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
the perception of these mysteries so according to this example let thy faithful people prepare themselves with repentance and perfect charity and if we remember that our neighbour hath any thing against us ler us leave our gift at the Altar and go and be first reconciled to our neighbour and then perform our Sacrifice to God and apprehending and discerning the Lord's body that we commit no irreverence And as our souls are prepared so let us prepare our bodies as thy servant David when he eat the shew bread 1 Sam. 21.5 answered the Priest Women had been kept from them three daies and the vessels of the young men were holy Let our bodies be sanctified by fasting temperance abstinence prayer and humiliation lest as the Ark of the Covenant by which the Lord conveyed the greatest benefits to the Israelites being taken by the Philistines brought to them the greatest calamities and so it did to Vzzah for but touching it irreverently In like manner these heavenly gifts if we eat them unworthily shall prove our damnation and if they who but touched the hem of his garments or received him into their house received such benefits shall not they who receive him into their souls be healed of all their infirmities and as the antient martyrs by receiving these mysteries were strengthened to undergo all that tyranny could lay upon them Let them in like manner strengthen us against all that Satan and the world can do against us And as the daily Infirmities of our body are helped by our bodily nourishment so let our Infirmities of our souls by this our Spiritual nourishment be relieved and us be satisfied and delighted therewith as with heavenly manna O Lord sacrifice and offerings and burnt offerings thou wouldest not have but thou gavest a body to thy only begotten Son that he should offer up himself in whom thou art well pleased And this Sacrament was instituted by him in Commemoration of his death and the acceptable Sacrifice of his life for the sins of the world Lord by his death and Sacrifice of his life unto thee which we hereby celebrate be reconciled unto us This is that pure Sacrifice which the Saints shall offer up unto thee in every place LORD since thou turnest the malice of men and the unjustice which they do thy Saints to the advantage either of their secular concerns as Josephs imprisonment was or of their soules Lord inable me to suffer wrong and to take it patiently to suffer railings and reviling as David did Shemei's railing saying If the Lord hath said to Shemei curse David who shall say why hast thou done so So let him curse for who can tell whether the Lord will requite good for his railing If I loath the fool in them I must not act it my self by returning the like Let me consider that by patience I possess my Soul and that it is better to suffer wrongfully than as an evil doer since it is the will of God that we should suffer and let our graces be exercised hereby And let us consider him who endured such contradiction of sinners Jesus our Lord lest we faint and be weary in our mind for the consideration of his suffering such reproach and the frequent remembrance of him hath efficacy and vertue to strengthen and support us who are willing to be conformable to his sufferings but we had rather that this cup might pass from us LORD whenever we fall into any sin we find immediately that we have lost our own innocence and thy favour so that we cannot go about our affairs with that quietness and peace and serenity of mind as before we did and in all that we do we fear it will have but bad success because we dare not look up to thee for a blessing Lord give us to consider this when we are tempted that we may fear sin more and make it out to our understandings how we do by sin crucify again unto our selves the Lord Jesus and put him to an open shame for we are all ready to pronounce an Anathema upon the Crucifiers of our Lord therefore let us not suffer these his Crucifiers to live He that seeth in secret he will reward thee openly Let this encourage us to frequent Prayers and duties But O Lord our services are so few and so slight and perfunctory and sinful while our hearts go after our covetousness and lusts so that we forget before whom we are and what we are doing and so our duties are sacriledge and our services provocations sins vain oblations abominations filthy rags like Nadab and Abihu's strange fire like the offering of the lame and blind when we have a male in our Flock so that thou mayest justly deal with us as Pilate did with the Gallilaeans whose blood he mingled with their sacrifice What reward then can we expect O Lord we beseech thee though our prayers are sinful yet accept them offer'd up in the Golden censer of Jesus our Mediator which is full of Incense which are the Prayers of the Saints and let these filty rags be wash'd in his blood and then they will be clean and white as Snow and then thou mayest reward them but yet that reward is thy free mercy therefore not unto us O Lord not unto us but to thy name is all the praise for what can we do for which thou should'st reward us with so many mercies here and with life eternal Any one of thy mercies is of more value then all our services could deserve or requite if we should continue in the duties of prayer and praising thee night and day all our lives for we owe thee all we have or can do It is thine as we are thy creatures and we were but unprofitable Servants after we had done all we can and we have need of an almighty Redeemer Then let us not murmure if the Lord doth delay to hear us Neither let us say 't is in vain to serve the Lord. Let us consider also that thou dost delay out of mercy to try our patience and perseverance and other graces and to make us more servent or may be because thou wilt not reward us with temporal blessings but eternal which is far better and let us not press or be importunate to receive our reward here lest we go without the eternal reward but let us be willing to trust God though he delay LET me not come near to that which may be a temptation or if a temptation come upon me unawares let me not say in my heart I shall be strong enough to resit it and so trust to my own strength but let me have grace to observe those ways and methods of resisting sin as thou hast appointed in thy word Therefore let me fly immediately from the temptation as Joseph fled from his Mistress leaving his Cloak If by chance I fall into the Company of Drunkards let me not say I shall preserve my sobriety because I love that and hate that
to make him rich So it is said of Jehosaphat that his heart was lifted up in the waies of God This joy and rejoycing in the Lord is enjoyned us as a duty and it proves our sincerity When God is sweet unto us for himself in the want of outward blessings when we can trust God and not see him 't is a sign we trust him in truth when all the providences of God seem to run counter to his promises That fruit is sound that can hang in a windy day T was a proof of Abraham's love to God that he could follow him into a strange place where he had no place to set a foot on This joy as it begets mortification and self-denyal so these begets this joy It is a sure preservative against Apostacy He that can rejoyce in God when he is in adversity will not be removed by adversity the joy of the Lord is our strength and stability Phil. 4.7 The Peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus Coloss 3.15 Let the peace of God rule in your hearts It rules in us if we can rejoyce in a God All-Sufficient Then the Soul saith to all the Devils offers we have enough already according to that saying of the Apostles to our Saviour Lord whether shall we go thou hast the words of Life The reason why Satans offers seems great to Men is because Gods seem little This is a holy disposition of the Soul that doth most glorifie God Therefore 't is said of Abraham that he gave Glory to God he did not stagger through unbelief It may well be called a Treasure as the Apostle saith we have this Treasure in Earthen Vessels and our blessed Saviour speaketh of the Treasure in the Heart for by this we are assured that all things are ours if we are Christs Whereas on the contrary if we are none of his we may think that we are rich and encreased in goods and have need of nothing yet we are in truth wretched miserable poor blind and naked as it is said of the Church of Laodicea Rev. 3.17 and this treasure is Christ formed in us of whose fulness we receive Grace for Grace And 2 Pet. 1.4 we are said to be partakers of the divine Nature because it is in us and our blessed Saviour saith that we are grafted into him and unless we abide in him we cannot bear fruit That is the fruit of the Spirit which is by him derived to his Members as he saith If I live ye shall live also The same are the fruits of Righteousness and fruit unto Holiness and all have the same end viz. everlasting Life Treasure where ever it is is matter of joy If sin and departing from God be an evil as every Man finds early or late when he casts away the bait that beguiled him with anger then Holiness must needs be good and yield joy Though the Children of God are often sad yet every act and working of the Spirit upon the Soul of Man either is matter of joy immediately or mediately the heart that is broken by the Spirits operation finds it self bound up when it hath been broken enough and hath joy Particular instances of the Assertion That the Saints have joy from the assurance of the pardon of their sins is express that the knowledge of our pardon is matter of joy our Lord and Saviours speech to the sick Man proves Be of good comfort thy sins are forgiven thee for by this speech our Saviour did intend to give him more comfort than by restoring to him his bodily health Blessed is the Man whose Iniquities are forgiven the Apostles knew they had this blessedness as it is expressed In whom we have Redemption through his Blood even the forgiveness of our sins David was assured of his pardon by Nathan sent to him upon that very message and as we pray daily Forgive us our Trespasses so we find that David after he knew he was pardoned his sin did so pray likewise for remission and did also believe that they were remitted and rejoyce in it as he expresseth Ps Praise the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his benefits which forgiveth all thy sins c. And all other Servants of God pray for and obtain it in due time Priviledges of Saints Those that are Gods Servants have the Tutelage of the Angels Ps 34. They tarry round about them that fear him They have God God standing by them to save them Ps They have Jesus Christ strengthning them I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me and the Spirit helpeth them The knowledge of our Interest in God and Christ that he is our God and we his people he our Father we his Children he our Shepherd we his Flock that he is our Strength our Rock Castle and Defence Psal 18. he our Beloved we his he our portion and we his portion he our Head we his Members he our Redeemer c. And all those Texts which express his Relation to us or ours to him And what he hath done doth or will do for us must needs comfort us and rejoyce us in all conditions Psal 23. The Lord is my Shepherd therefore I shall not want he maketh me to lye down in green Pastures c. And holy David when the people talked of stoning him he encouraged himself in the Lord. And our blessed Saviour would banish all fear from the hearts of his people by vertue of their Relation Luke 2.32 Fear not little Flock it is the Fathers pleasure to give you a Kingdom And none can deprive us of enjoying our interest in him as the Prophet Habakkuk expresseth it no condition no time nor no place when the Apostles were cast into the Dungeon they sung 1 Thess 5. Rejoyce evermore God would not command it always if it were not possible to be This enjoyment of our interest in God is greater than any other enjoyment and the Soul most desires it Cant. 1. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his Mouth his Love is better than Wine That the Saints have peace of conscience and joy proceeding thereof is proved by that Rom. 5. That being justified towards God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom also we have access through Faith unto this grace wherein we stand and rejoyce under the hope of the Glory of God They are called the peaceable fruits of Righteousness They are said to be found in peace of them that love peace And every Man that hath made tryal of it hath reaped this fruit peace and tranquility and enjoy it in their Souls according to the promise of our Saviour Matth. And ye shall find rest to your Souls and it is the design of the Gospel to give this peace and rest to the Souls of Gods people by assuring them of pardon of sins and Salvation according to that Prayer of David say unto my Soul I am thy Salvation The excellency of the
drunkenness this sense is made clear to be the meaning of the place by Psal 119. where in v. 166. He saith Lord I have hoped for thy salvation and done after thy Commandments 167. My soul hath kept thy testimonies and I love them exceedingly v. 168. I have kept thy precepts and thy testimonies for all my waies are before thee He had an eye to all Gods Commandments But it followeth in the same Psal ver the last I have gone astray like a sheep that is lost seek thy Servant David did not alwaies keep Gods testimonies if he had he had not gone astray nor needed seeking neither yet went he so far astray as to forget the way to return as the words imply which follow Seek thy Servant for I do not forget thy Commandments And Psal I have not forsaken thee as the wicked doth For when he did fall as in the numbring of the people and likewise in the matter of Vriah his heart soone smote him and he humbled himself with weeping fasting and prayer and sacrificing and renewing his vows of better obedience confessing his sins with grief and shame patiently enduring such chastisements as God layed upon him Neither sin nor the punishments which he suffered for his sin could prevail to extinguish his love to God and holiness because he was regenerate and borne againe and his seed remained in him therefore he still retaines good thoughts of God and his waies as he expresleth in the Psalmes chiefly the 119. My soul breaketh out for the desire it hath alwaies to thy Commandments His eyes prevented the morning watches that he might be occupied in Gods word which he saith he esteemed above Gold and had chosen for his heritage because they were the very joy of his heart and this carried him forth to praise and extol the excellency of Gods word and Commandments saying Thy testimonies are wonderful therefore doth my soul love them And again they are tried to the utmost They are exceeding righteous and true I have more understanding than my teachers for thy Commandments are my study Except my delight had been in thy Commandments it had not failed but I had perished in my trouble Thy word giveth light and understanding to the simple And in Psal 18. The law of the Lord is an undefiled law converting the soul the testimony of the Lord is sure and giveth wisdom to the simple The statutes of the Lord are right and rejoyce the heart The Commandment of the Lord is pure and giveth light unto the eyes The fear of the Lord is clean and endureth for ever The Judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether more to be desired are they than Gold yea than much fine Gold sweeter also than the hony and the hony comb Moreover by them is thy Servant taught and in keeping of them there is great reward His hatred also was changed to hate that which God hated as he saith I hate them that hate thee And I hate all false waies but thy Law do I love This holy love makes the yoak of Christ not only easy but delightful As Solomon expresseth Prov. 1. Her waies are waies of peace and all her paths are pleasantness And those that walk in her paths shall not stumble for all her paths are right paths And they know that these paths are right and lead to happiness peace rest and life for that experience they have had already and taste of those heavenly gifts and power of the world to come they retain with good liking and they thirst for a further enjoyment of them albeit God suffers them sometimes to fall that they may know their own weakness may learn humility be more diligent in prayer and watchfulness live more by faith and depend upon God and ascribe all to Christ Jesus who is all and in all and that they may go out of themselves as St. Paul did when he desired to be found in him not having his own Righteousness for he saw the imperfection and insufficiency of his own Righteousness and therefore sought it in him Who of God is made unto us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption for he is the only Righteousness on which we can trust for our Justification Jehova Justitia nostra omnis Justitia nostra pannis menstruata God that hath found folly in the Angels sees iniquity in our best duties I and that all have sined and come short of the glory of God and are righteous by God's mercy only not imputing their sin As Psal 32. Blessed is he whose unrighteousness is forgiven and whose sin is covered V. 2. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth no sin and in whose spirit there is no guile That all flesh may be silent and all mouths may be stopped before him But God overlooks the frailties of those that are sincere before him in whom there is no guile hypocrisie or dissimulation in their love to him who eschew their own sin which their nature is most inclined to As David in Psal 18.23 saith I was also uncorrupt before him and eschewed my own wickedness They allow themselves in no sin nor in any degree of sinfulness As Naaman the Syrian would be excused in bowing to Ammon in the house of Rimmon So many seeming righteous are holden captive by some one lust which they like not to have spoken against But those whom Christ gave himself for he hath redeemed from all iniquity and purified them unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Albeit their best works are imperfect for who can bring a cleane thing out of an unclean thing not any yet are they who are Christs redeemed ones zealous of all good works and with David they can say they have an eye unto all Gods Commandments and have put off the old man and all his works And it is from a principle of love and desire from the sense of Gods love to them and the desire of obeying him who hath so obliged them together with a love and liking they have to the waies of God by reason of the new nature begotten by God in them in the act of regeneration This Divine love breathed lived and moved in David when he said What shall I render unto the Lord for all his mercies towards me And Oh how I love thy law And in the same manner the Servants of God find it to move and it is the fulfilling of the law in Gods account and acceptance As on the contrary disobedience proceeds from unthankfulness to God for his mercies and forgetfulness of them whereby the love of God is extinct as in the rebellious Israelites They remembred not his marvelous works that he had done but were disobedient at the Sea even the Red Sea Psal 106.13 Within a while they forgat his works and would not abide his counsel but lust came upon them in the Wilderness That it is the way of Gods dealing with his people thus to oblige them to his service
did not like love cherish and improve that corruption of Nature which was contracted by the fall of Adam But our blessed Saviour hath told us this truth Light is come into the world but this is the condemnation that men love darkness rather than Light because their works are evil If they affect Darkness they will improve it and the more evil their works are so much the more will they improve their darkness and endeavour to extinguish their light hate it and fly from it because it reproves them And they desire not the knowledge of the Most High because it makes against them and their designs and against their impudence and desperateness Besides which the Apostle sheweth another cause whereby this blindness is contracted viz. The God of this world hath blinded their eyes If they have chosen the God of this world to worship and serve him they must needs pull out their weak eyes which nature corrupted had contracted or suffer him to put them out Such terms as Nahash would have imposed upon the men of Jabesh Giliad 1 Sam. 11. From these two causes it proceeds that men who profess themselves wise and have excellent parts yet knowing him to be God they love him not nor like they to worship him nor to retain him in their thoughts but become vain in their thoughts and imaginations and harden their foolish heart The Lord will not by his Spirit alwaies strive with them but gives them up to their affected blindness and to serve such gods as they have chosen Their bellies and their lusts And he takes away his holy Spirit from them and that talent which he had given them And yet the gifts and graces of God are without repentance for they are changed and not God For seeing that neither the word of God which is the power and wisdom of God contained in the Gospel of our Blessed Lord and Saviour will convince them Nor yet his great and mighty works of the Creation of the world and the preservation thereof The hanging of the Earth upon nothing and the other wonderful works of God mentioned in the 25th of Joh nor the usefulness convenientness of the seasons of the year and the benefits which they themselves reap thereby is not by them considered Psal 19. Nor yet God's extraordinary providences when their mighty preparations of forces and Armies are defeated by silly and weak means as those of the Moabites were by Gideon Or when they are subdued and overthrown as it were by the Heavens as the Poet Claudian expressed it conjurati veniunt in classica venti yet they will not see God's hand but say Though the bricks are fallen down we will build with hewn stone Nay though the Lord doth destroy them by his Angels as in Isa 37. the Angel destroyed 185000. of Senacharib's Hoast they will not see God's hand Nor when an arrow shot at a venture shall find out and smite a disguised murtherer between the joints of his armour 1 Kings 22.33 yet others will not fear his justice nor see the hand of the Lord. What can the Lord do more Either he must give them up or put them to shame with further miracles And try whether Xerxes will fetter the Winds as wisely as he settered the Hellespont and chastise them also with stripes But the Sea did not for all that acknowledge any Allegiance to him more than ours did to the good King Canutus who tryed it but only to rebuke and disprove the flattery of some of his flattering Courtiers who vainly and prophanely called him God But neither those Gentiles spoken of Rom. 1. nor any of those Heathenish Atheists had that great Luminary to enlighten them which our modern Atheists have viz. the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ therefore as their light is greater so must their sin be and their condemnation too because they will not see his light who hath in his right hand seven Stars and his countenance is as the Sun shineth in his strength Apoc. 1. The God of this world hath various fallacies and deceits whereby he blinds and beguiles unstable souls and draws them to this In some he blinds their mind with pride as it is said in the Psalms The ungodly is so proud that he careth not for God neither is God in all his thoughts in the place before mentioned They said in the pride of their heart The bricks are fallen down but we will build with hewn stone Isa So we may read in the 37th of Isaiah of Senacharib's proud boastings and how he blasphemed the holy one of Israel and reproached the Lord 24 and 25 verses mention his boastings And 2 Chron. 32.13 and 14. Know ye not what I and my Fathers have done unto all the people of other lands Were the gods of those Nations able to deliver their lands out of my hands 14. That your god should be able to deliver you cut of my hand In this manner Alexander's proud and ambitious mind leading him first to thirst after the inlarging of his Territories left him by his Father and having conquered Athens and become a terrour to all Greece he was chosen their Captain General He then thirsted for the Empire of the world thereupon he went into Asia with his whole Army and overcame Lydia Ionia and Phrygia and every Country that lay in his way And at length engaging with Darius his innumerable Army and extraordinary preparations and Engines he overcome them and overrunning the Bactrians he extended his Dominion to the Indies And at length becomes transported with the greatness of his fortune and success and forgets God and assumes to himself Divine honours And as Alexander was transported and blinded with pride and ambition so are others by lust covetousness drunkenness gluttony vanity and other baits of Satan quite blinded and besotted and held captive by him at his will and are by insensible degrees drawn on further and further to cast off all fear of God and reverence to his worship The same who now after the Conquest obtained ascribes and assumeth to himself Divine honour and calls himself God and Jovis Hammonis filius He before the joyning of the battel would by no means omit to sacrifice to the gods of the place So Curtius saith Sacrificium Dis presidibus loci secit patrio more he was not then an Atheist nor yet a God The same causes may we assign to that Atheism of Caligula for how can we think of such folly and pride but that they were blinded and besotted with it when just then he had counterfeited the Thunder in his brazen Galleries made for that purpose upon a sudden clap of Thunder he run and hid himself under his bed and cryed out Caligula non est Deus he dared not then to threaten the Air as at another time he did Another Means or Obstruction whereby Satan hinders the light of the Gospel from shining into their hearts so that they see not God is success
to pray and not to faint to which agreeth 1 Thes 5.17 Pray without ceasing To the same purpose our Saviour teacheth Luke 11.5 Where he sheweth that Importunity prevailed more than Love and Friendship 1 Sam. 1.15 It is said I poured out my Soul before God Zeal maketh Importunate and fervent in Spirit serving the Lord. If our Lord and Saviour sweat blood we must undergo some pain and if we apprehend the greatness of the benefits which we beg it will make us zealous Another part of the manner which our blessed Saviour hath enjoined is to ask in his name Ephes 3.12 In whom we have boldness c. He hath not only commanded it but to the observance of the command annexed a promise of reward as large as we can desire John 14.13 Whatsoever ye ask the Father in my name I will do it this is an odoriferous perfume to our prayers In his name every knee must bow it is not at his name in the original He is our only Mediator and high Priest who ever liveth to make intercession for us He presents them and recommendeth them to his Father mixing them with sweet odours purifying them from those corruptions of our nature which attend them as Salt water is made fresh by passing through the bowels of the earth And there is no Mediator to this Mediator and we must needs know our own unworthiness to be such that there is nothing in us to deserve acceptance Another part of the manner is that we pray in faith firmly believing that we shall receive he that prayeth for wisdom St. James bids him ask in Faith nothing wavering James 1.7 He forbids that man to think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord that wavereth and calls him a double-minded man for as we oblige men to be real to us and faithful by believing them so we do God This manner of praying is commanded in many places to this belongeth waiting upon God Isa 30.18 There is no promise to those prayers which superstition hath made to the blessed Virgin nor no command for them therefore they are not of faith Another part of the manner is that we pray with reverence and humility Psal 66. Bow down thine ear O Lord and hear me for I am poor and needy Psal Let us draw nigh to him with reverence and Godly fear for our God is a consuming fire The consideration of God's greatness and almightiness must needs beget a reverence in our approachings to him This reverence is discribed in the Publican Luke 8.13 The Publican standing a far off could not so much as lift up his eyes to Heaven but smote upon his breast saying Lord be merciful to me a sinner 6 Mich. 8. What doth the Lord require of thee but that thou do justice love mercy and walk humbly with thy God Isa 57. He resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble The people of Israel were injoyned that when they came before the Lord with their Sacrifices they should say A Syrian ready to perish was my Father and came down to Aegypt with a few We come as Beggars to him for his almes and having nothing but what we receive of him we must therefore ascribe all to his goodness and bounty as we have an example 1 Sam. 2.6 The Lord killeth and maketh alive bringeth down to the grave and up again ver 8. he raiseth up the poor out of the dust and lifteth up the Beggar from the dunghill to set them among Princes And Isa 66.7 He saith To him will I look that is poor and of a contrite Spirit The lifting up of a pure heart and clean hands and a reverent posture of the body are mentioned as necessary in the manner of praying Whilest Moses his hands were lifted up Israel prevailed but when they were down the Amalakites prevailed Our Saviour fell on his face and prayed He hath also taught us paucity of words as most agreeable to the Omniscience Highness and dignity of God and condemneth vain repetitions which inculcate the same thing again for these are nauseous both to God and men and are as much the Sacrifice of fools as their prayers who neglecting all other things of the manner of praying and matter too think it enough to say Amen They bring religion almost to nothing that they may gain the more proselites He enjoyneth also The circumstances of place Mat. 6. That our private prayers be put up in private places where no eye seeth but God alone for such prayer is sincere because it expects a reward from him only Hypocrisie expects it from men The same circumstance he requires in fasting Alms-deeds also and a perfect reconciliation to our offended brethren is required to make our prayers acceptable as our Lord and Saviour teacheth Matth. 5.23 Leave thy gift before the Altar go thy way first be reconciled to thy brother and then offer thy gift 1 Tim. 2.8 the Apostle commands to pray without wrath and doubting The circumstance of Time is also material although we have alwaies need to pray because of the manifold temptations we meet with yet we read of the Apostles that they went up to the Temple at the hour of prayer That sheweth that there is a time designed for that duty Act. 3. and Apocal. 1. St. John was in the Spirit upon the Lords day for though this duty is alwaies seasonable yet there be Special seasons as we may find by experience wherein we are freer in our holy desires and better disposed and God is nigher the oportunity in every work is half the work therefore observe these Mollissima tempora fandi As under the law The first fruits were to be Sacrificed and the first that opened the womb were to be holy to the Lord. By a parity of reason the services that we do to God under the Gospel are to be of the first things Remember thy Creater in the days of thy youth Eccles. 12. Psal 63. Early will I seek thee and the reason of his so seeking is in the following words my soul thirsteth for thee so Psal 42. my voice shall thou hear betimes in the morning and early will I direct my prayer unto thee and will look up Psal 5. when I awake I am present with thee Prov. 8.17 Those that seek me early shall find me But he that seeketh not early may seek long before he find an accepted time We read Gen. 4.3 In process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering to the Lord. And Abel he also brought of the firstlings of the flock and of the fat thereof And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering But to Cain and to his offering he had not respect The difference of the offering shewed the sincerity of Abl's heart above Cain's For he offered but it is not said the first fruits of the ground but the contrary is understood by the opposition of the offerings and
