word Nothing slayeth Sinners or woundeth Saints more than Sloth In sacred Things he who is not doing is undoing whoever is not busy is not holy And of them who are so every slothful Servant is more a Thief than a Servant The slothful in Business is Brother to the slothful out of it God's Acquaintance is both entred and exercised by Diligence Memorable is the Royal Psalmist's word Thou hast commanded us to keep thy Precepts diligently Exh. 2 Think strain your Minds in the Thoughts Commune with your Hearts frequently and seriously concerning the Excellency and Necessity of God's Acquaintance Being come to Thinking beware of mispending your Thoughts by whose waste not a few Souls are lost The Number being great who mind little of Religion more than the Husks The Formalities which swallow up many Mens Care are in Reality no more And in fiery Contentions about them the most do seem rather to disgorge their Malice than to discharge their Conscience For what Conscience can dream either that any Way of Religion can please God without Acquaintance with Him Or that Difference in those Notions and Practices which consist with his Acquaintance is not very tolerable without Strife and Variance Wherefore shake this Viper off from your Hands away with the Serpent and take Fish away with the Stone and take Bread Look to the End of the Commandment which is Charity out of a pure Heart and a good Conscience and Faith unfeigned Mind you the Soul and Body of Religion be less intent upon the Garb and Dress Be a thousand times more careful to excel in Acquaintance with God which all do agree to be Saving-Religion than to promote this or that Opinion about which Men of unquestionable Integrity cannot agree whether it be from Heaven or of Men Of these Things put your selves in remembrance You were created to be acquainted with your Creator Your Conscience his Envoy in your Hearts tells you this Your Minds were given you to know Him and your Wills and Affections to Chuse and Love Him The Son of God was sent to die for you and his Spirit is sent down from Heaven to live in you that ye might be acquainted with God! And if you refuse to be so you vex God the Holy Ghost and put God the Son to open shame The Helps vouchsafed in the Gospel for God's Acquaintance are incomparably greater than those afforded under the Law So that if you improve not your Advantages you receive greater Damnation than Old-Testament Sinners Your Sin is aggravated and your Sentence will be so God's Acquaintance is great Gain and all the World without it is Vanity and Vexation If you enjoy not God the most despicable Insect enjoys as much as you and if you do enjoy Him the highest Cherub enjoys no more than you In God's Acquaintance there is great Reward even upon Earth where there is least of it If acquainted with Him you can have no Wants but he will supply them no Losses but he will repair them no Combats but he will be Second yea Principal in them and make the Victory as sure as the Fight In short Without God's Acquaintance no Sin will die in you and no Divine Grace will live Without this Acquaintance Enmity to God will be bewrayed or if buried buried alive Heavenly Vertue and Love of God will not be seen in you or if it be it will be seen to be but painted not engraved He must be a Man of such Thought that is ever acquainted with God With such Thought his Heart must stir him up and his Spirit must make him willing Exod. 35.21 Exh. 3 Resolve purpose let a Vote pass in your Souls and deliberately Design to get and encrease Acquaintance with God Resolution is the only generous Issue of Thought Which hath never been rightly fixed upon our Objects or into our Hearts when it is barren and bears it not Determine now therefore and fully engage to pursue Acquaintance with God Always to consult is as bad as never to consult at all For what is Consultation without Action And what can be either acted before it 's attempted or be attempted before it be resolved In vain I speak and in vain you hear any further if this Resolution be not first settled If your Wills remain still in suspence and you halt between two between God's Friendship and the World's it were more expedient that I should sit down and weep over you than preach on and direct you to what you intend not The Ark of God and the Idol of Philisthia could not stand upon the same Altar Neither can a Choice of God's Acquaintance and the World's consist in the same Heart Heaven and Earth be not such Equals as that they should compound and agree to take equal Shares in our Affections So that if any thing be done to purpose to this Effect must be your Language What have I to do any more with Idols I do renounce them with full purpose applying my self to seek God's Acquaintance I am on and off no longer now but fixed I see the Necessity and cease from the Impertinence of pleading Difficulty Let it cost me right Hand and right Eye they shall go if need be I will not give over seeking this Acquaintance though I die No Man comes into God's Acquaintance and Favour till he is made thus willing in the Day of his Power Exh. 4 Hope