deal fraudulently that is unrighteously If thou be good and holy 't is only because God is Just and Righteous He cannot pass away a Right by Deed Hand and Seal and afterward resume it If we have thus made a Mercy thine he will not defraud thee of it Lastly and under all Power actually confers upon thee all that goodness that adorns thy Conscience Oh sweet Combination and Harmony of Love in all concurring to create thy Peace Oh how valuable is it that Love must unite so many Perfections in so strong an Engagement to qualifie thee for it and then enrich thee with it and the sense of it Here 's the Glory and Crown of free Grace Grace is free thus 1. As nothing but God's free Will and Goodness mov'd him to design so great unmerited Mercies upon so mean and inconsiderable terms 2. As nothing but his free Grace without all desert in us prevails with him to work the Conditions themselves and terms in us But now when free Grace has proceeded thus far then Pardon and Holyness and Peace are not any longer free in this sense viz. reserved wholly still in his Power to withold but by the Motion and under the Conduct of free Grace as its Ministers Fidelity and Justice take up the Administration where free Grace left it so that God cannot deny these Mercies his Word being past because he cannot deny himself and cease to be faithful and just that is to be God Thus what is free Grace in the Original Rise and whole process mediately is in the closing and compleating Acts thereof immediately Justice and Righteousness Thou Repentance and Faith be not claimable upon any account but mere free Love yet when this admirable Goodness has conferr'd Repentance and Faith it makes Pardon Peace Comfort and Heaven challengable even in Justice though not as merited yet as Conditionate Mercies Whence the Apostle speaks roundly Heb. 6.10 God is not UNRIGHTEOUS to forget your work and labour of Love In some the Gift of the Conditions Qualifications Dispositions for Blessings is only from free Mercy and Grace in God whence those Conditions in us are called Graces the name of the Cause Metonymically given to the effect Grace within us from Grace without us in God But the gift of the Blessings and Privileges themselves upon performance of the Condition is really Justice Our absolute positive State is from Grace our relative from Righteousness yet such Justice is also Originally free Grace because 't is not a natural Act of Justice but Voluntary I mean such Justice is not a thing which God of himself by necessity of Nature was ty'd to antecedently to the free Engagement of his own Will but his free Mercy without any other Motive than its own Generosity and Nobleness of Disposition and Ingenuous Freedom did pitch upon such a Series of Dispensations in boundless Wisdom and Goodness that these Acts of Liberty interposing Justice must needs be obliged to prosecute the beginnings of Love and do such things in order to our Happiness as before those Acts of Grace it was not ty'd to at all and this is chiefly done by the Interposition of Faithfulness An instance will render all more plain it shall be that which we Discourse of Comfort Justice of its own Nature is not at all obliged to comfort a Sinner though Penitent but contrarily the natural state of Justice engages it to punish Sin not only with the Pains of Penitence but Wrath and Vengeance although a threatning should never intervene For I suppose the threats to be in this different from Promises that the former declare the natural both right of the Law-giver and dueness of the Penalty and desert of the Crime which the reason and nature of the thing had fixed before only since the Right was invested in the Law-giver it was in his Power upon just and valuable Considerations to make a Relaxation or Commutation But Promises do not declare but give a Right not to the Promiser but him to whom the promise is made either absolutely or upon Condition whereby things are put out of his own Power either absolutely or conditionally Now therefore God by his Son has freely made this Declaration Matth. 5.4 Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted God cannot utter Falshood nor break Promise nor withhold Right hence 't is that the Administration here falls into the hands of Justice upon the Interposal of this free act of Mercy in making the Promise Threats proceed according to the natural right of the case in the substance of it though they may vary from it in Circumstances in which the Punishment may be alleviated or heightened at the Discretion of the Judge or Solemnity Pomp Grandeur of the Matter and Process So Promises proceed according to the will of the Promiser as to the matter or thing promised which he may pitch upon and chuse at his own Arbitrement But when the Bond is once out of his hands it may be Sued at the Bar of Justice only he retains a liberty to Circumstantiate his own grants when he cannot recede from them in substance the Right to which is not invested now in him but the Persons to whom the Promise is made Comfort then he must in Justice give 't is the Mourners Right if they be right Mourners Mercy and Fidelity gave the Right and Justice cannot disannul it although it be not a natural but adventitious Right and although this Justice be not the Original necessity of his Nature but the free Dispensation of his Grace For Gon. 18.25 shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right