thy own children though men of passions and like infirmities to thy Servant as 't is said that Elias was who prevailed with thee And Moses when he prayed the Isralites prevailed when he ceased to pray the Amalakites prevailed And Joshua prevailed and caused the Sun to stand still and altered the course of nature Isa 37.21 So Hezekiah when he prayed against Senacherib So Asa 2 Chron. 14. When the Ethiopians invaded Juda with a thousand thousand he prayed saying Lord it is nothing with thee to help whether with many or with them that have no power help us O Lord our God for we rest on thee So the Lord smote the Ethiopians and they fled and the people of Juda spoiled them So Jona in the whales belly Lord let me not regard iniquity in my heart lest thereby my prayers be hindred so that thou wilt not hear them neither let me ask any thing to consume it on my lusts But grant that I may lift up holy hands in thy name and that I may pray with humility like the Publican who smote upon his breast saying Lord be merciful unto me a sinner and not like the Pharisee And with fervency crying mightily to the Lord Jona 2.8 And with perseverance crying night and day unto thee Luke 10.11 And let me pay my thanks unto thee for the things thou hast already bestowed upon me and say I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised and so shall I be saved from my enemies and give me that confidence he expressed let me know that the Lord is my light and salvation and I shall be able to say as followeth of whom then shall I be afraid Meditation If ye by the Spirit to mortify the deeds of the Flesh ye shall live Let me not think that I can resist the motions of lust and sin by reason or moral arguments but only by the Spirit of God and let me not think that I have attained but let me press forward to greater degrees of grace LORD shew me how bountifully thou rewardest every office which we do to thee for as thou rewardedst the Woman who poured the Balsom upon thy head with this honour that whereever the Gospel should be preached it should be recorded of her so dost thou requite and reward every Cup of cold Water that is given for thy sake make me sensible of this that my charity may not be so cold as many times I feel it nor my services and duties to thee so few and lukewarm and lifeless but I may always abound in the work of the Lord. Make me willing Lord to suffer the reproach of Christ and to endure that contempt which is usually put upon holiness and the professors of it As David did when Michal scoffed him for dancing before the Ark as also when the rebukes of them who reproach thee fellupon him And again he complained that the Judges those that sate in the gate spake against him and the Drunkards made Songs on him Accordingly as Jeremy also complained saying I am a Derision daily every one mocks me And the Apostles sped no better than when they had most of the Spirit when the holy Ghost descended upon them and they heard every one speak in his own language the ignorant people said they were full of new wine And our blessed Saviour when he cast out the Devils they blasphemously said he did it by Belzebub and he suffered bearing the reproach of the shameful death of the Cross Let us be strengthened by these examples and remember that he hath pronounced them blessed whom men revile and speak all manner of evil of falsly for his name sake Considering that it is certain we shall be reviled and slandered for his name sake and that our well bearing it is an evidence to us of our soundness and integrity in religion since the hypocrite may be reproached for his seeming holiness but rather than suffer the persecution for it will fall away Since the men of this generation will not be laughed out of their gain interests and callings the assurance that we have of reigning with Christ will make us willing to suffer LORD shew me the evil fruit and ill consequence of bad company that I may fly them How that the Israelites by being mingled with the Heathen learned their works for which they suffered How that he that walks with the wise shall be wise But for David to dwell with Mesech and in the Tents of Kedar 't was his calamity and woe for 't is said in the word that they sleep not unless they do mischief But they are blessed who walk not in their council nor stand in their way nor sit in their seat and are the Companions of them that fear thee Let me prefer solitude before vain Company considering how it helps devotion the Soul being free from those divertisments which such company procures So our Saviour separated himself from company when he prayed and hath commanded us when we pray to enter into our Closets So Peter went out from the company and wept bitterly and so in the Psalm we are directed Commune with your own heart in your Chamber and be still So Isaac walked forth to meditate But in vain and lewd Company the righteous Soul cannot but be grieved with their unclean conversation It is a Hell to thy Servants as the Worldly mans conversation is a burthen they are so busy about many affairs that they mind not Mary's choice but to be in thy Courts one day is better than a thousand I had rather be a Door-keeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the Tents of ungodliness Psal 84.10 11. LET not my confession be without contrition lest it prove but as Sauls or Judas's but as Peters was when he went out and wept bitterly which will the better be effected if I take the present time as he immediatly when he heard the Cock crow went out for the Devil deceives us with promises of future repentance that he may steal away the present opportunity Therefore we are commanded to exhort one another while it is called to day remembring the unhappy condition of the Cripple at the Pool of Bethesda who had none to help him into the water when it was moved till another got before him and Felix in the Acts trembling at the preaching of Paul put him off for a farther hearing to a more convenient time But to day is the time to hear thy voice And if thou call'st and we will not hear then we shall call and thou wilt not hear While God calls one tear will do us more good than an Ocean of tears when it is too late And for what use hath God given man his tears but to weep for his sins then let us with David make our Tears not our Physick but our meat and drink which we cannot do if we extenuate our sins or excuse them LORD if thou goest not forth with our armies we are put to
renewing some holy duties which have been omitted or else by some judgment befallen to others we are warned and stirred up to do our first workes and to quicken the holy graces which are dying as by the return of the Sun in the spring-time the several Plants of the earth seem to revive and send forth their leaves and fruits again The causes of this deadness of faith holiness charity hope and other graces are various but may be found out and in some persons a wilful sin committed and unrepented of is the cause in some sloth in holy duties in others worldlyness in others pride some too much relying upon their own strength and opinion of the grace they have gotten already not endeavouring after a fuller measure every true Christian feels in himself some times these swoonings away of his graces and diligently endeavours to get more quickning by prayer to God for it and the use of Gods word and ordinances reflecting upon the first motives that excited and allured him to the pursuit of those dying graces and all such other motives as have since confirmed him in the liking of them and the rewards that he hath obtained from God for the service he hath done him and the hope of the eternal recompences The absolute necessity of it enforceth his awakned affections reflecting upon those texts which so absolutely press the necessity of it as Rom. 8.13 If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye but if ye by the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the flesh ye shall live And v. 29. Whom he did foreknow them he also did predestinate to be comfortable to the image of his Son and in the Canticles ch The Spouse is said to be all fair That holiness is attainable is proved First because it is the main end of Christs passion and he cannot be frustrate of his ends Luke 1.74 75. That we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our lives 2d Because he hath redeemed us unto himself that he might purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works That we should no more serve sin nor live the remainder of our days after the flesh But that we should be conformed to the image of him that made us For whom he foreknew he did predestinate that they should be conformed to the image of his Son Therefore our old man is dead and we are borne again of water and the Spirit whoso hath the hope of Heaven purifieth himself as God is pure the man after Gods own heart testifieth that he had an eye to all Gods commandments and Zachary and Elizabeth walked unblamably And that this is the end of our blessed Saviour in our redemption is made out by that which was the Type of the Isralites deliverance out of the Egyptian bondage Psal 105.42 And he brought forth his people with joy and his chosen with gladness and gave them the lands of the heathen and they took the labours of the people in possession 44. That they might keep his statutes and observe his laws But expresly Luke 17.1 That we might serve him without fear in holiness c. The whole design and scope of all the Scripture is our holiness and the restoring the image of God in us all the precepts command this and the promises encourage and invite us to this and the promises of grace are for making us thus the threats and cursings drive us to it the rewards and punishments tend only to shew us that God will be sanctified in us and that every transgression shall receive a due recompence of reward all the history of the Scripture proves it by examples of Gods wrath and vengeance upon the wicked and deliverances wrought wonderfully for them that feared and sought God with an upright hart Under one of these heads might be quoted every text in the Scripture The History of the Creation of the World which sheweth forth Gods infinite power and goodness working so great benefits for the use of mankind sheweth us our dependance on him and the duty we owe to him for our being and well being The fall of men and Angels shews our frailty without Gods supportation and the miserable condition that attends sin Gods dealings with the two Sons of Adam one he accepted for his sincerity in his worship the other he rejected because his heart was not upright the deluge that swept away all save only Noah the Preacher of righteonsness the rest that were ungodly were drowned the reason alledged because they had corrupted their waies And Noah only God had espied upright wherefore was Sodom and Gomorra destroied and Lot saved wherefore did God bless Abraham and all the nations of the earth in him wherefore was profane Esau deprived of the blessing and Jacob preferred before him what caused Sampson to lose his eyes wherefore were the murmuring Israeltes destroied in the Wilderness for what cause did the Philistians hold them in bondage why was the Kingdom taken from Saul and given to his neighbour that was more rightious than he how did God deal by him when he had sinned in the matter of Vriah and for numbring the people his successors that were good Kings how were they blessed the bad how did God deal with them in judgment when Israel sinned their enimies oppressed them when they returned and sought the Lord he saved them and delivered them when the sins of the Amalakites were grown to the hight he destroyed them and planted the Israelites in their Country and when the measure of their sins were full he distroyed them and brought upon them all the curses threatned against sinners All the Prophets were sent of no other errand but to press them to forsake sin and turn unto God all the evil they foretold was conditionally unless they would repent and forsake their sin The promise of the Messiah was to bring salvation unto his people he was to deliver them from all their iniquities to purify to himself a peculiar people that might offer a pure offering to bring into the right way such as went astray to bring the disobedient to the wisdom of the just his preching proveth the truth of these prophesies for Matth. 4.17 Jesus began to preach and say Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand And Matth. 5. The promises of giving the Holy Spirit to them that ask it And of writing his lawes in their inward parts of making them a willing people that all shall know God c. What other end have they but to make us holy John the Baptist the fore-runner of Christ taught repentance and good works he practised the same in abstinence humility and piety Our Blessed Lord and Saviours Doctrine was the perfection of holiness teaching charity to our enemies to sell all to buy this Pearl of exceeding value and in Matth. 5.22 Whosoever is angry with his Brother without a cause shall be in
