or like a dead Tree withered and plucked up In this forelorn and hopeless condition when no man regards our perishing we come to God for help and he in whose only power it is to help doth help us and deliver us and makes the dry bones live and we have seen the salvation of the Lord and the wonders that he doth for the Sons of men and have been transported with joy as the Israelites when they came out of Babylon were I acknowledge that there be some who come in no misfortune nor are plagued like other men But all those whom Christ Jesus hath chosen to be his souldiers he trains up in this discipline But if it were so that I had not gone thorow such perils such afflictions and such troubles as I see and hear to befall other men Have I not much more cause to praise God for keeping me in health than for raising me up again being fallen sick from keeping me from the perils which befall other men than for delivering me if I had been in danger and for keeping me from troubles wherein others are plunged If I consider the calamities of men far greater than my self As for instance of him who is more worth than thousands of us our Soveraign Lord the King Can I chuse but bless God that my distresses afflictions and perils of life have not been so many and great as his But how great and good above me was he that was after God's own heart What pains perils and troubles did he not go thorow first in his person his reins chastened him in the night he had no soundness in his bones then from his superiours Saul persecuting him as long as he lived from his inferiours his servant curseth him to his face from unkind neighbours as Doeg the Edomite from his Relations his wife scoffing him his Son rebelling and another commits a rape on his Sister c. Besides the temporal mercies he also tells us what God hath done for his soul too as Psal 103. and blesseth God for forgiving all his sin c. ib. For this we can never praise God enough Meditations and Ejaculations Go about Duties not as labours but thy only enjoyments Delight thy self in the Lord and expect the Reward LORD since thou hast promised thy holy Spirit to them who ask it of thee I beseech thee give it to me for without it I cannot serve thee nor walk in obedience to thy holy Commandments for by reading and hearing thy Word I can only know my duty I cannot retain my holy resolutions which are stirred up in the duties one hour Therefore do thou create in me a new heart and a new nature Regenerate me by thy Spirit and the immortal seed and write thy Law in my heart and give me thy holy Spirit the Almighty Helper the Comforter and hold thou me up and I shall be safe Make me willing to undergo conflicts with sin for hereby I shall have comfort in the hour of death and the day of trouble O give me peace of conscience the comforts of a well-spent life that I may be able to say with Hezekiah Lord remember how I have walked before thee in all simplicity when the day of death comes Make me wise to consider alwaies my latter end and what thoughts I shall have then of the world and all its comforts let this restrain me from giving up my self to them else I shall be a fool in my latter end as the wicked are and cry out that the world hath deceived them their consciences being then awakened which in their lime-time they stifled and then the Hypocrites have no hope Therefore Lord give me grace and prudence to make provision against that time that the sting of death may be taken out Let me believe the terrours threatned against the wicked that I may never come to feel them Let me find Christ my Advocate when death comes upon me And that I may not die in my sin make me by thy grace continually to die to sin Deliver me from every evil work and preserve my body and soul blameless unto the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Lord above all things give me to fear sin and the transgression of thy Law who art the great Soveraign of the world its Creator and Preserver to whom we owe both our persons and obedience and if the Gentiles do by nature the things contained in the Law much more let me who have as well the written Law and the Gospel as the Law of Nature do the things contained in the Law else how shall I escape thy wrath But having tryed our obedience thou hast found us all rebels and in thy justice mayest damn us all if thy mercy in Christ Jesus do not save us Since Jesus Christ our Saviour was made under a Law and the glorious Angels fulfil thy commandments and hearken to the voice of thy word and man hath no such perfection as his Saviour or the Angels but our wisdom and our perfection is in obedience to the Law Inable us to keep it for herein God hath shewed us what is good Micah 6.8 Every child of God is as a souldier keeping a garrison in an enemies Country Therefore Lord as I put on my apparel let me remember to put on the Armour of light and to watch and be provided to fight thy battels let me not be destitute of any piece of this Armour but give me all Christian vertues I am naked naturally and without this Armour but unless I have it of thy gift I cannot put it on but must perish by my nakedness for I cannot have any truse from my spiritual adversary who watches to destroy us And give me the skill of an expert warriour to use these Armes against the Devil the World and the flesh inable me to put off all sins which hinder the planting and growth of grace in our hearts for we cannot serve God and mammon let me depart from evil that I may do good Let me feel the power of Christ's death that I may partake of his resurrection Let the sense of my forepast sins make me the more diligent in thy service Since my darkness is passed let me put off the works of darkness Let me not delay considering my danger and the shortness and uncertainty of life and the greatness of the reward if I do thy service For to him that is faithful in much thou wilt give much ten Cities for improving his five talents to that number That I may fear sin and not make light of it or a mock of it as fools are said to do let me consider the great evil of it That it is the foolishness and brutishness of a man the darkness and nakedness the blindness and sottishness and death of the soul which makes us said to be dead in trespasses and sins and that the effects of sin are the worst of evils That it makes us like to the Devils That one sin makes us
our minds to make known our requests to him whereby we can call God Father Gal. c. 4 v. 6. because ye are Sons he hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your heart whereby ye call him Father therefore as oft as we find our Souls thus let us wrastle it out with God till we get the blessing and desir'd grace Men that want the Spirit of God have these three dispositions Slavishness Mercenariness and Sensuality They pray out of fear and in doubt of acceptance and when they have their desires their Prayers cease unless they be customary and formal Prayers and they crave but sensual things The Spirit also supplyeth a Christian with holy ends and represseth carnal ends so that in all our requests we seek the glory of God as it is sought in all the petitions in the Lords Prayer in such the largeness of our desires doth not hinder the obtaining of them but furthereth rather for he hath commanded open thy mouth wide and hath promise to fill it The larger the desires the more pleasing to God and the more like to speed for the more of the Spirit is in them There is no colour then why any should neglect this duty upon pretence of having the Spirit for the Apostles and Disciples of our Lord continued in Prayer and breaking of Bread after they had received the spirit for God is to be found met with in those ordinances as he saith he walketh in the midsts of the Golden Candlesticks And the Spirit is to be sought in these for the best of Saints have need of seeking it in a greater measure and for continual supplies and watering every moment which they obtain in and by their communion with God in this duty But the more we have of the Spirit the more we ought