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
and which is worse a Tumult and Combustion within in his thoughts A Man may escape from External Confusions but how shall he fly from himself If he be out of the reach of all the Blood-suckers on Earth and all the Furies in Hell yet be dog'd and haunted with his own turbulent ungovernable Cogitations he needs no other Tormenters This Holy Man was thus doubly distrest a Storm Abroad and an Earthquake at home rendred his Condition most dolorous But for both he hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he goes not about with the Foxes of this World to relieve himself with subtle Stratagems and Wiles by carnal Shifts and Policies a Vanity tossed to and fro by them that seek Death No his one great Refuge is to get aloft to ascend to God Here is his Defence from outward assaults v. 22. Here is his Ease in the Torment and Mutiny within thy Comforts delight my Soul Nothing can really comfort without God or any further than as it leads to God The Creatures are but dry Breasts and a miscarrying Womb. The empty Cisterns will sooner be filled with the Tears of the disappointed Hopeless than distil upon or replenish and fill their Souls with the refreshing Dews of true Consolation 'T is in vain to look for living Comforts amongst dead Enjoyments There 's no Life or vital Influence in any thing to enable it to quiet a troubled Soul if God be not in it He is the Soul of all real Contentment In Separation from him there can be no Heaven i. e. no Life no Peace no Rest no Glory all 's only Dream and Fancy and will vanish into Smoak and Fire yet such as is outer Darkness And if without him there can be no Heaven above much less below in the mind of Man least of all in the outward Objects of Sense and carnal Affection which the Men of the World make their gods and adore Truth is whatever they pant after and love in the Creature is a Shadow a Counterfeit God I was going to say even that which they wickedly dote on below is only a presumptive Excellency of God For no Appetite can be taken with Evil as such it never solicits us in its own form but only in the disguise of goodness Real it has none it self therefore is only good in a Vizor or Mask like a Devil in the habit of an Angel of Light Omne malum fundatur in bono When it wooes our Affections it brings some visible or apparent good to speak for it as being in it self likely to meet with nothing but abhorrence The apparent good is Pleasure Profit Honour the Worlds Trinity these are the Baits to our Affections Now the perfection of these is Heaven and God pure and undrossy Pleasure and fulness of Joy Psal 16. ult solid and immarcessible Treasures Riches and Gain Matth. 6.20 1 Tim. 6.19 Ephes 3.8 Phil. 1.21 Luk. 12.33 Rom. 2.4 and 9.22 and 11.3 Ephes 1.7 and 2.4 Phil. 4.19 Substantial and Royal Honours whence God so often is stiled a King and Heaven a Kingdom into which all that are admitted are Crowned as well as the King himself In short God is the most pleasing yea infinitely pleasing profitable honourable honouring Good the Fountain of all Honour 'T is true the Profits Pleasures and Honours of this World are quite of another Genius Sensitive and Sensual not Rational and Spiritual Yet I hold that if the Spiritual Bodies in Heaven 1 Cor. 15.44 be endowed with Sense as 't is probable Job 19.26 27. Rev. 1.7 Seeing will infer the rest External and Internal even sense it self will receive in Heaven and God and the most ample Ravishing Satisfaction in all its possible Capacities both outward and inward in Compensation for all those Mortifications and Miseries wherewith it hath been Cruciated in this Life even as the Body in Hell in all its sensible Possibilities is Tormented as a just Recompence for its Communion with the Soul in all sinful Sensualities Indeed the sinful Sensuality shall not cannot have place in Heaven Not a Man there will desire it not one need it but all Everlastingly abhor it 'T would be the most unspeakable Torment to those Spiritual Bodies and Divine Souls The Body there does not so much affect the Soul as the Soul the Body and God both The Spring of all Satisfaction is in God derived from him to the Soul from the Soul to the Sense and Body and whatever Sense does introduce is of the same alloy and quality There can be no Sensations of Delight in any thing but what is really refreshing to those pure sinless Spirits What things soever would be disgustful to the Sanctity of the Soul would therefore be Torturous to its ever Sympathizing Individual Companion the Body which Torture since 't is utterly Incompatible with Heaven hence carnal Sensualities are there absolutely impossible But then Spiritual and Metaphorical Sensualities are the very Life and Soul of Heaven perceptible by the Spiritual Body as well as the Soul I cannot exclude all Natural The Body in all its Possibilites of sense will be in a perpetual ravishing rapturous Ecstacy of Delight through the overflow of those Coelestial Joys which evermore solace the Soul in the Embraces of eternal infinite Love and Goodness I have had a Conceit which I submit to better Judgments thus I exprest it Christ comes in Flaming Fire 2 Thes 1.7 8. Psal 50.3 which shall consume the Material Heavens as well as the Elements and Earth 2 Pet. 3.7 10 12 and is designed for Vengeance to those that know not God and obey not the Gospel 2 Thes 1.8 and Perdition to ungodly Men 2 Pet. 3.7 Now his Saints Jude 14. Zech. 14 5. as well as Mighty Angels 2 Thes 1.7 shall come with him which I understand of Glorified Souls to meet and be rejoyned to their raised Spiritual Bodies Upon these Bodies that Fire shall have no Power to them it shall be no Torture and Cruciation it shall only be refreshing Light to them tormenting Fire to the Wicked The Bodies of both shall be raised Incorruptible 1 Cor. 15.52 53. The Fire shall torment but not corrupt and consume the Bodies of the Damned in Hell it self God Christ and the Saints dwell for ever in Light unapproachable 1 Tim. 6.16 Col. 1.12 and the Light wherein Christ appeared to Paul was greater more glorious than that of the Sun at Noon-day Acts 26.13 else could it not outshine it This singularly Intense Light of Heaven is questionless an unconceivable even sensitive Pleasure to the Saints refined Bodies Now this is my fancy since Light is delute Fire the Sun its Fountain a vivid Flame yet everlasting Light in its highest Perfection is one of the Pleasures and Delights of Heaven being the Royal Robe of the Divine Majesty Psal 104.2 And his Angels are a flaming Fire therefore called Seraphims from their Fiery Splendor and Glory Psal 104.4 Heb. 1.7 Isa 6.2 6. yet Minister to our good even in that
and with them Sin their Cause never to have a Resurrection Then dawns the Day of everlasting Light and Blessedness and all Darkness Dolours and Shadows flee away Be our Miseries as great as they will or can they cannot outlive Mortality if our guilt do not and it shall not if true Repentance live within us At the day-break of Eternity we enter upon a Life of Contentation and Peace as endless as transcendent The Death of our Bodies is the Death of our Troubles and the Resurrection of those Joys over which Death hath no Power As there will then be no more beginning of Wretchedness so no end of Felicity The worst turn that the Devil and his Instruments can do us will turn to the best advantage and those Souls that die to the Body shall live in Christ they are uncloathed of Dirt and Putrefaction that they may be for ever Cloathed with God and Glory That as the Death of the Body is the easer of all our Pains so the No-death or Immortality succeeding is the Introducer and Maintainer of an unboundable Fullness of everlasting Soul-Satisfactions This we owe to the perpetual Duration and Life of God Whence the Psalmist in a sad Prospect of the evanid Nature of present Things doth solace himself with a view of the permanent Being of God Psal 102.11 12. My days are like a shadow that declineth and I am withered like Grass But thou Oh Lord shall endure for ever and thy Remembrance to all Generations I said Oh my God take me not away in the midst of my days thy years are throughout all Generations Of old hast thou laid the Foundation of the Earth and the Heavens are the Work of thine Hands They shall perish but thou shalt endure yea all of them shall wax old as a Garment as a Vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed but thou art the same and thy years shall have no end We are possest of many Transitory Comforts but of none Eternal beside God And if any true Content arise from those movable Enjoyments it springs from nothing else in them except that which being eminently in God is in him of an everlasting Nature and Perfection Whatever pleases doth so far refresh and comfort but all that pleasantness is only a little ray of Divinity transmitted through the Cloud of Flesh and Blood or the more clear Heavens of our Rational Powers Amiable Relations are Comforts beyond all things under the Sun but their lovely Qualities are only a dark Shadow of the unparallell'd Amiableness of God To be beloved by thy Friends is a Comfort estimable above Gold but neither the Act nor the Object durable no nor the Motive exciting or inviting that Affection Can any Man Rationally solace himself with a Being lov'd for a moment when he shall be deserted or hated for ever Fading Love on Earth will not do without the never fading Love of Heaven Though all the World for a while adore thee What compensating Pleasure can that bring thee if Hell everlastingly burn thee All thy fore-past Joys on Earth will rather add new Fewel than administer one drop to cool thy flaming Tongue No Love therefore is indeed considerable and comfortable without the Eternal Love of God Nor in the assurance of this is any hatred or rage valuable dejecting formidable As Eternity is the Venom and Sting of the Torments of Hell so 't is the very Triumph Jubile and Heaven of the Joys of Heaven If in the loss of these lauguishing expiring Comforts we can succenturiate or substitute any thing of God we richly gain by the loss as possessing unspeakably more pure substantial heart-reaching durable everliving Comforts in the everliving Spring who can and will give them that relish and sweetness which shall abundantly more than answer what is slip'd away from us as well in its delicious Gratefulness as Eternity Mortality is the great disgrace of all Worldly Enjoyments but it receives a plentiful Compensation in the Immortality of God Thus have I considered the Comforts comprehended in those Attributes of God which offered themselves to the Psalmist's Meditation as I find them either exprest or plainly implied in this Psalm CHAP. XIV Comforts from God COuld I allow my self the liberty I might here instance those Comforts which are administred from the consideration of the Divine Persons Father Son and Holy Ghost and the Relations wherein God stands to us and we mutually to God But I have determined to confine my Discourse chiefly to such Heads of Matter as fall within Cognizance of the Psalm and not make endless Excursions to things which none can imagine ever to enter into the Author's mind in order to the Revival of his disconsolate Heart I pass therefore from the Comforts that God is which was the first general to the 2. The Comforts which God gives That which God is in himself and hath revealed to us is wonderfully refreshing But there 's also something which not being immanent and essentially Constitutive of the Divine Nature but passing from him to us doth singularly relieve our troubled Souls Of this kind Promises Providences Privileges Experiences offer themselves to Consideration What was needful to be observed concerning Promises fell in under Divine Fidelity as included in its very Notion therefore shall all further Disquisition anent them be superseded Providence is the transit of God's Wisdom Power Justice Goodness Faithfulness out of Heaven and himself into the visible World Governing Protecting Caring for Directing and Ordering all for most excellent Ends worthy of God Under the conduct hereof all things prosperous or adverse the greatest the most minute Natural Moral Spiritual necessary or fortuitous are deduced from their immediate proper Causes guided and sustained in their Actings secured from external Violences maintained in a due steady agreeable Station and order to compose the Beauty and Harmony of the Universe and be conducible to advance the Glory of their Maker in both the general and special purposes of his Love and Goodness or Justice and Righteousness And there is not a more reviving consideration to God's afflicted tossed with tempest and not comforted Isa 54.11 than this that they are the peculiar care and charge of Heaven which as it is concerned for the Catholique good so in special for those that love God and are the called according to his purpose Rom. 8.28 insomuch that Prosperity cannot be more delectable to their sense than Afflictions of all kinds are made to their Souls useful and profitable 'T is always best for them to be in the worst external Circumstances as never being more dear to God more regarded by him who is most tender of them when the Devil and World are most cruel and when the out-casts off-scouring and refuse of the Earth When here they can expect nothing beside Reviliags and Buffetings the liberal Alms of the Churches Enemies they are likeliest to receive the more bountiful tastes of Divine Goodness possess more of his
intolerable burthen thy daily lamentation Thou darest not assume to thy self any comfort nor be at rest in thy Spirit till thou beest in some good degree safied that God and goodness have as far as Humane Infirmity and this present state will permit the all of thy Heart Mind Soul and Strength or thy most earnest pressing active industrious persevering desires hereof which not to feel is a grief and torment insupportable and drives thee to new exercises of Repentance and Faith in Christ for Pardon and Aid that thy second endeavours may be more upright thy after thoughts more efficacious And do'st thou seek and find ease and rest for thy self in no other method than looking and coming to Jesus with a weary labouring heavy-laden Heart entirely devoted to him and therefore sincerely willing and desirous to learn of him meekness and lowliness of Heart and to take his Yoak upon thee which is easie and his Burthen which is light Matt. 11.29 30. If this be thy frame practice and way and thou canst not wilt not comfort thy self till thy sense and real feeling of these things and a full insight into thy self make thy way very plain as infinitely afraid of being cheated by Satan or choused by thine own deceitful Heart under a shadow of Spiritual Joys into substantial Woes If thy Feet being first guided into the paths of Righteousness be guided also with this caution and wariness into the way of Peace and setled in a quiet and comfortable Repose this ½ doubt not is real Divine Consolation 3. The differences of true and false Comforts which are derived from the Subject or Persons feeling their reviving Influence or rather indeed the adjuncts of those Persons considered in their absolute or relative State are as palpable as any The soundest Joys being only the Possession of a truly Regenerate Godly Soul The unsound lodging in the wicked Hypocritical for the most part as their proper Habitation So that if it can be known to a Mans self whether he be really good or bad it may ordinarily be known whether his Peace be right or wrong But for this I refer to the Characters of the Psalmist in the beginning of this Discourse I only add That where there 's no Life there can be no true Comfort 'T is My God vers 22. Now he is not the God of the dead but of the living Matth. 