satisfie desire than salt water quencheth thirst Oh that true love like a strong stream which the further it is from this head of eternity would run into it with greater violence In Gods love there is no mixture of sorrow no want of delight fulness of pleasure all manner of contentment Alas alas that ever so many cold winds of temptation should blow betwixt God and our hearts to make our affections cooler unto him What dull metal is this wee are made of wee have the fountain of felicity and eternity and yet complain of want and weariness Do wee freeze in the fire and starve at a feast Have wee God to injoy and yet pine and hang down the head Let mee have my God and let mee never want him so shall my joyes bee lasting pure incomprehensible for possessing him that is the pure eternal and an all-sufficient good how should I not finde fulness of joy and contentment in him Oh my soul fear the Lord and stand in awe of his Majesty for hee is a great God and terrible a King above all Gods At his presence the earth trembleth the mountains quake and the foundations of the world are shaken The Angels cannot behold his glory the Sun and Moon are not clean in his sight Fear the Lord and depart from iniquity harbour no wicked plot in thy breast contrive not evil in thy thoughts for thou hast to deal with a God that is light of hearing who dwelleth in thy heart and knoweth thy Imaginations long before And what needs any other evidence when the Judge is witness His eyes are as flaming fire his feet are as burning brass hee will tread down the wicked in his wrath and vex them that hate him Serve the Lord with fear and commit thy self to him in well doing Trust in the Lord at all times Hab. 1.12 Psa 55.18 19. and stay upon his mercy Hee is the everlasting Rock constant in promises ever present for our aid unchangeable in love and favour No place can hinder God from doing us good distance or difficulty may bee impediments to all the creatures to stay their help but God at a blush fills all places to comfort or confound as it pleaseth him Hee that is freed from dimensions may pierce and penetrate enter and pass whither hee pleaseth without probability or possibility of resistance Hee hath created the world and yet is not weary his provision is no whit abated his power nothing diminished Let him carry us which way hee will make the passages never so troublesome and perillous yet the same hand that makes them hard will make them sure and if wee bee faithful to him will master all the difficulties for us Let him cast us into such great miseries of long continuance that hee seem to forsake us as if hee would not return to our help yet wee know that hee is everlasting the Holy One of Israel who cannot leave them for ever that rely upon him O God as I have trusted thee with the beginning so will I trust thee with the finishing of my glory And though never so many or main hinderances of my salvation offer themselves and after all hopes threaten to defeat mee yet faithful art thou who hast promised who wilt also do it Quest I would now hear how wee must proceed to meditate on the Love of God Answ Wee must consider of the efficient cause subject end objects effects properties and kinds of this Love what is like what opposite unto it The Love of God signifieth either that love whereby God loveth us Joh. 5.48 1 Joh. 3.17 1 Joh. 2.15 or that affection whereby wee being united unto God do rest in him with pleasure and delight Of this Theological virtue first in order not the first in fruit and continuance the greatest the end of the Commandement the bond of perfection the fulfilling of the Law I purpose to meditate by the grace of God This Love is a grace supernatural and is neither in us by nature nor can bee acquired by our endeavour Yea the measure of love is not defined according to the endeavour of the received but the pleasure and will of the Spirit measuring and pouring it into every one The author or principal cause of Divine Love is God himself by his blessed Spirit renewing and regenerating our hearts to the love of his Majesty Love is the fruit of the Spirit a Gal. 5.22 b Joh. 4.7 Eph. 6.23 He that loveth is born of God Love is of God and God is love Hee loveth us in his well-beloved and is the ever-springing fountain of all love in us The Spirit openeth our eyes to see and behold the incomprehensible goodness of God without which there is no love For of a thing unknown there is no desire The same Spirit infuseth the grace of love whereby wee are enabled to love God and quickened unto it Rom. 5.5 whereas of our selves we are destitute of all power and ability to every spiritual duty And the Spirit sheddeth abroad the love of God in our hearts whereby they are warmed to love God again The means which the Spirit useth for this purpose is the Word of Grace revealing the incomparable love of God in Jesus Christ towards us most