The similitude also of natures may cause love for after the image of God man was made and is so renewed the necessity and the utility of Gods chastisments he that had had very good experience of them upon the same account with the same success confesseth in the Psa 119.67 plainly in these words Before I was afflicted I went astray but now I have learned the Judgements of thy mouth And It is good for me that I have been afflicted Psal 119.71 Unless we are pure in our own eyes And have better conceits of our own hearts than of him who was a man according to Gods own heart we cannot but see with the same eyes as he did That God doth afflict men for their good to sanctify them and teach them in the waies of eternal life as it is Psalm Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest and teachest in the way that thou mayest give him patience in time of Adversity c. Neither were his afflictions for the short season of a day or a year But constant Psal Even from my youth up thy terrours have I sufferd with a troubled minds and Psal All the day long have I been afflicted and chastened every morning Psal 119.109 My soul is always in my hand yet do I not forget thy law Wherefore St. Pet. 1 Epist 4.12 Bids them think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is happened unto you as though some strange thing had happened unto you which implys that afflictions in the highest degree are common and familiar guests to be daily expected Those were no light ones whereby Davids very soul was in his hand and in jeopardy Zach. 13.9 I will bring the third part through the fire It shewes the truth of our profession if we can go on cherfully without outward incouragements Therefore when God would shew the sincerity of Job by removing that objection of Satan Hast thou not made a hedge about him he let loose the tempter to afflict him with all sorrows and to deprive him of all comforts When God would perfect in us the grace of patience he doth it by affliction as it is Jam. 1.4 and that where it is makes a perfect Christian as we ought all to be as it is Mat. 5. ult Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect Paul to the Philip. Cap. 1.12 Saith The things which have happened unto me have fallen out rather for the furtherance of the Gospel so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the pallace and in all other places So far are afflictions from hindering us in the heavenly race or from hindering the sowing of the seed of grace in the heart of others that the patient suffering of the Saints of God provokes others to imitation and to search and inquire what is that principle and Basis upon which such resolutions stand Psal 25.10 Though they are afflicted they acknowledge that all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth to such as keep his covenant and his testimonies they know that of kindness God afflicts them the very same kindness is in afflicting them as was in adopting them His paternal love The assurance of which convinceth them that all things shall work for the good of them that love God This principle every true believer hath and this made Moses to chuse afflictions before the pleasures of sin viz. The assurance of his interest in the love of God and the glorious priviledges of the Saints by faith in gods promises through the merits of the bloody passion of our Redeemer and the Hope which they have of the repositum in the world to come Our Blessed Lord and Saviour was not only our example of suffering wrongfully and undergoing all griefs and sorrows whom being our captaine and head we ought to follow But being our King also hath made it a law for all that will come after him to deny enjoyments and to take up the contrary which our nature so much declines crosses The discipline which he trained up his disciples to and all his followers was suffering The parable of the builder sitting down and first to cast up what his building will cost him coucheth the cost and paines grief and self-denial which a Christian must resolve to undergo for Heaven and happiness He told his followers that the world would hate them pesecute them and kill them for his and the Gospels sake The parable of the Marchant who having found a field wherein was contained a treasure hid sold all to purchase it sheweth what we must part with for Heaven Consider the sharneful painful cursed death of our Lord. How they designed his derision in the robes Crown of thornes salutation in contempt spitting on his face c. If our hopes were in this life we were of all men most miserable What then can a Servant of God expect here The comfort of the Scriptures are suited to such a condition only and a great part of the Scripture would be useless if there were no such condition David in 119. Psal The same is my comfort in my affliction thy word hath quickned me Great are the troubles of the Righetous but the Lord delivereth him out of all Psal 34. v 19. and 7. The Angel of the Lord tarrieth round about them that fear him and delivereth them and the whole Psalm is made to shew the blessedness of them that trust in the Lord and the faithfulness of God toward such as trust in him in time of affliction and many other of Davids Psalms are to the same effect that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have Hope He is a Father of the Fatherless and a help to the friendless Our heavenly Father will not endure to hear his children cry long though heaviness endureth for a night joy cometh in the morning and Psal 140.12 I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted and the right of the poor The patient abiding of the meek shall not always be forgotten before the Lord 3 of the Revela ver I will be with thee in the fiery trial that is to come upon all the earth to try them I will be with thee in the fire that it shall not burne thee and in the Water that it shall not drown thee The hatred which the men of the world bear to the people of God is by the Spirit of God in the Scriptures set forth as a principal cause of their calamities the Cap. of the op of St. Cain was of that wicked one and slew his Brother wherefore because his works were evil and his brothers good conttariety of works is cause of hatred as well as contrariety of natures men blush not before them that are like them the contrariety makes them blush Galat. 4.29 As he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit So it is now he alludes to Ishmaels mocking of Isaac This is most fully set forth in Psal 37.
