in the words of St. Paul O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of sin and death Who can say he hath cleansed himself Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean But yer St. John saith that he that is born of God sinneth not because his seed remaineth in him and the 1 Epst c. 3. I have wrote unto you young men because you have overcome that wicked one Love not the world nor the things of the world And v. 6. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not Whosever sinneth hath not seen him nor known him v. 7. Little children let no man deceive you he that doth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous v. 9. He cannot sin because he is born of God v. 8. He that committeth sin is of the Devil Which Texts are not to be expounded in this sense that a Saint of God may not be overtaken or be temped so above his strength as to be overcome against his will as some suppose it is for then to what purpose doth the Apostle Paul enjoyne it as a duty if any one be overtaken with a fault restore such a one in the Spirit of meekness considering that thou thy self also mayest be tempted unless a good man might be overtaken and the argument too of the duty is positive that thou also who art to restore him mayest be tempted and overcome therefore do this duty to another and the promise of lifting up those that fall would be needless and those many exhortations of our Saviour all the Apostles to watchfulness and prayer circumspection and carefulness against temptations of the world the flesh and the Devil seducers and deceivers would little become so great teachers if there were no need at all of those duties and no danger in the neglect of them nor no possibility that the regenerate person could fall Then he that standeth needs not to take such heed least he fall and St. John himself also saith in the first Epistle chap. 5.17 All unrighteousness is sin and there is a sin not unto death And in vers 16. If any Man see his Brother sin a sin that is not to death he shall ask and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death and 1 Epist ch 1. v. 8. If we say that we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive and ch 2. v. 1. If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father c. But if we were absolutely free from sin and the power of sinning what need had we of our Advocate Therefore it seems by the opinion and consent of most Men that when he saith He that is born of God sinneth not he meaneth the same as St. Paul doth express saying It is not I but sin that dwelleth in me And again so with my Spirit I serve the Law of God but with my Flesh the Law of sin and the Law of his Members lead him Captive By which it appears That the inclination of his mind was to serve God in all holiness of Life and he delighted in that in his inward Man And if he chanced to do the contrary it was unwillingly and he counted it his unhappiness and bondage from which he endeavoured to get free Whereas the unregenerate Man counts sin his freedom and every holy observance of Gods Commandments his bondage And when his Conscience checks him and forceth him to any walking with God in religious duties it is thraldom and bondage to him For his course of Life and Conversation is to serve the Flesh and the World to walk in the ways of his own Heart and the sight of his eyes and is sorry that there is any Commandment to restrain him and desires not to know it at least in the strictness of it Again if a regenerate person chance to be overcome by his corruption and strength of Temptation he immediately not only loaths the sin but himself also that he is no better and would rather undergo all misery than fall into the same again And would foregoe all the enjoyments that he hath or hopes for in this World if he could but undoe what he hath misdone The unregenerate are not so and as Solomon describes the Harlot she wipeth her mouth and saith I have not sinned so do others in the state of Nature unless their sins be very gross say they have not sinned or if they confess their sins to God and pray for pardon they think it is enough to embolden them to sin afresh And as the Regenerate walk with God and premeditate and study not how they may commit a sin secretly and undiscovered so as to avoid the shame and punishment but how they may walk closely with God and avoid every Temptation and Snare of Satan so the unregenerate study and contrive to sin with advantage And that place of St. John that saith ye have overcome the evil one may be upon this ground that they have overcome the evil one many times and persist in the conquest of their corruption every day though peradventure some time the Devil may prevail to overcome them as it is said he shall bruise thy heel And though God never leaves Man to be overcome when he endeavours his utmost yet God may let him be overcome as Peter was to humble him in the sight of his own weakeness when he is confident of his strength that he may depend and rely more upon God and seek to him more and not rely upon his own strength but ascribe all to God and his grace And though St. Paul confesseth so much imperfection and St. John so much perfection both of them will agree in this that we are made perfect in Christ St. John further describeth the perfections of the regenerate 1 Ep. 5.4 Whosoever is borne of God overcometh the world And sheweth how in the following words and this is the victory that overcometh the world even our saith He tells us the particulars which he means namely The lusts of the flesh the lusts of the eyes and the pride of life which all are overcome for ch 3. v. 7. He saith That he that doth righteousnes is righteous And 10. Whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God And 1 Ep. c. 5.18 We know that whosoever is borne of God sinneth not for he that is begotten of God keepeth himself and the wicked one toucheth him not Which touching certainly hath reference to the words before of sinning a sin not unto death and those words sinneth not have the same reference viz. He sinneth not de industria Pleno Animo Else no man will be found that it can be said of him that he sineth not Noah whom God mentioned for one of the three persons most acceptable to God of whom it is testified in the holy scriptures that he only was found righteous yet he was overtaken by the sin of
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
inducements for the things we pray for as we use confession as an inducement for pardon and thanksgiving may and ought to be used as an inducement for obtaining further mercies or else we look upon them as distinct duties they are proper enough but not always necessary to be joined with this duty therefore we refer them to their proper places and judg them much more easy as to the verbal expression than fervent Prayer for grace and spiritual enjoyments When God hath filled our heart with food and gladness and hath wrought deliverance for us and so hath given us matter of thanksgiving if the Heart be but enough thankful words of praise and outward actions cannot be wanting but thanksgivings and confessions are peculiar things and for this duty this one motive may be sufficient to enforce it viz. That it pleaseth the Lord better than a Bullock that hath Horns and Hoofs Psal 69.32 These three viz. Grace and the means of Grace and the rewards I conceive they contain all the promises and all that God hath engag'd by the new Covenant to give to his people They contain also all that God hath commanded and enjoyned his people and requireth of them and they contain all that they need or can desire to make them happy here and hereafter And there is no Petition in the Psalms of David or in any prayer in all the Scripture but is contained under one of these heads for all the Prayers of the Saints tends to this end viz. The glory of God and the promotion of his Kingdom and the means thereof Those Prayers which are against the opposites namely against sin and iniquity and the occasions and helps thereof and against every degree of sin and the punishments and curses due to sin and sinners That the rod of the Wicked may not rest upon the lot of the righteous Psal 125. These are of the same nature with the former for the overthrowing plucking down and destroying of sin and Satans Kingdom and the treading him under foot is the preparing the way of the Lord that his Kingdom may come therefore we do in this pray against those and in praying against those we pray for this Hence it is that God hath made promises accordingly of subduing our iniquities and to tread Satan under our feet That no Weapon formed against us shall prosper That sin shall not have dominion over us And we pray for the performance of these promises when we pray the second Petition of the Lord's Prayer Thy Kingdom come for the Kingdoms of the World cannot become the Kingdom of the Lord and of his Christ but by the subsersion of Antichrists Kingdom This notwithstanding it is our duty to pray expresly as we are strengthned and assisted by the holy Spirit as well for these as against those and against those as well as for these although implicitly he that prays for the Kingdom of God prays against sin and Satan See Psal 119. Turn away my eyes from beholding vanity c. Likewise when we pray thus generally in these words of our blessed Saviour we do implicitly pray for the conversion of the Jews Yet ought we notwithstanding expresly to pray for it because we are commanded to give him no rest till he make Jerusalem a praise What persons we are to pray for is also taught by the Apostle 1 Tim. 2.1 I will therefore that Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men but yet we are chiefly to pray for the chosen people of God for thereby we express and declare our fellowship with them and our relation to them as members of the same mystical body in Christ Jesus and thereby endeared to us more than our natural relations Therefore we find the Apostles in their Epistles praying for those they write to and requiring the like of them again Paul to the Ephesians prayeth for them c. 1.17 That God would give them the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledg of him that their understanding being enlightned they might know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand c. and Chap. 3.16 Prayeth that they may be strengthned with might by the Spirit in the inner-man that they may know the love of Christ for the Saints at Philippi he prayeth that their love may abound more and more in knowledg and all judgment that they may approve things that are excellent that they may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the praise and glory of God Philip. 1.9 By these and the like Prayers of the holy Apostles we learn what to pray for as well for our selves as others We learn from St. Pauls prayer for the Hebrews c. 13. To pray that God through the blood of the everlasting Covenant would make us perfect in every good work to do his will working in us that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ. For it is through Jesus Christ if any thing we do is pleasing to God and it is God himself who works it in us Those that do not pray for the peace of Jerusalem are not Citizens thereof therefore they do not love her But they that do pray for her peace and give God no rest until he make Jerusalem a praise are Citizens of that Jerusalem which is from above which is the mother of us all and they receive comfort from her welfare and are sure that she shall receive a benefit by their Prayers and hope to receive benefit mutually by her Prayers for as the Apostles in their Epistles to the Churches pray for them so they do also desire their prayers I infer that every particular Christian in his Prayers must put in suit the general promises viz. That all her people shall be holy all righteous all be taught of God and holiness to the Lord shall be writ upon the Bells of the Horses They who pray for these Spiritual gifts and graces for themselves and others do pray in the Spirit and seek the Glory of God And by their fervency and zeal and frequent addresses to God for them and for repressing and subduing their opposites viz. The sins which so easily beset them their iniquities and corruptions They shew forth their weariness of them and burthen which loadeth them from which they groan and cry to be eased and deliver'd by God because they are not able by all they can do to be deliver'd by their own industry And because our blessed Saviour hath promised to ease such therefore they may be sure to be heard if they confessing their particular burthen of corruption whether it be pride
power to the faint and to them which have no might he increaseth strength They that wait upon the Lord shall renew thâ—ir strength Isa 40.29 30. The God of Peace shall sanctifie you throughout in spirit soul and body Faithful is he who hath called you who also will do it 1 Thes 5.23 â—4 Sin shall not have dominion over you Rom. 6.14 A new heart will I give you Ezek. 36.26 But it would seem tedious to run through all the sins which humane nature is prone to and to adapt the promises in holy Scripture to particular sins and lusts under which we labour and desire to be eased I therefore pursue it no further the rather because the precedent instances are easily imitated by those who read and meditate in the Scripture which all they do who desire to break off their sins by repentance This Direction I conceive to be necessary viz. That those who come to crave a promise of God do also consider the qualification and in the first place seek that else the promise belongeth not to thee For example if in thy trouble thou prayest that all things may work together for thy good pray also that he would circumcise thy heart and cause thee to love him with all thy heart And pray for this in the first place for the other will follow upon it This is according to God's own direction Seek first the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof all other things shall be thrown in to you And in this manner we are to put in suit all the promises We must look upon the promised blessing as the invitation and incouragement to seek the grace that is the qualification and he who prayes for the grace implicitely and most strongly prayes for the promise annexed And there is no grace but hath a promised reward annexed a cup of cold water given in charity shall not lose its reward or but two mites where little is Then we must believe that no good works shall lose its reward And there is no blessedness promised to any but those who are qualified with this or that grace as may be seen in the 5th of St. Matthews Gospel and in other like places And he that seeks godliness seeks all the promises of this life and that which is to come as incident thereto therefore seek this first For many that have the qualifications of these promises and blessedness are yet in doubt whether they are sufficiently qualified and think that they ought to be better qualified for them and desire to be better qualified as well for their own joy and comfort as also that they may be more excellent and lovely in the eye of their Lord and beloved Saviour And grace wherever it is begets a holy thirst for a greater measure and will still thirst till it enjoy the highest perfection of degrees in glory Therefore they pray chiefly for grace and the improvement of every grace in themselves and others according to that Col. 1.8 9. Since the day we heard of it viz. Their love in the spirit mentioned in the 8th verse we cease not to pray for you and to desire that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding And chap. 4.12 That ye may stand perfect and compleat in all the will of God Phil. 1.11 And be filled with the fruits of righteousness c. And for the Blessings Rewards and Promises which God hath made and limited to those who have these graces and qualifications No man that prayeth for them in the behalf of those that are qualified can doubt of prevailing as when we pray Psal 7.4 Let all those that seek thee rejoyce Psal 40.16 Psal 33.22 Let thy mercy O Lord be upon us according as we hope in thee Psal 25.21 Let integrity and uprightness preserve me for I wait on thee and the like Because we oftener find these blessings and rewards positively asserted to be the portion and peculiar priviledges of those that seek God call upon him love him delight in him trust in him rely upon him have their mind stayed on him hope in him fear him and wait upon him Then we have found them particularly prayed for in the behalf of them who are so qualified Yet we do well to pray for them as well for our selves as for the whole Church of God Now in regard there be many promises free and without any condition on our part it behoves us when we fear that we are not qualified for a promise that we press God with those promises which are free as that I will love them freely Hos 14.4 I will pardon their iniquities I will heal them Hos 14.5 I will pour out my Spirit upon them Joel 2.28 I will put my Laws in their hearts and write them in their inward parts Jer. 31.33 I will be merciful to them and their sins and their iniqnities will I remember no more Jer. 31.34 He will subdue our iniquities and cast our sins into the bottom of the Sea Mich. 7.19 I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake and I will not remember thy sins Isa 43.25 I will put my fear in their hearts Jer. 32.40 A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you Ezek. 36.26 Psal He will teach sinners in the way Isa 32.4 The heart of the rash shall understand Isa 42.7 He shall open the eyes of the blind Isa 44.3 I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground These and many others are promised upon very little or no consideration to be performed on our part As some are for asking seeking coming to God looking up to him If we had the sagacity of the Canaanitish woman we should perceive a door of hope through a little cranny For God will be sometimes prevailed with for a very petty consideration performed from a sincere heart because he knoweth our frailty This David well knew when he prayed Let the liseing up of my hand be as an evening Sacrifice So did the woman that brought two mites to inrich the Treasury And the Thief upon the Cross Also there are promises which are meerly free and grounded upon the privation and want of all consideration on our parts as that Therefore will the Lord wait to be gracious And at other times the Lord will not be prevailed withal but with great intreaty and importunity of prayer and fasting and alms-giving As we read our blessed Saviour told the Disciples in the case of dispossessing unclean spirits And Cornelius also with his prayers used fasting and alms much But sometimes the Lord will not be prevailed with at all as he said to the Prophet Though Noah Daniel and Job should entreat c. Therefore he commands him not to pray for that people and though Moses and Samuel should intercede Jer. 15.1 As it is said in the first chapter of Proverbs Because when I called
