If the blind lead the blind they both fall into the ditch Mat. 13.52 Rom. 2.21 Mat. 15.14 Therefore 1. apply your hearts to instruction not your ears or eyes or heads only but your hearts in the use of Scriptures and of all subservient helps and means which God hath appointed for the attaining and advancement of sound knowledg Prov. 2.2.23.12 Psal 90.12 Excite and engage the pursuits and desires of thine heart the determinate purposes of thy will See thou be not willingly ignorant hear instruction and refuse it not Be daily at Wisdoms-gates wait at the posts of her doors Lo now you have a promise if you apply your hearts to its pursuance Prov. 18.1 2 Pet. 3.5 Prov. 8.33 34 35.2.2 10 2. Let instruction abide upon your hearts What is it to furnish a common-place-book with what thou readest and hearest furnish Conscience rather At least transcribe thy Notes from thy Books into thy breast Nor think it enough that thou hast apt rules for all Cases in thy Bible they must be nearer hand too in thy bosom Write them upon the table of thine heart Hear what God speaketh to thee Let thine heart retain my words Let thine heart keep my Commandments keep them in the midst of thine heart Prov. 3.3 c. 7.3 c. 4.4 21. c. 3.1 Thy word have I hid in mine heart saith David that I might not sin against thee To this is the promise of knowledg and thou mayst be confident that when wisdom entereth into the heart Discretion shall preserve thee understanding shall keep thee Psal 119.11 Prov. 2.1 5. c. 2.10 11. 2. Direct 2 Stay your Conscience from the evils to which she is incident and the extreams wherewith she is often intangled Especially stay her from these evils 1. The affectation and itch of singularity and science falsly so called as also of curious and unprofitable questions humane traditions c. For these will but bring her into snares bewray her to Satan feed her disease and sickness and fetch her off from the divine simplicity which the Scriptures use in the Doctrine which is according to godliness 1 Tim. 6.3 4 5 20 21. Tit. 1.14 Mat. 15.9 2 Cor. 11.3 2. From ambiating and indulging a carnal liberty which will not be either checkt or confined by the restraint of law and rules Psal 2.3.12.4 'T is true where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty And that ye are called unto liberty but not such as serves the interess and inclinations of the flesh or snaps asunder bonds of obedience Still you are the servants of God and so are under a law of liberty His precepts are Gyves upon your lusts but give you liberty If Conscience aspires after a carnal liberty she is in hazard of the most lamentable captivity 2 Cor. 3.17 Gal. 5.17 1 Pet. 2.16 Jam. 1.25 2 Pet. 2.19 3. From arrogance either in justifying her self as if she knew enough already This will precipitate and out-law Conscience perverts and overthrows knowledg prevents and obviates all care and endeavour for its improvement and encrease Rom. 1.22 1 Cor. 3.18 2 Cor. 8.2 Prov. 26.12 Or in imposing on your selves The rules she dictateth may not be without much less against the revelation or direction of God She is not Sarah the Mistress but Hagar an handmaid under God though above you and is to conserve and manifest rules to you not to create and make rules for you 4. From inordinate haste to which she is oft-times too prone and by which she is often-times perverted both in the determining and dictating of rules Let not thine heart be hasty Bid thy Conscience as the Levite did the Children of Israel consider and take advice first and then speak her mind that thou mayst be able to say with the Preacher For all this I considered in mine heart Eccles 5.2 Judg. 19.30 Psal 50.22 Eccles 6.1 3. Sift your Consciences Direct 4 and put your case to the ouestion in them 1. Sift what rules have they in this case 'T will actuate sleepy habits and awaken Conscience to attend your several affairs therefore the Apostle doth often appeal Conscience thus What! know ye not i.e. do not your Consciences tell ye this and that Rom. 6.3 16.7.1 1 Cor. 3.16 17.5.6.6.2 3 9 15 16 19.9.13 24. 2. Sift them by their rule Thou sayest this is your rule But tell me O my Conscience doth the law of my God say so too Where hath he revealed it where read'st thou it where is it written in the book of Nature or of Scripture shew it me for why shouldst thou measure thy self by thy self And if thou bind the law continually upon thy heart behold God hath assured thee When thou goest it shall lead thee when thou sleepest it shall keep thee and when thou awakest it shall talk with thee Luk. 10.26 2 Corinth 10.12 Prov. 6.21 22. 