Pet 2.4 To love thy self into Sobriety or Prudent self Government to cloath thy self with a Robe of Righteousness and Mercy in thy dealings with Men is not enough is not the full and adequate Doctrine and Duty taught by the Grace of God which brings Salvation Titus 2.11 There must be superadded not only a denying Vngodliness so as to crucifie it but a living Godly leading a Religious Life towards God in Love Faith Fear Honour Universal Acknowledgment out of Conscience For what Conscience in dealing well with Men and ill with God that is with the Subjects fairly and not with the Soveraign What Conscience in breaking the first Article betwixt God and Man which is to give him the sole command in his House thy Heart that living Temple which is the sum of the First Commandment What Conscience to dwell in his House and pay him no Rent No external Acknowledgment and Worship in Publick in thy Family in thy Closet the sum of the Second Command What Conscience whilst tender of thy own Name to be regardless of Gods forbid in the Third Command What Conscience in stealing time from God's reserved part when he allows thee so much beside the Fourth Command violated Be never so sober just free kind to Man-ward if thou respect not God O my Soul thou hast no Conscience For where there 's no Godliness there can be no Conscience Oh make it thy first and main business to approve thy self to God Thou canst never be true to thy self or Man if thou be a Traytor to God Thou hast no greater assistance in thy dutifulness to Men than a due regardfulness of God Thou canst have no better evidence of a due regardfulness of God than thy conscientious dutifulness to Men. Thou forfeit'st the reputation of thy Religiousness towards God if thou be not Righteous towards Man and of thy Righteousness if not Religious Like Hippocrates's Twins these are born and act and sicken and die together That 's the 4th ingredient of the Psalmist's Character he upheld universal Innocency and Integrity of Conscience CHAP. VII The Subject of Comfort Publickly Spirited c. True Christianity c. 5. THis Holy Man was of a Publick Spirit living under a Catholick sence of and care for the common concerns of the Church of God Lamenting its Miseries ver 5 6. longing and praying for its redemption from them by the Power and Justice of God ver 1 2 3 4 20. and encouraging his own and its hopes thereof by a serious reflection upon the Divine Attributes ver 1 2 8 9 10 11. Providences ver 12 13. and his own particular experience ver 17 18 19 21. withal by a Prophetick Spirit foretelling it ver 14 15 23. all which are plain in the Psalm and plain demonstrations of a Heart enlarged in its desires and endeavours for Publick Good A good Soul is not well at ease when the Servants of God are ill at ease The Sufferings of the Church are made its own by a sympathizing Spirit which is afflicted in all its Afflictions and cannot enjoy Prosperity or it self in Contentation when God's Children are groaning under the Cross Mourns with Mourning Rejoyces with rejoycing Sion and uses its interest in Heaven to work upon the Bowels of the ever-blessed Son of God that he may demonstrate his tender Commiserations toward his own Members in Misery by turning the course of his Providence And that this is a proper method to Comfort we see Isai 66.10 11. Rejoyce ye with Jerusalem and be glad with her all ye that love her rejoyee for joy with her all ye that mourn for her that ye may suck and be satisfied with the Breasts of her Consolations that ye may milk out and be delighted with the abundance of her Glory God had a People a Heritage which though Afflicted and broken in pieces here ver 5. yet he would not cast off nor forsake either in respect of Affection or Communion ver 14. So neither must we For 't is by Vertue of our Union and Communion with that Body and its Head that all those comfortable Spirits and Influences are derived to us which refresh and revive us I confess 't is through our internal and spiritual Confederation and Fellowship but he that values and receives benefit by this cannot despise and vilifie the External Hence our Psalmist here as a Member vitally joined to the Body and partaking of a common Sense does not only comfort himself and it with the consideration of the inviolableness of that Union and Communion which was of a spiritual Nature ver 14. nor only reflects upon those external Ligaments and Bonds which ty'd together so numerous a People into one single Heritage or Church but also was grievously afflicted for those external breakings in pieces rents and disunion of parts though involuntary which were the fruit of the outward Violence and Rage of Persecutors So should we But then Oh what Affliction would have rent his tender Heart in the view of those voluntary tearing in pieces the Seamless Coat of Christ the Divisions and Breaches we make amongst our selves Those Fractions were only some kind of dissolution of their Civil Political Union ours of the Ecclesiastical and Wounds are most dangerous in the most noble Parts State Factions are not more to be dreaded than those of the Church because these have more immediate respect to the Soul and God Lamentable are the Miseries of a Civil War where Thousands Born Bred up Nourished by one common Mother Brethren by Stock Blood Condition Cohabitation Membership of the same Body Politick perhaps of one Name and Kindred and Family of the same Body Mystical the Church