And prayeth Forsake me not in the time of mine Age when my strength faileth me until I have shewed thy strength unto this Generation and they Power unto all c. Psal 72. He urgeth his holy Resolutions Give the King thy judgements c. Then shall he Judge the people according to right and defend the poor c. He shall keep the simple folk by their right and punish the wrong doer Psal 5.2 Hearken unto the voice of my calling my King and my God Motiv for unto thee will I make my my prayer my voice shalt thou hear betimes O Lord early in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee and will look up Psal 86.11 Teach me thy way O Lord the motive And I will walk in thy truth knit my heart unto thee the motive that I may fear thy name Psal 16. Preserve me O God the motive for in thee do I put my trust Psal 17. And in sundry other Psalms he urgeth the wickedness of his enemies as a motive ver 8. Keep me as the apple of the eye hide me under the shadow of thy wings from the wicked that oppress me the motive with their mouth they speak proudly c. In the 38 Psal he also urgeth the malice and wickedness of his enemies together with his own sorrow and misery by reason of his sins and his enemies ver 2. Thine arrows stick fast in me and thine hand presseth me sore There is no health in my flesh because of thy displeasure neither is there rest in my bones because of my sin ver 20. Of his enemies he saith they were against him because he followed the thing that is good but he will confess his iniquities these motives introduce this prayer Hast thee to help me O Lord God of my salvation In the 4 Psal He makes use of Gods former benefits as a motive for further beneficent saying Hear me when I call O God of my Righteousness the motive for thou hast set me at liberty when I was in trouble Psal 86. He urgeth his afflictions he suffered under Gods hand and his enemies malice and the goodness and mercy of God And concludes O turn thee unto me and have mercy upon me Usual in his prayers is that expression for thy Name sake They who would make use of this as all must must know him in that name which he himself proclaimed Exod. 34.6 For David did refer to this The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin c. The Lord cannot forget his own name therefore cannot forget to be gracious If we can use that inducement of Moses Lord if I have found favour in thy sight it is peculiar to his favourites and obligeth God to hear This is a large Field and may afford great plenty and variety but every man may supply himself with it that list to read and observe the Psalms It is noted by Bishop Cooper that it is not sufficient to seek from God because of that which he is but we must also consider what we are Otherwise as Jehu said unto one demanding Is it peace What hast thou to do with peace So the Lord may answer us though the Lord be gracious what is it to us As to the subject matter of Prayer the Children of God are sometimes mistaken about it and are in doubts St. Paul accordingly confesseth in the behalf of himself and others we know not what to pray for as we ought We find Moses also mistaken in the matter of his Prayer Exod. 33.18 Shew me now thy Glory for God answer'd him that no man could see his face and live and that he could not see it yet Almighty God to shew his propensity in hearing prayer came as neer his request as he could for God answered him in that which was as profitable and useful for him He made all his goodness to pass before him and let him see his back-parts so that Moses lost not his Prayer though he did not obtain the thing he asked Much more may we expect success in our Prayers when we ask such things as he hath commanded us to seek which we know are according to his will and our blessed Saviour also hath engag'd for our obtaining The invitations being so many so importunate and so free viz. To come and buy without money and without price to open our mouths wide to ask and have it appears and we must so believe that Gods bountifulness is such that he is more ready to give than we to ask or receive And like as a Mother whose breasts are full is more desirous to give suck to her Babe than that to crave or receive it such is Gods freeness to us It concerns us then to advise what these rich benefits are which we are to beg and buy without money or price And if we may have what we lack for asking certainly we shall be convinced of the greatest folly in the world if we will lose them for want of asking Many are ignorant of their own wants as the Church of Laodicea who knew not that she was wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked but thought herself in the contrary estate But God adviseth her of her wants and the remedy of it which he sheweth her is to be had of him only viz. Gold tried in the fire that she might be rich and white raiment that she might be cloathed and eye Salve that she might see and freely invites her to buy them of him though she were poor blind and naked and had nothing to purchase them withall therefore we may infer that all men be their condition what it will may come to God in this duty of Prayer for all their needs as we read Jonah 1.5 The Mareners cryed every one to his God For our better direction that we may not miscarry in our suits as the Mother of Zebedees Children did our blessed Saviour hath plentifully instructed us what we should pray for as he here directs the Church of the Laodiceans Matth. 6.9 and Luke 11.2 The Disciples sensible of their own insufficiency do make it their suit to him to teach them thereupon he gives a pattern and rules for them and us to use In which Prayer the three first and the three last petitions are spiritual According to the rule which he gives ver 33. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof From this prayer of our Saviour and the rules by him given and from the precepts elsewhere and the prayers of the Saints we find but these three things necessary to be prayed for viz. Grace and the means of Grace and the rewards promised thereto For though the Children of God do most frequently use confession of their sins and thanksgivings together with their Prayers as Daniel did And Davids Psalms are most of them thus and whether we use them as
