out by him Tenthly After the Father whose motion and project this was had wrought of the Son to undertake it did not he then engage to stand by him and to supply him with all necessaries a body to suffer in and a spirit to that body without measure and to bring those into him in time by retail whom he had given to him in the Lump before time was he doth more then invite as saith Arminius he doth effectually draw by an omnipotent sweetness Christ must not scruple to entertain the most Leprous loathsome sinner whom the Father is pleased to bring unto him Ay and the Father must help to keep them also whom he hath brought in Ioh. 10.28 29. a pretious Cordial in Apostatizing times and all this being done according to an antient complot and agreement Socinus cannot from these supplies or dependencies infer the Sons inferiority to the Father and the poor believing sinner may press him with all these engagements 11. Over and aboye all this Did he not put forth his paternal Authority and lay his Commands upon his Son to engage in this great service John 10.18 and 12.9 20. as Pharoah to express a Pleonasm of Love commands Joseph to be kind to his nearest and dearest Relations which one would think little needed Gen. 45.19 Go look God in the face and say as David doth Psal. 71.3 Thou hast given Commandment to save me And to whom To Man or Angels No to me says Christ This Commandment have I received of my Father If Christ fail there is not only breach of Articles but Disobedience too Thou canst not believe that Christ loves thee so well as to lay down his Life for thee But canst thou believe he loves the Father tha 's easie there 's no doubt of that Why says Christ when he was going to die that the world may know how I love the Father as the Father hath given me Commandment even so do I John 14.31 12. Yet again to make all sure least the humane nature of Christ upon its affumption should shrink at the approach of sufferings Doth not the Father engage to reward him plentifully to give him a Royal and an Everlasting Priesthood a name above every Name appoints unto him a Kingdom Luke 22.29 and above all assures him of the Salvation of those he died for according to this agrement Isa. 53. 11. without which nothing could ever have satisfied him so that as the assumption of the humane nature is the highest instance of free mercy so is the rewarding thereof in its state of exaltation the highest instance of remunerative Justice All this needed not to engage Christ to the work so much as to engage us to believe that the Father was first in willing as he is in subsisting the Son second to him therein but not in heartiness of good Will for therein they are both equal they must needs be one in Will who are so in Nature and Being but still the Father is first in Love Joh. 3.16 For God so love the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life and 1 John 4. 9 10. In this was manifested the love of God towards us because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him here in is Love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the Propitiation for our sins and therefore love is laid at his door by the Apostle 2 Cor. ult. The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all The Grace of christ makes way for our enjoying the love of God but we had never known the Grace of Christ had it not been first for the love of God who therefore is called our Saviour 1 Tim. 1.1 13. And as ifas all this were not enough Did not the Father seal his Son a Comission to give life to lost sinners John 6.27 and therefore Christ so often mentions the Father as sending him and furnishing him with miracles his letters Credential where ever he came 14. Nay more If suffering for our sakes be a sign of Love as who can deny or doubt it to speak after the manner of men Had not the Father his share of sufferings as well as the Son Was it nothing for him to part with his Son such a Son an only Son the delight of his heart and eyes and that not amongst friends but enemies Who would seek and suck his blood in this sense to spare him and yet in another not to spare him but to bruise him an take pleasure in so doing Is all this nothing He may seem indeed to have an easie part to sit in Heaven and receive satis faction but you see it cost him something too nay more He denies himself and disappears and gives up the immediate management of all affairs into the hands of his Son That part the Son took was sharper but shorter lasted not much above three and thirty years but from the time of Christs resurrection 'T is along aevum before that God come again to be all in all 1 Cor. 15.24 and 28. and he in a manner remains hid till the day of Judgement now Christ is all in all Col. 3.12 The Son transacts all by the Spirit till the last day and the Father worketh now only in and through the Son Thus you see the Father veiling and eclipsing his Glory to make it shine the more hereafter and in the mean time his love that shines forth herein gloriously 15. Hath not the Father as well as Christ an hand in sending the Holy Ghost to make a discovery and application of all these things yea he is called the Promise of the Father which Christ had often hinted to his Disciples as the best news he could bring them from heaven Act. 1.4 which saith he ye have heard of me 16. Lastly Was it not he that wrapt up all this in a glorious Covenant a Covenant of Grace Life and Peace of which I may say as John of the Commandment of Love 1 Ioh. 2.7 8. 'T is both the New and Old Covenant the first and last and everlasting Covenant cal'd a Promise lest the word Covenant should scare us and make us think there 's more required of us by way of restipulation then we can reach unto Tit. 1.2 1 Ioh. 2.25 Covenants of Promise Eph. 2.12 and while we are altogether strangers thereunto we are without Hope The other Covenant was contrived and given forth chiefly to make way and welcome for this and 't is this Covennant the precious things whereof are sealed up unto us in the Sacraments This is that secret of the Lord which is with them that fear him Psal. 25.13 to make them know the Covenant he is ever mindfull of it and therefore sent