miserable wretches The less principal cause of love is man renewed by the Spirit 1 Joh. 4.7 Deut. 30.6 Man regenerate doth love the Lord not of himself but by the grace of God The Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul Faith well rooted will a Gal. 5.6 Quantum cognoscimus tantum diligimus animate quicken and move love Faith and Love are both graces supernatural infused at once in the same instant of time but in order of working Faith hath the precedency and kindleth Love From this it followeth that the subject of Love is a renewed heart inlightened with the true saving knowledge of God purified by Faith and seasoned by Grace For Love is a spiritual affection in the reasonable part presupposing knowledge and affiance whereby the soul goeth forth to imbrace the good it apprehendeth The end of Love is the possession of God as the chief good Love as wee see makes man and woman one and so it doth couple us to God It is a weight whereby the heart is inclined toward God and wholly carried unto him The object of Charity is God in Christ God is to bee loved not only as hee is good merciful gracious long-suffering and bountiful and as hee doth love and daily lade us with his blessings But also as hee is wise just and powerful even as hee doth chastize and visit us with severe corrections For as the true love of children towards their Parents doth effect this that they love their Parents and perswade themselves that they bee beloved of them though they bee reprehended crossed corrected and cannot obtain what they will so true Love
ransome which two latter have place in the Redemption of man in divers respects The Author of this great admirable and extraordinary work of Grace is Jesus Christ the eternal Son of God who in time became man and was made under the Law that hee might redeem us that were under the Law For this hee is called our Saviour and Redeemer or Redemption of his people who doth deliver them from the hand of all their enemies that they might serve the Lord without fear Those that God did raise up to redeem his people as Moses the Judges yea those that redeemed as kinsmen this or that were shadows of this our great Redeemer who was in time to bee revealed Christ hath satisfied revenging-justice overcome Satan killed sin and purchased deliverance for his people that are given unto him of his Father and such as beleeve in him are partakers of this Redemption in truth in this life perfectly in the life to come For from what time wee are ingrafted into Jesus Christ by a soveraign well-rooted and all-seasoning Faith wee are freed from being under the Law and revenging-justice of God The strong man is cast forth from what time Christ the stronger is entred The conscience is made a sweet companion and comforter rather than a rigorous keeper Where the King hath released a Prisoner the Jaylor can have no further power over him for hee is but to keep him during the Kings pleasure Again By grace God doth set our wills at liberty so that sin cannot reign in us as heretofore yea the world is crucified to us and wee unto the world For as when health cometh a man beginneth to walk abroad and do such things as hee could not stir to do while his sickness did keep him under so it is here Finally wee are so freed that we can suffer nothing which our wills have cause to be unwilling with all things being such as shal work together for our good Behold the rich grace admirable love and tender mercy of the Lord towards man in himself most miserable rebellious and worthy to bee cast off for ever God so loved the world that hee gave his only begotten Son that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Oh Lord as our sin and misery abounded thy mercy hath superabounded In mercy thou didst provide a means for mans deliverance that justice being satisfied grace might bee glorious in his salvation Oh God when thou hadst determined that justice should take her revenge if by breach of covenant shee bee wronged thine infinite wisdome found out a way to satisfie wronged justice when all mankinde lay under the sentence of condemnation altogether unable to help themselves thine unspeakable mercy did shew her self for our deliverance when man had nothing to pay for his Ransome nor any strength to rescue himself from the hands of justice or the curse of the Law of thine endless love thou didst give Christ to bee our Saviour and by way of ransome to redeem us Oh my soul thou art redeemed not with silver or gold but with the blood of Christ a lamb undefiled This was it which in the blood of all the sacrifices was prefigured The death of Christ is it by means whereof Gods Grace doth set thee free and that in most just manner It doth pacifie justice her displeasure against sin For God that is God as his Revenging Justice is gone forth is said to smell a savour of rest in the death of Christ and by Christs being put