What perfection then can any man pretend to in any grace so great as not to need continual prayer to God to support him water and strengthen him with his grace and holy Spirit lest he fall David protests his delight was in Gods Commandments Psal 119. v. 39. And yet he there prayeth v. 35. Make me to go in the paths of thy Commandments Incline my heart to thy Testimonies In regard the people of God do esteem grace a thing infinitely desirable and sin infinitely detestable and formidable therefore they think they have not enough of any grace till they can do Gods will on earth as it is done in Heaven And think they are in danger of falling because they have seen great Saints sometimes to fall into dreadful sins Therefore pray to be kept from all sorts of sins Keep me from presumptuous sins said holy David and they think they can never fear them enough or fly them enough nor pray against them enough The wickedest of men will pray for remission of sins but they seldom pray for healing them and renewing their hearts that they may be inclined to Gods Commandments that they may be a holy people and that God would fulful his promises of grace in them to put his Spirit in them and to write his Laws in their inward parts It is cursory with common swarers upon their oaths to say immediately God forgive me and presently swear again This shews no repentance nor sorrow for sin nor desire of amendment it rather begs license to offend with impunity what other thing do those who make their daily confession to their Priests and Friers of such sins which they have committed and intend to commit again upon the first opportunity and never think of repentance or amendment to pray for it themselves or to desire others to pray for them prophane Esan shall rise up in judgment against them But do thou pray to be deliver'd from thy offences Psal 39.9 That God would create in thee a clean heart and establish thee with his Spirit Psal 51. And that God would open thine eyes that thou mayest see the wonderful things of his Law and that he would teach thee his Statutes and make thee to go in the paths of his Commandments and the like and then thou wilt be sure of pardon and sanctifying grace Psal 119. and peace of conscience and that thou hast fellowship with God the Father and Jesus Christ his Son 1 Joh. 1.3 And thy joy shall be full v. 4. ib. Because thou abidest in him walking as he walked though not so perfect We must also pray for these graces with a full purpose and resolution of endeavouring our selves to the utmost in the use of the means for attaining them otherwise our Prayers are but only said as Children are taught to say a Prayer It is but lip labour to draw nigh to God with our lips when our hearts are far from him And those who pray for any grace which God hath promised and resolve not to use their own endeavours for the attaining it do not pray in faith because they separate the Commandments from the promises For he that hath promised to give them to us hath also commanded us to get them and to labour for them to strive for them to sell all for them And yet to continue instant in Prayer for them too that he would bless our endeavours and give us the desired grace for Jesus Christs sake in and by whom only thou canst hope to prevail We must also be sensible of our own need which we have of these graces which we seek or else we shall not be servent in Prayer For instance if thou prayest to God to fulfil that promise that he will tread Satan under thy seet thou must be sensible of this that he doth in some temptations get some ground of thee more or less for which thou art grieved and countest it thy unhappiness It may be thou perceivest thy self to have been more angry than became a patient man or that thou hast spoke more than thou didst perfectly know of thine own knowledg or else hast through the bad example or importunity of thy company drunk one Cup too much or hast had uncharitable thoughts or been tempted to any sin Thou art therefore grieved that Satan hath found any thing in thee to work upon and dost desire so much strength as to shake him off resolutely and readily at thy will and pleasure as Joseph shook off his Mistress if God will be pleased to grant it according to this promise and many more to the same estect Thou must also be sensible of the great advantage and benefit which the grace desired will bring If thus thou canst pray thou mayest be sure to speed whatever promised grace thou desirest whatever degree of grace any Saint of God hath had thou mayest have it for asking if thou ask in faith The patience of Job the chastity of Joseph the zeal of David the Justice of Lot the righteousness of Noah the meekness of Moses the faith of Abraham and Peter the charity of St. John the temperance of the three Children and love of God whereby they gave their bodies to be burned for him c. For God hath promised that the weak shall be as the house of David and the house of David as God It is not my scope to enumerate all those promises of grace which God hath made it is every mans great concern to know them and crave them of God as their portion which Jesus Christ hath purchased with his blood for them and to live upon them and lay hold on them Those general promises which God hath made to his Church and People if thou canst not clearly entitle thy self in particular thou mayest notwithstanding pray in the behalf of the Church and shalt not fear to speed Those promises which tend to the ruine of the enemies of the Church and God's enemies are every mans concern to pray for and though he be weak in faith that he can hardly lay hold of them yet if he pray for them that God may be glorified he doth well and may assure himself that he shall succeed because he seeks it for God's glory For the promises of destroying sin and Satan and his works and treading him under foot is God's own interest as well as ours And God is more ready to do it than we to ask it therefore we can never doubt of the granting of these petitions Now most of the promises of the New Covenant which are to express what God will do for his people are of this nature either what God will do against their enemies or for them And being they were freely made they may we hope be freely performed if we seek them These are briefly contained in the four last petitions of the Lord's Prayer and if we can find faith to believe that we shall receive these we shall easily find faith to believe that God will do the
or like a dead Tree withered and plucked up In this forelorn and hopeless condition when no man regards our perishing we come to God for help and he in whose only power it is to help doth help us and deliver us and makes the dry bones live and we have seen the salvation of the Lord and the wonders that he doth for the Sons of men and have been transported with joy as the Israelites when they came out of Babylon were I acknowledge that there be some who come in no misfortune nor are plagued like other men But all those whom Christ Jesus hath chosen to be his souldiers he trains up in this discipline But if it were so that I had not gone thorow such perils such afflictions and such troubles as I see and hear to befall other men Have I not much more cause to praise God for keeping me in health than for raising me up again being fallen sick from keeping me from the perils which befall other men than for delivering me if I had been in danger and for keeping me from troubles wherein others are plunged If I consider the calamities of men far greater than my self As for instance of him who is more worth than thousands of us our Soveraign Lord the King Can I chuse but bless God that my distresses afflictions and perils of life have not been so many and great as his But how great and good above me was he that was after God's own heart What pains perils and troubles did he not go thorow first in his person his reins chastened him in the night he had no soundness in his bones then from his superiours Saul persecuting him as long as he lived from his inferiours his servant curseth him to his face from unkind neighbours as Doeg the Edomite from his Relations his wife scoffing him his Son rebelling and another commits a rape on his Sister c. Besides the temporal mercies he also tells us what God hath done for his soul too as Psal 103. and blesseth God for forgiving all his sin c. ib. For this we can never praise God enough Meditations and Ejaculations Go about Duties not as labours but thy only enjoyments Delight thy self in the Lord and expect the Reward LORD since thou hast promised thy holy Spirit to them who ask it of thee I beseech thee give it to me for without it I cannot serve thee nor walk in obedience to thy holy Commandments for by reading and hearing thy Word I can only know my duty I cannot retain my holy resolutions which are stirred up in the duties one hour Therefore do thou create in me a new heart and a new nature Regenerate me by thy Spirit and the immortal seed and write thy Law in my heart and give me thy holy Spirit the Almighty Helper the Comforter and hold thou me up and I shall be safe Make me willing to undergo conflicts with sin for hereby I shall have comfort in the hour of death and the day of trouble O give me peace of conscience the comforts of a well-spent life that I may be able to say with Hezekiah Lord remember how I have walked before thee in all simplicity when the day of death comes Make me wise to consider alwaies my latter end and what thoughts I shall have then of the world and all its comforts let this restrain me from giving up my self to them else I shall be a fool in my latter end as the wicked are and cry out that the world hath deceived them their consciences being then awakened which in their lime-time they stifled and then the Hypocrites have no hope Therefore Lord give me grace and prudence to make provision against that time that the sting of death may be taken out Let me believe the terrours threatned against the wicked that I may never come to feel them Let me find Christ my Advocate when death comes upon me And that I may not die in my sin make me by thy grace continually to die to sin Deliver me from every evil work and preserve my body and soul blameless unto the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Lord above all things give me to fear sin and the transgression of thy Law who art the great Soveraign of the world its Creator and Preserver to whom we owe both our persons and obedience and if the Gentiles do by nature the things contained in the Law much more let me who have as well the written Law and the Gospel as the Law of Nature do the things contained in the Law else how shall I escape thy wrath But having tryed our obedience thou hast found us all rebels and in thy justice mayest damn us all if thy mercy in Christ Jesus do not save us Since Jesus Christ our Saviour was made under a Law and the glorious Angels fulfil thy commandments and hearken to the voice of thy word and man hath no such perfection as his Saviour or the Angels but our wisdom and our perfection is in obedience to the Law Inable us to keep it for herein God hath shewed us what is good Micah 6.8 Every child of God is as a souldier keeping a garrison in an enemies Country Therefore Lord as I put on my apparel let me remember to put on the Armour of light and to watch and be provided to fight thy battels let me not be destitute of any piece of this Armour but give me all Christian vertues I am naked naturally and without this Armour but unless I have it of thy gift I cannot put it on but must perish by my nakedness for I cannot have any truse from my spiritual adversary who watches to destroy us And give me the skill of an expert warriour to use these Armes against the Devil the World and the flesh inable me to put off all sins which hinder the planting and growth of grace in our hearts for we cannot serve God and mammon let me depart from evil that I may do good Let me feel the power of Christ's death that I may partake of his resurrection Let the sense of my forepast sins make me the more diligent in thy service Since my darkness is passed let me put off the works of darkness Let me not delay considering my danger and the shortness and uncertainty of life and the greatness of the reward if I do thy service For to him that is faithful in much thou wilt give much ten Cities for improving his five talents to that number That I may fear sin and not make light of it or a mock of it as fools are said to do let me consider the great evil of it That it is the foolishness and brutishness of a man the darkness and nakedness the blindness and sottishness and death of the soul which makes us said to be dead in trespasses and sins and that the effects of sin are the worst of evils That it makes us like to the Devils That one sin makes us
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