TOPICA SACRA SPIRITUAL LOGICK Some brief Hints and Helps to Faith Meditation and Prayer Comfort and Holiness Communicated at CHRIST-Church Dublin in Ireland BY T. H. Minister of the Gospel LONDON Printed for Francis Titon and are to be sold at the sign of the three Daggers in Fleet-street 1658. TO HIS EXCELLENCY The Lord Henry Cromwel the Lord Deputy of Ireland May it please your Excellency THe reason why I suffer this Discourse to go abroad and not some others though urged by friends yea commanded thereunto by your Excellency and the Council is partly to beg pardon for that Disobedience partly to evidence that it was no defect in my Will but in my notes and manner of writing that hindred me from paying that observance which now I yield But especially because the Spirit of God for mine own or a worse neither could or would ever have done any such good office for me I say therefore undoubtedly the Spirit of God by these and the like injections and intimations helping me to plead and press them and to hold them up before the Lord and to spread them before Him as Hezekiah did the Letter hath many a time sustained and cheared mine own heart and so renewed the face of that earth after much Winter weather after many trials troubles and tremblings for when God speaks where are the Lips that will not quiver at His voice into whose bones will not rottenness enter and happy they and they only who now tremble in themselves that they may rest in the day of trouble This not to mention any other ground gives me some small glimmering of hope that the same Powerful Spirit may be pleased also further to manage and improve the same Medium to the relief and advantage of others and I can say it it is usefulness and service that I have aimed at in this enterprize Amongst all the Helps to Devotion that I have seen I mean Books so intitled commonly containing some forms of Prayers I remember not any thing at all of kin to this Undertaking which tends to help the Gift not to stint the Spirit of Prayer and only layes a few sticks together pointing to the Wood where more may be had which by His own breath He may be pleased to kindle Whatever strangers either in place or affection may imagine I know your Excellency to be a Pleader and I hope a Prevailer with God daily I therefore offer this poor Essay unto you not so much by way of Assistance as of Acknowledgement that under God You have been and are the Instrumental cause of my enjoying a fulness of opportunities of doing some service in my Generation the value whereof I desire daily to renew upon my heart above all the things that this world can afford or brittle mortality enjoy As it hath been Your Lordships mercy that hitherto you have had help from on High to know and Love the Lord His Name and Image where ever you discern it and to walk acceptably with Your God and usefully to His People for which you have your Record on High your witness amongst men and in your own Bosom So it is now become your Obligation and only Interest still to be found in the same wayes of Righteousness wherein that you may persevere unto the End and that your Path may be as the shining Light which shineth out more and more unto the perfect day That you your most precious Consort and hopeful Children may prove an inestimate Blessing in this world and eternally Blessed in that to come is and shall be the daily prayer of My Lord Your Excellencies worthless but most willing Servant Tho. Harrison Lemmata Casuum Arguments in Case of 1. UNacquaintedness with the Lord page 28 2. Sence of more then ordinary unworthiness ever to be acquainted savingly with God P. 34 3. Iealousie as to the love of Christ P. 42 4. Iealousie concerning God the Father p. 45 5. Fear of unbelief p. 66 6. Fear of Hypocrisie p. 71 7. Fear of being acted only by a slavish spirit of fear p. 76 8. Sence of fearful back-slidings p. 79 9. Sence of strong corruptions p. 84 10. Fear of great Afflictions p. 88 11. Sence of extremity of Pain p. 92 12. Desertion felt or feared p. 99 13. Exercise in Friends Relations Name or estate p. 103 14. Suddian disquietment from cloudy Providences p. 108 15. Dread of spiritual judgements hardness of heart unprofitableness under means of Grace p. 112 16. Fear that prayer is not heard p. 120 17. Fear that God can never take any special delight in such a polluted piece p. 128 18. Fear of ejectment or unserviceableness p. 134 19. Fear of being cast off at last p. 141 20. Intercession for others with Complaints concerning many things that are amiss in our times p. 146 ERRATA Page 6. line 4. read out and l. 12. r our p. 7. l. 9. r. own p. 23. l. 18. r. may p. 24. l. 25. r. of God p. 60. l. 16. r. loved p 67. l. 9. r. a worm p. 82. l. 4. r. them p. 95. l. 9. r. of Iob. p. 146. l. 23. r. in p. 158. l. 26. r. vectigal p. 164. l. 15. r. in the and l. 23. r. of p. 167. l. 26. r. many times Topica Sacra Spiritual Logick JOB 23.3 4. O That I knew where I might find him that I might come even to his seat I would order my cause before him and fill my mouth with Arguments HOly Iob poor now even to a Proverb and miserable to a Prodigy perceiving his friends Discourses were fuller of Reproaches then Consolations neglects to answer them resolves to get him to God the only Support and Refuge of the miserable And thus he entertains himself in the second verse even to day after all that hath been said Exasperatio est querelae meae the bitterness of my complaint is rather increased then allayed wherefore no wonder my mouth is alwaies open to breath out complaints and the more I complain the more I suffer from you so some or rather from God himself whose hand I acknowledge in all these stroaks and let me complain as long as I will my tongue is not so eloquent in complaining as his hand is heavy that strikes me my stroak is heavier then my groaning And yet for all this verse 3. he sighes after a Treaty after a nearer access and approach unto him that smites him he quits his seeming friends to make after his seeming Enemy and is willing to make this Enemy his Iudge and to refer all to him And then verse 4. he thinks with himself how he would manage his matters how he would bestir himself and not lose his cause for want of pleading could he but get a day of hearing I would order my cause before him and fill my mouth with Arguments Some think he wishes for a Guide a Friend to help him to such an opportunity Quis det nossem saith Drusius