under the Law or curse of Gods revenging made manifest in the Law wee are said to bee redeemed from the Law or curse as by an all-sufficient Ransome accepted of Justice This death doth feee us from the Devil for Satans power over us was by reason of sin and the punishment due to it from the Justice of God By death hee destroyed him that had the power of executing death The price of our Ransome was paid to divine Justice and it being paid and accepted Satan was cast down by strong hand This death hath obtained the Spirit to bee given thee which doth free thee from the captivity of lusts Gal. 4.4 5 and enable thee to finde liberty in actions of godliness Through this death thou hast deliverance from all evils So that all tears in Gods Time shall bee wiped from thine eyes and in the mean while all thy sufferings are so changed that they are not effects of Gods Revenging Justice to destroy but such things in which God doth offer himself as a Father intending to make thee partake further by means of them in the quiet fruit of Righteousness And now my soul why hath the Lord done this for thee that the Glory of his Grace might bee magnified in thy salvation and thou mightest serve him all the daies of thy life As for the parts of Redemption it is purchased or possessed and this begun or consummated in respect of guilt and punishment or power and tyranny of sin Rome was not built in a day Great things are not begun and finished all at once Redemption takes not its full effect in this life but it is so begun that it shall certainly bee accomplished in due time The Properties of this deliverance will set forth the excellencies of it in some sort It is true and real as far excelling that Redemption of Israel out of the Land of Egypt as the substance doth the shadow the soul doth the body and Christ did Moses It is spiritual from Sin Satan and the curse of the Law The bondage of soul to the wrath of God tyranny of Satan and slavery of sin is most lamentable and grievous and the more fearful the captivity the more comfortable the deliverance Nor is this mercy vouchsafed to a few that live in some corner of the world in some special age or time which much lessen the value of it but it is universal extended to all ages to all sorts of men high and low rich and poor a Apoc. 5.9 Thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and which is the upshot of all this Redemption is eternal Heb. 9.12 Hee that is ransomed out of the power of a bodily enemy may bee taken captive the second time but hee that is set free by Jesus Christ cannot bee captivated by Satan It was a singular favour that God raised up Saviours to deliver them out of the hands of their oppressors It is a much greater mercy that God hath given us Christ to set us free from spiritual thraldome for that Redemption was typical this real that temporal of the body this spiritual of the soul and conscience That from the cruelty of man this from the tyranny of Satan that thraldome would have ended with life this bondage would ever have increased daily After that deliverance they might and did return to bondage But in this Redemption hee that is once freed abideth a
perform this duty but hee may finde some place to do it in either in the field with Isaac Gen. 24.63 Dan. 6.10 or in the house with Daniel or at least if they bee hindered all the day long in his a Psa 6.7 4.4 bed with David Quest What time must bee set apart for the performance of this duty Answ First The Lords day is the fittest time in the week for the performance of this exercise but though it must not bee omitted on that day yet it must not bee put off till that day Secondly Some time convenient must bee set apart for this duty every day and that must bee observed constantly as much as wee can for by that means wee shall bee better enabled to finish this work with better success Thirdly No part nor hour of the day is absolutely necessary to bee kept neither is a man so strictly bound to observe the time which hee hath chosen as fit and seasonable that hee should charge himself in conscience to bee guilty of sin if upon occasion hee change it unto some other Order in all good duties is a cause of constancy and constant order is a notable means of continuance Fourthly As for the fittest hour in the day a mans own experience must instruct him and his occasions direct him whether to take the golden hours of the morning when being awakened and refreshed by sweet sleep and quiet rest hee shall finde himself free and fit to meditate upon some heavenly matter as Jacob did or the evening Gen. 28.16 when hee hath ended his labours which was the time that a Gen. 24.63 Isaac took or the midst of the day which was b Act. 10.9 Peters time or any other part and hour of the day c Psa 55.12 David and d Dan. 6.10 Daniel used three times a day to pray and meditate Fifthly The most quiet and free times if strength