body the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life also of Jesus might be manifest in our bodys with which agreeth that Rom. 8. Nevertheless afterwards they yeild the peaceable fruits of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby Wouldst thou have the life of Jesus manifest in thy body or Jesus Christ to live in thy soul then be content with Afflictions sickness and paines continually or wouldst thou have an hyperbole on hyperbole of glory then embrace the Cross which worketh it for us and love God afflicting thee Wouldst thou have eternity of Blessedness hereafter then be content to be fitted and prepared for the injoyment of it by a moments misery if thou desirest these ends use those meanes Med. 6. The Lord hath said it in his word that the voice of joy and thanksgiving is in the dwelling of the righteous heaviness may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning He saith he creates Israel a rejoycing Trust thou then in the Lord O my soul that thy grief shall not always last That the Rod of the wicked shall not always rest on thy back That he hath not forgotten to be gracious to thee Thou hast found by thine own experience the truth of these gracious dealings of God and mayst break out into praises of his goodness with the words of the Prophet Isaiah 25. O Lord thou art my God I will exalt thee I will praise thy name for thou hast done wonderful things thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth v. 4. Thou hast been a strength to the poor a strength to the needy in his destress a refuge from the storm a shadow from the heat when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall Therefore according to thy loving kindness of old now O Lord in the midst of thy wrath remember mercy Med. 7. What Son is there whom his Father chastneth not let me see the love of a Father in thy chastisements that it is the cup which my Father giveth that it is thy loving correction as David calls it Psal That it is but when need reguires That it is less than I deserve that it is that I should not perish with the World That thou dost not afflict nor grieve me willingly but as unwillingly as a Father his Son in whom he delighteth 't is affliction to himself That thou layest no more upon me than thou wilt enable me to bear That in all my afflictions Christ suffers with me and he that touches me touches also the Apple of his eye that when the Lord afflicts me with one hand he supports me with the other That he corrects me not in wrath That fury is not in him That his wrath endureth but a moment That he will save the afflicted people Psal 18.27 That it is an undoubted evidence to me of my Adoption and filiation And that it shall work in my soul Patience Humility meekness and all other peaceable fruit of righteousness in this life and an unspeakable weight of eternal glory hereafter That as a Father pitieth his children so the Lord pitieth me If this I be assured of I shall count afflictions matter of joy and rejoycing for as I desire the ends grace and glory I must embrace the means that God useth to subdue my iniquities and to teach me obedience and make me better and account it loving correction Med. 8. If I would attain the end I must be contented with the trouble and difficulty of the means Heaven is purchased at no less a rate than All for it Whatever is dear unto thee as thy right eye in this thou must deny thy self Hast thou tryed and found the difficulty of mortification forsaking of the world and self-denial and of thy self thou art not able to attain to them to conquer thy passions viz. thy anger by an invincible patience thy revenge and malice by doing good for evil and by submission to him who hath said Vengeance is mine or else thy covetous mind of possessing much and trusting to the multitude of thy riches or else the lusts of thy flesh and youth pride or vain-glory love of pleasure and ease and indulging thy self What thou findest thou art not able of thy self to do those acts of mortification thou hast prayed to God to inable thee to do viz. that these messengers of Satan that buffet thee may depart from thee The Lord by his visitations and afflictions takes away the strength of thy corruptions weakens them and brings them under and so doth that for thee which thou wert not able to do thy self thou hast cause to say with holy David Psal 119. It is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn the judgments of thy mouth whereas before I was afflicted I went astray Then thou hast cause to rejoyce also as the Apostle St. James bids the Brother of a high degree rejoyce when he is brought low It may be thou hadst need of subduing and keeping under thy body and instead thereof hast been rather inclined to pamper it feeding to the full and hast waxed fat and kicked The Lord out of his mercy to thee hath sent afflictions to purge thee and heale thee and to keep under thy body that thou shouldst subdue thy corruption and lusts which are ready to break out do what thou canst by mortification self denial fasting abstinance and prayer which dutys thou hast been unwilling to undergo or at least in such sort and measure as the Gospel requireth Thou must not only be conntent to use and undergo the means but if thou wilt have grace and glory thou must pray for the means also and desire it Thou knowest that visitations and loving corrections are those means which thy heavenly Father is forced to use to reclaim those that go astray and to improve those that are weak Thou knowest many of thy graces are weak and want improvement thou prayest to him to fulfil his promises of helping and strengthening his that are weak if so thou must pray for these means which he hath appointed and take up thy Cross that thou mayest be able to follow thy Saviour Med. 9. Thou knowest the Discipline which God useth to his prodigal and undutiful children If they forsake his waies he visits their iniquities with rods and their sins with scourges though he doth not utterly take his loving kindness from them We read not of any of the Saints of God who went unpunished for their sins Job cryed out that God made him possess the sins of his youth David's sins took such hold upon him that he was not able to look up he was even consumed by means of Gods heavy hand there was no health in his flesh nor rest in his bones by reason of his sin Psal 38.3 Then he confessed his wickedness and was sorry for his sins and they were ever in his sight when the rod was upon him v. 17 18. Though we also believe our selves to be the Garden
holiness to the Lord be writ upon us and all our common things Make every pot in Jerusalem like as the bolls before the Altar Pardon our iniquities heal our backslidings and receive us graciously Let the Sun of Righteousness arise on us with healing in his wings Subdue our iniquities and cast our sins into the bottom of the Sea Wash away our scarlet sins and make us clean and white as Snow Make the Lion to lye down with the Lamb and to cat straw with the Bullock Make the heart of the rash understand knowledge And let not the fool erre O Christ give thou light to them that sit in darkness Give sight to the blind Plant in the barren Wilderness the Fir-tree the Mirtle-tree the Cedar the Shitta-tree the Pine-tree the Olive and the Box-tree Make the barren Wilderness a standing water and water-springs in a dry ground Pour water upon the thirsty And give us all those means of grace which thou hast promised Give us Pastors according to thine own heart which shall feed us with knowledge and understanding and such as shall teach us by their lives as well as by doctrine And since thou hast appointed afflictions for means make us to rejoyce in them and hear the Rod. Water us every morning and every moment with the dew of grace and make our souls as a watered Garden As a Garden inclosed as a Fountain sealed that no polluting thing may come into us to defile us That we may be more pure in heart more holy delight in thee more and feed upon thy Word more That we may grow up like the Calves of the stall be fat and well liking That we may flourish in the Courts of the house of the Lord. That we may run and not be weary walk and not faint mount up with wings like an Eagle and renew our strength as an Eagle Give us all those means