and thus to call all into question These are two distinct things For though God hath just cause and reason to leave us to this trouble yet often the thing that troubles and disquiets us is a meere mistake a misapprehension even as a father sees good reason often to scare the childe but yet the thing he suffers him to be affrighted with is but a meere bugbeare It is necessary to enquire into both First 1. What is the true cause which provoketh God to leave thee to this distresse examine what might be the true cause that provokes God thus to leave thee So Lament 3. 40. Let us search and try our wayes it was spoken by the Church in desertion as appeares by the former part of the Chapter And to helpe your selves in this goe over all the Cases which have beene propounded hast thou not been carnally confident in false signs or rested too much on true to the neglect of Christ and Gods free grace Didst thou not afore neglect to stir up thy own graces c. go over all those cases mentioned something or other will bee found to be the cause This is necessary for all the cause be known the heart submits not neither will it sanctifie Gods name nor will the trouble cease till that which provokes God to lay it on bee confessed and forsaken And if it bee a particular sinne that God aimes at then usually God useth the horrour for and the guilt of that very sinne to afflict thee with and then that sin it selfe is made the cause of thy trouble in thy owne apprehension So as then it is easily found out thou wilt finde thy sinne to be the thorne in thy foot the stone in thy shoo that did grate gal and vexe thee David 〈◊〉 knew in Psal 51. what it was for which God broke his bones for his very sin was it was the iron Mace the instrumentall cause it selfe of Gods executing it upon him the horrour of that murther God used as the hammer to breake him withall and as the rod to whip him with ver 3. My sinne sayes he is ever before me it was ever in his eye Indeed in outward afflictions it is more difficult to finde out the cause why God afflicts a man unlesse sometimes you may through Gods wise-disposing hand finde and reade the sinne in the punishment they so resemble one another so as a man may say this crosse lay in the wombe of such a sinne they are so like in quo peccamus in eodem plectimur but in those inward distresses of conscience that sin which is the true cause and that moveth God to afflict God often useth even the guilt of that very sinne to terrifie thee to cast a man into the distresse and to keepe him in it it is both the procatarticall cause and executioner also But in case thou canst not finde out the cause as Iob it seemes did not and Elihu did suppose hee might not therefore gives him this counsell which doe thou also follow till God shew thee the cause Job 34. 31 32. to say unto God as hee adviseth there That which I see not teach thou me and I will not offend any more and if thou findest it say also as ver 31. I have borne chastisement for such a sinne I will never offend any more Till then God will not let thee downe The second thing to be searched into is 2. What is the maine reasoning in thy heart that causeth this question of thy estate What is the chiefe and maine reasoning in thy heart which makes thee call all into question whether God bee thy God What is the reason why thou thinkest so what makes thee conclude so For this you must consider that although God for some sinne committed doth hide himselfe from thee terrifies and lasheth thy conscience yet that which causeth in thee and worketh in thee this apprehension that God hath cast thee off is usually some false reasoning or misapprehension some meere mistake some devise and sophistry of Satan When the Corinthian was excommunicated for his sinne Satan had leave to terrifie his conscience for it but Satan went further he would have swallowed him up of sorow by perswading him that such a sinne was unpardonable and that God would never owne him againe now the reasoning Satan used to bring this upon him was a false one some tricke and devise 2 Cor. 2. 7. compared with the eleventh verse whereof if a man bee ignorant hee may goe mourning a long while as a cast-away Therefore take thy soule aside and seriously aske it and examine it Why it is thus troubled What reason what ground thou hast to thinke that God is not thy God and then examine it whether it be a true ground yea or no As the Apostle bidâ— us 1 Pet. 3. 15. Give a reason of our faith so aske thou of thy soule the reason of its doubting Thus David Psal 42. ver 5. Why art thou cast downe oh my soule and because doubts arise againe and againe therefore he asketh the reason againe ver 11. Why art thou cast downe David knew the way to dissolve them was to search into and examine the reason of them for still when he had throughly examined theÌ„ he found them needlesse causelesse to put him into such desperate feares The childe of God is often cast into prison 〈◊〉 feares and bondage and after hee hath layen long in them and begins to reade over the 〈◊〉 and Mittimus hee findes it to bee false imprisonment a meere trick of Satan his Jaylour For as carnall men when they thinke their estate good and that they are in the favour of God it is some delusion some false reasoning that is still the ground of such their opinion as because they prosper in the world therefore God loves them because they performe some duties have some good motions which grounds they cannot endure to have examined 〈◊〉 contrarily one that feares God the ground of his apprehension that he is out of the favour of God is likewise some false reasoning which when examined appeares to be such and when it appearâ—â— the soule is freed out of its feares and doubts Heman thought Psal 88. 