feels nor sees Whiles the coast is clear every man can be ready to say with Peter Though all men yet not I If I should dye with thee I will not deny thee in any wise But when the evil hour cometh when our enemy appears armed in the lists ready to encounter us then to call up our spirits and to grapple resolutely with dangers and death it is the praise and proof of a true Christian valour And this is that which the Apostle calls standing in opposition to both falling and fleeing Falling out of faintness and fleeing for fear It shall not be possible for us thus to stand if we shall trust to our own feet In and of our selves the best of us are but meer cowards neither can be able so much as to look our enemy in the face Would we be perfect victors we must go out of our selves into the God of our strength If we have made him ours who shall yea who can be against us We can do all things through him that strengthens us All things therefore conquer Death and Hell If we be weakness he is omnipotence Put we on the Lord Jesus Christ by a lively Faith what enemy can come within us to do us hurt What time I am afraid I will trust in thee O God In thee O God have I trusted I will not fear what either flesh or spirit can do unto me The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer my God my strength in whom I will trust my buckler and the horn of my salvation I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised so shall I be saved from mine enemies LXXV It is disparagement enough that the Apostle casts upon all the visible things of this world That the things which are seen are temporary Be they never so glorious yet being transitory they cannot be worthy of our hearts Who would care for an house of glass if never so curiously painted and gilded All things that are measured by time are thus brittle Bodily substances of what kinde soever lye open to the eye and being seen can be in no other then a fading condition even that goodly Fabrick of Heaven which we see and admire must be changed and in a sort dissolved How much more vanishing are all earthly glories and by how much shorter their continuance is so much lower must be their valuation We account him foolish that will dote too much upon a flower though never so beautiful because we know it can be but a moneths pleasure and no care no art can preserve it from withering amongst the rest the Hemerocallis is the least esteemed because one day ends its beauty what madness then were it in us to set our hearts upon these perishing contentments which we must soon mutually leave we them they us Eternity is that onely thing which is worthy to take up the thoughts of a wise man That being added to evil makes the evil infinitely more intolerable and being added to good makes the good infinitely more desireable O Eternity thou bottomless abyss of misery to the wicked thou indeterminable pitch of joy to the Saints of God what soul is able to comprehend thee what strength of understanding is able to conceive of thee Be thou ever in my thoughts ever before mine eyes Be thou the scope of all my actions of all my indeavors and in respect of thee let all this visible world be to mee as nothing And since onely the things which are not seen by the eye of sense are eternal Lord sharpen thou the eyes of my faith that I may see those things invisible and may in that sight enjoy thy blessed eternity LXXVI What is all the world to us in comparison of the Bird in our bosome our conscience In vain shall all the world acquite and magnifie us if that secretly condemn us and if that condemn us not We have confidence towards God and may bid defiance to men and devils Now that it may not condemn us it must be both pacified and purged pacified in respect of the guilt of sin purged in respect of the corruption For so long as there is guilt in the soul the clamors of an accusing and condemning conscience can no more be stilled then the waters of the Sea can stand still in a storm There is then no pacification without removing the guilt of sin no removing of guilt without remission no remission without satisfaction no satisfaction without a price of infinite value answerable to the infiniteness of the Justice offended and this is no where to be had but in the blood of Christ God and Man All created and finite powers are but miserable comforters Physitians of no value to this one And the same power that pacifieth the conscience from the guilt must also purge it from the filthiness of sin even that blood of the Son of God who is made unto us of God Sanctification and Redemption That Faith which brings Christ home to the soul doth by the efficacy of his blessed Spirit purifie the heart from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit Being justified by this faith we have peace with God When once the heart is quieted from the uproars of self-accusation and cleansed from dead works what in this world can so much concern us as to keep it so Which shall be done if we shall give Christ the possession of our souls and commit the keys into his onely hands so shall nothing be suffered to enter in that may disturb or defile it if we shall settle firm resolutions in our brests never to yield to the commission of any known enormious sin Failings and slips there will be in the holiest of Gods Saints whiles they carry their clay about them For these we are allowed to fetch forth a pardon of course from that infinite mercy of our God who hath set a Fountain open to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness by the force of our daily prayers But if through an over-bold security and spiritual negligence we shall suffer our selves to be drawn away into some heinous wickedness it must cost warm water to recover us Neither can it in such a case be safe for us to suffer our eyes to sleep or our eye-lids to slumber till we have made our peace with Heaven This done and carefully maintained what can make us other then happily secure Blessed is he whose conscience hath not condemned him and who is not faln from his hope in the Lord. LXXVII We cannot apprehend Heaven in any notion but of excellency and glory that as it is in it self a place of wonderful resplendance and Majesty so it is the Palace of the most high God wherein he exhibites his infinite magnificence that it is the happy receptacle of all the elect of God that it is the glorious rendezvous of the blessed
St. James is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed then when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death Lo both the lust and the seducement are our own the sin is ours the death ours There are indeed diabolical suggestions which are immediatly cast into us by that wicked one but there are carnal tentations that are raised out of our own corrupt nature these need not his immediate hand he was the maine agent in our depravation but being once depraved we can act evil of our selves And if Satan be the father of sin our will is the mother and sin is the cursed issue of both He could not make our sin without our selves we concur to our own undoing It was the charge of the Apostle That we should not give place to the Devil Lo he could not take it unless we gave it our will betrays us to his tyranny in vain shall we cry out of the malice and fraud of wicked spirits whiles we nourish their complices in our bosomes XXXVI I cannot but think with what unspeakable joy old Simeon dyed when after long waiting for the consolation of Israel he had now seen the Lords Christ when I hear him say Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seen thy salvation Methinks I should see his soul ready to flie out of his mouth in an heavenly ravishment and even then upon its wing towards its glory for now his eyes saw and his arms embraced in Gods salvation his own in Israels glory his own How gladly doth he now see death when he hath the Lord of life in his bosome or how can he wish to close up his eyes with any other object yet when I have seriously considered it I cannot see wherein our condition comes short of his He saw the childe Jesus but in his swathing-bands when he was but now entering upon the great work of our redemption we see him after the full accomplishment of it gloriously triumphing in Heaven He saw him but buckling on his armor and entring into the lists we see him victorious Who is this that cometh from Edom with dyed garments from Bozra this that is glorious in his apparel traveling in the greatness of his strength mighty to save He could onely say To us a childe is born to us a son is given We can say Thou hast ascended on high thou hast led captivity captive thou hast received gifts for men It is true the difference is he saw his Saviour with bodily eyes we with mental but the eyes of our Faith are no less sure and unfailing then those of Sense Lord why should not I whose