anger malice revenge covetousness lust concupiscence or the like and mourning over it humbly intreat him to succour relieve help heal cleanse wash purge and purify them by the renewing of the Spirit Or else as he answer'd St. Paul praying against the Thorn in his flesh he will supply them with grace sufficient for them From these promises we may see the reason why our blessed Saviour in that form of Prayer teacheth us to pray in the plural number our and us for this includes our selves and our fellow-members of the mystical body of Christ some whereof are but Babes or Children in religion and cannot pray for themselves as not having received so great measure of the Spirit so that they have need of our Prayers and our charity including them doth not hinder our requests for our selves but rather promotes them We see also why sometimes they pray more particularly but for themselves as the Apostle Paul did against his particular malady and burthen which he groaned under And so David did pray against his own particular sins and sufferings Deliver me from bloody-guiltiness Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity and quicken me in thy Law Incline my heart to thy Testimonies and not to covetousness c. For which particular graces we may upon occasion pray in the behalf of others according to that precept of the Apostle If any man see his Brother sin a sin which is not unto Death he shall pray for him and it shall be forgiven him Likewise may we pray for the deliverance of them from their afflictions and perils which they lie under as the Apostle Paul desires the Saints to whom he wrote to pray for his deliverance for nature dictates these prayers for our selves but grace for others that are our Brethren in Christ The Hope of speeding is that which incourageth and excites with strength and courage in every undertaking we go about If we seek of God in prayer the things which are according to his will those gifts and graces and Improvements which he hath promised to give those things which he hath invited us to ask or commanded us to ask those that our Saviour and his Apostles have taught us to ask those which the experience of other Saints and servants of God proves to be acceptable and proper requests those graces which we are commanded to have those degrees of grace and those means which we are commanded to use and those spiritual joys and injoyments which we long for and cannot be happy without why should we doubt of our success or why should we not expect a quick Return Let us then apply our selves to seek out those things As the original of all graces we first are taught by our Saviour to pray to God to give us the Holy Spirit And he that obtains this obtains also the fruits of it Love joy peace meekness gentleness patience c. And all graces whatsoever for as the Lord taught us our whole duty in one word viz. Love so here he teacheth us in one word the sum of all we need to pray for for although we pray for many things yet the sum of all spiritual things is contained in this And if we seek the spiritual gifts and graces which is signified in that expression Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness the other things shall be added unto us without seeking In this also is summed up all that we ought to pray against viz. all our spiritual enemies the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life and every thing that Satan overcomes the sons of men withal This general is branched into six petitions in the Lords prayer for by the Spirit of God in us we are made holy the Temples of the Lord and are made capable to sanctify Gods holy name the love of God is spread abroad in our hearts Gods law is written in our hearts and put in our inward parts By the Mission of the holy Spirit into us we all know him and know his Judgments and do them the Kingdoms of the World become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ Righteousness will run down as a River and holiness to the Lord shall be writ upon us and all our comon things every pot in Jerusalem shall be like the bouls before the Altar And Jesus Christ shall have the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession when these and the like promises are fulfill'd And the earth shall be full of the knowledg of the Lord so that we pray implicity for these promises when we pray these petitions in the Lords prayer likewise when we pray Thy will be done we pray for the Spirit to enable us to do it and we pray to God for the fulfilling of those promises of the New Covenant which relate to it viz. That God will be our God and we shall be his people that we shall run and not be weary walk and not faint mount up with wings like an Eagle and renew our strength like an Eagle that we shall be a willing people So in the other petitions Namely that for remission of sins we cannot be assured of it nor have peace of conscience but by the operation of the Holy Ghost in our hearts by faith exciting in us unfeigned sorrow for those sins wherewith we have grieved it and working in us a stedfast resolution and purpose never to commit the like again Also when we pray against Temptations it is intended that we crave this aid by the assistance of Gods Holy Spirit to escape them for thereby we are made sufficient and able to fly them or to overcome them and to be more than conquerors so that no Spiritual weapon formed against us shall proper And if God gives us his holy Spirit we obtain also the other petitions namely to be delivered from evil and to enjoy food and raiment and all the necessaries of life for these are inseparably contained in the priviledges of the Saints For God is a Wall of fire round about them bread shall be given them and their water shall be sure so that petition also is by reason of the promise contained in that of asking the holy Spirit The rather for this that all other promises of the New Covenant are implyed in this This notwithstanding we find the Saints and Servants of God praying in other words and formes and by the Spirit too Whose Assistance I humbly crave for my further progress in these meditations Certainly when the Holy Spirit assists us in prayer it doth not only inable us to say or pray in a perscribed form but dictates the words and things prayed for according to the necessities of the person praying and prayed for Although we are not under the law but under grace that being dead wherein we were held that we should henceforth serve God in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the latter Yet must we pray against all
