fear to do evil because of wrath to come which grows out of love to themselves The second is fit for the best Christians that are led by the Spirit of love who endeavour to do righteousness because they love righteousness and to be like unto God who they know is only good which grows out of the spirit of adoption and obey as sons and daughters and not as servants Our Saviour and his Apostles insist sometimes upon the former way threatning the impenitent yet qualifying it with tidings of peace if they return and amend their lives For sharpness must be applied according to the power which the Lord hath given for edification and not for destruction 2 Cor. 13.10 The same Apostle propounds both in the former Epistle Chap. 4. Verse 21. Shall I come unto you with a rod or in love and in the spirit of meekness Which latter is most suitable to the Gospel to proclaim peace on earth and good will towards men And when James and John would have had fire to come down from Heaven upon the Samaritans Christ reproved them saying The Son of man is not come to destroy mens lives but to save them Luke 9.56 and St. Paul 1 Thess 5.9 God hath not appointed us to wrath but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ And surely there is cause to apply a cluster of consolation against a few grains of terror 1. Because we are all concluded under sin and the guilt is ever present unto us 2. Because of the weakness of the Graces that are in us not that they are weak but that humane corruption is mixt with them 3. Because of the strength and manifoldness of temptations 4. Because we are to be exercised with the sufferance of the Cross and we are infirm to bear it Lastly Because little is communicated to us at the present of that Reward we look for least of all is any share of it present and before our eyes Forasmuch then as there are so many in-draughts that break into our heart to make us sick of sorrow and fear let us seek comfort from God who hath left no disease without a remedy to cure it who healeth all thy diseases Psalm 103.3 I say it is to be sought from God lest we light upon them that tell false dreams and comfort in vain Zach. 10.2 The right place for it must be the Word of God as it is Rom. 15.4 That we through patience and comfort of the Scripture might have hope Which comfort scatter'd up and down in that Holy Book and not cast all into a lump together by searching it diligently we may draw our Consolation out of five things Faith Hope The in-dwelling of the Spirit Prayer and the Sacraments Coronata Fides Dux viae prudens simplicitas CHAP. I. That Faith is the Ground and Foundation of a Christian's Comfort Several doubts and scruples about believing answered FAITH is the Root of all blessings Believe and you shall be saved Believe and you must needs be sanctified Believe and you cannot chuse but be comforted Believe that God is true in all his promises and you are the seed of faithful Abraham and shall inherit the promises made to Abraham Believe that you are Christs and Christ is yours and then you are sure that none can perish whom the Father hath given to him There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 And as Martha said Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not died Jo. 11.21 So let all say that groan and pine away in sorrow Lord if thou hadst been here if thou hadst appeared to my soul in thy goodness I had not fainted in my trouble Isaiah foretells Chap. 61.3 that it should be Christs office to give the oil of joy for mourning and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness For St. John saw in the spirit that they that follow Christ are cloathed in white garments in garments of joy in the livery of gladness Solomon describing the provident Mistress of a Family Prov. 31.21 says She is not afraid of the snow for her houshold for all her houshold are cloathed with scarlet So the houshold of Christ are not afraid of frost and snow nor of any bitter blast they have put on the garment of dependence on Christ which protects them and do resolve never to put off their privy-coat of confidence in their Saviour With this did Christ encourage the poor woman being under confusion who had secretly toucht the hem of his garment Be of comfort thy Faith hath made thee whole Matth. 9.22 The first time that the word Comfort is found in Scripture is Gen. 5.29 upon the birth of Noah his Father says This Son shall Comfort us so when God did give Christ to be made man he did as it were say unto us This Son shall Comfort you for his name is Jesus and he shall save his people from their sins He that gave us him hath given us all things with him As it is true to say that Matthew left all to follow Christ so it is as true that he got all that can be wisht by following him It is the Chymistry of Faith let me use that word to turn all things into good and precious Ore It is Abraham's Country in a strange land Jacob's wages when Laban defrauded him Moses's honour when he refused to be the son in law of Pharaoh's daughter Rahab's security when all Jericho beside did perish David's rescue when there was but a step between him and death The power of the Apostles to be able to cast out Devils Mary Magdalen's sweet ointment to take away the ill savour of her sins Plead therefore with the Oratory of Faith and say Lord I have no life but in thee I have no joy but in thee no salvation but in thee but I have all these in thee and then how can my Soul refuse to be Comforted But some will say perhaps Faith is a powerful Comforter but I poor wretch had need to be Comforted concerning my Faith I find the pulse of it weak and sometimes it intermits as if it beat not at all Methinks I am not drawn near to Christ or that I am so far off that I cannot embrace him Some such infirmity may seem to have been in the Thessalonians and therefore St. Paul says I have sent Timotheus to establish you and to comfort you concerning your Faith 1 Epist Chap. 3. Ver. 2. Now to turn this water into wine and the trembling of this Objection into peace and joy in the Holy Ghost conceive as if these questions were put to you Do you often accuse your self of a weak Faith in secret unto God I like it for a good symptome for an hypocrite doth not use to accuse himself And do you bewail your want to the Lord because you would have it better supplied that 's a good sign too for it is the same as to thirst for the living God They that
