be welcome to the feasts of God we must put off the old man with his deeds and put on the new man which is renewed in knowledg after the image of him that created him LXXX It is not for us to cast a disparagement upon any work of our Maker much less upon a peece so neer so essential to us yet with what contempt doth the Apostle seem still to mention our flesh and as if he would have it sleighted for some forlorn out-cast he charges us not to make provision for the flesh What shall we think the holy man was faln out with a part of himself Surely sometimes his language that he gives it is hard The flesh rebels against the spirit I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing but how easie is it to observe that the Flesh sometimes goes for the body of man sometimes for the body of sin as the first it is a partner with the soul as the latter it is an enemy and the worst of enemies spiritual No marvel then if he would not have provision made for such an enemy In outward and bodily enmity the case and his charge is otherwise If thine enemy hunger feed him if he thirst give him drink but here make no provision for the flesh What reason were there that a man should furnish and strengthen an enemy against himself But if the flesh be the body of the man it must challenge a respect but the very name carries an intimation of baseness at the best it is that which is common to beasts with us There is one flesh saith the Apostle of men another flesh of beasts both are but flesh Alas what is it but a clod of earth better molded the clog of the soul a rotten pile a pack of dust a feast of worms But even as such provision must be made for it with a moderate and thrifty care not with a solicitous a provision for the necessities and convenience of life not for the fulfilling of the lusts This flesh must be fed and clad not humord not pampered so fed as to hold up nature not inordinateness shortly such an hand must we hold over it as that we may make it a good servant not a lawless wanton LXXXI What action was ever so good or so compleatly done as to be well taken of all hands Noah and Lot foretel of judgments from God upon the old world and Sodom and are scoffed at Israel would go to sacrifice to God in the wilderness and they are idle Moses and Aaron will be governing Israel according to Gods appointment Ye take too much upon you ye sons of Levi David will be dancing before the Ark of the Lord He uncovers himself shamelesly as one of the vain fellows Our Saviour is sociable He is a wine-bibber a freind of publicans and sinners John Baptist is solitary and austere He hath a devil Christ casts out devils He doth it by Beelzebub the prince of devils He rides in an homely pomp through Jerusalem he affects a temporal kingdom and he is no friend to Cesar that can suffer him to live He is by his Almighty powr risen from the dead his Disciples stole him away whiles the Soldiers slept The Spirit of God descends upon the Apostles in fiery and cloven tongues and they thus inspired suddenly speak all Languages they are full of new wine Stephen preacheth Christ the end of the Law He speaks blasphemous words against Moses and against God and what aspersions were cast upon the primitive Christians all Histories witness What can we hope to do or say that shall escape the censures and mis-interpretations of men when we see the Son of God could not avoyd it Let a man profess himself honestly conscionable he is a scrupulous hypocrite Let him take but a just liberty in things meerly indifferent he is loosely profane Let him be charitably affected to both parts though in a quarrel not fundamental he is an odious neuter a luke-warm Laodicean It concerns every wise Christian to settle his heart in a resolved confidence of his own holy and just grounds and then to go on in a constant course of his well-warranted judgment and practise with a careless dis-regard of those fools-bolts which will be sure to be shot at him which way soever he goes LXXXII All Gods dear and faithful ones are notably described by the Apostle to be such as love the appearing of our Lord Jesus for certainly we cannot be true friends to those whose presence we do not desire and delight in now this appearing is either in his coming to us or our going to him whether ever it be that he makes his glorious return to us for the judgment of the world and the full redemption of his elect or that he fetches us home to himself for the fruition of his blessedness in both or either we enjoy his appearance If then we can onely be content with either of these but do not love them nor wish for them our hearts are not yet right with God It is true that there is some terror in the way to both these his return to us is not without a dreadful Majestie for the Heavens shall pass away with a great noyse and the elements shall melt with fervent heat and the glorious retinue of his blessed Angels must needs be with an astonishing magnificence and on the other part our passage to him must be through the gates of death wherein nature cannot but apprehend an horror but the immediate issue of both these is so infinitely advantageous and happy that the fear is easily swallowed up of the joy Doth the daughter of Jephtah abate ought of her timbrels and dances because she is to meet a father whose armes are bloody with victory Doth a loving wife entertain her returning husband otherwise then with gladness because he comes home in a military pomp Is the conqueror less joyful to take up his crown because it is congratulated to him with many peals of Ordnance Certainly then neither that heavenly state wherein Christ shall return to us nor the fears of an harmless and beneficial death wherein we shall pass to him either may nor can hinder ought of our love to his appearing O Saviour come in whatever equipage or fashion thou wilt thou canst be no other then lovely and welcome Come Lord Jesus come quickly LXXXIII Suppose a man comes to me on the same errand which the Prophet delivered to Hezekiah Set thine house in order for thou shalt dye and not live with what welcome do I entertain him Do I with that good King turn my face to the wall and weep or do I say of the messenger as David said of Ahimaaz He is a good man and brings good tidings Surely Nature urges me to the former which cannot but hold Dissolution her greatest enemy for what can she abhor so much as a not-being
