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
Christians every where called Brethren even by those who were not of the same particular Congregation Acts 10.23 and 11.29 and 14.2 and 15.1 3 23 32 33 40. and 16.2 c. I challenge all the World to give but one Instance out of the Bible where Christians of any particular Church were not stiled and owned under the Name of Brethren by any one or more Persons of another Congregation though of different Nations nay where Christians though not embodied as they phrase it were not so called as Acts 28.14 c. All then that are Partakers of the same heavenly calling are holy Brethren Heb. 3.1 And this Title is not at all given to Christians with relation to a particular Church but only the Catholick and upon common Catholick grounds and no other Since then the whole Community of Christians must be acknowledged for Brethren Love them as Brethren having compassion one of another be pitiful be courteous not rendering evil for evil or railing for railing but contrarywise blessing knowing that ye are thereunto called that ye should inherit a Blessing 1 Pet. 3.8 9. For 1 Joh. 3.14 We know that we have passed from Death to Life because we love the Brethren he that loveth not his Brother abideth in Death ver 15. Is a homicide ver 10. Is not of God but manifests himself to be a Child of the Devil chap. 4.20 cannot love God And sure if even Enemies must be lov'd that we may be like our Father Matth. 5.44 45. and brotherly love be extended to Strangers as the coherence in Heb. 13.1 seems to evince but the duty enjoyn'd there with the reason of it much more viz. entertaining them as we would do Angels Neighbours may challenge it upon a stronger ground and Brethren most of all and that in such degrees as take in all things from the meanest Offices to the very laying down our Lives for them 1 Joh. 3.16 Jam. 1.26 If the not bridling a ferocient Tongue render a Man's Religion vain let those with trembling measure the consequence who neither will govern Tongue nor Heart Lastly That part of the Catholick Church comprehended within the confines of any particular Kingdom is and ought to be the more immediate object of every individual Subjects or Members Christian Honour Love Care and Respect to be manifested by his Prayers for it Communion with it defence of it and obedience to it in all lawful things seeking its good in the use of all lawful means with a Religious care and caution neither to say nor do nor allow and permit any thing which we can hinder to be said or done to its prejudice For what is done for or against a part redounds to the whole 1 Cor. 12.26 and this is to be Publick Spirited viz. to embrace the Publick with an universal Love Care and Endeavour active for its Good preventive of its Hurt and Damage deploring its Corruptions and Miseries labouring with affectionate Industry to remedy and heal them Upon these Principles the old Nonconformists Bradshaw Hildersham Ball c. and many of the later edition loved respected defended and held Communion with the Congregations in the Church of England where they could as appears by their publick Writings and known Practice notwithstanding the bitter Reproaches and Censures of some few who I wish had as well studied the Case 'T were a great impertinency and folly for me here to engage in a defence of that which has had and yet hath so many more able Advocates though if I do not forget and flatter my self somethings occur which nearly touch the merit of the Cause yet not observed by any and I will not betray that which for the main my Conscience tells me is a good Cause with so short and imperfect a plea as the straits of a little Chapter confine me to therefore in prosecution of my General design I shall only suggest something of a more common influence and wave particulars till better occasion or call 1. In the Church of England are some I wish there were more Thousands of as Sober Pious Discreet Judicious Christians and Hundreds of as Learned Religious Ministers as Europe affords who in their Judgments and Consciences seem to be abundantly satisfied with and strongly plead for its Communion upon grounds of very great moment to instance only in the late calm Discourses of the Reverend Dean of Norwich Now for me or any Man to send all these quick to Hell as mere Infidels or worse as without Christ Aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel the true Church Strangers from the Covenants of Promise having no hope Atheists in the World Eph. 2.12 may discover what Spirit we are of but will very little recommend our own Christianity in observance of the Rule Phil. 2.3 Rom. 12.10.1 Cor. 13.5 7. 