Pet 2.4 To love thy self into Sobriety or Prudent self Government to cloath thy self with a Robe of Righteousness and Mercy in thy dealings with Men is not enough is not the full and adequate Doctrine and Duty taught by the Grace of God which brings Salvation Titus 2.11 There must be superadded not only a denying Vngodliness so as to crucifie it but a living Godly leading a Religious Life towards God in Love Faith Fear Honour Universal Acknowledgment out of Conscience For what Conscience in dealing well with Men and ill with God that is with the Subjects fairly and not with the Soveraign What Conscience in breaking the first Article betwixt God and Man which is to give him the sole command in his House thy Heart that living Temple which is the sum of the First Commandment What Conscience to dwell in his House and pay him no Rent No external Acknowledgment and Worship in Publick in thy Family in thy Closet the sum of the Second Command What Conscience whilst tender of thy own Name to be regardless of Gods forbid in the Third Command What Conscience in stealing time from God's reserved part when he allows thee so much beside the Fourth Command violated Be never so sober just free kind to Man-ward if thou respect not God O my Soul thou hast no Conscience For where there 's no Godliness there can be no Conscience Oh make it thy first and main business to approve thy self to God Thou canst never be true to thy self or Man if thou be a Traytor to God Thou hast no greater assistance in thy dutifulness to Men than a due regardfulness of God Thou canst have no better evidence of a due regardfulness of God than thy conscientious dutifulness to Men. Thou forfeit'st the reputation of thy Religiousness towards God if thou be not Righteous towards Man and of thy Righteousness if not Religious Like Hippocrates's Twins these are born and act and sicken and die together That 's the 4th ingredient of the Psalmist's Character he upheld universal Innocency and Integrity of Conscience CHAP. VII The Subject of Comfort Publickly Spirited c. True Christianity c. 5. THis Holy Man was of a Publick Spirit living under a Catholick sence of and care for the common concerns of the Church of God Lamenting its Miseries ver 5 6. longing and praying for its redemption from them by the Power and Justice of God ver 1 2 3 4 20. and encouraging his own and its hopes thereof by a serious reflection upon the Divine Attributes ver 1 2 8 9 10 11. Providences ver 12 13. and his own particular experience ver 17 18 19 21. withal by a Prophetick Spirit foretelling it ver 14 15 23. all which are plain in the Psalm and plain demonstrations of a Heart enlarged in its desires and endeavours for Publick Good A good Soul is not well at ease when the Servants of God are ill at ease The Sufferings of the Church are made its own by a sympathizing Spirit which is afflicted in all its Afflictions and cannot enjoy Prosperity or it self in Contentation when God's Children are groaning under the Cross Mourns with Mourning Rejoyces with rejoycing Sion and uses its interest in Heaven to work upon the Bowels of the ever-blessed Son of God that he may demonstrate his tender Commiserations toward his own Members in Misery by turning the course of his Providence And that this is a proper method to Comfort we see Isai 66.10 11. Rejoyce ye with Jerusalem and be glad with her all ye that love her rejoyee for joy with her all ye that mourn for her that ye may suck and be satisfied with the Breasts of her Consolations that ye may milk out and be delighted with the abundance of her Glory God had a People a Heritage which though Afflicted and broken in pieces here ver 5. yet he would not cast off nor forsake either in respect of Affection or Communion ver 14. So neither must we For 't is by Vertue of our Union and Communion with that Body and its Head that all those comfortable Spirits and Influences are derived to us which refresh and revive us I confess 't is through our internal and spiritual Confederation and Fellowship but he that values and receives benefit by this cannot despise and vilifie the External Hence our Psalmist here as a Member vitally joined to the Body and partaking of a common Sense does not only comfort himself and it with the consideration of the inviolableness of that Union and Communion which was of a spiritual Nature ver 14. nor only reflects upon those external Ligaments and Bonds which ty'd together so numerous a People into one single Heritage or Church but also was grievously afflicted for those external breakings in pieces rents and disunion of parts though involuntary which were the fruit of the outward Violence and Rage of Persecutors So should we But then Oh what Affliction would have rent his tender Heart in the view of those voluntary tearing in pieces the Seamless Coat of Christ the Divisions and Breaches we make amongst our selves Those Fractions were only some kind of dissolution of their Civil Political Union ours of the Ecclesiastical and Wounds are most dangerous in the most noble Parts State Factions are not more to be dreaded than those of the Church because these have more immediate respect to the Soul and God Lamentable are the Miseries of a Civil War where Thousands Born Bred up Nourished by one common Mother Brethren by Stock Blood Condition Cohabitation Membership of the same Body Politick perhaps of one Name and Kindred and Family of the same Body Mystical the Church Blind and Dumb and Deaf to the Cries and Shreeks and Wounds and Groans and Deaths of their own proper Limbs in a barbarous drunken rage tear off their own Skin Flesh and Bones rive open their very Hearts to let out Spirit Life Strength Soul hurl one another down to Hell under their Sin in a deluge of Blood and worry themselves by piece-meal into eternal Damnation And are the Church Digladiations in the Christian World less deplorable when those whose respite from everlasting Burnings cost no less than the Blood of God who are denominated from that most venerable Name wash'd in the same Laver of Regeneration Members of the same Spiritual Body privileged with the same most excellent Gospel and Covenants of Promise and would every one be ready to tear out his Heart that should dare to tell them that they shall not each possess the blessedness of an unspeakably glorious Heaven where therefore as in a Center they must meet if their hopes fail not When these I say who thus concenter and agree in their Titles Royalties and Expectations are so far from combining in the common profession and practice of Unity Love Peace Goodness Vertue Godliness Brotherly kindness Charity as to grind one another into Atoms bite and devour one anothers Hearts by bloody Animosities Reproaches
Malignant Spirits These being the Permissions of Providence to punish Sin which as Executions of Justice God attributes to his own Efficiency Amos 3.6 Though mediately may we not also refer hither the immediate Effects of his Power and Justice in Plagues Sicknesses Famines c. Since they agree though not in the Instruments and Means yet in the Original and Author and Meritorious Cause and Principal End 3. Despairing Thoughts and Reflections are beyond all Imagination Afflictive and of this Nature we find some oppressing the Psalmist's Spirit although they were not of the worst kind For despair he did not of Mercy and Relief from Heaven a Misery of all other most intolerable He only despaired as being destitute of all Hope of Help and Succour from Man Vers 16. Who will rise up for me Who will stand up for me The redoubled Interrogation implies a more vehement Negation None none at all For unless the Lord had been my help I had gone without Redemption Vers 17. All the hopes I had upon Earth did utterly fail there was none shut up or left I was reduc'd to the utmost extremity and that was Gods opportunity He was seen in the Mount when the Knife was at the Throat and defunct was all considence in Man Now although the failure of all Earthly Supports be grievous yet when a Man has encouragment to devolve himself on the never-failing Goodness of God he is never destitute of a Satisfaction which will abundantly Counterveil those troublesome Disappointments and therefore his Condition is not really miserable But if this fail also if his strength and hope Perish from the Lord Lam. 3.18 that he be in Saul's sore Distress 1 Sam. 28.6 15. and can have a Prospect of nothing but Eternal Death and Damnation Tongue cannot tell nor Heart imagine the Anxieties and Agonies which as a Prolepsis and Anticipation of Hell sting and excruciate his miserable Soul There 's nothing on this side that Dungeon of everlasting Darkness and Woe can equal this which made Spira sometimes wish himself in Hell that he might feel the worst Oh doleful Perplexity indeed when a Man out of a distracting fear of Hell desires to feel it Oh Horror when anguish of Mind under dreadful Expectations enforces his will to chuse what is infinitely more anguishful and the Drops of Brimstone and Fire that scald his Conscience urge him to a strange unaccountable freeness to be ever consuming in that Bottomless Ocean where Mitigation of Torment end of Misery abatement of Sense will be not only desperate but impossible Oh Despair thou art the sum and strength of Wretchedness the Bitterness and Poison of a never ending Death the Fuel and Flame of an unutterable Torturous Hell Blessed is the Soul that never shall never must feel thy racking Horrors in this or another World CHAP. XII Comforts in general MY last Explicatory Undertaking was to consider and describe the Comforts which now cast so benign an Aspect and Influence upon this Holy Mans afflicted disconsolate Soul They may be considered either Formally or Materially Formally in their proper Nature and true Constitution as an inward refreshment and ease to the Heart Comfort is a Map of Paradise the lovely Meet-Help and Succour of desolate distressed Man the Blessed Repast and Banquet of Holy Angels and Saints The Uncreated Eternal Heaven and Jubilee of God himself the Light wherein he ever dwells that spreads abroad its sweet reviving Rays as largely and liberally as its Fountain the super-intending Care and Goodness of Heaven and especially unto the humble and contrite Heart setling it in a firm and durable Repose and Peace And when the Sin of degenerate Man had banish'd it from the Earth and his own Soul the infinitely Wise and All-knowing God the Father the dearly beloved Word and Wisdom of God his only Begotten Son and the Eternal Spirit of Truth and Grace did by an ever adoreable astonishing Method of Goodness and Love contrive a Retrieval thereof that under its loss Man might not continue the most miserable of the whole Creation 'T is the sweet reviving Breath of boundless Grace and compassion in the Eternal Father infusing new Life and Vigour into Fainting Groaning Bleeding Dying Hearts and Enspiriting them for God A refreshing Beam from the Son of Righteousness which infuses Warmth Strength and Soul into the disconsolate Heart of dejected Man that lies benighted in a Hell of Misery and Darkness The Oyl of Life poured out by the Holy Ghost upon a Benumbed Frozen Restive Soul which gently turns the Wheels of Action in a smooth free ready easie speedy Course and continues them in an unwearied motion toward Heaven A sweet and lovely Paraphrase upon the Promises Ingraven in a Wounded Heart by the Finger of God A powerful Antidote to the Poison of Tormenting Grief and Despair sweeter than Sorrow can be sowre An all-satisfying Foretast and Anticipation of the never Intermitting never Terminating Joys of Eternity When the Sovereign Majesty of Heaven would Ingratiate himself and though in a humble Demission and Debasement of his Glory yet appear in his highest Loveliness to Man 't is in a Robe of Light Joy Comfort and Peace and when a Wounded Spirit that 's discouraged in its Work by the pressure of its own self-created Woes desires to be entertained into and impowred for and chearfully to engage in his Service it implores and sues for the Joy of the Lord to be its Strength When God's Heralds have been denouncing War to Rebels Vengeance against Enemies thereby terrifying them into a War and Enmity against their Sins He next Commissions them as his Embassadors to revive those troubled Souls with a message of glad Tidings of Joy and Peace and Consolation 'T is the refreshing Dew of Heaven upon a barren heart that has been scorched and parched with the fiery Indignation of the Almighty which causes it to bring forth Fruit with rejoycing The gracious Smile of the ever Blessed Jesus upon a weeping wounded Spirit that 's sick of its sins and sores sick for the sense of his Love A hand let down from above to lay hold upon and bring up from the deep an oppressed Spirit sunk with the weight of its own woeful thoughts into an unfathomable Abyss of Miseries A returning Pillar of Cloud and Fire to an Israelite indeed that was bewildred and lost in a vast howling Wilderness of Danger and Horror to direct and lead it with Joy to its Coelestial Rest A secure and welcome Port of safety and repose for a weather-beaten Soul that by the storms and surges of Almighty Vengeance hath been Shipwrack'd and split all to pieces in a Contrition and Humiliation for Sin A Bed of ease and quiet for a weak and sickly weary heart which hath been wrestling and labouring under the weighty Load of Divine Wrath set on and made more grievous by the Lashes of a Scourging Conscience A Heaven of unspeakable Delight and Satisfaction descending into and raising
Minds and sue for that Mercy for our selves which once we would not receive or so much as desire as an answer to the Petitions of our Mediator Be not a Stranger to thine own Heart yet do not think to dig thy Peace out of thine own Bowels If it be a comforting reviving thing to find in thy self the truth of Grace yet that refreshing vertue of Grace it self is from God Whence we find some that although they be tolerably satisfied of their soundness yet through Ignorance or Inadvertency or Melancholy or Temptation c. cannot settle in a calm and quiet composure of Mind For as I said the Assurance of the truth of a Man's Grace is only comforting as it is the ground of his Assurance of the Love of God of which if a Man be not satisfied i. e. that true Grace is an infallible evidence that God does embrace him with his special Love and is at peace with him through Christ his Conscience will not be at rest for it cannot rest in discord with God whose Deputy 't is in Man Now some are so weak as not to understand this others so opprest with dumpishness of Spirit as not to heed it others so deluded by Satan as not to believe it which mists if not dispell'd damp the comfort of Grace Look therefore to the Sun of Righteousness to clear up thy Comforts by expeling this Darkness Seek abroad for Peace The Bee finds not her Honey at home without the labour of her Wings Let thy Supplications then O my Soul be continually winging thy Affections towards Heaven that they may there suck and be satisfied Isa 66. with the full Brests of Divine Consolation milk out and be delighted with the abundance of its Glory The Celestial Canaan is the Land that flows with the Milk and Honey of Divine and Spiritual Joy into which as at first thou passest over the Jordan of Repentance not upon dry ground but wafted by the breath of Prayer So must thou take possession of it in Armour fighting the good Fight of Faith with Heart and Hands like Moses lift up in earnest Supplications Exod. 17.11 Isa 61.1 3. The Spirit of God is upon Christ because the Lord hath anointed him To appoint to them that mourn in Sion to give them Beauty for Ashes the Oyl of Joy for Mourning c. If it be his Gift to him must we address for it The Tree from whence this Oyl of Gladness flows is planted in the Paradise of God descend to thee it shall not unless thou ascend to it and be ingrafted in the same Stock Oh transplant thy self from Earth to Heaven and take root at the Throne of Grace fix thy self and grow at the Footstool of Mercy by Frayer if as a Tree of Righteousness thou wouldst draw in be nourish'd and refresh'd by those consolatory dews of Divine Love which are the spring of that River of the Waters of Life which makes glad the City of God Be more above with the Father of Meries and God of all Comfort in these Devout and Ardent Suspirations than below glued to the Earth by Carnal Affections if thou desirest to be a Barnabas may I thus transfer it from its active to a passive Sense a Son an Heir an Inheritor of Celestial Consolations If thou canst but pray indeed thou art secure the furious Waves of these two meeting Seas Sin and Suffering may wrack thee but cannot swallow thee up Sink perhaps thou maist but Drown thou canst not the gentle Gales of the Spirit in this duty will most safely transport thee to the Haven of Everlasting Joy and Peace even in the ruin of all thy Fortunes Thy Miseries thy Corruptions shall perish thou thy self shalt not so true is that Saying of a Reverend Bishop Fashionable Suppliants may talk to God Bp. Hall but be confident he that can truly pray can never be miserable Of our selves we lie open to all Evils our rescue is from above and what intercourse have we with Heaven but by our Prayers This is his Catholicon Seneca advises his Lucilius to superadd new to his old Prayers to ask a good Soul good Health of Mind Epist 10 Quidni t◠ista vota saepe facias audacter Deum roga then of Body Why dost not oft renew these Requests Beg of God boldly So live with Men as if God saw so speak to God as if Men heard A good Precept to which adjoyn the like from the wisest of Men Eccles 5.1 2. Keep thy Foot when thou goest into the House of God c. Be not rash with thy Mouth and let not thine Heart be hasty to utter any thing before God For God is in Heaven and thou upon Earth therefore let thy Words be few 'T is not much speaking but hearty that God regards not the Tongue of Men and Angels but Truth in the inward Parts Broken Expressions from a broken Heart are as sweet Eloquence in the esteem of God as the best in Tully or Demosthenes Oh then pour out thy Prayers as a Flood Isa 26.16 If thou desirest they should return in a Tyde of Peace They can never reach Heaven if they have not a spring of Grace within they will never be received there if not the warm Exhalations Transpirations of a melting contrite Heart drawn out and drawn up by the dissolving attractive Rayes of the Son of Righteousness If the Divine Spirit infuse this Breath into thee it will follow him to Heaven and through his Influence who is the Comforter possess thee of the fulness of the Comforts of Elshaddai God all-sufficient If as a cloven Tongue of Fire the Holy Ghost descend and sit upon thee and give thee utterance Acts 2.3 4. not merely in conference with Men but secret speech Isa 26.16 with God If he envigorate and heat thy Graces and Affections that the Fire burn within Psal 39.3 and give speech to thy Tongue If he cast the pure Incense of Spiritual Devotion upon that flaming Altar thy fervent zealous Heart that may ascend in a sweet smelling Cloud to the Throne of God If Lastly this Fire from Heaven fall upon thy Sacrifice as a testimony or the audience of thy Prayers then wilt thou shout for Joy Levit 9. ult and triumph in his Salvation If thou would'st entertain any grounded hopes that the Lord will speak comfortably to thy Heart oh do thy utmost by Premeditation by Reading by Ejaculation c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to blow up into a living Fire those Divine Sparks of the Grace of Prayer which the Spirit doth cast within thee as a preparation for thy solemn Exercise in the duty of Prayer it self and let thy Supplications be rather the inward workings of thy Heart in aversation from Sin and panting after God by godly Sorrow Repentance Desire Faith Love Resignation c. than the labour of thy Lips and a bodily Exercise or the Work of an enlarged invention and fancy or strong Head and
get advantage by nothing according to the Proverb of the Rowling Stone Therefore Command thy self in chief is a good Monition of Mr. Herbert If thou losest the regiment of thine own Mind and canst not bridle the exorbitances of thy Thoughts bring them to a beck like one in Authority keeping them under controul and if thou hast not a good stock of profitable matter treasured up in thy Memory to entertain them with at all times maintaining thy Jurisdiction and Dominion over them to be able to divorce and divert them from any thing to any thing thou canst never live in Tranquillity and Peace Those Cogitations that break the pale and run out of course will still be creating Civil Wars and Combustions among thy Passions and interrupt the Serenity of thy Conscience Hence it is that Meditation is not the immediate duty of nor proper for the constitutionally Melancholick whose temper it is to be too cogitabund and their Disease to be altogether unable to biass their Thoughts and to be too willing to lay out those Cogitations rather upon any thing than what is Joyous and Comforting Let such make use of other Mens Thoughts rather that their own and be more in Company and Conference than Solitude and Soliloquies Neme est ex imprudentioribus qui relinqui sibi debeat Seneea Ep. 10. 'T is dangerous riding in that Chariot where there will be no other Company than the Prince of Darkness and Melancholy by some is call'd the Devil's Chariot 'T is oftner managed by an Evil Spirit than a Good therefore 't is no Wisdom for a Man to trust himself with it alone And if trouble of Heart for Sin degenerate into it as sometimes it does 't is good to set a guard upon it to live under Inspection A Man can never keep himself secure from Sins or Sorrows that hath none to keep his House but a dumpish Mind Think thou but not too much that thy Thoughts do not swallow thee up as they will if that black humour prevail within Get a guide for thy Thoughts least they misguide thee into Darkness And for that end 3. Get a clear practical notion of God This was the Psalmist's great relief In every Distress he could find an accommodate suitable Satisfaction and Solace in God Did the Wicked rage and revel in the Blood of Innocents His Faith beholds a revenging Hand ready to execute Judgment for them Did those presumptuous Deists incourage themselves in Cruelty by renouncing Divine Providence He understands and convinces them that it supervises all even to the very thoughts of the Heart Did he feel the treachery and failure of Friends on Earth He both knew and found a never failing Friend and Helper in Heaven c. In every Trouble and Exigence he meets with God Now had he been unacquainted with his Nature and Perfections we should have seen nothing of all this and then in what deplorable Circumstances would he have found himself under those surrounding Calamities Whence could he have taken any Encouragement Let us take a view of Men making no such Reflections and therefore its likely but little acquainted with such Notions And the Instance shall be in his own Companions 1 Sam. 30.3 David and his Men return to Ziklag find it burnt with Fire their Sons and Daughters taken Captives wherefore ver 4. They lifted up their Voice and wept till they had no more power to weep Ver. 6. And David was in great distress for the People spake of stoning him because the Soul of the People was bitter every Man for his Sons and for his Daughters Here was wild work What fury of Passion first in Grief next in Rage first they swelt in Tears then would swim in Blood and what would they have been the nearer To such Excesses will the frenzy of a drunken Appetite lead Men that are ignorant of God or entertain no serious Considerations of his Excellencies and their concern in the Government of the World Now behold did not an other Spirit rule in David a Man acquainted with God Yes a brave Heroical Spirit Ver. 6. David encouraged fortified garrison'd himself in the Lord his God Mark His knowledge of God and Interest in God now mightily bore up his Heart and stood him in very good stead else might his Spirits have sunk with theirs But whilst they were impotent through effeminate or diabolical Passion he was strong in God Their puling and peevishness did emasculate their Hearts and melt them into Pusillanimity and Cowardice that they did not dare to confront and face this present hardship but he became Couragious and Valiant in God so as with an undaunted masculine Fortitude and greatness of Mind to triumph over and outface the imminent Storm and work his way through it though with redoubled Violence from both Enemies and Friends it rush'd upon him And truly since all our Comfort is originally and eminently and consummately in God 't is impossible to enjoy any sound Quiet and Heart-ease under ignorance of him For how should a Man be able to draw and derive Comfort from he knows not what But if he see that fulness of all delectable Joys in God which are all-sufficient to relieve his Mind and compensate his sorest Troubles as the Love of God in Christ will and contemplate study and dwell upon that infiniteness of Soul-satisfying Good till the inviting amiableness ravish his Desires command his Delight engage his Soul in the most vigorous pursuit and endeavours to gain an Interest therein he shall not fail to obtain that sweet reviving Solace and Peace in the most acceptable season which will place him as in a corner of Heaven Our Sorrows are more than half remov'd when we gain a sight of their most efficacious Remedies If a Man at unawares have drunk Poyson 't is no small satisfaction to see and be sure of a prevalent Antidote Despair is the sting of Miseries Be the Storms and Surges never so high and beat upon us with seemingly the most fatal Violence yet if our Hope can but meet with any Anchor-hold if we can gain a sight of Land if we behold a sufficiency of Help and Security there our Despondencies only are Shipwrack'd we escape Those Hopes can never perish that steer towards Heaven If our Course be guided with an Eye upon the Star 't is safe But if the very Heart despair Psal 73.26 and Hope be sunk yet that case cannot be desperate that 's under-taken by God Almighty Love is never at a loss either in Ability or Will to succour those whom it once Embraces which if we understand neither our Help nor our Hope can perish from the Lord. Fix therefore thine Eye here In summ God is all in all in him if we will but oblige our selves thereto may we behold infinitely more than enough to still the raging of our troubled Minds and all engaged in Covenant to meet us more than half way Pardon of Sin Propriety in God are
engage my self to the use of all possible means of thy appointment to suppress all Motions to Sin to strengthen and renew my Resolutions dayly to establish me against Temptations and carry me on in an assiduous Exercise of Repentance till I have no more Sin to repent of and yet will not account this any Amends for the Wrong I have done thee but in an absolute Renunciation of all that I am can be or do my repenting it self my holy Duties my striving against Sin the World the Devil and my Religious Performances as altogether insufficient and unavailable to give Compensation or secure me from Justice I come despairing of my self and all the stock I can be furnish'd with at home hopeless and helpless by the whole world and in an humble and hearty Prostration of Soul throw down my self at thy feet seeking Relief where alone it is to be found and that is in thy self Oh Lord thy Son and Spirit and therefore with my whole mind will desire delight and strength I freely heartily fully give up my self all my Powers and Possibilities unto thee alone avouching Thee only to be my God and All-sufficient Goodness and Happiness and therefore with a lowly Reverence and Submission I cast my self as thy sworn Vassal at thy gracious Foot-stool in a sincere and absolute Choice and Acceptance of Thee O blessed Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost for my sole Portion and Rest dedicating my self from my very inmost Soul to Thee O Heavenly Father as my Soveraign Creator Owner and Governour to be wholly and unreservedly Thine entirely at thy Disposal from the very bottom of my Heart devoting the Remainder of my Spirits Strength and Life universally to thy Fear Love Honour Worship and Service in the Works of Repentance and Mortification of my Sin watchfulness against and resistance of Temptation and over my Heart and Way and diligence in exercising my self unto Godliness Righteousness and Sobriety And to this purpose as one utterly lost and undone in my self with a renewed humble Veneration I offer up my self wholly to thee O blessed Redeemer of the World the only begotten Son of the Eternal Father and with a bleeding broken Heart that hath no other relief but only in and through thee being in my self a very Hell of Wickedness and Woe condemned by thy Law condemned by mine own Conscience I lift up mine Eyes look unto and long for thee O dear Lord Jesus as my only Saviour Joy and Crown thee I earnestly press after I value above my Life my Hopes my Soul heartily approving of pleasing my self in and closing with that Method of Salvation ordained through thee as the only Mean and Help into the Favour and Love of God Therefore with the All of my Understanding and Will and Might I chuse and embrace and honour and love and delight and rejoyce in and venture my self my hopes my happiness my All upon thee for ever and ever trusting solely to thy Merit and Mediation accepting Thee in all thy Offices and Relations as Prophet Priest King Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification Redemption as my Soveraign Lord and Master the only Espoused Bridegroom of my Soul resolving through thy Grace to betake my self only to Thee to be Thine alone abrenunciating and disclaiming all that stands in competition with Thee and receiving cordially all thy Holy Counsels and Laws as the only Guide and Rule of my Thoughts Affections Words and Actions with a thorow purpose and endeavour to take the highest Care under the Aids of thy Grace both to conform in every thing thereto and boggle at no difficulties dangers or sufferings which I may expect or meet with in these thy ways but persevere therein to the end neither shall any Corruption within or Temptation from without have my heart or liking or allowance so as to withdraw my Soul from these Holy Resolves For which end I cast my self whole and entire upon thy Free Grace and Almighty Power and Holy Spirit to work in me both to will and to do all according to thy good pleasure being firmly engaged to be Thine and to take Thee to be Mine without a Moments farther Procrastination Come Holy Ghost Eternal God and breathe into my Soul infuse thy Gifts and Graces communicating thy Power to a poor impotent succourless Sinner that here lo consecrates himself to Thee and with a self-resigning Spirit resolves to venture all upon thy Conduct and Influence to be at thy Beck and Command in all things not knowing nor being able nor therefore willing to do any thing without thee Inspire my Mind direct my Heart awe my Conscience regulate my Life strengthen and uphold my goings that notwithstanding mine own insufficiency I may by Thee be enlarged in heart to run in the ways of thy Commandments And now Merciful God Father Son and Holy Ghost through that All-sufficient Merit that has procured all Blessings accept of me and own me as none of mine own but thy Portion and Inheritance who have taken Thee to be mine This this O my Soul is the One thing needful to be done in good earnest speedily with an uncontroulable Bent and Steadiness of Will and never to be repented of I am pained in my very Soul for and heartily bewail my Neglects Deferrings and Aversations And here I am blessed Lord setting to my Seal and firmly binding my self in this my Baptismal Covenant with an irreversible purpose to act all the remainder of my Life thro' thy Mercy and Assistance only according to the Tenour of it Be serious then here O my Soul or thou abjurest all solid Consolation Thou canst never enjoy good Hopes without a good Conscience If thou desirest to build high in thy Comforts be sure thou lay a good Foundation If thou never enterest into such Meditations and Resolutions as these bid everlastingly adieu to all true Contentation If thou do not really turn to God thou turnest away thy Peace The Holy Ghost will never be a Comforter where He is not a Converter Except thou be born again of Water and the Spirit thou canst not enter into the Kingdom of God the Kingdom of Peace See to it therefore that thou be raised from thy Death in Trespasses and Sins as ever thou desirest a Resurrection of thy Joys No Purity no Peace 5. Having thus begun go on Make Repentance Mortification Watchfulness Faith Love Resignation to the Will of God thy daily uninterrupted Exercise and endeavour to grow in all and be upright in all else all 's nothing Make Sincerity thy great Aim and Endeavour Hypocrisie is Heritor no where but in the Land of Darkness and dismal Woe Thy Joys will resemble their Parents If they be a Cheat so will they also Be really good and eminently so too Aut Caesar aut nullus Lean Graces do but devour fat Comforts never enjoy them The sweetest promises yield no lasting Refreshment to fickle hearts unestablished with Grace If thy Spiritual Strength be small when thy standing in
