purposes but by his promises The impulsive cause of Gods making promises was his love the meriting cause Christ They are purging healing raising up only as Christ is folded up in them The promises are the plaisters upon which the blood of Christ is spread the blood of Christ gives virtue to the promise They are all made in Christ and performed in Christ purchased by his blood and executed by his power The Saints are therefore heirs of promise because members of Jesus Christ Promises have a being because of Christ After the breach of the first Covenant God had never declared his good will to man in a second Covenant but for the sake of Jesus Christ and it is by our being in him that wee lay claim to those promises All promises are made for him and in him unto us so far as we are incorporated into him and are members of Jesus Christ All the promises are yea and amen in Christ Thy interest in one promise is worth all thy interests Gods promises which could not bee too dearly bought yet they are freely given Gods promises are free in respect of the making of them yet they are conditional in respect of the performance of them The promises are tendered without exception but not without condition Though they are made out of free mercy yet they are performed in relation to our subservient duty God never promised life absolutely but upon condition In the first Covenant Do and live In the second Covenant Believe and live Now faith is so poor a condition as puts no worth in us to receive and therefore justified freely of his grace You are saved of grace but through faith and it is therefore of faith that it might bee of grace If God made a promise to thee when thou wast wallowing in thy blood then certainly God will make it good By promising God hath made himself a debtor to himself God hath made promises of pardon consider not thy own weaknes so much as the strength of Gods promise look not to thy unworthiness but upon the truth worth and excellency of the promise GOds outward proceedings of providence do sometimes seem to contradict the truth of his promises Gods promises speak healing when Gods providences seem to speak trouble yet the position holds true that it is Gods purpose under all the pressures and troubles of his Church to deliver them There are two things that may bee written upon the Church of Christ Holiness and Victory Whatsoever the difference is betwixt the enemies of the Church and the Church Christs party shall overcome This should make us live by faith and not by sense If you look upon things necessary or contingent in both these providence rules There is a special providence over every hair of a childe of God all his hairs are numbred If a hair cannot fall from the head without providence the head shall not fall from the body without providence Troubles are the issues of neglected providences Labour to relieve thy self in thy greatest straights in Covenant-promises Hard throws have been made advantages to the birth of sweet mercies Though trouble may bee thy condition yet rest shall bee thy portion Though affliction may bee thy exercise yet deliverance shall bee thy inheritance providence orders all actions and agents to her own end Actions may move very strangely in our view and yet very orderly to the greatest good as their supernatural end Give not way then to sinkings and despondencies of spirit in any trouble in the lowest conditions and greatest sufferings there is yet ground of hope When vain is the hope of man then comes the salvation of God When the morning is darkest then comes the day When troubles are at the highest then deliverance is at the nearest Things wonderful to us are yet easie with God marvellous in our eyes and yet familiar with him Awaken thy heart to pray Nothing shall bee too hard for him to do whose heart God carries forth and holds up to beleeve and pray unto him Nothing hath been done without it nothing can bee done against it Providence GOds Providence is an act of infinite power and wisdome whereby hee preserves and governs all things in order to his glorious Mercy and Justice Gods will being immutable in its determination his Providence must needs bee infallible in its administrations Gods Providence is not limited by means therefore trust Providence when you see no means Let nothing puzzle you that doth not puzzle God When God makes use of means it is not from the deficiency of his Power but from the riches of his Goodness To establish the means and deny the providence of God determining the end is a part of Atheism to establish the providence of God determining the end and despise the means is great prophaneness Use means yet withall trust and attend Gods providence for the obtaining of the end True faith sets God highest in means sees God out of means and waits upon him in the opposition of means Endeavours are appointed by God not to alter his will but perform it and in what wee obtain not our desires wee testifie our obedience Use means as if there wereno God trust in God as if there were no means Bee not over-perswaded of particular means The water-man thinks his boat will save him but perhaps it is a twig To neglect helps is to tempt God to trust in them when we have them is to commit Idolatry with them WHen you come to pray look to what God hath promised and in prayer look into the promise When you pray labour to avoid two things calling