wherefore as the desire of Society betweene man and man hath erected States and Weales publique so the desire of Society betweene God and man hath caused Churches and holy Assemblies for they are a number of such men which not regarding the world or the fashions of it do desire the acquaintance and familiarity of God having a speciall care in all their doings that in nothing they offend his presence which vouchsafeth to be amongst them as his owne children and friends Our blessed Saviour knowing how necessary it was for man to recover this Society with God lost by the fall of our first progenitor Adam and desiring to be the author of so great a good unto us all did in his owne person ratify the band or league of our reconciliation with God for being everlastingly God as the Sonne the second person in the Trinity he took unto the same our humane nature and so became both God and man and one true Immanuel of which nature it is truly said that the fulnesse of the Godhead dwelleth in it bodily and all wee which be made bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh are also partakers of this fellowship not only to dwell with God and God with us but also for the nearnesse thereof to dwell in God and God in us but wee must remember this still for a chiefe point in this argument that wee have no communion nor fellowship with God but by Jesus Christ and that this loving league and sociable familiarity doth proceed wholly from his incarnation and in the use of this most singular blessing doth consist all the happy content which man may reap here in this life or in that which is to come I meane if wee converse and keep company with God as he on the other side doth most lovingly offer himselfe unto us for this only are wee borne and this is truly to live and without this wee are rather shadowes then men or very beasts in mans shape Oh man how hath the Lord ennobled thee didst thou not debase thy selfe he calls thee to be a favorite in his Court and thou hadst rather shift up and downe as a base peasant in the Devills countrey he would make thee a Lord over all things in his right but thou choosest rather to be a slave to the world sure of nothing but misery It is the chiefest commendation of good men that they walke with God and the shame of the wicked that they walk with the world they which converse with God are not much addicted to this life not because they despise the commodities thereof but seeing they are much abused they are wary how they medle or looking for better they make the lesse reckoning of them wherein they take no losse as is supposed but procure to themselves no small advantage for when it so comes to passe that they must part with life they doe it with the greater quietnesse and comfort of mind and wheresoever it be that death wait for them they are the readier for it which the worldly man is never and in the meane while none use life better then they or make more account to spend it well but it is rather to draw towards God then to seek any farther acquaintance with the world But some will say the world offereth it selfe unto us in every place but God is farre from us and so strange unto us that wee know not how to have any acquaintance with him A strange saying indeed of him which is made after Gods Image and cannot live or move or have his being but in him which is compassed about and closed in with his wonderfull workes and dayly benefits so that if he would seek he might by groping easily find him which by reason of these things whereby he hath made himselfe knowne cannot be farre from us but this principle of nature is oft times darkned in men by evill custome or wicked malice and moreover not able of it selfe to bring men forward to this familiarity or acquaintance with God and therefore God offereth himselfe and the godly walk with him by other meanes as by his word where they find the helpe of his Spirit by the Sacraments by prayer meditation a godly life for as by certaine obsequious offices wee infinuate our selves into the favour and familiarity of men so these are the duties whereby wee living here in this world are made neare and deare unto God the poorest wretch in the world that walketh with God which is in his favour and sets the Lord before his eyes in all his doings is happier for the present time then the greatest Monarch on earth which saith as Pharaoh did Who is the Lord and shall hereafter find more happinesse then all the world could ever bestow Most unworthy wee which envy the ordinary favours of a Prince unto our brethren and would come betweene them and home if possibly wee might whereas wee might have accesse unto God and seek it not and if wee have it wee rely not so much on it as they doe on the grace or countenance of a mortall man What doe not they adventure which are so backt and how many of them shrink away unto whom God doth say I am with thee I will not faile thee or forsake thee I speak out of my owne feeling let others take the matter as they list I doe specially condemne my selfe in those two points first for that I seek the Lords most loving grace and sweet acquaintance with no more heat and zeale secondly because that when I find it I am no more thankfull unto God for it neither am so strengthned by it