you need him most so that you shall get more of a suddain by Prayer then you could in all your life before A suffering Christian has his peculiar advantge let him but open his mouth heaven-ward and 't is fild presently let his heart be at his mouth and the holy Ghost wil be at his heart all upon wing and wrapt up in the third Heaven when the body in Hell Long suffering and joy are very neere as neere as night and morning if misery makes the night joy makes the morning and if the night cannot aske for the morning yet the morning will come of it selfe joy comes in the morning If a long sufferer be â—o worne so depressed with his burden that he be not able to pray not able to aske for joy and for comfort yet his joy will be ful 't will come of it selfe as things that are joyn'd together will call in one another long suffering with joyfulnesse Duties are immergent one springs and bubbles out of the belly of another all patience brings forth long suffering long suffering bringes forth joyfulnesse this is Divine Genealogy they are plac'd here by the holy Ghost according to their line as persons so vertues are noted according to their Genealogy Every grace beares patience brings forth long suffering long suffering joy joy brings forth Heaven now the Sun is up in the soule and begets Cardinall vertues glorious graces it makes the very emblem of Heaven in the heart The holy line must not be broken as things have their order in their owne nature so they must have their course in the soule long suffering for truth must bring forth joy and not griefe a Jacob must hold an Esau by the heele joy must embrace rough usage out of the sowerest stock ar't should make sweet fruit come out of long-suffering for Christ joy Duties are innocent graces are so ordained to move as best to speake out mans simplicity and Gods glory long suffering is not to leaven and sowre the soule to make it regurgitate bitterly in the afternone when things have lai'n long in the stomack but it is to give advantage to a Christian fully to speake forth his owne integrity and Gods glory Long suffering with joy is a full expression of mans simplicity and Gods Glory Long suffering in any cause hath its integrity as the heart is free from repining under it which it is when 't is meate and drinke to suffer for Christ joy to beare and to beare long Grace should move in grace that 's long suffering with joy grace should move to a Christians grace and to GODS glory that 's long suffering with joyfulnesse Vse Christians you see your lesson t is set very high can you play it What artists are you in your calling Can you make good Musick upon a bad instrument Can you make an instrument goe well that hath hung long by Can you play wel when the strings be broke When the back when the belly of the instrument is broke Can you sing the songs of Zion in a strange Land Can yee make melody in your spirits when never a whole piece in your flesh some of you it may be have never a peny in your purse scarce any rag to weare no house to put your head in but live upon the meere mercy of friends for giving testimony to Christs cause can yee joy now Christ hath mingled your drinke with weeping can yee drinke off this Cup with joy Suffering is suffering indeed when it goes quite through the man body and spirit body without all joy and soule too A man is plundred indeed when he is plundred in his estate within and without plundred of mony and goods and plunderd of peace and joy too no comfort without nor none within neither Ah Lord here 's a man quite undone indeed her 's a man all over miserable soule and body bleeding can there be any gathering to relieve this man I have heard many complaine that they are quite undone the expression hath cut me to the heart to heare it their faces all over blacknesse not one line drawne similingly You have lost all joyes without why but there are joyes within which the World cannot give nor take have you lost these too did the Cavaleers take away all together mony and plate and Christ too Ah! poore man thou art quite undone indeed certainly the divel was in those Cavaleers I would speake to such from this point which are quite undone which have lost all money and joy too which have many sufferings upon them for Christ but can make no joy out of them Surely I can guesse your paine you are blind you know not who hath strip't you nor when he will returne it againe 'T is impossible for a man to joy under long suffering unlesse a man can looke to the end of it This makes heavy afflictions light long afflictions short to look where they end Our light afflictions which endure but for a moment worke about a farre more exceeding and an eternall weight of glory Long suffering is but a moment when compared with eternity of glory The great Heaven at a distance makes a little Heaven at present a Heaven in hell to that soule which hath it in its eye as these lower Heavens give a great lustre and vigour at a distance to beholders and raise much so doth the Heaven of Heavens 'T is a Heaven to behold Heaven a farre off where ever the body be 't was Canaan to Moses Ab extremis miseriae quies to see Canaan a far off The sight of the end shortens the way suffering is deadly long when a man can see no end when a man is in darknesse and can see no light 't is hard to bring the soule to joy in such darkenesse A man must looke upon affliction from one end to to'ther that would fetch in joy to his soule from suffering At one end of long suffering for truth is a father at the other end a reward which if seen well will make the longest suffering very short and very sweet Can you make no joy out of your long sufferings for truth I can guesse your paine there is something heavier then your temporall losse that lies upon you Surely you have lost your state and found sinne death has a sting death of a mans body yea and death of a mans estate has a sting A little guilt is heavier then a great deale of misery then all the afflictions of this World When bare misery goes over a mans head though never so much hee may well stand under this but when misery clothes it selfe with guilt and goes over a mans head as Iniquity this makes the burthen too heavy to be borne when the apprehension of sinne startes out of misery and stares upon the soule this killes all joy dead and the man is not able to beare up if hee had all the World to comfort him The cause may be good and the man bad 't is hard
at such a place for echo Some things are done so and so to suite and joynt to others The holy Land was divided by Lot immediate providence caryed it there Friendship made no revenue in Canaan Gods own hand cast every man his fortune so big and so good in such a place in the Mountaines or in the vallies with springs or without Divine dispensations are harmonious Heaven comes in no new way to us God gives as he did give Hee did give Canaan with his owne hand so hee gives Heaven Power wrought very immediate to plant our fathers in the holy Land Ioshuah did cast lots and so divided the Land power did worke very immediate to plant persons there so it doth to plant Persons above I goe before to provide a place Iosh 18.10 c. Our Ioshuah assignes our mansion situation building conveyance all done with Christs own hand I goe c. Though power worke without hand yet not without rule not a word spoke nor a worke done by Christ but with scope and look to some rule though sometimes that rule be a great way off as far as Heaven Truth fulfils Types dispensations under each covenant one eccho to another Canaan went by Lot so does Heaven the lot of Saints Dispensations of grace and glory suite Gory is suited to grace in dispensation as grace is suited to glory in fruition as really the same Heaven and Christ come both one way to a Christian by immedate providence grace and glory are wrought both with Gods own hand 'T is the finger of God that turnes the heart towards Heaven and that turnes the heart into Heaven Grace is an inspiration glory is so too there is no remoter agent of either then Gods own spirit A soule and such a soule so happy and so glorious was breathed altogether into Adams nostrils The breath of Gods own mouth makes alive stil and the breath of his owne mouth cast varnish and glory upon that being to maturation 'T is Christ al in al here 't is no otherwise above Christ al in al no lesse makes grace and no more is glory Grace is such an immediation according to such a location glory is such an immediatioÌ„ according to such a translocation Christ is next to and onely with the soule in both Vse If this point were rightly applied to the heart hope would not fall respecting great favours depending providence hath more wayes then one to bring great things to us it can worke with hands and without hands divine power can bring a Heaven to you on its owne shoulders cast a Heaven upon you as a Lot into your lap in a very immediate way beyond all provision or expectation God does most and best for man alone when hee has no toole or no toole considerable in his hand Wee have a Heaven depending but yet a hell betweene us and it and no man can see but one way to it if that way do not hit which we propose we are all undone this is almost every ones vote This point should relieve us in this desperate case respecting our great feares our great hops which are so opposed There are great mountaines before Zerubbabell great hindrances in the way of our great mercies so that we see no likelyhood in an ordinary way how or when our great Heaven desired should arriue with us Let the point in hand support the greatest favours come in the most immediate way of providence heavenly favors come to us as if they did drop out of Heaven The more heavenly and divine the mercies are which wee expect in the more divine and immediate way they 'l descend The stone shall be cut out without hands that shall smite the image of various mixtures and breake it to pieces new Ierusalem comes downe out of Heaven Power will worke in a very immediate way to bring in that new Heaven into the Christian World which now the Christian World is labouring for Yet once more I shake not the earth only Heb. 12.26 but also Heaven God himselfe will after a speciall manner set his own shoulders to shake that rotten heaven of mens inventions and those which set their shoulders to keepe it up and make battery