inquiry into those mysteries that is the Emulation of Angels to pry into if a man hath Honour this Power makes it a Champion for the Patronage and Lustre of Religion it Humbles him to fling down his Coronet at the feet of the Lamb and Advanceth him because he hath something the world hath an Esteem for to Deny for his Saviour which is beyond the Proportions and possibilities of ordinary Christians if he hath Riches this Power turns his Almoner feeds the Hungry cloaths the Naked Erects Hospitals builds Schools of Learning and makes his life the definition of the Law of Charity all his measures in religion are laudable and transcendent not onely thrust down and shaken together but running over But do not these Gloryes of the Power of Godliness discourage those that are weak in grace I answer that it may be propounded as a Probleme that the New-born Babe hath more strength then the Old man the infancy of grace is more powerfull then the Decrepid Age of an inveterate Lust as there is more vigour in a few Drops of Spirits then a great quantity of water so there is in the smallest seed and sparkle of Godliness then the greater measures of Corruption for this seed grows in the midst of all the Tares that would choak it and this sparkle lives in the midst of all the waters that would extinguish it and the smoaking Flax and bruised Reed break forth into Victory against all the Winds and Tempests that oppose them which strange vigour doth not arise from the immortality of any Grace in it self but from the supplies of that spirit that is greater potentior saith Beza stronger in us then he that is in the world I shall conclude all by an instance how to reduce the Habit of Love that Powerful and Operative Grace into act which when it is once Kindled in the Bosom of a man he finds his Heart like the Disciples going to Emaus burn in the flames of a most Seraphical Affection The Master of the Sentences denies any habit of Love in the soul but asserts that all its Emanations flow immediately from the Person of the Holy Ghost but seeing the Apostle expressly distinguisheth between the habit of Love and the Spirit as between the Effect and its Cause when he tells us That the Love of God is shed abundantly in our Hearts by the Holy Ghost and the Acts of this Love are Defined to be the Fulfilling of the Law the Bond of Perfection and the end of the Commandment we may reduce this habit into act by Examples and Arguments 1. By Argument Enter then O my soul into those Galleries wherein the King of Glory Walks and is Detained and Observe how he hath commended his Love toward thee All the Dimensions of his Love its Height Length Depth and Breadth are so many Topicks to perswade and allure thee to be Espoused to him as thy Bridegroom The heighth of this Love is Extasie that God over all blessed for ever equal to the Father in whom are hid all the Treasures of wisdom and Knowledge whom the Angels worship should have his heart Ravished with a Creature polluted with Blood defiled with Sin subjected to Damnation that when thou wast upon the Precipice of Ruine stretched forth his hand to save thee and draw thee into his Bosom Canst thou O my soul forbear to say with the beloved Disciple To him that Loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and hath made us Kings and Priests unto God To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever The depth of this Love was humility he humbled himself to assume our nature in the Form of a servant to bear our miseries and become obedient to death David and Jonathan were a famous pair of Lovers Jonathan who was heir apparent to the Crown Knew David was designed for it by the Almighty yet was faithful to him in his secrets sollicitous for him in his Dangers and gave him his hand to advance him to his own Throne But the Love of Christ is without a Parallel That supream power should assume the Form of a Servant infinite glory should submit to a Reproach exquisite Purity should suffer imputed sin that the Son of God's Complacency should bear the Viols of his Wrath should descend from heaven come out of the Bosom of his Father to enter into a Grave what greater token of his Love could he give thee then his Agony his Blood his Life Surely O my soul thou art harder then Iron if this Loadstone will not draw thee Well might Solomon rifle all the Rarities of Nature to be Symbols of this Love to which the whole Creation is not sufficient to be an Allegory For greater Love then this hath no man then to Lay down his Life for his friend but herein he commended his Love to us that while we were sinners he died for us Consider the High Priest of our Profession hanging on the Altar of his Cross with his arms stretched wide open to receive thee and canst thou forbear Leaning on his Breast and prying into the secrets of his Love the Knowledge of which passeth Understanding The Breadth of this Love is Universality so immense it is that it hath mercy for thousands a Plenteous Redemption salvation to the uttermost he tasted death for every man and Laid down his life for the world No man ever perished for want of Bounty or Bowels the Passion or Compassion of a Saviour but because his sensual Part is offended at Christs Cross and commands Consider then O my soul how delectable are his Laws how glorious his Cross Obedience is essential to Love and where it is habitual there is as much Pleasantness in his Precept as there is Sweetness in his Promise if thou prefer profit with Judas pleasure with Zimri honour with Diotrephes an Obliquity before a Right path thou dost not only sin against the Precept but the Grace of God that would assist thee to observe it Faith looks at a future Retribution but love immediately at the Merit of the Law-giver and the kindness of his Commands and