towards him and doth not straiten it such a fear as is an helper of thy Ioy not an enemy to it such a fear as furthers the Comforts of the Holy Ghost such a fear as hath no torment in it and therefore love though perfected shall never cast it our and thou didst never see good day till this took hold of thee dost never enjoy good hour when this doth not over-rule thee 'T is a bitter thing to thee that ever thou wert without it Ier. 2.19 Thirdly Tell Him it is Him and his goodness that thou fearest his frown his absence his silence are now more dreaded by thee then all his Darts and Thunders used to be formerly the loss of a smile of a kiss a kindness is that thou most fearest and this thou takest to be a spirit of ingenuity not of slavery Fourthly He knows thy voyce and can tell whether he hear any of his own Language from thee or no how badly and brokenly soever it be pronounced though thou chatterest like a Crane or a Swallow or mournest like a Dove as Hezekiah speaks of himself Isa. 38.14 Every creature conveys its sound its tone and tune to the young ones and none of his children are still born the Spirit unties their tongues and sets them a crying Abba Father and he knows thou dost cry sometimes not coldly tender him some dead prayers but cry and not as a thief at a Bar to a Judge whom he neither loves nor hath any confidence in but as a poor child when in distress who daily asks his Fathers blessing Fifthly Desire him that he would feel thee as Isaac did Jacob the desire of thy soul is not only to have a smooth voyce but hands also so far from roughness that he may for ever own thee as one of the seed of Jacob thy heart is against a Covenant of works but for all the works of the Covenant Oh but the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously yea the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously thy Revoltings have been multiplied and thy back-slidings are many and how shall He pardon thee for this In puts God himself to a pawse to a stand to demur upon it Fer. 5.7 and chap. 3.19 How shall I put thee among the children Nay Chap. 2.29 He seemeth to put a stop to all further pleading Wherefore will ye plead with me ye all have transgressed against me saith the Lord Nay which is worst of all the Holy Spirit of God being hereby grieved where haft thou now another friend to speak a good word for thee when the Father is offended there 's the Son to mediate for thee and when Christ is disobliged yet there is the Spirit to intercede for thee but when the Spirit is vexed and quenched there 's never a fourth Person in the Trinity to make up the breach to comprimise the difference who shall now put words into thy mouth or fill thy mouth with with Arguments yet even in this case try him if he will not help thee at this dead lift and prove an Advocate for thee for he himself hath pen'd a form of prayer for one in thy case Hos 14.1 2 3. Go then even to this holy Spirit and fill thy mouth with Arguments First Tell him thou hast read or heard of his goodness Psal. 143.10 and of his Love Rom. 15.30 Not only that which he begets in the Saints but that which he bears to them all the world hath had experience of it the Church especially and thou art not altogether a stranger to it and hast now occasion further to try it and hopest to find it no whit inferiour either to that of the Father in giving his Son or that of the Son in giving himself for thee though He hath not been equally loved and honoured with then but wofully neglected and forgotten Secondly Ask him if it be possible for thee to be in a worse plight then when he first had to do with thee and did he then fall to work upon thee when he might have abhord to foul his fingers with thee and will he now forsake the work of his own hands Psal. 138.8 Thirdly Thou hopest he will dwell in thy dust when death hath done its worst unto thee and raise than again according to Rom. 8.11 and will he now forsake thy soul and not raise that again now that sin and the devil have done their worst against it for worse then what hath been thou thinkest cannot befall thee Fourthly Have not the most eminent Saints that ever he dwelt in had their backslidings and finned even against that grace wherein lay their excellency were they all restored by him and shalt thou only be abandoned Fifthly Were not all those gracious tenders to backsliders framed and filed and recorded by him Fer. 3.22 Return ye backfliding children and I will heat your backslidings Behold i ve come unto thee for thou art the Lord our God Hosea 14.4 I will heal their backslidings I will love them freely for mine anger is turned away from him and in many other places and beg he would teach thee experimentally to know what is meant by Gods healing backslidings Sixthly He knows that nothing in the world ever so wounded thee or went so near thy heart as thy tempting and grieving of him hath done and thou art resolved never to forgive thy self though he do no as sometimes thou thinkest not in Heaven Seaventhly He knows that thou art to this day wailing and wondring and waiting to know wherefore thou wert so left unto they self and that thou art far from wipeing thy mouth and slighting of it thou canst not but think that God hath some design upon thee therein as he had upon Hezekiah 2 Chron. 32.31 God left him to try him that he might know all that was in his heart and little didst thou think when God first turned thy heart unto himself there had been that in it which since hath broken forth from it nor was ever any so deceived in thee as thou hast been in thy self but art resolved now against that folly of trusting in thine own heart any more Eighthly Ask him upon what termes he first entred upon thy heart Was it not with a Commission there to stay how ill soever treated or entertained So saies Christ it was agreed on Joh 14.16 And I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever Thou wouldst not for a world have him only upon the same account The first Adam had him in his state of innocency concurring meerly as a third Person in the Trinity but by vertue of a relation to the second and then he must never leave thee he must not only alight but abide also as upon the head so upon the Members Joh. 1.32 33. Ninthly Say to him hereby shalt thou know that he is God indeed equall to the Father and the Sonne and
