errours misdoings and mistakes ignorances and follies as procure to Men shame fear grief guilt and the Wrath of God due to sin Though meritoriously Christ only can deliver us yet he hath injoyned these operations of his Spirit as the means to make us Subjects capable of his merit And though it be said that while we were sinners he died for us and he justifieth the ungodly yet he doth not justifie ungodliness but they are changed by the renewing of the Spirit in the new Birth in all their faculties namely in the Judgement Will and affections whereby they are first enlightned to understand the principles of Christ's Doctrine and do believe and do resolve to practise the same as it is commanded resigning and submitting our wills to his who hath made us and redeemed us all which operations of the Spirit do excite joy in the Soul of the Regenerate viz. first it rejoyceth in knowing the truth and the good will of God and every particular discovery thereof rejoyceth the Soul but chiefly it rejoyceth to find Grace in it self and a conformity to that will of God and every degree of Grace in it self and in others rejoyce it for we find the Apostles rejoycing in the Graces which they found in others but they grieve at sin stirring in themselves and others King Solomon was sufficiently accomplished for his design in the pursuit of finding out the thing that was profitable What would give rest What would afford satisfaction What delight he could find in any thing What improvement he could make of knowledge But he did not nor could attain thereby with all his labour and industry any thing but to find out the vanity of all things below and so to fill himself with vexation restlesness much grief and encrease of sorrow Eccles c. 1. If so then we must account him no wise Man who takes any worldly thing for his contentment satisfaction repose profit commodity joy or delight but he is truly wise who can both discern the madness vanity unprofitableness restlesness vexation nausiousness and trouble with which these worldly things fill vex and disquiet and dissatisfie vain Man and seeks his joy comfort pleasure fruition content satisfaction and happiness in things more certain more lasting more excellent more spiritual Thus far also Philosophy went and hath defined happiness to be the operation of the Soul according to perfect virtue in a life that is perfect And what those virtues are Natures light hath shewed the knowledge of God and the worshipping him accordingly they defined to be happiness and virtue for thither tend all moral virtues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. But what Nature could not find out God hath revealed viz. The Gospel of our blessed Saviour which was first made known by Angels to the Shepherds and by this Gospel or good tydings we are taught That happiness is To know God and Christ This is Life Eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent Now if these operations of the Soul according to perfect virtue proceed from the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Saviour as they must if it be in the perfect life which is in Heaven then the Philosophers happiness is the same with a Christians for their graces proceed from this knowledge as it is said by David they that know thy Name will put their trust in thee they that know God to be All-sufficient will walk before him in perfection they that have tasted how gracious the Lord is and that he is a God hearing Prayer will come unto him this life is begun here from whence this certain conclusion may be drawn that there is happiness joy satisfaction and all sweetness of Life and enjoyment in the Soul that hath continual motions of Grace and none of sin or vanity quod quaerimus The Immense greatness of this Joy is not to be expressed Therefore the Apostle calls it Joy unspeakable and glorious 1 Pet. 1.8 but to prove the immensity of it we must consider the cause which is Infinite Eternal and Almighty such as the cause is the effect must needs be The assurance of God's love and favour in Christ Jesus for our Eternal happiness hereafter for our security and preservation here for our deliverance from all the evills of sin and the punishments due to it which coming into the Soul though but by a little glimpse ravisheth the Soul with infinite joy when God sheweth the light of his countenance and smiles if I may so express it or looks pleasant upon the Soul that thirsteth after him in this Land of barrenness It is satisfied When God owns thee by hearing thy Prayers and puts forth his Almighty Power at thy request for thy succour whereby thou knowest thou hast an Almighty power for thy assistance great is thy joy Especially because thou hast earnest thereby for the future that he will never leave thee nor forsake thee so that no time limits thy joy nor no degree of enioyment because the matter and cause is the infinite power and infinite goodness of God and the duration of it to Eternity and this enjoyment doth begin here when we know our interest that Christ is ours our Attonement our Passeover slain for us as a sacrifice for our sins our Reconciliation and Peace-maker our Redeemer who hath bought us Our Mediator our High Priest our King our Food our Bridegroom our Head our Life our Way our Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption the Hymenaeans of these holy Nuptials and the Song of the Lamb are everlasting When God doth assure us by his Spirit that we are reconciled to him through Christ and we are confident of his Almighty power and goodness ready always to succour us as his Children his Beloved his People his Portion and his Flock and that all things are his and whatever is his we have an interest in it as we have in him by reason of our Relation to him in Christ When we know Christ and God in him and are known by him and behold as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord and are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory being renewed after the Image of him that made us and when the Spirit of Grace and Glory rests upon us 1 Pet. 4.14 When the glorious Majesty of the Lord is upon us when we can serve him in the beauty of Holiness What do we want but to see him Face to Face whom now we see in a Glass And to have that in perfection which now is but in part and to have our vile bodies like his glorious body Of the Eating and Drinking the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist When our blessed Saviour plainly tells us that the words which he speaks are Spirit Why should I not understand a Spiritual meaning in those of this mystery namely a Spiritual eating of his body and drinking his Blood To as many as received him he gave Power and Priviledge to
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
priviledges which Jesus Christ hath purchased for us Give us more assurance of the pardon of our sins and our reconciliation to God and the joy thereof Give us the peace of conscience and the Peace of God which passeth all understanding Give us the Joy which is in the Holy Ghost which we enjoy in holy duties Let us taste and rellish these sweet enjoyments with more satisfaction and joy that the excesses of our souls may be in these enjoyments and we may keep them in our mouths and hide them under our tongues as we do sweet morsels And let the enjoyment of these carry us through all difficulties Give us more confidence in our accesses to the Throne of Grace and a belief that thou art more ready to give than we to ask for thy fulness is more full than our emptiness is wanting Thy fatherly care to provide for us is more faithful and careful to do it than we to seek it though we are resolved to be alwaies begging and craving because we know we shall alwaies be wanting in this life and we will not lose our desires and thy bountiful gifts for want of asking The cause which moved thee to make such gracious invitations to us and such great and precious promises of grace and mercy was only in thy self for thou invitest the thirsty to buy Wine and Wilk without mony or price What then is there that we can buy it with that is neither mony nor price it can be nothing but to exchange our thirst for the thing which we thirst for to relieve it to open our mouths Therefore as the cause which moved thee to make these invitations and promises was in thy self Lord seek in thy self the cause which may move thee to perform them The qualifications of thirst want and need we have and shall have as long as we have any life But if we be dead in trespasses and sins quicken thou us because thou only canst do it by thy holy Spirit In the assurance of thy free mercy then whereof thou by thy free promises hast convinced us and by the performance of the chiefest of them hast fully satisfied us inable us to assure our souls of thy readiness and willingness to hear and help us through the merits of Christ Jesus and in assurance thereof to come boldly and with confidence to the Throne of Grace And give us sure evidence of our interest in all other priviledges That our joy may be full assure us that our place of defence is the munition of Rocks That bread be given us and our water shall be sure Bless us and make us a blessing Let showers of blessings come down upon thy people Give us to lay hold of Christ for only Wisdom our only sufficient Righteousness our Sanctification and Redemption Tread Satan under our feet that we may bruise his head as often as he goeth about to sting our heel Destroy his works Let the Spirit of the Lord set up his standard against him And let not Antichrist any more deceive the Nations but destroy thou him and the Whore which is drunk with the blood of Saints Succour those that are tempted Be with thy people in the fiery Tryal that is to come upon all the world to try them as thou wast with Joseph in the prison Lord let not our sins stand as a cloud to hinder these our prayers from ascending to thee or cause thee to turn away thine ear For though they are so many that we scarce know how to confess them yet thou hast pardoned as great sinners as we when they turned unto thee and it is usual with thee to seek thy lost sheep and to receive thy returning Prodigals Lord thy free promises and importunate invitations by thy self and thy Son give us this boldness of access to thee for thereby we are assured that thou art more desirous to give than we to receive Hear us therefore through the merits of thy Beloved Son our Eternal High Priest in whom only we hope to prevail with thee in whom thy Promises are Yea and Amen And accept us in him who hath purchased this Access for us in whom we trust that he now intercedeth for us whilst we are praying to thee And that he persumes and presents these our supplications at the Throne of Grace To whom with Thee and thy blessed Spirit of Grace be all honour praise and glory Eternally Amen Enter not into Judgment with us O Lord for our best services for in thy sight shall no flesh living be justified A shorter Prayer for daily use LOrd draw nigh unto me now that I draw nigh unto thee for thy promise sake for thy mercy sake and for Christ Jesus sake And assist me with thy Spirit that I may pray unto thee in the Spirit and in Faith believing that thou art more ready to give than we to ask or receive thy graces and thy mercies Lord relieve me according to all my needs and according