happy an issue we are delivered and must applaud it or abide a contestation and expect a challenge The fairest paradoxes cannot pass without a contradiction it were strange if some as bold and forward wits as our own should not take up the gantlet now the fray is begun the multitude is divided sides are taken the world is in an uproare from skirmishes we grow to pitcht fields the Church bleeds on both parts and it were marvel if kingdoms could be free But that which most notably evinceth the deceitfulness of mans heart in this behalf is that this pride is too often lodged in those brests which are professedly devoted to a godly and mortified lowliness for as for those persons which are meer flesh they are carelesly indifferent to error or truth neither are at all moved with the success of either but the religious minde when it is once possessed with the conceit of some singular and important truth revealed to it and hid from the rest of the world is ready to say with the Samaritan Lepers I do not well this day is a day of good tidings and I hold my peace and therefore makes it matter of conscience to trouble the Church with a mis-grounded novelty Come we to the Test Let me ask these mis-guided souls that are no less confidently perswaded of their own humility then Truth Can it be any other then an height of pride for a man to think himself wiser then the whole Church of God upon earth wiser then the whole Church of God that hath been upon earth ever since the Apostles of Christ inclusively in all successions to this present time Can they without much pride think they can look deeper into the great mysteries of Godliness then those blessed attendants of our Saviour and their gracious successors the holy martyrs the godly and religious guides of Gods Church in all the following ages Had not they then the same God the same Scriptures the illuminations of the same Spirit Can they imagine it less then insolent to attribute more to their own private opinion then to the constant judgment and practise of the whole Christian world in all successions of Generations Can they suppose themselves in their single capacity though neither Prophets nor Prophets sons meet Judges or Questionists of those matters of Faith which the general Councils of the purer times have unanimously agreed upon as the main principles of Christianity can they think themselves priviledged by the liberty of prophesying to coyn new articles to deface old Surely if the hand of pride be not in all this I shall never desire to be acquainted with humility so as it is too plain that a man may be exceeding proudly and not know it this vicious habit lurks close in the soul and unless it discover it self by some scarce discernable effects which break out now and then especially upon occasions of opposition is rather more concealed from the owner then from the eyes of a stranger But if ever it bewrays it self in the affectation of undue eminence scornful under-valuation of others merits obstinacy in opinion sharpness of censures and impatience of contradiction Of all these the world is commonly no less guilty then all these are guilty of the common miseries Lord deliver us from our pride and our contentions will dye alone V What a strange praise and priviledge is that which is given to Enoch above all those generations of men that peopled the first world of whom the Spirit of God saies Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him Doubtless amongst all those successive families of the sons of Seth there were many religious and well-affected souls yet there was no one of them that had this character set upon him that he walked with God but he Whether it were that God did in a more open and entire way reveal himself to that exemplary Saint or whether that holy man did in a more close and familiar fashion converse with the invisible Deity the presence was certain and the acknowledgment mutual neither was this walk short for a turn and away but constant and continual even for the space of three hundred years And what did the blessed man retire to some desart far from all humane society that he might enjoy this heavenly company alone Did he this-while cast off all secular thoughts and abdicate all the care of his family Neither this nor that for in this space wherein he walked with his God he both begat sons and daughters and bred them like the children of such a father as one that knew to make the world subordinate not opposite to it's maker and had learn'd to reconcile the use of the creature with the fruition of the Creator What then were the steps of this walk but pious thoughts heavenly affections fervent love reverential fear spiritual joy holy desires divine ravishments of spirit strict obediences assiduous devotions faithful affiances gracious ingagements firme resolutions and effectual indeavors of good and whatsoever might work a dearness of respect betwixt the soul and the God of Spirits O God that which thou promisedst as a reward to those few Saints of Sardis that had not defile their garments thou hast before hand fully performed to this eminent worthy of the first world he walked with thee in white in the white of innocence here and in the shining robes of glory above so thou hast told us He was not for God took him Lo being and good were wont to pass for convertible but here Enochs not-being is his blessedness he was not at all here that he might be perfectly above The best being on earth is but miserable even Enochs walk with God cannot exempt him from sorrows he must cease to be that he may begin to be happy He was then happy not for that he was not a meer privation of being can be no other then the worst of evils but for that God took him The God with whom he walkt so long upon earth takes him away from the earth to himself for eternity Here below though he walk't with God yet withall he conversed with sinful men whose wickedness could not but many a time vex his righteous soul now he is freed from all those spiritual annoyances enjoying onely the glorious presence and vision of the Divine majesty the blessed Angels and the Saints co-partners of the same immortality There can be no doubt but that the souls of his holy predecessors Adam Abel Seth returned to the God that gave them but had not Enoch been blessed with a peculiar conveiance to his glory it had not been said That God took him were onely the spirit of Enoch yeilded up in the way of an ordinary death the man had not been taken now whole Enoch body and soul is translated to an heavenly life His father Jared and his son Methuselah went to God in the common way of men by a separation of the spirit from the
with the desire of them and let that desire never finde it self filled XXIX How comfortable a style is that O God which thine Apostle gives to thine Heaven whiles he cals it the inheritance of the Saints in light None can come there but Saints the roomes of this lower world are taken up commonly with wicked men with beasts with Devils but into that heavenly Jerusalem no unholy thing can enter Neither can any Saint be excluded thence each of them have not only a share but an entire right to thy glory And how many just titles are there O Saviour to that region of blessedness It is thy Fathers gift it is thy purchase it is thy Saints inheritance theirs only in thy right by thy gracious adoption they are sons and as sons heires co-heirs with thee of that blessed Patrimony so feoffed upon them so possessed of them that they can never be disseized And Lord how glorious an inheritance it is An inheritance in light In light incomprehensible in light inaccessible Lo the most spirituall of all thy visible creatures is light and yet this light is but the effect and emanation of one of thy creatures the Sun and serves only for the illumination of this visible world but that supernal light is from the Al-glorious beams of thy Divine Majesty diffusing themselves to those blessed spirits both Angels and Souls of thy Saints who live in the joyful fruition of thee to all eternity Alas Lord we do here dwell in darkness and under an uncomfortable opacity