3. Sift them before their Ruler hath not God written to thee O my Conscience excellent things in counsel and knowledg that thou mightest know the certainty of the words of truth Wilt thou say this is the truth as in his sight Hath he not set thee up as a Preacher in my bosom to receive the Law at his mouth and cause me to hear his words and wilt thou Oh! do not prophesie deceits and speak the visions of thine own heart and say he sent me as the false Prophets sometimes did Behold he knoweth what is in the darkness and the light dwelleth with him Prov. 22.20 21. Rom. 9.1 Jer. 23.16 c. Dan. 2.22 4. Direct 4 Speak to your Consciences If they are slack in determining or slow in dictating general rules quicken and call them to their work It may be she is silent and doth not speak to thee because thou art silent and dost not speak to her Set to thine heart as the Preacher saith he did Jer. 5.24 Eccles 9.1 Urge her from 1. thy necessity of a rule in this case 2. from the nature of a rule which should be known and clear 3. from her nature and office who is to receive the rule from the supream Legislator and reveal it to thee 4. from the notoriety of that account which she must one day render unto him 5. Direct 5 Speak to God for your Conscience Sincere prayer is of no small prevalence in this case It giveth up Conscience into the hands of God its ruler and getteth down grace for the accomplishment of Conscience with rules Beg God 1. to instruct thy Conscience that he will open thine eyes and not hide his Commandments from thee that he teach thee in the way of his statutes and give thee an understanding that thou maist know his testimonies so David and with Job say to him That which I know not teach thou me Psal 119.18 19 33 34 125. Job 34.22 2. To incline and establish thy Conscience O! let me not wander from thy Commandments Make me to go in the path of thy Commandments Encline my heart to thy
〈◊〉 lightned or still in darkness are they sinceâ—â— and upright or but hollow and hypocriticâ—â— soft and tender or but hardened and obduraâ—â— These things will be put upon a distinct tâ—â—â— hereafter Secondly § 3 By the acts of your Conscienâ—â— acts speak the powers and habits wheâ— they are good acts speak them good 〈◊〉 acts speak them evil you shall know them their fruits a good tree cannot bring foâ— evil fruit neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit Mat. 7.16 17 18. Thus the acts of Conscience naturally good bespeak a good natural Conscience the acts of Conscience which are morally good bespeak a good moral Conscience and the acts of Conscience which are Evangelically good bespeak a good Evangelical Conscience Of this is the enquiry Q. May we conclude our Consciences are good because their acts are good I answer 1. § 4 Though you may not conclude it from a few occasional acts for even a bad Conscience may call and keep you to that which is good for a fit as long as the force of such an occasion or inducement lasts witness Saul Simon Magus and those Psal 78.34 38. 1 Sam. 24.16 c. 26.21 c. Act. 3.13 Yet when such acts become fixed and ordinary when though there may be some diversions as were in Job and Paul yet the main stream and current of its acts are carried in an Evangelical channel from sin to righteousness you may now conclude the goodness of your Conscience Job 27.3 4. cum 5. Rom. 7.25 cum praeced 2. Though the good acts of Conscience materially considered will not â—rgue the goodness of Conscience for there have been acts for their matter very good where the heart and mind have been very â—ad Joh. 8.9 Rom. 2.15 Psal 78.34 35 â—6 yet its good acts formally considered as â—e take in with the matter of these acts the â—anner also wherein and motives whereupon they are put forth do argue a good Conscience for such grapes cannot grow upon thistles nor can a salt fountain yield such sweet water We may argue from the effect to the cause from holy and good operations to a good and holy Origine as Paul doth in this case Heb. 13.18 Act. 24.16 What are the acts of your Conscience then what ordinarily doth it thence you may conclude its habitude and how 't is ordinarily disposed There are the elicit and imperate acts of Conscience how are these discharged is it from Evangelical motives and in an Evangelical manner Conscience is 1. to dictate truth and doth it dictate Gospel-truths and duties Repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ To deny your selves and take up your cross To love your enemies and bless them that hate you To endure grief suffering wrongfully and overcome evâ—â— with good c. Act. 20.21 Mar. 8.34 Mat. 5.44 1 Pet. 2.19 Rom. 12.21 Are the Consciences not only enlightned in but engaged bâ— these commands But more particularly doth the Conscience dictate these Gospel-truths to be done upon Gospel-terms To be done 1 to and for Christ as your head and ruler And can your Conscience say in sincerity The Lord is oâ— Judg the Lord is our King the Lord is our Law-giver And that you esteem all but loss foâ— the excellency of the knowledg of Jesus Chriâ—â— your