priviledges which Jesus Christ hath purchased for us Give us more assurance of the pardon of our sins and our reconciliation to God and the joy thereof Give us the peace of conscience and the Peace of God which passeth all understanding Give us the Joy which is in the Holy Ghost which we enjoy in holy duties Let us taste and rellish these sweet enjoyments with more satisfaction and joy that the excesses of our souls may be in these enjoyments and we may keep them in our mouths and hide them under our tongues as we do sweet morsels And let the enjoyment of these carry us through all difficulties Give us more confidence in our accesses to the Throne of Grace and a belief that thou art more ready to give than we to ask for thy fulness is more full than our emptiness is wanting Thy fatherly care to provide for us is more faithful and careful to do it than we to seek it though we are resolved to be alwaies begging and craving because we know we shall alwaies be wanting in this life and we will not lose our desires and thy bountiful gifts for want of asking The cause which moved thee to make such gracious invitations to us and such great and precious promises of grace and mercy was only in thy self for thou invitest the thirsty to buy Wine and Wilk without mony or price What then is there that we can buy it with that is neither mony nor price it can be nothing but to exchange our thirst for the thing which we thirst for to relieve it to open our mouths Therefore as the cause which moved thee to make these invitations and promises was in thy self Lord seek in thy self the cause which may move thee to perform them The qualifications of thirst want and need we have and shall have as long as we have any life But if we be dead in trespasses and sins quicken thou us because thou only canst do it by thy holy Spirit In the assurance of thy free mercy then whereof thou by thy free promises hast convinced us and by the performance of the chiefest of them hast fully satisfied us inable us to assure our souls of thy readiness and willingness to hear and help us through the merits of Christ Jesus and in assurance thereof to come boldly and with confidence to the Throne of Grace And give us sure evidence of our interest in all other priviledges That our joy may be full assure us that our place of defence is the munition of Rocks That bread be given us and our water shall be sure Bless us and make us a blessing Let showers of blessings come down upon thy people Give us to lay hold of Christ for only Wisdom our only sufficient Righteousness our Sanctification and Redemption Tread Satan under our feet that we may bruise his head as often as he goeth about to sting our heel Destroy his works Let the Spirit of the Lord set up his standard against him And let not Antichrist any more deceive the Nations but destroy thou him and the Whore which is drunk with the blood of Saints Succour those that are tempted Be with thy people in the fiery Tryal that is to come upon all the world to try them as thou wast with Joseph in the prison Lord let not our sins stand as a cloud to hinder these our prayers from ascending to thee or cause thee to turn away thine ear For though they are so many that we scarce know how to confess them yet thou hast pardoned as great sinners as we when they turned unto thee and it is usual with thee to seek thy lost sheep and to receive thy returning Prodigals Lord thy free promises and importunate invitations by thy self and thy Son give us this boldness of access to thee for thereby we are assured that thou art more desirous to give than we to receive Hear us therefore through the merits of thy Beloved Son our Eternal High Priest in whom only we hope to prevail with thee in whom thy Promises are Yea and Amen And accept us in him who hath purchased this Access for us in whom we trust that he now intercedeth for us whilst we are praying to thee And that he persumes and presents these our supplications at the Throne of Grace To whom with Thee and thy blessed Spirit of Grace be all honour praise and glory Eternally Amen Enter not into Judgment with us O Lord for our best services for in thy sight shall no flesh living be justified A shorter Prayer for daily use LOrd draw nigh unto me now that I draw nigh unto thee for thy promise sake for thy mercy sake and for Christ Jesus sake And assist me with thy Spirit that I may pray unto thee in the Spirit and in Faith believing that thou art more ready to give than we to ask or receive thy graces and thy mercies Lord relieve me according to all my needs and according to thy infinite goodness and according to thy gracious promises and invitations Relieve my spiritual blindness with that eye-salve which thou hast invited the blind to come unto thee for Relieve my spiritual nakedness with that fine white linnen which thou hast invited the naked to seek of thee and cloath me with humility patience temperance chastity and charity and every grace Relieve my spiritual poverty with that fine gold which will enrich our souls to eternity and make me rich in good works Relieve my spiritual hunger and thirst with the bread of life and the water of life so that I may never hunger or thirst after any thing else And make me more hungry and thirsty for thee and thy grace and more sensible of my needs Lord I pray not for my self alone but for me and mine and all the Israel of the Lord. Let my seed be a seed unto thee and all that shall come of them to the end of the world Remember the entail of thy blessings to us and to our seed for a thousand generations Let the Kingdoms of the world become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ Let holiness to the Lord be writ upon all our common things Make us all to know thee from the greatest to the least Let us need no more to teach one another saying Know the Lord. Let us all be taught of God and let us hear the sweet voice behind us saying This is the way walk ye in it when we turn to the right hand or to the left and make Jerusalem a praise Love us freely pardon us and heal us Subdue our iniquities and cast our sins into the bottom of the Sea that they may never rise up against us Give us new hearts Put thy Laws into our hearts and write them in our inward parts Be thou our God and make us thy people Put thy Spirit into us and cause us to walk in thy Statutes and to know thy Judgments and do them Cause us to love thee with
the designes and interests which the world in general carrieth on and how vigilant they are and industrious in their own secular interests insomuch that they quite lay aside the design of Jesus Christ and the promotion of Gods Glory of goodness and vertue and every grace Yet there must be a holy seed a peculiar people zealous of good works and a Spiritual Temple and there must be some to carry on the holy interest and designe of Gods glory both by doing and suffering graces and therefore I have resolved to my uttermost ability to promote this and the rather because I see so many carrying on Satans design as if the Devil were let loose Ten Lepers were cleansed They all received equal benefit but one only of ten acknowledged his benefactor and returned him thanks let not the paucity of thy companions discourage thee in thy duty and good resolutions Lord that I may do thee this service the better affect me so with the sense of thy mercys and goodness now and alwaies as I was affected when I first received them For then I admired thy goodness and thought I could never love thee enough and praise thee enough And then I enjoied the sweetness of thy mercys but much more I enjoied the sweetness of thy self for I did enjoy thee as the Lord God alsufficient And as a God hearing prayer and as My God And I enjoied my self as thy Servant And that I may the better do this duty of thankfulness let me remember the affliction and oppression sorrow and grief fear and fearful misgiving of mind that I lay under before the Lord delivered me and let it be evermore before me and affect me with the sense of it else I can never be thankful enough for thy mercy for so thou prescribedst to thy antient people the Jews that when they brought their offerings before thee they should make their recognition and say a Syrian ready to perish was my Father and came down to Aegypt with a few c. And I find holy David praising God in this manner Praised be the Lord who remembered us in our low estate Psal And few there be who may not as fitly as he use this form But if there be any who have not experienced this condition it is to be feared they shall for as great as they are reduced daily He also remembers his fears before God and praiseth him for his deliverance from them all And there is no man so valiant but sometimes his fears make him at his wits ends therefore all man-kind may use this form too And for deliverance from troubles we may all praise God as we find him doing Psal 34. He further praiseth God for deliverance from afflictions from breaking his bones ibid. We also may remember the time when we have narrowly scaped the like danger Therefore we must acknowledge it thankfully to Gods gracious preservation He praiseth God also for raising him up from his sickness This occasion of praise we all have had He praiseth him for delivering him from his enemies and all that will live Godly must have enemies as he had and shall have occasion to praise God for delivering them from them He that is born after the flesh will persecute him that is born after the Spirit but shall not prevail against him For if he should prevail how then were it better that a Milstone were hanged about his neck and he were cast into the Sea then that he should offend them that are such And all those that belong to God may say with him By this I know that thou favourest me because mine enemie doth not prevail against me for the Lord will not leave them in the hand of their enemies though they persecute them and wrong them in word and deed and despitefully use them and say all manner of evil of them falsely He only that is little in his own eyes can be thankful to God Therefore David assaying to give God praise for his mercies first strips himself of all pretence of merit saying What am I and what is my Fathers house And the blessed Virgin in her magnificat ascribes lowness to her self whom God exalted so highly He only can bless God for afflictions who is sensible of his straying inclination And Gods restraining goodness The troubles of the righteous are many but the Lord delivers them out of all Therefore their thanks and praises of God must not be few I will shew forth all his praises saith he in the Psalms And I will alwaies give thanks unto the Lord his praise shall ever be in my mouth Psal 34. He shews the cause In the multitude of the sorrows that I had in my heart thy comforts have refreshed my soul If we are sensible that God hath heard our prayers we must remember too that he hath heard our vows It is but a reasonable imposition of a never-failing Benefactor I will deliver thee and thou shalt praise me Psal For we receive our wages before we perform our service And what doth it avail the Lord and what doth accrew to him whether we are delivered or whether we perish in our affliction our praises is all that redounds to him the benefit to us This duty is so delightful and satisfying in the very act of performance that it is a reward to it self Psal 63. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and satness when my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips Thus he sings sweetly in the ears of God of Angels and of good men and in his own ears too or else how was he so fully satisfied whilst he performed it And why else did he so often perform it with such studied variety Certainly it doth much delight a man to recount how much God hath favoured him helped and heard him The Royal Prophet doth not only recount his own troubles and sorrows and perils and travels that he had gone through from his youth up but he recounts also the National mercies what God wrought for them when he brought them out of Aegypt and downward to his own time Also he admires God's goodness to all sorts of men in affliction as at large may be seen in the 107 Psal as particularly to men driven from their own place and Country into strange Lands wandering without succour To prisoners cast into dungeons because of their sin To sick men and to seafaring men when they reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man and are at their wits end then they cry unto the Lord and he delivers them Lord How Good How Gracious art thou When our condition is so desperate that we know not what to do which way to turn us And know no way to escape no more than he that flies from a Lion and is torn in pieces by a Bear When we see that we cannot be delivered without God will please to work a miracle When we seem to our selves irrecoverable like the dried Bones in the Valleys in Ezekiel's Prophecy
work to think of the reasons that moved them to sin and to refuse such duties and to see the folly of all those reasons this will be shame and confusion O Lord let me be ashamed of my sins in time savingly by true repentance that I may avoid the eternal shame and confusion and remember with grief all the hard thoughts which I have had of thee and thy waies and grieved that I turned no sooner from sin to God That being derided for holiness I have so little of it But let me not be of them of whom it is said The Lord hath laughed at their calamity for he hath seen that their day is coming Made upon hearing of Mr. J. B. O Lord give me that earnest and first fruits of eternal life which thou usest to give thy afflicted servants in this life which may make me as it did them to rejoyce in afflictions with joy unspeakable and glorious to undergo with joy all manner of slanders and to take joyfully the spoiling of their goods knowing that they have a more enduring substance in Heaven give thy servant to know this of himself which may make me able for the like sufferings and to undergo all that the wicked can inflict not accepting of deliverance and grant that I may see him by faith who is invisible and Jesus Christ my Saviour my Helper and my Redeemer my Recompence and my Reward O Lord let me not put any stress upon my own works for my salvation If with thy servant Paul I could say that as touching the Law I am blameless yet then also must I not count that I have attained but desire to be found in Christ not having mine own righteousness and be sensible that I have deserved thy wrath and fly to the Righteousness of Christ and say with David I will make mention of thy Righteousness only And with Daniel Not for our righteousness but for thy mercy sake save us Deliver me from the Legal Pharisaical spirit thinking to establish its own righteousness not submitting to the Righteousness of Christ Let my righteousness exceed theirs Let me mortifie the body and live strictly as they did and whatever duties they performed let me perform but let me not leave the others undone and those which I do let me not do to be seen but let me perform them to thee in secret that thou mayest reward me openly Neither let me trust in my felf nor despise others nor strain at a Nat and swallow a Camel Lord let not worldly things disturb my quiet though the Earth be moved and the Mountains shake at the tempest of the same Let the River of Life of thy holy City make glad the people thereof Give me the peaceable fruits of Righteousness Give me grace voluntarily to take Christ's yoak upon me and to learn of him meekness and humility that I may find rest to my soul which I can never find without holiness of life and faith therefore give me both that I may be able to say in all conditions the Lord is my Shepherd therefore I can lack norhing Lord as thou hast given us many commands for the duty of prayer and watchfulness the reto with constancy without ceasing and that in all things we should make our requests known unto God and to incourage us herein thou hast promised to reward it openly what we pray for secretly and hast set forth unto us in thy word how thou art a God hearing prayer and many examples of it And that it is the duty in which thou dost most delight and by my own experience I have always found thee such Therefore let me redeem the time for this so beneficial duty according to the example of thy Servants David seven times a day and Daniel three times in spight of the Tirants threats for thou hast always given me the mercies which I asked and I fear I have lost many for want of asking Lord in my distresses and troubles let me not seek for vain comforts in the Creatures but for those comforts which thy word and thy Spirit afford thy Servants for Christ hath promised that he will not leave us comfortless but will send us a comforter O now send this comforter into my heart that I may rejoice with the joy of thy chosen ones and not with the joy of the World this thou hast often refreshed thy Servant with in the midst of the sorrows which he had in his heart Lord let me not neglect the day of my visitation for thou hast said that thy spirit shall not always strive with us Therefore when we feel thy holy Spirit inclining our hearts to good or drawing us from evil let us follow its motions and the express calls of thy word when it seems to us to speak in particular to our soules that we may escape that threatning which saith because I have called and ye have refused you shall call and I will not answer I will laugh at your calamity so when thou visitest us with mercies or afflictions then thou bowest our ear to discipline for in affliction the wicked often will seek thee but not to see thee in thy merciful dispensations is more brutish then the Ox or Ass who know their keepers that feed them Lord let me know the time of my visitation let me lose no opportunity to do good for we know not how soon the opportunity or our lives will be taken away therefore let me lay hold on all opportunities and redeem all time possible for God's service As Paul in the Gaol converted the Gaoler and Philip in his Journey the Eunuch and Christ when he was on the Cross dying conveyed grace to the hearers and salvation to one of the thieves Let me value my time by the duties which may be done in it and let me not spend it in doing that which is impertinent or doing nothing much less in doing ill but in things necessary which is but one thing to serve God the things of this world being only for convenience Teach me to number not only my daies but my hours that I may husband them well to thy glory especially my youthful time let me consecrate to God since I cannot be too soon out of the paw of Satan into the arms of Christ Let me not listen to the Devil when he tells me I shall serve God hereafter but let me give thee the first fruits of my age and of the day and not the flower to the Devil and the dregs to the Lord and let me consider what value I shall have of time when I come to die Lord when thy afflicting hand is stretched out to afflict me in the ruine of my estate or the loss of my reputation and honour or any earthly good how do I search and try my spirit and fear to commit the least sin against thee but no sooner hast thou removed thy hand and the danger that threatned is overpast but then how careless do I walk again and think
