the renewed state that grace hath brought them into For the Kingdom of God consisteth as in Righteousness so in Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14. 17. Believers receive not the spirit of bondage again to fear that is they are not under the bondage of the Law nor have the spirit or state of mind which is suited to those Legal impositions and terrible comminations but they have received the spirit of Adoption by which they cry Abba father that is As they are brought under a more gracious dispensation and a better Covenant and promises and God is revealed to them in the Gospel as a Reconciled Father through his son so doth he treat them more gently as reconciled children and the spirit which answereth this gracious Covenant and is given us thereupon doth qualifie us with a child-like disposition and cause us with boldness Love and confidence to call God Father and fly to him for succour and supply in all ouâ— dangers and necessities And how Pleasant it must be to a believing soul to have this spirit of Adoption this childlike Love and confidence and freedom with the Lord methinks you might conjecture though its sensibly known by them only that enjoy it Gal. 5. 22. The fruit of the spirit is Love Joy Peace c. when the word is first received by Believers though it may be in much affliction through the persecutions and cross that attend the Gospel yet is it ordinarily in the Joy of the Holy Ghost 1 Thes 1. 6. The Holy Ghost is the Comforter of true Believers And if he have taken it upon him as his work he will surely do it in the degree and season fittest for them And if Joy it self be part of the state of Grace and Holiness you may see that it is the most delightful Pleasant course 7. Yea that we may have a Pleasant and comfortable life the Lord hath forbidden our distracting cares and fears and doubts and our inordinate sorrows and commanded us to cast our care on him and promised to care for us 1 Pet. 5. 7. and he hath bid us be careful for nothing but in all things make our wants known to him Phil. 4. 6. And can there be a course of life more Pleasant then that which dost consist in faith and Love and hope and Joy that 's built on God and animated by him and that excludeth inordinate cares and sorrows as health doth sickness where it is unlawful to be miserable and to grieve our selves and no sorrow is allowed us but that which tendeth to our joy where it is made our work to Rejoyce in the Lord yea always to Rejoyce Phil. 4. 4. A servant or tradesman will judge of the pleasure of his life by his work If his work be a drudgery his life is tedious and filled with grief If his work be Pleasant his life is Pleasant Judge then by this of a Holy life Is it care and fear and anguish of mind that God commandeth you no it is these that he forbiddeth Care not Fear not are his injunctions Isa 35. 4. 41. 10. Do you fear Reproach Why you do it contrary to the will of God who biddeth you Fear not the reproach of men Isa 51. 7. Do you fear the power and rage of enemies Why it is contrary to your Religion so to do God biddeth you Fear them not Isa 43. 5 13 14. 44. 2 8. Do you fear persecution or death from the hands of cruel violence why it is contrary to the will of God that you do so Matth. 10. 26 28 31. Fear not them which kill the body c. O blessed life where all that is against us is forbidden and all that is truly Joyous and delightful and necessary to make us happy is commanded us and made our duty which is contrary to misery as life to death and as light to darkness Come hither poor deluded sinners that fly from care and fear and sorrow If you will but give up your selves to Christ you shall be exempted from all these except such as is necessary to your joy You may do any thing if you will be the servants of the Lord except that which tendeth to your own and other mens calamity Come hither all you that call for pleasure and love no life but a life of mirth Let God be your master and Holiness your work and Pleasure then shall be your business and holy Mirth shall be your employment While you serve the flesh your pleasure is small and your trouble great vexation is your work and unspeakable vexation is your wages But if you will be the hearty servants of the Lord Rejoycing shall be your work and wages If you understand not this peruse your lesson Psal 33. 1. Rejoyce in the Lord O ye Righteous for Praise is comely for the upright Psal 97. 11 12. Light is sown for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart Rejoyce in the Lord ye Righteous and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness Phil. 3. 1. Psal 5. 11. Let all those that trust in thee rejoyce let them ever shout for joy because thou defendest them let them also that Love thy name be joyful in thee Psal 32. 11. Be glad in the Lord and rejoyce ye righteous and shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart Psal 132. 9. 16. Let thy Priests be cloathed with Righteousness and let thy Saints shout for joy 16. I will also cloath her Priests with salvation and his Saints shall shout aloud for joy such precepts and promises abound in Scripture which tell you if you will be Saints indeed that Joy and gladness must be your life and work I know objections will be stirring in your minds But forbear them but a while and I shall fully answer them anon 2. I have told you wherein the Inward part of Holiness is Delightful I shall briefly shew you that the Outward part also is very Pleasant and fit to feed these inward joys And 1. let us view the Duties that are more directly to be performed unto God and 2. The works of charity and righteousness unto men 1. How sweet is it to be exercised in the word of God In hearing or reading it with serious meditation For the man that hath been revived by it renewed sanctified saved by it to hear that powerful heavenly truth by which his soul was thus made new For the soul that is in Love with God to hear or see his blessed name on every leaf to read his will and find the expressions of his Love his great eternal wonderous love how sweet this is experience tells the Saints that feel it If you that feel no sweetness in it believe not them that say they feel it at leaâ—â— believe the word of God and the professions of his ancient Saints Psal 119. 97. O how I love thy Law it is my meditation all the day v. 103. How sweet are thy words unto my tast yea sweeter then
