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
sake consider again and again how light a matter a Mode or Ceremony is how heavy a matter Sin is and let not Dust and Vanity be balanc'd with Mens Salvation Say not Contempt of Publick Order is not a light thing tho' these be Oh condemn not the Innocent with the Guilty Let those who contemn manifestly and contumaciously suffer but certainly 't is not Contempt in all but a reverend Fear of contemning the publick Orders of Heaven which all Men confess no Man can order the Violation of It seems clear to many that to do things required is forbidden by God they are mistaken Grant it yet they think not Their Consciences seem to be resolv'd tho' it be in an Error unknown to them Therefore to them 't is as clear that no force can be put upon them no command of man over-rule them where they judge God has obliged them They read they hear they pray they study and consider all things on all hands as they are able yet cannot change their minds tho' it be highly their external Interest so to do And shall no humanity be extended to such modest humble loyal patient teachable Dissenters that are ready to engage in all Bonds to live peaceably in all Oaths to be true Subjects to subscribe according to the Act to the Articles of Religion abating one or two Non-Essentials and therefore are of the same common Faith to the Ten Commands and therefore agree to lead the same godly Life Are there no Commiserations for such as these Oh come Lord Jesus come quickly diffuse abroad that excellent Spirit of Love Unity and Christianity which will engage every one of us to judge that our proper Good is more in the Publique than Our Selves that the common Interest of Religion is infinitely more our Concern than any of our little Bones of Contention that we may not be cracking Nuts pursuing after Butterflies smiting our Fellow-servants eating and drinking with the Drunken when the Heavens begin to crack about our ears and all is ready to be wrapt up in a common Ruine Well Shall we be Christians or shall we not Must that which will be our Glory and Crown above rule our Hearts and Practices now Let us be Persons of great and generous Minds disdaining to debase the Nobleness of those Natures which are capable of enjoying an Immense God to such a degree of Childishness as to be infinitely concern'd about the miserable things which little Souls continually scramble for is it a piece of substantial goodness and honesty Does it conduce to promote and establish a real Deiformity or Similitude to God Will it actually tend to subdue mens Passions and Pride and Worldliness and Sensuality May we by and through it elevate our Minds to that Heavenly Constitution as to be mete for Converses with a Pure and Holy God Does it subjugate the Will of Man to his Maker render him acceptable to Heaven profitable to Earth in the Great Ends of Godliness Righteousness Sobriety Did God institute it for these Purposes With all my Soul am I for it I 'll hug it in my Bosome lay it next my heart honour it with my best endeavours to advance it in my self and the world But if it be only a Trick a Device a Policy to be Grand and Gaudy and Terrible and Triumphant and Imperious to salve a Sore to make maintain please a Party to countenance keep up an Interest or suppress oppress depress real Religiousness under some disguising Pretences Away with it 't is unbecoming the Christian Spirit it savours not nor of true Magnitude of Mind This Man is for Prelacy the other against it one applauds the National Constitution comprehending all Congregations as united under the Ecclesiastical Government of Bishops and the Civil Government of one Political Head the King another allows it not yet professes and is ready to give all desired Security for Allegiance That Man pleads for and uses a Liturgy or Set Form in Divine Offices this would modifie all himself There some think for further Decency and Order Ceremonies must accompany or follow Divine Institutions here are a Company tooth and nail against them This Point of Doctrine must be express'd in such and such Terms the other is untenable except in such a Sense and Dress and every Head in things of this nature has a different Crotchet Well Are the main Substantials of Christianity retain'd Irreligion Idolatry renounc'd the necessity of Government maintain'd the Deity worshipped in and through the only Mediator Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit with his Gifts and Graces in order to a New Life acknowledged In fumm the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament in their plain and most obvious sense receiv'd submitted to as the perfect Rule of Eaith and Manners Holiness and Vertue practised and promoted Here fix What d' ye tell us of Unwritten Unscriptural Phrases and Forms and Modes and Orders and Rites and Circumstances and Phylacteries and Fringes and Laces and Fancies and Fooleries and Phrenzies To Bedlam with the Mad-men that cannot be satisfied and pleas'd with the Noble and Incomparable Ordinations of infinite Wisdom and Goodness but must prescribe to their Maker and out-do boundless Perfection Why like the Aegyptian Apes do we tear in pieces one anothers Ornaments nay one another for Nuts and Trifles Are we not agreed in the main Essentials of Christianity Being therefore of the same Catholick Body Why must this Mans Head be struck off because he hath a Feather in his Cap and the others because he has none That Man be begg'd for a Fool because by paying free Rent he owns a Mesn Lord Another branded for a Knave for desiring to be a Mesn Lord himself or depend immediately upon the King Some sent to the Hospital because they need and would have Crutches others to Bridewel who will have none Are not the one Men as well as the other and should not common Nature ingenerate a common Sense Must it still be Homo homini Lanius Lupus Are not both Christians And shall it be Christianus Christiano Daemon That Man 's a Heretick Devil I 'll sear and tear him with my burning Pincers says St. Dunstan This is a Schismatick Dog I 'll have his Ears says another St. Some-body Thou art a cold Formalist and Hell must warm and fire thee says another St. No-body And a thousand to one the Heretick the Sehismatick and Formalist is the better Man and Christian Oh Babylon Babylon where art thou not Really we may with the Philosopher light our Candle at noon day among Christians to seek for Christianity Let it then pass uncontroulable that a Man can never be publick spirited except upon Principles truly Catholick nor will any other Spirit or Principles administer sound true and solid Comfort and Peace As the contracted shrivling confining narrow Temper begets all the Confusions Broils Branglings and Blood-sheds in the world so it leaves nothing at home in conclusion but dire ingrateful Reflections and an
of Friends and Relations mightily revive a dejected Heart not only by diverting and putting by sad disconsolate thoughts but in respect of their matter as Hezekiah's before mentioned to the People of Jerusalem A kind Friend is a Dove with a Olive-branch in his Mouth in and after a deluge of Calamities Good Words are as Oyl to the Joynts Marrow to the Bones a refreshing reviving Medicine to a sick oppressed Heart As a soft Answer turneth away Wrath Prov. 15.1 So a sweet one turns away Sorrow Good Words make the Heart glad even when heaviness in it causeth it to stoop Prov. 12.25 Pleasant Words are as a Honey-comb sweet to the Soul and health Medicine to the Bones Prov. 16.24 God is with us to speak to our Hearts even in a Wilderness State Hos 2.14 How oft are his Words compared to and preferred before Honey and Honey-combs What a revival was it it to Zechariah and the Jews when the Lord answered the Angel-Intercessor for Judah and Jerusalem with good Words and comfortable Words Zech. 1.13 And with no less exultation did the Psalmist say Psal 85.8 I will hear what God the Lord will speak for he will speak Peace to his People and to his Saints Christ himself when present on Earth came preaching Peace Eph. 2.17 His Embassadors by and through him preach Peace Act. 10.36 He is a good Man says David of Ahimaaz and brings good tidings 2 Sam. 18.27 Good Words with a good God are gladsome indeed O take pleasure in the Message more in the Messengers in the Sender most of all The inward secret whisperings of the Spirit of Grace and Peace in thy Conscience the outward publication of Peace by God's Ministers and People are only in the matter and method of the Scriptures in which alone God realy speaks Peace Nothing can comfort but Truth nothing savingly Comfort but Scripture Truth All truth is originally from God Essential Truth is God the Son of God Mat. 28. ult who is where-ever he speaks and maks that comforting Truth which is his Image efficacious by his Presence and Power so that the very Instrument of Comfort does but only delight us relatively to him of whom it is a lively Representation Thou mayst be mock'd with a Lye and bewitch'd into a false deceitful Joy with a Falshood but when the Mask is taken off thy bare Countenance will appear more sad than at first and thy Comforts more unretrievable No real Peace but in the God of Peace through the Prince of Peace Friends and Relations cannot alway be present personally with their Company and Counsel to minister to our Peace A Vertual and Vicarious Presence and Conference does not a little contribute to our Consolation when distance of place renders the other impossible and with what a transport of Joy do we receive their Tokens their Letters their Writings with what a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do we peruse and in a manner greedily devour them How are our Hearts ravished with the kind and affectionate Expressions Professions of Remembrance Respect Love every Word is a Cordial we are in an extasie of Contentation here as in a Glass we behold them their lively Portraicture is afresh painted hereby in our Imagination we hear them we talk with them solace our selves in this Phantastical Enjoyment as if it were Real And why should not our Delights be more transcendent in God who can never be absent whose Presence is Substance and not Phantastry and whose Tokens of Love and Letters of Comfort are not the Curates of a Non-Resident Being nor the Missives of a distant Superintendency but the immediate Visitations of an Overseeing Care and Love that naturally minds and regards our highest Concerns and cannot will not desert us if we first do not desert him How comfortable is good News of any kind what a reviving to our drooping Hearts With what passion do we long for it With what gladness receive it believe it bless God for it The Gospel of Christ is better News than the best on Earth Glad Tidings of the greatest Joy Peace Love and Life Here mayst thou see the omniform motions of Christ's richest Grace perceive the compassionate workings of his Bowels feel the solicitous beatings of his affectionate Heart in a tender regard of thee read of the astonishing effects of his wonder-working Power and Goodness all the Miracles of his Love and Kindness for thy Good in Illumination Sanctification Justification Salvation what he hath done what he still is doing what he further will do to raise thee up out of the bottomless Pit of unspeakable Misery to the top and crown of Heavenly Felicity and Glory Well might the Apostle tell of the Comfort of the Scripture Rom. 15.4 And David long for it as a means to his solace Psal 119.82 This and this alone is the richest Promptuary fullest Treasury of all real Soul-satisfactions hence have we them or they are but mere Legerdemain and Illusions And if the very News of Christ be so sweet what is he in himself What is he in Person None have reason to say of him as the Corinthians of Paul 2 Cor. 10.10 His Letters are weighty and powerful but his bodily Presence is weak His is not the presence of a weak contemptible Body but of an all-powerful Spirit he that can be Omnipresent cannot but be Omnipotent Christ as God is in all is all and even as Man full of Vertue a touch of his very Garments wrought a Miracle of Healing Matth. 