and go on in Christian duties as I should The Lord have mercy on mee and grant mee grace ever to see my errours to confesse and repent for them not pleasing my selfe in any knowne weaknesse but alwaies striving to overcome get out of it Meditation 38. Non-parity of sinnes AS an aptnesse to laugh or weep is a property which necessarily followes the nature or kind of man and is affirmed of the whole alwaies and of his owne right so guilt doth follow sinne and makes the sinner subject to the guilt of the Law which is death There is then no sinne so light which of his owne nature doth not deserve death or to which a pardon is due of course without an infinite satisfaction yet are not all sinnes equall for neither doe they offend God alike nor find the like punishment howbeit by a consequent to the true Christian all sinnes are veniall and to the unbeleever all mortall as they are ever of their owne nature And it is not amisse to observe a farther difference that there is sinne which beareth the whole sway in a man such are the sinnes of the wicked and there is sinne which doth but remaine and dwell in man because there is a resistance and head made against it by the better part and is at last expelled by grace and thus are the godly and
of thy uprightnesse if thou have not Patience thou prayest and God heareth not thou askest he giveth not thou wouldest have plenty and behold want thou wouldest have health and strength and behold weaknesse thou wouldest have peace and behold warre thou wouldest have credit and behold slander thou wouldest be some and art no body and what will become of thy prayers if thou have not Patience To keepe Patience wee must be beholding to experience Try once how much profit Patience doth bring thee and thou shalt never bee weary of it thou shalt sinde succour feele comfort unexpected observe Gods providence forget not his love this will direct to the end where wee shall finde contentment when nothing shall make us more happy then that wee have suffered with Patience they that will not bee patient shall suffer more then wee but wee only which are patient shall receive the reward of suffering Meditation 6. Of Liberty VVEe love to take liberty and fare all the worse because our choice is of such as is agreeable to a nature sick and not sound God is necessarily good and yet doth good most freely man since his fall is necessarily evill and doth evill most freely but alas what a freedome is this so to bee overlookt by sinne that we cannot doe any thing to please God or to ease our selves Christ by his Gospell calleth us to a Liberty not of the flesh to live according to the lusts thereof not an outward liberty to discharge us from duties fit for our callings or prescribed by lawes not repugnant to the word of God but to a Liberty of the spirit first from the curse of the Morall Law by which we are subject to the wrath of God And this Liberty comes from the free remission of our sinnes in his bloud who is become our Saviour so that all the evills which befall us in this life even unto death it selfe turne unto our good and are sent not from an angry Judge but from a mercifull Father as it is said Wee are afflicted but not convicted we doubt but wee despaire not wee are persecuted but not forsaken wee are cast downe but wee perish not Secondly from the tyranny of sinne so that we doe not only begin to strive but doe also prevaile against it more and more and shall at last utterly overcome it even to the breaking of the Serpents head Thirdly from observation of ceremonies and judicialls of Moses as touch not tast not handle not and wee may freely use the creatures of God with sobriety and thanksgiving which are given for meat drink and apparell and use likewise or not use all things indifferent according to charity Fourthly from all Lawes and constitutions of men that they binde not the conscience as matters of salvation though for outward order and policy wee are in cōscience bound to observe them if they bee not contrary to Gods word but agreeable to the generall rules thereof this is true Liberty agreeable to the state of our first Creation and abounding more in grace it wee seeke for it for the which wee are continually to praise God the author thereof It is great Liberty to be out of bondage but it a greater to be the freeman of Christ it is a great Liberty to be taken out of the hands of a Tyrant but a greater to be rescued out of the power of sinne and Satan it is a great Liberty which Nobility doth challenge but a greater which a good conscience What a Liberty is it to doe that which is good to speake that which is wholesome and for edification to wrong no man not to wrong himselse to live without shame and to die without feare Let us detest the youths Liberty to have no Tutor the Theefes to escape the halter the fooles to scoffe at his Brother the blasphemers to sweare the wantons to bee unseene the drunkards to pledge healths and use much quaffing the malecontents to have no state the unthrifts to turn himselfe out of house and home Meditation 7. Humane frailty O Father Adam thy Children are all too much like thee would I were a Pillar of Marble in the House of my God that no tentation might shake mee no sinne displace mee or as the