and wakefulness will give leave are the morning evening and night season which were the times approved among the Heathen who for the better imprinting of any thing in memory give this counsel which common experience doth confirm to think seriously upon it in the evening before they sleep and to call it again to minde in the morning when they awake Oh how sweet it is to awake with God in the morning and to salute him with our first thoughts How safe and profitable to prevent unsavoury thoughts and wicked projects by lodging up in our soul some holy matter worthy our chief employment Psa 88.13 119 48 Psa 5.3 Psal 63.1 Job 1.5 and to prepare the heart to walk with God before wee enter into the world Hee that makes himself well ready every morning shall pass the rest of the day with much ease and great comfort It is much with what liquor the heart is first seasoned if it be well prepared with some heavenly Meditation before the cares of this life take up the room it will be kept in better order in all businesses occasions accidents whatsoever How fit is it when wee have tasted of the blessings of the day that wee should render unto God the fruit not of the lips but of the heart and come into his presence from whom wee have received so many favours What more expedient than that wee should commend our selves into the hands of God with confidence and make our accounts even being to lye down in his fear What more excellent recreation after tedious labour than to recount the mercies of the Lord his fatherly protection the dangers wee escaped what service wee owe to God for all the tokens of his love and what cause wee have to bee humbled for all our sins Of the night David saith a Psa 16.7 My reins shall teach mee in the night season God used to speak to his servants in the * Psa 119.55 Psa 63.6 Job 4.13 night by dreams and visions When wee are freed from cares and incumberances compassed about with darkness that outward objects apprehended by the eye cannot draw the mind away when all things are quiet and still then what greater solace or sweet refreshing can bee found than to lift up the heart to Heaven But these times may bee commended as fit not urged as absolutely necessary Sixthly Every man must set apart some time for this duty but they the most that have most leisure and opportunity Meditation is an affirmative duty which must bee taken in hand when the Lord calleth thereunto and putteth it upon us by affording us means and season Quest What say you to them that pretend multitude of worldly businesse to excuse the omission and neglect of this exercise Answ It is their sin that they will thus set God against himself as though hee should command them to do that which hindereth them from another duty commanded God hath appointed unto us our several standings in our general and personal callings they are both of him and the duties belonging to them both will excellently stand together if the Commandements of God bee not contrary Nay rather wee should think that following of the world to bee too much which is not ordered and moderated by due consideration how far and in what manner wee should deal in the world so as not to bee hindered from holiness by it but even to practise holiness in our earthly affairs If wee bee rich wee have the less cause to bee holden from Meditation by wordly cares If poor wee have the more need of this duty to moderate our care that it exceed not nor carry us to unbeleef What example soever wee have of the contrary in the multitude of worldlings among whom wee live yet wee must know though others will not that wee are not set here in our places to do as loose and wretched servants who when they go to Market neglect their Masters business and mis-spend their time Quest What course must bee holden to redeem time out of the world for Meditation Answ First Walk so on earth as that thy chief delight bee in Heaven still use this world as a Pilgrim doth his cloak Love will finde somewhat to do they that delight in the world will make business in the world as children invent matter of play But if Christ bee our beloved and our treasure in Heaven nothing can hold our hearts from him Secondly Order the affairs of this life wisely that every thing may have its fit time and season wee have sufficient allowance for the dispatch of all our labours if wee take the opportunity and manage both work and means with discretion If thy heart bee upright fear not Eccl. 10.10 God will teach thee how to walk To the man that is good in his sight God giveth wisdome knowledge and joy Thirdly Spend not much time either in consulting privately with thy self or by talking in company with others about that whereof there is no use or which may bee done and ended in