with such Cannon as we are not aware of Not by might nor by power but by my spirit saith the Lord respecting the building of that house which typifyed this Not by might nor power i not by humane strength so much as by his owne power shall the old Heaven be destroyed and the new erected We expect our Heaven too low from men but 't will come from God when it comes As 't is a great favour so ' â—will come in state in the way of sublime favors very sublimely Magicians great heads and divellish wits shall be non-plust by God owne finger and art not by mens wisdome and art Egiptians shall be drownned on a sudden by a stratageme made in Heaven and managed from heaven Iericho shall fall by Faith by making no more or the power of men of Swords and Guns then of Rammes-hornes but magnifying the power of Christ and trusting in that Surely wee are yet too many and too strong to be delivered Christians I would yee were skilled in the way of GOD. GOD keeps his Old way in bestowing great things and yet yee wonder and murmur your folly is your owne affliction and many's more Things of great worth Christ will trust no Messenger with them but bring them himselfe Christ will trust none to bring your Heaven to you neither your Heaven here nor hereafter Men are false they would marre your heaven and bring you an old one in stead of a new one or an old one new patcht up Blessed be he that will bring a new heaven to us all new divine favours in their maturity though every man be trampled under foote and none seene in the worke but God though he trample all men in the dirt and he onely be left alive with the cause in his hand If men would allow God his way they would never be at a losse of Faith so fearefully as they are Yee open one doore and there comes in nothing but your shame yee set open another doore of your owne for Christ to come in at and there also comes in nothing but your folly and shame Ah Lord When will yee looke up and expect Christ from Heaven Do not great things come in a very immediate way to man Hath God tyed himselfe to do every great worke with such and such great meanes as your eye is fixed upon to cast out a Legion of bad spirits with a Legion of good Is not one enough to do it Christ brings an eternall weight of glory upon his owne Shoulders to your doores can he not bring a temporall weight of of glory which is far easier alone Thou art great and dost great things thou art God alone sayth the Psalmist We thinke God is not God nor able to do like a
hee sensibly differs from himselfe in affection Things momentanie are fallen two yea ten in the hundred with him they have lost their price The heart hath sold all for nothing that was all once unto it Gold Dung learning dung all losse and dung stinking earth that way taking The heart thirsts for nothing but him that is all all power all love all holinesse all happinesse Divine power where it workes strong enough to save makes passion divine all passions love joy feare hatred I doubt much what power workes in some mens hearts I see their affections so strong and so hearty to the World and the vanities of it I see passion so impure and so strongly working downward Christ and truth but as a straw when it lies in the way of the mans lust hee leapes over it with ease to satisfy his desire I like not the state of that mans heart Power is leading where t is saving it leades by truth by the heart I am thine save mee Saith the Psalmist Thine that is thine according to truth thine in heart thine in life thine in trust thine in bloud in Christs bloud I leane on none else to save me I leane to none else to guid me Power is killing that is saving sin-killing that is soule-saving The body of death dead the body of death no body no body with a soule with life Selfe-will slaine the will that lives Christs Not I live Christ lives in mee i not my will but Christs will carries and swayes the soule These things have beene said to try you what power and grace of God is in you I shall say a little more in the next place to stir you to acknowledge grace as you finde it and so leave this point and you for this time Divine power workes gradually why as you finde God working in you so acknowledge him Let God have his own to a graine Thine is the Kingdome and power c. Wee are taught this to acknowledge grace in its latitude to the God of all grace The Apostle gives God his owne by weight to a graine which workes in me mightily say's hee If God works in you mightily let him heare of it mightily As yee feele God praise God Make expression from operation and expresse it fully if you can Thus doth Daniel Then Daniel blessed the God of Heaven and said Blessed bee the Name of God for ever and ever for wisdome and might are his I thanke thee and praise thee O God of my Fathers who hast given mee wisdome and might Dan. 2. An excellent spirit and power wrought in Daniel and he acknowledges all to the giver wisdome and might are his How Gods Power and Glory went in the Sanctuary is turned into a Psalme of praise made to eccho to the author The very degree thereof is noted so as I have seene them That I may see thy Power and thy Glory So as I have seene them in the