2. The Church of England and Dissenters agree in all the main Substantials of Christianity the difference only lies in a few controverted things of very inconsiderable consequence in comparison The same Christian Doctrine in all the Fundamental Points the same general design to promote Holiness of Life the same Worship in the Essential form and matter and means the same Ministry of Persons separate to perform Divine Offices in the same form of Churches viz. Congregational who are embodied not meerly by the civil Sanction but consent to submit to the Ordinances and Ministers of Christ which with the Departers I call them rather than Dissenters constitute the Explicit Covenant and Essence of the Ministerial Call but differing only in a few circumstantial Doctrines in external Modes and Rites disputed and disputable to the Worlds end And shall so light matters alienate us imbitter our Spirits envenom our Censures when we agree in the main Ah Sirs should God Almighty thus mark Iniquities who could stand Does he appoint a Sacrifice for Sins of Ignorance and Infirmity hold Communion with us notwithstanding them not impute them to us And shall such things be unpardonable only in the Church of England which judges its own Constitution the most excellent in the World and thinks it has as much to say against you as you against it as much to say for it self as you for your selves which you can no more convince than it can you Lastly To justifie your departure nothing can be justly alledged but fear of Sin in Communion Now nothing can determine what is what is not Sin but God in his Word You are then obliged to produce Scripture as clear to prove Communion a Sin as 't is clear from Scripture that 't is your duty to obey the Magistrate in lawful things For if the Communion which he commands be not unlawful you ought in Conscience to obey him in it Rom. 13.5 The General includes the Particular But I profess amongst all the Writings against Communion I have not yet seen any one or more Scriptures alledged which apart or in conjunction will evidently and certainly bear such a consequence Now turn we the
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
unutterable Agonies and Woes of Hell and the horrible Tempest of Divine Vengeance and indignation in everlasting Burnings which will be tormenting above all that any understanding but that of God can comprehend the bitter Weepings Wailings and Gnashings of Teeth without Ease Release Mitigation Relief or End this intolerable after-clap of Sin is even to the remembrance and fore-thought almost as Cruciating as it self to the sense and feeling will be confounding God's Writing down all our Miscarriages in his Book out of which all the Power and Policy in the World can never expunge them his setting even our secret Sins in the light of his Countenance which makes them infinitely more visible than the Sun in the Firmament is a consideration that sticks and stabs us to the Heart and Murders all our Comforts at once and buries us in Horror Yet now if there can be any good token found that this Hand-writing is blotted out If a Man can be assured that Iniquity and Transgression shall by God be remembred no more this is the most reviving transporting Solace in the World But how can I have a Testimony that God hath thus privileged me How shall I know that he will forgive and forget my wickedness if he do not tell me Who can search into the bottom of his Counsels and know his purposes and practice in Heaven if himself do not reveal them And there are but two ways of revealing any secret thing viz. by words and by works Words spoken and written Deeds in Signs The Holy Scriptures reveal God's general Will to pardon some yet do they not name but only describe the Persons giving their true and lively Moral Character setting down at full such Qualifications as may be to any Man a clear Evidence who is and who is not made happy in this forensecal Mercy of Justification If an Angel from Heaven should address himself to thee with this Comfortable Message That thy Iniquities are pardoned If a Bath-kol a voice in Thunder should name thee and say Be of good Comfort thy Sins are forgiven thee thou could'st not be secure that this was not an Illusion to abuse thee into Presumption if thy inward sense did not report those tokens on which the Word of God does suspend thy Pardon But if thou canst but produce these all the Angels and Voices from Heaven imaginable though as particular and clear as possible telling thee thou art unjustified must be acknowledged accursed Deceptions because they Preach another Doctrine than Christ has done in the Gospel Gal. 1.8 Well then that thou may'st find a good token for good thou need'st not ascend into Heaven to search the Archives or court Rolls of the upper Bench there nor turn over the Book of Life in a curious tracing out thy particular name but having duly informed thy mind what are the signs of a Pardoned State look within thy Soul and Conscience and diligently enquire and examine without Partiality and a biass selfward whether the present State Constitution and Frame of thy heart be that in reality which is enrolled in the promises of the Book of God the Scripture which tender to thee Conditionally the forgiveness of Sin produce but those Conditions let it but appear upon sound Evidence that will satisfie thy self and the World and thy Judge that having truly repented of thy Sin thou livest under the Dominion of Faith and a good Conscience and Justice it self is obliged to Faithfulness for the granting thee Indemnity and Remission and the sense thereof in thy own Soul For if a Man can truly say that he hath repented and stands to what he has done in stedfast Resolutions never to return to folly his Reflections upon former Sins will not be torturing though they may be grieving because he hath the promise of Mercy and Pardon Isa 55.7 Acts 3.19 which Justice it self is obliged to perform For Conditional Promises in themselves are Dispensations of free love which was not obliged by any necessity or Congruousness to offer such Blessings upon such terms yet once made and the Conditions observed the