of improving our graces which thou hast promised Strengthen us sustain us support us and hold us up that we may not fall lead us and guide us in that way whorein we shall not stumble Make us to feed by the Rivers of Waters thy holy Ordinances upon thy holy Word and the Lord's Supper That the weak may be as David and the house of David as God That thy willing people may be more and more wiling that they may be zealous of good works alwaies abounding in the work of the Lord knowing that their labour is not in vain in the Lord. Quicken and water the means of Grace Make us able to mortifie our members more and deny our selves more to suffer losses sicknesses and afflictions more contentedly willingly and patiently put a new edge upon those motives which first moved us to forsake our lusts and the world to embrace the love of God and the fear of God the knowledge of God As the eyes of a servant are to the hands of his Master and the eyes of a Maid to the hands of her Mistress so let our eyes be ever upon thee for help strength and direction Give us the means of guarding and defending our selves against Satan All the Armour of Light the Shield of Faith the Sword of the Spirit the Breast-plate of Righteousness and for a Helmet the Hope of Salvation Teach us the Art of well using all these pieces of this spiritual Armour both the defensive and the offensive that we may with them beat down every thought that exalteth it self against God Teach us all our military postures that we may be able to stand Watch thou over us though we our selves watch too and do thou keep us night and day for thy promise sake Bear us in thy hand as a man beareth his child Go with us never leave us nor forsake us Make us to know thy will and do it Be thou our guide unto death Direct thou our way and order our steps in thy Word Incline our heart that we may delight in thee Deliver us from every evil work Let no spiritual weapon formed against us prosper Preserve our bodies and souls blameless unto the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and make us able to overcome all our spiritual enemies Lord whatever promises thou hast made to us thou madest them because thou didst desire to give us the things promised Thou only desiredst an opportunity from the receiver or to be sought to for them We seek to thee according to thy command therefore let thy mercy which first moved thee to promise them move thee now for thy Truths sake to give them as well all other thy promises as these mentioned And give us all those mercies which thou hast invited us to ask or thy Son hath invited us to seek Lord heal our blindness with thy eye-salve which thou hast invited the blind to seek of thee And strengthen our weak sight more and more that we may behold clearly the glory of the Lord and may be changed into the same image from glory to glory and may see the things of our eternal concernment Relieve our nakedness with those pure white Robes which thou hast invited the naked to buy of thee which will never be soiled nor wax old And relieve our poverty and penury with thy refined gold which will inrich to eternity which thou exposest to be sold to the poor and needy who have nothing to purchase it withall Shew us wherwith we poor blind and naked sinners shall purchase of thee these necessary supplies For if we continue without them we shall remain miserable and perish for lack of them Lord our raggs we are willing to part with for those unspotted Robes our wretched poverty for that refined gold and our blind eyes for that clear and quick sight which thy eye-salve will make in us that we may be capable of seeing the remedies of our poverty and nakedness Shew us how we may purchase of thee wine and milk without money and without price to relieve our thirsty souls Lord give us the thirst and desire of those precious liquors to satisfie our thirsts and do thou satisfie our souls with those Rivers of pleasure which are at thy Right hand for evermore And that we may lack no grace and thy relief may supply all our needs and spiritual wants Give us of the fulness of Christ Jesus grace for grace that we may know that be liveth in us as our Head and we in and by him Give us to be like him and to imitate him in all holiness Make us to walk as he walked that we may know that we are members of his body Give us Patience Humility Meekness Temperance Chastity and Charity Mortification and Vivisication Faith and Obedience of his fulness Give us all those graces that any of thy Saints and Servants have had and all those degrees of grace Give us all those graces which thou hast commanded us to have and all those degrees of grace Make us perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect Give us all those
in the deluge As thou art the God of our strength and therefore we need not to go mourning through fear of the enemy so art thou our exceeding joy whereby we are holily transproted to rejoyce in thee in singing thy praises Psal 43. Praise the Lord O my soul and all that is within me Praise his holy name Psal 103 As thou art gracious and merciful patient slow to anger ready to forgive the sins of thy people for thy names sake so art thou also righteous in all thy waies and holy in thy works If a man will not turne thou wilt whet thy sword and bend thy bow thou wilt bring upon such all the curses written in thy book till thou hast destroyed them for so thou hast done to thine own people the Jews who would not believe thy threatnings to be warned thereby Thou who shewedst mercy to Niniveh repenting after the judgment pronounced and to Ahab going mournefully when he heard the judgment threatned against his house which shews that thy threatnings are conditional viz. if we turn not thou likewise laidest thy hand so heavy upon thy Servant David day and night that his moisture was like the drought in summer The light of his eyes was gone from him he was almost consumed by means of thy heavy hand he had no health in his bones nor no soundness in his flesh his teares was his meat day and night All the day long was he punished and chastened every morning because his iniquities were gone over his head these and many more as Eli Lot and Noah are set out in the word for examples of the truth of thy threatnings against sin though repented of Give me therefore thy grace that I may watch against sin and all temptations and occasions thereof and against the least degrees and beginnings of sin and all appearance of evil with prayer that I entter not into temptation and the Lord support me and hold me up that I fall not in temptations And when I pray unto thee in the name of Jesus Christ my Saviour for pardon for my manifold sins O Lord remember that thou hast declared thy self to be the Lord gracious and merciful slow to anger that forgivest the iniquities of thy people for thy name sake and let thy mercy be magnified by the greatness of my sins my sins are more in number than the hairs of my head But thy mercys as infinit thy thoughts are not like our thoughts For as far as the Heaven is above the earth so far are thy thoughts above our thoughts And let the greatness of my Redeemers merits be magnified by the greatness of my unworthiness He is mighty to save And though our sins be as scarlet he can make us