whiles thy face is clouded from us with manifold temptations there above with thee is pure light a constant noon-tide of glory I am here under a miserable and obscure wardship Oh teach me to despise the best of earth and ravish my soul with a longing desire of being possessed of that blessed inheritance of the Saints in light XXX What outward blessing can be sweeter then civill peace What judgment more heavy then that of the sword Yet O Saviour there is a peace which thou disclaimest and there is a sword which thou challengest to bring Peace with our corruptions is warr against thee and that war in our bosomes wherein the spirit fighteth against the flesh is peace with thee O let thy good Spirit raise and foment this holy and intestine war more and more within me And as for my outward spirituall enemies how can there be a victory without war and how can I hope for a crown without victory O do thou ever gird me with strength to the battle inable thou me to resist unto bloud make me faithfull to the death that thou maist give me the crown of life XXXI O Lord God how subject is this wretched heart of mine to repining and discontentment If it may not have what it would how ready it is like a froward child to throw away what it hath I know and feel this to be out of that naturall pride which is so deep rooted in me for could I be sensible enough of my own unworthinesse I should think every thing too good every thing too much for me my very being O Lord is more then I am ever able to answer thee and how could I deserve it when I was not but that I have any helps of my wel-beeing here or hopes and means of my being glorious hereafter how far is it beyond the reach of my soul Lord let me finde my own nothingness so shall I be thankfull for a little and in my very want blesse thee XXXII Where art thou O my God whither hast thou withdrawn thy self it is not long since I found thy comfortable presence with my soul now I misse thee and mourn and languish for thee Nay rather where art thou O my soul my God is where he was neither can be any other then himself the change is in thee whose inconstant disposition varies continually and cannot finde it self fixed upon so blessed an object It will never be better with me O my God until it shall please thee to stablish my heart with thy free Spirit and to keep it close to thee that it may not be carried away with vain distractions with sinful temptations Lord my God as thou art alwaies present with me and canst no more be absent then not be thy self so let me be alwaies with thee in an humble and faithful acknowledgment of thy presence as I can never be out of thine all-seeing eye so let mine eyes be ever bent upon thee who art invisible Thou that hast given me eyes improve them to thy glorie and my happiness XXXIII My bosome O Lord is a Rebeccaes womb there are twins striving within it a Jacob and Esau the old man and the new whiles I was in the barren state of my unregeneration all was quiet within me now this strife is both troublesome and paineful so as nature is ready to say If it be so why am I thus But withal O my God I bless thee for this happy unquietness for I know there is just cause of comfort in these inward struglings my soul is now not unfruitful and is conceived with an holy seed which wrestles with my natural corruptions and if my Esau have got the start in the priority of time yet my Jacob shall follow him hard at the heele and happily supplant him And though I must nourish them both as mine yet I can through thy grace imitate thy choice and say with thee Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated Blessed God make thou that word of thine good in me That the elder shall serve the younger XXXIV Alas my Lord God how small matters trouble me every petty occurrence is ready to rob me of my peace so as me thinks I am like some little cock-boat in a rough Sea which every billow topples up and down and threats to sink I can chide this weak pusillanimity in my self but it is thou that must redress it Lord work my heart to so firme a setledness upon thee that it may never be shaken no not with the violent gusts of temptation much lesse with the easie gales of secular mis-accidents Even when I am hardest pressed in the multitude of the sorrows of my heart let thy comforts refresh my soul but for these sleight crosses oh teach me to despise them as not worthy of my notice much less of my vexation Let my heart be taken up with thee and then what care I whether the world smile or frown XXXV What a comfort it is O Saviour that thou art the first fruits of them that sleep Those that die in thee do but sleep Thou saidst so once of thy Lazarus and maist say so of him again he doth but sleep still His first sleep was but short this latter though longer is no less true out of which he shall no less surely awake at thy second call then he did before at thy first His first sleep and waking was singular this latter is the same with ours
Select Thoughts OR CHOICE HELPS FOR A Pious Spirit A Century of Divine Breathings for a Ravished Soule beholding the Excellencies of her Lord Jesus By J HALL B. N. N B London Printed for Nath Brooke at the Angel in Cornhill 1654. TO THE Christian Reader Grace and Peace IT pleased the Alwise and holy GOD who orders all events to his own glory to make use of my late Secession for the producing of divers not I hope unprofitable Tractates wherein I much rejoyce that my declined Age even in that retiredness might be in any measure serviceable to his Church Now I send these Select Notions after their Fellows of which I wish you may finde cause to say with the Wedding-guests at Cana Thou hast reserved the best wine till now The intent of this Labor is to put some good Thoughts Reader into thy minde which would not otherwise perhaps have tendered themselves to thee such as I hope may not a little further thee on thy journey to Heaven And if in my Laboring thitherward I shall through Gods mercy be a means of forwarding any soul but some steps up that steep way how happy am I To which purpose I know no means more effectual then those Meditations which conduce to the animation and vigor of Christian practise Such I have propounded to my Self as most behooveful and necessary especially for this Age into which we are faln an Age of more brain then heart and that hath almost lost Piety in the chase of some litigious Truths And surely had I known how better to have placed my hours I should gladly have changed my task But I must needs say I have found this imployment so useful and proper as that I have looked upon those Polemical Discourses which have been forced from me as no better then meer Excursions I wis it will be long enough ere we shall wrangle our selves into Heaven It must be true contrition pure consciences holy affections heavenly dispositions hearty devotions sound Regeneration Faith working by Love an humble walking with GOD that shall help us thither and whatsoever may tend to the advancing of any of these gracious Works in us is worthy to be dear and precious Such passages Reader if thou shalt according to my hopes meet with here bless GOD with me and improve them to the best advantage of thy Soul Thus shall our gain be mutual and our account happy in the day of the Lord Jesus In whom farewel From Higham neer Norwich Febr. 7. 