Lord Isa 33.22 Phil. 3.8 2. To be done in and through Christ as your Intercessour and Redeemer To do all in the name of our Lord Jesus with the rejecting of your own righteousness and resting upon the grace of God in him alone for your reward and acceptance Col. 3.17 Phil. 3.9 Dan. 9.18 1 Pet. 2.5 And doth not thy Conscience only dictate this in the Theory but descends to the Praxis And doth it not only inform this in the notion but doth it infer and induce it in the ordinary course of thy Conversation Thou hast then a good Conscience 2. Conscience is to deliver its testimony How doth your Conscience testifie Doth it testifie to and for the Gospel to the authority thereof above all laws over you to the amiableness thereof above all doctrines to you to the sin-subduing and soul-saving efficacy thereof upon you and to the singular and surpassing excellency thereof unto you Act. 4.19 20. Rom. 1.16 1 Thes 1.5 6. Psal 119.72 Doth Conscience testifie with and according to the Gospel Are you wont to pray for the especial teachings of the spirit in prevention of a false testimony To put your selves as in his sight and presence that it may produce a good and true testimony And do you prize and prefer the Spirits testimony before that of your spirits and are prevailingly steered by his witness with your Conscience and can provoke and call in with Peter his all-seeing knowledg Lord thou knowest all things and thou knowest that I love thee Job 34.32 Psal 139.23 24. 2 Cor. 2.17 Rom. 8.16 Joh. 21.17 This is a good Conscience I forbear to instance further Thirdly § 5 By the absoluteness and universality of the good Conscience that Conscience is not good at all that is not good in all Paul trusts he had a good Conscience but whence appeared it In all things he was willing to live honestly Heb. 13.18 Q. May we argue the goodness of our Conscience by and from their Vniversality and Absoluteness I answer you may and should as Paul doth § 6 but must attentively consider that the Universality by which you prove it is not to be an Universality in the degrees of goodness which is reserved for glory but an Universality as to the parts of goodness which is inseparable from grace 1 King 9.4 Luk. 1.6 1 Chron. 29.19 So then the Conscience that is unfeignedly good is universally good as it respects all the parts though it cannot here reach all the perfection and degrees of goodness I. § 7 'T is good as to all concernments good at first Table and good at second-Table-duties Willing in all things to live honestly Heb. 13.18 'T is not good at matters of holiness and bad at matters of honesty or good at matters of honesty and bad at matters of holiness but good both as to holiness and as to honesty whereof the good Conscience ever makes a good conjunction 1 Tim. 2.2 Luk. 8.15 Let the formal hypocrite be for inoffensiveness to God while he indulgeth himself in his offensiveness to man let the civil Justiciary be for inoffensiveness to man while be indulgeth his inobedience and offensiveness to God But the great exercise and endeavour of the good Conscience is to preserve it self void of offence both towards God the object of all those religious dues required in the first table and towards men the object of all that righteousness required in the second Table Act. 24.16 It provides for honest things not only in the sight of the Lord but in the sight of men 2 Cor. 8.21 Your Consciences are evil who are careless of either Table She that was for dividing the Child
never prophesieth good but always evil to me Surely this is an evil Conscience Psal 2.3 Amos 5.10 2 Chron. 18.7 Or how do your Hearts answer and are accommodated to his Testimonies Have God's Commands a counter-part in your Consciences Have you hid his Law in your Hearts that you may not sin against him And are your Hearts enclined to perform his Statutes always even to the end Gods Law commands you Do your Hearts readily accept and return answer to it I will run the way of thy Commandments and have respect unto thy ways I will delight my self in thy Statutes I will not forget thy Word Psal 119.11 15 16 32 112. Gods Law chides and threatens you How do your Hearts rellish it and acquiesce under it Is it a kindness Do you count it an excellent Oyl Do you compose your selves to submission under it and to serve the ends of God by it Psal 141.5 Isa 39.8 1 Sam. 3.18 Mich. 7.9 Here is one answer of a good Conscience 3 To Gods Covenant § 24 The good Conscience gives answer to Gods Covenant 1. to the tenour of it God saith unto them which were not his people Thou art my people The good Conscience speaks back again Thou art my God O my Soul saith David thou hast said unto the Lord thou art my God Hos 2.23 Psal 16.2 Ezek. 11.20 c. 36.28 2. To the terms of it The Lord avoucheth Believers to be his peculiar people and that they should keep all his Commandments The good Conscience restipulates and avoucheth the Lord to be his God and to walk in his ways and to keep his Statutes and his Commandments c. Deut. 26.17 18. Exod. 19 5. 