produced must be good also and must proceed from that good principle viz. Faith without which it is impossible to please God but these good fruits are not proportionable to the goodness of his heart for he is sorry that they are no better blushing ever at their imperfections not boasting of them nor craving honour for them the end also must be good These qualifications the good works have They are described from their cause Gal. 5.22 The fruits of the Spirit are love joy peace meekness c. Rom. 6.22 described by their end these are fruits unto holiness Another difference is that some of those works are secret and invisible to Men such as are terminated in the action within as the secret risings of the heart against corruptions as was in St. Paul when he said That which I would I do not and groans for deliverance saying who shall deliver me from this bondage of corruption also secret longings after Christ and God and Holiness also dependency upon Christ and God inward mournings for sin c. 2. Such works as have opus ad extra as to shew forth a good Conversation True Holiness defined It is a grace supernatural infused by the Holy Spirit renewing us after the Image of him that made us whereby God is in us Christ is in us and the Holy Spirit is in us and we are in Christ by an inseparable Union and Communion of Natures 1 John 4.16 Gal. 2.20 and 4.19 1 John 4.13 'T is infused because of our selves we are not able to think a good thought and Christ saith That without him we can do nothing God worketh in us both to will and to do though he commands us to work out our own Salvation and the words following viz. with fear and trembling denote the weakness and disability of our selves and the ability which the command doth suppose is from Gods assistance we doing our endeavour our blessed Lord and Saviour compares it to leaven It is an Universal change of the whole Man If any one be in Christ he is a new Creature old things are passed away and all things become new It reneweth us after the Image of him that made us Both the inward Man and the outward are changed as Saul's heart was changed when he was anointed to be King so is every Saint changed by the Spirit of God that is in him and the understanding desires and thirsts after no knowledge but to know God and Jesus Christ and him Crucified because the understanding before was darkned and alienated from the Life of God through the Ignorance that was in it But now it is enlightned and the darkness is passed away because the Light of the glorious Gospel of Christ which is the Image of God hath shined into it for the Gospel is Light and Jesus Christ is that Light that enlightens every one that cometh into the World by this it cometh to pass that the Soul knowerh that all Gods Commandments are True Righteous and Faithful that they are tryed to the utmost That it is Wisdom and Understanding to do thereafter It now puts a true estimate upon God and Christ Heaven and Grace and Glory This is that wise Merchant spoken of in the Gospel that having found a Pearl of exceeding great value in a Field sold all to buy that Field his knowledge is practical diligent and not slothful rests not in the inquisition but proceeds to the acquisition of its true everlasting interest through the knowledge of Jesus Christ as he is revealed in the Gospel Rom. 12.2 Be ye transformed in the renewing of your minds that ye may prove what is the good acceptable and perfest Will of God As the undestanding is changed so the affctions love hatred hope fear c. Are accordingly changed he that before counted the Sabboth weariness now he calleth it a delight He that before rejoyced in the increase of Corne Wine and Oyl and in satisfying the senses his joy now proceeds from higher and nobler causes viz. The light of Gods countenance communion with God in holy duties reading the word of God praying thanksgiveing meditating and the most severe duties of fasting humiliation and repentance and every meanes of begetting and improving grace he preserreth before satisfying of the senses with pleasant viands which whilest they cherish and delight the body they deprave the better part possibly not the intellect and rational faculty of the soul for that may be improved too by God usage of the body so it be not to excess But the new nature the divine Image which is begotten in us by the word of truth is starved stifled and grieved which image and new nature though it be in the understanding yet it doth so far surpass the reason as that doth the senses and is no other thing but the holy Spirit of God which every regenerate person hath received in some measure for this is that which did regenerate him which if any man have not it is certain he is none of his It is known to be the Spirit of God because it works not as reason doth by arguments deduced from things visible to sense nor such as can be proved by reasonable consequence but it is oftentimes directly opposite and repugnant to reason as in Abraham and so in all that undergo any trialls and who doth not undergo them This new soul or new life of the regenerate is not somented nourished or cherished by the elements of the natural sensual vegetative or meerly rational soul but by the word of God and the dictates of the Spirit for which it panteth as the Hart panteth after the water brooks and breaketh out for the very fervent desire that it hath alwaies to Gods commandments which it esteemeth above Gold and thirsteth after as the body doth for the necessarys of life and yet the most regegenerate and renewed person hath the flesh and coruption alwaies remaining in him and must and doth pray sometimes with holy David for renovation Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right Spirit within me Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy holy Spirit from me For we have this treasure but in earthen vessels we are not assured of the continuance of it therefore we watch against our inbred corruptions and pray for divine supportations knowing our slippery standing our own weakness and the strength of our spiritual adversaries which assails us without intermission And when we think our selves most strong we may fall as the great Apostle that denied his Master did because in the best of Saints the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and sometimes leads them captive and suffers not to do the good which they would but draws them to the evil which they would not the law of the members warring against the law of the mind Were it otherwise there would be no virtue nor occasion of resisting The sense of which corruption and uncleanness makes them mourne bewaile and abhor themselves
and thou only dost mollify it by the word and thy Spirit I will therefore beseech thee for this grace saying with Ephraim Jer. 31.18 Turn thou me O Lord and I shall be turned for thou art the Lord for of my self I am under thy Chastisements untamed as a Bullock unaccustomed to the yoak But if thou turnest me thou wilt open my ear by discipline thou wilt open my eyes and mollify my hard heart I shall be instructed convinced of my errours and smite upon my breast and repent and be ashamed Thus Ephraim did Jer. 31.19 Surely after I was turned I repented after I was instructed I smote upon my thigh I was ashamed and confunded because I did bear the reproach of my youth Lord we ascribe this and all our graces unto thee thou workest in us both to will and to do as St. Paul said That he labourd more abundantly than all yet not he but the grace of God in him It is not sufficient that thou commandest all men to repent but that godly sorrow which worketh repentance is from thee also By this we are sorrowfull for our sins for sins sake and not only for fear of the punishment as Esau when he sought repentance carefully with tears because of his loss as also Pharo repented of his sins but the plagues being removed he returned to his sin again And the Israelites when God consumed their dayes in vanity and their years in trouble and when he slew them they sought him but within a while they forgot God And God alone can give this sorrow because he alone can open the eyes to let us see our selves know our selves and let me ever seek my light in him Act. 26.8 For God is light and all light is from him The Spirit shews us our selves in the glass of the law which shewes us our sinfulness and our lost undone condition by reason thereof and that sin is the worst of evils because it is the cause of all other evils and without this conviction we cannot repent because we are destitute of light in our selves to see our selves for by sin our understanding is darkned Eph. 4.18 And 1 Joh. 2.11 He that hateth his Brother walketh in darkness and knoweth not whither he goeth He wanteth light and sight too Job 24.13 They rebel against the light and know not the waies thereof Naturally we shut our eyes against the light as the Jews Joh. 12.37 Though Christ Jesus had done many miracles among them yet they believed not in him though also he speak as no man spake his enemies being judges And because our natural estate is a state of unbelief therefore we in that estate oppose the light of Gods word as is said Luke 16.4 Though one should come out of Hell they would not believe Again I find I cannot repent of my self without Gods grace inclining me Because naturally my heart is proud and unhumbled and sees no use of Christ And therefore it must be humbled by grace for Christ came only to seek and to save that which was lost and sensible of their lost condition their Spiritual sickness and fly to Christ as the man slayer did to the Cities of refuge or the prodigal after he could not find relief in the husks would then returne to his Fathers house Again I find in my self that my nature when dejected is inclined to repentance too violently as the Corinthians who sorrowed over much or rather like that of Judas ready to make away my self if Gods supernatural grace did not help me by applying some word of comfort out of the Scripture Then if my repentance cause not a dejection I fear it is too cold like that of the Israelites when God slew them then they sought him but presently they forgat that God was their redeemer Therefore I pray for Gods grace so to convince me of sin that I may be also convinced of righteousness too for he hath said That if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive them That I may not sorrow as those who are without hope nor hang down my head like a bulrush for a day but that I may sorrow to amendment and better obedience for unless it attain to that end and proceed from these causes I must not account it a godly sorrow working to repentance But a worldly sorrow or a devilish sorrow for they also fear and tremble but they cannot turn unto God with their affections and endeavours and bring forth fruit meet for Repentance nor be renewed in the Spirit of their mind which is the only true Repentance I find in my self sometimes motions of the flesh suggesting that I have time enough to repent But I pray that whilst it is to day I may lay hold on the seasons of Grace that I may remember my Creator in the time of my youth least sin grow to a habit and by custom seem to be no sin and becomes a second Nature that it cannot be parted withal And in the first of Proverbs 't is said Because when I called ye answered not therefore ye shall call and I will not answer which our Saviour testifieth that the Jews found true when he wept over Jerusalem and he rejected those who made excuses when they were invited I fear and am jealous that my Repentance is not so sound as it ought to be because I am not so sensible of the evil of sin as I ought for though immediately after the commission of sin I apprehend great evil in it in making me liable to all Gods Judgements here and hereafter and that it deprives me of all good First my hopes of Eternal happiness hereafter and the great and precious promises made to the obedient And if not that for there remaineth hope of Repentance yet there is great loss and punishment to all sinners though they repent As David found when he numbred the people When God offered him his choice of the three Judgements And when he denounced that Judgement against his Family That the Sword should never depart from it And Lot for his drunkenness and lust suffered shame all the days of his life and the curse upon his Seed Besides the outward losses I cannot sufficiently value the inward Spiritual loss when I have no access to the Throne of Grace with any confidence but am afraid to approach to it nor can have any comfort in meditating of God's Word and Promises as if I heard a voice saying Why dost thou take my Laws into thy Mouth seeing thou hatest to be reformed and hast cast my Commandments behind thy back or if I do meditate of Gods Word and his Promises and his Goodness I find not such sweetness and delight in my Meditations as I did before I had sinned On the contrary I find these Spiritual losses First Great advantage given to my Spiritual Adversary to insult over me as if I were guilty of all sins by this one sin and the same disobedience that lead me to this
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
our minds to make known our requests to him whereby we can call God Father Gal. c. 4 v. 6. because ye are Sons he hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your heart whereby ye call him Father therefore as oft as we find our Souls thus let us wrastle it out with God till we get the blessing and desir'd grace Men that want the Spirit of God have these three dispositions Slavishness Mercenariness and Sensuality They pray out of fear and in doubt of acceptance and when they have their desires their Prayers cease unless they be customary and formal Prayers and they crave but sensual things The Spirit also supplyeth a Christian with holy ends and represseth carnal ends so that in all our requests we seek the glory of God as it is sought in all the petitions in the Lords Prayer in such the largeness of our desires doth not hinder the obtaining of them but furthereth rather for he hath commanded open thy mouth wide and hath promise to fill it The larger the desires the more pleasing to God and the more like to speed for the more of the Spirit is in them There is no colour then why any should neglect this duty upon pretence of having the Spirit for the Apostles and Disciples of our Lord continued in Prayer and breaking of Bread after they had received the spirit for God is to be found met with in those ordinances as he saith he walketh in the midsts of the Golden Candlesticks And the Spirit is to be sought in these for the best of Saints have need of seeking it in a greater measure and for continual supplies and watering every moment which they obtain in and by their communion with God in this duty But the more we have of the Spirit the more we ought to be conversant in this Duty because we are furnished with ability and for not using our Talents they may be taken away and by using they are improved And the more effectual and fervent they will be by this that they are more spiritual Much less may we neglect prayer if we think we have not the Spirit for we pray for it And this circumstance of fasting and watching is sometimes joined with this duty to the end our prayers may be more spiritual I mean a Fast from a meal that none may perceive not a Fast of 40 days nor exchange of Flesh for Fish Fasting doth as much promote it as the contrary doth let and hinder it though possibly we may use the same expression full as fasting yet they who have tryed know the advantage which this gives above that to the fervency and earnestness and the holiness of our desires and prayers and to repentance and sorrow for our sins And our Saviour tells his Disciples of a sort of Devils which could not be cast out but by fasting and prayer And Mark 9. Cornelius thus prayed and thus Daniel Dan. c. 9. both with good success David also humbled himself with fasting for they knew well that words of course as a Sacrifice that costs nothing is nothing worth And unless we thus pray in the Spirit it appears we cannot please God for the prayer cannot otherwise be holy and for such things as are pleasing to God for who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean Although we ought to pray in this manner yet nevertheless ought we not to neglect the duty though we cannot perceive the assistance of the Spirit for God feedeth the young Ravens that call upon him If they can call upon him no man can pretend a disability And David in the 107 Psalm sheweth how people that are plagued for their wickedness because they rebell'd against the Lord and contemned the counsel of the most high v. 11 and 17. Yet crying unto the Lord in their trouble he deliveretd them out of their distress Though these prayers were extorted from them in their extremities when their soul abhorr'd all manner of Meat and they were even at Deaths door And when they were at their wits end and ready to perish through their hunger and thirst and bondage which for their sins they suffered yet in their extremities they cry to God whom they had sinned against and he delivereth them These were not such prayers as are put up by the Spirit for such relief even nature though degenerated can easily pray but the dictates of the Spirit are spiritual yet in regard the heart and lip go together those are prevalent much more if prayed in faith If God heareth such prayers and thou thy self hast obtained thy Requests for these or the like benefits and temporal deliverances thou mayest then be emboldened and encouraged to ask and continue praying for all thou lackest as David expresseth Psal 116. I am well pleased that the Lord hath heard the voice of my prayer therefore will I call upon him as long as I live And if thou hast been heard for things temporal thou needest not to despair or doubt when thou prayest for those things which are pleasing to God which he hath commanded thee to ask and Jesus Christ also hath commended to thee to seek and promised to procure Not but that a Child of God may and must by Faith and by the Spirit ask the things of this life for our blessed Saviour teacheth us to pray for our daily bread he pray'd Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from me yet not my will but thy will be done This submission made that prayer which was natural to be spiritual although he prayed for that which he knew was impossible And since God in his mercy hath given his peculiar people many promises of temporal blessings they may and must ask them in faith in such order as Jesus Christ hath appointed viz. seeking the Kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof first and with modesty and such other circumstances as hereafter is express'd and God will grant our requests as far as is for our good But that which is sure to prevail is the holy appetite that planteth Hungers and Thirsts after righteousness for to that is the promise annexed and blessing too Matth. 5.6 Isa 55.1 Ho every one that thirsteth come ye Isa 44.3 I will pour water upon him that is thirsty The desires of such shall be satisfied though not utter'd with full expressions nor strength of Lungs as Prayers learn'd may be Importunity which our Saviour Christ so much presseth is comprehended under this of praying in the Spirit for he taught nothing but what was spiritual And his practice too proves it to be the operation of the Spirit that makes us importunate in Prayer for when he prayed he was frequently in agonies and prayed most earnestly It reproves those that mind other things when they pray how shall God mind their prayers what he teacheth and urgeth for this is in Luke 18. where he sheweth that for our importunities sake we are hear'd of God and argueth that we ought always