renewing some holy duties which have been omitted or else by some judgment befallen to others we are warned and stirred up to do our first workes and to quicken the holy graces which are dying as by the return of the Sun in the spring-time the several Plants of the earth seem to revive and send forth their leaves and fruits again The causes of this deadness of faith holiness charity hope and other graces are various but may be found out and in some persons a wilful sin committed and unrepented of is the cause in some sloth in holy duties in others worldlyness in others pride some too much relying upon their own strength and opinion of the grace they have gotten already not endeavouring after a fuller measure every true Christian feels in himself some times these swoonings away of his graces and diligently endeavours to get more quickning by prayer to God for it and the use of Gods word and ordinances reflecting upon the first motives that excited and allured him to the pursuit of those dying graces and all such other motives as have since confirmed him in the liking of them and the rewards that he hath obtained from God for the service he hath done him and the hope of the eternal recompences The absolute necessity of it enforceth his awakned affections reflecting upon those texts which so absolutely press the necessity of it as Rom. 8.13 If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye but if ye by the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the flesh ye shall live And v. 29. Whom he did foreknow them he also did predestinate to be comfortable to the image of his Son and in the Canticles ch The Spouse is said to be all fair That holiness is attainable is proved First because it is the main end of Christs passion and he cannot be frustrate of his ends Luke 1.74 75. That we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our lives 2d Because he hath redeemed us unto himself that he might purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works That we should no more serve sin nor live the remainder of our days after the flesh But that we should be conformed to the image of him that made us For whom he foreknew he did predestinate that they should be conformed to the image of his Son Therefore our old man is dead and we are borne again of water and the Spirit whoso hath the hope of Heaven purifieth himself as God is pure the man after Gods own heart testifieth that he had an eye to all Gods commandments and Zachary and Elizabeth walked unblamably And that this is the end of our blessed Saviour in our redemption is made out by that which was the Type of the Isralites deliverance out of the Egyptian bondage Psal 105.42 And he brought forth his people with joy and his chosen with gladness and gave them the lands of the heathen and they took the labours of the people in possession 44. That they might keep his statutes and observe his laws But expresly Luke 17.1 That we might serve him without fear in holiness c. The whole design and scope of all the Scripture is our holiness and the restoring the image of God in us all the precepts command this and the promises encourage and invite us to this and the promises of grace are for making us thus the threats and cursings drive us to it the rewards and punishments tend only to shew us that God will be sanctified in us and that every transgression shall receive a due recompence of reward all the history of the Scripture proves it by examples of Gods wrath and vengeance upon the wicked and deliverances wrought wonderfully for them that feared and sought God with an upright hart Under one of these heads might be quoted every text in the Scripture The History of the Creation of the World which sheweth forth Gods infinite power and goodness working so great benefits for the use of mankind sheweth us our dependance on him and the duty we owe to him for our being and well being The fall of men and Angels shews our frailty without Gods supportation and the miserable condition that attends sin Gods dealings with the two Sons of Adam one he accepted for his sincerity in his worship the other he rejected because his heart was not upright the deluge that swept away all save only Noah the Preacher of righteonsness the rest that were ungodly were drowned the reason alledged because they had corrupted their waies And Noah only God had espied upright wherefore was Sodom and Gomorra destroied and Lot saved wherefore did God bless Abraham and all the nations of the earth in him wherefore was profane Esau deprived of the blessing and Jacob preferred before him what caused Sampson to lose his eyes wherefore were the murmuring Israeltes destroied in the Wilderness for what cause did the Philistians hold them in bondage why was the Kingdom taken from Saul and given to his neighbour that was more rightious than he how did God deal by him when he had sinned in the matter of Vriah and for numbring the people his successors that were good Kings how were they blessed the bad how did God deal with them in judgment when Israel sinned their enimies oppressed them when they returned and sought the Lord he saved them and delivered them when the sins of the Amalakites were grown to the hight he destroyed them and planted the Israelites in their Country and when the measure of their sins were full he distroyed them and brought upon them all the curses threatned against sinners All the Prophets were sent of no other errand but to press them to forsake sin and turn unto God all the evil they foretold was conditionally unless they would repent and forsake their sin The promise of the Messiah was to bring salvation unto his people he was to deliver them from all their iniquities to purify to himself a peculiar people that might offer a pure offering to bring into the right way such as went astray to bring the disobedient to the wisdom of the just his preching proveth the truth of these prophesies for Matth. 4.17 Jesus began to preach and say Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand And Matth. 5. The promises of giving the Holy Spirit to them that ask it And of writing his lawes in their inward parts of making them a willing people that all shall know God c. What other end have they but to make us holy John the Baptist the fore-runner of Christ taught repentance and good works he practised the same in abstinence humility and piety Our Blessed Lord and Saviours Doctrine was the perfection of holiness teaching charity to our enemies to sell all to buy this Pearl of exceeding value and in Matth. 5.22 Whosoever is angry with his Brother without a cause shall be in