a scarlet sinner to set bounds and banks to those great deeps of electing Love and to say unto them Hitherto may ye go and no further and here must your precious waves be stayed He chose indeed not immediately to Salvation that was too great a stride at once but to Sanctification of the Spirit unto Obedience 2 Thess. 2. 13.1 Pet. 1.2 not because he foresaw some would be holy but that they might be so Eph 1.4 The great plot was how to conform sinfull wofull Creatures to the Image of his Son Rom. 8.29 and this thy soul likes passing well go then and put him to it ask him if he will own this Doctrine and seal it upon thy heart it matters not how many men disown it and tell him thou canst not by any thing thou discernest therein conclude thy self to be excluded though thou yieldest thy self to be the chiefest of finners and that thy case is reserved only for his cognisance for thou canst not fully utter it to any creature living Secondly tell him it condemning he glorifies but one or two of his Attributes Justice and Soveraignity but in saving he will magnifie them all Thirdly Mind him how often he hath already sacrificed to his Justice by punishing such Offenders as thou hast been Hell is full of Instances full of those sacrifices and yet the sufferings of his Son do more set off the Glory of his holiness then them all then all the everlasting torments of the damned Fourthly Ask him if Heaven will not afford plenty of Precedents for the like mercy thou now needest and beggest of him Ask if Manasses and Mary Magdalene and many such like be not there with him Fifthly If he never met the like since the beginning of his Creation for so sometimes thou thinkest ask him if he mean to let slip such an opportunity to set forth the Greatness and Transcendency of his Grace and Mercy in all its Pomp and Power Oriency and Lustre and fill thy heart and mouth with this Argument 'T is like Goliah's sword to David there is none like it see how David himself weilds it Psal. 25.11 For thy names sake O Lord pardon mine iniquity for it is great if this be a good argument thou dost not want one it seems David thought so and so did Moses Exod. 32 31. Oh this people have sinned a great sin but here 's work now for the Greatness of Gods Power in pardoning which in those cases he flies to Num. 14.17 and now I beseech thee let the Power of my Lord be great according ar thou hast spoken God to honour his Son in reconciling us to himself permits the greatest sins and enmities to be in the hearts and lives of those he intends to save saith a precious servant of his and thou mayest well hope God will not be wanting to the Glory of his own Grace and of his Sons Merits for the illustrating and manifesting whereof the pardoning of so great and grievous sins will serve abundantly such an over-grown sinner doth Ansam praebere give him a fair occasion and he will not loose it Cranmer a little before his going to the stake relieves his sorrowfull Spirit after his sinful Recantation with this consideration Magnum illud mysterium c. Surely that great Mystery of Gods Incarnation was never contrived for the pardon only of lesser offences 'T is the Top of all thy Saviours Glory that he is able to save to the utmost them that come unto God by Him Heb. 7.25 Nay If upon strong grounds thou concludest thy self all things considered A None such Ask him how he will come off from that Obligation of drawing all men that is some of all sorts unto himself Joh. 12.32 if thine iron heart feel not the attractive power and vertue of this Loadstone there will be never a sinner of thy sort size and kind to adorn his triumph at the day of his appearing Those sanguine sinners against the Holy Ghost the only rank and file of sinners excluded Matth 12.32 have no mind to plead as thou hast and thou art none of their number Sixthly Tell him he shall be more admired and loved for such a Miracle of Matchless Mercy then for all his curious Works of Creation or dreadfull Acts of Vengeance Seventhly Tell him it must be no small matter no easie no ordinary thing that must beget Eternal Trances and Extasies and Admirations the greatest wonders of this world last but a little while those of the next must last for ever and the pardoning and purifying the sanctifying and saving of such a sinner will Eternally yield Oyl to such a flame Eighthly Tell him no soul in Heaven shall admire or love him more then thou though now thou comest in the Rear of all his Adorers and thou mayest venture to say so if that of Christ be true as certainly it is Luke 7.47 that he to whom much is forgiven will love much 9. Lastly Tell him that the wonder shall not be confined to thy person but run through heaven and affect all men and Angels and that in all likelihood many shall wonder more for his grace to thee then to themselves who never sin'd up to the height nor after the similitude of thy transgressions especially Angels that never sin'd and such as died in infancy or lived in innocency in comparison of thee how should they know the extent of Grace were it not for such superlative sinners and that 's one of his great Designs to be admired 2 Thes. 1.10 and he knows that in thee he cannot miss of it The end of Philosophy is said to be to admire nothing but the end and scope of Divinity is to make us admire God in every thing in this thing especially the eternal salvation of the greatest sinners Thirdly Hast thou any secret fears that this Lord Jesus Christ whom thou hast heard and talked it may be so often of takes no notice of thee has no mind to do any thing for thee is this it may be when thou art most retired into thy self and most serious thy cause before him an fill thy mouth with Arguments Remember thy distance and then First Ask him what made him take so great a Journey what brought him down from Heaven to Earth was it not to seek and to save such lost stray creatures as thou art who all fall to the Lord of the soyl if thou art not hast not been lost every way even in thine own sence and apprehension let him skip over thee and leave thee out Secondly Ask him why doth he invite all weary burdened poor souls to come unto him why doth he command them to cast themselves upon him threaten those that do not with the utmost perill and punishment if he be not willing to bid those that come welcome the great quarrel between him and sinners is this ye will not come unto me that ye might have life Joh. 5. v. 40. Thirdly Tell him thou verily
