Christianity is great some secret Disease keeps thee down Thy Stomach is foul makes no good Digestion some under-ground Corruption draws in that Nutriment those Spirits that should invigorate and encrease thy Graces like a Worm in the Paunch or Bowels feeding upon that which should feed thee and so defrauding thee Kill then thou must or be kill'd Repentance and Faith and Mortification and Watchfulness alone must sublevate thee Engage thy self herein and make these a daily Task Let not thy Sloath the World or any sweet Lust ravish thy Heart into an hours Neglect no not a Moments Resolve and act with the first and to the uttermost Thou art upon the Pits Brink ready to drop down into everlasting Horrours and till thou repentest hast no Foot-hold nay thy Foot is already slipt thou art tumbling down head-long and no Mercy can or will hold thee up but only as far as it engages thee in Repentance This is the sole Relief that thou eanst have from Heaven nothing else can bring thee back raise thee out of the Ditch return thee into a state of Safety but only thy returning this way to God 'T is absolutely impossible under the present Oeconomy of Divine Grace for Mercy it self to save thee to satisfie thee with Peace without Repentance And no less impossible for thee to satisfie thy self in the soundness of thy first Repentance without Cordial Resolutions Cares Endeavours in a second daily life-long Repentance and Mortification Go over again then with this Work never present thy self to the Lord without this Sacrifice of a broken contrite Heart As thou renewest thy falls renew thy rising by Repentance That day upon which thou sinnest not repent not but be sure thou omit this Duty upon none other If there be any failures in thy first Work a recognition and renewal of it may redintegrate and rectifie thee No Man is hearty in that Work which he is loath to reiterate Suspect that Repentance which stands all alone in a single act and hath no Seconds Be dayly therefore searching thy Heart and examining thy Life cast up thy Accounts at even reckon with God and thine own conscience for the day and all thy Life past that thou may'st not lie down a Debtor to Justice least it be requir'd of thee ere the Morning This is safe and use will make it sweet Should a Traytor to God and thine own Soul lodge with thee in peace but for a Night with what face could'st thou present thy self before thy Judge should he arraign thee and tell thee this Night shall thy Soul be required of thee 'T is dangerous to dally with Sin desperate to irritate God The Curse of any one Sin unrepented of and the Wrath and Fiery Indignation of God are no easie Pillows to lay thy head upon Thy sleep will then be sweetest when thy Sin is sourest and thy Rest will be most refreshing and comfortable upon the soft Downy Bed of a good and pure conscience purged by Repentance purifyed by Faith But 't is not enough to forsake thy Sin and turn to goodness with a broken bleeding Heart but the root of Sin must be bound about with a Hoop of Iron that it may be deaden'd and spring out no more Crucifie then the Flesh and the World and be Crucified to them and deny so as to mortifie Vngodliness as well as Worldly Lusts else thou art not taught by the Grace of God that brings Salvation Tit. 2.11 Repentance cuts off the Branches the acts of Sin that are already sprouted out but thy cares must not only respect what is past or present but what may be in future Therefore must thou engage thy preventive cares and endeavours in Mortification Draw out the Heart-Blood of thy Lusts by cutting them off intirely from thy Heart and Affections That accounted so truculent a Word of Caesar to his Soldiers at Pharsalia strike at the face which gave him the Victory is no cruelty but good policy here and mercy to thy self and will be Crown'd with like Success That which is most lovely in thy Corruptions most pleasing to thy sense must be first laid at strike at their Beauty turn that into deformity and thou winnest the Day They live only in thy love as far as approving themselves to thy carnal Affections whence they are call'd Lusts Set up a Cherub with a flaming Sword turning every way to keep them out of that their Paradise and to guard thy Heart that Tree of Life and thou effectually condemnest them to an irremediable Mortality thou really executest and destroyest them Especially if hereto thou superadd the Exercises of Faith and its social Graces For to crucifie Sin without Faith deriving vertue and strength from the Cross i. e. the merit of Christ or that Holy Spirit and his Aid which Christ by his merit purchased is not at all to be hoped It would never have had its Christian Name from the Cross if this had no Influence upon Mortification The Moral is pretty but short of that Perfection of the Spiritual to which we are directed and enabled as Christians 'T is not if ye by Reason and Philosophy but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the Body ye shall live Rom. 8.13 What Spirit he speaks of the next verse declares For as many as are led by the Spirit of God are the Sons of God This certainly imports something more than mere Nature and natural Improvements I love the Platonical and Stoical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and am pleased to read those Precepts whereby they direct it But the Philosophical Death in voluntarily