will not have him to be so he would save them and they will not be saved he would bless them and they chuse to be curs'd How many are there that prefer a Lust before a Saviour and Earth before Heaven and the applause of their vain sottish Companions before the approbation of the All-seeing Judge O blind Sinners Why will you lay hands upon your selves and do all you can to deprive your Souls of Life What a sad thing is it as one says to deny sustenance to thine own Life The breath of God is in thee what shall be done to him that starveth a Prince's child Symmond 's Sight and Faith p. 214. What have we of like worth to Spiritual Vigour Agility Courage and Peace of Soul And shall we who have a door of Life at once offer contempt to Divine goodness and violence to our own Life by not using what God hath put in our hands for our relief Is there so much allurement in destruction and so much Beauty in Eternal Flames that you cannot forbear going thither Why will you suffer your Souls to starve whilst you are contriving to gratify the Flesh Why will you still serve the Devil and your own Sins Are they so good Masters will they pay you so well in the latter end Are you content to have the pleasures of Sin for a season though you lose your share in Paradise Oh what bitter reflections on so bad a choice will this cause hereafter VVhen you shall lift up your Eyes in misery and see the Kingdom of Heaven afar off and say I was once offered that Kingdom and those Joys and I would not have them I was once fair for Salvation but I slighted I might have had the Favour of God and I would not have it O my cursed Sins How you have deceived me You promised me delight and you have brought me to bitterness and wo you promised me safety and you have made me to perish Oh that some Angel or some Saint might be sent to bring me some relief The word of God told me of that Glory his Ministers earnestly intreated me to prepare for it my Friends were always bidding me to leave my wicked course my Conscience checkt me for it and I broke through all these exhortations and these checks and so am come laden with guilt to Eternal Misery I was at my Games and Sports when I should have been upon my Knees I had indeed time and strength and health and many helps and advantages O that I had all my days watcht and strived and denyed my self then I should not have come to this place of Torment O that my Sun would rise again O that I might have another Tryal and more time But alas the Judge is my Enemy I have heard my Sentence and he will not change his purpose I am condemned I am lost for ever O Sinners As you would never fall into such a hopeless state now even now seek the face of God Have you not already spent time enough in Sin in walking in the imagination of your own heatts and the sight of your own eyes Have you not loved your sottish pleasures long enough O! come leave the tents of Wickedness come and Love your God for he is ready to receive you come to him and all your sins shall be forgiven O let not Mercy it self that speaks for your hearts be denyed Who will be so good a friend as God Who will abide with you when life it self is gone And now surely the heart of some sinner or another begins to relent some that is saying with himself Though I never prayed in secret before yet now I will begin to pray Though I lost abundance of my youth and my health I will strive to lose no more I have put off God and my Conscience with vain excuses and delays but I will not put them off again He shall have my thoughts my heart and my endeavours who gave me life and I will ever admire the riches of his Love if he will pardon such a Malefactor and condescend to such a Worm and entertain such a Prodigal as I have been Inf. 6. In what a woful Condition are those poor Sinners that are without this Favour of God! To how great a danger are they every day exposed And which is a part of their misery they know it not Spiritual Death has closed their eyes and they see not where they go What a sad object is a poor sinner that is yet a stranger to this God that is every hour liable to his Eternal Wrath that seeks the Friendship and the Favour of men and has no thoughts of his Creator no dread of his Displeasure no taste or relish of his Love Surely they must be fallen into a dead sleep whom all the Terrors of the Lord all the Threats of his Word and all the Calls of his Ministers will not awaken With what peace can you eat and drink or work or rest whilst so great a God is your Enemy Will his Wrath that makes the Devils in their Hellish Agonies to roar and tremble be tolerable to you When his Vengeance pursues you whither will you run for help When he frowns what will it avail you tho all the world should smile upon you When he casts you off who will shew you pity When he condemns you who will plead your Cause Do you not know that your Life is short that your Change is near that the Judge is at the door Do you not know that this World will leave you that you may quickly go into another And can you dwell with Eternal Burnings Can you venture to go to the Judgment-Seat before you have an Interest in Christ Are you fruitless and barren here and do you think to flourish in the Coelestial Paradise Do you remain dead here under all the means of Grace and do you hope to live for ever What pleasures are those that enchant you that you will not come and taste the Joys of God Who is that that will be a better Friend than he If you laugh at destruction it will not be the further off Oh let not the Devil be your Master nor the world your God Let not sin cheat and impose upon you with its false and counterfeit Delights Others are mourning in secret after the Lord and have you not as much cause to mourn as they Others are striving with earnest Prayers and Supplications and holy Endeavours to enter in at the strait gaâ—e and will it open of it self to you Or have you not also Souls to save as well as they Others Read and Hear and Pray and do all that they can for Salvation being afraid they should fall under the Power of Eternal Death and have you no cause of fear VVhence is it that when they are running so fast in the way of Heaven you run faster in the way of Hell VVhy do you with so great a care tend and regard your Bodies to preserve
from him as we did but he designs not to raise them again they groan'd under the wrath of the mighty Judge and they must always groan under it no beam of chearful Light will shâ—ne into their Dungeon no Messenger will be dispatched to give them the glad-tidings of Salvation the anger of God threw them out of Heaven and the door is for ever shut they know this to be their woful Case and therefore they rage against him and against his Servants and his Interest in the world What could move Christ to take the nature of Man and not of Angels Heb. 2.16 to say to us Live and to suffer them to dye to visit our sinning World to set us at Liberty to set open the Prison-doors whilst he suffers them to roar in chains of wrath As they have greater Capacities and Natures more knowing than ours so they might have honoured their Creator more than we had they been redeemed but they must mourn for ever and never sing his Praise they must grieve whilst we rejoice whilst we look for our Lord they tremble in the fear of his coming whilst we have the sweetness of hope they are in anguish and vexation in despair and horror we have our Sabbaths but they have no days of rest we can through Jesus Christ call God our Father but they know him not by such a comfortable Name they feel his Power but they tast not his Love they tremble under his Vengeance but all comfort and Joy is fled away from them for ever why are we in the light and they in darkness Why is Christ a Phisician to us whilst he is a Judge to them truly nothing makes the difference but his own love and what manner of love is this 2. It was great love in Christ to bear the anger of God because now his poor tempted Servants have one to whom they may repair in all their straits Heb. 2.18 For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted he is able to succor them that are tempted 'T is a great relief to the miserable and afflicted to be pitied by others as Job 19.21 Have pity upon me have pity upon me O ye my friends for the hand of God hath touched me It is some relief when others tho they cannot help us yet seem to be truly concerned for the sadness of our case when by the kindness of their words and of their actions they do a little smooth the wounds that they cannot heal but it is an unspeakable addition to the Cross when a man is brought low under the sense of God's displeasure to have men to mock at his Calamity or to revile him or to speak roughly this does enflame and exasperate the wound that was big enough before and it is an hard thing when one has a dreadful sound in his ears to have every friend to become a Son of Thunder It is a small matter for people that are at ease to deal severely with such as are afflicted but they little know how their severe speeches and their angry words pierce them to the very soul 'T is easie to blame others for complaining but if such had felt but for a little while what it is to be under the fear of God's Anger they would find they could not but complain It cannot but make any person very restless and uneasie when he apprehends that God is his Enemy It is no wonder if he makes every one that he sees and every place that he is in a witness of his grief but now it is a Comfort in our Temptations and in our Fears that we have so compassionate a Friend as Christ is to whom we may repair Heb. 4.15 For we have not an High-Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help us in every time of need Had it not been for his Mediation the absolute and pure Deity would have been too glorious and inaccessible to us but he is cloathed with our nature and though it has undergone several alterations since he is exalted yet we are sure that he retains a tender sence of our miseries And tho he be very high he does not think it below him to regard the most troubled and sorrowful Believer He was on earth acquainted with grief Isa 53.3 And has carryed to Heaven with him a remembrance of what he felt in his own Temptations and of what he felt when his Father frown'd upon him and his own experience renders him more capable of helping us and makes him full of pity when he sees us mourn well knowing what was his own Case As God has fashioned the hearts of all men and some who have naturally more mercy and pity than others and then the holy Spirit by its renewing grace carrying their good Dispositions to greater degrees and proceeding and working usually according to their tempers so it is certain he temper'd the heart of Christ and made it of a softer mould than all the tenderness of all the men in the world put together would have made it he had such a humane nature that might be more merciful than all Men and Angels together Goodwin Christ's Heart in Heaven p. 55. Our groans and our sighs teach his Heart above and tho he does not come with help just when we desire it yet he is providing for our welfare he sends us some inward supports when we have not an immediate deliverance he will not suffer us totally to sink tho he may leave us for a while to try our faith or to let us understand our own weakness we may think that our vessel will be covered with waves when he is guiding us to shore even when we think that he is asleep and has forgot us and cares not though we be cast away only let us never cease to say Master save us or else we perish CHAP. V. Shewing the unreasonableness of long-continued angers among good People as also that the temporary effects of God's displeasure are more elegible than the wrath of Men. Of the Excellency of Religion and that the Enemies of the Church have no cause to insult over it because of its certain deliverance and the dismal Conclusion of their own Wickedness upon which account Christians have no Reason to envy their Prosperity Inf. 2. SEeing God is angry but for a moment How unreasonable are long-continued Anger 's among good People Let not the sun go down upon your wrath Neither give place to the devil Eph. 4.26 27. i. e. he that has injured or provoked another must come to a Temper and sue for a Reconciliation speedily or else before the time of solemn praying to God which was constantly at Evening and so the Exhortation bears proportion with that Matth. 5.23 24. If thou bringest thy gift unto the altar and there remembrest that
so in all their Tryals and Calamities and the other shall find him to be an Enemy and to have been so tho they had many good things in the time of the present Life The Righteous have Sweetness and Mercy mingled with their Sorrows here but the Wicked shall have there pure and unmingled and intolerable Wrath. Here in the most heavy Strokes the Servants of God find now and then some little Comfort but his Enemies in that World must have no drop to cool their Tongues no refreshment nor support for ever The same Sun that will cherish the Righteous with his everlasting Beams will scorch the Wicked and fill them with an inexpressible Rage and Fury God will throw them from all their heights silence all their lofty Speeches and ruin all their vain-glorious Designs Dan. 4.17 The demand is by the word of the holy ones to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdoms of men that is by the petitions of Angels Charnock of Gods Dominion p. 767. who cannot endure that the Empire of God should be obscur'd by the Pride of Men. Besides the tender respect that he hath to his own Glory he is constantly presented with the Solicitations of the Angels to punish the Proud of the Earth that darken the Glory of his Majesty 'T is necessary for the rescue of his Honour and necessary for the Satisfaction of his Illustrious Attendants who would think it a shame to them to serve a Lord that were always unconcerned in the Rebellions of his Creatures and would tamely suffer those that spurn at his Throne His Wrath to his Servants is with Mercy and but for a moment but to his Enemies it will be severe and abiding Wrath. CHAP. III. Of the several Advantages that are designed by God to his Servants in his being Angry with them only for a moment toge her with the Obligations which they are under from so merciful a Dispensation of his Providence and the several Improvements we are to make of it Inf. 1. NONE of the People of God have Cause to conclude That because he is angry with them at present therefore they are in a state of Wrath. Our sense and feeling of things that are very bitter joyned with the knowledge that we have of our Guilt and our innumerable Sins does frequently corrupt our Reason and obscure our Faith And from the severity of his present Dispensations we are apt to say he has forgotten to be gracious If the Lord be with us as Gideon said why then is all this befallen us and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of Judges 6.13 he will be favourable no more But this is the Language of our mistaken unbelief Isaiah 49.14 15. Zion said The Lord hath forsaken me and my Lord hath forgotten me Can a woman forget her sucking child yea she may but I will not forget thee Isaiah 40.27 Why sayest thou O Jacob and speakest O Israel That my way is hid from the Lord and my judgment is passed over from my God Our Sins indeed may cause him to withdraw the manifestations of his Love so that we shall feel no comfort in our Prayers none in his Ordinances none in his Words Every threatning shall pierce us to the quick and no promise yield us quiet and yet for all this he may with his vital Influences return again and tho we have not seen either the Sun Moon or Stars for many Days and Nights yet a glorious Light may succeed afterwards