are with him And if God be with us who can be against us And we must convince our selves of this comfortable presence of God with us by our presence with him If we walk with him desire and love him for if he be with us he warmes the Soul and the love of God is spread abroad in our hearts then we must continue seeking till we find him Cant. 1.7 Tell me my Spouse where thou restest Because she thought he was all Lovely therefore she sought him And because she could not be without him Psal 80. v. 87. All my fresh springs are in thee She trusts in him and stays her self upon him when she is in darkness and sees no light as it is expressed in those words Though he slay me I will trust in him It is like death unto the soul and it can find no joy nor content no rest nor quiet in this condition When Zion said The Lord hath forsaken me and my God hath forgotten me it was her misunderstanding of her own condition for it follows But I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands When we know we have God's presence with us we are ravished like the Spouse in the Canticles Ere ever I was aware my soul was like the Chariots of Aminadab She is vigorous in holy duties and carried with an Impetus to desire an enjoyment of God in his Ordinances But in the withdrawings of God and the hiding of his face the soul is troubled If any trial be a fiery Trial this is It it more fiery than that of the three children in the furnace But comfort thy self with these promises I will be with thee in the fiery tryal that is to come upon all the world to try them The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a contrite heart And I will never leave thee nor forsake thee The Angel of the Lord tarrieth round about them that fear him and delivers then of Look upon them as sent from a merciful Father for good ends either to restrain thee from sin to humble thee or to drive thee to seek God by prayer and fasting and other holy duties which thou haply hast neglected and therefore the Messengers of Satan are sent to buffet thee Look upon Christ bearing a part of thy sufferings and suffering with thee Look upon the Holy Spirit helping thy infirmities and look upon the Crown and the exceeding weight of glory which they work But if thou hast walked with God in prosperity put him in mind of it as Hezekiah and Job did Also comfort thy self with the Love of Je-Jesus Christ thy Saviour revealed to thee who suffered the like that he might know the better to succour thee his unspeakable Love For seeing it is so that he seeth such beauty loveliness and perfection in his beloved Spouse as he expresseth Canticles 4. throughout If he be so inflamed of her love as is there expressed he cannot if he would long absent himself from her nor brook her absence from him In the first sixth verses he admireth her several beauties and in the seventh verse least he should seem to have overlook'd any imperfection he giveth a large commendation of the whole and exempteth it from all imputation of Imperfection Thou art all fair my Love there is no spot in thee Vers 8. It followeth Come with me my Spouse c. He must needs desire her company in whom he seeth such excellent beauty and perfection Further reasons he expresseth of this his desire of her company in the following verses In â—â—e 9th Thou hast ravished my heart my Sister my Spouse thou hast ravished me of my heart with one of thine eyes with one chain of thy neck How fair is thy Love my Sister my Spouse How much better is thy Love than Wine and the smell of thine ointment than all spices Thy lips O my Spouse drop as the hony comb hony and milk are under thy tongue and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebenon A Garden inclosed is my Sister my Spouse a spring shut up a fountain sealed Thy plants are an Orchard of Pomegranats with pleasant fruits Camphire with Spikenard c. These are the amorous Courtships which thy most loving and lovely Saviour courteth thee with These and many more of like love and kindness he useth to thee to satisfy thee of his love and to gain thine And having said all that in love could be said and done all for thy love that could be done unless it were the last Act of giving thee his hearts blood suppose him thus speaking to thee immediately before his passion And now my Sister my Spouse what wilt thou have me say or do more wilt thou have my hearts blood If thou wilt I am ready to give it thee Methinks I see the Spouse astonished at this ravishing kindness and grieving fore that her need is such that she must have her lovers hearts blood to heal her she answereth thus O Blessed and most dear Lord worthy of all love and service for this real expression of thy love how can I entertain such excess of love but be inflamed with love to thee again and if I am inflamed with love and desire of thee how can I admit of this thy wonderful offer the effusiion of thy blood And yet I must accept of this thy offer to cure those my greifs which otherwise are incurable And so with tears she breaks off her speech because her heart is broak and she knoweth not how to answer such high and reall expressions of love But yet the Lord who is love resteth not there he doth for us above all that we are able to ask or think And seeing that thou must needs have his hearts blood to cure thee or perish he suffereth death and inviteth thee to the funeral banquet and there under the complexion of of noble wine presenteth thee with his hearts blood to drink and under the complexion of bread presents thee his heart to eat And now thou must needs feel thy self revived and healed with the heat and virtue of this heavenly food and thou knowest thou hast ravished him of his heart therefore maiest rejoyce in thy Beloved Ejaculations LORD Since I cannot experience thy goodness and mercy in my deliverances or thy faithfulness in keeping promise to them that trust in thee hope in thee call upon thee delight in thee and love thee unless I first experience troubles dangers calamities and the malice of my enemies and fiery trials from which thy promise is to deliver us to save us and be with us in them Then make me be contented to fall into these troubles and trials the fire and the water of affliction and let them not seem strange to me though never so fiery Neither let me be cast down or dismayed faint or sorrow as those that are without hope and have no promise of God to trust to LORD Supply me with all suffering graces as well as doing graces
