to be destroy'd That is our strongest and most delightful bent of Will being for God and goodness against Sin we sin not out of Love to sin as dntiful Subjects obey their Sovereign out of love to obedience Yet so masterful and imperious are our Corruptions that they will fight against us under their Chains and taking their advantage knock us down and ravish us that according to Rom. 7.18 to the end we sometimes do that we would not or do not that we would our delight being in the Law of God after the inner Man which no unregenerate Man can truly say But the Law in our Members does 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 counterwar and captivate and Sin dwelling in us does overbear our most determinate purposes in some particular Act although for the-main and in the general course of our lives we keep it under alway dislike it are afflicted with it would give Worlds to be rid of it and use God's appointed means for mortifying it that we may gain an absolute Victory Though it may get the better in some slighter skirmishes yet we remain Masters of the Field In brief when Sin has our liking allowance love delight 't is a King when not a Tyrant The former is inconsistent with Sanctification not the latter therefore does not debar our right to Pardon and Peace though it may darken our Evidence and so damp our Comfort But if we enjoy this assurance that God is ours we have Evidence also that Grace is ours Pardon is ours Peace is ours and therefore may solace our selves in its abundance Psal 37.11 As on the contrary antecedently to this assurance there can be no secure and well bottomed although there may be a fallacious and presumptuous Peace For Peace of conscience alway supposes Peace with God and this discovered by some overt act else 't is but a drunken Dream If a Man have no testimony that God is reconciled to him 't is all one in effect as if he were not reconciled The old Maxim must here obtain non esse non apparere tantidem sunt The privilege we enjoy is to us a non-entity the comfort we feel not to us is not My Soul is in woe because I have offended God my trouble cannot must not cease till I know that the offence is past by and forgiven no nor then neither wholly if I be an ingenuous Child I shall be grieved whenever I review the disingenuous baseness of my behaviour toward my heavenly Father although he resolve never to remember it to my prejudice yet with this difference before pardon I shall be afflicted with a tormenting Sorrow the issue of Fear which will at present extinguish and overthrow my comfort but after sense of Remission only with a more generous Compunction and godly Sorrow the fruit of Love consistent with although it something diminish and detract from the fulness and sweetness of my Consolation If I can sit down content under the dishonour I have done and the Provocation I have given unto my affectionate and tender hearted Father I am an unworthy Child nay if I so little and lightly regard his anger as to be in no pain but at ease under it and so affront and undervalue his Love as to be at rest and content without it I am a Rebel not a Child a Devil not a Saint Now let a Messenger be with me one of a thousand to shew my uprightness Job 33.23 24. that I have sincerely observ'd the Conditions of the promise of Pardon and therefore God is gracious to me and saith deliver him from the pit execute not the sentence of Condemnation pronounced by the Law against him I have found a Ransome or Atonement the Satisfaction my Justice hath received at the hands of the Redeemer shall be available for him to all intents and purposes as fully as if he himself in person had given it Mine anger is turned away from him I am at peace with him I have pardoned him If I have good testimony of this it quiets my Heart dispels my Doubts allays my Sorrows satisfies my Conscience replenishes my Soul with Comfort and Peace Hence that sweet reviving Proclamation Isa 40.1 Comfort ye Comfort ye my People saith your God speak ye comfortably Hebr. to the heart to Jerusalem and cry unto her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because her warfare is accomplished 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because her Iniquity is pardoned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because she hath received from the band of the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 two double for all her sins There is an express causal Connexion betwixt these things Proclaim Comfort because 't is thus and thus Here are three Grounds of Comfort and all from your God I begin with the last and lowest which is therefore the Foundation 1. Punishment inflicted to the Satisfaction of Justice She hath received two double She i. e. the Church a Body complex and compounded of Head and Members If not in the Members yet in the Head Christ Jesus she has born the Indignation of the Lord in so full a measure that all the further claims and demands of Justice as to her are sinally silenced as far as they concern the Penalty And 't is not unusual in Scripture for that to be ascribed to