to be conversant in this Duty because we are furnished with ability and for not using our Talents they may be taken away and by using they are improved And the more effectual and fervent they will be by this that they are more spiritual Much less may we neglect prayer if we think we have not the Spirit for we pray for it And this circumstance of fasting and watching is sometimes joined with this duty to the end our prayers may be more spiritual I mean a Fast from a meal that none may perceive not a Fast of 40 days nor exchange of Flesh for Fish Fasting doth as much promote it as the contrary doth let and hinder it though possibly we may use the same expression full as fasting yet they who have tryed know the advantage which this gives above that to the fervency and earnestness and the holiness of our desires and prayers and to repentance and sorrow for our sins And our Saviour tells his Disciples of a sort of Devils which could not be cast out but by fasting and prayer And Mark 9. Cornelius thus prayed and thus Daniel Dan. c. 9. both with good success David also humbled himself with fasting for they knew well that words of course as a Sacrifice that costs nothing is nothing worth And unless we thus pray in the Spirit it appears we cannot please God for the prayer cannot otherwise be holy and for such things as are pleasing to God for who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean Although we ought to pray in this manner yet nevertheless ought we not to neglect the duty though we cannot perceive the assistance of the Spirit for God feedeth the young Ravens that call upon him If they can call upon him no man can pretend a disability And David in the 107 Psalm sheweth how people that are plagued for their wickedness because they rebell'd against the Lord and contemned the counsel of the most high v. 11 and 17. Yet crying unto the Lord in their trouble he deliveretd them out of their distress Though these prayers were extorted from them in their extremities when their soul abhorr'd all manner of Meat and they were even at Deaths door And when they were at their wits end and ready to perish through their hunger and thirst and bondage which for their sins they suffered yet in their extremities they cry to God whom they had sinned against and he delivereth them These were not such prayers as are put up by the Spirit for such relief even nature though degenerated can easily pray but the dictates of the Spirit are spiritual yet in regard the heart and lip go together those are prevalent much more if prayed in faith If God heareth such prayers and thou thy self hast obtained thy Requests for these or the like benefits and temporal deliverances thou mayest then be emboldened and encouraged to ask and continue praying for all thou lackest as David expresseth Psal 116. I am well pleased that the Lord hath heard the voice of my prayer therefore will I call upon him as long as I live And if thou hast been heard for things temporal thou needest not to despair or doubt when thou prayest for those things which are pleasing to God which he hath commanded thee to ask and Jesus Christ also hath commended to thee to seek and promised to procure Not but that a Child of God may and must by Faith and by the Spirit ask the things of this life for our blessed Saviour teacheth us to pray for our daily bread he pray'd Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from me yet not my will but thy will be done This submission made that prayer which was natural to be spiritual although he prayed for that which he knew was impossible And since God in his mercy hath given his peculiar people many promises of temporal blessings they may and must ask them in faith in such order as Jesus Christ hath appointed viz. seeking the Kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof first and with modesty and such other circumstances as hereafter is express'd and God will grant our requests as far as is for our good But that which is sure to prevail is the holy appetite that planteth Hungers and Thirsts after righteousness for to that is the promise annexed and blessing too Matth. 5.6 Isa 55.1 Ho every one that thirsteth come ye Isa 44.3 I will pour water upon him that is thirsty The desires of such shall be satisfied though not utter'd with full expressions nor strength of Lungs as Prayers learn'd may be Importunity which our Saviour Christ so much presseth is comprehended under this of praying in the Spirit for he taught nothing but what was spiritual And his practice too proves it to be the operation of the Spirit that makes us importunate in Prayer for when he prayed he was frequently in agonies and prayed most earnestly It reproves those that mind other things when they pray how shall God mind their prayers what he teacheth and urgeth for this is in Luke 18. where he sheweth that for our importunities sake we are hear'd of God and argueth that we ought always
present or afterwards doth speak against can that be gainful to a man that loseth his souls eternal salvation If the ship be drowned in the ocean all that is in it is drowned What gain can that be that is so short that in the next moment we must say it was and is not and for that we have lost eternal happiness Or had I lived the daies of Methusalem and all my daies had been daies of pleasure and this were my last day what would remain of profit of it all or what joy or satisfaction or comfort to beare me up against the fear of death would not a little tidings of death and Judgment confound me in the midst of my pomp and jovialty as it did Nebuchadnezzer Do not the wickedest when they sin think to repent of it and would they so if it were there gaine and commodity or if I should get by sin would not that gaine be loss should I not throw away riches gotten by unjustice upon my unfeigned repentance did not Judas throw away his 30 pieces what man in all the world either that repented or that repented not ever gained by sin What gained Adam or Cain the old world Jerusalem Sodom Sampson Lot David or Peter but besides that it costs the penitent sinner what hath it cost Christ therefore as thou hast made us reasonable men O Lord let us make choice of that that will make us happy thy favour and let us not sell it and all our happiness as it were for a mess of pottage If sinners think nothing too dear for sin let me think nothing too dear for Heaven When sinners cast away their souls for a lust and yet say that we lose our labour for Heaven how incompetent Judges are they but of holiness what fruit have we not what is it not profitable for either in this life or that which is to come it confers all that sin would strip us of That I may fear to sin Let me consider that our God is a consuming fire though he be ours so that we are his people yet our priviledges must not exempt us from this fear for thou hast commanded us to abstain from sin for this cause and all thy people Whoever sinned found thee a consuming fire to punish them as did David When he cried out My flesh trembleth for fear of thee and I am afraid of thy Judgments The Lords judgments were grievious upon him murther and rape committed in his house his Son drave him from his Throne so Eli felt this also when his Sons were vile and he lightly reproved them and Job when he felt one spark of this fire cryed out My soul chuseth strangling rather than life Therefore let all thy people consider the terrour of the Lord and remember that thou art a consuming fire and let them walk in the fear of the Lord and the comforts of the Holy Ghost And as they call on the Father who without respect of persons judgeth every man according to his works so let them pass the time of their so journing here in fear remembring that our blessed Saviour could not escape this fire when he undertook the work of satisfaction for sinners but cryed out under it My God my God why hast thou forsaken men And in respect of our proneness to sin against God let us keep our selves with this as with a bridle and curb and to keep up our vigilancy