101. The word of God is then in our hearts, when it rules in the soul, when it rules our thoughts, affections, and conversations, so that we dare not do anything contrarjT^ but we shall be checked. Who shall get out that which God's finger hath written in our hearts ? No fire nor faggot, no temptation whatsoever.
102. We shall never be satisfied to our comfort, that the Scripture is the word of God, unless we know it from itself by its own light, and it shews itself abundantly to a believer in casting down the soul, and altering the mind and conversation. When the word is only in the brain, if there come a temptation stronger than our faith, then we despair. The word is far off from those that can only discourse and talk of it, when they see it only as a natural truth, when they look upon holy things, not in a divine, but in a human manner.
103. When the word dwells as a familiar in the heart, to direct, counsel, and comfort, then it is a sign it is there. The devil knows good and hates it, therefore knowledge alone is nothing. But when the promise doth alter the temper of the heart itself, then it is engrafted.
104. God excepts against none, if we do not except ourselves. There- fore thou, and thou, whosoever thou art, if thou beest a man or a woman.
190 DIVINE MEDITATIONS
and wilt come and take Christ upon his own terms, for thy Lord and husband, for better for worse, with persecutions, afflictions, crosses, &c. Take Christ thus, and take him for ever, and then thou shalt be saved.
105. When we believe divine truths by the Spirit, they work upon the heart and draw the affections after them. Therefore, if we spiritudly believe the story of the gospel, we shall have our souls carried to love, and embrace it with joy and comfort,
100. We may i)e brought very low, but we shall not be confounded ; yet we shall be brought as near confusion as may be, to shew us the vanity of the creature. In the judgment of the world we may be confounded, but a hand of mercy shall fetch us up again. Let the depth of misery and disconsolation be what it will be, we shall not be ashamed.
107. The reason why God's children do oftentimes with great perplexity doubt of their salvation, is because they have a principle of nature in them as well as of grace. Corruption will breed doublings. As rotten wood breeds worms, and as vermin comes out of putrefaction, so doubtings and fears come from the remainder of corrruption.
108. For want of watchfulness God oftentimes gives us up to such a perplexed estate, that we shall not know that we are in grace, and though we may have a principle of grace in us, yet we shall not see it, but may go out of the world in darkness.
109. We ought not at any time to deny the truth, nor yet at all times to confess it. For good actions and graces are like princes that come forth attended with circumstances, and if circumstances in confession be wanting, the action is marred. It is true of actions as of words : * A word spoken in season is like apples of gold with pictures of silver,' Prov. xxv. 11. Therefore discretion must be our guide, for speech is then only good when it is better than silence.
110. It is not lawful for any weak one to be present at the mass. Dinah ventured abroad, and came cracked home. It is just with God, that those that dally with 'these things should be caught, as many idle travellers are. It is pity but those should perish in danger that love danger.
111. He that will not now deny himself in a lust, in a lawless desire, will not deny himself in matter of life in time of trial. He that hath not learned the mortification of the flesh in time of peace will hardly be brought to it in time of trouble.
112. We must not only stand for the truth, but we must stand for it in a holy manner, and not swagger for it, as proud persons do. W^e must observe that in the first [Epistle] of Peter, iii. 15, ^to do it * in meekness and fear.' We must not bring passion to God's cause, nor must our lives give our tongues the lie.
113. There is such a distance between corrupt nature and grace, that we must have a great deal of preparation ; and though there be nothing in preparation to bring the soul to have grace, yet it brings the soul to a nearer distance than those that are wild* persons.
114. Nature cannot work above its own powers, as vapours cannot ascend higher than the sun draws them. Our hearts are naturally shut, and God doth open them by his Spirit in the use of the means. The children of Israel in the wilderness saw wonders upon wonders, and yet when they came to be proved they could not believe.
115. It is God's free love that hath cast us into these happy times of the gospel; and it is his further love that makes choice of some, and