eyes have no less seen thy salvation say Now let thy servant depart not in peace onely but in a joyful sence of my instant glory XXXVII When I think on my Saviour in his agony and on his cross my soul is so clouded with sorrow as if it would never be clear again those bloody drops and those dreadful ejulations methinks should be past all reach of comfort but when I see his happy eluctation out of these pangs and hear him cheerfully rendring his spirit into the hands of his Father when I finde him trampling upon his grave attended with glorious Angels and ascending in the chariot of a cloud to his Heaven I am so elevated with joy as that I seem to have forgotten there was ever any cause of greif in those sufferings I could be passionate to think O Saviour of thy bitter and and ignominious death and most of all of thy vehement struglings with thy fathers wrath for my sake but thy conquest and glory takes me off and calls me to Hallelujahs of joy and triumph Blessing honor glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever XXXVIII It is not hard to observe that the more holy any person is the more he is afflicted with others sin Lot vexed his righteous soul with the unclean conversation of the Sodomites Davids eyes gush't out rivers of water because men kept not the Law Those that can look with dry and undispleased eyes upon anothers sin never truly mourned for their own Had they abhorred sin as sin the offence of a God would have been grievous to them in whomsoever It is a godless heart that doth not finde it self concerned in Gods quarrel and that can laugh at that which the God of Heaven frowns at my soul is nearest to me my sorrow therefore for my sin must begin at home but it may not rest there from thence it shall diffuse it self all the world over Who is offended and I burn not who offendeth and I weep not XXXIX The world little considers the good advantage that is made of sins surely the whole Church of God hath reason to bless God for Thomas his unbelief not in the act which was odious after so good assurances but in the issue his doubt proves our evidence and his confession after his touch had convinced him was more noble then his incredulity was shameful All his attendance upon Christ had not taught him so much divinity as this one touch Often had he said my Lord but never my God till now Even Peters confession though rewarded with the change of his name came short of this The flame that is beaten down by the blast of the bellowes rises higher then otherwise it would and the spring water that runs level in the Plain yet if it fall low it will therefore rise high the shaken tree roots the deeper Not that we should sin that grace may abound God forbid he can never hope to be good that will be therefore ill that he may be the better but that our holy zeal should labor to improve our miscarriages to our spiritual gain and the greater glory of that Majesty whom we have offended To be bettered by grace it is no mastery but to raise more holiness out of sin is a noble imitation of that holy God who brings light out of darkness life out of death XL. Every man best knows his own complaints we look upon the outsides of many whom we think happy who in the meane time are secretly wrung with the inward sense of their own concealed sorrows and under a smooth and calm countenance smother many a tempest in their bosome There are those whose faces smile whiles their conscience gripes them closely within There are those that can dissemble their poverty and domestick vexations reserving their sighs till their back be turned that can pick their teeth abroad when they are fasting and hungry at home and many a one forces a song when his heart is heavy No doubt Naomi made many a short meal after her return to Bethlehem yet did not whine to her great kinred in a bemoaning of her want And good Hannah bit in many a grief
in mount Sinai that thunder and rain wherewith God answered the prayer of Samuel in wheat-harvest for Israels conviction in the unseasonable suit for their King that thundering voyce from Heaven that answered the prayer of the Son of God for the glorifying of his Name the seven thunders that uttered their voyces to the beloved Disciple in Pathmos had nothing of ordinary nature in them And how many have we heard and read of That for sleighting of this great work of God have at once heard his voyce and felt his stroke Shortly if any heart can be unmoved at this mighty voyce of God it is stiffer then the rocks in the wilderness for The voyce of the Lord shaketh the wilderness the Lord shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh For me I tremble at the power whiles I adore the mercy of that great God that speaks so loud to me It is my comfort that he is my Father who approves himself thus omnipotent his love is no less infinite then his power let the terror be to them that know him angry let my confidence overcome my fear It is the Lord let him do what he will All is not right with me till I have attained to tremble at him while he shineth and to rejoyce in him whiles he thundreth LX. We talk of mighty warriors that have done great exploits in conquering kingdoms but the Spirit of God tells us of a greater conquest then all theirs Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world and this is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith Alass the conquest of those great Commanders was but poor and partial of some small spots of the earth the conquest of a regenerate Christian is universal of the whole world Those other conquerors whiles they prevailed abroad were yet overcome at home and whiles they were the Lords of nations were no other then vassals to their own lusts These begin their victories at home and enlarge their Triumphs over all their spiritual enemies The glory of those other victors was laid down with their bodies in the dust the glory that attends these is eternal What pity it is that the true Christian should not know his own greatness that he may raise his thoughts accordingly and bear himself as one that tramples the world under his feet For all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life these he hath truly subdued in himself not so as to bereave them of life but of rule if he have left them some kinde of being still in him yet he hath left them no dominion and therefore may well stile himself the Lord of the world Far far therefore be it from him that he should so abject and debase himself as to be a slave to his vassals none but holy and high thoughts and demeanors may now beseem him and in these spiritual regards of his inward greatness and self-conquests his word must be either Cesar or nothing LXI I see so many kindes of phrensies in the world and so many seemingly wise brains taken with them that I much doubt whom I may be sure to account free from either the touch or at least the danger of this indisposition How many opinions do I see raised every day that argue no less then a meer spiritual madness such as if they should have been but mentioned seven years ago would have been questioned out of what Bedlam they had broken loose And for dispositions how do we see one so ragingly furious as if he had newly torn off his chaines and escaped another so stupidly senseless that you may thrust pins into him up to the head and he startles not at it One so dumpishly sad as if he would freez to death in melancholy and hated any contentment but in sorrow another so apishly jocund as if he cared for no other pastime then to play with feathers One so superstitiously devout that he is ready to cringe and crouch to every stock another so wildly prophane that he is ready to spit God in the face shortly one so censorious of others as if he thought all men mad but himself another so mad as that he thinks himself and all mad men sober and well-witted In this store and variety of distempers were I not sure of my own principles I could easily misdoubt my self now setled on firm grounds I can pity and bewail the woful distraction of many and can but send them for recovery to that divine wisdom who calls to them in the openings of the gates and uttereth her words saying How long ye silly ones will ye love simplicity and the scorners delight in their scorning and fools hate knowledg turn you at my reproof O ye simple understand wisdom and ye fools be ye of an understanding heart Blessed is the man that heareth me watching daily at my gaâ—es But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul all they that hate me love death LXII Man as he confists of a double nature flesh and spirit so is he placed in a middle rank betwixt an angel which is spirit and a beast which is flesh partaking of the qualities and performing the acts of both he is angelical in his understanding in his sensual affections beastial and to whether of these