throughly thou must to finde out what evill deprived thee of so great a good and in serious soule searching God will speak to thy conscience and conscience will speak plainly to thee and tell thee wherein thou didst give distaste to thy Comforter and what was the cause he forsook thy soule And when thou hast found out that evill which conscience tels thee deprived thee of so great a good thou must fall very foule with it how sweet soever it hath been unto thee Thy great worke must be to bring thy heart to a holy revenge upon this sin to abhorre it and thy selfe because of it and to become very vile as Iob saith and very low in thine owne eyes Bring thy heart to admire the infinite patience and mercy of God that things are no worse with thy soule That God had not cut thee off in the acting of that sinne for which he deserted thee that he hath left any place for repentance and given the least desire to set about this work And when thou art come thus farre possibly the light of Gods countenance may begin now and then to glance into thy soul as at some little cranny or at least some more then ordinary lightsomnesse may appear in thy dark dull soul as there doth in the dark morning some space of time before the Sun appears that had left this Horizon Now this beame of light or this little lightsomenesse of soule thou must much admire and acknowledge an unfathomed depth of love in it that God should so much as once stoope to cast an eye after thee more to give thy soule the least refreshing that did abuse flagons of love By this glimpse of light or glimmering light you are to strengthen your faith in the beliefe of this that light will more and more appeare as the light of the morning unto the perfect day and so consequently to follow God with so much the more fervency of prayer for the returne of his wonted kindnesse Toseph you know carried himselfe very roughly to his brethren which had abused him for some space of time and put them in great feare of the losse of their lives told them they were Spies and many harsh words he gave them and harsh looks but at last when his Brethren had brought to him Benjamin and discoursed a while Iosephs bowels began to work and he could no longer with-hold his brotherly love Come neare to me I pray you I am Ioseph your brother c. Gen. 45.4 Thus Christ our elder Brother deales with us who do unkindly unbrotherly use him he will handle us very roughly and put us in fear of the losse of our best lives he will make our consciences speake bitter things against us and let loose the Devill to tell us that we are Spies hypocrites and false friends to Christ in this distracted affrighted perplexed state hee may hold us many dayes many weeks many moneths but hee cannot hold in his brotherly love alwayes if wee patiently beare his frownes and kindly intreat him and bring Benjamin to him his own blood and merits this will make his bowels worke and make him unmask himselfe and say come neare to me O mourning soules tossed and not comforted I am Christ your elder brother whom yee unkindly used in a little wrath I hid my face from you but now with everlasting kindnesse will I embrace you Trinuni Deo gloria FINIS CHRISTS COMMUNION with his Church Militant 2. Tim. 4. verse 22. The Lord Iesus Christ bee with thy spirit THis Text is Pauls sweet affectionate farwell to Timothy Many grave and gracious instructions Paul had given Timothy but 't is not so much what man saith to the eare as as what Christ saith to the heart that workes effectually to set man about his duty and therefore doth Paul in the conclusion of all his Christian counsell to Timothy pathetically pray That the Lord Iesus Christ would be with his Spirit The best teaching of man is but as water spilt on the ground unlesse Christ inwardly teach the spirit If I am taught my duty by a Paul one in gifts not inferiour to the chiefest Apostles yet unlesse Christ bee with my spirit to make things take roote there all will die and wither like good seed cast into bad ground And therefore Paul saw it but needfull as to teach the eare so to intreate the Lord to teach and strengthen the spirit The Lord Iesus Christ bee with thy Spirit There is a great distance you know betweene the eare and the heart it is an easie thing for man to bring home things unto the one but no lesse then the Al-mighty power of Christ will bring home things unto the other There is an incomparable hardnesse upon the heart of man naturally it is harder then an Adamant now though a child with his little finger may make a dint upon dow yet a Gyant with all his strength cannot make dints upon an Adamant much lesse can all created strength make divine impressions upon the spirit of man and therefore it is that Paul doth implore an Almighty strength to doe this The Lord Iesus Christ bee with thy Spirit Why doth not Paul here wish riches and honours pleasures unto Timothy Is the bare presence of Christ with a mans spirit such a blessing To this I answer riches and honours c. they are bona but not optima good things but not the best things Earthly things though good in themselves yet are no further forth good to mee then as the Lord Jesus Christ is with my spirit to guide it to use them and therefore Paul as one truly wise prayed for the prime good for Timothy for that good which makes all other things worke together for good to wit That the Lord Iesus Christ would bee with his Spirit The point I intend to stand on is this That to have the Lord Iesus Christ with our spirits is a prime and principall blessing Paul here wisheth it to Timothy as a cardinall blessing The Lord Iesus Christ bee with thy spirit Enucleatio propositionis To have Christ with our spirits c. How can Christ bee present with man upon Earth who is now ascended and sitteth at the right Hand of his Father in Heaven The Apostle doth hint an answer to this question in the forme of his Prayer if you observe it The Lord Iesus Christ saith hee be with thy spirit Hee speakes of such a presence as will fitly yeeld Communion and fellowship to the spirit of man There is a double presence of Christ with man corporall and spirituall joyntly or meerly spirituall With just men made perfect in glory Christ is corporally present they behold his wounded Body made a glorious Body as a continuall assurance of the Resurrection of their owne vile bodies unto the same similitude And with them Christ is present spiritually filling them with those joyes the tast of which upon Earth is called unspeakable and full of