joy unspeakable This priviledge and many other Christ Jesus hath purchased for and given to his people to oblige and endear them that they should be a willing people 2 Tim. 5.2 By whom we have access through faith unto this grace wherein we stand and rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God Ephes 3.12 In whom we have boldness and access with confidence to the Throne of grace Gal. 2. v. 20. The life which I now live I live by the faith in the Son of God He is the Author of our salvation and of all the priviledges we enjoy because to as many as receive him he gives the priviledge to become the Sons of God and that entiltes them to all priviledges Another Argument may be fetched a causis for as there are pleasures and comforts desires and enjoyments natural causing the joy natural so are there found pleasures comforts desires and enjoyments supernatural undependent separate and removed from the natural and had and injoyed meerly and only in the privation of those according to that of the Apostle when we have no comfort in the world then we have most in duty As having nothing yet possessing all things which joy is fully described by the Prophet Habakkuk c. 3. Though the Fig-tree should not blossom neither should fruits be in the Vines though the labour of the Olive should fail c. yet he would rejoyce in the Lord And it is promised by our blessed Lord and Saviour Joh. 10. My joy shall no man take from you Which the blessed Martyrs in the Epistle to the Hebrews found true when they took joyfully the spoiling of their goods and would not accept deliverance Christ calls it his joy partly because he is the Author of it and doth give it according as he promised and partly in opposition to the joys of the world which proceeds from worldly causes and because the world cannot take it away no more than it can give it for afflictions and persecutions cannot take it away therefore it is said Heb. 10. To you it is given to suffer that is with joy and patience and content for otherwise it were no gift Another argument to prove this priviledg is from the Identity of the principles of the new nature of the Regenerate man which is the Spirit These that are such are lead by the Spirit which is in them they live after the Spirit they are in the Spirit The Spirit of grace and of glory resteth upon them and being Spiritual they are delighted with and savour the things of the Spirit only Spiritus sanctus exhilerat sui participes he quickens and stirs up those graces that are in them and replenishes them with the dew of Heaven without which continual supply our graces would fail Zach. 4. The two Olive Trees emptied themselves by golden Pipes into the Lamps Mortification and Vivification and all graces are wrought in us by the Spirit John 4. The water that I shall give him shall be a well of water springing up to eternal life Rom. 8.22 If ye by the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live 1 Pet. 1.22 Since ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit being born again c. Both the Will and the Deed are from him helping our infirmities That which is their meat and drink which they hunger and thirst for and live upon their Pabulum Animarum must be so qualified as to refresh strengthen delight and comfort and so it doth This priviledge will be further made out by the effects thereof which the Heavenly soul doth injoy therefore it is proper to search out in what particulars the Holy Ghost doth rejoyce and make joyful the believing soul the particulars are contained under three heads First in their duties performed the Holy Spipit doth exhilerate the souls of the faithful people of God this head containeth both active and passive duties whereby they do exert and put forth their graces in doing and suffering the good will of God For duties well performed are their injoyments because they do find the assistance of the Holy Spirit inabling them in the performance of them when they find themselves insufficient and indisposed and this is matter of joy and comfort to them because they have performed by the Spirits assistance the work of prayer and praising God according to his will and they are confident that they shall enjoy that blessed priviledg which Christ hath purchased for them by his blood viz. confidence in their access to the Throne of Grace and assurance that they shall receive their petitions through the merit of his bloody passion and intercession And as every degree of sin if but a sinful or vain thought makes a child of God loath himself so every degree of holiness and every good thought yields him pleasure content and enjoyment Hereby they are encouraged and delighted to walk with God in holy Meditation and converversation So suffering with Christ also called by David loving correction is matter of joy If we suffer with him we know we shall also reign with him therefore they are willing to bear his reproach which they are enabled to do by the assistance of the Spirit in the time of their tryals he revives the spirit of the contrite ones Isa 57.15 A second head to which these particular acts may be referred is the sealing and ensuring the exceeding precious promises of the Gospel to them whereby they are enabled to live upon a promise by faith in him who made it and is able and willing to perform it to them that trust in him through the merits of Jesus Christ And they find themselves contented and willing to live upon the promise and to wait God's leisure for the time till it is accomplished and for the manner of the accomplishing thereof And these workings of the Spirit are all matter of joy and enjoyment to the soul to find them stirring in their hearts because they know it to be the Spirit By this they lay hold of the promises in the greatest latitude I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Whoso dwelleth under the defence of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty No good thing will he withhold from them that live a godly life They shall want no manner of thing that is good Call upon me in the time of trouble and I shall deliver thee and thou shalt praise me Psal 50.15 He will not be afraid of evil tydings Psal 107. No plague shall come nigh his dwelling Isa 54.17 No weapon formed against thee shall prosper c. And that all things shall work for their good but chiefly they lay hold on the promises of grace These consolations are alwaies bestowed upon God's suffering Servants and are most proper and suitable to that condition In the multitude of the sorrows that I had in my heart thy comforts refresht me The holy Ghost working in our hearts shew us our
God 2 Thes 2.12 which is his word we must believe the truth of his threatnings as well as the truth of his promises Jer. 32.19 This belief saved Noah and his family from the destruction of the deluge and this was commanded in him for a worthy act of faith and by this Lot escaped when Sodom was destroyed and his doubting wife made a perpetual monument or spectacle for her infidelity the chief and special object is Christ Act. 16.37 If we must leve Christ then is Christ the principle the cause efficient and final the matter and the forme of that life His example our pattern and his will ours to me to live is Christ is meant in some or in all these senses for faith verifies it in them all He is the end of our conversation because we can desire no more nor can we need any more if we have him he is the matter and forme of it because the natural life is drowned in this and is made spiritual as it is said If we have known Christ in the flesh yet henceforth know we him no more The holy soul doth not injoy its life if it doth not feel Christ living in it by his Spirit quickning its graces it crys O miserable man that I am c. As faith tells the instrument and meanes whereby we attain the greatest good so it is the Armour that defends us from the greatest evils therefore said the Apostle Ephe. 6.16 Above all take the shield of faith whereby ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked Whereby he commends faith above all the spiritual Armour shewing the cause of his commendation from the exceeding virtue of it that it inables them to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked the virtue of it is universal against the worst of evils if it be taken that is if it be used It must be used in the relying act and in the aplying act staying our selves upon the Lord Psal 37.5 Commit our way unto the Lord. The Applying act is when the soul can say his righteousnes is mine to justify me his blood which he shed upon the Cross an attonement for my sins his Spirit mine to quicken me The fiery darts which Satan shoots are first the guilt of sin then afflictions inward and out ward those who were stung by the fiery Serpents could not be cursed unless they looked up to the brazen Serpent Faith sees that the blood which Christ shed for sinners was shed for my sin that he had an eye unto me in his sufferings A 2 Way faith quenches the fiery darts of Satan by seeing that sin is condemned if so then it can have no power to condem the soul A 3 Way is to see afflictions to be a means of grace that they sanctify us and work for us a more exceeding and eternal weight of glory And to see God in the afflictions working for our good and keeping us from the hurt which men intended to us I will be with thee in the fire and in the water that the fire shall not burne thee nor the water hurt thee Isa 43.2 I will keep him secretly from the strife of tongues This made the suffering Martyrs more than conquerors through Christ that loved us and gave his life for us therefore they were wiling to suffer for him and lay down their lives for the testimony of the Gospel to take joyfully the spoiling of their goods and to think all too little for God for whom they suffered it therefore let us set before us our blessed Saviours suffering who endured for us such bitter paines mocking and contradiction of sinners lest we faint in our minds and are weary of the Cross of Christ Let us also set before us the examples of the Prophets Apostles and Martyrs and the examples of our own memory Our late King whose head was anointed with holy oyle yet his Majesty trampled upon with the greatest indignities and when the meanest of his subjects a common Souldier spit in his face used no reproof and he that was Gods vicegerent of the Crown was humbled to be Christs vicegerent of his Cross a rare and wonderful example of suffering patiently the good will and pleasure of God Our imitation of his virtues shall be a lasting monument of his Glory Aere ceu vacuo pendentia Mausolaea Mart. Holy David went far in this as when one abject fellow cursed him and threw durt at him he let him alone saying Who can tell whether God will requite good for his railing And God did not fail him because his faith did not faile though it was tried to the uttermost this faith carried him through all When the people talked of stoning him by this he encouraged himself in the Lord and was not dismaied and if it became the Captain of our salvation to be made perfect by sufferings why should it be thought strange if all that fight under the same banner be made perfect Soulders by the same discipline Oh that we could all follow him not only in drinking of the Cup which he drunk off viz. The bitter Cup of the Cross but also do it with the same charity to our enemies as he had when he prayed Father forgive them for they know not what they do whose steps the Proto Martyr St. Stephen also followed and for his reward he saw the Heavens opened and his Saviour standing at the right hand of God by this we are sure that the same Spirit is in us as was in Christ T was impossible for Job to have undergone so many of Satans fiery darts upon his estate his relations and bodily sufferings but that he believed that his redeemer lived and that he should see him with his eyes at the last day though wormes consumed his flesh And St. Paul having fought the good fight of faith had the like assurance as he testifieth henceforth is layed up for me a Crown of glory this inabled him to undergo the fight with victory and this took away the sting of death so that death it self was not formidable to him nor to the holy Prophets Apostles and Martyrs who willingly underwent it for a good conscience not accepting deliverance Those great temptations which Satan most relieth upon are those of sins guilt accusing the conscience and bloody persecutions though all manner of temptations as the vanities of the world the cares of the world the lusts of the flesh the pride of life are all of them by the arts of our Spiritual adversary so suited and managed according to several complexions that without this grace they are unresistable therefore the Scripture testifieth that this is the victory whereby we overcome the world and if morality could be sufficient to mortify our lusts and good education as some pretend how came it to pass that those moral Philosophers who writ so many things against lust covetousness and other vices were yet themselves overcome of them but through faith in Christ the world is