1647. Select Thoughts One Century I. IF miracles be ceased yet marvails will never cease There is no creature in the world wherein we may not see enough to wonder at for there is no worm of the earth no spire of grass no leaf no twig wherein we may not see the footsteps of a Deity The best visible Creature is man now what man is he that can make but an hair or a straw much less any sensitive creature so as no less then an infinite power is seen in every object that presents it self to our eyes if therefore we look onely upon the outsides of these bodily substances and do not see God in every thing we are no better then brutish making use meerly of our sence without the least improvement of our faith or our reason Contrary then to the opinion of those men who hold that a wise man should admire nothing I say that a man truely wise and good should admire every thing or rather that infiniteness of wisdom and omnipotence which shews it self in every visible object Lord what a beast am I that I have suffered mine eyes to be taken up with shapes and colours and quantities and have not lookt deeper at thee with awful adoration and wonder in every parcel of thy great Creation Henceforth let me see nothing but thee and look at all visible things but as the meer shadows of a glorious omnipotence II. Our affections are then onely safe and right when they are deduced from God and have their rise from Heaven then onely can I take comfort of my love when I can love my wife my childe my friend my self my pleasures and whatsoever contentments in God thus I may be sure not to offend either in the object or measure no man can in God love whom he should not nor immoderately love whom he should this holy respect doth both direct and limit him and shuts up his delights in the conscience of a lawful fruition the like must be said of our joy and fear and grief and what ever other affection for we cannot derive our joy from God if we place it upon any sinful thing or if we exceed in the measure of things allowed we cannot fetch our fear from Heaven if it be cowardly and desperate nor our grief if it be meerly worldly and heartless And if our affections do begin from above they will surely end there closing up in that God who is the Author and orderer of them and such as our affections are such will be the whole disposition of the soul and the whole carriage of our actions These are the feet of the soul and which way the feet walk the whole man goes happy is the man that can be so far the master of himself as to entertain no affections but such as he takes upon the rebound from Heaven III. Whence is this delicate scent in this Rose and Violet It is not from the root that smells of nothing not from the stalk that is as senceless as the root not from the earth whence it grows which contributes no more to these flowers then to the grass that grows by them not from the leaf not from the bud before it be disclosed which yields no more fragrance then the leaf or stalk or root yet here I now finde it neither is it here by any miraculous way but in an ordinary course of nature for all Violets and Roses of this kinde yield the same redolence it cannot be but that it was potentially in that root and stem from which the flowers proceed and there placed and thence drawn by that Almighty power which hath given these admirable vertues to several plants and educes them in his due seasons to these excellent perfections It is the same hand that works spiritually in his elect out of the soyl of the renewed heart watered with the dew of Heaven and warmed with the beams of his Spirit God can and in his own season doth bring forth those sweet odors of Grace and holy dispositions which are most pleasing to himself and if those excellencies be so closely lodged in their bosoms that they do not discover themselves at all times it should be no more strange to us then that this Rose and Violet are not to be found but in their own moneths it is enough that the same vertue is still in the root though the flower be vanished IIII. A man that looks at all things through the consideration of eternity makes no
the way through the golden gates of honor or down to the mines of wealth or to the flowry garden of pleasure but the way of true peace he knows not he no more knows the way to Heaven then if there were none The fool saith the Psalmist hath said in his heart there is no God Did not the wicked man say so he durst not wilfully sin in the face of so mighty and dreadful an avenger Lastly the fool is apt to part with his patrimony for some gay toys and how ready is the carnal heart to cast away the Favor of God the inheritance of Heaven the salvation of his soul for these vain earthly trifles Holy men are wont to pass with the world for Gods fools alas how little do these censurers know to pass a true judgment of wisdom and folly he that was rapt into the third Heaven tells us That the foolishness of God is wiser then men and the weakness of God stronger then men but this we are sure of that wicked men are the devils fools and that judgments are prepared for scorners and stripes for the back of fools XLVII There are some things which are laudable in man but cannot be incident into God as a bashful shamefastness and holy fear And there are some dispositions blame-worthy in men which are yet in a right sence holily ascribed unto God as unchangeableness and irrepentance Attributes and qualities receive their limitations according to the meet subjects to which they belong with this sure rule That whatsoever may import an infinite purity and perfection we have reason to ascribe to our Maker whatever may argue infirmitie misery corruption we have reason to take to our selves Neither is it otherwise in the condition of men One mans vertue is anothers vice so boldness in a woman bashfulness in an old man bounty in a poor man parsimony in the great are as foully unbeseeming as boldness in a Soldier bashfulness in a childe bounty in the rich parsimony in the poor are justly commendable It is not enough for us to know what is good in it self but what is proper for us else we may be blemished with that which is anothers honor XLVIII It is easie to observe that there are five degrees of the digestion of our spiritual food First it is received into the cell of the ear and there digested by a careful attention then it is conveyed into the brain and there concocted by due meditation from thence it is sent down into the heart and there digested by the affections and from thence it is conveyed to the tongue in conference and holy confession and lastly it is thence transmitted to the hand and there receives perfect digestion in our action and performance And as the life and health of the body cannot be maintained except the material food pass through all the degrees of bodily concoction no more can the soul live and prosper in the want of any of these spiritual degrees of digestion And as where the food is perfectly concocted the body grows fat and vigorous so is it with the soul where the spiritual repast is thus kindly digested Were there not failings in all these degrees the souls of men would not be so meager and unthriving as