to have a Luk. 24.20 suffered these things and so to enter into his glory Hath the Father made b Heb. 2.10 the Captain of our Salvation perfect through sufferings and will he not the same way bring many sons to glory Shall this High-priâ—st after the order of Melchizedek drink c Ps 110.7 of the Brook of Kidron in the way to Olivet before he lift up the head in a glorious Ascention And shall Saints the inferior Levites think much to taste it Zebedees Children do but taste a few drops at the bottome of d Mat. 20.22 23. the Cup of Kidrons water Christ hath drunk it off Saints do but sip of e Num. 5.27 c. these bitter waters not for satssfaction but submission to the Law they shall not cause their thighs to rot but conceive to glory What 's fabled of the Unicorn that he takes away the poyson by dipping his horn in the waters before the Beasts of the Forrests do drink after him Is true of our Lord he hath sweetned these waters of Marah with this Tree of Life for true Israelites to pledg him His holy body washed the waters of Jordan by his Baptism and healed the waters of Kidron by his Passion Christ that pure prolifick f Joh. 12 24 Corn of Wheat fell into the ground and died and bringeth forth much fruit The grave is made fertile by his death that Saints lying by his dead body may be impregnated and spring up in a green Resurrection and grow ripe to the harvest of glory They are implanted into the g Rom. 6.5 similitude of his death and shall be raised in the likeness of his Resurrection As that heavenly grain did rise so shall Saints sprout upon his stalk without Chaffe for the Garner of Paradise A. 4 A. 4. Again Saints dye not only in conformity to their head but to magnifie the glory of divine Grace in Salvation by the New-Covenant Christ takes away the radicall and fundamentall guilt of sin but not the totall in being thereof during this Life None shal go to heaven by the law of perfection according to the tenor of the first Covenant None shall boast of h Eph. 2.8 9. Tit. 3.5 work or merit for by grace are we saved None shall climbe to heaven but by i Gen. 28.11 12. Joh. 1.51 Jacobs Ladder whose foot is fixt upon the son of man We are saved by grace to k Rom. 3.27 exclude boasting we are saved l Act. 15.11 by faith that Christ may be m Phil. 1.20 magnified whether in life or death we are saved n Tit. 3.4 7. by mercy that the kindness and love of God our Saviour may appear we are not born but made heirs according to the hope of eternall life Nay we are saved by a Rom. 8.24 hope and with patience we wait for it Were we perfect here our faith would be clambering into vision and our hope into fruition our resting waiting panting frame would be swallowed up in preliminary injoyments of heaven our love would cast out all fear and torment and ride triumphant before resurrection to the capitol of glory But God hath an eye to that new and living way of salvation paved with the precious blood of the second Covenant wherefore though Christ be b Ro. 10.4 the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth yet he restores us not in this life to the beauty and perfection of holiness So that if sin remain in a Saint death must needs be its issue For sin when 't is finisht c Jam. 1.16 bringeth forth death Though death in all its circumstances be not the proper d Ro. 6.23 wages of sin unto a Saint because Christ hath satisfied and made us free from the Law e Rev. 8.2 of sin and of death Though death be not the f Ib. c. 6.22 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the stipendiary supper of a believer yet 't is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the four sauce wherewith the remnants and leavings of originall and the too great improvement thereof in actuall sins and infirmities are disht up Warm Bernard starts this question If Christ have delivered us g Bern. ad milit Templ f. 98. a. Ed. Pari 517. Utquid adhuc morimur non statim immortalitate vestimur Sane ut Dei veritas impleatur c. Why do we yet dye and are not presently clothed with immortality Verily that the truth of God might be fulfilled For because God loveth mercy and truth its necessary that man should dye because God had foredoom'd it but yet that he should also rise from the dead lest God should seem to forget his mercy So then though Death Lords it not over a Saint perpetually yet it remains a while upon us because of the truth of God Even as Sin though it reign not in our mortall bodies yet is it not totally taken from us Thus Bernard layes the burden of a Saints death upon the primitive fall the curse of God the veracity of his threatnings and fulfilling of that word to Adam in the day thou catest thereof thou shalt dye and a little before Adae delictum merito contrahimus quouiam cum peccavit in ipso eramus ex ejus carne per carnis concupisentiam