the Head Christ Body the Church which is proper to the Body Head and this in consideration of the Mystical Union and Communion betwixt the Head and Members Act 9.4 Saul Saul why persecutest thou me 2 Cor. 1.5 As the sufferings of Christ abound in us so our Consolation aboundeth by Christ Rom. 8.17 if we suffer with him Isa 49.3 And said unto me thou art my Servant O Israel in whom I will be glorified 'T is apparently spoke to and of Christ as the whole Context demonstrates But let the sense be proper and not relative to Christ viz. that the Body the Church had suffered Double i. e. sufficient in the estimate of her tender and compassionate God who is afflicted in all her Afflictions and in the depths of his Love makes aggravating greatning Representations of all the Miseries she groans under as if she had born Punishments truly more than proportionable to her sins yet this implies both an antecedent Compensation made by Christ in vertue whereof God is so wonderfully propitious and candid in his Opinion and Sentiments concerning her Sufferings And also that although these were not a real and full Satisfaction in the nature of the thing yet they were accepted as such and so accounted in the repute and benign Interpretation of her reconciled God who seems as it were repentingly and rueingly to declare this as Jer. 31.20 Hosea 11.8 9. 2. Since there seems to be not only a causal dependance of these three and the Comfort here tendred but also of each upon other that the latter appears to be a ground and reason of the former hence grievous Suffering is alledged as the Motive upon which the Divine Majesty was pleas'd to
Railings Revilings Censures Uncharitableness Cursings Excommunicatings Fines Imprisonments Murderings Massacrings for things extrinsecal and foreign to their holy Profession recommended in the Mosaical Prophetical Evangelical and Apostolical Writings As if God had not delivered Precepts enough to guide Men to Heaven ever Party must have new of its own to torture Mens Consciences doubting that there are not Sins enough to damn Men unless we by our whimsies make large additions to the sum discovering thereby how much we are affraid that those who otherwise would securely tread in the Paths of Life and gain the Crown of Glory should not stumble and fall upon our new created Blocks and thereby precipitate themselves into Hell For what else is the meaning of our unwritten Traditions unwritten Canons unwritten Offices unwritten Orders and an hundred more by the by 's Tricks and Snares and Trains and Traps made to help the Devil more certainly to catch enough Is not the Holy Word of God the Scripture in its Rules and Laws too oft too much too foully-transgress'd but the Mouth of Hell must be gagg'd and rack'd wider with new devices that it may be capacious enough to receive the numberless numbers that we resolve to send thither by man-made Sins as if it were in despite of God And least our self-devised Engins should fail of effecting this and a poor quivering trembling Conscience that looks asquint at them should chance to preserve its Innocence and Allegiance to God and its present Light and Sentiments by sliping out of or breaking through the Snare and refusing to wound it self to eternal Death with the Ponyard we put into its hands we must jog and thrust home and drive on its slow and cautious pendulous Arm by the violence of such severe indispensible Sanctions so strictly look'd after so rigorously executed and all under a bold pretence of Divine Warrant that if Men have any thing of Nature Sense and Commiseration to their own Flesh their dearest Yoke-fellows their pretty tender innocent Babes they must be cruelly enforc'd to determine to be damn'd for them or kill their Hearts by dying before their Eyes under as many Agonies as ingenious Malice can invent and this perhaps a thousand times over beside the bequeathing them to the same or more miserable Fortune and all this is doing God good Service As if the Lord that bought Mens Souls to ease them Matth. 11.29 30. had done it only to sell them again to the most bloody butchering Fiends to torment them And God who with so much severity prohibits Cruelty Murder Bloodshed by his Laws had laid in an exception and given Commission for this to as many as can so divest all sense and bowels of Humanity and Christianity as to judge none to be Men and Christians but themselves and invest so much of Wolf Tyger Dragon as to do the utmost to make all others Proselytes of the Gates of Heil like themselves when in the mean time Men with the greatest impunity may violate the noblest Ordinations of Heaven or upon Prosecuon buy off or commute the Penance for a little Trash and Dirt. Oh dear Lord Jesus how long how long shall such a Spirit Triumph and ride in Scarlet How long shall they tear in pieces thy People and Heritage under the Beasts Skins wherewith they have cloathed them Oh blessed Spouse of Christ How long must thou be affronted with the violence of such beastly Ruffians that under a disguise pretend to be thy-very self that they may the more securely ravish and destroy thee The Wolf in the Lambs skin unsuspectedly to devour it A Beast with Horns like a Lamb but a Voice like a Dragon Rev. 13.11 Well Christ's Servants are not Wolves Thorns and Thistles Matth. 