like manner forget thy mercys and require meat for our lusts we fear thy wrath will be kindled against us to destroy us but we trust that we have a greater than Moses Jesus Christ to turn away thy wrath by his offering up his life as a ransom for us and bearing the iniquities of us all Let my life be hid with Christ in God that when Christ who is our life shall appear we also may appear with him in Glory Lord let me remember how scarcely the righteous are saved and with what difficulty as it were by the gates of Hell how difficulty St. Paul keept his body under fearing lest while he preached to others himself should become a reprobate and give me that spiritual puissance and holy fortitude to bear my self undaunted with difficulties in the heavenly warfare O Lord God my afflictions are sometimes full of horror they seem to come from the same justice by which thou castest the wicked into Hell And they are to me like Hell whilst they so dismay and terrifie me and thou seemest to have forsaken me in my afflictions and temptations and I have no hope that thou wilt ever remove them but that thou hast sent them to confound me And I can hardly refrain from the expression of the wicked Cain That my afflictions are greater than I am able to bear And being at my wits end I am afraid that thou wilt not enable me to bear them and hast rejected me as thou didst Saul and hast taken thy holy Spirit from me and that thou art mine enemy I fear I am unreconciled to thee because I don't feel filial affections to thee when thou chastisest me neither do I say thou hast chastised me less then I deserve but I am ready to murmure and to have hard thoughts to think it more than I deserve because I think it greater than any other mans affliction also because I find thou hast been more ready to hear the prayers of others for deliverances than thou art to hear mine As that of Hanna when she was despised for barrenness she prayed to thee once and thou heardest her and her countenance was no more sad And at the third time thou answeredst Paul when he desired to be delivered from the thorn in the flesh and didst give him grace sufficient for the temptation But as for me I mourn being desolate and take no comfort night and day and thou regardest not But now that I consider that the man who was according to thine own heart when he had grieved the holy Spirit as I pray God I never more may do cryed out as I do The pains of Hell came about me the snares of death overtook me Take not thy holy Spirit rom me And again From my youth up thy terrors have I suffered with a troubled mind And a horrible trembling hath overwhelmed me And My confusion is daily before me and the shame of my face hath covered me I take it to be the portion of the Saints to be much afflicted and to go to Heaven by the gates of Hell O shew me Lord wherein I may enjoy my self and find satisfaction and content without remorse regret or subsequent sadness If it be in any action or contemplation of mine it must be in religious duties when I serve thee with a quiet undistracted well composed spirit and am sensible that I enjoy thy favour and approbation But certain I am that I could never enjoy my self so as not to be sensible of emptiness unprofitableness wearisomness unsatisfactoriness desire of change tediousness and vanity and vexation In all those things which the natural man can do think or speak or enjoy unless the Spirit directs me in them to spiritual ends to the honour and glory of God This therefore makes a clear conviction That the happiness of man and the end for which he was made is to glorify God in keeping his commandments with an upright heart And to love him with all the soul herein only can man find true joy content peace rest quiet satisfaction and injoyment for his soul Let me be always satisfied delighted and ravished with these joys let my soul be satisfied as with marrow and fatness when my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips let me sit under thy shadow with delight and let thy fruit be pleasant to my tast even thine only and let me be ravished with the joys of thy house let the breasts of thine ordinances satisfy me at all times let me be always ravished with thy love With joy let me draw water out of the wells of salvation and make me joyful in the house of prayer Let my soul thirst for thee and my flesh long after thee even as the â—art panteth after the water Brooks so let my soul long after thee my God Let my delight be in thee and in those rivers of pleasure that are at thy right hand for ever more Let me set me set my affections on things above where Christ Jesus sitteth at the right hand of God for ever and take of my affections from things below and my conversation and let it be above Let all my fresh springs be in thee at midnight let me rise and give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments Let me be a companion of all them that fear thee and keep thy commandments Let me be assured of thy love to me by all thy spiritual and temporal mercys and means of grace and hope of glory And let me be assured of my reciprocal love to thee by my willing obedience to all thy commandments That I may know that my beloved is mine and I am his And if at any time thou hearest my prayer and grantest my request let me consecrate those things unto thee which I obtain by prayer as Hanna did her Son O Blessed Lord Jesus these sweet kisses are better than wine SINCE all who will live Godly must suffer persecution and it is said that if we suffer with him we shall also reign with him prepare fit and strengthen me to undergo all the troubles and afflictions of this day and of the whole course of my life which Satan and the wicked and ungodly men of the World shall contrive against me And let me expect every day afflictions for Christs sake and reproach and a cross and trouble in this World since our Hope is not in this World but is reserved for us in Heaven and in this World we are to be of all men most miserable therefore let me not expect beds of roses here but to go through many tribulations and a fiery trial patiently waiting for the time when the Lord shall tread down Satan under our feet And when the Lord shall avenge the blood of the souls that lye slain under the Altar crying for vengeance upon the inhabitance of the earth remembring that none of all these things shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus but we
crucified to us and we unto the world that is as well the lusts of the flesh the lusts of the eyes and the pride of life which containes all that is in the world all which the faithful soul counts but dross and dung for the excellency of the knowledg of Christ Jesus whom as the Spouse in the Canticles she esteemes fairer than ten thousand And esteemes sin the most ugly vile eformed and abominable thing in the world pulling off its mask and vizard whereby it deceives the men of the world as it is said Rom. 7.10 Sin deceived me and thereby slew me The understanding thus inlightened ingageth all it can against sin as its enemy and sometimes by vigilancy it prevailes against all assaults of temptations whereby sin is quite excluded from entring and sometimes by flying the occasions of sin as Joseph fled from his Mistress and by the Spirit assistance we mortify the flesh God and Christ susporting Sometimes by prayer faith prevailes against the tempter the soul fearing its own weakness seeks for help of him who is able to succour and hath succoured it The last refuge which faith hath is repentance early and hearty sorrow for the sin committed as Peter when he had denied his Lord and Master immediately he went forth and wept bitterly By these means faith quenches all the fiery darts of the wicked The light of nature teacheth that the soul is borne to more noble things than to wait upon the pleasure of the senses But the supernatural life which the Apostle lived when he said I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me Shews another inabling