Blind and Dumb and Deaf to the Cries and Shreeks and Wounds and Groans and Deaths of their own proper Limbs in a barbarous drunken rage tear off their own Skin Flesh and Bones rive open their very Hearts to let out Spirit Life Strength Soul hurl one another down to Hell under their Sin in a deluge of Blood and worry themselves by piece-meal into eternal Damnation And are the Church Digladiations in the Christian World less deplorable when those whose respite from everlasting Burnings cost no less than the Blood of God who are denominated from that most venerable Name wash'd in the same Laver of Regeneration Members of the same Spiritual Body privileged with the same most excellent Gospel and Covenants of Promise and would every one be ready to tear out his Heart that should dare to tell them that they shall not each possess the blessedness of an unspeakably glorious Heaven where therefore as in a Center they must meet if their hopes fail not When these I say who thus concenter and agree in their Titles Royalties and Expectations are so far from combining in the common profession and practice of Unity Love Peace Goodness Vertue Godliness Brotherly kindness Charity as to grind one another into Atoms bite and devour one anothers Hearts by bloody Animosities Reproaches
horrible Combustion of Conscience or at the least Inquietude and Uneasiness of Mind any thing but Satisfaction Joy and Rest Of such Men I say as Gen. 49.6 Oh my Soul come not thou into their Secret unto their Assembly mine Honour be not thou united And now Oh my Soul what is thy Trouble and Sorrow and Anxiety of Mind Or what are thy Desires Cares Delight Joy Contrivances Counsels Activity concern'd about Canst thou feed upon thy sweet Morsels alone and glory in the Affluence of Personal or Domestick Blessings while the Gates of Sion mourn Are any in Affliction imprisoned persecuted for Righteousness sake and wiltest not thou bear a part in their Dolours Remembring those in Bonds as bound with them and them which suffer Adversity as being thy self also in the Body Heb. 13.3 Dost thou not partake of that common Spirit of Goodness Compassion Charity which as good Blood diffuses it self and circulates through all the Members of that one Body ingenerating an universal Fellow-feeling and Care of mutual and general Concerns in all and every one that lives by the Life of the Head in Heaven Art thou weak with the Weak and with the Offended dost thou burn 2 Cor. 11.29 Canst thou bear every ones burthen and so fulfill the Law of Christ and restore those overtaken with Infirmities considering thy self lest thou also be tempted Gal. 6.1 2. See the Apostle prosecuting this Argument fully 1 Cor. 12.12 to 27. If thou be acted by the private strait-lac'd selfish Spirit of the generality who can neither give a jot of ease to themselves under their Personal Straits and Sorrows by a serious Reflection on the Welfare of the Church of God nor will in the least imbitter their Joys with any Considerations of the Afflictions of Joseph suspect thy self to be an Alien from the Life and the Catholick Body of Jesus Christ which subsists by a Vital Union with him What now are the Measures by which thou actest in thy Station and with respect to the Members of Christ If thou espouse and tenaciously adhere to only the Sentiments of some Particular Party or Sect farewel all publick Spiritedness Thou professest a Belief of the Communion of Saints as in one Catholick Church which is indeed an Invisible Thing as are all Objects of Faith in its distinction from Sense Does this Faith work by Love Thou ownest also one Universal Body seen in its parts visible in its whole extent throughout the World actually by the Eyes of its Head seen in its Unity at once and potentially by Man Which is not a Chaos of every thing in confusion but an Organical Body that in diversity of useful comely Members Parts Congregations the least of the denomination Countries and Kingdoms makes up a lovely Community Not a Rope of Sand but a Golden Chain where every very Link has its Beauty Preciousness Connexion Suitableness A Garden enclosed where variety of Walks Beds c. constitute a fair delicious Paradise One Spouse of Christ one Body for one Head Does thy Fancy or Partiality here make Restrictions Can'st thou dar'st thou chop and mangle this Body Tear off a Limb of this Spouse Break the golden Chain for one Link And dote upon these without regard to the rest Can thy Love walk no where but in little Severals and petty Enclosures In this sence I cannot disallow that Saying of a Great Person viz. That the Church of Christ is neither Rome nor a Conventicle There may be some Part of it there but confin'd to either it cannot be exclusively to the rest of the World Art thou a Christian Then must Christianity command the freest Motions of thy Affections the Interest of that thou must and shalt respect honour promote and love not as it is pretended or conceitedly monopolized by any distinct Party but as like the Sun it diffuses its efficiency vertue and influence every where and shines with a lovely radiancy and glory in any Man whatsoever Seest thou one that in the judgment of rational Charity makes Religion his principal Business above all labouring that it may have a prevalent Interest in his Heart Cleave to this Man embrace him in thy most near and intimate Affections be he of what Party soever Dost thou find any diligently searching the Word of God to