Land of Light that New Jerusalem It cannot be expected that a Compleat Draught of this worthy Man's Life should be drawn by any Pencil but his own May these hints of so rare a Patern of Piety have influence upon his surviving Relations and Hearers to transform them into the same Image that this Legacy of so Rational a Discourse may have a perswasive Power to attract Souls to a Capacity for Divine Consolations and such a real Example have a compulsive Power to draw many to follow this Heroe and others into Eternal Mansions if both do not effect these Ends the Spectator and Reader have more to Answer for ERRATA PAge 2. line 24. read near Series l. 32. r a Prolepsis p. 3. l. 1. r. our collapsed p. 4. l. 14. blot out in p. 5. l. 28. r. interline p. 6. l. 24. r. my Troublers p. 8. l. 33. r. Trmenters p. 21. l. 11. r. the Pharisees p. 38. l. 17. r. this Notion p. 40. l. 15. r. together with it p. 63. l. 10. r. anothers l. 32. r. mediately p. 73. l. 21. r. born and live and act p. 8â— l. 10. f. â—ar r. care p. 83. l. 29. r. the Minisery p. 87. l. 26. r. intension p. 1â—â— l. 34. r. good life p. 123. l. 3. r. undâ—vercibly p. 124. l. 6. the Parenthesis ends with â—eâ— p. 125. l. 30. r. Image p. 136. l. 30. r. a more ready p. 142. l. 16. r of God p. 143. l. 13. blot out the second and. l. 21. f. the r. this p. 144. l. 13. r. express p. 158. l. 25. r. his p. 160 l. 1. r. own p. 162. l. 26. r. unsuppâ—rtable p. 165. l. 2. r. and Pâ—tency l. 33. r. own p. 186. l. 3. r. whatever p. 198. l. 21. r. enjoy'd p. 205. l. 21. blot out uâ— p. 208. l 33. r. mere p. 214 l. 33. r. le p 215. l. 24. r. Though l. 32. r. summ p. 2â—7 l. 16. r. heâ—ghtned or transferr'd p. 237. l. 9. r. these p. 240. l. 5. r. combines p. 242. l. 22. r. in Wisdom p. 245. l. 2. r. and in all l. 25. blot out in p. 248. l. 7. r. true Comforts p. 250. l. 14. r. 9. p. 258. l. 28 r. might hence derive p. 260. l. 26. r. in nocency l. 35â—36 â— make a comma before from and after which p 280 l. 36. insert an Interpreter and r. shew me p. 285. l. 13. blot out 30. p. 303â— l. 20. blot out 4. p. 307. l 17. r. store l. 31. r. â—hat Persâ—â— p. 31â— l. 23. r. 〈◊〉 l. 36. blot out that p. 361. l. 4. r. they THE Nature Origin Subject-Matter Character Method and Means of COMFORT CHAP. I. The Introduction with the Explication of the Words and their Sense Critical and Moral PSAL. XCIV 19. In the Multitude of my Thoughts within me thy Comforts delight my Soul LORD I am Hell but thou art Heaven Bp Hooper was the pathetick Exclamation of the Spirit of Martyrdom in a devout Soul Here you have a prospect of both Tormenting Thoughts are the veriest Fiends nothing can make us miserable without them nor in the enjoyment of the sweet Delectation of those divine desirable Joys which are most suitable and proper to rational Nature and the appetite of an immortal Spirit The former are our natural Inheritance these the free Donations of infinite Goodness or the unmerited communications of Fidelity and Righteousness 1 Job 1.9 By our Apostacy from God we rendered our selves insufficient to attain that Felicity which our innocent Estate did entitle us unto and possess no sufficiency to any thing but the making our selves the most wretched of the whole Creation and are relievable by nothing but the All-sufficiency of Heaven The inanimate Creatures may indeed be dispossest of their Heaven viz. their Centre and Rest but the Evil thereof they can neither fear nor feel Vegetables may live in a Hell through the burning Fever of a Summer's drought but cannot smart and be in pain Sensitive Natures may be farther divested of their Happiness be driven out of their Paradise in Gilead and Bashan and be yet more miserable under the Servitude of that torturing Devil the Lust of degenerate man but a final period is put to all their Infelicities by that which if infinite Grace prevent not will be only the beginning of our remediless Woe at the worst they can but die and 't is without the sting of a cruciating Fear that a Life without end after Death will introduce a Series of never-ending Plagues But Immortality the highest Prerogative of humane Nature is through Sin become its most dismal cause of horrour and in being better than the rest of the inferiour Creation we through our own default are only render'd capable of being worse both in another and even in this present life as far as our dreadful Expectations become prolepsis