he most enclineth and conformeth himself that part wins more of the other and gives a denomination to him so as he that was before half angel half beast if he be drowned in sensuality hath lost the angel and is become a beast if he be wholly taken up with heavenly Meditations he hath quit the beast and is improved angelical It is hard to hold an equal temper either he must degenerate into a beast or be advanced to an angel meer reason sufficiently apprehends the difference of the condition Could a beast be capable of that faculty he would wish to be a man rather then a brute as he is There is not more difference betwixt a man and beast then between an angel and a brutish man How must I needs therefore be worse then beast if when I may be preferred to that happy honor I shall rather affect to be a beast then an angel Away then with the bestial delights of the sensual appetite let not my soul sink in this mud let me be wholly for those intellectual pleasures which are pure and spiritual and let my ambition be to come as neer to the Angel as this clog of my flesh will permit LXIII There is great difference in mens dispositions under affliction Some there are dead-hearted patients that grow mopish and stupid with too deep a sence of their sufferings others out of a careless jollity are insensible even of sharp and heavy crosses We are wont to speak of some whose inchanted flesh is invulnerable this is the state of those hearts which are so bewitched with worldly pleasurâ—s that they are not to be peirced with
any calamity that may befal them in their estates children husbands wives friends so as they can say with Solomons drunkard They have stricken me and I was not sick they have beaten me but I felt it not These are dead flesh which do no more feel the knife then if it did not at all enter for whom some corrosives are necessary to make them capable of smart This disposition though it seem to carry a face of Fortitude and Patience yet is justly offensive and not a little injurious both to God and the soul To God whom it indeavors to frustrate of those holy ends which he proposeth to himself in our sufferings for wherefore doth he afflict us if he would not have us afflicted wherefore doth the father whip the childe but that he would have him smart and by smarting bettered he looks for cryes and tears and the childe that weeps not under the rod is held graceless To the soul whom it robs of the benefit of our suffering for what use can there be of patience where there is no sence of evil and how can patience have its perfect work where it is not Betwixt both these extreams if we would have our souls prosper a mid-disposition must be attained we must be so sensible of evils that we be not stupified with them and so reâ—olute under our crosses that we may be truly sensible of them not so brawned under the rod that we should not feel it nor yet so tender that we should over-feel it not more patient under the stripe then willing to kiss the hand that inflicts it LXIV God as he is one so he loves singleness and simplicity in the inward parts as therefore he hath been pleased to give us those sences double whereby we might let in for our selves as our eyes and ears and those limbs double whereby we might act for our selves as our hands and feet so those which he would appropriate to himself as our hearts for beleef and our tongue for confession he hath given us single neither did he ever ordain or can abide two hearts in a bosome two tongues in one mouth It is then the hateful stile which the Spirit of God gives to an hypocrite that he is double-minded In the language of Gods Spirit a fool hath no heart and a dissembler hath an heart and an heart and surely as a man that hath two heads is a monster in nature so he that hath two hearts is no less a spiritual monster to God For the holy and wise God hath made one for one One minde or soul for one body And if the regenerate man have two men in one the old man and the new yet it is so as that one is flesh the other spirit the minde then is not double but the law of the mind is opposed to the law of the flesh so as here are strivings in one heart not the sidings of two for surely the God of unity can neither indure multiplication nor division of hearts in one brest If then we have one heart for God another for Mammon we may be sure God will not own this latter how should he for he made it not Yea most justly will he disclaim both since that which he made was but one this double And as the wise man hath told us That God hates nothing which he hath made so may we truly say God hateth whatsoever he made not since what he made not is onely evil When I have done my best I shall have but a weak and a faulty heart but Lord let it be but a single one Search me O God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting LXV There is a kinde of not-being in sin for sin is not an existence of somewhat that is but a deficiency of that rectitude which should be it is a privation but not without a real mischief as blindness is but a privation of sight but a true misery Now a privation cannot stand alone it must have some subject to lean upon there is no blindness but where there is an eye no death but where there hath been a life sin therefore supposes a soul wherein it is and an act whereto it cleaveth and those acts of sin are they which the Apostle calls the works of darkness So as there is a kinde of operosity in sin in regard whereof sinners are stiled The workers of iniquity And surely there are sins wherein there is more toyl and labor then in the holiest actions What pains and care doth the theef take in setting his match in watching for his prey How doth he spend the darkest and coldest nights in the execution of his plot What fears what flights what hazards what shifts are here to avoyd notice and punishment The adulterer says That stoln waters are sweet but that sweet is sauced to him with many careful thoughts with many deadly dangers The superstitious bygot who is himself besotted with error how doth he traverse Sea and land to make a Proselyte What adventures doth he make what perils doth he run what deaths doth he challenge to mar a soul So as some men take more pains to go to Hell then some others do to go to Heaven O the sottishness of sinners that with a temporary misery will needs purchase an eternal How should we think no pains sufficient for the attaining of Heaven when we see wretched men toyl so much for damnation LXVI With what elegance and force doth the holy Ghost express our Saviours leaving of the world which he cals his taking home again or his receiving up In the former implying That the Son of God was for the time sent out of his Fathers house to these lower regions of his exile or pilgrimage and was now re-admitted into those his glorious mansions In the latter so intimating his triumphant ascension that he passeth over his bitter passion Surely he was to take death in his way so he told his Disciples in the walk to Emaus Ought not Christ to suffer these things and to enter into his glory He must be lifted up to the Cross ere his Ascension to Heaven but as if the thought of death were swallowed up in the blessed issue of his death here is no mention of ought but his assumption Lo death truly swallowed up in victory Neither is it otherwise proportionally with us wholly so it cannot be for as for him Death did but taste of him could not devour him much less put him over It could not but yield him whole entire the third day without any impairing of his nature yea with an happy addition to it of a glorious immortality and in that glorified humanity he ascended by his own Power into his Heaven For us we must be content that one part of us lye rotting for the time in the dust whiles our spiritual part shall