And prayeth Forsake me not in the time of mine Age when my strength faileth me until I have shewed thy strength unto this Generation and they Power unto all c. Psal 72. He urgeth his holy Resolutions Give the King thy judgements c. Then shall he Judge the people according to right and defend the poor c. He shall keep the simple folk by their right and punish the wrong doer Psal 5.2 Hearken unto the voice of my calling my King and my God Motiv for unto thee will I make my my prayer my voice shalt thou hear betimes O Lord early in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee and will look up Psal 86.11 Teach me thy way O Lord the motive And I will walk in thy truth knit my heart unto thee the motive that I may fear thy name Psal 16. Preserve me O God the motive for in thee do I put my trust Psal 17. And in sundry other Psalms he urgeth the wickedness of his enemies as a motive ver 8. Keep me as the apple of the eye hide me under the shadow of thy wings from the wicked that oppress me the motive with their mouth they speak proudly c. In the 38 Psal he also urgeth the malice and wickedness of his enemies together with his own sorrow and misery by reason of his sins and his enemies ver 2. Thine arrows stick fast in me and thine hand presseth me sore There is no health in my flesh because of thy displeasure neither is there rest in my bones because of my sin ver 20. Of his enemies he saith they were against him because he followed the thing that is good but he will confess his iniquities these motives introduce this prayer Hast thee to help me O Lord God of my salvation In the 4 Psal He makes use of Gods former benefits as a motive for further beneficent saying Hear me when I call O God of my Righteousness the motive for thou hast set me at liberty when I was in trouble Psal 86. He urgeth his afflictions he suffered under Gods hand and his enemies malice and the goodness and mercy of God And concludes O turn thee unto me and have mercy upon me Usual in his prayers is that expression for thy Name sake They who would make use of this as all must must know him in that name which he himself proclaimed Exod. 34.6 For David did refer to this The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin c. The Lord cannot forget his own name therefore cannot forget to be gracious If we can use that inducement of Moses Lord if I have found favour in thy sight it is peculiar to his favourites and obligeth God to hear This is a large Field and may afford great plenty and variety but every man may supply himself with it that list to read and observe the Psalms It is noted by Bishop Cooper that it is not sufficient to seek from God because of that which he is but we must also consider what we are Otherwise as Jehu said unto one demanding Is it peace What hast thou to do with peace So the Lord may answer us though the Lord be gracious what is it to us As to the subject matter of Prayer the Children of God are sometimes mistaken about it and are in doubts St. Paul accordingly confesseth in the behalf of himself and others we know not what to pray for as we ought We find Moses also mistaken in the matter of his Prayer Exod. 33.18 Shew me now thy Glory for God answer'd him that no man could see his face and live and that he could not see it yet Almighty God to shew his propensity in hearing prayer came as neer his request as he could for God answered him in that which was as profitable and useful for him He made all his goodness to pass before him and let him see his back-parts so that Moses lost not his Prayer though he did not obtain the thing he asked Much more may we expect success in our Prayers when we ask such things as he hath commanded us to seek which we know are according to his will and our blessed Saviour also hath engag'd for our obtaining The invitations being so many so importunate and so free viz. To come and buy without money and without price to open our mouths wide to ask and have it appears and we must so believe that Gods bountifulness is such that he is more ready to give than we to ask or receive And like as a Mother whose breasts are full is more desirous to give suck to her Babe than that to crave or receive it such is Gods freeness to us It concerns us then to advise what these rich benefits are which we are to beg and buy without money or price And if we may have what we lack for asking certainly we shall be convinced of the greatest folly in the world if we will lose them for want of asking Many are ignorant of their own wants as the Church of Laodicea who knew not that she was wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked but thought herself in the contrary estate But God adviseth her of her wants and the remedy of it which he sheweth her is to be had of him only viz. Gold tried in the fire that she might be rich and white raiment that she might be cloathed and eye Salve that she might see and freely invites her to buy them of him though she were poor blind and naked and had nothing to purchase them withall therefore we may infer that all men be their condition what it will may come to God in this duty of Prayer for all their needs as we read Jonah 1.5 The Mareners cryed every one to his God For our better direction that we may not miscarry in our suits as the Mother of Zebedees Children did our blessed Saviour hath plentifully instructed us what we should pray for as he here directs the Church of the Laodiceans Matth. 6.9 and Luke 11.2 The Disciples sensible of their own insufficiency do make it their suit to him to teach them thereupon he gives a pattern and rules for them and us to use In which Prayer the three first and the three last petitions are spiritual According to the rule which he gives ver 33. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof From this prayer of our Saviour and the rules by him given and from the precepts elsewhere and the prayers of the Saints we find but these three things necessary to be prayed for viz. Grace and the means of Grace and the rewards promised thereto For though the Children of God do most frequently use confession of their sins and thanksgivings together with their Prayers as Daniel did And Davids Psalms are most of them thus and whether we use them as
things of God and delight our selves in the Lord and count all the waies of his Commandments pleasantness search for them as for hid treasure dig for them seek them evermore we have obtained the greatest and chiefest matter and the rest we may assure our selves that we shall by the like means obtain and by degrees be able to run the waies of Gods commands discretion shall preserve us and understanding shall keep us and deliver us from the temptations and allurements to these and other sins we shall be able to keep our watch against our spiritual enimies that would destroy us But although our heart be thus changed and we renewed so that with our mind we do the Law of God yet it is great danger but that sometimes with our flesh we shall serve the Law of sin because when we would do good evil is present with us unless the hand of God continually hold us up which that it may we must invocate his mercy and almighty power using all the means premised and with watchfulness against the first beginning of evil Oculus ad coelum Manus ad clavum So that our surest perservative is this of prayer although we are renewed in the Spirit of our mind Our own wofull experience tells us so as this holy Apostle tells us by his experience For we know how that we have often endeavoured our selves to hallow the name of God and to 〈◊〉 his will in the resisting of these sins of our complexion and to avoid the temptation And to that end and purpose have read meditated heard the word preached and resolved upon the practice of it we have made that covenant with our eyes as Job made with his or the like to avoid and shun the occasions of that sin which we most fear But yet upon trial we have found in our corrupt hearts so much of the old unregenerate man that when we would do good evil hath been present with us and ready to surprize us and lead us captive And how to do the good we would we know not and we could only bewaile our wretched condition crying out with the Apostle O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of sin and death Therefore we must be alwaies at the Throne of Grace as those holy men were David Psal 119. v. 27. Make me to understand the way of thy Commandments v. 35. Make me to go in the paths of thy Commandments v. 36. Incline my heart to thy testimonies and not to covetiousness 37. Turne away mine eyes lest they behold vanity and quicken me in thy Law 38. Stablish thy word in thy Servant that I may fear the. Expressing his holy desires with fervency and earnestness and Importunity Behold my delight is in thy Commandments O quicken me in thy Righteousness And protests to God how he had used the meanes in studying and meditating of Gods word If we accordingly practice And with such holy desires pantings and breathings with such servency of affection with 〈…〉 purpose resolutions and vows with such Importunity under the sense of our needs and dependencies on him For the Spouse her self though she be assured of her Beloved's kindness and love towards her and her own love reciprocally towards him so prayes Draw us we will run after thee which sheweth what great need we have of craving God's almighty help when we are strongest and with David have sworn and are stedfastly purposed to keep his righteous judgments If we do accordingly pray then we may also obtain to be men after God's own heart as he was for we have a promise for it viz. The weak shall be like the house of David He will incline our hearts to his Testimonies He will work in us both the will and the deed He will order our steps in his Word He will draw us and we shall run after him And we shall do his will on Earth as it is done in Heaven And he will order our feet in his Word Direct our going Make us to delight in that which is good And though our soul be alwaies in our hand yet we shall not forget his Laws but claim them for our heritage and portion for ever Because he is true who hath promised to guide us lead us keep us uphold us strengthen us watch over us to be with us in trouble to deliver us to tread Satan under our feet that no weapon formed against us shall prosper that he will water us every morning and every moment and we shall run and not be weary mount up with wings like Eagles and renew our strength like the Eagle and he will make our way perfect and those that are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the Court of God they shall grow from strength to strength and grow up like the Calves of the stall And though we do fall when we are confident in our own strength as the Apostle Peter did yet shall we rise again But he that feareth alwaies is more happy for he will watch against the beginnings of evil actions and will use these means premised and shall not fall for God will hold him with his hand because he trusteth in him only and will bear him as a man doth bear his Son Deut. 1.31 And as we are taught in the precedent instances so may we suitably be instructed out of the holy Scriptures in all other temptations to other sins If it be excess in drinking which raging vice hath invaded a great part of the world And men are not content to allow themselves in it but generally strive to draw in all those with whom they converse in spight as it were of all holy admonitions moral precepts natural restrictions policies prudential constitutions and councels of the most renowned wise men vertuos men most excellent Law-givers And their own daily experience of the mischiefs and ruines that this sin brings upon those that are guilty of it The remedies whereof being so much predicated and so little practised must needs convince the world of a great deal of practical Atheism and Infidelity But thou that seest this fault in thy self and art grieved at it desiring to be delivered from it and findest it as difficult as to cut off thy right hand or pull out thy right eye follow the prescribed instructions and imitate those prayers and thou shalt reap thy desired grace and quit thy soul and body too of the sin and with it of many more which accompany it and are occasioned by it Because God hath ingaged to be found of them that seek him to help them that have no power nor strength to be with thee in the fire that it shall not burn thee and in the water that it shall not drown thee That thou shalt call upon him in time of trouble and he will deliver thee and thou shalt praise him He will pour water upon him that is thirsty Isa 44.3 He will subdue our iniquities Mic. 7.19 He giveth
the dulness and indisposition of my soul to this religious and most necessary duty of a Christian and desirous by all means to shake it off for a better disposition I held it expedient to consider of some Motives which may awaken me out of this spiritual Lethargy These I fetch from four heads or Topicks viz. A Jucundo Ab Vtili A Necessario and A Facili The four Angels of this Quadrature are to seek him as a Beloved as a Portion as a God as a Father To prove the pleasurableness of it are these places Isa 12.3 With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation Joh. 16.24 Ask that you may receive that your Joy may be full and many of the Psalms and the Book of the Canticles throughout proves this From whence we may infer That the more we use this duty the more joy comfort and satisfaction we enjoy I will make them joyful in the house of Prayer He that with a sincere heart hath made tryal in the time of his sadness can testifie the truth of these promises by his own experience And the Scripture testifieth of Hannah That when she had prayed her countenance was no more sad To know God in all his Attributes is comfortable to his servants but of all to know him in this That he is a God hearing Prayer and hath heard thine is most soveraign for the warming and strengthening of thy faith and all other graces and quickening thee in holy duties One prayer heard is the earnest of hearing another and consequently of helping thee in all thy needs This is intimated in those expressions Eccles 9.7 Go thy way cat thy bread with joy and drink thy wine with a merry heart for the Lord hath accepted thy work For if these services be God's delight no reason that they should be our burthen or a melancholly task This cannot be no man was ever made sad by this duty but the melancholly are made cheerful by it alwaies and transported with joy And if they be accepted by him with delight then we know that they shall not go unrewarded The suits of a Lover to its Beloved how readily are they embraced and answered Such is relation between God and his Saints We know also how acceptable and delightful the service of a child is to his Father though it be but weak and small yet it is sweet pleasant and delightful and doth more endear them to one another and when children are wronged whom else should they fly unto for succour Herein we enjoy God as a loving Father in Christ and he enjoyes us as children and caresses us This urgeth us to present these duties for we endeavour that our presents and services we do to men should yield them delight for thereby we expect acceptation of our persons and a grant of our suit And as a Father he obligeth us to it by his lading us with his daily benefits And bearing us in his arms as a man beareth his Son in all the way that we ge Deut. 1.31 All which he easily forgets who neglects this duty but he that duly performs it acknowledgeth God in all his waies And as the heavenly Hoast rejoyce to fall down and worship him that sits upon the Throne and the Lamb so the Saints militant by the offering of prayers and praises rejoyce before God The Motives ab Utili to prove the profitableness of it All temporal and eternal good that is or ever shall be is the profit which is proposed to be reaped by this Duty and on the contrary the avoiding of all temporal and eternal evil First It easeth us of a great deal of care Be careful in nothing but let your requests be made known unto God c. St. James c. 5. Is any man afflicted let him pray Luke 18. Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation Joh. 16.23 Whatever you ask the Father in my Name he will give it you The Lord hath invited and perswaded us to this Duty by the greatest promises that we are capable of Rom. 10.13 Whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved Jer. 33.3 Call unto me and I will answer thee and shew thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you Isa 30.19 At the voice of thy cry when he shall hear it he will answer thee Joh. 15.7 Ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you Matth. 21.22 And all things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer believing ye shall receive it Joh. 14.13 Whatsoever ye shall ask in my Name I will do it Matth. 7.7 Ask and it shall be given you seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you Job 22.7 Thou shalt make thy prayer unto him and he shall hear thee Zech. 10. v. 1. Ask of the Lord Rain in the time of the latter Rain c. Matth. 6.6 Thy Father who seeth thee in secret shall reward thee openly Psal Thou shalt call upon me in time of trouble and I will deliver thee and thou shalt praise me When we can hope for no help from men God will even then help those that call upon him These and many other promises hath God of his mercy and goodness made to thee to invite and incourage thee to the performance of this Duty for thine own good and profit of soul and body in things temporal and eternal and for the shunning and avoiding of all evils and inconveniencies fins and the punishments thereof and all that humane nature is liable to suffer or fear And by these the Utility of the due peformance of this Duty appeareth And all those who have made trial in sincerity will confess that it is good to draw nigh to God If we know that in him we live move and have our being that he is God that made us and preserves us and upholds all things by his power then to him we will seek for all things necessary for our life and happiness because we know that what we have or desire to have we must have it from him of his free gift And knowing that we brought nothing into the world we must acknowledge that all we have we have it from him Therefore if we desire the continuance and preservation of that we have or seek any other good we must seek it by humble prayer and supplication of his free mercy and goodness This the Light of Nature teacheth Those who seem to themselves to be rich and to have need of nothing like the Church of the Laodiceans Rev. 2. do but deceive themselves These miserable wretches cannot perceive or understand what need they have of praying They have the more need because they understand not their need If the Thief upon the Cross obtained Heaven with a prayer of six words who will not come to such a liberal giver If we consider of God in his relation to us as a Father and our selves as
day watch over them Be a Sun and a shield to them a wall of fire about them and so for the rest of their priviledges Besides the precedent Motives and many more which might be alledged we may consider the examples of those who have practised this duty with success some few we will here insert As Moses first when his hands were lifted up Israel prevailed against their enemies in battle when they were down the Amalakites prevailed against them One pair of hands lifted up to Heaven in prayer prevailed more than many Thousands that were lifted up in battle Moses recounts several such gracious dispensations of God towards him Deut. 9.19 and 10.10 He fell down before the Lord forty daies and forty nights and the Lord hearkned unto him ver 25. He fell down again before the Lord forty daies and forty nights when the Lord would have destroyed them and 10. c. 10. v. And the Lord harkned unto him at that time also And the Lord would not destroy them Exod. 32.10 The like Many times would the Lord have destroyed them had not Moses put up his petitions for them Numb 11. The fire consumed the people and Moses prayed and it wa quenched Phineas when Gods wrath was hot against this people to destroy them with the plague prayed and so the plague ceased How often did he yeild to Abrahams prayer for sparying Sodom so often that Abraham was ashamed to urge him any further And Samuel is among such as called upon his name and he heard them and while Daniel was speaking in prayer he obtained his suit David saith Psal 36.4 I sought the Lord and he heard me and deliverd me out of all my fear And in divers other Psalms he testifieth the same and Jehosophat when he knew not what to do against the great host of his enemies prevailed by prayer 2 Chron. 20. Which examples and many more the scripture sets forth to shew how prevalent acceptable and delightful this service is to God and to excite us to it with boldness and confidence as the Apostle makes use of the example of Elias who by prayer opened and shut the Heavens for this purpose to excite us to the duty for though there be passions and infirmities in us and our services be but weak yet God looks upon us as a tender parent looks upon his child and pittieth and pardoneth the defects in regard of the willingness of the obedience and receives our services with delight because he seeth something of himself in us and so he is loth to deny any thing God was not offended with Isaiah when to satisfy one man he required that the Sun should go back And so loath is God that any prayer should be put up to him in vain without success that he wills us not to pray for such things as he intends not to grant When Samuel prayed for Saul How long saith he wilt thou pray for Saul since I have rejected him 1 Sam. 16.4 So Jer. 7.15.16 I will cast them out of my sight therefore pray not for this people neither make intercession for them for I will not hear thee What shall we then think of the strength of prayer It seemes to hold Gods hands that he can not do what he would for Deut. 9.13 Before cited God saith to Moses I have seen this people that they are a stiff-necked people Let me alone that I may destroy them Exod. 32.10 Moses would not let him alone and God hearkned unto him and did not destroy them So that it was as Moses would O omnipotent prayer that thus prevailest with the almighty O invincible and all conquering believer that canst wrastle with the almighty and prevail as Jacob did that canst hold him so fast that he cannot go unless thou please to let him else why doth he say let me go and Jacob answered I will not unless thou bless me and he did bless him Jacob got what he would of him before he would let him go so God suffered himself to be overcome In like sort when the sentence of Death was gone out against Hezekiah his prayer caused God to change it Furthermore he is not only overcome but commanded by prayer understand it with reverence Isa 45.11 Concerning the works of my hands command you me accordingly we find Joshua speaking Sun stand thou still in Gebeon and thou Moon in Ajalon Josh 10.12 And they stood still We read how prayer changed nature altering the property of fire that it neither burned nor scorched the 3 children stopped the mouths of the Lions whereby we see how that by means of this we may be safe in any place and God will be with us and nothing shall be able to hurt us Psal 91.15 He shall call upon me and I will answer him It hath no limitation of matter or restriction of time or place so that we need not dispair of any thing we ask It is necessary also that we pray for the fulfilling of the Prophesies thereof Mala. 1.11 In every place incense shall be offered unto my Name and a pure offering the epis of Ye are a Royal Priest-hood Exod. 19.6 Ye shall be unto me a Kingdom of Priests Therefore we must have something to offer Heb. 8.3 The Spirit of prayer and supplication is in stead of the legal Sacrifices If the people of God have such holy appetites as they express Psal 42 1â— As the Hart panteth after the water brooks so longeth my soul after thee O God My soul is a thirst for God and Psal 63. My soul thirsteth for thee My flesh also longeth after thee And in chap. of Isaiah With my soul have I desired thee in the night and in the Canticles throughout begining v. 1. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth for his love is better than wine The soul is kissed by Christ when it is assured of his love to it and of its own love to Christ and the Heavenly spouse her desire is to her beloved as is the wives to her husband And is as unsatiable in her desires as the greedy Userer is for riches Then must they needs seek him whom their soul loveth and desireth and longeth for in this and in all other ordinances as the spouse expresseth her solicitousness and vigilancy in the seeking and persuit of him That they may relieve their needs and satisfy their spiritual thirsts and hungers and that they may mitigate and asswage their grief and pain caused by the holy love-sickness for if they are forced by occasion of business extraordinary to omit some duty they cannot injoy themselves and then they long for those spiritual refreshments which duties afford There be two principal motives which make us frequent and earnest suitors at the Throne of grace viz. Desire of communion with God and enjoyment of him in his ordinances And desire of more grace And God doth most commonly satisfy these two desires in this in all other duties for being wel performed from
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
the designes and interests which the world in general carrieth on and how vigilant they are and industrious in their own secular interests insomuch that they quite lay aside the design of Jesus Christ and the promotion of Gods Glory of goodness and vertue and every grace Yet there must be a holy seed a peculiar people zealous of good works and a Spiritual Temple and there must be some to carry on the holy interest and designe of Gods glory both by doing and suffering graces and therefore I have resolved to my uttermost ability to promote this and the rather because I see so many carrying on Satans design as if the Devil were let loose Ten Lepers were cleansed They all received equal benefit but one only of ten acknowledged his benefactor and returned him thanks let not the paucity of thy companions discourage thee in thy duty and good resolutions Lord that I may do thee this service the better affect me so with the sense of thy mercys and goodness now and alwaies as I was affected when I first received them For then I admired thy goodness and thought I could never love thee enough and praise thee enough And then I enjoied the sweetness of thy mercys but much more I enjoied the sweetness of thy self for I did enjoy thee as the Lord God alsufficient And as a God hearing prayer and as My God And I enjoied my self as thy Servant And that I may the better do this duty of thankfulness let me remember the affliction and oppression sorrow and grief fear and fearful misgiving of mind that I lay under before the Lord delivered me and let it be evermore before me and affect me with the sense of it else I can never be thankful enough for thy mercy for so thou prescribedst to thy antient people the Jews that when they brought their offerings before thee they should make their recognition and say a Syrian ready to perish was my Father and came down to Aegypt with a few c. And I find holy David praising God in this manner Praised be the Lord who remembered us in our low estate Psal And few there be who may not as fitly as he use this form But if there be any who have not experienced this condition it is to be feared they shall for as great as they are reduced daily He also remembers his fears before God and praiseth him for his deliverance from them all And there is no man so valiant but sometimes his fears make him at his wits ends therefore all man-kind may use this form too And for deliverance from troubles we may all praise God as we find him doing Psal 34. He further praiseth God for deliverance from afflictions from breaking his bones ibid. We also may remember the time when we have narrowly scaped the like danger Therefore we must acknowledge it thankfully to Gods gracious preservation He praiseth God also for raising him up from his sickness This occasion of praise we all have had He praiseth him for delivering him from his enemies and all that will live Godly must have enemies as he had and shall have occasion to praise God for delivering them from them He that is born after the flesh will persecute him that is born after the Spirit but shall not prevail against him For if he should prevail how then were it better that a Milstone were hanged about his neck and he were cast into the Sea then that he should offend them that are such And all those that belong to God may say with him By this I know that thou favourest me because mine enemie doth not prevail against me for the Lord will not leave them in the hand of their enemies though they persecute them and wrong them in word and deed and despitefully use them and say all manner of evil of them falsely He only that is little in his own eyes can be thankful to God Therefore David assaying to give God praise for his mercies first strips himself of all pretence of merit saying What am I and what is my Fathers house And the blessed Virgin in her magnificat ascribes lowness to her self whom God exalted so highly He only can bless God for afflictions who is sensible of his straying inclination And Gods restraining goodness The troubles of the righteous are many but the Lord delivers them out of all Therefore their thanks and praises of God must not be few I will shew forth all his praises saith he in the Psalms And I will alwaies give thanks unto the Lord his praise shall ever be in my mouth Psal 34. He shews the cause In the multitude of the sorrows that I had in my heart thy comforts have refreshed my soul If we are sensible that God hath heard our prayers we must remember too that he hath heard our vows It is but a reasonable imposition of a never-failing Benefactor I will deliver thee and thou shalt praise me Psal For we receive our wages before we perform our service And what doth it avail the Lord and what doth accrew to him whether we are delivered or whether we perish in our affliction our praises is all that redounds to him the benefit to us This duty is so delightful and satisfying in the very act of performance that it is a reward to it self Psal 63. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and satness when my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips Thus he sings sweetly in the ears of God of Angels and of good men and in his own ears too or else how was he so fully satisfied whilst he performed it And why else did he so often perform it with such studied variety Certainly it doth much delight a man to recount how much God hath favoured him helped and heard him The Royal Prophet doth not only recount his own troubles and sorrows and perils and travels that he had gone through from his youth up but he recounts also the National mercies what God wrought for them when he brought them out of Aegypt and downward to his own time Also he admires God's goodness to all sorts of men in affliction as at large may be seen in the 107 Psal as particularly to men driven from their own place and Country into strange Lands wandering without succour To prisoners cast into dungeons because of their sin To sick men and to seafaring men when they reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man and are at their wits end then they cry unto the Lord and he delivers them Lord How Good How Gracious art thou When our condition is so desperate that we know not what to do which way to turn us And know no way to escape no more than he that flies from a Lion and is torn in pieces by a Bear When we see that we cannot be delivered without God will please to work a miracle When we seem to our selves irrecoverable like the dried Bones in the Valleys in Ezekiel's Prophecy
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