genite sumus We are deservedly involved in Adams guilt because we all sinned in him for when he sinned we were in him and were begotten of his flesh by carnall concupiscence And is not this the very Doctrin of Paul a Ro. 5.11 As by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin So death passed upon all men for that all have sinned This is the guilt that carries those that have not sin'd after b V. 14. the similitude of Adams transgression into the grave Yea Infants Embryo's such as never saw the light from one dark grave to another Insomuch That though the second and glorious Covenant of free grace be c Ps 89.37 establisht as the Moon and as a faithfull witness in heaven yet it receives not its full accomplishment in all its promises till the Saints set down in the bosome of Christ after the great Tribunall and 't is not any the least impair or reflection upon the divine justice on this side the resurrection to visit the Saints transgressions with this Rod and their iniquity with these stripes d 1 Cor. 11.30 For this cause sayes Paul treating of some violations respecting our Lords Supper many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep Wherefore though the guilt of sin be removed by justification through the merit of Christ and the dominion of sin by sanctification through the Spirit yet the totall remainders of originall or actuall sin are not stub'd out of the heart but some fibres and strings will stick behind in the best during this present life In like manner though e 1 Cor. 15.55 c. the
1. c. 51 the e Camden in Glamorganshire eternales domus those smoaky and fulsome Huts about which the leves animae the separate Ghosts do keep their residence here the sprightly Satyrs tread their measures and paint green circles in the Elysian Fields till the blushing dawn of eternity d Ps 22.29 None can keep alive his soul from death nor ransome his e Job 13.6 lamp from darkness The martiall Commander creeps under his Bed f Sueton in Coleg c. 51. with Caligula at the râ—â—â—ing of this Thunderbolt no Marble Palaces cau dazle the eyes or daunt the approaches of Death no iron bars can repell his force his aquafortis burns all afunder he stands not agast at the pale and wan looks of quivering Princes but like a gyant fluster'd with the wine of blood looks terrible on the proud Nimrods of the World Kings Edicts that Death be not whispered in their Courts are sullied on waste Paper they but daub their Royall Parchments with fond flourishes Their strongest Towers are but the spinstry of Spider-webs Death's too great a Flesh-fly to be catcht in such Tiffany Walls hee 'l hum in their ears with hatefull buzzing will they nill they There 's no Canon or Decree against him can stand inviolable Should Medes and Persians twist Laws as strong as Cables this Sampson snaps them asunder like raw Flax or twined threads If all Justinians pandects were cramb'd with severe penalties that death presume not to touch an Emperor or be rude with his Lady or Children hee 'l send a Phocas to find them out and hale them to his Slaughter-house The Captains of their Guard with their Halberdiers fling down their Arms and cry craven This old Leviathan g Job 41.29 counts their Darts as Stubble and laughs to scorn the shaking of their Spears When this storm rises this furious blast be takes down the top-gallants and the Flags of Admirals he cuts their Masts by the Board the wisest Pilot he flings over-board no Anchor holds they run adrift and are shattered upon the Rocks The cunning Lawyer with all his shirks and querks and Writs of Error cant hook out a Habeas Corpus from this unbribed Barr. Death has too subtle a Pate to be overmatcht he has Presidents and rul'd Cases and Records as high as Adam There 's no Chancery refuge or Appeal from the Club-law of this Kings-Bench he 's Lord Chief-Justice and Jaylor he 's Sheriff and Executioner But what sayes Hipocrates with his Coan Aphorisms and Galen with his long winded Method Can't he open a Vein in the Arm of this raging Adversary that his Sword may fall and the Galenture of his fury abate against Mankind Is there no inchanted Potion nor amorous Cup can lull him asleep O Physitians Are there no Recipe's in all your Dispensatories against the crack of Heart-strings Must his deadly Ague shake both you and your Patients into the Grave Must his dropsie drown you his Feaver burn you to Ashes his Consumption emaciate and waste you to Skelitons and set up your Bones in his Anatomy School What is there no Antidote no Treacle against the needle-teeth of this black Adder No! he turns a deaf ear to all your Siren-Lectures This Serpent a Eccles. 