His Love has made this Just and his Justice will give its due to his Love That Eternal invariable Righteousness which is a steady fixed Propension to render and distribute Right in all possible Cases and give all imaginable dues is no changling in this Case where the right and due is not any natural Resultancy from the condition of the Creature but a mere Condescention of undeserved Grace Justice may suspend but cannot overthrow the Right of Mercy but is obliged to own and observe it upon account of the Sacrifice and Merit of Our Lord Jesus Christ Indeed this is all the Foundation of a Believers hope in Judgment For Judgment is a Work of Justice which distributes Dues and particularly Rewards and Punishments according to Works Therefore the Reward of Believers is attributed to the same Justice that punishes Unbelievers 2 Thes 1.4 5 6 7. We our selves glory in the Churches of God for your Patience and Faith in all your Persccutions and Tribulations which ye endure a manifest token of the Righteous Judgment of God that ye may be counted worthy of the Kingdom of God for which ye also suffer Seeing 't is a Righteous thing with God to recompence 1. Tribulation to them that trouble you 2. and rest with us to you who are troubled c. This as well as the other is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
an Alms asked in the Name of Christ but above all the Eternal Father never will Joh. 14.13 14. and 15.16 and 16.23 24. But the Nature the Life the Power of Christianity is a Thing incomparable the highest communication of Divine Goodness issuing from the lowest condescension of infinite grace Christ the God of Wisdom dwelling in our Nature by the Holy Ghost the God of love and in our hearts by Faith to root and ground us in Love Oh the height depth length breadth of the love of Christ an Hyperbole to our knowledge infinitely surpassing shooting above it that we may be FILLED WITH ALL THE FULNESS OF GOD. Oh Mystery above all Mysteries Oh Grace above all Grace The Height of most incomprehensible Majesty in the deepest humility of boundless Mercy exalting poor degenerate man from the lowest Abyss of unspeakable misery to the utmost sublimity of celestial Glory in such an extensive amplitude and fullness of all the richest blessings spread abroad over the whole latitude of humane nature having their spring from that everliving fountain of Eternal Love and streaming in infinite varleties to the length of all eternity with such accommodation and suitableness to every of our particular necessities desires hopes as becomes a fruit of unparallel'd incomparable Wisdom and Grace Oh unfathomable Love thou hast even outdone thy self and undone me a man of an unclean heart and lips for how shall such a poor weak polluted worm be ever able to conceive aright of thy unconceivable plenitude be thankful for and speak well enough of thy unspeakable magnitude with a degree of Love and delight high enough entertain thy unmeasurable sufficiency sweetness and satisfactory Perfection or faithfully improve and walk worthy of thy unmatchably rich and glorious communications The unsuitableness the unanswerableness of my Spirit and practice will ruine me if by another astonishing Miracle of demission thou do not spread abroad thy quickening confirming thy sanctifying and actuating influences throughout all the powers of my Soul that in thine own strength I may rightly glorify thee That is Christianity in its causes the Wisdom Love and Grace of God in Jesus Christ and its general Notion an elevation of Fallen Man to God More particularly Christianity in the Theory is the Doctrine of Faith in Jesus Christ in the Practice 't is covenanting and keeping Covenant with God This is brief inlarge your Thoughts thus Christianity is an undissembled acknowledgement or owning and receiving Jesus Christ as the only Mediator betwixt God and man in a hearty Submission to the terms of the Covenant of Grace Repentance Faith and upright Obedience It supposes Natural Religion in an universal subjection to the Deity as Creator Governour and Owner of all For if God had nothing to do with us nor we with him there would be no need of a Mediator so neither if there were no Sin Hence it also supposes the Obligation of the Law of Nature which is the Rule of Natural Religion and the guide of man in his natural subjection to God It supposes also the Covenant of Nature commonly called Works with the violation of it which none could expiate but God-man And it includes as most essential the Covenant of Grace and in special the New Edition thereof for the old is Judaism i. e. the Gospel exhibiting Jesus Christ as already come God in our Flesh Teaching for our instruction Commanding for our direction Doing for our example and advantage and Suffering in our room and stead and for our Sin All things necessary for our Salvation hereby satisfying Divine Justice and meriting for us the Holy Ghost with his gifts grace pardon peace and eternal glory to be given us upon conditions and terms suitable to his own goodness and our present state viz. Repentance toward God for and from dead works that we might serve him the Living God and Faith in Jesus Christ accepting of submitting and committing our Souls to him in well doing with all the fruits hereof in Love Meekness Humility Self-denial Patience Heavenly-mindedness Watchfulness in Summ Godliness Righteousness