of any necessity of death As God made us living Creatures so his power was able to sustain us immortal creatures we had bodily life by our soul in our body and spiritual life by Gods Image in both but sin brought on us death of all sorts Death spiritual in the loss of Gods Image death bodily in the begun corruption of our body and death eternal in the endless ruine of both And whom would not this single thought afflict with dread and sorrow to see what a change sin hath made in the condition of man If Adam would have lived without sin he might have lived without end But now by his credulous receiving the Serpents Poyson Death is glued to our nature necessity of evil to the freedom of our will and all misery to our selves Another dark and posing thought did arise from the progress of death which keeps no order or method It thrusts its sickle not only into the ripe corn but the green blade it nips the blossom as well as gathers the fruit it dissolves the knot that was but new made between the soul and the body as well as that which age and years had conâ—â—rmed There were I observed skulls of all Sizes There were some who had never seen the Sun to pass from one Tropick to the other Others there were whose life could not be reckoned by daies or hours but by minutes they dropt only from the Womb to the Grave And is not this amongst the secrets of God that thousands should thus pass through the world and be determined to different Estates for Eternity What can I say But that the waies of God are unsearchable and his Judgements past finding out As it now shews his Soveraignty thus to deal with his Creatures as it pleaseth him so the Great Day will manifest the Wisdom and Justice of God that is wrapt up in these mysterious providences He that is the Judge of all will be found to be righteous towards all A third sad thought The consuming power of the grave did stir up within me so that I was ready to say Can these dry bones live Can these mingled dusts be distinguished Can the dusts that are scattered into distances be ever united Doth not the Noble and the Base the Saint and the Sinner lye equally under the power of corruption Who then would not dread to descend into the Grave and make Hemans question Will God shew wonders to the dead shall the dead arise and praise him But when I consider that Believers in their ascending into heaven do only let fall their bodies to the earth as Elijah dropt his Mantle when he was taken up and that their Spirits return to God that gave them That Death striketh not on the New man but on the Tabernacle which is a common Lodging both to Flesh and Spirit my fears are greatly Alleviated for who is much solicitous for the Cabinet when the Jewel is safe Yea when I think that death which separates our persons from the world our soul from the body and every part of our body from another cannot dissolve our Union with Christ but that then we sleep in him and shall be raised by him and conformed to him as the pattern of our glory O how do these most radiant thoughts dispell both the black fears of death and the lightsome comforts of the world as the rising Sun makes the bright stars of heaven to vanish as well as the dark shades of the night How little then doth the love of this life or the difficulties of death abate the desires of a Believer to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is far better Who can wonder at old Simeons importunity to depart in peace when his eyes had seen the Salvation of God and his arms embraced it Who would not be of the same mind that hath once tasted of the Clusters of the heavenly Canaan to long after the full Vintage How pathetical is that of Austin upon Gods answer to Moses Thou canst not see my face for no man can see me and live Who replies with great confidence Lord is that all that I cannot see thy face and live Eja Domine moriar ut te videam videam ut hic moriar nolo vivere volo mori dissolvi cupic essecum Christo I pray thee Lord then let me dye that I may see thy face Or let me see thee that I may dye in this place I would not live I would dye I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ Thus also have other Saints been affected who have had death in desire and life in patience O what a strange change then hath Christ made in death and the grave and his grace in the heart and affections of Believers Death which sin brought into the world is now become the only means to destroy and kill sin Death which is only contrary unto life is now turned into a Port and passage into life So that when we pass out of this life we lose neither life nor being but are admitted to a more glorious life and being than ever we had Death that before was an armed Enemy is now made a reconciled and firm friend a Physician to cure all our diseases and an Harbinger to make way for glory The Grave also by Christs lying in it is become a bed of rest in which his Saints fetch a short slumber untill he awaken them to a glorious Resurrection It is the Chamber into which he invites his beloved ones to hide themselves untill his indignation be past the Arke into which he shuts his Noahs whilest he destroyes the world with an overflowing deluge of his wrath and displeasure And therefore it is that by his grace they are not afraid to meet Death which others would shun and make it as a voluntary offering unto God which others pay only as a necessary debt Yea they esteem it as one of the choicest Jewels in that exact Inventory that Paul hath made of the riches of Believers and next unto Jesus Christ bless God for it as the greatest mercy O holy Saviour do thou then who art the Lord both of the dead and of the living unto whom all ought to live and all ought to dye enable me thy servant to love thee above life which of all blessings is the sweetest and to hate sin above death which of all evils is the bitterest to nature that so I may have this testimony of the power of thy grace in the change of my heart that for the enjoyment of perfect Communion with thee I can gladly lose my life and be separated from sin can willingly undergo death which is of all evidences the Clearest Meditation XLIX Vpon a Spring in an high ground THe additional blessing which Achsah sought of Caleb her Father was Springs of water for her south or dry land who gave her the upper and the nether Springs If the distinct recording of this particular in Scripture carry any thing of