Perfection and plenitude of Essence Existence Substance Glory that more of God is every where than of any thing that there is not so much Soul in a body Light in the Sun Matter in the Universe as there is of God in each that they are not as he is They are but derivative Beings of a thin lank Constitution in comparison of that amplitude and fullness of Being in God who is every thing in the utmost Perfection that he can possible be from Eternity to Eternity unalterable and every where the same boundless Perfection that he is any where And wilt thou dare to be or speak or do any thing unbecoming so august so awful so glorious a Presence Shall the eye of a Worm Job 25.6 give Law to thy Tongue and Hands and shall not the Sovereign Majesty of Heaven and Earth have an Empire in thy Conscience Oh do not dare to be other now than at Judgment thou wilt wish thou hadst been For thy Judge is no less present although thou be less sensible Enforce upon thy self nay rather with a spontaneous and generous Freedom of Spirit out of choice entertain and take complacency in such Considerations alway as may better thee because not to be better for them is to be worse ineffectual Thoughts of God being like to be effectual for thy confusion If the Rays of Divine Glory that shine into thy reasoning Powers have no influence upon thy Appetite and Actions if notwithstanding them thou can'st be as vain frothy carnal secure rocky unsavoury unbelieving formal hypocritical worldly lustful lazy disobedient as if thou didst still sit in darkness and the shadow of Death if thy apprehensions of the super-intendency of Heaven do not over-awe thy unruly untoward Will into compliance with that Will which is supreme and universal Goodness do not quicken thee to Penitence and Holiness to an intire and upright observance of the whole Condition of the Covenant of Grace with a persevering resolution and endeavour thou wilt certainly find Oh my Soul that this Light will be mighty to aggravate thy Sin and Punishment everlastingly Oh for a heart so to work toward God under its Sensations of the Unfathomableness of his Understanding Universalness of his Presence Particularity of his Observance Amplitude of his Goodness Beauty of his Holiness Severity and Impartiality of his Justice Extensiveness of his Power in fine Greatness and Incomprehensibleness of his Majesty and Glory as to be altogether unsatisfiable till it can centre it self upon him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as its only Happiness in an absolute Renunciation of every thing that stands in competition with him and be willing out of love to him readily to embrace his Laws submit to the Government of his Son Jesus Christ and the Conduct of his Spirit of Truth and Grace which if these Thoughts of God will not prevail upon thee to do nothing can since there is infinitely less of Argument in every finite thing nay in all together than there is in the Infiniteness of God Wilt thou hence then be perswaded Oh my Soul to acknowledge that God in all thy ways whom thus thou knowst in some degree though but very imperfect Wilt thou fear and reverence his Greatness love and delight in his Goodness conform to his Holiness stand in awe of his Justice in all things subjugate and submit thy self to his Soveraign Authority and Will as the best and wisest Thine own interest as well as the reason of the thing and the command of thy Maker requires thy speedy and thorow resolution If thou wilt not bid an everlasting adieu to all the Comforts of Heaven thou must thus humbly seek after them which if thou do really 't is no presumption to claim them as thine Eternal Inheritance and Portion This appertains to the First Commandment we shall derive another part of the Psalmist's Character from the Second CHAP. III. A Second Character of the Subject of Comfort Prayer 2. THe Sacred Penman here was a Man of Prayer the whole Psalm is a solemn Address to God and 't is not like the fumbling of one unaccustomed thus to converse with the Divine Majesty the Genius of it gives abundant evidence that it hath been a familiar and frequent practice with such gravity of Expression with such liberty of Spirit with such a holy Parrhesy and Confidence with such variety of Arguments with such endearments of affection does he plead with God as one that long had liv'd upon the trade and was a good Proficient in this heavenly art of Wrestling with God And indeed 't is generally under this Duty that the Lord administers the solace and satisfaction of his Love to revive a drooping Heart Whoever is unacquainted with Prayer is utterly an alien from Divine Peace Those that live most with God in this exercise receive most from God enjoy most in him to sweeten their Spirits under all their Sorrows his Promise engaging him to be found in a way of Peace and Contentation of all those that diligently seek him Beside that his own Glory engages him to answer the Petitions of Peace which are put up in the Name and put into the Hands of his only Begotten to be presented to his Majesty perfumed with the Incense of his Mediation Joh. 14.13 Whatever ye shall ask in my Name that will I do Wherefore is it because you ask or for the merit of your Devotions or the strength of your Faith or the fervency of of your Spirits or the forcibleness of your Arguments or the urgency of your Importunities c. No but I will do it that the Father may be glorified in the Son Oh gracious Redeemer Oh precious Promise Oh blessed Hope How strong and rich are thy Consolations especially considering the relation which this Promise stands in to another immediately succeeding it viz. that of a Comforter the Holy Spirit which our blessed Mediator prevail'd with his Father to bestow that he might give us an Experiment of the prevatence of Prayer ver 16. I will 〈◊〉 the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever As if he had said my personal Prayer you shall to your satisfaction find effectual but this further assurance will I give you that the Prayers you put up in my Name shall be no less efficacious than those I my self present in mine own Person for upon my request you shall be endow'd with the same Spirit that breaths out mine and my Merit is not confin'd to my Person the vertue thereof will be extended to your pleadings in my Name through the co-operation of that Holy One who shall be your aid and with unutterable groans cointercede for you Indeed this Heavenly Dove comes only in at the Window of Prayer but we must put forth our hand to take it and heartily humbly believingly to beg it is as little as we can do if we sluggishly put our hand into our Bosom and refuse this labour
Man shall see the Lord. Matth. 5.8 Blessed are the pure in Heart for they shall see God So Isa 33.15 17. Sin therefore is the greatest Evil because it deprives mediately of the greatest Good natural or supernatural God and as it deprives immediately of the greatest good Moral Holiness As 't is contrary to the purity of the Creature it is but a finite evil but infinite as contrary to the Purity of the Creator As a violation of the Law and Principles of Nature and Reason in us 't is only of a limitted Malignity but of a boundless and unlimited Pestilency as a violation of the Law and Principles of Holiness in God 'T is a transgression of the Law of God therefore a contempt and scorn put upon his infinite Authority and Justice and Holiness and Power and Goodness and Glory and Happiness One would imagin it was but a light matter to eat the Fruit of a Tree in Paradise but 't was no light matter to do it against a great God against the express prohibition and in a slighting neglect of or vilifying disregard or despite to the severe Sanctions of an infinitely Wise Holy and Just Creator Therefore Infinitennss it self being concerned in Sin renders it exceeding sinful whence nothing in it more afflicts a good Soul than its contrariety and offensiveness to that glorious Majesty And indeed Sin as Sin is against none but God The Facts that are sinful as being against God may be hurtful or injurious as against Men but the formal nature of Sin lies not in that neither is the violation of Humane Laws therefore a Sin because against the Sanctions of Man but only because and as far as Violations of the Law of God immediately in the matter or remotely in the Transgression of the Fifth Command requiring subjection to Authority Therefore says David Psal 51.4 Against thee thee only have I sinned What Because being King he was by no Man Challengable to none accountable for any wrong but God alone Admit this true in Thesi yet in Hypothesi 't is absurd and ridiculous as part of an Address to God and an exercise of Repentance If it be not understood comparatively or with respect to the formality of Sin spoken absolutely 't is absolutely false In Sin there is a Fault and a Guilt so in David's Murther and Adultery Consider the former taking away Life is sometimes Justice When is it a Fault only when against Law What Law God's or Man's Not as against Man's further than as first against God's For Man's Law cannot make that Murther which is Justice by the Law of God nor the contrary That is Man cannot reverse what God hath established 'T is therefore the Divine Law in Nature or Scripture and that alone which determines concerning the Faultiness or Faultlessness of matters Originally and Architectonically Man 's Law only Secondarily and Subordinately The formal reason then of the faultiness is the contrariety to the Law of God And nothing is Sin meerly in respect of the matter but the Formality So the taking away Vriah's Life was not a fault merely as taking away Life for had he been a Criminal that would have been Justice But a Sin it was only under the notion as 't was taken away under such Circumstances as the Law of God dissallow'd The matter of the Sin therefore was against Vriah but the Form and Essence of the Sin did consist in nothing but only in its being against God a Transgression of the Law of God 1 Joh. 3.4 So then 't is not the Offence against Man simply and abstractly considered but the Offence against God that properly and formally constitutes Sin Every wrong that is in Sin to our selves to Men to our fellow Creatures that groan under their thraldom to our Lusts and fare worse for their sake should affect us but most of all the wrong we do to God as being the greatest injury against the greatest Majesty For even upon Earth Crimes advance in their heinousness according to the degree and dignity of Persons To call a mean Man Knave is a light matter scarce actionable to call a Nobleman Scandalum Magnatum deeply finable to call the King so Treason punishable with Death Oh then what is Blasphemy or any Sin against the King of Kings the infinitely glorious King of Heaven and Earth Common sense will assure us that the more mischief and hurt a Sin does or may do the greater it is and merits greater Punishments Now the more publick and useful any Persons are so much the more mischievous are any actings against them because Government is essential to the good of the whole Community and therefore those who make attempts against Men in Publick Place and Authority strike at and attempt the destruction of all subject to their Jurisdiction To kill a Judge upon the Bench is High Treason both as a vertual acting against the King and also as a murthering the Justice of the Nation a violence against the Right and Property and Life of all that are or may be in a capacity to receive Justice from him So to kill the King is vertually a killing the whole Kingdom with its Honour Authority Justice Right Property Government all that the King is entrusted with the Privileges Laws Liberties and Immunities of all Men. Sin therefore is an Evil transcendently great above all Expression above all Imagination as a horrid mischievous attempt against the Life the All of God himself 1. Vertually and Practically as far as in the Sinner lies it annihilates 1. The Being and Presence of God For to do that abominable Evil in his very Eye-sight which the presence even of a little Child would restrain from this makes nothing of him lays him lower than the sillyest most despicable of his Creatures makes him less and more contemptible than a very Baby and ranks him with Irrational and Non-intelligent Beings which is to un-God him 2. It Annihilates the Authority and Legislative Power of God For to transgress notwithstanding the impress hereof upon the Law is in effect to averr that there is no such thing that 't is but a Fable a Fancy nay 't is to despise and spurn it out of the World which is to kick out the Being of God For that which has no Authority cannot be God 2. 'T is a direct affront to the Holiness of God as perfectly and irreconcileably repugnant to it and Contraries as far as they can destroy each other By thy Impurities thou thrustest God out of thy Soul he departs when this Evil Spirit enters with allowance he bears an eternal Antipathy against it cannot live together it There can be no Communion betwixt God and Bolial If Idols be set up God is tumbled down If Sin must live within thee thou dost thy utmost to make God die stabbing him to the Heart in that which is the Heart of all his Perfections his Holiness He cannot live if that die 3. 'T is a Challenge to his Justice and
not 1. Against the Law of Subjection and Obedience ingaging me to the Magistrate 2. The Law of Charity that requires me not to scandalize my Brother If to gratifie his scrupulosity I forbear I do certainly know that he sins in disobeying But 't is only an accidental scandal may or may not happen that he should be emboldned by my Example to act against his Conscience To throw this off the Stage enter Christian Liberty which to restrain is Sin though by a Person in Authority having Laws under him Ans True but then be sure that it be indeed Christian Liberty least asserting it forfeit and lose your civil and corporal Liberty Now because a right understanding and use of Christian Liberty hath a special influence into Comfort and Peace of Conscience Let 's a little consider it Let it be heedfully observed that true Christian Liberty doth not consist meerly in the indifferent use or omission of things not commanded nor forbidden but in the release of Conscience from an obligation to do or omit some things under pain of Damnation Thus are we set at Liberty from the rigour of the Law or Covenant of Works which required perfect personal and perpetual Obedience upon peril of Death The Covenant of Grace doth not disoblige from such obedience but from the peril of Death though we come short provided we act sincerely This is the main of our Christian Liberty Not a freedom to do or not do but a freedom from Penalty upon an easter Condition And this is all our Hope Comfort and Salvation Under the Jewish Law were included many Ceremonials things in their own nature neither Good nor Evil yet that Law made the omission of them Sin exposing to Damnation Christ by his Gospel hath set us at Liberty How What to do or omit them at Pleasure No such matters For then 't were lawful to Sacrifice to keep the Passover to Circumcise c. as well as forbear No the Liberty granted us must be doubly distinguish'd 1. Into Natural and Adventitious The Indifferency of the use or omission of Lawful things is a part of Natural not Adventitious Liberty which understand thus Some things which were in their own Nature lawful to be used or not used God determined on one side by positive Law under the Mosaical Dispensation But over and above there were things made the matter of positive Laws which would never have entred into the Imaginations of Men had not the first notices thereof come from God Who could ever have thought of such a thing as Circumcision c. had not the first Injunction thereof proceeded from Heaven Our Natural Liberty did consist in a freedom from that and like Yoaks But not in an indifferency to use or not use them So then by the Law of our Native Liberty we may use or not use some things without Sin there 's an indifferency on both sides as to take up a Straw or let it alone c. Yet also the indifferency does naturally lie only on one side in other things as to continue the Body in its Natural State without Circumcision But God for wise and holy purposes having abridged the Jews of this Natural Liberty for a season when the reason of those Laws ceased was pleas'd to abolish them whereby by we became reinstated in our natural Right and Freedom which otherwise those Laws when devulged to us would have taken from us Now the reason of imposing those Laws was to succour the infirmity of the Jews in two things 1. In Faith of which nature are all the things impos'd which have a Typical significancy as Sacrifices c. 2. In Manners of which sort are all that have a moral significancy as Meats Washings c. But now Jesus the substance of those Typical Shadows being come in the Flesh the Laws concerning them were ipso facto vacated and by the more plentiful effusion of his Spirit of Truth and Grace thorowly furnishing Men for exact Moral Goodness he took away the necessity both of remembring us thereof and eeking it out by Washings Circumcision c. The Scriptures of the Old and New Testament as a compleat Law from the Spirit of Truth doing the one more sufficiently than a few dumb signs and the New Nature communicated by the Spirit of Grace together with Christ's Merit all-sufficiently doing the other This is the Liberty I call Adventitious not that 't is new but newly given not that we never had it but had it restor'd after an interruption During the restraint 't was sin to use it To Christ we owe that now we may again use it without sin as at first before God abridged it and this is that we call Christian Liberty in things indifferent as contradistinct to Natural For Christ as Redeemer did not parchase our Natural Liberty but gave it as Creator 'T is only the Adventitious that we enjoy by vertue of his Merit 't is only this that we are entrusted with the Preservation and Vindication of by the New Testament 2. Liberty is either Positive or Negative The former consists in an indifferency to act this or that or the other way at pleasure The latter in being loos'd from the obligation to act That which Christ the Redeemer bestows is chiefly of this latter sort We are disobliged loosed from the Ceremonial Bands wherewith the Jews were tyed so as we need not to act as they under that Oeconomy 'T is no sin to us to omit incurrs no Penalty And this freedom from the guilt and punishment due for Omission is indeed a privilege which constitutes the very essence of the Covenant of Grace in one part of it The tenor thereof in its Negative part being this viz. Thy Imperfections Failures Omissions shall not be imputed as Sins effecting thy Damnation This for want of a better Word I call Negative Liberty Although thou do not Circumcise do not Sacrifice do not Eat a Paschal Lamb do not Wash c. thou dost not sin thou shalt not be cut off from thy People from my Heaven This and none other in these indifferent Matters is Christian Liberty the Purchase and Gift of Jesus Christ our Lord. So that except Magistrates do again introduce the Ceremonial Law in whole or part they do not at all touch upon Christian Liberty but Natural only which they are allow'd to restrain in civil things upon just occasions as is evident from not only Scripture and Reason but the practice of all Nations and Ages and Families For would it not be sweet to hear a Child or Servant reply to their Superiours commanding them to light a Candle c. 'T is not lawful for you to restrain my Liberty Had you not commanded I might have obey'd but your imposing has made it unlawfal Oh dainty delicate Reasoning Yet such as some fob off their Consciences withal 'T is the same thing when they command in the Circumstantials of Divine Worship c. I charge you to be present at
Christians every where called Brethren even by those who were not of the same particular Congregation Acts 10.23 and 11.29 and 14.2 and 15.1 3 23 32 33 40. and 16.2 c. I challenge all the World to give but one Instance out of the Bible where Christians of any particular Church were not stiled and owned under the Name of Brethren by any one or more Persons of another Congregation though of different Nations nay where Christians though not embodied as they phrase it were not so called as Acts 28.14 c. All then that are Partakers of the same heavenly calling are holy Brethren Heb. 3.1 And this Title is not at all given to Christians with relation to a particular Church but only the Catholick and upon common Catholick grounds and no other Since then the whole Community of Christians must be acknowledged for Brethren Love them as Brethren having compassion one of another be pitiful be courteous not rendering evil for evil or railing for railing but contrarywise blessing knowing that ye are thereunto called that ye should inherit a Blessing 1 Pet. 3.8 9. For 1 Joh. 3.14 We know that we have passed from Death to Life because we love the Brethren he that loveth not his Brother abideth in Death ver 15. Is a homicide ver 10. Is not of God but manifests himself to be a Child of the Devil chap. 4.20 cannot love God And sure if even Enemies must be lov'd that we may be like our Father Matth. 5.44 45. and brotherly love be extended to Strangers as the coherence in Heb. 13.1 seems to evince but the duty enjoyn'd there with the reason of it much more viz. entertaining them as we would do Angels Neighbours may challenge it upon a stronger ground and Brethren most of all and that in such degrees as take in all things from the meanest Offices to the very laying down our Lives for them 1 Joh. 3.16 Jam. 1.26 If the not bridling a ferocient Tongue render a Man's Religion vain let those with trembling measure the consequence who neither will govern Tongue nor Heart Lastly That part of the Catholick Church comprehended within the confines of any particular Kingdom is and ought to be the more immediate object of every individual Subjects or Members Christian Honour Love Care and Respect to be manifested by his Prayers for it Communion with it defence of it and obedience to it in all lawful things seeking its good in the use of all lawful means with a Religious care and caution neither to say nor do nor allow and permit any thing which we can hinder to be said or done to its prejudice For what is done for or against a part redounds to the whole 1 Cor. 12.26 and this is to be Publick Spirited viz. to embrace the Publick with an universal Love Care and Endeavour active for its Good preventive of its Hurt and Damage deploring its Corruptions and Miseries labouring with affectionate Industry to remedy and heal them Upon these Principles the old Nonconformists Bradshaw Hildersham Ball c. and many of the later edition loved respected defended and held Communion with the Congregations in the Church of England where they could as appears by their publick Writings and known Practice notwithstanding the bitter Reproaches and Censures of some few who I wish had as well studied the Case 'T were a great impertinency and folly for me here to engage in a defence of that which has had and yet hath so many more able Advocates though if I do not forget and flatter my self somethings occur which nearly touch the merit of the Cause yet not observed by any and I will not betray that which for the main my Conscience tells me is a good Cause with so short and imperfect a plea as the straits of a little Chapter confine me to therefore in prosecution of my General design I shall only suggest something of a more common influence and wave particulars till better occasion or call 1. In the Church of England are some I wish there were more Thousands of as Sober Pious Discreet Judicious Christians and Hundreds of as Learned Religious Ministers as Europe affords who in their Judgments and Consciences seem to be abundantly satisfied with and strongly plead for its Communion upon grounds of very great moment to instance only in the late calm Discourses of the Reverend Dean of Norwich Now for me or any Man to send all these quick to Hell as mere Infidels or worse as without Christ Aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel the true Church Strangers from the Covenants of Promise having no hope Atheists in the World Eph. 2.12 may discover what Spirit we are of but will very little recommend our own Christianity in observance of the Rule Phil. 2.3 Rom. 12.10.1 Cor. 13.5 7. 2. The Church of England and Dissenters agree in all the main Substantials of Christianity the difference only lies in a few controverted things of very inconsiderable consequence in comparison The same Christian Doctrine in all the Fundamental Points the same general design to promote Holiness of Life the same Worship in the Essential form and matter and means the same Ministry of Persons separate to perform Divine Offices in the same form of Churches viz. Congregational who are embodied not meerly by the civil Sanction but consent to submit to the Ordinances and Ministers of Christ which with the Departers I call them rather than Dissenters constitute the Explicit Covenant and Essence of the Ministerial Call but differing only in a few circumstantial Doctrines in external Modes and Rites disputed and disputable to the Worlds end And shall so light matters alienate us imbitter our Spirits envenom our Censures when we agree in the main Ah Sirs should God Almighty thus mark Iniquities who could stand Does he appoint a Sacrifice for Sins of Ignorance and Infirmity hold Communion with us notwithstanding them not impute them to us And shall such things be unpardonable only in the Church of England which judges its own Constitution the most excellent in the World and thinks it has as much to say against you as you against it as much to say for it self as you for your selves which you can no more convince than it can you Lastly To justifie your departure nothing can be justly alledged but fear of Sin in Communion Now nothing can determine what is what is not Sin but God in his Word You are then obliged to produce Scripture as clear to prove Communion a Sin as 't is clear from Scripture that 't is your duty to obey the Magistrate in lawful things For if the Communion which he commands be not unlawful you ought in Conscience to obey him in it Rom. 13.5 The General includes the Particular But I profess amongst all the Writings against Communion I have not yet seen any one or more Scriptures alledged which apart or in conjunction will evidently and certainly bear such a consequence Now turn we the
Tables and bleed a little over poor Sufferers not as accusing Laws of Government but personal darkness and short sightedness Infirmity and Iniquity especially as the meritorious cause whose Intellects and Consciences may seem to be formed under an inauspicious Star not Mercurial enough to be born before the Wind but of a genius too set and Saturnine which exposes to the censure of being morose obstinate Melancholists c. But let 's see whether any place be left for Pity and Commiseration It is acknowledged just and reasonable that all publick Constitutions should be garded with strong impregnable Sanctions that the honour of the Publick Magistrate which must necessarily and in Conscience be upheld and is as highly concerned in his Laws as any thing may not be at the mercy of every wanton Head or waspish Heart 'T is the general and acknowledged sence of all Nations and has been of all Ages and I think of all Persons that Religion must and ought to be established by Law So is the Protestant Profession with us and our Neighbours And there is not a People upon Earth nor ever was but would have Religious Concerns kept sacred and inviolable Travel through the Protestant World alone and you shall experimentally find that the Church of no Nation no not of New England it self will endure that its Constitution should be disgrac'd its Fellowship disown'd its Worship disavow'd its Ministry disannul'd its Discipline contemn'd its Government condemn'd but will entertain all affronts of this Nature with a severe Indignation No wonder therefore that the like obtains amongst our selves and even those that are most sharp upon the Church of England in that very thing give a Testimony how patient a reception any thing must have that shall depreciate their own particular Models and therefore may in Justice grant liberty to every Mother to be fondest of her own Children For my part I profess ingenuously I like something in all Faces but all in none yet will not spit in any If Men will so far forget their Reason and Religion not to say common Sense as to speak evil of Rulers though unjust Jude 8. Acts 23.5 Despise Dominion Blaspheme Glories or Dignities I will not justifie them but the Law that condemns them Yet there is a Chancery to moderate the rigours which otherwise may be just and reasonable in some cases and this will with a sweet and decorous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and temper distinguish of Persons and Causes No Man is all Devil no Party all God The Heaven of Heavens only is all Sun The void spaces in the Firmament are larger than those fill'd with Stars Even those that out of a larger Sphere or Church form to themselves a little Epicycle have dark as well as bright matter in it The Sun it self hath spots We therefore must make a difference betwixt the Religious and their mimical Apes the Persons that are in good earnest in their way and such as do but act a part and personate those they are not Men that have throughly imbibed the tincture and others that are but lightly smutted with it 1. Then it shall not be dissembled but bewailed that amongst the Dissenters there are some Venal Souls that upon base Principles and for sinister Ends fall in here as being disgusted by or having a peck against some conformable Man or hoping for a plentiful Trade or bountiful Contributions or to piece again a crack'd Reputation c. Others owe their intromission to the Principles of their Education or customary Converse with others particular Employment amongst such the persuasions of Company c. Some astonish'd by the seeming imminency of Death or awak'd by some dreadful Calamity bring hither an akeing Conscience to be stroak'd with a gentle Hand into a secure but fallacious Peace and conjure down those Terrors which a a form of Godliness is able to deal with Some lastly in the simplicity of their Hearts having tender and scrupulous Consciences finding more of strictness and savour than where 't was their lot to converse before are pleas'd with the agreeableness thereof to their Spirit and Temper though they understand little of the way and might as well have been led by the Heart to the Church as to a Conventicle had it been their hap to have met with the like relish in their Entertainments and Company These are the most innocent of this rank For some of the rest are ordinarily the Hectors of the several Parties from whom all the Libels and Raileries except such as common Enemies forge in their Names have their Origin Better Men have better Work they are not taught the manners of the Court of Heaven who dare bring an Accusation or Judgment of Blasphemy against the Devil himself Jude 9. much less they who do it against Christian Churches and States But 2. There are also a number of serious sober Persons who have no greater design than to be truly good and promote the interest of real Christianity in the main substantials of Faith and Good Life who by their Modesty Gravity Harmlessness Honesty Simplicity Self-denial Loyalty Humility c. do sufficiently distinguish themselves from the other to the Eye of any prudent impartial Observer yet cannot in the use of such means as yet are administred receive satisfaction in the matters of difference therefore are exposed to the severities of Law These I am concern'd that a Court of equity should make relief for 1. They entertain a high Veneration for the Holy Scriptures as a lively Portraicture and Representation of that Eternal Truth and Goodness which is the Nature of God and the Schools make the Hypostasis of the Second and Third Persons in the ever blessed Trinity This with them is the Book of Books which they do not read as other Writings with a liberty to assent and consent as they please but with a full resignation of mind and will to its infallible Dictates intirely to subjugate all to its Doctrines Counsels Mandates as the most perfect indefective guide of Thoughts Words and Actions in the matters of Salvation and to receive from it a sentence of Life and Death This Word of God is their daily Companion Meditation Desire Joy Delight their all From these Divine Oracles they derive all their Sentiments by them regulate all their Worship in them seek their Comfort to them as an Instrument ascribe their Spiritual Life with them arm themselves against all their Spiritual Enemies and adverse Occurrents and for them are ready to sacrifice their Liberties Wealth Ease Honour yea their very Lives 2. From this reverence to the Bible and diligent frequent converses with it arises that awful feeling terrifying sence they have of the exceeding sinfulness of Sin as Paul Rom. 7.13 For being brought to the Scriptures with a mind to yield up all the Powers of their Souls to the Mind and Will of God therein revealed the Holy Ghost effectually sets home the Truths and Laws and Threatnings and Promises