they are Some there are that will not give so much as ear-room to the word of truth such are willing recusants others will admit it perhaps so far but there let it rest these are fashionable auditors some others can be content to let it enter into the brain and take up some place in their thoughts and memories these are speculative professors some but fewer others let it down into their hearts and there entertain it with secret liking but hide it in their bosomes not daring to make profession of it to the world these are close Nicodemians Others take it into their mouthes and busie their tongues in holy chat yet do nothing these are formal discoursers But alas how few are there whose hands speak louder then their tongues that conscionably hear meditate affect speak do the word of their Maker and Redeemer XLIX Men that are in the same condition speed not always alike Barabbas was a theif murderer seditionary and deserved hanging no less then the two theeves that were crucified with our Saviour yet he is dismissed and they executed And even of these two as our Saviour said of the two women grinding at the mill one was taken the other refused one went before Peter to paradise the other went before Judas into hell The providence and election of a God may make a difference we have no reason in the same crime to presume upon a contrary issue If that gracious hand shall exempt us from the common judgment of our consorts in evil we have cause 〈◊〉 less his mercy but if his just hand shall sweep us away in the company of our wicked consociates we have reason to thank none but our selves for our sufferings L. How sweet a thing is revenge to us naturally even the very infant rejoyces to see him beaten that hath angerd him and is ready with his little hand to give that sroke to the by-stander which he would have with more force returned to the offender and how many have we known in mortal quarrels cheerfully bleeding out their last drop when they have seen their enemy gasping and dying before them This alone shews how much there is remaining in our bosome of the sting of that old Serpent who was a murderer from the beginning delighting in death and enjoying our torment whereas on the contrary true grace is merciful ready to forgive apt to return good for evil to pray for our persecutors Nothing doth more clearly evince what spirit we are of then our disposition in wrongs received The carnal heart breathes nothing but revenge and is straight wringing the sword out of the hands of him that hath said Vengeance is mine The regenerate soul contrarily gives place to wrath and puts on the bowels of mercies kindness humbleness of minde meekness long suffering forbearing forgiving and will not be overcome with evil but overcomes evil with good We have so much of God as we can remit injuries so much of Satan as we would revenge them LI. It is worth observing how nature hath taught all living creatures to be their own physitians The same power that gave them a being hath led them to the means of their own preservation No Indian is so savage but that he knows the use of his Tobacco and Contra-yerva yea even the brute creatures are bred with this skill The Dog when he is stomack-sick can go right to his proper Grass the Cat to her Nep the Goat to his Hemlock the Weasel to Rue the Hart to Dittany the sick Lyon can cure himself with an Ape the Monkey with a Spider the Bear with an Ant-heap the Panther with mans dung and the Stork is said to have taught man the
any calamity that may befal them in their estates children husbands wives friends so as they can say with Solomons drunkard They have stricken me and I was not sick they have beaten me but I felt it not These are dead flesh which do no more feel the knife then if it did not at all enter for whom some corrosives are necessary to make them capable of smart This disposition though it seem to carry a face of Fortitude and Patience yet is justly offensive and not a little injurious both to God and the soul To God whom it indeavors to frustrate of those holy ends which he proposeth to himself in our sufferings for wherefore doth he afflict us if he would not have us afflicted wherefore doth the father whip the childe but that he would have him smart and by smarting bettered he looks for cryes and tears and the childe that weeps not under the rod is held graceless To the soul whom it robs of the benefit of our suffering for what use can there be of patience where there is no sence of evil and how can patience have its perfect work where it is not Betwixt both these extreams if we would have our souls prosper a mid-disposition must be attained we must be so sensible of evils that we be not stupified with them and so reâ—olute under our crosses that we may be truly sensible of them not so brawned under the rod that we should not feel it nor yet so tender that we should over-feel it not more patient under the stripe then willing to kiss the hand that inflicts it LXIV God as he is one so he loves singleness and simplicity in the inward parts as therefore he hath been pleased to give us those sences double whereby we might let in for our selves as our eyes and ears and those limbs double whereby we might act for our selves as our hands and feet so those which he would appropriate to himself as our hearts for beleef and our tongue for confession he hath given us single neither did he ever ordain or can abide two hearts in a bosome two tongues in one mouth It is then the hateful stile which the Spirit of God gives to an hypocrite that he is double-minded In the language of Gods Spirit a fool hath no heart and a dissembler hath an heart and an heart and surely as a man that hath two heads is a monster in nature so he that hath two hearts is no less a spiritual monster to God For the holy and wise God hath made one for one One minde or soul for one body And if the regenerate man have two men in one the old man and the new yet it is so as that one is flesh the other spirit the minde then is not double but the law of the mind is opposed to the law of the flesh so as here are strivings in one heart not the sidings of two for surely the God of unity can neither indure multiplication nor division of hearts in one brest If then we have one heart for God another for Mammon we may be sure God will not own this latter how should he for he made it not Yea most justly will he disclaim both since that which he made was but one this double And as the wise man hath told us That God hates nothing which he hath made so may we truly say God hateth whatsoever he made not since what he made not is onely evil When I have done my best I shall have but a weak and a faulty heart but Lord let it be but a single one Search me O God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting LXV There is a kinde of not-being in sin for sin is not an existence of somewhat that is but a deficiency of that rectitude which should be it is a privation but not without a real mischief as blindness is but a privation of sight but a true misery Now a privation cannot stand alone it must have some subject to lean upon there is no blindness but where there is an eye no death but where there hath been a life sin therefore supposes a soul wherein it is