for religious duties working out our salvation with fear and trembling considering what it is to fall into the hands of the Lord Knowing that it is not a sinful servile fear which is to fear the smart more than the offending of God for this hath an enmity joyned with it for whom we fear with servile fear we hate but this filial fear proceeds from love and the tender sense of God's displeasure against sin And though we could say with the Apostle Paul that we know we have a house in Heaven yet was he still keeping under his body for fear of sinning For the Righteous shall be recompenced on earth and where shall the ungodly and sinner appear To these the Lord shall come in flaming fire rendring vengeance to them that know not God and to them that obey not the Gospel He will wound the head of his enemies He that believeth not shall be damned His wrath shall be poured out like fire The indignation of the Lord shall consume his adversaries The damned spirits and fallen Angels are under this fire But thou hast given thy Son Christ to be a Saviour to save thy people from it O Lord save us through our dear Saviour's merits from this worm that never dies and fire that never goes out and let thy people fear not those who can hurt the body only but those who can hurt both soul and body and cast both into Hell fire Lord thou hast pronounced them cursed who do thy work negligently yet how negligent am I in all religious duties and my heart goes sometimes after covetousness and sometimes after vanities O give me thy grace that I may serve thee with a perfect heart That I may seek thee with my whole heart Let me not think to divide my heart to God and Mammon because it is thine all and thou wilt have all or none because thou madest it and Christ hath bought it Let me not be weary of these duties but be willing to labour in them and wear out my body in them and strive with zeal wrestling with the Lord for a blessing since I have experience that thou art a God hearing prayer and hast not stopped thine ear to mine O Lord God I am not holy but thou hast promised we shall be all holy and required that we should be holy as thou art holy how infinitely short doth the best of men come of this pattern The Apostle Paul confesses he was carnal sold under sin and that he had not attained but pressed forward that he might attain Lord give us with him to see our sinfulness that we may in like manner as he was be stirred up to strive after holiness and fulfil thy promise That we shall all be holy Lord inlighten my understanding that I may see what a shameful thing sin is that the very brute beasts do not so brutishly as sinners For the Oxe and Ass who know their owners reprove them who refuse to acknowledge thee to be their Lord and all others do more rationally without any reason than man who hath understanding yet casts off all understanding and is not ashamed of sin For it is a shame to speak of the things that are done of them yet are they not ashamed when they commit them O let me consider how naked a sinner renders himself to the view of the world and when God himself shall put him to shame as it is written As thou hast put the Son of God to open shame so God shall put thee to shame And when it shall be their everlasting
not of the terror of the Lord to keep my heart in awe neither do I fear thee according to my fear I had when in danger neither do I seek to thee serve thee and delight in thee according to all my vows and admiration of thy goodness because thou hast been so merciful to hear my prayer and deliver me from all my fear but I am ready to think that it is for my own goodness and virtue that thou hast wrought this Of this sin thou warnedst the Israelites and we are all too prone to it O pardon Lord thy servant and heal him of this evil and give him to walk in the same awe and fear of thee and the like obedience to all thy commandments and love to thy waies watchfulness against sin and in it self examination and humility when the trouble and danger is past as when it is impendent and then I shall know that I have a filial fear of thee and not a servile fear Lord since thou makest thy Mercy and thy Almighty Power the inducements to awe us and allure us to keep and observe thy Statutes saying to Israel I am the Lord the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the Land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage therefore enjoynedst thy people to keep the Commandments following Let me alwaies keep a remembrance of thy mercies and because thou didst injoyn them the keeping of the Passeover in commemoration of their deliverance out of Egypt and that they should continually when they made their offering acknowledge that their Father was a Syrian ready to perish Lord let us in like sort reflect upon thy mercies and deliverances and our former sufferings to humble us and to be thankful to thee and praise thee and whilst we enjoy the benefit let us give thee the glory and the rather because one mercy is the earnest of another as holy Paul argued God hath delivered me and will deliver me therefore let me put a due estimate upon them by apprehending my unworthiness of them which the more I apprehend the more able I shall be to know the true value of the mercy and God's goodness in it The more low I am in my own eyes the more high will God's mercies be in my eyes If we pray for mercies it is for love of our selves but our praises are not so many nor so earnest as our prayers for them Lord increase our praises and let us say with David Praised be the Lord who hath remembred us in our low condition and hath delivered us from all our fears and troubles and keepeth all our bones so that none of them is broken and ladeth us with daily benefits and maketh our life comfortable And let my soul praise him not only with my lips but with a constant living to his praise and using the mercies which he hath given me to the honour of him who gave them Lord give us grace to mortifie our earthly members and affections since the promise is that as we have been planted with Christ into the similitude of his death so we shall also be into the similitude of his resutrection And let this mortification be universal of all our sinful and sensual affections and let it be constant and perpetual without intermission looking to the pattern of Christ on his Cross for our imitation and instructed thereto by thy holy Word and stirred up thereto by a godly sorrow for our sins committed And to this end let us cut off the superfluities of every lust and corruption that may fortifie and strengthen it And that we may destroy it in the birth and keep far off the danger of it as holy Job made a Covenant with his eyes not to look upon a Maid considering that I can never be safe near a danger though sin seem to me as a right eye or hand yet by thy grace let me have power to renounce it not only forbearing the act for fear of punishment but destroying and mortifying the habit and inclination And although the body of sin and death do remain as in Paul it did yet let it be to me as a burthen and grief of soul crying out with him O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of sin and death LORD God the fountain of goodness above all things give me faith in thee for then I must of necessity love thee if I believe thou hast loved me and given thy Son for me and shall have in my soul the joy that is unspeakable Lord when thou layest thy heavy hand of affliction upon us to cause us to search and try our waies and that we should examine our selves and turn unto the Lord in stead of this our wicked heart is prone to cast off God and say Why should we wait upon God any more what profit is there in serving him Who is the Lord we will own him and his goodness no more In stead of humble repentance we are prone with Job's wife to curse God and with those wicked ones prophesied of to come in the last times in the book of the Revelations of whom 't is said That after all the Vials of wrath and the 7 last Plagues poured out they repented not but cursed