with Anger Also examine thine own reason whether it be not more honourable and more satisfying to thee to shew meekness goodness of Nature ingenious Education Courtesie Generosity Love and Pity in forgiving affronts and provocations than to shew thy Pride Malice Boldness Undaunted Spirit and Courage in revenging them besides the timerity of hazarding thine own Life and Immortal Soul Then examine thy self also in all other actions of Holiness and Unholiness viz. If thou hast led thy Life in Temperance Sobriety and Frugality whether hast thou not found the benefit of it throughout thy Life in thy Mind Body and Estate But if thou hast otherwise lead thy Life thy Health is impaired thy Estate wasted thy Soul polluted and the faculties of thy mind dulled and crased The like examination thou mayest make if thou hast kept thy Body in Chastity whether thou hast not found this to be the best means to preserve thy Life Health and Estate and to propagate the same benefits to thy Issue besides many other blessings which this and every other Grace hath entailed upon it But if thou hast on the contrary been addicted to thy lusts thou wilt feel the pains of it in thy bones when age groweth upon thee and if thou hast not quite wasted thy Estate yet either thou hast no lawful Issue to inherit it or if any yet they are unsound or such as thou hast no comfort of for such persons who are thus addicted are generally thus punished with one of these punishments as we read of Solomon and have seen in our own times Hast thou fed the hungry and cloathed the naked with thy fleece thou knowest that thou hast treasure in Heaven if not thy riches will make themselves wings But alas if thou couldst attain all secular ends and interests Salva Conscientia what are they to him that carrieth on the design of an eternal Interest viz. For eternal happiness how inconsiderable how impertinent how vile But since holiness is the only meanes of attaining happiness and lusts and unholiness are the obstacles and impediments that hinder us and deprive us of it then be constant in the way of holiness and take this for thy design and main business according to that which the Poet Horrace directeth thee by the light of Nature Lib. Epistolar Primo Ep. 6. Si virtus hoc sola potest dare fortis Omissis Hoc age deliciis And Hoc primus repetes opus hoc postremus omittas And make no Omisions of duty for that puts thee back T were endless labor and needless to cite all authorities Civil Moral and Divine that might be brought to prove holiness to be the way and meanes of obtaining happiness for it is so inseparably joyned to happiness that it can hardly be distinguished from eternal happiness which I conceive is begun in this life in holiness I will only mention the Authority of the greatest of the Sons of men John the Baptist who makes repentance and workes meet for repentance to be the way to bring us to Christ who is the way the truth and the life eternal In whom we have eternal life and happiness And I conceive all men will confess the same though in workes they deny it All the precepts which our blessed Saviour taught he propounded as the means to attain happiness And the doers of them he pronounceth happy actually in the present tense likewise all the Commandments which God enjoyned the Israelites were therefore given them to make them happy and when they kept them they did make them happy as they made them holy Whither tend all Divine and Moral precepts and Philosophical improvements of the light of nature but to repress mortiify the inordinate passion and preturbations of the mind and the lusts of the flesh the lusts of the eyes and the pride of life that by this means we might enjoy a sweet and happy life in all ease rest and peace joy quietness holiness and happiness But imagining that the sensual persons of this age will still oppose and say that happiness is mans interest but the holiness of man is Gods design and interest I answer first What profit shall the Lord have if thou do good 2. Admitting it were Gods Interest it follows if he be greater than thou and thou canst not attain thy end without him then thou must of necessity promote his design and do nothing to cross it Holiness Described 3. Meditation Though it be too great a task for me to undertake nay for any creature for he hath found folly in the Angels and the Heavens are not clean in his sight therefore God himself teacheth us by his word and Spirit And from that word of truth these few collections are drawn for my own help in this grace The Negative part that sheweth what is not true holiness though by some it is supposed to be holiness is the first to be considered Our Saviour describes the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees and then tells his Disciples that Except their Righteousness exceeds theirs they shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Their Righteousness is condemned as insufficient for they justified themselves and condemned others and did their works of Piety and Charity to be seen of men and were Hypocrites Therefore Jesus Christ pronounces several woes against them Again our Saviour reproves the Jews ingeneral for relying upon the outward priviledges without the inward Qualifications saying unto them Think not to say within your selves we have Abraham for our Father This priviledg without the life of Holiness is like a dead body without a soul which the Prophet Jeremiah reproves thus Trust not in lying words saying The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord are these Jeremiah 7.4 They did frequent the Temple with their Sacrifices but the Prophet saith you trust in lying words Do you think to lye steal and come into my house Matth. 