upon their Consciences They have awakening apprehensions of the Holiness and Justice of God the dreadful menaces of the Law the bitter Agonies undergone by the Son of God for the Sin of Man the dismal Horrors and Woes and Cruciations under the Vengeance of Almighty God in Hell which makes every Sin very formidable They are made to understand that although in respect of the matter some Sins are greater others less yet no Sin is absolutely little which is commited against a great God and also that smaller Sins are aggravated relatively to our Faculties that 't is an heinous offence to God to do the least of Evils against the clear Light and Conviction of Conscience or with a full bent of Will and Affection and that a Sin in respect of the matter comparatively and in it self greater yet is not so to me if committed ignorantly unwillingly Under these Considerations their own particular Sins are set in order before their Faces set on upon their awakned Consciences made bitter and grievous and odious that they Day and Night lament over them are afflicted with them in anguish of Soul under them labouring and being heavy laden and able to obtain rest no where till by serions hearty Repentance for and from them with a bitter loathing and implacable malice and hatred against them they be prepar'd for and made willing to embrace the Lord Jesus Christ in his whole mediatory Latitude and intirely devote themselves to him and his Father in the renewal of their Baptismal Covenant which they most solemnly and unfeignedly engage in and universally submit to the Terms of in the Strength and Grace of Christ Upon this Covenanting with God they see and know that to sin against him in any thing wittingly or willingly will in them be yet more exceeding sinful than before and still the more they oblige themselves to God and he engages them to himself and endears himself to them by the communication of Covenant-Mercies the more do they find their Sins to be inhanced in their abominable odiousness to God and the smart and sting they leave in their Consciences is so much the more grievous Oh none knows the dire and dismal things which a wounded Spirit undergoes but those that have felt The Spirit of a Man will sustain his Infirmity but a wounded Spirit who can bear Prov. 18.14 And this too has its degrees of Intolerableness in proportion to Sins and Sence and Temper and Time and Spirit and Improvement Men of strong Parts great Reading comprehensive Intellects large Memories ready and present Minds may sometimes soon and easily weather out the Storm But all Mens intellectuals and advances in Knowledge and Goodness are not of one size What shall poor weak shallow Heads or melancholick Constitutions and therefore strong Imaginations defective treacherous Memories but unruly Consciences do when both Heaven and Hell seem to be set in Battle-array against them Horrid Reflections virulent and violent Temptations strange and terrible Injections and Infusions as drawn Swords gashing and galling and killing the very Heart piercing it through with multitudes of Fears Troubles Torments Sorrows Can a Man that hath felt this Groan'd under been Crush'd and Crucifi'd and Rack'd and Rent in pieces with it and that perhaps many Weeks Months Years together ever make light of the cause of it ever have other than dreadful Apprehensions of it as the burn'd Child Fancy and Reason can never comprehend what Sense and Experience will testifie in these Cases Speculative Men that stand upon their Heads which have little or no Communion with their Hearts who understand every thing better than themselves very seldom feel any of these lamentable Twitches and Agonies till a Sickness a Death-bed set their thoughts upon another Bias which in some obtains in most not at all and then according to the largness of their minds are their Horrors of Conscience and their feeling may teach them fellow-feeling when it is too late but the unconcernedness of their Spirits before conjures down all workings of Commiseration As a Man of an Athletick Constitution in the triumphs of his natural Vigour and Health accounts valetudinary Persons a company of pitiful puling Sneaks always whining over an itching Limb in the Scurvey or a smarting Toe in the Gout or a rumbling Belly in the Chollick or Gripes or an akeing Back in the Stone or a squeazy Stomach or tickling Tooth c. in which they are the Objects of his Ridicule rather than compassionate regard But let his brass Pot receive a sound knock from any of these mauling Distempers or the like and the Complexion of his thoughts immediately change and from the foot he can now Collect the Dimensions of Hercules I doubt not but that as many Holy Souls enjoy some refreshing Antepasts of the future everlasting Feast of all Delights and Joys they shall sit down with Christ at in his Eternal Kingdom So many wicked profligate Wretches meet with dismal and sensible Prelibations of the never ending Woes and Horrors of Hell that knowing by some Internal Sensations what awaits them they may either be awak'd into Repentance or if not rendred more inexcuseable And sometimes God in his Infinite Wisdom so orders that even those who ascend not to any heighth in Debauchery yet are reduc'd to such extreamities of Anguish and Pangs in the New Birth that it comes very little short of those more Dreadful Anticipations in the Reprobate nay sometimes it exceeds in a considerable degree Sin must have its Hell of one kind or other and happy is it for that Man whose Hell in this Life is preventive of not introductive to a future For beside the unspeakable Satisfactions in another World this lays the Foundation of the Richest Sweetest Fullest and most durable Consolations even in this Life according to the common saying God digs deepest where he intends to build highest But on the contrary where be breaks no Earth he intends to sow no Seed Those that he permits to be always whole shall never have because they never need a Physician General Experience tells That the Corruption of carnal Ease and Security is the Generation of a Dissenter Troubles for Sin are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first Rudiments of this Embryo It seldom falls out that a Mans or Womans Conscience is thorowly disturb'd and their fallacious Peace and Comfort utterly ruin'd but either the want of a skilful and tender hand to bind up their broken Hearts or some check they meet with in an unseasonable hour from those that should be vers'd in this Art drives them under that great uneasiness of mind to take Sanctuary in the bosom of one or other that with more soft and compassionate Bowels will counsel and encourage them yet not precipitate them into the Pacifick Seas of Consolation but gently and by degrees lead them thither through the Strait of a sound Repentance I know not how it comes to pass God's Dispensations always are Wise Just and
Holy but oft unaccountable yet so it is that either the Genius of Mens Troubles under their Penitential Throws in the new Birth or the understanding Spirit manage and conduct of many Non-conforming Ministers is such or these both so Adapted to one another that the greatest number of Wounded Spirits betake themselves hither for Cure and find it The Study of Casuistical Divinity being less gustful to great Scholars and Rational Theologers is more the business of those who having felt some need themselves of it have also frequent occasion to deal with dejected Hearts rather than elevated Minds And neither Rhetorick nor Reason but effectual Medicines will cure the Maladies of Bodies and Souls The Sick desire not an Eloquent Non quaerit ager medicum eloquentem sed sanantem Sen. Ep. 75. but Healing Physician where they are profited there they love Conscience is such an Impetuous Imperious thing as those may know who converse with their own but who with other Mens much more that a Man had better have all the World to deal with than it especially in a Melancholick Constitution By Conscience I understand the inward Power not in the nature of a Guide but a Judge particularly in its Office of Condemning or at least Accusing as Rom. 2.14 O what Troubles Tragedies Confusions Horrors does it beget carry on and torture with especially in the weaker Sex that have Souls to save and satisfie as well as the stronger who sometimes also are made terrible Examples Witness Francis Spira c. which made one say he had rather undertake the Cure of a Phrenetick in Bedlam than a Phanatick Conscience Truly upon Experience I speak it I had rather Study an Hundred Sermons than converse one hour with a Self-condemning Mind It can understand no Sense it can hear no Reason it can feel no Savour it can receive no Comfort God is against it 't is against it self the whole Bible in every Leaf speaks to its Discouragement and Damnation and all the Politicks in Hell are up in Arms to confound it with Scruples Objections Fears what not Oh! the Doubts the Dolours the Jealousies the inextricable Straits the Fightings the Perplexities the dismal Apprehensions the Despairs the grinding Reflections the roaring Hell that compasses it round about on every side that 't is a very Magor Missabib Really 't would make a Man sick to think of it break his Bones Psal 51.8 to feel it Ah! did but those who so bitterly inveigh against Phanaticks experience but one day what some of them have felt for Months Years together under the sense of God's Indignation 't would to purpose cool that hot Humour which foams out of their Mouths God grant them Repentance that they may never feel worse I would not wish this to the greatest Enemy in the World 'T is true God uses gentle methods with the most yet these dreadful Instances are warnings to them and all not to Sin against Light and Conscience For this is ordinarily the spring of them and they a Judgment of God for it Lastly From this Sense and Conscience arises their fear of offending God in the concerns of his immediate Worship which I confess in some prevails so far as to involve them in the extreams of Superstition This I take to be an excess of curiosity in Religious Worship either in thinking to please or in fearing to displease the Divine Majesty with little things which are neither commanded nor forbidden For if the least things in the World be commanded or forbidden in express words or by plain consequence in special or general Terms 't is no Superstition except more stress be laid upon these than the weightier matters of the Law Plut. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. We require that you should pray to God with an upright and just mouth not so much look at the Tongue c. of Beasts whether right and pure perverting and polluting your own c. So that I will acknowledge that they commit this Sin who think to please God with their extemporary Effusions without inward Devotions as well as they that conceit they do it with the Churches form without the Power of Internal Grace So they who fear to offend God by using the Churches form as such rather than by formality of Spirit c. as well as they that fansie they should more displease him by immediate Conceptions in Prayer than by luke warm Affections I will justifie neither the Positive nor Negative I think he directs his discourse against the Jews mainly the Absolute nor Comparative Superstition Plutarch I confess falls foul upon that which represents the Deity as Tyranical Noxious hard to be pleas'd and works a desponding Dread and Terror which render it unfit for and unwilling to engage it self in any Service of God as fearing to displease in all please in none And the Greek Word may seem to extend no farther than such a fear of Daemons which the Heathen World did not understand as we in an infamous sense Daemons with them were those Blessed Beings that ever lived in Happiness but in an inferiour Station Souls of Heroes and other Spiritual Natures much what such like as the Popish Canoniz'd Saints and Mediators of Intercession to the Noxious Malignant Spirits of the Infernal Regions they did not apply it Yet no doubt the other I have mentioned are Sins and may go under this name in regard of the Affinity they have herewith according to that common Synecdoche in every of the Ten Commands However I am right in terming that over critical fear of displeasing God with little things Superstition as supposing the Deity was of so cheap and easie a Nature as to be bought with Trifles or so tetchy and supercilious as to be lost and sold away for such petty Matters as he would never vouchsafe to take into his Cognizance and concern himself to Honour with the least Shadow of an Injunction but has intirely left to the will and liberty of Man As if a Jew having a Hundred Males in his Flock without blemish alike in their nature and goodness out of which he has a free liberty left him by God to chuse any one for Sacrifice should demur all his days which to take for fear of offending God or having chosen and Sacrificed should perpetually vex his Soul with the dread that his choice has displeased This leads me again to the fore-mentioned Point The sense that some have of the more especial odiousness to God of blemishes in his Worship Certainly of all Sins those in this most weighty Matter are most dangerous For if that the direct and immediate end whereof is to please God and bring me into his Favour do displease him so that I fall under his hate I am in an evil taking beyond all expression What shall I do whether shall I have recourse The Scripture assures us that God is most Jealous of his Worship and External Worship as the Sanction annext to the
form Isa 6.6 Heb. 4.14 Hence may it not be inferr'd that the framing Fire in which Christ appears will be so far from being hurtful painful to his and their glorified Bodies as to be an object of special Sensitive Delectation and cause a pleasurable refreshment wonderfully grateful to those Celestial Natures which shall dwell for ever in and be cloathed with the Eternal Light of Heaven That if it were possible for a glorified Saint to be hurried into the material Fire of Hell 't would not be hurt or for a Damned Wretch to be led through Heaven the Light thereof to him would be tormenting Fire But this I leave in Medio as a Speculation perhaps too curious I question not but that the Almightiness of God which is engaged to promote to the utmost the happiness of the Saints can make those things that now to the Body are most painful to be then most pleasureful that even in its Physical Constitution as well as Moral it shall be delighted with that which is distastful in this Life if it be not sinful And possibly Adam's Body in its Primitive Innocent Estate of Creation might be of the same Constitution invulnerable incombustible c. as far as was requisite to his security from Death For I cannot so much as implicitly impute such Collusion to the Divine Majesty as to imagine that he only threat ned that as a Punishment of his Sin which was the condition and necessity of his Nature Neither will I deny that the Tree of Life was a Sacrament of Immortality But conceive that nor he nor it could be ubiquitary or inseparable nor do I think that the Deity obliged himself to a Providence respecting innocent Mankind which would have been a perpetual series of Miracles since 't was as easie with God to make Impassibility an amissible Condition of this Nature as Immortality But I am not Determinate here neither However the Elevated Sense of that Immortal State above will be abundantly pleasured with Super-natural and Super-sensual Gratifications in the Jucundity Profitableness and Honour of Heaven the vain and empty Shadows whereof engage it in endless Pursuits during this its Degenerate state on Earth The Generosity and Nobleness thereof will be so Transcendent that it cannot but entertain with Indignation Scorn and Horror all imaginable Solicitations to any thing sinfully Delightful Commodious and vain Glorious Every thing to it being as it self Sublimated into a Spiritual and Celestial Nature that it enjoys the sweet of all without the sowr in an unfading Quintessence of most exquisitely delicious Contentments where although there can never be any troubled Thoughts yet may we ever sing Thy Comforts Oh Lord delight my Soul Then Oh my Soul delight thou thy self in and with them alone and not meerly as in the Streams but in the Well-spring it self Own God in every inferiour means but rest no where except in God Oh do not in a pompous Dress of Shadowy delusory Satisfactions cheat thy self into substantial Miseries Secure to thy self something of a solid durable Nature by making the son of God Jesus Christ thy sure and everlasting Foundation that being strongly built upon the Rock when the Rain descends and the Floods come and the Winds blow and beat upon thee thy Comforts may not perish with thee And Phil. 4.7 The Peace of God which transcends or passes all mind or understanding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall watchfully guard or keep as with a Garrison 2 Cor. 11.32 thy heart and the devices thoughts of thy mind through Christ Jesus Must God be all in that Eternal Heaven after which thou aspirest and is there enough in him to satiate the most raised and sublime Desires of the Spirits of just Men made perfect and even the Angels those more Noble and Capacious Creatures Nay is there an all-sufficiency in him Commensurate to his own infinite Love in all the possibilities of its Perfection And canst not thou Oh my Soul fill thy self to the brim and measure out a Satisfaction more than adaequate to thy Rational Appetite in that unmeasurable fulness which comprehends the eminency and glory of all things If Infiniteness cannot overfill thee a poor Worm a little Atome of that which in comparison of him is less than nothing Isa 40.17 then mayst thou with some Shadow of reason attempt to eek out thy content with the Accumulation of other things But since there is in God all that good Vertually Unitedly and Transcendently as in a common Store-House and Treasury and that without the rebatement and allay of any the least commixtures of Evil Vanity or Imperfection which stain the Glory of all those dispersed Excellencies in the Creation that thy most unboundable desires in all their conceivable Varieties can court or make Suit unto and whatever thy longings reach out after thou mayest enjoy it cheaper and better in God than any where and since beside all this there is an unfathomable Surplusage of proper Excellency and Glory in that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Maximus Tyrius calls the Deity Immense Ocean of all Goodness which has been is and will be his own and the whole Superiour Worlds Everlasting Contentation And since he declares his ready willingness to communicate and impart of all this unto thee not only what thine own Rational Consideration but even what his own unmatchable Love and Graciousness can make thee willing to receive thou canst not but be altogether inexcusable if thou goest about to patch up an evanid and delusory Felicity to thy self out of those cast-away Shreds and Rags of the inferiour Creation which are not sufficient for themselves but will be fatally disappointing to thee and frustrate thy most Solicitous Expectations whilst in the mean time thou sottishly and frantickly defraudest thy self of that plenary Satisfaction and Joy which is tendered to thee by and in God both on Earth to raise and quicken thy devout and active Suspirations and in the Heaven of Heavens to terminate and perfect them in an Everlasting Fruition Here then only Oh my Soul build thy Tabernacle Is it not good to be here Where thy Faith it self shall be converted into Sense Sight and Taste in a never ending Possession of what Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor hath entred into the Heart of Man to conceive Thou art allowed to eye and enjoy God in the Creature obliged to make all sensitive Contents which thou mayest lawfully or sinlessly receive from the Creature as so many steps to mount upon and ascend towards the Spiritual Contents of Heaven necessitated to use every good thing below as a Remembrancer to thee of its Perfection in God that it may blow up thy passionate Aspirations into a more vehement and inextinguishable Flame and Ardour toward him In all things thou mayst taste that the Lord is Gracious and enjoy sweet and comfortable Prelibations of Heaven This is thy privilege But on the other hand thou art prohibited to make a God of this World
and Goodness but only from Peace and Rest sinking it into Disconsolateness till he took Sanctuary in the Refreshments of Heaven The Text plainly intimates that if he had not found some effectual help in these his Thoughts would have been an overmatch for him and have born him down Therefore Afflicting they were but not Defiling This was their General Nature 2. Particularly They were of the nature of Meditations i. e. Heart-affecting Thoughts Not mere Speculations or notional Thoughts that were confin'd within the boundaries of his Mind and Understanding but Thoughts that sunk downwards and produc'd some effects on his Soul For since no Thoughts are afflicting to us but only as they work upon those Passions of our Minds which are of a turbulent tormenting Nature hence it appears that these had an influence upon his Irascible Affections as by a Synecdoche they are call'd representing to them some Evils from which they could not but retire in an hostile aversation For no Evils without us cruciate us till they thus get within us and fight us by our own Passions This is the Beelzaebub that possesses us and creates a Hell in our Minds even our masterly imperious Appetite The Thoughts that create a tumult here are as so many Fiends to torture us That rebel rage which they infuse into our Blood and Spitits disorders discomposes our whole Man and makes us Devils to our selves Thoughts then they were exciting Passions Therefore we must search and consider what Passions in particular were in a civil war within the Psalmist and also the quality of those Evils which excited them And that I may not be necessitated to repeat things over and over as the more natural Synthetical way and method of enquiry first after the Objects here particularly set down thence concluding the general Acts which only are implyed would compel me I shall chuse the Analytical rather proposing first the General Passions conversant about the numerous special Objects which shall respectively be referr'd to their general and proper Heads together with such as are of Affinity therewith though not exprest in the Psalm The Thoughts then were of three kinds answerable to three Affections which were vehemently moved by them viz. Fear Grief Dispair Any one of these alone is torturous but altogether intolerable Grief pains our Hearts as an oppressing load wasts and washes away those Spirits that should support us weakens and effeminates our Minds into an insufficency or unwillingness to regard any thing but what will contribute to its own excesses till as an impetuous Torrent or Deluge it overwhelm our Soul and Spirit and sometimes destroy the Body also and herein it is more anguishful than Fear because the Evil present and felt stings more cruelly than when only foreseen in its Causes the Sense presenting many things to torment us which before our Fears were not privy to even as Fear sometimes represents Evils more terrible than they are in reality found to be But now if to the present troublesome Experience be adjoined a dreadful expectation of worse to come or more of the same kind this will double the torture because it doubles the perturbation and further betrays the succours which Reason or Hope might administer to us But if to both these be superadded an absolute hopelessness of relief that we see and foresee and feel our selves miserable without any likelyhood of Redemption that either our Reason is darken'd by the suffusion of our Passions so as not to be able to gain a prospect of remedy or the magnitude of the Evil it self is altogether invincible this strangles Nature and makes it sink under its despondencies into a Hell upon Earth Of these Fear is the first and lightest and many times comes single For whilst an evil is at a distance there 's a possibility to prevent its actual incursion But Grief does often succeed the torment of Fear as when the evil does not surprize but gradually invade us and this is like a new Wound in an old Sore therefore does more smartingly gall us Yet both these together are nothing to Despair which is a compound of the other two besides what it brings of its own to make a Man inexplicably unsupportably miserable 1. Fearing Thoughts terrifing Imaginations are bloody Tormenters 1 Joh. 4.18 and tear the Soul in pieces When an Evil is imminent and we are conscious of an inability to avoid or resist it our Spirits succumb sink and in a pale horrour retire and run away from the approaching danger For some kind of danger is commonly the object of Fear which is excited when the Mind apprehends and the Thoughts dwell upon the greatness nearness or unavoidableness of the Peril The danger in the Psalmist's Thoughts seems to be double viz. of two the greatest evils Sin and Death 1. Of Sin for of that under Correction I interpret ver 18. When I said my foot slippeth c. The Expression is but thrice beside that I find in the Psalms and in two of them 't is evident that a moral slipping or sliding into Sin is meant and the context gives fair probability for the third also Psal 17.5 Hold up my goings in thy paths that my footsteps slip not that is that I sin not Psal 38.16 17 18. When my foot slippeth they magnifie themselves against me For I am ready to halt and my Sorrow is continually before me For I will declare my Iniquity I will be sorry for my Sin These 3 Verses are connected causally I know not how to make sence of them if the slipping and halting be other than the sinning he sorrowed for I take Sorrow in the latter clause of the 17. ver not formally for the Passion of Sorrow but materially and objectively for the thing he sorrowed for viz. his Sin and so account this an equivalent Expression with that Psal 51.3 My Sin is over before me And this is not an unusal thing in Scripture for Affections or Actions to be put for their Objects or Effects as in that very Psalm ver 3. There is no soundness in my Flesh because of thine Anger i. e. the effects of thine Anger And ver 9. Lord all my desire is before thee i. e. the objects of my desire the things I desire However the Sorrow there was for Sin ver 18. and so the Sin was before him immediately in the Sorrow I account that the Clauses of those two Verses answer one another thus I am ready to halt for I will declare my Sin I 'll not deny the Truth though it give advantage to my Adversaries and occasion their magnifying themselves against me I find my self oft liable to fall into Sin I acknowledge it let them make the best and worst they can of it and triumph as they please Only do not thou forsake me ver 21. Hear me ver 15 16. so as to uphold my goings that though I fall I may not be utterly cast down Psal 37.24 The third place is a perfect parallel
Spiritual we should in like manner be dog'd and pursu'd with their implacable Malice in our separate and immortal State and be desperate of succour and deliverance from that Eternal Erynnis those innumerable Legions of ever torturing Furies that would be let loose upon us to lash and sting us with the utmost of their virulent Indignation For how should the Deity relieve us if he know nothing of us 'T is therefore the highest Interest of real goodness that there is a God of Vnlimitable Intelligence and Love to supervise and care for us that no Evils can be imagin'd against us in the most dark and secret recesses of Hell much less on Earth but are to him as visible as though Writ or Graven in the Roof of Heaven by the Finger of God in Letters formed all of Suns or Stars and he is replenish'd with that Wisdom and Graciousness which both knows how is perfectly willing and effectually engag'd to counteract them But as this and the other Three so all the Sins of the Wicked are a bitter Grief to a good Soul Whence David Psal 119.136 Rivers of Tears run down mine eyes because they keep not thy Law Be their Sins only Omissions which in the Estimate of the World are of a lighter Nature though not in the account of God and an Illuminated Conscience yet will they be grievous to those that love the Lord and his Laws And 't is a good token of Integrity when the Sins of others are a burden Self may engage a Man against his own Sins but if the wickedness of those we have no concern with deeply affect our Hearts 't is an Evidence we are acted by the Interest of God Let this then Oh my Soul over-rule all thy Passions Live under some sense with God What dishonors him let it humble thee Be not so much troubled at the Mischiefs wherewith Men in the Triumphant Madness of their Prosperity indeavour to plague thee as at the Sin whereby they duel Heaven Where thy Father suffers most in his Glory do thou suffer with him Thy Irascibles never act more commendably than when they run upon the Errand of thy Maker Thou art angry and sinnest not when angry at Sin 'T is hard not to Sin in Sorrow if it be not Sorrow for Sin And if thou groan under the Wickedness of others sure thou wiltst not canst not darst not be so much a Hypocrite as to go light under the greater Load of thine own Thou art conscious to thy self of many Circumstances aggravating thine own which thou hast no reason to apply to the Crimes of any beside Where thou knowest of most Evil and that is in thy self there must thou spend Oceans since the little in comparison which thou knowest of other Mens faults requires thy Rivers Let thy Sorrows bear Proportion to thy Condition and Conscience Weep or at least mourn for and bemoan others but most thy self There must thou pay thy Drops here a Deluge To this place therefore appertains all Spiritual Trouble for Sin and the want and weakness and defectiveness of Grace with the effects thereof That Anguish of Mind which springs from the sense of Sin 's odiousness of God The Agonies and Anxieties of the New Birth and under Relapses whatever goes under the name of a Wounded Spirit or Troubled Conscience But 2. Not only the evil of Sin but other Evils in themselves or to him in effect did sadden the Holy Psalmist's Soul Two especially 1. The Prosperity of the Wicked their Joy but his smart Vers 3. How long shall the Wicked Oh LORD how long shall the wicked triumph A common Offence and Trouble to both the Religious and Rational World The Gracious Servants of God often bemoan it What a Multitude of Precepts and Comforts doth the 37. Psal present as an Antidote against fretting about it Habakkuk bewails it Hab. 1.2 3 4. Jer. Ch. 12.1 2 reasons and pleads with God concerning it In Job How many Discourses are there to this purpose And every where in the Psalms to instance in one more only Psal 73. Vers 3. I was envious at the foolish when I saw the Prosperity of the Wicked After a Description whereof he adds Vers 21. Thus my heart was grieved and I was pricked in my Reins This also was a stumbling Block to the Philosophical World whereof the more Considerate and Vertuous made a good use others a bad reasoning from the unequal Distribution of Temporal Things against the Being of God and Providence into such Absurdities may those run who having but dark Apprehensions of Immortality and the Eternal Recompences of a Future State take their measures from sense and consider not the Unproportionableness of this present moment of Temporal Life to a vast Immense Eternity 2. The Unprosperous Afflicted Persecuted State of the People of God did excite in him sorrowful Reflections I doubt not but that with a broken Heart he Writ down that Complaint Vers 5. They break in pieces thy People O LORD and afflict thine Heritage They slay the Widow and the Stranger and murder the Fatherless Sure with a Soul melted into Sympathizing Commiserations doth he remember this So Asaph Psal 73.10 Therefore his People return hither and Waters of a full Cup are wrung out to them 21. Thus my Heart was grieved c. which refers to all before Discours'd concerning prosperous Wickedness and suffering Godliness And How can the Body in many parts of it suffer and the rest have no Fellow-feeling Thou art not vitally united as a Member to the Body of Christ Oh my Soul but may'st justly dread that he will cut thee off as a dead Libm and bury thee in Hell if thou be insensible of its Pains and Agonies Shew that the common Soul and Spirit Animates thee by a common sense with the rest of the Members that Communicate in it with thee If thou be not with them in Passion yet be in Compassion Why Persecutest thou me Says Christ to Saul Acts 9.4 The pain is in the Members the sense in the Head Christ disclaims thee thou art none of that me whereof he is so tender if thou suffer'st not by Commiseration when his Servants suffer Affliction Put on thy Bowels if thou desirest the Yernings of his when thy Condition shall be like theirs With the Prophet Jerem. 9.1 Say Oh that my Head were Waters and mine Eyes a Fountain of Tears that I might weep Day and Night for the slain of the Daughter of my People My Bowels my Bowels I am pained at my very Heart the Walls of my Heart make a noise in me I cannot hold my Peace because thou hast heard Oh my Soul the sound of the Trumpet the alarm of War To this Head may be reduced all those Troubles which are Fruits of Publick Calamities to Church or State Persecutions Martyrdoms Massacres c. Wars and Violence Oppressions Injuries c. whatever may be the Effects of the Rage and Fury of Men and Malice of impure