new Creature and to perfect holiness without which no man shall see God 4. Fourthly I have assurance that the Spirit is not disjoyned from the Water for Christs Word cannot sail that we shall be Baptized with the Holy Ghost But ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God 1. Cor. 6.11 The power given to keep the Covenant makes it a Covenant of Grace else we shall administer but the Letter and not the Spirit The outward act of man unless we make our selves unworthy is certainly assisted with the increase of God If the good effect ensue not the Sacrament doth not want its vertue but the receiver marr'd it Very much it s to be ascribed to the Word preacht it is a powerful means to convert us and to save us 1 Tim. 4.15 Take heed unto thy doctrine for in doing this thou shalt save thy self and them that hear thee And 1 Pet. 1.23 Being born again not of corruptible seed but incorruptible by the Word of God which liveth and abideth in you The Word disposeth and prepares God is the efficient cause of our Regeneration Now this Sacrament whether we speak of Infants they are to call to mind how they received the outward Seal of Grace or whether we speak of Converts of ripe years who at the same time were taught the vertue of it it hath reason to work more powerfully and effectually upon their knowledge and affections than doctrine alone because Christ and his Benefits are manifested in a sensible operation which himself did dignifie in his own person at the waters of Jordan and afterward institute it to be used by all his Disciples 5. The fifth thing that I draw from hence gives me exceeding Consolation in Christ that no man who is made the Child of God is in the damnable state of sin therefore in Baptism being made the adopted Child of God I have obtained the pardon of all sins Original and Actual as Naaman was cured of all his leprosie Who saved us by the washing of Regeneration Tit. 3.6 Be Baptized every one of you in the Name of the Lord Jesus for the remission of sins Acts 2.38 So Ananias said to Paul Acts 22.16 Arise and be Baptized and wash away thy sins Yea but some will cavil Infants have not Faith and God hath set forth Christ to be a propitiation through Faith in his Bloud and he that believeth and is Baptized shall be saved Mark 16.16 I will not contend about it whether Baptized Infants have a secret imperceptible habit of Faith I am sure there is Innocency of life in them instead of Faith They that are of Age to come to the knowledge of Faith must bring their own Faith with them to the Font but for Infants they have priviledge to be in Church-communion by the Faith of the Church wherein they were born There is another contest made by some that notwithstanding Baptism Original sin remains in us all the days of our life True the sin is not blotted out in the Infant but it is blotted out of the Book of God And as Actual sins are pardon'd for Christ's sake yet it cannot be brought about that they should never be done which are done and past but it is enough that they shall not be imputed so Original sin cleaves unto us it is not cast out for I feel it in me but it is remitted 6. For the complement of this subject the largest and the longest Comfort flowing from the Grace of Baptism is That we are to rely upon the Covenant made between God and us therein for the remission of all our sins which we commit after Baptism unto the end of our life Far be it from me to say that it sufficeth us to cast our eyes back to the Covenant then made as if the bare and historical memory of it did suffice to blot out sins that 's but an empty flash and a vapour of presumption But this I say Build upon the Eternity and Infallibility of God's Truth and then by a true and sure-grasping Faith joyn'd with Repentance renew your self in God's mercies by the promise of the Old Baptismal Covenant Repentance is a condition never to be omitted to lift us up again when we have been overtaken with sins But Faith doth not comfort it self in the sincerity of Repentance which in us is ever imperfect but in Christ's merits once for all consigned to us in Baptism For the Scriptures speak indefinitely that the Laver of Regeneration purgeth away all our sins it doth not speak restrictively of sins past as if it did operate no longer than in that moment when the water is sprinkled For Baptism doth now at the very present time save us 1 Pet. 3.21 And some collect it out of that figurative place Ezek. 49.9 Every thing where the Waters do come shall live After a shower of rain is fallen and ceaseth the grass continues to grow By grievous and presumptous sins we debar our selves from the sense and comfort of the Covenant for the present yet when we repent we come not to make a new Covenant with God but to beseech him to be