In sore Afflictions our grieved sense and the fear that attends our Guilt and the malice of the Devil may put us upon desperate and unwarrantable Conclusions and the deserted Person may say I am abhorred of the Lord he counts me for his Enemy he is cruel to me he is departed from me Ho answers me not I go to his Ministers and they give me no relief I go to his Word and it is bitter to my taste it fills me with gall and wormwood I seek him in my Solitudes and in the Assemblies of his People but I find him not He has left me he has thrown me off The comforter that should relieve my Soul is far from me He hath built against me he hath hedged me about that I cannot get out he hath made my chain heavy Also when I cry and shout he shutteth out my prayer He is unto me as a Bear lying in wait and as a Lion in secret places Lam. 3.7 8 9 10. This is a sad and a doleful Case and yet one that suffers all this ought not to say that there is no future help for God may be gracious and his wrath tho very terrible and perplexing is but for a moment No Believer ought to conclude that because he is under the displeasure of God at present that therefore he is a Child of wrath nor ought he from his present feeling to dare to assert his Reprobation it is an usurping that Judgment which does not belong to Men and a positive Determination of that which we cannot know We may as well conclude that when the Sun sets it will never rise again or that when thick Clouds darken the Air it will never be fair weather any more We ought never to forget the Case of Job never was any Man covered with a greater heap of Miseries never was any Man more seemingly left of God and harass'd by by the Devil than he was never did any Man make more doleful complaints than what we hear from the poor Man in his heavy tryal as Job 10.16 Thou huntest me as a fierce Lyon and again thou shewest thy self marvellous upon me thou renewest thy witnesses against me and increasest thine indignation upon me Chap. 19.10 Know now that God hath overthrown me and compassed me with his net he hath destroyed me on every side and I am gone mine hope hath he removed like a tree he hath kindled his wrath against me and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies And yet what a glorious deliverance had the poor Man after all this We ought not to say that because we are miserable at the present we shall always be so or that because God is now angry he will never be pleased again no we ought rather to remember that it is but for a moment and tho' the kind hand of a Friend may put us to pain yet he does but search our wounds in order to a Cure he will not poison our Sores nor as an Enemy take pleasure in our Torments Inf. 2. We have great cause to be patient in all those sufferings that are the effects of God's displeasure seeing it is but for a moment Mic. 7.9 I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him till he plead my cause There is nothing to which we are more obnoxious under the sense of God's displeasure than to fretfulness and discontent as David Psal 31.22 I said in my
say to him because we are the work of his own hands Our hearts in sore distresses are apt to say Why are we so much and so long afflicted Why are we compassed with such terrible Calamities when others are at ease that to appearance have sinned as much as we But these first risings of Murmuring and Disquiet are to be resisted by the considerations of the Majesty and the Greatness of God who may put his Creatures to what use he pleases and so as may tho with their own smart promote the good of others and their own final good Tho Job as Mr. Charnock observes Discourse on the Attributes pag. 781. were a pattern of Patience yet he had deep Tinctures of Impatience he often complains of God's usage of him as too hard and stands much upon his own Integrity but when God comes in the latter Chapters of that Book to justifie his carriage towards him he chargeth him not as a Criminal but considers him only as his Vassal he might have found flaw enough in Job's carriage and corruption enough in Job's Nature to have cleared the Equity of his Proceedings as a Judg but he useth no other medium to convince him but the Greatness of his Majesty the Unlimitedness of his Soveraignty which so appales the good man that he puts his finger on his mouth and stands mute with a self-abhorrency before him as a Sovereign rather than a Judge His Wisdom also that makes the Night to precede the Day and Storms to clear the Air and make way for a fairer Season ought to silence and pacifie our Souls Isa 30.18 And therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you and therefore will he be exalted that he may have mercy upon you for the Lord is a God of judgment blessed are all they that wait for him He knows the fittest times and seasons wherein to heal our Diseases to remove our Fears and to do us good Cons III. How great the Mercies are that we are to wait for 't is for Heaven and Glory and we have his Promise That our Faith and our Patience shall not be in vain Isa 35.3 4 5 6 7. And after all the dangers the snares and hindrances and temptations of this world to come to Salvation at the last is so great a Mercy that it is surely worth staying for Tho we labour Six days yet the rest of the Sabbath does refresh our Spirits and so will after the sufferings of this mortal Life that Eternal Sabbath that is to be kept above with God give us great Refreshment our time on earth is a season wherein by several Trials and Afflictions to prepare us for that Happiness and Glory As the Night does affright us the Morning will surely bring us Joy It is but a little while and our Lord will come and save us Let us not surrender our selves to our Spiritual Enemies tho we are straitly press'd for our Saviour is marching to our Relief Jam. 5.7 Behold the Husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth and hath long patience for it until he receive the early and the latter Rain Be ye also patient stablish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh The Husbandman gives not his Grain for lost tho it be covered with Snow and Storm he expects to see it rise with the returning Spring so neither should we despair of finding Comfort tho the Prayers that we have made bring us no present satisfaction You know David had the promise of a Kingdom but what strange Difficulties did he meet withal And what a long time was it before he came to sit upon a Peaceful Throne We must have Conflicts before we get the Victory we must run our Race and strive hard ere we get the Reward but when it shall once be bestowed upon us it will abundantly recompence us for all our Tears and all our Heaviness we are to take up our Cross daily every day on earth will afford us cause of Patience we are to watch for all our time is but as a moment to Eternity Let not our Lord that will bless us with a long and unspeakable Felicity have cause to say to us as he did to his sorrowful Disciples Could ye not watch with me one hour Mat. 26.40 He looks on knows our weakness and will give us help he could immediately solace and refresh and save us if he would but seeing that he is not pleased so to do let us humbly be silent and acquiesce in the Wisdom of his Appointment and Decree for tho he delay he is not unmindful of our sorrows and in the very Minute that is most for his Glory and for our Good he will come and save us Isa 64.4 For since the beginning of the world men have not heard nor perceived by the ear neither hath the eye seen O God besides thee what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him V. Entertain a secret hope that it will not always be thus sad and dismal with you Tho you have made several Prayers that have not yet received a Gracious Answer of Peace yet pray still and be not discouraged but like blind Bartimaeus cry the more earnestly You know that the Woman of