or pre-occupation of those Sufferings which are no less durable than intolerable Neither can we be eas'd by the hopes that the least part or degree hereof is avoidable through the efficacy of our home-bred endowments or any thing we can scrape out of the rubbish of collapsed Natures since by experience we find that our greatest preventive care is not able totally to exclude and keep down those prepossessing horrible anticipations nor the Furniture we are enrich'd with of power to support and ease our minds under much less to antidote those real Plagues which actually infest and sink us towards a State much more insupportable our hope and help must needs therefore perish from within our relief is wholly from without yet not from Earth but Heaven There 's no Malady so perplexing so dangerous but there 's a sufficient and suitable Remedy in God In Bedlam I have seen a Man under the Severity of that most rigid and most uncomfortable Confinement so not only unconcern'd but triumphant as to bear up himself in the Port and Majesty of a King and in his imaginary height and glory with a disdainful stateliness converse with those little shreds of Mortality who were blest as he thought in the Honour of his Empire and Government and sometimes with a stately humbleness invite them to glory in his Condescensions with such a creative power is Fancy endow'd that it can produce almost any thing out of nothing dwindle substantial Woes into Shadows convert a Hell into an Elysium Of such Madmen the World is full We as the Prisoners of Justice carry our Chains about with us and they sit and sink into our Flesh yea our very bones yet as if we possest an unconfinable liberty we jovially dance about and solace our selves with this lamentable dream till our real Miseries confute our false Imaginations For a Man's state may be miserable yet the Man so rationally stoically or brutishly mad as not to be miserable That is since nothing can make a Man unhappy but by the mediation of something within him his Fancy his Folly his Fears his Feeling his Reasonable
my Soul is thy Faith the condition of the Promises yet not absolutely in it self but relatively to him thy Faith is the strength of thy Prayers and He the strength of thy Faith The Golden Scepter of Divine Grace and Love will never be held out to any who bring not this Tessera or Token produce this and then What is thy Petition Oh Soul and it shall be granted and what is thy Request it shall be performed even to the half of the Kingdom Nothing binds the Hands of Miracle-working helping healing Power but Unbelief Mat. 13.58 Mark 6.5 One Evangelist says he did another he could do no mighty Work because of their Vnbelief But to Faith all things are possible because to God who hath promised upon that condition Nothing therefore Oh my Soul dost thou want but Faith Thus am I drawn unawares to that which should be another Ingredient of the Character CHAP. IV. A Third Qualification of the Subject of Comfort Faith 3. THe Psalmist was a Person that liv'd by Faith not by Sight 2 Cor. 5.7 Which Scripture warrants me to take the Word Faith in a special not general sense as 't is sometimes used I suppose by Faith the Apostle means the same Grace in the same notion that has so glorious things reported of it Heb. 11. The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 substance or subsistence of things hoped for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the evidence convictive proof of things not seen A divine disposition which enables us to behave our selves under the apprehension of Invisibles and Futurities as if present real Sensations which gives those things that we feel not as perfect command over us as if we saw and handled them An effectually working Heart and Life-ruling Belief of God's Word and Promises The first most immediate and proper effect whereof is a concrediting entrusting our selves with God in Christ The Word Trust is for the most part expressive of it in the Old Testament Now that this holy Man thus walkt by Faith the Psalm gives full evidence and that as to both the parts 1. Confidence 2. Assurance 1. As to himself Ver. 2. Notwithstanding the Combinations of his Adversaries to condemn him he commits his Cause to God for defence venturing himself upon his Power and Goodness as a sufficient security and upon clear evidence of interest claims propriety in God God is my defence and