water out of the wells of salvation Which promise I conceive extends to all duties of Religion and so to this a-among the rest But sure I am that without this a man cannot be well disposed nor well perform any other with comfort the more we make use of this the more joy we have in us and this is to be alwaies performed others cannot be so Psal 4. Commune with your own hearts and in your Chamber be still What comfort and satisfaction doth it yield to the virtuous mind to contrive and meditate how to do well holily and according to vertue the very Idea of the action hath beauty and delight though peradventure we are not able sometimes to do according because of our infirmities and likewise the evil mind delighteth in evil Jer. 11.15 And this delight in good and the impression of the beautifulness and decency of the action excites to the Act. Although evil be present with us when we endeavour our selves to do the thing by reason of our corrupt nature and our Ghostly enemy If this were not a clear truth it might be sufficiently demonstrated by its contrary The contrivance or remembrance of any unseemly or impious action how full of loathing and horror is it or if they be but vain thoughts that lodge in us as they must needs do in those who read ludicrous vain and scurrilous books or spend their time in the Theatre the mind and manners will be formed accordingly unless we disgust them I mean not that the sins of God's people are often premeditated for if they did premeditate them I suppose they would avoid them but yet sometimes they do consider of sin but most commonly break off their consideration and purpose with loathing of it and themselves too for their thoughts and assayes of sinning but those sins which they committed before their conversion they remember after their conversion with the contrivance of them with loathing and the sins which they see others contrive or read or hear of And often the wickedest persons that are when they remember their foulest sins they abhor them and tremble and endeavour to put out of their minds the remembrance of them for the horrible foulness which they then perceive in them and for the offence which they yield them This Duty then being enjoyned us by God as most necessary and powerful for attaining and improving of every grace and for the avoiding of all and every sin and temptation that our nature is inclined to or liable to be drawn to Let these reasons be sufficient to convince us of the necessity and utility of it and the delightfulness of it both to God and our selves and put us upon the practice of it that we may be Royal Priests to God and our bodies may be the Temples of the Holy Ghost and our hearts God's holy Altars upon which the fire shall ever burn and Incense without ceasing Exod. 30. v. 73. The Corrolary Holy Meditation is the thing whereby we edifie our selves and holy life and conversation is that whereby we edifie one another in the most holy Faith Of the Worship of God in general THAT God is and that he is to be worshiped is written in the heart of man with indelible characters for it appears that before any Law was given the Light of Nature did not only instruct men of the Being of God and of the necessity of Divine Worship but also afforded them such plentiful instruction of the manner of the Worship too that he that had an honest sincere heart might and did perform it in an acceptable manner as Abel did without any other Instructer And Cain might also have done the like as is intimated in those words which God spake to him If thou do good shalt not thou be accepted How far did Cornelius the Centurion go by this light and when by this he could do no more God sent his help Rom. 1. v. 20. The invisible things of him that is of God from the Creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal Power and Godhead so that they are without excuse because that when they knew God they glorified him not as God but became vain c. and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the image of man and beast and birds and creeping things Nature then is a Mistress that teacheth us of God and of his worship else the Gentiles had not been given up for not glorifying him as God Nor would Cain have been reproved for mis-serving him Neither would Cain being a wicked person have done it at all But like as he mis-served God so all doubting and unbelieving sensual and hypocritical and vain persons do only offer that which cost them nothing that which they can best part withal easie service and cheap And this corruption growing more and more upon them and they more and more corrupt themselves till at length they become abominable in their wickedness as it is in Psal 53.2 When they have changed the Truth into a Lye and worship the Creature more than the Creator They are driven to that absurdity of denying the being of God that they may avoid the greater viz. a confessing a Deity and yet to yield him no worship Remarkable it is that there hath never been any people or Nation in the world so barbarous but they have both acknowledged a Deity and had a solemn manner of Divine Worship established by municipal Laws the violation whereof hath been punished capitally And if there be any individual person or persons who do or doth deny God or his Worship the same have nothing of the Image of God left in them nor any thing of the holy Spirit of God in them That wisdom and knowledge which they have in them thus corrupted is the Image of the Devil or the Image of the brute beasts as St. James calls their wisdom carnal sensual and devilish And what they know naturally as brute beasts in those things they corrupt themselves as St. Jude speaks Their chief study care labour and industry all their designs providence and all their wisdom is to satisfie their sensual appetites and to provide for back and belly therefore the Apostle saith of them their God is their belly and they mind earthly things This wisdom doth expel and extinguish the wisdom which is from above So that they become Atheistick The Apostle Pet. 2 ep cap. 3. Hath prophecied that such scoffers shall come in these last daies he saith that they are willingly ignorant Ignorance makes them fearless shamless and hopeless That these Atheistick principles are not from our Nature nor born with us but the contrary are from the light of Nature and by our corrupting of our selves we become Atheists is further proved by this That to us who live under the preaching of the gospel and have liberty to read it our selves the glorious light thereof would shine into our hearts if we
temptations and snares of its spiritual enemy and its own frailty and inbred corruptions she bestirreth her self till she hath gotten strength to vanquish her spiritual enemy which having obtained she rejoyceth with joy unspeakable and glorious in Christ and is satisfied and enjoyeth her self more than in the things of pleasure or profit or any other worldly enjoyment and sings praises to God for giving such strength and assistance whereby it is able to overcome All which matters are the meditations of the gracious soul which seeks Gods face evermore And these be the means by which it endeavours to be prepared for every good work Although the gracious soul hath in a great measure conquered the corruptions of nature and is sure of its salvation and God doth say to it I am thy salvation yet is she not satisfied quiet at rest or contented unless she enjoy her Beloved in a close communion sollacing her self with him in reading his word praying and meditating of him and praising him The Spouse knew her Beloved was hers and she his but was not satisfied unless she might lay him all night as a bundle of myrrh between her breasts The enjoyment of his person the kisses of his mouth and his favours and new pledges of his love is that which satisfieth her The Flaggons and the Apples are the things which stay her and comfort her and she must and will have them and will not be satisfied without them because she is sick of love and as Lovers use to do so she museth and meditates in the night