white as snow by his blood which he hath shed for us for if he be Lord of all and the World was made by him then was he able also to reedeem all the World that come unto God by him for redemption do thou but assure me that the least drop of his blood the least sigh of his heart or the least degree of his humiliation was for my sins or had respect unto me among the rest and I do undoubtedly believe they are fully pardoned and I am saved from all the curse that is due unto them Lord since thou hast imputed to him my sins for it is said that he hath born the Iniquities of us all it is but just with thee that I should be acquitted and have his rightoeusness imputed to me else why did he suffer LET us then be made the righteousness of God in him since he was for that end and purpose made sin for us since thou hast given him for a covenant to the people give us also to find in our selves that we have him and with him all those promises of grace that belong to this covenant which in him are verified and fulfilled With him therefore give us thy Spirit in our hearts to cause us to walk in thy statutes to know and do thy judgements cause us to love thee with all our hearts to delight in thee and to fear thee to run and not be weary and to be holy in all our common things c. Of Afflictions Let him deny himself and take up his Cross are the first and second step to happiness therefore that we may not be so effiminately fearful to touch the Cross as we are nor be so longing and licorish to gratify our selves in whatsoever our heart desires is this meditation Afflictions are Christs School whereby he teacheth his followers in the discipline of holiness as he is said to have learned obedience by the things he suffered so he prescribes a suffering condition to his and they who are not partakers of his sufferings but are without chastisement are said to be bastards and not sons of their heavenly father so it concerns us to expect them and not beds of Roses oiled paths or the pleasures of the sences and that we make a sanctified use of them for those holy ends and purposes for which they are sent whether it be for our conversion from the state of nature and unbelief by true and unfeigned repentance or to renew our repentance after some fall to awaken us out of security or to improve our patience or holiness humility or any or all our graces and so to purify us to himself for as soon as they have attained their end he removeth them from us for he doth not afflict nor grieve willingly the sons of men to help me to make a sanctified use of them are these meditations Fides Fructifica 1 James 4. Let patience have her perfect work Meditation LORD teach us with thy blessed Apostles Paul and Silas to sing Psalmes in the midest of the Dungeon and with the three children when the furnace is made three times hotter than at other times And that we may have perfect patience make us sensible that the hand of God is upon us for our sins deservedly as the thief upon the cross was If we have no success either in our spiritual or Worldly affaires let us believe that it is the hand of God for our sins That we have not made better use of the afflictions which God hath laid upon us to purge us of some sin and do not search out the causes thereof and try our waies it is our sin for his hand is streched out still for if we know that God chastens and scourges every Son whom he loveth we may then understand that with one judgment God punisheth us for the sins passed and delivereth us thereby from sin and destruction for the time to come As when his Servant David had sinned by numbering the people God sent the Prophet to him to declare his will to punish him with one of those three evils he cried I have sinned so that whereever sin is there God detests and punisheth The righteous shall not go unpunished But the Sons of Ely when their Father reproved
here am I. So the Lord speaks Jer. 31.21 I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself so whilst Daniel was praying at the beginning of his Prayer God answered Dan 9. the Prodigal desired to be but as a hired Servant and the Father brings forth the Fatted Calf to entertain him so God gives us more than we ask Is any man afflicted let him pray it teacheth that Gods Children are not free from troubles nor can expect so to be It teacheth also that those prayers that are extorted from us by necessity are heard necessity may first set men awork to pray as it did Jacob. Though men would object against them who come to them in their necessities yet Christ and man had never come together had it not been for necessity necessities are not a putting us off but a drawing us to God as appears by these Invitations 'T is folly to neglect God in our trouble When Joab would not come to Absolom he sets his Corn on fire and then he came Dan. 9. Though all this be come upon us yet have we not made our prayers unto thee Gods aims are accomplish'd when thou comest to him Hos 5.15 I will hide my face and they will call upon me early Let not the affliction simply without regard to the precept and promise drive us to God 2. Cor. 1.10 11. God hath delivered me and will deliver me c. Your helping together in your prayers The qualification of the Persons and of the prayer are contained in this the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous availeth much Nothing will make us more fervent than afflictions Sometimes God doth not hear us at the first to make us more fervent his delays are no denials God hath several ways of deliverance that we know not of we must not obtrude our own model upon God David Ps 34. I sought the Lord and he heard me and deliver'd me out of all my trouble Sometimes God will not give a temporal deliverance that he may give a spiritual sometimes he will give both As St Paul said God hath delivered me from the mouth of the Lion and will also deliver me from every evil work The Martyrs in the 12th of the Hebrews would not accept of deliverance from men There is a Spiritual deliverance in part as Pauls from the Thorn in the Flesh or in the whole God sometimes delivereth us by death as Sampson was from the Philistines sometimes he delivereth by death from eternal death Again seldom doth deliverance fail when either we are inlarged to pray for it or incouraged to wait upon God for it when thou preparest the heart O Lord thou inclinest thy ear so Fathers teach their Children to ask what they have a mind to bestow Till we are past sinning we shall not be past suffering Because suffering follows sin as the effect follows the cause and suffering is the usual means which God makes use of to restrain us from sin and to set our graces on work which begin to decay in the Sun-shine of prosperity Though affliction be the fruit of sin it may be the mother of vertue where it is not the mother it may be and most commonly is the Nurse or foster mother making us renew our vows and resolutions for God brings good out of evil or otherwise he would not permit unjustice and opression to be done to his children by the men of the World of whom he saieth he that toucheth you toucheth the the Apple of mine eye And if the members suffer the head suffers also and our blessed Lord and Saviour saith that he that offendeth the least of the Children