10 11. will bite for all your inchantments Such bablers are no better But alas for this day of darkness b Irel. 2.2 this gloomy morning that 's spread upon the Mountains Can we track no comfort in this thick Fog of Ignorance Are there no Trees of Life to be found in Lebanon Alas is Eden lost Is that Tree free among the dead did the venemous breath of the old Serpent wither it did he hack it down did he pluck it up by the roots Are there no sprouts from its chips nor no healing atomes that flew from its wounds into other shrubs or plants Is there no drug in Arabia no balm in Gilead no Spice in India can revive a languishing mortal What no Etheriall Spirits nor irradiating Sulfurs nor Minerall tinctures nor Elixirs of Life to cure this stroke Won't potable Gold snatch back the flying Spirit and intreat that noble guest to stay a while within its old Cloister new plaistred and gilt with this restorative Won't the limpid Alcahest make the blood volatile and circulate it nimbly against the cold congealing blast of death Won't the great red-powder cure it Then farewell all their empty notions and unpracticable maximes their clogging Syrups ill digesting Powders their life-exhausting blood-lets and their cold mortal Juleps O vain man Nullis mors est medicabilis herbis No Plant in natures garden springs To heal or swage these deadly stings Use the Physitian that 's a duty trust not in him for that 's a sin Good Asa had this mournful title upon his a 2 Chron. 16.12 13. Tomb that he sought not to the Lord but to the Physitians and slept with his Fathers Though the skilfulst Physitian and the holiest Saint do meet together yet both should count upon a last day a last hour and a last moment that they cannot passe b Isay 3.2 The mighty man and man of war the Captain of Fifty the honourable the Counsellor the cunning Artificer and the eloquent Orator Death takes them all by the hand and leads them into this gloomy Valley He reverences not the gray hairs he rises not up to the milk-white brow of the grave and ancient nor layes down his crooked Sith at the foot of aged and hoary head he strains no courtesies with the weaker sex nor gives it the upper hand the pitifull cries of tender Infants pierce not his Adamantine breast This tearlesse Moloch hugs them mortally in his brazen arms he hath Urns proportion'd to all their Ashes and Graves of every size But what though riches and honour though sweet natures virtuous minds prevail for no reprivall Must holy bones also see corruption Can't Faith Prayer wrestle a fall with this mighty King of terrors No no though the wicked twice fall under the dint of this Goliahs Sword yet 't is appointed for all a Heb. 9.17 ence to dye and after that to Judgment For as by one man sin entred into the world b Ro. 5.12 and Death by sin So death passeth upon all men for that all have sinned Faithfull Abraham must lye down in the Cave of Machpeloh Patient Job after all his Arabian Tragedies must act one Scene more and say to Corruption c Job 17.14 thou art my Father to the Worm thou art my Mother and Sister Strong Sampson must fall by this Jaw-bone in the Vineyards of Zorah and meek Moses though he dye in a d Deut. 32.50 Mountain must walk down this deep e c. 34.6 Valley of Abarim Wise Solomon by all his prudent and pollitick maximes of Government can't tame and rule this ferocious Behemoth nor tye this wild Bull at his Figtree But his sage breath must out at the dore
of his lips he returns to his earth f Ps 146.4 and that very day his thoughts and his reasons of State must perish All his skill in Botanicks could not extract such an ens primum or a quintessence from his Cedars in Lebanon to prolong his life a moment beyond the appointed g Job 14.5 moneths and the bounds which he could not passe No nor holy Poul could not strengthen the stakes of his Tabernacle or keep its curtains from trembling but an East wind from the Roman wildernesse h smites it down to the ground Act. 18.3 and all his i skill in Tent-work could not raise it He therefore counts upon his house with God not made with hands k 2 Cor. 5. â— eternal in the Heavens and groans earnestly to be clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of Life Q. But why must Saints dye hath not Christ paid a ransome to purchase them from death Must Daniel the man of desires be led into this second Captivity Must John the beloved Disciple though he scape the boiling Oyl and rocky Patmos come down to his Tomb at Ephesus and walk in this six-foot Valley yes even he that lay in the bosome of Christ must also sleep in the bosome of the grave A. 1 To this may be replyed 1 Downam of Justifie p. 6. Edit fol. Lond. 1639. That Justification is a continued act of divine grace terminative quoad 1 nos in respect to us it lasts from our first conversion to the declarative sentence of absolution at the day of Judgment Indeed in respect to God who is actus purissimus a most pure and absolute act and sits down without any succession of times