know him in all his Perfections not meerly for Notion sake but that his inward Soul and outward Conversation may be under the Dominion and Command of what he knows A Man that maintains a high and honourable esteem of the ever blessed Redeemer of the World the only begotten Son of God as the alone Saviour of Mankind taking the greatest care to gain a true and full Understanding of his Excellency Undertaking Offices and Benefits that he may entirely devote himself to him A Man that is daily acquainting himself how much it is his Interest to live under the Conduct of the Holy Ghost and therefore studies his inspired Writings to attain right Apprehensions concerning his Nature Gifts Graces Comforts that he may aspire after them inwardly feel them in their power and accordingly engages his Mind Will Affections Conscience executive Power all within and without him in an universal Subjection to this Holy Trinity in Unity and with a reverend Awefulness minggled with Love demeans himself under the Government of that ever Adoreable Majesty as one that hath present powerful Sensations of its immediate Presence Oversight and perfect Cognizance of the most secret recesses of his Soul A man that understanding his relation to God owns Him pants after Him with insatiable Ardour cleaves unto Him with full purpose of heart in a singular Complacency fears praises glorifies trusts chooses embraces acknowledges Him in all His ways as His chief Good and Happiness and would not willingly displease Him for a World And having with a Holy Religious Veneration observ'd approves of is singularly well pleas'd with that Wonder of all Wonders the Grace of Almighty God revealed by the Gospel in giving His Eternal Son to be the Redeemer of Lost Mankind God in our Flesh manifested in the fulness of time to do and suffer whatever Justice required that our Sins might be pardon'd our Persons accepted sanctified and glorified And Looking unto Jesus doth heartily acquiesce in the Method of Salvation ordain'd by God thro' him intirely yields up himself to him to be and do and suffer whatever he pleases sincerely accepts of him as an All-sufficient Saviour submits to his Government in all things never can be satisfied but is in a restless Agony day and night till he gain some good Evidence that Christ is his and he Christ's spontaneously chearfully with a self-denying humble penitent Heart venturing his All upon him for ever in believing in him hoping for his Sake to obtain the Love and Favour of God in Justification Reconciliation and Eternal Blessedness and therefore deliberately freely with all readiness of mind engages himself to Christ by the Renewal of his Baptismal Covenant with
upon their Consciences They have awakening apprehensions of the Holiness and Justice of God the dreadful menaces of the Law the bitter Agonies undergone by the Son of God for the Sin of Man the dismal Horrors and Woes and Cruciations under the Vengeance of Almighty God in Hell which makes every Sin very formidable They are made to understand that although in respect of the matter some Sins are greater others less yet no Sin is absolutely little which is commited against a great God and also that smaller Sins are aggravated relatively to our Faculties that 't is an heinous offence to God to do the least of Evils against the clear Light and Conviction of Conscience or with a full bent of Will and Affection and that a Sin in respect of the matter comparatively and in it self greater yet is not so to me if committed ignorantly unwillingly Under these Considerations their own particular Sins are set in order before their Faces set on upon their awakned Consciences made bitter and grievous and odious that they Day and Night lament over them are afflicted with them in anguish of Soul under them labouring and being heavy laden and able to obtain rest no where till by serions hearty Repentance for and from them with a bitter loathing and implacable malice and hatred against them they be prepar'd for and made willing to embrace the Lord Jesus Christ in his whole mediatory Latitude and intirely devote themselves to him and his Father in the renewal of their Baptismal Covenant which they most solemnly and unfeignedly engage in and universally submit to the Terms of in the Strength and Grace of Christ Upon this Covenanting with God they see and know that to sin against him in any thing wittingly or willingly will in them be yet more exceeding sinful than before and still the more they oblige themselves to God and he engages them to himself and endears himself to them by the communication of Covenant-Mercies the more do they find their Sins to be inhanced in their abominable odiousness to God and the smart and sting they leave in their Consciences is so much the more grievous Oh none knows the dire and dismal things which a wounded Spirit undergoes but those that have felt The Spirit of a Man will sustain his Infirmity but a wounded Spirit who can bear Prov. 18.14 And this too has its degrees of Intolerableness in proportion to Sins and Sence and Temper and Time and Spirit and Improvement Men of strong Parts great Reading comprehensive Intellects large Memories ready and present Minds may sometimes soon and easily weather out the Storm But all Mens intellectuals and advances in Knowledge and Goodness are not of one size What shall poor weak shallow Heads or melancholick Constitutions and therefore strong Imaginations