freeman for evermore Those Saviours were meer men but Christ our Redeemer is God and Man They delivered their people by force of arms but Christ by his death first payed the price of our Redemption and then God by his great power rescued us from the hands of the Devil They brought their Redeemed into an earthly Canaan but Christ our Redeemer hath prepared for us an heavenly Inheritance They saved them that were oppressed and evil-intreated against their wills but Christ set us free who had voluntarily sold our selves into the state of slavery Quest How are these things to bee applied unto the heart Answ Upon consideration of these things wee must stir up our selves to seek the knowledge of Christ Jesus fly unto him with sound affiance rejoyce in God and sing praises to his name Oh my soul is deliverance from spiritual thraldome to bee found in Jesus Christ then enquire after him and seek to know him with gladness The Name Jesus is sweet honey in the mouth melody in the ear a Jubile in the heart What a servant were hee that knew not his Masters Name is not hee unworthy the benefit of Redemption that will not vouchsafe to enquire who hath paid his Ransome Oh my soul fly unto Christ in whom thou shalt finde deliverance from all spiritual thraldome God hath made Christ an Adam Head Root Store-house in whom are treasured all those good things which from him are communicated unto us Wee love to thrust amongst them with whom wee may finde benefit and profit Seek this above all that thou mayest bee by Faith in Christ Should Bankrupts hear of any that should answer their creditors for them they would quickly resort to him how much more shouldest thou resort to this Mediatour and Surety who will answer the debt of those that come unto him by Faith seek to bee ingrafted into him strive by Faith to grow up in him for the more nearly wee are united with any thing the more wee partake of the virtue and operation of it Those that are nearest the fire partake in the heat of it more than those that are further removed Thou seest men seek to bee made one person in law to bee most nearly joyned to such as may bring them in wealth Oh my soul why dost thou not seek more earnestly by a spiritual marriage to become one with him in whom is every good blessing Behold hee sueth unto thee not that hee might bee enriched by thee for thou hast nothing to give hee stands in need of nothing but that hee might answer thy debt set thee at liberty adorn thee with grace and endow thee with eternal life O my soul what great cause hast thou to love the Lord and rejoyce in his mercy God hath given his Son to dye for us before we asked it Christ hath when wee could not through our gracelesness once ask him fulfilled all Righteousness and discharged us from the danger of sin Wee take it as love in men if spoken to they will do small matters for us Hee that will bear a blow for us in our behalf bee bound for us in great summs of mony specially hee that will lye by it for our good But how much more art thou to acknowledge this grace of Christ who hath been thy Surety paid for thy deliverance not silver or gold but his precious blood The insensible creatures are called upon to rejoyce for the Redemption of Gods people when they were redeemed from Babel the joy did put them into an extrasie they knew not whether they were asleep or awake But this spiritual Redemption doth as far out-strip that temporal freedome as Heaven is above the Earth or hell worse than the house of bondage Sing unto the Lord oh my soul make a joyful noise unto the God of thy salvation What cause hast thou to praise him who hath visited and redeemed thee with such a Redemption Thou mayest remember the day when thou wast in thraldome to the burning wrath of God and stoodest under the condemnation of the Law when it was death to bee held to the duties of godliness in which is the exercise of true freedome and sin did hold thee so fast that though thou sawest the mischief of it and proposedst sometimes a new course yet thou couldest not return to it as before when this lust and that passion did tyrannize over thee and fears of conscience and death did hold thee in thraldome But now the Lord hath looked upon thee in mercy his wrath is appeased the Law is answered Satan is cast down and thou art received into special favour to walk with him Oh Lord I am ashamed that I should bee so senseless at the remembrance of this unspeakable love so forgetful of this undeserved kindness move the scales from mine eyes I pray thee and take the veil from my heart which will not let mee rejoyce in so excellent mercy Quest Shew how wee must proceed in Meditation on the Resurrection of Christ Ans Wee must consider the Subject Antecedents Causes End Time Place and things that happened with it the effects properties and consequents what is like and what unlike My soul desires to think upon the Resurrection of Christ in which I may behold the reconciled face of God Dear Father direct my mind rightly to conceive of this high mystery to the glory