return to his place when by an experiment he was convinced of his Innocency chap. 24.22 and a second chap. 26.25 And since he foresaw that the LORD would cut of those Children of Men who stirr'd up Saul against him 1 Sam. 26.19 And here doubles the expression of his assurance thereof ver 23. 'T is madness to think that the aid he expected from Men was to usurp upon God and take the work out of his hands Therefore when the Amalekite told him he had kill'd Saul it cost him his Life 2 Sam. 1.14 15 16. The Psalmist then was a Man that made Conscience of his Allegiance to his Prince though wicked unjust and a Persecutor No Man can maintain together Disloyalty and Innocence The Office of Kings remains unvitiated under the viciousness of their Persons Nero was the Minister of God Rom. 13. in respect of Authority though the Devils Servant in his private Capacity Subjection and Loyalty is due to the Throne and the Man in it not to the Beast in the bottomless Pit of Immorality and Barbarousness Our Duty requires an owning him Politically rather than Ethically i. e. we must of necessity be subject to his Power acting as the Vicegerent of God and here obey him in every thing But we must not be actively subject to his Lusts acting as the Bondslave of Satan nor therein obey or imitate him Yet do not his Crimes to us devest him of his Right any more than a Father I find no exceptions or difference in the Precept Et ubi lex non distinguit non est distinguendum Where the Law limits not we must not Nothing that we suffer from Superiors can null the bond of the First Command The Gospel as well as the Law obliges to be subject for Conscience sake Rom. 13.5 Ye must needs be subject not only for Wrath i. e. for fear of Punishment but for Conscience sake i. e. out of obedience to God's Command and from sense of Duty In sum since the Powers that be are God's Ordinations we must obey all their lawful Commands submit to their just Censures and Punishments pay them all their dues both of Reverence and Maintenance But since there is an Authority paramount to theirs which has the first and supreme right over us and which we must obey rather than Men if we be commanded to do any thing forbidden or forbid to do any thing commanded by God we must not obey but be willing to suffer without resistance For whoever resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Judgment to Condemnation ver 2. Now this resistance consists not in a modest refusal to do or not do what these Powers may enjoyn contrary to the Injunctions of God but in a disorderly or forcible opposition to their Persons or Lawful Commands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being to set up an order contrary to their order which is here reported damnable i. e. when their order is not against the order of God their Laws not opposite to his I know not but that this is a sound Rule That the Higher Powers are to be disobey'd in nothing except it be as plainly forbidden in Scripture or Nature as disobedience to those Powers is I do not say expressly forbid for sometimes a Consequence may be as plain as a Proposition But if a Man be not as fully satisfied from clear Evidence that he cannot obey the Magistrate without disobeying God as he may be satisfy'd that he must obey the Magistrate in all things where God is not disobey'd he cannot disobey with a good and safe Conscience For 't is a Sin to disobey where God interposes not as well as a Sin to obey where he forbids Nothing can take off the obligation to obey but only Divine Authority which laid it on If you are not sure that you have God's Warrant to disoblige you from Obedience you cannot be sure that you do not sin For what can repeal God's Law to obey Cautissimi cujusque praeceptum est Quod dubitas ne feceris but only God And if you be not sure that you do not sin you certainly do sin i. e. act doubtingly not in Faith which is contrary to a good Conscience Rom. 14. ult Since then the Command to obey is indubitable what must I do when the matter commanded is not indubitably Lawful or Unlawful If the thing in reality be lawful I sin in disobeying the Power if unlawful I sin in disobeying God Suppose I have weighty reasons to induce me to believe the unlawfulness and but common to establish the lawfulness only they are enforc'd with the weight of Authority I am not satisfy'd beyond all scruple that I shall not sin against God in obeying Man yet the Arguments from God's Law in Scripture Nature and the Reason of the thing would ballance my Judgment did not that inartificial Argument interpose the Judgment of many Learned and Reverend Men the Judgment of the Publick Conscience as of late it loves to be call'd How shall I steer in this Case Ans 1. The highest deference is to be made to the Publick Judgment of Authority and the Private Judgment of the Learned and I am obliged to suspect my own Judgment and Reason when it runs counter to theirs and proceed with the greatest Caution and Impartiality in forming my Sentiments and Arguments and beware of Pride and Obstinacy give a full testimony of my Humility and willingness to be informed and use all possible means for that purpose 2. 'T is a very unsafe resolution of this Case which I find in the Reverend and Judicious Dr. Saunderson Better obey doubtingly than disobey doubtingly as allowing a less Sin to avoid a greater For the Apostle Rom. 14. ult determines that to act doubtingly is a Sin immediately against Conscience mediately against God For since Conscience suspects the Act to be a Sin against God yet admits it against its own sense 't is all one to it as if it were really a Sin against God though perhaps it be not The Act is against the supposed Authority of God which at present the Conscience takes to be real therefore this distemper of Conscience is as real Rebellion against God as if it acted against the clearest Light imaginable For apparent and real to Conscience are all one though not in themselves The Law of God in General makes Sin and Duty but not immediately to me in particular whilst I am inculpably ignorant of it Promulgation being essential to the obligatoriness of a Law Except it be so publish'd that none without their fault can be ignorant of it they are without fault in the violation of it The next and immediate ground of the binding of a Law is the apprehension and conviction of Conscience that it is imposed by just Authority with an intention to bind as a Law or that it is a Law obligatory in its own Nature Not that Laws
stand or fall by the Judgment of Conscience as if Conscience's judging them to be or not be Laws gave or depriv'd them of their Obligatory Power but that if there be sufficient light to make it out to Conscience not wittingly and willingly prejudic'd and blinded that this is or is not the will of the Lawgiver supreme or subordinate accordingly it is or is not obliged to receive and own this as Law For if it be clear to any rational consideration what the Legislators Mind is with his intention to bind to observance this is a sufficient Promulgation and doth immediately found the Obligatoriness to us In short an unknowable Law binds none because not to be and not to be known or knowable is to us all one But as soon as known the Law binds the knower For as Dr. Saunderson well determines The present Light in the Mind for the time being is the next and immediate Rule of Conscience though not the supreme and adequate And if this Light be derived from and conformable to its prime and highest Rule the Will of God revealed in Nature or Scripture in acting according to it 't is a good and right Conscience but bad when acting against its Light and Sentiments though they be erroneous i. e. contrary to the revealed mind of God For an erring Conscience hampers and entangles a Man though it really oblige not because the Man judges that really to be the Mind of God which is indeed an Error though to him unknown so to be Finally acting against an erring Conscience is formally evil thongh materially good Acting according to an erroneous Conscience is formally good but materially evil Acting against a well informed Conscience both materially and formally evil Therefore that a Man may act without present and future rebuke of Conscience both his Light and his Act must be according to Rule For then only 't is both materially and formally Good and except it be both 't is not acceptable to God except it be both the Man is not though he may fansie himself to be really Innocent 3. Where therefore both to obey and disobey is questionable a Man must not sin against his Conscience doubting about the matter commanded to avoid sining against his Conscience doubting about the Authority commanding For both are carefully to be eschewed but 1. If the Command require not present observance but permit a suspence for a season a Man must diligently use all means with all speed and readiness of Mind to get his doubts one way or other resolved out of the revealed Will of God which is the Rule of Conscience For that which ties Conscience must loose it or 't is fast for ever As it has a Rule to bind so it must have a Rule to unbind it Pretended Conscience without Rule is but Conceit Conscience against Rule Corruption 2. If no time be allow'd for suspence or if in the use of the utmost means no Resolution can be obtain'd a Man must quietly and patiently submit to the Penalty To suffer though for an erring Conscience is no sin if the best have been done to direct it aright but 't is always a sin to act against Conscience whether resolv'd or doubting as an evident and impudent affronting the real or supposed Authority of God owned by Conscience If then the Authorities and Powers set over thee be good and command Lawful things thou must be subject in Active Obedience else thou sinnest both against God and the King and thy Conscience too if it know them to be such If the Supreme Magistrates be Erroneous Heretical Wicked Tyrannical thou must be still subject in Active Obedience to their Lawful Commands in Passive to their Unlawful To a Tyrant with Title both in Body and Mind To a Tyrant without Title in Body For thy Mind and Heart must follow the Title and Right though thy outward Man be enslaved to the Usurpation Subjection then is absolutely indispensible to all Powers whatsoever Even as 't is in the case of Parents and Children Masters and Servants which therefore are together with Prince and People c. comprehended under one general Name in the Fifth Command and the Duties of the Inferiours under the common notion of Honour That we may rationally carry the particular Instances of that Honour from any one sort to all the rest respectively mutatis mutandis And possibly this may be one reason of St. Peter's subjoyning the Duties of Servants immediately after those of Subjects 1 Epist 2.13 He requires submission to Kings c. 1. For the Lord's sake 2. As the Will of God ver 15.3 accounting this a well doing which 4. will silence the Ignorance of foolish Men. Then that Servants be subject with all fear not only to the good and gentle but even froward Masters as 1. Thank-worthy 2. An exercise of Conscience toward God ver 19. though they suffer wrongfully And 3. Honourable though 't is no honour to bear buffetings for Faults ver 20.4 Acceptable to God 5. A thing to which Christians are called 6. A piece of Conformity to Christ ver 20. These are Precepts plain enough and as strongly enforced with Argument that a Man had need to be secure that he have an ample and clear demonstration of a release from the obligation of them if he intend not to violate his Conscience in a non-observance of them From Servants parity nay superiority of Reason will carry the Rule to Subjects in as much as the benefit of the Publick is a more noble and necessary end than that of a Private Family and the neglect thereof more fatal and dangerous issuing in Blood Ruin and Confusion And now seeing Laws so strict and severe are imposed upon Inferiours by God necessitating their obedience a singular Prudence Tenderness and Conscience is required in Superiours as they respect their own Salvation to see that they impose nothing by their Authority that may intangle Men in Sin or Snares as understanding that they are only Lords over their outward Man not their Consciences and that compulsion to Sin renders the Compeller a Principal and therefore if he reform not lyable to a great share of the Damnation However the Subject Party may with a good Conscience obey as in paying unreasonable Taxes where the Supreme does not maintain a good Conscience in commanding but grievously sins both against Man and God I have made a large Excursion if that be not an impertinent Word in so pertinent a case 1. To obviate a Slander as though we generally entertain'd odd and unsound Principles contrary to the Duty of Subjects 2. To direct the tenderest part of Man in the tenderest point of general and present Concernment 3. To correct the unsound and unsafe Principles of two Extremes 1. Of some who needlessly to advance Authority do too much debase Conscience 2. Of others who in an ungrounded deference to Conscience too much depreciate and depress Authority I heartily subscribe to the Doctrine of Rom. 13.