Canaan persevered in her attendance on our Lord tho the words he spake seemed to have in them a great deal of sharpness and severity yet she was resolved not to leave him nor be denied and at the last our Saviour commended highly that Faith of which he seem'd to take no notice before It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait to see the salvation of God Lam. 3 27. The reason whereof is alledged v. 31 32. For the Lord will not cast off for ever but tho he cause grief yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies Tho every thing that you look upon within your own hearts terrifie and perplex your thoughts yet the vastness of that Mercy that is in God and which through his Son he is willing to communicate to you may afford you support and relief the very possibility of help tho never so remote may a little quiet and calm your souls for tho you see nothing for the present but Frowns and Anger in the Face of God yet you cannot you ought not to say that it will never shine again tho his strokes are increased and every day more painful than they were the day before yet you must not then conclude That he who chastens for your profit will not lay aside the Rod Tho you are sinking with your fears and you have no power left yet lay hold on the strength of God he will not strike off your trembling hand but encourage your dependance and your trust in him you are not everlastingly perisht you have not yet received your final doom it is possible that you may escape There is great comfort in a May be I shall be saved even tho by fire
encrease our comfort afterwards by the way in which we did least expect it shall Joy and Pleasure come as the Ravens greedy Creatures brought meat unto the Prophet VII Enquire into the Causes of God's Anger he is never angry as I have said before but when there is very great reason when we force him to be so What is that accursed thing in our hearts or in our lives for which God hides his face and frowns upon us What particular disobedience to his Commands is it for which he has taken up the Rod Vid. Caryl in loc Job 10.2 I will say unto God Do not condemn me shew me wherefore thou contendest with me q. d. Lord my Troubles and my Sorrows are very well known Every Eye beholds my Calamity every Ear is astonished with the report of my sore distress and all that know me or have heard of me wonder why I am above all others in the world made so miserable a man that there has not been an example of the like great and strange affliction since the beginning of the world I my self that feel these wonderful sorrows am most of all perplext shew me for what and why it is that I should be so He was an upright man and not being conscious either of secret allowed sin or open Transgression might be at a great loss to know the cause of his affliction but for the most part of us who are as far from the Grace which he had in his Trouble as we are from the Riches which he had in his Prosperity we may soon know that God is angry for our sin and yet at the same time we must not cease to be sollicitous to know what are the particular sins that have made him to tear us up by the roots to throw us down as with a whirlwind what it is that has made him to be so long angry with us and so long to delay his help that if any evil be undiscovered in our souls we may lament it with a seasonable grief and get a pardon for it It is not the common Course of God's Providence to cover his Servants with so thick a darkness as that is which our Troubled Souls labour under in the day or rather in the night of his Displeasure And therefore we may with Humility desire to know why he proceeds with us in a way that is so singular for it is some way delightful to the Understanding to pierce into the Reasons and the Causes of things Psal 74.1 O God why hast thou cast us off for ever why doth thine Anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture How angry soever he be we must make our Addresses to him and seeing to be cast off to be separated from him is a thing so terrible he allows us to enquire into the Reasons of his Proceedings and to debate the Case and our debate must end in Prayer and Supplication as here v. 2. and tho it be very true that when a man is fallen into a Pit the business of the poor man is not to inquire how he fell thither but how he may be drawn up again and escape the danger that has overtaken him yet in this case of the sense of God's Displeasure the knowledge of the Causes of it may produce many good effects which tho they do not appear in our depths and troubles yet will shew themselves afterwards they will cause us for ever to dread the same things which did bring upon us so many miseries As suppose in another case a Mother that brings forth Children to the Grave that only views them a while and after all the pain of bringing them forth and after all the care of their future welfare sees them one after another snatcht away to know the Reason of this so terrible a stroke will greatly support her spirit as suppose it be to wean her from Terrestrial Comforts and to give her those that are Eternal to take her Children away and to give her more of God to bury her dear Off-spring that her declining Graces may have a Resurrection or that her Comfort in the Living may be more sensible to her when there are so many dead This wiill calm her soul and make even a disconsolate Mother to rejoice Thus when a man is exercised with long and sharp Sickness and Affliction to know the Causes of it may be useful to promote his Humiliation at the present and to make him avoid the like for the time to come if he do recover VIII When you are under a sense of God's Displeasure flye to his Mercy and his Grace in Christ When your Creator is angry 't is not any thing in this world can give you relief but himself flye from God as absolutely considered in his Greatness Justice Holiness and Majesty to him as discovering himself through the Mediator The Hills and the Mountains cannot be a shelter from his Wrath whither can you go from his Presence Whither will not the sense of his Anger and your own guilty thoughts pursue you Betake your selves to him and when you think of him think of him as a God in whom there is the greatest Tenderness and Pity and of which all the Compassion that is in humane nature is but a weak resemblance as it is all one with him in Temporal Deliverances to save by many or by few for what dangers can reâ—â— Omnipotence so 't is as easie with him to 〈◊〉 give a Thousand thousand Sins as one sin 〈◊〉 we be never so unworthy and so vile yet Mercy seeks no other qualification of its object but that 't is necessitous and obnoxious to ruin and it is a good way to flye to his meer grace and mercy for we have undone our selves Poring upon our selves does but encrease our load we are apt to say in our distress Were we so and so mortified to the world were our hearts so purified and cleansed then we might approach him with some boldness who is altogether holy this is true but yet we must first ask of him to make us such in whom he may delight And as we sorrowfully cast our eyes upon our wounds and our miseries let us look at the same time to that Physician who has provided a Remedy for us by Christ and who can heal all our backslidings and teach us to apply that Remedy If we are the worst and the most sinful Creatures upon earth yet is a Saviour tendered to our acceptance and our choice and if we will receive him all our Transgressions how heinous soever will be blotted out As we have a very deep sense of Hell and Destruction so let us have the most enlarged thoughts of the pardoning Grace of God and to this we are encouraged by the discoveries that he hath made of himself through his dear Son His Forgiveness is like himself it is as one says an Object for Faith alone which can rest in that which it cannot comprehend Dr. Owen in Psal 130. p.