principle of life in the regenerate proceeding from that union which is betwixt Christ and his members because Christ and they are one Spirit 1 Cor. 6.10 Therefore he saith Not I because he is not the same man he was before that man is Crucified with Christ and buried with him he hath derived a new life from Christ as he expresseth I laboured more abundantly than all yet not I but Christ Christ is the spring of it the matter of it and end of it Consider the end of your conversation Jesus Christ and if Christ live in us we shall do think and speak as he did As all other graces of Gods children are sometimes weaker than they are at other times so is faith But thâ— decay of this grace is the cause of decay of many others and sometime the decay of others may cause a decay of this the Psal 51. Entituled a Psalme of David when Nathan the Prophet came unto him after he had gone in to Bathsheba the Title and the Psalme it self shew what sins and what punishments he lay under and because his sins were the cause of the loss of Gods Spirit or of the danger of it and of the loss of the joy of his salvation viz. His assurance he confesseth his sins first and prays for pardon through the multitude of Gods tender mercys then prays for washing healing cleansing and renovation Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right Spirit within me It followes Restore unto me the joy of thy Salvation and support me with thy free Spirit This implieth that before he had it but now he had lost it and was deprived of it which was the cause of so great grief to him that he expresseth it to be the breaking of his bones Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce And the like doth every penitent broken soul feel in himself when he fears the loss of Gods holy Spirit and feels himself deprived of the joy of his salvation and this joy when it is restored is so great that it will make the broken bones rejoyce he apprehended the greatness of the joy now in the loss of it Psal I have roared for the very disquietness of my heart God deprives us of it for our sins that we may be the more careful to preserve it and fearful by sin to loose it or hazard it and to work out our Salvation with fear and trembling for though Gods lays not upon his children all that they deserve yet they shall not go unpunished Judgment shall begin at the house of God Jer. 22.24 Though Coniah the Son of Jehojakim King of Juda were the signet upon my right hand yet would I pluck thee thence Now for as much as the motions workings of the holy Spirit in the faithful people of God by inlightning them in the understanding of heavenly truths bringing to mind and applying the word of God to their comfort inabling them to converse and walk with God in holy Meditation contemplation prayer and thanksgiving making melody in their hearts to the Lord delighting them and rejoycing them in the want of all things as the Prophet Habakkuk expresseth chap. 3. Though the Fig Tree should not blossom nor fruits be in the vines c. And making them to abound with inward joy when their afflictions do most abound slighting and contemning alike both worldly joy and sorrow for the joy which they have in the Lord these are the study imployment and business of a regenerate person wherein he desires to be alwaies exercised because he cannot find satisfaction nor delight in any thing else hence he may be more truly and properly said to live by faith and by the Spirit than to live the life natural as St. Paul argues he did when he saith I am crucified with Christ yet I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live I live by the faith of the Son of God who hath loved me and given himself for me Therefore they are as it were out of their lives and void of all injoyment and comfort when they want the comforts and assistance of the Holy Spirit as Holy David did greatly resent the absence of it and fear lest it should be taken from him and that he should be cast away so do most of Gods people Isa 49.14 Sion said The Lord hath forsaken me and my God hath forgotten me Though God had graven her in the palms of his hands When God hides his face and withdraws himself they are cast down as Psal I said in my prosperity I should never be cast down but thou hidest thy face and I was troubled This withdrawing of God was the very bitterest of our Saviours sufferings If this should be our condition let us not be weary of well doing but wait on the Lord for God hath said Isa 49. That he that waits on the Lord shall be like an Eagle And consider that Christ Jesus suffered the like and therefore hath a fellow feeling of our suffering that he might succour us who are tempted But if Christ doth not succour us our heart cannot indure our hands cannot be strong in the days that God shall thus deal with us as it is Ezek. 22. v. 14. But he hath bid us to call upon him
other which are briefly contained in the three first petitions of the Lord's Prayer Since it is so that we must pray to God for every grace and every good thing we are to know that we cannot have them of our selves without his gift If we know how often we have resolved against any particular sin and yet when we have but entred into temptation we have again done the like Though we must needs acknowledg this and pray to God that we be not any more tempted And ascribe it to him that he suffereth us not to be tempted above our ability That we may be able to stand let us diligently consider and weigh all those snares of Satan whereby we are subject to be overcome and have fallen and more especially watch and pray against these that thou mayest be able through the spirit to overcome them And pray allso against such temptations which thou seest other men overcome by and doubtest whether thou thy self couldest have resisted And particularly those whereby thou readest in the word of God that men have been overcome especially those whereby good people have fallen beginning with our first parents temptation to eat of the fruit of the Tree of knowledg For though our blessed Saviour hath overcome Satan for us yet must we overcome him also and tread upon him therefore hath he forwarned us and armed us to fight and given us his Spirit to assist us in praying and fighting and watching against him and his temptations viz. The cares of the world and the vain pleasures and deceitfulness of riches and persecutions c. Pray then that thou mayest not hearken to any of the suggestions of Satan much less believe them as Eve did Though he pretend kindness nor give ear to those who are overcome by him as Adam did to her though he knew that the suggestion came from Satan Beware that the consideration of the many graces which thou findest in thy heart do not embolden thee to transgress or make bold with God in small matters for which fault some of the seven Churches of Asia were reproved and severely threatned but pray against this temptation Look not upon what thou hast so much as upon that thou wantest and comest short in Sometimes Satan speaketh directly against Gods word alledging that to be no sin which God hath forbid or that the punishment which God hath threatned shall not be inflicted but the contrary good shall be to the sinner thus he dealt with our first Parents and prevailed And thus he attempted