loosing the Soul from the Body and bodily Life Porphyr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 7.9 and Passions to which it was ty'd by converting it self to the service of bodily Affections will only introduce a Philosophical Peace i. e. not to grieve or be angry to be necessitated to nothing to be unconcern'd about Extrinsecals untouched and free Arrian l. 3. c. 13. as they describe it Christian Mortification is a higher thing 'T is the Work of Grace subduing the Sins that are contrary to it especially the Corruption of Nature The Work of Grace influenced by the Holy Ghost The Spirits work by Grace in relation to Christ and his Crucifixion wherein the grace of Faith in special hath a peculiar Province I mean not Christianity in general which sometimes is entitled Faith but that particular Grace which the Old Testament oft calls Trust the New committing our Souls to God When in a sense of Sin Impotency and Emptiness we give up our selves to God in Christ entrusting our Souls with him and expecting all from him alone in the way of his Covenant and Promises which hope is an inseparable fruit of Faith and therefore included with it in the same title of Trust which is indeed both Thus then do Christians mortifie Sin Being sensible that they are insufficient by the power of their own reason and moral Vertue to get
and the Herd and their Soul shall be as a Watered Garden c. Yea there ' t is The Blessings of this Life are then good indeed when the Donation of the Goodness of the Lord Divine Love with them gives them a Relish incomparable Job sometimes consulted his Bed for Comfort Job 7.13 and 't is no little satisfaction to enjoy the quiet Repose of a single Night But what are all the downy Contents of this Nature to the Everlasting Repose and Rest both of Body and Soul in the Love of God who though he be an everliving Activity yet is an ever-loving quiet resting Place for all that having been wearied out with the Sins and Labours and Troubles and Miseries of a Cumbersome World betake themselves to him as their only Contentation Cant. 3. King Solomon as a Type of Christ made Himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Conjugal Bed This the Original Word may seem indeed most properly to signifie from the 7th Verse where the Espousals plainly refer to this that Exhortation being grounded upon this Narration the midst thereof being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Strowed with Love for the Daughters of Jerusalem A Bed of Ease indeed The Whole World cannot Afford a Bed as soft as Love as sweet as the refreshing Love of an infinitely Lovely and Loving God I have read of a Man who not content with Epicureism in Retail resolv'd at once to gratifie every Sence with an accumulated Association of all imaginable Sensualities yet all was only the Swinish Pleasure of a Day But there is an Eternity of Delights in the Favour of God first to the Soul but redounding to the Sence also Truly Light is sweet and 't is good for the Eyes to behold the Sun 't is a Periphrasis of Life as the Connexion with the followng Verse demonstrates Eccl. 11.7 8. How delicious is the Flavour and Fragrancy of Odours and the inexplicable Varieties and Ravishments of Sounds c. But are these worthy to be thought of in Comparison of the ever Refreshing Light of God's Countenance the Never-fading Delights of Divine Love and Goodness the Unimitable Splendour of the Sun of Righteousness Mal. 4.2 who is the Brightness of his Fathers Glory Heb. 1.2 the savour of Christ's Precious Oyntments Cant. 1.3 The rapturous Melody of the Celestial Quire but above all the every thing Harmonious Beautiful Lovely Glorious in the Divine Nature wherein our very sense shall be in a generous transport with the highest incomparable supersensual everlasting Gratifications much more our Minds For the Goodness of God is every thing pleasing profitable honest in the utmost eminency of Glory There 's no mole in this Beauty no spots in this Sun no Night to this Day but an immense and eternal variety of all delectable Excellencies in an invariable unity of unblemishable Perfection nothing to give a check to the Appetite to interrupt and abate the pleasure of Enjoyment or put a period to the solace accruing from it It singularly pleases a Man to be well thought of and well provided for When Men are low yet if their Reputation run high it bears up their Spirits in the depression of their Estates and as Noble Blood in the Veins is by many accounted an essential Dignity when their Wealth and Substance falls into detriment that their Heart cannot stoop to any servile Offices or Imployments below the Grandeur of its more stately and generous Pulsations their Glory they think shines as the Sun through a Cloud and is like a Cordial Elixir in a fainting fit of Fortune So Credit of both kinds Fame Trust both as it imports the Honour of a fair Reputation and Good Name and as it entitles a Man to a right in the kindness of his Friend and the belief of all Men that every one speaks well of him is ready to do well to him all Honour him all Credit him and freely Concredit their all with him this is valued as much as Money in the Purse The Wisest of Men prefers it as more eligible Prov. 22.1 and affirms that it makes the Bones fat Prov. 15.30 But if the Love of God put a value upon us and worthless that we are we have