to thy infinite goodness and according to thy gracious promises and invitations Relieve my spiritual blindness with that eye-salve which thou hast invited the blind to come unto thee for Relieve my spiritual nakedness with that fine white linnen which thou hast invited the naked to seek of thee and cloath me with humility patience temperance chastity and charity and every grace Relieve my spiritual poverty with that fine gold which will enrich our souls to eternity and make me rich in good works Relieve my spiritual hunger and thirst with the bread of life and the water of life so that I may never hunger or thirst after any thing else And make me more hungry and thirsty for thee and thy grace and more sensible of my needs Lord I pray not for my self alone but for me and mine and all the Israel of the Lord. Let my seed be a seed unto thee and all that shall come of them to the end of the world Remember the entail of thy blessings to us and to our seed for a thousand generations Let the Kingdoms of the world become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ Let holiness to the Lord be writ upon all our common things Make us all to know thee from the greatest to the least Let us need no more to teach one another saying Know the Lord. Let us all be taught of God and let us hear the sweet voice behind us saying This is the way walk ye in it when we turn to the right hand or to the left and make Jerusalem a praise Love us freely pardon us and heal us Subdue our iniquities and cast our sins into the bottom of the Sea that they may never rise up against us Give us new hearts Put thy Laws into our hearts and write them in our inward parts Be thou our God and make us thy people Put thy Spirit into us and cause us to walk in thy Statutes and to know thy Judgments and do them Cause us to love thee with
loathsom vice of beastly intemperance but let me avoid them and not look upon the Wine when it moveth it self right and giveth a pleasant colour in the Cup or if it should be so that I have no inclination of my self to this or any other sin yet let me not therefore venture my self upon the temptation but let me fear sin always considering how foully Noah and Lot fell let me never be found standing or walking in the way of sinners nor sitting in their seat but let me be always found in the way of God And what is said of the adulterous Woman whoever toucheth her shall not be innocent let me fear the same in every temptation and avoid the least medling with it or approaches to it and as it is also said concerning the same avoid it pass not by it turn from it pass away so let my practice be in all other temptations And as it is said of Gluttony for remedy of it if thou beest a man given to thy appetite set a Knife to thy throat So in all other temptations let me lay violent hands upon the peccant member if my right eye offend me let me pluck it out Lord thou knowest that I am resolved not to sin to avoid the greatest suffering therefore teach me wisdom that I may prevent and guard my self against all provocations to sin that I may not draw upon my self a necessity of suffering MAKE us to accept Jesus Christ our Saviour upon his own terms as he offers himself to us in the Holy Gospel to be our King to rule us and reign over us our Prophet to teach and instruct us as well as to be our high Priest to attone and sacrifice for our sins Let us not think to have the priviledges of Christians without the duties Make it to be a greater pleasure to us to deny our selves in sins then ever it was to give our selves up to them that we may be meet to receive Heaven into which flesh and blood cannot enter Let the Holy Spirit inflame us always with that divine fervent affection to God that inspired the Spouse when she said or ever I was aware my Soul was like the Chariots of Aminadab O sweet Christ do thou put grace into our hearts by that sweet voice behind us saying this is the way walk you in it for thou only art our great Prophet and teacher who canst make us learn and our high Priest and mighty Saviour delivering us from our sins and making us as innocent by thy attonement as if we had never offended for those whom thou makest free they are free indeed if thou wilt not take away the being of sin in us in this life yet assist us with thy grace to subdue it deliver us out of the power of darkness and the Prince of darkness And what benefits thou hast purchased for us by thy death apply them to us by thy intercession deliver us from death and give us the Crown of life which thou hast promised to all them that love thee and since thou art desirous of our salvation and it is because we will not come unto thee that we have not life O Christ make us a willing people as thou hast promised for our salvation is wholly from thee But our damnation from our own wills and if we perish our blood is upon our own heads O sweet Christ our Prophet and teacher teach us by thy word and thy Spirit the things that belong to our peace Guide me by thy Spirit and then bring me to glory LORD what is there in us for which thou shouidest desire our love Lord in thee is every thing that is lovely therefore ought we to chuse thee for the object of our love But we seek that happiness in the World which we cannot find any where but in thee and having found nought but emptiness vanity and the loss of all our labour in the pursuance of content peace and happiness in the affaires and matters of the world let us at last betake our selves to seek it in thee and thy waies to learn of thee to take thy yoak upon us that we may find rest to our soules LORD what pretence can sinners have for which they cast off thy yoak and will not have thee to rule over them upon whose daily benefits they live when they rebel against their Princes and shake off their yoak it is either for their leud lives and wickedness that they judge them unworthy to rule therefore scorn to be subject unto them Or for their oppression that they are not able to bear their grievous burthens but what iniquity have sinners found in thee thou hast put the Question to them but they can find no answer LORD since thou hast shewed me that every Saint must live in the same holiness of life that thy Servants the Apostles attained and St. Paul said of himself that he was crucified with Christ yet he lived yet not he but Christ lived in him and he lived that life by the faith of Christ who gave himself for him give us thy grace in like manner to crucify our selves to the World and to live no more to it nor to our selves but to live by Christ in us so as we may be said not to live And if thou givest us to live the life of faith and not to the World and live to thee let us not impute this our well doing to our selves for of our selves we cannot think a good thought but to Christ who liveth in us who only can inable us thus to live In all our distresses let us pray to the Lord and use the meanes as when the Arabians Ammonites and Ashdodites conspired against Jerusalem 't is said Nehemiah 4.9 Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God and set a watch against them day and night But let us not like King Asa seek to Physicians in our sickness and not to God LORD while I am supported by thy Spirit I shall be able to live blamelesly as Lot did in the midst of Sodom but the strongest of thy servants will fall as he afterwards did if thou withdraw the Assistance of thy Spirit and shall be as that Apostle who denied the Lord Jesus Christ whom before he sought for and resolved to dye for though he was the Rock Therefore let me never be confident lest thou leavest me as thou didst him And when I hear of others miscarriages let me be thankful to thee for holding me up and ascribe it to thee as the Angels in the Book of the Revelations are said to cast their Crowns at thy feet and let us learn not to judge uncharitably of those that are overcome by temptations LORD when we pray unto thee our prayers are so interrupted with worldly and sinful thoughts and the things we pray for being mostwhat temporal mercies and deliverances from bodily evils they are not such prayers as our own reason can think worthy thy acceptance But Lord though we offer thee
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
did not like love cherish and improve that corruption of Nature which was contracted by the fall of Adam But our blessed Saviour hath told us this truth Light is come into the world but this is the condemnation that men love darkness rather than Light because their works are evil If they affect Darkness they will improve it and the more evil their works are so much the more will they improve their darkness and endeavour to extinguish their light hate it and fly from it because it reproves them And they desire not the knowledge of the Most High because it makes against them and their designs and against their impudence and desperateness Besides which the Apostle sheweth another cause whereby this blindness is contracted viz. The God of this world hath blinded their eyes If they have chosen the God of this world to worship and serve him they must needs pull out their weak eyes which nature corrupted had contracted or suffer him to put them out Such terms as Nahash would have imposed upon the men of Jabesh Giliad 1 Sam. 11. From these two causes it proceeds that men who profess themselves wise and have excellent parts yet knowing him to be God they love him not nor like they to worship him nor to retain him in their thoughts but become vain in their thoughts and imaginations and harden their foolish heart The Lord will not by his Spirit alwaies strive with them but gives them up to their affected blindness and to serve such gods as they have chosen Their bellies and their lusts And he takes away his holy Spirit from them and that talent which he had given them And yet the gifts and graces of God are without repentance for they are changed and not God For seeing that neither the word of God which is the power and wisdom of God contained in the Gospel of our Blessed Lord and Saviour will convince them Nor yet his great and mighty works of the Creation of the world and the preservation thereof The hanging of the Earth upon nothing and the other wonderful works of God mentioned in the 25th of Joh nor the usefulness convenientness of the seasons of the year and the benefits which they themselves reap thereby is not by them considered Psal 19. Nor yet God's extraordinary providences when their mighty preparations of forces and Armies are defeated by silly and weak means as those of the Moabites were by Gideon Or when they are subdued and overthrown as it were by the Heavens as the Poet Claudian expressed it conjurati veniunt in classica venti yet they will not see God's hand but say Though the bricks are fallen down we will build with hewn stone Nay though the Lord doth destroy them by his Angels as in Isa 37. the Angel destroyed 185000. of Senacharib's Hoast they will not see God's hand Nor when an arrow shot at a venture shall find out and smite a disguised murtherer between the joints of his armour 1 Kings 22.33 yet others will not fear his justice nor see the hand of the Lord. What can the Lord do more Either he must give them up or put them to shame with further miracles And try whether Xerxes will fetter the Winds as wisely as he settered the Hellespont and chastise them also with stripes But the Sea did not for all that acknowledge any Allegiance to him more than ours did to the good King Canutus who tryed it but only to rebuke and disprove the flattery of some of his flattering Courtiers who vainly and prophanely called him God But neither those Gentiles spoken of Rom. 1. nor any of those Heathenish Atheists had that great Luminary to enlighten them which our modern Atheists have viz. the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ therefore as their light is greater so must their sin be and their condemnation too because they will not see his light who hath in his right hand seven Stars and his countenance is as the Sun shineth in his strength Apoc. 1. The God of this world hath various fallacies and deceits whereby he blinds and beguiles unstable souls and draws them to this In some he blinds their mind with pride as it is said in the Psalms The ungodly is so proud that he careth not for God neither is God in all his thoughts in the place before mentioned They said in the pride of their heart The bricks are fallen down but we will build with hewn stone Isa So we may read in the 37th of Isaiah of Senacharib's proud boastings and how he blasphemed the holy one of Israel and reproached the Lord 24 and 25 verses mention his boastings And 2 Chron. 