prone to all other sins As David's adultery made way for murther As the Heathen who liked not to retain God in their thoughts God gave them up to all uncleanness So it hardens the heart against repentance and blinds the mind that it cannot understand good from evil And finally that it loseth God's favour and all things that are worth desiring and makes us liable to endure all evils that are worthy to be feared and let these considerations work in me an antipathy to it And on the contrary that I may apprehend the excellency of holiness and the fear of the Lord which is the best of good things as sin is the worst of evils and as sin is the greatest folly and stupidity so holiness contrariwise is the greatest wisdom and to fear God and do thereafter is good understanding That the righteous is more excellent than his neighbour and they that are precious in God's eyes are honourable that it makes us like the Saints and like to Christ and like God to be perfect as God is perfect to be holy as he is holy That it is our security and ingages God to be a Sun of perpetual comfort and a shield of defence to us That if we do good none will harm us But to the wicked there is no peace And that it gains God's favour and all those things that are worth desiring in this life And eternally Lord Let these considerations work in me a hunger and thirst after grace O give me to apprehend the terrour of the Lord that I may fear him accordingly to consider that thou gavest the Law with thunder and lightning that those that despised Moses Law died without mercy that I may fear to offend against the Gospel and the blood of Jesus Christ counting it unholy as all that are not sanctified by it do Let me apprehend the strictness of thy precept Thou hast commanded that we keep thy precepts diligently That we have covenanted in Baptism to do it and upon our repentance likewise and renewing of cur Covenant with thee and every thought of our hearts is under this Law Therefore that I may walk accordingly let me be diligent in all God's Ordinances which are both food and physick to the soul Let me use frequent prayer which will surely make me weary of sinning if sin doth not make me weary of praying And give me unweariedness and constancy in the duty of reading searching and meditating in the Scriptures Let me hide thy Word in my heart that I might not sin against thee Let the Word convey the Spirit into me since it is received by the hearing of faith and not by the works of the Law and let me often renew my Covenant with thee in the blood of Jesus Christ LORD since thou promisest a reward to him who overcomes Let me have grace to fight thy battels and let me not expect the reward till I have done thy service let me contemn the labour and the allurements that would divert me while I look upon the incouragement Though Satan offereth present rewards for sin and puts an edge upon the temptations and makes them suit my temper either in the things of the world or the flesh and my heart is ready to betray me within and my reason is ready to follow my appetite yet let my jealousy over my heart and my constant watchfulness prevail against them all through Christ Jesus by whom only we can overcome so powerful an adversary as Satan is who is unwearied in his temptations For we wrestle not against flesh and blood nor by flesh and blood but by Faith in Christ upon whom we rely for the victory Therefore give us the shield of faith Faith reflecting upon the glory to come and the love of Christ past who left Heaven for us that we might leave earth for him And let us know that we fight Christs battels an that he is our Captain and will succour his that are tempted and we shall be able to do all things through him that strengthens us when we call upon him And fighting thy battels and overcoming thy enemies give me the promised reward of blessedness the white stone the sentence of absolution from the guilt of sin and the seal of thy favour to my soul whereby I shall taste the joys of Heaven which the men of the world apprehend not THAT I may fear to sin let me weigh seriously the seeming pleasure and profit it offers with its losses it brings What profit have carnal pleasures satisfying the senses and the pleasing of the fancy the vain breath of mans applause unless I view Heaven and happiness as fables how can I neglect them for these base things or Satan and my own lusts beguiles me and deceive me for if I were indifferent in my Judgment I must needs contemne these poor bates as Solomon did after he had made tryal of them O Lord inlighten my understanding and rectify my Judgment and my depraved will and affections that I may not be cheated nor be willing to be deceived that I may not buy pleasure at so dear a rate being a lover of it more than of God who is blessed for ever let me not set so light by God and blessedness and Heaven and my true eternal interest teach me to fear the loss of my soul and the favour of God and the peace of conscience all which either early or late the sinner finds he loseth Give me that spiritual eye salve whereby I may discern the vizard and sucus of sin Teach me to consider all the seeming gainers by sin youthful persons who are in the strength and vigor of their age who make the most and the best of their pleasure of whose merry meetings the wise man hath said Their laughter is madness And the sins of their youth are the sorrows of their age when they cry out with Job Remember not the sins of my youth and thou makest me possess the sins of my youth or what gaine can the great ones of the earth boast of though they drink a greater draught of pleasures than other men who the more they seem to gain the more they lose they lose the peace of conscience and the favour of God and his blessings but if any gaine it is those who after sining are saved by repentance But these all their life after do complain of nothing but there sins and with great difficulty do recover their peace with God and their conscience for what likelihood is there that that should prove profitable to any that God doth forbid or would God gaine any profit by it if it were my loss to forbear it the Lord doth not envy us he that can afford us Heaven would he grudge us the pleasure of sin which the Devel will allow us can this be good for us that is against God is that like to be a mans good which deprives a man of internal peace and injoiment of himself and which every man either in
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
loathsom vice of beastly intemperance but let me avoid them and not look upon the Wine when it moveth it self right and giveth a pleasant colour in the Cup or if it should be so that I have no inclination of my self to this or any other sin yet let me not therefore venture my self upon the temptation but let me fear sin always considering how foully Noah and Lot fell let me never be found standing or walking in the way of sinners nor sitting in their seat but let me be always found in the way of God And what is said of the adulterous Woman whoever toucheth her shall not be innocent let me fear the same in every temptation and avoid the least medling with it or approaches to it and as it is also said concerning the same avoid it pass not by it turn from it pass away so let my practice be in all other temptations And as it is said of Gluttony for remedy of it if thou beest a man given to thy appetite set a Knife to thy throat So in all other temptations let me lay violent hands upon the peccant member if my right eye offend me let me pluck it out Lord thou knowest that I am resolved not to sin to avoid the greatest suffering therefore teach me wisdom that I may prevent and guard my self against all provocations to sin that I may not draw upon my self a necessity of suffering MAKE us to accept Jesus Christ our Saviour upon his own terms as he offers himself to us in the Holy Gospel to be our King to rule us and reign over us our Prophet to teach and instruct us as well as to be our high Priest to attone and sacrifice for our sins Let us not think to have the priviledges of Christians without the duties Make it to be a greater pleasure to us to deny our selves in sins then ever it was to give our selves up to them that we may be meet to receive Heaven into which flesh and blood cannot enter Let the Holy Spirit inflame us always with that divine fervent affection to God that inspired the Spouse when she said or ever I was aware my Soul was like the Chariots of Aminadab O sweet Christ do thou put grace into our hearts by that sweet voice behind us saying this is the way walk you in it for thou only art our great Prophet and teacher who canst make us learn and our high Priest and mighty Saviour delivering us from our sins and making us as innocent by thy attonement as if we had never offended for those whom thou makest free they are free indeed if thou wilt not take away the being of sin in us in this life yet assist us with thy grace to subdue it deliver us out of the power of darkness and the Prince of darkness And what benefits thou hast purchased for us by thy death apply them to us by thy intercession deliver us from death and give us the Crown of life which thou hast promised to all them that love thee and since thou art desirous of our salvation and it is because we will not come unto thee that we have not life O Christ make us a willing people as thou hast promised for our salvation is wholly from thee But our damnation from our own wills and if we perish our blood is upon our own heads O sweet Christ our Prophet and teacher teach us by thy word and thy Spirit the things that belong to our peace Guide me by thy Spirit and then bring me to glory LORD what is there in us for which thou shouidest desire our love Lord in thee is every thing that is lovely therefore ought we to chuse thee for the object of our love But we seek that happiness in the World which we cannot find any where but in thee and having found nought but emptiness vanity and the loss of all our labour in the pursuance of content peace and happiness in the affaires and matters of the world let us at last betake our selves to seek it in thee and thy waies to learn of thee to take thy yoak upon us that we may find rest to our soules LORD what pretence can sinners have for which they cast off thy yoak and will not have thee to rule over them upon whose daily benefits they live when they rebel against their Princes and shake off their yoak it is either for their leud lives and wickedness that they judge them unworthy to rule therefore scorn to be subject unto them Or for their oppression that they are not able to bear their grievous burthens but what iniquity have sinners found in thee thou hast put the Question to them but they can find no answer LORD since thou hast shewed me that every Saint must live in the same holiness of life that thy Servants the Apostles attained and St. Paul said of himself that he was crucified with Christ yet he lived yet not he but Christ lived in him and he lived that life by the faith of Christ who gave himself for him give us thy grace in like manner to crucify our selves to the World and to live no more to it nor to our selves but to live by Christ in us so as we may be said not to live And if thou givest us to live the life of faith and not to the World and live to thee let us not impute this our well doing to our selves for of our selves we cannot think a good thought but to Christ who liveth in us who only can inable us thus to live In all our distresses let us pray to the Lord and use the meanes as when the Arabians Ammonites and Ashdodites conspired against Jerusalem 't is said Nehemiah 4.9 Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God and set a watch against them day and night But let us not like King Asa seek to Physicians in our sickness and not to God LORD while I am supported by thy Spirit I shall be able to live blamelesly as Lot did in the midst of Sodom but the strongest of thy servants will fall as he afterwards did if thou withdraw the Assistance of thy Spirit and shall be as that Apostle who denied the Lord Jesus Christ whom before he sought for and resolved to dye for though he was the Rock Therefore let me never be confident lest thou leavest me as thou didst him And when I hear of others miscarriages let me be thankful to thee for holding me up and ascribe it to thee as the Angels in the Book of the Revelations are said to cast their Crowns at thy feet and let us learn not to judge uncharitably of those that are overcome by temptations LORD when we pray unto thee our prayers are so interrupted with worldly and sinful thoughts and the things we pray for being mostwhat temporal mercies and deliverances from bodily evils they are not such prayers as our own reason can think worthy thy acceptance But Lord though we offer thee
with Anger Also examine thine own reason whether it be not more honourable and more satisfying to thee to shew meekness goodness of Nature ingenious Education Courtesie Generosity Love and Pity in forgiving affronts and provocations than to shew thy Pride Malice Boldness Undaunted Spirit and Courage in revenging them besides the timerity of hazarding thine own Life and Immortal Soul Then examine thy self also in all other actions of Holiness and Unholiness viz. If thou hast led thy Life in Temperance Sobriety and Frugality whether hast thou not found the benefit of it throughout thy Life in thy Mind Body and Estate But if thou hast otherwise lead thy Life thy Health is impaired thy Estate wasted thy Soul polluted and the faculties of thy mind dulled and crased The like examination thou mayest make if thou hast kept thy Body in Chastity whether thou hast not found this to be the best means to preserve thy Life Health and Estate and to propagate the same benefits to thy Issue besides many other blessings which this and every other Grace hath entailed upon it But if thou hast on the contrary been addicted to thy lusts thou wilt feel the pains of it in thy bones when age groweth upon thee and if thou hast not quite wasted thy Estate yet either thou hast no lawful Issue to inherit it or if any yet they are unsound or such as thou hast no comfort of for such persons who are thus addicted are generally thus punished with one of these punishments as we read of Solomon and have seen in our own times Hast thou fed the hungry and cloathed the naked with thy fleece thou knowest that thou hast treasure in Heaven if not thy riches will make themselves wings But alas if thou couldst attain all secular ends and interests Salva Conscientia what are they to him that carrieth on the design of an eternal Interest viz. For eternal happiness how inconsiderable how impertinent how vile But since holiness is the only meanes of attaining happiness and lusts and unholiness are the obstacles and impediments that hinder us and deprive us of it then be constant in the way of holiness and take this for thy design and main business according to that which the Poet Horrace directeth thee by the light of Nature Lib. Epistolar Primo Ep. 6. Si virtus hoc sola potest dare fortis Omissis Hoc age deliciis And Hoc primus repetes opus hoc postremus omittas And make no Omisions of duty for that puts thee back T were endless labor and needless to cite all authorities Civil Moral and Divine that might be brought to prove holiness to be the way and meanes of obtaining happiness for it is so inseparably joyned to happiness that it can hardly be distinguished from eternal happiness which I conceive is begun in this life in holiness I will only mention the Authority of the greatest of the Sons of men John the Baptist who makes repentance and workes meet for repentance to be the way to bring us to Christ who is the way the truth and the life eternal In whom we have eternal life and happiness And I conceive all men will confess the same though in workes they deny it All the precepts which our blessed Saviour taught he propounded as the means to attain happiness And the doers of them he pronounceth happy actually in the present tense likewise all the Commandments which God enjoyned the Israelites were therefore given them to make them happy and when they kept them they did make them happy as they made them holy Whither tend all Divine and Moral precepts and Philosophical improvements of the light of nature but to repress mortiify the inordinate passion and preturbations of the mind and the lusts of the flesh the lusts of the eyes and the pride of life that by this means we might enjoy a sweet and happy life in all ease rest and peace joy quietness holiness and happiness But imagining that the sensual persons of this age will still oppose and say that happiness is mans interest but the holiness of man is Gods design and interest I answer first What profit shall the Lord have if thou do good 2. Admitting it were Gods Interest it follows if he be greater than thou and thou canst not attain thy end without him then thou must of necessity promote his design and do nothing to cross it Holiness Described 3. Meditation Though it be too great a task for me to undertake nay for any creature for he hath found folly in the Angels and the Heavens are not clean in his sight therefore God himself teacheth us by his word and Spirit And from that word of truth these few collections are drawn for my own help in this grace The Negative part that sheweth what is not true holiness though by some it is supposed to be holiness is the first to be considered Our Saviour describes the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees and then tells his Disciples that Except their Righteousness exceeds theirs they shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Their Righteousness is condemned as insufficient for they justified themselves and condemned others and did their works of Piety and Charity to be seen of men and were Hypocrites Therefore Jesus Christ pronounces several woes against them Again our Saviour reproves the Jews ingeneral for relying upon the outward priviledges without the inward Qualifications saying unto them Think not to say within your selves we have Abraham for our Father This priviledg without the life of Holiness is like a dead body without a soul which the Prophet Jeremiah reproves thus Trust not in lying words saying The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord are these Jeremiah 7.4 They did frequent the Temple with their Sacrifices but the Prophet saith you trust in lying words Do you think to lye steal and come into my house Matth. 