in the full latitude of its sence and readily acknowledge that Rom. 14. follows after it but must not deny that the one as well as the other is part of Canonical Scripture of the Christian Law of perpetual Obligation nor affirm that one is inconsistent with and abrogates the other The chief Exercise of Conscience towards Men is towards the chief of Men. God's Vicegerents on Earth may claim the first respect from his Vicegerent in our Souls but must not engross all entirely We in Conscience are obliged to a further Duty to Inferiours and Equals nay even Enemies in all things to seek their good that 's Righteousness in nothing to do them hurt that 's Innocency In every thing to please them for their good to Edification Rom. 15.1 2 3. that's Perfection 'T is true I am a Devil if I humour Men in their Lusts indulge them in their Impieties and Sensualities A Dog if I fawn upon and flatter them in their Extravagances for my own ends A senceless unprofitable Block if I be altogether unconcern'd My first care must be not to lead them into Sin or Temptation my next to induce them to love and practise Goodness alway having an Eye at their Temporal Good as well as Spiritual though this mainly else shall I violate a Divine Law Gal. 6.10 and therefore violate my Innocency and Conscience and therefore my Comfort I am obliged to give no offence to Jew Gentile nor the Church of God 1 Cor. 10.32 Not to put a stumbling-block or occasion of falling in my Brother's way Rom. 14.13 and a most dreadfully severe Sanction urges and enforces this Law against Offences Matth. 18.7 By Scandal or Offence to Men I do not mean what meerly tends to displease but to defile Words or Deeds or Omissions inducing others to Sin either by acting against the Law of God and Conscience or forbearing to do their Duty The World is at such a pass that a Man can do nothing but 't will displease and even Professors of the highest form in their own Imaginations who therefore should be more candid and aequanimous bitterly storm and censure others who will not both against their Reason and Conscience please them in their unreasonable humours This is not to be valued at all Mine own Light and Reason must be the Principle to guide my Conscience according to the Rules of God's Word in the choice of such Methods of pleasing Men for their good to Edification Rom. 15.1 which by God's Grace I will endeavour that I may not be one of the branded Men-pleasers Gal. 1.10 and plague my own Soul for ever by pleasing another for his hurt and to his Damnation If any Man think to impose his Judgment Fancy or Humour upon me as the guide of my Conscience herein he really scandalizes me If he do not convince me out of the Will of God which is the sole Rule of Conscience he lays a stumbling-block before me to induce me to sin meerly that I may gratifie his Imperiousness Pride and Capriciousness I will keep my way and follow my Light and my Rule if any be displeased with it let them bark on and bite too it hurts me not I 'll give away my Goods and my Labours and my Liberty yea and even my Life as far as I can with a good Conscience to please so as spiritually to profit but give away my Light my Rule my Conscience I will not I dare not I cannot 'T is a double scandal giv'n first to me when Men would thus Biass me to a blind Servitude unto their Wills another to them when in a fond assentatiousness I become a Pander to their lascivient Humours and imperious Imaginations My Soul is of a more noble Extraction and Temper than to debase it self to the turn-skin trade of a Parasite like a Serpent with the same Tongue to lick and kill or Great Alexander's Miss who was fed with nothing but Poysons that her kisses might be deleterious and Murder him No lighter would my Crime be should I violate my Conscience in being a pleaser of Man rather than God Neither therefore in this nor any other way will I scandalize my Brother knowingly nor must he exercise that Tyranny over my Conscience as to give other Law to it besides what God hath prescribed in Nature or Scripture My Practice shall be at his Devotion as far as it doth not intrench upon my duly regulated Judgment and wary will I be that no unweighed Sentiments arrest my Mind and misguide my Conscience I 'll have an Eye and an Ear and a Heart open to receive all Truth freely without Prejudice or Partiality and this from any hands whatever examining and proving all things as fully as the infirmity of my intellect will permit But a slavery to the Opinions of Men against the balance of mine own clear and distinct Reasonings I abhor 1. I will not do any thing which is every way indifferent if it be likely in it self or be found by experience of a tempting Nature and Tendency If any Man either through the quality of my Act or the power of my Example in matters of that nature be drawn into Sin or if it be very probable that he will upon such inducements either transgress the Law of God or imitate me with a doubting Conscience here will I freely forbear the use of my Liberty to prevent his Sin that I may not make it my own by Participation but then I must not omit any known Duty nor commit any known Sin my self though possibly it might prevent his Sin For I must not venture my own Soul by dishonouring God to preserve ano Do Evil that Good may come Rom. 3.8 2. But if in indifferent things my Liberty be determined as by the command of a Lawful Superiour I am in a greater strait For not to obey the Magistrate in Lawful things is a Sin and by my Practice to induce my weak Brother to Sin in imitating me is also a Sin What Rule has my Conscience in this Perplexity It must be considered 1. That my weak Brother's forbearance to obey in a lawful thing is a Sin against God though not his Conscience and therefore my forbearance will edifie him in Sin against the Law of God that commands Obedience although it prevent the Sin against his Conscience and the error of this cannot null the Sin against that So that forbear or not forbear I scandalize him in the one really in the other putatively when he acts against his Conscience he thinks he sins against God in the matter done but does not in disobeying Authority he sins against God yet thinks it not In this he sins immediately against God because he disobeys God's civil Vicegerent in Publick in the other he sins mediately against God because he disobeys his Spiritual Vicegerent in Private Now I conceive that my way here is to do my Duty in obeying the Magistrate wherein I sin not whereas I doubly sin if I do
not 1. Against the Law of Subjection and Obedience ingaging me to the Magistrate 2. The Law of Charity that requires me not to scandalize my Brother If to gratifie his scrupulosity I forbear I do certainly know that he sins in disobeying But 't is only an accidental scandal may or may not happen that he should be emboldned by my Example to act against his Conscience To throw this off the Stage enter Christian Liberty which to restrain is Sin though by a Person in Authority having Laws under him Ans True but then be sure that it be indeed Christian Liberty least asserting it forfeit and lose your civil and corporal Liberty Now because a right understanding and use of Christian Liberty hath a special influence into Comfort and Peace of Conscience Let 's a little consider it Let it be heedfully observed that true Christian Liberty doth not consist meerly in the indifferent use or omission of things not commanded nor forbidden but in the release of Conscience from an obligation to do or omit some things under pain of Damnation Thus are we set at Liberty from the rigour of the Law or Covenant of Works which required perfect personal and perpetual Obedience upon peril of Death The Covenant of Grace doth not disoblige from such obedience but from the peril of Death though we come short provided we act sincerely This is the main of our Christian Liberty Not a freedom to do or not do but a freedom from Penalty upon an easter Condition And this is all our Hope Comfort and Salvation Under the Jewish Law were included many Ceremonials things in their own nature neither Good nor Evil yet that Law made the omission of them Sin exposing to Damnation Christ by his Gospel hath set us at Liberty How What to do or omit them at Pleasure No such matters For then 't were lawful to Sacrifice to keep the Passover to Circumcise c. as well as forbear No the Liberty granted us must be doubly distinguish'd 1. Into Natural and Adventitious The Indifferency of the use or omission of Lawful things is a part of Natural not Adventitious Liberty which understand thus Some things which were in their own Nature lawful to be used or not used God determined on one side by positive Law under the Mosaical Dispensation But over and above there were things made the matter of positive Laws which would never have entred into the Imaginations of Men had not the first notices thereof come from God Who could ever have thought of such a thing as Circumcision c. had not the first Injunction thereof proceeded from Heaven Our Natural Liberty did consist in a freedom from that and like Yoaks But not in an indifferency to use or not use them So then by the Law of our Native Liberty we may use or not use some things without Sin there 's an indifferency on both sides as to take up a Straw or let it alone c. Yet also the indifferency does naturally lie only on one side in other things as to continue the Body in its Natural State without Circumcision But God for wise and holy purposes having abridged the Jews of this Natural Liberty for a season when the reason of those Laws ceased was pleas'd to abolish them whereby by we became reinstated in our natural Right and Freedom which otherwise those Laws when devulged to us would have taken from us Now the reason of imposing those Laws was to succour the infirmity of the Jews in two things 1. In Faith of which nature are all the things impos'd which have a Typical significancy as Sacrifices c. 2. In Manners of which sort are all that have a moral significancy as Meats Washings c. But now Jesus the substance of those Typical Shadows being come in the Flesh the Laws concerning them were ipso facto vacated and by the more plentiful effusion of his Spirit of Truth and Grace thorowly furnishing Men for exact Moral Goodness he took away the necessity both of remembring us thereof and eeking it out by Washings Circumcision c. The Scriptures of the Old and New Testament as a compleat Law from the Spirit of Truth doing the one more sufficiently than a few dumb signs and the New Nature communicated by the Spirit of Grace together with Christ's Merit all-sufficiently doing the other This is the Liberty I call Adventitious not that 't is new but newly given not that we never had it but had it restor'd after an interruption During the restraint 't was sin to use it To Christ we owe that now we may again use it without sin as at first before God abridged it and this is that we call Christian Liberty in things indifferent as contradistinct to Natural For Christ as Redeemer did not parchase our Natural Liberty but gave it as Creator 'T is only the Adventitious that we enjoy by vertue of his Merit 't is only this that we are entrusted with the Preservation and Vindication of by the New Testament 2. Liberty is either Positive or Negative The former consists in an indifferency to act this or that or the other way at pleasure The latter in being loos'd from the obligation to act That which Christ the Redeemer bestows is chiefly of this latter sort We are disobliged loosed from the Ceremonial Bands wherewith the Jews were tyed so as we need not to act as they under that Oeconomy 'T is no sin to us to omit incurrs no Penalty And this freedom from the guilt and punishment due for Omission is indeed a privilege which constitutes the very essence of the Covenant of Grace in one part of it The tenor thereof in its Negative part being this viz. Thy Imperfections Failures Omissions shall not be imputed as Sins effecting thy Damnation This for want of a better Word I call Negative Liberty Although thou do not Circumcise do not Sacrifice do not Eat a Paschal Lamb do not Wash c. thou dost not sin thou shalt not be cut off from thy People from my Heaven This and none other in these indifferent Matters is Christian Liberty the Purchase and Gift of Jesus Christ our Lord. So that except Magistrates do again introduce the Ceremonial Law in whole or part they do not at all touch upon Christian Liberty but Natural only which they are allow'd to restrain in civil things upon just occasions as is evident from not only Scripture and Reason but the practice of all Nations and Ages and Families For would it not be sweet to hear a Child or Servant reply to their Superiours commanding them to light a Candle c. 'T is not lawful for you to restrain my Liberty Had you not commanded I might have obey'd but your imposing has made it unlawfal Oh dainty delicate Reasoning Yet such as some fob off their Consciences withal 'T is the same thing when they command in the Circumstantials of Divine Worship c. I charge you to be present at