THE Fire upon the Altar OR DIVINE MEDITATIONS AND ESSAYES Containing the Substance of Christian Religion Not unto us O Lord Psalm 115. Optimos vitae dies Effluere prohibe Seneca Simile Eccl. 12. Multa tulit fecitque puer sudavit alsit Horat. LONDON Printed by T. S. and are to be sold by Abel Roper at the Sun against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street 1679. Exod. 30. v. 7. And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet Incense every morning when he dresseth the Lamps he shall burn Incense upon it v. 8. And when Aaron lighteth the Lamps at even he shall burn Incense upon it a perpetual Incense befor e the Lord thorow out your generations TO THE READER Courteous Reader HAving conceived these Meditations for my own private Use according to my occasions and inclinations And finding satisfaction and benefit by them I committed them to Paper to the intent that by resort to them I might again excite in my mind the like sollace and pleasure which accordingly I have done and enjoyed Thereupon I communicated them to some of my near Relations and upon their request to the publick Not for any affectation that I have of popularity for my Genius is quite contrary to that Nor yet for any fond or overweening opinion of them or my self in comparison of others who have writ well and learnedly to the same purpose but yet for as much as I am perswaded to it and know that they are well intended and may be useful to many And those that have the Tongue of the Learned may from the weakness which they shall find in these take occasion to do better I adventure to come abroad The Subjects upon which they are writ do challenge thy most studious intention of mind when thou readest of them thence it is that I refuse to be censured upon any mans cursory reading though I know I cannot avoid it but upon a serious weighing and considering of the things writ and I may justly crave allowance for that they were not writ nor designed for the publick If any of the things herein contained shall seem to be a Treatise rather than Meditations know the reason to be this that when first they were writ they were divers of them short Meditations but for methods sake the same were afterwards put into some Order and so took the form of a Treatise or Essay Reader thou mayest take these labours of mine in good part because I seek nothing by the publication thereof but to be serviceable to God to my generation and to thee who am Thy Faithful Friend C. ROWE De Monte Higham ERRATA PAge 1. line last read acessit p. 2. l. 23. r. the extream p. 3. l. 19. r. is in my heart l. 29. r. thereof p. 5. l. 13. r. grow p. 6. l. 24. dele of p. 7. l. 16. dele then p. 10. l. 23. r. feedest p. 12. l. 21. r. his love p. 15. l. 25. r. read in all other duties p. 46. l. 26. r. beneficence p. 54. l. 13. read premisses p. 56. l. 29. r. bolls p. 58. l. 9. r. prescribed p. 84. l. 24. r. then we p. 88. l. 19. r. they p. 94. l. 21. put in the p. 99. l. 29. r. such as thus make use of it p. 115. l. 29. r. of p. 132. l. 11. r. bearest l. 13. r. pledges p. 163. l. 35. r. all things are p. 175. l. 16. r. is l. 28. r. give p. 198. l. 22. r. for which p. 200. l. 19. r. rejoyce p. 202. l. 30. r. tongues p. 221. l. 23. blot out I p. 231. l. 5. r. thy p. 234. l. 13. r. this p. 235. l. 25. put in those injuries which are done to our selves p. 332. l. 16. r. is p. 236. l. 1. put in do it constantly without intermissions a double minded man is unstable p. 241. blot out 1 and 2. lines and l. 25. read first love p. 250. l. 21. blot out comforts of the p. 256. l. last for estate r. labour p. 239. r. oculos p. 259. l. 8. r. flesh y. 267. l. 7. r. Spirit p. 270. l. 34. r. through p. 281. l. 26. r. sown p. 101. l. 5. r. of it p. 303. l. 15. r. we become p. 318. l. 11. r. good p. 315. l. 24. r. to do p. 339. l. 3. r. oculos p. 373. l. 5. r. deformed l. 15. r. spirits p. 375. l. 11. r. God p. 376. l. 28. r renew his strength p. 284. l. 30. r. beseech us to be reconciled THE FIRE upon the ALTAR OR Divine Meditations and Ejaculations Containing The Substance of Christian Religion The PREFACE Of Meditation Cor mundum crea in me Deus THE Heart is the fountain which sends forth and streams it self into words and actions and by those it is known whether it be good or evil He that purposeth a Regulation of his life and conversation must begin with this as the first mover preserve and watch this with most diligent care that there come no evil into it whereby it be disordered and so the whole stream be defiled and fouled sincerum est nisi vas quodcunque infundis accessit Prov. 4.23 Keep thy heart with all diligence Ne cures ea quae stultè miraris Horat. Think not on that which may tempt thee It may be compared to a Ship under sale whose Pilot must ever be watchful to look to his steerage lest he split upon Rocks or be swallowed up with Sands This Pilot is Reason Guided and Illuminated not by any Star Cynosura Helice nor other but from a higher Orb the Spirit of God which exerting it self in our actions and conversations is called Grace for the Love of God Humility Patience Charity Chastity and the rest as they are called the fruits of the Spirit are graces and beams of this light so looking to their original they are called the Spirit of Love Joy Peace c. And it is that which the true Light in the internal Horizon and the Fire wherewith Jesus Christ baptizeth the Regenerate Luke 3.16 Reason then in the soul of man must alwaies keep it self in action lest the affections wanting their Governour at the stern precipitate the soul upon Sylla on one side or Caribdys on the other either extreme of excess or of defect or else must steer a contrary course But if by continual Meditation on good things it sets before it self alwaies the place for which it is bound and the end of its creation and hath an eye to that luminary by which it guides its course and keeps on its course with a perpetual motion by every wind and gale without digressions by these means it may sale safely and may expect a safe and happy voyage and blessed be God there is no curtain drawn between us and the light as was to them under the Law What rash person is he that will undertake any work of difficulty or importance but will predmeitate the means opportunities and advantages whereby to effect it and often propound to himself both
unto the ends of the world For thus only could Nebuchadnezzar be brought to this knowledge Dan. 4.33 And thus by feeling that hand of God which they refuse to see let all thine enemies be forced to acknowledge thee And thou O blessed Jesus bruise them with a Rod of Iron and break them to pieces like a Potters vessel because they have said That thou shalt not rule over them General Rules It appeareth from this that it is not the worship which God requireth which is forced from them by compulsion with an unwilling mind as that of the Israelites in the wilderness Ps 78.34 When he slew them they sought him The Rules which will shew us how to worship God acceptably are 1. That we pray read meditate and perform the like services to God from this belief That we cannot spend our time in any worldly affair so well or so much for our Profit Joy Comfort Delight and Satisfaction as in this or that duty 2. That we give our Alms with this belief that it is the best way of improvement of our wealth and therefore do it freely to such as you can never expect any return from them but from God only 3. That upon these accounts we perform our services to God with all our might These three prove our cheerfulness and willingness 4. That we perform them constantly and early 5. That we perform them invisibly to man not expecting any reward from men nor a good word 6. That we pride not our selves in our services and dispise others with a stand off I am holier than thou but count our selves unprofitable servants and desire that our very best services be cleansed purified perfumed and accepted only through the merits and mediation of Christ Jesus and confess that we can offer him nothing but that which is his own for he gives both the will and the deed that is good and puts his Spirit into us and causeth us to walk in his statutes and confess also that we have need of Christ Jesus as our High Priest to bear the iniquities of our holy things 7. That in all our services which we perform we seek principally the glory of God Thus we see that most of the petitions of the Lord's Prayer are and by thus doing we give proof that we are God's children for they seek God's glory though it be with the spoliation of their own glory as David dancing before the Ark. And the glorious Angels worship and fall down before God casting their Crowns at his feet Apoc. 4.10 8. That we faint not in our mind nor be weary but work out our salvation with fear and trembling 9. That we prepare our selves for holy duties Of Prayer THIS being the first Duty which we learn in our tender age and the first in our daily practice whether it be because that the sense of our own needs and wants driveth us to seek our supplies and succours from the omnipotent being that we thus begin the day or from the nature of man which being yet undefiled with the corruptions of ill examples followes its own Instinct and inclination and is therefore easily taught this practice or else takes it in its minority or whether it be that all do teach their infants this part of divine worship first as most necessary or that they are best capable of So it is that this is the first in order of practice and eminent for its Vertue if it be rightly performed and of most frequent use It will be therefore proper enough to begin with a Regulation of my self in this particular Which that I may do I will consider 1. The manner and circumstances And 2. The matter of prayer And 3. motives to excite my self to it The various manners of prayer are to be found in the Psalms of David And in those prayers which we read in scripture made by our blessed Saviour the Saints however it will not a little avail thee O my soul so set down those particulars which shall come to thy thoughts as well concerning the inward manner as the outward The inward is particularly expressed in Eph. 6.18 praying alwayes with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit Watching c. In the Spirit must be the manner for though Watching fasting and all other outward manners be had if this be wanting only it is but a lame or blind Sacrifice Because as it is said Rom. 8.26 We know not what to pray for as we ought Though we have the first fruits of the Spirit ib. v. 34. But we have help for our infirmities from the assistance of the Spirit And it maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered v. 27. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit because he maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God When thou art such in thy prayers to God and puttest up such petitions with intention sighing and groaning of Spirit and not extention of voice thou knowest by whose assistance it is and that thou art accepted therefore crave it of God And though thou findest disability in thy self or an indisposition because the flesh cannot keep pace with the Spirit thou wilt find the intercession of the Spirit in thy heatr unutterable be not therefore discouraged or dejected because thou canst not pray vocally for those prayers that are not expressed are as powerful with God as theirs that are well expressed when thou findest in thy self a desire to draw nigh to God do it though thou wantest words As the fire from Heaven consumed Elias Sacrifice so look up to Heaven and crave Gods assistance and thou mayest find such inlargement in the duty to put up effectual fervent prayers in the Spirit whereby thou mayst take Heaven by force our lifting up of our hearts to God moveth him to bow his ear to us And having such an Almighty Helper what need we to fear infirmities let us trust to our Succours The Spirits Asistance consists in these particulars It excites holy desires which are pleasing to God and sometimes dictates them verbally sometimes without words and expressions The Spirit of Grace causeth a Christian to beg for Spiritual blessings comforts and injoyments and to desire to long breath and pant after them uncessantly It causeth fervency of Spirit firing our affections with holy Zeal for Spiritual gifts and Graces injoyments and satisfactions helpes and improvements and keeps up those holy flames which it kindles So that it preserves us from looking back with Lots wife from drowsiness slightness in performing duties and from faintings tipified by Jacob wrestling with God it unites our hearts to God and helps us against discurrency of thoughts which naturally we are subject unto Unless we are carried on in the duty by an apprehension of Spiritual enjoyments It drives away fears and doubts which are subject to arise from guilt and supplieth us with a holy confidence and child-like desposition ingenuity and assurance and freely opens