nothing else to recommend us as the Kings Stamp upon a Brass Farthing if he ennoble us with his Grace Nobilitas sola est atque unica virtus that we can derive our Pedegree and Extraction from Heaven through the New Birth this is the truest sweetest noblest Satisfaction We are indeed the basest through Sin of the whole Creation God made us at first through his Image next in honour to the Holy Angels Psal 8.5 We by our Apostacy and Corruption make our selves not a little lower than Devils and in this debasement does Divine Goodness find us but here it does not leave us Love and Love alone exalts us and crowns us with Glory Dignity and Hon ur and how high we are in the account of Love however base in our selves is demonstrated by the price it was willing to pay for our Redemption Nothing rais'd us to this height in the estimate of Love but only Love according to Deut. 7.7 8. The Lord did not set his Love upon you because ye were moe c. But because the Lord loved you c. His Love was its own and only motive and why should it not What can be a more noble Incitement to it than the Glory of its most excellent communicative Nature What mov'd it at first to design an Object to diffuse its benign influences upon What lovely qualities were in a non-entity to draw it out into such admirable Condescentions Let it then go no less than self-sufficient all-sufficient without the subsidiary invitement of all external Objects Divine Goodness neither needs nor desires a Procatarctick cause And this is a Comfort unspeakable Were I to bring my wellcome to Heaven and to be dignified with the honour of so renowned a degree of Perfection as to be able to stand upon my Reputation before God and not beg his good Opinion but merit it the Conscience of my deficiency and demerit would for ever confound me But since Love brings my all with it and its arguments to respect me are derived from its own Bowels and its height is so wonderful that there can be no proportion in the highest created goodness to it so as to deserve it and its depth so unfathomable that the greatest misdeservings cannot put a bar to the liberty of its actings for the relief even of the Chief of Sinners 1 Tim. 1.15 Have I not a World of reason to cast off all melancholy desponding Imaginations and solace my self in this Paradise of everlasting Love and free Grace Oh Joy unspeakable and full of Glory To be well provided for is next The World had rather live by Sight than Faith He 's but ill to live all whose Wealth is in another Man's Pocket and may be puft away with the malevolent Breath of
Conversion There cannot then be any Divine Comfort if there be not a sweet Composure and Harmony betwixt Earth and Heaven and this can never be where a Man is at peace with his Sins Therefore whatever quiet may seem to be in such a Soul 't is only personated and illusive it reaches not to the real bottom of the trouble takes not out the Core But on the other hand when a Man makes Repentance and Mortification Faith and a good Life the main employ which drinks up his Spirits and Strength and Time industriously contending in all things to approve the sincerity and heartiness of his Affections Designs and Aims and whole Deportment in the sight of God and whilst he is thus doing finds any quietude Rest and Satisfaction of Mind to sweeten his Work and settle his Conscience he may be confident that this is the true Comfort of the Holy Ghost For as 't is impossible to enjoy true Peace under reigning Sin so t is inconsistent with Divine Goodness and Federal Love to permit a true Heart intirely devoted to him to delude it self into true Miseries under the vizor of false Joys I confess if a Man be too greedy of Comfort and too hasty in his Applications without due consideration and indeavour and care to derive his Satisfactions from solid Grounds laying the stress upon things which will not bear it in such indeliberate precipitation of Judgment concerning a Mans state and the true root of Comfort when he founds it upon any thing less than substantial Piety Righteousness and Sobriety as the evidence of his Right he may abuse himself with an unsound unsolid Peace Therefore I always suppose that the procedure in order to Comfort be justifiable and the Grounds upon which a Man bottoms his Evidence be genuine and that his reason and judgment lead him leisurely in the Scripture way to Heart-ease and Rest else all may issue in greater inquietude and trouble whatever fair Weather may at present flatter his conscience But if Spiritual sense light and a serious Preponderation of all circumstances according to the preceeding particular direct our motions hither and true Religiousness confirm them we may be secure that mere Shows and Pageantry do not now delude us into a Fairy Paradise A weak Head 't is true may lead an honest Heart into a deceitful Peace And 't is not the design of Grace to abolish or reform the natural Depravations and Deformities of our Faculties so much as the Moral But that which is defective must not be made a Standard A good Soul that understands it self and observes solid Rules in comforting it self cannot be deceiv'd in that Peace which it possesses whilst it loves God and keeps his way Such as a Mans goodness is will his Consolation be If that be but External and Hypocritical this will be insincere and delusory but a true intelligent honest