the Rock of my Refuge there is lifs Affiance My God there is his Assurance 2. As to Others 1. The Church of the Godly ver 14. The Lord will not cast off his People neither forsake his Inheritance But Judgment shall return unto Righteousness That is either 1. Though the Righteous be now condemned ver 21. and consequently Righteousness it self by the perverse Judgment of evil Men and therefore Judgment may now seem to have left parted from and forsaken Righteousness They do not go together there 's Judgment but no Righteousness in it yet they shall meet again Judgment that hath run away from it shall return to it the Righteous shall not any more have wrong but right in Judgment it shall not be against but for them Or 2dly The Righteous which have been deprived of the power of Judgment or Government of the Kingdom by a Throne of Iniquity ver 20. shall recover their Authority And 't is very usual for the Abstract to be put for the Concrete in Scripture and even in this Psalm as ver 11. Vanity for Vain So ver 17. Silence for a silent place c. So here Righteousness for Righteous Men and ver 14. Inheritance for inherited People Or thus Righteousness had the Rule in Samuel's days now in Saul's 't is depressed but shall be restored Judgment shall be administred in Righteousness under David 's Government and all the upright in Heart shall return or turn as that word is oft used as Jer. 8.4 c. after it that is shall own it return to their Allegiance to Justice and David 3dly Judgment shall return to Righteousness that is God shall another day viz. on the day of Judgment Vindicate the Righteous clear up his Dispensations Judge righteously those that have judged his Righteous Servants unrighteously and judge his People repent himself concerning his Servants and though in his Judgments upon Earth he hath seem'd to be more against them than any yet will he then be wholly for them Vid. plura c. 17. and pass Judgment on their side 2. As to the Coetus Malignantium ver 21. the Congregation of Condemners he forefees an end of their Prosperity the beginning of their Calamity ver 10. A Pit digging for them ver 13. and their sinal Execution ver 23. Thus we see his Faith and I am ready to think that this was the great Instrument of his Comfort Whatever troubles befel he could see through them by Faith 'T was a judicious saying of a good Man That in all Afflictions and Straits Faith can find an outgate This is a real ground of Consolation All the Bonds Chains Cords of Affliction to Faith are like Sampson's but as a Thread that hath felt the Fire All the Rage and Malice of Earth and Hell but like his Lyon Faith can rend them in pieces 'T is too hard for them it can fetch Hony Comfort out of them If this Grace can make that present which is not yet realize that which being only in its causes is at present nothing then can it take up the comfort of a Blessing in the Promise and live upon its sweetness as if it were already in Possession There 's no distinction of times to Faith It enjoys not its objects in succession but at once Nothing to it is past and to come though to sense there be all is present and in view in hand It sees with the Eye of God in the Promise and therefore sees as he sees It lives with Christ in Heaven and therefore lives as he lives Gal. 2.20 It is an endless possession of Life all at once as they describe Divine Eternity Oh happy Soul that is enrich'd with this noble Grace whereby 't is endow'd with God and all things Oh unspeakable misery of those that live or rather continually die without it To be in Unbelief is to be in Hell i. e. in state the place is but a Circumstance The substance of Hell consisting in three things 1. Being under a Sentence of Condemnation and the Curse Joh. 3.18 He that believes not is condemn'd already 2. Irrecoverable loss of Happiness Joh. 3.36 He that believes not shall not see Life i. e. if he never believe he shall never see Life Eternal And 3. Everlasting sense of Wrath Joh. 3.36 The wrath of God abides upon him does not meerly as Ezekiel's Flying Roll pass over him but on him it settles and rests and dwells as in its fixed and indefeisible Inheritance its proper and unchangable Home and Habitation Ah dolorous State Ah wretched Soul Better a thousand times thou hadst never been