22.32 'T is no less true in a Spiritual sense than a Natural If My God in natural Relation argue the Life of Nature My God in federal Relation does as strongly infer the Life of Grace For 't is not any where affirmed of Cain Esau Judas c. after their Death that God was then their God as of Abraham c. although they be no less alive in Soul the Immortality whereof is a common Privilege and admits of no degrees in one more than other My God then to Abraham c. is another thing and to be taken in another sense than that wherein it may be applicable to Cain c. since 't is used of the godly after Death in an appropriate incommunicable sense It may truly be apply'd to the very Devils and damned in any sense not importing the Moral Spiritual Life of Purity and Peace but in this 't is the sole Prerogative of the godly that are born again not of Blood nor of the Will of the Flesh nor of the Will of Man but of God Joh. 1.13 When therefore our Psalmist owns the Divine Majesty under the Relation of My God the meaning is Mine to whom I am confederated united as a principle of new Divine Spiritual Life as the Soul of my Soul in whose all I have a true federal Right in his Being his Perfections his Knowledge Coodness Love Life Peace c. whose Comforts therefore benignly eye me and invite my acceptance because I and all mine are his He himself and all his through not Creation merely but the Covenant of Grace are mine I therefore possess living Comforts because I enjoy a living God as mine own by Vital Vnion Indeed Spiritual Joys only affect Spiritual living Souls Cordials are never administred to disanimated Carkases nor Divine Comforts to the Dead in Sins and Trespasses First Resurrection then Ascension into a Heaven of Rest Natural Animal Life inherits no Spiritual Peace 1 Cor. 15.44 50 51. any more than a natural Body Celestial Pleasures All must be changed ere they can be translated into this Paradise As the corruptible part of us is abolished at the Resurrection of the Body else we cannot enter into Life So the corrupting part must be Crucified at the Resurrection of our Souls or we cannot enter into Peace Isa 57.2 He shall enter into Peace they shall rest upon their Beds walking in uprightness A Scripture something cloudy which the former clause being singular this plural in the Hebrew and both Figurative renders yet more perplex'd But by a Transposition not unusual and taking the last word of the foregoing Verse as a Supplement to this being 't is the Substantive to the Participle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it may be read thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Righteous walking in his uprightness shall come goe into Peace they i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sickly Men of Mercy or Holiness shall quietly rest upon their Beds To compleat the sentence and sense understand and insert here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 walking in uprightness for although the number disagree yet the matter requires it An exceeding proper allusion to the Signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Enosh A Bed for the sick The Bed is either 1. The Grave for the Body a common Metaphor 2 Chron. 16.14 c. as 't is to stile Death a sleep yet this would but be a jejune Interpretation improper to the place for even to the wicked 't is so 2. Therefore the Bed imports the state of everlasting repose and rest for the Soul in Heaven Though righteous and merciful Men of infirm Bodies and Souls be taken away from approaching Evils yet living and dying in uprightness they enter into never ending Rest and Peace That is their Portion after Death and the first Fruits thereof their present Possession That of Solomon Eccles 2.2 is every way verified of the wicked I said of laughter it is mad and of mirth what doth it For what greater frenzy than to laugh in the face of incensed condemning Justice And Oh mirth what dist thou In the midst of the devouring Fire and everlasting Burnings which are already kindled in a cauterized Conscience though for a little while rak'd up and smothered But whether so or no I am sure there 's just reason that even in laughter their hearts should be marvellous sorrowful because the end of that mirth will be doleful heaviness Prov. 14.13 For the wicked are like the troubled Sea when it cannot rest whose Waters cast up mire and dirt There is no peace saith my God to the wicked Isa
love thee into Heaven when thou debasest and hatest and would sin him if it were possible into Hell And yet does not thy Heart relent and smite and gall thee Oh is this thy kindness to thy Friend to thy Redeemer to thy self Oh! What do'st thou deserve for these foul Villanies committed against a Person of thee the best deserving in the World How many Hells How many tormenting Devils are thy just reward for so horrible Affronts Despites Scorns put upon the Majesty and Mercy of Heaven Oh! What canst thou do or think or hope in this lamentable case Wherewithal wilt thou come before the Lord What hast thou to tender as a just Reparation Or canst thou bear up against the fiery tempest of his devouring Indignation Oh woe unto thee that ever thou wast brought out of the Womb of Nothing to behold thy self in Circumstances so deplorable and so little affected afflicted This this is the most miserable scene of all thy Miseries To be ready to be spew'd out of the Mouth of Jesus into the very jaws of the roaring Lion to be tumbled down out of the bosom of God into the everlasting Burnings of the bottomless Pit and yet be senseless secure fearless careless remorseless Oh astonishment Oh horror Awake awake Oh my sense Oh my stupid benummed brawny Heart and melt in the fiery Oven of Wrath or the warm refreshing Sun-shine of Love Oh Grief and Anguish Where do ye inhabit Whither are ye retired Oh come and dwell in a sinful Soul and pour it out in a penitential Deluge Oh Almighty Love shed abroad thy heart-dissolving Influences and make the Floods overflow Oh in what bitterness of woe am I that I have undervalued and trod thee under my profane Feet that I have kick'd at those Bowels and even torn out that Heart that hath yearned over me in the most affectionate degree of Pity and Clemency My Bowels my Bowels I am pained at my very heart for the sordid disingenuousness as well as the bloody barbarousness of my Deportment toward thee Oh beloved and blessed Son of God whom with accursed cruel wicked hands I have crucified and slain Whoever were the Instruments yet 't was I as a principal meritorious Cause by my Sin that was the Judas the betrayer the Jew the Murtherer I drive the Nails I push'd forward the Spear I tore open thy very Heart to let out that blessed Spring of Water and Blood 'T was my guilt that first made my own then thy unpolluted Body passible and mortal 'T was I that armed the more formidable vengeance of thy Father against thy innocent Soul I that set open the flood-gates of Divine Wrath and let in that terrible Inundation of Miseries upon it which overwhelmed it destroyed kill'd it as far as was possible for that which was Immortal and thy Body in its Ruins Oh 't was sinful I that poured out all those scalding Hells into that blessed Soul of the Holy One of God which melted his Body into a showre of Blood that I became as far as possible the Author of the Death of God Bleed Oh my Soul bleed a deluge over those bleeding Wounds that dying Heart that cruciated Soul of the Crucified Son of God Oh grieve and mourn bitterly for thy vexing rebelling against and grieving the Spirit of Grace whom thou hast so often thrust away by quenching his Motions strangling his Convictions resisting his Operations as if 't was thy design to frustrate all the methods of infinite Love for thy Salvation Oh hateful to God and Man Wilt thou not be stung to the Heart with all wherewith thou hast despited all the kindness and goodness and tenderness of Heaven Oh my vileness Oh my baseness 't is unutterable 't is unsufferable where can a Parallel be found throughout the whole Creation Oh what am I What have I made my self An abhorrence to all Flesh to all Spirits and shall I not be so to my self Is there a poisonful Serpent on Earth a squalid Fury in Hell more virulent and abominable The Heart of God Christ the Spirit Angels Blessed Saints rise against me as the viperous-Brood the filthy Vomit of Satan spit out of his Mouth as like him in form or deformity rather and ugliness as Hell to Hell And what now is thy Portion Oh miserable Soul What thy doom See it dread it yet expect it for how canst thou avoid it Ah! the bottom of the bottomless abyss of Woe the hottest Mansion in the raging Furnace of Divine Wrath how canst thou abide it I am tottering upon the very brinks of Hell Down I fall I sink I perish What can save me Who can redeem my Soul from Destruction everlasting I my self cannot no nor all the created Powers of Heaven and Earth And have I not abundant reason to fear that the blessed Trinunity will not Oh woful Soul Whither hast thou suffer'd thy Wickedness to hurry thee What wilt thou do in the day of God's fierce Anger which in a moment may arrest thee and swallow thee up And what Remedy Where wilt thou seek where canst thou find security against that Omnipotent Vengeance that is ready to Arraign thee Oh! What wilt thou do to be saved Is there any possibility Is there no Balm in Gilead Is there no Physician there Oh there there alone is thy Succour wilt thou reject it In this Perplexity wilt thou despise it Wilt thou defer and delay applying thy self to a serious Care to make use of it Oh! Be willing be forward be eager to do nay to suffer any thing but the loss of Holiness and God that thou maist be healed I come Lord now I come a poor Prodigal returning to my wits my self that I may return to thee and with a groaning oppressed pained Heart weary of Sin the Cause sick of self dead to all mine own Righteousness and every thing I thus under the Influence and Conduct of thy Holy Spirit present my self at the lowest step of thy Throne as unfit unworthy to lift up mine Eyes to look thee in the face and being in a grievous Agony of Woe because I have offended thee so hainously so frequently so perseveringly by a Deportment so dishonest vile sordid I loath my self and all my fore-past evil ways of Spiritual and Carnal Wickedness Omissions Commissions Sins of Nature Heart and Life in Word or Deed or Thought they wound me to the very Soul I faint under them I cannot with patience reflect upon my unuttereble Folly in living unto and under them I abhor my self in dust and ashes I utterly and eternally abandon them resolve against promise vow covenant to be an utter and implacable Enemy to them Down all ye Idols of my Heart Lusts of the Eyes Lusts of the Flesh Pride of Life Filthiness of Spirit as well as Flesh In good earnest I now purpose through thy Aid and Grace never to return to any of these Follies more never never more and under the Assistance of thy Power I
which being cultivated by External Advantages and his own more than ordinary Industry he became an universal Scholar comprehending the whole Encyclopaedia of all profitable Literature a solid Logician a good Linguist a fluent Rhetorician a profound Philosopher and very skilful in the Mathematicks Being thus well accomplished for Learning and Parts after he had taken his Degrees in the University the first Essay he made upon the Publick Stage was about Peterborough where staying but a little season he came into his Native Country about the Year 1660. and his Uncle Mr. William Clarkson who was Parson of Add-hill dying he was presented to that Parsonage by Esq Arthington of Arthington the Patron he accepted of it but enjoyed it but a little space for Dr. Hich Parson of Guiseley challenged it as his by right upon King Charles the Seconds Return having been excluded by the Act against Pluralities made by the Parliament Mr. Sharp was capable of it having been Ordain'd by a Bishop yet he saw there was no contending with so great a Man especially in that juncture he was willing to resign although Mr. Arthington would have tryed his Title to present by Law but he declined it for at that time he saw a Cloud approaching with covered us all and so retired to his Father's House where he was of singular use living privately and following his Studies very close attending upon Publick Ordinances in the Parish Church at Bradford where that worthy Person Mr. Abraham Brooksbank was Vicar till he removed to Reading But when the Licences granted by King Charles 2. in 72. came forth he took the opportunity to exercise his Ministry in his own House being crowded with great numbers that flock'd to hear him About that time he married Mrs. Bagnall's Daughter by whom he had one Daughter but both dyed After a season he married Mr. Sales Daughter an excellent N. C. Minister by whom he had several Children but none are now living but one Son and one Daughter He had a call to Preach at Morley where he was very industrious and highly esteemed But the Inhabitants of that populous Town of Leeds having built a large Chappel upon Mr. Richard Streattons remove to London gave him a call which he embraced living at his own House at Horton riding mostly on Lords day Morning to Leeds and back again at Evening in Summer time at least which was above a dozen Miles and Preaching twice which at length he found too hard for him therefore he bought a House in Leeds repaired it built to it and kept House there and at Horton also where his necessary affairs requir'd his frequent attendance He was in Labours more abundant and spared not his own Body or Estate that he might do good to Souls and edifie the Church of God He was very self-denying and stood not upon Worldly Incomes whether they were more or less he was very well content so that he gave strict charge to those who collected that small Pittance he accepted of in consideration of his Labours not to urge any but only receive the voluntary Contributions of those who were as well able as willing He was exceeding Temperate mortified to all Earthly Enjoyments of great Aequanimity Sociable to all yet prized above all others such as feared God these were his chosen Companions He invited Ministers and Christian Friends frequently to days of Fasting and Prayer in his own House and went upon a call abroad upon those Occasions He was indeed very excellent in Prayer and had a peculiar way of pleading with God by serious sensible Expostulations with great Ardency and Affection which made it appear to Intelligent Christians that he was much with God in Prayer and very familiar with him few had those rare Gifts or exercised Grace at that rate and no doubt God dealt familiarly with his Soul he lived near God and now is with his God His Prayers were usually long but not tedious being flowered with variety of sweet Expressions and Pathetical Expostulations and I doubt not but the Lord graciously accepted his Person and vouchsafed many gracious Answers to his ardent Prayers as might appear in several Instances which I forbear to mention He was a fluent Preacher a Master of Words not so much abounding in Rhetorical Flourishes as in Pithy and Profitable Sentences very taking with his Auditors that fit under his Ministry with great delight His Sermons were Elaborate and Accurate all he did was exceeding Polite and Scholar-like his Method was peculiar to himself and sometimes Cryptical but always suitable to the matter and proper to the end design'd not to please the Fancy but to inform the Judgment convince the Conscience work upon the Will and Affections and change the Heart and Life He hath often said he should never have been so cautious and so careful of his Words had not his Father been so critical and found so many faults with him which he studied to rectifie this did him good though he found it hard to stoop to but as he was sensible of his Paternal Authority and his own Filial Duty so he was convinc'd of his Fathers judicious Exceptions and the tendency thereof to his own Benefit He was very Sound and Orthodox and trod much in the old Path though he was well acquainted with the Controversies of the Times and very able to oppugne Error and defend the Truth yet he was of a peaceable Spirit making the best Constructions of doubtful Phrases and inclined rather to compose Differences Civil and Sacred than to espouse a Party he was of a Catholick Spirit and spake well of what was good in Persons that differed from him he was very unwilling to engage in any Controversie only some knowing his Acuteness and Genius desired his help in three Cases first against the Papists upon occasion of a young Man turning that way and sending a Letter to his Relations which he answered very Learnedly and to great Satisfaction 2dly Two Papers he writ in Reply to two Conformists who grievously and rigidly censured their peaceable Brethren the one in Print the other in Writing both which he Answered and Confuted both well deserved Publishing but the Times would not then bear it and now they may seem out of season but are still preserved as choice Manuscripts in the Hands of Friends As is also 3dly an Answer to some Queries supposed to be Dr. Owens Whether Persons who have engaged unto Reformation and another way of Divine Worship according to the Word of God c. may lawfully go unto and attend on the use of the Common Prayer in Divine Worship c. He had a lofty Poetical Strain wherein he sometimes for a diversion employed himself upon special Occasions as upon the Death of that Worthy Grave Divine Mr. Elkanah Wales and upon the Burning of London in 1666. which being show'd to Dr. Robert Wild he seem'd surpriz'd and ingenuously acknowledg'd that Man should be his Master he would yeild the Laurel to the