believest he never yet cast out any one soul that came unto him according to that blessed Word of his Joh. 6.37 All that the Father giveth me shall come unto me and him that cometh come I will in no wise cast out A text that hath been a Sanctuary to many a troubled soul Ask him now if he mean to begin with thee if thou shalt be the first that ever was refused by him Fourthly Tell him he knows all things he knows that thou dost not come unto him for fashion sake because 't is the custom and they are in no request with whom Christ is in none at least in pretence and semblance Fifthly He knows thou dost not follow him for loaves for outward advantage and accommodations because preferment waits upon profession Sixthly Tell him 't is true indeed 't is necessity inforceth thee to come unto him because otherwise thou art lost and ruin'd to all Eternity and yet he knows what a value thy soul has for him that thou lookest on an interest in him as thy great conernment the one thing needfull the more excellent way that all thy treasures pleasures honors yea thy very Relations which are as so many parts and pieces of thy self are as if they were not in comparison to him are to thee as all Nations are to him as a drop of the Bucket neither here nor there if in competition or comparison with Him Seventhly Lastly thou canst say to him that though 't is out of Necessity 't is out of choyce too that thou comest to him were it possible for thee to be saved any other way thou wouldst chuse this rather there was a time indeed when thy heart gadded about strangely so oft to change thy way thou wouldst have gone to any door for relief rather then his but since thou hast had some little glances and glimmerings of Him though but in a transient way though but in a Glass or at a Window or thorow the Latice since thou hast tasted some small drops of his sweetness he knows thy heart is so taken there with yea with that glorious and most gracious contrivance of His undertaking for thee the wicked being delivered and the Righteous coming in his stead yea with the love and lovely person of a Savious that these are now become more with thee then Salvation it self if that were only deliverance from wrath to come canst thou plead thus Surely a full Reward shall be given thee of the Lord God of Israel under whose wings thou art come to trust though thou art but a stranger and thy soul in her own eyes not like to one of his hand-maindens Ruth 2.10 12 13. to allude thereunto But it may be thou art pretty well satisfied concerning the freeness and forwardness of Christ to help thee He hath done and suffered enough in all conscience to convince thee and thou hast very soft and sweet thou hts of him but terrible ones concerning the Father thou lookest upon him as an Angry God an incensed Judge and enraged enemy with his Hand alwayes up and ready to strike but that Christ steps in and wards the blow or at least thou suspectest him to be no such hearty friend to thee as Christ is that the whole Treaty of Peace tendered to thee by him through his Son is but an Ambushment layd to catch thee and to conclude thee under the greater condemnation because the Father stands much out of play and thou knowest not what to think of him is this thy sad case now and then upon misgivings and tremblings of thy heart about the great business of Eternity Go order thy cause before him and fill thy mouth with Arguments First Ask him if that sweet Son of his whom the World once was so happy as to see though so unhappy as not to know him if he be not just such another for all the world as himself the brightness of his Glory and the express Image of his person Heb. 1.3 And sure Christ the sinners friend as some sinners censured him was affable enough kind enough compassionate enough shewed love enough to poor sinners in his carriage and Conversation in his abasements and condescentions in his Life in his Death if not where and who is he that will come and shew more Why but saith Christ my Father is Just such another as I am to an hairs breadth his heart as full of love and tenderness as mine every whit know one know both John 10.30 I and my Father are one and John 12.44.45 Jesus cryed and said He that believeth on me believeth not on me but on him that sent me and he that seeth me seeth him that sent me and John 14.9 Jesus saith unto him Have I been so long time with you and yet hast thou not known me Philip he that hath seen me hath seen the Father and how sayest thou then shew us the Father and I came out of his bosome on purpose to declare him John 1.18 to be his Exegesis that 's the word to expound him as a clear Comment tells us what 's in a dark text and if this be confirmed to thee by the Father if he will own it as certainly he will thou art well enough but thou mayest go further and ask him Secondly If he had not the first hand in the whole Design of Love and Life to poor sinners for there is a priority of Order and origination though not of time And to believe this there are grounds sufficient to induce thee for First Was it not He who first summoned that great Council held by all the Persons in Elohim when neither man nor Angel existed nor had been worthy to have been admitted there if they had then existed there he sat in consultation with his Wisdom and Love his Word and Spirit de arduis regni de arcanis imperii and especially about mans Salvation and can that blessed womb miscarry with any of its conceptions Surely no Secondly Was it not He who first pitched upon the Son and laid him as the foundation to the whole Fabrick one able to bear up the weight of all the work though thy Load alone be enough to crack the Axeltree of Heaven and earth to break the back of the whole Creation to bear down any other foundation before it into Hell yet here 's help laid upon one that is mighty mighty to save And if the Angels shouted for Joy to see the corner-stone of the earth laid Iob 38.7 shall not the Saints with delight see the corner stone of their Salvation laid by the hand of the Father and ask of this be nothing unto thee if thou art to have no place in this building however bless him for laying such a foundation Thirdly Was it not He who then took particular cognisance of things and persons which is called in Scripture Gods foreknowledge Rom. 8. 29. and 11.1.2 c. Enough to overwhelm a poor sinner when