the best if your spiritual Hands hang down and Knees be feeble yet lift them up Hope even against Hope that as much as you have provoked Him to Vengeance God will now bring you to his Acquaintance That now he has given you to Will he will also strengthen you to Do all that is necessary Humble you much with the afflictive Thoughts of your long Enmity unto Him But join not with the Tempter against your self and your so gracious Father Do not tell your selves that you shall never see any Good come of your good Purposes That they are in vain and 't is not likely that the Majesty so Holy should ever be propitiated to you or you be made sutable or acceptable to Him But that as when He was willing you would not be reconciled so now that you are willing he will not incline to Friendship Give him not so insolently the Lie with your Mouth or Hearts and abhor the thought of his being unreconcilably angred or your being unalterably wicked Tell your selves the truth He is not implacable by the Oblation of his Son nor are you unreformable by the Power of his Spirit A Spirit which he hath promised to give unto them that ask as you are now resolved to do and that without ceasing No Man came ever into God's Acquaintance without this Hope and Confidence that There is Forgiveness with him Exh. 5 Seek as for Silver search as for hid Treasure for the sound Knowledg of your Righteousness your Strength and your Steps Hope is a Spring of Motion and unto nothing more
whom they are Brought and Kept nigh Him and are excited with frequence to Draw most near to Him in his Ordinances Which as Jacob's Ladder have their Top in Heaven though their Foot on Earth And whereon as God descends to us we do Ascend to God The Lord is nigh to all that Call upon Him Howbeit without the Exercise of Graces vain is the Use of Ordinances Such Use is very Profaness and no Mean but the Bane of Acquaintance with God For what is such Worship but Lies and Deceit Hos 11. ult Think we that we can Come to God a Spirit upon Bodily Feet Or that there is any beneficial Approach to Him but with the Heart Or with any thing of the Heart but the Holy Vertues of it Briefly thus in every Ordinance we must set forward Repentance It is unto his Mourners that in Ordinances God cometh down with Comforts Isa 57.15 We must act Faith what we Feel our selves to Want we must Believe God able and willing to Give To wit for the sake of Christ who hath paid for it on Earth and pleads for it in Heaven The Scripture bids him not think to Receive any thing who in Ordinances asketh without Faith and Wavering Jam. 1.6 7. We must act Hope this is the Waiting Grace It is an Expectation that is Certain because built on the Rock of Divine Promises and Quickning both Desire and Action because of its Objects attractive excellency and Quieting also till God's time of bestowing it doth come because Hope is it self a very Foretaste of its Object 's sweetness And there is a Rejoicing in Hope as well as in Possession No wonder therefore that there is a Patience of Hope without the Exercise whereof in an Ordinance our Hearts be either Frozen and Negligent or Furious and Impatient When we Hope for God's Salvation then we do his Commandments Psal 119.166 We must also put forth Love for this is the Uniting Grace By its Desire we run to an Object by its Delight we rest in it Desire the first act of Love is as Thirst Delight which is its other Act is Satisfaction An Ordinance without these is as a Feast where there 's no Appetite or Eating But what saith our Saviour If a Man Love me he shall be Beloved of my Father and I will Love him and will Manifest my self unto him We will Come unto him and make our Abode with him Joh. 14.21 23. We must likewise express Humility because of our Natural distance from God which is never to be reduced and our Moral distance which is but in part removed Who can measure the Distance between Infinite and Finite Between a God and a Creature Or the Distance that is between Perfect Holiness and little beside Guilt and Filth Between Him in whose sight Angels are not clean and Creatures that proclaim themselves to be Sinks of Sin and to need no less than a Fountain of Grace The Man unto whom God will look in any Ordinance is the Poor and Contrite in Spirit that trembleth at his Word Isa 66.2 Then only we Worship when our Souls bow down and our Spirits Kneel before God our Maker Thus is Acquaintance with God maintained By his Communications unto us and our Exercising Graces and Performing Duties toward Him A blessed Reciprocation wherein He descending to us in a way of Bounty we ascend up unto him in a way of Duty Happy is the People that is in such a Case Happy is the People whose God is the Lord Wherefore lastly Posit 8 Acquaintance with God is Interrupted and broken by these particulars These into which we easily Fall and under which we must deeply Suffer as oft as we do so Namely 1. Presumptuous Sins Sins commited not by the Error of the Vnderstanding and named Sins of Ignorance or Incogitancy nor by the rashness and precipitance of the Affections and named Sins of Infirmity but