themselves both think and speak highly of themselves and by consequence basely scornfully slightingly of those that are not like themselves in Wickedness and therefore of those qualities that difference both Parties speak well of Wickedness that denominates and delights them but ill of Godliness which they oppose yet both perhaps under the disguise of other Names plausible for their one Wickedness disgraceful for Holyness as the manner and guise of the World alway has been and will be this has not a little of guilt and grief in it Sin is asham'd of its own Name and therefore sights against Goodness under borrowed Colours transferring its own title to that which it opposes and it cannot but be grief to an Innocent to suffer under the notion of a Malefactor to have his Name murdered as well as his Person whilst his Adversaries add Ignominy to Cruelty but especially it afflicts his Soul that God and Religion and Holiness suffer in the repute of the ignorant and sequacious Multitude which is led in its judgment of things by the Hand rather than Head by the power and opinion of its Masters without making any disquisition or inspection into the reality of matters taking all upon trust whether it be true or false good or evil A Beast that with a strong Bridle and sharp Spurs will ride freely Blindfold post hast into Hell but is infinitely malapert and restive in the course toward Heaven its Eyes like those of a Fly consisting of infinite little dim Atoms without a due proportion of Brains of their own to govern them and therefore are as wild and wanton in their motions To this may I join the trouble which the Psalmist seem'd to be affected with through other perverse speeches of those wicked Persons which though not so expresly yet may implicitly seem to relate to Pride because interpos'd between the mention thereof and the effect of it in Boasting ver 4. How long 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall they pour out as a Fountain does Water and speak 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly signifies things hardned with age yet upon the point to be remov'd and pass away as may be gathered from the use and signification of its root These hard things they spoke I take to refer unto others chiefly as what follows did to themselves 1. Hard things in Enoch's Prophecy recited Jude 15. were spoken against God May not our Psalmist refer to that Prophecy which no doubt came to his knowledge either by Tradition or the Prophetick Spirit If so then may they possibly be those recited ver 7. or such like false Atheistical Blasphemous against God his Providence VVord VVays People 2. Hard things Psal 31.18 were spoke against the Righteous proudly and contemptuously in Reproach ver 11. and Slaunder 13. whence his Eye was consumed and his life spent with grief ver 9 10. To this Head then may we reduce all those troubles which arise from the Persecution of the Tongue Threatnings Aspersings Defamations Detractions Censurings uncharitable rash Judgings Mockings and Deridings and cloathing Goodness and good Men with Reproaches branding them with odious Names contrary to their real Nature speaking all manner of Evil Matth. 5.11 3. Persecution which here was bloody and barbarously cruel ver 5 6. They break in pieces thy People O Lord and afflict thine Heritage they slay the Widow and the Stranger and murther the Fatherless Wherein both their Inhumanity and base Cowardice manifest themselves in that they rage against the weak impotent and friendless that have none to plead for succour relieve and help them alive or revenge them when dead This is justly imputable to Dreg and Saul The former by killing the Priests of the Lord 1 Sam. 22.18 did exceedingly afflict God's Heritage and People and brake them in pieces and made many Fatherless and Widows and afterward murdred them in a savage unparallell'd manner ver 19. and when he had done boasted of it Psal 52.1 as the Wicked here if that was not the same fact Saul also slew the Gibeonites 2 Sam. 21.1 2 5. call'd Strangers 2 Chron. 