danger of the Judgment ver 28. Whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her hath comitted adultry v. 33 34. He tells them it is not sufficient not to forswear themselves but saith swear not at all and ver 39. bids them not to resist wrongs therefore we ought to be such persons and that commanding word that made the world can make us to be what he commands us to be and he hath prayed Sanctify them by thy truth and his prayers were alwaies heard and it is the office of the Holy Ghost to sanctify us It is the only end and design of the ministry as it is said by St. Paul of whom I travel in birth till Christ be formed in you The Apostle writes to the Disciples do as you have us for an example and Revel 2.8 The Church of Smyrna their graces wanted nothing but God would try them whether they would hold on to the end and the Church of Philadelphia God commends her and bids her hold on That Holiness is the only true Interest 2. Meditation Mot. A Good conscience is a continual feast The Authority of the Scriptures do prove it generally and particularly and do refel and destroy and baffle all other Interests according to that saying of the Apostle Godliness hath the promise of this life and of that which is to cemo Consider my soul a while the interests of of the mistaken men of the world whose ends designs and restless endeavours is after the vaine and transitory things of the world which they think to enjoy and repose themselves in the injoyment thereof as in their happiness Oh my Soul thou hast made some trials in these vaine sollacies but hast not found that satisfaction which thou promisedst to thy self and therefore hast vext thy self to see what thou hast ventured even thy soul and body and eternal happiness for a thing of nought that could not satissie thee and of thine own experience thou canst say that in the acquiring and in the keeping and injoying too they are meere vanity and vexation of Spirit and so full of labour as man cannot utter it Thus Solomon found before thee Thus Ammon having enjoyed his lusts desired object in a moment loathed it Thus Judas threw away the bate of his unsatisfied covetousness the like fruit attended all Sinners whether they repented or not So Naboths Vineyard yielded bitter grapes to Ahabs family and Davids bitter sweets which he found by stolen pleasures are by himself sufficiently deplored in Psal 51. The sweet enjoyment of Noahs Wine brought shame to himself and a curse upon his Son and his seed Ambitious Haman fell by his Ambition just then when he expected the greatest height of honour and Herod assuming to himself divine honours immediatly was seized upon and devoured by vermine the same cause procured Julius Caesar murther Many like instances my Soul thou hast heard and read both sacred and civil writers testifying what sad exits have attended pursuers of these sensual interests of covetousness lust gluttony drunkenness ambition c. Thou hast seen in thine own time many of these examples chiefly of lust drunkenness pride and covetousness All Historians testifie these and the like vanities and vexations attending the pursuers of these worldly Interests though carried on with power and with villany Sensual persons themselves notwithstanding the beam in their own eye can see the vanity of one anothers Interest and design and reproach them And do thou compare those vicious persons with the opposite virtuous But for an instance of that which most brave heroick valiant and eminent persons adorned with many excellent virtues stumble at in the height of their honour when to extinguish all their happiness and enjoyment in a moment some mean and unworthy person envious at their height and worth because it is above himself endeavours to suppress and abase that worth which he dispairs himself to attain to reviles calumniates or otherwise puts an affront upon them The examples hereof abound This they conceive they are bound to revenge that they may vindicate their honours which otherwise will be lost but this by which they pretend to assert their honour taints it The vanity of this mistaken worldly interest David's example towards his reviling enemies reproveth because by the eyes of faith he beleived that God was the Author of his sufferings and would reward his patience therefore he submitted to it And if God be provoked by us poor dust and ashes every day we may be contented if he causeth our meaner Bretheren sometimes to provoke us or our Servant Eccles 7.22 Nam lingua mali pars pessima servi Juv. And it serves to humble us which is necessary both to make us know our selves and also to know God And consider that detraction alwaies follows worth as Scipio Annibal or rather Jesus Christ and his Saints have felt And as for anger it resteth in the bosom of fools Eccles 7.10 Therefore he warneth as the Apostle doth to be slow to it It transporteth to lunacy as it did Saul to the destruction of Nob as it did Caracalla to the destruction of the Alexandrians the madness and folly of anger sufficiently manifests it self in the countenance speech habit gesture actions and effects which is repentance for that which cannot be undone again therefore brave and virtuous minds are not so much troubled with this passion as the base weak sick and infirm are for it shews greatness of mind to be unmoved and to disdain affronts and