anger malice revenge covetousness lust concupiscence or the like and mourning over it humbly intreat him to succour relieve help heal cleanse wash purge and purify them by the renewing of the Spirit Or else as he answer'd St. Paul praying against the Thorn in his flesh he will supply them with grace sufficient for them From these promises we may see the reason why our blessed Saviour in that form of Prayer teacheth us to pray in the plural number our and us for this includes our selves and our fellow-members of the mystical body of Christ some whereof are but Babes or Children in religion and cannot pray for themselves as not having received so great measure of the Spirit so that they have need of our Prayers and our charity including them doth not hinder our requests for our selves but rather promotes them We see also why sometimes they pray more particularly but for themselves as the Apostle Paul did against his particular malady and burthen which he groaned under And so David did pray against his own particular sins and sufferings Deliver me from bloody-guiltiness Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity and quicken me in thy Law Incline my heart to thy Testimonies and not to covetousness c. For which particular graces we may upon occasion pray in the behalf of others according to that precept of the Apostle If any man see his Brother sin a sin which is not unto Death he shall pray for him and it shall be forgiven him Likewise may we pray for the deliverance of them from their afflictions and perils which they lie under as the Apostle Paul desires the Saints to whom he wrote to pray for his deliverance for nature dictates these prayers for our selves but grace for others that are our Brethren in Christ The Hope of speeding is that which incourageth and excites with strength and courage in every undertaking we go about If we seek of God in prayer the things which are according to his will those gifts and graces and Improvements which he hath promised to give those things which he hath invited us to ask or commanded us to ask those that our Saviour and his Apostles have taught us to ask those which the experience of other Saints and servants of God proves to be acceptable and proper requests those graces which we are commanded to have those degrees of grace and those means which we are commanded to use and those spiritual joys and injoyments which we long for and cannot be happy without why should we doubt of our success or why should we not expect a quick Return Let us then apply our selves to seek out those things As the original of all graces we first are taught by our Saviour to pray to God to give us the Holy Spirit And he that obtains this obtains also the fruits of it Love joy peace meekness gentleness patience c. And all graces whatsoever for as the Lord taught us our whole duty in one word viz. Love so here he teacheth us in one word the sum of all we need to pray for for although we pray for many things yet the sum of all spiritual things is contained in this And if we seek the spiritual gifts and graces which is signified in that expression Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness the other things shall be added unto us without seeking In this also is summed up all that we ought to pray against viz. all our spiritual enemies the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life and every thing that Satan overcomes the sons of men withal This general is branched into six petitions in the Lords prayer for by the Spirit of God in us we are made holy the Temples of the Lord and are made capable to sanctify Gods holy name the love of God is spread abroad in our hearts Gods law is written in our hearts and put in our inward parts By the Mission of the holy Spirit into us we all know him and know his Judgments and do them the Kingdoms of the World become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ Righteousness will run down as a River and holiness to the Lord shall be writ upon us and all our comon things every pot in Jerusalem shall be like the bouls before the Altar And Jesus Christ shall have the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession when these and the like promises are fulfill'd And the earth shall be full of the knowledg of the Lord so that we pray implicity for these promises when we pray these petitions in the Lords prayer likewise when we pray Thy will be done we pray for the Spirit to enable us to do it and we pray to God for the fulfilling of those promises of the New Covenant which relate to it viz. That God will be our God and we shall be his people that we shall run and not be weary walk and not faint mount up with wings like an Eagle and renew our strength like an Eagle that we shall be a willing people So in the other petitions Namely that for remission of sins we cannot be assured of it nor have peace of conscience but by the operation of the Holy Ghost in our hearts by faith exciting in us unfeigned sorrow for those sins wherewith we have grieved it and working in us a stedfast resolution and purpose never to commit the like again Also when we pray against Temptations it is intended that we crave this aid by the assistance of Gods Holy Spirit to escape them for thereby we are made sufficient and able to fly them or to overcome them and to be more than conquerors so that no Spiritual weapon formed against us shall proper And if God gives us his holy Spirit we obtain also the other petitions namely to be delivered from evil and to enjoy food and raiment and all the necessaries of life for these are inseparably contained in the priviledges of the Saints For God is a Wall of fire round about them bread shall be given them and their water shall be sure so that petition also is by reason of the promise contained in that of asking the holy Spirit The rather for this that all other promises of the New Covenant are implyed in this This notwithstanding we find the Saints and Servants of God praying in other words and formes and by the Spirit too Whose Assistance I humbly crave for my further progress in these meditations Certainly when the Holy Spirit assists us in prayer it doth not only inable us to say or pray in a perscribed form but dictates the words and things prayed for according to the necessities of the person praying and prayed for Although we are not under the law but under grace that being dead wherein we were held that we should henceforth serve God in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the latter Yet must we pray against all