upon God in your own strength and expecting an answer from God in your own worth You may direct your prayer to Father Son and holy Spirit but not as one separated from the other When you go to pray you give God a visit frequency of worship doth maintain a respect between God and you It is then very seasonable to attend upon and apply our selves to the work or duty of prayer when the working or grace of the Holy Ghost doth beget a disposition in us to pray When grace doth offer a seasonableness to pray you shall find it affords a sufficiency of strength for prayer Seasons of grace last not alwaies it is not at our command to have the Spirit of God moving in us when you know the motions of the Spirit act accordingly to them Keep heavenly things as thou wouldest keep heaven it self Strive for spiritual life A dead man and a dying Christian are two sad sights A dead prayer leaves a dead Spirit behinde it A dull Spirit is the fruit of a dead prayer A dead heart argues a dying soul God is coming into that soul with comfort who is mighty in duty Consolation and supplication go together When wee do our present duty God will not remember our former sin Pray unto God for a better praying heart there will nothing prevail with God if prayer will not The
worship All things that I command you in matters of practise and in matters of worship that do and no more You must worship God with your will oh but take heed of Will worship When the heart goes not along with the duty that is hypocrisie when the heart is not stirred up in the duty to lively and vigorous acts that is formality As God will have the heart in prayer so in hearing hee is a Spirit and hee will bee worshipped in Truth The Lord whose Name is Jealous is a jealous God Take heed of the false worship of the heart if thou are not guilty of Idolatry thou mayest bee guilty of Hypocrisie Take heed of the Idolatry of the heart Bee spiritual in what you do A jealous eye is a watchful eye When ever you come to worship look to your thoughts Look to your conceptions of God when you worship how you represent God in worship There is as much danger of imaginations within as there is of Images without That which makes us successeless in duty is undue thoughts of God Make spiritual growth the end of coming to the word That Spirit that sayes Hear my Law sayes My Son forget not my Law A holy life is the infusion of holy truth Truth shall never dye who ever dye or live Charge thy self with that which is the end of the word that is Live well ASk thy heart every night what hath been thy darling to day who hath been most in thy thoughts to day The actions of mens lives are the wayes of their thoughts Secret thoughts will ingender gross transgressions secret sins will bring to open shame if you do not shame your self before God for them Sins of act are like arrows that flye by day Sins of thought are the pestilence that lurks in darkness It is not what thoughts are injected into thee but what thoughts are maintained by thee Thoughts are sins of the highest part of a man for they are the sins of his heart Thoughts are the first-born of original corruption if it bee the first born it must needs bee the strongest as Jacob said to Ruben A man many times doth not what hee would but hee alwaies thinks as hee will If thy heart bee heavenly thy thoughts will bee holy God thinks on you when you forget him If God should withdraw his thoughts from us as we do ours from him what would become of us Think on that Thoughts are called the counsels of a mans heart if thy thoughts bee not counselled thoughts such as thou dost determine to think on they are not good thoughts The souls part of fin is the greatest part of sin therefore thoughts are the greatest part of sin yet sins in deed are in regard of progress the worse because thoughts are included in them This is that which undoes many a man let it not bee thy undoing to have good thoughts of God and good thoughts of themselves too THere is no soul hath more high thoughts of God than that soul that hath low thoughts of it self The foul that lives lowest hath the highest objects before it The lower the soul lyes the higher the things are it aims at The lower the ebbe the higher the tyde The lower the foundation of vertue is laid the higher shall the roof of glory bee overlaid They that are risen with Christ that seek the power of Christ risen seek things above An humble spirit may bee busied in low things but not taken up with them If Saints bee sad it is because they are too busie here below The more low wee are the more comfort wee have of God When wee are nothing in our own eyes then are wee something in Gods If thou wouldest bee all in God learn to empty thy self not by taking notice so much of thy graces as thy wants The more wee can empty our selves the more wee shall bee filled with God A Christians emptiness is his fulness and his fulness is his emptiness God is in that man that is not in himself If I will bee any thing in my self as of my self I must look to bee no creature of Gods making Whatsoever a Christian is for grace or glory it is out of himself hee hath nothing in himself as of himself all that hee hath hee hath in Christ Wee altogether shine in the beams of our husband Follow Christs example his whole life and death was an absolute denial of himself It unburdens a man of himself this self-denial If a man le ts