins and forsake them though they be as scarlet thou wilt make them white as snow and thou wilt abundantly pardon them and thou wilt repent thee of the evil which thou bringest upon them If Ahab go mourning thou wilt not bring the evil in his days and all thy threatinings are only conditional unless we repent So the City of Ninivie diverted thy wrath by turning unto thee and seeking thee with fastings and prayers This duty all the Prophets taught This St. John the Baptist preached Saying Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand This our Blessed Saviour and his Apostles taught Therefore let me practise this so necessary a duty but unless thou inablest me with thy grace and unless thou givest me repentance I cannot have it of my self because my heart is hard of it self
would lead me into all sins which God forbid And my own Conscience is ready to accuse me of all sins for this one Alledging to me that it was only Gods restraint by afflictions that hindred me from falling into all sins and that now he is like to leave me because I have left him and so I am like to be as guilty as any Man ever was Next that he finds another advantage to tempt me to a further degree of sin suggesting to my mind that I am so far engaged in Sin already that I am lost and God hath cast me off and I can be no more undone if I proceed further in sin to which suggestion if I am but once drawn to yield he will easily draw me deeper and deeper but I pray that he may never draw me to the belief of this A further evil I find as great as any that the guilt of all my sins both of Omission and Commission that ever I was guilty of in all my Life-time now flyeth in my face with aggravation as if they were unpardonable so doth my conscience aggravate them and my Spiritual adversary is ready to perswade me to despair because I lie under so much guilt and God so just that he punisheth sin where ever he findeth it as he did in our first Parents and all Mankind for the guilt of one sin All which evils and many more which sin bringeth and hath brought upon others I am sensible of with fear and grief in a great measure immediately after the commission of sin Yet I find it hard to keep in my mind a continual dread and fear of every sin and watch against it so strictly as I ought though I have felt the bitterness of it And though I can say with David my Iniquities are gone over my Head and are a sore burden too heavy for me to bear I pray therefore that they may ever be in my sight that I may be sensible of the burthen of them and of all the evil in them and weep for them day and night as he did for his and may bring forth fruit meet for repentance That God seeing it may turn his face from my sins and may blot out all my misdeeds when he shall behold my heart broke and beaten to pieces by the burthen and weight of my sins which sacrifice the Lord doth not despise And when he shall behold me abhorring my self he may not abhor me But when I confess them am sorry for them and forsake them he may blot them out and my soul may be assured that they are pardoned in Christ Jesus that he hath borne them And that he had an eye unto me in his sufferings and hath washed me clean with his blood and made me white as snow that by his stripes I am healed and that my name is written in that free pardon that he hath purchased And that I owe unto him all that I have or can do for this mercy Though I have forsaken God as an adulterous wife doth her husband for other lovers and given my affections to others and taken it off from God whereby I must confess that I have deserved that God should cast me off yet because he hath declared that though a man will not receive again such a wife yet God will receive again such people and invites them to return unto him therefore I returne again unto God trusting in this his word of promise that he will receive me again into his love and favour with everlasting mercy and kindness And I will henceforth resolve never more to entertain any thought that may tend to seduce my affections from so good a God or corrupt my love to him but will watch strictly against such as would allure me and deceive me and pray to God to assist me since these my spiritual enemies are too subtil and too strong for me alone to deal withall without his assistance which he hath faithfully promised to lend me when I heartily and earnestly crave it in my time of need and distress And then I shall be able to resist and overcome those that allure me to betray me and performe and keep my vows which were first made for me in my baptisme and often since that renewed by me in times of trouble and imminent dangers and at the sacrament of the Eucharist especially when I first I enjoyed the happy priviledg of those holy mysteries also when first I espoused my self by my own choise unto my Maker I am prone to look upon my own sins as little Oh that I could have the same apprehensions of my own sins as I have had of other mens for I have said If I had sined as they have I would have spent all my life in weeping fasting and praying cloathing my self in sackcloath washing my bed with my tears If so be the Lord would heare me and have mercy upon me and pardon me And how neere those very sins have I come Though I cannot attain the same degree of sorrow for my sins as Peter did when immediately after he denied his Saviour he went out and wept bitterly and as it is written of his life he wore channels in his eyes by his