kind of mercy to put men to death quickely This Martyrdome of mortification God doth highly prize without that other which is by effusion of blood this must goe before that and that without this is of no worth nor deserues the name of Martyrdome at all Whose Martyrdome shall I dare to compare with the various hideous and tedious sufferings of holy Iob The best is this contention for immortalitie will not onely be mortall but soone at an end The Martyrs of both sorts so I tearme them because they dye in and for thee shall haue fulnesse of felicity to satiate their largest desires for they both shall haue both ioy without measure and life without end they shall both enioy abundance of pleasures at thy right hand for euermore The summe of all is I must drench and drowne my sinnes and the corrupt affections of my wicked heart in the sea of sorrowfull repentance and then my soule will nimbly and swiftly swim to the land of promise and hauen of happinesse They that will offer this sacrifice their hearts must fall from the high mountaine of pride downe into the lowest valley of humiliation and they must bee bruised with the fall pained with the bruise I will present an humble bruised and sorrowfull heart vnto thee Thou O Lord art nigh to them that are of a contrite spirit who speake to thee in bitternesse their soule who crye like the Draggon and Ostriche for griefe of their sinnes committed They who cry De profundis out of the deepe are not in the deepe their very crye reares and raises them vp Thine eare is within mans heart thou perceiuest the hearts first relenting before it come to the tongues relating I did purpose and say within my selfe I will confesse my sinne and thou tookest notice thereof and forgauest the iniquity of my sinne Thus saith the High and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity whose Name is holy 〈◊〉 dwell in the High and holy place with whom with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit to what end to reuiue the spirit of the humble and to reuiue the heart of the contrite ones Thou wilt not despise nay thou wilt highly prize graciously receiue 〈◊〉 and comfort thou wilt giue them beauty for ashes the oyle of ioy for mourning the garment of gladnesse for the spirit of heauinesse As a bone in the arme or legge once broken and being well set againe growes stronger then if it had neuer beene broken so our hearts being well and soundly healed by true repentance of the sores and bruises of sinne become more firme and stable then euer they were before Thus my foule fall becomes foelix culpa I am after a sort happy in my vnhappinesse for out of my great misery through thy greatest mercy a greater happinesse doth arise then euer I felt before 18 O be fauourable to Sion for thy good pleasure HEE that prayes to thee must not pray for himselfe alone Howsoeuer hee beginne with prayer for himselfe when he hath gained some interest in thee for himselfe hee may the sooner preuaile for others hee must end with prayer for thy Church hee must not end till hee haue recommended the whole Church in his prayers vnto thee He that is a liuely and feeling member of that mysticall body whereof thy Christ is the head must pray for the whole body As in the naturall body the heart feeles the akeing of the head and the head the oppression of the heart the heart and head both doe resent a fellon in one of the fingers and the gowt in one of the toes the stomacke simpathizeth with the braine and the braine with the stomacke so and much more is it in the mysticall body True Christians are like those Twynnes who are reported to haue wept and laughed slept and waked liued and dyed together They must weepe with them that weepe mourne with those that lament suffer hunger thirst nakednesse and imprisonment with others their brethren afflicted with such crosses participate with them in all their miseries and aduersities what soeuer Captaine Vriah mine honest seruant could say The Arke and Israel and Iudah abide in Tents and my Lord Ioab and the seruants of my Lord are incamped in the open field and shall I then goe into my house to eate and drinke and lye with my Wife While they are in ieopardy I cannot be in iollity while they liue in feare I cannot enioy security Wherefore be fauourable to Sion to thy Church and chosen I being one of them must abide one and the same fortune and condition with them This is that vnion of the Saints in thy Christ that communion of them among themselues which cannot easily bee comprehended much lesse fully expressed and yet must it bee constantly belieued and will be in some measure continually resented The Church is represented by the name of Sion Sion the holy Mountaine in Hierusalem which thou louest from whence thy lawe should come and where thou wilt dwell for euer Iehouah hath chosen Sion and desired it for his seate and said This is my rest here will I sit euen to perpetuity But besides this generall I acknowledge my selfe tyed by a speciall obligation