to keep it self serene and clear like the pure Heavens when free from clouds And become like to God himself and shew the greatness of our mind by being merciful to pardon injuries by clemency and slowness to anger and this Princely quality made the Emperour Titus so beloved and honoured And if we would have God so to us we should be so to our Brethren but we suffer our selves to be deceived with shadows as Titus 3.3 We our selves were sometimes disobedient deceived c. So that this may suffice to convince that godliness is most profitable for all things in this life and that which is to come But if thou wilt not be satisfied with this do but examine thine own heart whether every holy action which thou dost upon holy principles doth not yield present tranquility and satisfaction and sweeten thy life ever after And on the contrary whether every sinful action doth not disquiet and disturb thy mind and conscience with often flashes of horrour and imbitter thy life ever after viz. if not repented of with horrour and if repented of with grief and discontent with thy self for the unkindness done to so good a God for a thing of nought Let thy examination be made first in this particular viz. for what injuries received by thee which thou hast forgiven or else revenged and what joy or sorrow thou hast had thereof And how little thou enjoyest thy self or any thing else which thou possessest when thou art enraged
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
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
with Anger Also examine thine own reason whether it be not more honourable and more satisfying to thee to shew meekness goodness of Nature ingenious Education Courtesie Generosity Love and Pity in forgiving affronts and provocations than to shew thy Pride Malice Boldness Undaunted Spirit and Courage in revenging them besides the timerity of hazarding thine own Life and Immortal Soul Then examine thy self also in all other actions of Holiness and Unholiness viz. If thou hast led thy Life in Temperance Sobriety and Frugality whether hast thou not found the benefit of it throughout thy Life in thy Mind Body and Estate But if thou hast otherwise lead thy Life thy Health is impaired thy Estate wasted thy Soul polluted and the faculties of thy mind dulled and crased The like examination thou mayest make if thou hast kept thy Body in Chastity whether thou hast not found this to be the best means to preserve thy Life Health and Estate and to propagate the same benefits to thy Issue besides many other blessings which this and every other Grace hath entailed upon it But if thou hast on the contrary been addicted to thy lusts thou wilt feel the pains of it in thy bones when age groweth upon thee and if thou hast not quite wasted thy Estate yet either thou hast no lawful Issue to inherit it or if any yet they are unsound or such as thou hast no comfort of for such persons who are thus addicted are generally thus punished with one of these punishments as we read of Solomon and have seen in our own times Hast thou fed the hungry and cloathed the naked with thy fleece thou knowest that thou hast treasure in Heaven if not thy riches will make themselves wings But alas if thou couldst attain all secular ends and interests Salva Conscientia what are they to him that carrieth on the design of an eternal Interest viz. For eternal happiness how inconsiderable how impertinent how vile But since holiness is the only meanes of attaining happiness and lusts and unholiness are the obstacles and impediments that hinder us and deprive us of it then be constant in the way of holiness and take this for thy design and main business according to that which the Poet Horrace directeth thee by the light of Nature Lib. Epistolar Primo Ep. 6. Si virtus hoc sola potest dare fortis Omissis Hoc age deliciis And Hoc primus repetes opus hoc postremus omittas And make no Omisions of duty for that puts thee back T were endless labor and needless to cite all authorities Civil Moral and Divine that might be brought to prove holiness to be the way and meanes of obtaining happiness for it is so inseparably joyned to happiness that it can hardly be distinguished from eternal happiness which I conceive is begun in this life in holiness I will only mention the Authority of the greatest of the Sons of men John the Baptist who makes repentance and workes meet for repentance to be the way to bring us to Christ who is the way the truth and the life eternal In whom we have eternal life and happiness And I conceive all men will confess the same though in workes they deny it All the precepts which our blessed Saviour taught he propounded as the means to attain happiness And the doers of them he pronounceth happy actually in the present tense likewise all the Commandments which God enjoyned the Israelites were therefore given them to make them happy and when they kept them they did make them happy as they made them holy Whither tend all Divine and Moral precepts and Philosophical improvements of the light of nature but to repress mortiify the inordinate passion and preturbations of the mind and the lusts of the flesh the lusts of the eyes and the pride of life that by this means we might enjoy a sweet and happy life in all ease rest and peace joy quietness holiness and happiness But imagining that the sensual