Angels that we have parents children husband wife brothers sisters friends whom we dearly loved there For such is the power of love that it can endeare any place to us where the party affected is much more the best If it be a loathsome gaol our affection can make it a delightful bower yea the very grave cannot keep us off The women could say of Mary that she was gone to the grave of Lazarus to weep there and the zeal of those holy clyents of Christ carries them to seek their as they supposed still dead Saviour even in his Tomb Above all conceivable apprehensions then wherein Heaven is endeared to us there is none comparable to that which the Apostle enforceth to us that there Christ sitteth on the right hand of God If we have an husband wife childe whom we dearly love pent up in some Tower or Castle afar off whither we are not allowed to have access how many longing eyes do we cast thither how do we please our selves to think within those walls is he inclosed whom my soul loveth and who is inclosed in my heart but if it may be possible to have passage though with some difficulty and danger to the place how gladly do we put our selves upon the adventure When therefore we hear and certainly know that our most dear Saviour is above in all heavenly glory and that the Heavens must contain him till his coming again with what full contentment of heart should we look up thither How should we break thorow all these secular distractions and be carried up by our affections which are the wings of the soul towards an happy fruition of him Good old Jacob when he heard that his dearling son was yet alive in Egypt how doth he gather up his spirits and takes up a cheerful resolution Joseph my son is yet alive I will go and see him before I dye Do we think his heart was any more in Canaan after he heard where his Joseph was And shall we when we hear and know where our dearest Saviour typified by that good Patriark is that he is gone before to provide a place for us in the rich Goshen above shall we be heartless in our desires towards him and take up with earth How many poor souls take tedious costly perilous voyages to that land which onely the bodily presence of our Saviour could denominate holy their own wickedness justly stiles accursed onely to see the place where our dear Saviour trod where he stood where he sate lay set his last footing and finde a kinde of contentment in this sacred curiosity returning yet never the holier never the happier how then should I be affected with the sight of that place where he is now in person sitting gloriously at the right hand of Majesty adored by all the powers of Heaven Let it be a covenant between me and my eyes never to look up at Heaven as how can I look beside it but I shall in the same instant think of my blessed Saviour sitting there in his glorified humanity united to the incomprehensible glorious Deity attended and worshiped by thousand thousands of Saints and Angels preparing a place for me and all his elect in those eternal Mansions LXXVIII How lively doth the Spirit of God describe the heavenly affections of faithful Abraham that he looked for a city which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God What city was this but the celestial Jerusalem the glorious seat of the Great Empire of Heaven The main strength of any building is in the foundation if that be firm and sure the fabrick well knit together will stand but if that be either not laid or lye loose and unsetled the tottering frame doth but wait upon the next wind for a ruine The good Patriark had been used to dwell in Tents which were not capable of a foundation It is like he and his ancestors wanted not good houses in Chaldea where they were formerly planted God calls him forth of those fixed habitations in his own Countrey to sojourn in Tabernacles or Booths in a strange land his faith carries him cheerfully along his present fruition gives way to hope of better things In stead of those poor sheds of sticks and skins he looks for a City in stead of those stakes and cords he looks for Foundations in stead of mens work he looks for the Architecture of God Alass we men will be building Castles and Towers here upon earth or in the ayr rather such as either have no foundation at all or at the best onely a foundation in the dust neither can they be any other whiles they are of mans making for what can he make in better condition then himself The City that is of Gods building is deep and firmly grounded upon the rock of his eternal decree and hath more foundations then one and all of them both sure and costly Gods material house built by Solomon had the foundation laid with great squared stone but the foundations of the wall of this City of God are garnished with all manner of precious stones Glorious things are spoken of thee O thou city of God Why do I set up my rest in this house of clay which is every day falling on my head whiles I have the assured expectation of so glorious a dwelling above For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens LXXIX God though he be free of his entertainments yet is curious of his guests we know what the great house-keeper said to the sordid guest Friend how camest thou in hither not having on a wedding garment To his feast of glory none can come but the pure without this disposition no man shall so much as see God much less be entertained by him To his feast of grace none may come but the clean and those who upon strict examination have found themselves worthy That we may be meet to sit at either of these Tables there must be a putting off ere there can be a putting on a putting off the old garments ere there can be a putting on the new the old are foul and ragged the new clean and holy for if they should be worn at once the foul and beastly under-garment would soyl and defile the clean the clean could not cleanse the foul As it was in the Jewish law of holiness holy flesh in the skirt of the garment could not infuse an holiness into the garment but the touch of an unclean person might diffuse uncleanness to the garment Thus our professed holiness and pretended graces are sure to be defiled by our secretly-maintained corruption not our corruption sanctified by our graces as in common experience if the sound person come to see the infected the infected may easily taint the sound the sound cannot by his presence heal the infected If ever therefore we look to
gracious a liberty of exchanging these worthless thoughts of the world for the deare and precious meditations of heavenly things and now how justly do I fall out with my wretched self that I have given way to secular distractions since my heart can be sometimes in Heaven why should it not be alwaies there II. What is this that I see my Saviour in an Agonie and an Angel strengthening him Oh the wonderful dispensation of the Almighty That the eternal Son of God who promised to send the comforter to his followers should need comfort That he of whom the voice from Heaven said This is my well-beloved Son in whom I am well pleased should be strugling with his Fathers wrath even to blood That the Lord of life should in a languishing horror say My soul is exceeding sorrowfull even unto death These these O Saviour are the chastisements of our peace which both thou wouldst suffer and thy Father would inflict The least touch of one of those pangs would have been no less then an hell to mee the whole brunt whereof thou enduredst for my soul what a wretch am I to grudg a little paine from or for thee who wert content to undergoe such pressure of torment for me as squeezed from thee a sweat of blood since my miserable sinfulness deserved more load then thou in thy merciful compassion wilt lay upon mee and thy pure nature and perfect innocence merited nothing but love and glory In this sad case what service is it that an Angel offers to do unto thee Lo there appeares to thee an Angel from Heaven strengthening thee still more wonder Art not thou the God of spirits Is it not thou that gavest being life motion power glory to all the Angels of Heaven Shall there be need of one single created spirit to administer strength and comfort to his Creator were this the errand why did not all that blessed Chore of celestial spirits joyn their forces together in so high an imployment Where are the multitudes of that heavenly host which at thy birth sung Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace Where are those Angels which ministred to thee after thy combat of temptations in the wilderness Surely there was not so much use of their divine cordialls in the desart as in the garden O my God and Saviour thus thou wouldst have it It is thy holy will that is the rule and reason of all thine actions and events Thou that wouldst make use of the provision of men for thy maintenance on earth wouldst employ thy servants the Angels for the supply of thy consolations and thou that couldst have commanded Legions of those celestial spirits wouldst be served by one not but that more were present but that onely one appeared all the host of them ever invisibly attended thee as God but as man one onely presents himself to thy bodily eyes and thou who madest thy self for our sakes a little lower then the Angels which thou madest wouldst humble thy self to receive comfort from those hands to which thou gavest the capacity to bring it It is no marvel if that which was thy condescent be our glory and happiness I am not worthy O God to know what conflicts thou hast ordained for my weakness what ever they be thou that hast appointed thine Angels to be ministring spirits for the behoof of them who shall be heirs of salvation suffer not thy servant to want the presence of those blessed Emissaries of thine in any of his extremities let them stand by his soul in his last agonie and after an happy Eluctation conveigh it to thy glory III. Many a one hath