of God 't were better for that man that a Mill-stone were hanged about his neck and that he were thrown into the midst of the Sea than that he should offend one of those little ones Since Christ himself accompts their sufferings his as these and many other Scriptures prove he doth if in all theit afflictions he is afflicted if they affect him in the tenderest place the apple of his eye then surely he will not permit them to be inflicted in the least degree or quantity more than he seeth necessary fortheir good From hence viz. the sense of Gods tender love to his Children might spring that undaunted confidence and full assurance of faith which Gods people sometimes discover as Holy Job said Though he kill me yet will I trust in him David when the people talked of Stoning him encouraged himself in the Lord. Habakkuk the Prophet would rejoyce in the Lord though the Fig-Tree should not blossom neither should fruit be in the vine though the labour of the Olive should fail and the Field should yield no encrease though the Flock should be cut off from the fold c. The innumerable company of Martyrs in the late Queen Mary's days and in the 10 persecutions when the bodies of the Servants of God were given to be meat for the wild beasts and others burned with fire for the testimony of Christ and would not accept deliverance in hopes of a better resurrection Their faith was the substance of the things hoped for and it secured the possession of them which verefied that truth in Psal 107. He shall not be afraid for any evil tidings his heart is fixed and he trusteth in the Lord. Faith draweth off the mind from temporal things to eternal and then from the dark waies of Gods providence to his promises in his covenant and so makes a man to commit himself to God as it is 2 of Tim. 1.12 I know whom I have trusted Faith puts all into Gods hand and we are safe when we know our goods are in a sure hand Submission to God is an act of faith and love and an act of obedience thereby Job blessed God taking away David submitted himself to God Saying if the Lord hath said to Shimei curse David who shall say why hast thou done so c. Who can tell whether the Lord will requite good for his railing readily did Hezekiah submit to all that God pleased when the Prophet told Eli of the judgments threatned against his House 2 Sam. 15.21 His submissive answer is 'T is the Lord let him do what seemeth good in his sight he laid his mouth in the dust Guilt makes us fear when God removes the pillar of security from under our heads by any affliction but the knowledg of God by former experience fortifies faith This made the Apostle argue God would deliver him Psal 35. I trusted in thee for I said thou art my God His interest in God and Gods Interest in him made him trust in him 2 Chro. 13.18 The children of Judah prevailed against the Israelites because they relied upon the Lord. Another help of faith is prayer Thou shalt ask of me and I will give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance Another is obedience the old Prophet went out of Gods way and the Lyon slew him The comfort of the Cross to the People of God
Fret not thy self because of the ungodly nor be thou envious against the evil doers ver 29. The wicked seeth the righteous and seeketh occasion to slay him ver 14. The wicked have drawn the sword and bent the bow to slay such as be of an upright conversation ver 12. The wicked plotteth against the righteous and gnasheth upon him with his teeth ver 33. The Lord will not leave him in his hand nor condemn him when he is judged ver 39. And 40. The Salvation of the Righteous is of the Lord he is their strength in time of trouble And the Lord shall help them and deliver them he shall deliver them from the wicked and save them because they trust in him Rom. 8.28 We know that all things work together for good to them that love God 32. He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things v. 35. Who shall separate us from the love of God shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword for thy sake are we killed all the day long we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter 37. Nay in all these things we are more than conquerers through him that loved us These consolations did not only support the suffering Saints but made them triumph over all their torments Take joyfully the spoiling of their goods Rejoyce in the Lord in the want of all things When they had nothing to possess all things Sing in the dungeon dispise death and not accept deliverance Psal 119. David by delighting in Gods word was supported Satans envie to the Servants of God all that all belongs to God raiseth up persecutions to the holy seed The Dragon in the Revelations is set forth persecuting the woman Rev. 12.8 Satan hath great wrath because he hath but a short time therefore the persecutions under the Gospel are greater than those were under the law St. Paul was not only ready to suffer afflictions for Christ but to dye also Satan was not contented when he had prevailed in the trial of holy Job to the taking away of his substance nor yet when he had prevailed for the depriving of him of his children but his body also must be smitten The office of the Comforter would be in vain If Gods people were never dismayed If there were no broken heart to be healed and bound up there needed no strong consolations of the Holy Spirit nor no Oil of joy and gladness if no spiritual heaviness were He could not restore beauty for Ashes if no Ashes were upon our heads nor wipe all tears from our eyes if they wept not before The Sun of righteousness should arise with healing in his wings in vain if none had need of healing The Blessedness to those that mourn that they shall be comforted were needless They are necessary also that the scriptures migh be fulfilled They are plentiful for this assertion Through many tribulations we shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven If we endure not tribulations whereof all are partakers then are we Bastards and not Sons All that will live godly must suffer persecutions 2 Tim. 3.12 Many are the troubles of the righteous If our Hope were in this life only we were of all men most miserable By all which it appears that the Saints are the people that are to be oppressed for they only can bear wrongs and oppressions Psal For thy sake are we killed all the day long yet do we not forsake thee Judgement must begin at Gods house The Spouse in the Canticles saith Look not upon me because I am black because the Sun hath shined upon me She had been in hardship and underwent what injuries Wind and weather could do to her and knew that worldly men would censure her as wicked and forsaken of God Gods antient people the Jews when they sined were carried into captivity in Babylon according to the Prophesies They were restored again upon their repentance And sinning again were utterly destroyed by the Romans under Titus's command The Scriptures which threaten plagues punishments and curses cannot be fulfilled if afflictions should not befal us Six of the seven Churches of Asia were threatned unless they repented Will any one think that the impenitent scaped unpunished there is not any one of those punishments which God threatned from the beginning