and Sobriety to be wrought in us and exercised by us through the Grace and Might of Christ which only makes them sincere and sound and so acceptacle to God through Christ who alone intercedes with God on the behalf of Man for this end as a Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to all perfection Heb. 7.25 This is the summ of Christianity owned by some Professionally only by others Really also But because the reality of the Heart is only known to God whereof he never made us the Judges We must proceed solely upon the external Profession as far as it renders the other real inward owning credible Now 't is in respect of this credible owning of Christianity manifested by Profession that a Man becomes a member of the Catholick Church Visible has a right to all Ordinances Baptism Fellowship with a particular Church the Lords Supper and consequently Ministry Ministerial and Fraternal Inspection c. 1. There 's no Vital Union betwixt Jesus Christ and any particular Person merely as a Member of a Particular Church and under that Formality but only as a Member of the Church Universal invisible For There 's no union of Life but by unfeigned Faith uncorrupt Love which are invisible things These make no Man a Member of a Particular Church actually and ipso facto though they give the first and truest right thereto but of the Catholick they actually do Nay the Visible profession of them though it give the right yet does not actually invest in a particular Church but does in the Universal Visible and after it has been own'd by the Church in Baptism we are not only Visible potentially but seen and actually acknowledged Members of the Catholick Church Visible yet not presently of a particular Church Though Baptism be in a particular Church yet 't is not into it but the Universal Consent without actual associating does not constitute any a Member actually but only potentially and virtually That which makes a Man a Member of a particular Church is only Actual Association with its consent explicit or implicit Every one that is truly a Member of the Catholick Church Visible and gives any credible evidence thereof either explicit or implicit as Mr. Tho. Hooker truly observes and essays to joyn himself to a particular Church upon that evidence ought to be receiv'd to a participation of all Ordinances and that particular Church cannot de jure deny its consent but it betrays its trust and sins greatly both against the man and Christ also But then no man is saved under that Formality as a member of a particular Church merely but only as he partakes of that common Christian Nature which constitutes the Members of the Catholick Church Though he sin Grievously and without Repentance general or particular may justly be damn'd for neglect of joining in the Ordinances with some particular Church or other if he have opportunity 2.
every though never so fortuitous an effect of a spontaneous Agent to look at God I 'll not instance in other than David And 1. for evil Events As he intimates a possibility of Saul's being excited against him by God 1 Sam. 26.19 and was foretold that the Lord would raise up evil against him out of his own House and take his Wives and give them to Absalom under the notion of his Neighbour 2 Sam. 12.11 So even when he was cursed by Shimei he owns it as from God 2 Sam. 16.10 Not that he supposed God had a hand in the sin of the Act but order'd it as a part of the punishment threatned for his own Sin 2. Good Events of all kinds he more frequently ascribes to God Does he conquer his Enemies 'T is the Lord that lets him see his desire upon them Psal 59.10 and subdueth the People under him Psal 18.47 48. See the whole Psalm and smites his Enemies in their hinder parts Psal 78.66 Do his Friends own and anoint and crown him King He entitles God to it Psal 21.3 When his Father and Mother forsake him the Lord takes him up Psal 27.10 Is he secur'd in a strong City 'T is the Lord's marvellous kindness Psal 31.21 What do I enumerating Particulars every Psalm is an Instance And indeed were it not so Prayer would be mere Mockery and Praise Hypocrisie Epist 31. and that of Seneca would be better Divinity than we are taught by the Scriptures which yet to suppose is most horridly Blasphemous Per maxima acto viro turpe est etiamnum Deos fagitare Quid votis opus est Facte ipse foelicem Let those English it that allow it Now when a Man does thus in all Events take notice of the Finger of God and thereby give him the glory of his Efficiency he is in a disposition for renewed Experiments of the Divine Power and Goodness in Peace and Joy Where the Glory will be given to God he will grant the fullest and sweetest tasts of his Graciousness But who will lose a Benefit 'T is lost where no likelyhood of any grateful Acknowledgement Unthankfulness is the most hateful of Sins Ingratum si dixeris omnia dixeris If God must not reap Praises he will not sow Mercies Not that he needs our Gratitude but that we must own our Benefactor and testifie our advances in Love when by new Instances he testifies his Love to us Nevertheless this Love of ours is not profitable to God but highly as all other Graces to our selves Our own Advantage and Interest is alway at the bottom of our Duty which indeed can add nothing to God Job 34. is nothing to him as neither can our Iniquity detract from him or hurt him His good will towards us moves him to