God or else we are prone to charge God foolishly as they in Ezek. 8.12 said God hath forsaken the earth or 18 Ezek. That our Fathers have eaten sowre grapes and our teeth are set on edge yet we their children have eaten sowre grapes too or we are tempted to have hard speeches of God accompanying our natural complaints and call God's providence into question as if thou didst not govern the earth or not well because we think thou dost not hear us soon enough saying Why have we fasted and thou hearest not Now that we may eschew these iniquities let us see first the fruitlesness of this course though we roar all like Bears and mourn like Doves it doth not better us nor abate our afflictions So is it causeless for thy plagues are the just punishments for our sins and it is the Lord's mercy that we are not consumed as said the Church in Babylon and that we are living And why should a living man complain for the punishment of his sins for that we are alive is more than we deserve That thou givest us our life for a prey for we know we are all sinners and our sins exceed our punishments It was never so bad but it might have been worse with us and at the worst we have some mercy For David saith I know that of very faithfulness thou hast afflicted me In thus murmuring we overlook all Gods mercies As Haman when he had reckoned all his advancements yet said all this is nothing so long as Mordecai the Jew vailed not to him In this we shew our exceding great pride which makes us think all that God hath given us is no more than our due In this is direct rebellion against our God and
the perception of these mysteries so according to this example let thy faithful people prepare themselves with repentance and perfect charity and if we remember that our neighbour hath any thing against us ler us leave our gift at the Altar and go and be first reconciled to our neighbour and then perform our Sacrifice to God and apprehending and discerning the Lord's body that we commit no irreverence And as our souls are prepared so let us prepare our bodies as thy servant David when he eat the shew bread 1 Sam. 21.5 answered the Priest Women had been kept from them three daies and the vessels of the young men were holy Let our bodies be sanctified by fasting temperance abstinence prayer and humiliation lest as the Ark of the Covenant by which the Lord conveyed the greatest benefits to the Israelites being taken by the Philistines brought to them the greatest calamities and so it did to Vzzah for but touching it irreverently In like manner these heavenly gifts if we eat them unworthily shall prove our damnation and if they who but touched the hem of his garments or received him into their house received such benefits shall not they who receive him into their souls be healed of all their infirmities and as the antient martyrs by receiving these mysteries were strengthened to undergo all that tyranny could lay upon them Let them in like manner strengthen us against all that Satan and the world can do against us And as the daily Infirmities of our body are helped by our bodily nourishment so let our Infirmities of our souls by this our Spiritual nourishment be relieved and us be satisfied and delighted therewith as with heavenly manna O Lord sacrifice and offerings and burnt offerings thou wouldest not have but thou gavest a body to thy only begotten Son that he should offer up himself in whom thou art well pleased And this Sacrament was instituted by him in Commemoration of his death and the acceptable Sacrifice of his life for the sins of the world Lord by his death and Sacrifice of his life unto thee which we hereby celebrate be reconciled unto us This is that pure Sacrifice which the Saints shall offer up unto thee in every place LORD since thou turnest the malice of men and the unjustice which they do thy Saints to the advantage either of their secular concerns as Josephs imprisonment was or of their soules Lord inable me to suffer wrong and to take it patiently to suffer railings and reviling as David did Shemei's railing saying If the Lord hath said to Shemei curse David who shall say why hast thou done so So let him curse for who can tell whether the Lord will requite good for his railing If I loath the fool in them I must not act it my self by returning the like Let me consider that by patience I possess my Soul and that it is better to suffer wrongfully than as an evil doer since it is the will of God that we should suffer and let our graces be exercised hereby And let us consider him who endured such contradiction of sinners Jesus our Lord lest we faint and be weary in our mind for the consideration of his suffering such reproach and the frequent remembrance of him hath efficacy and vertue to strengthen and support us who are willing to be conformable to his sufferings but we had rather that this cup might pass from us LORD whenever we fall into any sin we find immediately that we have lost our own innocence and thy favour so that we cannot go about our affairs with that quietness and peace and serenity of mind as before we did and in all that we do we fear it will have but bad success because we dare not look up to thee for a blessing Lord give us to consider this when we are tempted that we may fear sin more and make it out to our understandings how we do by sin crucify again unto our selves the Lord Jesus and put him to an open shame for we are all ready to pronounce an Anathema upon the Crucifiers of our Lord therefore let us not suffer these his Crucifiers to live He that seeth in secret he will reward thee openly Let this encourage us to frequent Prayers and duties But O Lord our services are so few and so slight and perfunctory and sinful while our hearts go after our covetousness and lusts so that we forget before whom we are and what we are doing and so our duties are sacriledge and our services provocations sins vain oblations abominations filthy rags like Nadab and Abihu's strange fire like the offering of the lame and blind when we have a male in our Flock so that thou mayest justly deal with us as Pilate did with the Gallilaeans whose blood he mingled with their sacrifice What reward then can we expect O Lord we beseech thee though our prayers are sinful yet accept them offer'd up in the Golden censer of Jesus our Mediator which is full of Incense which are the Prayers of the Saints and let these filty rags be wash'd in his blood and then they will be clean and white as Snow and then thou mayest reward them but yet that reward is thy free mercy therefore not unto us O Lord not unto us but to thy name is all the praise for what can we do for which thou should'st reward us with so many mercies here and with life eternal Any one of thy mercies is of more value then all our services could deserve or requite if we should continue in the duties of prayer and praising thee night and day all our lives for we owe thee all we have or can do It is thine as we are thy creatures and we were but unprofitable Servants after we had done all we can and we have need of an almighty Redeemer Then let us not murmure if the Lord doth delay to hear us Neither let us say 't is in vain to serve the Lord. Let us consider also that thou dost delay out of mercy to try our patience and perseverance and other graces and to make us more servent or may be because thou wilt not reward us with temporal blessings but eternal which is far better and let us not press or be importunate to receive our reward here lest we go without the eternal reward but let us be willing to trust God though he delay LET me not come near to that which may be a temptation or if a temptation come upon me unawares let me not say in my heart I shall be strong enough to resit it and so trust to my own strength but let me have grace to observe those ways and methods of resisting sin as thou hast appointed in thy word Therefore let me fly immediately from the temptation as Joseph fled from his Mistress leaving his Cloak If by chance I fall into the Company of Drunkards let me not say I shall preserve my sobriety because I love that and hate that