of the holy Scripture to the end but came to pass save only where repentance prevented them as was the case of the Ninivites And in some degree Ahab and Manasses shew their repentance answerable to which their remission was but our first parents found the truth of all Gods threatnings so did the old world that was drowned So did Gods ancient people the Jews of whom ' its said 14 of Hose 1. Thy iniquities have distroyed thee For all those curses and plagues threatned against them and their City as Josephus who was in the calamity and an eye witness writes did come to pass not one excepted Davids family was foretold of that Judgement that the sword should not depart from them and the truth of it they felt So Jezabel and Ahab Lots wife these knew the terror of the Lord and are set forth as examples to us as it is in St. Judes epist Our Blessed Lord and Saviour hath undergone that curse which was threatned to our first Parents In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye the Death And if he had notundergone it for us we all must have undergone it in our own persons Call upon God therefore O my soul with earnest prayers constantly and fervently that he would support thee and hold thee up in the time of the firy trial that is to come upon all the world to try them But especially in the time of spiritual desertions which by reason of our frailties befals the best of Gods Servants as it did our blessed Saviour upon the Cross when he cried out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me and the spouse Cant. 5.6 Sought for her love but could not find him and Psal 13.1 v. David saith How long wilt thou forget me Lord for ever how long wilt thou hide thy face from me Isa 38.14.15 Hezekiah mourns as a dove his eyes fail him with looking upward 15. I shall go softly all my days in the bitterness of my soul and the 5 Cant. 6. And Psal 102. Shew that all the Servants of God must expect that God will withdraw himself somtimes and v. 8. This shall be written for the generation to come that the Lord will regard the prayer of the poor distieute he will not absent himself for ever he will be found again This was the Zenith of our Saviours sufferings and none but Saints can lye under this suffering But God is with them though they see him not for he hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee 2 Chron. 16.2 The Lord is with you while you
priviledge may be gathered from this Argument that it was Jesus Christ's Legacy which he left to his Friends And it may be gathered from the Prayers of the Apostles 2 Thess 3. Now the Lord of Peace himself give you peace always by all means 1 Pet. 5.14 Peace be with you all that are in Christ Isa 26.3 Thou shalt keep him in perfect Peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee vers 22. O Lord thou wilt ordain peace for us That the Saints have freedom and confidence in Prayer and joy thereof If the Lord hath delight in their prayers he will give them reciprocal delight The promise of our blessed Saviour assures us of this priviledge he saith Whatever you shall ask the Father in my Name he will give it you Ask and ye shall receive that your joy may be full David found the truth of it when he said The Lord hath heard my petition The Lord will receive my prayer Psal And Moses in The Lord heard me this time also And Jam. 5. v. 16. The effectual fervent prayer of the righteous availeth much The greatness of the Joy is expressed in the instance of Hanna her countenance was no more sad after she had prayed And agreeable hereto is that of Solomon Eccles Eat thy bread with joyfulness for the Lord hath accepted thee He that hath once obtained his desires of God by prayer is transported with excess of joy and is emboldened and encouraged for all that he wants and can hardly be dejected or dismayed in any trouble if he call to mind the same for the experience of this priviledge inlargeth the soul to enjoy God as his God in whom he hath a sure interest and to a thankfulness of consecrating those mercies as Hanna did to God As they have priviledges of enjoying so have they of doing That the righteous person performs holy and virtuous actions by the assistance of the Spirit with more freeness facility and delight than they can be performed by any principle of morality good nature or ingenuous education is plain for this and that being compared we shall easily see that those that are virtuous by the light of Nature have had more falls than those that are illuminated by the Spirit and the Word of God Therefore David prays Psal 51. Establish me with thy free Spirit And Psal 119. I shall run the waies of thy Commandments when thou hast set my heart at liberty For instance consider with what facility and readiness Joseph being solicited and tempted by his Mistriss to unchast embraces avoided put by and cast off the temptation How can I do this great wickedness and sin Gen. 39. And it came to pass as she spake to Joseph day by day that he hearkned not unto her to lye with her or to be with her And it came to pass that Joseph went into the House to do his business and there was none of the Men of the House there within And she caught him by the Garment saying lye with me And he left his Garment in her hand and fled and got him out Here encountred and assaulted with so strong a temptation of unchastity importunately and uncessantly assailing him backed and assisted with the temptations of Ambition and Covetousness and fit opportunity to accomplish it with secresie and no restraint at all but the All-seeing eye of God would any of the moral Philosophers thus easily and readily have conquered such a Temptation and held it out against the continual importunity and opportunity by the strength of Right Reason Honesty and Truth Certainly they would have broken out into Impatience Rage and bitter invectives of an angry proud Spirit studying revenge and defamation of the Tempter and the extolling of their own virtue or otherwise have transgressed against some of the cardinal virtues which would have giveâ— an offence another way to their own disparagement the offence of others and the discredit of the profession of Philosophy But the freeness readiness and facility of the new Nature yieldeth abundance of peace joy delight and satisfaction to him who is renewed and acted by it and giveth no offence to the beholders but full satisfaction And as in this instance of Chastity we have considered it so may we as fully and clearly see the sweet face and comely beauty of this new Nature and the joy that it yields in the mirrour of patience acted by holy Job And his facility of repelling and vanquishing all the Temptations of Satan his Wife and his three Friends And this freeness smoothness readiness and facility is so delightful in all the encounters that the new Nature hath with the old corrupt unregenerate part that the generosity thereof being compared with the morosity of the severe sullen churlish rigid Philosophers that like the beams of the Sun will make this quite lose its borrowed lustre like the Moon at mid-day Yet those virtuous persons found such sweet delight in virtue by the dimn light of Nature that they esteemed the contemplation thereof above all enjoyments and all content to be in the practice thereof