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
us cleanse us heal us pardon us to turn his face from our sins and blot out our misdeeds according to the multitude of his mercy Then though for the present they are ever in our sight terrifying and troubling us we shall in due time know that they are pardoned and that the blood of Christ hath cleansed us from them all and that we are reconciled in him and he will heal us and we shall again be restored to the joy of our salvation and praise his Name in his Courts and renew our vowes and be stablished with his free Spirit Most of the Psalms contain prayers for some graces and may stand us in stead for our use and serve for our direction If we are rash or chollerick by nature and subject to wrath and revenge and have fallen thereby or fear we shall fall We cannot be enough sensible of our danger in this particular because we must expect hourly temptations and how far our wrath and choller may carry us we know not especially if we should chance to meet with others as chollerik and rash as our selves if we do not alwaies pray to God to help us in and deliver us from this temptation as it is for the most part in all the sins of our complexion or inclination very difficult to stand against them at all if God do not stand by us and strengthen us and support us and if we forget our selves and do not hang upon him for help call upon him trust in him and fear and distrust our selves These will alwaies be buffetting us He that is sensible of his weakness in this particular and his danger and mourns by reason thereof desiring to be delivered from it seeks help by reading meditation conference and this means of prayer which must also be joyned to the other besides the use of natural means too For so we find the Apostle Paul using them for he saith of himself I keep under my body We strive and run as in a Race So fight I not as one that beateth the Air. In labours often in sastings often c. For hereby we both shew to God and man our burthen that we groan under and desires to be delivered from it if we use all these means to get our deliverance But on the contrary how little desire to be delivered from wrath or lust doth he express who seeds himself to the full drinks wine in bouls pampers his body with high feeding and drinking which are the fewel of these fires or how doth he seek humility of God who delights himself in actions of vain-glory and the applause of men and seeks honour of men by bravery revenge vain ostentation high looks a lofty gate pomp prodigality and the like Certainly those sins which by nature we are most inclined to these by natural helps and adjuments we must oppose not cherish and foster by incitements and allurements The wise Agur accordingly prayed against the means of sin and the occasions against the means and occasions of fulness and want If we so well knew our own proneness to these mother sins as he did and were so wise as he was we would pray as he did to be delivered from the means and occasions of sins This is contained in that Petition Lead us not into temptation In like sort praying for any grace or improvement of a grace we must use the means both spiritual and natural and pray for them and the occasions of them as mortification sobriety watchfulness c. Hence we are taught to pray to God to send us Pastors who shall feed his people with knowledge And because this is a necessary means of grace God hath promised it and by the promise we are invited to ask it Suitably we find David praying Psal 119.12 Teach me thy Statutes v. 18. Open thou mine eyes that I may see the wondrous things of thy Law v. 26. I have acknowledged my waies and thou heardest me O teach me thy Statutes Make me to understand the way of thy Commandments Make me to delight in the thing that pleaseth thee More especially in this specified sin of wrath and revenge if thou labourest under it desiring to be delivered from it and the evils and dangers attending it thou ponderest and meditatest of those Texts of Scripture which reprove and repress it as is that Vengeance is mine and I will repay it saith the Lord. Let not the Sun go down in your wrath Leave thy gift upon the Altar and go and be reconciled and then offer thy gift Prov. It is the wisdom of a man to pass by an offence Anger resteth in the bosom of fools If when ye suffer wrongfully ye take it patiently happy are ye for the Spirit of grace and glory resteth upon you Thou shalt reap improvement of thy patience in a good measure by these meditations And by subduing thy body and withdrawing from it superfluities especially such as more naturally excite this humour in thy body and by careful watching against the first beginning of wrath And then if thou add to these this last remedy viz. Prayer beseeching God through Jesus Christ who is made unto us wisdom righteousness sanctisication and redemption to make us so wise as to pass by offences for his sake and to take from us that folly of anger that as fury is not him so it be not in us neither who are his children who doth good to all that we may be like him in this and that by our slowness to anger and by our patient bearing of wrongs and our meekness and submission to God if it be his will that we shall suffer wrongfully we may perceive and know that the Spirit of grace and glory rests upon us and in that rejoyce Then we may be assured that we shall obtain the victory over these lusts and messengers of Satan and be able to do good for evil to love our enemies to bless them that curse us to pray for those that despightfully use us and so run the waies of Jesus Christ's Commandments and take up his yoak I say we may be assured of obtaining these excellent graces by these meanes because God hath promised it in the prohesie of Isa c. 32. The heart of the rash shall understand knowledg The Lion shall lye down with the Lamb c. 29.4 Certainly the change of the heart and renovation in knowledg and understanding is the chief thing in our Quickning and vivification in the Spirit and in every grace this God having often undertaken and promised As in that promise That he will take away the heart of stone and give his people a heart of flesh And that he will give them a New heart that he will put his Lawes in their hearts and write them in their inward parts We may assure our selves that he will do it If we supplicate him in faith in Jesus Christ And use our own endeavours with the meanes And if we do obtain this so that we can savour the
