Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A57733
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The fire upon the altar. Or Divine meditations and essayes containing the substance of Christian religion
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Rowe, Cheyne.
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1679
(1679)
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Wing R2061A; ESTC R218415
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226,122
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405
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raiment and God increased him to two bands Abraham desired but a Son and God increaseth his seed as the sand of the Sea The prodigal desires to be but as a Servant and the Father entertaineth him with embracings and feastings But as for his people that trust in him mercy imbraseth them on every side God satisfieth their mouth with good things they shall want no manner of thing that is good He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him if he doth not give the thing desired he will take away the desire of it Psal 32.4 Delight thy self in the Lord and he will give the thy hearts desire We starve our souls for want of asking Joash struck three times on the ground and the Prophet was angry and said to him Thou shouldest have strucken six or seven times Paul to the Corinthians saith you are not straitned in us but in your own bowels And t is said of Christ that he could not do many works because of their infidelety to be often upon our knees shews our faith in him believing his goodness and Fatherly care of us Infidelity doth as it were bind the hands of God who is not wanting in his bowels of mercy Be sensible then O my soul of thy wants know where to go for thy supply namely to him that inviteth thee give way to thy most inlarged desires when thou goest to an infinite supply be not straitned in thine own bowels open thy mouth wide come boldly as he biddeth thee And ask the things that are pleasing in his sight since thou knowest thou shalt receive them if they be such things as the word of God teaches thee to ask fear not because thou art sensible of thine own unworthiness since such are invited and the best are unprofitable Servants And when they have done all they may and must acknowledge themselves such and stand in need of the merits of their Saviour and are justified freely by grace if so much more must such sinners as I and such as Mary Magdalen see our own unprofitableness But Oh that I could love as much as she did because much is forgiven me and I believe that he will forgive me because he hath given me many things and it is easier and lesser in the esteem of men to forgive a debt than to give I shall undoubtedly believe his love to me If I can feel in my heart such love to him 5. Meditation When I find the Lord reckoning up the greivous sins of his auncient people the Jews that they were a rebellious people lying Children that would not hearken to the law of the Lord which say to the seers see not and to the Prophets prophesy not unto us right things but deceits cause the holy one of Israel to cease from before us for which iniquity he threatens them v. 13. And v. 15. Promiseth them salvation if they return but finding them obstinate they would not whereby they procure their own ruin Therefore he saith Isa 15.18 He will wait to be gracious unto them He will be exalted that he may shew mercy unto them as if he had said though their sins were never so great yet his mercy should not be overcome his mercy is infinite as he is their sins are the sins of men his mercies the mercies of God that where iniquity doth abound grace doth superabound his mercy is free without any merit in us or any motive unless it be our misery the motive of his patience and mercy is only from himself but that he waited to be gracious implies that though his mercy were never so free yet he could not find a season to shew it then when they were so averse from him Since then the motive of mercy is only in God himself we may infer that there is nothing in him to discourage faith and recumbency upon him so that although we have been guilty of such sins as these are or the same though we have been rebellious lying averse and would not hearken unto his voice nor to his Prophets and have hindred them from speaking right things yet let us remember our selves and returne unto him as the Ninevites did when they were warned who knowes but he may wait to be gracious to us also but let us not presume upon his mercy and make that which should be our Physick our Poison We know that he hath given us a High Priest who doth not only know our insirmities and impotencies but therefore knew them that he might have compassion upon us Blessed Jesus thou knowest that no man can come after thee unless the Father draw him help thou our weak nature by thy Holy Spirits assistance draw us we will run after thee Quicken us who by nature are dead in trespasses and sins take away our heart of stone and give us hearts of flesh for thy promise sake A Prayer LORD when I am tempted to revenge pride Emulation Abition wrath or any other sinful action to satisfy my sensual carnal appetite to maintaine my honour to repress my adversary to Correct his insolency inlighten me with thy Heavenly grace thy word and thy Spirit that I may pull off the Mask of these sensual carnal waies of the men of the world which shall perish and see their vanity and deformity and anoint thou my eyes that I may cleerly see the beauty of every vertue grace meekness charity humility patience longanimity that I may view them in themselves and in those who excelled therein and esteeme them more honourable than to be accompted brave gallant bold valiant and heroick as sometimes I have esteemed when I have seen heard and read of any exemplar and rare act of the graces as to instance the patience of Job when he had lost his estate children and bodily health murmured not but blessed God and Eli 'T is the Lord let him do what seemeth good in his eyes Hanna when she was reproved for drunkenness answered without anger nay but in the bitterness of my soul I prayed Forgive us our trepasses as we forgive them that trespass against us 1. Meditation If our forgiving the trespasses of others be the pattern of Gods forgiveness to us how few can be saved for none ever forgave every injury that hath been done to him some they have revenged But if God doth not pardon every sin to us we are damned Lord give us thy grace to be as free in the pardoning of all trespasses without exception though never so many as we would have thee forgive us for we cannot have so many committed against us as we have committed against thee therefore we have need of a larger pardon from God to us than we can have occasion to give others If God would take accompt of us we shall have need of forgiveness for a thousand talents Mat. 18.24 More than we are able to satisfy yet when we fall down before him beseeching his pardon he freely forgives us all But if we for a hundred pence or
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