anger malice revenge covetousness lust concupiscence or the like and mourning over it humbly intreat him to succour relieve help heal cleanse wash purge and purify them by the renewing of the Spirit Or else as he answer'd St. Paul praying against the Thorn in his flesh he will supply them with grace sufficient for them From these promises we may see the reason why our blessed Saviour in that form of Prayer teacheth us to pray in the plural number our and us for this includes our selves and our fellow-members of the mystical body of Christ some whereof are but Babes or Children in religion and cannot pray for themselves as not having received so great measure of the Spirit so that they have need of our Prayers and our charity including them doth not hinder our requests for our selves but rather promotes them We see also why sometimes they pray more particularly but for themselves as the Apostle Paul did against his particular malady and burthen which he groaned under And so David did pray against his own particular sins and sufferings Deliver me from bloody-guiltiness Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity and quicken me in thy Law Incline my heart to thy Testimonies and not to covetousness c. For which particular graces we may upon occasion pray in the behalf of others according to that precept of the Apostle If any man see his Brother sin a sin which is not unto Death he shall pray for him and it shall be forgiven him Likewise may we pray for the deliverance of them from their afflictions and perils which they lie under as the Apostle Paul desires the Saints to whom he wrote to pray for his deliverance for nature dictates these prayers for our selves but grace for others that are our Brethren in Christ The Hope of speeding is that which incourageth and excites with strength and courage in every undertaking we go about If we seek of God in prayer the things which are according to his will those gifts and graces and Improvements which he hath promised to give those things which he hath invited us to ask or commanded us to ask those that our Saviour and his Apostles have taught us to ask those which the experience of other Saints and servants of God proves to be acceptable and proper requests those graces which we are commanded to have those degrees of grace and those means which we are commanded to use and those spiritual joys and injoyments which we long for and cannot be happy without why should we doubt of our success or why should we not expect a quick Return Let us then apply our selves to seek out those things As the original of all graces we first are taught by our Saviour to pray to God to give us the Holy Spirit And he that obtains this obtains also the fruits of it Love joy peace meekness gentleness patience c. And all graces whatsoever for as the Lord taught us our whole duty in one word viz. Love so here he teacheth us in one word the sum of all we need to pray for for although we pray for many things yet the sum of all spiritual things is contained in this And if we seek the spiritual gifts and graces which is signified in that expression Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness the other things shall be added unto us without seeking In this also is summed up all that we ought to pray against viz. all our spiritual enemies the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life and every thing that Satan overcomes the sons of men withal This general is branched into six petitions in the Lords prayer for by the Spirit of God in us we are made holy the Temples of the Lord and are made capable to sanctify Gods holy name the love of God is spread abroad in our hearts Gods law is written in our hearts and put in our inward parts By the Mission of the holy Spirit into us we all know him and know his Judgments and do them the Kingdoms of the World become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ Righteousness will run down as a River and holiness to the Lord shall be writ upon us and all our comon things every pot in Jerusalem shall be like the bouls before the Altar And Jesus Christ shall have the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession when these and the like promises are fulfill'd And the earth shall be full of the knowledg of the Lord so that we pray implicity for these promises when we pray these petitions in the Lords prayer likewise when we pray Thy will be done we pray for the Spirit to enable us to do it and we pray to God for the fulfilling of those promises of the New Covenant which relate to it viz. That God will be our God and we shall be his people that we shall run and not be weary walk and not faint mount up with wings like an Eagle and renew our strength like an Eagle that we shall be a willing people So in the other petitions Namely that for remission of sins we cannot be assured of it nor have peace of conscience but by the operation of the Holy Ghost in our hearts by faith exciting in us unfeigned sorrow for those sins wherewith we have grieved it and working in us a stedfast resolution and purpose never to commit the like again Also when we pray against Temptations it is intended that we crave this aid by the assistance of Gods Holy Spirit to escape them for thereby we are made sufficient and able to fly them or to overcome them and to be more than conquerors so that no Spiritual weapon formed against us shall proper And if God gives us his holy Spirit we obtain also the other petitions namely to be delivered from evil and to enjoy food and raiment and all the necessaries of life for these are inseparably contained in the priviledges of the Saints For God is a Wall of fire round about them bread shall be given them and their water shall be sure so that petition also is by reason of the promise contained in that of asking the holy Spirit The rather for this that all other promises of the New Covenant are implyed in this This notwithstanding we find the Saints and Servants of God praying in other words and formes and by the Spirit too Whose Assistance I humbly crave for my further progress in these meditations Certainly when the Holy Spirit assists us in prayer it doth not only inable us to say or pray in a perscribed form but dictates the words and things prayed for according to the necessities of the person praying and prayed for Although we are not under the law but under grace that being dead wherein we were held that we should henceforth serve God in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the latter Yet must we pray against all
loathsom vice of beastly intemperance but let me avoid them and not look upon the Wine when it moveth it self right and giveth a pleasant colour in the Cup or if it should be so that I have no inclination of my self to this or any other sin yet let me not therefore venture my self upon the temptation but let me fear sin always considering how foully Noah and Lot fell let me never be found standing or walking in the way of sinners nor sitting in their seat but let me be always found in the way of God And what is said of the adulterous Woman whoever toucheth her shall not be innocent let me fear the same in every temptation and avoid the least medling with it or approaches to it and as it is also said concerning the same avoid it pass not by it turn from it pass away so let my practice be in all other temptations And as it is said of Gluttony for remedy of it if thou beest a man given to thy appetite set a Knife to thy throat So in all other temptations let me lay violent hands upon the peccant member if my right eye offend me let me pluck it out Lord thou knowest that I am resolved not to sin to avoid the greatest suffering therefore teach me wisdom that I may prevent and guard my self against all provocations to sin that I may not draw upon my self a necessity of suffering MAKE us to accept Jesus Christ our Saviour upon his own terms as he offers himself to us in the Holy Gospel to be our King to rule us and reign over us our Prophet to teach and instruct us as well as to be our high Priest to attone and sacrifice for our sins Let us not think to have the priviledges of Christians without the duties Make it to be a greater pleasure to us to deny our selves in sins then ever it was to give our selves up to them that we may be meet to receive Heaven into which flesh and blood cannot enter Let the Holy Spirit inflame us always with that divine fervent affection to God that inspired the Spouse when she said or ever I was aware my Soul was like the Chariots of Aminadab O sweet Christ do thou put grace into our hearts by that sweet voice behind us saying this is the way walk you in it for thou only art our great Prophet and teacher who canst make us learn and our high Priest and mighty Saviour delivering us from our sins and making us as innocent by thy attonement as if we had never offended for those whom thou makest free they are free indeed if thou wilt not take away the being of sin in us in this life yet assist us with thy grace to subdue it deliver us out of the power of darkness and the Prince of darkness And what benefits thou hast purchased for us by thy death apply them to us by thy intercession deliver us from death and give us the Crown of life which thou hast promised to all them that love thee and since thou art desirous of our salvation and it is because we will not come unto thee that we have not life O Christ make us a willing people as thou hast promised for our salvation is wholly from thee But our damnation from our own wills and if we perish our blood is upon our own heads O sweet Christ our Prophet and teacher teach us by thy word and thy Spirit the things that belong to our peace Guide me by thy Spirit and then bring me to glory LORD what is there in us for which thou shouidest desire our love Lord in thee is every thing that is lovely therefore ought we to chuse thee for the object of our love But we seek that happiness in the World which we cannot find any where but in thee and having found nought but emptiness vanity and the loss of all our labour in the pursuance of content peace and happiness in the affaires and matters of the world let us at last betake our selves to seek it in thee and thy waies to learn of thee to take thy yoak upon us that we may find rest to our soules LORD what pretence can sinners have for which they cast off thy yoak and will not have thee to rule over them upon whose daily benefits they live when they rebel against their Princes and shake off their yoak it is either for their leud lives and wickedness that they judge them unworthy to rule therefore scorn to be subject unto them Or for their oppression that they are not able to bear their grievous burthens but what iniquity have sinners found in thee thou hast put the Question to them but they can find no answer LORD since thou hast shewed me that every Saint must live in the same holiness of life that thy Servants the Apostles attained and St. Paul said of himself that he was crucified with Christ yet he lived yet not he but Christ lived in him and he lived that life by the faith of Christ who gave himself for him give us thy grace in like manner to crucify our selves to the World and to live no more to it nor to our selves but to live by Christ in us so as we may be said not to live And if thou givest us to live the life of faith and not to the World and live to thee let us not impute this our well doing to our selves for of our selves we cannot think a good thought but to Christ who liveth in us who only can inable us thus to live In all our distresses let us pray to the Lord and use the meanes as when the Arabians Ammonites and Ashdodites conspired against Jerusalem 't is said Nehemiah 4.9 Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God and set a watch against them day and night But let us not like King Asa seek to Physicians in our sickness and not to God LORD while I am supported by thy Spirit I shall be able to live blamelesly as Lot did in the midst of Sodom but the strongest of thy servants will fall as he afterwards did if thou withdraw the Assistance of thy Spirit and shall be as that Apostle who denied the Lord Jesus Christ whom before he sought for and resolved to dye for though he was the Rock Therefore let me never be confident lest thou leavest me as thou didst him And when I hear of others miscarriages let me be thankful to thee for holding me up and ascribe it to thee as the Angels in the Book of the Revelations are said to cast their Crowns at thy feet and let us learn not to judge uncharitably of those that are overcome by temptations LORD when we pray unto thee our prayers are so interrupted with worldly and sinful thoughts and the things we pray for being mostwhat temporal mercies and deliverances from bodily evils they are not such prayers as our own reason can think worthy thy acceptance But Lord though we offer thee
the lame and the blind if we have no better in our flock thou wilt accept it therefore I will not cease to pray unto thee though I cannot approve my own prayers for thus I come unto thee without money or price that thy gifts may be free O that I could account the corruption of my nature to be my misery as Saint Paul complaining of the law of his members warring against the law of his mind so that he could not do the good he would cries out Miserable man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of sin And make me as sensible of the strength of it as this holy man was LORD if I fall into sin let me not be insensible of it as the adulterous woman who eateth and wipeth her mouth and saith I have done 〈◊〉 wickedness But like as David after he had sinned and the Prophet Nathan had told him God had done away his sin yet his grief and sorrow for having offended God gave him no rest so that he wept day and night So let my sins grieve me as oft as I remember them Meditation SINCE the Apostle Peter wherein he was confident of his strength above all others immediately fell I will ascribe my standing to God only and praise him who holds me up And pray with David Lord hold thou me up and I shall be safe And watch and take heed to my self and alwaies fear lest I fall since I know that I stand not by my own strength for corruption of nature is as strong in me as in others and the tempter the same to me as to them but the Spirit of God only makes the difference therefore I will praise God who upholds me and keeps my feet from falling for it is not I that live the life of faith but Christ that lives in me therefore with the Elders in the Revelations I will cast my Glory and Crown at his feet from whom I have received it And the consideration of this my weakness shall teach me charity towards those that are overcome with temptation that I may restore them in the spirit of meekness but not judge them lest I condemn my self as David did himself in the Parable of the yew Lamb And as Judah condemned himself in condemning Tamar And let me not flatter my self like the Scribes and Pharisees who said If we had been in our Fathers daies we would not have been partakers with them in killing the Prophets LORD establish thou me with thy free Spirit whereby I may stand in the hour of Temptation and run the ways of thy Commandments freely without rub or let without dulness and without danger of stumbling or falling that the Spirit may be willing though the flesh be weak And with Paul when he was full of the Spirit he was content not only to be bound but to die for Christ so may I also since thou lovest only the chearful giver And as it said 5 of Judges 9. Thy heart is towards the governours of the people that offered themselves willingly So make me alwaies to cast off readily and freely every tempter that goes about to seduce my affections from thee disdaining to harken to them LORD give me to avoid not only gross sins but also the smallest and first degrees of sins viz. To turn away my eyes from beholding vanity Not to look upon the wine when it moves it self right in the cup to make a covenant with my eyes not to look upon a maid gives me understanding in the way of God that I may know these small degrees of sin to be sins and the danger of them to avoid them and all other of the like nature Then I shall know that I have a New heart and that thou hast put thy Spirit into me which I desire to know above all things LORD let not my heart deceive me either making me think that I have more grace than in truth I have as Peters did him so as that he thought though all men denied thee yet he should not or by making me think I have not those corruptions that I have as Hasael 2 King 1.13 When the Prophet told him what cruelties he would commit upon the Israelites he answerd is thy Servant a Dog Yet did he commit the same but let me know my own weakness and vileness that I may not trust to my own strength in any temptation but let me rejoice in God my strength and know that thou art my strength and that thou only holdest me from falling and keepest my feet from slipping and orderest my goings and makest me to run the waies of thy Commandments And inclinest my heart to thy testimonies O hold thou me up and I shall be safe Keep thy Servant also from presumptuous sins and from the sins of infirmities and let me always know my own insufficiency weakness and corruptions and watch and pray against them not only against gross sins which the heathen and unbelievers detest as drunkeness swearing murther and adultery theft and the like but against every degree of sinfulness and every vain and lustful thought and idle word unseemly gesture which I can easily espy as motes in anothers eye while I hardly discern the beam in my own but do thou O Lord take away from me this blindness of heart with the effects and consequences thereof by causing the day star to arise in my heart LORD let my former experiences which I have had of thy goodness beget a confidence in me in all dangers as it did in David when he went to encounter Goliah He remembered the slaughter of the Lion and the Bear and concluded the Philistin should be like one of them And breakes out saying though 10000 men should set themselves against me round about yet will I not be afraid and though as many Devils also are against me let me not be afraid let me remember thy promise saying call upon me in the time of trouble I will deliver thee and thou shaltpraise me And let me not rely upon nor trust in the outward meanes the arm of flesh though I do make use of it as Nehemiah whenhe builded the walls of Jerusalem he set watches and they took their arms with their spades so wisdom teacheth but yet not to trust to the Sword or think that our bow shall help us for so did that Philistine Wherefore said David thou comest to me with thy sword thy spear but I come to thee in the name of my God Lord teach me the power of prayer especially mingl'd with faith And to consider that thou hast heard the wicked when they have sought thee as Ahab because he walked heavily and mourned thou wouldst not bring the evil in his daies And thou heardest Manasses and thy poor people that cry unto thee in their trouble thou deliverest out of their distress as exiles prisoners Marriners and sick persons when their soul fainteth in them and they cry unto thee being at their wits end And