9.20 21 22. And if in his Mortal Body there was such Power what is in his Immortal and Glorified The Principle I know was Heavenly though the Vessel Earthly yet this has lost nothing by its Exaltation to the Throne of God no nor we neither for in lieu of that Corporal Presence we enjoy a no less Comfortable Companion the Paraclete the Holy Comforting Spirit of God to abide with us not for a few days and years but for ever Joh. 14.16 So that although our sweetest Relation be gone to Heaven yet are we not Orphans ver 18. The Angel of God's Presence Isa 63.19 that saves us comforts us now by Proxy yet is not absent from us but essentially with us though Corporeally at a distance from us Gods Natural Presence is an immensity of Being Unconfinable to any Place Incomprehensible by all Places Exterminable out of none and with its fullness filling all in all So that there is no need of the supplement of any thing to avoid a vacuity nor is any thing by this Being excluded that needs a Place He is in all Space and beyond all Space not commensurate with it but infinite The Dimetient of all yet without Measure and all Corporeal Dimensions boundlessly greater than all things comprehending all within the Circle of his Essence whose Center is every where Circumference no where in all Varieties of Co-present Beings the same invariable Perfection no other on Earth than in Heaven that he can without any
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
all the boundless Treasures of Soul-satisfying Contents which are laid up in God Christ the Holy Spirit Heaven the Covenant and Promises are no actual Comfort to us but only by the mediation of Grace within us nor Grace it self except its Integrity and Truth be evidenced plainly to us So that in short all Comfort does immediately spring from Assurance A Man hath so much Peace as he hath of this and not a jot more This is the nearest matter and ground thereof yet not absolutely and in it self considered merely but relatively to Grace but neither Grace absolutely no 't is relatively to God that it introduces real Consolation viz. as an evidence that God is ours and as it carries out our Souls to him to place their whole Felicity in him This therefore is the Genealogy or Pedigree of Comfort 't is the immediate Off-spring of Assurance which is the Off-spring of Grace which is the Off-spring of God Assurance comforts as it refers to Grace Grace comforts as it leads to God God comforts Architectonically Originally Eminently as the principal Efficient and Matter of all Legitimate Consolation Thus have I finished all I conceive necessary to explain the Nature Origin Matter and Method of deriving Comfort into the Soul CHAP. XV. Inferences I. Doctrinal WHat remains is only to deduce some profitable Inferences Doctrinal and Practical immediately from the Text in its Coherence and Scope and such only as are clearly included in the Bowels of it To direct wherein I shall make 2 Tim. 3.16 my Card and Compass All Scripture is Divinely inspir'd and profitable for Doctrine for Evidence for Conviction for Reproof for Correction for Rectification for Reformation for Instruction for Discipline which is even that in Righteousness My Doctrinal Inferences are Three 1. Hence see that it is a very lamentable thing for a Man to be left by God to be worried by his own Thoughts In what deplorable Circumstances would David have been had there been no Divine Comforts to moderate and asswage the violence of his turbulent Cogitations There 's nothing in Man better or worse than Thoughts If a Good Angel act them they are Birds of Paradise They are the furest Guides the sweetest Companions the soundest Comforts the First Movers in the Heaven of Vertue and Goodness the last alive to God the most delightful Anticipations of Everlasting Blessedness which realize those Pleasures and Joys that are unutterable the bright and fair Idea of the Invisible Majesty and Glory of God Himself Contrarily if acted by an Evil Genius they are the very Beelzebub of the lesser World the Ignis Fatuus that leads us into the Pits and Precipices of Errour Wickedness and Woe They are the Locusts and Smoak of the Bottomless Pit that darken the Heavens of Peace and Contentation devour and blast every living thing in us the dreadful Image and Representation of the black Horrours and Confusions of Hell A Man is a Brute a Fool a Mad-man or a Devil as his Thoughts are and his Thoughts will be as bad as Hell can make them if Heaven do not supervise govern and direct them and yet there needs no other Fiend to debauch them than that Corruption that first enter'd into us by them and does perpetually dog and haunt them How many by them have been hurried into Hospitals Halters Bridewel Bedlam and the dismal Regions of eternal Darkness How do they act all the Parts appear in all the Forms advance to all the degrees of Malignity and Misery But in none more than the Melancholick Here Satan rides as in a triumphant Chariot the Wheels are Thoughts which by presenting Objects and exciting Corruptions he sets a going sometimes with Consent sometimes without Hence proceed Atheistical Blasphemous c. Injections which ravish the Mind in the greatest abhorrence of the Will Hence despairing Reflections which realize and antedate those intolerable Cruciations of outer Darkness Hence terrifying Motions which deaden and betray the Aids and Supports of Reason and Religion and finds a Devil in every Corner Any one Thought armed by Justice and acted by Satan is sufficient to embitter all the Joys of Life and render a Man as miserable as is possible on this side never ending Miseries Who then can bear up against a Multitude Guarde me Dieu de moy was my School-Masters Motto No Man can have a greater finite Enemy than his own Thoughts A Multitude of these Tormentors within is worse than all the ravenous Lions and Bears and Tigers and Wolves in the Universe which by Power or Industry or Policy Art and Wit a Man may avoid but how shall he escape from himself and that which is nearest himself his wild mad untutour'd ungovernable Cogitations 'T was then no improper Litany From my self good God guard and deliver me 2. See here that the best of Men may fall into such Perplexities that all natural Aids may be insufficient for their Relief Not my Carnal Contents and the Pleasures of Sense not my Worldly Grandeur and the Hopes or Fruition of a Kingdom not my Invincible Spirit Valour Conduct Victories and Military Glory not my Rational Considerations and Philosophy but thy Comforts are the Sanctuary of his persecuted and persecuting Thoughts Here and here alone does he find repose and rest Indeed if it were not thus we could not be our selves Did we enjoy all at home we should not be Men but Gods Self-sufficiency is an incommunicable Perfection of the Deity He that can be without all other Persons and Things is all Sociableness is the Property and Felicity of Humane Nature and therefore declares its Dependency Man cannot be without Man much less without God But if the Constitution of our Natures had been such that in all Exorbitances of Thoughts we could readily compose our selves into a serene and sober Calm of Rest Such is our Native Pride and Self-fullness since we were debased and emptied of all good by the Fall that we should never be induc'd to pay our due Tribute of Honour and Homage unto God to which not so much Ingenuity leads us as necessity drives us 'T is true in the State of Integrity Man was endowed with an Ability not to recompose and redintegrate the Disorders and Ruines in his Mind and Conscience introduced by irregular pestilent and intemperate Cogitations which suppose Loss of Integrity but to maintain in his Soul a constant and durable Peace and Rest but then 't was because he was possest of a Sufficiency of Wisdom and Goodness to govern his Thoughts with that Balance as to secure himself from all their Inordinacies But in laps'd Nature the Case is otherwise An unresistible Impetus of Thoughts is sometimes inevitable for there are two Principles in degenerate Man of a contrary Genius which possess his Principal Faculties Reason but this much debilitated in his Mind Corruption tho' not without some Alloy in his Will In all Moral Essays of Reason 't is very much thwarted by Corruption and even in
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
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