go his fleshh ec shall advance his spirit A self-seeker is a clod of earth that sucks the sap of his soul onely to himself Deny thy self wholly if there bee not thorow self-denial ere long there will bee God-denial Whosoever is not poor in himself hee will never go our of himself for hee hath some other supply Those that have full conceits of themselves can never thirst after Christ When man makes an Idol of self hee wants now and then some to come and worship him Those that have least knowledge of themselves are apt to dote on themselves Hee that knows himself best loves himself least Those that have most light have lowest thoughts they trust not to the grace in their own hearts but to the grace in the Covenant Pride is a conceit of self-sufficiency THou canst never act freely and cheerfully in Gods wayes until the divine nature bee communicated Where divine power works not creatingly it works not relievingly hence it is that one that is not a Christian in deed holds not out alwayes to bee a Christian in shew As vital principles and spiritual habits are infused by God so they owe their permanency and stability to God It is his work to perfect holiness in his fear The judgement of sense ought to bee regulated by reason and the judgement of reason ought to bee corrected by faith Though I must not nor cannot give a reason of every thing I beleeve yet I must give a reason of my faith There is the life of faith the living of faith and the liveliness of faith the first is the habit the second is the act the third is the grace Faith doth not justifie as a grace in us or as a work not as an active condition contributing any thing to its own worth but as a passive condition or qualification whereby wee receive Jesus Christ the Lord and it is for his merits and not for our faith though by our faith wee are justified It is the application of Christs righteousness not our apprehending it By faith alone wee are justified but the faith by which wee are justified is not alone As wee cannot get it of our selves so wee cannot act it of our selves Faith is not our righteousness yet it makes the righteousness of Christ to bee ours Abraham beleeved and it was imputed to him for righteousness Christ in our nature hath fulfilled all righteousness this God hath promised shall bee ours for justification now faith closes with this
the means of grace are given up to grace hence it is that a gracious person will ask How doth this stand with grace Grace is either getting or losing No man can decay in good but by some thing that is bad It is alwaies some sinful evill that makes us to wither in spiritual good It would bee a wonder to see a man dying in grace and not withall living in sin If that which should keep down sin bee kept down by sinning how exceeding sinful maist thou bee When wee bee less good we shall alwaies do the less good and the more ill You will finde much ado to do a little good Graces are given not onely to make us good but to make us to do good Grace as it is in man is but a creature and would fail him for the Angels and Adam had the perfect habits of grace and yet fell therefore beg of God continual assistance and supply for the acting of thy grace Grace which is meat and drink to a holy heart is but physick to a formal soul If thy grace bee true grace it will drive thee out of thy self by making thee more humble and draw thee unto Christ by making thee more thankful If God hath called thee to grace bee not discouraged though thou hast never so little Calling is from God therefore the called should be for God Doth God call then all the holiness within us is matter of humiliation to us Not onely sin but grace should make us humble Your-sins should make you humble because they are your own your grace should make you humble because it is none of your own It is a hard thing to get grace and it is as hard when wee have it to get above it Live unto grace not thy own but the grace of God Grace brings glory to you and grace requires glory from you When all is received from the grace of God return all back again to the glory of God What wee receive from God in a way of mercy wee must return to God in a way of duty God returns our duties wee are to return his mercies Our mercies are sure in Gods hands There is a time when mercy flows in and there is a time when mercy flows off Be it winter or summer bee it sickness or heath bee it riches or poverty in the want of mercy as well as in the injoyment of mercy in all things give thanks The condition of the Saints in this life is like the daies in the yeer sometimes cloudy and full of storms sometimes fair and full of comfort The soul lives in the injoyment of God and dies without him nothing can make up the loss of God Beware of making up a lost God with other things Aholy discontent in other things without God is the readiest way to get God again In the absence of God take no delight in any thing below God in any thing in the world It is better to honour God in thy greatest misery than to dishonour him in thy greatest happiness Keep up thy heart in holy imployments trust in the Lord in times of darkness Serve an angry God with all sincerity as a reconciled God when hee hides his face labour to see his heart What ever those reasonings bee that would keep thee from God say Get thee behinde mee Satan Trusting in God in the midst of all discouragements to heaven