stumbled dangerously at a wicked mans prosperity and some have fallen desperately into that sin which they have seen thrive in others hands Those carnal hearts know no other proof of good or evil but present events esteeming those causes holy and just which are crowned with outward success not considering that it is one of the cunningest plots of hell to win credit to bad enterprises by the fairest issues wherein the Devill deales with unwary men like some cheating gamester who having drawn in an unskilful and wealthy novice into play suffers him to win a while at the first that he may at the last sweet away all the stakes and some rich mannors to boote The foolish Benjaminites having twice won the field begin to please themselves with a fale conceit of Gibeahs honesty and their own perpetual victories but they shall soon finde that this good speed is but a pit-fal to entrap them in an ensuing destruction It is a great judgment of God to punish sinners with welfare and to render their leud waies prosperuos wherein how contrary are the Almighties thoughts to theirs their seeming blessings are his heavy curse and the smart of his stripes are a favor too good for them to enjoy to judge wisely of our condition it is to be considered not so much how we fare as upon what termes If we stand right with Heaven every cross is a blessing and every blessing a pledge of future happiness if we be in Gods disfavor every of his benefits is a judgment and every judgment makes way for perdition For mee let it be my care that my disposition may be holy and my actions righteous let God undertake for the event IV It is no easie thing to perswade a man that he is proud every one professes to hate that vice yet cherishes it secretly in his bosome for what is pride but an over-weening of our selves and such is is our natural self-love that we can hardly be drawn to believe that in any kinde we think too well of our own Now this pride is ever so much more dangerous as the thing which we over-prize is more excellent and as our mis-apprehension of it mâ—y be more diffusive To be proud of gay-cloathes which is childish or to be proud of beauty which is a womanish vice hath in it more fondness then malignity and goes no further then the brest wherein it is conceived finding no other entertainment in the beholders then either smiles or envy but the pride of knowledg or holy dispositions of the soul as it is of an higher nature so it produceth commonly more perilous effects for as it puffes up a man above measure so it suffers not it self to bekept in within the narrow bounds of his own thoughts but violently bursts out to the extream prejudice of a world of men Onely by pride commeth contention saith wise Solomon Even purse-pride is quarelous domineering over the humble neighbourhood and raising quarrels out of trifles but the spiritual arrogance is so much more mischeivous as the soul is beyond all earthly pelf For when we are once come to advance and admire our own judgments we are first apt to hug our own inventions then to esteem them too precious to be smothered within our own closets the world must know of how
happy an issue we are delivered and must applaud it or abide a contestation and expect a challenge The fairest paradoxes cannot pass without a contradiction it were strange if some as bold and forward wits as our own should not take up the gantlet now the fray is begun the multitude is divided sides are taken the world is in an uproare from skirmishes we grow to pitcht fields the Church bleeds on both parts and it were marvel if kingdoms could be free But that which most notably evinceth the deceitfulness of mans heart in this behalf is that this pride is too often lodged in those brests which are professedly devoted to a godly and mortified lowliness for as for those persons which are meer flesh they are carelesly indifferent to error or truth neither are at all moved with the success of either but the religious minde when it is once possessed with the conceit of some singular and important truth revealed to it and hid from the rest of the world is ready to say with the Samaritan Lepers I do not well this day is a day of good tidings and I hold my peace and therefore makes it matter of conscience to trouble the Church with a mis-grounded novelty Come we to the Test Let me ask these mis-guided souls that are no less confidently perswaded of their own humility then Truth Can it be any other then an height of pride for a man to think himself wiser then the whole Church of God upon earth wiser then the whole Church of God that hath been upon earth ever since the Apostles of Christ inclusively in all successions to this present time Can they without much pride think they can look deeper into the great mysteries of Godliness then those blessed attendants of our Saviour and their gracious successors the holy martyrs the godly and religious guides of Gods Church in all the following ages Had not they then the same God the same Scriptures the illuminations of the same Spirit Can they imagine it less then insolent to attribute more to their own private opinion then to the constant judgment and practise of the whole Christian world in all successions of Generations Can they suppose themselves in their single capacity though neither Prophets nor Prophets sons meet Judges or Questionists of those matters of Faith which the general Councils of the purer times have unanimously agreed upon as the main principles of Christianity can they think themselves priviledged by the liberty of prophesying to coyn new articles to deface old Surely if the hand of pride be not in all this I shall never desire to be acquainted with humility so as it is too plain that a man may be exceeding proudly and not know it this vicious habit lurks close in the soul and unless it discover it self by some scarce discernable effects which break out now and then especially upon occasions of opposition is rather more concealed from the owner then from the eyes of a stranger But if ever it bewrays it self in the affectation of undue eminence scornful under-valuation of others merits obstinacy in opinion sharpness of censures and impatience of contradiction Of all these the world is commonly no less guilty then all these are guilty of the common miseries Lord deliver us from our pride and our contentions will dye alone V What a strange praise and priviledge is that which is given to Enoch above all those generations of men that peopled the first world of whom the Spirit of God saies Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him Doubtless amongst all those successive families of the sons of Seth there were many religious and well-affected souls yet there was no one of them that had this character set upon him that he walked with God but he Whether it were that God did in a more open and entire way reveal himself to that exemplary Saint or whether that holy man did in a more close and familiar fashion converse with the invisible Deity the presence was certain and the acknowledgment mutual neither was this walk short for a turn and away but constant and continual even for the space of three hundred years And what did the blessed man retire to some desart far from all humane society that he might enjoy this heavenly company alone Did he this-while cast off all secular thoughts and abdicate all the care of his family Neither this nor that for in this space wherein he walked with his God he both begat sons and daughters and bred them like the children of such a father as one that knew to make the world subordinate not opposite to it's maker and had learn'd to reconcile the use of the creature with the fruition of the Creator What then were the steps of this walk but pious thoughts heavenly affections fervent love reverential fear spiritual joy holy desires divine ravishments of spirit strict obediences assiduous devotions faithful affiances gracious ingagements firme resolutions and effectual indeavors of good and whatsoever might work a dearness of respect betwixt the soul and the God of Spirits O God that which thou promisedst as a reward to those few Saints of Sardis that had not defile their garments thou hast before hand fully performed to this eminent worthy of the first world he walked with thee in white in the white of innocence here and in the shining robes of glory above so thou hast told us He was not for God took him Lo being and good were wont to pass for convertible but here Enochs not-being is his blessedness he was not at all here that he might be perfectly above The best being on earth is but miserable even Enochs walk with God cannot exempt him from sorrows he must cease to be that he may begin to be happy He was then happy not for that he was not a meer privation of being can be no other then the worst of evils but for that God took him The God with whom he walkt so long upon earth takes him away from the earth to himself for eternity Here below though he walk't with God yet withall he conversed with sinful men whose wickedness could not but many a time vex his righteous soul now he is freed from all those spiritual annoyances enjoying onely the glorious presence and vision of the Divine majesty the blessed Angels and the Saints co-partners of the same immortality There can be no doubt but that the souls of his holy predecessors Adam Abel Seth returned to the God that gave them but had not Enoch been blessed with a peculiar conveiance to his glory it had not been said That God took him were onely the spirit of Enoch yeilded up in the way of an ordinary death the man had not been taken now whole Enoch body and soul is translated to an heavenly life His father Jared and his son Methuselah went to God in the common way of men by a separation of the spirit from the