to pray and not to faint to which agreeth 1 Thes 5.17 Pray without ceasing To the same purpose our Saviour teacheth Luke 11.5 Where he sheweth that Importunity prevailed more than Love and Friendship 1 Sam. 1.15 It is said I poured out my Soul before God Zeal maketh Importunate and fervent in Spirit serving the Lord. If our Lord and Saviour sweat blood we must undergo some pain and if we apprehend the greatness of the benefits which we beg it will make us zealous Another part of the manner which our blessed Saviour hath enjoined is to ask in his name Ephes 3.12 In whom we have boldness c. He hath not only commanded it but to the observance of the command annexed a promise of reward as large as we can desire John 14.13 Whatsoever ye ask the Father in my name I will do it this is an odoriferous perfume to our prayers In his name every knee must bow it is not at his name in the original He is our only Mediator and high Priest who ever liveth to make intercession for us He presents them and recommendeth them to his Father mixing them with sweet odours purifying them from those corruptions of our nature which attend them as Salt water is made fresh by passing through the bowels of the earth And there is no Mediator to this Mediator and we must needs know our own unworthiness to be such that there is nothing in us to deserve acceptance Another part of the manner is that we pray in faith firmly believing that we shall receive he that prayeth for wisdom St. James bids him ask in Faith nothing wavering James 1.7 He forbids that man to think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord that wavereth and calls him a double-minded man for as we oblige men to be real to us and faithful by believing them so we do God This manner of praying is commanded in many places to this belongeth waiting upon God Isa 30.18 There is no promise to those prayers which superstition hath made to the blessed Virgin nor no command for them therefore they are not of faith Another part of the manner is that we pray with reverence and humility Psal 66. Bow down thine ear O Lord and hear me for I am poor and needy Psal Let us draw nigh to him with reverence and Godly fear for our God is a consuming fire The consideration of God's greatness and almightiness must needs beget a reverence in our approachings to him This reverence is discribed in the Publican Luke 8.13 The Publican standing a far off could not so much as lift up his eyes to Heaven but smote upon his breast saying Lord be merciful to me a sinner 6 Mich. 8. What doth the Lord require of thee but that thou do justice love mercy and walk humbly with thy God Isa 57. He resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble The people of Israel were injoyned that when they came before the Lord with their Sacrifices they should say A Syrian ready to perish was my Father and came down to Aegypt with a few We come as Beggars to him for his almes and having nothing but what we receive of him we must therefore ascribe all to his goodness and bounty as we have an example 1 Sam. 2.6 The Lord killeth and maketh alive bringeth down to the grave and up again ver 8. he raiseth up the poor out of the dust and lifteth up the Beggar from the dunghill to set them among Princes And Isa 66.7 He saith To him will I look that is poor and of a contrite Spirit The lifting up of a pure heart and clean hands and a reverent posture of the body are mentioned as necessary in the manner of praying Whilest Moses his hands were lifted up Israel prevailed but when they were down the Amalakites prevailed Our Saviour fell on his face and prayed He hath also taught us paucity of words as most agreeable to the Omniscience Highness and dignity of God and condemneth vain repetitions which inculcate the same thing again for these are nauseous both to God and men and are as much the Sacrifice of fools as their prayers who neglecting all other things of the manner of praying and matter too think it enough to say Amen They bring religion almost to nothing that they may gain the more proselites He enjoyneth also The circumstances of place Mat. 6. That our private prayers be put up in private places where no eye seeth but God alone for such prayer is sincere because it expects a reward from him only Hypocrisie expects it from men The same circumstance he requires in fasting Alms-deeds also and a perfect reconciliation to our offended brethren is required to make our prayers acceptable as our Lord and Saviour teacheth Matth. 5.23 Leave thy gift before the Altar go thy way first be reconciled to thy brother and then offer thy gift 1 Tim. 2.8 the Apostle commands to pray without wrath and doubting The circumstance of Time is also material although we have alwaies need to pray because of the manifold temptations we meet with yet we read of the Apostles that they went up to the Temple at the hour of prayer That sheweth that there is a time designed for that duty Act. 3. and Apocal. 1. St. John was in the Spirit upon the Lords day for though this duty is alwaies seasonable yet there be Special seasons as we may find by experience wherein we are freer in our holy desires and better disposed and God is nigher the oportunity in every work is half the work therefore observe these Mollissima tempora fandi As under the law The first fruits were to be Sacrificed and the first that opened the womb were to be holy to the Lord. By a parity of reason the services that we do to God under the Gospel are to be of the first things Remember thy Creater in the days of thy youth Eccles. 12. Psal 63. Early will I seek thee and the reason of his so seeking is in the following words my soul thirsteth for thee so Psal 42. my voice shall thou hear betimes in the morning and early will I direct my prayer unto thee and will look up Psal 5. when I awake I am present with thee Prov. 8.17 Those that seek me early shall find me But he that seeketh not early may seek long before he find an accepted time We read Gen. 4.3 In process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering to the Lord. And Abel he also brought of the firstlings of the flock and of the fat thereof And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering But to Cain and to his offering he had not respect The difference of the offering shewed the sincerity of Abl's heart above Cain's For he offered but it is not said the first fruits of the ground but the contrary is understood by the opposition of the offerings and
things of God and delight our selves in the Lord and count all the waies of his Commandments pleasantness search for them as for hid treasure dig for them seek them evermore we have obtained the greatest and chiefest matter and the rest we may assure our selves that we shall by the like means obtain and by degrees be able to run the waies of Gods commands discretion shall preserve us and understanding shall keep us and deliver us from the temptations and allurements to these and other sins we shall be able to keep our watch against our spiritual enimies that would destroy us But although our heart be thus changed and we renewed so that with our mind we do the Law of God yet it is great danger but that sometimes with our flesh we shall serve the Law of sin because when we would do good evil is present with us unless the hand of God continually hold us up which that it may we must invocate his mercy and almighty power using all the means premised and with watchfulness against the first beginning of evil Oculus ad coelum Manus ad clavum So that our surest perservative is this of prayer although we are renewed in the Spirit of our mind Our own wofull experience tells us so as this holy Apostle tells us by his experience For we know how that we have often endeavoured our selves to hallow the name of God and to 〈◊〉 his will in the resisting of these sins of our complexion and to avoid the temptation And to that end and purpose have read meditated heard the word preached and resolved upon the practice of it we have made that covenant with our eyes as Job made with his or the like to avoid and shun the occasions of that sin which we most fear But yet upon trial we have found in our corrupt hearts so much of the old unregenerate man that when we would do good evil hath been present with us and ready to surprize us and lead us captive And how to do the good we would we know not and we could only bewaile our wretched condition crying out with the Apostle O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of sin and death Therefore we must be alwaies at the Throne of Grace as those holy men were David Psal 119. v. 27. Make me to understand the way of thy Commandments v. 35. Make me to go in the paths of thy Commandments v. 36. Incline my heart to thy testimonies and not to covetiousness 37. Turne away mine eyes lest they behold vanity and quicken me in thy Law 38. Stablish thy word in thy Servant that I may fear the. Expressing his holy desires with fervency and earnestness and Importunity Behold my delight is in thy Commandments O quicken me in thy Righteousness And protests to God how he had used the meanes in studying and meditating of Gods word If we accordingly practice And with such holy desires pantings and breathings with such servency of affection with 〈…〉 purpose resolutions and vows with such Importunity under the sense of our needs and dependencies on him For the Spouse her self though she be assured of her Beloved's kindness and love towards her and her own love reciprocally towards him so prayes Draw us we will run after thee which sheweth what great need we have of craving God's almighty help when we are strongest and with David have sworn and are stedfastly purposed to keep his righteous judgments If we do accordingly pray then we may also obtain to be men after God's own heart as he was for we have a promise for it viz. The weak shall be like the house of David He will incline our hearts to his Testimonies He will work in us both the will and the deed He will order our steps in his Word He will draw us and we shall run after him And we shall do his will on Earth as it is done in Heaven And he will order our feet in his Word Direct our going Make us to delight in that which is good And though our soul be alwaies in our hand yet we shall not forget his Laws but claim them for our heritage and portion for ever Because he is true who hath promised to guide us lead us keep us uphold us strengthen us watch over us to be with us in trouble to deliver us to tread Satan under our feet that no weapon formed against us shall prosper that he will water us every morning and every moment and we shall run and not be weary mount up with wings like Eagles and renew our strength like the Eagle and he will make our way perfect and those that are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the Court of God they shall grow from strength to strength and grow up like the Calves of the stall And though we do fall when we are confident in our own strength as the Apostle Peter did yet shall we rise again But he that feareth alwaies is more happy for he will watch against the beginnings of evil actions and will use these means premised and shall not fall for God will hold him with his hand because he trusteth in him only and will bear him as a man doth bear his Son Deut. 1.31 And as we are taught in the precedent instances so may we suitably be instructed out of the holy Scriptures in all other temptations to other sins If it be excess in drinking which raging vice hath invaded a great part of the world And men are not content to allow themselves in it but generally strive to draw in all those with whom they converse in spight as it were of all holy admonitions moral precepts natural restrictions policies prudential constitutions and councels of the most renowned wise men vertuos men most excellent Law-givers And their own daily experience of the mischiefs and ruines that this sin brings upon those that are guilty of it The remedies whereof being so much predicated and so little practised must needs convince the world of a great deal of practical Atheism and Infidelity But thou that seest this fault in thy self and art grieved at it desiring to be delivered from it and findest it as difficult as to cut off thy right hand or pull out thy right eye follow the prescribed instructions and imitate those prayers and thou shalt reap thy desired grace and quit thy soul and body too of the sin and with it of many more which accompany it and are occasioned by it Because God hath ingaged to be found of them that seek him to help them that have no power nor strength to be with thee in the fire that it shall not burn thee and in the water that it shall not drown thee That thou shalt call upon him in time of trouble and he will deliver thee and thou shalt praise him He will pour water upon him that is thirsty Isa 44.3 He will subdue our iniquities Mic. 7.19 He giveth
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
work to think of the reasons that moved them to sin and to refuse such duties and to see the folly of all those reasons this will be shame and confusion O Lord let me be ashamed of my sins in time savingly by true repentance that I may avoid the eternal shame and confusion and remember with grief all the hard thoughts which I have had of thee and thy waies and grieved that I turned no sooner from sin to God That being derided for holiness I have so little of it But let me not be of them of whom it is said The Lord hath laughed at their calamity for he hath seen that their day is coming Made upon hearing of Mr. J. B. O Lord give me that earnest and first fruits of eternal life which thou usest to give thy afflicted servants in this life which may make me as it did them to rejoyce in afflictions with joy unspeakable and glorious to undergo with joy all manner of slanders and to take joyfully the spoiling of their goods knowing that they have a more enduring substance in Heaven give thy servant to know this of himself which may make me able for the like sufferings and to undergo all that the wicked can inflict not accepting of deliverance and grant that I may see him by faith who is invisible and Jesus Christ my Saviour my Helper and my Redeemer my Recompence and my Reward O Lord let me not put any stress upon my own works for my salvation If with thy servant Paul I could say that as touching the Law I am blameless yet then also must I not count that I have attained but desire to be found in Christ not having mine own righteousness and be sensible that I have deserved thy wrath and fly to the Righteousness of Christ and say with David I will make mention of thy Righteousness only And with Daniel Not for our righteousness but for thy mercy sake save us Deliver me from the Legal Pharisaical spirit thinking to establish its own righteousness not submitting to the Righteousness of Christ Let my righteousness exceed theirs Let me mortifie the body and live strictly as they did and whatever duties they performed let me perform but let me not leave the others undone and those which I do let me not do to be seen but let me perform them to thee in secret that thou mayest reward me openly Neither let me trust in my felf nor despise others nor strain at a Nat and swallow a Camel Lord let not worldly things disturb my quiet though the Earth be moved and the Mountains shake at the tempest of the same Let the River of Life of thy holy City make glad the people thereof Give me the peaceable fruits of Righteousness Give me grace voluntarily to take Christ's yoak upon me and to learn of him meekness and humility that I may find rest to my soul which I can never find without holiness of life and faith therefore give me both that I may be able to say in all conditions the Lord is my Shepherd therefore I can lack norhing Lord as thou hast given us many commands for the duty of prayer and watchfulness the reto with constancy without ceasing and that in all things we should make our requests known unto God and to incourage us herein thou hast promised to reward it openly what we pray for secretly and hast set forth unto us in thy word how thou art a God hearing prayer and many examples of it And that it is the duty in which thou dost most delight and by my own experience I have always found thee