frequent tears for that sin Though I cannot with David Wash my bed and water my couch with my tears and mingle my drink with weepings because of my sin yet will I endeavour to supply what is lacking in the degree of my sorrow by the duration and continuance of it And make sin the only matter of my sorrow and thereby I shall be better inabled to avoid my falling into the same again and though I cannot wash my self clean from the guilt of my sins by mine own repentance because the blood of Christ only can cleanse us from our sins yet this is the condition necessary to make us subjects capable of being washed by the blood of Christ which is communicated to us in the Lords Supper to wash and cleanse and heal our penitent broken hearts Therefore will I look unto him hanging upon the Cross and sheding his precious blood to make satisfaction for my sins and bearing the iniquities of us all that we might have pardon of sin and peace of conscience in him And those which he hath invited to come unto him that he may give them rest are such only as are weary and heavy laden And he only can give it because the soul that receiveth it must come empty handed as it is intimated Isa 5.15 Come buy Wine and Milk without mony and without price Such whose consciences are weary and labour under the burden of sin and go mourning by reason thereof and are ready to sink and faint under Gods chastisements such a one can find no rest in the creature nor in it self till it come to Christ then mans misery is Christs opportunity They that are sick need a physitian not they that are hole Neminem venientem arcet a gracia sua There are none excepted out
of this free pardon therefore not I. All that will come may all that did look up to the Brazen Serpent were healed I thus being burdened with the weight of my sins and weary of them and fainting under them languishing for want of comfort and easement find this invitation from him that is ready to relieve me and all men freely without any merit of mine Beseech him to take away this my burthen to give me a new heart and to heal my soul That he would give me redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of my sins Ephe. 1.2 And seal it to my conscience that he hath borne my iniquities and hath taken them away and cast them into the bottom of the Sea that he would give me this balme of Gillead his precious blood to cleanse me from all my sins and to heal my wounded conscience and by his word to heal my corrupt nature I come unto him for faith in him which I have not of my self it is the gift of God Ephe. 2.8 I come and beg his Spirit to quicken me with a new life Ephe. 2.1 You hath he quickned who were dead in trespasses and sins That he would take away the Spirit of bondage and give me the Spirit of Adoption that I may call him Father and obey him cheerfully from the principle of love which will make my services accepted and prove my repentance true which will not The hanging down of my head Jugum Christi Meditations of Faith THE excellency of this grace is such that it makes all other things excellent and without it it is impossible to please God without it charity is no charity piety and charity and all other graces and vertues are no graces without faith it is the salt of all holy services which makes them acceptable sacrifices to God It is excellent in its original It is the gift of God It is so also in its fruit which is holiness and its final end is equally excellent viz. Salvation There is no degree of it so little but is of infinite vertue it makes us overcome all difficulties in doing and suffering the good will and pleasure of Almighty God The first degree of faith is to believe that God is The 2d degree to believe that he is a rewarder of them that deligently seek him but this doth not save for St. Paul had this belief when he persecuted the Church But to believe in Gods promises of salvation through Christ Jesus is saving faith as it is said by our Blessed Saviour Ye believe in God believe also in me This is saving faith and this is the principal act of faith because Jesus Christ is the principal object of faith and every act of grace is a branch of this grace hope charity patience humility unless they are acted and set on work by faith in Christ viz. In obedience to God believing his acceptance of our works through his Son they are nothing more than the moral vertues This grace is that which gives most glory to God because it believes things that are invisible to sense and reason assuredly as if they were visible It is called the evidence of things not seen knowing that Gods bare word is the greatest assurance therefore the Scripture saith of Abraham That he believed and gave glory to God and he staggered not though the promise was against reason and sense in regard of the age of himself and his wife Sarah And though Gods command of Sacrifising his Son Isaac seemed to be repugnant and contrary to his promise yet he believed stedfastly in the truth of God though it seemed repugnant so God put his faith to it to try it and he denied his sense and reason to believe God and to obey him It consists not in one act but it is a habit and for that reason the life of a believer is call'd the life of faith Agreeable to which it is said of the life of Abraham That he lived in the land of promise as in a strange Country looking for a City which had foundations whose builder and maker is God And this he did during his life so that he never had