Piety gives both to the Person and to his Services a peculiar Preheminence and Dignity above all others The Naturalists observe that the Pearles that are bred of the Morning Dew are far more bright and clear than those which are bred of the Evening Dew And so are those duties of a greater worth and beauty which are the fruits of a Morning and not an Evening Godliness It is the commendation of Hezekiahs Reformation above all others of the Kings of Judah that in the first year of his Reign in the first Moneth he opened the doores of the House of the Lord. It is that which makes Josiahs Memory to be as a Box of precious Nard that while he was yet young he began to seek after the God of David his Father It is an Honourable Testimony which Paul gives to Epenetus that he was the first-fruits of Achaia unto Christ and the like is that which he gives to Andronicus and Junia that they were in Christ before him To have a Precedency in the Faith is not onely a happiness but a dignity What glory can be greater then to be a Jeremiah sanctified from the Womb or a Timothy nourished up in the words of Faith Sâ—condly The comfort of Age is a well-spent Life When a Man comes to the Grave as a Shock of Câ—rne in its seâ—son and not as a bundle of Tares to the Fire when the Bones are full not of the Sins of Youth but of the Services that were then done to God when a Man can say as dying Hezekiah Remember O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight O it is sad when the sins of youth become the burthen of age â— if the Grashopper then be a weight to the Body what a pressure will heapes of Mountainous sins be to the Soul Age at the best hath sufficient Griefes it is of it self a Sickness and a Neighbour to Death and needs not the bad provisions of Youthfull Follies to make it worse Let then the Counsell of Wise Solomon be acceptable unto you who are yet in the spring and flower of your age to Remember your Creator in the dayes of your youth and then if Death make you Pale before Age make you Gray you will have this comfort that you are old in houres though not in yeares and bave lived much though not long as having lost no time in sowing Seed unto the Flesh as most doe who make youth a foolish Seed-time to a Mourning Age and Old Age a bitter Harvest to a foolish Youth Or if your Almond-Tree shall flourish and that a more gracious Old Age shall succeed a gracious Youth Old Age it self shall be followed with a Crown of endless Glory Meditation LII Vpon a Rock IT is the saying of the Moralists That Accidents which befall Men have a double handle by which they may be apprehended So as that if they be rightly taken they become not onely less burthensome and unpleasant but also of use and advantage to those that sustain them like bitter Herbes that are by the skill of the Physician turned into a wholsome Medicine The like may be said of this present Subject that it hath a double aspect under which it may be represented to our Consideration each of which will suggest thoughts far differing one from another and yet both have their rise from Scripture Doth not God bid us look unto the rock from whence we are hewen and to the pit whence we are digged And then what can it hold out to our view but the misery of our natural condition our deadness deformity barrenness and untractableness to any good Is it not the complaint of the best that their hearts are Stony and Rocky and that they are apt to stand it out with God and not to yield to the Work of his Grace is there any evil that in their account is more insuperable then a flinty heart When did Moses who had faith to work many Miracles most distrust but when he was to make the Rock to yield Water though God commanded him to speak onely to it yet as deeming it insufficient he smote it twice And yet is it not the Promise of God to take away the stony heart and to give an heart of flesh And is it not that which I beg that God would mollifie both my Naturall and Acquired hardness and preserve me from Judiciall hardness That so I may not resist Pharoah like his Messages his Miracles his Judgments and his Mercies and grow worse in stead of being better I would that God might be a Rock to me but I would be as Wax unto him that so I might be apt to receive Divine Impressions from him It is my sin to be as a Rock to God unflexible and sooner Broken then Bent But it is my unspeakable comfort to think that God will be a Rock to me who stand in a continual need of his aide and power to uphold me who if I be not built upon him cannot subsist and if I be not hid in him can have no salvation I cannot therefore but give some scope and line to my thoughts that I may the better take in the honey and sweetness that drops from this Metaphoricall Name of God who is often stiled in Scripture the Rock of Israel the Rock of Ages the Rock of Salvation But here I must use the help of the Schooles who rightly informe us that when any thing of the Creature is applyed to God it must be