errours misdoings and mistakes ignorances and follies as procure to Men shame fear grief guilt and the Wrath of God due to sin Though meritoriously Christ only can deliver us yet he hath injoyned these operations of his Spirit as the means to make us Subjects capable of his merit And though it be said that while we were sinners he died for us and he justifieth the ungodly yet he doth not justifie ungodliness but they are changed by the renewing of the Spirit in the new Birth in all their faculties namely in the Judgement Will and affections whereby they are first enlightned to understand the principles of Christ's Doctrine and do believe and do resolve to practise the same as it is commanded resigning and submitting our wills to his who hath made us and redeemed us all which operations of the Spirit do excite joy in the Soul of the Regenerate viz. first it rejoyceth in knowing the truth and the good will of God and every particular discovery thereof rejoyceth the Soul but chiefly it rejoyceth to find Grace in it self and a conformity to that will of God and every degree of Grace in it self and in others rejoyce it for we find the Apostles rejoycing in the Graces which they found in others but they grieve at sin stirring in themselves and others King Solomon was sufficiently accomplished for his design in the pursuit of finding out the thing that was profitable What would give rest What would afford satisfaction What delight he could find in any thing What improvement he could make of knowledge But he did not nor could attain thereby with all his labour and industry any thing but to find out the vanity of all things below and so to fill himself with vexation restlesness much grief and encrease of sorrow Eccles c. 1. If so then we must account him no wise Man who takes any worldly thing for his contentment satisfaction repose profit commodity joy or delight but he is truly wise who can both discern the madness vanity unprofitableness restlesness vexation nausiousness and trouble with which these worldly things fill vex and disquiet and dissatisfie vain Man and seeks his joy comfort pleasure fruition content satisfaction and happiness in things more certain more lasting more excellent more spiritual Thus far also Philosophy went and hath defined happiness to be the operation of the Soul according to perfect virtue in a life that is perfect And what those virtues are Natures light hath shewed the knowledge of God and the worshipping him accordingly they defined to be happiness and virtue for thither tend all moral virtues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. But what Nature could not find out God hath revealed viz. The Gospel of our blessed Saviour which was first made known by Angels to the Shepherds and by this Gospel or good tydings we are taught That happiness is To know God and Christ This is Life Eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent Now if these operations of the Soul according to perfect virtue proceed from the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Saviour as they must if it be in the perfect life which is in Heaven then the Philosophers happiness is the same with a Christians for their graces proceed from this knowledge as it is said by David they that know thy Name will put their trust in thee they that know God to be All-sufficient will walk before him in perfection they that have tasted how gracious the Lord is and that he is a God hearing Prayer will come unto him this life is begun here from whence this certain conclusion may be drawn that there is happiness joy satisfaction and all sweetness of Life and enjoyment in the Soul that hath continual motions of Grace and none of sin or vanity quod quaerimus The Immense greatness of this Joy is not to be expressed Therefore the Apostle calls it Joy unspeakable and glorious 1 Pet. 1.8 but to prove the immensity of it we must consider the cause which is Infinite Eternal and Almighty such as the cause is the effect must needs be The assurance of God's love and favour in Christ Jesus for our Eternal happiness hereafter for our security and preservation here for our deliverance from all the evills of sin and the punishments due to it which coming into the Soul though but by a little glimpse ravisheth the Soul with infinite joy when God sheweth the light of his countenance and smiles if I may so express it or looks pleasant upon the Soul that thirsteth after him in this Land of barrenness It is satisfied When God owns thee by hearing thy Prayers and puts forth his Almighty Power at thy request for thy succour whereby thou knowest thou hast an Almighty power for thy assistance great is thy joy Especially because thou hast earnest thereby for the future that he will never leave thee nor forsake thee so that no time limits thy joy nor no degree of enioyment because the matter and cause is the infinite power and infinite goodness of God and the duration of it to Eternity and this enjoyment doth begin here when we know our interest that Christ is ours our Attonement our Passeover slain for us as a sacrifice for our sins our Reconciliation and Peace-maker our Redeemer who hath bought us Our Mediator our High Priest our King our Food our Bridegroom our Head our Life our Way our Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption the Hymenaeans of these holy Nuptials and the Song of the Lamb are everlasting When God doth assure us by his Spirit that we are reconciled to him through Christ and we are confident of his Almighty power and goodness ready always to succour us as his Children his Beloved his People his Portion and his Flock and that all things are his and whatever is his we have an interest in it as we have in him by reason of our Relation to him in Christ When we know Christ and God in him and are known by him and behold as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord and are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory being renewed after the Image of him that made us and when the Spirit of Grace and Glory rests upon us 1 Pet. 4.14 When the glorious Majesty of the Lord is upon us when we can serve him in the beauty of Holiness What do we want but to see him Face to Face whom now we see in a Glass And to have that in perfection which now is but in part and to have our vile bodies like his glorious body Of the Eating and Drinking the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist When our blessed Saviour plainly tells us that the words which he speaks are Spirit Why should I not understand a Spiritual meaning in those of this mystery namely a Spiritual eating of his body and drinking his Blood To as many as received him he gave Power and Priviledge to