is a noble act of faith Would you see God in the way of his distressing dispensations then labour to cease from self and walk by faith Faith doth enable the soul to eye the present design of God under the variety of those difficulties his people are in Faith knows how to improve past experiences in order to present help and relief Gods immutability is the foundation of the Saints safety God to the Father by prayer that you may go to the Son by faith God will have his people walk before him not by sense but by faith Though God sometimes withdraws from his people yet his heart is still towards them Though God doth withdraw from his people yet hee doth never utterly forsake them It is a discovery of a new Covenant-frame of heart when wee can trust God in difficult dark providences Though sometimes God hides his face from his people hee never sets his face against them In times of affliction it is the property of a good childe to love God most in times of speaking peace to fear God most and his goodness to fear to offend him for his goodness sake God is angry with wicked mens sins but he is grieved for yours To grieve God is more than to provoke God therefore when thou art tempted labour to renew those thoughts which thou hadst of thy sin at that time when thou wast suing for peace when thou wouldest have given a world for Gods favour GOd hates and abominates the services of wicked men as bad as their sins Conscience sees a necessity of duty and then starts a resolution In thy resolution look not so much what terminates and bounds it as what bottomes it Wicked and ungodly men do not come to serve God but come to serve their turns upon God No punishment no prayer As God is pressed down with the sins of wicked men so with their sacrifices To obey is better than sacrifice but to sacrifice and not to obey is worse than Witchcraft God will damn wicked men as much for their sacrifices as for their sins Hee will sacrifize them in hell for their sacrificing here upon earth God doth abominate their persons therefore hee must needs abominate their prayers In the first Covenant the person was accepted for the works sake in the second Covenant the work is accepted for the persons sake God doth not bid a man welcome for his gifts but hee bids the gifts welcome for the man Wicked men make their sacrifices their saviours Wicked men do as beggers do in want give mee now and I will never ask more Duties in themselves are good but as they are thy duties they are sinful So long as our duties grow upon the bitter root of corrupt nature they are bitter but remove them into Christ Jesus and they shall bee sweet and acceptable The prayer the desire the breath of an upright soul is Gods delight CHrist is alwaies readiest to help his people when they are in most danger Righteousness is called a Breast-plate not ours but Christs the best way then is to shelter our selves in Christ When there is a storm abroad you shall finde them all secure that have security in Christ Take Tower in Christ as soon as possible there is no security in any other strength or Tower The name of the Lord is the godly mans Tower and the wicked mans Terror A wicked man goes unto it as a shelter in trouble and counts it a prison in peace A godly man runs into it and counts it a sweet thing to bee housed in a storm If thou beest Christs in a
heart is then most fit to pour out a prayer to God when it is lowest in the apprehensions of misery When you hear David praying for mercy it is a sign he is in misery There is no want so great but prayer will help Prayer is the most efficacious Engine a man can work by for what is in the power of God the same is in man by prayer Prayer is a calling upon God Prayer AS Christs prayer was not so ours must not be a bare manifestation of our mindes unto God but a holy arguing with God No natural man can pray he is muzzled You may be able to word it in prayer but you cannot have a prayer in the sight of God as well as in the sight of man without the Spirit of prayer Do not judge of your having the Spirit of prayer by your freedome of utterance in prayer by your constant performance of prayer nor by your extraordinary inlargements under prayer but by the inward reaching of your heart after God It is the panting soul that is the praying soul Watch unto prayer not onely to keep off drowsiness but to eye providence To pray and do nothing else is in effect to do nothing less Let not your practice bee a confutation of your prayers lest the day of supplication prove a day of provocation Remember this If you regard iniquity in your heart God will not hear your prayers Then is a good prayer when God doth not onely confirm thy hopes in prayer but conform thy life to prayer In duties wee can do nothing with God as they are our duties but God will do something in us If stoln waters bee sweet to wicked men begged meat is much more sweet to godly men Wee are too ready after wee have done well to lye down and catch cold When wee have pleased the Lord in lawful duties to please our selves in unlawful liberties ASk thy self often what sin have I left It is not the converting but the converted sinner that is the true penitent All that are converted shall bee saved but all that shall bee saved are not converted Hee that confesseth his sin and turns to it again repents of his repentance Hee that repents provides for after repentings