persons of this age will still oppose and say that happiness is mans interest but the holiness of man is Gods design and interest I answer first What profit shall the Lord have if thou do good 2. Admitting it were Gods Interest it follows if he be greater than thou and thou canst not attain thy end without him then thou must of necessity promote his design and do nothing to cross it Holiness Described 3. Meditation Though it be too great a task for me to undertake nay for any creature for he hath found folly in the Angels and the Heavens are not clean in his sight therefore God himself teacheth us by his word and Spirit And from that word of truth these few collections are drawn for my own help in this grace The Negative part that sheweth what is not true holiness though by some it is supposed to be holiness is the first to be considered Our Saviour describes the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees and then tells his Disciples that Except their Righteousness exceeds theirs they shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Their Righteousness is condemned as insufficient for they justified themselves and condemned others and did their works of Piety and Charity to be seen of men and were Hypocrites Therefore Jesus Christ pronounces several woes against them Again our Saviour reproves the Jews ingeneral for relying upon the outward priviledges without the inward Qualifications saying unto them Think not to say within your selves we have Abraham for our Father This priviledg without the life of Holiness is like a dead body without a soul which the Prophet Jeremiah reproves thus Trust not in lying words saying The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord are these Jeremiah 7.4 They did frequent the Temple with their Sacrifices but the Prophet saith you trust in lying words Do you think to lye steal and come into my house Matth. 7.22 Christ shews how that many will come at the day of Judgment with great confidence saying we have prophesied in thy name cast out Devils and done many wonders But he will disown them how little then will it avail the Papists to call themselves the Church and their Pope Peters Successour Our Saviour Christ doth divide professors into 2 sorts Mathew 25. Under the terme of wise and foolish Virgins some had Oyl in their Lamps and some none all had Lamps The causes why men rest in the forme of Godliness without the power are first because they see a necessity that their actions must be changed but do not see a necessity that their hearts must be changed The Apostle Paul in the 3d. of the Philip. Refutes the Righteousness which the Jews imputed to their circumcision and outward priviledges and calls them the concision and vers the 3d. We are the Circumcision which worship God in the Spirit and have no confidence in the flesh This is the reall circumcision whereby we have the
produced must be good also and must proceed from that good principle viz. Faith without which it is impossible to please God but these good fruits are not proportionable to the goodness of his heart for he is sorry that they are no better blushing ever at their imperfections not boasting of them nor craving honour for them the end also must be good These qualifications the good works have They are described from their cause Gal. 5.22 The fruits of the Spirit are love joy peace meekness c. Rom. 6.22 described by their end these are fruits unto holiness Another difference is that some of those works are secret and invisible to Men such as are terminated in the action within as the secret risings of the heart against corruptions as was in St. Paul when he said That which I would I do not and groans for deliverance saying who shall deliver me from this bondage of corruption also secret longings after Christ and God and Holiness also dependency upon Christ and God inward mournings for sin c. 2. Such works as have opus ad extra as to shew forth a good Conversation True Holiness defined It is a grace supernatural infused by the Holy Spirit renewing us after the Image of him that made us whereby God is in us Christ is in us and the Holy Spirit is in us and we are in Christ by an inseparable Union and Communion of Natures 1 John 4.16 Gal. 2.20 and 4.19 1 John 4.13 'T is infused because of our selves we are not able to think a good thought and Christ saith That without him we can do nothing God worketh in us both to will and to do though he commands us to work out our own Salvation and the words following viz. with fear and trembling denote the weakness and disability of our selves and the ability which the command doth suppose is from Gods assistance we doing our endeavour our blessed Lord and Saviour compares it to leaven It is an Universal change of the whole Man If any one be in Christ he is a new Creature old things are passed away and all things become new It reneweth us after the Image of him that made us Both the inward Man and the outward are changed as Saul's heart was changed when he was anointed to be King so is every Saint changed by the Spirit of God that is in him and the understanding desires and thirsts after no knowledge but to know God and Jesus Christ and him Crucified because the understanding before was darkned and alienated from the Life of God through the Ignorance that was in it But now it is enlightned and