if the Amabilities of them were once presented to thee it would be as uneasie to thee to be vicious as it would be to a vicious Person to be Devout thou wouldst see Liberty in his Yoake and Lightness in his Burden it would be as a Wing to a Dove an help in motion as Ballast to a ship an hindrance against fluctuation As his Commands are Pleasantness so is his Cross peace our Saviour to commend his Love to us consulted not the Dignity of his person the Tragedy of his Passion but longed for his Suffrings thirsted after his Cup hungred after that Passover which he was to eate with such bitter herbs Esteem then O my Soul but all things as Dross to know the fellowship of his sufferings which are Seals of thy Adoption Pledges of Gods paternal Love and and work an eternal weight of Glory The length of this Love is eternity it s an antient Love from everlasting he loved us first its durable to everlasting he loved us to the end it is not Critical or Captious to take offence at every lapse or Omission And if it be lawfull to speak of the Duration of God by the Measures of time this Love was as great in the first Moment as it can be to Eternity for then did the admirable and astonishing Wisdom of the blessed Trinity consult the Salvation of thy Precious Soul by the Incarnation and Passion of the Son of God when the fallen Angels were left in a State of irrecoverable Perdition That he that is Glorious in holiness should be a Sin and a Curse for us by the Projects set up from everlasting is so stupendious a Depth that unless it had been manifested in the Gospel had been the highest Blasphemy to imagine it and what the Wisdom of the three Persons did contrive the Love of the second did bestow he loved us and gave himself for us Thou must then O my Soul either account all this a Golden Dream or a well devised Fable or else not suffer the world to be a Rival in thy Estimation and Affection with the Son of God if these meditations be seriously beleived and judiciously weighed thou canst not Expostulate what is thy Beloved more then another Beloved who is the cheifest among ten thousand altogether Love and altogether Lovely 2. Converse with divine Objects and Examples As Flame Kindles Flame so doe examples excite Love and Objects not only Attract the heart but Ravish and Transform it if David muses the fire will burn if Moses be in the mount his face will shine the Butterfly doth adorn her self and the Bee enrich her self by dwelling on the Flowers of the feild if a Ray of Love may spring from a Glance how much more from a Vision face to face a full contemplation of the beauty of holiness I shall consider but three freinds of the Bridegroom and their Delicious Intimacies with him Mary Magdalen she loved much and kissed the feet of Christ to acknowledge her subjection to him she washed them with her Tears and wiped them with the Haires of her head if there wâ—re virtue in touching the Hemme of his Garment much more in kissing his feet that were so Beautifull that his very foot-stool was glorious and the Throne of Grace St. John we may say kissed the hands of Christ to acknowledge his Dependance on him whose hand was the great instrument of Bounty whose Bosom in which he Lodged the Treasury of Grace and Cabinet of secrets where he had the misteries of the Kingdom of Heaven revealed to him could a man choose a diviner mansion or inhabite a better Tabernacle The Spouse kissed the Lipps of Christ to show her Communion with him Those Lipps that had Grace powred into them and spake the Words of eternal Life such Examples will excite the heart to Emulation and make it sick of Love I will give him then ten thousand Kisses and embraces I will serve him praise him Trust in him till my love is consummate by being for ever with the Lord And then O my Soul if he should aske thee as he did Peter Simon Bar Jonah Lovest thou me thou wilt answer as he did Lord thou knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee By this instance we are directed to exercise any other Grace of the Gospel FINIS
Church and the Rights of his Brother how infamous must the way of Balaam be in the opinions of men who said he would not curse Israel for an house-full of Silver and Gold crying out how good are thy Tents O Jacob and thy Tabernacles O Israel Praying that there might be no Divination against Jacob or Inchantment against Israel yet all this holy Discourse and heavenly Resolution was but a Varnish to a deceitfull heart that was Brib'd with filthy Lucre and the Wages of unrighteousness can a Dogs neck more desecrate an Altar or the image of an Adonis a Temple then for a man to fling out his Invectives against sin and yet to indulge those that are contributary to his Lust and Avarice what are the Prayers of these men but so many Practical Lyes told to heaven who while they pray with a tacite Blasphemy defie God and when they sin by open Atheism deny him and the Votaries are as certainly the Captives of the Devil as they are the creatures of God Avoid those sins that are inconsistent with a Form of Godliness which may be reduced to a tripartite Division Some hinder the Assuming of a Form others Blast it whilst it is Professed and others do Renounce it and Cast it off The sins that hinder the Assuming of a Form are Prejudice and Fear Prejudice against the Precepts that command us to cut off the Right hand which is interpreted the Mutilation of the Body as Fervency of Spirit is the Calenture of the Soul the Communicating and Doing good the Wasting the Estate and being Evil spoken of for the Name of Christ the Wounding the Reputation these are the Grievous Commandments of an Hard Master to which in stead of Binding them to mens Fingers they give them a Manumission and with the Young man in the Gospel Go away and with Orpah