our Lord and Saviour Sometimes he extenuates it sometimes he makes use of the falls and sins of other Saints and Servants of God as an excuse for us if we do the like some are perswaded they can repent when they will To some he pretends the Gospel to be a law of liberty and a licence to sin and that they shall not be condemned for sinning but for want of believing the Forgiveness and Remission through the blood of Christ through whom we Hope for mercy To this I answer that we must seek glory by grace he that doth not so will miss it The desire of our soul is to thy name my soul thirsteth for God Psal 42. And many other prove this And when ever he makes use of true premises he insers false conclusions Generally he assaults by surprise and takes the advantage of time and place as when our Saviour had fasted forty daies and forty nights and was hungry and in the wilderness where was no relief he tempts him to make bread of stones He will not suffer them to consider the danger nor mind the cure till it be late and then he perswades them it is too late or incurable When ever he makes use of Scripture he misconstrues it and misapplyeth it By small and imperceptible degrees he draws us to greater and greater When he hath made his way by one sin or one degree in a sin he argues this is no more than that we have already done therefore why may we not do it now as heretofore That he may not deceive thee by this fallacy make a covenant with all thy senses and look not upon that which tempteth nor harken to it Another fallacy of Satan is that he preswades some that they do not sin unless they are within the express letter of the Commandment The Fornicator he makes believe that simple Fornication is not forbid in the seventh Commandment for that forbids adultery So the covetous he makes believe that he is not within the condemnation of the second Commandment though he worships Mammon in his heart It is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he gives his goddess And likewise the Papists when they pray to the Blessed Virgin and other Saints And when they fall down to the host or any thing else carried in lieu thereof by the knavish bearer they pretend they worship not Idols but yet in their catechises they have left out that Commandment and split the tenth Commandment in two to make up the number Another deceit is in misvaluing time whereby he steals away the present opportunity and by anon and to morrow he puts off from the present Idleness and delayes are pernicious most of Satans Fallacies may be urged against himself as the reasoning of the unprofitable Servant because he knew his Master to be a hard man he hid his Talent in a Napkin it was more strongly urged against him For he ought so much the more to have improved it This way of refelling him is like the cutting off Geliahs head with his own sword When he makes use of his fairest Insinuators be not ashamed of rudeness to them Thou mayest answer all his suggestions with a Scriptum est as our Saviour did This sword of the spirit cuts all Satans snares asunder As Joseph cut them asunder saying How can I do this and sin He would not so much as hearken to the fair tempter nor be with her when she laid hold of him he fled from her without a complement So must we keep Satan at swords point for if we suffer him to come within it we lose our guard Non sic retribuam Domino may be answered to all Non sic Patri Adjutori Salvatori consider the many pleasures comforts and enjoyments which the Lord allows thee to sollace thy self withall how free how pure how satisfying and contenting they are and compare them with those which are offered by Satan and see how thy exceed them in goodness For these which Satan tempts thee to are allayed so with bitterness that the very sweetness is turned into bitterness the Hony into Gall The damnable alloy which I mean is the gripes of conscience in the very act of enjoying them and the flashes of Hell fire as oft as they come into memory expressed by that of the Poet Et coeco verbere pulsat That is they are slashed by their own conscience Also the detrement which these bring to the body estate and good
name Why then should'st thou not chuse to enjoy those which God hath given thee as a loving Father and be satisfied and content therewith rather than be licorish for such filthy sweet poisons Consider that every wilful sin puts thee out of God's protection He pretends that our good works cannot further our salvation nor our evil works hinder it thereupon he infers that it is to no purpose to strive to enter into the strait gate and to wrestle with our corruptions as St. Paul did But yet we must believe that God will reward them that diligently seek him though we are unprofitable servants If thou knowest that this or that is a trap set to catch a fool if thou wilt come into it what art thou But if thou wilt be wise do that which thou knowest thou shalt never wish undone In secular concerns we seldom will close with the first overtures if it be a matter of any importance but we desire time In like sort let us put off the first proffers of our lusts and we shall never be surprized and the second assault will be weaker and we shall be prepared better to resist them That thou mayest the better slight the temptations of thy spiritual enemy consider how they offer themselves servily and if thou wilt not go out of thy doors to fetch them they will come home to thee He suggests to men destitute and afflicted What profit hast thou of thy righteousness more than if thou hadst sinned Job 35. To this the answer is That no man ever served God for nought a cup of cold water for his sake hath its reward and Jehu's hypocritical service was rewarded to the fourth generation Let the love which thou bearest to God and Jesus Christ repress all opposite rival Loves viz. to the objects of sense and fancies such as are the Syrens voices He puts the opportunity into the hand and then suggests that they shall never have so good an opportunity unless immediately they lay hold on this If he can but perswade thee of this he hath already overcome thee He endeavours to perswade us that the Serpent will not bite but be not thou so silly as to trust him But if when thou beholdest a horse that is given to be skittish and to strike and because he is of curious shape and of a good courage and pleaseth the eye thou must needs be stroaking him thou wilt find to thy sorrow that he will not be sensible of thy kindness And such are all sinful allurements Therefore consider their nature and not their appearance and withhold thy hand from fond stroaking them And if there be any thing lovely in the creature that allures thee consider also that there is as much deformity and loathsomness mixed with it and covered under that skin deep beauty If thou hast been deceived and hast rued thy sollies and repented and vowed against them do not again build that which thou hast destroyed and return to thy vomit but say of thy lusts as Ephraim of his Idols What have I to do with them For what hath the new creature to do with the old man the regenerate with unclean lusts the holy with corrupt communication the mortified with carnal pleasure and concupiscence the humble with pride the charitable with malice and revenge Thou