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
Faith is that which fixes the heart upon things eternal and holdeth it as by an anchor when in the world there can be no fixation but because of the raribility of the objects thereof and the instability of the subject viz. The mind of the natural man all is fast and loose and nothing can be trusted in But faith trusteth in the Lord because it knows the faithfulness of his promises Isa 7.9 Except you believe you can not be established Faith is that which inables us to walk with God because it believeth in and trusteth to his alsufficiency bounty and goodness and dependeth upon them casting its care upon God so that it makes the conversation of a believer to be without covetousness Heb. 13.5 Because he hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee This holy dependancy upon God David expresseth Psal 63. With the benefits he received thereby in these words My soul hangeth on thee thy right hand also shall uphold me They that seek the hurt of my soul they shall go under the earth but he would rejoyce in God Faith is that which gives the soul an interest in God and in Christ Jesus from whence flows all true comfort that the soul can desire and reciprocally it gives God an interest in us that we should be wholly his both soul and body living and dying As to the interest of God in us 't is said Psal 119.94 I am thine and in divers other Psalmes O save thy Servant and by the Apostle Whether we live therefore or dye we are the Lords David makes use of this interest of God in him as an argument for him to hear his prayers and deliver and succour him in his need but they seem more doubtful when they make use of Gods interest in them than when they make use of their interest in God for then they are high in their confidence and faith in God Psal 35. I trusted in thee for I said thou art my God And Psal 18. I will love thee O Lord my strength The Lord is my stony rock and my defence my Saviour my God and my might in whom I will trust my buckler the horne also of my salvation and my refuge 2. v. I will call upon the Lord which is worthy to be praised so shall I be safe from my enemies 3. v. The sorrows of death compassed me and the overflowings of ungodliness made me afraid 4. v. The paines of hell came about me the snares of death overtook me In my trouble I will call upon the Lord and complain unto my God so shall he hear my voice c. Psal 63. I will rejoyce in God my strength The assurance of our interest in God inables us to lay hold on every promise and every priviledg of the Servants of God and to challenge God upon his word with confidence as it is expressed in Psal 119.59 Remember thy word unto thy Servant wherein thou hast caused me to put my trust He looks upon his faith in the promise as that which obliged God to the performance and God looks upon it so too as it is said Psal 91.14 Because he hath set his love upon me I will deliver him c. Dan. 6. No hurt was found upon Daniel because he believed in God 2 Chron. 1.13 18. The children of Israel prevailed because they trusted and relied upon the Lord Psal 37.40 He shall deliver them from the ungodly because they put their trust in him Therefore our Blessed Saviour prayed for his Disciples faith that it might not fail when Satan desired to Winow them as wheat is Winnowed Could Satans fiery darts have been quenched and he baffled by this reply I believe as the Church believes as some pretend this had been easy for them to have said and so quitted themselves of all his winnowing or had they not so much faith as to say so or not so much cunning as they that teach us that but if it did not profit the Jews to say that they were Abrahams children and not bastards no more will it profit us to say we believe as the Church believe or as Abraham believed unless we do the works of Abraham and can shew our faith by our works for they are of the Devil that do his works And which of all the promises do they mean or which threatnings which precept or which commandment or word of the Gospel of eternal life and if they mean all these yet by referring to anothers belief they confess there own ignorance and imply that they are not able to give an accompt of their faith nor know what it is that they believe and how then can they believe for they cannot believe in him of whom they have not heard therefore their belief is a lye and they infidels but he to whom they make this answer must be supposed to know the belief of the Church and their pretended belief better than they and so it is because they are not permitted the reading of that Gospel whereof they pretend belief This saying of these deceivers came from the same Minerva as that saying of Claudius Caesar did and is the parallel of it speaking of a certain business he pronounced gravely as if he had read it in a book That he was of the same opinion with them who had offered true things The words in the Author are Secundum eos se sentire qui vera proposuissent Suetonius It followeth ibid. Propter quae usque eo eviluit ut passim ut propalam contemptui esset c. And I can see no reason why the asserters and upholders of this silly saying which they so magnify and affect should not fall into a parity of contempt for so doing But that sandy foundation of theirs That ignorance is the Mother of Devotion and 't is true of their devotion can bear no other superstructure than ignorance of the faith and ignorance of the Scripture nor can it otherwise be supported but life eternal consists in knowledg and Prov. 13.16 Every prudent man dealeth in knowledg But whenever subtilty craft is requisite there they use it and where ignorance is helpful to their designs there that is appiled I can compare them to nothing more fitly than to briars which take root and grow at both their ends and whereever they lay hold of the silly sheep they tear off the fleece But that faith which makes us the Sons of God and gives life eternal must be more knowing and be able to give an account of it self viz. To know God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent according to the promises of illumination They shall all know c. And knowing him must receive him and believe in his name as in John 1.12 To as many as received him to them he gave power to become the Sons of God to them that believe in his name The object of faith which is said to be the evidence of things not seen generally is God and the truth of