knock'st for entrance wilt be pleased to inable me with strength to turn the key and to unbolt this unweldy bar of my soul O do thou make way for thy self by the strong motions of thy blessed Spirit into the in-most rooms of my heart and do thou powerfully incline me to mine own happiness els thou shalt be ever excluded and I shall be ever miserable XLI In what pangs couldst thou be O Asaph that so woful a word should fall from thee Hath God forgotten to be gracious Surely the temptation went so high that the next step had been blasphemie Had not that good God whom thy bold weakness questions for forgetfulness in great mercy remembred thee and brought thee speedily to remember thy self and him that which thou confessest to have been infirmity had proved a sinful despair I dare say for thee that word washed thy cheeks with many a tear and was worthy of more For O God What can be so dear to thee as the glory of thy mercy There is none of thy blessed attributes which thou desirest to set forth so much unto the sons of men and so much abhorrest to be disparaged by our detraction as thy mercy Thou canst O Lord forget thy displeasure against thy people thou canst forget our iniquities and cast our sins out of thy remembrance but thou canst no more forget to be gracious then thou canst cease to be thy self O my God I sin against thy justice hourly and thy mercy interposes for my remission but oh keep me from sinning against thy mercy What plea can I hope for when I have made my Advocate mine enemy XLI How happy O Lord is the man that hath thee for his God He can want nothing that is good he can be hurt by nothing that is evill his sins are pardoned his good indeavors are accepted his crosses are sanctified his prayers are heard all that he hath are blessings all that he suffers are advantages his life is holy his death comfortable his estate after death glorious Oh that I could feel thee to be my God that I could enjoy an heavenly communion with thee In vain should earth or hell labour to make me other then blessed XLII How just a motion is this of thine O thou sweet singer of Israel O love the Lord all ye his Saints Surely they can be no Saints that love not such a Lord Had he never been good to them yet that infinite goodness which is in himself would have commanded love from Saints Yet how could they have been Saints if he had wholly kept his goodness to himself In that then he hath made them Saints he hath communicated his goodness to them and challengeth all love from them and being made such how infinitely hath he obliged them with all kinds of mercies How can ye choose O ye Saints but love the Lord What have ye what are ye what can ye be but from his meer bounty They are sleight favours that he hath done you for the world in these his very enemies share with you How transcendent are his spirituall obligations Hath he not given you his Angels for your attendants himself for your Protector his Son out of his bosome for your Redeemer his Spirit for your Comforter his heaven for your inheritance If gifts can attract love O my God Who can have any interest in my heart but thy blessed self that hast been so infinitely munificent to my soul Take it to thee thou that hast made and bought it enamour it thoroughly of thy goodness make me sick of love yea let me die for love of thee who hast loved me unto death that I may fully enjoy the perfection of thy love in the height of thy glory XLIII Lord how have I seen men miscarried into those sins the premonition whereof they would have thought incredible and their yeildance thereto impossible How many Hazaels hath our very age yeilded that if a Prophet should have fore told their acts would have said Is thy servant a dog that he should do these great things Oh my God why do not I suspect my self What hold have I of my self more then these other miserable examples of humane frailtie Lord God if thou take off thy hand from me what wickedness shall escape me I know I cannot want a tempter and that tempter cannot want either power or malice or skill or vigilance or baits or opportunities and for my self I find too well that of my self I have no strength to resist any of his temptations O for thy mercies sake uphold thou me with thy mighty hand stand close to me in all assaults shew thy self strong in my weakness Keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins Let them not have dominion over me then onely shall I be upright and shall be innocent from the great transgression XLIV It is thy title O Lord and only thine that thou givest songs in the night The night is a sad and dolorous season as the light contrarily is the image of cheerfulness like as it is in bodily pains and aches that they are still worst towards night so it is in the cares and griefs of mind then they assault us most when they are helpt on by the advantage of an uncomfortable darkness Many men can give themselves songs in the day of their prosperity who can but howl in the night of their affliction but for a Paul and Silas to sing in their prison at mid-night for an Asaph to call to remembrance his song in the night this comes onely from that Spirit of thine whose peculiar style is the Comforter And surely as musick sounds best in the night so those heavenly notes of praise which we sing to thee our God in the gloomy darkness of our adversity cannot but be most pleasing in thine ears Thine Apostle bids us which is our ordinary wont when we are merry to sing when afflicted to pray but if when we are afflicted we can sing as also when we are merriest we can pray that ditty must needs be so much more acceptable to thee as it is a more powerful effect of the joy of thy Holy Ghost O my God I am conscious of my own infirmity I know I am naturally subject to a dull and heavy dumpishness under whatsoever affliction Thou that art the God of all comfort remedy this heartless disposition in me pull this lead out of my bosome make me not patient only but cheerful under my trials fill thou my heart with joy and my mouth with songs in the night of my tribulation XLV It is a true word O Lord that thy Seer said of thee long ago The Lord seeth not as man seeth Man sees the face thou seest the heart man sees things as they seem thou seest them as they are many things are hid from the eyes of men all things lie open and displaid before thee What a madness then were it in me to come disguised into
thy presence to seek to hide my counsels from thine al-seeing eyes I must be content Lord to be deluded here by fair appearances for I may not offer to look into the bosoms of men which thou hast reserved for thy self it is only the out-side that I can judg by Yea O God if I shall cast my eyes inward and look into my own brest even there I find my self baffled at home The heart of man is deceitful above all things who can know it None but those piercing eyes of thine can discover all the windings and turnings of that intricate piece What would it avail me O Lord to mock the eyes of all the world with a semblance of holiness whilst thou shouldst see me false and filthy Should I be censured by a world of men when I am secretly allowed by thee I could contemn it yea glory in their unjust reproach But if thine eye shall note me guilty to what purpose is all the applause of men O thou that art the God of truth do thou open and dissect this close heart of mine search every fibre that is in or about it and if thou findest any ill blood there let it out and if thou findest any hollowness fill it up and so work upon it that it may be approved of thee that madest it as for men it shall be alike to me whether they spend their breath or save it XLVI Lord God What a world of treasure hast thou hid in the bowels of the earth which no eye of man ever did or shall or can see What goodly plants hast thou brought forth of the earth in wilde unknown regions which no man ever beheld What