say unto you Ask and it shall be given you seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you Luke 6. 12. He went out into a mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer to God Daniel would not give over praying three times a day in his house for thirty dayes space at the Kings command no not to save his life from devouring Lions David saith Psalm 119. 164. Seven times a day do I praise thee Lam. 2. 19. Arise cry out in the night in the beginning of the watches pour out thy heart like water before the face of the Lord Psalm 14. 4. it is part of the wicked Atheists description that They call not upon the Lord. Jer. 10. 25. Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not and the families that call not on thy name Psalm 145. 18. The Lord is nigh to all that call upon him to all that call upon him in truth When Paul was converted the Lord lets Ananias know it by this token Acts 9. 11. For behold he prayeth Acts 1. 14. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication Acts 2. 42. The three thousand Converts continued stedfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers Col 4. 2 Continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving withall praying also for us that God would open to us a door of utterance to speak the mysterie of Christ Rom. 12. 12. Continuing instant in prayer Jam. 5. 16. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much 1 Tim. 4. 5. For every creature is sanctified by the Word of God and prayer 1 Tim. 5. 5. She that is a widdow indeed and desolate trusteth in God and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day Jude 20. Praying in the Holy Ghost 1 Thes 3. 10. Night and day praying exceedingly Ephes 6 18. Praying alwayes with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all Saints and for me c. 2 Chron. 6. 29. What prayer or what supplication soever shall be made of any man or of all thy people Israel when every one shall know his own sore and his own grief and shall spread forth his hands in this house then hear thou from Heaven c. I hope by this time if you have eyes you see that more frequent and fervent prayers then any of us use and that without Book were used by the antient servants of the Lord and were not thought too much ado nor more ado then God requireth of us 4. Is it constant diligent teaching instructing and catechizing your families and labouring that your selves and they may understand and practise the Law of God Hear also what the Spirit saith of this and then judge whether it be too much preciseness Prov. 2. 1 2 3 4 5. My son if thou wilt receive my words and hide my Commandements with thee so that thou encline thine ear unto wisdom and apply thy heart to understanding yea if thou cryest after knowledge and liftest up thy voice for understanding if thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hidden treasures then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God Deut. 6. 5 6 7. 11. 18 19 20. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thy heart and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house and when thou walkest by the way and when thou lyest down and when thou risest up And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thy hand and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes and thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house and on thy gates Gen. 18 19. For I know Abraham that he will command his children and his houshold after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord. Josh 24. 15. But as for me and my houshold we will serve the Lord. Prov. 22. 6. Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it Eph. 6. 4. Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. These and many such passages shew you that the most diligent instructing of your families is not more ado then God requireth but a most weighty needful part of godliness 5. Is it the meeting of divers neighbours together distinct from Church-meetings that you question Why if it be Schismatical in opposition to the publick meetings or to do any unlawful work we are against it as well as you But if it be but for the redeeming of their time for their spiritual advantage and orderly peaceably and soberly observed by some that have more time or care of their souls then the rest of their neighbours sure you will not for shame imagine that neighbours may lawfully meet to make merry and feast and sport and conferr about their worldly business and yet may not meet to pray and praise God and repeat what instructions they have received of their Teachers and prepare for and improve the publick Ordinances Hear what the Spirit saith also in this In the text here you find just such a meeting where Christ was teaching and Mary and his Disciples hearing and Martha cumbred with providing for the company and blamed for neglecting the advantage for her soul Acts 12. 12. Peter came out of prison to the house of Mary where many were gathered together praying Acts 10. 24. Cornelius called together his kinsmen and near friends to hear Peter who there preached to them converted and baptized them I need to instance in no more because this was the ordinary practice of Christ and the Apostles If you say Those were times of persecution I answer True But 1. yet such times in which publick Assemblies were ordinarily held and publick preaching used 2. And as the good of mens souls required it in times of persecution so when the good of souls requires it in times of liberty it is from the same general reason a duty but never forbidden by Christ in any times of greatest prosperity and peace 6. Is it the holy observation of the Lords day that is the preciseness that you cannot away with Of all men it beseems not them to quarrel at this that own our Homilies and with the Common-prayer use after the fourth Commandment to say Lord have mercy upon us and encline our hearts to keep this Law When they have heard Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day thou thy Son thy daughter thy man-servant thy maid-servant thy cattle and the stranger that is within thy gates You see all the foresaid duties must be performed and publick Assemblies for Gods worship and our instruction continued And therefore there must be some known
