much Larger measure Wean we pray Thee our affections from the Creature which can make no Suitable Return to our Love which cannot Satisfie the Longing of our Souls and win them unto Thee who by thy Mercies preventest our Love by thy Mercies dost nourish and improve it canst fully Gratifie the Good desires of our hearts and wil't amply Recompence and Reward them O Thou Joy of Angels and Soveraign Happynes of all thy Saints Oh that our Souls cold Love Thee without Limits as Thou art without Limits Lovely and Amiable Oh that we may Love Thee for thy Essential Goodness in Thy self as much as for thy Derived imparted Goodness unto us Let our thoughts let our desires and affections zealously Embrace Thee and may we be embraced with a peculiar love and favour by Thee may still new Degrees of thy Love widen and enlarge our Capacities of Receiving them and as they Enlarge do Thou flow in with an increase of Divine Communications Convince us O Lord that those Excellencies which are Borrowed which are Imperfect which are variously Dispers'd in the Creation are all concenter'd in Thee the Original in infinite Beauty and Perfection and shall we not Love Thee the Spring head of Blessedness more than the Derived Streams than the lesser Rivulets of felicity O perswade us that we are unkind to our selves if we Love not Thee the Author the Treasury of our Happyness Temporal Spiritual and Eternal Alass we find our hearts Cold Dead and Sluggish in thy Service Lord Quicken Lord enflame them Enflame them with thy Divine Love Quicken them in thy Righteousness They have gone Astray they have wander'd after many other Lovers after the pleasures profits and honours of this world which have miserably Deceived them O fix them upon Thee who wilt everlastingly Love them Everlastingly Contiâ—â— Lovely and never Disappoint them Make holy God our Love of Thee an Vniting an Assimilating Love that We may Love what Thou Lovest and hate what Thou hatest that we may do whatever will please Thee forbear whatever will offend Thee conforming our selves to thine Image in Holyness O that our Affections could Ever continue such towards Thee as they are at present O that we may demonstrate the Truth of our Love to Thee by our obeying with all Willingness Zeal and Chearfulness thy Divine precepts by obeying them Vniversally Sincerely and Constantly to our lives End Then only O Heavenly Father can we have Confidence towards Thee shall we be Assured we Love Thee aright when we Love Thee for thine Own self when we Love Thee Soveraignly and Supreamly when our Love is so Exalted as that we may be said to hate and Despise all other things in Comparison of Thee O give us thus Zealously to be affected towards Thee Grant that the Love of thy Self may Crucifie in us the Vndue Love of our selves the inordinate Love of the World or of any our Dearest Relations and that being Empty of our selves and of all Confidence in the Creature we may be wholely taken up with Admiration Love and Delight in Thine infinite Perfections and in the Astonishing Expressions of thy Goodness and Loving-kindness to the Lost Sons of Adam O may thy Love Conquer and Over-power our hearts Melt them into Gratitude and Obedience may it Disingage their Affections from every Narrow and particular Good and Setile them upon Thee the Vniversal One Causing us to Love Thee Above all things every created blessing as it bears the impressions of thy Wisdom Beauty and Power and all mankind for Thy sake and in Obedience to thy Commands Preserve 〈◊〉 us Good Lord such Devout flames of a Godly Affection and let us be our Beloved's and Thou our Beloved ours to all Eternity Amen Amen Meditation XI On Zeal in the Service of God HOW natural a Consequent is this of the Love of God Zeal to please him Zeal to Resemble him Zeal to promote his Honour and Glory Where if not here is Zeal Becoming Where else can it be so Suitably placed Nay our Divine Services how can they well be Acceptable without it For where there is Sincerity of Intention in doing our Duty without which no Duty can be pleasing to Heaven we can scarce conceive Fervency of Spirit to be wanting unless through weakness and indisposition of Body And for the Service of God the most Glorious and Excellent of Beings to be a cold and Languid Worship how Great an Absurdity how Great an Inconsistency is this Certainly the Service of the Temple the Sacrifice of the Altar requires the flame and Fire of the Altar to render it of a sweet-smelling Savour To perform Duty to God with formality and indifferency of