my soul let thy impatiente bearing of lyings slanders backbitings and false accusations humble thee and drive thee to seek to God by prayers and tears to assist and help thy weak patience and faith and make thee more conformable to Christ thou canst bear other injuries learn to bear these that thou mayest be blessed O my God do thou preserve me support me and hold me up that I may not fall by wrath and impatience though the injuries I receive be never so great unjust and false yet let me be supported by thy word and thy Spirit in me assuring me of reward in heaven O my God let me contentedly submit to thy chastisments and let me be assured that thou wilt bring good out of evil and that they are sent by thee for my good that I should not be condemned with the world 1 Cor. 11. And by thy assistance I shall go forth to thee without the camp bearing thy reproach Heb. 13.14 And my patience shall be perfected And assure me that in this unjust suffering I take up the Cross of a Christian Another end why God afflicts us is to make us call to mind our sins which procured the afflictions as Josephs brethren called to mind theirs of selling their brother It makes us to search and try our selves what sins we lye in and have not repented off Meditation LORD Sanctify them to us for this end that we may not lye in our sins nor dye in them But may be awakened to search and try our waies and call to mind our sins and repent of them with a godly sorrow unto salvation and turne unto the Lord with all our hearts lest otherwise we perish with the world And let the blessedness which thou hast pronounced upon thy mourners and the comfort which thou hast promised them come on them in the sight of their persecutors for their comfort will be the discomfort of them Another end why Gods afflicts us is to restrain us from some sin which we are prone to so he restrained St. Paul from pride for if God did not restrain us we should fall oftener than we do not only into those same sins which we have formerly committed but also into all others which the nature of man is subject to commit and which we think our selves quite free from as Hasael when the Prophet told him what Villanies he would commit answered him saying Thinkest thou that thy Servant is a Dog yet he did what the Prophet had foretold 2 King 8. So God withheld Abimeleck from sinning with Abrahams wife so David before he was afflicted he went astray but learned Gods judgments by afflictions And said Thy Rod and thy Staff have comforted me by which saying of David it appeares That another end of Afflictions is for Spiritual comfort Therefore 't is said in St. James Count it all joy when you fall into manifold temptations For as sin as soon as committed flies in our face and tells us that we have deserved all the curses threatned in Gods word for our consciences immediately tels us that the wages of sin are death and damnation so afflictions brings to mind our sins and makes our consciences search themselves what sins lye unrepented off Then our repentance brings remission and peace of conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost communion with God and watchfulness and carefulness against sin for the future But to make us more capable of the comfort it seems meet to God to visit us by afflictions Another end of afflictions it to abase and humble us That we may walk humbly with our God humble your selves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may lift you up where both these ends of afflictions are conjoyned viz. The joy of being lifted up with the humiliation he humbles whom he in tends to exalt Another end is for purgation I will purge away all the dross and tinn Which doth supose that there are some sins committed by and some corruptions remaining in the Servants of God as it is in the 9 of Daniel 11. Yea all Israel have transgressed thy law even by departing that they might not obey thy voice therefore the curse is poured upon us and the oath that is written in the law of Moses because we have sinned Every branch in me that beareth fruit he purgeth Isa 27.9 By this shall the iniquity of jacob be purged As our Saviour was made perfect by suffering so all that are made perfect are made perfect by sufferings When our consciences checks us it causes us to search and try our waies as it is in the Prophet after I was afflicted I smote upon my thigh Another end to bring a man to himself when before he would not know himself nor could understand his frailties and weakness also to bring a man to Christ and to make him go out of himself and the thought of his self-sufficiency and self confidence to seek his salvation in Christ alone for if the word doth not work upon us God doth work by the Spirit of bondage upon hard consciences as David said my reines chasten me in the night season So was the Prodigal Son brought to himself to bethink him of his Fathers house and to return home LORD sanctify them to thy Servant for all these ends that I may find all those opperations wrought in me and let me wait patiently upon the Lord laying my mouth in the dust As water that stands still without motion or agitation putrifieth and the Air corupteth unless it be moved with some gales of Wind so the minds of men become degenerate and their virtues and graces soon languish unless they be excited and exercised by variety of fortune troubles and new difficulties the most troublesome accidents that befall teach and improve a wise man most and learn him the best lessons Time of Trouble is the season for Prayer If Esau had not come against Jacob with an army he had not wrestled with God nor got the blessing Psal 50.15 Call upon me in the time of trouble and I will deliver thee and thou shalt praise me so it is the season for Gods mercy to those who seek it by prayer And as if the sense of our necessities would not force us enough to this duty of prayer he injoynes it by precept and inviteth with a promise which shews both our backwardness to the Duty and Gods readiness to accept our prayers and shew mercy to us and sometimes he is fain to be found of them that seek him not and he is fain to send his Spirit to help us to pray and sometimes he is fain to hear us when we have but a purpose to pray as David said in the Psalms I said I wll confess my sin and thou forgavest my iniquities and sometimes God is fain to prevent us as Isa 64.10 Before they call I will answer and sometimes he will not stay till the end of our Prayer as it is said Whilest they cry I will say
become the Sons of God even to as many as believed in his Name John 1.12 But he that eats not his Body and drinks not his Blood hath no fellowship in him he that doth eat and drink them hath Eternal Life The receiving then of him and believing in his Name being the qualification that makes us the Sons of God and his Brethren and that Text excluding all from that priviledge that do not eat and drink his Body and Blood sheweth that by receiving him and believing in his Name they eat him not by diminishing him by their Teeth or digesting him in their Stomach but by drawing Life from his Death by Faith and strengthning and maintaining that new Life which it hath from Christ by believing his Body to be crucified and his Blood shed for them and by the Bread and Wine is given to them And if we should understand this eating of Attrition or diminishing with the Teeth and the Drinking of taking by the Mouth into the Stomach by drops and digesting there then God should suffer his Holy One to see corruption For although we should suppose it did not corrupt in our body so long as we live yet when these vile bodies turns to Earth and rottenness then all that is in them must corrupt And the Text that excludes all that eat not his Body and drinks not his Blood would exclude all Believers from Adam until this Sacrament was Instituted by our blessed Saviour But if this eating and drinking be believing then Abraham and the rest of the faithful might eat and drink