committed by the rebellious Will which notwithstanding the Dictate of the Mind offered to it is swayed by the Lust of brutish Affection and rushes into the abominable thing that God hates These bear the name of Presumptuous Sins And such is their Malignity that they alienate God from the Soul and the Soul from God They are said to Separate Isa 59.2 And know we not their Effect upon the Man of God's own Heart His own words do argue that they made him fear himself to be a Cast-a-way Cast me not away from thy Presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me Psal 51.11 In short where wilful Sins do not die no Acquaintance with God can Live It must lay us in a Swoon till their Mortification 2. Rejected Duties Known Duties declined as to Frequence or as to Fervence in them As slow as the Lord is unto Wrath he will bear no such Slights of his Love For what a Contempt is weariness of the Supream King's Service and Benefactor 's Acquaintance What a Blasphemy is it in practice to say We are Lords and will come no more unto thee Jer. 2.31 What a sensless Iniquity is it as well as a Contumelious For never could any answer to God's Query VVhat have I done unto thee and wherein have I wearied thee Mic. 6.3 If we have full Stomachs and loath God's Honeycombs we shall not go long without feeling his Rods and Scorpions The Vials of his Anger shall be poured out and the wonted Aids and Comforts of his grieved Spirit be suspended It 's more than probable that till we stir up our selves and fill our Life with Duties and our Duties with Graces we shall find our selves emptied of our Hopes of Heaven and filled with the Fears of Hell My seldom-praying hath made me so often-despairing saith one My long Fasts from Duty have taken away all my Appetite unto it And what saith another For my sake let all Christians beware of Coldness in Ordinances it hath been the Death of my Hopes and giveth me a Life of nothing but Fears It is said of some Sovereign Potions that if taken cold their Virtue is Malignant they rather kill than heal I am much more certain that the Ordinances which being attended with Zeal lift up toward Heaven when Lukewarmness obtains they do throw us clean contrary As many as desire a flourishing Acquaintance with him let them seek the Lord continually and with all their Heart and their Soul Knowing that all drawing back tends to its Perdition Lastly 3. Pursued Vanities By Vanities I intend this World's Idols Sensual Pleasures which are but Swines Delights Riches of Gold that is but Dust and of Pearl which is no more than the Sea's Froth Honour and Praise of Men which is but their unseen Conceit and their favourable Breath Of these the condemned Pursuit is such as is Absolute and Vltimate neither Submissive nor Moderate When we prosecute them as resolved any manner of way to gain them Making them our highest Ambition Impatient of their being withheld from us by the undoubted Proprietor And
Possessors than whom the Earth hath not more credible Witnesses do proclaim We have Peace with God And what then We Rejoice and not only so but we Glory Rom. 6.1 2 3. We Rejoice with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory 1 Pet. 1.8 They know that they Ought and they Chide themselves for the Delinquency when they do not Why art thou Cast down O my Soul why art thou Disquieted Psal 42. ult q. d. Why doth not the Wine of God's Peace Chear thy Heart Why doth not its Oil make thy Face to shine Are Guilts thy Trouble God pardons the Penitent Are Lusts thy Plagues God subdues them in those that seek to Him Infirmities remain but God is Healing them Enemies remain but God is Conquering them Temptations remain but God is Rebuking them Sufferings remain but God is Sweetning them Not suffering them to be useless or to be unto other than very good Purpose as of Instructing my Mind Humbling my Heart Checking my Sin Exciting my Grace Making me more ready for Glory Let them be miserable that can be Miserable saith Luther my Peace is made with God and I cannot be Miserable In short Joy is a Tree of Life and God's Peace is Joy his Peace on Earth is so If any Temporal Good be Denied us this takes off the Desire of it If any be Delayed this makes to wait the Time of it And whatever is Granted this Sweetens the Use of it No such Anodyne is to be found no such Medicine as the Peace of God This Peace He giveth to such as Acquaint themselves with Him in the House of their Pilgrimage As to what more He giveth of his Royal Bounty when He takes them up into his own House above this only shall be said for their Consolation It vastly transcends our Comprehension and the one half cannot be told Posit 2 The Gift of this Peace to all that are Acquainted with God is unquestionable Even self-evident and needing no Proof Heathens knew and taught the most certain Welfare of Men acquainted with God Plutarch and Seneca do blazon it Account God the supream Rewarder and Reverence him accordingly then shalt thou have all Good and fear no Evil says the first He is sure to be a Free-man that kindly submits himself to God his Soveraign saith the other Deo