Eight of the Clock Morning and Evening to joyn in Family Prayer c. No had you not impos'd a time 't would have been lawful now 't is not Away with this Foolery In Civils then and Circumstantials of Spirituals the Magistrate hath a Power not meerly directive but legislative to whose Laws all are obliged to be subject in Conscience of the Divine Law the Fifth Command Now suppose the Magistrate by a settled Law have enjoyned some things in their own nature indifferent which 1. Induce some to act against their doubting Consciences for fear of Penalty whereas 2. Others are well satisfied in the lawfulness of their Obedience and accordingly do actually obey but some may be induc'd by their example to obey with a hesitant Conscience What is advisable 1. Though the greatest tenderness ought to be exercised towards Mens Consciences and singular Prudence be requisite in Governors to direct them in the choice of Laws that they may obtain with the greatest inoffensiveness yet will not Mens being scandaliz'd be a sufficient evidence of the sinfulness of a Law or ground to reverse it unless the scandal be very general among the best and wisest or something in the matter or sanction of the Law be at least a moral cause thereof For what can so politickly or wisely be devis'd which Men of soft Heads and hot Hearts may not make occasion of Sin that there would never be an end of making and repealing Laws if Men can but pretend scandal and who beside God knows what is pretence meerly what not 2. If fear of the Penalty occasion the Scandal from a Law about Indifferents those are not faultless who have not proportion'd the Penalty to the Crime an indifferent tolerable pain to an indifferent fault 3. Yet to be scandaliz'd or act against my Conscience for fear of suffering is a Sin the cause or inducement whereof will not excuse though it may extenuate it Will it avail a Man to say I violated my Conscience through Fear any more than I vitiated my Neighbours Wife through Lust when the Fear and Lust themselves are Sins as well as those they introduce Therefore the Rule is Suffer rather than Sin 4. Either 't is evident de facto that some are scandaliz'd through a Law or Example or 't is morally certain 't will follow or probable or only possible This last and probability except the presumption be strong are not to be regarded 1. If the Law cannot be revers'd without prejudice to publick order nor a dispensation obtain'd Men must not defame Laws but submit For the Law does not necessitate Sin there 's an outgate by suffering Yet if the Law be needless 't is the first duty in the use of lawful means to endeavour its Abrogation or get a Dispensation which if not feisible I say with Calvin Instit lib. ult câ—ult §. 231. med No other Mandate is given us but of obeying and suffering 2. To obey the Magistrate is a duty upon an affirmative Precept which not binding ad semper if my obeying induce my Brother to Sin out of tenderness I will suspend for a season though I suffer in the interim endeavouring 1. To give him satisfaction in the lawfulness of my Practice and the necessity of my Duty which if it convince not 2. To demonstrate that my Practice enforces not his Imitation since he may forbear and undergo the Penalty as I have been willing to do for his sake 3. To let him understand that there may be danger of scandalizing my Superiors i. e. irritating them to wrath and to exercise greater severities both against me as a Sinner against my own Conscience which is satisfy'd of my duty to obey even whilst I suspend and also against him and others as obstinate and unsatisfiable Wranglers and disobedient to just Authority without just Reason the matter of the Law being indifferent ex hypothesi This Consideration has weight we both hear and feel it and may at least balance the alledgement that my compliance will edifie the Magistrate in the sin of Persecution Lastly If notwithstanding he continue obstinate since to me 't is clear that only Fancy not Reason bottoms his disobedience I will protest against his Pertinacy earnestly dehort him from acting against his pretended Conscience which indeed is only blind Opinion return to my Duty and leave him to the Law For although my Charity may induce me for a season to be willing to suffer for his sake yet my Conscience will not permit me to do it always Not that I pretend Conscience to prevent suffering but because active Obedience where I can is the primary intention of God in the Law that subjects me to the Magistrate and therefore the first and main office of Conscience Passive Obedience is not the intention of the Law giver at all in the Law as a Law as being not enjoyn'd therein 't is only the enforcement of it as a remedy against its violation the hedge about it 'T will be no plea before God to justifie my breach of his Laws that I was willing to be damn'd but an aggravation of my sin that I chose so great an Evil as the Punishment rather than submission to so great a Good as the Duty I am bound to suspend my Obedience if I can to prevent my Brothers Sin but not sinally to deny my Obedience and therein sin my self to prevent his suffering that is damn my Soul to save his Skin Wilt thou then O my Soul herein follow Christ and perfectly subjugate thy self to that noble Law of Vniversal Love to thy Brother whom thou hast seen that the immortal God whom thou hast not seen may not charge thee with Hypocrifie in thy pretensions of Love to himself Live thou must thou shalt in true Love to thy Neighbour or renounce all Love to thy self Profess and practise as thou lovest thy Purity thy Peace thy Salvation a sincere and cordial not only Subjection and Honour but Affection to thy Prince Benevolence Charity Beneficence to all Men out of Conscience to God as thou wilt answer it before his Judgment-seat Whatever thou wouldst have others to do to thee do thou to them what thou wouldst not have them to do to thee do not to them Make their case thine and act toward them as thy self Do good to all but ospecially the Houshold of Faith Seek their Temporal Spiritual and Eternal Welfare as thine own and do not think to patronize thy regardlessness of them by a careless sluggish unconcernedness in thine own nearest concerns but elevate thine affectionate care for thy self to the utmost degree of Perfection on purpose that according to the second great Command thou mayst have a more excellent measure and rule whereby to square thy affectionate regard of others But 't is not enough O my Soul to partake of a Moral thou must aspire after a Divine Nature as well as escape or fly from the Corruption in the World in Lust or Concupiscence 2
Tables and bleed a little over poor Sufferers not as accusing Laws of Government but personal darkness and short sightedness Infirmity and Iniquity especially as the meritorious cause whose Intellects and Consciences may seem to be formed under an inauspicious Star not Mercurial enough to be born before the Wind but of a genius too set and Saturnine which exposes to the censure of being morose obstinate Melancholists c. But let 's see whether any place be left for Pity and Commiseration It is acknowledged just and reasonable that all publick Constitutions should be garded with strong impregnable Sanctions that the honour of the Publick Magistrate which must necessarily and in Conscience be upheld and is as highly concerned in his Laws as any thing may not be at the mercy of every wanton Head or waspish Heart 'T is the general and acknowledged sence of all Nations and has been of all Ages and I think of all Persons that Religion must and ought to be established by Law So is the Protestant Profession with us and our Neighbours And there is not a People upon Earth nor ever was but would have Religious Concerns kept sacred and inviolable Travel through the Protestant World alone and you shall experimentally find that the Church of no Nation no not of New England it self will endure that its Constitution should be disgrac'd its Fellowship disown'd its Worship disavow'd its Ministry disannul'd its Discipline contemn'd its Government condemn'd but will entertain all affronts of this Nature with a severe Indignation No wonder therefore that the like obtains amongst our selves and even those that are most sharp upon the Church of England in that very thing give a Testimony how patient a reception any thing must have that shall depreciate their own particular Models and therefore may in Justice grant liberty to every Mother to be fondest of her own Children For my part I profess ingenuously I like something in all Faces but all in none yet will not spit in any If Men will so far forget their Reason and Religion not to say common Sense as to speak evil of Rulers though unjust Jude 8. Acts 23.5 Despise Dominion Blaspheme Glories or Dignities I will not justifie them but the Law that condemns them Yet there is a Chancery to moderate the rigours which otherwise may be just and reasonable in some cases and this will with a sweet and decorous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and temper distinguish of Persons and Causes No Man is all Devil no Party all God The Heaven of Heavens only is all Sun The void spaces in the Firmament are larger than those fill'd with Stars Even those that out of a larger Sphere or Church form to themselves a little Epicycle have dark as well as bright matter in it The Sun it self hath spots We therefore must make a difference betwixt the Religious and their mimical Apes the Persons that are in good earnest in their way and such as do but act a part and personate those they are not Men that have throughly imbibed the tincture and others that are but lightly smutted with it 1. Then it shall not be dissembled but bewailed that amongst the Dissenters there are some Venal Souls that upon base Principles and for sinister Ends fall in here as being disgusted by or having a peck against some conformable Man or hoping for a plentiful Trade or bountiful Contributions or to piece again a crack'd Reputation c. Others owe their intromission to the Principles of their Education or customary Converse with others particular Employment amongst such the persuasions of Company c. Some astonish'd by the seeming imminency of Death or awak'd by some dreadful Calamity bring hither an akeing Conscience to be stroak'd with a gentle Hand into a secure but fallacious Peace and conjure down those Terrors which a a form of Godliness is able to deal with Some lastly in the simplicity of their Hearts having tender and scrupulous Consciences finding more of strictness and savour than where 't was their lot to converse before are pleas'd with the agreeableness thereof to their Spirit and Temper though they understand little of the way and might as well have been led by the Heart to the Church as to a Conventicle had it been their hap to have met with the like relish in their Entertainments and Company These are the most innocent of this rank For some of the rest are ordinarily the Hectors of the several Parties from whom all the Libels and Raileries except such as common Enemies forge in their Names have their Origin Better Men have better Work they are not taught the manners of the Court of Heaven who dare bring an Accusation or Judgment of Blasphemy against the Devil himself Jude 9. much less they who do it against Christian Churches and States But 2. There are also a number of serious sober Persons who have no greater design than to be truly good and promote the interest of real Christianity in the main substantials of Faith and Good Life who by their Modesty Gravity Harmlessness Honesty Simplicity Self-denial Loyalty Humility c. do sufficiently distinguish themselves from the other to the Eye of any prudent impartial Observer yet cannot in the use of such means as yet are administred receive satisfaction in the matters of difference therefore are exposed to the severities of Law These I am concern'd that a Court of equity should make relief for 1. They entertain a high Veneration for the Holy Scriptures as a lively Portraicture and Representation of that Eternal Truth and Goodness which is the Nature of God and the Schools make the Hypostasis of the Second and Third Persons in the ever blessed Trinity This with them is the Book of Books which they do not read as other Writings with a liberty to assent and consent as they please but with a full resignation of mind and will to its infallible Dictates intirely to subjugate all to its Doctrines Counsels Mandates as the most perfect indefective guide of Thoughts Words and Actions in the matters of Salvation and to receive from it a sentence of Life and Death This Word of God is their daily Companion Meditation Desire Joy Delight their all From these Divine Oracles they derive all their Sentiments by them regulate all their Worship in them seek their Comfort to them as an Instrument ascribe their Spiritual Life with them arm themselves against all their Spiritual Enemies and adverse Occurrents and for them are ready to sacrifice their Liberties Wealth Ease Honour yea their very Lives 2. From this reverence to the Bible and diligent frequent converses with it arises that awful feeling terrifying sence they have of the exceeding sinfulness of Sin as Paul Rom. 7.13 For being brought to the Scriptures with a mind to yield up all the Powers of their Souls to the Mind and Will of God therein revealed the Holy Ghost effectually sets home the Truths and Laws and Threatnings and Promises