fightest not under the same banner but under the Captain of thy salvation Jesus Christ do not betray thy Party thy Captain and thy Cause Do not go to be drunk in thine enemies Camp nor sleep there lest he spoil thee of all thou hast or take away thy life or make thee his prisoner Remember that thou art running a race stoop not to catch the golden ball that Satan throws in thy way to make thee lose the race By Patient continuance in well doing thou seekest glory let go thy lusts These snares and baits of Satan are to be studied of those who are sworn to fight against them that they may be able to refel and answer them and in respect of our weakness to do it we must crave God's assistance who hath promised it in many promises Isa 29.24 They that have erred in spirit shall come to understanding c. v. 18. The deaf shall hear the words of the book and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity No weapon formed against thee shall prosper They shall be all taught of God He promiseth to watch over them and keep them night and day lest any hurt them and to help them strengthen them sustain and hold them up with his right hand to be with them and never to leave nor forsake them to deliver us from evil to tread Satan under our feet that we shall bruise his head c. And in regard we know not in what particular occurrences of our lives or in which occurrences of the day our spiritual adversary hath laid his shares to catch our souls whether in our religious services or in our natural actions of eating drinking or sleeping or apparel Whether from our Relations Servants Neighbours or Enemies or a stranger met upon the way or hapening into our company or from our own infirmities of body or mind from our business or from our recreations yet in all we know there is danger if God keep us not guide us and direct our waies and gives an issue to the temptation Therefore we ought to be diligent in seeking God Heb. 11.6 believing that he will reward them that diligently seek him keep them watch over them guard them guide them defend them stand by them and be a Sun and a Shield to them And though we pray Lead us not into temptation yet certainly we must be tempted for then only can vertue shew it self when we are tempted to vice To talk of vertue and to do many vertuous actions gladly just then when we come from a lecture of vertue may be no vertue for many have done so as well as Herod and Felix But to live holily righteously and uprightly in the midst of a wicked generation grieving his righteous soul with beholding their unclean conversation as Lot and Noah did live sheweth their vertues to be true graces For instance of her that was never tempted to unchastity we say casta est quia nemo regavit So of Monks Friers Eremites Nuns and the like of that Religion who are retired from the society of men and from temptations what temptations can try them Though I and many others are not strong enough to count it joy when we fall into temptations as St. James bids us in the case of the temptations of affliction and therefore we pray that we be not lead into them Yet when we have been in temptations and have overcome them we have had much joy in the sense of our grace whereby we have overcome whether it were temperance patience charity or any other grace and we could say the temptation was for our good Motives to the Duty of Prayer Being sensible of
loathsom vice of beastly intemperance but let me avoid them and not look upon the Wine when it moveth it self right and giveth a pleasant colour in the Cup or if it should be so that I have no inclination of my self to this or any other sin yet let me not therefore venture my self upon the temptation but let me fear sin always considering how foully Noah and Lot fell let me never be found standing or walking in the way of sinners nor sitting in their seat but let me be always found in the way of God And what is said of the adulterous Woman whoever toucheth her shall not be innocent let me fear the same in every temptation and avoid the least medling with it or approaches to it and as it is also said concerning the same avoid it pass not by it turn from it pass away so let my practice be in all other temptations And as it is said of Gluttony for remedy of it if thou beest a man given to thy appetite set a Knife to thy throat So in all other temptations let me lay violent hands upon the peccant member if my right eye offend me let me pluck it out Lord thou knowest that I am resolved not to sin to avoid the greatest suffering therefore teach me wisdom that I may prevent and guard my self against all provocations to sin that I may not draw upon my self a necessity of suffering MAKE us to accept Jesus Christ our Saviour upon his own terms as he offers himself to us in the Holy Gospel to be our King to rule us and reign over us our Prophet to teach and instruct us as well as to be our high Priest to attone and sacrifice for our sins Let us not think to have the priviledges of Christians without the duties Make it to be a greater pleasure to us to deny our selves in sins then ever it was to give our selves up to them that we may be meet to receive Heaven into which flesh and blood cannot enter Let the Holy Spirit inflame us always with that divine fervent affection to God that inspired the Spouse when she said or ever I was aware my Soul was like the Chariots of Aminadab O sweet Christ do thou put grace into our hearts by that sweet voice behind us saying this is the way walk you in it for thou only art our great Prophet and teacher who canst make us learn and our high Priest and mighty Saviour delivering us from our sins and making us as innocent by thy attonement as if we had never offended for those whom thou makest free they are free indeed if thou wilt not take away the being of sin in us in this life yet assist us with thy grace to subdue it deliver us out of the power of darkness and the Prince of darkness And what benefits thou hast purchased for us by thy death apply them to us by thy intercession deliver us from death and give us the Crown of life which thou hast promised to all them that love thee and since thou art desirous of our salvation and it is because we will not come unto thee that we have not life O Christ make us a willing people as thou hast promised for our salvation is wholly from thee But our damnation from our own wills and if we perish our blood is upon our own heads O sweet Christ our Prophet and teacher teach us by thy word and thy Spirit the things that belong to our peace Guide me by thy Spirit and then bring me to glory LORD what is there in us for which thou shouidest desire our love Lord in thee is every thing that is lovely therefore ought we to chuse thee for the object of our love But we seek that happiness in the World which we cannot find any where but in thee and having found nought but emptiness vanity and the loss of all our labour in the pursuance of content peace and happiness in the affaires and matters of the world let us at last betake our selves to seek it in thee and thy waies to learn of thee to take thy yoak upon us that we may find rest to our soules LORD what pretence can sinners have for which they cast off thy yoak and will not have thee to rule over them upon whose daily