appointed time for these And do you know any other day that is fitter I think you will not pretend to that You would not have another day instead of this but you would have no day at all for such holy works but a day for ease and idleness and sports and vain discourse and pleasures with some little formal publick worship intermixt to cheat your souls It is not then the Day but the serious diligent holy employment and duty that you are against and that I have proved to be Gods will before Doubtless if you leave all men to serve God when they will without any stated time his worship will soon be brought to nothing and they that pretend to keep every day holy will keep none Look upon the places where the Lords day is kept holy and see whether godliness flourish not there incomparably above all other places And I think none can doubt but that more souls have been converted and brought home to God on that day then on any day of the week if not then all the rest beside And there is not the peevishest malignant soul of you that can with any shew of reason prove that the holy observation of the Lords day is unlawful if it were not necessary So that we are at least on the safest side of the hedge For we can say that we take a most happy opportunity for the good of our own souls and the worshipping of God and that we are sure we do that which is no sin our adversaries themselves do not charge us with doing that which is forbidden but that which they conceit unnecessary But if we should do as they and neglect this day we are not sure but it may be a great sin nay indeed we are sure it would be so But what saith the Holy-Ghost now to this question To pass by the fourth Commandement at this time the letter of it and the equity and reason of a seventh day the advantage of reason why there should be no less under the Gospel and such like I shall only now say these two things 1. It is plain in Scripture that de facto the Apostles and Churches used to meet for holy Communion in Gods worship on the Lords day And consequently that this was appointed by the Apostles or immediately by Christ himself there being then no other that pretended to any such authority and that Apostolical allowance no man questioneth The Apostles then having the extraordinary gift of the Spirit by which they were enabled infallibly to make known the will of God and being commissioned as well as enabled here unto as their writing of the holy Scriptures so their constitutions for the ordering of the Church being the effects of that Authority received from Christ and that Ability given them by the Spirit are Divine and principally the acts of Christ and the Holy Ghost whose agents the Apostles were Now that the first Churches did by their appointment observe the Lords day for holy actions is apparent As Christ first laid the ground-work by Râ—sing on that day so he began that very day to preach unto Mary the comfortable doctrine of his Ascension in words that deserve to be written in gold or rather in the deepest room of every true Believers heart John 20. 17. Go to my Brethren and say unto them I ascend unto my Father and your Father and to my God and your God The first Sermon that ever was preached on a Lords day even on the first Lords day by Christ himself even to a beloved penitent woman whom he chose to be as it were his Apostle to his Apostles to deliver them this Message as from him On the same day the Disciples being Assembled he owned and blessed their Assembly and gave them the Holy Ghost and Apostolicall power When Thomas being absent from the Assembly the first Lords day did miss the sight of Christ and was unbelieving Christ left him a whole week in his unbelief and would not heal him till the next Lords day which he honoured with that cure Then the Disciples being met again Christ came among them and convinced Thomas On another Lords day they were all with one accord in one place and the Holy Ghost was in the extraordinary measure given them And Acts 20. 7. it is mentioned as the custom of the Disciples to come together on the first day of the week to break bread and Paul then preached to them even till midnight And 1 Cor. 16. 1 2. the Collections for the Saints were made every first day of the week in all the Churches of Galatia and at Corinth because they had then their holy Assemblies And therefore Rev. 1. 10. it is called peculiarly the Lords day 2. But to clear this past all rational doubting we find in all the writings of the antients and historie of the Church that all the Churches through the world unanimously observed the Lords day as instituted by Christ or the Holy Ghost in the Apostles none ever questioning or contradicting it that ever I read of He that hath read the writings of the Antients and denyeth this is unworthy to be disputed with The practice of the universal Church is a full exposition of the fore-cited Scriptures and though it be no Law to us it self yet is it a full discovery of the fact telling us what was the primitive practice and so a discovery of the Law And shall any private ignorant man come in alter one thousand six hundred and twenty six years and say the Apostles and all the Churches in the world have been deceived till this day and we must rectifie the mistake Shall these fellows come in at the end of the world and call the Apostles and all the Churches of all ages Puritanes for keeping holy the Lords day Or will any but a brain-sick person hearken to such shameless men as these Object But the antient Churches did not keep that day as a Sabbath but only as a day for publick worship Answ We will not stick with you for the name We urge you not to call it the Sabbath though the Antients sometimes did so See our Homilies of the Place and Time of Prayer if you will call it as Scripture and the Churches did by the name of the Lords day And it was then the custom of the Churches to spend almost all the day in publick Worship and Holy Communion and therefore they had but little time for any private duties that day And yet though the private practises of particular persons on that day be little mentioned in Church-history no man can prove that they used to spend any remaining hours of that day as common time in common business So that to quarrel against the holy observation of the Lords day is but to quarrel with the Holy Ghost and the Apostles and all the Churches of all ages since and with the happyest season for the worshipping of God and seeking our own and other mens edification 7. What