and an act whereto it cleaveth and those acts of sin are they which the Apostle calls the works of darkness So as there is a kinde of operosity in sin in regard whereof sinners are stiled The workers of iniquity And surely there are sins wherein there is more toyl and labor then in the holiest actions What pains and care doth the theef take in setting his match in watching for his prey How doth he spend the darkest and coldest nights in the execution of his plot What fears what flights what hazards what shifts are here to avoyd notice and punishment The adulterer says That stoln waters are sweet but that sweet is sauced to him with many careful thoughts with many deadly dangers The superstitious bygot who is himself besotted with error how doth he traverse Sea and land to make a Proselyte What adventures doth he make what perils doth he run what deaths doth he challenge to mar a soul So as some men take more pains to go to Hell then some others do to go to Heaven O the sottishness of sinners that with a temporary misery will needs purchase an eternal How should we think no pains sufficient for the attaining of Heaven when we see wretched men toyl so much for damnation LXVI With what elegance and force doth the holy Ghost express our Saviours leaving of the world which he cals his taking home again or his receiving up In the former implying That the Son of God was for the time sent out of his Fathers house to these lower regions of his exile or pilgrimage and was now re-admitted into those his glorious mansions In the latter so intimating his triumphant ascension that he passeth over his bitter passion Surely he was to take death in his way so he told his Disciples in the walk to Emaus Ought not Christ to suffer these things and to enter into his glory He must be lifted up to the Cross ere his Ascension to Heaven but as if the thought of death were swallowed up in the blessed issue of his death here is no mention of ought but his assumption Lo death truly swallowed up in victory Neither is it otherwise proportionally with us wholly so it cannot be for as for him Death did but taste of him could not devour him much less put him over It could not but yield him whole entire the third day without any impairing of his nature yea with an happy addition to it of a glorious immortality and in that glorified humanity he ascended by his own Power into his Heaven For us we must be content that one part of us lye rotting for the time in the dust whiles our spiritual part shall
gracious a liberty of exchanging these worthless thoughts of the world for the deare and precious meditations of heavenly things and now how justly do I fall out with my wretched self that I have given way to secular distractions since my heart can be sometimes in Heaven why should it not be alwaies there II. What is this that I see my Saviour in an Agonie and an Angel strengthening him Oh the wonderful dispensation of the Almighty That the eternal Son of God who promised to send the comforter to his followers should need comfort That he of whom the voice from Heaven said This is my well-beloved Son in whom I am well pleased should be strugling with his Fathers wrath even to blood That the Lord of life should in a languishing horror say My soul is exceeding sorrowfull even unto death These these O Saviour are the chastisements of our peace which both thou wouldst suffer and thy Father would inflict The least touch of one of those pangs would have been no less then an hell to mee the whole brunt whereof thou enduredst for my soul what a wretch am I to grudg a little paine from or for thee who wert content to undergoe such pressure of torment for me as squeezed from thee a sweat of blood since my miserable sinfulness deserved more load then thou in thy merciful compassion wilt lay upon mee and thy pure nature and perfect innocence merited nothing but love and glory In this sad case what service is it that an Angel offers to do unto thee Lo there appeares to thee an Angel from Heaven strengthening thee still more wonder Art not thou the God of spirits Is it not thou that gavest being life motion power glory to all the Angels of Heaven Shall there be need of one single created spirit to administer strength and comfort to his Creator were this the errand why did not all that blessed Chore of celestial spirits joyn their forces together in so high an imployment Where are the multitudes of that heavenly host which at thy birth sung Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace Where are those Angels which ministred to thee after thy combat of temptations in the wilderness Surely there was not so much use of their divine cordialls in the desart as in the garden O my God and Saviour thus thou wouldst have it It is thy holy will that is the rule and reason of all thine actions and events Thou that wouldst make use of the provision of men for thy maintenance on earth wouldst employ thy servants the Angels for the supply of thy consolations and thou that couldst have commanded Legions of those celestial spirits wouldst be served by one not but that more were present but that onely one appeared all the host of them ever invisibly attended thee as God but as man one onely presents himself to thy bodily eyes and thou who madest thy self for our sakes a little lower then the Angels which thou madest wouldst humble thy self to receive comfort from those hands to which thou gavest the capacity to bring it It is no marvel if that which was thy condescent be our glory and happiness I am not worthy O God to know what conflicts thou hast ordained for my weakness what ever they be thou that hast appointed thine Angels to be ministring spirits for the behoof of them who shall be heirs of salvation suffer not thy servant to want the presence of those blessed Emissaries of thine in any of his extremities let them stand by his soul in his last agonie and after an happy Eluctation conveigh it to thy glory III. Many a one hath stumbled dangerously at a wicked mans prosperity and some have fallen desperately into that sin which they have seen thrive in others hands Those carnal hearts know no other proof of good or evil but present events esteeming those causes holy and just which are crowned with outward success not considering that it is one of the cunningest plots of hell to win credit to bad enterprises by the fairest issues wherein the Devill deales with unwary men like some cheating gamester who having drawn in an unskilful and wealthy novice into play suffers him to win a while at the first that he may at the last sweet away all the stakes and some rich mannors to boote The foolish Benjaminites having twice won the field begin to please themselves with a fale conceit of Gibeahs honesty and their own perpetual victories but they shall soon finde that this good speed is but a pit-fal to entrap them in an ensuing destruction It is a great judgment of God to punish sinners with welfare and to render their leud waies prosperuos wherein how contrary are the Almighties thoughts to theirs their seeming blessings are his heavy curse and the smart of his stripes are a favor too good for them to enjoy to judge wisely of our condition it is to be considered not so much how we fare as upon