Railings Revilings Censures Uncharitableness Cursings Excommunicatings Fines Imprisonments Murderings Massacrings for things extrinsecal and foreign to their holy Profession recommended in the Mosaical Prophetical Evangelical and Apostolical Writings As if God had not delivered Precepts enough to guide Men to Heaven ever Party must have new of its own to torture Mens Consciences doubting that there are not Sins enough to damn Men unless we by our whimsies make large additions to the sum discovering thereby how much we are affraid that those who otherwise would securely tread in the Paths of Life and gain the Crown of Glory should not stumble and fall upon our new created Blocks and thereby precipitate themselves into Hell For what else is the meaning of our unwritten Traditions unwritten Canons unwritten Offices unwritten Orders and an hundred more by the by 's Tricks and Snares and Trains and Traps made to help the Devil more certainly to catch enough Is not the Holy Word of God the Scripture in its Rules and Laws too oft too much too foully-transgress'd but the Mouth of Hell must be gagg'd and rack'd wider with new devices that it may be capacious enough to receive the numberless numbers that we resolve to send thither by man-made Sins as if it were in despite of God And least our self-devised Engins should fail of effecting this and a poor quivering trembling Conscience that looks asquint at them should chance to preserve its Innocence and Allegiance to God and its present Light and Sentiments by sliping out of or breaking through the Snare and refusing to wound it self to eternal Death with the Ponyard we put into its hands we must jog and thrust home and drive on its slow and cautious pendulous Arm by the violence of such severe indispensible Sanctions so strictly look'd after so rigorously executed and all under a bold pretence of Divine Warrant that if Men have any thing of Nature Sense and Commiseration to their own Flesh their dearest Yoke-fellows their pretty tender innocent Babes they must be cruelly enforc'd to determine to be damn'd for them or kill their Hearts by dying before their Eyes under as many Agonies as ingenious Malice can invent and this perhaps a thousand times over beside the bequeathing them to the same or more miserable Fortune and all this is doing God good Service As if the Lord that bought Mens Souls to ease them Matth. 11.29 30. had done it only to sell them again to the most bloody butchering Fiends to torment them And God who with so much severity prohibits Cruelty Murder Bloodshed by his Laws had laid in an exception and given Commission for this to as many as can so divest all sense and bowels of Humanity and Christianity as to judge none to be Men and Christians but themselves and invest so much of Wolf Tyger Dragon as to do the utmost to make all others Proselytes of the Gates of Heil like themselves when in the mean time Men with the greatest impunity may violate the noblest Ordinations of Heaven or upon Prosecuon buy off or commute the Penance for a little Trash and Dirt. Oh dear Lord Jesus how long how long shall such a Spirit Triumph and ride in Scarlet How long shall they tear in pieces thy People and Heritage under the Beasts Skins wherewith they have cloathed them Oh blessed Spouse of Christ How long must thou be affronted with the violence of such beastly Ruffians that under a disguise pretend to be thy-very self that they may the more securely ravish and destroy thee The Wolf in the Lambs skin unsuspectedly to devour it A Beast with Horns like a Lamb but a Voice like a Dragon Rev. 13.11 Well Christ's Servants are not Wolves Thorns and Thistles Matth. 7.15 16. Profitable to none hurtful to all publick Curses But Sheep Vines Fig-trees their Temper their Behaviour their Fruit altogether good meek gentle sweet refreshing reviving pleasing generally useful publick Blessings like their Master every way desirable grateful all being better for them none worse in Goods good Name Body or Soul their Designs their Principles their Temper and Spirit their Behaviour and Purpose and Practice being the general benefit of Mankind and the Church of God especially that wherein their Lines are fallen They think it they represent it they indeavour further to make and preserve it a goodly Heritage If it hold the Head if it uphold the main if its established Doctrine be truly Christian if its design be true goodness if its Worship in the substance be Divine They bless God for it they cover its Blemishes they bear with its Infirmities they further its Ends they endeavour to inlarge it to adorn it with real Beauties to vindicate it from Reproaches to promote its Unity Prosperity Peace Purity Felicity lament its Miseries Breaches Corruptions Defects Deformities but expose it but defame it they dare not they will not This is a truly Catholick Spirit proceeding in all its actings upon truly Catholick Principles This and this only when the risk of Partiality Censoriousness Self-idolizing Faction Fury Barbarousness Madness Devilism is run will stand upon a secure basis and yeild a Man the blessed Fruits of Comfort Joy Peace and Contentation But I must come out of the Clouds and be plain Therefore shall first direct what ought to be owned by a Publick Spirit next what Principles will enable a Man to own what he ought 1. Common Humanity engages to be well wishers to that general Nature which is diffused through all the Species and love that in any Man which I honour in my self All the Butcheries and Barbarities on Earth issue from Mens degeneracy from Humanity into a ferine or diabolical Nature But since I am a Man nothing humane shall be foreign to my Cognisance to my Compassion to my Ear to my Conscience When the Vices of Persons give a check to my Bowels the vertue of the Nature shall retrieve their yearning motions and when I can see nothing in Men to engage I will endeavour to imitate the best of Paterns in taking Arguments from my self I will not so much regard their Conditions as their Capacities and that in all their Possibilities If this Nature be personally joined to God why should not I be joined to it in Affection Shall I tread that Man in the dirt who may shine as a Star in the Firmament of Glory Shall a Companion of Angels and God himself be worse dealt with than a Devil May Heaven receive him and shall not my Heart Is God so unkind to me as to give me an Example of brutishness to my own Nature I must not be worse to him than I would have him to me were our circumstances changed the measures I meet to him shall I receive of God 2. Christianity next both renders a man more meet and lays upon me a further bond to desire endeavour and effect his good The honour of the Name the power of the Thing The famed Mr. Fox could never deny
Holy but oft unaccountable yet so it is that either the Genius of Mens Troubles under their Penitential Throws in the new Birth or the understanding Spirit manage and conduct of many Non-conforming Ministers is such or these both so Adapted to one another that the greatest number of Wounded Spirits betake themselves hither for Cure and find it The Study of Casuistical Divinity being less gustful to great Scholars and Rational Theologers is more the business of those who having felt some need themselves of it have also frequent occasion to deal with dejected Hearts rather than elevated Minds And neither Rhetorick nor Reason but effectual Medicines will cure the Maladies of Bodies and Souls The Sick desire not an Eloquent Non quaerit ager medicum eloquentem sed sanantem Sen. Ep. 75. but Healing Physician where they are profited there they love Conscience is such an Impetuous Imperious thing as those may know who converse with their own but who with other Mens much more that a Man had better have all the World to deal with than it especially in a Melancholick Constitution By Conscience I understand the inward Power not in the nature of a Guide but a Judge particularly in its Office of Condemning or at least Accusing as Rom. 2.14 O what Troubles Tragedies Confusions Horrors does it beget carry on and torture with especially in the weaker Sex that have Souls to save and satisfie as well as the stronger who sometimes also are made terrible Examples Witness Francis Spira c. which made one say he had rather undertake the Cure of a Phrenetick in Bedlam than a Phanatick Conscience Truly upon Experience I speak it I had rather Study an Hundred Sermons than converse one hour with a Self-condemning Mind It can understand no Sense it can hear no Reason it can feel no Savour it can receive no Comfort God is against it 't is against it self the whole Bible in every Leaf speaks to its Discouragement and Damnation and all the Politicks in Hell are up in Arms to confound it with Scruples Objections Fears what not Oh! the Doubts the Dolours the Jealousies the inextricable Straits the Fightings the Perplexities the dismal Apprehensions the Despairs the grinding Reflections the roaring Hell that compasses it round about on every side that 't is a very Magor Missabib Really 't would make a Man sick to think of it break his Bones Psal 51.8 to feel it Ah! did but those who so bitterly inveigh against Phanaticks experience but one day what some of them have felt for Months Years together under the sense of God's Indignation 't would to purpose cool that hot Humour which foams out of their Mouths God grant them Repentance that they may never feel worse I would not wish this to the greatest Enemy in the World 'T is true God uses gentle methods with the most yet these dreadful Instances are warnings to them and all not to Sin against Light and Conscience For this is ordinarily the spring of them and they a Judgment of God for it Lastly From this Sense and Conscience arises their fear of offending God in the concerns of his immediate Worship which I confess in some prevails so far as to involve them in the extreams of Superstition This I take to be an excess of curiosity in Religious Worship either in thinking to please or in fearing to displease the Divine Majesty with little things which are neither commanded nor forbidden For if the least things in the World be commanded or forbidden in express words or by plain consequence in special or general Terms 't is no Superstition except more stress be laid upon these than the weightier matters of the Law Plut. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. We require that you should pray to God with an upright and just mouth not so much look at the Tongue c. of Beasts whether right and pure perverting and polluting your own c. So that I will acknowledge that they commit this Sin who think to please God with their extemporary Effusions without inward Devotions as well as they that conceit they do it with the Churches form without the Power of Internal Grace So they who fear to offend God by using the Churches form as such rather than by formality of Spirit c. as well as they that fansie they should more displease him by immediate Conceptions in Prayer than by luke warm Affections I will justifie neither the Positive nor Negative I think he directs his discourse against the Jews mainly the Absolute nor Comparative Superstition Plutarch I confess falls foul upon that which represents the Deity as Tyranical Noxious hard to be pleas'd and works a desponding Dread and Terror which render it unfit for and unwilling to engage it self in any Service of God as fearing to displease in all please in none And the Greek Word may seem to extend no farther than such a fear of Daemons which the Heathen World did not understand as we in an infamous sense Daemons with them were those Blessed Beings that ever lived in Happiness but in an inferiour Station Souls of Heroes and other Spiritual Natures much what such like as the Popish Canoniz'd Saints and Mediators of Intercession to the Noxious Malignant Spirits of the Infernal Regions they did not apply it Yet no doubt the other I have mentioned are Sins and may go under this name in regard of the Affinity they have herewith according to that common Synecdoche in every of the Ten Commands However I am right in terming that over critical fear of displeasing God with little things Superstition as supposing the Deity was of so cheap and easie a Nature as to be bought with Trifles or so tetchy and supercilious as to be lost and sold away for such petty Matters as he would never vouchsafe to take into his Cognizance and concern himself to Honour with the least Shadow of an Injunction but has intirely left to the will and liberty of Man As if a Jew having a Hundred Males in his Flock without blemish alike in their nature and goodness out of which he has a free liberty left him by God to chuse any one for Sacrifice should demur all his days which to take for fear of offending God or having chosen and Sacrificed should perpetually vex his Soul with the dread that his choice has displeased This leads me again to the fore-mentioned Point The sense that some have of the more especial odiousness to God of blemishes in his Worship Certainly of all Sins those in this most weighty Matter are most dangerous For if that the direct and immediate end whereof is to please God and bring me into his Favour do displease him so that I fall under his hate I am in an evil taking beyond all expression What shall I do whether shall I have recourse The Scripture assures us that God is most Jealous of his Worship and External Worship as the Sanction annext to the
his Children such like Mercy was promised but three Psalms before viz. Psal 91. throughout so Psal 12.7 8. Psal 37. Is 26.20 21 c. and many other Places God reserves some in safety to behold the destruction of Persecutors has a Zoar for a Lot a Pella for the Christians c. If this were not so all Good Men might be extinct and the Gates of Hell prevail against the Church of Christ 'T is also upon good reason For the end of Affliction is Reformation If God meet with so good Proficients under his instructive Discipline as will and do learn every Lesson he teaches there will be no need of the Rod and he who does not afflict willingly will not bring into these Trials except need be 1 Pet. 1.6 But this I will no further insist upon Let the English Translation then obtain and it gives us this Point That in the sense of the Psalmist 't was a blessed thing to be under God's correcting Discipline or instructive Chastenings as a means to prepare for rest when Instruments of Divine Severity were to be destroyed Rest in this World when Judgment returns to Righteousness and the Vpright follow it and especially in the World to come when all the Wicked shall be lodged in the Pit of Hell For the days of Eternity are to the Wicked days of Adversity indeed and to enjoy Everlasting Rest then is a Blessing unutterable This good Man saw nothing in Affliction that could make a Man unhappy He entertain'd such a favourable opinion of God's rigours to his Children that beholding by Faith the good and happy fruit of them he admires the Blessedness of those to whom so great Evils issue so well and therefore we may justly suppose would not be discourag'd by the bitterness of the Cross nor driven by it to an unwillingness to consort himself with the suffering People of God Would not he put in for his share of that Blessedness which descended from Heaven though it cost him a participation of that wretchedness which was the product of the Rage and Fury of the World Chusing rather to suffer Affliction with the People of God than to enjoy the pleasures of Sin for a season as having respect to the Recompence of Reward everlasting Blessedness and Rest with Moses Heb. 11. And indeed this is an admirable Comfort in all Tribulations to consider that there is a reserve of eternal Joy and Peace the sweetest the fullest that there are Blessednesses the Blessedness of this Life the Blessedness of the Life to come laid up in store for the Servants of God though accursed by Men in this World If together with the Rod that we feel he administer a Word that we may hear Mic. 6.9 and under his Corrections seal our Instructions if by his Providences he subdue our Wills to his Precepts and by the sadness of our Countenances make our Hearts better if he discover to us the sunshine of his Favour and Love through the dark cloud of Affliction and bring down a Heaven of Happiness or Blessedness to alleviate the tormenting Purgatory of our Tribulations whether from Men or Devils this sure will bow our Hearts to such a degree of aequanimous submission and resignedness to God that we shall not only sit down in a patient and quiet Contentation but be able to rejoyce in the good pleasure of his Goodness although we smart under it and he that is replenished with Content and Joy is never destitute of Consolation Be not then displeased O my Soul that thy Father in Heaven brings thee under the discipline of his Family on Earth If thy Afflictions be light do not despise or make light of them if they be heavy and grievous do not faint under them Blessedness is a thing of so weighty Consideration so great Moment that 't is madness to forfeit it by slighting an evil of little moment folly to reject all support from it under a burthen more intolerable Let the gracious designs of Heaven reconcile thee to the very Antipathies of thy Nature and render all those divine Methods not only supportable but easie and amiable which have a tendency to endear God and Holiness although for the present they do not administer matter of Joy but