world grew to no more experience and Arts and Sciences were ripened no more when now they have ripened in a shorter time How is it that Printing and Writing were not found out and that all Sciences and Arts are of so late invention and as it were but in their youth Certainly Knowledge is the daughter of Experience and Experience the daughter of Time and therefore if the world had been from eternity it must needs have been many a hundred thousand years ago at â— far higher state of Knowledge then is yet attained in the world For every age receiveth the experiences and writings of the former and hath opportunity still to make improvement of them At least the world could not have been ignorant so long of Printing Writing and a hundred things that are certainly of late invention It is therefore an incredible thing that an Eternal world should lose all the memorials and monuments of its Antiquity before the Scripture-time of the Creation And therefore doubtless it began but then Qu. 2. And if God were not the Author of the Scripture how come so many clear and notable Prophesies of it to be fulfilled How punctually doth David and Isaiah 53 describe the sufferings of Christ and Daniel foretell the very year and so of many others Qu. 3. And how comes it all to contain but one entire frame conspiring to reveal the same doctrine of grace and life at first more darkly and in types and promises and afterwards more clearly in performance when the writers lived at hundreds and thousands years distance from each other Qu. 4. And if thou hadst not a blinded prejudiced mind thou wouldst perceive an unimitable Majesty and spirituality in the Scripture and wouldst savour the spirit of God in it as its author and wouldst know by the image and superscription that it is the Word of God It beareth unimitably the Image of his Power and Wisdom and Goodness so that the blessed Author may to a faithful soul be known by the work Qu. 5. If the Scripture came not from the Spirit it could not give or cause the spirit and if it bore not Gods Image it self how could it print his Image upon the souls of so many thousands as it doth The Image of God is first engraven on the seal of his holy Doctrine and thereby imprinted on the heart There is no part of that holy change on man but what that holy Doctrine wrought If therefore the change be of God the Doctrine that wrought it is of God For both of them are the same Image answering each other as that on the seal and on the wax But it is most certain that the Holy change on the soul is of God The nature of it sheweth this For it consisteth in the destruction of our sin and the denyal of our selves and the raising the heart above this world and the total Devoting of our selves and all that we have to God and conforming our selves to his will and resting in it and seeking and serving him with all our power against all temptations and living in the fervent Love of God and of our Brethren and desires after everlasting life and a taking Christ for our Lord and Saviour to reconcile us to God and do all this in us by his Spirit And surely such a work as this must needs be of God If it be Good it must needs be Originally from him that is most Good this is undenyable And he that will say this is Evil is so much of the Devils nature and mind that it is no wonder if he follow him and be Brutified And you cannot say that the Work is good and the Doctrine bad For the Work is nothing but the Impress of the Doctrine And God doth not use to appoint or use a frame of falshoods and deceits as his ordinary means to renew mens souls and work them to his Will Perhaps you will say that you see no such change made by the Word nor any such spirit given by it unto men but only the effects of their own Imaginations But 1. The Question is Whether they are True or false Imaginations Gods truth causeth that Impress on the mind of man which you call his Imaginations For where should Truth be received but in the mind and how should it work but by cogitation They are cogitations above and contrary to those of flesh and blood that are wrought by this holy Doctrine It is nevertheless os the spirit because it moveth man by consideration 2. And if you see not a work on the hearts of the regenerate appearing in their lives which raiseth them to a far better state then others it can be no better then strangeness or malice that can so far blind you 3. But if it be so with you give leave yet to the persons that know this holy change in themselves to believe the more confidently the Word that wrought it We know that we are renewed and passed from our former spiritual death to life and therefore that it was the Truth of God that did the Work of God upon us Nothing but Truth can sanctifie But the Word doth sanctifie therefore the Word is Truth Indeed the Holy Church of Christ throughout all ages of the world hath been his living Image and so a living Witness of his Word as shewing by their lives the transcript of it in their hearts It is easie for any that know them except the maliciously blind to perceive that the true servants of Christ are a more purified refined honest conscionable holy heavenly people then the rest of the world For my part I am fully convinced of it I see it there is no comparison for all their imperfections which they and I lament I am fully satisfied that there is much more of God on them then on others And therefore there is much more of God in the Doctrine that renewed them then in any other The Church is the living Scripture the pillar and ground of the truth 1 Tim. 3. 15. the Law is written in their hearts Heb. 8. 10. better then it was in the Tables of stone 2 Cor. 3. 3. And by their holy Love and Works the world may know that Jesus Christ was sent of the Father and may be brought to believe in him by their Unity John 17. 21 22 23. Matth. 5. 16. God would not concurr so apparently and powerfully with a false doctrine to make so great a change in man nor so far own it as to use it for the doing of the most excellent work in all this world even the gathering him such a Church and sanctifying to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. 2. 14. If you say that some of the Heathens have been as good I answer 1. The Goodness found in them is but in temperance fidelity and such like and not a holy spirituality or heavenliness no nor a through-conscienciousness in what they knew 2. That good was rare in comparison of that