2.17 These may be here understood as well as Proselytes Here then David lost his Friends and Favourers by a violent Death and hither may we refer the loss of Friends and Relations by a natural Death A cause of Grief as just as common But especially to this Head belongs the troubles for the Miseries and Calamities both of Church and State When the Gates of Sion mourn we are but ill Members thereof if it create not some kind of Sympathy in our Hearts 4. Atheism disbelief of God's Omniscience and Providence Ver. 7. Yet they say the Lord shall not see neither shall the God of Jacob regard it This was indeed the spring of all their other Sins and therefore as Asaph in another like case was affected with it Psal 73.11 They say how doth God know and is there knowledge in the most High c So here is David very much concern'd about it and so much the more because Divine Vengeance seem'd to be concern'd so little ver 1. whence he spends the 4 following Verses to evince and convince them of the infinite unlimitable Knowledge of God whereas he contents himself with a bare mentioning their other Sins without such reasoning against them And indeed any serious Heart that duly ponders its dependance for Life Motion and Being upon God will be tenderly sensible of all Affronts put upon him will not with patience indure that he should fall under Disparagement As a dutiful Child will hear untoucht the Reproaches cast upon a Stranger or any other rather than its Father He who can be content that God should go less than infinite in all Perfections can be well pleas'd that he should not be God and that the World be depriv'd and destitute of his Government and Providence which would be the greatest mischief to it conceivable Better infinitely that the whole Universe should be hurry'd back again into its Primitive Chaos and Confusion than God be lessen'd in any one of his Excellencies If ungodly Souls disavow any Divine Attribute and seek to rob God of the honour of that without which a good Man cannot live or live comfortably 't is a Dagger at the Heart and wounds the very Soul and so ought to do in all that are tender of the Glory of their Creator For our own sakes we have reason to abhor Atheism in every degree and form of it because if there were not a God or if he were not of infinite Understanding we were of all Creatures most miserable not only as depriv'd of our true Felicity and the hopes of it for how should he reward us did he not know or regard us and our Integrity but we should fatally be expos'd to all the vilest Indignities and most deplorable Calamities the Wit and Rage of Men and Devils could devise and inflict upon Earth and since their and our Beings are altogether incorruptible as far as
there promised and least we should object incapacity to enjoy and be happy in so rich and glorious Blessings 't is added as the Crown of all that he will dispose and prepare our Hearts for it by engraving thereon his Holy Laws by that means perfectly removing all obstructions to our Hopes and occasions of our Fears that with a full assurance we may enter upon our Inheritance of his Everlasting Consolations This he hath most plainly revealed this he does most fully accomplish to his chosen Servants If we be partakers of his Nature and Image through the Law of the Spirit of Life in our Hearts setting us free from the Law of Sin and Death all is our own and how is it possible for him that knows all this that really believes and feels it by any scruples and jealousies to make his Life miserable Dispel then Oh my Soul those Clouds and Mists that benight thy Understanding thereby turning the Day in thy Will and Affections into Darkness Endeavour to open the Windows that the Glory of God in the Face of Christ may shine upon thee with a powerful Ray to warm impregnate and spirit thee with a new divine Fervour Strength and Life Study the Scriptures which are a bright Beam of the Sun of Righteousness a fair Pourtraicture of that Eternal Essential Word of God who is the Brightness of his Father's Glory the express Image of his Person Let thy Mind in its Meditation dwell continually here with delight To ruminate hereupon Day and Night is the true method to attain the soundest Wisdom even that which is Eternal Life consisting in the saving effectual transforming experimental practical fruitional knowledge of the only true God and Jesus Christ whom be hath sent Joh. 17.3 2 Tim. 3.15 This is Wisdom unto Salvation through Faith in Christ Jesus Be thy Intellectuals as bright as those of an Angel of Light in other things so as to understand all Mysteries Philosophical Political Theological yet if thou here be in the dark thou art but a Hell which though in its Physical being surrounded with Heaven yet is at the greatest moral distance from it and therefore no wonder if thou never seest the day break of Joy and Rest and Peace Ignorance which some