32.13 and 14. Know ye not what I and my Fathers have done unto all the people of other lands Were the gods of those Nations able to deliver their lands out of my hands 14. That your god should be able to deliver you cut of my hand In this manner Alexander's proud and ambitious mind leading him first to thirst after the inlarging of his Territories left him by his Father and having conquered Athens and become a terrour to all Greece he was chosen their Captain General He then thirsted for the Empire of the world thereupon he went into Asia with his whole Army and overcame Lydia Ionia and Phrygia and every Country that lay in his way And at length engaging with Darius his innumerable Army and extraordinary preparations and Engines he overcome them and overrunning the Bactrians he extended his Dominion to the Indies And at length becomes transported with the greatness of his fortune and success and forgets God and assumes to himself Divine honours And as Alexander was transported and blinded with pride and ambition so are others by lust covetousness drunkenness gluttony vanity and other baits of Satan quite blinded and besotted and held captive by him at his will and are by insensible degrees drawn on further and further to cast off all fear of God and reverence to his worship The same who now after the Conquest obtained ascribes and assumeth to himself Divine honour and calls himself God and Jovis Hammonis filius He before the joyning of the battel would by no means omit to sacrifice to the gods of the place So Curtius saith Sacrificium Dis presidibus loci secit patrio more he was not then an Atheist nor yet a God The same causes may we assign to that Atheism of Caligula for how can we think of such folly and pride but that they were blinded and besotted with it when just then he had counterfeited the Thunder in his brazen Galleries made for that purpose upon a sudden clap of Thunder he run and hid himself under his bed and cryed out Caligula non est Deus he dared not then to threaten the Air as at another time he did Another Means or Obstruction whereby Satan hinders the light of the Gospel from shining into their hearts so that they see not God is success
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
anger malice revenge covetousness lust concupiscence or the like and mourning over it humbly intreat him to succour relieve help heal cleanse wash purge and purify them by the renewing of the Spirit Or else as he answer'd St. Paul praying against the Thorn in his flesh he will supply them with grace sufficient for them From these promises we may see the reason why our blessed Saviour in that form of Prayer teacheth us to pray in the plural number our and us for this includes our selves and our fellow-members of the mystical body of Christ some whereof are but Babes or Children in religion and cannot pray for themselves as not having received so great measure of the Spirit so that they have need of our Prayers and our charity including them doth not hinder our requests for our selves but rather promotes them We see also why sometimes they pray more particularly but for themselves as the Apostle Paul did against his particular malady and burthen which he groaned under And so David did pray against his own particular sins and sufferings Deliver me from bloody-guiltiness Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity and quicken me in thy Law Incline my heart to thy Testimonies and not to covetousness c. For which particular graces we may upon occasion pray in the behalf of others according to that precept of the Apostle If any man see his Brother sin a sin which is not unto Death he shall pray for him and it shall be forgiven him Likewise may we pray for the deliverance of them from their afflictions and perils which they lie under as the Apostle Paul desires the Saints to whom he wrote to pray for his deliverance for nature dictates these prayers for our selves but grace for others that are our Brethren in Christ The Hope of speeding is that which incourageth and excites with strength and courage in every undertaking we go about If we seek of God in prayer the things which are according to his will those gifts and graces and Improvements which he hath promised to give those things which he hath invited us to ask or commanded us to ask those that our Saviour and his Apostles have taught us to ask those which the experience of other Saints and servants of God proves to be acceptable and proper requests those graces which we are commanded to have those degrees of grace and those means which we are commanded to use and those spiritual joys and injoyments which we long for and cannot be happy without why should we doubt of our success or why should we not expect a quick Return Let us then apply our selves to seek out those things As the original of all graces we first are taught by our Saviour to pray to God to give us the Holy Spirit And he that obtains this obtains also the fruits of it Love joy peace meekness gentleness patience c. And all graces whatsoever for as the Lord taught us our whole duty in one word viz. Love so here he teacheth us in one word the sum of all we need to pray for for although we pray for many things yet the sum of all spiritual things is contained in this And if we seek the spiritual gifts and graces which is signified in that expression Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness the other things shall be added unto us without seeking In this also is summed up all that we ought to pray against viz. all our spiritual enemies the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life and every thing that Satan overcomes the sons of men withal This general is branched into six petitions in the Lords prayer for by the Spirit of God in us we are made holy the Temples of the Lord and are made capable to sanctify Gods holy name the love of God is spread abroad in our hearts Gods law is written in our hearts and put in our inward parts By the Mission of the holy Spirit into us we all know him and know his Judgments and do them the Kingdoms of the World become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ Righteousness will run down as a River and holiness to the Lord shall be writ upon us and all our comon things every pot in Jerusalem shall be like the bouls before the Altar And Jesus Christ shall have the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession when these and the like promises are fulfill'd And the earth shall be full of the knowledg of the Lord so that we pray implicity for these promises when we pray these petitions in the Lords prayer likewise when we pray Thy will be done we pray for the Spirit to enable us to do it and we pray to God for the fulfilling of those promises of the New Covenant which relate to it viz. That God will be our God and we shall be his people that we shall run and not be weary walk and not faint mount up with wings like an Eagle and renew our strength like an Eagle that we shall be a willing people So in the other petitions Namely that for remission of sins we cannot be assured of it nor have peace of conscience but by the operation of the Holy Ghost in our hearts by faith exciting in us unfeigned sorrow for those sins wherewith we have grieved it and working in us a stedfast resolution and purpose never to commit the like again Also when we pray against Temptations it is intended that we crave this aid by the assistance of Gods Holy Spirit to escape them for thereby we are made sufficient and able to fly them or to overcome them and to be more than conquerors so that no Spiritual weapon formed against us shall proper And if God gives us his holy Spirit we obtain also the other petitions namely to be delivered from evil and to enjoy food and raiment and all the necessaries of life for these are inseparably contained in the priviledges of the Saints For God is a Wall of fire round about them bread shall be given them and their water shall be sure so that petition also is by reason of the promise contained in that of asking the holy Spirit The rather for this that all other promises of the New Covenant are implyed in this This notwithstanding we find the Saints and Servants of God praying in other words and formes and by the Spirit too Whose Assistance I humbly crave for my further progress in these meditations Certainly when the Holy Spirit assists us in prayer it doth not only inable us to say or pray in a perscribed form but dictates the words and things prayed for according to the necessities of the person praying and prayed for Although we are not under the law but under grace that being dead wherein we were held that we should henceforth serve God in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the latter Yet must we pray against all
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