14. and said that God had cast him off and what was the reason perswaded him to thinke so ver 14. Because God had hidden his face It doth not follow Heman a Father may hide his face from his sonne and yet not cast him off So David also reasoneth Psal 77. ver 2 3. I have sought God prayed and used the meanes and yet I am troubled and yet God reveales not himselfe and what doth he conclude from this ver 7. Will the Lord cast off for ever He thought if God had loved me he would presently have heard me he thought his soule would not have beene worse after praying This was a false reasoning for Psal 70. 4. sometimes God shuts out his peoples prayers A father may
doe as he pleased and useth no other arguments in the 38 39 40 41. Chap. God indeed never wants a cause nor doth deale thus where sin is not yet as it is said of the young man that he was blinde not for his sinne nor his parents yet not without it but for the glory of God it was an act of Gods prerogative so here God had higher ends of glorifying himselfe in the patience and conquest of such a champion as Iob was and of confuting the devill who accused him of serving God for nought the falsenesse of which to demonstrate God tryes conclusions with him as also to confute the opinions which in those dayes were generally received as may seeme by his friends arguings and also the 37. Psal That godly men did prosper and flourish outwardly according to their godlinesse for these and the like reasons God did it However 〈◊〉 gives Iob this good and seasonable counsell to make this use of it to search into his sinnes Chap. 34. ver 31. 32. And God might well take liberty to deale thus with Iob because he could make him amends as afterward hee did in restoring double to him and indeed it was but the concealing awhile of his love as many parents love to doe by their children and yet to shew it the more in reall effects as God even then did in making him more then a conquerour A second case extraordinary is when hee intends to make a man a wise When God intends to make a man wise and able to comfort others able skilfull and a strong Christian Wise namely in this which is the greatest learning and wisdome in the world experimentally to comfort others This may seeme to bee the reason of this his dealing with Heman Heman was brought up in this schoole of temptation and kept in this form of desertion from a youth Psal 88. 15. He was put soone to it and so deep lessons had he set him as hee had like to have lost his wits as hee sayes there yet in the end when God raised him up again this Heman who lived about David Solomons time is reckoned among the wisest of his time and one of the foure that were next to Solomon 1 Kings 4. 31. So that great Apostle was a man exposed to the same combats that others were he was buffeted by Satan 2 Cor. 12. filled with inward terrours as well as those without what was this for Not so much for any personall cause of his owne as to make him able to comfort others 2 Cor. 1. 4 5. For that comfort which answers a temptation in one mans heart will answer the same in anothers the same key will unlock twenty locks that have the same wards So when temptations have the same wards that key which unlockt one mans bolts will serve and answer to anothers It is not every word that will comfort a weary soul but onely a word in season ver 4. of this 50. of Esay that is which is fitted to the parties case now who are they who have such apt and fit and seasonable considerations to comfort such but those who have had the same temptations and the like distresses This art of speaking peace and comfort and words in season is the greatest wisdome in the world and not learnt but in Hemans schoole Temptation was one of Luthers masters And therefore of abilities of the ministery Christ in this Chapter instanceth in this ver 4. and calleth the tongue of him that is able to speak seasonably to weary soules the tongue of the learned and therefore Iob 33. 23. to raise up one whose soule drawâ—s nigh to the grave is said to be the worke of 〈◊〉 of a thousand which is easily granted if you consider the danger of such a distresse In Scripture it is called the breaking the bones Psal 51. because the strength of a mans spirit that should uphold it as the bones the body sinkes with in him now to be a bone-fetter is not every mans skill he must have special art and cunning and a Ladies hand as we say that is meekness pitty which also are never kindly but when we have tasted the like or may feare the like Gal. 6. 