Donation of the Mercy becomes the interest of strict Justice and Righteousness But although the New Covenant admit of Repentance which that of Works could not yet this Condescention is only through a Mediator Jesus Christ If therefore to thy Penitence thou do not superadd Faith in him neither will those after Thoughts be sound nor introductive of Peace because without Christ our Righteousness and Peace objective and causal without us Jer. 23.6 1 Cor. 1.30 Mic. 5.5 Eph. 2.14 there can be no Pardon and Peace formal within us Rom. 8.1 and without Faith no Justification no Christ Rom. 5.1 Joh. 3.18 36. Yet both these must be evinced to be sincere and sound and thereby be themselves justifiable and justified which nothing can do but the exercise of a Good Conscience Acts 24.16 This alone is to us the surest Evidence that our Repentance and Faith are unfeigned and that we deceive not our own Souls Indeed the basis of all true bliss and solace is a good Conscience in Justice and Innocency toward Man Inoffensiveness and Piety toward God Moderation and Sobriety in my self the contrary to these and Comfort are incompatible 'T is but a colloguing with my Conscience to my utter Confusion to tender it Peace if it be not pure Jam. 3.17 No Man can be groundedly quiet in Mind if filthy in Heart and Life If thou be a Devil thou must carry thy Hell about thee visibly or under disguise in its self or its Causes Thou hast no just Right to the sweets of Religion if a stranger to its Power A Mans first Designs for Joy are or ought to be laid in Self-survey and Reflection If he can find nothing of God within he can take comfort in nothing of God without but by an unjust Usurpation and Sacrilege All the goodness of God signifies nothing to an ill Man But a Good Conscience or heart is a continual Feast Prov. 15.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that finds all right at home who has no rebuke nor cause thereof from the Domestick Comptroller and Comforter in his Bosom is happy Now there can be no goodness in Conscience but only from God and as far as in Conjunction with God God in thy Conscience makes it good for he is all Goodness and there neither is nor can be any except in and from him And all the goodness which is in thy Conscience from him is first from his Faithfulness acting under his Love in the Covenant wherein he promises to give a new heart of Flesh Ezek. 36 26 27. Jer. 31.33 and Write his Laws in it by his Spirit of Promise which he engages shall cause us to walk in his Statutes c. Next and under Faithfulness all the goodness in thy Conscience is from Justice For the Right that Fidelity gives to Mercy Justice is obliged to maintain God must perform his Word because he cannot
be done by another hand than our own that we are secure no guilt therefore no ground of greater trouble can cleave to us in the requital of those Evils which they contract Guilt by inflicting upon us Therefore David Blesses God for preventing his avenging himself with his own hand 1 Sam. 25 39. But is there an avenger like God Who not only can and will vindicate his Peoples repute from the scandal and reproach of the Malevolent but revenge their wrong upon the sturdiest and stoutest that strengthen themselves in the Mountains of prey For he is engaged thereto both by nature as the God of Revenges Vers 1. and by Office as Judge of the Earth Vers 2. and also by Covenant and Promise Deut. 32.35 36 43. Rom. 12.19 Vengeance is mine I will repay saith the Lord. He will prosecute the injurious with a vindictive hand and this is no small Comfort to see a perfection in God throughly engaged and active to plead our cause against the wrongs of Men when their heighth and power procure for them indemnity that to seek or even think to regain our right is formidable Hence we must not cannot avenge our selves nor is it fit we should We are not wise and good and just enough to be entrusted with a matter of such moment as Judgment in our own cause Where we feel hard hands we know not hearts therefore cannot fathom the deep abyss of malignity therein nor consequently measure out and proportion our Punishments to Crimes in their full or right Dimensions but must be constrain'd to leave something to God and why not all We shall be prone to act our own Passions rather than execute Justice and by over-doing out of self-respects or under-doing with respect to Persons expose our selves to the revenges of Heaven which needs not our wrath or wrong to work its Righteousness nor will over-look our miscarriages without due Animadversion But if we commit all to him that Judges righteously we shall have right our selves and do no injury to others And it will be no grief staggering stumbling or offence of heart to us that we revenge not our selves 1 Sam. 25.31 which implies how much that might trouble us but a Satisfaction and Comfort that it lies in his hands who both can and will do it and time it for the best Luk. 18.7 8. 