of thy Name and the comfort of my soul To rise from the sleep of sin is to leave or desist from evil Hee that is fallen prostrate ariseth when he gathers up himself Hee that layeth himself down to rest ariseth when hee is raised from sleep Hee that is dead ariseth when the soul is knit to the body The Resurrection of Christ is the first degree of his exaltation wherein the soul being united again to his body hee was raised up to spiritual and immortal life It is a motion partly natural partly supernatural Natural in respect of the subject bound and means For Christ rose so out of the grave that hee is said to bee there no more and he rose by means proper to a natural body that being removed which might seem to hinder Nor was this Resurrection in a moment but in certain succession of time which is required to every natural motion Nevertheless this motion is supernatural in respect of the cause efficient and the end The Divine Nature of Christ could not suffer nor dye nor rise again but hee was raised to life in respect of that nature that died for our sins or in respect of the body which for a time was separated from the soul and laid in the grave This was prefigured by types foretold by the Prophets of the Old Testament and most clearly spoken to his Disciples by our Saviour himself signifying unto them that the Son of Man must suffer at Jerusalem and bee buried and the third day rise again The principal cause of the Resurrection was the Divine Nature most strictly united with the Humanity In
a little space Thoughts of the world do tickle us and that may bee determined in a few sentences and in a part of an hour which may if wee take not heed hold us work the most part of a day Worldly speech doth so relish to our pallats that if wee enter upon it wee cannot tell when to make an end These two great devourers of time must narrowly bee watched against for if wee waste time needlesly about the things of this life wee must needs fall short in better matters Fourthly Gird up thy loins with strength and what thou dost Pro. 31.17 Eccl. 9.10 do it with all thy might thy calling requires labour trifling will not serve the turn Quest How must wee make entrance into this exercise Answ After wee have selected something wherein wee have some knowledge or understanding wee must make entrance unto it by some short yet earnest and pithy prayer unto God to guide and direct us therein by the gracious assistance of his holy Spirit without which wee shall beat our brains to no purpose The Heathen began their business with invocation Of our selves wee are not able to think one good thought and if in presumption of our wit invention memory learning or any thing beside wee set upon this work the success is like to bee answerable to the beginning without the help of God wee can do nothing that is good The matter or form of our prayer must bee this or such like Oh Lord sith it hath pleased thee to give mee a minde ready and desirous to perform this holy duty for which I humbly thank thy heavenly Majesty I beseech thee by thy holy Spirit to assist mee therein that I may bring the same to a profitable and comfortable issue Thou hast charged mee Oh Lord to seek thy face that is thy blessed and holy presence Let my soul answer and say with thy faithful servant Lord I will seek thy face Oh cause the light of thy face to shine upon mee enlighten my understanding strengthen my memory and sanctifie my will and affections with-hold my ranging and truant-like heart from all trifling fantasies deceitful dreams vain hopes carnal fears and worldly cares wherewith it is naturally and customarily intangled keep it unto thy self and unto thy laws that it may wholly delight and solace it self in thee and grant that this point that I now go about to think upon may bee so settled in my memory and rooted in my heart that I may reap the fruit thereof all my life long to thy glory and my own comfort and salvation through Jesus Christ Quest In what order must wee proceed after the entrance Answ First Wee must first travel with our judgement to inform it and then make application that it may work upon the heart Knowledge without affection is dead and fruitless Affection without understanding is blinde and inordinate All good motions arise from sound judgement and must bee ruled by it else they will bee as a ship without a Governour that is in danger to run upon the sands or to split against the rocks Secondly For the helping of our judgement understanding invention and memory it is good for to call to minde so far as wee can what the Holy Ghost saith in the Scriptures of that thing which wee meditate upon referring the particular passages to the several heads or places of reason This is a great help to lead us along in our discourse with more ease and facility and to furnish us more readily with profitable matter touching the point wee meditate upon