he comes to get an inkling of it that he was then minded what me Lord Didst thou then think of me and dost thou open thine eyes upon such an one Iob. 14.3 Fourthyly Was it not He who then picked and chose out of Angels and men whom he would have confirmed amongst the Angels called called therefore the Elect Angels 1 Tim. 5.21 and though they were never out of favour yet they are said to be reconciled Col. 1.20 confirmation being that to them which Reconciliation is to us and they had it by renouncing their standing upon their own single bottom and running under the wing of Christ accepting and owning him as their Head Col. 2.10 God would not keep an Angel in Heaven that would not be beholding to his Son for it And amongst men he chose whom he would have recovered Rom. 9.11 13. Ask how thou mayest make thy calling and election sure and never turn this Grace into wantonness for to abuse this Doctrine is one of the blackest badges and saddest signs of Reprobation Iude v. 4. Fifthly Was it not He who ratified his choyse by a solemn Decree called the Purpose of God according to Election Rom. 9.11 The Mystery of his Will according to the good pleasure which he had purposed in himself Ephes. 1.9 the Eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord Eph. 3.11 And yet there is no unrighteousness with God which Paul foresaw some would charge him with Rom. 9. 14. No cruelty no Dissimulation no Tyranny and if the Lord hath purposed who shall dissanul its Isa. 14.24 ver. 27. Sixthly Was it not He who called for the Books and caused all the Resolves to be entered Heb. 10.5 even to the very names written in the Lambs Book of Life Rev. 13.8 21.27 with the Golden Letters of Love with indellible Characters in his blood we read of no black Book of Death and therefore I meddle not with it but hadst thou ever any help to read thy name written in Heaven this is matter of more joy then if thou coldst cast our Devils and work wonders Luke 10.20 if not yet all in good time go to the Father and he will help thee to spell thy name there by his Spirit of Adoption who was and is a member of this Councel and well acquainted with all that passed there Seventhly Was it not He who then ordered all other things in a way of subordination and subserviency to the Sanctification and Salvation of the Elect good works then received his Seal Ephes. 2.10 Evil ones by a just Analogy a Brand He then drew up the Ordinances of Heaven Passed a Decree for the Sea and for the Rain and for the opening of the Eye-lids of the morning to cause the day-spring to know its place and the Sun his going down unless forbidden as in the dayes of Joshua He then appointed natural Agents to act necessarily the Sun to shine the fire to burn the Sea to run in its course yet be set them not a going with such an irresistable swing but that be can stop them at his pleasure Free Agents to act freely the will of man to be alwayes free in all its acts if not Quoad speeificationem to do good or evil at his pleasure yet quoad exercitium he need never do evil unless he pleaseth so that he is lest without excuse And all other things were ordered as scaffolds to this building now who but a mad man would lay his bed on the scaffold and say that 's accommodation good enough and so take up with that no matter for the building beg that he would never leave thee to that mandness but lead thee to things spiritual and eternal by all externals and that all things may work together for thy good according to this ancient appointment Eighthly Was it not by an Agreement between his Son and him that he should sit as Creditor in heaven and the Son come down to be responsible to Justice otherwise there was love enough in his heart to have let the Son sit Creditor in Heaven and to have come down himself as Debtor and dyed for thee and therefore saith Christ though I should not pray for you the Father himself loveth you Iohn 16.27 Nay he loves you so well that he doth therefore love me because I lay down my life for you Iohn 10.17 what a strange expression of love is this Ninthly Did not He draw up all the Sons Articles and Instructions as 1. That he must begin his work in deepest humiliation and abasement 2. That he must pawn his Glory to go through-stich with it which he Redeems and Redemands upon his performance Ioh. 17.4 5. 3. That he must run the Gauntlop in that nature he would Redeem and be content that every one should have a fling at him 't is Hillaries allusion nature nostra contumelias transcurrit 4. That his Godhead must be eclipsed and vail'd and he made like unto his Brethren in their natural necessities sinless infirmities live by faith get every thing by prayer not do his own will but his that sent him and so fulfill all Righteousness and why was he thus conformed unto us but that we might be made conformable unto him Fifthly That he must in they days of his flesh orally and personally declare his Fathers Name and love unto his Brethren and afterwards depute and substitute some to do it to the end of the world and so long as his Leiger Embassadors reside in any place uncalled home not sent for away the Treaty of Peace holds and continues and their work is not only to declare Christ but the Father also and this was the sweetest promise that Christ could chear up his Disciples with Ioh. 16.25 The time cometh when I shall no more speak unto you in Proverbs but I shall shew you plainly of the Father and that 's a most sweet and satisfying object Iohn 14.8 Lord shew us the Father and it sufficeth us Sixthly That he must dye a bloody painful shameful accuresed death to pay the debts of his people and then rise again from the dead and bring up his blood with him into the Holiest of Holies and there exercise and execute the office of his everlasting I riesthood if he would have his death which was of infinite value in it self to be of infinite vertue efficacy unto others and is not all this performed exactly and hath he not herein commended his love unto us with a witness Rom. 58 c. Seventhly That whatever was given him he must presently give of the same to his members to fit them for that glorious fellowship whereunto they are ordained what he receives with one hand he must give with the other and we see what David cals receiving Psalm 68.18 Paul cals Giving Eph. 4.12 as if these were one and the same thing with Christ and thou desirest no more of Christ then what the Father hath ordered