7.15 16. Profitable to none hurtful to all publick Curses But Sheep Vines Fig-trees their Temper their Behaviour their Fruit altogether good meek gentle sweet refreshing reviving pleasing generally useful publick Blessings like their Master every way desirable grateful all being better for them none worse in Goods good Name Body or Soul their Designs their Principles their Temper and Spirit their Behaviour and Purpose and Practice being the general benefit of Mankind and the Church of God especially that wherein their Lines are fallen They think it they represent it they indeavour further to make and preserve it a goodly Heritage If it hold the Head if it uphold the main if its established Doctrine be truly Christian if its design be true goodness if its Worship in the substance be Divine They bless God for it they cover its Blemishes they bear with its Infirmities they further its Ends they endeavour to inlarge it to adorn it with real Beauties to vindicate it from Reproaches to promote its Unity Prosperity Peace Purity Felicity lament its Miseries Breaches Corruptions Defects Deformities but expose it but defame it they dare not they will not This is a truly Catholick Spirit proceeding in all its actings upon truly Catholick Principles This and this only when the risk of Partiality Censoriousness Self-idolizing Faction Fury Barbarousness Madness Devilism is run will stand upon a secure basis and yeild a Man the blessed Fruits of Comfort Joy Peace and Contentation But I must come out of the Clouds and be plain Therefore shall first direct what ought to be owned by a Publick Spirit next what Principles will enable a Man to own what he ought 1. Common Humanity engages to be well wishers to that general Nature which is diffused through all the Species and love that in any Man which I honour in my self All the Butcheries and Barbarities on Earth issue from Mens degeneracy from Humanity into a ferine or diabolical Nature But since I am a Man nothing humane shall be foreign to my Cognisance to my Compassion to my Ear to my Conscience When the Vices of Persons give a check to my Bowels the vertue of the Nature shall retrieve their yearning motions and when I can see nothing in Men to engage I will endeavour to imitate the best of Paterns in taking Arguments from my self I will not so much regard their Conditions as their Capacities and that in all their Possibilities If this Nature be personally joined to God why should not I be joined to it in Affection Shall I tread that Man in the dirt who may shine as a Star in the Firmament of Glory Shall a Companion of Angels and God himself be worse dealt with than a Devil May Heaven receive him and shall not my Heart Is God so unkind to me as to give me an Example of brutishness to my own Nature I must not be worse to him than I would have him to me were our circumstances changed the measures I meet to him shall I receive of God 2. Christianity next both renders a man more meet and lays upon me a further bond to desire endeavour and effect his good The honour of the Name the power of the Thing The famed Mr. Fox could never deny
horrible Combustion of Conscience or at the least Inquietude and Uneasiness of Mind any thing but Satisfaction Joy and Rest Of such Men I say as Gen. 49.6 Oh my Soul come not thou into their Secret unto their Assembly mine Honour be not thou united And now Oh my Soul what is thy Trouble and Sorrow and Anxiety of Mind Or what are thy Desires Cares Delight Joy Contrivances Counsels Activity concern'd about Canst thou feed upon thy sweet Morsels alone and glory in the Affluence of Personal or Domestick Blessings while the Gates of Sion mourn Are any in Affliction imprisoned persecuted for Righteousness sake and wiltest not thou bear a part in their Dolours Remembring those in Bonds as bound with them and them which suffer Adversity as being thy self also in the Body Heb. 13.3 Dost thou not partake of that common Spirit of Goodness Compassion Charity which as good Blood diffuses it self and circulates through all the Members of that one Body ingenerating an universal Fellow-feeling and Care of mutual and general Concerns in all and every one that lives by the Life of the Head in Heaven Art thou weak with the Weak and with the Offended dost thou burn 2 Cor. 11.29 Canst thou bear every ones burthen and so fulfill the Law of Christ and restore those overtaken with Infirmities considering thy self lest thou also be tempted Gal. 6.1 2. See the Apostle prosecuting this Argument fully 1 Cor. 12.12 to 27. If thou be acted by the private strait-lac'd selfish Spirit of the generality who can neither give a jot of ease to themselves under their Personal Straits and Sorrows by a serious Reflection on the Welfare of the Church of God nor will in the least imbitter their Joys with any Considerations of the Afflictions of Joseph suspect thy self to be