defective treacherous Memories but unruly Consciences do when both Heaven and Hell seem to be set in Battle-array against them Horrid Reflections virulent and violent Temptations strange and terrible Injections and Infusions as drawn Swords gashing and galling and killing the very Heart piercing it through with multitudes of Fears Troubles Torments Sorrows Can a Man that hath felt this Groan'd under been Crush'd and Crucifi'd and Rack'd and Rent in pieces with it and that perhaps many Weeks Months Years together ever make light of the cause of it ever have other than dreadful Apprehensions of it as the burn'd Child Fancy and Reason can never comprehend what Sense and Experience will testifie in these Cases Speculative Men that stand upon their Heads which have little or no Communion with their Hearts who understand every thing better than themselves very seldom feel any of these lamentable Twitches and Agonies till a Sickness a Death-bed set their thoughts upon another Bias which in some obtains in most not at all and then according to the largness of their minds are their Horrors of Conscience and their feeling may teach them fellow-feeling when it is too late but the unconcernedness of their Spirits before conjures down all workings of Commiseration As a Man of an Athletick Constitution in the triumphs of his natural Vigour and Health accounts valetudinary Persons a company of pitiful puling Sneaks always whining over an itching Limb in the Scurvey or a smarting Toe in the Gout or a rumbling Belly in the Chollick or Gripes or an akeing Back in the Stone or a squeazy Stomach or tickling Tooth c. in which they are the Objects of his Ridicule rather than compassionate regard But let his brass Pot receive a sound knock from any of these mauling Distempers or the like and the Complexion of his thoughts immediately change and from the foot he can now Collect the Dimensions of Hercules I doubt not but that as many Holy Souls enjoy some refreshing Antepasts of the future everlasting Feast of all Delights and Joys they shall sit down with Christ at in his Eternal Kingdom So many wicked profligate Wretches meet with dismal and sensible Prelibations of the never ending Woes and Horrors of Hell that knowing by some Internal Sensations what awaits them they may either be awak'd into Repentance or if not rendred more inexcuseable And sometimes God in his Infinite Wisdom so orders that even those who ascend not to any heighth in Debauchery yet are reduc'd to such extreamities of Anguish and Pangs in the New Birth that it comes very little short of those more Dreadful Anticipations in the Reprobate nay sometimes it exceeds in a considerable degree Sin must have its Hell of one kind or other and happy is it for that Man whose Hell in this Life is preventive of not introductive to a future For beside the unspeakable Satisfactions in another World this lays the Foundation of the Richest Sweetest Fullest and most durable Consolations even in this Life according to the common saying God digs deepest where he intends to build highest But on the contrary where be breaks no Earth he intends to sow no Seed Those that he permits to be always whole shall never have because they never need a Physician General Experience tells That the Corruption of carnal Ease and Security is the Generation of a Dissenter Troubles for Sin are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first Rudiments of this Embryo It seldom falls out that a Mans or Womans Conscience is thorowly disturb'd and their fallacious Peace and Comfort utterly ruin'd but either the want of a skilful and tender hand to bind up their broken Hearts or some check they meet with in an unseasonable hour from those that should be vers'd in this Art drives them under that great uneasiness of mind to take Sanctuary in the bosom of one or other that with more soft and compassionate Bowels will counsel and encourage them yet not precipitate them into the Pacifick Seas of Consolation but gently and by degrees lead them thither through the Strait of a sound Repentance I know not how it comes to pass God's Dispensations always are Wise Just and
know to be true and sound I can have no Evidence that God or any Covenant Mercy is mine For I can have no demonstration hereof but only by the Effects And if I be not sure that these are genuine the true Productions of God's Relation-Love the Legitimate issue of the Marriage Union betwixt Christ and my Soul I cheat my self under the disguise of a fallacious Peace into real Wretchedness and Woe The Assurance therefore of the Truth and Sincerity of my Grace is to me the very bottom Stone in the Foundation of my Comfort and an experimental sense of the vital Influence Presence and Power of that indwelling Grace is the basis of this Assurance This the Psalmist here does make the nearest ground of his assuming to himself Comfort in God ver 17 18. Vnless the Lord had been my help my Soul had almost or quickly dwelt in silence This was an Experience in a Temporal Case and plainly implies that in his extreme peril when there was no help or hope visible in and from the World yet God did interpose in a peculiar remarkable manner so that it could not but be apparent that his Deliverance was a special work of Providence So ver 18. When I said my Foot slippeth thy Mercy O Lord held me up I was in such eminent danger so near falling that I could not see any possibility of recovering my self