to be such then let us be sensible of our dangerous condition we are in or soon may be and we shall seek in time for strength supportation preservation and deliverance from him who hath promised to be with us in trouble and never to leave nor to forsake us And to keep us to guide help and deliver us and bring us to honour And not to suffer our feet to be moved Oh when shall it once be O Lord that thou wilt tread Satan under our feet make us more than conquerour over him We cannot be enough sensible of our spiritual dangers of our immortal souls The frequent admonitions of our blessed Saviour to watchfulness self-denial prayer seeking of God and other means to be used by us that we may be able to stand shew us how difficult a thing it is and God suffereth his servants sometimes to be brought to the highest top of the precipice and then plucks them as brands out of the fire of Hell that they may see their danger for unless they do see and know their danger they will be but cold in prayer and such prayers can never prevail or obtain any promise Quid quisque vitet nun quam homini satis Cautum est in horas Horat. But those who are sensible thereof will be fervent and frequent in prayer to God and they will take Heaven by force If they can by importunity and affiduity they will obtain of God the same answer that the Apostle Paul obtained sufficiency of grace and in their weakness he will perfect his own strength but if they had sufficiency of gifts and parts to conquer temptations they would not know that God doth it nor seek him nor depend on him Let us not imagine that such dangers and difficulties rarely befal the people of God When Jesus Christ tells his Disciples that through many tribulations they must go to Heaven They must be hated of the World That in the World they must have trouble Men shall say all manner of evil of them falsly for his sake and pronounceth a blessing upon such sufferers If we will come after him we must deny our selves and take up our Cross So the Apostle That we have need of patience that when we have done Gods will we may inherit the promise And they of their own experience testifie that they found the truth of his sayings David said Psal 119. My soul is alwaies in mine hand From my youth up thy terrours have I suffered with a troubled mind All the day long have I been afflicted and chastened every morning And the pains of Hell came about me the snares of death overtook me I am troubled above measure Psal 119. If my delight had not been in thy Law it had not failed but I had perished in my troubles My tears have been my meat day and night Shall we then expect to go to Heaven upon any easier terms nay but we must wade thorough with the same staff of comfort Consider what difficulties God's children do find in every good work and what opposition of contrary principles When they would do good evil is present with them What great necessity then have they of this duty Those things which are hurtful to our bodies we can easily leave them but not so the things which are hurtful to our souls though we are mortified as St. Paul was by keeping under our body and renewed in our hearts by the Spirit Be sensible then of these difficulties as the Apostle was and of thy remaining corruptions and thou wilt cry to God with importunity as he did and watch against thy spiritual adversary and thou shalt have cause also with him to glory in God through Jesus Christ Look upon temptations as fire and thy corrupt nature as the gunpowder Also those who by their own experience can affirm that they have called upon the Lord in their trouble and he hath delivered them out of their distress and saved them and delivered them from all their fears and that by him they have been unholden ever since they were born That he hath been to them a present help in trouble That he hath ever stood by them saved them and delivered them Hath never left them nor forsaken them That he hath known their soul in adversity That he hath been their helper That in the multitude of the sorrows of their heart his comforts have refreshed their souls And those whose conscience beareth witness to them of their sincerity and uprightness as Job's did Job 31. ch throughout And know that their Nature is renewed by their quickness in the actions of grace when they are tempted to sin even these are sometimes dismayed and cast down as David expressed it in this saying sc Psal Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled So Job 13. Wherefore hidest thou thy face But if the Lord doth shew the light of his countenance upon them and his presence go with them then they can rely upon the Truth of God's promises in the valley of the shadow of death in the midst of the fiery furnace and in the Lion's den and though he should kill them they will trust in him And they can praise him when he takes away as well as when he gives and pray unto him But our own experience of his Truth and our own purposes vows and resolutionns and watching without his presence his supportation and the light of his countenance will not be sufficient to bear us up in the fiery tryal no more than it did Peter and David and the other Saints therefore he hath promised to be with us in it In the sire he will be with us that it shall not burn us and in the water that it shall not drown us and so he was with Job though he hid his face and seem'd his enemy The spirit of a man can bear his infirmities but a wounded spirit who can bear Psal 42. These considerations teach us how great need and necessity all men have of diligence in this duty consider also whether it be not meet and necessary for the children of God to seek those priviledges which Jesus Christ hath purchased for them by this duty of prayer Because our Blessed Saviour did thus seek his priviledges and birthright as God appointed Psal 2.7 8. Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Ask of me and I will give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession And thus the children of God do ask for and beg their rights and priviledges through the name merit and meditation of Jesus Christ by the Spirits assistance As the Lord taught them to do As in that particular priviledge of putting the Spirit into them promised by God in the new Covenant Christ Jesus commands them to ask it Therefore they ought also to pray that God would tread Satan under their feet That he would deliver them from every evil work that he would keep them night and
all our hearts and with all our souls Put thy fear in our hearts that we may not depart from thee all our daies Let thy Spirit alwaies dwell in us and abide in us as our Helper our Almighty Comforter our Light our Guide and Instructer our Teacher and Remembrancer Let our bodies alwaies be the Temples of the Holy Ghost Let thy Spirit be alwaies acting in us love joy in the Lord peace meekness gentleness long-suffering brotherly-kindness charity chastity purity temperance and sobriety zeal knowledg faith affiance in thee mortification vivification hope and humility patience contentation and submission to thee and every grace Give us Christ Jesus too whom thou hast promised to give for a Covenant to the people first give him us for a Covenant then give him to us for our King our High Priest and our Prophet our Wisdom our Righteousness our Sanctification and our Redemption for our Beloved our Bridegroom and our Husband The joy of our heart and the desire of our souls O blessed Jesus give us thy self in all those offices and relations which thou beest to thy people Give us the kisses of thy mouth and the sweet pledge of thy love and communion with thee in every duty and refreshment of our graces and particularly in this duty Bring us into thy Chambers and let thy left hand be under us and thy right hand embrace us Repose thy self as a bundle of myrth betwixt our breasts Vnvail thy beauties to us that we may be enflamed of thy perfections and may evermore run after thee Give us thy self for our Brother and make us the adopted children of thy Father and give us the same nature that thou hadst Give us thy self for our Head and do thou live in us and let us feel thee living in us evermore and let us live in thee and receive of thy fulness grace for grace Give us thy self for our root and let us be grafted into thee and bear such fruit as thou borest Give us thy flesh for the food of our souls and thy blood for the drink of our souls to nourish them to eternal life and to give them eternal life O God give us thy self for our God our King and Governour our Refuge our Tower of Defence and Safe-guard our Help in time of need our Father our Husband our Portion and exceeding great Reward And let us seek all our desires in thee and in Jesus Christ And let us know that we are thy People thy Saints and thy Servants thy Redeemed and Ransomed of the Lord and thy Portion and thy Jewels thy Children and thy Spouse and that thou rejoycest over us to do us good as a Bridegroom rejoyceth over the Bride and do thou watch over us and keep us night and day lest any evil befal us and hold us up that we may be safe And give us all those graces which thou hast promised by thy new Covenant and all those degrees of grace and all those means of Grace Give us all those graces that any of thy Saints and Servants have had and all those degrees of grace and all those graces that thou hast commanded us to have Make us perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect And give us all those blessednesses that accompany those graces Let all things work together for our good Let us want no manner of thing that is good Let us be like Mount Sion which cannot be removed And keep us secretly in thy Tabernacle from the strife of tongues and satisfie us with abundance of peace and accept of our praises too in Christ Jesus for a thousand mercies to me and mine for all the mercies wherewith thou ladest us and makest our lives comfortable especially for delivering us from Hell when we have been ready to throw our selves into it Thou canst not do a greater thing for us till thou bringest us to Heaven therefore let us retribute all we have or can do to thee and Jesus Christ our Saviour and Redeemer Amen Of Thanksgiving to God A Meditation Exod. 23. None shall appear before me empty THIS practice of the Servants of God is general for we read of none of them who did not render unto God for his mercies received so that he is none of God's people who omits this neither doth he acknowledge God to be his benefactor One sacrificeth to his net viz. to the subordinate means another ascribes all to chance and fortune and howbeit many prophane people too have made their acknowledgments to God as Saul would reserve the best of the Cattel for sacrifice Cain would also sacrifice But of such Solomon saith The Sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord as Saul's was God speaking of the degenerate Israelites saith in the Prophecy of Isaiah They come before me as my people For the light of nature which is not easily extinguished dictates this to us Accordingly we read in the Proverbs of Solomon of the Harlot paying her vows They sing praises to God just then when they are freed from their affliction but within a while they forget God and the wonders which he hath done for them To render some thing is an acknowledgment which we perform to one another for we know we can hold nothing of another without a rendering But the rendering which we must make to God alwaies is our heart and all we can do and suffer for him Hanna did not think it enough to render the fruit of her lips but thought she had enough favour shewed her that her prayers were heard and was satisfied therewith and thankfully rendered the intire benefit received David did not satisfy himself with praising and magnifying God and resolving to praise him as long as he lived but he would have built a Temple to him too but that God would not suffer him yet he proceded in that purpose so far as he could for he provided the materials for the Temple And shall I think it enough to offer God thanks and praise for though this is honouring God yet why should I suffer my self to be out-done by the weaker sex why should I think to keep all Gods benefits to my self for my own use she for one prayer heard and for own favour received renders the same again because she had no other thing of equal value to her What shall I render for so many prayers heard and for so many mercies received I am at a loss what I shall render but I am resolved to do all I can and suffer all I can for him and to Sacrifice my most endeared lust to him I will praise the Lord with my mouth and my tongue shall faile when I tell of his mercies for I know no end of them But this shall not suffice me I must endeavour to build up his Temple too as far as I may not any Temple made with hands but I have frequent occasion to meditate how much God doth for me and how little do I for God! and taking a view of