gracious to us for the old Covenants sake As an Adulteress if she be received again and pardon'd by her Husband is not new married but accepted for a wife upon the first contract of marriage Take some examples of those in the New Testament that sinned against God and in their return again did not suppose the first Covenant of Baptism to be abolisht but they comforted themselves that the mercies promised then would hold firm and not fail them St. Paul challengeth the Corinthians Chap. 6. Epist 1. that they had been Adulterers Effeminate and much of the like Yet Verse 11. he speaks thus to them Ye are washed sanctified justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus In the same manner he deals with the Galatians who had embraced much false doctrine mingled Judaism with the Gospel yet Chap. 3. Verse 27. As many of you as are Baptized into Christ have put on Christ Can any thing equal all these heart-refreshings that swim in the pool of Baptism Therefore in many Ages past the joy of the Neophytes was excessive that came to be Baptized Many Torches were lighted and carried before them to shew it was the day of their illumination They came in white garments and wore them constantly eight days together a most Festival habit Yet they affected too much to defer their Baptism till their elder nay their latest years out of the erroneous principle that Baptism was the healing water for the remission of sins past and they rather relied upon Repentance than upon the Baptism which they had received for the remission of sins that did follow Whereas Repentance is not a new paction with God but a return to the use of the old a restitution as it were to our bloud when we had been tainted by
there is not only the visible reception of the outward Signs but an invisible reception of the thing signified There is far more than a shadow than a type than a figure Christ did not only propose a Sign at that hour but also he gave us a Gift and that Gift really and effectually is Himself which is all one as you would say Spiritually himself for Spiritual Vnion is the most true and real union that can be That which is promised and Faith takes it and hath it is not fiction fansie opinion falsity but substance and verity Being strengthened with power by the Spirit in the inward mind Christ dwelleth in our hearts by Faith Ephes 3.17 As by a Ring or a meaner instrument of conveyance a man may be setled in Land or put into an Office and by such conveyances the Ratification of such Grants are held to be real How much more real is the gift and receipt of Christ's Body and Bloud when conveyed unto us by the confirmation of the Eternal Spirit For observe it is the same Spirit that is in Christ and that is in Us and we are quickned by one and the same Spirit Rom. 8.11 Therefore it cannot chuse but that a real Union must follow between Christ and Us as there is a Union between all the parts of a Body by the animation of one Soul But Faith is the mouth wherewith we Eat his Body and Drink his Bloud not the mouth of a man but of a Faithful man for we hunger after him not with a Corporal appetite but a Spiritual therefore our Eating must be Spiritual and not Corporal Yet this is a real a substantial partaking of Christ crucified broken his flesh bleeding his wounds gaping so he is exhibited so we are sure we receive him which doth not only touch our outward senses in the Elements but pass through into the depth of the Soul For in true Divinity real and spiritual are aequipollent although with the Papists nothing is real unless it be corporal which is a gross way to defraud us of the Sublime and Soul-ravishing vertue of the mystery A mystery neither to be set out in words nor to be comprehended sufficiently in the mind but to be adored with Faith says Calvin lib. Instit c. 17. Sect. 5. But herein we pledge Christ in the Cup of love herein we renew the Covenant of forgiveness strongly assured by the sprinkling of Bloud the life is in the Bloud and without shedding of Bloud is no remission of sins Because death is the wages of sin Sin is the greatest dishonour that can be done to God and death in Christ's person is the greatest satisfaction that can be made He died and gave himself for me he died and gave himself to me as he was dead in his gored and pierced body that his sacrifice might be in me and in all those that are redeemed by it We read of some Mothers that in a great famine have eaten their own Children 2 Kings 6. but what Mother in the time of famine did ever give her own flesh to save the life of her Child But Christ hath given himself for us that we might not perish O Lord I owe all my life to thee because thou hast laid down thy life for me O let me bleed out my sins that thy Bloud may fill all the veins of my Spirit O let my Body be transfigur'd to be Heavenly by cleanness and chastity by being used only for thy worship and service that the Body of my Saviour may come under the roof of it Then when the King shall let forth his Table and give himself to me in his wonderful Feast my Spicknard shall send forth a sweet smell Cant. 1.12 My Soul shall magnifie the Lord and my Spirit shall rejoyce in Christ my Saviour We have found the Messias says Philip to Nathaniel And where have we found him at a Feast a Feast of his own Body and Bloud but set out with no more cost and shew than a piece of Bread and a sip of Wine In this manner it is brought to pass by the Omnipotency of God's pleasure to institute it with the efficacy of a strong Faith concurring to receive it The Church had done very ill if of its own head it had made so mean