benefits they live when they rebel against their Princes and shake off their yoak it is either for their leud lives and wickedness that they judge them unworthy to rule therefore scorn to be subject unto them Or for their oppression that they are not able to bear their grievous burthens but what iniquity have sinners found in thee thou hast put the Question to them but they can find no answer LORD since thou hast shewed me that every Saint must live in the same holiness of life that thy Servants the Apostles attained and St. Paul said of himself that he was crucified with Christ yet he lived yet not he but Christ lived in him and he lived that life by the faith of Christ who gave himself for him give us thy grace in like manner to crucify our selves to the World and to live no more to it nor to our selves but to live by Christ in us so as we may be said not to live And if thou givest us to live the life of faith and not to the World and live to thee let us not impute this our well doing to our selves for of our selves we cannot think a good thought but to Christ who liveth in us who only can inable us thus to live In all our distresses let us pray to the Lord and use the meanes as when the Arabians Ammonites and Ashdodites conspired against Jerusalem 't is said Nehemiah 4.9 Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God and set a watch against them day and night But let us not like King Asa seek to Physicians in our sickness and not to God LORD while I am supported by thy Spirit I shall be able to live blamelesly as Lot did in the midst of Sodom but the strongest of thy servants will fall as he afterwards did if thou withdraw the Assistance of thy Spirit and shall be as that Apostle who denied the Lord Jesus Christ whom before he sought for and resolved to dye for though he was the Rock Therefore let me never be confident lest thou leavest me as thou didst him And when I hear of others miscarriages let me be thankful to thee for holding me up and ascribe it to thee as the Angels in the Book of the Revelations are said to cast their Crowns at thy feet and let us learn not to judge uncharitably of those that are overcome by temptations LORD when we pray unto thee our prayers are so interrupted with worldly and sinful thoughts and the things we pray for being mostwhat temporal mercies and deliverances from bodily evils they are not such prayers as our own reason can think worthy thy acceptance But Lord though we offer thee
thy own children though men of passions and like infirmities to thy Servant as 't is said that Elias was who prevailed with thee And Moses when he prayed the Isralites prevailed when he ceased to pray the Amalakites prevailed And Joshua prevailed and caused the Sun to stand still and altered the course of nature Isa 37.21 So Hezekiah when he prayed against Senacherib So Asa 2 Chron. 14. When the Ethiopians invaded Juda with a thousand thousand he prayed saying Lord it is nothing with thee to help whether with many or with them that have no power help us O Lord our God for we rest on thee So the Lord smote the Ethiopians and they fled and the people of Juda spoiled them So Jona in the whales belly Lord let me not regard iniquity in my heart lest thereby my prayers be hindred so that thou wilt not hear them neither let me ask any thing to consume it on my lusts But grant that I may lift up holy hands in thy name and that I may pray with humility like the Publican who smote upon his breast saying Lord be merciful unto me a sinner and not like the Pharisee And with fervency crying mightily to the Lord Jona 2.8 And with perseverance crying night and day unto thee Luke 10.11 And let me pay my thanks unto thee for the things thou hast already bestowed upon me and say I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised and so shall I be saved from my enemies and give me that confidence he expressed let me know that the Lord is my light and salvation and I shall be able to say as followeth of whom then shall I be afraid Meditation If ye by the Spirit to mortify the deeds of the Flesh ye shall live Let me not think that I can resist the motions of lust and sin by reason or moral arguments but only by the Spirit of God and let me not think that I have attained but let me press forward to greater degrees of grace LORD shew me how bountifully thou rewardest every office which we do to thee for as thou rewardedst the Woman who poured the Balsom upon thy head with this honour that whereever the Gospel should be preached it should be recorded of her so dost thou requite and reward every Cup of cold Water that is given for thy sake make me sensible of this that my charity may not be so cold as many times I feel it nor my services and duties to thee so few and lukewarm and lifeless but I may always abound in the work of the Lord. Make me willing Lord to suffer the reproach of Christ and to endure that contempt which is usually put upon holiness and the professors of it As David did when Michal scoffed him for dancing before the Ark as also when the rebukes of them who reproach thee fellupon him And again he complained that the Judges those that sate in the gate spake against him and the Drunkards made Songs on him Accordingly as Jeremy also complained saying I am a Derision daily every one mocks me And the Apostles sped no better than when they had most of the Spirit when the holy Ghost descended upon them and they heard every one speak in his own language the ignorant people said they were full of new wine And our blessed Saviour when he cast out the Devils they blasphemously said he did it by Belzebub and he suffered bearing the reproach of the shameful death of the Cross Let us be strengthened by these examples and remember that he hath pronounced them blessed whom men revile and speak all manner of evil of falsly for his name sake Considering that it is certain we shall be reviled and slandered for his name sake and that our well bearing it is an evidence to us of our soundness and integrity in religion since the hypocrite may be reproached for his seeming holiness but rather than suffer the persecution for it will fall away Since the men of this generation will not be laughed out of their gain interests and callings the assurance that we have of reigning with Christ will make us willing to suffer LORD shew me the evil fruit and ill consequence of bad company that I may fly them How that the Israelites by being mingled with the Heathen learned their works for which they suffered How that he that walks with the wise shall be wise But for David to dwell with Mesech and in the Tents of Kedar 't was his calamity and woe for 't is said in the word that they sleep not unless they do mischief But they are blessed who walk not in their council nor stand in their way nor sit in their seat and are the Companions of them that fear thee Let me prefer solitude before vain Company considering how it helps devotion the Soul being free from those divertisments which such company procures So our Saviour separated himself from company when he prayed and hath commanded us when we pray to enter into our Closets So Peter went out from the company and wept bitterly and so in the Psalm we are directed Commune with your own heart in your Chamber and