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
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
and Oyl is increased and may say truly my joy shall be in the Lord as he did and every child of God is commanded this duty in this saying Rejoice in the Lord ye Righteous This excellent grace makes the soul happy wherein it is because he that possesseth it possesseth Christ and all the benefits and priviledges that he hath purchased that incomparable benefit of justification first as it is Rom. 4. and last v. and the 5th and first v. Who was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification Rom. 3. Being justified freely by his grace Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ This peace is a second benefit or priviledg which faith derives from Christ a third follows by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand the favors of God wherein we stand or the blessed condition of justified and sanctified persons to which we come by Christ through faith and rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God both our present and future condition is made happy by faith and it assures to us that happiness It followes and not only so but we glory in tribulations also knowing that tribulation works patience So that calamities are by faith made consolatory through the sanctified use which faith makes of them they are not only made not formidable as David his fears vanished by relying upon God which he expressed saying What time I am afraid I will put my trust in thee Psal 56.3 He made use of his faith in the time of his fears as he did also in the time of his wants Psal 8. The Lord is my shepherd therefore I shall lack nothing So that faith imboldens the Servants of God against all evil Christ gives and ensures them these priviledges partly by the testimony of his Spirit partly by faith in his merit Ephe. 3.12 In whom we boldness and access with confidence through faith in him Heb. 10.19 We have entrance into the holiest through the blood of Jesus The Spirit assures us that all the Privileges which Christ hath purchased for his people are ours and causeth us to rejoyce in them as ours That all the promises are ours and causeth us to rely upon them because we are assured that Christ is ours by Faith when he is laid hold on as ours all things are ours then it follows that we have peace of Conscience and tranquility in our Souls for he is our Peace Ephe. 2. And we acquiesce in him because we have chosen him for our portion He is reconcilation between God and us he satisfieth our debts makes God at peace with us and our conscences at peace in themselves and our souls satisfied as having nothing more that they can desire but more communion with God as that which satisfieth it We know that God hath no wrath at all towards us nor our consciences any dread or fear of Gods wrath or any terror but assurance of his favour and love and that our sins are washed away by the blood of Christ according to that in Colos 1.20 Having made peace through the blood of his Cross by him to reconcile all things to himself 21. And you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblamable and unreprovable in his sight if you continue in the faith Hence the soul assures it self that none of the works of Gods severity have any wrath at all against it for in the 24. v. St. Paul saith He rejoyceth in his sufferings But positively they are assured of their adoption and of the love and friendship of God that he will preserve them supply them teach them heal them guide and support them visit them with spiritual consolations and joy in the Holy Ghost and that all things shall work together for their good which makes them willing to submit to Gods chastisements as it is Psal For thy sake are we killed all the day long yet do we not forsake thee This keeps them from murmuring and from covetousness The nature of it is that it can only be where the Son of peace is This peace is a league offensive and defensive whereby the soul hates sin and all that God hates and loves holiness and all that God loves That salutation which our blessed Lord perscribed to his Apostles must needs be the most excellent and desirable that saies Peace be to this house This peace makes all other things at peace with us for he is said To make a league with the foules of the air and the beasts of the field for us in Job and Prov. 16.17 When a mans waies please God he makes his enemies at peace with him Psal 91.10 The plague shall not come neer his dwelling or if it do it shall be no plague Rom. 8.31 If God be with us who shall be against us That is though they are against us the sting is taken out The excellency of it is so great that it passeth human understanding It is an everlasting peace it doth not forsake us in the time of trouble nor in the hour of death Isa 55.3 His mercies are called everlasting It makes us peaceable with men to those we have offended it makes us willing to satisfy them and willing to pardon those that have offended us but the wicked are like the rageing Sea alwaies unquiet It quickens the soul to holy duties the soul considers what it shall render to the Lord for all his mercies towards it Psal 103.3 Bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits who forgiveth all thy sins The excellency of it must needs be great because it is the legacy which Christ dying left to his Church not as the world gives gave he it to them but more largely liberally and bountifully and absolutely without any limitation of time or condition David calls it great peace which they have which love Gods word but yet he saith that many are the troubles of the righteous That which followeth makes amends The Lord delivereth them out of all and the Lord will stand by them and deliver them as we know he did the three children out of the fiery furnace and Daniel out of the Lyons den and Job out of the fiery Trials The fruits of righteousness are sown in peace not in discord they which love peace sowe them And this shield of faith is both an offensive and defensive weapon whereby these holy warriours in their spiritual warfare fought the Lords battels under the bloody banner of the Cross of Christ who for the glory that was set before him endured the Cross and despised the shame these follow the lamb and suffer with him that they may also raigne with him and take joyfully the spoiling of their goods knowing that they have a more enduring substance in Heaven And willingly they spend and are spent for God