salute and forsake together Fear if with Scylla they could see a Crown on the Liver of the Sacrifice the Wages of Godliness the Divinations of Riches and Honour they would become Disciples but when they Observe all that will live Godly in Christ must suffer Persecution and through many Tribulations we must enter into the Kingdom of heaven they are offended at the Cross of Christ they think there is a Lyon in the way that affrightens them from any Essay of walking in them These sins hinder men from being Catechumens but which is worse some that are Baptized blast their Profession by a Flagitious Life live without God in the world that it had been better for them they had never known the Way of Truth Such are they that think it below a Brave Spirit to tremble at a Threatning but stifle the Warnings of their own Bosom and live in Chambering and Wantonness Rage and Riot Swearing and Uncleanness that a man without the Breach of Charity may say they have no Faith But Apostacy from Faith and Obedience does Obliterate all the Characters of a Form and makes Shipwrack of Profession and renounceth Communion with the Visible Church There were three sorts of these Apostates in the times of St. Cyprian the Traditores that gave their Bibles in stead of their Bodies to be burnt the Thurificati that offered Incense to Idols and the Libellatici whose Denials of Christ were more Private and Auricular but bought Tickets from the Magistrates to preserve them from that Bloody Inquisition Now an Apostate cannot be an Hypocrite for he is gone out of the Precincts of the Church They went out from us because they were not of us saith St. John they have broken themselves off from that Body into which they were implanted by Baptism and are Strangers to the Covenant of Promise Thus we see the Dignity and Defection of a Form how it is to be exercised suspended and moderated and how to direct its course between a Rude and Rigid Zeal and a loose and Sceptical Profession we see the Grounds and Gradations of its Dishonours and Decays how that it departs from some men as the Glory of the Lord did from the Temple and Altar and Threshold of the house in the Vision of Ezekiel and when the Leafe thus falls and withereth the Tree is Barren and Corrupt for that is the Climacterical time to shew its Disease is Mortal and therefore it must not cumber the Vineyard but be cut down or plucked up by the Rootes But it is high time for us to come to the Power of Godliness which hath so much Goodness in it that it should not be accounted an Offence and so much Wisdom that it should not be accounted Foolishness the Necessity of it is so great that it should not be Delayed and the Excellency so Glorious that it should not be Denied therefore as all men should acquire it for Salvation so our Present Duty is to inquire wherein it Consists and Discovereth it self I have already explained the Phrase that the Reducing of the Habits and Vital Principles of Grace into Act is the Power of Godliness the Philosophy of which Leads us to the Consideration That Habits of Grace are those Divine Qualities infused into the Soul by the Spirit of God which incline the Heart and sway the Conscience to an actual Obedience to the Will of God with Facility and great Delight They are therefore called by the Fathers and Schoolmen the Springs and Fountains of Grace not like the Fountain in the midst of Paradise that flowes with continual waters but like the waters of Siloam that spring from the foot of mount Sion qui non jugibus aequis sed certis horis diebusque ebullit whose Streams are not alwayes Current but in the due seasons of time The musical knowledge of a Lutanist in his Quavers Rests and Motions whereby he is able on all occasions to play those delightfull Airs that commend his skill is the Habit of the Artist but suppose the Hand of the Lutanist be wounded he hath still the knowledge and Habit of his Faculty although the Exercise be prevented by the Indisposition of that necessary Instrument of his musick so the Godly man that hath these principles of a Celestial Original hath upon all occasions his sences exercised by reason of use sutable to those commands the law of God requires and those Emergencies the Providences of God expose him to and although the Acts of Grace may be suspended sometimes by Natural or Civil actions sometimes by inevitable Infirmities yet still he hath a New Nature the Unction of the Holy one and the seed of God abiding in him for our clearer understanding of which we are to consider 1. The Plenty of Godliness consists in the Habits of Graces The Righteous are said to be Trees Planted by the Rivers of water and the Trees of the Lord are full of Sappe The Radical moysture of these noble Vines may Retire to the Root in Winter yet at the return of the Sun they send forth their Grapes in Clusters and their Perfume as the smell of Lebanon as a
homage of gratitude to the Influenences of Heaven and the Blessings of God These are the Gifts of a Liberal God like those of a Prince in his Inauguration and Festivity for he sheds abroad the washing of Regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost abundantly upon us that we may abound in the work of the Lord. And as there is more light in the body of the Sun then in all the beams that shine on the World for suppose they were all Eclipsed the Sun in a moment or imperceptible time could supply them all by one Irradiation so if the Acts of Grace were all vanished they would be Renewed by the treasures of their Causes The Acts of Grace are Transient but the Habits are Permanent and Replenish the soul with innumerable Activities to the Comfort of the Believer and the Glory of the Giver This is called a Living by Faith therefore acts flow from the Habits of grace as beams