of the favours she hath received and also designs and contrives which way to obtain them again because she remembers them more than wine for they refreshed her more and were more sweet to her taste and for desire of these she is often melancholly though she be sure of her interest in him that her Beloved is hers as she was when she run seeking him about the City for his coming to her door at such an hour of the night and his sollicitations and addresses to be let in and the difficulties which he went through to come to her though the weather favoured not all shewed her love but this enflamed her love the more so that she would not be satisfied without the enjoyment of his person and all other favours that Lovers have to bestow and can desire She must sit under his shadow with delight and eat that fruit of his which is pleasant to her taste and be brought into his banquetting house and repose her self in his arms because she admires him in all things and in all his parts she sees such ravishing perfection that she will not enjoy her self at all unless she may see his countenance hear his voice or embrace him in her arms and in her bosom in which enjoyments she is fully taken up as well waking as sleeping for though she sleep her heart waketh This fire never goeth out but is alwaies burning upon her heart as that upon the Altar was which was the type of this and so must it also be with those who profess to be and are his servants and peculiar people And they shall also be endeared to Christ their Beloved and he will see all loveliness in them as his Spouse his Garden inclosed his Sister his Beloved his Friend he will delight frequently to come into into his Garden and gather his pleasant fruits flowers and spices drink of the wine of the Pomegranate pressed eat his honey-comb with his honey and he will be found of his Beloved in the duties of reading meditation prayer and the holy Supper which is his banquet which he giveth her But she gets many a kiss from him in fervent prayer and meditation And when she hath found him she will not let him go she holds him fast in her arms and hangs about him But if she is but in pursuit of him her heart is warmed with his love by such impressions as she will not loose till she enjoy him All which enjoyments of the heavenly soul are the operations of the holy Spirit and the graces of God working in the heart whose conversation is in Heaven by heavenly meditation of the things of God and keeping in those meditations which otherwise the world would justle out if she should not be as a garden enclosed as a fountain sealed that is as if he should say springing waters that admit nothing to pollute or defile them or to disturb or muddy them And the inclosure of this garden signifieth that fence of watchfulness in this duty whereby those things are kept out which would crop off those pleasant plants and rich spices there growing for the use service and delight of her Beloved and are for him preserved guarded and secured This duty is often enjoyned as a most necessary part of Divine Worship and pressed with very large promises and by the experience of all the Saints of God found to be the most available means for the avoiding of that sin which doth so easily beset us and for getting and improving of every grace For reading God's word without thus retaining God in their thoughts is little available no more is prayer for we find there be many who have frequently both read and heard it who still remain unconverted from the errours of their waies and do neither live upon it or by it nor endeavour to come up to it nor to be changed from what they are by nature nor retain it in the love of it So we see that there are many that fast and pray and preach too and yet are not cleansed from sin however they are pure in their own sight and say Stand off for I am holier than thou Wherefore the wise man exhorts to be swifter to hear rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools And a type of this was that ceremonial Law that those beasts that did not chew the cud should be unclean and not to be sacrificed And for want of this the word preached to men often slips out of their minds their worldly affairs that take up their thoughts give them no time to fasten the word in their hearts so as to take root and bring forth fruit but like the seed sowed on stony ground or thorny ground or that falls by the way it comes to no perfection Hence it is that the Lord commanded the Israelites Jos 1.8 Let not this Book of the Law depart out of thy mouth but meditate therein day and night that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous and then thou shalt have good success The Apostle Paul Phil. 4.8 and 9. saith Think on these things which ye have both learned and received and heard and seen in me and the God of peace shall be with you Psal 107.17 The loving kindness of the Lord endureth for ever to them which think upon his commandments to do them Isa 12.3 With joy shall ye draw
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
us cleanse us heal us pardon us to turn his face from our sins and blot out our misdeeds according to the multitude of his mercy Then though for the present they are ever in our sight terrifying and troubling us we shall in due time know that they are pardoned and that the blood of Christ hath cleansed us from them all and that we are reconciled in him and he will heal us and we shall again be restored to the joy of our salvation and praise his Name in his Courts and renew our vowes and be stablished with his free Spirit Most of the Psalms contain prayers for some graces and may stand us in stead for our use and serve for our direction If we are rash or chollerick by nature and subject to wrath and revenge and have fallen thereby or fear we shall fall We cannot be enough sensible of our danger in this particular because we must expect hourly temptations and how far our wrath and choller may carry us we know not especially if we should chance to meet with others as chollerik and rash as our selves if we do not alwaies pray to God to help us in and deliver us from this temptation as it is for the most part in all the sins of our complexion or inclination very difficult to stand against them at all if God do not stand by us and strengthen us and support us and if we forget our selves and do not hang upon him for help call upon him trust in him and fear and distrust our selves These will alwaies be buffetting us He that is sensible of his weakness in this particular and his danger and mourns by reason thereof desiring to be delivered from it seeks help by reading meditation conference and this means of prayer which must also be joyned to the other besides the use of natural means too For so we find the Apostle Paul using them for he saith of himself I keep under my body We strive and run as in a Race So fight I not as one that beateth the Air. In labours often in sastings often c. For hereby we both shew to God and man our burthen that we groan under and desires to be delivered from it if we use all these means to get our deliverance But on the contrary how little desire to be delivered from wrath or lust doth he express who seeds himself to the full drinks wine in bouls pampers his body with high feeding and drinking which are the fewel of these fires or how doth he seek humility of God who delights himself in actions of vain-glory and the applause of men and seeks honour of men by bravery revenge vain ostentation high looks a lofty gate pomp prodigality and the like Certainly those sins which by nature we are most inclined to these by natural helps and adjuments we must oppose not cherish and foster by incitements and allurements The wise Agur accordingly prayed against the means of sin and the occasions against the means and occasions of fulness and want If we so well knew our own proneness to these mother sins as he did and were so wise as he was we would pray as he did to be delivered from the means and occasions of sins This is contained in that Petition Lead us not into