that though all the world should conspire against him to un-God him yet shall his invincible patience and insuperable good will raise an everlasting piller of witness in thy bosome let who will cast him off he shall be thy God for ever Who is a God like unto thee pardoning iniquities Micah 7.18 is equally true of Father Son and holy Spirit But still thy heart akes and is diquieted to think that what 's said of a man of great wrath Prov. 19.19 is also most true of thee such an one must needs suffer punishment for if thou deliver him yet thou must do it again he 'le ever and anon bring himself into the bryers and this is thy case though the sweet Spirit of God be willing to forgive thee former offences and to fetch thee off from thy imbroylments yet is he likely to have an heavy hand with thee considering thy corruptions and temptations thou art likely to run upon a new score to run into new rebellions and there will be no end of all his labour yet in this case go and order thy cause before God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ and fill thy mouth with Arguments 1. Ask Him Was not this one great end why our nature was taken into personall union with the divine that the diseases of the one might be healed by the infinite vertue an durity and efficacy of the other did Christ come only to cure the sicknesses of the body or were not all these cures the types and representations of those he came to work upon the souls of sinners sure such as touch him by faith shall have their bloody issues stopped and all other inward distempers cured in the dales of his flesh he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil Acts 10.38 and lamentable were our loss by his removall to Heaven if from thence his vertue could not reach us and if he were now on earth thou art verily perswaded thou mightst have help from him why not from Heaven 2. Did He not die that sin might die and be destroyed he was not only cloathed with our nature but strip'd by the seperation of soul and body though not of the Godhead from either that sin and our souls might be seperated why doth sin live seeing Christ died 3. Demand even of Justice if Christ hath not fully paid thy ransome why then art thou kept in bonds holden with the cords of thy sin the worst usage which the worst of men in this world are threatned with Prov. 5.22 his own iniquities shall take the wicked himself and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins the vilest dungeon to this without this is a pleasant pallace a delightfull garden as was said by some if the blessed Martyrs of their prisons 4. Complain that these corruptions do wrong defile and outrage that nature which Christ now wears in Heaven and hath exalted far above the brightest Cherub for He and his are all of piece Heb. 2.11 and this is a thousand shames and pities 5. If there be any seed of God any beginning of that everlasting work of sanctification in thee thou art not become A member of his body of his flesh and of his bones Eph. 5.30 for Christ never took any but sanctified upon him and how then can he hide himself from his own flesh he would not have us do so Isa. 58.7 how can he indure to see his own flesh so shamefully abused He who made a Law a man should not hide himself when he saw his enemies beast sink down under his burden the Ass of one who hated him Exod. 23.5 Doth he take care for Oxen and for Asses and can he himself forbear to help up the soul of one that loves him and will he not help with him or if thou art afraid to say thou lovest him because thy heart is so little with him yet to be sure there 's a poor sould down and will he not help it up will he not help it and that against those oppressors which are as well the enemies of his praise and glory as of thy peace and safety And surely these Cananites are left in the Land as it was in the figure To keep down pride Deut. 7.22 To try whether we will follow the Lord or our lusts Judg. 2.23 To reach us war and to exercise our graces Judg. 3.1 To make us to keep more above upon the mountains Judg. 1.34 To become tributaries and do our drudgery 1 King 10.21 God makes our corruptions do us some service which our graces cannot do without them But peradventure thou maist think with thy self that through grace whereunto nothing is impossible thou maist be both pardoned and purified too in time but it will cost thee dear first a world of afflictions must be expected where there hath been such a world of provocations and yet remains such a mass of corruption and these fears of what may come take thee off from enjoying what is present Go with this complaint to thy Judg that these fears may be disarmed and bound over no more to molest thee go fill thy mouth with arguments for who can say his mountain is strong he shall never be moved or who can fore-tell or fore-see the things that may befall him even pardoning mercy it self is no sence against this flail of affliction 1. Tell Him whatever comes 't is thy disire to bear his indignation because thou hast sinned against him Mich 7.9 and that thy stubborn uncircumcised heart may accept of the punishment of thine iniquity because even because thou hast despised his judgments and carried it as if thy soul had abhorred his statutes Lev. 26.43 Nay 2. Tell him that thou hadst rather be under the schooling of his children then the cockering of his castawayes under the severe mercy of his discipline as Augustin speaks of that of the Church then under the impunity of those desperate lost creatures whom God hath thrown up as a lost case and will not be at the cost to bestow another rod upon them even his correcting rod as well as his supporting staff shall be a comfort to thee Psal. 23.4 no punishment like impunity 3. Though it be infinitely more eligible that way to be humbled and reformed then not at all yet tell him if he will be pleased to spare thee 't will be more for his honour to do it in the midst of prosperity because this is more difficult and more unusuall Jer. 22.21 I spake unto thee in thy prosperity but thou saidst I will not hear this hath been thy manner from thy youth that thou obeyedst not my voice Now what a glory will it be to him to bore thine ear in the midst of thy prosperity 4. As this will be more glorious for Him so more usefull to others the examples of such a convert is much more conspicuous and illustrious in miserable ones 't is hard to distinguish