more certainly of the Invisible things then any Saints or Angels can tell them Why should not this I say be sweeter to them then all the fleshly pleasures in the world O that I could know more of God and more of the mystery of Redemption even of an obedient crucified glorified Christ and more of the invisible world and of the blessed state of souls on condition I left all the Pleasures of this world to sensual men O that I had more clear and firm apprehensions of these transcendent glorious things How easily could I spare the Pleasures of the flesh and leave those husks to swine to feed on O could my Soul get nearer God and be more irradiated with his heavenly beams my mind would need no other recreation and I should as little relish carnal Pleasures as carnal minds do relish the heavenly delights As earthly things are poor and low so is the knowledge of them As things spiritual and heavenly are High and Glorious mysterious and profound the knowledge of them is accordingly Delighful And without controversie great is the mystery of Godliness God was manifest in the flesh justified in the spirit seen of Angels preached to the Gentiles believed on in the world received up into glory 1 Tim. 3. 16. Faith is the Evidence of things not seen Heb. 11. 1. It is far pleasanter by faith to see the Lord thâ—… to see any Creature by the eye of flesh and sweeter â—y faith to see Heaven opened and there behold our Glorified Lord then to see a horse-race or stage-play or any of the folleries of the world 2. The knowledge of things to Come is specially desired and Godliness containeth that Faith which knoweth things to come How glad would men be to be told what shall besall them to the last hour of their lives The woman of Samaria Joh. 4. called out her neighbours with admiration to see Christ as one that had told her all that shee had done But if he had told her all that ever she would do for the time to come and all that ever should befall her it might have astonished her much more Believers know what hath been even before the world was made and how it was made and what hath been since then and they know what will be to all eternity A true Believer knows from Scripture whither mens Souls go after death and how their Bodies shall be raised again and how Christ will come to Judge the world and who shall then be justified and who shall be condemned and what shall be the case of the godly and the ungodly to all eternity And is it not more pleasant to know these things then to possess all the vain delights of the earth Can the flesh afford you any thing so delightful 3. Especially it is desireable and Pleasant to Know those things that most concern us Needless speculations and curiosities we can spare There is a Knowledge that brings more pain then pleasure Yea there is a Knowledge that will torment But to know our own affairs our greatest and most necessary affairs to know our threatened misery to prevent it and to know our offered Happiness to obtain it to know our Portion our Honour our God what can be more Pleasant to the mind of man Other mens matters we can pass by But to Know such things concerning our own souls as what we must be and do for ever and what course we must take to be everlastingly happy must needs be a feast to the mind of a wise man Ask but a soul that is haunted with temptations to unbelif whether any thing would be more welcome to him then the clear and satisfying apprehensions of a lively faith Ask one that lyeth in tears or groans through the feeling of their sin and the fears of the wrath of God and doubtings of his love whether the satisfying Knowledge of pardon and reconciliation and divine acceptance would not be more pleasant to them then any of your merriments can be to you Ask that poor soul that hath lost the apprehension of his Evidences of grace and walks in darkness and hath no light that seeks and cryes and perceives no hearing whether the discovery of his Evidences the assurance that his Prayers are accepted and the light of Gods countenance shining on him would not be Better to him then any Recreation or any Pleasure the earth affords Ask any man at the hour of death that is not a block Whether now the Knowledge of his salvation would not be Better and more Pleasnt to him then all the lust or sport or honours of the world 4. The Knowledge of the Best and Joyfullest matters must be the Best and Pleasantest Knowledge And nothing can be Better then God and Glory Nothing can be sweeter then salvation and therefore this must be the sweetest Knowledge I had rather have the pleasure of one hours clear and lively Knowledge of my salvation and of the special Love of God then to be exalted above the greatest Prince and to have all the Pleasures that my senses can desire The Delights of the flesh are base and brutish and nothing to the spiritual Heavenly Delights of the renewed mind 5. The manner of our Holy Knowledge maketh it more Delightful 1 It is a Certain and Infallible Knowledge It is not a may be or bare possibility It is not It is possible there may be a Heaven and Happiness hereafter But it is as true as the Word of God is true We have his own hand and seal and earnest for it Even his precious promises and oath confirmed by miracles and fulfilled-prophecy and bearing his own image and superscription and shining to us by its own light We have in our hearts the spirit which is Gods earnest by which we are sealed up to the day of our final full redemption And if the soul yet stagger at the promise of God through the remnants of unbelief that shall not make the promise of God of none effect but his foundation shall still stand sure His word shall not pass till all be fulfilled though heaven and earth shall pass away A message by one that were sent to us from the dead were not more credible then the Word of God And this Certainty of Holy Faith and Knowledge is a very great contentment to the soul When the Glory of the Saints is a thing as sure as if we saw it with our eyes and as sure as these things which we daily see it is a great pleasure to the soul when it can but apprehend this joyful Certainty 2. And that there is a certain easiness and plainness in the great and necessary points of faith as to the manner of Revelation doth add much to Faith's Satisfaction and Delight The points that life and death lie on are not left so obscure as might perplex us lest we did not know the meaning of them But they are so plain that he that runs may read them and the simple