be still So Isaac walked forth to meditate But in vain and lewd Company the righteous Soul cannot but be grieved with their unclean conversation It is a Hell to thy Servants as the Worldly mans conversation is a burthen they are so busy about many affairs that they mind not Mary's choice but to be in thy Courts one day is better than a thousand I had rather be a Door-keeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the Tents of ungodliness Psal 84.10 11. LET not my confession be without contrition lest it prove but as Sauls or Judas's but as Peters was when he went out and wept bitterly which will the better be effected if I take the present time as he immediatly when he heard the Cock crow went out for the Devil deceives us with promises of future repentance that he may steal away the present opportunity Therefore we are commanded to exhort one another while it is called to day remembring the unhappy condition of the Cripple at the Pool of Bethesda who had none to help him into the water when it was moved till another got before him and Felix in the Acts trembling at the preaching of Paul put him off for a farther hearing to a more convenient time But to day is the time to hear thy voice And if thou call'st and we will not hear then we shall call and thou wilt not hear While God calls one tear will do us more good than an Ocean of tears when it is too late And for what use hath God given man his tears but to weep for his sins then let us with David make our Tears not our Physick but our meat and drink which we cannot do if we extenuate our sins or excuse them LORD if thou goest not forth with our armies we are put to
Impressions upon the soul 1. A child-like ingenuity in the service of God when a man obeys God not out of the impulses of a natural conscience but from love 2. The heart is borne out by the incouragements of another world 3. Every occurrence makes us go to God 4. Impress It makes us ready and willing to suffer and undergo joyfully any loss or pain or reproach for God not accounting our lives or any thing else dear if we may serve God with it as the blessed Martyr suffered were assured that Christ had suffered for them for them purchased a Kingdom it makes us willing to forsake the world knowing that we have a dwelling place in Heaven It makes the soul humble heavenly contented patient Holy peaceable charitable pure and unspotted of the world For their great and chief desire is to know thier duty and the good will and pleasure of the Lord that they may yield their ready and cheerful obedience to it and may be able to do it when the soul is thus disposed every condition of life is sweetened to it by the Spirit of Adoption because it looks upon all things that befal it as coming from its heavenly Father in love And desires and endeavours that all things may be to him and to his glory And when the soul is thus disposed and finds it self inabled by the Spirit to do and suffer freely willingly and readily all the good will and pleasure of God and to submit all things to God and feels such filial affection to God such love such patience humility and other workings and impresses of the Spirit in it It hath the Testimony of the Spirit upon it that it is the child of God because these dispositions and impressions are wrought in it by the Spirit and now it can lay title to every priviledge of blessedness And the sense and apprehension of God's great love to us in the redemption of mankind and of our own redemption in particular and the sense of the love of Christ Jesus to us in our redemption and the knowledge of our particular interest in it That all his sufferings had respect to me in particular and my title thereby to all priviledges is wrought by the holy Spirit and is testified to us by the holy Spirit and from thence ariseth our love to God and to Christ by the operation of the Spirit as David expresseth in the 18th Psalm I will love thee c. This is the highest degree of the soul's enjoyment and the highest of its desires and the fulness of its happiness and hath all that is desirable and there is no ultra no further thing desirable It followeth that being in Christ we take him for our portion then will we walk as he walked 1 John 2.6 conform our selves to him take him for our pattern our example and guide learn of him go after him which is to be done chiefly by denying our selves and taking up our Cross not doing our own will but the will of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he humbled himself to become man made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant Phil. 2.7 Humbled himself to death even the death of the Cross he denied preferment when they would have made him a King and when Satan offered him all the Kingdoms of the Earth and the glory thereof He denied honour when he would not suffer his miracles to be divulged And this is performed with joy too because though it crosseth our nature yet it is the very life of our new nature as it was his meat and drink to do the will of his Father The soul that feels this Joy hath Heaven let into it therefore it is willing to go to God This is both oyl and wheels to the soul in its heavenly race When thou shalt inlarge my heart I will run the waies of thy Commandments said holy David This proves the truth of that saying of our Saviour I have overcome the world and sheweth us the impotency of our spiritual adversaries which God delights to see his servants to overcome as appears in the tryal of Job and the blessed Martyrs who rejoyced in their sufferings By this others are incouraged to come in to the Church of God Cant. Whither is thy Beloved gone said they to the Spouse that we may seek him with thee The durableness of this joy is expressed by our Saviour's saying My joy no man taketh from you All that oppression and persecution can do cannot take it from us It is proved 1. Because Christ is both able and willing to give and continue it maugre the opposition of evil men 2. Reason because the supports of this joy are the promises which men cannot impeach nor impair Their portion is not within the knowledge of the world nor within the reach of the world 3 Reason the preserver of this joy is the Holy Ghost 4. Because the seat of this joy is within 1 Pet. 3.4 in the hidden man 5 Reason because the seed of this joy is a principle remaining in them John His seed remaineth in them that is the new nature the principle of Holiness which is renewed day by day though their outward man doth decay and it groweth into a nearer communion with God 6 Reason because the enemies that oppose this joy are conquered Christ hath overcome them for us and we by faith overcome them Sensible troubles may take away sensible joys and external comforts but not internal no more than external joyes can take away a sinners sorrow our enjoyments may be taken away and not our joyes If then they rejoyce in the midst of their trouble how will they rejoyce in Heaven when they have meer joy When we enjoy the world most we have least of this joy the external joy takes away the internal as the external heat causeth internal cold Beware therefore O my soul that thou suffer not thy self to go out to external joy And beware my soul that thou dost not esteem troubles greater evils than they are or ought to be esteemed but as fatherly chastisements sent to mortifie or corruptions to take us off the love of the world and to remove our affections from things below to things above then thou wilt not be much terrified or dismayed by them but make a sanctified use of them to improve thy graces and walk by faith and not after the waies of thine own heart and the sight of thine eyes This spiritual joy doth arm thee O my soul against the frowns and allurements of adverse and prosperous fortune As Moses chose to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin And our Saviour for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross and despised the shame For this joy ennobleth the soul that it scorns to be beholden to visible objects as Abraham shewed the nobleness of his mind that he would not be beholding to the King of Sodom