temptation In like sort praying for any grace or improvement of a grace we must use the means both spiritual and natural and pray for them and the occasions of them as mortification sobriety watchfulness c. Hence we are taught to pray to God to send us Pastors who shall feed his people with knowledge And because this is a necessary means of grace God hath promised it and by the promise we are invited to ask it Suitably we find David praying Psal 119.12 Teach me thy Statutes v. 18. Open thou mine eyes that I may see the wondrous things of thy Law v. 26. I have acknowledged my waies and thou heardest me O teach me thy Statutes Make me to understand the way of thy Commandments Make me to delight in the thing that pleaseth thee More especially in this specified sin of wrath and revenge if thou labourest under it desiring to be delivered from it and the evils and dangers attending it thou ponderest and meditatest of those Texts of Scripture which reprove and repress it as is that Vengeance is mine and I will repay it saith the Lord. Let not the Sun go down in your wrath Leave thy gift upon the Altar and go and be reconciled and then offer thy gift Prov. It is the wisdom of a man to pass by an offence Anger resteth in the bosom of fools If when ye suffer wrongfully ye take it patiently happy are ye for the Spirit of grace and glory resteth upon you Thou shalt reap improvement of thy patience in a good measure by these meditations And by subduing thy body and withdrawing from it superfluities especially such as more naturally excite this humour in thy body and by careful watching against the first beginning of wrath And then if thou add to these this last remedy viz. Prayer beseeching God through Jesus Christ who is made unto us wisdom righteousness sanctisication and redemption to make us so wise as to pass by offences for his sake and to take from us that folly of anger that as fury is not him so it be not in us neither who are his children who doth good to all that we may be like him in this and that by our slowness to anger and by our patient bearing of wrongs and our meekness and submission to God if it be his will that we shall suffer wrongfully we may perceive and know that the Spirit of grace and glory rests upon us and in that rejoyce Then we may be assured that we shall obtain the victory over these lusts and messengers of Satan and be able to do good for evil to love our enemies to bless them that curse us to pray for those that despightfully use us and so run the waies of Jesus Christ's Commandments and take up his yoak I say we may be assured of obtaining these excellent graces by these meanes because God hath promised it in the prohesie of Isa c. 32. The heart of the rash shall understand knowledg The Lion shall lye down with the Lamb c. 29.4 Certainly the change of the heart and renovation in knowledg and understanding is the chief thing in our Quickning and vivification in the Spirit and in every grace this God having often undertaken and promised As in that promise That he will take away the heart of stone and give his people a heart of flesh And that he will give them a New heart that he will put his Lawes in their hearts and write them in their inward parts We may assure our selves that he will do it If we supplicate him in faith in Jesus Christ And use our own endeavours with the meanes And if we do obtain this so that we can savour the
power to the faint and to them which have no might he increaseth strength They that wait upon the Lord shall renew thâ—ir strength Isa 40.29 30. The God of Peace shall sanctifie you throughout in spirit soul and body Faithful is he who hath called you who also will do it 1 Thes 5.23 â—4 Sin shall not have dominion over you Rom. 6.14 A new heart will I give you Ezek. 36.26 But it would seem tedious to run through all the sins which humane nature is prone to and to adapt the promises in holy Scripture to particular sins and lusts under which we labour and desire to be eased I therefore pursue it no further the rather because the precedent instances are easily imitated by those who read and meditate in the Scripture which all they do who desire to break off their sins by repentance This Direction I conceive to be necessary viz. That those who come to crave a promise of God do also consider the qualification and in the first place seek that else the promise belongeth not to thee For example if in thy trouble thou prayest that all things may work together for thy good pray also that he would circumcise thy heart and cause thee to love him with all thy heart And pray for this in the first place for the other will follow upon it This is according to God's own direction Seek first the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof all other things shall be thrown in to you And in this manner we are to put in suit all the promises We must look upon the promised blessing as the invitation and incouragement to seek the grace that is the qualification and he who prayes for the grace implicitely and most strongly prayes for the promise annexed And there is no grace but hath a promised reward annexed a cup of cold water given in charity shall not lose its reward or but two mites where little is Then we must believe that no good works shall lose its reward And there is no blessedness promised to any but those who are qualified with this or that grace as may be seen in the 5th of St. Matthews Gospel and in other like places And he that seeks godliness seeks all the promises of this life and that which is to come as incident thereto therefore seek this first For many that have the qualifications of these promises and blessedness are yet in doubt whether they are sufficiently qualified and think that they ought to be better qualified for them and desire to be better qualified as well for their own joy and comfort as also that they may be more excellent and lovely in the eye of their Lord and beloved Saviour And grace wherever it is begets a holy thirst for a greater measure and will still thirst till it enjoy the highest perfection of degrees in glory Therefore they pray chiefly for grace and the improvement of every grace in themselves and others according to that Col. 1.8 9. Since the day we heard of it viz. Their love in the spirit mentioned in the 8th verse we cease not to pray for you and to desire that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding And chap. 4.12 That ye may stand perfect and compleat in all the will of God Phil. 1.11 And be filled with the fruits of righteousness c. And for the Blessings Rewards and Promises which God hath made and limited to those who have these graces and qualifications No man that prayeth for them in the behalf of those that are qualified can doubt of prevailing as when we pray Psal 7.4 Let all those that seek thee rejoyce Psal 40.16 Psal 33.22 Let thy mercy O Lord be upon us according as we hope in thee Psal 25.21 Let integrity and uprightness preserve me for I wait on thee and the like Because we oftener find these blessings and rewards positively asserted to be the portion and peculiar priviledges of those that seek God call upon him love him delight in him trust in him rely upon him have their mind stayed on him hope in him fear him and wait upon him Then we have found them particularly prayed for in the behalf of them who are so qualified Yet we do well to pray for them as well for our selves as for the whole Church of God Now in regard there be many promises free and without any condition on our part it behoves us when we fear that we are not qualified for a promise that we press God with those promises which are free as that I will love them freely Hos 14.4 I will pardon their iniquities I will heal them Hos 14.5 I will pour out my Spirit upon them Joel 2.28 I will put my Laws in their hearts and write them in their inward parts Jer. 31.33 I will be merciful to them and their sins and their iniqnities will I remember no more Jer. 31.34 He will subdue our iniquities and cast our sins into the bottom of the Sea Mich. 7.19 