great wits hast thou shut up in a willing obscurity which the world never takes notice of In all which thou shewest that it is not only the use and benefit of man which thou regardest in the great variety of thy creation and acts of administration of the world but thine own glory and the fulfilling of thine own good pleasure and if onely the Angels of heaven be witnesses of thy great works thou canst not want a due celebration of thy praise It is just with thee O God that thou shouldst regard only thy blessed self in all that thou doest or hast done for all is thine and thou art all Oh that I could sincerely make thee the perfect scope of all my thoughts of all my actions that so we may both meet in one and the same happy end thy glory in my eternall blessedness XLVII Indeed Lord as thou saist the night commeth when no man can work What can we do when the light is shut in but shut our eyes and sleep When our senses are tyed up and our limbs laid to rest what can we do but yeeld our selves to a necessary repose O my God I perceive my night hastening on apace my Sun draws low the shadows lengthen vapours rise and the air begins to darken Let me bestir my self for the time let me lose none of my few hours Let me work hard a while because I shall soon rest everlastingly XLVIII Thou seest Lord how apt I am to contemn this body of mine Surely when I look back upon the stuffe whereof it is made no better then that I tread upon and see the loathsomness of all kinds that comes from it and feel the pain that it oft times puts me to and consider whither it is going and how noisome it is above all other creatures upon the dissolution I have much adoe to hold good terms with so unequal a partner But on the other side when I look up to thy hand and see how fearfully and wonderfully thou hast made it what infinite cost thou hast bestowed upon it in that thou hast not thought thine own blood too dear to redeeme it that thou hast so far honour'd it as to make it the Temple of thy holy Ghost and to admit it into a blessed communion with thy self and hast decreed to do so great things for it hereafter even to cloath it with immortality and to make it like unto thy glorious body I can bless thee for so happy a mate and with patience digest all these necessary infirmities and now I look upon this flesh not as it is withered and wrinkled but as it will be shining and glorified O Lord how vile so ever this clay is in it self yet make mee in thine interest and my hopes so enamoured of it as if I did already finde it made celestial Oh that my faith could prevent my change and anticipate my ensuing glory XLIX Lord what a dreadful favor was that which thou shewedst to thy Prophet Elijah to send a fiery chariot for him to conveigh him up to Heaven I should have thought that the sight of so terrible a carriage should have fetcht away his soul before-hand and have left the body groveling on the earth But that good Spirit of thine which had fore-signified that fiery rapture had doubtless fore-armed thy servant with an answerable resolution to expect and undergoe it Either he knew that chariot how ever fearful in the appearance was onely glorious and not penal Or els he cheerfully resolved that such a momentany pain in the change would be followed with an eternity of happiness O God we are not worthy to know whereto thou hast reserved us Perhaps thou hast appointed us to be in the number of those whom thou shalt finde alive at thy second coming and then the case will be ours we shall pass through fire to our immortality or if thou hast ordained us to a speedier dispatch perhaps thou hast decreed that our way to thee shall be through a fiery triall O God what ever course thou in thine holy wisdom hast determined for the fetching up my soul from this vale of misery and tears prepare me thoroughly for it and do thou work my heart to so lively a faith in thee that all the terrours of my death may be swallowed up in an assured expectation of my speedy glory and that my last groans shall be immediately seconded with eternall Allelujahs in the glorious Chore of thy Saints and Angels in Heaven Amen Amen FINIS 2 Cor. 4. 18. Colos 3. 1 2. Rom. 13. 14. Gal. 3. 27. Exod. 32. 25. Psal 32. 1. Zech. 3. 4. Deut. 16. Eccles 9. 7 8. Psal 4. 7. Luk. 16. 19. Ephes 6. Cant. 1. 15. Cant. 5. 3. Psal 19. 1. Psa ult ult Psal 103. 1. 2. Psa 146. 1 2. Luk. 12. 49. Acts 2. Joh. 16. 7. Jer. 5. 14. Luk. 23. 32. Cant. 8 7. Psal 119. 139. Psal 39 4. Psal 104. 4. Heb. 1. 7. Heb. 1. 14. 1 Pet. 4. 12. Lament 4. 11. Lam. 2. 17. Judges 9. 20. Acts 2. 2 12. 2 Kings 6. 25. Psal 30. 6. Phil. 1. 23. Joh. 13. 16. Joh. 15. 8. Joh. 15. 14. Joh. 20. 17. Joh. 17. 21 22 23. Psal 2. Luk. 8. 2. Psa 80. 13. Jer. 4. 20. Esa 1. 7. Psa 89. 40. Esa 27. 11.
which her insulting rival might not see On the contrary there are many whom we pity as miserable that laugh in their sleeve and applaud themselves in their secret felicity and would be very loath to exchange conditions with those that commiserate them A ragged Cynick likes himself at least as well as a great Alexander The mortifyed Christian that knows both worlds looks with a kinde of contented scorn upon the proud gallant that contemns him as feeling that heaven within him which the other is not capable to believe It is no judging of mens real estate by their semblance nor valuing others worth by our own rate And for our selves if we have once laid sure grounds of our own inward contentment and happiness it matters not greatly if we be mis-known of the world XLI For one man to give titles to another is ordinary but for the great God to give titles to a poor wretched man is no less then wonderful Thus doth the Lord to Job There is none like him in the earth a perfect and upright man O what must he needs be in whom his maker glories Lo who would have looked for a Saint in so obscure a corner of the east and in so dark a time before ever the Law gave light to the world yet even then the land of UZ yields a Job no time no place can be any bar to an infinite mercy Even this while for ought I see the Sun shined more bright in Midian then in Goshen Gods election will be sure to finde out his own any where out of hell and if they could be there even there also Amongst all those idolatrous heathen Job is perfect and upright his religion and integrity is so much the more glorious because it is so ill neighbored as some rich Diamond is set off by a dark foyl O the infinite goodness of the Almighty that picks out some few grains out of the large chaff-heap of the world which he reserves for the granary of a blessed immortality It is not of him that willeth nor in him that runneth but of God that hath mercy We might well imagine that such a sprig must sprout out of the stock of faithful Abraham what other loyns were likely to yield so holy an issue And if his Sarah must be the mother of the promised seed yet why might he not also raise a blessed seed from Keturah The birth doth not always follow the belly even this second brood yields an heir of his fathers faith it is said That to the sons of the Concubines Abraham gave gifts and sent them away to the East Surely this son of the Concubine carries away as rich a legacy of his fathers grace as ever was enjoyed by the Son of the promise at home The gifts that Abraham gave to Midian were nothing to those gifts which the God of Abraham gives to this son of Midian who was perfect and upright one that feared God and eschued evil I perceive the holy and wise God meant to make this man a patern as of patience so of all heavenly vertues he could not be fit for that use if he were not exquisite and what can be wanting to that man of whom God holily boasts that he is Perfect And now what mettal is so fit to challenge the fire of affliction as this pure gold and who is so fit a match for the great Adversary as this Champion of God Never had he been put upon so hard a combat if God had not well known both the strength that he had given him and the happy success of his conflict little doth that good man know what wager is laid on his head but strongly incounters all his tryals The Sabeans have bereft him of his Oxen the Chaldees of his Camels the fire from Heaven of his sheep the tempest of his children Satan of his health and had not his wife been left to him for his greatest cross and his friends for his further tormentors I doubt whether they had escaped Lo there sits the great Potentate of the East naked and forlorn in the ashes as destitute of all comforts as full of painful boyls and botches scraping his loathsome hide with a potsheard yet even in that woful posture possessing his soul in patience maintaining his innocence justifying his Maker cheering himself in his Redeemer and happily triumphing over all his miseries and at last made the great miroir of divine bounty to all