9.3 To the Truths in it The good Conscience hath a Transcript of all the important Truths of Gods Covenant This shall be the Covenant I will make with them after those days saith the Lord I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts Jer. 31.33 Heb. 8.8 9 10. Come then who is he that hath engaged his heart to approach unto me saith the Lord Have you taken the Lord for your God and alone chief good and given back your selves unto him his servants to obey and that for ever Have you none in Heaven but God and is there none upon Earth that you desire besides God And have you taken his Testimonies as an Heritage for ever and chosen the way of his Truths This may let you know that you have a good Conscience Jer. 30.21 22. c. 32.28 Psal 73.25 c. 119.30 111. I will give them an heart to know me that I am the Lord and they shall be my people and I will be their God for they shall return unto me with their whole heart Jer. 24.7 Is there a Conversion to God the Conscience is good But no Conversion no good Conscience Hath God commanded you saying Obey my voice and I will be your God and ye shall be my people and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you that it may be well with you But you hearken not nor encline your ears and walk in your own counsels and imaginations refuse Communion with God or reject any of the known Commands of God or regard any iniquity or any interest above God you have then evil Hearts and your Consciences are not right in the sight of God Jer. 7.23 24. c. 3.17 Numb 85.39 Psal 66.18 4 To the cause of God § 25 The good Conscience is for Gods cause above others above its own this is the bottom in which it sails all its concernments and therefore with Paul and with Moses is cool and gentle in transacting his own matters but quick and transported with great heat in the matters of God and Godliness forgives and is submissive to his own enemies but flames with zeal and is stiff and inflexible to Gods enemies Gal. 4.12 cum 5.12 Act. 13.9 c. Num. 12.3 cum Exod. 30.19 If the Cause of God calls for his part in action he is ready and willingly offers himself according to his office and the capacity and circumstances he is in If it calls for a passive part he can for Conscience toward God endure grief suffering wrongfully and is ready not only to be bound but also to die for his sake 2 Cor. 9.2 Judg. 5.2 9. 2 Cor. 8.3 1 Pet. 2.19 Act. 21.13 You that like Gallio care for none of these things that seek your own things not the things which are Jesus Christs whose Spirits are abundantly raised in your own Cause but ordinarily remiss in Gods Cause have no good Conscience Act. 18.17 Phil. 2.21 Psal 137.5 6. But you that prefer Hierusalem to your chief joy that say unto Zion because of the house of the Lord our God we will seek thy good that will very gladly spend and be spent for the good of Souls and glory of their Saviour that sacrifice your own Concernments to those of Christ and his Church and would rejoyce to be offered upon the sacrifice and service of their faith and rejoyce in your sufferings with respect to his service Receive this sign and may you reap the sense of a good Conscience Psal 137.6 122.9 2 Cor. 12.15 Phil. 2.17 Col. 1.24 5 To the counsels of God § 26 and his dispensations towards them The good Conscience would hold Communion with God in his Works as well as in his Word and doth especially consider of and commemorates what God hath done for his Soul Psal 107.43 94.19 66.16 Hath God accepted his person answered his prayers afforded him his presence of Grace c. it binds him the faster to God Blessed be God saith he who hath not turned away my prayer nor his mercy from me He will love God the more choicely live with God the more closely lean on and trust in God the more constantly Ps 66.19 20.116 throughout 146.1 2. Doth God afflict and is angry with him with-draws the sense of his Salvation with-holds the spirit of Peace and the waters are come even into his Soul He considers and confesses his sin communes with himself converts and turns himself to God crieth for his Salvation chargeth his Soul to hope in to obey to remember and to repose it self in God Psal 32.5 c. 38.6 c. 42.5 11. 51.1 12. 77.1 13. 13.1 6. I should be too large if I left particular instances as may concern either the inward or outward man Put it upon the enquiry The Providences of God are various toward you How do you answer the acts of God and his aimes by them What no laying them to heart Happily he may have brought his judgments at the doors and yet do not you lay it to heart not so much as ask what have I done nor hearken to him for all this to observe his Counsels or obey his Commandments Happily he may have multiplied his mercies or you and do you not yet say in your hearts Let us now fear