Spiritual we should in like manner be dog'd and pursu'd with their implacable Malice in our separate and immortal State and be desperate of succour and deliverance from that Eternal Erynnis those innumerable Legions of ever torturing Furies that would be let loose upon us to lash and sting us with the utmost of their virulent Indignation For how should the Deity relieve us if he know nothing of us 'T is therefore the highest Interest of real goodness that there is a God of Vnlimitable Intelligence and Love to supervise and care for us that no Evils can be imagin'd against us in the most dark and secret recesses of Hell much less on Earth but are to him as visible as though Writ or Graven in the Roof of Heaven by the Finger of God in Letters formed all of Suns or Stars and he is replenish'd with that Wisdom and Graciousness which both knows how is perfectly willing and effectually engag'd to counteract them But as this and the other Three so all the Sins of the Wicked are a bitter Grief to a good Soul Whence David Psal 119.136 Rivers of Tears run down mine eyes because they keep not thy Law Be their Sins only Omissions which in the Estimate of the World are of a lighter Nature though not in the account of God and an Illuminated Conscience yet will they be grievous to those that love the Lord and his Laws And 't is a good token of Integrity when the Sins of others are a burden Self may engage a Man against his own Sins but if the wickedness of those we have no concern with deeply affect our Hearts 't is an Evidence we are acted by the Interest of God Let this then Oh my Soul over-rule all thy Passions Live under some sense with God What dishonors him let it humble thee Be not so much troubled at the Mischiefs wherewith Men in the Triumphant Madness of their Prosperity indeavour to plague thee as at the Sin whereby they duel Heaven Where thy Father suffers most in his Glory do thou suffer with him Thy Irascibles never act more commendably than when they run upon the Errand of thy Maker Thou art angry and sinnest not when angry at Sin 'T is hard not to Sin in Sorrow if it be not Sorrow for Sin And if thou groan under the Wickedness of others sure thou wiltst not canst not darst not be so much a Hypocrite as to go light under the greater Load of thine own Thou art conscious to thy self of many Circumstances aggravating thine own which thou hast no reason to apply to the Crimes of any beside Where thou knowest of most Evil and that is in thy self there must thou spend Oceans since the little in comparison which thou knowest of other Mens faults requires thy Rivers Let thy Sorrows bear Proportion to thy Condition and Conscience Weep or at least mourn for and bemoan others but most thy self There must thou pay thy Drops here a Deluge To this place therefore appertains all Spiritual Trouble for Sin and the want and weakness and defectiveness of Grace with the effects thereof That Anguish of Mind which springs from the sense of Sin 's odiousness of God The Agonies and Anxieties of the New Birth and under Relapses whatever goes under the name of a Wounded Spirit or Troubled Conscience But 2. Not only the evil of Sin but other Evils in themselves or to him in effect did sadden the Holy Psalmist's Soul Two especially 1. The Prosperity of the Wicked their Joy but his smart Vers 3. How long shall the Wicked Oh LORD how long shall the wicked triumph A common Offence and Trouble to both the Religious and Rational World The Gracious Servants of God often bemoan it What a Multitude of Precepts and Comforts doth the 37. Psal present as an Antidote against fretting about it Habakkuk bewails it Hab. 1.2 3 4. Jer. Ch. 12.1 2 reasons and pleads with God concerning it In Job How many Discourses are there to this purpose And every where in the Psalms to instance in one more only Psal 73. Vers 3. I was envious at the foolish when I saw the Prosperity of the Wicked After a Description whereof he adds Vers 21. Thus my heart was grieved and I was pricked in my Reins This also was a stumbling Block to the Philosophical World whereof the more Considerate and Vertuous made a good use others a bad reasoning from the unequal Distribution of Temporal Things against the Being of God and Providence into such Absurdities may those run who having but dark Apprehensions of Immortality and the Eternal Recompences of a Future State take their measures from sense and consider not the Unproportionableness of this present moment of Temporal Life to a vast Immense Eternity 2. The Unprosperous Afflicted Persecuted State of the People of God did excite in him sorrowful Reflections I doubt not but that with a broken Heart he Writ down that Complaint Vers 5. They break in pieces thy People O LORD and afflict thine Heritage They slay the Widow and the Stranger and murder the Fatherless Sure with a Soul melted into Sympathizing Commiserations doth he remember this So Asaph Psal 73.10 Therefore his People return hither and Waters of a full Cup are wrung out to them 21. Thus my Heart was grieved c. which refers to all before Discours'd concerning prosperous Wickedness and suffering Godliness And How can the Body in many parts of it suffer and the rest have no Fellow-feeling Thou art not vitally united as a Member to the Body of Christ Oh my Soul but may'st justly dread that he will cut thee off as a dead Libm and bury thee in Hell if thou be insensible of its Pains and Agonies Shew that the common Soul and Spirit Animates thee by a common sense with the rest of the Members that Communicate in it with thee If thou be not with them in Passion yet be in Compassion Why Persecutest thou me Says Christ to Saul Acts 9.4 The pain is in the Members the sense in the Head Christ disclaims thee thou art none of that me whereof he is so tender if thou suffer'st not by Commiseration when his Servants suffer Affliction Put on thy Bowels if thou desirest the Yernings of his when thy Condition shall be like theirs With the Prophet Jerem. 9.1 Say Oh that my Head were Waters and mine Eyes a Fountain of Tears that I might weep Day and Night for the slain of the Daughter of my People My Bowels my Bowels I am pained at my very Heart the Walls of my Heart make a noise in me I cannot hold my Peace because thou hast heard Oh my Soul the sound of the Trumpet the alarm of War To this Head may be reduced all those Troubles which are Fruits of Publick Calamities to Church or State Persecutions Martyrdoms Massacres c. Wars and Violence Oppressions Injuries c. whatever may be the Effects of the Rage and Fury of Men and Malice of impure
Perfection and plenitude of Essence Existence Substance Glory that more of God is every where than of any thing that there is not so much Soul in a body Light in the Sun Matter in the Universe as there is of God in each that they are not as he is They are but derivative Beings of a thin lank Constitution in comparison of that amplitude and fullness of Being in God who is every thing in the utmost Perfection that he can possible be from Eternity to Eternity unalterable and every where the same boundless Perfection that he is any where And wilt thou dare to be or speak or do any thing unbecoming so august so awful so glorious a Presence Shall the eye of a Worm Job 25.6 give Law to thy Tongue and Hands and shall not the Sovereign Majesty of Heaven and Earth have an Empire in thy Conscience Oh do not dare to be other now than at Judgment thou wilt wish thou hadst been For thy Judge is no less present although thou be less sensible Enforce upon thy self nay rather with a spontaneous and generous Freedom of Spirit out of choice entertain and take complacency in such Considerations alway as may better thee because not to be better for them is to be worse ineffectual Thoughts of God being like to be effectual for thy confusion If the Rays of Divine Glory that shine into thy reasoning Powers have no influence upon thy Appetite and Actions if notwithstanding them thou can'st be as vain frothy carnal secure rocky unsavoury unbelieving formal hypocritical worldly lustful lazy disobedient as if thou didst still sit in darkness and the shadow of Death if thy apprehensions of the super-intendency of Heaven do not over-awe thy unruly untoward Will into compliance with that Will which is supreme and universal Goodness do not quicken thee to Penitence and Holiness to an intire and upright observance of the whole Condition of the Covenant of Grace with a persevering resolution and endeavour thou wilt certainly find Oh my Soul that this Light will be mighty to aggravate thy Sin and Punishment everlastingly Oh for a heart so to work toward God under its Sensations of the Unfathomableness of his Understanding Universalness of his Presence Particularity of his Observance Amplitude of his Goodness Beauty of his Holiness Severity and Impartiality of his Justice Extensiveness of his Power in fine Greatness and Incomprehensibleness of his Majesty and Glory as to be altogether unsatisfiable till it can centre it self upon him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as its only Happiness in an absolute Renunciation of every thing that stands in competition with him and be willing out of love to him readily to embrace his Laws submit to the Government of his Son Jesus Christ and the Conduct of his Spirit of Truth and Grace which if these Thoughts of God will not prevail upon thee to do nothing can since there is infinitely less of Argument in every finite thing nay in all together than there is in the Infiniteness of God Wilt thou hence then be perswaded Oh my Soul to acknowledge that God in all thy ways whom thus thou knowst in some degree though but very imperfect Wilt thou fear and reverence his Greatness love and delight in his Goodness conform to his Holiness stand in awe of his Justice in all things subjugate and submit thy self to his Soveraign Authority and Will as the best and wisest Thine own interest as well as the reason of the thing and the command of thy Maker requires thy speedy and thorow resolution If thou wilt not bid an everlasting adieu to all the Comforts of Heaven thou must thus humbly seek after them which if thou do really 't is no presumption to claim them as thine Eternal Inheritance and Portion This appertains to the First Commandment we shall derive another part of the Psalmist's Character from the Second CHAP. III. A Second Character of the Subject of Comfort Prayer 2. THe Sacred Penman here was a Man of Prayer the whole Psalm is a solemn Address to God and 't is not like the fumbling of one unaccustomed thus to converse with the Divine Majesty the Genius of it gives abundant evidence that it hath been a familiar and frequent practice with such gravity of Expression with such liberty of Spirit with such a holy Parrhesy and Confidence with such variety of Arguments with such endearments of affection does he plead with God as one that long had liv'd upon the trade and was a good Proficient in this heavenly art of Wrestling with God And indeed 't is generally under this Duty that the Lord administers the solace and satisfaction of his Love to revive a drooping Heart Whoever is unacquainted with Prayer is utterly an alien from Divine Peace Those that live most with God in this exercise receive most from God enjoy most in him to sweeten their Spirits under all their Sorrows his Promise engaging him to be found in a way of Peace and Contentation of all those that diligently seek him Beside that his own Glory engages him to answer the Petitions of Peace which are put up in the Name and put into the Hands of his only Begotten to be presented to his Majesty perfumed with the Incense of his Mediation Joh. 14.13 Whatever ye shall ask in my Name that will I do Wherefore is it because you ask or for the merit of your Devotions or the strength of your Faith or the fervency of of your Spirits or the forcibleness of your Arguments or the urgency of your Importunities c. No but I will do it that the Father may be glorified in the Son Oh gracious Redeemer Oh precious Promise Oh blessed Hope How strong and rich are thy Consolations especially considering the relation which this Promise stands in to another immediately succeeding it viz. that of a Comforter the Holy Spirit which our blessed Mediator prevail'd with his Father to bestow that he might give us an Experiment of the prevatence of Prayer ver 16. I will 〈◊〉 the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever As if he had said my personal Prayer you shall to your satisfaction find effectual but this further assurance will I give you that the Prayers you put up in my Name shall be no less efficacious than those I my self present in mine own Person for upon my request you shall be endow'd with the same Spirit that breaths out mine and my Merit is not confin'd to my Person the vertue thereof will be extended to your pleadings in my Name through the co-operation of that Holy One who shall be your aid and with unutterable groans cointercede for you Indeed this Heavenly Dove comes only in at the Window of Prayer but we must put forth our hand to take it and heartily humbly believingly to beg it is as little as we can do if we sluggishly put our hand into our Bosom and refuse this labour