must lead them to my Physician and tell them the nature of my cure when others are fallen into the Pit out of which we are newly got let us strive to draw them up Let us put on bowels of compassion let us patiently hear what they say and not rebuke them for complaining let us not be weary of their discourse because it 's doleful and troublesome let us not smile at that which makes them weep nor simply call that fancy which is the anguish and trouble of their Souls Let us remember all that speech and that usage that made us worse when we were ill and avoid all such to them Let us remember what it was that gave us some support and let us minister the same to them When any of our Friends are very sick if we know any Cordial any Receipt that has been beneficial to us under the like case we make all the speed we can to fetch it and we cannot see them faint without finding at the same time a very sensible commotion in our own hearts no outward Affliction though never so painful is so terrible as these spiritual Troubles are let us therefore be more affectionately concerned for such distressed Persons than for any other when we see the Anger of God beginning to kindle in their Consciences Let us use all the methods that are most like to quench the beginning flame For as God commanded the Israelites to be kind to strangers because they themselves were such in the Land of Egypt So let us be very kind and pitiful to all that are in distress we having been so our selves Let us take all opportunities to visit to exhort to direct them Let us wrastle with the God of Jacob in their behalf let them see that we sympathize most heartily with them and that though the Grace of God has wiped our tears away yet we can still weep with them that weep Let us take all the ways we can to make them believe we are afflicted with their affliction and sincerely concerned for the sadness of their Case and by this means they will more ruminate on what we say and regard the more what we tell them that have been once as they now are then they will regard others that may speak well indeed but not from their own Experience If a man were in a bodily Disease he would rather have recourse to a Physician that had been himself lately cured of it than to any other that can talk it may be more learnedly about it but knows not by information or study half so much as he that feels it the knowledge of the one is but speculative but the other's is more distinct and practical and he knows how to make suitable applications to his Patient from the remembrance of what he felt in his own Body Heb. 2.17 18. 2 Cor. 1.6 Secondly God continues the sense of his wrath very long upon the Souls of his People that they may learn to pity wicked men and instruct them in the way of happiness Psal 51.11 12 13. that they may teach them by their words their serious Exhortations and their faithful Reproofs by their holy Conversation and by their every action that they go about there are many Lessons that we our selves are not taught but by the rod and the frowns of an Angry God by a very smarting and severe discipline we see not till after a long teaching the real evil of Sin and the true worth of Christ to the knowledge of which when we are once arrived we must communicate some measures of it to others though the misery is the most will scarce believe our Report till they themselves come to feel what we have felt He that is escaped by the mercy of God out of long trouble of Conscience can thus say to Sinners I have dearly paid for all the delight that I once had in sin for all my indifference and lukewarmness my cold and sluggish Prayers my lost and misimproved time beware that you do not provoke him for he is a jealous God for if you do you shall also find that those Sins which you make a slight matter of will tear you to pieces hereafter you will find them when your Consciences are awakened to be an heavy and intolerable burthen they will press you down to Hell it self I could not have thought that the displeasure of God had been a thing so bitter and so very dreadful It is a tertible thing to fall into the hands of the living God for he is a consuming fire if his Anger be kindled but a little you cannot then fix your minds upon any pleasant Objects nor have one easie Thought you cannot then go about your business your Trades or your secular Affairs for your Souls will be so much amazed that you will be full of horror and consternation Those of us that have felt the terrors of the Lord do most earnestly persuade you to forsake every Sin for if you indulge and love your Iniquities they will set you on fire round about Oh that you did but know what you do when you sin you are opposing that Authority that will avenge it self of all its obstinate opposers you are heaping up fuel for your own destruction you are whetting that Sword that will enter into your Bowels you are preparing your selves for bitterness and trouble and though God is patient for a while yet he will not always be so the shadows of the night are drawing on and the doleful time will come when all your mirth will end in tears and all your false confidence and your foolish hopes will expire and give up the Ghost And which of you will live when God shall enter into Judgment with you VVhat will you do VVhere will you go for help when he that is your Maker he that has weighed your actions and observed your wandrings shall call you to give an account of all these things If our blessed Lord when he came near Jerusalem lift up his voice and wept saying O that thou hadst known even now in this thy day the things that belong unto thy peace What cause have we to mourn over our fellow-creatures whom we see to be in danger of misery and alas they know it not Can we see them sleeping on the very edge of ruine and not be greatly troubled for them Oh poor sinners you are now sleeping but the Judge is at the door you are rolling the pleasant morsel under your tongue but it will be great vexation to you in the latter end How can you rest how can you be quiet when you have none of your sins pardoned no comfortable relation to God! no well-grounded hope of Heaven How can you with any assurance go about those things that concern your buying your selling and the present Life when your poor souls that are of a thousand times more value are neglected all the while We have felt great terrors inexpressible sorrows from an angry God and we
should wish to be learned and yet never read or study as if a Soldier should wish for victory and yet never fight or an Husbandman for a gainful Crop and yet neither plow nor sow It is not a careless wish for God's favour that will serve the turn you must pray constantly and resort to those places of Worship where he usually manifests his presence in his own Ordinances and read his word with reverence humility and frequency you must seek him with your whole heart you must expect and wait tho it be long for a gracious answer of your Prayers how many days will men give their attendance for some Preferment or High Place in a Prince's Court And it should not grieve us to stay for the Favour and the Love of God for when it is once bestowed it will requite all your pains and labour 1 Cor. 15. last verse You will meet in the quest of this with manifold trials and with great oppositions your Carnal Nature and your old Sins will present motives to your sense to draw you back Satan will perplex you with a thousand doubts and troubles for you may be sure this Lyon will roar when he is like to lose his Prey but nothing of this must discourage you The Favour of God is so great a mercy that you may justly be importunate and restless till you get it notwithstanding all the dangers that you meet withal No great things are obtained but with difficulty you 'll see hereafter that it was worth the while to take pains in a matter of so great consequence You now find that after all the pleasure of Sin is past it leaves a sting and fills your minds with bitterness and trouble but you 'll hereafter find nothing but comfort nothing but an overflowing-pleasure in the love of God and you 'll find it to be so very pleasant that you will wish that you had done more for him than you have done There 's not a Soul in Heaven that repents of the pains he took to get thither 3. You must he deeply sensible of your own miserable and undone state without it Luke 5.31 They that are whole need not a Physician but they that are sick Matth. 