as the marks set up in the high-way direct a traveller in his intended journey yet wee must not be curious nor scrupulous herein for that would distract the mind and draw us too much from the right end of this holy exercise which is not to practise Logick but to exercise Religion and to kindle piety and devotion And therefore it shall bee our wisdome to take such places or heads only as are most pregnant and ready at hand and do more easily offer themselves to our mind But this order cannot bee prescribed as necessary but as profitable only In this wee must labour with diligence and sincerity that the understanding or memory may bee bettered or confirmed but the method is left free as each man shall finde it most convenient Thirdly Our proceeding to inform the mind cannot bee after one manner in all things We must observe one thing in our Meditation of God another of his Works one of good Duties another of our Sins one thing when wee meditate on simple theams another when wee consider of an intire sentence This shall bee in a good measure made clear by examples hereafter following Fourthly Application is the life of Meditation for the encrease of knowledge and strenthening of memory is vain and to little purpose unless the affection bee reformed and kindled It is not the knowledge of good and evil but the hearty and unfeigned affecting of the one with a zealous detestation of the other that makes us holy and happy Wee must therefore indeavour to have a sensible taste lively touch and feeling of that whereof wee have discoursed with our selves according to the former direction that wee may bee affected either with godly joy or godly sorrow godly hope or godly reverence c. Fifthly The affections to be quickened are divers according to the nature of the thing meditated upon As for example if wee meditate on God or any of his mercies or benefits wee must labour with our hearts and affections to feel how sweet the Lord is that as doting Lovers do inwardly conceive a carnal delight in thinking and speaking of them whom they so love and of the letters and tokens they have received from them So wee may conceive a spiritual joy and contentment by thinking and speaking of the Lord and of his mercies towards us Again if wee meditate on sin according to the former example wee must labour to feel the plague in our own hearts 1 King 8. Jer. 2.19 and to know that it is an evil thing and bitter to forsake the Lord our God and not to have his fear in us Sixthly The chief things to bee observed for the quickening and affecting of the heart are these 1 Trial examination and communing with our selves wherein wee have offended or come short of our duty 2 Taking shame to our selves for our transgressions joyned with lamentable and doleful complaining and bewailing of our own estate either in respect of the sin that aboundeth or the grace that is wanting 3 A most passionate vehement earnest and hearty longing after the removal of this sin and punishment which wee hate and obtaining the good things which wee love 4 Religious quickening and calling upon our souls by many strong and forcible reasons to hate evil and follow that which is good The fifth is an humble and unfeigned acknowledgement and confession of our own weakness and inability either
not bee without love But ah wretch that I am I finde mine affection is weak toward God strong to vanity Those wee love do wee not love to bee present with them If they bee absent do wee not think long till they return again Are wee not grieved to hear them wronged by word or deed whom wee esteem dearly of are wee not desirous to give them content doth it not cut us if wee do them any harm Are wee not with them in thought though absent in body glad of a letter that comes from them is not the messenger welcome that can bring us tidings of their welfare But I finde little joy in coming publickly or privately into Gods house or presence I think little of him and that but overly I speak little to him and that not without weariness and distraction Nay I am like those children who can play abroad all the day long and never care to look unto their Parents When did my heart long to return home and to bee with Christ Though God through sundry troubles do even smoak mee out of this world yet I will not come away in mine affection When I see Gods name blasphemed and all wickedness committed do mine eyes gush out with tears or do not I offend daily and pass it over taking too light penance of my self It is irksome to mee to do his will I do not long for his presence nor bewail his absence I do not study to please him in all things nor can I rejoyce in the prosperity of his Saints when I my self am in misery and distress I cannot prize his favour am not cheared with his promises do not delight in his statutes above all things His Word is his Letter sent unto mee but I am not glad and diligent with