Spirit is neither to consider the Nature of the Work we are about the Greatness and Excellency of the Divine Majesty nor yet what Earnestness and Zeal the Care of our own Salvation exacts from us The Love of God demands our whole heart Soul and Strength and consequently the keeping his Commandments the Genuine Evidence of our Love demands the utmost Exercise of our Powers and Faculties both bodily and Spiritual That is not a Service of God which is carelesly discharged but rather an Affront rather a Contempt of him 'T is a doing somewhat in Religion to Still and Quiet the uneasie Reproofs of our own Consciences but not doing any thing with a design of pleasing God out of Obedience and Love to his Commandments or from a desire of becoming Like unto him in Holiness which Regards alone can consecrate and render acceptable our Services Zeal where is it due if not in the Divine Worship Than which nothing is of greater Importance nothing of greater Worth nothing more for our Interest and Advantage Where the safety of our Immortal Souls our Heaven and Eternal Happiness are concern'd there certainly no warmth of Heart no Diligence of endeavour can be too much Ah did we but consider God's Zeal the sounding of his Bowels and tenderness of his Compassion toward us we could not sure want Zeal and Ardency of Affection towards him The holy Angels above who best understand the Value of God's Service who know best how Exalted a pitch of Love and Duty an infinitely Good and Gracious Divine Majesty merits at our hands what a Pattern do They set us of Industry Zeal and joyful Alacrity in Religious worship And how does their intense and flaming Affection in God's Service Shame and Reprove our doing the work of the Lord negligently Can we serve either a Greater Master or a Better One who Deserves better our Services or who is more willing and Able to Reward them plenteously Do we pray thy Will be done on Earth as 't is in Heaven with a like Universality Constancy Fervour and Chearfulness of holy Duty and yet do we contradict this our Petition by a partial formal and undelightful Obedience Have we that pious Reverence amidst our Devotions which is answerable to the Great and Glorious Presence of God with whom in
Prayer we have to do Have we that importunity and Earnestness of Supplication that warmth and Zeal of Devout Address which is any way suitable to those pressing Indigencies we have to be supply'd To those burthensome miseries we have to be delivered from Or does not coldness and indifferency of affection wandering and distraction of thoughts Dulness and weariness of mind mix with and deprave our Divine Worship Ah how Little fervour of Spirit have we in serving the Lord how Little of the true Spirit of Prayer in our praying unto him Do not Gods Sabbaths his Religious Ordinances seem Tiresome unto us A very Toil and Burthen does not his Easie Yoak of precept sit Heavy on our Necks And 〈◊〉 Commandments appear Grievous by reason of our want of Approbation Love and Affection towardâ— them which would breed pleasure and Delight in their performance Ah 't is for that we are Ignoranâ— how God's Service is perfect freedom and hat a Slavery there is in serving diverse Lusts and Passions which makes us so Dead and Listless in his service when otherwise we should be all Spirit and Life whilst Employed in pious Exercises Ah had we more Love for God it would render us more Active more Warm and spirightly in his Worship it would put us upon doing our utmost to please him and we should not Endure coldness and flagging of affection in our religious Addresses But Lukewarmness of Devotion would appear to us â—igh as distasteful as perfect Deadness in Duty and we should never think that flat Lifeless Service Acceptable to God which we could not Approve of to our selves The Prayer BLessed and Glorious Lord God who infinitely Deservest our most warm and Zealous Services who makest thy Angels Spirits and those thy Ministers a flame of fire flames indeed of Devotion of Divine Love and Gratitude of Delight and fervour in holy Obedience O make us also all flame and Spirit in thy Worship that we may worship thee with Zeal and Ardour of Affection as well as with Sincerity and uprightness of heart Produce in us holy Father a Zealous importunity in prayer Suitable to 〈◊〉 wants we have to be Supplyed suitable to the Dangers and Evils we have to 〈◊〉 delivered from suitable to the worâ—â— the Necessity the Importance of thâ—â— Divine blessings Temporal Spiritual and Eternal which we stand in Neeâ— of and