Sorrow Heb. 12.11 The peaceable Fruits of Righteousness will abundantly compensate the grievousness of all Calamities wherefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lift up straight right the Hands that hang down and the feeble Knees Stretch out thy self Heaven-ward to apprehend and reach by Faith those unconceivable Pleasures and Joys wherein the Miseries of this Life will issue if thou makest not visible but invisible things thy scope in this World Thy Sin or Guilt which merits thy Sufferings is indeed sinful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. beyond all bounds of Thought and Imagination that thy highest Conceptions cannot overshoot in their Notions of its real evil in it self Let it be to thee proportionably grievous But these Fruits of thy Sins viz. thy Sufferings if thou live by Faith upon Invisibles will work for thee an eternal weight of Glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from hyperbole even unto hyperbole that the glory in its superlative excellency does doubly transcend the unfathomable malignity that is in Sin and infinitely overshoot the bitterness in the Affliction the weight of Glory being commensurate to its Eternity 2 Cor. 4.17 The transient momentany lightness of our Affliction worketh out for us an above all expression conception comparison eternal weight of Glory Will not the reviews hereof engage thee O my Soul with a kind and dutiful resentment to accept of the punishment of thy Sin and exterminate all harsh and unbecoming Conceptions of that God whose hatred to thy Sin evidenced in his severe Providences is alway accompanied with a singular love to thy Person whose Eternal Salvation he would compass by the everlasting destruction of thy Sin Oh be thou ambitious to demonstrate thy self a good disposition'd Child under that nurture of Love wherein he evidences himself to be a tender hearted Father Is it only a gentle Correction not eternal Damnation the desert of thy Sin Is it only a profitable Medicine though it might have been Poyson thy final bane and ruin Is it only the scarifying a gangrenated Limb which might have been the scalding and burning for ever of both Body and Soul in unquenchable Fire unappeasable Wrath Oh love the Lord for the mitigation for the transmutation of thy Penance That thou art in a state where thy Sufferings may be sanctified therefore are in Mercy where they may be terminated therefore are no ground of Desperation where they may be recompenced and shall undoubtedly issue in endless Blessedness if thy stubbornness and non-improvement hinder not Take it well and kindly at those gracious Hands that draw the flaming Sword and turn it every way against thy Corruptions which shut thee out and this on purpose that thou mayst be received by the Lord Pure and Innocent into
every though never so fortuitous an effect of a spontaneous Agent to look at God I 'll not instance in other than David And 1. for evil Events As he intimates a possibility of Saul's being excited against him by God 1 Sam. 26.19 and was foretold that the Lord would raise up evil against him out of his own House and take his Wives and give them to Absalom under the notion of his Neighbour 2 Sam. 12.11 So even when he was cursed by Shimei he owns it as from God 2 Sam. 16.10 Not that he supposed God had a hand in the sin of the Act but order'd it as a part of the punishment threatned for his own Sin 2. Good Events of all kinds he more frequently ascribes to God Does he conquer his Enemies 'T is the Lord that lets him see his desire upon them Psal 59.10 and subdueth the People under him Psal 18.47 48. See the whole Psalm and smites his Enemies in their hinder parts Psal 78.66 Do his Friends own and anoint and crown him King He entitles God to it Psal 21.3 When his Father and Mother forsake him the Lord takes him up Psal 27.10 Is he secur'd in a strong City 'T is the Lord's marvellous kindness Psal 31.21 What do I enumerating Particulars every Psalm is an Instance And indeed were it not so Prayer would be mere Mockery and Praise Hypocrisie Epist 31. and that of Seneca would be better Divinity than we are taught by the Scriptures which yet to suppose is most horridly Blasphemous Per maxima acto viro turpe est etiamnum Deos fagitare Quid votis opus est Facte ipse foelicem Let those English it that allow it Now when a Man does thus in all Events take notice of the Finger of God and thereby give him the glory of his Efficiency he is in a disposition for renewed Experiments of the Divine Power and Goodness in Peace and Joy Where the Glory will be given to God he will grant the fullest and sweetest tasts of his Graciousness But who will lose a Benefit 'T is lost where no likelyhood of any grateful Acknowledgement Unthankfulness is the most hateful of Sins Ingratum si dixeris omnia dixeris If God must not reap Praises he will not sow Mercies Not that he needs our Gratitude but that we must own our Benefactor and testifie our advances in Love when by new Instances he testifies his Love to us Nevertheless this Love of ours is not profitable to God but highly as all other Graces to our selves Our own Advantage and Interest is alway at the bottom of our Duty which indeed can add nothing to God Job 34. is nothing to him as neither can our Iniquity detract from him or hurt him His good will towards us moves him to take care that it may be well with us therefore doth he follow us with his tender Mercies and richest Blessings that we may proceed upon ingenuous Motives in our observance of him and obedience to him and may not be obnoxious to the check of Satan or our own Consciences for servility of Spirit in that work wherein consists our Liberty Honour and Happiness Indeed we are not really good if we be not ingenuously good nor act at all for God if we act not from a filial disposition Love is every Grace and Virtue that Spirit of Life which as an universal Cause diffuses its benign animating Influences through all the Regions of true Goodness and Honesty All in us that lives to God every holy Disposition every gracious Habit is only a distinct particular modification of Love Even as the varieties of Nature in those innumerable differences of Plants sensitive Creatures and Men in their Bodies are but Earthly Particles diversly modified formed fashioned and qualified Hence Love is said to be the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13.10 But without Love to be Good is impossible 1 Cor. 13. Where this Grace dwells God dwells also and the Soul inspirited by it dwells in God 1 Joh. 4.8 16. The more of Love therefore the more of God He will never be out of our Eye if he be thus in our Hearts Love there will command our Looks 'T was the dominion of this Grace in his Soul that mov'd the Psalmist to make such honourable mention here of the Love and Graciousness of God in his aid and sustentation 't was this that in his distress inclin'd him to take Sanctuary in God and own all the Spiritual Refreshments that solaced his Heart as derivations from God and engaged him to devolve all the Glory thereof upon God And how should that Soul do other that has all in God Hast thou then Oh my Soul evermore and in every occurrent an Eye toward Heaven and by thy acknowledgement of the Finger of God in every thing that befalls thee Dost thou honour his Providence indeavour to relish his Goodness and make some progress in thine affectionate pantings after him complacency in him resolution for him and dutifulness to him O let every thing remind thee of his everlasting Commiseration that in thy lost Estate remembred thee gave Blood for thy Ransom the Blood of God Acts 20.28 The time of thy lothing was the time of his Love Eze. 16.5 8. He loved thee out of the Pit of Corruption Isa 38.17 He hath prevented thee with the Blessings of Goodness Psal 21.3 He redeemeth thy Life from Destruction and crowneth thee with loving Kindness and tender Mercies Psal 103.4 He hath not dealt with thee after thy Sins nor rewarded thee according to thy Iniquities ver 10. Therefore ver 1 2. Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me Bless his Holy Name Bless the Lord Oh my Soul and forget not all his Benefits Hallelujah CHAP. X. The Subject of Comfort Seeks it solely in God THus much of the Character deduced from the Context there only remains one thing out of the Text it self Viz. The Psalmist was a Man who discern'd such an emptiness and insufficiency in all inferiour Contentments as to seek no relief from them nor take up with any in them as his rest in Trouble but in deepest anxiety and distress did look for and find all his comfort solely in and from God This is the very substance and marrow of the Verse Indeed the whole Psalm is a Testimony of his ceasing from the Creature from Man in a believing and affectionate recourse to God Where-ever he cast his Eye upon Earth the Inscription was Vanity and Vexation A deluge of Sin and Misery covered the World that like Noah's Dove he could find no rest for the sole of his Foot below therefore does he direct his course toward Heaven Thus Psal 55.6 Oh that I had wings like a Dove for then I would flee away and be at rest But Rest is not a Denizen of this World Nothing but the Heaven of Heavens is at rest and here does he fix only There was a Windy Storm and Tempest without as Psal 55.8
a world of crafty Politicks and inventive cunning to devise whatever that unfathomable depth of Malice and Emity can direct against us to ruin us everlastingly together with an unknown and unimaginably great sufficiency of Power and Activity to execute what they contrive and they have no limits of their duration on this side Eternity Oh dreadful Host indeed what may they despair to effect upon impotent and degenerate sinful Man But the dependance of things one upon another I see has made me forget my Scope which was to remember the Fears of Sin and Temptation to it rather than the Tempter I proceed to the 2. Danger wherein the Psalmist did apprehend himself viz. of Death not so much Natural as Violent His Enemies design'd to Murther him by a pretended Law notwithstanding his Righteousness and Innocency and for that end had sentenced and condemned him ver 21.22 Whence he declares ver 17. Vnless the Lord had been my help my Soul had almost or quickly dwelt in silence My Soul that is I my self the better part by a Figure being put for the Person or rather for the worse part the Body dwelt in silence i. e. the Grave as is unanimously agreed by Interpreters according to Psal 115.17 The Dead praise not the Lord nor any that go down into silence Which is not to be understood of the Soul but Body only Psal 49.12 20. Nevertheless or And Man being in Honour abideth not a Night he is like the Beasts that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are silent i. e. Dead Psal 31.17 fully Death indeed is the King of Terrors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Job 18.14 Of all Terribles the most terrible to Nature because it dissolves its most amicable Bands and utterly extinguishes all those hopes which it has for many years been kindling and were it not for the reliefs of Grace it would certainly fill Men with unspeakable Agonies could they view it in all its antecedent and consequent Pomp and Circumstances For 't is only ignorance of this very solemn change that causes the most so fool-hardily and without concern to entertain the thoughts and approaches of it But a violent Death God's Effections are always better milder than his Permissions when a Man lies at the mercy of those whose tender Mercies are Cruelty must needs cause more bitter Reflections than where Nature gently expires under the compassionate tender Hands of the God of Nature who always contends in measure that the Spirit may not fail and the Soul which he hath made To this Head then appertains the trouble arising from Fears of Suffering and Affliction of what kind soever In particular those that accompany and follow Death especially the Terrors of Judgment and Hell which is Eternal Death This the Psalmist sometimes felt the sting and torture of as a preventive Medicine that he might not feel it everlastingly Psal 116.3 The pains of Hell gat hold upon me call'd the Cords of Hell Psal 18.5 marg 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence perhaps our English Word Cable it sometimes signifies Corruption Destruction Mic. 2.10 Troops Bands Companies Psal 119.61 either of these may suit well enough But above all Fear of God's Anger and just Displeasure most heavily sits upon the Spirit of a Gracious Man All the Troops of Hell and Triumphs of Cruelty are but Mormo's in comparison Finite Fury cannot plague infinitely therefore our Saviour advises Luke 12.4 5. Be not affraid of them that kill the Body and after that have no more that they can do But I will forwarn you whom you shall fear Fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into Hell yea I say unto you fear him Filial Fear of God indeed brings no trouble but joy 'T is only a Fear working to Bondage oppressive to Nature a Rebel against Reason stupifying the Spirits enervating the Will damping the Affections over-throwing our Resolution defeating our Counsels confounding our Consciences betraying us into a base and unworthy servitude to our own corrupt Imaginations Errors and Ignorance and every exteriour Agent that has the power or will to abuse them and our Credulity to our Prejudice and Perdition 2. Grieving Thoughts and Impressions The Evils did not lie perdue at a distance but in a close encounter charg'd home and wounded his Heart that it bleeds here in godly Sorrow Indeed whatever causes Fear and Despair does also introduce Grief when it becomes present but his Mind was overwhelmed with such Reflections as had a peculiar influence upon his Sorrow beside those that did produce Fear and Despair As 1. The Sins of others The foul Enormities of Wicked Men whereof several are named 1. Pride Ver. 2. Render a Reward to the Proud a Reward in Vengeance In this Sin the Devil began the Dance and all his Servants wear his Livery and tread in his Steps For this their Loftiness and triumphing Arrogance his Heart groan'd out the double How long ver 3. Words of Lamentation Indeed when men are despis'd they are either anger'd or griev'd anger'd if Proud griev'd if Lowly incens'd if Passionate if Meek troubled 'T is the property of Pride to despise and slight all but bear slighting from none 2. Boasting The inward filth of Pride and Arrogance foaming out at the Mouth ver 4. All the workers of Iniquity speak boast themselves the coherence seems to intimate that the things they boasted of were their own height and power to oppress the Innocent Being got to the top of the Mount of Honour and Worldly Prosperity which puft them up they imagin'd it for their Security and Glory to fall down upon and crush and break in pieces God's Heritage and this they gloried in as becoming their Grandeur Potency Now to be not only trod and trampled upon with the foot of Pride and spurn'd kick'd away like a Dog but also hear the Proud-doers brag of it as a brave and worthy Fact as it heightens the Sin of the Actors so the Sorrow of the Sufferers both as an addition to their own Affliction and also a further aggravation of the Sin 'T is easier to bear a scorn in deeds when a Man has the liberty to suppose that possibly it may not be the issue of design and a malicious Mind or that the Agent may after grieve for and repent of it than to bear their blessing themselves in it praismg themselves for it which is a testimony of their love to it delight in it But if the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be taken in a softer sence shall will or do speak of or speak themselves praedicabunt se The future for the present tense a common Enallage except the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be repeated here again out of the foregoing Verse as our Translaters think it must But then why not also in the Fifth and Sixth Verses where the Verbs are all future yet rendred in the present Interlin i. e. will vaunt praise or extol themselves in Words magnifie