Name of Sparing-Mercy or deals moderately with us in Gentleness and Tenderness We want many good things especially Himself Benevolence will our Good Bounty and Kindness impart All to Us Graciousness does All freely Oh Astonishingly Rich and Glorious Well-spring of Everlasting Consolation There 's no Exigence befals Man either thro' emptiness or misery that is destitute of a Perfection in Infinite Love to make a peculiar and accommodate Relief and Supply Divine Goodness bears such a singular respect to our indigent Nature that notwithstanding its individual Singleness and Oneness it does as it were parcel out it self into a multiplicity of sweet refreshing Cordials in Condescension to our Infirmity that in it we may have a particular Satisfaction for every distinct Appetite a proper Remedy for every single Malady There 's no Case in which we can need or desire Comfort but there is a Revelation of some comfortable Perfection in God which speaks directly to it and administers a succour and support to us no less than Infinite that is incomprehensibly more extensive and Intensive than our Circumstances can be necessitous or dolorous Indeed nothing comforts but Love nothing more disquiets than sense of Enmity Hatred Anger Displeasure The more we are concern'd in any the more pleasing is Respect from them and an unloving Deportment more grievous We are not much affected with the love of Strangers but rejoyce in the Good-will of our Neighbours our Friends our Relations expecting it should bear proportion to our Interest in them and theirs in us else it pleases not We must have more Love from those in our Vicinity than from Aliens from intimate Acquaintance than either from our Flesh and Blood than all or it troubles us But the due measure nay if it be an excess of affection is most taking we are most at ease under it Again as the Relation so the Quality of Persons must vary the degree of Love or we are not at rest The regard of a mean Man does not so much delight us as of the Great that of Bad Men is not so sweet as that of the Good Further those we expect most good from most refresh us with their Love where we lay out no hopes from those such is the Selfishness of our Nature we are not solicitous to gain any Love So we are most earnestly desirous of the Affections of those whose Anger can and is likely and engaged to do us the greatest Hurt whom we therefore have reason most to fear if we can win their hearts 't is a wonderful Contentation Now God the nearest greatest most potent Neighbour Friend or Enemy is not only Loving but Love its self in the abstract not limited in kind or degree but unmeasurable infinite Love such on the contrary is his Wrath also Of all other his Love is most capable and engaged too to do us the greatest Good if we be capable of it His Hatred and Anger like to do us the greatest harm if we do not betake our selves to the refuge and security of his Love But he who is essential unconfincable Graciousness does with a natural Affection regard us as the Work of his hands in Creation with a Paternal Conjugal Respect embrace us as his Workmanship created in Christ Jesus to good Works if forsaking all other we cleave unto him with full purpose of heart in a sincere Child-like Spouse-like Affection being again begotten by his Word and Spirit to a lively Hope and so in Marriage-Covenant with him This then is a Comfort as large as its Subject Divine Love a satisfaction as boundless as the Deity for it infinitely pleases even God himself Infinite though he be therefore is sufficient sure to administer a Content to us sweet and great beyond all Expression all Cogitation The Holy Men of God which the Scripture propounds for our Examples alway took Sanctuary here in the assaults of their most grievous Troubles and Temptations Jer. 31.12 They shall slow together to the goodness of the Lord c. And their Soul shall be as a watered Garden and they shall not sorrow any more at all 13. I will turn their mourning into joy and will comfort them and make them rejoyce from their sorrow 14. And I will satiate the soul of the Priests with fatness and my People shall be satisfied with my Goodness saith the Lord. Psal 119.76 Let I pray thee thy merciful kindness be for my Comfort c. And indeed let the storms rage and the sea roar and beat as high as it can there will for ever be sure Anchor-hold for a good Soul upon the Rock of Ages Fix there and thou canst never shipwrack nay if thou canst but weakly and waveringly with a trembling heart and hand hold this Love be not discouraged for with a strong unconquerable hand it holds thee Joh. 10.28 29. All other Divine Perfections minister to his Love which has already bestowed the greatest Gifts Himself as an overflowing Jordan of enriching Goodness His Only-begotten Son Joh. 3.16 The choicest Blessing and the surest Pledge of all other Rom. 8.32 Nay thy self to thy self freed from the bondage of Sin and Satan Though I be in no desireable Circumstances as to other things yet if I be mine own Man and enjoy a just Liberty of Body and Mind in no slavery of Spirit and Condition I can sing over my other Misfortunes especially when I can read my own Felicity in the Misery of others through a Thraldom which I escape Indeed my Commiserations impress some part of their Calamity upon my Soul but 't is countervail'd and over-top'd by the Comfort of mine own Indemnity But there can be no liberty under the Dominion of Sin nor any true Self-enjoyment till I enjoy God and my self in him in whom I have my best and sweetest Being Motion and Life And though I enjoy my Civil and Moral Freedom which is no little Comfort yet Vassalage to the Prince of Darkness is an Affliction more grievous than the other can be solacing When a Good Man is satisfied from of with himself Prov. 14.14 't is only as far as the Goodness of God dwells in him and he in it For if I possess not God I have nothing with a Blessing therefore not with Comfort I have no Right to comfortable Thoughts contenting Enjoyments no not to my self and in my self For what am I that is good what am I not that is evil without God and what satisfaction can I receive in that which is evil as I my self and every thing in me will unavoidably be if not antidoted and animated by the Goodness of God Men are not more miserable in a Deprival of all the Content of their Lives than in the Dereliction of God God gave me my self as a Loan of Love what I am I owe to Him but by my sin I have lost both my self and Him If now by a new Charter He restore to me a better Right to Himself and to my self in His Son Jesus
a third Man A Bird in the hand is best Faith and Hope are beggarly things in the estimate of most Men. A competency of Necessaries in Possession more contents us than a World in Reversion In that modicum we can rejoyce though we do not wallow in those affluent Delights which the sensual Beasts of the Earth batten and rot in A sufficiency of suitable Comforts fills our Appetite Convenience being the essential Property if not Essence of Goodness When every thing hits us lies pat and even and easie upon our Hearts in a pleasing agreeableness we do not envy Crowns and Scepters But if we have all and enough to spare can never see through our Enjoyments be full and abound not only in opinion and with respect to the content of our Minds but in the reality of the thing we then begin to sing a requiem to our Souls and sit down under the shadow of these Gourds with delight And have we not a sufficiency nay a redundancy an infiniteness of all Necessaries and Agreeables in God's Love and Goodness of which Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither hath it entred into the Heart of Man to conceive the fulness the glory the sweetness the amiableness the suitableness the comfortableness Thy Mansion House here is the Bosom of Love replenished with a confluence of all desirable Satisfactions thy Garden the Paradise of God thy Demesne the Celestial Canaan thy Revenues and Incomes the unperishing Treasures of Divine Goodness and Grace and Glory the unsearchable Riches of Christ But be a Man's-Comforts never so sweet if there be an equal mixture of sowre he writes Cabul upon the front of all his Enjoyments And ordinarily a drachm of Gall will spoil an ounce of Honey one Cross embitter a thousand Comforts If now I be secure either that the Evils will be as the morning Cloud and early Dew or that I shall be no loser not be rob'd of the least real satisfaction but gain equivalent if I have a reserve of other better sweeter Joys and Blessings which will countervail my Sufferings or if when the Tempest lies hard upon me I be certain of a safe retiring Place and Refuge where I am out of danger or if I have weathered out the Storm that the worst is past and a prospect is given me of so great an advantage so happy an issue as will compensate the trouble if all along I find by experience that 't is for the best and if I had been to carve for my self and spin the thread of my own Fortune I could not have pitch'd upon any thing so eligible as what is dispens'd to me without my choice by the Wisdom and provident Goodness of Heaven every of these things singly yields me a plentiful harvest of quiet in my Mind and contentedness with my Condition much more joyntly altogether And has not every good Soul the amplest security that it shall be blest with all this and much more in and through the benignity and Love of God Have we not ground to believe that Love will not permit any evil to interrupt our Joys except there be need That Love will cut it short in Righteousness it shall be but for a moment a little moment Love being afflicted in all our Afflictions will not long torment it self What Love promises Power can command In that very small moment of continuance I am secure that Love will not suffer my Miseries and Disquiets to commit a rape upon my best satisfactions in it self and that I shall lose no Metal but only Dross which 't is my happiness to do and even that loss if my gain of Refinement and Purity deserve that Name will be recompenced to the full in those infinitely better things laid up in store for me in the plenitude and all-sufficiency of unboundable Goodness in the Divine Nature and Persons But be the Calamity as great and malignant as is imaginable I have a Rock higher than I where I may be safe above the reach of ruin For having past the pangs of the New Birth the worst is past both in respect of Pain and Danger Sorrow and Fear Though my Vessel the Body may be broken yet shall I certainly land in safety upon the blessed shore of Eternity with all my real Riches and Comforts environing me I am I hope in a sound bottom indeed Christ carries me in his Body his Bowels that 's the Ship wherein I am wafted over the Tempestuous Ocean of Miseries in this World to the fair Havens of everlasting Loves Joys and Rest The foreknowledge whereof together with my present sense of profit in my Soul strength against Sin resolution for God evidence and experience of his Presence Support Influence Grace the affectionate workings of his Heart in Love Care Kindness flowing over all the banks in multitudes of unmerited Blessings in Temporals but especially in Celestials These sweeten all my Sorrows and ease my burthened Spirit that I cannot but acknowledge the Provisions of Infinite Wisdom incomprehensibly more eligible and beneficial than the utmost that could ever enter into my utmost raised Imaginations But if the pinch come yet a little nearer that though accommodated with an affluence of all terrestrial Contentments without yet a dangerous Disease preys upon my Vitals or the Arrows of the Almighty gall wound and smart in my Conscience that I am destitute of the Blessings of a sound Mind in a sound Body the enjoyment whereof would add an Emphasis to all external Comforts a living Lam 3.39 Neh. 2.2 a healthful Man and Mind having no reason to complain and be sad But now Love is Life and Health and all things The breath of thy Nostrils the length of thy Days and Delights but the shortner of thy Pains and Sorrows Dost thou keep thy Tongue from evil Psal 34.12 13 14 15. and thy Lips from speaking guile depart from evil and do good seek Peace and pursue it Then are the Eyes of the Lord upon thee and his Ears open to thy cry thou shalt enjoy desired Life and beloved Days that thou mayst see Good yea the Goodness of the Lord in the Land of the Living Psal 118.17 thou shalt not die but live and declare the Works of the Lord. How can that Body or Soul be sick that 's embrac'd in the healing Bosom of the great Physician Forgiveness of Sin is a Medicine for every Malady Isa 32.24 If he whom Christ loves be sick 't is not unto Death but for the Glory of God Joh. 11.3 4. Love will loose the Pains of Death Thou hast loved me from the Pit of Corruption for thou hast cast all my Sins behind thy Back Isa 38.17 God bears not a grudge against those he loves 'T is Loves property to chastize none of its Office to impute guilt and punish but to cover a multitude of Sins 1 Pet. 4.8 An infallible Cure or Remedy for Distempers of Body and Soul supports a sinking Spirit revives a disconsolate Heart
unutterable Agonies and Woes of Hell and the horrible Tempest of Divine Vengeance and indignation in everlasting Burnings which will be tormenting above all that any understanding but that of God can comprehend the bitter Weepings Wailings and Gnashings of Teeth without Ease Release Mitigation Relief or End this intolerable after-clap of Sin is even to the remembrance and fore-thought almost as Cruciating as it self to the sense and feeling will be confounding God's Writing down all our Miscarriages in his Book out of which all the Power and Policy in the World can never expunge them his setting even our secret Sins in the light of his Countenance which makes them infinitely more visible than the Sun in the Firmament is a consideration that sticks and stabs us to the Heart and Murders all our Comforts at once and buries us in Horror Yet now if there can be any good token found that this Hand-writing is blotted out If a Man can be assured that Iniquity and Transgression shall by God be remembred no more this is the most reviving transporting Solace in the World But how can I have a Testimony that God hath thus privileged me How shall I know that he will forgive and forget my wickedness if he do not tell me Who can search into the bottom of his Counsels and know his purposes and practice in Heaven if himself do not reveal them And there are but two ways of revealing any secret thing viz. by words and by works Words spoken and written Deeds in Signs The Holy Scriptures reveal God's general Will to pardon some yet do they not name but only describe the Persons giving their true and lively Moral Character setting down at full such Qualifications as may be to any Man a clear Evidence who is and who is not made happy in this forensecal Mercy of Justification If an Angel from Heaven should address himself to thee with this Comfortable Message That thy Iniquities are pardoned If a Bath-kol a voice in Thunder should name thee and say Be of good Comfort thy Sins are forgiven thee thou could'st not be secure that this was not an Illusion to abuse thee into Presumption if thy inward sense did not report those tokens on which the Word of God does suspend thy Pardon But if thou canst but produce these all the Angels and Voices from Heaven imaginable though as particular and clear as possible telling thee thou art unjustified must be acknowledged accursed Deceptions because they Preach another Doctrine than Christ has done in the Gospel Gal. 1.8 Well then that thou may'st find a good token for good thou need'st not ascend into Heaven to search the Archives or court Rolls of the upper Bench there nor turn over the Book of Life in a curious tracing out thy particular name but having duly informed thy mind what are the signs of a Pardoned State look within thy Soul and Conscience and diligently enquire and examine without Partiality and a biass selfward whether the present State Constitution and Frame of thy heart be that in reality which is enrolled in the promises of the Book of God the Scripture which tender to thee Conditionally the forgiveness of Sin produce but those Conditions let it but appear upon sound Evidence that will satisfie thy self and the World and thy Judge that having truly repented of thy Sin thou livest under the Dominion of Faith and a good Conscience and Justice it self is obliged to Faithfulness for the granting thee Indemnity and Remission and the sense thereof in thy own Soul For if a Man can truly say that he hath repented and stands to what he has done in stedfast Resolutions never to return to folly his Reflections upon former Sins will not be torturing though they may be grieving because he hath the promise of Mercy and Pardon Isa 55.7 Acts 3.19 which Justice it self is obliged to perform For Conditional Promises in themselves are Dispensations of free love which was not obliged by any necessity or Congruousness to offer such Blessings upon such terms yet once made and the Conditions observed the Donation of the Mercy becomes the interest of strict Justice and Righteousness But although the New Covenant admit of Repentance which that of Works could not yet this Condescention is only through a Mediator Jesus Christ If therefore to thy Penitence thou do not superadd Faith in him neither will those after Thoughts be sound nor introductive of Peace because without Christ our Righteousness and Peace objective and causal without us Jer. 23.6 1 Cor. 1.30 Mic. 5.5 Eph. 2.14 there can be no Pardon and Peace formal within us Rom. 8.1 and without Faith no Justification no Christ Rom. 5.1 Joh. 3.18 36. Yet both these must be evinced to be sincere and sound and thereby be themselves justifiable and justified which nothing can do but the exercise of a Good Conscience Acts 24.16 This alone is to us the surest Evidence that our Repentance and Faith are unfeigned and that we deceive not our own Souls Indeed the basis of all true bliss and solace is a good Conscience in Justice and Innocency toward Man Inoffensiveness and Piety toward God Moderation and Sobriety in my self the contrary to these and Comfort are incompatible 'T is but a colloguing with my Conscience to my utter Confusion to tender it Peace if it be not pure Jam. 3.17 No Man can be groundedly quiet in Mind if filthy in Heart and Life If thou be a Devil thou must carry thy Hell about thee visibly or under disguise in its self or its Causes Thou hast no just Right to the sweets of Religion if a stranger to its Power A Mans first Designs for Joy are or ought to be laid in Self-survey and Reflection If he can find nothing of God within he can take comfort in nothing of God without but by an unjust Usurpation and Sacrilege All the goodness of God signifies nothing to an ill Man But a Good Conscience or heart is a continual Feast Prov. 15.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that finds all right at home who has no rebuke nor cause thereof from the Domestick Comptroller and Comforter in his Bosom is happy Now there can be no goodness in Conscience but only from God and as far as in Conjunction with God God in thy Conscience makes it good for he is all Goodness and there neither is nor can be any except in and from him And all the goodness which is in thy Conscience from him is first from his Faithfulness acting under his Love in the Covenant wherein he promises to give a new heart of Flesh Ezek. 36 26 27. Jer. 31.33 and Write his Laws in it by his Spirit of Promise which he engages shall cause us to walk in his Statutes c. Next and under Faithfulness all the goodness in thy Conscience is from Justice For the Right that Fidelity gives to Mercy Justice is obliged to maintain God must perform his Word because he cannot
saying be strong and couragious be not afraid nor dismayed for the King of Assyria nor for all the Multitude that is with him for there be moe with us than with him With him is an arm of Flesh but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our Battles And the People leaned themselves upon the Words of Hezekiah King of Judah The Comfort of these Words which was a Stay to their disquieted Minds did consist in the Assurance he gave of the Presence of God And what more common in the Scripture than for God himself immediately or mediately by his Prophets or Messengers to encourage his Servants unto or in any difficult hazardous displeasing terrifying troublesome Undertaking by this I am or I will be or God is or shall be with thee But incomparably above all things of this Nature is that most satisfying Ground of everlasting Consolation beyond all Miracles which we have in IMMANUEL That for the Recovery of Lost Mankind the Eternal Son of God should descend from the Heighth of his Sanctuary and Throne in Heaven to become GOD WITH US The Excellency and Beauty of Heaven The Son of Righteousness did Eclipse and shroud his Transcendent Light and Glory in the dark shadow of mortal flesh that in the humility of our Nature he might do and suffer that for us who had debased our selves even unto Hell Isa 57.9 which would be effectually conducible for our Exaltation to the very Akme of Celestial Perfection and Felicity This This is the everlasting Wonder and Astonishment of Men and Angels an Act of Grace and a Means of Peace truly worthy of an infinitely Glorious God! 'T is only in Vertue of this that sinful Man has any gracious Presence of God at all Joh. 1.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If God had not thus Tabernacled in our Flesh dwelt in our Nature we could have had no dwelling in God but as in a Consuming Fire and Everlasting Burnings All the Support we can derive either from God's Essential Presence or Voluntary depends intirely upon the Hypostatical Vnion and Presence of the Only-begotten Dearly-beloved of God to our Nature But dismiss we this to further Consideration in its proper Place 't was necessary to mention it here as the very Basis of all our Comfort in any thing of God Let a Man be Paradis'd in the sweetest refreshing Garden of all Sublunary Delights yet Solitude will be an Embitterment to all his other Joys he that can evermore be alone is either a Devil or a God The Deity pronounc'd that State Bad when Man's State was at the Best 'T is not good for Man to be alone Gen. 2.18 No his own Thoughts would devour him his Troubles crush him down and sink his Spirits into Despondency and Confusion 'T is no little Solace in Misery it self to have a Fellow though it be in Suffering and an Aggravation when our Sorrows are unparallell'd Is it nothing to you all ye that pass by behold and see if there be any Sorrow like unto my Sorrow c. Lam. 1.12 was the Sting of the Church's Misery But There hath no Temptation taken you but such as is common to Man 1 Cor. 10.13 is a singular Comfort under the most grievous Depressions Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris Society is an Alleviation of Calamities our Griefs are not so oppressive if they be in Consort Company begets a Harmony in Sorrows and the Consonancy of their Dolours makes a kind of pleasing Musick in Consent with our own although no other Interest knit them to us than Community of Cares and Troubles But how pleasant is the Society of a Friend to whom we can ease our Hearts in Adversity and who by condoling our Afflictions and bearing our Burthens lightens our Crosses and cheers our fainting Spirits by comfortable Discourses whom also in all our Prosperity we can make Partaker of all our Joys and all in whose Comforts we have a common Interest whose Good we can rejoyce in when we suffer Evil our selves in the noble Sensuality of reciprocating Kindnesses If the accidental Society of any be sweet much more this Elective neither is the Natural and Relative inferiour especially where the Love is not meer Liberty but Necessity What an unspeakable Solace is the tender pretty Babe to the Compassionate Mother With what ravishing Exultations does she entertain it into her Embraces How does her Heart leap for Joy at the very sight of it And her Bowels yern over it And in its Enjoyment can triumph over all her other Misadventures and Misfortunes In general any thing to which we can let out our hearts in an entire Affection administers Satisfaction The very working of Love and Commiseration singularly pleases There 's no Solace but in something that delights Thy Comforts delight my Soul Under Perplexity no Peace The Heart cannot rest in what displeases What 's unlovely is indelectable Whatever delights comforts whether it be in our own Act or an outward Object Now in incident Company there 's something pleasing something and often much more displeasing else we embrace it with Friendship In a choice Friend there 's much more pleasing than displeasing for we always give some Allowance for Humanity If a Relation in which blind Love sees the least ill yet do in nothing displease 't is ador'd and made a God Whatever is mortal is not without some kind of Embitterment The purest Gold has its Alloy 't is but so many Caracts fine But God is infinite Delectation alway in thy Company Thou art altogether incapable of Solitude He that fills the Universe is ever with thee Ps 139.18 Yet not accidentally but substantially essentially nor only as a Spectator but every way concern'd Afflicted in all thy Afflictions Isa 63.9 So thou enjoy'st that Solamen And if thou hast elected him for thy Freind he hath no less chosen thee In his Love mayst thou rejoice into his Bosome pour out all thy Griefs and meet with a Sympathy in his Compassionate Heart Vpon him mayst thou cast thy Burthen who has promised to sustain it and thee Psal 55.22 He cares for thee 1 Pet. 5.7 He is tenderly affectioned towards thee kind to thee all his is common to thee when none else will or can a Friend will he be and a Relation too the nearest the sweetest To the Natural Relation founded in forming and begetting thee as a Faithful Creator Merciful Father he hath for thy further Comfort superadded a voluntary tye in the condition of a Bridegroom Mat. 25. the beginning But as if Espousals were not firm enough to prevent thy jealousie of a dereliction the Conjugal Bond is actually ty'd Thy Maker is thy Husband Isa 54.5 Rom. 7.1 2 3 4. therefore has he obliged himself to ever enduring Cohabitation and Love with everlasting Kindness will be embrace thee never leave thee nor forsake thee Neither are his Converses and Communication less delightful than his Company and Presence The Discourse
alteration in himself or varying of his place make Heaven to be any where every where therefore the Joys and Comforts of Heaven For I reckon that Heaven does not import any difference in God but in us no change in his Being but our Vision no new Object except Christ's Flesh but new Eyes Every Spirit and therefore the Father of Spirits hath a Power to conceal its Presence as well as its Sentiments from all other Spirits except God Yet there 's a difference betwixt the Latency of other Spirits and the Deity A finite Spirit is hid through the suspence of its Agency Ad extra its acting upon things without it self so the Deity cannot be hid For if it wholly cease to act upon any Being that Being will wholly cease to be because all live move and have their Being in and from Him Acts 17.28 which Spirits that see not with Eyes but Intellects cannot but perceive only 't is unobserv'd by Man whose Mind looks through the Apertures of Sense which together with it self being darkned through Sin has but very obscure and weak Reflections upon that Being without which he cannot be 't is hid to him by a Veil of Flesh that envelops his Intellectual Eyes or else he shuts and will not open them to behold this invisible Nature which is in reality more conspicuous and evident that is knowable than any thing in the World whatever But the Deities concealment of it self is with respect to some more special Voluntary Operations which give Testimony to his presence and demonstrate the Finger of God which when suspended he is and therefore the Comfort of his presence is hid from our Eyes Such are either Miraculous or Gracious For although every thing in Nature both in respect of his Being and Agency be a sufficient Indication of the Existence Presence and Efficiency of God it being impossible that any Natural Powers should exert themselves in a suspence of the Influence of his the Concurrence whereof gives them to be what they are and do what they do Yet the Deity sometimes as being it self the Law of Laws does in its Actings vary from go beside nay contrary to the common and ordinary Laws of particular Natures and so invert the course and order of things as to give peculiar evidence of his Presence and Power by Effects wonderfull surprizing and astonishing As the Flood of Noah the first that falls within the Cognizance of History after the Creation I need not particularize more the Scripture is full nor balk that for all the ingenious attempts of a late Author to deduce it from Natural Causes it being demonstrable that some necessary parts of his Hypothesis stand in need of the violence of Miracle or the whole process will stick and produce nothing Yet the Manifestations of the Divine presence which constitute Heaven are not in the instances of Power but Goodness even as the Discoveries of it in Vindictive Justice form the Miseries of Hell That Goodness and Justice essentially considered which make Heaven and Hell are Omnipresent as being the Divine Nature But the Objects of them cannot aspire to an Ubiquity being of a limited Nature Should they circulate through all the Regions of Immensity the condition and sense they partake would present them still with the same unaltered unalterable Nature of God Heaven and Hell would be in every place where Souls so sensed reside the Discoveries of God importing no change in him but only in those to whom the Discovery is made Heaven and Hell not being more the alteration of our State than the awakening of our sense to discern and apprehend and feel that which before we did not though before it was the very same immutably and will continue so everlastingly This is the Natural State of Heaven but the Christian State is somewhat more For the choicest sweetest Discoveries of God are therein made in and through the Mediator God-Man and in special to Mankind through the Manhood of Christ which being of a limited presence settles the Divine Manifestations in a certain limited place sufficient to comprehend all Elect Angels and Men. This Divine Presence we enjoy by Faith here by Sight hereafter We have as much of God and Heaven now as we have of Faith Divine Manifestations are proportioned to our Believings All the Effects of Divine Goodness in and upon us depend upon this Christian Grace and the degree of them upon the degree of it Gain but this and thou hast God and all Nothing can pierce the Heavens but this Eye 'T is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 substance of things hoped for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Evidence Eviction of things not seen Heb. 11.1 By it Moses saw him who is invisible vers 27. We never can be without a Heaven if we have but Faith it realizes to us that presence of God which through Christ is the sole and full ground of all Celestial Comforts Satisfactions and Joys Psal 16 11. In thy presence is fulness of Joy and at thy Right Hand are pleasures for evermore In Heaven thy presence Chamber where thou sit'st upon the Throne of Glory cloathed with Honour and Majesty as with a Garment and discoverest and displayest the Splendour of thy incomprehensible Excellency and Perfection And at thy Right Hand where thou hast said my Lord should sit till his Enemies be made his Footstool Psal 110.1 In and through this Jesus at thy Right hand are pleasures everlasting But these are chiefly the Comforts of a Future State Is there not something at present to stay and yet inflame the Appetite Yes vers 8. I would always possess that Saturity of Joys which is before thy face Therefore I have set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved Therefore my Heart is gladed and my Glory Exults rejoyces my Flesh also inhabits in hope because thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell nor give thy merciful or excellent one to see the pit of Corruption but thou wilt make me to know the path of Lives He is at my right hand and therefore Gladness and Joy in my Heart and Soul But Oh what is there at His right Hand My Faith setting him now as present before me brings singular Satisfaction and Delight Oh then what will sense and sight be when I shall possess the reality of that which I now believe The result is That the presence of God apprehended by Faith or Vision is a thing which comprehends the substance and fulness of all Pleasure Joy and Consolation Indeed nothing Comforts but through some kind of presence It either is or is conceived to be and made indistant by our Cogitations Humane Infirmity requires something in hand or in hopes that are as secure and therefore as good as in hand Absence of a solacing good although only imaginary is tormenting God cannot but be near every one of us in Essence and we find him so to be by the effects of