present or afterwards doth speak against can that be gainful to a man that loseth his souls eternal salvation If the ship be drowned in the ocean all that is in it is drowned What gain can that be that is so short that in the next moment we must say it was and is not and for that we have lost eternal happiness Or had I lived the daies of Methusalem and all my daies had been daies of pleasure and this were my last day what would remain of profit of it all or what joy or satisfaction or comfort to beare me up against the fear of death would not a little tidings of death and Judgment confound me in the midst of my pomp and jovialty as it did Nebuchadnezzer Do not the wickedest when they sin think to repent of it and would they so if it were there gaine and commodity or if I should get by sin would not that gaine be loss should I not throw away riches gotten by unjustice upon my unfeigned repentance did not Judas throw away his 30 pieces what man in all the world either that repented or that repented not ever gained by sin What gained Adam or Cain the old world Jerusalem Sodom Sampson Lot David or Peter but besides that it costs the penitent sinner what hath it cost Christ therefore as thou hast made us reasonable men O Lord let us make choice of that that will make us happy thy favour and let us not sell it and all our happiness as it were for a mess of pottage If sinners think nothing too dear for sin let me think nothing too dear for Heaven When sinners cast away their souls for a lust and yet say that we lose our labour for Heaven how incompetent Judges are they but of holiness what fruit have we not what is it not profitable for either in this life or that which is to come it confers all that sin would strip us of That I may fear to sin Let me consider that our God is a consuming fire though he be ours so that we are his people yet our priviledges must not exempt us from this fear for thou hast commanded us to abstain from sin for this cause and all thy people Whoever sinned found thee a consuming fire to punish them as did David When he cried out My flesh trembleth for fear of thee and I am afraid of thy Judgments The Lords judgments were grievious upon him murther and rape committed in his house his Son drave him from his Throne so Eli felt this also when his Sons were vile and he lightly reproved them and Job when he felt one spark of this fire cryed out My soul chuseth strangling rather than life Therefore let all thy people consider the terrour of the Lord and remember that thou art a consuming fire and let them walk in the fear of the Lord and the comforts of the Holy Ghost And as they call on the Father who without respect of persons judgeth every man according to his works so let them pass the time of their so journing here in fear remembring that our blessed Saviour could not escape this fire when he undertook the work of satisfaction for sinners but cryed out under it My God my God why hast thou forsaken men And in respect of our proneness to sin against God let us keep our selves with this as with a bridle and curb and to keep up our vigilancy for religious duties working out our salvation with fear and trembling considering what it is to fall into the hands of the Lord Knowing that it is not a sinful servile fear which is to fear the smart more than the offending of God for this hath an enmity joyned with it for whom we fear with servile fear we hate but this filial fear proceeds from love and the tender sense of God's displeasure against sin And though we could say with the Apostle Paul that we know we have a house in Heaven yet was he still keeping under his body for fear of sinning For the Righteous shall be recompenced on earth and where shall the ungodly and sinner appear To these the Lord shall come in flaming fire rendring vengeance to them that know not God and to them that obey not the Gospel He will wound the head of his enemies He that believeth not shall be damned His wrath shall be poured out like fire The indignation of the Lord shall consume his adversaries The damned spirits and fallen Angels are under this fire But thou hast given thy Son Christ to be a Saviour to save thy people from it O Lord save us through our dear Saviour's merits from this worm that never dies and fire that never goes out and let thy people fear not those who can hurt the body only but those who can hurt both soul and body and cast both into Hell fire Lord thou hast pronounced them cursed who do thy work negligently yet how negligent am I in all religious duties and my heart goes sometimes after covetousness and sometimes after vanities O give me thy grace that I may serve thee with a perfect heart That I may seek thee with my whole heart Let me not think to divide my heart to God and Mammon because it is thine all and thou wilt have all or none because thou madest it and Christ hath bought it Let me not be weary of these duties but be willing to labour in them and wear out my body in them and strive with zeal wrestling with the Lord for a blessing since I have experience that thou art a God hearing prayer and hast not stopped thine ear to mine O Lord God I am not holy but thou hast promised we shall be all holy and required that we should be holy as thou art holy how infinitely short doth the best of men come of this pattern The Apostle Paul confesses he was carnal sold under sin and that he had not attained but pressed forward that he might attain Lord give us with him to see our sinfulness that we may in like manner as he was be stirred up to strive after holiness and fulfil thy promise That we shall all be holy Lord inlighten my understanding that I may see what a shameful thing sin is that the very brute beasts do not so brutishly as sinners For the Oxe and Ass who know their owners reprove them who refuse to acknowledge thee to be their Lord and all others do more rationally without any reason than man who hath understanding yet casts off all understanding and is not ashamed of sin For it is a shame to speak of the things that are done of them yet are they not ashamed when they commit them O let me consider how naked a sinner renders himself to the view of the world and when God himself shall put him to shame as it is written As thou hast put the Son of God to open shame so God shall put thee to shame And when it shall be their everlasting
shameful flight If thou assist us not in our callings our labouurs are but in vain except the Lord keep the City the Watch-man watcheth in vain In vain we rise early and go late to bed except the Lord give us his blessing Therefore will we seek the Lord and his blessing upon our Labours And though we find no worth in our prayers for which the Lord should hear them or reward them but punish us for them yet nevertheless it is his command that we should offer up our weak services to him and he hath promised to hear us for the things we ask for in his Sons name and in obedience to that command And in the faith we give to his promise we seek to him to assist us and to let his presence go with us For the Lord hath shewed us by frequent experiences That those who have most means do not seldom miss their purpose or if they by Gods blessing do attchieve their purposes yet it is frequently without the use of those means by some accident that it might be seen to be of God and not of man and our unbelief be convinced Praise the Lord O my Soul who hath often brought to pass my desires without any considerable means by me used And all that is within me praise his holy name because he hath accepted my two Mites my worthless Prayers for his mercy endureth for ever Meditation When I am tempted to any sin let me consider how I have loathed my self heretofore when I have been overcome by any lust or sensual pleasure If I have at any time yielded to the pleasures of any of my senses which is all that the world can offer though it hath been but to a very small degree as to drink one glass more than the necessity of nature or a competent refreshing required for though it makes not drunkenness yet it sets the mind too much at liberty from that strictness and watchfulness that mortification and crucifying the flesh and self-denial that the Scripture requires or if I give way to a lustful thought or glance or action whereby my mind is carried to effeminate meditations from the more serious and virtuous considerations which an honest mind should meditate how do I seem sordid to my self and degraded from my pristine excellency And though the person whose beauty excellency and perfections drew me aside thereto be incomparable yet when I consider the baseness of the last acts of lust and fruition to which all this tends and serves how poorly do I think of all those allurements of beauty and parts carriage wit and other excellencies since they are the motives and incentives to concupiscence And I no sooner perceive that I have yeilded too much to any temptation of lust or covetousness or any other whatsoever but I presently perceive that my honour is gone from me or if I know of any other who hath yeilded to any temptation I think the same of them All these arguments and reasons are not sufficient to restrain from relapsing into the very same offences and sensualities for sense with one glance of the eye captivates the affections in a moment whereas reason and strength of Argument prevails only upon deliberation so that I cannot expect to stand by my own strength unless thou Lord holdest me up I shall fall one day by these my spiritual enemies And it is by thy power only that we are kept from the evil of the World Therefore as the eyes of a Servant are to the hands of his Master so shall my eyes be to thee And I will continually pray unto thee for supportation and strength since thy strength is perfected in our weakness why then should my weakness discourage me and for grace and faith in thy promises since grace alone is sufficient for us and faith alone is the victory whereby we may overcome the World that by faith I may look upon the infinite joyes of Heaven and contemn the vain and base joyes of this life or else be terrified with the horrid torments thou hast threatned to the disobedient and fear to do evil LET me think it greater pleasure to resist lust or any sensuality than to yield to it for if I resist I satisfy and delight my reason which delights in manly noble resolute actions and in eschewing the contrary viz. Effeminate sensual pleasures which the mind doth oppose and disdain as brutish and below it for how is it possible that the mind should be satisfied contented or delighted with the objects and delights of the senses any more then the senses can enjoy or take delight in the objects of the mind or intellect since the senses are of the Brutish nature of the meanest creature and the mind and understanding is of the divine nature of the Creator and