a representation of Christ but the Lord must be obeyed and ought to be admired in the humility of his Ordinance who hath not given us rich Viands and full Cups but made the Feast out of the fragments of the meanest Creatures Let them understand this that will make themselves fit to be his guests bring a preparation of humility suitable to the exility of those oblations The meek shall Eat and be satisfied they shall praise the Lord and seek him Psalm 22.26 And at that season let the riotous remember his fulness of Bread and excess of Wine God is honour'd in a little and his liberality is abused in the excess of his creatures And it is worth the noting that the Elements which we are invited to take are of fruits that grow out of the Earth to shew that the Earth which was cursed for Adam's sake is blessed for Christ's sake As it brings forth Thorns and Thistles to call to mind our rebellion so it brings forth Bread and Wine to call to mind our redemption Neither doth God supply us with Bread only out of the furrows of the Earth but sometime it hath fallen out of the clouds of Heaven Behold says God I will rain Bread from Heaven for you Exod. 16.4 This was Manna called the Corn of Heaven Psalm 78.24 This was the Spiritual meat or Angels food in which the old believers in the Wilderness did Eat Christ with an implicit Faith Our outward Sign is the Bread of the Earth true Bread that grows in the Fields yet the Bread signified is that which the Father hath given us from Heaven Jo. 6.31 Bread is a great part of mans nourishment so Christ crucified is the sole refection of Faith Bread is champed in the mouth to make it fit for the stomach so the Body of Christ was ordained to be slain before it could profit us If the Corn of Wheat fall not into the ground and die it abideth alone but if it die it bringeth sorth much fruit Jo. 12.24 By his life we learn to live and by his death we are made alive Bread when it is grounded between our teeth and eaten is turn'd by concoction into the substance of our Body which explains our mystical union with Christ that we are made one Spirit with him by Faith as this sensible food is converted into our flesh and bone Beside in the several parts of the outward Signs it is God's meaning we should conceive how he loves the gathering together of many into one which is thus to be qualified At a common Supper or any Meal all that are at the Board feed of the same Meats yet every one feeds to himself and to none beside So
every Communicant Eats Christ to himself and the just shall live by his own Faith Nevertheless it is a Sacrament to combine and to knit together holding us fast into one Communion that there may be no breaking asunder of the parts and members Many grains of Wheat are kneaded into one Loaf many Grapes are trodden that their liquor may be pressed into one cup. We being many are one Bread and one Body for we are all partakers of that one Bread 1 Cor. 10.17 Now natural learning will teach us what a Comfort there is in Union and that fractions and dissolutions are painful and grievous Behold how good and pleasant a thing it is behold what a strengthening to the mystical Body to continue in one fellowship and breaking of Bread to link Faith and Love together in Jesus Christ It was but one deliverance common to all Israel whose solemnity was kept at the Passeover though every Lamb was Eaten by it self in a several family So it is one Cup of salvation which God hath given us to Drink though distributed to the faithful according to the multitude of persons and it is one Bread of which all do Eat though some have one share of it and some another It is necessary that many pieces be broken off from one Loaf to typifie the Body of the Lord broken for us and that the benefits of his Passion are distributed among us There are many instances that are pregnant to prove how pieces of something broken and divided into many shares do import a Communication of somewhat among the dividers The Heathen at the making of a League did now and then break a Flint-stone into pieces and they that entred into a League kept the parts in token of a Covenant Some upon a contract of marriage will break a piece of Gold and the two halfs are reserved by the contractors Shall I go further and yet come nearer to our case The Roman Souldiers parted our Saviour's garment among them and in that Symbolical accident is shewn that the Gentiles should share in the satisfaction of his death So Peter takes this morsel of the Bread John another c. yet Christ is not divided The same Ticket as it were in words in substance is put into every hand on which is written Take and Eat it in remembrance of me Take it says Christ and be not afraid as Saul was to take a Kingdom since Christ hath appointed it be not afraid as David was to be the Kings Son since such honour is predestinated to thee Take it and fear not as Peter did saying Depart from me Lord for I am a sinful man it is the Lord's delight to seek and to save that which is lost Take it and take heed you let not go your hold the thing is fast and firm if you do not let it go and lose it Take it but not to hold the pleasures of the world and your sinful lusts in your gripe together if your hands be full of those things you can never hold this Take it and take Christ with it for He that made the Testament in his Bloud hath set the Seal unto the Testament which gives you interefs and possession of the Redemption by his Bloud Take it and reach out your hand to signifie that you receive Christ with the hand of Faith They are too nice for fear of I know not what in the