Holy Penman would not have born up himself in Conscience of Innocence with respect either to God or Man had he harboured any designs to usurp the proper Honour of the God of Revenges in seeking by Violence to right himself against that Throne of Iniquity which even by a Law endeavoured to do him manifest wrong So Sacred is the Majesty of a Prince that a good Conscience cannot be maintain'd in affronting it though it act Unrighteously much less when it acts righteously under an absolute and unlimited Monarchy There 's no relief on Earth against a Throne though of Iniquity From its unjust Judgment we have with the Psalmist liberty of Appeal to Heaven but to attempt otherways is a manifest violation of the Rights both of God and Man Of God by invading his Property Of the King for who made thee his Judge and set thee above him Let the Supreme Monarch that rules be what he will Just or Unjust Jew or Heathen or Turk or Papist or Protestant true Worshiper or Idolater Christian Antichristian Religious Irreligious Holy or Wicked I find not any Warrant either in the Word of God from Precept or Example nor in any Ancient Father not in any approved Protestant Writer for any Private Persons or Society of such to oppose him by Violence but the quite contrary Calvin I know is charg'd with Antimonarchical Principles but how justly will appear to any serious Considerer of that last Chapter of his Institutions where § 7. sub fin he says The Government of one which least pleased the Great Wits of Old is commended by an eximious Testimony of God above the rest And § 8. permits not private Men to dispute which is best And though he upon some accounts like Aristocracy or a temper of that and Polity as best Yet saith Non id quidem per se Not of it self But because Kings rarely moderate themselves c. which plainly intimates that he judged Monarchy the best in it self though Monarchs not always the best Yet whatever be less eligible ex vitio personarum he will not allow so much as the desire of a change in the Government set over us by God but condemns it as Foolish Needless and Noxious Non modo stulta erit supervacua sed prorsus noxi◠etiam cogitatio And how strict he is in requiring Subjection even to Tyrannical Princes See § 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31. which would be too tedious to transcribe That which some pick out to snarl at in the end of § 31. De privatis hominibus semper loquor Nam siqui nunc sint c. as though he allow'd the three States to resist the King This cannot be concluded from his Words which are Hypothetical limited with a Forte and 't is but pro officio intercedere and they are only Persons qui se Dei ordinatione libertatis tutores positos norunt which he does not forbid non veto And let any Man of sence judge whether this be a true or false Proposition Those Persons who know themselves ordain'd of God to be Guardians of Peoples Liberties ought to interceed according to the tenor of their Office with ferocient Princes in the Peoples behalf and not connive at their Oppressions To make pro Officio contra Officium suum is wise Interpretation but since he confines them within the boundaries of their Office or Duty he must be a very Spider indeed that can such Poyson out of it But that may seem more important which we find here ver 16. He demands Who will rise up for me c. Whatever he meant doubtless he judg'd it consistent with Innocency and a good Conscience To clear which 1. The Hebrew to a Word runs thus Who will rise to me with the Evil Doers Who will stand to me with the Workers of Iniquity Now make what you can of it for the Doctrine of opposing Princes Admit that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be Translated For me or in my behalf as 't is Gen. 23.8 c. Yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does not import Opposition and Contrariety but Conjunction and Association being of the kindred of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 People And 't is not that I remember any where in the Bible beside translated against In all places where the Holy Ghost would signifie the Enmity or Contrariety of Persons or things another Preposition is used either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to select one place of Multitudes because very like the Phrase here Psal 34.16 The Face of the LORD is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against them that do evil c. Or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to look no farther than this Psalm and but two Verses below my Text ver 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They troop against the Soul of the Just 'T is not sure for nothing that the Spirit of God here lays aside the usual manner of expressing himself The reason is above our reach But may not this account bid fair toward a Probability That possibly some Persons were with Saul and his Pertakers from whom the Psalmist had reason to expect better things than from those who were his profest Enemies The sense then will be Which of you all that being born down with the stream of the times associate with ill Men will now rise and stand for me to interpose and speak in my behalf as once did the truly noble Jonathan a Friend incomparable 2. The end for which he expected they should rise and stand up is not express'd in that Verse but the next has it express a help Vnless the LORD supply out of the former Verse had risen or stood a help to me c. For since those Words will make good sense why should aliene be inserted Therefore on the other hand make up the former Verse by adding that out of this which was the end of their expected rising and standing and 't is thus Who will rise or stand a help to me with evil Doers c. Now consider the quality of this help he expected was it Forcible Violent Vengeful by Arms and Bloodshed No this Psalm repudiates it in his appeals to the God of Revenges And 1 Sam. 24.12 13. and 26.8 9 10 11 16 23. He disclaims and abhors it as sinful urgently dehorts from it and rebukes the temptation to it when irritated by his Followers and invited by a fair opportunity and plansible argument Behold the day of the which the LORD said unto thee Behold I will deliver thine Enemy into thy hand that thou mayst do to him as shall seem good unto thee It was then Moral help that he expected Help by Counsel and Perswasion not by Power and Compulsion Such as he had from God which was not a coactive but a gentle rational and unforcible bowing the wills of Adversaries to desist God did not constrain but incline the Mind and Heart of Saul to cease the pursuit at Selah Hammalekoth 1 Sam. 23.26 27 28. To leave him untoucht and
unutterable Agonies and Woes of Hell and the horrible Tempest of Divine Vengeance and indignation in everlasting Burnings which will be tormenting above all that any understanding but that of God can comprehend the bitter Weepings Wailings and Gnashings of Teeth without Ease Release Mitigation Relief or End this intolerable after-clap of Sin is even to the remembrance and fore-thought almost as Cruciating as it self to the sense and feeling will be confounding God's Writing down all our Miscarriages in his Book out of which all the Power and Policy in the World can never expunge them his setting even our secret Sins in the light of his Countenance which makes them infinitely more visible than the Sun in the Firmament is a consideration that sticks and stabs us to the Heart and Murders all our Comforts at once and buries us in Horror Yet now if there can be any good token found that this Hand-writing is blotted out If a Man can be assured that Iniquity and Transgression shall by God be remembred no more this is the most reviving transporting Solace in the World But how can I have a Testimony that God hath thus privileged me How shall I know that he will forgive and forget my wickedness if he do not tell me Who can search into the bottom of his Counsels and know his purposes and practice in Heaven if himself do not reveal them And there are but two ways of revealing any secret thing viz. by words and by works Words spoken and written Deeds in Signs The Holy Scriptures reveal God's general Will to pardon some yet do they not name but only describe the Persons giving their true and lively Moral Character setting down at full such Qualifications as may be to any Man a clear Evidence who is and who is not made happy in this forensecal Mercy of Justification If an Angel from Heaven should address himself to thee with this Comfortable Message That thy Iniquities are pardoned If a Bath-kol a voice in Thunder should name thee and say Be of good Comfort thy Sins are forgiven thee thou could'st not be secure that this was not an Illusion to abuse thee into Presumption if thy inward sense did not report those tokens on which the Word of God does suspend thy Pardon But if thou canst but produce these all the Angels and Voices from Heaven imaginable though as particular and clear as possible telling thee thou art unjustified must be acknowledged accursed Deceptions because they Preach another Doctrine than Christ has done in the Gospel Gal. 1.8 Well then that thou may'st find a good token for good thou need'st not ascend into Heaven to search the Archives or court Rolls of the upper Bench there nor turn over the Book of Life in a curious tracing out thy particular name but having duly informed thy mind what are the signs of a Pardoned State look within thy Soul and Conscience and diligently enquire and examine without Partiality and a biass selfward whether the present State Constitution and Frame of thy heart be that in reality which is enrolled in the promises of the Book of God the Scripture which tender to thee Conditionally the forgiveness of Sin produce but those Conditions let it but appear upon sound Evidence that will satisfie thy self and the World and thy Judge that having truly repented of thy Sin thou livest under the Dominion of Faith and a good Conscience and Justice it self is obliged to Faithfulness for the granting thee Indemnity and Remission and the sense thereof in thy own Soul For if a Man can truly say that he hath repented and stands to what he has done in stedfast Resolutions never to return to folly his Reflections upon former Sins will not be torturing though they may be grieving because he hath the promise of Mercy and Pardon Isa 55.7 Acts 3.19 which Justice it self is obliged to perform For Conditional Promises in themselves are Dispensations of free love which was not obliged by any necessity or Congruousness to offer such Blessings upon such terms yet once made and the Conditions observed the Donation of the Mercy becomes the interest of strict Justice and Righteousness But although the New Covenant admit of Repentance which that of Works could not yet this Condescention is only through a Mediator Jesus Christ If therefore to thy Penitence thou do not superadd Faith in him neither will those after Thoughts be sound nor introductive of Peace because without Christ our Righteousness and Peace objective and causal without us Jer. 23.6 1 Cor. 1.30 Mic. 5.5 Eph. 2.14 there can be no Pardon and Peace formal within us Rom. 8.1 and without Faith no Justification no Christ Rom. 5.1 Joh. 3.18 36. Yet both these must be evinced to be sincere and sound and thereby be themselves justifiable and justified which nothing can do but the exercise of a Good Conscience Acts 24.16 This alone is to us the surest Evidence that our Repentance and Faith are unfeigned and that we deceive not our own Souls Indeed the basis of all true bliss and solace is a good Conscience in Justice and Innocency toward Man Inoffensiveness and Piety toward God Moderation and Sobriety in my self the contrary to these and Comfort are incompatible 'T is but a colloguing with my Conscience to my utter Confusion to tender it Peace if it be not pure Jam. 3.17 No Man can be groundedly quiet in Mind if filthy in Heart and Life If thou be a Devil thou must carry thy Hell about thee visibly or under disguise in its self or its Causes Thou hast no just Right to the sweets of Religion if a stranger to its Power A Mans first Designs for Joy are or ought to be laid in Self-survey and Reflection If he can find nothing of God within he can take comfort in nothing of God without but by an unjust Usurpation and Sacrilege All the goodness of God signifies nothing to an ill Man But a Good Conscience or heart is a continual Feast Prov. 15.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that finds all right at home who has no rebuke nor cause thereof from the Domestick Comptroller and Comforter in his Bosom is happy Now there can be no goodness in Conscience but only from God and as far as in Conjunction with God God in thy Conscience makes it good for he is all Goodness and there neither is nor can be any except in and from him And all the goodness which is in thy Conscience from him is first from his Faithfulness acting under his Love in the Covenant wherein he promises to give a new heart of Flesh Ezek. 36 26 27. Jer. 31.33 and Write his Laws in it by his Spirit of Promise which he engages shall cause us to walk in his Statutes c. Next and under Faithfulness all the goodness in thy Conscience is from Justice For the Right that Fidelity gives to Mercy Justice is obliged to maintain God must perform his Word because he cannot