in the glorious noon of Eternity our justification admits no degrees It is not instill'd into us drop by drop in respect to him but so soon as a man doth truly believe he stands truly and perfectly righteous in the sight of God The Covenant of Grace is ratified simul semel together and at once at the Throne of God in the name and vertue of Christs righteousness so soon as ever we truly believe but 't is applied manifested and compleated to us in the successive methods of effectual vocation sanctification and finall redemption at the great day For while we continue sinners we have continuall need of justifying grace David as to fresh Commissions stood in need of a Ps 51.7 purging with Hysop from his leprous sins to receive an atonement Lev 14.6 19. and to have the Seal of the b Ps 32.5 forgiveness of the iniquity of his sin upon his acknowledgment and confession For as to us God is not said to remit those sins that are not yet committed but such c Rom. 3.25 as are past We are taught therefore by our Lord to pray d Mat. 6.11 12. Act. 5.31 every day forgive us our trespasses We sin dayly and must confess dayly and pray dayly for repentance and pardon Yea God himself in that Evangelicall promise by Esay assures us e Isay 43.25 I even I 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 delens am blotting out your trangressions for mine own sake and will not remember your fins to comfort us against tentations about daily infirmities Do we sin every day and is the truth not in him nay does he make him a lyar that saith f 1 Joh. 1.10.8.2.1 he hath no sin then we have need of a dayly Advocate to plead for us at the right hand of the Father a high Priest that g Heb. 7.24 continueth evir and h V. 25. liveth â—vâ—â— to i Heb. 9 24 appear in the presence of God and to make intercession for us By virtue whereof he k Joh. 14.2 3. prepares the heavenly Mansions in the Temple of Glory for us and us for them Then he will come again and receive us unto himself that where he is we may be with him and behold his glory And when this Prince of life the Judg of quick and dead shall appear he will pronounce that finall justifying and glorifying sentence l Mat. 25.34 Come ye blessed of my Father m Ps 32.1 2. for blessed are they indeed to whom the Lord then imputeth not iniquity come and inherit the Kingdome prepared for you Then shall our justification be compleat in all its points at that joyfull declaration of Christ upon his Tribunall in Judgment No marvell then a Rom. 8.10 11. If the bodies even of Saints shall dye 'T is because of sin though the spirit be life because of righteousnesse But then shall all our sins be finally blotted our and cast behind his back in the b Mic. 7.19 depths of the Sea when those times of b Act. 3.19.20.21 refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord when he shall send Jesus Christ at the great Restitution whereof he hath spoken by all his holy Prophets since the world began Then shall Onesiphorus according to the prayer of Paul c 2 Tim. 1.18 find mercy in that day at the hand of Christ That day of full d Eph. 1.14 and 4.30 Redemption hath not yet appeared when the e Mat. 13.43 righteous shall shine forth in the Kingdome of their Father with everlasting joy upon their heads A. 2 Again Death was decreed and determin'd of God to seize upon faln sinners in all it kinds and yet we never find that doleful sentence repeal'd as to temporall dissolution in any promise f Joh. 11.25 I am the Resurrection and the Life saies Christ he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live Yea our blessed Lord in his Sermon at Capernaum no less g Joh. 6. then four terms comforts his Disciples with the Doctrin of the Resurrection not that they should not dye but that he would raise them up at the last day Nay even to John himself Jesus h Joh. 21.23 said not that he should not dye But if I will that he tarry till I come what 's that to thee Peter No! both holy Peter and holy John Death is ordain'd as a means to purge and cleanse their bodies from the soil and filth of sin and to fit those sanctified Vessels for the life of glory A. 3 Saints therefore must look upon death with no other aspect then as the greatest bodily affliction which shall or can befall them and that it hath the same ingrediency though in a deeper measure with all the bitter Cups of triall which the Father is pleased to put into their hands They have one common reason and one common end to make them partakers of his holiness Sickness of the holinesse of Grace and Death of the holiness of Glory But are not Saints the members of Christs body Is the head glorified and must the Members pass this State of exinanition Must believers dye Yes and good reason too Should not the members be conformable to their head Ought Christ