Spiritual we should in like manner be dog'd and pursu'd with their implacable Malice in our separate and immortal State and be desperate of succour and deliverance from that Eternal Erynnis those innumerable Legions of ever torturing Furies that would be let loose upon us to lash and sting us with the utmost of their virulent Indignation For how should the Deity relieve us if he know nothing of us 'T is therefore the highest Interest of real goodness that there is a God of Vnlimitable Intelligence and Love to supervise and care for us that no Evils can be imagin'd against us in the most dark and secret recesses of Hell much less on Earth but are to him as visible as though Writ or Graven in the Roof of Heaven by the Finger of God in Letters formed all of Suns or Stars and he is replenish'd with that Wisdom and Graciousness which both knows how is perfectly willing and effectually engag'd to counteract them But as this and the other Three so all the Sins of the Wicked are a bitter Grief to a good Soul Whence David Psal 119.136 Rivers of Tears run down mine eyes because they keep not thy Law Be their Sins only Omissions which in the Estimate of the World are of a lighter Nature though not in the account of God and an Illuminated Conscience yet will they be grievous to those that love the Lord and his Laws And 't is a good token of Integrity when the Sins of others are a burden Self may engage a Man against his own Sins but if the wickedness of those we have no concern with deeply affect our Hearts 't is an Evidence we are acted by the Interest of God Let this then Oh my Soul over-rule all thy Passions Live under some sense with God What dishonors him let it humble thee Be not so much troubled at the Mischiefs wherewith Men in the Triumphant Madness of their Prosperity indeavour to plague thee as at the Sin whereby they duel Heaven Where thy Father suffers most in his Glory do thou suffer with him Thy Irascibles never act more commendably than when they run upon the Errand of thy Maker Thou art angry and sinnest not when angry at Sin 'T is hard not to Sin in Sorrow if it be not Sorrow for Sin And if thou groan under the Wickedness of others sure thou wiltst not canst not darst not be so much a Hypocrite as to go light under the greater Load of thine own Thou art conscious to thy self of many Circumstances aggravating thine own which thou hast no reason to apply to the Crimes of any beside Where thou knowest of most Evil and that is in thy self there must thou spend Oceans since the little in comparison which thou knowest of other Mens faults requires thy Rivers Let thy Sorrows bear Proportion to thy Condition and Conscience Weep or at least mourn for and bemoan others but most thy self There must thou pay thy Drops here a Deluge To this place therefore appertains all Spiritual Trouble for Sin and the want and weakness and defectiveness of Grace with the effects thereof That Anguish of Mind which springs from the sense of Sin 's odiousness of God The Agonies and Anxieties of the New Birth and under Relapses whatever goes under the name of a Wounded Spirit or Troubled Conscience But 2. Not only the evil of Sin but other Evils in themselves or to him in effect did sadden the Holy Psalmist's Soul Two especially 1. The Prosperity of the Wicked their Joy but his smart Vers 3. How long shall the Wicked Oh LORD how long shall the wicked triumph A common Offence and Trouble to both the Religious and Rational World The Gracious Servants of God often bemoan it What a Multitude of Precepts and Comforts doth the 37. Psal present as an Antidote against fretting about it Habakkuk bewails it Hab. 1.2 3 4. Jer. Ch. 12.1 2 reasons and pleads with God concerning it In Job How many Discourses are there to this purpose And every where in the Psalms to instance in one more only Psal 73. Vers 3. I was envious at the foolish when I saw the Prosperity of the Wicked After a Description whereof he adds Vers 21. Thus my heart was grieved and I was pricked in my Reins This also was a stumbling Block to the Philosophical World whereof the more Considerate and Vertuous made a good use others a bad reasoning from the unequal Distribution of Temporal Things against the Being of God and Providence into such Absurdities may those run who having but dark Apprehensions of Immortality and the Eternal Recompences of a Future State take their measures from sense and consider not the Unproportionableness of this present moment of Temporal Life to a vast Immense Eternity 2. The Unprosperous Afflicted Persecuted State of the People of God did excite in him sorrowful Reflections I doubt not but that with a broken Heart he Writ down that Complaint Vers 5. They break in pieces thy People O LORD and afflict thine Heritage They slay the Widow and the Stranger and murder the Fatherless Sure with a Soul melted into Sympathizing Commiserations doth he remember this So Asaph Psal 73.10 Therefore his People return hither and Waters of a full Cup are wrung out to them 21. Thus my Heart was grieved c. which refers to all before Discours'd concerning prosperous Wickedness and suffering Godliness And How can the Body in many parts of it suffer and the rest have no Fellow-feeling Thou art not vitally united as a Member to the Body of Christ Oh my Soul but may'st justly dread that he will cut thee off as a dead Libm and bury thee in Hell if thou be insensible of its Pains and Agonies Shew that the common Soul and Spirit Animates thee by a common sense with the rest of the Members that Communicate in it with thee If thou be not with them in Passion yet be in Compassion Why Persecutest thou me Says Christ to Saul Acts 9.4 The pain is in the Members the sense in the Head Christ disclaims thee thou art none of that me whereof he is so tender if thou suffer'st not by Commiseration when his Servants suffer Affliction Put on thy Bowels if thou desirest the Yernings of his when thy Condition shall be like theirs With the Prophet Jerem. 9.1 Say Oh that my Head were Waters and mine Eyes a Fountain of Tears that I might weep Day and Night for the slain of the Daughter of my People My Bowels my Bowels I am pained at my very Heart the Walls of my Heart make a noise in me I cannot hold my Peace because thou hast heard Oh my Soul the sound of the Trumpet the alarm of War To this Head may be reduced all those Troubles which are Fruits of Publick Calamities to Church or State Persecutions Martyrdoms Massacres c. Wars and Violence Oppressions Injuries c. whatever may be the Effects of the Rage and Fury of Men and Malice of impure
Name of Sparing-Mercy or deals moderately with us in Gentleness and Tenderness We want many good things especially Himself Benevolence will our Good Bounty and Kindness impart All to Us Graciousness does All freely Oh Astonishingly Rich and Glorious Well-spring of Everlasting Consolation There 's no Exigence befals Man either thro' emptiness or misery that is destitute of a Perfection in Infinite Love to make a peculiar and accommodate Relief and Supply Divine Goodness bears such a singular respect to our indigent Nature that notwithstanding its individual Singleness and Oneness it does as it were parcel out it self into a multiplicity of sweet refreshing Cordials in Condescension to our Infirmity that in it we may have a particular Satisfaction for every distinct Appetite a proper Remedy for every single Malady There 's no Case in which we can need or desire Comfort but there is a Revelation of some comfortable Perfection in God which speaks directly to it and administers a succour and support to us no less than Infinite that is incomprehensibly more extensive and Intensive than our Circumstances can be necessitous or dolorous Indeed nothing comforts but Love nothing more disquiets than sense of Enmity Hatred Anger Displeasure The more we are concern'd in any the more pleasing is Respect from them and an unloving Deportment more grievous We are not much affected with the love of Strangers but rejoyce in the Good-will of our Neighbours our Friends our Relations expecting it should bear proportion to our Interest in them and theirs in us else it pleases not We must have more Love from those in our Vicinity than from Aliens from intimate Acquaintance than either from our Flesh and Blood than all or it troubles us But the due measure nay if it be an excess of affection is most taking we are most at ease under it Again as the Relation so the Quality of Persons must vary the degree of Love or we are not at rest The regard of a mean Man does not so much delight us as of the Great that of Bad Men is not so sweet as that of the Good Further those we expect most good from most refresh us with their Love where we lay out no hopes from those such is the Selfishness of our Nature we are not solicitous to gain any Love So we are most earnestly desirous of the Affections of those whose Anger can and is likely and engaged to do us the greatest Hurt whom we therefore have reason most to fear if we can win their hearts 't is a wonderful Contentation Now God the nearest greatest most potent Neighbour Friend or Enemy is not only Loving but Love its self in the abstract not limited in kind or degree but unmeasurable infinite Love such on the contrary is his Wrath also Of all other his Love is most capable and engaged too to do us the greatest Good if we be capable of it His Hatred and Anger like to do us the greatest harm if we do not betake our selves to the refuge and security of his Love But he who is essential unconfincable Graciousness does with a natural Affection regard us as the Work of his hands in Creation with a Paternal Conjugal Respect embrace us as his Workmanship created in Christ Jesus to good Works if forsaking all other we cleave unto him with full purpose of heart in a sincere Child-like Spouse-like Affection being again begotten by his Word and Spirit to a lively Hope and so in Marriage-Covenant with him This then is a Comfort as large as its Subject Divine Love a satisfaction as boundless as the Deity for it infinitely pleases even God himself Infinite though he be therefore is sufficient sure to administer a Content to us sweet and great beyond all Expression all Cogitation The Holy Men of God which the Scripture propounds for our Examples alway took Sanctuary here in the assaults of their most grievous Troubles and Temptations Jer. 31.12 They shall slow together to the goodness of the Lord c. And their Soul shall be as a watered Garden and they shall not sorrow any more at all 13. I will turn their mourning into joy and will comfort them and make them rejoyce from their sorrow 14. And I will satiate the soul of the Priests with fatness and my People shall be satisfied with my Goodness saith the Lord. Psal 119.76 Let I pray thee thy merciful kindness be for my Comfort c. And indeed let the storms rage and the sea roar and beat as high as it can there will for ever be sure Anchor-hold for a good Soul upon the Rock of Ages Fix there and thou canst never shipwrack nay if thou canst but weakly and waveringly with a trembling heart and hand hold this Love be not discouraged for with a strong unconquerable hand it holds thee Joh. 10.28 29. All other Divine Perfections minister to his Love which has already bestowed the greatest Gifts Himself as an overflowing Jordan of enriching Goodness His Only-begotten Son Joh. 3.16 The choicest Blessing and the surest Pledge of all other Rom. 8.32 Nay thy self to thy self freed from the bondage of Sin and Satan Though I be in no desireable Circumstances as to other things yet if I be mine own Man and enjoy a just Liberty of Body and Mind in no slavery of Spirit and Condition I can sing over my other Misfortunes especially when I can read my own Felicity in the Misery of others through a Thraldom which I escape Indeed my Commiserations impress some part of their Calamity upon my Soul but 't is countervail'd and over-top'd by the Comfort of mine own Indemnity But there can be no liberty under the Dominion of Sin nor any true Self-enjoyment till I enjoy God and my self in him in whom I have my best and sweetest Being Motion and Life And though I enjoy my Civil and Moral Freedom which is no little Comfort yet Vassalage to the Prince of Darkness is an Affliction more grievous than the other can be solacing When a Good Man is satisfied from of with himself Prov. 14.14 't is only as far as the Goodness of God dwells in him and he in it For if I possess not God I have nothing with a Blessing therefore not with Comfort I have no Right to comfortable Thoughts contenting Enjoyments no not to my self and in my self For what am I that is good what am I not that is evil without God and what satisfaction can I receive in that which is evil as I my self and every thing in me will unavoidably be if not antidoted and animated by the Goodness of God Men are not more miserable in a Deprival of all the Content of their Lives than in the Dereliction of God God gave me my self as a Loan of Love what I am I owe to Him but by my sin I have lost both my self and Him If now by a new Charter He restore to me a better Right to Himself and to my self in His Son Jesus
and the Herd and their Soul shall be as a Watered Garden c. Yea there ' t is The Blessings of this Life are then good indeed when the Donation of the Goodness of the Lord Divine Love with them gives them a Relish incomparable Job sometimes consulted his Bed for Comfort Job 7.13 and 't is no little satisfaction to enjoy the quiet Repose of a single Night But what are all the downy Contents of this Nature to the Everlasting Repose and Rest both of Body and Soul in the Love of God who though he be an everliving Activity yet is an ever-loving quiet resting Place for all that having been wearied out with the Sins and Labours and Troubles and Miseries of a Cumbersome World betake themselves to him as their only Contentation Cant. 3. King Solomon as a Type of Christ made Himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Conjugal Bed This the Original Word may seem indeed most properly to signifie from the 7th Verse where the Espousals plainly refer to this that Exhortation being grounded upon this Narration the midst thereof being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Strowed with Love for the Daughters of Jerusalem A Bed of Ease indeed The Whole World cannot Afford a Bed as soft as Love as sweet as the refreshing Love of an infinitely Lovely and Loving God I have read of a Man who not content with Epicureism in Retail resolv'd at once to gratifie every Sence with an accumulated Association of all imaginable Sensualities yet all was only the Swinish Pleasure of a Day But there is an Eternity of Delights in the Favour of God first to the Soul but redounding to the Sence also Truly Light is sweet and 't is good for the Eyes to behold the Sun 't is a Periphrasis of Life as the Connexion with the followng Verse demonstrates Eccl. 11.7 8. How delicious is the Flavour and Fragrancy of Odours and the inexplicable Varieties and Ravishments of Sounds c. But are these worthy to be thought of in Comparison of the ever Refreshing Light of God's Countenance the Never-fading Delights of Divine Love and Goodness the Unimitable Splendour of the Sun of Righteousness Mal. 4.2 who is the Brightness of his Fathers Glory Heb. 1.2 the savour of Christ's Precious Oyntments Cant. 1.3 The rapturous Melody of the Celestial Quire but above all the every thing Harmonious Beautiful Lovely Glorious in the Divine Nature wherein our very sense shall be in a generous transport with the highest incomparable supersensual everlasting Gratifications much more our Minds For the Goodness of God is every thing pleasing profitable honest in the utmost eminency of Glory There 's no mole in this Beauty no spots in this Sun no Night to this Day but an immense and eternal variety of all delectable Excellencies in an invariable unity of unblemishable Perfection nothing to give a check to the Appetite to interrupt and abate the pleasure of Enjoyment or put a period to the solace accruing from it It singularly pleases a Man to be well thought of and well provided for When Men are low yet if their Reputation run high it bears up their Spirits in the depression of their Estates and as Noble Blood in the Veins is by many accounted an essential Dignity when their Wealth and Substance falls into detriment that their Heart cannot stoop to any servile Offices or Imployments below the Grandeur of its more stately and generous Pulsations their Glory they think shines as the Sun through a Cloud and is like a Cordial Elixir in a fainting fit of Fortune So Credit of both kinds Fame Trust both as it imports the Honour of a fair Reputation and Good Name and as it entitles a Man to a right in the kindness of his Friend and the belief of all Men that every one speaks well of him is ready to do well to him all Honour him all Credit him and freely Concredit their all with him this is valued as much as Money in the Purse The Wisest of Men prefers it as more eligible Prov. 22.1 and affirms that it makes the Bones fat Prov. 15.30 But if the Love of God put a value upon us and worthless that we are we have nothing else to recommend us as the Kings Stamp upon a Brass Farthing if he ennoble us with his Grace Nobilitas sola est atque unica virtus that we can derive our Pedegree and Extraction from Heaven through the New Birth this is the truest sweetest noblest Satisfaction We are indeed the basest through Sin of the whole Creation God made us at first through his Image next in honour to the Holy Angels Psal 8.5 We by our Apostacy and Corruption make our selves not a little lower than Devils and in this debasement does Divine Goodness find us but here it does not leave us Love and Love alone exalts us and crowns us with Glory Dignity and Hon ur and how high we are in the account of Love however base in our selves is demonstrated by the price it was willing to pay for our Redemption Nothing rais'd us to this height in the estimate of Love but only Love according to Deut. 7.7 8. The Lord did not set his Love upon you because ye were moe c. But because the Lord loved you c. His Love was its own and only motive and why should it not What can be a more noble Incitement to it than the Glory of its most excellent communicative Nature What mov'd it at first to design an Object to diffuse its benign influences upon What lovely qualities were in a non-entity to draw it out into such admirable Condescentions Let it then go no less than self-sufficient all-sufficient without the subsidiary invitement of all external Objects Divine Goodness neither needs nor desires a Procatarctick cause And this is a Comfort unspeakable Were I to bring my wellcome to Heaven and to be dignified with the honour of so renowned a degree of Perfection as to be able to stand upon my Reputation before God and not beg his good Opinion but merit it the Conscience of my deficiency and demerit would for ever confound me But since Love brings my all with it and its arguments to respect me are derived from its own Bowels and its height is so wonderful that there can be no proportion in the highest created goodness to it so as to deserve it and its depth so unfathomable that the greatest misdeservings cannot put a bar to the liberty of its actings for the relief even of the Chief of Sinners 1 Tim. 1.15 Have I not a World of reason to cast off all melancholy desponding Imaginations and solace my self in this Paradise of everlasting Love and free Grace Oh Joy unspeakable and full of Glory To be well provided for is next The World had rather live by Sight than Faith He 's but ill to live all whose Wealth is in another Man's Pocket and may be puft away with the malevolent Breath of