18.11 The Son of Man is come to save that which is lost Job 33.27 He looketh upon men and if any say I have sinned and perverted that which was right and it profiteth me not he will deliver his soul from going down to the pit and his life shall see the light If you are once convinced that your sins have made him angry that his Anger is very just and yet so severe that if it continue it will be intolerable If you are once sensible what a great God you have provoked what an holy Law you have broken what an Hell you have deserved you will reckon it as a great mercy that you are not already there whence there is no return If your Conscience have been awakened with a deep impression of his Wrath all the Riches the Honours and the Pleasures of this World will seem to you to be very poor and empty things The sight of Sin that has deceived you that has defiled you that has exposed you to so great danger will fill you with shame and sorrow with fear and trouble Of all your desires this will be your chief and your only desire Let me have the Favour of God whatever else I want Let me have his Favour or I dye for ever you will be restless and unsatisfied till you have the hope of this The reason why men are so industrious for all other things and so little concerned for the Favour of God is because they are blinded by the Devil and their own Lusts and under a spiritual insensibility But if you once find Sin to be bitter this will be very sweet If that has thrown you into painful Agonies and deep distress of Soul this will greatly comfort and revive you you will see then great cause to humble and to loath your self and not find any cause of pride or of the boast of the Pharisee but in the better posture and temper of the Publican say Lord be merciful to me a sinner Never did a Traveller after a tedious Journey more desire his home or a Mariner long tost with Tempests to see the quiet Shore than you will desire this Favour of God When you have been scorcht with inward thirst you will pant for this Fountain of Love wherein you may quench your thirst when you have been in a long war with God and come at length to see the danger of it Oh how beautiful will be the feet of those who are Ambassadors of Peace You will then say as it is in Luke 1.53 He bath filled the hungry with good things and the rich he hath sent empty away 4. The Favour of God is only to be had in and through Jesus Christ and you must apply your selves tn him for it It is not all your Zeal your Repentance your Self-denial or your Mortifications that of themselves will be sufficient to bring you to the Favour of God Tho you labour in his Service all the day and mourn for your Miscarriages all the night what satisfaction will this give to his offended Justice and to the honour of his violated Law We were happy indeed at our first Creation in his Love and happy had we been still had we persevered but our first Apostacy by the fall from that Innocent Condition has made a large breach between God and us and there is none found in Heaven or in Earth that can make it up but his only Son The loss of Original Righteousness has made us to lose his Favour and occasioned a vast distance between him and us this has brought forth all the miseries of the World Irregular Seasons overflowing Inundations and dreadful Wars all the sickness and pain of our Bodies and all the guilt and unquietness and disorder of our Souls in Adam we all died both natural and spiritual death came upon all because all have sinned but God has in his mercy not left us hopeless As soon as Adam fell He was pleased to provide for his rising a-again and as soon as ever he had wounded himself he did prepare a Balsom to heal and cure his Wounds and when he was stung and poisoned with the Venom of the Serpent he did prepare an Antidote The poor guilty Creature could have expected nothing but a Curse and yet God gave him the Promise of Redemption and of a Blessing by the Seed of the Woman that should break the Serpent's head when he drive Adam out of Paradise he might have put him out of Heaven and out of his Presence for evermore and have said Go and dwell with that Devil that tempted thee to sin Upon the Fall he withdrew indeed his usual Favour this raised a cloud that obscured the beauty of his morning-glory and that intercepted the beams that a little while before
snare they frequently minister to Pride and Vanity and Luxury and Excess to Sensualities and worldly Lusts and for that reason it is that our Saviour says A rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven Matt. 19.23 Few meet with Heaven here and an Heaven hereafter Luke 16.19 20 21. The Rich man had all manner of Accommodations a stately Dwelling a throng of Admirers soft Garments and curious Entertainments composed of every thing that could be fetch'd from the Land the Sea or the Air and in the midst of all this Plenty had the Curse of an Uncharitable Spirit the poor Lazarus was cloathed with Rags whilst he ruffled in his Silks the poor man whilst he had his excesses and his plenty had not what was necessary to life He was a modest Beggar he asked but for the Crumbs that fell from his Table the sweepings of his House and yet he was denied And to all this want there was added an increase of miseries by his painful Sores and the poor man had no Friends to visit him no Physician to bind up his Wounds no Cordial to support his Spirits in this sorrowful posture lay the poor Lazarus and his Carkass was even putrefying before he came to dye the Dogs were cue only kind Creatures they lickt his Sores and asswaged the vehemence of the pâ—iâ— with their healing Tongues ' They as one expresses it were Humane ' though then Master was a Brute and yet this poor man was very happy when his pains made him at length to dye Angels were sent to convey his newly-delivered Soul away to carry him that was starved on Earth to the Feast of Glory where he will never be in distress or trouble any more The poor Man had a very weary Journey but most sweet refreshment when he comes to his Journeys-end He was exposed to the injuries of the VVeather and the sharpness of the Cold but in Abraham's Bosome he was inexpressibly comforted plenty enough had he in his Father's House though he could not obtain here with all his begging so much as one Crumb and the Rich-man a little after had his polluted and unready Soul torn away and was condemned to greater destruction for having been so cruel to this poor man This proud and scornful VVretch whom with his flaming eyes he saw at rest whilst he was in his Torment and who was become the beggar then and fain would have had one drop to cool his burning Tongue but it was denied and he that shewed no mercy found none v. 23 24. and his Hell was hotter to him for having lived so much at ease here on Earth and it increased his Flames to remember how many were hasting to the same place by his ill Example and who when they come thither would encrease his torment So that we may say to Rich men what a good old Minister said to a Lord after he had shewed him his stately House his Gardens his Fish-ponds and his other Conveniences for a pleasant and easie Life My Lord said he you had need make sure of Heaven for it will be bad going to Hell from such a place as this Many People think that because their Endeavours succeed well their Trades flourish and their VVealth increases that surely they are loved of God and that these things are the marks of his peculiar Favour You may live in pleasures and yet be dead while you live Your Bodies may want nothing and yet your unregarded Souls suffer under miserable decays you may be lifted up to Heaven with outward enjoyments and yet they may only expose you to a greater fall