parere est Libertas Senec. de Yit Beat. Yea the Devil of old did acknowledg it Job 1.9 Doth Job Fear God for nought Hast thou not made an Hedg about him The Father of Lies spake this truth though for his own Ends q. d. All the Powers of Hell cannot break his Peace that is a Friend of the God of Peace As many as do know God they proclaim Him to be thus Good and no small part of the Scriptures consisteth of their Proclamations Besides how doth the Nature of God certify it God is Love and Goodness is his Delight And is it possible that infinite Bounty should less richly feast it self with its Redeemed How sure doth the Divine Word make it How fast doth the Oath of God bind it Heb. 6.17 How solemnly does He in Baptism and the Lord's Sapper confirm it Unbelief would be almost as impossible as it is unrighteous if all this were duly weighed by us I therefore hasten to my principal Business which is Exhortation But after all that hath been said needs any Man to be pressed to acquaint himself with God What is there any Man that believes not this Report Or believing it will dare to deny or delay seeking his Peace with God Jacob hears that Esau is coming against him and he straitway sendeth Presents and maketh humble submission Adonijah fears the Effects of King Solomon's Wrath and flies to the Horns of the Altar The King of Assyria no sooner falls under King Ahab's Power but Messengers are sent with Ropes about their Necks to beg his Peace In our Saviour's Parable a King that has ten thousand Men heareth of one who hath twenty thousand coming forth against him and was so wise that while he was yet far off he sent and treated for Peace The Men of Tyre and Sidon displease Herod and they delay not to find an Advocate and make a Suit for Reconciliation What! shall the Peace of breathing Dust be so hastily sought and may any Man be supposed to be yet averse or so much as unresolved to seek God's Peace Yes surely and of Faithfulness unto God and your selves I must say thus much The Visible Church as well as the World exercet Histrioniam does disguise and act Parts Two sorts of Men comprehend all the Living such as are wholly averse from God's Acquaintance and such as are culpably defective in their Affections and Actions for it I except not such as sit under Ordinances of greatest Light and Power wherein they have most of Sunshine and of Thunder He who looks down from Heaven on us to see if we understand and do seek God He seeth that all are gone aside and gone off from him either totally or in such part as I have said And with both he hath a just Quarrel and a Fearful With both therefore is the Business of every Ambassador and to each of them I direct my Exhortation The Lord convince both of the Matter of Fact that it is thus with them and of the penal Evil of it that it is their horrid Sin and deepest Misery to have it so The Lord so prepare and incline the Hearts of both to take his Counsels which are not more truly or more evidently to our Duty than to our Interest Temporal and Eternal In short The Lord's Voice thus crieth unto both and the Man of Wisdom shall hear and do and thereby hear and live Exh. 1 Awake get out of the Bed of your Sloth pull aside the Curtains you have drawn about you to keep out the inviting Light The foolish Virgins sleep and the Wise do slumber Both in different Degrees do bind up their spiritual Senses So that by the former nothing of God is Heard Seen or Felt from Morning to Night and by the latter very little Dream they do both of them but Reason and Argue in this Temper they cannot And as from sleeping Sampson the holy Spirit departs from them But Sirs Sleep not you as do others Be not of them of whom God doth complain that they do not stir up themselves but even as a Mad-man in a Storm do sleep on the top of a Mast Live not thoughtless and careless of God as one with whom you have not to do nor desire to have to do Say not to Him in practice Depart from us Be gone out of our Minds and Hearts But as the Spouse Now will I arise As the Prodigal when come to himself I will arise As the poor perishing Lepers Why sit we here till we die The Ease of spiritual Sleep is short the Midnight-Cry soon breaks it The Venom of it is mortal nothing more deadly than Sleep in a Lethargy In a
concerning than this can it move you Your Righteousness is Jesus Christ His Righteousness is the true and only that satisfieth for Iniquity and meriteth Mercy The great Apostle protests against Trust in any beside Though after his Conversion he was a sort of incarnate Angel he dared to plead no other Righteousness at God's Tribunal Knowing all other Garments to have both Defects and Defilement he declareth the Righteousness of God's Son to be the Robe of his Salvation Phil. 3.7 8 9. Natural Conscience as soon as it 's awake cries out What shall I do to be saved But as soon as its Eyes are touched with the Eye-salve of the Gospel it sees that It can never be saved by what it will ever be able to do When we have done all we are unprofitable Servants Your Strength is the Holy Ghost We have no more Justifying Righteousness than we