Impressions upon the soul 1. A child-like ingenuity in the service of God when a man obeys God not out of the impulses of a natural conscience but from love 2. The heart is borne out by the incouragements of another world 3. Every occurrence makes us go to God 4. Impress It makes us ready and willing to suffer and undergo joyfully any loss or pain or reproach for God not accounting our lives or any thing else dear if we may serve God with it as the blessed Martyr suffered were assured that Christ had suffered for them for them purchased a Kingdom it makes us willing to forsake the world knowing that we have a dwelling place in Heaven It makes the soul humble heavenly contented patient Holy peaceable charitable pure and unspotted of the world For their great and chief desire is to know thier duty and the good will and pleasure of the Lord that they may yield their ready and cheerful obedience to it and may be able to do it when the soul is thus disposed every condition of life is sweetened to it by the Spirit of Adoption because it looks upon all things that befal it as coming from its heavenly Father in love And desires and endeavours that all things may be to him and to his glory And when the soul is thus disposed and finds it self inabled by the Spirit to do and suffer freely willingly and readily all the good will and pleasure of God and to submit all things to God and feels such filial affection to God such love such patience humility and other workings and impresses of the Spirit in it It hath the Testimony of the Spirit upon it that it is the child of God because these dispositions and impressions are wrought in it by the Spirit and now it can lay title to every priviledge of blessedness And the sense and apprehension of God's great love to us in the redemption of mankind and of our own redemption in particular and the sense of the love of Christ Jesus to us in our redemption and the knowledge of our particular interest in it That all his sufferings had respect to me in particular and my title thereby to all priviledges is wrought by the holy Spirit and is testified to us by the holy Spirit and from thence ariseth our love to God and to Christ by the operation of the Spirit as David expresseth in the 18th Psalm I will love thee c. This is the highest degree of the soul's enjoyment and the highest of its desires and the fulness of its happiness and hath all that is desirable and there is no ultra no further thing desirable It followeth that being in Christ we take him for our portion then will we walk as he walked 1 John 2.6 conform our selves to him take him for our pattern our example and guide learn of him go after him which is to be done chiefly by denying our selves and taking up our Cross not doing our own will but the will of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he humbled himself to become man made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant Phil. 2.7 Humbled himself to death even the death of the Cross he denied preferment when they would have made him a King and when Satan offered him all the Kingdoms of the Earth and the glory thereof He denied honour when he would not suffer his miracles to be divulged And this is performed with joy too because though it crosseth our nature yet it is the very life of our new nature as it was his meat and drink to do the will of his Father The soul that feels this Joy hath Heaven let into it therefore it is willing to go to God This is both oyl and wheels to the soul in its heavenly race When thou shalt inlarge my heart I will run the waies of thy Commandments said holy David This proves the truth of that saying of our Saviour I have overcome the world and sheweth us the impotency of our spiritual adversaries which God delights to see his servants to overcome as appears in the tryal of Job and the blessed Martyrs who rejoyced in their sufferings By this others are incouraged to come in to the Church of God Cant. Whither is thy Beloved gone said they to the Spouse that we may seek him with thee The durableness of this joy is expressed by our Saviour's saying My joy no man taketh from you All that oppression and persecution can do cannot take it from us It is proved 1. Because Christ is both able and willing to give and continue it maugre the opposition of evil men 2. Reason because the supports of this joy are the promises which men cannot impeach nor impair Their portion is not within the knowledge of the world nor within the reach of the world 3 Reason the preserver of this joy is the Holy Ghost 4. Because the seat of this joy is within 1 Pet. 3.4 in the hidden man 5 Reason because the seed of this joy is a principle remaining in them John His seed remaineth in them that is the new nature the principle of Holiness which is renewed day by day though their outward man doth decay and it groweth into a nearer communion with God 6 Reason because the enemies that oppose this joy are conquered Christ hath overcome them for us and we by faith overcome them Sensible troubles may take away sensible joys and external comforts but not internal no more than external joyes can take away a sinners sorrow our enjoyments may be taken away and not our joyes If then they rejoyce in the midst of their trouble how will they rejoyce in Heaven when they have meer joy When we enjoy the world most we have least of this joy the external joy takes away the internal as the external heat causeth internal cold Beware therefore O my soul that thou suffer not thy self to go out to external joy And beware my soul that thou dost not esteem troubles greater evils than they are or ought to be esteemed but as fatherly chastisements sent to mortifie or corruptions to take us off the love of the world and to remove our affections from things below to things above then thou wilt not be much terrified or dismayed by them but make a sanctified use of them to improve thy graces and walk by faith and not after the waies of thine own heart and the sight of thine eyes This spiritual joy doth arm thee O my soul against the frowns and allurements of adverse and prosperous fortune As Moses chose to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin And our Saviour for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross and despised the shame For this joy ennobleth the soul that it scorns to be beholden to visible objects as Abraham shewed the nobleness of his mind that he would not be beholding to the King of Sodom