a third Man A Bird in the hand is best Faith and Hope are beggarly things in the estimate of most Men. A competency of Necessaries in Possession more contents us than a World in Reversion In that modicum we can rejoyce though we do not wallow in those affluent Delights which the sensual Beasts of the Earth batten and rot in A sufficiency of suitable Comforts fills our Appetite Convenience being the essential Property if not Essence of Goodness When every thing hits us lies pat and even and easie upon our Hearts in a pleasing agreeableness we do not envy Crowns and Scepters But if we have all and enough to spare can never see through our Enjoyments be full and abound not only in opinion and with respect to the content of our Minds but in the reality of the thing we then begin to sing a requiem to our Souls and sit down under the shadow of these Gourds with delight And have we not a sufficiency nay a redundancy an infiniteness of all Necessaries and Agreeables in God's Love and Goodness of which Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither hath it entred into the Heart of Man to conceive the fulness the glory the sweetness the amiableness the suitableness the comfortableness Thy Mansion House here is the Bosom of Love replenished with a confluence of all desirable Satisfactions thy Garden the Paradise of God thy Demesne the Celestial Canaan thy Revenues and Incomes the unperishing Treasures of Divine Goodness and Grace and Glory the unsearchable Riches of Christ But be a Man's-Comforts never so sweet if there be an equal mixture of sowre he writes Cabul upon the front of all his Enjoyments And ordinarily a drachm of Gall will spoil an ounce of Honey one Cross embitter a thousand Comforts If now I be secure either that the Evils will be as the morning Cloud and early Dew or that I shall be no loser not be rob'd of the least real satisfaction but gain equivalent if I have a reserve of other better sweeter Joys and Blessings which will countervail my Sufferings or if when the Tempest lies hard upon me I be certain of a safe retiring Place and Refuge where I am out of danger or if I have weathered out the Storm that the worst is past and a prospect is given me of so great an advantage so happy an issue as will compensate the trouble if all along I find by experience that 't is for the best and if I had been to carve for my self and spin the thread of my own Fortune I could not have pitch'd upon any thing so eligible as what is dispens'd to me without my choice by the Wisdom and provident Goodness of Heaven every of these things singly yields me a plentiful harvest of quiet in my Mind and contentedness with my Condition much more joyntly altogether And has not every good Soul the amplest security that it shall be blest with all this and much more in and through the benignity and Love of God Have we not ground to believe that Love will not permit any evil to interrupt our Joys except there be need That Love will cut it short in Righteousness it shall be but for a moment a little moment Love being afflicted in all our Afflictions will not long torment it self What Love promises Power can command In that very small moment of continuance I am secure that Love will not suffer my Miseries and Disquiets to commit a rape upon my best satisfactions in it self and that I shall lose no Metal but only Dross which 't is my happiness to do and even that loss if my gain of Refinement and Purity deserve that Name will be recompenced to the full in those infinitely better things laid up in store for me in the plenitude and all-sufficiency of unboundable Goodness in the Divine Nature and Persons But be the Calamity as great and malignant as is imaginable I have a Rock higher than I where I may be safe above the reach of ruin For having past the pangs of the New Birth the worst is past both in respect of Pain and Danger Sorrow and Fear Though my Vessel the Body may be broken yet shall I certainly land in safety upon the blessed shore of Eternity with all my real Riches and Comforts environing me I am I hope in a sound bottom indeed Christ carries me in his Body his Bowels that 's the Ship wherein I am wafted over the Tempestuous Ocean of Miseries in this World to the fair Havens of everlasting Loves Joys and Rest The foreknowledge whereof together with my present sense of profit in my Soul strength against Sin resolution for God evidence and experience of his Presence Support Influence Grace the affectionate workings of his Heart in Love Care Kindness flowing over all the banks in multitudes of unmerited Blessings in Temporals but especially in Celestials These sweeten all my Sorrows and ease my burthened Spirit that I cannot but acknowledge the Provisions of Infinite Wisdom incomprehensibly more eligible and beneficial than the utmost that could ever enter into my utmost raised Imaginations But if the pinch come yet a little nearer that though accommodated with an affluence of all terrestrial Contentments without yet a dangerous Disease preys upon my Vitals or the Arrows of the Almighty gall wound and smart in my Conscience that I am destitute of the Blessings of a sound Mind in a sound Body the enjoyment whereof would add an Emphasis to all external Comforts a living Lam 3.39 Neh. 2.2 a healthful Man and Mind having no reason to complain and be sad But now Love is Life and Health and all things The breath of thy Nostrils the length of thy Days and Delights but the shortner of thy Pains and Sorrows Dost thou keep thy Tongue from evil Psal 34.12 13 14 15. and thy Lips from speaking guile depart from evil and do good seek Peace and pursue it Then are the Eyes of the Lord upon thee and his Ears open to thy cry thou shalt enjoy desired Life and beloved Days that thou mayst see Good yea the Goodness of the Lord in the Land of the Living Psal 118.17 thou shalt not die but live and declare the Works of the Lord. How can that Body or Soul be sick that 's embrac'd in the healing Bosom of the great Physician Forgiveness of Sin is a Medicine for every Malady Isa 32.24 If he whom Christ loves be sick 't is not unto Death but for the Glory of God Joh. 11.3 4. Love will loose the Pains of Death Thou hast loved me from the Pit of Corruption for thou hast cast all my Sins behind thy Back Isa 38.17 God bears not a grudge against those he loves 'T is Loves property to chastize none of its Office to impute guilt and punish but to cover a multitude of Sins 1 Pet. 4.8 An infallible Cure or Remedy for Distempers of Body and Soul supports a sinking Spirit revives a disconsolate Heart
Conversion There cannot then be any Divine Comfort if there be not a sweet Composure and Harmony betwixt Earth and Heaven and this can never be where a Man is at peace with his Sins Therefore whatever quiet may seem to be in such a Soul 't is only personated and illusive it reaches not to the real bottom of the trouble takes not out the Core But on the other hand when a Man makes Repentance and Mortification Faith and a good Life the main employ which drinks up his Spirits and Strength and Time industriously contending in all things to approve the sincerity and heartiness of his Affections Designs and Aims and whole Deportment in the sight of God and whilst he is thus doing finds any quietude Rest and Satisfaction of Mind to sweeten his Work and settle his Conscience he may be confident that this is the true Comfort of the Holy Ghost For as 't is impossible to enjoy true Peace under reigning Sin so t is inconsistent with Divine Goodness and Federal Love to permit a true Heart intirely devoted to him to delude it self into true Miseries under the vizor of false Joys I confess if a Man be too greedy of Comfort and too hasty in his Applications without due consideration and indeavour and care to derive his Satisfactions from solid Grounds laying the stress upon things which will not bear it in such indeliberate precipitation of Judgment concerning a Mans state and the true root of Comfort when he founds it upon any thing less than substantial Piety Righteousness and Sobriety as the evidence of his Right he may abuse himself with an unsound unsolid Peace Therefore I always suppose that the procedure in order to Comfort be justifiable and the Grounds upon which a Man bottoms his Evidence be genuine and that his reason and judgment lead him leisurely in the Scripture way to Heart-ease and Rest else all may issue in greater inquietude and trouble whatever fair Weather may at present flatter his conscience But if Spiritual sense light and a serious Preponderation of all circumstances according to the preceeding particular direct our motions hither and true Religiousness confirm them we may be secure that mere Shows and Pageantry do not now delude us into a Fairy Paradise A weak Head 't is true may lead an honest Heart into a deceitful Peace And 't is not the design of Grace to abolish or reform the natural Depravations and Deformities of our Faculties so much as the Moral But that which is defective must not be made a Standard A good Soul that understands it self and observes solid Rules in comforting it self cannot be deceiv'd in that Peace which it possesses whilst it loves God and keeps his way Such as a Mans goodness is will his Consolation be If that be but External and Hypocritical this will be insincere and delusory but a true intelligent honest Heart proceeding with a just caution shall never be gull'd with a Mock-Peace For Psal 97.11 12. Light is sown for the Righteous and gladness for the upright in heart Rejoyce in the Lord ye Righteous What God sows they shall reap Psal 85.8 10. I will hear what God the Lord will speak for he will speak peace unto his people and to his Saints c. Mercy and Truth have met together Righteousness and Peace have kissed each other Their embrace is strict and indissoluble God hath espoused them they cannot be divorced What he hath joyned together none shall finally separate and part asunder They give mutual testimony each to others integrity and soundness In Life they are lovely in Death they cannot be divided but will cohabit eternally Where then Oh my Soul is thy Righteousness not particular meerly but universal Shew me thy comfort by thy Works for 't is dead being alone As the Body without the Spirit is dead so is Peace without Holiness which is its very Life and Soul If thou be not God-like thy Joys are not Heaven-like All true pleasures are drops of those Rivers at God's Right Hand Psal 36.8 and 46.4 and 16. ult If the Waters of Life have never quickned and cleansed thee those Streams of Divine Comfort never yet did refresh thee thou hast only drunk of the Abana and Pharphar of muddy carnal Contentments not of the pure Fountain of Celestial Consolations Wherein then can thy uprightness and real honesty of heart approve it self to God Is this thy rejoycing 2 Cor. 1.12 viz. the Testimony of thy conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly Wisdom but by the grace of God thou hast had thy Conversation in the World What hast thou to shew more than an Hypocrite Wherein does thy Righteousness excel that of Scribes and Pharisees What are thy Principles Motives manner of acting Aims and Ends in thy whole course of Life Do'st thou really act 1. From God a Spirit of new Life breathed into thee by God 2. Through Christ as the Foundation of thy hopes of acceptance 3. By the Spirit as thy immediate aid in every Holy performance 4. Unto God as thy ultimate end Hast thou no secret reserved Dalilahs No one thing in which thou would'st have liberty and presume upon Pardon Do'st thou not run upon a biass in Religion and twine aside in some sinister respect to self or the popular Vogue in which thou would'st be somebody Is it thy great and uppermost care and study to be true to him that sees in secret rather than applauded by those who only see the Outside that thy inward gracious Dispositions may go no less than thy outward Semblances Art thou above all things jealous of thy deceitful Heart afraid of Hypocrisie willing to do any thing that may tend to a full discovery of thy self to thy self And if all be not right within or suspected not to be Art thou unspeakably troubled till it be righted Thou art full of thoughts but have thy Meditations been effectual through Christ to break thy heart from as well as for sin and bow thy Will to a Conformity and subjection to God's Will of Precept and Providence and bring thee to an intelligent self-denying humble penitent believing affectionate owning thy Baptismal Covenant in its whole latitude with sincere and indeflexible Resolutions to stand by it for ever And do'st thou expect thy peace in no other way Hast thou been industriously and labouriously diligent to gain a true and thorow understanding of thy State and Frame Godward searching all to the bottom very solicitous to see in a clear light What Conditions and Qualifications are prerequisite to dispose thee for Comfort and to be clear that in reality they are in thee and that thou do'st not build thy Evidence hereof upon self-flattering deceitful Grounds but do'st in truth find that the interest of God is Soveraign and Supreme in and nearest thy Heart hath the universal Regiment and command over all being thy singular delight and whatever thou feel'st to oppose becomes on that account an