to pray for Sion for there was no let on my part but that the whole kingdome of thy Christ might haue fallen to the ground for I being raised from the dunghill to the Diadem from the Parke to the Pallace from following the Ewes great with young to feede thy people and anoynted King to the end I should gather thy Church together by my Apostasie haue scattered and wasted it so farre forth as there is great cause to feare the vtter ruine and desolation thereof Wherefore by force and in remorse of conscience I beg for the sustentation and preseruation of thy Church through thy free and vndeserued mercy Thou O Lord art the onely founder of this choise Company and corporation As out of thy loue onely thou didst single and select them from other refuse people before the foundation of the world as by the same loue thou hast supported and preserued them amids all dangers and disasters euer sithence so I beseech thee still to continue thine ancient accustomed and affectionate fauour to them Let not my vnhappinesse impeach their happinesse let not the darke and foggy mists of my wickednes ecclipse the light and luster of thy countenance towards them let them be still as deare vnto thee as the apple of thine owne eye doe not spill them for my faults but spare mee and them for thine owne sake Thou doest often and mayest alwaies punish the people for the sins of their Princes Wherefore I beseech thee not onely to pardon my sins to my selfe but to be fauourable to my people also and not to suffer them to smart and suffer for my offences It is I that haue sinned and done euill indeed but as for these sheepe what haue they done let
bee without this heate he that hath that Sun cannot be without this light When my great and enormous sinnes had plunged me into the sea of misery finding no other meane of helpe in that fearefull danger I catched vp and tooke hold of the planke or boordof Repentance to saue me from drowning Repentance hath two faces and so looketh two wayes backward and forward to sinnes past and holinesse to come I haue grieuously lamented my offences formerly done and importunately begged pardon for them accounting this remission because thou art pleased O God so to esteeme it my iustification I now earnestly craue a cleane heart and a new spirit that being clensed I may keep my selfe cleane that being renewed I may entertaine newnesse of life for my sanctification For if I fall againe vpon the same rock of presumption which caused my shipwracke before it will plainely appeare that I haue not really acted but formally counterfeited repentance in which case I must pronounce an heauie doome against my selfe for dissembled holinesse is double wickednesse wickednesse masking vnder the sinfull vayle and vizard of hypocrisie Repentance neuer attaines her Crowne and Garland till shee haue brought forth amendment of life after lamentation for sin to make some kind of reparation That which thou requirest of me O God is my heart and how can I deny thee one thing that hast giuen me all things for what haue I that I haue not receiued of thee Well then I resolue as it is meet to giue thee my heart But when I looke into my heart by the helpe of thy suruey for it is thou that declarest vnto man what and how ill his heart is I finde it so foule and full of corruption as I am ashamed to present it vnto thee in that plight Nay I tremble to thinke that thy Pure and Radiant Eyes should behold such a puddle and sincke of sinne as lurketh in my heart For alas euery imagination of the thoughts of my heart is onely euill continually Were my heart such as it should be I would cheerefully giue thee my heart O Lord therefore create in mee a cleane heart Thou madest my heart first in Adam hee marred it and I in him by disobedience from him to all his posterity the contagion of this pollution is spred and propagated wherefore create my heart againe create it a cleane heart either a cleane heart or no heart at all I affect purity of heart by thy grace for indeed I cannot so much as affect much lesse effect it without thee Vnlesse thou take the worke in hand it will be vndone My heart that is originally and totally vncleane by naturall generation and daily soiled by actuall transgression cannot become cleane and neate without spirituall washing and supernaturall regeneration and that is thy proper operation Seeke not to new make mould my defiled hart out of the forebeing matter thereof That may seeme a strange enterprize and fruitlesse worke But thou O God who by thy power madest the world of nothing by thy powerfull grace Create which is thy peculiar attribute a cleane heart within me To create is not to make a thing out of the power of any subiect or matter formerly being But to create is to make a thing of nothing and that is an act of diuine power that is a case excepted and a prerogatiue reserued to thee alone The production of grace in a gracelesse heart is a wonderfull and gracious creation Create in mee powerfully and