is a degree of consolation Finally and more directly I answer to this complaining soul thus Christ as a sensible and satisfactory Comforter comes to us at his time and not at ours Now Christs time to come to comfort mourners is then when mourners will make him most welcome and that is usually when the soule is brought to the greatest extremity that it is capable of and not utterly miscarry When Peter was ready to sink on the Sea and cryed out Master save mee or I perish then Christ came to him and catcht him by the hand thus doth Christ usually come with sensible and satisfactory consolations when poore soules are almost quite spent with temptations and soule anguish and look every houre when they shall die and drop into Hell He shall come to us as the latter and former raine unto the Earth saith the Prophet Hos 6.3 That is at the seasonablest time when the soule will make him most welcome and that is when burnt and scorcht with Satans fiery darts as the Earth with the fervent heat of the Sunne when parcht and chapt gaping for some heavenly showers then Christs visits will be kindnesse indeed and Christs consolations sweet indeed This still remember O mourning soul that Christ keeps his word if he doe not leave us comfortlesse and this be assured he will not do I will not leave you comfortlesse I will come to you But why wilt thou come to me O my Saviour To this I answer first thus viz. Christ will come to his Church Militant to be a Comforter to fulfill his Fathers will The Spirit of the Lord is upon me saith Christ because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tydings to the meeke he hath sent mee to binde up the broken-hearted to proclaime liberty to the Captive and the opening of Prison to them that are bound to proclaime the acceptable yeare of the Lord to comfort all that mourne c. Esay 61.1,2,3 By this Text we see that Christ is anointed for this end to come to us and be our Comforter whilest we live here below mourning in Zion What is said of the three friends of Iob that may I say of the blessed Trinity They made an appointment together to come to comfort him So the blessed Trinity have made an appointment together to come to us by Christ and in all distresses sweetly to comfort us Secondly Christ will come as a Comforter to his Church Militant because he hath promised it As Christ promised this in my Text so in many other Texts Iohn 2.11 And if I goe away I will prepare a place for you and will come againe and I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that may abide with you for ever By these promises Christ hath obliged himselfe to come as a Comforter to us let therefore our deservings of comfort bee what they will Christ will come to us because he hath promised he will Christ stands much upon his word Christ is God and God cannot lye Tit. 1.2 Though we beleeve not yet he abideth faithfull and cannot deny himselfe 2 Tim 2 A Christian is ready to say to Christ as Iephtha to the Elders of Gilead did not ye hate me and expell mee out of my Fathers house and why are ye come to me now when yee are in distresse said Iephtha So saith a Christian did not I hate thee O my Saviour and did not I doe what in mee lay to expell thee from my soule by my sinning againe and againe against thy Spirit And why art thou come to mee now to comfort mee in my distresse Why this that was foresad said may suffice O sinfull soul as an answer Christ looks not at what thou hast done but at what he hath promised and his word he will keepe though we change as the Heavens Heaven and Earth shall passe away but not one jot of his word shall fall to the ground I will not leave you comfortlesse I will come to you These I conceive are the principall grounds why Christ comes as a Comforter to his Church Militant two grounds more may be alledged as Causae minus principales lesse principall causes the first whereof is this Christ comes to us in our distresses as a Comforter that we may not stretch out our hands unto iniquity Man in distresse is so desirous of ease that if Christ do not come to him and comfort him he 'll go to Sin and Satan for ease Cain was disconsolate and because Christ did not come to him as a Comforter he ran like a vagabond up and downe the world to finde ease in any thing Iudas was disconsolate and because Christ as a Comforter did not come to him he made a halter his Comforter Saul being in distresse by the Philistines because Christ did not come to him by Urim nor by Vision nor by Prophets he went to the Devill for comfort Now that Christs children may not thus do Christ will not leave them comfortlesse but will come to them The second ground why Christ will come to his Church Militant as a Comforter is this That he may stop the mouthes of all ungodly wretches who say of the godly when in great distresses Persecute and â—akâ— them for there is none to deliver them A wicked man looking upon a wounded soul with a carnal eie breaks cut into some such language as Achish did concerning David Loe you see the man is mad 1 Sam. 21.14 This man is a distracted person fitter for Bedlam then for Gods house an idle crackt-braine fellow unfit to come into solemne assemblies Now that Christ may silence such black mouth'd men as these he graciously comes to such wounded soules and heales their broken hearts binds up their wounds he powres the Spirit of consolation upon such as went mourning all the day long and makes them walke with joy and strong consolation so that such as censured them for this and that are forc'd to lay their hand upon their mouth and to condemne themselves as blinde Bats and not able to discerne the wayes of God towards his children Having thus opened the point in hand I will in the next place shew you how usefull it is to the wicked and to the godly Will not Christ leave any of his children upon Earth comfortlesse but still as a Comforter come to them Then you which live in your sins and so consequently none of Christs children may collect the unhappinesse of your condition from this point You shall live and dye comfortlesse for Christ will not come to you as a Comforter thus he comes only to his children Christ will not come to you in prosperity as a Comforter and therfore in the midst of sensuall laughter your hearts will be sad in the midst of all thy worldly contents thy spirit will at times gnaw and beat within thee and never will all thou enjoyest give any complacency of comfort to thee because Christ as