which are only to be derived froâ— thee the fountain of all Blessedness O cause us to Evidence our high Value and Esteem of thy Heavenly favours of the Gifts and Graces of thy Holy Spirit by our Zealous Concernment for the obtaining them by our coveting Earnestly those best Gifts and Seeking 〈◊〉 such things which are more Excellent Give us Give us Good Lord more Love to thee our God that we may have a greater Zeal for thy Honour and Glory that we may boldly Rebuke vice Earnestly promote Holyness be Grieved principally for sin because thy blessed Spirit is Grieved thereby may our hearts burn within us with pious Love Reverence and Delight when we Read and meditate on thy Sacred Word when we Pray when we return Thanksgivings or are any ways Employed in Religious Duties let our hearts be sad when our Affections are cold and languid in thy Service O Endue us with the burning Love with the flame and Zeal of holy Cherubims that we may Experience also their Transports of Delight their Extasies of Joy and Satisfaction in thy Worship make us we beseech thee thus Exceeding Jealous for Thee the Lord God of Hosts may the Zeal of thine House well nigh Consume us may we account it our very Meat and Drink to be doing thy Will and let nothing flat and lifeless mingle it self with our piety and Devotion Does Gracious God our Eternal Salvation depend upon our aright worshipping thee and do we worship thâ—â— with a faint and heartless Service Aâ—â— cure the Deadness and formality of thy Servants best Religious performances cure the indifferency and Earthlyness 〈◊〉 our Affections Make s rather tobe on the wing of Devotion to be always Zealously affected in a Good matter 〈◊〉 be fervent in Spirit Serving the Lordâ— that so we may Anticipate much of 〈◊〉 Heavenly State and Temper which shall be compleated hereafter that our lives at present may be full of inward peace and comfort our Deaths of Joy and Consolidation in believing and our Eternity full of Glory and Celestial Happyness Amen for the sake of our dying Redeemer Amen Meditation XII On Trust in God TRust and Relyance on God is our Duty and our Priviledge 't is our Duty as we were created frail impotent Necessitous Beings and for that reason Confiding Dependant ones as also God our Sustainer is a Self-sufficient and All sufficient Store of Happyness whose infinite Perfections render him an object of our Hope and Trust proportionable to our greatest Wants of Ability to Remove or Relieve our most extream acutest Distresses And what more Natural and Reasonable than that we should there place our Confidence and Relyance where we have our Support and Dependance But that we should there found our Trust where we cannot be Disappointed But that a poor helpless distress'd Creature should seek abroad for Succour and Relief And where should he Seek it so Suitably and Effectually as in God-Almighty the fountain oâ— all Strength the inexhaustible Magazine of Relief the protecting Sanctuary of the distress'd who fly unto him for Refuge A God as Willing and Ready as Sufficient and Powerful to Relieve us And that this flying to God for Help and Succour and reposing all his Trust and Confidence in the Deity is the Confiding person's Priviledge and Advantage as well as bounden-Duty is evident for what can give that Man inward Quiet and Tranquillity even in his best Condition who is subject every moment to the uncertainties and vicissitudes of Human Affairs to all the Dangers all the Hazards all the Actual Evils and Misfortunes of this mortal life but a Relying Assurance that nothing can befall him beside the wise Counsel gracious Will and Ordination of that God in whom he puts his Trust Whose power is of that extent as to furnish all our Needs and Satisfie all our desires as to secure to us his favours and blessings and to keep off from us or else Sanctifie our troubles and afflictions whose Omnipotence is directed by infinite Wisdome to Know that 's best for us his Wisdom exercised in Contriving and Ordering what 's best for us and both his Power and Wisdom vigorously moved in their operations by infinite Love and Goodness to Do what 's best for us An humble confidence in God makes us deâ—â—e the worst of the Creature 's Threatenings frees us from Carking troubles within our selves preserves a firm peaceful temper in the midst of Storms and Adversities giving us an unbroken Magnanimity of Spirit a true Dominion of Mind over all outward things and occurrences All our inordinate Care taken without Gods immediately Ordaining