the darkness is passed away because the Light of the glorious Gospel of Christ which is the Image of God hath shined into it for the Gospel is Light and Jesus Christ is that Light that enlightens every one that cometh into the World by this it cometh to pass that the Soul knowerh that all Gods Commandments are True Righteous and Faithful that they are tryed to the utmost That it is Wisdom and Understanding to do thereafter It now puts a true estimate upon God and Christ Heaven and Grace and Glory This is that wise Merchant spoken of in the Gospel that having found a Pearl of exceeding great value in a Field sold all to buy that Field his knowledge is practical diligent and not slothful rests not in the inquisition but proceeds to the acquisition of its true everlasting interest through the knowledge of Jesus Christ as he is revealed in the Gospel Rom. 12.2 Be ye transformed in the renewing of your minds that ye may prove what is the good acceptable and perfest Will of God As the undestanding is changed so the affctions love hatred hope fear c. Are accordingly changed he that before counted the Sabboth weariness now he calleth it a delight He that before rejoyced in the increase of Corne Wine and Oyl and in satisfying the senses his joy now proceeds from higher and nobler causes viz. The light of Gods countenance communion with God in holy duties reading the word of God praying thanksgiveing meditating and the most severe duties of fasting humiliation and repentance and every meanes of begetting and improving grace he preserreth before satisfying of the senses with pleasant viands which whilest they cherish and delight the body they deprave the better part possibly not the intellect and rational faculty of the soul for that may be improved too by God usage of the body so it be not to excess But the new nature the divine Image which is begotten in us by the word of truth is starved stifled and grieved which image and new nature though it be in the understanding yet it doth so far surpass the reason as that doth the senses and is no other thing but the holy Spirit of God which every regenerate person hath received in some measure for this is that which did regenerate him which if any man have not it is certain he is none of his It is known to be the Spirit of God because it works not as reason doth by arguments deduced from things visible to sense nor such as can be proved by reasonable consequence but it is oftentimes directly opposite and repugnant to reason as in Abraham and so in all that undergo any trialls and who doth not undergo them This new soul or new life of the regenerate is not somented nourished or cherished by the elements of the natural sensual vegetative or meerly rational soul but by the word of God and the dictates of the Spirit for which it panteth as the Hart panteth after the water brooks and breaketh out for the very fervent desire that it hath alwaies to Gods commandments which it esteemeth above Gold and thirsteth after as the body doth for the necessarys of life and yet the most regegenerate and renewed person hath the flesh and coruption alwaies remaining in him and must and doth pray sometimes with holy David for renovation Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right Spirit within me Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy holy Spirit from me For we have this treasure but in earthen vessels we are not assured of the continuance of it therefore we watch against our inbred corruptions and pray for divine supportations knowing our slippery standing our own weakness and the strength of our spiritual adversaries which assails us without intermission And when we think our selves most strong we may fall as the great Apostle that denied his Master did because in the best of Saints the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and sometimes leads them captive and suffers not to do the good which they would but draws them to the evil which they would not the law of the members warring against the law of the mind Were it otherwise there would be no virtue nor occasion of resisting The sense of which corruption and uncleanness makes them mourne bewaile and abhor themselves
God 2 Thes 2.12 which is his word we must believe the truth of his threatnings as well as the truth of his promises Jer. 32.19 This belief saved Noah and his family from the destruction of the deluge and this was commanded in him for a worthy act of faith and by this Lot escaped when Sodom was destroyed and his doubting wife made a perpetual monument or spectacle for her infidelity the chief and special object is Christ Act. 16.37 If we must leve Christ then is Christ the principle the cause efficient and final the matter and the forme of that life His example our pattern and his will ours to me to live is Christ is meant in some or in all these senses for faith verifies it in them all He is the end of our conversation because we can desire no more nor can we need any more if we have him he is the matter and forme of it because the natural life is drowned in this and is made spiritual as it is said If we have known Christ in the flesh yet henceforth know we him no more The holy soul doth not injoy its life if it doth not feel Christ living in it by his Spirit quickning its graces it crys O miserable man that I am c. As faith tells the