gives it to you by the spirit of Regeneration This Man shall be the peace when Divine justice on the one hand or the Devil on the other hand like the Assyrian shall invade Conscience Joh. 14.27 Phil. 4.7 Mich. 5.5 Is the blood of his Cross then that peace-offering you present unto the Father the peace you plead for is it upon the account of your service or of his satisfaction of your deserts or of his death for you There is no preaching peace but by Jesus Christ Col. 1.20 Act. 10.36 The prime instruments of your peace what were or what are they Was it the Gospel of Peace then will the Ministration and Ministry thereof be more beautiful in your eyes Nah. 1.15 Isa 52.7 Was it the grace of faith 'T is first grace then peace throughout the Gospel No peace before grace much less without grace 'T is believing in Christ that brings the calm upon the Conscience Being justified by faith we have peace with God Rom. 1.7 1 Cor. 1.3 Joh. 14.1 Rom. 5.1 Try your faith then whether it be beyond temporary whether it be truly justifying ere you take up with peace He cannot be the God of peace to you if he be not the God of hope and faith unto you The God of hope fill you with peace in believing saith the Apostle Rom. 15.13 2 Enquire into the matter of your Peace not so much that of which it consisteth as about which it is conversant To mention but an head or two 1. Is it Communion with God which consists in that mutual relation and those mutual returns which pass 'twixt God and a Believer in the descending of his graces and ascending of our duties What say you are these the matters that take up the tranquillity of your mind the mutual interest that God and you have in each other that he is yours and you are his the mutual intercourse that you have with each other in his mercies and your duties while he draweth nigh to you in extending the grace of his favour and you draw nigh to him in exercising the graces of his Spirit This this is the heart of Evangelical Peace acquaintance with God fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ Here the believing Soul doth lye down in Peace Job 22.21 1 Joh. 1.3 4. Psal 4.6 8. 2. Is it the Kingdom of God specially in and over you That false peace is never thorow in the former and taketh its leave in this latter It may be taken with God's love but turns aside from his laws especially from that part which is cross to his carnal interest But Evangelical peace hath endearing and precious thoughts of the very laws the rule and restraints of Divine Government He rejoyceth and worketh righteousness and the work of righteousness is his peace and rejoycing Psal 119.165 169. Isa 65.5 c. 32.17 How is Conscience pleased then with the commands of God in that he hath the dominion of Conscience and will not dispense with the least corruptions and will have the ducture of your whole Conversations Read the language and resolution herein of the good and peaceable Conscience Isa 26.12 13. 3 Enquire into the formal cause There is no Gospel-peace of Conscience but what is spoken by God thorow Christ in the Gospel The peace spoken by Conscience through the Gospel standing in an accord to what is spoken by Christ in the Gospel And it is not only therefore called the peace of God * Phil. 4.7 in that it is caused principally by him he is the fountain of it But in regard of the conformity thereof to his pleasure which gives form and being to it Thus Evangelical Conscience doth not absolve or justifie before or without God but with and because God absolves and justifies * Rom. 5.1 9. It 1. reads and reviews God's sentence of peace in the Gospel Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus There is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ c. As many as walk according to this rule peace shall be upon them 1 Pet. 5.14 Rom. 8.1 Gal. 6.16 2. It reflects and resumes But I who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit am in Christ I walk after this rule as God himself is my witness Hence 3. he reports and agrees God's sentence in the Gospel to his own Soul in particular Therefore to me is peace God hath cleared me therefore Conscience cleareth me And so have I quietness in and confidence toward God Behold my witness is in heaven and my record is on high 1 Joh. 3.21 Job 34.29 c. 16.19 Well then it must be peace in Heaven or there can be no peace to speak properly in your hearts Your hearts are at peace because heaven is at peace and this heart-peace bears accord with heavens peace * Luk. 2.14 19.38 And be sure God can never speak peace in you upon any other terms than he hath in the Gospel spoken peace to you 4 Enquire into the final cause This peace of God is finally for the God of peace