and may we at length be blest with the Enravishing Approbation of well-done Good and faithful Servants enter ye into your Master's Joy Amen Amen Meditation XVIII On Heaven HEaven A place where God's Honour dwells where his Honour and Glory dwell in the most Supereminent Degree Where is the blessed Jesus in all the pompous Resplendencies of his Exaltation Surrounded with infinite Honours of his perfect Obedience and most meritorious Sufferings Where the Reflected Rays of the Divine Majesty add New lustre to the brightest Cherubims and the innumerable Host of Heaven the Glorified Company of Saints and Angels drink plentifully of those Rivers of pleasure which are at God's Right hand for Evermore Pleasures Refin'd and Spiritual Sincere and unallay'd with any mixture of Sorrow pleasures fixt and Durable as God the Unchangeable Author of them so compleat as to Satisfie and yet so Recreatively Satisfying as not to become Dull and Cloying For in Heaven a Continual fresh Addition of Happyness flowing in upon the Soul both Gratifies its appetites and also Quickens and New-Excites them There the blessed Inhabitants beholding constantly the Beatifick Presence are changed thereby from Joy to Joy from Glory to Glory Receive incessant Communications of the Divine inherent Fulness and have their Desires hereby the more Enflamed their Capacities the more Enlarged to receive still further participations of God's inexhaustible bounty And thus they spend a Rapturous Eternity ever-Loving ever-Praising ever-Adoring and Delighting in God their Saviour And the more they Love and Praise and Delight in Him still they find more Cause more Reason more Desire and Longing of Soul to do so Here 't is the happy Residentiaries Understandings are wide open'd to all the amazing Lights and Discoveries of Truth to the Mysteries of Creation and Providence of Redemption and Sanctification to the now puzling Difficulties of Nature and of Grace of God's Prescience and Man's Free-will Here 't is the Wills also of the Glorified are render'd conformable unto are Swallowed up in and made one with God's Holy Will and Pleasure that their Affections become Seraphickly pure Spiritual and servent that both the Spirits of Just Men made perfect and their brethren Angels burn with Divine Love are enflamed with holy Ardours of Devout Gratitude and Thanksgiving to God the Author of their Beings and kind bestower and preserver of all their Enjoyments Heaven The bright Aboad of all bright and pure and clarified Souls Of all those who have had Heavenly Tempers and Dispositions implanted in them here who have Contemned the World Triumph'd over its depraving pomps and Vanities who have Crucified the flesh with the Corrupt Lusts and Affections thereof who have vanquish'd Hell overcome the Temptations of the Devil offer'd a Grateful violence to Heaven by the importunities of servent Effectual Prayer by the Severities of Repentance Mortification and Self-denyal There in the happy Regions Above they reap the fruit of their pious labours with a plentiful Interest and Encrease of Glory There all the Good all the truely Wise all the Just and Chaste and Charitable Souls of whom this World was not Worthy who were burning and shining Lights amidst a crooked and perverse Generation by their Singularly holy Examples shine as Scars of the first Magnitude in the Kingdom of Heaven they Love God with the Intensest most Dutiful Affection and they Love one another as themselves without any Envying or Repining at their Neighbours happyness who enjoy a Greater Degree thereof than they but each Beatified Spirit enjoying as much of God and Heaven as he is capable of Receiving is fully Satisfied with his own measure of blessedness and derives also pleasure and Contentment from the possessions of his brethren though more highly Glorifyed There in Heaven they Love there they Adore and there they Enjoy for an Endless Duration there their United Employ of Loving Praising and Worshipping God of Returning him Thanksgivings for all the Miracles of his Stupendious Love Unite them the more intimately unto God and Unite them also more closely in Affections to one another a Glorified Saint not repining at the more Advanced Glory of an Angel an Angel of an inferiour Order not Grudging at the Happyness of a Superiour nor any of those Morning Stars of the Creation Envying the Saints their most Illustrious Honour in having the Humanily Dignified with a Personal Union to the Godhead O Heaven The Glorious Receptacle of Heaven-born Souls of the Favourites and Sons of God when