enjoy the company of morall and harmless friends with delight I can pray with confidence to be heard and satisfied I do hope with some assurance of salvation I sleep upon a peacefull pillow Thus far I am in a calm and serene hemisphere and quiet be all my thoughts But after all this Sunshine there ariseth a tempest When I do recollect or be represented unto my conscience my innumerable incomparable intollerable sinnes the remembrance of them is so frightfull the burden of them is so unsupportable that I dare not even look up unto Heaven Faith lies fainting hope is in a swoon fear stands by the bed side despaire lies gaping at the chamber door my soul is in an extasie I am weary of all company but those that speak of mercy I sit mourning all the day long Sorrow and solitude are my associates I do shed some tears and would weep tears of blood for my sins I lament because my sorrows are not greater for offending my God Well yet hear the Physician of souls speaks to thee from Heaven Weep on bleed on this bleeding shall not be unto death Jesus Christ hath a Balsome that shall not onely stanch thy bleeding but fill the veins of thy soul with comfort His blood is an Antidote for thine One drop of that shall satisfie for more sins then ever thou hast committed Weep on for thy Transgressions Those flouds of tears shall not drown thee Yea rather like the waters of that universall Deluge in that saving Arke Christ Jesus they shall bear up thy soul higher towards Heaven They shall not drowne thee yea they shall rather save thee from being drowned This is that Secunda Tabula after shipwrack the main plank that shall preserve thee from perishing emergent repentance There be two most Valiant and Puissant souldiers that are the Souls Champions Faith and Repentance They fight not only against lust and sin those Gyants of the world but even against Principalities and Powers those infernall spirits of darknesse Faith hath her weapons and Forces but Repentance hath many disadvantages 1. Other Souldiers fight standing she kneeling They in a posture confronting their enemies she in humiliation though not tergiversation from her opposites They send forth their messengers of death in thundring ordnance all her thunder is sighs and groans sent up to Heaven for mercies They let flie their fiery Engines of destruction she hath only her ejaculations Her most piercing darts be broken hearts Their shafts are winged with fire her arrows are feathered with water her own soft tears They swallow up the hope of victory with insulation she in an humble prostration expects pity Yet the God of all power and mercy whom she beleaguers in Heaven yeilds her the conquest He comes from his inpregnable Throne by his most gracious favour and insteed of confounding her as a Rebel he useth her as a Friend or Daughter He takes her up from her knees he wipes away all her tears he folds her in his armes he seals her a pardon of all sins and assures her of an everlasting Kingdom in Heaven O victorious Repentance yea rather O triumphant Goodnesse O God Teipsum vincis thou even overcomest thy self that thy Comforts may delight our souls It is reported of Alexander that when he thought and did but think so he had conquered all this world he fell a weeping that there were no more worlds to conquer But there was remaining another world a better then ever Alexander discovered But this was not for an Alexander by force of Armes but for a Mary Magdalen by force of tears to overcome It is true that the Kingdome of Heaven suffers violence but the way of Conquest is not through the blood of bodies but through a floud of tears gushing out for our sins This is such a stratagem of war such a policy of Conquest as the great Monarchs of the world never understood Yet even this through faith overcomes the world Faith hath a plot which shee hath taught her daughter Repentance Concedendo superare to overcome by yeilding It is a stratagem among Wrastlers that if a man can get himself under his antagonist he lifts him up the sooner to cast him down yea to give him the greater fall Repentance stoops as low as she can she lies like Joshuah upon the bare earth yea wollowes in dust and ashes She holds her self not worthy to be Gods foot-stool let him trample upon her and tread her under his feet she still holds him by the feet washeth them with her tears and wipeth them with the hairs of her head and kisseth them though she be spurned by them Doth this humble prostration provoke fury No it rather invites mercy Parcere prostratis scit nobilis ira Leonis The Lyon of the Tribe of Judah will spare such Lambs of humiliation and in the pastures of consolation he will both feed and preserve them That thunder which dissolves the stubborn mettall yet spares the yeilding purse When power and policy have spent their spirits submission is found the only way of Conquest The feafull thunder of vengeance is resisted by the soft wool of repentance 2. Yet hath