what termes If we stand right with Heaven every cross is a blessing and every blessing a pledge of future happiness if we be in Gods disfavor every of his benefits is a judgment and every judgment makes way for perdition For mee let it be my care that my disposition may be holy and my actions righteous let God undertake for the event IV It is no easie thing to perswade a man that he is proud every one professes to hate that vice yet cherishes it secretly in his bosome for what is pride but an over-weening of our selves and such is is our natural self-love that we can hardly be drawn to believe that in any kinde we think too well of our own Now this pride is ever so much more dangerous as the thing which we over-prize is more excellent and as our mis-apprehension of it mâ—y be more diffusive To be proud of gay-cloathes which is childish or to be proud of beauty which is a womanish vice hath in it more fondness then malignity and goes no further then the brest wherein it is conceived finding no other entertainment in the beholders then either smiles or envy but the pride of knowledg or holy dispositions of the soul as it is of an higher nature so it produceth commonly more perilous effects for as it puffes up a man above measure so it suffers not it self to bekept in within the narrow bounds of his own thoughts but violently bursts out to the extream prejudice of a world of men Onely by pride commeth contention saith wise Solomon Even purse-pride is quarelous domineering over the humble neighbourhood and raising quarrels out of trifles but the spiritual arrogance is so much more mischeivous as the soul is beyond all earthly pelf For when we are once come to advance and admire our own judgments we are first apt to hug our own inventions then to esteem them too precious to be smothered within our own closets the world must know of how
knock'st for entrance wilt be pleased to inable me with strength to turn the key and to unbolt this unweldy bar of my soul O do thou make way for thy self by the strong motions of thy blessed Spirit into the in-most rooms of my heart and do thou powerfully incline me to mine own happiness els thou shalt be ever excluded and I shall be ever miserable XLI In what pangs couldst thou be O Asaph that so woful a word should fall from thee Hath God forgotten to be gracious Surely the temptation went so high that the next step had been blasphemie Had not that good God whom thy bold weakness questions for forgetfulness in great mercy remembred thee and brought thee speedily to remember thy self and him that which thou confessest to have been infirmity had proved a sinful despair I dare say for thee that word washed thy cheeks with many a tear and was worthy of more For O God What can be so dear to thee as the glory of thy mercy There is none of thy blessed attributes which thou desirest to set forth so much unto the sons of men and so much abhorrest to be disparaged by our detraction as thy mercy Thou canst O Lord forget thy displeasure against thy people thou canst forget our iniquities and cast our sins out of thy remembrance but thou canst no more forget to be gracious then thou canst cease to be thy self O my God I sin against thy justice hourly and thy mercy interposes for my remission but oh keep me from sinning against thy mercy What plea can I hope for when I have made my Advocate mine enemy XLI How happy O Lord is the man that hath thee for his God He can want nothing that is good he can be hurt by nothing that is evill his sins are pardoned his good indeavors are accepted his crosses are sanctified his prayers are heard all that he hath are blessings all that he suffers are advantages his life is holy his death comfortable his estate after death glorious Oh that I could feel thee to be my God that I could enjoy an heavenly communion with thee In vain should earth or hell labour to make me other then blessed XLII How just a motion is this of thine O thou sweet singer of Israel O love the Lord all ye his Saints Surely they can be no Saints that love not such a Lord Had he never been good to them yet that infinite goodness which is in himself would have commanded love from Saints Yet how could they have been Saints if he had wholly kept his goodness to himself In that then he hath made them Saints he hath communicated his goodness to them and challengeth all love from them and being made such how infinitely hath he obliged them with all kinds of mercies How can ye choose O ye Saints but love the Lord What have ye what are ye what can ye be but from his meer bounty They are sleight favours that he hath done you for the world in these his very enemies share with you How transcendent are his spirituall obligations Hath he not given you his Angels for your attendants himself for your Protector his Son out of his bosome for your Redeemer his Spirit for your Comforter his heaven for your inheritance If gifts can attract love O my God Who can have any interest in my heart but thy blessed self that hast been so infinitely munificent to my soul Take it to thee thou that hast made and bought it enamour it thoroughly of thy goodness make me sick of love yea let me die for love of thee who hast loved me unto death that I may fully enjoy the perfection of thy love in the height of thy glory XLIII Lord how have I seen men miscarried into those sins the premonition whereof they would have thought incredible and their yeildance thereto impossible How many Hazaels hath our very age yeilded that if a Prophet should have fore told their acts would have said Is thy servant a dog that he should do these great things Oh my God why do not I suspect my self What hold have I of my self more then these other miserable examples of humane frailtie Lord God if thou take off thy hand from me what wickedness shall escape me I know I cannot want a tempter and that tempter cannot want either power or malice or skill or vigilance or baits or opportunities and for my self I find too well that of my self I have no strength to resist any of his temptations O for thy mercies sake uphold thou me with thy mighty hand stand close to me in all assaults shew thy self strong in my weakness Keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins Let them not have dominion over me then onely shall I be upright and shall be innocent from the great transgression XLIV It is thy title O Lord and only thine that thou givest songs in the night The night is a sad and dolorous season as the light contrarily is the image of cheerfulness like as it is in bodily pains and aches that they are still worst towards night so it is in the cares and griefs of mind then they assault us most when they are helpt on by the advantage of an uncomfortable darkness Many men can give themselves songs in the day of their prosperity who can but howl in the night of their affliction but for a Paul and Silas to sing in their prison at mid-night for an Asaph to call to remembrance his song in the night this comes onely from that Spirit of thine whose peculiar style is the Comforter And surely as musick sounds best in the night so those heavenly notes of praise which we sing to thee our God in the gloomy darkness of our adversity cannot but be most pleasing in thine ears Thine Apostle bids us which is our ordinary wont when we are merry to sing when afflicted to pray but if when we are afflicted we can sing as also when we are merriest we can pray that ditty must needs be so much more acceptable to thee as it is a more powerful effect of the joy of thy Holy Ghost O my God I am conscious of my own infirmity I know I am naturally subject to a dull and heavy dumpishness under whatsoever affliction Thou that art the God of all comfort remedy this heartless disposition in me pull this lead out of my bosome make me not patient only but cheerful under my trials fill thou my heart with joy and my mouth with songs in the night of my tribulation XLV It is a true word O Lord that thy Seer said of thee long ago The Lord seeth not as man seeth Man sees the face thou seest the heart man sees things as they seem thou seest them as they are many things are hid from the eyes of men all things lie open and displaid before thee What a madness then were it in me to come disguised into