vouchsafe Pardon Her Iniquity is pardoned because she hath received two-double c. Else 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must be here Translated that as in the two former Clauses Indeed in the New Covenant Oeconomy Satisfaction made Actually or Vertually as the Lamb of God was slain from the beginning of the World is Antecedent to Pardon and the meritorious Cause of it 3. By like Reason both from the Nature of the thing and the Contexture of these Clauses Warfare or appointed time for hostility is accomplished Remissâ culpâ remittitur poena when Sin is Pardoned The Fault being forgiven the Punishment Eternal at least is remitted and sometimes the Temporal wholly however in the nature of a satisfactory Penalty Guilt is pardoned but the Essence of Guilt consists in a binding over to Wrath or Punishment Therefore the punishment is remitted in this Notion that it shall not be inflicted in vertue of that Obligation to Wrath although the very same material Pains under another form viz. as Corrections ver 12. may be undergone nay must be in some degree and kind Acts 14.22 Psal 34.19 2 Tim. 3.12 c. I know no Declaration or Promise made by God that these and the like shall not continue part of Canonical Scripture and be true to the Worlds end Afflictions are formally Penal till Sin be remitted but afterward the Sting is taken out and they are not Conflicts of War but only Chastisements of Peace The Enmity of God is then terminated the Warfare betwixt him and the Soul issued in a serene perfect and everlasting Tranquility and Peace And therefore 4. These Foundations being laid the Word of Promise Proclaims and Crys Comfort ye Comfort ye your selves for I am your God who command and warrant you to do it There 's nothing now to debar you from assuming it and quieting your troubled Hearts with the application of it it is ready for you and you for it it invites you with its amiable aspect to run into its Embraces and solace your selves with all the Marrow and sweetness comprehended in the Covenant and Promises all is yours by right And consequently Lastly When God proclaims Peace and crys Comfort ye Comfort ye Conscience transgresses if it do not so likewise For being God's Viceroy and Judge in Man it hath no Commission to Act but deriv'd from God from which it must not cannot swerve an Hair's-breath without incurring the Penalty of its Presumption The Law of God in Nature and Scripture is the perfect and adequate Rule and Standard of all its Proceedings herein are all its Powers contain'd a counterpart whereof it retains after Illumination within it self which Copy is null if it do not perfectly agree with the Original To interline or rase out does wholly evacuate and destroy the validity of its proceedings Therefore whatever God says or does in the Concerns of his Government within us Conscience must not vary from in the least tittle it must speak when and what he does and be silent where he is so If God condemn Conscience must do so likewise if he absolve Conscience must justifie also neither adding to his Words nor diminishing nor yet concealing his Counsels If then he be at Peace Conscience is obliged no longer to proclaim War If he call to Comfort it must not contradict his Calls and so oppose and blaspheme his Grace it must harmonize with Heaven or else it abjures its Allegiance to God and acts by Commission from Satan and lyes against the Holy Ghost In summ all Spiritual Discomfort is finally resolvable into trouble 1. about a Man's 1 State Absolute Relative or 2 Frame of Soul or 3 Way of Walking or 4 Particular Acts of Sin or 5 Satan's Temptations or 6 Divine Derelictions under all which there is abundant Comfort in this MY GOD For if he be my State is good witness the Covenant My Ways and Frame shall be so Jer. 32.38 39 40 41 and 24.7 Deut. 30.1 to 10 Inclusive Ezek. 11.19 20. and 36. 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 the latter part of 36 and beginning of 37. By these exceeding great and precious Promises not only Healing Sanctifying Stablishing but also Preventing and Pardoning Grace is given for particular Acts of Sin and assurance that God will not finally forsake us therefore not leave us to the Will and Power of the Old Serpent though he tempt to Sins as black as the Regions he Inhabits as foul as his own Face as malignant as his own venomous Heart The Fear of God which his everlasting Covenant engages to give will command urge and enforce thy dissent or the Love of God will oblige him to Pardon as he hath promised if thy Consent be ravish'd because his Covenant Grace the Law in the Heart will enable to Repent and Believe for Pardon Here 's all The Comfort of Sanctification we have in the forecited Psal 119.50 and Isa 12.1 O Lord I will praise thee though thou wast angry with me thine anger is turned away and thou comfortedst me Rom. 5.1 Being Justify'd by Faith we have Peace with God There 's the Comfort of Justification upon which two all Spiritual Comforts depend yea and Temporal also upon the latter as to their Substance and the former as its Evidence For we know not that we are pardoned but only by feeling our selves purified by God's Holy Spirit of Grace Whence Isa 32.24 The Inhabitant shall not say I am sick the People that dwell therein shall be forgiven their Iniquity Sickness the sharpest the nearest the most perilous of all Bodily Troubles by a Synecdoche put for all the rest the bitterness whereof is antidoted by the sweet of Pardon and Peace sense of Pardon will take away sense of Pain because it takes out the Poyson and Curse of it That is the comfort of forgiveness or exemption from eternal intolerable Pains does out-balance the trouble of any temporary tolerable Pains as joy for the birth of a Man-Child drowns the remembrance and sense of all preceeding Pangs and Sorrows Joh. 16.21 Lastly If to all these be superadded any plain and sensible Experiments of Divine Goodness in the special Fruits of it this doth abundantly satisfie and solace our Souls as compleating our evidence of right to the Comforts of God being as it were an immediate Testimony from Heaven that God is ours in Covenant and owns us as his peculiar Treasure Mal. 3.15 For 't is a confirmation of our Assurance of and Title to Comfort under the Hand and Seal of the Holy Spirit of Grace and Consolation This contributes to Comfort thus and thus only as corroborating our assured Perswasion and Evidence that our Peace is not self-flattery and deceit For 't is merely in vertue of Assurance that we are enabled to comfort our selves in God Assurance I say in both its parts both as referring to an external Object viz. Propriety in God all of God and as respecting those inward Qualifications and Dispositions which if I do not
got to the foot of that Ladder whose top is Heaven Comfort is the Off-spring of God and thus descends to Man The matter and substance of it or the thing comforting is originally something of or from the Divine Nature it self Which when we had forfeited by Sin the ever-blessed Jesus God's Eternal Son did interpose to regain and purchase for us and remove all impediments to the conferring it on God's part Whence he is call'd the Consolation of Israel Luk. 2.25 And our Consolations are said to abound by Christ 2 Cor. 1.5 If there be any Consolations in Christ is the Hypothesis of a very powerful Argument Phil. 2.1 And that Prayer 2 Thes 2.16 17. is very considerable Now our LORD Jesus Christ himself and GOD even our Father who hath loved us and given us everlasting Consolation through Grace Comfort your Hearts and establish you in every good Word and Work Hence the Father who is the principal Author and Efficient hath obliged himself to bestow it and therefore is call'd the God of all Comfort 2 Cor. 1.3 God that comforteth those that are cast down 2 Cor. 7.6 See Isa 51.11 12. Hos 2.14 Isa 66.13 Especially that remarkable place foremention'd Heb. 6.16 17 18. The Holy Ghost hath his part also as removing the Impediments of Comfort on Man's part preparing for it and in the use of the means of Grace and Peace the Word and Ordinances applying it actually to us whence if our Translation be of any Authority he has the Name of Comforter given and appropriated to him Joh. 14.16 c. I mention the Word and Ordinances of God as the means of Comfort and not without warrant Psal 119.82 Mine Eyes fail for thy Word saying when wilt thou Comfort me Rom. 15.4 Whatever things were written aforetime were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope And to this purpose is it said of the Comforter Joh. 14.26 He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you And Joh. 15.26 He shall testifie of me all this in pursuance of his Office as Comforter Now by these means 1. He reveals Comfort to us in the Covenant and Promise 2. Declares to us the terms and conditions upon which Comfort may be assuredly obtain'd and 3. Works those Conditions in us 1. Repentance to qualifie and prepare for it 2. Faith to apprehend and apply it which 4. Experience feels with all other connex Graces operating effectually in our Hearts Wherefrom Lastly A full Assurance arises 1. That our Graces are sound and sincere 2. That the Promises are our Portion the Lord our God Christ our Saviour the Holy Spirit our Sanctifier Comfort Joy and Heaven our Inheritance by special Covenant-right and from all these together necessarily grows actual Peace of Conscience and true spiritual Consolation but then 't is only as far as we have the first Assurance for without this we cannot assume to our selves any true Joy and Comfort as far as the rest issue in Assurance but no farther have we solace in and from them Let there be as firm a Foundation laid both without me and within me as is possible yet if I know nothing of it my Heart is uneasie and unsettled I am no better for it But knowing that Sincerity gives right to all in God as soon as ever I attain true Faith of Evidence all is composed into a quiet Settlement and Peace And so certain is this that even the false and fallacious Joys of both Hypocrites and prophane Persons must have an answerable perswasion in the Mind of a right to them For no Man can take comfort in that which he knows he hath nothing to do with Indeed their Assurance is as groundless though they do not know so much as their Comfort is illuding and impostorous and alway the nature of the Comfort doth perfectly answer the quality of the Assurance if this be sound and good that is so also if otherwise we gull our selves into real woe under a delusory dream of merely phantastical Consolation Hence there 's an absolute necessity of abundance of Experience and diligent trial whether our Experience be conform to the Word of God if we desire that our Assurance may stand upon a secure basis For if we feel not the real effects of Divine Power and Goodness fulfilling to us in truth the Promise and Covenant of Grace in writing the Divine Laws in our Hearts and enabling and exercising us to observe and obey them we can have no Assurance that any thing is right within us or gives right to any thing without us We must experience a sound Work that without fallacy may be ascribed to God himself For no Grace is true which is not of God's creating to him doth the Scripture every where ascribe it One full place for all Ezek. 36.26 27. A new Heart also will I give you and a new Spirit will I put within you and I will take the stony Heart out of your Flesh and I will give you an Heart of Flesh and I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes and ye shall keep my Satutes and do them Then shall ye remember your own evil ways and your doings that were not good and shall loath your selves in your own sight for your Iniquities and for your Abominations c. First the Principle and Power must be confer'd by God then and not till then the practice by Man will commence and begin but all under the influence of Divine Grace 'T is first I will I will then you shall and again to show that the very you shall though Man's act yet is not of and from Man it follows not for your sake do I this do I therefore not you without me nor so by my aid neither as that the doing it can more justly and truly be ascribed to you than me yet will not I do it without you for ye shall loath your selves i. e. by my Power nor will I do it without your asking for Ver. 37. Yet for this will I be enquired of by the House of Israel to do it for them We must then have good experience especially of the Work of Divine Grace in making the soundness of our Actings of Repentance and Faith apparent and the fruits of both must concur to give a clear Testimony that they are right and genuine such a full and thorow spiritual sense and feeling must we have of them and their agreeableness to the Rules and Laws of Scripture that require them as to be able to satisfie our selves and approve our Consciences to God that we do not play the Hypocrites and cheat our selves and the World with Counterfeits instead of unsophisticate sincere Graces else we can never be blest with any certainty that God is ours and his Comforts ours and therefore cannot groundedly take comfort in him 'T is then demonstratively clear that