produced must be good also and must proceed from that good principle viz. Faith without which it is impossible to please God but these good fruits are not proportionable to the goodness of his heart for he is sorry that they are no better blushing ever at their imperfections not boasting of them nor craving honour for them the end also must be good These qualifications the good works have They are described from their cause Gal. 5.22 The fruits of the Spirit are love joy peace meekness c. Rom. 6.22 described by their end these are fruits unto holiness Another difference is that some of those works are secret and invisible to Men such as are terminated in the action within as the secret risings of the heart against corruptions as was in St. Paul when he said That which I would I do not and groans for deliverance saying who shall deliver me from this bondage of corruption also secret longings after Christ and God and Holiness also dependency upon Christ and God inward mournings for sin c. 2. Such works as have opus ad extra as to shew forth a good Conversation True Holiness defined It is a grace supernatural infused by the Holy Spirit renewing us after the Image of him that made us whereby God is in us Christ is in us and the Holy Spirit is in us and we are in Christ by an inseparable Union and Communion of Natures 1 John 4.16 Gal. 2.20 and 4.19 1 John 4.13 'T is infused because of our selves we are not able to think a good thought and Christ saith That without him we can do nothing God worketh in us both to will and to do though he commands us to work out our own Salvation and the words following viz. with fear and trembling denote the weakness and disability of our selves and the ability which the command doth suppose is from Gods assistance we doing our endeavour our blessed Lord and Saviour compares it to leaven It is an Universal change of the whole Man If any one be in Christ he is a new Creature old things are passed away and all things become new It reneweth us after the Image of him that made us Both the inward Man and the outward are changed as Saul's heart was changed when he was anointed to be King so is every Saint changed by the Spirit of God that is in him and the understanding desires and thirsts after no knowledge but to know God and Jesus Christ and him Crucified because the understanding before was darkned and alienated from the Life of God through the Ignorance that was in it But now it is enlightned and the darkness is passed away because the Light of the glorious Gospel of Christ which is the Image of God hath shined into it for the Gospel is Light and Jesus Christ is that Light that enlightens every one that cometh into the World by this it cometh to pass that the Soul knowerh that all Gods Commandments are True Righteous and Faithful that they are tryed to the utmost That it is Wisdom and Understanding to do thereafter It now puts a true estimate upon God and Christ Heaven and Grace and Glory This is that wise Merchant spoken of in the Gospel that having found a Pearl of exceeding great value in a Field sold all to buy that Field his knowledge is practical diligent and not slothful rests not in the inquisition but proceeds to the acquisition of its true everlasting interest through the knowledge of Jesus Christ as he is revealed in the Gospel Rom. 12.2 Be ye transformed in the renewing of your minds that ye may prove what is the good acceptable and perfest Will of God As the undestanding is changed so the affctions love hatred hope fear c. Are accordingly changed he that before counted the Sabboth weariness now he calleth it a delight He that before rejoyced in the increase of Corne Wine and Oyl and in satisfying the senses his joy now proceeds from higher and nobler causes viz. The light of Gods countenance communion with God in holy duties reading the word of God praying thanksgiveing meditating and the most severe duties of fasting humiliation and repentance and every meanes of begetting and improving grace he preserreth before satisfying of the senses with pleasant viands which whilest they cherish and delight the body they deprave the better part possibly not the intellect and rational faculty of the soul for that may be improved too by God usage of the body so it be not to excess But the new nature the divine Image which is begotten in us by the word of truth is starved stifled and grieved which image and new nature though it be in the understanding yet it doth so far surpass the reason as that doth the senses and is no other thing but the holy Spirit of God which every regenerate person hath received in some measure for this is that which did regenerate him which if any man have not it is certain he is none of his It is known to be the Spirit of God because it works not as reason doth by arguments deduced from things visible to sense nor such as can be proved by reasonable consequence but it is oftentimes directly opposite and repugnant to reason as in Abraham and so in all that undergo any trialls and who doth not undergo them This new soul or new life of the regenerate is not somented nourished or cherished by the elements of the natural sensual vegetative or meerly rational soul but by the word of God and the dictates of the Spirit for which it panteth as the Hart panteth after the water brooks and breaketh out for the very fervent desire that it hath alwaies to Gods commandments which it esteemeth above Gold and thirsteth after as the body doth for the necessarys of life and yet the most regegenerate and renewed person hath the flesh and coruption alwaies remaining in him and must and doth pray sometimes with holy David for renovation Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right Spirit within me Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy holy Spirit from me For we have this treasure but in earthen vessels we are not assured of the continuance of it therefore we watch against our inbred corruptions and pray for divine supportations knowing our slippery standing our own weakness and the strength of our spiritual adversaries which assails us without intermission And when we think our selves most strong we may fall as the great Apostle that denied his Master did because in the best of Saints the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and sometimes leads them captive and suffers not to do the good which they would but draws them to the evil which they would not the law of the members warring against the law of the mind Were it otherwise there would be no virtue nor occasion of resisting The sense of which corruption and uncleanness makes them mourne bewaile and abhor themselves
is greater than the joy of worldly men in their abundance of corn wine and oyle the Prophet Habakkuks joy in the Lord in the want of necessaries of life Hab. 3. Proveth it for what worldly thing can bear up the mind in Adversities Jobs hope and assurance that with those very eyes he should see his redeemer made him suffer all things patiently but all Hamans greatness and happiness did not avail against a disrespect But worldly joy kills the joy in the Holy Ghost They that live in pleasure the Holy Apostle saith they are dead while they live when Afflictions have taken off our heart from the love of the world then wee seek more durable joy then is Gods time to give his Servants joy in the Holy Ghost the peace of conscience and pardon of their sins Though for a season they are in heaviness through manifold temptations they rejoyce in the hope of glory to be revealed As sorrowing they are though they always rejoyce as having nothing yet they possess all things in value Their sorrow is but in semblance their joy reall and in substance Their seeming sorrow for a season their rejoycing perpetual Well then might they take joyfully the spoiling of their goods and rejoyce that they were counted worthy to suffer for the name of Christ and prefer afflictions before the pleasure of sin I had utterly fainted but that I believe verily to see the goodness of the Lord in the Land of the living Psal This anchor of hope kept up his fainting soul As Stephen being stoned then saw Heaven opened So doth faith give to the suffering Saints and Martyrs a prelibation of the joys of Heaven As it is resembled by the first fruits of Canaan which were brought