take care that it may be well with us therefore doth he follow us with his tender Mercies and richest Blessings that we may proceed upon ingenuous Motives in our observance of him and obedience to him and may not be obnoxious to the check of Satan or our own Consciences for servility of Spirit in that work wherein consists our Liberty Honour and Happiness Indeed we are not really good if we be not ingenuously good nor act at all for God if we act not from a filial disposition Love is every Grace and Virtue that Spirit of Life which as an universal Cause diffuses its benign animating Influences through all the Regions of true Goodness and Honesty All in us that lives to God every holy Disposition every gracious Habit is only a distinct particular modification of Love Even as the varieties of Nature in those innumerable differences of Plants sensitive Creatures and Men in their Bodies are but Earthly Particles diversly modified formed fashioned and qualified Hence Love is said to be the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13.10 But without Love to be Good is impossible 1 Cor. 13. Where this Grace dwells God dwells also and the Soul inspirited by it dwells in God 1 Joh. 4.8 16. The more of Love therefore the more of God He will never be out of our Eye if he be thus in our Hearts Love there will command our Looks 'T was the dominion of this Grace in his Soul that mov'd the Psalmist to make such honourable mention here of the Love and Graciousness of God in his aid and sustentation 't was this that in his distress inclin'd him to take Sanctuary in God and own all the Spiritual Refreshments that solaced his Heart as derivations from God and engaged him to devolve all the Glory thereof upon God And how should that Soul do other that has all in God Hast thou then Oh my Soul evermore and in every occurrent an Eye toward Heaven and by thy acknowledgement of the Finger of God in every thing that befalls thee Dost thou honour his Providence indeavour to relish his Goodness and make some progress in thine affectionate pantings after him complacency in him resolution for him and dutifulness to him O let every thing remind thee of his everlasting Commiseration that in thy lost Estate remembred thee gave Blood for thy Ransom the Blood of God Acts 20.28 The time of thy lothing was the time of his Love Eze. 16.5 8. He loved thee out of the Pit of Corruption Isa 38.17 He hath prevented thee with the Blessings of Goodness Psal 21.3 He redeemeth thy Life from Destruction and crowneth thee with loving Kindness and tender Mercies Psal 103.4 He hath not dealt with thee after thy Sins nor rewarded thee according to thy Iniquities ver 10. Therefore ver 1 2. Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me Bless his Holy Name Bless the Lord Oh my Soul and forget not all his Benefits Hallelujah CHAP. X. The Subject of Comfort Seeks it solely in God THus much of the Character deduced from the Context there only remains one thing out of the Text it self Viz. The Psalmist was a Man who discern'd such an emptiness and insufficiency in all inferiour Contentments as to seek no relief from them nor take up with any in them as his rest in Trouble but in deepest anxiety and distress did look for and find all his comfort solely in and from God This is the very substance and marrow of the Verse Indeed the whole Psalm is a Testimony of his ceasing from the Creature from Man in a believing and affectionate recourse to God Where-ever he cast his Eye upon Earth the Inscription was Vanity and Vexation A deluge of Sin and Misery covered the World that like Noah's Dove he could find no rest for the sole of his Foot below therefore does he direct his course toward Heaven Thus Psal 55.6 Oh that I had wings like a Dove for then I would flee away and be at rest But Rest is not a Denizen of this World Nothing but the Heaven of Heavens is at rest and here does he fix only There was a Windy Storm and Tempest without as Psal 55.8
and with them Sin their Cause never to have a Resurrection Then dawns the Day of everlasting Light and Blessedness and all Darkness Dolours and Shadows flee away Be our Miseries as great as they will or can they cannot outlive Mortality if our guilt do not and it shall not if true Repentance live within us At the day-break of Eternity we enter upon a Life of Contentation and Peace as endless as transcendent The Death of our Bodies is the Death of our Troubles and the Resurrection of those Joys over which Death hath no Power As there will then be no more beginning of Wretchedness so no end of Felicity The worst turn that the Devil and his Instruments can do us will turn to the best advantage and those Souls that die to the Body shall live in Christ they are uncloathed of Dirt and Putrefaction that they may be for ever Cloathed with God and Glory That as the Death of the Body is the easer of all our Pains so the No-death or Immortality succeeding is the Introducer and Maintainer of an unboundable Fullness of everlasting Soul-Satisfactions This we owe to the perpetual Duration and Life of God Whence the Psalmist in a sad Prospect of the evanid Nature of present Things doth solace himself with a view of the permanent Being of God Psal 102.11 12. My days are like a shadow that declineth and I am withered like Grass But thou Oh Lord shall endure for ever and thy Remembrance to all Generations I said Oh my God take me