receive from Christ nor any more sanctifying Righteousness than we receive from the Holy Ghost The Spirit helpeth our Infirmities Look over the Gospel you will find him entituled to all To all Grates as the Worker of them to all Duties as the Assister in them He it is that works all Good in us and by whom we are acted when we do what is Good The Body is not more dead and unactive without the Soul than the best Soul is without the Holy Spirit Without him we can do nothing No Man can call Jesus Lord but by the Spirit Your Steps thro Christ and by the Holy Ghost to God's Acquaintance are these e.gr. Painful Sense of your want of it for Blessed are they that mourn Longing desire after it for Blessed are they that hunger and thirst Humble Acknowledgment of your Weakness and disability to raise your selves to it for Blessed are the poor in Spirit Like acknowledgment of your being unworthy that God should raise you up for we are Ungodly as well as without Strength and less than the least of God's Mercies Faith of God's Power and Readiness in his Gospel-way to raise you up to it for He that cometh to God must believe that he is and is a Rewarder of them that seek him Faith of his Willingness with his Acquaintance freely to give you all things for so is his Promise No good Thing will he withhold from the Upright Lastly Humble Boldness in the Faith aforesaid to trust and serve Him for so is the Divine Prescription Let us come boldly to the Throne of Grace When you are come boldly thither you must lay down the Body before you can get higher For it is so high that the next Step is Glory saith one of Note in the Church These things Bind on your Fingers write on the Table of your Hearts Praying incessantly that by the Holy Spirit 's strengthning Power you may ever take these Steps and through Christ's meritory Righteousness be accepted in them For this keep you praying with all Prayer Exh. 6 Sanctify a Fast some Time set apart and go Vow unto the Lord to be his solemnly give your selves unto him present your selves living Sacrifices With what solemnity is the Nuptial Bond entred every where in the World With what Solemnity is a Coronation-Oath taken Yet what is the Pleasure of the one or the Honour of the other to that of the Covenant of Grace The Covenant by which our Maker becomes our Husband And we are made Princes How congruous is it that the Day of our entring it should be kept with greatest Solemnity and signalized as a Day never to be forgotten That every one joined to God therein should all Days of his Life most joyfully commemorate it saying This is the Day whereon I renewed my Baptismal Covenant Was married to my God was crowned with the Honour of his near Acquaintance and enriched with all Peace and Good Thanks be to God on every Remembrance That this Renewal of our Baptismal Vow is needful and the Repetition of it upon all proper Occasions none can question The Examples that commend it and the Reasons that enforce it are well known I say but this God though no Debtor at all to us pleaseth by Promises of Free Grace in effect to become one Men love to have their Favours free are impatient of being fettered by Promises unto their Alms-fokls and do reserve to themselves a Power of revoking their Charity at Pleasure But God is Love and such that tho all his Blessings be Gifts he condescends to be engaged for the conferring of them and allows them in a Sense to have the Quality of Debts In short tho his Word is established in Heaven and with Him is no shadow of turning yet his Mercy is secured by Covenant and his Covenant secured by Oath Even the highest Oath by his Life and by his Holiness What then Shall we who are Debtors the deepest we whose Gifts unto Him all are Debts and ten thousand times less than our Debts We whose Hearts are false and need be fix'd and fastned sluggish also and need to be quickned shall we think much to be bound in Vows Or shall we dare to trust our Treacherous Spirits without them What Bands and Cords can be too many for us Surely it stands us upon by these Vows as so many Girdles of Truth to bind on us the whole Armour of God if breaking off our old Agreement with Hell we would enter and maintain Acquaintance with God! And thus doth every Penitent who attends the Overture made by his Redeemer Let him take hold of my Strength that he may make Peace with me and he shall make Peace with me Isa 27.5 Exh. 7 Pay your Vows prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect Will of God be not content to keep you from presumptuous Sins unless the Words of your Mouth and the Meditations of your Heart be acceptable in the sight of God! Vows turn to a sad Account unless being bound you do thus Obey Taking heed of Gnats as well as of Camels of Moats as well as of Beams Ambitious to please to well-please yea and to best-please God Your Minds proving what doth do so by studying it out your Wills by embracing it and your active Powers by practising it Practising it to the best of your Light and to the utmost of your Strength with all your Mind and with all your Soul For as fair as the Tree of Knowledg is to look on the Tree of Life is the best to feed on And if practical Holiness be not the Life of our Religion our Judg will abominate our Heads of Gold upon Feet of Clay Follow you therefore the Apostle's Rule too hot for Hypocrites to hold Whatsoever things are True are Honest are Just are Pure are Lovely are of good Report if there be any Vertue i. e. any more vertuous than others if there be any Praise i. e. more praise-worthy than others Think on these things these things do It is true and a most comforting Truth that in our weak and tempted State God