via remotionis by way of remotion and via eminentiae by way of transcendent eminency First by way of remotion All defects and blemishes whatsoever are not in the least to be attributed unto him who is absolutely perfect as Heraulds say of Bearings the resemblance must be taken from the best of their properties and not from the worst Is a Rock deformed and of unequall parts God is the first of Beauties as well as of Beings and all his attributes are equally infinite his Justice is of as large extent as his Mercy and his Wisdom as his Power Is a Rock unsensible of the straits of those that fly unto it for succour so is not God who is both a Rock and a Father of Mercies Who can read the expressions of his tenâ—erness and not be affected How shall I give thee up Ephraim how shall I deliver thee Israel how shall I make thee as Admah how shall I set thee as Zeboim mine heart is turned within me my repentings are kindled together Is the strength of a Rock intransient and fixed in it self not communicating its verâ—ue to what lies upon it So is not the strength of Israel who is a living and not a dead Rock and gives both life and power to those that are united to him I can do all things saith holy Paul through Christ strengthning me Is a Rock Barren and can yield no food though it
excellent demeanour of himself at the Bar well-nigh overcomes Agrippa upon the Bench to be a Christian O how careful then should every man be who in what condition soever he stands is a part of the body of humane society to abhor evil and to cleave to that which is good When the effects both of the one and other are not terminated in our selves but do more or less benefit or hurt others as well as our selves Meditation XXIII Vpon a Multiplying Glass WHat a vain and fictitious happiness would that be if a poor man who had only a small piece of money should by the looking upon it through a multiplying Glass please himself in believing that he is now secure from the fears of pressing wants his single piece being suddenly minted into many pounds with which he can readily furnish himself with fuell to warm him cloaths to cover him and food to satisfie him But alas when he puts forth his hand to take a supply from what he beholds he can feel nothing of what he sees and when the Glass is gone that presented him with so much Treasure he can then see nothing but his first pittance which also becomes the less desirable because of the disappointment of his hopes Upon what better foundation doth the felicity of the greatest part of men stand which is not fixed upon any true and spiritual good as its proper Basis but upon the specious semblances of a corrupt and mutable fancy What is it that rich men do not promise themselves who conceive riches to be a strong Tower They think they can laugh at Famine and when others like the poor Egyptians whose Substance is exhausted sell themselves and their children for food they can buy their bread at any rate If Enemies rise up against them they question not but they can purchase a peace or a victory If Sickness come oh how can they please themselves in thinking that their Purse can command the Physicians skill and the Drugsters shops Elixars Cordials Magisterial powders they conceive beforehand will be prescribed both as their dyet and Physick And every avenue of the body at which the disease or death may threaten to enter shall be so fortified as that both of them shall receive an easie and quick repulse Now what are all these representations but the impostures of the glass of fancy which like the colours in the Rainbow have more of shew thaâ— of Entity Doth not Solomon counsel men not to labour â—o be rich And expostulate with them Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not Doth not our Saviour call them deceitful Riches And Paul uncertain Riches What then can they contribute to the real happiness of any man Surely the transient sparks that with much difficulty are forced from the flint may as soon add light to the body of the Sun as Riches can yield any solid comfort to the soul or keep it from lying down in the bed of darkness and sorrow Away then from me ye flattering vanities and gilded nothings of the world get you to the Bats and to the Moles and try what beauteous rayes you can dart into their eyes I will hence no more behold you in the Glass of Fancy but in the Glass of the Word which discovers that ye are alwaies vanity and vexation no objects of trust in the times of strait or price of deliverance in the day of wrath It is methinks observable that four times in Scripture this saying is repeated That Riches and Treasures profit nothing in the day of wrath twice in the Book of Proverbs and then again by two Prophets Ezekiel and Zephaniah Doubtless these holy men knew what an universal proness there is in the minds of most to exalt Riches above Righteousness and to think that by them Heaven might be purchased and the flames of Hell bribed How else could such words ever drop from the mouths of any that they had made a Covenant with Death and were at an agreement with Hell to pass from them But Lord keep me from imagining to save my soul by Merchandize or of entituling my self any other way to the Inheritance of Heaven than by the Bloud of Christ who is my Life my Riches my Rejoycing and sure Confidence Meditation XXIV Vpon Gravity and Levity THe Stoick Philosophy was famous for Paradoxes strange Opinions improbable and besides common conceit for which it was much admired by some and as greatly controuled and taxed by others Howbeit not Stoicisme only but every Art and course of life and learning hath some Paradoxes or other but Christianity hath many more which seem like