this blessed grace another disadvantage Faith the chief of all the Forces may be somtimes benighted through the conglomeration of the clouds condensed by our sins Hope may be eclipsed by the interposition of the earth our worldly imaginations betwixt us and that great luminary of heaven the Sun of righteousnesse The century of watchful conscience may be overcome with security Sin is a subtile enemy and his father the Divel wil shew him the opportunity Now is the time of invasion seise on them and cut all their throats What shal repentance now do when faith the great Lady general droops and Hope her Lieutenant general is fainting when the whole century is overcome with slumber Yes there is a watchman in the tower of the soul that doth seldom sleep holy Fear He wakens conscience conscience cals up faith faith rouzeth hope hope cryes aloud to repentance repentance troops all the spiritual forces the martial musick gives the alarm the souldiers are in battel-array the enemies flie the mind is at peace because Gods comforts have delighted the soul 3. One disadvantage more makes dangerous work for repentance The troops of faith are routed one wing of hope is cut off Yet this conquering Queen of the Viragines or maiden-graces alwayes bears up the Rear and never appeares till the day be almost lost When those great Commanders Innocency and Righteousnesse are foiled and beaten and have their Queen the soul in danger to bee taken and slain by sin and Satan her old adversaries Then this Virgo Virago that all this while lay in expectation of the event this martiall Maid victorious Repentance comes in with her Reserve sets upon the conquerors with her fresh forces rescues the Queen our soul puts the great generall Satan to flight and does impartial execution upon all his souldiers which be our
the land Then shall the clouds drop fatnesse and the earth run forth into plenty Then do the valleys stand thick with corn land the little hills rejoyce on every side Some drops of blood shed in Justice procure large showers from heaven A few carcases laid in their graves are a rich compost to the earth There can be no peace where blood cryes unheard unregarded but when it is expiated by the blood of the offenders there will bee a cessation of Judgements Phinehas executed judgment and the plâ—gue ceased One contrary is ever cured by another take away the cause and the effect will cease Prayer is very powerfull but doing of Justice more availeable The whole Congregation were at their prayers and those prayers were steeped in tears yet still the plague raged and Gods anger continued But when Phinehas had run those two adulterers through with his Javelin in the act of their sin the plague was stayed So blessed a thing is it for any nation that Justice is impartially executed Thus the universality of sin calls for the universality of repentance or else it will provoke Gods anger to strike us with universall judgements If the whole people be guilty the whole people must fall to deprecation Such was the Nivites repentance every man turning from his evill ways We have sinned even the whole nation and as if we had not sins enough of our own we borrow of our neighbours What nation under heaven do we trade withall from whom the sinnes of that Nation are not brought hither And those are merchandizes that might be well spared Are we all in the transgression and do we lay the burden of repentance upon some few If we expostulate with God Lord hath one man sinned and wilt thou be wrath with the whole Congregation May he not more justly expostulate with us Hath the whole Congregation sinned and is it enough for one man to repent Is the whole garment fowle and must only the skirts be washed Is the whole building ruinous and do we think it a sufficient reparation to patch up one corner of it No the plaister of our repentance must be fully as large as the orifice of our wickednesse or we cannot be healed But stil God wil be angry with us yea though we were his own people For 4. God may be angry with his own people which is the fourth proposition a I will visit their sins with a rod and their iniquity with scourges but my mercy I will not utterly take from them Though he do not take his mercy from them yet he may be angry with them He is our father and never did Father in sweeter terms entertaine the dearest treasures of his blood then God doth us when he vouchsafes to call us His people yet did you never see a father angry with his child Indeed there is great difference between that wrath of God which is toward his own people and that which b comes upon the children of disobedience They differ three ways 1. In respect of continuance his anger upon reprobates is eternall not extinguished with their bloods but pursuing them from earth to hell To his people it is but temporary it lasts but a moment c weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning d He will not alwayes chide nor will he keep his anger