to the Israelits in the barren wilderness 'T is usual with God to depress those which greatest afflictions whom he intends to exalt high And so those to whom he reveals himself most as St. Paul experienced This Apostle though afflicted had joy unspeakable and glorious and received abundance of glorious revelations Psal 23.4 David though he walked through the vally of the shadow of death would fear no evil for thou art with me said he this apprehension of Gods presence and almighty supportation will banish all fears but Psal 46.3 He was not so strong in faith as not to fear for he saith Though I am sometimes afraid yet put I my trust in the Lord. He recovers himself out of his fainting fits by the use of the means Twice in one Psalm we find him fainting and checking himself for it in these expressions Why art thou cast down O my soul and why so disquieted within me Then he raiseth himself up again to hope and trust in God by the experience he had had of Gods help and his interest in him as his God He is the help of my countenance and my God Therefore hope thou in God Bless God for this that he hath given us greater things than we are willing to lose and that he hath given us Christ whom we can not lose Let this comfort us consider if we are afraid of suffering here how should we be afraid of hell If we leave our present enjoyments for God it shall all be made up in Heaven God gives us good things that we may have somthing of value to leave for Christ Philip 1. They rejoyced and waxed confident by St. Pauls bonds Suffering adversity credits the Gospel and creadits thee who sufferest for Satan and his instruments are known to strike at the fairest and best according to that saying placet in vulnus maxima cervix Sen. If afflictions are cause of joy to a believer as the scriptures make out as that of St. James c. 1. Count it all joy when you fall into temptations knowing that the trial of your faith worketh patience c. Then in respect of their spiritual good they ought to contemn temporal losses as this holy precept teacheth The example of the practice of this duty was in those blessed martyrs who took joyfully the spoiling of their goods not accepting deliverance from their persecuters The like example we find in St. Paul Gal. 1.14 He glories in his afflictions saying God forbid that I should glory in any thing save the Cross of Christ by whom the world is crucified to me and I to the world It may be rendered by which the world is crucified to me c. i. e. Though the contemplation of the Cross of Christ and his bitter sufferings did throughly motify the Apostle the contemplation of the same operation of it to him made him glory Or the afflictions which he suffered for Christ which wrought such a mortification in him made him therefore glory in them The like is put in practice by other Saints as it is Rom. 5.2 By whom also we have access by faith c. v. 3. And not onely so but we glory in tribulations also knowing that tribulation worketh patience And patience experience and experience hope Besides these graces and many others which are wrought in the soul by afflictions The reward which is given to those who do so suffer may well make them seem light and also matter of rejoycing viz. That exceeding and eternal weight of glory They do not only yeild the peaceable fruits of righteousness which alone were sufficient to make our lives happy but by these is wrought our eternal happiness also as before is expressed They work for us an exceeding and eternal weight of glory This will prove the truth of Christs Doctrine Mat. 11. ult My yoak is easie and my burthen is light Which may be intended in this sense that all hardship and pains which humane nature can undergo is but light in comparison of sin or the punishment thereof or else that they are but light in respect of the reward here and hereafter or light in respect of the almighty suportation as it is in the Psal 119. v. Hold thou me up and I shall be safe And that of the Apostle Paul I can do all things though Christ that strengthens me for which supportation they may rely upon this promise I will never leave thee nor forsake thee And that I will be with the in the fire c. Another maine cause that makes light the burthen of Christ Cross or yoake is Love the Soul submits willingly to God because it sees in him all causes of love all exeellency of Power majesty glory are in him All perfection of beauty in him every excellent work from him His kindness love and beneficence to us above our merit Hope or expectation his paternal relation to us as his creatures and adopted children in Christ his pittying of us and pardoning our sins and not punishing us according to the fear of our guilty consciences his peculiar pitty to Humane Nature more than to fallen Angels the need we have of him and the benefit we expect from him on whom for all temporal and eternal good we depend
body the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life also of Jesus might be manifest in our bodys with which agreeth that Rom. 8. Nevertheless afterwards they yeild the peaceable fruits of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby Wouldst thou have the life of Jesus manifest in thy body or Jesus Christ to live in thy soul then be content with Afflictions sickness and paines continually or wouldst thou have an hyperbole on hyperbole of glory then embrace the Cross which worketh it for us and love God afflicting thee Wouldst thou have eternity of Blessedness hereafter then be content to be fitted and prepared for the injoyment of it by a moments misery if thou desirest these ends use those meanes Med. 6. The Lord hath said it in his word that the voice of joy and thanksgiving is in the dwelling of the righteous heaviness may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning He saith he creates Israel a rejoycing Trust thou then in the Lord O my soul that thy grief shall not always last That the Rod of the wicked shall not always rest on thy back That he hath not forgotten to be gracious to thee Thou hast found by thine own experience the truth of these gracious dealings of God and mayst break out into praises of his goodness with the words of the Prophet Isaiah 25. O Lord thou art my God I will exalt thee I will praise thy name for thou hast done wonderful things thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth v. 4. Thou hast been a strength to the poor a strength to the needy in his destress a refuge from the storm a shadow from the heat when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall Therefore according to thy loving kindness of old now O Lord in the midst of thy wrath remember mercy Med. 7. What Son is there whom his Father chastneth not let me see the love of a Father in thy chastisements that it is the cup which my Father giveth that it is thy loving correction as David calls it Psal That it is but when need reguires That it is less than I deserve that it is that I should not perish with the World That thou dost not afflict nor grieve me willingly but as unwillingly as a Father his Son in whom he delighteth 't is affliction to himself That thou layest no more upon me than thou wilt enable me to bear That in all my afflictions Christ suffers with me and he that touches me touches also the Apple of his eye that when the Lord afflicts me with one hand he supports me with the other That he corrects me not in wrath That fury is not in him That his wrath endureth but a moment That