such Therefore let me redeem the time for this so beneficial duty according to the example of thy Servants David seven times a day and Daniel three times in spight of the Tirants threats for thou hast always given me the mercies which I asked and I fear I have lost many for want of asking Lord in my distresses and troubles let me not seek for vain comforts in the Creatures but for those comforts which thy word and thy Spirit afford thy Servants for Christ hath promised that he will not leave us comfortless but will send us a comforter O now send this comforter into my heart that I may rejoice with the joy of thy chosen ones and not with the joy of the World this thou hast often refreshed thy Servant with in the midst of the sorrows which he had in his heart Lord let me not neglect the day of my visitation for thou hast said that thy spirit shall not always strive with us Therefore when we feel thy holy Spirit inclining our hearts to good or drawing us from evil let us follow its motions and the express calls of thy word when it seems to us to speak in particular to our soules that we may escape that threatning which saith because I have called and ye have refused you shall call and I will not answer I will laugh at your calamity so when thou visitest us with mercies or afflictions then thou bowest our ear to discipline for in affliction the wicked often will seek thee but not to see thee in thy merciful dispensations is more brutish then the Ox or Ass who know their keepers that feed them Lord let me know the time of my visitation let me lose no opportunity to do good for we know not how soon the opportunity or our lives will be taken away therefore let me lay hold on all opportunities and redeem all time possible for God's service As Paul in the Gaol converted the Gaoler and Philip in his Journey the Eunuch and Christ when he was on the Cross dying conveyed grace to the hearers and salvation to one of the thieves Let me value my time by the duties which may be done in it and let me not spend it in doing that which is impertinent or doing nothing much less in doing ill but in things necessary which is but one thing to serve God the things of this world being only for convenience Teach me to number not only my daies but my hours that I may husband them well to thy glory especially my youthful time let me consecrate to God since I cannot be too soon out of the paw of Satan into the arms of Christ Let me not listen to the Devil when he tells me I shall serve God hereafter but let me give thee the first fruits of my age and of the day and not the flower to the Devil and the dregs to the Lord and let me consider what value I shall have of time when I come to die Lord when thy afflicting hand is stretched out to afflict me in the ruine of my estate or the loss of my reputation and honour or any earthly good how do I search and try my spirit and fear to commit the least sin against thee but no sooner hast thou removed thy hand and the danger that threatned is overpast but then how careless do I walk again and think
my soul let thy impatiente bearing of lyings slanders backbitings and false accusations humble thee and drive thee to seek to God by prayers and tears to assist and help thy weak patience and faith and make thee more conformable to Christ thou canst bear other injuries learn to bear these that thou mayest be blessed O my God do thou preserve me support me and hold me up that I may not fall by wrath and impatience though the injuries I receive be never so great unjust and false yet let me be supported by thy word and thy Spirit in me assuring me of reward in heaven O my God let me contentedly submit to thy chastisments and let me be assured that thou wilt bring good out of evil and that they are sent by thee for my good that I should not be condemned with the world 1 Cor. 11. And by thy assistance I shall go forth to thee without the camp bearing thy reproach Heb. 13.14 And my patience shall be perfected And assure me that in this unjust suffering I take up the Cross of a Christian Another end why God afflicts us is to make us call to mind our sins which procured the afflictions as Josephs brethren called to mind theirs of selling their brother It makes us to search and try our selves what sins we lye in and have not repented off Meditation LORD Sanctify them to us for this end that we may not lye in our sins nor dye in them But may be awakened to search and try our waies and call to mind our sins and repent of them with a godly sorrow unto salvation and turne unto the Lord with all our hearts lest otherwise we perish with the world And let the blessedness which thou hast pronounced upon thy mourners and the comfort which thou hast promised them come on them in the sight of their persecutors for their comfort will be the discomfort of them Another end why Gods afflicts us is to restrain us from some sin which we are prone to so he restrained St. Paul from pride for if God did not restrain us we should fall oftener than we do not only into those same sins which we have formerly committed but also into all others which the nature of man is subject to commit and which we think our selves quite free from as Hasael when the Prophet told him what Villanies he would commit answered him saying Thinkest thou that thy Servant is a Dog yet he did what the Prophet had foretold 2 King 8. So God withheld Abimeleck from sinning with Abrahams wife so David before he was afflicted he went astray but learned Gods judgments by afflictions And said Thy Rod and thy Staff have comforted me by which saying of David it appeares That another end of Afflictions is for Spiritual comfort Therefore 't is said in St. James Count it all joy when you fall into manifold temptations For as sin as soon as committed flies in our face and tells us that we have deserved all the curses threatned in Gods word for our consciences immediately tels us that the wages of sin are death and damnation so afflictions brings to mind our sins and makes our consciences search themselves what sins lye unrepented off Then our repentance brings remission and peace of conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost communion with God and watchfulness and carefulness against sin for the future But to make us more capable of the comfort it seems meet to God to visit us by afflictions Another end of afflictions it to abase and humble us That we may walk humbly with our God humble your selves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may lift you up where both these ends of afflictions are conjoyned viz. The joy of being lifted up with the humiliation he humbles whom he in tends to exalt Another end is for purgation I will purge away all the dross and tinn Which doth supose that there are some sins committed by and some corruptions remaining in the Servants of God as it is in the 9 of Daniel 11. Yea all Israel have transgressed thy law even by departing that they might not obey thy voice therefore the curse is poured upon us and the oath that is written in the law of Moses because we have sinned Every branch in me that beareth fruit he purgeth Isa 27.9 By this shall the iniquity of jacob be purged As our Saviour was made perfect by suffering so all that are made perfect are made perfect by sufferings When our consciences checks us it causes us to search and try our waies as it is in the Prophet after I was afflicted I smote upon my thigh Another end to bring a man to himself when before he would not know himself nor could understand his frailties and weakness also to bring a man to Christ and to make him go out of himself and the thought of his self-sufficiency and self confidence to seek his salvation in Christ alone for if the word doth not work upon us God doth work by the Spirit of bondage upon hard consciences as David said my reines chasten me in the night season So was the Prodigal Son brought to himself to bethink him of his Fathers house and to return home LORD sanctify them to thy Servant for all these ends that I may find all those opperations wrought in me and let me wait patiently upon the Lord laying my mouth in the dust As water that stands still without motion or agitation putrifieth and the Air corupteth unless it be moved with some gales of Wind so the minds of men become degenerate and their virtues and graces soon languish unless they be excited and exercised by variety of fortune troubles and new difficulties the most troublesome accidents that befall teach and improve a wise man most and learn him the best lessons Time of Trouble is the season for Prayer If Esau had not come against Jacob with an army he had not wrestled with God nor got the blessing Psal 50.15 Call upon me in the time of trouble and I will deliver thee and thou shalt praise me so it is the season for Gods mercy to those who seek it by prayer And as if the sense of our necessities would not force us enough to this duty of prayer he injoynes it by precept and inviteth with a promise which shews both our backwardness to the Duty and Gods readiness to accept our prayers and shew mercy to us and sometimes he is fain to be found of them that seek him not and he is fain to send his Spirit to help us to pray and sometimes he is fain to hear us when we have but a purpose to pray as David said in the Psalms I said I wll confess my sin and thou forgavest my iniquities and sometimes God is fain to prevent us as Isa 64.10 Before they call I will answer and sometimes he will not stay till the end of our Prayer as it is said Whilest they cry I will say
to make him rich So it is said of Jehosaphat that his heart was lifted up in the waies of God This joy and rejoycing in the Lord is enjoyned us as a duty and it proves our sincerity When God is sweet unto us for himself in the want of outward blessings when we can trust God and not see him 't is a sign we trust him in truth when all the providences of God seem to run counter to his promises That fruit is sound that can hang in a windy day T was a proof of Abraham's love to God that he could follow him into a strange place where he had no place to set a foot on This joy as it begets mortification and self-denyal so these begets this joy It is a sure preservative against Apostacy He that can rejoyce in God when he is in adversity will not be removed by adversity the joy of the Lord is our strength and stability Phil. 4.7 The Peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus Coloss 3.15 Let the peace of God rule in your hearts It rules in us if we can rejoyce in a God All-Sufficient Then the Soul saith to all the Devils offers we have enough already according to that saying of the Apostles to our Saviour Lord whether shall we go thou hast the words of Life The reason why Satans offers seems great to Men is because Gods seem little This is a holy disposition of the Soul that doth most glorifie God Therefore 't is said of Abraham that he gave Glory to God he did not stagger through unbelief It may well be called a Treasure as the Apostle saith we have this Treasure in Earthen Vessels and our blessed Saviour speaketh of the Treasure in the Heart for by this we are assured that all things are ours if we are Christs Whereas on the contrary if we are none of his we may think that we are rich and encreased in goods and have need of nothing yet we are in truth wretched miserable poor blind and naked as it is said of the Church of Laodicea Rev. 3.17 and this treasure is Christ formed in us of whose fulness we receive Grace for Grace And 2 Pet. 1.4 we are said to be partakers of the divine Nature because it is in us and our blessed Saviour saith that we are grafted into him and unless we abide in him we cannot bear fruit That is the fruit of the Spirit which is by him derived to his Members as he saith If I live ye shall live also The same are the fruits of Righteousness and fruit unto Holiness and all have the same end viz. everlasting Life Treasure where ever it is is matter of joy If sin and departing from God be an evil as every Man finds early or late when he casts away the bait that beguiled him with anger then Holiness must needs be good and yield joy Though the Children of God are often sad yet every act and working of the Spirit upon the Soul of Man either is matter of joy immediately or mediately the heart that is broken by the Spirits operation finds it self bound up when it hath been broken enough and hath joy Particular instances of the Assertion That the Saints have joy from the assurance of the pardon of their sins is express that the knowledge of our pardon is matter of joy our Lord and Saviours speech to the sick Man proves Be of good comfort thy sins are forgiven thee for by this speech our Saviour did intend to give him more comfort than by restoring to him his bodily health Blessed is the Man whose Iniquities are forgiven the Apostles knew they had this blessedness as it is expressed In whom we have Redemption through his Blood even the forgiveness of our sins David was assured of his pardon by Nathan sent to him upon that very message and as we pray daily Forgive us our Trespasses so we find that David after he knew he was pardoned his sin did so pray likewise for remission and did also believe that they were remitted and rejoyce in it as he expresseth Ps Praise the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his benefits which forgiveth all thy sins c. And all other Servants of God pray for and obtain it in due time Priviledges of Saints Those that are Gods Servants have the Tutelage of the Angels Ps 34. They tarry round about them that fear him They have God God standing by them to save them Ps They have Jesus Christ strengthning them I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me and the Spirit helpeth them The knowledge of our Interest in God and Christ that he is our God and we his people he our Father we his Children he our Shepherd we his Flock that he is our Strength our Rock Castle and Defence Psal 18. he our Beloved we his he our portion and we his portion he our Head we his Members he our Redeemer c. And all those Texts which express his Relation to us or ours to him And what he hath done doth or will do for us must needs comfort us and rejoyce us in all conditions Psal 23. The Lord is my Shepherd therefore I shall not want he maketh me to lye down in green Pastures c. And holy David when the people talked of stoning him he encouraged himself in the Lord. And our blessed Saviour would banish all fear from the hearts of his people by vertue of their Relation Luke 2.32 Fear not little Flock it is the Fathers pleasure to give you a Kingdom And none can deprive us of enjoying our interest in him as the Prophet Habakkuk expresseth it no condition no time nor no place when the Apostles were cast into the Dungeon they sung 1 Thess 5. Rejoyce evermore God would not command it always if it were not possible to be This enjoyment of our interest in God is greater than any other enjoyment and the Soul most desires it Cant. 1. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his Mouth his Love is better than Wine That the Saints have peace of conscience and joy proceeding thereof is proved by that Rom. 5. That being justified towards God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom also we have access through Faith unto this grace wherein we stand and rejoyce under the hope of the Glory of God They are called the peaceable fruits of Righteousness They are said to be found in peace of them that love peace And every Man that hath made tryal of it hath reaped this fruit peace and tranquility and enjoy it in their Souls according to the promise of our Saviour Matth. And ye shall find rest to your Souls and it is the design of the Gospel to give this peace and rest to the Souls of Gods people by assuring them of pardon of sins and Salvation according to that Prayer of David say unto my Soul I am thy Salvation The excellency of the