their bones with strong pain when every bone shall have its pang and every pang from the strong arm of God oh how dreadfull to fall into the hands i Heb. 10.31 of the living God They are pains indeed which God calls pains when the soul shall be torn and rent from its beloved twin oh the tendons crack and the nerves with startling dolour snap in sunder We read of one but sick of the Palsie and yet k Mat. 8.6 grievously tormented When the Lord smites persons l Deut. 28.22 with Consumptions Feavers Inflamations and extream burnings oh what tossings and tumblings and pinings with wearisome hours when torn and grinded by the Stone or wrackt by the gout what tongue can express their miseries For a Herod to be eaten up of a Act. 12 23. Worms and such little wretches to pull a Prince piece-meal and to run away unquestioned For Jehorams b 2 Chron. 21.19 bowels to fall out by reason of his sickness and poyson his Courtiers For Asa to lye howling of the Gout and make all Jerusalem ring with his roaring Should not these tidings of three miserable Monarchs cool the fury and tame the madness of the Bedlam Hectors of our age To ruminate upon these terrors of death these painfull throws when men pour out their souls in dreadfull agonies methinks should take them a peg lower and put their carier in sin to a pause They who taste of the Cup of Death find it more bitter than Wormwood more venemous then the poyson of Asps all squeez'd into it Such as are under the gastly view of Death behold a griefly fearfull Monster that scares the bloody Heroes and vainglorious Gallants into exquisite horrors Obriguere comae vox faucibus haesit Their hait stands an end and their tongue faulters with amazing fears It has a direfull sting more horrid then a Scorpion or a Dragon This Cup unlesse sweetned with a lively sense of a gracious promise there 's no laying of your lips to it This fiery flying Serpent unlesse eased of his sting there 's no dallying with it in their bosomes for fool-hardy sinners Well might c Sueton. in Cas c. 87. Caesar wish a sudden and Augustus d Id. in Aug. c. 99. an easie Death who had beheld many astonishing spectacles in their long and bloody wars which might pierce hearts of Adamant and melt the most brawny and flinty breast and run down the most stoical Apathies into Rivers of mournfull Sympathies and compassions Methinks it should awaken snorting formalists to admit into the Hall of Conscience the Ecchoes of the roaring Elegies of such who dye as the historian phrases e Id. in Cas c. 88. non morte sua not a natural but a violent death when this Lion rampant rends the Soul from the body as he would the f Hos 13.8 Caul of a Kids heart When death shall meet them as a Bear bereaved of her Whelps or an evening Wolf that hath lurkt close in g Ps 104.20 her Den all the day long of a sinners life and comes forth barking at night and sharp set for her prey Then they are forc'd to drink deep of the wine of violence and to sup up the Cup of the avenger Then they a Job 15.33 shake off their unripe Grapes as the Vine and cast off their Flower as the Olive But alas the pains of naturall or the pangs of violent death are but the stinging of Gnats or Flea-bites to a scorched conscience and inflamed by the wrath of God When men come to dye and have trifled away pretious hours with Rattles and childish Baubles and the silly jingling Hobby-horses of Court or Country and at that turning point of Eternity have forgotten to make their peace with God then Conscience rowzes up like a Gyant refresht with the wine of Sodom and the Grapes of Gomorrah When the grinning Furies lasht the goatish Soul of Tiberius for all his Villanies within the dark and dismall Dungeon of his unclean breast Oh! who would not tremble to think of those goring wounds those secret and invisible tortures which wrackt his Soul and stretcht his tormenting imaginations upon the Devils Tenter-Hooks See how a Tacit. An nal l. 5. p. 107. Edit Basil 1544 Tacitus breaks forth upon the Theme Si recludantur Tyrannorum mentes posse aspici laniatus ictus had we Casements into the hearts of Tyrants the dreadfull marks of the Steel whips of Conscience would appear with bloody gashes And as b Dio. in Nerone l. 63. Dion the Historian speaking of the horrors of Nero neer the time of his death for the assasination of his Mother and other brutish crimes sayes that if a Whelp did but howl or a Hen cackle or the arm of a Tree creak by a strong wind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was in a wofull anguish Oh how the wires of Megaerae fetcht blood and gobbets at every stroak from his Soul When God shall pour the scalding Lead of his wrath into these fresh wounds when the Law thunders from Mount Sinai and the lightnings of Paran glitter about him Then c Hab. 3.16 their bellies tremble their lips quiver at the