but only by converting Grace God alone enjoys himself in perfect Rest nor can any thing partake of this Moral Rest further than 't is happy in a Participation of the nature of God Whatever is in God is necessarily in him and the Combination of all his Excellencies is as necessary as their Existence 't is impossible that any one should be without all the rest and the rest without any one Indeed they are all but one Essence and that one Nature is all undividedly They are also inseparable in all their Emanations and Outgoings to his Servants If any be communicated to Man all other that are communicable accompany it Wherever then the Divine Life in Holiness diffuses it self 't is seconded with its Individual Companion Happiness If a Man have no feeling of this 't is because be hath none of the other See to it then Oh my Soul that thou be formed after the Similitude of God as ever thou hopest for Satisfaction in and from him Conformity to the Divine Will in its Precepts is indispensibly required in order to inheriting the Promises God himself neither will nor can comfort thee if Ungodlike but only by first making thee Godlike till thou communicate in his Sanctity thou canst not communicate in his Love 't is impossible to be happy in his Peace when thou art miserable in his Enmity or rationally to conclude that he loves thee when thou knowest he hates thy Lusts which yet are unseparated from thee and therefore hast all the reason in the World to believe that for their sake he hates thy Person 't is not possible to know that he respects thee when thou knowest that thou hatest Him To thy Work then or take thy doom converted thou must be or comforted thou canst not be Oh! as thou iovest thy Life thy Peace and an everlasting state of Glory and Felicity in Heaven retire into thy self Survey all thy inward Recesses dive into the bottom of that Sea of filthiness in which thou art naturally drenched and at the point of Drowning and which casts up all that abominable Mire and Filth and Poison that renders thee infinitely hateful to God and rages as a secret Plague and Pestilence in thy Heart and Bowels to gripe and gnaw thee to Death everlasting Oh behold how nasty odious detestable execrable it has made thee the very scum and offscouring of the Creation fit for nothing but the Dunghil and Dungeon of everlasting darkness to be consumed in the ever-burning unquenchable Tophet of Divine Indignation Oh look into that foul loathsome Sty of ordure and rottenness thy wicked Heart what Toads what Vipers are thence crawling out continually by Legions Sins of Complexion Age Calling Customary Beloved Master Sins thy own thy other Mens appropriated by thy Consent Counsel Connivence if not Compulsion Oh how numerous Oh how hainous How soon did'st thou begin like a bloody Butcher thus mortally to Wound thy self How long hast thou continued with a never ceasing frenzy and fury to gore and torture thy self in every Limb every Faculty every Place Time Company as if thou couldest never be barbarously enough truculent in thine own Execution except thou couldest create a raging Hell in every distinct atom of Body and Soul and by infinite Tormentors Devils rack and rend and tear thy self with the most intensive Cruciations O what a World of Light of Love of Means of Calls of Motions of Motives of Blessings of Prayers of Vows Promises Covenant Engagements Resolutions Professions Convictions Corrections c. hast thou with a shameless sauciness dared to tread in the Dirt and hast broke through all the Rampires that Conscience Education Awe Providence Law Divine Humane and their severest Sanctions have set up against thee that in a desperate madness of fool-hardy impudence thou mightest spew thy stinking Vomits in the very face of boundless Goodness and Righteousness Oh the beastlyness of thy Fleshly Lusts Oh the heathenishness of thy Worldly Lusts Oh the devilishness of thy Spiritual Wickedness Could'st thou but command a view of them in their malignant venomous hellish Nature all those Infernal Fiends that inhabit the black Recesses of everlasting Darkness all the dismal Plagues and Horrors of that doleful Region of Fire and Brimstone could not make or present a Spectacle of greater Formidableness and Deformity Yet all this is intimately within thee cleaving as close to thee as thy very Nature as inseparable as thy desire of it and delight in it can possibly make it a sight that would make thee quiver be sick and swoon and die should the Lord fully open thine Eyes Oh wretched Soul who shall deliver thee who shall relieve thee Thou art as black as Hell as foul a sink of Contagious Filth and Putrefaction as infects the World the chief of Sinners not knowing so much of aggravation in the sin of Devils themselves as thou do'st of thine own yet do'st not know the one half Oh accursed of God by Nature and Practice What wilt thou do What! wilt thou plead with thy Maker Where do'st thou think to appear What Mountains and Rocks wilt thou call to cover thee from the face of him that sits upon the Throne and from the Wrath of the Lamb How wilt thou stand at that dreadful Tribunal How darest thou look at God or into thy self where thou wilt find Creatures of thine own Sins I mean of a more prodigious frightful hue than Beelzebub himself Oh look upon them and tremble look till thy Heart ake and break and sink and sweat in an agony of Blood and Woe look and be in Pangs like those of a Woman in Travail look till the Sluces break open till thou canst pour out thy strength in a flood of godly Sorrow Ah wretch What hast thou done Whom hast thou Wronged Dishonoured Crucified Murthered First by thy ungodliness and worldly Lusts next afresh by thy Impenitence Unbelief and neglect of the healing Balsam which he tenders in his own Blood Ah Beast Bedlam Blood-sucker Murtherer Hast thou bathed thine Hands in thine own and the Heart-blood of God And does it not cut thee to the Heart Art thou still offering the most vile horrid cruel Affronts Indignities Injuries to the Eternal Father of Heaven the Blessed Jesus his only begotten dearly beloved Son to the Holy Spirit of Promise and yet rock and adamant untouched undissolved unaffected Oh Savage Monster Oh barbarous Homicide Deicide again to rake in the Heart and tear the Flesh and bore the Hands and Feet and spit in the Face of infinite Love that bleeds over thee in thy Blood and melts into the tenderest Commiserations when thou art drowning thy self in the deepest pit of Perdition Did he suffer such dolorous Torturings in his Body but an infinitely more intolerable Hell in his Soul for thy sake to quicken thee even when thou art killing him anew by thy Sin And does he with such yerning Bowels of compassion strive with thee if it be possible to exalt and
thou dost of his Grace to quicken and sanctifie thee And if thou comfortest thy self without the Spirits Witness concurring thou art a fond self-flattering fool and wilt fantastically solace thy self into confusion Lay a sure Ground Work for his Sealings in thy Sanctification but then thou must build upon it endeavouring to grow in purity of Spirit by frequency in purifying Practices Never build Comforts upon any Recognition of former Comforts except thou wast fully satisfied their Grounds were sure But rather begin again and dig deeper that thou may'st build stronglier Labour to be Heroically good if thou desirest to be eminently happy Make thy way through the Temple of Vertue into the Temple of Honour and Peace that thou deceive not thy self and embrace a Cloud instead of Juno Finally having done all renounce all as unproportionable By thy Faith take Sanctuary in the mercy of God through the Merits of Jesus Christ Make him thy living guide and way to the true Life of everlasting Joys and Consolations Lastly Be fervent and constant in Prayer Peace is not attainable but only by Addresses to the God of Peace 'T is his Gift and must be thy desire exprest in Petition ere thou receivest it Use Prayer and engage Prayer that both thine own and others Interest in Heaven may prevail for thee which last by the Apostle Jam. 5.16 called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inwrought inworking Prayer of a Righteous Man availeth much The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were such as being moved by a supernatural Power or Agent acted beyond themselves above Nature And Righteous Souls are acted by the Holy Ghost in Prayer Rom. 8.14 15 16. Not by extraordinary Influences as the divinely inspired but ordinary Yet these not common to all but special and proper which no wicked Man over Experiences and this therefore not so much with respect to the Gift which is common as the Grace of Prayer which is peculiar to the New-born Children of God Indeed the Gift is but the Body Grace the Soul of Prayer and the most Essential Grace of Prayer properly so call'd viz. Petition is Desire the most efficacious is Faith For I doubt not to give the title of Grace to sincere Desire notwithstand that it hath been exploded upon a reason something odd viz. That desire of Grace is no more Grace than desire of Health Riches c. is Health Riches c. A ground doubly fallacious for 1. It doubly misrepresents the contrary Opinion which 1. only pronounces concerning sincere Desires 2. Means not that the Desire is formally the Grace and every Grace desired But if upright Desire be not a Grace though not the Grace desired neither is upright Delight nor consequently upright Love whereof these are the special and sole Ingredients Desire being as essential as Delight And if some sincere desire of some Graces be not inchoatively the Graces desired or an Effect or Act issuing from them which amounts to the same thing and will subserve to the same end for which that Proposition is used viz. to satisfie the weak but sincere Christians that question their Grace I cannot tell how that of our Saviour is intelligible Matth. 5.6 Blessed are they that hunger c. i. e. desire sincerely as all agree The Ungracious Unrighteous are not Blessed but Cursed now according to the supposition of the Text these have nothing to entitle them to Blessedness save this Hunger c. or Desire therefore this Desire constitutes them so far Righteous as not to leave them liable to the curse due to the Unrighteous 2. It mistakes and misses the case for sure there 's a World of difference betwixt Internal Dispositions of Mind and External Possessions One more imperfect disposition of Mind is capable of being changed into or growing up to a more perfect habit and therefore may be inchoatively that habit and also it is very possible that the first actings of a Grace already received may be in a desire of that Grace as well as the more mature state of that Grace may discover it self in strong desire after a greater measure of it self 'T is certain that the more grown and vigorous our Faith is the more do we desire the increase of it so Delight Hope Fear of God Humility and in summ no Man can sincerely desire any Grace without Grace because without Grace there can be no Sincerity that is the Adjunct without the Subject Sincerity being the Eucracy or good Constitution and Form and Beauty of Grace which cannot be sound if it be not Now to transfer this to External Enjoyments or bodily good things is to leap over the Hedge into a sophism of no very graceful Name I think there are other more solid Methods to club down presumptuous Hypocritical Desires than thus to break the bruised Reed and rotten Stick with one and the same blow I do not say that desires of Comfort are Comfort I know very well that Desires in no manner of Gradation or Modification can be a species of Comfort as Desires may be of Grace nor an inferiour degree of Comfort neither Yet though they cannot be formally Comfort they may be objectively Comfortable That is sincere desires upon reflection will be matter of Comfort 't will be a rejoycing to a Man's Heart to find therein those hungring and thirsting desires which the foremention'd Scripture recommends I know not that any can ever have reason to repent of hearty Breathings and Pantings after the Living God and that plentitude of all desireable Joys in fruition of his transcendent Perfections which is sufficient to replenish and answer all the cravings of the most enlarged Appetite even unto Satiety And 't is certain that without such desires Divine Bounty it self infinite though it be will not administer the least drop of the Cup of Consolation as 't is called Jer. 16.7 Indeed since 't is God which comforteth those which are cast down 2 Cor. 7.6 we have little ground to expect his Comforts if we never desire them and little evidence can we give of our true desires if we convert them not into Prayers nor can our Prayers prevail if not made in Faith Jam. 1.5 6. For that 's the Grace of Graces which must beat every end or nothing can prosper The Son of God himself the Lord Owner and Possessor of all yet did not obtain the Comforter for us without Prayer Joh. 14.16 And 't is no dishonour to be ty'd to the same Conditions with our Redeemer in things accommodate to our Nature and State If he procured the Cause of Comfort he will bless our use of the means which if we neglect we what in us lies frustrate the Intercession of Christ and by omission of our Duty of Prayer which is a part even of Natural Religion we cause as to our selves a denial and rejection of the Prayer of Christ himself And how can we expect that God should hear us Praying for our selves afterward when we see a necessity to change our
Memory which are but dead things mere Carcasses of Devotion not to be insisted on in Competiton with an enlarged Heart Take with thee Words and turn unto the Lord. Lord at thy bidding I will take thy Words which thy self here prescribes Hosea 14.2 3. They shall be my stinted Liturgy none can tell which will be acceptable to thee better than thy self What are they Take away Iniquity and receive us graciously so will we render the Calves of our Lips What 's that The substance is Praise But some Antients thus descant upon it Calves not of our Stall Mal. 4.2 but Lips When a Calf or other Beast was to be Sacrificed to which this is an allusion God required the Blood the Fat and sometimes the Flesh but never the Skin and Hair these were to be carried away and burnt in another place The Blood of these Calves of the Lips is Faith in the Blood of Christ which is the Life of Prayer and Praise The Fat pure and holy Affection and Grace Sorrow Desire Love Delight Hope c. The Flesh is the matter or thing pray'd for Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification Redemption c. The Skin and Hairs the Words and Expressions with the Method Mode Order which if alone and not spirited with the former are of no value with God who looks at Things not Words and Phrases They must indeed be brought to God in vocal Prayer which is never a Duty except when we joyn with others and they with us and we must see that all accord with or do not disagree from the general Rules of the Scripture But 't is a folly to think that we for these are more acceptable in Person or that our Prayers the Flesh the Fat the Blood are more well-pleasing to God We must not lay any stress upon put any confidence in that which God will not vouchsafe his Altar to Sanctifie Offer then even this vocal Prayer God expects in some cases this in Conjunction but take heed O my Soul of relying upon it as such viz. the Skin without the other in Separation Whether form or no form what matters it 't is but Skin and Hair Why so much adoe about it Give the main to God or thou givest nothing God will take off the Skin and burn it burn not thy Fingers about it 't is not for the Altar Oh bring that chiefly which must be presented there God is a Spirit what are Words to him Oh let thy Prayers be all Spirit Words are but the vehicle sometimes only Aereal mere Wind seldom Aethereal defecate and pure Quintescence without Froth and Vanity c. However O see thou that there be an Angel within if there be not an Intelligence to turn about this Orb of Devotion if a Soul do not animate this Body of Duty away with it to the dunghil with it 't is but mere Carrion Bring the Male in thy Flock not this corrupt thing Thou canst never derive Comfort from Heaven if thou lay nothing upon God's Altar but Froth and Wind. Substantial Prayers and all substance is an invisible inward thing and these alone introduce solid and substantial Consolations 2 Thes 2.16 Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God even our Father which hath loved us and given us everlasting Consolation through Grace 17. Comfort your Hearts and stablish you in every good Word and Work 1 Thes 5.23 And the very God of Peace sanctifie you wholly and I pray God your whole Spirit and Soul and Body be preserved blameless unto the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ Heb. 19.20 Now the God of Peace who hath raised from the Dead our Lord Jesus Christ that great Shepherd of the Sheep through the Blood of the everlasting Covenant 21. Make you perfect in every good Work to do his Will working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be Glory for ever and ever Amen FINIS THE CONTENTS Chap. I. THE Introduction with the Explication of the Terms and their Sense Critical and Moral and Doctrine page 1. Chap. II. The Doctrine explained in a Resolution of three Queries a three-fold Essay p. 9. 1. The Character of the Psalmist not so much Personal as Moral which determines the Subject universally p. 10. 1. He was a Man that lived under a due and deep sense of God ibid. Chap. III. 2. He was a Man of Prayer p. 18. Chap. IV. 3. That lived by Faith not by Sight p. 25. Chap. V. 4. That did not live under the reproach of his own conscience p. 31. 1. He was very sensible of the odiousness of Sin to God ibid. Chap. VI. 2. Consciencious in the observance of his Duty to Man p. 45. Chap. VII 5. Of a Publick Spirit p. 73. Chap. VIII 6. Honours God 's Discipline Instructive Corrective p. 121. Chap. IX 7. A Man of Experience Eyes God in all things p. 133. Chap. X. 8. Seeks Comfort solely in and from God p. 140. Chap. XI 2. The Nature and Quality of the Psalmists Thoughts p. 151. 1. Fearing Thoughts p. 156. 2. Grieving Thoughts p. 164. 3. Despairing Thoughts page 174. Chap. XII 3. What Comforts these are in general p. 175. Chap. XIII 1. Comforts in God which God is derived from p. 182. 1. His Existence ibid. 2. His Names and Titles p. 183. 3. His Attributes p. 184. § 1. His Wisdom and Omniscience p. 185. 2. His Goodness p. 189. 3. His Justice p. 207. 4. His Omnipotence p. 224. 5. His Fidelity and Vnchangableness p. 234. 6. His Presence p. 241. 7. His Eternity p. 258. Chap. XIV 2. Comforts from God which God gives in p. 265. 1. Providence p. 266. 2. Privileges p. 269. 1. Sanctification ibid. 2. Propriety in God and assurance of it p. 276. 3. Experiences p. 286. Chap. XV. Inferences 1. Doctrinal 1. 't is lamentable to be left to our own Thoughts p. 296. 