like manner forget thy mercys and require meat for our lusts we fear thy wrath will be kindled against us to destroy us but we trust that we have a greater than Moses Jesus Christ to turn away thy wrath by his offering up his life as a ransom for us and bearing the iniquities of us all Let my life be hid with Christ in God that when Christ who is our life shall appear we also may appear with him in Glory Lord let me remember how scarcely the righteous are saved and with what difficulty as it were by the gates of Hell how difficulty St. Paul keept his body under fearing lest while he preached to others himself should become a reprobate and give me that spiritual puissance and holy fortitude to bear my self undaunted with difficulties in the heavenly warfare O Lord God my afflictions are sometimes full of horror they seem to come from the same justice by which thou castest the wicked into Hell And they are to me like Hell whilst they so dismay and terrifie me and thou seemest to have forsaken me in my afflictions and temptations and I have no hope that thou wilt ever remove them but that thou hast sent them to confound me And I can hardly refrain from the expression of the wicked Cain That my afflictions are greater than I am able to bear And being at my wits end I am afraid that thou wilt not enable me to bear them and hast rejected me as thou didst Saul and hast taken thy holy Spirit from me and that thou art mine enemy I fear I am unreconciled to thee because I don't feel filial affections to thee when thou chastisest me neither do I say thou hast chastised me less then I deserve but I am ready to murmure and to have hard thoughts to think it more than I deserve because I think it greater than any other mans affliction also because I find thou hast been more ready to hear the prayers of others for deliverances than thou art to hear mine As that of Hanna when she was despised for barrenness she prayed to thee once and thou heardest her and her countenance was no more sad And at the third time thou answeredst Paul when he desired to be delivered from the thorn in the flesh and didst give him grace sufficient for the temptation But as for me I mourn being desolate and take no comfort night and day and thou regardest not But now that I consider that the man who was according to thine own heart when he had grieved the holy Spirit as I pray God I never more may do cryed out as I do The pains of Hell came about me the snares of death overtook me Take not thy holy Spirit rom me And again From my youth up thy terrors have I suffered with a troubled mind And a horrible trembling hath overwhelmed me And My confusion is daily before me and the shame of my face hath covered me I take it to be the portion of the Saints to be much afflicted and to go to Heaven by the gates of Hell O shew me Lord wherein I may enjoy my self and find satisfaction and content without remorse regret or subsequent sadness If it be in any action or contemplation of mine it must be in religious duties when I serve thee with a quiet undistracted well composed spirit and am sensible that I enjoy thy favour and approbation But certain I am that I could never enjoy my self so as not to be sensible of emptiness unprofitableness wearisomness unsatisfactoriness desire of change tediousness and vanity and vexation In all those things which the natural man can do think or speak or enjoy unless the Spirit directs me in them to spiritual ends to the honour and glory of God This therefore makes a clear conviction That the happiness of man and the end for which he was made is to glorify God in keeping his commandments with an upright heart And to love him with all the soul herein only can man find true joy content peace rest quiet satisfaction and injoyment for his soul Let me be always satisfied delighted and ravished with these joys let my soul be satisfied as with marrow and fatness when my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips let me sit under thy shadow with delight and let thy fruit be pleasant to my tast even thine only and let me be ravished with the joys of thy house let the breasts of thine ordinances satisfy me at all times let me be always ravished with thy love With joy let me draw water out of the wells of salvation and make me joyful in the house of prayer Let my soul thirst for thee and my flesh long after thee even as the â—art panteth after the water Brooks so let my soul long after thee my God Let my delight be in thee and in those rivers of pleasure that are at thy right hand for ever more Let me set me set my affections on things above where Christ Jesus sitteth at the right hand of God for ever and take of my affections from things below and my conversation and let it be above Let all my fresh springs be in thee at midnight let me rise and give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments Let me be a companion of all them that fear thee and keep thy commandments Let me be assured of thy love to me by all thy spiritual and temporal mercys and means of grace and hope of glory And let me be assured of my reciprocal love to thee by my willing obedience to all thy commandments That I may know that my beloved is mine and I am his And if at any time thou hearest my prayer and grantest my request let me consecrate those things unto thee which I obtain by prayer as Hanna did her Son O Blessed Lord Jesus these sweet kisses are better than wine SINCE all who will live Godly must suffer persecution and it is said that if we suffer with him we shall also reign with him prepare fit and strengthen me to undergo all the troubles and afflictions of this day and of the whole course of my life which Satan and the wicked and ungodly men of the World shall contrive against me And let me expect every day afflictions for Christs sake and reproach and a cross and trouble in this World since our Hope is not in this World but is reserved for us in Heaven and in this World we are to be of all men most miserable therefore let me not expect beds of roses here but to go through many tribulations and a fiery trial patiently waiting for the time when the Lord shall tread down Satan under our feet And when the Lord shall avenge the blood of the souls that lye slain under the Altar crying for vengeance upon the inhabitance of the earth remembring that none of all these things shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus but we
The similitude also of natures may cause love for after the image of God man was made and is so renewed the necessity and the utility of Gods chastisments he that had had very good experience of them upon the same account with the same success confesseth in the Psa 119.67 plainly in these words Before I was afflicted I went astray but now I have learned the Judgements of thy mouth And It is good for me that I have been afflicted Psal 119.71 Unless we are pure in our own eyes And have better conceits of our own hearts than of him who was a man according to Gods own heart we cannot but see with the same eyes as he did That God doth afflict men for their good to sanctify them and teach them in the waies of eternal life as it is Psalm Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest and teachest in the way that thou mayest give him patience in time of Adversity c. Neither were his afflictions for the short season of a day or a year But constant Psal Even from my youth up thy terrours have I sufferd with a troubled minds and Psal All the day long have I been afflicted and chastened every morning Psal 119.109 My soul is always in my hand yet do I not forget thy law Wherefore St. Pet. 1 Epist 4.12 Bids them think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is happened unto you as though some strange thing had happened unto you which implys that afflictions in the highest degree are common and familiar guests to be daily expected Those were no light ones whereby Davids very soul was in his hand and in jeopardy Zach. 13.9 I will bring the third part through the fire It shewes the truth of our profession if we can go on cherfully without outward incouragements Therefore when God would shew the sincerity of Job by removing that objection of Satan Hast thou not made a hedge about him he let loose the tempter to afflict him with all sorrows and to deprive him of all comforts When God would perfect in us the grace of patience he doth it by affliction as it is Jam. 1.4 and that where it is makes a perfect Christian as we ought all to be as it is Mat. 5. ult Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect Paul to the Philip. Cap. 1.12 Saith The things which have happened unto me have fallen out rather for the furtherance of the Gospel so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the pallace and in all other places So far are afflictions from hindering us in the heavenly race or from hindering the sowing of the seed of grace in the heart of others that the patient suffering of the Saints of God provokes others to imitation and to search and inquire what is that principle and Basis upon which such resolutions stand Psal 25.10 Though they are afflicted they acknowledge that all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth to such as keep his covenant and his testimonies they know that of kindness God afflicts them the very same kindness is in afflicting them as was in adopting them His paternal love The assurance of which convinceth them that all things shall work for the good of them that love God This principle every true believer hath and this made Moses to chuse afflictions before the pleasures of sin viz. The assurance of his interest in the love of God and the glorious priviledges of the Saints by faith in gods promises through the merits of the bloody passion of our Redeemer and the Hope which they have of the repositum in the world to come Our Blessed Lord and Saviour was not only our example of suffering wrongfully and undergoing all griefs and sorrows whom being our captaine and head we ought to follow But being our King also hath made it a law for all that will come after him to deny enjoyments and to take up the contrary which our nature so much declines crosses The discipline which he trained up his disciples to and all his followers was suffering The parable of the builder sitting down and first to cast up what his building will cost him coucheth the cost and paines grief and self-denial which a Christian must resolve to undergo for Heaven and happiness He told his followers that the world would hate them pesecute them and kill them for his and the Gospels sake The parable of the Marchant who having found a field wherein was contained a treasure hid sold all to purchase it sheweth what we must part with for Heaven Consider the sharneful painful cursed death of our Lord. How they designed his derision in the robes Crown of thornes salutation in contempt spitting on his face c. If our hopes were in this life we were of all men most miserable What then can a Servant of God expect here The comfort of the Scriptures are suited to such a condition only and a great part of the Scripture would be useless if there were no such condition David in 119. Psal The same is my comfort in my affliction thy word hath quickned me Great are the troubles of the Righetous but the Lord delivereth him out of all Psal 34. v 19. and 7. The Angel of the Lord tarrieth round about them that fear him and delivereth them and the whole Psalm is made to shew the blessedness of them that trust in the Lord and the faithfulness of God toward such as trust in him in time of affliction and many other of Davids Psalms are to the same effect that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have Hope He is a Father of the Fatherless and a help to the friendless Our heavenly Father will not endure to hear his children cry long though heaviness endureth for a night joy cometh in the morning and Psal 140.12 I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted and the right of the poor The patient abiding of the meek shall not always be forgotten before the Lord 3 of the Revela ver I will be with thee in the fiery trial that is to come upon all the earth to try them I will be with thee in the fire that it shall not burne thee and in the Water that it shall not drown thee The hatred which the men of the world bear to the people of God is by the Spirit of God in the Scriptures set forth as a principal cause of their calamities the Cap. of the op of St. Cain was of that wicked one and slew his Brother wherefore because his works were evil and his brothers good conttariety of works is cause of hatred as well as contrariety of natures men blush not before them that are like them the contrariety makes them blush Galat. 4.29 As he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit So it is now he alludes to Ishmaels mocking of Isaac This is most fully set forth in Psal 37.