I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake and I will not remember thy sins Isa 43.25 I will put my fear in their hearts Jer. 32.40 A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you Ezek. 36.26 Psal He will teach sinners in the way Isa 32.4 The heart of the rash shall understand Isa 42.7 He shall open the eyes of the blind Isa 44.3 I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground These and many others are promised upon very little or no consideration to be performed on our part As some are for asking seeking coming to God looking up to him If we had the sagacity of the Canaanitish woman we should perceive a door of hope through a little cranny For God will be sometimes prevailed with for a very petty consideration performed from a sincere heart because he knoweth our frailty This David well knew when he prayed Let the liseing up of my hand be as an evening Sacrifice So did the woman that brought two mites to inrich the Treasury And the Thief upon the Cross Also there are promises which are meerly free and grounded upon the privation and want of all consideration on our parts as that Therefore will the Lord wait to be gracious And at other times the Lord will not be prevailed withal but with great intreaty and importunity of prayer and fasting and alms-giving As we read our blessed Saviour told the Disciples in the case of dispossessing unclean spirits And Cornelius also with his prayers used fasting and alms much But sometimes the Lord will not be prevailed with at all as he said to the Prophet Though Noah Daniel and Job should entreat c. Therefore he commands him not to pray for that people and though Moses and Samuel should intercede Jer. 15.1 As it is said in the first chapter of Proverbs Because when I called
and hourly Begger at the Throne of grace for the Spirit of grace And I will never cease begging because thou hast shewed thy selfe more free to give than we to ask or receive and hast made such free invitations and offers to all that will come to thee or ask of thee And I am resolved to take no denial because I come upon thy importunate invitations If I should take a denial or go away without my errand I should seem to doubt of the verity and truth of thy promises and free and gracious invitations therefore I will never leave knocking till thou openest unto me But at evening and at morning and at noon day and also at midnight will I knock till thou pleasest to open unto me and relieve my needs 3 Preparatory Ejaculation 2 Chron. 16.3 Lord when ever Jsrael in their troubles did turn to thee thou wert found of them And thou promisest that thou wilt be found of them that seek thee we seek thee now and resolve to seek thy face evermore be thou found of us and be with us Lord since thou art open hearted handed why should we be close mouthed 4 Preparatory Ejaculution Lord since thou givest both the will and the deed that is good And we can have nothing to offer thee but what is thine own provide now O Lord a Sacrifice for thy self and put heavenly desires and affections into our hearts by thy holy Spirits assistance that we may seek those things which thou hast freely invited us to ask and art willing and desirous to give And then our prayers shall ascend up to thee as incence and the lifting up of our hands and hearts shall be as a Sacrifice do thou prepare our hearts and thine eare will harken thereto And thou O blessed Jesus perfume these our prayers and intercede for us 5 Preparatory Ejaculation Lord we have experienced how forward our natural parents are to succour and help their craving little ones they will often over-do their abilities in their kindness and they do only wait for opportunities to do them good as far as they are able But thy goodness infinitely surpasseth that of Humane Nature How then can we doubt but thou wilt hear and help us in all our needs when we fly unto thee for succour and take the opportunity to do for us above all we can ask and think for so thou hast heard some of thy Servants We are resolved to ask as largely as we can for all Spiritual gifts and graces because thou hast bid us to open our mouthes wide and thou wilt fill them it is they will that we should ask and receive that our joy may be full it is our interest and our inclination too so to do for our natural relief Incline thou our hearts to be as hungry and thirsty covetous and greedy for grace and the relief of our souls as ever we were for the relief of our bodies in our greatest distresses when pined for hunger or thirst for such thou delightest to releive 6 Preparatory Ejaculation Lord let us not think to offer thee such services as cost us nothing or the worst of our flock as Cain did or as those that draw nigh to thee with their lips when their hart goeth after their covetousness Lest thou shouldest bid us to go and offer them to our governour and see whether he will accept them but let us serve the with the first the best and perfectest as Abel did Lord why didst thou proclaim thy name merciful and gracious long suffering and abundant in goodness Why hast thou made so many gracious promises and invitations to us but to envite us to come unto the for releif A Prayer LOrd remember thy new Covenant and give us all those graces which thou hast freely promised to us thereby First love us freely Then give us the man Christ Jesus whom thou hast given for a Covenant to the people with him give us thy Spirit put it into our hearts let it dwell in us and cause us to walk in thy Statutes and to know thy Judgments and do them for it is this unction that teacheth us all things and inables us to do every good work when of our selves we can neither think nor do good And give us all the graces of thy Spirit Love Joy Peace Meekness Gentleness Brotherly kindness and Charity and then we shall know and be sure that thou hast put thy Spirit into us if we feel no Envy Lust Pride Wrath Malice Covetousness or Prophaneness stirring in our hearts And according to thy Covenant of Grace give us a new heart and put thy Laws in our hearts and write them in our inward parts and be thou our God and make us thy people and take away our unmalleable heart of stone Also make us all to know thee from the greatest to the least Let us also know Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent Let us know thee as our God alsufficient that we may trust in thee As our gracious Father that we may cast our care upon thee and delight in thee and love thee though thou chastise us As our Shepherd that we may not fear the Wolves that would devour us As our Husbandman that we may submit to thy pruning And give us also to know our selves to be thy people thy children thy sheep thy vine and all other relations wherein thou hast put us Let us know thee to be our portion and that by our seeking thee and chusing thee to be our portion and our selves to be thy portion too and thy Jewels And that by our pureness holiness preciousness and humility and littleness in our own eyes and by thy watching over us and keeping us Make us to know Christ Jesus as our King to give us Laws and govern us as our Priest to atone thy wrath for us and reconcile us to thee and persume our services and intercede for us as our Prophet to teach and instruct us in the knowledge of thee and thy will Let us know him as our Lord our Saviour our Brother our Husband our Beloved our Ransom our Bread of Life and Water of Life and as our Head our Corner-stone on which we are built as our Vine whereof we are branches as our Shepherd as our All. That we may be able to say Whom have we in Heaven but thee or whom in Earth that we can desire in comparison of thee That we may rejoyce in him alwaies And fulfil thou in us that promise that we shall be all taught of thee and shall need no more one anothers teaching Make us to hear that voice behind us saying This is the way walk ye in it Let us not stop our ears nor turn from it Give thy Son the Heathen for his Inheritance and the uttermost parts of the Earth for his Possession and those who will not submit to him let him bruise them with a Rod of Iron Make Jerusalem a praise Let Righteousness run down like a mighty River and let