the sight of that he believed but lived upon the promise only and upon God This life of faith is a mortifying and self-denying life for Abraham lived in the land of promise as a stranger not as a home dweller freely and boldly enjoying it as his own But using the world as if he used it not not living upon the world nor by sense though the promise was of worldly things St. Paul testifieth of himself that he lived this life Gal. 2.20 Not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I live I live by the faith of the Son of God For faith working by love by the Spirit of Christ unites us to Christ in all union as our Root our Head our Brother our Beloved then it perswades us of the alsufficiency of God which supports the soul wherefore God made it the inducement to Abraham why he should walk before him in perfection and whatever is wanting in the creature faith thus acted makes it up in God as is said Psal 90.12 Lord thou hast been our dwelling place through all generations And 2 Cor. 6.10 As having nothing yet possessing all things Because God is the delight of the soul Psal 1. Job 27.10 But it is said of the hypocrite Will he alwaies call upon the Lord will he delight himself in him No he will not for he loves not This St. Paul professeth that he practised saying To me to live is Christ to dye is gain He lived upon Christ and he in him Not only in the Apostles esteem was Christ all to him But Christ testifieth of himself Joh. 6.34 The bread of God is he which cometh down from Heaven and giveth life to the world Therefore might Job esteem it more than his necessary food if he be the eternal food of the soul which gives it a new eternal life and maintains it satisfying and strengthening the principles of this life and reparing the decaies of it There is nothing needful or comfortable which gracious soules have not enjoyed in God and Christ David Psal 5. Lord thou art my light and my salvation whom then shall I fear thou art the strength of my life of whom then shall I be affraid Psal 119.57 Thou art my portion O Lord I have said that I will keep thy word If God be sufficient for himself he is sufficient for us All is yours and ye are Christs all the things in the world can afford little comfort to the rational soul they can alitle divert it from its grief but are so far from yeilding true satisfaction that the more it drinks the more it thirsts but he that drinks of the water of life shall never thirst more He that eates of the true bread which came down from Heaven shall be satisfied in all his desires and appetites more than they whose Corne Wine
and Oyl is increased and may say truly my joy shall be in the Lord as he did and every child of God is commanded this duty in this saying Rejoice in the Lord ye Righteous This excellent grace makes the soul happy wherein it is because he that possesseth it possesseth Christ and all the benefits and priviledges that he hath purchased that incomparable benefit of justification first as it is Rom. 4. and last v. and the 5th and first v. Who was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification Rom. 3. Being justified freely by his grace Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ This peace is a second benefit or priviledg which faith derives from Christ a third follows by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand the favors of God wherein we stand or the blessed condition of justified and sanctified persons to which we come by Christ through faith and rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God both our present and future condition is made happy by faith and it assures to us that happiness It followes and not only so but we glory in tribulations also knowing that tribulation works patience So that calamities are by faith made consolatory through the sanctified use which faith makes of them they are not only made not formidable as David his fears vanished by relying upon God which he expressed saying What time I am afraid I will put my trust in thee Psal 56.3 He made use of his faith in the time of his fears as he did also in the time of his wants Psal 8. The Lord is my shepherd therefore I shall lack nothing So that faith imboldens the Servants of God against all evil Christ gives and ensures them these priviledges partly by the testimony of his Spirit partly by faith in his merit Ephe. 3.12 In whom we boldness and access with confidence through faith in him Heb. 10.19 We have entrance into the holiest through the blood of Jesus The Spirit assures us that all the Privileges which Christ hath purchased for his people are ours and causeth us to rejoyce in them as ours That all the promises are ours and causeth us to rely upon them because we are assured that Christ is ours by Faith when he is laid hold on as ours all things are ours then it follows that we have peace of Conscience and tranquility in our Souls for he is our Peace Ephe. 2. And we acquiesce in him because we have chosen him for our portion He is reconcilation between God and us he satisfieth our debts makes God at peace with us and our conscences at peace in themselves and our souls satisfied as having nothing more that they can desire but more communion with God as that which satisfieth it We know that God hath no wrath at all towards us nor our consciences any dread or fear of Gods wrath or any terror but assurance of his favour and love and that our sins are washed away by the blood of Christ according to