7.22 Christ shews how that many will come at the day of Judgment with great confidence saying we have prophesied in thy name cast out Devils and done many wonders But he will disown them how little then will it avail the Papists to call themselves the Church and their Pope Peters Successour Our Saviour Christ doth divide professors into 2 sorts Mathew 25. Under the terme of wise and foolish Virgins some had Oyl in their Lamps and some none all had Lamps The causes why men rest in the forme of Godliness without the power are first because they see a necessity that their actions must be changed but do not see a necessity that their hearts must be changed The Apostle Paul in the 3d. of the Philip. Refutes the Righteousness which the Jews imputed to their circumcision and outward priviledges and calls them the concision and vers the 3d. We are the Circumcision which worship God in the Spirit and have no confidence in the flesh This is the reall circumcision whereby we have the
by beneficence and bounty and wonderful deliverances wherein his hand and almighty power onely could help us appears by Psal 10â— Which recites the wonders which God wrought for the Israelites in Egypt Whereby he delivered them from that thraldom and afterwards brought them to the promised land that flowed with Milk and Hony The end of all which is expressed in the last ver That they might keep his statutes and observe his laws When God bestowes such great mercies upon us as astonish our understanding as he did to them they were like men that dream when they were deliverd from Captivity when he delivereth us miraculously just then when we are at the very brink of destruction when the knife is at our throats or like brands pulled out of the fire so are we rescued and sometimes we are so rescued from the precipice of Hell before we are consumed it is no cause that may induce us to think that we are better than others or that it is for our own righteousness sake God forwarneth the Israelites from such misconceptions and that caution seemeth to imply that we are prone of our selves to such delusions God commands them when they bring their offering to say A Syrian ready to perish was my Father c. But the cause that moved God was from himself because of his love and favour which he had to them his goodness only was the efficient cause and the final cause his own glory and so it is of all our deliverances that we being delivered should serve him in holiness and righteousness before him all the daies of our lives Sutable thereto is the practice of Gods Servants for they ascribe them not to their own merit but reflect upon their own unworthiness that they may ascribe the more to Gods free goodness and mercy saying with David What am I and what is my Fathers house that thou shouldst do such great things for me Psal 116.9 And Psal 8. Lord what is man that thou art mindful of him or the Son of man that thou visitest him And St. Paul admiers Gods mercy to him who he saith Was the least of the Apostles and not worthy to be called an Apostle Which humility of mind and sense of our own unworthiness kindles the flame of our holy love to God for all his goodness and excites our Zeal to do all we can for God And not only the mercies received are improved to inflame our affections to love God our great benefactor but the mercies also which we hope for and expect hereafter as in 2 of Sam. 7.19 David speaks to God Who am I O Lord and what is my house that thou hast brought me hitherto And this was yet a small thing in thy sight O Lord God but thou hast spoken also of thy Servants house for a great while to come and is this the manner of men O Lord God! Though men the more they have done the less we can expect from them yet with God every mercy is an earnest of a greater therefore he argued well that said The Lord delivered me from the Lyon and Bear and will deliver me from this uncircumcised Philistine So did St. Paul saying The Lord hath delivered me and will deliver me And this assurance and hope alone in the want of all outward comforts by the strength of faith was able to support holy Job for therefore he was a conquerer over all these fiery darts of Satan and was able to do and suffer the good will and pleasure of God because he believed that his redeemer lived and that he should see him at the last day A further improvement the heavenly soul makes of mercies to engage its love and affections to God in the consideration of the overplus which God in his great goodness and liberality bestowes upon us above our desires and requests as when Solomon asked wisdom God bestowed upon him riches and honour and when David asked life God gave him a long life even for ever and ever So Abraham asked a child and God gave him seed as the sand of the Sea And we know of our own experience how God hath exceeded our requests for many temporal blessings which for the present when we had received them seemed great to us and to a thankful heart they will alwaies seem so and have the same operation to affect the heart with burning love to so great a benefactor But much more that overplus of eternal happiness which the Saints believe they shall receive For eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither hath it entered into the heart of man what the Lord hath prepared for them that love him And as a Virgin beloved puts not an estimate upon the gifts of her Lover according to their meer value but according to the respect which she hath to his love whereof they are pledges so the heavenly soul also looks more upon the love and favour of God shewed in his mercies than upon the benefit it receives by them as David expresseth in the Psalmes Psal 63. saying Thy loving kindness is better than life it self Therefore saith the Spouse in the Cant. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth for his love is better then Wine Which holy love the soul delights in and by it all duties in religion and works of piety charity and mortification are made easy delightful and desirable and not burthensome And so love may be said to be the fulfilling of the law because God accepts the will of them that are carried by this principle And they likewise accept of all that comes from God as from his love whether it be affliction or prosperity because they believe that God will bring good out of evils and cause all things to work together for their good and will shew his love and faithfulness in delivering them and will give them their hearts desire if they delight themselves in the Lord. Psal 37.4 And injoy themselves in serving him call the Sabbath a delight and as the Spouse in the Cant. ch 1. Sit under his shadow with delight If they trust in him hope in him rely upon him stay themselves upon him All which duties and all others they can do in some degree through Christ that strengthens them from whom they have all their sufficiency whose Grace is sufficient for them though of themselves they can do nothing not think a good thought for his strength is perfected in their weakness and his Spirit helpeth their infirmity for instance in the duty of Prayer they will approach the Throne of Grace to pray and praise God though they feel in themselves dulness and indisposition because they have found assistance in former duties from Gods Spirit enabling them when they were as much indisposed as at present therefore they do hope for and expect the like again and therefore they go on assured as Abraham was that God will provide himself a Sacrifice A parallel instance is that which St. Paul experienced when the
and Oyl is increased and may say truly my joy shall be in the Lord as he did and every child of God is commanded this duty in this saying Rejoice in the Lord ye Righteous This excellent grace makes the soul happy wherein it is because he that possesseth it possesseth Christ and all the benefits and priviledges that he hath purchased that incomparable benefit of justification first as it is Rom. 4. and last v. and the 5th and first v. Who was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification Rom. 3. Being justified freely by his grace Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ This peace is a second benefit or priviledg which faith derives from Christ a third follows by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand the favors of God wherein we stand or the blessed condition of justified and sanctified persons to which we come by Christ through faith and rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God both our present and future condition is made happy by faith and it assures to us that happiness It followes and not only so but we glory in tribulations also knowing that tribulation works patience So that calamities are by faith made consolatory through the sanctified use which faith makes of them they are not only made not formidable as David his fears vanished by relying upon God which he expressed saying What time I am afraid I will put my trust in thee Psal 56.3 He made use of his faith in the time of his fears as he did also in the time of his wants Psal 8. The Lord is my shepherd therefore I shall lack nothing So that faith imboldens the Servants of God against all evil Christ gives and ensures them these priviledges partly by the testimony of his Spirit partly by faith in his merit Ephe. 3.12 In whom we boldness and access with confidence through faith in him Heb. 10.19 We have entrance into the holiest through the blood of Jesus The Spirit assures us that all the Privileges which Christ hath purchased for his people are ours and causeth us to rejoyce in them as ours That all the promises are ours and causeth us to rely upon them because we are assured that Christ is ours by Faith when he is laid hold on as ours all things are ours then it follows that we have peace of Conscience and tranquility in our Souls for he is our Peace Ephe. 2. And we acquiesce in him because we have chosen him for our portion He is reconcilation between God and us he satisfieth our debts makes God at peace with us and our conscences at peace in themselves and our souls satisfied as having nothing more that they can desire but more communion with God as that which satisfieth it We know that God hath no wrath at all towards us nor our consciences any dread or fear of Gods wrath or any terror but assurance of his favour and love and that our sins are washed away by the blood of Christ according to that in Colos 1.20 Having made peace through the blood of his Cross by him to reconcile all things to himself 21. And you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblamable and unreprovable in his sight if you continue in the faith Hence the soul assures it self that none of the works of Gods severity have any wrath at all against it for in the 24. v. St. Paul saith He rejoyceth in his sufferings But positively they are assured of their adoption and of the love and friendship of God that he will preserve them supply them teach them heal them guide and support them visit them with spiritual consolations and joy in the Holy Ghost and that all things shall work together for their good which makes them willing to submit to Gods chastisements as it is Psal For thy sake are we killed all the day long yet do we not forsake thee This keeps them from murmuring and from covetousness The nature of it is that it can only be where the Son of peace is This peace is a league offensive and defensive whereby the soul hates sin and all that God hates and loves holiness and all that God loves That salutation which our blessed Lord perscribed to his Apostles must needs be the most excellent and desirable that saies Peace be to this house This peace makes all other things at peace with us for he is said To make a league with the foules of the air and the beasts of the field for us in Job and Prov. 16.17 When a mans waies please God he makes his enemies at peace with him Psal 91.10 The plague shall not come neer his dwelling or if it do it shall be no plague Rom. 8.31 If God be with us who shall be against us That is though they are against us the sting is taken out The excellency of it is so great that it passeth human understanding It is an everlasting peace it doth not forsake us in the time of trouble nor in the hour of death Isa 55.3 His mercies are called everlasting It makes us peaceable with men to those we have offended it makes us willing to satisfy them and willing to pardon those that have offended us but the wicked are like the rageing Sea alwaies unquiet It quickens the soul to holy duties the soul considers what it shall render to the Lord for all his mercies towards it Psal 103.3 Bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits who forgiveth all thy sins The excellency of it must needs be great because it is the legacy which Christ dying left to his Church not as the world gives gave he it to them but more largely liberally and bountifully and absolutely without any limitation of time or condition David calls it great peace which they have which love Gods word but yet he saith that many are the troubles of the righteous That which followeth makes amends The Lord delivereth them out of all and the Lord will stand by them and deliver them as we know he did the three children out of the fiery furnace and Daniel out of the Lyons den and Job out of the fiery Trials The fruits of righteousness are sown in peace not in discord they which love peace sowe them And this shield of faith is both an offensive and defensive weapon whereby these holy warriours in their spiritual warfare fought the Lords battels under the bloody banner of the Cross of Christ who for the glory that was set before him endured the Cross and despised the shame these follow the lamb and suffer with him that they may also raigne with him and take joyfully the spoiling of their goods knowing that they have a more enduring substance in Heaven And willingly they spend and are spent for God