priviledges which Jesus Christ hath purchased for us Give us more assurance of the pardon of our sins and our reconciliation to God and the joy thereof Give us the peace of conscience and the Peace of God which passeth all understanding Give us the Joy which is in the Holy Ghost which we enjoy in holy duties Let us taste and rellish these sweet enjoyments with more satisfaction and joy that the excesses of our souls may be in these enjoyments and we may keep them in our mouths and hide them under our tongues as we do sweet morsels And let the enjoyment of these carry us through all difficulties Give us more confidence in our accesses to the Throne of Grace and a belief that thou art more ready to give than we to ask for thy fulness is more full than our emptiness is wanting Thy fatherly care to provide for us is more faithful and careful to do it than we to seek it though we are resolved to be alwaies begging and craving because we know we shall alwaies be wanting in this life and we will not lose our desires and thy bountiful gifts for want of asking The cause which moved thee to make such gracious invitations to us and such great and precious promises of grace and mercy was only in thy self for thou invitest the thirsty to buy Wine and Wilk without mony or price What then is there that we can buy it with that is neither mony nor price it can be nothing but to exchange our thirst for the thing which we thirst for to relieve it to open our mouths Therefore as the cause which moved thee to make these invitations and promises was in thy self Lord seek in thy self the cause which may move thee to perform them The qualifications of thirst want and need we have and shall have as long as we have any life But if we be dead in trespasses and sins quicken thou us because thou only canst do it by thy holy Spirit In the assurance of thy free mercy then whereof thou by thy free promises hast convinced us and by the performance of the chiefest of them hast fully satisfied us inable us to assure our souls of thy readiness and willingness to hear and help us through the merits of Christ Jesus and in assurance thereof to come boldly and with confidence to the Throne of Grace And give us sure evidence of our interest in all other priviledges That our joy may be full assure us that our place of defence is the munition of Rocks That bread be given us and our water shall be sure Bless us and make us a blessing Let showers of blessings come down upon thy people Give us to lay hold of Christ for only Wisdom our only sufficient Righteousness our Sanctification and Redemption Tread Satan under our feet that we may bruise his head as often as he goeth about to sting our heel Destroy his works Let the Spirit of the Lord set up his standard against him And let not Antichrist any more deceive the Nations but destroy thou him and the Whore which is drunk with the blood of Saints Succour those that are tempted Be with thy people in the fiery Tryal that is to come upon all the world to try them as thou wast with Joseph in the prison Lord let not our sins stand as a cloud to hinder these our prayers from ascending to thee or cause thee to turn away thine ear For though they are so many that we scarce know how to confess them yet thou hast pardoned as great sinners as we when they turned unto thee and it is usual with thee to seek thy lost sheep and to receive thy returning Prodigals Lord thy free promises and importunate invitations by thy self and thy Son give us this boldness of access to thee for thereby we are assured that thou art more desirous to give than we to receive Hear us therefore through the merits of thy Beloved Son our Eternal High Priest in whom only we hope to prevail with thee in whom thy Promises are Yea and Amen And accept us in him who hath purchased this Access for us in whom we trust that he now intercedeth for us whilst we are praying to thee And that he persumes and presents these our supplications at the Throne of Grace To whom with Thee and thy blessed Spirit of Grace be all honour praise and glory Eternally Amen Enter not into Judgment with us O Lord for our best services for in thy sight shall no flesh living be justified A shorter Prayer for daily use LOrd draw nigh unto me now that I draw nigh unto thee for thy promise sake for thy mercy sake and for Christ Jesus sake And assist me with thy Spirit that I may pray unto thee in the Spirit and in Faith believing that thou art more ready to give than we to ask or receive thy graces and thy mercies Lord relieve me according to all my needs and according to thy infinite goodness and according to thy gracious promises and invitations Relieve my spiritual blindness with that eye-salve which thou hast invited the blind to come unto thee for Relieve my spiritual nakedness with that fine white linnen which thou hast invited the naked to seek of thee and cloath me with humility patience temperance chastity and charity and every grace Relieve my spiritual poverty with that fine gold which will enrich our souls to eternity and make me rich in good works Relieve my spiritual hunger and thirst with the bread of life and the water of life so that I may never hunger or thirst after any thing else And make me more hungry and thirsty for thee and thy grace and more sensible of my needs Lord I pray not for my self alone but for me and mine and all the Israel of the Lord. Let my seed be a seed unto thee and all that shall come of them to the end of the world Remember the entail of thy blessings to us and to our seed for a thousand generations Let the Kingdoms of the world become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ Let holiness to the Lord be writ upon all our common things Make us all to know thee from the greatest to the least Let us need no more to teach one another saying Know the Lord. Let us all be taught of God and let us hear the sweet voice behind us saying This is the way walk ye in it when we turn to the right hand or to the left and make Jerusalem a praise Love us freely pardon us and heal us Subdue our iniquities and cast our sins into the bottom of the Sea that they may never rise up against us Give us new hearts Put thy Laws into our hearts and write them in our inward parts Be thou our God and make us thy people Put thy Spirit into us and cause us to walk in thy Statutes and to know thy Judgments and do them Cause us to love thee with
or like a dead Tree withered and plucked up In this forelorn and hopeless condition when no man regards our perishing we come to God for help and he in whose only power it is to help doth help us and deliver us and makes the dry bones live and we have seen the salvation of the Lord and the wonders that he doth for the Sons of men and have been transported with joy as the Israelites when they came out of Babylon were I acknowledge that there be some who come in no misfortune nor are plagued like other men But all those whom Christ Jesus hath chosen to be his souldiers he trains up in this discipline But if it were so that I had not gone thorow such perils such afflictions and such troubles as I see and hear to befall other men Have I not much more cause to praise God for keeping me in health than for raising me up again being fallen sick from keeping me from the perils which befall other men than for delivering me if I had been in danger and for keeping me from troubles wherein others are plunged If I consider the calamities of men far greater than my self As for instance of him who is more worth than thousands of us our Soveraign Lord the King Can I chuse but bless God that my distresses afflictions and perils of life have not been so many and great as his But how great and good above me was he that was after God's own heart What pains perils and troubles did he not go thorow first in his person his reins chastened him in the night he had no soundness in his bones then from his superiours Saul persecuting him as long as he lived from his inferiours