since the Saints are said to be made partakers of the Divine nature let us endeavour to partake of the Divine nature by holiness of life And if we have received Christ in his teaching and in his Sacrament of his supper to walk in him that our life may grow out of the death of Christ Not to be unprofitable Servants as Israel was said to be an empty vine but let us be ever sowing the fruits of righteousness that we may reap accordingly and be studious to know the things which belong to our peace before they be hid from our eys and to do them too lest thou remove our light from us remembring that if we be like the dry and unprofitable chaff we shall be burned with unquenchable fire But the Gospel bringeth forth fruit in all the World Colos 6.1 LORD if thou dost but seem to have forsaken me so that when I think of thee I dont perceive comfort but fear though I have all the outward comforts and all the pleasures which the World can afford I am in horror in the midst of my pleasures I will therefore walk in the waies of righteousness for her waies are waies of peace and all her pathes pleasantness and this will bring a man peace at the last Blessed are they that do righteousness alwaies they walk with thee and have sweet communion with thee and thou wilt come in and sup with them and abide with them then hath their soul fulness of joy but I fear I grieve thy holy Spirit continually in this that I am carnal and do not live by faith above the World Lord that I could live as those whose conversation is in Heaven whose treasure is there and they are always adding to this treasure who are spiritually wise whose hearts are fixed upon thee and go not astray as the Israelites did in the wilderness forgetting God their Saviour who had done wonders for them but they thought not of his hand nor remembered what wonders he had wrought for them but lust came upon them in the desert wherefore the Lord thought to have destroyed them had not Moses stood in the gap to turn away his wrath If we in
man but a diligent Servant shall share the Inheritance with the Sons Pro. What delight can dull lifeless service be to him whom we serve Our service should be suited to the delight of him whom we serve And Our service should be to the honour of him whom we serve But slothful and lifeless service is to the dishonour of God therefore he saith Mal. 4. v. Offer it now to thy Governour and see whether he will accept it The fruit of Christs death is the Zeal of good works Titus 2.11.14 Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify to himself a peculiar people Zealous of good works From Thence it appeares that the note of Gods people is a Zeal of good works namely the works of mercy charity and piety They shall run and not be weary walk and not faint That obedience sway the conscience that the ends and aims be good that we should advance piety to the utmost and repress sin If we expect any benefit by our service we must not do it negligently but with Zeal the more Zeal the more comfort and satisfaction and the more will be our reward Zeal breaks through any restraints that would keep us from God Though Michael scoffed yet David would not leave off his dancing before the Ark. Consider how violent and earnest carnal men are in the ways of sin and shall they serve Satan better than God is served wicked men are so active and laborious that they are said to draw iniquity with cart-ropes they are not drawn into sin but draw sin there is no lust but costs them some self-denial Their pride must feel no cold the worldly man incroaches not only upon the pleasures of his life by rising early and going to bed late but also defrauds himself of necessary comforts they are wise in their generation like the unjust steward If Ammon be sick for Tamar shall not the Spouse be sick for Christ shall they take more paines to undo themselves than the Servants of God to save themselves Consider that you have been violent in the ways of sin and will you not do as much for God Rom. 6.19 I spake after the manner of men as you have yeilded your selves Servants of sin so now yeild your selves Servanss of Righteousness unto holiness So much as you have spent in and upon sin 't is but a modest proposal of the Apostle that you would spend so much in the service of God How can your conversion be right when sin hath more of your heart than God 2 Cor. 5.13 If we be besides our selves it is for Christ he had been mad against Christ 't was not unmeet if he seemed mad for Christ your pace was furious like Jehu's for your beloved lusts will you be slow for God Consider It may be you set out late towards Godliness therefore you must make the more haste Let the time spent in your lusts be sufficient All men set out too late we are transgressors from the womb God loved us before we were from eternity he loved us before we loved him or knew how to love him Consider what Christ hath suffered for us his bloody agonies and the sorrows of his Cross He is the Captain of our salvation and we must follow him He hath given us heaven as God gave Canaan to the Israelites but they were to force their way The power of Satan is broken but some relicts are left for our exercise Consider the enemies of our souls are violent The Devil compasseth the earth therefore we had need to stand upon our guard the enemy watcheth and do you sleep Whilest men slept the enemies sowed tares among their Corn. Whilest we are careless the enemy prevails when we make speed in our flight the enemy hath no advantage Whilest the Disciples were a sleep Judas and his Company were watching Small measure of grace must not content the professors of Christianity Except your righteousness exeed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven A temporary believer goeth far but a true believer must go farther Consider that all things in Religion are high and call for more than ordinary from us There are great obligations upon us He had no greater gift to give us than his only Son He could do no more for us then he did in his agonies and sufferings and laying down his life undergoing that intollerable pain that made him cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me So that in love God hath gone to the uttermost for us in his power he hath not so every mercy received obligeth us to do more than we have done the supplies of the Spirit of God which come in upon us and help more than we have done The supplys of the Spirit of God which come in upon us and help our infirmities oblige us The heathen some of them have gone so far by the light of nature that because they could not mortify their lusts they have put out their eyes this they did without those helps which we have Christ Jesus a person of the God head meriting our salvation and interceding for us The Spirit helping us to work out our salvation and the holy precepts of the law of God which is pure converting the soul Psal 19.19 Psal 119. The law of the Lord is exceeding broad It is another obligation that we have a hope exceeding all that we can imagine 2 Cor. 4.16 We have a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory laid up for us Besides these obligations the dreadful threats might make us earnest in the works of religion which if a man do but think of it causeth horrour Consider the danger of coldness in dutys if we don't go forward we go back like those that row against the stream Before we lose our first works we lose our Love first men grow careless then off goes religion and the service of God Some that are high in professing are cold in practice To provoake one another to love and good works is a good contention for solemn piety we cannot do too much In sin every thing is too much in grace nothing enough in particular exercises there may be too much in the love of God there can be no excess many come short Rom. 2.9 They come short of the glory of God 2 Peter 1.11 We are to labour that an abundant entrance may be given us into the Kingdom of Christ Jesus Consider if your heart is dead and cold you loose the comfort of Christian priviledges and duties a dead Christian is as none A change without life is but a morral reformation That is true conversion where we are not meerly changed but quickned by a new principal of life heathens have been changed from profaness to a morral life I am come saith Christ that you may have life and that you may have it more abundantly All the true members of Christ are
living stones in that building whereof he is the corner stone our Hope is but a fancy if we be dead and slugish 1 Pet. 1.7 It is called a lively Hope and our life a living by faith Consider the burning Zeal of the antient Servants of God Psal 119. My soul breaketh out for the fervent desire that it hath always to thy commandments My soul is a thirst for God Psal 42. As the hart panteth after the water-brooks so longeth my soul after thee O God Psal 16.3 O God thou art my God early will I seek thee My soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth after thee And Psal 119. Do I not hate them that hate thee and am I not vexed with them that rise up against thee yea I hate them with a perfect hatred as though they were my enimies So Righteous Lot was vexed with the unclean conversation of the wicked others loved not their lives unto death The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force Jacobs wrestling with God prevailed It is one of the characters of those that are Redeemed as it is said in the Epist of St. That he may purchase to himself a peculiar people Zealous of good works Strive to enter in at the strait gate Many lets we find Be not weary of well doing But the further we run in this race the fresher we are and like bodies tending to their center Velocius in fine quam in principio So the Righteous bring forth more fruit in their latter end When Christians shew their fervour of Spirit in the service of God it is but a scandal to religion to say they are young converts The hypocrite desireth no more but what may be sufficient to serve his turne but the true Christian desires to grow in grace and to abound in the work of the Lord and is grieved that his graces are not perfect By this we imitate Christ for it is said of him The Zeal of Gods house hath eaten him up It was his love to God which caused such Zeal so Davids love made his eyes gush out with water to behold sin Our Blessed Saviour wrought out our salvation by agonies And we are commanded to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling And all the duties of religion are wrought with Agonies striving and Zeal First our faith is to be strived for Philip. 1.