shall I come and Appear before him When shall I be made more exactly Like unto him seeing him as he Is When shall I be joyn'd to the Devout Adoring Quire of Angels O Celestial Temple how my Soul Longs to Enter Thee the Holy of Holies One Day in thy Courts is better than a Thousand elsewhere Gracious God deny me what Thou wilt of this Earth so thou givest me at last an inheritance in Heaven That will make ample Amends for all my wants here below That will fully Recompence all the Sufferings of this Mortal Life O my Soul is such a Glorious prize as that of thy high Calling in Christ set before thee and shall not this incite thee to press forward to that Mark To Run the Race of holy Obedience with patience chearfulness and a pious Contention Is such an Heaven such an Exceeding Great and Eternal weight of Glory the Object of thy Hopes and hast thou the Stupidity not to let it be the Object of thine Endeavours also Hast thou the heart to neglect so Great Salvation Shall it not encourage and stir thee up to give all Diligence to make thy Calling and Election Sure Oh how unworthy are they of Eternal Life who will not Exert their utmost power and industry to obtain it Blessed Lord Bring down much of an Heavenly Frame and Temper into our Souls which may Qualifie us for an Enjoyment of Heaven hereafter let there be Divine God-like habits of mind wrought and implanted in us at present that Awaking up at the Resurrection after thy Likeness we may he Satisfied therewith Amen Amen holy Saviour The Prayer O Soveraign Excellency and most Exalted Blessedness whose Delight some Presence makes Heaven and the hiding away of whose face in Displeasure is the chiefest Constituent of Hell O grant that having Such an Heaven such an Exceeding and Eternal weight of Glory the Object of our Faith and Hopes we may labour after an Heavenly frame and Disposition in our Souls which may Qualifie us for the celestical State hereafter Grant that we having Given unto us such Great and precious promises as those appertaining to this Life and a better may by the incitement of these become partakers of thy Divine Nature escaping the Corruptions which are in the World through lust O Holy Father give us a Lively View of Heaven by an Eye of Faith and so Raise up our minds thither that we may always have our Thoughts our Desires our Conversation there whence we look for the
Saviour O make us such obedient Subjects of this thy Kingdom of Grace that we may become capable of thy Kingdom of Glory Convince us blessed Lord that Grace and Glory differ not in Kind but only in Degree of purity Grace being Glory in its Dawn in its progressive light of Sanctisication and Glory being Grace Ripened into Maturity Consummated into perfection and therefore as we hope for and would become partakers of Celestial Glory bring down Holy Jesu much of an Heavenly Temper and habit into our hearts at present Make us to conceive of Heaven as of a pure and holy State of Life rather than of it as a place and Seat of Enravishing Enjoyments to Conceive of it as consisting more in the blissful frame and pious Qualities of our Souls than in the fruition of any External Heavenly Objects and consequently cause us to be Equally desirous that Heaven should enter into us by the way of Holyness here as that we may enter into Heaven by the way of Happyness hereafter That considering Heaven as a place whereinto no Unclean thing can enter considering it as a City wherein only dwelleth Righteousness we may purifie our selves even as Thou the Author of it art pure perfecting of Holyness in thy fear O our God make us more and more meet for an inheritance with the Saints in Light and Glory more and more Resemblant of such a State in our Spiritual Tempers and Dispositions of mind We are as yet in Haile we are Strangers and Sâ—journers here as all our Fathers were O make us fit for our Fathers House for an Heavenly Countrey and safely Conduct us thither whilst on Earth in the midst of Life we are in Death O cause us to see the Goodness of thee our Lord in that Land of the Living Above which only deserves that Name There I here will be no need of the Sun by Day neither of the Moon by Night for the Glory of thee our God will Enlighten it and in the Light of Thy Countenance we shall be Sure to see Light O lift up the partial Light of that Countenance upon us at present causing us to long after a more plentiful manifestation thereof in the Life to come Enable us Heavenly Father more to Admire those inexhaustible Treasures of thy Goodness prepared for