nothing less than truth and yet are as true as strange What can be more contrary to the Principles and Maxims of Philosophers than to hold that there is a regress from a total privation to an habit It was that which the Epicureans and Stoicks derided in Paul when he preached the Resurrection from the dead and yet Christians build all their happiness and confidence upon it What can seem to carry more of a contradiction in it than that saying of our Saviour He that will lose his life shall find it And yet it is a truth of that importance that whosoever follows not Christs counsell will certainly miss of life What will happily appear more novel and strange than that which I shall now adde by inverting the common Axiom and affirming this as a truth Levia tendunt deorsum gravia sursum Light things fall downwards and heavy ascend upwards The lighter they are the lower they sink and the heavier they are the higher they rise and yet this Riddle hath a truth in it In Scripture the wicked that must fall as low as hell are resembled to things of the greatest Levity as well as vileness Dust Chaff Smoke Fume Scum and the Saints that must ascend as high as Heaven are likened to things of weight as well as worth To Wheat the heaviest of which is the best to Gold which is of Metals the weightiest as well as the richest to Gems and precious Stones that are valued by the number of the Carrats which they weigh as well as by their lustre with which they sparkle Yea God hath his Ballance to weigh men and their actions as well as his Touchstone to try them He is a God of knowledge by whom actions are weighed saith Hannah in her Song And if he find great men a lye and vanity upon the Ballance he will not spare them What a severe Judgment did God execute upon Belshazzar who being weighed and found wanting was in the same night cast out both from his Kingdom and from the Land of the living And what a dreadful Sentence hath Christ foretold shall come from his mouth in the great day against those who have made a vain and empty profession of his Name who are bid to depart from him and go accursed into everlasting fire not for doing evil against his but for not doing of good
shadow of death should ever be passed thorough without any distracting fears without heart breaking sorrows yea with great rejoycings in such tribulations It is true that some there be who like sullen Hawks live upon the frets and bear many of these things out of the stoutness of their stomack and their natural courage But alas this is not to suffer as a Christian who doth not suffer out of obstinacy but out of Conscience who is not supported by his own inherent strength but by the power of God which puts forth its self in such glorious effects oft times as that it makes a greater change in the Prison for the better than ever the vilest Prison can make in the Prisoner for the worse Is it not the presence of the King that makes the Court let the House be never so mean where he resides What then can that place be less than a Pallace where the Presence of God dwells in a special manner He that shall read in the Book of the Revelations of a City or place that had no Temple in it nor had no Sun or Moon to shine in it and then break off would sooner conjecture that he was beginning the description of some forlorn place under the Northern Pole than of the heavenly Jerusalem But when he shall understand that God and the Lamb are the Temple of it and the glory of God and the Lamb are the Eternal Light shining in it he will then say as an awaked Jacob Surely this is none other but the house of God and the place where himself dwelleth Such like thoughts must that man have of a Prison who knows no more of it than what it is in appearance a place of bondage solitude darkness and sore wants but he who hath in this condition once experienced the presence of God in it how differently will he speak of it Have not many of the Saints when shut up in a Dungeon dated their Letters to their Friends from their Pallace from their delectable Orchard from their delicious Paradise Have they not gloried in their bonds as being Gods Freemen though mans Prisoners Have they not in their solitude been ravished with the sweetness of that Communion they have had with God who alone hath been better than a thousand Friends Have they not been filled with hidden Manna in their souls when their bodies have been pinched with the sharpness of Famine Have they not in the midst of their Conflicts cried out If it be thus sweet to suffer for Christ how full of Joy unspeakable will it be to reign with him May I not then say to this timorous Christian as God did once to Israel Fear not to go down into Egypt For I will go down with thee into Egypt and I will surely bring thee up again Fear not to go into a Prison in which God will be with you and out of which he will deliver you with joy and triumph It matters not what your pressures be if God put under his Everlasting Arms or who your Enemies be if he be your Friend or what your sorrows be if he be your Comforter And this I may adde that commonly in the greatest straits he sheweth the greatest love as waters run strongest in the narrowest passages As the sufferings of Christ saith Paul abound in us so our Consolation aboundeth by Christ O therefore say as David did Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear none evil for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff they comfort me Meditation XXXVI Vpon the motion of the Sun on the Dyall IT was the saying of one who was none of the least of the Philosophers to him that asked him what he was born for That it was to contemplate the Sun But though it be not the end of mans breath