an Alien from the Life and the Catholick Body of Jesus Christ which subsists by a Vital Union with him What now are the Measures by which thou actest in thy Station and with respect to the Members of Christ If thou espouse and tenaciously adhere to only the Sentiments of some Particular Party or Sect farewel all publick Spiritedness Thou professest a Belief of the Communion of Saints as in one Catholick Church which is indeed an Invisible Thing as are all Objects of Faith in its distinction from Sense Does this Faith work by Love Thou ownest also one Universal Body seen in its parts visible in its whole extent throughout the World actually by the Eyes of its Head seen in its Unity at once and potentially by Man Which is not a Chaos of every thing in confusion but an Organical Body that in diversity of useful comely Members Parts Congregations the least of the denomination Countries and Kingdoms makes up a lovely Community Not a Rope of Sand but a Golden Chain where every very Link has its Beauty Preciousness Connexion Suitableness A Garden enclosed where variety of Walks Beds c. constitute a fair delicious Paradise One Spouse of Christ one Body for one Head Does thy Fancy or Partiality here make Restrictions Can'st thou dar'st thou chop and mangle this Body Tear off a Limb of this Spouse Break the golden Chain for one Link And dote upon these without regard to the rest Can thy Love walk no where but in little Severals and petty Enclosures In this sence I cannot disallow that Saying of a Great Person viz. That the Church of Christ is neither Rome nor a Conventicle There may be some Part of it there but confin'd to either it cannot be exclusively to the rest of the World Art thou a Christian Then must Christianity command the freest Motions of thy Affections the Interest of that thou must and shalt respect honour promote and love not as it is pretended or conceitedly monopolized by any distinct Party but as like the Sun it diffuses its efficiency vertue and influence every where and shines with a lovely radiancy and glory in any Man whatsoever Seest thou one that in the judgment of rational Charity makes Religion his principal Business above all labouring that it may have a prevalent Interest in his Heart Cleave to this Man embrace him in thy most near and intimate Affections be he of what Party soever Dost thou find any diligently searching the Word of God to know him in all his Perfections not meerly for Notion sake but that his inward Soul and outward Conversation may be under the Dominion and Command of what he knows A Man that maintains a high and honourable esteem of the ever blessed Redeemer of the World the only begotten Son of God as the alone Saviour of Mankind taking the greatest care to gain a true and full Understanding of his Excellency Undertaking Offices and Benefits that he may entirely devote himself to him A Man that is daily acquainting himself how much it is his Interest to live under the Conduct of the Holy Ghost and therefore studies his inspired Writings to attain right Apprehensions concerning his Nature Gifts Graces Comforts that he may aspire after them inwardly feel them in their power and accordingly engages his Mind Will Affections Conscience executive Power all within and without him in an universal Subjection to this Holy Trinity in Unity and with a reverend Awefulness minggled with Love demeans himself under the Government of that ever Adoreable Majesty as one that hath present powerful Sensations of its immediate Presence Oversight and perfect Cognizance of the most secret recesses of his Soul A man that understanding his relation to God owns Him pants after Him with insatiable Ardour cleaves unto Him with full purpose of heart in a singular Complacency fears praises glorifies trusts chooses embraces acknowledges Him in all His ways as His chief Good and Happiness and would not willingly displease Him for a World And having with a Holy Religious Veneration observ'd approves of is singularly well pleas'd with that Wonder of all Wonders the Grace of Almighty God revealed by the Gospel in giving His Eternal Son to be the Redeemer of Lost Mankind God in our Flesh manifested in the fulness of time to do and suffer whatever Justice required that our Sins might be pardon'd our Persons accepted sanctified and glorified And Looking unto Jesus doth heartily acquiesce in the Method of Salvation ordain'd by God thro' him intirely yields up himself to him to be and do and suffer whatever he pleases sincerely accepts of him as an All-sufficient Saviour submits to his Government in all things never can be satisfied but is in a restless Agony day and night till he gain some good Evidence that Christ is his and he Christ's spontaneously chearfully with a self-denying humble penitent Heart venturing his All upon him for ever in believing in him hoping for his Sake to obtain the Love and Favour of God in Justification Reconciliation and Eternal Blessedness and therefore deliberately freely with all readiness of mind engages himself to Christ by the Renewal of his Baptismal Covenant with