Heart proceeding with a just caution shall never be gull'd with a Mock-Peace For Psal 97.11 12. Light is sown for the Righteous and gladness for the upright in heart Rejoyce in the Lord ye Righteous What God sows they shall reap Psal 85.8 10. I will hear what God the Lord will speak for he will speak peace unto his people and to his Saints c. Mercy and Truth have met together Righteousness and Peace have kissed each other Their embrace is strict and indissoluble God hath espoused them they cannot be divorced What he hath joyned together none shall finally separate and part asunder They give mutual testimony each to others integrity and soundness In Life they are lovely in Death they cannot be divided but will cohabit eternally Where then Oh my Soul is thy Righteousness not particular meerly but universal Shew me thy comfort by thy Works for 't is dead being alone As the Body without the Spirit is dead so is Peace without Holiness which is its very Life and Soul If thou be not God-like thy Joys are not Heaven-like All true pleasures are drops of those Rivers at God's Right Hand Psal 36.8 and 46.4 and 16. ult If the Waters of Life have never quickned and cleansed thee those Streams of Divine Comfort never yet did refresh thee thou hast only drunk of the Abana and Pharphar of muddy carnal Contentments not of the pure Fountain of Celestial Consolations Wherein then can thy uprightness and real honesty of heart approve it self to God Is this thy rejoycing 2 Cor. 1.12 viz. the Testimony of thy conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly Wisdom but by the grace of God thou hast had thy Conversation in the World What hast thou to shew more than an Hypocrite Wherein does thy Righteousness excel that of Scribes and Pharisees What are thy Principles Motives manner of acting Aims and Ends in thy whole course of Life Do'st thou really act 1. From God a Spirit of new Life breathed into thee by God 2. Through Christ as the Foundation of thy hopes of acceptance 3. By the Spirit as thy immediate aid in every Holy performance 4. Unto God as thy ultimate end Hast thou no secret reserved Dalilahs No one thing in which thou would'st have liberty and presume upon Pardon Do'st thou not run upon a biass in Religion and twine aside in some sinister respect to self or the popular Vogue in which thou would'st be somebody Is it thy great and uppermost care and study to be true to him that sees in secret rather than applauded by those who only see the Outside that thy inward gracious Dispositions may go no less than thy outward Semblances Art thou above all things jealous of thy deceitful Heart afraid of Hypocrisie willing to do any thing that may tend to a full discovery of thy self to thy self And if all be not right within or suspected not to be Art thou unspeakably troubled till it be righted Thou art full of thoughts but have thy Meditations been effectual through Christ to break thy heart from as well as for sin and bow thy Will to a Conformity and subjection to God's Will of Precept and Providence and bring thee to an intelligent self-denying humble penitent believing affectionate owning thy Baptismal Covenant in its whole latitude with sincere and indeflexible Resolutions to stand by it for ever And do'st thou expect thy peace in no other way Hast thou been industriously and labouriously diligent to gain a true and thorow understanding of thy State and Frame Godward searching all to the bottom very solicitous to see in a clear light What Conditions and Qualifications are prerequisite to dispose thee for Comfort and to be clear that in reality they are in thee and that thou do'st not build thy Evidence hereof upon self-flattering deceitful Grounds but do'st in truth find that the interest of God is Soveraign and Supreme in and nearest thy Heart hath the universal Regiment and command over all being thy singular delight and whatever thou feel'st to oppose becomes on that account an
excessive enough in their grief for Sin but are still ambitions to find their Head become Waters and theirs Eyes a Fountain of Tears that they may weep day and night which if they experience in any desired measure then are they well satisfied and at ease making this an Ingredient of their Comfort stiling it melting and being affected which when they feel not they are all upon the whine and cannot be reconciled to their more deep solid and less superficial Repentings and Dolors But this womanish part of Repentance in God's Whinls as one used to call them though in its due degree and place desirable and commendable yet is the least considerable and lowest thing in it as every judicious Divine and Christian very well knows being only sensitive not deliberative or spiritual in its rise and acting and real nature and the former viz. melancholick Pensiveness and delight therein is no part of Repentance at all but only an effort of natural Constitution or a gratification thereof including nothing reasonable and humane nor divine and spiritual No more is any thing in that Person who cannot satisfactorily resolve that Quaere of the Psalmist Why art thou cast down ob my Soul And why art thou disquieted within me Psal 42. ult For this is distinctive of sound trouble and unsound the former has some special and particular Matter as a reason and ground to alledge for it self the latter either can give no reason at all