thou O my soul apprehend that these are only the peculiar priviledges and injoyments of the Saints and fearest thy self to be none of those but fain thou wouldst be such thou maiest sue to the Lord to perform those and the like promises of free grace Jer. 32.40 I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me I will give them a new heart And that Micha 7.19 He will subdue our iniquities And that Isa 3.4 The heart of the rash shall understand And that Isa 11.6 The Wolf shall lye down with the Lamb and the Leopard shall lye down with the Kid. And that Hosa 14.15 I will heal their backslidings And that Rom. 16.20 The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly And that Ezek. 36.27 I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgements and do them Luke 11.13 How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him And Isa 35.5 The ear of the deaf shall be unstopped And that Deut. 30.9 I will circumcise thine heart That thou maiest love the Lord thy God with all thine heart c. And that in Isa 40. v. 31. They shall run and not be weary they shall walk and not faint Since then God hath promised to give thee his Spirit if thou askest it of him and prooved it with an argument a fortiori that he will and hath promised to do all this for thee and work all these works in thee and thou findest in thy self desires pantings and longing for them and thereupon dost ask him in his Sons name and for his mercies sake his truths sake and his names sake to perform these promises and givest him no rest till he doth it doubt not but he will Meditation of the Love of God Psal 103.8 The Lord is full of compassion and mercy long suffering and of great goodness c. Those sweet compellations which almighty God useth to his poor creature man if they do but sink into our hearts they must needs make such impressions as will cause reciprocal love to him Is Ephraim a dear Son is he a pleasent Child what can endear thee more than this Oh my soul what love canst thou desire more he counts thee and calls thee in this Relation Son looks upon thee with compassion as his child and pittieth thee as a Father pittieth his Child delighteth in thee as a Father delighteth in a Child whom he loveth and helpeth thee as his Child Behold what manner of love God hath shewed thee that thou shouldest be called the Son of God Joh. 1.4 If a Son then an heir and joynt heir with Christ his only begotten Son for Christ is not ashamed to call us Bretheren in this relation to God and Christ what canst thou want or fear or what more canst thou desire in the 3d. Chap. of Mal. He calls them his Jewels and Rev. 1. Kings and Priests and Isa 62. a Crown of glory His portion he called Abraham his friend What canst thou fear a Master may be severe if his work be done he will pay wages if not stripes but a Father is indulgent and will spare his Child and require no more of him than he can perform with comfort and delight if then thou canst find in thy self the disposition of a Child be sure thou maiest find in him the disposition of a Father Mat. 3. Our Blessed Saviour hath owned them in these relations viz. His Bretheren his members his Spouse his betroathed his Sister and Mother his Garden his Church his beloved his branches his Servants his flock his lambs his friends and Revel 1.6 He hath loved us and washed us from our sins and made us Kings and Priests to God Could the Canaanitish Woman find incouragement for faith to lay hold from that of Dog who needs to dispair sure not a prodigal Son And every thing that is excellent beautiful and desirable beloved and endeared he compares his people to it and sees all those perfections in them as he expresseth in the Cant. O then my soul admire and be inamoured of him and find all excellencies perfections and desirable good things in him from whom thine excellency cometh and is derived thine head thy Husband thine elder Brother thy Father thy Maker thy Governour thy Redeemer for so doth the heavenly Spouse see and admire in Christ Jesus her Beloved If so thou dost then thou knowest that he is they Beloved thy Saviour thy Head thy Brother thy Portion thy Delight thou lovest him in all that he did or said his teaching his sufferings his miracles thy love to him is but the reflexion of the beam of his Meditations of Mercy Med. 1. Psal 103.11 As high as the Heaven is above the earth so great is his Mercy c. WOrthy of our meditation are all the workes of God and every word of his to be studied by us that we may thereby improve our graces but his workes of mercy and that part of his word which holdeth forth mercy and offers it and sets forth God in the Glory and excellency of his mercy is most necessary for sinful man and most comfortable to be considered All that are saved are saved by meditating of this all that are lost are lost and perish for lack of the knowledg of this this is life eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ The freeness then and largeness of it is to be our chief study free it is What motive found he in us to move him when enemies to give his Son up for us all and to beseech us but only from his own goodness because he delights in mercy The man that seeks his lost sheep may get the profit of it and so may the woman that seeks her lost groat but what profit can the Lord get by us for which he may seek us for when we have done all we are unprofitable Servants The largeness of his mercy is without limits for if he hath commanded us to forgive seventy times seven times will not he frankly forgive us what we are not able to satisfy since he makes his forgiving of us many talents the argument why we should forgive petty debts can we imaging that he will take the first forfeiture since he hath commanded us not only to forgive our enemies but to love them bless them pray for them to do good for evil will not he forgive us love us and bless us as freely for Christs sake though there be no motive in us for it would he make love to be the fulfilling of the law charity the covering of transgression prefer charity before piety by commanding us to leave our gift at the Altar to be reconciled to our Brother prefer it before faith and all gifts and graces making it as it were the ligament and sinews of all and that if we want that all other graces are but empty sounds make
shameful flight If thou assist us not in our callings our labouurs are but in vain except the Lord keep the City the Watch-man watcheth in vain In vain we rise early and go late to bed except the Lord give us his blessing Therefore will we seek the Lord and his blessing upon our Labours And though we find no worth in our prayers for which the Lord should hear them or reward them but punish us for them yet nevertheless it is his command that we should offer up our weak services to him and he hath promised to hear us for the things we ask for in his Sons name and in obedience to that command And in the faith we give to his promise we seek to him to assist us and to let his presence go with us For the Lord hath shewed us by frequent experiences That those who have most means do not seldom miss their purpose or if they by Gods blessing do attchieve their purposes yet it is frequently without the use of those means by some accident that it might be seen to be of God and not of man and our unbelief be convinced Praise the Lord O my Soul who hath often brought to pass my desires without any considerable means by me used And all that is within me praise his holy name because he hath accepted my two Mites my worthless Prayers for his mercy endureth for ever Meditation When I am tempted to any sin let me consider how I have loathed my self heretofore when I have been overcome by any lust or sensual pleasure If I have at any time yielded to the pleasures of any of my senses which is all that the world can offer though it hath been but to a very small degree as to drink one glass more than the necessity of nature or a competent refreshing required for though it makes not drunkenness yet it sets the mind too much at liberty from that strictness and watchfulness that mortification and crucifying the flesh and self-denial that the Scripture requires or if I give way to a lustful thought or glance or action whereby my mind is carried to effeminate meditations from the more serious and virtuous considerations which an honest mind should meditate how do I seem sordid to my self and degraded from my pristine excellency And though the person whose beauty excellency and perfections drew me aside thereto be incomparable yet when I consider the baseness of the last acts of lust and fruition to which all this tends and serves how poorly do I think of all those allurements of beauty and parts carriage wit and other excellencies since they are the motives and incentives to concupiscence And I no sooner perceive that I have yeilded too much to any temptation of lust or covetousness or any other whatsoever but I presently perceive that my honour is gone from me or if I know of any other who hath yeilded to any temptation I think the same of them All these arguments and reasons are not sufficient to restrain from relapsing into the very same offences and sensualities for sense with one glance of the eye captivates the affections in a moment whereas reason and strength of Argument prevails only upon deliberation so that I cannot expect to stand by my own strength unless thou Lord holdest me up I shall fall one day by these my spiritual enemies And it is by thy power only that we are kept from the evil of the World Therefore as the eyes of a Servant are to the hands of his Master so shall my eyes be to thee And I will continually pray unto thee for supportation and strength since thy strength is perfected in our weakness why then should my weakness discourage me and for grace and faith in thy promises since grace alone is sufficient for us and faith alone is the victory whereby we may overcome the World that by faith I may look upon the infinite joyes of Heaven and contemn the vain and base joyes of this life or else be terrified with the horrid torments thou hast threatned to the disobedient and fear to do evil LET me think it greater pleasure to resist lust or any sensuality than to yield to it for if I resist I satisfy and delight my reason which delights in manly noble resolute actions and in eschewing the contrary viz. Effeminate sensual pleasures which the mind doth oppose and disdain as brutish and below it for how is it possible that the mind should be satisfied contented or delighted with the objects and delights of the senses any more then the senses can enjoy or take delight in the objects of the mind or intellect since the senses are of the Brutish nature of the meanest creature and the mind and understanding is of the divine nature of the Creator and since the Saints are said to be made partakers of the Divine nature let us endeavour to partake of the Divine nature by holiness of life And if we have received Christ in his teaching and in his Sacrament of his supper to walk in him that our life may grow out of the death of Christ Not to be unprofitable Servants as Israel was said to be an empty vine but let us be ever sowing the fruits of righteousness that we may reap accordingly and be studious to know the things which belong to our peace before they be hid from our eys and to do them too lest thou remove our light from us remembring that if we be like the dry and unprofitable chaff we shall be burned with unquenchable fire But the Gospel bringeth forth fruit in all the World Colos 6.1 LORD if thou dost but seem to have forsaken me so that when I think of thee I dont perceive comfort but fear though I have all the outward comforts and all the pleasures which the World can afford I am in horror in the midst of my pleasures I will therefore walk in the waies of righteousness for her waies are waies of peace and all her pathes pleasantness and this will bring a man peace at the last Blessed are they that do righteousness alwaies they walk with thee and have sweet communion with thee and thou wilt come in and sup with them and abide with them then hath their soul fulness of joy but I fear I grieve thy holy Spirit continually in this that I am carnal and do not live by faith above the World Lord that I could live as those whose conversation is in Heaven whose treasure is there and they are always adding to this treasure who are spiritually wise whose hearts are fixed upon thee and go not astray as the Israelites did in the wilderness forgetting God their Saviour who had done wonders for them but they thought not of his hand nor remembered what wonders he had wrought for them but lust came upon them in the desert wherefore the Lord thought to have destroyed them had not Moses stood in the gap to turn away his wrath If we in
like manner forget thy mercys and require meat for our lusts we fear thy wrath will be kindled against us to destroy us but we trust that we have a greater than Moses Jesus Christ to turn away thy wrath by his offering up his life as a ransom for us and bearing the iniquities of us all Let my life be hid with Christ in God that when Christ who is our life shall appear we also may appear with him in Glory Lord let me remember how scarcely the righteous are saved and with what difficulty as it were by the gates of Hell how difficulty St. Paul keept his body under fearing lest while he preached to others himself should become a reprobate and give me that spiritual puissance and holy fortitude to bear my self undaunted with difficulties in the heavenly warfare O Lord God my afflictions are sometimes full of horror they seem to come from the same justice by which thou castest the wicked into Hell And they are to me like Hell whilst they so dismay and terrifie me and thou seemest to have forsaken me in my afflictions and temptations and I have no hope that thou wilt ever remove them but that thou hast sent them to confound me And I can hardly refrain from the expression of the wicked Cain That my afflictions are greater than I am able to bear And being at my wits end I am afraid that thou wilt not enable me to bear them and hast rejected me as thou didst Saul and hast taken thy holy Spirit from me and that thou art mine enemy I fear I am unreconciled to thee because I don't feel filial affections to thee when thou chastisest me neither do I say thou hast chastised me less then I deserve but I am ready to murmure and to have hard thoughts to think it more than I deserve because I think it greater than any other mans affliction also because I find thou hast been more ready to hear the prayers of others for deliverances than thou art to hear mine As that of Hanna when she was despised for barrenness she prayed to thee once and thou heardest her and her countenance was no more sad And at the third time thou answeredst Paul when he desired to be delivered from the thorn in the flesh and didst give him grace sufficient for the temptation But as for me I mourn being desolate and take no comfort night and day and thou regardest not But now that I consider that the man who was according to thine own heart when he had grieved the holy Spirit as I pray God I never more may do cryed out as I do The pains of Hell came about me the snares of death overtook me Take not thy holy Spirit rom me And again From my youth up thy terrors have I suffered with a troubled mind And a horrible trembling hath overwhelmed me And My confusion is daily before me and the shame of my face hath covered me I take it to be the portion of the Saints to be much afflicted and to go to Heaven by the gates of Hell O shew me Lord wherein I may enjoy my self and find satisfaction and content without remorse regret or subsequent sadness If it be in any action or contemplation of mine it must be in religious duties when I serve thee with a quiet undistracted well composed spirit and am sensible that I enjoy thy favour and approbation But certain I am that I could never enjoy my self so as not to be sensible of emptiness unprofitableness wearisomness unsatisfactoriness desire of change