his Goodness Since then he is at our right hand naturally and necessarily we must voluntarily by Consideration and Faith set him before us have an Eye upon his presence fix it in our Minds and Meditations alway And it will replenish us with Spiritual refreshment and solace unspeakable For if God he with us and for us who or what can be against us What can trouble or terrifie us How can that Soul be left in a Hell of disquiet that lives in the presence of God i. e. in Heaven For where God is there 's Heaven he is the all of it 't is nothing without him and his presence is enough to convert any thing into Heaven There cannot possibly be so much Evil in those Infernal Regions of Wickedness and Woe as there is good in the presence of God 'T is an infinite good There is not so much Power in Hell it self to impress the sense of its Evil upon a tormented Soul as there is in God to impress the Comforts of his presence upon a gracious Heart Neither doth the Justice of God more enlarge the Capacity of a Man to sense and anguishfully apprehend and feel the Misery of his absence in Hell than his goodness doth widen the Soul's Capacity to comprehend the felicity of his presence in Heaven that I Judge the Saints to be more happy above through their Inheritance in Light than the Damned are miserable in outer Darkness In the Omnipresence of God we have with us all Things all Perfections all Satisfactions all that ever God can be or do or give and in his gracious Presence we have an Ingagement upon him to be do and give all that he can to us And what can we wish what can we imagine more God is All-present by condition of Nature but graciously present only by Compact and Covenant whereby he obliges himself to be our God that is every thing which he is in himself that we shall enjoy the benefit and comfort of all and every of his Unimitable Soul-satisfying and saving Perfections Now the gracious Presence of God is nothing else but his manifesting himself to be with us by his Communicating all Covenant Mercies to us Making us Partakers of a Divine Nature granting us Pardon Peace and Comfort giving us the full use and advantage of all his Attributes of his Son of his Spirit every thing that he is and hath which will do us any good for this and another World satisfying us with his likeness and filling us with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory When Esau therefore came off only with his Lean 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 33.9 I have much well might Jacob roundly and triumphantly declare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have all vers 11. He can want nothing Habet omnia qui habet habentem omnia who possesseth him that hath all things He is never Poor or Naked or Blind or Wretched or Miserable who enjoys the presence of God He can never be distrest for want of Grace and Holiness or Pardon and Peace and Pleasure and Joy and Comfort who is not without God For Isa 57.15 c. Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth Eternity whose name is holy I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble Spirit to revive the Spirit of the humble and to revive the Heart of the contrite ones I will restore Comforts c. I create the fruit of the Lips Peace Peace c. A Blessed Denizen indeed But as he dwells and resides in us so also do we in him Psal 90.1 Lord thou hast been our dwelling place in all Generations Psal 91.1 He that dwelleth in the secret of the Highest shall abide in the shadow of the All-sufficient Vers 9 10. Because thou hast made the Lord my hope even the highest thy Habitation Evil shall not befall thee by chance Plague shall not approach thy dwelling Make God thy home and no harm can reach thee Thy Spiritual home will secure thy Civil That Eternal thy Temporal That was thy first and must be thy last toward which 't is strange that thy Appetite works with no greater Violence In every Creature there is a natural instinct and pressing desire inclining to return to the place of its Birth to that Country to those Persons which had its Maiden Affections Notwithstanding the Dominion of reason in our selves 't is no little Gratification to our Fancies to enjoy a retiring place and home where we may refresh our selves after all our wearisome Labours and Travails Where-ever we are beside we are not well here are our Hearts our Delights our Joys whence we say Proverbially Home is Home though never so homely And the Spaniards My House my House though thou be small Thou art to me th' Escurial Our Spirit is from God in his bosom was it born there is our House not made with Hands 2 Cor. 5.1 our Eternal Mansion and is there not infinitely more agreeableness and pleasingness in him to our Souls than there can be sweetness and suitableness in any material Home to our Imaginations We do not inure our selves by Love to dwell in God 1 Joh. 4.16 therefore are so well content to be absent from him to ramble like Vagabonds chusing the Life of Cain or Coryat rather than that of Christians and Saints whose being and bideing should be solely and electively in God as it is essentially and naturally On for such a Disposition of Soul as would never permit us to be at ease but in serious Reflections upon the presence of God with which we are ever surrounded whether we will or no And if we consider this how can we be any other than Engarrison'd in Peace and Joy and Consolation Well might the Psalmist say Thou comfortest me on every side Psal 71.21 for round about him and within him also dwelt a Comfort no less than infinite the Supreme Majesty able and of Authority to command the presence of all Good and countermand the presence of all Evil and the Sovereign Mercy of Heaven willing and of sufficient Love and Fidelity to make every thing a means of Grace and Peace and all things according to his Promise Work together for good to the true Lovers of him and the called according to his purpose Rom. 8.28 § 7. Lastly The Eternity of God is a ground of Comfort as fingular as it self is incomprehensible Everlasting Consolation is built upon no other bottom A perishing Content is in effect none because it issues in nothing but the greater dissatisfaction The durableness of our Joy is its Crown and since 't is in the Eternal God it can be no other in Duration than what he is Therefore as there is in God's presence a saturity or fullness of Joy in respect of Magnitude and Intensiveness So at God's Right Hand pleasures for evermore in respect of extent and continuance And 't is probable our Psalmist might derive some of those Comforts which
needless fond thing for the Deity to promise them or interest his own Agency about them which yet is of a blasphemous importance as 't would savour of the highest Arrogance to imagine that I am in a Capacity to act well-pleasingly to God without God For does it consist with the Divine Wisdom and God's Ingenuous procedure with Man to promise what is in Mans power whether he promise or no. And if we be capable of exerting one acceptable Act without Divine Influence Why not another and another till frequent Acts produce a Habit and all this exclusively to the aids of Heaven That he must be made a liar who said Joh. 15.5 Without me you can do nothing And 2 Cor. 3.5 Not that we are sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves but our sufficiency is of God See also again Eph. 2.8 9 10. Let him stand forth and be a publick Spectacle of Ignominy and Malediction who will not subscribe to or having subscribed contradicts the 10th and 13th Articles of Religion which are these X. The Condition of Man after the Fall of Adam is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself by his own natural strength and good Works to Faith and calling upon God Wherefore we have no power to do good Works pleasing and acceptable to God without the Grace of God preventing us that we may have a good will and working with us when we have that good will XIII Works done before the Grace of Christ and the Inspiration of his Spirit are not pleasant to God forasmuch as they spring not of Faith in Jesus Christ neither do they make Men meet to receive Grace or as the School Authors say deserve Grace of Congruity yea rather for that they are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done we doubt not but they have the Nature of Sin If formally upright and acceptable Acts of Submission to the Covenant and its conditions could issue from wicked Men and Hypocrites so continuing in State and Disposition and therefore Enemies to God and Goodness as there would be no need of the promise to Write his Law in the Heart so God would be obliged in faithfulness to fulfil to them his part of the Covenant in communicating all Covenant Mercies But the whole implies a contradiction For sincerely to observe the terms of the Covenant is to be sincere in that thing and therefore supposes the Law to be Written in the Heart or obliges God to Write it For the condition being observed by Man the Engagement upon God becomes absolute he must do his part or violate his Covenant and be unjust to himself and his Son Jesus Christ whose undertaking founded this New Covenant Dispensation Whence a cordial performance of the terms of the Covenant on our part does really introduce or infer that sincerity of State which is implied in the Writing God's Laws in our Hearts implanting therein his fear and pouring out his Spirit on us which is the very Work of Conversion or Regeneration and the basis of all Consolation for Psal 119.50 This is my comfort in my affliction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because thy word hath quickned me Thy word in general as the Instrument its precepts in particular as the Matter principling my Heart in the nature of a Law engraven on that Fleshly Table by the Finger of God Whatever Mens Sentiments may be under Temptation Melancholy c. yet ordinarily let but this be made out to a considering Man viz. that he is truly born again of God and all his Troubles Disquiets Agonies Horrors of Conscience vanish into nothing and all other his Disconsolate Thoughts are very much moderated If his Grace be found real and sound his Repentance Faith and Love unfeigned his Heart is at ease he has a perfect Demonstration that God the Father is his God and Father Jesus Christ his Saviour because the Holy Ghost has been his Sanctifier Now does he not doubt of the pardon of his Sins of the special Love of God of an interest in all the Benefits purchased by Jesus Christ of a Right to all the Promises and everlasting Consolation and Salvation This is the bottom of all nothing without this will avail in the least to bring the glad tidings of Peace into the Conscience This as a sure and immovable Foundation establishes all our hopes of Comfort which without it is absolutely impossible But this ground laid Joy and Rest and Satisfaction of Soul will infallibly arrive sooner or later all the Malignity and Rage upon Earth all the Malice and Policy of Hell all the Melancholy Imaginations of a Man 's own Heart though they may obstruct and delay it yet cannot finally avert and hinder it any more than a gloomy Night can the rising of the Sun in its season The day of Glory Peace and Consolation everlasting Cant. 4.6 will undoubtedly break Hebr. breath upon such a Soul and Darkness Sorrows Shadows flee away For these Redeemed of the Lord by power and therefore by price shall return and come with singing unto Sion and everlasting Joy shall be upon their heads they shall obtain Gladness and Joy and Sorrow Mourning and Sighing shall flee away Isa 51.11 Weeping may endure in the Evening but Joy cometh in the Morning Psal 30.5 A Child of Prayers and Tears said Ambrose to Monica cannot perish Isa 53.3 A Man of Sorrows and acquainted with Grief whom it pleaseth the Lord to bruise shall see of the Travail of his Soul and be satisfied This was verified first in the Head and shall be also in the Members They must pass through the Jordan of Repentance and there be wash'd seven times that they may be healed of their Spiritual Leprosies but their next Stage is a welcome Canaan of Solace and Rest This is the basis of the other Privilege viz. Propriety in God and assurance thereof and therefore being a connex Blessing more concerning it will necessarily fall under the following Head Now that the Psalmist had some Reflections upon his Sanctification in assuming to himself the Comforts of God seems evident from the 21. vers where he makes a tacit Profession of his Righteousness and Innocency which no doubt were to him as in like case they are to any Man a singular Support and Satisfaction under all the Calamities and Cruelties endured through the violence and fury of Man Though the Floods and Waves and Storms beat high from without yet if there be a sweet Calm within though the World with a savage barbarousness persecute and pursue me to Death yet if mine own Conscience do not reproach me but testifie that in simplicity and godly sincerity I have had my Conversation in this World not by fleshly Wisdom but by the grace of God in innocency and usefulness to Men 2 Cor. 1.12 This is a singular rejoycing and ground of Comfort though our sufferings abound Vers 5. The Peace of a good Conscience is a powerful Antidote
against the Poison of all adverse accidents For since nothing diseases disquiets me but only as far as it gets within me and no external Occurrents can be so great Evils as internal Sanctity is a good because the utmost that the fiery rage of Earth and Hell can do against me is but finite whilst under the conduct and influence of real Holiness I am secure that I do and shall enjoy the all-sufficient Reliefs of infinite goodness and therefore my Miseries only commit a Rape upon my imaginative and irascible Powers whilst my Comforts are seated deep in my Rational which through Divine Grace have regain'd the Soveraignty it necessarily follows that the potency of all outward Evils to torment me is boundlesly short of the Omnipotency of that Internal Heaven that I feel in my conscience to content and ease me and my Sorrows will be perfectly run down by my Joys and Consolations But then this I must acknowledge that neither can my Conscience be good nor I comfortably Innocent i. e. neither acting nor imagining evil against Men nor Righteous i. e. designing and doing all the good I can out of an inward principle of Love and Justice unless I be truly a Sanctified Person For external fair demeanour toward Men without an inward Inclination and Affection thereto is but only Hypocrisie before God 2. Privilege is Propriety in God with the assurance of it both in Vers 22. and in those Two Words MY GOD. For he could not without presumption or falshood say this if he knew it not And 't is not the common interest of Nature founded in the Relation of Creatures which every Man nay Devil may justly claim that these words here import but a special Propriety through Grace founded in Regeneration and Adoption In short 't is not a congenit and general but a federal and peculiar right in God which must bottom our Consolation When we are taught of God out of his Law Vers 12. in such a manner as to have that Law of God Writ in our Hearts according to the tenor of the Covenant of Grace Jer. 31.33 c. God thereby giving us a sensible Demonstration that he is our God so as he is not to those who though the Work of his hands of Power yet are not his Workmanship by Grace created in Christ Jesus to good Works Ephes 2.10 Then and not till then have we Right to the Fruits of Righteousness in Peace and Joy unspeakable and upon our assurance Right in them 'T is but little Satisfaction to be able to plead no better title to God than Apostate Spirits or Infidels But if we can upon good Grounds assure our selves that God is ours in the singular Relation of a gracious Father who hath begot us again to a lively hope through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the Dead we therein have also the evidence that every thing in God is ours to enstate us in the Perfection of Felicity and Consolation He that is blest with any Plerophory that God is federally his and consequently that he hath a clear title to Jesus Christ and all his Benefits hath also a full and sufficient Testimony in that very thing of a sure and indefeisible right to the Holy Spirit and all his Comforts For these are absolutely inseparable both in Nature and Divine Donation And if we have an interest in one Covenant Blessing 't is a pledge of assurance that we have all They are four 1. Sanctification of which before I will put my Laws into their Minds and write them in their Hearts 2. Propriety in God or Adoption I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a People 3. Special Illumination or saving Knowledge They shall not teach every Man his Neighbour and every Man his Brother saying Know the Lord for all shall know me from the least to the greatest 4. Pardon of Sin or Justification I will be merciful to their Vnrighteousness and their Sins and their Iniquities will I remember no more All here is will and shall Words of Authority and Command These Four are not only by the Covenant indissolubly connected but also in the reason of the thing For there can be no possible evidence that God is ours in special and hath savingly enlightned our Minds and pardoned our Sins but only real and undissembled Goodness and that which is of God's Creation by Writing his Laws in our Hearts can be no other Therefore this is the leading Mercy in the Covenant as inferring the rest and declaring the truth of all If then God be ours we are certainly Sanctified Illuminated and Pardoned but the contrary if God be not ours by peculiar and special Right They mutually prove each other and the absence or denial of one excludes all 't is impossible they should be divided Canst thou without self-deceiving say with the Psalmist and in his sence MY GOD then canst thou as truly say I am Pardoned I am Sanctified c. Here then is the very Root of all Spiritual Comfort For trouble of Conscience which is its contrary is founded by Sin The Filth the Guilt the Power afflict and wound our Spirits If these be removed the ground of the trouble vanishes and if we have an inward feeling and assurance that they are removed the trouble it self is actually taken away Now Pardon is the taking away the guilt of Sin we have no reason to fear the Wrath to which it did bind us over and Sanctification is the taking away the Power and Filth of Sin in us I say in us for Sanctification doth not abolish the filthy Nature of Sin in it self but rather discover it to us more abundantly to excite our abhorrency and loathing and this very Detestation is the main of our cleansing from the filth of Sin this washes away that stain wherewith our Souls were blemished that is God deals with us as if there were none is as kind and favourable to us and as freely converses with us as if we never had been polluted and will continue so to do till we renew the defilement For the sake of Christ he overlooks all those spots and deformities the turpitude and disgrace whereof made us cover our Faces in shame before his pure all-discerning Eye and he looks upon us and we look upon our selves as clear unblamable and beautiful in his Eyes when we really hate those Evils that have defiled us and as the spring of that hatred without which it can never be nor be pleasing to God when we are replenished with the Riches of his Grace and adorned with the Robes of his Sons Righteousness for both concur to our acceptation Sanctification also destroys the Commanding but not at first the Rebelling the Regal but not Tyrannical Power of Sin though it be our strength even against this and at last will abolish it It so subdues our Lusts that they shall not Reign though they may resist as contumacious Enemies They are look'd upon as Traitors
got to the foot of that Ladder whose top is Heaven Comfort is the Off-spring of God and thus descends to Man The matter and substance of it or the thing comforting is originally something of or from the Divine Nature it self Which when we had forfeited by Sin the ever-blessed Jesus God's Eternal Son did interpose to regain and purchase for us and remove all impediments to the conferring it on God's part Whence he is call'd the Consolation of Israel Luk. 2.25 And our Consolations are said to abound by Christ 2 Cor. 1.5 If there be any Consolations in Christ is the Hypothesis of a very powerful Argument Phil. 2.1 And that Prayer 2 Thes 2.16 17. is very considerable Now our LORD Jesus Christ himself and GOD even our Father who hath loved us and given us everlasting Consolation through Grace Comfort your Hearts and establish you in every good Word and Work Hence the Father who is the principal Author and Efficient hath obliged himself to bestow it and therefore is call'd the God of all Comfort 2 Cor. 1.3 God that comforteth those that are cast down 2 Cor. 7.6 See Isa 51.11 12. Hos 2.14 Isa 66.13 Especially that remarkable place foremention'd Heb. 6.16 17 18. The Holy Ghost hath his part also as removing the Impediments of Comfort on Man's part preparing for it and in the use of the means of Grace and Peace the Word and Ordinances applying it actually to us whence if our Translation be of any Authority he has the Name of Comforter given and appropriated to him Joh. 14.16 c. I mention the Word and Ordinances of God as the means of Comfort and not without warrant Psal 119.82 Mine Eyes fail for thy Word saying when wilt thou Comfort me Rom. 15.4 Whatever things were written aforetime were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope And to this purpose is it said of the Comforter Joh. 14.26 He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you And Joh. 15.26 He shall testifie of me all this in pursuance of his Office as Comforter Now by these means 1. He reveals Comfort to us in the Covenant and Promise 2. Declares to us the terms and conditions upon which Comfort may be assuredly obtain'd and 3. Works those Conditions in us 1. Repentance to qualifie and prepare for it 2. Faith to apprehend and apply it which 4. Experience feels with all other connex Graces operating effectually in our Hearts Wherefrom Lastly A full Assurance arises 1. That our Graces are sound and sincere 2. That the Promises are our Portion the Lord our God Christ our Saviour the Holy Spirit our Sanctifier Comfort Joy and Heaven our Inheritance by special Covenant-right and from all these together necessarily grows actual Peace of Conscience and true spiritual Consolation but then 't is only as far as we have the first Assurance for without this we cannot assume to our selves any true Joy and Comfort as far as the rest issue in Assurance but no farther have we solace in and from them Let there be as firm a Foundation laid both without me and within me as is possible yet if I know nothing of it my Heart is uneasie and unsettled I am no better for it But knowing that Sincerity gives right to all in God as soon as ever I attain true Faith of Evidence all is composed into a quiet Settlement and Peace And so certain is this that even the false and fallacious Joys of both Hypocrites and prophane Persons must have an answerable perswasion in the Mind of a right to them For no Man can take comfort in that which he knows he hath nothing to do with Indeed their Assurance is as groundless though they do not know so much as their Comfort is illuding and impostorous and alway the nature of the Comfort doth perfectly answer the quality of the Assurance if this be sound and good that is so also if otherwise we gull our selves into real woe under a delusory dream of merely phantastical Consolation Hence there 's an absolute necessity of abundance of Experience and diligent trial whether our Experience be conform to the Word of God if we desire that our Assurance may stand upon a secure basis For if we feel not the real effects of Divine Power and Goodness fulfilling to us in truth the Promise and Covenant of Grace in writing the Divine Laws in our Hearts and enabling and exercising us to observe and obey them we can have no Assurance that any thing is right within us or gives right to any thing without us We must experience a sound Work that without fallacy may be ascribed to God himself For no Grace is true which is not of God's creating to him doth the Scripture every where ascribe it One full place for all Ezek. 36.26 27. A new Heart also will I give you and a new Spirit will I put within you and I will take the stony Heart out of your Flesh and I will give you an Heart of Flesh and I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes and ye shall keep my Satutes and do them Then shall ye remember your own evil ways and your doings that were not good and shall loath your selves in your own sight for your Iniquities and for your Abominations c. First the Principle and Power must be confer'd by God then and not till then the practice by Man will commence and begin but all under the influence of Divine Grace 'T is first I will I will then you shall and again to show that the very you shall though Man's act yet is not of and from Man it follows not for your sake do I this do I therefore not you without me nor so by my aid neither as that the doing it can more justly and truly be ascribed to you than me yet will not I do it without you for ye shall loath your selves i. e. by my Power nor will I do it without your asking for Ver. 37. Yet for this will I be enquired of by the House of Israel to do it for them We must then have good experience especially of the Work of Divine Grace in making the soundness of our Actings of Repentance and Faith apparent and the fruits of both must concur to give a clear Testimony that they are right and genuine such a full and thorow spiritual sense and feeling must we have of them and their agreeableness to the Rules and Laws of Scripture that require them as to be able to satisfie our selves and approve our Consciences to God that we do not play the Hypocrites and cheat our selves and the World with Counterfeits instead of unsophisticate sincere Graces else we can never be blest with any certainty that God is ours and his Comforts ours and therefore cannot groundedly take comfort in him 'T is then demonstratively clear that
its Speculations infinitely weakned and debased The Will possesses a kind of Empire over the Mind to excite divert direct or determine Thoughts and vary all their Circumstances by proposal of Objects c. and sometimes to give a Supersedeas to some kind of Thoughts though not all but oft it raises up such Spirits as it cannot conjure down and very seldom has Dominion over the Matter or Subject of our Thoughts to biass the Mind into such Conceptions of Things as it pleases difform and dissonant from the Nature of the Things themselves except where there is a more than ordinary Debauch upon both Mind and Will For the Reason of the Subject must necessarily accord with the Reason of the Object if there be any Truth in our Conceptions Thoughts disagreeing from Things are Errours and Delusions The Remainders therefore of Corruption in the Will after its Renewal by Grace together with a subtile Tempter and sometimes the Holy Spirit of God himself as under Convictions of Sin do excite such Cogitations as are too hard for us and bear down all the Supports of Nature raising such Tumults and turbulent Affections that our Spirits are ready to succumb and sink under them into the most pensive Dumpishness Dolour Despair Horror and Confusion He is a Stranger to Himself the World the Scriptures Christianity the Church and particular Souls that know not this If any will not yet believe it I remit him to Bedlam where his Sense will convince him what doleful Tragedies of this nature have been and are acted by Amorous Envious Studious Dolorous and Religious Melancholy to omit other kinds And what Man is there that with any Sense and Seriousness reflects upon his own particular Sins against the Holy Majesty of Heaven in their odious Aggravations together with the declared Displeasure and Indignation the menaced Wrath and Curse of Almighty Vengeance against them and his Person for their sake but will sometimes find so great and oppressive Perturbations in his Mind and Conscience as to be utterly at a Non-plus and scarce able to secure himself from Despondency Who is there that in some either common or uncommon Calamity or imminent Danger thereof does not sometimes find the Passions excited by his Thoughts to be an Over-match for his Reason Who but a senseless stupid Log does not a little sometimes pass the bounds of Decorum in the Internal Workings of Sorrow upon the I oss or Death natural but especially suddain and violent of or any considerable Crosses in and by dearest and nearest Relations and yet more especially when their immortal Souls are apparently hazzarded if not finally lost and sunk into Eternal Damnation Now no inward Affections are Self-movers they neither do nor can act but upon the apprehension of Sence or Motion of Thoughts or Influence of some exterior very powerful Agent that can make immediate Impressions upon the Blood and Spirits as neither are our Thoughts no nor can be any Molestation or Affliction but only as irritating our Passions And I would gladly see the Man who by Rational or Religious Considerations has reduc'd his Thoughts and Passions to that equable Temperament and Balance that they neither are nor can be induc'd or impell'd won or wrested into any Irregularity or Excess by the single or united Powers of Earth Hell and Heaven which last never depraves them though it oft punishes us by them Surely Job was a very good Man yet the Extremity of his Afflictions provoked him to talk and therefore think extravagantly And if God Almighty cast away the Reins out of his hands and let loose a Man's Thoughts upon him and who is there that gives him not a world of Provocation I know not whither even the most mere Man's Thoughts may not hurry him on this side Hell If any desire a full Conviction what a wicked Man's Thoughts can do let them a little survey those dismal Regions of Everlasting Horror not in Person as the poor Prisoner in Alex. ab Alexandro Genial Dier L. 6. C. 21. but in Thought and Meditation and I hope it will do him this Good viz. engage him to implore Omnipotent Grace to Restrain and Govern his Thoughts that they may not be an Introduction and Earnest of those easeless endless remediless Woes and if his Thoughts thereof will permit him to sleep or rest before he hath done this he thinks to little purpose Lastly Behold the infinite Condescension and Care of Heaven towards impotent degenerous Man in the Provision made not only for his Necessity but Consolation Rather than our Thoughts should be too many and so an Over-match for us the Divine Goodness will interpose and relieve us and has exhibited such a full Treasury of Comforts that no Distress can befal us so uncouth so uncommon so inextricable as to be out of the reach and road of the Relief therein tendered us That so inconsiderable a Piece as a Sinner a Pourtraicture of Hell limn'd after the Image of Satan the Father of all Wickedness an Enemy thro natural depravement to God and Goodness should engage the Solicitude and Providence of Heaven in such admirable instances to retrieve its lost Happiness and recover it out of the Sink and Abyss of Filth and Wretchedness that it may be set aloft in the Galleries of Glory and be beautified in rather than beautifie the Presence-Chamber of the King of Kings This this is a wonder beyond the Dimension of all other Miracles to be ascrib'd to the Benignity and Efficiency of nothing Inferiour to Infiniteness Men may flatter themselves in their sweet Harangues concerning the Celsitude Dignity and Nobleness of Humane Nature let it in its positive State as the effect of a most excellent Cause be advanc'd and admir'd as much as it can by Words or Thoughts yet what is it comparatively to God What is it under the debasements of Sin Which is infinitely more odious to God than any thing short of Himself can be pleasing so that nothing less than Divinity could give Satisfaction for the Wrong it did to the Supreme Majesty of Heaven not all the natural Excellencies of the whole Creation not all the Moral Perfections and Performances of Men and Angels and what Account is to be made of a drop of Honey intermingled with an Ocean of Gall The ever Adoreable Son of God who was much more a Man in respect of all eximious humane Endowments than ever any born of Woman besides his Sinlessness yet in the Person of David saith of himself Psal 22.6.4 I am a Worm and no Man if that be not to be understood estimatively that he was no better in the account of his Reproachers that shaked the Head at him saying be trusted in the Lord c. compare this with Matth. 27.39.43 See also Psal 8.4 5 6. Heb. 2.6 c. In Job 25.6 Man is considered with respect to that which does most of all ennoble viz. Goodness and Righteousness Yet because 't is allay'd with the