thy presence to seek to hide my counsels from thine al-seeing eyes I must be content Lord to be deluded here by fair appearances for I may not offer to look into the bosoms of men which thou hast reserved for thy self it is only the out-side that I can judg by Yea O God if I shall cast my eyes inward and look into my own brest even there I find my self baffled at home The heart of man is deceitful above all things who can know it None but those piercing eyes of thine can discover all the windings and turnings of that intricate piece What would it avail me O Lord to mock the eyes of all the world with a semblance of holiness whilst thou shouldst see me false and filthy Should I be censured by a world of men when I am secretly allowed by thee I could contemn it yea glory in their unjust reproach But if thine eye shall note me guilty to what purpose is all the applause of men O thou that art the God of truth do thou open and dissect this close heart of mine search every fibre that is in or about it and if thou findest any ill blood there let it out and if thou findest any hollowness fill it up and so work upon it that it may be approved of thee that madest it as for men it shall be alike to me whether they spend their breath or save it XLVI Lord God What a world of treasure hast thou hid in the bowels of the earth which no eye of man ever did or shall or can see What goodly plants hast thou brought forth of the earth in wilde unknown regions which no man ever beheld What great wits hast thou shut up in a willing obscurity which the world never takes notice of In all which thou shewest that it is not only the use and benefit of man which thou regardest in the great variety of thy creation and acts of administration of the world but thine own glory and the fulfilling of thine own good pleasure and if onely the Angels of heaven be witnesses of thy great works thou canst not want a due celebration of thy praise It is just with thee O God that thou shouldst regard only thy blessed self in all that thou doest or hast done for all is thine and thou art all Oh that I could sincerely make thee the perfect scope of all my thoughts of all my actions that so we may both meet in one and the same happy end thy glory in my eternall blessedness XLVII Indeed Lord as thou saist the night commeth when no man can work What can we do when the light is shut in but shut our eyes and sleep When our senses are tyed up and our limbs laid to rest what can we do but yeeld our selves to a necessary repose O my God I perceive my night hastening on apace my Sun draws low the shadows lengthen vapours rise and the air begins to darken Let me bestir my self for the time let me lose none of my few hours Let me work hard a while because I shall soon rest everlastingly XLVIII Thou seest Lord how apt I am to contemn this body of mine Surely when I look back upon the stuffe whereof it is made no better then that I tread upon and see the loathsomness of all kinds that comes from it and feel the pain that it oft times puts me to and consider whither it is going and how noisome it is above all other creatures upon the dissolution I have much adoe to hold good terms with so unequal a partner But on the other side when I look up to thy hand and see how fearfully and wonderfully thou hast made it what infinite cost thou hast bestowed upon it in that thou hast not thought thine own blood too dear to redeeme it that thou hast so far honour'd it as to make it the Temple of thy holy Ghost and to admit it into a blessed communion with thy self and hast decreed to do so great things for it hereafter even to cloath it with immortality and to make it like unto thy glorious body I can bless thee for so happy a mate and with patience digest all these necessary infirmities and now I look upon this flesh not as it is withered and wrinkled but as it will be shining and glorified O Lord how vile so ever this clay is in it self yet make mee in thine interest and my hopes so enamoured of it as if I did already finde it made celestial Oh that my faith could prevent my change and anticipate my ensuing glory XLIX Lord what a dreadful favor was that which thou shewedst to thy Prophet Elijah to send a fiery chariot for him to conveigh him up to Heaven I should have thought that the sight of so terrible a carriage should have fetcht away his soul before-hand and have left the body groveling on the earth But that good Spirit of thine which had fore-signified that fiery rapture had doubtless fore-armed thy servant with an answerable resolution to expect and undergoe it Either he knew that chariot how ever fearful in the appearance was onely glorious and not penal Or els he cheerfully resolved that such a momentany pain in the change would be followed with an eternity of happiness O God we are not worthy to know whereto thou hast reserved us Perhaps thou hast appointed us to be in the number of those whom thou shalt finde alive at thy second coming and then the case will be ours we shall pass through fire to our immortality or if thou hast ordained us to a speedier dispatch perhaps thou hast decreed that our way to thee shall be through a fiery triall O God what ever course thou in thine holy wisdom hast determined for the fetching up my soul from this vale of misery and tears prepare me thoroughly for it and do thou work my heart to so lively a faith in thee that all the terrours of my death may be swallowed up in an assured expectation of my speedy glory and that my last groans shall be immediately seconded with eternall Allelujahs in the glorious Chore of thy Saints and Angels in Heaven Amen Amen FINIS 2 Cor. 4. 18. Colos 3. 1 2. Rom. 13. 14. Gal. 3. 27. Exod. 32. 25. Psal 32. 1. Zech. 3. 4. Deut. 16. Eccles 9. 7 8. Psal 4. 7. Luk. 16. 19. Ephes 6. Cant. 1. 15. Cant. 5. 3. Psal 19. 1. Psa ult ult Psal 103. 1. 2. Psa 146. 1 2. Luk. 12. 49. Acts 2. Joh. 16. 7. Jer. 5. 14. Luk. 23. 32. Cant. 8 7. Psal 119. 139. Psal 39 4. Psal 104. 4. Heb. 1. 7. Heb. 1. 14. 1 Pet. 4. 12. Lament 4. 11. Lam. 2. 17. Judges 9. 20. Acts 2. 2 12. 2 Kings 6. 25. Psal 30. 6. Phil. 1. 23. Joh. 13. 16. Joh. 15. 8. Joh. 15. 14. Joh. 20. 17. Joh. 17. 21 22 23. Psal 2. Luk. 8. 2. Psa 80. 13. Jer. 4. 20. Esa 1. 7. Psa 89. 40. Esa 27. 11.