become the Sons of God even to as many as believed in his Name John 1.12 But he that eats not his Body and drinks not his Blood hath no fellowship in him he that doth eat and drink them hath Eternal Life The receiving then of him and believing in his Name being the qualification that makes us the Sons of God and his Brethren and that Text excluding all from that priviledge that do not eat and drink his Body and Blood sheweth that by receiving him and believing in his Name they eat him not by diminishing him by their Teeth or digesting him in their Stomach but by drawing Life from his Death by Faith and strengthning and maintaining that new Life which it hath from Christ by believing his Body to be crucified and his Blood shed for them and by the Bread and Wine is given to them And if we should understand this eating of Attrition or diminishing with the Teeth and the Drinking of taking by the Mouth into the Stomach by drops and digesting there then God should suffer his Holy One to see corruption For although we should suppose it did not corrupt in our body so long as we live yet when these vile bodies turns to Earth and rottenness then all that is in them must corrupt And the Text that excludes all that eat not his Body and drinks not his Blood would exclude all Believers from Adam until this Sacrament was Instituted by our blessed Saviour But if this eating and drinking be believing then Abraham and the rest of the faithful might eat and drink him as well as they saw his day For all of them eat the same Spiritual meat and drink the same Spiritual drink and receive their Eternal Life and Salvation from the same Jesus Christ And if we do by this eating find our penitent Souls to revive and live a new Immortal and Eternal Life from the belief of his Death and Passion for us his Body Crucified and his Blood spilt for us to give us Life then we eat his body and shall live for ever And thus the faithful people of God by eating the Passeover under the Law did eat Christ the true Passeover by eating that which was the Type of him whom it represented fide non ore at it is said all eat the same Spiritual Bread Of the Eucharist Meditation I feel a hunger in my Soul which neither Manna nor all the World can satisfie though I have all the necessaries and conveniences of Life yet I hunger and thirst as for Rivers of Water in a dry place Isa 32. Do thou then O blessed Saviour give me of the Water of Life out of thy Fountain The living Water and Blood that cometh from that Fountain of Living Water thy side upon the Cross which still is open to the House of Judah and Jerusalem and seals unto us all the promises upon which we live thou hast Instituted this Bread and Wine to represent thy Holy and blessed Body and Blood shed and broken upon the Cross and thereby givest them to the Soul that thirsteth for Eternal Life in thee Isa 32.4 Though my weakness of Faith should be such that I am not able to discern whether virtually or really they become such or whether they be consubstantiated transubstantiated or new-substantiated in their Natures by the blessing and the Faith of the Receiver or neither yet thus far thou hast enlightned me to know that all the promises are Yea and Amen in thee that thou hast Eternal Life and givest it and that by these Elements which signifie and exhibit thy Body and Blood to be eaten and drank by Faith Spiritually and for thy Body and Blood I eat and drink them but as separable for I fear least I should through unbelief receive but only the Bread and Wine and not thy Body and Blood which give Eternal Life which every one that hath that eateth thy Body and drinketh thy Blood and if an unbeliever or an unprepared impenitent person the worst of thy enemies he that betrayed thee or any other creature could but eat and drink of them they also would thereby have Eternal Life But thou alone hast power to give it to whom thou pleasest To thee therefore I address my Prayer when the Priest reacheth to me the Bread and Wine that thou wouldest reach to me thy sacrificed Body and Blood that was shed upon the Cross and make these Natural Elements to become those Eternal Aliments to me not by Faith in them but by Faith in thee who hast made them to signifie those and represent them which though I cannot discern by my senses I pray that I may by my Faith in thy Word which makes them operate as thy Body and Blood to me through thy benediction though materially I discern them not and give me thy holy Spirit that I may discern them Spiritually and eat panem Dominum if by looking up to thee we are saved what other thing can I understand this Mystery to be than looking up to thee on the Cross and shedding thy precious Blood for my sins which thou communicatest to us Of Holiness Meditations Mot. Holiness to the Lord shall be writ upon the Bells of the Horses Med. All the graces are so linked together like a golden chaine that they cannot be without each other This is a collective word and containes in it piety charity and humility and all that the first and second table of the law of God containes all the duty of man towards God his neighbour and himself It is the fruit of faith out of which Root this grace springs The necessity of this grace is laid down in this expression that without it no man shall see God the same is implied Psal 63.3 I have sought thee in holiness that I might behold thy glory The precepts are many that command us to get it in general and in the particular branches of it every commandment and precept in the Scripture are to this end Not any one minute of a Christian life nor any one action be it natural action of the body or civil gesture or behaviour but it must have holiness imprinted on it for in the Temple the candlesticks and the snuffers were of pure Gold and Christ came to perfect it and advance it therefore ' tls prophesied of his Kingdom that under it holines to the Lord shall be written upon the Bels of the Horses which inscription was on Arons miter The rights and ceremonies of purification under the law typified as much Although it be said that faith hath this and all other graces for its fruits yet there is a time when a child of God may not percieve in himself much nay scarce any life of Holiness Humility Patience Zeal Meekness Charity or other graces as in the Winter the herbs and Plants shew no life at all usually they are excited again by some extraordinary providence of God either in afflicting us or delivering us from some danger or affliction or by
with Anger Also examine thine own reason whether it be not more honourable and more satisfying to thee to shew meekness goodness of Nature ingenious Education Courtesie Generosity Love and Pity in forgiving affronts and provocations than to shew thy Pride Malice Boldness Undaunted Spirit and Courage in revenging them besides the timerity of hazarding thine own Life and Immortal Soul Then examine thy self also in all other actions of Holiness and Unholiness viz. If thou hast led thy Life in Temperance Sobriety and Frugality whether hast thou not found the benefit of it throughout thy Life in thy Mind Body and Estate But if thou hast otherwise lead thy Life thy Health is impaired thy Estate wasted thy Soul polluted and the faculties of thy mind dulled and crased The like examination thou mayest make if thou hast kept thy Body in Chastity whether thou hast not found this to be the best means to preserve thy Life Health and Estate and to propagate the same benefits to thy Issue besides many other blessings which this and every other Grace hath entailed upon it But if thou hast on the contrary been addicted to thy lusts thou wilt feel the pains of it in thy bones when age groweth upon thee and if thou hast not quite wasted thy Estate yet either thou hast no lawful Issue to inherit it or if any yet they are unsound or such as thou hast no comfort of for such persons who are thus addicted are generally thus punished with one of these punishments as we read of Solomon and have seen in our own times Hast thou fed the hungry and cloathed the naked with thy fleece thou knowest that thou hast treasure in Heaven if not thy riches will make themselves wings But alas if thou couldst attain all secular ends and interests Salva Conscientia what are they to him that carrieth on the design of an eternal Interest viz. For eternal happiness how inconsiderable how impertinent how vile But since holiness is the only meanes of attaining happiness and lusts and unholiness are the obstacles and impediments that hinder us and deprive us of it then be constant in the way of holiness and take this for thy design and main business according to that which the Poet Horrace directeth thee by the light of Nature Lib. Epistolar Primo Ep. 6. Si virtus hoc sola potest dare fortis Omissis Hoc age deliciis And Hoc primus repetes opus hoc postremus omittas And make no Omisions of duty for that puts thee back T were endless labor and needless to cite all authorities Civil Moral and Divine that might be brought to prove holiness to be the way and meanes of obtaining happiness for it is so inseparably joyned to happiness that it can hardly be distinguished from eternal happiness which I conceive is begun in this life in holiness I will only mention the Authority of the greatest of the Sons of men John the Baptist who makes repentance and workes meet for repentance to be the way to bring us to Christ who is the way the truth and the life eternal In whom we have eternal life and happiness And I conceive all men will confess the same though in workes they deny it All the precepts which our blessed Saviour taught he propounded as the means to attain happiness And the doers of them he pronounceth happy actually in the present tense likewise all the Commandments which God enjoyned the Israelites were therefore given them to make them happy and when they kept them they did make them happy as they made them holy Whither tend all Divine and Moral precepts and Philosophical improvements of the light of nature but to repress mortiify the inordinate passion and preturbations of the mind and the lusts of the flesh the lusts of the eyes and the pride of life that by this means we might enjoy a sweet and happy life in all ease rest and peace joy quietness holiness and happiness But imagining that the sensual persons of this age will still oppose and say that happiness is mans interest but the holiness of man is Gods design and interest I answer first What profit shall the Lord have if thou do good 2. Admitting it were Gods Interest it follows if he be greater than thou and thou canst not attain thy end without him then thou must of necessity promote his design and do nothing to cross it Holiness Described 3. Meditation Though it be too great a task for me to undertake nay for any creature for he hath found folly in the Angels and the Heavens are not clean in his sight therefore God himself teacheth us by his word and Spirit And from that word of truth these few collections are drawn for my own help in this grace The Negative part that sheweth what is not true holiness though by some it is supposed to be holiness is the first to be considered Our Saviour describes the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees and then tells his Disciples that Except their Righteousness exceeds theirs they shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Their Righteousness is condemned as insufficient for they justified themselves and condemned others and did their works of Piety and Charity to be seen of men and were Hypocrites Therefore Jesus Christ pronounces several woes against them Again our Saviour reproves the Jews ingeneral for relying upon the outward priviledges without the inward Qualifications saying unto them Think not to say within your selves we have Abraham for our Father This priviledg without the life of Holiness is like a dead body without a soul which the Prophet Jeremiah reproves thus Trust not in lying words saying The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord are these Jeremiah 7.4 They did frequent the Temple with their Sacrifices but the Prophet saith you trust in lying words Do you think to lye steal and come into my house Matth. 7.22 Christ shews how that many will come at the day of Judgment with great confidence saying we have prophesied in thy name cast out Devils and done many wonders But he will disown them how little then will it avail the Papists to call themselves the Church and their Pope Peters Successour Our Saviour Christ doth divide professors into 2 sorts Mathew 25. Under the terme of wise and foolish Virgins some had Oyl in their Lamps and some none all had Lamps The causes why men rest in the forme of Godliness without the power are first because they see a necessity that their actions must be changed but do not see a necessity that their hearts must be changed The Apostle Paul in the 3d. of the Philip. Refutes the Righteousness which the Jews imputed to their circumcision and outward priviledges and calls them the concision and vers the 3d. We are the Circumcision which worship God in the Spirit and have no confidence in the flesh This is the reall circumcision whereby we have the
drunkenness this sense is made clear to be the meaning of the place by Psal 119. where in v. 166. He saith Lord I have hoped for thy salvation and done after thy Commandments 167. My soul hath kept thy testimonies and I love them exceedingly v. 168. I have kept thy precepts and thy testimonies for all my waies are before thee He had an eye to all Gods Commandments But it followeth in the same Psal ver the last I have gone astray like a sheep that is lost seek thy Servant David did not alwaies keep Gods testimonies if he had he had not gone astray nor needed seeking neither yet went he so far astray as to forget the way to return as the words imply which follow Seek thy Servant for I do not forget thy Commandments And Psal I have not forsaken thee as the wicked doth For when he did fall as in the numbring of the people and likewise in the matter of Vriah his heart soone smote him and he humbled himself with weeping fasting and prayer and sacrificing and renewing his vows of better obedience confessing his sins with grief and shame patiently enduring such chastisements as God layed upon him Neither sin nor the punishments which he suffered for his sin could prevail to extinguish his love to God and holiness because he was regenerate and borne againe and his seed remained in him therefore he still retaines good thoughts of God and his waies as he expresleth in the Psalmes chiefly the 119. My soul breaketh out for the desire it hath alwaies to thy Commandments His eyes prevented the morning watches that he might be occupied in Gods word which he saith he esteemed above Gold and had chosen for his heritage because they were the very joy of his heart and this carried him forth to praise and extol the excellency of Gods word and Commandments saying Thy testimonies are wonderful therefore doth my soul love them And again they are tried to the utmost They are exceeding righteous and true I have more understanding than my teachers for thy Commandments are my study Except my delight had been in thy Commandments it had not failed but I had perished in my trouble Thy word giveth light and understanding to the simple And in Psal 18. The law of the Lord is an undefiled law converting the soul the testimony of the Lord is sure and giveth wisdom to the simple The statutes of the Lord are right and rejoyce the heart The Commandment of the Lord is pure and giveth light unto the eyes The fear of the Lord is clean and endureth for ever The Judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether more to be desired are they than Gold yea than much fine Gold sweeter also than the hony and the hony comb Moreover by them is thy Servant taught and in keeping of them there is great reward His hatred also was changed to hate that which God hated as he saith I hate them that hate thee And I hate all false waies but thy Law do I love This holy love makes the yoak of Christ not only easy but delightful As Solomon expresseth Prov. 1. Her waies are waies of peace and all her paths are pleasantness And those that walk in her paths shall not stumble for all her paths are right paths And they know that these paths are right and lead to happiness peace rest and life for that experience they have had already and taste of those heavenly gifts and power of the world to come they retain with good liking and they thirst for a further enjoyment of them albeit God suffers them sometimes to fall that they may know their own weakness may learn humility be more diligent in prayer and watchfulness live more by faith and depend upon God and ascribe all to Christ Jesus who is all and in all and that they may go out of themselves as St. Paul did when he desired to be found in him not having his own Righteousness for he saw the imperfection and insufficiency of his own Righteousness and therefore sought it in him Who of God is made unto us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption for he is the only Righteousness on which we can trust for our Justification Jehova Justitia nostra omnis Justitia nostra pannis menstruata God that hath found folly in the Angels sees iniquity in our best duties I and that all have sined and come short of the glory of God and are righteous by God's mercy only not imputing their sin As Psal 32. Blessed is he whose unrighteousness is forgiven and whose sin is covered V. 2. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth no sin and in whose spirit there is no guile That all flesh may be silent and all mouths may be stopped before him But God overlooks the frailties of those that are sincere before him in whom there is no guile hypocrisie or dissimulation in their love to him who eschew their own sin which their nature is most inclined to As David in Psal 18.23 saith I was also uncorrupt before him and eschewed my own wickedness They allow themselves in no sin nor in any degree of sinfulness As Naaman the Syrian would be excused in bowing to Ammon in the house of Rimmon So many seeming righteous are holden captive by some one lust which they like not to have spoken against But those whom Christ gave himself for he hath redeemed from all iniquity and purified them unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Albeit their best works are imperfect for who can bring a cleane thing out of an unclean thing not any yet are they who are Christs redeemed ones zealous of all good works and with David they can say they have an eye unto all Gods Commandments and have put off the old man and all his works And it is from a principle of love and desire from the sense of Gods love to them and the desire of obeying him who hath so obliged them together with a love and liking they have to the waies of God by reason of the new nature begotten by God in them in the act of regeneration This Divine love breathed lived and moved in David when he said What shall I render unto the Lord for all his mercies towards me And Oh how I love thy law And in the same manner the Servants of God find it to move and it is the fulfilling of the law in Gods account and acceptance As on the contrary disobedience proceeds from unthankfulness to God for his mercies and forgetfulness of them whereby the love of God is extinct as in the rebellious Israelites They remembred not his marvelous works that he had done but were disobedient at the Sea even the Red Sea Psal 106.13 Within a while they forgat his works and would not abide his counsel but lust came upon them in the Wilderness That it is the way of Gods dealing with his people thus to oblige them to his service