57.20 21. But when the Lord Heals and Leads he will restore comforts to Mourners Vers 18. Art thou then Spiritually alive O my Soul or dead Dead thou art if destitute of Soul Thy Soul is God Christ is thy Life Col. 3.4 The Life thou livest in the Flesh ought to be by the Faith of the Son of God Gal. 2.20 And he also is thy Peace Mic. 5.5 Eph. 2.14 If thou livest in God and God in thee by Faith and Love thy Peace is solid and genuine but in Disunion and Separation from God and Christ there 's neither true Life nor Peace Enjoyest thou a Christ within thee He is then thy hope of Glory therefore thy Haven of Rest Joy and Consolation Do'st thou experience any Communion of Life betwixt thy self and Holy Jesus Do'st thou feel any thing of his powerful gracious Influence Holy Souls are Spiritually moved by the Holy Ghost which is the bond of Union betwixt them and God By him Christ dwells in us 1 Joh. 3.24 Rom. 8.9 10 11 15. Hath this quickening Spirit enliven'd thee Thou may'st know that the Spirit of Grace hath quickened thee by his Fruits Gal. 5.22 23. For if thou livest in the Spirit thou wilt walk also in the Spirit Vers 25. And the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus will free thee from the Law of Sin and Death Rom. 8.2 which naturally thou walkest by that thou wilt affectionately savour so is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated Matth. 16.23 Col. 3.2 mind relish the things of the Spirit not of the Flesh Vers 5. If thou art or hast a Spiritual Being according to the Spirit Vers 5. or in the Spirit Vers 9. he houses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in thee and makes thee Spiritually minded which is Life and Peace Vers 6. and by degrees destroys out of thee the minding or savour of the Flesh which is Death or Enmity against God Vers 7. Hast thou studied these things to know them and thy self whether thou dost really feel them throughly considering and fearching all within to see what one thing thou canst pitch upon that will be a sure Evidence that thou livest in the Spirit and he in thee without which thou canst never groundedly say My God as the Psalmist for thou art none of his Rom. 8.9 therefore he none of thine that is by federal Vnion What then are thy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These are the surest Testimonies of a Life in God by his Spirit 'T is a very comprehensive Word full of sense no one in our language can express it For it includes the noblest Actings of the whole Soul in knowing considering minding regarding thinking wisely discreetly prudently powerfully effectually with affection savour and a spiritual taste and sense of sweetness and delectable goodness with the result hereof those stated Principles which these actings establish as a Law to our Consciences Affections and Practices not only the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or agency of the mind but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or fruit of its Operation the thinking of the mind and the thought formed by the mind Upon what Objects dost thou fix thy Mindings and Willings of this Nature And what kind of things of what Vertue and Efficacy are the savoury Cogitations that issue from these mindings When thou settlest these Workings of Soul upon the Flesh and the World thou makest them thy gods as the carnal heart does Truly nothing deserves or can be worthy of this contention of Mind but what is Spiritual and Celestial Wherever this is engaged from thence is thy Life and thy Peace is Congenerous to thy Life If the best things habitually and statedly enjoy these endeavours and motions of thy superiour Powers and maintain an inviolable Authority over them thy Life is the best and no other thy Consolations Lastly real and deceiving Comforts may be differenced by their tendency and effects They both end as they begin The cheating Peace of the Prophane and Hypocritical will never produce any conscionable persevering cares and endeavours to please God and profit Men. But the joy of the Lord is the Souls strength in his service and evermore leads to him in Holiness of Heart and Life and to more lively actings of Faith Love and Gratitude to growth in Grace and Godliness as is not obscurely intimated in the example of the Psalmist We will suppose the actings of his Grace to proceed in the same tenor with the Expressions thereof in the Psalm For we have no other Evidence thereof and may Rationally judge this to be a Report of his inward Sensations in their Nature Order Progress and Perfection as we find in other Psalms Well his Faith which at the beginning appears something pendulous weak and wavering as to that particular thing about which it was first engaged viz. the Interposal of Divine Justice to secure the Church from the rage of its Enemies and could only look for this in a Petitionary way and view it in its causes Vers 1 2 3 c. does after this favourable Aspect of Divine Comforts in this Verse grow up to a prophetical confidence in the certain futurity of the event Vers 23. And as it had eyed the cause Divine Vengeance in a Duplication of the Address to it in the first weak act of affiance Vers 1. So also Vers last presents a double Testimony of the more established and strong act of confident assurance that the effect which he expected should undoubtedly be produced What he only saw the possibility of in the first workings of his Faith he foresees the Existence of in the last what he only beg'd that it might be in the infancy of his Faith he peremptorily concludes and promises himself that it would be in this its Maturity Then his Faith only wishes here it determines there was his Supposition here is desinitive Sentence and Decision that his Prayer this his Answer The Victory of his Faith over all preceding fears and dubitations Hope triumphing over his Despondency And that Comfort has a special Influence thus to heighten Faith and perfect its actings is apparent from the nature of the thing For since it is the quiet and rest of the Mind upon good Evidence of the Love of God to a Man in particular through Christ it can do no other than embolden his Addresses and encourage his confidence Even as when a tender Father receives into and cherishes in his bosom a reconciled Child and speaks to his Heart This removes fully all those Jealousies and Doubts which the remembrance of former unkindnesses and distances might create and invites the Child to a more inhesitant and free recumbence upon and committing himself to this so amply attested love and tenderness of his now no more angry Father So by the like reason it introduces an additional fervour and flame to the Child's love and engages him to a more full and ingenuous Expression of his dutifulness and filial observance And no less may be gathered from
the Psalmists process here For before the Text though he have frequent occasion to make mention of God almost in every one of the foregoing Verses viz. ten or eleven times yet 't is with that seeming distance and strangeness that we meet not with a word of appropriation to himself in special But upon the benigne Aspect of the Consolations of God his Love will no longer stand off but makes its nearest approaches and runs into his embraces in a double affectionate claim of Propriety in the compass of four Verses following as oft as he mentions the Lord he follows it with a Relative not permitting it to pass by as before like an Alien Vers 22. The Lord is my defence My God is the Rock of my Refuge I have now abundant reason to follow him with relation Love as mine own since he love my Soul into Rest and Peace becoming my Comforter Oh sweet reviving token of the singular Love of my God! How dearly do I love him for it Yet this is not all Is this Honey-comb for my self alone Do I arrogate sole Propriety in these Riches No my Charity obliges me to Judge that my Brethren in Affliction are not destitute of the same Consolation through interest in God I so love my Neighbour as to make account he is as good as my self and has an equal share with me in this infinite Treasure therefore for my Brethren and Companions sake I say OUR GOD without restriction to my self Vers 23. Yea our God shall out them off He is a common good yours as well as mine and brings a common benefit to us all in saving us from our Adversaries And herein he shews not only his love to Man and thereby consequentially that it did respect a higher object 1 Joh. 4.20 21. but directly and immediately demonstrates that he grew in love to God himself in that he glorifies the Communicativeness of Divine Goodness by an acknowledgment of its extensiveness in a peculiar manner to Multitudes besides himself even all included in the relative OUR as if it had been said I love him because he loves me so as to be mine I love him yet more because he together with me loves mine condescending to be theirs also I love that goodness that flows to me I further love that goodness that overflows to all with me my Friends my People For my own sake for their sake for its own sake I love it above all Thus as the Work of Righteousness is Peace and the effect of Righteousness quietness and assurance for ever Isa 32.17 So on the other hand the Work of Peace is Righteousness Psal 85.8 I will hear what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the strong God Jehovah will speak because he will speak peace to his people and to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his merciful ones 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Indicatively not Imperatively and they shall not return to folly This Peace will be a preservative against Sin whence 't is said to Engarrison our Minds and Hearts in that so often mentioned Phil. 4.7 so promotes it that Holiness which some call Negative but it is no less productive of Positive Holiness Isa 61.2 3. Christ is anointed and endowed with the Holy Spirit to Preach good tidings c. To comfort all that mourn To appoint unto them that mourn in Sion to give unto them beauty for Ashes the Oyl of joy for mourning the Garment of Praise for the Spirit of heaviness But wherefore all this It follows That they might be called i. e. might be as before Isa 4.3 and 35.8 and 56.7 compared with Luk. 19.46 Matth. 5.9 19. Trees of Righteousness the planting of the Lord that he might be glorified To this purpose also is that Prayer of the Apostle 2 Thes 2.16 17. God who loves and gives everlasting Consolation through Grace comfort your Hearts and stablish you in every good Word and Work Grace begets Consolation and this begets good Conversation He that through Grace comforts does also through Comfort establish in every good Word and Work Shew then Oh my Soul the soundness of thy Comforts by their Fruits That Peace which is imprignant is impostorous In what further degree do thy inward Joys impower thee to Love the Lord the giver or thy Neighbour thy Partaker Canst thou pretend Peace in thy Conscience and live in contention or uncharitableness with thy Brother Does not thy inward Comfort calm thy passions meeken thy converses render thee profitable useful to Men in the best endeavours to induce them to love God and Vertue and abhor Immorality Viciousness and Hypocrisie that by thy means they may be also led in this method into the way of Peace and through it again into the way of Purity If thy Comforts be solid and sincere thou wilt by them be enabled to use the utmost diligence in propagating them since that is one of Gods great Designs in communicating them 2 Cor. 1.3 4. Blessed be God even the Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of Mercies and the God of all Comfort who comforteth us in all our Tribulation for what end That we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the Comfort wherewith we our selves are comforted of God And if God make thee able thou ought'st to be willing They are only fallacious Joys that are envious A corrupt Heart so that it self do but enjoy rest matters not though all the World be in trouble nay grudges others the quiet it enjoys and triumphs or secretly rejoyces at or at least is not afflicted in their Afflictions Haman will drink and be jolly when the whole City is in perplexity A wicked Soul is not concern'd for the content of any beside it self will rather add Affliction to the afflicted than indeavour or rejoyce in their Consolation Thy Comfort is not good if not conformable to the Fountain of Goodness in Communicativeness As far as confin'd 't is corrupt In the Harvest of true Joys thy Jordan will overflow the Banks Uncharritable illiberal unbountiful Consolations are Illusions If thy light and gladness diffuse not its beneficial rayes abroad to revive and refresh the Disconsolate Heart 't is but a glimmering Meteor not a Beam from the Sun of Righteousness and thus does it not extend it self if a Vital Heat and Influence do not accompany it as 't is but a flashy wild deceitful Spark Isa 50.11 which will vanish into Smoak and darkness if it be not kindled by a flame of true Love to God and Universal Righteousness Wherefore thou canst never bless thy self in reflection upon thine own Peace if it engage thee not in serious cares to propagate Holiness first and thereby Peace For an unholy Soul is absolutely inconsolable for want of Right therefore should be so for want of Will since a Will to apply Comforts without Right will certainly reduce to that woful plight which the Apostle with so much concern reports 1 Thes 5.3 When they shall say peace and
safety then suddain Destruction cometh upon them as Travail upon a Woman With-child and they shall not escape Be ready to speak a word in due season to the weary but be cautious in solacing such as the Apostle describes and reproves Rom. 3.17 18. Who have not known the way of Peace Why There is no fear of God before their eyes least the terror of that threatning arrest thee Ezek. 33. For by publishing Peace to those against whom thou should'st proclaim War from Heaven thou wilt delude them into everlasting Death in their Sins under the mask of Life and Comfort but their Blood shall be required at thy hands God's Tenders of Peace are only conditional and so must thine Look to it then O my Soul as the one thing needful in the first place that the Grace of God bringing Salvation and therefore everlasting Consolation to thee do efficaciously teach thee this Righteousness to be very industrious to lead others whose Concern God sometimes seems to prefer before his own Matth. 5.23 24. and Chap. 12.1 4 5 6 7 8. especially thy Relations in the right way to Peace informing their Judgments rousing their Consciences reproving their Sins directing their Practice counselling commanding restraining and constraining them as far as possible to be good and do good freely with an ingenuous spontaneity and readiness of mind But as thou must learn others so under the influence of that beneficial Grace thou thy self must be learnt to deny so as to crucifie all Vngodliness spiritual Evil and worldly Lusts carnal Wickedness and live soberly in a just temper and moderation of thine own Spirit Affections Passions Appetite and godlily in a religious assiduity of Endeavour to please the Lord and approve thy self to him through Christ in all things This is both the true undeceiving Mean to attain Comfort and also the certain and inseparable Fruit of it The more thou growest herein the more redundant will be thy satisfaction and if on the other hand thy Peace be as a River thy Righteousness will be as the waves of the Sea Isai 48.18 Try then thy Comfort by its Productions If it will permit thee to dishonour God and defile thy Conscience to be vain in thy Spirit and vile in thy Communication and Conversation to debauch others and damn thy self neither fearing God nor regarding Man nor valuing and taking care for thine own self 't is no better than its Progeny and will but only lead thee hood-wink'd in a pleasing dream of Paradise into the depth of Hell But contrarily if thy Peace be procreative and bring forth Twins a heavenly Spirit and a holy Life If it be as the Dew to thy Graces and cause them to flourish and yield their Fruit in due season If it enlarge thy heart God-ward and carry thee as upon Eagles Wings to thy Redeemer in a more intire affectionate cordial subjection to his Authority and Government its Origin is Heaven and in those everlasting Pleasures and Joys will it finally terminate Leading thee to sound and real Goodness it will undoubtedly issue in that far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory The Reprehensive part of this kind of Inferences cannot be omitted happy we if there were no reason for it I only will prosecute it in one Instance Therefore just Matter of Challenge and Rebuke will arise upon this Doctrine for sitting down under the Perplexities of our own mad Thoughts without a due care to prepare for and possess our selves of the Comforts of God I confess the generality of Men are presumptuously bold in dividing these and with a daring Impudence will rashly arrest the Promises with a heady Violence rack and torture them or cut and mangle them as Sciron and Procrustes did all Passengers till they seem to be made fit for their own Beds and become unwillingly willing to lie down with them Comfort must conform to them they will not to it But these will certainly inherit Confusion when those ravish'd Comforts relinquish their too sate awakened Souls at Death or lie down in the most grievous Horrors if before that dismal hour they be ever roused into Repentance And oft it falls out that those who most audaciously usurp'd Divine Consolations in their impenitent Estate become most shy of them after their real awakenings they dare not be deluded again by an over-forwardness their assuming to themselves Peace without Right before cost them so dear that it makes them more jealous suspicious and cantious in bottoming it ere they can adventure again to apply the Promises But as Presumption leads some blindfold into a false Peace so Despair causes many to reject a true Some receive this at the hands of Justice as a merited Punishment for aggravated Sins and procrastination of Repentance to be judicially given up by the Lord to Horrors of Conscience so deep so durable as not to be able to see any thing but Terror in the whole Book of God till he remit this Punishment and lighten his hand Others are knock'd off from the Promises by the Spirit of Bondage in a smart and home-conviction of Sin and divine indignation because of it God hereby designing to make them more meet for it And indeed none are more afraid of receiving Comfort than those that being throughly startled with the discoveries of their Corruptions and God's just Anger do really stand in most need of it and are under the divine Methods of Preparation for it Such stand off and dispute their own Title either 1. through Ignorance or Inadvertency not understanding or considering themselves and the Work of God within them Or 2. through Humility and Tenderness as afraid of presuming Or 3. through a Spice of Pride and Haughtiness as resolv'd to bring their Peny to the Promise 't is Mr. Hooker's Phrase not content with such Qualifications as God limits in the Word in order to Peace they must super-errogate in their Preparations and be better than they can be still complaining of Unworthiness Unworthiness which in one sence is true as if they would not receive Comfort gratis nor accept of the Gift upon God's Terms making them need it and meet for it except they be which none possibly can be worthy of it merit and deserve it Or lastly through a kind of obstinacy and stubbornness of Spirit and the predominancy of Melancholy to which every thing that is saddening and dejecting hath too much of agreeableness and sweetness as if they were in love with their Griefs and Woes will not attend to any rational or religious Arguments that might relieve them Rachel-like refusing to be comforted although they can give no just and satisfying reason for that Recusancy It may be they are pleased with the Sensuality of Sorrow because it hits their Humour harmonizes with their Dumpishness and gives them a little ease by cherishing their Disease as Water in a Dropsie Neither can I render any other reason why others who pretend higher should imagine they can never be
required as the sole Conditions of his Grace and Mercy and that there is as perfect an Agreement betwixt their inward Sensations and State and those God will certainly own and embrace with his Love as can reasonably be expected and desired Yet will they find some subtle cunning studied evasions and shifts to perswade themselves and others that they have some reason to be mad in rejecting all and will stifly argue against their own inward sense and feeling and lye against their own Experience rather than by receiving these Comforts comply with the Bounty and Kindness of Heaven that so freely and graciously tenders them Why then dost thou contend against thy self oh my Soul and quarrel with the admirable Condescensions the most bountiful Tenders Largess and Munificence of Heaven Art thou weary of thy Sins and under a practical Conviction of their abominable offensiveness to God heartily willing to relinquish all following thy desires and resolutions hereof with serious Cares and Endeavours not abiding the very thoughts or hankerings of thy heart that lean towards them carefully avoiding all Occasions Temptations Motions which might irritate thee to commit them in indignation and revenge against thy self for indulging thy self in them now resolutely bent with the Aid of God to mortifie them and not to spare hands feet or eyes the most sweet and endearing Dalilahs thy Master-reigning Sins constitutional customary pleasing profitable Corruptions recommended by Age Calling publick Allowance Practice which to forbear may expose to Scoffs Scorns Sufferings Death it self as in Times of Persecution Art thou daily in bitterness of Soul for them Are they evermore in their odious Nature and Aggravations before thee Art thou watchful against them and unto the contrary Duties Graces and holy Exercises that there is not one Law of God which t is not thy earnest desire and labour to observe heartily imploring the strength of Heaven to engage in all for thee and manifest its Might in thy Weakness And when thou hast done thy best hast thou learnt to deny thy self as an unprofitable Servant having only done what nay far less than thou oughtest Not daring to omit any part of thy Work nor when done most exactly to make a Christ of it but committing thy Person and Performances by Faith into his gracious hands to be presented to his Father sprinkled with his Blood of Satisfaction perfumed with his Incense of Intercession nothing but divine Free Grace through Christ's Mediation becomes the sole Support and Stay of thy Hopes as well as the Foundation of thy Faith maintaining in all a never-ceasing Jealousie over thy slippery treacherous heart lest it stain all thy Actions with Impurity or corrupt all thy Intentions by Hypocrisie a Sin to be fear'd and wrestled against above all other thy perpetual dread and hate Is this thy state frame and deportment And yet dost thou boggle at the Promises and start aside in aversation from or a rejection of their refreshing Consolations upon I know not what frivolous Pretences Oh thy Folly Oh thy Fury For beside the infinite wrong to thy self both as a knocking of the Wheels that thou dost but drive heavily in God's Service and a living in the confines or a corner of Hell when Heaven is opening to thee its everlasting Gates thou also blasphemest the unconfinable Goodness and Love of thy heavenly Father the affectionate Bowels and Grace of thy compassionate Redeemer thou grievest the Holy sealing Spirit of Grace and Peace and givest the lye to the Promises Sins as Hellish as any thou hast already renounc'd and forsaken Has Almighty Love and Grace check'd the exorbitancies of thy dissolute licentious Will and Affections bounded the raging Sea of thy Lusts insomuch that thou darest not wilt'st not pass the limits he hath confin'd thee to by his Laws Hath God enabled thee with a free undissembled Consent to embrace the Conditions of the Covenant in repenting and chearfully giving up thy self to be governed in all things by the ever-blessed Son of God which is a performance of thy part of the Covenant And can'st thou conceit that infinite Fidelity which gives thee the power to do all this and works in thee to observe thy part will not be real and faithful in perfecting what concerns himself on his part but that his Covenant is mere Collusion that he hath only brought thee into a Fool 's Paradise and all his great and precious Promises are only great and pompous Nothings not worthy to be rely'd on That he hath done all this for thee carry'd thee thorough the burthen and heat of the day and tenders thee thine Hire yet will be angry if thou accept it For why dost thou not receive and enjoy the Comforts of the Promises and Perfections of God so liberally presented to thy embracement so sweetly by their amiable Aspect inviting thee Is it because they do not suit thee are not proper and sufficient to revive thee Is it because thou needest them not desirest them not No nothing of this Nature What then is the matter oh my Soul They are fit for thee but thou art not fit for them not duly prepar'd That 's something if true But who told thee so God or the Devil If God shew the Scripture Out of the Law and Testimony must thou produce something more than I have described that God requires to qualifie thee for his Mercy Something more than an unfergned owning his Covenant in serious resolution care endeavour and industrious laborious diligence to go through with thy part of it under the influence of his Power and Grace and Holy Spirit Doth Satan tell thee that this is not due Preparation And dost thou dar'st thou believe him rather than God God forbid Where then dost thou stick What art thou afraid of Is there any thing to be feared but Sin There 't is Thou art afraid of sinning by too hasty applying the Promises for thy revival A very laudable Fear 'T is well that Sin is dreadful Stand to that Be then also afraid to sin by refusing to apply them thereby continuing thy perplexities For 't is very certain 1. That 't is a Sin not to serve God chearfully with Love especially when he hath done for us whatever is necessary to engage us thereto If he have in reality prepar'd thee for those Comforts which he hath prepar'd for thee he hath done that upon account whereof he will expect thy ready ingenuous affectionate Obedience whether thou be satisfy'd as to thy Preparations or no. But if thou still refusest his Comforts and protractest thy Troubles thou eludest the highest Engagement to love him and in despite of his Goodness perseverest to do his work as a Slave only wilt not as a Child which is a high Affront to thy Father 2. 'T is a Sin to reject God's Offers a Scorn put upon his Goodness to refuse his Free Gifts When he creates a Storm in our Thoughts and drives us before the blast of his Indignation into