care and conscience to read it vanity hath stollen away my heart and the transitory bewitching pleasures of the world which cannot profit have taken up my thoughts This hath been mine impudent behaviour against thee my God which I cannot with any words of indignation sufficiently discover If a woman should bee dead in the nest when her husband were before her but should bee affectionate to every stranger if shee should not care how long shee were absent from him but think her self best while they were asunder if shee cared little how her loving husband were offended casting that at her heels which hee takes to heart were not this shameless behaviour in her And shall I not bee ashamed to shew no more love to thee to whom my soul is married in Christ Oh my soul what canst thou finde in the world why thou dost affect it it hath bred much vexation and sorrow thou hast been crossed and molested with it the more thou lovest it the greater trouble discontentment thou findest therein and wilt thou still take pleasure in thy pain what canst thou not finde in God and that above all thought and conceit why thou shouldest intirely cleave unto him what occasion couldest thou finde at any time to draw thy affection from him wilt thou leave the fatness and marrow that is in the house of God to feed upon the refuse and scraps that this world affords Ah wretch that I am who shall deliver mee from this bondage of sin I am full of uncharitable and false love I can love my self I have affection enough to the things of this world to the gifts of God and those the meanest more than to the giver as harlots to rings gold bracelets more than to the sender But I have not power to raise my soul to the love of God in Christ here my affections lye dead and will not mount aloft Oh that the love of God did possess my reins in such sort that in thought I might bee still with him rejoyce in his presence and walk before him in dutiful obedience Oh that my heart did burn with love that is strong as death hot as coals of Juniper that hath a vehement flame that no waters can quench no floods can drown no allurements can draw aside Why art thou so dead Oh my soul why dost thou not lift up thy self to the love of God whom hast thou in Heaven but him and who in earth is to bee desired in comparison of him for whom dost thou reserve thy prime affection for the world sin vanity Oh adulteress knowest thou not that the amity of the world is enmity with God thou hast gone astray and deeply defiled thy self with the love of sin return now unto the Lord and embrace him with most intire and dear affection what thou hast bestowed upon the world pleasure lusts carnal delights to thy great discomfort now set it wholly upon things above that it may finde rest and comfort Oh Lord I beseech thee who art only able to purge my heart of all filthy prophane love and to fill it with the pure love of thy holy Majesty this is thy promise I will circumcise your hearts and make you love mee with all your hearts therefore I am bold to make this prayer and will confidently wait upon thee for this mercy Quest How should a man proceed to meditate on the Fall of our first Parents Answ Hee must consider the subject causes and end of that act aimed at but not obtained the degrees properties and effects of it By the Fall of our first Parents wee understand the first sin of Adam and Eve whereby they transgressed the Commandement of God in eating the forbidden fruit this is fitly so called because as an heavy body falling upon some hard and sharp rock is greatly bruised and hurt so man after hee had received so many and great gifts from God sinning wickedly against his express charge and commandement did grievously wound himself The subject of this transgression was our first Parents Adam and Eve made after the Image of God perfect in stature of body and strength of mind enriched with excellent prerogatives of liberty and dominion planted in a garden of delights that they might dress it and keep it favoured of God and admitted into near fellowship with him The principal outward cause of mans disobedience was Satan the Prince of darkness that old murtherer who being fallen from God and shut up under condemnation did with incredible fury and malice seek the dishonour of God and the destruction of mankind This envious one spying his opportunity set upon the woman as the fitter to be made his prey when shee was alone and by his subtilty beguiled her The Serpent the most subtil of beasts which the Lord had made was the instrument that hee used to seduce the woman and the woman her self being first in the transgression was made the willing instrument of her husbands destruction The quality of the fruit as it was good for meat and pleasant to the eye was by accident a cause that moved them to eat which yet they might and ought to have forborn having liberty to eat of all the trees