his servant curseth him to his face from unkind neighbours as Doeg the Edomite from his Relations his wife scoffing him his Son rebelling and another commits a rape on his Sister c. Besides the temporal mercies he also tells us what God hath done for his soul too as Psal 103. and blesseth God for forgiving all his sin c. ib. For this we can never praise God enough Meditations and Ejaculations Go about Duties not as labours but thy only enjoyments Delight thy self in the Lord and expect the Reward LORD since thou hast promised thy holy Spirit to them who ask it of thee I beseech thee give it to me for without it I cannot serve thee nor walk in obedience to thy holy Commandments for by reading and hearing thy Word I can only know my duty I cannot retain my holy resolutions which are stirred up in the duties one hour Therefore do thou create in me a new heart and a new nature Regenerate me by thy Spirit and the immortal seed and write thy Law in my heart and give me thy holy Spirit the Almighty Helper the Comforter and hold thou me up and I shall be safe Make me willing to undergo conflicts with sin for hereby I shall have comfort in the hour of death and the day of trouble O give me peace of conscience the comforts of a well-spent life that I may be able to say with Hezekiah Lord remember how I have walked before thee in all simplicity when the day of death comes Make me wise to consider alwaies my latter end and what thoughts I shall have then of the world and all its comforts let this restrain me from giving up my self to them else I shall be a fool in my latter end as the wicked are and cry out that the world hath deceived them their consciences being then awakened which in their lime-time they stifled and then the Hypocrites have no hope Therefore Lord give me grace and prudence to make provision against that time that the sting of death may be taken out Let me believe the terrours threatned against the wicked that I may never come to feel them Let me find Christ my Advocate when death comes upon me And that I may not die in my sin make me by thy grace continually to die to sin Deliver me from every evil work and preserve my body and soul blameless unto the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Lord above all things give me to fear sin and the transgression of thy Law who art the great Soveraign of the world its Creator and Preserver to whom we owe both our persons and obedience and if the Gentiles do by nature the things contained in the Law much more let me who have as well the written Law and the Gospel as the Law of Nature do the things contained in the Law else how shall I escape thy wrath But having tryed our obedience thou hast found us all rebels and in thy justice mayest damn us all if thy mercy in Christ Jesus do not save us Since Jesus Christ our Saviour was made under a Law and the glorious Angels fulfil thy commandments and hearken to the voice of thy word and man hath no such perfection as his Saviour or the Angels but our wisdom and our perfection is in obedience to the Law Inable us to keep it for herein God hath shewed us what is good Micah 6.8 Every child of God is as a souldier keeping a garrison in an enemies Country Therefore Lord as I put on my apparel let me remember to put on the Armour of light and to watch and be provided to fight thy battels let me not be destitute of any piece of this Armour but give me all Christian vertues I am naked naturally and without this Armour but unless I have it of thy gift I cannot put it on but must perish by my nakedness for I cannot have any truse from my spiritual adversary who watches to destroy us And give me the skill of an expert warriour to use these Armes against the Devil the World and the flesh inable me to put off all sins which hinder the planting and growth of grace in our hearts for we cannot serve God and mammon let me depart from evil that I may do good Let me feel the power of Christ's death that I may partake of his resurrection Let the sense of my forepast sins make me the more diligent in thy service Since my darkness is passed let me put off the works of darkness Let me not delay considering my danger and the shortness and uncertainty of life and the greatness of the reward if I do thy service For to him that is faithful in much thou wilt give much ten Cities for improving his five talents to that number That I may fear sin and not make light of it or a mock of it as fools are said to do let me consider the great evil of it That it is the foolishness and brutishness of a man the darkness and nakedness the blindness and sottishness and death of the soul which makes us said to be dead in trespasses and sins and that the effects of sin are the worst of evils That it makes us like to the Devils That one sin makes us
denying the Lord and his justice and his holiness all which blasphemies are hereby committed and God summoned to the creatures bar and we condemn him of injustice LORD heal us of these our iniquities and reform our complaints that we may have none but filial complaints to thy self as our Blessed Lord Jesus who said My God my God why hast thou forsaken me And whatever we suffer to say with Jeremy in his expostulation Lord thou art Righteous yet let me reason with thee Why doth the ungodly prosper And in all extremity of afflictions retain this thought of God that he is righteous and good And let our complaints of the instruments of our afflictions be mixed with prayers for them as Stephens were And let us strive to bring up our wills to God's will and to submit all to thee saying as our Saviour did Lord if it be possible let this cup pass from me Nevertheless not my will but thy will be done And that thou mayest remove thy afflicting hand and thy Rod and thy servants sins and punishments may be removed let us first amend our lives and forsake our sins Search and try our waies to find out the sins we lie under For thou hast said If thy people which are in Captivity shall bethink themselves and turn unto thee thou wilt help them but if when thou hearknest thou hearest no man speak righteously or to say what have I done how canst thou repent of the punishment when we repent not of our sins Let us therefore remember from whence we are fallen and let us turne again to the Lord and forsake our wicked waies lest thou sayest to us as to Israel thou sayedst 10 Judg. 10. You have forsaken me go and cry unto the Gods that ye have served And having tried our waies and forsaken our wickedness let us in humble holy fervent prayer lift up our hearts with our hands to our God in the Heavens Saying we have transgressed and rebelled but thou hast pardoned Thus Davi'd Princes took counsel against him but he gave himself to prayer and thus the Marriners in the storm to Jonas awake thou sluggard and call upon the name of thy God And then our God will save us as he did the Israelites in Babylon under Ahasuerus when commissions were out to slay them And his hand is not shortned to us neither hath he forgotten to be gracious to them who confess their sins with their aggravations as the Prophet doth we have transgressed and rebelled And justify God as Ezra Thou hast punished us less then our iniquities have deserved Made upon hearing of a Sermon to the same effect LORD whatever duties I perform unto thee let me do them from the principle of love and not of custom or necessity to silence the natural or awakened conscience since thou acceptest the will more than the gift as thou didst the poor widows two mites and it is this that perfumes our Sacrifices and it is thiâ— that thy word calls the fulfilling the law And all that thou hast required of us is contained in thiâ— as it is writen what doth the Lord require of thee but that thou love the Lord thy God and my Son give me thy heart O Lord God take this poor worthless heart too good for the World and those brutish pleasures which we so willingly give it to and eagerly and earnestly affect but not any way good enough for thee who by thy bounty and beneficence to us every day dost oblige us more than all