North Country Poet. An imperfect Copy of his Verses for and against Sleep made in his younger Years when at the University were Printed under the Name of the Famous Cleveland several other of his Poems deservedly valuable remain in the Custody of some Friends He had a copious Library and abundance of the chociest Books of which he made good use having a notable facility in turning over Authors and picking the Quintessence out of them He would never be perswaded to put any thing to the Press though often solicited to Print something but reply'd there were Books enough Printed But a Gentlewoman in the Neighbourhood being in great trouble of Conscience often came to visit him whilst he discours'd with her she seem'd to be much satisfied and her Spirit appeased but when she was gone from him she was as much cast down and disconsolate as ever whereupon she earnestly desired him to write down some Pertinent Meditations that she might have recourse to when she was absent from him which he did and gives some account of in his Epistle to the Reader perfixed before this ensuing Treatise yet could not be perswaded to let it see the Light while he lived yet shewed some willingness it should be Printed after his decease having before writ it out by his own Hand in readiness for the Press and design'd for Publick Good which upon the Importunity and Encouragement of several Friends is now accomplish'd by his surviving Widow that all the Voluminous Labours of such a wise Master-builder might not be lost since most of his Writings for his own use were in Short-hand and not fully Legible or Intelligible by any there being many unknown Characters of his own inventing interspersed But to come to the last Scene of this worthy Man's Life He had endured the acute pains of the Pleurisie four several times yet through the Blessing of God as often recovered out of it though upon frequent occasions complaining of a pain in his side yet by Temperance and the use of Means he was wonderfully shored up in the midst of his Travels Studies and Preachings August the 4th 1693. he rid from his own House at Horton to Leeds being as well as ordinarily in competent Health Preached that day being Friday the Preparation Sermon for the Lord's Supper Lord's-day August the 6th he Preached twice Administred the Lord's Supper was wonderfully enlarged both in Expressions and warm Affections so that some were ready to think he was in Heaven already and admired the Grace of God in him Wednesday August 9th was the Monthly Publick Fast he was long at Work spent himself exceedingly On Thursday Night he begun of his old Distemper the Pleurisie which now made the fifth vigorous Assault he was by the Physicians advice Blooded twice but his Distemper prevailed and turned rather to a Fever yet still the violent Pain in his side continued but he was very sensible and patient under it August 24th he desired the assistance of a Friend in drawing his Will which he Subscribed the 26th after that he made a most Pathetical affecting Exhortation to several Christian Friends then present who observed that the Graces of Faith and Humility which had been eminent throughout the whole course of his Life did grow and encrease to the very last he was nothing in his own Eyes had the most self-debasing Expressions imaginable Poor Creature sinful Worm vile Wretch that had intruded into the high calling of the Ministry and had no Gifts no Graces no Abilities to discharge such a Trust He even loathed himself for it and if the Great God should spurn him out of his Presence he could not but justifie him Oh! wo is me that I have sinned I even tremble to appear before the dreadful Tribunal of God who will come with flaming Fire to take vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ Remember what I preach'd to you from that Text I have endeavour'd to discharge a good Conscience though with a multitude of Imperfections and have not shunned to declare unto you the whole Counsel of God and I bless God for the sweet Communion I have had with you in his Ordinances and humbly beseech him to supply the breach that is shortly to be made and to send you a Man of Judgment fitted with his Spirit that may better discharge his Duty than I have done who deserve to be made a Spectacle of Misery to Angels and Men But blessed be God for hopes of Salvation through the Blessed Mediator Jesus Christ Oh the infinite Riches of free Grace And here he fell into an holy extasie of Joy but the Expressions cannot be retriev'd those who were present being too deeply Affected to take the Particulars in Writing or Memory Several Instructions likewise he gave to his Relations The Night after he grew very weak and his Vital Spirits decay'd more and more till the next Morning about Seven of the Clock having taken a solemn leave of his dear Wife and Children and with great Faith and Chearfulness recommended his Soul into the Hands of his dear Redeemer he encountred the Pangs of Death August the 27th 1693. being Lord's-day and entred upon his Everlasting Rest being aged Sixty Years On Tuesday August the 29th he was Buried many sad and sorrowful Hearts both of Ministers and Christian Friends attending the Funeral His Corpse was solemnly Interred in the Chancel of the New Church in Leeds nigh the Remains of good Mr. Wales as himself had desired September the 6th 1693. upon the Peoples request two of his Brethren Preached Funeral Sermons at his Meeting-place on Mill-Hill to a mighty concourse of People the one treating upon Acts 20.38 Sorrowing most of all for the Words which he spake that they should see his Face no more The other treated upon that Text 1 Kings 13.30 And he laid his Carkase in his own Grave and they mourned over him saying alas my Brother Thus dyed this holy Man of God that hath left few behind him of the same Spirit a Dutiful Child to his godly Parents a Loving Husband to his lovely Wife an Indulgent Father to his hopeful Children a Faithful Friend to all that feared God a Consciencious Laborious Minister and Tender-hearted Watchman over the Souls of his Flock A Person of great worth in all Men's account but his own indeed it was strange to see a Man of such eminent Parts and rare and raised Accomplishments to have so mean an esteem of himself he thought himself below others though he was higher by Head and Shoulders than most of his Brethren He was cloathed with Humility this was the upper Garment put upon all his other Graces and was his bravest Ornament which rendred him Conspicuous in the Eyes of all that knew him Though much more might be said of him yet let his own Works Praise him in the Gates and let us all make sure of our State and make hast after him to that
we together with it reject the Olive Branch of Peace But who in his wits would not beg with all manner of Prayer Publick Private Secret Mental Vocal with a Form without when he may be assured if he ask to receive that his Joy may be full Joh. 16.24 This 94th Psalm and the rest most of them seem in their composure to be design'd by the Penmen for Privacy though God had a further design in them viz. to make them Publick and part of the Canon of Scripture for the guidance of his Church in all Ages and assuredly he is a stranger to heavenly Comforts who is a stranger to secret Converses and Communion with God 'T is true God by bringing these secret breathings of holy Souls after himself in these Psalms to a more publick use and making their private Forms of Prayer as it were the common Liturgy of his Church in all Generations may seem graciously to intend the honour of his publick Worship by the Church since he hath pickt out that for Catholick advantage which in reality was a Treasure in all their private Devotions pretermitting the rest For that more were composed by them I no more doubt than that other Books were made by Solomon besides those preserv'd in the Holy Writings And that Forms of Humane Composure as well as Divine Inspiration were made use of by holy Souls without impeach of any crime therein particularly without the guilt of Idolatry the sensless sottish charge of some against a Form is demonstrable from the New Testament where Christs Disciples beseech him to teach them to pray as the Pharisees and John taught theirs They taught them Forms and so did he their 's Humane his Divine But if this were so foul a crime so odious to God would he who is so severe against Pharises upon other occasions even in relation to their Prayers give it the honour of an approving Imitation and not rather chastize it with the Scorpions of a bitter rigorous reproof and check his Disciples desire to be Idolaters or symbolize with them I could demonstrate irrefragably that this whimzy would absolutely turn all Vocal Prayer whatever out of the Church if it were as true as it is abominably false but this is no place for it The choice which God made for the Church of these more refined suspirations of pure and heavenly Souls that in a zealous ardour of divine and raised affection lifted up themselves towards his holy Habitation in these Forms of his own dictating and directing by his holy Spirit and his applying them to publick use are a testimony that he accounts the honour of more to be more honour and his reserving the best for the Church when others are lost declares that he expects the best from it His own is to him always most acceptable and administring hereof to his Church to offer before him he evidences that he would have its Offerings to be always acceptable and in this provision he gives the Publick a preference to any thing personal which also he further advances by making these publick Ministrations the ordinary means to beget spiritual Life and therefore Peace But then nevertheless the benefit of that which we enjoy in Publick depends upon what we are in Private and the main business of Church Offices and Ordinances is to make us inwardly and secretly sound and solid Christians For God no more regards outward publick Semblances without Sincerity than a whited Sepulchre his general end is to make us upright Nathanaels Israelites indeed in whom there is no guile not gilded Hypocrites and no better are we whatever our visible Sacrifices may be if yet we retain our Chambers of Imagery in private and do not break down the Idols of our Hearts striving to be inwardly before God what before Men we appear to be outwardly which we shall never do if we take not our Hearts to task in secret Let us blow never so many Trumpets before our selves ruffle and brave it as triumphantly as is imaginable in the phantastry of our Silk and Satten Devotion before Men yet if our heavenly Father never meet us in a Closet if there we have nothing acceptable to present him if we take no pains there to dress up our inward Souls for his embraces labouring to the utmost to prepare our Work within there when we design to build him a publick Temple that the savour of our more retired Communion with God may abide upon our Spirits and the perfume of that Incense which we offer within the Veil may ascend and become a visible Cloud without if not thus I am affraid that at the great reckoning for all our Trimming and Gallantry the Crowns and Garlands of our publick Sacrifices we shall stand in querpo and be found no better than Pharisees The Psalmist's Prayer was first a secret ere it became a publick Application to God Learn then Oh my Soul to begin there and make it thy first and main business to approve thy Heart secretly to the Searcher of Hearts and by Communing with it and God alone deal effectually with it that he who sees in secret may see that it is in good earnest Be much with God in thy Meditations before that thou mayst not have thy straggling Thoughts to gather up and fix when thy Affections are to enter into a vigorous pursuit after Grace and God See that there be not a reserved Lust within that would hide it self from the Lord when thou shouldst make thy unreserved Acknowledgments Let not thy Confessions be a bare heartless enumeration of thy Sins but the real exercise of true Repentance least they pass only for self Accusations and thine own Mouth produce the Testimony against thee which will cast and condemn thee O learn inwardly to loath in thy Heart those hateful Vomits which thy Mouth casts out that thou mayst return to them never never Learn to loath thy self for the sake of the nasty Filth and Rottenness nay the Venom the Toads the Fiends that thou harbourest within and what thou loathest resolve utterly eternally to relinquish and abandon from this very day forward as an offence and abomination to the Lord. But thou must not only in thy recesses and personal converses with God fly from and abhor thy Sins as Styx that scalding River of Brimstone in Hell that 's not all Rom. 12.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou must fix and establish thy self by Resolution and Grace invariably for God and Goodness and for that end endeavour that all thy Petitions may be the exercise of Faith without which thou shalt receive nothing at the Hands of the Lord. Cold Petitions only beg denials and faithless set a seal upon those denials to render them irreversible Christ in the days of his Flesh offered up strong cries Heb. 5.7 Well they might the strength of Israel dwelt in his Flesh Job 1.14 Col. 2.9 the fulness of the Godhead fill'd him with Vigour and Power But the strength of thy cries Oh