'T is the fate of Innocency to have the weakest visible interest on Earth The Wicked walk on every side Their Numbers and Powers and Policies and Malice combine against Holiness and for the most part oppress it Eccles 4.1 and 8.14 and 5.8 but yet it shall rise when they fall be glorified when they are condemned and though the guiltless oppressed meet with no comfort or Comforter on Earth they have both in Faith and Hope and may rejoyce and triumph in prospect of the Day of the Lord which will both right and recompence the wronged beyond their utmost Imaginations they shall be comforted over all the Evils they have suffered while the other are tormented Thus does Justice administer Comforts in reversion to the outwardly afflicted by the injustice of Men and in possession to the inwardly Wounded by the mixt actings of the Mercy and Justice of God Thus are all Comforts as products of Love or Rightcousness the fruits of gratuity liberty or necessity in God § 4. The Omnipotence of God as Executor to his Mercy and Goodness Executioner to his Vengeance and Justice does not carry an aspect of Terror but comfort to a Holy Soul Even out of this Eater comes their Meat and out of this strong sweetness 'T is able and the Perfections upon whose errand it goes engage it to fetch our Comforts out of even their contraries and convert our Corrosives into Cordials much more to derive and deduce them out of their Causes out of all their Possibilities This helping hand was one of the Psalmist's encouraging Supports and gave no little ease to his Heart Vers 17 21. With what an undauntable courage did Achilles adventure himself into all perils in confidence of his case-hardned impenetrable Armour the assurance that he was out of danger that no Weapon could make a breach upon his Vitals was the strongest support to his Magnanimous Heart But What are Brass and Steel and Adamant to the impregnable Defences we enjoy in God Our Buckler and Shield Psal 18.2 30. Gen. 15.1 Deut. 33.29 Prov. 2.7 Psal 28.7 and 33.20 and 91.4 and 115.9 and 47.9 and 84.11 and 144.2 Prov. 30.5 Psal 3.3 A Shield about me therefore Vers 6. I will not be afraid of Ten thousand of People that have set themselves against me round about And here Vers 22. The Lord is my defence Here 's a Security unparallell'd Armour indeed unpeirceable The Body of Christ is truly invulnerable No Weapon formed against it shall prosper Isa 54.17 Nothing can reduce it into the State of Mortality The Gates of Hell cannot prevail against it Matth. 16.18 nor against the meanest Member thereof because built upon the Rock If Christ dwell in thy heart by Faith and thou in him by Love Men may rage and Devils storm against thee but the Rock cannot shrink under thee The Ship cannot sink that carries Christ within the hope of Glory The Covenant is inexpugnable Grace inextinguishable God's Love unchangeable his purposes irreversible Thou art unconquerable because God is Forsake not this thy Defence be not a Traytor to thy self and nothing can hurt thee nothing can wrest thee out of an Omnipotent hand and whilst in it nothing can ruine thee though Fury and Malice may kill thee yet it does not damage thee it does but only render thy happiness immutable it does but only bring thee back to the felicity thou lost reinstate thee in Paradise and Innocency nay advance thee above it in Impeccability and Immortality And to what more can the loftiest Ambition of Humane Nature aspire To be free'd from all Evil and enjoy all good is the substance of that Felicity which the most enlarged Appetite pants after And the Omnipotence of God is all things real and possible There cannot be a created desire commensurate to its ability to secure us or satisfie us It is a proper and all-sufficient remedy against the Disconsolateness which may arise in our Hearts through two of these kinds of troubles in our Thoughts which I instanc'd before viz. the dreadful and despairing Nothing can possibly be so formidable as to be capable of being a match for Almightiness nor can there be the least shadow of reason to despair of any thing if infinite Power undertake it To be safe from fear of Evil is a wonderful Satisfaction Danger of all kinds must be removed or we are not safe the fear of all remov'd or we do not think our selves safe and the conceit does torture as much as the thing which disquiets no further than as apprehended and the foresence sometimes becomes more grievous than the feeling But where can there be
the Port of real Holiness then does he generously tender us those needful refreshments which will revive our weather-beaten Souls can we now spurn them away from us and be innocent Here therefore is Sin on both hands How shall we cast the balance We must not sin our selves into Comfort neither must we sin it away Cut the hair Well then all depends upon this the determination what is too hasty what too slow application of Promises And this upon the preceding Quaere what is due Preparation For to apply Promises when rightly qualified is no Sin but Duty therefore to neglect it is Sin Then are we too hasty when we run before we are bidden not otherwise God by creating in us the pre-required Promise-dispositions bids us take all the Blessings in the Promise which they dispose for When the Condition is perform'd the Covenant is a Command to accept its Merey which cannot be refused without disobedience to God 'T would be strange petulancy when Christ says Come ye Blessed of my Father inher it the Kingdom c. to reply no I dare not I am not qualify'd Such is the refusal to inherit his Comforts when he hath wrought in us their Conditions And if the foremention'd be not where are they Remember Oh my Soul thou livest not under the Covenant of Works but of Grace And if thou doubtest of thy Preparations resume thy Work try them better make them sounder that thy second and renew'd