him as well as they saw his day For all of them eat the same Spiritual meat and drink the same Spiritual drink and receive their Eternal Life and Salvation from the same Jesus Christ And if we do by this eating find our penitent Souls to revive and live a new Immortal and Eternal Life from the belief of his Death and Passion for us his Body Crucified and his Blood spilt for us to give us Life then we eat his body and shall live for ever And thus the faithful people of God by eating the Passeover under the Law did eat Christ the true Passeover by eating that which was the Type of him whom it represented fide non ore at it is said all eat the same Spiritual Bread Of the Eucharist Meditation I feel a hunger in my Soul which neither Manna nor all the World can satisfie though I have all the necessaries and conveniences of Life yet I hunger and thirst as for Rivers of Water in a dry place Isa 32. Do thou then O blessed Saviour give me of the Water of Life out of thy Fountain The living Water and Blood that cometh from that Fountain of Living Water thy side upon the Cross which still is open to the House of Judah and Jerusalem and seals unto us all the promises upon which we live thou hast Instituted this Bread and Wine to represent thy Holy and blessed Body and Blood shed and broken upon the Cross and thereby givest them to the Soul that thirsteth for Eternal Life in thee Isa 32.4 Though my weakness of Faith should be such that I am not able to discern whether virtually or really they become such or whether they be consubstantiated transubstantiated or new-substantiated in their Natures by the blessing and the Faith of the Receiver or neither yet thus far thou hast enlightned me to know that all the promises are Yea and Amen in thee that thou hast Eternal Life and givest it and that by these Elements which signifie and exhibit thy Body and Blood to be eaten and drank by Faith Spiritually and for thy Body and Blood I eat and drink them but as separable for I fear least I should through unbelief receive but only the Bread and Wine and not thy Body and Blood which give Eternal Life which every one that hath that eateth thy Body and drinketh thy Blood and if an unbeliever or an unprepared impenitent person the worst of thy enemies he that betrayed thee or any other creature could but eat and drink of them they also would thereby have Eternal Life But thou alone hast power to give it to whom thou pleasest To thee therefore I address my Prayer when the Priest reacheth to me the Bread and Wine that thou wouldest reach to me thy sacrificed Body and Blood that was shed upon the Cross and make these Natural Elements to become those Eternal Aliments to me not by Faith in them but by Faith in thee who hast made them to signifie those and represent them which though I cannot discern by my senses I pray that I may by my Faith in thy Word which makes them operate as thy Body and Blood to me through thy benediction though materially I discern them not and give me thy holy Spirit that I may discern them Spiritually and eat panem Dominum if by looking up to thee we are saved what other thing can I understand this Mystery to be than looking up to thee on the Cross and shedding thy precious Blood for my sins which thou communicatest to us Of Holiness Meditations Mot. Holiness to the Lord shall be writ upon the Bells of the Horses Med. All the graces are so linked together like a golden chaine that they cannot be without each other This is a collective word and containes in it piety charity and humility and all that the first and second table of the law of God containes all the duty of man towards God his neighbour and himself It is the fruit of faith out of which Root this grace springs The necessity of this grace is laid down in this expression that without it no man shall see God the same is implied Psal 63.3 I have sought thee in holiness that I might behold thy glory The precepts are many that command us to get it in general and in the particular branches of it every commandment and precept in the Scripture are to this end Not any one minute of a Christian life nor any one action be it natural action of the body or civil gesture or behaviour but it must have holiness imprinted on it for in the Temple the candlesticks and the snuffers were of pure Gold and Christ came to perfect it and advance it therefore ' tls prophesied of his Kingdom that under it holines to the Lord shall be written upon the Bels of the Horses which inscription was on Arons miter The rights and ceremonies of purification under the law typified as much Although it be said that faith hath this and all other graces for its fruits yet there is a time when a child of God may not percieve in himself much nay scarce any life of Holiness Humility Patience Zeal Meekness Charity or other graces as in the Winter the herbs and Plants shew no life at all usually they are excited again by some extraordinary providence of God either in afflicting us or delivering us from some danger or affliction or by
in the words of St. Paul O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of sin and death Who can say he hath cleansed himself Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean But yer St. John saith that he that is born of God sinneth not because his seed remaineth in him and the 1 Epst c. 3. I have wrote unto you young men because you have overcome that wicked one Love not the world nor the things of the world And v. 6. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not Whosever sinneth hath not seen him nor known him v. 7. Little children let no man deceive you he that doth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous v. 9. He cannot sin because he is born of God v. 8. He that committeth sin is of the Devil Which Texts are not to be expounded in this sense that a Saint of God may not be overtaken or be temped so above his strength as to be overcome against his will as some suppose it is for then to what purpose doth the Apostle Paul enjoyne it as a duty if any one be overtaken with a fault restore such a one in the Spirit of meekness considering that thou thy self also mayest be tempted unless a good man might be overtaken and the argument too of the duty is positive that thou also who art to restore him mayest be tempted and overcome therefore do this duty to another and the promise of lifting up those that fall would be needless and those many exhortations of our Saviour all the Apostles to watchfulness and prayer circumspection and carefulness against temptations of the world the flesh and the Devil seducers and deceivers would little become so great teachers if there were no need at all of those duties and no danger in the neglect of them nor no possibility that the regenerate person could fall Then he that standeth needs not to take such heed least he fall and St. John himself also saith in the first Epistle chap. 5.17 All unrighteousness is sin and there is a sin not unto death And in vers 16. If any Man see his Brother sin a sin that is not to death he shall ask and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death and 1 Epist ch 1. v. 8. If we say that we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive and ch 2. v. 1. If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father c. But if we were absolutely free from sin and the power of sinning what need had we of our Advocate Therefore it seems by the opinion and consent of most Men that when he saith He that is born of God sinneth not he meaneth the same as St. Paul doth express saying It is not I but sin that dwelleth in me And again so with my Spirit I serve the Law of God but with my Flesh the Law of sin and the Law of his Members lead him Captive By which it appears That the inclination of his mind was to serve God in all holiness of Life and he delighted in that in his inward Man And if he chanced to do the contrary it was unwillingly and he counted it his unhappiness and bondage from which he endeavoured to get free Whereas the unregenerate Man counts