Roman Church of losing a crum or so forth that they put the Body of Christ into the mouth of their Disciples and in pretence that they give it as a Mother doth her breast into the mouth of her Child whereas we receive this Sacrament not as Babes but as those that are grown to the measure of a good Age. And if we be not worthy to take it into our hands we are not worthy to receive it in our mouth Take it and eat it for it is not enough to be sprinkled without but to feed on Christ and to digest him within If upon the supply of Corn and Beasts and Cattel Paul might say that God had filled our hearts with food and gladness Acts 14.17 If we are glad of that which sustains us for a time and yet we must die How glad will we be to Eat of that as will give us such a life that will endure for ever Eat of the forbidden Tree says the Serpent to Eve and you shall not die but he lied unto her Therefore to dissolve the works of the Devil our Saviour hath appointed that which we shall Eat and assured the promise of Everlasting life unto it Eat as Jonathan did of th Hony-comb that you may be lusty to pursue your enemies and though Satan hath sworn your death as Saul did Jonathan's 1 Sam. 14.44 the Lord will deliver you Pine not away with the consumption of an evil Conscience but Eat and be strong in the Lord and in his mercy As the Spirit of the Aegyptian who was half dead came to him again when he had Eaten a little 1 Sam. 30.12 Eat and grind the Bread between your teeth to shew the Lord's death For Christ could have said This is my Body slain This is my Body crucified but he had rather say This is my Body broken for you to shew the great injuries of his sufferings Eat then and remember you Eat the Body as it was broken and remember that you Drink the blood as it flowed out of his wounds To keep these things in remembrance is the great design of the Sacrament an object which keeps the fancy of the Soul waking that otherwise it may be would fall asleep In the sixth of St. John Christ Preacheth over and over of Eating his Flesh and Drinking his Bloud without a Sacrament by the power of Faith But to keep it in fresh and frequent meditation the Lord hath given us a palpable and signal token as if he would engrave it upon the palms of our hands and upon the roof of our mouth upon the membranes of our brain and upon the foreskin of our heart This is a blessing twice and twenty times given because it is given that it may never be forgotten They that love others would live in the memory of those they love it is because Christ loves us entirely that he would be remembred of us And no friend will say to another Remember me when I am gone but that he means reciprocally to remember his friend to whom he spake it If you will remember Christ he will remember you And the Thief on the Cross will teach you that it is good to continue in his memory Lord remember me when thou com'st into thy Kingdom O blessed Christ thou art good and dost good thou hast not only provided an invaluable benefit for thy Church but dost put it into our hands that we may not lose it and dost bring it into our eyes by clear ostension that we may not forget it We are apt to remember injuries and to forget benefits
Inhabitation and Testimony of the Holy Ghost as also from the Sanctification of the Spirit unto all Obedience and the fruits of Righteousness I Have insisted with so much length and variety upon Hope because it is the largest in-let of Christian Consolation Yet in the third place that which carries it on nay that which causeth it is the Holy Ghost As the Air is the medium through which the Eye doth see all things yet it is the light that shines in it that makes all things visible so Hope is the principal means enlivened by Faith through which we rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory yet it is the Spirit inhabiting that kindles it that enlightens it which makes it affect its object and cleave unto it Our Saviour left the world and ascended into Heaven for many reasons one was to give gifts unto men which gifts though very many are all united in their Fountain the Holy Ghost Of which legacy Christ gave warning before his death Jo. 14.16 I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever Verse 17. The world knows him not because it sees him not but ye know him for he shall dwell with you and shall be in you Verse 18. I will not leave you comfortless I will come to you Chap. 16. verse 7. If I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him unto you This Comforter the everlasting Spirit to speak after the phrase of men is the Proxy of Christ his representative in our hearts And so it was fulfilled for when the Spirit descended in great abundance upon the Church Acts 2. says St. Peter This is that which is come to pass Verse 28. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance And for the evidence of it it is said Acts 9.31 The Churches were edified walking in the fear of God and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost Which Text begets this note That Christian solace consists in two things which we may call the Root and the Fruit. The Root is the Holy Ghost taking up his Tabernacle in us so that our Body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in us 1 Cor. 6.19 To walk by it in the fear of God is the Fruit of Sanctification in all manner of obedience 1. Unto the former The indwelling of the Spirit let this be premised When we speak of any one dwelling in safety the great question is Who keeps the house When David fled from Jerusalem for fear of Absalom there was no likelihood that his Palace would hold out for he left ten women that were Concubines to keep the House 2 Sam. 15. verse 16. So if we leave our Concubines our lusts and carnal desires to keep our Conscience they will betray us to Satan to get the possession But who can take the City if the Lord keep it Psalm 127.1 How impregnable are we if he dwell in us and we in him because he hath given us of his Spirit 1 Jo. 4.13 All that one can say unto this who is doubtful in Faith will be Shew me that the Father of mercies and that the God of all comfort is entred into me and it sufficeth I answer I cannot shew that is demonstrate it to another that this eternal life is in him but I can perswade an apt Scholler to stir up the Grace which is in him that he may shew it to himself I say he may do it if he give his mind to it Else St. Paul made a question to no purpose Know ye not that ye are the Temples of the Holy Ghost and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you 1 Cor. 3.16 I deny not but the Devil hath a way to fetch it about to make you mis-know and take no heed of that you do perceive if he did not stagger you with delusions This is the first lesson that he reads out of his Morals That distrust is a high point of wisdom and be not over-reacht with opinion you are sure of that you see and of no more But to meet with this fallacy Is nothing certain or at least so certain as that which may be seen Why the Wind will blow away this objection the Air will confute it What can you make up so close that the Air and the Wind will not get into it Yet you see it not you know not whence it comes it is an invisible messenger So is every one that is born of the Spirit Jo. 3.8 Breath is an imperceptible expiration therefore Christ breathed on his Apostles and said Receive ye the Holy Ghost Jo. 20.22 Some gales of Western winds in the Spring make the Earth glad with their gentle blast and open the Buds and Flowers so there is a breath of Omnipotent vertue which fans the heart that was hot in sin with its coolness which carries away the Caterpillars that eat up the tender leaf of our first greenness which widens our blossoms to make their expectation shew it self openly which perfumes the evil scents of scandals that annoy us as it is express to that intent in the mystical Song Cant. 4.16 Awake thou North wind and come thou South and blow upon my Garden that the spices thereof may flow out I bring the case again to be examin'd Is no witness so competent to depose for truth unless it be sensible and chiefly discerned by the Eye then what ail all Sects of Philosophers to say That the Sun and all the Stars above work upon these Bodies below by heat and light and likewise by influence An invisible vertue that doth enter into the production of many effects which seems to have God's approbation with his own voice Job 38.31 who mentions there the sweet influences of Pleiades and the bands of Orion And can the Constellations of the Firmament drop down good upon Minerals and Plants upon Man and Beast and by a secret derivation What an error or rather what a madness is it then to scruple whether he that made the Heavens can dart Celestial beams into man's Soul without a sensible perception And this is all I will say more unto it Is not the Soul of Man above a material apprehension Pliny or Galen or whosoever unadvisedly deny the Immortality of it will yield there is a Soul in our composition that holds all the parts of the Body together and moves and acts in them yet they can as soon take a Pensil and paint an Eccho as describe the intelligible nature of a Soul by species drawn out in our sensitive fancy Therefore it concerns us in maintenance of the dignity of our own nature to say That the Spirit of God can inform our Soul as well as our Soul can inform our Body I know not what temptation may rise to gain-say the truth That the Soul is known by her powers and operations that it justifies
them with whom God is well pleased No sin is forgiven to him that is not in Christ and against him that is in Christ there is no condemnation They are the sons of God to whom the Lord doth graciously remit any fault but where any fault is not remitted they are his enemies He that is justified from any sin must be truly penitent but a true penitent is sorry for all sins together hates them eschews them all alike Then follows a plenary absolution from all iniquity through Christ our Lord. And beware that you over-look not these multitudes of sins of the under size as if little grief or anxiety would serve for them are they not numberless corns of sand and may not a weight of too much sand sink a ship as soon as a burden of too much iron The dailiness of sin must be bewailed with the dailiness of sorrow And then when thou liest down thou shalt not be afraid yea thou shalt lie down and thy sleep shall be sweet Prov. 3.24 Now tell me if this balm be not enough to heal the bleedings and bruisings of despair Talents of sin and sins in small mony you may hide them all in the wounds of Christ It is possible for God to do the benefit and possible for thee to receive it Let Israel hope in the Lord for with the Lord there is mercy and with him is plenteous redemption and he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities Psalm 130. verse ult 3. It must now be added how that which Hope waits for is possible since it may find satisfaction from long and constant experience In the yonger days of the world somewhat might be said to excuse the backwardness of Hope they wanted proof and demonstration in those times Even Cain was the sooner overtaken with