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
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
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
a serious upright undissembled Resolution to stand to it and abide by it in despight of all Temptations and Opposition thro the aid and assistance of the Spirit of Grace praying waiting in Faith and Hope to enjoy his Gracious Influences leading into all Truth that by it he may be made free formed after the image of God by his Grace strengthened with all might inwardly and revived by his Consolations A Man that in order to all these good Ends diligently examines his Conscience searches out his particular sins is afflicted burthened at his very Soul for them as an Offence to God rather than his own Damage uses all possible means to prevail with his Heart to relinquish them in its affections forbearing actually to commit them lamenting over and reforming sinful Omissions groans under and is daily pained with the woful depravedness of his Nature his very inward Bent and Inclination to Evil the Vanity as well as Vileness of his thoughts words and deeds accounting himself the Chief of Sinners and therefore maintaining an humble self-debasing Sense of his own Unworthiness and labours not only to desist from the Acts but subdue the very Lusts kill the root by mortification A Man who lives by Faith upon the Promises for the Communication of a Divine Nature the Law in the Heart that he may not only do the External Work of Duty but have a Dutiful Heart from and through which Principle he meditates hears reads praises confers about the best things as inwardly loathing the froath and vanity and venome of his former Communication and endeavours that it may be alway savoury season'd with salt that it may administer to the use of edifying minister Grace to the Hearers A Man that endeavours a right Understanding of himself is Cloath'd with Humility in lowliness of mind dehasing himself before God preferring others before himself and condescending to men of low degree and esteeming his own Graces less his Sins greater than any mans admiring that either God or man should favour him and therefore with a calm dispassionate Spirit bears Injuries Affronts Reproaches any Evils that extend to himself but can bear nothing with Unconcernedness that affronts the Divine Majesty hath a Bridle for his Tongue for his Heart and with a composed Evenness of Temper renders his Converses amiable profitable desireable to all grievous hurtful to none In all Conditions Companies or Occurrences prosperous or adverse being the same An ill turn will make him a Friend as Cranmer and the worse the Circumstances the better the Man living under the power of the Spirit of Sanctification in Obedience Meekness Patience Gentleness Simplicity godly Sincerity A Man that can bear Indignities from all forbear offering them to any keeping under his Passions even almost to an Apathy keeping down his carnal Appetite in a sober temperate use of the Pleasures of Sense and an Indifferency to this present World A Man that sets his Mind and Heart savourily upon Invisibles which he evidences by a Conversation in Heaven and values the Wealth and Glory of the Earth only as they deserve and as far as useful for God's Honour in Acts of Piety the Relief of the Indigent in liberality and the maintenance of the Reputation of his Profession with Contentment embracing the least share of the World but unsatisfiable without a large Portion of God and Heaven A Man that walks in his house with a perfect heart putting away Evil from his Tabernacle and advancing Holiness in his own Relations especially to whom he is useful both by Counsel and Example A Man that dares not do or design or imagine any thing unjust dishonest unbecoming Christianity tho' it might gain Indemnity for his Life Uprightness Loyalty Honesty Fidelity in all Promises Dealings Carriage are his Life therefore will he not forfeit and destroy it by contrary Practices A man that has the fairest Notices of Divine particular Love to himself yet will not abuse them to Presumption or Arrogance and Contempt of others that values the favour of Heaven infinitely above the Glory Esteem Riches Pleasures of the World but despises not these as the Gifts of God Yet does not behave himself unseemly when in the higest Repute with Man Alway his Thoughts beget his Words and his Word is his Deed and a good Conscience the Guide of all A man truly faithful to God and his Sovereign the King Modesty Gravity Seriousness Industry Clemency Sedateness of Spirit Peace of Mind being his Individual Companions and Ornaments Yet knows he nothing of those natural or acquired moral or spiritual Endowments that may recommend him to God and Man so as to swell and huff up his Heart he has them as if he had them not A Man that lives in the view of Death and therefore dreads it not whence 't is that whatever he hath or doth or feels or fears or suffers 't is as a dying Man and he therein possesses himself and God in Tranquility of Mind and a quiet Rest and Contentation He would be to others what he expects they and God will be to him Chiefly minds the weightiest Points of Religion in Faith Love Mercy Righteousness Yet having done all esteems himself an unuseful Vessel unworthy regard as having only done Duty and but a small degree of that neither therefore finally flies for Refuge to the love of God and deservings of Christ as the sole bottom of his hopes to be saved This is a Christian of whatever particular Denomination Prelatical Presbyterian Congregational c. All Persons all Societies of Persons thus qualified thou art obliged O my Soul to respect honour embrace do good unto or thou renouncest thy Membership and Fellowship with Christ and his Body Where-ever all the Essentials of this Christianity are received without such intermingled Corruptions as undermine or destroy them so insisted upon that without violation of Conscience and so Christianity thou canst not own them there impart thy best Affections thither direct thy serious and religious Cares and to all how bad soever how hostile soever thy Commiserations I cannot Communicate with an Idolater c. yet I can pity him and every poor deluded Soul that either presumptuously or in simplicity is carryed away from God For I my self am a Sinner and stand in infinite need of the Compassions both of GOD and Man Love Vnity Peace are Matters of so excellent a Nature Uncharitableness Schism Dissention contain so much of Hell that these are to be relinquish'd those pursu'd all possible ways consistent with integrity of Conscience that is consistent with Allegiance to God For Conscience is nothing except in Subordination and Allegiance to God CHAP. VIII The Subject of Comfort Honours God 's Discipline 6. THE Author of his Psalm was a Man that embrac'd a just and equitable Sense and made a benign and fair Representation of both the Instructive Discipline and also the Dispensations of God his special Teachings his severe Providences Ver. 12. Oh the Blessednesses Vocatively
nothing is good in Religion which does not catch and overmaster rational Affections reduce the will of Man into an Harmony with the Will of God and better the Life Oh be not in love with a notional Religion Let the Holy Spirit that illustrious Ray of Divine Love reflected upon and from the Son of Righteousness descend into thy bowels dwell and act in thy very inmost heart by his Light to create Life Be in love with no knowledge but that which is of a transforming power and tendency that by its vertue thou may'st be intirely renewed after the Imagine of God That Knowledge which will introduce Faith that Faith which will work by Love that Love which to the rest will add as 2 Pet. 1.5 6 7. Vertue Temperance Patience Godliness Brotherly-kindness and in summ all the Elements of a holy conversation that and that only will be introductive of solid Peace and Consolation But this hath all been spoke only upon supposition of a dfferent yet very proper Translation of the Words in V. 10. and. 12. Which are rendred chastize Now must we Procecd upon this authorized Version and 't is certain the Words will allow it as among other Places is demonstrable from 1 Kin. 12.11 14. My Father chastised you with whips c. Psal 118.18 Chastening the Lord hath chastened me but hath not given me over to death Here the word cannot signify to teach or instruct in a proper Sence Yet in the place I discourse upon there 's nothing to enforce this Sence but rather the other as the English Annotator observes Only the Syriack Version the Chaldee Paraphrast Piscator Vatablus Ainsworth c. render it here as we do chasten And if it receive the former Sence may it not seem restrain'd to such Instructions as in a peculiar manner qualifie Men patiently to bear and improve Afflictions This Sence will be favoured by that clause in the following Verse which is declarative of the end and use of these Teachings finding rest in the day of adversity Paraphrase the whole thus Oh the blessednesses of the mighty man Psal 33.16 whom thou so instructest inwardly by thy Spirit and teachest Outwardly by thy Law in the Ministry of the Word and other Ordinances * So Calvin as to engage and enable him with an even composed Spirit resting in the good pleasure of thy Goodness and with patience to indure Adversity Thus I make account 't is a parallel to Jam. 1.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 happy Blessed is the Man that not suffereth meerly but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 patiently endureth Temptation For the Substantive derived from it viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rend red Patience V 34. and ch 5.