7.22 Christ shews how that many will come at the day of Judgment with great confidence saying we have prophesied in thy name cast out Devils and done many wonders But he will disown them how little then will it avail the Papists to call themselves the Church and their Pope Peters Successour Our Saviour Christ doth divide professors into 2 sorts Mathew 25. Under the terme of wise and foolish Virgins some had Oyl in their Lamps and some none all had Lamps The causes why men rest in the forme of Godliness without the power are first because they see a necessity that their actions must be changed but do not see a necessity that their hearts must be changed The Apostle Paul in the 3d. of the Philip. Refutes the Righteousness which the Jews imputed to their circumcision and outward priviledges and calls them the concision and vers the 3d. We are the Circumcision which worship God in the Spirit and have no confidence in the flesh This is the reall circumcision whereby we have the
man but a diligent Servant shall share the Inheritance with the Sons Pro. What delight can dull lifeless service be to him whom we serve Our service should be suited to the delight of him whom we serve And Our service should be to the honour of him whom we serve But slothful and lifeless service is to the dishonour of God therefore he saith Mal. 4. v. Offer it now to thy Governour and see whether he will accept it The fruit of Christs death is the Zeal of good works Titus 2.11.14 Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify to himself a peculiar people Zealous of good works From Thence it appeares that the note of Gods people is a Zeal of good works namely the works of mercy charity and piety They shall run and not be weary walk and not faint That obedience sway the conscience that the ends and aims be good that we should advance piety to the utmost and repress sin If we expect any benefit by our service we must not do it negligently but with Zeal the more Zeal the more comfort and satisfaction and the more will be our reward Zeal breaks through any restraints that would keep us from God Though Michael scoffed yet David would not leave off his dancing before the Ark. Consider how violent and earnest carnal men are in the ways of sin and shall they serve Satan better than God is served wicked men are so active and laborious that they are said to draw iniquity with cart-ropes they are not drawn into sin but draw sin there is no lust but costs them some self-denial Their pride must feel no cold the worldly man incroaches not only upon the pleasures of his life by rising early and going to bed late but also defrauds himself of necessary comforts they are wise in their generation like the unjust steward If Ammon be sick for Tamar shall not the Spouse be sick for Christ shall they take more paines to undo themselves than the Servants of God to save themselves Consider that you have been violent in the ways of sin and will you not do as much for God Rom. 6.19 I spake after the manner of men as you have yeilded your selves Servants of sin so now yeild your selves Servanss of Righteousness unto holiness So much as you have spent in and upon sin 't is but a modest proposal of the Apostle that you would spend so much in the service of God How can your conversion be right when sin hath more of your heart than God 2 Cor. 5.13 If we be besides our selves it is for Christ he had been mad against Christ 't was not unmeet if he seemed mad for Christ your pace was furious like Jehu's for your beloved lusts will you be slow for God Consider It may be you set out late towards Godliness therefore you must make the more haste Let the time spent in your lusts be sufficient All men set out too late we are transgressors from the womb God loved us before we were from eternity he loved us before we loved him or knew how to love him Consider what Christ hath suffered for us his bloody agonies and the sorrows of his Cross He is the Captain of our salvation and we must follow him He hath given us heaven as God gave Canaan to the Israelites but they were to force their way The power of Satan is broken but some relicts are left for our exercise Consider the enemies of our souls are violent The Devil compasseth the earth therefore we had need to stand upon our guard the enemy watcheth and do you sleep Whilest men slept the enemies sowed tares among their Corn. Whilest we are careless the enemy prevails when we make speed in our flight the enemy hath no advantage Whilest the Disciples were a sleep Judas and his Company were watching Small measure of grace must not content the professors of Christianity Except your righteousness exeed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven A temporary believer goeth far but a true believer must go farther Consider that all things in Religion are high and call for more than ordinary from us There are great obligations upon us He had no greater gift to give us than his only Son He could do no more for us then he did in his agonies and sufferings and laying down his life undergoing that intollerable pain that made him cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me So that in love God hath gone to the uttermost for us in his power he hath not so every mercy received obligeth us to do more than we have done the supplies of the Spirit of God which come in upon us and help more than we have done The supplys of the Spirit of God which come in upon us and help our infirmities oblige us The heathen some of them have gone so far by the light of nature that because they could not mortify their lusts they have put out their eyes this they did without those helps which we have Christ Jesus a person of the God head meriting our salvation and interceding for us The Spirit helping us to work out our salvation and the holy precepts of the law of God which is pure converting the soul Psal 19.19 Psal 119. The law of the Lord is exceeding broad It is another obligation that we have a hope exceeding all that we can imagine 2 Cor. 4.16 We have a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory laid up for us Besides these obligations the dreadful threats might make us earnest in the works of religion which if a man do but think of it causeth horrour Consider the danger of coldness in dutys if we don't go forward we go back like those that row against the stream Before we lose our first works we lose our Love first men grow careless then off goes religion and the service of God Some that are high in professing are cold in practice To provoake one another to love and good works is a good contention for solemn piety we cannot do too much In sin every thing is too much in grace nothing enough in particular exercises there may be too much in the love of God there can be no excess many come short Rom. 2.9 They come short of the glory of God 2 Peter 1.11 We are to labour that an abundant entrance may be given us into the Kingdom of Christ Jesus Consider if your heart is dead and cold you loose the comfort of Christian priviledges and duties a dead Christian is as none A change without life is but a morral reformation That is true conversion where we are not meerly changed but quickned by a new principal of life heathens have been changed from profaness to a morral life I am come saith Christ that you may have life and that you may have it more abundantly All the true members of Christ are
Fret not thy self because of the ungodly nor be thou envious against the evil doers ver 29. The wicked seeth the righteous and seeketh occasion to slay him ver 14. The wicked have drawn the sword and bent the bow to slay such as be of an upright conversation ver 12. The wicked plotteth against the righteous and gnasheth upon him with his teeth ver 33. The Lord will not leave him in his hand nor condemn him when he is judged ver 39. And 40. The Salvation of the Righteous is of the Lord he is their strength in time of trouble And the Lord shall help them and deliver them he shall deliver them from the wicked and save them because they trust in him Rom. 8.28 We know that all things work together for good to them that love God 32. He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things v. 35. Who shall separate us from the love of God shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword for thy sake are we killed all the day long we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter 37. Nay in all these things we are more than conquerers through him that loved us These consolations did not only support the suffering Saints but made them triumph over all their torments Take joyfully the spoiling of their goods Rejoyce in the Lord in the want of all things When they had nothing to possess all things Sing in the dungeon dispise death and not accept deliverance Psal 119. David by delighting in Gods word was supported Satans envie to the Servants of God all that all belongs to God raiseth up persecutions to the holy seed The Dragon in the Revelations is set forth persecuting the woman Rev. 12.8 Satan hath great wrath because he hath but a short time therefore the persecutions under the Gospel are greater than those were under the law St. Paul was not only ready to suffer afflictions for Christ but to dye also Satan was not contented when he had prevailed in the trial of holy Job to the taking away of his substance nor yet when he had prevailed for the depriving of him of his children but his body also must be smitten The office of the Comforter would be in vain If Gods people were never dismayed If there were no broken heart to be healed and bound up there needed no strong consolations of the Holy Spirit nor no Oil of joy and gladness if no spiritual heaviness were He could not restore beauty for Ashes if no Ashes were upon our heads nor wipe all tears from our eyes if they wept not before The Sun of righteousness should arise with healing in his wings in