will of him that sent me He would not suffer them to divulge his miracles nor be made a King 12. In his zeal 'T is said of him The zeal of thy house hath even eaten me up 13. In his Truth he saith To this end was I born that I should bear witness to the Truth 14. In his obedience to his Parents 15. In his publick spirit he was born and died and rose again upon a publick accompt Sic oculus sic ille manus sic ora movebat Those that are otherwise are not holy as they ought to be therefore let us press forward and pray that we may receive of his fulness grace for grace The last means but not the least is Repentance the same which was the first not a slight confession of our sins only with sorrow for a day as the Prophet Isaiah expresseth it Isa 58.5 To hang down our heads like a bulrush for a day Wicked Ahab did more than so Thy stony heart will endure more malliating than one daies contrition and not be broke But such sorrow as may work a change as that of the Ninevites Jonah 3.8 10. They turned from their evil way cloathed themselves in sackcloth and cryed mightily to God And since notwithstanding our repentance our corruptions and our spiritual enemies do sometimes prevail against us we must as oft as we fall rise again by repentance and mourn over the sinfulness of our nature as David did Psal 51. In sin hath my Mother conceived me And Paul When I would do good evil is present O wretched man that I am And this we shall have cause to do as long as we live and this causeth us to iterate our repentance which we first made upon our conversion as it did in holy David and Job calling to mind the sins of their youth For I conceive the method of the Argument of the penitent is that he believes that his sins were sharers in procuring those bitter sufferings to his Saviour which he cannot think of without grief and breaking off those sins and that grief leads him to believe that Christ in his sufferings had respect to his sins that affords comfort Meditations of Repentance Mot. The Sacrifices of the Lord are a troubled spirit Psal 51. When I have fallen into any sin I immediately perceive my loss of my innocency as our first parents did and the injury done to God And then I loath my self and would give all I have to be restored to my guiltless state again if I could but undo that which I have done and I resolve to spend all my life in weeping fasting and prayer if so be the Lord will have mercy upon me and pardon my sin and not destroy me then I see that nothing I can do or suffer can make attonement to God for my sin But my stedfast resolution is that I will never sin more O Lord give me the same minde now and ever that my sins may be ever in my sight to bewaile the loss of my innocency and the injury done to thee to loath my sinful self to endeavour night and day to undo those sinful acts by teares of repentance mourning humble confession prayers fasting charity and severe watchfulness against my corruptions the duties of mortification and self-denial And to renew my vows and resolutions never to sin more And for the remainder of my days to abstain from the least degree of every sin and not to go as far as I think I may lawfully do in the satisfying of my senses and passions least I be drawn in one degree too far That the Lord may behold my grievous sorrow and repentance as he did Peters and Davids and may have mercy upon me and pardon me and not destroy me and take his holy Spirit utterly from me as he did from Saul O Lord Though my sins are as scarlet do thou wash me throughly with the blood of my Saviour which onely can purge my sins and is the only propitiation to attone thy wrath and to reconcile me to thee and restore me to everlasting righteousness better than mine own which I lost and makes me white as Snow and being so washed and cleansed I shall have communion again with my God and peace of conscience and abhor those sins that caused my Saviours sufferings Lord thy mercy would have no object if there were no misery All that are descended from Adam have been prodigal Sons as he was and by their prodigalities have forsaken thee daies without number and have sought out to themselves many inventions I find in my own heart that I would stay from thee and never return to thee if I could but find empty husks to satisfie the thirst of my soul which are only fit for the voluptuous Swines of the world and can never satisfie Thou sittest upon a Throne of grace to this can we come by Christ only through him we may come boldly and find mercy in a time of need and all that come unto thee come by this and to this I desire to approach that I may find mercy in this time of need receive me I beseech thee as a returning Prodigal desirous to break off my sins by repentance and a new life Lord give me that Repentance that I shall never repent of that I may search and try my waies examine my own heart and discuss all my actions what I have done through the whole course of my life let me performe this duty by thy assistance that I may not run on in wickedness without regret as they did of whom the Prophet Jeremiah speaks Jer. 8.6 They said not What have I done I will therefore make this reflection seriously particularly and constantly In this Examination I will consider the bate that cought me and deceived me that I may abhor it as a mean base and vile thing to be put in the scales against that communion with God his favour and hopes which the soul had in God which it lost by that sin as to its present feeling and if it should at any time reinforce its allurements I will reject them utterly and not have to do with them any more I consider also the present and future evils brought upon my soul by this sin for though I must not dispaire of pardon through the alsufficient merits of my Saviours sufferings yet I find my self fearful and ashamed to approach the throne of grace least I should find him a consuming fire I am undisposed for every holy duty and deprived of the assistance of the Spirit And not only so but I am as it were left to my self with the tempter and see none to succor me and I know not what to take in hand with hopes of success I am at a loss what I should do because I seeme to have lost God who hath withdrawn himself for my sin and hides his face I am also made naked and destitute for he was my defence and shield my strength and refuge my hope and
of this free pardon therefore not I. All that will come may all that did look up to the Brazen Serpent were healed I thus being burdened with the weight of my sins and weary of them and fainting under them languishing for want of comfort and easement find this invitation from him that is ready to relieve me and all men freely without any merit of mine Beseech him to take away this my burthen to give me a new heart and to heal my soul That he would give me redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of my sins Ephe. 1.2 And seal it to my conscience that he hath borne my iniquities and hath taken them away and cast them into the bottom of the Sea that he would give me this balme of Gillead his precious blood to cleanse me from all my sins and to heal my wounded conscience and by his word to heal my corrupt nature I come unto him for faith in him which I have not of my self it is the gift of God Ephe. 2.8 I come and beg his Spirit to quicken me with a new life Ephe. 2.1 You hath he quickned who were dead in trespasses and sins That he would take away the Spirit of bondage and give me the Spirit of Adoption that I may call him Father and obey him cheerfully from the principle of love which will make my services accepted and prove my repentance true which will not The hanging down of my head Jugum Christi Meditations of Faith THE excellency of this grace is such that it makes all other things excellent and without it it is impossible to please God without it charity is no charity piety and charity and all other graces and vertues are no graces without faith it is the salt of all holy services which makes them acceptable sacrifices to God It is excellent in its original It is the gift of God It is so also in its fruit which is holiness and its final end is equally excellent viz. Salvation There is no degree of it so little but is of infinite vertue it makes us overcome all difficulties in doing and suffering the good will and pleasure of Almighty God The first degree of faith is to believe that God is The 2d degree to believe that he is a rewarder of them that deligently seek him but this doth not save for St. Paul had this belief when he persecuted the Church But to believe in Gods promises of salvation through Christ Jesus is saving faith as it is said by our Blessed Saviour Ye believe in God believe also in me This is saving faith and this is the principal act of faith because Jesus Christ is the principal object of faith and every act of grace is a branch of this grace hope charity patience humility unless they are acted and set on work by faith in Christ viz. In obedience to God believing his acceptance of our works through his Son they are nothing more than the moral vertues This grace is that which gives most glory to God because it believes things that are invisible to sense and reason assuredly as if they were visible It is called the evidence of things not seen knowing that Gods bare word is the greatest assurance therefore the Scripture saith of Abraham That he believed and gave glory to God and he staggered not though the promise was against reason and sense in regard of the age of himself and his wife Sarah And though Gods command of Sacrifising his Son Isaac seemed to be repugnant and contrary to his promise yet he believed stedfastly in the truth of God though it seemed repugnant so God put his faith to it to try it and he denied his sense and reason to believe God and to obey him It consists not in one act but it is a habit and for that reason the life of a believer is call'd the life of faith Agreeable to which it is said of the life of Abraham That he lived in the land of promise as in a strange Country looking for a City which had foundations whose builder and maker is God And this he did during his life so that he never had the sight of that he believed but lived upon the promise only and upon God This life of faith is a mortifying and self-denying life for Abraham lived in the land of promise as a stranger not as a home dweller freely and boldly enjoying it as his own But using the world as if he used it not not living upon the world nor by sense though the promise was of worldly things St. Paul testifieth of himself that he lived this life Gal. 2.20 Not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I live I live by the faith of the Son of God For faith working by love by the Spirit of Christ unites us to Christ in all union as our Root our Head our Brother our Beloved then it perswades us of the alsufficiency of God which supports the soul wherefore God made it the inducement to Abraham why he should walk before him in perfection and whatever is wanting in the creature faith thus acted makes it up in God as is said Psal 90.12 Lord thou hast been our dwelling place through all generations And 2 Cor. 6.10 As having nothing yet possessing all things Because God is the delight of the soul Psal 1. Job 27.10 But it is said of the hypocrite Will he alwaies call upon the Lord will he delight himself in him No he will not for he loves not This St. Paul professeth that he practised saying To me to live is Christ to dye is gain He lived upon Christ and he in him Not only in the Apostles esteem was Christ all to him But Christ testifieth of himself Joh. 6.34 The bread of God is he which cometh down from Heaven and giveth life to the world Therefore might Job esteem it more than his necessary food if he be the eternal food of the soul which gives it a new eternal life and maintains it satisfying and strengthening the principles of this life and reparing the decaies of it There is nothing needful or comfortable which gracious soules have not enjoyed in God and Christ David Psal 5. Lord thou art my light and my salvation whom then shall I fear thou art the strength of my life of whom then shall I be affraid Psal 119.57 Thou art my portion O Lord I have said that I will keep thy word If God be sufficient for himself he is sufficient for us All is yours and ye are Christs all the things in the world can afford little comfort to the rational soul they can alitle divert it from its grief but are so far from yeilding true satisfaction that the more it drinks the more it thirsts but he that drinks of the water of life shall never thirst more He that eates of the true bread which came down from Heaven shall be satisfied in all his desires and appetites more than they whose Corne Wine
God 2 Thes 2.12 which is his word we must believe the truth of his threatnings as well as the truth of his promises Jer. 32.19 This belief saved Noah and his family from the destruction of the deluge and this was commanded in him for a worthy act of faith and by this Lot escaped when Sodom was destroyed and his doubting wife made a perpetual monument or spectacle for her infidelity the chief and special object is Christ Act. 16.37 If we must leve Christ then is Christ the principle the cause efficient and final the matter and the forme of that life His example our pattern and his will ours to me to live is Christ is meant in some or in all these senses for faith verifies it in them all He is the end of our conversation because we can desire no more nor can we need any more if we have him he is the matter and forme of it because the natural life is drowned in this and is made spiritual as it is said If we have known Christ in the flesh yet henceforth know we him no more The holy soul doth not injoy its life if it doth not feel Christ living in it by his Spirit quickning its graces it crys O miserable man that I am c. As faith tells the instrument and meanes whereby we attain the greatest good so it is the Armour that defends us from the greatest evils therefore said the Apostle Ephe. 6.16 Above all take the shield of faith whereby ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked Whereby he commends faith above all the spiritual Armour shewing the cause of his commendation from the exceeding virtue of it that it inables them to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked the virtue of it is universal against the worst of evils if it be taken that is if it be used It must be used in the relying act and in the aplying act staying our selves upon the Lord Psal 37.5 Commit our way unto the Lord. The Applying act is when the soul can say his righteousnes is mine to justify me his blood which he shed upon the Cross an attonement for my sins his Spirit mine to quicken me The fiery darts which Satan shoots are first the guilt of sin then afflictions inward and out ward those who were stung by the fiery Serpents could not be cursed unless they looked up to the brazen Serpent Faith sees that the blood which Christ shed for sinners was shed for my sin that he had an eye unto me in his sufferings A 2 Way faith quenches the fiery darts of Satan by seeing that sin is condemned if so then it can have no power to condem the soul A 3 Way is to see afflictions to be a means of grace that they sanctify us and work for us a more exceeding and eternal weight of