that in Colos 1.20 Having made peace through the blood of his Cross by him to reconcile all things to himself 21. And you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblamable and unreprovable in his sight if you continue in the faith Hence the soul assures it self that none of the works of Gods severity have any wrath at all against it for in the 24. v. St. Paul saith He rejoyceth in his sufferings But positively they are assured of their adoption and of the love and friendship of God that he will preserve them supply them teach them heal them guide and support them visit them with spiritual consolations and joy in the Holy Ghost and that all things shall work together for their good which makes them willing to submit to Gods chastisements as it is Psal For thy sake are we killed all the day long yet do we not forsake thee This keeps them from murmuring and from covetousness The nature of it is that it can only be where the Son of peace is This peace is a league offensive and defensive whereby the soul hates sin and all that God hates and loves holiness and all that God loves That salutation which our blessed Lord perscribed to his Apostles must needs be the most excellent and desirable that saies Peace be to this house This peace makes all other things at peace with us for he is said To make a league with the foules of the air and the beasts of the field for us in Job and Prov. 16.17 When a mans waies please God he makes his enemies at peace with him Psal 91.10 The plague shall not come neer his dwelling or if it do it shall be no plague Rom. 8.31 If God be with us who shall be against us That is though they are against us the sting is taken out The excellency of it is so great that it passeth human understanding It is an everlasting peace it doth not forsake us in the time of trouble nor in the hour of death Isa 55.3 His mercies are called everlasting It makes us peaceable with men to those we have offended it makes us willing to satisfy them and willing to pardon those that have offended us but the wicked are like the rageing Sea alwaies unquiet It quickens the soul to holy duties the soul considers what it shall render to the Lord for all his mercies towards it Psal 103.3 Bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits who forgiveth all thy sins The excellency of it must needs be great because it is the legacy which Christ dying left to his Church not as the world gives gave he it to them but more largely liberally and bountifully and absolutely without any limitation of time or condition David calls it great peace which they have which love Gods word but yet he saith that many are the troubles of the righteous That which followeth makes amends The Lord delivereth them out of all and the Lord will stand by them and deliver them as we know he did the three children out of the fiery furnace and Daniel out of the Lyons den and Job out of the fiery Trials The fruits of righteousness are sown in peace not in discord they which love peace sowe them And this shield of faith is both an offensive and defensive weapon whereby these holy warriours in their spiritual warfare fought the Lords battels under the bloody banner of the Cross of Christ who for the glory that was set before him endured the Cross and despised the shame these follow the lamb and suffer with him that they may also raigne with him and take joyfully the spoiling of their goods knowing that they have a more enduring substance in Heaven And willingly they spend and are spent for God
crucified to us and we unto the world that is as well the lusts of the flesh the lusts of the eyes and the pride of life which containes all that is in the world all which the faithful soul counts but dross and dung for the excellency of the knowledg of Christ Jesus whom as the Spouse in the Canticles she esteemes fairer than ten thousand And esteemes sin the most ugly vile eformed and abominable thing in the world pulling off its mask and vizard whereby it deceives the men of the world as it is said Rom. 7.10 Sin deceived me and thereby slew me The understanding thus inlightened ingageth all it can against sin as its enemy and sometimes by vigilancy it prevailes against all assaults of temptations whereby sin is quite excluded from entring and sometimes by flying the occasions of sin as Joseph fled from his Mistress and by the Spirit assistance we mortify the flesh God and Christ susporting Sometimes by prayer faith prevailes against the tempter the soul fearing its own weakness seeks for help of him who is able to succour and hath succoured it The last refuge which faith hath is repentance early and hearty sorrow for the sin committed as Peter when he had denied his Lord and Master immediately he went forth and wept bitterly By these means faith quenches all the fiery darts of the wicked The light of nature teacheth that the soul is borne to more noble things than to wait upon the pleasure of the senses But the supernatural life which the Apostle lived when he said I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me Shews another inabling principle of life in the regenerate proceeding from that union which is betwixt Christ and his members because Christ and they are one Spirit 1 Cor. 6.10 Therefore he saith Not I because he is not the same man he was before that man is Crucified with Christ and buried with him he hath derived a new life from Christ as he expresseth I laboured more abundantly than