vain if none had need of healing The Blessedness to those that mourn that they shall be comforted were needless They are necessary also that the scriptures migh be fulfilled They are plentiful for this assertion Through many tribulations we shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven If we endure not tribulations whereof all are partakers then are we Bastards and not Sons All that will live godly must suffer persecutions 2 Tim. 3.12 Many are the troubles of the righteous If our Hope were in this life only we were of all men most miserable By all which it appears that the Saints are the people that are to be oppressed for they only can bear wrongs and oppressions Psal For thy sake are we killed all the day long yet do we not forsake thee Judgement must begin at Gods house The Spouse in the Canticles saith Look not upon me because I am black because the Sun hath shined upon me She had been in hardship and underwent what injuries Wind and weather could do to her and knew that worldly men would censure her as wicked and forsaken of God Gods antient people the Jews when they sined were carried into captivity in Babylon according to the Prophesies They were restored again upon their repentance And sinning again were utterly destroyed by the Romans under Titus's command The Scriptures which threaten plagues punishments and curses cannot be fulfilled if afflictions should not befal us Six of the seven Churches of Asia were threatned unless they repented Will any one think that the impenitent scaped unpunished there is not any one of those punishments which God threatned from the beginning of the holy Scripture to the end but came to pass save only where repentance prevented them as was the case of the Ninivites And in some degree Ahab and Manasses shew their repentance answerable to which their remission was but our first parents found the truth of all Gods threatnings so did the old world that was drowned So did Gods ancient people the Jews of whom ' its said 14 of Hose 1. Thy iniquities have distroyed thee For all those curses and plagues threatned against them and their City as Josephus who was in the calamity and an eye witness writes did come to pass not one excepted Davids family was foretold of that Judgement that the sword should not depart from them and the truth of it they felt So Jezabel and Ahab Lots wife these knew the terror of the Lord and are set forth as examples to us as it is in St. Judes epist Our Blessed Lord and Saviour hath undergone that curse which was threatned to our first Parents In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye the Death And if he had notundergone it for us we all must have undergone it in our own persons Call upon God therefore O my soul with earnest prayers constantly and fervently that he would support thee and hold thee up in the time of the firy trial that is to come upon all the world to try them But especially in the time of spiritual desertions which by reason of our frailties befals the best of Gods Servants as it did our blessed Saviour upon the Cross when he cried out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me and the spouse Cant. 5.6 Sought for her love but could not find him and Psal 13.1 v. David saith How long wilt thou forget me Lord for ever how long wilt thou hide thy face from me Isa 38.14.15 Hezekiah mourns as a dove his eyes fail him with looking upward 15. I shall go softly all my days in the bitterness of my soul and the 5 Cant. 6. And Psal 102. Shew that all the Servants of God must expect that God will withdraw himself somtimes and v. 8. This shall be written for the generation to come that the Lord will regard the prayer of the poor distieute he will not absent himself for ever he will be found again This was the Zenith of our Saviours sufferings and none but Saints can lye under this suffering But God is with them though they see him not for he hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee 2 Chron. 16.2 The Lord is with you while you
let me be strong and of good cheer and undaunted incouraging my self in the Lord let me not be so cowardly and fearful and base spirited as to lye down under afflictions Let me remember thy loving kindnesses of old that I may encourage my self with them Thou hast delivered me therefore let me trust that thou wilt still deliver me and therefore let me bless thy name when thou shalt take away from me remembring how freely thou gavest it to me LET the righteous be bold as a Lyon and daunt their enemies so that they may never rise up against them any more SINCE thou hast often given me clear and undoubted evidence of my Title to eternal life and hast shewed me that the way by which I must pass thither is through many tribulations make me willing to take the means with the end and to go to Heaven by that way as thou hast appointed to all Saints How can I imagin that thou hast exempted thy Servants from affliction when thou hast said the contrary and that Judgment must begin at the house of God and that through many tribulations they must enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and I know by my own experience that it is good and beneficial to my soul that it should be so