for ever When he was very angry with his Idolatrous Israel e Moses does but put him in mind that they were his own people and he was pacified f For a moment in a little wrath he hides his face from us g Rejoyce not against me O mine enemy for though I fall I shall rise again But for the wicked h his wrath abideth on them 2. In respect of the measure It is milder towards his own people then to others For the unrighteous he proportions his Judgements not to their strengths but to their deserts For his own people he proportions his corrections not to their deserts but to their strengths For the former he minds not what they can beare by their powers but what they have deserved by their sinnes For the other he considers not what their sinnes deserve but what their Spirits can sustaine His most bitter wrath to his own people is always sweetned with his mercy i Thou wast a God that forgavest them though thou tookest vengeance of their inventions He brings a scourge in one hand and a pardon in the other and while he draws blood of the flesh he forgives the soul 3. In regard of the end l The wicked are the vessels of wrath and as their sin makes them fit for Gods anger so his anger makes them sit for destruction But for his own people m They are chastened of the Lord that they might not be condemned with the world Whether he inflict upon them punishments for sinne or suffer them to fall into sin for punishments yet all shall work to their good n his corrections are but medicines bringing forth the quiet fruit of righteousnesse He lets them fall into some hainous crime but it is to waken their repentance Small spots upon a garment are not minded we seldome are so curious as to wash out them But when a great spot comes a fowle staine we then scower and elense it to get out that and so wee get out all the little spots too Sinnes of a lesser size never trouble us we mind not the washing out of them with our sorrowfull tears But when a great sin comes and disquiets the conscience then repentance that old landresse is called for and in that lardar we wash out both the great offence and all the rest So God suffers us to fall into some grosse and grievous sinne as a father suffers his little child to burne his finger in the flame that his whole body may not fall into the fire All these differences are exprest by the Prophet Isaiah 1. Forthe time o Doth the ploughman plough all the day to sow God doth not continue ploughing all day long furrows upon our backs but when he hath broken up the fallow grounds of our hearts he thensowes in the seed of his comforts 2. For the measure r Hath he plagued Israel as he hath plagued the enemies of Israel He sinites his Israel in the branches and in the bunches cuts down some of her superfluous boughes and plucks off clusters of her rotten grapes But the wicked he smites at the very root 3. For the end s The fornace of his wrath shall but purge away our drosse and make us pure metall fit for the stampe of his owne Image Yet for all this God hath been grievously angry with his own people Yea their sins anger him most of all because together with wickednesse there is unkindnesse As dearly as he loves them their sinnes may provoke him Our interest in God is so far from excusing our iniquities that it aggravates
4. Quid operantur what they do they delight the soul In the nature of them being Comforts there is tranquility in the number of them being many comforts there is sufficiency in the owner of them being Thy comforts there is omnipotency in the effect of them delighting the soul there is security There is no fear in them for they come for peace they are Comforts There is no weaknesse in them for they come in troopes they are many comforts There is no disorder in them for the God of wisdome is their Captain and leads their forces they are Thy comforts There is no trouble in them for they evangelize joy They delight the soul 1. The Rebells are thoughts Man is an abridgment of the world and is not exceeded by it but in quantity his pieces be not pauciora sed minora If all the veins of our bodies were extended to rivers our sinews to mines our muscles to mountaines our bones to quarries of stone our eyes to the bignesse of the Sunne and Moon and all other parts to the proportion of such things as correspond to them in the world man might stride over the sea as the Hebrews fained of Adam the aire would bee too little for him to move in and the whole firmament but enough for this Starre yea indeed this little world would be the great one and that great world appear but the little one There is nothing in the world for which we may not find some answerable part in man but there is something in man for which we can find no answerable part in the world I need not say Part for the whole world is not able to give any representation Man hath a soul made after the Image of God of this the world can yeild no resemblance The world produceth innumerable creatures