God gives heaven to a man that is fit for heaven there is no aptness in a sinner for heaven that repenteth not Repentance REpentance is an universal turning from all sin even unto God Though repentance and turning from sin doth not deserve heaven yet it fits us for mercy and pardon It is against the Justice of God to give pardon without repentance though repentance doth not profit God yet repentance pleaseth God Such as are kinde and merciful to their sins that love not their sins should bee spoken against never repented Health and freedome from sickness is a great mercy pardon of sin is a greater for this is the ground of the other Take heed of sinning lest you teach God to punish you When you see a man sinning at a high rate do not sensure him but say Why am I so low in grace To delight in mens sins is the sport of Devils Recovery from those sins is the joy of Angels The eye of the Lord is more upon the root of sin than upon the act of sin Nature makes a soul sensible of the act of sin the Spirit of the root of sin Nature presents to us the painfulness of sin the Spirit the sinfulness of sin Nature makes sensible of gross sins the Spirit of the least sin as well as the greatest The Spirit teaches to measure every sin by the greatness of God and so no sin is little If you would keep from the act of sin avoid the occasion of sin They that confess and forsake not are onely dog-sick when they have disgorged their stomachs they will return to their vomit Every sin a beleever commits deserves damnation but no sin shall condemn but the living and continuing in it As it is not the falling into the water that drowns but lying in it so it is not the falling into sin that damns but dying in it Neither good nor bad at the last day shall bee judged by every one of his actions but by all not according to his steps but according to his wayes There will bee every dayes pollution let there bee every dayes purifying The Devil will bee at his work bee you at your work To him that knoweth to do good and doth it not to him it is sin It is not the body that sins it is the soul that sins A Christian should alwayes have this care that the iniquity of his hands may bee cleansed and the filthiness of his heart purged The Spirit of God loves clean hands and the holiness of God loves a pure heart To bee alwayes suffering and never repenting is the property of infernal spirits Wise men that set themselves against God they very wittily go to hell Could you but think what bitter pains your sweet sins will cost you would bee provident you durst not but bee innocent Sin drives a man from himself and from God Conversion it brings a man to himself and unto God when the Prodigal was come to himself hee returned to his Father Wee never go below our selves but when wee sin Wee do not go below our selves when wee suffer Holiness hath a silent excellency in it Sin hath a secret deformity No person in the world that sin doth so much defile as a childe of God and no person in the world that sin doth so ill with as a childe of God It is a spotting time let the Saints take heed The eclipse of the Sun is more observed than the shining of the Sun Sin becomes no man more ill becomes a wise man Finde out your sins before Gods judgements find you out It is good to bee beforehand with God If you are inclined to intemperance take heed of ill company When drunkenness sayes Come say No I have got a new acquaintance Wee must consider our own wayes before wee can turn our feet to Gods testimonies The house of God is the worst place to sin in The Lord is in the middest of his people there must bee no hypocrite there The City where God dwells must bee a holy City and the Mountain a holy Mountain Holiness becommeth thy house O Lord for ever There is nothing that the Law can call sin but the Gospel can pardon Do your sins reach as high as Heaven Christ is above them Christ hath as much compassion as thou hast iniquity Christ is sensible of a sinners condition every sin-labouring soul is a welcome guest to Christ But remember this sin cannot bee killed without the death of Christ nor mortified without the Spirit of Christ Conversion is your first work then mortification However Christ makes intercession in heaven for his own people hee doth not speak a word for the wicked AS the thread followeth the needle so death followeth sin Man had never fallen
time of peace hee will bee thy Tower in a time of trouble Those that are under the government of Christ are sure to bee provided for by Christ Unto whom Christ is a King to rule them he is a strong tower to secure them Christs power is beyond the distresses of his people Our difficult work is Christs work If thou wouldest not fear temporal judgements when they come strengthen thy faith and bee much in prayer before they come As faith gets up so fear gets down the strength of fear is from weakness of faith All our spiritual swouns come from unbelief The way for a Christian not to act his fear is to act his faith The creature is not much to bee feared You cannot fear man too much but you fear God too little The main sin that brings destruction upon men is trusting to men and not to God Fear addes much to our vexation nothing to our safety When fear prevails take a promise and plead it by faith If you go to the Father by prayer you need not fear peace through the Son Make the Lord of hosts your fear