man but a diligent Servant shall share the Inheritance with the Sons Pro. What delight can dull lifeless service be to him whom we serve Our service should be suited to the delight of him whom we serve And Our service should be to the honour of him whom we serve But slothful and lifeless service is to the dishonour of God therefore he saith Mal. 4. v. Offer it now to thy Governour and see whether he will accept it The fruit of Christs death is the Zeal of good works Titus 2.11.14 Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify to himself a peculiar people Zealous of good works From Thence it appeares that the note of Gods people is a Zeal of good works namely the works of mercy charity and piety They shall run and not be weary walk and not faint That obedience sway the conscience that the ends and aims be good that we should advance piety to the utmost and repress sin If we expect any benefit by our service we must not do it negligently but with Zeal the more Zeal the more comfort and satisfaction and the more will be our reward Zeal breaks through any restraints that would keep us from God Though Michael scoffed yet David would not leave off his dancing before the Ark. Consider how violent and earnest carnal men are in the ways of sin and shall they serve Satan better than God is served wicked men are so active and laborious that they are said to draw iniquity with cart-ropes they are not drawn into sin but draw sin there is no lust but costs them some self-denial Their pride must feel no cold the worldly man incroaches not only upon the pleasures of his life by rising early and going to bed late but also defrauds himself of necessary comforts they are wise in their generation like the unjust steward If Ammon be sick for Tamar shall not the Spouse be sick for Christ shall they take more paines to undo themselves than the Servants of God to save themselves Consider that you have been violent in the ways of sin and will you not do as much for God Rom. 6.19 I spake after the manner of men as you have yeilded your selves Servants of sin so now yeild your selves Servanss of Righteousness unto holiness So much as you have spent in and upon sin 't is but a modest proposal of the Apostle that you would spend so much in the service of God How can your conversion be right when sin hath more of your heart than God 2 Cor. 5.13 If we be besides our selves it is for Christ he had been mad against Christ 't was not unmeet if he seemed mad for Christ your pace was furious like Jehu's for your beloved lusts will you be slow for God Consider It may be you set out late towards Godliness therefore you must make the more haste Let the time spent in your lusts be sufficient All men set out too late we are transgressors from the womb God loved us before we were from eternity he loved us before we loved him or knew how to love him Consider what Christ hath suffered for us his bloody agonies and the sorrows of his Cross He is the Captain of our salvation and we must follow him He hath given us heaven as God gave Canaan to the Israelites but they were to force their way The power of Satan is broken but some relicts are left for our exercise Consider the enemies of our souls are violent The Devil compasseth the earth therefore we had need to stand upon our guard the enemy watcheth and do you sleep Whilest men slept the enemies sowed tares among their Corn. Whilest we are careless the enemy prevails when we make speed in our flight the enemy hath no advantage Whilest the Disciples were a sleep Judas and his Company were watching Small measure of grace must not content the professors of Christianity Except your righteousness exeed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven A temporary believer goeth far but a true believer must go farther Consider that all things in Religion are high and call for more than ordinary from us There are great obligations upon us He had no greater gift to give us than his only Son He could do no more for us then he did in his agonies and sufferings and laying down his life undergoing that intollerable pain that made him cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me So that in love God hath gone to the uttermost for us in his power he hath not so every mercy received obligeth us to do more than we have done the supplies of the Spirit of God which come in upon us and help more than we have done The supplys of the Spirit of God which come in upon us and help our infirmities oblige us The heathen some of them have gone so far by the light of nature that because they could not mortify their lusts they have put out their eyes this they did without those helps which we have Christ Jesus a person of the God head meriting our salvation and interceding for us The Spirit helping us to work out our salvation and the holy precepts of the law of God which is pure converting the soul Psal 19.19 Psal 119. The law of the Lord is exceeding broad It is another obligation that we have a hope exceeding all that we can imagine 2 Cor. 4.16 We have a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory laid up for us Besides these obligations the dreadful threats might make us earnest in the works of religion which if a man do but think of it causeth horrour Consider the danger of coldness in dutys if we don't go forward we go back like those that row against the stream Before we lose our first works we lose our Love first men grow careless then off goes religion and the service of God Some that are high in professing are cold in practice To provoake one another to love and good works is a good contention for solemn piety we cannot do too much In sin every thing is too much in grace nothing enough in particular exercises there may be too much in the love of God there can be no excess many come short Rom. 2.9 They come short of the glory of God 2 Peter 1.11 We are to labour that an abundant entrance may be given us into the Kingdom of Christ Jesus Consider if your heart is dead and cold you loose the comfort of Christian priviledges and duties a dead Christian is as none A change without life is but a morral reformation That is true conversion where we are not meerly changed but quickned by a new principal of life heathens have been changed from profaness to a morral life I am come saith Christ that you may have life and that you may have it more abundantly All the true members of Christ are
produced must be good also and must proceed from that good principle viz. Faith without which it is impossible to please God but these good fruits are not proportionable to the goodness of his heart for he is sorry that they are no better blushing ever at their imperfections not boasting of them nor craving honour for them the end also must be good These qualifications the good works have They are described from their cause Gal. 5.22 The fruits of the Spirit are love joy peace meekness c. Rom. 6.22 described by their end these are fruits unto holiness Another difference is that some of those works are secret and invisible to Men such as are terminated in the action within as the secret risings of the heart against corruptions as was in St. Paul when he said That which I would I do not and groans for deliverance saying who shall deliver me from this bondage of corruption also secret longings after Christ and God and Holiness also dependency upon Christ and God inward mournings for sin c. 2. Such works as have opus ad extra as to shew forth a good Conversation True Holiness defined It is a grace supernatural infused by the Holy Spirit renewing us after the Image of him that made us whereby God is in us Christ is in us and the Holy Spirit is in us and we are in Christ by an inseparable Union and Communion of Natures 1 John 4.16 Gal. 2.20 and 4.19 1 John 4.13 'T is infused because of our selves we are not able to think a good thought and Christ saith That without him we can do nothing God worketh in us both to will and to do though he commands us to work out our own Salvation and the words following viz. with fear and trembling denote the weakness and disability of our selves and the ability which the command doth suppose is from Gods assistance we doing our endeavour our blessed Lord and Saviour compares it to leaven It is an Universal change of the whole Man If any one be in Christ he is a new Creature old things are passed away and all things become new It reneweth us after the Image of him that made us Both the inward Man and the outward are changed as Saul's heart was changed when he was anointed to be King so is every Saint changed by the Spirit of God that is in him and the understanding desires and thirsts after no knowledge but to know God and Jesus Christ and him Crucified because the understanding before was darkned and alienated from the Life of God through the Ignorance that was in it But now it is enlightned and the darkness is passed away because the Light of the glorious Gospel of Christ which is the Image of God hath shined into it for the Gospel is Light and Jesus Christ is that Light that enlightens every one that cometh into the World by this it cometh to pass that the Soul knowerh that all Gods Commandments are True Righteous and Faithful that they are tryed to the utmost That it is Wisdom and Understanding to do thereafter It now puts a true estimate upon God and Christ Heaven and Grace and Glory This is that wise Merchant spoken of in the Gospel that having found a Pearl of exceeding great value in a Field sold all to buy that Field his knowledge is practical diligent and not slothful rests not in the inquisition but proceeds to the acquisition of its true everlasting interest through the knowledge of Jesus Christ as he is revealed in the Gospel Rom. 12.2 Be ye transformed in the renewing of your minds that ye may prove what is the good acceptable and perfest Will of God As the undestanding is changed so the affctions love hatred hope fear c. Are accordingly changed he that before counted the Sabboth weariness now he calleth it a delight He that before rejoyced in the increase of Corne Wine and Oyl and in satisfying the senses his joy now proceeds from higher and nobler causes viz. The light of Gods countenance communion with God in holy duties reading the word of God praying thanksgiveing meditating and the most severe duties of fasting humiliation and repentance and every meanes of begetting and improving grace he preserreth before satisfying of the senses with pleasant viands which whilest they cherish and delight the body they deprave the better part possibly not the intellect and rational faculty of the soul for that may be improved too by God usage of the body so it be not to excess But the new nature the divine Image which is begotten in us by the word of truth is starved stifled and grieved which image and new nature though it be in the understanding yet it doth so far surpass the reason as that doth the senses and is no other thing but the holy Spirit of God which every regenerate person hath received in some measure for this is that which did regenerate him which if any man have not it is certain he is none of his It is known to be the Spirit of God because it works not as reason doth by arguments deduced from things visible to sense nor such as can be proved by reasonable consequence but it is oftentimes directly opposite and repugnant to reason as in Abraham and so in all that undergo any trialls and who doth not undergo them This new soul or new life of the regenerate is not somented nourished or cherished by the elements of the natural sensual vegetative or meerly rational soul but by the word of God and the dictates of the Spirit for which it panteth as the Hart panteth after the water brooks and breaketh out for the very fervent desire that it hath alwaies to Gods commandments which it esteemeth above Gold and thirsteth after as the body doth for the necessarys of life and yet the most regegenerate and renewed person hath the flesh and coruption alwaies remaining in him and must and doth pray sometimes with holy David for renovation Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right Spirit within me Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy holy Spirit from me For we have this treasure but in earthen vessels we are not assured of the continuance of it therefore we watch against our inbred corruptions and pray for divine supportations knowing our slippery standing our own weakness and the strength of our spiritual adversaries which assails us without intermission And when we think our selves most strong we may fall as the great Apostle that denied his Master did because in the best of Saints the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and sometimes leads them captive and suffers not to do the good which they would but draws them to the evil which they would not the law of the members warring against the law of the mind Were it otherwise there would be no virtue nor occasion of resisting The sense of which corruption and uncleanness makes them mourne bewaile and abhor themselves
Stimulus in carne the provocation or irritation in the Flesh buffeted him First he is sensible of his own weakness and useth violence upon himself and keeps under his body yet he did not trust in these means because he knew their insufficiency Therefore he seeks help and assistance from him that is All-sufficient and besought God against it that it might depart from him which God was not pleased to grant as appeareth because the Holy Man was subject to be transported with Pride because of the extraordinary priviledges and abundance of Revelations given unto him Yet he obtained that which was better for him Grace sufficient for when he was weak in himself he was then strong in Grace And that Stimulus suffered to remain to prick the bladder of his Pride and probably for the same reasons God may suffer many of us to undergo the like buffetings from our corruptions and yet support and sustain us in the encounter that we fall not If we be careful as the Apostle was to make use of the same means viz. subduing our body and prayer For we have all the same promises as these men had and the same means to obtain Grace and Life Eternal To know God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent and he that hath but the hope of Eternal Life purifyeth himself even as he is pure and this purifying is by denying our selves taking up our Cross and following Christ which is the Act of Faith and the Life of Faith And by Faith too it is scarcely attainable with great difficulty as our Saviour himself tells us Luke 3. Strive to enter in at the strait Gate for narrow is the way And the righteous shall scarcely be saved c. And those who have both Faith whereby they are able to overcome the World by Gods assistance and the Spirit too to assist them yet these find that though the Spirit is willing the flesh is weak That is though thou subdue it never so much yet though it be subdued that it dare not much oppose yet it will still be unable to keep Pace with the motions of the Spirit Yet I fear too that it will never be so subdued but I shall be forced to bewail my self often with the words of the Apostle Romans 8. The Law is Spiritual but I am carnal but as he disowned himself in this person saying 't is no more I but sin that dwelleth in me So may every child of God whose will is as his was and useth the means that he did And so will God own them for that which is his Image in them By this the Apostle sheweth the enemy with whom he had fought the good fight and having fought it he assures himself that God will give him the Crown And having sowed the seed he expects to reap the same he sowed for he sowed to the Spirit and of the Spirit hoped to reap life everlasting which the Righteous Judge will give to all that love his appearance Rev. 22. Let him that is holy be holy still Meditation 5. The meanes which the soul useth to attaine its renovation and to preserve and persevere in it Are fervent prayer to God for it diligent reading meditation mortification and continual self denial Zeal of God an earnest thirst after a greater degree of grace from the sense of its own weakness and failing a forsaking the world its hopes and feares and worldly interests profits joys and greifes Faith hope and watchfulness against temptation to watch the mouth and the heart Patience in suffering wrongfully humility or to be little in his own eyes for God gives his greace to the humble To set God alwaies before us in his omniscience omnipotence infinitness of his holiness glory and goodness A timely and carely seeking it and entertaining it when it is offered to us without delaies else when we seek we may be rejected as in Prov. 1. Because when I called you answerd not c. Unweariedness in their race To have an eye to the recompence of reward and not to fear them that can only hurt the body but be in the fear of God all the day To abstain from all appearance of evil 1 Thes 5.22 Not only from known sins but from things that have but some complexion of evil for such is the purity of Gods nature that he hates every species or shew of evil And such perfection doth he require in his Servants as it is expressed by our Saviour Math. 5. Strait is the gate c. Be ye perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect A holy appetite to the word of God and communion with God in every ordinance as prayer praise the communion of the body and blood of Christ Jesus in the Lords supper Mat. 5. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be satisfied Psal 42.2 My soul is thirst for God yea even for the living God When shall I come to appear before the presence of God This sheweth how he practised Another meanes like unto this is that of St. Paul not to account that we have attained but to press forward Also it is appointed as a necessary means to attain this end by our Saviour himself that we learn of him and we are taught so to do by the holy Apostles That we should walke even as he walked 1 Joh. 2.6 Hereby we know that we have his nature his image his Spirit and union with him we ought then to imitate his humility whereby he became man and took upon him the form of a Servant in his meekness Isa 53.7 He was oppressed and afflicted but opened not his mouth He gave his back to the smiter and his cheeke to them that plucked off the hair and hid not his face from spitting So ought we to bear injuries with patience and not render evil for evil 3. In his willing and perfect obedience Psal 40. I delight to do thy will thy law is in my heart 4. In love Ephe. 5.7 Walk in love as Christ loved us Let husbands love their wives as Christ loved the Church 5. In perfect charity we must pray fer our enimies as he did 6. In diligence in religious duties he prayed all night he went constantly to the Synagogue on the Sabbath day 7. In our Reverence in holy Worship he fell on his face or kneeled yet he had the Spirit without measure 8. In his contempt of the world My Kingdom saith he is not of this world 9. In heavenly-mindedness his custom was to instruct of Heaven out of ordinary conferences as when the woman spake to him of water he spake of the water of life So must we have our conversation in Heaven 10. In his faithfulness in his function Heb. 3.2 Who was faithful to him that appointed him as Moses was faithful He was daily in the Temple and went about doing good and therefore in his last prayer said It is finished 11. In self-denial he said I seek not my own will but the
crucified to us and we unto the world that is as well the lusts of the flesh the lusts of the eyes and the pride of life which containes all that is in the world all which the faithful soul counts but dross and dung for the excellency of the knowledg of Christ Jesus whom as the Spouse in the Canticles she esteemes fairer than ten thousand And esteemes sin the most ugly vile eformed and abominable thing in the world pulling off its mask and vizard whereby it deceives the men of the world as it is said Rom. 7.10 Sin deceived me and thereby slew me The understanding thus inlightened ingageth all it can against sin as its enemy and sometimes by vigilancy it prevailes against all assaults of temptations whereby sin is quite excluded from entring and sometimes by flying the occasions of sin as Joseph fled from his Mistress and by the Spirit assistance we mortify the flesh God and Christ susporting Sometimes by prayer faith prevailes against the tempter the soul fearing its own weakness seeks for help of him who is able to succour and hath succoured it The last refuge which faith hath is repentance early and hearty sorrow for the sin committed as Peter when he had denied his Lord and Master immediately he went forth and wept bitterly By these means faith quenches all the fiery darts of the wicked The light of nature teacheth that the soul is borne to more noble things than to wait upon the pleasure of the senses But the supernatural life which the Apostle lived when he said I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me Shews another inabling principle of life in the regenerate proceeding from that union which is betwixt Christ and his members because Christ and they are one Spirit 1 Cor. 6.10 Therefore he saith Not I because he is not the same man he was before that man is Crucified with Christ and buried with him he hath derived a new life from Christ as he expresseth I laboured more abundantly than all yet not I but Christ Christ is the spring of it the matter of it and end of it Consider the end of your conversation Jesus Christ and if Christ live in us we shall do think and speak as he did As all other graces of Gods children are sometimes weaker than they are at other times so is faith But thâ— decay of this grace is the cause of decay of many others and sometime the decay of others may cause a decay of this the Psal 51. Entituled a Psalme of David when Nathan the Prophet came unto him after he had gone in to Bathsheba the Title and the Psalme it self shew what sins and what punishments he lay under and because his sins were the cause of the loss of Gods Spirit or of the danger of it and of the loss of the joy of his salvation viz. His assurance he confesseth his sins first and prays for pardon through the multitude of Gods tender mercys then prays for washing healing cleansing and renovation Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right Spirit within me It followes Restore unto me the joy of thy Salvation and support me with thy free Spirit This implieth that before he had it but now he had lost it and was deprived of it which was the cause of so great grief to him that he expresseth it to be the breaking of his bones Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce And the like doth every penitent broken soul feel in himself when he fears the loss of Gods holy Spirit and feels himself deprived of the joy of his salvation and this joy when it is restored is so great that it will make the broken bones rejoyce he apprehended the greatness of the joy now in the loss of it Psal I have roared for the very disquietness of my heart God deprives us of it for our sins that we may be the more careful to preserve it and fearful by sin to loose it or hazard it and to work out our Salvation with fear and trembling for though Gods lays not upon his children all that they deserve yet they shall not go unpunished Judgment shall begin at the house of God Jer. 22.24 Though Coniah the Son of Jehojakim King of Juda were the signet upon my right hand yet would I pluck thee thence Now for as much as the motions workings of the holy Spirit in the faithful people of God by inlightning them in the understanding of heavenly truths bringing to mind and applying the word of God to their comfort inabling them to converse and walk with God in holy Meditation contemplation prayer and thanksgiving making melody in their hearts to the Lord delighting them and rejoycing them in the want of all things as the Prophet Habakkuk expresseth chap. 3. Though the Fig Tree should not blossom nor fruits be in the vines c. And making them to abound with inward joy when their afflictions do most abound slighting and contemning alike both worldly joy and sorrow for the joy which they have in the Lord these are the study imployment and business of a regenerate person wherein he desires to be alwaies exercised because he cannot find satisfaction nor delight in any thing else hence he may be more truly and properly said to live by faith and by the Spirit than to live the life natural as St. Paul argues he did when he saith I am crucified with Christ yet I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live I live by the faith of the Son of God who hath loved me and given himself for me Therefore they are as it were out of their lives and void of all injoyment and comfort when they want the comforts and assistance of the Holy Spirit as Holy David did greatly resent the absence of it and fear lest it should be taken from him and that he should be cast away so do most of Gods people Isa 49.14 Sion said The Lord hath forsaken me and my God hath forgotten me Though God had graven her in the palms of his hands When God hides his face and withdraws himself they are cast down as Psal I said in my prosperity I should never be cast down but thou hidest thy face and I was troubled This withdrawing of God was the very bitterest of our Saviours sufferings If this should be our condition let us not be weary of well doing but wait on the Lord for God hath said Isa 49. That he that waits on the Lord shall be like an Eagle And consider that Christ Jesus suffered the like and therefore hath a fellow feeling of our suffering that he might succour us who are tempted But if Christ doth not succour us our heart cannot indure our hands cannot be strong in the days that God shall thus deal with us as it is Ezek. 22. v. 14. But he hath bid us to call upon him
raiment and God increased him to two bands Abraham desired but a Son and God increaseth his seed as the sand of the Sea The prodigal desires to be but as a Servant and the Father entertaineth him with embracings and feastings But as for his people that trust in him mercy imbraseth them on every side God satisfieth their mouth with good things they shall want no manner of thing that is good He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him if he doth not give the thing desired he will take away the desire of it Psal 32.4 Delight thy self in the Lord and he will give the thy hearts desire We starve our souls for want of asking Joash struck three times on the ground and the Prophet was angry and said to him Thou shouldest have strucken six or seven times Paul to the Corinthians saith you are not straitned in us but in your own bowels And t is said of Christ that he could not do many works because of their infidelety to be often upon our knees shews our faith in him believing his goodness and Fatherly care of us Infidelity doth as it were bind the hands of God who is not wanting in his bowels of mercy Be sensible then O my soul of thy wants know where to go for thy supply namely to him that inviteth thee give way to thy most inlarged desires when thou goest to an infinite supply be not straitned in thine own bowels open thy mouth wide come boldly as he biddeth thee And ask the things that are pleasing in his sight since thou knowest thou shalt receive them if they be such things as the word of God teaches thee to ask fear not because thou art sensible of thine own unworthiness since such are invited and the best are unprofitable Servants And when they have done all they may and must acknowledge themselves such and stand in need of the merits of their Saviour and are justified freely by grace if so much more must such sinners as I and such as Mary Magdalen see our own unprofitableness But Oh that I could love as much as she did because much is forgiven me and I believe that he will forgive me because he hath given me many things and it is easier and lesser in the esteem of men to forgive a debt than to give I shall undoubtedly believe his love to me If I can feel in my heart such love to him 5. Meditation When I find the Lord reckoning up the greivous sins of his auncient people the Jews that they were a rebellious people lying Children that would not hearken to the law of the Lord which say to the seers see not and to the Prophets prophesy not unto us right things but deceits cause the holy one of Israel to cease from before us for which iniquity he threatens them v. 13. And v. 15. Promiseth them salvation if they return but finding them obstinate they would not whereby they procure their own ruin Therefore he saith Isa 15.18 He will wait to be gracious unto them He will be exalted that he may shew mercy unto them as if he had said though their sins were never so great yet his mercy should not be overcome his mercy is infinite as he is their sins are the sins of men his mercies the mercies of God that where iniquity doth abound grace doth superabound his mercy is free without any merit in us or any motive unless it be our misery the motive of his patience and mercy is only from himself but that he waited to be gracious implies that though his mercy were never so free yet he could not find a season to shew it then when they were so averse from him Since then the motive of mercy is only in God himself we may infer that there is nothing in him to discourage faith and recumbency upon him so that although we have been guilty of such sins as these are or the same though we have been rebellious lying averse and would not hearken unto his voice nor to his Prophets and have hindred them from speaking right things yet let us remember our selves and returne unto him as the Ninevites did when they were warned who knowes but he may wait to be gracious to us also but let us not presume upon his mercy and make that which should be our Physick our Poison We know that he hath given us a High Priest who doth not only know our insirmities and impotencies but therefore knew them that he might have compassion upon us Blessed Jesus thou knowest that no man can come after thee unless the Father draw him help thou our weak nature by thy Holy Spirits assistance draw us we will run after thee Quicken us who by nature are dead in trespasses and sins take away our heart of stone and give us hearts of flesh for thy promise sake A Prayer LORD when I am tempted to revenge pride Emulation Abition wrath or any other sinful action to satisfy my sensual carnal appetite to maintaine my honour to repress my adversary to Correct his insolency inlighten me with thy Heavenly grace thy word and thy Spirit that I may pull off the Mask of these sensual carnal waies of the men of the world which shall perish and see their vanity and deformity and anoint thou my eyes that I may cleerly see the beauty of every vertue grace meekness charity humility patience longanimity that I may view them in themselves and in those who excelled therein and esteeme them more honourable than to be accompted brave gallant bold valiant and heroick as sometimes I have esteemed when I have seen heard and read of any exemplar and rare act of the graces as to instance the patience of Job when he had lost his estate children and bodily health murmured not but blessed God and Eli 'T is the Lord let him do what seemeth good in his eyes Hanna when she was reproved for drunkenness answered without anger nay but in the bitterness of my soul I prayed Forgive us our trepasses as we forgive them that trespass against us 1. Meditation If our forgiving the trespasses of others be the pattern of Gods forgiveness to us how few can be saved for none ever forgave every injury that hath been done to him some they have revenged But if God doth not pardon every sin to us we are damned Lord give us thy grace to be as free in the pardoning of all trespasses without exception though never so many as we would have thee forgive us for we cannot have so many committed against us as we have committed against thee therefore we have need of a larger pardon from God to us than we can have occasion to give others If God would take accompt of us we shall have need of forgiveness for a thousand talents Mat. 18.24 More than we are able to satisfy yet when we fall down before him beseeching his pardon he freely forgives us all But if we for a hundred pence or