man yet in more abundance Our creatures are our thoughts creatures that are borne Gyants that can reach from east to west from earth to heaven These can survey the whole earth bestride the ocean comprehend the vast air and span the very firmament How capable how active is the soul of man It is even comprehensive of universality and hath virtutem ad infinita nature hath set no limits to the thoughts of the soul It can passe by her nimble wings from earth to heaven in a moment it can be all things comprehend all things know that which is and conceive of that which never was never shall be The heart is but a little house and hath but three chambers yet there is room enough for a world of guests God the Creator of all made this soul in a Cottage of clay and this soul is a kind of Creator too for though it dwell in a close prison it can produce creatures Thoughts and any one of these creatures can move with the Heavens move faster then the Heavens over take the Sun and overgoe the Sun contemplate that which the Sun never saw even the dreadfull abysse of hell and a glimpse of the glory of Heaven So various and innumerable are the thoughts of man that hee had need of an astrolobe to marke in what height and elevation they are and so either to advance them or stoope them as they deserve There be three sorts of actions proceeding from the soul some internal and immaâ—eriall as the pure acts of our wits and wills some external and materiall as the meer acts of our sense others mixt between both and bordering upon both the former which Saint Augustine sayes the Greeks call {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the Latines Perturbationes As the heart inspireth one and the same strength and life into all the parts of the body for the better discharge of their diverse functions though all the parts do not receive it in the same degree The stomack by the vertue it receiveth is made able to digest the liver to concoct the nutriment into blood the spleen like a spunge by sucking up the melancholy spirits to purge the vital parts So the soul breeds all these creatures gives life to all these thoughts yet according to their severall acts and offices they have several names If they be sensitive we call them passions if sensuall lusts if fantasticall Imaginations if reasonable arguments if reflective conscience as they are evill the suggestions of Satan as good the motions of the holy Ghost As the world produceth vipers and serpents and venemous creatures wormes and caterpillars that would devour their parent so the soul breeds noxious and mutinous thoughts that are like an earthquake in her bowels and whiles they maintain civil broiles and factions one against another she feels the smart of all Some thoughts be the darts of Satan and these Non nocent sinon placent we cannot keep theeves from looking in at our widowes we need not give them entertainment with open doors As the Hermite said he could not hinder the birds from flying over his head but he could keep them from building their nests in his haire Wash thy heart from iniquity that thou maist bee saved how long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee They may be passengers they must not be sojourners God hath made a Statute against such inmates it is an unblest hospitality that gives them lodging he is no friend to the King that harbours these Seminaries Other thoughts are the motions of Gods spirit and these must not only be guests but familiar friends salutation is not here enough but glad entertainment welcome and indulgence Let no man like himself the better for some good thoughts the praise and benefit of these motions is not in the receit but in the retention Easie occasions will fright away good thoughts from a carnall heart like children which if a bird do but flie in their way cast their eye from their book But Davids thoughts here were anxious commotive thoughts otherwise they stood not in such need of comforts It is likely that they were either Timoris fearfull thoughts or Doloris sorrowfull thoughts Thoughts of fear for what might bee or thoughts of sorrow for what already was The thoughts of fear are troublesome enough as the ill affections of the spleen do mingle themselves with every infirmity of the body no lesse doth fear insinuate it self into every passion of the mind David might find this complication in his thoughts I will please Saul with my harpe but then fear replies he will strike me through with his Javelin He will give me his own daughter in marriage but fear says again How if this prove a fatall dowry if this match be my snare I will refuge my self with Achish at Gath yet what trust is there in Infidels I will lie hidden in Keilah or Hachilah but fear suggests How if the Ziphites discover me What shall I do whither shall I go where shall I rest These were thoughts that stood in great need of comfort The thoughts of sorrow are yet more distractive and such were this royall