yet it may well be the object of his thoughts in regard both of its beauty and motion Holy David takes notice of them both in the same Psalm in which he compared the Sun for its Lustre to a Bridegroom coming out of his Chamber cloathed in such shining Array as may draw the eyes of Spectators towards him And for its swiftness to a strong Champion who runs his prescribed course both speedily and unweariedly Tully in his Academicall Questions saith Tanta incitatione fertur ut ejus celeritas quanta sit ne cogitari quidem posset It is whirled about with that vehemency that the greatness of the Suns speed cannot easily be imagined Is it not then a Riddle that at the same time when it travels thousands of miles in the Heavens it should make so slow a motion and progress on the Dyall as not to move above the breadth of an inch or two To the quickest eye its motion is imperceptible and it so moves as we can only say it hath moved not that it doth Now from whence comes this inequality but from the vast disproportion between the Heavens and the Earth the one being but as a Center or small prick to an immense Circumference O how happy and regular also would the lives and actions of men be if after the same manner they were moved to heavenly and earthly objects To the one with a swiftness like to that of the Sun in the Firmament To the other with an insensibleness like to that of the Sun upon the Dyall Surely such a disproportion doth the differing worth and excellency between the one and the other justly challenge in our pursuit of them Is it not meet that he who casts a single glance of his eye to the Creature should bestow a thousand looks on his Saviour And when he creeps to one as a Snail to fly to the other as the Eagle to the Carkass He alone moves to God as much as he ought who moves to him as much as he can and strives to repair the imperfection of that motion with a real dislike and regret of the slowness of his own heart to the best of goods But alass if the rule by which men walk must be thus bounded or dilated according to the object to which they move where shall we find that person that thus proportions the out-goings of his soul in his care desires or industry If the standard and measure of goodness should be taken from the unweariedness of mens travels from the strength of their affections or from the fixed bent of their resolutions to obtain what they design to themselves as their end Who must not then put the Crown of blessedness upon the heâ—d of the Creature which ought to be set at the foot of the Creator Who must not then conclude that it is better building Tabernacles here than seeking a Country which is above Do not men contract their hearts to the things of Heaven and dilate them to what is below Do they not run and pant to the very breathing out of their souls after perishing vanities when they cannot be drawn to set one foot towards spiritual and
themselves a continuance for many yeares In what a differing frame and figure doth it appear to the one and to the other The one behold it as a Bridg lying under their feet to pass them over the Jordan of this life into the Canaan of eternall Blessedness and the other as a Torrent roaring and frighting them with its hasty downfall Gladly therefore would I counsell Christians who enter into the Church Militant by a mysticall death being buried with Christ by Baptisme and cannot pass into the Triumphant but by a Natural death to bear dayly in their Mindes the Cogitations of their inevitable end as the best meanes to allay the fear of death in what dress soever it comes and to make it an inlet into happiness whensoever it comes As Joseph of Arimathea made his Sepulcre in his Garden that in the midst of his delights he might think of death So let us in our Chambers make such Schemes and Representations of Death to our selves as may make it familiar to us in the Emblemes of it and then it will be less gastly when we behold its true visage When we strip our selves of our Garments think That shortly as St. Peter saith we must put off this our Tabernacle I and think again what a likeness there is between our Night-Clothes and our Grave-Clothes between the Bed and the Tombe What a little distance there is between life and death the one being as an Eye open and the other as an Eye shut in the twinkling of an eye we may be living and dead Men. O what ardors of lusâ—s would such thoughts chill and damp what sorrowes for sins past what diligence for time to come to watch against the first stirrings of sin would such thoughts beget It being the property of sin to divert us rather from looking upon our end then embolden us to defie it Lord then make me to know my end and the measure of my dayes that I may in my own Generation serve the will of God and then fall asleep as David did and not as others who fall asleep before they have done their work and put off their Bodies before they have put off their sins Meditation LX. Vpon the Natural Heat and the Radical Moisture THere is a Regiment of Health in the Soul as well as in the Body in the inward Man as well as in the outward Man they being both subjects incident to distempers and that from a defect or excess in those qualities which when duely regulated are the Principle and Basis of life and strength What preserves and maintaines the Natural life but the just temperament of the Radicall Moisture and the innate heat and what again endangers and destroyes it but the heat devouring the moisture or the moisture impairing the heat When either of these prevail against each other diseases do suddenly follow And is it not thus in the Soul and Inward Man In it those two signal Graces of Faith and Repentance