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Then in prayer we are to strive as it is said Striving togetheir in prayer And this is that circumstance that makes it prevail The effectual fervent prayer of the righteous availeth much The whole Stadium of the Christian life is to be run that motion is the most violent in nature The whole life of a Christian is a continual fighting of a battle wherein we put forth all our strength That gives no time for Diversions and but very little for necessary refreshings with food and sleep All our service we do to God must be with a fervent Spirit If this fire goeth out our services are dull flat and liveless For where there is life there is heat the maxim holds as well in things of Grace as in things of Nature therefore if thou wouldest not offer a sacrifice without a heart so oughtest thou to beware of dulness and coldness in Duties and Graces So if thou wouldest not have thy Spiritual Enemies to get any advantage against thee thou must be watchful And that thou maist fight against them and subdue and conquer thy corruptions thou must put forth all thy strength and all little enough when we wrestle not against Flesh and Blood but against Principalities and Powers and Spiritual Wickednesses in High places And although we do thus fight and put forth all our power and watch against these enemies that they get no advantage and redeem the time from our worldly business diversions and recreations Yet we shall find our selves so hardly beset at all times and too easie to be overcome unless we look to Jesus Christ the Authour and Finisher of our Faith for his succour through whose assistance we become more than Conquerours who is both able and willing to succour his that are tempted This looking to Christ is to set him before us to imitate and call upon him in time of Temptation with fervent Prayer as before is mentioned and to wait upon him for strength as the eyes of a Maid are unto the hands of her Mistriss so our eyes wait upon thee until thou have mercy upon us And so doing we shall find that he is our strength and present help in trouble and know how his strength is perfected in weakness He that saith he is not able of himself to overcome his Spiritual enemies therefore will not put forth all his power and use all these means he is content to be led Captive by them What is it will make thee earnest and servent Consider What it is that lyes at the stake what thou strivest to save and searest to lose Is it a small and light matter or is it a thing of more value to thee than the whole World Thy Immortal Soul and the Eternal welfare thereof This thou strivest for Who doth not strive and struggle to save his Life when in danger much more then must we strive for the saving of our Eternal Life What perils and labours do Men undergo by Land and Sea to get a livelihood for their bodies though they know not how short a time they may live to enjoy it and frequently lose their precious lives in the acquisition of the sustenance of their Lives But how few venture so far for the Eternal sustenance of their Soul or labour so hard or undergo such difficulties to solace or save their immortal Soul How readily doth the Sea-beaten Merchant tossed with the Winds and Waves of the Raging Sea throw hastily over-board all his precious substance gotten with great labour and peril of Life to save his short uncertain Life And wisely too But much more wise is he that throweth away his perishing goods his life and all to save his Immortal Soul and his Eternal Life and well-being He that is the only wise hath told us that we must sell all to purchase Heaven that we must cut off our right hand and pull out our right Eye if they offend us that he that will not forsake Father and Mother Wife and Children and life it self for him is not worthy of him he that will save his Life shall lose it Lord God we will meditate in thy precepts and have respect unto thy ways delight in thy Statutes rejoyce in the way of thy Testimonies and take counsel of them But quicken thou us according to thy Word Ps 119.14 15 16 25. that we may not faint nor be weary Be wise then O my Soul for thy great interest thy main chance to save that with the expence and loss of thy perishing momentary concerns and to bestow thy pains and industry upon this And
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
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
thou O my soul apprehend that these are only the peculiar priviledges and injoyments of the Saints and fearest thy self to be none of those but fain thou wouldst be such thou maiest sue to the Lord to perform those and the like promises of free grace Jer. 32.40 I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me I will give them a new heart And that Micha 7.19 He will subdue our iniquities And that Isa 3.4 The heart of the rash shall understand And that Isa 11.6 The Wolf shall lye down with the Lamb and the Leopard shall lye down with the Kid. And that Hosa 14.15 I will heal their backslidings And that Rom. 16.20 The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly And that Ezek. 36.27 I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgements and do them Luke 11.13 How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him And Isa 35.5 The ear of the deaf shall be unstopped And that Deut. 30.9 I will circumcise thine heart That thou maiest love the Lord thy God with all thine heart c. And that in Isa 40. v. 31. They shall run and not be weary they shall walk and not faint Since then God hath promised to give thee his Spirit if thou askest it of him and prooved it with an argument a fortiori that he will and hath promised to do all this for thee and work all these works in thee and thou findest in thy self desires pantings and longing for them and thereupon dost ask him in his Sons name and for his mercies sake his truths sake and his names sake to perform these promises and givest him no rest till he doth it doubt not but he will Meditation of the Love of God Psal 103.8 The Lord is full of compassion and mercy long suffering and of great goodness c. Those sweet compellations which almighty God useth to his poor creature man if they do but sink into our hearts they must needs make such impressions as will cause reciprocal love to him Is Ephraim a dear Son is he a pleasent Child what can endear thee more than this Oh my soul what love canst thou desire more he counts thee and calls thee in this Relation Son looks upon thee with compassion as his child and pittieth thee as a Father pittieth his Child delighteth in thee as a Father delighteth in a Child whom he loveth and helpeth thee as his Child Behold what manner of love God hath shewed thee that thou shouldest be called the Son of God Joh. 1.4 If a Son then an heir and joynt heir with Christ his only begotten Son for Christ is not ashamed to call us Bretheren in this relation to God and Christ what canst thou want or fear or what more canst thou desire in the 3d. Chap. of Mal. He calls them his Jewels and Rev. 1. Kings and Priests and Isa 62. a Crown of glory His portion he called Abraham his friend What canst thou fear a Master may be severe if his work be done he will pay wages if not stripes but a Father is indulgent and will spare his Child and require no more of him than he can perform with comfort and delight if then thou canst find in thy self the disposition of a Child be sure thou maiest find in him the disposition of a Father Mat. 3. Our Blessed Saviour hath owned them in these relations viz. His Bretheren his members his Spouse his betroathed his Sister and Mother his Garden his Church his beloved his branches his Servants his flock his lambs his friends and Revel 1.6 He hath loved us and washed us from our sins and made us Kings and Priests to God Could the Canaanitish Woman find incouragement for faith to lay hold from that of Dog who needs to dispair sure not a prodigal Son And every thing that is excellent beautiful and desirable beloved and endeared he compares his people to it and sees all those perfections in them as he expresseth in the Cant. O then my soul admire and be inamoured of him and find all excellencies perfections and desirable good things in him from whom thine excellency cometh and is derived thine head thy Husband thine elder Brother thy Father thy Maker thy Governour thy Redeemer for so doth the heavenly Spouse see and admire in Christ Jesus her Beloved If so thou dost then thou knowest that he is they Beloved thy Saviour thy Head thy Brother thy Portion thy Delight thou lovest him in all that he did or said his teaching his sufferings his miracles thy love to him is but the reflexion of the beam of his Meditations of Mercy Med. 1. Psal 103.11 As high as the Heaven is above the earth so great is his Mercy c. WOrthy of our meditation are all the workes of God and every word of his to be studied by us that we may thereby improve our graces but his workes of mercy and that part of his word which holdeth forth mercy and offers it and sets forth God in the Glory and excellency of his mercy is most necessary for sinful man and most comfortable to be considered All that are saved are saved by meditating of this all that are lost are lost and perish for lack of the knowledg of this this is life eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ The freeness then and largeness of it is to be our chief study free it is What motive found he in us to move him when enemies to give his Son up for us all and to beseech us but only from his own goodness because he delights in mercy The man that seeks his lost sheep may get the profit of it and so may the woman that seeks her lost groat but what profit can the Lord get by us for which he may seek us for when we have done all we are unprofitable Servants The largeness of his mercy is without limits for if he hath commanded us to forgive seventy times seven times will not he frankly forgive us what we are not able to satisfy since he makes his forgiving of us many talents the argument why we should forgive petty debts can we imaging that he will take the first forfeiture since he hath commanded us not only to forgive our enemies but to love them bless them pray for them to do good for evil will not he forgive us love us and bless us as freely for Christs sake though there be no motive in us for it would he make love to be the fulfilling of the law charity the covering of transgression prefer charity before piety by commanding us to leave our gift at the Altar to be reconciled to our Brother prefer it before faith and all gifts and graces making it as it were the ligament and sinews of all and that if we want that all other graces are but empty sounds make