Stimulus in carne the provocation or irritation in the Flesh buffeted him First he is sensible of his own weakness and useth violence upon himself and keeps under his body yet he did not trust in these means because he knew their insufficiency Therefore he seeks help and assistance from him that is All-sufficient and besought God against it that it might depart from him which God was not pleased to grant as appeareth because the Holy Man was subject to be transported with Pride because of the extraordinary priviledges and abundance of Revelations given unto him Yet he obtained that which was better for him Grace sufficient for when he was weak in himself he was then strong in Grace And that Stimulus suffered to remain to prick the bladder of his Pride and probably for the same reasons God may suffer many of us to undergo the like buffetings from our corruptions and yet support and sustain us in the encounter that we fall not If we be careful as the Apostle was to make use of the same means viz. subduing our body and prayer For we have all the same promises as these men had and the same means to obtain Grace and Life Eternal To know God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent and he that hath but the hope of Eternal Life purifyeth himself even as he is pure and this purifying is by denying our selves taking up our Cross and following Christ which is the Act of Faith and the Life of Faith And by Faith too it is scarcely attainable with great difficulty as our Saviour himself tells us Luke 3. Strive to enter in at the strait Gate for narrow is the way And the righteous shall scarcely be saved c. And those who have both Faith whereby they are able to overcome the World by Gods assistance and the Spirit too to assist them yet these find that though the Spirit is willing the flesh is weak That is though thou subdue it never so much yet though it be subdued that it dare not much oppose yet it will still be unable to keep Pace with the motions of the Spirit Yet I fear too that it will never be so subdued but I shall be forced to bewail my self often with the words of the Apostle Romans 8. The Law is Spiritual but I am carnal but as he disowned himself in this person saying 't is no more I but sin that dwelleth in me So may every child of God whose will is as his was and useth the means that he did And so will God own them for that which is his Image in them By this the Apostle sheweth the enemy with whom he had fought the good fight and having fought it he assures himself that God will give him the Crown And having sowed the seed he expects to reap the same he sowed for he sowed to the Spirit and of the Spirit hoped to reap life everlasting which the Righteous Judge will give to all that love his appearance Rev. 22. Let him that is holy be holy still Meditation 5. The meanes which the soul useth to attaine its renovation and to preserve and persevere in it Are fervent prayer to God for it diligent reading meditation mortification and continual self denial Zeal of God an earnest thirst after a greater degree of grace from the sense of its own weakness and failing a forsaking the world its hopes and feares and worldly interests profits joys and greifes Faith hope and watchfulness against temptation to watch the mouth and the heart Patience in suffering wrongfully humility or to be little in his own eyes for God gives his greace to the humble To set God alwaies before us in his omniscience omnipotence infinitness of his holiness glory and goodness A timely and carely seeking it and entertaining it when it is offered to us without delaies else when we seek we may be rejected as in Prov. 1. Because when I called you answerd not c. Unweariedness in their race To have an eye to the recompence of reward and not to fear them that can only hurt the body but be in the fear of God all the day To abstain from all appearance of evil 1 Thes 5.22 Not only from known sins but from things that have but some complexion of evil for such is the purity of Gods nature that he hates every species or shew of evil And such perfection doth he require in his Servants as it is expressed by our Saviour Math. 5. Strait is the gate c. Be ye perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect A holy appetite to the word of God and communion with God in every ordinance as prayer praise the communion of the body and blood of Christ Jesus in the Lords supper Mat. 5. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be satisfied Psal 42.2 My soul is thirst for God yea even for the living God When shall I come to appear before the presence of God This sheweth how he practised Another meanes like unto this is that of St. Paul not to account that we have attained but to press forward Also it is appointed as a necessary means to attain this end by our Saviour himself that we learn of him and we are taught so to do by the holy Apostles That we should walke even as he walked 1 Joh. 2.6 Hereby we know that we have his nature his image his Spirit and union with him we ought then to imitate his humility whereby he became man and took upon him the form of a Servant in his meekness Isa 53.7 He was oppressed and afflicted but opened not his mouth He gave his back to the smiter and his cheeke to them that plucked off the hair and hid not his face from spitting So ought we to bear injuries with patience and not render evil for evil 3. In his willing and perfect obedience Psal 40. I delight to do thy will thy law is in my heart 4. In love Ephe. 5.7 Walk in love as Christ loved us Let husbands love their wives as Christ loved the Church 5. In perfect charity we must pray fer our enimies as he did 6. In diligence in religious duties he prayed all night he went constantly to the Synagogue on the Sabbath day 7. In our Reverence in holy Worship he fell on his face or kneeled yet he had the Spirit without measure 8. In his contempt of the world My Kingdom saith he is not of this world 9. In heavenly-mindedness his custom was to instruct of Heaven out of ordinary conferences as when the woman spake to him of water he spake of the water of life So must we have our conversation in Heaven 10. In his faithfulness in his function Heb. 3.2 Who was faithful to him that appointed him as Moses was faithful He was daily in the Temple and went about doing good and therefore in his last prayer said It is finished 11. In self-denial he said I seek not my own will but the