do keep up and cherish the Spiritual life of a Christian Faith being like Calor innatus the Natural heat and Repentance like Humidum Radicale the Radical moisture If then any by believing should exercise Repentance less or in Repenting should lessen their Believing they would soon fall into one of those most dangerous extreams either to be swallowed up of Sorrow and despair or else to be puffed up with security and presumption Is it not then matter of Complaint that these two Evangelicall Duties as some Divines have called them which in the practise of Christians should never be separated should be lookt upon by many to oppose rather then to promote each other in their operations Some out of weakness cannot apprehend what consistency there can be between Faith and Repentance whose effects seem to be contrary the one working Peace and Joy the other trouble and sorrow the one Confidence the other fear the one Shame the other boldness Now such as these when touched with the sense of their sin judge it their duty rather to mourn then to believe and to feel the bitterness of sin then to taste the sweetness of a Promise and put away comfort from them least it should check and abate the over-flowings of their sorrow Others again whether out of heedlessness or wilfullness I will not determine when they behold the fullness of Grace in the blotting out of sin the freeness of Grace in the healing of Backslidings they see so little necessity of Repentance as they think it below as they so speak a Gospel Spirit to be troubled for that which Christ hath satisfied for It is not Repentance that they should now exercise but Faith Sorrow seems interpretatively to be a jealousie of the truth of Gods Promise in forgiving and of the sufficiency of Christs Discharge who was the surety who hath not left one single Mite of the Debt for believers to Pay Sorrow therefore seems to them as unseasonable as it would be for a Prisoner to mourn when the Prison door is opened and himself set free from debt and bondage Thus this pair of Graces and duties concerning which I may say as God did of Adam it is not good that either of them should be alone are yet divided often times in the practise though indissolubly linked together in the Precept Fain would I therefore evidence to the weak the concord of these two graces in respect of Comfort and to the wilfull the necessity of them both in order unto Pardon Unto the weak therefore I say That the Agreement between Faith and Repentance doth not lie in the immediate impressions which they make upon the Soul which are in some respects opposite to each other but in the Principle from which they arise which is the same the Grace of Christ and in the end which is the same the salvation of Man and in habitude and subordination that they have one to another for Repentance is never more kindly then when it disposeth us to the exercise and actings of Faith whose comforts of joy Peace and Serenity of heart are as Gold which is best laid upon sad and dark colours or as the Polished Diamond that receiveth an addition of lustre from the watering of it Gods Promise is that the Believing Jewes who look upon Christ by an eye of Faith shall be also great Mourners They shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his onely son and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his first borne Unto the careless or wilfull I also say That God never forgiveth sin but where also he giveth a Penitent and Relenting Heart So that though Faith hath a peculiar nature in the receiving of pardon applying it by way of Instrument which no other grace doth yet Repentance is the express formal qualification that fits for pardon not by way of causality or merit but by way of means as well as of command which ariseth from a Condecency both to God himself who is an holy God and to the nature of the Mercy which is the taking and removing of Sin away Never dream then of such free grace or Gospel mercy as doth supercede a broken and a contrite heart or take off the necessity of sorrowing for sin For Christ did never undertake to satisfie Gods wrath in an absolute and illimited manner but in a well ordered and meet way viz. the way of Faith and Repentance How else should we ever come to taste the bitterness of sin or the sweetness of grace How to prize and esteem the Physician if not sensible of our disease How to adore the love of Christ who redeemed us from the Curse of the Law by being made a Curse for us if not burdened with the weight of our Iniquities Yea how should we ever give God the glory of his Justice in acknowledging our selves worthy of death if we do not in a way of repentance judge our selves as the Apostle bids us Was not this that David did in that solemn Confession of his In which he cries out Against thee thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight that thou mightst be justified when thou speakest and clear when thou judgest Can I therefore wish a better wish to such who are unsensible of their sins than Bernard did to him whom he thought not heedful enough about the judgments of God who writing to him instead of the common Salutation wishing him Salutem plurimam much health said Timorem plurimum much fear that so their confidence may have an allay of trembling Sure I am that it is a mercy that I had need to pray for on my own behalf and I do Lord make it my request that my faith for the pardon of sin may be accompanied with my sorrow for sin and that I may have a weeping eye as well as a believing heart that I may mourn for the evils that I have done against my Saviour as well as rejoyce in the fulness of mercy that he hath shewed to me in a glorious Salvation FINIS