57.20 21. But when the Lord Heals and Leads he will restore comforts to Mourners Vers 18. Art thou then Spiritually alive O my Soul or dead Dead thou art if destitute of Soul Thy Soul is God Christ is thy Life Col. 3.4 The Life thou livest in the Flesh ought to be by the Faith of the Son of God Gal. 2.20 And he also is thy Peace Mic. 5.5 Eph. 2.14 If thou livest in God and God in thee by Faith and Love thy Peace is solid and genuine but in Disunion and Separation from God and Christ there 's neither true Life nor Peace Enjoyest thou a Christ within thee He is then thy hope of Glory therefore thy Haven of Rest Joy and Consolation Do'st thou experience any Communion of Life betwixt thy self and Holy Jesus Do'st thou feel any thing of his powerful gracious Influence Holy Souls are Spiritually moved by the Holy Ghost which is the bond of Union betwixt them and God By him Christ dwells in us 1 Joh. 3.24 Rom. 8.9 10 11 15. Hath this quickening Spirit enliven'd thee Thou may'st know that the Spirit of Grace hath quickened thee by his Fruits Gal. 5.22 23. For if thou livest in the Spirit thou wilt walk also in the Spirit Vers 25. And the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus will free thee from the Law of Sin and Death Rom. 8.2 which naturally thou walkest by that thou wilt affectionately savour so is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated Matth. 16.23 Col. 3.2 mind relish the things of the Spirit not of the Flesh Vers 5. If thou art or hast a Spiritual Being according to the Spirit Vers 5. or in the Spirit Vers 9. he houses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in thee and makes thee Spiritually minded which is Life and Peace Vers 6. and by degrees destroys out of thee the minding or savour of the Flesh which is Death or Enmity against God Vers 7. Hast thou studied these things to know them and thy self whether thou dost really feel them throughly considering and fearching all within to see what one thing thou canst pitch upon that will be a sure Evidence that thou livest in the Spirit and he in thee without which thou canst never groundedly say My God as the Psalmist for thou art none of his Rom. 8.9 therefore he none of thine that is by federal Vnion What then are thy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These are the surest Testimonies of a Life in God by his Spirit 'T is a very comprehensive Word full of sense no one in our language can express it For it includes the noblest Actings of the whole Soul in knowing considering minding regarding thinking wisely discreetly prudently powerfully effectually with affection savour and a spiritual taste and sense of sweetness and delectable goodness with the result hereof those stated Principles which these actings establish as a Law to our Consciences Affections and Practices not only the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or agency of the mind but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or fruit of its Operation the thinking of the mind and the thought formed by the mind Upon what Objects dost thou fix thy Mindings and Willings of this Nature And what kind of things of what Vertue and Efficacy are the savoury Cogitations that issue from these mindings When thou settlest these Workings of Soul upon the Flesh and the World thou makest them thy gods as the carnal heart does Truly nothing deserves or can be worthy of this contention of Mind but what is Spiritual and Celestial Wherever this is engaged from thence is thy Life and thy Peace is Congenerous to thy Life If the best things habitually and statedly enjoy these endeavours and motions of thy superiour Powers and maintain an inviolable Authority over them thy Life is the best and no other thy Consolations Lastly real and deceiving Comforts may be differenced by their tendency and effects They both end as they begin The cheating Peace of the Prophane and Hypocritical will never produce any conscionable persevering cares and endeavours to please God and profit Men. But the joy of the Lord is the Souls strength in his service and evermore leads to him in Holiness of Heart and Life and to more lively actings of Faith Love and Gratitude to growth in Grace and Godliness as is not obscurely intimated in the example of the Psalmist We will suppose the actings of his Grace to proceed in the same tenor with the Expressions thereof in the Psalm For we have no other Evidence thereof and may Rationally judge this to be a Report of his inward Sensations in their Nature Order Progress and Perfection as we find in other Psalms Well his Faith which at the beginning appears something pendulous weak and wavering as to that particular thing about which it was first engaged viz. the Interposal of Divine Justice to secure the Church from the rage of its Enemies and could only look for this in a Petitionary way and view it in its causes Vers 1 2 3 c. does after this favourable Aspect of Divine Comforts in this Verse grow up to a prophetical confidence in the certain futurity of the event Vers 23. And as it had eyed the cause Divine Vengeance in a Duplication of the Address to it in the first weak act of affiance Vers 1. So also Vers last presents a double Testimony of the more established and strong act of confident assurance that the effect which he expected should undoubtedly be produced What he only saw the possibility of in the first workings of his Faith he foresees the Existence of in the last what he only beg'd that it might be in the infancy of his Faith he peremptorily concludes and promises himself that it would be in this its Maturity Then his Faith only wishes here it determines there was his Supposition here is desinitive Sentence and Decision that his Prayer this his Answer The Victory of his Faith over all preceding fears and dubitations Hope triumphing over his Despondency And that Comfort has a special Influence thus to heighten Faith and perfect its actings is apparent from the nature of the thing For since it is the quiet and rest of the Mind upon good Evidence of the Love of God to a Man in particular through Christ it can do no other than embolden his Addresses and encourage his confidence Even as when a tender Father receives into and cherishes in his bosom a reconciled Child and speaks to his Heart This removes fully all those Jealousies and Doubts which the remembrance of former unkindnesses and distances might create and invites the Child to a more inhesitant and free recumbence upon and committing himself to this so amply attested love and tenderness of his now no more angry Father So by the like reason it introduces an additional fervour and flame to the Child's love and engages him to a more full and ingenuous Expression of his dutifulness and filial observance And no less may be gathered from
excessive enough in their grief for Sin but are still ambitions to find their Head become Waters and theirs Eyes a Fountain of Tears that they may weep day and night which if they experience in any desired measure then are they well satisfied and at ease making this an Ingredient of their Comfort stiling it melting and being affected which when they feel not they are all upon the whine and cannot be reconciled to their more deep solid and less superficial Repentings and Dolors But this womanish part of Repentance in God's Whinls as one used to call them though in its due degree and place desirable and commendable yet is the least considerable and lowest thing in it as every judicious Divine and Christian very well knows being only sensitive not deliberative or spiritual in its rise and acting and real nature and the former viz. melancholick Pensiveness and delight therein is no part of Repentance at all but only an effort of natural Constitution or a gratification thereof including nothing reasonable and humane nor divine and spiritual No more is any thing in that Person who cannot satisfactorily resolve that Quaere of the Psalmist Why art thou cast down ob my Soul And why art thou disquieted within me Psal 42. ult For this is distinctive of sound trouble and unsound the former has some special and particular Matter as a reason and ground to alledge for it self the latter either can give no reason at all or hovers in the wild confusion of generals whence it springs and how it rises and for what it is lies in the dark Let not that pass then for right trouble which cannot give a just account of it self at the bar of Reason guided by the Word of God and if it cannot stand there how will it plead before the Tribunal of Christ Where we must render a reason of all things done in the Flesh whether good or evil 2 Cor. 5.10 the very Thoughts of the heart being there to be judged Rom. 2.15 16. troubled and troubling thoughts as well as others As then those are infinitely blame-worthy who maintain an ungrounded Peace in their minds although their hearts have never been sensible and sick of their native habitual enmity against God and Holiness and will not be beaten out of their presumptuous confidence in the Goodness and Covenant of God although altogether unqualified and those also who being a little chastized with the Whips and Scorpions of the Law in a tart Conviction and Terror of Conscience soon grow weary of the burthen and pain and being more sick of their Corrosives than their Corruptions begin Dog-like to lick whole their Sores and will have the Promises right or wrong as a lenitive or stupefactive rather to ease their pains or destroy their sence though the Core abide within and being well-pleas'd and satisfy'd with the palliate Cure trail on a little while 'till the more deep lancings of a thorough Conviction discover the deceit or the incurable gangrene break out at Death and Judgment to their ineffable Horror So likewise are they worthy to be greatly blamed on the other hand who are really sick but afraid of Balm and the Physician and though every Sin be made grievous and pain them at the very heart and nothing in the World would be more acceptable than a Saviour whom to subject themselves to they appear heartily resolved and willing to embrace every one of his Laws yet make danger of applying to themselves and taking encouragement from his Promises of Mercy that in Him are Yea and in Him Amen because forsooth they are not so and so humbled holy affectionate c. As if 't was not Evangelical New Covenant-Perfection i. e. Vprightness but Legal Personal Vniversal and Perpetual Obedience which God required as the Condition of the Covenant of Grace and they must not dare to accept of Christ and his Benefits except they were so good before-hand as to stand in no need of them But why I beseech you thus in love with your own Torture and desirous still to abide upon the Rack of Anxiety and Dolour Trouble is not its own end God does not wound our Consciences or crucifie our Comfort in carnal Things merely because he loves to torment us or that we may be Devils to ourselves by protracting our own Woes beyond the bounds of Decorum and Necessity He only designs by the Antiperistasis of our Sorrows more to sweeten the Joys of his Salvation which he hath prepared for us and by mingling Gall and Wormwood with our delicious Sins to embitter that which only prepares us for and assigns us over unto the direful Miseries of everlasting Damnation In brief one would not think that the reason of any could be reconcil'd to their own Woes much less their Sense Yet common Experience tells us that some will every moment be conjuring up new Fiends to torture themselves and seem to study nothing else but by fetching in all the Fuel they can possibly reach and all the Fire that divine Vengeance breaths out in the Scriptures to kindle a Hell in their own Consciences as though Misery were their proper Element and infinitely more desirable than divine Mercy which they solicitously fly from and with all imaginable Artifice and Industry fence against as if in a pernicious Malice against themselves they were sure 't would be their utter undoing to be happy Corruption Temptation and a dark cloudy Complexion with confederate strength and stratagems besiege and storm their Imaginations which having invested from thence as a strong Citadel they batter down their Reason so that nothing can be heard or regarded but what will take the stronger side to war against Comfort and God Display before them all the amiable Beauties of Infinite Goodness and Love in its wonderful descents to the Chief of Sinners with whose Transgressions their sober Considerations cannot dare to equal their own Represent to their view in a clear Heaven of Light the incomprehensible Glories and Condescensions of the ever to be admired and adored Son of Righteousness whose astonishing Free Grace induced him to be willing for the sake of lost Mankind to suffer an Eclipse under that thick Cloud of divine Vengeance which was due for the Sins not of one particular Sinner only but of the whole World and the Merit of whose Passion was sufficient to expiate the Sins of infinite Worlds yet will they scarce allow this to be a balance for their own Lay open before their Eyes the rich and glorious Treasury of the divine Promises and gracious Invitations to such as are under like Circumstances with theirs and therefore to them as fully and clearly as if their Names were engraven in the Front of every one of those Bonds upon God's Fidelity or these written upon their own Foreheads or proclaimed to them by name from Heaven Discover to them with the brightest Evidence that their Spirit Condition Frame and Preparations are really such as God hath described and