it sits not down in self-ease but is set for his service and the enjoyment of himself Yea it not only pursueth good works but would be made perfect to every good work Nor doth this Soul content it self in the sweets of this joy and peace but his care and character is that in these things he serveth Christ Heb. 9.14 chap. 13.20 21. Rom. 14.17 18. Whither doth your peace then extend and where doth it terminate it self True peace of Conscience can never take up short of God in Christ This is its earnest expectation and hope that shall be magnified and his service maintained and his own Soul shall more abound in holiness and in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost The thoughts of this heart are not only taken up about his own felicity and peace but about the furtherance of God's praise the fulfilling of his pleasure and the peaceable fruits of righteousness If there be any vertue if there be any praise he thinks on these things Phil. 1.20 Rom. 15.13 Jam. 3.18 Phil. 4.7 8. In short as this peace is by reception from God so its rest is in and with God It lifts up the Soul unto him lifts him upmost in the Soul lays its charge thereon to repose her self upon him to rejoyce in him and upon every miscarriage to return to him as her only rest and center Psal 86.4 c. 73.25 26. 62.5 116.7 4. The peace of a good and evil Conscience are differenced in and by the effects of it The peace of an evil Conscience usually renders men less circumspect and inobservant of spiritual dangers more slight and overly in spiritual duties c. But Evangelical peace ends in 1 Greater vigilance over himself and against sin satan as also in the objects of sense that he turn not again to solly Psal 85.8 Rom. 16.19 20. 1 Thes 5.5 6 8 9. Doth this peace
is and it is offered and exposed to the imbraces and improvements of your faith love patience and hope Gen. 17.1 Isa 45.22 24 25. His infinite and immutable perfections have your Souls to feast with and feed upon Your strength and your heart faileth you But if the bottle be empty the well of water which is by you though perhaps you see it not is full God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever Psal 73.26 Jer. 10.16 Gen. 21.15 19. Remember 't is an infinite and immutable mercy that orders you out this condition an infinite and immutable wisdom that over-rules it for duration how long for degree how far c. an infinite and immutable goodness upholds you in and under it and an infinite truth and power is bound in his own time to pluck you out of it and to make good all his promises in and by it God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it 1 Cor. 10.13 2 For Christ What an abundance is there in him to quiet you yea fulness all fulness and this for you If you will but by faith fall in with him you shall receive of his fulness grace for grace Col. 1.19 Joh. 1.16 Nay in Christ there is not only matter of peace and joy for you but of boasting of triumph His preaching his prayers his promises his passion resurrection ascension c. Do all call upon you as himself sometime did in person Let not your heart be troubled ye believe in God believe also in me Yea he is now touched with the feeling of your infirmities in way of compassion though not of corrupt passions so that you may come boldly to the throne of grace Phil. 3.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 2.14 Joh. 14.1 Heb. 4.15 16. 3 For Christians You may fetch matter of heart-quieting from their distresses which yours cannot equal from their dignity which yours cannot exceed from their deliverance which is an earnest of yours as also from their directions and exhortations which tell you it is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. That he is the God of all comfort who comforteth us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we are comforted of God Lam. 3.26 2 Cor. 1.3 4. Secondly From the operation ends and effects of these sad troubles This I had principally in my eye and let me pitch here a little because the pious Soul is apt to pore more upon their extremity than to pry into their ends and effects neglecting the bright side of the Cloud and noting only the black and dark side Consider then these sharp throws and bitter agonies are not only to punish but to purge to prove to approve to improve and to prepare his Saints for more signal services or sufferings Of which you will see full proof in the further progress Consider then in these agonies 1. Happily they are to purge me The spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning is but to wash away the filth of the Daughters of Sion Like fullers sope and a refiners fire not to consume but cleanse and purifie them to purge them as gold and silver that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness By this shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged And shall I quarrel at that pill or cast away that potion which is blessed with such a sequel because 't is bitter in it self or breaks my sleep or burdens my stomach c. whence it conserves nature and cures my diseases and the little pains I feel are preventive of far greater Isa 4.4 Mal. 3.2 3. Isa 27.9 Perhaps it is to purge and so heal thy sleepiness and inanimadvertence David lay in an apoplectick drowsiness for a long time This state required strong purgatives and sharp prescriptions God therefore applieth this medicine and it effectually awakens and recovers him Psal 51. Or perhaps it is to purge out pride and stiffness of spirit And gentle potions will not do it there must be some other draught or the dose must be doubled David had enough to humble him but his heart stood it out undauntedly till God put this cup of trembling into his hand and this fetcheth all up and his heart down and his Soul-health returneth to its old frame ibid. What ever it is this may quiet that these troubles are not a ponyard to kill but a purge to cure 2. Happily it is to prove me Behold I will melt them and try them for how shall I do for the daughter of my people 'T is not said I will burn them and make an utter end of them Let it be to a Judas or a Cain an evil an only evil But to a Job there is good as well as evil These troubles were for his probation rather than punishment not at all for his perdition Thou O God hast proved us thou hast tried us as silver is tried God knoweth us perfectly and intuitively but 't is that we may upon trial know our selves and be less strangers to our own hearts or that others may know us This furnace then is not â—o destroy but to discriminate Judg. 9.7 Ezek. 7.5 Job 2.3 c. 7.18 Psal 66.10 May not this quiet you that whereas it might have been a milstone to tear you 't is but a touch-stone to try you to acquaint you more with your selves and acquaint others more with your sincerity Why doth God suffer you to wander thus long in the Wilderness but to numble you and prove you and to know what is in your hearts God might have thrown you like brands into the fire but he casts you like Gold into the furnace This affliction is not to ruin but to refine you Peut 8.2 Isa 48.10 Zach. 13.9 3. Happily it is to approve me When he bath tried me saith Job I shall come forth as gold more pure and more approved The Primitive Saints were tried with inward hâ—â—viness as well as outward hardships And why But That the trial of their faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth might be found unto praise and honour and glory Job 23.10 1 Pet. 1.6 7. Perhaps it may be to approve you to others here Job is to this day propounded for a pattern of patience to the faithful and must pray for his three friends as the person whom God would only accept He became the more signally approved by being so strangely afflicted Paul's necessities distresses afflictions stripes sorrows did but commend him the more to the Churches of our Saviour The skill of the Pilot is best spoken by storms and tempests Jam. 5.11 Job 42.7 8. 2 Cor. 4.4 11. Or beyond a perhaps it is to approve you at the appearing of Christ when he shall say Lo these
we may carry the right of this duty cleverly and come off cherily Rom. 8.26 2. Leave your hopes of the acceptance of your prayers This is not the Spirit of the world but the Spirit which is of God And God knoweth what is the mind of his own Spirit who for matter and manner maketh intercession in the Saints as the Son doth for the Saints according to the will of God 1 Cor. 2.12 Rom. 8.26 27. Gal. 4.6 Nay this Spirit is God existing in and equal with the Father and the Son in the same Godhead And therefore God the Son cannot deny to tender God the Father cannot deny to take what Prayers are presented by you in the power of the Spirit Let the thoughts of the Holy Ghost then be more frequent and familiar with you before prayer The thoughts of him will put you at a greater distance from and upon a greater defiance of your own fleshly appetitions and inclinations in Prayer will prompt you what you should desire in prayer how and for what will put you into a more Spiritual frame and disposition for Prayer yea and upon praying for a more abundant and efficacious influx and assistance of the Spirit of Prayer which your heavenly Father will be sure to give unto them that ask him Luk. 11.13 Prop. 5. You may proportionably order your thoughts concerning these distinct persons as to prayer by considering of and conforming your Prayers to the distinct manner of their existence and operation in the Godhead which is the object of Prayer The promisses make this plain enough without more proof But it is needful that I Instance and be more particular as to both their existence and operation 1 As concerns the distinct manner of