sin his freedom and every holy observance of Gods Commandments his bondage And when his Conscience checks him and forceth him to any walking with God in religious duties it is thraldom and bondage to him For his course of Life and Conversation is to serve the Flesh and the World to walk in the ways of his own Heart and the sight of his eyes and is sorry that there is any Commandment to restrain him and desires not to know it at least in the strictness of it Again if a regenerate person chance to be overcome by his corruption and strength of Temptation he immediately not only loaths the sin but himself also that he is no better and would rather undergo all misery than fall into the same again And would foregoe all the enjoyments that he hath or hopes for in this World if he could but undoe what he hath misdone The unregenerate are not so and as Solomon describes the Harlot she wipeth her mouth and saith I have not sinned so do others in the state of Nature unless their sins be very gross say they have not sinned or if they confess their sins to God and pray for pardon they think it is enough to embolden them to sin afresh And as the Regenerate walk with God and premeditate and study not how they may commit a sin secretly and undiscovered so as to avoid the shame and punishment but how they may walk closely with God and avoid every Temptation and Snare of Satan so the unregenerate study and contrive to sin with advantage And that place of St. John that saith ye have overcome the evil one may be upon this ground that they have overcome the evil one many times and persist in the conquest of their corruption every day though peradventure some time the Devil may prevail to overcome them as it is said he shall bruise thy heel And though God never leaves Man to be overcome when he endeavours his utmost yet God may let him be overcome as Peter was to humble him in the sight of his own weakeness when he is confident of his strength that he may depend and rely more upon God and seek to him more and not rely upon his own strength but ascribe all to God and his grace And though St. Paul confesseth so much imperfection and St. John so much perfection both of them will agree in this that we are made perfect in Christ St. John further describeth the perfections of the regenerate 1 Ep. 5.4 Whosoever is borne of God overcometh the world And sheweth how in the following words and this is the victory that overcometh the world even our saith He tells us the particulars which he means namely The lusts of the flesh the lusts of the eyes and the pride of life which all are overcome for ch 3. v. 7. He saith That he that doth righteousnes is righteous And 10. Whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God And 1 Ep. c. 5.18 We know that whosoever is borne of God sinneth not for he that is begotten of God keepeth himself and the wicked one toucheth him not Which touching certainly hath reference to the words before of sinning a sin not unto death and those words sinneth not have the same reference viz. He sinneth not de industria Pleno Animo Else no man will be found that it can be said of him that he sineth not Noah whom God mentioned for one of the three persons most acceptable to God of whom it is testified in the holy scriptures that he only was found righteous yet he was overtaken by the sin of
God 2 Thes 2.12 which is his word we must believe the truth of his threatnings as well as the truth of his promises Jer. 32.19 This belief saved Noah and his family from the destruction of the deluge and this was commanded in him for a worthy act of faith and by this Lot escaped when Sodom was destroyed and his doubting wife made a perpetual monument or spectacle for her infidelity the chief and special object is Christ Act. 16.37 If we must leve Christ then is Christ the principle the cause efficient and final the matter and the forme of that life His example our pattern and his will ours to me to live is Christ is meant in some or in all these senses for faith verifies it in them all He is the end of our conversation because we can desire no more nor can we need any more if we have him he is the matter and forme of it because the natural life is drowned in this and is made spiritual as it is said If we have known Christ in the flesh yet henceforth know we him no more The holy soul doth not injoy its life if it doth not feel Christ living in it by his Spirit quickning its graces it crys O miserable man that I am c. As faith tells the instrument and meanes whereby we attain the greatest good so it is the Armour that defends us from the greatest evils therefore said the Apostle Ephe. 6.16 Above all take the shield of faith whereby ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked Whereby he commends faith above all the spiritual Armour shewing the cause of his commendation from the exceeding virtue of it that it inables them to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked the virtue of it is universal against the worst of evils if it be taken that is if it be used It must be used in the relying act and in the aplying act staying our selves upon the Lord Psal 37.5 Commit our way unto the Lord. The Applying act is when the soul can say his righteousnes is mine to justify me his blood which he shed upon the Cross an attonement for my sins his Spirit mine to quicken me The fiery darts which Satan shoots are first the guilt of sin then afflictions inward and out ward those who were stung by the fiery Serpents could not be cursed unless they looked up to the brazen Serpent Faith sees that the blood which Christ shed for sinners was shed for my sin that he had an eye unto me in his sufferings A 2 Way faith quenches the fiery darts of Satan by seeing that sin is condemned if so then it can have no power to condem the soul A 3 Way is to see afflictions to be a means of grace that they sanctify us and work for us a more exceeding and eternal weight of glory And to see God in the afflictions working for our good and keeping us from the hurt which men intended to us I will be with thee in the fire and in the water that the fire shall not burne thee nor the water hurt thee Isa 43.2 I will keep him secretly from the strife of tongues This made the suffering Martyrs more than conquerors through Christ that loved us and gave his life for us therefore they were wiling to suffer for him and lay down their lives for the testimony of the Gospel to take joyfully the spoiling of their goods and to think all too little for God for whom they suffered it therefore let us set before us our blessed Saviours suffering who endured for us such bitter paines mocking and contradiction of sinners lest we faint in our minds and are weary of the Cross of Christ Let us also set before us the examples of the Prophets Apostles and Martyrs and the examples of our own memory Our late King whose head was anointed with holy oyle yet his Majesty trampled upon with the greatest indignities and when the meanest of his subjects a common Souldier spit in his face used no reproof and he that was Gods vicegerent of the Crown was humbled to be Christs vicegerent of his Cross a rare and wonderful example of suffering patiently the good will and pleasure of God Our imitation of his virtues shall be a lasting monument of his Glory Aere ceu vacuo pendentia Mausolaea Mart. Holy David went far in this as when one abject fellow cursed him and threw durt at him he let him alone saying Who can tell whether God will requite good for his railing And God did not fail him because his faith did not faile though it was tried to the uttermost this faith carried him through all When the people talked of stoning him by this he encouraged himself in the Lord and was not dismaied and if it became the Captain of our salvation to be made perfect by sufferings why should it be thought strange if all that fight under the same banner be made perfect Soulders by the same discipline Oh that we could all follow him not only in drinking of the Cup which he drunk off viz. The bitter