For they were not Men stripped of outward enjoyments and forced to retire but eminent Among the rest Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Pius the Emperour How great then must the joy and content be which the Soul enjoyeth when it feeleth the actings of the holy Spirit carrying it above the strength of Nature in Holiness and every Grace through the Spirit whereby it is assured that Christ liveth in it and enjoyeth him as the Spouse enjoyeth her Beloved in which relation the Soul rejoyceth with exceeding joy as it is described in the Canticles And this relation is inseparable from that Relation of being the Sons of God 1 John 1.1 2. We are the Sons of God but it doth not appear what we shall be The joy of being a Son of God and to be accepted of God as it is said Acts 10.35 In every Nation they that fear God are accepted This must needs satisfie the Soul with joy peace and content and remove all grief and fear The Apostle saith This is our rejoycing that in simplicity and Godly sincerity we have our conversation in the World it is the Nature of Grace to give inward joy And it is often pressed as a duty incumbent upon Believers to rejoyce in the Lord. For such have no cause of fear distrust or despair be their condition what it will Psal 46. Though the Earth be moved and the Mountains shake at the Tempest though the Waters rage and swell here is repose and rest and refuge in the midst of troubles And every grace of the holy Spirit doth causally bring satisfaction peace and joy in themselves And as they excite one another they cause happiness as well efficiently in genere causarum as conditionally by virtue of the pact or Covenant of God made in the Gospel through the merit of Christ Jesus And by those Graces we are restrained from those evils of sin and
crucified to us and we unto the world that is as well the lusts of the flesh the lusts of the eyes and the pride of life which containes all that is in the world all which the faithful soul counts but dross and dung for the excellency of the knowledg of Christ Jesus whom as the Spouse in the Canticles she esteemes fairer than ten thousand And esteemes sin the most ugly vile eformed and abominable thing in the world pulling off its mask and vizard whereby it deceives the men of the world as it is said Rom. 7.10 Sin deceived me and thereby slew me The understanding thus inlightened ingageth all it can against sin as its enemy and sometimes by vigilancy it prevailes against all assaults of temptations whereby sin is quite excluded from entring and sometimes by flying the occasions of sin as Joseph fled from his Mistress and by the Spirit assistance we mortify the flesh God and Christ susporting Sometimes by prayer faith prevailes against the tempter the soul fearing its own weakness seeks for help of him who is able to succour and hath succoured it The last refuge which faith hath is repentance early and hearty sorrow for the sin committed as Peter when he had denied his Lord and Master immediately he went forth and wept bitterly By these means faith quenches all the fiery darts of the wicked The light of nature teacheth that the soul is borne to more noble things than to wait upon the pleasure of the senses But the supernatural life which the Apostle lived when he said I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me Shews another inabling principle of life in the regenerate proceeding from that union which is betwixt Christ and his members because Christ and they are one Spirit 1 Cor. 6.10 Therefore he saith Not I because he is not the same man he was before that man is Crucified with Christ and buried with him he hath derived a new life from Christ as he expresseth I laboured more abundantly than all yet not I but Christ Christ is the spring of it the matter of it and end of it Consider the end of your conversation Jesus Christ and if Christ live in us we shall do think and speak as he did As all other graces of Gods children are sometimes weaker than they are at other times so is faith But thâ— decay of this grace is the cause of decay of many others and sometime the decay of others may cause a decay of this the Psal 51. Entituled a Psalme of David when Nathan the Prophet came unto him after he had gone in to Bathsheba the Title and the Psalme it self shew what sins and what punishments he lay under and because his sins were the cause of the loss of Gods Spirit or of the danger of it and of the loss of the joy of his salvation viz. His assurance he confesseth his sins first and prays for pardon through the multitude of Gods tender mercys then prays for washing healing cleansing and renovation Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right Spirit within me It followes Restore unto me the joy of thy Salvation and support me with thy free Spirit This implieth that before he had it but now he had lost it and was deprived of it which was the cause of so great grief to him that he expresseth it to be the breaking of his bones Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce And the like doth every penitent broken soul feel in himself when he fears the loss of Gods holy Spirit and feels himself deprived of the joy of his salvation and this joy when it is restored is so great that it will make the broken bones rejoyce he apprehended the greatness of the joy now in the loss of it Psal I have roared for the very disquietness of my heart God deprives us of it for our sins that we may be the more careful to preserve it and fearful by sin to loose it or hazard it and to work out our Salvation with fear and trembling for though Gods lays not upon his children all that they deserve yet they shall not go unpunished Judgment shall begin at the house of God Jer. 22.24 Though Coniah the Son of Jehojakim King of Juda were the signet upon my right hand yet would I pluck thee thence Now for as much as the motions workings of the holy Spirit in the faithful people of God by inlightning them in the understanding of heavenly truths bringing to mind and applying the word of God to their comfort inabling them to converse and walk with God in holy Meditation contemplation prayer and thanksgiving making melody in their hearts to the Lord delighting them and rejoycing them in the want of all things as the Prophet Habakkuk expresseth chap. 3. Though the Fig Tree should not blossom nor fruits be in the vines c. And making them to abound with inward joy when their afflictions do most abound slighting and contemning alike both worldly joy and sorrow for the joy which they have in the Lord these are the study imployment and business of a regenerate person wherein he desires to be alwaies exercised because he cannot find satisfaction nor delight in any thing else hence he may be more truly and properly said to live by faith and by the Spirit than to live the life natural as St. Paul argues he did when he saith I am crucified with Christ yet I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live I live by the faith of the Son of God who hath loved me and given himself for me Therefore they are as it were out of their lives and void of all injoyment and comfort when they want the comforts and assistance of the Holy Spirit as Holy David did greatly resent the absence of it and fear lest it should be taken from him and that he should be cast away so do most of Gods people Isa 49.14 Sion said The Lord hath forsaken me and my God hath forgotten me Though God had graven her in the palms of his hands When God hides his face and withdraws himself they are cast down as Psal I said in my prosperity I should never be cast down but thou hidest thy face and I was troubled This withdrawing of God was the very bitterest of our Saviours sufferings If this should be our condition let us not be weary of well doing but wait on the Lord for God hath said Isa 49. That he that waits on the Lord shall be like an Eagle And consider that Christ Jesus suffered the like and therefore hath a fellow feeling of our suffering that he might succour us who are tempted But if Christ doth not succour us our heart cannot indure our hands cannot be strong in the days that God shall thus deal with us as it is Ezek. 22. v. 14. But he hath bid us to call upon him