voice and rottennesse enters into their bones When sin comes home to the Soul on a death-bed and accosts him as the Souldier did d Pollio in Mario p. 538. Ed. Lug. B. Marius the Black-smith and Triduan Emperor Hic est gladius quem ipse fecisti Here 's the Sword of thine own hammering and shaking it in the face of a sinner cries look how it shines 't is thine own furbishing Then wo to him who hath enlarg'd his desire as Hell and encreased that which is not his and laden himself with thick clay Then fain would he vomit up his sweet morsells but no Emetick of the shop can help him no Squills no Roots in Nicander can fetch them up Then they abhor to remember what they cannot forget and the eyes of their fancy are as quick and venemous as a Bafilisk Then with their robberies of Peter they would pay off Paul and for their defrauding of Ministers would give tenfold Tithes and with the ruins of old Abbayes and Mannors by oppression depopulations of Villages that they may a Isa 5.8 be alone in the midst of the earth in all haste they patch up Chappell 's Schoolls and Work-houses But God hates the Sacrifices of dying and putrilaginous bodies the Incense that oppressors offer proves the savour of death unto death he counts the sighs of their fleeting Spirits like the steams of rancid dung-hills which the fire of Hell sends up not the beams of his countenance who is now departed No warning pieces before could alarm them No blazing Comets could awaken or startle them though b Mantil Astrinom l. 1. p. 27. that of Mantilius be true in all ages Nunquam futilibus excanduit ignibus aether Never did blazing Comets shine in vain
from the hony-comb Keep up thy feeling fellowship with God in the closest and choicest reflections upon his love and the fear of death will vanish Make conscience of secret sins and secret duties this will make way for secret communion and sweetly encrease it The more frequent and humbly familiar you are with God in holy reverence the more divine and soul-fainting emanations will flow from his heart to replenish thy soul and enlarge it for glory our a Ps 90.8 secret sins saies Moses are in the light in the broad day light of thy countenance Let 's consider a he sees the least aberration and wandering of our thoughts from his love let 's be as tender to avoid his displeasure as we would be joyfull in the beams of his face let 's b Ps 63 6. remember him upon our beds and meditate on him in the night watches Let 's c Ps 4.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 commune with our own hearts and be still that we may commune with his and be joyfull Silete vacate be still from all passions and hurries give a vacancy to thy Soul to meditate on God and it will still thy fears The more our Souls are wrapt up in this communion the more they dye to the world and live to God Our life is a vapor to dying mortalls but death is a vapor to a living to a lively Saint But now let me end with a caution that 's mixt with a Cordiall A very holy Saint may set in a cloud and arrive at the haven in a storm God's tyed to believers by promise to save them but not to carry them in a Song 3.9 Solomons Chariot of the wood of Lebanon into Heaven Yet it stands firm what David sings in this present Psalm Thou art with me and therefore I 'le fear no evill When the Soul from feeling can chear up its spirits that God is with it It fears not who 's against it God for secret reasons b Luk. 24.16 may hold the eyes of some disciples that they may not know him to shew that all from grace to glory is from free love and that we can challenge neither grace to close with his Covenant nor assurance to discern our adherence The sprinkling of the Conscience from dead works the peace of God that passeth all understanding c Col. 3.15 to rule in our hearts and the joyes of the holy spirit all flow from the same Fountain All our springs are in Zion and bubble up from under the Throne of the Mercy-Seat Yea at the state of Death some ordinary Christians If meek and humble may injoy greater Visions then many gracious holy and sweetly gifted Ministers 'T is not alwayes the strength of Grace but the gift of influence that breeds and nourishes strong and bright assurance A Mary Magdalen shall call Jesus by the name of Rabboni When two experienc'd Disciples shall walk and talk with him many a mile and not see him nor taste him till the evening till the c Luk. 24 29. Supper of Glory But yet 't is rare for holy hearts to want these heavenly Visions The pure in heart shall see him in the Glasse of assurance as well as behold him hereafter face to face CHAP. IX Holy Appeals to God in Prayer great Comforts against Death DAvid was now at Prayer applying and appealing to God at owning and appropriating work telling God that he was with him Did not God know that he was with