1. The Apostle commands them to set such as one in Ioynt again as the word signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lest thou also be tempted it is the work of one that is spirituall You that are spirituall restore such an one It requires skill to get out every shiver to meete with every scruple and set all streight againe It is also called the wounding of the spirit Solomon A wounded spirit who can beare Prov. 18. 14. As the power of sinne wounds so the guilt also and the one as incurable as the other and it being the spirit of a man which is wounded that which must heal it must be somthing dropt into the heart that may come at the spirit and there are to be peculiar elective plaisters to heal these wounds because these wounds are usuall of a differing nature for some objections there are that often the learnedst men never met with in bookes and Satan hath devised methods Eph. 6. of tempting soules deserted which hee useth againe and againe and know those depths and fathome them a man shall not unlesse hee hath beene in the depths himselfe as Heman speakes and then he shall see such wonders of God in those depths which none else ever saw and thereby gaine such wisdome as to be able to encourage others by his example to trust in God and call upon him so David Psal 32. ver 5 6. The third case extraordinary 3. In case of abundance of revelations and comforts God doth desert in case a man hath had or is to have from God abundance of revelations and comforts First in case he hath already had abundance of revelations from God As after that glorious testimony given to Christ at his baptisme This is my beloved son c. Mat. 3. ult Then was Iesus led aside to be tempted Mat. 4. 1. He points out the time to this very purpose In like maner doth God often deale with the members of Christ for the season and time of their 〈◊〉 and temptations This was also that 〈◊〉 Apostles case 2 Cor. 12. 7. Lest I should bee exalted above measure through abundance of venue lations a messenger of Satan was sent to buffet 〈…〉 That which he calls there the thorne in the flesh that prickt him is meant rather I thinke of a desertion and leaving him to distresse of spirit then of a lust for his scope is to glory in his afflictions ver 9. 10. Now if it had beene a lust it had beene a thing not to bee gloried in Againe it was a messenger of Satan therefore something externall and it buffeted him he was as a meere patient in it as a man buffered is in the exercise of lusts our spirits are active besides he prayed it might
father that is a publique magistrate with an unruly childe after some great misdemeanour though he cast him not off yet he may send him to the Gaole to bee for example sake imprisoned for the Gaoler to take him and to clap irons on him to have him downe into the dungeon where he sees no light and into the little ease where he is in so streight a condition as he can neither sit nor stand nor lie as Elihu expresseth it Iob 36. 16. hee calleth it bringing into a streight place and binding them in fetters and cords of affliction and then hee shewes them their transgression and wherein they have exceeded ver 8 9. Yea And this 3. for sins long since committed and thirdly this God doth not onely presently after the sinnes were committed but sometimes a long while after and that when they have beene often confest Yea and after that God hath pardoned them also in our consciences as well as in heaven yet the guilt may returne againe and leave us in darknesse Thus Iob 13. 26. For the sinnes of his youth which questionlesse he had humbled himself for had assurance of the pardon of yet God did write bitter things against him for them many yeares after and made him possesse them as himselfe speakes God gave him over to the Gaoler and put him into the little ease in prison thou puttest my feet into the stocks sayes he ver 27. For as the power of sinne and the law of sinne is but in part done away in our members so in our consciences the guilt of sin is likewise but in part done away in regard of our apprehensiōs of the pardō of thē therefore as those lusts we had thought dead and that they would never have risen againe doe sometimes revive and trouble us afresh comming with new assaults so in like maner may the guilt of those sinnes revive which we thought long afore had beene pardoned and after the commission of some new act or forgetfulnesse of the old and security about them God may let them loose upon us afresh that we shall looke upon them as if they never had been pardoned Now the reason of all these particulars The reason fo all both why grosse sinnes especially if against light when not confessed throughly should yet after many yeares cast us into such fits of desertion is Because therein we rebell against Gods Spirit and that spirit It a nos tractat ut à nobis tractatur doth deale with us as wee with him If you grieve him he grieves you if you rebell against him he fights against you as an enemy so Esa 63. 