two Pillars of Solomons Temple Jatui and Boa that there might be certainty in my resolution and constancy in my courses A Christian is a man but I am more a man then a Christian nay rather a child then a man I weep for vanities and toies and cast hehind mee the Law of God more worth then the Gold of Ophir I would stand but I fall downe flat I would be better but prove worse I would sinne no more I did not to my knowledge sinne so much before Oh hell in this world to hate sinne yet to entertaine it to beare the shame the sorrow the smart of sinne and yet to shake hands withit Where shall I have teares enough to bewaile my sinnes my heart is broken with sighing and my braines dried up with weeping Would to God my head were a fountaine of teares and mine eyes rivers of waters to bewaile the desolation that sinne hath wrought within mee If I bee not able to match sinne in his strength why give I it time and not rather kill it while it is young If jealous thoughts and occasions not cut off doe increase his band why doe I suffer him to muster Souldiers in mine owne dominions Oh that wee could renew our fight when wee are put to flight as I have read of some people and take our pursuers at a disadvantage but when wee begin once to slie nothing can stay us and though no enemy follow wee run our selves out of breath The comforts wee might lawfully use are ten thousand times more then the pleasures wee unlawfully steale the devotion which Gods law asketh is free noble full of reward the tax which sinne imposeth base slavish beggerly yet how proud are wee in such poverty if wee compare our selves then are wee farre more circumspect more holy then others if any duty required of us then presuming of our owne strength wee follow Christ to the death and a little after deny him Peter did once I would wee did not often for lesse cause How necessary for us then is humility and prayer humility to value our selves as wee are and wee cannot indeed thinke worse of our selves then wee are wandring weake unconstant wilfull wicked and prayer that wee may find in God what wee want in our selves for surely he would never have sent his sonne amongst us had he not had care to redresse our miseries and to aske of the Father in the name of the Sonne is the way to bee gratious in obtaining our suits Let not thy unworthinesse discourage thee to come unto God nor let his mercy make thee forget thy vilenesse that keeping a hard hand on thy corruptions thou maist the better prevaile with God as Jacob did Meditation 8. Of
past have not refused to be Shepheards and they which at this day doe rule in the State have this as no meane title of their authority to be stiled Shepheards of the people yea God himselfe doth vouchsafe to expresse the Government which he taketh over his people under the title of Shepheard and Christ Jesus our Lord who died for mankind is called the great Shepheard of our Soules And indeed the charge over a flock or people are much like wee in England have a great desire to deale on Sheep and it is one of the chiefest commodities in the Countrey they are so profitable their Wool is in great request at home and with strangers their bodies are good for meat or medicine yea their very excrement have their use they are gentle of nature not dangerous to be handled as other beasts which are armed to defend or offend howbeit in this doth not the resemblance hold so well but if you respect the weaknesse and necessities of Sheep it may notably expresse the care the faithfullnesse the diligence which God useth in governing his people God is desirous to rule his servants as a flock of Sheep not for any great profit he can make of them neither is it intended of him which needs it not or lookt for there where it cannot be had for though their bodies were of excellent imployment by creation yet what are they of themselves since Adams Fall but cages of uncleane Birds nests of sinne grievously tainted with a sicknesse that in Sheep makes carcasse and Wool unprofitable It is alone then for our profit that hee will have us under government the Laws which he makes are not for his owne good which is infinite goodnesse in himselfe but for ours neither the courses which wee undertake under his direction for his happinesse who is eternall happinesse himselfe but for ours True it is that he addeth unto his Law authority to make us the rather yeeld unto that which is for our benefit and from his authority doth proceed reward or punishment that wee may know hee commandeth not in vaine Moreover the government of men as they best know which know State matters is the men themselves being so variable full of discontent and malice above all Creatures if wee will count them tame because of reason wee shall find them wild and savage by evill course and custome of life notwithstanding God doth make them so his owne whom he rules as his flock that none shall be able to pull them out of his hands he will not lose one of the least of them he leaveth the ninety and nine to seek out the wandring and lost Sheep and when he hath found him layeth him on his shoulders with joy and returning home maketh merry with his Neighbours for the Sheep that was lost but is found he knoweth his Sheep and is known of them he will lay