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we count happy or bless the patiently indureing or biding under ye have heard of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Patience of Job or Trial 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 approved he shall receive the Crown of Life c. It seems to be an allusion to the Isthmick or Olympick Games in Greece where if any doubt did arise about the Victory the Agonists or Contenders did appeal to the Judges and he who by their Suffrage or Judgment was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 approv'd did receive the Garland or Crown Thus here Blessed is the man whom thou so disciplinest and learnest as to give rest or quiet sedateness or settlement of mind or appeasement Prov. 15.18 the same word of all turbulent motions in the working raging sea of his Passions and Affections which otherwise cannot be quiet composed and rest Isai 57.20 the same word again till or while the Pit be digged for the wicked For as Dr. Hammond well observes if it be understood of external rest or freedom from the days of Evil the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not properly translated until For that supposes the rest in being before the removal and in the very time of disrest or oppression or adversity by the wicked and the rest to terminate or end when the Wicked are destroyed But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is translated While Job 1.16 17 18. While he was yet speaking c. and yet more accommodately to this place When Jonah 4.2 Was not this my saying when I was yet in my own Country c. Thus here when the pit of corruption as the word signifies shall be digged for the Wicked the Lord 's blessed ones shall rest from the days of Adversity Then is the season for it This literal proper Sence seems more suitable than Calvin's figurative For Moral Rest answers not the Letter of the Text as well as civil 'T is rest from not in the days of evil as it should if the moral sence for quiet of mind obtain yet I think there may be a commodious Sence given of the Words retaining the until which is the only Basis of the moral sence and still interpret the words concerning Political Rest For until does not alway signifie the cessation of the preceding State upon the introduction of that which it relates to Hereof there are multitudes of Instances Rom. 5.13 Vntil the Law Sin was in the World but it did not cease to be when the Law came Rev. 2.25 Hold fast till I come Must they let go their hold then But to confine my self to the Hebr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isai 22.14 This Iniquity shall not be purged from you till you die If not 'till then 't will never Not to wander out of this Book of Psalms Psal 112.8 He shall not be affraid until he see his desire upon his enemies and sure his fearlesness will not determin then Psal 110.1 Sit thou on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool Must Christ forsake God's right hand when that is accomplished I 'll add no more It cannot then by necessary consequence be concluded from the until here that the Rest or Quiet of the Blessed shall expire when the Wicked perish it rather infers a more eminent degree of it So also it does in the cited places denote and import an answerable amplification in the succeeding state of what was in the foregoing if it be capable of gradation as sure David's fearlesness would be greater after his desire was accomplished upon his Enemies than before Let that interpret this He shall be fearless before even when his enemies hope to have their desire of him much more when he has his of them Thus God will give those whom he graciously instructs and teaches real quiet and rest both when the wicked Reigns and when he is Ruin'd So that I make it a privilege and part of Blessedness granted by special indulgence to these to be secured from trouble in troublous Times to have a good day when others not so taught of God meet with an evil day to be hid in the day of God's Anger to be preserved from the Malice and persecution of the Wicked This sometimes the Lord vouchsafes to
to this here ver 18. and so also in many things is the whole Psalm 'T is Psalm 73.2 But as for me my Feet were almost gone my Steps had well-nigh slipt For I was envious at the Foolish c. This seems a plain indication both of the nature of the slip that 't was moral a slip into Sin and also of the kind of the Sin into which he was ready to slip or did slip either Envy or some effect thereof To Interpret it of slipping into Suffering appears very incongruous the whole scope repudiates it For suppose he thought himself in danger of Death as we shall see our Psalmist was and intended in this Metaphor to declare it thus I had almost slipt into Destruction For I was envious c. This sounds harshly to rational Ears the reason of the coherence must be far fetch'd and suppose our sense ere the illation will hold as thus That Envy is a Sin and Sin exposes to Destruction but this plainly supposes that the first slip must be into Sin as we Interpret Why then go we about the Bush The Original Word where it is not translated slip doth oft submit to a sence through the force of the matter 't is apply'd to which imports some thing of Sin as Psal 82.5 All the Foundations of the Earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are out of course Nod slip are moved out of their due moral course of Righteousness in which they ought to move Ps 55.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They slip move cast Iniquity upon me that is they lay it to my charge which without Iniquity they could not do to the Innocent I confess there 's nothing in the Context to enforce this moral sence so neither is there any thing to urge the other It lies indifferent to both Therefore 't is but rational to apply that sence to it which other places necessitate For why must a new sence be impos'd upon an old Phrase here only when there 's nothing to constrain it Let it therefore imply 't is fear of falling into Sin his sence of a Temptation to it as Psal 73.2 That very Sin there insinuated seems to be in the Psalmist's Eye Help failed him on Earth ver 16 17. Iniquity was triumphant ver 20 21. and Innocency trampled on this touch'd him to the Quick and was the ground of his Plea ver 20. He therefore seems to be inclin'd to envy that Prosperity wherein they flourish'd whilst himself was in a condition full of trouble fear and hazzard and yet being aware of the Temptation he flies to God Oh! my Foot slips I am like to be born down with the violence of the suggestion help Lord and sustain me that I may not sin against thee and my own Soul The Temptation had in sinuated it self into his Thoughts but had not obtain'd the consent of his Will that rises against it and calls in the aid of Heaven and God is merciful to him so as to relieve him To this Head therefore may I refer all the disconsolate Thoughts that arise in the Hearts of God's Servants through the suggestions of Satan Whether ordinary Temptations or those extraordinary sudden Injections which strike a dread and horrour into the Mind and are so far from ravishing its consent that it rises in Indignation Enmity and Abhorrence against them and would give Worlds to be freed from them As Atheistical Blasphemous Execratory c. thoughts of God Christ the Holy Spirit the Scriptures Providence c. These though in the matter of them they be more abundantly enormous than common Temptations yet have proportionably a greater check from the Will which in a more violent Antipathy sets it self against them and therefore though they be more our Trouble are less our Sin than such as with more freedom are entertain'd into our Minds For if it were a sin to have evil suggested outwardly or from a Devil without us in the gross way of Temptation whilst our Hearts abominate it the sinless Lamb of God would not have been free so neither when invisibly and inwardly since even external Proposals cannot be understood and known without inward Thoughts and 't is all one whether the Thoughts be excited mediately from something without or more immediately from something within whether the Tempter raise the Storm by a Witch or his one immediate Empire over the Clouds Vapours Exhalations and Winds whether he bring it in at the Cinque-ports of Sense external or impress it upon the internal working upon the Fancy and Invention with the aid of Memory For that by Gods Permission he can move matter is unquestionable therefore congest our animal Spirits into such Forms and Representations by an immediate impulse as they are apt to receive from the Objects of outward Sense which he has the advantage of doing more effectually upon inspection of our natural Temper and Complexion and therefore Inclination that cannot be concealed and hid from his insinuating intellect and critical Observation Whence Melancholick Constitutions are most haunted with these black Spirits and Temptations Hither also is to be reduc'd Horror of Conscience either antecedent or subsequent to sinful Practices or the Temptations to them the former whereof is so commendable in all the latter confounding For if Conscience startle and be struck with Amazement and Astonishment upon the temptation to some horrid Crimes as it will sometimes even in the profligately Wicked which is an evidence that they are not wholly given up by God it may be still capable of being touch'd with lesser with all which may issue in true Conversion through the Grace Concurrence and Blessing of Almighty God or in further degrees of tenderness and reluctance to Sin in those that are already Converted as a fruit of that gracious Promise of taking away the Heart of Stone and giving an Heart of Flesh Ezek. 11.19 and 36.26 The Psalmist's here was a dread of this Nature and although this Psalm give us no intimation of any horror in his mind at present consequent to evil Actions yet part of the scope of the Psalm is to excite it in others whose Crimes he lays open and aggravates as they deserve The Conscience of his own Innocency now did antidote such troubles in himself but his impleading his Enemies for the foulest Injustice and Babarousness has a tendency to rouze their sleepy Consciences into such an awakening sense and feeling as might make them Terrors to themselves as himself was afterwards upon his two foul Commissions Psal 51. Neither are those fears and dreads of Satan and Spiritual Enemies which sometimes rack and cruciate the Minds of Men altogether to be forgotten He that is amazed at and implores Divine Mercy against the Temptation cannot easily be reconciled to the Tempter in whom with his Angels there is a combination of every thing that can render Adversaries formidable What numerous Legions in which not one single Enemy but is brim full of rancor and rage against us indow'd with
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