and a more amazing danger You are healthful it may be while others are sick but your health is not any other than a greater Talent which is given to you and of which you must render a very strict Account Your ways it may be are smooth but do they not lead you to ruine and the Grave There is nothing more formidable than spiritual Judgments and of all spiritual Judgments none so great as for God to let you alone to chuse your own way to take your own course and to follow the devices of your own hearts And it is a mark of his Anger kindled at a more than ordinary rate when he says Hos 4.14 I will not punish their sons and daughters any more Rest not therefore in this but seek for sanctifying Grace and the pardon of your sins with your whole heart 3. Do not think that because your Consciences are not under trouble that for that very reason you have God's Favour The Ease that many Sinners have is distempered and will fade way 't is like the Ease of an Apoplexy that benumbs the sense and weakens life 't is like the slumbers of the sick that are caused with Opiates and stupifying Potions As many times true Believers fear where there is no cause of fear so do Sinners hope where there is no cause of hope at all Many a Saint weeps that is going to Jerusalem because he sees not the blessed place that is before him and many a secure soul is asleep at the very door of Hell because he does not perceive the danger that is underneath if he did it would terrify him to see that the flood is coming and his House is only built on the Sand to see that the Sword is drawn and his Adversary is on the way and he has not prepared to meet him Some indeed have questioned whether be the greater Sin Presumption or Despair It is no question but they are both very bad they are both Rocks and if a man be Shipwrackt it is no great matter on what Rock he splits when he is cast away Though God will make allowances even for the despairing Expressions and Thoughts of his Servants in great and long desertions he was gracious to David though he despairingly said I shatl one day fall by the hand of Saul And to Zion tho she said the Lord hath forgotten me My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord Lam. 3.18 But yet it is a sin that we ought to resist and strive against and no less against Presumption which flays its thousands every day Oh how many are there there are too many that eat and drink and are merry and yet know not whether God be their Friend or their Enemy Psal 55.19 They feel no changes and therefore they fear him not But if speedy and serious and hearty Repentance prevent not they will shortly feel a change that will spoil and blast all their hopes they 'l feel a change that will at the same time conclude their Life and send them to Judgment and lodge their Souls in misery and where will their hopes then be My Friends the way of Life is strait there are abundance of mistakes about it there are abundance of windings and turnings of labyrinths and dangers by the means of which you may be hindred in your Pilgrimage if you do not take great care
cannot remedy and which to behold is very sad and by knowing a great deal is liable to abundance of contradiction and opposition from the more peevish and self-willed and ignorant part of mankind that are vex'd because he will not think and say as they do and they are very prone to censure and condemn the things they do not understand for it is most easie so to do whereas to pierce into the Reasons of things requires a mighty labour and a succession of deliberate and serious thoughts to which the nature of Man is averse And lazily and hastily to judge requires no trouble and were it not that it is a man's duty to know and that his soul if it have any thing of greatness and amplitude in its faculties cannot be satisfied without it it were a much safer and quiet course to be ignorant Study and painful enquiries after knowledg do oftentimes exhaust and break our spirits and prejudice our health and brings upon us those Diseases to which the careless and thinking seldom are obnoxious Eccles 1.13 14 15. I have seen all the works that are done under the Sun and behold all is vanity and vexation of spirit that which is crooked cannot be made straight and that which is wanting cannot be numbred CHAP. II. Shewing that the fall of Adam was the cause of all our miseries and in how excellent a condition the blessed Angels are and the folly of such as expect to meet with nothing in the world but what is easie and pleasant Inf. 1. SEeing the life of man is a state of weeping what sin there must needs be in the fall of Adam that has provoked God so much as to send so many miseries upon his own Creatures Had mot he fallen we had always rejoyced and never mourned we had always sung the praises of God with delight and never have hang'd our harps upon the willows We should have always lived upon the food of Angels pure and Coelestial joys and not have had that bread of sorrows which we now have to feed upon We may justly cry out O Adam what was it that you did when you rafted the forbidden fruit Why did you ruin your self and us your helpless posterity in one day and by one Act you turned the pleasant world into a place of wo and made your self and us of free men to become prisoners of this Earth It was a sad day indeed that opened a Sluce to that vast Inundation of miseries that have from that time overwhelmed the lower world thence came storms and tempests wars and desolations and all the burdens under which we groan and which we cannot escape 'T is to this Spring that we may trace all our troubles Oh how happily how pleasantly might we have lived had we not Apostatiz'd And now we can only say Wo unto us for we have sinned and when any Plagues molest us can only say this is the fruit of our own choice this is the product of our own Iniquity Tho thanks be to God through the blood of Jesus Christ we have a way to escape at length from all those Plagues and Sins Inf. 2. Seeing this life is full of weeping how much more happy are the blessed Angels than we At the view of the Harmony and order of the Worlds Creation those Sons of the morning sang together it pleased them to see their Creator's glory so appear and they still continue to sing and praise him not a sad look has from that time to this clouded their faces not a troubled thought has possest their minds those holy Spirits are always joyful serene and undistutb'd they are not linkt to such bodies as we are and consequently not liable to so many thousand miseries A soul in flesh is forced to sympathize with its neighbour and companion the body and is altered or changed as to its joys and griefs according to the several objects that are suitable or disagreeable to that and yet our imbodied condition gives us some privileges of which the Angels being Spirits are not capable for by this means we can glorifie God by sufffering for him and by our patience in our several trials convert many to the faith of Christ which their Spiritual nature gives them no opportunity to do As long as we are united to the body so long must we expect to be afflicted and when this union is happily dissolved then does the time of our freedom and our pleasure come In the Resurrection we shall be as the Angels of God we shall not be busied in those perplexing and intricate affairs that now molest us We shall be like to them in vigor and activity and joy We shall have bodies indeed even then but such as will be spiritualized such as will not be capable of mourning and lamentation nor by their heaviness their pains and indispositions be any more an hindrance to the nimbler operations of our Souls and it should comfort us to think that one day we shall have such excellent Companions so knowing and so kind and loving as Angels are and that then we shall rejoice as well as they and with our common praise give our Great Creator an Eternal Hymn of Thanks Inf. 3. They have a wrong notion of the life of man that expect to find nothing in it but what is pleasant And who because now their mountain stands strong say with David