let the Children of Life learn this Wisdom of the Children of the World for our most wise Authour of our Salvation hath taught them so to do Do thou fly sin as they fly poverty and shame seek understanding and the knowledge of God as the World seek Silver and search for her as they search for hid Treasures Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God Prov. 2.4 5. Let it not suffice thee to seek him by night in thy bed whom thy Soul desireth But rise and go about the City enquire for him of the Watchmen and of all that can probably make any discoveries of him charge them if they find him to manisest him to thee cry after knowledge lift up thy voice for anderstauding as well in thy private prayers to God as in thy eager pursuit after it in such places as it is to be found in Where thou sowest sparingly thou dost make expectation of reaping sparingly or else thou may'st be ashamed of thy sparing But a far more sordid and shameful thing it is to be sparing of thy cost and pains when thou sowest for Glory Immortality and Eternal Life and hast God and Jesus Christ engaged for thy satisfaction Thou needest not to fear to part with all thou hast to purchase this precious Pearl that is invaluable the Kingdom of Heaven and the Crown of Righteousness that never fadeth since there is no hazard of spoliation nor any of Anticipation or prevention or for uncertainty as St. Paul argues on his own behalf touching his running fighting and striving for all that use the same means must attain it certainly Be zealous against sin as he was that vexed his Soul with the unclean conversation of the wicked but beware of zeal for God against God such as Pauls was before his conversion If every vertuous action affordeth satisfaction to him that atchieveth it then the more strenuous he is in doing it the more perfect it will be and the more satisfaction it will yield Lord let this cure the Green-sickness of my Soul Meditat. Psal 34.4 I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me out of all my sear A preparatory Ejaculation Lord if Christ Jesus our head thy dear Son suffer with us then deliver us we beseech thee for Christ's sake for why should he be afflicted A Prayer In extremity of sickness and peril of Death O thou that art the Father of the fatherless the comfort of the comfortless the helper in all needs the healer of all sickness the succourer in all wants the ease in all pains the calm in all storms the composer of all perturbations the asswager of all grief the deliverer from all dangers the refuge from all fears stand by me now and save me as thou hast promised and let me see Heaven opened to receive me and the Angels ready to convey my Soul into Abraham's bosom And thou blessed Jesus who art mighty to save and hast finished the work of our Redemption alone and subdued all our enemies draw nigh to us in the time of our sickness when Man's help is vain when our bodily pains are so many and great in every part of our body that no part can relieve the other The mind being altogether unable to fix upon any inward solace whereby to sustain and bear up it self put forth thy Almighty power to succour me be my comforter and conquer death for me and keep away Satan and all his Temptations A Meditation upon peril of Death If Croesus when taken prisoner by Cyprus and sentenced to be burned upon the instant when he expected his execution was exceedingly rejoyced by calling to mind the wise sayings of Solon and was willing to die Shall not I much more rejoyce in death and be willing to change this unconstant transitory life for the joyes of Heaven when I call to mind the comfortable words of my Saviour and the never-fading joy which he hath assured me of in the world to come Med. 2. LORD I have had such a great delight in the sweet conversation of some of thy Saints and Servants departed this life that I have desired to be dissolved that I might be with them shall I not much more desire to be dissolved to be with Christ the Lord whose sweetness infinitely surpasseth the Sons of men Meditations in my sickness Med. 1. Dost thou pass the tedious nights of thy sickness in restlesness and Dolours Let it not greatly trouble thee if thou spendest those restless hours in holy Meditation for those Meditations are a sweet savour to God and service wherein he delighteth and God draweth nigh to thee to instruct and teach thee in his ways and thou drawest nigh to God to learn his righteous Judgements and to delight thy Soul in him And better it is that thou shouldest want thy rest than God to be without such services or thou without thy Spiritual comfort Med 2. As every step of our journy to Heaven is beset with Temptation so it is with tribulation of necessary consequence therefore expect it and not halcion days of tranquility the expectation of them will make them more easy to be born Med. 3. If thy temporal losses are the cause of inward and spiritual gaines and improvements to thee in thy graces and thou hast found them so formerly then are they still no cause of grief And do thou O Lord make thy Servant amends for the want of temporal comforts with the affluence of Spiritual Med. 4. If the time of sickness or Affliction be the time and season of the comforts of the comforts of the Holy Ghost and not prospetiry This is to be chosen and embraced rather than that Moses made this choice And thy allurements to the contrary cannot be compared to his which he dispised Med. 5. All Afflictions are either from God or for God if from God they are the chastisements of a merciful Father for our good if for God they are our glory Philip. 1.29 For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe in him but also to suffer for his sake Consider then that they work for us not against us and what they work for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 4.17 No Tongue can express the greatness of the eternal glory which they work for us nor any hyperbole upon hyperbole for being borne with love and child like submission they endear us more to God and kindle and inflame his love towards us Consider them in themselves they are but light and for a moment for before v. 8. He saith We are troubled on every side perplexed v. 9. Persecuted cast down yet neither distressed nor in dispare nor forsaken nor destroyed which words fully express both their heaviness and their lightness and concludes with their lightness And he makes a double end or final cause of these Afflictions grace and glory for in the next verse v. 10. He saith Always bearing about in our