David Yet but God loves to hear from a Saint that he feels it A Saint must tell God that he feels it not to satisfie him as unacquainted with it For the Lord fills the Soul with himself and known unto the Lord are all his works from the beginning But because God delights to hear that we thankfully own and acknowledge it Thou art with me David speaks it upon his knees and with his Harp in his hands he sings it This Lesson Lord I learnt of thee wilt thou please to hear it Thou art with me in me and thou within me comest unto thy self I am full of thee and therefore my Soul over-flowes to thee Thy love is a fire which hath inflamed my heart and a Excellens sensibile laedit sensum being pent it preyes upon my spirits let it have it 's holy vent into thy bosome It multiplies upon it self and out it must wilt thou accept it For a while let it warm the strings of my Harp as well as of my affection and touch every tone with a flame of love as if a Seraphim had quickened it with a coal from the Altar Then let my Soul like fire ascend before thy Throne winged with that love from whence it came Prayer what is it but a flight of the Soul from it self to God A Soul affected with divine love hath Doves eyes its prayers hath Doves wings and flies with Letters of credence at its feet from the spirit within our Temples unto the holy Oracle within the Vail 'T is in Prayer that David pours out his Soul and sings Thou art with me he sayes not thou wilt be with me but inferres that God would be with him because he was so and therefore I shall fear no evill This God is our God a Ps 48.14 for ever and ever he will be our guide unto death and through death and after b Ps 73.24 death receive us to glory Faith carries the foot of prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b Rev. 14.6 into the midst of Heaven as with Angels wings And as the Lord said to Joshua so may we say to praying Saints a Josh 1.3 every place that the soal of your foot shall tread upon that hath he given you the good land is before you go in and possesse it When we pray we enter the Court of Heaven where the Lord b Exod. 24.10 Ezek. 1.26 sits on a Saphire Throne embellisht with the morning Stars and the Rain-Bow of the Covenant round about him and thousands of Legions of Cherubims to minister to him We are taught by our blessed Saviour to pray Our Father which art in Heaven as if a Saint in prayer should account himself as it were assum'd into Heaven The Father sees us at all times but in prayer we doe Sistere nos coram present our Souls to be seen by him Should our hearts be in heaven when our souls are in prayer what heavenly hearts become so heavenly a presence as God's and so heavenly a quire as the Angells round about him Let 's pray that his will be done as it is in heaven that we be like a kind of earthly Angells that in all our prayers our wills may be hallowed into his d 1 Joh. 5.14 as when we shall come to heaven Then if we ask any thing e according to his will he heareth us To have our wills the best way is to have his holy will to be ours and then we may pray with reverence
of my impure affections that my Soul may appear like glittering gold seven times purg'd by the fire of thy love Nay Lord thus David appeals thou c V. 1. hast searched and known me and oh how precious are thy d V. 17. thoughts unto me O God how great is the sum of them Thy thoughts of me and my thoughts of thee how precious to me O God how great is the sum of them Thy thoughts of electing love of justifying and sanctifying grace Nay thou hast thoughts for e 2 Sam. 7.19 a great while to come A great while indeed for they are thoughts of eternall f Jer. 31.3 love Thy thoughts in number transcend the sands on the Sea-shore the hairs of my head and the stars of heaven Archimedes may number the sands Spigelius the hairs and Hipparchus the visible stars But who can expend thoughts commensurate to the love of God The circle of his love cannot be squared nor its cubick root extracted We may study and pray g Eph 3.18 to comprehend with all Saints the glorious love of God in Christ But still it passeth knowledge and surmounts our numbers Well might David when waking h Ps 139.18 be still with God In the morning watches when his Soul was freshest his thoughts warmest his parts quickest while the yet-remaining darknesse presented no diverting objects to his eyes and the deep silence of the night distracted not his audience with various clamours Then David hath his Songs in the night Ps 30.29 as in the holy Solemnities Then does he meditate on the divine love and remember God i Ps 63.6 upon his Bed His wonderfull works and the thoughts of God concerning him he professes they could not be reckoned up in order before him Though he was stil with God searching and following after him yet l Joh 11.7 could