their subsisting in the same Godhead which hath been delivered you before on Qu. 2. This may direct you how to order your thoughts and their whole transaction both 1. As to their persons 2. As to your praises and petitions 3. And in or as to both as the persons are united with each other in the same Essence 1 As to these persons I advise you to apply your self to the Father through the Son by whom alone you can hope for acceptance by the Spirit from whom you must have ability and assistance The Father is the first Person in order of these personal subsistants that giveth subsisting life both to Son and Spirit The Son is the second or middle Person subsisting of and from the Father and with the Father emitting or sending forth the Spirit The Spirit is the third and last in the order of these three Persons subsisting of and from them both and sent forth by both of them So then though it be not always necessary to keep this order of the persons in your mentions of them in prayer to all three persons because you find clear precedents by whom this order mentioned was not observed 2 Cor. 13 14. Rev. 1.4 5. Yet it is always necessary as to the inward manner and intentions of your mind that your applications be by the spirit by his assistance 2. through the Son through his mediation trusting by and for him to find acceptance to the Father who through the Son and by the Spirit giveth out answers As the Apostle doth more than intimate Eph. 2.18 Through him i.e. the Son We have an access by one Spirit unto the Father 2 As to your praises and petitions This lets you â—â—e what a wide and an effectual door is opened to you To ask from and acknowledg to the Father all those blessings which come to you by his giving of the Son Eph. 1.3 1 Pet. 1.3 And to Father and Son whatsoever benefits are communicated to you by their giving of the Spirit Rom. 15.13 2 Cor. 1.21 22. So that you need not determine nor should limit your requests or thanks to that only person from whom these blessings do in a more especial manner proceed The Father being the first principle of personal subsistence all things are from him by the Son and all things are referred back again by him to the Father 1 Cor. 8.6 Joh. 5.19 The Spirit subsisting from both and being sent out by both referrs you back in all both to Son and Father John 16.13 14 15. Gal. 4.6 3 As your prayers look upon all the Persons as inseparably united in the same essence Learn to admire their mutual inexistence one in another and in the same Godhead Which our Saviours example in that solemn prayer Joh. 17. may instruct you As thou O Father art in me and I in thee c. ver 21. Think you upon the Father Therewith admire and adore the Son who is the brightness of his Fathers Glory and the express image of his person Heb. 1.3 Think you of the Son therewith admire and adore the Father He and his Father are one Joh. 10.30 Think you of the Holy Ghost Therewith admire and adore both Son and Father He proceeds both from the Father and from the Son Joh. 15.26 Think you of any admire and adore all They are all one eternal perfection one God 1 Joh. 5.7 2 As to the distinct manner of their working What it is you have seen already Q. 2. Direct 3. n. 4. The Son worketh from the Father and the Spirit from them both This directs you not only how to apply your selves to these persons to the Father through the Son by the Spirit as before but also in and for what viz. according to the more appropriate works of each person 'T is true there is no work of the Godhead without it self but it is common to and predicable of every person in the Godhead But yet as some will observe it is usual in the Scriptures to ascribe the former middle and latter part of these external works with proportion to the distinct order of these undivided agents I instance the great work of mans Salvation Our Salvation may be eminently considered in three parts or steps 1. The appointment 2. The acquisition 3. The application of it 1. The former part the appointment of man to Salvation Election which is the first step is eminently ascribed to the first person the Father Eph. 1.3.4 5. Gal. 1.15.16 Who hath appointed us to Salvation by his Son through Sanctification of the Spirit 1 Thes 5.9 2 Thes 3.13 Elect according to the foreknowledg of God the Father through Sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ saith Peter 1 Pet. 1.2 The Father then should eminently have the glory of our election in our prayers of thanksgiving as the Apostles render it him ver 3. Eph. 1.3 4 c. 2. The middle part the acquisition of Salvation for man in redemption is eminently ascribed to the middle or second person the Son who in the fulness of time was sent forth from the Father and offered up himself through the eternal Spirit that he might obtain eternal redemption for us and we might receive