we have or can doe will requite but the world can do no such things for us and if beauty excellency worth wisdom kindness beneficence parentage free love pardon or any other motive whatsoever would prevail to win and allure us in thee it is I will therefore resolve to devote my affections to thee and ever to begin my meditation in the morning when I awake with the sweet remembrance of thy undeserved kindness to me When we were cast out in our blood in the open field in the day of our nativity when no Eye pitied us to wash us swaddle us salt us bath us and bind us up then thou passedst by and castedst thy eye of love upon us and didst all these things for us and nourishedst us and broughst us up and then the time of love was and thou madest us beautiful and comely in thy own righteousness and marriedst us to thy self and bestowedst upon us thy self And all that is thine And all that are thine And all this didst thou to us as a stranger passing by and unconcerned for what had our perishing been to thee but thou as the good Samartan didst freely pity us nay while we were thy enimies thou didst all this for us shall not all this love move us nor is this all Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive what the Lord hath prepared for them that love him If we consider the particular benefits we have received from the hand of God and how highly we valued them and earnestly sought them before we had them and the great evils we have been deliverd from and how much we feared them and how restless we were in the fear till we were delivered from them we shall admire thy goodness and love thee with admiration And if we consider thy excellency we may love and admire the perfection and beauty of thee and thine infinite wisdome and power in all thy works in the Heavens in the earth and in the ocean in the Sun Moon Stars the Seasons of the year the living creatures and in the smallest of them O Lord since we cannot but see all loveliness excellency and desirableness in thee let our first and last meditations begin and end the the day with thee eager to take the first opportunity of approaching thy throne and as loath to leave the sweet contemplation of thy exelencies and goodness O Lord God almighty thy holy word teacheth us That except we eat thy Sons body and drink his blood we have no life in us And that whoso eateth his flesh and drinketh his blood hath eternal life Joh. 6.53 54. Give us worthily to receive this Sacrament that we may have eternal life Give us to come to it with grace in our heart that our graces may be increased and strengthened as by the food of our souls as the body is by the food of the body which is not betterd by food if it be not living no more can our souls be if we be dead in trespasses and sins and as the body turns the most wholsom nourishment to its hurt to diseases if the stomach be full of ill humours so our souls shall be worse as Judas was for these holy Sacraments if we come not to them prepared with repentance Therefore as the Lord was pleased to wash his Disciples feet before he gave them the Sacrament of his body and blood that they might be clean and fit for
my soul let thy impatiente bearing of lyings slanders backbitings and false accusations humble thee and drive thee to seek to God by prayers and tears to assist and help thy weak patience and faith and make thee more conformable to Christ thou canst bear other injuries learn to bear these that thou mayest be blessed O my God do thou preserve me support me and hold me up that I may not fall by wrath and impatience though the injuries I receive be never so great unjust and false yet let me be supported by thy word and thy Spirit in me assuring me of reward in heaven O my God let me contentedly submit to thy chastisments and let me be assured that thou wilt bring good out of evil and that they are sent by thee for my good that I should not be condemned with the world 1 Cor. 11. And by thy assistance I shall go forth to thee without the camp bearing thy reproach Heb. 13.14 And my patience shall be perfected And assure me that in this unjust suffering I take up the Cross of a Christian Another end why God afflicts us is to make us call to mind our sins which procured the afflictions as Josephs brethren called to mind theirs of selling their brother It makes us to search and try our selves what sins we lye in and have not repented off Meditation LORD Sanctify them to us for this end that we may not lye in our sins nor dye in them But may be awakened to search and try our waies and call to mind our sins and repent of them with a godly sorrow unto salvation and turne unto the Lord with all our hearts lest otherwise we perish with the world And let the blessedness which thou hast pronounced upon thy mourners and the comfort which thou hast promised them come on them in the sight of their persecutors for their comfort will be the discomfort of them Another end why Gods afflicts us is to restrain us from some sin which we are prone to so he restrained St. Paul from pride for if God did not restrain us we should fall oftener than we do not only into those same sins which we have formerly committed but also into all others which the nature of man is subject to commit and which we think our selves quite free from as Hasael when the Prophet told him what Villanies he would commit answered him saying Thinkest thou that thy Servant is a Dog yet he did what the Prophet had foretold 2 King 8. So God withheld Abimeleck from sinning with Abrahams wife so David before he was afflicted he went astray but learned Gods judgments by afflictions And said Thy Rod and thy Staff have comforted me by which saying of David it appeares That another end of Afflictions is for Spiritual comfort Therefore 't is said in St. James Count it all joy when you fall into manifold temptations For as sin as soon as committed flies in our face and tells us that we have deserved all the curses threatned in Gods word for our consciences immediately tels us that the wages of sin are death and damnation so afflictions brings to mind our sins and makes our consciences search themselves what sins lye unrepented off Then our repentance brings remission and peace of conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost communion with God and watchfulness and carefulness against sin for the future But to make us more capable of the comfort it seems meet to God to visit us by afflictions Another end of afflictions it to abase and humble us That we may walk humbly with our God humble your selves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may lift you up where both these ends of afflictions are conjoyned viz. The joy of being lifted up with the humiliation he humbles whom he in tends to exalt Another end is for purgation I will purge away all the dross and tinn Which doth supose that there are some sins committed by and some corruptions remaining in the Servants of God as it is in the 9 of Daniel 11. Yea all Israel have transgressed thy law even by departing that they might not obey thy voice therefore the curse is poured upon us and the oath that is written in the law of Moses because we have sinned Every branch in me that beareth fruit he purgeth Isa 27.9 By this shall the iniquity of jacob be purged As our Saviour was made perfect by suffering so all that are made perfect are made perfect by sufferings When our consciences checks us it causes us to search and try our waies as it is in the Prophet after I was afflicted I smote upon my thigh Another end to bring a man to himself when before he would not know himself nor could understand his frailties and weakness also to bring a man to Christ and to make him go out of himself and the thought of his self-sufficiency and self confidence to seek his salvation in Christ alone for if the word doth not work upon us God doth work by the Spirit of bondage upon hard consciences as David said my reines chasten me in the night season So was the Prodigal Son brought to himself to bethink him of his Fathers house and to return home LORD sanctify