Cup of the Cross but also do it with the same charity to our enemies as he had when he prayed Father forgive them for they know not what they do whose steps the Proto Martyr St. Stephen also followed and for his reward he saw the Heavens opened and his Saviour standing at the right hand of God by this we are sure that the same Spirit is in us as was in Christ T was impossible for Job to have undergone so many of Satans fiery darts upon his estate his relations and bodily sufferings but that he believed that his redeemer lived and that he should see him with his eyes at the last day though wormes consumed his flesh And St. Paul having fought the good fight of faith had the like assurance as he testifieth henceforth is layed up for me a Crown of glory this inabled him to undergo the fight with victory and this took away the sting of death so that death it self was not formidable to him nor to the holy Prophets Apostles and Martyrs who willingly underwent it for a good conscience not accepting deliverance Those great temptations which Satan most relieth upon are those of sins guilt accusing the conscience and bloody persecutions though all manner of temptations as the vanities of the world the cares of the world the lusts of the flesh the pride of life are all of them by the arts of our Spiritual adversary so suited and managed according to several complexions that without this grace they are unresistable therefore the Scripture testifieth that this is the victory whereby we overcome the world and if morality could be sufficient to mortify our lusts and good education as some pretend how came it to pass that those moral Philosophers who writ so many things against lust covetousness and other vices were yet themselves overcome of them but through faith in Christ the world is
a noise in the ear without any profit would God require such love from us but that he is Love Gracious Merciful and full of compassion slow to anger hateth nothing that he hath made what can he say more free to thee though thou art as an adulterous Spouse to him yet thou maiest returne and he will receive thee again though thou bringest no merit but demerit to provoke He hath excluded none from his mercy unless they be such as will shew no mercy or else those that sin of malicious wickedness and sin in despight of the Spirit wilfully against light The entail of his mercy is to thousands of them that love him 2 Meditation on Gods Mercy Lord if thou shouldest be extreme to mark what is done amiss who may abide it but there is Mercy with thee c. LORD be merciful to me a sinner we have all sinned and hope in thy Mercy only through the merits of our Saviour If we were not sinners thy mercy would be of no use towards us And our Blessed Lord and Saviour would be of no use to us nor faith nor hope would be of any use nor prayer nor praises But because I am a sinner I pray for thy mercies I praise thee for thy mercies I hope for thy mercies I trust in thy mercy revealed to sinners I believe in the merits of my Saviour and renounce all merit in my self therefore Lord cast me not off because I am a sinner shut not out my prayers for this I will not sin that grace may abound but though I have sinned I am an object of Mercy and thy grace that abounded to Mary Magdalen to Paul to Publicans and sinners may also extend to me Thou hast sent thy Son to call not the Righteous but Sinners To the lost sheep of the house of Israel to seek and also to save that which was lost to quicken them who were dead in trespasses and sins To preach the glad tidings of the Gospel of our Salvation though thy Mercy in giving up thy Son to dye for us that by his death we might escape death and live because he bore the iniquities of us all and by his stripes we are healed That precious blood that he shed upon the ground when the speare was thrust into his body was a sufficient ransom for the lives of all man-kind And as my sins had a concurrent demer it procuring his death so I hope they are joyned in the effect the attonement and expiation That his righteousness may be imputed to me also as my sins were to him 2 Cor. 5. That I may be made the righteousness of God in him Therefore we have need that he should be made unto us wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption because we were foolish disobedient and deceived serving divers lusts and therefore hast thou proclaimed thy self abundantly pardoning because our sins abound Isa 55. As our Blessed Saviour is the chiefest and greatest of all mercies because he is of more value than all so is he also to be esteemed because in him as in the Fountain are all others contained for by him and faith in his merits only we pray for all others which we need therefore above all we praise thee for him and in him and by him we praise thee for all 3. Meditation All our spirituall mercies as well grace here as glory and eternal happiness hereafter are free without any merit of ours of meer gift and mercy Tit. 3.3 5. We our selves were sometimes disobedent c. But after the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared not by workes of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ c. He is the medium by whom they are derived to us and not our own merit of his fulness we have received grace for grace as the members derive their vital Spirits from the head The converting grace and the confirming graces are both free Ephe. 1.13 In whom after ye believed ye were sealed with the holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance He worketh in us both the will and deed that is good when of our selves we cannot think a good thought Therefore above all we pray that thou wouldst give us thy Son whom thou hast given for us all freely and then with him thou givest us all things and as a Father pittieth his own Children so doth the Lord pitty them that fear him Thy bowels cannot see them want any thing Let him live in us by his word by his Spirit by his image in us by his graces which we receive from his fulness let him be formed in us and by him dwelling in our hearts let us be crucified to the world and dye daily and be buried with him and yet live but so that we may be said not to live our selves but Christ in us Thus let the word and the Sacraments convey him to us Since thou hatest nothing that thou hast made and thy delight is among the Sons of men Pro. 1. Certainly thou dost not afflict nor grieve willingly the Sons of men Therefore when we cry unto the Lord in our trouble he delivers us out of distress Psal 104. He cannot forbear to kiss and embrace his prodigal Son O let thy revelation of thy love to man recall mans straying affections to God If we believe this our faith will work love to him again and we shall be as willing to be reconciled to him as he to be reconciled to us 2 Cor. 5.20 If while we were enemies Christ died for us whom hath he not died for who is excluded from his mercy much more being justified by his blood will he save us seeing he hath done so much for us when we were worse now that we are put in a better relation by the blood of Christ and are reconciled to him and made just persons much more now will he do the rest which is but the consequence of the justification to save us All this is free mercy Not of workes which we have done but of his own good will he begot us and accordingly we are justified freely by his grace 4. Meditation I find no condition annexed to be precedent to make a subject capable of mercy but only want and desire of mercy want I have without my own act or endeavour desire of relief too ariseth spontaneously without my endeavour and largeness of desire proceeds from a covetous mind an eye unsatisfied yet such is the ocean of mercy that it requires but only that we open our mouth wide and he will fill it as he promiseth As long as the widow brought empty vessels the Oyl ran he giveth liberally and upbraideth not he giveth more then we are able to ask or think the debtor doth but desire forbearance but the Lord forgives him the debt Jacob only desired food and