up a dejected Mind which it found deeply buried in a doleful Hell of Wretchedness and Woe Oh sweet and amiable Peace How lovely are thy Looks How dear and pleasing thine Embraces What art thou not that is good desirable delightful contenting satisfying Riches in Poverty Health in Sickness Honey in Life Heart-ease in Death the Glory of Eternity But to give a Logical Description of it Formal Comfort is the inward Rest Quiet Contentment Satisfaction Ease and Refreshment of the Mind arising from the View Sense Consideration Application and feeling of such proper and suitable Remedies for all manner of Troubles as answer the Necessities Exigencies and Desires of the Soul in all things strengthning for Work supporting under Temptations inspiriting for Sufferings chearfully to bear them perfectly to conquer them and everlastingly to triumph over them Taken Actively and in Fieri it imports a Mans applying to himself the things which God hath provided to refresh and strengthen him Passively a Man is comforted when upon the Application of such things the Mind Heart and Conscience are satisfyed and settled within themselves in a calm and quiet Rest and Peace This is Comfort in facto esse as the Schools phraze it If we speak properly and according to the English Translation here This Formal Comfort is not that Comfort which the Psalmist reports but rather the delight in his Soul which did or might issue therefrom as an effect from its immediate Cause and therefore is not a stranger to the Text. Yet indeed the Comfort here mentioned is not to be understood Formally but Objectively or Materially for comforting things as in Physick a Cordial is not the Comfort the Heart receives but the Medicine which has Vertue and Power to Comfort the Heart as a means under Providence In Discoursing to this several things might be considered 1. The Matter or Thing it self which comforts which is God his Being Nature Perfections c. 2. The Instrument Vehicle or Means 1. Revealing Tendering Conveying The Word and in special its Promises 2. Receiving Appropriating Applying Faith 1. In the Mind Thoughts 2. In the Heart and Will Consent 3. The Condition or Qualification without which no right to Comfort is possible True Goodness particularly Goodness in Distress 4. The Principal immediate Efficient The Holy Ghost the Comforter Some of these I acknowledge concern Comfort Formally considered as well as Materially For though the matter or thing Comforting God have no cause and the Spirit cannot be said to be in respect hereof an Efficient but only of the Formal Comfort or Satisfaction in our minds and of the Instrument and Condition the Word being of his Immediate Inspiration and Sanctification his proper and peculiar Work Yet the Word is a means to beget Formal Comfort as well as convey the matter of it so also is Faith And Goodness is a Qualification necessary to inward Peace as well as right to the Material Cause of it I am not concern'd except about the Matter Means revealing containing and the Believing Thoughts that receive and apply with the Holiness that prepares the Heart for Reception and Application of Comfort Whatever Comforts is something of or from God The Father Son and Holy Ghost yet those things from them Comfort not in the same manner as they do themselves The Word and Promises are a Cordial as far as Messages of Love from Heaven no otherwise As they bring good News from our best Friend they revive us but nothing can give ease to our Minds which doth not report something of God If our Troubles be Spiritual for our Sins the assurance by any sound Evidence that God has pardoned them dispels our Sorrow Fear and Despair The feeling that God has purged away their Filth taken away their Dominion quiets us as an Evidence and Testimony that he hath pardoned us and is reconciled to us but all this only as a token of God's Love to us For a good Soul cannot sit down with its own Mercy without the God of Mercy Nothing Spiritually Comforts on Earth but what will solace in Heaven There God alone is the Eternal Ravishment of glorified Souls Now God as the matter of our Comfort solaces us merely as apprehended and applied by Believing Thoughts If we think not of him we derive no Content from him and our Thoughts taking in some comfortable Notion of God lay it before our Concupiscible and Irascible Affections that being embraced by the former it may appease still and quiet the other which is heedfully to be observed this being the true and natural Method to attain solid and substantial Peace and Consolation For they are Brutish not Rational Comforts that we are not led to by Light in the Mind observing the suitableness of the Object to our Condition which prevails with our Will to close with and embrace it Till this be done our Passions cannot be rationally calmed God doth not work upon them as Christ upon the raging Sea by way of Empire and immediate Power to hush them in a moment by Miracle That Peace which springs in the Conscience immediately without any antecedent Actings and Perceptions of the Mind or Election of the Will is Delusory not to say Satanical There 's nothing that can any ways Comfort but God is that very thing either Formally or Eminently He is the summ and substance of all Appetibles Eligibles Comfortables as the Chief Good and Happiness of Man who as he wants nothing for his own everlasting solace and contentation so neither for ours Whatever is of a refreshing Influence either to Body or Mind is the Ordination of God both in its Matter and that peculiar Formality For he both made all things and endowed them with all their Powers and Vertues which all are superlatively in himself i. e. either in his Nature or Power in Essence or Equivalence God's Love is a Comfort to our Souls and God is Love Meat and Drink are a comfort to our Bodies God is not these but he can create and give them and in Heaven supplies the want of them by causing us not to need them and giving us better in himself that Countervails them Thus 't is also in all other Cases whatever satisfies us is from him is in him Thy Comforts delight or look favourably upon my Soul Thy Comforts which thou Ar't Givest CHAP. XIII Comforts in God I. THE Comforts which God is delight the Soul These or none For nothing issuing from God is greater or better than himself He is much more than all without him therefore a more sufficient satisfaction both because there is a plenitude of Perfection in him and because he can inlarge the capacity of the Recipient and quicken the perceptive Powers more exquisitely to sense and relish the Sweetness of all those delectable Excellencies that adorn his Nature Now as God is every thing which is comfortable so every thing in God is a Well-spring of over-flowing Consolation to a good Heart his Being Names Attributes
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
did bear so favourable an Aspect upon his troubled Soul as vers 14. does not obscurely intimate For the Lord will not cast off his People neither will he forsake his inheritance The Negative excludes universally perpetually He will never cast off nor forsake it also infers the Affirmative He will own and accompany his People and Inheritance for ever and ever Which he is enabled to do only by vertue of his Eternity Possibly that Expression vers 22. may also import something of like nature My God is the Rock of my Refuge He could not be unacquainted with the Song of Moses and the Blessing he pronounc'd upon the Twelve Tribes Deut. 32. and 33. There are these Titles first of all given to God Rock in the Song is five times apply'd to the Lord vers 4 15 18 30 31 twice to Idols vers 31 37. But that which I have chiefly in my eye is Chap. 33.27 The Eternal God is thy refuge very proper and Emphatical For 't is the Eternity of God that renders him a sufficient and compleat Refuge Notwithstanding all other Perfections if he were not the Everlasting God our Refuge would finally fail and be none at all He is called The Rock of Ages which our Translation renders Everlasting Strength Isa 26.4 And indeed a Rock the most indissoluble and durable part of the Earth is an Emblem of perpetuity A Rock of Refuge is therefore an everlasting security and comfort Nor is it a mean Satisfaction to remember that as there is a sufficiency of Ability and good Will in our God who by Covenant is engaged to put an end to our troubles and replenish us us with the Joys of his Salvation So he lives for ever to continue them that they shall have no period short of Eternity He is an ever-over-flowing fountain of Everlasting Consolations as they are called 2 Thes 2.16 17. Now our Lord Jesus Christ and God even our Father who hath loved us and given us everlasting Consolation through Grace Comfort your Hearts c. Our Consolations are Eternal because God is for in him they are as in the Well-spring therefore cannot be as Waters that fail as Jerem. Expostulates Chap. 15.18 If they could our Wound might be incurable indeed refusing to be healed and our pain perpetual But all this shall certainly have an end because God cannot This cannot be Eternal because God is Whatever is wanting in the durableness and sweetness of these fluxible perishable Enjoyments which we possess on Earth whatever we suffer through the continuance and bitterness of our Calamities is made up and amends made us abundantly in the Perennity of all Excellencies in God There is in this Attribute a suitable relief in all kinds of Distresses outward and inward All the short liv'd Comforts of this World have a better Being and Life in the Eternity of God Thou losest thy Friends and Relations the sweetest the best perhaps by the immediate hand of God as the Psalmist here by the violent hands of wicked Men vers 5 6. The Church of God in some places is laid waste and the stormy Cloud hangs over more and its implacable restless Adverries threaten all The Innocency of Christ's Lambs is no Protection against the Thrones of Iniquity in Babylon and Hell vers 20 21. No that 's the very ground of the Quarrel and Enmity Conformity to them Innocency and Iniquity would reconcile them Do'st thou tremble for the Ark of God And is thine own Personal Jeopardy or Suffering in Body Mind or Estate in any extremity Be not disinay'd Nubecula est cito transitura The greater the Tempest the sooner over Storms may huff against the Heavens yet cannot hurt them but only spend themselves And the Church is oft call'd Heaven in the Apocalypse and its Officers Stars from betwixt our Eyes and which the most raging furious blasts may dispel and drive away the Clouds that Eclipse and darken them but still leave those Coelestial Lamps more clear and inextinguishable whilst themselves are extinct in a moment The Dragons Flood will be soon swallowed up and the fury of Men and Devils shall quickly faint and melt away but the Love of God to his chosen never never Isa 40.27 28. Why sayest thou Oh Jacob and speakest Oh Israel My way is hid from the Lord and my Judgment is passed over from my God Hast thou not known hast thou not heard that the Everlasting God the Lord the Creator of the ends of the Earth fainteth not neither is weary there is no searching of his understanding Therefore possesses he an unfathomable Skill and Ability to refresh and revive thee but this is laid as the Foundation Stone upon which thou may'st rebuild thy decaying hopes viz. that he is the Everlasting God I therefore return again to that Deut. 33.26 27 28. There is none like the God of Jeshurun who rideth upon the Heavens in thy help and in his Excellency on the Skie The Eternal God is thy refuge and underneath are everlasting Arms and he shall thrust out the Enemy from before thee and shall say Destroy them Israel shall then dwell in safety alone c. Happy art thou Oh Israel who is like unto thee Oh People saved by the Lord the shield of thy help who is the Sword of thy excellency c. Hence in the Title given to Christ Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace have an immediate Connexion and Dependence Isa 9.6 If trouble be long 't is light but brief if grievous Si longa levis si gravis brevis Goodness cannot groan for ever because it leads to God and the more 't is oppressed the more it grows upward Heaven-ward where it shall only enjoy its everlasting Crown The Fire upon the Altar of God will be inextinguishable if from Heaven and those Coelestial Sparks of Divinity or Grace which the Holy Spirit kindles will by the bluster and storms of Affliction conceive a more vehement Flame perish and die they cannot as long as God lives from whom they derive their Being and Eternity But suppose all other sweet Satisfactions whether Spiritual Joys and Refreshments or Temporal Contentments be totally extinct as to present sense yet finally they shall not because they possess a perennity of Life in God And when Goodness and He meet in the Superiour World these will revive and Misery die I grant the most flourishing Gourds of Earthly Pomp and Glory may wither in a Night as being a vain Pageant and mere Phantastry Acts 25.23 The fairest freshest sweetest Flowers of the Youthful Spring of Humane Life may be blasted in a moment and converted into dust and rottenness The most pleasing Sun-shine of the smiling Morn of a fortunate Prosperity may suffer an Eclipse and issue in a dismal Hurricane of insupportable Calamities Nay Heaven it self may seem to frown and a dark Cloud to cover the Light of God's Countenance Lam. 3.44 But none of these Evils can extend beyond the Grave there are they buried