of nothing without any 〈◊〉 matter create in me 〈◊〉 and for nothing without any precedent merit of mine a pure heart so 〈◊〉 thou crowne in mee not my deserts but thine 〈◊〉 gifts if ought proceed from my heart to my tongue or hand not displeasing vnto thee Worke this worke thy selfe and take the praise of it to thy selfe alone O God Not vnto mee not vnto me I doe iterate and ingeminate my disclaymer but vnto thy Name giue all the glory It is another manner of power to make the quality then the substance of the heart yea it is a harder taske to make a heart cleane that hath beene soiled with the filth and tainted with the putrifaction of sin then to make a pure and innocent heart at the first The more shall be my thankfulnesse if thou O Lord vouchsafe me so great a fauour I will not curiously enquire into the meanes or manner of atchieuing this worke Let me henceforth really finde by the imaginations and inclinations of it that it is a cleane heart conformed as it may be in the frailty of 〈◊〉 flesh 〈◊〉 thy holy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all is well As a woman 〈◊〉 by the stirring of the 〈◊〉 in her wombe that 〈◊〉 hath conceiued so 〈◊〉 me feele by the effectuall motions of thy good 〈◊〉 that I am begotten anew vnto a liuely 〈◊〉 by the resurrection of Christ according to his abundant mercy The summe of all is Giue me O Lord what thou enioynest and then enioyne mee what thou pleasest I am of no ability to do what thou commandest and therefore am enforced to beseech thee thy selfe to do in me what thou requirest to bee done of me Create a cleane heart in me If my heart as the spring and conduit head be pure and cleane the waters that flow thence though conueighed in earthen pipes will be cleare still my secret thoughts my open words my visible workes though they sauour somewhat of earth and flesh will not be altogether vncleane and vnsauoury A man must bee twice borne ere he can enter into the kingdome of heauen As he is made to the similitude of the first Adam so must he be made to the similitude of the second Adam and the regeneration is a more excellent worke then the generation the re-creation then the creation In the first man was wrought out of clay in the other God workes grace out of sinne In the former he breathed a soule into the dead body here he breatheth his holy Spirit into a dead heart In the creation he made man perfect in all his members In this re-creation not only all the members of the body but the faculties of the soule also must be framed anew It is a greater matter to raise a man dead in sinne then to raise a rotten carkasse out of the graue In the one birth and the other the heart is the first 〈◊〉 that is enlyued my 〈◊〉 must first take fire 〈◊〉 can I neuer bee 〈◊〉 with the true zeale of 〈◊〉 glory and mine owne saluation In the first creation this 〈◊〉 Chaos and darke 〈◊〉 was couered by thy 〈◊〉 without any contradiction or resistance Thou spakest but the word and all was readily done and perfectly framed But in my re-creation my flesh or my spirit or my fleshly spirit doth oppose and incounter thy holy Spirit grieueth and maketh it sad laboureth to quench it euen then when it striueth to reuiue repaire and reforme me This is notoriously verified
so euen thy praises must come from thy 〈◊〉 to set forth thy glory Thou desirest not sacrifice else would I giue it or had giuen it In regard of the heauy burthen of many sins oppressing my soule and the feareful apprehension of thy iust indignation conceiued against me to ease and free my selfe to appease and please thee what would I not doe what would I not suffer what would I not offer But I haue nothing whereby I might redeeme thy fauour towards mee For if I had Mountaines of Gold if I had Riuers of Oyle if I had tenne thousand sacrifices to bestow vpon thee it booted mee nothing they are all thine owne already and besides thou makest not account or esteeme of any of these things at all which I doe not deliuer to disallow or altogether disualue all kinde of 〈◊〉 by slaughter of Beasts and Birds appointed by thee and prescribed by thine owne Law but because these are signes onely and representations to the weake capacities of mortall men of that reall effectuall renowned and eternall sacrifice once to be offered for the redemptition of mankinde I know O Lord by the illumination of thy holy Spirit that it is an inward and internall not an outward or externall sacrifice which thou being a spirit delightest in Thou lookest vpon the heart and pious affections thereof alone I conceiue that to draw thine owne people from the superstitious Idolatry whereunto the Gentiles through the blindnesse of their vnderstanding and the delusions of Satan were so prone and so much addicted and to teach them to embrace such worship of thee as thou shouldest prescribe not themselues 〈◊〉 thou hast instituted sundry kindes of sacrifices vpon seuerall occasions to be offered vnto thee with an indulgent respect to our infirmity who being