despair crying out My sin is greater than can be forgiven me He had not lived so long to be taught the contrary by experience But every age hath given advantage to Hope to be satisfied better and better O God we have heard with our ears and our fathers have declared unto us the noble works that thou didst in their days and in the old time before them Psalm 44.1 The records of God do tell us how the Armies of aliens have been discomfited before his Children how the rocks have given them drink and the barren wilderness bread how the Church hath been scattered and recollected the righteous continually supported either with deliverance or patience that the dead have been raised up to life nay that Enoch and Elias were taken up alive into Heaven to implant into our minds that both they that are in the graves shall hear the voice of Christ and come forth and that such as shall be found living at that day shall be caught up in the clouds and be translated into Heaven And I challenge Hope to instance if it can surmise that any thing is impossible to be brought to pass since there is a president in every thing to demonstrate that the right hand of the Lord hath brought mighty things to pass There is one thing I confess for which there is no example neither can be evidenced till all things be accomplisht that is the coming of the Lord Christ with the new Heavens and the new Earth and yet to confirm us in that mystery to come St. John did see the Idea or glimpse of it in his Revelation The use of all this is to remember the transactions of God in the times that are gone before Who ever saw the righteous forsaken or the wicked flourish long was there ever any persecution of the Church which hath not ended in its triumph But stay for it and pray for it and condole for the delays of God's providence till you may say in earnest My soul fainteth for thy salvation Psalm 119.31 How easie is it for a Christian that hath any nostril to run after God in the odour of his sweet ointments and trace his steps from point to point and then to say with David I have remembred thy judgments of old O Lord and have comforted my self Psalm 119.52 and from another Prophet Ezek. 14.22 Ye shall see their way and their doings and shall be comsorted concerning all the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem The great store-house of Consolation is Hope therefore all this and more must be said to keep it fresh like a green Olive-tree having never a sear or withered bough upon it I come now to complete it I have shewn it aims only at good and that which is only and excellently good at such a good whose harvest is not brought in all in a year but still there is more and more to be had and the most to come It is possible through the greatness of Gods power and mercy as all ages have witnessed IV. But lastly that which may seem to pinch is that it is Bonum arduum a good not easily attained but with great labour and diligence to give warning against sloth and security It were not worth our longing to say we hope for petty things easie and at hand but for things of value for which we must struggle with many lets and impediments to possess them No man need to hope to find Cockle-shells on the shore but to find Pearls in the Sea that 's an object for the adventure of a Jeweller Neither is the Jewel of Christian Hope easily purchast But as Elijah said to Elisha Thou hast asked a hard thing nevertheless if thou see me when I am taken from thee it shall be so unto thee 2 Kings 2.10 Much after that sort I commune with my heart and say It is good to seek for eternal life pursue it as the Hart brayeth after the rivers of waters there will be much a-do to get it for many shall seek to enter in and shall not be able Luke 13.24 Nevertheless if thou canst see the Lord as if he were continually before thee thou shalt not miss of that thou desirest for all things are possible to him whose eyes are ever toward the Lord. These difficulties upon which I strike are either in our selves or in our adventure in our selves partly through natural imbecillity partly through contracted impotency 1. Our natural languor is that of original contagion which makes us so weak that there is none that doth good no not one Which is not to be extenuated as if the malignity of it might be supprest with a little resistance It is good to know the power of so strong an enemy that we may be fortified against it It is a root of bitterness never to be digg'd up out of corrupt nature a coal of fire spitting out sparks of temptations continually as inward to us as the marrow is in our bones Yet there is hope in Christ to slake this fire though not utterly in this life to quench it It is a body of death a whole body consisting of all the members of sin yet a body is but