he will save the afflicted people Psal 18.27 That it is an undoubted evidence to me of my Adoption and filiation And that it shall work in my soul Patience Humility meekness and all other peaceable fruit of righteousness in this life and an unspeakable weight of eternal glory hereafter That as a Father pitieth his children so the Lord pitieth me If this I be assured of I shall count afflictions matter of joy and rejoycing for as I desire the ends grace and glory I must embrace the means that God useth to subdue my iniquities and to teach me obedience and make me better and account it loving correction Med. 8. If I would attain the end I must be contented with the trouble and difficulty of the means Heaven is purchased at no less a rate than All for it Whatever is dear unto thee as thy right eye in this thou must deny thy self Hast thou tryed and found the difficulty of mortification forsaking of the world and self-denial and of thy self thou art not able to attain to them to conquer thy passions viz. thy anger by an invincible patience thy revenge and malice by doing good for evil and by submission to him who hath said Vengeance is mine or else thy covetous mind of possessing much and trusting to the multitude of thy riches or else the lusts of thy flesh and youth pride or vain-glory love of pleasure and ease and indulging thy self What thou findest thou art not able of thy self to do those acts of mortification thou hast prayed to God to inable thee to do viz. that these messengers of Satan that buffet thee may depart from thee The Lord by his visitations and afflictions takes away the strength of thy corruptions weakens them and brings them under and so doth that for thee which thou wert not able to do thy self thou hast cause to say with holy David Psal 119. It is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn the judgments of thy mouth whereas before I was afflicted I went astray Then thou hast cause to rejoyce also as the Apostle St. James bids the Brother of a high degree rejoyce when he is brought low It may be thou hadst need of subduing and keeping under thy body and instead thereof hast been rather inclined to pamper it feeding to the full and hast waxed fat and kicked The Lord out of his mercy to thee hath sent afflictions to purge thee and heale thee and to keep under thy body that thou shouldst subdue thy corruption and lusts which are ready to break out do what thou canst by mortification self denial fasting abstinance and prayer which dutys thou hast been unwilling to undergo or at least in such sort and measure as the Gospel requireth Thou must not only be conntent to use and undergo the means but if thou wilt have grace and glory thou must pray for the means also and desire it Thou knowest that visitations and loving corrections are those means which thy heavenly Father is forced to use to reclaim those that go astray and to improve those that are weak Thou knowest many of thy graces are weak and want improvement thou prayest to him to fulfil his promises of helping and strengthening his that are weak if so thou must pray for these means which he hath appointed and take up thy Cross that thou mayest be able to follow thy Saviour Med. 9. Thou knowest the Discipline which God useth to his prodigal and undutiful children If they forsake his waies he visits their iniquities with rods and their sins with scourges though he doth not utterly take his loving kindness from them We read not of any of the Saints of God who went unpunished for their sins Job cryed out that God made him possess the sins of his youth David's sins took such hold upon him that he was not able to look up he was even consumed by means of Gods heavy hand there was no health in his flesh nor rest in his bones by reason of his sin Psal 38.3 Then he confessed his wickedness and was sorry for his sins and they were ever in his sight when the rod was upon him v. 17 18. Though we also believe our selves to be the Garden
fore-skin of our heart taken away by mortification of all the senses and affections and is in all the parts of the body the eyes the hands the tongue the eares the pallate c. This analogical circumcision remaineth that of Moses law is taken away this is Spiritual and may be with blood too as is said You have not yet resisted unto blood striving against Sin That circumcision signified this mortification but this is the more difficult His reasons of his assertion of this are couched in these characters of Christians viz. Which rejoyce in Christ and have no confidence in the flesh As if he should argue that they that rejoyce in any thing but Christ and his merits and alsufficiency are not the heires of Salvation Nor they who have confidence in any fleshly thing as circumcision and outward performances and priviledges Nor those who put off God with outword bodily worship and do not worship him with their hearts and Spirits Spiritually as it is said they draw nigh with their lips but their heart is far from me these things they may do that are in the flesh but cannot please God because they do not justice and love mercy and walk humbly with God Holiness also of our own framing is not that which God accompts holiness that is to say voluntary Humility worshipping of Angels c. These the Apostle saith Have only a shew of Godliness They that trust in themselves and despise others as the Pharisees did that say they have works of supererogation Nor they that say stand off for I am holier then thou and think well of themselves that they are profitable are not Saints The centurion had a meaner opinion of him self when he said Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof So had John the Baptist when he said he was not worthy to loofe the lachet of his Saviours shooe And wise Agar when he said he had not the understanding of a man and was more brutish then any So St. Paul when he said he was the meanest of the Apostles and not worthy to be calld an Apostle And David professeth the same humility Psal 131. saying Lord I am not high minded I have no proud looks c. And Psal He saith Lord I am a worme and no man The very scorne of men and the outcast of the people this comportment is that which becometh holiness and is acepted in the sight of God for he resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble and of Israel he saith when thou wert little in thine owne eyes then thou wert honourable and our blessed Lord and Saviour repressed the contention of the Apostles for the superiority by inculcating this grace But to seek honour from one another and to love the praise of men and salutation in the Market places the uppermost seats in the Synagogues preheminence precedency and be called Rabbi our blessed Lord and Saviour renders these for the charactars of those who would seem to be righteous and are not He plucks of the masks and vizards of these Actors of holiness and instances in their over Actings to prove that they do but personate what they are not they make broad their Phylacteries Tith mint Annis and Comin but neglect the waitysr matters of the law He shews what they are within in their harts and affections they washed but the out side of their cups their inward parts were foul still he compares their holiness to the painted Sepulcres they flourished it with giveing their almes publickly praying publickly fasting and disviguring their faces that they may be seen to fast and thus coming abroad among the people they crave veneration for this maske of holiness and they had their rewards which they sought Our Saviour tells them what course they should take to have a real goodness Math. 12.33 Either make the Tree good and his fruit good or make the Tree corrupt and his sruit corrupt v. 35. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good fruit c. That is a natural production And when the principle or cause is such the effects will be answerable â—o do worthy Acts and not to seek praise and honour for them is true worth for hereby it is manifest that he who doth so doth it for vertues sake for the love of worth and vertue meerly Therefore Bafil's expression seemeth to me to be unsound Fugiamus inanem gloriam duleem Spiritualium operum spoliatricem tincam Virtutum For how can it be called a Spiritutal work when it is done for vain glory and not by the Spirit and for the same reason such a work can not be called virtuous because the glory and not the virtue is counted sweet but nevertheless we may take such admonitious in good part But it appears that these Pharisees principles were not good because they had such base vain and vile ends whereby they neglected the weigher matters of the law and contented themselves with pairing off the external enormities that they might seem fair to men from whom they sought veneration and reverence for their professions sake affecting the honour and reward of virtue more than virtue it self But this evil leaven our saviour warned his Disciples of and in them as I conceive their successors He shews what principles a good man hath and practiseth works by for though none be good but God absolutely yet in some degrees they may be good as Joseph of Arimathea was called a good man And the good ground was he that received the word in an upright heart so that God judgeth of a man according to his state not according to some particular actions which may happen to be evil Such principles and such works makes a good man that these principles do bring forth is proved from the nature of them They are given to that end that they should bring forth for God seeing the heart weak and striving to bring forth such fruit he gives them such graces by the working of his Spirit in their hearts as may enble them Jer. 32.4 I will put my Spirit into their hearts This is active T is called the life the fountain of living waters the spirit of grace and the spirit of a sound mind because these graces are the motions and operations of the Spirit or the Spirit moving And Secondly because of the vigour and strength of these principles called the power of God and godliness 3. From their being The being that Grace hath in the Heart is in its operation so is its well-being therefore they are said to be ready to dye when they do not operate 4. For the Seat of it being possessed of the Heart which is the chief part over all and so gives Life to all 5. The heart is supposed to be the seat of the affections which being made good by such principles they produce fruit answerable The real goodness in the Heart must be exerted in the action and the work that is
will of him that sent me He would not suffer them to divulge his miracles nor be made a King 12. In his zeal 'T is said of him The zeal of thy house hath even eaten me up 13. In his Truth he saith To this end was I born that I should bear witness to the Truth 14. In his obedience to his Parents 15. In his publick spirit he was born and died and rose again upon a publick accompt Sic oculus sic ille manus sic ora movebat Those that are otherwise are not holy as they ought to be therefore let us press forward and pray that we may receive of his fulness grace for grace The last means but not the least is Repentance the same which was the first not a slight confession of our sins only with sorrow for a day as the Prophet Isaiah expresseth it Isa 58.5 To hang down our heads like a bulrush for a day Wicked Ahab did more than so Thy stony heart will endure more malliating than one daies contrition and not be broke But such sorrow as may work a change as that of the Ninevites Jonah 3.8 10. They turned from their evil way cloathed themselves in sackcloth and cryed mightily to God And since notwithstanding our repentance our corruptions and our spiritual enemies do sometimes prevail against us we must as oft as we fall rise again by repentance and mourn over the sinfulness of our nature as David did Psal 51. In sin hath my Mother conceived me And Paul When I would do good evil is present O wretched man that I am And this we shall have cause to do as long as we live and this causeth us to iterate our repentance which we first made upon our conversion as it did in holy David and Job calling to mind the sins of their youth For I conceive the method of the Argument of the penitent is that he believes that his sins were sharers in procuring those bitter sufferings to his Saviour which he cannot think of without grief and breaking off those sins and that grief leads him to believe that Christ in his sufferings had respect to his sins that affords comfort Meditations of Repentance Mot. The Sacrifices of the Lord are a troubled spirit Psal 51. When I have fallen into any sin I immediately perceive my loss of my innocency as our first parents did and the injury done to God And then I loath my self and would give all I have to be restored to my guiltless state again if I could but undo that which I have done and I resolve to spend all my life in weeping fasting and prayer if so be the Lord will have mercy upon me and pardon my sin and not destroy me then I see that nothing I can do or suffer can make attonement to God for my sin But my stedfast resolution is that I will never sin more O Lord give me the same minde now and ever that my sins may be ever in my sight to bewaile the loss of my innocency and the injury done to thee to loath my sinful self to endeavour night and day to undo those sinful acts by teares of repentance mourning humble confession prayers fasting charity and severe watchfulness against my corruptions the duties of mortification and self-denial And to renew my vows and resolutions never to sin more And for the remainder of my days to abstain from the least degree of every sin and not to go as far as I think I may lawfully do in the satisfying of my senses and passions least I be drawn in one degree too far That the Lord may behold my grievous sorrow and repentance as he did Peters and Davids and may have mercy upon me and pardon me and not destroy me and take his holy Spirit utterly from me as he did from Saul O Lord Though my sins are as scarlet do thou wash me throughly with the blood of my Saviour which onely can purge my sins and is the only propitiation to attone thy wrath and to reconcile me to thee and restore me to everlasting righteousness better than mine own which I lost and makes me white as Snow and being so washed and cleansed I shall have communion again with my God and peace of conscience and abhor those sins that caused my Saviours sufferings Lord thy mercy would have no object if there were no misery All that are descended from Adam have been prodigal Sons as he was and by their prodigalities have forsaken thee daies without number and have sought out to themselves many inventions I find in my own heart that I would stay from thee and never return to thee if I could but find empty husks to satisfie the thirst of my soul which are only fit for the voluptuous Swines of the world and can never satisfie