our Comforter And if that be not a pleasant life that is managed by such a Guide and that be not likest to be a joyful soul that is possest by the Spirit of joy it self there is no joy then on earth to be expected Hath God promised his Spirit to comfort you that are wicked in your sin No it is the malicious deceiving spirit that is your Comforter that by his comforts he might keep you from solid spiritual everlasting comforts But the Repenting Believing soul that is united unto Christ and hath already had the spirit for his conversion it is he that hath the promise of the spirit for his consolation And if that be not the most comfortable life where the God of Heaven becomes the comforter we cannot then know the effect by the cause If Life it self will quicken if light it self will illuminate the comforting spirit will certainly comfort in the degree and season as God seeth meet and the soul is fitted to receive it 4. Moreover we have the whole treasurie of the Gospel to go to for our Delight And little doth the sensual unbelieving soul know what sweetness what supporting pleasures may be from thence derived I had rather have the holy word of God to go to for contents then the treasures of the rich or the pleasures of the sensual or the flatteries and vain glory of the ambitious man All that the world doth make such a pudder about which they ride and run for which they so much glory in will never afford them so much Content as one Scripture promise will do to a truly faithful soul I must profess before Angels and men that I had rather have one Promise of the Love of God and the life to come which is contained in the holy Scriptures then to have all the riches pleasures and honours of this world My God this was my Covenant with thee and to this I stand O blessed be the Lord that hath provided us such a Magazine of Delight as is this heavenly sacred Book The Precepts appoint us a pleasant work The strictest prohibitions do but restrain us from our own calamities and keep out of our hands the knife by which we would cut our fingers The severest threatnings do but deterre us from running into the consuming fire and hedge about the devouring gulf lest we should foolishly cast our selves therein And these are the bitterest parts of that holy word But when we read the promises of a Saviour and the wonderful history of his Incarnation and of his holy self-denying life his conquests miracles death resurrection ascension intercession and his promise to return when we read of the foundation which he hath laid and the building which he intends to finish of his rich abundant promises to his chosen what provision do we find for our abundant joys No strait can be so great no pressure so grievous no enemies so strong but we have full consolation offered us in the promises against them all We have promises of the pardon of all our sins and promises of heaven it self and what can we have more we have promises suited to every state both prosperity and adversity What do we need which we have not a promise of And the word of God is no deceit What but a promise can comfort them that are short of the possession May I not have more joy in sickness with a promise then the ungodly without a promise in their health A promise in prison sets a man as at liberty A promise in Poverty is more then riches A promise at death is better then life What I have a promise of I may be sure of but what you possess without a promise you may lose and your souls and hopes with it this night There is no condition on earth so hard to a man that hath interest in the promises in which he may not have plentiful relief We live by faith and not by sense And we reckon more on that as ours which we hope for then which we do possess We are sure that there is no true felicity on earth It then we have a promise of Heaven when Infidels lie down in the dust with desperation have we not a more comfortable life then they 5. Moreover we have Heaven it self to fetch our comfort from Not Heaven in sight or in Possession but Heaven in Promise and seen by faith And if Heaven will not afford us pleasure whence shall we expect it Even sensual men can rejoyce as well in what they see not if they are assured it is theirs as in what they see And why then may not Believers do so much more A worldling when he seeth not his money in his chest or at use or his lands and cattel that are far from him can yet rejoyce in them as if he saw them And should not we rejoyce in the certain Hopes of Heaven though yet we see it not when I am pained in sickness and role in restless weariness of my flesh if then I can say I shall be in Heaven may it not be the inward rejoycing of my soul You know where you are but you know not where you shall be The Believer knoweth where he shall be as truly as he knoweth where he is unless it be one that by his frailty hath not reacht unto assurance who yet hath reached unto Hope What great matter is it if I lay in greatest pain if I can say I shall have everlasting ease in Heaven Or if I lay in prison or in sordid poverty and can say I shall shortly be with Christ Or if I had lost the love of all men and could say that I shall everlastingly enjoy the Love of God Most of your comforts do come in by the way of your thoughts And what Thoughts should so rejoyce the soul as the thoughts of our abode with Christ for ever If a day in the Courts of God be so delightful what is ten thousand millions of ages in the Court of Glory and all then as fresh as at the first day There it is that our sin will be put off Our carnal enmity laid by our temptations will be over our enemies will all have done our fears and sorrows will be at an end Our desires will be accomplished Our differences be reconciled Our charity perfected and our expectations fully satisfied and Hope turned into full fruition O may I but be able with stronger faith and fuller confidence to say that Heaven is mine and when this tabernacle is dissolved I shall be with Christ my life and my death will be delightful and I need not complain for want of pleasure Let who will take the pleasures of the flesh may I but have this In prayer in meditation in holy conference in every duty it is the expectation of approaching blessedness that drops in sweetness into all No wonder if it can sweeten a course of duty when it can make light the greatest sufferings and turn pain into pleasure