in the words of St. Paul O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of sin and death Who can say he hath cleansed himself Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean But yer St. John saith that he that is born of God sinneth not because his seed remaineth in him and the 1 Epst c. 3. I have wrote unto you young men because you have overcome that wicked one Love not the world nor the things of the world And v. 6. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not Whosever sinneth hath not seen him nor known him v. 7. Little children let no man deceive you he that doth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous v. 9. He cannot sin because he is born of God v. 8. He that committeth sin is of the Devil Which Texts are not to be expounded in this sense that a Saint of God may not be overtaken or be temped so above his strength as to be overcome against his will as some suppose it is for then to what purpose doth the Apostle Paul enjoyne it as a duty if any one be overtaken with a fault restore such a one in the Spirit of meekness considering that thou thy self also mayest be tempted unless a good man might be overtaken and the argument too of the duty is positive that thou also who art to restore him mayest be tempted and overcome therefore do this duty to another and the promise of lifting up those that fall would be needless and those many exhortations of our Saviour all the Apostles to watchfulness and prayer circumspection and carefulness against temptations of the world the flesh and the Devil seducers and deceivers would little become so great teachers if there were no need at all of those duties and no danger in the neglect of them nor no possibility that the regenerate person could fall Then he that standeth needs not to take such heed least he fall and St. John himself also saith in the first Epistle chap. 5.17 All unrighteousness is sin and there is a sin not unto death And in vers 16. If any Man see his Brother sin a sin that is not to death he shall ask and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death and 1 Epist ch 1. v. 8. If we say that we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive and ch 2. v. 1. If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father c. But if we were absolutely free from sin and the power of sinning what need had we of our Advocate Therefore it seems by the opinion and consent of most Men that when he saith He that is born of God sinneth not he meaneth the same as St. Paul doth express saying It is not I but sin that dwelleth in me And again so with my Spirit I serve the Law of God but with my Flesh the Law of sin and the Law of his Members lead him Captive By which it appears That the inclination of his mind was to serve God in all holiness of Life and he delighted in that in his inward Man And if he chanced to do the contrary it was unwillingly and he counted it his unhappiness and bondage from which he endeavoured to get free Whereas the unregenerate Man counts sin his freedom and every holy observance of Gods Commandments his bondage And when his Conscience checks him and forceth him to any walking with God in religious duties it is thraldom and bondage to him For his course of Life and Conversation is to serve the Flesh and the World to walk in the ways of his own Heart and the sight of his eyes and is sorry that there is any Commandment to restrain him and desires not to know it at least in the strictness of it Again if a regenerate person chance to be overcome by his corruption and strength of Temptation he immediately not only loaths the sin but himself also that he is no better and would rather undergo all misery than fall into the same again And would foregoe all the enjoyments that he hath or hopes for in this World if he could but undoe what he hath misdone The unregenerate are not so and as Solomon describes the Harlot she wipeth her mouth and saith I have not sinned so do others in the state of Nature unless their sins be very gross say they have not sinned or if they confess their sins to God and pray for pardon they think it is enough to embolden them to sin afresh And as the Regenerate walk with God and premeditate and study not how they may commit a sin secretly and undiscovered so as to avoid the shame and punishment but how they may walk closely with God and avoid every Temptation and Snare of Satan so the unregenerate study and contrive to sin with advantage And that place of St. John that saith ye have overcome the evil one may be upon this ground that they have overcome the evil one many times and persist in the conquest of their corruption every day though peradventure some time the Devil may prevail to overcome them as it is said he shall bruise thy heel And though God never leaves Man to be overcome when he endeavours his utmost yet God may let him be overcome as Peter was to humble him in the sight of his own weakeness when he is confident of his strength that he may depend and rely more upon God and seek to him more and not rely upon his own strength but ascribe all to God and his grace And though St. Paul confesseth so much imperfection and St. John so much perfection both of them will agree in this that we are made perfect in Christ St. John further describeth the perfections of the regenerate 1 Ep. 5.4 Whosoever is borne of God overcometh the world And sheweth how in the following words and this is the victory that overcometh the world even our saith He tells us the particulars which he means namely The lusts of the flesh the lusts of the eyes and the pride of life which all are overcome for ch 3. v. 7. He saith That he that doth righteousnes is righteous And 10. Whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God And 1 Ep. c. 5.18 We know that whosoever is borne of God sinneth not for he that is begotten of God keepeth himself and the wicked one toucheth him not Which touching certainly hath reference to the words before of sinning a sin not unto death and those words sinneth not have the same reference viz. He sinneth not de industria Pleno Animo Else no man will be found that it can be said of him that he sineth not Noah whom God mentioned for one of the three persons most acceptable to God of whom it is testified in the holy scriptures that he only was found righteous yet he was overtaken by the sin of