Thou sittest upon a Throne of grace to this can we come by Christ only through him we may come boldly and find mercy in a time of need and all that come unto thee come by this and to this I desire to approach that I may find mercy in this time of need receive me I beseech thee as a returning Prodigal desirous to break off my sins by repentance and a new life Lord give me that Repentance that I shall never repent of that I may search and try my waies examine my own heart and discuss all my actions what I have done through the whole course of my life let me performe this duty by thy assistance that I may not run on in wickedness without regret as they did of whom the Prophet Jeremiah speaks Jer. 8.6 They said not What have I done I will therefore make this reflection seriously particularly and constantly In this Examination I will consider the bate that cought me and deceived me that I may abhor it as a mean base and vile thing to be put in the scales against that communion with God his favour and hopes which the soul had in God which it lost by that sin as to its present feeling and if it should at any time reinforce its allurements I will reject them utterly and not have to do with them any more I consider also the present and future evils brought upon my soul by this sin for though I must not dispaire of pardon through the alsufficient merits of my Saviours sufferings yet I find my self fearful and ashamed to approach the throne of grace least I should find him a consuming fire I am undisposed for every holy duty and deprived of the assistance of the Spirit And not only so but I am as it were left to my self with the tempter and see none to succor me and I know not what to take in hand with hopes of success I am at a loss what I should do because I seeme to have lost God who hath withdrawn himself for my sin and hides his face I am also made naked and destitute for he was my defence and shield my strength and refuge my hope and
and thou only dost mollify it by the word and thy Spirit I will therefore beseech thee for this grace saying with Ephraim Jer. 31.18 Turn thou me O Lord and I shall be turned for thou art the Lord for of my self I am under thy Chastisements untamed as a Bullock unaccustomed to the yoak But if thou turnest me thou wilt open my ear by discipline thou wilt open my eyes and mollify my hard heart I shall be instructed convinced of my errours and smite upon my breast and repent and be ashamed Thus Ephraim did Jer. 31.19 Surely after I was turned I repented after I was instructed I smote upon my thigh I was ashamed and confunded because I did bear the reproach of my youth Lord we ascribe this and all our graces unto thee thou workest in us both to will and to do as St. Paul said That he labourd more abundantly than all yet not he but the grace of God in him It is not sufficient that thou commandest all men to repent but that godly sorrow which worketh repentance is from thee also By this we are sorrowfull for our sins for sins sake and not only for fear of the punishment as Esau when he sought repentance carefully with tears because of his loss as also Pharo repented of his sins but the plagues being removed he returned to his sin again And the Israelites when God consumed their dayes in vanity and their years in trouble and when he slew them they sought him but within a while they forgot God And God alone can give this sorrow because he alone can open the eyes to let us see our selves know our selves and let me ever seek my light in him Act. 26.8 For God is light and all light is from him The Spirit shews us our selves in the glass of the law which shewes us our sinfulness and our lost undone condition by reason thereof and that sin is the worst of evils because it is the cause of all other evils and without this conviction we cannot repent because we are destitute of light in our selves to see our selves for by sin our understanding is darkned Eph. 4.18 And 1 Joh. 2.11 He that hateth his Brother walketh in darkness and knoweth not whither he goeth He wanteth light and sight too Job 24.13 They rebel against the light and know not the waies thereof Naturally we shut our eyes against the light as the Jews Joh. 12.37 Though Christ Jesus had done many miracles among them yet they believed not in him though also he speak as no man spake his enemies being judges And because our natural estate is a state of unbelief therefore we in that estate oppose the light of Gods word as is said Luke 16.4 Though one should come out of Hell they would not believe Again I find I cannot repent of my self without Gods grace inclining me Because naturally my heart is proud and unhumbled and sees no use of Christ And therefore it must be humbled by grace for Christ came only to seek and to save that which was lost and sensible of their lost condition their Spiritual sickness and fly to Christ as the man slayer did to the Cities of refuge or the prodigal after he could not find relief in the husks would then returne to his Fathers house Again I find in my self that my nature when dejected is inclined to repentance too violently as the Corinthians who sorrowed over much or rather like that of Judas ready to make away my self if Gods supernatural grace did not help me by applying some word of comfort out of the Scripture Then if my repentance cause not a dejection I fear it is too cold like that of the Israelites when God slew them then they sought him but presently they forgat that God was their redeemer Therefore I pray for Gods grace so to convince me of sin that I may be also convinced of righteousness too for he hath said That if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive them That I may not sorrow as those who are without hope nor hang down my head like a bulrush for a day but that I may sorrow to amendment and better obedience for unless it attain to that end and proceed from these causes I must not account it a godly sorrow working to repentance But a worldly sorrow or a devilish sorrow for they also fear and tremble but they cannot turn unto God with their affections and endeavours and bring forth fruit meet for Repentance nor be renewed in the Spirit of their mind which is the only true Repentance I find in my self sometimes motions of the flesh suggesting that I have time enough to repent But I pray that whilst it is to day I may lay hold on the seasons of Grace that I may remember my Creator in the time of my youth least sin grow to a habit and by custom seem to be no sin and becomes a second Nature that it cannot be parted withal And in the first of Proverbs 't is said Because when I called ye answered not therefore ye shall call and I will not answer which our Saviour testifieth that the Jews found true when he wept over Jerusalem and he rejected those who made excuses when they were invited I fear and am jealous that my Repentance is not so sound as it ought to be because I am not so sensible of the evil of sin as I ought for though immediately after the commission of sin I apprehend great evil in it in making me liable to all Gods Judgements here and hereafter and that it deprives me of all good First my hopes of Eternal happiness hereafter and the great and precious promises made to the obedient And if not that for there remaineth hope of Repentance yet there is great loss and punishment to all sinners though they repent As David found when he numbred the people When God offered him his choice of the three Judgements And when he denounced that Judgement against his Family That the Sword should never depart from it And Lot for his drunkenness and lust suffered shame all the days of his life and the curse upon his Seed Besides the outward losses I cannot sufficiently value the inward Spiritual loss when I have no access to the Throne of Grace with any confidence but am afraid to approach to it nor can have any comfort in meditating of God's Word and Promises as if I heard a voice saying Why dost thou take my Laws into thy Mouth seeing thou hatest to be reformed and hast cast my Commandments behind thy back or if I do meditate of Gods Word and his Promises and his Goodness I find not such sweetness and delight in my Meditations as I did before I had sinned On the contrary I find these Spiritual losses First Great advantage given to my Spiritual Adversary to insult over me as if I were guilty of all sins by this one sin and the same disobedience that lead me to this