or hovers in the wild confusion of generals whence it springs and how it rises and for what it is lies in the dark Let not that pass then for right trouble which cannot give a just account of it self at the bar of Reason guided by the Word of God and if it cannot stand there how will it plead before the Tribunal of Christ Where we must render a reason of all things done in the Flesh whether good or evil 2 Cor. 5.10 the very Thoughts of the heart being there to be judged Rom. 2.15 16. troubled and troubling thoughts as well as others As then those are infinitely blame-worthy who maintain an ungrounded Peace in their minds although their hearts have never been sensible and sick of their native habitual enmity against God and Holiness and will not be beaten out of their presumptuous confidence in the Goodness and Covenant of God although altogether unqualified and those also who being a little chastized with the Whips and Scorpions of the Law in a tart Conviction and Terror of Conscience soon grow weary of the burthen and pain and being more sick of their Corrosives than their Corruptions begin Dog-like to lick whole their Sores and will have the Promises right or wrong as a lenitive or stupefactive rather to ease their pains or destroy their sence though the Core abide within and being well-pleas'd and satisfy'd with the palliate Cure trail on a little while 'till the more deep lancings of a thorough Conviction discover the deceit or the incurable gangrene break out at Death and Judgment to their ineffable Horror So likewise are they worthy to be greatly blamed on the other hand who are really sick but afraid of Balm and the Physician and though every Sin be made grievous and pain them at the very heart and nothing in the World would be more acceptable than a Saviour whom to subject themselves to they appear heartily resolved and willing to embrace every one of his Laws yet make danger of applying to themselves and taking encouragement from his Promises of Mercy that in Him are Yea and in Him Amen because forsooth they are not so and so humbled holy affectionate c. As if 't was not Evangelical New Covenant-Perfection i. e. Vprightness but Legal Personal Vniversal and Perpetual Obedience which God required as the Condition of the Covenant of Grace and they must not dare to accept of Christ and his Benefits except they were so good before-hand as to stand in no need of them But why I beseech you thus in love with your own Torture and desirous still to abide upon the Rack of Anxiety and Dolour Trouble is not its own end God does not wound our Consciences or crucifie our Comfort in carnal Things merely because he loves to torment us or that we may be Devils to ourselves by protracting our own Woes beyond the bounds of Decorum and Necessity He only designs by the Antiperistasis of our Sorrows more to sweeten the Joys of his Salvation which he hath prepared for us and by mingling Gall and Wormwood with our delicious Sins to embitter that which only prepares us for and assigns us over unto the direful Miseries of everlasting Damnation In brief one would not think that the reason of any could be reconcil'd to their own Woes much less their Sense Yet common Experience tells us that some will every moment be conjuring up new Fiends to torture themselves and seem to study nothing else but by fetching in all the Fuel they can possibly reach and all the Fire that divine Vengeance breaths out in the Scriptures to kindle a Hell in their own Consciences as though Misery were their proper Element and infinitely more desirable than divine Mercy which they solicitously fly from and with all imaginable Artifice and Industry fence against as if in a pernicious Malice against themselves they were sure 't would be their utter undoing to be happy Corruption Temptation and a dark cloudy Complexion with confederate strength and stratagems besiege and storm their Imaginations which having invested from thence as a strong Citadel they batter down their Reason so that nothing can be heard or regarded but what will take the stronger side to war against Comfort and God Display before them all the amiable Beauties of Infinite Goodness and Love in its wonderful descents to the Chief of Sinners with whose Transgressions their sober Considerations cannot dare to equal their own Represent to their view in a clear Heaven of Light the incomprehensible Glories and Condescensions of the ever to be admired and adored Son of Righteousness whose astonishing Free Grace induced him to be willing for the sake of lost Mankind to suffer an Eclipse under that thick Cloud of divine Vengeance which was due for the Sins not of one particular Sinner only but of the whole World and the Merit of whose Passion was sufficient to expiate the Sins of infinite Worlds yet will they scarce allow this to be a balance for their own Lay open before their Eyes the rich and glorious Treasury of the divine Promises and gracious Invitations to such as are under like Circumstances with theirs and therefore to them as fully and clearly as if their Names were engraven in the Front of every one of those Bonds upon God's Fidelity or these written upon their own Foreheads or proclaimed to them by name from Heaven Discover to them with the brightest Evidence that their Spirit Condition Frame and Preparations are really such as God hath described and