the Port of real Holiness then does he generously tender us those needful refreshments which will revive our weather-beaten Souls can we now spurn them away from us and be innocent Here therefore is Sin on both hands How shall we cast the balance We must not sin our selves into Comfort neither must we sin it away Cut the hair Well then all depends upon this the determination what is too hasty what too slow application of Promises And this upon the preceding Quaere what is due Preparation For to apply Promises when rightly qualified is no Sin but Duty therefore to neglect it is Sin Then are we too hasty when we run before we are bidden not otherwise God by creating in us the pre-required Promise-dispositions bids us take all the Blessings in the Promise which they dispose for When the Condition is perform'd the Covenant is a Command to accept its Merey which cannot be refused without disobedience to God 'T would be strange petulancy when Christ says Come ye Blessed of my Father inher it the Kingdom c. to reply no I dare not I am not qualify'd Such is the refusal to inherit his Comforts when he hath wrought in us their Conditions And if the foremention'd be not where are they Remember Oh my Soul thou livest not under the Covenant of Works but of Grace And if thou doubtest of thy Preparations resume thy Work try them better make them sounder that thy second and renew'd Essays may be unquestionable Yet remember also that 't is a grievous Sin to belye thy self and deny God's Work he expects thou should'st consider and own the Operation of his Hands and give him the Glory of the Fruits of his Love in thy Regeneration Take heed of detaining the Truth in the Prison of Vnrighteousness Be just to God and thy self Do not dare to blaspheme his Grace by attributing it to other Causes As thou must not flatter thy self so neither forswear the Grace of God If thou yet alledge that 't is God's Work to comfort by his Spirit who does it by inclining the heart to accept of his Tenders which thou dost not experience but rather he renews thy Troubles and Disquiets by presenting new Matter or setting on the old therefore should'st thou assume to thy self the Solace of the Promises 't would not be a Comfort of God's making but thine own and so a mere Fallacy put upon thy Conscience I answer 1. by Retort If God do his part to encline thy heart to accept of Peace but thou resistest him and against his Will resumest thy Troubles and quenchest those Motions of his Spirit that were intended to allay thy Disquiets and create Peace whose is the Fault now That this may be clear'd I answer 2. That God's moral Motion is antecedent to and leads all Physical his or ours For since he inclines in a way suitable to our Nature as he himself as we and all rational Natures act where the Mind and Reason leads the Will and inclines it therefore by presenting Objects and Reasons urging and enforcing them by sense and feeling of misery disquiet of heart and woe God strives with thy Will to move it freely to embrace those freely-offer'd Comforts without which thou perceivest thy self plainly to be ready to sink into Horror and Despair But thou against both divine Reason and thine own Sense stiffly irrationally and malapartly refusest to yield to either and yet art so sottish as to impute thy Frenzy to God Avaunt Blasphemy If the mighty important Perswasives of Heaven cannot prevail upon thee as a Man never imagine that the Almightiness of God will miraculously drag thee as a Beast or a Block into that Paradise of Rest and Satisfaction which now thou startlest and tremblest at And understand that if thou be'st a Rebel against the Reason of God thou wilt also be a Fighter against the Power of God If a rational Mind act in repugnancy to his Wisdom much more will an irrational brutish Will against his Omnipotence there being less aversation in any Man to be subdu'd by the Golden Liberty of forcible Arguments than the Iron-necessity of Club-Law The result is that to refuse divine Comforts when qualified for them is an evident fighting against God and to deny our Qualifications when heartily grieved for and undissembledly willing and active to divorce from and never return to any thing displeasing to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and unfeignedly desirous and diligent to espouse the Divine Interest in all things without tergiversation or delay This is an apparent Rebellion and Lye against the Holy Ghost and our own Souls which Oh my Soul there is an absolute necessity that thou should'st be much more afraid of than thy mere imaginary Presumption in accepting that which is so clearly and freely tendered to thee by God And what dost thou mean herein oh foolish and unkind to thy self oh ingrateful and impious against God that the wise and rich and sweet Provisions of Heaven in boundless Compassions to thy Necessity and Misery laid at thy Feet should be trod in the Dirt That thou wilt not vouchsafe to be so merciful to thy self and respectful to God as to permit his healing Balms to be poured into thy bleeding Wounds but in a blind Zeal against thy unworthy self or an over-righteous Revenge against thy abhorred Sins or an humorous Peevishness or Pertinacy of Spirit or I know not what woundest those gracious Hands which in infinite Tenderness and Commiseration offer so benignly by these most effectual Medicines against all Anxiety and Woe to deliver thee out of thy wearisome Hospital into an everlasting Heaven of Pleasure Joy Peace Soundness Safety Rest and Consolation Oh thy Madness to chuse thy Miseries and Vexations rather than so blessed an hope so unutterable Happiness What! be fond of Hell and dote on thy Torment and prefer thy Prelibations of eternal Plagues and Horrors before these Earnests of those unspeakably glorious future Recompences Is it not even so This is and well may it be for a Lamentation CHAP. XVII Instructive Inferences VVAving the Corrective Deductions because in part coincident with the Elenctical as I have managed them I shall close all with the Instructive And here as all along I have done I shall especially direct about Spiritual Comfort as the foundation of and introductive to all other that 's worthy of Name Every disquieted Heart is melted into a passionate longing after Peace If it can but see any dawnings of a lightsom day of Joy after the gloomy night of its Troubles If after all its tremulous Palpitations and Passions and Horrors it may be supported with the Revivings of the least glimmering Hope that God will entertain any Thoughts of Reconciliation it seems to glory in a willingness to be or do any thing to submit to any Terms whatever that may be conducible to this happy and amicable Closure To promote this blessed End and compromise of differences betwixt incensed Heaven
there promised and least we should object incapacity to enjoy and be happy in so rich and glorious Blessings 't is added as the Crown of all that he will dispose and prepare our Hearts for it by engraving thereon his Holy Laws by that means perfectly removing all obstructions to our Hopes and occasions of our Fears that with a full assurance we may enter upon our Inheritance of his Everlasting Consolations This he hath most plainly revealed this he does most fully accomplish to his chosen Servants If we be partakers of his Nature and Image through the Law of the Spirit of Life in our Hearts setting us free from the Law of Sin and Death all is our own and how is it possible for him that knows all this that really believes and feels it by any scruples and jealousies to make his Life miserable Dispel then Oh my Soul those Clouds and Mists that benight thy Understanding thereby turning the Day in thy Will and Affections into Darkness Endeavour to open the Windows that the Glory of God in the Face of Christ may shine upon thee with a powerful Ray to warm impregnate and spirit thee with a new divine Fervour Strength and Life Study the Scriptures which are a bright Beam of the Sun of Righteousness a fair Pourtraicture of that Eternal Essential Word of God who is the Brightness of his Father's Glory the express Image of his Person Let thy Mind in its Meditation dwell continually here with delight To ruminate hereupon Day and Night is the true method to attain the soundest Wisdom even that which is Eternal Life consisting in the saving effectual transforming experimental practical fruitional knowledge of the only true God and Jesus Christ whom be hath sent Joh. 17.3 2 Tim. 3.15 This is Wisdom unto Salvation through Faith in Christ Jesus Be thy Intellectuals as bright as those of an Angel of Light in other things so as to understand all Mysteries Philosophical Political Theological yet if thou here be in the dark thou art but a Hell which though in its Physical being surrounded with Heaven yet is at the greatest moral distance from it and therefore no wonder if thou never seest the day break of Joy and Rest and Peace Ignorance which some account the Mother of Devotion but is indeed of Damnation is alway pregnant with Disquiets Troubles Fears The Night is full of Terrors Cant. 3.8 Lucretius adds As Children by Night so Men fear in the Light Omnia nobis fecimus tenebras nihil videmus c. Sen Ep. 110. But Seneca corrects him We make all things darkness to our selves we see nothing neither what 's hurtful nor what 's profitable yet ramble on without Pause or Prudence What a mad thing is Impetuousness in the dark But if we will the Day may dawn And thus If a Man will let in the knowledge of things Humane and Divine not merely to be dash'd but dyed with it again and again recognizing recollecting what he knows if he examine what is truly good and evil what falsly if he enquire what 's Honest what 's Filthy and what is Providence What can be spoke more wisely more truly This he prescribes as a Remedy against Fear which he makes the Daughter of Tradition rather than Truth A wise Man and then he must be good for Wickedness is Madness and Folly fears nothing slavishly Nemo nostrum quid veri esset excussit metum alter alteri tradidit ib. For nothing is formidable but to Ignorance false Opinion Improvidence and Wickedness Fix thy self therefore Oh my Soul upon the right Basis of Truth leading to Goodness and thou art above Gun-shot Nothing can hurt thee if it do not first debauch thee thy Mind with undue Sentiments and thy Heart thereby with corrupt Notions nothing can disquiet thee till it debase and abuse first thy Judgment and thy Conscience by it Good Intellectuals will promote good Morals Entertain high noble and worthy Conceptions of God and every thing that guides to God and this will singularly conduce to thy security against Vice and to thy establishment in Vertue and thereby in tranquility of Mind For two things concur to solid Consolation clearness of Apprehensions and calmness of Conscience Serenity above Tranquility below The worst of Men may have the one none but the godly wise have both The Devil has Light enough in his Understanding though he be the Prince of Darkness his Notions are sublime but Peace has he none A dreadful Storm may rage in the Conscience when the Sun shines clear in the Mind Men of great Parts and Gifts and deep Heads have not alway the quietest Hearts The simple Vnlearned saith one rise up and take Heaven by Violence whilst we with all our Learning drop down into Hell 'T is well if more Scholars be not found in Hell than Heaven 'T is not how much but how well a Man knows that is conducible to Peace On the other hand the Tempest may be hush'd and Conscience charm'd to a stilness but then the Heavens above are dark and cloudy and a new Storm sleeps in its causes if thou be an Enemy to God The Witness within may be gagg'd a while that it cannot speak out The Lion chain'd and muzzled in his Den that it cannot worry thee but afterward it will be let loose upon thee arm'd with the greater fury perhaps even in this Life and it is more tolerable to be lug'd into Goodness by a snarling snatching tearing Conscience now than have all thy Bones broke and devoured by it and the roaring Lion of Hell in his den of everlasting Darkness Wo wo be to that Man that never wanted or was without rest and quiet in his Mind A dumb Conscience is a dark one and If the Light that is in thee be Darkness how great is that Darkness If nothing within thee did ever proclaim War nothing has right to speak Peace He that never saw God as an Enemy never yet saw Him as a Friend If thou be ignorant of thy own State thou are ignorant of God unacquainted with his Peace with his Joy Thus Oh my Soul if thou be'st ambitious to enjoy any real approvable quietness in thy Mind thou must maintain in it clearness of Notion concerning God But although there be Light in the Heavens it may suffer an Eclipse or rather thou dost for the Light leaves not the Sun but the Earth if thy Corruptions as an opaque Body interpose Wickedness in the Heart opposes the efficacy of our Notions of God that although we retain them we are no better for them therefore 't would be better for us were we without them None lie deeper in outer Darkness than those that ascend highest in Light and Knowledge in this Life but improve it not He that knows his Master's Will and does it not and so his Master and loves him not shall be beaten with many stripes Our Passions are proportionable to our Sensations The more enlarged
but only by converting Grace God alone enjoys himself in perfect Rest nor can any thing partake of this Moral Rest further than 't is happy in a Participation of the nature of God Whatever is in God is necessarily in him and the Combination of all his Excellencies is as necessary as their Existence 't is impossible that any one should be without all the rest and the rest without any one Indeed they are all but one Essence and that one Nature is all undividedly They are also inseparable in all their Emanations and Outgoings to his Servants If any be communicated to Man all other that are communicable accompany it Wherever then the Divine Life in Holiness diffuses it self 't is seconded with its Individual Companion Happiness If a Man have no feeling of this 't is because be hath none of the other See to it then Oh my Soul that thou be formed after the Similitude of God as ever thou hopest for Satisfaction in and from him Conformity to the Divine Will in its Precepts is indispensibly required in order to inheriting the Promises God himself neither will nor can comfort thee if Ungodlike but only by first making thee Godlike till thou communicate in his Sanctity thou canst not communicate in his Love 't is impossible to be happy in his Peace when thou art miserable in his Enmity or rationally to conclude that he loves thee when thou knowest he hates thy Lusts which yet are unseparated from thee and therefore hast all the reason in the World to believe that for their sake he hates thy Person 't is not possible to know that he respects thee when thou knowest that thou hatest Him To thy Work then or take thy doom converted thou must be or comforted thou canst not be Oh! as thou iovest thy Life thy Peace and an everlasting state of Glory and Felicity in Heaven retire into thy self Survey all thy inward Recesses dive into the bottom of that Sea of filthiness in which thou art naturally drenched and at the point of Drowning and which casts up all that abominable Mire and Filth and Poison that renders thee infinitely hateful to God and rages as a secret Plague and Pestilence in thy Heart and Bowels to gripe and gnaw thee to Death everlasting Oh behold how nasty odious detestable execrable it has made thee the very scum and offscouring of the Creation fit for nothing but the Dunghil and Dungeon of everlasting darkness to be consumed in the ever-burning unquenchable Tophet of Divine Indignation Oh look into that foul loathsome Sty of ordure and rottenness thy wicked Heart what Toads what Vipers are thence crawling out continually by Legions Sins of Complexion Age Calling Customary Beloved Master Sins thy own thy other Mens appropriated by thy Consent Counsel Connivence if not Compulsion Oh how numerous Oh how hainous How soon did'st thou begin like a bloody Butcher thus mortally to Wound thy self How long hast thou continued with a never ceasing frenzy and fury to gore and torture thy self in every Limb every Faculty every Place Time Company as if thou couldest never be barbarously enough truculent in thine own Execution except thou couldest create a raging Hell in every distinct atom of Body and Soul and by infinite Tormentors Devils rack and rend and tear thy self with the most intensive Cruciations O what a World of Light of Love of Means of Calls of Motions of Motives of Blessings of Prayers of Vows Promises Covenant Engagements Resolutions Professions Convictions Corrections c. hast thou with a shameless sauciness dared to tread in the Dirt and hast broke through all the Rampires that Conscience Education Awe Providence Law Divine Humane and their severest Sanctions have set up against thee that in a desperate madness of fool-hardy impudence thou mightest spew thy stinking Vomits in the very face of boundless Goodness and Righteousness Oh the beastlyness of thy Fleshly Lusts Oh the heathenishness of thy Worldly Lusts Oh the devilishness of thy Spiritual Wickedness Could'st thou but command a view of them in their malignant venomous hellish Nature all those Infernal Fiends that inhabit the black Recesses of everlasting Darkness all the dismal Plagues and Horrors of that doleful Region of Fire and Brimstone could not make or present a Spectacle of greater Formidableness and Deformity Yet all this is intimately within thee cleaving as close to thee as thy very Nature as inseparable as thy desire of it and delight in it can possibly make it a sight that would make thee quiver be sick and swoon and die should the Lord fully open thine Eyes Oh wretched Soul who shall deliver thee who shall relieve thee Thou art as black as Hell as foul a sink of Contagious Filth and Putrefaction as infects the World the chief of Sinners not knowing so much of aggravation in the sin of Devils themselves as thou do'st of thine own yet do'st not know the one half Oh accursed of God by Nature and Practice What wilt thou do What! wilt thou plead with thy Maker Where do'st thou think to appear What Mountains and Rocks wilt thou call to cover thee from the face of him that sits upon the Throne and from the Wrath of the Lamb How wilt thou stand at that dreadful Tribunal How darest thou look at God or into thy self where thou wilt find Creatures of thine own Sins I mean of a more prodigious frightful hue than Beelzebub himself Oh look upon them and tremble look till thy Heart ake and break and sink and sweat in an agony of Blood and Woe look and be in Pangs like those of a Woman in Travail look till the Sluces break open till thou canst pour out thy strength in a flood of godly Sorrow Ah wretch What hast thou done Whom hast thou Wronged Dishonoured Crucified Murthered First by thy ungodliness and worldly Lusts next afresh by thy Impenitence Unbelief and neglect of the healing Balsam which he tenders in his own Blood Ah Beast Bedlam Blood-sucker Murtherer Hast thou bathed thine Hands in thine own and the Heart-blood of God And does it not cut thee to the Heart Art thou still offering the most vile horrid cruel Affronts Indignities Injuries to the Eternal Father of Heaven the Blessed Jesus his only begotten dearly beloved Son to the Holy Spirit of Promise and yet rock and adamant untouched undissolved unaffected Oh Savage Monster Oh barbarous Homicide Deicide again to rake in the Heart and tear the Flesh and bore the Hands and Feet and spit in the Face of infinite Love that bleeds over thee in thy Blood and melts into the tenderest Commiserations when thou art drowning thy self in the deepest pit of Perdition Did he suffer such dolorous Torturings in his Body but an infinitely more intolerable Hell in his Soul for thy sake to quicken thee even when thou art killing him anew by thy Sin And does he with such yerning Bowels of compassion strive with thee if it be possible to exalt and
love thee into Heaven when thou debasest and hatest and would sin him if it were possible into Hell And yet does not thy Heart relent and smite and gall thee Oh is this thy kindness to thy Friend to thy Redeemer to thy self Oh! What do'st thou deserve for these foul Villanies committed against a Person of thee the best deserving in the World How many Hells How many tormenting Devils are thy just reward for so horrible Affronts Despites Scorns put upon the Majesty and Mercy of Heaven Oh! What canst thou do or think or hope in this lamentable case Wherewithal wilt thou come before the Lord What hast thou to tender as a just Reparation Or canst thou bear up against the fiery tempest of his devouring Indignation Oh woe unto thee that ever thou wast brought out of the Womb of Nothing to behold thy self in Circumstances so deplorable and so little affected afflicted This this is the most miserable scene of all thy Miseries To be ready to be spew'd out of the Mouth of Jesus into the very jaws of the roaring Lion to be tumbled down out of the bosom of God into the everlasting Burnings of the bottomless Pit and yet be senseless secure fearless careless remorseless Oh astonishment Oh horror Awake awake Oh my sense Oh my stupid benummed brawny Heart and melt in the fiery Oven of Wrath or the warm refreshing Sun-shine of Love Oh Grief and Anguish Where do ye inhabit Whither are ye retired Oh come and dwell in a sinful Soul and pour it out in a penitential Deluge Oh Almighty Love shed abroad thy heart-dissolving Influences and make the Floods overflow Oh in what bitterness of woe am I that I have undervalued and trod thee under my profane Feet that I have kick'd at those Bowels and even torn out that Heart that hath yearned over me in the most affectionate degree of Pity and Clemency My Bowels my Bowels I am pained at my very heart for the sordid disingenuousness as well as the bloody barbarousness of my Deportment toward thee Oh beloved and blessed Son of God whom with accursed cruel wicked hands I have crucified and slain Whoever were the Instruments yet 't was I as a principal meritorious Cause by my Sin that was the Judas the betrayer the Jew the Murtherer I drive the Nails I push'd forward the Spear I tore open thy very Heart to let out that blessed Spring of Water and Blood 'T was my guilt that first made my own then thy unpolluted Body passible and mortal 'T was I that armed the more formidable vengeance of thy Father against thy innocent Soul I that set open the flood-gates of Divine Wrath and let in that terrible Inundation of Miseries upon it which overwhelmed it destroyed kill'd it as far as was possible for that which was Immortal and thy Body in its Ruins Oh 't was sinful I that poured out all those scalding Hells into that blessed Soul of the Holy One of God which melted his Body into a showre of Blood that I became as far as possible the Author of the Death of God Bleed Oh my Soul bleed a deluge over those bleeding Wounds that dying Heart that cruciated Soul of the Crucified Son of God Oh grieve and mourn bitterly for thy vexing rebelling against and grieving the Spirit of Grace whom thou hast so often thrust away by quenching his Motions strangling his Convictions resisting his Operations as if 't was thy design to frustrate all the methods of infinite Love for thy Salvation Oh hateful to God and Man Wilt thou not be stung to the Heart with all wherewith thou hast despited all the kindness and goodness and tenderness of Heaven Oh my vileness Oh my baseness 't is unutterable 't is unsufferable where can a Parallel be found throughout the whole Creation Oh what am I What have I made my self An abhorrence to all Flesh to all Spirits and shall I not be so to my self Is there a poisonful Serpent on Earth a squalid Fury in Hell more virulent and abominable The Heart of God Christ the Spirit Angels Blessed Saints rise against me as the viperous-Brood the filthy Vomit of Satan spit out of his Mouth as like him in form or deformity rather and ugliness as Hell to Hell And what now is thy Portion Oh miserable Soul What thy doom See it dread it yet expect it for how canst thou avoid it Ah! the bottom of the bottomless abyss of Woe the hottest Mansion in the raging Furnace of Divine Wrath how canst thou abide it I am tottering upon the very brinks of Hell Down I fall I sink I perish What can save me Who can redeem my Soul from Destruction everlasting I my self cannot no nor all the created Powers of Heaven and Earth And have I not abundant reason to fear that the blessed Trinunity will not Oh woful Soul Whither hast thou suffer'd thy Wickedness to hurry thee What wilt thou do in the day of God's fierce Anger which in a moment may arrest thee and swallow thee up And what Remedy Where wilt thou seek where canst thou find security against that Omnipotent Vengeance that is ready to Arraign thee Oh! What wilt thou do to be saved Is there any possibility Is there no Balm in Gilead Is there no Physician there Oh there there alone is thy Succour wilt thou reject it In this Perplexity wilt thou despise it Wilt thou defer and delay applying thy self to a serious Care to make use of it Oh! Be willing be forward be eager to do nay to suffer any thing but the loss of Holiness and God that thou maist be healed I come Lord now I come a poor Prodigal returning to my wits my self that I may return to thee and with a groaning oppressed pained Heart weary of Sin the Cause sick of self dead to all mine own Righteousness and every thing I thus under the Influence and Conduct of thy Holy Spirit present my self at the lowest step of thy Throne as unfit unworthy to lift up mine Eyes to look thee in the face and being in a grievous Agony of Woe because I have offended thee so hainously so frequently so perseveringly by a Deportment so dishonest vile sordid I loath my self and all my fore-past evil ways of Spiritual and Carnal Wickedness Omissions Commissions Sins of Nature Heart and Life in Word or Deed or Thought they wound me to the very Soul I faint under them I cannot with patience reflect upon my unuttereble Folly in living unto and under them I abhor my self in dust and ashes I utterly and eternally abandon them resolve against promise vow covenant to be an utter and implacable Enemy to them Down all ye Idols of my Heart Lusts of the Eyes Lusts of the Flesh Pride of Life Filthiness of Spirit as well as Flesh In good earnest I now purpose through thy Aid and Grace never to return to any of these Follies more never never more and under the Assistance of thy Power I
the Victory over Original Corruption and evil Habits they apply themselves to God in the Name of Christ not only owning all Christian Doctrine and obeying all Christian Precepts which are remote conditions and helps of Mortification but in special considering that Christ by his merit procured power against Sin as well as Pardon which both are given upon no other account but only for the sake of Christ therefore they beg of God that according to his promise he would subdue Iniquities Mic. 7.19 He would graciously please to bestow upon them for Christ's sake that strength by his Spirit in their inner Man which may enable them to conquer and keep under their Concupiscence the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts thereof and upon the help of his Spirit so beg'd they rely and depend and trust to it in every assault and motion of Sin lifting up their Hearts to God in Christ for renewed Power to resist and suppress it and keep themselves pure distrusting themselves that they may put their whole trust in the living God upon whom thus fixing their affiance they wait in patience and watchfulness and the use of his Ordinances for Christ to be made their Sanctification and Redemption from the Dominion and Tyranny or Rebellion of Sin which by degrees is granted them and this Exercise of Faith in Prayer and Prayer means is the immediate and next condition of the grant of power against Sin which is followed with the use both of Rational and Scriptural Considerations care to prevent all occasions or irritations of Concupiscence and other evil Dispositions an early endeavour to suppress the first Motions and Lustings c. but the power of these is not trusted to as sufficient but Gods alone in the use of these helps to overcome and crucifie the evil of their Natures and all that are rooted in it and flow from it Act then solely under God look after such an effectual Faith that carrying thee above all Visibles to the invisible God will under his Influence purifie thy Heart work by Love and reduce thy Will into Subjection to God and grow herein daily 'T was much that Philosophers should make it one of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Governing Prenotions Will nothing but what God Wills and that decantate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Follow God Arrian l. 3. c. 26. p. 362. and l. 2. c. 16. p. 217. Marc. Anton. l. 10. §. 11. Seneca de vita beat c. 15. Arrian l. 4. c. 12. p. 426. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Seneca subjoyns In regno nati sumus Deo parere libertas est In a Kingdom are we born to obey God is liberty Yea 't is Royal Liberty Arrianus I have one to be subject to to obey even God c. Oh! let not Infidels rise up in Judgment to condemn thee for a Rebel against the Will of God in his Precepts or Providences 'T is an ugly thing for a Christian to have a Will a Separate Will The Will of Man is a Bedlam except in Conjunction with and Subordination to God The liberty of the Will of Man consists in Servitude to God Excellently Arrianus I am Gods freeman 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Arr. l. 4. c 3. p. 380. and friend that I may voluntarily obey him I must set nothing in competition not my Body not my Possessions not Principality not Fame no nothing at all c. In Summ labour to form all thy Faculties after the best Paterns and imitate such in thine Actions Christianity is an Imitation of the Nature Life and Actions of Christ * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. Nys M. Antonin l. 10. 8. Cl Alex. Strom. l. 5. Marc. Anton. could say God wills that all Rational Beings should be like him not flatter him Clemens of Alexandria makes account that Plato thought similitude to God the end of Philosophy This the Philosopher may propose but the true Christian only attains The Exhortations to it in the Scriptures are many Eph. 5.1 2. 1 Cor. 11 1. consequentially 2 Cor. 3.18 Rom. 8.29 Luk. 6.36 1 Joh. 3.3 17. 1 Pet. 1.16 Matth. 5.48 A Christian unlike Christ is a contradiction as a godly Man not God-like When Christ dwells in the Heart by Faith he will transform it and the Life into the likeness of his own Gal. 2.20 I am crucified with Christ says Paul nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the Flesh is by the Faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me This is that living in the Spirit and walking in the Spirit he after mentions Chap. 5.25 Putting on the Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 13.14 2 Cor. 3.18 Wilt thou not then Oh my Soul aspire after this 'T is high above thee a strange Mystery to thy carnal part and so at first is every thing of God yet nothing is to be despaired of that is enjoyn'd by God whose Precepts are his Power whose Word his Work And if God who commanded the Light to shine out of darkness and it obeyed do also command the Light of the knowledge of the Glory of God in the Face of Christ to shine into thine Heart 2 Cor. 4.6 That will much more obey the voice of his Almighty Grace and this Light is Life this Life Love this Love universal Conformity to God For God is Love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him 1 Joh. 4.16 and Love is the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13.8.10 Gal. 5.14 Oh thou Blessed Spirit God of Love descend into and shed abroad thy Nature in my Heart kindle Oh thou ever adorable Breath of God and blow up this Holy Ardour and Flame that as a Seraphim I may ascend in a transport of Delight and Joy to thy Throne and perpetually burn upon thine Altar and being like thee in Love I shall through Love be like thee in all things Am I a Professor am I a Believer am I a knowing a weeping a discoursing a practising a just a dispassionate a temperate a bountiful and liberal a condescending a friendly Person Yet if I have not if I am not Love I have I am nothing The reason of 1 Cor. 13.1 2 3. will carry this and more Neither extraordinary gifts of Tongues prophesie abstruse Speculation Miracles nor extraordinary Practices as beggering my self to give to the Poor receiving the Crown of Martyrdom under the most cruel Tortures voluntarily submitted to are at all available without Love therefore much less things of a common and ordinary Nature Love is all in all Thy Repentance thy Faith thy Hope thy Prayers thy Vows thy Obedience are good and acceptable if Spirited with Love without it they and all beside that thou canst possibly be and do are but all as a Sacrifice of Swines Blood and blessing an Idol there 's nothing of Life in them nothing of Soul because nothing of God because nothing of Love Oh