all yet not I but Christ Christ is the spring of it the matter of it and end of it Consider the end of your conversation Jesus Christ and if Christ live in us we shall do think and speak as he did As all other graces of Gods children are sometimes weaker than they are at other times so is faith But thâ— decay of this grace is the cause of decay of many others and sometime the decay of others may cause a decay of this the Psal 51. Entituled a Psalme of David when Nathan the Prophet came unto him after he had gone in to Bathsheba the Title and the Psalme it self shew what sins and what punishments he lay under and because his sins were the cause of the loss of Gods Spirit or of the danger of it and of the loss of the joy of his salvation viz. His assurance he confesseth his sins first and prays for pardon through the multitude of Gods tender mercys then prays for washing healing cleansing and renovation Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right Spirit within me It followes Restore unto me the joy of thy Salvation and support me with thy free Spirit This implieth that before he had it but now he had lost it and was deprived of it which was the cause of so great grief to him that he expresseth it to be the breaking of his bones Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce And the like doth every penitent broken soul feel in himself when he fears the loss of Gods holy Spirit and feels himself deprived of the joy of his salvation and this joy when it is restored is so great that it will make the broken bones rejoyce he apprehended the greatness of the joy now in the loss of it Psal I have roared for the very disquietness of my heart God deprives us of it for our sins that we may be the more careful to preserve it and fearful by sin to loose it or hazard it and to work out our Salvation with fear and trembling for though Gods lays not upon his children all that they deserve yet they shall not go unpunished Judgment shall begin at the house of God Jer. 22.24 Though Coniah the Son of Jehojakim King of Juda were the signet upon my right hand yet would I pluck thee thence Now for as much as the motions workings of the holy Spirit in the faithful people of God by inlightning them in the understanding of heavenly truths bringing to mind and applying the word of God to their comfort inabling them to converse and walk with God in holy Meditation contemplation prayer and thanksgiving making melody in their hearts to the Lord delighting them and rejoycing them in the want of all things as the Prophet Habakkuk expresseth chap. 3. Though the Fig Tree should not blossom nor fruits be in the vines c. And making them to abound with inward joy when their afflictions do most abound slighting and contemning alike both worldly joy and sorrow for the joy which they have in the Lord these are the study imployment and business of a regenerate person wherein he desires to be alwaies exercised because he cannot find satisfaction nor delight in any thing else hence he may be more truly and properly said to live by faith and by the Spirit than to live the life natural as St. Paul argues he did when he saith I am crucified with Christ yet I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live I live by the faith of the Son of God who hath loved me and given himself for me Therefore they are as it were out of their lives and void of all injoyment and comfort when they want the comforts and assistance of the Holy Spirit as Holy David did greatly resent the absence of it and fear lest it should be taken from him and that he should be cast away so do most of Gods people Isa 49.14 Sion said The Lord hath forsaken me and my God hath forgotten me Though God had graven her in the palms of his hands When God hides his face and withdraws himself they are cast down as Psal I said in my prosperity I should never be cast down but thou hidest thy face and I was troubled This withdrawing of God was the very bitterest of our Saviours sufferings If this should be our condition let us not be weary of well doing but wait on the Lord for God hath said Isa 49. That he that waits on the Lord shall be like an Eagle And consider that Christ Jesus suffered the like and therefore hath a fellow feeling of our suffering that he might succour us who are tempted But if Christ doth not succour us our heart cannot indure our hands cannot be strong in the days that God shall thus deal with us as it is Ezek. 22. v. 14. But he hath bid us to call upon him
in the time of our trouble and promised that he will deliver us But how can they now pray when they want the assistance of the Spirit it may be answerd That God sometimes takes away the comfort of the holy Spirit and yet the other effects of it remain Isa 63.15 16. Look down from Heaven and behold from the habitation of thy holiness where is thy Zeal and thy strength and the sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies towards me are they restrained Doubtless thou art our Father thou O Lord art our Redeemer c. Some incouragement the Church found for prayer and if it should be so with us that we cannot call God Father yet the duty of prayer is not to be neglected Luke 11.8 Though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend yet because of his importunity he will c. Though we think our selves unworthy to call God Father like the prodigal Son which desired to be but as one of the hired Servants this humility is the way to obtain