by the outward behaviour of our assemblies The shell is not sweet but serves to hide the sweeter part from those that will not storm those walls that they may possess it as their prize The kernel of Religion is covered with a shell so hard that flesh and blood cannot break it Hard sayings and hard providences to the Church and to particular believers are such as many cannot break through and therefore never taste the sweetness The most admired feature and beauty of any of your bodies which fools think to be the most excellent part of the body is indeed but the handsome well-adorned case that God by nature doth cover his more excellent inward works with Were you but able to see within that skin and 〈…〉 once to observe the wonderful motions of Heart and Braine and the course of the blood in the veins and arteries and the several fermentations and the causes and nature of chylifications and sanguifications and the spirits and senses and all their works and if you saw the reason of every part and vessel in this wonderous frame and the causes and nature of every disease much more if you saw the excellent nature and operations of that rational soul that is the glory of all you would then say that you had seen a more excellent sight then the smooth and beauteous skin that covers it The invisible soul is of greater excellencie then all the visible beauties in the world So also if you would know the excellencies of Religion you must not stand without the doors or judge of it by the skin and shell but you must come neer and look into the inward Reasons of it and think of the difference between the high imployments of a Saint and the poor and for did drungery of the ungodly between walking with God in desire and love and in the spiritual use of his Ordinances and creatures and conversing only with sinful men and transitory vanities between the life of faith and hope which is daily maintained by the foresight of Everlasting Glory and a life of meer nature and worldliness and sensuality and idle complement and pompe which are but the progenitors of sorrow and end in endless desperation Come neer and try the power of Gods Laws and of the workings of his spirit and think in good sadness of the place where you must live forever and the glory you shall see and the sweet enjoyment and employment you shall have in the presence of the eternal Majesty and think well of all the sweet contrivances and discoveries of his love in Christ and how freely all these are offered to you and how certainly they may be your own peruse the promises and sweet expressions of Love and Grace and exercise your souls in serious meditation prayer thanksgiving and praise and withall remember that none but these will be durable delights and then tell me whether a life of sport and pride and worldliness and flesh-pleasing or a life of faith and Holiness be the better the sweeter and more pleasant life Direct 3. If you would taste the Pleasures of a Holy life you must apply your self to Christ in the use of his appointed means for the renewing of your natures that his Spirit may give you a new understanding and a new heart to discern and rellish spiritual things For your old corrupted minds and hearts will never do it They are unsuitable to the things of God and therefore cannot Receive them nor savour them nor be subject to the holy laws 1 Cor. 2. 14 15. Rom. 8. 5 6 7 8. The appetite and rellish of every living creature is agreeable to its nature A fish hath small pleasure in the dry land nor a bird in the deeps of water grass and water is sweeter to an Ox then our most delicate meats and drinks Corruption and Custom have made you so vitious that your natures are not such as God made them at the first when he himself was mans desire and delight but they are now inclined to sensual things being captivated by the fleshly part and have contracted a strangeness and enmity to God And therefore those Hearts will never rellish the sweetnesses of a life of Faith and Holiness till Faith and Holiness be planted in them and they be born again by regenerating grace For that which is born of the flesh is flesh and but flesh and therefore doth reach no higher then a fleshly inclination can move it and that which is born of the spirit is spirit and therefore will rellish and love things Spiritual Direct 4. Lastly if you would taste the pleasures of a Holy life you must forbear those sinful fleshly pleasures which now you are so taken up with For these are they that infatuate your understandings and corrupt your appetites and make the sweetest things seem loathsom to you As the using of vain sports and filthy lust abroad doth make such persons a weary of their own relations and families and business at home so also the glutting of the mind with vanity and using your selves to sinful pleasures is it that turns your hearts from God and maketh his Word and Wayes unsavoury to you You must first with the Prodigal Luke 15. be brought into a famine of your former pleasures and be denyed the very husk and then you will remember that the meanest servant in your Fathers house is in a far better case then you having bread enough while you perish through hunger And hence it is that God doth so often promote the work of Conversion by Affliction and by the same means carryeth on the work of Grace in most that he will save Cannot you tell how to leave your sensual pleasures What will you do when sickness makes you weary of them Weary of your meat and drink and bed weary to hear talk of that which now doth seem so sweet and to say I have no pleasure in them Cannot you spare your friends your sports your bravery your wealth and other carnal accommodations What will you say of them when pain disgraceth them and convinceth you of their insufficiency to stand you in any stead These things that you are now so loth to leave may shortly become such a load to your souls as undigested meat to the stomack that is sick that you can have no ease till you have cast them off Away therefore with these luscious Vanities betime which vitiate your appetites and put them out of rellish with the things that are truly pleasant O what a shame it is to hear a man say I shall never endure so godly and spiritual and strict a life when he can endure and take pleasure in a life of sin You may wiselyer lie down in the dunghill or the ditch and say I shall never endure a cleaner place or feed on carrion and say I shall never endure a cleaner dyet or accompany only with enemies and wild beasts and say I shall never endure the company of my friends What! is God