engage my self to the use of all possible means of thy appointment to suppress all Motions to Sin to strengthen and renew my Resolutions dayly to establish me against Temptations and carry me on in an assiduous Exercise of Repentance till I have no more Sin to repent of and yet will not account this any Amends for the Wrong I have done thee but in an absolute Renunciation of all that I am can be or do my repenting it self my holy Duties my striving against Sin the World the Devil and my Religious Performances as altogether insufficient and unavailable to give Compensation or secure me from Justice I come despairing of my self and all the stock I can be furnish'd with at home hopeless and helpless by the whole world and in an humble and hearty Prostration of Soul throw down my self at thy feet seeking Relief where alone it is to be found and that is in thy self Oh Lord thy Son and Spirit and therefore with my whole mind will desire delight and strength I freely heartily fully give up my self all my Powers and Possibilities unto thee alone avouching Thee only to be my God and All-sufficient Goodness and Happiness and therefore with a lowly Reverence and Submission I cast my self as thy sworn Vassal at thy gracious Foot-stool in a sincere and absolute Choice and Acceptance of Thee O blessed Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost for my sole Portion and Rest dedicating my self from my very inmost Soul to Thee O Heavenly Father as my Soveraign Creator Owner and Governour to be wholly and unreservedly Thine entirely at thy Disposal from the very bottom of my Heart devoting the Remainder of my Spirits Strength and Life universally to thy Fear Love Honour Worship and Service in the Works of Repentance and Mortification of my Sin watchfulness against and resistance of Temptation and over my Heart and Way and diligence in exercising my self unto Godliness Righteousness and Sobriety And to this purpose as one utterly lost and undone in my self with a renewed humble Veneration I offer up my self wholly to thee O blessed Redeemer of the World the only begotten Son of the Eternal Father and with a bleeding broken Heart that hath no other relief but only in and through thee being in my self a very Hell of Wickedness and Woe condemned by thy Law condemned by mine own Conscience I lift up mine Eyes look unto and long for thee O dear Lord Jesus as my only Saviour Joy and Crown thee I earnestly press after I value above my Life my Hopes my Soul heartily approving of pleasing my self in and closing with that Method of Salvation ordained through thee as the only Mean and Help into the Favour and Love of God Therefore with the All of my Understanding and Will and Might I chuse and embrace and honour and love and delight and rejoyce in and venture my self my hopes my happiness my All upon thee for ever and ever trusting solely to thy Merit and Mediation accepting Thee in all thy Offices and Relations as Prophet Priest King Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification Redemption as my Soveraign Lord and Master the only Espoused Bridegroom of my Soul resolving through thy Grace to betake my self only to Thee to be Thine alone abrenunciating and disclaiming all that stands in competition with Thee and receiving cordially all thy Holy Counsels and Laws as the only Guide and Rule of my Thoughts Affections Words and Actions with a thorow purpose and endeavour to take the highest Care under the Aids of thy Grace both to conform in every thing thereto and boggle at no difficulties dangers or sufferings which I may expect or meet with in these thy ways but persevere therein to the end neither shall any Corruption within or Temptation from without have my heart or liking or allowance so as to withdraw my Soul from these Holy Resolves For which end I cast my self whole and entire upon thy Free Grace and Almighty Power and Holy Spirit to work in me both to will and to do all according to thy good pleasure being firmly engaged to be Thine and to take Thee to be Mine without a Moments farther Procrastination Come Holy Ghost Eternal God and breathe into my Soul infuse thy Gifts and Graces communicating thy Power to a poor impotent succourless Sinner that here lo consecrates himself to Thee and with a self-resigning Spirit resolves to venture all upon thy Conduct and Influence to be at thy Beck and Command in all things not knowing nor being able nor therefore willing to do any thing without thee Inspire my Mind direct my Heart awe my Conscience regulate my Life strengthen and uphold my goings that notwithstanding mine own insufficiency I may by Thee be enlarged in heart to run in the ways of thy Commandments And now Merciful God Father Son and Holy Ghost through that All-sufficient Merit that has procured all Blessings accept of me and own me as none of mine own but thy Portion and Inheritance who have taken Thee to be mine This this O my Soul is the One thing needful to be done in good earnest speedily with an uncontroulable Bent and Steadiness of Will and never to be repented of I am pained in my very Soul for and heartily bewail my Neglects Deferrings and Aversations And here I am blessed Lord setting to my Seal and firmly binding my self in this my Baptismal Covenant with an irreversible purpose to act all the remainder of my Life thro' thy Mercy and Assistance only according to the Tenour of it Be serious then here O my Soul or thou abjurest all solid Consolation Thou canst never enjoy good Hopes without a good Conscience If thou desirest to build high in thy Comforts be sure thou lay a good Foundation If thou never enterest into such Meditations and Resolutions as these bid everlastingly adieu to all true Contentation If thou do not really turn to God thou turnest away thy Peace The Holy Ghost will never be a Comforter where He is not a Converter Except thou be born again of Water and the Spirit thou canst not enter into the Kingdom of God the Kingdom of Peace See to it therefore that thou be raised from thy Death in Trespasses and Sins as ever thou desirest a Resurrection of thy Joys No Purity no Peace 5. Having thus begun go on Make Repentance Mortification Watchfulness Faith Love Resignation to the Will of God thy daily uninterrupted Exercise and endeavour to grow in all and be upright in all else all 's nothing Make Sincerity thy great Aim and Endeavour Hypocrisie is Heritor no where but in the Land of Darkness and dismal Woe Thy Joys will resemble their Parents If they be a Cheat so will they also Be really good and eminently so too Aut Caesar aut nullus Lean Graces do but devour fat Comforts never enjoy them The sweetest promises yield no lasting Refreshment to fickle hearts unestablished with Grace If thy Spiritual Strength be small when thy standing in
upon their Consciences They have awakening apprehensions of the Holiness and Justice of God the dreadful menaces of the Law the bitter Agonies undergone by the Son of God for the Sin of Man the dismal Horrors and Woes and Cruciations under the Vengeance of Almighty God in Hell which makes every Sin very formidable They are made to understand that although in respect of the matter some Sins are greater others less yet no Sin is absolutely little which is commited against a great God and also that smaller Sins are aggravated relatively to our Faculties that 't is an heinous offence to God to do the least of Evils against the clear Light and Conviction of Conscience or with a full bent of Will and Affection and that a Sin in respect of the matter comparatively and in it self greater yet is not so to me if committed ignorantly unwillingly Under these Considerations their own particular Sins are set in order before their Faces set on upon their awakned Consciences made bitter and grievous and odious that they Day and Night lament over them are afflicted with them in anguish of Soul under them labouring and being heavy laden and able to obtain rest no where till by serions hearty Repentance for and from them with a bitter loathing and implacable malice and hatred against them they be prepar'd for and made willing to embrace the Lord Jesus Christ in his whole mediatory Latitude and intirely devote themselves to him and his Father in the renewal of their Baptismal Covenant which they most solemnly and unfeignedly engage in and universally submit to the Terms of in the Strength and Grace of Christ Upon this Covenanting with God they see and know that to sin against him in any thing wittingly or willingly will in them be yet more exceeding sinful than before and still the more they oblige themselves to God and he engages them to himself and endears himself to them by the communication of Covenant-Mercies the more do they find their Sins to be inhanced in their abominable odiousness to God and the smart and sting they leave in their Consciences is so much the more grievous Oh none knows the dire and dismal things which a wounded Spirit undergoes but those that have felt The Spirit of a Man will sustain his Infirmity but a wounded Spirit who can bear Prov. 18.14 And this too has its degrees of Intolerableness in proportion to Sins and Sence and Temper and Time and Spirit and Improvement Men of strong Parts great Reading comprehensive Intellects large Memories ready and present Minds may sometimes soon and easily weather out the Storm But all Mens intellectuals and advances in Knowledge and Goodness are not of one size What shall poor weak shallow Heads or melancholick Constitutions and therefore strong Imaginations defective treacherous Memories but unruly Consciences do when both Heaven and Hell seem to be set in Battle-array against them Horrid Reflections virulent and violent Temptations strange and terrible Injections and Infusions as drawn Swords gashing and galling and killing the very Heart piercing it through with multitudes of Fears Troubles Torments Sorrows Can a Man that hath felt this Groan'd under been Crush'd and Crucifi'd and Rack'd and Rent in pieces with it and that perhaps many Weeks Months Years together ever make light of the cause of it ever have other than dreadful Apprehensions of it as the burn'd Child Fancy and Reason can never comprehend what Sense and Experience will testifie in these Cases Speculative Men that stand upon their Heads which have little or no Communion with their Hearts who understand every thing better than themselves very seldom feel any of these lamentable Twitches and Agonies till a Sickness a Death-bed set their thoughts upon another Bias which in some obtains in most not at all and then according to the largness of their minds are their Horrors of Conscience and their feeling may teach them fellow-feeling when it is too late but the unconcernedness of their Spirits before conjures down all workings of Commiseration As a Man of an Athletick Constitution in the triumphs of his natural Vigour and Health accounts valetudinary Persons a company of pitiful puling Sneaks always whining over an itching Limb in the Scurvey or a smarting Toe in the Gout or a rumbling Belly in the Chollick or Gripes or an akeing Back in the Stone or a squeazy Stomach or tickling Tooth c. in which they are the Objects of his Ridicule rather than compassionate regard But let his brass Pot receive a sound knock from any of these mauling Distempers or the like and the Complexion of his thoughts immediately change and from the foot he can now Collect the Dimensions of Hercules I doubt not but that as many Holy Souls enjoy some refreshing Antepasts of the future everlasting Feast of all Delights and Joys they shall sit down with Christ at in his Eternal Kingdom So many wicked profligate Wretches meet with dismal and sensible Prelibations of the never ending Woes and Horrors of Hell that knowing by some Internal Sensations what awaits them they may either be awak'd into Repentance or if not rendred more inexcuseable And sometimes God in his Infinite Wisdom so orders that even those who ascend not to any heighth in Debauchery yet are reduc'd to such extreamities of Anguish and Pangs in the New Birth that it comes very little short of those more Dreadful Anticipations in the Reprobate nay sometimes it exceeds in a considerable degree Sin must have its Hell of one kind or other and happy is it for that Man whose Hell in this Life is preventive of not introductive to a future For beside the unspeakable Satisfactions in another World this lays the Foundation of the Richest Sweetest Fullest and most durable Consolations even in this Life according to the common saying God digs deepest where he intends to build highest But on the contrary where be breaks no Earth he intends to sow no Seed Those that he permits to be always whole shall never have because they never need a Physician General Experience tells That the Corruption of carnal Ease and Security is the Generation of a Dissenter Troubles for Sin are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first Rudiments of this Embryo It seldom falls out that a Mans or Womans Conscience is thorowly disturb'd and their fallacious Peace and Comfort utterly ruin'd but either the want of a skilful and tender hand to bind up their broken Hearts or some check they meet with in an unseasonable hour from those that should be vers'd in this Art drives them under that great uneasiness of mind to take Sanctuary in the bosom of one or other that with more soft and compassionate Bowels will counsel and encourage them yet not precipitate them into the Pacifick Seas of Consolation but gently and by degrees lead them thither through the Strait of a sound Repentance I know not how it comes to pass God's Dispensations always are Wise Just and