Therefore I do not only submit to them but chuse them as Moses did I chuse rather that Satan should prevail against me to impair my estate or to cast me into prison if thou wilt have it so as thou hast foretold thy Saints that some of them shall be Revel 2. For their probation That thereby I may be restrained from sin and made to walk humbly with my God and closely than that thou shouldst suffer me to fall into any sin that should wound my conscience ever after LORD If in our affliction we stand to thee we know thou wilt not leave us But will stand the by us and save us and break all the snares of ungodly to pieces therefore fear not worm Jacob. LORD cause the uncessant lies and slanders with which the world afflicts thy people that they serve to make their vertues more conspicuous because thy promise is to make their righteousness as clear as the light and their just dealing as the noon day therefore do thou assert their righteousness though for a while their enemies Eclipse them yet let their bright shining break out like the Sun out of a Cloud and dazel the eyes of their enemies and remember too thy promises to root out those false tongues which slander them and to stop the mouths of those that speak lies and since it is vileness that vilifies goodness and baseness debaseth honour let us contemne them and let us look to the weight of glory which they work for us The Soliloquy O my soul that thou couldst in this thy day see the things that belong to thy peace that thou couldst have grace to lay hold on this season of Prayer the time of thy affliction seasonable both to thee to Pray and to God to hear and to implore his mercy with strong crys and tears and give him no rest with thy Prayers who gives thee no rest with his Chastisments as his hand is heavy upon thee day and night so let thine eyes be ever looking unto him from whom thy salvation must come and let thy hands be ever lifted up to him and always be mindful of his promise and word wherein he hath caused thee to put their trust Saying call upon me in the time of trouble and I will deliver thee Let it be thy comfort in thy trouble to quicken thee in thy faintings that thy hope may not faile nor thy patience tire nor thy Prayers cease nor the holy fire of Zeal upon the Altar of thy heart go out That fire that came down from Heaven Divine love to him that made thee and redeemed thee and to his servants and all that bear his Image Let thy affections be set on things above and wait thou still on the Lord hold fast on him stay thy self on him though with Jonah thou shouldst be cast into the Sea or with the 3 children into the fiery furnace for his hand is not shortned that it cannot save now say Lord look upon my assliction and misery and forgive me all my sins Lord pitty and pardon and heal our souls let not thy wrath wax hot against the people of thine inheritance whom thou hast redeemed Let not thy jealousy burn like fire for ever Lord remember thy loving kindness of old wherefore hast thou made all men for naught Lord all thy waves and storms are gone over me yet is my soul resolved not to go back from thee nor to behave her self frowardly in thy covenant nor to charge God foolishly still I will learn obedience by the things which I suffer still will I make my Prayer unto God and cease not but increase them and still will I make my confession before him still will I believe that my Redeemer liveth and that I shall see him with these eyes though wormes consume my flesh for I shall utterly faint unless I can still believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living and unless I can with patience tarry the Lords leisure and still put my trust in the Lord although he should seem to make me as his enemy still will I bless God though he should take away all my comforts for I can enjoy none in the want of health or inward grief of Soul Though my troubles and griefs are never so many I have Gods word that he will deliver my soul out of all and he hath delivered me and therefore will deliver me afflictions shall not always rest upon the back of the righteous in measure he will debate with them the end of the righteous is peace Bless the Lord O my Soul if he hath spared thee nothing but thy life and confess it to be his mercy that thou art not consumed and that it is because his compassion fails not And though he visit thy iniquity with rods and thy sin with scourges yet it is his Fatherly mercy that he doth not utterly take his loving kindness from thee That he thus bringeth thee to the sight of thy sins and restraines thee from others Meditations on several Scriptures of Zeal Rom. 10.2 They have a Zeal of God but not according to knowledg Med. LORD Teach me to bound and moderate all my affections and duties which I perform to thee according to the rules which thy word hath laid down lest I mis-serve thee as the Jewes did and Saul before he was converted and instead of a reward procure a punishment Teach me to labour first to know thy will then to do it and not to overdo it as Peter who would not have his feet only washed but his head also Let knowledg proportion my Zeal to thy will This teacheth me in repenting for my sins not to sorrow above measure and so