from the Sun and streams from a fountain are many mighty pleasing vigorous and delectable they are free frequent natural and numberless 2. The Power of Godliness is the reducing the Habits of Grace into Exercise and Operation The same word doth the Apostle use to his son Timothy Be strong in the Grace that is in Jesus Christ go on from Strength to Strength till thou appear before God in Sion shine like the Sun more and more till the perfect Day who from the Twylight of the morning Runs his Race like a Gyant till it comes to its meridian brightness The Initials of Grace are weak like an Embryo infirm as an Infant but by superadded acts the Smoaking Flax is kindled into a Flame and the Bruised Reed becomes a Cedar the Habits grow in strength and stature by the addition of one grace to another which is the supply of every part extensively adding to faith virtue and intensively by the addition of one degree of Grace unto another till it comes to the measure of its stature when righteousness is revealed from faith to faith Grace is never commensurate in the beauty of proportion till it is consummate in the beauty of perfection They that were divorced from their sins as Phaltiel was from Michal who went weeping after her to Bahurim when this Gift of God is stirred up in them contemplate holiness with joy they that did deprecate Wrath with Fear implore Mercy with Confidence They that sought after him whom their soul Loved when with Andrew they have found the Messias Lean on his bosom Love him dearly Esteem him highly Follow him fully and Live with him eternally The weak in the faith and the feeble-minded wrestle not with Principalities and Powers but with God himself give all diligence to make their Calling sure press forward to the Price of their high Calling abound in the work of the Lord till by uncessant Labours they rest in the Fruition of him as if we might suppose a spark of Fire unextinguishable it would be in continual Ascents till it came to its own Countrey and Region under the Concave of the Moon 1. There is a mighty Tendency and Impulse in Habits to exert themselves into Act they are the full Breasts of Consolation that are uneasie till they are Drawn and Dispenced they are as seed cast into the Earth that lives and growes up into an Harvest They are Talents to be improved and Lamps to be furnished and because Flames are soon spent unless God be in the Bush and Streams soon vanish without an Ocean it being God that worketh in us both to Will and to Doe that giveth Life and Motion to these Qualities of the Soul we must have still Recourse to the Influences of his Power and the supplyes of his spirit 2. There is a Gratitude in free and frequent acts to further the Growth Strength and Radication of their Habits as natural Qualities are intended by natural Actions so are supernatural as the more a man playes on a Musical Instrument the greater are the habiliments of his art So Hoseah 6.3 Then shall ye know the Lord if ye follow on to know the Lord infused knowledge should be increased by a studious meditation So Coll. 1.10 Filled with the Knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding there is the Infusion of the Habit That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all well pleasing being fruitfull in every good work there it is reduced to act increasing in the knowledge of God there is the Radication of it For he that will do Gods will shall know of the Doctrine whether it be of God Joh. 17.7 they are not Lazy and Languid things but are discovered by the facility strengthned by the frequency of their own Actions The habit and the act are thus bound up together in the Bundles of life combine in Vigor and Virtue in Influence and Causality on one another and hence it is that an Habit of Grace is a Quality difficultly removed and although it may be interrupted and suspended by impetuous Temptations and imperious Lusts yet in this Hostility and Conflict it is Restless till it is prevalent and have Dominion as the Sympathy of a Needle touched with a Load-stone makes it unquiet in its greatest trembling and disturbance till it Rests as in its Center in a Direct Line poynting at the Polar star And as in an uneven Ally a Bowl may run one way when the Byass inclines it another so a Godly Man may be Disturbed by Surreption and Infirmity though the Habit doth sublimate and sway the heart to the service of God The habits of Grace will not be kept in arctâ custodiâ but will break prison and walk at Liberty This Power discovereth it self 1. In Resisting strong Temptations to express it in the Allusion of the Apostle it quits it self like a Man in its spiritual Olympicks when the messenger of Satan buffeted our Apostle he besought the Lord thrice the assault of an Enemy excites the valour of a Veteran Souldier so the urgency and vehemency of Temptation made him ingeminate his requests to God 2. In mortifying strong corruptions dethroning Satan from his strong holds captivating every Imagination that towreth against the commands of Christ destroying every Reigning sin as Josuah did the Kings of Canaan 3. In Acts of eminent Obedience A sacrifice can be worth but little that costs nothing Abel offered up his Best Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son St. Paul himself he was ready to be offered This Power animates and enobles the heart to hate father and mother to cast away his chiefest Joy as a snare to cut off the Right hand and pull out the Right eye to fling away the most precious Treasure as a Torment at the command of Christ if a man have Wit and Learning this divine power is as a spring of Motion to him to be usefull and profitable in worthy Instances and Institutions in meditations on Gods Word Defence of his Truth Instruction of his People and