carnall delight in outward shewes without which wee cannot so easily comprehend those inward seruices and spirituall duties to bee performed by vs and euer with relation to the true substance of the hearts affections to be erected and consecrated wholly to thine honour For thou hast not 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for thy selfe 〈◊〉 wouldest not drinke the bloud of Bulls and Goats The eternall God doth neither hunger nor thirst c. But a single and sincere minde fearing God of those that offer such things as they haue from thee is a sweet smelling and well-pleasing sacrisice to thee by thy gracious acceptation who dost not so much regard the thing that is done in this kinde as the minde where with it is done and the end wherfore it is done to wit thine owne glory Thou dost not respect the shadow but the substance not the shel but the kernell not the chaffe but the corne not the signe but the thing signified At least thou doeft not esteem the type without the truth nor the figure in any degree of comparison with that which is represented thereby and therewith to be presented vnto thee that is a broken heart The sacrifices of God in the plurall number because this one is many sacrifices this one is all the sacrifices that thou expectest at our hands A broken heart a contrite spirit diuers words importing one and the same thing is a heart wounded a spirit deiected and perplexed with the sight and sense of sin committed mourning and melting into teares through the remorse of conscience grieuously lamenting that it was so wretched and wicked as gracelesly and vngratefully to reiect the iust lawes of so powerfull a Iudge and to neglect the kinde inuitations of so pittifull a Father and all for a little vaine idle foolish frothy and fruitlesse pleasure which was mingled with 〈◊〉 in that little time wherein it was so greedily 〈◊〉 and pleasingly 〈◊〉 Now 〈◊〉 doth thy gracious goodnesse wonderfully shew and 〈◊〉 forth it selfe that thou not only 〈◊〉 to teach vs what to doe and what to say how to 〈◊〉 our actions and frame our supplications that both in word and deed wee may please thee but also whē we haue offēded displeased thee to tell vs how to pacifie and appease thee againe The Sacrifices of God are c. Nay further thou dost not require such a sacrifice as must be procured and purchased from abroad with much care and cost farre fetcht and deare bought as they say but such a sacrifice as we haue or may haue in our owne bosomes 〈◊〉 à te extrâ to quaeritur Thou requirest nothing from mee but what is within mee Beyond all this thou doest vs the honour and trustest vs with the office of Priests that wee may be sure to see this Sacrifice duly performed We must our selnes for our 〈◊〉 offer vp our 〈◊〉 in humility contrition which is 〈◊〉 only 〈◊〉 and vnbloody 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thee Euery 〈◊〉 as a 〈◊〉 Priest 〈◊〉 a victime within 〈◊〉 to offer the franke-Incense that must be put vpon the Altar in his owne bowells in his owne heart a Sacrifice that is of force to 〈◊〉 and winne thee to compassion he neede not seeke for a beast abroade to slaughter and burne to ashes he hath within himselfe that hee may and should kill He may slay sin he may mortify his earthly members he may strike with the hammer of sound repentance vpon the hard Anuile of his stony heart till it be mollified bruised and brayed to pieces and then it will be thy time turne as it is thy greatest honour to binde vp and heale the wounded and broken hearted Hee may kill and sacrifice to thee his Bull of pride his Goat of lasciuiousnesse his Ramme of stubbornenes his Birds of flying and wandering imaginations and so the rest of his carnall sensuall affections which being beastly doe turne men into beasts defacing that Image of thee wherein they were created to holinesse and righteousnesse The morall whereof is this He may in a life of vertue and piety offer vp the death of his vices iniquities to thee He that repents his sins doth chide and braule quarrell and brabble hee doth expostulate and fall out with himselfe in this tune Oh vnhappy wretch why wouldest how couldest thou so basely stoope to the lure of fleshly wantonnesse of wordly profit of spitefull reuenge of trecherous infidelity how couldest thou be induced to sell thine inheritance for a mesle of Pottage thy euer during treasure in heauen for a little flitting and vnconstant trash of the world What fruite hast thou now of 〈◊〉 the forbidden fruite of enioying those sinfull and momentany pleasures whereof thou art so much ashamed was not the terrible voice of the Law thundring out hell and damnation of power to fright thee from rebellion were not the sweete promises of the Gospell of force to inuite thee to the 〈◊〉 and constant seruice of God Nay beyond chiding and brauling a true penitent must chastise and punish himselfe Thy Lustice O God although it be fully satisfied by that all sufficient obedience and propitiatory Sacrifice of the Lambe