generations Now must Job pray for his freindly persecutors and is so high in favor with God that it is made an argument of extream wrath against Israel that though Noah Daniel and Job were in the land they should deliver none but their own souls O God this Saint could not have had this strength of invincible patience without thee thou that rewardest it in him didst bestow it upon him it is thy great mercy to crown thine owne works in us thy gifts are free thou canst fortifie even my weak soul with the same powers strengthen me with the same grace and impose what thou wilt XLII As it shall be once in glory so it is in grace there are degrees of it The Apostle that said of his auditors they have received the holy Ghost as well as we did not say they have received the holy Ghost as much as we We know the Apostles had so much as to give it to others none besides them could do so It is an happy thing to have any quantity of true sanctifiying grace at all every drop of water is water and every grain of gold is gold every measure of grace is precious But who is there that when he is dry would take up with one drop of liquor when he might have more or if covetously minded would sit down content with one dram of gold in such cases a little doth but draw on a desire of more it is strange to see that in all other commodities we desire a fulness If God give us fruit of our bodies it contents us not to have an imperfect childe but we wish it may have the full shape and proportion and when God hath answered us in that we do not rest in the integrity of parts but desire that it may attain to a fulness of understanding and of stature and then lastly to a fulness of age We would have full dishes full cups full cofers full barns a fulness of all things save the best of all which is the holy Ghost Any measure of spiritual grace contents us so as we are ready to say with Esau I have enough my brother There is a sinful kinde of contentation wherewith many fashionable Christians suffer themselves to be beguiled to the utter undoing of their souls for hereupon they grow utterly careless to get what they think they have already who cares to eat that is full cramed and by this means they live and die graceless for had they ever tasted how sweet the Lord is in the Graces of his
holy Spirit they could never think they had enough and whiles they do think so they are utterly uncapable of either having or desiring more As there is a sinful so there is an holy covetousness which the more it hath the more it affects Lord make me thus covetous and I cannot chuse but be rich XLIII What a marvelous familiarity was this which Moses had with God That the Lord spake unto Moses face to face as a man speaketh to his friend and yet more that Moses so spake to God! what a bold and high request was that which Moses made to God I beseech thee shew me thy glory that is as it is there interpreted thy face that face which no man might see and live Lo God had immediately before spoken to Moses even to his face out of the cloudy pillar that doth not satisfie his holily-ambitious soul but as he heard the voyce so he must see the face of the Almighty That cloudy pillar did sufficiently represent unto him the presence of the great God of Israel yet still he sues for a sight of his glory This is no patern for flesh and blood far be it from our thoughts to aspire so high Thy face O God will we seek but in thy blessed ordinances not in thy glorious and incomprehensible essence It is not for me as yet to presume so far as to desire to see that infinite light which thou art or that light wherewith thou art cloathed or that light inaccessible wherein thou dwelest Onely now shew me the light of thy countenance in grace and prepare my soul for that light of glory when I shall see as I am seen XLIV In the waters of life the divine Scriptures there are shallows and there are deeps shallows where the lamb may wade and deeps where the Elephant may swim If we be not wise to distinguish we may easily mis-carry he that can wade over the foord cannot swim through the deep and if he mistake the passage he drowns What infinite mischeif hath arisen to the Church of God from the presumption of ignorant and unlettered men that have taken upon them to interpret the most obscure Scriptures and pertinaciously defended their own sense How contrary is this to all practise in whatsoever vocation In the Taylors trade every man can stitch a seam but every man cannot cut out a garment In the Saylers art every one may be able to pull at a cable but every one cannot guide the helm In the Physitians profession every gossip can give some ordinary receits upon common experience but to finde the nature of the disease and to prescribe proper remedies from the just grounds of art is proper to the professors of that science and we think it absurd and dangerous to allow every ignorant Mountebank to practise In matter of law every plain country-man knows what belongs to distraining impounding replevying but to give sound counsel to a clyent in a point of difficulty to draw firm conveyances to plead effectually and to give sound judgment in the hardest cases is for none but Barristers and Benchers And shall we think it safe that in Divinity which is the mistress of all Sciences and in matters which may concern the eternal safety of the soul every man should take upon him to shape his own coat to steer his own way to give his own dose to put and adjudg his own case The old word was that Artists are worthy to be trusted in their own trade Wherefore hath God given to men skill in arts and tongues Wherefore do the aptest wits spend their times and studies from their infancy upon these sacred imployments if men altogether inexpert in all the grounds both of art and language can be able to pass as sound a judgment in the depths of Theological truths as they How happy were it if we could all learn according to that word of the Apostle to keep our selves within our own line As Christians the Scriptures are ours but to use to enjoy to read to hear to learn to meditate to practise not to interpret according to our private conceit for this faculty we must look higher The Priests lips are to preserve knowledg and they shall seek the Law at his mouth for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts XLV When we see the year in his prime and pride decked with beautiful blossoms and all goodly varieties of flowers cheered with the Musick of birds and stated in a sweet and moderate temper of heat and cold how glad we are that we have made so good an exchange for an hard and chilling winter and how ready we could be to wish that this pleasant and happy season might last all the year long But herein were our desires satisfied we should wish to our own great disadvantage for if the spring were not followed with an intension of Summers heat those fruits whose hopes we see in the bud and flower could never come to any perfection and even that succeeding fervor if it should continue long would be no less prejudicial to the health and life of all creatures and if there were not a relaxation of that vigorous heat in Autumn so as the sap returns back into the root we could never look to see but one years fruit And thus also it is spiritually if our prosperity were not intermixed with vicissitudes of crosses and if the lively beams of grace were not sometimes interchanged with cold desertions we should never know what belongs to spiritual life What should we do then but be both patient of and thankful for our changes and make no account of any constancy till we attain to the Region of rest and blessedness XLVI What fools doth the devil make of those men which would fain otherwise be accounted wise who would think that men could be so far forsaken of their reason as to fall down before those stocks and stones which their own hands had carved to guide their enterprises by the fond auguries of the flying or posture or noyse of fowls or the inspection of the entrails of beasts to tye the confidence of their success to certain scrawls and characters which themselves have devised to read their own or others fortunes in their hands or stars to suffer themselves mocked with deceitful visions neither are his spiritual delusions less gross and palpable wise Solomon speaks of the wickedness of folly and we may no less truly invert it the folly of wickedness the fool saith our Saviour builds his house upon the sand so as it may be washt away with the next waves what other doth the foolish worldling that builds all his hopes upon uncertain riches momentany pleasures deceitful favors The fool saith Solomon walketh in darkness the sinner walks in the darkness of ignorance through the works of darkness to the pit of darkness The fool saith the Preacher knows not the way into the city The worldling may perhaps hit