and you shall have him for your sanctuary You must sanctify God and make him your fear and your dread and he will sanctuary and safe-guard you In evill times God will have a special care of his own people That man is too big for all evils that is great in God Hee that dwells in God for sanctification shall dwell in him for preservation Hee that walketh uprightly shall dwell on high and his place shall bee in the Rock THe times of the Churches calamities are the times of wicked mens insolencies and blasphemies When the Church suffers there should be a veil of sorrow drawn over thy eyes Look not what the world doth but what God would have thee to do Be not afraid or discouraged though sometimes our Ark doth move upon very troublesome waters Victory in the end shall bee on the Churches side The Church is taken for the whole number of Gods Elect effectually called into a fellowship with Christ through sanctification and belief of the truth What ever the difference is between the enimies of the Church and the Church Christs party shall overcome On whose side dost thou think God doth ingage himself Is not the Sea able to quench a coal of fire One acting of a grace sometimes is sufficient to destroy an enimy Heb. 11.33 34. The Church of Christ in this life is like a ship upon the Sea The ship hath goodly sails the Church hath admirable graces If there bee not a gale the ship cannot stear so notwithstanding all the Churches graces it cannot move from faith to virtue without the fresh actings and breathings of God upon those graces The ship is a trading vessel and so the Church They are the great trades-men for heaven The ship is the onely safe place out of the Church there is no safety The Church of God though it bee tossed and tumbled yet it hath an Anchor the blood of Christ The ship in comparison of the sea is but a little thing yet it is above the water so the Church in comparison of the world is but a handfull of men yet it hath an Ark the Lord Jesus Christ In every new danger the people of God are apt to forget their former deliverance The proper time of fear is in thy prosperity and the time to believe when other helps fail There is all in God in the want of all The life of a Christian as a Christian is to live out of himself As the graft of a tree lives upon the root so a Christian by faith lives upon Christ You must provide for a troubling time as well as a healing time Prophane persons will make troublesome times with such David had to deal their words pierced nearer his heart than their swords When a people are not healed by their troubles they must expect to be troubled in their healings Observe this wheresoever there is faith there is a quiet soul first or last THe top of a Christians joy is not in outward earthly but spiritual things They which are most acquainted with carnal mirth are greatest strangers to spiritual joy Every grace as it is the expression of Gods love so it is the spring of our joy Wee may joy in these things below but they must not bee our spring and sea the spring from which they come and the sea to which they tend Joy it sets the soul upon wing for heaven what is the nature of your joy doth it make you fly up or fly out Cursed is that joy that makes God sad eat and drink and rise up to play and not rise up to pray and praise God and your table will bee your snare your death There is a desperate propension and active forwardness in the affection of joy to run out upon such things that are sinful Let not that bee the matter of your joy which is the fruit of your sin Do not make that the matter of thy joy which should bee the matter of thy humiliation The sins of others the calamities of others God allows us to rejoyce in creature-comforts and lawful liberties so it bee done lawfully It is not the thing rejoyced in but the manner of rejoycing that makes our joy criminal and sinful Though the Scripture allows thee to rejoyce yet it forbids sinful rejoycing It is a sinful thing to rejoyce in a creature for it self Joy sinfully acted is when the sweetness of the creature is not a means to lead thee unto God but as an object to satisfie thee without God Creatures are not given properly to bee injoyed but to bee used and directed to a further end You are not to bound and terminate your comforts in them You cannot joy in any thing for it self but you make it a God Delight is a glory proper to God as God Joy naturally centers it self in the things of this life A natural man doth not take occasion to rejoyce from the creature but hee rests his joy in the creature Do not you over-joy in the things of this life but joy in this that your name is written in the book of life Your heart cannot bee overmuch taken or best pleased with that which is not best without sin Though outward comforts are good in themselves and so occasions of joy yet they are not good enough for the joy of thy heart to bee taken up at or to bee taken up with As wee may quickly be more taken with these things than they are worth so our joy cannot but exceed Worldly comforts since the fall suit so well with our carnal humours that while wee deal about them wee cannot but feed too heartily on them and drink more deep of that cup than wee ought It is a lawful thing to take pleasure in lawful things but they are made unlawful to us when much of our time is eaten up in eating and drinking Time is short and time