vouchsafe Pardon Her Iniquity is pardoned because she hath received two-double c. Else 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must be here Translated that as in the two former Clauses Indeed in the New Covenant Oeconomy Satisfaction made Actually or Vertually as the Lamb of God was slain from the beginning of the World is Antecedent to Pardon and the meritorious Cause of it 3. By like Reason both from the Nature of the thing and the Contexture of these Clauses Warfare or appointed time for hostility is accomplished Remissâ culpâ remittitur poena when Sin is Pardoned The Fault being forgiven the Punishment Eternal at least is remitted and sometimes the Temporal wholly however in the nature of a satisfactory Penalty Guilt is pardoned but the Essence of Guilt consists in a binding over to Wrath or Punishment Therefore the punishment is remitted in this Notion that it shall not be inflicted in vertue of that Obligation to Wrath although the very same material Pains under another form viz. as Corrections ver 12. may be undergone nay must be in some degree and kind Acts 14.22 Psal 34.19 2 Tim. 3.12 c. I know no Declaration or Promise made by God that these and the like shall not continue part of Canonical Scripture and be true to the Worlds end Afflictions are formally Penal till Sin be remitted but afterward the Sting is taken out and they are not Conflicts of War but only Chastisements of Peace The Enmity of God is then terminated the Warfare betwixt him and the Soul issued in a serene perfect and everlasting Tranquility and Peace And therefore 4. These Foundations being laid the Word of Promise Proclaims and Crys Comfort ye Comfort ye your selves for I am your God who command and warrant you to do it There 's nothing now to debar you from assuming it and quieting your troubled Hearts with the application of it it is ready for you and you for it it invites you with its amiable aspect to run into its Embraces and solace your selves with all the Marrow and sweetness comprehended in the Covenant and Promises all is yours by right And consequently Lastly When God proclaims Peace and crys Comfort ye Comfort ye Conscience transgresses if it do not so likewise For being God's Viceroy and Judge in Man it hath no Commission to Act but deriv'd from God from which it must not cannot swerve an Hair's-breath without incurring the Penalty of its Presumption The Law of God in Nature and Scripture is the perfect and adequate Rule and Standard of all its Proceedings herein are all its Powers contain'd a counterpart whereof it retains after Illumination within it self which Copy is null if it do not perfectly agree with the Original To interline or rase out does wholly evacuate and destroy the validity of its proceedings Therefore whatever God says or does in the Concerns of his Government within us Conscience must not vary from in the least tittle it must speak when and what he does and be silent where he is so If God condemn Conscience must do so likewise if he absolve Conscience must justifie also neither adding to his Words nor diminishing nor yet concealing his Counsels If then he be at Peace Conscience is obliged no longer to proclaim War If he call to Comfort it must not contradict his Calls and so oppose and blaspheme his Grace it must harmonize with Heaven or else it abjures its Allegiance to God and acts by Commission from Satan and lyes against the Holy Ghost In summ all Spiritual Discomfort is finally resolvable into trouble 1. about a Man's 1 State Absolute Relative or 2 Frame of Soul or 3 Way of Walking or 4 Particular Acts of Sin or 5 Satan's Temptations or 6 Divine Derelictions under all which there is abundant Comfort in this MY GOD For if he be my State is good witness the Covenant My Ways and Frame shall be so Jer. 32.38 39 40 41 and 24.7 Deut. 30.1 to 10 Inclusive Ezek. 11.19 20. and 36. 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 the latter part of 36 and beginning of 37. By these exceeding great and precious Promises not only Healing Sanctifying Stablishing but also Preventing and Pardoning Grace is given for particular Acts of Sin and assurance that God will not finally forsake us therefore not leave us to the Will and Power of the Old Serpent though he tempt to Sins as black as the Regions he Inhabits as foul as his own Face as malignant as his own venomous Heart The Fear of God which his everlasting Covenant engages to give will command urge and enforce thy dissent or the Love of God will oblige him to Pardon as he hath promised if thy Consent be ravish'd because his Covenant Grace the Law in the Heart will enable to Repent and Believe for Pardon Here 's all The Comfort of Sanctification we have in the forecited Psal 119.50 and Isa 12.1 O Lord I will praise thee though thou wast angry with me thine anger is turned away and thou comfortedst me Rom. 5.1 Being Justify'd by Faith we have Peace with God There 's the Comfort of Justification upon which two all Spiritual Comforts depend yea and Temporal also upon the latter as to their Substance and the former as its Evidence For we know not that we are pardoned but only by feeling our selves purified by God's Holy Spirit of Grace Whence Isa 32.24 The Inhabitant shall not say I am sick the People that dwell therein shall be forgiven their Iniquity Sickness the sharpest the nearest the most perilous of all Bodily Troubles by a Synecdoche put for all the rest the bitterness whereof is antidoted by the sweet of Pardon and Peace sense of Pardon will take away sense of Pain because it takes out the Poyson and Curse of it That is the comfort of forgiveness or exemption from eternal intolerable Pains does out-balance the trouble of any temporary tolerable Pains as joy for the birth of a Man-Child drowns the remembrance and sense of all preceeding Pangs and Sorrows Joh. 16.21 Lastly If to all these be superadded any plain and sensible Experiments of Divine Goodness in the special Fruits of it this doth abundantly satisfie and solace our Souls as compleating our evidence of right to the Comforts of God being as it were an immediate Testimony from Heaven that God is ours in Covenant and owns us as his peculiar Treasure Mal. 3.15 For 't is a confirmation of our Assurance of and Title to Comfort under the Hand and Seal of the Holy Spirit of Grace and Consolation This contributes to Comfort thus and thus only as corroborating our assured Perswasion and Evidence that our Peace is not self-flattery and deceit For 't is merely in vertue of Assurance that we are enabled to comfort our selves in God Assurance I say in both its parts both as referring to an external Object viz. Propriety in God all of God and as respecting those inward Qualifications and Dispositions which if I do not
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
Mixture of many Imperfections and Miscarriages and Pollutions by reason whereof he stands in need of Pardon and Justification that he cannot insist upon it as capable of rendring his Person and Actions in strict Justice acceptable to or allowable by the Righteous Judge of Quick and Dead Bildad there will admit him to stand in no higher Rank than that of a Worm when any thing in him aspires to a Competition with God as indeed there 's no Proportion betwixt Finite and Insinite And that the High and Lofty One that inhabits Eternity should humble and debase Himself to engage so admirably for so minute a Being make Provision so incomparably rich and glorious for a vile Worm is a Work of unparallell'd Bounty and Magnificence congruous and answerable to the immense Perfection of God but infinitely above the Merit and Meanness of Man Comfort 'T is a comprehensive an incomprehensible Blessing like Him who Gives it who Is it All that God hath done still doth and intends to do is implied in it or may be inferr'd from it All the eternal good Purposes of the Divine Majesty for the Benefit of Man the whole Undertaking and Purchase of His Well-beloved Son every of the Gifts Graces and Workings of the Holy Spirit are summ'd up here For a Man is not capable of actual Comfort till he enjoy Assurance as hath been evinced nor of assurance till he be Justified and Sanctified nor of these without the Spirit of Grace nor of that without the Mediation of Christ nor is he capable of Eternal Comfort till he enjoy all these in their Fulness This one Mercy therefore is All because where It is given All are given before or with it and it is given as the Fruit of All the Bestowal of it being the consummate Act of Divine Munificence In Summ Comfort in part is part of Heaven perfect Comfort is perfect Heaven Oh astonishing Grace Oh unimitable Goodness in the Donor Oh unlimitable Blessedness in the Possessor Oh what is man Lord that thou art thus mindful of him or the son of man that thou dost thus visit him Erect thy self Oh my Soul into an admiring Contemplation of this Descent of Majesty so stupendous so benign so beneficial Refresh thy Thoughts with it daily Let it dwell with thee Resolve and endeavour to endear to thy self that infinite Goodness which so incredibly humbles it self for thy advantage Improve it for that end for if this Meditation do not Better thee thou wilt be worse for it to all Eternity CHAP. XVI Elenctical Inferences NExt I have Deductions of Two Sorts according to the Signification of the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Convictive and Reprehensive The Convictive are either Theoretical or Practical concerning Faith or Conscience This First confutes and condemns the Doctrine of Incertitude or the Impugners of Assurance For if in this Life there be Comfort there must be Assurance The Latter is neither Possible nor Rational without the former Which is thus proved Divine Actual Comfort being that Satisfaction Ease Quiet and Peace of Mind and Conscience which settles our discomposed discomposing troublesome Thoughts and Affections into a sweet Harmony and Rest cannot possibly be a brutish stupidity of Conscience but must proceed upon Light and Evidence For God does not act upon us as Blocks and Stones which have no Faculties or Sense to guide them but only an Obediential Power in a passive way to yield to the Conduct of His Wisdom and Omnipotence He does not still and becalm our tempestuous Hearts as the Sea which knows not what it does when it submits to the uncontroulable Violence of His Commands No He leads our Rational Powers in the sweet Method of their spontaneous natural activity into the Paths of Righteousness which issue in Peace Jam. 3.18 Which is therefore call'd Guiding Luk. 1.77 78 79. To give the Knowledge of Salvation to his People 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the taking away of their Sins whether by Remission or Sanctification or both 78. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By or through the Bowels of Mercy of our God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in which the Day-spring Sun-rise Mal. 4.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 East Mat. 2.1 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from on high hath visited us 79. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make an Epiphany to shine forth To give Light to them that sit in Darkness and the shadow of Death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to streighten to guide streight our feet into the way of Peace A pregnant Scripture for my Purpose Peace then there can be none that 's Solid and Divine of which alone we enquire out of the way of Peace We cannot when sitting in darkness and the shadow of Death stumble or hit into that way without a Guide No other Guide can there be but the Sun of Righteousness the Day-spring visiting us Without Light He neither can nor will be our Guide This Light from the Day-spring is no other than the Knowledge of Salvation in the taking away of Sins which when particularly apply'd to my self is only this I know that I shall obtain Salvation by this viz. the taking away of my Sins and that 's neither more nor less than Assurance all which Blessings accrue to us through the Bowels of Mercy of our God 'T is not possible that a Man's Conscience should be truly comforted except he know that Comfort appertains to him is his right For though the Contemplation of Golden Mountains may gratifie the Imagination of a Fool yet no wise Man counts himself richer for a dream of the Spanish Silver Mines in Potosi c. or the Golden Tagus or Rio de Plata That Athenian is upon Record for no Philosopher who solac'd himself with a conceit that all the Ships arriving at the Port were his own Sound Peace of Mind is always founded upon good Evidence of an undoubted Right to Peace For if I doubt that I deceive mine own Soul in speaking Peace to my self where there is no Peace that very dubiousness will rack and torture me as much as possibly more than I should have been bad I never claim'd Peace since an usurpation of what I have no title to is a new sin superadded to the old sore of Soul-disquieters and the very fear that I am guilty of it hath Torment Now I cannot possibly be assur'd that Comfort belongs to me of right unless I find within my self the dispositions that qualifie for Comfort that is except I be consolable I cannot be comforted If I be not agreeable to Comfort it is not agreeable to me For the right to Comfort is not Absolute but Conditional 'T is not Nature that entitles to it but Grace therefore in all the Epistolary Salutations 't is first Grace then Peace Whence a Man can be no more assured that he hath right to Comfort than he is assured he hath true Grace And Experience demonstrates that a Person if he understand himself to be absolutely inconsolable who
Psal 45. 〈◊〉 Such Thoughts may possibly lick and sleek over the Affections and give them a Face but cannot give them Life and where our Sorrows are not a living Spring they will never issue in other than dead Contents and Joys Those Thoughts that never warm and melt the Heart do but terminate in cold Comfort If they do not mould and fashion and frame our Souls aright as the Potter does his Clay we shall never be Vessels of Honour to be replenished with divine Consolations Oh then my Soul where are thy piercing heart-wounding Reflections Will the All-wise God be so profuse of his medicinal healing Balms as to apply them wast where there are no Sores Can the all-knowing Physician of Souls be so indiscreet as prodigally to consume and spend his reviving Cordials where neither the Head is sick nor the Heart faint Do no mollifying Considerations distil down as the dew upon the Reck beneath to supple it into a repenting tenderness Dost thou never ascend in thy Meditations to the third Heaven and take a deliberate view of those yerning Bowels of Commiseration which did compass thee about when in thy Blood with the rest of Mankind devoted to everlasting Destruction upon account of thy violation in Adam of the Covenant of Nature Does not God's Eternal Love which was its own motive to establish that Heaven and Earth-astonishing Occonomy of Grace for thy restitution to a condition of Hope and Happiness sometimes solicit and invite thy serious Cogitations to dwell upon it till it thorowly insinuate it self into thy inmost Recesses and with a gentle fervour thaw thy frozen Affections and soften thee into godly Sorrow Art thou hardened against the powerful impressions of that admirable Grace Behold then further in Golgotha a spectacle that would regele and dissolve even Eyes of Flint and intenerate a Heart all Rock of Adamant Oh behold thy panting groaning bleeding dying Redeemer the ever-blessed Son of God breathing out his oppressed Soul under the burthen of thy Curse to procure for thee an Inheritance of everlasting Blessedness This O this is a melting sight indeed Did the very Rocks relent and rent asunder the palsied Earth devest its obstinate natural stableness and as if there had been a luxation of all its Ligaments compose it self into a tremulous Palpitation and the very face of Nature it self put on Sack-cloath gather Blackness enwrap it self in a Mourning dress and envelop all its Glories in a noonday night upon that fatal Eclipse of the Glory of both the visible and invisible World the Sun of Righteousness that the Philosopher did not without good reason infer upon the Contemplation thereof that it imported either the God of Natures Passion or its verging towards a Dissolution And shall that which overcomes all the repugnances of Nature find and leave thee a piece of the nether Milstone with a pervicacious stubbornness hardening thy self against Sorrow In a compassionate regard of thy wretchedness he did then by strength of Love how the Heavens Psal 144.5 Isa 64.1 that he might come down humbling his Deity to embrace thy beggarly Humanity but Oh! Whither wilt thou fly for Sanctuary when he shall break and burn down all at his return in the flaming Severity and Vengeance of an impartial Judge to render Recompences even to thee amongst the rest of impenitent Rebels If he find thee such what Rock more impenetrable than thy self wilt thou search out to cover thee 2 Pet. 3. When the Heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat What shelter canst thou meet with as indissoluble as thy brawny Heart that in a contumacious pertinacy has so long stood out against all the choicest methods of Divine Goodness to dissolve thee to reclaim thee Wilt thou consider or wilt thou not Shall thy thoughts draw out those penitential Waters that will return in a tyde of Joys Hast thou ever been opprest with the thoughts of thy Sins thy Ungodliness thy Worldly Lusts thy Pride Passion Selfishness Earthliness Unbelief Lukewarmness Hypocrisie Customariness of Spirit in holy Performances or omission of them c. and perseverance in these Evils and the like against the Dictates of Conscience Convictions of the Spirit Warnings of Providence by a hard and impenitent Heart treasuring up Wrath against the day of Wrath Rom. 2.5 and Revelation of the Righteous Judgment of God Will neither the thoughts of Love and Heaven engage thee nor of Wrath and Hell affright thee into Seriousness Oh the damnable obduracy and unconcernedness of an unrenewed Heart that neither Life nor Death though Eternal neither Felicity nor Misery though Unfathomable can prevail upon not to be willing and take the ready method to be unutterably miserable till the lamentable experience and feeling of the one eternally do utterly extinguish all hopes of the other except Almighty Power to introduce Repentance create such bitter and sensible foretasts that with Heman Psal 88.15 't is ready to groan out suffering thy Terrors I am distracted thy fierce wrath goeth over me thy terrors have cut me off For 't will be a wonder if any thing less prevail with it to fly from the Wrath to come Matth. 3.7 Did thy thoughts Oh my Soul never affect thee with these and the like things as the greatest Realities matters of Sense not of mere Speculation Hast thou never been sick and sore through the plague of thine Heart Art thou whole without a Physician Hast thou never a Spiritual Wound or want to force and drive thee out of thy self Seest thou never a divine lovely Perfection a suitable attractive Excellency in Christ to draw thee In short hast thou never entertain'd any feeling Considerations of the true way to Comfort Never studied that course and procedure of Divine Goodness whereby he leads to it Never entred in at the strait Gate of Repentance which alone admits into the Mansion of those unfading Joys Hast thou never got thy native Blindness of Mind in some good degree heal'd by the Spiritual Eye-salve of Heaven The digusts of thy Spiritual Palate remedied by a savoury relishing taste of the sweetness of the Truth as it is in Jesus Thy connatural rockiness dissolved by the softening influences of the Spirit of Conviction and Contrition If not thus I like it not thy Peace I fear is naught away with it 't will end in Confusion But if thy thoughts be deep and powerful and have thy Heart at command If thou weigh and consider with all seriousness and deliberation the necessity of being qualified aright for Peace and the danger of presuming thy Conscience into a calm cessation under a state of Enmity to God that for thy life thou darest not entertain a jot of Comfort further than thy Light Spirit and Condition can be fully reconciled to it and freely admit it upon a full and thorow pondering all Circumstances and examining thy Heart searching thy Conscience to the bottom because as much
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
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
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
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
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