them to thy Servant for all these ends that I may find all those opperations wrought in me and let me wait patiently upon the Lord laying my mouth in the dust As water that stands still without motion or agitation putrifieth and the Air corupteth unless it be moved with some gales of Wind so the minds of men become degenerate and their virtues and graces soon languish unless they be excited and exercised by variety of fortune troubles and new difficulties the most troublesome accidents that befall teach and improve a wise man most and learn him the best lessons Time of Trouble is the season for Prayer If Esau had not come against Jacob with an army he had not wrestled with God nor got the blessing Psal 50.15 Call upon me in the time of trouble and I will deliver thee and thou shalt praise me so it is the season for Gods mercy to those who seek it by prayer And as if the sense of our necessities would not force us enough to this duty of prayer he injoynes it by precept and inviteth with a promise which shews both our backwardness to the Duty and Gods readiness to accept our prayers and shew mercy to us and sometimes he is fain to be found of them that seek him not and he is fain to send his Spirit to help us to pray and sometimes he is fain to hear us when we have but a purpose to pray as David said in the Psalms I said I wll confess my sin and thou forgavest my iniquities and sometimes God is fain to prevent us as Isa 64.10 Before they call I will answer and sometimes he will not stay till the end of our Prayer as it is said Whilest they cry I will say
The similitude also of natures may cause love for after the image of God man was made and is so renewed the necessity and the utility of Gods chastisments he that had had very good experience of them upon the same account with the same success confesseth in the Psa 119.67 plainly in these words Before I was afflicted I went astray but now I have learned the Judgements of thy mouth And It is good for me that I have been afflicted Psal 119.71 Unless we are pure in our own eyes And have better conceits of our own hearts than of him who was a man according to Gods own heart we cannot but see with the same eyes as he did That God doth afflict men for their good to sanctify them and teach them in the waies of eternal life as it is Psalm Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest and teachest in the way that thou mayest give him patience in time of Adversity c. Neither were his afflictions for the short season of a day or a year But constant Psal Even from my youth up thy terrours have I sufferd with a troubled minds and Psal All the day long have I been afflicted and chastened every morning Psal 119.109 My soul is always in my hand yet do I not forget thy law Wherefore St. Pet. 1 Epist 4.12 Bids them think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is happened unto you as though some strange thing had happened unto you which implys that afflictions in the highest degree are common and familiar guests to be daily expected Those were no light ones whereby Davids very soul was in his hand and in jeopardy Zach. 13.9 I will bring the third part through the fire It shewes the truth of our profession if we can go on cherfully without outward incouragements Therefore when God would shew the sincerity of Job by removing that objection of Satan Hast thou not made a hedge about him he let loose the tempter to afflict him with all sorrows and to deprive him of all comforts When God would perfect in us the grace of patience he doth it by affliction as it is Jam. 1.4 and that where it is makes a perfect Christian as we ought all to be as it is Mat. 5. ult Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect Paul to the Philip. Cap. 1.12 Saith The things which have happened unto me have fallen out rather for the furtherance of the Gospel so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the pallace and in all other places So far are afflictions from hindering us in the heavenly race or from hindering the sowing of the seed of grace in the heart of others that the patient suffering of the Saints of God provokes others to imitation and to search and inquire what is that principle and Basis upon which such resolutions stand Psal 25.10 Though they are afflicted they acknowledge that all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth to such as keep his covenant and his testimonies they know that of kindness God afflicts them the very same kindness is in afflicting them as was in adopting them His paternal love The assurance of which convinceth them that all things shall work for the good of them that love God This principle every true believer hath and this made Moses to chuse afflictions before the pleasures of sin viz. The assurance of his interest in the love of God and the glorious priviledges of the Saints by faith in gods promises through the merits of the bloody passion of our Redeemer and the Hope which they have of the repositum in the world to come Our Blessed Lord and Saviour was not only our example of suffering wrongfully and undergoing all griefs and sorrows whom being our captaine and head we ought to follow But being our King also hath made it a law for all that will come after him to deny enjoyments and to take up the contrary which our nature so much declines crosses The discipline which he trained up his disciples to and all his followers was suffering The parable of the builder sitting down and first to cast up what his building will cost him coucheth the cost and paines grief and self-denial which a Christian must resolve to undergo for Heaven and happiness He told his followers that the world would hate them pesecute them and kill them for his and the Gospels sake The parable of the Marchant who having found a field wherein was contained a treasure hid sold all to purchase it sheweth what we must part with for Heaven Consider the sharneful painful cursed death of our Lord. How they designed his derision in the robes Crown of thornes salutation in contempt spitting on his face c. If our hopes were in this life we were of all men most miserable What then can a Servant of God expect here The comfort of the Scriptures are suited to such a condition only and a great part of the Scripture would be useless if there were no such condition David in 119. Psal The same is my comfort in my affliction thy word hath quickned me Great are the troubles of the Righetous but the Lord delivereth him out of all Psal 34. v 19. and 7. The Angel of the Lord tarrieth round about them that fear him and delivereth them and the whole Psalm is made to shew the blessedness of them that trust in the Lord and the faithfulness of God toward such as trust in him in time of affliction and many other of Davids Psalms are to the same effect that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have Hope He is a Father of the Fatherless and a help to the friendless Our heavenly Father will not endure to hear his children cry long though heaviness endureth for a night joy cometh in the morning and Psal 140.12 I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted and the right of the poor The patient abiding of the meek shall not always be forgotten before the Lord 3 of the Revela ver I will be with thee in the fiery trial that is to come upon all the earth to try them I will be with thee in the fire that it shall not burne thee and in the Water that it shall not drown thee The hatred which the men of the world bear to the people of God is by the Spirit of God in the Scriptures set forth as a principal cause of their calamities the Cap. of the op of St. Cain was of that wicked one and slew his Brother wherefore because his works were evil and his brothers good conttariety of works is cause of hatred as well as contrariety of natures men blush not before them that are like them the contrariety makes them blush Galat. 4.29 As he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit So it is now he alludes to Ishmaels mocking of Isaac This is most fully set forth in Psal 37.