account the Mother of Devotion but is indeed of Damnation is alway pregnant with Disquiets Troubles Fears The Night is full of Terrors Cant. 3.8 Lucretius adds As Children by Night so Men fear in the Light Omnia nobis fecimus tenebras nihil videmus c. Sen Ep. 110. But Seneca corrects him We make all things darkness to our selves we see nothing neither what 's hurtful nor what 's profitable yet ramble on without Pause or Prudence What a mad thing is Impetuousness in the dark But if we will the Day may dawn And thus If a Man will let in the knowledge of things Humane and Divine not merely to be dash'd but dyed with it again and again recognizing recollecting what he knows if he examine what is truly good and evil what falsly if he enquire what 's Honest what 's Filthy and what is Providence What can be spoke more wisely more truly This he prescribes as a Remedy against Fear which he makes the Daughter of Tradition rather than Truth A wise Man and then he must be good for Wickedness is Madness and Folly fears nothing slavishly Nemo nostrum quid veri esset excussit metum alter alteri tradidit ib. For nothing is formidable but to Ignorance false Opinion Improvidence and Wickedness Fix thy self therefore Oh my Soul upon the right Basis of Truth leading to Goodness and thou art above Gun-shot Nothing can hurt thee if it do not first debauch thee thy Mind with undue Sentiments and thy Heart thereby with corrupt Notions nothing can disquiet thee till it debase and abuse first thy Judgment and thy Conscience by it Good Intellectuals will promote good Morals Entertain high noble and worthy Conceptions of God and every thing that guides to God and this will singularly conduce to thy security against Vice and to thy establishment in Vertue and thereby in tranquility of Mind For two things concur to solid Consolation clearness of Apprehensions and calmness of Conscience Serenity above Tranquility below The worst of Men may have the one none but the godly wise have both The Devil has Light enough in his Understanding though he be the Prince of Darkness his Notions are sublime but Peace has he none A dreadful Storm may rage in the Conscience when the Sun shines clear in the Mind Men of great Parts and Gifts and deep Heads have not alway the quietest Hearts The simple Vnlearned saith one rise up and take Heaven by Violence whilst we with all our Learning drop down into Hell 'T is well if more Scholars be not found in Hell than Heaven 'T is not how much but how well a Man knows that is conducible to Peace On the other hand the Tempest may be hush'd and Conscience charm'd to a stilness but then the Heavens above are dark and cloudy and a new Storm sleeps in its causes if thou be an Enemy to God The Witness within may be gagg'd a while that it cannot speak out The Lion chain'd and muzzled in his Den that it cannot worry thee but afterward it will be let loose upon thee arm'd with the greater fury perhaps even in this Life and it is more tolerable to be lug'd into Goodness by a snarling snatching tearing Conscience now than have all thy Bones broke and devoured by it and the roaring Lion of Hell in his den of everlasting Darkness Wo wo be to that Man that never wanted or was without rest and quiet in his Mind A dumb Conscience is a dark one and If the Light that is in thee be Darkness how great is that Darkness If nothing within thee did ever proclaim War nothing has right to speak Peace He that never saw God as an Enemy never yet saw Him as a Friend If thou be ignorant of thy own State thou are ignorant of God unacquainted with his Peace with his Joy Thus Oh my Soul if thou be'st ambitious to enjoy any real approvable quietness in thy Mind thou must maintain in it clearness of Notion concerning God But although there be Light in the Heavens it may suffer an Eclipse or rather thou dost for the Light leaves not the Sun but the Earth if thy Corruptions as an opaque Body interpose Wickedness in the Heart opposes the efficacy of our Notions of God that although we retain them we are no better for them therefore 't would be better for us were we without them None lie deeper in outer Darkness than those that ascend highest in Light and Knowledge in this Life but improve it not He that knows his Master's Will and does it not and so his Master and loves him not shall be beaten with many stripes Our Passions are proportionable to our Sensations The more enlarged