even in thine ordinary and smallest matters unlesse thou hast been surprized and in these it is that men for the most part miscarry and sometimes stumble fatally as Adonijah did in asking of Abshag and Hezekiah in shewing his treasures men are jealous and timerous in great matters and dare not but carry them to God but think that small ones are within their own mastery they need not trouble him about them and that ruines them but it is not wont to be so with thee 3. Thou dost not use after vowes to make enquiry to come to him with all thoughts made up before hand fully resolved what course thou wilt steare as the Jews did about their journey into Egypt no but in an equilibrious frame of Spirit he may turn the scale with a touch of his finger which way he pleaseth dost thou use to let thy Father chuse for thee as being unable unfit to chuse for thy self and can he chuse amisse 4. Ask Him if thou didst not cast thy self upon Him beg mercy and direction in that very thing which hangs now like a thick cloud over thine head and threatens thee with stormes and tempests even Saul is affraid to engage without first arming himself by Sacrifice and solemn supplication 1 Sam. 13.12 but the soul takes it ill to miscarry when it hath done so not forceing it self as Saul did but acting in a spirit of ingenuity it then expostulates with the Lord as the Shunamite with the Prophet 2 King 4.28 Did I desire a Son of my Lord did I not say do not deceive me 5. Didst not thou think at first that the thing was from the Lord and that he gave thee incouragement therein as Jacob pleads with him in this very case Gen. 32.9 12. Thou saidst unto me return and I will deal well with thee thou saidst thou wouldest do me good and wilt thou now suffer my brother to come to smite me as I fear he will do and the Mother with the Children Nay didst thou not begin to rejoyce in that providence in that relation in that businesse as dropt from a Father's hand Ask Him if he must now be ashamed of thy hopes and repent of thy rejoycings and the good thoughts thou hadst conceived of Him shalt thou find a stone instead of bread and instead of a fish a Serpent No one who knows him better then so hath assured thee of the contrary Luk. 11.10 11 c. and therefore at the worst it shall but prove an advantagious affliction to thee it can never prove a curse But what will it availe me may some sad soul say that no rod toucheth me in any of my outward concernments if in the mean time I lye under the lash of spirituall judgments much blindnesse of mind hardnesse of heart deadnesse coldnesse distractions insensiblenesse of spirit in holy duties under Heavenly Ordinances barrennesse unprofitablenesse unsuitablenesse to all the cost and care and pains that God bestows upon me This is a case indeed wherein thou hast need to bestir thy self to order thy cause before Him and to fill thy mouth with Arguments Go tel Him 1. That of all judgements he knows that spirituall ones are the most dreadfull though least sensible these though judgements from Him are sins in us and sin is the worst of evils nay the only evill These lay load upon the soul the most noble and precious part no matter if the carcass the cabinet were defaced so the Jewel were preserved These are arguments of the highest indignation the saddest symptomes the most fearfull earnest of damnation These do evidence that there 's no union with Christ the end whereof is fruitfulness no skreen betwixt the soul and wrath for the earth which though it drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it which beareth thorns and bryers is rejected and is nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burned Heb. 6.7 8. They who are not for fruit must be for fewell if not for bearing for burning Plead therefore as for life that unless he meant to damn thee eternally he would make all his Ordinances helpfull sweet succesfull precious and profitable unto thee 2. Ask Him who poured the oyl of consecration upon their heads whose appointments are they whose Image and superscription do they bear and urge that it is not for his honour that they should prove ineffectuall that thou shouldst go and come from the place of the holy and yet remain unholy that thou shoudst weary thy self with lugging at dry brests which hath occasioned so many in our dayes through their proud impatiency to lift up their heels against them No let unesefullness be found written upon all Antichrists inventions not upon any of Christs institutions 3. Minde Him that in the visible Creation all light is a kinde of flame though very thin and exceeding subtle 't is undeniably true of the light of the Sunne which being contracted and thickned in a glass is wont to burn now why is it not so in the new Creation art thou not a childe of the day is not the Sun of righteousness risen upon thee why is there not heate proportionable to all the light that thou enjoyest why should thy hardness of heart be encreased thereby rather then abated as the earth is in a frosty night though the Moon then walketh about it in all her brightness 4. Make bold to minde Him that such is the energy and efficacy of his Law of nature that all spirits do move and stir in their appointed seasons wine in the vessel is wont to work when the vine trees flourish the characters of some fruits imprited on children at the time when the same fruits are in season are of a more lively red then at other times and in some persons do rise and swell and grow big like the fruit it self Mulberries or the like yea the stains thereof in linnen are said at that time to come forth and not before the cause is besides the power of resemblance the disposition of the ayre at that season which by the power of Gods appointment is fitly inclined to raise up the like spirits wherever they are And hath he not made a powerfull Laws in matters of the invisible creation as of the visible are there no spirits in his spirituall appointments no Law to make our spirits move and stirre in those seasons of love and grace Why do the wonders of nature remain when those of grace seems to cease yea we our selves finde our spirits move and stirre with a wonderfull titilation and delight at our near approach to some dear relations why should not our souls feel the same when we draw nigh to our best friends our dearest Father sweetest Saviour only comforter David felt it so Psal. 122.1 2. I was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of the Lord our feet shall stand within thy gates O Jerusalem 5. Minde him