a noise in the ear without any profit would God require such love from us but that he is Love Gracious Merciful and full of compassion slow to anger hateth nothing that he hath made what can he say more free to thee though thou art as an adulterous Spouse to him yet thou maiest returne and he will receive thee again though thou bringest no merit but demerit to provoke He hath excluded none from his mercy unless they be such as will shew no mercy or else those that sin of malicious wickedness and sin in despight of the Spirit wilfully against light The entail of his mercy is to thousands of them that love him 2 Meditation on Gods Mercy Lord if thou shouldest be extreme to mark what is done amiss who may abide it but there is Mercy with thee c. LORD be merciful to me a sinner we have all sinned and hope in thy Mercy only through the merits of our Saviour If we were not sinners thy mercy would be of no use towards us And our Blessed Lord and Saviour would be of no use to us nor faith nor hope would be of any use nor prayer nor praises But because I am a sinner I pray for thy mercies I praise thee for thy mercies I hope for thy mercies I trust in thy mercy revealed to sinners I believe in the merits of my Saviour and renounce all merit in my self therefore Lord cast me not off because I am a sinner shut not out my prayers for this I will not sin that grace may abound but though I have sinned I am an object of Mercy and thy grace that abounded to Mary Magdalen to Paul to Publicans and sinners may also extend to me Thou hast sent thy Son to call not the Righteous but Sinners To the lost sheep of the house of Israel to seek and also to save that which was lost to quicken them who were dead in trespasses and sins To preach the glad tidings of the Gospel of our Salvation though thy Mercy in giving up thy Son to dye for us that by his death we might escape death and live because he bore the iniquities of us all and by his stripes we are healed That precious blood that he shed upon the ground when the speare was thrust into his body was a sufficient ransom for the lives of all man-kind And as my sins had a concurrent demer it procuring his death so I hope they are joyned in the effect the attonement and expiation That his righteousness may be imputed to me also as my sins were to him 2 Cor. 5. That I may be made the righteousness of God in him Therefore we have need that he should be made unto us wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption because we were foolish disobedient and deceived serving divers lusts and therefore hast thou proclaimed thy self abundantly pardoning because our sins abound Isa 55. As our Blessed Saviour is the chiefest and greatest of all mercies because he is of more value than all so is he also to be esteemed because in him as in the Fountain are all others contained for by him and faith in his merits only we pray for all others which we need therefore above all we praise thee for him and in him and by him we praise thee for all 3. Meditation All our spirituall mercies as well grace here as glory and eternal happiness hereafter are free without any merit of ours of meer gift and mercy Tit. 3.3 5. We our selves were sometimes disobedent c. But after the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared not by workes of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ c. He is the medium by whom they are derived to us and not our own merit of his fulness we have received grace for grace as the members derive their vital Spirits from the head The converting grace and the confirming graces are both free Ephe. 1.13 In whom after ye believed ye were sealed with the holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance He worketh in us both the will and deed that is good when of our selves we cannot think a good thought Therefore above all we pray that thou wouldst give us thy Son whom thou hast given for us all freely and then with him thou givest us all things and as a Father pittieth his own Children so doth the Lord pitty them that fear him Thy bowels cannot see them want any thing Let him live in us by his word by his Spirit by his image in us by his graces which we receive from his fulness let him be formed in us and by him dwelling in our hearts let us be crucified to the world and dye daily and be buried with him and yet live but so that we may be said not to live our selves but Christ in us Thus let the word and the Sacraments convey him to us Since thou hatest nothing that thou hast made and thy delight is among the Sons of men Pro. 1. Certainly thou dost not afflict nor grieve willingly the Sons of men Therefore when we cry unto the Lord in our trouble he delivers us out of distress Psal 104. He cannot forbear to kiss and embrace his prodigal Son O let thy revelation of thy love to man recall mans straying affections to God If we believe this our faith will work love to him again and we shall be as willing to be reconciled to him as he to be reconciled to us 2 Cor. 5.20 If while we were enemies Christ died for us whom hath he not died for who is excluded from his mercy much more being justified by his blood will he save us seeing he hath done so much for us when we were worse now that we are put in a better relation by the blood of Christ and are reconciled to him and made just persons much more now will he do the rest which is but the consequence of the justification to save us All this is free mercy Not of workes which we have done but of his own good will he begot us and accordingly we are justified freely by his grace 4. Meditation I find no condition annexed to be precedent to make a subject capable of mercy but only want and desire of mercy want I have without my own act or endeavour desire of relief too ariseth spontaneously without my endeavour and largeness of desire proceeds from a covetous mind an eye unsatisfied yet such is the ocean of mercy that it requires but only that we open our mouth wide and he will fill it as he promiseth As long as the widow brought empty vessels the Oyl ran he giveth liberally and upbraideth not he giveth more then we are able to ask or think the debtor doth but desire forbearance but the Lord forgives him the debt Jacob only desired food and
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
not of the terror of the Lord to keep my heart in awe neither do I fear thee according to my fear I had when in danger neither do I seek to thee serve thee and delight in thee according to all my vows and admiration of thy goodness because thou hast been so merciful to hear my prayer and deliver me from all my fear but I am ready to think that it is for my own goodness and virtue that thou hast wrought this Of this sin thou warnedst the Israelites and we are all too prone to it O pardon Lord thy servant and heal him of this evil and give him to walk in the same awe and fear of thee and the like obedience to all thy commandments and love to thy waies watchfulness against sin and in it self examination and humility when the trouble and danger is past as when it is impendent and then I shall know that I have a filial fear of thee and not a servile fear Lord since thou makest thy Mercy and thy Almighty Power the inducements to awe us and allure us to keep and observe thy Statutes saying to Israel I am the Lord the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the Land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage therefore enjoynedst thy people to keep the Commandments following Let me alwaies keep a remembrance of thy mercies and because thou didst injoyn them the keeping of the Passeover in commemoration of their deliverance out of Egypt and that they should continually when they made their offering acknowledge that their Father was a Syrian ready to perish Lord let us in like sort reflect upon thy mercies and deliverances and our former sufferings to humble us and to be thankful to thee and praise thee and whilst we enjoy the benefit let us give thee the glory and the rather because one mercy is the earnest of another as holy Paul argued God hath delivered me and will deliver me therefore let me put a due estimate upon them by apprehending my unworthiness of them which the more I apprehend the more able I shall be to know the true value of the mercy and God's goodness in it The more low I am in my own eyes the more high will God's mercies be in my eyes If we pray for mercies it is for love of our selves but our praises are not so many nor so earnest as our prayers for them Lord increase our praises and let us say with David Praised be the Lord who hath remembred us in our low condition and hath delivered us from all our fears and troubles and keepeth all our bones so that none of them is broken and ladeth us with daily benefits and maketh our life comfortable And let my soul praise him not only with my lips but with a constant living to his praise and using the mercies which he hath given me to the honour of him who gave them Lord give us grace to mortifie our earthly members and affections since the promise is that as we have been planted with Christ into the similitude of his death so we shall also be into the similitude of his resutrection And let this mortification be universal of all our sinful and sensual affections and let it be constant and perpetual without intermission looking to the pattern of Christ on his Cross for our imitation and instructed thereto by thy holy Word and stirred up thereto by a godly sorrow for our sins committed And to this end let us cut off the superfluities of every lust and corruption that may fortifie and strengthen it And that we may destroy it in the birth and keep far off the danger of it as holy Job made a Covenant with his eyes not to look upon a Maid considering that I can never be safe near a danger though sin seem to me as a right eye or hand yet by thy grace let me have power to renounce it not only forbearing the act for fear of punishment but destroying and mortifying the habit and inclination And although the body of sin and death do remain as in Paul it did yet let it be to me as a burthen and grief of soul crying out with him O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of sin and death LORD God the fountain of goodness above all things give me faith in thee for then I must of necessity love thee if I believe thou hast loved me and given thy Son for me and shall have in my soul the joy that is unspeakable Lord when thou layest thy heavy hand of affliction upon us to cause us to search and try our waies and that we should examine our selves and turn unto the Lord in stead of this our wicked heart is prone to cast off God and say Why should we wait upon God any more what profit is there in serving him Who is the Lord we will own him and his goodness no more In stead of humble repentance we are prone with Job's wife to curse God and with those wicked ones prophesied of to come in the last times in the book of the Revelations of whom 't is said That after all the Vials of wrath and the 7 last Plagues poured out they repented not but cursed God or else we are prone to charge God foolishly as they in Ezek. 8.12 said God hath forsaken the earth or 18 Ezek. That our Fathers have eaten sowre grapes and our teeth are set on edge yet we their children have eaten sowre grapes too or we are tempted to have hard speeches of God accompanying our natural complaints and call God's providence into question as if thou didst not govern the earth or not well because we think thou dost not hear us soon enough saying Why have we fasted and thou hearest not Now that we may eschew these iniquities let us see first the fruitlesness of this course though we roar all like Bears and mourn like Doves it doth not better us nor abate our afflictions So is it causeless for thy plagues are the just punishments for our sins and it is the Lord's mercy that we are not consumed as said the Church in Babylon and that we are living And why should a living man complain for the punishment of his sins for that we are alive is more than we deserve That thou givest us our life for a prey for we know we are all sinners and our sins exceed our punishments It was never so bad but it might have been worse with us and at the worst we have some mercy For David saith I know that of very faithfulness thou hast afflicted me In thus murmuring we overlook all Gods mercies As Haman when he had reckoned all his advancements yet said all this is nothing so long as Mordecai the Jew vailed not to him In this we shew our exceding great pride which makes us think all that God hath given us is no more than our due In this is direct rebellion against our God and