thou O my soul apprehend that these are only the peculiar priviledges and injoyments of the Saints and fearest thy self to be none of those but fain thou wouldst be such thou maiest sue to the Lord to perform those and the like promises of free grace Jer. 32.40 I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me I will give them a new heart And that Micha 7.19 He will subdue our iniquities And that Isa 3.4 The heart of the rash shall understand And that Isa 11.6 The Wolf shall lye down with the Lamb and the Leopard shall lye down with the Kid. And that Hosa 14.15 I will heal their backslidings And that Rom. 16.20 The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly And that Ezek. 36.27 I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgements and do them Luke 11.13 How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him And Isa 35.5 The ear of the deaf shall be unstopped And that Deut. 30.9 I will circumcise thine heart That thou maiest love the Lord thy God with all thine heart c. And that in Isa 40. v. 31. They shall run and not be weary they shall walk and not faint Since then God hath promised to give thee his Spirit if thou askest it of him and prooved it with an argument a fortiori that he will and hath promised to do all this for thee and work all these works in thee and thou findest in thy self desires pantings and longing for them and thereupon dost ask him in his Sons name and for his mercies sake his truths sake and his names sake to perform these promises and givest him no rest till he doth it doubt not but he will Meditation of the Love of God Psal 103.8 The Lord is full of compassion and mercy long suffering and of great goodness c. Those sweet compellations which almighty God useth to his poor creature man if they do but sink into our hearts they must needs make such impressions as will cause reciprocal love to him Is Ephraim a dear Son is he a pleasent Child what can endear thee more than this Oh my soul what love canst thou desire more he counts thee and calls thee in this Relation Son looks upon thee with compassion as his child and pittieth thee as a Father pittieth his Child delighteth in thee as a Father delighteth in a Child whom he loveth and helpeth thee as his Child Behold what manner of love God hath shewed thee that thou shouldest be called the Son of God Joh. 1.4 If a Son then an heir and joynt heir with Christ his only begotten Son for Christ is not ashamed to call us Bretheren in this relation to God and Christ what canst thou want or fear or what more canst thou desire in the 3d. Chap. of Mal. He calls them his Jewels and Rev. 1. Kings and Priests and Isa 62. a Crown of glory His portion he called Abraham his friend What canst thou fear a Master may be severe if his work be done he will pay wages if not stripes but a Father is indulgent and will spare his Child and require no more of him than he can perform with comfort and delight if then thou canst find in thy self the disposition of a Child be sure thou maiest find in him the disposition of a Father Mat. 3. Our Blessed Saviour hath owned them in these relations viz. His Bretheren his members his Spouse his betroathed his Sister and Mother his Garden his Church his beloved his branches his Servants his flock his lambs his friends and Revel 1.6 He hath loved us and washed us from our sins and made us Kings and Priests to God Could the Canaanitish Woman find incouragement for faith to lay hold from that of Dog who needs to dispair sure not a prodigal Son And every thing that is excellent beautiful and desirable beloved and endeared he compares his people to it and sees all those perfections in them as he expresseth in the Cant. O then my soul admire and be inamoured of him and find all excellencies perfections and desirable good things in him from whom thine excellency cometh and is derived thine head thy Husband thine elder Brother thy Father thy Maker thy Governour thy Redeemer for so doth the heavenly Spouse see and admire in Christ Jesus her Beloved If so thou dost then thou knowest that he is they Beloved thy Saviour thy Head thy Brother thy Portion thy Delight thou lovest him in all that he did or said his teaching his sufferings his miracles thy love to him is but the reflexion of the beam of his Meditations of Mercy Med. 1. Psal 103.11 As high as the Heaven is above the earth so great is his Mercy c. WOrthy of our meditation are all the workes of God and every word of his to be studied by us that we may thereby improve our graces but his workes of mercy and that part of his word which holdeth forth mercy and offers it and sets forth God in the Glory and excellency of his mercy is most necessary for sinful man and most comfortable to be considered All that are saved are saved by meditating of this all that are lost are lost and perish for lack of the knowledg of this this is life eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ The freeness then and largeness of it is to be our chief study free it is What motive found he in us to move him when enemies to give his Son up for us all and to beseech us but only from his own goodness because he delights in mercy The man that seeks his lost sheep may get the profit of it and so may the woman that seeks her lost groat but what profit can the Lord get by us for which he may seek us for when we have done all we are unprofitable Servants The largeness of his mercy is without limits for if he hath commanded us to forgive seventy times seven times will not he frankly forgive us what we are not able to satisfy since he makes his forgiving of us many talents the argument why we should forgive petty debts can we imaging that he will take the first forfeiture since he hath commanded us not only to forgive our enemies but to love them bless them pray for them to do good for evil will not he forgive us love us and bless us as freely for Christs sake though there be no motive in us for it would he make love to be the fulfilling of the law charity the covering of transgression prefer charity before piety by commanding us to leave our gift at the Altar to be reconciled to our Brother prefer it before faith and all gifts and graces making it as it were the ligament and sinews of all and that if we want that all other graces are but empty sounds make