2. The best may be in perplexities inextricable by Nature p. 298. 3. The infinite Condescention of God in the Provision he hath made for us p. 302. Chap. XVI 2. Elenctical 1. Convictive 1. Theoretical confutes the Doctrine of Incertitude p. 305. 2. Practical establishing the conscience in the right method of discriminating true and false Comforts which differ p. 309. 1. In their Origin p. 310. 2. Their Attendants p. 317. 3. Their tendency and effects p. 330. 2. Reprehensive for neglect of preparing for and possessing our selves of Divine Comforts p. 337. Chap. XVII 3. Paideutical or Instructive how to attain solid Comforts p. 352. 1. Be Men of Thoughts p. 353. 2. Indeavour to attain Ability to give Law to Thoughts p. 361. 3. Get a clear notion of God and Goodness p. 366. 4. Lay the Foundation of Peace in Repentance and Holiness p. 375 376. 5. Be fervent and constant in Prayer p. 401. ADVERTISEMENT These BOOKS are Published by the Reverend Mr. Oliver Heywood M. A. Minister of the Gospel and Sold by Thomas Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside viz. 1. BAptismal Bonds Renewed being some Meditations on Psal 50.5 2. Closet Prayer a Christians Duty 3. Sure Mercies of David 4. Israels Lamentation after the Lord. 5. The Holy Life and Happy Death of Mr. John Angier Minister formerly at Denton near Manchester 6. Advice to an only Child or excellent Counsel to all young Persons 7. Best Intail a Discourse on 2 Sam. 23.5 8. Family Altar a Discourse on Gen. 35.2 3. for to promote the Worship of God in private Families 9. Meetness for Heaven on Colos 1.12 designed for a Funeral Legacy 10. The New Creature on Gal. 6.15 lately Published 11. The General Assembly or a Discourse of the gathering of all Saints to Christ BOOKS Written by the Reverend Mr. J. How OF Thoughtfulness for the Morrow With an Appendix concerning the immoderate Desire of Foreknowing Things to come Of Charity in reference to other Mens Sins A Sermon at the Funeral of Mr. Richard Adams M. A. sometime Fellow of Brazen-Nose College in Oxford The Redeemer's Tears wept over lost Souls In a Treatise on Luke 19.41 42. With an Appendix wherein somewhat is occasionally discoursed concerning the Sin against the Holy Ghost and how God is said to will the Salvation of them that perish A Sermon directing what we are to do after a strict enquiry Whether or no we truly love God A Funeral Sermon for Mrs. Esther Sampson the late Wife of Henry Sampson Doctor of Physick The Carnality of Religious Contention In Two Sermons preach'd at the Merchants Lecture in Broad-street A Sermon for Reformation of Manners A Sermon preach'd on the Day of Thanksgiving December 2. 1697. to which is prefix'd Dr. Bates's Congratulatory Speech to the King A Calm and Sober Enquiry concerning the Possibility of a Trinity in the God-head A Letter to a Friend concerning a Postscript to the Defence of Dr. Sherlock's Notion of the Trinity in Unity relating to the Calm and Sober Enquiry upon the same Subject A View of that part of the late Considerations to H. H. about the Trinity Which concerns the Sober Enquiry on that Subject The Redeemer's Dominion over the Invisible World A Funeral Sermon for Mrs. Hammond A Funeral Sermon for Dr. Will. Bates A Funeral Sermon for Mr. Mat. Mead. This Written by Mr. Flavel THE Fountain of Life open'd or a Display of Christ in his Essential and Mediatorial Glory containing Forty two Sermons on various Texts Wherein the Impetration of our Redemption by Jesus Christ is orderly unfolded as it was begun carried on and finished by his Covenant Transaction Mysterious Incarnation solemn Call and Dedication blessed Offices deep Abasement and Supereminent Advancement
Gods Servants will be short for all 't is eternal to the Wicked ver 13. 3. That this God is of unchangeable Love to his own and will evidence it in their Deliverance and Advancement and also by his Presence with them and care of them and kindness to them so as never to relinquish and reject them ver 13 14 17 18 19 21. Now he that undertakes to instruct others in such Doctrines either maintains in his own Soul a commanding sense thereof or he is a Hypocrite which to imagine concerning a divinely inspired Penman of Holy Writ is not only uncharitable but impious If then we entertain no reverent and awful Apprehensions of the Divine Majesty or if our Conceptions of God do not make an indelible Impression upon our hearts to over-rule them into a religious Care that our Actions may be a clear representation to others of our inward Sentiments concerning the Glory and Excellency of God If we pretend God and Heaven and yet like Fiends or Swine live in a Sink or Hell of Ungodliness Unrighteousness Insobriety 't is self-deluding damnable Presumption to intermeddle with and appropriate to our selves any divine Consolations out of the Covenant and Promises This Holy Man presents these adorable Perfections of God to the Minds and Consideration of these wicked ones on purpose to restrain their hands and bridle their very inward Imaginations of Evil against his Inheritance that a venerable Opinion of his Omniscience and Justice might not remain meerly as a barren Speculation in their Understandings but overcome their Wills and Affections and govern their external Actions as no doubt they did his own and if they do not ours if the awful Excellencies of God do not affect us what have we to do to refresh our selves with the comfortable God will not be divided cannot If his infinite Majesty do not get the Victory over our Irascibles our Concupiscibles must not cannot be satiated with his fathomless Mercy He will come in Lightning and Thunder ere he distil upon us in a gentle shower of Love and Peace He that will not retain a powerful Sence of God's Greatness neither shall nor indeed will entertain a reviving sense of his Goodness If Thoughts of God will not work one way they will not another That Man's Comforts are none of God's which are not usher'd in by the Fear of God neither has he any Right to receive Good from any thing of God who is not wrought and formed into Goodness by All of him God will be all or nothing command down our Corruptions by the dread of his Power or he will not command up our Content by the display of his Kindness if he cannot bend us he will break us The sense of his Glory must make us better or the sense of his Bounty must not make our burthen lighter In sum Greatness must awe us or Goodness shall not ease us no sense of God can do us good that is not universal No Promises comfort independently upon the Precepts We steal our Peace if Grace give it not And holy Sensations of the plenitude of all heart and life-ruling Excellencies in God are the very first Principles and beginnings of Grace If a Man can think of God and yet love his Lusts his entry upon the Inheritance of Peace is a bold and impudent Usurpation Ps 50.18 Vnto the Wicked God saith what hast thou to do to declare my Statutes or that thou shouldst take my Covenant in thy mouth seeing thou hatest Instruction and castest my Words behind thee c. The Origin of this both Presumption and Disobedience is declar'd ver 21. Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thy self Low creeping ineffectual Thoughts of God which will permit Men to be unlike God will also suffer them to delude themselves into real Woe by invading his Comforts without the Warrant of his Commands He that hath a Right to solace himself in God or any thing of his must in his proportion be like God 'T is in virtue of his infinite Perfection that he is infinitely pleased with himself if we possess nothing of the one both as a foreign Good and domestick personal Qualification what have we to do with the other If the Perfections of God be not our objective chief Happiness without us if they be not a transforming Principle and Life within us as far as communicable they cannot be our Formal chief Good and Happiness If they be not our Right and Nature they cannot be our Pleasure There can be no Satisfaction whilst there is Dissimilitude Dissension Opposition of Natures What Comfort can Enemies have one in another A harmony of Dispositions must introduce Complacency where this is not there 's no Content All that solaces must be suitable Pleasure and Delight arise from the agreeableness of Objects and Appetites What pleases not comforts not God himself who is an everlasting Fullness and Fountain of the sweetest and richest Satisfactions cannot be a comfort to that Soul which is not pleased with him and then nothing in the World can it being impossible that finite should outdo infinite But how can that Man be pleased with God that does not apprehend his singularly delectable Excellencies or apprehending them does not by consideration work a due respect to them into his inmost Soul so as out of Conscience with a liberal and ingenuous Affection to approve of and chuse and acquiesce in God as his All-sufficient Portion his sole and supreme Felicity Really if we think that we can be and enjoy better any where else than in God or if that be the import of our Actions we neither can nor will possess a Heaven of Consolation in God For that only is our ultimate Comfort which is our best and if we do but make God a means to a further end he cannot be our rest Here then must we fix our Tabernacles for a final repose and content therefore must keep alive and lively in our Minds and Hearts the Thoughts of God He that can live a day without some pleasing Reflections upon immense Wisdom Power Holiness Justice Goodness Faithfulness All-sufficiency c. may be a Devil tomorrow as he is a Beast to day but Title has he none whilst thus brutish to refresh himself with the Comforts of Heaven since he owns not the Well-spring of them Oh let us set the Lord always before our eyes and keep him in view as the Omniscient Supervisor of our hearts and ways having always an eye within us piercing into the most secret recesses of our Souls Let only a Balaam say in the future I shall behold him but not near do thou O my Soul awe thy self into seriousness and Integrity of Conscience by present Consideration that this all-comprehending unconfinable Nature is necessarily more nigh to and intimately present with thee than any thing in the World thine own Body nay thy very Thoughts and most inward Motions not excepted Thou understandest that he is the highest
Perfection and plenitude of Essence Existence Substance Glory that more of God is every where than of any thing that there is not so much Soul in a body Light in the Sun Matter in the Universe as there is of God in each that they are not as he is They are but derivative Beings of a thin lank Constitution in comparison of that amplitude and fullness of Being in God who is every thing in the utmost Perfection that he can possible be from Eternity to Eternity unalterable and every where the same boundless Perfection that he is any where And wilt thou dare to be or speak or do any thing unbecoming so august so awful so glorious a Presence Shall the eye of a Worm Job 25.6 give Law to thy Tongue and Hands and shall not the Sovereign Majesty of Heaven and Earth have an Empire in thy Conscience Oh do not dare to be other now than at Judgment thou wilt wish thou hadst been For thy Judge is no less present although thou be less sensible Enforce upon thy self nay rather with a spontaneous and generous Freedom of Spirit out of choice entertain and take complacency in such Considerations alway as may better thee because not to be better for them is to be worse ineffectual Thoughts of God being like to be effectual for thy confusion If the Rays of Divine Glory that shine into thy reasoning Powers have no influence upon thy Appetite and Actions if notwithstanding them thou can'st be as vain frothy carnal secure rocky unsavoury unbelieving formal hypocritical worldly lustful lazy disobedient as if thou didst still sit in darkness and the shadow of Death if thy apprehensions of the super-intendency of Heaven do not over-awe thy unruly untoward Will into compliance with that Will which is supreme and universal Goodness do not quicken thee to Penitence and Holiness to an intire and upright observance of the whole Condition of the Covenant of Grace with a persevering resolution and endeavour thou wilt certainly find Oh my Soul that this Light will be mighty to aggravate thy Sin and Punishment everlastingly Oh for a heart so to work toward God under its Sensations of the Unfathomableness of his Understanding Universalness of his Presence Particularity of his Observance Amplitude of his Goodness Beauty of his Holiness Severity and Impartiality of his Justice Extensiveness of his Power in fine Greatness and Incomprehensibleness of his Majesty and Glory as to be altogether unsatisfiable till it can centre it self upon him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as its only Happiness in an absolute Renunciation of every thing that stands in competition with him and be willing out of love to him readily to embrace his Laws submit to the Government of his Son Jesus Christ and the Conduct of his Spirit of Truth and Grace which if these Thoughts of God will not prevail upon thee to do nothing can since there is infinitely less of Argument in every finite thing nay in all together than there is in the Infiniteness of God Wilt thou hence then be perswaded Oh my Soul to acknowledge that God in all thy ways whom thus thou knowst in some degree though but very imperfect Wilt thou fear and reverence his Greatness love and delight in his Goodness conform to his Holiness stand in awe of his Justice in all things subjugate and submit thy self to his Soveraign Authority and Will as the best and wisest Thine own interest as well as the reason of the thing and the command of thy Maker requires thy speedy and thorow resolution If thou wilt not bid an everlasting adieu to all the Comforts of Heaven thou must thus humbly seek after them which if thou do really 't is no presumption to claim them as thine Eternal Inheritance and Portion This appertains to the First Commandment we shall derive another part of the Psalmist's Character from the Second CHAP. III. A Second Character of the Subject of Comfort Prayer 2. THe Sacred Penman here was a Man of Prayer the whole Psalm is a solemn Address to God and 't is not like the fumbling of one unaccustomed thus to converse with the Divine Majesty the Genius of it gives abundant evidence that it hath been a familiar and frequent practice with such gravity of Expression with such liberty of Spirit with such a holy Parrhesy and Confidence with such variety of Arguments with such endearments of affection does he plead with God as one that long had liv'd upon the trade and was a good Proficient in this heavenly art of Wrestling with God And indeed 't is generally under this Duty that the Lord administers the solace and satisfaction of his Love to revive a drooping Heart Whoever is unacquainted with Prayer is utterly an alien from Divine Peace Those that live most with God in this exercise receive most from God enjoy most in him to sweeten their Spirits under all their Sorrows his Promise engaging him to be found in a way of Peace and Contentation of all those that diligently seek him Beside that his own Glory engages him to answer the Petitions of Peace which are put up in the Name and put into the Hands of his only Begotten to be presented to his Majesty perfumed with the Incense of his Mediation Joh. 14.13 Whatever ye shall ask in my Name that will I do Wherefore is it because you ask or for the merit of your Devotions or the strength of your Faith or the fervency of of your Spirits or the forcibleness of your Arguments or the urgency of your Importunities c. No but I will do it that the Father may be glorified in the Son Oh gracious Redeemer Oh precious Promise Oh blessed Hope How strong and rich are thy Consolations especially considering the relation which this Promise stands in to another immediately succeeding it viz. that of a Comforter the Holy Spirit which our blessed Mediator prevail'd with his Father to bestow that he might give us an Experiment of the prevatence of Prayer ver 16. I will 〈◊〉 the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever As if he had said my personal Prayer you shall to your satisfaction find effectual but this further assurance will I give you that the Prayers you put up in my Name shall be no less efficacious than those I my self present in mine own Person for upon my request you shall be endow'd with the same Spirit that breaths out mine and my Merit is not confin'd to my Person the vertue thereof will be extended to your pleadings in my Name through the co-operation of that Holy One who shall be your aid and with unutterable groans cointercede for you Indeed this Heavenly Dove comes only in at the Window of Prayer but we must put forth our hand to take it and heartily humbly believingly to beg it is as little as we can do if we sluggishly put our hand into our Bosom and refuse this labour