will not reckon every Sin a Revolt That which we disallow and deplore He will not vindictively remember As Amity between Princes is not broken by what is done by Pirats if they are not countenanced by supream Commanders so our Acquaintance with God is not broke by every inordinacy of the inferiour Appetite if it be not indulged by the superior Faculties If the Will doth the mean time consent that the Law is Holy Just and Good and calls to the Vnderstanding for Arguments against the breach of it if the Mind and the Heart do defy the Sin the Sin doth not then break our Acquaintance But otherwise it worketh in our Souls a Dread and a Dislike of God It maketh that we neither dare nor desire to approach him And causeth on God's Part a sad Restraint and suspension of Grace and Peace as to the usual degree of Communication Who knows not what David's Bones felt for his Sin of this sort And who is he that hath not himself dearly smarted for it Or who that knows God wonders at it He will be Just as well as Merciful in his dealing with his own Children And will make them to know that he can endure no Sin in them that they are able to endure in themselves Sin against Knowledg being Death to Acquaintance Which if we would maintain effectually to our Peace we must walk as we are taught by Divine Grace denying Vngodliness and worldly Lusts i. e. refusing assent to their lying Suggestions of Pleasure and Profit and refusing Consent unto their importunate Solicitations Behaving our selves soberly in the Duties of our personal Capacity Righteously in relative Duties to Men and Godly in the Duties of immediate Intercourse with God Then may we in Peace Look for the blessed Hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Thus Lived and for this looked the rare Christian whose Decease hath occasioned this Discourse A Christian much more in Truth than in Appearance One of an acquaintance with God that bare few Leaves with much Fruit. Soveraign Grace most richly adorned her Person but my Skill shall not be strained to garnish her Tomb. Only as in the Place of a last Exhortation I add thus much not as Panegyrick but as Sermon Of the Honour of her Parentage of the Beauty of her Person and other common Gifts which do not make known God's Love or Hatred I say not any thing Ecclesia haec tanquam supervacanea dimittit saith an Antient Bishop Though in the World these do make great Figures the Church takes them for no more than Cyphers This only I exhort The things which some of you have seen in her more of you have Heard and all of you shall Now-Hear these things Seek and these Do and the God of Peace shall be with you A summary of them as for some Years I have both Heard and Seen them I give in few words and in no more than these particulars Spiritual Vnderstanding Extensive Knowledg of Revealed as well as of Natural Religion Intensive of Clear as well as of true Light and Applicative taking all that God saith as spoken to ones self as well as to others This is what is wrought by the Vnction which God's Children have from the Holy One. This is the Wisdom that is unto Salvation This was eminently in Her of whom we speak a Guide unto Duty and a Keeper therein a Judg condemning for Neglect of Duty and a Lictor punishing for all done amiss Other Light is but Ignis fatuus other Knowledg but Learned Ignorance Holy Affections Holily Directed by the Dictates of an informed Judgment holily Set upon deserving Objects and holily Proportionated according to their various Degrees of Goodness and Deserts These Affections are our Souls Feet and Wings in Actions Natural Civil and Religious these are the things that move us Insomuch that while these are Naught we cannot do the least Good But when these are Rectified in the Gospel Sense we are Perfect and throughly Furnished unto every good Work The Father and the Fashioner of Spirits so regulated the Affections of this his Servant's Spirit that Enemies if she had any would confess them to have bin set upon the One thing necessary and so set as hath been said True Diligence Such as stirs Promptly as Flames do Ascend Earnestly as for Life with all Violence and with both Hands and Incessantly as Waters flow from Fountains Such was her Industry in Sacred Affairs Unto them her Inclination prevented Human Perswasion and in them she appeared to be none of that sad Multitude who so Pray as though they cared not whether they sped and so Hear God's Word as though they desired nothing less than to Profit Who ever saw her in Prayer but most Fervent in Hearing