downe his life for his Sheep and will not forsake them he bringeth them into the sweet pastures of his holy Word and refresheth them with the coole Waters of his Spirit he hath a rod and a staffe the rod keeps in his Sheep and the staffe keeps out the Wolfe by all which it commeth to passe that no flock is in such state as his they have a comely order in their going forth a provident provision of needfull things and sure safety all about them happy is he that can say The Lord is my Shepheard he that is not of this fold is of the Devils wast Christ hath many promises of good to be done unto his flock and for his flockes sake it is he cannot abide the Wolfe of which one is no good Neigbour and the other a deadly enemy to Sheep I count him the Wolfe which is the knowne adversary and the Goat is the loose Christian the adversary hath a bloudy mind and the loose Christian is offensive by an ill life Meditation 13. Dulnesse of Spirit THere is no disease more dangerous to a religious Soule then dulnesse or heavinesse of Spirit which makes the ground of the heart so cold that the seed of grace lyeth for a time as it were dead and hath no growth it makes the Christian either fearfull or slow to doe good and layeth him open to tentations it ariseth from the corruption of nature which is froward increaseth by diseases and discontentments and groweth to a head by particular doubts and uncertainties it hath strange Symptomes even in those which have beene well schooled and trained up in Christianity it suggesteth and would perswade them well-neare that it is all as well with the godlesse as the godly that he is in as good cause that sweareth as he that feareth an oath that an upright conscience is but a ceremonious scrupulosity formality and complement may serve as well that the world is not so unworthy a thing as lightly to be set by and the joyes of Heaven belong rather to Angels then men it is offended at hearing or reading Gods word prayers good workes holy meetings and hath some exception against them all it will perswade thee in particular that God doth not regard or so much as respect thy service and close with thee this at last if thy calling bee so worthy as thou wouldst make it yet art thou unworthy of thy calling unfit and so farre from speeding in it that it were better for thee to doe any other thing or just nothing I know not whereunto I may better compare this disease then to that which in women yong with child they call Longing when the stomach stopt with ill humours the appetite is altered and the Patient importunately desireth strange meats so in this cause naturall inbred corruptions striving against grace and abounding within doe alter the godly appetite making Gods servant loath his ordinary diet and exercises as being uncomfortable unsavory and to affect strange things contrary to the health of the Soule They which travell by Sea when they see it once calme and on a sudden to dance and shake and know no cause why looke for a tempest shortly after so this dulnesse or heavinesse which is so unquiet and out of order goeth many times before some greater sinne let it be considered whether such a kind of dulnesse came not on David before his adultery and numbring the people on the Disciples before they forsooke their master and specially on Peter before he denied his Lord. I put a difference betweene this heavinesse or dulnesse of spirit and that hardnesse of heart deadnesse or benumming which is proper to the wicked in cause for that proceeds from customes and habits in sinne from wilfull stubbernesse this from the reliques of corruption yet abiding in Gods children in degree that is without sense or feeling Like a lethargy this hath some resistance and like the fit of an Ague in event that doth make them worse and in the end overcome them this the godly doe overcome and after grow the better advised The meanes to avoid
this dulnesse is to converse with God and to keep our hearts in ure with him by calling to mind every day his benefits generall particular corporall spirituall what he hath done for thy Soule already what he will doe farther then to examine thy selfe how thou hast beene answerable that day for such kindnesse and love unto thee then to fall to prayer asking pardon for thy sinnes with a faithfull and penitent heart and entring into a new league betweene God and thy Soule to forsake sinne more earnestly and to serve God more carefully then in times past Meditation 14. Of Joy IT is good to rejoyce ever and never to rejoyce I meane carnally wee must not set up Joy as an Idol in our hearts as though there were no higher matter if a man ask us why wee are merry wee can say nothing but because wee love to be merry yet ought wee to preferre God to our Joy and the glory of God the good of our Neighbour and the health of our Soules wee must so rejoyce in temporall things that wee barre not our selves from heavenly comforts wee must be so familiar with outward things that wee grow nothing the more strange with God if otherwise wee sell our birth-right for Esaus Broth Canaan for the flesh-pots of Egypt and as it is commonly said Wee goe out of Gods blessing into a warme Sunne Take heed then to thy selfe it is lawfull for thee to use the blessings of