Essays may be unquestionable Yet remember also that 't is a grievous Sin to belye thy self and deny God's Work he expects thou should'st consider and own the Operation of his Hands and give him the Glory of the Fruits of his Love in thy Regeneration Take heed of detaining the Truth in the Prison of Vnrighteousness Be just to God and thy self Do not dare to blaspheme his Grace by attributing it to other Causes As thou must not flatter thy self so neither forswear the Grace of God If thou yet alledge that 't is God's Work to comfort by his Spirit who does it by inclining the heart to accept of his Tenders which thou dost not experience but rather he renews thy Troubles and Disquiets by presenting new Matter or setting on the old therefore should'st thou assume to thy self the Solace of the Promises 't would not be a Comfort of God's making but thine own and so a mere Fallacy put upon thy Conscience I answer 1. by Retort If God do his part to encline thy heart to accept of Peace but thou resistest him and against his Will resumest thy Troubles and quenchest those Motions of his Spirit that were intended to allay thy Disquiets and create Peace whose is the Fault now That this may be clear'd I answer 2. That God's moral Motion is antecedent to and leads all Physical his or ours For since he inclines in a way suitable to our Nature as he himself as we and all rational Natures act where the Mind and Reason leads the Will and inclines it therefore by presenting Objects and Reasons urging and enforcing them by sense and feeling of misery disquiet of heart and woe God strives with thy Will to move it freely to embrace those freely-offer'd Comforts without which thou perceivest thy self plainly to be ready to sink into Horror and Despair But thou against both divine Reason and thine own Sense stiffly irrationally and malapartly refusest to yield to either and yet art so sottish as to impute thy Frenzy to God Avaunt Blasphemy If the mighty important Perswasives of Heaven cannot prevail upon thee as a Man never imagine that the Almightiness of God will miraculously drag thee as a Beast or a Block into that Paradise of Rest and Satisfaction which now thou startlest and tremblest at And understand that if thou be'st a Rebel against the Reason of God thou wilt also be a Fighter against the Power of God If a rational Mind act in repugnancy to his Wisdom much more will an irrational brutish Will against his Omnipotence there being less aversation in any Man to be subdu'd by the Golden Liberty of forcible Arguments than the Iron-necessity of Club-Law The result is that to refuse divine Comforts when qualified for them is an evident fighting against God and to deny our Qualifications when heartily grieved for and undissembledly willing and active to divorce from and never return to any thing displeasing to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and unfeignedly desirous and diligent to espouse the Divine Interest in all things without tergiversation or delay This is an apparent Rebellion and Lye against the Holy Ghost and our own Souls which Oh my Soul there is an absolute necessity that thou should'st be much more afraid of than thy mere imaginary Presumption in accepting that which is so clearly and freely tendered to thee by God And what dost thou mean herein oh foolish and unkind to thy self oh ingrateful and impious against God that the wise and rich and sweet Provisions of Heaven in boundless Compassions to thy Necessity and Misery laid at thy Feet should be trod in the Dirt That thou wilt not vouchsafe to be so merciful to thy self and respectful to God as to permit his healing Balms to be poured into thy bleeding Wounds but in a blind Zeal against thy unworthy self or an over-righteous Revenge against thy abhorred Sins or an humorous Peevishness or Pertinacy of Spirit or I know not what woundest those gracious Hands which in infinite Tenderness and Commiseration offer so benignly by these most effectual Medicines against all Anxiety and Woe to deliver thee out of thy wearisome Hospital into an everlasting Heaven of Pleasure Joy Peace Soundness Safety Rest and Consolation Oh thy Madness to chuse thy Miseries and Vexations rather than so blessed an hope so unutterable Happiness What! be fond of Hell and dote on thy Torment and prefer thy Prelibations of eternal Plagues and Horrors before these Earnests of those unspeakably glorious future Recompences Is it not even so This is and well may it be for a Lamentation CHAP. XVII Instructive Inferences VVAving the Corrective Deductions because in part coincident with the Elenctical as I have managed them I shall close all with the Instructive And here as all along I have done I shall especially direct about Spiritual Comfort as the foundation of and introductive to all other that 's worthy of Name Every disquieted Heart is melted into a passionate longing after Peace If it can but see any dawnings of a lightsom day of Joy after the gloomy night of its Troubles If after all its tremulous Palpitations and Passions and Horrors it may be supported with the Revivings of the least glimmering Hope that God will entertain any Thoughts of Reconciliation it seems to glory in a willingness to be or do any thing to submit to any Terms whatever that may be conducible to this happy and amicable Closure To promote this blessed End and compromise of differences betwixt incensed Heaven