That they shall never be moved Psal 30.6 7. How clearly soever their Sun now shines yet sooner or later storms and darkness will overtake them The day is coming that will cast a vail upon all their smiling glory and turn their laughter into mourning and lamentation For man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards Job 5.7 This world is as an Hospital or Lazaretto full of various miseries and calamities and therefore those that promise nothing to themselves but diversion and mirth and soft and easie pleasures labour under manifold mistakes which arise from these two Causes 1. VVant of Experience and Consideration Hence it is that young people and such as have lived but a little while are mightily taken with the sweetness and delight of life whereas those that have tried it some years longer find several crosses and disappointments and vexations in it and tho the morning of their day was clear yet they see many thick Clouds gather as the shadows of the Evening are drawing on It is nothing else but gross ignorance that occasions the loud and mad Triumphs of so great a part of the world for if they did but a little survey the condition of their suffering-neighbours and the weakness of their own bodies the uncertainty of their hopes and the vanity of their desires they would sit down and bewail their miseries and they would find their biggest joys to be confin'd with grief Or 2. It arises from this That they resolve not to disturb their present ease and pleasure with any mâ—urnful meditations They 'l shut their ears
against all sad and doleful stories hasten from the sight of all such dismal objects as would make them grave and solid they will not rustle their thoughts with anticipations of evil and future trouble they are now at ease and they hope they shall be so very long and this false expectation has no other cause than their unwillingness and aversion to think of a coming change and because they seel no pain sickness or inconvenience they will not spoil their Musick with groans and sighs they will eat drink and be merry and hang sorrow and cast care away but as all the mirth of Sailors cannot hinder the winds and the storms so this insensibleness and jollity does not keep the evil day further off but rather swells the Clouds and lays in matter for a more durable and intollerable sorrow they may in their Jovial humours and with their full Bowls drown their own understandings but they cannot by this means overwhelm their miseries which after the fumes of the grateful Wine are past will have a Resurrection they may say indeed as Isa 57.11 Come we will fill our selves and to morrow shall he as this day and much more abundant but perhaps that morrow they may never see or if they do it may bring along with it some great or unavoidable calamity We know David said in his Prosperity I shall never be moved and yet as soon as God hid his face he was troubled Psal 30.6 7. so unreasonable is it to conclude from our present delight that we shall never grieve We may as well argue because we are now in health we shall never be sick or because we are now alive we shall never die Such false Conclusions and such vain hopes do but encrease our after-troubles and make them more heavy as it is said of Babylon the Great Rev. 18.7 How much she hath glorified her self and lived deliciously so much torment and sorrow give her for she saith in her heart I sit a Queen and am no widow and shall see no sorrow therefore shall her Plagues come in one day death and mourning and famine Our miseries are sure but our joys uncertain our pleasures endure but a moment but our sorrows last a long time our pleasures no sooner begin to live but they begin to die and when we would with art prolong their date their continuance occasions either torment or loathing Grief as one says Senault use of the Passions p. 475. is more familiar to man than pleasure for one vain contentment we meet with a thousand real sorrows these come uncalled and present themselves of their own proper motion they are linkt one to another but pleasures are sought for with pain and we are forced to pay more for them than they are worth Sorrows are sometimes entirely pure and touch us to the quick as they make us incapable of Consolation but pleasures are never without some mixture of sorrow they are always dipt in bitterness and we are much more sensible of pain than of pleasure for a flight disease troubleth all our most solid Contentments a Fever is able to make Conquerors forget their Victories and to blot out of their minds all the pomp of their Triumphs Tho in some cases we may make our sorrows greater in our imagination than they are in reality for we are more ingenious and more particular in the computation of our griefs than of our mercies And many a thorn that annoys us is of our own planting and for one Cross that God sends our uneasiness and impatience makes a thousand more We apprehend some things to be evil which are not truly so and sometimes we augment our real evils beyond their natural proportion and so add new weight to that burden which made us groan before yet for all that and abstracting from our Irregularities since the fall man is a very dolorous and mournful Creature and our being so should excite us to take heed that we do not wound our selves afresh when we are already wounded nor lay in matter of new griefs when our unavoidable ones may be great enough There are two ways by which we aggravate our own miseries 1. By putting an higher value upon things than they really deserve by loving them more than we ought and then the Separation that is made between them and us gives us a more weighty sorrow 2. By seeking out of our selves for many things to make us happy whereas we should labour that our souls be duly order'd and our desires kept within their just and lawful bounds Inf. IV. We have cause to admire the wisdom of the Divine Providence that seeing the life of man is so very miserable he has ordered it also to be very short Tho our days are evil yet they are but few And that as the day is for hard labour there is a succession of comfortable nights wherein we may go to rest We find it a long tedious while to be in sorrows for fifty or sixty years but how loud would our groans be were we condemned to this toyl and these weepings for many thousand years The greater our misery is as one says the less while it is like to last the sorrows of a man's spirit being like ponderous weights which by the greatness of their burthen make a swifter motion and descend into the Grave to rest and ease our wearied Limbs and to knock our fetters off that eat as to the very bones Thus I have shewed what sorrows are common to the sons and daughters of men I am in the next place to shew what peculiar occasions of weeping Christians have above other men CHAP. III. Of the peculiar Occasions of weeping that good Christians have more than other men 1. THE Christian weeps for his own sins He is convinced of his own folly and bewails it he has by the inlightning of the Spirit a more tender heart than others have a more distinct view of the odiousness and malignity of the poisonous nature and dangerous qualities of Sin and that which was pleasant in the commission he finds by dear experience to be bitas gall and Wormwood afterwards This weeping is not the effect of mere softness or weakness of temper or from a want of courage there is nothing more reasonable more just or honourable than to bewail our Offences that we are guilty of against the Law of God And to what purpose hath he given us Innocent Passions but that they should be moved when suitable Objects present themselves He says with David Psal 51.3 I acknowledge my transgression and my sin is ever before me and such a sight of an Object so disagrecable pierces and wounds his very Soul and makes it to dissolve in a genuine and kindly grief and trouble saying Oh! what have I done against my God and my Saviour and the Holy Spirit Oh! how basely have I forgot a gracious and a loving God a God that has remembred me all my days for good He has loved me