such as Love and fear Thee which Eye hath not Seen nor Ear heard neither hath it entred into the heart of Man to conceive O thy unmeasurable Goodness whereby we are not only deliver'd from suffering the vengeance of Hell-torments but also made capable of the Enjoyments of Heaven What shall we render unto the Lord for these inestimable benefits which he Designs to bestow upon us O give us to conform our selves to thine Image in Holyness that we may behold Thee our God in Glory where certainly we can want nothing where all our Desires and Expectations will be compleatly Gratified because Thou our Supream Happyness will be All in All unto us O let us be Thine and be Thou Ours to all Eternity Amen Amen Blessed Redeemer Meditation XIX On Hell and the Eternity of its Torments WHAT can the Wrath of God do more than punish with an Eternity of Misery O the malignity of Sin whose Short pleasures and Empty profits whose false Honours and Transient acts of wickedness have an Infinity of punishment their Recompence O who would buy the pleasures of sin which are but for a moment at the Dear rate of never-ceasing Sufferings Who would refuse the initial troubles of a Religious Course since in the End it srees us from the Torments of Hell and instates us in all the Joys and Glories of Heaven Hell the punishment of the Disobedient and Rebellious of the haters of God Despisers of Goodness and wilful Rejecters of their own Everlasting Mercies Hell A place where is Variety of torments Extremity of torments and Eternity of torments not one way but a Thousand ways to make a poor Soul miserable Everlastingly miserable And who can be ar Variety Who can bear Extremity Who can bear Eternity of torments And yet all this we must bear if ever it be the sad lot of any of us to be cast into Hell Here a mixture and interchange of Mercies allays our Afflictions and Occasions of sorrow but in Hell there 's nothing but pure unmigled misery nothing to be seen but Objects of Terrour and Affrightment nothing to be heard but hideous howlings and Self-Execrations nothing to be felt but utmost pain and torment Not one merry Day and one sad not one hour of Grief and another of Ease not one Cross and another Comfort as it fares with us on Earth but all Crosses and all Curses without any the least mitigation do concur in Hell like lines meeting in their proper Center And no wonder they do so for t is the doleful Residence of the miserably Depraved and sinfully Degenerate of the fearful and unbelieving of the abominable and Murtherers of the proud Angry malicious and Revengeful Qualities of mind which are their own torment and Damnation which render the unhappy possessors of them Suitable Associates only for Devils and Reprobate Spirits Lost to Goodness Sunk into the very Dregs of sin and impiety O Hell where nothing Good inhabits where Darkness fills both the place and minds of those banished from God's Presence blackness of Darkness for ever fills the place blackness of Guilt horrour and Despair their Spirits Oh the Sense of their Loss afflicts more those wretched Souls than does the sense of their pain and Anguish The sense of what the Righteous enjoy and of what themselves might have done had it not been their own fault afflicts more the Damn'd than do all their Hellish Sufferings for that there should be an Heaven which they shall never Enter into that there should be a God whose blissful sight they shall ever be excluded from O this is the bitterest ingredient in Hell A Consideration which pains more the Objects of Divine wrath than all their flames and fire and brimstone O Eternity Eternity A thing which is a Rack to our minds but to Think of it even Abstracted from the Notion of annext misery how much more Amazing then and Dreadful must be the joynt Consideration of Torment accompanying Eternity Ah is it not enough that the Miseries of the Damned are the most Intense and Exquisite but must they be Endless also As Intense they are intolerable as Endless how much more so Alass Alass what are the Greatest Temporal Punishments when compared with those which are Eternal No more than painted fires and tortures compared with the Real Sensible ones whereof they are Representatives To be miserable as Long as God shall continue to be who is Everlasting what an insupportable what an Inconceivable misery is that And O the Just Judgment of an Incons'd Deity provoakt by Irreclaimable wickedness Impâ—nitent Sinners Seek Death Eternal in the wilful Error of their ways they chusing Sin the procuring Meritorious