our requests Another way whereby we may come to him in prayer is to pray to him as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus for Christ is not ashamed to call us his Bretheren therefore God will not be ashamed to be our Father And with fervent prayer let us use reading and meditating in the word of God 2 Pet. 1.10 Give all deligence to make your calling and electtion sure Assurance differs from security in this that Assurance fills the soul with admiration of the grace of God and his unspeakable love Behold what manner of love the Father hath shewed us that we should be called the Sons of God but security never urgeth the soul to thankfulness Another difference that assurance urgeth the soul to free obedience but security not when the soul knoweth that what ever her infirmities failings and wants are she shall receive of his fulness grace for grace When the Spirit beareth witness with our Spirit that we are the Sons of God When we have received the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things which are freely given unto us of God 1 Cor. 2.12 When the Heavenly Bridegroom brings his Spouse into his Banqueting House and his banner over her is love Cant. 2.4 He treats her with flagons and comforts her with apples then she is sick of love to him and then is the season when he will give her his loves his left-hand under her head and his right hand embracing her and as he charesses her so she doth the like to him as lovers vie with one another in love If she finds him without she promiseth to kiss him Chap. 8. And to lead him and bring him into her Mothers house and Chap. 3. She finds him and holds him and will not let him go until she brings him into the Chamber of her that conceived her Chap. 1.13 She calls him a bundle of myrrh and layes him all night between her breasts namely in her heart by love to him and she gives him the pledges of her love Thus the soul at times doth enjoy her beloved then she is sure of him and of his love But he knocks when she is in bed and she makes excuses for not rising to him though her bowels were moved for him as soone as he put in his hand at the door but her love was too slow and did not keep pace with his love for this unkindness he withdraws himself when she opens to him she called him and he gave her no answer she sought him and she could not find him but while she seeks him she is taken by the Watch stripped smitten and wounded and her vail taken from her So also may a true believer loose in part the knowledg and sense of his assurance which he hath sometimes enjoyed though they continue in the faith rooted and grounded therein so as they never waver nor fall away yet they may slumber so as to be awakened by the motions of the holy Spirit though possibly not so soon but that he may have withdrawne himself as it is there described in those words I sleep but my heart waketh The voice of my beloved that knocketh Open unto me my Sister my Love my Dove my undefiled But yet when her beloved hath withdrawn himself he doth leave behind him such a sweet perfume upon the handles of the locks as may inflame the well disposed soul to seek him with such eager and restless pursuit as to retrive her beloved again and then she will hold him fast and will not let him go until she hath brought him into the Chamber of her that conceived her that is shee will go to those ordinances and those opportunities of grace where she first tasted the prelibations of glory the first kisses of his mouth and pledges of his love and when she doth again tast them and these pledges of his love are again renewed and she again sits under his shadow with delight What other thing can I esteeme this but the injoy ment of Heaven in the first fruits for where Christ is there is Heaven he makes it so he gives all as is desirable here then must needs be assurance for the posture of fitting and the manner of the posture with delight both do imply it As also that other expression doth imply viz. Her bringing him into the Chambers of her that conceived her And that also ch 2. his left-hand was under me and his right-hand embraced me for if she be in the armes of Jesus her Saviour she can not be safer no not in Heaven And faith thus acted and acting liveth in and by her beloved and breaks out into these and like expressions with the heavenly spouse in the Canticles And makes her boast of God all the day And by him is able to do mighty acts and to suffer any thing for the love of him Meditations Art thou dejected O my soul in the apprehension of thy meanness or vileness as Jacob was when he seemed but as a worme look upon the goodness of God to such persons He doth not abhor thee Levit. 26.11 Nor despise thee Job 36.5 He will love thee freely Hose 14.4 And Deut. 7.13 He saith I will love thee And our Blessed Saviour Jo. 14.21.23 Saith He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and manifest my self unto him And Hos 2.19.20 God saith I will betroath thee unto me for even yea I will betroath thee unto me in righteousness and judgement and in loving kindness and in mercys and I will betroath thee unto me in faithfulness He will not forsake thee 1 Kings 6.13 He will be with thee and will not fail thee Deut. 31.8 Though thou fall thou shalt not be cast down utterly for the Lord upholdeth thee with his hand for the Lord loveth Judgment and forsaketh not his Saints but preserveth them for ever And Matth. 1.21 He shall save them from their sins Dost