10. They rebelled and vexed his holy Spirit therefore hee was turned to bee their enemy and he fought against them now to sinne against light is called rebellion so Iob 24. 11. When men go about to extinguish and darken the light of direction which God hath set up in their hearts to guide their paths by God puts out the light of comfort and so leaves them to darknesse But especially then when our hearts are so full of guile as we plead that they are no sinnes or extenuate them as David in all likelihood did Psal 32. in reference to which he sayes in 2. ver of that Psalme That that man is a blessed man in whom is no guile and in the 51. Psal 6. Thou desirest truth in the inward parts David had dealt guilefully and deceitfully in that sinne if man keepes a sinne under his tongue and will not be convinced of it nor bring it forth by confession God in that case brings him to the rack as they doe Traytors to confesse and if it be that any of our old sinnes revive and cause these terrours it is because wee began to looke on them as past and gone and thought we needed not go on to humble our selves any more for them making account they are so buried as that they will never rise againe when as the remembrance of them should keep us low and humble us all our dayes It is laid to the charge of them in the 26. of Ezek. 22. That they remembred not that they lay in their blood We are apt to thinke that time weares out the guilt of sinnes but to God they are as fresh as if they had beene committed yesterday and therefore nothing weares them out but repentance Great sinnes forgiven must not be forgotten Fiftly §. 5. in case of a stubborne stiffe spirit under outward afflictions 5. Case Of a stubborne spirit under outward afflictions when we will not mend nor stoope to God This may be part of the case mentioned Esa 57. 16. Where God alleaging the reason why he contended with a poore soul of his he gives an account of it ver 17. you shall see where the quarrell began For the iniquity of his covetousnesse I was wroth that is for some inordinate affection which we call concupiscence he mentioneth not a grosse act of sin committed so much as some lust harboured for which God began to be angry and to shew the effects of that his anger in smiting him haply with some outward crosse first I was wroth and smote him and when that did no good God began to be more angry and to hide himselfe I hid my face and this hee speakes of inward affliction which he also calleth ver 16. Contending with the soule and so far leaving it as that the spirit was ready to faile it came to inward affliction in the end and he further intimates the cause of all this He went on frowardly in the way of his heart When lighter and outward strokes will not take us of God leaves and deserts our spirits and wounds them And the reason is for in this case what course else should God take for either he must give him up to hardness of heart and leave him to his stubbornnesse and so he should have lost his childe but that God is resolved he will not doe I will heale him saith he ver 18. When therefore the heart remaines stubborne under other strokes he hath no way left in his ordinary course and progresse in the way of meanes but to lay strokes upon his spirit and wound that And this yoke is like to break and tame him if any For this he cannot beare other outward afflictions mans naturall spirit stoutnesse and stubbornnesse may beare and hath borne even in heathen men they have endured any thing rather then be put out of their way The spirit of man will sustaine its infirmities but in this the spirit failes in them ver 16. other afflictions are but particular but as taking some starres of comfort out of the firmament when others are still left to shine to them but when Gods countenance is hid the Sun it selfe the fountaine of light is darkened and so a generall darknesse befalls them and therefore then the heart is driven to God and broke off from all things else and then God delights
and more then hee is for himselfe and I can forbeare no longer I will surely have mercy on him And should he have damned him his bowels would have been troubled for him indeed all his dayes Direction 10. THe tenth and last direction is Rest not in ease but healing that having done all this you would not rest in ease but healing not in ease of conscience but in healing of conscience This I ground upon Isa 57. 17 18. What was the true issue of that his trouble there whom God contended with It was healing and guiding I will guide him and I will heale him You that are troubled in minde thinke not your estates to bee good simply because you begin to cease to be troubled but onely then when the issue of your trouble is healing your spirits by some sound ground of comfort and when guidance in Gods wayes and more close walking with God is the issue of it For God may slack the cords and take you off the rack when yet hee hath not pardoned you A traitour who was cast into the dungeon and had many irons on him may be let out of the dungeon and have his irons taken off and have the liberty of the Tower and walke abroad againe with his keeper with him and yet not have his pardon nay usually before