but Betwixt the Stirrup and the Ground Mercy I crav'd and Mercy found A visible palpable observable special Intervention of Mercy sustain'd me when otherwise I was irrecoverably gone These were possibly some uncommon undertakings of Grace and Providence for him 1 Sam. 23.6 27. and chap. 25. like that in diverting Saul from the pursuit when he had hunted him to a view and the other in preventing his revenge upon Nabal or such as Hozekiah beg'd Isa 38.14 I know Experiences are things of late more derided than understood by some Admirers of a Rational Religion but whose pretended Reason is indeed too hard for their Religion overturning its Basis that Lowliness which would instruct them to think there are other Men and Christians beside that understand themselves though not understood by these and no more dote on an Animal Religion than their Accusers who are prejudic'd and prepossest against them by other things than either Religion or Reason or common Sence But these I refer to the after-thoughts of one of the great Propugnators of that way the Author of Anti-Sadducism Page 39 40 in 4º in one point of the highest Experience and sometimes most of all scoft at viz. Communion with God His Reason at length was reconciled to the Thing yet so will not his Charity to the Persons of those that alway own'd it they must be still Melancholists and any thing ill enough which a stout Reasoner ex Particulari can make them But possibly their Reason as in that so in other particulars that have undergone the same fate may in like manner approve it self when it has the happiness to be thus an Aborigin in the Rational World for 't is below the grandeur thereof to receive it from the poor despised Animal Well blessed be God that Heaven is an Experimental as well as Rational State although I doubt the Religion thereof will on that account proceed and commence animal in the Schools of Reasons Idolizers 'T is no matter I shall still commend three things as necessary Antecedents to Sincerity in the practice of true Religiousness 1st Reason the lowest the Handmaid which must submit and veil to the 2d Faith the Chamberlain of which is begotten the 3d. Experience the Treasurer the Heir of Faith which hath the honour to abide live and inherit when Faith ceases and dies yet it is not posthumous but brought up under it till it arrive at maturity in Paradise When I speak of Faith I am not so fond as to postpone a credence to Divine Revelations in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments I build all Christian Faith upon that bottom solely and exclusively to all Unwritten Traditions or pretended Revelations which can never found a Divine Faith of which alone I discourse Neither am I so stark drunk as to think that those Scripture Revelations are not most highly rational in the matter of them as well as the motives to believe them nor yet so frantick as to advance any Experiences unconform to Scripture Let the Antinomians and Papists see to the first the promoters of Reason in contradistinction not to say contradiction to Scripture look to the second and Enthusiasts to the last Experience with me is nothing but a sensible yet rational feeling of the performance of Promises to a Man's self in particular When my inward sense assures me that the spiritual Covenant Mercies are really bestow'd upon me and my outward Circumstances demonstrate that God owns me with the Temporal I do not place these in Opposition but Conjunction for without the inward Experiments the outward signifie nothing They may be and are Providential but not Federal Both are call'd Tasts of God's Goodness and Graciousness or of his Word Psal 34.8 1 Pet. 2.3 Psal 119.103 c. Now when an Experience of the performance of any Promise superadds as it were a Seal to that Faith which receiv'd it as true it gives a more full confirmation to a Man's title to the Covenant and all the Blessings and Comforts of it and a further ground of quieting the Heart and therefore is completive of Comfort as Faith is inchoative For if I do but weakly and doubtingly apprehend and apply the Comforts that are in God yet when he bestows upon me some special token of his Favour 't is an emboldning encouraging pledge of his willingness to grant more and a testimony of his owning my right to all As in case of litigious Titles when all stands upon the same bottom if the Occupant freely yield up part to the Claimer 't is a vertual acknowledgement of his right to all and therefore exceedingly animates him in his future proceedings for its recovery Oh Divine Experience the blessed earnest of everlasting Consolation how sweet how satisfying art thou When a disconsolate Heart is sick of its own wants and woes weary of it self and the World as insufficient to yield the least drachm of solid Contentation 't is necessitated at last to send out Faith as a Harbinger to seek for Peace and Rest which it can no where find but in God and no way deduce from God but through those free Engagements which his boundless Goodness has exhibited in the Covenant of Grace These Blessings are as a Honey-comb in the promise but Heaven in the performance Indeed Heaven is no more nor less than the full and universal accomplishment of Promises and that partial incompleat fulfilling them in this Life wherein consists the happiness of Experience is no other than an Antepast or foretast of those eternal Felicities which constitute that immortal state And now am I