not find out the Almighty to perfection But yet the holy man holds fast his confidence For thou art with me and I with thee God with us keeps us with him Doe our desires and affections hast after him they 'le bring in the food of assurance that he is ours Talem illum invenies saies Gerson a Gerson de Mendicitate spiritual f. 75. a. Op. 3. part qualis tu fueris in tuis desideriis Our spirituall desires longing and panting after God interpret and manifest the gracious motions of the divine love to us The more we seek him the sweeter we find him and the more we trust him the more he loves us Let us with David in all our straits make to him as our rock our refuge our strong Castle our Fortresse our City of Defence and Munition of Rocks b our Waters shall never fail and our bread shall be sure is 33.6 Appeals to God To Appeal to the Majesty of Heaven is a matter of most important moment because of his omniscience omnipresence his exactnesse in justice and judgment If our hearts c 1 Joh. 3.10 condemn us God is greater and knoweth all things but if our heart acquit us then have we confidence towards God yea d And 4.17 in the day of Judgment To be scalded with condemnation from conscience and from God too is double judgment and our hearts condemnation is but the harbinger to Gods Conscience is but the Prison till execution and if the earthly Prison be so noisome and dismall what 's the eternall It behoves all therefore that dare appeal to God to examine and try their hearts with impartiall strictnesse before they turn about their faces to heaven David spends the largest part of an excellent Psalm in choice ruminations upon the divine attributes and the works of God on his former experiences and deep meditations upon the all-searching eye of God before he dares to make an essay of a reverent e Ps 139.23 appeal unto him Holy Paul makes small account of being judg'd by the Church or by morall men or his own conscience in comparison with f 1 Cor. 4.3 4. divine judgment Our heart is g Jer. 17.9 deceitfull above all things who can know it But the Lord is a God of knowledg and by him h 1 Sam. 2.3 actions are weighed The ballances of the Sanctuary will turn at a grain of the least action yea at the thousandth part of a thought His 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his piercing and searching eye enters the innermost parts of the belly His eyes doe behold his eye-lids i Ps 11.4 try the children of men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Explorabunt They search into the hearts and pry into the reins of men The Lord sits in specula aeternitatis upon the watch-tower of glorious Majesty and discerns all the secrer recesses and caverns of the hearts of Men and Angells The Metaphor seems to be taken from Souldiers that stand upon the guard on a high Tower to observe and ken the approaching enemy When men doe connivere oculis even close their eyes and make as it were a small portion of a Tube with their eye-lids to exclude the light and discern objects the clearer or like refiners that look narrowly into the Crucible or Cople to discern when the melted Gold gathers into a clear and pure circle and hath cast out all its drosse All this is to shew with what nicenesse and accuratenesse the Lord doth pierce into the hearts of men When we consider the excellency of the searcher the curiosity of his observation that nothing escapes the Eagle eye of his Omnisciency when we ponder upon the purity of his Judgment and the equity of his tremendous tribunall who should not fear before him and tremble at his imperiall Majesty For who can stand If he doe but a Ps 143.2 enter into Judgment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ne veniat let him not come toward the work saies the Psalmist unlesse we can stand before him To impose upon men is base hypocrisie but to impose upon the Maker and searcher of hearts is cursed Atheism abominable impudence b Ps 14.1 2 4. and corrupt folly of the works of iniquity When we enter our appeals before God we imply his all-searching providence his avenging hand his acquitting justice his pardoning grace the resurrection of the dead and the dreadfull Judgment-Seat of Christ ' Ev 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon this account c Act. 24.16 2 Cor. 5.2 saies Paul we exercise our selves in having a conscience void of offence in the sight of God that the d Ps 19 14 meditation of our heart may be acceptable in his sight our Strength and our Redeemer As to the matter of our appeals in prayer there are but four cases whereof I would treat in respect to our comforts at death Isa 33.16 Section 1. Our first Appeal may be about the integrity and sincerity of our hearts Not that we have escap'd all outward sins or perform'd all inward duties or can absolve our selves from a Ps