glory And to see God in the afflictions working for our good and keeping us from the hurt which men intended to us I will be with thee in the fire and in the water that the fire shall not burne thee nor the water hurt thee Isa 43.2 I will keep him secretly from the strife of tongues This made the suffering Martyrs more than conquerors through Christ that loved us and gave his life for us therefore they were wiling to suffer for him and lay down their lives for the testimony of the Gospel to take joyfully the spoiling of their goods and to think all too little for God for whom they suffered it therefore let us set before us our blessed Saviours suffering who endured for us such bitter paines mocking and contradiction of sinners lest we faint in our minds and are weary of the Cross of Christ Let us also set before us the examples of the Prophets Apostles and Martyrs and the examples of our own memory Our late King whose head was anointed with holy oyle yet his Majesty trampled upon with the greatest indignities and when the meanest of his subjects a common Souldier spit in his face used no reproof and he that was Gods vicegerent of the Crown was humbled to be Christs vicegerent of his Cross a rare and wonderful example of suffering patiently the good will and pleasure of God Our imitation of his virtues shall be a lasting monument of his Glory Aere ceu vacuo pendentia Mausolaea Mart. Holy David went far in this as when one abject fellow cursed him and threw durt at him he let him alone saying Who can tell whether God will requite good for his railing And God did not fail him because his faith did not faile though it was tried to the uttermost this faith carried him through all When the people talked of stoning him by this he encouraged himself in the Lord and was not dismaied and if it became the Captain of our salvation to be made perfect by sufferings why should it be thought strange if all that fight under the same banner be made perfect Soulders by the same discipline Oh that we could all follow him not only in drinking of the Cup which he drunk off viz. The bitter Cup of the Cross but also do it with the same charity to our enemies as he had when he prayed Father forgive them for they know not what they do whose steps the Proto Martyr St. Stephen also followed and for his reward he saw the Heavens opened and his Saviour standing at the right hand of God by this we are sure that the same Spirit is in us as was in Christ T was impossible for Job to have undergone so many of Satans fiery darts upon his estate his relations and bodily sufferings but that he believed that his redeemer lived and that he should see him with his eyes at the last day though wormes consumed his flesh And St. Paul having fought the good fight of faith had the like assurance as he testifieth henceforth is layed up for me a Crown of glory this inabled him to undergo the fight with victory and this took away the sting of death so that death it self was not formidable to him nor to the holy Prophets Apostles and Martyrs who willingly underwent it for a good conscience not accepting deliverance Those great temptations which Satan most relieth upon are those of sins guilt accusing the conscience and bloody persecutions though all manner of temptations as the vanities of the world the cares of the world the lusts of the flesh the pride of life are all of them by the arts of our Spiritual adversary so suited and managed according to several complexions that without this grace they are unresistable therefore the Scripture testifieth that this is the victory whereby we overcome the world and if morality could be sufficient to mortify our lusts and good education as some pretend how came it to pass that those moral Philosophers who writ so many things against lust covetousness and other vices were yet themselves overcome of them but through faith in Christ the world is
raiment and God increased him to two bands Abraham desired but a Son and God increaseth his seed as the sand of the Sea The prodigal desires to be but as a Servant and the Father entertaineth him with embracings and feastings But as for his people that trust in him mercy imbraseth them on every side God satisfieth their mouth with good things they shall want no manner of thing that is good He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him if he doth not give the thing desired he will take away the desire of it Psal 32.4 Delight thy self in the Lord and he will give the thy hearts desire We starve our souls for want of asking Joash struck three times on the ground and the Prophet was angry and said to him Thou shouldest have strucken six or seven times Paul to the Corinthians saith you are not straitned in us but in your own bowels And t is said of Christ that he could not do many works because of their infidelety to be often upon our knees shews our faith in him believing his goodness and Fatherly care of us Infidelity doth as it were bind the hands of God who is not wanting in his bowels of mercy Be sensible then O my soul of thy wants know where to go for thy supply namely to him that inviteth thee give way to thy most inlarged desires when thou goest to an infinite supply be not straitned in thine own bowels open thy mouth wide come boldly as he biddeth thee And ask the things that are pleasing in his sight since thou knowest thou shalt receive them if they be such things as the word of God teaches thee to ask fear not because thou art sensible of thine own unworthiness since such are invited and the best are unprofitable Servants And when they have done all they may and must acknowledge themselves such and stand in need of the merits of their Saviour and are justified freely by grace if so much more must such sinners as I and such as Mary Magdalen see our own unprofitableness But Oh that I could love as much as she did because much is forgiven me and I believe that he will forgive me because he hath given me many things and it is easier and lesser in the esteem of men to forgive a debt than to give I shall undoubtedly believe his love to me If I can feel in my heart such love to him 5. Meditation When I find the Lord reckoning up the greivous sins of his auncient people the Jews that they were a rebellious people lying Children that would not hearken to the law of the Lord which say to the seers see not and to the Prophets prophesy not unto us right things but deceits cause the holy one of Israel to cease from before us for which iniquity he threatens them v. 13. And v. 15. Promiseth them salvation if they return but finding them obstinate they would not whereby they procure their own ruin Therefore he saith Isa 15.18 He will wait to be gracious unto them He will be exalted that he may shew mercy unto them as if he had said though their sins were never so great yet his mercy should not be overcome his mercy is infinite as he is their sins are the sins of men his mercies the mercies of God that where iniquity doth abound grace doth superabound his mercy is free without any merit in us or any motive unless it be our misery the motive of his patience and mercy is only from himself but that he waited to be gracious implies that though his mercy were never so free yet he could not find a season to shew it then when they were so averse from him Since then the motive of mercy is only in God himself we may infer that there is nothing in him to discourage faith and recumbency upon him so that although we have been guilty of such sins as these are or the same though we have been rebellious lying averse and would not hearken unto his voice nor to his Prophets and have hindred them from speaking right things yet let us remember our selves and returne unto him as the Ninevites did when they were warned who knowes but he may wait to be gracious to us also but let us not presume upon his mercy and make that which should be our Physick our Poison We know that he hath given us a High Priest who doth not only know our insirmities and impotencies but therefore knew them that he might have compassion upon us Blessed Jesus thou knowest that no man can come after thee unless the Father draw him help thou our weak nature by thy Holy Spirits assistance draw us we will run after thee Quicken us who by nature are dead in trespasses and sins take away our heart of stone and give us hearts of flesh for thy promise sake A Prayer LORD when I am tempted to revenge pride Emulation Abition wrath or any other sinful action to satisfy my sensual carnal appetite to maintaine my honour to repress my adversary to Correct his insolency inlighten me with thy Heavenly grace thy word and thy Spirit that I may pull off the Mask of these sensual carnal waies of the men of the world which shall perish and see their vanity and deformity and anoint thou my eyes that I may cleerly see the beauty of every vertue grace meekness charity humility patience longanimity that I may view them in themselves and in those who excelled therein and esteeme them more honourable than to be accompted brave gallant bold valiant and heroick as sometimes I have esteemed when I have seen heard and read of any exemplar and rare act of the graces as to instance the patience of Job when he had lost his estate children and bodily health murmured not but blessed God and Eli 'T is the Lord let him do what seemeth good in his eyes Hanna when she was reproved for drunkenness answered without anger nay but in the bitterness of my soul I prayed Forgive us our trepasses as we forgive them that trespass against us 1. Meditation If our forgiving the trespasses of others be the pattern of Gods forgiveness to us how few can be saved for none ever forgave every injury that hath been done to him some they have revenged But if God doth not pardon every sin to us we are damned Lord give us thy grace to be as free in the pardoning of all trespasses without exception though never so many as we would have thee forgive us for we cannot have so many committed against us as we have committed against thee therefore we have need of a larger pardon from God to us than we can have occasion to give others If God would take accompt of us we shall have need of forgiveness for a thousand talents Mat. 18.24 More than we are able to satisfy yet when we fall down before him beseeching his pardon he freely forgives us all But if we for a hundred pence or
helpe in trouble I have wilfully opened a gap to let in a stream of corruptions a Breach is made in my spiritual Castle for all the enemies of my soul to break in at and I am disposed to greater sins which by little and little creep in and get ground by degrees till at last it reigns uncontrolled and brings us in the end to a hardned heart a seared conscience that cannot repent and eternal damnation I consider also what might and ought to have drawn me from my sin to the contrary virtue What strength of humane reason what moral precepts natural modesty and shame fear of being seen examples of moral serious and religious men to the contrary serenity of mind the publick good and my own private good contentation and transquility and happiness with many more motives from the light of nature and good education ready to inform and restrain a mind willing to be virtuous Besides innumeâ—able other restraints from the word of God the instructing of the Spirit The life of faith the fear of God and his alseeing eye the terror of the curse upon the disobedient Hope of Heaven and eternal recompences to the obedient the exceeding and eternal weight of glory which is laid up for us the exceeding precious promises able not only to support the soul of a believer in the greatest difficulties but also to ravish it which excess of joy under the greatest sufferings Besides if I had no such light of nature no education no knowledg of the scriptures and humane precepts no knowledg of histories of Gods dealing in judgment with other sinners who have felt the truth of all the threatnings denounced against sinners as Josephus and the scriptures and other writings testify the Jews did and all notorious sinners have done and daily do if I had no promises to allure no threatnings to drive me no conscience to testify unto me no testimony of other men in all ages both wicked and righteous yet this one argument were perswasive enough to have deterred me from wickedness to the service of God namely my dependance on him for the necessaries and conveniencies of life my supplys my sustentation and preservation from imminent dangers unexpectedly surprising me This might be sufficient to make me bewaile my own improvidence and folly in casting away my succour my hope my sustentation safeguard and preservation for that which hath not profited me I therefore with grief of heart bewail my self But that which may cumulate more grief is to consider the ungratitude of my sinful soul for so many mercies received which have transported me with admiration As when I received form the hands of the Lord houses that I built not and wealth that I laboured not for whereby I was delivered from getting my bread with the sweat of my brow and the labor of my mind and body in pain and sorrow with continual carping and caring and restlesness the benefit whereof I continually enjoy with comfort therefore my duty of gratitude obligeth me to consider what I shall render to God and to use these mercies to his honour and glory and not to abuse them to his dishonour in sinning against him And when I have done the contrary I have dealt unworthily with so good a God for if Hanna would needs retribute for one mercy what must I do for so many The many deliverances that God hath wrought for me in bringing me out of troubles which I have sometimes brought upon my self sometimes my enimies have brought upon me sometimes the hand of God hath brought upon me and my relations either for our sins or for our trials out of all which the Lord delivered me so that I can testify and set to my seale that God is true and hath performed all his gracious promises to me that he hath made to them that fear him He hath been with me in six troubles and in the seventh he hath not forsaken me his deliverances have exceeded both these numbers therefore I must confess that he hath also verified his largest promises to me saying I will never leave thee nor forsake thee And also when he saith No weapon formed against thee shall prosper And when he saith Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it For his mercies have been greater than my desires and my tongue would fail me to recount them All which fly in my face and testify against me when I sin for how can I recount all his benefits which I have received from him upon which I live beginning with that of being born of virtuous parents And all the deliverances which he hath wrought for me in abundance of mercy and chiefly that he hath delivered my soul from Hell But I must reflect upon my sin with shame and confusion of face with loathing and abhorring my self in sackcloth and ashes with fasting and depriving my self of all comforts and injoyments with humiliation and abasing my self with earnest and humble supplications sighs and tears of a contrite heart but when I consider the vows promises and protestations which I have made to God in my time of trouble when I sought to God for my deliverance and that he did pluck me as a brand out of the fire and did hear my prayers and delivered me and did grant my requests above my desire or hope as he did Jacobs These broken vows put me to shame and cause me to abhor my self and with Ephraim to smite upon my breast desiring in my heart that I could do any thing whereby I might but undo one sinful action or that I could expiate the same by any sufferings but my conscience tells me that all I can do or suffer through the whole course of my life will not be sufficient to expiate or attone for one sin so as to make me innocent again Therefore I have resolved and vowd to sin no more And I have wished my self dead that I might no more sin and I have resolved to separate my self from the world that I may spend all my time in serving God who hath not dealt by me after my sins Thy word O Lord hath shewed me that if thy people repent them of their sins and forsake them though they be as scarlet thou wilt make them white as snow and thou wilt abundantly pardon them and thou wilt repent thee of the evil which thou bringest upon them If Ahab go mourning thou wilt not bring the evil in his days and all thy threatinings are only conditional unless we repent So the City of Ninivie diverted thy wrath by turning unto thee and seeking thee with fastings and prayers This duty all the Prophets taught This St. John the Baptist preached Saying Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand This our Blessed Saviour and his Apostles taught Therefore let me practise this so necessary a duty but unless thou inablest me with thy grace and unless thou givest me repentance I cannot have it of my self because my heart is hard of it self