Sanctuary What he did enjoy was thankefully acknowledged what hee would enjoy againe was heartily panted after How you see and feele power and glory go in the ordinances how in your hearts I beseech you acknowledge to Christ let him have the glory of every powerfull working here Wee are men as your selves that our Weapons are mighty t is through God hee does all admire him adore him Heart-smitings heart-embracings kisses secretly or kickings secretly they are the kisses of his lips and the spurnings of his power give him the glory of all How prevailingly Christ hath revealed power in thee what a lust hee hath discovered subdued what an eternall state â—uined hath he repair'd What wounds hee hath healed What inward issues hee hath stayed What bones what broken bones and how many hee hath set and made to rejoyce let him have the glory of all As Christ kisses us we should kisse him Wee should meete our Father with joy Every Revelation of power in the heart 't is your Fathers comming towards you to take you nearer home to himselfe We call power little some Revelations thereof in comparison of others because the Scripture doth so speake of it for our weaknesse sake but this know t is no little power that will stir your hearts t is an arme of the Lord which is no small limbe to whom is the arme of the Lord revealed 't is more then a finger shall God reveale an arme in you and lose it in you Hee made the Sun Moone and Stars praise him saith the Psalmist But that power which hath made Sun and Starrs in your hearts which hath bespangl'd your spirits with various glories should not this much more make matter of praise As power heightens it selfe operando so should wee heighten it verbis elevando As any Revelation hath lesse or more of God in it so it should busie and take up the heart to returne it in thy hand is power and might and in thy hand is to make great c. 1 Chron. 29.1 As Gods hand did worke for David so did Davids heart and tongue worke for God hee turned power into praise and so sent it home againe in state to Heaven But more of his expressions in that place are very observable to this purpose and point I am pressing But who am I saith hee and what is my people that wee should be able to offer so willingly 1 Chron. 29.14 That we should be able and able so willingly here is the very degree of enabling power praisingly noted As high as power sets a lesson of love so high to a crochet it should be sung Doe but consider some poore soules that sit by you which have no power of God stirring in them but lie dead damnably dead and then bee you dead if you can to give thanks for that power which hath quickned and raised you from the dead God will turne grace into our glory hereafter we should turne grace into his glory here FINIS USEFULL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THESE Evill Times COLOSS. 1.11 Strengthened with all might according to his glorious power unto all patience and long suffering wiih joyfulnesse T Is as it ought to be when apprehension makes full and due impression upon affection When the soule workes out for God in desire and Prayer according as it apprehends the neede of him the necessity of his power love or the like for himselfe or others Suitable to what the Apostle apprehended he prayed suitable to what hee judged these would neede of GOD of his Power and might so hee heartily wished to them Apprehension is placed sentinell in the soule by God the actions of it should stirre all It 's a power in man to see at a distance and to give warning to all other powers that the heart may more looke out and worke out according to what is or will be needed God is come within sight of man when apprehensioÌ„ reacheth him According to what of God is in sight so should the soule stir I have heard of thee by the hearing of
pitched upon such a Noble height Christ hath taken it into his Hand to make it so high Strong desires are glimmerings of Sunne-rising I would have no Soule sad that pants after much grace Certainly the Sunne is risen very high in this Soule already 't will be at the Meridian apace Heaven is not farre off that soule which longs to be fit for it When Christ once began to pray Father glorify mee with thine one Selfe with the glory which I had with thee before the World was glory though so great was not farre off When the poore man would believe the spirit of Faith was neare and the next words are Faith and no more words of unbeliefe If thou canst do this if thou canst doe that heard There is no designe to become fit for Heaven like bringing a mans soule into a passion this way Divine passion makes strong compassion Christ does not quench smoaking Flax does hee quench flaming flax Panting to be fit to live in Heaven where so much holinesse is to live in the presence of God who is all holinesse this is flaming Flax. The fire goes as high as Heaven Heaven will open wide to such a Heavenly heart The Soule would have a sute to weare in the Country which will serve at Court a sute on Earth which will become it in Heaven this is flaming Fax Grace is never checked in its groweth by God but embraced most when it ascends highest God meetes a Prodigall and kisses