instrument and meanes whereby we attain the greatest good so it is the Armour that defends us from the greatest evils therefore said the Apostle Ephe. 6.16 Above all take the shield of faith whereby ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked Whereby he commends faith above all the spiritual Armour shewing the cause of his commendation from the exceeding virtue of it that it inables them to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked the virtue of it is universal against the worst of evils if it be taken that is if it be used It must be used in the relying act and in the aplying act staying our selves upon the Lord Psal 37.5 Commit our way unto the Lord. The Applying act is when the soul can say his righteousnes is mine to justify me his blood which he shed upon the Cross an attonement for my sins his Spirit mine to quicken me The fiery darts which Satan shoots are first the guilt of sin then afflictions inward and out ward those who were stung by the fiery Serpents could not be cursed unless they looked up to the brazen Serpent Faith sees that the blood which Christ shed for sinners was shed for my sin that he had an eye unto me in his sufferings A 2 Way faith quenches the fiery darts of Satan by seeing that sin is condemned if so then it can have no power to condem the soul A 3 Way is to see afflictions to be a means of grace that they sanctify us and work for us a more exceeding and eternal weight of glory And to see God in the afflictions working for our good and keeping us from the hurt which men intended to us I will be with thee in the fire and in the water that the fire shall not burne thee nor the water hurt thee Isa 43.2 I will keep him secretly from the strife of tongues This made the suffering Martyrs more than conquerors through Christ that loved us and gave his life for us therefore they were wiling to suffer for him and lay down their lives for the testimony of the Gospel to take joyfully the spoiling of their goods and to think all too little for God for whom they suffered it therefore let us set before us our blessed Saviours suffering who endured for us such bitter paines mocking and contradiction of sinners lest we faint in our minds and are weary of the Cross of Christ Let us also set before us the examples of the Prophets Apostles and Martyrs and the examples of our own memory Our late King whose head was anointed with holy oyle yet his Majesty trampled upon with the greatest indignities and when the meanest of his subjects a common Souldier spit in his face used no reproof and he that was Gods vicegerent of the Crown was humbled to be Christs vicegerent of his Cross a rare and wonderful example of suffering patiently the good will and pleasure of God Our imitation of his virtues shall be a lasting monument of his Glory Aere ceu vacuo pendentia Mausolaea Mart. Holy David went far in this as when one abject fellow cursed him and threw durt at him he let him alone saying Who can tell whether God will requite good for his railing And God did not fail him because his faith did not faile though it was tried to the uttermost this faith carried him through all When the people talked of stoning him by this he encouraged himself in the Lord and was not dismaied and if it became the Captain of our salvation to be made perfect by sufferings why should it be thought strange if all that fight under the same banner be made perfect Soulders by the same discipline Oh that we could all follow him not only in drinking of the Cup which he drunk off viz. The bitter Cup of the Cross but also do it with the same charity to our enemies as he had when he prayed Father forgive them for they know not what they do whose steps the Proto Martyr St. Stephen also followed and for his reward he saw the Heavens opened and his Saviour standing at the right hand of God by this we are sure that the same Spirit is in us as was in Christ T was impossible for Job to have undergone so many of Satans fiery darts upon his estate his relations and bodily sufferings but that he believed that his redeemer lived and that he should see him with his eyes at the last day though wormes consumed his flesh And St. Paul having fought the good fight of faith had the like assurance as he testifieth henceforth is layed up for me a Crown of glory this inabled him to undergo the fight with victory and this took away the sting of death so that death it self was not formidable to him nor to the holy Prophets Apostles and Martyrs who willingly underwent it for a good conscience not accepting deliverance Those great temptations which Satan most relieth upon are those of sins guilt accusing the conscience and bloody persecutions though all manner of temptations as the vanities of the world the cares of the world the lusts of the flesh the pride of life are all of them by the arts of our Spiritual adversary so suited and managed according to several complexions that without this grace they are unresistable therefore the Scripture testifieth that this is the victory whereby we overcome the world and if morality could be sufficient to mortify our lusts and good education as some pretend how came it to pass that those moral Philosophers who writ so many things against lust covetousness and other vices were yet themselves overcome of them but through faith in Christ the world is