execution they use to take their irons off and let them have more freedome Thus it is with many I thanke God sayes one I have had much trouble of minde distresse of conscience such and such sinnes terrified me and I could not sleep for them but now I am well again and now they do not trouble me Yea but is this all Thou hast cause to feare that thy irons are but taken off against execution It is with men in point of trouble of minde in the guilt of sinne as in the power of it in justification as in sanctification A man who hath had a strong lust stirring in him if he hath gone a yeare or two and findeth it not to stirre he therefore thinkes hee is utterly freed from it which yet may be but a restraint of it not killing of it a cessation not mortification So it is often in this trouble of minde which ariseth from the guilt of sinne because a man findes not those doubts and feares and terrours in his heart which he had wont therefore presently he thinkes all is well when as it may be but meerly a truce not a peace a laying downe of armes onely for a while to make greater preparation against the soule afterwards a reprivall and a little enlargement in prison not a pardon if this be all the issue of it That you may further conceive the meaning of this in one that is Gods child and in a wicked man though both may be and are troubled in minde and conscience yet there is a maine difference both in the maine cause of their trouble and also in the issue and removall of their trouble A wicked mans trouble is for the anguish and present smart he feeles in sinne and in Gods wrath lashing his conscience and out of feares that his sinne will not be pardoned but that he shal endure these tortures for ever in hell So it was in Iudas Cain and many others but a godly mans trouble though it hath often all this in it yet the chiefest of his trouble is a further thing it is not onely the smart the sting of sinne but also the filth the fowlnesse the offence of it done to God that wounds him for he hath an heart after Gods heart and therefore lookes on sin with the same kinde of eye that God doth and as God accounts the offence done to him the greatest evill in sinne so doth a godly heart also It is not the sting of this serpent only but the poison of it that disquiets him neither is it onely the want of pardon of sinne and the feare of Gods everlasting wrath which mainly troubleth him but the want of Gods favour the parting with him whom he sees so excellent and glorious the want of seeing his face his desire is to live in his sight and to have God to be his God Now such as the woūd is such also is the remedy Therfore the one being but troubled with the sting the smart of sin pull but that sting out take that loade off and he is well enough as jocund as pleasant as ever it being present ease that he seekes and to that end confesseth his sinne and doth any thing for the present to come out of it As Pharaoh Exod. 10. 17. Take away this death onely or at the utmost his aime is but pardon of sinne and peace with God that hee may be freed from the feares of undergoing that for ever the earnest whereof he feeles in his conscience now And hence therfore the remedies they often have recourse unto are suitable they are but like rattles to still childrē with they run to merry company and to musick c. as Cain fell a building Cities and so they put off the terrours of their consciences It is ease they seeke and no more or they runne to a formall performance of duties even as poore soules under Popery when they were stung by the Friars Sermons they set them penances and good deeds to be done which stilled them awhile for them they thought they should have pardon So men run now to holy duties but with the same opinion that they did then as bribes for a pardon what shall I give sayes he in Micah for the sinne of my soule Micah 6. 7. But now the wound of Gods childe being deeper not the sting of sinne onely but the poison of it not the smart but the offence done to God nor the feare of his wrath but want of his favour therfore accordingly ease from those terrours pacifie not him no not simply peace with God will content him or a pardon He sayes not onely Oh miserable man that I am who shall deliver me from this death onely but who shall deliver me from this body of death If newes were brought him that God would pardon him and not call him to reckoning for any sinne and no more were spoken to his conscience he would still be troubled till hee had assurance of his good will also if it were said God will indeed pardon thee but he will never love thee as hee did he will not looke on thee thou must not come into his sight This would grieve the soule more then the other would content it and he would be everlastingly troubled I may allude to that which Absolom said in cōplement of his Father when he was banished from him to expresse the true desire greatest trouble of a soul in this case as you have it 2 Sam. 14. 32. Absolom was pardoned the fault but it contented him not Let mee see his face or let him kill me So it is with a poore soule ease pardon knocking off