not away in the midst of my days thy years are throughout all Generations Of old hast thou laid the Foundation of the Earth and the Heavens are the Work of thine Hands They shall perish but thou shalt endure yea all of them shall wax old as a Garment as a Vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed but thou art the same and thy years shall have no end We are possest of many Transitory Comforts but of none Eternal beside God And if any true Content arise from those movable Enjoyments it springs from nothing else in them except that which being eminently in God is in him of an everlasting Nature and Perfection Whatever pleases doth so far refresh and comfort but all that pleasantness is only a little ray of Divinity transmitted through the Cloud of Flesh and Blood or the more clear Heavens of our Rational Powers Amiable Relations are Comforts beyond all things under the Sun but their lovely Qualities are only a dark Shadow of the unparallell'd Amiableness of God To be beloved by thy Friends is a Comfort estimable above Gold but neither the Act nor the Object durable no nor the Motive exciting or inviting that Affection Can any Man Rationally solace himself with a Being lov'd for a moment when he shall be deserted or hated for ever Fading Love on Earth will not do without the never fading Love of Heaven Though all the World for a while adore thee What compensating Pleasure can that bring thee if Hell everlastingly burn thee All thy fore-past Joys on Earth will rather add new Fewel than administer one drop to cool thy flaming Tongue No Love therefore is indeed considerable and comfortable without the Eternal Love of God Nor in the assurance of this is any hatred or rage valuable dejecting formidable As Eternity is the Venom and Sting of the Torments of Hell so 't is the very Triumph Jubile and Heaven of the Joys of Heaven If in the loss of these lauguishing expiring Comforts we can succenturiate or substitute any thing of God we richly gain by the loss as possessing unspeakably more pure substantial heart-reaching durable everliving Comforts in the everliving Spring who can and will give them that relish and sweetness which shall abundantly more than answer what is slip'd away from us as well in its delicious Gratefulness as Eternity Mortality is the great disgrace of all Worldly Enjoyments but it receives a plentiful Compensation in the Immortality of God Thus have I considered the Comforts comprehended in those Attributes of God which offered themselves to the Psalmist's Meditation as I find them either exprest or plainly implied in this Psalm CHAP. XIV Comforts from God COuld I allow my self the liberty I might here instance those Comforts which are administred from the consideration of the Divine Persons Father Son and Holy Ghost and the Relations wherein God stands to us and we mutually to God But I have determined to confine my Discourse chiefly to such Heads of Matter as fall within Cognizance of the Psalm and not make endless Excursions to things which none can imagine ever to enter into the Author's mind in order to the Revival of his disconsolate Heart I pass therefore from the Comforts that God is which was the first general to the 2. The Comforts which God gives That which God is in himself and hath revealed to us is wonderfully refreshing But there 's also something which not being immanent and essentially Constitutive of the Divine Nature but passing from him to us doth singularly relieve our troubled Souls Of this kind Promises Providences Privileges Experiences offer themselves to Consideration What was needful to be observed concerning Promises fell in under Divine Fidelity as included in its very Notion therefore shall all further Disquisition anent them be superseded Providence is the transit of God's Wisdom Power Justice Goodness Faithfulness out of Heaven and himself into the visible World Governing Protecting Caring for Directing and Ordering all for most excellent Ends worthy of God Under the conduct hereof all things prosperous or adverse the greatest the most minute Natural Moral Spiritual necessary or fortuitous are deduced from their immediate proper Causes guided and sustained in their Actings secured from external Violences maintained in a due steady agreeable Station and order to compose the Beauty and Harmony of the Universe and be conducible to advance the Glory of their Maker in both the general and special purposes of his Love and Goodness or Justice and Righteousness And there is not a more reviving consideration to God's afflicted tossed with tempest and not comforted Isa 54.11 than this that they are the peculiar care and charge of Heaven which as it is concerned for the Catholique good so in special for those that love God and are the called according to his purpose Rom. 8.28 insomuch that Prosperity cannot be more delectable to their sense than Afflictions of all kinds are made to their Souls useful and profitable 'T is always best for them to be in the worst external Circumstances as never being more dear to God more regarded by him who is most tender of them when the Devil and World are most cruel and when the out-casts off-scouring and refuse of the Earth When here they can expect nothing beside Reviliags and Buffetings the liberal Alms of the Churches Enemies they are likeliest to receive the more bountiful tastes of Divine Goodness possess more of his