tediousness and vanity and vexation In all those things which the natural man can do think or speak or enjoy unless the Spirit directs me in them to spiritual ends to the honour and glory of God This therefore makes a clear conviction That the happiness of man and the end for which he was made is to glorify God in keeping his commandments with an upright heart And to love him with all the soul herein only can man find true joy content peace rest quiet satisfaction and injoyment for his soul Let me be always satisfied delighted and ravished with these joys let my soul be satisfied as with marrow and fatness when my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips let me sit under thy shadow with delight and let thy fruit be pleasant to my tast even thine only and let me be ravished with the joys of thy house let the breasts of thine ordinances satisfy me at all times let me be always ravished with thy love With joy let me draw water out of the wells of salvation and make me joyful in the house of prayer Let my soul thirst for thee and my flesh long after thee even as the â—art panteth after the water Brooks so let my soul long after thee my God Let my delight be in thee and in those rivers of pleasure that are at thy right hand for ever more Let me set me set my affections on things above where Christ Jesus sitteth at the right hand of God for ever and take of my affections from things below and my conversation and let it be above Let all my fresh springs be in thee at midnight let me rise and give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments Let me be a companion of all them that fear thee and keep thy commandments Let me be assured of thy love to me by all thy spiritual and temporal mercys and means of grace and hope of glory And let me be assured of my reciprocal love to thee by my willing obedience to all thy commandments That I may know that my beloved is mine and I am his And if at any time thou hearest my prayer and grantest my request let me consecrate those things unto thee which I obtain by prayer as Hanna did her Son O Blessed Lord Jesus these sweet kisses are better than wine SINCE all who will live Godly must suffer persecution and it is said that if we suffer with him we shall also reign with him prepare fit and strengthen me to undergo all the troubles and afflictions of this day and of the whole course of my life which Satan and the wicked and ungodly men of the World shall contrive against me And let me expect every day afflictions for Christs sake and reproach and a cross and trouble in this World since our Hope is not in this World but is reserved for us in Heaven and in this World we are to be of all men most miserable therefore let me not expect beds of roses here but to go through many tribulations and a fiery trial patiently waiting for the time when the Lord shall tread down Satan under our feet And when the Lord shall avenge the blood of the souls that lye slain under the Altar crying for vengeance upon the inhabitance of the earth remembring that none of all these things shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus but we
here am I. So the Lord speaks Jer. 31.21 I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself so whilst Daniel was praying at the beginning of his Prayer God answered Dan 9. the Prodigal desired to be but as a hired Servant and the Father brings forth the Fatted Calf to entertain him so God gives us more than we ask Is any man afflicted let him pray it teacheth that Gods Children are not free from troubles nor can expect so to be It teacheth also that those prayers that are extorted from us by necessity are heard necessity may first set men awork to pray as it did Jacob. Though men would object against them who come to them in their necessities yet Christ and man had never come together had it not been for necessity necessities are not a putting us off but a drawing us to God as appears by these Invitations 'T is folly to neglect God in our trouble When Joab would not come to Absolom he sets his Corn on fire and then he came Dan. 9. Though all this be come upon us yet have we not made our prayers unto thee Gods aims are accomplish'd when thou comest to him Hos 5.15 I will hide my face and they will call upon me early Let not the affliction simply without regard to the precept and promise drive us to God 2. Cor. 1.10 11. God hath delivered me and will deliver me c. Your helping together in your prayers The qualification of the Persons and of the prayer are contained in this the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous availeth much Nothing will make us more fervent than afflictions Sometimes God doth not hear us at the first to make us more fervent his delays are no denials God hath several ways of deliverance that we know not of we must not obtrude our own model upon God David Ps 34. I sought the Lord and he heard me and deliver'd me out of all my trouble Sometimes God will not give a temporal deliverance that he may give a spiritual sometimes he will give both As St Paul said God hath delivered me from the mouth of the Lion and will also deliver me from every evil work The Martyrs in the 12th of the Hebrews would not accept of deliverance from men There is a Spiritual deliverance in part as Pauls from the Thorn in the Flesh or in the whole God sometimes delivereth us by death as Sampson was from the Philistines sometimes he delivereth by death from eternal death Again seldom doth deliverance fail when either we are inlarged to pray for it or incouraged to wait upon God for it when thou preparest the heart O Lord thou inclinest thy ear so Fathers teach their Children to ask what they have a mind to bestow Till we are past sinning we shall not be past suffering Because suffering follows sin as the effect follows the cause and suffering is the usual means which God makes use of to restrain us from sin and to set our graces on work which begin to decay in the Sun-shine of prosperity Though affliction be the fruit of sin it may be the mother of vertue where it is not the mother it may be and most commonly is the Nurse or foster mother making us renew our vows and resolutions for God brings good out of evil or otherwise he would not permit unjustice and opression to be done to his children by the men of the World of whom he saieth he that toucheth you toucheth the the Apple of mine eye And if the members suffer the head suffers also and our blessed Lord and Saviour saith that he that offendeth the least of the Children of God 't were better for that man that a Mill-stone were hanged about his neck and that he were thrown into the midst of the Sea than that he should offend one of those little ones Since Christ himself accompts their sufferings his as these and many other Scriptures prove he doth if in all theit afflictions he is afflicted if they affect him in the tenderest place the apple of his eye then surely he will not permit them to be inflicted in the least degree or quantity more than he seeth necessary fortheir good From hence viz. the sense of Gods tender love to his Children might spring that undaunted confidence and full assurance of faith which Gods people sometimes discover as Holy Job said Though he kill me yet will I trust in him David when the people talked of Stoning him encouraged himself in the Lord. Habakkuk the Prophet would rejoyce in the Lord though the Fig-Tree should not blossom neither should fruit be in the vine though the labour of the Olive should fail and the Field should yield no encrease though the Flock should be cut off from the fold c. The innumerable company of Martyrs in the late Queen Mary's days and in the 10 persecutions when the bodies of the Servants of God were given to be meat for the wild beasts and others burned with fire for the testimony of Christ and would not accept deliverance in hopes of a better resurrection Their faith was the substance of the things hoped for and it secured the possession of them which verefied that truth in Psal 107. He shall not be afraid for any evil tidings his heart is fixed and he trusteth in the Lord. Faith draweth off the mind from temporal things to eternal and then from the dark waies of Gods providence to his promises in his covenant and so makes a man to commit himself to God as it is 2 of Tim. 1.12 I know whom I have trusted Faith puts all into Gods hand and we are safe when we know our goods are in a sure hand Submission to God is an act of faith and love and an act of obedience thereby Job blessed God taking away David submitted himself to God Saying if the Lord hath said to Shimei curse David who shall say why hast thou done so c. Who can tell whether the Lord will requite good for his railing readily did Hezekiah submit to all that God pleased when the Prophet told Eli of the judgments threatned against his House 2 Sam. 15.21 His submissive answer is 'T is the Lord let him do what seemeth good in his sight he laid his mouth in the dust Guilt makes us fear when God removes the pillar of security from under our heads by any affliction but the knowledg of God by former experience fortifies faith This made the Apostle argue God would deliver him Psal 35. I trusted in thee for I said thou art my God His interest in God and Gods Interest in him made him trust in him 2 Chro. 13.18 The children of Judah prevailed against the Israelites because they relied upon the Lord. Another help of faith is prayer Thou shalt ask of me and I will give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance Another is obedience the old Prophet went out of Gods way and the Lyon slew him The comfort of the Cross to the People of God
is greater than the joy of worldly men in their abundance of corn wine and oyle the Prophet Habakkuks joy in the Lord in the want of necessaries of life Hab. 3. Proveth it for what worldly thing can bear up the mind in Adversities Jobs hope and assurance that with those very eyes he should see his redeemer made him suffer all things patiently but all Hamans greatness and happiness did not avail against a disrespect But worldly joy kills the joy in the Holy Ghost They that live in pleasure the Holy Apostle saith they are dead while they live when Afflictions have taken off our heart from the love of the world then wee seek more durable joy then is Gods time to give his Servants joy in the Holy Ghost the peace of conscience and pardon of their sins Though for a season they are in heaviness through manifold temptations they rejoyce in the hope of glory to be revealed As sorrowing they are though they always rejoyce as having nothing yet they possess all things in value Their sorrow is but in semblance their joy reall and in substance Their seeming sorrow for a season their rejoycing perpetual Well then might they take joyfully the spoiling of their goods and rejoyce that they were counted worthy to suffer for the name of Christ and prefer afflictions before the pleasure of sin I had utterly fainted but that I believe verily to see the goodness of the Lord in the Land of the living Psal This anchor of hope kept up his fainting soul As Stephen being stoned then saw Heaven opened So doth faith give to the suffering Saints and Martyrs a prelibation of the joys of Heaven As it is resembled by the first fruits of Canaan which were brought to the Israelits in the barren wilderness 'T is usual with God to depress those which greatest afflictions whom he intends to exalt high And so those to whom he reveals himself most as St. Paul experienced This Apostle though afflicted had joy unspeakable and glorious and received abundance of glorious revelations Psal 23.4 David though he walked through the vally of the shadow of death would fear no evil for thou art with me said he this apprehension of Gods presence and almighty supportation will banish all fears but Psal 46.3 He was not so strong in faith as not to fear for he saith Though I am sometimes afraid yet put I my trust in the Lord. He recovers himself out of his fainting fits by the use of the means Twice in one Psalm we find him fainting and checking himself for it in these expressions Why art thou cast down O my soul and why so disquieted within me Then he raiseth himself up again to hope and trust in God by the experience he had had of Gods help and his interest in him as his God He is the help of my countenance and my God Therefore hope thou in God Bless God for this that he hath given us greater things than we are willing to lose and that he hath given us Christ whom we can not lose Let this comfort us consider if we are afraid of suffering here how should we be afraid of hell If we leave our present enjoyments for God it shall all be made up in Heaven God gives us good things that we may have somthing of value to leave for Christ Philip 1. They rejoyced and waxed confident by St. Pauls bonds Suffering adversity credits the Gospel and creadits thee who sufferest for Satan and his instruments are known to strike at the fairest and best according to that saying placet in vulnus maxima cervix Sen. If afflictions are cause of joy to a believer as the scriptures make out as that of St. James c. 1. Count it all joy when you fall into temptations knowing that the trial of your faith worketh patience c. Then in respect of their spiritual good they ought to contemn temporal losses as this holy precept teacheth The example of the practice of this duty was in those blessed martyrs who took joyfully the spoiling of their goods not accepting deliverance from their persecuters The like example we find in St. Paul Gal. 1.14 He glories in his afflictions saying God forbid that I should glory in any thing save the Cross of Christ by whom the world is crucified to me and I to the world It may be rendered by which the world is crucified to me c. i. e. Though the contemplation of the Cross of Christ and his bitter sufferings did throughly motify the Apostle the contemplation of the same operation of it to him made him glory Or the afflictions which he suffered for Christ which wrought such a mortification in him made him therefore glory in them The like is put in practice by other Saints as it is Rom. 5.2 By whom also we have access by faith c. v. 3. And not onely so but we glory in tribulations also knowing that tribulation worketh patience And patience experience and experience hope Besides these graces and many others which are wrought in the soul by afflictions The reward which is given to those who do so suffer may well make them seem light and also matter of rejoycing viz. That exceeding and eternal weight of glory They do not only yeild the peaceable fruits of righteousness which alone were sufficient to make our lives happy but by these is wrought our eternal happiness also as before is expressed They work for us an exceeding and eternal weight of glory This will prove the truth of Christs Doctrine Mat. 11. ult My yoak is easie and my burthen is light Which may be intended in this sense that all hardship and pains which humane nature can undergo is but light in comparison of sin or the punishment thereof or else that they are but light in respect of the reward here and hereafter or light in respect of the almighty suportation as it is in the Psal 119. v. Hold thou me up and I shall be safe And that of the Apostle Paul I can do all things though Christ that strengthens me for which supportation they may rely upon this promise I will never leave thee nor forsake thee And that I will be with the in the fire c. Another maine cause that makes light the burthen of Christ Cross or yoake is Love the Soul submits willingly to God because it sees in him all causes of love all exeellency of Power majesty glory are in him All perfection of beauty in him every excellent work from him His kindness love and beneficence to us above our merit Hope or expectation his paternal relation to us as his creatures and adopted children in Christ his pittying of us and pardoning our sins and not punishing us according to the fear of our guilty consciences his peculiar pitty to Humane Nature more than to fallen Angels the need we have of him and the benefit we expect from him on whom for all temporal and eternal good we depend