but most fixedly Intent A most useful Pattern to the Congregation wherein she Worshipped Her Perseverance in this was unfainting to the last her Spirit was Willing when her Flesh was Weak The very Day before her Ascension how eagerly did she Point when she could not speak and make Signs when she could utter no Words to have Holy Prayer put up There was no extinction of the Fire upon her Altar it Ascended with Her Exemplary Patience A Silently-submitting one as that of David who was Dumb because it was God who smote him a Thankfully-Accepting one as that of Job who Blessed God Taking away good things as well as Giving of them and a Chearfully-Receiving one as that of the Apostle's who Gloried or Rejoiced in Tribulations In all her Moanings throughout her long Sickness I heard no Murmuring But a perpetual Acknowledgment of the Divine Goodness in Mitigating her Pains and Moderating her Sorrows Profound Thankfulness Cordial when the Heart is by Gifts made an Oblation to the Giver Oral when the Mouth is made a Trumpet of his Goodness Practical when it 's made the Business of our whole Life to give him the Glory of his Bounty This which is the Soul of all Religion was conspicuosly the Exercise and Delight of her Religious Soul Vniversal Godliness The highest and most solemn Respects toward God as the First Cause ascribing all Good unto Him and Trusting Him for all as the Chiefest Good Reverencing of Him and Delighting in Him as the Supream Power subjecting us to his Authority and yielding Obedience to his Laws as the Last End Glorifying Him in all Things and above all Things O happy Days when there shall be found many such manner of Persons for all holy Conversation and Godliness Christian Charity Of Pity towards God's Enemies of Pardon towards our own Enemies of Complacence in good Men of Benevolence to all Men. This was her Sweet and Gentle Temper her Kind and Meek Spirit A Temper most Delightful to her self most Beneficial to all about her most Like unto God and most Acceptable to Him Excellent and regular Moderation Such Government of the Affections as keepeth from being brought under the Power of any either in the Pursuit or Vse of things Temporal That wherein the desiring Appetite is with Sobriety and Temperance restrain'd from inordinate Pleasure and the angry Appetite is with Fortitude and Patience bridled from unrighteous Wrath. That whereby we are enfranchised from Captivity unto Sense and have Spiritual Dominion established over our Brutish part That whereby we are Crucified to the World and the World is Crucified to us as the Sacred Writer speaks q. d. the Love and Fear of the World is regulated in us so that it can no more seduce or Terrify us That through which Christian Souldiers get the Mastery over the bloody Conspirators this World their Tempter and the Body their Traitor Surrounded with Riches and Honours and in a Prosperity full of Temptations as Nilus of Crocodiles this Moderation of her's was well known In our lower stations of fewer Blandishments and Provocations may our like Moderation be known unto all Men Hope to the End Assent to the Truth of the Gospel of Christ Reliance upon the Goodness of God reconciled by Him Expectation of the promised incorruptible Inheritance and all three maintained unto Death Of the many Months whereof I was not absent from her Chamber many Days never could I discern her Hope to be departed Nor ever heard her complain that it was Departed Indeed the best Hope sometime lieth Prostrate Abraham was not always Abraham When it was worst with her it was no worse than with Job in whose words she express'd it Tho He Slay me I will Trust in Him He knows the Way that I have Chosen It 's not every dark-Cloud that maketh Night nor every sad-Doubt and Fear that is to be named Despair This therefore I testify I have oft seen her Troubled but not once Distressed often Perplexed but not once in Despair May all that hear this have so well-built Hope in their Death Then how terribly soever the old Serpent may Hiss mortally it shall not Sting Whereof I am much the more confident because of that wherein she peculiarly excelled Conspicuous Humility A Mind of low thoughts of her Self a Will of no desire to be thought more highly of than is meet a Language and Behaviour convincingly showing both No Observation or Reading of mine hath given me to know the Saint wherein Humility had its more perfect Work But hereof so much is known that no more shall be told This only is suggested it 's nothing but Acquaintance with God that can truly Humble or Comfort Men and Augels This it is that maketh Seraphims to cover their Wings Feet and Faces and to feel a fulness of Joy and Pleasures for evermore in so doing Which it is most reasonable to believe she is now enjoying with them Insomuch that I am bold thus to conclude I would to God that not only I but also all that hear me this Day were both almost and altogether such as it is meet to believe this great Lover of her God was except but her Infirmities which she ever bewailed and Tribulations through which she Passed into the Heavenly Kingdom Amen FINIS