God for thy necessity I say more for thy comfort and recreation so farre forth as doth concerne thy person yea thy state and calling but if thou use them for thy recreation only and have no farther or better end thou wilt quickly fall to the abuse respecting rather what thy appetite doth crave then God allowes God allowes no such use of his creatures as makes thee the lesse able or willing to serve him wherefore a restraint at least in affectation touching these things is better then by loosing too much the reins to our unruly flesh to suffer it to take the bridle and runne away let the feare of God be the steward of our expences and it shall make a good account for us if it cause us to passe by many worldly delights yet wil yield unto our consciences the sounder comfort for God doth bring unto him the joyes of the Holy Ghost which willingly forsakes outward pleasures the later end of such joyes is woe but of this it is said No man shall take it from you Wilt thou rejoyce ever me thought I heard thee say so bee sad ever to the world if thou smile with it let it bee from the teeth outward ingage not thy heart A strange Paradox that a man should bee sorry to make himselfe merry and these as strange wee must stand in feare to make our selves bold wee must bee fooles to bee made wise wee must die that wee may live Meditation 15. Humane reason IS not this our common answer Have I not reason to do as I doe yet are wee not to live by reason but by faith wheras we should rather say Doth not Gods word warrant mee to do as I do If Religion were but the improvement of Reason how would men entertaine it as their owne wheras now they suspect it as a stranger Many have thought that the Articles of Religion might winne credit from principles evident to the light of nature and that Philosophy hath laid as good grounds as Divinity Surely Humane learning can convince us well enough of many things wee doe but cannot bring us forward In that wee ought to doe for salvation it was a power in nature created to obey and beleeve if it would but now in nature decaied it is a want and it is not in mans will to beleeve and obey the truth and the misery is that it knoweth not how to find what it hath lost nor so much as that it hath lost any thing without a borrowed light the word of God is the powerfull meanes whereby the Holy Ghost which worketh inwardly in our hearts doth impart this light unto us our Reason is naturall Faith supernaturall Reason is the begining of Knowledge but Faith of Religion The Papists will say they have more Reason for their Religion then we for Free will Satisfaction Merits Purgatory Prayers Latine Service Images Pilgrimages Hierarchy stand all upon good grounds of Reason Let us give them what they aske wee may the more boldly challenge truth without which there is no Religion and to protest freely what wee maintaine and wherein wee desire by Gods grace to die wee follow not Reason in making choice of Religion but Gods word searching to understand the harder places and easy keeping our selves within the proportion of Faith refusing not the helpe of Humane learning for the phrase or story neither the testimony of better times by this word wee learne that man hath no good will nor hath his will power to returne to God untill grace make the will willing which of it self is unwilling and then but not till then doth it work with grace What if Reason deny this and teach the contrary By the word of God wee learne that there is no satisfaction for sins besides the death of Christ no merit to eternall life but his righteousnesse that sinnes are all mortall by nature though not equall that mans righteousnesse though done in grace is unperfect What if Reason deny this and teach the contrary By the word of God wee learne that bread in the Sacrament is not turned into the very body of Christ nor wine into his bloud yet that it is his very body and bloud to the faithfull communicant who is made partaker of whole Christ not by a grosse and fleshly incorporation but a ghostly and effectuall union What if Reason deny this and teach the contrary By Gods word wee learne that worshipping of Images amongst Christians is but a setting up of Idols as amongst the Heathen that Prayers in a strange tongue for the dead are neither devotion nor charity What if Reason deny this and teach the contrary By Gods word wee learne that Religion consisteth not in Popish shrift Penance difference of Meats Apparell Fasting Pilgrimage Reliques Crossing Holy-oile Holy-water Holy-bread Holybeades Holy-bells What if Reason deny this and teach the contrary to the decay of Christian obedience which consisteth in an inward mortisication and outwardly in a patient bearing of Christs crosse By the word of God wee learne that Christ is the only head of the Church and doth still governe the same by his spirit and word from which Gods Ministers or Priests fetch all their authority and hath not given over his place to another which should take authority above the word What if Reason deny this and teach the contrary By the word wee learne that the Scriptures have sufficient instruction to salvation What if Reason deny it and put us farther over to traditions revelations miracles to enforce doctrines contrary to the