though many undo their souls for fleshly pleasures and delights yet he is a strange man indeed that will offend God even for self-tormenting grief and trouble O therefore dear Christians as you have let go all your sensual pleasures for the pleasing of your Lord do not let go the pleasures of his love for which you have let go all The Lord taketh pleasure in his people even in them that fear him in those that hope in his mercy and the meek he will beautifie with salvation Psalm 147. 11. It is meet therefore that his people take pleasure in the Lord that the Saints be joyful in glory that they sing aloud upon their beds and that the high praises of God be in their mouthes Psalm 149. 4 5 6. O let not the Spirit of God be thought to be like the evil spirit that vexed Saul that filled his mind with melancholy anguish and confusion It is the evil spirit that renteth and tormenteth those that it possesseth though the spirit of God doth humble and by ordinate sorrow prepare for joy But its proper work is to sanctifie and to comfort and to establish the Believer with Peace that passeth understanding As it is a greater sign of the operation of the Spirit of Christ to restore the lapsed by a spirit of meekness and to bear one anothers burdens and exercise tenderness compassion and charity then to censure and envy and call for fire from heaven So even at home though there we are allowed to be more rigid and censorious it is a more sure and satisfactory discovery of the Spirit of Grace within us if we are raised to a sweet delight in God and quieted in his Love and carryed out in chearful obedience thankfully acknowledging the grace that we have received and waiting in the use of means for more then if we are only turmoiled and troubled in our minds and tossed up and down with unprofitable griefs and fears that abate our Love to God and our holy joyes It is the still voice that doth most fully acquaint us that it is Christ the Prince of Peace that speaketh to us Though at first when he findeth a sinner in a state of enmity and rebellion he often useth to thunder and lighten and call to him as to Saul Why persecutest thou me Wilt thou kick against the pricks Wilt thou fight against heaven Or canst thou bear the wrath of God Almighty Yet to the humbled penitent soul there is none in all the world so tender as Jesus Christ the Lamb of God the Churches husband that cherisheth them as his own flesh O that you did but know the greatness and tenderness of his love to you while you lie trembling under the unjust apprehensions of his wrath It would then so transport you with ravishing delights that the world would see that the Saints of the most High have higher Pleasures then the world affordeth BUt I know you will say Alas what need you exhort us to spiritual pleasures and consolations Do you think there is any man in love with sorrows or unwilling to live a joyful life O that you could tell us how we might attain it and you should quickly see that we are willing Answ And if you are so willing to attain it as to be also willing to use the means you shall quicklyer see that I shall certainly inform you how you may attain it and how you may come to find a life of Holiness to be the most sweet and pleasant life I therefore desire and require you to practise these Directions following Direct 1. Make it your first and principal business to attain the fullest fixed knowledge of God in his Attributes and Covenant-Relations to you 1. Study him in his Attributes If infinite Goodness take not up the soul with Love and with Delight it is because it is not known Where there is all things that the soul of man desires to its highest felicity and content and yet contentment and delight is wanting it must needs be ignorance and distance that is the cause If the Sun seem not light to you it is because you have not eye-sight or look not on the light If you find no pleasure in the most pleasant food it is because your appetites are diseased or you do not taste it If your most suitable and most affectionate friend seem not amiable to you it is because you know not his suitableness and love So if the eternal God that is infinitely powerful wise and good most perfect and most suitable to your highest affections do not possess you with abundant Pleasures and Delights of Love it is because you are unacquainted with him Study then his infinite perfections and be much with him in secret prayer and meditation where the retired soul having fewest avocations is fittest for the most near familiar converse And still remember that it is Love it self that you have to do with For God is Love It is the fountain of all delights and pleasures that you draw near to It is a cold heart indeed that fire it self cannot warm and a dead heart indeed that life it self cannot revive Conceive of God as God and you will delight in him Abhort all unworthy diminutive thoughts of him Set up his Love and Goodness in your estimation as infinitely above all the creatures Believe it the Love of your dearest friends is an inconsiderable drop to the Ocean of his Love Think not of him as cruel or an enemy if you would love him or delight in him Love and Delight are never forced by bare commands and threatnings but drawn forth magnetically by attractive Goodness Were not God most amiable and friendly and desirable to us it is not saying Love me or I will damn thee that would ever have caused man to love him but rather to fear and hate and fly from him Think but of Gods Love and Goodness and Fidelity as you do of his Power and then you will find that there are rivers of pleasure in his presence and fulness of joy at his right hand the fore-tastes whereof are the only delights that can quiet the troubled thirsty soul 2. And if you say What is all this to me any more then to the ungodly world on whom the wrath of God abideth I answer Thou art in Covenant with him and he is thine in the Covenant Relations even thy Reconciled Father thy Saviour and thy Sanctifier No husband is so inviolably bound to a wife nor will so faithfully answer his Relation as the blessed Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier unto thee Didst thou well know and consider what it is to have God himself to be thine in Covenant to all these uses and to all the ends that thou canst reasonably desire it would fill up thy soul with satisfying delights There is nothing that thou wantest but what belongs to God to give thee in one of these three great relations And sooner shall the day be turned into night and the frame of