love the Lord then Oh my Soul with all thy mind with all thy Heart with all thy strength and thy Neighbour as thy self for his sake let him have thy whole desire thy whole delight at all times Minus te amat qui aliquid tecum amat quod non propter te amat Idiotae contempl de amore Dei c. 12. He loves thee but little Oh Lord who loves any thing with thee which he loves not for thee says a devout Man 'T is but meet that the highest God should have the Supremacy in my heart If in the greater World he be King must he be a Subject in the less I am worse than Hell if God must not be acknowledged Soveraign in my Soul The Spirits there dare not cannot but own him as their Lord this is the duty they pay extorted indeed by their sense and fear which that it may not be thy dismal lot and fate Oh my Soul advance thou him freely to the Crown within thy self in a spontaneous generous Ardour of pure Incorrupt Incorruptible Love Which if thou dost not thou art accursed if thou dost thou art blessed for 't is a Prayer upon record in God's Word 1 Cor. 16.22 and therefore part of the matter of Christ's Intercession Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Incorruption or Immortality i. e. with a never-fading Love Eph. 2.24 and that only is a sincere Love Oh Love the Lord on Earth as thou wilt love him in Heaven with the same kind and press toward the same degree of Love and be happy Thus live in God above the tumult and hurry of external things and be at rest Marc. Antonin l. 2. p. 5 c. Omnem crede diem tibi diluxisse Supremum Live every day as if it were thy last and in every imployment so act Arrian l. 4. c. 10. as one that can be free to be found therein by Death p. 416. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It. l. 3. c. 5 p. 273. Antonin l. 6. §. 3◠What would'st thou be found doing by Death says Arrianus I for my part doing some masculine beneficial publick useful generous Work But if I cannot be found in these yet this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unhinderable this is given to me to amend my self to elaborate that faculty which makes use of Phantasies to endeavour apathy or freeness from Passion to give my Affections their due and if I can be so happy to gain soundness certainty of Judgment If Death find me thus employ'd 't will be sufficient to engage me with hands stretched out to God to say I have not neglected those Powers thou gavest me to observe thy Government and follow it I have done my endeavour not to disgrace thee Behold how I have used my Senses my Prenotions Have I ever blamed thee Have I been displeased with any thing befalling or wish'd it otherwise Have I misguided my Affections because thou begattest me I render thee the praise of thy Gifts in as much as I have well used thine it sufficeth me Resume them now again and where thou pleasest dispose of me For all were thine and thou gavest them me I the rather produce these Testimonies out of Heathen Authors to let Christians see how inexcusable it will be in them who have infinitely better Light Means Aids to neglect what even Nature and Reason taught Philosophers to practise And withall to awaken others with my self to a more assiduous care in these Exercises least it be found more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon for Sodom and Gomorrah than for us at the great day Observe all the inward Workings of the Divine Spirit both in calling out the actings of Grace and reviving thee with Peace and keep them upon record for after advantage Time may come when all thy present Sensations may be so cloudy that thou canst not see a peep of day canst not from any thing that thou feelest conclude that thy state is right before God But if at such a season and hour of temptation thou be'st able to call to mind that upon due trial when in a sober and composed calm of Thoughts the Lord satisfied thee upon sure and indefeisible Evidence that thy Heart was truly changed and that thou wast as a New Creature in Christ Jesus and that thy Objections and misdoubtings and temptations to the contrary were thorowly answered This will be such an ease to thy mind and a revival of thy hopes that ere long the mists and darkness will be driven away and thou wilt again reascend into a clear and serene Heaven of Light and Peace and Joy Make sure in this manner to lay up and reserve a good stock and treasure of Experiences if thou desirest Riches of Comfort yet content not thy self with the old but make new To remember what thou did'st enjoy and feel in the days of the right Hand of the Most High may revive thee but to sense and feel it at present much more Renew then those gracious Exercises over and over that did once produce Halcyon days in thy Soul and they will recall them the same effects will issue from the same Causes Amend what was amiss in former actings which gave Satan advantage to redintegrate thy Troubles and this will establish thy Peace upon a securer and more unexceptionable basis 'T is not possible to refute the Devils Objections against thy sincerity by a method more effectual than a more serious care to act all over again sincerely which he tempts thee to suppose was done unsoundly Renovated Acts of a sound Repentance and unfeigned Faith as sure Testimonies of thy Renovation after the Image of God will dash thine Accuser out of countenance If thou canst make any fresh Experiments of the Power of Divine Grace effecting this If God take thee anew into his bosom of Love to melt thee If a view of him whom thy Sins have pierced cause thy ebbing godly Sorrow again to flow over all the Banks Lastly if with a perfect Heart thou returnest from all thy by-past follies unto him from whom thou hast deeply revolted this will again retrieve thy sinking Heart and hopes as a new taste of the Lord's graciousness and evidence that he hath not forsaken thee but that his Mercy and Godness follows thee and shall all the days of thy life even to Eternity Set about this O my Soul with a resolved obstinacy of endeavour that will not be conquerable by any assaults of Corruption or Temptation For thou canst never take a Heaven of Joy and Rest except by violence and force Weak resolves do but only encrease the Devils Triumphs Strong cares are requisite to possess thee of strong Consolations Observe where when and how the Spirit moves and spread thy Sails before his sweet Spirations He is the Comforter because the Conducter into the way of Peace Thou canst enjoy no more of his Testimony to solace thee than
Memory which are but dead things mere Carcasses of Devotion not to be insisted on in Competiton with an enlarged Heart Take with thee Words and turn unto the Lord. Lord at thy bidding I will take thy Words which thy self here prescribes Hosea 14.2 3. They shall be my stinted Liturgy none can tell which will be acceptable to thee better than thy self What are they Take away Iniquity and receive us graciously so will we render the Calves of our Lips What 's that The substance is Praise But some Antients thus descant upon it Calves not of our Stall Mal. 4.2 but Lips When a Calf or other Beast was to be Sacrificed to which this is an allusion God required the Blood the Fat and sometimes the Flesh but never the Skin and Hair these were to be carried away and burnt in another place The Blood of these Calves of the Lips is Faith in the Blood of Christ which is the Life of Prayer and Praise The Fat pure and holy Affection and Grace Sorrow Desire Love Delight Hope c. The Flesh is the matter or thing pray'd for Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification Redemption c. The Skin and Hairs the Words and Expressions with the Method Mode Order which if alone and not spirited with the former are of no value with God who looks at Things not Words and Phrases They must indeed be brought to God in vocal Prayer which is never a Duty except when we joyn with others and they with us and we must see that all accord with or do not disagree from the general Rules of the Scripture But 't is a folly to think that we for these are more acceptable in Person or that our Prayers the Flesh the Fat the Blood are more well-pleasing to God We must not lay any stress upon put any confidence in that which God will not vouchsafe his Altar to Sanctifie Offer then even this vocal Prayer God expects in some cases this in Conjunction but take heed O my Soul of relying upon it as such viz. the Skin without the other in Separation Whether form or no form what matters it 't is but Skin and Hair Why so much adoe about it Give the main to God or thou givest nothing God will take off the Skin and burn it burn not thy Fingers about it 't is not for the Altar Oh bring that chiefly which must be presented there God is a Spirit what are Words to him Oh let thy Prayers be all Spirit Words are but the vehicle sometimes only Aereal mere Wind seldom Aethereal defecate and pure Quintescence without Froth and Vanity c. However O see thou that there be an Angel within if there be not an Intelligence to turn about this Orb of Devotion if a Soul do not animate this Body of Duty away with it to the dunghil with it 't is but mere Carrion Bring the Male in thy Flock not this corrupt thing Thou canst never derive Comfort from Heaven if thou lay nothing upon God's Altar but Froth and Wind. Substantial Prayers and all substance is an invisible inward thing and these alone introduce solid and substantial Consolations 2 Thes 2.16 Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God even our Father which hath loved us and given us everlasting Consolation through Grace 17. Comfort your Hearts and stablish you in every good Word and Work 1 Thes 5.23 And the very God of Peace sanctifie you wholly and I pray God your whole Spirit and Soul and Body be preserved blameless unto the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ Heb. 19.20 Now the God of Peace who hath raised from the Dead our Lord Jesus Christ that great Shepherd of the Sheep through the Blood of the everlasting Covenant 21. Make you perfect in every good Work to do his Will working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be Glory for ever and ever Amen FINIS THE CONTENTS Chap. I. THE Introduction with the Explication of the Terms and their Sense Critical and Moral and Doctrine page 1. Chap. II. The Doctrine explained in a Resolution of three Queries a three-fold Essay p. 9. 1. The Character of the Psalmist not so much Personal as Moral which determines the Subject universally p. 10. 1. He was a Man that lived under a due and deep sense of God ibid. Chap. III. 2. He was a Man of Prayer p. 18. Chap. IV. 3. That lived by Faith not by Sight p. 25. Chap. V. 4. That did not live under the reproach of his own conscience p. 31. 1. He was very sensible of the odiousness of Sin to God ibid. Chap. VI. 2. Consciencious in the observance of his Duty to Man p. 45. Chap. VII 5. Of a Publick Spirit p. 73. Chap. VIII 6. Honours God 's Discipline Instructive Corrective p. 121. Chap. IX 7. A Man of Experience Eyes God in all things p. 133. Chap. X. 8. Seeks Comfort solely in and from God p. 140. Chap. XI 2. The Nature and Quality of the Psalmists Thoughts p. 151. 1. Fearing Thoughts p. 156. 2. Grieving Thoughts p. 164. 3. Despairing Thoughts page 174. Chap. XII 3. What Comforts these are in general p. 175. Chap. XIII 1. Comforts in God which God is derived from p. 182. 1. His Existence ibid. 2. His Names and Titles p. 183. 3. His Attributes p. 184. § 1. His Wisdom and Omniscience p. 185. 2. His Goodness p. 189. 3. His Justice p. 207. 4. His Omnipotence p. 224. 5. His Fidelity and Vnchangableness p. 234. 6. His Presence p. 241. 7. His Eternity p. 258. Chap. XIV 2. Comforts from God which God gives in p. 265. 1. Providence p. 266. 2. Privileges p. 269. 1. Sanctification ibid. 2. Propriety in God and assurance of it p. 276. 3. Experiences p. 286. Chap. XV. Inferences 1. Doctrinal 1. 't is lamentable to be left to our own Thoughts p. 296. 2. The best may be in perplexities inextricable by Nature p. 298. 3. The infinite Condescention of God in the Provision he hath made for us p. 302. Chap. XVI 2. Elenctical 1. Convictive 1. Theoretical confutes the Doctrine of Incertitude p. 305. 2. Practical establishing the conscience in the right method of discriminating true and false Comforts which differ p. 309. 1. In their Origin p. 310. 2. Their Attendants p. 317. 3. Their tendency and effects p. 330. 2. Reprehensive for neglect of preparing for and possessing our selves of Divine Comforts p. 337. Chap. XVII 3. Paideutical or Instructive how to attain solid Comforts p. 352. 1. Be Men of Thoughts p. 353. 2. Indeavour to attain Ability to give Law to Thoughts p. 361. 3. Get a clear notion of God and Goodness p. 366. 4. Lay the Foundation of Peace in Repentance and Holiness p. 375 376. 5. Be fervent and constant in Prayer p. 401. ADVERTISEMENT These BOOKS are Published by the Reverend Mr. Oliver Heywood M. A. Minister of the Gospel and Sold by Thomas Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside viz. 1. BAptismal Bonds Renewed being some Meditations on Psal 50.5 2. Closet Prayer a Christians Duty 3. Sure Mercies of David 4. Israels Lamentation after the Lord. 5. The Holy Life and Happy Death of Mr. John Angier Minister formerly at Denton near Manchester 6. Advice to an only Child or excellent Counsel to all young Persons 7. Best Intail a Discourse on 2 Sam. 23.5 8. Family Altar a Discourse on Gen. 35.2 3. for to promote the Worship of God in private Families 9. Meetness for Heaven on Colos 1.12 designed for a Funeral Legacy 10. The New Creature on Gal. 6.15 lately Published 11. The General Assembly or a Discourse of the gathering of all Saints to Christ BOOKS Written by the Reverend Mr. J. How OF Thoughtfulness for the Morrow With an Appendix concerning the immoderate Desire of Foreknowing Things to come Of Charity in reference to other Mens Sins A Sermon at the Funeral of Mr. Richard Adams M. A. sometime Fellow of Brazen-Nose College in Oxford The Redeemer's Tears wept over lost Souls In a Treatise on Luke 19.41 42. With an Appendix wherein somewhat is occasionally discoursed concerning the Sin against the Holy Ghost and how God is said to will the Salvation of them that perish A Sermon directing what we are to do after a strict enquiry Whether or no we truly love God A Funeral Sermon for Mrs. Esther Sampson the late Wife of Henry Sampson Doctor of Physick The Carnality of Religious Contention In Two Sermons preach'd at the Merchants Lecture in Broad-street A Sermon for Reformation of Manners A Sermon preach'd on the Day of Thanksgiving December 2. 1697. to which is prefix'd Dr. Bates's Congratulatory Speech to the King A Calm and Sober Enquiry concerning the Possibility of a Trinity in the God-head A Letter to a Friend concerning a Postscript to the Defence of Dr. Sherlock's Notion of the Trinity in Unity relating to the Calm and Sober Enquiry upon the same Subject A View of that part of the late Considerations to H. H. about the Trinity Which concerns the Sober Enquiry on that Subject The Redeemer's Dominion over the Invisible World A Funeral Sermon for Mrs. Hammond A Funeral Sermon for Dr. Will. Bates A Funeral Sermon for Mr. Mat. Mead. This Written by Mr. Flavel THE Fountain of Life open'd or a Display of Christ in his Essential and Mediatorial Glory containing Forty two Sermons on various Texts Wherein the Impetration of our Redemption by Jesus Christ is orderly unfolded as it was begun carried on and finished by his Covenant Transaction Mysterious Incarnation solemn Call and Dedication blessed Offices deep Abasement and Supereminent Advancement
Conversion There cannot then be any Divine Comfort if there be not a sweet Composure and Harmony betwixt Earth and Heaven and this can never be where a Man is at peace with his Sins Therefore whatever quiet may seem to be in such a Soul 't is only personated and illusive it reaches not to the real bottom of the trouble takes not out the Core But on the other hand when a Man makes Repentance and Mortification Faith and a good Life the main employ which drinks up his Spirits and Strength and Time industriously contending in all things to approve the sincerity and heartiness of his Affections Designs and Aims and whole Deportment in the sight of God and whilst he is thus doing finds any quietude Rest and Satisfaction of Mind to sweeten his Work and settle his Conscience he may be confident that this is the true Comfort of the Holy Ghost For as 't is impossible to enjoy true Peace under reigning Sin so t is inconsistent with Divine Goodness and Federal Love to permit a true Heart intirely devoted to him to delude it self into true Miseries under the vizor of false Joys I confess if a Man be too greedy of Comfort and too hasty in his Applications without due consideration and indeavour and care to derive his Satisfactions from solid Grounds laying the stress upon things which will not bear it in such indeliberate precipitation of Judgment concerning a Mans state and the true root of Comfort when he founds it upon any thing less than substantial Piety Righteousness and Sobriety as the evidence of his Right he may abuse himself with an unsound unsolid Peace Therefore I always suppose that the procedure in order to Comfort be justifiable and the Grounds upon which a Man bottoms his Evidence be genuine and that his reason and judgment lead him leisurely in the Scripture way to Heart-ease and Rest else all may issue in greater inquietude and trouble whatever fair Weather may at present flatter his conscience But if Spiritual sense light and a serious Preponderation of all circumstances according to the preceeding particular direct our motions hither and true Religiousness confirm them we may be secure that mere Shows and Pageantry do not now delude us into a Fairy Paradise A weak Head 't is true may lead an honest Heart into a deceitful Peace And 't is not the design of Grace to abolish or reform the natural Depravations and Deformities of our Faculties so much as the Moral But that which is defective must not be made a Standard A good Soul that understands it self and observes solid Rules in comforting it self cannot be deceiv'd in that Peace which it possesses whilst it loves God and keeps his way Such as a Mans goodness is will his Consolation be If that be but External and Hypocritical this will be insincere and delusory but a true intelligent honest Heart proceeding with a just caution shall never be gull'd with a Mock-Peace For Psal 97.11 12. Light is sown for the Righteous and gladness for the upright in heart Rejoyce in the Lord ye Righteous What God sows they shall reap Psal 85.8 10. I will hear what God the Lord will speak for he will speak peace unto his people and to his Saints c. Mercy and Truth have met together Righteousness and Peace have kissed each other Their embrace is strict and indissoluble God hath espoused them they cannot be divorced What he hath joyned together none shall finally separate and part asunder They give mutual testimony each to others integrity and soundness In Life they are lovely in Death they cannot be divided but will cohabit eternally Where then Oh my Soul is thy Righteousness not particular meerly but universal Shew me thy comfort by thy Works for 't is dead being alone As the Body without the Spirit is dead so is Peace without Holiness which is its very Life and Soul If thou be not God-like thy Joys are not Heaven-like All true pleasures are drops of those Rivers at God's Right Hand Psal 36.8 and 46.4 and 16. ult If the Waters of Life have never quickned and cleansed thee those Streams of Divine Comfort never yet did refresh thee thou hast only drunk of the Abana and Pharphar of muddy carnal Contentments not of the pure Fountain of Celestial Consolations Wherein then can thy uprightness and real honesty of heart approve it self to God Is this thy rejoycing 2 Cor. 1.12 viz. the Testimony of thy conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly Wisdom but by the grace of God thou hast had thy Conversation in the World What hast thou to shew more than an Hypocrite Wherein does thy Righteousness excel that of Scribes and Pharisees What are thy Principles Motives manner of acting Aims and Ends in thy whole course of Life Do'st thou really act 1. From God a Spirit of new Life breathed into thee by God 2. Through Christ as the Foundation of thy hopes of acceptance 3. By the Spirit as thy immediate aid in every Holy performance 4. Unto God as thy ultimate end Hast thou no secret reserved Dalilahs No one thing in which thou would'st have liberty and presume upon Pardon Do'st thou not run upon a biass in Religion and twine aside in some sinister respect to self or the popular Vogue in which thou would'st be somebody Is it thy great and uppermost care and study to be true to him that sees in secret rather than applauded by those who only see the Outside that thy inward gracious Dispositions may go no less than thy outward Semblances Art thou above all things jealous of thy deceitful Heart afraid of Hypocrisie willing to do any thing that may tend to a full discovery of thy self to thy self And if all be not right within or suspected not to be Art thou unspeakably troubled till it be righted Thou art full of thoughts but have thy Meditations been effectual through Christ to break thy heart from as well as for sin and bow thy Will to a Conformity and subjection to God's Will of Precept and Providence and bring thee to an intelligent self-denying humble penitent believing affectionate owning thy Baptismal Covenant in its whole latitude with sincere and indeflexible Resolutions to stand by it for ever And do'st thou expect thy peace in no other way Hast thou been industriously and labouriously diligent to gain a true and thorow understanding of thy State and Frame Godward searching all to the bottom very solicitous to see in a clear light What Conditions and Qualifications are prerequisite to dispose thee for Comfort and to be clear that in reality they are in thee and that thou do'st not build thy Evidence hereof upon self-flattering deceitful Grounds but do'st in truth find that the interest of God is Soveraign and Supreme in and nearest thy Heart hath the universal Regiment and command over all being thy singular delight and whatever thou feel'st to oppose becomes on that account an
intolerable burthen thy daily lamentation Thou darest not assume to thy self any comfort nor be at rest in thy Spirit till thou beest in some good degree safied that God and goodness have as far as Humane Infirmity and this present state will permit the all of thy Heart Mind Soul and Strength or thy most earnest pressing active industrious persevering desires hereof which not to feel is a grief and torment insupportable and drives thee to new exercises of Repentance and Faith in Christ for Pardon and Aid that thy second endeavours may be more upright thy after thoughts more efficacious And do'st thou seek and find ease and rest for thy self in no other method than looking and coming to Jesus with a weary labouring heavy-laden Heart entirely devoted to him and therefore sincerely willing and desirous to learn of him meekness and lowliness of Heart and to take his Yoak upon thee which is easie and his Burthen which is light Matt. 11.29 30. If this be thy frame practice and way and thou canst not wilt not comfort thy self till thy sense and real feeling of these things and a full insight into thy self make thy way very plain as infinitely afraid of being cheated by Satan or choused by thine own deceitful Heart under a shadow of Spiritual Joys into substantial Woes If thy Feet being first guided into the paths of Righteousness be guided also with this caution and wariness into the way of Peace and setled in a quiet and comfortable Repose this ½ doubt not is real Divine Consolation 3. The differences of true and false Comforts which are derived from the Subject or Persons feeling their reviving Influence or rather indeed the adjuncts of those Persons considered in their absolute or relative State are as palpable as any The soundest Joys being only the Possession of a truly Regenerate Godly Soul The unsound lodging in the wicked Hypocritical for the most part as their proper Habitation So that if it can be known to a Mans self whether he be really good or bad it may ordinarily be known whether his Peace be right or wrong But for this I refer to the Characters of the Psalmist in the beginning of this Discourse I only add That where there 's no Life there can be no true Comfort 'T is My God vers 22. Now he is not the God of the dead but of the living Matth. 22.32 'T is no less true in a Spiritual sense than a Natural If My God in natural Relation argue the Life of Nature My God in federal Relation does as strongly infer the Life of Grace For 't is not any where affirmed of Cain Esau Judas c. after their Death that God was then their God as of Abraham c. although they be no less alive in Soul the Immortality whereof is a common Privilege and admits of no degrees in one more than other My God then to Abraham c. is another thing and to be taken in another sense than that wherein it may be applicable to Cain c. since 't is used of the godly after Death in an appropriate incommunicable sense It may truly be apply'd to the very Devils and damned in any sense not importing the Moral Spiritual Life of Purity and Peace but in this 't is the sole Prerogative of the godly that are born again not of Blood nor of the Will of the Flesh nor of the Will of Man but of God Joh. 1.13 When therefore our Psalmist owns the Divine Majesty under the Relation of My God the meaning is Mine to whom I am confederated united as a principle of new Divine Spiritual Life as the Soul of my Soul in whose all I have a true federal Right in his Being his Perfections his Knowledge Coodness Love Life Peace c. whose Comforts therefore benignly eye me and invite my acceptance because I and all mine are his He himself and all his through not Creation merely but the Covenant of Grace are mine I therefore possess living Comforts because I enjoy a living God as mine own by Vital Vnion Indeed Spiritual Joys only affect Spiritual living Souls Cordials are never administred to disanimated Carkases nor Divine Comforts to the Dead in Sins and Trespasses First Resurrection then Ascension into a Heaven of Rest Natural Animal Life inherits no Spiritual Peace 1 Cor. 15.44 50 51. any more than a natural Body Celestial Pleasures All must be changed ere they can be translated into this Paradise As the corruptible part of us is abolished at the Resurrection of the Body else we cannot enter into Life So the corrupting part must be Crucified at the Resurrection of our Souls or we cannot enter into Peace Isa 57.2 He shall enter into Peace they shall rest upon their Beds walking in uprightness A Scripture something cloudy which the former clause being singular this plural in the Hebrew and both Figurative renders yet more perplex'd But by a Transposition not unusual and taking the last word of the foregoing Verse as a Supplement to this being 't is the Substantive to the Participle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it may be read thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Righteous walking in his uprightness shall come goe into Peace they i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sickly Men of Mercy or Holiness shall quietly rest upon their Beds To compleat the sentence and sense understand and insert here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 walking in uprightness for although the number disagree yet the matter requires it An exceeding proper allusion to the Signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Enosh A Bed for the sick The Bed is either 1. The Grave for the Body a common Metaphor 2 Chron. 16.14 c. as 't is to stile Death a sleep yet this would but be a jejune Interpretation improper to the place for even to the wicked 't is so 2. Therefore the Bed imports the state of everlasting repose and rest for the Soul in Heaven Though righteous and merciful Men of infirm Bodies and Souls be taken away from approaching Evils yet living and dying in uprightness they enter into never ending Rest and Peace That is their Portion after Death and the first Fruits thereof their present Possession That of Solomon Eccles 2.2 is every way verified of the wicked I said of laughter it is mad and of mirth what doth it For what greater frenzy than to laugh in the face of incensed condemning Justice And Oh mirth what dist thou In the midst of the devouring Fire and everlasting Burnings which are already kindled in a cauterized Conscience though for a little while rak'd up and smothered But whether so or no I am sure there 's just reason that even in laughter their hearts should be marvellous sorrowful because the end of that mirth will be doleful heaviness Prov. 14.13 For the wicked are like the troubled Sea when it cannot rest whose Waters cast up mire and dirt There is no peace saith my God to the wicked Isa
Christianity is great some secret Disease keeps thee down Thy Stomach is foul makes no good Digestion some under-ground Corruption draws in that Nutriment those Spirits that should invigorate and encrease thy Graces like a Worm in the Paunch or Bowels feeding upon that which should feed thee and so defrauding thee Kill then thou must or be kill'd Repentance and Faith and Mortification and Watchfulness alone must sublevate thee Engage thy self herein and make these a daily Task Let not thy Sloath the World or any sweet Lust ravish thy Heart into an hours Neglect no not a Moments Resolve and act with the first and to the uttermost Thou art upon the Pits Brink ready to drop down into everlasting Horrours and till thou repentest hast no Foot-hold nay thy Foot is already slipt thou art tumbling down head-long and no Mercy can or will hold thee up but only as far as it engages thee in Repentance This is the sole Relief that thou eanst have from Heaven nothing else can bring thee back raise thee out of the Ditch return thee into a state of Safety but only thy returning this way to God 'T is absolutely impossible under the present Oeconomy of Divine Grace for Mercy it self to save thee to satisfie thee with Peace without Repentance And no less impossible for thee to satisfie thy self in the soundness of thy first Repentance without Cordial Resolutions Cares Endeavours in a second daily life-long Repentance and Mortification Go over again then with this Work never present thy self to the Lord without this Sacrifice of a broken contrite Heart As thou renewest thy falls renew thy rising by Repentance That day upon which thou sinnest not repent not but be sure thou omit this Duty upon none other If there be any failures in thy first Work a recognition and renewal of it may redintegrate and rectifie thee No Man is hearty in that Work which he is loath to reiterate Suspect that Repentance which stands all alone in a single act and hath no Seconds Be dayly therefore searching thy Heart and examining thy Life cast up thy Accounts at even reckon with God and thine own conscience for the day and all thy Life past that thou may'st not lie down a Debtor to Justice least it be requir'd of thee ere the Morning This is safe and use will make it sweet Should a Traytor to God and thine own Soul lodge with thee in peace but for a Night with what face could'st thou present thy self before thy Judge should he arraign thee and tell thee this Night shall thy Soul be required of thee 'T is dangerous to dally with Sin desperate to irritate God The Curse of any one Sin unrepented of and the Wrath and Fiery Indignation of God are no easie Pillows to lay thy head upon Thy sleep will then be sweetest when thy Sin is sourest and thy Rest will be most refreshing and comfortable upon the soft Downy Bed of a good and pure conscience purged by Repentance purifyed by Faith But 't is not enough to forsake thy Sin and turn to goodness with a broken bleeding Heart but the root of Sin must be bound about with a Hoop of Iron that it may be deaden'd and spring out no more Crucifie then the Flesh and the World and be Crucified to them and deny so as to mortifie Vngodliness as well as Worldly Lusts else thou art not taught by the Grace of God that brings Salvation Tit. 2.11 Repentance cuts off the Branches the acts of Sin that are already sprouted out but thy cares must not only respect what is past or present but what may be in future Therefore must thou engage thy preventive cares and endeavours in Mortification Draw out the Heart-Blood of thy Lusts by cutting them off intirely from thy Heart and Affections That accounted so truculent a Word of Caesar to his Soldiers at Pharsalia strike at the face which gave him the Victory is no cruelty but good policy here and mercy to thy self and will be Crown'd with like Success That which is most lovely in thy Corruptions most pleasing to thy sense must be first laid at strike at their Beauty turn that into deformity and thou winnest the Day They live only in thy love as far as approving themselves to thy carnal Affections whence they are call'd Lusts Set up a Cherub with a flaming Sword turning every way to keep them out of that their Paradise and to guard thy Heart that Tree of Life and thou effectually condemnest them to an irremediable Mortality thou really executest and destroyest them Especially if hereto thou superadd the Exercises of Faith and its social Graces For to crucifie Sin without Faith deriving vertue and strength from the Cross i. e. the merit of Christ or that Holy Spirit and his Aid which Christ by his merit purchased is not at all to be hoped It would never have had its Christian Name from the Cross if this had no Influence upon Mortification The Moral is pretty but short of that Perfection of the Spiritual to which we are directed and enabled as Christians 'T is not if ye by Reason and Philosophy but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the Body ye shall live Rom. 8.13 What Spirit he speaks of the next verse declares For as many as are led by the Spirit of God are the Sons of God This certainly imports something more than mere Nature and natural Improvements I love the Platonical and Stoical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and am pleased to read those Precepts whereby they direct it But the Philosophical Death in voluntarily loosing the Soul from the Body and bodily Life Porphyr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 7.9 and Passions to which it was ty'd by converting it self to the service of bodily Affections will only introduce a Philosophical Peace i. e. not to grieve or be angry to be necessitated to nothing to be unconcern'd about Extrinsecals untouched and free Arrian l. 3. c. 13. as they describe it Christian Mortification is a higher thing 'T is the Work of Grace subduing the Sins that are contrary to it especially the Corruption of Nature The Work of Grace influenced by the Holy Ghost The Spirits work by Grace in relation to Christ and his Crucifixion wherein the grace of Faith in special hath a peculiar Province I mean not Christianity in general which sometimes is entitled Faith but that particular Grace which the Old Testament oft calls Trust the New committing our Souls to God When in a sense of Sin Impotency and Emptiness we give up our selves to God in Christ entrusting our Souls with him and expecting all from him alone in the way of his Covenant and Promises which hope is an inseparable fruit of Faith and therefore included with it in the same title of Trust which is indeed both Thus then do Christians mortifie Sin Being sensible that they are insufficient by the power of their own reason and moral Vertue to get