flesh and a Spirit is mightier than flesh Apply that of the Prophet Zachary to it as we may read it by the direction of our Margent and keep to the Original Chap. 8. Verse 6. If it be difficult in the eyes of this people shall it be difficult in mine eyes saith the Lord Therefore since God is our help against the insurrection of this rebellious sin let us be comforted in his help and not in excuses For we must not plead our personal maladies and natural inclinations and think that God will take it for an answer and ask no more I am dull of understanding says one and what I am taught I cannot bear it away I am suddenly transported with indignation and cannot chuse but break out I am retentive of an injury and cannot easily be reconciled All this and the like is no better than the answer of those ill manner'd guests in the Gospel which were invited to a Feast made by a King We cannot come I pray you have us excused which sounds like confession and humility but it is denial and defiance Spend your breath in a better way and cry out often and affectionately Give me not over to my self O Lord take away from me my stony heart and give me an heart of flesh Drop down upon this barren earth and it shall bring forth quite against the byass of nature The high minded will grow meek as a Lamb the covetous will begin to disperse and scatter abroad the lying lips will confess the truth bitter cruelty will melt into pity new-fangled braveries will be laid aside and blush at vanity To what purpose are the pourings in of the Spirit but that what is wickedly in-bred from our conception should be shaken off from the tree and a better fruit spring up in the place from the increase of God Mark the rain that falls from above and the same shower that dropt out of one cloud increaseth sundry plants in a garden and severally according to the condition of every plant in one stalk it makes a Rose in another a Violet divers in a third and sweet in all So the Spirit works its multiformous effects in several complexions and all according to the increase of God Is thy habit and inclination cholerick why try thy self if thou be very apt to be zealous in a good cause and it turns thy natural infirmity into holy heat Is melancholy predominant the grace of God will turn that sad humor into devotion prayer and mortifying thy pleasures to die unto the world Is thy temperature sanguine and chearful the goodness of God will allow it unto thee in thy civil life in a good mean but over and above it will make thee bountiful easie to pardon injuries glad of reconciliation comfortable to the distressed always rejoycing in the Lord. Is a man phlegmatick and fearful if this freezing disease which is in thee from thy mothers womb be not absolutely cured yet the Holy Ghost will work upon it to make thy Conscience tender wary to give no offence to make thee pitiful penitent contrite ready to weep for thy transgressions There are two handles to take hold of every thing says a Heathen A dissolute man takes hold of original frailties and makes them Serpents a holy man declines their Serpentine nature and catcheth them by that part which may conduce to all manner of vertue This is the comfort of Hope against original inquination that this great enemy by the operation of the Spirit shall be made our friend or our foot-stool O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 7.24 What is stronger than a Lion yet if the Lion be kill'd out of the strong comes forth sweetness Jud. 14.14 For all this the worst is not past beside natural pronity to sin we have contracted much more evil by custom education strong habits noxious examples bad enticements and infusions The Cockatrice-egge was laid when we were in our mothers womb but it proves more venemous being hatcht and grown able to flye abroad There are seventy sons of Ahab who shall kill thee Even the sword of the Spirit There is none like it as David said of that of Goliah 1 Sam. 21.9 This is sufficient not merely to cut down grass and briars but to hew down the tree to cut off the branches to shake the leaves to scatter the fruit to fright away the fowls from the branches and the beasts from grazing under it Dan. 4. verse 14. or as the Apostle comforts us in plain words without a Parable I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me Phil. 4.13 If you be over-toiled and heated too much you know how to cool cast off some garments wipe away the sweat sit still and stir not lest you enflame your self with motion Follow the same method lay aside the burden of sin that enflames you cast off the weight and the superfluity of naughtiness bear in mind that Christ sweat drops of bloud in his Agony to make you ashamed of toiling and sweating in Satan's drudgery Take ease in a Sabbath of holy rest and moil not in the unprofitable works of darkness Try what refrigeration this will give unto your Conscience else take heed that you be not put to a terrible sweat of fear lest God take you away in his wrath and give you up for ever to Satan whom you have served so willingly To the Law and to the Testimony mind no examples but when they are wrapt up therein Be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind Rom. 12.2 What a case had Noah been in if he had framed his life by common practice when all flesh had corrupted their way Chuse better company as Enoch did to walk with God Gen. 5.24 And can two walk together unless they be agreed Amos 3. verse 3. It is more than agreement it imports endearment benevolence friendship with God No title can be greater or sweeter what can match that honour of Abraham and the Apostles to be called the friends of God and Christ No league in the world more sought for or more willingly accepted no amity less burdensom or more beneficial St. Austin 8. Confess Cap. 6. brings in a couple that served the Roman Emperor thus debating upon it What can we look for in this Palace more than to be call'd the friends of our Soveraign When we have got this it is no sure and unchangeable favour And how long shall we attend before we be promoted to it But let us turn to God in this hour and sue to be his friends and it shall be done instantly and remain eternally Ask and it shall be given seek and we shall find And as we trespass by sins of daily prevention there is a dailiness of mercy to comfort us But as you love Christ and would be beloved struggle with temptations do not yield upon