him doth he not meete a deare child which is almost come quite home to his Fathers House and kisse and feast him A Soule that pants to be fit for Heaven is crope up to Heaven doore certainely CHRIST will welcome this Soule and let him into his desire Thou pantest to be made fit for Heaven why thou art fit Who hath made us fit c. These are said to be fit for Heaven by the Apostle and yet pray'd for by him as yet wanting much grace There 's a Fundamentall fitnesse and a complementall fitnesse for Heaven The lowest dram of true grace gives a fundamentall fitnesse for Heaven A weake hand of Faith on Christ will save a man from drowning a sparke of fire will ascend to Heaven as truely as a flame though not so strongly That there is any sparke in the soule to byasse it Heaven-ward wee should blesse God and blow the sparke by Prayer this is the way to have more A complementall fitnesse is when there is a double Testimony that all is ours from Gods spirit and our own when the soule is sealed with this double seale to the day of Redemption When Faith is strong love strong experience much joy much unspeakeable and full of glory then is the soule complementally fit i fully fit for glory This should be striven unto because it makes large entrance but the soule should not torture it selfe that it cannot with any paines yet attaine so high Some have Heaven here such are fit for Heaven in deede as carry Heaven still about with them 't is but out of one Heaven into another with these Others are made fit for Heaven in hell and come as out of hell to heaven and yet this is great mercy too and every poore low grac'd soule should say so Let these things settle weake soules banish bad objections and make your fitnesse for Heaven in that measure which it is your consolation in these miserable times Swords Guns Weapons of Warre may Wound Lame and unfit you for Earth but let this comfort you you are still fit for Heaven Lame Legs cut Armes bleeding bodies and holy soules will goe to Heaven well enough poore blind lame halt are most the guests that come there Christ had bloudy usage from base Wretches as wee have now speares thrust in his sides deepe wounds so deepe as to let out all his bloud and yet not any of his fitnesse for Heaven Should be enough to us all in these bad times that a mansion is prepared for us and we for it where all losse will be turned into gaine where lost Legs and lost Armes and lost estates will meete their right owners againe and glory in over and above FINIS USEFULL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THESE Evill Times COLOSS. 1.12 Giving thankes to the Father who hath made us meete to be partakers of the inheritance of Saints in light TO be partakers of the inheritance c. Thus read 't is interpretation not strict translation yet possibly I may make issue both wayes for your sakes both as you reade it and as 't is to be read in the originall The Text verbatim runs thus fit to a part or portion of a lot of Saints in light 'T is phrased in allusion to Canaan where the people of GOD had their part and portion and this by lot by an immediate providence and by no humane art by the speciall blessing and disposing hand of God and by no merit or means of their own The phrase notes top favors gallant mercies dispensations full of love all love all love to all eternity Doct. The highest mercies are communicable Heaven all that is in Heaven distributive distributive to men like our selves Partakers of the inheritance Love is bountifull shee gives all Participatio sacra est communicatio totius mercy empties her selfe upon her children she empties her pockets she empties closets Cabinets Jewells of price Jewells of glory of eternall glory are given away to her favorites Having given us Christ will hee not with him give us all things Love gives all Christ and all that Christ hath The Apostle argues a maiori ad minus Christ is a greater gift then Heaven and yet he is made communicable and communicable to man to us therefore no marvell that Heaven is Having given us Christ c. Love will make her heart bloud communicable which is more then making heart Jewells communicable Christs giving of himselfe is more then giving any thing without himselfe more then the giving of Heaven and Earth to man Heaven is not noted in Scripture as the height of Christs love but himselfe what himselfe is and what he puts himselfe unto His owne selfe bare our sinnes on his body c. 1 Peter 2.24 And to be with Christ is best of all 'T is not sayd to be in heaven is best of all Abrahams bosome is but alluding to the felicity that is where Christ unbosomes himselfe to Saints The accent of love is fastened upon Christ himselfe and not upon any thing else Christ himselfe is still noted as a greater communication of love then Heaven or Earth or any thing besides him Love opens her purse to her beloved yea she opens her bosome and sets her beloved there Heaven is in Christs bosome Communicatio sacra est ad demōstrandum-Communicantem and Christ opens this to his he makes this communicable Partakers of the inheritance c. Sacred Communication is to make suitable demonstration of infinite love Great love is not