God 2 Thes 2.12 which is his word we must believe the truth of his threatnings as well as the truth of his promises Jer. 32.19 This belief saved Noah and his family from the destruction of the deluge and this was commanded in him for a worthy act of faith and by this Lot escaped when Sodom was destroyed and his doubting wife made a perpetual monument or spectacle for her infidelity the chief and special object is Christ Act. 16.37 If we must leve Christ then is Christ the principle the cause efficient and final the matter and the forme of that life His example our pattern and his will ours to me to live is Christ is meant in some or in all these senses for faith verifies it in them all He is the end of our conversation because we can desire no more nor can we need any more if we have him he is the matter and forme of it because the natural life is drowned in this and is made spiritual as it is said If we have known Christ in the flesh yet henceforth know we him no more The holy soul doth not injoy its life if it doth not feel Christ living in it by his Spirit quickning its graces it crys O miserable man that I am c. As faith tells the instrument and meanes whereby we attain the greatest good so it is the Armour that defends us from the greatest evils therefore said the Apostle Ephe. 6.16 Above all take the shield of faith whereby ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked Whereby he commends faith above all the spiritual Armour shewing the cause of his commendation from the exceeding virtue of it that it inables them to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked the virtue of it is universal against the worst of evils if it be taken that is if it be used It must be used in the relying act and in the aplying act staying our selves upon the Lord Psal 37.5 Commit our way unto the Lord. The Applying act is when the soul can say his righteousnes is mine to justify me his blood which he shed upon the Cross an attonement for my sins his Spirit mine to quicken me The fiery darts which Satan shoots are first the guilt of sin then afflictions inward and out ward those who were stung by the fiery Serpents could not be cursed unless they looked up to the brazen Serpent Faith sees that the blood which Christ shed for sinners was shed for my sin that he had an eye unto me in his sufferings A 2 Way faith quenches the fiery darts of Satan by seeing that sin is condemned if so then it can have no power to condem the soul A 3 Way is to see afflictions to be a means of grace that they sanctify us and work for us a more exceeding and eternal weight of glory And to see God in the afflictions working for our good and keeping us from the hurt which men intended to us I will be with thee in the fire and in the water that the fire shall not burne thee nor the water hurt thee Isa 43.2 I will keep him secretly from the strife of tongues This made the suffering Martyrs more than conquerors through Christ that loved us and gave his life for us therefore they were wiling to suffer for him and lay down their lives for the testimony of the Gospel to take joyfully the spoiling of their goods and to think all too little for God for whom they suffered it therefore let us set before us our blessed Saviours suffering who endured for us such bitter paines mocking and contradiction of sinners lest we faint in our minds and are weary of the Cross of Christ Let us also set before us the examples of the Prophets Apostles and Martyrs and the examples of our own memory Our late King whose head was anointed with holy oyle yet his Majesty trampled upon with the greatest indignities and when the meanest of his subjects a common Souldier spit in his face used no reproof and he that was Gods vicegerent of the Crown was humbled to be Christs vicegerent of his Cross a rare and wonderful example of suffering patiently the good will and pleasure of God Our imitation of his virtues shall be a lasting monument of his Glory Aere ceu vacuo pendentia Mausolaea Mart. Holy David went far in this as when one abject fellow cursed him and threw durt at him he let him alone saying Who can tell whether God will requite good for his railing And God did not fail him because his faith did not faile though it was tried to the uttermost this faith carried him through all When the people talked of stoning him by this he encouraged himself in the Lord and was not dismaied and if it became the Captain of our salvation to be made perfect by sufferings why should it be thought strange if all that fight under the same banner be made perfect Soulders by the same discipline Oh that we could all follow him not only in drinking of the Cup which he drunk off viz. The bitter Cup of the Cross but also do it with the same charity to our enemies as he had when he prayed Father forgive them for they know not what they do whose steps the Proto Martyr St. Stephen also followed and for his reward he saw the Heavens opened and his Saviour standing at the right hand of God by this we are sure that the same Spirit is in us as was in Christ T was impossible for Job to have undergone so many of Satans fiery darts upon his estate his relations and bodily sufferings but that he believed that his redeemer lived and that he should see him with his eyes at the last day though wormes consumed his flesh And St. Paul having fought the good fight of faith had the like assurance as he testifieth henceforth is layed up for me a Crown of glory this inabled him to undergo the fight with victory and this took away the sting of death so that death it self was not formidable to him nor to the holy Prophets Apostles and Martyrs who willingly underwent it for a good conscience not accepting deliverance Those great temptations which Satan most relieth upon are those of sins guilt accusing the conscience and bloody persecutions though all manner of temptations as the vanities of the world the cares of the world the lusts of the flesh the pride of life are all of them by the arts of our Spiritual adversary so suited and managed according to several complexions that without this grace they are unresistable therefore the Scripture testifieth that this is the victory whereby we overcome the world and if morality could be sufficient to mortify our lusts and good education as some pretend how came it to pass that those moral Philosophers who writ so many things against lust covetousness and other vices were yet themselves overcome of them but through faith in Christ the world is